Soon after Barack Obama chose to delay a decision last year on a proposed Alberta-to-Texas oil pipeline called Keystone xl, Stephen Harper, Canada's prime minister, warned that his country would not be left at the altar. "This does underscore the necessity of Canada making sure that we're able to access Asian markets for our energy products," he said. The threat was clear: if the United States did not want oil from Alberta's dirty tar sands, Canada would build a pipeline to the Pacific and ship the stuff to Asia. There, says Enbridge, the firm behind the project, each barrel might fetch $20 more (counting shipping) than in America.
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