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Is Hillary Clinton on the verge of “putting a rubber stamp on a scandal?”
By Michael Noble | Fresh Energy
Monday, October 10, 2011
Read this blog post on the originating site
According to the Washington Post, the Keystone XL decision has now risen to a first-tier policy and political problem for the president, not only because it sets up the tired old debate of jobs vs. the environment, but because now the specter has been raised that the fix is in, the process has been corrupted, and the decision-makers have been compromised and conflicted in their duties by improper influence from the pipeline proponent TransCanada.
At last Friday’s testimony at the State Department’s public hearing, moderate and thoughtful conservation voices such as National Wildlife Federation President Larry Schweiger lambasted Hillary Clinton’s State Department’s “cozy relationships with the corporations pushing this project,” and said that “President Obama needs to step in on this and make a decision based on the evidence and not allow the decision to be made by the Secretary of State or anyone at the State Department who has obvious conflicts of interest.”
With this info graphic, Friends of the Earth, Oil Change International, DeSmogBlog.com and The Other 98% have teamed up to raise tough questions about whether the U.S. Department of State and Hillary Clinton are “too conflicted by lobbyist ties to decide on the Keystone XL” tar sands pipeline.
On Saturday, the New York Times ran with the conflict-of-interest story, especially focusing on the firm Cardno Entrix, the contractor hired by the U.S. Department of State to manage the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). It was issued in August with a finding that the pipeline from Alberta to the Gulf would have “limited adverse environmental impacts.” People have had a visceral reaction to the idea that the firm selected to run the EIS process was recommended by TransCanada, advertises TransCanada as one of its “major clients,” and is a pipeline spill clean-up contractor that would be well-positioned to profit from a pipeline spill. If the public wishes to comment on the EIS, emails go to Cardno Entrix.
Hillary Clinton’s public pipeline problems started last year in October when she said she was “inclined to support” the approval of the pipeline because “we’re either going to be dependent on dirty oil from the Gulf or dirty oil from Canada.” When asked whether she meant to say what she did, a State Department spokesman replied, “She did.” This brought a public outcry from the editorial page of the Lincoln Star Journal, calling her comments “inexcusable.” Nebraska’s U.S. Senate delegation joined in an unusual bipartisan condemnation, with the conservative Democrat Ben Nelson calling her words “irresponsible and unacceptable,” and Republican Senator Mike Johanns calling them “premature” and “unfortunate.”
The deep ties between the State Department and TransCanada’s lobbyist Paul Elliott have been revealed by nearly two dozen emails acquired in a Freedom of Information request by Friends of the Earth. In one, a State Department official eggs on the TransCanada lobbyist with the ‘attaboy’ encouragement, “Go Paul,” and reminds him that “it’s precisely because you have connections that you’re sought after and hired.” Paul Elliott was a key Clinton aide in her 2008 presidential campaign.
Also in the limelight is David Goldwyn, dubbed the “Revolving Door” in the graphic, who is advocating for the pipeline and heads the firm Goldwyn Global Strategies. In his prior gig, David Goldwyn was appointed by Secretary Clinton to the position of State Department coordinator for International Energy Affairs, was previously in the oil industry, and prior to that in the State Department and prior to that in industry. You get the idea. According to the released emails, while at State, Goldwyn was coaching TransCanada on how to advocate publicly for the pipeline and how to respond to environmental concerns.
“We are working with our stakeholders, shippers and vendors to deliver on the insight David [Goldwyn] shared with us and to do so by the June 15 deadline,” pipeline lobbyist Elliott wrote. Now back in the private sector, Goldwyn told Platts Energy Week that “the case for a pipeline is overwhelming, and [Hillary Clinton] will approve it.”
Partners and lobbyists at McKenna, Long and Aldridge include a former U.S. Ambassador to Canada, a lobbyist formerly at the U.S. Embassy to Canada, prized for “her ability to reach Secretary Clinton by phone,” and a former Director of Federal Affairs for Koch Industries Public Sector. According to the info graphic, total 2008 Clinton contributions from the lobbying firm were $41,650.
Although not implicated in the “too cozy with State Department” brewing scandal, Koch Industries got crossways with the truth on the Keystone XL issue. Inside Climate News broke the story that despite telling a U.S. Congressional committee and the news media that the proposed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline has “nothing to do with any of our businesses,” Koch filed an application to intervene in Keystone pipeline decisions for the 327 mile portion of the pipeline in Canada, saying that in its role as Flint Hills Resources and “coordinating supply for its refinery in Pine Bend Minnesota,” Koch Industries “has a direct and substantial interest in the application.”
According to Natural Resources Defense Council’s Anthony Swift and Susan Casey Lefkowitz, blogging at NRDC’s Switchboard, the emails show that the State Department knows TransCanada intends to operate the proposed at higher pressures than minimum safety standards allow.
Despite this knowledge, the State Department has been publicly trumpeting these conditions as proof that TransCanada would go beyond what is legally required to ensure the safety of this pipeline. Instead, TransCanada in a gentleman’s agreement with the State Department set up these so-called safety conditions so that later when public scrutiny has died down, they can endanger our rural areas as they move forward with higher pressure levels for the corrosive tar sands oil. Many politicians and their constituents have relied on State Department’s good faith and objectivity as they considered their position on Keystone XL. These emails show that reliance was misplaced.
Swift and Casey Lefkowitz call on the Obama Administration to pay attention, and I agree: “It is time for the Obama Administration to step in before the State Department puts its rubber stamp on a scandal.”
With all the rumblings in America about crony capitalism, the unchecked power of money in politics, and an uprising of concern about how big shots are calling all the shots, this is a brewing scandal that the Obama administration does not need.
Tagged with: keystone xl, transcanada, pipeline, state department, hillary clinton
