January 14, 2025
Lansing, Mich. – Today, attorneys representing several tribal nations and environmental groups asked the Michigan Court of Appeals to reverse the Michigan Public Service Commission’s flawed December 2023 order approving a permit for Enbridge to build a tunnel for its Line 5 oil pipeline beneath the lakebed of the Straits of Mackinac. Separate legal challenges were brought before the Commission by the tribes and environmental groups, who appealed the Commission’s decision to greenlight the permit. Those appeals were consolidated and argued today before the Court of Appeals.
The Bay Mills Indian Community, Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians, and Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi have lived on the lands of present-day Michigan since time immemorial and hold deep spiritual, cultural, and economic connections to the Straits of Mackinac. They argue that the Commissioners unlawfully barred key evidence about the public need for Line 5 and about the risk of future oil spills along the pipeline’s length.
“Michiganders do not need this pipeline to keep pumping oil through the heart of the Great Lakes,” said Attorney Adam Ratchenski for Earthjustice, which is representing the Tribes alongside the Native American Rights Fund (NARF). “The Commission was so eager to rubber-stamp this massive project for Enbridge that they refused to consider the atrocious record of oil spills along this failing pipeline while making a decision that would secure its operation – and all the pollution that comes with it – for up to 99 years.”
The Environmental Law & Policy Center (ELPC) and Michigan Climate Action Network (MiCAN) asserted in court that the Commission failed to consider that Enbridge’s proposed project poses a dangerous threat for a catastrophic oil spill in the Great Lakes, increases climate change impacts, and undermines Michigan’s clean energy transition goals. They urged the Court of Appeals to set aside the Commission’s permit decision and require further review and analysis of environmental impacts and alternatives consistent with the requirements of the Michigan Environmental Protection Act (MEPA).
“The reality is that we are moving away from fossil fuels. We have to, if we are to have any chance of avoiding a climate disaster,” said Denise Keele, MiCAN’s executive director. “The last thing we need in Michigan is construction of a new fossil fuel infrastructure like a new pipeline under the Straits, which would lock in more reliance on oil. The Commission’s initial approval of the Enbridge tunnel project must be reversed if we want a realistic shot at shifting to clean energy in Michigan and ending our reliance on dirty fossil fuels.”
FLOW Legal Director Carrie La Seur gives oral arguments in the Michigan Court of Appeals (January 14, 2025)
“Today we argued that the Commission must require Enbridge to properly quantify and evaluate greenhouse gas pollution and climate change impacts in line with the Michigan Environmental Protection Act,” said David Scott, Senior attorney at ELPC. “The Commission must also fully and fairly assess the public need and feasible alternatives to the proposed tunnel that would avoid climate risks and conserve Michigan’s natural resources. The Commission failed to do that before approving the permit.”
“Enbridge’s Line 5 tunnel proposal is a desperate effort to suck the last few pennies of corporate profit from an aged-out pipeline, while socializing the cost of vast new fossil fuel infrastructure,” said For Love of Water (FLOW) Legal Director Carrie La Seur. “If Enbridge really cared about oil spills, it would respect Governor Whitmer’s statesmanlike decision to protect the Great Lakes by withdrawing the easement. FLOW argued today that the MPSC’s analysis of tunnel alternatives is fatally flawed, because it ignores the likelihood that market realities will shut down the pipeline long before consumers have paid for a multi-billion dollar tunnel through price hikes.”
