In Wisconsin, Nessel asks federal court for emergency shutdown of Line 5

Nessel offered a friend of the court brief arguing in favor of shutting down Line 5 for environmental reasons

By James David Dickson | May 19, 2023

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel on Wednesday filed a “friend of the court” brief in federal court in Wisconsin, asking a judge “to take emergency action to protect Lake Superior from an imminent threat posed by Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline,” her office announced.

Since Nessel took office in 2019, she has, along with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, targeted the Line 5 pipeline, seeking to shut it down. Nessel’s brief brings the dispute across state lines.

Nessel’s office filed the brief in a lawsuit filed by the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indian. Enbridge, the owner of Line 5, the defendant, is counter-suing the tribe. Nessel’s brief takes the tribe’s side against the pipeline.

“The alarming erosion at the Bad River meander poses an imminent threat of irreparable harm to Lake Superior which far outweighs the risk of impacts associated with a shutdown of the Line 5 pipeline,” reads a portion of the 18-page brief.

Read it for yourself: AG Dana Nessel’s brief supports shutdown of Line 5 pipeline

As Nessel’s brief notes, the pipeline transports the equivalent of 540,000 barrels of “light crude oil, synthetic light crude oil and/or natural gas liquids” every single day.

Nessel has sued in state court and federal court in Michigan, seeking to shut down the pipeline. Federal litigation is ongoing.

In February, after a high-profile train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, and another less severe derailment in Wayne County, Nessel said on Twitter that transporting fuel by train is not safe for communities near train routes.

That means Nessel opposes both the use of a pipeline and the use of trains to transport 540,000 barrels of fuel daily.

Nessel’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

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.

Michigan Senate passes bill to make Juneteenth a state holiday

Similar House bill sits in committee

By James David Dickson | May 18, 2023

Michigan came a step closer to putting a new holiday on the calendar Wednesday when the Senate approved Senate Bill 50, which would make June 19 a public holiday in honor of Juneteenth.

Juneteenth would join New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, President’s Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day and Christmas as “public holidays” in Michigan.

Read it for yourself: Senate Bill 50 of 2023

Senate Bill 50 was introduced by Sen. Sylvia Santana, D-Detroit, on Feb. 2. It was referred to the Senate Finance, Insurance and Consumer Protection Committee, which approved it on April 27. Then on May 17 the Senate Committee of the Whole approved the bill, and the full Senate followed suit, by a vote of 37-1.

The only senator to vote against the new holiday was Sen. Jim Runestad, R-White Lake.

“My entire objection to this bill is that everything I’ve been told is that it would be a paid holiday. We don’t need another paid holiday,” Runestad told CapCon. “I’d vote no on Jim Runestad Day too.”

Juneteenth celebrates the June 1865 day when the last group of slaves, who lived in Texas, were notified that slavery was abolished.

Early in Michigan’s history some people did own slaves. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 outlawed slavery in Michigan, a prohibition on slavery was the law decades before statehood in 1837.

There is a House version of the Juneteenth bill, House Bill 4457. The House version was introduced on April 27 by Rep. Helena Scott, D-Detroit and referred to the House Government Operations Committee.

To be enacted into law, either bill would need to be passed in identical forms in the House and Senate, then signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.