FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, December 5, 2018
Media contact: David Holtz/313-300-4454/david@davidholtz.org
State House Gets Revised Line 5 Bill Rearranging Tunnel Deck Chairs While Enbridge Pipelines Remain Threat That Could Sink the Great Lakes
Senate Endorses Move Aimed At Stopping Incoming Governor, Attorney General from Protecting Mackinac Straits from Dangerous Pipelines
LANSING, MI—Citizens groups blasted a Republican state Senate bill passed today by lame duck lawmakers that increases the likelihood of a catastrophic oil pipeline rupture in the Great Lakes while giving a private foreign corporation access to Michigan’s waters, bottomlands, and taxpayer money.
After modifying a provision that would directly saddle the Mackinac Bridge Authority with ownership of a proposed oil tunnel, lawmakers approved Senate Bill 1197. The measure creates a new state body--the Mackinac Straits Corridor Authority-- to own and govern the proposed tunnel, although questions remained regarding its relationship with the Mackinac Bridge Authority and any potential liability that could impact the bridge authority.
The proposal now goes to the state House for continued fast-track approval and then on to Gov. Snyder’s desk. Snyder has been the chief driver of the legislation, which would allow Enbridge Energy Partners Inc. to continue operating the twin Line 5 oil pipelines in the Mackinac Straits under proposed agreements the Canadian multinational corporation secured from the outgoing Michigan governor.
“This proposed legislation sentences the Great Lakes and Michigan to 10 years or more of living with a massive high risk oil spill in the Mackinac Straits,” said
Anne Woiwode, Sierra Club Michigan Chapter Chair. “House members should see this proposed legislation for what it is—a dangerous giveaway to Enbridge—and reject it.”
Enbridge and Snyder have signed agreements that call for Line 5 oil tunnel to be constructed under the Straits, a project that if undertaken, could take up to 10 years or more to complete. Meanwhile, the state has agreed to allow Enbridge to keep operating its deteriorating pipelines on the Straits lakebed where they are subject to ship anchor strikes, corrosion and other threats.
“If Enbridge, a multinational corporation, wants an oil tunnel in the Mackinac Straits that primarily benefits its shareholders it should propose doing it without governmental partnerships or special treatment,” said Sean McBrearty, senior organizer for Clean Water Action “We need elected representatives who will take care of Michigan’s citizens, its businesses and the Great Lakes, not a Canadian company that has consistently lied to the state and the public about the condition of Line 5—a company that was negligently responsible for the worst oil pipeline rupture in Michigan history.”
After more than four years of Enbridge-funded studies, Gov. Snyder is racing the clock on an expiring term in an attempt to block his successor, Gov.-elect Gretchen Whitmer, and Attorney General-elect Dana Nessel, from decommissioning Line 5.
The new tunnel authority would allow Snyder to immediately appoint a small, three-member board to six-year terms and empower them to implement agreements for a Line 5 tunnel. The proposed legislation would also:
- Establish a recklessly rushed process with a Dec. 21 deadline -- less than 3 weeks from now -- for creating a series of agreements involving complicated construction and operation of a Mackinac Straits tunnel with little or no review by the public and tribes with treaty rights in the Straits.
- Require the incoming Attorney General Dana Nessel to defend the new Mackinac Straits Corridor Authority against multiple potential legal challenges, essentially obligating Michigan taxpayers to defend a tunnel that will primarily benefit Enbridge, a foreign corporation.
