Just what every property owner wants: exhibitionist nitwit trespassers freely accessing their properties via the pipeline easements you seized by eminent domain.
The star of this little film describes it thusly:
“just me riding a honda recon on the millenium pipeline stayed in 2ed gear because i couldent realy shift , i was holding the camra”
Tags: eminent domain, pipelines, trespass
‘Petro-pirates’ robbing Alberta’s resources
Flushing justice down the pipeline with Wiebo Ludwig’s arrest
Published January 14, 2010 by Jack Locke in Viewpoint Corey Pierce. . . . . Alberta is not a democratic province. It is a province controlled by international corporations that see profit and extraction of natural resources as their prime object.
In order to accomplish their objective, the industry will use its abundant resources to do things that are not very nice. Companies will send crews of desperate men to attack the land and lay waste on anyone who gets in their way. These crews may wear uniforms and call themselves Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Or the petro-pirates may hire private security forces to instigate dirty tricks to dissipate legitimate opposition to the destruction of Alberta’s air, water and land.
There is a great amount of opposition in Alberta to what the Progressive Conservative dynasty allows. There are voices in every Alberta city that oppose the wanton poisonings of citizens who happen to live downwind or adjacent to an oil or gas well.
But Oilberta is a one-industry town. It is run by the bosses of EnCana, Shell and other giant corporations. They have infiltrated every aspect of Alberta society: hospitals, schools and the government. They have put a clamp on dissension and discussion in a most disgraceful way.
. . . . .
I have lived 15 km downwind of a gas plant. I can tell you stories about the clouds of toxic chemicals that are emitted in the dark of night, while country children sleep in their beds. I can tell you how the Alberta government watchdog agency prohibited me from speaking at a public hearing over whether to allow Shell Canada to expand its Caroline gas plant. I can tell you how the government of Alberta intercepted my private communications for at least four months in 1999.
Nobody likes explosions of pipelines. Nobody likes to have a seismic crew destroy the ageless aquifers that provide drinking water for cattle and country folk. Nobody likes to have a gas well spewing harmful vapours into the air. But people do like automobiles, and they like to receive unnaturally healthy returns on investment. Ah, there’s the rub.
The situation in Alberta will continue for some time to come. So long as birds are found dead on tarsand tailings ponds, so long as drinking water ignites in the rural homes of Albertans, so long as the government permits these atrocities, not much will change.
All that Ludwig wanted was a decent place to live, free from the dangers of modern life. A simple rural existence, subsistence. You’d think it could be found in remote Hythe, Alta. But obviously not.
The idea of sustainable development, respect of citizens and nature and a just society are words not often heard in Alberta’s highest offices. And even if they are heard, they are meaningless in the current political environment.
. . . . .
As a large, cold nation we should develop a national policy that protects the land for future generations, one that protects our natural resources. Depletion of our life’s blood will only ensure a miserable future for our children.
Even if our governments allow for the exhaustion of our non-renewable resources, they must not prohibit legitimate debate on the subject. The word tyranny should have no place in the Canadian lexicon. Yet, the repeated arrest of Ludwig is a sad example of justice being flushed down the pipeline.
Read full piece at Fast Forward Weekly
The Associated Press reports:
Flames blazed more than 400 feet high above a natural gas line explosion that rocked Bushland, Texas about 1 a.m. today.
BUSHLAND — A natural gas pipeline exploded in the Texas Panhandle on Thursday, shaking homes, melting window blinds and shooting flames hundreds of feet into the air, authorities said. Three people were injured in the blast, which occurred at 1 a.m. near Amarillo, and they were taken to an area hospital with burns, said Potter County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Roger Short. “My home is about 20 miles something away and I could see the flames from my home,” Short said. “You could hear the roar of the flames 20 miles away.” Firefighters were able to contain most of the flames by 5:30 a.m. though small grass fires continued to burn, Short said. Nearby residents were evacuated, and the pipeline’s gas was shut off, Short said. One house was destroyed, and several others were damaged in Bushland, about 15 miles west of Amarillo, he said. “The heat onto the homes, it did a lot of damage. You could see blinds inside the homes that were melted … it was very hot,” Short said. Bushland Middle School principal, Mark Reasor, said about 60 people who were evacuated took shelter at the school for a few hours before returning home before dawn. Gas service had been cut off to nearby homes and Bushland’s schools, officials said. Messages left with the hospital for conditions of those injured were not immediately returned Thursday. A team of investigators was heading to the pipeline, said Robert Newberry, a spokesman for El Paso Natural Gas. El Paso Natural Gas is a subsidiary of Houston-based El Paso Corporation.
