A large expansion of a massive thermal coal mine near Hinton, Alta., has been given the go-ahead by the federal government, without a federal impact assessment. The Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC), on behalf of the minister of Environment and Climate Change, announced the decision late Friday.The expansion of the Coalspur Mines Vista project, which is already the largest thermal coal mine in Canada, would make it the largest thermal coal mine in North America.Fraser Thomson, climate di