How a town in Maine is blocking an Exxon tar-sands pipeline{IMAGES}
http://grist.org/climate-energy/how-a-town-in-maine-is-blocking-an-exxon-tar-sands-pipeline/
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Citizens trying to stop the piping of tar-sands oil through their community wore blue Clear Skies shirts at a city council meeting in South Portland, Maine, this week. But they might as well have been wearing boxing gloves. The small city struck a mighty blow against Canadian tar-sands extraction.
Its been a long fight, said resident Andy Jones after a 6-1 city council vote on Monday to approve the Clear Skies Ordinance, which will block the loading of heavy tar-sands bitumen onto tankers at the citys port.
The measure is intended to stop ExxonMobil and partner companies from bringing Albertan tar-sands oil east through an aging pipeline network to the citys waterfront. Currently, the pipeline transports conventional oil west from Portland to Canada; the companies want to reverse its flow.
After an intensely debated, year-and-a-half battle, the South Portland City Council on Monday sided with residents like Jones who dont want their city to end up as a new international hub for the export of tar-sands oil.
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Proponents of the Clear Skies ordinance, wearing blue, packed a South Portland city council meeting on July 9.