Bakken by Rail

Unit trains of 110 cars came down the BNSF main line to March Point carrying North Dakota crude, and they were never a response to demand for fuel. In 2012, Alaska North Slope crude ran more than $20 a barrel above Bakken, and moving a barrel by rail cost about $15. That $5 gap built a $60 million unloading facility. Then the gap closed, the economics reversed, and the trains kept running anyway — which is the more interesting half of the story.

Go look at: the cars themselves. What's rolling out to March Point is the physical residue of a regulatory fight a county council joined without having any authority over railroads at all.