Natural gas pipeline shot with high-powered rifle: Mounties

QMI Agency, Nov 18, 2014

EDMONTON — Police say someone with a rifle blasted a hole in a high-pressure natural gas pipeline in western Alberta some time over the weekend.

Mounties responded Monday to a report of damage to a Talisman Energy pipeline 300 km west of Edmonton.

A large quantity of natural gas was released into the atmosphere before safety devices on the pipeline shut down the leak.

In the late ’90s the natural gas industry in northwestern Alberta saw hundreds of acts of vandalism, many against AEC West — the company operating wells near the property of eco-terrorist Wiebo Ludwig, who died of cancer at age 70 in 2012.

In April 2000, the outspoken fundamentalist Christian was charged for an oilsands bombing that caused millions of dollars in damage. He was convicted on five charges and served 18 months in prison.

In January 2011, Ludwig was arrested again after a series of bombings on the Encana pipe in northeastern B.C. He was later released without charges.

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