Complaint filed re illegal Keystone XL lobbying by TransCanada's Paul Elliott
Friends of the Earth
LINK
Tuesday, September 27, 2011

For Immediate Release

Contact: Nick Berning, 202-222-0748, nberning@foe.org; Kelly Trout, 202-222-0722, ktrout@foe.org

Pipeline lobbyist accused of illegal lobbying for foreign corporation

Justice Department urged to investigate after emails reveal Canadian oil lobbyist who was former aide of Secretary Clinton lobbied without disclosing status as a foreign agent

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The State Department's review of a proposed tar sands oil pipeline faced a new setback today as an environmental group called on the Justice Department to investigate a top pipeline lobbyist's illegal failure to register as a foreign agent.

“Paul Elliott, a government relations employee of TransCanada, has acted as agent of a foreign principal and therefore violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act. We respectfully request that you immediately open an investigation of this matter,” Friends of the Earth attorney Gail Harmon wrote in a letter to Heather Hunt of the FARA Registration Unit of the Department of Justice that was delivered this afternoon. Harmon, of the firm Harmon, Curran, Spielberg + Eisenberg, advises nonprofit organizations on legal aspects of their advocacy agendas.

Last week, the Washington Post first reported on emails between State Department officials and Elliott, who was previously a high-ranking Hillary Clinton campaign aide. The emails, pertaining to the State Department's ongoing review of the proposed Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline, showed the presence of a cozy relationship between Elliott and State Department officials and indicated that the officials had coached TransCanada officials and provided inside information to TransCanada. As InsideClimate News reported yesterday, the emails show State officials privately floated the idea of a two-year delay in the pipeline’s review to a TransCanada lawyer. The emails were obtained via the federal Freedom of Information Act after Friends of the Earth, the Center for International Environmental Law and Corporate Ethics International, all represented by Earthjustice, sued to force their release.

Crucially, the emails also show that Elliott was lobbying the State Department on behalf of TransCanada for more than a year before he first registered as a lobbyist. The emails further reveal that Elliott lobbied in support of the pipeline with several members of Congress, including Senators Inhofe, Thune, Tester, Nelson and Murkowski and the staff of Representatives Herseth Sandlin and Peter Welsh. The Foreign Agents Registration Act imposes serious penalties on lobbyists for foreign corporations who fail to immediately disclose their lobbying activity.

"The American people need to know when foreign entities are trying to influence the actions of the U.S. government," said Friends of the Earth President Erich Pica. "Unfortunately, the Canadian oil corporation behind the Keystone XL pipeline was trying to do just that, and its top lobbyist failed to disclose what he was up to. The Justice Department has a responsibility to investigate this serious violation of law."

"Moreover," Pica said, "State Department officials must explain why they maintained a cozy relationship with this unregistered foreign agent while he lobbied them illegally. Why did State Department officials provide insider information and coaching to Mr. Elliott and TransCanada? This is more evidence that the State Department has failed to meet its responsibility to conduct a thorough, unbiased review of the proposed pipeline."

The letter from Friends of the Earth’s attorney to the Department of Justice

Friends of the Earth fights to defend the environment and create a more healthy and just world. Our campaigns focus on promoting clean energy and solutions to climate change, keeping toxic and risky technologies out of the food we eat and products we use, and protecting marine ecosystems and the people who live and work near them.

Friends of the Earth Asks Justice Department To Investigate TransCanada lobbyist Paul Elliott

Friends of the Earth today filed a request with the U.S. Department of Justice asking the DOJ to investigate whether Paul Elliott, the notorious TransCanada tar sands lobbyist with deep ties to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, failed to disclose his foreign agent status when lobbying the State Department about the controversial Keystone XL pipeline.

FOE requests that DOJ take a close look at whether Elliott violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), a matter of increasing interest in the wake of FOE's earlier release of documents revealing that Elliott tried to exploit relationships he made while working on Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign in order to promote the Keystone XL for his new employer, TransCanada.

As the Washington Post reported earlier this month, the documents that FOE obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) - after having to file a lawsuit to compel the State Department to release them - also show that Elliott lobbied the State Department on TransCanada's behalf for more than a year before officially registering as a lobbyist.

As Huffington Post's Lucia Graves pointed out today [14], the Foreign Agents Registration Act holds that all persons acting as agents of foreign corporations disclose their relationship with the foreign principal, as well as any activities and disbursements in support of those activities.

The FOIA documents seem to suggest that Elliott did not comply with this law.

Friends of the Earth President Erich Pica issued the following statement:

"The American people need to know when foreign entities are trying to influence the actions of the U.S. government. Unfortunately, the Canadian oil corporation behind the Keystone XL pipeline was trying to do just that, and its top lobbyist failed to disclose what he was up to. The Justice Department has a responsibility to investigate this serious violation of law."

