Internal watchdog clears State in Keystone contractor decision

The State Department followed its proper conflict-of-interest guidelines when it selected the contractor responsible for conducting its environmental review of the Keystone XL pipeline, the agency's watchdog said on Wednesday. The Office of Inspector General report found that the State Department "substantially" followed "prescribed guidance" when selecting the private contractor Environmental Resources Management (ERM). The firm took the lead on State's environmental analysis of the $5.4 billion Keystone project, which will carry crude oil from Alberta to refineries in the Gulf region. ERM has previously done work with TransCanada, the company behind Keystone. The inspector general also found that the the process State "used to assess organizational conflicts of interest was effective," adding further fuel to pipeline advocates' arguments that the path is clear for State to finish it's 90-day national determination test. That's the final piece before Secretary of State John Kerry sends his recommendations on Keystone to President Obama. While the reports says State's determination that ERM was objective in the environmental review of Keystone XL is a reasonable conclusion, the inspector general found areas in which State can "improve" its process for selecting contractors and its conflict of interest review when doing so...more