If the United States follows through with a boycott of oil from Alberta's tarsands, the province will build a pipeline to the West Coast so it can sell to other countries, Premier Ed Stelmach said Thursday.

Alberta has been lobbying the U.S. government to exempt the oilsands from proposed legislation that would ban federal agencies, such as the postal service and the military, from using so-called dirty oil.

Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach travelled to Washington in January to lobby the U.S. government against placing restrictions on oil from the province's tarsands. (CBC)

But environmental groups have been fighting any exemption, saying crude from the oilsands comes at too high an environmental cost, because of the amount of energy required to extract it and the pollution that results.

The reputation of Alberta's oilsands was dealt a further blow last week when hundreds of ducks died in a toxic waste pond at an oilsands plant near Fort McMurray, a story reported around the world.

Stelmach said that with the American market still in question, it's time for the province to look at building a pipeline to carry the crude to the West Coast, where it could be easily sold to countries like China where oil is in high demand.

"We will not only depend on the American market, we will expand markets. And if that means building a pipeline to the coast and selling oil to another country, we will," Stelmach told reporters in Edmonton Thursday.

Environmental protesters greeted the Alberta premier during his visit to Washington. (CBC)

Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft agreed the province should look at other markets and not depend too heavily on American buyers. But he thinks the premier is bluffing.

"I think for Mr. Stelmach, he's puffing himself up a little bit here, and sounding tough. But when the chips are down he's backing off very quickly."

Taft said he's seen no government action to back up the threat.

"If this government wanted, seriously wanted, a pipeline built to the Pacific coast for bitumen or for synthetic crude or for anything else, they could see to it."

But Stelmach said he is serious about expanding the market for Alberta crude, even if the U.S. government does not place restrictions on the province's oil. He said when he spoke to political leaders in Washington in January, he stressed that Alberta would be seeking to export oil to other countries, and not just rely on its neighbours to the south.