At our “Tunnel Vision” event a few months back, Michigan Assistant Attorney General Dan Bock was fresh from presenting in the federal courthouse in Cincinnati, arguing that the state’s Line 5 case should be heard in Michigan state courts, not federal.
During the Tunnel Vision panel discussion, Bock reflected on the day in court, especially on the large number of people who traveled to Ohio to hear the arguments of an arcane procedural law case. He’d never seen anything like that. He joked to a colleague, “I never realized there were so many procedural law enthusiasts.”
But of course, Bock knew, as we all do, why so many people showed up: They love the Great Lakes.
They love the Great Lakes in an intellectual way—understanding the ecosystem and economic apocalypse that a Line 5 rupture would mean for our state’s, our nation’s, and our planet’s great freshwater treasure. And they love the Great Lakes in a spiritual way—feeling in their hearts what the lakes mean to their families, communities, and themselves.
Dan Bock and his legal team prevailed that day on the shores of the Ohio River, keeping alive the hope that Michigan courts will hear a case that is so close to the hearts of all Michiganders. Of course if a Michigan judge hears the case, it doesn’t mean the decision will automatically shut down Line 5, but at least we would know the judge will deeply understand the full environmental, economic and cultural consequences of the decision.
These waters provided back then, they provide today, and they will provide in our tomorrows—but not if Line 5 ruptures.
We bring this up now because this summer marks 11 years since that first big gathering at the Mackinac Straits to shut down the Line 5 pipeline. We’re taking this anniversary moment to shine a light on the Cincinnati case one more time before it fades into the outwash of the news cycle. Let’s honor it. Because even though the procedural law case was a prelude, a side stage on the way to the main stage, it represents something essential and epic about this movement: the need to stay in the fight on Line 5 and contest every decision.
Iconic climate activist Bill McKibben spoke at that Straits gathering 11 years ago. Referring to climate change and the pipeline’s role in warming the planet, he told the crowd of 400 people that if they are able to help stop the climate crisis, “You will have done the most important thing you could ever possibly do. What happens over the next 10 years will determine what happens to us over the next 10,000.”
Yes, 11 years have passed, and the pipeline still operates, but we see important progress nonetheless. Now instead of 400 people chanting on the shores of the Straits, millions of Michiganders and people throughout the Great Lakes region understand the need to shut down Line 5. The case that Bock argued in Cincinnati is just one of several legal attempts to shut down the pipeline that have launched since McKibben spoke those words.
And even though Groundwork and our allies are staunchly opposed to the construction of an Enbridge oil tunnel as an alternative to the existing pipeline, the fact is the tunnel sends a half-a-billion-dollar-sized affirmation that this work has dramatically changed the do-nothing arc that prevailed before the movement began.
But of course we need to bend that arc even more and get Enbridge to obey Gov. Whitmer’s permanent shutdown order on the existing pipeline and achieve permit denials for the tunnel.
A thing I do when I drive over the Mackinac Bridge, 20 stories high above the water, is imagine the time of summer gatherings of indigenous people there, when they paddled in from miles and miles away to celebrate and trade on Mackinac Island. For whatever reason, it’s a gratifying thing for me to picture: dozens and dozens families in canoes loaded with goods, paddling the Straits on their way to their holy island. For me, something about that image speaks of a timeless providing. These waters provided back then, they provide today, and they will provide in our tomorrows—but not if Line 5 ruptures.
As a reader of this message, you prove that you too remain engaged on this critical issue. Today we are writing simply to say thank you for pushing forward whatever kinds of activism you push forward—writing letters, phoning legislators, marching, donating, organizing. It all adds up. It all makes a difference. Thank you for fighting to make America’s most dangerous pipeline run dry and to allow the lakes to continue to provide.
Jeff Smith is Groundwork’s Communication Director. jeff.smith@groundworkcenter.org
