Line 5 Project will protect environment and create jobs
The results of the 2020 NFIB Michigan State Ballot show that 73 percent of Michigan small business members support moving forward with planned upgrades to the Line 5 pipeline.
Line 5 is a major oil pipeline that transports crude oil and natural gas under the Straits of Mackinac that has been the subject of controversy concerning its decommissioning or upgrade to a safer structure. In 2018, Michigan passed legislation that established an authority to proceed with plans to allow the pipeline owner to invest $500 million to install a new Line 5 inside a concrete lined tunnel bored 100 feet below the lake. The existing Line 5 would then be decommissioned.
When asked if Michigan should shut down the Line 5 Pipeline, 73% of small business members said NO, 11% said YES, and 16% were Undecided. A copy of the question text and results can be viewed HERE.
Small business owners understand the need to balance the safety and environmental concerns of Line 5 while preserving a vital energy resource for the state. The upgrade project will also benefit Michigan’s economy by creating high wage construction jobs for many years and small businesses will be an important contributor to the project. The project is expected to be completed in 2024.
Suggestions by environmental advocates that the pipeline should be shut down completely are not practical. The alternatives they have suggested, such as transporting the fuel capacity currently provided by Line 5 via truck or train, would require several hundred trucks traveling over the Mackinac Bridge every day at enormous cost and even more environmental risk.
Michigan is one of the largest consumers of propane used for residential winter heating in the country, especially in the Upper Peninsula, and the closure of Line 5 would have an immediate and crippling effect on the economy as prices skyrocket. Michigan must move forward with the upgrade project and remove the existing pipeline from the waters of the Great Lakes as quickly as possible.
