Newman: Who needs Keystone XL more, Canada or the United States?

By: /
17 May, 2013

Canada!

Certainly in the short run. Canada need the pipeline to the Gulf Coast to ease what soon will be a glut of Bitumen in Alberta as Oil Sands production continues to ramp up.

If Keystone XL isn’t built, refineries on the Gulf Coast will still get oil from off-shore, either Venezuela, the Middle East, or Africa. Whether it will be as secure a long-term supply is questionable, but short term the United States can find oil for its refineries elsewhere.

Keystone XL is not a done deal but it is still the nearest option for expanded Canadian oil shipments. If it is approved this year it could be operational in 2015.

Northern Gateway looks less likely and even expansion of the Trans-Mountain still needs approval and will take longer to build.

Canada needs Keystone XL, and it needs it more than the U.S.

Before you click away, we’d like to ask you for a favour … 

Journalism in Canada has suffered a devastating decline over the last two decades. Dozens of newspapers and outlets have shuttered. Remaining newsrooms are smaller. Nowhere is this erosion more acute than in the coverage of foreign policy and international news. It’s expensive, and Canadians, oceans away from most international upheavals, pay the outside world comparatively little attention.

At Open Canada, we believe this must change. If anything, the pandemic has taught us we can’t afford to ignore the changing world. What’s more, we believe, most Canadians don’t want to. Many of us, after all, come from somewhere else and have connections that reach around the world.

Our mission is to build a conversation that involves everyone — not just politicians, academics and policy makers. We need your help to do so. Your support helps us find stories and pay writers to tell them. It helps us grow that conversation. It helps us encourage more Canadians to play an active role in shaping our country’s place in the world.

Become a Supporter