The Canadian oil company Enbridge faces a hefty fine for an oil spill from one of its pipelines in Michigan back in 2010.
A leak that went undetected for more than 17 hours leaked around three billion litres of oil into the Kalamazoo River in southwestern Michigan. The fine is imposed by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration and is the largest one the agency has handed down.
While the civil penalty is definitely necessary to regulate a company that didn’t mind its Ps and Qs, the amount is nothing more than a slap on the wrist for the massive Calgary-based company.
