As the Obama administration prepares to decide the fate of the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline to bring crude from Canada’s oil sands to refineries in Texas, newly released emails reveal a cozy relationship between the company’s lobbyist and the U.S State Department. The emails, obtained by Friends of the Earth, show the chief lobbyist for TransCanada, Paul Elliott, set up multiple meetings and had influence on officials at the State Department. Elliott has close ties to the State Department and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Before taking a job at TransCanada, he served as Clinton’s deputy campaign manager in 2008. Friends of the Earth said the documents are “deeply disturbing” and indicate a “pro-pipeline bias and complicity at the State Department.”