Fox News reported, “The Biden administration is reportedly weighing the potential market consequences of shutting down an oil pipeline in Michigan. …”
The pipeline, known as Line 5, is 30 inches in diameter and travels from Superior, Wisconsin, through both the Upper and Lower Peninsula of Michigan before ending in Sarnia, Ontario. According to Enbridge, which owns Line 5, closing the 645 mile-long pipeline would mean that Michigan would lose access to 756,000 gallons of propane a day, or 55% of the amount the company supplies to the state. Michigan's residential propane consumption is the nation's highest.
About 315,000 homes in Michigan currently rely on propane, and Line 5 serves an estimated 55% of the state’s propane needs. It provides approximately 65% of the propane used in the Upper Peninsula and northern Michigan, with no readily available alternatives.
A Line 5 shutdown would also cause a shortfall of 14.7 million gallons of gas, diesel and jet fuel each day, Enbridge says. That’s 45% of what it supplies to refineries in Michigan, Ohio and the region.
According to PBF Energy, which operates one of two refineries in Toledo:
- A Line 5 shutdown would put Ohio refineries at risk. The closure of one of those refineries could result in the loss of $5.4 billion in annual economic output to Ohio and southeast Michigan, and the loss of thousands of direct and contracted skilled trades jobs.
- A Line 5 shutdown would, to varying degrees, compromise crude supply to 10 refineries in the region, directly affecting fuel prices.
- There are no options for replacing the volume of light crude delivered by Line 5; rail can provide less than 10% of that volume.
- A Line 5 shutdown puts at least 15% of northwest Ohio’s fuel supply at risk, as well as more than half of the jet fuel supplies for the Detroit Metro Airport.
Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.