Letter to the Editor: Don’t Cut Off Access to Affordable Energy

It’s no secret that many homeowners and businesses in northeastern Wisconsin depend on ample supplies of affordable propane to heat their homes. The importance of our area’s propane supply is what has me concerned about the current efforts of radical environmentalists who don’t seem to care about the harm it will cause hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites if they get their way. 

In far northern Wisconsin, there are efforts by the pipeline company Enbridge to relocate a portion of its Line 5 pipeline. Initiated at the request of a local tribe, Enbridge is removing the pipeline from tribal lands onto lands where all the landowners have welcomed the project. 

Unfortunately, radical environmentalists are using this relocation process to try to shut down this critical pipeline, which transports crude oil and natural gas liquids, which then get turned into the gas we use to fuel our vehicles and the propane we use to heat our homes. If Line 5 is shut down like this small, but loud group wishes, proprietors of propane facilities in Superior and Rapid River have already said they would be forced to close, reducing propane supplies in our region and likely leading to even higher prices. 

I work for a local propane company, so I know a lot about what’s happening in the industry. For the 280,000 homes in Wisconsin that rely on propane to heat their homes, the prospect of losing access to propane or being priced out of being able to afford propane is literally a life-or-death situation. I only hope that the state regulators at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources put Wisconsin families ahead of the political desires of some to cut off our access to affordable energy.

Scott Soucek

Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin