Fed joins global panel focused on fighting climate change - The Federal Reserve Board said Tuesday that it has officially joined a global coalition of central bankers and financial regulators focused on managing climate risk to the financial sector. The Fed has been participating in discussions with the Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System for over a year now, the regulator said in a press release. The NGFS convenes banking regulators from around the world to exchange ideas, research and best practices for understanding the systemic financial risks posed by a warming world and increasingly severe weather events. “As we develop our understanding of how best to assess the impact of climate change on the financial system, we look forward to continuing and deepening our discussions with our NGFS colleagues from around the world," Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell said in a press release. The U.S. has somewhat lagged its peers abroad in looking at climate risk to the financial system, so the Fed’s membership in the NGFS is a sign that U.S. regulators are taking the risks more seriously. If confirmed as President-elect Joe Biden's nominee Treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, a former Fed chair, is expected to focus heavily on the threat about global warming poses to the financial system. In a September report, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission recommended that U.S. regulators join the NGFS as a means of helping the Fed and other regulatory agencies better understanding the risks climate change pose to banks' balance sheets. That report additionally recommended that U.S. banking regulators design a pilot program to stress test for climate-related risks, an idea that Republican lawmakers and industry groups have pushed back on. The Network for Greening the Financial System includes 75 central banks across the globe. The Fed’s Board of Governors voted 5-0 to accept membership in the organization.
FOMC Statement: No Change -- Fed Chair Powell press conference video here starting at 2:30 PM ET. FOMC Statement:The Federal Reserve is committed to using its full range of tools to support the U.S. economy in this challenging time, thereby promoting its maximum employment and price stability goals.The COVID-19 pandemic is causing tremendous human and economic hardship across the United States and around the world. Economic activity and employment have continued to recover but remain well below their levels at the beginning of the year. Weaker demand and earlier declines in oil prices have been holding down consumer price inflation. Overall financial conditions remain accommodative, in part reflecting policy measures to support the economy and the flow of credit to U.S. households and businesses.The path of the economy will depend significantly on the course of the virus. The ongoing public health crisis will continue to weigh on economic activity, employment, and inflation in the near term, and poses considerable risks to the economic outlook over the medium term.The Committee seeks to achieve maximum employment and inflation at the rate of 2 percent over the longer run. With inflation running persistently below this longer-run goal, the Committee will aim to achieve inflation moderately above 2 percent for some time so that inflation averages 2 percent over time and longer-term inflation expectations remain well anchored at 2 percent. The Committee expects to maintain an accommodative stance of monetary policy until these outcomes are achieved. The Committee decided to keep the target range for the federal funds rate at 0 to 1/4 percent and expects it will be appropriate to maintain this target range until labor market conditions have reached levels consistent with the Committee's assessments of maximum employment and inflation has risen to 2 percent and is on track to moderately exceed 2 percent for some time. In addition, the Federal Reserve will continue to increase its holdings of Treasury securities by at least $80 billion per month and of agency mortgage-backed securities by at least $40 billion per month until substantial further progress has been made toward the Committee's maximum employment and price stability goals. These asset purchases help foster smooth market functioning and accommodative financial conditions, thereby supporting the flow of credit to households and businesses.
Fed Chair Powell Opens a Big Can of Worms at His Press Conference - Pam Martens -There was a jaw-dropping exchange between Politico reporter Victoria Guida and Fed Chair Jerome Powell at his press conference yesterday following the two-day meeting of the Fed’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). Powell first acknowledged in his opening statement that “the current economic downturn is the most severe of our lifetimes.” But he then proceeds to tell Guida that the Fed has given no thought at all to what kind of emergency lending it might engage in under the incoming Biden administration. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has kneecapped the Fed’s existing emergency loan facilities by demanding that the Fed return the Treasury’s unused money that is backstopping these facilities as loss-absorbing capital. The Fed has for years attempted to reassure markets that there will be no surprises from the Fed; that it will be providing lots of forward guidance to Wall Street to assuage any nervous jitters about its actions. And yet this is what Powell tells Guida about the Fed’s future plans for emergency lending facilities: “We’re very focused on getting through year end. We’ve been very focused on the issues that are right in front of us. And honestly, we’re not planning on anything or having any discussions about what we might do down the road.” If that were true, which it clearly isn’t, it would be incompetency of the highest order in the midst of what Powell himself describes as the worst economic downturn of our lifetimes. Guida also dropped the bombshell on Powell (and the full press conference) that she is aware that there is absolutely nothing in the Federal Reserve Act’s Section 13(3) that requires the Fed to get the Treasury to provide loss-absorbing capital from the taxpayer in order for the Fed to create its emergency lending facilities. Guida states: “Chair Powell, you’ve said that you accept Treasury Secretary Mnuchin’s interpretation of the statute of the CARES Act on what should happen with those programs. So, first of all, I’m curious whether under a new Treasury Secretary, you will accept whatever legal interpretation they put forward for those programs. And then, also, given that there isn’t a statutory requirement for you to have financial backing from Treasury for 13(3) facilities, do you have any plans for any future facilities that don’t require Treasury backing?” Powell responds: “Certainly, we would have the ability to do facilities under 13(3) in some cases with no backing, but we can’t do any 13(3) facilities without the approval of the Treasury Secretary. Right. But we did some facilities. I think one of our facilities this time didn’t have any Treasury backing. And I think some in the round of during the global financial crisis also didn’t have any.” The Fed has seven emergency loan programs today that are using Treasury money as backstops. It has two that are not: the Primary Dealer Credit Facility and the Paycheck Protection Program Liquidity Facility. Powell has been on the Board of the Federal Reserve since May 25, 2012. He’s been its chair since February 5, 2018. And he has just voiced the opinion that the U.S. Treasury backstopped most of the 13(3) emergency lending facilities during the 2007 to 2010 financial crisis while only “some” of those facilities didn’t have that Treasury backstop. The fact is that according to the government’s in-depth audit of those facilities that was released by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on July 21, 2011, of the Fed’s six 13(3) emergency loan facilities that were operational during the last financial crisis, just one had any funding support from the Treasury. Those six facilities were the Term Auction Facility (TAF); the Term Securities Lending Facility (TSLF); the Primary Dealer Credit Facility (PDCF); the Asset-Backed Commercial Paper Money Market Mutual Fund Liquidity Facility (AMLF); the Commercial Paper Funding Facility (CPFF); and the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF). According to the GAO audit, the Fed dispersed a total of $16.1 trillion in cumulative loans through these facilities (see graph below) and all it ever got from the Treasury was a $20 billion backstop for TALF, which was eventually reduced to $4.3 billion in July 2010.
Q4 GDP Forecasts --Economic activity in the fourth quarter is dependent on the impact of the pandemic. With the number of new cases of COVID over 200,000 per day, hospitalizations at record levels (over 104,000), and deaths per day at new record highs (almost 3,500 each of the last two days), it appears that economic activity has slowed in December. Initial unemployment claims have increased sharply over the last two weeks, suggesting that layoffs have increased. Last week was the BLS reference week for December, and the increase in weekly claims suggest a weak employment report for December. However, economic activity was solid in October, and that would suggest PCE growth of close to 6% in Q4, even if November and December see no month-over-month growth. It is possible that activity slowed in November and will decline in December. From Goldman Sachs: We left our Q4 GDP tracking estimate unchanged at +5.0% (qoq ar). [Dec 17 estimate] From Merrill Lynch: We revise up our 4Q20 GDP forecast to 5.0% qoq saar from 4.0% previously, marking to market with our latest tracking estimate. This lifts our 2021 annual forecast by a tenth to 4.6% while 2020 remains at -3.5%. [Dec 18 estimate] From the NY Fed Nowcasting Report: The New York Fed Staff Nowcast stands at 2.4% for 2020:Q4 and 5.6% for 2021:Q1. A negative surprise from retail sales data more than offset positive news from housing sector data in both quarters. [Dec 18 estimate] And from the Altanta Fed: GDPNow: The GDPNow model estimate for real GDP growth (seasonally adjusted annual rate) in thefourth quarter of 2020 is 11.1 percent on December 17, up from 11.0 percent on December 16. After this morning's housing starts report from the U.S. Census Bureau, the nowcast of fourth-quarter real residential investment growth increased from 31.0 percent to 33.1 percent. [Dec 17 estimate]
Seven High Frequency Indicators for the Economy - These indicators are mostly for travel and entertainment. It will interesting to watch these sectors recover as the vaccine is distributed. The TSA is providing daily travel numbers. This data shows the seven day average of daily total traveler throughput from the TSA for 2019 (Blue) and 2020 (Red). This data is as of December 13th. The seven day average is down 67.9% from last year (32.1% of last year). (Dashed line) The second graph shows the 7 day average of the year-over-year change in diners as tabulated by OpenTable for the US and several selected cities. This data is updated through December 5, 2020. This data is "a sample of restaurants on the OpenTable network across all channels: online reservations, phone reservations, and walk-ins. For year-over-year comparisons by day, we compare to the same day of the week from the same week in the previous year." Note that dining is generally lower in the northern states - Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New York - but declining in the southern states. Note that California dining is off sharply with new orders to close. This data shows domestic box office for each week (red) and the maximum and minimum for the previous four years. Data is from BoxOfficeMojo through December 10th. Movie ticket sales have picked up slightly over the last couple of months, but were down last week to $10 million (compared to usually around $125 million per week at this time of year). Some movie theaters have reopened (probably with limited seating). This graph shows the seasonal pattern for the hotel occupancy rate using the four week average. The red line is for 2020, dash light blue is 2019, blue is the median, and black is for 2009 (the worst year since the Great Depression for hotels - prior to 2020). This data is through December 5th. Hotel occupancy is currently down 37.9% year-over-year. Since there is a seasonal pattern to the occupancy rate, we can track the year-over-year change in occupancy to look for any improvement. This table shows the year-over-year change since the week ending Sept 19, 2020: This suggests no improvement over the last few months. This graph, based on weekly data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), shows gasoline supplied compared to the same week last year. At one point, gasoline supplied was off almost 50% YoY. As of December 4th, gasoline supplied was off about 14.4% YoY (about 85.6% of last year). This graph is from Apple mobility. From Apple: "This data is generated by counting the number of requests made to Apple Maps for directions in select countries/regions, sub-regions, and cities." This is just a general guide - people that regularly commute probably don't ask for directions. There is also some great data on mobility from the Dallas Fed Mobility and Engagement Index. This data is through December 12th for the United States and several selected cities. The graph is the running 7 day average to remove the impact of weekends. Here is some interesting data on New York subway usage (HT BR). This graph is from Todd W Schneider. This is daily data for this year. This data is through Friday, December 11th. Schneider has graphs for each borough, and links to all the data sources.
Experts say stimulus deal could head off double-dip recession - Some economists believe the stimulus deal congressional leaders are crafting could avert a double-dip recession, but argue more will likely be needed to ensure the recovery is robust. “It’s enough to avert a double-dip recession, but just enough,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. “It doesn’t forestall a few bad months,” he added. The emerging deal largely builds off the $908 billion proposal that a bipartisan group of legislators put out two weeks ago to revive negotiations on a fifth COVID-19 package. Economists worried that congressional gridlock would lead to a slew of safety net programs expiring, dropping the floor out from people grappling with unemployment and potential evictions at a time when a surge in COVID-19 cases has led to renewed restrictions on businesses. “It gets us over this cliff,” said Andrew Stetner, a fellow at the left-leaning Century Foundation. “It will prevent 7.6 million Americans from going into poverty in January at a time when 5 million are worried about being evicted.” But while the deal is expected to include hundreds of billions for small businesses, funding for vaccine distribution and medical protective equipment, and an extension for central unemployment insurance programs, it also contains one major difference from the bipartisan proposal. The deal, which as of publication has not been finalized, is expected to redirect $160 billion originally earmarked for state and local aid toward a second, smaller round of stimulus checks. A Moody’s analysis out Thursday will show a collective $170 billion deficit for state governments through June of 2022. “That’s meaningful. They’re going to have to fill those holes by cutting jobs, programs and services,” Zandi said. Although stimulus checks are broadly popular, Zandi says they are less effective at boosting the economy than state and local aid. “Swapping out state and local aid for stimulus checks is a downgrade,” he said. For every dollar the federal government spends on stimulus, economists calculate a “multiplier” showing how much that dollar will boost GDP. The most effective expenditures for stimulus purposes tend to be those that will be spent quickly, rather than saved up. When it comes to multipliers, at the top of the list is unemployment benefits, which are likely to be spent quickly because they are directed at people who rely on them for income. Unemployment benefits are likely to be spent on rent, food, medicine and the usual expenses that families might cut back on without any economic support. But state and local aid is a close second. “The last thing the economy needs right now is another round of layoffs, but if aid is dropped states and localities will very likely lay off more teachers, health care workers, and others, and cut spending in other ways, and that will worsen the recession,” said Michael Leachman, Vice President for State Fiscal Policy at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. Leachman says even a delay on state aid will be detrimental.“The time to provide aid is now. Starting in January, states will head into legislative sessions at which they’ll make consequential decisions about balancing this year’s budgets and writing their budgets for next year,” he said.“Aid is needed before states start laying off workers and cutting in other ways,” he added.
Bipartisan group unveils two-part $908 billion coronavirus package - A bipartisan group of lawmakers on Monday unveiled its $908 billion coronavirus relief package as Congress faces a time crunch to pass more aid. The proposal is split into two parts: One $748 billion piece includes another round of Paycheck Protection Program assistance for small businesses, an unemployment benefit, and more money for schools, vaccine distribution and other widely agreed-upon items. The second $160 billion piece ties together the two most controversial elements of the coronavirus negotiations: more money for state and local governments and protections for businesses from coronavirus-related lawsuits. "I think we've had a Christmas miracle occur in Washington," said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). "These bills are not only bipartisan products; they are bicameral as well. My hope is that our hard work will spur our leadership on both sides." The text of the two bills comes after the group announced two weeks ago that it had reached an agreement on a framework for a $908 billion proposal. But the group, after announcing the framework, still had daily closed-door and Zoom meetings as it has tried to work out what to do about more money for states and liability protections. The first is a top priority for Democrats, while Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has long pointed to legal protections as his "red line." Splitting off the two issues could make it easier to convince congressional leaders to take up a smaller coronavirus deal and either pass it or add it to a must-pass government funding deal. Appropriators are on the cusp of agreeing to a mammoth omnibus bill, which is expected to be the vehicle for any year-end coronavirus relief. "Now it's up to the leadership to take it and make this happen in a timely basis," said Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). But whether congressional leadership will take up the bipartisan bill remains unclear. Leadership and top appropriators were discussing dropping parts of coronavirus aid into the omnibus. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), an adviser to McConnell, called the bipartisan bills "good stuff" but said any coronavirus relief was likely going to need to be agreed upon by leadership. "My understanding is that they are looking at what the bipartisan group has come up with ... and a lot of it is good stuff for potential inclusion in the year-end spending bill," Cornyn said. "I think it's having a ... positive influence on what will be ultimately included." Cornyn added that he thought everything but the "truly controversial" items — state and local funding and liability protections — could get added into the spending bill. McConnell spoke from the Senate floor on Monday about the need for more coronavirus relief. He also has opened the door to dropping liability protections and state and local aid. "The next several days are going to bring about one of two outcomes. Either 100 Senators will be here shaking our heads, slinging blame and offering excuses about why we still have not been able to make a law ... or we will break for the holidays having sent another huge dose of relief out the door for the people who need it," McConnell said. But the GOP leader did not mention the bipartisan group's proposal either during his speech or respond to questions about it as he walked to the Senate floor.
Lawmakers call for including creation of Latino, women's history museums in year-end spending deal - A bipartisan group of lawmakers is calling on congressional leaders to include legislation that would create Smithsonian museums dedicated to Latino and women's history as part of the year-end government spending package. Legislation to keep the government funded past Friday, Dec. 18, is expected to be unveiled as soon as Tuesday. The bill is also expected to serve as a legislative vehicle for COVID-19 relief since it needs to be passed by Friday to avoid a government shutdown. Members of the House and Senate from both parties acknowledged the "delicate nature of ongoing negotiations" over the spending package but argued that the largely noncontroversial museum proposals should be part of what's expected to be the final major bill that Congress passes this year. "We believe this represents our last best hope in seeing these museums become a reality for millions of Americans who lack historical and cultural representation within the Smithsonian," the lawmakers wrote in a letter to House and Senate party leaders. The letter was signed by Reps. José Serrano (D-N.Y.), Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), Will Hurd (R-Texas) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), as well as Sens. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). The House has passed versions of the bills to create the Latino and women's history museums with bipartisan support. The House passed a bill, authored by Serrano, to establish a Smithsonian National Museum of the American Latino by voice vote in July. And in February, the House passed legislation 374-37 to create a women's history museum that has been championed for two decades by Maloney, the first woman to chair the House Oversight and Reform Committee. But Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) blocked the legislation Thursday, arguing that creating new museums dedicated to those groups would exacerbate national divisions. He suggested that he would support more representation of Latinos and women within the existing Smithsonian Museum of American History. "Within the walls of a Smithsonian museum just like at the National Gallery of Art or the great memorials that dot this city, there is no us and them. There's only us. And so my objection to the creation of a new Smithsonian museum or series of museums based on group identity, what Theodore Roosevelt called hyphenated Americanism, is not a matter of budgetary or legislative technicalities. It is a matter of national unity and cultural inclusion," Lee said. "I understand what my colleagues are trying to do and why. I respect what they're trying to do. I even share their interests in ensuring that these stories are told. But the last thing we need is to further divide an already divided nation within an array of separate but equal museums of hyphenated identity groups," Lee added. A bipartisan group of senators unveiled a two-part $908 billion COVID-19 relief package on Monday with another round of Paycheck Protection Program assistance for small businesses, unemployment insurance, and funding for schools and vaccine distribution while separating the more nettlesome issues of state and local government funding and liability protections for businesses into another measure. It remains unclear, however, if congressional leaders will take up the bipartisan proposal.
Democratic leaders under pressure to agree to slimmed-down COVID-19 relief deal - Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) are under growing pressure from fellow Democrats to back off their insistence that a year-end COVID-19 relief package include another large tranche of federal aid for cash-strapped state and local governments. Schumer and Pelosi last week shot down a proposal by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to set aside the two most controversial items of the relief talks: aid for state and local governments and liability protection for businesses and other organizations. On Tuesday, the two Democrats met with McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to discuss attaching a relief package to the $1.4 trillion omnibus package funding general government operations. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin joined by phone. Schumer and Pelosi have eased up on their demands in recent days amid growing calls from fellow Democrats for a coronavirus relief deal before Congress leaves for the Christmas break. Even Democrats who have blasted Republicans for not supporting a larger relief package have signaled a willingness to accept a smaller bill before Christmas. “I think we’ve got to get what we can get now,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). He said he thought the GOP’s opposition to a larger bill was “outrageous.” “This administration has betrayed workers and consumers every step of the way and it’s clear they side with corporate interests over workers every single time,” he said. But Brown added that Democrats can make another bid for state and local relief funding next year after President-elect Joe Biden is sworn into office. “I would hope the pressure on Republican senators would be such that McConnell would have to at least acknowledge” it, Brown added. Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), one of Biden’s closest allies on Capitol Hill, on Tuesday called on congressional leaders to accept a bipartisan $748 billion COVID-19 relief proposal that does not include $160 billion in state and local aid that was removed in recent days to break a stalemate. “We have to move forward on this $748 billion that we all agree on. We should not go home without enacting significant relief for the American people who are so much in need right now as we go into the holidays,” Coons said on CNN's "New Day." A group of Democrats on Monday joined a group of moderate Republicans in announcing support for the $748 billion package without the $160 billion bloc of state and local funding: Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Angus King (I-Maine), who caucuses with Democrats. The package includes $300 in weekly federal supplemental unemployment assistance for a period of 16 weeks, $300 billion for the Small Business Administration to make a second round of Paycheck Protection Program loans, $13 billion in emergency food assistance and $25 billion in emergency rental assistance. It also extends student loan forbearance through April, provides $35 billion for a health care provider relief fund, $16 billion for virus testing and vaccine distribution, $82 billion in funding for K-12 schools and higher education, and $45 billion in emergency funding for airlines, airports, buses, Amtrak and public transit. It’s a far cry from the $2.2 trillion HEROES Act that Schumer and Pelosi said should be the “starting point” of the negotiations on Nov. 12. Durbin explained on the Senate floor Tuesday that state and local funding and liability protection provisions “were not included in the last consensus bill because we couldn’t reach a consensus on them.” Durbin, however, said he hoped that Senate and House leader still might find a way to put state and local relief in the bill.
Congress close to coronavirus deal that includes stimulus checks - Senate and House leaders are on the cusp of a coronavirus relief deal that will include direct $600 to $700 direct stimulus payments and $300-per-week supplemental unemployment assistance, according to sources familiar with the talks. The $900 billion package is the result of months of stop-and-start negotiations that received a boost in early December when a bipartisan group of senators and House members unveiled their own $908 billion package after talks between Democratic leaders and the White House stalled. The emerging deal, however, will not include $160 billion in new state and local aid or liability protection for businesses and other organizations — two of the most contentious issues of the talk. The new round of stimulus checks cost approximately the same as the $160 billion in state and local aid that negotiators have set aside in hopes of reaching a deal by week’s end. Senate and House leaders want to attach the new coronavirus relief package to a $1.4 trillion omnibus spending package that needs to pass by Dec. 18 to keep the government funded. The emerging deal is based largely on a revised $748 billion relief bill that the bipartisan group of Senate and House moderates unveiled Monday, which left aside state and local funding and the liability protection provisions. Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, told reporters Wednesday the stimulus checks will be $600 to $700 per individual.” Thune said he expects the package to provide $300 a week in supplemental federal unemployment assistance through March and confirmed that it would not include additional state and local aid funding. The senator said there could be language in the deal aimed at addressing concerns that people who receive both enhanced unemployment benefits and stimulus checks would be getting a "double benefit." Tax experts said that it would be difficult for the IRS to administer a provision that prevents unemployment recipients from getting direct payments. Thune said the plan for the House to act on the combined COVID relief-omnibus spending package first and send it to the Senate to pass before the Friday night deadline. In a win for Republicans, the cost of the COVID-relief portion of the package is below $1 trillion, an upper boundary set by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Republicans earlier this year. While the package does not include the $160 billion tranche for state and local government, a person familiar with the negotiations says it includes “other avenues to deliver aid to states, localities, territories and tribes” and emphasized the McConnell did not get the liability provisions he said earlier this year would be part of any deal. It would provide between $320 billion and $330 billion for the second round of Paycheck Protection Program small-business loans, according to sources familiar with the talks, as well as money for broadband Internet services, food assistance and rental insurance. “We made major headway toward hammering out a targeted pandemic relief package that would be able to pass both chambers with bipartisan majorities,” McConnell announced on the Senate floor Wednesday morning. “We committed to continuing these urgent discussions until we have an agreement and we agreed we will not leave town until we’ve made law,” the GOP leader added. “The American people need more help, it’s that simple. Further targeted relief is now months overdue.”
Powell praises progress on COVID-19 relief bill as economy weakens - Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Wednesday praised progress toward another coronavirus economic relief bill as the U.S faces a daunting and deadly winter. During a Wednesday press conference, Powell hailed lawmakers for nearing an agreement on a “substantial” relief bill with just weeks before crucial coronavirus aid programs expire. “The case for fiscal policy right now is very, very strong, and I think that is widely understood,” Powell said, repeating his longstanding call for a government relief bill that would help struggling households and businesses make it through what may be the most challenging stretch of the coronavirus pandemic. Powell’s comments came soon after Democratic and Republican congressional leaders voiced optimism that ongoing negotiations would finally yield a bipartisan coronavirus relief deal after months of fitful talks. Both sides are nearing an agreement on a roughly $900 billion measure that will include $600 to $700 direct stimulus payments and $300-per-week boost to unemployment benefits. Powell, like many economists, has urged Congress for months to pass another round of fiscal relief that would provide direct aid to millions of unemployed Americans, the families that depend on them, and small businesses in sectors upended by the pandemic. At least 9 million Americans are set to lose their unemployment benefits and more than 10 million households could face eviction or foreclosure by the end of the year if Congress does not extend protections that are set to expire on Dec. 31, according to estimates from economists. Nearly 8 million Americans have fallen into poverty since June due to a combination of rising coronavirus cases and dwindling federal support, according to a study released Wednesday by economists at the University of Chicago and the University of Notre Dame. And biweekly survey data released Wednesday by the Census Bureau showed that 85.4 million American adults, or 35.6 percent, reported having trouble paying for typical household bills such as food, medicine and rent. While the economy on a whole has recovered quicker than initially expected, Powell said Wednesday, millions of Americans and businesses least able to withstand the coronavirus recession are still in dire trouble.
