It Takes A Kremlinologist To Understand What Obama Is Saying About The Keystone XL Pipeline

Just after the election, many Canadians were convinced President Obama would approve the Keystone XL Pipeline.

Now they're not so sure.

"It's anybody's guess what's going to happen with Keystone XL," Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi told Reuters' Chrystia Freeland in Davos recently. "The feeling in Canada over the last four or five weeks has become somewhat less optimistic about this thing being built."

Nenshi said the President offered few clues in his Inaugural Address about the fate of the project, which would deliver Canadian crude products to the Gulf Coast.

"I felt like a Kremlinologist back in the day," he said. "I thought it was interesting that he spoke about climate change, but at the same time he spoke about economic growth in different ways, so I'm not sure what to make of it."

Nenshi said the amount of attention the project has received is disproportionate to its likely environmental impact.

"Not building this is not going to get us to a low carbon economy, and I think it's a shame, that a one-meter diameter pipe is suddenly having to wear all the sins of the carbon economy we've created."

Watch the full interview here >