“Looking for a needle in a haystack is difficult.” This is how Ron Kennedy, a reporter for the Calgary Herald, described the dangerous work of “Canada’s Pipeline Pilots” in 1959. Rough flying conditions made the work of aerial pipeline monitoring patrols “no job for a weak stomach and slow reactions.” […]
Oil spill
The federal government’s $4.5 billion decision to buy the Trans Mountain pipeline has set off a new debate about the controversial project. Canada has a long history of building energy pipelines, but Canadian attitudes toward major energy pipeline projects have changed over time. Unease over the environmental effects of pipeline […]
The actions, protest, and resistance in Sioux Nation Territory among Indigenous people, ENGOs, and other allies in North Dakota in recent months echo what Paul Sabin once referred to as “voices from the hydrocarbon frontier.” Once again, Indigenous people stand on the front lines of opposition to the development of […]
In March 1950, four Alberta “pipeline walkers” spoke with a reporter from Canadian Press about their tireless work. Each worker walked twelve to fifteen miles per day, checking on pipeline facilities in the Edmonton district and looking for leaks, a consistent problem for Alberta’s booming oil industry in the mid-twentieth […]
The National Energy Board is currently considering a proposal to triple the capacity of the Trans Mountain Pipeline to 890,000 barrels per day (bpd). On Wednesday, May 27, 2015, the City of Vancouver published a series of expert reports on the pipeline expansion proposal and the Mayor, Gregor Robertson, announced […]
Last week, British Columbians once again witnessed the effects of oil on Burrard Inlet. Local authorities cautioned residents to avoid the water along the shores in Vancouver and West Vancouver after a large slick of bunker fuel oil appeared on the surface of Burrard Inlet. Around 5pm Wednesday, April 8, 2015, a boater notified Port […]
This week, I am taking advantage of some of the historical research materials available at the National Energy Board library in Calgary, Alberta. As we discussed on a recent episode of Nature’s Past: Canadian Environmental History Podcast, federal department libraries are incredible resources for environmental history. With the closure and consolidation […]
Last week, CBC News published a series of articles about energy pipeline safety on Canada’s federally-regulated system of oil and gas pipelines, revealing that between 2000 and 2011 Canada suffered 1,047 separate pipeline incidents. Its findings confirm my own earlier research on the history of oil pipeline spills on the […]
Global News has made a very substantial contribution to the study of the history of oil pipeline spills in Alberta. As I previously wrote in May, Leslie Young, Anna Mehler Paperny, Francis Silvaggio, and a production team from GlobalNews.ca assembled the most comprehensive chronology of oil pipeline spills in Alberta, covering […]
Leslie Young, Anna Mehler Paperny, Francis Silvaggio, and a production team from GlobalNews.ca have just compiled and published the most comprehensive chronology of Alberta oil spills, spanning a period from 1975 to 2013. Following an eleven-month investigation, the reporters acquired a nearly complete set of records regarding spills of crude oil, […]
Tomorrow morning I will be doing a series of short interviews on CBC radio morning shows across the country. This will be based on my ongoing research on the history of oil pipeline spills in Canada. For those interested in listening, here is the schedule: 6:00 am ET Ontario AMÂ […]
On Tuesday afternoon, I was invited to speak with John McComb, host of “The World Today,” on CKNW 980AM in Vancouver. We discussed my current research on the history of oil pipeline spills in Alberta and the rest of Canada. We spoke primarily about recent spill frequency in the past […]