Enbridge Pays Bad River Band $5.1M In Line 5 Profit, Moves Pipeline By 2026: Judge
The Enbridge logo is displayed at the company’s annual meeting in Calgary, Canada, on May 9, 2018. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press)
WASHINGTON – A US judge ordered Enbridge Inc. ordered to pay a Wisconsin native band $5.1 million and remove the Line 5 pipeline from its property within three years.
District Court Judge William Conley’s decision holds that the controversial cross-border oil and gas pipeline will not be shut down immediately.
Conley says a breach of Line 5 in territory belonging to the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Chippewa would clearly constitute a public nuisance under federal law.
And he confirms that Enbridge has been encroaching on Bad River lands since 2013, when certain permits for the 70-year-old pipeline were allowed to expire.
Enbridge has already agreed to move the line, a vital energy conduit for much of the US Midwest, as well as Ontario and Quebec.
But a spokesperson says the company will appeal Conley’s three-year timeline, calling it a “legally flawed” decision that still requires the closure the judge wants to avoid.
