1942 - WWII begins in earnest when Japanese sub successfully shells an oil refinery in Ellwood, California
1847 - US troops under Zachary Taylor defend a small outpost against Mexican troops led by Santa Ana, who was aiming to control the gas and shale oil fields lurking below the Alamo.
Coincidence? I think NOT!
"Shale oil, and natural gas, most evil spirits that we shall pass. . . " The start of the actual quote as originally penned by Shakespeare in Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 3.
"We shall be overcome!" The original text Martin Luther King intended to give, warning about carbon monoxide and the virtual hegemony that big oil threatened to create.
From the church of ineffable stupidity:
Hardesty, Alberta - ground zero of four notable things
A. The most poisonous, polluted land in all of Canada.
B. The center of a proposed huge rail center to handle shale oil exports to China, US, and elsewhere
C. The starting place of a 2400 mile long pipeline, intended to cross some of the most pristine, beautiful and ecologically healthy parts of North America.
D. Shale oil central, where there is absolutely no governmental oversight of strip mining, air and water pollution, and the most numerous and serious industrial accidents in Canada.
Steele City, Nebraska
The proposed halfway point of Keystone. Only about another 1000 miles to go to get to the Houston refinery.
Vancouver, BC
The site of a large deep water port and harbor, a large refinery, and an existing pipeline terminus between Hardesty and Vancouver.
Chicago, IL
Another half way point between hardesty and Houston, with huge refineries in Chicago, Joliet, Gary, Indiana, and the terminus of an existing rail line between hardesty and Chicago.
There are refineries along the Great Lakes, both on the US and the Canadian shores. All of them have pipeline capacity to hardesty, and access to deep water ports to the Atlantic.
There are two massive refinery centers in the Puget Sound, one in Vancouver, one in the US (anacortes)
Please tell me. WHY are we building an additional pipeline to the furthest possible refinery away from Canada? And its filthy shale oil? And if we must get it, why not simply ship it to much closer existing refineries, using existing pipelines?
2400 miles from hardesty to Houston
800 miles from hardesty to Vancouver
1500 miles from hardesty to Chicago
You do the maths.