Energy Politics

Finance minister Jim Flaherty is "talking tough" according to the Globe and Mail's Steven Chase  and threatening the Americans with the Northern Gateway pipeline in the wake of the postponement of the Keystone XL project.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty [is] warning the postponement could kill the project and accelerate this country's efforts to ship oil to Asia instead.

"The decision to delay it that long is actually quite a crucial decision. I'm not sure this project would survive that kind of delay," Mr. Flaherty told Bloomberg News. "It may mean that we may have to move quickly to ensure that we can export our oil to Asia through British Columbia."

The original Bloomberg article also reports:

Flaherty, 61, will travel later this week to Beijing, where he will discuss increasing energy exports to China and facilitating investment in Canadian natural-resource assets. Enbridge Inc. (ENB) has proposed building a pipeline, called Northern Gateway, that would transport crude from Alberta's oil sands to Canada's Pacific coast, while Kinder Morgan Inc. plans to expand its Trans Mountain route to do the same.