Saskatchewan premier touts Canada’s environmental credentials on U.S. visit

WASHINGTON – Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall says Canada hasn’t done a good job promoting the Keystone XL pipeline as he embarked Thursday upon a full court press in the U.S. capital to extol the virtues of the controversial project by lauding Canada’s green credentials.

“We should have been doing a better job in this country, in this city,” he said.

Canadian officials should have been telling their American counterparts: “Here’s the economic case, here’s the energy security and oh, by the way, we care about the environment and here’s what we’re doing with respect to the environmental piece of this,” Wall said.

Both countries take the relationship for granted at times, he added, a state of affairs that’s caused Keystone XL opposition to become a bigger problem for the Obama administration than necessary.

Canada-U.S. relations need a “little extra tending” on several fronts, Wall said, particularly regarding trade and energy issues.

“Like a long-lasting marriage, it’s important to have a date night,” he said during a breakfast meeting on Capitol Hill.

Wall is just the latest Canadian politician to head stateside to make the case for the $7.6 billion pipeline, a project that would carry millions of barrels of oilsands bitumen a week through six U.S. states to Gulf Coast refineries.

Joe Oliver, the natural resources minister, was in Chicago and Houston this week to make a similar pitch, while Alberta Premier Alison Redford was also in D.C. recently. Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird met with Secretary of State John Kerry a month ago.

Wall met Wednesday with mostly Republican lawmakers who already support the pipeline.

But he added he also had a 10-minute “hallway meeting” on Capitol Hill with Ed Markey, a fierce Democratic climate hawk. He conceded he didn’t change the congressman’s mind, but assured him that oilsands bitumen would not be destined for foreign markets once it reached the Gulf Coast.

Later Thursday, Wall was slated to meet Democratic senators and Kerri-Ann Jones, the assistant state secretary who’s been leading the State Department’s review of the pipeline.

The Saskatchewan premier has not only been pushing for Keystone approval during his three days of meetings, he’s also been touting his province’s $1.4 billion clean-coal project as proof of Canada’s intent to cut its greenhouse gas emissions.

Wall says he’s also making mention of Alberta’s carbon tax and long-awaited federal government regulations on the oil and gas sector, expected by the summer.

“We really need to make more of an environmental case for this project,” he said, urging pipeline proponents to pivot from touting the pipeline for its job creation and energy security benefits to heralding Canada’s environmental gravitas.

“There is a record that I would argue is as aggressive — or maybe more than you would find here — in terms of energy and the environment, but we haven’t talked about it much.”

Given Saskatchewan currently has no oilsands development, Wall added, he’s in a good position to argue objectively in favour of the pipeline to American stakeholders. The province does, however, produce conventional oil that would be transported by Keystone XL.

“We’re here principally to make the environmental case,” he said. “We need to give (the Obama administration) as much environmental elbow room as possible. So to help with that elbow room, we are talking about our record in Saskatchewan.”

The premier added he’s confident Keystone will soon be approved, particularly following the U.S. State Department’s draft environmental assessment of the pipeline that was dismissive of many of the environmental movement’s concerns about it.