Via Desmogblog.com
Not that long ago, you and millions of others told the White House to reject the Keystone XL pipeline.
And while both the House of Representatives and the US Senate want to
try and force President Obama's hand on Keystone, the DeSmogBlog
investigative team has uncovered new information about the controversial
government contractor hired to rubber stamp the pipeline's
environmental assessment.
You can click here to read the full story on DeSmogBlog or continue reading below.
(Did you know that DeSmogBlog was named one of the top 25 blogs in the word by TIME Magazine?)
A controversial government contractor once again finds itself in hot water, or in this case, melting glacier water.
TransCanada chose Environmental Resources Management Group (ERM) as one
of its contractors to conduct the environmental impact statement for
Keystone XL on behalf of the U.S. State Department. That contractor, ERM
Group, also happens to have green-lighted a gold mining project in
central Asia that is now melting glaciers.
ERM Group has a penchant for rubber-stamping projects that have had
tragic environmental and public health legacies. For example, ERM
formerly worked on behalf of the tobacco industry to pitch the safety of
its deadly product.
A January 2014 study about Keystone XL's climate change impacts
published in the journal Nature Climate Change paints a drastically
different picture than ERM Group's Keystone XL tar sands study.
The Kumtor Gold Mine, owned by Centerra Gold/Cameco Corporation, was
provided a stamp of approval from ERM Group in October 2012. Similar to
the TransCanada arrangement with the State Department on Keystone XL,
Centerra served as the funder of the report evaluating its own project.
“The mine sits at an altitude of 4,000 meters above sea level, in the
Tien Shan mountain range and among some of Kyrgyzstan's - and the
region's - most important glaciers,” explained an October 28 story
published in Asia Times.
“Centerra Gold has consistently dismissed as untrue that operations at
Kumtor have had negative implications for the glaciers, which are
reportedly melting with observable speed due to years of dumping rock
tailings onto the ice sheet. The Canadian company has backed its
position with expert evaluations from consultancies such as
Environmental Resources Management.”
DeSmogBlog's finding comes in the aftermath of the U.S. House of
Representatives voting to authorize the Alberta to Cushing, Oklahoma
Keystone XL northern leg, with a vote in the U.S. Senate to follow on
November.
Josh Earnest, White House press secretary, hinted President Barack
Obama will veto the bill if it arrives at his desk, with Obama also
sounding as if a veto looms in a recent public appearance.
“I have to constantly push back against the idea that Keystone is
either a massive jobs bill for the U.S. or is somehow lowering gas
prices,” said Obama. “Understand what the project is, it will provide
the ability for Canada to pump their oil and send it through their land
down to the Gulf where it will be sold everywhere else.”
Bill Promoters Cite ERM Report
Promoters of the latest legislative push to ram through Keystone XL
North have cited ERM's State Department report as a reason for why Obama
should sign off on the bill.
“The time for excuses is over,” the head of the American Petroleum
Institute (API), Jack Gerard, said at an API-sponsored panel convened by
The Hill (beginning at about 4:42 in the video). “This has been in the
process for six years and has gone through five comprehensive
environmental reviews and somehow [there is] this excuse that we've got
to let the [permitting] process continue.”
U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), sponsor of the Senate bill and in the
midst of a run-off vote election against U.S. Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) —
sponsor of the House-version of the bill — sang a similar tune about
the ERM study at a press conference.
“This project has cleared every environmental hurdle and it has met the
complete environmental review,” Landrieu stated in listing off the
reasons why the pipeline should be approved.
The sponsor of another Senate bill introduced in May calling for the
approval of Keystone XL North, U.S. John Hoeven (R-ND), also cited ERM's
State Department report in addressing the full Senate floor on November
13.
“[T]he final environmental impact statement…stated the project will
have have no siginficant environmental impact [and] stated that very
clearly,” said Hoeven.
“Hail Mary”
The Landrieu-Cassidy run-off has become what Houston Chronicle energy
reporter Jennifer Dlouhy called a “Hail Mary” for both of them at The
Hill event.
“There is no more vivid example that elections matter than the Keystone
XL pipeline,” said Dlouhy (beginning at 33:33). “Both Representative
Cassidy and Senator Landrieu are fighting to claim the title of the oil
industry's biggest champion, as well as that seat, and both view
Keystone XL as their Hail Mary.”
But if Big Oil catches the Hail Mary pass and runs the ball into the
end-zone, it will mean more melting glaciers in the Arctic at the hands
of climate disruption, caused by the tar sands production Keystone XL
North will incentivize.
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