Not only is he an insipid, smarmy, narcissistic con man, he has now displayed a complete lack of spinal fortitude.

What he said originally was absolutely correct, if politically unwise.  Eventually (sooner rather than later) cleaner, alternate sources of energy, particular electricity, will overtake and render redundant the extraction and conversion of bitumen. 

When the vise-like grip of the petroleum industry on government policy and media manipulation has been loosened and then broken, we will see such things as liquid thorium nuclear reactors (among others) coming onstream in abundance.