[Vision2020] Pipeline Project to Get Federal Review

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of today's (November 8, 2011) Spokesman-Review.

------------------------------
Pipeline project to get federal review

SEATTLE – The State Department’s inspector general is opening a review to determine whether the department has complied with federal laws in evaluating the $7 billion Keystone XL oil pipeline project.

The review is a response to charges by pipeline opponents that builder TransCanada Corp. improperly influenced what is supposed to be an independent assessment of whether the 1,700-mile pipeline is in the national interest and meets U.S. environmental standards.

Critics in Congress and environmentalists have specifically raised questions about the State Department’s hiring of a contractor to help prepare the environmental impact statement for the project. That company, Cardno Entrix of Texas, had previous business connections with TransCanada.

The inquiry could also consider other issues raised by Keystone XL opponents – including whether oil transported through the pipeline would be used in the U.S. or exported; whether the State Department has considered the effect on climate change of shipping tar sands oil through the U.S.; and whether the oil industry is prepared to clean up a spill of the thick, corrosive oil the pipeline is designed to carry.

The Keystone XL project would carry oil extracted from tar sands in Alberta, Canada, and ordinary crude from Montana, North Dakota and Mexico to refineries in the Midwest and along the Texas Gulf Coast.

In a memo Monday, Deputy Inspector General Harold Geisel said the “special review” is a response to a letter last month from 15 members of Congress asking for an investigation.

------------------------------

Seeya at the polls, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"Honest and true,
As the morning star.
Vote for just two,
Ament and Lamar."

 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20111108/91e516eb/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image.jpeg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 17920 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20111108/91e516eb/attachment-0001.jpeg>