Susan Rice has big financial interests in the Keystone XL pipeline

Susan Rice’s Conflict of Interest – Major Holdings in Tar Sands Oil, Keystone XL Pipeline, and Canadian Financiers
November 29th, 2012
By Michael Collins

As Secretary of State, Rice would be responsible for the key recommendation to President Barack Obama on lifting thepresident’s ban on construction of the Keystone XL pipeline imposed in January. She would make the decision knowing that there would be major impact on nearly one third of her (and her husband’s) investments.

According to her 2011 financial disclosures, “Rice and her husband own at least $1.25 million worth of stock in four of Canada’s eight leading oil producers.” These include Enbridge, the oil company extracting the highly toxic tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada’s boreal forest, which are being destroyed to access the oil (boreal forests sequester carbon).

Rice has major holdings between $300,000 and $600,000 in TransCanada Corp, the firm building the Keystone XL pipeline. The pipeline crosses the Canadian border at North Dakota and proceeds through the Midwest on its way to Houston, Texas area refineries. The pipeline crosses over the main source of water for the Midwest, the Ogallala Aquifer. The oil will be shipped to China from Houston to fuel that nation’s voracious energy needs.

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