On April 16, 2025, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced it will not perform a full review of the Line 5 tunnel projects under the pretext of a made up “energy emergency.” The proposed tunnel would pass through the Straits of Mackinac, a sacred place shared by treaty with the Bay Mills Indian Community. USACE shortened and moved review timelines for environmental impacts, endangered species, treaty rights, and cultural resources. These measures cut out Tribal Nations, the public, and state regulators from providing meaningful input, and they make the review wildly inconsistent with federal law. In March, BMIC and other Tribal Nations cited the many gaps and flaws in USACE’s environmental review process prior to ending their consulting partner status in protest:
Six Michigan Tribes withdrew from Line 5 federal discussions after learning that the US Army Corps of Engineers will likely fast-track its approval for Enbridge’s massive oil tunnel project, in accordance with President Trump’s Executive Order declaring an “energy emergency.” In a letter sent to the US Army Corps on March 21, 2025, the Tribes called the Corps’ actions “unacceptable.”
“We participated in the process, we followed the rules, we provided the case law, we submitted the evidence, and we trusted that our voices and our treaty rights would be respected. Yet, once again, the federal government has cast us aside and failed us,” said Bay Mills Indian Community President Whitney Gravelle.
“Instead of protecting our waters, lands, and sacred sites, the government is forcing this dangerous project forward, ignoring the harm it will bring to the Tribal Nations and the people of Michigan,” said BMIC President Gravelle. “We will not stand by while our sovereignty is disregarded for the sake of foreign profits. Michigan’s leaders must act now to defend our shared waters before it’s too late.”
Six Tribes End Cooperation with US Army Corps over “Energy Emergency” Plans
The Bay Mills Indian Community, Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi, and Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi had been engaging with the Corps’ review of the Line 5 tunnel project as “cooperating agencies” under the National Environmental Policy Act.
Under the Biden administration, the Corps was preparing a draft Environmental Impact Statement after receiving over 17,000 public comments on the tunnel project. An internal memo circulated in January by Former Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works) Jaime Pinkham directed the agency to assess the risk of oil spills from approving the tunnel project, and to consider other alternatives in its review. Now, the Corps is likely to apply emergency treatment and issue a permit for the tunnel project, without completing reviews of oil spills and other environmental impacts, alternatives, and effects on cultural resources.
“It appears the U.S. Army Corps plans to short-circuit the environmental and historic properties review by announcing they intend to use the guise of an American ‘energy emergency’ to fast-track the legally required public comment and Tribal consultation processes, greenlighting a Canadian corporation’s project that will desecrate a sacred place and threaten Great Lakes residents’ drinking water,” said Staff Attorney David L. Gover with the Native American Rights Fund, which represents the Tribes.
Experts have warned that the tunnel project design, which has never been tried before anywhere else in the world, could lead to an explosion under the Straits. Along with federal approval, Enbridge still needs a permit from Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy to begin construction. A public comment period is expected as part of that permitting process.
“Resuscitating an old pipeline that carries most of its oil and gas back to Canada won’t do a thing for the US energy supply,” said Earthjustice Managing Attorney Debbie Chizewer, who is representing Bay Mills. “But it might lead to the next big oil disaster. Only this time, it will happen in the middle of the largest freshwater drinking supply in North America. We can’t allow that to happen.”
Enbridge Energy wants to build a tunnel under the Great Lakes at the Straits of Mackinac, a place the Bay Mills Indian Community and other Anishinaabe peoples of the region consider a sacred place on Turtle Island (North America). Every tribe in Michigan opposes the project.
Read More: Bay Mills Indian Community Fights to Shut Down Line 5 Tunnel Project
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