For seven long minutes, as NASA's latest Mars probe hurtled in radio silence through the red planet's atmosphere to its surface, Chris Herd held his breath.

The exponential growth of unpaid property taxes from Alberta's struggling oilpatch is threatening small communities and they need new ways to enforce the rules, says the group that represents them.

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.

A coal-mining company with exploration leases in Alberta's Rocky Mountains is trying to figure out how the government's decision to restore protection of the land will affect its plans.

Doubts are surfacing over the Alberta government's decision to restore a policy that protects the Rocky Mountains from coal mining.

The Alberta government says powerful public protest persuaded it to reinstate a policy that has kept open-pit coal mines out of the Rocky Mountains for almost 45 years.

The Alberta government says it plans to restore some aspects of a policy it revoked last spring that protected a wide swath of the province's foothills and mountains from coal mines.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney says Albertans have no cause to worry over his government quietly throwing out a coal policy that protected the Rocky Mountains for more than four decades.

Opposition to Alberta's attempt to expand coal mining in the Rocky Mountains is growing with two more towns expressing concerns and a legislature member with the governing United Conservatives backing them up.