DeSmog
Sep 5, 2018 @ 09:38
The City of South Portland, Maine, won a major legal victory at the end of August when a federal judge ruled that the city’s effective ban on tar sands oil did not violate the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The decision, like a similar one in Portland, Oregon, has potentially widespread implications for other communities fighting fossil fuel infrastructure projects within their borders.
In 2014 South Portland passed the Clear Skies Ordinance, which prohibited loading crude oil onto tankers in the city’s harbor. The ordinance was a response to efforts to reverse the direction of the Portland Montreal pipeline, which would allow its owner, Portland Pipe Line Corporation, to import tar sands oil from Canada and export it from the city of about 25,000 via ship.