Sarnia's mayor says it would be foolhardy for the State of Michigan to shut down Enbridge's Line 5 pipeline without having an alternative. Mike Bradley said he's very concerned that the state's attorney general filed a lawsuit Thursday to decommission the controversial pipeline between Superior, Wisconsin and Sarnia. The court is also being asked to dismiss Enbridge's lawsuit seeking to enforce an agreement with former governor Rick Synder to replace the 65-year-old pipeline. Mayor Bradley supports Enbridge's plan to build a tunnel beneath the Straits of Mackinac at a cost of $500 million US.
"Personally as the mayor of the biggest city on Lake Huron, I've been a longtime advocate on Great Lakes issues," said Bradley. "If I wasn't confident of the plan they're putting in place that would take it a hundred feet under the lake bed and encase it, I would not support it no matter what the impact is for Sarnia-Lambton. In this case it's a good plan, it's going to create jobs, it's going to protect the environment."
Oil and natural gas liquids are shipped through the Line 5 pipeline to industries in Sarnia and elsewhere in the province and Quebec. Mayor Bradley said closing it would have a job impact, and cost a lot of money to try to find other solutions to replace the approximately 400,000 barrels of product per day delivered through the line. The mayor and Lambton County Warden Bill Weber sent a letter dated June 12 to Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer urging the state to keep Line 5 operational. Mayor Bradley said if the pipeline is closed "the relationship between Michigan and Ontario is going to be severely damaged."
He hopes the provincial and federal governments step up and realize how serious it is.