TRAVERSE CITY (AP) — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer criticized Enbridge Inc. on Wednesday for what she described as the company’s refusal to make an airtight pledge to pay for damages caused by a potential oil spill from its pipeline beneath a Great Lakes channel.
The Democratic governor’s administration is pressuring the Canadian pipeline company for an explicit acknowledgment of financial responsibility for any release from its Line 5 into the Straits of Mackinac.
Enbridge insists it already made such an assurance under a 2018 agreement with former Republican Gov. Rick Snyder to construct an underground pipeline tunnel beneath the straits.
“I’m shocked at Enbridge Inc.’s refusal so far to sign a written agreement promising to cover the costs of an oil spill in the Great Lakes if this unthinkable event were to happen,” Whitmer said in a statement.
Mike Koby, president of U.S. operations for Enbridge Energy LP, said the company had repeatedly made clear its acceptance of financial liability and was eager to discuss the matter with state officials.
Line 5 carries oil and liquids used in propane from Superior, Wisconsin, to Sarnia, Ontario. A nearly four-mile-long segment, laid in 1953 beneath the Straits of Mackinac, is divided into two pipes.
The straits connects Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. It is a popular tourist draw and has cultural and economic importance to native tribes that operate commercial fishing vessels in the area.
The state is asking Enbridge to carry $900 million of liability insurance and have about $1.88 billion in additional assets available for a worst-case rupture in the straits. Enbridge says it’s doing so under the 2018 tunnel agreement with Snyder.
But that deal was signed by Enbridge subsidiaries — not Enbridge Inc., their parent company based in Calgary, Alberta.
The disagreement centers on whether the parent company is legally bound by the deal — or by terms of a 1953 easement the state granted to put the dual pipelines in the straits.
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