Gov. Blanchard Asked To Act on
Enbridge Line 5 Great Lakes Threat
Former
Governor Is Now Enbridge Board Member
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, August 4, 2015
Media Contacts: David Holtz 313-300-4454
david@davidholtz.org
Anne Woiwode 517-974-2112
anne.woiwode@sierraclub.org
LANSING—Sierra Club today asked former Michigan Gov. James
J. Blanchard, a member of Enbridge Inc.’s Board of Directors, to compel the
company to publicly disclose safety inspection results and cooperate in an independent
investigation sought by the state of the dangerous Line 5 pipelines through the
Straits of Mackinac.
Blanchard chairs the board’s Committee on Social
Responsibility which oversees Enbridge’s environmental stewardship policies and
he was requested in a letter from Sierra Club to commit to getting the company
“to permanently remove the threat of
Enbridge Line 5 through the Straits of Mackinac by ending the flow of oil
through the Straits pipelines. “
“As governor, Mr.
Blanchard created the state’s first Office of the Great Lakes,” said Anne Woiwode, Sierra Club Michigan Chapter Conservation Director. “We now need him to step up once again. We
need him to make sure the company he now helps lead isn’t responsible for a
Great Lakes disaster.”
Sierra Club’s
letter to the former Michigan governor, who still maintains an Oakland County
residence, follows the July 14 release of the Michigan Petroleum Pipeline Task
Force report. The report
identified crucial areas where Enbridge failed to disclose pipeline safety
information on Line 5 in the Straits, failed to identify critical pipeline
safety threats, failed to maintain legally required pipeline infrastructure and
provided inconsistent information about its liability in the event of a
catastrophic oil spill. The state
government task force also concluded that Enbridge’s assertions that the 61-year-old Straits pipelines can be
operated indefinitely without replacement plans are unreasonable.
Sierra Club, in its
letter to Blanchard, said, “The documentation and conclusions in this task
force report, reflecting the expertise and judgment of the state’s top
environmental, legal and natural resources officials, point to a pattern of
behavior on the part of Enbridge officials that is in conflict with Enbridge’s
corporate environmental stewardship policies and authorized business
practices. Those fall within your area
of responsibility as Chair of Enbridge’s Corporate Social Responsibility
Committee.”
The letter, signed by Sierra Club Michigan Chapter Chair David
Holtz and Woiwode, cited Enbridge’s Corporate Social Responsibility and
Statement on Business Conduct policies.
Those policies were revised in the wake of the disastrous 2010 Line
Enbridge Line 6B pipeline rupture, the largest oil spill on land in United
States history. The new policies pledged
Enbridge to the “highest standards of
business conduct” and directed its subsidiaries, including Enbridge Energy
Partners, to “establish and maintain…operations in an environmentally
responsible manner in accordance with applicable environmental laws,
regulations and standards.”
“Violating its agreements with Michigan about Line 5 and
keeping pipeline safety data secret even from the state of Michigan violates
Enbridge’s own stated policy of operating responsibly and following the law,”
said Holtz. “Governor Blanchard is not
only in a unique position to protect the Great Lakes from an Enbridge
catastrophe, as an Enbridge board member he is responsible to Enbridge
shareholders for making sure the company stops behaving badly.”
Blanchard was asked to:
- Publicly
commit to working within Enbridge, Inc. and its subsidiary, Enbridge Energy
Partners, to permanently remove the threat of Enbridge Line 5 through the
Straits of Mackinac by ending the flow of oil through the Straits pipelines.
- Require
Enbridge to immediately and publicly disclose all pipeline inspection
information for Line 5 dating to the pipeline’s construction in 1953.
- Provide
immediate access to all information and documents that would allow independent
analysis of Enbridge’s pipelines through the Straits.
- Instruct
all of Enbridge’s lobbyists, public relations consultants and corporate
officials to withdraw from authoring and supporting proposed changes that
undermine Michigan’s open records law by making pipeline safety and other vital
data secret.
- Require
Enbridge to fully comply with the liability requirements of its Easement
Agreement with the State of Michigan by providing a “worst case” estimate of
potential damages resulting from pipeline ruptures instead of the “conflicting,
incomplete, and inadequately supported estimates of its total liability under
the Easement,” as the task force report stated.
##
Sierra Club Letter to Former Michigan Governor Blanchard
August 4, 2015
Hon.
James J. Blanchard
DLA
Piper LLP
500 Eighth
Street, NW
Washington, DC 20004
Dear Governor
Blanchard:
We are writing
to you in your capacity as a member of the Board of Directors of Enbridge, Inc.
and Chair of Enbridge’s Corporate Social Responsibility Committee, which
oversees the company’s environmental stewardship.
Governor, you
are a longtime Enbridge corporate Director and the former Governor of Michigan
so you are no doubt aware of Enbridge’s Line 5 operations through the Straits
of Mackinac and the high risk these pipelines pose to the Great Lakes due to
the potential for a catastrophic oil spill. We know you have a strong
commitment to Michigan and care about the Great Lakes. As an Enbridge Director with fiduciary
responsibility to shareholders and for the corporation’s environmental
stewardship policies, we are bringing to your urgent attention and requesting
immediate action in response to a pattern and practice of Enbridge’s operations
that puts the Great Lakes and Michigan at tremendous risk and violates
Enbridge’s own Corporate Social Responsibility Policy
and Statement on Business Conduct.
