A Minnesota regulator has reaffirmed its support for Enbridge’s Line 3 Pipeline replacement project, Kallanish Energy reports
By a 4-1 vote, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission has voted to deny petitions for reconsideration filed last May by several Ojibwe bands, environmental groups and the state Department of Commerce.
Instead, the commission upheld the project’s certificate of need, route permit, and the project’s environmental impact statement.
The commission said the benefits of replacing an old corroding pipeline with a new line outweighed any climate change or environmental impacts. The replacement line would be thicker and safer, commission members said.
The commission had initially approved the project two years ago.
The latest decision could be challenged in the Minnesota Court of Appeals by pipeline opponents.
Enbridge said the decision is “yet another important step forward” for the Line 3 replacement project, said Vern Yu, Enbridge’s executive vice president and president, liquids pipelines, in a statement.
The $8.2 billion project is expected to take six to nine months to build, once all the permits are in place, Enbridge said.
The company has said it would like to begin construction before year-end 2020, although that seems unlikely.
The project will create 4,200 construction jobs.
Additional state and federal permits are still needed before Enbridge can begin construction on the shovel-ready project.
Enbridge has said that the old pipeline is corroding and its capacity has been cut in half. Its maintenance is costly, the company has said. It was built from 1962 to 1967.
The new line would be 1,097 miles in length in three states and Canada.
At present, Line 3 runs from Hardisty, Alberta, to Superior, Wis. The Canadian portion runs from Hardisty to Gretna, Manitoba, and the U.S. portion runs from Neche, N.D., to Superior, Wis.
It has been completed in Canada and Wisconsin.
It is a key part of Enbridge’s Mainline System for transporting tar sands crude oil to refineries and markets in the United States and eastern Canada.
The pipeline, now 34 inches in diameter, will be replaced with a 36-inch-in-diameter line.
It is designed to carry light, medium and heavy crudes and light synthetics. The initial capacity would be about 760,000 barrels per day.
It would replace one of the five Enbridge oil pipelines that move crude oil across Minnesota.
