Canadian cabinet member will fight Michigan over Line 5 closure

(The Center Square) – A member of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s administration is reminding Gov. Gretchen Whitmer her plan to shutter the Enbridge Line 5 pipeline will resonate far beyond Michigan’s borders.

Canada’s Natural Resources Minister Seamus O’Regan, a member of Trudeau’s cabinet, pledged the Canadian government will defend Line 5, according to an article published by the CBC.

“We are fighting for Line 5 on every front, and we are confident in that fight,” O’Regan said.

Approximately 540,000 barrels of light crude and natural gas liquids travel through Line 5 each day, which supplies Michigan and neighboring states as well as portions of Canada with propane and other heating fuels as well as jetliner fuel.

“We are fighting on a diplomatic front, and we are preparing to invoke whatever measures we need to in order to make sure that Line 5 remains operational,” he said. “The operation of Line 5 is nonnegotiable.”

Whitmer and Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel have both signaled their intentions to shut down the current pipeline, which has been operated under an easement agreement with the state since 1953. Whitmer and Nessel are also working to prevent Enbridge’s construction of a tunnel 100 feet beneath the bedrock of the Straits of Mackinac to replace the current Line 5.

Last November, Whitmer announced she would terminate the state’s easement agreement with Enbridge, in effect shutting down Line 5 completely by May of this year. Enbridge maintains jurisdiction over the easement rests with the Federal Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Safety Agency and not Michigan officials.

“I was pleasantly surprised to see a key member of Prime Minister Trudeau’s cabinet make a strong public statement that Canada is willing to put up a fight to keep Line 5 open and operating,” Jason Hayes, Mackinac Center Director of Environmental Policy, told The Center Square in an email.

Hayes noted his disappointment the Canadian government’s response wasn’t as robust when President Joe Biden issued an Executive Order to shutdown the Keystone XL pipeline in January.

“In the face of Governor Whitmer’s and Attorney General Nessel’s unyielding refusal to consider differing opinions, Seamus O’Reagan, the Canadian Minister of Natural Resources, is right to take this stand,” Hayes said. “He is right to join in with the many other elected and government officials, business owners, union officials, and members of the general public on both sides of the border and the political spectrum who are all demanding the pipeline remain in use.”

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