Tags: pipelines
http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/article/20091031/NEWS01/91031008
Two teens killed in gas pipeline explosion
Two teenagers died in an early morning explosion at a gas pipeline in Carnes.
Wade White, 18, and Devon Byrd, 16, died at site of the explosion, which happened around 4 a.m. today near White’s home on Phillip White Road.
Byrd was a sophomore at Forrest County Agricultural High School and White had just graduated.
“They were two wonderful kids,” said Wanda White, Wade’s mother. “We just can’t understand what happened. My babies are gone.”
White said she and her husband were awakened by a noise early in the morning. After discovering the boys weren’t in the house, they discovered the fire just a stone’s throw from their home.
Remember this?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/19/world/asia/19mud.html?_r=1&ref=world
Well, never let it be said that the energy industries won’t find a way to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear:
At http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,501061211-1565620,00.html
It’s tough to put a positive spin on the massive eruption of mud that has displaced more than 12,000 people and buried a large swath of eastern Java in roiling, putrid sludge. But PT Lapindo Brantas, the Indonesian mining company widely blamed for releasing the reservoir of pressurized mud following a drilling accident last May, has come up with a novel form of damage control: sponsoring a sinetron, or Indonesian soap opera, on Surabaya TV station JTV. The 13-part series, Gali Lubang, Tutup Lubang (Digging a Hole, Filling a Hole), is a love story set among refugees left homeless by the mud volcano. “We wanted to show a real story about human interest,” says JTV executive producer Awi Setiawan, who adds that Lapindo paid about $3,300 per episode.It may cost Lapindo far more to dig itself out of this particular corporate hole, however. On Nov. 22 at least 11 people were killed by a gas pipeline explosion caused when a dike built to contain the mud flow collapsed—the latest in a string of public debacles for the company, which is part of a conglomerate controlled by the family of Aburizal Bakrie, the country’s influential Welfare Minister. In the past two months, Lapindo’s corporate parent, PT Energi Mega Persada, has unsuccessfully attempted to unload the beleaguered mining business twice: first, to another Bakrie Group subsidiary for the princely sum of $2; then to the British Virgin Islands-based investment firm Freehold Group. The latter deal collapsed last week after a public outcry, with many Indonesians fearing that the sale might prefigure an attempt by a new owner to declare Lapindo bankrupt, potentially leaving the government to pay for a disaster that one environmental group estimates has already caused $3.6 billion in damage.
Thus far, the soap opera hasn’t been enough to dispel that worry, or polish Lapindo’s befouled image. But with the mud still erupting at a rate of 120,000 cu m per day and all efforts to stanch the flow failing, there may be plenty of time for a sequel.
Published at the Edmonton Journal – edmontonjournal.com February 12, 2009
Alta. family fights for court costs after battle with oil company
By Jamie Komarnicki, Canwest News Service
CALGARY — Six years ago, the Ball Ranch near the small community of Bragg Creek, Alta., experienced its worst calving season in memory.
“We had weak calves, premature calves, sick calves, dead calves and we lost some cows, as well,” said Susan Graham, who runs the ranch with her husband, Craig, and her mother, Agnes Ball, 72.
“We had never experienced anything like that with our herd — ever.”
The decimated herd was the latest blow in a mounting battle pitting the small ranching family against one of the nation’s largest corporations.
It’s a fight some legal experts describe as the oil-and-gas industry playing “hardball.”
Recently, a Calgary judge ruled in the ranchers’ favour.
A Court of Queen’s Bench justice found in December that an Imperial Oil pipeline leak exposed a portion of the family’s cattle to hydrocarbon contamination.
The two parties were in court Thursday to argue over costs.
An Imperial Oil spokesman declined to comment on the case but said the company is proud of its relationship with local communities.
“We take great pride in our environmental record, particularly in maintaining positive relationships with our neighbours, which makes this case particularly troubling,” Pius Rolheiser said.
Nigel Bankes, chairman of natural resources law at the University of Calgary, suggested the judge’s ruling indicates the case could have been settled out of court “without putting the family to the cost, expense and emotions associated with proving a case in court.
