Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall told journalists at a breakfast meeting Thursday that the power of the U.S. environmental lobby could force U.S. President Barack Obama to try to impose regulations on Canada.
He said this would “not be helpful” and added that Canada would never try to impose domestic policy on the U.S. in exchange for approving a U.S. project.
Wall recently complained in a letter to the American ambassador to Canada about the possibility that the U.S. might use Keystone as an excuse to trespass on Canadian domestic policy.
“There seems to be an inference that it would be easier for the president to approve (Keystone) if there was some kind of quid pro quo change in U.S.-Canadian policy,” he said. “We got a response back from the ambassador – and we will take them at their word – that that’s certainly not the case.”
Wall said, however, he recently met with Calgary oil executives who told him it was their general sense that the administration is intimating a quid pro quo.
He added, “The most dynamic trade relationship in the world needs some extra tendering.”
Wall said that this is a main reason why he is part of a Canadian blitz to educate U.S. politicians about Canada’s actions on climate change, which, he claimed, are often stronger than those taken in the U.S.
He expressed cautious optimism that the Keystone XL pipeline will be approved. But said that Canadian leaders have to prove Canada is taking strong action on climate change by implementing effective regulations to give U.S. President Barack Obama the “environmental elbow room” to make a favourable decision on Keystone.
There is “a very well-organized lobby (of environmentalists) that is making a case quite publicly that Canada doesn’t care about the environment, so why should we want that oil,” he said. “If we are demonstrating that we are serious about (the environment) and we have answers and we are willing to work with others on the answers, I think that that’s an important part of the message.”
While no Saskatchewan oil will flow through the Keystone, the pipeline nevertheless will have a significant effect on the province’s treasury, Wall said.
Because of bottlenecks in the U.S. pipeline system that discounts the price heavy oil produced in Saskatchewan, the province is selling its oil at about 19 per cent below world prices. This means an annual loss to the government of about $300 million in royalties plus a $2.5 billion loss to producers.
“The Saskatchewan people who own the resource are really not maximizing the return on their oil,” he said.
Keystone remains an important issue here to the point where even George Shultz, secretary of state in the Reagan administration, said Keystone already should have been approved.
Shultz is chair of the Shultz-Stephenson Task Force on Energy Policy with a mandate to promote the development of clean energy technologies jointly at MIT and Stanford University.
In an interview at the Woodrow Wilson Centre Thursday, he volunteered that Canada has not been fairly treated.
“It’s a no brainer,” he said, referring to Keystone. He added that there are “no environmental issues” attached to the pipeline and added Canada will simply sell the oil to China if the U.S. rejects Keystone.
He said U.S. Foreign policy begins “in the neighbourhood” and Canada is America’s closest and most important trading partner.
“I’m not saying we should approve the pipeline because of that, but because I support the project,” he said.
Original Article
Source: calgaryherald.com
Author: William Marsden
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