{"id":22711,"date":"2014-02-27T16:24:27","date_gmt":"2014-02-27T16:24:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ecowatch.com\/?p=323499"},"modified":"2014-02-27T16:24:27","modified_gmt":"2014-02-27T16:24:27","slug":"inspector-general-clears-state-department-of-conflict-of-interest-in-keystone-xl-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leedpoints.com\/green-building-blog\/inspector-general-clears-state-department-of-conflict-of-interest-in-keystone-xl-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Inspector General Clears State Department of Conflict-of-Interest in Keystone XL Report"},"content":{"rendered":null,"protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"itled\"<\/p>\n

\"beansbw\"<\/a>Yesterday, the inspector general concluded that the U.S. State Department did not violate conflict-of-interest rules with the selection of Environmental Resources Management (ERM) to conduct environmental assessments of the proposed Keystone XL<\/a> pipeline project, according to the L.A. Times<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told the L.A. Times<\/em> that the inspector general “found that our processes not only avoided conflicts of interest, but were more rigorous than required.” 
<\/a><\/p>\n[caption id=\"attachment_323549\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"450\"]\"keystonepipe\"<\/a> The inspector general’s findings are a blow to environmental groups and concerned citizen that have been working to stop the Keystone XL project.[\/caption]\n

The report came as blow to environmental groups and concerned citizens opposed to the controversial pipeline project. In October, as reported by EcoWatch<\/a>, groups had urged Inspector General Steve Linick to conduct an investigation into the business ties between TransCanada—the company building the pipeline—and ERM.<\/p>\n

The State Department released their Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement<\/a> (FEIS) in January, determining that the pipeline would not increase the rate of extraction of tar sands<\/a> and thus isn’t likely to significantly increase carbon emissions and climate change<\/a>. Last June President Obama vowed he would only approve the Keystone XL pipeline if it “does not significantly exacerbate the problem of carbon pollution.”<\/p>\n

“It is disappointing that the Inspector General’s office chose to conduct such a narrow review of the FEIS process, especially given the important role that it will play in informing the President’s decision on the Keystone XL pipeline,” said Tom Steyer<\/a>, founder of NextGen Climate Action, in response the inspector general’s announcement. “This was a missed opportunity to seriously investigate the integrity of the FEIS document and process.<\/p>\n

“Additionally it ignores statements by the tar sands executives that the Keystone XL pipeline is the key to their ability to develop the tar sands. As I have said before<\/a>, the FEIS is a flawed document, and it would be a disservice to President Obama and his legacy on climate change to rely on this report.”<\/p>\n

Just this month the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth and Oil Change International published new evidence<\/a> supporting the conflict-of-interest allegations and requested that the inspector general take steps to ensure that the flawed FEIS would be excluded from the agency’s National Interest Determination. The groups also filed a Freedom of Information Act Request<\/a> to the State Department to unearth insider communications with the Canadian government and the oil industry in the weeks leading up to the release of its FEIS. <\/p>\n

Last year, Friends of the Earth and 350.org compiled an infographic<\/a> detailing longstanding relationships ERM has in the oil industry, concluding:<\/p>\n

“The State Department has repeatedly turned to contractors hand-picked by pipeline builder TransCanada<\/a>. So it’s no wonder that the Canadian government, TransCanada, Congressional Republicans and the oil industry have all along all lavished praise on the State Department’s reviews of Keystone XL.”<\/p>\n

The 30-day public comment period will close March 7. The public and interested parties are encouraged to submit comments<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"FriendsoftheEarth_Timeline_FIN\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Visit EcoWatch’s KEYSTONE XL<\/a> page for more related news on this topic.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"topnewsbanner1311\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,57],"tags":[2903,12199,2912,2906,4740],"class_list":["post-22711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-green-building-posts","category-leed-news","tag-energy","tag-featured-news","tag-keystone-xl","tag-news","tag-tar-sands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/leedpoints.com\/green-building-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/leedpoints.com\/green-building-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/leedpoints.com\/green-building-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leedpoints.com\/green-building-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leedpoints.com\/green-building-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/leedpoints.com\/green-building-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22711\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/leedpoints.com\/green-building-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leedpoints.com\/green-building-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leedpoints.com\/green-building-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}