Tribes Ask White House to Back Efforts to Shut Portion of Enbridge's Line 5 — OPIS

Thirty Native American tribes in the Midwest have asked the Biden administration to support efforts to force the removal of Enbridge's Line 5 pipeline from reservation lands in Wisconsin.

In a Tuesday letter, the tribes said their longstanding treaties with the U.S. supersede a 1977 treaty between the U.S. and Canada governing international pipelines and argued that the U.S. should advance this position in a federal court case on the pipeline's presence on tribal lands.

The administration has yet to respond to a request by the 7th U.S. Court of Appeals for its views on the pipeline treaty.

"The United States' silence on this issue, in the face of the Seventh Circuit's request and Canada's vociferous support of Enbridge, is deeply concerning," the tribes said in their letter.

"By remaining silent and not forcefully refuting Enbridge's and Canada's radical interpretation of the Transit Treaty, the United States is abdicating its trust responsibility to ... all tribal nations, in favor of a foreign country and foreign corporation."

Enbridge and the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians are appealing a June federal court ruling that directed Enbridge to remove the pipeline from the band's reservation within three years and to pay the tribe more than $5 million in compensation.

While Enbridge originally had easements allowing the line to cross the reservation, those permissions expired in 2013. The Bad River band contends that portions of the pipeline are threatened by erosion and pose a risk of a catastrophic oil spill. It is seeking an immediate shutdown of the section on its land.

Enbridge has argued that a 1992 agreement granting 50-year easements on Bad River Band parcels requires the band to renew the 12 contested rights of way.

The 540,000 b/d pipeline carries oil and natural gas liquids to four U.S. refineries in Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania and six refineries in Ontario and Quebec.

The company's dispute with the Indian band led the Canadian government in August 2022 to formally invoke the transit treaty.

The Biden administration has so far tried to avoid getting involved in the Wisconsin case as well as an effort by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to shut a portion on Line 5 underneath the Straits of Mackinac.

This content was created by Oil Price Information Service, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. OPIS is run independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

--Reporting by Steve Cronin, scronin@opisnet.com; Editing by Jeff Barber, jbarber@opisnet.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 29, 2024 12:20 ET (17:20 GMT)

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