REGINA – Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall says lobbying in the U.S. to approve the Keystone XL pipeline appears to be paying off.
The U.S. House of Representatives is preparing to vote on TransCanada Corp.’s (TSX-TRP) pipeline on Friday.
If approved, the bill would then move to the Senate and then to U.S. President Barack Obama.
The US$8-billion line would take bitumen from Alberta diagonally across the continent to refineries and ports in Texas.
Wall, who supports the project, says Obama would hurt the Democrats if he vetoes the bill if it passes.
The premier says he has met with and spoken to many of the senators who will vote on the bill, so he hopes his lobbying efforts, along with those of many others, have paid off.
“We’ve been getting three times a day reports from the province’s agent in Washington about the status of a super majority, in other words, the 60 votes in the senate you would need, not just the bare majority of 51, and many of these senators are ones we’ve met with,” Wall said Thursday.
Wall said there is broad-based support for Keystone XL in the U.S.
(CKRM)