Grassy Mountain

Cancer-causing chemicals are being blown downwind from coal mines in southern British Columbia in concentrations that rival those next to oilsand mines, newly published research has concluded.

In February, Energy Minister Brian Jean wrote a letter to the Alberta Energy Regulator suggesting three coal exploration applications for the province's Rocky Mountains should be exempt from a government order banning such development.

In a letter dated Thursday, the Alberta Energy Regulator says it has decided the Grassy Mountain proposal should be considered an advanced project and be exempt from a ministerial order banning coal development along the province's eastern slopes.

Alberta's New Democrat Opposition is asking the provincial government to step in and quash applications for coal mining exploration in the Rocky Mountains.

Alberta's Opposition New Democrats want the provincial government to end any uncertainty about the future of the province's Rocky Mountains by legislating that no new coal mines will be permitted there.

Coal mining on environmentally sensitive slopes of Alberta's Rocky Mountains wouldn't be an overall benefit to the province, a wide-ranging analysis from the University of Calgary has concluded.

The federal government says the proposed Grassy Mountain coal project in southwestern Alberta cannot proceed.

The company behind a proposed open-pit coal mine in Alberta's Rocky Mountains has filed a request to appeal a decision by a review panel that rejected the project as being not in the public interest.

One of North America's top experts on pollution from coal mines is warning Albertans about the dangers of expanding the industry in the province's Rocky Mountains.