Ottawa Supports Enbridge in Line 5 Conflict with Michigan

The federal government is requesting a Michigan judge to keep Line 5 running while it talks with the U.S. to resolve the pipeline dispute.

Former U.S. ambassador to Canada Gordon Giffin filed a new amicus brief last week highlighting the consequences for both countries if the Enbridge pipeline is shut down. This year’s brief reiterates the original argument, with one notable difference from last year’s: the initial brief was filed in May before the two governments sat down to try to resolve the issue.

Officials from both countries met in mid-December, to discuss a 1977 pact designed to prevent disruptions in cross-border oil and gas flows, and will meet again in “early 2022.”

The treaty argues that both countries “not to shut down or otherwise impede the operations of international hydrocarbon transit pipelines that transport hydrocarbon products from somewhere in Canada to somewhere else in Canada via the United States, or vice versa.”

The clause “applies to Line 5, which has transported hydrocarbons since 1953 from Western Canada to Central Canada via Wisconsin and Michigan,” the brief continues, “to any measures instituted by a ‘public authority in the territory of either party’ — which includes the state of Michigan and its officials.”

Back in November 2020, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, ordered the suspension of Line 5, fearing an environmental disaster in the straits. However, Enbridge argued that Whitmer and state Attorney General Dana Nessel had overstepped their jurisdiction and that the issue needed to be adjudicated in federal court.

After this, Whitmer and Nessel abandoned the complaint, choosing instead to focus on a different but comparable circuit court issue that had been inactive since 2019 while Enbridge keeps arguing that the matter should be heard by a federal judge.

Several other briefs were filed last week, including one from prominent international unions and labour groups such as the United Steelworkers and the North American Building Trades Unions, talking about how the economic impact of closing Line 5 would be.

“Enbridge estimates that if Line 5 ceases operation, the refineries in Michigan, Ohio, Ontario, Quebec and Pennsylvania will lose 40 per cent of their crude supply and, with that reduction in product, will either close completely or become significantly less competitive,” the brief says.

“In either case, the impact on workers who depend on Line 5 for their employment would be dramatic.”

Original source material for this article taken from here