TransCanada, the company trying to build the Keystone XL pipeline, is distributing a new round of ads in support of its stalled project.
Though a final decision on the 1,700-mile pipeline, which would carry crude from Canada’s oil sands to American refineries, will not come for months, both supporters and opponents of the project have been amplifying their messages as the State Department nears completion of an assessment of the pipeline’s environmental impact.
“America imports millions of barrels of oil from the Middle East every week,†an announcer says in TransCanada’s newest television ads, as images of violent protests, presumably in the Mideast, flash across the screen. “But we don’t have to.†The ad goes on to promote the prospect of increased domestic production and imports from a close ally, if the pipeline were approved.
First noted in Politico, the television spots began airing in Washington late last week. TransCanada said other aspects of the campaign, including a minute-long radio spot and print ads, are set to run in the capital’s media market on Monday.
Opponents have released their own ads, most recently with a series of commercials produced by Thomas F. Steyer, a San Francisco hedge fund billionaire and a Democratic donor. In a series of four 90-second ads, he rebuts the oil industry’s claims that the pipeline would have minimal effect on the environment and create jobs.
Even though they make opposing arguments, both sets of Keystone XL ads have one thing in common: they were developed with the help of consultants who served as top strategists for President Obama. Anita Dunn of SKDKnickerbocker, a former White House communications director, produced TransCanada’s campaign. Jim Margolis, a top ad maker for both of Mr. Obama’s presidential bids, and his firm GMMB were behind Mr. Steyer’s spots.
