NTSB Photo – Ruptured Enbridge tar sands pipeline, Line 6B

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.”

Moose photo by Rick Libbey

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.

Speak up against the risks that the Northeast tar sands pipeline poses to wildlife and our communities>>>

NWF photo – rescued turtle covered in tar sands oil from the Kalamazoo River

The large problem for Enbridge is that they can’t hide from the real-life facts. Enbridge has the best (and worst) “study” right here in the Kalamazoo River, where they spilled around a million gallons of tar sands crude into Michigan waters. This spill has proven the exact opposite: tar sands oil sinks in fresh water! 

This is not a little white lie: the fact that tar sands oil sinks in water is one of the biggest problems facing the industry and pipeline operators, proving that any spill of any kind into water is devastating, toxic and impossible to clean-up. The hundreds of acres of submerged oil in the Kalamazoo River — that Enbridge can’t clean up — is case and point!

Steep Learning Curve for Tar Sands Spills

Michigan journalist Fritz Klug wrote about this very point almost two years ago:

“At minimum, we’re writing a chapter in the oil spill cleanup book on how to identify submerged oil,” [EPA incident commander Ralph] Dollhopf said. “We’re writing chapters on how it behaves once it does spill (and) how to recover it.”

What the EPA didn’t expect at the beginning of the spill last July was how much time they would spend extracting the heavier oil submerged in the bottom of the Kalamazoo River.

“In a situation where we don’t have to be concerned with submerged oil, then we clean up the oil on the surface and be done,” Dollhopf said.

This past fall, the EPA issued Enbridge another work order to address the hundreds of acres of submerged oil, but Enbridge is dismissing that order because they have no idea how to remove the oil from the bottom of the river without causing extreme habitat destruction.

When a tar sands pipeline spill occurs, all readily available equipment used to clean-up oil will only address oil floating on the surface of water. So, for any pipeline operator to say they know how to properly clean up tar sands crude — this is a flat out lie.

Again, this point is extremely important considering the flood of tar sands pipeline projects hitting the U.S.

Enbridge tries to control the migration of submerged oil at Marrow Lake, along the Kalamazoo River. EPA photo

Lawmakers in the Dark

Taking this a step further, the lack of acknowledgment by our decision makers and congressional members is a little shocking. Our leaders should be demanding that regulators and pipeline operators make immediate changes to spill response plans to address this very issue, and no tar sands pipelines should be expanded or constructed until issues like this are fully addressed. This should have been an outcry immediately following Enbridge’s spill — especially considering tar sands crude is already running through many pipelines that travel in and around the Great Lakes, which are the freshwater drinking source for millions or people and habitat for countless wildlife. 

In fact, many members of Congress are ignoring the facts and trying to streamline massive tar sands pipeline projects, like Keystone XL, which will expose millions to the risk of spills and drive development in Canada’s tar sands region, one of the biggest threats to our global climate.

We are allowing Enbridge to cover up the facts with propaganda, which will continue to allow the industry to expand plans for transporting tar sands oil through some of the most sensitive areas in the world.

Contact your lawmakers and tell them you are sick of industry distorting the facts, which continues to put our communities, resources and wildlife at risk.

Watch my personal story here:

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Enbridge oil spill gave me a first-hand look into just how dangerous it is to transport raw tar sands oil, and how difficult it is to clean up when it spills. Unfortunately, federal laws governing pipelines are inadequate in several respects, and states have not passed their own laws to fill in the gaps. Enbridge knew of safety problems with the pipeline years before the disaster and because of weak regulations and poor response plans, this spill went unreported for 17 hours.

Despite the very real threats to wildlife and our communities, Enbridge and other tar sands oil companies are forging ahead with plans to bring even more raw tar sands oil through the Midwest and the rest of the country—before needed regulations are adapted and proper accountability is met.

