Michigan Policast for Monday, July 1, 2019
Segment One:  Governor Whitmer vs Lansing Republicans

* Whitmer blasts GOP for taking ‘vacation’ without road, budget deals

* GOP’s $1B road repair idea: Pension bonds

Chatfield and Shirkey have not committed to the idea but had asked the West Michigan Policy Forum to look into ways to finance additional road repairs without the 45-cent-a-gallon fuel tax hike proposed by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
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The concept quickly met conservative opposition from Patrick Anderson, founder and CEO of the Anderson Economic Group and a former state deputy budget director in the Engler administration. Anderson argued it could violate the Michigan Constitution, break trust with pensioners and is “also a really dumb idea” from a taxpayer perspective.

* West Michigan Policy Forum – conservative thinktank proposing the pension bond

Segment two: AG Nessel follows through on her campaign promise to shut down line 5

* Attorney General Nessel Takes Legal Steps to Decommission Line 5

… an April 2018 anchor dragging incident – which ripped through several inches-thick steel cables – brought that threat home in a very real way.  Although Line 5 was damaged – not ruptured – in that incident because the anchor hit a section lying directly on the bottomlands, if the anchor had dragged across the bottom of the Straits in an area where Line 5 is elevated, the likely result would have been a complete rupture of Line 5.

* AG Nessel’s Summons and Complaint against Enbridge (pdf)
* Enbridge response to Michigan Attorney General’s Legal Filing
* Enbridge Line 5 Backgrounder and Timeline (pdf from Enbridge)
* Michigan AG Dana Nessel files lawsuit to shut down Line 5 in Mackinac Straits

* Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel moves to shut down Enbridge Line 5
* Oil & Water Don’t Mix response to AG Nessel legal action
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