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The Michigan Public Service Commission has voted unanimously to move forward with clarifying a legal issue which could decide which regulatory body could move the controversial Line 5 tunnel project along.
MPSC chair, Sally Talberg said that she has never seen such a high number of public comments during a meeting, during her seven years on the commission.
The MPSC held the virtual meeting, after receiving an application from Canadian Oil Company Enbridge, which asked them to either give Enbridge permission to start constructing the tunnel enclosed pipeline under the Straits of Mackinac, or declare MPSC’s authorization is not necessary to start construction.
Back in April of 1953, the MPSC had signed off on the original construction of Line 5 under the Straits.
The company now known as Enbridge was approved to build, operate and maintain the Line 5 oil pipeline.
After 67 years, the original Line 5 pipeline has seen better days, and Enbridge is arguing the 1953 agreement should cover their current request to build the new pipeline, before retiring the old one.
Environmentalists have called for the current pipeline to be shut down completely, over safety concerns.
As a result of this, Attorney General Dana Nessel and Enbridge are currently in court.
Public comments on the matter are open until May 13th. A link to share your comments is here.
