Representatives of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and Canadian pipeline company Enbridge Inc. gave their oral arguments before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago on the case appealing the shutdown of Enbridge’s controversial Line 5 pipeline.
Enbridge
Perhaps one of the most tangible, albeit lesser-mentioned differences between the candidates for governor and attorney general is their contrasting positions on Line 5, the long-embattled oil pipeline in the Great Lakes that has been a flashpoint of environmental and economic debate for the past decade.
Gary Street writes, “A single one-eighth–inch hole in the pipeline will release, within 19 minutes, propane equivalent to 345 pounds of TNT. What will this do to the pipeline, the tunnel, nearby residences, and any vessels traveling above? It will be an environmental and economic disaster. Even worse, there likely will be fatalities.”
While Attorney General Dana Nessel and Enbridge prepare to once again battle it out in court over the fate of the company’s controversial, nearly 69-year-old Line 5 oil pipeline, a regulatory fight is also heating up over Enbridge’s plan to eventually replace a portion of the pipeline and enclose it in an underwater tunnel.
The small Michigan regulatory panel charged with deciding whether to let Canadian oil company Enbridge build a tunnel-encased pipeline under the Mackinac Straits is shifting gears, announcing Wednesday that it has ordered a rehearing for Enbridge’s application now that the company’s 1953 easement has been revoked by the state.
State officials at the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) heard its first of two public hearings Tuesday afternoon on a permit request for Enbridge allowing the Canadian oil company to discharge a significant amount of wastewater into Lake Michigan as part of its Line 5 tunnel project.