Port City Secures Six-Month Moratorium on OilSands Exports

authordefault
on

The city of South Portland, Maine banned the export of oilsands crude from local port facilities thisย week.ย 

Portland, the suburban community of 25,000 is the Atlantic terminal of the Portland Montreal Pipe Line, which currently carries millions of barrels of oil from the coast to refineries in Montreal. The city council is currently seeking to draft a law that would ban Portland Pipe Line Corp. from using Portland facilities to move western crude to the easternย seaboard.ย 

โ€œWe applaud the City Council for their strong leadership in standing up to the oil industry,โ€ said Roberta Zuckerman of Protect South Portland, a citizens group, told the Financial Post. โ€œBut now the City Council must turn the temporary ban on shipping tar sands out of our city into permanent legalย protections.โ€

The ban expires on May 6. By then the community hopes to have new regulations in place that permanently ban the transport of diluted bitumen along the pipeline fromย Montreal.

When South Portlandโ€™s city council began workshops on the ban, the American Petroleum Institute sent a fiery five-page letter claiming that it would violate state and federal law, as well as the USย constitution.

South Portland isnโ€™t the only city council willing to stand up to oil companies that put profits before environmentalย stewardship.

In Vancouver, British Columbia earlier this month, Mayor Gregor Robertson tabled a motion for city council to intervene in coming National Energy Board meetings about the proposed expansion of the Kinder Morgan Transmountainย Pipeline.

The mayor decided to speak out after a federal report found that Canadaโ€™s spill response system was not adequate to the current level of tanker traffic. According to the Kinder Morgan proposal, tanker traffic would soar from the current rate of five tankers per month toย 34.

โ€œToday we received further evidence from staff that the threat of a major oil spill in or near Vancouverโ€™s waters poses unacceptable risks to our local economy and environment,โ€ heย said.

โ€œThe City of Vancouverโ€™s intervention in the National Energy Boardโ€™s hearings will outline Vancouverโ€™s significant concerns about a seven-fold increase in oil tanker traffic, and help ensure that our harbour, our local economy, and Vancouver treasures like Stanley Park are safe from the untold risks of a catastrophic oilย spill.โ€

Image Credit: 350.org viaย Flickr

authordefault
Admin's short bio, lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipisicing elit. Voluptate maxime officiis sed aliquam! Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipisicing elit.

Related Posts

on

Paying for social license is 'no substitute for solving environmental problems,' say critics.

Paying for social license is 'no substitute for solving environmental problems,' say critics.
on

The agencyโ€™s work for the fossil fuel industry has made it โ€œcomplicit in causing existential harm to people and planetโ€, say campaigners, who are calling on WPP to drop those clients.

The agencyโ€™s work for the fossil fuel industry has made it โ€œcomplicit in causing existential harm to people and planetโ€, say campaigners, who are calling on WPP to drop those clients.
on

The Alberta premier wants to replace coal and mine it at the same time.

The Alberta premier wants to replace coal and mine it at the same time.
on

A bill on its way to the Governorโ€™s desk โ€” with connections to gas industry allies โ€” could enshrine hydrocarbons as Louisianaโ€™s future.

A bill on its way to the Governorโ€™s desk โ€” with connections to gas industry allies โ€” could enshrine hydrocarbons as Louisianaโ€™s future.