Trucks carry loads of sand-laden oil. Photography: Jeff Mcintosh/APA judge has stopped transporting petroleum giant equipment through panoramic roads in Montana, in a victory for activists against tar sands of Alberta.
The injunction granted by a district judge in Missoula Imperial Oil bars, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil Canada, to go ahead with their plans to transport oversized equipment mining throughout the State.
Tuesday's decision offers a new setback to the efforts of Alberta producers of tar sands to expand production and exports to the United States.
The oil companies had originally planned to transport 207 pieces of equipment, which is made in South Korea, from a port in the State of Washington, Idaho and Montana of the Alberta tar sands.
But a District Court judge Tuesday agreed with the National Wildlife Federation and other conservation groups that oil companies and the Department of transportation had not obtained the necessary environmental clearance to move oversized equipment along the scenic routes.
In its decision, Dayton has also criticized the authorities for failing to conduct their independent monitoring of transport but shifting the work to a contractor paid by oil companies.
Dayton did not withdraw permits already granted, and dismissed concerns by local landowners about the noise and dust generated by shipments.
But he warned that the oil companies could not go forward without further environmental review.
The Obama administration is in the final stages of signing on a new 1,600-mile pipeline to transport oil from oil sands through the American heartland for Texas oil refineries.
Oil producers have been fighting against requests for additional environmental oversight of the project.
But that position has grown increasingly fragile in the face of growing opposition and an independent pipeline incident on the Yellowstone River earlier this month.
A spokeswoman for Exxon admitted this week that tar oil sands – thicker and more corrosive than crude – was in the pipeline. But he said that was not in an area affected by the leak.
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