Don’t shut down Line 5 at the expense of the economy, hardworking Michiganders (opinion)

Enbridge Line 5

A tugboat deploys boom in the Straits of Mackinac during an Enbridge mock oil spill exercise in September 2015. (Garret Ellison | MLive.com)Garret Ellison

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and some in the environmental community appear to be operating in a sort of fantasy world — where facts and real-life experiences can be discounted — because they are blinded by their own political motivations when it comes to discussing the future of Line 5.

Theirs is a world where all relevant facts are ignored or derided as political cover-ups. Common truths — like the need for energy, the critical nature of jobs and economics, security of the current lines, and that building the energy corridor tunnel (at no cost to tax payers) is the fastest path to removing the current lines from the straits — are simply dismissed.

We must understand the impact of Line 5 on Michigan’s and the Midwest’s economies beyond propane in the U.P. Jet fuel for Detroit Metro Airport is tied to Line 5. Dozens of products manufactured in Michigan depend on the products refined from Line 5 in Detroit, Canada and Toledo. The Ohio governor is so concerned that he even wrote a letter to our governor.

Despite the inherent benefits of Line 5 to thousands of people’s way of life, we suspect the environmental groups’ fight is more about ending fossil fuels than protecting the lakes directly.

Nessel claims a carefully managed shutdown would only increase the cost of propane per month by as much as a couple of pasties. The figures she cites come from studies that failed to consider important points, such as Michigan-based delivery trucks not being allowed access into Wisconsin and our state’s lack of rail infrastructure. Furthermore, Nessel’s proposal doesn’t take into account the costs to all residents for the years of litigation she is threatening. Perhaps the attorney general would be wise to include that in her review as well.

Her stance also assumes the capacity to make propane elsewhere and imagines that tough winters in the U.P. would not also mean there would be tough winters throughout the Midwest, and thus a strain on propane supplies there as well. U.P. residents don’t need to be reminded of the nightmare we lived through in 2014 when there was an extreme shortage of propane. Regionally, prices more than quadrupled, several propane businesses closed along the Wisconsin border, and some trucks were driving as far as Texas to get loads of propane."

The use of pasties for comparison only heightens the patronizing condescension for the U.P. coming from the attorney general.

At the recommendation of the governor’s administration, Nessel’s proposal does include the U.P. Energy Task Force. This idea may sound good, but sadly it would be repeating work that was already done by government and environmental groups. Some studies show alternatives although they are not viable ones, except for the energy corridor.

Real life has shown that supposed alternatives are bunk. Enbridge negotiated for years, agreeing to build an energy corridor more than 100 feet below the lake bottom at its own expense. They offered to get it done in five years, but the administration claims Enbridge’s refusal to shutter the lines in two years and operate without any product for the three intermittent years, is them refusing to negotiate.

Ultimately, our real motivation should be getting the lines out of the lake as soon as possible, but not without protecting the millions of residents who need this energy and the tens of thousands whose jobs are directly connected to Line 5.

We believe the energy corridor tunnel is the answer. With the tunnel, we keep the jobs, the energy, the taxes, the manufacturing, and the lower prices, while reducing the spill risk to zero, avoiding wasting money in the courts, and providing an enormous construction project for Michigan’s skilled trades.

Hopefully there will still be propane to cook the pasties when the work starts.

Sen. Ed McBroom, R-Vulcan, serves Michigan’s 38th Senate District

Rep. Beau LaFave, R-Iron Mountain, serves Michigan’s 108th House District

Rep. Greg Markkanen, R-Hancock, serves Michigan’s 110th House District

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