Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said that the US should approve the Keystone XL pipeline because it does little environmental damage and will benefit the economies of the world鈥檚 largest trading partners.
Harper and his ministers are ramping up efforts to win support for critical pipeline projects going west, east and south, at the same time the exact content 鈥� and existence 鈥� of a reported letter to US President Barack Obama on a climate plan and the Keystone XL remains a mystery.
鈥淲e continue to be open to working with our American partners,鈥� Harper told reporters recently. The project鈥檚 鈥渆nvironmental impacts are manageable and not significant,鈥� Harper said, adding 鈥渢he project will enhance energy security for North America.鈥�
According to reports from Ottawa, Harper wrote to Obama last month to ease environmental concerns about Keystone. Harper allegedly sent a letter in late August to Obama proposing 鈥渏oint action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the oil and gas sector鈥� if it will help win approval of the Keystone XL oilsands pipeline from Alberta to the US Gulf Coast, CBC News reported last week.
Obama said in a June speech Keystone shouldn鈥檛 be approved if it were found to 鈥渟ignificantly exacerbate鈥� greenhouse-gas emissions.
TransCanada鈥檚 KXL is part of Canada鈥檚 oilsands strategy
The pipeline linking Alberta鈥檚 oilsands to US Gulf Coast refineries was proposed by Calgary-based Transcanada Corp. five years ago and must be approved by Obama after a State Department review.
Harper also said his country remains open to foreign investment after setting some restrictions on how state-owned corporations can bid on oil sands assets.
鈥淲e favour a diverse and competitive business environment,鈥� Harper said. He also said state-owned corporations will remain a part of government鈥檚 foreign investment strategy.
Harper restricted foreign takeovers by state-owned corporations in Alberta鈥檚 oilsands to 鈥渆xceptional circumstances鈥� in December when he approved CNOOC Ltd鈥檚 Cdn$ 15.1 billion takeover of Nexen Inc.
Rolling out pipeline campaigns
Prime Minister Harper is dispatching a number of his ministers and senior bureaucrats to B.C. in the coming weeks to meet with First Nations chiefs, part of an ongoing effort to see progress on a couple of proposed pipeline projects that would send Alberta oilsands to the West Coast for shipment to lucrative markets in Asia and elsewhere.
Ottawa has also been ratcheting up its campaign to convince Washington to approve the Keystone XL oilsands pipeline.
But the Conservative government won鈥檛 confirm whether Harper has, indeed, written a letter to the US president agreeing to harmonise Canada鈥檚 greenhouse gas regulations for the oil and gas sector with the US in hopes of getting the Obama administration to approve Keystone.
Tactics
鈥淚t鈥檚 as though the Canadian government is trying to find a face-saving way for the President to claim moral victory and just move on,鈥� said Christopher Sands, a specialist in Canada-US relations at the Hudson Institute, a think-tank in Washington D.C.
Obama has boxed himself into a corner on Keystone XL, so having the Canadian government agree to work with the US on reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the energy sector could be a way to approve the pipeline while still demonstrating some action on climate change, he said.
鈥淚t maybe lets Obama say 鈥業 got something for my strategy. I didn鈥檛 blow this one,鈥欌�� Sands said. 鈥淗e allowed this thing [Keystone] to become a bigger problem than it might have been.鈥�
The US$ 5.3 billion Keystone XL pipeline would transport 830 000 bpd of oil primarily from Alberta鈥檚 oilsands and the Bakken formation in North Dakota to refineries on the US Gulf Coast.
The Harper government says the Keystone XL project is an important component of trying to increase pipeline capacity and getting western Canadian crude to market.
Opposition to the pipeline
Environmentalists on both sides of the border are cynical about reports of this alleged prime ministerial appeal to the White House for common North American greenhouse-gas emissions standards in the oil and gas sector.
A statement from 350.org, a group of international climate-change activists, described the reported overture as "a last-ditch bait-and-switch by the Canadian government."
And the Sierra Club of Canada and Greenpeace Canada both said any Canadian promises on climate change ring hollow after years of government inaction.
Critics also point out that any pipeline that increases the export capacity of oilsands production will only make it more difficult for Canada to meet its greenhouse-gas emissions targets.
The final approval on the project rests with Obama, but it appears a decision won鈥檛 be announced until 2014.
Edited from various sources by