Even if it met the minimum standard for ethical conduct, the State Dept.'s environmental consultant for the controversial Keystone XL pipeline project, Cardno Entrix, should have refrained from taking the job in order to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest, says an expert on engineering ethics and environmental work.
“It's got to be above suspicion of doing something sneaky,” says Aarne Vesilind, former professor of engineering at Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pa., and the author of books on engineering ethics.