The failure of the Keystone XL pipeline expansion to the U.S. Gulf Coast to obtain approval—yet again—from the U.S. State Department in November 2011 set off a flurry of strategic pipeline announcements aimed at draining the growing oil glut in U.S. Midwest storage facilities. A new front-runner in the race to get Canadian oilsands production to underutilized Texas Gulf Coast refiners is now Enbridge Inc.

Bitumen-bashers really have no idea of the heartfelt effort industry members pour into continuous improvement in the standards of practice for producing the oilsands.