U.S. Senator Manchin coming to Alberta to discuss energy security

U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, who has called on the White House to revive theKeystone XL pipeline, is setto visit Alberta next week to discuss energy security with Premier Jason Kenney.

The premier's office said Friday that Manchin, chair of the U.S. Senate committee on energy and natural resources, will be in the province April 11-12 to learn about its energy sector and to discuss North American energy security.

Kenney has been pressing thatdiscussionwith U.S. politicians,sayingtheir countryshouldbe getting more of its oil from Canada, rather than Venezuela or Saudi Arabia.

"I feel like what we have been saying for years is now understood to be true," Kenney told CBC News last month at a global energy conference in Texas. "The world needs more liberal democratic energy and less conflict energy."

U.S. data shows that more than half of the petroleumthat America imports comes from Canada.

Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia,has been an outspoken supporter of the Keystone XL pipeline, whichwas cancelled last year afterPresident Joe Biden pulled a key permit for the project.

Calgary-based TC Energy is seeking $15 billionfrom the U.S. governmentfor the costof cancelling the pipeline.

With gasoline prices climbing, Manchin has also called on the Biden administration to take steps to boost U.S. oil and gas production. Oil prices surged recently after the U.S. banned all Russian oil and gas imports due to its war in Ukraine.

The senatormade headlines late last yearwith his opposition tothe president's Build Back Better bill, dealing a bigblow to the legislative agenda of the White House in December.

At the time, his decision won support from Canadian automotive trade groups, who said the bill containedan electric vehicle tax provision that Canada's automotive industry claims would threaten jobs.