Congress to Pass $17 Billion Bailout of Airlines, to Top Off Prior Bailout - Wolf Richter -Top 4 airlines burned $45 billion on share buybacks since 2012. If airlines run out of money, Chapter 11 bankruptcy works. Airlines proved it.Airlines in the US will get another $17 billion taxpayer-funded bailout if the $748 billion “bipartisan” stimulus proposal that the four most senior Congressional leaders are discussing this afternoon makes it into law.There is a commitment now to pass something. Many items that either party wanted but that the other refused to yield on have been trimmed out of this proposal, including the $1,200 stimulus checks. But their airline bailout is in it.Democrats and Republicans may not agree on much of anything these days, but they both love to bail out airline shareholders and bondholders. And that’s what this is – dressed up as payroll protection and airline support program.The Democratic-backed $2.2 trillion stimulus package that the House passed at the end of September but that was not taken up by the Senate included $25 billion to bail out airline shareholders and bondholders. The airline industry has been lobbying with all its might to get this money. So now, it looks like they will have to make do with $17 billion.This new bailout comes on top of the original stimulus bill, which was passed in March and which came with $25 billion in so-called payroll support for the airlines, an additional $25 billion in loans for passenger airlines, and over $10 billion in grants and loans for cargo airlines and aviation contractors. The payroll protection provisions expired on September 30, under the assumption that by then the airlines would be operating more or less back at normal.But they’re not. Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, and United Airlines have warned in recent days about once-again declining bookings following the Thanksgiving surge of Covid infections. Airlines have reported spikes in cancellations. Leisure travel had picked up, but the very lucrative business travel and international travel remain in a zombie state. The V-shaped airline recovery that Wall Street had promised in late spring and early summer has gotten crushed The number of passengers going through TSA checkpoints to enter the secured areas at US airports through December 14 has dropped sharply since late November. The chart shows the number of TSA checkpoint screenings in 2020 (red) and 2019 (green) per day (thin lines) and the seven-day moving averages (bold lines): The daily checkpoint screenings are now down 68% (seven-day moving average) from where they’d been on the same day in the same week a year ago, the worst levels since early September:
Sweeping COVID-19, spending deal hits speed bumps - Negotiations over a $900 billion coronavirus relief bill are running into eleventh-hour snags, threatening to push Congress into a rare weekend session. Lawmakers had hoped to clinch a sweeping deal, which would also fund the government through Oct. 1, on Wednesday after the top four congressional leaders signaled that they were closing in on an agreement after months of stalemate. But instead lawmakers and staff warned that — while they still thought they would get the agreement — the final stages of the talks are moving slowly as they continue to haggle over the details and field requests for changes. “It’s still a ways off, I think. They’ve still got some things they’re negotiating. ... It’s been a slow roll so far,” said Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the No. 2 Republican in the upper chamber, after he left the Capitol following the Senate’s final votes of the day. Adding to the difficulty, the package being negotiated by leadership includes two separate parts: A roughly $900 billion deal on long-stalled coronavirus relief and a separate $1.4 trillion deal to fund the government. Because they are hitched together, leadership is unlikely to announce a deal on one part without also simultaneously announcing an agreement on the other. It also means Congress has to pass the sweeping legislation — or another continuing resolution (CR) — by the end of Friday in order to prevent a government shutdown. And both are facing last-minute wrinkles that complicate the path for quickly announcing a mammoth, sweeping agreement that would wrap up Congress’s work for the year. Sen. Roy Blunt (Mo.), the No. 4 GOP senator, pointed to a myriad of moving parts, including lawmakers trying to hitch their legislative pet projects on the final moving train of the year, that are throwing a curveball into the timing of an agreement. “We’re close enough that these could close pretty quickly but they might not,” he said. “You’ve got the omni, you’ve got COVID and then you’ve got all these little extraneous pieces.” A GOP aide, asked about the chances of a deal in principle on Wednesday night, said they “doubt it.” The inability to clinch a deal by early Wednesday evening comes after leadership started off feeling optimistic about their chances, with both Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) sounding upbeat during their daily floor comments. “We made major headway toward hammering out a targeted pandemic relief package that would be able to pass both chambers with bipartisan majorities,” McConnell said from the floor. Schumer added to reporters that “we’re feeling pretty good.” “I hope we can reach an agreement today,” he said. A GOP senator still appeared bullish on Wednesday afternoon that leadership could at least get a deal in principle by Wednesday night, saying that “by late tonight they should have a feel and concepts.”
