The Whitmer administration announced Wednesday that state regulators are reviewing permits that were already issued for the controversial Line 5 tunnel project, using stronger guidance from a Michigan Supreme Court ruling this summer.
This story is made possible through a partnership between Interlochen Public Radio and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization.
Enbridge Energy wants to replace an aging portion of the oil and natural gas liquids pipeline in the Straits of Mackinac with a new one in a tunnel, buried beneath the lakebed.
“We cannot put the Great Lakes at risk for another decade while waiting for a solution that may never come,” said Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in the announcement. Whitmer campaigned to shut down Line 5 in the Straits and her administration is involved in litigation against Enbridge to do so.
The company received a water resources permit for the tunnel project from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) on July 15. Despite acknowledging "adverse" impacts on ecological and tribal resources, state regulators said it's better than an oil spill in the Great Lakes.
Two weeks later, the Michigan Supreme Court vacated a tunnel permit issued by a different state agency — the Michigan Public Service Commission — saying that the scope of harm under consideration was too narrow and sent it back for more review.
Now, Whitmer is directing EGLE to make the same considerations on the water permit.
“The Michigan Supreme Court has made clear that the state must more thoroughly scrutinize the environmental consequences of the proposed tunnel and the alternatives to it,” Whitmer said.
LINE 5 IN CONTEXT: See IPR's and WCMU's timeline detailing the Line 5 saga.
EGLE Director Phil Roos said in the announcement with Whitmer that his agency reviewed the project’s cultural and environmental impacts “within our statutory scope,” but acknowledged the permit may need more review because of the court ruling.
“Until all those legal questions are resolved, conditions in EGLE’s permit prevent construction of the tunnel entrance from moving forward,” Roos said.
Scott Dean, spokesperson for EGLE, said “it is too soon to speculate on details” about the timeline and procedure for review of the water resources permit.
The department is also reviewing a separate wastewater permit for the tunnel project, Dean said. A decision on the permit is expected by the end of September and Dean did not directly answer a question on how the Michigan Supreme Court ruling might impact that review.
In a statement, Enbridge said it already has an agreement with the state to build the tunnel — signed in 2017 by Gov. Rick Snyder, state officials and Enbridge officials.
“Without years of litigation and political intervention, this project would be moving toward completion,” said spokesperson Ryan Duffy. The statement pointed to recent federal approval for the tunnel project from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, calling the permit “the highest standard” of environmental review for critical energy projects.
Michigan Supreme Court justices ruled in July that the agency didn’t consider the full range of potential environmental harms. Nor did the agency look at how the project would impact the public’s right to use the state’s natural resources, which includes the Great Lakes — protections granted under the state’s public trust doctrine.
“We cannot fault (the agency) for this failure, because there was little authority on this issue prior to our decision today. Even so, it was error,” the July opinion stated. Legal experts said because the scope of consideration was expanded, the decision will have wide impacts for state environmental reviews beyond Line 5.
Whitmer also sent a letter on Wednesday to Enbridge’s President and CEO Gregory Ebel, renewing calls to shut down the pipeline in the Straits because of oil spill concerns. Last month, the portion of Line 5 that crosses northern Wisconsin spilled 1.3 million gallons of natural gas liquids and the pipeline remains shut off as Enbridge responds to the spill.
“Develop a planned, orderly transition that protects Michigan families and businesses and gets oil out of the Straits,” Whitmer said.
