The Michigan Supreme Court has ordered state regulators to reconsider a key permit that allowed a planned tunnel to carry an oil pipeline under part of the Great Lakes to move forward.
The 6-1 decision further clouds the future of the 73-year-old pipeline owned by Canadian energy transportation company Enbridge that carries petroleum from Superior, Wisconsin, to Sarnia, Ontario.
The part of the pipeline in question, called Line 5, runs for 4 miles (6 kilometers) along the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac where Lakes Huron and Michigan meet.
Enbridge wants to bury the pipeline in a tunnel under the straits. Environmentalists and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer want to move the pipeline away from the waterway altogether saying a spill would be catastrophic to the Great Lakes and surrounding area….