Enbridge the Ef Out

Enbridge Inc. is a Canadian oil company evidently owned and operated by a bunch of morons who may or may not have taken lessons from another bunch of morons over at BP. In fact, its recent spill of more than 1,000 barrels of oil in a Wisconsin field comes almost two years to the day after a ruptured Enbridge line fouled part of the Kalamazoo River in Michigan.

Enbridge, which now has its sites set on a pipeline across wild rivers along the northern British Columbia coastline, launched an over $3 billion expansion program just two months ago.

Via the Vancouver Sun:

Just weeks ago, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board blasted Enbridge’s handling of the July 2010 rupture of its Line 6B near Marshall, Michigan, which led to more than 20,000 barrels of crude leaking into the Kalamazoo River.

The NTSB said it found a complete breakdown of company safety measures, and that Enbridge employees performed like “Keystone Kops” trying to contain it. The rupture went undetected for 17 hours.

U.S. pipeline regulators fined it $3.7 million for the spill, their largest ever penalty.

The incidents, plus the most recent spill in Alberta, have caused furor just as the company seeks approval for its C$6 billion Northern Gateway pipeline to Canada’s West Coast amid staunch opposition from environmental groups and native communities that warn against oil spills.