by Jeffrey Insko | Jun 21, 2020 |
It’s been a bad week for Enbridge.
By now, I assume you’ve seen the news: Enbridge disclosed to the state on Thursday that they’ve discovered serious but unexplained damage to an anchor supporting a segment of Line 5. Apparently it was bad enough that Enbridge shut the line down briefly. The governor sent a letter requesting more information but before the ink was even dry on that letter Enbridge started the line up again, prompting a second stern letter from Governor Whitmer. As of this writing, no one really knows what happened.
This news comes on the heels of the announcement, which I wrote about on Friday, that the EPA fined Enbridge more than $6 million dollars for safety violations related to the 2017 consent decree. Unsurprisingly, Enbridge offered up a whole bunch of lame excuses for their lack of compliance with some very simple rules.
It also comes on the heels of a rather extraordinary letter published in the Detroit News by Enbridge’s Great Lakes Director of Operatons Mike Moeller. Of course, the letter has nothing interesting to say at all. What makes it extraordinary is the sheer number of bromides Moeller (or the PR shill who wrote it for him) is able to pack into a short letter to the editor. It trots out every hackneyed phrase (“indomitable resolve”! “unwavering focus”! “hard work [and] determination”) its authors could think of and then, just when you start to feel queasy, they add some platitudes about “resilience” and “forg[ing] strong connections with the communities in which we operate” and Michigander’s “spirit in the face of adversity”– a spirit Moeller apparently finds “inspiring.” Gag.
This sort of clichéd prose, as any reader can tell instantly, is the hallmark of insincerity. And ordinarily, I wouldn’t even bother commenting on yet another pointless assemblage of vapid phrases from Enbridge. But the juxtaposition of Moeller’s letter with the other Enbridge news of this week provides a striking reminder of something else everyone else knows but that can’t be repeated often enough:
That despite all their public relations claptrap about “critical infrastructure” needs, all their hollow talk about their commitments to Michigan, and all their unconvincing assurances about “operational and environmental safeguards,” Enbridge really only cares about one thing: pumping as much oil through their pipelines as quickly and for as long as they can to make as much profit as possible. Period. That’s it.
So if that means treating landowners, communities, and local officials shabbily, so be it. If that means withholding information of pipeline defects from the state or dragging their feet to fix those defects, so be it. If that means treating “administrative” matters as an afterthought, so be it. And if that means thumbing their nose at a Governor rightly concerned about the revelation of a potentially dangerous situation and hastily starting Line 5 up again despite her calls that they proceed with caution and transparency, then so be it.
Update (6/23): In response to the re-start and disregard of Gov. Whitmer’s request for a full investigation, Attorney General Dana Nessel has filed a Court motion seeking a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction pending more information. Nessel also released a statement:
To date, Enbridge has provided no explanation of what caused this damage and a woefully insufficient explanation of the current condition and safety of the pipeline as a result of this damage…We cannot rely on Enbridge to act in the best interests of the people of this State so I am compelled to ask the Court to order them to.”
As I’ve said before, Nessel gets it. She knows very well what everybody else knows: Enbridge is never going to change. They literally can’t. They can’t even if the individuals who work for the company, like Mike Moeller, honestly would like to. That’s because Enbridge exists only to do one thing and they’re going to keep doing that thing until someone tells them they can’t. The only interest they’ll ever act in favor of is their bottom line. That’s why it’s long past time for the Governor, who thankfully supports Nessel’s latest action, to continue to pretend there’s an amicable solution to the Line 5 problem. It’s long past time for her to finally take decisive action.
At this point, there is really only thing to ask of Enbridge: just spare us the bullshit.
by Jeffrey Insko | Sep 28, 2021 |
It is entirely possible that the world doesn’t need one more example illustrating the headline of this post. They are legion. This blog is full of them— almost a full decade’s worth of them. And the troubling thing about this surfeit of examples, this disturbing excess, is that it doesn’t seem to matter. It appears to make almost no impression whatsoever on most of the people who are in a position to actually do something about it, the people who actually could hold Enbridge accountable for their appalling record of looking the public in the face and, without so much as a twitch, uttering rank falsehoods.
