While in Quebec at the Summit of the Americas, President George W. Bush respond to a question about a new hemispheric-wide energy plan with: “Part of our issue is to make sure our electricity grids are open enough to handle additional power, say, in the western part of our state and obviously the western part of Mexico. There is some very good news in our hemisphere, at least as far as Americans are concerned, and that is that because of technologies, the Canadians have developed vast crude oil resources in what appeared heretofore to be crude oil that could not be recovered from the ground in what they call tar pits, tar sands, and therefore, Canada is going to be the largest exporter of crude oil to the United States. That’s good for our national security; it’s good for our economy.”
– Transcript, “Press Conference at Conclusion of the Summit of the Americas,” George W. Bush – White House Archives online, Accessed on 6/20/2016