Madison, Wisconsin.. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Wednesday approved plans by energy company Enbridge to reroute an old oil pipeline around a tribal reservation in northern Wisconsin.
Enbridge wants to build a new 41-mile (66-kilometer) portion of the pipeline around a reservation Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa It replaces a 12-mile (19-kilometer) segment that now crosses tribal lands.
The tribe wants the pipeline outside its lands. But, along with environmental groups, the tribe says regulators have underestimated the environmental damage caused by construction and that the project perpetuates the use of fossil fuels. Opponents are suing to try to undo it Building permits issued by the state From Wisconsin.
But the Army Corps of Engineers approved the separate federal permit on Wednesday.
“Approval of Enbridge’s Line 5 rerouting application is a major success and will advance the President’s agenda for energy dominance in America,” Adam Thiel, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, said in a statement.
Enbridge, based in Calgary, Alberta, has been using Line 5 to transport crude oil and natural gas liquids between Superior, Wisconsin, and Sarnia, Ontario, since 1953. The company called the federal approval “a major accomplishment for the project.”
A decision on the challenge to the separate state permits is expected in the coming months. Construction has been suspended in the meantime.
“We are confident that state permits will be confirmed soon,” Enbridge spokeswoman Julie Kellner said in an email. “Once that happens, Enbridge expects the permit submitted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will be signed and finalized, allowing construction to move forward.”
Environmental groups criticized the Corps’ decision to grant the federal permit as “premature and illegal” given that litigation over state permits is still ongoing.
“This is a clear violation of the Clean Water Act. The Army Corps appears to be accelerating a fossil fuel project at the expense of environmental protection and due process,” Midwest Environmental Defense Attorney Rob Lee said in a statement.
The Wisconsin project is separate from Enbridge’s plan to build a protective tunnel to cover a different portion of Line 5 in Michigan that runs 4 miles (6 kilometers) under the Straits of Mackinac, a canal connecting Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. Applications are still pending before federal regulators in Michigan and Litigation is ongoing.
Legion Accelerate this $500 million project In April after President Donald Trump ordered federal agencies to identify energy projects for fast-track emergency authorization.
Conservationists and tribes have rejected Michigan’s proposal, calling it too risky and calling on Enbridge to simply shut down the pipeline.
Concerns about the Michigan strip rupturing and causing a catastrophic leak have been growing since 2017, when Enbridge officials revealed that engineers had known about holes in the strip’s coating for three years. A boat anchor damaged the line in 2018, raising further concerns. Enbridge says the section is structurally sound.