When announcing the decision to reject the Keystone XL pipeline’s application, U.S. President Barack Obama said shipping “dirtier” crude oil into the country would not increase America’s energy security. Alberta Premier Rachel Notley has taken issue with his characterization of our product, but says it underlines the need for the province to do better when it comes to climate change.
“Canada can be and is a global source of environmental energy but it can be more so through better environmental policies, and Alberta will act to help make that happen… then we hope that future energy infrastructure projects will be debated on their own economic merit.”
While Notley agrees the province needs to improve its record on issues like greenhouse gas emissions, she maintains that wasn’t the only factor in today’s decision.
“It highlights the importance that we need to focus our efforts on getting our product to tidewater. We need to focus our efforts on the other pipelines over which we have greater domain, and so I will continue to do that work; I will continue to make that case to the federal government.”
That includes the Energy East pipeline and Kinder Morgan. Notley says she’s spoken to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau since the announcement and they’ve both agreed that building this infrastructure to get Alberta’s energy resources to port is a national priority.
