Michigan Regulators to Re-evaluate Line 5 Tunnel Permits Following State Supreme Court Ruling
The Whitmer administration announced that Michigan state regulators will review previously issued permits for the controversial Line 5 tunnel project. This re-evaluation comes in response to a Michigan Supreme Court ruling from this summer, which provided stronger guidance on environmental impact assessments. Enbridge Energy plans to replace an aging section of its oil and natural gas liquids pipeline in the Straits of Mackinac with a new one, to be buried in a tunnel beneath the lakebed. The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) had issued a water resources permit for the tunnel project on July 15, acknowledging potential "adverse" impacts on ecological and tribal resources but deeming it preferable to an oil spill in the Great Lakes. However, two weeks later, the Michigan Supreme Court vacated a tunnel permit issued by a different state agency, the Michigan Public Service Commission, citing that the scope of harm considered was too narrow. Governor Gretchen Whitmer is now dir...