Right now, we have a critical opportunity to speak up against the expansion of tar sands pipelines and show decision makers and the media the widespread opposition to the risks that tar sands crude poses to wildlife and our communities. By attending events, writing a Letter to the Editor of your local newspaper, and submitting comments online, you can make a big difference to protect wildlife from the dangers of tar sands oil.

Speak up to protect people and wildlife from toxic tar sands oil by urging President Obama to stop the Keystone XL pipeline once and for all.

NWF Applauds New Solar Energy Plan

July 24 – The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management released the final solar programmatic environmental impact statement, which outlines the future of utility-scale solar energy development on public lands and makes responsible solar energy projects part of our national energy policy.

The National Wildlife Federation applauds the BLM and partner agencies who oversaw a four-year development process driven by significant stakeholder input. The landscape-level management approach of the final solar energy program is vastly improved from earlier drafts, with sportsmen playing a particularly key role in identifying and encouraging needed changes in the plan. A key component of the solar energy program is the establishment of an initial set of 17 “solar energy zones” encompassing 285,000 acres covering six Western states.

217 Atlantic Coast Environmental Groups and Other Stakeholders Unite Behind Atlantic Offshore Wind

July 24 – Today, 217 environmentalists, conservationists, clean energy advocates, businesses, and local and state officials from up and down the Atlantic Coast are united in calling for bold action to accelerate the development of offshore wind. The coalition released a letter to the Obama Administration to show strong support for progress made to date and to urge continued leadership to ensure we see several wind farms spinning off our coasts within the next few years.

New Report Details Enbridge’s Costly Failures

July 23 – As demonstrators prepare a national remembrance of the Kalamazoo River tar sands spill tragedy, and the National Academy of Sciences hears testimony on the dangers of tar sands oil, National Wildlife Federation has issued a  report examining the practices of the company behind the spill, Enbridge, Inc. The report details Enbridge’s steady history of large spills in the U.S. and Canada, reckless expansion plans that would lead to more spills, and unseemly marketing tactics used to defuse criticism. The report makes seven recommendations to prevent further tragedies.

While Enbridge recently received a record fine and a scathing condemnation from U.S. agencies for the massive oil spill of two years ago, the NWF report makes clear that the Kalamazoo disaster is but one in a series of spills, and that more will occur due to an inadequate regulatory system.

And here are highlights from NWF in the News:

• Detroit Free Press: Report slams Enbridge Energy’s history of oil spills
• CBS News: Group criticizes Enbridge’s safety record
• Chicago Parent: Wildlife take the gold for true Olympic feats
• Fredericksburg Free Lance Star: Fossil fuels create pollution and global warming (OpEd)
• UPI: Groups get in line behind U.S. wind energy
• The Daily Democrat: Solar power stations put on the fast track

For more, visit www.nwf.org/News

Click here to view the embedded video.

On July 18th, community members from across Michigan participated in the Lansing, Mich., We are the Kalamazoo Human Oil Spill event to memorialize two years passing since the largest and costliest inland oil spill in US history.

The tar sands spill occurred when a pipeline operated by Enbridge Inc., dumped approximately 1.2 million gallons of tar sands crude into a wetland that overflowed into the Kalamazoo River, contaminating nearly 40 miles of the watershed.

NWF photo: Human oil spill in Michigan’s Capital

People across Michigan are rightfully infuriated that the State of Michigan is even considering allowing Enbridge to expand its pipeline when the company hasn’t shown one iota of remorse or proper accountability for the worst inland oil spill in history. Enbridge needs to prove they can operate safely before the State of Michigan signs-off on their massive expansion plan.

Nic Clark, campaigns director of Michigan Clean Water Action explains:

Michigan can’t afford another Enbridge oil disaster, and expanding this pipeline is a distraction from our clean energy future. That’s why we support efforts to increase our state’s renewable energy standard to 25% by the year 2025. We need to stop exporting our money and jobs importing dirty fossil fuels from other states and the Middle East. The 25% by 2025 proposal will increase the amount of clean energy produced right here in Michigan.

