Keystone XL southern leg permitted as early as Monday
As a deadline rapidly approaches that will automatically permit the construction of the southern leg of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, an increasingly vocal group of landowners, environmentalists and even tea party members are saying that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is now ramming the project through without any public input or environmental review.
On May 11, the Corps confirmed that pipeline owner TransCanada filed applications to build the project’s southern leg, which will move oil from the tar sands of Alberta, Canada, under a process called Nationwide Permit 12, or NWP 12. The permits have already been granted and are under review – but do not require an environmental impact statement. Under NWP 12 protocol, if the Corps fails to finalize review within 45 days, the permits are automatically granted to TransCanada.
TransCanada submitted applications to Corps district offices in Galveston, Texas; Tulsa, Okla.; and Ft. Worth. Corps spokespersons confirmed in an email that the deadline for concluding reviews at its Galveston office is Monday, and Tulsa is Thursday. The Ft. Worth application is held up, pending information still needed from TransCanada, and no timeline on that is available. But the Corps confirms that TransCanada does not not need to have permits in all districts in order to begin construction.
“It’s clear that they’re really facilitating a rubber stamp for TransCanada at this stage,” said Kim Huynh, federal dirty fuels campaigner at environmental organization Friends of the Earth.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/environment/la-me-gs-keystone-xl-southern-leg-permitted-as-early-as-monday-20120622,0,5493067.story