Keystone big U.S. election issue, former envoy says
Pipeline will be hot topic in presidential campaign, ex-ambassador Wilkins predicts
A controversial proposed pipeline to carry Alberta oil to Texas refineries will be a key issue in the upcoming U.S. presidential election, after the project was delayed indefinitely by Barack Obama’s administration, the former U.S. ambassador to Canada says.
“It’s become a big political issue — huge. You’ll see a lot more of it as the campaign for president unfolds,” David Wilkins said Monday, adding the Keystone XL pipeline “plays to two issues of paramount importance”: job creation and U.S. energy independence.
Wilkins was George W. Bush’s ambassador to Canada from 2005 through Obama’s inauguration in 2009. His U.s.-based law firm represents the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers in Washington.
In Edmonton Monday for meet- ings, Wilkins discussed pipeline politics and the U.s.-canada energy relationship.
A supporter of Mitt Romney’s bid for the Republican presidential candidacy, he also took aim at what he described as Obama’s “political pandering” to “strong, vocal, loud environmentalist group(s).”
Earlier in January, Obama put off approval of the $7-billion Transcanada pipeline extension, which would carry Alberta bitumen to upgraders in the Gulf of Mexico. The rejection of the project requires a new route be found and likely delays any final decision on the pipeline until after the 2012 presidential election.
“If President Obama gets re-elected, he may approve the pipeline. If President Obama is not re-elected, the pipeline will absolutely get approved because all of the Republican candidates have indicated they are very much in favour of it,” Wilkins said.
He said he would not “armchair quarterback” or “second-guess” Canada’s approach to lobbying on behalf of the pipeline project.
“I think Canada’s done a good job of advocating. I think the province of Alberta’s done a good job. ... I don’t think there’s anything Canada could have done differently that would have made a difference. I think, bottom line, the president was pressured by his environmental base to succumb to the pressure. It was politics over policy.”
The U.S. decision to delay approval of the has resulted in more pressure to find alternative markets for Alberta oil. Politicians in Ottawa and in the Alberta legislature have turned their attention to the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline, which would carry bitumen to tankers off the B.C. coast and on to Asia.
“If the U.S. is not going to be a willing market, I understand them looking for other markets,” Wilkins said, noting the Northern Gateway decision is a matter of Canadian politics alone.
“I would prefer Canada (send) its energy to the United States, and I would prefer the U.S. to openly receive it and help facilitate Canadian production of oil and send it to us, (but) I don’t think anyone in the U.S. can blame Canada for looking at alternatives at this time.”