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KNIFLEY, KY (WAVE) - The entire town of Knifley, Kentucky was evacuated early Thursday morning after a gas line explosion engulfed at least three houses, two barns and four automobiles in flames, which spread to a nearby wooded area. At least one person was injured. About 150 people live in the Adair County community. The explosion happened about 2 a.m. near Highways 551 and 71 in Knifley. The was no immediate word on the condition of the person who was taken to a hospital for treatment.

Stop obsessing over Keystone XL. That’s one of the messages Sen. Ted Cruz delivered to conservatives at a major policy summit on Monday, as the freshman from Texas urged fellow GOP lawmakers to stop focusing so squarely on TransCanada Corp.’s proposed oil pipeline — and instead do more to unleash America’s energy potential. “As much as we need to approve the Keystone pipeline, we need to think far broader than that,” Cruz told the Heritage Action for America Conservative Policy Summit. “We need to do far more.” Cruz’s policy speech — his first major address on energy issues — marks...

On January 31, the State Department released its final Environmental Impact Statement on the Keystone XS pipeline, concluding once again that its construction would have a net neutral effect on carbon emissions. The study also confirms that the pipeline itself would have little to no impact on Canadian oil sands extraction rates or on global oil consumption. Canada will continue to develop the oil sands and consumers will continue to buy oil for the foreseeable future with or without the Keystone XL. The relevant questions surrounding the pipeline’s construction are who will benefit from the development and transit of this...

For over five years, the Obama Administration has delayed a decision on the Keystone pipeline because of alleged concerns about environmental impacts, especially climate change. The Administration’s non-decision process has been strongly supported by its activist environmental allies who have made extreme and unsupportable claims. Now, the truth comes out from the former Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu, who finally admitted that the decision is “a political one, and one founded in science” and just yesterday by former Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, who said that Keystone is a “win-win.” In spite of these admissions, environmental activists continue their...

The nation’s leading environmental groups are digging their heels in the sand by rejecting President Obama’s “all-of-the above” domestic energy strategy—which calls for pursuing renewable energy sources like wind and solar, but simultaneously expanding oil and gas production. But it appears the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor federation, won’t be taking environmentalists’ side in this fight, despite moves toward labor-environmentalist cooperation in recent years. On a recent conference call with reporters, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka endorsed two initiatives reviled by green groups: the Keystone XL pipeline and new natural gas export terminals. “There’s no environmental reason that [the pipeline] can’t...

Billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer is launching a new campaign against proponents of Keystone XL, and one possible target is Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu (La.). Steyer's green group NextGen Climate Action posted a list of candidates who are strong advocates of the controversial TransCanada oil pipeline on its website, asking people to pick which one it should target for its Keystone XL television ad. NextGen Climate Action is lining up Landrieu, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Reps. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and Paul Broun (R-Ga.) as potential targets. Also on the list is former South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds, who is...

An unusual coalition of lawmakers from both parties, labor and business leaders, veterans groups and Canada's ambassador to the United States joined forces Tuesday to push for quick approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. Five Democrats joined Republicans at a Capitol news conference to urge President Barack Obama to approve the pipeline following a State Department report last week that raised no major environmental objections. The $7 billion pipeline would carry oil from tar sands in western Canada to refineries along the Texas Gulf Coast. The project has lingered for more than five years and has become a symbol...

Welcome to the "year of action." In last week's State of the Union address, the president vowed to do whatever he must to help the economy, even if that means working around Congress: "What I offer tonight is a set of concrete, practical proposals to speed up growth, strengthen the middle class and build new ladders of opportunity into the middle class. Some require congressional action, and I'm eager to work with all of you. But America does not stand still, and neither will I. So wherever and whenever I can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more...

PARIS -- An environmentalist lies down alongside his fellow organic cucumber aficionados to block the construction of an oil pipeline and wakes up a member of a proxy army serving the billionaires who are fighting against America's economic and national security interests to line their own pockets. How did that happen? This phenomenon is on display in the battle against the Keystone XL pipeline project, the cornerstone of Canada-U.S. energy independence, set to run from Alberta, Canada, into Nebraska, then ultimately to the Gulf Coast of Texas where it can be exported. None of this pleases environmental activists, whose actions...

CNSNews.com) -- Not building the 875-mile Keystone XL Pipeline could result in the release of up to 42 percent more greenhouse gases than would be released by building it, according to the State Department. Not building the pipeline “is unlikely to significantly impact the rate of extraction in the [Canadian] oil sands or the continued demand for heavy crude oil at refineries in the United States,” the department noted in a long-awaited environmental report released January 31st. But the “No Build” option is likely to result in an increased number of oil spills, six more deaths annually, and up to...

