News bites: Keystone builder says pipeline good for environment, OPEC maintains output, and more

TransCanada Corp. CEO Russ Girling says the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline would help the environment. He said that’s because rejecting the controversial Canada-to-Texas project would require the United States to continue importing oil transported to the country via tankers that run on oil.

From Bloomberg:

“The opponents to this project have indicated that this is a choice somehow between environment and jobs. … That’s simply not true.”

{mosads}The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will maintain its output cap of 30 million barrels of oil per day, despite some rumblings that members might push to cut production to raise prices, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Tokyo is beefing up its infrastructure to prepare for a possible flood of a greater magnitude than Hurricane Sandy, reports Bloomberg.

A prototype wind turbine set to go operational Friday off Maine’s coast will be the nation’s first offshore grid-connected turbine, the AP notes.