Enbridge Inc. and its proposed Northern Gateway Pipelines project were falsely associated with a fraudulent oil spill safety campaign entitled "MyHairCares," announced via mailings to hundreds of hair salons earlier this month, as well as a phony press release from "Enbridge Sustainable Initiatives," which was reported by several media outlets.
Enbridge wishes to note that there is no such division, subsidiary, department, or other entity within Enbridge,
and that the company deplores the perpetrators of this act of identity
piracy and will vigorously prosecute them, appropriately and to the
greatest extent of the law.
"This irresponsible hoax is nothing less than an attack on Canada's resources," says Patrick D. Daniel, Enbridge president and CEO. "We are saddened that lies are being used to demean the great strides Enbridge
has made in delivering Canada's vast natural wealth to the world,
strides which will become giant leaps with the Northern Gateway
Pipelines."
"The so-called ‘MyHairCares' program is a dangerous
fraud conducted by environmentalist radicals," says Jennifer Varey, head
of media relations for Enbridge. "Its aim is to terrorize innocent
salon consumers into fearing the Northern Gateway project and thinking
our company is less than fully prepared for catastrophe. I can assure
you, when inevitable oil spills do occur, we at Enbridge have more up our sleeves than a handful of hair."
The cleanup operations of the summer and early fall 2010 in Marshall, Michigan and Romeoville, Illinois helped improve Enbridge's readiness to respond not only to oil spills in themselves, but to the concerns of affected individuals and communities.
"As a Canadian company, Enbridge
is committed to the safety of our people, our environment, and our
wildlife, wherever they operate," says Daniel. "That is why we are
hereby committing to a $20 billion liability bond for the Northern
Gateway Pipelines. Should an unforeseeable event come to pass, this bond
will insure the settlement of all verifiable liability claims made by
northern and coastal communities within legal due process. We believe
this will fully address the issue and lay concerns to rest."
Enbridge had planned to announce the liability bond at the next Enbridge
Annual General Meeting, to be held May 11, 2011 in Calgary, but this
act of deception unjustifiably highlighted public uncertainty about Enbridge's preparedness for an emergency, prompting the announcement to be pushed up.
Few oil spills have ever cost more than $20 billion to address.
Enbridge's Northern Gateway Pipelines project will transport oil from Bruderheim, Alberta to a port in Kitimat, British Columbia.
Specially
trained tanker captains, assisted by tugs, will then ferry the oil
through the Douglas Channel to Asian and U.S. markets.