Line 5 shutdown 'draconian,' both sides must consider 'imperfect' alternatives: judge

A Wisconsin judge ordered Canadian energy giant Enbridge and the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Chippewa to water down their wine Monday and come together to avert the 'draconian' shutdown of the cross-border Line 5 pipeline.

A Wisconsin judge ordered a Canadian energy giant and an Indigenous band in the U.S. to water down their wine Monday and come together to avert the "draconian" shutdown of the cross-border Line 5 pipeline.

A compromise between Alberta-based Enbridge Inc. and the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Chippewa would be less than ideal, "particularly in the longer run," District Court Judge William Conley said in a written opinion.

But on balance, Conley suggested, it would be better than the options before the court now: permanently severing a vital conduit between the two countries or courting an environmental disaster that may only be a matter of time.

The potential options the band has currently put before the court, if granted, would effectively amount to an "automatic, permanent shutdown" of the pipeline, the judge said.

"Before adopting such draconian injunctive remedies, therefore, the court must consider what alternative steps, however imperfect ... would reduce the risk of an oil spill in the near term," he wrote.

If at all possible, Conley continued, those steps should also preserve the operation of Line 5 "for those areas of the United States and Canada that currently depend on it."

Conley ruled in September that the Bad River band was within its rights to revoke permission for the pipeline to cross its territory back in 2013, and that Enbridge should have known it did not have a guarantee it would continue to operate.