Traverse City, Mich. — On December 17, the District Court for the Western District of Michigan issued its opinion in Enbridge v. Whitmer. The federal case was brought by the Canadian oil company to stop Michigan state officials from enforcing Governor Whitmer’s 2020 Notice of Revocation and Termination of the 1953 Easement for the operation of the aging Line 5 Dual Pipelines through the Straits of Mackinac — the heart of the Great Lakes.
Support our work: We’re taking the Line 5 tunnel permit to the Michigan Supreme Court.
The Court’s sweeping opinion rests on its adoption of Enbridge’s arguments that federal law preempts the State’s ability to enforce the terms of the Easement and the requirements of the public trust doctrine to protect Michiganders’ rights in the waters and bottomlands of the Great Lakes.
To reach its decision, the court improperly conflates Michigan’s public trust doctrine with federal pipeline safety standards. The public trust doctrine, however, is a completely independent, long-standing common law doctrine that is an essential aspect of state sovereignty. Thus, the court’s reduction of the public trust to the equivalent of a safety standard is not only legally wrong, it is offensive to state sovereignty and a century of Michigan Supreme Court jurisprudence. The court similarly errs in adopting Enbridge’s position that the State, in holding the company accountable for its violations of State law, impermissibly interferes with foreign affairs.
“Flow is disappointed by the outcome, and the court’s distortion of Michigan’s public trust doctrine and the State’s inalienable sovereign duties as trustee of that trust,” says Flow Water Advocates Staff Attorney Kacey Cook, “but we remain steadfast in our support of the Department of Attorney General’s exceptional advocacy on behalf of the state officials and their efforts to protect Michigan’s water resources, for all of us.”
The parties now have the option to appeal the district court’s decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
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Flow Water Advocates is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Traverse City, Michigan. Our mission is to ensure the waters of the Great Lakes Basin are healthy, public, and protected for all. With a staff of legal and policy experts, strategic communicators, and community builders, Flow is a trusted resource for Great Lakes advocates. We help communities, businesses, agencies, and governments make informed policy decisions and protect public trust rights to water. Learn more at www.FlowWaterAdvocates.org.
Although this decision is of great disappointment, I would encourage FLOW to appeal this decision to Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. The State of Michigan’s right to provide or deny an easement must be protected.
Keep up the fight!
I am so grateful for the steadfast work Flow, Oil and Water and the Chippewa nation is doing. I haven’t done my contribution yet until taxes are done but I will for sure.
Just more evidence of the GOP (Trump) corruption! Using his unjustified presidential power granted by the corrupt Supreme Court. “It’s always about being in favor of the fossil fuel industry”. One of the countries he wants to run (own) after Venezuela is Canada!
We are no longer a DEMOCRACY. We are an autocratic totalitarian form of government lead by “King” Donald. A despicable human being with absolutely zero redeeming qualities, multiple mental issues, convinces his base by lying, continued daily controversial issues/actions/positions. To divert attention from his Epstein involvement, corruption regarding the multiple ways he is personally enhancing his $$$$$ and any others to support the needs of his mental issues.
After doing in depth research (Occums Razor)-98 is the average IQ in the US, approximately 80% of the Trump base falls below 98. This subject group does not possess the capability of complex thought, particularly regarding multiple issues/actions/positions. They believe everything stated by the “King”
He continues to control his base using charisma (only) with voters who
I sincerely hope appealing this judgment will put the power to kick Enbridge Line 5 out of the Straits of Mackinac (as well as out of the whole state of Michigan) back in the hands of Michigan state government. After all, it was a contract made with the state and Enbridge and did not include any federal commitment or responsibility, as far as I know. Are the federal people going to help us clean up the mess when there is a rupture, and a huge mess with a huge bill comes due? I doubt it.
Of course, we all know, based on past oil spills that they never do really and truly get cleaned up. So disappointed.