Audit endorses State Department review of Keystone XL pipeline (Los Angeles Times)

February 9, 2012

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Reporting from Washington – An internal audit cleared the State Department of major missteps and conflicts of interest in its environmental review of the Keystone XL pipeline, but faulted the agency for its lack of scientific expertise and for not adequately considering alternative routes.

The report by the State Department’s Office of Inspector General “determined that the department did not violate its role as an unbiased oversight agency.” But it found that the State Department was hampered by its lack of expertise in handling an environmental review on the scale of Keystone XL, a $7-billion, multiyear oil transport project that would wind 1,700 miles from Alberta, Canada, to the Gulf Coast of Texas. The report said most key staff members handling the review had no relevant experience and had to learn “on the job.”

The inspector general said the State Department also failed to fully consider alternative routes for the pipeline that would avoid the crucial Ogallala aquifer in Nebraska. The state is now surveying possible new routes.

The Keystone permitting process has dragged on since 2008 in part because of criticisms of the State Department’s environmental impact statement.

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