ANN ARBOR, MI – America’s first Native American cabinet secretary said the Line 5 oil and gas pipeline can’t be shut down fast enough when she visited Michigan this week.
The Line 5 fight in Michigan became a focal point during a lecture on Tuesday by U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, who came to the University of Michigan’s Rackham Auditorium in Ann Arbor to speak about climate change and environmental justice. The secretary was pressed on the issue both by an undergraduate student and an interrupting protestor.
Haaland spoke in solidarity with Indigenous water protectors fighting to shut down the Enbridge-owned Line 5, which crosses between Michigan’s two peninsulas where it runs underwater along Great Lakes bottomlands at the Straits of Mackinac. She likened the fight to the Standing Rock tribe’s battle against the Dakota Access Pipeline.
“I understand water is life. You can’t do anything without that. And I know that stopping Line 5 – it could never happen fast enough for anyone,” she said.
Both tribal nations and Michigan state officials are fighting to shut down the pipeline, particularly the underwater section that passes through Great Lakes waters. Line 5 opponents argue the energy infrastructure is a major risk of pollution should a leak or rupture occur on the pipeline.
Enbridge says the dual underwater pipeline remains in good condition, but after anchor strikes from ships happened the company made plans to build a deep-underground tunnel into which a replacement section of the line can be rerouted.
Haaland said Native tribes are at the table with federal lawyers as the international issue unfolds. She assured the crowd that she cares deeply about the issue.
“They are all at the table, talking, finding a way to make it happen faster,” Haaland said.
Enbridge did not immediately offer a response to the Interior secretary’s remarks when contacted by MLive.
Earlier during the public lecture at U-M, a woman heckler repeatedly interrupted the Interior secretary to demand to know whether she would call on President Joe Biden to order the shutdown of Line 5. Haaland invited the woman to save her inquiry, which could be addressed during the later question-and-answer session.
Regardless, the unidentified woman repeatedly tried to shout down Haaland. That continued for 20 minutes, even as the U.S. cabinet secretary spoke about injustices from toxic effects of a uranium mine endured by her home Laguna Pueblo tribe in New Mexico.
Haaland simply raised her voice to deliver her prepared remarks about climate change and environmental justice.
The Interior secretary said the existential threat of the climate crisis contributes to fears and anxieties about whether children will grow up in a world that resembles the one being fought for today.
She touted dozens of renewable energy generation projects on public lands across the nation and the expansion of offshore wind efforts – the latest a more than 900-megawatt development 30 miles off the coast of New York’s Long Island called Sunrise Wind.
“Using the power of our oceans, we’re building an entirely new offshore wind industry.”
Haaland emphasized how work to achieve the energy transition and an equitable future must ensure marginalized communities are among the decision makers for climate actions and efforts to address legacy pollution. That’s because environmental injustices historically harm poor people and people of color at disproportionately higher rates, Haaland said.
“Even in 2024, relics of extractive industries like abandoned coal mines and orphaned oil and gas wells leak toxic fumes and contaminants that poison surrounding landscapes, and in turn harm the people and wildlife that rely on those places every single day,” she said.
Yet, Haaland said her optimism remains because the tools, resources, and needed passion exist to address the climate crisis and the nation’s history of environmental injustices.
Haaland argued nature-based solutions and Indigenous knowledge must be prioritized for a truly equitable future. Her voice broke with emotion while discussing why she believes the wonders of the natural world are worth fighting to save.
“This fight and this mission are truly on all of us,” Haaland said. “We must all of us, everyone, bring all of us into the fold if we are to build a future that is truly equitable, and serves each of us.”
The secretary answered additional questions from U-M students about Indigenous-led efforts to restore ecosystems, preservation of Native languages, the federal role in freshwater use in drought-plagued areas, and what keeps her awake at night. Environment and sustainability Professor Kyle Whyte, a Potawatomi Nation citizen, moderated the event.
Haaland’s final answer: climate change robs her of sleep.
“Young children and children yet to be born, that’s the first thing they’re going to have to worry about as soon as they begin to understand our world. So that to me – it’s shameful.”
Related articles:
Tribes, environment groups appeal Line 5 tunnel approval
Q&A: Michigan AG on why Enbridge case is bigger than Line 5
Interior Department gives tribal nations $120 million to fight climate threats
Michigan ‘ahead of the pack’ on international climate deal
