Later Wednesday morning U.S. Senator Gary Peters will introduce a bill, drafted to improve pipeline safety, and protect the Great Lakes from future oil spills.
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Pipeline company Enbridge is conducting emergency response drills on Line 5, a twin oil line running through the Straits of Mackinac dividing the two Michigan peninsulas.
More than 400 participants were involved in the exercise of a simulated, worst-case discharge of light crude oil from Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline, that runs along the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac, from St Ignace to Mackinaw City.
The tugboat Rochelle Kaye works with the U.S. Coast Guard during an…
Later this week Enbridge plans to do “oil spill response drills” at the controversial pipeline.
The Mackinac Bridge, the fifth longest suspension bridge in the world, spans the Straits of Mackinac in northern Michigan, September 23, 2015.
“I can’t even imagine if we had some kind of spill that sent oil into the Great Lakes”, said Stabenow. Republicans in the Senate majority may balk at placing additional regulations on businesses or handing more authority to government regulators, though backing from other local and congressional officials could change that.
Peters said he will press for the legislation to become part of a reauthorization of the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration before his committee this fall. It would require federal studies to find alternatives to the pipeline.
Enbridge says Line 5 is safe, but environmental groups want it shut down.
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It would also require that residents are notified about pipelines near their property and compels operators to maintain publicly available information. “We are talking about old infrastructure in terms of pipelines in the Great Lakes region”.
