At an economic summit in Alberta, Energy Minister Ken Hughes said developing a way to get Alberta oil to overseas markets--thereby ensuring the best price for the oil--is a priority.

In Utah, where a single, primarily two-lane highway is the best route to move oil from the productive Uinta Basin to Salt Lake City refineries, the state Department of Transportation and local governments in Duchesne and Uintah counties are asking the state Legislature to fund a $3-million study on ways to ease the transportation bottleneck.

And in Wyoming, two rail-loading facilities are in the works to allow oil to be pumped into tank cars and moved by rail to markets.

Also in the news, biologists in Yellowstone National Park said 12 percent of the wolf population were killed by hunters outside of the park this year, and advocacy groups have differing views on how Sally Jewell, President Obama's nomination to replace Ken Salazar as Interior secretary, will handle the issue of wild horses on public lands.