"Moreover, State Department officials must explain why they maintained a cozy relationship with this unregistered foreign agent while he lobbied them illegally. Why did State Department officials provide insider information and coaching to Mr. Elliott and TransCanada? This is more evidence that the State Department has failed to meet its responsibility to conduct a thorough, unbiased review of the proposed pipeline."

Stay tuned for updates as this story unfolds.

In the meantime, enjoy a message from Hillary Clinton's State Department Oil Services…

Concern Over Close Ties Between Obama, Clinton And Tar Sands Lobbyists
October 6, 2011 By Aaron Jackson, exposingthetruth.info
LINK

Environmental groups have raised new concerns about the close ties between Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and lobbyists for the controversial Keystone XL project to carry crude from the tar sands of Alberta to the refineries of Texas.

Friends of the Earth said on Thursday they were expanding their freedom of information request for emails between State Department officials and the pipeline company after learning of seven more pipeline lobbyists who had worked on Obama and Clinton’s presidential campaigns, or had ties to Bill Clinton.

The move comes a day before what is expected to be a contentious last hearing of public concerns about the pipeline before the State Department renders a decision on whether to give the project the go-ahead.
Environmental groups trying to block the pipeline had initially focused on the role of Paul Elliott. Elliott, the main lobbyist in Washington for TransCanada pipeline company, had been a senior official on Clinton’s campaign in 2008.

DeSmogBlog, a website which specialises in tracking corporate influence on environmental policy said it had identified seven other lobbyists with close ties to Obama and Clinton.

“Lobbyists with strong ties to Secretary Clinton are spread out over three firms, including one that was the largest single source of funds of any corporate entity to Clinton’s 2008 presidential run,” Desmogblog said.
The most prominent of these is Jeff Berman, now of Bryan Cave LLC, who was described at the time as “Obama’s secret weapon” in his contest against Clinton.

Berman’s mastery of the delegate process was crucial to securing Obama’s victory over Clinton in a long and gruelling primary battle. In some states, Obama managed to secure more delegates – thus coming closer to the nomination – than Clinton, even though she had won more of the popular vote.

DeSmogblog argued those close connections between political aides and industry undermined Obama’s very public promises during the 2008 campaign to sever the ties between lobbying and government.
“The presence of so many former Clinton associates on the lobbying roster for polluter clients on a high-profile controversy suggests a clash with the repeated campaign pledges of greater transparency and tougher dealings with lobbyists by Secretary Clinton’s boss, President Obama,” the blog said.

TransCanada pipeline lobbyist works all the angles with former colleagues
By Juliet Eilperin and Steven Mufson, Published: September 22, 2011
LINK

In lobbying for a presidential permit to construct a massive oil pipeline stretching from Canada to the Gulf Coast, TransCanada’s Paul Elliott has tried nearly every angle.

Elliott — who served as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s national deputy campaign manager in 2008 — sought to broker multiple meetings between senior State Department officials and TransCanada executives. He offered to enlist Trans­Canada officials’ aid in helping State officials forge an international climate agreement. And he deluged administration officials with letters testifying to the virtues of the Keystone XL expansion project, which would ship crude oil from Canada’s oil sands region to American refiners.

The State Department, which completed its environmental assessment of the project last month, has indicated that it will decide later this year whether to allow the company to construct the 1,700-mile pipeline. across the U.S.-Canada border.

More than two dozen State Department e-mails obtained by the advocacy group Friends of the Earth under a Freedom of Information Act request provide an unusual glimpse into the lobbying for the Keystone permit, which has become a battleground in the national debate over how to address climate change.

They show how Elliott tried to exploit relationships built in political campaigns, with mixed results. The e-mails are almost all between Elliott and a special assistant to Cheryl Mills, Clinton’s chief of staff. All three knew one another from working on Clinton’s presidential campaign.

Damon Moglen, who directs Friends of the Earth’s climate and energy project, said the e-mails also show a State Department official giving inappropriate “coaching” to TransCanada’s chief executive about how to respond to arguments against the pipeline.

State officials countered that the messages show that TransCanada lobbyists and executives were diverted to officials not directly involved in the pipeline decision. “We don’t want to give anyone an unfair advantage by giving them access to a decision maker,” said Daniel Clune, principal deputy assistant secretary for the Bureau of Oceans, International Environmental and Scientific Affairs.

Environmentalists have urged the administration to block the permit on the grounds that tapping crude from Canada’s oil sands, or tar sands, releases far more greenhouse gases than other forms of oil extraction and could lead to spills in sensitive areas along the pipeline’s route. The project’s backers say it will provide foreign oil from a trusted ally while generating American jobs.

Trying to ease concerns

The e-mails show that Elliott worked assiduously to try to ease administration concerns about the pipeline’s environmental impact.

