New Concerns Over Keystone XL Review [AUDIO]

As the State Department begins additional environmental review to the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline, environmental groups are raising concerns over new documents that show a pro-pipeline bias.

Communications Director for Friends of The Earth Nick Berning says the Obama Administration has not been conducting a fair and impartial, science based review, which is required by law. Berning says they  have obtained documents through  the Freedom of Information Act that raise cover-up concerns. ( My interview with Berning is attached below)

Among other concerns, the documents:

·         Indicate State official Matthew McManus viewed a meeting with TransCanada as an opportunity to “be able to address the Nebraska/water issues with one voice,” raising the alarming possibility that State was collaborating with TransCanada to push back against Nebraskans’ concerns.

·         Demonstrate that in at least one lobby meeting orchestrated by Paul Elliott between TransCanada and the State Department, the controversial contractor Cardno Entrix was present.

·         Suggest State and TransCanada may have been coordinating on media strategy.

·         Show that State official Michael Stewart, who was called State’s “guru on all things Keystone XL” in one email, took a special tour of the Keystone I control room in Calgary with a TransCanada executive and in turn advocated high-level access for that executive.

·         Reference other documents that should have been provided or listed in response to the FOIA request but were not.

Earlier in November, the Inspector General of the State Department announced it was launching an investigation into wrongdoing in the department’s review of the Keystone XL pipeline. The investigation came in response to concerns raised by more than a dozen members of Congress led by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Congressman Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.).

The proposed pipeline would transport approximately 830,000 barrels of oil per day through six states, including Montana,  between Canada and the gulf of Mexico.