Keystone XL will displace imports of crude oil from Venezuela. During the first installment of the North American Energy Security Dialogues which took place at the Embassy of Canada in October, one U.S. Congresswoman made the point displacing Venezuelan crude imports could become a diplomatic lever with how Venezuela interacts with the Middle East.
U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen: These shifts have had enormous consequences for trade and national security interests and it may allow for increasing harmonization between U.S. foreign policy ideals and practice, especially with respect to the Middle East and troublesome regimes right here in our own western hemisphere like Venezuela. The success of the last eight years in reducing our dependence on oil from unstable or unsavory sources can be further cemented – no pun intended – and expanded with an agreement finally on the Keystone XL pipeline. This important project all of us know would increase predictable sources of oil imports from Canada. While also providing an important means of transporting newly economical domestic deposits in Montana and the Dakotas to our own gulf coast for refining. What a difference that would make for our daily lives and our national security.
