Enbridge’s proposed tunnel project to extend the lifetime of its Line 5 propane, crude oil and fuels system is facing new potential delays after the Michigan Public Service Commission ordered the reopening of the application process due to allegedly “deficient” information provided by the Canadian midstream giant.
The political and environmental battle to shutter Enbridge’s Line 5 and halt its tunnel project may again be heating up amid lawsuits in both Michigan and Wisconsin and federal suits, as well as treaty negotiations between the US and Canada over the status of the twin-pipe network.
The Michigan utilities commission said late July 7 that Enbridge’s long-standing application is “deficient on critical matters of engineering and safety, and additional evidence is needed for the commission to complete its analysis.”
Line 5 transports up to 540,000 b/d of NGLs, including propane for home heating, and crude from Western Canada to various US hubs and Eastern Canada. The 645-mile line stretches from Wisconsin through Michigan and into Ontario and is part of Enbridge’s larger Mainline and Lakehead systems.
The tunnel project is intended by Enbridge to make the 70-year-old Line 5 safer for decades to come. The tunnel would encase the pipelines under the Straits of Mackinac, a 4-mile-wide channel linking Lake Huron and Lake Michigan.
“The commission reopened the record and directed Enbridge to file information, documents and any other relevant information to develop a full and complete record on matters including tunnel engineering and safety, electrical equipment and risk of fire and/or explosion, and the safety of the current dual pipelines, including leak-detection systems and shutdown procedures,” the Michigan Public Service Commission said in a statement.
Both the state utilities commission and the US Army Corps of Engineers last year opted to complete more thorough studies of the tunnel project, much to the disappointment of Enbridge. The company initially hoped to start construction by the end of 2021 and finish it in 2024. Now, the earliest completion is 2025 and could easily take years longer. The Army Corps’ Environmental Impact Statement review may well drag out into mid-2023, Enbridge has acknowledged.
Enbridge spokesman Ryan Duffy said July 8 in a statement that the company will continue to work with the Michigan commission to address any remaining questions regarding the tunnel project. He noted that Enbridge believes it has “extensive information documenting the engineering and safety of the Great Lakes Tunnel” that is already included in the application, which previously was recommended for approval by the commission’s staff.
“We remain committed to the … process and seeing that the Great Lakes Tunnel is built,” Duffy stated. “It will make a safe pipeline safer, assure long-term energy security and reliability, and support Michigan jobs and the economy.”
Duffy also noted that the ongoing operation of Line 5 is protected by a 1977 transit pipelines treaty between the US and Canada.
The Earthjustice environmental group, which is in litigation with Enbridge and is working with impacted American Indian tribes including the Bay Mills Indian Community, said the Public Service Commission’s order helps highlight that Line 5 jeopardizes the health, safety and livelihoods of Indigenous communities native to the Great Lakes regions.
“We are grateful the commission is examining the serious safety risks posed by Line 5 and its proposed tunnel replacement,” said Bay Mills Indian Community President Whitney Gravelle in a statement. “The Straits are the center of creation for our people, and the construction of a tunnel through this sacred area endangers our livelihoods, our fisheries and our culture. Every day that the Line 5 dual pipelines continue to pump oil and gas through the Great Lakes amounts to a violation of our treaty-protected rights and an acceleration of climate change.”
Shutdown fight
Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has led a legal fight to shutter the pipeline system, arguing it is a major environmental threat to the Great Lakes. The Canadian government, meanwhile, has called on the White House to join Canada in opposing state opposition to Line 5, including calling on bilateral treaty negotiations that began late last year by invoking the 45-year-old international treaty regarding transit pipelines.
The invocation essentially stalled the federal litigation for now.
However, a court ruling is expected soon on whether to move the Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s state lawsuit against Enbridge to a consolidated federal courtroom with other pending litigation. Consolidation within federal court would enhance Enbridge’s argument that this is a federal permitting issue and that individual states cannot shutter the pipelines.
In Wisconsin, litigation also is pending over Enbridge’s plans to reroute a portion of the pipeline from the Bad River Tribe Reservation in northwestern Wisconsin near Ashland.
There has been greater scrutiny of Enbridge in the region since a 2010 oil spill from a separate Enbridge pipeline along the Kalamazoo River in Michigan.
The fight escalated in 2020 when Line 5 was partially shuttered for nearly three months because of damage to the anchor support system of the pipeline’s eastern leg. Whitmer contends the pipelines to Michigan and Eastern Canada can be replaced by a combination of other existing pipelines, a mix of truck and rail transportation, and decreased reliance on fossil fuels.
Source: Spglobal.com