News, Culture and NPR for Central & Northern Michigan

Line 5’s days may be numbered

"Mackinaw Bridge" by Ceyhun Jay Isik is licensed with CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/

That’s after an announcement from the Governor and the State Department of Natural resources today (Friday).

They told oil company Enbridge it can no longer operate the twin pipelines in the Straits of Mackinac after this Spring.

Great Lakes advocates like attorney Bryan Newland with the Bay Mills Indian Community are thrilled.

"These types of days are few and far between in mine of work and for Indian people really, and so we’ll pick up the fight tomorrow," said Newland. "Today we’re going to just be grateful." 

Enbridge will continue to seek approval for its plan to put Line 5 in a tunnel beneath the Straits.

State and federal agencies are still reviewing that proposal.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email