Premier Brad Wall and 10 U.S. governors have sent a joint letter to U.S. President Barack Obama urging him to approve the Keystone XL Pipeline project.
In the letter to Obama, Wall and the governors say the pipeline is crucial to U.S. energy security, with U.S. oil imports from Canada potentially reaching four million barrels a day by 2020, twice what is currently imported from the Persian Gulf. They also cite the pipeline as critical infrastructure that would move growing American conventional oil production from the Bakken Formation to market, thus easing pipeline capacity for all jurisdictions that share this dynamic oil play, including Saskatchewan, North Dakota and Montana.
The premier and the governors say the project will create thousands of manufacturing and construction jobs on both sides of the border, as well as considerable spin-off economic benefits in communities along the pipeline route.
They also note that pipelines are the most efficient method of transporting large volumes of crude oil, and that the leaders are committed to all necessary measures to protect the environment and public health and safety.
Canada is the largest oil supplier to the United States, accounting for approximately one-quarter of all U.S. oil imports. Saskatchewan is Canada's second largest oil producer, with roughly 65 to 70 per cent of our oil shipped to the American market.
For a copy of the letter, please visit http://gov.sk.ca/keystoneletter.
