Environmentalists fire another salvo against Keystone

WASHINGTON — Another year, another allegation of conflict of interest regarding TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline — this time in a lawsuit by Friends of the Earth that alleges close ties between the Obama administration and lobbyists for the project.

The environmental group is accusing the State Department of stonewalling its attempts to get more information about the connections between TransCanada lobbyists, the province of Alberta and highranking officials in the Obama administration that include the president himself, Secretary of State John Kerry and his predecessor, Hillary Clinton.

It’s the latest salvo in a protracted — and at times repetitive — battle against the pipeline by the U.S. environmental movement. But it comes as a new poll suggests most Americans back the project.

The United Technologies/ National Journal Congressional Connection Poll, released Wednesday, found that more than 67 per cent of those surveyed support building the pipeline, including 56 per cent of Democrats. Fewer than a quarter of respondents, 24 per cent, said they oppose Keystone XL.

U.S. environmentalists, meantime, are keeping up the pressure on the Obama administration. As it’s done twice previously, Friends of the Earth submitted a freedom-of-information request for the communications between Obama administration officials and pipeline lobbyists.

It accuses State of refusing to provide “expedited processing” of documents sought in late April under the Freedom of Information Act.

In 2011, the State Department agreed to a similar request, releasing emails that suggested a chummy relationship between a key lobbyist for TransCanada — Paul Elliott, a one-time campaign worker for then-secretary of state Hillary Clinton — and a State Department official at the U.S. embassy in Ottawa.

Shawn Howard, a spokesman for TransCanada, called the lawsuit yet another stalling tactic by environmentalists.

The environmental website known as DeSmog Blog has also alleged a personal connection between Obama and a lawyer whose firm does work for TransCanada. Robert Bauer, former White House counsel and Obama’s personal attorney, works at the corporate law firm Perkins Coie LLP, which does legal work for TransCanada’s South Central LNG Project, formerly known as Alaska Gas Pipeline Project.

Friends of the Earth, meantime, says Bauer’s wife, Anita Dunn, is at the top of the list of pipeline lobbyists with close ties to the administration.

Dunn is a former White House communications director, as well as a senior adviser to the president’s re-election campaign in 2012. She’s now with lobbying firm SDKnickerbocker, which does work for TransCanada.