Montana judge rules against transporting giant oil field equipment

Transport truck loads of sand-laden oil. Photography: Jeff Mcintosh/AP

A judge stopped transporting petroleum giant field equipment on scenic roads in Montana, in a victory for campaigners against tar sands of Alberta.

The injunction granted by a district judge in Missoula bars Imperial Oil, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil, Canadian going ahead with their plans for the transport of large mining equipment throughout the State.

Tuesday's decision offers a new setback for the efforts of Alberta tar sands producers to expand their production and exports to the USA.

The oil companies had originally planned to transport 207 pieces of equipment, which is done in South Korea, a port in the State of Washington in Idaho and Montana to the tar sands of Alberta.

But a District Court judge on Tuesday according to the National Wildlife Federation and other conservation groups that the oil companies and the Transport Department did not obtain the environmental clearances necessary to move the equipment on the size along the scenic routes.

In its decision, Dayton also criticised State authorities for failing to conduct their own independent oversight of transport but delegates the work to a contractor paid by oil companies.

Dayton did not revoke licenses already granted, and he rejected the concerns of local owners on noise and dust generated by transfers.

But he warned that oil companies could not go ahead without further environmental review.

The Obama administration is in the final phase of approval on a new project of 1,600-mile pipeline to transport oil from tar sands across the u.s. Center for Texas oil refineries.

Oil producers have struggled against the demands for additional environmental audit of the project.

But that position has grown increasingly precarious in the face of growing popular opposition and an independent pipeline accident on the Yellowstone River at the beginning of this month.

A spokesman for Exxon admitted this week that tar sands oil – thicker and more corrosive of the gross – that was on the same channel. But she said she was not in an area affected by the leak.

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