Enbridge Northern Pipeline Must Be Stopped

This is really getting pathetic, Enbridge and the Harper Conservatives are acting like mobsters, enforcers, dealers of threats, no more Stephen Harper, I along with thousands of others will fight to stop this, even if it means my death.

There has been a new study released from the university of Calgary, home of Jack Mintz and many other oil fraudsters, this study talks about money in the hundreds of $billions of dollars over 20 odd years of this project, the study talks about people years of employment, the economic boon to Canada, to Ontario and to British Columbia, and exactly how much money would flow to British Columbia?

Before I get there I would like to toss a few real numbers around....

Vancouver trade and convention center, $400 million over budget for a total cost of....$985 million dollars.

(Meanwhile, NDP MLA Adrian Dix called the convention expansion a “financial disaster."
The original price tag was $495 million, which included a capped federal injection to share the cost. In the end, expenditures rose to $883 million, leaving the province on the hook for almost $400 million.
“This is the largest overrun of any public project in B.C. history,” Dix told The Tyee in an interview before the opening. “That money is now spent and gone.”)


New RCMP headquarters in  Surrey...$1.2 billion dollars and counting.

( "He said the cost for the RCMP's yet-to-be completed divisional headquarters in Surrey was originally pegged at $300 million, but the price tag has now risen to $1.2 billion.")


Canada line, original estimated cost, $1.6 billion dollars... (The real cost $2.7 billion dollars.
(The cost of the Canada Line is now understood to be over $2.5 billion, with some estimates as high as $2.8 billion.)

Sea to sky highway upgrade, $800 million construction cost, plus, a guaranteed $2.2 billion maintenance fee over 25 years.

BC Place upgrades and roof...$785 million dollars.

On the same day that David Basi and Bob Virk plead guilty in the BC Rail Corruption trial, news is coming out that the renovated BC Place stadium will become the eighth priciest sports stadium in North America and the 13th most costly venue in the world. The BC Place stadium’s 13th place ranking is out of 12,000 venues.
Total cost for the stadium will be approximately $835 million.

Those are real dollars...I would like to show you some more dollar figures.
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BP is budgeting for maximum final costs of $41bn to settle fines, compensation and clean-up operations, based on the assumption that it will not be found guilty of any allegations of gross negligence.

However, estimates from Moody's say the figure could be much higher, with BP's estimate of the cost at the very bottom end of expectations.

"We still do not know the total cost and penalties from the spill, but our analysis suggested the figure would be roughly $40bn-$60bn," Moody's analysts said.

It is now a year to the day since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and sank, killing 11 men. Moody's points out it will take until late 2012 to get any legal outcomes that determine the size of fines for BP. 

The rating agency believes that BP can still afford to pay liabilities of $60bn, based on the fact that it has more than $30bn of free cash flow and is disposing of $30bn in assets. It said BP's A2 credit rating is not likely to suffer
 Read more here
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Now those are real numbers my friends, real costs, but guess what...BP screwed over every little guy with help from a gaggle of high priced lawyers and these shysters delivered this result to British Petroleum..
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Unbelievable! Court Rules US Taxpayers, Not BP Or Transocean, Are Liable For Gulf Oil Spill Clean Up Costs

  Posted by Alexander Higgins - June 18, 2011 at 12:22 pm - Permalink - Source via Alexander Higgins Blog

(7 votes, average: 4.43 out of 5)

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US District court has dismissed over 100,000 lawsuits brought against BP And Transocean to pay for oil spill clean up costs and environmental damages caused to the Gulf of Mexico from the BP Gulf Oil Spill. The court ruled that injury stopped the moment the well was sealed and the Federal Government, aka The US Taxpayer, is now liable for clean up costs along with any damages caused by deficiencies of the cleanup of the Gulf Of Mexico.

