122.6 - Update #4: Strike three for State Dept. report approving Keystone XL pipeline

Update #4: Strike three for State Dept. report approving Keystone XL pipeline

The last time I mentioned the Keystone XL pipeline, the one intended to carry polluting tar sands from Canada to Texas, was back in April.

At that time, I mentioned that the State Department, which was involved because the project crossed a national border, green-lighted the project, saying the environmental impact would be minor - but it developed that the report’s authors were not Department staff but outside contractors with ties to the oil industry and the one that produced the bulk of the report, Environmental Resources Management, has ties to tar sands extraction companies, a big no-no serious enough to have prompted an inquiry by the Department's internal watchdog.

That certainly should have been considered a strike against the State Department report.

Strike two was when the EPA said the report had "insufficient information" and failed to account for potentially vast greenhouse gas emissions and the risk to aquifers along the pipeline's proposed route.

Now comes "strike three yer out." Last week, the Department of the Interior posted on its website a letter from its Office of Environmental Protection and Compliance, calling the report's assessment of the effect on wildlife "inaccurate," warning instead of long-term, adversarial effects, and slamming it - in very polite bureaucratic language, of course - for failing to consider any effect on wildlife of spills or leaks.

With even Obama casting doubt on the you-hear-it-every-time claim of "jobs jobs jobs," saying "There is no evidence that that's true," there is still hope that this monstrosity can be stopped.

Sources:
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2013/04/left-side-of-aisle-102-part-8.html
http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/315351-state-dept-watchdog-launches-inquiry-into-keystone-environmental-report#ixzz2cQqCIRKl
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/aug/20/interior-state-keystone-xl-pipeline-impact?google_editors_picks=true
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/jul/28/obama-reservations-keystone-pipeline-project