But like you, dear reader, I care about the truth. So I keep documenting these things anyway. And today I have another one that’s sort of been stuck in my craw this past week. You see, over the weekend, I was lucky enough to take part in a session at the annual Michigan History Conference organized by the Historical Society of Michigan. Beth Wallace from the National Wildlife Federation and I presented on Line 5. My talk, based upon research that I’ve been conducting (with the help of my amazing research assistant, the brilliant and tenacious Alma Dukovic) for the book I’m currently writing.
As I was putting together my presentation, I was reminded of a claim that Enbridge has often made over the course of the past few years, a claim designed to make them look like responsible stewards of the environment, like they are a corporation that cares about the Great Lakes and acts accordingly. And in this case, it’s a specifically historical claim. Here it is on the Enbridge website:
Enbridge’s Line 5 underground pipeline was built in 1953 to remove oil-carrying tanker traffic from the Great Lakes. It also eases roadway and air emissions by avoiding oil transportation by truck and rail.
And here it is in the mouth of none other than Enbridge CEO Al Monaco in the Washington Post:
Line 5 was originally built to take oil tankers off the Great Lakes to provide a safer, more efficient way to get energy to millions of people who depend on it every day.
Line 5 was constructed with the Great Lakes and safety in mind.
And here it is– there’s even video!– coming from ubiquitous Enbridge spokesman Ryan Duffy:
Back in the 50s, there was a push to change up how oil was being moved on the Great Lakes so that it wouldn’t be in those huge oil tankers out on the water. The push was to find a way to do it safer.
Got it? Enbridge would have us all believe that the primary reason they built the Line 5 pipeline was because they just wanted to protect the Great Lakes from potential tanker spills. They would have us believe that “Line 5 was constructed with the Great Lakes and safety in mind.” They would have us believe that in 1953 “there was a push” to transport oil more safely.
Reader, this is complete bullshit. It’s greenwashing history.
I have read a lot about the history of Line 5. I’ve read countless newspaper reports about it from the 50s. I’ve read the corporate history that was written about it by an Enbridge insider. I’ve read the annual reports of the company from the era. And in all of that research, I have not seen one single word about Great Lakes safety. I haven not encountered, in any source, anyone saying that Line 5 was meant to provide a safer alternative to tanker traffic. It just didn’t happen. It’s simply not true.
The truth, instead, is pretty much what you would expect: the construction of Line 5 wasn’t a safety decision; it was a financial decision. And the reason is simple: in 1953, the real Great Lakes shipping problem was the weather. In Winter, icy conditions made the shipping channels on the lakes completely impassable. So oil couldn’t be shipped by tanker all year round. Shipping was a seasonal operation. And that meant that Enbridge’s affiliates in the oil fields of Western Canada were producing oil faster than Enbridge could get it to the refineries in Sarnia. Year-round transport via pipeline solved that problem.
But you don’t have to take my word for it. You can just listen to the Al Monaco of 1953, T.S. Johnston the President of Interprovincial Pipe Line (the precursor to Enbridge). According to the New York Times on April 2, 1953:
The completion of this extension will make it possible, Mr. Johnston said, to deliver crude oil the year ’round to Ontario. Thus the bottleneck caused by cessation of tanker operations on the Great Lakes during the Winter will be eliminated.
This was always the rationale for the construction of Line 5, repeated frequently in news and other accounts. There’s not a word about safety. Not in news accounts or anywhere else that I have seen. As usual, Enbridge is literally just making things up. So I say it once again: you cannot believe a single word Enbridge says.
In a rational world, this sort of thing would matter. It would be admissible and carry great weight in regulatory and legal proceedings, where skepticism about Enbridge’s claims and assurances should reign, but– alas– does not.
by Jeffrey Insko | Dec 4, 2020 |
Another day, another hour of my time wasted typing up the same blog post I’ve been typing up for more than 8 years now. Enbridge, once again, has been fined for a series of safety violations. Ace reporter Mike Soraghan has the story at E&E News. Unfortunately, the article is behind a paywall and who knows whether any other outlets will even bother to pick it up. This sort of thing happens with so much frequency when it comes to Enbridge that everybody seems completely numb to it. We’re all expected just to shrug our shoulders, look away, and move along. Meanwhile, Enbridge gets to start construction on Line 3 in Minnesota despite the ethical opposition of tribal and citizen groups. And here in Michigan, people who are supposed to be stewards of the public trust not only take seriously Enbridge’s absurd tunnel plan, they actively work to support it.
