"LANSING – Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel filed a lawsuit in Ingham County Circuit Court on Thursday that seeks to decommission the Enbridge Line 5 oil pipeline across the environmentally sensitive Straits of Mackinac.
If successful, the suit would block plans by Enbridge Inc. to dig a tunnel beneath the straits, which the company says would safely encase a replacement pipeline and remove the possibility of a catastrophic oil spill.
The new lawsuit — combined with one filed against the state earlier this month by Enbridge — also raises the possibility that the future of Line 5 could be tied up in years of litigation.
Nessel’s lawsuit alleges continued operation of the 66-year-old straits pipeline under the easement granted by the state in 1953 violates the public trust, is a public nuisance, and violates the Michigan Environmental Protection Act because it is likely to cause pollution impairment and destruction of water and other natural resources, her office said in a news release."
