U.S. President Barack Obama said he rejected the Keystone XL pipeline because the Alberta oilsands crude it would have carried is “dirtier” than other oil and because America doesn’t need it. Actually, oil produced in California and Alaska and imports from poorly regulated countries generate higher upstream emissions than oil sands crude. So that was a “green herring”. Obama was on somewhat firmer ground in saying more Canadian imports weren’t needed to ensure U.S. energy security. Christopher Sands and Jesse Barnett examine the boom in U.S. energy production and decline in consumption that slaked America’s thirst for Canadian oil.