The violations, if you’re interested in the details, involve all sorts of things: failing to do a required review after a leak, not following up on aerial patrols, and in one case, federal regulators discovered exposed sections of pipe that lacked appropriate anti-corrosion coating.
These are all serious matters; if they weren’t, there wouldn’t be regulations that are supposed to enforce compliance with them. But what does Enbridge have to say about this? The same old bullshit. Rather than taking responsibility, they wave it off as no big deal and blow the same smoke they always blow:
“It’s important to note that none of the findings show or pose an immediate safety concern,” said Enbridge spokesman Michael Barnes. “Enbridge takes our responsibility to operate pipelines in a safe manner seriously, and we are committed to working with our regulator, PHMSA.”
In other words, “nothing to see here,” Enbridge says, again. But this enforcement action from PHMSA– a notoriously toothless agency, it must be said– comes just months after the EPA fined Enbridge $6 million for a bunch of things that Enbridge likewise treated as No Big Deal. PHMSA has proposed $122,000 in fines, which is itself a joke. That kind of money is lying around as loose change in the break room at Enbridge’s corporate office. If you open your windows, you can probably hear Enbridge executives and attorneys giggling over this right now.
Which is simply to point out that there are no real consequences for these repeated failures and violations. They’re unlikely to be taken up, for example, in any of the legal proceedings Enbridge is currently embroiled in with the state of Michigan. A discussion of this pattern of violations, part and parcel with Enbridge’s pattern of dishonesty, surely won’t be admissible in the MPSC proceedings, which are hamstrung by the narrow framework Enbridge successfully imposed upon those proceedings. And none of this will make any impression whatsoever on the gullible shills in the Michigan legislature who hungrily swallow whatever hollow claptrap Enbridge serves up to them about how they’ve learned so many lessons since 2010.
But Rebecca Craven of the Pipeline Safety Trust isn’t having it:
“If this has been their dramatic improvement since then that makes me more worried.”
There are maybe a handful of people on the entire planet who know more about these matters than does Rebecca Craven. You’d think people might want to listen up. But will anybody else, most importantly anybody in a position of authority in Minnesota or Michigan or Wisconsin, share her worry? Will anyone else share my outrage? I’ve about exhausted my supply.
by Jeffrey Insko | Jun 19, 2020 |
Enbridge has been fined again. This week, Enbridge announced that it has reached a settlement with the Environmental Protection Agency for failing to comply with safety-related measures stipulated in the U.S. Department of Justice consent decree Enbridge agreed to in 2017 as a result of the Marshall spill.
You can read the whole thing here. The fines totaling $6.7 million are the result, among other things, of Enbridge’s failure “to complete timely identification and evaluation of thousands of ‘shallow dent’ features on Lakehead System pipelines” and to take measures to repair or mitigate those defects in their pipelines.
Sound familiar?
This is exhausting. I’ve been writing this same blog post for 8 full years now. I’m frankly tired of it. How many times do I have to point out that Enbridge, despite all of its corporate public relations rhetoric, never learns from its mistakes? How many times do I need to document how they repeat precisely the same (unsafe) behavior over and over? How many times do I have to rehearse the fact that when they get busted they prevaricate and dissemble and make laughable excuses like a teenager caught sneaking peppermint schnapps from the liquor cabinet?
First, let’s be very clear about one thing: failing to take swift action to correct defects on a pipeline is very serious business. By now, everyone reading this knows that is exactly what led to the disastrous spill in Marshall. We all know that Enbridge knew, for years, about cracks and other defects in Line 6B but they did not take measures to fix those problems. We also know the result: a million gallons of diluted bitumen in the Kalamazoo River.
