By Mary Lou Aurell

Gains and sacrifices mark the Enbridge Pipeline Company’s construction of a 1,000-mile crude oil conduit between Alberta, Canada and Superior, Wisconsin. The company and the 13 northern counties it passes through are winners.

Enbridge Pipeline should make Enbridge Partners’ stocks and profits soar. The Partners’ net income was over $117 billion from January through June 2009 and can only increase as the company builds pipelines carrying Alberta crude to refineries in the Upper Midwest and the Texas Gulf.

The leader in energy delivery to North America is overbuilding its new Alberta Clipper line, anticipating increased oil volume (and profits). Much of the world’s oil now comes from tar sands that are primarily located in Canada, Venezuela and the Middle East, disclosed the Oil Shale & Tar Sands Programming EIS Information Center. The U.S. will soon import 40% of its oil from Canada.

Closer to home, millions of dollars and thousands of jobs are flooding local economies.

Though this is a passing boom, it could help businesses and people trying to rebound from the “Great Recession.”

People are excited about this temporary expanding economy as salaries from good jobs pay outstanding bills and build purchasing power. Business North reported that $1.5 billion dollars will be infused into communities in the path of the pipeline and 2,000 new jobs could be available at the peak of construction.

Clearbrook, the hub for three major pipelines in Clearwater County, is experiencing even more black gold prosperity.

Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce President Bud Stone says that businesses here, such as gas stations and restaurants, are very busy. In a casual email survey of Chamber members, he found that the laundries are swamped washing pipeliners’ clothing. The rooms at longer-stay motels are full; however, pipeline workers still have difficulty finding short-term housing. Pipeline personnel want to leave the area in about seven months, before spring road restrictions are posted.

Tax collections will also increase, said Itasca County Treasurer-Auditor Jeff Walker. Enbridge paid $1,429,274 in Itasca County taxes in 2009, according to Walker. Of that amount the county receives $480,305. The rest is divided among local townships, cities and schools. Enbridge’s tax hike will be set by the state.

As the taxes paid by Minnesota Power dwindle because of accelerated depreciation, the Enbridge tax increase is a windfall.

Those who sold right-a-way across their land gained, too. The Leech Lake and the Fond du Lac Bands both leased land to Enbridge. The former received $10 million from company and the latter is rumored to have collected $17 million.

The few who would not sell lost potential profits to eminent domain, a legal procedure that allows governments to take land from its owners to stimulate the economy. The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld this procedure.

Less dependence on Middle Eastern oil and more dependence on oil from a friendly neighbor have us smiling as the supplies of a product that is at the center of our lives remain stable. Oil builds our computers and other electronics, is in the tanks, on the frames, under the tires of petroleum-powered vehicles and airplane; it heats our homes and is part of the manufacturing and production processes of nearly everything we touch or ingest daily. Oil is part of our bubblegum and crayons, deodorant and eyeglasses and those important heart values.

While we are content, the environment is being sacrificed, particularly where the Alberta oil sands are mined to produce the petroleum that will flow through the new Enbridge pipeline.

The Sierra Club says that this mining is causing irreversible damage to the boreal forests of Alberta, forests that cover an area the size of Florida.

“The boreal forest is our last defense against global warming,” said Susan Casey-Leftowitz, director of Canada projects at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “Yet, here we are, digging up this wilderness for tar sands development.”

According to other environmentalists and scientists, tar sands mining not only requires large amounts of both unsustainable water and natural gas, but is also increasing greenhouse gases, putting toxins into the air, displacing and killing wildlife, draining bogs, fens and a river, and depleting water supplies. And remediation will be costly.

Closer to home, in a surprising environmental twist, the construction of the Enbridge pipeline creates “trails” that should not, but inevitably will be used by ATVs that can carry invasive species in their tire treads, planting those species, said Bob Leibfried, Department of Natural Resources Ecological Resources Manager.

Then, along come bumblebees that pollinate directly or indirectly “every third bite of our food,” wrote Brian DeVore in the 2009 July-August Conservation Volunteer. Bumblebees often prefer invasive species to native plants, ignoring the agricultural pollination we need.

The bees win, for awhile, because they can also be harmed by invasive species, and we lose native plants and food sources.