• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
  FEATURED
BP Predicts Faster Oil and Gas Decline as Clean Energy Spending Hits $1.1T in 2022 January 31, 2023
Canada Needs Oil and Gas Emissions Cap to Hit 2030 Goal: NZAB January 31, 2023
Ecuador’s Amazon Drilling Plan Shows Need for Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty January 31, 2023
Rainforest Carbon Credits from World’s Biggest Provider are ‘Largely Worthless’, Investigation Finds January 31, 2023
Danske Bank Quits New Fossil Fuel Financing January 23, 2023
Next
Prev

Michigan Abandons Federal Court Case, Turns to State Law for Faster Line 5 Shutdown

December 1, 2021
Reading time: 3 minutes
Full Story: The Canadian Press @CdnPressNews
Primary Author: James McCarten @CdnPressStyle

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

Peter K Burian/Wikimedia Commons

21
SHARES
 

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has abruptly abandoned her federal court case aimed at shutting down the cross-border Line 5 pipeline, a move described as an effort to “cut through” legal delaying tactics from Calgary-based pipeliner Enbridge Inc.

Instead, Attorney General Dana Nessel said Whitmer will concentrate the government’s efforts on a long-standing state court action against Enbridge that was originally filed in 2019, The Canadian Press reports.

  • The climate news you need. Subscribe now to our engaging new weekly digest.
  • You’ll receive exclusive, never-before-seen-content, distilled and delivered to your inbox every weekend.
  • The Weekender: Succinct, solutions-focused, and designed with the discerning reader in mind.
New!
Subscribe

That original case remains the “quickest and most viable path” towards getting Line 5 permanently decommissioned, Nessel said in a statement Tuesday.

Michigan’s efforts suffered a blow earlier this month when a U.S. District Court judge sided with Enbridge and allowed Whitmer’s case to remain in federal court.

Last November, Whitmer revoked the 68-year-old easement that allowed Enbridge to operate the line, fearing an environmental catastrophe in the Straits of Mackinac, where Line 5 crosses the Great Lakes.

The National Wildlife Association cheered the decision to abandon the court case, calling Line 5 a “ticking time bomb” and supporting Nessel’s motion to reopen the 2019 action.

“We’ve had enough of this Canadian corporation and the Canadian government itself tying up Michigan’s efforts to protect our Great Lakes from a catastrophic oil spill,” regional executive director Mike Shriberg said in a statement. “Line 5 is a ticking time bomb, and this move to cut through Enbridge’s legal delay tactics is the best way to move forward to protect the Great Lakes.”

Nessel said she and Whitmer remain “aligned in our commitment” to shut down the pipeline, “and this dismissal today will help us advance that goal.”

“I fully support the governor in her decision to dismiss the federal court case and instead focus on our ongoing litigation in state court,” Nessel said. “The state court case is the quickest and most viable path to permanently decommission Line 5.”

Canada said earlier this month that planning was “well under way” for bilateral treaty talks between Canada and the United States in the dispute over the pipeline, although the timeline for formal negotiations remains unclear.

The 1977 agreement between the two countries is meant to avoid disrupting the cross-border flow of energy. It proved to be a key element in Enbridge’s strategy to convince the U.S. District Court that a bilateral dispute belonged in federal court.

Should formal negotiations fail, the next stage of the dispute resolution process would be binding international arbitration.

Canada opted to formally invoke the 44-year-old treaty last month after talks involving a court-appointed mediator broke down between the two sides.

Enbridge welcomed Michigan’s decision to abandon the federal court case, saying in a statement the company would continue to press for affirmation of federal jurisdiction over Line 5.

The Biden administration has acknowledged that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is conducting an environmental assessment on Enbridge’s plans to encase the underwater portion of the twin pipeline in a deep, fortified underground tunnel. But the White House has resisted pressure to get involved in the dispute itself.

Line 5 ferries upwards of 540,000 barrels per day of crude oil and natural gas liquids across the Canada-U.S. border and the Great Lakes by way of a twin line that runs along the lake bed beneath the straits linking Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. Proponents call it a vital and indispensable source of energy— particularly propane—for several Midwestern U.S. states, including Michigan and Ohio. They also say it is a key source of feedstock for critical refineries on the northern side of the border, including those that supply jet fuel to Lester B. Pearson International Airport in Toronto.

Critics want the line shut down, arguing it’s only a matter of time before an anchor strike or technical failure triggers a catastrophic environmental disaster in one of the area’s most important watersheds.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published November 30, 2021.



in Biodiversity & Habitat, Canada, Health & Safety, Legal & Regulatory, Sub-National Governments, United States, Water

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

Mike Mozart/Flickr
Ending Emissions

BP Predicts Faster Oil and Gas Decline as Clean Energy Spending Hits $1.1T in 2022

January 31, 2023
316
Gina Dittmer/PublicDomainPictures
Canada

Canada Needs Oil and Gas Emissions Cap to Hit 2030 Goal: NZAB

January 31, 2023
192
CONFENIAE
Ending Emissions

Ecuador’s Amazon Drilling Plan Shows Need for Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty

January 31, 2023
59

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

Mike Mozart/Flickr

BP Predicts Faster Oil and Gas Decline as Clean Energy Spending Hits $1.1T in 2022

January 31, 2023
316
Gina Dittmer/PublicDomainPictures

Canada Needs Oil and Gas Emissions Cap to Hit 2030 Goal: NZAB

January 31, 2023
192
Doc Searls/Twitter

Guilbeault Could Intervene on Ontario Greenbelt Development

January 31, 2023
129
Ken Teegardin www.SeniorLiving.Org/flickr

Virtual Power Plants Hit an ‘Inflection Point’

January 31, 2023
115
RL0919/wikimedia commons

Danske Bank Quits New Fossil Fuel Financing

January 23, 2023
2.4k
/snappy goat

Rainforest Carbon Credits from World’s Biggest Provider are ‘Largely Worthless’, Investigation Finds

January 31, 2023
92

Recent Posts

CONFENIAE

Ecuador’s Amazon Drilling Plan Shows Need for Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty

January 31, 2023
59
Victorgrigas/wikimedia commons

World Bank Climate Reforms Too ‘Timid and Slow,’ Critics Warn

January 31, 2023
42
United Nations

Salvage of $20B ‘Floating Time Bomb’ Delayed by Rising Cost of Oil Tankers

January 27, 2023
120
@tongbingxue/Twitter

Extreme Warming Ahead Even as Worst-Case Scenarios Grow ‘Obsolete’

January 23, 2023
340
Rachel Notley/Facebook

Notley Scorches Federal Just Transition Bill as Fossil CEO Calls for Oilsands Boom

January 23, 2023
313
EcoAnalytics

Albertans Want a Just Transition, Despite Premier’s Grumbling

January 23, 2023
322
Next Post
LDNhân/Pixabay

Mayors Press Ottawa for Emergency Transit Funding

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}