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The U.S. judge presiding over Michigan’s effort to shut down Enbridge’s (NYSE:ENB) Line 5 pipeline has granted a motion for the state to appeal one of her key findings, Bloomberg reported Thursday.
In August, District Court Judge Janet Neff rejected a motion from Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel to send the case back to state court, where Nessel has said the government has a better chance of winning.
But according to Bloomberg, this week Neff granted the AG’s request to certify that August decision, clearing the way for an interlocutory appeal, which formally asks an appeals court to reverse a judge’s order before a final decision in the case has been made.
The judge also ordered the current case – one of several open files involving Enbridge (ENB), Line 5 and the state of Michigan – remain stayed and administratively closed until the appeal is resolved.
Environmental groups that back the state’s efforts against Line 5 cheered the ruling; the National Wildfire Federation said Enbridge’s (ENB) “use of the federal courts to delay the state’s ability to protect the Great Lakes is unconscionable.”
Enbridge (ENB) said the AG seeks to “promote gamesmanship and forum shopping, while ignoring the substantial federal issues that are properly decided in federal court and not state court.”
Enbridge (ENB) is “in the midst of a growth normalization phase,” but its ~7% dividend yield is “attractive and has likely reflected significant challenges,” JR Research writes in an analysis newly posted on Seeking Alpha.