March 15, 2011. I knew of the Alberta Tar Sands, and of the grave environmental dangers associated with extracting the oil and then transporting it, first through a pipeline that violates pristine forests in First Nation lands, and hence by tanker, through the vulnerable archipelago of northern British Columbia. I also knew the situation was already subject to the concerted resistance of various environmental and Native American activists, and that it had been targeted by the Yes Men for one of their inimitable interventions.
But it was not until receiving an email today, supposedly from Enbridge, that I realized I was witnessing a beautifully orchestrated campaign in which the Yes Men have doubly pranked Enbridge, first by generating a bogus "MyHairCares" campaign to sop up the expected oil spills - part of their "dummy" Enbridge website http://northern-gateway.ca/ (the real one is http://www.northerngateway.ca/) - then by posing as the affronted oil giant to toss off an angry letter of complaint.
So, in order: The video just below outlines the problem. The subsequent text is the bogus "MyHairCares" press release. Then there is the video spoof uploaded onto YouTube yesterday. Finally, there is the outraged denunciation from "Enbridge", received today in my Inbox, which was my first inkling that The Yes Men had pulled off another coup against the oil oligarchs. Bravo Yes Men! You have done it full circle, managing both the Call and the Response.
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The Call, Part I:
http://www.northern-gateway.ca/enbridge-partners-with-salons.html
Enbridge Partners With Hair Salons for Cutting-Edge "MyHairCares" Initiative
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - March 15, 2011) - Enbridge Inc. (TSX:ENB) (NYSE:ENB) today announces MyHairCares, a program to turn hair clippings from over 1000 participating salons across North America into super-absorbent oil clean-up booms. This cutting-edge community program forms a critical part of the sophisticated array of safety measures Enbridge has prepared in anticipation of potential issues surrounding development of the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines in British Columbia.
“Absorbent booms made from human hair played a role in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill clean-up,” said Brent Carlton, Sustainability Initiatives Director for Enbridge. “To prove we’re serious about the environment, Enbridge is using this lesson to prepare proactive, environment-friendly steps towards remediation of unlikely spill scenarios associated with Northern Gateway.”
Human hair has been successfully used to clean up oil spills for nearly two decades, ever since Alabama hair stylist and inventor Phil McCrory patented the technology in 1995. With MyHairCares, Enbridge expects to collect 450,000 pounds of hair. A single pound of hair can absorb up to five pounds of oil, and Enbridge’s formidable hair resource will be capable of absorbing up to 2.2 million pounds of oil.
The Enbridge hair reserve, fashioned into 30,000 4-metre booms, will be stored in numerous warehouses all along the 1,170-kilometer Northern Gateway route, along both sides of the 90-kilometer Douglas Channel, and along much of the pristine British Columbia coast. Assembly facilities are scheduled to open next month in Kitimat, Smithers and Prince George, and will employ dozens of local residents.
The response from the hair care community has been extremely positive. “MyHairCares provides a unique opportunity for our salon to give something back and do our part for sustainability,” said Suzanne Weiss, a stylist at Zinc Salon in Vancouver. “We’re thrilled that our by-products can help protect British Columbia’s beautiful watersheds and coastline.”
Enbridge developed the MyHairCares initiative after a significant spill in Michigan's Kalamazoo River last year emphasized the need for real community synergy. Although the spill was successfully contained before serious environmental damage occurred, some residents suggested they would have liked to be more involved in the response process.
“Too often, oil spills pit communities against the company responsible,” said Dina Thompson Director of Community Relations. “That’s unacceptable to us, so we’ve developed ways to cooperate with communities from the outset, so that all of us together can prepare for the unforeseeable.”
The Enbridge Northern Gateway project will involve twin pipelines between Bruderheim, Alberta and a new tanker terminal in Kitimat, British Columbia, from which tankers will ferry petroleum along the Douglas Channel and from there to important markets in Asia. The super-absorbent hair booms will be effective for containing pipeline leaks into watersheds as well as unlikely marine tanker spills.
“Enbridge will take every precaution to prevent accidents,” said Carlton, “but oil spills are a tragic, unpredictable cost of our business. What we can and must do is assure that we have sustainable, effective clean-up and containment technologies on hand in case something does go wrong.”
“Forward-looking stewardship of affected future landscapes can mitigate, or even potentially eliminate, statistically significant risks,” Carlton said.
If you know of a hair care salon that might like to help keep British Columbia clean and safe well into the future, please visit www.MyHairCares.com.
Enbridge Inc., a Canadian company, is a North American leader in delivering energy and one of the 2011 Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations. As a transporter of energy, Enbridge operates, in Canada and the U.S., the world's longest crude oil and liquids transportation system. The Company also has a growing involvement in the natural gas transmission and midstream businesses, and is expanding its interests in renewable and green energy technologies including wind and solar energy, hybrid fuel cells and carbon dioxide sequestration. As a distributor of energy, Enbridge owns and operates Canada's largest natural gas distribution company, and provides distribution services in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and New York State. Enbridge employs approximately 6,400 people, primarily in Canada and the U.S. ranked as one of Canada's Greenest Employers, and one of the Top 100 Companies to Work for in Canada. Enbridge's common shares trade on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges under the symbol ENB. For more information, visit enbridge.com
For more information, please contact
Enbridge Inc.
Dina Thompson
Community Relations
(604) 367-2259
dina.thompson@northerngateway.ca
www.myhaircares.com
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The Call, Part II:
"MyHairCares", an "Enbridge" Project posted on YouTube on March 14, 2011
"Enbridge" spokesman: "Risk is a part of life. All you can do is prepare, and hopefully make a few friends along the way".
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The Response:
Mar 15, 2011 11:00 ET
Oil Spill Safety Hoax "Irresponsible": Enbridge
CALGARY, ALBERTA--(Marketwire - March 15, 2011) - Enbridge Inc. (TSX:ENB) (NYSE:ENB) 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 early this month, as well as a phony press release earlier today from “Enbridge Sustainable Initiatives,” and that was reported in several 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,” said Patrick D. Daniel, President and Chief Executive Officer. “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,” said 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 in Marshall, Michigan and Romeoville, Illinois helped improve the Company’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,” said Mr. 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 in Calgary, but this morning’s 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, AB to a port in Kitimat, BC. Specially trained tanker captains, assisted by tugs, will then ferry the oil through the Douglas Channel and from there to Asian and U.S. markets. Click here for an interactive map of the proposal.
Enbridge Inc., a Canadian company, is a North American leader in delivering energy and one of the 2011 Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations. As a transporter of energy, Enbridge operates, in Canada and the U.S., the world's longest crude oil and liquids transportation system. The Company also has a growing involvement in the natural gas transmission and midstream businesses, and is expanding its interests in renewable and green energy technologies including wind and solar energy, hybrid fuel cells and carbon dioxide sequestration. As a distributor of energy, Enbridge owns and operates Canada's largest natural gas distribution company, and provides distribution services in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and New York State. Enbridge employs approximately 6,400 people, primarily in Canada and the U.S. ranked as one of Canada's Greenest Employers, and one of the Top 100 Companies to Work for in Canada. Enbridge's common shares trade on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges under the symbol ENB. For more information, visit enbridge.com
For more information, please contact
Enbridge Inc.
Daniel Tainferneau
Media
(403) 970-1901
daniel.tainferneau@enbridge.com
www.enbridge.com
This message was sent to kaplan@thing.net. It was sent by electronic post from: Enbridge, Inc., 3000 Fifth Avenue Place, 425 1st Street S.W., Calgary, Alberta, T2P 3L8. Enbridge responds promptly to all “remove” requests.