12/18/2025

ODANAH - The fight over the Line 5 pipeline continues as the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa sues the U-S Army Corps of Engineers. The tribe claims the Corps' permitting approval for Canadian oil company Enbridge’s construction of a 41-mile pipeline relocation project is unlawful. A section of the more than 70-year-old pipeline has been operating illegally on the Bad River Band's Reservation for more than a decade. Beth Wallace with the National Wildlife Federation says despite decisionmakers fighting for years to shut it down, legal maneuvering and a lack of energy planning has made this nearly impossible to achieve. She stresses the reroute to keep it running still poses a direct threat to tribal lands and natural resources.

                    0:14  "This piece of infrastructure has already set the stage for other corporations to violate, or attempt to violate, critical laws. It's really important that leadership aren't creating a dangerous precedent where our Great Lakes protections are on the line to foreign oil corporations."

Proponents, like the Wisconsin Jobs and Energy Coalition, are calling the lawsuit “baseless.” They say the project has been thoroughly analyzed and would create hundreds of jobs and provide energy to the state and region. A federal judge ordered Line 5 to be shut down by June of 2026 but that decision is under appeal.