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Canada plans to expand oil shipments from Alberta to British Columbia, in order to increase trade with Asia.(AP Photo)

On Wednesday, U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration denied the application for the Keystone XL pipeline, running from Canada’s tar sands to the U.S. Gulf coast. The proposed 1,700-mile-long pipeline would cost $7 billion and channel up to 830,000 barrels of crude oil per day from Alberta to Oklahoma and Texas. Environmentalists raised concerns about the route of the pipeline, which would cross the ecologically delicate Sandhills wetland region, and could endanger the water reserve in the Ogallala Aquifer. In a statement, Obama said that the U.S. State Department did not have enough time to consider the application due to a February 21 deadline set by Congress. TransCanada, the company proposing the pipeline, can resubmit an application, with a route that would avoid the environmentally sensitive region. The 2012 U.S. elections also played a role. Nicole Spencer, director of energy policy at Council of the Americas, said: “[It’s] possible that once the (rather unusual) fervor over the pipeline has had a chance to wind down and the elections have passed, cooler heads will prevail.” With Keystone delayed, Canada—the United States’ top energy supplier—could seek a Read more…