If Stephen Harper fails to get his Keystone pipeline, he'll have Tom Steyer to blame almost as much as Barack Obama.
Because the anti-pipeline billionaire has just produced a devastating poll that could kill the project dead.
By reminding his fellow Americans that Harper's bitumen won't be fuelling their country, it will be fuelling China.
For years, a majority of Americans have been telling pollsters they favour building the long-delayed Keystone XL pipeline. But if asked whether it makes a difference that Alberta’s oil sands crude could be exported to China then sentiment turns negative, according to the project’s opponents.
According to the poll, overwhelming majorities of Americans want Congress to “make sure” it knows where the oil is going and want TransCanada executives to testify under oath that the oil will stay in the United States.
Which pulls the carpet out from under Harper and his oil pimps.
TransCanada, backed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and a slew of Canadian premiers, have pitched Keystone XL as a reliable source of much-needed oil from a trusted ally.
But environmentalists and other anti-Keystone XL groups claim the oil is no longer needed in the United States where domestic production has soared and that what Canada really wants is an export route to finance vast new development of the oil sands.
And undermines the support of even some of the pipeline's strongest backers.
Consider, for instance, the responses to this question: “Would it concern you a lot, a little, or not at all, if oil flowing through the Keystone XL pipeline ended up in China?”
Overall, 87 per cent agree that would concern them, with the concern greatest among conservatives – who otherwise tend to back the pipeline most strongly.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/pol ... d/follows/