Prime Minister Stephen Harper, pictured in New York City during a 2009 visit, is in New York Thursday and will no doubt talk about the Keystone XL Pipeline.
Photo Credit: Tom Hanson/Canadian Press

Keystone pipeline approval advances slowly in U.S.

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Canadian Prime Minister Harper is in New York today and will try to promote approval of the Keystone pipeline to bring bitumen from Canadian oil sands to the U.S. He will take questions from a prestigious think-tank but their main preoccupation is not the pipeline.

The pipeline was a hot topic during the last U.S. election with Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney saying he would approve it on his first day in office if he were elected. President Obama never explicitly said he was opposed. Environmentalists have been vocally opposed, holding demonstrations featuring support from famous people like actor Daryl Hannah and Connor Kennedy.

It is the U.S. State Department which is now reviewing the pipeline application and accepting comments from interested parties. That process will take some time.  Steve Kelley is an energy expert and professor at Duke University , North Carolina. He says President Obama has many issues on his plane and is probably content to just let the matter go through the State Department process. “I think it’s safe to say that the Keystone decision is not one of those thing that he comes in to the office every day and says ‘Gotta do something about Keystone,’” said Kelley.

Environmentalists have made a lot noise against the pipeline and Harper may hope to elicit some positive talk about Keystone on this trip. But Kelley notes the issue is less pressing for the Americans since they have ramped up their oil production and need less from Canada.

Canada could try to make some more gestures to indicate it is trying to make oil sand processing more environmentally friendly to answer Obama’s commitments to reducing greenhouse gases, thinks Kelley. But beyond that he does not think there is much Canada can do to advance approval of the pipeline.

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