‘Draconian’ Line 5 shutdown must be avoided with ‘imperfect’ alternatives: U.S. judge

A Wisconsin judge orders Enbridge Inc. and an indigenous group to deliberate on “imperfect” alternatives to closing the Boundary 5 pipeline.

District Court Judge William Conley called the prospect of shutting down the line “draconian” and wants Enbridge and the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Chippewa to explore other options.

Conley also rejects Enbridge’s request that the group be ordered to give the company access to its tribal lands to perform inspections and maintenance on the line.

He says the trial evidence did not show the group violated a 1977 bilateral treaty on pipelines by rejecting the company’s proposals to strengthen the line, which crosses their territory in Wisconsin.

In September, Conley denied Bad River’s motion for summary judgment that would have shut down the pipeline, citing potential economic and foreign policy implications.

Today’s ruling calls for both sides to meet before Dec. 17 to find a solution that would reduce the risk of a short-term spill without shutting down the pipeline.

The group has yet to propose a possible solution that wouldn’t require a total shutdown, Conley writes, a prospect he describes as “draconian mandate remedies.”

“The court must consider what alternative steps, however imperfect (especially in the longer term), will reduce the risk of an oil spill in the near term,” the decision reads.

If possible, those steps should also preserve the operation of Line 5 “for those areas of the United States and Canada that currently depend on it.”