It spells a major delay in a pipeline that would see Alberta's oil sands pumped to the American Gulf Coast, but the prime minister and Alberta's premier told CTV News they aren't worried about where Canada's oil will be sold.

On Tuesday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted against legislation that would have left the Obama administration a 60 day deadline to decide what to do with the Keystone XL Pipeline.

Now, the U.S. has until 2013 to make a decision.

While some leaders would be worried by this news, in a year-end interview with CTV News, Prime Minister Stephen Harper talked about heading west to sell oil in China, not the U.S.

"I ran into several senior Americans, who all said ‘Don't worry, we'll get Keystone done. You can sell all of your oil to us'," Harper said.

"I said, ‘Yeah, we'd love to but the problem is now we're on a different track'."

Premier Alison Redford made a similar statement Tuesday.

"We are not held captive to that market," Redford said. "It's important to say that we will continue to pursue all of our opportunities."

Those opportunities include the Northern Gateway, which will bring oil from Alberta to the west coast.

"It's important for Americans to know when they are making these decisions that we have alternative markets," Redford said.

TransCanada, the Calgary-based company behind the Keystone XL Pipeline has spent $1.9 billion and more than three years on the project.

The company did not return calls from CTV News for an interview.

With files from Kevin Armstrong