ERM: Lying to the State Department on keystone xl 15AUG13

THE battle against the keystone xl pipeline continues with protest, civil disobedience, and petition campaigns to Pres Obama, congress and the State Dept by many, many environmental and social activist groups. It will be no surprise if the president goes back on his word and approves this project, so we have to remain vigilant and keep up the pressure. Here is a petition from SumOfUs calling on the State Dept to reject the "environmental impact study" by erm and mandate a honest, independent study on the proposed pipeline. Click the link to sign on...

President Obama says he’ll put the brakes on KXL if it has a significant impact on the climate -- but the company hired to assess the climate impact of KXL lied about deep ties to Big Oil, especially its relationship with KXL’s owner, TransCanada. Tell the State Department to fire the firm and conduct an unbiased assessment of KXL’s climate impact.

President Obama said he'd put the brakes on the Keystone XL if it's shown to "significantly exacerbate the climate problem."

“Great!” you say, “90% of climate scientists agree that the pipeline will cause a significant impact on climate, so this is an open-and-shut case.” Except it’s not. That’s because the official study that the President will use to assess the environmental impact of KXL is being written by a firm with deep ties to the owners of Keystone XL, TransCanada, and other Big Oil Companies. Worse yet, to secure the contract with the State Department, ERM lied to the State Department about its dirty ties to Big oil.

But word is leaking out about this massive conflict of interest, and the State Department has launched an investigation into ERM’s lies. 

State Department: Fire ERM for lying and commission a new, unbiased assessment on the environmental impact of the Keystone XL.

ERM has heavy ties to TransCanada, the owner of Keystone XL. Even more shocking, as a dues-paying member of the American Petroleum Institute -- the lobbyist for Big Oil -- it has a clear vested interest in the pipeline’s approval. Of course, ERM knew that if it told the truth about its ties to oil companies, it never would have gotten the contract.

ERM has a history endorsing projects with shoddy records. The worse example of it greenlighting disastrous projects is the controversial 1,300 mile-long Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan (BTC) Pipeline that runs through the Caspian Sea. ERM assessed the pipeline as environmentally and socio-economically sound -- yet, spills and explosions have occurred on a regular basis. Do we want the same type of spills to occur along the route of the Keystone XL because ERM okayed it?

A new environmental impact assessment of the Keystone XL is necessary anyway because the State Department admitted that it doesn’t even know the exact route of the pipeline. As such, the true environmental impacts of the pipeline on the water and land along the Keystone XL proposed route are not assessed in ERM’s fraudulent assessment. Not only would a new assessment by a firm without influence from Big Oil reveal the dangers to our climate, it would also document TransCanada's notorious and lengthy record of oil spills and the impact those spills had on the land and water.

A new assessment could prevent the next Exxon Mayflower spill. Let's call on the State Department to fire ERM and conduct a real assessment of the impacts of the Keystone XL.

Click here to tell State Department to conduct an environmental study that will show the true impact of the Keystone XL.

Thanks for all that you do,
Angus and the rest of us.

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More Information:

Conflict of interest: State Department contractor on Keystone XL study lied about ties to TransCanada & oil industry, Friends of the Earth, 10 July 2013
State Department Admits It Doesn't Know Keystone XL's Exact Route, DeSmogBlog, 8 July 2013
State Department watchdog probes Keystone XL Review, Christian Science Monitor, 5 Aug 2013