as someone mentioned, you can substitute nearly any fat for nearly any other fat. however, you can't use the soft margarines that come in tubs because they contain a lot of water. you also can't substitute liquid for solid fats because of how they will affect your product. for example, people like flaky, crispy pie crusts, which are created by keeping the flour/water paste separate from the pieces of shortening. the balls of shortening get flattened into more or less overlapping disc shapesas you roll out your dough. the more the shortening get worked into the flour, the less flaky. if you were to use oil instead of solid shortening, there would be no layers at all. more like cardboard.
as far as biscuits go, it depends what kind of texture you like. if you follow the recipe you wrote and cut the shortening to a course meal texture and then roll out as written, you will get a biscuit with a dense texture. shortening cut to a "course meal" texture will give you a crumbly biscuit, which some people like. however, kneading it next will just make it dense.
personally, i prefer flaky biscuits, so i cut the shortening (i prefer butter) until the larger pieces are the size of peas or smaller beans. when it's time to roll them out, i first quickly and softly pat it out to a small, thick size, cut in half with a scraper, stack, pat, cut, stack, pat out, etc. until i have maybe 8 or 16 layers before i finally roll them out.
crisco is a very soft product at room temp. and will work into your dough too much. for decent results, crisco, butter or whatever you use needs to be refridgerated. this is especially true for pie crusts.
i never use crisco except for greasing pans. it's got no flavor, so of course the biscuits won't be tasty. health issues aside, butter is best though pricy. otherwise use a good quality margarine.
one other point about the recipe: i'd recommend upping the fat content a bit. buttermilk recipes still generally reflect or are actually recipes from our grandparents days. however, todays' buttermilk is not the same product. todays' is a cultured product with a much lower fat content.
otherwise, the recipe is very wrong where it says to knead for a minute. this is a big mistake. add all the milk at once, fold it in quickly but gently with a fork (don't stir or beat with a big wooden spoon) just to where it's mixed in, then turn it out on your floured board. if you work quickly and unless your kitchen is very hot, there's no real need to refridgerate it before rolling. (unless you feel the shortening is getting too soft.) just remember to keep your shortening cold, and don't overwork it. no kneading or beating. as you're working the dough, also consider whether you could still handle it if you increased the milk by a couple of tablespoons or 1/4 cup. as far as biscuits go, the softer the dough, the better.