An oil spill in Arkansas may add urgency to Vermont legislation that would regulate oil pipelines. Environmentalists point to similarities between the pipeline in Arkansas that ruptured and one in northern Vermont that could be used to ship tar sands oil. 

The state Senate has advanced a bill that would toughen environmental review of an oil pipeline if its use changes.

Along with Town Meeting debates over school budgets and tax rates, some two dozen towns tackled oil companies and the global issue of climate change.

The CEO of a company that owns an oil pipeline across northern New England says the firm has no plans to ship Canadian tar sands oil on the line, but would welcome the opportunity to do so.

The head of a regional oil pipeline company says he's looking for new projects, including using the line to carry controversial tar sands oil across northern New England. The Legislature is reviewing the pipeline issue amid national protests against a project that would carry tar sands oil from western Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.

Environmental groups say any effort to ship tar sands oil through a northern Vermont pipeline should be subject to the state's land use review. The pipeline company has insisted it has no current plans to reverse the flow of an existing line to carry the heavy fuel across northern New England.

These were some of the voices in the news this week.

Although energy companies deny that they plan to ship tar sands oil through New England, the possibility of the west-east route has triggered growing protest around the region.

Environmental groups in northern New England are raising an alarm about the potential for tar sands oil to be piped across northern New England.