Obama’s Words Placate Both Sides of Canadian Oil Sands Controversy, but no Agreement is Reached

Obama wtih Canadian Prime Minister Steven Harper at their meeting in Ottawa yesterday. (image: Doug Mills/The New York Times)

“We’re not going to solve these problems overnight.”  That’s what President Obama had to say on the subject of Prime Minister Steven Harper’s request to exempt production of oil from Canadian tar sands from U.S. environmental rules, the New York Times reports.

Canada’s massive reserves of tar sands oil are a crucial source of oil to the U.S., the top importer of Canadian oil.  The problem lies in the energy-intense process of extracting crude from the tar sands, which requires huge quantities of water and heat, and also releases substantial amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.  Environmental groups on both sides of the border have denounced the “dirty” process and urged President Obama to refuse to purchase oil from tar sands.  The huge economic interest Canada has in selling tar-sands oil has led Prime Minister Steven Harper to request exemptions from American environmental regulations for the product.

While continuing to import (or increasing importation of) tar-sands oil from Canada might run contrary to Obama’s environmental goals, it would go a long way towards reducing America’s dependence on oil from unstable or unfriendly nations in the Middle East and South America.  This quandary loomed large over Obama’s meeting with Harper yesterday, but was apparently not discussed in detail during the brief talks, which also covered topics such as free trade and NATO efforts in Afghanistan.

With his vague statement that hinted at future discussions of the tar sands issue, Obama scored political points with groups on both sides, who saw the President as sympathetic to their respective point of view.  The issue will most likely be resolved by some sort of compromise that might include joint U.S.-Canadian efforts to advance greenhouse gas capture and storage technology—technology that would make extraction of oil from tar sands a cleaner process and less susceptible to environmental regulation.