TransCanada counters Obama’s caution on jobs
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 29/07/2013 (4747 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
CALGARY — TransCanada Corp. (TSX:TRP) insists the proposed Keystone XL pipeline will create about 20,000 jobs, despite suggestions by U.S. president Barack Obama those estimates might be unrealistic.
In an interview with the New York Times on the weekend, Obama said based on “the most realistic estimates” the project might create “maybe 2,000 jobs” during the construction of the pipeline.
“… And then after that we’re talking about somewhere between 50 and 100 jobs in an economy of 150 million working people,” he said.
But a spokesman for TransCanada noted Obama’s comments were aimed at his Republican opponents, who have used the economic benefits as one of their major arguments for the project.
“I wouldn’t think the president would come out externally and in the media and actually agree with the Republicans regardless of what he might think in private,” James Miller said in an interview Sunday.
“I attribute those comments more to being political rather than how he might truly believe on a project.”
Miller, however, couldn’t account for the discrepancy between Obama’s estimates and those provided by TransCanada.
“There is no reason for us to overinflate our numbers, we have to answer to our board, we have to answer to our shareholders,” Miller said.
Obama has the final say on the future of the pipeline project — which will give final approval to the pipeline that would stretch from Alberta to the U.S. Gulf Coast — that could come this fall.
He is facing intense pressure from both sides of the debate. Keystone has become a symbol for environmentalists on both sides of the border — they’ve waged a fierce public-relations battle against the project.
Obama told the Times he was open to ways to ease concerns about any environmental risks and has said before he will only approve the project if it doesn’t increase carbon pollution.
— The Canadian Press