Cohen: Inspector General Report on Keystone XL Pipeline Raises Serious Concerns About Permit Process

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Steve Cohen (D-TN-9) today said the State Department’s Office of Inspector General report on the Keystone XL Pipeline – the “Special Review of the Keystone XL Pipeline Permit Process” – raises serious questions about the real impacts of the controversial $7-billion pipeline. The objective of the report – which was requested by Congressman Cohen, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and 12 other Members of Congress -- was to determine to what extent the Department complied with federal laws and regulations relating to the Keystone XL oil pipeline Presidential permit process.

“For the last two years, I have worked with the State Department to ensure that their review of Keystone XL was thorough and based on sound science,” said Congressman Cohen. “In his investigation Deputy Inspector General Geisel finds that the State Department’s limited technical resources, expertise, and experience impacted the quality of State’s years-long review of the project. Nowhere was this failure more apparent than State’s inadequate consideration of alternative routes for the pipeline. This report undermines the integrity of the project’s review and underscores the point that the pipeline should not be approved based on a shoddy, unscientific review.”

Congressman Cohen was the only member of Congress to attend an anti-Keystone XL Pipeline rally outside the White House last year. He has been leading Congressional advocates in calling upon the State Department to ensure that the Keystone XL Pipeline is safe and will not pose a threat to life, property, and the environment. In June 2011, he spearheaded a letter citing concerns about the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline. The letter was addressed to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson and was signed by more than 30 members of the U.S House of Representatives. This letter was a follow-up to another Congressional letter that urged the State Department to conduct a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement – a review of the total safety and environmental impacts of the proposed project.