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Prime Minister Stephen Harper made a personal pitch Friday for President Barack Obama to support a controversial $7 billion pipeline that could double the amount of Alberta oilsands crude exported to the United States. Harper confirmed he pressed Obama on Calgary-based TransCanada's proposed Keystone XL pipeline during the two leaders' hour-long meeting at the White House. The planned 3,200-kilometre pipeline, which would run from Hardisty, Alberta to the Gulf Coast of Texas, is currently in limbo as the State Department weighs whether to grant a presidential permit allowing construction to begin. In a question-and-answer session with reporters, Harper was asked...

EDMONTON - TransCanada Corp. alone plans to ship more than one million barrels a day of oilsands production to the United States with an expanded pipeline construction program unveiled today. The Alberta oil and gas delivery mainstay added a second leg to its new Keystone export service that would more than double the system's capacity and extend it to the Texas coast of the Gulf of Mexico. TransCanada president Hal Kvisle said the added route is a companion instead of competition for projects underway by Enbridge Inc., which is also advancing more than one million barrels daily in new oilsands...

Canada's tar sands, which have become a major and secure supplier of oil to the United States, have also been singled out as a major target for American and Canadian environmentalists. Issuing press releases against them, however, is one thing. Going without the increasing flood of oil they are pouring into the American market would be quite another. Two American environmental groups have declared war on the tar sands. One is the Freedom from Oil Coalition whose San Francisco-based director is formerly of Alberta, the province where almost all the tar sands are located. He was in Alberta last week...

Energy: The environmental lobby has thus far blocked tapping the oil reserves in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Meanwhile, Canada draws oil from a remote and frozen region and sells it in the U.S....Though we already get 2.1 million barrels a day from Canada, oil from northern Alberta's oil sand fields has rarely reached southward beyond Chicago. That changed last week when crude from those oil sand reserves were piped to Oklahoma, from where they will be sent to refiners that had long been getting their crude from other sources, particularly the Gulf of Mexico.It was a landmark day when...

The Transportation Department has given TransCanada Corp. permission to restart its Keystone oil pipeline, just a day after blocking resumption of operations on the line that has suffered two recent leaks.The department’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), in a letter Saturday, told the company that it had approved its restart plan and that the restart could commence today. “PHMSA’s decision follows a thorough evaluation of the company’s proposed plan, and safety activities required under the plan. As required by the Corrective Action Order, restart of the pipeline will be under restricted conditions and closely monitored by PHMSA,” the...