"Stephen Harper heads to the White House on Wednesday to unveil a long-awaited border security agreement with U.S. President Barack Obama, but the visit comes at a particularly tense moment in Canada-U.S. relations as TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline saga rages on."
"The $7 billion project, shelved at least temporarily by the Obama administration just a month ago, is being resurrected as a front-burner issue on Capitol Hill this week thanks to congressional Republicans who are determined to see the project win federal approval before, not after, next November's presidential election.
The prime minister and Obama discussed Keystone at length during the recent APEC summit in Hawaii, meaning Keystone XL may not be a top item of discussion this time around.
But the fate of the pipeline will likely be discussed at some point, given recent developments that have served as a stark reminder that unfettered access to the U.S. market by Canadian businesses is far from guaranteed, regardless of the new Beyond The Border initiative aimed at intelligence-sharing, streamlining cross-border trade and co-ordinating regulations."
The Canadian Press had the story December 6, 2011.
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