Janet Miller On The The Town That Fought Tar Sands

Janet Miller, founder of the WestWind Foundation (a foundation that supports environmental and reproductive health organizations) writes about her community’s resistance to the proposed Portland Pipeline. The pipeline would have brought tar sands, rich in benzene, from the Canadian boreal forest through her town for export. A group of citizens formed the group “Protect South Portland” who, with the help of the Natural Resource Council of Maine, Environment Maine, and the Conservation Law Foundation, successfully passed a local ordinance banning the benzene burn-off and bulk loading of unrefined product. Photo credit: Rachel’s Network