Canada Loses Patience on Keystone XL, Tells U.S. to Decide

Canada bluntly told the United States on Thursday to settle the fate of TransCanada Corp’s proposed Keystone XL pipeline, saying the drawn-out process on whether to approve the northern leg of the project was taking too long.

The hard-line comments by Foreign Minister John Baird were the clearest sign yet that Canada’s Conservative government has lost patience over what it sees as U.S. foot-dragging.

Baird also conceded that Washington might veto the project, the first admission of its kind by a Canadian minister.

The 1,200-mile pipeline would carry 830,000 barrels a day from the Alberta tar sands in western Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast. Ottawa strongly backs Keystone XL, which it says would create jobs and provide a secure supply of oil to Canada’s closest ally and trading partner.

“The time for Keystone is now. I’ll go further — the time for a decision on Keystone is now, even if it’s not the right one. We can’t continue in this state of limbo,” Baird said in a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Although the State Department is responsible for ruling on whether the pipeline meets the national interest, President Barack Obama has made clear he will make the final decision.

Obama is under heavy pressure from environmental activists to veto the northern leg, and Washington seems in no hurry, despite the growing irritation in Ottawa. Canada is the largest single supplier of energy to the United States.

White House spokesman Jay Carney referred questions about Baird’s comments to the State Department, citing the current review. When a decision is made, it will be announced, he told reporters.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said earlier this month that Obama had “punted” the decision but expressed confidence that the United States would eventually approve the pipeline.

Last September, he told a New York audience that the logic behind the pipeline was “simply overwhelming” and said “you don’t take ‘no’ for an answer.

This article appeared in print on page 3 of the January 17th, 2014 edition of Hamodia.