“What that suggests is oil and gas companies will play hardball with landowners,” Bankes said.
The dispute began in the summer of 2002, when Agnes Ball returned from a weekend vacation to find a massive pit dug near a sour gas pipeline running through land where some of her cattle grazed. The leased land has been in the family since the 1940s, she said.
She said an Imperial employee later told her it was doing some work on a sour gas pipeline.
Cattle were grazing nearby, she said.
“I was furious,” Ball said Thursday.
The family’s concerns over contamination mounted.
When the calving season proved disastrous, they decided to take further action.
After repeatedly tangling with the company, Ball launched a lawsuit against Imperial Oil in 2004.
Family members insist that if they had known about the pipeline work and contaminated soil and water, they would have moved the cattle — and avoided the crushing calving season and damage to their herd that followed.
In December, the judge awarded the family nearly $70,000 in damages.
Their lawyer argued Thursday in court that the ranchers deserved as much as $150,000 for legal costs.
“If the David is ever intended or able to take on the Goliath, so to speak, costs do need to be acknowledged at the outcome of this decision,” said Spencer Bates outside of court.
Calgary Herald
Tags: dead livestock, livestock, pipelines
From a pipeline safety activist:
Some pipeline basics:
http://www.pstrust.org/pipeinfo/beginners.htm
http://www.ferc.gov/industries/gas/indus-act/blank-cert/blanketcert.pdfGetting involved before the pipeline is built:
http://www.pstrust.org/pipeinfo/involvement.htmA good summary of what you should do after the pipeline is built:
http://www.pstrust.org/pipeinfo/landowners.htmNote links at the bottom of that page, such as:
http://www.ownerscounsel.com/Page for local governments:
http://www.pstrust.org/pipeinfo/localgov.htmIt’s virtually impossible to stop a pipeline from being built once they claim eminent domain. That’s gone all the way to the US Supreme Court for a non pipeline eminent domain issue, and was upheld. Yes, private companies can take your land for their gain.
You also need to know some details about the pipeline:
*If it’s a gas gathering (production) pipeline, then it’s regulated by an agency in your state.
*If it’s a gas gathering pipeline, then how will the pipeline company deal with the steel corrosive compounds in the raw gas that can corrode the pipeline quickly if not controlled? Note that raw gas is unodorized, so finding a leak in a raw gas pipeline by smell is not recommended.
*How much land will need to be cleared of all vegetation before the pipeline is built?
*Who is responsible for restoring the land after the pipeline is built, and how will that be done?
*How much land will need to be kept clear of trees, shrubs, out buildings, above ground pools, etc. after the pipeline is built? Some people got a real shock when pipelines near them decided to start clearing their pipeline Right of Ways (ROW) as wide as the easement deed allowed. Or, they find restrictions on what they can plant on & near the pipeline.
Tags: eminent domain, pipelines
"DISH is located just off FM 156, a few miles west of I-35 and Denton. It's pretty much in the middle of nowhere, which, from the drillers' point of view, made it the perfect place for gathering, compressing, and transmitting natural gas to and from all directions." - Fort Worth Weekly, 10/14/09
And what has the natural gas industry done to DISH, Texas, that it will also do here? Here’s an excerpt from an October 14 article:
The wind blows through pretty freely now, however, since most of the trees have recently died.
“After the explosion and what happened to my horses, all my boarders took their horses out of there,” said Burgess, now 56. “Who could blame them? This was going to be my retirement, but now it’s valueless.”
The words “valueless” and “worthless” come up a lot in conversation with people from DISH.
Read the entire article:
More from DISH’s mayor:
The news that I continually get makes this nightmare worse and worse. I have yet another twenty something young lady who has undiagnosed neurological problems that started when she moved here. She has been shipped out of state for testing on a number of occasions, and they have been unable to diagnose the problems she is having. I am having difficult time in know what the next move should be. I wonder if there is a medical doctor out there who may come to help us here? Maybe there would be someone who could perform toxicology tests on the citizens. Please give me any input you may have, and if you know of anyone who may be willing to help, please let us know. Maybe you could post something on your websites or blogs soliciting help. Together I know you reach thousands of people. Thanks.
Calvin Tillman
Mayor, DISH, TX
(940) 453-3640
Tags: air emissions, air pollution, deaths, DISH, livestock, pipelines, TX
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