Pipeline Faceoff: Enbridge plans to defy Gov. Whitmer s order to close pipeline
There s a midnight deadline for Enbridge to shut down its Line 5 pipeline in the Straits of Mackinac. The company says they have no intention of shutting down. Enbridge says only the federal government has the authority to order a shutdown. The Canadian company and its supporters say doing so would risk the same fuel disruptions experienced on the East Coast following a cyberattack against a pipeline there. Opponents say the two situations are different and accuse Enbridge of flouting the law.
By: Brian Abel + By JOHN FLESHER of the Associated Press
Canadian Company Defies Michigan Order to Shut Down Oil Pipeline
Canada’s government has backed the pipeline owner in the dispute with Michigan’s governor, an ally of President Biden, complicating U.S.-Canadian relations.
An above-ground section of Enbridge’s Line 5 at the Mackinaw City, Mich., pump station.Credit.John Flesher/Associated Press
May 12, 2021
OTTAWA A Canadian company on Wednesday defied an order to shut down an oil and gas pipeline that passes through Michigan, flouting a directive from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in a contest of wills that threatens to aggravate U.S.-Canada relations.
Ms. Whitmer in November canceled the pipeline’s legal permission to cross the Straits of Mackinac, the narrow, heavily trafficked waterway that separates Michigan’s upper and lower peninsulas, and links Lake Michigan to Lake Huron.
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Listen to Kelly House of Environment Watch at Bridge Michigan and Lester Graham of The Environment Report at Michigan Radio explain what s next as Enbridge defies the governor s order to shut down Line 5.
Demonstrators gather in Mackinaw City for a protest against the Line 5 pipeline, which crosses the Straits of Mackinac between St. Ignace and Mackinaw City.
Credit Courtesy: Whitney Gravelle
Enbridge Energy technically has one more day to shut down the Line 5 pipeline in the Straits of Mackinac, but even the pipeline’s most vocal opponents acknowledge slim odds that the oil actually stops flowing right away.
In the six months since Governor Gretchen Whitmer gave Enbridge 180 days to stop transporting petroleum across the tempestuous waterway that links Lakes Michigan and Huron, and the four months since Enbridge vowed to defy her, state officials have been adamant that the order still stands.
The natural gas storage report from the EIA for the week ending April 2nd indicated that the amount of natural gas held in underground storage in the US rose by 20 billion cubic feet to 1,784 billion cubic feet by the end of the week, which left our gas supplies 235 billion cubic feet, or 11.6% below the 2,019 billion cubic feet that were in storage on April 2nd of last year, and 36 billion cubic feet, or 1.3% below the five-year average of 1,808 billion cubic feet of natural gas that have been in storage as of the 2nd of April in recent years..the 20 billion cubic feet that were added to US natural gas storage this week was less than the average forecast of a 27 billion cubic foot addition from an S&P Global Platts survey of analysts, and was also less than the 30 billion cubic feet added to natural gas storage during the corresponding week of a year earlier, but was well more than the average addition of 8 billion cubic feet of natural gas that have typically been injected into nat