The US Department of State substantially followed prescribed guidance—and sometimes exceeded it—when it selected Environmental Resource Management Inc. (ERM) to help prepare a supplemental environmental impact statement for the proposed Keystone XL crude oil pipeline, a DOS Office of Inspector General investigation concluded.
The OIG's Feb. 26 report also found that DOS conducted a reasonable review to evaluate ERM's certification that it had no conflict of interest, and the process achieved its intended result.
It found that ERM fully disclosed its team members' prior work histories as part of its proposal; that attorneys in DOS's Oceans, International Environmental and Scientific Affairs department reviewed the nature of that work and discussed it with ERM during the preselection interview; and that such work for TransCanada Corp., the project's sponsor, occurred before the employees joined ERM and none of it involved Keystone XL.
"This is the second time groups opposed to the project have gone to the well with conflict of interest allegations and, once again, they have proven to be false," a TransCanada spokesman observed.
"This is also the second time that an independent review of [DOS's] process of our Keystone XL presidential permit application has been completed—and that the highly respected OIG has confirmed the integrity and independence of the DOS's contractor hiring and review process," he continued.
Some environmental organizations, which had pressed for the investigation, immediately dismissed its findings. "It raises more questions than it answers," Friends of the Earth Pres. Erich Picha said.
"Its conclusion that the agency followed its procedures, seems to rest mainly on interviews with [DOS] lawyers who, the report points out, never documented all of the supposed due diligence they were conducting," he maintained.
Turned to Congress
Keystone XL opponents apparently understood what the latest OIG investigation concluded before it was released. So they contacted sympathetic members of Congress.
US Rep. Raul M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), a member of the Natural Resources Committee, asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate the same ERM conflict-of-interest allegations on Feb. 25. US Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who chairs the Environment and Public Works Committee, joined his request 3 days later.
Boxer opened a new Keystone XL opposition route on Feb. 26 when she and EPW Committee Member Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) asked US Sec. of State John F. Kerry for "an immediate and comprehensive study on the human health impacts of tar sands and the proposed pipeline" before deciding whether the project is in the nation's best interest.
Barack Obama originally campaigned for his first presidential term with the "Audacity of Hope." Militant environmentalists and their congressional allies continue to demonstrate an "Audacity of Nope."
