Line 5 closure will disrupt Canada's energy security, Ottawa says, as Michigan threatens Enbridge if it defies order

CALGARY — Ottawa mounted its strongest defence Tuesday of Enbridge Inc.’s Line 5 pipeline on the eve of its possible closure, even as Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer threatened to seize the company’s profits if it defied her order to shutdown the Alberta-to-Ontario conduit. In a legal filing on Tuesday, the federal government said shutting down Line 5 would “harm” the relationship between Canada and the United States, cause fuel price spikes and layoffs, in addition to contravening a 1977 treaty. The amicus — or “friend of the court” — brief, filed a day before a deadline imposed by Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer to close the pipeline, argued that the treaty prevents a state-level government from shutting down a pipeline running between the two countries.-- More...