Should Canada Be Allowed to Sell Oil They Drill in the US to China?

Since the United States rejected the Keystone XL pipeline, Canada is looking to China for business. The Chinese oil company CNOOC is buying the Canadian oil company Nexen for $15 billion dollars. Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) is urging Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to block the deal unless some conditions are met. In a heated discussion over the issue, he joined sit-in host Eric Bolling on Your World.

Bolling asked the congressman to explain why the US would get involved in a deal between China and Canada. Markey said the problem stems from Canadian-owned leases on American land that allow for them to drill for free. Canadians do not pay royalties to the US for the oil and the country is preparing to now sell those leases to the Chinese.

Markey asserted, “I just don’t think it’s right for the Chinese to be drilling on American land without paying any royalties whatsoever to the American people anymore than I think it’s okay for the Canadians to build a pipeline through the United States … and then not agree to keep the oil that they are transmitting here in the United States.”

Bolling pointed out that there were a number of other similar deals and wondered why Markey is picking on this one. He added, “You can’t tell the refineries where to do – whether it’s Canadian oil or Saudi Arabian oil or Venezuelan oil, you can’t tell them where they’re going to sell it anyway … So why not bring more oil in, bring more inexpensive oil in.”

Markey answered, “So fine, just stop talking about energy independence, just stop talking about backing our imported oil if the oil that comes in from the Canadians just gets sold right out of our country, and all we are is a conduit through our country taking all of the environmental risk, without getting the benefit of the extra oil that would lower the price to American consumers.”

Bolling interjected, “You hit it on the head, sir, and that’s what it is. It’s the environmental risk.”