Environmentalists won a temporary victory Monday in the attempt to shut down the oil and natural gas liquid pipeline in the Straits of Mackinac.
A three-judge panel from the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals remanded the case back to state court, where the case was originally filed by Attorney General Dana Nessel in June 2019.
The lawsuit aims to void a 1953 easement that allows Enbridge Inc., the pipeline’s operator, to operate a 4.5-mile section of Line 5 that runs beneath the straights, which connect Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ordered the pipeline to be shut down, but the company has defied the directive.
Enbridge, the Canadian energy company responsible for a disastrous oil spill in the Kalamazoo River in July 2010 , successfully moved the case to federal court.
Nessel sought to return the case to state court, where her office is asking a judge to recognize the validity of Whitmer’s order to shut down the pipeline based on the alleged easement violation.
Environmentalists, engineers, Indigenous leaders, and others have expressed increasing concern about a rupture resulting in a disastrous spill after Enbridge officials disclosed in 2017 that they had found problems in the pipeline’s protective coating in 2014.
The Great Lakes are home to 21% of the world’s fresh surface water and supply drinking water to 48 million people, including 5 million Michigan residents.
“This case never should have left state court in the first place, and after this long delay caused by Enbridge’s procedural manipulations, we’re elated to welcome Nessel v. Enbridge back to its rightful judicial venue,” Nessel said in a statement. “The State has an obligation and imperative to protect the Great Lakes from the threat of pollution, especially the devastating catastrophe a potential Line 5 rupture would wreak upon all of Michigan. As we’ve long argued, this is a Michigan case brought under Michigan law that the People of Michigan and its courts should rightly decide.”
Whitmer has warned that the pipeline presents “an extraordinary and unacceptable risk to Lake Michigan and Lake Superior.”
In October 2021, protesters temporarily shut down the pipeline by shutting off an emergency valve.
Since then, Republicans and right-wing groups have spread lies about the pipeline , baselessly claiming that a shutdown is imminent and would drastically increase heating costs for Michigan residents. They have also ignored the environmental hazards posed by Line 5. They provided no evidence that shutting down the pipeline would increase fuel prices. Between 90% and 95% of the light crude oil carried by Line 5 is sent to refineries in Sarnia, Ontario, according to For Love of Water (FLOW), a Traverse City-based nonprofit. A tiny fraction is destined for Detroit and two refineries in Toledo. If the pipeline is shut down, there are other sources, including the Capline and Mid-Valley pipelines, according to FLOW.
“The Straits of Mackinac is a fragile and unique ecosystem that must be defended from those who would risk it, and the way of life for hundreds of Michigan communities in the north, for continued fossil fuel profits,” Nessel said. “Line 5 is no safer than it was when I first sued Enbridge in 2019. It is still old, dangerous, and worsening. And I am still committed to doing everything in my power to shut down its passage through the Straits.”
In a lawsuit, the state asked an Ingham County Circuit Court to recognize the validity of Whitmer’s order to shut down the pipeline based on the alleged easement violation. Enbridge successfully moved the case to federal court in December 2021, and the state filed a motion to remand the case back to Ingham County.
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