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http://bit.ly/LetsGetGoing

Douglas A. GrandtP. O. Box 6603

Lincoln, NE 68506

July 18, 2013

President Barack ObamaThe White House1600 Pennsylvania Ave NWWashington, D.C. 20500

Mr. Rex W. TillersonExxon Mobil Corporation5959 Las Colinas Blvd.Irving, Texas 75039

Re: Time for a Change -- No more lies

Dear President Obama and Mr. Tillerson,

Only you can stop the lies. Denounce the bias, conflicts of interest, misinformation and lies.Your allowing this subterfuge to continue makes you complicit in perpetuating the intensionalfalsehoods. You both have the moral authority to right the criminal wrongs of EnvironmentalResources Management and TransCanada. Call them out for their negligence. Read this:

ERM, State Dept Keystone XL Contractor, Claimed

Delaware Tar Sands Refinery Made Air Cleaner

2013-07-18 05:00 | Steve Horn

 A DeSmogBlog investigation revealsEnvironmental Resources Management,Inc. (ERM Group), the contractor thatperformed the environmental review for TransCanada's Keystone XL tar sandsexport pipeline, was also recently hired bya major Delaware City refinery to study air quality around the plant.

This "study" was funded by the refineryitself , owned by Delaware City RefiningCompany, a wholly-owned subsidiary of 

PBF Energy. Delaware City Refinery isthe recipient of 180,000 barrels per day of fracked oil from North Dakota's Bakken Shale along with oil extracted from Alberta'star sands - both referred to as the "holy grail" by the Refinery's owner at a Feb. 2013meeting - which sojourn eastward via mile-long freight rail cars owned by NorfolkSouthern.

Conducted in March 2013, the study concluded the "air quality [near the refinery] is asgood as, and in some cases, better than samples taken during the 2011 study before therefinery restart," as explained on a flyer obtained by DeSmog promoting two publicmeetings hosted by ERM to discuss results.

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However, an independent air samplestudy detected the cancer-causingcompound benzene far above levels setby the Environmental Protection Agency,

as well as soot and sulfur dioxide, in anarea one mile from the refinery.

ERM Group - a dues-paying member of American Petroleum Institute (API),which has spent over $22 million lobbyingon tar sands and Keystone XL since itsJune 2008 proposal - said that because

 Alberta's tar sands will get to market withor without Keystone XL, the tube'snorthern half "is unlikely to have a substantial impact on the rate of [tar sands]development."

Under that logic, Keystone XL - which President Obama said in in the Climate Action Planhe will only approve if it doesn't "significantly exacerbate...carbon pollution" - won't have a"substantial impact" on climate change. That could mean "game on" for the pipeline.

 Yet Another Illegal ERM Group Lie

This latest discovery proves - once again - that ERM Group lied on its conflict-of-interestform which it submitted to the State Department, claiming it has no "direct or indirectrelationship (financial, organizational, contractual or otherwise) with any business entity

that could be affected in any way by the proposed work," as seen in that section of theform below:

The false claim - given ERM's current ties to the Alaska Gas Pipeline Project, the

Delaware City Refinery and the refinery's direct relationship with tar sands refining andmarketing - may violate 18 USC § 1001. That law says making a "materially false,fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation...[to the] executive, legislative, or 

 judicial branch of the Government of the United States" is a crime punishable by up to fiveyears in jail.

Friends of the Earth and the Checks & Balances Project have called for a full-throttle StateDepartment Inspector General investigation into the contractual relationship between ERMGroup and the State Department.

The false contractual claim is far from the only tall tale ERM told.

President Obama and Mr. TillersonJuly 18, 2013

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Independent Air Studies, Citizen Anecdotes Fly in Face of ERM Study

 A study released by Delaware City Environmental Coalition in late-May - just weeks beforeERM's study was r eleased - came to diametrically opposite conclusions as ERM Group'srefinery-funded effort.

"Air-quality tests commissioned by a Delaware City citizens group show a jump in localchemical, soot and sulfur levels after theopening of the Delaware City refinery, withat least three toxic pollutants exceedingsome public health limits in one spot a milefrom the plant," explained The NewsJournal .

Beyond the study itself, many individualshave anecdotes of how the refinery has

impacted their lives and how quality of lifewas better before the plant reopened in2011, when PBF Energy purchased therefinery from Valero for $220 million after itwas idled for one year.

"I can tell you that the year the plant was shuttered, I did not suffer from my normalseasonal sinus condition in the same manner that I have both before and after," DelawareCity citizen Kristina Lynn told DeSmogBlog in an interview.

"While it is a seasonal allergy that causes my pain, it was nearly absent that year. Thetown was quiet, no smells, even the sky looked bluer. No rumblings, it was so quiet atnight I could hear a horse neigh on a farm a half mile away. I had never heard that before."

 Another Delaware City citizen shared a similar story.

"Air quality is the issue that has affected me the most. My asthma has worsened as havemy allergies. The medicines don't even work all the time now, and I regularly have attacksthat cause me to pass out completely for a few seconds," said Barbara Elizabeth Johnson."I can't go outside much unless I sit very still while I am out there and don't try to walkaround too much."

There is also video and photos of smoke and waste flaring that appears anything but whatERM described as "clean." Case in point, the video: http://bit.ly/delaware-city-refinery

Lastly, Delaware's Department of NaturalResources and Environmental Control(DNREC) has penalized the refinery tentimes for violations since 2011 and theplant itself has received 53 DNRECviolation notices during that time period.

 An attendee of ERM's public meeting onits refinery-funded air study makes clear the study had one purpose: to manufacturedoubt on the independent air study.

President Obama and Mr. TillersonJuly 18, 2013

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"The refinery manager and ERM engineer who gave the presentation at the first publicmeeting both made it very clear that their only reason for doing the study was to

discredit the Delaware City EnvironmentalCoalition study," Stephanie Herron,Volunteer and Outreach Coordinator for Delaware Sierra Club said in an interview.

"They repeatedly emphasized their impliedconclusion that not only was the other study wrong and the air totally safe, but thatit's actually even cleaner than many other places in Delaware and Delaware City inthe past. They said they would not be doingany further studies since this one was soconclusive that there was no reason to."

Will History Repeat Itself on Keystone XL?

ERM has a penchant for declaring ecologically destructive projects will be, or are, "clean,"as DeSmog has written about in the cases of the Caspian Sea and Peru.

Many scientists have already weighed in both on the climate change and ecologicalimpacts of tar sands production, as well as on the ecological impacts of the Keystone XLpipeline itself , coming to starkly different conclusions than ERM Group did on its State

Department environmental review.

Is more of the same in store for Keystone XL's northern half? Will it become another Caspian Sea, Peru or Delaware City Refinery?

We'll find out in the coming months when Secretary of State John Kerry and PresidentBarack Obama make the final decison [sic] on the controversial pipeline's destiny.

Both of you, President Obama and Rex Tillerson, havea rare opportunity to show the nation and, indeed, theentire world, that government and industry can standtogether of the good of humanity, above profits.

We merely have to pick a few measurable ways to cutCO2 emissions and start NOW!  Commit to not spendmore moneys for any capital investment that expandsthe carbon infrastructure. Charles Grant made sucha bold decision and ended slavery in Great Britain.

Immediately begin to abandon fossil fuelsTake bold, courageous actionCreate your legacy 

President Obama and Mr. TillersonJuly 18, 2013

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All we want is . . .

Clean energy!Carbon-free!Carbon feeRebate to meRetire the refineries

All we want is . . .

Clean energy!Carbon-free!Carbon feeRebate to meRetire the refineries