LANSING (WKZO-AM) — State Sen. Rick Jones, R-Grand Ledge, said his new pipeline safety bill will face stiff challenges, both inside and outside legislative chambers.
Jones claimed Enbridge lobbyists descended upon the Capitol moments after it was presented Tuesday.
“They came to my office and told me to back off,” Jones said. “That’s not going to happen.”
But Jones said the legislation is being applauded by a few groups.
“The Michigan Environmental Council, the Native American tribes, and certainly the Sierra Club and other groups like that,” Jones said.
The bill, which disallows the installation of new Great Lakes pipelines and requires independent testing for existing ones, targets Line 5 under the Straits of Mackinac, which Enbridge says is safe and already subject to rigorous testing.
But Enbridge said something similar before Line 6B spilled nearly a million gallons of crude into the Kalamazoo River in 2010, Jones said.
