Critics of the Keystone XL pipeline in the U.S. House of Representatives urged the State Department not to release an environmental analysis of the Keystone XL pipeline until conflict-of-interest questions concerning the contractor writing the report are resolved, according to the New England Fuel Institute (NEFI).
The U.S. State Department is overseeing the review of the pipeline because it crosses an international border, reports the Dec. 16 issue of NEFI Energy Online News (NEON).
The State Department is preparing a final version of an environmental review that will assess whether Keystone would contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, which many scientists believe are warming the planet. A draft of the report released in March found Keystone would have only a minimal impact on climate change because the oil sands would continue to be extracted even without the pipeline.
In a letter sent to President Barack Obama signed by 25 House Democrats, lawmakers charged that the State Department overseeing permit review of TransCanada Corp’s $5.4 billion, 870-mile pipeline project between Alberta, Canada and U.S. Gulf Coast refineries, “apparently overlooked” conflicts between the contractor hired to write the environmental impact statement and the Calgary-based pipeline company. Keystone critics, including the environmental group Friends of the Earth, allege that ERM Group, Inc. hid its connections to TransCanada when it bid to write the analysis. The consulting firm worked on an Alaskan pipeline jointly owned by TransCanada and ExxonMobil. The Democrats wrote that it would be “unwise and premature” for the State Department to release the analysis before the agency’s inspector general completes a review, which they said could be released in February. None of the four House Democratic leaders, including Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California, signed the letter. The environmental assessment is important because it will state what impact the Keystone pipeline will have on greenhouse gas emissions.