The US District Courts have ruled that since oil is no longer flowing from the Macando Well BP and Transocean are not liable for cleanup costs and damages from the BP Gulf Oil Spill since the “well has already been sealed and the injury has already been committed”.
In the ruling the court goes on note that Federal Government is in charge of the oil spill clean up efforts. Thus any damages related to the cleanup are now the burden of the Federal Government, meaning the US Taxpayer.
The ruling means that Taxpayers are not only liable for the clean up of the BP Gulf Oil Spill but it also means that any damages caused by deficiencies of the clean up in the Gulf is now also the responsibility of the US Taxpayer.
The lawsuits against BP have been bundled into separate packages with all of the lawsuits pertaining to BP’s liability for cleanup costs and environmental damages being dismissed with this ruling.
Activists Post reports :

BP wins a big one in oil spill litigation

Sabrina Canfield
Courthouse News Service
Friday, June 17, 2011Last Update: 9:13 AM PT
NEW ORLEANS – Ruling in favor of Transocean and BP, a federal judge on Thursday dismissed third-party environmental claims in a giant pleading bundle in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill litigation, saying the fact that the oil flow has stopped makes those lawsuits irrelevant.
“The injunction at this stage would be useless, as not only is there no ongoing release from the well, but there is also no viable offshore facility from which any release could possibly occur,” U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier wrote. “The Macondo well is dead, and what remains of the Deepwater Horizon vessel is on the ocean floor, where it capsized and sank in 5,000 feet of water.
“Moreover, BP and the agencies comprising the Unified Area Command have been and are cleaning up the Gulf of Mexico. An injury is not redressable by a citizen suit when the injury is already being addressed.”
Judge Barbier is overseeing the massive, consolidated oil spill litigation, which has been divided into “bundles,” based upon the nature of the claims.
In instances where claims in the D1 bundle pertain to how the oil is being cleaned up, Barbier ruled that even if he allowed those claims to go forward, the claimants are not directly involved in the cleanup, so a ruling in their favor would not affect how the cleanup is progressing.
“The D1 defendants do not unilaterally direct the cleanup activities in the Gulf; such activities have been under the control of the National Incident Commander, Federal on-Scene Coordinator, Unified Area Command, and the Coast Guard in cooperation with other federal agencies. Thus, plaintiffs cannot show that an order from this court would actually resolve [to the defendants for] any potential deficiency in the ongoing cleanup,” Barbier wrote.
“In order to prevail on their claims for injunctive relief, plaintiffs must demonstrate an ongoing violation of various statutes on which plaintiffs’ claims for relief is based. Because the Macondo well is dead and is no longer discharging oil, plaintiffs’ only claims are confined to seeking environmental citizen suit injunctive relief of a prospective nature to stop noncompliance in the form of a continued release of oil. Thus, the citizen suit claims brought by the plaintiffs are moot, because no future-orientated injunction can provide any meaningful relief for plaintiffs in terms of stopping discharges that already concluded in mid-July 2010.”
Transocean’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, operated by BP, exploded and burned 50 miles off the Louisiana coast on April 20, 2010, killing 11 and setting off the worst oil spill in history. [Hundreds of] Millions of gallons of oil were spilled in the next 87 days.
More than 100,000 people have filed lawsuits seeking damages from the spill.
The lawsuits dismissed on Thursday belonged to the D1 pleading bundle.
D1 bundle claims were filed by third-party organizations that alleged environmental damages under the Clean Water Act; the Endangered Species Act; the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act; and the Emergency Planning and Community Right-To-Know Act.
This was the first ruling arising from issues addressed during a May 26 hearing on the defendants’ motions to dismiss particular bundles.
Claims with varying types of damages were included in more than one bundle, depending on type of claim.
In dismissing the D1 claims, Barbier said the claims could still be heard if they seek damages for violations other than environmental claims.
“To the extent that plaintiffs assert claims under general maritime law and/or state law, the court will consider those claims separately when it addresses the pending motions to dismiss the B1 bundle master complaint,” Barbier wrote.
During the May 26 hearing, Barbier indicated that he might find the claims asserted in the D1 bundle were moot.
“The fundamental argument is that this is all moot because the well is sealed,” Barbier said.
During the hearing, Ervin Gonzales, of the plaintiff steering committee, said the cleanup has not been adequate and “the environment is suffering.”
Greg Buppert, an attorney for Defenders of Wildlife, told Barbier at the hearing that “the Endangered Species Act is not linked to the well spill; it is linked to the take of species.”
In response, Barbier cited the federal government’s investigation of the spill. Federal attorneys have said that criminal charges will be filed if the investigation turns up evidence of willful negligence by the defendants.
Because of the continuing investigation, the government has tried to keep certain issues undercover. For instance, autopsy results of the hundreds of dead baby dolphins that have washed up along the Gulf Coast have been kept private, and independent scientists have not been allowed to conduct their own autopsies.
“Isn’t that what the federal government is doing?”  Barbier asked on May 26. “It sounds like you think they may not do it right.”
Later that day, Barbier told Buppert: “It’s speculative right now. You’re surmising that somebody is going to do something that you don’t like.”
Attorneys did not immediately return calls for comment.

