Company reviewing Keystone plan accused of having business links to major oil firms
WASHINGTON — Environmental activist groups are demanding that the U. S. State Department suspend its assessment of the Keystone XL pipeline, alleging that the company hired to review Keystone is in conflict of interest with the pipeline’s owner, TransCanada, and other oil companies.
Friends of the Earth alleged Wednesday that London- based Environmental Resources Management ( ERM) lied to the state department on its conflict of interest disclosure form by failing to admit that it had been contracted to work on the Alaska Pipeline Project, which is a partnership between TransCanada and ExxonMobil. But TransCanada said it had no contracts with ERM on that project.
“The company withheld information that it had key specific business relationships with TransCanada and many of the oil companies with a stake in Keystone,” Friends of the Earth campaigner Ross Hammond said in a conference call with reporters.
“We believe that had ERM disclosed these relationships, their bid to do the ( impact assessment) would have been automatically rejected on the basis of clear and overwhelming conflict of interest.”
Neither ERM nor the U. S. State Department responded to requests for comment on the allegations.
TransCanada spokesman Shawn Howard said his company “has not entered into any contracts with ERM related to our partnership in the Alaska Pipeline Project.”
He confirmed, however, that TransCanada’s partner ExxonMobil “has worked with ERM.” He noted that TransCanada was “not involved in the hiring of ERM” to help the State Department in its assessment of Keystone XL.
Nonetheless, Gabe Eisner, director of the Checks and Balances Project, a U. S. advocacy group focused on energy and sustainability, said Secretary of State John Kerry “must halt this flawed review process and direct the state department to conduct a full, unbiased review of the Keystone XL pipeline’s impact.”
ERM’s final report on Keystone is expected within several weeks. It will form the basis of U. S. President Barack Obama’s decision on the cross- boarder pipeline, expected by the fall.
Hammond, who said it is not too late to stop the process, acknowledged that hiring outside contractors can be tricky because companies with expertise in pipeline assessments inevitably do business or intend to do business with oil companies.
He said the main issue is that the company lied on a government disclosure form, raising questions about its overall credibility.
“How can Secretary Kerry or Obama believe anything the company says about the pipeline’s environmental impact?” Hammond said.
He said that EMR signed a conflict of interest form in June 2012 in which it certified that it has had “no existing contract or working relationship with TransCanada” for at least three years.
Friends of the Earth claims that ERM and an ERM subsidiary, Oasis Environmental, worked together at least once since 2011 on the Alaska pipeline project.
The environmental group also claims that ERM should have disclosed that it had business relations with many oilsands companies that stand to benefit from the Keystone XL such as ExxonMobile, Shell, Chevron, Conoco Phillips, Total, Syncrude, Canadian Natural Resources and other companies.
Hammond noted that ERM is also a member of the American Petroleum Institute, which has spent “$ 22 million in the past five years lobbying on behalf of Keystone XL and the tarsands.”
This is not the first time that the Keystone project, which has sparked widespread opposition among U. S. environmental groups, Nebraska landowners and other members of the public, has been rocked by allegations of conflict of interest.
A previous Keystone review was conducted by Houstonbased Cardno Entrix, which at the time had financial ties with TransCanada.
With an election looming and opposition from Nebraska’s state legislature, Obama ultimately rejected the Keystone proposal in 2011, suggesting TransCanada re- apply, which the company immediately did.
If approved, the pipeline will bring up to 830,000 barrels of oil and bitumen from Alberta’s oilsands and the Bakken oilfields in North Dakota to Texas refineries on the Gulf coast.