Sept. 11, 2026 | This Week in Government: EGLE Will Review Line 5 Tunnel Permits

Each week, the Detroit Regional Chamber’s Government Relations team, in partnership with Gongwer, provides members with a collection of timely updates from both local and state governments. Stay in the know on the latest legislation, policy priorities, and more. Sign up for the Chamber’s weekly newsletter, This Week in Governement.

Following calls from environmental groups, indigenous tribes, and local businesses urging consideration of a Michigan Supreme Court decision from July, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced Wednesday that her administration would review permits it issued earlier this year for the Line 5 tunnel project in the Straits of Mackinac.

In a Wednesday press release, Whitmer and the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) Director Phil Roos cited the new precedent established in the July 31 MSC opinion, which struck down previously issued Public Service Commission permits for the tunnel, as the reason for a widened scope of review. The state did not have a legal basis to conduct the review prior to the high court’s ruling this summer.

“Before issuing the resource permit in July, EGLE reviewed the cultural and environmental impacts within our statutory scope as well as an analysis of alternatives. With the Michigan Supreme Court invalidating the MPSC’s permit because its analysis was too narrow, we understand that EGLE’s permit may need further review through the legal process,” Roos said in the statement. “Until all those legal questions are resolved, conditions in EGLE’s permit prevent construction of the tunnel entrance from moving forward.”

Whitmer described Enbridge Energy’s dual pipelines running across the straits as a “ticking time bomb,” which she’s been attempting to remove since her first day in office. With just under three months left in her tenure as governor, she said she’s “taking every action (she) can to shut them down” as her original stop order and ensuing negotiations continue to be the subject of litigation.

“The Michigan Supreme Court has made clear that the state must more thoroughly scrutinize the environmental consequences of the proposed tunnel and the alternatives to it,” Whitmer said in a statement. “At the same time, Enbridge needs to stop asking Michigan to wait for a tunnel that could be a decade or longer away and start pursuing alternatives now that can get oil out of the Straits within months. Michigan has waited long enough. We cannot put the Great Lakes at risk for another decade while waiting for a solution that may never come.”

The governor also wrote to Enbridge CEO Gregory Ebel on Wednesday to emphasize the changed nature of the tunnel permitting process since the July 31 MSC ruling. In her letter to Ebel, Whitmer said the Canadian company’s argument that the tunnel would address concerns about the pipeline “was difficult enough to accept before July 31” and “is untenable now.”

“Even under an optimistic scenario, it is difficult to see an operating tunnel earlier than 10 years from now. And it may never be built. Enbridge cannot use the promise of a tunnel to justify putting our most precious resources at risk by pumping oil through the Great Lakes for another decade,” Whitmer said in the letter to Ebel. “For years, you have asked Michigan to accept the risk of the existing pipelines today in exchange for the promise of a safer tunnel tomorrow. But tomorrow never comes.”

Despite ongoing appeals over a federal ruling that held Michigan could not enforce an order revoking the pipeline’s 1958 easement, the premise of which Whitmer said is “preposterous,” the state is seeking to assert its right to the bottomlands of the straits where the pipeline sits, sooner rather than later.

Whitmer said it’s long past time for Enbridge to find a feasible alternative to the pipeline, particularly in light of the recent Line 5 rupture in Wisconsin, which caused more than a million gallons of natural gas liquids to escape after damage by a truck accident.

“That alternative may not preserve Enbridge’s current market share or be as profitable for your shareholders. But those are not reasons to expose the Great Lakes to another decade of unthinkable risk. Too much is at stake,” she said. “The Great Lakes are home to 21% of the world’s fresh surface water, supply drinking water for more than 40 million people, and support a $9.3 trillion regional economy, including hundreds of thousands of jobs in Michigan. For eight years, Enbridge has told Michigan to wait. Wait for the courts. Wait for the permits. Wait for the tunnel. Michigan has waited long enough.”

In a statement responding to Whitmer and Roos’s announcement, Enbridge spokesperson Ryan Duffy reiterated the company’s commitment to the tunnel project and emphasized the reviews existing permits have already undergone.

“Let’s be clear – we already have an agreement with the State of Michigan to advance the Great Lakes Tunnel Project. Without years of litigation and political intervention, this project would be moving toward completion,” Duffy said. (EGLE) has reissued key environmental permits for the project. Also, after a six-year review, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approved the project to move forward. The Corps’ Environmental Impact Statement represents the highest standard of environmental review required for major critical energy and infrastructure projects. We continue to stand ready to meet with the Governor to look at ways that protect Michigan’s natural resources while ensuring the continued safe operation of critical energy infrastructure.”

Oil and Water Don’t Mix Coalition, the primary opposition campaign to the pipeline and, later, the tunnel project, issued a statement saying advocates were “relieved” to hear Whitmer say EGLE would be reviewing its permits on Wednesday.

