Tar Sands Free Northeast

Statement of Dylan Voorhees, NRCM Clean Energy Project Director, in response to today’s Oil Sands Spill Training Workshop in Portland, ME

We commend the officials at the EPA, Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), U.S. Coast Guard, and others who have organized today’s tar sands training in Portland. Today’s training is focused on preparing for tar sands oil spills because they know that oil spills happen.

“There has been lots of talk about tar sands coming through Maine over the last year. There is now clear evidence* that a plan is moving forward to ship tar sands oil along a pipeline from Ontario to Montreal and then down to Portland—despite carefully-parsed quasi-denials by oil pipeline companies.

“Maine people deserve to know that Maine officials are already preparing for a tar sands oil spill.

Vermont groups call on U.S. State Department to require full environmental review of cross-border tar sands pipeline proposal before it is too late

Canada’s mega-oil pipeline company Enbridge filed regulatory documents today to move plans forward to reverse its Line 9B pipeline bringing oil – likely to include tar sands – eastward to Montreal. The announcement essentially opens the door to bringing the corrosive tar sands through Ontario, Quebec, and Vermont for export from Portland, Maine. With this application, the evidence becomes overwhelming that oil companies Enbridge and Exxon-Mobil subsidiary Portland Pipe Line Corporation are planning to send tar sands through eastern Canada and northern New England. Citizens and diverse groups called on the Canadian National Energy Board to review the full scope of this tar sands plan, and on the U.S. State Department to require a full environmental review of any proposal to bring tar sands through Vermont.

Just as Enbridge files to reverse its Line 9 pipeline in order to ship dangerous tar sands oil east for export, municipalities across Ontario are stepping up and asking questions. It’s no wonder, as this project would bring significant new risks to Ontario but no rewards for those thousands of Ontarians living along the route.

A Trout Unlimited member asks about tar sands in streams and rivers

from Wildlife Promise  

11/19/2012 // Carol Oldham

Recently there was a meeting in the town of Randolph, New Hampshire to talk about tar sands. A Randolph conservation commissioner who had heard about the tar sands/Trailbreaker issue from NH Audubon (an NWF affiliate) had set the meeting up, inviting all the conservation commissioners and selectmen from the 5 towns that the pipeline runs through in NH. There were lots of citizens there as well, including a group from Maine who came across the border.

ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE

For Immediate Release: October 24, 2012

Enbridge comes clean about plans to export dangerous tar sands oil through Ontario

TORONTO, ON - Enbridge’s real plan for Line 9 was revealed yesterday in a document filed with the National Energy Board (NEB), which shows Enbridge plans not only to reverse the flow of oil through the pipeline to Montreal, but also to change what the pipeline can carry from normal oil to more dangerous tar sands oil, and dramatically expand the amount of oil carried by the pipeline.

“We’ve been concerned for months Enbridge is planning to ship more risky tar sands oil across Canada’s most populated region, but the company repeatedly denied that was its intention,” said Adam Scott of Environmental Defence. “Enbridge’s plan could put the drinking water of millions of people at risk of a tar sands oil spill, all in the name of exporting more raw tar sands oil south.”

Pipeline companies lobby tar sands plan behind closed doors while denying their intention

NRCM, NWF, NRDC, Sierra Club Maine, Environment Maine, 350.org

Portland, Maine—A new analysis released today by NRDC, NWF, and other environmental groups shows that ExxonMobil is the majority owner of the pipeline that cuts across Maine and New England—a pipeline that is the subject of an emerging proposal to transport tar sands. ExxonMobil’s Canadian subsidiary, Imperial Oil Limited, owns 76 percent of the pipeline, while Canadian oil giant Suncor Energy owns the remaining 24 percent. These companies are among the biggest developers of Canadian tar sands.

In addition, the groups today released information obtained through a Freedom of Access Act request, submitted by NWF, showing that Governor Paul LePage met with the Portland Pipe Line Corporation in October 2011 to talk about tar sands oil, though the company continued to publicly deny that the project was moving forward throughout 2012.

Anthony Swift’s Blog

Posted October 6, 2012 in Moving Beyond Oil, Solving Global Warming, U.S. Law and Policy

Federal officials at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have pulled the curtain behind Enbridge’s effort to greenwash its tar sands pipeline spill into Michigan’s Kalamazoo River. On the same day that Enbridge told its investors that its tar sands spill and cleanup had made the Kalamazoo River cleaner, EPA ordered the Canadian tar sands pipeline company to resume its cleanup of the Kalamazoo River after finding that submerged oil “exists throughout approximately 38 miles of the Kalamazoo.”

EPA: More Work Needed to Clean up Enbridge Oil Spill in Kalamazoo River Chicago

(Oct. 3, 2012) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today notified Enbridge that more work is needed in Michigan’s Kalamazoo River to clean up oil from the company’s pipeline spill in July 2010. EPA is proposing further action upstream of Ceresco Dam, upstream of the Battle Creek Dam (Mill Ponds area), and in the delta upstream of Morrow Lake. Enbridge has 10 days to request a conference with EPA to discuss the additional work specified in the proposed order and 30 days to submit written comments. EPA’s prior orders directing Enbridge to complete other cleanup and restoration work in the Kalamazoo River system remain in effect. On July 26, 2010, Enbridge reported that a 30-inch pipeline ruptured near Marshall, Michigan. Heavy rains caused the river to overtop existing dams and carried oil 30 miles downstream before the spill was contained. So far, oil spill response workers have collected over 1.1 million gallons of oil and almost 200,000 cubic yards of oil-contaminated sediment and debris from the Kalamazoo River system.