In one of a pair of challenges Tuesday to Canada and its oil industry, more than 33,000 Michiganganders have signed petitions to President Biden urging him to support Michigan in a dispute over dangerous and damaged 68-year-old Canadian oil pipelines in Michigan’s Great Lakes.
Meanwhile, in a press conference today, an Upper Peninsula tribal government leader cited a 1836 Treaty with the United States in challenging Canada’s attempt to thwart protection of the Great Lakes from the pipelines owned by the Canadian oil transport giant, Enbridge.
“While Canada points to the 1977 treaty, we have our own treaties that predate this treaty by more than 100 years,” said Whitney Gravelle, Bay Mills Indian Community President. “When we ceded the lands that became the State of Michigan, we reserved the rights to fish, hunt, and gather in the ceded territories, including in the Straits of Mackinac. Although we know the State of Michigan acknowledged the threat that Line 5 poses to our treaty-protected rights when it revoked and terminated the easement for Line 5 to cross the Straits of Mackinac, it is time to see a serious commitment from the United States and the State of Michigan to protect those treaty rights.”
Gravelle was joined at the press conference by the Michigan League of Conservation Voters, National Wildlife Federation and the Oil & Water Don’t Mix coalition. The three groups collected the petition signatures, which were delivered early today in Lansing to US Sen. Gary Peters and will later be handed over to the White House. The Oil & Water Don’t Mix petition cites Michigan’s “sovereign authority” over the Great Lakes lakebed where Line 5 has been struck twice and damaged by ship’s anchors.
U.S. Coast Guard investigators are looking at the possibility of an anchor strike causing the rupture of a California oil pipeline that gushed up to 132,000 gallons along the Pacific Coast from Huntington Beach to 50 miles south in San Diego.
The environmental groups warned that a Line 5 rupture in the Straits of Mackinac could be far worse, citing a University of Michigan study that projected up to 700 miles of coastline could be impacted by a worst-case rupture of a pipeline that regularly carries 23 million gallons of oil through the Straits pipelines daily.
“The Line 5 pipeline is a ticking time bomb that is past its life span,” said Sean McBrearty, Oil & Water Don’t Mix coalition coordinator. “Every day oil flows through the pipeline is another day we risk incredible environmental and economic disaster for the entire state.”
Canada was singled out for sharp criticism in today’s press conference..
“Canada ignoring the rights of Michigan and triggering unjustifiable action to keep Line 5 pumping oil through the Great Lakes – putting the interests of an oil corporation over the fate of families, Tribal nations and businesses across our shared water – is incomprehensible,” said Beth Wallace, Great Lakes Conservation Manager for the National Wildlife Federation. “Michigan and President Biden have a duty to protect the Great Lakes and Canada needs to stop wasting time in developing alternatives. Waiting to shut down Line 5, until there is an emergency, will never be acceptable..”
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