Unbelievable. Shocking. The may need the entire congress to send twitter pics exposing themselves to distract the masses from this one. I guess the Judge believed that all of the oil magically disappeared from the Gulf the moment the well was sealed, just like the Federal Government told us it did. Never mind that fact that scientists reported the Feds confiscated the data of the underwater plumes and told the scientists to shut up about their research. Never mind the feds tried covering up the first plume that was discovered. You do remember that  massive 22 mile long plume larger than the size of Manhattan don’t you?
And even after the Feds said they couldn’t find the  oil the massive slick in the Gulf could still be seen from space. Then there were the fisherman that the Feds told to shut about the discovery of oil in Gulf seafood. Yep the damage, that all ended when the well was sealed, if what even sealed. Regardless of that debate that fact still remains that massive underwater lakes of oil are still in the Gulf and will remain there for years.
But none of that matters to our fascist government. Widespread sightings of oil washing up all over the Gulf continue to this very day. In fact NOAA has just recently confirmed a widespread “unexplained sickness” and lesions in sea life all across the Gulf that the Feds are desperately trying to keep a lid on.
That wouldn’t have anything to do with the almost 2 million gallons of the neurotoxin pesticide Corexit that was sprayed into the Gulf to limit BP’s cleanup costs for the Gulf.
Oh, the irony. Would BP have sprayed all of those toxins into the Gulf if they knew that the Federal courts would just let them off the hook for the clean up costs? The Feds would have never of needed to lie about the lethality of Corexit because the public couldn’t handle the truth.
The Irony. The Fascism. The Greed. The Corruption.

Read more here
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Where was I, oh yea.....What exactly does British Columbia get out of this deal?..What would be worth risking Orca, Salmon, kelp beds, shellfish and our tourism industry, what exactly would BC get, certainly the university of Calgary would give us The Straight goods on what BC could expect for taking ALL the RISK.....Let`s have a little look at the university of Calgary numbers..

Sorry to keep you in suspense, there is one other number I would like to show you first..
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DALLAS -- Albert Pujols could have been a wealthy Cardinal for life, planning for the day his statue would be erected outside Busch Stadium next to those of Stan Musial, Bob Gibson and the other St. Louis greats.
Instead, exactly six weeks after leading the Cardinals to a second title in one of the most thrilling World Series ever, he decided to accept the second-highest contract in baseball history for a new future in southern California with the Los Angeles Angels.
The three-time NL MVP agreed Thursday to a US$254 million, 10-year contract with the Angels, leaving behind a heartbroken fan base by jilting one of the sport's traditional teams for an expansion club with only one championship in its half-century.

Read more here....
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Did you catch that number, Albert Pujois, a baseball player has signed a deal that will pay him $254 million US dollars over 10 years, that really must be a lot of money, 10 years, $25 million dollars per year for 10 years....Where was I, right, how much would the Province of BC and its 4 million inhabitants receive from taking all the risk on the northern enbridge pipeline to Kitimat over the life of the project...

Here`s what the university of Calgary has to say on that matter..

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The University of Calgary's School of Public Policy issued an analysis Thursday concluding that with expanded pipeline access to U.S. and Asian markets, Canada's gross domestic product would jump $132 billion in 2010 dollars between 2016 and 2030, generating $27 billion in federal, provincial and municipal taxes and 649,000 person-years of employment.

But the study also shows that the overwhelming economic benefit of pipeline expansion to B.C. goes to Alberta.

The opening of the Asian market would trigger $10.5 billion in gains and 52,000 person-years of employment in Canada, but almost $10 billion of that wealth and 44,000 person-years go to Alberta.

Ontario would get $286 million and 4,000 person-years, while B.C. would enjoy $131 million and 2,000 person-years.


The study also "suggests" that B.C. would gain an additional $85 million in GDP and another 1,000 person-years due to increased exports to California if pipelines are built to the West Coast.

