North Dakota Building Oil Refinery

First new one in U.S. since the '70s

The U.S. has not opened a new oil refinery since Gerald Ford was in the White House. But that will change next year. So where will the next facility be? In North Dakota, where the locals aren't afraid to drill.

When the Dakota Prairie refinery west of Bismarck, N.D., starts turning crude into usable — and essential — products in 2014, it will be the first to open in America since 1976. This probably isn't what the green-energy president wants to have happen on his watch.

But he can't step on the refinery as he has the Keystone XL pipeline, so he'll have to live with it.