Governor Gretchen Whitmer has dropped a federal lawsuit seeking to shut down Enbridge’s Line 5 that runs through the Straits of Mackinac. That will allow the state to focus on a legal challenge filed in Ingham County.
This was a strategic decision on the part of the Whitmer administration to try and wrap up the ongoing litigation – a decision that Attorney General Dana Nessel said she supports.
Nessel and Whitmer want to shift the litigation to a stalled lawsuit filed earlier in Ingham County.
Lynsey Mukomel is Nessel’s press secretary.
“The state court case is the quickest and most viable path to permanently decommission Line 5.”
An Enbridge spokesman also welcomed the development, but said its plan is to focus on its own, separate federal court challenge filed against the state.