Keystone XL pipeline protest at the White House
Opponents of the Keystone XL pipeline have called for Secretary Kerry to throw out the compromised and tainted ERM study (which I wrote about
here) and initiate a transparent and independent new review.
In a letter to Secretary Kerry, 29 groups, including The Checks & Balances Project, Friends of the Earth, League of Conservation Voters, National Wildlife Federation and the Sierra Club, said the State Department's Office of the Inspector General must pursue a full investigation into how ERM was hired to write the environmental impact statement for the pipeline, despite its extensive work with TransCanada and other oil companies who will benefit from Keystone XL's construction.
"The public expects the State Department to perform a transparent and independent review of this project’s impacts on the environment and the global climate before the decision reaches President Obama’s desk," the groups said. "It is critical that the report on which the administration’s decision will rely on be free of any taint of impropriety or conflict of interest."
They presented evidence that ERM lied on its conflict of interest disclosure form when it said it had "no existing contract or working relationship with TransCanada." In fact ERM has been involved since at least 2011 in the Alaska Pipeline Project, a joint venture of TransCanada and ExxonMobil.
This week President Obama
hinted that he might reject the XL pipeline:
Well, first of all, Michael, Republicans have said that this would be a big jobs generator. There is no evidence that that’s true. And my hope would be that any reporter who is looking at the facts would take the time to confirm that the most realistic estimates are this might create maybe 2,000 jobs during the construction of the pipeline -- which might take a year or two -- and then after that we’re talking about somewhere between 50 and 100 [chuckles] jobs in a economy of 150 million working people.
These are strong words coming from the president. It's been a long, hard fight but we are winning the narrative. Let's keep up the pressure.
Please join Daily Kos and the Natural Resources Defense Council in urging President Obama to keep his promise and reject the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.