The US secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, has recused himself from issues related to TransCanada Corp’s application for a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, the state department said in a letter on Thursday to the environmental group Greenpeace. How Keystone XL and Dakota Access went from opposition to resurrection Read moreGreenpeace argued in its letter that ExxonMobil would “directly and predictably” benefit from the approval of Keystone XL because the firm has investments in Canadian oil sands. Tillerson recused himself from the matter in early February, McManus wrote. TransCanada tried for more than five years to build the 1,179 mile (1,897km) pipeline, until Barack Obama rejected it in 2015. TransCanada resubmitted its application for the Keystone project in January, after Donald Trump signed an order smoothing its path.

Source: The Guardian March 10, 2017 01:41 UTC