CALGARY – Premier Jim Prentice is going to bat for the Keystone XL pipeline.
The premier said Thursday that he would travel to Washington to lobby for the stalled pipeline project.
“Certainly the intent is to go and to speak with decision makers in the United States and to ensure that Alberta’s position is understood quite clearly in the United States capital,” said Prentice on Thursday.
U.S. republicans, who won a majority in Congress in midterm elections on Tuesday, have said they would consider a bill authorizing construction of the Keystone pipeline.
The pipeline would ship more than 800,000 barrels of oilsands bitumen from Alberta to refineries in Texas.
But the company behind the pipeline, TransCanada, has been waiting more than six years for U.S. government approval. Alberta oil producers have had to ship their product by rail or truck— at lower prices.
In the interim the cost of the pipeline has increased by 50 percent. It’s now at $8 billion.
The Republican party is warning President Barack Obama to stop holding back approval and work with the new Republican-dominated Congress.
“I have told the president before that he needs to put politics aside and rebuild trust,” said John Boehner on Thursday.
“Rebuild trust not only with the American people, but with the American people’s representatives here in the United States Congress.”
Washington has said it will wait for a Nebraska Supreme Court decision that is expected in early 2015.
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