Chairman Bryan Newland: Line 5 & Defending Tribal Treaty Rights

Speaking of Resilience

Kate Madigan and Jim Lively interview Bryan Newland, Chairman of the Bay Mills Indian Community of the Eastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan. There is a lot going on with Line 5 right now, and our interview with Chairman Bryan Newland about Line 5 could not be more timely. The conversation focuses on the impacts of the aging Line 5 pipeline owned by Canadian oil company Enbridge, which sits in the open waters at the Straits of Mackinac. We hear from Bryan about the backroom deals made by an outgoing Republican-led Michigan Legislature from the perspective of Michigan's native communities, whose treaty rights are at stake, especially in the event of a catastrophic oil spill.

On June 30, 2020 we learned that a Line 5 anchor support was damaged, and as a result of that discovery, Michigan's Attorney General Dana Nessel was successful in getting a judge to issue a temporary restraining order, temporarily shutting down Line 5. In the legal hearing about this issue, we also learned that there were two additional incidents where ships anchors or cables struck Line 5 in the Great Lakes, unbeknownst to Enbridge, only to be discovered when they were fixing damaged coating on the pipeline. This alarming revelation raises increased concern about this 67 year old pipeline and highlights the need for Gov. Whitmer to join the AG to act to revoke the easement.

In the coming weeks we’ll continue to cover this issue in more depth.

Don’t forget, go to miclimateaction.org to urge the Governor to take action to revoke the easement and shut down Line 5.

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Speaking of Resilience is created by the Groundwork Center for Resilient Communities and the Michigan Climate Action Network. This episode was produced by Miriam Owsley, hosted by Kate Madigan and Jim Lively.