The tar sands industry is only really profitable now because of the price of oil per barrel; conventional and unconventional hydrocarbons will continue to attract big money and because petroleum is a strategic resource be close to politics (rather than say, the biscuit industry). As I pointed out in an earlier post, the US does not actually have a bad record on alternatives, this article by Elisabeth Rosenthal in last month's NYT gives a different perspective on the energy mix in the USA; it's not all as bad as you might think -but there is still a long way to go, if there ever is an equilibrium on energy in the future...
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/24/su....html?hpw&_r=0