Politico reports today, “Canadian oil executives this week are personally warning U.S. lawmakers that the delay in the Keystone XL pipeline has repercussions on U.S.-Canada trade relations. The CEOs of at least six Canadian oil companies or subsidiaries — in town on a regular annual visit ostensibly to talk about broader issues affecting Canadian oil production — will almost certainly end up predominately lobbying members of Congress and a diverse list of think tanks on Keystone. Their message will include pointing to expedited consideration in Canada of two proposed pipelines sending crude oil from Alberta oil sands to the West Coast for Asian export. ‘The snowball’s already rolling,’ Dave Collyer, president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, told POLITICO. ‘Canadian producers have always recognized that there’s some vulnerability in only having one market, that being the United States,’ Collyer said. ‘I think what the Keystone decision did was increase the awareness of that vulnerability and provide some impetus clearly … on the importance of diversifying that market.’ . . . ‘But in the face of a rather overwhelming set of facts, with this decision to be deferred that frankly raises some questions about the integrity of the process and whether we can have confidence in the regulatory review process’ for other projects, Collyer said.”
In other words, thanks to the unnecessary delays and political dodging on allowing the Keystone XL pipeline to move forward, our allies in Canada are saying that if the Obama administration continues this kind of treatment, they’ll look for other partners to do business with, particularly in Asia.
There’s simply no longer any excuse for President Obama to keep blocking the pipeline. Transcanada, the company that will build the pipeline, has worked with the state of Nebraska to approve a new route to avoid any environmentally sensitive areas and has now submitted a new application to the State Department. Labor leaders and Democrats in Congress have expressed support for building Keystone XL, since it would create tens of thousands of jobs and allow the U.S. to import more oil from Canada instead of the Middle East.
And yet President Obama is still blocking the pipeline from moving forward. As Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said, “At a moment when tensions are rising in the Middle East, millions of Americans are struggling to find work and millions more are struggling with the rising cost of gas, the Obama administration’s opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline shows how deeply out of touch they are with the concerns of middle-class Americans. When it comes to delays over Keystone, anyone looking for a culprit should look no further than the Oval Office.”
Article written by: Tom White
