EDMONTON -- Actress Jane Fonda joined protesters at the site of the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline replacement in northern Minnesota on Monday, advocating for the treaty territory of Anishinaabe First Nations and voicing environmental concerns about the surrounding river water.
Shortly after receiving her COVID-19 vaccination, Fonda drove to the site and recorded a video, which she posted to Instagram, sharing concerns about the environmental consequences of the pipeline replacement.
“We were driving down the highway and pulled over to see the impacts of the nearly 1 million barrels of tar sands per day being brought from Alberta, Canada to Superior, Wisconsin by Enbridge, a Canadian pipeline company responsible for the largest inland oil spill in the U.S.,” Fonda wrote in the caption of the post.
“We will be at the rivers that are being threatened by Line 3 over the next few days gathering to pray and send a message to Enbridge that water is life,” she added.
The Enbridge Line 3 crude oil pipeline runs from Alberta, to Superior, Wis. The replacement pipeline, approximately 547 kilometres of which runs through Minnesota, includes new sections and added capacity.
Local Indigenous groups, their supporters, and environmental activists have long opposed the pipeline reconstruction, the path of which is littered with signs that read, “water is life.”
Opponents say the project threatens spills in pristine waters where Native Americans harvest wild rice, and that the Canadian tar sands oil the pipeline plans to carry may aggravate climate change.
Enbridge said replacing the deteriorating pipeline, which was built in the 1960s and runs at only half its original capacity, is the best option for protecting the environment while meeting the region's energy needs.
This isn’t the first protest Fonda has been a part of.
In Oct. 2019, the actress was arrested at the U.S. Capitol while peacefully protesting climate change. Over the last 50 years, she's demonstrated for women's and Indigenous rights, against the Vietnam and Iraq wars, and Alberta's oilsands.
With files from the Associated Press
