Friends of the Earth, Corporate Ethics International, and the Center for International Environmental Law just filed a lawsuit against the U.S. State Department and Hillary Clinton (Friends of the Earth v. State Department) over the agencyโs controversial handling of the Keystone XL pipelineย proposal.
The suit follows an extensive effort by the environmental groups to seek information via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) about contacts between Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Paul Elliott, a lobbyist for TransCanada Pipelines – the company seeking to build the disastrous Keystone XL pipeline to carry dirty tar sands crude from Alberta to Gulf Coast refineries in Texas. Secretary Clintonโs State Department is mulling whether to grant a thumbs up or down to TransCanadaโs request for a presidential permit to build and operate the 1,959-mile tar sandsย pipeline.
Elliott was the national deputy director of Hillary Clintonโs presidential run, assisting her efforts to win support of delegates and strengthening her ties with influential Democratic governors to win endorsements.
In his current role as a registered lobbyist for TransCanada, Elliott would obviously be in a good position to reach out to Secretary Clintonโs office to lobby for the Keystone XL pipeline.ย
Suspicions that such lobbying pressure had occurred were stoked by Secretary Clintonโs inappropriate public statements in California last fall, where she told an audience that she was โinclined toโ approve the Keystone XL project.
Many environmental groups called on Clinton to recuse herself from the Keystone XL pipeline decision, noting that her tentative nod of approval was extremely premature. The State Department had not yet completed its mandated environmental impact statement, nor reviewed the huge numbers of public comments about the merits and demerits of the Keystone XL project.
So how had Secretary Clinton reached her inclination to approve the pipeline without waiting on the due diligence of her State Department staff?
Whether or not Elliott did contact Secretary Clinton or her staff remains to be seen, largely because the State Department rejected the groupsโ December 2010 FOIA request seeking records of any contacts between Elliott and the State Department. Independent FOIA experts, as well as the environmental groups, contend that the State Departmentโs denial of the FOIA request was illegitimate.
While the State Department did accept a subsequent FOIA request from Friends of the Earth in February, it failed to meet the deadline to respond.
โWhy is the State Department refusing to release these communications?,โ asked Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth. โThis calls into question the agencyโs decision to rush the review of the Keystone XL pipeline, despite its massive environmental risks and bipartisan opposition to it.โ
After exhausting all other options to get the State Department to come clean about its contacts with Elliott, the groups announced today that Earthjustice has filed suit on their behalf against the State Department and Hillary Clinton in her official capacity as Secretary of State.
โClearly, TransCanada hired Mr. Elliott to take advantage of his previous service to Hillary Clinton,โ said Kenny Bruno with Corporate Ethics International. โWe think the public has a right to know in what ways TransCanada and Mr. Elliott have attempted to influence Secretary Clintonโs view of this controversial project.โ
Read the complaint filed by Earthjustice [PDF] on behalf of the environmentalย groups.
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