Proposed USA legislation would target Enbridge line under Straits of Mackinac

New legislation is looking to lighten concerns.

Environmentalists have been calling for the Enbridge Oil Pipeline which runs through the straits of Mackinac to be shut down.

While no crude oil is being shipped presently on the Great Lakes, the Pipeline Improvement and Preventable Spills Act includes a ban on any industry attempt to move oil on the Great Lakes.

The exercise included many operations involved in an emergency response to an oil spill including the creation of a Unified Command, establishing the incident planning, finance, logistics, and public information components, multi-agency coordination, and oil recovery strategies.

The Mackinac Bridge is visible from a marker near Enbridge Line 5 on the northern shore of the Straits of Mackinac in Michigan, Wednesday, September 23, 2015. The drill is expected to conclude Friday. He cited recent testimony from the U.S. Coast Guard which told the committee there are not sufficient resources or abilities to deal with a significant oil spill in the Great Lakes.

Finally, the legislation would add new criteria for defining geographical areas that require additional safety measures for hazardous liquid pipelines.

“I can’t even imagine if we had some kind of spill that sent oil into the Great Lakes”, said Stabenow. It would require federal studies to find alternatives to the pipeline. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration would be required to consider pipeline age and oil type when deciding what qualifies as an area of special concern for environmental risk. “We are talking about old infrastructure in terms of pipelines in the Great Lakes region”.