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• Martin has spent more than two years in charge of EPA Region 8, which covers Colorado, North and South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming.
• His resignation letter singled out for praise his agency's response to a 2011 oil spill on the Yellowstone River in Montana. He also mentioned EPA's work to assess the risk of asbestos exposure to residents of Libby, Mont. A report on the asbestos risk is expected by the end of next year.
• In Wyoming, Martin played a role in the EPA's investigation into groundwater contamination in a gas field. The EPA concluded in late 2011 that hydraulic fracturing played a role in that contamination in the Pavillion area in west-central Wyoming.
• Fracking is the petroleum industry practice of pumping pressurized water, mixed with sand and chemicals, down well holes to fracture open oil and gas deposits. Gas industry officials and Wyoming regulators criticize the finding as flimsy.
• The EPA had planned to submit the report for peer review by a panel of independent experts. EPA officials recently have quit saying that peer review will occur.
• Jackson announced her resignation in December. President Barack Obama has not yet nominated her replacement.
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TransCanada: Pipeline would not affect climate
MATTHEW DALY,Associated Press
• WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a shift in strategy, the company that wants to build an oil pipeline from western Canada to Texas said Tuesday that the project will have no measurable effect on global warming.
• Alex Pourbaix, TransCanada's president for energy and oil pipelines, said opponents of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline have grossly inflated its likely impact on emissions of greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.
• Canada represents just 2 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, Pourbaix said at a forum sponsored by a manufacturing group that supports the pipeline. Oil sands concentrated in Alberta, where the 1,700-mile pipeline would start, make up 5 percent of Canada's total, Pourbaix said.
• "Simple math tells us, therefore, that the oil sands represent only one-tenth of 1 percent of global greenhouse emissions," he said. "Even if production from the oil sands were to double, the (greenhouse gas) contribution from the oil sands would be immaterial to global" greenhouse gas production.
• Pourbaix's comments came two days after a rally Sunday by pipeline opponents drew an estimated 35,000 people to Washington. Organizers, including the Sierra Club and other environmental groups, billed the event as the largest climate rally in (Continued on page 20)
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