Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline (click here) transports 22 million gallons of crude oil and natural gas liquids across 645 miles of countryside every, single day — from Superior, Wisconsin through Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, under the Straits of Mackinac, and down to refineries in Sarnia, Ontario. Originally built in 1953, this aging line — which has long outlived its anticipated lifespan — has significantly deteriorated over the course of the last several decades and poses catastrophic risks to the neighboring farmland, pristine natural areas, valuable freshwater sources (including 400 rivers, streams, and wetlands), and tribal lands that it cuts through.
Alarmingly, Line 5 has a long history of unleashing environmental damage. In the last 50 years, the pipeline has had 29 spills, releasing a total of 1.1 million gallons of toxic oil into the environment. Researchers recently determined that most spills were not even discovered by Enbridge’s leak detection systems, which Enbridge uses to justify reckless pipeline routes. Additionally, parts of the pipeline have begun corroding and cracking, and other parts were recently found to violate Enbridge’s original easement due to improper bracing and a failure to provide adequate structural support. One portion has even lost an astonishing 26 percent of its original wall thickness, and another sustained a series of damaging dents from a ship’s anchor.
Thankfully, there haven’t been any spills in the most vulnerable locations — at least not yet....
May 5, 2021
By Geoffrey Morgan
That anxiety has been steadily building ahead of a deadline this month imposed by Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer for Enbridge Inc. to shut down its Line 5 pipeline, which crosses through Michigan, where it delivers more than half of the state’s propane needs, en route to deliver oil to Ontario, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
In November, Whitmer cancelled the easement that allows Enbridge’s pipeline to pass under the straits and provided a deadline of May 12 to shut the line down. Enbridge, for its part, has vowed to defy the order that comes into force next week in a move that lawyers say will make its case more difficult to argue in state and federal courts.
The two sides are currently in mediation and there is the potential that this fight turns into a national dispute between Canada and the U.S., leaving communities like Sarnia largely powerless in an entrenched environmental fight that could imperil thousands of existing jobs....
The United Steelworkers International union and workers (click here) from the Toledo Refining Company are mounting renewed opposition to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's planned closure of Enbridge's Line 5.
The United Steelworkers has been advocating for Line 5's continued operation since 2019 but launched the "Future on the Line" campaign in February to increase the union's reach.
Refinery workers plan to testify and gather at the Lansing Capitol Tuesday, the day before Whitmer's deadline for the closure of the oil pipeline through the Straits of Mackinac. They plan to line the Capitol lawn with more than 300 hardhats to represent the Steelworkers union jobs that would be lost at the Toledo refinery if the pipeline is closed.
It's unlikely the pipeline will actually close by Wednesday as Enbridge and the state continue to meet for mediation over Whitmer's November revocation of the line's easement. Enbridge had sued in federal court over the attempted closure, arguing the pipeline is subject to federal regulators, not state....
There is nothing to mediate. The FACTS are clear, the pipeline is too dangerous to leave intact and working. It needs to be shut down. This has gone on for 20 years and the lousy thing is still running oil through it. It has to stop sometime and the time is now.
