Re Keystone - it's a victory of the well-heeled over the common good. The oil will still make its way to market. It will just do so via Warren Buffett's BNSF railway, which is more expensive and more dangerous to the environment. It helps the Dems by giving a gift to a select few deep-pocketed activists. I know Tom Steyer. I like Tom Steyer. But much of his many billions came from investments in coal and oil.
The Keystone XL campaign was started 7 years ago, well before oil trains were a thing.
It's also not as simple as the oil will just get out some other way. The industry has had to seriously reduce projections, even before the bottom fell out of the market. Oil trains are also much more expensive than pipelines and so stopping pipelines changes the price point at which tar sands is economically viable. We are also seeing mines close as a result:
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/oct/28/shell-halts-carmon-creek-oil-sands-project-in-alberta-canadaAs for Tom Steyer, it is definitely NOT his money that funded the majority of the groups working on tar sands. He only got involved after the campaign had already been going for 3 or 4 years. Like it or not, the pipeline really resonated with people on the ground and that was what made the fight possible.
