There’s one big reason there was never a nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union, back in the dark days of the Cold War: Everyone knew that even the best outcomes we could imagine would be too terrible to contemplate.
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Simply put, Mutual Assured Destruction. Well, I think we need to see Line 5 exactly the same way. No amount of profit and no amount of convenience could possibly be worth risking what would happen if those twin lines under the Straits of Mackinac were to rupture.
Earlier this year, FLOW, a nonprofit organization dedicated to defend the waters of the Great Lakes Basin, commissioned a study to estimate what would happen if there were to be an oil spill in the Straits of Mackinac. The study, done by Michigan State University’s department of community sustainability, calculated the effects of a spill of 2.5 million gallons of crude oil into the straits. Any real spill, by the way, might easily be much worse.
Line 5 can transport up to 22.7 million gallons a day, so we are talking about a rupture that would last maybe a couple of hours. The scientists who did the study estimated economic damages from such a spill could easily reach $5.6 BILLION dollars or more.
They concluded, “We believe these estimates are conservative and likely underestimate economic impacts, as they do not take into account the consequences for public health, the challenges related to containment, or the possibility of an oil spill of greater geographic scale.
Last year, U.S. Senator Gary Peters told me that he had asked the Coast Guard’s top admiral if his service could clean up a massive oil spill in the straits if the pipeline were to rupture. The answer was no. That’s bad enough, but consider what happened eight years ago, when another oil-carrying pipeline ruptured in a creek that flows into the Kalamazoo River.
That pipeline, like the one under the Straits of Mackinac, was owned by Enbridge, a giant multi-national Canadian firm. Although alarm bells went off when the line broke, workers thought the line was clogged instead and for hours forced more oil through it.
When they finally realized what had happened, Enbridge estimated it might cost $5 million dollars to clean it up. In fact, it was nearly 300 times as expensive –at least one and a quarter billion dollars. If Line 5 should rupture, the consequences could make the Kalamazoo River disaster look like a mere minor mishap.
We now know that Enbridge has been less than candid with the public about the condition of the pipeline, which turns 65 years old this fall. Despite company denials, divers recently learned that the protective coating on the pipes had worn away in places.
The lines were also hit and dented by an anchor strike earlier this year. An oil spill under the straits is the one thing we cannot afford to risk. But risk it we are, every day.
There may, however be a chance to do something about this. Michigan Attorney Bill Schuette, the Republican candidate for governor coincidentally was born just as the pipeline was being installed, 65 years ago. He says he would somehow put it in a sunken tunnel.
Gretchen Whitmer, the Democratic nominee and Dana Nessel, the candidate for attorney general, both say they’d shut down Line 5 as soon as possible.
Hard to imagine a greater contrast than that.
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