It turns out that recent State Department study finding the Keystone XL pipeline "is unlikely to have a substantial impact" on the rate of Canada's oil sands development" relied on analysis by consulting firms with deep ties to oil and pipeline companies. EnSys Energy has worked with ExxonMobil, BP and Koch Industries; Imperial Oil, a subsidiary of Exxon, is one of Canada's largest oil sands producers; and ICF International works with pipeline and oil companies. Bottom line, notes one industry scholar, is that "the marketplace and ethics sometimes collide," with a slew of myths and bogus facts used to justify the clear conflict of interest. We wish we were more surprised.