"After three fiery accidents involving trains carrying crude oil out of North Dakota's Bakken Shale, regulators and industry officials are trying to figure out why the oil is exploding."

"Environmental activists warn that construction of a 21-mile natural gas pipeline through northern Baltimore and Harford counties could affect the region's drinking-water system, as the $180 million project cuts across more than three dozen streams feeding into Loch Raven Reservoir."

"ITUMBIARA, Brazil — This should be a golden era here on Brazil’s farming frontier, where some of the world’s biggest corporations have invested billions of dollars in land, equipment and mills to turn sugar cane into ethanol."

"January 1 is the end of the era of your standard, soft white Edison-designed incandescent bulb in the United States. Or at least, in theory."

"Scientists have found a more than 7,300-square-mile ring of land and water contaminated by mercury surrounding the tar sands in Alberta, where energy companies are producing oil and shipping it throughout Canada and the U.S."

"More analysts are urging investors to buy shares in Vestas Wind Systems A/S (VWS) than at any time since October 2010 after the stock soared more than 400 percent over the past 12 months."

"CASSELTON, N.D. – Officials urged people in Casselton and the surrounding area to evacuate their homes as they dealt with the fallout from a massive fire when two trains collided Monday."

"VICTORIA, B.C. -- More than seven billion litres of water were used for fracking in B.C. last year. If the government’s liquefied natural gas sector takes off, the water needed to get shale gas out of the ground in the northeast corner of the province will likely increase by 500 per cent, or more."

"WASHINGTON — To stave off climate change, sources of electricity that do not emit carbon will have to replace the ones that do. But at the moment, two of those largest sources, nuclear and wind power, are trying to kill each other off."

"In energy, next year promises to be just as unconventional as the last."

"North America's boom in unconventional oil and gas will continue to expand and the shale success could spread elsewhere. Easy-to-reach conventional oil is dwindling, but 2014 could see a reprieve as production from Iraq, Libya, and other war-torn oil nations seems to be stabilizing. And easing relations with Iran has the potential to bring major amounts of oil back onto global markets.