Plan to ship oil across Lake Superior hits snag
A plan to ship crude oil across Lake Superior has been dealt a setback.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has rejected an application by Calumet Specialty Products to repair a loading dock in Superior, Wis., where the company had proposed loading oil on to ships that would travel to eastern refineries.
The agency ordered a comprehensive environmental assessment of the plan before it can proceed. Calumet Specialty Products, which operates an oil refinery in Superior, announced last year that it would pursue the idea. It obtains crude oil from North Dakota and Canada that is shipped in pipelines across northern Minnesota.
The company's officials have said transporting oil on ships could help alleviate the bottleneck of crude being shipped in pipelines and on rail cars. But opponents say the proposal is too risky because of the threat of spills into the Great Lakes.
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