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In wake of Michigan oil spill, Enbridge pipelines under scrutiny
News Articles | Duluth News Tribune | John Myers | August 12, 2010
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On a sunny day last September, U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar stood at a podium in a Carlton County gravel pit and celebrated the start of construction on Enbridge Energy’s latest oil pipeline across Minnesota.
Oberstar, D-Chisholm, praised Enbridge for creating jobs with the $1.2 billion Alberta Clipper project, one of Minnesota’s largest private construction projects, and for filling U.S. demand for oil with crude from friendly Canada as opposed to the Middle East. In addition, Oberstar praised Enbridge’s safety efforts, saying the new pipeline would be among the safest ever built.
Nearly one year later, Oberstar has launched an investigation into Enbridge pipeline safety.
The effort comes after a major spill last month near Marshall, Mich., where 819,000 gallons spewed from an Enbridge pipe and flowed into the Kalamazoo River.
“When you are creating jobs and protecting the environment, he’s happy with you,” said John Schadl, an Oberstar spokesman. “But if you might be cutting corners and hurting the environment or his district, he’s not happy. That’s not a contradiction. That’s just a congressman looking out for his people.’’
Oberstar, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and Michigan Democratic Rep. Mark Schauer have suggested that Enbridge violated federal rules by “dragging its feet” in first reporting and responding to the Michigan pipeline rupture.
Oberstar’s committee has demanded answers from Enbridge and from the federal Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency on the Michigan spill, as well as reports on all of Enbridge’s sprawling U.S. system of pipelines. The committee wants the data by Aug. 13, and has set a committee hearing on the Enbridge spill for Sept. 15 in Washington.
Oberstar said he also will ask Canadian pipeline regulators for information on Enbridge’s record across the border.
“We have evidence that (federal regulators) and Enbridge had indications as early as January that the pipeline was subject to failing and did nothing about it,’’ Oberstar told the News Tribune. “We’d come to expect that under the Bush administration. We hoped it wouldn’t continue under the Obama administration.’’
Oberstar said he feels let down by Enbridge’s lack of action to prevent the Michigan spill, and he wants to know what Enbridge is doing to make sure a Michigan-type spill doesn’t happen in Minnesota.
“We want to know what steps they are taking for cathodic (corrosion) protection and inspection … and I have staff looking at the Michigan and Minnesota pipelines,” he said.
In a statement to the News Tribune, Enbridge pledged cooperation with the investigation.
“We have worked with Congressman Oberstar’s office for many years, not only in his role as Chair of the House Transportation Committee, but also because Enbridge has many miles of pipeline in his district,’’ the company said. “The Congressman’s office is regularly briefed on Enbridge’s projects and operations, and he was recently in attendance at the kick-off celebration for the Alberta Clipper pipeline. We have always been and will continue to be responsive to providing information and updates to Congressman Oberstar’s office.”
Oberstar isn’t just picking on Enbridge. His committee already has held four hearings this year on pipeline safety, and two more were scheduled even before the Michigan spill. And the committee has scrutinized other federally regulated industries and agencies as well.
The committee has “taken similar looks at the FAA and airlines, and then at hazardous materials … and in some cases found what seemed like a cozy relationship between the companies and the agencies that were supposed to be regulating them,’’ Schadl said. “Now they want to see if that was the case (under the Bush administration) with pipelines.’’
Oberstar said lawmakers are reworking the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration authorization, set to expire this year, and that the agency may be ripe for some new rules. That would follow new authorizing rules recently passed by the House for the Federal Aviation Administration and the Minerals Management Service, the agency that had oversight of the infamous BP oil well in the Gulf.
“We had the opportunity to strengthen the pipeline laws 10 years ago, and the Senate failed to act,’’ Oberstar said. “We are now once again in the position to rewrite the law on pipeline safety. We’re going to get it out of Committee and move it through the House. … Whether it can get past Republicans in the Senate, we shall see.’’
Tagged with: enbridge, oil spill, pipeline safety, michigan, oberstar
