White House deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed the administration is considering shutting down a Michigan oil pipeline, as President Biden finds himself caught between an environmental promise and looming gas price hikes.
The administration is exploring the possibility of terminating the Line 5 pipeline - which links Superior, Wisconsin, with Sarnia, Ontario - and gathering data to determine if shutting down the line will cause a surge in fuel pricing.
'Yes, we are,' Jean-Pierre said, asked in a news briefing if the administration is 'studying' the impacts of a potential shutdown.
'The army corps of engineers is preparing an environmental impact to look through this,' she continued.
Biden is being yanked between environmentalists and Michigan's Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer who are worried about a potential spill and the government of Canada and the oil and gas industries that worry about the impact on jobs and energy prices.
'Where we are with this is Canada has decided to invoke dispute resolutions of the 1977 Transit Pipelines Treaty. We expect that both the US and Canada will engage constructively in those negotiations.'
Jean-Pierre first said reporting that the administration had come to a decision was 'inaccurate.'
'That is inaccurate, that is not right, so any reporting indicating that some decision has been made again is not accurate.'
Line 5 ships 540,000 barrels per day of crude and refined products through Wisconsin and Ontario, but the state of Michigan ordered it to shut down by May due to worries it could leak in a four-mile section beneath the Straits of Mackinac in the Great Lakes.
Natural gas company Enbridge ignored the order and kept operating. Canada invoked the treaty to prompt the Biden administration to get involved in the dispute. The treaty has never been invoked before.
Enbridge has said in order to keep up supply if the pipeline were to shut down, it would need 2,100 trucks to drive the route from Superior through Michigan each day, at a time when truck drivers are in short demand and the US is looking to cut down on roadway emissions.
But 12 tribal nations are calling on the administration to shut the pipeline.
'Given the strength and oscillation of the currents, over 700 miles of Lake Michigan and Huron shoreline would face serious contamination,' they wrote in a Nov. 4 letter to Biden.
'In contrast to Canada's vocal support of [pipeline owner] Enbridge, and despite what we understand to be the Governor's requests for help, your Administration has thus far been silent regarding Line 5.'
But gas prices have hit a seven-year high in the U.S., inflation is becoming one of the top concerns of American voters and OPEC has bucked Biden's pleas to increase oil production.
'Biden wants to shut down another pipeline and increase your energy prices. Does he have any remorse for killing American jobs and families’ livelihoods?' Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., wrote on Twitter on Monday.
In a letter dated Thursday, 13 Congress members - led by Ohio Rep. Bob Latta - urged the president to keep the oil line in operation, saying: 'Line 5 is essential to the lifeblood of the Midwest.'
'Should this pipeline be shut down, tens of thousands of jobs would be lost across Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and the region; billions of dollars in economic activity would be in jeopardy; and the environment would be at greater risk due to additional trucks operating on roadways and railroads carrying hazardous materials,' the legislators wrote.
'Furthermore, as we enter the winter months and temperatures drop across the Midwest, the termination of Line 5 will undoubtedly further exacerbate shortages and price increases in home heating fuels like natural gas and propane at a time when Americans are already facing rapidly rising energy prices, steep home heating costs, global supply shortages, and skyrocketing gas prices.'
Biden told the COP26 conference in Glasgow this weekend that the U.S. will become world leaders in the climate change fight. He is fighting to close pipelines, setting up a conflict between Indigenous groups and environmentalists who want to block them and Republicans trying to stop a further spike in energy prices.
He sparked backlash by closing down the Keystone XL Pipeline, costing thousands of American jobs, and has been accused of folding to Russia by allowing Europe's Nord Stream 2 pipeline to remain open.
