“It makes clear that our understanding of what counts as pollution changes over time, and our agencies and courts need to change with that,” said Margrethe Kearney, a senior attorney with the Environmental Law & Policy Center, which fought to include a consideration of climate change as a factor in the commission’s ruling.
Enbridge, which had fought to keep climate change off the table, issued its own statement that did not address the commission’s climate findings. The statement said the company is “pleased” that commissioners rejected other attempts by its opponents to turn the commission’s deliberations into a review of the company’s entire pipeline system.
4:32
Michigan Radio s Lester Graham and Bridge Michigan s Kelly House explain the economics behind Enbridge Energy s Line 5 tunnel proposal.
In the decade since Line 5 emerged as an issue of statewide concern, a debate about the pipeline s future that began with concerns about an oil spill in the Straits of Mackinac has morphed to include broad questions about how oil pipelines fit into the global energy transition.
Credit Lester Graham / Michigan Radio
As Canadian officials lobbied a Michigan Senate committee in March to keep the Line 5 pipeline open, Sen. Winnie Brinks (D-Grand Rapids) grew frustrated with a conversation that, up to that point, had focused mainly on the immediate economic and safety implications of a possible shutdown.
The fight isn’t over, opponents to Line 5 say after state approves permits for controversial tunnel
Updated Jan 29, 2021;
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Environmental activists against Enbridge Energy’s Line 5 running beneath the Great Lakes say the state’s approval of permits needed to build a tunnel to house a new section of the oil pipeline is unfortunate, but the fight is far from over.
The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) said today that it approved applications to discharge wastewater into the lakes and perform construction work in protected wetlands, which are among the authorizations Enbridge needs to build its proposed $500 million utility tunnel next to the Mackinac Bridge.