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US watchdog investigating potential bias in Keystone XL review

Earlier this spring the U.S. State Department argued that the proposed Keystone XL pipeline would have negligible impacts on climate change.

Was that analysis biased in favour of TransCanada? The department’s watchdog is now investigating charges of a potential conflict of interest.

"The charges are serious because the White House will use the State Department review to determine whether the pipeline will proceed," the Christian Science Monitor recently reported. "It signals potential trouble ahead for the project."

For five years TransCanada has attempted to win U.S. approval for Keystone XL, which would link Alberta’s oil sands to the U.S. Midwest (the southern portion, stretching to Texas, is currently under construction).

Last March the State Department concluded that if the pipeline were not built, it would add little to North America’s carbon footprint, because Canada would continue to develop the oil sands regardless.

That review was conducted by Environmental Resources Management (ERM), a consultant that’s previously worked for Calgary-based TransCanada on a different pipeline project in Alaska.

ERM, however, stated in documents filed to the State Department that it "has no existing contract or working relationship with TransCanada."

The ongoing watchdog probe is not a criminal investigation, and observers suspect it will be difficult to legally prove the Department’s review represents a conflict of interest.

But such critics as the Checks and Balances project believe pipeline deliberations should be halted until the probe is complete, arguing the March review "appears to be an attempt to green light the project on behalf of oil industry clients."

Geoff Dembicki reports on energy and climate change for The Tyee.

Funding for this article was partially provided by the Climate Justice Project of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, with support from the Fossil Fuel Development Mitigation Fund of Tides Canada Foundation.


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