The Biden administration has stepped into a simmering legal battle over Enbridge’s controversial Line 5 pipeline, filing a statement supporting a temporary reprieve for the aging infrastructure that carries oil through Wisconsin’s Bad River Reservation and beneath the Straits of Mackinac.
The Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division and Civil Division are backing a stay on a district court’s injunction that would have required Enbridge to cease operating Line 5 in the Bad River Reservation by June 2026. The administration’s position has sparked immediate backlash from environmental groups and tribal advocates who see the pipeline as a ticking environmental time bomb.
“If the Line 5 pipeline is shut down in June, America’s energy supply chain would be disrupted and Americans would see increased costs,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson in a statement explaining the department’s position.
Tribal Sovereignty at Stake
Environmental advocates aren’t buying it. Howard Learner, Executive Director of the Environmental Law & Policy Center, criticized the DOJ’s position as undermining tribal rights. “Continuing to allow Enbridge to run a dangerous tar sands oil pipeline in trespass on the Bad River Band’s reservation is a direct threat to the Band’s Tribal sovereignty and rights, despite recognition of these principles by the United States,” Learner said.
The pipeline, built in 1953, has become a flashpoint in the broader debate over fossil fuel infrastructure, tribal rights, and environmental protection. Critics warn that a rupture could devastate the Great Lakes ecosystem and the communities that depend on it.
Bentley Johnson, federal government affairs director for the Michigan League of Conservation Voters, expressed dismay at the federal government’s position. “Given the paramount sovereign interests of the tribe, Enbridge’s trespass on the Bad River Band must end immediately,” Johnson remarked, adding that they were “dismayed that the US government did not unequivocally support the Bad River Band’s right to immediately end Enbridge’s illegal trespass.”
A Tale of Two States
The Wisconsin dispute isn’t the only legal challenge facing Line 5. In Michigan, Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s administration has been locked in its own battle to shut down the portion of the pipeline that runs beneath the Straits of Mackinac.
That effort hit a significant roadblock when U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker ruled that the federal Pipeline Safety Act supersedes Michigan state policies. “For better or worse, the national government has unequivocally decided to displace state power in this area and assume exclusive responsibility for interstate pipeline safety,” Jonker wrote in his order.
Enbridge, predictably, welcomed the decision. Company spokesperson Ryan Duffy noted that “PHMSA has taken no action against Line 5, underscoring its safe operation. Enbridge has always worked closely with PHMSA and will continue to do so.”
But is the pipeline truly as safe as Enbridge claims? Environmental groups point to Enbridge’s track record, including a massive 2010 spill that dumped more than a million gallons of oil into Michigan’s Kalamazoo River.
Construction Halted
Meanwhile, Administrative Law Judge Angela Chaput Foy has extended a stay on Line 5 pipeline construction activities in Wisconsin. In her decision, she determined that allowing the project to proceed could result in “significant adverse impacts to the environment” while a legal challenge by the Midwest Environmental Advocates and partners is pending.
“The Petitioners have made compelling arguments that support the continuation of the stays,” Judge Foy stated in her ruling, effectively putting construction plans on hold.
Michigan’s Attorney General Dana Nessel isn’t ready to concede the Michigan case either. Danny Wimmer, press secretary for Nessel, indicated the office would review Judge Jonker’s opinion and consider appeal options, calling it “wrongly decided on the law and an affront to Michigan’s sovereign interests in managing the use and occupation of its submerged lands.”
For now, the 70-year-old pipeline continues to pump up to 540,000 barrels of oil and natural gas liquids per day through some of the most ecologically sensitive waterways in North America—leaving tribal leaders, environmental advocates, and state officials wondering if federal courts will ever prioritize their concerns over the pipeline’s continued operation.
