Line 3 Replacement Would Provide Massive Economic Benefits

Some liberal media outlets have sought to depict the removal of Steve Kelley from his role as the head of the Department of Commerce as a partisan jab at Governor Walz for extending his emergency powers, even though two DFL senators sided with Republicans to remove him. Politics may have indeed played a role in the decision to oust Kelley, but the former Commissioner’s decision to once again delay the replacement of the Line 3 pipeline were solid grounds for dismissal.

According to a new study, the replacement of the Line 3 project would bring about massive economic benefits in both the short term, and the long term.

In the short term, building Line 3 could provide $2 billion in economic activity and 8,600 jobs that would generate $167 million in payroll and $162 million in construction-related spending locally. For context, this is more than the amount spent on U.S. Bank Stadium, and unlike the stadium, which does not provide a quality product, Line 3 would safely, and efficiently transport the energy we rely upon every single day.

In the longer term, building Line 3 could bring stable funding for public services through property tax revenue. The expanded Line 3 is estimated to expand tax revenues by $35 million in the first year of operation from the current more than $30 million a year, more than doubling the amount of money local governments have to either reduce other taxes, or fund essential services, like police and fire units.

One would think that Governor Walz, Mr. “One Minnesota,” would jump at the opportunity to let thousands of Minnesotans lace up their work boots and raise much-needed tax revenue to start paying down the state’s projected $4.7 billion budget deficit, but you’d be wrong.

Line 3 has undergone an extensive, six-year environmental review incorporating 70 public hearings, and generating more than 13,500 pages of expert environmental analysis which has determined that replacing the pipeline is the best thing for the environment. Instead of giving the project the green light, the Walz administration pretends that we won’t need the oil in the future, but nothing could be further than the truth.