New Pipeline Rules and Fines On the Way
Wednesday, June 26, 2013 @ 12:13 PM
Prince George, B.C. – Just two days after the Joint Review Panel wrapped up the final hearings on the Northern Gateway Twin Pipeline proposal, the Federal Government has announced the Federal Government will be introducing new safety rules for pipelines.
Joe Oliver, the federal Minister of Natural Resources announced in Vancouver today that companies operating major pipelines will have to have at least $1 billion “financial capability” to respond to any incident and fix the damage.
He also announced new rules and fines for individuals and companies that are caught breaking environmental laws:
- New fines that will soon come into force that will preventatively address contraventions quickly so that larger issues do not arise in the future. The penalties to companies and individuals for a range of infractions can range from $25,000 to a maximum of $100,000;
- Requiring companies to appoint an accountable senior officer whose duty is to ensure their management system and programs are in compliance;
- Ensuring companies’ emergency and environmental plans are transparent and easily available to the public; and
- Enshrining in law the ‘polluter pays’ principle explicitly in law. Currently it is only implicit;
Some pipelines are regulated by the federal government and others by the province.
Comments
So does anyone have any doubt that the JRP rubber stamping the Enbridge project is a foregone conclusion?
And this part of these measures is quite humorous:
“The penalties to companies and individuals for a range of infractions can range from $25,000 to a maximum of $100,000;” ???
The billion dollar “capability” is laughable as well.
The 1989 Exxon Valdez cleanup SO FAR is $3.8 billion.
The Enbridge Kalamazoo cleanup SO FAR is $725 million, according to Enbridge. $765 million according to Wikipedia.
Of course Enbridge says 843,000 U.S. gallons of “crude oil” was spilled, and 337,386 gallons made it into Talmadge Creek and the Kalamazoo River.
Wiki offers a different view and says 877,000 U.S. gallons of diluted bitumen was spilled into the creek and on into the river.
A billion dollar financial capability. A serious joke when you consider what it would cost to get people and equipment into a line break in the wilderness or mountains in the dead of winter plus the cost to clean it up for however long that takes.
Of course a spill is never going to happn, is it?
So what’s the fines for windfarms killing birds and bats?
one democrat, you sure are letting your imagination run away.
Not to mention the costs for the potential compensation of fish populations if they are wiped out. Check out the CN’s Chekamus spill and compensation project. Lots of compensation work to try to re-establish the population of fish that were wiped out…..which will definitely end up costing a lot more then the spill clean-up itself.
“one democrat, you sure are letting your imagination run away”
naw… those are Wikipedia quotes, that means its someone elses imagination ;)
Canada has the toughest pipeline regulations anywhere in the world and they just got tougher. But it will never be enough for some people…
Meanwhile thousands of kms of pipelines continue to operate and those same people will keep buying goods and driving vehicles that require the products that pipelines ship, happy oblivious to the hypocrisy and irony.
Posted by: seamutt on June 26 2013 1:40 PM
So what’s the fines for windfarms killing birds and bats?
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About the same as open net pen farmed atlantic salmon spreading their poison all over the BC coast and planet.
Why someone would support a company with a pitifully slow track record of responding to spills, and who decided the best way to clean up was to bury the problem, and why someone would support a government that decided to change the rules of the review process to support the company is baffling.
But then, when a spill does happen, that same suporter will be nowhere to be found.
JohnnyBelt, I’m pretty sure most people aren’t against all pipelines. Pipelines are a fact of life and truthfully the safest way of transporting bulk amounts of Oil………..however I think the case of the Northern Gateway is that it just so happens to run right through arguably one of the most environmentally sensitive areas of the province. So the thought of a couple million barrels of crude pumped into the Skeena River (or one of its tributaries) is a little bit spooky. Since there are only a small number of passes to send a pipeline through the coast mtns…..it might make more sense to send the much safer NG along that route then Crude oil…we would make a hell of a lot more in revenue off of the NG which is from our own province.
JBio has it bang on. It’s the specific Northern Gateway project that people are opposed to, not pipelines in general.
Based on JB’s logic, if I choose not to support a proposed Chinese Restaurant because I don’t like the owners, that means I should never eat at Fortune Palace. After all, egg rolls are egg rolls, right?
You can’t have Northern Gateway without tankers. Exxon Valdez has cost over 3 billion so far, and still isn’t cleaned up. BP has spent over 45 billion in the Gulf of Mexico.
Joe Oliver is a day late and a dollar short.
Northern Gateway is not so much a pipeline but a pipedream.
Dragon show the proof.
The “toughest pipeline regulations anywhere in the world” aren’t worth the paper they are printed on if they don’t manage to keep the stuff confined to the inside (!) of the pipeline all the time, during all the rockslides, avalanches, washouts, forest fires and earthquakes which occur regularly in this part of B.C. – not an easy task, to be sure!
It has absolutely nothing to do with irony, hypocrisy and driving a car powered by fossil fuels! It’s a technical thing, risks and challenges and so forth.
Even Enbridge admits that it can not guarantee 100% there will NEVER be a spill.
The pipeline needs to meet the proper checks and balances- not just the self serving view of the few. This needs to be viewed from the standpoint of how can we make this happen safely – not from how do we stop this at all costs.
Well put, riskeone.
PG: “Even Enbridge admits that it can not guarantee 100% there will NEVER be a spill. “
Well duh! Nobody can guarantee 100% of anything.
As riskeone states, let’s figure out how this can be done and build it to world class standards.
Very little benefits, too much to risk. We the caretakers of this “Beautiful British Columbia” will stand united to stop this pipedream disaster. Future generations deserve nothing less.
Either we are serious about exporting LNG or we are not. Northern Gateway is a losing proposition for BC that will divert money and resources from LNG pipeline construction.
If CC is honest about her intentions to benefit BC through LNG production, then deep-six Northern Gateway, along with Site C, and lets get along with business.
There are presently 15 proposals for LNG export from this province.
Why are we wasting time on Northern Gateway?
I see what you did there Harper and BIG OIL, well played, well played!
Wait until after the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline Joint Review Panel (JRP) has finished their final hearings, then make changes to pipeline regulations! So now if the JRP makes a recommendation NOT to proceed with the proposed pipeline, BIG OIL Harper and his cronies can ignore the JRP recommendations because the panel’s deliberations did not include due consideration of these “new” pipeline regulations.
Everything thing seems to be in place for Harper to justify ignoring the JRP’s work , based on introduction of these “new” regulations which totally changes the show! LOL!!!
More and more I can see why a number of First Nations decided not to participate in the JRP public hearings, introducing new pipeline regulations to make the JRP’s work and recommendations outdated and irrelevant!
This is too funny… In a sad pathetic kind of way :(
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