Senator Manchin: Canada and the U.S. Should Have a Stronger Energy Relationship

America and Canada should work together more tightly to strengthen energy security on the continent, said U.S. Senator Joe Manchin this week after visiting Alberta’s oilsands.

He also wants Premier Jason Kenney to appear before a Senate committee on energy and natural resources in Washington, D.C., to discuss what the United States and Canada can accomplish when working together.

“We’re all one. It’s North America. And North America could be the energy leaders of the world, it really could be,” said Manchin on Tuesday.

A future North American energy alliance is something Kenney and Manchin both believe in. However, a clear explanation of what this means and how it might operate was offered by neither politician.

“The senator and I have had discussions about how we can work together more closely and certainly raise the profile in Washington D.C. about the critical role that Alberta and Canada play in U.S. energy security,” said Kenney.

Premier Kenney has been urging US leaders to focus on energy security in the North American region, rather than relying on Venezuela or Saudi Arabia for their supply.

For Manchin, national borders “should be invisible” in the context of energy and climate policies. One of his main beliefs is that we should continue to use fossil fuels while also working to limit carbon emissions.

The Senator was more reserved in his remarks about the Keystone XL pipeline issue, which he had been an enthusiastic advocate for.

He stated the Alberta-to-Nebraska pipeline project should never have been “abandoned,” but he also added that restarting it did not come up in negotiations with Kenney because “it’s a sore point… for both sides.”

Manchin said he doesn’t know if the project can be revived, but he added that it would be a mistake not to do so.

Original source material for this article taken from here