Tar sands oil is more corrosive, dirtier, more prone to spills, and harder to clean up than conventional crude oil. Further, extracting and refining tar sands oil requires the destruction of forests in Canada and the use of massive amounts of energy and water.

“The process is catastrophic for our environment and will have an even more devastating impact by speeding up climate change. Citizens across North America are fed up with our reliance on such a dirty and dangerous fuel and the catastrophic impact it has on climate change”, said Rita Chapman, Clean Water Program Director at Sierra Club Michigan Chapter.

“The youth of Michigan need our decision makers to help us protect Michigan’s great natural resources for future generations and help us create a more sustainable future that does not rely on dirty energy and sneaky corporations” said Liz Starke Coordinator of the Michigan Student Sustainability Coalition.

Please join the National Wildlife Federation’s Great Lakes Regional Center for our River Walk next week to show our continued solidarity around opposition to tar sands oil in the Great Lakes. You can also RSVP to these events, take action against tar sands, and find many more events happening around the country at NWF’s Action Fund Action Center.

Kalamazoo River polluted with tar sands crude. NWF photo by Beth Wallace.

Agencies within the Unified Command hosted an invite-only media event to open the oiled Kalamazoo River to the public today.

I would love to say that I was shocked by this news, but the truth is that this behavior has become the norm when learning to live with one of the largest tar sands oil spills in history. No transparency, half truths and shut the public out.

On Tuesday morning, I received a call from a reporter in Canada that informed me that the oiled Kalamazoo river will soon be open for public use and a celebration was to take place on Thursday, June 21 to mark the occasion.

I was a little confused, to say the least, on how someone in Canada had learned of this event when people living in Michigan and along the river had not. Even the local media has been left in the dark on the details. Again, confused but not surprised.

After calling every person I can think of—from impacted community members to EPA officials involved in the clean up—not one person could provide more information. It took impacted community members Susan Connolly and Deb Miller making personal stops into the County Health Department offices to find more information. Even then, details were vague and it was made clear that the public is not welcome and only press will be invited.

According to Connolly:

“When I learned from a reporter in Canada that our state and federal government agencies and Enbridge would be reopening the Kalamazoo River it was disheartening. I immediately went in person to Enbridge Headquarters in Marshall, MI and was told by their PR Rep. Jason Manchum that he could not confirm or comment and I would have to speak to the county/state Health Department or EPA. I went to our County Health Department where Jim Rutherford said he could not confirm what portions of the river were going to be reopened. Yet, this morning, a press release detailed that 35 miles from Marshall to Galesburg will be open.”

“There are 390 areas of moderate- to heavy-oiled sediment that require remediation. Health reports are inaccurate or are still not issued to the public. Fish advisories remain. Studies on fish and invertebrates are not being performed. Human health is being ignored.”

All but one section of the river near Marrow Lake has been opened. Marrow Lake is almost 40 miles downriver from the rupture location and evidently that section of river is still heavily oiled due to submerged oil going undetected for months after the spill occurred. Clean-up and remediation along the impacted river will continue, even in the opened areas.

This spill was tar sands oil, which does not act like a conventional crude. Officials discovered that this type of oil, when released into the environment, will often start to sink rather than float. All conventional cleanup techniques only address oil that floats, so cleanup crews were shocked to discover large amounts of submerged oil on the bottom of the river.

Enbridge and responding officials have had to write the rulebook on how to deal with oil that has submerged into the river, and have recently said that they plan to leave oil because cleaning it up could further impact the ecosystem.

Submerged oil remains in the river but local health officials have said, through a faulted study, that coming into contact with that submerged oil poses no risk to long term human health. The National Wildlife Federation found that study to have missing information and therefore the conclusions incorrect.

I am extremely disappointed in the agencies involved in this response and their decision to continue to exclude the public at all levels, including when they are re-opening a river for the public.

