OTTAWA – Supported by lawyers for the federal government, Alberta oil company Enbridge has secured the US federal court to hear its arguments to prevent the state of Michigan from shutting down a pipeline.
Enbridge Line 5 transports oil and gas from Western Canada to Quebec and Ontario through the fragile Great Lakes ecosystem. For Ottawa, it is an infrastructure “essential to the security and economic prosperity of Canada”.
But for Michigan it is a “time bomb” that threatens to escape and thus contaminate drinking water, and destroy the flora and fauna of the Great Lakes. The state governor therefore signed a decree that called for the immediate and unilateral closure of the pipeline in May.
Federal government lawyers rushed to the aid of those at the oil company to challenge the decree in US federal courts. Michigan replied that it was a local case that did not have to be decided in federal court.
But Judge Janet Neff sided with Canadians who argued that the case transcends Michigan state borders and therefore cannot be resolved locally.
In their request, the Canadians pointed out that the closure of line 5 “would seriously disrupt the supply of fuel and drive up the price that consumers pay across Quebec and Ontario.”
They added that the Michigan executive order flies in the face of a 1977 bilateral treaty between the United States and Canada that prevents “interfering with the operation of international pipelines for the delivery of hydrocarbons in the United States.” absence of precise justifications ”.
Michigan has been at loggerheads with Enbridge since another company pipeline, Line 6B, caused Michigan’s second-worst oil spill in U.S. history, spilling 20,000 barrels of crude into the Kalamazoo River in 2010.
Judge Neff’s decision comes two days before an important summit between Canada, the United States and Mexico where the energy file, among others, will be discussed.