Enbridge CEO Patrick Daniel wins 2010 Leaky Pipe Award

December 16th (Vancouver) – Activists concerned about Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway Pipelines delivered a “Leaky Pipe Award” to CEO Pat Daniel, while supporters gathered outside the company’s offices in Calgary and Vancouver to “(un)celebrate” Enbridge’s oil spill record.

“The Leaky Pipe Award recognizes Enbridge CEO Pat Daniel as 2010’s worst pipeline spill offender. Under his leadership, Enbridge has had spill after spill, and their response has been harshly criticized. It’s award-winning ineptitude,” said Jolan Bailey, Climate Outreach Coordinator for ForestEthics, who delivered the award to Daniel’s Calgary office.

In Calgary and Vancouver, activists raised glasses of a black substance resembling crude oil to toast the embattled CEO at the respective corporate headquarters.

Enbridge has spilled upwards of 4.5 million litres of crude oil in 2010, and reports an average of 80 spills and leaks a year between 2005 and 2009. The company’s proposed Northern Gateway Pipelines would stretch twin pipelines across more than 1000 rivers and streams to connect the Tar Sands, in Alberta, to a supertanker port in Kitimat, British Columbia.

“This August, Enbridge destroyed Michigan’s Kalamazoo River with a 3 million-litre oil spill. Clearly, their leaky pipes aren’t safe for B.C.’s sensitive watersheds. Just one spill and wild salmon populations could be devastated – crippling the communities, economies and traditional cultures that rely on this world-class resource,” said Bailey.

The Northern Gateway proposal faces strong opposition. The first B.C. hearings held by the review panel assessing the project were met by hundreds of protesters in Kitimat, Prince George and Vancouver. Seventy B.C. First Nations have publically rejected the project, and the Union of BC Municipalities passed a resolution opposing pipelines shipping Tar Sands crude oil to the North Coast.

“Everywhere Enbridge turns, people are saying ‘no’. They simply don’t have the social license for the Northern Gateway project,” said Nikki Skuce of ForestEthics. “We hope that we can give Enbridge a toast in 2011 for being the Corporate Social Responsibility leaders they claim to be by withdrawing their risky proposal.”

The majority of Federal Members of Parliament passed an NDP motion in support of a tanker ban for BC’s north coast on December 7th that would effectively put an end to Enbridge’s proposal. Liberal MP Joyce Murray recently put forward a private members’ bill – taking another step closer to permanently legislating an oil tanker ban for Canada’s Pacific North Coast.

Photos for press available for download at http://www.flickr.com/photos/forestethics/sets/72157625612905168/