You remember that old expression, the 800 pound gorilla in the room.  Mirriam-Webster defines its meaning as: "one that is dominating or uncontrollable because of great size or power, e.g. like it or not, the 800-pound gorilla usually sets the standard".  Tar sands oil extraction is the largest industrial project on earth. Its open pit mining covers 200 square miles.  Ultimately, the mining and drilling could effect an area the size of Florida. It is dominating and seemingly uncontrollable and the battle is on to see whether it will set the standard or whether lower carbon, less destructive alternatives will prevail.

The U.S. is the largest market for tar sands oil, consuming 800,000 barrels a day.  A new pipeline, the Alberta Clipper, could ultimately carry 800,000 more.  A spider web of pipelines are planned that will lock the U.S. into this high carbon and environmentally destructive source of oil for the next 30-50 years.  These advancements in infrastructure are as real as the Prime Minister's allusions to the tar sands are surreal.

In another era, the Prime Minister would have come to Washington and directly sung the praises of Alberta's oil, but - at this time of heightened concern about climate change and an expanding definition of energy security - the Prime Minister now has to be more circumspect.  But the reality is that his failure to address the tar sands is fueling growing international disenchantment over this source of oil.  Two days ago, Norway had its elections and its government investment in Statoil's tar sands projects became a very real election issue. 

But the other reason is that President Obama has made it clear that he favors clean energy over continued reliance on dirty fossil fuels.  What that has done is force the Harper Government to try to squeeze the tar sands into a clean energy frame. It will not surprise us if we see him alluding to the inclusion of the tar sands in the "Clean Energy Dialogue" even though the Action Plan released today makes no reference to their inclusion.

This attempt to push the tar sands onto the stage with smart grid technology, energy technology R&D, and even power plant carbon capture and storage is preposterous.  As more and more people, through widely read publications like National Geographic, see the images of the tar sands...the huge gaping mine sites where the largest trucks on earth scrape the earth for oil...the toxic waste lagoons that can be seen from space, it becomes impossible to argue this could ever be a clean energy source. 

Right now the U.S. and Canadian climate policies are oceans apart despite our shared border. Canada has yet to agree to a policy that would cap pollution from the tar sands, a posture that increasingly angers other provinces like Ontario and Quebec that are starting to see that Alberta's interests are not their own.  

The good news is that The President and Congress are working daily to craft a bill and states like California keep setting the bar high with innovative policies to control greenhouse gases and move us to a low carbon economy.

Undoubtedly the rhetoric will be flying at tomorrow's dinner of the Canadian American Business Council in New York and the Prime Minister will feel at home again, but then he will go back to Canada with little more from Washington than the photos. 

Maybe the people of Canada will demand more. And maybe at the next meeting between the Prime Minister and the President, there will actually be a discussion about how to harmonize two aggressive climate plans on the agenda.

And one can only hope that maybe ...just maybe... that 800 (,000) pound gorilla will change its appetite and eat plants instead of oil.