Environmental and tribal advocates argued Canada’s invocation of treaty rights to keep Line 5 open was a ploy to protect fossil fuel profits over Great Lakes protections, and a failure to immediately address the climate crisis with reduced greenhouse gas emissions.
Proponents of shutting down Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline and quashing a replacement tunnel proposal on Tuesday voiced their collective dismay at Canada’s recent argument that treaty rights somehow protect the continued flow of petrochemicals beneath Great Lakes waters at the Straits of Mackinac. The maneuver came as Southern California’s coastline became awash with oil leaked from an underwater pipeline, which they contended is a foreboding warning for Michigan.
“Canada’s last-ditch effort to save Enbridge came while oil was still flowing towards the California coast in an incident that should be instructive for all of us. The California oil spill was likely caused by a ship’s anchor striking the pipeline,” said Sean McBrearty, campaign coordinator for advocacy group Oil & Water Don’t Mix, recalling a 2018 tugboat anchor strike on the pipeline on Lake Michigan bottomlands.
“A spill from Line 5 could be orders of magnitude worse than the spill last week in California.”
The advocates collectively called on President Joe Biden to reject Canada’s and the fossil fuel company’s joint efforts to extend use of the underwater Line 5 pipeline, interfere in the ongoing legal fight, and derail the tunnel’s environmental review by U.S. and tribal decision makers.
“They may be even banking on being able to delay long enough that they get a different set of decision-makers into office, decision-makers that they can cut sweetheart deals with,” said Bentley Johnson, of nonprofit Michigan League of Conservation Voters.
The Line 5 opponents also argued the 1977 treaty Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked last week doesn’t even apply as presented. They said the treaty in fact outlines why Michigan’s Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was obligated to pursue vigorous oversight given the environmental risk of an oil spill in the heart of the Great Lakes.
Whitmer last year ordered the aging dual pipelines to shut down by May 12, which Enbridge refused without a court order. The state and company are now locked in a battle of reciprocal lawsuits, awaiting a decision by U.S. District Judge Janet Neff whether to send litigation back to circuit court in Ingham County.
Voluntary mediation between the state and the Canadian-based company ended this month without a settlement.
Andy Buchsbaum, legal consultant for nonprofit National Wildlife Federation, read from the treaty Canada invoked and said it “explicitly authorizes Michigan to take exactly the kind of action it did when it issued the order shutting down the pipeline” as a regulation for pipeline safety and environmental protections.
“It’s squarely covered by the terms of the treaty. It’s actually authorized by the same treaty that Canada claims invalidates the shutdown order,” he said.
Tribal leader Whitney Gravelle, president of Bay Mills Indian Community, said she was “deeply dismayed and disheartened” by Canada’s attempt to “thwart protection of the Great Lakes and the preservation of our treaty rights and way of life.” She said treaty-protected tribal fishing and hunting rights supersede any rights Enbridge believes it has in Michigan’s Great Lakes waters, no matter what Canadian leaders argue.
“The Canadian government’s actions are reminiscent of a long history of mistreatment of its own First Nations, and despite promises to rectify that legacy of harm and exploitation, we instead see the government of Canada double down on fossil fuels,” Gravelle said.
She further argued the push to save Line 5 contradicts Canada’s efforts to be internationally seen as a climate champion.
Johnson agreed there are climate implications beyond the pipeline’s risk to the freshwater of the Great Lakes: a replacement tunnel would lock in 99 years of continued fossil fuel use, despite increasing effects of climate change such as extreme storms, flooding and subsequent power outages. It’s not a sound investment for the state with its goals to switch to renewable energy sources, he said.
“It’s very plausible this could end up being a tunnel to nowhere with Michigan taxpayers holding the bag for a massive project that isn’t needed in a future where we must rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and our use of fossil fuels,” Johnson said.
Additionally, McBrearty argued saving the Great Lakes from the risk of a catastrophic oil spill that could cost upward of $6 billion to clean up also amounts to climate resilience.
“Protecting our water is also a climate imperative, especially with such an immense resource that we have here in the Great Lakes and making sure we are protecting that for future generations as we see droughts increase elsewhere across the country,” he said.
The advocates pressed their position with what they said were more than 33,000 petition signatures presented Tuesday to U.S. Sen. Gary Peters that cite the “clear and present danger” of a possible Line 5 rupture. The same petitions will also be delivered to Sen. Debbie Stabenow and the White House this week, they said.
The agreement between the state and Enbridge to build a tunnel for a replacement pipeline to the underwater section of Line 5 was inked under former Gov. Rick Snyder. Proponents of that measure oppose Whitmer’s closure order and argue the existing pipeline can continue to operate without a spill while the tunnel is built – as it has done for decades.
An Enbridge spokesman said pipelines are a safer and more reliable way to transport fuel than by truck, train or barge.
“These other modes burn far more fuel in order to move it releasing more greenhouse gases into the environment and would increase safety risk along each of those transportation modes,” said Enbridge’s Ryan Duffy.
He said the company invested in Line 5 safety enhancements to keep the pipeline safely running until a tunnel is built, and the infrastructure being threatened by “a single government entity” creates energy security concerns as winter approaches.
Read more on MLive:
Michigan seeks end to ‘unproductive’ Enbridge Line 5 mediation
7.5-ton anchor left near Line 5
Line 5 tunnel delay expected after feds promise review
Whitmer threatens profit seizure if Line 5 keeps pumping
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