PITTSFIELD — Local organizers plan to protest two pipeline projects Tuesday, channeling the work of climate advocates and Indigenous activists across the country.
The 350 Massachusetts Berkshire node will take to Park Square in Pittsfield at 5 p.m., in an effort to express opposition to the Line 3 and Dakota Access pipelines.
More than 300,000 people across the U.S. have signed petitions demanding President Joe Biden to stop the pipelines, according to advocacy group 350.org. Asking Biden to “build back fossil fuel free,” opponents argue that the pipelines pollute the treaty-protected lands that Indigenous tribes historically have lived on and run counter to Biden’s goal for the nation to run on 100 percent clean energy by 2050.
Protesting pipeline projects in the Berkshires is nothing new.
Locals demonstrated in 2017 against a Tennessee Gas Pipeline extension that ran through Otis State Forest in Sandisfield and destroyed sites sacred to several tribes. Members of the Standing Rock Sioux traveled to Sandisfield to join that effort, and locals also lent support to that tribe’s effort to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline, which the tribe said violated its treaty rights.
The Dakota Access Pipeline was completed in 2017 and leaked at least five times within its first six months of operation. Calls to shut down the pipeline continue after a federal judge ordered a new environmental review last year.
Supporters say the newer pipelines are safer and more efficient than older pipelines.
Line 3 runs between Wisconsin and Alberta, Canada, and construction on the expanded pipeline has yet to be completed for the Minnesota section.
The Red Lake, Fond du Lac, White Earth and Mille Lacs Bands of Ojibwe have called for a halt to construction, which cuts through territories to which the Ojibwe say they have treaty rights. The pipeline would pollute lands they traditionally have relied upon for drinking water and cultivating crops and animals, they say.
Protesters also have noted that Enbridge, which is building Line 3, was responsible for the largest inland oil spill in U.S. history in 1991.
Organizers ask that those interested in joining wear masks and maintain 6 feet of distance, and they said the city does not allow people to use sticks and poles for signs.