![\"tarsands-300x197\"](\"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/tarsands-300x197.jpg\")
<\/a>\nGreenpeace activists from Canada, the U.S. and France placed a giant banner reading \u201cTar Sands: Climate Crime\u201d blocking the giant tar sands mining operation at the Shell Albian Sands outside of Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada onTuesday, September 15, 2009.<\/p>\n
The U.S. government doesn\u2019t know exactly where TransCanada wants to lay pipe for the northern section of its Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, according to the results of a 14-month Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) request to the U.S. State Department. In its final answer to a FOIA request by Thomas Bachand of the Keystone Mapping Project, the State Department admitted:<\/p>\n
Neither Cardno ENTRIX nor TransCanada ever submitted GIS information to the Department of State, nor was either corporation required to do so. The information that you request, if it exists, is therefore neither physically nor constructively under the control of the Department of State and we are therefore unable to comply with your FOIA request.<\/p>\n
Yes, you read that right. The U.S. State Department published its draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS)\u2014supposedly an official account of the potential hazards of TransCanada\u2019s proposed pipeline on U.S. waterways, wildlife and other major considerations like global climate change\u2014without knowing exactly where TransCanada wants to dig. <\/p>\n
Ongoing Conflicts of Interest in State Department Environmental Assessments<\/p>\n
The State Department is already facing legitimate criticism for contracting companies with ties to TransCanada and other oil companies for its environmental impact estimates, which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has slammed for being \u201cinsufficient.\u201d State looked no further than oil industry contractors to run the draft SEIS\u2014companies like Cardno ENTRIX, which calls TransCanada a \u201cmajor client,\u201d and ERM Resources, a dues paying member of the American Petroleum Institute which is being investigated by the State Department\u2019s Inspector General for trying to hide its prior consulting for fossil fuel giants like ExxonMobil, BP and Shell. In fact, TransCanada chose ERM Resources to do the Keystone XL SEIS review for the State Department, and one of ERM\u2019s people working on the review was formerly employed by TransCanada. <\/p>\n
TransCanada has stacked the deck, wagering American waterways and private property against the promise to profit from continued extraction of dirty tar sands petroleum.<\/p>\n
Tar Sands Pipelines Spill<\/p>\n
The potential is too high for Keystone XL to leak just like TransCanada\u2019s existing Keystone I pipeline has repeatedly done, or rupture like ExxonMobil\u2019s Pegasus tar sands pipeline in Mayflower, AK, earlier this year, or Enbridge\u2019s tar sands pipeline spill in the Kalamazoo River in Michigan. The southern leg of Keystone XL is already under construction, and the if the cracks, dents and other faults in the \u201cnew\u201d pipe are any indication, pollution from oil spills looks inevitable. Beyond being a disaster waiting to happen, Keystone XL guarantees the continued disaster that is tar sands mining, a process that has already poisoned entire regions\u2014and peoples\u2019 communities\u2014in northern Alberta, Canada.<\/p>\n
With President Obama\u2019s recently unveiled Climate Action Plan, it would be a limp gesture to approve the Keystone XL pipeline. You\u2019d think with the State Department having its environmental analysis run by oil industry consultants, they\u2019d listen to the oil industry\u2019s own guarantees that Keystone XL would increase demand for tar sands mining. That\u2019s bad news for our climate\u2014something the State Department cannot ignore if they do a reasonable review of the \u201cunprecedented\u201d amount of public comments on its draft SEIS on Keystone XL.<\/p>\n
What remains to be seen is if the State Department will be reasonable in the last leg of its review, or if it will continue letting TransCanada and Big Oil control the process to the bitter end.<\/p>\n
Visit EcoWatch\u2019s KEYSTONE XL page for more related news on this topic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
http:\/\/ecowatch.com\/2013\/state-department-doesnt-know-keystone-xl-route\/ July 9, 2013 Greenpeace By Connor Gibson Greenpeace activists from Canada, the U.S. and France placed a giant banner reading \u201cTar Sands: Climate Crime\u201d blocking the giant tar sands mining operation at the Shell Albian Sands outside of Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada onTuesday, September 15, 2009. The U.S. government doesn\u2019t know exactly where TransCanada … Continue reading Ecowatch: U.S. State Department Doesn\u2019t Know Exact Keystone XL Route<\/span>