"HOUSTON -- Over the past two years, environmentalists have chained themselves to the White House fence and otherwise coalesced around stopping the Keystone XL pipeline as their top priority in the fight against global warming. But even if President Obama rejects the pipeline, it might not matter much. Oil companies are already building rail terminals to deliver oil from western Canada to the United States, and even to Asia."

"'American policymakers need to understand just who they will be doing business with if they approve the Keystone,' says environmental artist Franke James."

"SAN FRANCISCO -- Saying that the West Coast must lead the way in battling climate change, the governors of California, Oregon and Washington, along with the premier of British Columbia, signed an agreement Monday committing the Canadian province and the three states to coordinate global-warming policies."

"FORT CHIPEWYAN, Canada -- In the Cree language, the word 'athabasca' means 'a place where grass is everywhere.' Here in Alberta, the Athabasca River slices through forests of spruce and birch before spilling into a vast freshwater delta and Lake Athabasca."

"STONY PLAIN, Alberta -- Residents of an tiny Alberta community near the site of a train derailment remained out of their homes for third day as CN Rail struggled to get the upper hand on a fire that was threatening the area."

"A handful of protesters, angered by what they called biased reporting of the anti-fracking movement, asked media outlets to leave the scene at Rexton, N.B., Saturday morning."

"Nine blackened tankers are scattered around the site. Part of the rail is mangled, warped, and burned black."

"Chaos has erupted as Chief Aaren Sock and council members from Elsipogtog First Nation are among at least 40 people arrested by riot-gear-clad police raiding a Mi'kmaq blockade protesting shale gas exploration in New Brunswick."

"On an overcast day in early August, a flotilla of five canoes pushed away from a jetty in Astoria, Ore., near where the Pacific breaks on Desolation Point, at the mouth of the Columbia River."