Monday, May 11, 2015

From Indiana to Enbridge - A Nation's Journey



By Jeff Simpson

We found out recently that Nation Consulting(where one of their four associates is trying to take over the Democratic Party Leadership) has close ties to right wing extremist groups Americans for Prosperity and Freedomworks.  The IRS filing that was linked to was very telling.

It is even worse than you think at first glance.

Readers of Cogdis, know to wait - Because there is always more.

When we take a look at Nation Consulting's founder - Thad Nation, we see there is a whole lot more!

We see that he got his start in politics the old fashioned way - Daddy.


Thad Nation followed in the footsteps of his father -- literally.
Soon after graduating from the University of Notre Dame in 1994, Nation became the press secretary for former Indiana Gov. Evan Bayh. Nation's father, Fred, was the press secretary for Bayh before his son took over.
"I sat in the same chair at the same desk with the same photos on the wall," Nation said.
After a few years of working for the Governor of Indiana, Nation had enough.  He wanted to go to the private sector where the real money was.   This time he did not follow in daddy's footsteps, he laid his own path - literally!(emphasis mine). 

After Nation broke away from Wilhelm & Conlon, Wisconsin Energy became his first client. Nation still counts Wisconsin Energy as one of 20 companies on his client roster. Other clients include the Wisconsin Bio Industry Alliance, a coalition of companies that produce ethanol; New North, a regional development group based in Green Bay; TV4US, a trade coalition advertising on behalf of the Wisconsin video services bill; and Global Pipeline Partners.

"Two things distinguish Nation Consulting from the pack -- pragmatic advice and a superior network of media and political contacts throughout the state," said David Stegeman, an executive vice president for Michels Corp., Brownsville.

Stegeman is also a spokesman for Global Pipeline Partners, which is a joint venture made up of four companies building a new oil pipeline for Enbridge Inc. from Superior to Delavan. Nation Consulting works as the public relations and community affairs firm for Global Pipeline. Michels Corp. is the lead partner in the joint venture. Enbridge is an oil and gas distribution company based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
If you have not heard of Michel's corp., that is fine by them, but Scott Walker has $129,000 reasons to know them very well.

If you have not heard of the Enbridge Pipeline, let's pray to God that you never do.  

Kaufman told CMD that Enbridge Line 61 hasn't received the national attention that the Keystone XL Pipeline has because "the pipeline itself already has been built and it is carrying roughly 400,000 barrels of Tar Sands-derived and lighter conventional crude oil already. Theenvironmental assessment that was done in 2006 was prior to one of the largest spills -- probably the largest inland oil spill -- in American history, which was a spill by this company, Enbridge, who also owns Line 61."

Kaufman was referring to Enbridge's disastrous Kalamazoo River oil spill in Michican in July 2010, which took an estimated $1.21 billion and four years to partially clean up. A Sierra Club report detailed that since 1999, Enbridge has had 800 spills, including spills in Wisconsin and neighboring states. Enbridge was fined a record $2.4 million in connection to an explosion that killed two workers in Clearbrook, Minnesota.

After the Kalamazoo spill, Enbridge was strongly criticized by the National Transportation Safety Board for lapses, including ignoring alarms in their system and trying to restart the pipeline twice, which discharged more oil.

Enbridge claims to have invested several billion dollars more in improving its response since the Kalamazoo River disaster, but as Kaufman noted, there have been spills since.


PS;  When it spills in your backyard, you do NOT get to keep the oil.

So how does a pipeline that carries dangerous crude oil from Canada through our backyard and we do not see any benefits of it but it could completely destroy our ecosystem, get approved?

Thad Nation.

"I have found something here I like and that I think I'm good at," Thad Nation said.

Thanks Nation!

As Meghan Trainor might say - "It's all about that bank, bout that bank -no morals".


3 comments:

  1. The biz journal article you link to is quite revealing. All I can say is wow.

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  2. And what was Jason Rae's involvement?

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    Replies
    1. I don't believe Jason Rae's name was mentioned. The article is about Thad Nation and Nation Consulting.

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