Secondly, fast forward to 2017, when Enbridge once again tried to hide or downplay pipeline defects, this time with Line 5. Enbridge knew about damaged protective coating on Line 5 for years before divulging that very important and very serious information to Michigan state officials
Thirdly, Enbridge’s response in these instances is always grudging compliance and excuse-making. Never do they take responsibility. The present example of this is so extraordinary I need to tell you about it in some detail. Please stick with me:
Although Enbridge has agreed to pay the $6-plus million in fines, they steadfastly refuse to concede that they have committed any safety violations. Instead, in a truly stunning letter to the EPA, Enbridg’s attorneys shamelessly attempt to write the whole thing off as no big deal, insisting that “all of these alleged violations were largely administrative in nature and did not result in any safety issues, missed integrity risk reduction activities, loss of product or any damage to the environment.” So, for example, when the EPA fines Enbridge for failing to report crack features in a timely manner, Enbridge says it was because of “an administrative oversight.” And when the EPA fines Enbridge for completing their Threat Integration for Line 3 a few days late, Enbridge shrugs it off as “an administrative error.” And on and on and on. No parent of a child would ever accept such bullshit.
But two things are worth recognizing here with regard to these “administrative” matters. First, this kind of administration is incredibly important. Enbridge seems to want the EPA and the rest of us to believe that because these things are all “administrative in nature” they are of no particular concern. But there are important reasons for these rules; there are important reasons that regulatory bodies require, say, the timely reporting of crack defects in pipelines: it’s one way to assure that those defects get corrected before there is a problem, like a massive spill. Applying for a driver’s license and keeping your auto insurance updated are also “administrative in nature,” but they are important. Administration is prevention.
Secondly, if a corporation is making that many “administrative errors” isn’t that a sign of some deeper problems? Sure, anybody can make one mistake. There are a hundred reasons why someone might make an auto insurance payment late; insurance companies even make allowances for such things. But if I pay my insurance bill late over and over, eventually my insurer will probably terminate my coverage. And make no mistake about it, Enbridge has a long history of exhibiting troubling patterns of behavior, a long history of just these kinds of systemic problems. Have we already forgotten about the NTSB’s description of the company’s “culture of deviance” from safety protocols? How can Enbridge expect to earn the public’s trust if they’re so sloppy and lax with regard to “administrative” matters?
Finally– and this is the most important part– Enbridge insists to EPA over and over that these administrative problems “did not result in any safety issues, missed integrity risk reduction activities, loss of product or any damage to the environment.” But that argument is outlandish. To extend my analogy, just because I drove my car home safely without a license or insurance does not mean I should have been driving the car. And I definitely shouldn’t be driving it while drinking, which is basically what Enbridge is doing by continuing to operate pipelines with known defects. Just because nothing happened this time doesn’t mean it won’t. Again, that’s the whole point of all of this: prevention.
Frankly, I don’t know how EPA can abide Enbridge’s cavalier attitude toward these things, especially given the way Enbridge has thumbed its nose at the EPA in the past. But one thing is for sure: this troubling behavior, these lapses, these failures to take responsibility, this disturbing pattern of behavior should be given serious consideration when it comes to regulatory approvals (or disapprovals) of Line 3 and Line 5. Enbridge calls them “administrative errors”; I call them “evidence.”
by Kyle Phillips | Dec 23, 2018 |
“Be as quiet as you can.”
“No one’s gonna hear me over the sound of that.” He pointed to their cozy, two-story home, lit up with flames.
“It doesn’t matter. They’re radicals. If they find us, they’ll shoot us in the fucking face. We have to keep moving,” said Brad. He shifted uncomfortably and coughed His dress shoes and socks were soaked with swamp water. Mateo said nothing. The heat from the flames was melting his layers of theatrical makeup- mahogany skin drips and smudged eyeliner. A human candle. Brad reached for his hand. “Mateo. We really need to go. We can only stay hidden for so long.”
…
Brad knew something like this was going to eventually slither its way into his life. His career. His marriage. His conscious. Everyone’s temperament tightened and tightened like a snakeskin that needed to molt.
Brad often felt like an old wad of skin.
No longer needed, only covering up the truth but everyone saw right through it. Especially Mateo, it seemed. Mateo could always plug into what Brad was thinking. But he still made him say the thoughts out loud.
“It’s not healthy to keep all that in,” he’d chide, “you try to fold in on yourself and hide from me.”
“It’s not always about you.”
They had been driving for a little while down the freshly-paved Florida highway, Brad with a white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel. Winds from a nearby storm were picking up, but they stayed the course. They were used to it now, though they didn’t want to be.
“Why are you so nervous?” Mateo glanced over at Brad’s bony hands. “It’s just a holiday party.”
