Industrials

Companies decry 'valve turners' who shut down pipelines

As Enbridge prepared to move climate-damaging tar sands crude through a 40-year-old pipeline in eastern Canada in 2015, environmentalists and indigenous peoples including Vanessa Gray thought about what happened in Michigan just five years earlier: Another of the company's lines had burst, sending oil into a river in one of the largest spills in U.S. history.

Italy standoff over high-speed rail to France eases

Italy's coalition partners appear to have temporarily resolved a dispute over the high-speed rail line to France, with an agreement to let new contract bids go out on schedule but without any financial commitments.

South Dakota passes bills to discourage Keystone XL rioting

South Dakota is poised to approve laws aimed at potential protests against the planned Keystone XL oil pipeline, seeking to prevent disruptive demonstrations like those against the Dakota Access pipeline that cost neighboring North Dakota nearly $40 million and led to hundreds of arrests beginning in late 2016.

Michigan governor defends proposal for steep fuel tax rise

Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer called Tuesday for nearly tripling Michigan's per-gallon gas tax — and making the state home to the country's highest fuel taxes — in order to improve aging roads that she warned would only get worse without a major influx of new spending.

Noem offers bills aimed at possible Keystone XL protests

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem said Monday that she's proposing legislation before construction begins on the Keystone XL oil pipeline that would create a way to go after out-of-state money that funds pipeline protests.