Obama Makes Good.... Veto

This past Tuesday, President Obama made good on his threat to veto any Congressional measure aimed at forcing the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. It was a veto that probably surprised no one since the President has been increasingly explicit about his willingness to warm up the veto pen. Since the measure has no chance of receiving the required 2/3 majority in both houses of Congress, this particular Keystone measure is dead.

More interesting is the open letter about Keystone XL penned by former NYC mayor, Michael Bloomberg, who is now the UN Secretary General's Special Envoy for Cities and Climate Change. In the letter, Bloomberg argues that proponents of Keystone XL should be thinking in terms of a larger bargain between the U.S. and Canada that included a major climate change initiative. It is an argument I've been making for more than a year (See link to February 2014 Post). Putting some kind of climate chance pact, cooperation, coordination, consultation mechanism,..... anything, on the table in conjunction with Keystone XL approval would grease the political skids for Obama to sign off. It would give him political cover in a period in which the economic case for Keystone XL is fading along with falling oil prices.

C'mon Man

Unfortunately, Canada's Ambassador to the United States, Gary Doer, doesn't think such a bargain is possible. Ambassador Doer claims that attaching some kind of climate change deal to Keystone XL would result in a morass of legal challenges to the package that would doom all of it. The problem with this rebuttal is that no one is talking about formal linkage of Keystone approval with a climate change initiative. Formal linkage would indeed be messy, which is why negotiators are loathe to engage in such. But, a bilateral proposal for climate change cooperation in advance of this December's COP 21 meetings in Paris would go a long way toward giving Obama breathing space to approve Keystone XL. The two issues need not ever be connected in a formal way.

At the end of the day, Keystone XL is just a piece of infrastructure. But, rightly or wrongly, it also happens to be infrastructure fraught with political symbolism about climate change. Hence, absent an overwhelmingly positive economic case, the President needs something to expand the win-set for him to approve it. I agree with Mayor Bloomberg that a bilateral climate change proposal is probably the best way to get Keystone XL built. However, I think the onus is on Canadian officials to drop the fiction that Keystone and climate change aren't connected and propose the two countries work on a joint proposal for the multilateral talks in Paris later this year.

Monarch Butterflies and the NAFTA

San Antonio, Texas is one of the most surprising cities I have ever been to. To be blunt, South Texas is generally what you might expect; arid, dusty, dominated by low scrub brush and tumble weeds. However, my first visit to the Alamo City about a decade ago blew me away. In addition to the attraction of the Alamo itself, the San Antonio Riverwalk that surrounds it is a wonderful urban oasis of canals, outdoor cafes, and local artists.

I was in San Antonio again last week, and was just as impressed with the city. However, San Antonio is significant in the history of the North American Free Trade Agreement as well. In October 1992, the final text of the NAFTA had been completed, and San Antonio became the site of an outdoor initialing ceremony designed, in part, to boost the economic bona fides of President Bush.

Mr. Prentice goes to Washington....

The number of long-time journalists with deep institutional and historical knowledge remaining at Canadian newspapers is dwindling, but one of my favourite observers is Graham Thomson, provincial affairs columnist for the Edmonton Journal. His commentary is an astute dose of reality about how Alberta functions politically. This past week, Alberta Premier, Jim Prentice made the latest of a long-line of high-profile trips to Washington, D.C. aimed at promotion and advocacy of the provinces interests in the U.S. capital. In an editorial Thursday morning Thomson repeated an observation he's made before about the many high-profile trips made by Alberta premiers to Washington, D.C.: it's all about politics at home!

It is a point that merits repeating when ever a Canadian politician, of any order of government, goes the the United States. It is also a point that will undoubtedly be repeatable for generations to come. Yet, Premier Prentice's trip to the Imperial Capital last week was different. While these are early days in Jim Prentice's leadership, he has thusfar demonstrated an unusual sophistication about the American political system and the challenges Canadians confront there.