OAKLAND, Calif. -- The U.S. State Department is in the process of deciding whether the proposed Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline would be in the U.S. national interest, but the determination is being made without Keystone XL’s digital GIS data, such as the longitude and latitude of milepost markers, waterbody crossings and the centerline route."

After four tank cars full of crude oil from a derailed train incinerated a small Quebec town, killing at least five, the debate over rail versus pipeline for oil transport intensifies.

"Detectable levels of a large number of environmental chemicals have been found in the cord blood of some newborns, raising concerns that Canadian children already carry toxins in their bodies at birth, a report says."

"While residents of Medicine Hat anxiously wait for swelling river waters to recede, flooding in Calgary has left the city’s economy in shambles."

"Scientists say the Mackenzie River and its tributaries play a crucial role in cooling a warming climate, acting as a 'climate stabilizer.'"

"Downtown Calgary could look like a bit of a ghost town today, with entire neighbourhoods shut down and office workers told to stay home due to massive flooding."

"TransCanada Corp., which says Keystone XL will be the safest pipeline ever built, isn’t planning to use infrared sensors or fiber-optic cables to detect spills along the system’s 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometer) path to Texas refineries from fields in Alberta."

"None of the companies operating in Canada's tar sands have met a commitment to clean up the vast and expanding sprawl of toxic waste ponds, an official report has found."

"Former TransCanada Corp. employee Evan Vokes' impassioned testimony before a Canadian Senate committee last week painted 'a very, very bleak picture of the pipeline industry in Canada, and probably by extension, the States,' according to Sen. Betty Unger."