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enbridge line 5
'Disastrous': Michigan Regulators Approve Enbridge Line 5 Expansion
"Today's decision is another notch in a long history of ignoring the rights of tribal nations," said one Indigenous leader.
Dec 01, 2023
Days after climate advocates applauded Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's signing of a package of clean energy bills that one campaigner said would "translate into better air, water, and health for everyone," state regulators took several steps back from a sustainable future as they approved a key permit for Enbridge's Line 5 expansion project beneath the Great Lakes.
In a 2-0 vote with one member abstaining, the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) approved siting for the project, granting Canadian oil firm Enbridge permission to build a concrete tunnel beneath the Straits of Mackinac—which connect Lake Michigan and Lake Huron—to house a four-mile section of its 645-mile petroleum pipeline.
The company can't break ground on the project without approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which isn't expected to announce its decision until 2026, but Indigenous tribes and advocacy groups that have fought for years to stop the pipeline from being built expressed outrage that the commission approved the permit despite well-documented objections.
All federally recognized tribes in Michigan have passed resolutions opposing Line 5, which safety experts have warned puts the Great Lakes at risk for a massive explosion and oil spill.
"Today's decision is another notch in a long history of ignoring the rights of tribal nations," said Whitney Gravelle, president of the Bay Mills Indian Community. "We must act now to protect the peoples of the Great Lakes from an oil spill, to lead our communities out of the fossil fuel era, and to preserve the shared lands and waters in Michigan for all of us."
Tribes have said the project would violate their treaty rights and that Enbridge has not proven it can operate the tunnel safely. The company's Line 6B oil spill in 2010 contaminated nearly 40 miles of the Kalamazoo River.
"Disappointment isn't a big enough word," Rebecca Liebing, attorney for Bay Mills, told Michigan Bridge after the MPSC vote was announced. "There's no ambiguity regarding how the tribes feel about this matter... We're not done fighting."
The lakes hold 84% of North America's surface freshwater, and the Line 5 expansion would be the largest underwater hazardous liquids tunnel ever completed, said the coalition Oil and Water Don't Mix (OWDM).
"With this action, the Michigan Public Service Commission is putting Michigan in uncharted, dangerous territory while ignoring warnings by independent industry experts who testified during the MPSC's proceedings," said Sean McBrearty, a campaign coordinator for OWDM. "Never before has an oil tunnel that also carries other hazardous liquids been built in one of the most ecologically sensitive spots on Earth."
McBrearty pointed out that Enbridge already operates other oil pipelines in the Straits of Mackinac, and said there is "an open question whether Enbridge intends to build the tunnel or is simply using the project as a diversion and delay from shutting down the existing twin oil pipelines."
"Moreover, the Line 5 tunnel will worsen the impacts of the climate crisis by adding 27 million metric tons of polluting and climate altering carbon into the atmosphere, equivalent to 10 coal-fired power plants," said McBrearty, calling on President Joe Biden to revoke the presidential permit for Line 5.
Whitmer campaigned on closing down Line 5, but Enbridge has claimed the governor has no authority to shut down its pipelines because it runs between the U.S. and Canada and is subject to federal regulations.
A spokesperson for the governor toldMichigan Bridge that Whitmer is reviewing the MPSC's decision and that her goal "has always been getting the pipelines out of the water as quickly as possible."
Christopher Clark, senior attorney for Earthjustice, which represented Bay Mills as it presented its case objecting to Line 5 to the MPSC, said the commission ignored "the concerns of tribal communities in favor of the profit of a fossil fuel company."
"The evidence before the commission demonstrated that the proposed tunnel would put the Great Lakes region at serious risk and profoundly endanger the identity and lifeways of the Bay Mills Indian Community, a sovereign tribal nation whose relationship to these waters preexists the United States," said Clark. "We will use every open avenue to shut down Line 5 in order to avert an environmental catastrophe and slow the unthinkable impacts of climate change.”Keep ReadingShow Less
Marching for a World Free From Fossil Fuels
Not one new pipeline or drilling rig should needlessly threaten communities and our planet when we know that the end of the fossil fuel era is on the horizon.
Sep 16, 2023
The following is part of a series of opinion pieces Common Dreams is publishing in the lead-up to the March to End Fossil Fuels on Sunday, September 17 in New York City. Read the rest of the series and our complete coverage here.
This Sunday, I will join thousands of people in New York City for the biggest climate mobilization since before the pandemic, urging President Biden and other world leaders to act boldly to stop fossil fuel expansion and extraction.
Among those thousands demanding a just transition away from fossil fuels will be Sierra Club staff, members, and volunteers and allies from Michigan and Wisconsin, representing the years-long fight to shut down Line 5, an aging and deteriorating oil pipeline operating illegally in the Great Lakes and threatening the drinking water of 40 million people.
We will also be joined by representatives from Gulf Coast communities in Texas and Louisiana who already experience disproportionate harms from the fossil fuel and petrochemical industries and are now being put at even greater risk by the industry’s planned expansion of methane gas exports, with almost 30 new or expanded facilities proposed or under construction in the Gulf Coast region alone.
Watching these extreme weather events claim lives and destroy livelihoods is scary, and it is even scarier to think this summer could be just a preview of what’s to come if we don’t change course.
