Safety regulations not up to speed with massive escalation of resource extraction

The company seeking to build the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline has had a massive explosion on its decades-old natural gas pipeline in southern Manitoba. The rupture of the TransCanada PipeLines (TCPL) gas line occurred in the middle of the night on Saturday, January 25 near the village of Otterburne. A massive fireball erupted into the night sky and burned for many hours. The explosion tore a large crater in the ground. Several thousand homes in ten small communities were left without their gas heating during temperatures that have dipped to minus 30C. It will be some days yet before full service is restored.