Keystone pipeline delay drives wedge between Harper, Obama

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HONOLULU (NEWS1130) – A series of US decisions which run counter to Canadian interests highlight the need for Canada to secure access to Asian markets for its energy products, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Sunday.

While Harper and US President Barack Obama took a chummy walk down a palm treed path outside the APEC summit in Hawaii Sunday, it was clear that the delay of a major Canadian pipeline project continues to drive a wedge in relations between the two countries.

According to official accounts of the leaders’ meeting, Harper expressed his disappointment with the US State Department’s decision to reroute the $7-billion project and order further environmental assessment.

The 2,700-kilometre pipeline would bring crude from the new oilsands expansions in northern Alberta to be turned into gasoline and other fuels in Texas, the hub of the American refining industry.
 
But Obama said he supported the decision to delay TransCanada’s Keystone XL project “to ensure that all questions are properly addressed and all the potential impacts are properly understood.”

Earlier Sunday, Harper had said he was confident the project would eventually be approved.

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