Tar Sands Activists
2013 Environmental Award
for their hard work defending against the risks to air, land, and water by leading efforts in their communities to pass a municipal resolution in opposition to sending tar sands through Maine’s crude oil pipeline
As part of our ongoing work to combat climate change, NRCM has been working for several years to stop the disastrous climate and other environmental impacts from tar sands. Full extraction of tar sands has been labeled “game over” for a healthy climate. The risks to Maine are tremendous, should oil giants succeed at getting the OK for tar sands to move through Maine. Perhaps no one is more aware of this than the people who live in the towns along the pipeline route. Currently seven Maine towns along the route of the Portland Montreal Pipeline have passed local resolutions stating their towns’ opposition to sending tar sands through the 63-year-old pipeline.
The passage of the town resolutions represents an important chapter in the ongoing effort to keep tar sands out of Maine, and they have garnered attention regionally and nationally—including by elected officials at all levels. Although NRCM worked closely for more than a year with residents of Casco, Waterford, Harrison, and Otisfield, including the folks here on stage today, to pass those resolutions, the people here before you worked incredibly hard together to educate themselves and their neighbors, collect signatures to put resolutions on the town meeting agendas, and build community awareness and support. Their hard work and dedication to protecting their hometowns—and the drinking water for most of the people in this auditorium—from tar sands deserves our recognition and our thanks. In addition, we recognize the ongoing, tireless efforts by citizens in South Portland to pass an ordinance that would protect their city from the threats of a dirty tar sands export facility. Today, we thank you and we present to you all a 2013 Environmental Award.
