Enbridge receives broad support from government, business and labor
The Government of Canada and entities representing hundreds of thousands of businesses and workers from across the Great Lakes region in the United States and Canada demonstrated support for Enbridge’s case in federal court over the Line 5 easement in the Straits of Mackinac by submitting friend of the court briefs.
Entities that submitted briefs include:
The Government of Canada
Attorneys General of Ohio and Louisiana
Chambers of Commerce from the U.S., Canada, Michigan and Ohio, along with the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce
North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU) and the United Steelworkers of America, AFL-CIO
“This broad support underscores that efforts by the State of Michigan to shutdown Line 5 have far reaching and severe implications across the region and North America – well beyond Michigan’s borders,” said Vern Yu, Enbridge Executive Vice President and President Liquids Pipelines.
The friend of the court briefs echo Enbridge’s response to the Michigan Attorney General’s March filing requesting that the State’s easement case be heard in State court. Enbridge made clear in its response that this case belongs in federal court as any attempt to shut down Line 5 has serious ramifications for the Transit Pipelines Treaty of 1977 between Canada and the United States and raises substantial questions of federal law relating to interstate commerce and federal jurisdiction on pipeline safety issues.
In its brief, the Government of Canada writes, “a shutdown of Line 5 would cause certain, immediate and serious harm to several important public interests. Economic prosperity and employment in Alberta and Saskatchewan would be harmed if a key part of their economies — hydrocarbon production — lost efficient and reliable access to its main markets. Central Canada and parts of the northern United States would lose relatively safe, efficient and reliable access to fuel that is essential to the Toronto and Detroit Airports, to businesses that employ thousands of people in Ontario, Quebec, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, and to the propane supply on which many residents in Michigan rely for heating and cooking.”
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