Enbridge statement makes PR disaster worse: experts
OTTAWA — Enbridge officials made a mounting public relations disaster worse this week by not immediately accepting blame in their official statement issued after an outspoken American regulator compared one of Canada’s energy giants to the “Keystone Kops,” public relations consultants say.
U.S. National Transportation Safety Board chairman Debbie Hersman’s scathing assessment of Enbridge’s 2010 oil spill in Michigan has also raised questions over whether Prime Minister Stephen Harper needs to distance his government from Enbridge’s proposed $5.5-billion oilsands pipeline project to the B.C. coast from Alberta.
In his initial formal response, Enbridge’s Pat Daniel said that company personnel “were trying to do the right thing” during the leak from a cracked pipeline but encountered “a series of unfortunate events and circumstances [that] resulted in an outcome no one wanted.”
There was no apology or acknowledgment of wrongdoing in the news release, though a company official said Daniel apologized when speaking to reporters in Washington, D.C., after the safety board’s report was released.
Two consultants who help companies that suffer so-called “brand crises” said Enbridge made a tactical error in its official statement.
“There’s no sense they take any responsibility,” said Daniel Tisch, president of Toronto-based Argyle Communications.
“It’s as if it was all bad luck or an act of God — with no protagonist to take responsibility. Sure, the causes may be complicated, but do they accept even a share of the blame?”
Ottawa-based public relations consultant Barry McLoughlin said he was surprised the company didn’t apologize and make clear in the statement that it recognized serious mistakes had been made.
Calling the spill of 843,444 gallons of diluted bitumen crude into the Kalamazoo River in southern Michigan “a series of unfortunate events” fails to “take ownership” of the accident.
“Being seen to take ownership in the face of such a damaging NTSB report is critical to Enbridge’s recovery in the eyes of the public,” McLoughlin said.
Both experts said Enbridge is capable of rebounding and repairing its brand by taking dramatic steps, though both were skeptical of the company’s current advertising campaign promoting the Northern Gateway pipeline between the oilsands and Kitimat.
“The prospects for the pipeline are likely dim without a significant boost in public and stakeholder confidence,” Tisch said.
He advised Enbridge to “influence the influencers,” including groups that can shift public opinion.
“Give the advertising a rest, because no one will believe it,” he said.
Enbridge spokesman Todd Nogier said the company “from the very beginning” took “full accountability” for the accident and cleanup, and plans to continue its “outreach” program in B.C.
Daniel “has apologized on numerous occasions. Indeed, he repeated that following the release of the NTSB report this week. Our intent from the very beginning of this incident has been to learn from it so that we can do everything we can to prevent it from happening again,” Nogier said.
He didn’t explain why there was no apology in the official news release.
Hersman’s devastating critique of Enbridge caused reverberations on the political front, with politicians reacting strongly to her comparison of Enbridge managers to the wacky, bumbling Keystone Kops of the silent movie era.
B.C. Premier Christy Clark, officially on the fence until a joint federal review panel finishes its environmental review next year, was scathing Wednesday in her criticism.
“I think the company should be deeply embarrassed about what unfolded,” Clark said.
“If they think they’re going to operate like that in British Columbia, forget it.”
Tim Powers, an Ottawa-based Tory lobbyist, said it wouldn’t be beyond Harper to reject the project even if it gets approval from the joint panel run by the National Energy Board and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency.
“He has done it before,” Powers said, noting Harper’s surprise rejection of a multi-billion-dollar foreign takeover bid in 2010 of Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan.
“The government is favourable toward a pipeline to the West Coast to bring oilsands crude to new markets, but my minister has been careful not to support Northern Gateway,” said Patricia Best, spokeswoman for Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver, who noted that Enbridge’s proposal is before the National Energy Board for an independent review.
Other options viewed as less politically risky include shipping bitumen crude to Prince Rupert by train, or Kinder Morgan’s $5-billion proposal to twin its existing pipeline from Alberta to its Burnaby terminal, expanding capacity from 300,000 to up to 850,000 barrels a day by 2017.
But the Harper government has been associated with the Northern Gateway project because some government members have spoken privately and publicly in favour of it, Harper and his MPs have attacked its opponents, and the government has passed legislation streamlining the environmental review process and made it retroactive to the current assessment.
Pollster Greg Lyle, who has worked in the election backrooms aiding right-of-centre parties in B.C., said the Conservative government looks “more like cheerleaders” than regulators in this case.
He said it would look “opportunist” for Harper to turn down the Enbridge proposal, but he said the government needs to find some distance.
“It would be better for both the government and the proponents if the government was not seen to be a booster of specific projects,” he said.
Canadian Energy Pipeline Association president Brenda Kenny said the “Keystone Kops” label used by Hersman was a “gratuitous” shot at an industry with a relatively strong environmental record.
She said her industry association is considering a new public relations campaign to inform Canadians about safety measures to keep the pipeline system safe.
“Pipelines are such an important part of our overall energy system. Any of us who drive anywhere or fly anywhere or heat our homes with natural gas assume that pipelines are safe and reliable and they need to be,” she said. “We may find ourselves wanting to reach out to folks, allowing them to be informed.”