Line 5 pipeline

The controversial Line 5 pipeline can keep moving fossil fuels through an Indigenous band's territory in Wisconsin for now, but operations on that property "must cease" on June 16, 2026, a U.S. judge says.

North America's existential debate about the virtues and dangers of oil and gas pipelines faces a critical test today in Wisconsin.

The Line 5 pipeline has won a stay of execution in Wisconsin, where a federal judge sided with an Indigenous group's complaint but stopped short of ordering the controversial cross-border energy link shut down entirely.

For the second time in a year, the federal government is invoking a little-known 1977 energy treaty between Canada and the United States in an effort to prevent a federal court from shutting down the Line 5 pipeline.

White House officials, Capitol Hill lawmakers and the U.S. secretary of energy have all expressed "significant sympathy" for the plight of Canada's Line 5 pipeline, Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said on Thursday, May 12, 2022, after a day of meetings in the U.S. capital.

Attorney General Dana Nessel and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer were dealt a setback last November when District Court Judge Janet Neff granted Enbridge's request that the case be removed to federal court, a decision that prompted Michigan to abandon that particular challenge. 

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has ordered Enbridge to shut down Line 5 by Wednesday night, citing concerns over the risk of an oil spill into the Great Lakes. Whitmer is now warning she’ll seek to seize the company’s profits from the pipeline if it doesn’t comply.

On the eve of the shutdown deadline for Line 5 pipeline, Canada has filed a brief in U.S. court, siding with Calgary-based energy company Enbridge.

Analysts say it’s unlikely Line 5 will get turned off, although Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has ordered pipeline company Enbridge to do so next Wednesday. But if the pipeline did go offline, it could spur a scramble to meet fuel demand.

The Straits of Mackinac, a “sacred wellspring of Anishinaabe life and culture,” is part of an area ceded to the U.S. in 1836 only upon assurances that the right to hunt, fish and gather would be protected, tribal governments say.

The energy needs of Eastern Canada largely depend on a leaky old pipeline operated Enbridge, writes journalist and author Trevor Greene.

The federal government won't let Michigan shut down the Line 5 pipeline, Canada's natural resources minister said Thursday as he dismissed opposition comparisons to the thwarted Keystone XL project.

The NDP, Greens and Liberals questioned why the PCs would want to spend the afternoon talking about Line 5 while key questions about COVID-19 vaccine rollout remained unresolved. Though the Ford government pointed to the need to preserve petrochemical jobs, critics said vaccines are the best way to help the economy.

Less than a month after U.S. President Joe Biden nixed the Keystone XL pipeline as part of a sweeping climate plan, another pipeline with implications for Canada is in the crosshairs of a U.S. politician.

Oilsands companies are restoring thousands of barrels of daily production to take advantage of higher oil prices as relaxed pandemic measures allow North American consumers to get back on the road.