White House, senators have 'sympathy' for Canada's position on Line 5, says Wilkinson & More News Here

WASHINGTON — White House officers, Capitol Hill lawmakers and the U.S. secretary of power have all expressed “significant sympathy” for the plight of Canada’s Line 5 pipeline, Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson mentioned Thursday after a day of conferences within the U.S. capital.

President Joe Biden’s administration understands the cross-border pipeline’s ongoing function in securing North American power safety, even with each nations constructing a carbon-free future, Wilkinson mentioned throughout a phone-in information convention from the Canadian Embassy in D.C.

But the 65-year-old pipeline, a significant power artery for border states within the U.S. Midwest in addition to Ontario and Quebec, is dealing with a pair of existential authorized challenges — one from the federal government of Michigan, the opposite from an Indigenous group in neighbouring Wisconsin.

“I certainly did raise … that this is part of enhancing North American energy security, that it’s ensuring that we are not taking steps that are going to take us backwards,” Wilkinson mentioned after a panel dialogue with Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.

“In the meetings with Secretary Granholm, in the meetings with the White House and certainly in the meetings that I had with a number of senators, I think there was a significant sympathy for the Canadian position.”

That position — first expressed by Wilkinson’s predecessor Seamus O’Regan, and reiterated by Wilkinson himself final week — is that the continued operation of the pipeline is “non-negotiable.”

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, lengthy a political ally of Biden, has been making an attempt to close down Line 5 since November 2020, fearing a catastrophic rupture within the ecologically delicate Straits of Mackinac, the place the dual strains cross the Great Lakes.

And a recent risk has emerged in Wisconsin, the place the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa is urging a federal choose to shut the pipeline amid a dispute over easements on Indigenous territory that the band argues expired in 2013.

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While Canada stays “very focused” on avoiding such a call, Wilkinson allowed Thursday that Ottawa has been giving some thought to what it could do in any other case, although he didn’t elaborate on what methods are in play.

“In the remote eventuality that there is an issue that we need to address, of course it’s prudent for us to be thinking about what might be done,” he mentioned. “But our primary focus continues to be on ensuring that this pipeline remains open.”

The Michigan case ultimately prompted Canada’s federal authorities to file a so-called amicus transient — an argument from a “friend of the court” in favour of Calgary-based Enbridge Inc., the defendant in each instances and Line 5’s proprietor and operator.

Ottawa has additionally invoked a 1977 pipelines treaty, initially sought by the U.S. authorities in an effort to keep away from interruptions to the cross-border movement of power, and people talks between the 2 nations have been ongoing.

Canada will not be submitting an amicus transient within the Wisconsin case on the recommendation of attorneys who warned it could possibly be “counterproductive” to efforts to resolve the dispute in Michigan, Wilkinson mentioned. And he expressed hope that the treaty talks may embody the problems in play in each instances.

“It’s certainly possible that it can be part of the same process,” he mentioned.

“Ultimately, what we are looking for is a resolution to all of these issues, so the discussions that will be going on will relate to Line 5 more generally. My hope is that it could be resolved through the same process.”

In their panel dialogue, hosted by the D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, Wilkinson and Granholm agreed that the disaster in Ukraine and strain on provide chains have helped to convey the 2 nations nearer collectively on the problem of power safety.

That dialogue was extra centered on the long run than the current, however the Vancouver-born Granholm sounded bullish on the concept of working carefully with Canada to develop a inexperienced power future.

“To me, the opportunity is just so powerful to have a North American powerhouse of an alignment on clean energy deployment and technology development,” she mentioned, suggesting former prime minister Lester Pearson’s dream of “peace in the world” could possibly be realized by ending dependence on fossil fuels.

And she acknowledged the potential Canada gives as a associate to the U.S. on the extraction and manufacturing of important minerals and uncommon earth metals, a linchpin element of the worldwide push towards electrical autos and away from the interior combustion engine.

“Canada has got some best practices that we should be looking at; we shouldn’t be afraid of extraction, if it’s done in a responsible way,” she mentioned. “There’s lessons, but there’s also real partnerships that we can be doing on areas where we really need help.”

Granholm additionally indicated that the Biden administration is taking steps to “bust through” regional and state-level opposition to tasks designed to permit the U.S. to import clear hydroelectricity generated in Quebec and elsewhere north of the border.

In 2020, voters in Maine pointedly rejected a completely authorized proposal to run transmission strains by way of their state that might have linked a billion-dollar Hydro-Québec power era venture with markets in Massachusetts, in addition to Vermont and New York.

“If Hydro-Québec wants to make sure that they are able to deliver hydropower and a state votes against it, and that state is a critical state to be able to make that connection to the northeast, It’s extremely frustrating,” she mentioned.

“We should take local interests into account, but sometimes those local interests are funded by bigger interests that don’t have necessarily the big goal of getting to 100 per cent clean electricity in mind.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first printed May 12, 2022.

James McCarten, The Canadian Press

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