How crucial is this relationship? Canada is the number one exporter of oil to America.
Via IBD:
As the EPA snipes at the State Department’s approval, Canada’s natural resource minister says failure to approve the pipeline would seriously jeopardize our energy relationship and do nothing to save the earth.
Joe Oliver, not amused by the continued delays in perhaps the most shovel-ready project since the pyramids, said Wednesday that rejection by the U.S. of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline “would represent a serious reversal in our long-standing energy relationship.”
This critical energy infrastructure project is also perhaps the most studied and approved. After a reroute at the behest of environmentalists allegedly concerned about the sensitive Ogallala Aquifer, it received approval from the state of Nebraska.
The U.S. State Department, which must approve or deny the project because it crosses an international boundary, recently released its second Keystone XL supplemental environmental impact statement, which represents the project’s fourth environmental review.
It found the pipeline would not accelerate global greenhouse gas emissions or significantly harm natural habitat along its route.
Almost immediately, the Environmental Protection Agency, the sock puppet of the environmental movement, objected to the State Department’s draft review, saying it included “insufficient information on environmental issues.” The EPA said State used an outdated “energy-economic modeling effort” in its analysis that concluded tar sands oil would find its way to market without Keystone.
Of course, considering the economic impact of mindless environmentalism is completely foreign to the EPA. But it is not a concept foreign to Joe Oliver.
“Make no mistake,” he said in a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, “Canadian resource development and export, including from the oil sands, will continue, Keystone or no Keystone.”