Some interesting articles have appeared over the past couple days. Over at Inside Climate News, their crack staff of reporters continues to do great work. Lisa Song has two excellent articles. The first is on the MPSC’s phase two approval. A couple of choice quotes:
“I am concerned with the haste with which this project has proceeded,” said Jeff Insko, an English professor at Michigan’s Oakland University who started the Line 6B Citizens’ Blog for concerned landowners. “It’s been fast-tracked both by Enbridge and the regulatory body here in Michigan. And given Enbridge’s history in our state, it seems to me prudence and caution ought to guide us, and they haven’t.”
And this excellent bit from our friend attorney Kim Savage:
Savage once worked as an attorney for gas and electric utilities. At her old job, she said, it was a “terminable offense” to mention condemnation while negotiating for a voluntary easement. “The course Enbridge is taking is shocking, having worked on the other side,” she said.
Song’s second article is a disturbing tale of lax regulations of the pipeline industry. Check this out, for instance:
In 2010, after a massive oil spill in Michigan’s Kalamazoo River, pipeline operator Enbridge Inc. initially reported to PHMSA that the accident occurred at 11:41 a.m. on July 26, which is when the company discovered the spill. It was soon determined that the spill actually happened 17 hours earlier, but Enbridge’s subsequent reports did not correct that inaccuracy.
The timing discrepancy was highlighted last summer, when PHMSA fined Enbridge $3.7 million for breaking 22 federal rules during the Kalamazoo spill, including $100,000 for reporting the time of accident as “11:41 on July 26, 2010, when it had been clear within hours of discovery that the failure date and time was approximately 17:58 on July 25, 2010.”
Despite that fine, Enbridge did not correct the error in its most recent report to PHMSA, filed less than two months ago.
Elsewhere, apparently Enbridge is telling some tall tales about the behavior of dilbit in bodies of water–as if nobody has seen what happened in the Kalamazoo River. And the same newspaper, the Vancouver Sun has launched an excellent new series, the first part of which is an introduction to Enbridge. The portrait is not that pretty.
From over in Niles, Michigan, here’s a tv report about Line 6B’s path through a family farm.
Finally, over at MiLive, they’re hosting a live chat with Congressman Mike Rogers today at 10:30 am. Personally, we think Rogers’s silence and lack of leadership on Enbridge and Line 6B is shameful and unforgivable. Unfortunately, we’ll be on the road this morning and won’t be able to make that chat, but if you get a chance to participate and ask him why he’s been almost completely silent on an issue of great importance to his constituents, we’d love to hear a report of his response.