no pipeline, no tankers, no problem

Oil companies in North Dakota fail to report almost 300 oil spills since 2012

According to the Associated Press, the nation’s second largest oil-producing state, North Dakota, failed to inform the public of almost 300 oil pipeline spills in the last two years.

Even though many of the spills were small, “[t]he public really should know about these,” Don Morrison, the director of the Dakota Resource Council, told the AP. “If there is a spill, sometimes a landowner may not even know about it. And if they do, people think it’s an isolated incident that’s only happening to them.”

Reporting such spills is significant, because even a barrel of oil could ruin water supplies, which would ruin countless acres of arable soil.

The director of the Department of Mineral Resources, Lynn Helms, told the Associated Press that companies are worried about “over-reporting” spills. The state is trying to strike a balance so that “the public is aware of what’s happening, but not overwhelmed by little incidents.”

One wheat farmer told the AP that he’s in favor of receiving information about every incident, since his livelihood depends on his land. He’s worried because the policy at the moment is “[w]hat you don’t know, nobody’s going to tell you.”

“It would tell me if there is enough oversight and why these accidents happen and if they could have been avoided,” he said. “Right now, you don’t know if there is a spill unless you find it yourself.”...

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/10/25/oil-companies-in-north-dakota-fail...

Rafe Mair: Enbridge pipeline should face BC referendum

The cynicism of both our senior governments regarding tankers and pipelines is appalling.

The pact between Premier Clark and Alberta Premier Redford - followed two days later by the Harper government’s Speech from the Throne – does precisely what many of us have said all along was their intention, to approve pipelines and tankers, irrespective of the findings of the Joint Review Panel (a farce), the wishes of First Nations and the wishes of the people.

This is not the time to despair but for two separate lines of action.

Enbridge pipeline requires referendum

First, and critically important in the short term, the people of BC must demand and press for a province-wide referendum. Would anyone suggest that the ravaging of our environment is less important than on the way we vote – i.e. the STV referendum – or a tax, as in HST? Would Premier Clark dare to take that position?

What it will take is a concerted effort, one where we all fight no matter what organizations we represent.

I suggest that all environmental organizations get under one roof for this struggle – it can be anyone of many. The Wilderness Committee, Living Oceans Society, Dogwood Initiative, Forest Ethics, Pacific Wild, and the list goes on. I can say that The Common Sense Canadian would get behind such an effort.

Civil Disobedience

We must also be prepared, and let the government know we are prepared for massive civil disobedience. It must be peaceful and large enough that there aren’t enough jails to begin to hold all the protesters.

I believe that will happen spontaneously, so let’s for the moment deal with the referendum.....

http://commonsensecanadian.ca/rafe-mair-enbridge-pipeline-face-bc-refere...

Exclusive B.C. home of most pipeline safety incidents since 2000

279 of 1,047 incidents reported Canada-wide from 2000 to late 2012 took place in B.C.

quote:

By 2011, safety-related incidents — covering everything from unintentional fires to spills — rose from one to two for every 1,000 kilometres of federally-regulated pipeline. That reflects an increase from 45 total incidents in 2000 to 142 in 2011.

The types of incidents reported include small leaks, large oil spills, gas ruptures, equipment failures, worker injuries and deaths, and other types of accidents or reportable events along any pipeline that crosses provincial or international borders, which involves about 90 companies that own about 71,000 kilometres of pipelines.

The dataset does not include incidents along smaller pipelines monitored by provinces....

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-home-of-most-pipeline...

..what you say about alta hiding spills quizzical..i've heard this as well. for this article:

quote:

Data provided by the National Energy Board through an access to information request shows that 279 incidents involving federally-regulated pipelines were reported in B.C. between 2000 and late 2012.

..it's telling how the neb doesn't just provide that info. like this is stuff we don't need to know. or that only trouble makers want to know.

Ontario skips provincial review of Enbridge Line 9

TORONTO – Ontario won’t conduct its own environmental assessment of a plan to reverse the flow of the Line 9 oil pipeline that runs through the province, Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli said Monday.

Calgary-based Enbridge Inc. (TSX:ENB) wants to reverse Line 9 and increase its capacity to move 300,000 barrels of crude oil per day, up from the current 240,000 barrels.

It has also asked for permission to move different types of oil between southwestern Ontario and Montreal, including a heavier form of crude.

Liberals abandon provincial assessment

The proposal has sparked protests by hundreds of demonstrators, who have rallied outside the National Energy Board hearings in Toronto and Montreal.

