The U.S. State Department set off a firestorm when it decided to delay approving the Keystone XL pipeline, with the NDP and Greenpeace viewing the move as a victory while the Canadian government muses about shipping crude to China.
But in the U.S., some environmentalists believe President Obama is just delaying the decision in hopes the project will not divide key Democrat supporters—unions and environmentalists.
In Canada, the delay has prompted accusations of unpatriotic behaviour, with the Conservatives slamming the NDP over plans to lobby against the pipeline in the U.S.
Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver described any such attempt by the NDP as a “disgrace.”
“I was appalled when I heard the NDP intends to go down to the United States to talk negatively about the Keystone XL project,” he said Tuesday.
“This is a project which will generate hundreds of thousands of jobs for Canadians, billions of dollars of economic activity, and it will fund important social services like education for our children, health care for the elderly.”
The government has suggested Asia as an alternate destination for the oil, prompting discussion about the impacts of an alternate pipeline that would pump oil sands crude to Kitimat, B.C., for transport to China, Japan, and elsewhere.
“When I visited Japan and China quite recently, let me tell you, there’s a thirst for our natural resources there,” Oliver said.
NDP interim leader Nycole Turmel said the delay shows there are unanswered environmental questions about the project.
“The United States is deciding to postpone because they want more inquiry on the environment. So that just answers our question, what we have said for so many months, that they should have more question, more studies on environment and impact on environment,” she told reporters on Monday.
State Department Delay Tactic
The State Department, with direction from the White House, will push approval for the project into the first quarter of 2013, just after the 2012 elections. The department said it needed time to examine alternative pipeline routes.
