Stop Line 5: Protect Our Waters

media release: Members of the public will take action in Madison, calling for an immediate shutdown of Enbridge’s Line 5 oil pipeline in northern Wisconsin. This demonstration will be part of over 50 coordinated actions nationwide calling for an end to the era of fossil fuels, a call that has only gotten louder following the Biden administration’s betrayal of frontline communities through compromises made in the debt ceiling bill.

Noon, Friday, June 9, 2023, Wisconsin state Capitol Rotunda

Line 5 — a tar sands oil pipeline in Wisconsin and Michigan — is in violation of treaty rights and trespassing on the lands of the Bad River Band. It poses an immediate threat to the communities that depend on the Lake Superior watershed. Recent erosion has brought the Bad River within less than 10 feet of the pipeline. A single major storm could cause a rupture in the pipeline, with catastrophic consequences for the entire Great Lakes ecosystem (90% of the US’ freshwater) and the people and economies that depend on it for survival. 

The Madison Protect the Waters: End the Era of Fossil Fuels event will debut the 350 Wisconsin Art Collective’s chorus group, featuring professional opera singer Amanda Lauricella. This mediagenic rally will bring music and art together in the Wisconsin Capitol in a celebration of Wisconsin’s waters and an urgent call to end the fossil fuel infrastructure that threatens them. 

The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres will host a Climate Ambition Summit in New York this September, where the “ticket to entry” includes action to keep fossil fuels in the ground. This is a pivotal moment for President Biden, as his disastrous approval of the Willow Project and LNG projects in Alaska and the Gulf Coast, and inclusion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline in debt ceiling negotiations are the opposite of what the UN has emphasized is necessary in order to address the climate crisis. Ahead of this summit, we join local and national groups across the country to call on President Biden to:

Immediately deny permits for any new fossil fuel projects and revoke approvals for the Willow Oil project, Alaska LNG, and the Line 5 reroute;

Phase out fossil fuels now by requiring a managed decline in oil and gas production on federal lands and waters; and

Declare a climate emergency to unlock additional powers to increase the availability of clean renewable energy and ensure communities hit the hardest by climate disasters receive the resources they need.

350 Wisconsin (formerly 350 Madison) mobilizes grassroots power to change hearts and minds, laws and policies, and humanity’s massive systems to make transformational progress toward environmental justice and solving the climate crisis by 2030. For more information, visit 350wisconsin.org. 

https://www.facebook.com/events/794438432027070/