The Michigan Public Service Commission has approved a site permit to relocate a segment of Enbridge's Line 5 oil and natural gas pipeline from the lake bed of the Straits of Mackinac to a service tunnel that would be constructed beneath it. The commission voted 2-0 Dec. 1 for the Great Lakes Tunnel project, which is intended to mitigate vulnerability to rupture of the line sitting on the lake bed.
“We are ready to begin work on this project," Ryan Duffy, a spokesperson for Canada-based Enbridge Energy, said in a statement following the vote. "The only thing standing in the way of locating a replacement section of Line 5 into the tunnel is a decision on our permit application by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.”