To the Journal editor:

Let me get this strait (no pun intended). The Mackinac Strait Line 5 tunnel will be built and paid for by Enbridge. They build a high maintaince house (a cave located beneath a massive volume of water) and give it to State of Michigan taxpayers to maintain and repair for 99 years, but they get to live in the house with their oil pipeline for 99 years as a“high risk guest.”

Let’s not forget that the Enbridge’s incompetence in both maintaince of their pipeline as well as within their remote control room, caused a 1 billion dollar oil spill into the Kalamazoo river just 13 years ago (best predictor of future behavior is past behavior).

And, now if they make a mess in our high maintaince house we pay to clean it up. Can we ever evict this“guest” from our house no matter what they do or how risky their presence becomes for the next 99 years?

If our state adheres to their goal of decarbonizing our economy by 2040, why can’t we kick out the carbonizing “guest from our house in our tunnel at any time? Most rational people would say yes you could to answer both of these questions. But, the last minute deal former governor Snyder made with them may not provide this rational option for our State. It should, and be revised.

Does Enbridge have an up front performance bond of multi billion dollars deposited with the state of Michigan as compensation to taxpayers for scientifically projected worse case oil spills within the straits? Not that I can find. And if not, they should be told no on the tunnel and continued operation of the current lake bed twin pipelines.

Construction of the proposed tunnel beneath the Straits will create a bigger target for terrorist attacks. I see it as a serious threat to our national security with a walk able open access beneath the world’s largest, most priceless source of fresh water.

A dirty bomb of the tunnel, a hack and billion dollar ransom ware attack on the Enbridge control room located in another country or even within in the U.S. Who is responsible for competent high-level tunnel security /cyber security continuously 24×7 for the next 99 years? Enbridge’s private security?

No, they won’t be responsible for the tunnel maintaince with the Snyder agreement. Will it be the Mackinac Strait Corridor Authority Board, the U.S. and Canadian military, Michigan National Guard, state police, or Homeland Security, local county sheriffs? Who pays for this for 99 years and how much will that cost the taxpayers?

The Mackinac Strait Corridor Authority, composed of Snyder’s own appointees, have made a huge mistake in approving this boondoggle tunnel that saddles the Michigan taxpayers with huge ongoing responsibilities, burdens and economic risks.

Enbridge claims that the U.P. will be essentially devoid of propane if the pipeline segment across the Straits is closed have been convincingly disproven as just one of their scare tactics to support their continued risky use of our water to transport their oil.

They say that we need the oil to cross the straits so that more plastics can be made. This, when we know large plastic fragment pollution of the environment is increasingly invading every land and waterscape and non-petroleum based biodegradable plastic substitutes are becoming more available for industry.

Jet fuel for Detroit airports could be supplied by using the $500 million spent for a tunnel to upgrade their own Line 6 that bypasses the Great Lakes and feeds directly into southeast Michigan. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers should deny all of Enbridge’s pipeline strait access.