The Trump administration Wednesday issued a permit for Enbridge’s Line 5 tunnel and pipeline project beneath the Straits of Mackinac after using “special emergency permitting procedures” to speed approval.
But the project cannot move forward quickly because Michigan’s highest court last week ordered state energy regulators to redo their environmental review of the proposed tunnel which would include a 4-mile pipeline under the waterbody that separates the state’s two peninsulas.
Still, a Trump appointee took a victory lap in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ announcement of the approval.
“The approval of the Enbridge Line 5 Tunnel Project is a testament to President Trump’s vision to ensure our nation’s energy dominance,” Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Adam Telle in a statement from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
