The letter from Granite State Senators Ayotte and Shaheen, and Representatives Shea-Porter and Kuster means that all of the higher office elected officials in northern New England have requested such a thorough review, with the exception of Maine’s Governor LePage and Senator Susan Collins. Senator Collins has stated that some level of review should be required before the line is allowed to be used for tar sands.
It’s no wonder this bi-partisan concerns exist. Tar sands pose severe risks:
- As has been tragically displayed in tar sands pipeline spills in Marshall, Michigan (2010) and Mayflower, Arkansas, tar sands is much harder to clean up than convention crude when it spills, threatening critical wildlife habitat and resources like the Connecticut and Androscoggin rivers, Sebago Lake, the drinking water source for the Portland, Maine area, and Victory State Forest in Vermont. The tar sands pipeline that burst in Mayflower was also owned by Exxon and of a similar age to the Portland-Montreal pipeline
- It results in about 20% more climate ruining carbon pollution than conventional oil. Runaway climate change threatens key New England industries like skiing and maple sugaring at risk.
- Additionally, extracting tar sands from the Canadian boreal forest is destroying a habitat area the size of Florida in the boreal forest, a breeding ground for migratory birds and other animals. Toxic tailings ponds, strip mining, and intensive drilling are putting millions of birds at risk, including the iconic Whooping Crane.
Tar Sands a Deadly Threat to Moose
In Senator Ayotte’s New Hampshire, no animal explains the urgency of opposing tar sands better than the storied moose. Moose in New Hampshire are in sad decline, and a changing climate is likely a major culprit.
Allowing tar sands pipelines that expand market access will further drive up carbon pollution by enabling more development of land-locked tar sands. We need to make energy investments that will reduce, not increase, carbon pollution.
It is only with a bi-partisan commitment to ending our addiction to fossil fuels and rapidly developing a cleaner, safer energy future that we can save treasured species like moose from suffering the worst effects of climate change. Leaders like Senator Ayotte are listening to the voices of their constituents and making that commitment.
We need to see that commitment spread nation-wide. Time is running out.
Add your voice to protect moose from deadly tar sands.
Big Oil is trying to keep this project under the radar and avoid a scrutinizing presidential permitting process. A presidential permit is required for any project that crosses the American border and since the Exxon & Enbridge pipeline would cross into Canada, the permit requires that the administration assess the project and allow for public discussion (think Keystone XL).
Exxon & Enbridge Pipeline Project Under Scrutiny
Legislators from Vermont, Maine, & New Hampshire are joining tens of thousands of Northeast residents in speaking out against this proposed project. Out of the 12 northeast congressional members in the pipeline right of way states (VT, ME, NH), only Senator Kelly Ayotte from New Hampshire has yet to stand with her community in opposing the project. Members are sending letter after letter after letter urging Secretary Kerry to require a new presidential permit for the proposed Exxon & Enbridge pipeline project.
When Senators Susan Collins and Angus King of Maine were visited by the tar sands lobby (including the pipeline director for the American Petroleum Institute) a few short weeks ago, the lobby were told to be prepared for lengthy and appropriate government scrutiny over the project.
King told the group that reversing the flow of the Portland-Montreal Pipe Line “is presidential-permit-worthy. And it’s up to the petroleum industry to convince me otherwise.”
Collins, in a prepared statement Tuesday, recalled that the pipeline officials “were not definitive in response to my questions” about exactly what they were up to.
“Should the company decide to seek approval for this new use,” Collins added, “I would expect that appropriate environmental impact reviews would be completed.”
Protecting Moose from Dirty Tar Sands
The Exxon & Enbridge pipeline project runs through important moose habitat in New England. If this dangerous project is not stopped, toxic tar sands oil would threaten the waterways where moose live–and would fuel more tar sands operations in Canada that are destroying the boreal forests and polluting fresh water.
