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The Hill
21 hours ago
- Business
- The Hill
Oil and gas lawsuits are threatening Trump's energy agenda
Energy has been a highlight of the Trump 2.0 presidency. But the administration needs more cooperation from Lansing and Baton Rouge to bring its ambitious goals to fruition. Michigan and Louisiana may not have a lot in common, but there are few places in the U.S. more critical to the Trump administration's energy agenda. Michigan, an industrial powerhouse, needs abundant affordable energy to fuel the 'manufacturing boom' that the White House is promising. Louisiana, a leading liquid natural gas exporter, is key to Team Trump's goal to make the U.S. the signature supplier of energy to domestic industries and foreign allies. Yet politicized lawsuits against oil and gas companies are proliferating in both states, backed by rivals and fair weather friends whose lawfare crusades are undercutting President Trump's energy dominance agenda. For Michigan's Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Louisiana's Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, it's time to decide whether to get behind America First energy policies or side with powerful forces within their states that are pushing in the opposite direction. Whitmer, widely viewed as a 2028 Democratic presidential hopeful, nonetheless quotes Trump's call for a 'golden age of American manufacturing.' During her tenure as governor, Michigan has leaned into aspirational net-zero timelines, discouraged in-state gas production and created roadblocks to energy infrastructure. But there's also the legal offensive. Michigan's Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) continues to defend her six year-old lawsuit to shut down Enbridge's Line 5 pipeline, which supplies more than half of Michigan propane use, while she taps contingency lawyers to sue oil and gas companies for far-flung climate-related damages. That's not the posture of a state preparing to power an industrial renaissance. Meanwhile, Landry touts Trump's energy dominance agenda, yet at the same time supports dubious claims against oil and gas companies in his state. As state attorney general, Landry entered a joint prosecution agreement with trial lawyers seeking to hold the oil and gas industry liable for 2,000 square miles of Louisiana wetlands and barrier islands lost to coastal erosion since the 1930s. As governor, he has taken in more campaign contributions from trial lawyers than his Democratic predecessor. The support has paid dividends. A lawyer from the Landry administration backed up the trial lawyers who recently won a $744.6 million verdict against Chevron in a coastal erosion case. Although research shows that leveeing of the Mississippi is the main culprit, oil and gas companies are now defending 43 lawsuits in Louisiana blaming them for coastal land loss. Despite the obvious federal issues at play, the trial lawyers behind the cases are trying to keep the litigation in friendly state courts — precisely the kind of jurisdictional charade that Trump's order against state interference with American energy dominance was designed to prevent. Just this week, the United States Supreme Court agreed to review whether these cases belong in federal court where the oil and gas companies can get a fair hearing. If Landry and the trial lawyers dodge federal jurisdiction, it will be 'pay, baby, pay,' not 'drill baby drill' for oil and gas companies — much to the chagrin of the Trump administration and the detriment of the nation's energy consumers. Unless Team Trump follows through on its promise to defend domestic energy producers from state overreach, U.S. energy dominance will remain elusive. Taking on deep blue states over their climate lawfare is a solid first step, but it's not enough. The next time that Whitmer visits the Oval Office, Trump should remind her that Michigan consumes almost five times more energy than it produces. If the manufacturing golden age returns to Michigan, the demand side of that equation will only rise. The state's leadership needs to bury its green utopianism, drop its anti-pipeline crusade, and start producing more reliable and affordable energy needed to power autonomous vehicles, chip fabs, AI data centers and other industries that Whitmer is trying to attract. Likewise, Team Trump needs to tell Landry to put the energy dominance agenda ahead of his alliance with powerful trial lawyers. If Landry is unwilling to pull out of the retroactive cases against oil and gas companies, the Trump Department of Justice should intervene and defend federal energy policy interests against Louisiana's egregious overreach. For Louisiana's liquefied natural gas sector to propel U.S. energy dominance in the future, the state needs a predictable legal system, not one where industry is at the mercy of politically-connected trial lawyers. The key to the Trump administration's early energy successes has been the rollback of federal rules like the Biden administration ban on liquefied natural gas exports. Unleashing American energy over the long term, however, requires the states to push in the same direction. For states like Michigan and Louisiana, that doesn't require a new vision. It means having the political courage to make it real. Michael Toth is a practicing lawyer and a research fellow at the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas at Austin.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Enbridge Line 5: A clear and present danger
