Photo: Michigan Office of the Governor (AP)
Seizing the profits of a major oil company, making Canadians angry, tugboats causing havoc: It’s all happening in Michigan right now. The mandated shutdown of a major oil pipeline is brewing into a nasty fight that pits Michigan’s governor and environmental groups against a fossil fuel company as well as the country of Canada.
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At issue are two pipelines owned and operated by Enbridge, an energy company headquartered in Canada, that ferry crude oil and natural gas to the U.S. via the Straits of Mackinac, a shipping channel in Michigan that connects two of the Great Lakes. The two pipelines are collectively known as Line 5 and they’re in pretty crappy shape. The lines were built in 1953, but were only designed to last for 50 years; Enbridge has, essentially, been stalling on making major repairs or replacements for close to two decades. Even before the pipelines met their expiration date, Line 5’s safety record has be
Special to the Journal
LANSING With the recent confirmation of Deb Haaland to lead the Department of the Interior, the nation has its first Native American cabinet member.
The position has significant influence on Native American affairs, and tribal representatives in Michigan say they’re optimistic about what Biden administration’s policies and Haaland’s position mean for Native representation.
Haaland, a member of the Laguna Pueblo, is a former U.S. representative from New Mexico and now runs the department with the most responsibility for Native American affairs, including relationships between the federal government and tribes. The department includes the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Indian Education.
Federal Natural Resources Minister Seamus O Regan, pictured in Jan. 2019. On Tuesday, O Regan announced Ottawa had filed a legal brief in U.S. federal court in the case of the Line 5 pipeline. File photo by Andrew Meade
Canada has filed a legal brief in United States federal court siding with an oil pipeline company against Michigan, even going so far as to invoke the memory of 9/11 as a reminder of how the two countries have worked together in the past.
Michigan, which has ordered Line 5 to shut down by May 12, is seeking to defend its waterways from the risk of an oil spill. In an amicus brief filed Tuesday, the federal government argued the looming threat of a shutdown “poses grave concerns” for Canada’s economy and for the country’s relationship with the U.S.
Posted: Friday, May 7, 2021 08:26
A major Canadian Indigenous group is adding its voice in support of a campaign by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to shut down an oil pipeline that runs under the Great Lakes and supplies much of the fuel to Ontario and Quebec.
Line 5, which runs through Michigan from the Wisconsin city of Superior to Sarnia, Ont., crosses the Great Lakes beneath the environmentally sensitive Straits of Mackinac, which link Lake Michigan to Lake Huron.
The pipeline operated by Enbridge Inc. carries 540,000 barrels of light oil and natural gas liquids from Western Canada. It feeds oil refineries that provide nearly half of Ontario’s fuel supply. The remainder of the crude is pumped further east to Quebec refineries through Line 9, where it provides 40 to 50 per cent of that province’s fuel supply.
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Their work ranges from training tribal law enforcement on how to interact with victims to lobbying for laws to protect Indigenous people. Rachel Carr is the organization s Executive Director.
She believes tribal nations should have the power to try their own cases.
“If there s a problem in our tribal communities, they deserve tribal resolution. We have to rely on the federal government to come in and provide safety and justice for members in our community, she said.
Up until 2013, tribes had no ability to prosecute non-natives for domestic and dating violence. That year, they received limited power to do so through a reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). But, that measure did not allow tribes to prosecute crimes related to child abuse, sex trafficking, rape or murder.