Kenney tells Biden to 'drop the neutrality' on Enbridge’s Line 5

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said U.S. President Joe Biden “should drop the neutrality” on Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline project, which has become a lightning rod for controversy as Michigan's Governor wages a legal battle to shut it down.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said U.S. President Joe Biden “should drop the neutrality” on Enbridge Inc.’s Line 5 pipeline project, which has become a lightning rod for controversy as Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer wages a legal battle to shut it down.

In a wide-ranging interview Friday from Washington, D.C, where Kenney is attending the annual National Governors Association meeting, he spoke of the many ways in which the Biden administration has created “impediments” to Alberta’s plans for energy exports.

Kenney said he’s still angered by Biden’s decision to effectively kill TC Energy Corp.’s Keystone XL pipeline, which the U.S. president issued an executive order against on his first day in office on Jan. 20, 2021 — making good on a campaign promise. That move invited a lawsuit from 21 American states that said they would be economically hurt by Biden’s decision. Meanwhile, TC Energy is seeking to recover more than US$15 billion in damages in a claim launched under the North American Free Trade Agreement dispute resolution process.

Now, however, Kenney is particularly frustrated by Michigan’s “efforts to decommission” the underwater Line 5 pipeline in Michigan, which supplies approximately 55 per cent of that state’s propane, according to Enbridge.

As of last week, Enbridge and the state of Michigan renewed a court battle over the pipeline, which is back on the dockets for the U.S. federal district system. The state had abandoned its case in November — which argued for the pipeline to be shut down due to its environmental impacts — after a district judge approved for it to be moved to federal court.

Enbridge has yet to file a response to the state's latest brief, but the company has repeatedly indicated it has no plans to voluntarily shut down Line 5 and will continue to fight in court to keep it running. Enbridge has argued that the case be heard by a federal judge because it comprises an important foreign policy question.