Economic Impacts

Taken from the CBC news feed
"On Thursday, lawyer Elisabeth Graff was asking Northern Gateway president John Carruthers about the insurance for oil spill disasters when panel chair Sheila Leggett intervened. Leggett reminded Graff that the Edmonton hearings are to focus on the economic impacts of the project and that disaster preparedness is being dealt with at upcoming hearings in B.C"
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So, the hearing was supposed to be about economic impacts. I wonder what Sheila Leggett thinks the impact would be when there is a spill or a ruptured pipe.
How much does it take to clean up a spill? Does anyone know? $100million, 200? And when the company says, "sorry, we don't have the resources to clean up that mess" what do we do then? How much of an economic impact is having a 1000 gallons of toxic sludge spewed into a river?

 Getting the insurance really is a red herring when you get right down to it. So what if you have a $100million dollar policy. The insurance people will fight tooth and nail not to have to pay any of it, and that will leave the mess sitting there, not even being looked at. Just ask the people who are still trying to get the Exxon Valdez mess cleaned. It has been more than 20 years and there is still sludge being pulled off of the beach. The impact of that pipeline will be negative, no matter how much insurance Enbridge has.

One spill, one tanker going aground, one pipe rupture - any benefit to BC is gone.

What has happened, will happen

                                      

                         
Strong is the pipe  
Those building it will speak of
It will be safe

The sludge pushes through
Hot, toxic and corrosive
Wear on the strength 

One tiny flaw
Pushed beyond all design specs
Black rain spews