skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Granite Staters Join to Petition U.S. on Tar Sands Regs

play audio
Play

Wednesday, March 27, 2013   

LITTLETON, N.H. - More than 55 groups and individuals are petitioning the federal government to halt the planned pumping of corrosive tar-sands oil from Canada to American ports for export.

Current regulations are inadequate, they say, and raise the risk of catastrophic spills. Petitioners are out to stop both the Keystone XL pipeline and a plan to use an existing, aging pipeline to send tar-sands oil across New England to Portland, Maine.

The oil would cross 79 New Hampshire rivers and streams in an existing, aging pipeline not intended to transport the highly corrosive material, said Art Greene, spokesman for the state chapter of the sport fishing group Trout Unlimited.

"A tar-sands spill would be nearly impossible to clean up and would severely disrupt the natural environment." he said. "It's very difficult to detect, as well."

Portland Montreal Pipeline Co., which is majority owned by Exxon Mobil, has said it welcomes the opportunity to use its 62-year-old oil pipeline to the Portland harbor.

The petition, filed Tuesday with the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, reflects a growing movement, said Jim Murphy. lead counsel for the National Wildlife Federation.

"I think both this petition and the great number of organizations and individuals who signed on - plus the effort in towns - shows that there's a growing awareness and a growing concern about tar-sands development and tar-sands fuel use, and tar sands transportation," Murphy said.

The corrosive tar sands, which Canadian companies want to sell and ship overseas, would be heated and under pressure. Greene said his group fears for the rivers and streams of the Granite State.

"We, in Trout Unlimited, care deeply for our rivers and waterways," he said. "We want them to be protected from tar-sands oil, and the best way would be to prevent it from coming to New Hampshire."

From 2007 through 2010, the petitioners say, tar-sands oil pipelines in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and North Dakota spilled almost three times more crude oil per pipeline mile than the U.S. national average.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021