Allowing Enbridge to build a controversial new oil pipeline across northern Minnesota would be better for the environment than to continue relying on the aging, corroding pipeline that it would replace, according to staff for the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission.
The PUC staff comments are a recommendation for a new Line 3, but they are not the final decision in regard to the project.
After conducting four public meetings this month, the PUC is expected to determine whether the proposed $2.6 billion Line 3 project should get a "certificate of need" and, if so, what route the pipeline should take.
As is common before PUC meetings, the commission's staff files briefing papers that sum up the issues. They often include PUC staff analysis and recommendations.
In briefing papers filed Friday, PUC staff wrote: "A fair reading of the record would support the conclusion that, with respect to effects of the [Line 3] project on the natural environment, the consequences of granting a certificate of need for the project are more beneficial than denying it because of the risk of catastrophic failure of the existing line, despite it being operated at reduced pressure."
The 1960s-vintage Line 3, one of six Enbridge pipelines that ferry Canadian oil across Minnesota, runs at only 51 percent capacity due to safety concerns. Enbridge said a new pipeline would be safer and would restore the full flow of oil. If a new Line 3 is denied, Enbridge plans to keep operating — and regularly repairing — the old one.
As proposed, a new Line 3 would divert from Enbridge's existing pipeline corridor at Clearbrook, Minn., jutting south to Park Rapids before heading east to Superior, Wis. Opponents of the project — environmental and American Indian groups — said Enbridge's new route would open a new region of lakes, rivers and wild-rice waters to degradation from possible oil spills.
Scott Strand, an attorney for the environmental group Friends of the Headwaters, said the PUC staff seems to see environmental threats from a new pipeline as secondary to worries over old Line 3.