Federal Judge Rules That Michigan Cannot Disrupt International Line 5 Pipeline

A federal judge has ruled that Michigan can’t stop the Line 5 Pipeline.

The Dec. 17 ruling might end a five-year feud between Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who teamed with Attorney General Dana Nessel to shut down the pipeline that provides 65% of the propane demand in the Upper Peninsula and 55% of Michigan’s statewide propane needs.

The pipeline runs 645 miles from Superior, Wis., through the Straits of Mackinac in Michigan to Sarnia, Ontario. The pipeline currently moves more than 500,000 barrels of oil and natural gas liquids daily.

In 2020, Whitmer and Nessel threatened to shut down the 645-mile pipeline that stretches from Superior, Wisconsin, to Sarnia, Canada, and has carried 540,000 gallons of hydrocarbons daily underneath the Straits of Mackinac since 1953.

gov.uscourts.miwd.99729.165.0_1 by mcclallen

The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan this week granted Enbridge Energy Limited Partnership (Enbridge)’s motion for summary judgment. It stopped the State of Michigan from shutting down a critical international pipeline called Line 5. In September, the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD) and Civil Division filed a statement of interest in the case.

“This ruling by the court reaffirms the federal government’s unique responsibilities in regulating interstate pipelines and enforcing international treaties,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD). “If a state exceeds its authority to disrupt the flow of energy, we will step in to reassert the federal government’s prerogative. President Trump has set America on a strong, winning path toward securing energy dominance. This ruling undergirds that effort.”

In 2020, Michigan sought to shut down the pipeline by moving to stop Enbridge from using an easement that had allowed the pipeline to run beneath the Straits of Mackinac between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron for decades. The court held that federal law preempts Michigan’s efforts to shut down the pipeline for two reasons.

First, the Pipeline Safety Act provides exclusive authority to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration to set nationwide safety standards for interstate pipelines and related infrastructure. The Act prevents a state from imposing its own safety standards on an interstate (and an international) pipeline.

The court concluded that Michigan “unlawfully” attempted to “regulate the safety of Line 5 by attempting to shut it down” and by “‘continuing in force’ numerous state safety standards found” in the easement.

Second, the pipeline is subject to a treaty between the United States and Canada, and the United States has an explicit policy preference for the uninterrupted flow of oil through international pipelines. And, as the court recognized, a “compelled shutdown of an international pipeline blatantly defies” that federal foreign policy.

Chief of Staff and Senior General Counsel John Adams of ENRD filed the statement of interest.

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