On February 4th, four people affiliated with the Catholic Workers Movement broke into a site near Blackberry in Itasca County where Enbridge Energy Company operates valves that control the flow of crude oil through pipelines that follow the highway 2 corridor across northern MN.
Allyson Polman and Brenna Anglada of Cuba City, Wisconsin, Michelle Naar from Duluth and Daniel Yildirim form Viroqua, Wisconsin tried to shut down tow of the pipelines carrying crude oil extracted from tar sand pits in northern Alberta, Canada. They used bolt cutters cut locks and chains but did not succeed in breaking the hardware before they were arrested by Itasca County deputies.
Even though they were unable to turn the valves they did succeed in temporarily stoping the flow of oil. They identify themselves as climate change activists and necessity valve turners. Scott was at the hearing on May 8th and filled us in.
