Former Democratic Michigan Congressman and outstanding Michigan governor candidate, Mark Schauer, has an op ed in today's Detroit News.
Thanks to Sierra Club member Frank Zaski in Michigan on the Enviro-Mich list who spotted this and promoted the OpEd widely.
In the OpEd, Congressman Schauer assumes the mantle of environmental leadership and explains how a Michigan Schauer Administration would deal with the Enbridge Pipeline Company, including their specific Line 5 and Line 6B installations in Michigan.
Schauer's OpEd shows evidence of his past experience in the Blue-Green Alliance and as a Michigan officer of an AFL-CIO building and construction trades union, the Laborers International Union.
One thing's for sure...... when Michigan citizens elect Congressman Schauer to replace Rick Snyder, we'll be replacing our present autocratic, union-bashing, narcissistic, fake-nerd, toxic-CEO, Devos/Koch-kissing governor with someone who understands and supports working people, unions, and the environment.
I was reading Schauer's OpEd diligently until I came to this paragraph which said:
As governor, I will get tough on Enbridge and hold them accountable, just like I did in 2010 by forcing the toughest standards ever required by federal regulators over the restart of Line 6B. We must exercise the state’s full legal authority to demand a complete inspection of the submerged pipelines, and push for a full replacement using skilled Michigan workers and cutting-edge, above-water pipeline technology to protect the Great Lakes.
(emphasis added)
That just blew me away because Congressman Schauer has adopted my suggestion I've shared here and elsewhere that the Enbridge Great Lakes crossings at the Mackinac Strait and on the St. Clair River be revised and reconstructed with pipeline bridges rather than allowing the present crossings featuring pipe on the bottom of these water bodies. In particular, it should be technically feasible to reconstruct Line 5 through the Mackinac Bridge and get the pipe out of the Mackinac Straits. In addition, the segments traversing pipeline bridges on Line 5 and Line 6B should be constructed of stainless steel instead of conventional carbon steel.
Michigan's Mark Schauer is just the Governor we need to put the Enbridge pipeline company on a short leash given the frat boy mentality of the executives and officers of the Enbridge pipeline company towards process and environmental safety, and their lack of pipeline stewardship.
12:50 PM PT: For more information about the problems of hydrocarbon pipelines in the Great Lakes, see these very informative reports from the National Wildlife Federation Great Lakes Office:
http://www.nwf.org/...
http://www.nwf.org/...
1:12 PM PT: Courtesy of Electablog, here is the Act Blue page for Congressman Mark Schauer:
https://secure.actblue.com/...
1:41 PM PT: Enbridge has obtained an export license from the United States to
export Canadian crude oil though pipelines in the United States
and through U.S. ports:
http://ca.reuters.com/...
5:57 PM PT: Here is a presidential petition concerning Enbridge Line 5 and the matter of requiring a Presidential Permit on continued operation of an expanded Line 5; this petition is promoted by the National Wildlife Federation:
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/...
8:30 PM PT: