Greenpeace prodded a federal ethics watchdog on Thursday to force Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to recuse himself from signing off on the Keystone XL oil pipeline project.
The environmental group sent a letter to the Office of Government Ethics, the federal watchdog charged with ensuring against conflicts of interest in the executive branch, asking it to clarify how the pipeline’s approval, which Tillerson has direct authority over, doesn’t conflict with his previous employment as CEO of the oil giant Exxon Mobil.
The letter stated that given the office’s “focus on prevention and their praise of Tillerson’s ethics commitments, the time is ripe for OGE to clarify exactly what those commitments mean in one of their first real tests and first real decisions Tillerson may take relating to his former employer.”
Greenpeace pointed out that Exxon Mobil has a vested interest in seeing the Keystone XL pipeline completed, with assets in the Alberta oil sands. The project seeks to move the Canadian crude oil nearly 1,200 miles south to refineries on the Gulf Coast.
A major chunk of the pipeline has already been completed in the United States. Tillerson’s role is to approve the permit to build the segment of the pipeline that crosses the border from Canada into the U.S., where the State Department has primary siting authority.
“When a decision about Keystone, or other oil and gas projects, reaches Rex Tillerson’s desk, he will only see dollar signs for Exxon with no regard for what the people want and the impact on our climate,” said Annie Leonard, Greenpeace USA’s executive director. “It’s time for the Office of Government Ethics to do their job and urge that Tillerson recuse himself from decisions regarding the Keystone XL pipeline.”
Greenpeace is also circulating a petition it wants to deliver to the ethics office before the end of the month, when the State Department is expected to make its decision on the pipeline’s trans-border permit. It also sent a letter to the State Department Office of the Legal Adviser asking that Tillerson be forced to recuse himself from the decision.
“Rex Tillerson and the senators who confirmed him have tarnished a once-dignified office that worked to promote global diplomacy and progress. Tillerson’s tenure has so far been a mess, but we can still demand a separation of oil and state,” Leonard said. “Federal agencies in charge of holding people accountable must help clean up the mess made by Trump and his spineless allies in Congress.”
