A voicemail from Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka to then-MPCA Commissioner Laura Bishop about Enbridge’s controversial oil pipeline project offers a rare glimpse of political machinations at the Minnesota Capitol.
In the fall of 2020, Laura Bishop, then commissioner of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, got an unusual voicemail.
Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, a Republican from East Gull Lake, had called her to urge the approval of a key water-quality permit for Enbridge Energy’s planned Line 3 oil pipeline. For years, the 337-mile pipeline across northern Minnesota has been one of the state’s most controversial environmental issues, and Enbridge needed what’s known as a 401 certification before construction could begin.
Listen: Gazelka’s voicemail to Bishop
“I just can’t stress enough how important it is that you do your job with these and that the permits get issued,” Gazelka told Bishop.