Envoy: Rejecting Keystone will ‘strain’ relations with Canada

Rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline will “definitely strain” U.S.-Canadian relations, Canada’s ambassador to Washington warned.

Gary Doer said rejecting the project now would be “political” after the State Department concluded last month that the pipeline would carry oil from Canadian tar sands with less greenhouse gases than trucking it south. The Canadian envoy made the remarks in an interview with Platts Energy Week TV that ran over the weekend, National Journal reports.

“So I guess I would say, based on this report and based on the president’s own stated criteria, that if the project is rejected it would be perceived as being political and not on the basis of the public interest of the United states and Canada,” Doer said.

The Obama administration has said that the State Department evaluation was only part of its environmental review. An interagency review lasting roughly 90 days will now have to occur before the decision reaches the president’s desk.

Republicans seized on the State Department report to demand approval. 

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said after the report was released that Obama is “out of excuses.”

“If President Obama wants to make this a ‘year of action;,” Boehner said last month, “he will stand up to the extreme Left in his own party, stand with the overwhelming majority of American people, and approve this critical project.” 

Please send tips and comments to Julian Pecquet: jpecquet@digital-release.thehill.com

Follow us on Twitter: @TheHillGlobal and @JPecquetTheHill