-- The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled against Enbridge's efforts to move a case seeking to shut down the Line 5 pipeline from Michigan state court, according to Oil Price Information Service, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co., but is run independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
In a unanimous decision, the high court ruled the Canadian company had waited too long to seek the move to a federal court. While the law allows for case participants to seek a change of venue within 30 days of a case being filed, Enbridge waited 887 days, according to the decision by Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
"The Court of Appeals therefore correctly held that Enbridge's notice of removal was untimely and that this action must be remanded to the Michigan state court," Sotomayor wrote in the 18-page decision.
OPIS said the ruling is a defeat for Enbridge, which has long argued that its operation of the 540,000 b/d pipeline is a federal, not state, matter. Enbridge says federal law and a treaty with Canada govern pipeline operations and Michigan does not have the authority to order a shutdown, it noted.
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