ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) An administrative law judge has kicked off a series of hearings across Minnesota, hearing arguments for and against the Sandpiper oil pipeline.
About 300 miles of the proposed 600-mile pipeline would cut across northern Minnesota, carrying oil from the Bakken fields of North Dakota to Superior, Wisconsin.
Enbridge Energy officials told Judge Eric Lipman at a hearing in St. Paul Monday it would provide a safer and more efficient way to move oil than the trains that now carry most Bakken crude.
But climate change activists testified it would exacerbate global warming and that the oil should stay in the ground.
Hearings are also scheduled in Duluth, Bemidji, Crookston and St. Cloud.
The final decision on a certificate of need for the pipeline is up to the Public Utilities Commission.