In a stunning article today in the New York Times, the US State Department not only looked the other way but assigned an environmental impact study of the Keystone XL pipeline to a company that had done business with TransCanada in the past. Of course this company, Cardno Entrix, found no environmental impact from the pipeline.
In an even more stunningly dishonest statement, assistant secretary of state for oceans and international environmental and scientific affairs spokesperson Kerrie-Ann Jones had the audacity to further claim:
The State Department followed all federal regulations and had closely managed and supervised the company’s work, adding, “We have final say.”
She 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.This is not the first time the State Department has been caught tilting the playing field to the pipeline and TransCanada. And these people wonder why the Occupy Wall Street protests are spreading around the globe, especially in the United States. You can shovel the shit for big corporations only so far before people catch on. If you thought Obama truly has an open mind about the pipeline, think again. Congratulations TransCanada, the fix is in the bag.
Ms. Jones said that Cardno Entrix provided a solid and impartial study, which became more robust through the draft process, with advice from agencies like the E.P.A. “I think it required a lot a lot of work to get it where it is now,” she said. “We have done an objective environmental impact statement.”
Read the whole article. It's all in there.
UPDATE: Commenter Alison layers and expands on NYT's coverage.
As damning as this seems, I think the NYT is minimizing quite a bit in their article.
The problem here is not so much that the State Dept "assigned an environmental impact study of the Keystone XL pipeline to a company that had done business with TransCanada in the past."
It's that Cardno-Entrix itself lists TransCanada alongside the State Dept. as the client for the two K-XL environmental impact studies :
Current Key Projects
Keystone and Keystone XL Pipelines
Client: US Department of State and TransCanada
ENTRIX is the prime contractor for the preparation of two third party EIS’s for the US Department of State and TransCanada Keystone Crude Oil Pipeline System.
and that TransCanada is paying Cardno-Entrix the consulting fee.
Cardno-ENTRIX also manages the State Dept's K-XL website, its K-XL mail, and the public hearings across the six affected states.
Think Progress reported that the American Petroleum Institute also worked on the environmental impact statements while simultaneously lobbying on behalf of the pipeline.
This reminds of the BP gulf spill, where the Interior Dept.'s Minerals Management Service cut and pasted whatever rules BP wanted to be regulated under because after all BP were the ones with the expertise.
4 comments:
Its the same old story, that one that forty percent of Canadians dont understand.
We will not be fooled aqain, we will just accept we are powerless, wake up Zombies
As Bill McKibben of 350.org states:
"we've been concentrating on how environmentally dirty this project is, and we're going to spend a lot of time now also talking about how politically dirty it is"
As damning as this seems, I think the NYT is minimizing quite a bit in their article.
The problem here is not so much that the State Dept "assigned an environmental impact study of the Keystone XL pipeline to a company that had done business with TransCanada in the past."
It's that Cardno-Entrix itself lists TransCanada alongside the State Dept. as the client for the two K-XL environmental impact studies :
Current Key Projects
Keystone and Keystone XL Pipelines
Client: US Department of State and TransCanada
ENTRIX is the prime contractor for the preparation of two third party EIS’s for the US Department of State and TransCanada Keystone Crude Oil Pipeline System.
and that TransCanada is paying Cardno-Entrix the consulting fee.
Cardno-ENTRIX also manages the State Dept's K-XL website, its K-XL mail, and the public hearings across the six affected states.
Think Progress reported that the American Petroleum Institute also worked on the environmental impact statements while simultaneously lobbying on behalf of the pipeline.
This reminds of the BP gulf spill, where the Interior Dept.'s Minerals Management Service cut and pasted whatever rules BP wanted to be regulated under because after all BP were the ones with the expertise.
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