Just to keep things organized, I have developed the following page structure, although the names of the final debugged pages will eventually change . The first checkout page is called checkout-alt.php. Checkout-alt.php has no server behaviors running but it does take the billing and shipping address form data to the next page called checkout-alt-2.php. Checkout-alt-2.php contains the following server bevaiors: PayPal Express Checkout Authentication, eCart UPS Shipping, eCart Local Checkout as well as all the eCart Set Session Values for all of the form data.
The part of the process giving me the error is when I am on the second checkout page, checkout-alt-2.php and click the PayPal Express Checkout Button. Clicking this button results in being taken to chekout_failure.php page.
I hope this helps explain things a little better.