babble is rabble.ca's discussion board but it's much more than that: it's an online community for folks who just won't shut up. It's a place to tell each other — and the world — what's up with our work and campaigns.
Support rabble | Advertise with us | Contact our staff | About rabble | Log-in or Register for a new account | Corrections | Privacy policy | Newsfeeds | Mailing lists
rabble: Features | Columnists | In Cahoots | Blogs | Books | Photos | What's Up | Polls
babble: Forum Topics | Active Topics
The rpn: About the RPN | Become a podcaster
rabbleTV: Program Guide | Features | Indie Inside | Best of the net
Copyright © 2001-2013 the authors
Syndicate
"Alberta officials are investigating after yet another pipeline leaked in the province, causing crude oil to spill at a pumping station near Elk Lake, northeast of Edmonton.
The spill at Enbridge Inc.'s Athabasca pipeline happened Monday. An estimated 230,000 litres of heavy crude oil leaked, according to the company."
Couldn't find a thread about the earlier spill in May near Red Deer, so I'm putting it here.
http://radicals4ourcoast.ca/ Sign on against the pipeline
Stop diverting green money to oil companies
We're paying the corporatocracy to take it off our hands. Again!
Here is the spoof video and one done by Lush as well as a video about Enbridge from Haida Qwaii. The last one is the video by Enbridge.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=eZrr-4DCZL8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tGrgxaewsiQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-KYiGc_HmnI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDZ9hjyTj94&feature=related
It seems to me that we may need a bigger pipeline SOUTH to the US market but not WEST across the mountains to tankers in dangerous waters then across the vast Pacific to China who can get, and does, its oil from Central Asia and the Middle East.
Lets sell to the US as long as they want it or their ecolos stop it. NO to Northern Gateway
Actually a Globe & Mail cartoon about Harper and Enbridge kind of promotes xenophobia and bigotry imo.
*Removed*
"Keystone Cops"
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/story/2012/07/10/enbridge-oil-spil...
The following article by Rabble editor Derrick O'Keefe was published yesterday on the website of The Source newspaper.
The pipeline debate: A B.C. election issue and crucial decision about our collective future
...
http://www.vancouversun.com/business/energy-resources/Pull+plug+Enbridge...
Good stuff - thanks for posting this. Any day now Harper and Joe Oliver will brand Mulcair as a dangerous radical.
Looks like Harper has backed the wrong horse in Enbridge. Turning the NEB hearing into the proposed pipeline into a sham is going to come back to haunt him.
But Joe Oliver has already said (on P&P) that Harper has the constitutional authority to push the pipeline through even if the hearings turn it down. I very much doubt the Cons are worried too much. I think Harper will rely on the military in the end to push this through over local objections. Definitely another Oka Crisis coming.
http://www.theprovince.com/Christy+Clark+calls+Enbridge+pipeline+spill+d...
KAMLOOPS, B.C. - British Columbia Premier Christy Clark says if Enbridge Inc. plans to operate its planned pipeline in B.C. the way it did in Michigan where millions of litres of oil spilled, the company can "forget it."
She says Enbridge's reaction to the Michigan spill, as laid out in a U.S. report released Tuesday, was disgraceful, and the company should be embarrassed.
The head of the U.S. National Transportation Safe Board said Enbridge handled the situation like the Keystone Kops and allowed oil to gush into the Kalamazoo River and nearby wetlands for 17 hours before it was stopped.
Clark's statements are the strongest yet in connection with Enbridge's planned Northern Gateway pipeline between Alberta's oil sands and the B.C. coast.
The premier says she still remains neutral on the pipeline proposal and wants to wait until the on-going environmental process is complete.
But Clark says Enbridge has many important questions to answer if it wants to do business in the province and her government will be involved in the National Energy Board process to ask those questions. (CHNL)
Gee, if she actually cared about the possibility the pipeline could be run badly, why didn't she register with government status at the hearings?
This is just pitiful but to be expected from the industry apologists.
http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/Yedlin+Pipeline+firm+duck+moment/6...
Harper adopts the 'Might Makes Right' approach to tar sands, pipelines April 18, 2012
excerpt:
This then leads us to the second big change. Behind the government's velvet rhetoric on improving "predictability" was an iron fist: Cabinet will now be able to overrule a negative decision from the National Energy Board from a hearing like the one happening right now on Enbridge's tar sands pipeline through BC
excerpt:
In the current context, a green light from the federal Cabinet for a project like Enbridge's tar sands pipeline will simply lead to court cases, as First Nations defend their lands, and civil disobedience should the oil companies/federal government still try to push the pipeline through. The heavy-handed approach thus ends up being politically messy and damaging to the democratic fiber of the country, while creating risk and uncertainty for investors. Who knows - maybe they'll hedge their bets by putting up windmills and solar panels.