“We fully support the governor and EGLE Director Phil Roos halting a key tunnel environmental permit and reopening the review under the standard the court laid down on July 31. That ruling was not a technicality,” spokesperson Levi Teitel said. “It restored the Michigan Environmental Protection Act and the public trust as the measure of what the state may permit in the Straits of Mackinac. The governor is now using it exactly as it was meant to be used, and expanding the scope of review to match.”

The coalition’s statement said Enbridge has spent the better part of the past decade providing “weak promise(s) about concrete under the lake, someday,” and that Whitmer’s actions on Wednesday represent the governor “keeping her promise to protect the Great Lakes.”

“From the beginning, the governor has said she wanted the surest legal footing to get this pipeline out of the water. Reasonable people have argued about strategy,” Teitel continued. “Today she is standing on the ground the Supreme Court gave her, and we stand with her and applaud her continued commitment to protecting the Great Lakes.”

Whitmer’s office said the state is “reviewing its options for proceeding in a manner consistent with the Supreme Court’s decision and Michigan law.”

RELATED | Chamber Reacts to Line 5 Executive Order

Senators passed the nine bills on Thursday passed last session that were the subject of a year-long lawsuit after not being presented to the governor following passage in 2024 and were eventually vetoed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer earlier this year.

The bills, dealing with public pensions, wage garnishment, and local taxation, cleared the Democratic-controlled Senate but are likely dead on arrival in the Republican-controlled House.

Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, D-Grand Rapids, told reporters following the votes that, despite the increased cost to the state that would occur if the pension bills were signed into law, she believed the Legislature could account for the changes in the budget moving forward.

Brinks noted that Whitmer recently called on the Legislature to send the bills to her a second time, and the Senate was taking her up on that request.

“We, of course, have felt that this was an important policy priority to get done, all of these bills. So, it was high time that we took action on that, and we did so as soon as we had the opportunity to do so,” Brinks said.

Last session, the nine bills were not presented to the governor, and House Speaker Matt Hall, R-Richland Township, refused to present the bills to the governor. This led to a lawsuit being filed by the Senate in early 2025, which led to the Supreme Court ordering Hall to present the bills in July.

Hours later, Whitmer vetoed the legislation, saying the retroactive date for the nine bills would have been April 2, 2025, creating a major administrative issue.

When asked if she believed the governor should have signed the bills despite the technical concerns, Brinks said: “I do.”

“I feel like there were remedies for those concerns and wish that that would have been the route taken,” Brinks said.

Hall, in a statement, called Thursday’s votes a campaign stunt. He added that if they want to make a serious deal to move the bills, they could come to him at any time in the last two years.

“I’m the best deal maker in Lansing, and they could have come to me anytime,” Hall said. “If Democrats actually want these bills to move, they need to be ready to make a real deal on our plans to eliminate state property taxes, lower electric rates, and create the health care cost review board. Democrats want to play politics with these bills, but I’m more interested in passing major reforms that actually lower people’s costs.”

Whitmer, in a statement, thanked the Senate for taking up the bills and said the votes move the Legislature closer to making up for the delay, which she sought to pin on House Republicans.

“The Michigan state Senate passed legislation that lowers health care costs for educators and public employees, expands retirement benefits for public safety employees, protects Michiganders from unfair garnishment and bankruptcy practices, and bolsters our valuable cultural institutions,” Whitmer said. “I’ll continue monitoring the bills as they move through the Legislature. I firmly believe we can enact these bills while maintaining Michigan’s strong fiscal position.”

Three of the bills passed Thursday, SB 1133, SB 1134, and SB 1135, would allow Department of Corrections officers to join the Department of State Police pension system.

The three bills passed 27-8, with seven Republicans joining Democrats in support: Sen. Joe Bellino of Monroe; Sen. John Damoose of Harbor Springs, Sen. Mark Huizenga of Walker; Sen. Jonathan Lindsey of Coldwater; Sen. Ed McBroom of Vulcan; Sen. Roger Victory of Georgetown Township, and Sen. Michael Webber of Rochester Hills.

Damoose said that while he is usually skeptical of pensions, he supported the pension bills in this instance, citing the extremely long hours and working conditions of corrections officers, including those in his district.

“Who would want to work in any of these conditions?” Damoose said. “If this were a private company operating in our state and treating its employees like this, we’d be hauling them in for hearings and passing all kinds of new labor laws. But it’s not a company. These corrections officers work for us. We, the state of Michigan, are treating our own employees like this.”

Damoose added that if nothing is done, the existing crisis within MDOC will be much worse in the coming years.

McBroom said the crisis is extreme within MDOC and is burning out officers due to harsh working conditions and hours. He added that even if the pension bills are signed into law, significant reform is needed within the department.

