Even amidst a growing energy crisis, Democrats are working to shut down a major oil pipeline in Michigan.

From Washington Examiner. Michigan’s Democratic leaders, including Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, are quietly continuing a legal battle to shut down a major oil pipeline — even as the rise in gas prices increasingly complicates the politics of the fight.

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The dispute over Line 5, a crude oil and liquefied natural gas pipeline running between Michigan and Canada, has dragged on for years, with Whitmer moving unsuccessfully last year to order the pipeline to cease operations….

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, and the state chambers of Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin filed an amicus brief last week in the lawsuit over whether the pipeline can continue operations….

“Shutting down the pipeline would carry tremendous negative consequences for the Chambers’ members and the economies of the United States and Canada,” lawyers for the business organizations wrote in the brief. “Such a shutdown would constrain an already disrupted energy supply, an especially problematic development given recent decisions related to importation of petroleum products from Russia….”

Built in 1953, the pipeline supplies the majority of Michigan’s propane and serves as a key energy source for the entire region.

A portion of the pipeline that funnels oil and gas under the Straits of Mackinac has recently drawn the scrutiny of environmentalists, who warn of the risk of an oil spill in the Great Lakes, although Enbridge has downplayed that risk by noting that the pipeline has not once leaked into the lakes during its decades of operation….

An analysis written earlier this year by Consumer Energy Alliance suggested that gas prices in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Pennsylvania would rise somewhere between 9.47% and 11.66% “independent of any other market conditions,” such as the war in Ukraine, if the line were shut down.

Canadian officials have raised alarms about the threat of shutting down a key pipeline pumping fuel over their border. In October, Canadian leaders invoked a provision of a 1977 treaty with the United States that bans either party from obstructing cross-border fuel transfers and requested negotiations with Biden administration officials….

The Biden administration had ordered an environmental review of the portion of Line 5 that runs under the Straits of Mackinac, which Enbridge had hoped to reconstruct….

What do you think about Line 5? Share your thoughts and prayers below.

(Excerpt from Washington Examiner. Photo Credit: Canva)