Trump leaning toward friends of Canadian oil
Exxon CEO and former Texas governor Perry leading candidates for cabinet roles involving energy sector
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump’s prospective cabinet is now stacked with friends of Canadian oil, with vocal proponents of the Keystone XL pipeline his picks to run key posts in the State and Energy departments. Both are from the state where the pipeline ends: Texas.
Trump announced Tuesday that he’ll ask Congress to approve Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson as the U.S’s top diplomat — and the decision on international pipeline permits belongs to the secretary of state.
And Rick Perry is the pick for energy secretary, sources tell The Associated Press. When he announced his ill-fated run for president, the former Texas governor promised he’d waste no time approving the pipeline: “On Day 1.”
Canada’s former ambassador to Washington recalls different meetings with both men, where they expressed that support. Gary Doer recalled one event at the Canadian embassy in Washington featuring Perry and pro-pipeline governors.
He also chatted with the secretary of state pick when they shared a table at a Washington dinner. Tillerson lamented the fate of Keystone XL. In a speech, he spoke at length about the project currently scuppered by the Obama administration, which Trump hinted he could soon revive.
Tillerson cited it as a prime example of economic damage from government meddling.
“The U.S. and Canada both need this vital pipeline,” he told the Economic Club of Washington last year. “Keystone XL would improve U.S. competitiveness, it would increase North American energy security and it would strengthen the relationship with one of our most important allies and most valued trading partners. But approval of the pipeline has been taken out of the hands of experienced career officials, and it has become a tool of political manipulation.”
Tillerson’s nomination could face resistance in Congress over his long relationship with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, at a time of conspiracy theories and scrutiny of Trump’s own relations with Russia. Trump fuelled those suspicions about his Moscow ties last week — by insulting the U.S. intelligence community. After reports U.S. officials concluded Putin tried helping him win the election, Trump last week blasted them as the same people who’d botched the intelligence regarding Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction.
For others, the greatest source of consternation lies on environmental grounds. After Perry’s name surfaced in media reports, the antipipeline group 350.org issued a statement titled: “Another day, another climate change denier.”
Perry had promised to eliminate the Department of Energy. It was one of three he’d vowed to scrap during his presidential run — the names of which he forgot during a 2012 debate, a turning point in his campaign.
Tillerson’s own view of climate change is decidedly nuanced.
Exxon’s boss says he believes humans are contributing to global warming. He’s long supported a carbon tax as the best policy for curbing emissions, arguing it provides greater clarity to the market than the hodgepodge of incentives and cap-and-trade systems that exist in different jurisdictions.
On the other hand, he says climate change is a reality to which humans need to get accustomed to.
Tillerson told the Council on Foreign Relations in 2012 his company — which for years suppressed research on global warming — was now participating in UN climate research, and working on climate modelling with researchers at MIT.