Environmental organizations and Northeast Kingdom residents says that a decision to pipe tar sands oil through the region should trigger state review. And they want the state to confirm this.
On Monday, the groups asked the Northeast Kingdom’s Act 250 commission to verify that the state’s governing land-use law has authority over potential changes to the Portland-Montreal Pipeline.
They are concerned that Canada’s Enbridge Oil will attempt to pump tar sands oil through the Portland-Montreal pipeline, which passes through the state. Although the company has a request pending with the Canadian government to pipe oil to Montreal refineries, the company has repeatedly denied that it has plans to send this oil through Vermont to Portland for export.
Despite these assurances, the environmental groups, local residents and some Vermont legislators are taking precautions to ensure the state has regulatory power over the pipeline.
Rep. David Deen, D-Westminster, and Sen. Ginny Lyons, D-Chittenden, have introduced bills that would require such pipeline changes to undergo Act 250 review.
But Jim Murphy, senior counsel for the National Wildlife Federation, and Sandra Levine, senior attorney for the Conservation Law Foundation, say the state already has jurisdiction under Act 250.
They want the regional commission to acknowledge that converting a pipeline “from a conventional crude oil pipeline to a tar sands oil pipeline is a substantial change to an existing development.”
“We want to make sure any proposal to move tar sands through Vermont would require an Act 250 permit,” said Levine.
The groups who filed the request include:
• The National Wildlife Federation
• The Conservation Law Foundation
• Vermont Natural Resources Council
• The Vermont chapter of the Sierra Club
• Vermont Public Interest Research Group
• 350 Vermont
• The Natural Resources Defense Council
Updated on Feb. 2, 2013 to reflect that the Vermont Natural Resources Council was a party to this request.
