Outgoing Michigan governor seeks Great Lakes pipeline

LANSING, Mich. — Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder hopes to use the final weeks of his tenure to lock in a deal allowing construction of a hotly debated oil pipeline tunnel beneath a channel linking two of the Great Lakes — a plan his successor opposes but might be powerless to stop.

The two-term Republican and his team are working on several fronts to seal an agreement with Canadian oil transport giant Enbridge for replacing the underwater segment of its Line 5, which carries about 23 million gallons of oil and natural gas liquids daily between Superior, Wisconsin, and Sarnia, Ontario, traversing large sections of northern Michigan.

A more than 4-milelong section, divided into two pipes, lies on the floor of the churning Straits of Mackinac, the convergence between Lakes Huron and Michigan. Laid in 1953, the twin pipelines have become a target of environmentalists, native tribes, tourism-related businesses and other critics who say it's ripe for a spill that could do catastrophic damage to the lakes and the regional economy.

While insisting they're in sound condition, Enbridge reached an agreement with Snyder's administration in October to decommission the pipes and drill a tunnel for a new line through bedrock below the straits.

The project would take seven to 10 years and cost $ 350 million to $ 500 million, which Enbridge would pay.

Gov.-elect Gretchen Whitmer, elected this month, pledged during her campaign to shut down Line 5 and criticized the tunnel plan — as did fellow Democrat Dana Nessel, who won the race for attorney general. Both take office in January and have said the Snyder administration should not steamroll the plan to enactment in the meantime.

Keith Creagh, director of the Department of Natural Resources, told The Associated Press that he expects the final steps to be completed before Snyder leaves office.

“This is not a rush to finish,” Creagh said. “This is a culmination of four-plus years of looking at a very complex issue.”