Anti-Line 5 graffiti at Enbridge’s pumping station in Mackinaw City, Mich., May 12, 2021. (Laina G. Stebbins | Michigan Advance)
Representatives of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and Canadian pipeline company Enbridge Inc. gave their oral arguments before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago on the case appealing the shutdown of Enbridge’s controversial Line 5 pipeline.
The suit began in 2019, when the Bad River Band took action to remove the pipeline from their territory in Wisconsin after refusing to renew an easement on the pipeline that travels through the Bad River reservation, citing environmental concerns. While the easement expired in 2013, Enbridge refused to remove the pipeline from the parcels of land owned entirely, or partly by the tribe.
The Bad River Band later filed for injunctive relief in May 2023, after spring flooding events created concerns that the pipeline would be exposed and ruptured .
Line 5 stretches from Northwest Wisconsin, through Michigan into Sarnia, Ontario. It transports up to 540,000 barrels per day of crude oil and natural gas liquids.