Enbridge Line 5 can run while oil pipe is rerouted, judge says

Robert Tuttle, Bloomberg News

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Enbridge Inc.’s controversial Line 5 oil pipeline can keep operating while the company relocates part of it to avoid an indigenous group’s land, according to a court decision.

A U.S. District Court judge in Wisconsin ruled in favor of the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians, who said the conduit was trespassing on their territory. Judge William Conley said the group is entitled to a monetary remedy, but stopped short of granting an injunction that would shut the line because it would have “significant public and foreign policy implications.”

“While inclined to grant alternative injunctive relief to the Band, requiring Enbridge to reroute its pipeline outside the Reservation, the court will seek input from the parties before deciding the terms of a permanent injunction,” the judge ruled.

The decision ensures “the pipeline will continue to provide energy to millions of people in the Upper Midwest while Enbridge moves forward with the relocation of Line 5 around the Bad River Reservation,” an Enbridge spokesperson said in a statement. “The court further recognized that the Line 5 relocation project needs to move forward in a timely fashion.”

Enbridge is facing multiple legal battles over Line 5, a key conduit for supplying oil to refineries in the U.S. Midwest and Canada. Besides its dispute with the indigenous community in Wisconsin, the company is fighting an order by Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer to shut the pipeline due to environmental risks to the Great Lakes.

The fight over Line 5 has escalated to an international dispute between Canada and the U.S. government. Last month, Canada invoked a 1977 treaty covering cross-border pipelines over concern that the line would be be shut. That action followed an earlier move to invoke the same treaty over Whitmer’s effort to shut the line. 

The Wisconsin judge’s ruling is “a turning point in the battle to protect indigenous rights and the Great Lakes,” according to the National Wildife Federation, a U.S. environmental group.

“It underscores again why Enbridge Energy should shut down Line 5,” Beth Wallace, Great Lakes freshwater campaigns manager for the National Wildlife Federation, said in an emailed statement.