WASHINGTON — The State Department’s inspector general will conduct a special investigation of the handling of the pending decision on the proposed Keystone XL pipeline in response to reports of improper pressure on policy makers and possible conflicts of interest, according to documents released on Monday.
Keystone XL Pipeline Decision to Be Investigated
Joshua Roberts/Reuters
Protesters rallied against the Keystone XL oil pipeline, which would run from Canada through the Plains to the Gulf Coast, at the White House on Sunday.
By JOHN M. BRODER
Published: November 7, 2011
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Times Topic: Keystone XL Pipeline
Harold W. Geisel, the senior official in the inspector general’s office, told top agency officials in a memorandum dated Friday that he would open the review “to determine to what extent the department and all other parties involved complied with federal laws and regulations” relating to the pipeline permit process.
The internal investigation could delay the Obama administration’s decision on whether to approve the $7 billion project, which would carry oil extracted from Canadian tar sands to refineries in Oklahoma and along the Gulf Coast. The State Department had set a deadline of year’s end to determine whether the pipeline is in the national interest, but officials suggested last week that the schedule could slip.
Objections by states along the pipeline right of way — particularly Nebraska, which is asking for a review of the proposed route — could also delay the decision for months.
Last week, President Obama also raised questions about the project, indicating that he would make the ultimate decision about whether it goes forward based on a recommendation from the State Department. He set no deadline.
More than a dozen members of Congress had asked for an independent inquiry into the department’s review of the 1,700-mile pipeline, citing reports in The New York Times and elsewhere that the State Department allowed the pipeline developer, TransCanada, to choose the company that prepared an assessment of the project’s environmental impact.
That company, Cardno Entrix, listed TransCanada as a “major client” on other projects and has a financial relationship with the pipeline developer.
The assessment found that the project would have “minimal” environmental impact even though it would pass through Nebraska’s sensitive Sand Hills region and traverse the Ogallala Aquifer, a critical source of drinking water in the Great Plains. The Environmental Protection Agency raised serious objections to an earlier version of the impact statement but has not issued its final verdict.
One of TransCanada’s principal lobbyists, Paul Elliott, was a senior staff member in Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign. A TransCanada spokesman defended the company’s conduct. “We welcome an independent review by the inspector general’s office so that these latest claims by professional activists and lawmakers who are adamantly opposed to our pipeline project can be addressed,” said the spokesman, Terry Cunha.
Environmental groups have mobilized two big demonstrations in Washington this year, including one on Sunday at which several thousand protesters circled the White House and demanded that Mr. Obama kill the project. They say it threatens sensitive lands and water supplies, promotes a particularly dirty type of fuel and would deepen the nation’s dependence on climate-altering fossil fuels.
But proponents, including several labor unions, say the project would provide thousands of jobs and reduce the nation’s imports of oil from the Middle East and other unstable regions.