Anti-Line 5 graffiti at Enbridge's pumping station in Mackinaw City, Mich. (Laina G. Stebbins | Michigan Advance) Canadian energy company Enbridge's Line 5 traverses an extremely sensitive ecological area across northern Wisconsin, 400 rivers and streams as well as a myriad of wetlands, in addition to a path under the Mackinac Straights between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, all the while skirting the southern shore of Lake Superior. Such close proximity to the Great Lakes, lakes that hold over 20% of the world's fresh surface water, lakes that supply drinking water to nearly 40 million people, yes, that does indeed make Line 5 a ticking time bomb. Northern Wisconsin is also a very culturally sensitive area, home to the Bad River Reservation. The Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Chippewa were guaranteed rights to their lands by an 1854 treaty with the U.S. government. The easements for Line 5 across the reservation, granted to Enbridge by the Chippewa, expired in 2013 and the Bad River Band chose not to renew them. Enbridge continues to operate the line, illegally and in direct violation of the Bad River Band's right to sovereignty over their land. The Bad River Band has a guaranteed legal right to their land. They also have a right to Food Sovereignty, the internationally recognized right of food providers to have control over their land, seeds and water while rejecting the privatization of natural resources. Line 5 clearly impinges on the Band's right to hunt, fish, harvest wild rice, to farm and have access to safe drinking water. A federal court ruled that Enbridge has been trespassing on lands of the Bad River Band since 2013 and ordered the company to cease operations of Line 5 by June of 2026 (seems that immediate cessation would make more sense), but rather than shut down the aging line, Enbridge plans to build a diversion around the Bad River Reservation. They plan to move the pipeline out of the Bad River Band's front yard into their back yard, leaving 100% of the threats to people and the environment in place. Liquid petroleum (crude oil, natural gas and petroleum product) pipelines are big business in the U.S. With 2.6 million miles of oil and gas pipelines, the U.S. network is the largest in the world. If we continue our heavy and growing dependence on liquid fossil fuels, we must realize that we will continue to negatively impact the climate and the lives of everyone on the planet. Instead of moving to a just transition away from fossil fuels, liquid or otherwise, the government continues to subsidize the industry through direct payments and tax breaks, refusing to acknowledge the cost of pollution-related health problems and environmental damage, a cost which is of course, incalculable. There are nearly 20,000 miles of pipelines planned or currently under construction in the U.S., thus it would appear that government and private industry are in no hurry to break that addiction, much less make a just transition. While no previous administration was in any hurry to break with the fossil fuel industry, they at least gave the illusion of championing a transition to cleaner energy. The current administration is abundantly clear. Their strategy is having no strategy. They don't like wind and solar and they plan to end any support for renewable energy. They don't care if they upend global markets, banking, energy companies or certainly any efforts to help developing countries transition away from fossil fuels. Pipelines are everywhere across the U.S., a spiderweb connecting wells, refineries, transportation and distribution centers. The vast majority of pipelines are buried and many, if not all, at some point cross streams, rivers, lakes and run over aquifers. Pipeline ruptures and other assorted failures will continue and spillage will find its way into the bodies of water they skirt around or pass under. It's not a question if they will leak, but when. Enbridge controls the largest network of petroleum pipelines in the Great Lakes states, and they are hardly immune to spills. Between 1999 and 2013 it was reported that Enbridge had over 1,000 spills dumping a reported 7.4 million gallons of oil. In 2010 Enbridge's Line 6B ruptured and contaminated the Kalamazoo River in Michigan, the largest inland oil spill in U.S. history. Over 1.2 million gallons of oil were recovered from the river between 2010 