Republicans push to terminate CARES Act facilities for good— Senate Republicans are proposing legislation to prevent the Federal Reserve from reviving emergency lending facilities launched earlier in the coronavirus crisis that the central bank plans to shut down at yearend. Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, who will likely chair the Senate Banking Committee if the GOP holds its majority, said on a Thursday conference call with reporters that Republicans are in agreement that the next coronavirus relief package should explicitly and permanently terminate the Fed facilities funded by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act. “The facilities that were funded through the CARES Act were to be temporary, they were to provide a backstop, and in all cases would cease operations no later than the end of 2020,” Toomey said. Those facilities include the Main Street Lending Program, through which the Fed can buy pieces of bank loans issued to midsize businesses hampered by the pandemic. They also include the Primary Market Corporate Credit Facility, Secondary Market Corporate Credit Facility, Municipal Liquidity Facility, and the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility. To be clear, the Fed maintains broad emergency lending powers under Section 13(3) of the Federal Reserve Act, enabling the central bank to operate credit facilities without an act of Congress as long as the Treasury Department approves it and the facility provides broad-based support, not just for specific companies. Treasury, under Secretary Steven Mnuchin, has already compelled the Fed to agree to return unused CARES Act funds and at yearend terminate those facilities backed by Congress. However, Mnuchin and Fed Chairman Jerome Powell agreed to extend four of the non-CARES facilities through the end of March 2021. Toomey said the bill would not affect the Fed's general emergency lending powers. "The 13(3) legislation remains on the books, and the Fed’s 13(3) authority will continue,” he said. Some have expressed hope that the incoming Biden administration could maneuver to let the Fed once again tap CARES Act funds to provide emergency relief in 2021. But Toomey said the proposed legislation would ensure that unused funds from CARES Act emergency lending facilities remain with the Treasury and that the Fed cannot relaunch programs that it plans to shut down at the end of this month. “In our language, we do have the repurposing of this money,” Toomey said. “We also reiterate that these facilities all expire at the end of this year as Congress intended and the law requires. And we ensure that you couldn’t just create a new clone of one or more of these programs.” Democratic lawmakers have blasted Mnuchin’s move as political, arguing that returning the funds to the Treasury Department’s general fund would prevent the incoming Biden administration from deploying them to help stabilize the economy. Toomey insisted that the legislation was not political and that it is strictly meant to clarify the original intent of the CARES Act.
Toomey's proposal to restrict Fed powers draws Democratic rebuke— A proposal to restrict the Federal Reserve’s use of its emergency lending powers was met with swift objections from leading Democrats Friday as lawmakers continued to negotiate a new fiscal stimulus bill. Several senior Democratic lawmakers criticized a proposal by Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., on Thursday that would prevent the Fed from reviving facilities launched earlier in the coronavirus crisis that the central bank plans to shut down at year-end. “The GOP Senate’s dangerous demand to include Senator Toomey’s poison pill provision in the COVID-19 relief bill threatens to hamstring our nation’s response to the historic economic crisis of the coronavirus,” House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters, D-Calif., and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., said in a joint statement. “If implemented, this unprecedented change to the law would block the Federal Reserve from ever creating lending facilities that help small businesses and state and local governments, taking away one of the important tools to fight this or any future economic crisis.” The Democrats’ key objection to the amendment is that it will inhibit the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden in its ability to stabilize the economy as the coronavirus pandemic continues to take a toll on U.S. businesses. “Now they insist on sabotaging the economy before the next administration comes in by hamstringing the Federal Reserve’s ability to support the economy, small businesses, and struggling communities in the future,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee. “Enough is enough.” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., noted that the proposed amendment, which Toomey detailed in a call with reporters on Thursday, comes as several Republicans have still not recognized the results of the November presidential election. "After weeks of refusing to acknowledge Biden's victory, some Republicans have now decided that sabotaging his presidency is more important than helping our economy recover by insisting that any COVID relief legislation also restrict the ability of the Federal Reserve and the new Administration to help states, cities, and American businesses next year," said Warren. "Proposals to sabotage President Biden and our nation's economy are reckless, they're wrong, and they have no place in this legislation.”
Fed fight spills into stimulus talks on pivotal day - Democrats are accusing GOP Sen. Pat Toomey's insistence on winding down a key Federal Reserve program as the primary impediment to finishing up a $900 billion coronavirus aid package. Though Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Friday that he's "even more optimistic now than I was last night that a bipartisan, bicameral framework for a major rescue package is very close at hand," the finger-pointing at Toomey (R-Pa.) in the frantic negotiations suggested a tough road ahead for negotiators. A senior Democratic aide said "an agreement was in sight" until Toomey and the GOP made a new ask on the Fed's emergency lending programs. Toomey has pushed for similar provisions since July, but Democrats argue his latest proposal is more restrictive. The current version of Toomey's plan would prevent the emergency lending program established by the CARES Act from continuing next year and would also bar the central bank from starting any similar program, according to a draft viewed by POLITICO. "Sen. Toomey and Republicans inserted an 11th hour purely political, unrelated provision to tie [Joe] Biden’s hands and risk throwing the economy into a tailspin. The Toomey provision would be an unprecedented change to the law to strip the Fed chair of one of their most important tools to quickly respond to any future economic crisis," the aide said. A Republican aide shot back that the Democrats' comments are "funny when you consider not 9 months ago, these facilities constituted a slush fund for Republicans to enrich their billionaire friends." And Toomey told reporters on Thursday that this provision is "the most important thing" to him in the bill. He said it is about “preventing the Fed from being politicized” and misused by being pressured into bailing out municipalities and companies and that his effort was not "an effort to in any way hamstring the Biden administration or weaken our economy." The battle is an ominous sign for one of the most pivotal days of Congress this year. That's because Congress woke up on Friday morning with a major to-do-list: preventing a government shutdown at midnight and clinching the $900 billion coronavirus deal. While congressional leaders have struck a deal on the broad outlines of a package that would deliver $600 stimulus checks to many individuals and children, $325 billion for small businesses and a $300 weekly unemployment boost, finalizing the deal has proven stubbornly difficult.
