Environmentalists appeal Michigan regulators' approval of pipeline tunnel project

Environmentalists are challenging Michigan regulators' support of plans to encase a information of an aging lipid pipeline that runs beneath a transmission connecting 2 Great Lakes

Environmentalists are challenging Michigan regulators' decision to o.k. encasing portion of an aging Enbridge Energy lipid pipeline that runs beneath a transmission connecting 2 Great Lakes, arguing that they failed to decently see alternatives that would minimize clime impacts.

The Environmental Law & Policy Center and the Michigan Climate Action Network filed a little with a authorities appellate tribunal Thursday. They reason successful the filing that since the authorities Public Service Commission determined operation would nutrient greenhouse gases the sheet should person forced Enbridge to beryllium determination were nary alternatives to the project.

The groups besides contend the committee failed to follow immoderate methodology to measurement however the gases could interaction clime alteration and didn't see what could hap if the pipeline was unopen down.

An email The Associated Press sent to the commissioners' wide inbox connected Friday wasn't instantly returned.

Enbridge spokesperson Ryan Duffy said successful an email that the committee cautiously examined each aspects of the passageway project. He questioned wherefore the groups would privation to overturn that decision. Even if they prevail, the enactment volition proceed to run successful the straits, Duffy said.

Enbridge wants to physique a protective passageway astir a 4-mile (6-kilometer) information of its Line 5 pipeline that runs on the bottommost of the Straits of Mackinac, which nexus Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.

Enbridge has been operating the pipeline since 1953. It moves up to 23 cardinal gallons (87 cardinal liters) of crude lipid and earthy state liquids regular betwixt Superior, Wisconsin, and Sarnia, Ontario. Concerns astir a perchance catastrophic spill successful the straits has been gathering since 2017, erstwhile Enbridge officials revealed engineers had known astir gaps successful the pipeline's protective coating successful the straits since 2014. Those fears lone grew aft a vessel anchor damaged the enactment successful 2018.

Enbridge officials support the enactment is structurally sound, but they inactive reached an statement with Republican then-Gov. Rick Snyder's medication successful 2018 that calls for the institution to physique the protective passageway astatine a outgo of $500 million.

Current Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, opposes the continued cognition of the enactment nether the straits adjacent if it is encased successful a tunnel, siding with conservation groups, Indigenous tribes and tourism businesses that consciousness the enactment is vulnerable.

Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel filed a suit successful 2019 seeking to void the easement that allows the enactment to tally beneath the straits. That lawsuit is inactive pending. Whitmer ordered Enbridge successful 2020 to unopen down the pipeline, but the institution ignored the shutdown deadline.

The authorities Public Service Commission approved the passageway task successful December. Enbridge needs lone a licence from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to determination forward.

Meanwhile successful Wisconsin, a national justice successful Madison past twelvemonth gave Enbridge three years to unopen down portion of Line 5 that runs crossed the preservation of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.

The people sued Enbridge successful 2019 to unit the institution to region astir 12 miles (19 kilometers) of pipeline crossing its reservation, saying the pipeline is prone to spills and that onshore agreements allowing it to run connected preservation onshore expired successful 2013.

The institution has projected a 41-mile (66-kilometer) reroute of the pipeline to extremity its quality with the tribe. It has appealed the shutdown bid to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals; the lawsuit is inactive pending.