If you want to become involved in tar sands pipeline issues, including how to help save wolves from being killed due to tar sands production, please visit the National Wildlife Federation Action Fund.

National Wildlife Federation along with Vermont Natural Resource Council, CLF, Sierra Club and VPRIG held a press conference in Montpelier, VT, concerning a proposed project allowing a 61 year old pipeline to carry tar sands from Montreal through Vermont and New Hampshire to Portland, Maine.

Enbridge Energy’s environmental record is far from perfect—Enbridge is the same pipeline company that leaked approximately 1,000,000 gallons of oil into the Kalamazoo River near Marshall, Michigan in 2010.

“This really ancient pipeline has already spilled, including a spill 35 years ago that fouled Lake Memphemagog,” said Curtis Fisher of National Wildlife Federation. “The pipeline cuts across the Missisquoi, Black, Moose, and Connecticut Rivers, which all are critical wildlife habitats and attract a large number of tourists. Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom is known for being the state’s most pristine area. Vermonters do not want to risk our beloved natural resources to help dirty oil companies make billions and dramatically increase climate change.”

A broad coalition of organizations are defying plans from the Canadian oil pipeline company Enbridge Energy to build their “Trailbreaker” pipeline. These groups are stressing that the pipeline plan is unsafe and that a tar sands oil spill would harm Vermont’s waterways, wildlife and tourism economy.

“Vermont is pursuing a clean energy future in large part because Vermonters know that we depend on cold weather industries like skiing, and sugaring,” said Sandra Levine of Conservation Law Foundation. “Tar sands are a carbon bomb that will catapult us past several dangerous climate tipping points. It has no part in Vermont’s clean energy future.”

Tar Sands Too Risky

The proposed pipeline reversal scheme commonly referred to as “Trailbreaker” would reverse the flow of oil through an existing pipeline and would bring tar sands oil through Ontario, Quebec, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. A new NRDC report explains that unlike the conventional crude oil that currently flows through the pipeline, tar sands is far more corrosive, is more likely to spill, and much harder to clean up when it does spill.

“This pipeline plan puts Vermont’s rivers, lakes and streams in jeopardy and provides no benefits. The company behind it is responsible for the largest tar sands oil spill in U.S. history, which they still haven’t cleaned up,” said Johanna Miller of Vermont Natural Resources Council. “Oil giants don’t call the shots in here in Vermont and they can’t be allowed to put our state’s natural treasures in jeopardy.”

The tar sands industry has been in a desperate search for a port of export since the Keystone XL and Northern Gateway projects have become mired in controversy. The growing expansion of tar sands pipelines eastward raises concerns about the climate implications of a tar sands expansion to Central Canada and the U.S. Northeast. The U.S. Congressional Research Service recently released a report confirming tar sands as the most carbon-heavy oil on the planet (PDF), representing a significant increase in greenhouse gases from typical petroleums.

“Tar sands oil is like hot liquid sandpaper that corrodes pipelines, creating a greater risk of devastating oil spills along the route,” said Danielle Droitsch, NRDC Senior Attorney. “We cannot afford to blindly accept the climate and environmental dangers that come packed with ever-increasing amounts of tar sands being shoved south of the border. Trailbreaker isn’t alone—it is part of a stealth invasion of the U.S. from Canada’s dirty oil—it puts Central Canada and the Northeast squarely on the front lines.”

Click here to help protect Northeastern wildlife from dirty tar sands oil.

In 2008, when they thought no one was watching, oil companies Enbridge and the Portland Montreal Pipeline Company hatched a plan to reverse the flow of two existing pipelines to send dirty tar sands crude through Ontario, Quebec, and into Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine for refining along the East Coast and Gulf Coast and export abroad. The plan would have exposed American treasures to the risks of a tar sands oil spill. These include Sebago Lake, which supplies Portland, Maine with its drinking water; the Connecticut River, New England’s largest; the Misissiquoi River, historically valuable to tribes and tributary of Lake Champlain; and other critical resources. It also would have provided another fuse to set off the tar sands carbon bomb by giving this land-locked resource access to markets abroad and in the U.S.

