MACKINAW CITY — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers this week approved energy company Enbridge’s plans to encase a segment of an aging oil pipeline that runs beneath the Straits of Mackinac, a Great Lakes channel, pushing past its own findings that construction could ruin the environmentally sensitive area.

The corps initially planned to issue a permitting decision early next year. The agency fast-tracked the project in April after President Donald Trump ordered federal agencies to identify energy projects for expedited emergency permitting.

“The approval of the Enbridge Line 5 reroute application is a great success and will advance the President’s energy dominance agenda for America,” Adam Telle, assistant secretary of the Army for civil works, said in a statement.

The corps released an e

See Full Page