Karma

Enbridge might be of the opinion that there's nothing in their world that they can't control but his proves otherwise. Timely and arguably a great example of what they are proposing and a small example of how terribly wrong things can go.

Enbridge echoing Harper?

Or Harper echoing Enbridge, et al?

Of course, all these

Of course, all these disasters jack up the GDPwhich makes so called "economists" and "conservative " politicians happy to report.

They may even enhance "individualism" and "property rights", which in their warped world means unlimited exploitation and collectivization, justified with the also fraudulent interpretation of Adam Smith's "invisible hand" theory.

Ed Deak.

I wondered where Andrew Nikiforuk had gone

Here he was doing the job journalists are trained to do. I nominate Nikiforuk for a Webster!

Once again, thanks for the enlightening and disturbing story Andrew. It should have been the lead story of Tyee's main page today.

The current regulatory oversight is not working. Why are companies left to determine their own standards for maintenance, inspection and replacement of pipeline sections and associated parts, materials and equipment?

It is troubling to read just how bad it is.

"Moreover Canada's pipeline regulator, the National Energy Board (NEB) identified seven major weaknesses in the company's ability to detect cracks, leaks and corrosion in a 2008 audit including hazard identification, team communication, competency of training, threat assessments and repair records. The NEB also found numerous areas of non-compliance "in the Enbridge pipeline integrity management program."

One thing that should be pointed about the costs of the spill on the Kalamazoo River is Enbridge's ability, or rather, inability to pay for it. Enbridge had a $650 million insurance policy for spills. The cost for the Kalamazoo spill is over $750 million and government fines and penalties have yet to be assessed.

One has to wonder if the Joint Review Panel is looking at Enbridge's Northern Gateway Pipeline proposal closely enough to determine whether Enbridge has sufficient liability insurance to cover the cost of a spill in one of the many rivers the pipeline is proposed to cross. What would it cost if the pipeline leaked 20,000 barrels into a tributary of the Fraser River during the sockeye salmon migration? (Oh, but didn't Harper and his Parliamentary Thugs just undermine and remove any enforcement teeth from the Fisheries Act?)

Just who pays for these insurance claims? I received a notice last December telling me my rates were going up due to the cost of claims paid out during the last two years. The insurance company cited natural hazard events and major oil spills etc. The insurance companies recover their losses from all of us who have policies for our homes and belongings.

Is this how Enbridge handles its risks and corporate responsibility.

I wonder how Michigan residents would feel listening to Enbridge's current ad noise campaign extolling, "It's more than a pipeline. It's a path to our future." It is indeed, however not Michigan residents nor BC residents.

I imagine a modern day Van Gogh in the banks of the Kalamazoo painting his Tarry, Tarry, Night.

Don't blame the corporations,

Don't blame the corporations, but the economists who come up with the justifications, the same way as the priesthoods of history have always licenced enslavements, destruction and mass murder as the "will of God", and the neocon/fascist governments, all over the world, who let them get away with their crimes in the name of "competitive wealth creation".

The biggest fraud and lie in history,
now covering the whole world. This is what happens when criminals are using ideological and religious theories to justify their crimes and people let them get away with it.

Ed Deak.

Mr. Deak what do you suggest...

I have read your comments with interest and appreciation for your p.o.v. - but what can we, the public, do?
At this time, Kamloops is dealing with a mining proposal that is undergoing an environmental assessment process that appears to be little more that a formality. It is the Ajax Mine a large copper/gold open pit adjacent to residential suburbs and partly within city limits.
The Kinder Morgan pipeline runs right through the mine site - between the pit and a well loved fishing hole, Jocko Lake. The plans to twin the pipeline put the line within metres of the pit and under the constant stress and strain of both blasting and the 24/7 movement of heavy equipment and ore processing.
All I've gotten so far is lip service from both the proponent and Kinder Morgan. They understand our 'concern' but aren't worried because it will all be fine according to them. Our Min of Environment does not respond to contact/letters.
Any suggestions?

