- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Detroit District said the proposed Line 5 oil and gas pipeline tunnel project under the Straits of Mackinac environmental review will be expedited.
- Enbridge and the state of Michigan have sued each other over Whitmer's move to revoke the company's underwater easement.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Detroit District, heeding an emergency order from President Donald Trump to expedite the review process for energy supply projects, will accelerate its permitting process for a proposed tunnel for an oil and gas pipeline under the Straits of Mackinac lake bottom.
The move on the Line 5 tunnel proposed by Canadian petroleum transport giant Enbridge drew immediate rebuke from environmental groups, who called it an unwise bypass of necessary reviews to protect the Great Lakes and the communities and economy built around them.
"Building a tunnel under the Great Lakes to house an outdated and dangerous pipeline is risky. Expediting that process is reckless," said Beth Wallace, climate and energy director for the nonprofit National Wildlife Federation. "The permitting processes exist for a reason. We cannot afford to bypass safety in order to line the pockets of a foreign oil company."
Built in 1953, Enbridge's Line 5 moves 23 million gallons of oil and natural gas liquids per day east through the Upper Peninsula, splitting into twin underwater pipelines on the Straits of Mackinac bottom, before returning to a single transmission pipeline through the Lower Peninsula that runs south to Sarnia, Ontario. Many have expressed concern about the aging pipes over several years, as anchor strikes, missing pipeline supports and loss of protective pipeline coating have been discovered.
A 30-inch oil transmission line also owned by Enbridge ruptured in July 2010 in Marshall, spilling more than 1.1 million gallons of oil, fouling 38 miles of the Kalamazoo River and prompting a cleanup that took four years and more than $1 billion. Many fear a similar pipeline mishap on the Straits bottom, where Great Lakes Michigan and Huron meet, would be greatly more devastating.
Trump's order and the Line 5 timetable
Enbridge proposes to build a 21-foot diameter, 3.6-mile tunnel underneath the bed of the Straits of Mackinac to house a new, 30-inch diameter pipeline to move the oil and natural gas liquids. The tunnel pipeline would replace the twin pipes currently on the Straits bottom, Army Corps officials said.
On the first day upon resuming office, Trump on Jan. 20 signed an executive order declaring a national emergency, finding "the United States' insufficient energy production, transportation, refining and generation constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to our Nation's economy, national security and foreign policy." As part of the executive order, Trump called for federal agencies to "identify and use all relevant lawful emergency and other authorities available to them to expedite the completion of all authorized and appropriated infrastructure, energy, environmental and natural resources projects that are within the identified authority of each of the Secretaries to perform or to advance."
The environmental impact statement review process on the Line 5 tunnel project was begun by Army Corps in August 2022. On its website the Army Corps has posted that it expects to have a draft environmental impact statement out later this year, with a decision by early 2026. How that timeline has been impacted by Trump's emergency order was not immediately apparent.
Enbridge spokesman Ryan Duffy, in a statement, called the Line 5 tunnel project "critical energy infrastructure.""Enbridge submitted its permit applications to state and federal regulators five years ago — in April 2020 — for the Great Lakes Tunnel, a project designed to make a safe pipeline safer while also ensuring the continued safe, secure, and affordable delivery of essential energy to the Great Lakes region.
"In 2021 the State of Michigan issued its environmental permits for the tunnel project, and in 2023 the Michigan Public Service Commission approved placing the new pipeline segment in the tunnel as Line 5 crosses the Straits of Mackinac. However, the project still awaits action by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on an environmental impact statement and a permitting decision. Earlier this year, Enbridge re-applied for its state environmental permits which are set to expire in early 2026."
The nonprofit environmental organization Sierra Club are among the groups opposed to a review process speed-up on the Line 5 tunnel project.
"Fast-tracking the Line 5 tunnel puts us at risk for catastrophic damage. An oil spill would contaminate the water for tens of millions, cost billions of taxpayer dollars to clean up, and destroy Michigan fishing and tourism," said Sierra Club Michigan Chapter Director Elayne Coleman.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in November 2020 moved to revoke Enbridge's 1953 easement to utilize Straits of Mackinac bottomlands for Line 5, alleging that the company has failed to adhere to safety provisions required in the easement. Enbridge has defied the order, asserting that only the federal government has jurisdiction over such pipelines. The company and state have sued each other, with cases remaining pending in both federal and MIchigan courts.
Whitmer and Michigan's environmental regulatory agency, the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy, must act to protect the state by denying the tunnel project a needed state clean water permit, said Sean McBrearty, campaign coordinator for Oil & Water Don’t Mix, a nonprofit coalition opposed to the Line 5 pipeline.
"We need full permitting for the Line 5 tunnel project, which means thoroughly vetting its environmental, economic, and social impacts," he said. "Anything short of that would be giving Enbridge — a corporation with a dangerous track record operating in Michigan — a blank check for a project that has no business getting built.”
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