“You’re going to be meeting all of these people for the first time.”
“And you’re afraid I won’t like them?”
“Yes.”
“Since when do you care what I think?” Mateo asked with a smirk. He wiped a stripe of dust off the dashboard.
“Since always,” Brad said quietly.
“It doesn’t matter if I like them. It doesn’t even really matter if you like them.”
“I like them fine.”
“That’s a fucking lie. I’m surprised you’re even going tonight.”
“It’ll be weird if I don’t. Besides, I’m sure you’ll make it fun.”
“Hey, I’m not there to entertain. I’m off the clock,” Mateo pointed at his wrist that had no watch on it. “I’m there to eat food and nod and smile when people talk science-y at me.”
“Damn. I was hoping you’d do your Mickey Mouse impression.”
“That’s for your ears only.”
Brad loosened his grip on the wheel a little. The winds had eased up some too. Mateo cracked his window open.
“They’ll probably think I’m weird. No, not weird. Useless.”
“How are you useless?” Brad asked as he merged over, passing a slower-moving sedan.
“I mean, you’re actually doing something noteworthy. If someone was forced to shoot either an actor or a scientist, they’d probably shoot the actor.”
“That’s… really grim, Mateo.”
“I’m just thinking out loud.”
“Well, I wish you wouldn’t think that way.”
Mateo just shrugged and looked out the window. They pulled into the hotel parking lot. The holiday party was to be held in one of the ballrooms. A large sign by the valet parking read “Welcome, ORLANDO OIL!”
Brad grimaced. “They should really take that down.”
…
The smoke from the last lab fire nearly suffocated him. His ashen face, sunken cheeks, and tired eyes were screened on every news outlet, unfairly exposed.
Brad’s identity and his story became a human rights morsel
, a finger food of all the household conversations. He was the only lab worker that survived. Everyone else perished. Every single person that exchanged Secret Santa gifts and ate peppermint brownies and downed eggnog at the holiday party were ash.
They called it a terrorist attack.
Brad emerged with a permanent chemical burn that emblazoned his chest and the entirety of his left arm and hand.
Mateo took it personally.
“This is bullshit,” he fidgeted with the tubes connected to Brad’s oxygen mask, “We can’t do this.”
“I’m… trying… to do… different things,” Brad managed to say between clogged breaths.
“Well, it doesn’t matter now. You’re not going back.”
Brad stared at him with wet eyes.
“What?” Mateo plopped down on the couch next to him and leaned his head back. His eyes were red-rimmed and bloodshot.
Brad shrugged. He didn’t feel like talking anymore. It hurt too much.
“I’m sorry. I know it seems like I’m mad at you.”
Brad rolled his eyes just a flicker and nodded.
“Ouch, okay. I felt that eye roll in my soul,” he took Brad’s bandaged hand in his, ever so carefully twining their fingers together. “I’m just scared. I don’t think I’ve ever been this scared before.”
…
That was all some time ago. Brad still had a cough now and then but was mostly better. If he had to cough during one of Mateo’s plays, he put a hand over his mouth and held it until his eyes watered.
“Along with me! I’ll see what hole is here and what he is that is now leapt into it-” Mateo’s voice bellowed through the auditorium.
Brad involuntarily spit into his hand. His heart jumped.
Mateo stared down at him from the stage with heavily-inked eyelids. His forehead was sweating underneath the fake crown and bright lights. Brad waved off his gaze and buried his face into the crook of his elbow.
“Say,” Mateo cautiously continued, “Who are thou that lately didst descend into this gaping hollow of the earth?”
…
Now they watched their home burn.
Someone had recognized them and followed their car all the way back, two car distances behind, headlights dimmed. The circle of suspects was getting tighter.
“Our home…” Mateo whispered mournfully over and over again, “Our home…”
“Mateo, we can’t-”
Brad felt the irritation from the smoke rise in his chest and throat. Mateo had forcefully shoved Brad out of the bathroom window first, but he still swallowed too much. Too much for someone already previously exposed. He doubled over and hacked into the swampy grass, hands on his knees. Mateo touched his arm.
“Okay, we’re going. You’re going to get sick again,” he said.
Brad coughed out one more forceful gust of infected air. He looked up at him and nodded, took his hand, and entwined their fingers.
