Environmental
group Friends of the Earth (FOE) last week sued the State Department for access
to communications between it and lobbyists promoting the Keystone XL tar sands
pipeline, two of whom were prominent fundraisers for the 2008 presidential
campaign of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, according to
allgov.com.
That project, in
which Canadian oil company TransCanada wants to build nearly 2,000 miles of
pipeline to carry tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada, to refineries on the Gulf
of Mexico, requires a presidential permit from the State Department. FOE
originally filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the materials
in 2010.
Two of the
lobbyists named in the FOIA request, Gordon Giffin of McKenna, Long &
Aldridge, and James Blanchard of DLA Piper, were fundraising bundlers for
Clinton’s presidential bid, and DLA Piper was the largest single corporate
source of employee and PAC contributions to her campaign, the website said.
“Both Blanchard and Giffin served as U.S. Ambassador to Canada under President
Bill Clinton, Blanchard from 1993-1997 and Giffin from 1997-2001,” it
added.
According to
allgov.com, a third pipeline lobbyist, Paul Elliott, worked on Clinton’s
campaign as national deputy director and chief of staff for delegate selection.
Although the
Obama administration recently rejected the permit, TransCanada is preparing a
new permit application, leading Damon Moglen, climate and energy project
director at FOE, to explain the continued relevance of the request: “The
communications we seek are key to ensuring that the State Department isn’t
letting lobbyists’ personal connections to Secretary Clinton or President Obama
bias its decision-making.”
ARA/HJ
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