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Obama falters; Alberta reacts President says concerns about ‘destructive’ oil sands must be answered before Keystone approval; Alberta leaders offer education Gary Park For Petroleum News
President Barack Obama is leading a United States foray into the Canadian election campaign by raising doubts over whether his administration will approve TransCanada’s proposed Keystone XL pipeline from the oil sands to Texas refineries and arousing Alberta Energy Minister Ron Liepert in the process.
Obama said concerns about the potentially “destructive” nature of the oil sands must be answered before the 500,000 barrels per day XL system is approved, backing away from his comments a week earlier that Canada is among the “stable and friendly” nations on which the U.S. must depend for its energy security.
But he declined to take a stand on the XL project in referring to Alberta’s bitumen deposits as “tar sands” — a pejorative term favored by opponents of the oil sands.
Obama said he could not “comment on the specifics” of the TransCanada application while it is before the State Department.
“If it looks like I’m putting my fingers on the scale before the science is done, then people may questions the merits of the decision later,” he said.
In late March, Obama, in releasing a framework for a U.S. energy strategy, called for a one-third reduction in imports of foreign oil over the next decade, while singling out Canada, which contributes almost one-quarter of U.S. oil imports, as a “steady and stable and reliable” supply source.
Stelmach’s blood pressure Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach suggested Obama’s decision to seek a second term likely played a role in his comments.
“Kinda raised my blood pressure,” Stelmach said. “But he’s got to find a balance between the anti-oil folk and the security of the American way of life, which is predicated in no small measure on a friendly supply of energy.”
He said Obama and his advisors should visit the Alberta oil sands and see for themselves what efforts are being made to improve the industry’s environmental record.
Liepert promptly urged Obama to stop sending mixed messages on the oil sands and “sign the bloody order” approving XL.
“Frankly, I wish he’d get on with the action,” Liepert told reporters, adding Alberta could provide Obama with “all the briefing he needs” in 15 minutes on the science aspects of oil sands development and transportation.
He said XL is critical to the future of the oil sands industry, but if XL and Enbridge’s planned pipeline to the British Columbia are scuttled, “we will be a province that’s landlocked in bitumen.”
EPA dictating policy Murray Smith, a former Alberta energy minister and now the province’s representative in Washington, D.C., said that although the State Department is concerned that the Environmental Protection Agency is dictating policy on the Keystone XL project he is confident that “commonsense, rationality and the desire to protect American lives will override the rhetoric.”
He and Liepert said oil sands crude should be preferable to crude from the Middle East and Africa, where U.S. troops are involved in conflicts and environmental practices are often lacking.
Smith said U.S. gasoline prices would be cheaper if crude from Alberta was refined in Texas.
Obama’s comments coincided with the urgings of a coalition of U.S. mayors to grill candidates in the Canadian election campaign on clean-energy alternatives to the oil sands.
Mayor Jennifer Hosterman, of Pleasanton, Calif., said XL is a $13 billion investment “to expand our reliance on the dirtiest source of transportation fuel currently available. It’s a bad idea.”
Further stirring the debate, the New York Times said in an editorial that XL should be rejected because it is “not only environmentally risky, it is unnecessary,” denouncing the “destruction of forests” in northern Alberta to clear the way for oil sands projects.
Ignatieff: Concerns can be eased Michael Ignatieff, leader of the Liberal Party and the only serious contender to defeat Prime Minister Stephen Harper, said the U.S. concerns can be eased if the Canadian government acts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, control the use of water and eliminate tax breaks for the industry.
He accused Harper and the last four environment ministers of portraying the oil sands as merely a public relations challenge.
Noting that documents and e-mails show several federal departments are collaborating with industry on a communications strategy to improve the oil sands’ image, Ignatieff said “We have an environment problem here and it needs to be addressed.”
He also said that “whether we need (the oil sands) or not, we’ve got them and they employ Canadians. And we can’t get out of fossil fuels tomorrow.”
Ignatieff said it will take at least another two generations to make a transition to 100 percent renewable energy.
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