Ontario’s New Democrats are pushing for a separate provincial assessment of the proposal, but Chiarelli said that’s not necessary.

The assessment is a federal responsibility because the pipeline crosses provincial boundaries, he said.

Ontario has intervened in the recent hearings to emphasize that public safety and environmental protection must come first, he said.

The province also called for a “stress test” for the whole system to be assured that the pipeline is safe, Chiarelli said.

“At this point in time, constitutionally we have to rely on what’s there in federal legislation,” he said.

Complain to your local MP

Chiarelli said that if residents feel that the National Energy Board isn’t doing its job to protect the public, then they should complain to their local MP and Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

“If Ontario does its own environmental assessment … that cannot override,” he said.

“That might inform, but the National Energy Board is responsible for getting the right information on which to make a decision.”...

http://commonsensecanadian.ca/ontario-skips-provincial-review-enbridge-l...

Keystone XL: The Art of NGO Discourse  -  by Corey Morningstar

http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/10/28/keystone-xl-the-art-of-ngo-discou...

"The following article is the third installment of an investigative report that demonstrates why billions of dollars are pumped into the non-profit industrial complex by corporate interests, effectively to manufacture discourse in order to protect the ruling classes from systemic change."

Don't be just another useful idiot for Green slime...Greenpeace, Tides, etc.

Nuns Against Fracking: The 'Sisters Of Loretto' Oppose Pipeline (VIDEO)

What would Jesus frack?

That's a question you might ask a group of nuns in rural Kentucky who are fighting a fracking pipeline proposed on their land.

The 200-year-old Sisters of Loretto has refused to allow energy companies to survey their 780 acres in order to build a natural gas pipeline that would connect fracking operations in Pennsylvania with an existing pipeline that runs from Kentucky to the Gulf Coast.

"This has the potential for danger and for pollution of this very precious resource," said Sister Maria Visse in a video report by the environmental news project Climate Desk, gesturing at the lush Kentucky hills where she her fellow nuns live. Visse has been a member of the Sisters of Loretto since 1955.

The Sisters of Loretto Roman Catholic community is based in Marion County, K.Y., about 55 miles south of Louisville. The group was founded in 1812 with a social mission. In addition to religious duties, the nuns helped to educate poor children in the area in the 19th century, according to their website....

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/16/nuns-against-fracking-kentucky-...

...............

Nuns argue fracking is a habit we can't afford

Theirs is a cloistered, holy life far from the whirl of Sydney, where the only sound some mornings is the flap of habits and the squawk of cockatoos.

And if nothing is more God-like than silence, what do the Discalced Carmelite nuns and friars of Varroville, near Camden, think of the prospect of coal seam gas drilling across NSW?

''To me it appears to be a slash and grab approach, get rich quick and - pardon this use of language - but to hell with the consequences,'' Sister Jocelyn Kramer said.

''It's not sensible to exploit the resources now and not bother what effect that might have for future generations.''...

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/nuns-argue-fracking-is-a-habit-we-cant-afford-...

A formidable brown line: Discalced Carmelite nuns and Father Greg Burke at their Varroville monastery.

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) just launched a new program called Energy IQ, aiming to take materials funded by Canada's largest oil and gas lobby group into classrooms across Canada. CAPP is one of the most fervent voices in favour of tar sands and fracking expansion, a powerful lobby group that has been linked to the gutting of Canada's environmental regulations, worked with the government on expensive pro-tar sands lobbying and more. Find our more about CAPP and Energy IQ here.

Classrooms are for students, not big oil's spin machine. Add your name to support the open letter to CAPP and Canadian Geographic below.

To the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers and Canadian Geographic,

We are a group of Canadian high school students writing this letter to formally express our concerns regarding the Energy IQ Program that was launched in schools this October.

The Energy IQ program is of serious concern to us as current high school students, specifically because of its inherent corporate bias and the ideals it will promote. Schools are public places, and therefore should be free of advertisements or promotions of companies, interest groups, and other for-profit institutions. Propaganda has no place in our schools.  The content of your program appears to be highly focused on the oil and gas industry, yet it is presented as something that deals with all possible types of energy. When your definition of the tar sands is the verbatim definition used by Oil Sands Today, the message that sends is that you’re there in their interest, rather than in the interest of our future. We have our doubts that any program funded by CAPP would focus on types of energy other than oil and gas: this concerns us....

http://www.wearepowershift.ca/high_school_1

This is photo from the Canadian Geographic Education Facebook page with a Grade 3 class diving into their tar sands funded energy education program.

