Democrats Threaten to Send Winter Shivers Through Michigan
Please consider Democrats Threaten to Send Winter Shivers Through Michigan
Winter is coming, and President Biden may soon make Michigan’s hardest season even more painful. The White House is reportedly studying the consequences of shutting down Line 5, an oil and natural-gas liquids pipeline that carries heating and transportation fuels from Wisconsin through Michigan to Sarnia, Ontario.
Anti-energy activists have conquered the Democratic Party, demanding that traditional energy sources be stamped out. From her first days in office, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has fought to shut down Line 5, and in November 2020 she revoked the easement allowing the pipeline to operate and ordered its owner to cease all operations by May 2021. The operator ignored the order, arguing that only the federal government has that jurisdiction. Canada has since invoked a 1977 treaty, contending that closing the pipeline without Ottawa’s consent is illegal.
Line 5 provides nearly two-thirds of the supply in the Upper Peninsula and more than half of statewide propane use.
If Line 5 closes, families and businesses will have to get their energy somewhere. The leading option, endorsed by proponents of a shutdown, is to use trucks. Yet that would drive a massive increase in truck traffic—with its own attending emissions—and pipelines are a much safer means of transporting oil and gas. The federal government’s analysis stretching back to 1996 shows that trucks spill more than twice as much as pipelines, and they also do it far more often.
Every day the ideas and reports get nuttier and nuttier. Michigan’s own research show that closing Line 5 would lead to a nearly 60% jump in prices, depending on location.
Yet here we are, with another fiscally insane proposal, and one that rates to worse for the environment as well, due to spills.
Mercy!
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Mish
I know the Upper Peninsula very well both in summer and
winter. It’s a lovely area and if the pipeline is at risk of failing then something
has to be done of course. The pipeline could be closed but that would
exacerbate the problem Canada has with the oil produced in Alberta in the west
and the industry and most of the population in the east with virtually nothing in-between.
Alberta now ships oil between them by pipeline and by rail. Pipelines are by far cheaper and
more ecological and logically Alberta should lay a pipe directly to the eastern
provinces and it could. Unfortunately it would also have to go through
fantastically beautiful wild areas with a watershed feeding into the Great
Lakes. I know that area well too. The same risks as the Michigan pipeline would
be incurred also so nothing would be gained. Additionally since it goes through what
is almost total wilderness, maintenance and repair would be much more difficult
and expensive. It could be done but won’t because of cost and ecological
concerns which leaves the only alternative being to ship the oil south to the
US by pipe, where it is easy to maintain and repair and route it back up to Canada’s
eastern provinces. Stopping the Michigan pipeline would be a problem but not an
unsurmountable one. However Alberta gets screwed again by Biden. Sometimes I wonder if
Biden has it in for the province. Maybe he went there once, hated it and is now
getting his revenge.
and not live in fear of emboldened criminals. It’s not asking much of
our crappy government.”