Canada Invites U.S. Speaker John Boehner to Talk about Keystone XL Pipeline

Canada has officially extended an invitation to John Boehner, current Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, to visit Canada and to discuss issues critical to the economies of the United States and Canada, e.g. the Keystone XL pipeline.

The invitation was presented last Thursday in person by PN member Gary Doer, Canada's Ambassador to the U.S., accompanied by Conservative MP Rob Merrifield.

“I’m grateful to the Ambassador and Mr. Merrifield for meeting with me to deliver this invitation from Canada, which I’m going to make every effort to accept,” Speaker Boehner says on his website. “There’s a tremendous opportunity right in front of us to help create jobs and support energy security for the people of both nations.  It would be a tragedy if that opportunity were missed because of Washington bureaucracy and politics.”

The Keystone pipeline network was designed in four phases, three of which have been built already. Phase four of the project, the Keystone XL Pipeline with its proposed 1,179-mile (1,897 km), 36-inch-diameter crude oil pipeline, beginning in Hardisty, Alberta, and extending south to Steele City, Nebraska, is awaiting U.S. governmental approval. The project is not without controversy, environmentalists arguing oil spills would become common along the Keystone XL route and warning that the project could hasten climate change.

Photo courtesy of Transcanada.