and 2014. How much went downstream or was buried in sediment, we'll never know. In 2024 a fault in Enbridge Line 6 caused a spill of 70 thousand gallons near Cambridge Wisconsin. And Enbridge's most infamous pipeline, the 71-year-old Line 5 from Superior Wisconsin to Sarnia Ontario, has had 29 spills in the last 50 years, loosing over 1 million gallons of oil. Some consider Line 5 to be a 'public good' because, as Enbridge argues, shutting the line down will shut down the U.S. economy and people will not be able to afford to heat their homes — claims they have never supported with any evidence. A public good is one that everyone can use, that everyone can benefit from. A public good is not, as Enbridge apparently believes, a mechanism for corporate profit. Line 5 is a privately owned property, existing only to generate profits for Enbridge. If it were a public good, Enbridge would certainly be giving more attention to the rights of the Bad River Band, the well-being of all the people who depend on the clean waters of the Great Lakes and to protecting the sensitive environment of northern Wisconsin and Michigan. They are not. Their trespassing, their disregard for the environment, their continuing legal efforts to protect their bottom line above all else, only points to their self-serving avarice. The Bad River Band wants Enbridge out, and in their eyes it is not a case of 'not in my back yard' they do not want Line 5 in anyone's back yard. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Time of India
02-06-2025
- Automotive
- Time of India
Mumbai metro line 4 achieves milestone with U-girder installation at Kapurbawdi station
Thane: The Mumbai Metro Line 4 (Wadala–Gaimukh) reached a major milestone with the successful overnight installation of eight U-girders at Kapurbawdi Metro station on Ghodbunder Road, officials said. Each U-girder, weighing approximately 97.92 metric tonnes and spanning 18 metres, was launched and installed within just eight hours, marking it as a first for any Mumbai Metro project executed by the MMRDA. This achievement is seen as critical, as the agency plans to begin trial runs on the stretch before the end of this year, as recently announced by MMRDA chairman and deputy CM Eknath Shinde. The Kapurbawdi station is a key interchange connecting Metro Line 4 (Wadala–Gaimukh) and Line 5 (Thane–Bhiwandi–Kalyan), making this construction phase vital. A coordinated team of engineers, workers, traffic police, and marshals deployed heavy-duty machinery—including a 550-tonne crane and three 500-tonne cranes—to complete the launching of the collectively 783.3-tonne heavy girders safely and efficiently at its location. "One of the biggest challenges was managing heavy traffic along Ghodbunder Road," said an MMRDA spokesperson. "Our teams created a detailed girder launching plan, conducted risk analysis, and coordinated with Thane traffic police to ensure a smooth execution with minimal disruption. Fortunately, everything went as planned, and the work finished ahead of schedule." Stretching 32.3 km and featuring 30 elevated stations, Metro Line 4 is poised to become the backbone of East Mumbai's transit network. It will integrate with the Eastern Express Highway, Central Railway, Mono Rail, and future Metro Lines 2B, 5, and 6, aiming to cut commute times by 50–75%. Meanwhile, following Shinde's recent announcement, the MMRDA is preparing to conduct a trial run on at least a small 10-km stretch between Cadbury Junction (Eastern Express Highway) and Gaimukh (Ghodbunder Road). Line 4, which connects Wadala with Kasarwadavli, extends further to Gaimukh as Line 4A, further strengthening Mumbai's metro connectivity. Once operational, it promises to significantly ease travel for thousands of commuters.
E&E News
02-06-2025
- Business
- E&E News
Army Corps advances Michigan pipeline tunnel
Building a pipeline tunnel under a Michigan waterway would cause some environmental damage but would also have 'beneficial' effects, according to a long-awaited environmental analysis from the Army Corps of Engineers. The agency concluded in its draft environmental impact statement that Enbridge's proposed Line 5 tunnel project would reduce the risk of a leak, while its construction could damage wetlands. The planned underground tunnel is designed to encase a replacement segment of the Line 5 pipeline, which moves light crude oil and natural gas liquids from Superior, Wisconsin, to Sarnia, Ontario, in Canada. The tunnel would run 3.6 miles underneath the lakebed of the Straits of Mackinac, making it a divisive project. Last week, Line 5 opponents gathered on Mackinac Island to speak against the project. Advertisement The Line 5 project is seeking a permit to cross the Straits of Mackinac and affect adjacent wetlands. The Army Corps fast-tracked the federal permitting process this spring, citing President Donald Trump's 'energy emergency' executive order, and plans to make a final decision by the end of this year.
