Key US City Acts To Avoid ‚Dirty‘ Tar Sands Fuel

The city of Bellingham, Washington has resolved to avoid fuel from refineries connected to Canada’s Tar Sands, becoming the first city in the United States to take action against the controversial fossil fuel. Citing concerns about the Tar Sands’ toxic impacts on the climate, water and the city’s own greenhouse gas reduction goals, the Bellingham city council last night unanimously passed two anti-Tar Sands resolutions sponsored by councilperson Jack Weiss.

Bellingham has served as one of two major entry points for the Tar Sands (the other is Billings, Montana), and its anti-Tar Sands resolutions underscore the challenges facing Canada’s Tar Sands in the United States as details spread of its impact on local and global communities.

“American cities and Fortune 500 companies are increasingly resolved against oil from Canada’s Tar Sands,” said ForestEthics US Campaigns Director Aaron Sanger. “These actions suggest that the marketplace for dirty oil is far from certain, and that instability will only grow as its risks become more well known.”

The Bellingham resolution mirrors actions taken by corporate America at the request of ForestEthics. To date, ten major US companies have taken action to reduce or eliminate Canada’s Tar Sands in their transportation footprints. ForestEthics announced action by two of these companies–Whole Foods and Bed Bath & Beyond–in February. Public announcement of actions taken by other Fortune 500 companies is expected sometime this summer.

Tar Sands oil production generates 3-5 times the greenhouse gas emissions of conventional oil production.  Production of Tar Sands oil destroys fresh drinking water, pollutes the air, and razes North America’s ecologically critical Boreal Forests. Communities downstream of Tar Sands projects are facing elevated levels of cancer. Tar Sands sludge, extracted primarily in the province of Alberta, cannot be made clean by technological solutions. A recent report released by Corporate Ethics International, Earthworks, NRDC, and the Sierra Club details health risks from refineries which process Tar Sands that are not associated with refineries which process more conventional forms of oil.