Protest Enbridge! Another Oil Spill Strikes the Midwest

Just six weeks after Enbridge was forced to shut its Lakehead system, spilling around 20,000 barrels of oil (800,000 gallons) into the waters of southern Michigan in July, Enbridge closed its 670,000 barrel per day Line 6A, which feeds midwest refineries and Cushing, after a leak was discovered near Romeoville, Illinois. Though the size of the spill is not yet known, local fire officials said the line was shut early in the afternoon and that the oil has been contained. Canada is the largest oil exporter to the United States and Enbridge’s pipelines carry the lion’s share of that crude. According to fire chief Kent Adams, about 50 gallons of crude per minute leaked from the pipeline before it was contained, and the leak was stopped about 40 minutes after it was first reported.
Just last week, hundreds protested Enbridge’s plans to build a Northern Gateway pipeline, which would transport crude from the tar sands in Alberta to the Pacific Ocean. Two days ago, a protest march met the Enbridge issue outside of the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline Joint Review Panel hearings.
Another protest came about Wednesday on Parliament Hill in Alberta. Organized by Rainforest Action Network and LUSH Cosmetics, the latest protest was designed to send a message to Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, who visited Canada yesterday and spoke with regional environmentalists demanding that the Canadian government apologize to the public for misleading them on the issue of the tar sands.