The Hill - GOP Threatens Kerry with Another Keystone Subpoena

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By Devin Henry

Republican members of the House Oversight Committee have said they're prepared to issue the State Department a subpoena if it does not turn over documents related to the Keystone XL denial decision.

The committee in February asked the State Department to turn over documents and communications related to the "key determination" that the oil pipeline would have an impact on climate change and the decision to cite "U.S. climate leadership" in the denial of the project.

In a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry, Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), the chairwoman of the committee's Interior subpanel, said they have yet to receive the documents and would "consider the use of the compulsory process" if State doesn't turn them over by next week.

"Weeks after asserting the production was forthcoming, the Department now states that it will not fully comply, and has failed to state any valid objection for doing so," the lawmakers wrote in their letter, dated Tuesday.

"Give the Department's ongoing failure to fulfill this request, the committee is left with no choice but to consider use of the compulsory process if a complete set of requested documents is not received by June 7, 2016."

The Oversight Committee and the State Department have sparred over Keystone before, even in the lead-up to President Obama's November decision to deny the pipeline project.

Last July, the committee subpoenaed "reports, recommendations, letters and comments" related to the review of the project.

Obama rejected the Keystone XL pipeline in November after a State Department review of it. At the time, Kerry said his decision to reject it was because "moving forward with this project would significantly undermine our ability to continue leading the world in combatting climate change."

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