China sees their future powered by nuclear plants. They have 19-under construction and 43-more planned. They could, and should, switch their coal plants to Natural Gas which is cheaper and easier to transport than coal.
Canadians have the capacity to refine Tar Sands but choose not to. Their biggest lack is a distribution network for products produced from this fuel source. You are correct about Canadian Oil being sent to America for refining. I don't think there is one chemical engineer worth his salt who would say that Brent Crude is as polluting as Tar Sands.
The Keystone-XL pipeline is more important to advancing political positions, than to contributing appreciably to the worldwide supply of crude oil. Because Tar Sands can be easily transported by rail, as is currently the case with the product coming from Canada to be refined in America, it is doubtful that this pipeline will ever be constructed. But every time the world oil supply is disrupted right wing politicians who know that the facts don't matter, will renew the debate over it.
