Friday Short: Shutting Down Line 5 Is A States’ Rights Issue

Here’s this week’s Left of Lansing “Friday Short.” Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office argued in a federal appellate court that the fight to shut down the Line 5 oil pipeline belongs in a state court, and not in federal court. Enbridge, which owns the pipeline, argues that due to U.S.-Canadian treaty from 1977 means…

Episode 49: Fighting To Close Line 5 w/ Sean McBrearty of Oil & Water Don’t Mix

It’s the 49th episode of Michigan’s premier progressive podcast! I celebrate Ohio’s decision to hand the state Republican party a humiliating defeat at the polls this week, when voters rejected the GOP’s efforts to raise the threshold to pass a state referendum from 50-to-60%. Ohio Republicans were hoping to hurt the chances of enshrining abortion…

Judge Orders Line 5 Shut Down In Three Years

This is clearly not the end, but it’s a bit of good news. From Michigan Advance: Enbridge Inc. must shut down its Line 5 pipeline within three years and pay more than $5 million in profits to the Chippewa Indians Bad River Band, a federal judge in Madison ruled Friday. Judge William Conley reaffirmed his September…

Closing Line 5 Won’t Lead To Higher Gas Prices

One of the major planks of Enbridge’s misinformation campaign is that closing the old pipeline will lead to skyrocketing gas prices. Chemical Engineer and researcher Gary Street says the evidence proves otherwise. Street, who worked at Dow for 30 years but now works pro bono for environmental groups, took note of when Enbridge closed both…

Shut It Down!

Enbridge: Unsupported segment of Line 5 grows beyond 75-foot limit https://t.co/rjiILU05OD via @detroitnews — Dana Nessel (@dananessel) August 7, 2019 While Embridge keeps enacting a full-press to pressure our state government to keep its Line 5 oil pipeline operating in the Straits of Mackinac, we learn this nugget courtesy of The Detroit News‘ Beth LeBlanc:…

Michigan Speaker Chatfield Shows Why Women Are Leaving GOP Behind

I consider Nancy Kaffer one of my favorite columnist in Michigan. And I’m glad we’re on the same wavelength when it comes to Michigan state House Speaker Lee Chatfield’s ignorant and sexist comments about Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Attorney General Dana Nessel–both Democrats. As I talked about on this week’s Left of Lansing podcast, AG…

Left of Lansing Podcast Episode Seven–Sean McBrearty from Clean Water Action

Episode Seven of the Left of Lansing podcast is posted! This week, Sean McBrearty from Clean Water Action joins the podcast. We talk about the controversial Line 5 pipeline in the Straits of Mackinac. Former Republican Governor Rick Snyder and his Republicans rushed through a bill during Lame Duck last year allowing Canadian energy company…