Keystone report will aid pitch, Wall says

The timing of the U.S. State Department’s release of its environmental assessment of the Keystone XL pipeline couldn’t be more perfectly co-ordinated with Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall’s visit to Washington next week, Wall said Friday.

“If it’s true that the State Department is saying there’s not a lot of risk here environmentally with this pipeline, that’s going to be helpful because we’re going to be down there making the case for Keystone and for energy from Canada, but we’re also going to be taking the environmental path,” Wall said in a Friday conference call with reporters.

His statements came just as the report was being released.

Wall will be meeting next week with KerriAnn Jones, a senior official in the State Department, among other U.S. leaders.

Wall said they are aware of his economic arguments in favour of Keystone — job creation in a struggling economy and the generation of state taxes are some of them. He’ll spend this trip making an environmental argument for using Canadian energy, Wall said.

“This is still an administration decision and that’s why it’s even more important that we as Canadians are making the case on Keystone in the days ahead, notwithstanding what happens later today,” Wall said Friday.

Wall particularly wants to pitch a case for co-operating with the U.S. on clean-coal projects and relay the success of a $1.4-billion Saskatchewan clean-coal project that will capture 95 per cent of its carbon dioxide emissions. About 40 per cent of the U.S.’s electricity comes from coal, Wall said.

When asked to place a bet on whether Keystone will come to fruition in the near future, Wall gave it 50-50 odds.

“I think even those who are closer to the administration do not know,” Wall said.

“This is it. This is really a decision that will be with the president.”