World Rabies Day - India
KEYSTONE
This might be very important regarding Keystone
man or woman. And frankly, we’re very proud of it.
Russ Girling, President of TransCanada pipeline
https:// www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-transcanada-keystone-xl-pipeline-announcement/
Russ Girling, President of TransCanada, is right behind me, and I’m going to have him say a few words. I know, Russ, you’ve been waiting for a long, long time. And I hope you don’t pay your consultants anything because they had nothing to do with the approval. (Laughter.) You should ask for the hundreds of millions of dollars back that you paid them because they didn’t do a damn thing except get a no vote, right?
TRUMP'S TARGET: Environmental Resources Management (ERM)
Outside contractors (managed by the State Department) wrote the Keystone report, which neither endorsed nor rejected the Keystone pipeline. The contractor that produced the bulk of the report was Environmental Resources Management (ERM), an international consulting firm. On the day the State Department published the Keystone impact report, the agency also released a cache of documents that ERM submitted in 2012 to win the contract to produce the Keystone environmental report. That cache included a 55-page filing in which ERM stated it had no conflicts of interests writing the Keystone report.
https:// www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/03/keystone-xl-contractor-ties-transcanada-state-department/
BAKER CAN YOU ADD THIS TO THE BREAD?
BAKER
TRUMP'S SPEECH HE GOES AFTER THE "CONSULTANTS" OF KEYSTONE PIPELINE
TARGET: Environmental Resources Management (ERM)
https:// www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/03/keystone-xl-contractor-ties-transcanada-state-department/
https:// www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-transcanada-keystone-xl-pipeline-announcement/
Outside contractors (managed by the State Department) wrote the Keystone report, which neither endorsed nor rejected the Keystone pipeline. The contractor that produced the bulk of the report was Environmental Resources Management (ERM), an international consulting firm. On the day the State Department published the Keystone impact report, the agency also released a cache of documents that ERM submitted in 2012 to win the contract to produce the Keystone environmental report. That cache included a 55-page filing in which ERM stated it had no conflicts of interests writing the Keystone report.
But there was something strange about ERM’s conflict-of-interest filing: The bios for the ERM’s experts were redacted.
Here’s what those redactions kept secret: ERM’s second-in-command on the Keystone report, Andrew Bielakowski, had worked on three previous pipeline projects for TransCanada over seven years as an outside consultant. He also consulted on projects for ExxonMobil, BP, and ConocoPhillips, three of the Big Five oil companies that could benefit from the Keystone XL project and increased extraction of heavy crude oil taken from the Canadian tar sands.
Another ERM employee who contributed to State’s Keystone report—and whose prior work history was also redacted—previously worked for Shell Oil; a third worked as a consultant for Koch Gateway Pipeline Company, a subsidiary of Koch Industries. Shell and Koch* have a significant financial interest in the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. ERM itself has worked for Chevron, which has invested in Canadian tar sands extraction, according to its website.
The State Department has faced heaps of criticism for potential conflicts of interests involving TransCanada and Keystone XL. In October 2011, Obama’s reelection campaign hired Broderick Johnson, who had previously lobbied in favor of Keystone, as a senior adviser. Emails obtained by Friends of the Earth, an environmental group that opposes the Keystone pipeline, revealed a cozy relationship between TransCanada lobbyist Paul Elliott and Marja Verloop, an official at the US Embassy in Canada whose portfolio covers the Keystone project. Before he lobbied for TransCanada, Elliott worked as deputy campaign manager on Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential bid.
Who was the IG at the time?
The State Department’s inspector general disagreed with critics who cried foul over these apparent conflicts of interest. In February 2012, the IG found no evidence of bias in State’s handling of the application to build the pipeline.