It is becoming more important for entrepreneurs and the whole of society to achieve a balance between economic profit and environmental safety. However, I believe that Enbridge fails to achieve this balance in their proposed pipeline project. It is contradictory for Enbridge to claim itself as a socially responsible company while seeking profits without sincerely taking environment safety into consideration.
Wrong Route
Enbridge uses all kinds of strategy to persuade B.C. residents that their route would not harm our environment. It sounds not convincing to me. Enbridge is trying to place oil supertankers on the same difficult channel where the ferry the Queen of the North sank in 2006. Kitimat, B.C. is located close to the beautiful and precious Great Bear rainforest that is one of the largest intact temperate rainforests left in the world.
Enbridge’s Spill History
It is impossible to guarantee that an oil spill would not happen. Enbridge has experienced 31 significant oil leaks from its pipelines since 2002. Also, 6 of the 10 largest spills by volume all come from Enbridge pipelines. The largest spill is Kalamazoo River oil leak in 2010. Around 20,000 barrels of oil, 3.2 million liters, spilled from a rupture in a stretch of Michigan pipe and about 8,000 barrels leaked into the Kalamazoo River. This oil spill is still not fully cleaned up by now.
It is unethical and too risky for B.C. government to hand over our precious north coast to a company with full of oil leak history.
No matter how hard Enbridge tries to market itself as an ethical firm, the first thing is to rebuild its reputation on pipeline safety.