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Foreign influence aspect of Gateway pipeline debate has Americans scratching their heads

Some Americans are bemused by the war of words over foreign funding of groups opposed to the Northern Gateway oil sands pipeline proposal.

"Yet another foreign government has accused Americans of meddling in its internal affairs," writes Martin Kaste on the web site for KUHF Houston Public Radio. "It says U.S. donors are bankrolling local political activists, and it may be time for a crackdown on the political influence of outsiders.

"But it isn't Syria and it isn't Egypt. It's America's friendly neighbor to the north - Canada."

The first week of what could be 18 months of public hearings wrap up today into the $6.6-billion project, a price tag one expert argues could rise by up to 30 per cent if regulatory reviews and court challenges cause delays.

Proponents of the line, which would run from from Alberta to the northern B.C. coastal community of Kitimat to meet Asia-bound supertankers, have attacked opponents as pawns of foreign environmental organizations with a larger agenda to kill Alberta's oil sands. The federal government has piled on, with Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver accusing some U.S. groups of trying to "game the system."

"The Conservative-led Canadian government is peeved at American environmental organizations that have been effective in delaying U.S. approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, which would transport Canadian crude oil down to the Gulf Coast refineries," Kaste wrote.

"Now the Canadian government says some American environmentalists are going further, and trying to shut down all production in the country's oil sands region of Alberta."

The New York Times' Canadian correspondent, Ian Austen noted Oliver's "unusual open letter", claiming radical groups funded by foreign special interests wanted to undermine a project that's in Canada's national economic interest.

The Globe and Mail's Campbell Clark argued this week Ottawa's outrage is a bit rich, given foreign capital is helping bankroll the pipeline.

"This is international business and geopolitics, and the front lines of global debate, the crossing of Canada and the world," Clark wrote, calling Ottawa's "whining" about foreign money "parochial and disingenuous."

"Heaven forfend that foreign interests try to influence Canadian pipeline policy by funding organizations here. Like the Canadian Energy Pipelines Association."

Clark noted three of the association's 10 members are subsidiaries of American companies.

"Over four days in November, CEPA lobbyists met with 30 MPs (28 Tories including two ministers), six deputy ministers, and a dozen other senior officials," he wrote.

Clark's colleague at the Globe, Jeffrey Simpson, also pointed out this week that Canadians pushed hard to get the U.S. government to approve the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline.

"To influence U.S. opinion, both at the level of legislators and the general public, Canadian companies poured untold millions into the fray," he said.

"The Harper government put Canada's entire diplomatic apparatus in the U.S. behind the Keystone campaign. The Prime Minister himself went to the U.S. and declared approval of Keystone a "no-brainer."

The U.S. administration, under intense pressure from environmentalists and residents along the route worried about potential leaks into a vulnerable watershed, delayed Keystone's approval late last year, pending a further review.