Foothills MP John Barlow says the federal government needs to be more vocal in its support for pipelines.

Barlow says the cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline is the latest blow to Alberta.

He says environmentalists should know that pipelines are the safest way to get oil to port.

"If fighting climate change and protecting the environment is truly their goal, if that is truly the core of their existence then they should be shouting from the rooftops every single day in favour of pipelines." he says. "That is the most environmentally safe, the most efficient way to transport the ethically developed, under the most environmentally stringent and human rights standards in the world."

He says over a billion dollars was spent on wind and solar energy to power the pipelines, making them emissions neutral which is what environmentalists demanded.

"They had committed almost $800 million into partnerships with First Nations along the pipeline, so everything the environmental movement or the activists are saying they need, we need renewable energy, we need net zero emissions, we have consultations and agreements from First Nations, Keystone had all of that and yet it still wasn't good enough."

Barlow says the groups opposing the pipeline will never be satisfied and the goalposts will always keep moving.

He says it doesn't make sense politically since almost every poll, whether in Alberta, Quebec or the U.S. shows overwhelming support for pipelines over moving oil by rail.

Barlow says all of these decisions favour the U.S. which,he says, has built millions of miles of pipelines in the last few years and owns the rails where the oil will have to be transported if they can't go by pipeline.

He says Alberta has done everything right but has gotten nowhere and that's the most frustrating part.

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