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<DIV class=timestamp>October 3, 2011</DIV>
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<H1><NYT_HEADLINE version="1.0" type=" ">The Cronyism Behind a Pipeline for
Crude</NYT_HEADLINE></H1><NYT_BYLINE>
<H6 class=byline>By BILL McKIBBEN</H6></NYT_BYLINE><NYT_TEXT>
<DIV id=articleBody><NYT_CORRECTION_TOP></NYT_CORRECTION_TOP>
<P>Middlebury, Vt. </P>
<P>LATE last month, the Obama administration unveiled a new tool that lets
anyone send a petition to the White House; get 5,000 signatures in 30 days and
you’re guaranteed some kind of answer. My prediction: it’s not going to stop
people from trying to occupy Wall Street. After the past few years, we’re
increasingly unwilling to believe that political reform can be accomplished by
going through the “normal channels” of democracy. </P>
<P>It’s easy to understand why. In the first few months of the Bush
administration, the vice president’s staff held a series of secret meetings with
energy company executives to come up with a new energy policy that, essentially,
gave big oil everything it asked for. When journalists learned about the secret
sessions, they became a scandal — environmental groups complained long and loud,
right up to the Supreme Court, and rightly so. Important decisions should be
made in the open, not behind closed doors by cronies scratching one another’s
backs. </P>
<P>In 2008, <A class=meta-per title="More articles about Barack Obama"
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/o/barack_obama/index.html?inline=nyt-per">Barack
Obama</A> promised to turn things around with new ethics guidelines and promises
of transparency. But if two batches of e-mails released via the Freedom of
Information Act — the first last month and the second on Monday — are any
indication, he’s not delivering on that promise. </P>
<P>The e-mails, made available by the environmental group Friends of the Earth,
show something just as tawdry as Dick Cheney’s backroom dealing: the State
Department working with lobbyists to advance the interests of TransCanada, the
company trying to build the Keystone XL pipeline from the tar sands of Canada
across the center of the continent. Even as the State Department was supposedly
carrying out a neutral evaluation of the pipeline’s environmental impact, key
players were undermining the process. </P>
<P>One of the stars of this sordid drama was Paul Elliott, TransCanada’s chief
Washington lobbyist for its pipeline project. Back in 2008, he was the deputy
national campaign manager of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential bid. Around
the time she became secretary of state, he was hired by TransCanada. Why did he
get the job? Just ask Marja Verloop, a member of the diplomatic staff at the
United States Embassy in Canada who oversaw environmental and energy issues. In
one of the friendly e-mails between the diplomat and the lobbyist, Ms. Verloop
reassured Mr. Elliott about an article that mentioned his possible conflicts of
interest: “it’s precisely because you have connections that you’re sought after
and hired.” </P>
<P>And how neutral was the State Department about the plan it was supposedly
evaluating? Here’s Ms. Verloop again, in response to an e-mail from Mr. Elliott
relaying the good news that he had persuaded Senator Max Baucus of Montana to
back the pipeline: “Go Paul!” Clearly, these guys are on the same team, never
mind that one of them works for the energy company and the other for the
government agency overseeing it. </P>
<P>This comes, in one sense, as no big surprise. In a 2009 cable obtained by
Wikileaks, another State Department higher-up was caught advising Canadian
officials on how to spin their message to win favorable media coverage of
Canadian crude. And when the State Department picked a consulting firm to help
carry out the environmental impact statement on the <A class=meta-classifier
title="More articles about the Keystone XL pipeline."
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/k/keystone_pipeline/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier">Keystone</A>
pipeline, it chose a company called Cardno Entrix that listed among its chief
clients ...TransCanada. The final report, which came out in late August, decided
the pipeline would have “no significant impact” on the nearby land and water
resources. </P>
<P>This is laughable — we’re talking about connecting a pipe to one of the
largest pools of carbon on earth. Twenty of the nation’s top scientists sent the
administration a letter this summer explaining what a disaster it would be.
According to NASA’s chief climate scientist, James Hansen, if we tapped the tar
sands heavily, it would be “essentially game over” for the climate. </P>
<P>But instead of listening to bright people like Mr. Hansen who know what
they’re talking about, our government’s staffers are blowing kisses at
lobbyists. That’s exactly why cronyism is such a problem. The people writing
these e-mails don’t have expertise — they have connections. If this is happening
in the State Department, why should we not assume it’s also going on in the
Treasury Department’s dealings with the big banks, and just about everywhere
else in government? </P>
<P>It really does seem extra shocking in the Obama administration. Dick Cheney’s
sitting down with the energy barons was almost expected — he’d just quit as
chief executive of the drilling company Halliburton, after all. But Barack Obama
said he would “end the tyranny of oil”; he also said he was going to end
back-room dealing. His decision about the Keystone pipeline project, which is
expected by year’s end, seems like one last chance to show he actually meant it.
</P><NYT_AUTHOR_ID>
<DIV class=authorIdentification>
<P>Bill McKibben, a scholar in residence in environmental studies at Middlebury
College, is a spokesman for tarsandsaction.org, an organization that opposes the
Keystone XL pipeline. </P></DIV></NYT_AUTHOR_ID><NYT_CORRECTION_BOTTOM>
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class=articleCorrection></DIV></NYT_CORRECTION_BOTTOM><NYT_UPDATE_BOTTOM></NYT_UPDATE_BOTTOM></DIV></NYT_TEXT>
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<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Verdana>____________________________________</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Verdana>Wayne A. Fox<BR><A
href="mailto:wayne.a.fox@gmail.com">wayne.a.fox@gmail.com</A><BR></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>