SOUTH PORTLAND (WGME) — Opposition to the Tar Sands Oil Pipeline is heating up in South Portland.
Concerned citizens delivered 3,779 signatures to the South Portland city clerk Monday. That’s four times the amount needed to get a question on the November ballot.
The question would ask whether the city should enact a zoning change to restrict new development of petroleum related industry on the waterfront.
Opponents say the Tar Sands project would include two large smokestacks next to bug light.
South Portland’s mayor is on board with the citizen’s group.
“I’m convinced that we need to wean ourselves off from oil consumption and burning and get on a cleaner path for our energy. And South Portland contributing to bringing dirty oil into our community is not the direction we want to travel,” says South Portland mayor Thomas Blake.
In a statement released Monday afternoon, Portland Pipeline says it’s disappointed in the latest attack on the company.
The company says it will release a more detailed response to address the “misinformation, exaggerations and mis-truths in the proposal.”
The South Portland city manager says no one has submitted any plans to the city to build smokestacks near bug light or anywhere else in the city.
