Pipeline approvals hinge on climate- change effort: Notley

Premier Rachel Notley stressed Tuesday that approval of crude oil pipelines like TransCanada’s Keystone XL project hinges on the province’s efforts to tackle global warming.

Noting a decision on the $ 8- billion US project rests in the hands of U. S President Barack Obama, Notley said the NDP government will focus on environmental stewardship.

“What our government can do to increase the likelihood that our product will earn social licence that’s needed for us to get ( oil) to that all- important tidewater ... is to improve our record on the environment,” the premier said.

“That’s our first priority. There may be other stuff that we have to do, too, but we do believe that this is the thing that we need to begin with.”

Notley refused to say whether she thought the latest bid by TransCanada to suspend its longdelayed proposal to build the line was a positive or negative development in the seven- year process.

“I just see this as a move over which we have no control,” the premier said.

Notley said she hoped to put Alberta and its oil industry on the world stage at the climate change conference in Paris later this month when she unveils the province’s efforts to curb global warming.

Unlike her predecessors Alison Redford and Jim Prentice, Notley hasn’t attempted to lobby Washington to approve the contentious pipeline that would connect Alberta’s oilpatch to the U. S. Gulf Coast, noting the project could impede the province’s ability to increase local bitumen upgrading capacity.

But she was criticized in the legislature Tuesday for not endorsing Keystone or Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline proposal, which would carry bitumen to the British Columbia coast for export to Asia.

Wildrose energy critic Leela Aheer asked Notley if she will direct new Washington envoy Gitane De Silva to lobby against Keystone.

“This project faces obstacles from Washington and false allegations that Alberta oil is the dirtiest oil on the continent, and right here in Alberta this project faces an NDP caucus, some of whom are bigger fans of Chavez than Chevron,” Aheer told MLAs in the house.

The Wildrose MLA for Chestermere-- Rocky View said that failing to advocate for Keystone XL “is just another example of how this NDP government has pushed investment out of Alberta.”

Aheer said the premier has filled her senior adviser posts with antipipeline activists, has opposed Northern Gateway, and interfered in the expansion of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline to the West Coast.

“What, if anything, is she actually going to do to get pipelines built?” Aheer wondered.

But in a raucous exchange in the assembly, Notley noted the previously governing Tories had little success on the pipeline front, despite intensive lobbying efforts.

“We know that getting our product to tidewater is very important to the object of diversifying the market for a product,” she said.

“Over the last eight or nine years of a Conservative government in Ottawa and a Conservative government here and an uber- Conservative opposition over there, there has been no success in getting these pipelines built.”

The 1,900- kilometre Keystone pipeline has long been a flashpoint in the U. S. debate over climate change.

Critics oppose the development, saying it requires huge amounts of energy and water, and increases greenhouse gas emissions.

They also claim pipeline leaks could potentially pollute underground aquifers.

Pipeline supporters, however, maintain Keystone will create jobs and boost energy independence. They also say pipelines are a safer method of transporting oil than trains.

Obama is expected to reject the project, but if the U. S. agrees to the suspension of TransCanada’s application, it would leave the decision in the hands of the next president.

Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall, one of the most vocal Keystone supporters, said he will rely on TransCanada’s judgment that pausing the project is the right thing to do.

But he said the delay will have a fiscal impact on provinces because Keystone would have boosted the price for Canadian oil.

“This really highlights the importance of Energy East,” Wall said.

“Because we know Gateway ( to the B. C. coast) is not going to happen. It doesn’t have the support even of the Alberta government.”