Michigan won’t take Canada’s Line 5 calls
OTTAWA • The Canadian government continues to press U.S. officials to avoid the shutdown of a key pipeline supplying southern Ontario, marking another point of conflict in the energy relationship between the two countries after Keystone XL was scrapped last week.
Officials in Michigan are looking to force the shutdown of Line 5, a pipeline carrying 540,000 barrels of oil and other petroleum products each day from Superior, Wis., to refineries in Sarnia, Ont. If successful, Canadian officials warn, the move would have a devastating impact on the Canadian economy, vaporizing thousands of jobs and cutting off a crucial supply of gasoline and jet fuel to Ontario and Quebec.
“The bottom line, in terms of the economy, is it’s a big threat,” said Joe Comartin, the Canadian government’s consul-general in Detroit. Stakes in the project are high enough that Michigan’s decision “certainly has the potential for damaging our relationship” with the United States, he said in an interview.
Line 5 is yet another point of contention between the U.S. and Canada on the energy file after President Joe Biden revoked a permit for Keystone XL on his first day in office. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, a longtime supporter of Keystone XL, expressed disappointment but ultimately “acknowledged” the president’s decision. The decision angered some Western leaders, particularly Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, whose government took a $1.5-billion equity stake in the project.
In November, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer said she would revoke a 1953 easement that allows Line 5 to cross the Straits of Mackinac, citing worries over potential oil spills. Calgary-based Enbridge Inc., the operator of the pipeline, was given until May 12 to shut down.
Comartin said the Michigan government has thus far resisted invitations to hold official discussions on the matter. Officials representing federal Natural resources Minister Seamus O’regan and Ontario Premier doug Ford have also been calling on Michigan to reinstate the easement for months; Comartin has been in regular discussions with the governor’s office.
“There just doesn’t seem to be any willingness on the part of the state to negotiate,” Comartin said.
Ontario has warned that shutting down Line 5 would cut off nearly half of the crude oil it needs to make petroleum products such as gasoline. All of the jet fuel used at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport is made in Sarnia, and distributed through Line 5. It also carries propane used to heat homes in northern Michigan and Ontario, and supports thousands of jobs on both sides of the border.
Line 5 is part of Enbridge’s mainline system, which delivers roughly 2.8 million barrels of oil — more than half of Canada’s total production — from northern Alberta to the u.s. Midwest every day.
Enbridge recently received regulatory approval to drill a tunnel beneath the Straits of Mackinac, slated to come online in 2024. The company says the tunnel project would drastically reduce the potential for spills compared with the existing line, which currently rests on the bottom of the waterway.
Canadian officials point out that Line 5 is a matter of energy security, unlike pure export projects like Keystone XL, proposed by Calgary-based TC Energy, or Enbridge’s Line 3. The pipeline giant’s proposal to replace Line 3, which carries Canadian crude oil from northern Alberta to Wisconsin, has also been met with resistance by state-level governments and regulators.
“In some ways, this is much bigger than Line 3, this is much bigger than KXL, because those pipelines were moving product for sales, not for our own domestic use,” said Sarah Goldfeder, principal at Earnscliffe Strategy Group.
Enbridge disputes the Michigan government’s authority to impose a shutdown on a federally approved pipeline, and has said it will not comply with the order. It is taken the issue to u.s. federal court.
On Jan. 12, Enbridge wrote a letter to Governor Whitmer saying a court order from the Pipeline and hazardous Materials Safety Administration would be needed to shut down Line 5. The PHMSA falls under the federal department of Transport, now headed by Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
The Line 5 project has drawn criticism from environmental groups, who claim the risk of leaks are too great to justify its operation. Activist groups have made similar claims about other cross-border pipelines, typically over threats to crucial water supplies.
Comartin, like many Canadian officials, said shutting down Line 5 would only increase dependency on other forms of transportation, all of which are less safe or less environmentally friendly than pipelines. Line 5 is equal to 2,000 trucks or 800 rail cars making a one-way trip every day, Enbridge said.
“If this ever was shut down, even on an interim basis, the alternatives are very few, and from an environmental risk standpoint, certainly more severe in terms of a spill, whether it’s by truck or ship or rail,” Comartin said.
he said he has pressed officials in the governor’s office about why they pulled the permit in the first place, but has not received any evidence to justify it. Michigan officials have long sought to project a sort of virtuousness on the issue, even as residents on both sides of the border use fossil fuels throughout their daily lives.
“They don’t explicitly ever say this, but it’s implied that they are the champions, and that Canada doesn’t really care as much as they do about protecting the Great Lakes,” he said.