http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/245018-gop-threatens-subpoena-for-keystone-records By Timothy Cama - 06/15/15 03:40 PM EDT
House Republicans are threatening to subpoena the Obama administration for records regarding its ongoing consideration of the Keystone XL pipeline.
Republicans on the House Oversight Committee are investigating the State Department’s process for deciding whether to recommend that President Obama approve the Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline, including its formal consultations with eight other agencies to determine if Keystone is in the “national interest.”
Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), the panel’s chairman, said in a Monday letter that State has been unnecessarily secretive about the review and flat-out refused in March to provide communications, reports and other materials related to the process, including comments from the agencies.
Chaffetz threatened to compel State to send the documents, and asked for the agency to engage in “dynamic compromise” with the Oversight Committee to reach a deal about the request. Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), chairwoman of the subcommittee with EPA responsibility, also signed the letter.
The letter is just the latest escalation in the six-year fight by Republicans in support of TransCanada Corp.’s project. The House has voted multiple times to go over Obama’s head and approve it, and the Senate passed a similar bill earlier this year, which Obama vetoed.
“The president has not asserted executive privilege with respect to the materials we requested, despite the department’s claim that those materials are related to ‘an ongoing deliberative process in support of the president’s discharge of his constitutional responsibilities,’ ” Chaffetz wrote, citing State’s March letter.
Chaffetz noted that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) publicly posted some of the materials he requested, and urged State to reconsider its response.
“If the department remains unwilling to work with the committee on a voluntary basis, we are left with no alternative but to consider the use of compulsory process to obtain the materials,” he said.
The letter comes amid a wave of criticism regarding State’s transparency, including the emails from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private server and State’s record responding to public record requests.
State did not respond to a request for comment.
