We've spent the last month taking MI-08 Congressman to task for his silence on Enbridge Energy, the Canadian company responsible for the July 2010 oil spill in Marshall, MI. The company recently made headlines again (and again) for posting armed guards (off-duty sheriff's deputies in uniform) on private property to keep the owners of the property away from areas where Enbridge is expanding the pipeline (Lakehead Pipeline 6B) running through that property. If the name of that pipeline seems familiar, that's because it's the same pipeline that burst in Marshall.
Mike has been completely silent. Until Sunday, in this Livingston Daily article, where Rogers finally responded by ducking responsibility for the whole thing. He noted that the 8th District is nowhere near Marshall, and that he voted to fine Enbridge and implement stronger pipeline regulations.
Perhaps Mike doesn't realize that Lakehead Pipeline 6B runs all the way through the 8th Congressional District. Perhaps he doesn't realize that that same pipeline had hundreds of anomalies on it in 2010, and Enbridge still has not addressed all of them. Enbridge continues to push hundreds of thousands of gallons of tar sands oil through Michigan in a decaying pipeline, putting every resident along the line at risk.
Perhaps Mike doesn't realize that the stronger regulations that he bragged about voting for have been criticized by independent watchdog organizations as a set of regulations that "didn't do much for safety", and would not apply to the existing Enbridge pipeline or the one that Enbridge is currently building anyway.
Perhaps Mike doesn't realize that Enbridge's deal with the Livingston County sheriff's department was just canceled, and that Sheriff Bob Bezotte has stated that the department won't consider a new contract with the company until they fix possible ordinance violations at a "storage facility" - most likely a pooling station - in Tyrone Township.
Yes, perhaps Mike doesn't realize. Or perhaps he just doesn't care. Either way, the fact is, the more Mike tries to shirk responsibility for Enbridge, the more the people of this district realize that he is simply incompetent when it comes to protecting the environment, private property and Constitutional rights of the people of the 8th Congressional District.