To learn more about the threat of tar sands to New England, see this fact sheet.

In 2009 the plan was shelved due to the poor economy. Now it’s back. And Big Oil won’t tell you about it.

That’s because Canada’s dirty secret has gotten out. Tar sands are an environmental disaster. As James Hansen put it, tar sands are a climate bomb that would add 120 parts per million of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, enough to catapult us past a host of dangerous climate tipping points. Tar sands development is also turning North America’s bird nursery into a toxic waste zone, leading to the decline of caribou in Alberta, and responsible for a tragic and misguided plan to kill thousands of wolves to “protect” caribou instead of forcing Big Oil to stop destroying caribou habitat.

And then there is the risk of spills. When Line 6B ruptured in Michigan in July of 2010, 1.2 million gallons of oil–enough oil to cover over three acres of land with a foot of oil–spilled into the Kalamazoo River. The cost of clean-up has been 18 times per liter as that of already expensive conventional oil spills, while sticky tar sands still coats portions of the river’s bottom and the spill has left many residents sick.

Now that they are being watched, Big Oil wants to hide the ball. But their plans to bring tar sands to New England are becoming increasingly clear.

First, in summer of 2011, Enbridge announced plans to partially reverse the flow of Line 9, the first of the two pipelines in the original “Trailbreaker” proposal. Last week, before Canadian hearings on the partial reversal have even occurred, Enbridge announced a plan to fully reverse the flow of the Line 9 pipeline all the way to Montreal. And Enbridge finally conceded that diluted bitumen (the especially corrosive form of tar sands) was slated to be transported through Line 9. Assuming Canadian officials increasingly beholden to Big Oil will rubberstamp these plans, Enbridge is now one step away–reserving the flow of the Portland-Montreal pipeline–from bringing tar sands to New England.

New England can’t afford to have Big Oil’s attempt to sneak tar sands through the region succeed. In July, New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Provincial Premiers are meeting in Burlington, Vermont. Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin is hosting. Governor Shumlin has been a true leader on energy issues and climate. He also understands that the Connecticut River cannot become the next Kalamazoo.

In a recent meeting preparing for the July event, Governor Shumlin said,

“I don’t think that we’ve dug deep enough in terms of really having a plan that’s going to enrich us all and make New England and the Northeast provinces the place where we get energy right. We have that opportunity; the planning for that opportunity is in your hands.”

The meeting will focus on a climate change plan endorsed by the Governors and Premiers to reduce greenhouse gases by 10 percent below 1990 levels by the year 2020.

Getting energy right, protecting New England from an environmental calamity like the Kalamazoo spill, and reducing carbon pollution means keeping New England tar sands free and denying tar sands’ companies the market access they crave. At the July meeting, the Governors and Premiers need to discuss the threat of tar sands to New England and set a goal of keeping New England tar sands free.

Governor Shumlin is right, New England has an opportunity to get energy policy right, and that opportunity is in our hands. Big Oil wants to snake tar sands into the Northeast. They are hoping we won’t notice. We can’t afford to let that happen.

Click here to help protect Northeastern wildlife from dirty tar sands oil.

“Having this [Enbridge] oil spill come down through a watershed where we’ve been working to clean up old pollution for a long time now…for me it was a punch in the gut.”

Jeff Spoelstra coordinates Kalamazoo River Watershed Council, an organization that has been trying to clean up a river plagued by one of the largest Superfund sites in the United States. In the summer of 2010, just when he saw real progress being made to clean up area of toxic PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) contamination, a large pipeline oil spill happened just up-stream.

