Three US senators and 10 members of the US House of Representatives on Wednesday asked the State Department's inspector general to hold off on making a decision on TransCanada's Keystone XL project and to investigate whether TransCanada "improperly" influenced State's review of the project.
The legislators asked State Department Inspector General Howard Geisel to probe whether TransCanada influenced the department's selection of contractor Cardno Entrix for the environmental impact statement.
Keystone XL would carry oil sands crude from Hardisty, Alberta, to the US Gulf Coast. The pipeline project needs a Presidential Permit; the State Department has said it plans to issue a decision by year's end.
The projected 1,700 mile pipeline has come under increased scrutiny from environmentalists and landowners across the nine US states it would traverse. Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman on Monday called for a special session so that state lawmakers could discuss the pipeline's route through the state.
TransCanada "reportedly was allowed to screen private firms competing to perform an environmental impact study on the pipeline," US Senator Bernie Sanders, Independent-Vermont, said in a statement.
In their letter, the lawmakers asked Geisel to investigate "the nature and extent of any other contractual or financial relationship" between Cardno Entrix and TransCanada. They also asked if the State Department's final EIS "fully" incorporated concerns from federal agencies such as the US Environmental Protection Agency.
They also asked Geisel to probe if the department violated "its role as an unbiased oversight agency by advising TransCanada to withdraw their permit request to operate the pipeline at higher pressures with the reassurance that TransCanada could apply for the permit at a later date through a less-scrutinized and less-transparent process."
Other senators who signed the letter include Ron Wyden, Democrat-Oregon, and Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat-Rhode Island. House members include Steve Cohen, Democrat-Tennessee; Peter Welch, Democrat-Vermont; Earl Blumenauer, Democrat-Oregon; Chellie Pingree, Democrat-Maine; Mazie Hirono, Democrat-Hawaii; Raul Grijalva, Democrat-Arizona; Dennis Kucinich, Democrat-Ohio; Hank Johnson, Democrat-Georgia; Tim Ryan, Democrat-Ohio; and Michael Honda, Democrat-California.
