Can we call for a 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 is 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.
So, we have a responsibility to make sure that we can continue to safely deliver that energy that we're all relying on.
And the project, we proposed this project almost five years ago, over four years, and initiated the project permits,
because this is in response to the Bad River Bands request that we remove Line 5 from the reservation, which it currently crosses.
And so, that is the reason that you proposed this reroute around the Bad River Reservation Land?
Yes, exactly.
So, your company has an Indigenous Reconciliation Action Plan that includes acknowledging an 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 care for the land, learn 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 5?
Yeah, so, our pipelines in this region, we have been here for 70-plus years,
and there is the acknowledgement 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,
specific to the Indigenous Reconciliation Action Plan, our first plan was issued in 2022.
That, we call it the IRAP, identified 22 tangible commitments and actions that we can take as a company to try and work with tribal communities.
And since that time, there have been a number of successes to that in terms of 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 and 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, et cetera.
You know, we continue to want to work with the Bad River Band.
I will point out that, you know, it was the band that sued Enbridge back in 2019 regarding line five 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 IRAP 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, our first inhabitants, making sure that we are listening to them.
All of our recent projects, line five relocation project, our line three replacement project that we completed a few years back in Minnesota.
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?
You know, I don't know if I'm surprised that they, again, where 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.
You know, I think we are trying to respond to their concerns.
We are 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 communities 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.
You know, 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 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're 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 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 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 wetlands, which that's the scope of the Wisconsin DNR permits are, you know, construction 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.
Yeah. Okay. Sorry. I can get the rambling. I know that.
No, it was great. It was good. Thank you. I appreciate it.
No, thank you. So nice to meet you.
You too. Yeah. Thank you for your time. All right.
All right. We'll be following all this, of course. Thanks.
Okay.