Canadian government officials have done everything but confirm that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is playing a trump card in an effort to get President Barack Obama’s approval for TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline.
Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver spent an hour bobbing and weaving with reporters in Washington Sept. 9 when he was grilled on whether Harper had — as many news reports claim — sent a late-August letter to the White House proposing joint Canada-U.S. action “to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the oil and gas sector,” indicating he was open to discussing any targets Obama wanted to suggest.
Oliver, who was making his fifth Keystone-related trip to Washington, referred to a “purported letter” and a “hypothetical letter” and echoed word from officials in Harper’s office who said the Canadian government “does not comment on correspondence between (national) leaders.”
In exasperation, one reporter said he had no choice but to speculate, to which Oliver replied: “You probably will anyway.”
Oliver would only confirm that Canada was anxious to “collaborate at a higher level” with the U.S. on research and knowledge sharing on efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and that Canada wanted to engage with the U.S. on a wide range of issues, including ways to reduce carbon emissions from the development of unconventional resources.
Final push?
Left unanswered was whether Harper is making a final push to get Obama’s support for Keystone XL by offering concessions in return for a presidential permit for the US$7 billion pipeline.
Oliver, who met earlier in the day with U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, said the U.S. should regard Canada as a “secure and responsible producer” of energy, arguing that Alberta’s heavy crude from the oil sands is far cleaner than the coal used to fire U.S. power plants.
Harper and Obama held a brief meeting during the G-20 summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, in early September without indicating whether XL was discussed.
In a June speech, Obama declared the pipeline would not get his backing unless there was clear proof that it would not “significantly exacerbate” carbon pollution.
Although Harper has been slow to introduce carbon-reduction measures, he has been emphatic that his government will not support a carbon tax.
Pressure from environmentalists
Obama is under intense pressure from environmentalists to reject the XL project and, in the process, limit the expansion of the Alberta oil sands, which would fill about 730,000 barrels per day of space on the 830,000 bpd XL pipeline, with the remaining 100,000 bpd coming from the Bakken in North Dakota.
“A key question is whether or not Harper would be amendable to greenhouse gas reductions that would be directly linked to tar sands,” said Daniel Weiss, director of climate strategy at the Center for American Progress, a Washington-based think-tank with close ties to the Obama administration.
Daniel Kessler, a spokesman for 350.org, a group which is leading the fight against XL, said the pipeline is “an expansion project for the tar sands. There is no deal that would be palatable to us.
“This is a last-ditch bait-and-switch by the Canadian government and it’s going to fail. Keystone XL and expanded tar sands production are climate disasters, period.”
Keith Stewart, Greenpeace’s climate and energy campaign coordinator, doubted that “given Canada’s track record of broken climate commitments, I don’t think these new desperate attempts by the Harper government will have much sway with the Obama administration.”
“Tackling Canada’s skyrocketing carbon emissions means putting a moratorium on tar sands development and reducing overall emissions and Harper has proved time and time again that he is not willing to do that.”
Gillian McEachern, campaign director, Environmental Defense Canada, said Canada is unable to “credibly tackle climate change if it sticks with plans to triple tar sands production. Until we have action to limit how big and how fast the industry grows, emissions will keep on going up and our international reputation will keep being dragged down.”
Capitulation?
Thomas Pyle, president of the Institute for Energy Research, said Harper’s offer to Obama “is in reality a capitulation to the White House political machine that has unnecessarily delayed (XL) for five years.”
“The environmentalist left is opposed to any pipeline that brings affordable energy to U.S. markets and they will not be satisfied with any compromise brokered with Canada that allows construction of the Keystone pipeline,” he said.
Pyle said Harper is about to learn the same lesson as many U.S. lawmakers.
“The present administration will constantly move the goal posts in every negotiation, misrepresent the negotiations for political advantage and mischaracterize their counterparts in the negotiations.
“Relations between the U.S. and Canada are at an all-time low. Barack Obama does not care about the construction of the pipeline, nor does he care about affordable energy for American consumers.
“At the end of the day, White House officials are more concerned about cutting a deal with environmental extremists than they are with the Canadian prime minister,” Pyle said.
