DETROIT – Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel scored a big win in her fight to shut down Line 5 Monday, June 17. Nessel v. Enbridge Energy will be heard in state court, a federal appellate decided.
Related: Does Line 5 put Michigan’s Great Lakes at risk for a ‘catastrophic’ oil spill?
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Line 5 is the oil pipeline owned by Canadian company Enbridge Energy, it carries crude oil from Northwest Wisconsin, through Michigan, to Sarnia, in Ontario, Canada.
Nessel has been fighting for the shutdown of Line 5 since she took office in 2019. The pipeline is 70 years old, and crosses from the Upper Penninsula to the Lower Penninsula through the Mackinac Straits. Native Americans, environmentalists and others say a pipeline rupture in the Great Lakes would be catastrophic.
Nessel has argued that Line 5 is a Michigan issue. Enbridge says it’s a federal issue, and the company had Nessel v. Enbridge Energy moved to federal court. Nessel appealed that decision and the Sixth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals sided with Nessel – who believes she has a stronger case here in Michigan, where she says Enbridge is in violation of state environmental law.
Monday’s decision is not about whether Line 5 should be shut down; it’s about where the case will be heard.
There’s currently no word on when the case would be heard, but it will be heard in the 30th Circuit Court in Ingham County before Judge James S. Jamo.