Michigan environmental groups are frustrated with Ontario’s support for keeping an oil-and-gas pipeline running beneath the Straits of Mackinac.
The province’s Ministry of Energy sent Michigan a letter earlier this week. The ministry stressed the importance of Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline to Ontario.
Environmental groups say this flies in the face of their efforts to shut down the pipeline. Line 5 carries crude oil and liquid natural gas under the Straits of Mackinac. Activists say it’s a massive environmental risk.
David Holtz is with the group Oil and Water Don’t Mix. He says it’s not surprising Ontario wants to keep the pipeline open. “For them it’s, it’s just all benefit. It’s a shortcut.”
Ontario borders four of the Great Lakes.
In the letter, the Ontario Minister of Energy called the pipeline a critical piece of infrastructure.
I’m Cheyna Roth in Lansing.