ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The Canadian-based oil company Enbridge could shut down operations to its Line 5 pipeline with virtually no economic impact on the cost of gasoline, according to Enbridge’s own independent research.

Filings in a lawsuit between Enbridge and the Bad River Band Tribe of Wisconsin released last week quote Enbridge’s market expert who said: “I estimate that a Line 5 shutdown will have a small impact on Michigan gasoline, jet fuel, and diesel prices, likely less than one cent per gallon.”

The National Wildlife Federation has been at the forefront of this issue, knowing that the pipeline running through the Straits of Mackinac is a disaster waiting to happen and a violation of sovereign Tribal treaty rights.

“Once again Enbridge has been caught misleading the public on Line 5, prioritizing their profit margins over Great Lakes water, wildlife, and our way of life.,” said Beth Wallace, Great Lakes freshwater campaigns manager for the National Wildlife Federation. "All should see clearly now, by their own expert’s admission, that Enbridge’s arguments and reality go together like oil and water. Greed and profiteering are at the center of Enbridge’s campaign to keep this 70-year-old pipeline running and not Michiganders’ best interests.”

Enbridge is embroiled in a trespassing lawsuit with the Wisconsin Bad River Band Tribe for illegally operating the pipeline across their lands, and it is operating Line 5 in violation of Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s November 2020 shutdown order. 

Perhaps the Bad River Band Tribe’s filings state it best: “These figures hardly reflect the crisis from a Line 5 shutdown that Enbridge seeks to portray as established fact.”