Mar's lobbying wasn't just confined to the U.S. capitol. Anytime state policymakers tried to introduce global warming laws potentially bad for Alberta's oil sands, Mar hit the road, ready to glad-hand and charm. One major victory came in early 2009, when he apparently worked closely with the Maryland legislature to remove a climate bill that would have banned sales of high-carbon road fuel.

"I found myself spending a great deal of time trying to influence state governments," Mar recalled later on his website. "I have had influence in stopping legislation that would have been unfairly harmful to Alberta's interests in Minnesota, Michigan, and Maryland."

Despite their skills and experience, Mar and Whatley knew that defeating climate policy required allies. That's why one of the first strategy proposals in Whatley's Jan. 25, 2010, campaign briefing to Mar was to team up with "affiliated energy coalitions and trade associations, thought leaders, elected officials, unions and key allies." The goal was to enlist these players to "build opposition" towards low carbon fuel standards "in each of our target regions." The campaign apparently needed "state-based and regional 3rd party advocates for Canadian oil sands" to give it legitimacy.

Who better to play that role than the "energy consumer groups" -- the airlines, truckers, railroads, highway users, shippers -- most dependent on oil? So item #1 on Whatley's "Action Plan" was to develop "easy-to-read and user friendly informational briefs" for trade associations, unions and others. With the proper motivation, these groups could "generate op-eds and letters to the editor of regional and local newspapers," reads the proposal. And they could also "write letters to governors and key elected officials."

This supposed popular groundswell would then be legitimized further, it explained, by a select group of "thought leaders", those public intellectuals with the ear of political power. Whatley's proposal suggested engaging with seven prominent think tanks, two of which, the Cato Institute and the Heritage Foundation, received millions of dollars in funding from Koch Industries to question the science behind global warming.

To keep everything moving smooth, HBW Resources (aka the Consumer Energy Alliance) would perform its traditional functions: running anti-fuel standard ad campaigns, coordinating with such "key allies" as the American Petroleum Institute, lobbying policymakers and political leaders and generating as much media attention as possible. If everything went to plan, Whatley's briefing concluded, "HBW Resources will be able to successfully draw critical local, state and regional attention to the adverse impacts of efforts to restrict imports of Canadian oil sands into the United States." In other words, let the assault begin!

'Thanks for being great to work with'

One of the campaign's first victories came in mid-April of that year, when Wisconsin abandoned its low carbon fuel standard. Unable to visit public hearings in the state capital, Madison, because of a snow storm, Mar had gotten two Canadian consuls to read a prepared statement opposing the policy.

That intervention infuriated local scientist Peter Taglia, who said in an interview last year that he "was disappointed with the Canadians… They behave basically the same way the Texas oil companies do." The Consumer Energy Alliance, meanwhile, was ecstatic about Wisconsin's decision. "The removal of the economy-killing [fuel standard] is good news for consumers in the Badger State," read a statement on its website.

Still, Whatley and Mar didn't really get to test out their tar sands battle plan until two months later, in mid-June, when Alberta's then-environment minister Rob Renner embarked on a "Clean Energy Mission" to the American Northeast. In between meetings with influential state policymakers, the minister delivered the keynote address at a Consumer Energy Alliance-sponsored fuel standard forum in Boston. His anti-climate policy comments were reported on by E&E News ClimateWire and others, 18 reporters in total.

Whatley's forum also delivered the tar sands gospel to such attending trade groups as the Massachusetts Motor Transport Association and the Associated Industries of Massachusetts. "We have been assured by several of the participants in the forum that they will be willing to send letters to their governors, the federal Congress and the Obama administration opposing a discriminatory LCFS," Whatley reported triumphantly to Mar.

Ten days after the update, Mar emailed some warm praise to his lobbyist colleague. "Thanks for keeping me several steps ahead of other advisors." To which Whatley replied: "Thanks for being great to work with."

But such backslapping shouldn't be confused with complacency. For on the same day as that email exchange, Whatley was marshalling forces against another climate initiative, one that threatened to bring his and Mar's entire campaign crashing to the ground. On July 16, 2010, oil industry lobbyists were aghast to learn the details of Congress' latest low carbon fuel standard proposal. This one was drafted by Senator Debbie Stabenow, Michigan Democrat, who intended to amend it to the comprehensive climate legislation then being debated in the Senate.

"Not sure if you are aware of this potential threat," reads an email sent from an unnamed ally to Whatley. "[The National Petrochemical and Refiner's Association] is implementing an aggressive media, grassroots and lobbying effort against this potential amendment."

Within a week the Consumer Energy Alliance had joined that effort, launching a two-week TV and radio ad campaign costing $1 million in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Minnesota. Perhaps it needn't have bothered. Two days later Senate majority leader Harry Reid announced the Democrats were now abandoning their entire climate bill, legislation that had been years in the making. "We know where we are," Reid told reporters. "We know that we don't have the votes."

And with that the best chance to establish low carbon regulations on America's fuel supply -- and by extension, Alberta's tar sands industry -- died a little noticed death. Of course, such legislation was still being considered by dozens of states. But the environmental zeitgeist behind it had clearly started to weaken, a process accelerated by that November's Republican landslide in the 2010 mid-term elections.

Whatley and Mar took full advantage of this political shift on Nov. 15, 2010, by hosting "an informal breakfast to honour Governors and Governors-Elect," alongside Canada's U.S. ambassador, Gary Doer, at the W Hotel, near the White House. And the next month, an email update reported that the Consumer Energy Alliance "met with officials from the Governor's office, the Cabinet, and legislative staff in New Jersey and Delaware to discuss the implications on LCFS."

A lot happened over the next year. First, in mid-March, Mar resigned from his U.S. diplomatic posting in order to launch a failed bid for premier back in Alberta. (Now appointed as the province's representative to Asia, Mar "isn't answering questions about Washington", a government spokesperson said).

Then in the fall, a simmering debate over TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline exploded onto the national consciousness. As America's environmental movement declared stopping the project its number one priority, the Consumer Energy Alliance fought back with what it described in the emails as an online "Echo Chamber."

Any time a "CEA or CEA member" creates a "Press Release, Call to Action, Blog, etc.", said a flow chart prepared by the group, that item would be "pushed to Media" and then sent "to affiliates for ECHO."

By the time November hit though, even the best efforts of the Consumer Energy Alliance were not enough to keep President Obama from postponing a decision on Keystone XL until 2013, well after the upcoming election. But while that news made headlines across the planet, the demise of America's fuel standard push continued to go virtually unreported.

These days California is the only U.S. jurisdiction implementing the policy. There's little support for the standard in the Midwest, where the economy is weak. And as for those 11 Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states? "The work continues," University of California-Davis transportation researcher Sonia Yeh said in an interview. "But they're struggling forward. So far there's no indication any of the states will go ahead and adopt it."

The Whatley-Mar plan had achieved its goal: helping to blunt President Obama's climate change agenda. And few outside of the Canadian embassy were any wiser.