LANSING — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Wednesday that she’s open to allowing construction of an oil transport tunnel beneath the channel where Lakes Huron and Michigan meet, despite previously halting work on a tunnel plan developed by her predecessor.

Whitmer told reporters she wanted as quickly as possible to shut down Enbridge’s Line 5, which carries oil and natural gas liquids between Superior, Wisconsin, and Sarnia, Ontario. A more than 4-mile-long segment of the line divides into two pipes that run along the bottomlands of the Straits of Mackinac, which links Michigan’s two peninsulas.

“There’s no quick, easy solutions here, but if the goal is to get the pipeline out of the water, I think the only responsible thing to do is to pursue any strategy that gets us there, including the possibility of a tunnel,” the Democrat said.

Environmental groups that supported Whitmer’s election last fall urged her to reject the tunnel option and move quickly to shut down the underwater Line 5 segment, as she pledged to do during her campaign. Republicans in the state Legislature welcomed what they described as Whitmer’s “about-face” on the issue but accused her of wasting time.