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State employees to oversee Line 5 studies

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The state of Michigan plans to hire two employees this week to oversee studies on the controversial Line 5 oil pipeline. Enbridge Energy reached a deal with the state meant to prevent an oil spill in major waterways.

Valerie Brader is the executive director of the Michigan Agency for Energy and co-chair of the Michigan Pipeline Safety Advisory Board.  She says the state doesn’t trust Enbridge.

“We cannot trust Enbridge to do these studies. You need to have someone at their elbow every step of the process, going through their own files with them, and this agreement allows that. And it wouldn’t be acceptable if it didn’t.”

“Which is exactly why we’re hiring two new state employees whose entire duties will be to watch these studies to tell us if, at any point, they’re being pushed one way or another.”

Brader appeared on WDET’s Detroit Today.

The agreement requires Enbridge to replace a section of the pipeline that runs under the Saint Clair River with a tunnel. A similar tunnel could be built under the Straits of Mackinac… depending on the outcome of pipeline studies.