We're now living in a world of 'safety extremism'

National Post, 15 May 2021

The Michigan pipeline controversy indicates how safety extremism has become normalized in the framing of public debates.

“These oil pipelines in the Straits of Mackinac are a ticking time bomb.” So said the Michigan gubernatorial press secretary about Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline, which the governor ordered shut down this past week.

The deadline passed with Line 5 still operating, as litigation and mediation efforts are ongoing. Yet it is instructive how Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is making her argument. She is essentially saying the pipeline is dangerous and therefore the solution must be to shut it down. Call it “safety extremism.”

Over a year ago, I wrote that the pandemic would teach us what it is like when a safety culture is adopted with severe measures. But leave aside the pandemic for the moment. The Michigan pipeline controversy indicates how safety extremism has become normalized in the framing of public debates.

The “ticking time bomb” expression is a nice touch. Bombs are dangerous and destructive. They are designed to be just that. The ticking is the timing mechanism counting down to the bomb doing what the bomb was designed to do.

A pipeline is potentially dangerous and destructive. But it is designed to be neither, and an extraordinary amount of care is taken to ensure that. There is no ticking on a pipeline. This pipeline has operated since 1953 without incident. Does that mean there will never be a leak, a gash, a spill? No. It does mean that by reasonable measures, it is safe. But by the standards of extreme safety, nothing is really safe.

Reasonable safety means mitigating the risks of daily life. Extreme safety means eliminating them. Which means eliminating a lot of aspects of daily life — like the fuel that powers about half of the Ontario economy, and funds thousands upon thousands of paycheques in Michigan.

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