(I had to edit this three times to get the formatting right)
CBC's P&P is talking about Enbridge, and Tom Flanagan, former advisor to Stephen Harper, now agrees with Mulcair that the pipeline should never be built. He says it's an enormous environmental risk - all assumed by British Columbia - to benefit only one province - Alberta. Wow!
ETA: Gerry Caplan was absolutely blistering in his comments about Enbridge.
Stephen Harper, Joe Oliver, and Peter Kent must be flipping their lids, because Tom Flanagan and John Iveson agree with Thomas Mulcair that Northern Gateway should never be built.
Vaughn Palmer, a widely read BC political journalist and very far from a "radical" environmentalist, now says that Northern Gateway is "doomed to be a non-starter". For me, the extent of BCers loathing of this project is vividly described by Palmer during his attendance at a movie that had nothing to do with the issue.
"Whether that prospect [that Northern Gateway is dead] will penetrate through to the upper reaches of Enbridge is another matter. The company has proved to be singularly clumsy in its understanding of B.C., a point that was reinforced for me the other evening in a movie theatre in the provincial capital.
I was awaiting the start of the movie, when suddenly, amid the usual flow of advertisements for automobiles, communication services and cold drinks, there was one of those Enbridge spots touting the Northern Gateway as "more than a pipeline, it's a path to the future."
Sparkling colours. Relentlessly cheery. Nice production values, as one would expect with a campaign priced in the millions of dollars.
But here's the thing: the audience booed the pro-pipeline pitch and did so with consider-able enthusiasm.
How often that has been happening in movie theatres, I have no idea. But I was struck by the thought of Enbridge launching a campaign to - in the words of a company representative - "help British Columbians understand what the project is all about" only to have its best efforts greeted by a chorus of boos."
http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Enbridge+pipeline+doomed+starter/6915608/story.html#ixzz20SO2rtU1
Incidentally, the booing of the Enbridge ad happened BEFORE the release of the devastating US report on the Enbridge leak in Michigan, as Palmer's article was in the paper in the morning after the US report.
I think Mulcair should do a province-wide tour of BC ridings contrasting his position on Northern Gateway with Harper's and the deafening silence of the Liberals on this subject. It would likely help increase the NDP's lead in the BC polls and could help bring more BC ridings, which are represented mostly by Cons today, into the NDP camp in the next election.
Flanagan?!?? Okay, it's toast. Seriously.
I had a similar experience in a theatre when an Ethical Oil ad came on before the Muppets movie. There were subdued groans, until one guy loudly piped up, "Liar!". This was very well received by the audience. Although this paved the way for a short-lived inside joke, as every subsequent ad and a few movie trailers were also interrupted by "Liar!" to a chorus of audience giggles.
2015 is a long ways away. I think this is a great chance for Dix to solidify the BCNDP's lead, but ultimately if things go that way, 2013 will be the year that Northern Gateway comes crashing down for good. The Teflon Tories will still have two years from that point onwards to try and sweep that unpleasant nightmare under the rug and display shiny things.
Let's see what Joe Oliver and Peter Kent say in response to the criticism of Enbridge. I predict a new series of ads saying Enbridge has learned from the Michigan spill, and will implement changes before proceeding with the Northern Gateway.
And, don't forget, as I posted earlier, Oliver has already said that the federal gov't has decided this project is in the national interest, and cabinet can issue an order pushing the project through.
Iveson (National Post) said if Northern Gateway is indeed dead, then the feds can consider a route to Churchill (by train?) or further north - and this fight will start all over again. I think he said sending crude east is an option as well. And I think the USA, once Keystone XL is up and running, would gladly take what Canada can't ship through BC or north or east...
Alberta: Environmentalists, landowners set up pipeline spill tipline
I think with these levels of opposition we could be looking at human shields physically blocking construction. If you thought the RCMP was bad at YVR, or at G20, just wait...
Tom Flanagan did not say that the pipeline "should" never be built. He said it will never be built because of BC opposition although he said he himself supports the pipeline. Flanagan managed Harper's Canadian Alliance leadership campaign and was his chief of staff during Harper's time as Leader of the Opposition. He had Harperite opinions before Harper and advocated the assassination of Julian Assange.
