The Stream, December 21, 2021: Typhoon Kills Hundreds in the Philippines

An environmental commission criticizes a recently drafted environmental impact statement in Wisconsin.

“There really needs to be a thorough description of the risks posed by putting this pipeline around the reservation… and Enbridge does not have a great history with spills.” – John Coleman, the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife commission’s environmental section leader. A drafted environmental impact statement on the reroute of Enbridge’s Line 5 oil pipeline from the Wisconsin Department of National Resources is incomplete and flawed, according to an intertribal agency. The rerouted pipeline would run through Ashland and Iron counties in Wisconsin after the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa sued Enbridge in 2019 to remove the pipeline from their reservation. The Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission said the draft doesn’t contain enough data on the effects an oil would have on downstream waters, including Lake Superior, nor does it assess compliance with the Bad River tribe’s water quality standards.

• Why It Matters: In Michigan, Indigenous communities have long contested Line 5, but only recently has the state addressed this. In November of 2020, Gov. Whitmer revoked the easement that allows the pipelines to operate and ordered Enbridge to halt oil transport. Cited in the revocation, for the first time in the history of Line 5, Michigan’s administration officially acknowledged nearly 200-year-old Indigenous Chippewa and Ottawa treaty rights as one of the reasons to shut down the pipeline project and protect Great Lakes ecology and fisheries.

Heavy rain and snow is forecast this week for much of the Western United States, which could prove crucial for water resources in the drought-plagued region. Meteorologists predict between 5 and 10 feet of snow throughout the Sierra Nevada, which will lead to greater runoff from the snowmelt in the spring and could reduce drought conditions next summer.