From pizza and “Pipeline Punch” energy drinks, to porta potties, riot suits, zip ties, and salaries, Enbridge poured a total of $8.6 million into 97 public agencies across the state amid opposition to Line 3 tar sands project.
that occurred during construction. LaDuke and others have criticized the agency’s response to the incidents, noting that it took months to publicly disclose the first of the aquifer breaches.
In a statement, the DNR said that receiving reimbursement from Enbridge does not constitute a conflict of interest: “At no time were state law enforcement personnel under the control or direction of Enbridge, and at no time did the opportunity for reimbursement for our public safety work in any way influence our regulatory decisions.”
Long Lake Conservation Center manager Dave McMillan, on the other hand, said he knew the money the Aitkin County Sheriff’s Office paid his organization for police officer lodging would come from Enbridge. “My concern was not wanting to become a pawn or a player in this political battle. In the same token, we said if any of the organizations that were protesting said they wanted to come here and use our facilities, we would have said yes,” he said.
According to the pipeline permit, finalized in 2020, whenever a Minnesota public safety agency spent money on almost anything related to Line 3, they could submit an invoice, and Enbridge would pay it. Nonprofits responding to drug and human trafficking were also eligible for grants from the account. To create a layer of separation between police and the Enbridge money, the state hired an account manager to decide which invoices would be fulfilled.
David Olmstead, a retired Bloomington police commander appointed by the Minnesota Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management to fulfill the duties of the Line 3 public safety liaison, coordinated between Enbridge and public officials.
Paramount’s president and owner, Blain Johnson, said he was unaware that Enbridge had paid for his company’s St. Louis County contract. He said that an Enbridge representative attended the emergency operations center’s morning meetings, but that Paramount did not otherwise communicate with the corporation about its work for the St. Louis County Sheriff. Johnson acknowledged, however, that Paramount staff did work for Enbridge on consulting with tribes about the Line 3 pipeline.
Over half of PPE funds went toward riot gear valued at more than $700,000, which was purchased from police equipment vendors like Streicher’s and Galls. For 13 county and city police forces, that meant more than $5,000 in riot suits, shields, and gas masks. The Beltrami County Sheriff’s Office took over $70,000 for riot gear, and the Polk County Sheriff’s Office more than $50,000.
Winona County Sheriff Ron Ganrude said sheriffs in southeastern Minnesota had compiled a list of equipment, including batons, that they expected deputies would need as they traveled north to assist on Line 3. Both the Winona County Sheriff’s Office and the city of Park Rapids attempted to use the escrow funds to pay for batons but were denied.
2021 was a year of unprecedented protest among Northern Minnesota’s pristine lakes and wetlands. Enbridge and law enforcement faced a drumbeat of road blockades, lockdowns to pipeline equipment, marches through remote prairie, and layered demonstrations combining Anishinaabe ceremony with direct action tactics refined by generations of environmental and Indigenous social movements.
Like Cass, Hubbard County at times instituted patrols. They also established mandatory overtime shifts. Line 3 meant that police officers across Minnesota received paychecks padded with Enbridge-funded overtime pay. One officer from the Clay County Sheriff’s Office, for example, earned $778.46 per day in wages and benefits for four 18-hour shifts in July and August 2021 – a total that included hourly pay for his four-hour 150-mile round-trip drive to the closest emergency operations center.
The oil company bought bagels, Domino’s pizza, McNuggets, Subway sandwich platters, a Dairy Queen strawberry sundae, summer sausage, cheese curds, deep fried pickles, Fritos, Gatorade, and energy drinks, including one called Pipeline Punch. Enbridge reimbursed the organization for two hotel rooms for assault survivors, since VIP’s shelter was full at the time. The company also paid $42,000 worth of hazard pay for shelter workers during the 2021 winter, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
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