The Obama administration has yet to announce its decision on the controversial northern portion of the Keystone XL pipeline project, which requires cross-border approval to transport tar sands from Canada to the U.S.

But now that the southern leg is operational, activists are concerned it’s only a matter of time before the final leg gets the green light.

Tara Lohan points to a conflict of interest in the approval process: “The draft environmental impact statement that the State Department reviewed was not done by the agency itself but by a contractor, Environmental Resources Management, and paid for by TransCanada itself.”

“Contractors who worked on the statement also worked on previous TransCanada pipelines as well as for companies such as ExxonMobil, Shell, BP and Koch Gateway Pipeline Company — all of whom could benefit from the project. It was later found that the State Department intentionally kept the public in the dark about the connections.”

Crossposted at Wonk Wire.