Please call for the roll.
Stand by, please.
Next week, Enbridge and the DNR
will present their cases in the
fourth public hearing on the
proposed reroute of Line 5.
Jennifer Smith is the Director
of U.S.
Tribal Engagement for Enbridge.
She joins us now, and thanks very
much for being here.
Thanks for having me.
So, as you know, the legal
fight over Line 5, as
it's known, has been ongoing
for years.
Why is it worth it to your company
to persist?
Sure.
So the project that we've proposed
is related to our Line 5
pipeline.
Line 5 is critical for
supplying the energy that
our Midwest Great Lakes regions
all rely on.
Millions of us every day are using
the end products that Line 5
that's transporting to 10
different refineries.
It's providing natural gas liquids
to other companies that
will extract the propane and deliver
it to the homes throughout the
region. And so we have a
responsibility to make sure that we
can continue to safely deliver
that energy that we're all relying
on and.
Uh the project we proposed this
project almost five years
ago over four years and
initiated the project uh
permits because this
is in response to the bad river
bands request that we remove line
five from the reservation
which it currently uh
crosses
And so that is the reason that you
proposed this re-route around
the Bad River Reservation land.
Yes, exactly.
So, your company has an
indigenous reconciliation action
plan that includes acknowledging
and historical lack of
inclusion of indigenous people and
their well-being.
Additionally, the Enbridge
CEO states, we
have learned that what we do today
impacts the next seven generations
and we have a responsibility, he
says, to preserve and for
the land, learned from her original
inhabitants.
And move forward together in the
spirit of healing, reconciliation,
and partnership, we take these
responsibilities seriously.
So how does that statement square
with the pitched legal fight
with the Bad River over line five?
Yeah, so our pipelines
in this region,
we have been here for 70-plus
years.
And there is the acknowledgment that
when many of these lines were first
built, the inclusion with
the tribal communities wasn't there.
For years, though, as Enbridge
as the company, we've
been trying to reconcile that,
working with our tribal communities,
tribal members, In
specific to the Indigenous
Reconciliation Action Plan,
our first plan was
issued in 2022.
That, we call it the IRAP.
Identify 22 tangible
commitments and actions that we can
take as a company to try and
work with tribal communities.
And since that time, you know,
there have been a number of
successes to that in
terms of, you, know, making
sure that our tribal contractors,
tribal community members are able
to work with Enbridge
and economically participate
in what is it that we do.
One of the commitments that came out
of that was spending a
billion dollars as an enterprise,
North American enterprise, with
First Nations tribal communities.
And I'm proud to say that just right
here in the United
States, in the Midwest region,
we have spent over $500 million.
Within the last few years
working with those tribal
contractors and businesses helping
to develop their capacity to be
able to participate in our supply
chains, etc You
know, we continue to want to work
with the Bad River Band.
I will point out that You
know, it was the ban that sued
Enbridge back in 2019
regarding Line 5
crossing the reservation.
And so even with, you know,
we are full steam ahead on this
project, we fully expect to see
the permits get reaffirmed.
But at the same time, we
want to work with the Bad River Band
and tribal community
to – we'd rather work together.
You know, just one more example
of one of the commitments in the
IWRAP.
That the company has made and that
we have seen flourish throughout the
region is, you know,
our CEO statement talked about
learning from, you
know, uh, our, our first
inhabitants, making sure that we
are listening to them.
All of our recent projects,
uh line five relocation project or
line three replacement project that
we completed a few years back in
Minnesota, that we have
worked with tribal.
Owned cultural resource
management companies to have them
go out, do cultural surveys
of these routes.
When we're constructing, we have
cultural monitors through these
companies, which have tribal members
from many different bands out
there with our crews, making sure
that we're not impacting
those cultural resources, or if they
are encountered, they're being
handled properly.
In this case, were you surprised
the reroute was rejected by
the tribe?
Um, you know, I, I
don't know if I I'm
surprised.
They, they, um,
again, we're, we've got
a job to do.
We need to make sure that
the energy that this line is
providing continues to get
delivered safely throughout
the communities.
Um, You know, I
think we are trying to
respond to their concerns.
We're trying to listen.
They have been a party to this,
the whole process.
And so, you know, if
we can, we think that we
can do this safely and align
with those values.
At the same time, we just need to
keep moving forward.
How do you respond to the concerns
from those challenging the permit
that a pipeline
spill could impact
the tribal community's very way of
life that depends on clean
water and wetlands
for food sources?
Yeah, no, you know what?
First of all, I'll say we all depend
on clean water as
humans.
And so we all have a vested
interest in safety
and environmental protection.
We are operating these pipelines.
There are hundreds of thousands of
miles of pipelines across the US
that operate every day,
quietly, safely.
We don't hear about them.
And, and so,
you know, Enbridge for one.
Has invested billions of dollars
over the years into the integrity
of our systems.
We are monitoring these pipelines
365 days a
year, 24 hours a day,
seven days a week.
We are continuously running
tools and doing checks to make sure
that we know the integrity of our
pipeline, we know that it's safe.
What are the stakes for Enbridge?
Again, it goes back to that
responsibility to providing the
energy that we all rely on.
These pipelines were built
over the years to transport
the crude oil that goes to the
refineries that then comes back to
us in thousands of different ways
and thousands of different products.
Here in the Midwest.
If you're driving a gasoline powered
car, there's 75%
or more chance that at one
point that originated as oil on
an Enbridge pipeline.
If you are in northern Wisconsin,
northern Michigan, the UP,
Michigan, that region, there is a
really good chance that the propane
that you are heating your home with
or using for business in Wisconsin,
you know, agriculture,
that that propane probably
started from an EnBridge pipeline.
As natural gas liquids.
And so that's a responsibility
that we take seriously and being
able to do that safely and
continuously.
You know, if these lines shut down,
people will feel it.
There is right now no alternative
way to transport these products.
And if there were,
you know, it's not as safe
or as actually
environmentally friendly as
a pipeline is.
So what happens if this reroute
is rejected?
Well, we have a
few weeks left to go of the
contested case.
As you mentioned at the beginning,
our experts will be
testifying next week and then
followed by the DNR.
And these experts are world
leading experts,
40 plus years of experience
looking at spill modeling
of not only the crude oil but of
sediment and what are those impacts
going to be to the
water, to the wetland.
Which that's the scope of the
Wisconsin DNR's permits,
our construction in wetlands and
waterways.
The DNR did an environmental
impact statement, which was
done over four plus years,
and it concluded that those
impacts will be minimal, temporary,
and localized, just like with.
Most, if not any,
you know, all construction projects.
And so we fully believe that
when we get through the contested
case process, the permits will
be affirmed and we'll be able to
start construction.
And we're ready to do that as soon
as we get all the approvals
required.
Jennifer Smith from Enbridge.
Thanks very much.
Thanks for having me.
You were great.
Okay, sorry, I can't get to
rambling.
No, no, no.
No, it was great.
It was good.
Thank you. I appreciate it.
No, thank you. So nice to meet you.
You too.
Yeah. Thank for your time.
All right. All right, we'll be
following all this, of course.
Thanks.
Okay.