MAINE MONITOR • September 24, 2023
It was an audacious plan. Build a major marine terminal in Casco Bay for supertankers to unload crude oil into a pipeline running underground from Portland to a 250,000 gallon-a-day oil refinery in Sanford, 36 miles away. Petroleum products would then be piped to southern New England. The idea may sound unbelievable in 2023. But the need for an oil refinery in Maine seemed obvious to many in 1973, and was reinforced 50 years ago when the state received a startling wakeup call. An attack on Israel started the Yom Kippur War. President Richard Nixon’s decision to give Israel emergency financial aid prompted OPEC to retaliate by cutting off oil exports to the U.S. and Europe. Suddenly, Mainers discovered their way of life threatened by their dependence on energy from unfriendly countries, as the carefree era of cheap petroleum came to a screeching halt. And few parts of the country were as vulnerable as Maine.