Michigan Supreme Court justices took campaign cash from Jane Fonda org weeks before freezing pipeline project

A political action committee (PAC) dedicated to defeating the fossil fuel industry bankrolled two Michigan Supreme Court justices’ campaigns before they ruled against a major oil pipeline project.

Roughly six weeks before Michigan’s Chief Justice Megan Cavanagh and Justice Noah Hood voted in a 6-1 decision to vacate approval of Enbridge’s Line 5 project citing an inadequate review of environmental impacts, their reelection campaigns each received $5,000 from the Jane Fonda Climate PAC (JanePAC), campaign finance records reveal. The contributions come amid a broader push by climate groups to shape the judiciary by spending money to elect judges with environmental priorities and promoting climate advocacy in lawsuits.

Line 5 is a 645-mile pipeline which originates in Superior, Wis., crosses Michigan’s Upper and Lower Peninsulas, and terminates near Sarnia, Ontario in Canada. The pipeline transports light crude oil and natural gas liquids and has an average annual capacity of 540,000 barrels per day. Only about four miles of Line 5 cross the Straits of Mackinac, where two 20-inch pipelines currently run primarily near or on the lakebed.

Jane Fonda, an actress and climate activist who founded the PAC, has publicly denounced the pipeline, and supported Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Attorney General Dana Nessel, according to MPR News. She also protested Enbridge Energy’s plan to rebuild the Line 3 crude oil pipeline in Minnesota in 2021, The Associated Press reported.

“This is one more tool the anti-energy left is using to go after anybody that wants to provide low-cost energy to Americans,” Jason Torchinsky, attorney for the Patriots Foundation, an Iowa-based government-transparency watchdog organization, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The Michigan Supreme Court’s Line 5 ruling also dealt with another major dispute over fossil fuel infrastructure and environmental impacts. The case stems from Enbridge’s plan to relocate the portion of its Line 5 pipeline which crosses the Straits of Mackinac into a tunnel beneath the lakebed.

The Michigan Supreme Court’s July 31 ruling reversed a Michigan Court of Appeals decision which upheld the Michigan Public Service Commission’s approval of Enbridge’s relocation plan. The state supreme court vacated the Commission’s approval and sent the project back to the Michigan Public Service Commission for further proceedings.