oilsands

Energy company Kinder Morgan has received permission from the federal pipeline regulator to break the rules of the metro Vancouver suburb of Burnaby in its construction of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. The regulator said it can’t yet explain why it made this decision. B.C.’s Environment Minister George Heyman is shocked and says all Canadians should be concerned.

Lawyer Maureen Killoran, part of a high-powered team of six from a Calgary-based law firm, called for the National Energy Board to quash Burnaby's bylaws on Monday. The regulator entertained the possibility of granting the pipeline company's request.

Kinder Morgan Canada says it is still not in a position to start significant construction on the Trans Mountain expansion project and expects spending on the project for at least part of next year to focus mostly on permitting.

The city has blamed the company’s incompetence for delays, explaining that Kinder Morgan has struggled to follow the rules that apply to all developers. But during a hearing on Wednesday, a lawyer for the city, Gregory McDade, objected to "softball questions" from the NEB to Kinder Morgan.

There's an image circulating the Internet comparing the environmental damage of a lithium battery to the oilsands. Pay them no mind, writes David Suzuki.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau provoked outrage as well as glowing praise when he first announced that the free ride for climate polluting industries would end. Today, as the deadline looms, the office of Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna says the government is ready to take action.

Canada’s oilpatch could get a big head start on reducing emissions of a powerful greenhouse gas for a "near−zero" cost, says an academic study on the price of methane reduction.

Alberta Premier Rachel Notley arrived at the doorstep of federal power today to deliver a stern message to the Trudeau government on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion: “step up.”

One of the world's largest groups of conservation scientists says Canada's biggest national park is one of the most threatened World Heritage Sites in North America. "This is quite embarrassing," said Melody Lepine of the Mikisew Cree First Nation, many of whose members live alongside the park. "It's not looking good for Canada avoiding an endangered listing for Wood Buffalo."

Now, I know the advice that many of us abide by. Don’t feed the trolls and by in large, I don’t. I’m breaking this rule because I think the misogynistic and violent nature of certain comments and potential links to pro-oil platforms needs to be called out.

Attorneys general from B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan have all given notice that they intend to intervene in the upcoming hearing, but the federal government's attorney general, Jody Wilson-Raybould, has opted to sit this one out, leaving the matter in the hands of the NEB.

The procedure would be a departure from the NEB's previous treatment of Kinder Morgan. The regulator had refused to allow cross-examination of company officials in its original hearings to review the project, which were set up when the former Harper government was in power. The Trudeau government has declined to intervene in the case.

Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall is refusing to apologize for his government's accusations against Burnaby after getting a letter from the British Columbia coastal city's lawyer. The provincial government accused the City of Burnaby last Friday of "deliberately slowing down" permits for Texas-based Kinder Morgan and the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.

One of the country's largest oilsands companies is facing federal charges in the death of 31 great blue herons at one of its mine sites in northern Alberta more than two years ago.

The National Energy Board has rejected a requested deadline proposed by pipeline giant Kinder Morgan to limit debate about its request to short-circuit provincial and municipal laws standing in the way of its Trans Mountain expansion project.