The experience spurred Jeff to become an advocate outside of work. Seeing first-hand oil flowing down the Kalamazoo River from the Enbridge oil disaster–and his knowledge that his young children will inherit the results of the energy choices we make now–sparked him to a new level of action to oppose dirty fuels.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In August, Jeff joined people from across the country in front of the White House to protest the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.  His action, along with those of countless others led to President Obama delaying the final decision on the Keystone XL pipeline–thus stopping it in its tracks.

On tar sands, Jeff says, “the carbon load in tar sands is the largest issue. We can’t keep using these carbon heavy fuels and shooting ourselves in the foot.”

In stepping into the role of an activist, Jeff says he has taken a step towards working on global issues. The change that he sees needing to happen is not just around personal consumption patterns, but a different type of economy based in renewable energy.

As for the Kalamazoo River tributary Talmadge Creek, which was flowing with oil during the spill, Jeff says they are still waiting to find out what the damage has been to macroinvertebrates–the small critters that live at the bottom of the stream and are the base of the food chain. If a generation or two of these small macroinvertebrates are wiped out, the effects will be seen on the fish for a few years.

When terrible things happen in the world, it is challenging to know what to say. In 2010, National Wildlife Federation prepared a guide for parents and caregivers on how to talk with kids about the Gulf Oil Spill. It continues to bring thousands of people to our website because the tips are relevant for other events as well.

Waking up to an Oil Spill

When Susan Connolly woke up to find an oil spill in her community in July 2010, she first had to help her own children. They got sick, and then they had questions. In the video below, Susan says:

My son was only four at the time and now he’s just over five. We don’t talk about it in front of the children but he knows. Just last week they went on a class trip to a fire department and they must have crossed over the Kalamazoo River. The first thing he says to me is “Mommy we went on a class trip today and I saw the oil spill.”… It’s always going to have an impact for him because when we talk about going on a nice river walk, he says, “Mommy are we going to walk in the oil?” That’s how a five-year-old child thinks of his river, as oil.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Becoming a Pipeline Activist

Susan is a busy working mom of two young children, but when the Enbridge oil spill happened right in her community, she could not stand by. Any moment she can after work, after the kids go to bed, she is researching, attending meetings, preparing speeches, getting interviewed by the media and encouraging others in her community to speak up.

Susan came to Washington DC in October 2011 to testify at the Keystone XL hearings about the impact of a tar sands oil spill on a community. She described what it did to her home town of Marshall, Michigan. Houses that were near the river were purchased, but home owners a little farther on were left without compensation, and in a half-empty community. This created tension in a small community.

There are a lot of people who have had settlement agreements with the oil companies, so they can’t speak. It’s pretty much a gag order that once you settle, you can’t say anything. A lot of people with their health are tied up in lawsuits, so of course they can’t speak because of their current litigation. So I have no lawsuits, I’m not going to sue anyone. But I care about the environment. I care about the people. And you just need someone to be able to communicate for everyone, but not be accusatory and not be threatening.

There are events in our lives that change everything. There are moments when we know we must step up because we are the right person in the right time. Certainly Susan would wish that there had never been an oil spill that filled her local stream and river with thick tar sands oil. But she made a choice in how she responded – a courageous choice.

She continues to collaborate with people in her community and the National Wildlife Federation in the hopes of bringing good from this terrible event, whether that means standing up against the Keystone XL pipeline, or helping other communities maintain their pipelines better. This month she attended a conference about pipeline safety, one of the only attendees who was not from government or the pipeline industry. As Susan says:

I’m doing this now because my children were harmed. My children were hurt, and we’ve been dismissed… And because of that I’m not going to go away, and I’m not going to stop.

Show Your Support

If you’d like to send best wishes to Susan, please comment on this blog post, tweet about it or like it on Facebook.

Suggested Tweet – Courageous mom stands up for her children & community after oil spill http://bit.ly/v1AsMh via @nwf

Another way to show your support is to donate to National Wildlife Federation’s work on to stop dirty fuels and the Keystone XL pipeline at our Choose Your Cause website.