In an exclusive interview with The Midwesterner, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin said he will use his agency to advocate for continuing operation of the Line 5 dual pipeline that has traversed approximately four miles above the lakebed of the Straits of Mackinac. He also expressed his support for removing the pipelines to a proposed tunnel that would be built 100 feet in the bedrock of the Straits.
Zeldin made his remarks on Thursday, the day after the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the tunnel permitting conducted by Michigan’s Public Service Commission. The court’s determination is a major setback for Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Attorney General Dana Nessel, who have been attempting to shutter the current pipeline and prevent construction of the tunnel. A state court in Ingham County is expected to rule soon on Nessel’s motion to cancel Line 5’s 71-year-old easement between pipeline owner Enbridge and the state of Michigan.
Opponents of the pipeline and tunnel also received another dose of bad news after President Donald Trump issued a national energy emergency, which will expedite the permitting approval process of the Army Corps of Engineer, which had been slow-walked during the previous administration of former President Joe Biden.
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The pipelines have transported 540 barrels of hydrocarbons through the Straits joining Lake Michigan and Lake Huron daily for 71 years, including the propane that has heated many homes and businesses in the Upper Peninsula. Additionally, Enbridge argues that jurisdiction over the pipeline falls under a 1977 treaty between Canada and the U.S. rather than state courts.
Zeldin told The Midwesterner that he attended a meeting last Friday at the White House in the Oval Office with Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Sean Duffy, secretary of the Department of Transportation.
“President Trump wants us to unleash energy dominance, and all of our agencies have a role to play in what is one of our pillars for now we’re powering the Great American comeback initiative at the Environmental Protection Agency,” Zeldin said. “We are interested in being able to partner with not just other agencies, other levels of government, one big high-profile pipeline project… We want to work with everybody everywhere.”
Zeldin continued: “As far as environmental studies go, the Army Corps of Engineers has been the lead agency [and] the EPA’s been in a supporting role, so it’s something that I absolutely would welcome an opportunity to work with these partner agencies….”
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He noted that Trump’s National Energy Dominance Council will be crucial to U.S. energy needs and economic opportunities.
He said he remembers when, as a U.S. representative serving on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, former Climate Czar John Kerry acknowledging pipelines as the cleanest way to transport energy.
Zeldin said. “If we know how much better we’re doing it in America than other countries … with emissions going down, we need to be smart about energy.”