A two-day event called the “Block (Line 3) Party” was organized at 121 7th Place East in front of Minnesota’s Public Utilities Commission by MN350: Building a Climate Movement in Minnesota, Sierra Club Northstar Chapter, Honor the Earth and the Power Shift Network to raise awareness about the upcoming decision by the PUC to either approve or deny the permit for Enbridge Energy’s proposed Line 3 Pipeline Replacement Project in Northern Minnesota.
The Line 3 Replacement Project has been undergoing regulatory approval in the State of Minnesota for over three years. At present, the final decision on whether it can cross the Mississippi Headwaters comes down to whether or not the PUC approves two permits, a “Certificate of Need” and a “Route Permit” for the proposed route south of the existing line and the Leech Lake Reservation.
The Block (Line 3) Party began at 2:30pm on Friday, May 18th, with a march from the State Capital to the PUC building in Downtown St. Paul where a free Wild Rice meal was offered at 4:00pm. A free “Concert to Block Line 3” began at 5:30pm featuring Thomas X, See More Perspective, Jayanthi Kyle & Annie Humphrey.
Midway through the concert a thunderstorm broke out, similar to the storm that seemed to sweep the Oceti Sakowin Camp on February 21st, 2017, the day before the scheduled “Raid”.
A brief video recap of Day 1 was published via the SEEKJOY Facebook page and has been made available on the #StopLine3 Initiative Page.
Day 2 of the event began with a Water Ceremony on the bank of the Mississippi River at Shepard Road and Sibley Street. A “Pledge of Resistance” gathering began at 10:00am and included a couple words by the organizers of the event and encouraged the public to make a quick statement of why they will stand in resistance against the pipeline and to sign a large banner that will be displayed over the course of the coming weeks leading up to the to PUC Decision.
The event closed with a Direct Action Training from noon to 4pm.
As part of #SYLFFIRE (Support Your Local Fossil Fuel Industry Resistance Effort) SEEKJOY assisted in promoting the event by distributing flyers across the Twin Cities Metro and providing media support during the 2 day event at the PUC.
The most comprehensive page available to convey information about Line 3 can be found at StopLine3.org. Scott Russell’s Healing Minnesota Stories page is another extremely informative blog on StopLine3 legislation.
A photo gallery of the March from the Capital and Day 1 of the Block party has been posted to facebook in low resolution and made available to the public in high resolution via SEEKJOY’s SmugMug Portal. If you would like to use any of the photos, please just let us know how they’ll be used and credit the SEEKJOY Community where credit’s due.
All photos and footage captured has additionally been provided to MN350, Honor the Earth and the Sierra Club Northstar Chapter for use as seen fit. Stay tuned for a video recap of the two-day event.