John Bolenbaugh, USA
John Bolenbaugh is a former Enbridge employee and a navy veteran bronze star that became an industry whistleblower after the July 25, 2010 oil spill near Marshall, Michigan. The spill released 20,000 barrels (3.2 million litres) of crude into the Talmadge Creek and ultimately the Kalamazoo River.
John was hired as the spill Yard Boss at Enbridge and then transferred to a sub-contractor.
Scott Dodd, OnEarth.org Editor wrote about John in a Huffington Post article dated April 16, 2012, “We don't always get the heroes we imagine. Yet for the people of Marshall, Michigan, John Bolenbaugh may be the best chance they've got to hold a multinational corporation accountable for its ineptitude and arrogant disregard of their welfare.”
John’s official website: www.helppa.org
Documentary: www.Bigoilwhistleblower.org
John Bolenbaugh, former Enbridge employee and a navy veteran brown star that became a U.S. industry whistleblower after the July 25, 2010 oil spill near Marshall, Michigan ("Kalamazoo"), points out that oil and gas companies lose more money shutting down a pipeline for repairs than they do in paying fines and allowing a spill to occur. He cites for example, where a fine might be $1 mln per day, revenues are $8 mln per day. He notes that insurance pays out when there is a spill for loss of business and for clean-up. He notes that many of the spill clean-up companies are owned by the oil and gas companies so in effect the oil and gas companies are hired by the insurance companies to clean-up their own mess. Additionally, spill damage allows oil and gas companies to buy affected houses cheap, which they rent to their out-of-town workers. The properties are held until after “clean-up” and market value improves. In the meantime, the price of gas across the country goes up because there is an “oil shortage”. (Source: video 1:16:02)
John notes that Rod Webber, Chris Wahmhoff, Michelle Smith (https://johnbolenbaughlies.weebly.com/) are actively working to counter the work that John is doing, sponsorship of his efforts, his livelihood and his reputation.
John’s Timeline
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Date |
Event |
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2017-03-10 |
Involved with #NoDAPL Water Protectors |
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2017-02-17 |
Documentary: www.Bigoilwhistleblower.org (video 1:16:02 mins) |
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2010-07-25 |
Enbridge’s Kalamazoo river spill |
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2011-08-14 |
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2014-03-31 |
Judge Allows Whistleblower Lawsuit Against Enbridge To Move Forward |
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2016-11-18 |
John Bolenbaugh explains Standard Rock’s importance (13 mins) (AO Info: Dakota Access Pipeline) “Standing Rock is the right thing.” |
News (reverse chronological order)
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Date |
Source |
Title |
Comment |
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2019-02-21 |
Youtube / John Bolenbaugh |
The danger is real. Share to protect the Bolenbaugh family. Helppa.org (10 mins) |
John Bolenbaugh HELPPA |
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2017-03-10 |
Youtube / John Bolenbaugh HELPPA |
Police lied about shooter at Standing Rock. It was a DAPL worker |
John Bolenbaugh HELPPA |
|
2016-11-18 |
Youtube / Rod Webber |
Whistleblower John Bolenbaugh tears up explaining Standing Rock's importance (13 mins) |
Rod Webber |
|
2014-03-31 |
Fox 17 (USA) |
Judge Allows Whistleblower Lawsuit Against Enbridge To Move Forward |
|
|
2013-05-10 |
Youtube / Bolenbaugh |
Part 2 of 2 On my way to Mayflower, Arkansas to investigate the tar sand oil spill (2 mins) |
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2013-05-09 |
Youtube / Bolenbaugh |
Part 1 of 2 On my way to Mayflower, Arkansas tar sand spill, I can use your support |
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Below is a list of John’s videos:
In order of release/upload date:
Advice to Documentary-Makers
As per John’s videos:
- if you suspect an oil spill take precautions and wear safety gear to reduce exposure. The list of associated chemicals may not be announced so you may never find out to what you have been exposed.
- use as little edited footage as possible so it cannot be argued that the footage has been tampered with or taken out of context.
- include footage of a newspaper with the date clearly shown.
- if declaring the presence of oil in water, wear a rubber glove to pickup the oil and then rinse gloved hand back in the water to show that you did not pick up mud. Pickup mud and rinse. The mud will rinse off while oil sticks to the glove.
Quotes
“When there is a spill the insurance companies hire the oil companies to come cleanup the oil. Now wait a minute, shouldn’t it be like a different company, somebody that … I mean you are cleaning up your own mess. You shouldn’t get paid to cleanup your own mess. That’s what’s happening. Well, here there’s several things to this. Enbridge knew the pipe was bad for 5 years. They chose not to fix it. Now why wouldn’t you fix it? Well let’s see – line 6B makes about $8 million a day approximately, and if you shut it down for a few weeks to fix it you’re going to lose over $100 million in profits. Well, what do you do? You wait ’til there’s a spill and then the insurance company is going to hire you to clean it up. On top of that they’re going to fix the pipe and they’re going to pay for it and they’re going to pay for all your oil that you lost, the lost revenue and on top of that, this is the big one, every company in America is going to raise their gas prices ‘cause they are going to say that they have a shortage of oil now. So listen, they just raised the prices $0.30 nationwide for a spill that happened in Michigan or Wisconsin or New York or Oklahoma, they’re happening everywhere, and I think it’s to make money. I think it’s profitable for these oil companies to have spills.” John Bolenbaugh, former Enbridge employee and industry whistleblower (video @1:26)
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Disclaimer: This information has been compiled through private amateur research for the purpose of allowing the reader to make an informed and educated decision. However, while the information is believed to be reliable, accuracy cannot be guaranteed.
APPENDICES
APPENDIX A
https://awareontario.nfshost.com/AWARE-Ontario/Issues/Whistleblowers_General/Bolenbaugh.htm
APPENDIX B
John Bolenbaugh, former Enbridge employee and a navy veteran brown star that became a U.S. industry whistleblower after the July 25, 2010 oil spill near Marshall, Michigan ("Kalamazoo"), points out that oil and gas companies lose more money shutting down a pipeline for repairs than they do in paying fines and allowing a spill to occur. He cites for example, where a fine might be $1 mln per day, revenues are $8 mln per day. He notes that insurance pays out when there is a spill for loss of business and for clean-up. He notes that many of the spill clean-up companies are owned by the oil and gas companies so in effect the oil and gas companies are hired by the insurance companies to clean-up their own mess. Additionally, spill damage allows oil and gas companies to buy affected houses cheap, which they rent to their out-of-town workers. The properties are held until after “clean-up” and market value improves. In the meantime, the price of gas across the country goes up because there is an “oil shortage”.