New England Has Environmental Concerns over Canada Oil Sands

A decision by Canadian regulators to let pipeline company Enbridge pump oil sands into Quebec has environmental activists and politicians worried the oil could eventually spill into the neighboring New England region of the United States.

Canada's National Energy Board on Thursday approved a plan by the country's No.1 pipeline company Enbridge to reverse and expand its Line 9 from southern Ontario to Quebec on condition that it undertake additional work on consultation and safety.

The project would feed refineries around Montreal and Quebec City, but would also place oil sands at the northern terminus of the Portland-Montreal pipeline, which runs through Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. Canada's approval had been expected because the plan uses existing infrastructure, requires no new pipeline and much of the work will take place on Enbridge property or right-of-ways.

The Portland-Montreal pipeline moves oil north, but the company has said it is interested in possibly reversing its flow to provide Canadian producers a way to get their tar sands to the global market through the Portland Harbor in Maine.

Dylan Voorhees, a director at the Natural Resources Council of Maine, said the environmental advocacy group is opposed to the idea because he believes Canadian tar sands are more polluting than conventional oil when it spills.

"We saw during spills in Kalamazoo and Mayflower that an oil sands spill releases more toxic chemicals, basically the dilutants, into the air," Voorhees said, citing pipeline ruptures in Michigan and Arkansas, respectively.

"It also has a propensity to sink into water in a way that makes it nearly impossible to clean up," he said.

New England Has Environmental Concerns over Canada Oil Sands