Amber Gosselin

Published: March 11, 2022

-Western Standard

 

Premier Jason Kenney said Alberta would consider backing the cost of the Keystone XL pipeline to “revive” the project pending “political certainty from Washington.”

At a press conference in Canmore Kenney said while he would prefer to have the project financed privately, he believes the U.S. is motivated to source oil closer to home amid the Russian/Ukraine conflict.

“I believe where there’s a will, there’s a way and if President Biden wants to end America’s addiction to conflict dictator oil, all he has to do is pick up the phone and call Prime Minister Trudeau.”

“I’d be happy to take his call as well and say, look, you got it wrong on the Keystone XL veto. Let’s figure out how to get that pipeline built right away. If we had that political certainty from Washington, I believe we could find a way to revive Keystone XL.”

The premier said TC Energy would not be able to finance the project “given the political uncertainty,” but that the province is prepared “in principle, to de-risk the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.”

The Alberta government funded TC Energy to help advance pipeline construction, but after U.S. President Joe Biden revoked the permit for the Keystone XL border crossing on Jan. 20, 2021, Alberta taxpayers were left holding the bag.

Alberta is currently trying to recoup the $1.3 billion in taxpayer dollars sunk into the cancelled project via a legacy trade claim. TC Energy confirmed Tuesday it would not revive the project.

“We obviously would prefer that it be privately financed, but if the political uncertainty created by the Biden veto makes that impossible, we would be creative.”

The premier was in Houston, Texas this week at the CERAWeek conference to promote Alberta’s oil and gas industry to key markets.

“And I think there is a will. I’ve been speaking to people in the U.S. Congress who understand this is a national security imperative to get that pipeline built — 840,000 plus barrels a day to displace dictator conflict oil,” said Kenney.

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