Madison Judge Gives MI a Cold Winter

NB:  The original news report on which this entry is based was wrong.  See below!

That propane you use for heat and cooking in Michigan and parts of Canada?  The raw petroleum headed for Ohio refineries?

Fuggedaboutit.

A federal judge has ruled that energy company Enbridge must soon shut down its pipeline, which was found to be trespassing on a Native American reservation.

U.S. District Judge William Conley ordered that Enbridge shut down its Line 5 pipeline within 21 days,* and redevelop a new route within the next three years that avoids the current 12 mile route which crosses into the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa reservation in Wisconsin. ...

The news article does not mention that Conley is a notorious Lefty.

Naturally, Enbridge will appeal.

..."Enbridge agrees with the Court’s decision to reject the Band’s argument that Line 5 must immediately shut down; however, the company disagrees with several aspects of the Court’s orders, including that Enbridge is in trespass, and that Line 5 must cease operations on the Bad River Reservation within three years," a company spokesperson told the Washington Examiner.

"Enbridge’s position has long been that in a 1992 contract between Enbridge and the Band, the Band consented to operations of Line 5 on the Reservation through 2043. Enbridge plans to appeal the Court’s decision." ...

So instead of "immediately" shutting down the line, Conley-the-Lefty gave them 21 days  *Actually, a reporting error.  The judge gave them about 3 years to come up with an alternative plan.  Line will remain open.

Nice.

Even Conley couldn't take the BS from the tribe:

 

...Major flooding moved one bank of the meandering Bad River, closing the gap between the buried pipeline and the water to less than 15 feet at multiple locations. When the tribe first filed the lawsuit in 2019, it stated that a particular bank − called the Meander − stood 320 feet away. And for the tribe, even that was too close.

Worried that rushing flood waters could expose and rupture the pipeline, the Bad River Band submitted an emergency filing in May asking the court with renewed urgency to shut down the pipeline. 

Judge Conley didn’t issue a ruling, but instead said that the tribe wasn't helping matters by not taking steps to prevent erosion along the river. ...

Experienced "tribe-watchers" will tell you that there is a pattern in tribal behaviors; the above is just another manifestation.

So despite the tribe's wanton destruction of its own environment, Conley cut off Lower Peninsula propane customers.

Enjoy the winter!!