Waxman: State Dept. review of Canadian pipeline ignores environmental impact

The chair of the influential House Energy and Commerce Committee is challenging the Obama administration’s review of a proposed pipeline transporting tar-sands-based crude oil from Canada to Gulf Coast refineries for ignoring its impact on climate change.

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), in a letter sent Friday to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and made public Tuesday, said the department has “failed to analyze the most significant environmental impacts” of TransCanada’s Keystone XL project. The department’s permitting review also “lacks transparency and limits the ability of other relevant agencies to participate,” he wrote.

“This pipeline is a multi-billion dollar investment to expand our reliance on the dirtiest source of transportation fuel currently available,” Waxman wrote. The State Department’s decision whether to permit the project “represents a critical choice about America’s energy future,” he added.

The California Democrat — as well as environmental groups — opposes the project on the grounds that it would increase U.S. oil dependence and the carbon intensity of the transportation sector, which the White House and congressional Democrats are trying to lessen.

President Barack Obama designated the permitting of the transboundary project to the State Department, requiring a finding that it is in the national interest. Before making that determination, the department has to prepare an environmental impact statement.

Waxman said this environmental review does not address the project’s global warming impacts and that he wants the department to release additional analysis of the project’s lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions prepared by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Energy Department.

Waxman argues it takes three times the energy to extract oil from the tar sands than conventional oil.

The Keystone XL project would transport upwards of 900,000 barrels per day from Alberta, Canada, nearly 2,000 miles to Gulf Coast refineries, doubling the current imports of tar-sands-based fuel, Waxman wrote. Some reports suggest TransCanada aims to transport up to 1.1 million barrels per day to the U.S. through the proposed $7 billion expansion of the pipeline. The first phase of the $12 billion project began July 1, with 435,000 barrels of crude oil being shipped into the U.S.

Canada is the largest single exporter of oil to the U.S. and Canadian oil sands are the largest single source of oil for the United States.