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Trump will name more conservative judges. He may even pick a majority of the Supreme Court; Both sides react as Missouri reverses near-total abortion ban Literacy initiative to implement 250 new early-education activations in PA.

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President Biden asks Americans to turn down the temperature, House Speaker Mike Johnson promises an aggressive first 100 day agenda and Democratic governors vow to push back on Trump's plan for mass deportations.

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Texas women travel some of the longest distances for abortion care, Californians the shortest, rural living comes with mixed blessings for veterans, an ancient technique could curtail climate-change wildfires, and escape divisive politics on World Kindness Day.

Lawsuit Seeks Study of Enbridge Pipeline

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Friday, January 16, 2015   

LANSING, Mich. - How do you know it's safe if you've never studied it? That's the question environmental advocates want answered in response to the government's decision to allow oil to flow through an old pipeline under some of the state's most pristine areas.

The Enbridge Energy pipeline runs across the Upper Peninsula, under the Straits of Mackinac and through the Lower Peninsula. It's been more than 60 years since the line was built - and in all those years, said Marvin Roberson, a forest ecologist with the Sierra Club Michigan Chapter, there's never been an environmental risk study by any federal or state agency.

"As we saw a couple years ago on the Kalamazoo River, oil pipeline ruptures near rivers can be a very bad thing," he said. "Given the fact that it was built in 1953, it was built prior to the advent of environmental laws."

Every 30 years, Enbridge must have its permit reissued to continue pumping oil through the line. That permit recently was approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The Sierra Club now is suing the federal government in hopes of getting an order to study the pipeline's impact.

In July 2010, a pipeline operated by Enbridge burst and flowed into a tributary of the Kalamazoo River, resulting in the largest inland oil spill in U.S. history. Roberson said he feels all concerned parties need to do whatever is necessary to prevent that from happening again.

"The pipeline segment in question that's getting the permit runs underneath the Au Sable River, which is, of course, one of the nation's premiere trout streams," he said, "and a spill underneath the Au Sable River would be just devastating."

The pipeline at the center of the lawsuit runs through national forest land, which is why the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is in charge of issuing permits.


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