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 Marty Paone, formerly a lobbyist with Prime Policy Group, was
hired by the White House last week to be the deputy assistant for
legislative affairs where he will be responsible for working with
the Senate on White House legislative priorities, but he will be
excluded from issues related to the pipeline.
The Center for Responsive Politics shows Paone and his firm received
$280,000 in 2013 and 2014 from the In Situ Oil Sands Alliance, a
group of four companies working to develop oil sands in Alberta,
Canada, that would be exported to the United States should
Transcanada's Keystone XL pipeline be constructed.
The fate of the pipeline has been in limbo for years, becoming a
symbolically important political issue.
Environmental groups claim that stopping the $8 billion pipeline
would curb development of Canada’s oilsands, reducing
climate-changing carbon emissions.
 Republicans and unions that represent construction workers say the
project would create jobs and is a safer way to move oil than by
train.
In January, the Senate – then controlled by Republicans – will take
steps to approve the project.
Ethics guidelines prohibit executive agencies from hiring anyone who
has lobbied the agency in the past two years, which Paone has done
at the Executive Office of the President, said a memorandum by the
Counsel to the President.
The White House waived that restriction, citing "public interest" as
the reason for Paone's hiring.
Paone has agreed not to work on issues related to the Keystone
pipeline while he is in the job, a White House official said.
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Obama on Friday downplayed the positive impact the pipeline would
have, but stopped short of saying he would veto the plan.
Sources close to the administration have said Obama may be open to
using the project as leverage with Republicans if they cooperate on
other aspects of his agenda, such as investing in infrastructure,
closing tax loopholes or reducing carbon emissions. [ID: nL2N0T909M]
Paone is not the first White House official to have to agree to
exclude himself from working on issues related to Keystone.
A year ago, when John Podesta signed on to help Obama as his senior
counselor, he said he would not get involved in the debate.
Podesta, a former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, was
known to be a fierce opponent of the project, and is closely aligned
with environmental groups working to stop it.
(Reporting By Julia Edwards; Additional reporting by Roberta
Rampton; Editing by Ken Wills)
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