The Great Lakes tunnel is a $5-billion scam for Enbridge profit, not for Great Lakes safety as Enbridge would have us believe. It actually increases the risk of disaster by allowing Line 5 to operate indefinitely.
In 2018, Enbridge proposed a tunnel to replace Line 5 in the Mackinac Straits and former Gov. Rick Snyder agreed. The agreement allows old Line 5 to operate until the new one in a tunnel is complete, yet it also allows Enbridge to back out. Line 5 makes $1.76 million per day, or $6 billion per decade, so Enbridge wants to keep Line 5 going — by promising a tunnel it doesn’t have to build.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ review of the tunnel is due in 2026. By then, Enbridge will have already earned $5 billion from Line 5 since proposing the tunnel, before deciding whether or not to build it.
If built, a 20-foot-diameter tunnel would be bored directly below an almost-80-year-old Line 5, still carrying oil. According to the tunnel agreement, once completed, Michigan would own the tunnel to lease to Enbridge for 99 more years of profit. If the Army Corps does not approve the tunnel, Enbridge has said it will keep operating Line 5.
With no plan for decommissioning, will Enbridge operate Line 5 until it fails? Michigan bears the risk because Enbridge Inc. will not insure its subsidiary, Enbridge Energy, for the costs of an accident. Enbridge chooses to risk the Great Lakes, despite having pipelines that could carry most of Line 5’s Canadian oil to Sarnia by land. No price can be put on 20% of Earth’s fresh water endangered by this choice.
Enbridge has convinced many that the tunnel is for safety and means jobs, but the wording of the tunnel agreement reveals otherwise: Labor has traditionally supported the tunnel, but an independent 2017 dynamic risk study shows decommissioning Line 5 would provide far more jobs than building a tunnel.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer revoked the easement for Line 5, but Enbridge sued to keep it going. Enbridge is trespassing in both Michigan and Wisconsin, where tribes are trying to protect Lake Superior from oil due to Bad River erosion. Experts have called the Straits of Mackinac the worst U.S. location for an oil pipeline. Michigan and Wisconsin have tried to shut down Line 5, and now President Biden must revoke its permit to save the Great Lakes for the tribes, for Michigan and for the world.
Learn more: Groundwork Center for Resilient Communities will present a Line 5 oil tunnel event from 5 to 6:30 p.m. April 24 at Commongrounds, 414 Eighth St. in Traverse City. Register for $5 at https://rb.gy/tm4wl9 or join us online to learn more and take action.