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PANDORA’S BOX
EVERYTHING GOT OUT. THE HOPE IS AT THE BOTTOM.
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THE ONE-WAY DOOR
The Permission Ran Out In 2013. The Oil Still Moves.
A federal appeals court affirmed this week that Line 5 is trespassing on Bad River land. The court ordered deadline to move it passed in June.
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The easement ended thirteen years ago. In twenty thirteen the Bad River Band revoked Enbridge’s permission to run Line 5 across its reservation in northern Wisconsin. The company kept pumping.
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A federal appeals court affirmed this week what a district judge found in twenty twenty three. The pipeline is trespassing. The judge ordered a reroute or a shutdown by June, with five point one million in damages. June came and went. The court has now granted more time.
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This is what an irreversible thing looks like when it moves slowly. Permission cannot be un-revoked. A trespass affirmed on appeal does not soften with age. And every extension runs shorter than a reroute takes to build.
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Line 5 carries about five hundred forty thousand barrels a day. Crude, gas liquids, propane. Propane is the part that reaches your house. Replacing what this pipe delivers would take some thirty thousand truckloads a year. Plus nine thousand six hundred rail cars. Those trucks do not exist yet. Winter does.
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We graded this CLOSING rather than SEALED for one reason. The Supreme Court heard arguments in February and has not ruled. So a pipe laid in nineteen fifty three runs on permission that ended in twenty thirteen. Past a deadline that ended in June.
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Enbridge says the steel is sound. We do not doubt it, and it is beside the point. The courts did not rule on whether the pipe holds. They ruled on whether the company may keep it there. That does not come back the same way.
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EVERY LEAD PASSES BEFORE IT RUNS
The One-Way-Door Test
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Can it be undone?
A revoked easement cannot be restored by the company that lost it. The appeals court affirmed the trespass rather than reopening the question.
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Who is already repositioning?
Enbridge is permitting a reroute around the reservation. Michigan is separately pressing to close the Straits segment. The Supreme Court sent that case back to state court in twenty twenty four.
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What does being late cost?
A reroute takes years to permit and build. The extensions courts grant are measured in months. Heating season starts in October either way.
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THE MOVE · WHILE THERE IS STILL TIME
If you heat with propane in the Upper Midwest, price your winter fill this month rather than buying spot in January. The pipe feeding a large share of that supply is running past a court deadline.
This move is worth nothing if you heat with natural gas or live elsewhere. Then it is a lesson in how slowly permission runs out. |
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ALSO GOT LOOSE TODAY
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Wall Street eased on Monday as hopes for a near term Hormuz shipping deal faded. |
MONEY |
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Weekend reporting framed the resumption of H200 chip exports to China as a reset in the export fight. Not a truce. |
MACHINES |
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A federal appeals court left an injunction in place blocking a White House ballroom project that Congress never approved. |
LAW |
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WHAT’S LEFT AT THE BOTTOM
He knows the year the permission ended and the month the deadline passed. Most people will see a pipeline story and turn the page. WE WATCH THE BOX.
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