President Barack Obama’s decision yesterday to reject a permit for TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL oil pipeline may prompt Canada to turn to China for oil exports.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, in a telephone call yesterday, told Obama “Canada will continue to work to diversify its energy exports,” according to details provided by Harper’s office. Canadian Natural Resource Minister Joe Oliver said relying less on the U.S. would help strengthen the country’s “financial security.”
The “decision by the Obama administration underlines the importance of diversifying and expanding our markets, including the growing Asian market,” Oliver told reporters in Ottawa.
Currently, 99 percent of Canada’s crude exports go to the U.S., a figure that Harper wants to reduce in his bid to make Canada a “superpower” in global energy markets.
Canada accounts for more than 90 percent of all proven reserves outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, according to data compiled in the BP Statistical Review of World Energy. Most of Canada’s crude is produced from oil-sands deposits in the landlocked province of Alberta, where output is expected to double over the next eight years, according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.
“I am sure that if the oil sands production is not used in the United States, they will be used in other countries,” Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency, said in an interview before a speech at Imperial College in London today.
Harper “expressed his profound disappointment with the news,” according to the statement, which added that Obama told Harper the rejection was not based on the project’s merit and that the company is free to re-apply.
Canada this month began hearings on a proposed pipeline by Enbridge Inc. to move crude from Alberta’s oil sands to British Columbia’s coast, where it could be shipped to Asian markets.
Environmentalists and Canadian opposition lawmakers welcomed the Obama administration’s decision. Megan Leslie, a lawmaker for the opposition New Democratic Party, said the Keystone pipeline project was harmful to Canada’s energy security.
“What I’m opposed to is continuing the unchecked expansion of the oil sands,” Leslie said by telephone.
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3 Responses
That’s old news.
I believe Obama believes we should all use renewable energy produced with heavy taxpayer subsidies by companies that make big contributions to the Democrat’s campaign funds.
That is why he’s opposed to inexpensive oil produced in North America. And also, if we don’t help China get cheap energy to power their factories that take away jobs from Americans, how will the Chinese be able to afford to buy our bonds which are a critical factor in financing our ever growing national debt?
Obama is simply trying to make sure that gas prices keep going up. He said that before being voted in, during his campaign. I wish they would play that sound bite often.
Obama is simply the absolute worst president ever. He claims he wants to make it easier for people to get jobs but his actions show he’s full of manure! He wants to continue creating entitlements which is why he IS to be known as the Food Stamp President.