 Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich speaks at a campaign event in Golden, Colorado February 6, 2012. The Colorado caucuses take place February 7, 2012. (REUTERS/Rick Wilking)
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WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Newt Gingrich blasted President Barack Obama for sending Canada -- and all its oil -- running into China's arms.
In Columbus, Ohio, Tuesday night, Gingrich told supporters Prime Minister Stephen Harper was in China right now looking for a new "reliable partner" to buy Canada's oil since Obama rejected the Keystone XL pipeline bid.
"Can you imagine an American president so short sighted that he would drive Canada into a partnership with China, yet that's what Obama's doing," Gingrich said. "And that's why the Keystone pipeline decision was such a terribly destructive decision.
"Here was an opportunity to create 30,- to 50,000 new construction jobs, and to have 50 years of processing Canadian oil in Houston, Texas ... and have the ports ship the oil. So there was work for Americans for the next half century and it increased our energy security by giving us a pipeline to bring Canadian oil into the United States."
Mitt Romney also mentioned the Keystone pipeline on the hustings Tuesday in Colorado.
Gingrich, though, has been by far the most vocal supporter of the $7 billion project on the Republican nomination trail. He repeatedly references the pipeline as something he would approve on his first day as president.
Harper is currently in China, along with a large delegation of Canadian business executives meeting with officials there.
Earlier in the GOP race, Gingrich praised Harper as "pro-American" and "a conservative."
Supporters of the Keystone project, which would ship an estimated 700,000 barrels of crude a day from Alberta's oilsands to refineries along the Gulf of Mexico, say its construction would create 20,000 jobs in the U.S.
Critics don't want the pipeline built because they say oil from Alberta is "dirty," and worry that a spill would wreak environmental havoc.
The project has been in review for three years. A decision on the pipeline was expected at the end of 2011, but Obama effectively punted the issue off until after November's presidential election.
TransCanada has said it plans to reapply to build the pipeline.
bryn.weese@sunmedia.ca
