The rainbow spill

On April 28, 2011, 28,000 barrels of oil were spilled near the Lubicon Cree community of Little Buffalo in the Peace River region of Alberta. The Rainbow Pipeline spill was one of the largest spills in provincial history, but it should not have been. An alarm indicating a leak first went off in the Plains Midstream control room at 6:32 p.m. on April 28, and the pipeline was shut down at 7:22 p.m. The pipeline, however, was subsequently restarted three times after that thanks to what the ERCB investigation report describes as the company's "practice of placing higher priority on continued operation of the pipeline over any potential impacts related to a pipeline leak." In this report, we assess some specific examples of the provincial government and/or regulator taking actions which appear to be more focused on protecting the oil industry's reputation than on protecting the environment or affected communities, and then turn to the broader systemic issue of regulatory capture.