Along with others, I seem to have problems with the WPO and NO WPO.

Portland Pipe Line Corp. was started during World War II because German U-boats were sinking all our oil tankers trying to get to Montreal down the Saint Lawrence River. It basically feeds the oil refineries for all eastern Canada.

Energy pipelines – oil, crude oil, petroleum, natural gas, gasoline, and many chemicals as well – are part of the subterranean world, along with water lines, sewer lines, storm sewers, telephone lines, television cables, and many electric lines.

Portland Pipe Line is a corporation duly registered in Maine and mainly situated in South Portland. Can someone please set me clear on just how the city can have a referendum whereby a duly formed existing corporation is told what it can do and when it can do it. What legal justification is there (that exists) that allows a city to tell – by means of a referendum – what a company can do. Where is the power for that?

Second is “tar sands.” I hear a lot about this. Tar sands, aside from being thicker and more dense, requiring more horsepower at the pumps, is simply diluted oil for pumping. In my view there is no problem with this, except for the solids in the liquefied oil. Yes the solids in my view will erode the walls of any steel, stainless steel or fiberglass pipes. So that means that at some point in the 236-mile pipeline, the oil will actually flow through the earth as the pipelines. This is measurable by the pipeline and can be fixed including any leaked oil into the earth. That’s a problem but also that’s why Portland Pipe Line has insurance. Has the city checked to see if the pipeline has sufficient insurance?

At this point, I will vote NO WPO until the city publishes its reasons for wanting a referendum with some clarity to it. Example, why they have the right to do this where a corporation exists. If they have done something wrong, take them to court. That’s what courts are for. So far we have seen only meetings, protesters and no real, down-to-earth facts.

Don Curry

South Portland