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 Keith Benes helped produce the government's two environmental
impact reviews on Keystone, which concluded that the 1,200-mile
(1,900-km) pipeline might encourage Canadian oil sands development,
but would not meaningfully worsen global climate change.
However, Keystone opponents see the personnel shifts as
opportunities to influence one of the most politically charged
issues of President Barack Obama's second term.
"This could give us a chance for some fresh conversations," said
Anthony Swift, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense
Council, an environmental group opposed to the pipeline.
The oil industry has been cheered by the official findings that
Keystone will not seriously worsen global warming and executives
have urged quick approval.
Environmentalists, though, say the plan to move 830,000 barrels per
day of crude from Canada to U.S. refineries must be rejected as part
of a broader campaign to fight climate change.
Benes, a former corporate lawyer, had worked on the Keystone project
since 2007 - the year TransCanada Corp sought U.S. permission to
build the cross-border link.
Because the pipeline would extend over the U.S.-Canada border, the
State Department must either bless or reject the proposal based on
its reading of the national interest.
Obama has said he will have the last word on Keystone and that
climate change concerns will weigh on his decision.
Benes, who declined comment through a State Department official,
fielded industry and environmentalist concerns in the Keystone
debate. In September, he will join Columbia University's Center on
Global Energy Policy, a think tank led by former Obama energy
advisor Jason Bordoff.
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Benes' departure is one of several recent instances of senior staff
working on Keystone who have left with the project still in limbo.
Carlos Pascual, who led the State Department's energy policy unit,
will join Columbia University next month. Kerri-Ann Jones, the
department's environmental officer, left government service in April
and Genevieve Walker, who oversaw domestic environmental concerns
raised by Keystone, left in January.
A department spokesman said the personnel changes "are commonplace
and routine" and would not interrupt the Keystone review.
Nebraska landowners have challenged the pipeline route, and the
state's Supreme Court is due to hear arguments on Sept. 5.
A ruling in that case is expected late this year. A decision against
the pipeline could spur further State Department study, meaning more
delays for a project that TransCanada says has cost roughly $2.4
billion so far.
(Reporting by Patrick Rucker. Editing by Ros Krasny and Andre
Grenon)
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