PART FOUR: State Department assessment of the railway to Rupert route for bitumen

Here are edited portions of the EIS assessment for a major oil terminal at Prince Rupert Environmental Setting The EIS says “the local surface geology at the Prince Rupert site consists of bedrock (granitic rocks) overlain by glacial outwash and … Continue reading

NOAA west coast tsunami warning text messages fail to deliver any info–at least on an Android

For the past month, text message tsunami warnings from the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning  Center  have transformed from clear, concise vital information to incomprehensible computer code with a link to a useless URL–at least on my Bell Android Samsung … Continue reading

The tsunami, Twitter and the Zones: Did social media amplify government generated confusion?

Kitimat, BC and New York City had one thing in common this week, the misuse and use of social media, Twitter and Facebook, that spread both accurate warnings and dangerous misinformation about an impending disaster. In the case of New … Continue reading

After the earthquake: Kitimat must immediately upgrade its emergency communications

As a 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit off Haida Gwaii shortly after eight o’clock on Saturday, I was at the Haisla Recreation Centre as the Haisla Nation marked the return of the G’ps Golox totem pole. Like a boat being lifted by … Continue reading

New US pipeline safety report finds more problems with Enbridge, problems also found in other big pipeline companies

A new draft report for the U.S. Congress from the United States Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration takes new aim at Enbridge for failures in its pipeline leak detection and response system. Not that the PHMSA is singling out … Continue reading

Four energy giants update multi-billion dollar Alaska LNG development plans

An alliance of four energy companies has updated plans for a multi-billion dollar, ten-year liquefied natural gas megaproject that would take gas from Alaska’s North Slope for shipment to Asia through the oil port at Valdez. Three of the companies, Exxon Mobile, … Continue reading

Kitimat LNG progressing–or is it?

At the District of Kitimat Council meeting on Monday, October 1, as part of Mayor Joanne Monaghan’s regular “good news” briefing, she told council that the Kitimat LNG  project continues to “progress positively.”  The news from Calgary on Tuesday, however, … Continue reading

A lesson for BC: Michigan 911 system failed during the Kalamazoo spill, NTSB says

The 911 system failed during the 2010 Marshall, Michigan, Enbridge pipeline breach, according to the full report in the incident released by the US National Transportation Safety Board. The NTSB report says the 911 operators in Michigan dismissed eight calls … Continue reading

What is it about Douglas Channel islands? Now a US agency has added a “Douglas Island”

What is it about the islands in Douglas Channel? First, Enbridge gets in to a lot of hot water, so to speak, for erasing the islands in Douglas Channel in an animation promoting the Northern Gateway Pipeline.  See for example … Continue reading

US calls for study that could relax double-hulled oil tanker regulations, citing costs to build, energy consumption

The United States Department of Transportation Maritime Administration has issued a call for a study that is calling into question the future of double-hulled oil tankers. On August 6, 2012 the Maritime Administration, also known as MARAD, issued a “solicitation” … Continue reading