"MACKINAC ISLAND, Mich. — Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said Wednesday she will move in June to shut a Great Lakes oil pipeline if the governor cannot reach a resolution with operator Enbridge, saying the state is in “great peril” the longer the oil continues to flow under a sensitive waterway.
Nessel revealed her timeline in an interview with The Associated Press at the Detroit Regional Chamber’s policy conference, near where Line 5 runs under the Straits of Mackinac. Her comments came a month after she said she was hopeful that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, by June 1, would have a plan for decommissioning the 66-year-old pipes.
Nessel, a Democrat, said she has had “lengthy conservations” with Whitmer, also a Democrat, about the pipeline, and they “have always been aligned on this issue.” Whitmer has irked environmentalists by saying she is open to the construction of a tunnel beneath the lakebed to house a new segment of Line 5 in the channel where Lakes Huron and Michigan meet. The tunnel plan was backed by Whitmer’s Republican predecessor. Her administration is talking with Canada-based Enbridge after Nessel said the 2018 law authorizing the tunnel is unconstitutional."
David Eggert reports for the Associated Press May 29, 2019.
SEE ALSO:
"Enbridge Offers 2024 Finish For Great Lakes Tunnel Project" (AP)
