LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) — Enbridge just got one step closer to digging its way out of Michigan’s biggest pipeline fight. 

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers signed off on the company’s plan to bury Line 5 inside a concrete tunnel beneath the Straits of Mackinac, fast-tracking the decision after President Donald Trump ordered agencies to speed up major energy projects.

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The approval hands Enbridge a major win in a decade-long tug-of-war over the 72-year-old line, which carries oil and natural gas liquids between Wisconsin and Ontario and helps fuel Michigan’s Upper and Lower Peninsula.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said the plan strengthens America’s energy security, but its own environmental review also raised a few red flags. The tunnel construction, the Corps warned, could disturb wetlands, disrupt aquatic life, damage bat habitats, and  and scar lakefront views.

With the federal green light in hand, Enbridge now needs approval from Michigan’s environmental regulators before work can begin.

The tunnel plan was originally brokered under former Republican Gov. Rick Snyder. Since then, Democratic leaders have fought it in and out of court. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer tried to revoke Enbridge’s easement in 2020; Attorney General Dana Nessel has pushed to shut the line down; and lawsuits over jurisdiction have climbed all the way toward the U.S. Supreme Court.

Enbridge maintains the tunnel is the safest way to protect the water and keep propane flowing to the Upper Peninsula.