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May 24, 2021
Michigan climate activists are kicking off a four-day virtual event – highlighting the state’s efforts and goals for the future.
The “Michigan Climate and Clean Energy Summit” is now underway – after two separate events took last year off due to the pandemic. This year it’s a virtual event with both the Groundwork Center and the Michigan Climate Action Network teaming up for four days of presentations and workgroups.
Kate Madigan with the Michigan Climate Action Network says, “The scientific consensus is that we need to cut emissions in half this decade, so this moment is very urgent.”
Lynsey Mukomel
LANSING – 28 entities – including 16 states and the District of Columbia, four Native American Tribes, six environmental organizations and the Great Lakes Business Network – have submitted friend of the court briefs in support of Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s motion to remand in State of Michigan, et al v Enbridge Energy, et al. The briefs support the State’s right to enforce its own laws in its own courts.
“We are grateful to the long list of Attorneys General, Governors, tribes, and organizations for their support in our fight to have this case tried where it belongs–in state court,” said Attorney General Nessel. “Gov. Whitmer and Director Eichinger took the necessary steps in November to address the grave threat posed by Enbridge’s unlawful operation of its pipelines in the Straits of Mackinac and we simply cannot continue to put our public waterways at risk.”
“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.