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By Christopher Guly
OTTAWA, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump's approval on Tuesday of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to the United States may be good news for Canada's oil sands, but might not be so positive against the political backdrop of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's green agenda.
MOVE THE OIL
Trudeau welcomed Trump's executive order that will allow for the construction of the 1,179-mile Keystone XL pipeline that TransCanada Corp. first proposed building in 2008 to transport 830,000 barrels of crude oil a day from the Canadian province of Alberta to the U.S. state of Nebraska and eventually onto Texas refineries.
Trudeau said on Tuesday that he has already spoken to Trump twice and that he reiterated his support for the project, which his prime ministerial predecessor, Stephen Harper, championed and which Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama, rejected.
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley was also happy, yet cautious about Trump's green light for Keystone, which could provide an economic boost to her province that last year took major hits from widespread forest fires and falling oil prices.
Notley's concerns are based on Trump's assertion that the pipeline project would be subject to "renegotiation of terms" by his administration, and the premier awaits clarification as to what those terms will include.
Her main focus, however, is getting Alberta oil across the Pacific Ocean -- and in that goal, Notley has an ally in Trudeau.
Late last November his Liberal government approved a project by energy company Kinder Morgan Canada to move oil along a 714-mile twinned pipeline from Alberta's capital, Edmonton, to a terminal near Vancouver, in the province of British Columbia, for export to Asian markets.
At the time, the Canadian government also gave the green light to another pipeline project by Canadian company Enbridge Inc. to replace 1,031 miles of pipeline from Alberta to the U.S. state of Wisconsin, and move 760,000 barrels of oil a day.
THE ENVIRONMENT
However, a coalition of Canadian aboriginal groups are determined to ensure that both pipeline initiatives never see the light of day, arguing, as Derek Nepinak, grand chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs has said, "there's been no consent to the projects by indigenous people."
Climate-change activists, opposed to further reliance on fossil fuels, wonder how Trudeau's support for pipelines fit within his pledge to impose limits on greenhouse gases and plans for a national tax on carbon emissions, starting next year, as part of his government's efforts to meet targets set by the 2015 Paris climate change accord.
Daniel Cayley-Daoust, an energy and climate justice campaigner for the Council of Canadians -- an Ottawa-based social-action organization -- said in a statement that Trudeau has supported three pipeline projects over the last two months "despite strong evidence that pipelines aren't needed and will prevent us from reaching our climate goals."
"This further reinforces the failure of the Trudeau government's climate aspirations that are now literally only a pipe dream," added Cayley-Daoust.
At the very least, it puts Trudeau in the position of balancing benefits for both Canada's environment and its economy, which he cited at a town-hall meeting in Calgary on Tuesday.
The Prime Minister sought to clarify remarks he made earlier this month at another town-hall event in the province of Ontario where he said that Canada needs to "phase out" the oil sands and "manage the transition off our dependence on fossil fuels." But that "is going to take a long time," Trudeau clarified on Tuesday.
His responsibility is to ensure Canadians have good jobs and that "communities are prospering," he said, "and doing it in a way that understands our responsibility to the environment and future generations."
