There’s an important article this morning in Inside Climate News on the state of Line 6B affairs in Indiana. David Hasmeyer and Lisa Song, not surprisingly, continue to do outstanding work– as they have for months (and months). You might be flummoxed, for example, to learn that there Indiana has no regulatory body to oversee oil pipelines in their state (and we thought Michigan, with the weak and hapless Public Service Commission, was bad!). You will also get to read the remarks of our old friend Larry Springer (yes, that’s the guy who snubbed us!), who talks about how Line 6B will exceed certain federal regulations (a reminder that we still need to revisit that matter in detail; we will!). And, as always, our friend Nate Pavlovic of Save the Dunes brings it.

And finally, you might be as shocked– shocked!– as we were at the remarks of some local emergency manners down there in Indiana, who appear to trust Enbridge implicitly. We can’t decide whether they’re naive, ignorant, overconfident or all of the above. What we can tell you is that they don’t inspire much confidence. And we can all but guarantee they haven’t read the NTSB report on Marshall. Get a load of this:

Emergency managers in three of the Indiana counties the pipeline will cross told InsideClimate News they are satisfied with the company’s emergency response plans for the current 6B and believe the new pipeline will be safe. Although they haven’t been provided response plans tailored specifically for the unique conditions a dilbit spill would create, they said they have universal procedures that can cover a multitude of scenarios.

“You have to ask yourself the question: ‘Is it [a spill] going to happen?'” said Russell Shirley, director of the Department of Emergency Management in Porter County. “Anything is possible, but it is probable?

“I don’t think it’s probable.”

The emergency managers said they get most of their information from an annual meeting held by about two-dozen pipeline companies, including Enbridge. The meeting satisfies a federal requirement that pipeline operators make representatives available to local officials.

Shirley said he hasn’t seen Enbridge’s response plan, hasn’t met with an Enbridge representative and has never engaged in any drills with Enbridge. But he said his 20-member hazmat team could quickly confront a spill and that he could call 40 additional hazmat responders from adjoining counties.

Jeff Hamilton, director of LaPorte County’s hazmat department, said that outside of the annual meeting, he has only sporadic contact with Enbridge, although a company liaison is always available for calls.