“This state is one walking lawsuit from this department after another, and our officers are working so hard and having very little to show,” McBroom said. “We need change of leadership. We need immediate triage for the dangerous circumstances, and we need a way to keep people who are just out of the training and just starting here in this state, instead of fleeing our state to other states that pay better, offer better immediate benefits.”

Sen. Thomas Albert, R-Lowell, said corrections officers deserve an improved retirement system, adding that a legislative alternative he proposed was better and would beef up the 401 (k) system for officers. Albert said there should be immediate pay raises for corrections officers.

“I cannot support a plan that will cause more harm than good,” Albert said, adding that providing a pension will not come close to addressing the staffing shortage or be what keeps officers in the profession long-term. “At a minimum, this new pension system should be provided as an option, not as a mandate.”

Albert also expressed concerns over the effect expanding the pension for law enforcement would have on the Department of State Police’s existing pension.

Also passed were SB 1137 and SB 1138, which would exempt public assistance, disability, and workers’ compensation from garnishment to repay debts. The bills passed 21-14, with McBroom siding with Democrats.

Sen. Jonathan Lindsey, R-Coldwater, was opposed to the wage garnishment bills, saying the bill, as written, would shield people up to a certain income level from payment.

“The primary problem I have with it is the way it’s written, too aggressive,” Lindsey said. “This would create a situation where people are just arbitrarily shielded from paying debts, and it’s going to hurt our businesses. It’s going to hurt the people who will be recipients of collecting that money.”

To this, Sen. Jeff Irwin, D-Ann Arbor, countered that Michigan has the worst wage garnishment laws in the country, allowing debt collectors to drain all forms of income virtually from those with debts.

He said tens of thousands of people have had tens of millions in wages and forms of income, including Earned Income Tax Credit money taken for debt collection, since the passage of the legislation last session and its failure to be signed into law.

“We, for some reason, are insisting on maintaining the worst protection in the nation for our people,” Irwin said. “This isn’t about letting debt collectors escape their obligations. It’s about striking a fair balance.”

Another bill, SB 1136, would require certain employees to pay more toward healthcare costs. It passed 20-15 along party lines.

Albert questioned SB 1136, saying it would increase the taxpayer cost for covering public employee healthcare costs when their own insurance costs are spiking dramatically.

“We cannot ask taxpayers to pay more when they’re struggling to pay their own bills,” Albert said. “This Legislature is ignoring a fundamental reality: if we make government more expensive, life becomes less affordable for the taxpayers who fund government.”

Certain Detroit museums to pursue a millage for increased funding under SB 1139, SB 1140, and SB 1141. All three bills passed 20-15.

Despite what Republican gubernatorial candidate John James said in a press conference last week, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer isn’t planning on opting Michigan into the federal Education Freedom Tax Credit anytime soon.

James, a supporter of the program, which dozens of states’ governors have signed onto, said last week he believes Whitmer will ultimately make Michigan a participant before her term ends. When asked for her reaction to his remarks during a Tuesday event, Whitmer laughed.

“People on the campaigns are going to say all sorts of things,” she said. “The fact of the matter is, the U.S. Treasury has not even released any of the guidelines, so it’s premature for anyone to make any projections, including me. We’ve got to get that information.”

Whitmer’s answer, which was unchanged on Tuesday from what it was at the beginning of the year, has ruffled feathers to her left and her right: Republicans in the Legislature and supporters of charter and non-public schools have urged her to opt Michigan into the tax credit, while public education advocacy groups and some members of her own party have said the program is tantamount to a voucher system and have called upon Whitmer to say she would not sign onto it.

For now, at least, it seems no answer is the answer either side will be getting.

Whitmer, who held Tuesday’s back-to-school press conference after serving lunch to students at Woods Lake Elementary School in Kalamazoo, also discussed the results of state standardized testing, which were released last week, and what another year of declining and stagnant reading scores means for Michigan students and policymakers.

Echoing what state education officials said upon their release of test scores, Whitmer emphasized that many of the reforms passed by lawmakers in recent years are still in their infancies and that Michigan needs to stay the course before districts begin to see tangible changes in metrics like M-STEP scores.

“What we have done with Every Child Reads, by adopting LETRS training is now we are using the best evidence-based model to educate on literacy, we’re putting more resources in, hiring literacy coaches … but it doesn’t happen overnight. We’re feeling very confident that we’re finally on the right path. But we’ve got to see it through,” Whitmer said. “We can’t change course every couple of years and think we’re going to get better results. It’s just confusing and disparate strategies that aren’t evidence-based. We’re finally doing it right, and we’ve got to continue to stay focused and continue to do this.”

In addition to educational issues, Whitmer offered further comments about the call she placed to President Donald Trump last week, which resulted in Trump lifting his stop-work order on the Brandon Road Lock and Dam Project in Illinois, which was noted as an unusual interaction between a governor and the president.

