Americas News
Keystone XL "Absolutely Needs to Go Ahead"
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper says the Keystone XL Pipeline from Canada to the U.S. "absolutely needs to go ahead," the Associated Press reports.
Speaking during a visit to New York City, Harper said that the oil from Alberta will be transported to the U.S. one way or another in any case and that the pipeline is the most environmentally friendly way to move it.
"The only real immediate environmental issue here is, do we want to increase the flow of oil from Canada by pipeline or via rail?" he said.
Environmental groups say the pipeline promotes the development of a particularly greenhouse gas intensive resource in Alberta's oil sands and that it could result in spills, and they questioned Harper's argument that the oil could be moved by train.
"Rail can't replace pipelines — at least not anytime soon or without massive new rail infrastructure," Keith Stewart of Greenpeace Canada wrote a blog post.
Northern Alberta has 170 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, the third largest such resource in the world, and the U.S. accounts for the vast majority of Canadian energy exports.
The pipeline, which is waiting on U.S. approval, would carry 800,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil from Alberta to the Texas Gulf Coast.
TransCanada Corp., the company handling the pipeline, said recently that the start of construction has been delayed until late 2015 as it waits for a U.S. decision on the project.
