No conflict of interest found in favorable review of Keystone XL pipeline

A State Department contractor who prepared an environmental analysis of the Keystone XL pipeline did not violate conflict-of-interest rules, even though the contractor had previously done work for TransCanada, the company seeking to build the pipeline, a State Department inspector general’s investigation concluded on Wednesday. The results of the investigation could further pave the way for the Obama administration to approve the 1,700-mile, $5.4 billion pipeline, which would move oil from forest in Alberta, Canada, to the Gulf Coast. The pipeline has become a critical cause to environmentalists, who view President Obama’s ultimate decision as a reflection of his commitment to fight climate change. They have rallied, protested and been arrested by the thousands in an effort to pressure him to reject the project. See article.

ALSO, READ THIS:

The State Department claims no conflict of interest in hiring a firm tied to TransCanada to assess the Keystone XL's environmental impact. Below you'll find a link to the report and responses compiled by a 350 activist here in NYC:

Late yesterday the Inspector General at the State Dept. released its conflict of interest report on Energy Resources Management, the contractor hired to do the KXL Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement who later turned out to have undisclosed ties to both the fossil-fuel industry generally and to TransCanada, builders of KXL, in particular.

Here's the report itself: http://oig.state.gov/documents/organization/222809.pdf

And here are a few of the media hits:

-DeSmog Blog (the folks who first broke the story last year): http://www.desmogblog.com/2014/02/26/whitewash-state-department-keystone...

-NY Times (with quote from Elijah Zarlin from CREDO about the Pledge of Resistance): http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/27/us/politics/no-conflict-of-interest-fo...

-NY Times Op-ed by Congressman Raul Grijalva (D-AZ): http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/27/opinion/obamas-pipeline.html

-Climate Progress: http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/02/26/3337221/keystone-state-oig-r...

And here are press statements put out by the KXL Pledge groups on it:

-CREDO: http://credoaction.com/press/kxl_conflict_of_interest_response/
-RAN: http://ran.org/rainforest-action-network-statement-response-state-depart...