​Rep. Omar Urges President Biden To Halt Oil Pipeline In MN

MINNEAPOLIS — Rep. Ilhan Omar is urging President Joe Biden to stop the construction of Enbridge's Line 3 replacement oil pipeline being built in Minnesota. Omar wrote a letter Thursday after she visited the site of the pipeline construction over the weekend and met with the indigenous communities who would be impacted by it.

"Climate change does not stop at the border of a reservation or a state or a country," Omar wrote.

"The decision that U.S. entities make on Line 3 is a decision made for the entire world, and for all coming generations of humanity. I urge you to make the one decision supported by the scientific consensus on climate change: Stop Line 3."

Line 3 is a tar sands pipeline project that requires 330 miles of new pipeline. Line 3 starts in Joliette, North Dakota and ends in Superior, Wisconsin.

"Earlier this month, I joined millions of Americans celebrating your announcement to withdraw permits for the Keystone XL pipeline," Omar wrote to Biden.

"This bold and courageous decision is supported by the scientific consensus that we are running out of time to prevent catastrophic climate change. I ask that you extend this scrutiny to another massive fossil fuel infrastructure project that will have a comparable impact on our planet: the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline currently being constructed across Minnesota."

Read Omar's entire letter here.

Enbridge says on its website it wants to replace Line 3 "to maintain our high safety standards, reduce future maintenance activities and create fewer disruptions to landowners and the environment, and restore the historical operating capabilities of Line 3."

The project will create 8,600 jobs in Minnesota over a two-year period, according to Enbridge.