The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday, Dec. 2, edition that Michigan officials approved a $500-million (U.S.) plan Friday to encase in a protective tunnel a portion of an aging oil pipeline that runs beneath a channel connecting two Great Lakes, leaving just one more regulatory hurdle for the contentious project. An Associated Press dispatch to The Globe reports that Michigan's three-person Public Service Commission approved the project in the Straits of Mackinac on a 2-0 vote. Commissioner Alessandra Carreon abstained, saying she just joined the commission four months ago. The commission's chairman, Dan Scripps, said the tunnel is the best way to mitigate the risk of a spill as the state slowly transitions to renewable-energy sources. He said, "An oil spill in the straits would be, in a word, catastrophic." Opponents lined up in front of the commission to complain after the vote, blasting the project as a boondoggle that will lock the state into using fossil fuels even longer and endanger the environment. The plan needs approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is compiling an environmental-impact statement. A final decision may not come until 2026.