EGLE: No Tunnel Petition

To the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes & Energy (EGLE):

I urge you to reject Enbridge Energy’s application for permission to relocate its pipelines into an oil tunnel through the bottomlands of the Great Lakes. This is not simply a relocation - it is new fossil fuel infrastructure.

Building an oil tunnel through the Straits of Mackinac would continue to endanger public trust waters and bottomlands at the Straits, and would continue the risk to our waters posed by Line 5's other 400-plus water crossings. Feasible and prudent alternatives to the energy currently provided by Line 5 exist - this project is not in the public's interest.

The science is clear that to avoid significantly worsening impacts of climate change, we must rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including from the burning of fossil fuels. Allowing Enbridge to build a new pipeline that can transport oil for up to 99 years through our state will exacerbate climate change, the impacts of which are already harming our state and its residents.

Building an oil tunnel would take five or more years at a time when the existing pipeline may keep operating, extending the risk of a devastating oil spill into the Great Lakes and exposing Michiganders to a heightened risk of contaminated drinking water, endangered livelihoods, and lost access to recreational activities.  

I ask that you protect our Great Lakes, our state, and our families from the worsening impacts of climate change by rejecting this application.