Michigan regulators approve $500M pipeline tunnel project under channel linking 2 Great Lakes

Michigan officials approved a $500 million plan Friday to encase in a protective tunnel a portion of an oil pipeline that runs beneath a channel connecting two Great Lakes, leaving just one more regulatory hurdle for the contentious project. The state's three-person Public Service Commission approved the project in the Straits of Mackinac on a 2-0 vote. The commission's chairperson, Dan Scripps, said that an oil spill in the straits, which link Lake Michigan to Lake Huron, would be catastrophic.