Did Obama Get Stuck in Canada’s Tar Sands?

American environmental groups, led by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) pressured President Barack Obama to bring a "clean energy message" to Canada and its Conservative Party Prime Minister, Stephen Harper during yesterday’s summit, Obama’s first outside the United States. Both the United States and Canada are increasingly turning to unconventional sources of fuel in places like Alberta’s tar sands.

"The tar sands don't have a place in the low carbon economy" said Josh Mogerman of NRDC Chicago.

The process, which extracts and converts tar sands into commercial-grade fuel, causes extensive habitat degradation and results in three times more carbon emissions than conventional oil production. Alberta's growing tar sands industry has tarnished Canada's environmentally-friendly reputation and is now becoming a hot-button political issue on the American side of the border as well.

During a joint press conference, neither Obama nor Harper directly referenced the tar sands, although in prepared statements both spoke of "clean energy" as one of their three main discussion points, along with economic recovery and the war in Afghanistan.

A journalist later asked how the two countries would "harmonize" their plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and tackle the tar sands. Obama and Harper danced around the tar sands issue, and focused instead on their commitments to talk more about clean energy and new technologies.

"What we have agreed to today is a dialogue on clean energy, and particularly on the development of clean energy technology" said Harper. "It's very hard to have a tough regulatory system here when we are competing with an unregulated economy south of the border."

Obama added that "as two relatively wealthy countries, it's important for us to show leadership in this area. I think the clean energy dialogue is an extraordinary beginning because right now there are no silver bullets to solve all of our energy problems."

NRDC will "wait to see if there are more details" said Mogerman, although he added that it is a "hugely refreshing change to see us dealing with energy and climate issues."

Former U.S. President George W. Bush refused to commit the United States to the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement that sought to reduce global carbon emissions. Bush argued that exemptions for China would put the U.S. economy at a competitive disadvantage. Canada ratified Kyoto but has failed to meet its obligations.

Later this year in Copenhagen, Denmark, an international UN conference will look to create a new framework that replaces Kyoto.

"It sounds likely that [Obama and Harper] will be working together with Mexico on a North American position ahead of Copenhagen," said Mogerman. Obama claims to have spoken with Mexican President Felipe Calderón, who is also interested in working on climate change policy.

"The more that, within this hemisphere, we can show leadership, I think the more likely it is that we can draw in countries like China and India, whose participation is absolutely critical for us to be able to solve this problem over the long term," Obama said.