[deathfun]

The B.C. government has officially expressed its opposition to a proposal for the Northern Gateway pipeline project, saying it fails to address the province's environmental concerns.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2013/05/31/bc-northern-gateway-rejected.html



To me, they're throwing away free money. Since the Government here already outed HST (which came with a nice cash incentive from the Federal level. By outing it, they then had to pay said incentive back leaving the Province at a loss in the grand scheme of it all) having more money going to them will be a good thing.

Worth noting that the decision isn't final as there is still another pipeline yearning for that spot, and final hearings coming in June

[MP-Ryan]

Good.

Enbridge's emergency response measures are an absolute joke.  If it were any other company I might support it, but with Enbridge running the show we are virtually guaranteed that if a spill occurs, it will be absolutely disastrous, as history has shown.

I'm not fundamentally opposed to pipelines, but my work is partially connected to this industry and in general my opinion is that they do not have to put up near the financial bonds they should to ensure money is there for cleanup, and they shortcut available monitoring technologies and preventative measures wherever they can get away with it to reduce costs.  The regulation of these pipelines also varies considerably between jurisdictions, and all of these companies tend to use the "but we met our approval conditions!" excuse, even though the approval conditions are the minimum acceptable standard.

Even though the BC decision is 9/10 political pandering and 1/10 actual concern in the making, I still think it's the right call.  Especially given the terminal location and the terrain this thing was supposed to pass through.  Ugly, ugly areas for an oil spill of any kind.

[NGTM-1R]

but with Enbridge running the show we are virtually guaranteed that if a spill occurs, it will be absolutely disastrous, as history has shown.

There's an obvious story here, but wikipedia and google aren't helping me find it (and I think this topic in general could use a bit more background), so could you please elaborate on this point for those of us who don't follow oil pipelines closely?

[yuezhi]

Not oil but the environmental impacts already inflicted are a clear prediction:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2006/02/07/bc_cheakamus20060207.html

[MP-Ryan]

but with Enbridge running the show we are virtually guaranteed that if a spill occurs, it will be absolutely disastrous, as history has shown.

There's an obvious story here, but wikipedia and google aren't helping me find it (and I think this topic in general could use a bit more background), so could you please elaborate on this point for those of us who don't follow oil pipelines closely?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enbridge_oil_spill

Just one example.