Enbridge
Origins
ENBRIDGE is an oil transport company that was first established in 1949 by Imperial Oil as an Interprovincial Pipeline Company (IPL) with its first Headquarters established in Toronto, Canada, and currently located in Calgary, CA. ENBRIDGE has had a long history of pipeline expansions all over North America and has been considered the largest transporter of crude oil and tar sands in both Canada and the United States. It transports around 28% of the crude oil produced in both nations, extending approximately 17,809 miles (28,661 Kilometers), delivering more than 4 billion barrels of crude oil a year.
Enviromental Litigations
Enbridge pipelines have stretched from the Great Lake to the Mississippi River and come with a history of controversial environmental litigation cases initiated both by indigenous-led groups, whose land sovereignty has constantly been undermined by the company with even the targeting and labeling of The Tribal Nations as a threat [1] and locally concerned activists and residents who have also been vocal about their biggest concerns, among those; the spills across waterways when pipes rupture, the destruction of rich marshlands, and the greenhouse gas emissions from burning the crude oil the pipelines carry.
Despite the fact that Enbridge was responsible for the 1991 largest inland oil spill in the U.S. [2] with Line 3. Enbridge claims a 99.9999979% of safety delivery record. which extends from Hardisty, Alberta in Canada to Superior, Wisconsin in the United State (1,031 miles - 1,659 km) and currently with a proposed reroute of it which has from the beginning raise concerns about its safety; quoting environmental groups, tribal nations and community members in Minnesota;
”The pipeline violates treaties with the Ojibwe people that establish their right to hunt, fish, and gather along the proposed route. If rerouted, the line would carry hundreds of thousands of barrels a day of tar sands crude oil - considered one of the dirtiest oil in the world and therefore equivalent to 50 coal plants worth of pollution to the atmosphere"
The accident with Line 3, puts into question the safety measures taken by Enbridge, in spite of the fact they claim a 99.9999979% safety success rate as stated on the company's website [3]. It was later discovered Enbridge had enough data stating the structural anomalies; which are about 1 in every 10 feet, placing line 3 in a deterioration state.