BC Premier's House 'Fracked'! (pics)

Activists set up a "fracking rig" on BC Premier Christy Clark's front lawn in Vancouver this morning. The premier was at home, but declined an invitation from the activists to join them to "celebrate her efforts to promote more hydrolic fracturing in BC" and sign away her water rights.

The activists tossed around bags of money and bottles of "wastewater."  Once police showed up they moved the mock rig to the front sidewalk.

 "Because the premier loves fracking, we figured we would save her the hassle of trying to take over other peoples' homes and bring it right to her," said Jacquelyn Fraser, an activist with Rising Tide.....

http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/photo/bc-premiers-house-fracked/19565

Natural gas industry accused of illegal water use in B.C.

Three environmental groups have filed a lawsuit against the British Columbia Oil and Gas Commission and natural gas company Encana over the use of water from B.C.’s lakes and rivers.

The suit, filed Wednesday in B.C. Supreme Court, claims the commission has granted repeated short-term water licences, in violation of the provincial Water Act.

The environmental groups say as Encana proceeded with the fracking process to extract natural gas from underground reserves, it drew 880 Olympic swimming pools worth of water over three years from the Kiskatinaw River, which supplies drinking water to the city of Dawson Creek....

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-oil-and-gas-commissio...

...........

Regulator, Encana sued over fracking, water (video)

Vancouver-based environmental law firm ecojustice announced a lawsuit Wednesday in BC court against the province’s oil and gas regulator over its allegedly unlawful issuance of water permits for fracking.

The suit, which also names energy giant Encana, is being brought on behalf of the Wilderness Committee and Sierra Club BC over increasingly controversial shale gas operations in northeast BC. It contends that the Oil and Gas Commission is violating the province’s Water Act....

http://commonsensecanadian.ca/VIDEO-detail/lawsuit-fracking-water-launch...

LNG & Fracking: Risky Business for BC – Nov 18, Vancouver

WHEN

Monday, Nov. 18,  7 – 9:30pm 

WHERE

SFU Harbour Centre (515 W Hastings St), Vancouver – Rm 1400

MORE INFO

vancouvercouncilofcanadians.ca/

facebook.com/events/210618739118025/?ref=br_tf

Lakotas Throw Out TransCanada Reps Selling Tarsands Snake Oil (and vid)

http://bsnorrell.blogspot.ca/2013/11/lakotas-throw-out-transcanada-reps....

"On November 13, 2013, tribal members of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, acting as agents for Transcanada in order to sell-out the homeland to the Keystone XL Pipeline, brought Keystone representatives to the reservation. Here's what happened...

'Run home and tell your corporate headquarters in Canada that the Lakota are going to make a stand.."

Hokahe!

Harper government's extensive spying on anti-oilsands groups revealed in FOIs

The federal government has been vigorously spying on anti-oil sands activists and organizations in BC and across Canada since last December, documents obtained under the Access to Information Act show.  Not only is the federal government subsidizing the energy industry in underwriting their costs, but deploying public safety resources as a de-facto ‘insurance policy’ to ensure that federal strategies on proposed pipeline projects are achieved, these documents indicate.

Before the National Energy Board’s Joint Review Panel hearings on the proposed Enbridge oil pipeline, the NEB coordinated the gathering of intelligence on opponents to the oil sands. The groups of interest are independent advocacy organizations that oppose the Harper government’s policies and work for environmental protections and democratic rights, including Idle No More, ForestEthics, Sierra Club, EcoSociety, LeadNow, Dogwood Initiative, Council of Canadians and the People’s Summit....

http://www.vancouverobserver.com/politics/harper-governments-extensive-s...

US House passes bill to speed up oil and gas fracking

The House approved a bill Wednesday aimed at speeding up drilling for oil and natural gas.

The measure was one of three energy measures the House was considering this week as Republicans controlling the chamber push to expand an oil and gas boom that’s lowered prices and led the U.S. to produce more oil last month than it imported from abroad.

Another bill expected to win approval later Wednesday would restrict the Interior Department from enforcing proposed rules to regulate hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, on public lands. A third bill would streamline permitting for natural gas pipelines.

Supporters say the bills are needed to ensure that a drilling boom taking place on state and private lands extends to millions of acres, mostly in the West, under federal control.

Obama to veto bills

President Barack Obama has promised to veto the bills, saying they are unnecessary and run counter to protections put in place for oil and gas drilling.

Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., who sponsored the bill to speed up permitting, said the current energy boom has mainly occurred on state and private lands, including the Bakken formation in North Dakota and Montana and the Marcellus Shale region centred in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. Said Lamborn:

The only reason we haven’t seen that same dynamic growth on federal lands is because of excess regulations....

http://commonsensecanadian.ca/us-house-passes-bill-speed-oil-gas-fracking/

Most here may be dead set against future petroleum developmenty but it doesn't seem like that view is reflected by the majority of the Canadian populace:

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/Strong+belief+industrys+economic...

Even when the economic benefits are set aside Canadians do not share the anti-pipeline sentiment here.

LNG in a Nutshell

video

Damien Gillis stitches together the big picture of the impacts of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and the fracking from which it would derive if the BC Liberal Government's vision to build five plants on BC's coast goes forward.

From a Nov.18 discussion at Vancouver's SFU Harbour Centre - alongside the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives' Ben Parfitt. Hosted by Council of Canadians.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35BUwQ_BHsI#t=44

US Court Denies Halt to Keystone XL  -  by Steve Horn
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/11/25/us-court-denies-halt-to-keystone-xl/

"A story covered only by McClatchey News' Michael Doyle, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson shot down Sierra Club and National Wildlife Federation's (NWF) request for an immediate injunction in constructing Enbridge's Flanagan South tar sands pipeline in a 60-page ruling..."

One Step Closer to Fossil Fuel Divestment

Concordia is edging closer to an ethically responsible investment policy, which would include diverting university funds away from the fossil fuel industry.

After over a month of negotiations between members of the university administration and student groups, the decision to set up a working group to create a socially responsible investment policy was announced in an email from Concordia’s VP Development and External Relations Bram Freedman on Nov. 25.

“After a thorough discussion of this issue at the last meeting of the Board of Directors of the Concordia University Foundation, I can tell you there is an openness to further exploring this issue,” Freedman said.

The Joint Responsible Investment Working Group will hold its first meeting in January....

http://thelinknewspaper.ca/article/5192

Lubicon Lake Files Lawsuit Against Oil and Gas Company (and vid)

http://aptn.ca/news/2013/12/04/lubicon-lake-fights-lawsuit-oil-gas-company/

"The Cree people at Lubicon Lake in northern Alberta have had enough. They have filed a lawsuit against oil and gas giant Penn West Petroleum."

Update: Oregon blockade of Tar Sands ‘Megaload’ enters second night

For the second night in a row, activists with a coalition including Rising Tide, 350, All Against the Haul, and members of the Umatilla and Warm Springs tribes attempted to stop the Omega Morgan megaload from leaving as planned.

The load left approximately 45 minutes prior to its permitted departure based on Oregon Department of Transportation.

As of writing, activists are regrouping and monitoring the slow progress of the megaload as it trundles along at a snail’s pace.

This comes after a successful hard blockade yesterday involving two activists locking down to the megaload for over an hour and a half. Yesterday’s blockade prevented the transport of the megaload for an entire day, and activists have pledged to continue sustained and escalating resistance in order to prevent the megaload’s destruction of infrastructure, critical ecosystems, and expansion of the tar sands....

City Of Kawartha Lakes Loses Fight Over "Unfair" Oil Spill Clean-Up Order

The Ontario Court of Appeal has ruled that the necessities of spill containment and environmental protection can take precedence over the "polluter pays" principle and the rules of natural justice. In assessing the validity of a Director's clean-up order for a 2009 oil spill in the City of Kawartha Lakes, the Court deemed questions of who was at fault were "irrelevant." The City, which bore no responsibility for the original spill, was ordered to clean up oil that had spread onto municipal lands and threatened to recontaminate nearby Sturgeon Lake.

Since then, the City of Kawartha Lakes has fought a series of legal battles to correct what it considers "a breach of natural justice." While the City did not dispute the jurisdiction of the Ministry to issue such a "no fault" Order, it argued that "the MOE must have regard to principles of fairness, including the 'polluter pays principle', as part of its exercise of discretion to issue such an Order." The City maintained that the MOE should only issue a "no fault" Order in the event that the polluter(s) cannot or will not comply with a fault-based Order. The Appeal Court did not agree. In its decision released May 10, 2013, Justice Goudge writes that,

"Evidence of the fault of others says nothing about how the environment would be protected and the legislative objective served if the Director's order were revoked. Indeed, by inviting the Tribunal into a fault finding exercise, permitting the evidence might even impede answering the question in the timely way required by that legislative objective. (Kawartha Lakes (City) v. Ontario (Environment), 2013 ONCA 310)."

