ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Today, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder issued a letter to members of the Pipeline Safety Advisory Board (PSAB) in response to their resolutions on Enbridge’s Line 5, passed at their December meeting, including announcing his intention to delay a final agreement with Enbridge from August 15 to September 30. Additionally, he gave the reasons he will not take action on the resolutions and challenged the fact that they passed. The full text of the letter can be found here.

Mike Shriberg, executive director of the National Wildlife Federation’s Great Lakes Regional Office and a member of the Pipeline Safety Advisory Board who sponsored one of the resolutions, issued this statement in response to Governor Snyder’s letter:

“Governor Snyder’s response to the resolutions which passed his Pipeline Safety Advisory Board appears to be kicking the can down the road while the Great Lakes remain at risk. The state’s failure to produce a timely and effective risk and alternatives analysis should not be an excuse for defensiveness and inaction. Enbridge provided false information to the Pipeline Safety Advisory Board and then later admitted that their testing failed to pick up major gaps in the coating, among other issues; hydrotests are not the only required testing to prove pipelines are safe to operate. The solution is not to allow Enbridge more time to conduct its own analyses. If protective coating is not intact, it is the responsibility of the state to enforce its easement to protect the Great Lakes and work toward propane delivery alternatives that meet Michigan’s interests, not Enbridge’s. Finally, the governor’s assertion that the resolutions did not pass because the members of his cabinet did not vote for them means that the advisory board cannot conduct its work. The non-state actors voted overwhelmingly in favor of the resolutions, which means that the appointees not directly employed by Governor Snyder agreed. That should be enough to provide critical input to the governor.”