South Portland’s fight is a cautionary tale about the power of money — and whether towns can set their own rules about oil and gas infrastructure.
SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine—Can communities say no to energy companies?
Hundreds of miles from the nearest oil field or fracking well, the answer to this question is playing out here, as a longrunning David-and-Goliath battle over plans to pipe tar sands oil from Canada to Maine for export nears a pivotal moment.
On one side is South Portland, a picturesque waterfront city of 25,000, which approved an ordinance in 2014 to outlaw heavy crude exports from its harbor in an overwhelming City Council vote.
On the other is the Portland Pipe Line Corporation, the company behind the project, and its allies, including the American Petroleum Institute, whose members include most major oil and gas companies. API spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to defeat a ballot measure in 2013 that would have blocked the project. The City Council approved the ordinance a year later. The Portland Pipe Line Corporation is now suing the city, with support from API and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, arguing the ban was unconstitutional.
A federal judge is expected to rule in the coming weeks. A decision in favor of the company could effectively open a gateway for the flow of carbon-heavy tar sands oil to one of the East Coast’s largest oil ports.
For other cities seeking to restrict oil and gas activities, South Portland’s four-year fight to fend off the oil industry offers perhaps a cautionary tale.
South Portland, with an operating budget of $32.6 million, had spent $1.1 million as of August in legal fees to defend its ban, and the costs continue to rise. “They’re getting killed,” said Sean Mahoney, executive vice president of the Conservation Law Foundation, who has advised the city on the case.
At issue is local control, the right of communities to make their own rules when it comes to oil and gas operations and infrastructure.
“This has always been seen by the companies as a beachhead,” Mahoney said. “They can’t allow communities to pass this kind of ordinance because it could be a model for communities everywhere.”
The industry argues that local ordinances violate state and federal laws and the U.S. Constitution because it’s not the job of local governments to regulate oil and gas. The law is open to judges’ interpretations, and litigation almost always follows when towns pass these local measures. Across the country, community fracking bans in particular have been the target of lawsuits.
The ordinance in South Portland is meant to address air pollution concerns associated with the bulk loading of crude oil, and was sparked by fears associated with oil sands, the tar-like bitumen of northern Alberta. South Portland is no stranger to environmental causes, having successfully fought past oil industry attempts to build new tank farms on the waterfront, and it recently flipped the switch on the state’s largest municipal solar farm.
Inside Climate News – Sabrina Shankman – 11.02.2017
Posted by: Nelson Bailey
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