Why does climate matter for a pipeline?
For most energy projects that are proposed on public lands, like drilling for oil and gas or installing a solar farm, the government has to review the resulting environmental impacts, including greenhouse gas emissions.
That’s true for pipelines too, explains Pete Erickson, who studies climate policy at the Stockholm Environment Institute.
“There is a clear causal link between a pipeline being built or not built and both the production and consumption of that oil, and therefore carbon dioxide emissions, and therefore climate change,” he says.
And a project’s impact on climate can be the deciding factor in whether or not it goes forward. A high-profile example is the Keystone XL Pipeline, which would have carried oil and gas from Alberta to Nebraska. The main reason the federal government didn’t grant a permit for the project was because of climate change, according to the Obama administration.
Brandy Brown, Climate and Energy Advisor, BrownB3@Michigan.gov, 517-284-6710
A panel of climate and environmental justice experts was named today to develop a justice and equity-based framework for the development and implementation of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s MI Healthy Climate Plan, which calls for a transition to a carbon-neutral Michigan by 2050 that includes communities disproportionately affected by climate change.
The five-member Climate Justice Brain Trust will help guide the Office of Climate and Energy’s work in identifying barriers that impede environmental justice communities from realizing the benefits of the energy sector’s transition to cleaner energy sources. It will provide guidance on appropriate climate adaptation, mitigation and clean energy investments from a climate justice perspective.
Enbridge secures 1 of 3 permits needed for Line 5 tunnel, angering enviros ⋆ Michigan Advance michiganadvance.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from michiganadvance.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The fight isn’t over, opponents to Line 5 say after state approves permits for controversial tunnel
Updated Jan 29, 2021;
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Environmental activists against Enbridge Energy’s Line 5 running beneath the Great Lakes say the state’s approval of permits needed to build a tunnel to house a new section of the oil pipeline is unfortunate, but the fight is far from over.
The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) said today that it approved applications to discharge wastewater into the lakes and perform construction work in protected wetlands, which are among the authorizations Enbridge needs to build its proposed $500 million utility tunnel next to the Mackinac Bridge.
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University Hospitals officials say new forms of COVID-19 that spread much faster are already circulating in Northeast Ohio. A UH spokesperson says variants have showed up in COVID-19 patient samples as far back as December.
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