The State Department’s Inspector General has opened a “special review” of the department’s environmental assessment of the Canada-to-Texas Keystone XL pipeline, Senator Bernie Sanders said, which could delay the final decision on the line into 2012 or later.
“The State Department inspector general has informed me that it is reviewing the department’s handling of an environmental impact study related to the proposed Keystone XL pipeline project,” Sanders, a Vermont independent, said in a release.
The State Department has said it hopes to decide by the end of the year whether TransCanada Corp’s $7 billion Keystone project to ship oil sands crude to the United States can go forward, but has opened the door to a possible delay citing the need for a thorough review.
Sanders, one of the Senate’s most liberal members, Democratic Representative Steve Cohen and 12 other Congressional Democrats late last month asked President Barack Obama in a letter to delay a decision on the oil pipeline until the State Department inspector general investigated alleged conflicts of interest over the project.
“The chances of them making a decision before the end of the year are pretty much impossible at this point,” a congressional aide familiar with the matter, told Reuters.
Howard Geisel, the State Department’s inspector general, said in a memo sent to Sanders that the “primary objective of the review is to determine what extent the Department and all other parties involved complied with Federal laws and regulations relating to the Keystone XL pipeline permit process.”
The review will be conducted at three or more State Department offices, Geisel said in the memo, which was seen by Reuters.
(Additional reporting by Ayesha Rascoe; Editing by Alden Bentley)
About This Story
Perhaps you noticed: This story, like all the news we publish, is free to read. That’s because Inside Climate News is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. We do not charge a subscription fee, lock our news behind a paywall, or clutter our website with ads. We make our news on climate and the environment freely available to you and anyone who wants it.
That’s not all. We also share our news for free with scores of other media organizations around the country. Many of them can’t afford to do environmental journalism of their own. We’ve built bureaus from coast to coast to report local stories, collaborate with local newsrooms and co-publish articles so that this vital work is shared as widely as possible.
Two of us launched ICN in 2007. Six years later we earned a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, and now we run the oldest and largest dedicated climate newsroom in the nation. We tell the story in all its complexity. We hold polluters accountable. We expose environmental injustice. We debunk misinformation. We scrutinize solutions and inspire action.
Donations from readers like you fund every aspect of what we do. If you don’t already, will you support our ongoing work, our reporting on the biggest crisis facing our planet, and help us reach even more readers in more places?
Please take a moment to make a tax-deductible donation. Every one of them makes a difference.
Thank you,
