Susan Rice Has Millions Invested in Keystone Pipeline Companies - Report

Almost a third of Rice's net worth in companies that would benefit from the pipeline

A new report shows that Susan Rice, the likely new secretary of state, holds millions of dollars in investments in Canadian oil companies and banks with stakes in the Keystone XL Pipeline. The report comes from "OnEarth," an environmental magazine published by the Natural Resources Defense Council.

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As head of the State Department, Rice would determine the fate of the pipeline, which would link northern Canada's remote oil sands fields to Texas' Gulf Coast refineries.

"OnEarth" reveals that Rice has investments in more than a dozen Canadian oil companies and banks that would benefit from the growth of the Canadian tar sands industry and the construction of the pipeline. In fact, nearly a third of Rice's personal net worth - estimated in 2009 to be between $23.5 million and $43.5 million - is invested in Canadian oil producers, pipeline operators, and other energy companies

Numerous environmental groups and political organizations have protested against the pipeline being opened.

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"We have two main concerns: the risk of oil spills along the pipeline, which would traverse highly sensitive terrain," wrote the New York Times in an editorial "and the fact that the extraction of petroleum from the tar sands creates far more greenhouse emissions than conventional production does." There is also fear that a pipeline spill would pollute air and critical water supplies and harm birds and other wildlife.

Republicans, including former presidential nominee Mitt Romney have called for the pipeline to be opened immediately. However, even without expansion of the Keystone XL pipeline, the United States is poised to overtake Saudi Arabia and become the world's biggest oil producer before 2020. The US will be energy independent 10 years later, according to a forecast by the International Energy Agency.

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