Canada’s U.S. envoy readies KXL sales pitch

WASHINGTON , D.C . • President- elect Joe Biden’s new climate envoy may be the same person who nixed the Keystone XL pipeline expansion in 2015, but the project itself has evolved significantly since then, Canada’s U.S. ambassador said Tuesday.

Biden’s choice of John Kerry as a special presidential adviser on climate might seem to be the stake through the heart of the undead $ 8- billion pipeline, considering the former secretary of state was the one swinging the hammer five years ago.

Kirsten Hillman, however, doesn’t see it that way.

“Times have changed,” the ambassador said in a conference call after a panel discussion hosted by the Montreal Council on Foreign Relations.

“The project itself is not the same project; the company itself, ( TC Energy), has made enormous innovations; and the sector is enormously innovative — they’re cutting their emissions in important ways.”

Canada, too, has evolved, she said, having es tab - lished a long- awaited carbon- pricing system and committed to virtually eliminating emissions in 30 years — a target enshrined in legislation introduced just last week in the House of Commons.

“Of all the countries from which the United States can get their fossil fuels, we’re the one with a price on carbon, we’re the one with a commitment to zero emissions by 2050,” Hillman said.

“So regardless of who we will be talking to, we will bring our facts to that conversation.”

Moments after Hillman finished speaking , Kerry took the podium in Delaware, where Bid en was introducing his newly named senior cabinet appointees, and promptly framed his job as an aggressive foreign- policy endeavour.

“To end this crisis, the whole world must come together,” Kerry said, predicting that next year’s UN climate conference in Scotland would be the moment of truth.

Biden was vice- president throughout the eight years that Keystone XL became a political football for former president Barack Obama. It had been a persistent irritant to Canada- U.S. relations prior to Donald Trump’s presidency.