Read more: http://www.canada.com/business/decision+pipeline+will+signal+world+Alberta+premier+says/5867912/story.html#ixzz1gsTYLF5a

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Do you see what British Columbia will receive over 15 years, $131 million dollars plus another "suggested"  $85 million dollars for a total of...$216 million dollars over 15 years, that works out to $14.4 million dollars per year, Albert Pujois will make way more than that as a single solitary ballplayer, Are you KIDDING ME!....Hell no way, Ontario gets more money out of this deal than BC without taking  any risk...

If the British Columbia number was a hundred times greater the risk still wouldn`t be worth it!

And the people are starting to fight back against this proposed atrocity...Here is what the town of Prince Rupert is submitting to the Enbridge review..

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The City of Prince Rupert has released a draft of its written submission to the government hearings on the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline, which are set top begin next month.

Boiled-down to its most basic message, the submission argues that Prince Rupert depends on a pristine marine environment too much to put it at risk – no matter how statistically small that risk is – by having oil tankers sailing out of Kitimat.

The submission itself is kept clean of any slights against Enbridge the company, nor does it point out any particular aspect or perceived flaws of the project that are cause for concern. Instead of arguing the moral responsibility of protecting the environment, they make their argument with the same tools that the energy company often makes theirs: economics.

The thrust of the City's argument is that many of the existing industries in Prince Rupert depend on a clean marine environment for survival. Prince Rupert's tourism for instance relies on it for everything from the nice views for drawing in tourists, to sports fishing and grizzly bear tours.

“Needless to say a Prince William Sound-esque (Exxon Valdez) oil spill would put much of the economic activity in jeopardy not to mention the destruction of marine habitat,” reads the draft submission.


The City also worries what an accident would mean for those who make their living from harvesting resources from the ocean.

“The harvesting of salmon, halibut, herring, crabs and a host of other marine species generates tens of millions of dollars into the Prince Rupert and regional economy. Historically, a clean marine environment has allowed Prince Rupert to literally generate billions of dollars in economic activity."

The City also argues that First Nations people who live in Prince Rupert have a right to harvest the ocean for social, ceremonial and cultural purpose, a right they could not exercise if the waters off Prince Rupert were ever polluted. This, they fear, would have a profoundly negative effect on aboriginal communities.

“For time immemorial, Coastal First Nation peoples have depended on a clean marine environment to sustain their civilization. That dependency exists to this day even in our modern world.”


The City advocates that the National Energy Board's joint review panel for assessing the pipeline project should use a method called “the triple bottom line approach.” Using this approach, a potential development is assessed on its social, environmental and economic value, instead of just trying to figure out if a project's economic benefit outweighs the environmental risk.

This approach is meant to give a better idea of how a project will effect quality of life in a region. The city says that the triple bottom line approach is the basis for the Prince Rupert's Quality of Life Official Community Plan. The result has been, according to the city, that development in Prince Rupert has gone ahead while keeping in mind how much residents value their environment.

“Even with growth, Prince Rupert has retained its natural and pristine look and feel. Development has been balanced as a result of the retention of natural landscapes, harbour views and mountain views and focusing higher densities and larger buildings downtown,” reads the submission.

With environmental conservation being an important factor for the survival of existing industries and for preserving Prince Rupert's quality of life for its residents, the City concludes that:

“Any negative effect on the physical environment severely handicaps the community to exist as it desires.”

The written submission will not be the only participation in the Enbridge hearings that the City is planning. The City of Prince Rupert has also registered as an intervenor, which means that it will be allowed to submit questions and present evidence at the hearings when they get underway

Read more here

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This is getting ridiculous, British Columbia gets nothing, over 15 years and British Columbia won`t even get enough money for a 1/4 of a new roof on BC Place,  The Basi/Virk BC Rail corruption trial and payoff cost all toll, over $35 million dollars in legal fees, the lawsuit BC paid to Boss power was $30 million dollars, the lawsuit BC had to pay to the HEU for illegally ripping up contracts cost over $85 million dollars, add in all the BC Government`s lawyers and legal costs and those three BC Liberal scandals and crimes alone cost more to British Columbia than all the money we would receive from the northern pipeline...

Christy Clucking Clark.....Get off the fence, take a piss or get off the pot, what is your position on the Enbridge pipeline, you better think long and hard about your answer...
After all, British Columbia has a staggering $14.4 million dollars per year on the line(insert sarcasm here)

The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open