Portland Pipe Line surrenders tar sands permit
In advance of a November vote, the owner of a Montreal-to-Maine pipeline has surrendered a state permit that environmental groups said points to the company’s plans to begin exporting Canadian tar sands oil from South Portland.
The Portland Press Herald reported the Portland Pipe Line’s CEO Larry Wilson said the decision was made to demonstrate that his company does not have a pending, proposed or imminent tar sands project. Industry observers and regulators told the paper the company’s decision to surrender the permit is unusual.
The company is currently the focus of a November referendum vote on a new zoning ordinance that would restrict development in the city’s shipyard district. That ordinance would limit the expansion or alteration of existing petroleum facilities, including the two 70-foot-tall vapor control units for which the pipeline company had received a permit in 2009.
Proponents of the zoning ordinance say it would rule out the possibility for exporting tar sands, which they say poses significant environmental risks to areas near and downstream from the pipeline that traverses the state. Opponents of the zoning ordinance say it is too broad and would hamper other petroleum companies at the waterfront that deal in home heating oil, jet fuel, ethanol and other products. By early October, petroleum allies and opponents of the referendum had outspent advocates of the zoning ordinance by nearly 10 times.
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