Skip to footer

Tar sands ban: Maine city blocks crude oil shipments

A Maine city council voted 6-1 late monday to block the shipment of so-called tar sands oil from western Canada through South Portland, Maine. Environmentalists say tar sands oil is difficult to clean up, but supporters of the pipeline say blocking it will kill jobs.

|
Todd Korol/Reuters/File
The Syncrude tar sands mine north of Fort McMurray, Alberta is shown in this file photo. South Portland, Maine voted late Monday to block a pipeline that would ship tar sands crude oil from western Canada.
  • By Associated Press

| SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine

Operators of a pipeline and the president of the Maine Energy Marketers Association are blasting a decision by the South Portland City Council that bans the transfer of crude oil onto ocean tankers.

Councilors voted 6-1 Monday night in favor of zoning changes that would effectively end any attempt to bring so-called tar sands oil from western Canada through a pipeline from Canada to South Portland.

Environmentalists say tar sands oil is difficult to clean if spilled and dangerous to ship.

Tom Hardison from the Portland Pipe Line said councilors made a rush to judgment and bowed to environmental "extremists." He said the zoning changes amounted to a "job-killing ordinance" that prevents the city's oil terminals from adapting to meet the energy needs of North America.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Tar sands ban: Maine city blocks crude oil shipments
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/Latest-News-Wires/2014/0722/Tar-sands-ban-Maine-city-blocks-crude-oil-shipments
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe