Obama sidesteps tar sands controversy

President Obama disappointed environmental groups by skirting around the issue of whether controversial tar sands projects should be allowed to continue during his first visit to Canada last week.

The US president used his first international visit to sign up to a joint climate change strategy with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper that will see the two countries co-operate to develop clean energy technologies, but made no mention of the practice of extracting oil from tar sands that is vexing environmentalists.

The two leaders announced plans to work on a new energy economy as a means of supporting economic recovery. They set out what they called a US-Canada Clean Energy Dialogue, that will cover clean energy R&D and plans for a more efficient electrical grid backed by renewable energy generation.

Officials will meet in the coming weeks to formally launch the bi-lateral alliance, the White House said.

A key part of the plan involves investing heavily in carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technologies, which the Canadian Government has already pledged $1bn (£684m) toward in its federal budget. The budget was revised after a parliamentary row that threatened to topple the government, after opposition parties criticised the lack of economic stimulus in the proposed spending plans late last year.

However, environmental groups including Greenpeace – which also protested at the Obama meeting last week – have condemned CCS for simply storing, rather than reducing, the problem of greenhouse gases. They have also argued that it will not prove effective at curtailing the environmental impact of tar sands projects as it fails to address their heavy use of water and energy, along with the damage associated with tailings ponds and toxins in the local environment.

Obama contented himself with referring to the sands' "big carbon footprint" in interviews with Canadian broadcast media last week, while alluding to CCS as a possible way forward.

Environmentalists, however, argue that tar sands projects are entirely incompatible with a low carbon economy, citing figures that suggest the process of extracting oil from the sands results in carbon emissions that are between three and eight times higher than conventional oil.

The environmental group ForestEthics had taken out a full-page advertisement in USA Today, in conjunction with the Mikisew Cree and Athabasca Chipewyan First Nations, calling for Obama and Harper to block future tar sands projects.

The Chipewyan is currently in court with the Albertan Government, seeking a judicial review of its method for issuing oil sands leases. A recent study into cancers in the Chipewyan community living near the oilfields found increased cases of cancer, but stopped short of drawing a direct link with tar sands developments.