How does “Islamist” relate to South Portland’s Clear Skies Ordinance? And why would an editor choose this politically charged term interchangeably, it seems, with Sunni militant forces in Iraq? Apparently Managing Editor John Balentine’s July 2 editorial attempted to weave our energy use here in Maine directly with the broad-brushed fear and hatred of “West-hating” militants in the Middle East.

The problem is that of the roughly 9,200,000 barrels per day that the U.S. imports, only 23 percent of it comes from OPEC nations, and of these OPEC imports, only 8 percent (321,000 barrels per day) comes from Iraq. Most of the imported OPEC oil (1,500,000 barrels per day) is from Saudi Arabia, which is the most influential Sunni nation in the region. The second biggest OPEC import stream, at 800,000 barrels per day, is from Catholic-dominated Venezuela.

But none of this comes to Maine. Indeed there are no refineries in New England. The nearest refineries are in Montreal and St. John in Canada. Our refined products (e.g., gasoline and diesel) come dominantly from St. John. It doesn’t really matter if you fill up your tank at Shell or Citgo or Mobil or Irving – you are likely using Irving-refined gasoline and diesel from St. John. The Clear Skies Ordinance does not affect this supply chain.

Records of oil sources coming to St. John are not easy to obtain, but this oil probably comes from the same array of overseas sources as those supplying Montreal through the Portland-Montreal Pipeline.

Records from Maine DEP show that, in 2013, about half of the oil passing through the pipeline came not from the Middle East, but from well fields in the North Sea from the stable nations of Norway (roughly 40 percent at 23,000,000 barrels) and the United Kingdom (about 10 percent at 4,961,057 barrels). Another 14 percent (7,775,225 barrels) came from Canadian sources offshore. Only 3 percent in total came from OPEC nations: 1,651,546 barrels from Algeria, and 102,104 barrels from Nigeria. None comes from Iraq.

Increasingly, however, Montreal is being supplied not by the pipeline, but by sources within Canada itself. And on top of this change, the already approved Energy East Pipeline is slated to connect Montreal to St. John by 2018. Portland-Montreal Pipeline has announced repeatedly that it has no plan to reverse flow and become an exporter of Canadian crude oil. South Portlanders are holding them to their word with the Clear Skies Ordinance.

Mr. Balentine admonishes the South Portland City Councilors to mind world events and for residents of South Portland to absorb all the risk and toxic emissions of tanker loading operations for which Portland-Montreal Pipeline has zero experience and for which we gain nothing. Perhaps more thorough research on the sources of Maine petroleum energy supplies would help him better assess the balance he advises.

Eben Rose

South Portland