Rice, rumored to be on the short list to replace Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, owns between $300,000 and $600,000 in TransCanada Corp. stock, according to the TheHill.com, which cites Rice's financial disclosure forms. TransCanada is the company whose 1,700-mile Keystone XL pipeline, which would bring oil from Canada down to Gulf refineries has been repeatedly delayed and now is in regulatory limbo.
The liberal group RootsAction.org, has started an online petition demanding that Rice "immediately sell every dollar of stock" in the company behind the $7 billion project. Environmentalists say the pipeline would pollute air and water supplies as well as harm fragile ecosystems. Energy industry officials argue that the Keystone XL would be no different from an extensive network of energy pipelines already in place – and some say its state-of-the-art design would make it safer than many of the country’s aging pipelines.