30-05-2025
- Business
Army Corps analysis finds Great Lakes pipeline tunnel would have sweeping environmental impacts
Building an underground tunnel for an aging Enbridge oil pipeline that stretches across a Great Lakes channel could destroy wetlands and harm bat habitats but would eliminate the chances of a boat anchor rupturing the line and causing a catastrophic spill, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Friday in a long-awaited draft analysis of the proposed project's environmental impacts. The analysis moves the corps a step closer to approving the tunnel for Line 5 in the Straits of Mackinac. The tunnel was proposed in 2018 at a cost of $500 million but has been bogged down by legal challenges. The corps fast-tracked the project in April after President Donald Trump ordered federal agencies in January to identify energy projects for expedited emergency permitting. A final environmental assessment is expected by autumn, with a permitting decision to follow later this year. The agency initially planned to issue a permitting decision in early 2026. With that permit in hand, Enbridge would only need permission from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy before it could begin constructing the tunnel. That's far from a given, though. Environmentalists have been pressuring the state to deny the permit. Meanwhile, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer are trying to win court rulings that would force Enbridge to remove the existing pipeline from the straits for good. The analysis notes that the tunnel would eliminate the risk of a boat anchor rupturing the pipeline and causing a spill in the straits, a key concern for environmentalists. But the construction would have sweeping effects on everything from recreation to wildlife. Many of the impacts, such as noise, vistas marred by 400-foot (121-meter) cranes, construction lights degrading stargazing opportunities at Headlands International Dark Sky Park and vibrations that would disturb aquatic wildlife would end when the work is completed, the report found. Other impacts would last longer, including the loss of wetlands and vegetation on both sides of the strait that connects Lake Huron and Lake Michigan, and the loss of nearly 300 trees that the northern long-eared bat and tricolored bat use to roost. Grading and excavation also could disturb or destroy archaeological sites. The tunnel-boring machine could cause vibrations that could shift the area's geology. Soil in the construction area could become contaminated and nearly 200 truck trips daily during the six-year construction period would degrade area roads, the analysis found. Gas mixing with water seeping into the tunnel could result in an explosion, but the analysis notes that Enbridge plans to install fans to properly ventilate the tunnel during excavation. Enbridge has pledged to comply with all safety standards, replant vegetation where possible and contain erosion, the analysis noted. The company also has said it would try to limit the loudest work to daytime hours as much as possible, and offset harm to wetlands and protected species by buying credits through mitigation banks. That money can then be used to fund restoration in other areas. 'Our goal is to have the smallest possible environmental footprint,' Enbridge officials said in a statement. The Sierra Club issued a statement Friday saying the tunnel remains 'an existential threat.' 'Chances of an oil spill in the Great Lakes — our most valuable freshwater resource — skyrockets if this tunnel is built in the Straits,' the group said. 'We can't drink oil. We can't fish or swim in oil.' Julie Goodwin, a senior attorney with Earthjustice, an environmental law group that opposes the project, said the corps failed to consider the impacts of a spill that could still happen on either side of the straits or stopping the flow of oil through the Great Lakes. 'My key takeaways are the Army corps has put blinders are in service to Enbridge and President Trump's fossil fuel agenda," she said. Enbridge has been using the Line 5 pipeline to transport crude oil and natural gas liquids between Superior, Wisconsin, and Sarnia, Ontario, since 1953. Roughly 4 miles (6 kilometers) of the pipeline runs along the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac. Concerns about the aging pipeline rupturing and causing a potentially disastrous spill in the straits have been building over the last decade. Those fears intensified in 2018 when an anchor damaged the line. Enbridge contends that the line remains structurally sound, but it struck a deal with then-Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder's administration in 2018 that calls for the company to replace the straits portion of the line with a new section that would be encased in a protective underground tunnel. Environmentalists, Native American tribes and Democrats have been fighting in court for years to stop the tunnel and force Enbridge to remove the existing pipeline from the straits. They've had little success so far. A Michigan appellate court in February validated the state Public Service Commission's permits for the tunnel. Nessel sued in 2019 seeking to void the easement that allows Line 5 to run through the straits. That case is still pending. Whitmer revoked the easement in 2020, but Enbridge challenged that decision and a federal appellate court in April ruled that the case can proceed. About 12 miles (19 kilometers) of Line 5 runs across the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa's reservation in northern Wisconsin. That tribe sued in 2019 to force Enbridge to remove the line from the reservation, arguing it's prone to spilling and that easements allowing it to operate on the reservation expired in 2013. Enbridge has proposed a 41-mile (66-kilometer) reroute around the reservation. The tribe has filed a lawsuit seeking to void state construction permits for the project and has joined several other groups in challenging the permits through the state's contested case process.
