Greg Awtry

When an industry or corporation is allowed to go unchallenged while trampling state rights and responsibilities, decisions often become political, not scientific, which could and will put people and natural resources in danger.

That’s the conclusion of many who recently read about a federal judge who ruled that the State of Michigan no longer has the authority to regulate the safety of its own water, in regards to Enbridge’s controversial Line 5 oil pipeline.

As you know, Enbridge wants to build a twenty-foot wide tunnel under the Straits of Mackinaw so they can keep their 72 year-old pipeline pumping Canadian oil to Sarnia, Ontario to supply fuel for eastern Canada.

The state of Michigan is fighting this with all their might, desperately trying to protect and preserve the Great Lakes for generations to come. In Michigan the Straits belong to the people under the Public Trust Doctrine and we “hire” the state to manage this trust, something that was completely ignored when in 1953 Michigan granted an easement to cross the Straits. Court challenges continue, but to remove the sovereign state responsibilities of Michigan are flat out wrong.

The federal government says safety is now in the hands of PHMSA (Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration), and that should scare all of us. PHMSA has a long record of not enforcing its own safety recommendations and imposing weak penalties on oil pipeline owners. It’s called Regulatory Capture, which occurs when the regulating industry becomes too close to the industry it is supposed to regulate. I call it the “good old boys” club.

It gets worse. If Enbridge does build this dangerous tunnel, it plans to give it back to the State of Michigan when it’s completed. You might think, well, that’s nice. Does it then become the responsibility of Michigan to maintain the tunnel they didn’t want? How about the liability? If Michigan now owns it and an explosion or significant rupture were to happen, Enbridge can say, well, we don’t own it, you do. You fix it.

It gets worse. The Great Lakes hold 80 percent of North America’s fresh surface water, provides drinking water to over 30 million people, and provides many thousands of jobs. The Straits are a major shipping lane, and have an enormous financial impact because of commercial fishing, recreation and tourism. It is Michigan’s responsibility to do everything possible to protect the Lakes, forever, yet some judge thinks the Feds can do it better. Hogwash!

So what does President Trump do? He declares an American Energy Emergency to increase domestic oil and gas production. Building a tunnel will do neither. The oil is not domestic, it’s foreign, and the tunnel will not increase production by a single drop. So what does he do next? He “Fast Tracks” the tunnel project, meaning environmental studies can be skipped or shortened. Once again, basically telling the State of Michigan to take a hike.

It gets worse. Hidden in the depths of Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, not only did the federal health insurance subsidies expire in 2025, so does the 9-cents per barrel Oil Spill and Liability Trust Fund tax. For decades the oil industry was required to pay 9-cents per barrel into the fund to be used to clean up the hundreds of oil spills that happen each year. Now Trump gives this tax break of hundreds of millions of dollars to the oil companies who will no longer contribute to the cleanup costs. Who is in bed with who? The answer is crystal clear.

It gets worse. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe opposed the operation of the Dakota Access pipeline because the federal government, with no authority over this section, unlawfully granted an easement to go under Lake Oahe. Now the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says oops, sorry, but the pipeline can stay. The Corps could have closed it down but its preferred alternative was to allow the pipe to keep operating if Dakota Access puts in better leak detection and agrees to provide alternate water supplies in the event an oil spill affects Lake Oahe. How nice.

Folks, this crap has to stop. Hey, I know we need oil. I also know we need water, and will need it long after the oil supplies are long gone. But let’s be smart about it. Let the people and the states have a say in what is safe or not. Keep doing exhaustive environmental reviews and look at alternate routes that would serve both the oil industry and our precious water supplies. It’s not rocket science, but it is environmental science, and the federal government is foregoing it for political purposes which time will show is a horrible way to run a country.

Can we do both, safely transport oil and preserve and protect the Great Lakes? Let me know at gregawtry@awtry.com