Judge denies motion to dismiss Enbridge’s lawsuit against Whitmer over Line 5 easement • Michigan Advance

Line 5, which runs from northern Wisconsin to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, through the Straits of Mackinac, under the Straits of Mackinac, through Michigan’s Lower Peninsula to Sarnia, Ontario, transports approximately 23 million gallons of crude oil and liquid natural gas daily.

Tribal peoples and environmentalists throughout the region have long called for the closure of Pipeline 5, fearing that the pipeline could burst. These fears were heightened when a Anchor strike damaged the twin pipelines in 2018.

While the company was instructed to cease operations until May 12, 2021, an Enbridge executive said sent a letter to Whitmer and the DNR The company will continue to operate the pipeline while it works on its controversial tunnel project, which aims to ease concerns about an oil spill by placing the two pipelines in a concrete-lined tunnel embedded under bedrock in the Straits of Mackinac.

The state eventually dropped its lawsuit against Enbridge after the company successfully requested that the case be heard in federal court. Whitmer’s office said the state was “changing its legal strategy” to focus on Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s 2019 lawsuit calling for the pipeline to be shut down.

While Enbridge also requested that Nessel’s case be heard in federal court, successfully argued that the matter should be heard in the stateand the case was remanded to Michigan’s 30th District Court in Ingham County, where it is expected to resume before Judge James S. Jamo.

In an earlier email to the Advance paymentEnbridge spokesman Ryan Duffy said the company was disappointed by the decision to send Nessel’s case back to state court but remained confident the Line 5 dispute could be resolved by a summary judgment in its own case against Whitmer, which was remanded to Jonker on May 22.

“Enbridge wants the federal court to hold that the state of Michigan cannot seek to shut down Line 5 based on safety concerns related to Line 5’s routing through the Great Lakes.”

Jonker denied the motion to dismiss the lawsuit on the grounds that Enbridge’s lawsuit fell under an exception to sovereign immunity that grants governments immunity from lawsuits.

However, Whitmer and current DNR director Scott Bowen reserve the right to appeal the denial. The decision must be decided before Enbridge files its motion for summary judgment, Assistant Attorney General Daniel Bock wrote in a letter to the court.

Kimberly Bush, a spokeswoman for Nessel, said the department is reviewing Jonker’s order but could not further publicly discuss litigation strategy on behalf of the governor or the DNR director.

On July 31, the Western District Court of Michigan is scheduled to hear Enbridge’s motion for summary judgment. The company argues that federal law prohibits state agencies from enforcing a shutdown of Line 5.