State Rep. Beau LaFave of Iron Mountain today issued the following statement:

“I am glad to see Gov. Whitmer finally coming around on the issue of keeping Michigan residents alive and warm this winter, at least when it comes to natural gas users in lower Michigan. During the campaign, she and Dana Nessel played it fast and loose with easy talking points about shutting down access to critical heating fuel on their first day in office. Now that the rubber has met the road and she’s actually responsible for people’s lives, the governor is singing a different tune, and I’m glad to hear it.

“My only regret is that it took the lives of lower Michigan residents being endangered for her to drop the campaign rhetoric and acknowledge the obvious importance of heating fuel in a Michigan winter. She ought to be just as concerned about the hundreds of thousands of Northern Michigan and Upper Peninsula residents who rely on the life-saving heat coming through the Straits. I hope the governor and the attorney general reconsider their reckless opposition to the secure tunnel under the Straits and drop the dangerous political game they’re playing to cut off access for all of the families they are supposed to represent.”

Note: More than half of Michigan’s propane users get their heating fuel from the pipeline under the Straits.