The shovel-ready pipeline from Canada gets yet another clean bill of health as yet another State Department review says it will have negligible environmental impact, unlike the crude-carrying trains that are replacing it. President Obama promised in the State of the Union that 2014, his sixth year in office, would be a "year of action" on jobs, unlike the first five that saw the labor force participation rate sink to its lowest level in decades. In his weekly radio address on Jan. 18, he said he wanted "to work with Congress this year on proven ways to create jobs, like...

The final report largely echoed the conclusions in earlier reports that the pipeline would not affect greenhouse gas emissions. Pipeline opponents said they were now hanging their hopes on Mr. Kerry, who is expected to issue his conclusion on the pipeline in the coming months. An executive order signed by President George W. Bush gave the secretary of state the final say on cross-border pipeline projects. “I think the secretary has proven himself to be a lifelong advocate for tough action on climate, and we are cautiously confident that he will, along with the president, make the right decision,” said...

The State Department today released its long-awaited environmental impact analysis of the Keystone XL pipeline. The analysis is key because President Obama announced last summer he would not approve the pipeline unless it was found to have no significant impact on climate change. And that’s what the analysis finds. It argues, as many other analysts have concluded, that if we block the pipeline, Canada will just ship the oil out by rail. So, what public policy reason is there to block the pipeline? There really isn’t one. Indeed, the environmentalists' obsession with Keystone began as a gigantic mistake. Two and...

Keystone opponents vow civil disobedience, vigils starting Monday Published February 01, 2014 FoxNews.com Environmentalists and other opponents of the Keystone XL Pipeline are ramping up their opposition to the project following the release Friday of a largely favorable State Department report -- vowing to hold vigils, jump into the November elections and even perform acts of civil disobedience. The report raising no major environmental concerns bolster the hopes of the oil industry, some union groups, congressional Republicans and others that President Obama will soon approve the $7 billion project, after a roughly five year wait. They say the Canada-to-Texas pipeline...

With limited pipeline options to ship oil sands crude out of Canada, Exxon Mobil Corp. plans to move up to 100,000 barrels per day of Canadian oil using a new rail terminal that should be running by 2015, an executive said Thursday. The terminal, to be constructed in Alberta, will cost up to $250 million if it is built to a maximum capacity of 250,000 barrels of oil per day, said David Rosenthal, Exxon Mobil’s vice president of investor relations, during a conference call with analysts. The rail terminal is being developed by Kinder Morgan and Imperial Oil at an...

Billionaire Obama donor Tom Steyer, who is funding and leading the environmentalist campaign against the Keystone XL pipeline, will air an anti-Keystone ad on MSNBC before and after President Barack Obama's State of the Union address on Tuesday evening. The minute-long ad, entitled "Sucker Punch," claims that Canada may not send its tar sand oil through the pipeline to the U.S., and implies it will send the oil to China instead.

There’s a clan of semi-nomadic tradesmen quietly watching for a sign that, somewhere on the horizon, there might be a resolution to the Keystone XL dispute. The Berringer brothers have travelled far, and often, to build pipelines like their dad did. Between the now-retired father and his two burly boys, their total combined experience adds up to about a century. And in all that prodigious pipeline-laying history, they say, not once have they ever witnessed a struggle like the one over Keystone XL. The Berringer boys happen to have a few bucks riding on the outcome. They’d expect their union...

Despite years of acrimonious delay, the Keystone XL pipeline project is increasingly likely to receive the green light from the U.S. government sometime this year. ... In the end, intense pressure from constituencies close to the Obama Administration will force the President to align himself with the project. Here are the top five reasons why the government will finally be compelled to take action on this hot-button issue and why it will probably happen sooner rather than later. 1) The U.S. Midterm elections - Nothing changes policy faster than an election and this year it looks like several members of...

Fixated as we Americans are on Canada’s three most attention-getting exports — polar vortexes, Alberta clippers and the antics of Toronto’s addled mayor — we’ve somewhat overlooked a major feature of Canada’s current relations with the United States: extreme annoyance. Last week, speaking to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Canada’s foreign minister calmly but pointedly complained that the United States owes Canada a response on the Keystone XL pipeline. “We can’t continue in this state of limbo,” he sort of complained, in what for a placid, imperturbable Canadian passes for an explosion of volcanic rage.

Among Washington's most important but rarely covered realities is the daily close coordination among Democratic politicians, executive branch bureaucrats and the left side of the non-profit activism community. Emails obtained recently through a Freedom of Information Act request submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency by the Energy and Environment Legal Institute exposed a slice of that coordination in the campaign to stop construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. The emails show, according to Fox News correspondent John Roberts, "senior policy officials at the EPA working closely with environmental groups in what appears to be an effort to kill the pipeline."...