As the Obama administration's delay of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline continues to reverberate on the global stage, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) today met with the leader of Canada's oil-rich province of Alberta on potential next steps for backers of the $7 billion project.

Boehner's office announced his meeting with Alberta Premier Alison Redford, one of several sit-downs during a U.S. visit this week by a delegation from the province, in a statement that also rapped Democrats for failing to move a House GOP plan that would have fast-tracked the Canada-to-U.S. pipeline.

"[T]he Democratic-controlled Senate stalled" the Keystone XL legislation that cleared the House in July, Boehner spokesman Don Seymour noted in a blog post, "and the president -- preoccupied with campaigning -- decided to delay a decision until after the 2012 election."

The Boehner-Redford meeting comes a day after the punting of a final decision on Keystone XL loomed large over an economic summit that found President Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper discussing the pipeline.

While Obama reiterated his support at the weekend Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit for the State Department's delay of the 1,700-mile project -- which would secure extra U.S. import capacity for Albertan oil sands crude that is hotly desired by industry and the Harper government -- the Canadian premier also told reporters that he hoped to explore Asian markets for that fuel.

The prospect of China boosting its fuel supply from an unraveling of Keystone XL is one that Boehner's GOP lieutenants have long warned against, sparking a war of words with environmentalist critics of the pipeline who say the Asian export market is far from a sure thing for Canadian producers (E&E Daily, May 26).

Asked about the possibility of looming fallout for U.S.-Canada ties as a result of the pipeline delay, which State attributed to the need for an alternative route analysis in Nebraska, a spokesman for that agency said that "our decisionmaking process on this was based solely on" concerns of domestic interest.

"We certainly hope this doesn't affect our bilateral relationship," State spokesman Mark Toner told reporters today.