Environmental groups opposed to the Northern Gateway pipeline have seized control of the public debate, Enbridge Inc. CEO Patrick Daniel told a radio audience Monday.
“Everything that we say sounds defensive and self-interested, and on the other side, everything they say … is really taken as gospel — and it isn’t,” Daniel said on the Rutherford Show.
“I think we’re facing a very strong, almost revolutionary movement to try to get off oil worldwide, and it creates a lot of passion and drive in those revolutionaries that are trying to change the environment in which we work.
“They know that going after the end user, going after you and I when we drive our cars, … won’t work. So they’re coming after what they consider to be the weak link in the whole process, and that’s the infrastructure part of it.”
Calgary-based Enbridge wants to build the pipeline to the B.C. coast to export Alberta’s oilsands products to booming Asian countries.
The company is mounting its own public relations offensive, taking out newspaper advertisements and pressing its leaders into the public spotlight, highlighting the company’s long safety record and decades of “dependable service” to Canadians.
