Lake Michigan safe in pipeline deal: Enbridge

In response to the Jan. 19 editorial on Enbridge’s Line 5, (“New plan leaves Lake Michigan at risk for oil spill” — Jan. 19) it is important to recognize that this pipeline serves hundreds of thousands of families and businesses every day and helps promote North American energy independence.

Enbridge’s Line 5 help supports the quality of life to which we all are accustomed. Refineries need the oil to produce more than 6,000 everyday items ─ including automobiles, food, clothing, medications, mobile phones, and televisions. Families rely on propane from Line 5 to meet heating, as well as other practical needs, including hot showers and warm meals.

Unfortunately, the editorial uses inaccuracies to suggest that families and businesses either should choose between safe and affordable energy or the environment. That simply is not the case.

The agreement between the state of Michigan and Enbridge provides a framework to continue to protect the waters of the Great Lakes and the environment, without compromising a prime energy source. Enbridge also has committed to exploring new underwater technology to enhance leak detection and will look at ways to minimize potential anchor strikes from boats.

Equally important, Enbridge will prepare a report by June, which will evaluate options to replace the Straits section of Line 5.

We look forward to continuing to work with the state of Michigan to ensure the ongoing safe operation of Line 5, which will help enable area families and businesses to continue to receive the energy they depend on every day. Through our effective maintenance programs over the last 60 years, the dual pipelines remain in outstanding operating condition, and we intend to keep it that way.

John Gauderman, Enbridge Great Lakes Region Director

Overlooked questions about ‘serial stowaway’

Andy Grimm’s full-page article in today’s Sun-Times about Marilyn Hartman’s continued efforts to board airplanes without a ticket (“Serial stowaway will remain in custody, undergo physciatric evaluation” — Jan. 31) is another example of how the most important part of the story keeps getting ignored.

All the focus seems to be on how many times and in which places she has tried to do it, her mental state, whether she should be put in jail or an institution, and what her family has or hasn’t done to help her.

Little seems to be reported about the most serious issue of all, and how that is being addressed. Why has she been able to get through all the levels of security that are supposed to protect air passengers from those who might do them harm, and to make sure they have paid for their flights?

Which TSA and airline personnel allowed her to pass through their work stations without proving she had the necessary documentation to show she was entitled to board the flights involved? Ms. Hartman may be mentally unstable, but she can certainly fool a lot of other people. Why don’t we hear about what is being done to discipline or retrain those who let it happen?

Jeffrey L. Stern, Highland Park

We can handle, actually need, the truth

There seems to be quite a hubbub over whether or not to disclose “the memo.” The question should be: Do Americans deserve transparency from their government?

In the movie “The Post,” the question of government transparency was a central theme. Should the Washington Post disclose the Pentagon Papers to the public. These documents had been hidden for years and weren’t fully understood until Daniel Ellsberg gave them to the newspapers. And when the press announced they would publish them, the government went apoplectic and threatened the press, thus creating a Freedom of Speech issue.

Today the situation is quite different. President Trump is preparing to disclose “the memo” and provide citizens with transparency while the opposing party, and their career bureaucrats and holdovers from the previous administration, are going nuts trying to suppress it, claiming all the same reasons the Nixon administration tried to use to conceal the truth in the 70’s.

No one should be above the law and anyone, especially government employees, should be required to be totally transparent. We can handle it.

Mike Simon, Glen Ellyn