Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ordered a Canadian energy company to shut down an oil pipeline long targeted by activists despite fuel shortages brought on by the cyberattack on the nation’s largest pipeline.
“These oil pipelines in the Straits of Mackinac are a ticking timebomb, and their continued presence violates the public trust and poses a grave threat to Michigan’s environment and economy,” Whitmer’s office said in a statement about the pipeline.
Whitmer gave Enbridge, the company that runs the pipeline known as Line 5, until Wednesday to shut down amid fears that it could spill any day. Enbridge, however, said the pipeline has been in operation for 67 years and has not once had a leak, though a different Enbridge pipeline did spill nearly a million gallons of oil into the Kalamazoo River in 2010.
The company said it has been “working to tunnel beneath the lake bed to further improve the safety of the pipeline” after it was hit by boat and anchor cables in recent years.