IF the oil that would flow through the Keystone pipeline is for US consumption...

[eallen]

19. Oil and its refinery products are fungible commodities, traded on global markets.

You won't get a politician to admit it, but it matters less where your oil or gasoline originate, than where your shoes or cellphone were made.

Generally speaking, the oil companies prefer to expand existing refinery capacity to building new refineries. Existing sites have the pipelines, harbors, rail, infrastructure, and workforce in place. That said, a new refinery <i>is</i> being built in South (not North) Dakota.

And the only difference it makes whether it gets its crude from Canada, our Gulf, their Gulf, or elsewhere is how tankers are routed and pipelines are used. Logistics, nothing else.