Gretchen Whitmer is at war with another pipeline

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Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is fighting to shut down a crude oil pipeline in a battle that has long been waged in Michigan but is gaining attention nationally as environmental activists ramp up pressure on fossil fuel infrastructure across the country.

Whitmer, a Democrat, had ordered the 645-mile Line 5 pipeline operated by Canadian energy company Enbridge to shut down by May 12, citing risks that the pipeline could leak or spill oil any day. Enbridge’s Line 5, which carries up to 540,000 barrels per day of crude oil and natural gas liquids, runs under the Straits of Mackinac connecting Lake Michigan and Lake Superior. The Great Lakes is one of the world’s largest bodies of fresh water.

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“Enbridge has routinely refused to take action to protect our Great Lakes and the millions of Americans who depend on them for clean drinking water and good jobs,” Whitmer said in November when she ordered the pipeline to shut down.

Enbridge is defying the shutdown order, however, saying the pipeline hasn’t leaked once in its more than 65 years of operation. And in the weeks after the Colonial Pipeline hack and shutdown led to gasoline shortages up and down the East Coast, the company and its allies are saying the United States must keep the pipeline running to preserve energy security.

Currently, the state and Enbridge are duking it out in court, fighting over whether litigation to force the Canadian company to shutter the pipeline should be heard in state or federal court.

Whitmer’s administration has the backing of environmental activists, both local and national, and tribal groups living on lands near the lakes and the pipeline. Enbridge, meanwhile, enjoys the support of national business groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, labor groups like the North American Building Trades Union, and the Canadian government.

The Biden administration, for its part, has steered away from this pipeline fight so far. Some activists are pressing President Joe Biden to weigh in, citing his decision to shut down the Keystone XL oil pipeline.

“I would encourage Biden’s administration to stand up to their word and get rid of this pipeline,” said Holly Bird, co-executive director of Title Track, a Michigan-based clean water advocacy group.

“I think they saw the [Keystone] XL pipeline was unfit for that area. I think they could do the same thing here,” Bird added.

Even industry allies of Enbridge say it’s likely the Biden administration could ultimately have to weigh in on the Line 5 pipeline.

If the court rules the dispute over the pipeline’s shutdown falls under federal legal jurisdiction, “there’s a very high likelihood the court will ask the federal government for its position,” said Christopher Guith, senior vice president for policy with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has filed legal briefs backing Enbridge in the case.

For now, though, the battle is squarely in Whitmer’s territory. In a recent letter to Enbridge, Whitmer threatened the company would have to pay the state “all profits from its wrongful use of the easement lands” following May 12, when it was supposed to shut down Line 5.

The pipeline fight centers on the potential environmental risks of an oil spill and the possible economic damages from shutting down an operating pipeline.

Sean McBrearty, Michigan legislative and policy director for Clean Water Action, said people in Michigan began to raise concerns about the Line 5 pipeline more than 10 years ago, when another pipeline of Enbridge’s ruptured, spilling more than 1 million gallons of heavy crude oil into the Kalamazoo River.

A spill from Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline could have significant negative effects on the Great Lakes and the surrounding area, research from the University of Michigan has found. That study found a spill could result in more than 15% of Lake Michigan’s open water and nearly 60% of Lake Huron’s open water covered in a visible oil sheen. A spill could also affect more than 700 miles of Great Lakes shoreline, the report found.

Those damages would harm the significant tourism economy of the Great Lakes region and commercial fishing in the area, as well as the Indigenous tribes that live along the shorelines and on islands in the lakes, said Jennifer Read, director of University of Michigan’s Water Center, which conducted the research.

Industry allies of Enbridge, however, say shutting down the pipeline would hurt the economy of Michigan, surrounding states, and Canada.

A report released by Consumer Energy Alliance earlier this month found a shutdown of the pipeline would cause the loss of 33,000 jobs and at least $20.8 billion in economic losses across Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Pennsylvania.

Guith, of the Chamber, said a Line 5 shutdown would also cause the shuttering of two Ohio refineries “because it just wouldn’t make logistical or economic sense to find a new way to bring crude to them.”

Both sides of the pipeline fight are now waiting to see what the court decides about where the litigation should proceed. Legal briefing over the jurisdiction dispute wraps up next month.

Environmental activists are calling on Whitmer to stand her ground and not compromise with Enbridge, which has proposed a pipeline project to replace Line 5 that would bury the pipeline in a tunnel underground to minimize the risks of any potential oil spill. The Canadian company is still working to obtain permits for that endeavor.

Guith said a risk of shutting down the pipeline is it would essentially absolve Enbridge of having to construct that tunnel to secure the pipeline infrastructure.

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Environmental activists, though, say the tunnel project raises many concerns of its own, including that Enbridge hasn’t conducted enough research to ensure that the pipeline would be secure underground and that the lake waters would be protected from leaks.

“When the world’s leading climate experts are telling us we have less than 10 years to really start cutting back on carbon, why would we spend any amount of that time digging an oil tunnel underneath 20% of the world’s fresh water?” McBrearty said.

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