For far too long, these communities and many more have lived with the daily threat of toxic pollution, explosions, leaks, and spills from fossil fuel operations. And they’re not the only ones who suffer the consequences of the fossil fuel industry’s unchecked expansion. The unprecedented heatwaves and devastating wildfires, hurricanes, and floods that have faced communities across the country this summer have made it clearer than ever that we have no time to waste in ending our reliance on the dirty fossil fuels that are polluting our communities and driving the climate crisis.
Watching these extreme weather events claim lives and destroy livelihoods is scary, and it is even scarier to think this summer could be just a preview of what’s to come if we don’t change course. But here’s the good news: We already have the tools to avert the worst of the climate crisis and rapidly transition to a cleaner, more just, more prosperous future by going all-in on clean energy and winding down our use of dirty fuels like coal, oil, and gas.
In fact, the International Energy Agency, the world’s leading energy analysis and policy organization, is now projecting that we are “witnessing the beginning of the end of the fossil fuel era” and that the world will hit peak demand for fossil fuels before 2030. According to the IEA, demand will decline earlier than many anticipated, in large part due to the rapid increase in clean energy.
That explosion in clean energy deployment has been accelerated by ambitious policy driven by the Biden administration through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, the largest investments in our climate and clean energy in U.S. history. Collectively, these unprecedented investments will put us on a path to cutting climate pollution by 40% by 2030 while creating over 9 million family-sustaining jobs over the next decade. True to his commitment to do more to advance climate justice than any president before him, President Joe Biden has also taken action to block oil and gas drilling in landscapes sacred to Indigenous communities like the Greater Chaco region and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
But at the same time, the United States remains the biggest producer of oil and gas in the world, and major new fossil fuel projects like the fracked gas Mountain Valley Pipeline, the Willow oil project in Alaska, and gas export terminals on the Gulf Coast are still receiving federal approvals to move forward.
Not one new pipeline or drilling rig should needlessly threaten communities and our planet when we know that the end of the fossil fuel era is on the horizon. As communities across the country are ravaged by extreme weather and countless more are threatened by the daily threat of toxic fossil fuel pollution, we simply cannot afford to compromise or sacrifice any more to the fossil fuel industry.
President Biden has the power to break free from fossil fuels, and he should use it. We are coming together to urge him to stop federal approvals for new fossil fuel projects, phase out fossil fuel extraction in our public lands and waters, and do everything in his power to block dangerous, polluting projects like Line 5, Dakota Access Pipeline, and gas export facilities in the Gulf Coast and Alaska. By doing so, he will build on the important progress his administration has already made toward cutting climate pollution and advancing environmental justice.
We all deserve a world free from fossil fuels. This is a critical moment for our planet and for President Biden to lead the world toward a clean energy future. This weekend we will be in the streets urging him to seize it.
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US Judge Orders Stretch of Enbridge Line 5 Shut Down on Tribal Land
"But for the theft of Indigenous lands," said environmental activist and attorney Steven Donziger, "this pipeline would not even exist."
Jun 19, 2023
The Canadian oil company Enbridge has been ordered to pay the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa $5 million in damages for trespassing and to gradually shut down part of its Line 5 pipeline in Wisconsin after a federal judge found that the company has placed the tribe's sacred land at risk of an environmental disaster.
U.S. District Judge William Conley of the Western District of Wisconsin handed down the ruling on Friday after the Bad River Band argued in court that there are now fewer than 15 feet between parts of Line 5 and the Bad River following the partial erosion of the riverbank in recent months.
The tribe said its land is in imminent danger of a potential pipeline rupture as roughly 12 miles of Line 5 run through the Bad River Band's reservation, carrying up to 23 million gallons of oil and liquefied natural gas each day through Michigan and Wisconsin to Ontario.
Line 5 has been the site of about 30 oil spills in its 70-year history, and another of Enbridge's pipelines ruptured in 2010, spilling more than 840,000 gallons of oil into a creek and the Kalamazoo River in Michigan.
"Tribal sovereignty prevailed over corporate profits."
In addition to ordering Enbridge to pay the tribe, Conley on Friday gave the company three years to wind down its operations on the Bad River Band's land, ordering it to "cease operation of Line 5 on any parcel within the band's tribal territory on which defendants lack a valid right of way and to arrange reasonable remediation at those sites."
The judge denied, however, that the pipeline's presence has put the tribe in imminent danger. He said an oil spill "would unquestionably be a public nuisance" but claimed an immediate shutdown of a portion of the pipeline would disrupt energy security and cause fuel costs to soar for locals.
Bad River Band Chairman Mike Wiggins said the tribe does not see the ruling as "cause for unqualified celebration" but expressed appreciation for the judge "putting an end to Enbridge's flagrant trespass and disregard for our rights."
"Tribal sovereignty prevailed over corporate profits," Wiggins said, adding that the tribe expects Enbridge "to fight this order with all of their corporate might."
"We are under no illusion that Enbridge will do the right thing," he added.
Enbridge said over the weekend that it plans to appeal the ruling.
Erick Arnold, an attorney for the Bad River Band, said the three-year timeline leaves the tribe "vulnerable to catastrophe."
"While the band's motivations have never been about money," said Arnold, "such a small award for a decadelong trespass during which Enbridge earned over a billion dollars in net profits from Line 5 will not sufficiently deter trespassers like Enbridge, but will instead create an incentive for corporations to violate the sovereignty of the band."
Environmental lawyer and activist Steven Donziger called the order a "victory" overall.
"But for the theft of Indigenous lands," he said, "this pipeline would not even exist."
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