Overview
- The Michigan Supreme Court vacated a Michigan Public Service Commission tunnel permit on July 31 after finding the agency did not consider the full range of environmental harms and public-trust impacts.
- Governor Gretchen Whitmer asked the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy to re-examine the water and related permits and sent a Sept. 9 letter urging Enbridge to seek alternatives and plan an orderly shutdown of Line 5.
- EGLE says it completed a review under its statutory scope but that conditions in its July permit bar construction of the tunnel entrance while outstanding legal questions remain.
- Four Tribal nations and several environmental groups filed contested-case petitions on Sept. 10–11 seeking to overturn EGLE’s July approvals on grounds the permits are legally deficient and threaten tribal cultural resources.
- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ federal permit for tunnel work remains in place even as Line 5 operations are disrupted after a late‑August northern Wisconsin release of more than one million gallons of natural gas liquids, a development that has intensified calls for faster shutdown planning and raised risks for regional energy and water users.