Premier Jason Kenney says Alberta is the best choice to supply energy to the United States and wants to revive the Keystone XL pipeline.
In a news conference last week, the premier made the claim that TC Energy’s Keystone XL crude pipeline could be built by the first quarter of next year if the Biden administration were to reverse its decision to cancel the project, according to Bloomberg.
Construction of the controversial pipeline, which would have raised Canada’s oil-sands export capacity to the U.S. by almost 900,000 barrels a day, had already begun when the project was scrapped last year on President Joe Biden’s first day in office.
The pipeline has already cost $1.3 billion, and in June 2021, TC Energy said in an email that “The Keystone XL Pipeline Project was terminated.”
But Kenney is very sure that even if Washington was to “de-risk” the pipeline, and TC Energy wouldn’t fund it, the province could, according to CTV News Canada.
“Yes we would be prepared in principle to de-risk the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline,” said Kenney.
On Friday, Kenney reiterated his claims, saying “Obviously I would prefer that it be privately financed, but if political uncertainty created by the Biden veto makes that impossible we would be creative.”
“During a disaster like this, national security and the interest of the economy must prevail,” the premier said. “I think there is a lot of creative ways that this could be addressed.”
A distortion of the facts
When gas prices began spiraling last week in the United States, top Republican lawmakers took to the airwaves and the floors of Congress with misleading claims that pinned the blame on President Biden and his energy policies.
This occurred even as Biden, on Tuesday told the American public the ban on Russian imports of oil and gas would cause gas prices to rise further, and the price of gas would stay high as long as the Russian invasion of Ukraine continued.
Now, Republican lawmakers supported Biden’s ban – but claimed that the pain at the pump long preceded the war in Ukraine, blaming the gas hike prices on Biden’s cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline, the temporary halt on new drilling leases on public lands, and the surrendering of “energy independence” – all incorrect assertions.
Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the minority leader, in a speech on Tuesday:
“This administration wants to ramp up energy imports from Iran and Venezuela. That is the world’s largest state sponsor of terror and a thuggish South America dictator, respectively. They would rather buy from these people than buy from Texas, Alaska and Pennsylvania.”
Representative Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California and the minority leader, in a speech on Tuesday:
“Democrats want to blame surging prices on Russia. But the truth is, their out-of-touch policies are why we are here in the first place. Remember what happened on Day 1 with one-party rule? The president canceled the Keystone pipeline, and then he stopped new oil and gas leases on federal lands and waters.”
All these claims are misleading
“Covid changed the game, not President Biden,” said Patrick De Haan, the head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy, which tracks gasoline prices. “U.S. oil production fell in the last eight months of President Trump’s tenure. Is that his fault? No.”
The public tends to forget that the benchmark price for crude oil in the United States fell to a negative $37.63 in April 2020. In response, producers in the United States and around the world began decreasing output.
And as pandemic restrictions took hold worldwide, the need for oil decreased, resulting in OPEC oil-producing nations cutting production. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has only compounded the issues.
“When you throw a war on top of this, this is possibly the worst escalation you can have of this,” said Abhiram Rajendran, the head of oil market research at Energy Intelligence, an energy information company. “You’re literally pouring gasoline on general inflationary pressure.”
While the Biden administration has been “clearly less friendly” to the industry, his stance has played a “very, very small role pushing gas prices up,” says De Haan.
So yes, many of the statements by GOP lawmakers come across as being somewhat misleading. And here is the reason why – Kenney said he has been speaking to members of Congress and says they understand that it is a national security imperative to get Keystone XL built.
I believe that we could be partners potentially with the U.S. government in de-risking the project much in the same way the federal government did with the Trans Mountain expansion,” said Kenney.
It is almost amazing to discover what goes on behind the headlines, isn’t it? The political manipulation going on over reviving the Keystone XL pipeline are really quite evident.
