Diverse Opposition Mounts Assault on 'Fatally Flawed' KXL Report

In light of new evidence showing gross conflicts-of-interest and a ‘fatally flawed’ assessment, a host of voices have once again come out against the State Department’s draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) on the impact of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.

As the Obama administration mulls over the final stages of evaluation, the group commissioned to produce the SEIS, Environmental Resources Management Inc. (ERM), has reportedly “played Pinocchio” in acknowledging their extensive ties to Big Oil, according to new research released Wednesday by and

According to the groups, both ERM and their subsidiary Oasis Environmental have “ongoing contractual relationships with the Alaska Gas Project,” (otherwise known as the South Central LNG Project, which is co-owned by TransCanada, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips and BP) and  had attempted to “scrub” the employment record of an ERM employee with a prior record as a consultant on the Alaska Pipeline Project.

Further, the groups cite ERM’s own publicly available documents which show that the firm has had business “with over a dozen companies with operating stakes in the Alberta tar sands.”

These connections fly in the face of ERM’s disclosures on their conflict-of-interest form, on which they claimed to have no “direct or indirect relationship […] with any business entity that could be affected in any way by the proposed work.”

“Clearly,” writes DeSmogBlog’s Steve Horn reporting on these developments, “that’s far from the case.”

“If ERM lied about its relationship with TransCanada, how can Secretary Kerry, President Obama or the American people believe anything the company says about the pipeline’s environmental impact?” -Ross Hammond, Friends of the Earth

“From the beginning, the State Department’s review of Keystone has been plagued by influence peddling and conflicts of interest,” said Ross Hammond, senior campaigner for Friends of the Earth. “This is more serious: If ERM lied about its relationship with TransCanada, how can Secretary Kerry, President Obama or the American people believe anything the company says about the pipeline’s environmental impact?”

In the wake of this new evidence, the groups are asking Secretary of State John Kerry to “halt this flawed review process” and throw out the ERM study saying it is “impossible for the State Department to fairly evaluate whether the pipeline is in the national interest when its environmental review was conducted by a company with deep ties to the oil industry.”