May 19, 2016 4:19PM EDT - The National Energy Board has conditionally approved the $6.8-billion Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion project.

The regulator said Thursday that Kinder Morgan Canada Inc.’s Trans Mountain project must meet 157 conditions.

“These conditions would address issues such as safety, protection of the environment and other considerations,” the NEB said in a 533-page report. The conditions address areas such as engineering, safety, the environment, socio-economic issues and emergency management.

...a report by Canada’s parliamentary budget officer predict[ed] that disasters linked to climate change could cost the government an average of C$902m a year over the next five years...

The wildfire in northern Alberta continues to rage out of control, growing to more than 423,000 hectares as officials said it would be at least another two weeks before the tens of thousands of evacuated Fort McMurray residents would be allowed to return to the city.

May 17, 2016 - As the wildfire raged and 90,000 people including kids, the elderly, and hospital patients were forced to flee from Fort McMurray on the only highway that would take them to safety hundreds of kilometers to the south, Canadians saw a very different city than they are used to.

It was no longer just a symbol, an easy target in the ongoing conflict between those who want oil to stay in the ground and those who see it as key to their livelihood.

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - A massive wildfire burning around the oil sands hub of Fort McMurray, Alberta is about 1 km (1,094 yards) away from Enbridge Inc's Cheecham crude oil tank farm, but is under control for now, emergency officials said on Monday.

The blaze near the tank farm was stable because the wind was cooperating as Enbridge's industrial firefighters tackled the blaze, the officials said at a news conference.

13 May 2016 - At the end of the day the $10-billion wildfire that consumed 2400 homes and buildings in Fort McMurray may be the least of the region's problems.

'For me, climate change is the face of this problem,' says Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne

If you’re trying to figure out how Alberta’s already hurting budget is going to get battered by the Fort McMurray wildfires, don’t get too bogged down in the reports of massive losses in oil production shutdowns. You’re better off keeping an eye on the way the oil price responds to the drama playing out in the Alberta oil patch.