When a vote is won with the narrow margin of 51 percent against and 49 percent for, as was the recent South Portland Waterfront Protection Ordinance, you know you have a continuing, high-voltage community problem to resolve.

I urge everyone concerned, both pro and con, about the importation of tar sands-derived oil into Portland’s harbor to come to the Nov. 26 public meeting in South Portland to discuss a six-month moratorium on the importation of diluted bitumen.

Call this forum a discussion, a cooling-off period, a workshop, but it is necessary – and it is what is happening all over the United States and Canada as we all try a regain some sanity around this emotional and contentious issue.

In both countries, citizen groups are demanding answers from their elected officials and the petroleum industry about the dangers of diluted bitumen flowing through pipelines, along with its attendant vapors needing to be vented into the air.

We are not alone in our concerns.

If you feel comfortable about living next to a pipeline where diluted bitumen will potentially course or near a vapor combustion unit without investigating what is running through those pipes or being spewed into the air, I would suggest you ask some questions.

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You can start by asking about all the chemicals used to dilute this product you are nesting next to, and you will be told sorry but that is proprietary information protected by trademark agreements.

That’s just for starters.

This is a time for all of us to sharpen our minds and not our axes, to think deeply and to do our homework.

The information is out there in order for all of us to try to tease out the truth, and I would suggest going right to the industry websites and see their plans for our future.

Then ask yourself is that the future you want and at what cost?

Nicole d’Entremont

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Peaks Island

The Waterfront Protection Ordinance, voted down by a slight majority of South Portlanders, would have restricted oil industry expansion and prevented the transport and processing of tar sands oil, the dirtiest and most climate-deadly type of petroleum product around.

The “economic impact analysis” produced by local economists at the behest of the Canadian-owned Portland Pipeline Corp was influential in blocking the WPO, yet it was problematic on two accounts.

First, it was based on the unlikely scenario that all oil-related businesses close or leave if the ordinance passed (despite the fact that they are currently profitable and as if there were no relocation and startup anew costs) and nothing replaced them.

Second, it ignored potential benefits. In addition to avoided costs of air pollution-related disease – University of Maine economist Mary Davis estimates that childhood asthma attributable to air pollution costs Maine approximately $9 million annually – other potential local environmental benefits include avoided clean-up costs in the event of a pipeline leak, which, based on the experience of North Dakota, where 153 spills so far this year have occurred, is not an unlikely event.

Other benefits from the ordinance ignored in the analysis include avoided declines in property values and negative effects on other local businesses caused by the expansion of a dirty industry.

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Even if “job protection” claims were sincere and not just “Big Oil” looking to protect its profits, the real issue is, we can’t continue to create jobs by ignoring environmental costs.

We need policies to encourage cleaner development and green jobs. We need economists to help policymakers create sustainable economic development plans, despite the fact that defining “sustainable” is complex.

So what if the policies aren’t perfect? At least they’ll be better than tar sands and turning Portland Harbor into another petrochemical “Cancer Alley.”

Lisa Morris

Portland

Fallen Marine remembered as birthday of corps nears

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I would like to recall a date that is near upon us, Nov. 10: the Marine Corps’ birthday.

In that same vein, I recall a neighbor many years ago named James Allen. He shares his name on the veterans outpost in Windham.

He was one of the freedom fighters that didn’t come home. These thoughts resound as I recall those days so many years ago.

A man’s life is not measured in how long he lived but what he did.

Did he generally pack a smile, did he go the extra mile, was he there to answer the call? Yes he did, he gave his all.

Was he kind and showing of respect to the people he met? Was his motto to give more then he drew from the company store?

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In the black volcanic sands where we Marines did make our stand, as we gazed high to the left, there waved Old Glory.

And so through life, he carried on, each step was for his country’s best. He left a legacy of hope for all of us to grasp and hold. As he joins the light brigade, he turns and with a brisk salute, we see him as man who gave. His country loves this man today.

Cpl. Fred Collins

5th division, Iwo Jima-Korea Westbrook

Catholic Church deserves our thanks not our ridicule

To the woman who feels comfortable mocking the religion of 2.2 billion Catholics worldwide, allow me to submit a few things you may not know (“Peace be with you and with all the other outsiders at Mass” Nov. 2).

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Before there were Catholics, there were no hospitals. Today, one out of five people in this country receive their medical care in a Catholic hospital.

Before there were Catholics, there were no schools. Today, the Catholic Church teaches 3 million students a day, in more than 250 Catholic colleges and universities, in more than 1,200 Catholic high schools, in more than 5,000 Catholic grade schools.

Every day, the Catholic Church feeds, clothes, shelters and educates more people than any other organization in the world.

This is the organization you chose to ridicule? Don’t you know that it is never OK to make fun of the religious practices of others?

Joseph McDonough

Standish


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