Federal appellate panel sends Michigan pipeline challenge to state court

By TODD RICHMOND
Associated Press

A federal appellate panel says a Michigan state judge will have to decide whether to shut down a portion of an aging petroleum pipeline running beneath the Straits of Mackinac. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel filed a lawsuit in state court in 2019 seeking to void a 1953 easement that enables Enbridge Inc. to operate part of the Line 5 pipeline beneath the straits, which link Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. Nessel won a restraining order in 2020. Enbridge moved the case into federal court the following year. Nessel wants the case back in state court. A three-judge panel from the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that Enbridge missed the deadline for moving the case into federal court.