LITTLE ROCK — Getting caught up in U.S. presidential politics can be risky for any foreign government. For the government of friendly, reliable Canada, it’s been an ongoing exercise in frustration.
Canada is blessed with massive oil reserves in and around its landlocked province of Alberta. To make the most of its oil-sands wealth, Canada needs to get the product to market. America, naturally, is the handiest potential customer.
The Keystone XL pipeline would bring Canadian oil from Alberta to Nebraska, where it would continue on to U.S. refineries near the Gulf of Mexico. Keystone would go a long way toward solving the problem of what to do with all that potentially lucrative and useful oil piling up in the northern reaches of North America. The U.S. could use it, that’s for sure.
In a sop to its eco-green political base, though, the administration of President Barack Obama blocked the Keystone pipeline in January.
Now the project is under review again at the U.S. State Department, which has jurisdiction because the pipeline would cross our border with Canada. Earlier this month, the diplomats announced plans to make a final decision on the project by the first quarter of 2013-a date that, not coincidentally, puts off the issue until after the election.
How convenient for the president and his re-election strategists!
To everyone else, though, this is ridiculous: The project has been under review for more than four years. The only remaining question involves a short stretch of what would be a large scale, job-creating boon to the nation’s energy infrastructure.
The administration owes TransCanada, the company seeking to build the pipeline, a timely decision.
Canadian government officials and energy companies are seeking alternatives for bringing their nation’s booming oil output to market. The Keystone XL bottleneck gives them a huge financial incentive to do so.
Enough stalling: Speed up this approval.
Editorial, Pages 10 on 06/25/2012