This just in: the state of Michigan has terminated the contract of the firm hired to perform a risk assessment of Line 5. The reason? Conflict of interest. From the MDEQ press release:
Within the past month, the state’s project team became aware that an employee who had worked on the risk analysis at DNV GL subsequently worked on another project for Enbridge Energy Co., Inc., which owns the Line 5 pipeline, while the risk analysis was being completed. This is a violation of conflict of interest prohibitions contained in the contract.
It’s not clear how the state learned about this so late in the game. Nor is it clear why or how Enbridge would go out of its way to sink the assessment report. What does seem clear is that Enbridge continues to do everything it can to make it impossible for anyone to trust them. Who was it who recently said you can’t believe anything they say?
Update: Keith Matheny at the Detroit Free Press has more on the story, including a typically evasive statement from Attorney General Schuette delivered by way of an obfuscatory passive construction: “our trust was violated” (by whom he does not say). An Enbridge spokesman also weighs in, stating that they “are investigting what may have happened in the contracting process.” I’m not sure what that means either, but Enbridge’s apparent inability to keep track of such important matters does little to inspire confidence.