Posted September 9, 2026
LANSING, Mich. -- On Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) Director Phil Roos announced that the state must consider the impact of a recent Michigan Supreme Court decision on the EGLE permits issued this past July for the proposed Great Lakes Tunnel Project.
"I’ve been clear from day one that we must get the existing dual Line 5 pipelines out of the Straits of Mackinac as quickly and safely as possible. These 73-year-old underwater pipelines are a ticking time bomb, and I am taking every action I can to shut them down and protect the Great Lakes and the jobs and communities that depend on them," said Governor Whitmer. "The Michigan Supreme Court has made clear that the state must more thoroughly scrutinize the environmental consequences of the proposed tunnel and the alternatives to it. At the same time, Enbridge needs to stop asking Michigan to wait for a tunnel that could be a decade or longer away and start pursuing alternatives now that can get oil out of the Straits within months. Michigan has waited long enough. We cannot put the Great Lakes at risk for another decade while waiting for a solution that may never come."
EGLE announced its permit decision on July 15. Sixteen days later, the Michigan Supreme Court issued its July 31 decision. Reviewing a permit previously issued by the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC), the Court explained how the State must assess the potential environmental harms from this project and compare alternatives.
The proposed tunnel is an extraordinarily large and consequential infrastructure project in the heart of the Great Lakes. Given the Court’s decision addressing the MPSC permit for this very project, the State is considering what impact that decision has on the July 15 EGLE permits.
EGLE Director Roos said, "Before issuing the resource permit in July, EGLE reviewed the cultural and environmental impacts within our statutory scope as well as an analysis of alternatives. With the Michigan Supreme Court invalidating the MPSC’s permit because its analysis was too narrow, we understand that EGLE’s permit may need further review through the legal process."
Roos added, "Until all those legal questions are resolved, conditions in EGLE’s permit prevent construction of the tunnel entrance from moving forward."
Governor Whitmer also sent a letter on Sept. 9 to Enbridge CEO Gregory Ebel calling on the company to stop treating the tunnel as the only alternative to the existing dual pipelines. In light of the tunnel’s growing uncertainty and delay, she urged Enbridge to pursue a planned, orderly alternative that can get oil out of the Straits far sooner.
For the full letter, click here.
Michigan Tribes ask Judge to toss Line 5 Tunnel Permits
From: Earthjustice, posted Sept. 10, 2026
LANSING, Mich. -- Four Tribal Nations in Michigan have petitioned state regulators for a contested case to challenge a pair of permits that authorize Canadian company Enbridge to build its proposed Line 5 oil tunnel below the Straits of Mackinac in the Great Lakes. The Tribes seek to overturn the wetlands and bottomlands permits that Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) approved for Enbridge in July. Those permits face new uncertainty after the Michigan Supreme Court’s decision overturning a different permit for the tunnel, which raises questions about whether EGLE’s decision also failed to comply with the law.
Bay Mills Indian Community President Whitney Gravelle said, "The proposed tunnel is a trap designed to keep Line 5 operating throughout Michigan for generations to come. Tribal Nations have treaty-reserved rights and a sovereign responsibility to protect the Great Lakes, and those rights cannot be ignored to preserve the interests of a foreign oil company. There are safer alternatives that do not require Line 5. It is time for Michigan to right this wrong by honoring its commitments to Tribal Nations and choosing a future that protects our waters rather than locking us into future generations of risk."
The new challenge was filed on the heels of the annual Mackinac Bridge Walk. On Monday, around 1,000 people from all 12 Anishinaabe Tribal Nations in Michigan walked across the bridge to demonstrate opposition to the Line 5 tunnel in response to a unified call to action by the ancestral Three Fires Confederacy.*
Earthjustice Managing Attorney Debbie Chizewer said, "Over the past year, tens of thousands of Michiganders have raised their voices and called on Governor Whitmer’s administration to reject the tunnel. The permits were granted anyway. Now, it’s up to all of us to protect this country’s greatest freshwater resource before it’s too late. Whether it sits in open water or in a tunnel, the Line 5 pipeline has no place in the Great Lakes."
Native American Rights Fund (NARF) Managing Attorney David Gover commented on the importance of cultural resources.
"The Line 5 tunnel project, if allowed to proceed, will irreversibly destroy tribal cultural resources including burials, tribal lifeways, and the Straits of Mackinac, a sacred space for the Anishinaabe," Gover noted. "To be sure, there is no way to properly mitigate these impacts. Only permanent destruction will occur. We look forward to judicial review of this legally deficient permit, especially in light of the Michigan Supreme Court’s recent decision clarifying the Michigan Environmental Protection Act and its application to these types of projects."
The Bay Mills Indian Community, Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, and Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians are represented by Earthjustice and the Native American Rights Fund (NARF). The Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians is represented by Kanji and Katzen, PLLC.
* Editor's Note: CLICK HERE for some videos and photos of water protectors during the Three Fires Confederacy Bridge Walk on the Mackinac Bridge on Labor Day, Sept. 7, posted by the Great Lakes Water Protector Network.
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