Challenging The State Department’s Refusal To Disclose Tar Sands Communications

The Keystone XL pipeline is an impending environmental disaster: it would encourage use of some of the dirtiest fossil fuels on earth, incentivize the rampant destruction of Alberta’s boreal forests, and pose risks all along the pipeline’s multi-thousand mile route. The Keystone XL pipeline has become one of the most controversial environmental issues of our time.

As TransCanada Pipelines pushed for the approval of the Keystone XL project, the State Department refused to disclose communications between the agency and a number of lobbyists with close connections to Hilary Clinton and President Obama.

Earthjustice represented ethics and environmental groups in a lawsuit that sought and obtained access to these communications to help determine whether these relationships may unduly influence the decision of whether to approve the Keystone XL pipeline.