{"id":6072,"date":"2011-10-09T00:02:25","date_gmt":"2011-10-09T07:02:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=6072"},"modified":"2011-10-09T00:02:25","modified_gmt":"2011-10-09T07:02:25","slug":"deck-stacked-for-keystone-xl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/09\/deck-stacked-for-keystone-xl\/","title":{"rendered":"Deck stacked for Keystone XL"},"content":{"rendered":"

I haven\u2019t spent much time on the Keystone XL pipeline, except to voice opposition, because that issue has received lots of coverage due to the many high profile arrests of environmentally conscious celebrities outside the White House.  However, I was very disappointed to learn that the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), produced for Hillary Clinton\u2019s State Department, was fraudulently prepared and probably not worth the paper it\u2019s written on.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\"9pipeline\"The State Department has admitted their environmental review of the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline was conducted by a contractor paid for by the pipeline company itself<\/a><\/font>, a potentially illegal conflict of interest first reported<\/a><\/font> by ThinkProgress Green. The Canadian tar sands company TransCanada has applied to construct a major pipeline through the United States to pump tar sands crude to Texas refineries for the international oil market, and is awaiting approval by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama. The State Department\u2019s approval hinges upon a positive Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), required by the National Environmental Policy Act to assess whether the pipeline is in the national interest. <\/font><\/p>\n

A State Department official has admitted to the New York Times that the EIS was conducted by a company chosen and paid by TransCanada itself, flouting NEPA\u2019s conflict-of-interest rules:<\/font><\/p>\n

[Kerri-Ann Jones, the assistant secretary of state for oceans and international environmental and scientific affairs] said that TransCanada had managed the bidding process and recommended three candidates with Cardno Entrix topping the list. The department vetted Cardno Entrix by consulting with other agencies like the Bureau of Land Management. TransCanada pays the consultant directly, but would not reveal the amount<\/strong><\/span>.<\/font><\/p>\n

That Entrix was contracted by TransCanada to conduct the EIS first reported<\/a><\/font> by ThinkProgress Green, now confirmed by the New York Times\u2026 [emphasis original<\/em><\/span>]<\/font><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Think Progress<\/a>><\/p>\n

This is an outrage.  The pipeline should not be approved, by law, until and unless cleared by a valid EIS, prepared by scientists who are not paid to parrot the company\u2019s lies.  In my opinion, an honest EIS would disqualify the Keystone XL pipeline.  I encourage environmental groups to file suit to prevent approval of the pipeline based on a bogus EIS.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I haven\u2019t spent much time on the Keystone XL pipeline, except to voice opposition, because that issue has received lots of coverage due to the many high profile arrests of environmentally conscious celebrities outside the White House.  However, I was very disappointed to learn that the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), produced for Hillary Clinton\u2019s State […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6072\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}