I am writing today to announce the closure of the Michigan Messenger. After four years of operation in Michigan, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news into a single site, The American Independent at Americanindependent.com. This is part of a shift in strategy, towards new forms [...]
An abstinence-only presentation provided to numerous school districts in Calhoun and Eaton Counties in October of this year provided false and misleading information to students about HIV, experts allege.
Two county registers of deeds filed a class action lawsuit Monday on behalf of Michigan’s 83 counties alleging that the Mortgage Electronic Registration Services owes millions of dollars in property title transfer taxes.
Despite evidence of the impact of mercury on children and public health, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette last month joined with 24 other state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to scuttle new EPA regulations that would reduce mercury emissions from power plants.
Canada’s National Energy Board restricted the flow of oil through pipelines in that country in response to the Enbridge pipeline rupture that fouled at least 30 miles of the Kalamazoo River last summer.
Post Media News reports that Canadian regulators, after monitoring the U.S. investigation of the Michigan spill, ordered a 20 percent pressure reduction on the pre-1970 flash-welded sections of Enbridge’s Line 2, which connects Edmonton to Superior, Wisconsin.
“The Board had noted a correlation between these sections and ‘cracking related incidents’ on Enbridge’s Canadian system,” said a federal report from October, released by Natural Resources Canada through access to information legislation.
This document describes the steps Canada took to address new concerns about vulnerabilities on the Enbridge pipeline.
“The Board has given Enbridge two months to provide an up-to-date integrity status report on cracking on its system; four months to re-analyse its cracking inspections, do integrity inspections and file an independent report.”
The document, obtained by Ottawa researcher Ken Rubin, also said the Alberta-based company would be required to file short-term and long-term integrity improvement plans and would not be allowed to increase the pressure in its system without permission from the board.
National Energy Board spokeswoman Carole Leger-Kubeczek confirmed that the order to reduce pressure was still in effect since the regulator had found that the company’s “hazard identification practices” were not consistently reliable. She said that Enbridge would not be allowed to return to full operations until it demonstrated “the adequacy and effectiveness of its programs in preventing cracking incidents from occurring.”
The Board also ordered reductions on a pipeline owned by Trans-Northern Pipelines that brings jet fuel to the Montreal’s international airport and gasoline to stations in Ontario.
The National Transportation Safety Board has not yet released its official report on the causes of the Michigan spill.
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