Wildlife Promise » Trailbreaker Pipeline

Investors Demand Environmental Improvements from Tar Sands Industry

Kendall Mackey — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 14:30:40 +0000

Photo by Todd Powell

Tar sands is a risky business—it is one of the dirtiest fuels on the planet. Just this week, a group of 49 investors with $2 trillion in assets called on Canadian oil sands developers to dramatically reduce the environmental risks associated with tar sands development. The investors argued that these performance improvements should be prioritized ahead of unmitigated growth.

It’s expensive to produce, and difficult to transport. Thousands of people—from Alberta, Canada to Winnsboro, Texas to Portland, Maine—have been fighting pipeline developments in their backyards, but too often oil companies have been unabashedly ignoring the environmental and health concerns that residents and scientists alike share about pipelines and the development of this dirty fuel.

However, the conversation is changing, and this time it’s including voices that TransCanada, Enbridge, and other corporate tar sands giants can’t ignore. In addition to the investor action this week, markets showed a case of the jitters over tar sands in two separate incidents last week. Both major tar sands pipeline companies, TransCanada and Enbridge are under tight scrutiny and being watched closely.

When TransCanada announced it was shutting down the original Keystone pipeline over a safety concern, oil prices bounced downward for several hours. And when NWF issued a report that was critical of Enbridge’s operation of the aging Line 5 Midwest pipeline, NASDAQ noted Enbridge’s stock dipped downward.

Reining in Growing Giants

“Oil sands development is the fastest growing industrial source of GHG emissions in Canada, projected to approximately double by 2020.” -Environment Canada, Canada’s Emissions Trends, July 2011

Alberta Tar Sands

Ceres, a worldwide sustainable investment firm, released a press release providing a detailed plan for Canadian oil sands development, laying out the expectations for improvement in corporate practices. The investors’ statement of expectations was delivered to Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA), an industry-led group formed in March with the specific goal of improving the industry’s environmental performance. Joe Mendelson, Director of Policy for Climate & Energy at the National Wildlife Federation, says:

“When Wall Street says there are serious problems with tar sands development, it should send a clear message that betting on a dirty oil future is a loser for everyone.”

Make your voice heard! Take Action to protect climate and wildlife from the development of the dirtiest fuel on the planet!

Exxon’s Stealth Moves to Run Tar Sands into New England

Tony Iallonardo — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 17:39:43 +0000

We’ve written before about Big Oil’s new playbook on tar sands: using stealth tactics to make it harder for the public to figure out what dangerous projects they have in mind and trying to pull one over on the public. Bearing locally-based labels like “Portland Pipe Line Corporation” and “Montreal Pipe Line Limited,” the proposed Trailbreaker tar sands pipeline is actually owned by ExxonMobil, via its Canadian Subsidiary Imperial Oil, with tar sands giant Suncor Energy having a minority stake in the company.

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

And the plot thickens. Exxon’s apparent partner in the Trailbreaker tar sands plot is Enbridge, the company that owns the line from Ontario to Montreal that could connect to the line to Portland. In 2010, an Enbridge pipeline rupture poured a million gallons of oil into Michigan’s Talmadge Creek and Kalamazoo River, an incident which an independent review found was due to extreme negligence.

The New England Trailbreaker project would reverse the flow of the current Portland-Montreal Pipe Line (PMPL) going from Portland, Maine, to Quebec. Under the Trailbreaker scheme, tar sands would flow across Canada and through Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine through this pipeline. And this oil flowing to Portland would not help the people of those states even if they wanted it because the most likely would be exported or sent to refineries by ship. The people of New England would be left with all the harm – ruptures and pumping station breakdowns that could threaten thousands of clear lakes and rivers and unspoiled forests.

The people of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine have a long history of valuing their forests, rivers and lakes. They deserve straight talk and full disclosure, not backroom deals shrouded in a complicated a corporate structure that hides the true identity and motives of the real players who see these states as just a “pass-through” to the coast and a pass-through to easy profits.

“This pipeline presents a double whammy. ExxonMobil’s apparent partner in this tar sands pipeline scheme is Enbridge, which has disastrous safety record and is responsible for the devastating Kalamazoo River tar sands spill in 2010,” said Jim Murphy, Vermont-based Senior Counsel with National Wildlife Federation. “Enbridge spilled a million gallons of tar sands oil into the Kalamazoo River, the most expensive domestic pipeline spill in history that will mar the river for years, maybe decades. Independent review found that extreme negligence led to the spill. Vermont doesn’t need this type of disaster.”

These oil giants have a dirty track record. Let’s not let them add to that record.

Get the Facts: Final Corporate Fact Sheet

New Englanders Take a Stand Against Trailbreaker Pipeline and Dirty Tar Sands Oil

Marine Jaouen — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 14:01:39 +0000

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.

A dirty energy polluter wants to bring tar sands to New Englanders‘ backyards. Organizers in Vermont gathered at Montpelier City Hall to oppose the tar sands oil “Trailbreaker” pipeline that would contaminate drinking water and destroy vital wildlife habitats in their state.

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.