Much of the correspondence focuses on TransCanada’s dealings with David L. Goldwyn, who was U.S. special envoy on energy before leaving in January to become an energy consultant. Goldwyn did not play a role in the department’s environmental assessment of the project, though if he had stayed on, he would have weighed in on a still-pending review of whether the project is in the U.S. national interest.

In one e-mail dated June 28, 2010, Elliott wrote that he learned from a colleague that his company had “been directed by professionals who work for David Goldwyn to try to provide an assessment of the impact to my organization if the State Department were to withhold approving a presidential permit for a period of up to two (2) years.”

When Mills’s assistant, Nora Toiv, asked Goldwyn about the matter less than an hour later — noting that she and Mills were colleagues with Elliott on Clinton’s presidential campaign — he replied: “The issue is whether they would still produce the oil if we did not permit the pipeline. If so the emissions would be produced anyway. If not then denying the permit forestalls those emissions.”Referring to the environmental impact statement, or EIS, that the State Department was preparing at the time, Goldwyn continued, “That is what they need to address on the record, so it cane [sic] responded to in the EIS and national interest decision.”

In another e-mail more than a month earlier, on May 19, Elliott wrote that TransCanada’s president and chief executive at the time, Hal Kvisle, had a “very productive” meeting with Goldwyn and other State officials.

“David provide (sic) us with insight on what he’d like to see by way of on the record comment during this public comment period of this Keystone KXL draft environmental impact statement,” the lobbyist wrote. “We are working with our stakeholders, shippers and vendors to deliver on the insight David shared with us and to do so by the June 15 deadline.”

In its final environmental impact statement released last month, the department concluded TransCanada would exploit oil sands crude, whether or not the pipeline goes forward.

Goldwyn said in an interview that “I was not part of the process” for the Keystone environmental impact statement.

As a result, Goldwyn said,he “saw anybody and was willing to see anybody who had an interest in this,” including TransCanada’s chief executive, environmental groups and Canadian government officials. “My approach with all of them was to understand their arguments, explain the process and then present the counter-arguments to their arguments,” Goldwyn said.

When TransCanada executives wondered how anyone could oppose the pipeline, Goldwyn said he told them, “The issues that were on the table, which they needed to address on the record and not just with State Department interlocutors, were on the environment.”

“This was technically not in David’s purview,” said former State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley. “David had an interest in it but .?.?. he was not involved in the decision-making process.”

TransCanada spokesman Terry Cunha said the exchange — along with the other e-mails released by the State Department — simply shows the company’s consistent approach.

“It’s what we’ve always been highlighting for the past three years: energy security, a safe, secure stream of crude oil and job creation,” Cunha said, adding that Elliott sought meetings with senior State officials “to get our message across on the importance of the project” in light of environmentalists’ opposition.

The e-mails show Elliott pressed repeatedly for Mills to meet senior TransCanada officials — a request State rebuffed multiple times. On July 14, 2010 several State Department officials discussed Elliott’s request that Mills meet with TransCanada’s president for energy and oil pipelines, Alex Pourbaix. “Well, conveniently she’ll be out of town,” wrote Jacob Sullivan, who then served as deputy chief of staff and now directs the Office of Policy Planning.

One senior department official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the final permit decision is pending, said of Elliott: “He was a regular requester of meetings. We sometimes met with him, and he was sometimes told the person he was trying to meet with couldn’t meet with him.”At one point, Elliott suggested that his firm could lobby the Canadian government on the administration’s behalf. In an e-mail dated Dec. 6, 2009, Elliott offered to help State officials enlist Canada’s aid in securing a global climate accord during U.N.-brokered talks in Copenhagen.

“TransCanada’s senior executive leadership team would welcome any guidance you might share on background — U.S. government messaging and expectation — specific to developments at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen,” Elliott wrote to Mills’s assistant. “If there is a message and or topics that the State Department would welcome us to encourage with Canadian government officials, I am happy to pass on that direction to the senior executive leadership team of TransCanada. TransCanada can be an asset for the state department and I hope you might see us as such.”

Cunha denied that Elliott was suggesting the firm could help the administration at international climate negotiations. Instead, Cunha said, Elliott “was trying to understand what impact these policies would have on our natural gas assets.”

Moglen said that Friends of the Earth would pursue additional documents. He said the documents released were numbered, but some numbers were missing. “There are clearly things that are not here,” he said. He also questioned why Elliott did not register as a lobbyist for a foreign company until Dec. 16, 2010 even though he was approaching State officials about the project more than a year earlier. Cunha said Elliott’s activities did not warrant a formal registration until “the last six weeks of 2010.”

Moglen said the June 28 e-mail exchange suggests department officials gave TransCanada special access to what is supposed to be an impartial process.“That is obviously not an independent, probing environmental review process,” Moglen said in an interview. “It’s, in fact, a closed loop.”