Tar Sands Oil

ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE

For Immediate Release: October 24, 2012

Enbridge comes clean about plans to export dangerous tar sands oil through Ontario

TORONTO, ON - Enbridge’s real plan for Line 9 was revealed yesterday in a document filed with the National Energy Board (NEB), which shows Enbridge plans not only to reverse the flow of oil through the pipeline to Montreal, but also to change what the pipeline can carry from normal oil to more dangerous tar sands oil, and dramatically expand the amount of oil carried by the pipeline.

“We’ve been concerned for months Enbridge is planning to ship more risky tar sands oil across Canada’s most populated region, but the company repeatedly denied that was its intention,” said Adam Scott of Environmental Defence. “Enbridge’s plan could put the drinking water of millions of people at risk of a tar sands oil spill, all in the name of exporting more raw tar sands oil south.”

BY ELIZABETH MCGOWAN AND LISA SONG, INSIDECLIMATE NEWS

MARSHALL, Mich.—An acrid stench had already enveloped John LaForge's five-bedroom house when he opened the door just after 6 a.m. on July 26, 2010. By the time the building contractor hurried the few feet to the refuge of his Dodge Ram pickup, his throat was stinging and his head was throbbing.

LaForge was at work excavating a basement when his wife called a couple of hours later. The odor had become even more sickening, Lorraine told him. And a fire truck was parked in front of their house, where Talmadge Creek rippled toward the Kalamazoo River.

LaForge headed home. By the time he arrived, the stink was so intense that he could barely keep his breakfast down.

Something else was wrong, too.

Broad coalition says region must reject increased pollution and threat of oil spills

Montpelier, VT  (June 19, 2012) – A controversial pipeline plan threatens drinking water and more than a dozen beloved natural areas in Central Canada and New England according to a new report released today. A broad coalition of organizations are defying  plans from Canadian oil pipeline company Enbridge Energy to bring tar sands oil through Ontario, Quebec, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine in a pipeline reversal scheme commonly referred to as “Trailbreaker.”  The advocates say the plan is unsafe and that a tar sands oil spill could harm Vermont’s waterways, wildlife and tourism economy.

The report, Going in Reverse: The Tar Sands Threat to Central Canada and New England, outlines an array of threats associated with the controversial tar sands, often referred to as the dirtiest oil on the planet, including unique corrosive properties that the United States federal government is currently studying to better understand whether the highly-corrosive, low-grade petroleum can be safely transported.