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>>>

And that’s not all – in the forest, an immediate concern  is the potential for hemlock woody adelgid to have a major range expansion, and possibly wipe out eastern hemlock altogether.

These insects are native to Japan and feed on and kill eastern hemlock trees. The bug’s range is constrained to places where minimum temperatures remain above -20 degrees Fahrenheit… which now includes where I grew up, in North Carolina, and soon could include the forests in the entire Northeast. Climate model projections indicate that temperature increases could place the entire range of this tree above this temperature threshold, leading to range-wide declines and possible loss of the tree species altogether.

Why do we care? “I am more of a wildlife gal/guy than a tree one”, you say?
Eastern Hemlock is the most significant whitetail deer wintering cover in southern and central NH and parts of Maine and much of Massachusetts. Hemlock is used both as cover and forage during deep snow or cold temperatures. Loss of hemlock from the bugs could significantly drop the number of deer who make it through the winter, especially as we have more extreme winter storms that dump larger amounts of snow.

“But we need to worry about the economy, what about the economy?” Good question.  Deer drive hunting license numbers, important revenue in most states.  A significant reduction in deer numbers drives license sales and hunters getting out and spending money down correspondingly. Hunting and fishing license sales provide the bulk of state fish and wildlife funding in many states, which protects our wildlife and our pristine places.

A few fun facts from the Congressional Sportsmen’s foundation:

• The $12 billion anglers spent on boats and other special equipment in 2011 is more than the global revenues for Starbucks that year .
• Hunters spent $6 billion on guns, ammunition and archery equipment in 2011. That’s the same as the sales of bicycles in the United States.
• And hipsters beware: Sportsmen spend $90 billion annually – that’s more than the combined 2011 global revenues for Apple’s iPhone and iPad.

“I am convinced! What can we do about?” I am so glad you asked. We have a plan!

1. Reject tar sands in the US (including a pipeline here in New England)

2. Cut climate pollution from coal fired power plants

and last but not least,

3. Get the word out:  talk to your friends and neighbors, post this on your facebook page, and share it on twitter.

Imperial and Suncor are among the largest developers of Canadian tar sands oil. This convoluted corporate maze of oil behemoths is in bed with Enbridge, the company behind the Kalamazoo River oil spill, the most costly onshore spill in U.S. history. Now, it apparently wants to pump tar sands oil from Alberta through Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine to the port of Portland for overseas markets. Tar sands oil is a heavy, corrosive, diluted bitumen and is known as one of the dirtiest, most-polluting, hardest-to-clean-up fuels on the planet. The tar sands business is booming in Canada and the corporate hawks are positioning to pounce on the profits they see in this dirty product by using New England communities as conduits to export markets.

It’s no wonder ExxonMobil doesn’t want to come clean. The company’s not clean. It was ExxonMobil that caused the infamous 1989 Valdez spill, a disaster that spewed 11 million gallons of oil into Alaska’s pristine waters. In July 2011, the company’s Silvertip Pipeline dumped 42,000 gallons of oil into Montana’s Yellowstone River.

840,000 of tar sands crude spilled into Michigan’s Kalamazoo River last year

Politicians just love to draw the analogy between cutting the federal budget and how families cut their spending and live within their means. I agree with this sentiment, but I have a question back to our Congressional representatives – when times get tough, do families decide to cut back on clean water and clean air for their children? Do they sit around the dinner table after the kids head off to bed and discuss the need to cut back their spending and offer up that “Johnny is just not going to be able to breathe clean air tomorrow”?  Or, “You know Jane down the street, with asthma, the heck with her, let her suffer the consequences of wanting to play outside.” I think not.

Yet this week members of the House of Representatives included so called “stealth riders” in their budget cutting efforts (“continuing resolution”), which would prevent the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from implementing key provisions of the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. These “stealth riders” are not spending cuts. They are substantive legislation attached to budget language that has all the force of passing legislation.

All of us in the Northeast have greatly benefited from these laws, from cleaning up our drinking water and improving our air quality to ensuring that nature can still be found right in our backyards if we are lucky or a short drive or train ride away.

Simply put, members of the House majority leadership are using the “budget crisis” as a ruse for doing the polluter’s lobby’s dirty work. In fact, for all their talk of fiscal responsibility, it’s telling that House leaders have refused to consider cutting $3.6 billion in giveaways to Big Oil.  Yet the overall budgets for EPA and the Interior Department, which oversees our public lands and natural resources, would be gouged by $4.4 billion.

This is an urgent matter. A vote is expected in this week. Maybe Thursday or Friday. If you feel as strongly as I do that sacrificing clean air and water is not an option, please call/email/write a letter to your congressional representatives about how you feel. You can also call directly to 202-224-3121 or find your representative and tell them directly.

Don’t stop there: share this or your own message with your friends, family and other networks in New Hampshire, New York and New Jersey (where key “swing” votes exist) or go viral and “tweet” your network around the country, put a message on facebook so the world can see.

We need everyone to speak up, make our voices heard and tell congress how important clean air and water is for our families.

Christmas Bird Count

National Wildlife Federation supports citizen science, and one of the oldest such efforts is the Christmas Bird Count sponsored by our friends at Audubon. Here’s how it works: regular folks record bird sightings and scientists then use the data to study bird populations. It’s a great way to get outside during the holiday season with the entire family and do something good for wildlife. Participate in the Christmas Bird Count >>

Northeast

Recent snows make it harder for a lot wildlife species to survive, but not the lynx. These  beautiful, wild cats can still be found in small populations in the Northeast and are often confused with the similar bobcat. Lynx are more adapted to snowy environments and you can distinguish them from bobcats by their tufted ears, silvery coat and huge, snowshoe-like feet that allow them to move about with ease in deep snow.

Midwest

Dark-eyed juncos have arrived in their wintering grounds across the Midwest. These smoky-colored sparrows breed in Canada and head south for the winter, giving them their common nickname “snowbird.” Keep a feeder filled this winter and you’ll be guaranteed to see these cute little birds in your yard.

West

From Oregon to Colorado and down into Mexico, mountain bluebirds have returned for the winter. Be on the lookout for these beautiful birds feeding on berries and foraging for insects. To tell them apart from Western bluebirds check out their breast feathers. Mountain bluebirds have bluish-gray breasts while Western bluebirds’ are reddish-brown.

South

Witchhazel, a native shrub, is in bloom across its range. Its spider-like yellow blooms are a great way to brighten the winter landscape in a season when other flowers have long since faded and the trees have lost their fall foliage. It’s also a preferred nesting shrub for birds come spring.