Don't shut Line 5: Biden administration issues long-awaited position on Canada-U.S. pipeline

The Biden administration has weighed in for the first time on a major cross-border legal dispute that could shut down portions of Enbridge's Line 5 Canada-U.S. oil pipeline.

The opinion came in an amicus brief that, although nuanced, argued against shutting down the pipeline, partly in order to preserve diplomatic relations with Canada.

The more than 1,000-kilometre long Line 5 carries 540,000 barrels of oil and natural gas liquids daily across Wisconsin and Michigan to refineries in Sarnia, Ont.

The legal dispute in question is one to which the U.S. government is not actually a party. It involves Calgary-based Enbridge Inc. and the Wisconsin-based Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, through whose territory the pipeline runs.

In 2023, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin ruled in favour of the Bad River Band and ordered Enbridge to shut down parts of the pipeline within three years and pay the band $5.2 million for trespassing on its land after easement rights expired.

Both Enbridge and the band, which had wanted an immediate shutdown, appealed the ruling.

The Canadian government, in its own brief last fall, argued that a shutdown of the line would violate a 1977 Canada-U.S. pipeline agreement in which the countries agreed not to block the flow of each other's hydrocarbons.

Wednesday's submission from the U.S. Department of Justice cited Ottawa's argument and urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit to send the ruling back to the lower court.

Government brief urges more compensation for band

On the one hand, Wednesday's brief supported the financial penalty the lower court issued against Enbridge; in fact, it said the payment to the community should be increased.

On the other hand, it