So why not build a refinery up near the Canada border to process this oil rather than piping it all across the country?
My concern is that this oil will not end up staying in the US. (Just like much of the Alaska pipeline oil ends up going to Japan and the Orient.) Once they pump it all the way down to refineries along the coast, it will go right on ships, and off it goes overseas. If it were actually for use in the US, they could build a refinery on the Canadian border a lot easier that building that immense long pipeline. I don't think we're being told the whole story.
Rio,
Refineries cost 10s of billions $ to build while capacity upgrades are in the single billion $.
Once refined, most liquid fuel petroleum products go back into a pipeline system for distribution anyway. Trucking everything is cost prohibitive (like ethanol, corrodes pipelines).
So if someone did build a far US or Canadian northern refinery closer to the source of crude oil, it would still need a pipeline system to distribute the fuel.