WASHINGTON - Saskatchewan's premier says he's ready to impose a modest levy on the oil-and-gas sector if it helps buy some goodwill in Washington.
Brad Wall is in the U.S. capital today, and he's talking about ways to build support for the Keystone XL pipeline.
He says President Barack Obama has a political window to approve the project before this year's midterm elections — and it might be easier for him to give the OK if he can point to some Canadian action on the environment.
The Canadian government says it's already working with the U.S. on oil and gas regulation and Wall is offering his take on what those regulations might ideally look like.
He says he hopes the feds set targets for greenhouse-gas emissions, harmonized with the U.S., then give each province the flexibility to set any financial penalty.
Wall says he'd like to start slowly, at $15 a tonne like Alberta's current levy — a rate environmental groups have dismissed as ineffective and which the Alberta government itself has mused about tripling.
Wall argues, however, that it's important to start with a small amount to avoid shocking the energy industry, with the option of increasing it later.
He's in Washington to meet with pro-Keystone lawmakers, as well as a White House official, and selling the merits of Saskatchewan's carbon-capture technology that he says could also benefit the U.S. coal and oil industries.