How Canada’s emissions cuts could spur Keystone XL pipeline approval – Mining.com

July 6, 2015

TransCanada Corp. has written to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arguing that new Canadian rules on emissions should persuade him to approve the construction of the much-delayed Keystone XL pipeline.

The proposed US $6.4 billion project would carry an estimated 830,000 barrels of Canadian crude oil per day from Hardisty, Alberta, to Steele City, Nebraska, then link up with Keystone’s existing line, which would take the oil on the final leg to the Texas coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

Keystone XL is strongly opposed by environmentalists both in the United States and Canada, and President Obama says he won’t approve the project until he’s convinced it won’t seriously contribute to climate change.

But in a letter to Kerry and other State Department officials, Kristin Delkus, TransCanada’s general counsel, pointed to new policies on carbon emissions in Canada, specifically a federal rule issued in May to cut emissions down to 70 percent of their 2005 levels within 15 years.

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