Lawmakers say pipeline approval process tainted (Keystone Tar Sands)

[wordpix]

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=lawmakers-say-pipeline-approval-pro

Lawmakers say pipeline approval process tainted
By Timothy Gardner and Jeffrey Jones WASHINGTON/CALGARY (Reuters) - U.S.
October 13, 2011


WASHINGTON/CALGARY (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers will urge Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday to reject the proposed route of the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline, saying they are concerned the approval process has been tainted by alleged conflicts of interest.

Representative Earl Blumenauer, a Democrat, will send a letter to Clinton, signed by more than 20 other lawmakers in the House, criticizing how her department has handled the review of TransCanada Corp's $7 billion pipeline proposal to move crude to Texas from Alberta, Canada.

Among other things, the lawmakers are concerned about a report in The New York Times that the contractor the department used to evaluate the environmental impacts of the line, Cardno Entrix, has worked on other projects with TransCanada. They said that raises questions about the impartiality of the environmental assessment. snip

The law allows U.S. agencies to hire contractors to do environmental assessments, but says the companies should sign a disclosure statement outlining they have no financial interest in the outcome of the project.

In this case TransCanada recommended Cardno among two other contractors to the department, and paid the contractor, although Cardno answered to the State Department.

Cardno, which also conducted public hearings on Keystone XL for the State Department over the last few weeks, did not disclose it was already working with TransCanada on another project, the Bison natural gas line, according to documents seen by Reuters and obtained from the State Department by Friends of the Earth, an environmental group and staunch opponent of Keystone XL.

"Why would a company which is basically an oil industry company be hired in the first place to conduct an environmental impact statement on industry? That's a classic fox in charge of the henhouse scenario," said Damon Moglen, climate and energy director for FOE. more....

:puke: more oil corp foxes guarding the environmental henhouse, reminds me of the BP disaster

[tularetom]

1. Why is the State Dept doing an environmental review of a pipeline entirely within the US?

In fact what will we gain by having this pipeline built? All the oil transported through it will be shipped to China.