WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A pair of recent accidents that spilled Canadian crude oil in the United States is part of doing business in the energy industry and should not prevent the Keystone XL pipeline from moving forward, Alberta’s premier said on Tuesday.

“We have to be honest about the fact that if we do have energy development, there is the risk of really unfortunate incidents,” Alison Redford, whose province is home to Canada’s oil sands, said during a panel at the Brookings Institution.

WASHINGTON, April 8 (Reuters) – Environmental groups on
Monday asked the Obama administration to extend the approval
process of the Keystone XL pipeline, using last month’s spill of
heavy Canadian crude oil in Arkansas as their latest reason to
delay the project.

The Obama administration is deciding whether to approve the
Canada-to-Nebraska leg of TransCanada Corp’s proposed
pipeline, which would link Canada’s oil sands, the world’s third
richest crude oil deposit, to refineries in Texas.

WASHINGTON, April 3 (Reuters) – The Obama administration is
inching ahead with a plan that would allow wastewater from
fracking to be shipped on barges, fueling a debate whether it is
safer than other transportation modes or risks polluting
drinking water.

The Coast Guard last month quietly sent to the White House’s
Office of Management and Budget a proposal to allow the barging
of fracking wastewater. If the plan is pushed forward, it would
become a proposed rule open for public comment and could be
finalized sometime in the near future.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration will propose on Friday long-awaited rules to slash smog-forming emissions from gasoline that have been linked to lung and heart ailments, health groups and an environmental regulator source said on Thursday.

The Environmental Protection Agency will propose the so-called Tier 3 rules that will require refiners to reduce the sulfur content of gasoline to 10 parts per million by 2017 from the current standard of 30 ppm, an agency source said on condition of anonymity.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration will propose on Friday long-awaited rules to slash smog-forming emissions from gasoline that have been linked to lung and heart ailments, health groups and a lawmaker briefed on the matter said on Thursday.

The so-called Tier 3 rules to be proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency will require refiners to reduce the sulfur content of gasoline to 10 parts per million from the current 30 ppm standard.

WASHINGTON, March 28 (Reuters) – The Obama administration
will propose on Friday long-awaited rules to slash smog-forming
emissions from gasoline that have been linked to lung and heart
ailments, health groups and a lawmaker briefed on the matter
said on Thursday.

The so-called Tier 3 rules to be proposed by the
Environmental Protection Agency will require refiners to reduce
the sulfur content of gasoline to 10 parts per million from the
current 30 ppm standard.

WASHINGTON, March 22 (Reuters) – The Senate easily passed on
Friday a symbolic measure approving the Canada to Texas Keystone
XL oil pipeline, a move backers said showed strong support for a
bill that would give Congress power to green light the project
later in the year.

The amendment to the budget plan, sponsored by Senator John
Hoeven, a Republican from North Dakota, passed 62 to 37.

BOSTON/WASHINGTON, March 20 (Reuters) – A former hedge fund
manager turned environmental activist who opposes the Keystone
XL pipeline has waded into the Massachusetts U.S. Senate race,
threatening to undermine a pledge by the two Democratic
candidates to reject outside money.

California billionaire Tom Steyer has called on Democratic
Representative Stephen Lynch to abandon his support for the
proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which would transport crude from
Canada’s oil sands to refineries in Texas.

WASHINGTON/LEMONT, Illinois (Reuters) – U.S. lawmakers in both chambers of Congress said Friday they are moving forward with bills introduced this week to pluck the power of approving the Keystone XL pipeline, which would run from Canada’s oil sands to Texas, from the hands of the Obama administration.

Republican Representative Lee Terry from Nebraska introduced a bipartisan bill on Friday to approve TransCanada Corp’s 800,000 barrels per day pipeline, which has been held up in the review process for more than four years.

WASHINGTON, March 15 (Reuters) – The Obama administration
has imposed sanctions on Iranian companies it says provide
insurance services to the country’s main petroleum shipper, part
of the latest U.S. effort to choke funding to the Iran’s
disputed nuclear program.

The U.S. State Department said on Thursday it had imposed
sanctions on Kish Protection and Indemnity Club, known as Kish
P&I, and Bimeh Markazi-Central Insurance of Iran, known as CII.
Kish provides insurance for the National Iranian Tanker Co, or
NITC, and CII provides the shipper with reinsurance, it said.