"It's more than a pipeline. It's a path to our future."

Right! And if you believe this ..... I noticed that in the article above, there was no mention of one more Enbridge "boo-boo". What about the Red Deer River leak? Yet, the Elk Point spill was mentioned. Here we sit in Northern BC, almost on top of where they want to wreak their next "carnage", and we're supposed to buy their "Path to the Future" crap? I think NOT.

Mine.... I'm dead against any

Mine.... I'm dead against any form of violence, as it never solves anything and only causes physical damage and makes innocent people suffer.

The Occupy movement and the PQ demonstrations, without the masked idiots breaking and damaging things, are definitely the direction the world is heading, once they realize, and admit, that we're heading under a total enslavement by a criminal sector, using the propaganda of "competitiveness", enforced by the "creation" of imaginary money for weapons.

The present problem could be solved with the understanding of 4 simple definitions.

1. Wealth is the temporary control of energy

2. Wealth can not be created, only taken from others, the environment and future generations.

3. Monetary costs and values are not realities, but temporary perceptions, therefore can not be used for economic calculations.

4. Real costs can not be cut, only transferred on other, the environment, etc.....

The question is how to free humanity from the effects of literally thousands of years of brainwash perpetrated by the ruling classes of history to enforce submission to their demands and into their servitude ?

Always in the name of "freedom", now with the addition of fraud of "prosperity", while poverty and destruction is growing by the minute.

What we need is a worldwide awakening and the freeing of minds to stand up and tell any would be rulers to go to hell.

Ed Deak.

Enbridge "Exceptions"

Thanks Andrew--

We in Alberta are soooo lucky--our newest Premier, in just a short few months, with the undoubted aid of CAPP, has totally eliminated spills like this.
Henceforth, all we are at risk for are...."exceptions"! They may occur with increasing frequency, but what a relief that we are spill-free!

how about state violence Ed?

do you the state should keep the violence monopoly no matter what they are doing with it?

Hak....I never hurt anybody,

Hak....I never hurt anybody, but I'm a WW2 vet, and anybody coming here with violent intentions could have some problems...

The point is that violence by faith based oppressions, like religions, ideologies and criminal economic theories can only be fought and opposed with the revolution of minds and not with violence.

We have endless historical examples and precedents, showing, that armed revolutions against oppressors usually end up in replacing them with worse oppressors and criminals than before.

Right now the worst weapons of oppression and colonization are deregulated money creation colonize and ewnslave the world, the "free trade" rackets and the destructive ideology of "competitiveness", which is nothing more than legalized theft.

All these can be fought and eliminated without any form of physical violence in a so called democracy, by demanding real democracy.

Ed Deak.

More oil spills, HO hum

Environmental authorities have mapped out a three-year plan for the restoration of Bohai Bay, which was severely damaged by oil spills last year, China's ocean watchdog said Thursday.

According to a statement by the State Oceanic Administration, the Ministry of Agriculture aims to rebuild the area's fishery industry by 2015, including putting about 3.4 billion aquatic animals into the bay.

The agency also announced that money from a 1 billion yuan ($157 million) compensation fund has already been allocated to Hebei and Liaoning provinces to be used to help fishermen affected by the leaks from the Penglai 19-3 oilfield.
ConocoPhillips China, the operator of the oilfield, has also agreed with the government to set up another 1.1 billion yuan fund based on estimated damages.

The company, based in the United States, and its Chinese partner, China National Offshore Oil Corporation, will also jointly pay another 600 million yuan.
The money will go toward Bohai Bay's marine environment recovery, construction and protection, the statement said.

ConocoPhillips China confirmed the agreement and said the company places the highest priority on its commitment to the country, and it looks forward to continuing operations in China.

