Rep. Cori Bush joins fellow congressmen in battle in opposition to the Minnesota pipeline | politics

The visit comes days after Omar sent a letter signed by nearly 50 lawmakers and members of Congress urging the Biden government to meet with tribal leaders.

The heads of several Minnesota state agencies this week denied several points in Omar’s letter, saying that the amount of water Enbridge has pumped from the trenches amid the current drought is an exaggeration and that the amount is in fact within the approved limits.

They also said that claims in Omar’s letter that law enforcement officers used police dogs to intimidate protesters and fired “less lethal” rubber bullets at protesters were false.

Pipeline supporters, including Minnesota Republican MP Pete Stauber, state lawmakers and pipeline workers, held a press conference at the Capitol in St. Paul on Friday to commend the jobs the pipeline has brought to the area.

Jason George, business agent for Local 49 of the International Union of Operating Engineers, which has several thousand members on the project, described Omar’s letter as an attack on pipeline workers.

Enbridge spokeswoman Juli Kellner called Omar and her allies “misinformed” and quoted the letter from Democratic Governor Tim Walz’s commissioners. Kellner said six years of reviews, court rulings and permits disprove claims that Line 3 violates contract rights or harms the region’s environment.