China is getting American coal, why not Canadian Oil?
Via National Journal
Canada’s ambassador to the U.S. isn’t sugarcoating the diplomatic weight of the looming White House decision on the Keystone XL pipeline.
Gary Doer told the news service Platts that he’s optimistic about winning approval, while warning that rejection would be “perceived as being political” and “definitely strain” U.S.-Canadian relations. He argued that the project has met the various U.S. benchmarks, citing the State Department’s environmental analysis released Jan. 31.
“The report basically says that [oil from Alberta’s oil sands] either will come down on rail with higher GHGs, and it is now coming down on rail, or it can come down on a pipeline with less GHGs,” he told Platts Energy Week TV, using the acronym for greenhouse gases.
“So I guess I would say, based on this report and based on the president’s own stated [climate] criteria, that if the project is rejected it would be perceived as being political and not on the basis of the public interest of the United states and Canada,” Doer added in the interview that aired Sunday.
Doer and other pipeline backers are pushing hard to capitalize on the State Department report.
But State’s analysis is just one factor in play. A Wall Street Journal story on Secretary of State John Kerry’s looming permit decision highlights another one.
“One point Mr. Kerry will consider is the importance of the U.S. taking a lead role in addressing climate issues,” states the story that ran over the weekend.
Kerry, who has prioritized climate change during his long political career, may be wrestling with whether approval would hurt the U.S. in global climate policy planning.
Consider European Union climate chief Connie Hedegaard’s comments a year ago. She said rejecting Keystone would be an “extremely strong signal” on climate from the second-term Obama administration.
HT Hot Air