Enbridge proposes eastward pipeline for tar sands oil

By Matthew Arco / The Portland Daily Sun

Environmental groups fearing that talks to pump “incredibly destructive” crude oil from Canada to Greater Portland are once again resurfacing, are opposing the project even before one is officially put in writing.

The Natural Resources Council of Maine is planning to join three other environmental groups in Portland this week to educate the public of the dangers of “tar sands” traveling from western Canada to South Portland, said Dylan Voorhees, the council’s clean energy director.

The coalition plan to gather at the Casco Bay Ferry Terminal Thursday to speak out against the Keystone XL Pipeline, but also to discuss a years-old proposal to reverse the flow of crude oil from Maine to Canada, officials said.

“It’s an incredibly destructive and energy intensive process (to extract the tar sands),” said Voorhees, referring to the increased production of Canadian oil fields in Alberta.

“Ultimately, the larger context is that there’s a large effort of getting tar sands crude oil out of Canada,” he said. “It doesn’t seem prudent on us to wait until there’s an application to start learning about this because it’s very clearly on the radar.”

Voorhees cited a proposal by a Canadian oil company, Enbridge, before Canada’s National Energy Board as evidence that plans are being made to export tar sands oil out of Canada.

The company’s application seeks to reverse the flow of crude oil from western Canada, in the oil fields of Alberta, to pipelines connected to eastern cities like Montreal. The expectation is that Portland Pipe Line will then reverse the flow of its South Portland-Montreal pipeline, Voorhees said.

“Literally, it’s called the phase one application,” he said, referring to Enbridge’s proposal.

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