Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said President Obama should trade approval of the Keystone XL pipeline for a significant bilateral climate agreement with Canada.
Bloomberg took to his news organization’s editorial page to offer the suggestion a day after Obama used his third-ever presidential veto to reject legislation authorizing the Canada-to-Texas project. He said the president could build on a non-binding deal struck with China that for the first time put the world’s top two greenhouse gas polluters in agreement about the need to reduce the emissions scientists blame for climate change.
“A U.S.-Canada agreement would position Canada as a leader on climate change, while also delivering a big economic boost to its economy. Here in the U.S., Republicans in Congress could declare economic victory, while Democrats could declare environmental victory. The president could declare both, while also burnishing his foreign policy legacy and building momentum for the conference in Paris,” Bloomberg wrote.
Republicans have vowed to try again on Keystone XL. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnnell, R-Ky., will begin veto override proceedings by March 3, but success in finding the two-thirds needed to trump the rejection is unlikely. Short of that, Republicans have said they will try to tie approval of the 1,700-mile oil sands pipeline to must-pass spending legislation or a larger bill, such as federal highway reauthorization legislation.
While Republicans are going those routes, the idea of a trade has been discussed. Observers have long speculated that Obama might make a deal on Keystone XL to preserve one of his other priorities, such as carbon emissions limits on existing power plants that industry groups and conservatives oppose.
That the deal would be made with Canada and not Republicans is a different wrinkle. Bloomberg said that Keystone XL is a matter of diplomacy, so tying it to an agreement on climate change would be sensible.
“Canada and the U.S. have always worked together closely on climate-related matters. Canada is our largest supplier of oil, and one of our closest allies. Keystone is a diplomatic issue, and the White House should begin treating it that way. Republicans in Congress who have criticized the president for not being a sufficiently tough international negotiator should insist on nothing less,” Bloomberg said.
Bloomberg’s suggestion comes as Obama has pledged to lead on the international stage heading into the United Nations-hosted Paris talks at the end of this year. Nations there will seek to strike a global deal governing emissions beyond 2020 in hopes of keeping temperatures from rising 2 degrees Celsius, though most projections say achieving that goal is unlikely.
Republicans have taken aim at Obama’s international climate diplomacy.
They’ve lambasted the non-binding deal with China because they said it would allow the country to continue increasing emissions until 2030 while the U.S. would have to slash emissions at least 26 percent by 2025. A failed Senate amendment on the Keystone XL bill would have blocked Obama from inking climate pacts that force the U.S. to make “disparate” commitments to cut emissions.