In June 2011, Penglai 19-3 oilfield experienced two unrelated leaks, with initial estimates indicating that about 723 barrels (115 cubic meters) of oil were released into the sea and 2,620 barrels (416.45 cubic meters) of mineral oil mud were released onto the seabed, according to the US company.

A State Oceanic Administration investigation report in November said the leaks polluted an area of about 6,200 square kilometers (nearly nine times the size of Singapore), including 870 square kilometers that were severely polluted.
The contamination killed large amounts of aquatic animals and led to a growing abnormality in the water, the report said.

Although progress is being made in dealing with the impact of the leaks, legal experts said restoration and compensation efforts should be more transparent.

Zhou Ke, a professor on environment law at Renmin University of China, said the incident had damaged the interests of not only the government, but also the people.
"More public voices should be heard before the compensation agreement is completed,"

http://powellriverpersuader.blogspot.ca/2012/06/christy-clark-when-will-you-denounce.html

Thanks

Mr. Deak - I am no advocate of violence either. I agree - we need a collective 'awakening', but I fear it will be too late for my children and the environment as we know it. However, I always have hope and will keep pressing forward.

It is never too late

It is never too late !!!!!

The ancient Romans had a saying: "Dum spiro spero" As long as a breathe, I hope.

I'm 85, still want to see the awakening and if I thought for a minute that it is too late, I wouldn't waste my last years on these problems, when I have it made.

I've faced certain death so many times I can't even recall, but am still here, while all those who wanted to put me away are long gone.

It is only too late when we give up and in this case, logic, human rights, physical laws and all facts of democracy are on the side of those who demand answers.

Ed Deak.

very well Ed

and how shall we demand real democracy in the face of a government that is acting as tyrant? What forms will our demand take? If instead of a justice system we have a legal system, if our courts are patently impotent, if our media is 90% corporate, if our police are acting as organized crime gangs, if our military is playing oil company enforcer, if our children already face a blighted future, if our would -be champions are either sell-outs or poltroons - how then shall we frame our demand to be treated as just a human and worthy as the one percent?

The best way is "passive

The best way is "passive resistance", made famous and very effective by Mahatma Gandhi. Don't fight, just don't follow orders.

Definitely more effective than what we can now see in Syria. What comes later, we don't know, but at least it won't be the result of idiotic violence.

What the the French get out of their revolution against their ruling class, or the Russians by having their czar replaced by Stalin ?

Ed Deak.

satyagraha

Does not work on psychopaths

An exercise in truth

I suggest that the powers which recently decided we have too much democracy understand the relationship between freedom and truth. That's the reason why the first step in our present political situation was to remove the regulations about media ownership and to accomplish that monopoly over truth the corporate factions have enjoyed.

Even this Tyee would not exist to tell us these secret truths without the circumstantial emergence of the technologies we are all presently sitting in front of. And we see the scurrying to censor and control the internet being carried out as we speak.

Corporate crimes aided and abetted by our own elected officials.

I believe that apart from wikileaks type whistleblowing, the best hope for a general understanding is the kind of reporting done here.

And I think the next thing we need to see here is a lot of information about what political functionaries have taken how much money from these corporate functionaries, and when and what that money bought.

It's nearly impossible to postulate any scenario in which this gross betrayal of public duties across the board are not the result of bribery and corruption of some kind on some level.

quite

we need leakers and leaks and lots of them. There ARE witnesses to every crime committed by those who have grabbed power and if the evidence is put before the whole people it will become irrelevant that the courts can't and won't do their job. No honour among thieves and even if ordinary folk don't have the money to force change we can count on the other power sharks to rip apart their compatriots if given the means to do it.

No secrets from the public

No secrets from the public and the disclosure of government plans, facts and happenings are supposed to be some of the elementary demands of democracy.

Governments that operate in and with secrets, working in conspiracy with special interest sectors to control people, and the economy, are plain and simple dictatorships and must be removed from power by legal means.

Ed Deak.

and when they

criminalize leaking? Or even talking about leaks?