Now it's even more urgent. The proposed Enbridge oil tunnel would take years to build while the Great Lakes remain at risk.

Former Governor Snyder made a backroom deal to allow Enbridge to build an oil tunnel through the Straits of Mackinac but did not require it to do so. With over 95% of the oil in Line 5 coming from and returning to Canada, it makes little sense for Michigan to build a tunnel for Canadian oil. A tunnel is a bad idea on many levels. Enbridge experts testified, and independent experts agree that Line 5 can be shut down without spiking energy prices.

Enbridge is trespassing on the Bad River Band reservation in Wisconsin. A judge ordered its pipeline to shut down there by 2026, but Enbridge is appealing the ruling to delay any shutdown.

Now, Enbridge is abusing its power to continue pressing for a tunnel. It is pushing Canadian officials to wrongfully enforce a 1977 pipeline transit treaty to keep Line 5 open indefinitely.

With a $500 million price tag for a new tunnel, you can be sure Enbridge won't be satisfied until they rebuild the rest of Line 5 to carry tar sands, the most carbon-intensive fossil fuel. It was tar sands that spilled into the Kalamazoo River in 2010. Oil from tar sands contributes more to climate pollution than other fossil fuels because it is so energy-intensive to refine. Fossil fuel companies will do whatever they can to exploit the vast tar sands reserves in Alberta, Canada (and plan to move them to market via pipelines like the Keystone XL, and an upgraded Line 5), essentially setting off a carbon bomb in the atmosphere.

A tunnel would take several years to plan and build, all while keeping the Great Lakes at risk from the current Line 5 (imagine an 80-year-old Line 5 before a tunnel is ever completed).

Watch how spilled oil could spread across the Straits