NB: Liberal, progressive, ... must keep the global warming flowing, and
what is a few leaks, anyhow? A bit of environment destroyed here, local
poisoning, long term toxins, after all, it is just amongst profiteers
and exploitationists who impose destruction upon those from whom they
profit and exploit.
https://news.yahoo.com/canada-formally-invokes-1977-pipeline-181542025.html
Reuters
Canada invokes 1977 pipeline treaty with U.S. over Line 5 dispute
FILE PHOTO: Border city's industry under threat with looming pipeline
closure
Nia Williams and Sebastien Malo
Mon, October 4, 2021, 11:15 AM
By Nia Williams and Sebastien Malo
CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) -Canada on Monday invoked a 1977 treaty with
the United States to trigger bilateral negotiations over Enbridge Inc's
Line 5, escalating a long-running dispute over one of Canada's major oil
export pipelines.
Line 5 ships 540,000 barrels per day of crude and refined products from
Superior, Wisconsin, to Sarnia, Ontario, but the state of Michigan
ordered Enbridge to shut it down by May due to worries a leak could
develop in a four-mile section running beneath the Straits of Mackinac
in the Great Lakes.
Enbridge ignored Michigan's order and the sides are embroiled in a legal
battle. The government of Canada has been pushing counterparts in the
United States to intervene, and Monday's move marks a step up in
Ottawa's efforts to help safeguard the pipeline.
Invoking the treaty will force U.S. President Joe Biden's administration
to get involved in the Line 5 dispute, said Ian Lee, a business
professor at Ottawa's Carleton University.
"They're going to escalate it up to the nation-to-nation level, and
hopefully we will have a resolution,” Lee said, adding that for Ottawa,
a shutdown would be a political catastrophe.
The U.S. State Department not immediately respond to requests for
comment on Line 5, the latest in a series of Canadian export pipeline
headaches for the Biden administration. In January the president revoked
a key permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, drawing dismay from Ottawa.
Last week environmentalists criticized him for failing to halt
Enbridge's Line 3 replacement project, which boosts flows of oil sands
crude to U.S. refineries.
1977 TREATY
In a letter to the U.S. federal judge presiding over the case, Gordon
Giffin, legal counsel for the Canadian government, said Canada had
formally invoked Article Six of the 1977 Transit Pipelines Treaty.
The treaty has never been invoked before.
Line 5 is governed by a provisions of the agreement guaranteeing
uninterrupted transit of light crude oil and natural gas liquids between
the two countries, Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau said
in a statement.
"Today, Canada is formally invoking the dispute settlement provision of
the 1977 Agreement to ensure its full application," Garneau said.
Article Six is used to resolve disputes, and Giffin's letter asked the
court to halt any proceedings related to Michigan's Line 5 shutdown
order while that is ongoing. Environmental campaigners criticized that
move as a delaying tactic.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel dismissed the letter and said it
had no legal basis for holding up the case.
"I am disappointed that the Government of Canada continues to align
itself with Enbridge's desire to keep using State-owned lands to pump
oil through the heart of the Great Lakes, threatening our most precious
public resources," Nessel said in a statement.
Earlier this year Enbridge and Michigan took part in court-ordered
mediation, but Enbridge spokeswoman Tracy Larsson said Michigan has said
it is not committed to further talks.
"We greatly appreciate the efforts of 'Team Canada'...for their
commitments and efforts to keep Line 5 open," she said in an email.
(Additonal reporting by Steve Scherer in Ottawa; Editing by David Gregorio)