Groups call on Obama to remove State Department from pipeline decision

Groups call on Obama to remove State Department from pipeline decision

For Immediate Release

Contact: Nick Berning, 202-222-0748 or [email protected]; Eddie Scher, 415-815-7027 or [email protected]; Daniel Kessler, 415-659-0544 or [email protected]; Tom Goldtooth, [email protected] or 218-760-0442

After release of emails that add to evidence of State Department bias, groups call on Obama to live up to campaign promises to curb lobbyist influence and therefore ‘reject the State Department’s biased conclusions’

UPDATE: Audio from the October 4 teleconference announcing the release of this letter is now available at /sites/default/files/FOIAtelepresser.wav

WASHINGTON, D.C.– National environmental and public interest groups sent a letter to President Obama today calling on him to reject State Department bias and intervene in a decision about a proposed tar sands oil pipeline.

The letter comes in reaction to the release of internal State Department documents that were obtained via the Freedom of Information Act. The documents show that State Department officials have had cozy relationships with executives of pipeline firm TransCanada and that they provided coaching and inside information to TransCanada. The documents also raise concerns about oily revolving doors involving former Clinton campaign aide Paul Elliott and former State Department official David Goldwyn.

The letter calls on Obama to “live up to his campaign promises” to “tell the lobbyists in Washington that their days of setting the agenda are over” by “reject[ing] this oil lobby influence and ignor[ing] the State Department’s biased conclusions.”

“Mr. President,” the letter says, “the State Department has erred, but there is still time for you to do the right thing. Reject this dirty tar sands oil pipeline.”

Click here to download the full letter to President Obama.

Signers include CEOs and representatives of 350.org, Center for Biological Diversity, Center for Energy Matters, Center for International Environmental Law, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, CREDO Action, Friends of the Earth, Green For All, Greenpeace USA, Indigenous Environmental Network, Native American Rights Fund, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Rainforest Action Network, Sierra Club, STOP – Stop Tarsands Oil Pipelines, TarSandsAction.org and Voices for Progress

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