(Washington) Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources says he finds a “sympathetic ear” in Washington regarding the fate of Enbridge’s Line 5 in the Great Lakes.
Posted at 1:28 p.m.
Jonathan Wilkinson is in Washington on Thursday for meetings with elected officials, Joe Biden administration officials and US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.
Mr. Wilkinson indicated that Canada is still betting on maintaining the operation of this cross-border pipeline, but he also pointed out that the government is studying contingency scenarios in the event that a US court orders the closure of this line.
The State of Michigan wants this “Line 5” to be permanently closed, fearing an ecological disaster in the Strait of Mackinac, between Lakes Michigan and Huron.
Minister Wilkinson also indicated that Ottawa will not intervene in a separate legal case in Wisconsin, where an Aboriginal group is also trying to obtain the closure of the pipeline.
He hopes that the problems in Wisconsin and Michigan can be resolved within the current talks on the 1977 Canada-US treaty on “transit pipelines”. These talks are continuing between Ottawa and Washington in an effort to prevent the closure of this Enbridge pipeline from Calgary.