The Ministry had issued a preventative Order under section 157(1) of the Environmental Protection Act to ensure prompt remediation and minimize any adverse effects. The Ministry had already issued a remediation Order on the responsible parties, but the spilled oil had spread onto City property. Therefore, a second Order could rightfully be issued to the City as the party that, "owns or has management and control of an undertaking or a property," even though it bore no fault for the original spill....

http://www.mondaq.com/canada/x/279026/Waste+Management/City+Of+Kawartha+...

Lubicon Lake Nation Tells Penn West Petroleum to Frack Off!

Peaceful Occupation of Penn West Petroleum Site Begins Little Buffalo, AB/ The Lubicon Lake Nation people have been driven to enforce their Law against PENN WEST PETROLEUM LTD. (TSX: PWT); (NYSE: PWE) today on an oil lease site located in their Territory by peacefully occupying a nearby access road. The oil and gas giant.

Penn West has indicated they intend to drill and use hydraulic fracturing at the location. The site is at the headwaters of a nearby lake, bordered by the traditional Lubicon community of Kinosew Sakahikan referred to provincially as Haig Lake.

Long-time Chief Bernard Ominayak said this evening:  We have never signed treaty, ceded our land, nor sold it to anybody. It’s high time that all resource companies operating on Lubicon Lake Nation lands, including Penn West, as well as the Provincial and Canadian governments respect that and stop destroying Lubicon land and stealing Lubicon resources....

http://www.popularresistance.org/lubicon-nation-sets-up-camp-on-unceded-...

Activists Take Aim at Bay Area Crude Projects

Local community and environmental activists are sounding an alarm over four proposed energy projects in the Bay Area. Demonstrators rallied Wednesday morning outside a Bay Area Air Quality Management District board meeting, calling on the Air District to put the developments on hold.

Two of the proposals are for crude-by-rail projects. One would be an addition to the Valero refinery in Benicia; the other would be an oil terminal in Pittsburg that would receive crude by pipeline, rail and ship. Activists are concerned about crude-by-rail because, they say, trains would provide a means to bring in what they call “dirty” oil from the Canadian tar sands.

The other two projects, at Chevron’s Richmond refinery and the Phillips 66 refinery in Rodeo concern equipment upgrades, which, activists say, will position refiners to process heavier grades of crude.

“What’s really at stake here is the public’s health,” said Andres Soto, an organizer with the East Bay group Communities for a Better Environment. “We’re asking the District to not issue any more permits until this issue about the quality of the crude is publicly disclosed, publicly discussed, and either mitigation or a moratorium on its processing here in the Bay Area is established.”...

http://www.popularresistance.org/activists-take-aim/

Above: Pennie Opal Plant from the environmental group Idle No More at a rally in San Francisco. She says she’s concerned about local refineries bringing in crude oil from Canadian tar sands

Anti-fracking clashes in Romania as activists break into Chevron site (PHOTOS, VIDEO)

Hundreds of protesters have broken into a Chevron site after the US oil giant resumed its search for shale gas in northeast Romania. RT’s Lucy Kafanov reports from the scene, where clashes ensued as riot police started streaming in.

Some 250 people gathered on Saturday in the village of Pungesti. RT’s Lucy Kafanov reports that the demonstration kicked off quite peacefully with the protesters chanting “Chevron go home.”

“The situation then escalated. Some people had run across the road towards the Chevron property, there was a bit of a commotion, and we saw the protesters run into the property; the surrounding perimeter fences were taken down," Kafanov reports. Local media said people were able to tear down fences to 20 acres of land owned by the company.

Riot police officers were called into the area, which made the situation "very heated" as clashes between the demonstrators and the police ensued.

"We did see some demonstrators injured, as well as police officers injured. They were taken away in medical vans. We also saw probably about four or five arrests, possibly more, we’re still not confirmed on the numbers," Kafanov says.

Following the incident, the US company later announced it was suspending activities in the area.

“Chevron can today confirm it has suspended activities in Silistea, Pungesti commune, Vaslui County as a result of unsafe conditions generated by unlawful and violent protester activities,” Chevron said in a statement.

http://rt.com/news/chevron-fracking-protest-clashes-884/

B.C.'s natural gas strategy bad economics (audio)

Christy Clark won the last election in part on the promise of a natural gas industry that would create jobs and eliminate the provincial debt. It turns out to be more fantasy than hard economics. Ben Parfitt is a resource policy analyst for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. He spoke about B.C.'s liquified natural gas industry at SFU Harbour Centre on November 18.

http://rabble.ca/podcasts/shows/redeye/2013/12/bcs-natural-gas-strategy-...