State budget provision exempts Enbridge from Dane County insurance requirement

Dane County’s efforts to require a Canadian company to carry special environmental insurance for a pipeline running through the county could see its actions reversed by a last-minute state budget provision added by Republicans Thursday.

The provision, which was added to the proposed state budget anonymously, would block a county measure to require Enbridge Energy to carry$25 million in pollution insurance before it can proceed with a planned pipeline capacity expansion.

Under the change, towns and counties would be blocked from imposing additional insurance requirements. Although the measure did not specifically mention Enbridge, the company has been feuding with Dane County for months over pollution insurance.

Enbridge’s Line 61 carries Canadian tar sands crude across Wisconsin from Superior to Flanagan, Illinois. The 42-inch pipeline is powered by 13 stations along the route, including one in northeastern Dane County. The company is adding pumping horsepower to increase the line’s average annual capacity from 400,000 barrels to 1.2 million barrels a day.

Hillary Clinton's Keystone XL Crony Lobbyists Problem

DLA PIPER employees and PACs contributed $480,150 to Hillary Clinton's 2008 run, making it the largest single source of funds for a corporate entity to Clinton.

DLA PIPER partner James Blanchard, a former Governor of Michigan, served as Michigan Chairman of Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign, and was rewarded by President Clinton with the post of U.S. ambassador to Canada (1993-96). He also was a key fundraiser for Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign. According to Public Citizen, Blanchard was one of 22 "Bundlers for Hillary Clinton who have registered as Federal Lobbyists."

The government of Alberta retained Blanchard to lobby Washington last year. According to lobbying disclosure records reviewed by Climate Action Network Canada (p. 9), Blanchard and other DLA Piper lobbyists had more than 80 interactions with U.S. officials and politicians in the year beginning March 1, 2009, on behalf of the Government of Alberta. Blanchard alone billed over $300,000 in fees.

Blanchard sits on the board of major tar sands pipeline company Enbridge, which spilled roughly 20,000 barrels of oil into Michigan's Kalamazoo River last year, and tried to hide the fact that the spill involved tar sands crude. Enbridge's pipelines move the lion's share of tar sands crude into the U.S.