The 5-year anniversary of the Lehman Brothers collapse has garnered a lot of attention this week.  However, today marks the 5-year anniversary of an event that involves a side of the U.S. government that has acted far less swiftly than the folks who quickly fired up the printing press to ensure the global economy didn’t collapse along with Lehman.

It was 5 years ago today that TransCanada (TSX:TRP, NYSE:TRP) submitted its application to build the full Keystone XL pipeline.

To celebrate this somewhat dubious occasion, the good people at Oil Sands Fact Check have put together a rather clever infographic which demonstrates a series of significant projects that have been built in the time it has taken to get to where we are, wherever that is, in the Keystone XL approval process.

While TransCanada waits on the Keystone decision, a process that is more or less out of their control, plenty of companies are taking their destiny into their own hands.  3 such companies are profiled in our special FREE report “3 U.S. Companies That Every Canadian Should Own”.  Click here now to download this report at no charge.

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Fool contributor Iain Butler does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned above.  The Motley Fool does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned above.