Whitmer said the situation “wasn’t normal and shouldn’t be normal,” but that picking up the phone was an easy decision for her to make.

“My job is to do everything I can on behalf of the state of Michigan, and ideally, you’ve got an administration that sees the value in this, and nothing gets in the way (and) we get it done, but for whatever reason, there was a stop-work order,” she said. “As soon as we got word of it, we investigated, make sure we got the facts, and then I put in a call to the president, and work is commencing now. I think there are better ways to operate, but I’ve got to do the best for Michigan under the circumstances that we’re dealing with in Washington D.C., and I’m always going to pick up the phone if I can do something on behalf of our state.”

Whitmer’s office confirmed to media outlets on the morning of Sept. 3 that a stop-work order imposed by the White House on the lock and dam project near Joliet, Illinois, had been lifted hours after Whitmer spoke with Trump the day before. Trump had ordered the Army Corps of Engineers to cease its construction work on the interbasin site, which is designed to keep invasive species like Asian carp from entering the Great Lakes, earlier this summer.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker had, on the same day Whitmer made her call to the president, accused Trump of partisan posturing and playing political games with critical Great Lakes infrastructure in a letter calling for answers regarding the stop-work order. Pritzker has taken a different approach to his relationship with the president than Whitmer, who’s made it clear she does not intend to lead Democratic opposition to the second Trump administration and would rather keep a low profile so as to maintain the ability to work with the federal government, where other Democratic governors may be shut out.

Asked about federal tariffs, particularly new reciprocal tariffs from Canada, which are reportedly affecting the price of school supplies for many Michigan families, Whitmer offered a critique of Trump’s trade policies, measured by realism about what she could achieve as a term-limited governor.

“It breaks my heart to see the administration in Washington, D.C. continue to have this petty fight with Canada. They are our neighbors. They are our economic partners. Michigan jobs rely on goods being able to go back and forth over the border multiple times, while making a single car. This hurts us more than any other state in the country. I have made that case to the president directly. I’ll continue to try to push,” she said. “I would love for us to be able to undo every piece of burden that the federal government, through the Iran War or through tariffs, has put on Michigan families and Michiganders individually and our businesses, but we can’t undo everything that’s coming out of Washington D.C. That’s why I’m going to try to talk them into moving forward. Instead of renaming Lake Ontario, how about actually following a sensible trade policy with Canada and Mexico and the U.S.?”

Lawmakers are asking the Michigan Department of the Treasury for an update on refunds, adjustments, and other delays that taxpayers are experiencing.

Rep. Matt Bierlein, R-Vassar, sent a letter to the department following up on the testimony it gave before the House Oversight Committee in June regarding the transition to a new tax system and updates on constituent case handling through the new contact center system.

Bierlein was joined in signing by other members of the House Oversight Committee, including Rep. Jay DeBoyer, R-Clay; Rep. Reggie Miller, D-Van Buren Township; Rep. Luke Meerman, R-Coopersville; Rep. Alicia St. Germaine, R-Harrison Township; Rep. William Bruck, R-Erie; Rep. Steve Carra, R-Three Rivers; Rep. Sharon MacDonell, D-Troy; Rep. Jason Woolford, R-Howell; Rep. Sarah Lightner, R-Springport; and Rep. Laurie Pohutsky, D-Livonia.

“Our purpose in writing is to let you know that, more than two months after the June hearing, our legislative offices continue to receive a steady volume of constituent inquiries connected to these same issues,” the letter said.

The letter acknowledged the significance of the system update and praised the department’s transparency in providing updates, but noted that many constituents were still experiencing delays for refunds, including cases tied to identity verification holds, address match flags, and returns requiring manual review. People are also still experiencing confusion and frustration regarding Notice of Adjustment letters sent out in error, and a rise in Homestead Property Tax and Home Heating Credit claims being denied or flagged.

Other issues included delays in Home Heating Credit direct payment to energy providers and inconsistencies with the contact center’s callback feature. Cases submitted in May and June are still waiting on updates.

“We understand the underlying caseload has been substantial, and we are not asking to jump the queue, only for a sense of where that specific backlog now stands,” the letter said.

Given that, lawmakers requested a status update on the remaining refund backlog and outstanding Notice of Adjustment corrections; an update on where the cases submitted in May, June and July stand; a review of the call-back feature’s reliability; confirmation of the department’s process for waiving penalties and interest tied to erroneous notices; and an update on the timeline for resolving the issues with the Home Heating Credit provider payments.

“We appreciate the department’s stated commitment to continuous improvement and stakeholder coordination, and we share the goal of a stable, accurate, and fraud-resistant tax system for Michigan taxpayers,” the letter said.

In closing, lawmakers requested answers or guidance from the department by Sept. 18.