Some say it is the biggest construction project in the U.S.—a job requiring $8 billion in rail and fuel terminals, oil pipelines, natural-gas plants, oil wells, highway upgrades, water distribution systems and more.
To others, it is the Bakken shale formation, a 15,000-sq-mile oil field straddling North Dakota and Montana and producing 300,000 barrels per day of crude oil. Its output is expected to increase to 1.2 million barrels per day by 2015.