I doubt Peter Kent is doing anything -- I'd call him a sock puppet, but that would be insulting to sock puppets everywhere. Mr. Harper never gets his shorts in a twist because he circumvents legislation and constitutional law whenever it suits his agenda. Oliver is a banker by trade, so he'll follow the money -- and spend it liberally to support the Harper agenda. Their collective arrogance will comfort them because they believe they cannot be held accountable for any of their actions. And at this point, they're right. Remember the Mulroney gov't? 20 years after the fact they're still largely untouchable, even though their crimes are entirely provable, the result of carefully constructed "incompetence" on the part of investigators (yeah, the RCMP and CSIS aren't the sharpest tools in the shed, except for a certain political shrewdness) because that level of incompetance has to be orchestrated.
Thanks for the correction. I know Flanagan's history well.
On that same show (P&P) John Iveson (National Pest) said if Northern Gateway doesn't go ahead, there are options - move crude by rail to Churchill, Manitoba; ship it by pipeline to the east for refining; and ship even more through Keystone XL when that pipeline starts up. And shipping crude to the north is a possibility as well, especially as the Arctic warms up and the Northern Passage becomes more accessible, although a deepwater port will have to be built.
What Iveson omits is that local opposition to all of these - except perhaps Keystone - puts each of these proposals in doubt as well. But the Harper cabinet believes they have the authority to push through regardless, even with the Northern Gateway/Enbridge project.
It is also possible that they could build a pipeline to Churchill. However, any northern route by any means through the Arctic increases the risk of an accident (because of icebergs and damage to the pipeline because of the extreme cold and melting permafrost depending on the season). It would also be extremely difficult to clean up any spills in the Arctic and risk causing further damage to the Inuit way of life. So if a BC route is too risky, this makes even less sense, which means the ideological, radical Cons will say "Damn the environment and the Inuit. Lets do it."
This battle is far from over.
Enbridge fiasco becoming political touchstonehttp://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/enbridge-fiasco-bec...
As we can see here, it is a just a big pr game to the business community, where pr firms can make a lot of money.
Enbridge brand can be repaired: analystshttp://business.financialpost.com/2012/07/16/enbridge-brand-can-be-repai...
After the Keystone Cops spill in Michigan and three recent spills in Alberta, Enbridge has done it again in Wisconsin, despite promises to clean up its act. It is also refusing to give the names of the companies that it would use to get the bitumen from Alberta to Asia. The Grand Chief of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs also says that no amount of money will sway opposition to the pipeline and that there could be native blocades if it goes ahead. On the other hand, the BC Liberals have still not officially made a decision and say they are monitoring the situation (ie. they would try it if they thought they could approve and still win the next election - virtually impossible now).
http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Wisconsin+Enbridge+spill+raises+con...
Critics of the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline are pointing to a new Enbridge oil spill of roughly 1,200 barrels in Wisconsin as another sign that a new conduit for Albertan bitumen is too risky for British Columbia. Friday’s spill, almost two years to the day after a ruptured Enbridge line fouled part of the Kalamazoo River in Michigan, forced the closure of a major route for Canadian light crude shipments to U.S. refiners. It also raises further questions about Enbridge’s $6-billion proposed pipeline to carry oilsands crude, or bitumen, from northern Alberta to Kitimat for shipment to Asia.
“Enbridge isn’t as perfect as they think they are,” said Geraldine Thomas-Flurer, 48, an organizer from the first nations Yinka Dene Alliance, which has crossed the country raising awareness about the proposed pipeline. “They’re saying that they don’t have any spills — everything that’s happening now is proving that we’re making the right decision here in B.C. when we’re saying that this is a dangerous project that is putting our citizens, our water and our economy at risk.
The 190,000-litre spill was small compared to the 3-million-litre Kalamazoo leak and it was quickly contained. However, it comes at a delicate time for Enbridge, which suffered another near Red Deer, Alta., a month ago and endured a scathing report from U.S. safety regulators over its handling of the Michigan incident in 2010, with employees likened to the “Keystone Kops” for their bungled response.
“Enbridge is fast becoming to the Midwest what BP was to the Gulf of Mexico, posing troubling risks to the environment,” U.S. Representative Ed Markey, the top Democrat on the Natural Resources Committee, said in a statement. “The company must be forthcoming about this entire incident, and deserves a top-to-bottom review of their safety culture, procedures and standards,” said Markey.
B.C. Environment Minister Terry Lake said the provincial government is monitoring Enbridge closely.
http://www.facebook.com/OccupyCanada
"Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, who heads the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, says Clark needs to know that no amount of money will sway activists' opposition and that a fight against the project could include native blockades."