Michigan regulators approve $500M pipeline tunnel project under channel linking 2 Great Lakes

By TODD RICHMOND
Associated Press

Michigan regulators have approved a $500 million plan to encase in a protective tunnel a portion of an oil pipeline that runs beneath a channel connecting two Great Lakes. The state Public Service Commission on Friday approved the proposal for the tunnel through the Straits of Mackinac. The project still needs approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. A 4-mile section of Enbridge Energy’s Line 5 pipeline crosses the bottom of the straits. The company and the state reached an agreement in 2018 to build a tunnel to house that section to ensure a spill doesn’t pollute Lake Michigan.