To: Jill Duson, Ed Suslovic, Nick Mavadones, Kevin Donoghue (thanks), David Marshall (thanks), Cheryl Leeman, John Coyne, and John Anton (thanks)
Portland City Council: No more delays. Make Portland Tar Sands Free.
Portland City Council: Stop the delays and commit to not spending taxpayer dollars on dirty tar sands oil.
Why is this important?
This past Wednesday night, the Portland City Council was scheduled to vote on a common sense and overwhelmingly popular measure to make sure our city doesn't spend taxpayer dollars on dirty tar sands oil for city buses, heating, and other energy needs.
Tar sands oil is a new, much dirtier form of oil that ExxonMobil wants to bring into Maine from Canada through an old pipeline that goes right by Sebago Lake, where Portland gets our drinking water.
But what happened was like what you'd expect from Washington, D.C., not local Portland politics. A swarm of highly paid oil industry lobbyists filled the room and the vote on the bill was delayed, giving the industry time to launch a public misinformation campaign that we're already seeing in local papers.
We'll get another chance to pass this bill, but now that Big Oil is lobbying the council, we really need regular folks to make your voices heard. That's why I started a petition calling on Jill Duson, Nick Mavadones, Ed Suslovic, and the rest of the Portland City Council to stop the delays and make Portland tar sands free.
Pipelines carrying this new thicker, heavier kind of oil are more prone to spills, in part because enormous pressure is needed to move it through a pipeline. Tar sands oil spills are also way more difficult to clean up because the oil is heavier and sinks.
The measure to make Portland tar sands free is supported by Mayor Mike Brennan, and 18 major corporations and two other cities have already adopted the policy. Given how pro-environment Portland is, and how dirty tar sands are, this seemed like pretty much a no-brainer—until the oil industry lobbyists showed up.
Ask any Portlander and they'll tell you we need to move to cleaner sources of energy. We certainly shouldn't be spending tax dollars on even dirtier sources of energy.
We count on our local officials to represent us here in Portland, not corporate lobbyists from Exxon. Council members David Marshall, John Anton, and Kevin Donoghue are standing up for Portland against the oil lobbyists, but the rest of the council needs to follow their lead, stop the delays, and commit to not spending our taxpayer dollars on dirty tar sands oil.
Tar sands oil is a new, much dirtier form of oil that ExxonMobil wants to bring into Maine from Canada through an old pipeline that goes right by Sebago Lake, where Portland gets our drinking water.
But what happened was like what you'd expect from Washington, D.C., not local Portland politics. A swarm of highly paid oil industry lobbyists filled the room and the vote on the bill was delayed, giving the industry time to launch a public misinformation campaign that we're already seeing in local papers.
We'll get another chance to pass this bill, but now that Big Oil is lobbying the council, we really need regular folks to make your voices heard. That's why I started a petition calling on Jill Duson, Nick Mavadones, Ed Suslovic, and the rest of the Portland City Council to stop the delays and make Portland tar sands free.
Pipelines carrying this new thicker, heavier kind of oil are more prone to spills, in part because enormous pressure is needed to move it through a pipeline. Tar sands oil spills are also way more difficult to clean up because the oil is heavier and sinks.
The measure to make Portland tar sands free is supported by Mayor Mike Brennan, and 18 major corporations and two other cities have already adopted the policy. Given how pro-environment Portland is, and how dirty tar sands are, this seemed like pretty much a no-brainer—until the oil industry lobbyists showed up.
Ask any Portlander and they'll tell you we need to move to cleaner sources of energy. We certainly shouldn't be spending tax dollars on even dirtier sources of energy.
We count on our local officials to represent us here in Portland, not corporate lobbyists from Exxon. Council members David Marshall, John Anton, and Kevin Donoghue are standing up for Portland against the oil lobbyists, but the rest of the council needs to follow their lead, stop the delays, and commit to not spending our taxpayer dollars on dirty tar sands oil.