Senator Peters, Witnesses Cite Repeated Damage to Enbridge Line 5 and Call for Standards
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Summary
Senator Gary Peters and witnesses recounted recurring integrity issues with Enbridge Line 5 under the Straits of Mackinac, warned of catastrophic risk to the Great Lakes and described the Great Lakes Center of Expertise as part of the response framework.
Senator Gary Peters used the Senate Commerce subcommittee hearing to highlight the risks posed by Enbridge Line 5 as it crosses the Straits of Mackinac and to urge stronger standards and continued research on response capability.
The matter is urgent for Michigan and other Great Lakes states because Line 5 runs beneath the Straits and the Great Lakes provide drinking water for tens of millions of people.
Peters described a series of incidents on Line 5 and elsewhere to illustrate the danger. He reminded the committee that a 2010 pipeline rupture in Marshall, Michigan, released more than 1,000,000 gallons of oil into the Kalamazoo River and that response and cleanup took years and more than $1 billion. Peters then summarized Enbridge’s Line 5 integrity issues: gaps in protective coating found in 2014, gouges from a dragged boat anchor in 2018, and discovery in 2020 that an anchor support had been mangled and a section of protective coating removed.
Peters said those incidents, together with a U.S. Coast Guard assessment that the agency was not prepared for a Great Lakes spill, led him to help establish the Great Lakes Center of Expertise. The center, he said, “will conduct research and develop responses to ensure that we're prepared to quickly and effectively address an oil spill in the Great Lakes.” Peters emphasized prevention: “Simply put, we need standards. We need standards in place to ensure that these sorts of events never happen.”
Other senators asked about the regional economic impacts if Line 5 were shut down. Witnesses noted the pipeline moves crude and refined products used across the Midwest and that a proposed tunnel to carry Line 5 has been under review for several years; one senator reported that the State of Michigan has delayed approval of the tunnel proposal.
The committee did not take formal action on Line 5 but lawmakers included the topic as a key example of why national pipeline safety standards and timely rulemaking matter for regional public-safety and economic resilience.