Canada

Canada is "making itself seen and heard inside the Beltway, lobbying for approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, the controversial project that's become a lightning rod in the debate over climate change."

"On a typical day in North Dakota prairie towns like Williston, Dickinson and Beulah, trains with 100 tank cars line up to be loaded with oil destined for markets to the east, west, and south."

OAKLAND, Calif. -- The U.S. State Department is in the process of deciding whether the proposed Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline would be in the U.S. national interest, but the determination is being made without Keystone XL’s digital GIS data, such as the longitude and latitude of milepost markers, waterbody crossings and the centerline route."

After four tank cars full of crude oil from a derailed train incinerated a small Quebec town, killing at least five, the debate over rail versus pipeline for oil transport intensifies.

"Detectable levels of a large number of environmental chemicals have been found in the cord blood of some newborns, raising concerns that Canadian children already carry toxins in their bodies at birth, a report says."

"While residents of Medicine Hat anxiously wait for swelling river waters to recede, flooding in Calgary has left the city’s economy in shambles."

"Scientists say the Mackenzie River and its tributaries play a crucial role in cooling a warming climate, acting as a 'climate stabilizer.'"

"Downtown Calgary could look like a bit of a ghost town today, with entire neighbourhoods shut down and office workers told to stay home due to massive flooding."

"TransCanada Corp., which says Keystone XL will be the safest pipeline ever built, isn’t planning to use infrared sensors or fiber-optic cables to detect spills along the system’s 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometer) path to Texas refineries from fields in Alberta."