Clinton: Keystone pipeline review is fair

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is defending the State Department’s review of the proposed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline against green group allegations that the department is biased toward the project’s developer.

Clinton’s decision to address charges of bias directly demonstrates the extent to which the pipeline controversy is drawing attention at the highest levels of the Obama administration.

She told The Associated Press that she has “no reason to believe” that State is biased toward TransCanada Corp.’s plan to build a $7 billion, 1,700-mile pipeline to bring Canadian oil sands to Gulf Coast refineries.

Environmentalists, in alleging an uneven playing field, have pointed to emails showing friendly exchanges between a State official and TransCanada lobbyist Paul Elliott, who was a Clinton campaign aide when she ran for president in 2008.

Pipeline opponents are also attacking State’s decision to use the firm Cardno Entrix for a major environmental study of the proposal even though the company has worked with TransCanada in the past.

Clinton told AP that she does not believe there is a conflict of interest and that State remains in “listen and outreach” mode on the project.

State hopes to make a final decision on the pipeline by the end of the year. President Obama is under heavy pressure from environmentalists to scuttle the project, which they oppose due to greenhouse gas emissions from oil sands projects and concerns over potential spills in Nebraska and other states along the route.

But major business groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and American Petroleum Institute are lobbying for approval, calling the pipeline that would carry hundreds of thousands of barrels daily an important way to boost energy security and create jobs.

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