Ex pipeline exec: Keystone XL can still be salvaged if Canada acts on climate – National Observer

October 22nd 2015

CALGARY — A retired executive with pipeline builder TransCanada Corp. believes the long-stalled Keystone XL project can still be salvaged — if incoming Liberal prime minister Justin Trudeau acts swiftly on climate change.

Putting a price on carbon emissions is the last option Canada has available to persuade U.S. President Barack Obama to approve the controversial cross-border oilsands pipeline, said Dennis McConaghy, who left TransCanada (TSX:TRP) last year.

He said it’s been “enormously frustrating” to see Keystone XL stuck in limbo more than seven years after it was first proposed and feels it has not been dealt with fairly in the U.S. regulatory process.

“Carbon pricing was the last alternative at accommodation that could have been tried. It’s still available, perhaps, for our new prime minister,” McConaghy said from London, Ont., where he’s a visiting fellow at Western University’s Ivey Business School.

Read More: http://www.nationalobserver.com/2015/10/22/news/ex-pipeline-exec-keystone-xl-can-still-be-salvaged-if-canada-acts-climate