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NEWS: Americans raise concerns of tar sands pipeline to Portland, Maine

The Globe and Mail reports, “Activists (in Maine) held a news conference on Wednesday to denounce an allegedly secret plan by Portland Pipe Line Corp. to open a new route to carry western (tar sands) crude by way of Ontario and Quebec through northern New England to the Atlantic coast. Portland Pipe Line – which is owned by Imperial Oil Ltd., Royal Dutch Shell and Suncor Energy Corp. – currently carries imported crude from Portland, Me., to Canada for use in refineries in Montreal and Nanticoke, Ont. Portland Pipe’s Canadian market has already been hit by Shell’s closing of its Montreal refinery, and Imperial’s newly-won access to western crude. It will be further diminished if Enbridge Inc. wins approval to reverse its Line 9 route – currently part of the Portland to Nanticoke network – and bring western crude into Montreal. In an telephone interview, Portland Pipe president Larry Wilson said there are no current plans to reverse the Portland-to-Montreal line. However, he added the market is changing dramatically and the company needs to be prepared to respond.”

A report opposing this pipeline plan – released by the Natural Resources Defense Council, 350.org, the Sierra Club, the Vermont Natural Resources Council, the Natural Resources Council of Maine and other groups – can be accessed through this CommonDreams.org article, http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/10/10-9. The Globe and Mail news report is at http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/the-oil-patch-opens-an-eastern-front/article4602808/.

Map from the report titled, ExxonMobils Plans to Bring Tar Sands Oil Through the Northeast.

Map from the report titled, ‘ExxonMobil’s Plans to Bring Tar Sands Oil Through the Northeast’.