Closing Michigan oil pipeline could hurt Ohio
Would be threat to state economy, leaders say
Ohio business and political leaders are calling out what they say is a threat to the state’s economy should the state of Michigan succeed in shutting down a pipeline that provides fuel used by consumers and businesses in Ohio.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer wants to close Enbridge’s Line 5, which has become a target of environmentalists, native tribes, tourism-related businesses and other critics who say it’s ripe for a spill that could do catastrophic damage to the Great Lakes and the regional economy.
The pipeline, owned by Canadabased Enbridge, moves 23 million gallons of oil and natural gas liquids each day from Superior, Wisconsin, to Sarnia, Ontario, moving through large sections of northern Michigan, according to the company.
Some of that fuel is sent to refineries in northwest Ohio, where it is used to make gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel and propane. It also is used to make chemicals and paints in the state.
“Amidst rising gas and energy prices for Ohioans and Ohio businesses, the Ohio Chamber will continue our efforts
“Here in Michigan, the Great Lakes define our borders, but they also define who we are as people. Enbridge has routinely refused to take action to protect our Great Lakes and the millions of Americans who depend on them for clean drinking water and good jobs. They have repeatedly violated the terms of the 1953 easement by ignoring structural problems that put our Great Lakes and our families at risk.”
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer
in court, because Line 5 is an economic engine delivering half a million barrels per day of crude oil that account for 42 percent of our region’s refinery capacity,” Steve Stivers, the chamber’s president and CEO, said in a statement.
A year ago, Whitmer ordered the line to be shut down, fulfilling a pledge she made as a candidate.
“Here in Michigan, the Great Lakes define our borders, but they also define who we are as people. Enbridge has routinely refused to take action to protect our Great Lakes and the millions of Americans who depend on them for clean drinking water and good jobs. They have repeatedly violated the terms of the 1953 easement by ignoring structural problems that put our Great Lakes and our families at risk,” Whitmer said in a statement then.
Whitmer’s decisions have triggered lawsuits involving the state and Enbridge. Canada, for its part, has invoked a 1977 treaty with the U.S. meant to trigger negotiations over the pipeline to keep the pipeline open.
Gov. Mike Dewine and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted have urged President Joe Biden to keep the line open as have Ohio business leaders.
Dewine and Husted have told Biden that “any disruption in Line 5 operations would have a devastating impact on the economy of northwest Ohio, further harming industry supply chains, eliminating thousands of good-paying jobs, and increasing the cost of fuel for transportation, heat for homes, and products Americans use every day.”
Of particular concern to environmentalists and others is a more than 4mile-long section, divided into two pipes, that lies on the floor of the churning Straits of Mackinac at the convergence of Lakes Huron and Michigan. The pipes were laid in 1953.
The area is a source of drinking water along with providing habitats for animals and fish, and a spill could damage greats areas of the lake because of the swift currents, according to environmentalists.
Enbridge wants to build a utility tunnel to replace and relocate the portion of the Line 5 pipeline that runs beneath the Straits of Mackinac.
Shutting down the line would cost Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Indiana at least 33,000 jobs and losses of $20.8 billion to consumers in those states, according to an analysis requested by the Consumers Energy Alliance, a consumer group dedicated to affordable and reliable energy supplies.
About two-thirds of the consumer losses would be in Ohio, more than four times the losses of those in Michigan, even though the line runs through Michigan, according to the report.
The Toledo Refining Co. depends on oil from the pipeline to make products used to make gasoline, diesel fuel, aviation fuel fused by airports in Michigan and Ohio, and products used by paint and chemical companies.
At peak times, the refinery employs about 1,200 workers and takes in about 170,000 barrels of oil a day.
“We don’t have other options if that line goes down,” said Scott Hayes, the health, safety, and environmental and government relations manager for the plant.
Bringing oil in by truck, train or tanker through the Great Lakes isn’t practical, and would boost emissions of carbon dioxide, he said.
“There’s no good way to make up the difference in these feed stocks,” he said.
Closing the pipeline would result in the loss of jobs along with higher energy prices and potential shortages of some products, he said.
“When the price of transportation goes up, the price of everything goes up. The poor will feel it more profoundly at the pump,” he said.
Environmental groups dispute that, and say the loss of oil could be made up by expanding other pipelines or that oil could be brought in by truck or rail. The cost would be less than a dollar per barrel.
Enbridge says the pipeline operates safely.
“On Line 5, the existing line and the Great Lakes Tunnel is also about safe and affordable energy. The fact is Line 5 and the tunnel are essential to Michigan, but also the entire region and 2 Canadian provinces,” the company’s CEO and president, Al Monaco, told analysts on a conference call last month to discuss the company’s third-quarter financial results. “We’re doing everything we can to make sure people’s critical energy needs are not cut off.”
The Sierra Club has been among the groups pushing for the pipeline to close.
“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,” the group said.
“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 26 percent of its original wall thickness, and another sustained a series of damaging dents from a ship’s anchor, the group said. mawilliams@dispatch.com @Bizmarkwilliams