Keystone approval spells headache for Trudeau

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was quick to welcome Washington''s approval Friday of a major new pipeline from Canada into the United States, but observers say it creates political headaches for his administration. Trudeau has sought to strike a balance between two competing policies - supporting Canada''s oil and gas sector, which is the sixth largest in the world, and slashing global-warming greenhouse gases.
In approving the Keystone XL pipeline - which would move oil from landlocked Alberta, Canada to US Gulf Coast refineries - US President Donald Trump reversed his predecessor Barack Obama''s decision to block it two years ago. The project had first been proposed in 2008. In doing so, Trump has reignited a nearly decade-long feud between environmental activists and the energy industry, leaving Trudeau squeezed in the middle.
"I think Trump''s decision hurts the Trudeau government," Matthew Hoffmann, co-director of the Munk School''s Environmental Governance Lab in Toronto told AFP. "I think they would have been happy to let Keystone die because of the US and not have to pay the political costs for its approval." Trudeau''s centrist Liberal government remains high in the polls, but critics have highlighted his conflicting climate and economic policies to try to pry open cracks in his armor.
On the one hand he has spoken enthusiastically about the need to stem global warming, but he also recently approved two new domestic pipelines. It''s an awkward position that Trudeau has "desperately clung to," said energy specialist Pierre-Olivier Pineau of HEC school in Montreal. The approval of the Keystone pipeline, the first and most favoured of projects touted by the industry, will however help to shore up his support on the center-right.
And it will help a political ally - a fledgling progressive government in Alberta led by Rachel Notley. Her New Democrats swept to power for the first time ever in 2015 after four decades of conservative rule. The Canadian oil and gas sector is naturally pleased about the decision. Alberta''s oil has long been discounted $5-$10 below market values because there had been no way to get it to tidewater, leaving the United States as its sole buyer.