Oil pipeline disputes raise tensions between U.S. and Canada

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Months after President Joe Biden snubbed Canadian officials by canceling Keystone XL, an impending showdown over a second crude oil pipeline threatens to further strain ties between the two neighbors that were frayed during the Trump administration.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a top Biden ally, ordered Canadian energy company Enbridge last fall to shut down its Line 5 — a key piece of a crude delivery network from Alberta's oil fields to refineries in the U.S. Midwest and eastern Canada.

Whitmer's demand pleased environmentalists and tribes who have long considered the pipeline, which reaches 645 miles (1,038 kilometers) across northern Wisconsin and Michigan, ripe for a spill that could devastate two Great Lakes.

A section roughly 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) long crosses the bottom of Michigan's Straits of Mackinac, which connects Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. The area is a popular tourist destination, and several tribes have treaty-protected commercial fishing rights in the straits.

But with the governor's May 12 shutdown deadline approaching, Canadian officials are lining up behind Enbridge as it contests the order in U.S. court and says it won't comply. The Calgary-based company says Whitmer is overstepping her authority and that the 68-year-old pipeline is sound.

“Our government supports the continued safe operation of Enbridge’s Line 5,” Seamus O’Regan, Canada’s minister of natural resources, told The Associated Press in an email. “It is a vital part of Canadian energy security, and I have been very clear that its continued operation is non-negotiable.”

A Canadian House of Commons committee this month warned of dire consequences from a shutdown: job losses, fuel shortages and traffic nightmares as 23 million gallons (87 million...