Lawyers parse South Portland (ME) ‘tar sands’ law word by word

[unhappycamper]

http://www.pressherald.com/news/Lawyers_parse__tar_sands__law_word_by_word_.html

Lawyers parse South Portland ‘tar sands’ law word by word
By Matt Byrne
Posted:Today Updated: 9:27 AM

f South Portland voters approve the controversial Waterfront Protection Ordinance on the city ballot Tuesday, the law will likely end up in court, lawyers and city officials say.

But first, voters who aren’t accustomed to parsing legal arguments will weigh the claims of both sides, which have presented completely different interpretations of the same few paragraphs of law.

~snip~

The Waterfront Protection Ordinance would add language to the definition of an allowed petroleum use, to more strictly define it as only the off-loading of petroleum from ships docked in South Portland.

The intent, the authors say, is to prevent the export of tar sands oil through the city while preserving the offloading of petroleum the way it has been done on South Portland’s waterfront since the 1940s.