Hillary Clinton's former deputy national campaign director is now lobbying Clinton and the Department of State on behalf of TransCanada, the company that wants to lay 7,000 miles of pipe between Canada's tar sands and Texas refineries.

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Emails obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show an unusually cozy relationship between TransCanada and the State Department, including multiple meetings between company representatives and department officials. While chumming it up with TransCanada execs, the State Department declined to meet with environmental groups, who were lobbying against the pipeline on the grounds that it will inevitably leak and also facilitates the harvesting of some of the world's dirtiest oil.

Now that same State Department will be deciding whether or not to let the pipeline go forward. A final decision on the pipeline will be made by the end of 2011.

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*In the earlier cache of emails, made public in September, State Department officials seem at times to advise TransCanada officials on how to maximize their chances for pipeline approval. That tone continued in the current release of more than 200 pages of documents.

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