As you
may know, the Michigan Petroleum Pipeline Task Force issued a report
and recommendations on July 14 regarding Enbridge Line 5 through the
Straits. The report noted that “…in light of
the massive 2010 oil releases from Enbridge’s Line 6B near Marshall, Michigan,
the well- documented systemic failures there, the age of the Straits Pipelines,
and location of those pipelines literally in the Great Lakes, there has
been growing public and governmental concern about the Straits Pipelines. Their
location makes them especially critical. Releases of oil from the Straits
Pipelines could have a devastating ecological and economic impact. Water
quality, fisheries, beaches, and the iconic center of Michigan’s tourist
economy would likely all be gravely damaged.”
The report
identified crucial areas where Enbridge failed to disclose pipeline safety
information on Line 5 in the Straits, failed to identify critical pipeline
safety threats, failed to maintain legally required pipeline infrastructure and
provided inconsistent information about its liability in the event of a
catastrophic oil spill. Significantly, the state government task
force concluded that Enbridge’s assertions that the 61-year-old Straits
pipelines can be operated indefinitely without replacement plans are
unreasonable.
The documentation and conclusions in this task
force report, reflecting the expertise and judgment of the state’s top
environmental, legal and natural resources officials, point to a pattern of
behavior on the part of Enbridge officials that is in conflict with Enbridge’s
corporate environmental stewardship policies and authorized business
practices. Those fall within your area
of responsibility as Chair of Enbridge’s Corporate Social Responsibility
Committee.
In Enbridge Inc.’s Statement on Business Conduct,
revised in October, 2012 following the disastrous Enbridge Line 6B pipeline
rupture near Marshall, Michigan, Enbridge pledged itself to the “highest
standards of business conduct” and directed its subsidiaries, including
Enbridge Energy Partners, to “establish and maintain…operations in an
environmentally responsible manner in accordance with applicable environmental
laws, regulations and standards.”
As documented in the task force report, Enbridge’s
failure to comply with the conditions of its 1953 Easement Agreement with the
State of Michigan for Line 5 through the Straits seem to clearly constitute a
breach of appropriate business conduct as defined by Enbridge corporate
business conduct policy adopted in the wake of the Line 6B pipeline
disaster.
As the former Governor of Michigan, current
Enbridge Director and Chair of its Corporate Social Responsibility Committee,
we respectfully request that you consider taking the following steps toward
safeguarding the Great Lakes and putting Enbridge into compliance with its
environmental stewardship and business practices polices:
- Publicly
commit to working within Enbridge, Inc. and its subsidiary, Enbridge Energy
Partners, to permanently remove the threat of Enbridge Line 5 through the
Straits of Mackinac by ending the flow of oil through the Straits pipelines. For Enbridge to act in an environmentally
responsible manner it must acknowledge the magnitude of harm to the Great Lakes
from a “worst case” pipeline rupture in the Straits and immediately begin
eliminating this as a threat.
- Require
Enbridge to immediately and publicly disclose all pipeline inspection
information for Line 5 dating to the pipeline’s construction in 1953. As the task force reported, “While Enbridge
has publicly listed the numbers and types of pipeline inspections that it or
its contractors have performed, it has not fully disclosed the actual results
of most of the inspections or the limitations of the test methods used.” As a result of Enbridge’s failure to disclose
this information, there is no opportunity to subject the inspection regime and
results to public evaluation and review by experts. Enbridge’s failure to disclose this pipeline
safety information as required in its Easement Agreement with the State of
Michigan is in conflict with Enbridge policy requiring adherence to
environmental laws.
- Provide
immediate access to all information and documents that would allow independent
analysis of Enbridge’s pipelines through the Straits. As the task force report concluded, “Enbridge has pointed to its use of remotely
operated vehicles as a means of verifying the continued integrity of the
external coating originally applied to the Straits Pipelines. But Enbridge has
failed to acknowledge that much of the Straits Pipelines are now heavily
encrusted with invasive quagga and/or zebra mussels and that, where present,
make it difficult or impossible to view or photograph the external surface of
the pipe.
Moreover, Enbridge has not addressed the potential for acidic
secretions from these mussels to promote corrosion of metal where the pipeline
coating has been compromised.
Given Enbridge’s failure to maintain the legally
required intervals for pipeline supports during an apparently extended period
of time, and the very significant underwater currents at the Straits, there is
a need to analyze the resulting stresses on the pipelines and potential impacts
to their integrity.”
- Instruct
all of Enbridge’s lobbyists, public relations consultants and corporate
officials to withdraw from authoring and supporting proposed changes that
undermine Michigan’s open records law by making pipeline safety and other vital
data secret. Weakening Michigan’s
Freedom of Information Act to prevent public disclosure of pipeline safety
records is inconsistent with the environmental stewardship Enbridge claims its
corporate policies support.
- Require
Enbridge to fully comply with the liability requirements of its Easement
Agreement with the State of Michigan by providing a “worst case” estimate of
potential damages resulting from pipeline ruptures instead of the “conflicting,
incomplete, and inadequately supported estimates of its total liability under
the Easement,” as the task force report stated.
We are grateful
to present this information to you and hope that you will consider this an
opportunity to, once again, serve your state by using your unique position as a
member of the Enbridge Inc. Board of Directors to protect the Great Lakes. We
look forward to your response and are, of course, available to discuss this
with you at your convenience.
Sincerely,
/s/ /s/
David Holtz,
Chair Anne
Woiwode, Director
Michigan Chapter
Executive Committee Michigan
Chapter Conservation
CC: U.S.
Sen. Debbie Stabenow
U.S.
Sen. Gary Peters
Michigan
Attorney General Bill Schuette
Michigan
DEQ Director Dan Wyant
