by Jeffrey Insko | Aug 21, 2012 |
As we reported in our post late last night, the Brandon Township Board of Trustees unanimously passed a resolution yesterday evening requiring certain conditions of Enbridge before the company can begin work within the township limits. Supervisor Kathy Thurman, Clerk Jeannie McCreery, Treasure Tyrone Beltramo, and Trustees Dana DePalma, David King, Tom Stowell, and Cheryl Gault deserve a tremendous amount of credit for their courage, their responsiveness to citizen concerns, and their bold and responsible stewardship of the public interest. They have stepped in where few other Michigan elected officials have dared. We are hopeful that other townships and municipalities will be emboldened by Brandon’s actions and begin taking their own steps. (more…)
by Jeffrey Insko | Aug 20, 2012 |
Tonight, the Brandon Township Board of Trustees passed a resolution requiring Enbridge to adhere to certain safety standards (among other conditions) before beginning construction within township limits.
To date, these are the only elected officials in Michigan who have taken action or gone on record to protect the public interest in the matter of the Enbridge Line 6B “replacement” project. We admire their gumption.
Details and much more on this tomorrow.
by Jeffrey Insko | Aug 20, 2012 |
Excellent coverage with some details of the resolution on Enbridge that Brandon Township will consider at tonight’s meeting– from Eric Lawrence at the Free Press. A taste:
“I do find it interesting that they can assure that the pipeline project in Alberta is built and operated to the highest standards yet in the (United) States, we’re not necessarily assured those same standards will be met,” [Supervisor Kathy] Thurman said.
by Jeffrey Insko | Aug 19, 2012 |
It’s been almost exactly one year since Enbridge filed its application with the Michigan Public Service Commission seeking approval for its Line 6B “replacement” project. And in that year, we’re not aware of a single elected official from Michigan at the state or national level who has made a single public statement on the matter– much less one who has taken a coherent position that reflects a concern for the important public issues at stake. (If someone knows of such statements, we’d love to hear them).
Because of this extraordinary silence, this leadership vacuum, we’ve spent a fair amount of time over the past few months contacting the officials elected to represent our interests in Michigan and Washington D.C. (And we would urge you to do the same!) We have been met with varying degrees of responsiveness– and we’re not afraid to name names: (more…)
by Jeffrey Insko | Aug 19, 2012 |
We will be attending tomorrow night’s (August 20 at 7 pm) Brandon Township Board of Trustees meeting, where we expect them to once again take up the issue of whether to give consent to Enbridge for their work within the township limits. Many of you know that we have written about the “local consent” issue before, in more ways than one. That issue is tremendously important both in terms of preserving local authority and autonomy– especially given the astonishing willingness of state and federal agencies to give Enbridge a free pass at every turn– and as yet another measure of how well (or how poorly) Enbridge lives up to its own publicly stated policy of “respecting the national and local laws of the countries and communities where we operate.”
Brandon Township supervisor Kathy Thurman and her board have shown real leadership in this area. Enbridge claims that they do not need to seek local consent. But sooner or later, that claim is going to need to be tested (most likely in court). For that reason, the more attention Brandon’s actions receive the better. We hope to see you there and we hope you will bring with you your local and state elected officials and your friends and contacts in the news media!
by Jeffrey Insko | Aug 3, 2012 |
More excellent reporting by Susan Bromley of The Citizen in Brandon. The Brandon Township board and its attorney, showing great leadership, are taking the issue of local consent very seriously. Will other townships follow their lead?
