by Jeffrey Insko | Oct 15, 2012 |
We haven’t finished with our review and commentary of the Michigan Townships Association amicus filing in the federal lawsuit initiated by POLAR. We’ll return to that soon. But we’re taking time away from that to remark upon the extraordinary ad, in the form of a letter to “neighbors,” published by Enbridge in yesterday’s Free Press. In our first post, we noted how it’s more than a little strange that Enbridge has chose to open up lines of communication more than a year after they first filed for MPSC approval of the project.
This, our second installment on the letter signed by Vice President for Major Projects Execution Mark Sitek, will focus on just one sentence. It’s our favorite one in the whole letter. Sitek says:
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by Jeffrey Insko | Oct 9, 2012 |
One of the favored stock utterances of Enbridge representatives, one we’ve heard countless times over the past few months, is “we want to be a good neighbor.” Project Manager Tom Hodge said this repeatedly to the Brandon Township trustees at their “workshop” last month–as his fellow Enbridge reps, including three spokespersons and attorney Michael Ashton, all nodded their heads in agreement. And while on the whole, we found Hodge more credible than most of the Enbridge representatives we’ve encountered, we were skeptical of that hollow phrase. Indeed, given the chance to comment at the end of the meeting, we said as much, pointing out that Enbridge didn’t come to that meeting in a spirit of cooperation; they only agreed to the meeting reluctantly and were there only to placate, not to comply or even compromise. That doesn’t strike us as all that neighborly. (more…)
by Jeffrey Insko | Sep 22, 2012 |
You would think that with all that’s happened over the past week– the Brandon “workshop” and Enbridge construction activity in Brandon despite the fact that the resolution issue remains unresolved, the dismissal in Oakland County Circuit Court of an Enbridge condemnation suit, and the news that a lawsuit by POLAR will now likely be heard in federal court— there would be a flurry of press coverage to review. But there’s not. We’ll assume that local reporters are still working on these stories.
What we do have is only this: a story in the Battle Creek Enquirer that has to be one of the more credulous reports we’ve seen in quite a long time; and a short one from one of our favorite local reporters, Susan Bromley of the Brandon Citizen, about the Brandon “workshop.” We especially like this sentence:
It appears Enbridge has not conceded to any of the [Township’s] demands, but instead gave extensive explanations as to why the replacement pipeline is various widths at various places.
by Jeffrey Insko | Sep 7, 2012 |
We apologize for our silence the past few days. It’s not for a lack of things to discuss, however. It’s just that we’re on an academic calendar and have been caught up with sundry back-to-school tasks and responsibilities. That said, we’re doing a little catching up today. Let’s start with a news roundup: (more…)
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?
