Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
No Keystone XL? Blame Canada
To hear the Canadian government tell it, Barack Obama's administration has yet to approve the Keystone XL pipeline because it won't stand up to environmental activists. Exhaustive new reporting offers a more persuasive explanation: The oil pipeline hasn't been approved because the Canadian government keeps screwing up.
Today's story by my colleagues at Bloomberg News bureaus in Toronto, Ottawa and Calgary, the result of more than 75 interviews, lays out how Canada's failure to secure a green light for Keystone can be traced to a series of miscalculations, missed opportunities and flat-out mistakes. (The story is worth reading in its entirety.)
SNIP
-- In response to that unanticipated setback, Prime Minister Stephen Harper failed to heed Obama administration warnings that an aggressive lobbying campaign would only make things harder, by making it look as if it was approving the pipeline under pressure.
Canada did the opposite, deciding "to refocus U.S. lobbying on vulnerable Democratic senators representing pro-oil states. The White House, State Department and embassy kept cautioning that making a fuss of any kind would merely taint a sensitive process subject to litigation. Harper demurred."
SNIP
-- Toning down the public campaign isn't the only advice Canada chose to ignore. The Obama administration told the Harper government that getting the pipeline approved would be easier if Canada would regulate its oil and gas emissions. Harper failed to impose those regulations, despite promises to do so.
In other words, the Canadian prime minister blocked vital national environmental regulations out of spite: He didn't want to give Obama anything without getting something in return. That's not only the wrong way to set policy but also had the effect of setting back his cause. The result, writes Greenspon, was Canada "allowing itself to become stigmatized as an environmental laggard," and "leave Obama little to work with."
Continued at Link:
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-04-25/no-keystone-xl-blame-canada
3 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
