Some breaking news to report: Michigan Representative Fred Upton, who represents plenty of citizens along Line 6B, has introduced legislation that would put an end to the Presidential Permitting process for cross-border pipelines. The bill is intended to fast-track pipeline projects, requiring that they be approved in no more than 120 days. The bill would also explicitly exempt pipeline reversals, volume expansions, and other modifications from the approval process.

For a long time now, we’ve been bemoaning the lack of public input, careful environmental review, and regulatory scrutiny of the Line 6B project as well as other tar sands pipeline projects, like Keystone XL, the Alberta Clipper expansion, the Flanagan South project, and the planned volume expansion of Line 5 under the straits of Mackinac. This bill would make sure that there is even LESS chance for public input, environmental review, and regulatory scrutiny. It is designed to ensure the “anything goes” when it comes to the production and transportation of tar sands pipelines.

This is a bill of the industry, by the industry and for the industry. It represents a serious threat to the Great Lakes. We need to stop it.

Please write or call Fred Upton or your U.S. district representative. The number for Upton’s Washington D.C. office is:

(202) 225-3761

Or you can call his Kalamazoo office at  (269) 385-0039.

Or you can send him an email here: http://upton.house.gov/contact/