Legislators rip into Enbridge, regulators at oil spill hearing

A congressional hearing into the Enbridge oil spill in Calhoun county has begun. In opening statements, members of Congress used the opportunity to rip into Enbridge Energy Partners and federal regulators from the Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

“This corporation is not practicing a corporate culture of safety,” said Committee Chair James Oberstar, directly slapping Enbridge CEO Patrick Daniel who has consistently maintained his company maintains a culture of safety.

“Mr. Chairman, I think every inch of this pipeline must be inspected and repaired before this line restarts,” said Congressman Mark Schauer the Democratic representative of that district in which the oil spill occurred. “The longest pipeline can spill one million gallons of crude… and they don’t have to fix the defects. That concerns me.”

Congresswoman Candice Miller, a Republican from Michigan, ripped into both PHMSA and Enbridge for the handling of a large dent on the pipeline crossing the St. Clair River into Canada.

“We met with Enbridge last week. They indicated they use a very sophisticated procedure to identify issues with the lines,” Miller said. “The dent was not detected until August of 2009… They told me they think it (the dent) has been there since 1969. That raises questions about their process.”

Miller also slammed PHMSA for not making the company fix the dent in 60 days, as regulations require.

Congressman Vern Ehlers a Republican from Grand Rapids, went even further.

“The basic factor here is that we are facing an infrastructure crisis in this county,” Ehlers said. “I think we need to start waving the flag and take the lead in this Congress.”