Enbridge oil pipeline is the world’s longest crude oil pipeline with a total length of 15,372 miles that runs from Alberta oil fields in Canada to New York in United States through Regina, Saskatchewan, Sarnia, Ontario, Toronto and Buffalo. Enbridge Inc. whose common shares trades under ENB symbol on both New York stock exchange and Toronto Stock Exchange own it.
Enbridge Company received its approval of operations from the Canadian government in April 1949, and they build the pipeline in 1950 and went to ship a total of 30.6 million barrels of crude oil in their first full year of operation. Their capacities have increased tremendously over the years, and today they are able to pipe more than two million barrels of crude oils and liquids in a day. At Romeoville Illinois, the community is protesting against oil leaks and spills from Enbridge pipelines at their neighborhood, and they have even filed lawsuits against the company. They are terming the leaks as dangerous to their health and a violation of laws of pollution (Plunkett, 2008, 123). The community is demanding that Enbridge test the level of possible contamination in their groundwater, air and soil. They are also demanding compensation for the damage to the victims of the spillage either direct or indirect. Environmentalist are supporting the affected communities in their demands, and they are also against expansion of the pipeline. The spillage that occurred in Romeoville which displaced food pantry and businesses near the site is approximately 256,000 gallons of crude oil that is highly contaminated with acids, salts and heavy metals.
As a result, more and more farmers in Romeoville are teaming up to block the expansion of oil pipelines through their lands (Griese, 2004, p.85). Their worry is that rate of pipe failures guarantees that having them in their tar sands means more contamination to their rivers and lakes. Although the company always meets the costs of testing the environments in case of spillage, the contamination causes adverse effects to the environment and no amount of compensation would reverse the damage. All models of oil transportation have faults and though pipelines leaks occasionally, they are still considered safe and efficient in the bulk transportation of oil products. For a long time, pipelines have been in interstate and inter-countries transport of natural gas, crude oil and other petroleum products. Pipeline system involves extensive infrastructure network that is heavily regulated by the set authorities which checks the levels of systems reliability and security.
Pipelines are more economical, and they require much less energy to operate compared to the alternative options (Grigg, 2013,p.57). Their carbon foot print is lower compare to that on trucks and trains. With the ever increasing consumption and demand for oil products, pipelines systems are unrivalled in terms of their capacities to move quantities over long distances. They just need proper structures, quality inspection and high standard of maintenance service to prevent the leakages. A review of the statistics by the United States department of transport shows that other than the substantial cost reduction, pipelines causes fewer personal injuries than rail and road, also fewer spillage compared to other means of oil transport (Trester, 2012, p. 37). If safety and environmental pollution in the shipping of gas and oil were proportionate to the volumes of shipments, the vast majority of damages would occur on pipelines, but in reality the majority of incidences happens on the rail and road.
References
Griese, N. L. (2004). Energy pipeline news year in review 2003. Atlanta: Anvil Publishers.
Grigg, N. S. (2013). Infrastructure finance: The business of infrastructure for a sustainable future. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley.
Plunkett, J. W., & Plunkett Research, Ltd. (2008). Plunkett's energy industry almanac 2009: The only comprehensive guide to the energy & utilities industry. Houston, Tex: Plunkett Research.
Trester, K. R. (2012). Understanding ETF options: Profitable strategies for diversified, low-risk investing. New York: McGraw-Hill.
