The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has announced a new, shorter timeline for the planned environmental review of the Line 5 tunnel project, the first time-specific details about the project that have been announced.
The environmental review has been expedited under a national energy emergency declared by President Trump and as such the project could be permitted by the fall, months earlier than expected. The draft environmental review will be released by the Army Corps on May 30, at which point the public can comment, though under the new timeline that comment period has been shorted to 30 days from 60, a move that has been criticized for undermining public input.
As it stands, four miles of the pipeline run along the lakebed between Michigan’s two peninsulas and carry oil and natural gas liquids over 645 miles from Wisconsin to Ontario.
In 2020, Enbridge applied for a federal permit to build a tunnel underneath the Straits of Mackinac to house a section of the pipeline, which is expected to improve the safety of transmission via the pipeline, but opponents fear the damage that would be caused to the environment by the project itself. The company is in the process of redoing a permit for the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy which is required for the Army Corps’ final permit.
