“If you rebuild a pipeline, just like building a new pipeline, you’re putting millions and millions of dollars into it,” Margolis said. “You’re locking us into fossil fuel use for decades.”
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“There aren’t that many pipelines proposed for the near future. We know they’re not economical, we know we need to move beyond fossil fuels, so at this point, it’s like, what’s the next issue with pipelines?” Margolis said, pointing out that pipelines like Colonial are particularly dangerous in terms of explosions, water pollution, and other on-the-ground impacts. “There’s a couple ways to deal with this aging infrastructure. The big way, the main way we see it, is that these things should be decommissioned. When you see a pipeline that’s this old with these kinds of problems. It shouldn’t be repaired, it should be shut down.”
There are around 190,000 miles of pipelines that transport liquid petroleum products across the U.S. Deactivating pipelines is a messy, protracted affair, with several steps required from regulatory bodies to make sure it’s done correctly. It’s also expensive: Enbridge has estimated that properly deactivating its aging Line 3 pipeline and taking it out of the ground would cost more than $1.2 billion dollars. The company is currently considering simply abandoning it and paying off the landowners involved, which it says would cost a relatively paltry $85 million, but leave corrosive pipes littered underneath the landscape.
Activists opposing new pipelines also haven’t stopped fighting them even after being built. The resistance to the Dakota Access pipeline morphed from blocking construction to shutting off a functioning pipeline after Trump lifted blocks set by his predecessor and allowed the pipeline to begin transporting oil. However, in July of last year, a judge ruled that the government did not complete an adequate impact assessment
For older pipelines like Colonial, which have been around long enough to survive any legal challenges related to their initial construction, the chance for shutdown could come when the owners make moves to make significant repairs–especially if those repairs cross new territories or require new permits. That struggle is playing out right now in Minnesota, where Enbridge is looking to construct a new pipeline to replace the crumbling Line 3. The company’s proposed route for the replacement is facing legal challenges and significant backlash from Indigenous groups and activists who say the pipeline violates treaty rights with tribes in the area.
Just because pipelines like the Line 3 replacement or Colonial aren’t technically new infrastructure doesn’t mean that they can’t keep the U.S. locked into using dirty fuels. If shareholders spend big to keep a pipeline working, they’ll be less and less interested in suddenly doubling back on that investment.
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