To: John Kerry, Secretary of State
New Keystone pipeline corruption exposed—Tell Secretary Kerry to take action!
Dear Secretary Kerry,
Your agency is responsible for reviewing the potential environmental impacts of the Keystone XL pipeline. In March, you released a draft report that the EPA, the scientific community and environmentalists agree has failed to take into account the climate impacts of the pipeline.
Now we know why—the contractor hired to write the report has a close working relationship with TransCanada, the company responsible for building the pipeline, as well as with over a dozen oil companies that stand to benefit if the pipeline is built. The contractor lied to the State Department when it declared that no conflict of interest existed for working on this project. What’s worse, no one at the State Department bothered to check whether this assertion was true.
As a result of this blatant conflict of interest, I see serious reasons to question the legitimacy of the State Department’s draft report on KXL. I ask that you please halt the current Keystone XL review process, cancel the contract for the report, and demand an investigation into wrongdoing at the State Department before the review process continues any further.
Thanks in advance for your attention to this important matter.
Your agency is responsible for reviewing the potential environmental impacts of the Keystone XL pipeline. In March, you released a draft report that the EPA, the scientific community and environmentalists agree has failed to take into account the climate impacts of the pipeline.
Now we know why—the contractor hired to write the report has a close working relationship with TransCanada, the company responsible for building the pipeline, as well as with over a dozen oil companies that stand to benefit if the pipeline is built. The contractor lied to the State Department when it declared that no conflict of interest existed for working on this project. What’s worse, no one at the State Department bothered to check whether this assertion was true.
As a result of this blatant conflict of interest, I see serious reasons to question the legitimacy of the State Department’s draft report on KXL. I ask that you please halt the current Keystone XL review process, cancel the contract for the report, and demand an investigation into wrongdoing at the State Department before the review process continues any further.
Thanks in advance for your attention to this important matter.
Why is this important?
Since TransCanada first applied for a permit to build the Keystone pipeline in 2008, the State Department’s handling of the review has been plagued by conflicts of interest, insider influence and a heavy pro-pipeline bias. Rather than being an impartial judge of whether the Keystone pipeline is in the national interest, the State Department has acted liked Big Oil’s best friend in Washington.
Friends of the Earth is calling on the State Department to halt the environmental review of the Keystone pipeline until the Office of Inspector General can determine how ERM, a firm with ties to TransCanada and the oil industry, was allowed to write the U.S. government’s environmental impact statement on Keystone XL and why no one at State investigated the company’s claims to have no such ties.
We are very concerned that, in hiring ERM to write the bulk of the draft environmental review of the Keystone XL, the State Department:
•Hired a company (ERM) that has worked for TransCanada in the past three years, despite signing a declaration that they had not done so.
•Hired a company (ERM) that has done extensive work for many of the oil companies that stand to gain if Keystone XL is built, despite claiming on their official forms that they had no such ties.
•Hired a company (ERM) that is a dues-paying member of the American Petroleum Institute.
•Concealed evidence of ERM’s close connections with Big Oil, by redacting contractors’ biographies from ERM’s technical proposal.
•Failed to use the thorough conflict of interest vetting processes recommended by State’s own Office of the Inspector General in 2012.
Send a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry demanding that he halt the Keystone XL review process until he gets to the bottom of this blatant conflict of interest.
Friends of the Earth is calling on the State Department to halt the environmental review of the Keystone pipeline until the Office of Inspector General can determine how ERM, a firm with ties to TransCanada and the oil industry, was allowed to write the U.S. government’s environmental impact statement on Keystone XL and why no one at State investigated the company’s claims to have no such ties.
We are very concerned that, in hiring ERM to write the bulk of the draft environmental review of the Keystone XL, the State Department:
•Hired a company (ERM) that has worked for TransCanada in the past three years, despite signing a declaration that they had not done so.
•Hired a company (ERM) that has done extensive work for many of the oil companies that stand to gain if Keystone XL is built, despite claiming on their official forms that they had no such ties.
•Hired a company (ERM) that is a dues-paying member of the American Petroleum Institute.
•Concealed evidence of ERM’s close connections with Big Oil, by redacting contractors’ biographies from ERM’s technical proposal.
•Failed to use the thorough conflict of interest vetting processes recommended by State’s own Office of the Inspector General in 2012.
Send a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry demanding that he halt the Keystone XL review process until he gets to the bottom of this blatant conflict of interest.