Most people do the right thing most of the time. This statement is not just an adage or a pleasantry or a disappointing fortune-cookie screed. To my experience, and I think yours as well if you pause and think about it, it's a fact. My annual cross-country road trip family vacations to Michigan remind me that this is the case.
Last year my son left his wallet in our Memphis hotel room on the trip north. When we discovered it was missing and deduced what had happened, we called the hotel. The young lady at the front desk said she'd ask housekeeping if they'd found anything and call us back. We tried to remain optimistic. As 1 hr slowly turned into 3, we became less so. Eventually we called them. The desk clerk apologized for not having called us already before confirming that they had recovered the wallet and asking where we would like it sent…by Federal Express…at their expense.
Our optimism was renewed, but we wondered what would be in the wallet when we got it back. It would have passed through a number of hands to get to us. Our son's birthday was not too long before the trip and he still had cash and gift cards in his wallet from it. To our relief and, to be honest, surprise, we not only got the wallet back but 100% of its contents as well.
We had a similarly affirmative experience later in the trip when our boy lost his cell phone in a park festival in my 60,000-person hometown. Somebody found it and turned it in to the police, who then tried reaching his contacts until they eventually got through to one of us. We then went to the police station and reclaimed it.
Upping the ante
This year's trip was made without similar incident. He's a year older and better at managing his possessions. The people of Michigan, however, were in the midst of being asked to believe that "most people do the right thing most of the time" on a far larger scale. Energy Transfer Partners LP announced in late June that it was moving forward with its ET Rover natural gas pipeline, including a branch delivering Marcellus and Utica shale production through Michigan to Sarnia, Ont., by second-quarter 2017.
ET Rover would partially track the same route followed by Enbridge Energy LP's Line 6B crude oil pipeline. Though pipeline operators often use established right-of-way for new projects or expansions, digging along Line 6B is problematic because residents along its route are still experiencing excavation for its replacement following a July 26, 2010, rupture that released more than 20,000 bbl of crude into the Kalamazoo River.
Resulting remediation has parts of the river closed to recreational use four summers later, Enbridge having failed to complete required dredging by a Dec. 31, 2013, US Environmental Protection Agency deadline. The company applied on Nov. 11, 2013, for an extension to complete the work. The EPA denied this application, citing its belief that "had Enbridge taken appropriate steps earlier as requested, it would not require an extension now."1 This series of events followed US regulators' initial findings that "pervasive organizational failures" by Enbridge had combined with weak federal regulations to cause the spill (OGJ Online, July 11, 2012).
Against this backdrop, public reaction to more construction for yet another pipeline has been mixed.
The safety record of the North American pipeline industry and its constituent companies suggests that the vast majority of people do the right thing nearly all of the time. The outlying examples, however, require us each to redouble our efforts, and to exercise patience in dealing with those negatively affected.
References:
1. US Environmental Protection Agency, http://www.epa.gov/enbridgespill/pdfs/enbridge-letter-20131121-denial-delta-extension.pdf, Nov. 21, 2013.
