NY Times Columnist Joe Nocera Calls Out Obama on Keystone Pipeline

In the past two weeks, New York Times columnist Joe Nocera has published a couple of insightful columns about President Obama's cave-in to the environmentalist lobby on the Keystone pipeline. That pipeline would transport about million barrels of oil a day from Canada to refineries in the U.S. Environmental activists oppose the building the pipeline largely on the grounds that the oil it transports will exacerbate man-made global warming. The hope of activists is that stopping the pipeline will result in keeping the petroleum derived from Canada's oil sands in the ground forever. That won't happen explains Nocera. Why? One word: China. 

Instead of blithely assuming the United States would purchase its oil, Canada is now determined to find diverse buyers so it won't be held hostage by American politics.  Hence, the newfound willingness to do business with China. Canada has concluded that it simply can't expect much from the United States, even on an issue that would seem to be vital to our own interests.

In fact, Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper was in China just last week to peddle his country's abundant energy supplies. As the National Post reported: 

… with major U.S. media outlets covering his speech [in China], Harper also delivered a not-so-subtle reminder to the United States: if you don't want Canadian oilsands crude, China is a waiting customer with a growing energy appetite….

Canada has an abundance of petroleum and is looking to "profoundly diversify" its trade relationships, Harper said, as well as deepen its economic cooperation with a booming China that needs resources to fuel its growth.

"We are an emerging energy superpower," Harper told corporate leaders at the Canada-China business dinner in the city of 13 million people.

"We have abundant supplies of virtually every form of energy. And you know, we want to sell our energy to people who want to buy our energy. It's that simple," he said, to applause from the crowd….

Harper noted that virtually all of Canada's energy exports currently go to the U.S. and that it's increasingly clear the country's commercial interests are best served by diversifying its energy markets.

In his second column, Nocera notes that his support of the Keystone pipeline has gotten him called a climate change "denier" in certain circles. As he notes, it is quite possible to believe that man-made global warming is a problem while simultaneously thinking that the trade-offs with regard to energy security and job creation currently favor buying oil from Canada. Nocera also points out:

You want to know another little secret about the tar sands? It's already coming here, thanks to existing pipelines — and it is already doing us a great deal of good. The influx of Canadian oil is partly why our imports from OPEC are at their lowest level in nearly a decade. And because the crude from Canada is selling at a steep discount to Saudi Arabian crude, it is stabilizing the price at the pump.

Go here to read my column, The Miracle of Oil from Sand, about my industry junket to oil sands production facilities in northern Alberta earlier this year.