This photo taken in October 2016 shows an aboveground section of Enbridge's Line 5 at the Mackinaw City, Mich., pump station. Ottawa is urging a U.S. appeals court to reverse a Wisconsin judge’s order that threatens to shut down the Line 5 cross-border pipeline by June 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-John Flesher
WASHINGTON – Ottawa is urging a U.S. appeals court to reverse a Wisconsin judge’s order that threatens to shut down the Line 5 cross-border pipeline by June 2026.
Forcing a shutdown would violate Canada’s treaty rights, government lawyers argue in an amicus brief filed today with the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
A Wisconsin court ruling in June gave Calgary-based Enbridge Inc. an ultimatum: reroute the pipeline around an Indigenous reserve within three years or shut it down.
Enbridge plans a 66-kilometre detour to replace the 19-kilometre stretch that runs through the sovereign territory of the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Chippewa.
Both sides are appealing the decision – Enbridge wants more time to finish the reroute, while lawyers for the band want the taps turned off for good.
The band and its environmental allies fear a spill inside an ecologically sensitive and flood-prone Lake Superior watershed on the Bad River reserve.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18. 2023.
