{"id":2916,"date":"2013-08-06T17:11:39","date_gmt":"2013-08-06T17:11:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/?p=2916"},"modified":"2013-08-06T17:11:39","modified_gmt":"2013-08-06T17:11:39","slug":"the-vermont-new-hampshire-maine-quebec-tar-sands-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/the-vermont-new-hampshire-maine-quebec-tar-sands-fight\/","title":{"rendered":"The Vermont-New Hampshire-Maine-Quebec tar sands fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guest post by 350.org Fossil Free Fellow Tyler McFarland who has been working with 350Vermont this summer.<\/em><\/p>\n

Lend me your ears (eyes) and I will tell you about the northeast corner of Vermont, known as the Northeast Kingdom. \u00a0It is certainly a kingdom, where people live with the landscape. \u00a0It is made up of rolling green hills and mountains, many farms, and as if it were not beautiful enough it is the home of Bread and Puppet<\/a>. \u00a0On my first trip to the NEK I decided that moving there to farm for the rest of my life would be a perfectly good decision.<\/p>\n

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Unfortunately Exxon-Mobil is eyeing Vermont and the Kingdom as a conduit for Alberta tar sands to the coast. \u00a0History shows those are the last people you want eyeing you. \u00a0They are creepy and disturbing and only ever bring harm. \u00a0Through the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont lies the 63 year-old Portland-Montreal Pipeline (PMPL). \u00a0The pipeline was originally a rushed job to get oil away from the coast during WWII and has been bringing conventional crude oil from Portland, Maine to Montreal ever since. \u00a0The pipeline is owned 76% by Exxon-Mobil and 24% by Suncor. \u00a0Suncor is the largest operator in Alberta\u2019s tar sands and their largest refinery is in Montreal. \u00a0Through a series of pipelines including Enbridge\u2019s Line 9, tar sands from Alberta can make its way to the PMPL. \u00a0In Canada Enbridge has already won approval to reverse part of Line 9 and has announced plans for reversing the rest of it. \u00a0With the Northern Gateway project as good as dead thanks to Indigenous organizing, and Keystone XL stalled, the Portland-Montreal Pipeline is one of the only ways the tar sands could get to the eastern coast.\"\"<\/p>\n

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A case study. \u00a0Exxon-Mobil owns the Pegasus pipeline that was built in 1947, three years before the Portland-Montreal Pipeline was put in. \u00a0In 2006 Exxon converted and reversed the Pegasus pipeline to transport tar sands. \u00a0It ruptured in Mayflower, Arkansas this past March spilling about 5,000 barrels of toxic tar sands. \u00a0The PMPL, a pipeline of similar age and ownership, has 79 river crossings in the 35 miles of pipeline in New Hampshire alone. \u00a0In Vermont the pipeline crosses 15 different bodies of water including the Connecticut River.<\/p>\n

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Tar sands companies will tell you that diluted bitumen, what they plan to pump through the pipelines, is no different than conventional oil. \u00a0Surprise! \u00a0They\u2019re lying. \u00a0Take the Kalamazoo River tar sands spill in 2010 when the Enbridge 6B pipeline ruptured sending over a million gallons into the ecosystem. \u00a0During the cleanup, which is still incomplete, Mark Durno, the EPA deputy incident commander, told Michigan Public Radio “I truly believe the characteristics of this material is the reason we still have such a heavy operation out here,” Mark Durno, the EPA deputy incident commander, told Michigan Public Radio. “Because it was a very heavy crude, we ended up with a lot more submerged oil than we anticipated having to deal with…If you’d shovel down into the islands you’d see oil pool into the holes we’d dig.” \u00a0Diluted bitumen is diluted with toxic chemicals such as benzene, a carcinogen. \u00a0When the diluted bitumen spills from the pipe the chemicals evaporate, a danger to residents and first responders, (and?) then the tar sands sinks to the bottom of the river.<\/p>\n

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Do not forget that the tar sands is a new industry and that diluted bitumen is a new product, not at all what the PMPL was designed for back in 1950. \u00a0A year after the cleanup began the EPA’s Susan Hedman told reporters, “Capturing and cleaning up this heavy oil is a unique challenge. \u00a0No one at the EPA can remember dealing with this much submerged oil in a river.” \u00a0Now think of the 79 opportunities for the PMPL to burst into the pristine water of northern New Hampshire. \u00a0Or the Connecticut River which runs the entire length between Vermont and New Hampshire. \u00a0Not to mention Sebago Lake in Maine, which supplies 20% of Maine\u2019s citizens with drinking water. \u00a0We will have very serious problems if tar sands gets into the water and land.<\/p>\n

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What has been done about it? \u00a0350Vermont organized the Second Annual Tar Sands Free Kingdom Walk<\/a>. \u00a0We have been organizing in the affected communities and are proud to say that after this summer the issue is well known and citizens are allied against the tar sands pipeline in Vermont. \u00a0My wonderful friend Chloe Maxmin helped organize 350Maine\u2019s summer heat event<\/a>, bringing awareness to the pipeline issue in Sebago Lake.<\/p>\n


\n<\/b>I would like to personally ask you to stay vigilant about the threat of a tar sands pipeline through the northeast and be ready to make phone calls, write letters, participate in and support blockades, do whatever it takes with us to stop this project when the time comes. \u00a0For people in New England, let\u2019s organize in our states to show complete opposition while working with the rest of North America to shut down the tar sands quickly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Guest post by 350.org Fossil Free Fellow Tyler McFarland who has been working with 350Vermont this summer. Lend me your…<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2916\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}