Hillary Clinton Has Deep Ties to Oil Lobbyist for TransCanada Pipeline

by Jess Leber · 2010-12-16 08:49:00 UTC
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Before Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State, she was running for President.

Before Paul Elliot became chief DC lobbyist for TransCanada, he was national deputy director of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. TransCanada is the company seeking the State Department's approval to pipeline up to 900,000 barrels a day of the dirtiest oil on the planet from Alberta through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas to reach Gulf coast refineries.

Could this be a problem?

A few environmental groups fighting against the proposed 2,151 mile-long pipeline think so. This week, the coalition, including Friends of the Earth, the Center for International Environmental Law, and Corporate Ethics International filed a Freedom of Information Act request [PDF] seeking disclosure of the contacts between Elliot and the State Department.

Kenny Bruno, director of Corporate Ethics International's No Tar Sands Oil campaign, has been blogging on Change.org for months about the environmental disaster this pipeline threatens—and the long slog these groups have been through in making sure the State Department pays heed. Right now, the coalition is concluding a 2-week ad campaign as the State Department weighs approval. And recently, Plains Justice, a non-profit group based in Montana, detailed in a report lax pipeline regulations (witness the summer's Enbridge spill in Michigan and Chevron's recent pipeline disasters) and oil spill planning that would make America's heartland and its water supplies vulnerable.  The pipeline was certainly a huge topic of discussion at the "International Tar Sands Resistance Summit," held in Missoula, Montana in November to foster organizing and civil disobedience against this dirty form of fuel.

Still, it doesn't seem that Clinton necessarily wants to listen. She made a huge splash when she hinted her officials were "inclined" towards a go-ahead, even though the environmental review had not yet been finalized.

But environmental groups say that's not right. They want the State Department to do an extra environmental impact statement, given the huge deficiencies and information gaps left unaddressed in the draft version of the first one. With these close lobbyist ties leading to inevitable conflicts of interest, they also want the Clinton to recuse herself from the decision.

Support them by signing the No Tar Sands Oil petition on Change.org demanding that the State Department weigh all the true environmental risks before proceeding down their "inclined" course.

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Jess Leber is a Change.org editor. She most recently covered climate and energy issues as a reporter in Washington, D.C

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