Photo: The Canadian Press

Canada's Ambassador to the United States Kirsten Hillman speaks via video link at the Global Business Forum in Banff, Alta., on September 24, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

Canada's ambassador to the United States says the Keystone XL pipeline project has evolved since John Kerry nixed it in 2015.

President-elect Joe Biden has named Kerry, formerly Barack Obama's secretary of state, as a high-powered special adviser on climate change.

That may not come as good news to champions of the much-maligned pipeline expansion plan, which Obama rejected on Kerry's advice.

But Ambassador Kirsten Hillman says times have changed since then, and the project is not the same one the U.S. refused to allow five years ago.

Hillman says fossil fuels will remain a key part of both the U.S. and Canadian energy strategy for years to come, even in the face of aggressive efforts to curb carbon emissions.

She says the U.S. should be getting that energy from Canada, which already has a price on carbon and a climate change strategy that aligns with that of the incoming Biden administration.