Environmental groups fighting a $7 billion U.S.-Canada oil pipeline yesterday charged that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's ties to a former adviser who now serves as a top lobbyist for the company behind the project leave her unable to impartially evaluate the proposal.

Citing freedom-of-information law, three conservation groups pressing the State Department to reject the 1,900-mile Keystone XL pipeline sought records of any contact between Paul Elliott, government relations director for project sponsor TransCanada Corp., and department officials evaluating the company's request for federal approval.

Elliott served as national deputy director for Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign, according to a release last year that marked his election to the board of the Canadian American Business Council.

"TransCanada clearly sees an opportunity to get this dangerous pipeline approved through Secretary Clinton's relationship with Paul Elliott," said Friends of the Earth campaigner Alex Moore in a statement. Corporate Ethics International and the Center for International Environmental Law also joined the nonprofit on the information request.

"Mr. Elliott's influence in the State Department's consideration of the pipeline is yet another reason we believe that the White House should reassign review of this project," Moore added.

But TransCanada spokesman James Millar denied the charges. Given the broad scope of required consultation on the proposed pipeline, which includes multiple federal agencies as well as state and local governments, Millar said, "to suggest that the decision to grant a presidential permit for Keystone XL might be based on anything other than merits is laughable."

Elliott is not formally listed on the disclosure forms that TransCanada lobbyists are required to file with the House clerk, but Millar said he is compliant with Federal Election Commission reporting rules.

"Paul Elliott has been employed with TransCanada for two years now, interpreting public policy and legislative process as it impacts our company," Millar said via e-mail. "It's a role performed in Washington by many individuals for dozens of companies and organizations including Friends of the Earth, NAACP, Children's Defense Fund, [and] the Red Cross to name just a few."

The State Department has jurisdiction over the pipeline's fate because it would cross an international border, running across six U.S. states to bring Canadian oil sands crude to Gulf Coast refineries. Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters yesterday that he could not address the specifics of the Elliott-Clinton connection but confirmed that the pipeline bid is "still under review."

The battle over Keystone XL, which would nearly double U.S. imports of crude from the Canadian oil sands, began heating up this fall after Clinton publicly said she was "inclined to" sign off on the pipeline despite fierce opposition from environmentalists. Eleven of her former Senate colleagues, all Democrats, then warned her to "not pre-judge the outcome of what should be a thorough, transparent analysis of" the emissions that could be generated by increased production of oil sands crude (Greenwire, Oct. 29).

But while more liberal Democrats align with environmental advocates in decrying the projected greenhouse gas footprint of fuel from Canadian oil sands, others in Clinton's party view Keystone XL as a much-needed solution to the continued need for oil imports.

"I'm assuming that those people think it would be a good idea to import it from Venezuela and from the Middle East," Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) said of the pipeline's critics, adding: "I just wish they would turn their lights off, get out of their automobiles [and] put a windmill in their backyard" before lamenting the costs of Keystone XL.

Click here to read the groups' Freedom of Information Act request.