Canada

"The British Columbia coastal city of Kitimat Friday officially rejected the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline proposal to move diluted bitumen from the Alberta oil sands through a proposed port facility that would be built there."

"In response to a deadly train derailment last summer, the Canadian government Wednesday ordered the country’s railroads to phase out tens of thousands of older, puncture-prone tank cars from crude oil transportation within three years."

"Nestled into a seaside forest on the University of British Columbia's lands, amid a carpet of sword ferns and salal, sits a gleaming industrial facility that's been hailed as a significant step toward a carbon-neutral future for B.C., Canada and even the world."

"The backers of the Northern Gateway pipeline are vowing to plow ahead despite a blunt rejection by citizens of Kitimat, the community that stands to gain the most from the $7.9 billion megaproject."

"You might expect the biggest lease owner in Canada's oil sands, or tar sands, to be one of the international oil giants, like Exxon Mobil or Royal Dutch Shell. But that isn't the case. The biggest lease holder in the northern Alberta oil sands is a subsidiary of Koch Industries, the privately-owned cornerstone of the fortune of conservative Koch brothers Charles and David."

"WASHINGTON -- A report due to be released Tuesday aims to offer an object lesson to President Barack Obama: Free trade deals have high costs in unintended consequences for the environment, people's way of life, and local sovereignty."

Last week's Canadian green light for a pipeline flow reversal may mean that oil sands crude will be travelling to New England. Some New Englanders think that's a bad idea.

One of the few journalists covering First Nation protests against fracking in New Brunswick -- and regularly arrested for doing so -- saw charges against him dropped for a third time in February. Now the Canadian Association of Journalists asks whether the RCMP are trying to intimidate journalists.

"OTTAWA — Canada’s energy producers received a rare boost in their efforts to expand the market for oil sands bitumen on Thursday when the country’s National Energy Board approved the reversal of a Canadian pipeline."