State Dept Keystone XL Environmental Reviewer Claimed Delaware Tar Sands Refinery Made Air Cleaner

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A DeSmogBlog investigation reveals Environmental Resources Management, Inc. (ERM Group), the contractor that performed the environmental review for TransCanada’sย Keystone XL tar sands export pipeline, was also recently hired by a major Delaware City refinery to study air quality around theย plant.ย 

This โ€œstudyโ€ was funded by the refinery itself, owned byย Delaware City Refining Company,ย a wholly-owned subsidiary of PBF Energy.ย Delaware City Refinery is theย recipient of 180,000 barrels per dayย ofย fracked oil from North Dakota’s Bakken Shale along with oil extracted from Alberta’s tar sandsย – both referred to as the โ€œholy grailโ€ by the Refinery’s owner at a Feb. 2013 meeting –ย which sojourn eastward via mile-longย freight rail cars owned byย Norfolk Southern.

Conducted in March 2013,ย the study concludedย the โ€œair quality [near the refinery] is as good as, and in some cases, better than samples taken during the 2011 study before the refinery restart,โ€ as explained on a flyerย obtained byย DeSmog promoting two public meetings hosted by ERM to discussย results.ย 

However, an independent air sample studyย detected the cancer-causing compound benzene farย above levels set by the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as soot and sulfur dioxide, in an area one mile from theย refinery.

ERM Group – a dues-paying member ofย American Petroleum Institute (API), which has spent over $22 million lobbying on tar sands and Keystone XL since its June 2008 proposal – said that because Alberta’s tar sands will get to market with or without Keystone XL, the tube’s northern half โ€œis unlikely to have a substantial impact on the rate of [tar sands]ย development.โ€

Under that logic, Keystone XL – which President Obama said in in the Climate Action Plan he will only approve if it doesn’t โ€œsignificantly exacerbateโ€ฆcarbon pollutionโ€ – won’t have a โ€œsubstantial impactโ€ on climate change. That could mean โ€œgame onโ€ for theย pipeline.ย 

Yet Another Illegal ERM Groupย Lie

This latest discovery proves – once again – that ERM Group lied on its conflict-of-interest formย which it submitted to the State Department, claiming it has no โ€œdirect or indirect relationship (financial, organizational, contractual or otherwise) with any business entity that could be affected in any way by the proposed work,โ€ as seen in that section of the form below:

The false claim – given ERM‘s current ties to the Alaska Gas Pipeline Project,ย the Delaware City Refinery and the refinery’s direct relationship with tar sands refining and marketing –ย may violate 18 USC ยง 1001. That lawย says making a โ€œmaterially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representationโ€ฆ[to the] executive, legislative, or judicial branch of the Government of the United Statesโ€ is a crime punishable by up to five years inย jail.ย 

Friends of the Earthย and the Checks & Balances Projectย have called for a full-throttle State Department Inspector General investigation into the contractual relationship between ERM Group and the Stateย Department.ย 

The false contractual claim is far from the only tall tale ERMย told.

Independent Air Studies, Citizen Anecdotes Fly in Face of ERMย Study

A study released by Delaware City Environmental Coalitionย in late-May – just weeks before ERM‘s study was released – came to diametrically opposite conclusions as ERM Group’s refinery-fundedย effort.ย 

โ€œAir-quality tests commissioned by a Delaware City citizens group show a jump in local chemical, soot and sulfur levels after the opening of the Delaware City refinery, with at least three toxic pollutants exceeding some public health limits in one spot a mile from the plant,โ€ explainedย The News Journal.ย 

Beyond the study itself, many individuals have anecdotes of how the refinery has impacted their lives and how quality of life was better before the plant reopened in 2011, whenย PBF Energy purchased the refinery from Valeroย for $220 million after it was idled for oneย year.

โ€œI can tell you that the year the plant was shuttered, I did not suffer from my normal seasonal sinus condition in the same manner that I have both before and after,โ€ Delaware City citizen Kristina Lynn toldย DeSmogBlog in anย interview.

โ€œWhile it is a seasonal allergy that causes my pain, it was nearly absent that year.ย The town was quiet, no smells, even the sky looked bluer. No rumblings, it was so quiet at night I could hear a horse neigh on a farm a half mile away. I had never heard thatย before.โ€

Another Delaware City citizen shared a similarย story.ย 

โ€œAir quality is the issue that has affected me the most.ย My asthma has worsened as have my allergies. The medicines don’t even work all the time now, and I regularly have attacks that cause me to pass out completely for a few seconds,โ€ said Barbara Elizabeth Johnson. โ€œI can’t go outside much unless I sit very still while I am out there and don’t try to walk around tooย much.โ€

There is also video and photos of smoke and waste flaring that appears anything but what ERM described as โ€œclean.โ€ Case in point, the videoย below:

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Steve Horn is the owner of the consultancy Horn Communications & Research Services, which provides public relations, content writing, and investigative research work products to a wide range of nonprofit and for-profit clients across the world. He is an investigative reporter on the climate beat for over a decade and former Research Fellow for DeSmog.

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