The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition that a federal judge on Wednesday blocked Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer's attempt to shut down an aging oil pipeline running beneath a channel linking two of the Great Lakes, finding that only the federal government can regulate interstate pipeline safety. An Associated Press dispatch to The Globe says that Ms. Whitmer, a Democrat, ordered regulators in 2020 to revoke an easement that allows Enbridge to operate a 6.4-kilometre pipeline segment under the Straits of Mackinac, which link Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. Ms. Whitmer made the move out of concern that the 72-year-old pipeline could rupture and cause a catastrophic spill. Enbridge filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block the revocation and the pipeline continues to operate. President Donald Trump's administration argued in filings this year that Ms. Whitmer's order interferes with U.S. foreign energy policy and that only the federal government, not the states, can regulate pipeline safety. The pipeline segment, known as Line 5, moves crude oil between Superior, Wis., and Sarnia, Ont. U.S. District Justice Robert Jonker wrote in an opinion that revoking the easement would effectively shut down Line 5.