OAKLAND, Calif. -- The U.S. State Department is in the process of deciding whether the proposed Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline would be in the U.S. national interest, but the determination is being made without Keystone XL’s digital GIS data, such as the longitude and latitude of milepost markers, waterbody crossings and the centerline route."

"In response to a Freedom of Information Act, FOIA, request for the proposed pipeline’s digital GIS data, the U.S. State Department stated that not only did the proposing company, Calgary-based TransCanada Corp., not submit the location data to the department, but that the State Department neither requested or required it.

As this data is frequently cited throughout the proposed Keystone XL’s Final Environmental Impact Statement, FEIS, and Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, SEIS, one cannot make a meaningful analysis of the pipeline’s economic, environmental, and national security impacts without it.

The FOIA request was filed in April 2012 as part of the Keystone Mapping Project, an ongoing multimedia and photography project examining land use and climate change in America through an exploration of the Keystone XL pipeline.

With data obtained from state regulators along much of the route, the Keystone Mapping Project has assembled the most comprehensive publicly-available mapping resource for the proposed pipeline."

Thomas Bachand reports for Environment News Service July 8, 2013. [2]