"Tunnel would encase pipeline in the Straits of Mackinac"
"Enbridge Energy’s plans to build a protective tunnel around an aging pipeline that runs beneath a channel connecting two Great Lakes can continue, a Michigan appeals court ruled.
The state Public Service Commission properly issued permits for the $500 million project, the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday in rejecting arguments from environmental groups and Native American tribes that commissioners failed to consider the overall need for the pipeline.
Enbridge wants to build a protective tunnel around a 4-mile (6-kilometer) section of its Line 5 pipeline that runs along the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac, which link Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. Enbridge has been using the pipeline since 1953 to transport crude oil and natural gas liquids between Superior, Wisconsin, and Sarnia, Ontario.
Concerns about a potentially catastrophic spill in the straits have been building since 2017, when Enbridge officials revealed that engineers had known about gaps in the pipeline’s coating in the straits since 2014. Fears of a spill escalated in 2018 when a boat anchor damaged the line."
Todd Richmond reports for the Associated Press February 20, 2025.
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