Opinion: Wisconsin should reject tar sands pipeline expansion

Whether you see Lake Superior and other Wisconsin waters as poetry or commodity, proposals for a massive expansion of Tar Sands crude oil shipments on and around the Great Lakes do not make sense. Among the waters vulnerable to Canadian pipeline company Enbridge’s ill-advised plans are Lakes Superior and Michigan as well as the Bois Brule, Namekagon, Chippewa, Wisconsin, Fox and Rock Rivers.

Connect the dots on Enbridge’s efforts to quietly network thousands of miles of pipelines—a system that would lock in both Wisconsin and our region as a major transportation corridor to ship Tar Sands crude oil overseas to the world market for decades to come—and a reasonable citizen would be outraged.

Profit and jobs would go to Canada. Crude oil would go overseas. Toxic risk would stay here, sprinkled throughout our region in the crude oil spills, air quality and public health impacts that would certainly come.