OTTAWA, Jan. 12 (UPI) -- The Canadian government has a vested interest in pursuing all energy options for the good of the economy, an analyst said amid a contentious pipeline debate.
Public hearings over plans by Canadian pipeline company Enbridge to build its Northern Gateway pipeline from tar sands projects in Alberta grew heated after a minister seemed to suggest environmental advocates were radicals.
With U.S. politicians locking horns over Keystone XL, a similar pipeline planned through the Lower 48, the Canadian government contends the Enbridge plan is a good way to get oil to Asian markets.
Critics during public hearings this week accused the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper of using undue pressure to influence decisions from a national review board. But Donald Savoie, a public administration professor at the University of Moncton, said Harper is looking out for the nation's interests.
"This is not just an Alberta project," he was quoted by the Edmonton Journal as saying. "It goes to the very heart of the country's energy policy."
The planned pipeline would carry as much as 500,000 barrels of tar sands oil to Canada's west coast for exports. Critics of tar sands complain it's the dirtiest type of crude oil in the world. Enbridge is still cleaning up an Alberta crude oil spill in Michigan that resulted from a 2010 pipeline rupture.