McConnell getting much of what he wants in emerging relief deal - Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is getting much of what he wants in an emerging coronavirus relief package, after months of digging in his heels against a demand by Democratic leaders to pass a multi-trillion-dollar package that would shore up the ailing finances of state and local governments. The GOP leader isn’t getting liability protection for businesses and other organizations but McConnell himself last week proposed dropping that controversial item along with another large tranche of funding for state and local government. State and local funding was a top priority of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.). Democrats are getting $90 billion in relief for local governments but it will be distributed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, meaning city and state leaders will have less control. Democrats say that money for housing assistance will also help ease the fiscal burdens on states. But McConnell is getting a deal a lot closer to what Democrats dismissed as the “emaciated” plan he pushed in recent months than the $2.2 trillion Heroes Act that Pelosi and Schumer said should have been the “starting point” of the talks. That was quickly leading to some criticism on Wednesday as it emerged the sides were closing in on an agreement, though in Congress, some Democrats taking shots at the package still said it should be approved. “This is not any place close to what is needed,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said of the emerging $900 billion deal. But Warren said Democrats have little choice but to accept a much smaller relief package than they wanted in order to get a deal. “That makes for a very difficult negotiation,” she said of McConnell’s staunch insistence on a “targeted” package below $1 trillion. She faulted the GOP leader, saying “Mitch McConnell is willing to let American families walk away with nothing.” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) similarly criticized the bill while giving his blessing to its outlines. Sanders had pushed for a new round of stimulus checks, something that will be a part of the final package. But the checks will not be as large as he wished, and it will not include other provisions including he aid to local governments that he’d backed. “There is simply not enough money in the proposal to deal with the unprecedented crises that we now face,” Sanders said Wednesday.
"Amazing" Hypocrisy: Democrats Make Wreck of Covid-19 Relief Negotiations - Democrats stonewalled all year on a new pandemic relief package. Now they're proposing a new plan that undercuts even Republican proposals, and screws everyone but - get this - defense contractors - Matt Taibbi - A senior Democratic congressional aide is irate tonight.“The Democrats,” the aide seethed, “have just done the worst negotiating in modern history.”At issue: a pair of new Covid-19 relief bills, just submitted by a bipartisan group of Senators. Republican Senator Susan Collins gushed that a“Christmas Miracle” allowed the two parties came together on the twin bills, which the press describes as totaling $748 billion and $160 billion, respectively. “Bipartisanship and compromise is [sic] alive and well in Washington,” clucked West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin. It sure is. With the election over, the Democratic leadership in the space of a few weeks somehow negotiated against themselves, working with Republicans to push the total amount of a Covid-19 relief deal further and further downward, to the point where previous plans offered by the likes of Mitch McConnell and Steve Mnuchin now look like LBJ’s Great Society.Democrats ultimately settled for less than a third of what they had set as a baseline for state and local aid, accepted a package without any $1,200 direct payments, and signed off on a plan that, after offsets, includes less than $350 billion in new money, well below a slew of pre-election proposals rejected by Democrats like Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer as being too low.“They totally caved,” the aide says.Back in May, the Democrat-led House passed the HEROES Act, a $3.4 trillion relief package that was pitched as the bill Democrats really wanted. It contained $413 billion new dollars for $1,200 direct payments to citizens, as well as $437 billion in additional unemployment benefits, and a whopping $1.13 trillion for state and local governments.Trump said the bill was “dead on arrival,” McConnell blasted it as a “$3 trillion left-wing wish list,” and the anti-spending group Taxpayers for Common Sense seethed that Democrats unrealistically put “everything they could think of” in the bill. Still, Democrats insisted this was the right amount, at the right time, a moral necessity.“The House has passed a major bill dealing with COVID,” Schumer said in May, blasting his Senate Republican colleagues for a “pause” in negotiations. “We have done nothing.” Republicans, via McConnell, countered in July with the unfortunately named HEALS Act, reported as a roughly $1 trillion aid deal. The bill included another round of $1,200 relief checks. Pelosi in August ripped the plan as “meager measures,” and said Republicans were refusing to take action to feed hungry children: When Republicans ended up backing a so-called “Skinny” $650 billion deal, it was reported as a signal that the GOP opposition was determined not to budge above what the Trump administration was willing to offer, at the time rumored to be somewhere between $1-$1.5 trillion. Democrats countered soon after by passing an updated version of the HEROES Act that offered $2.2 trillion in relief. The Republicans, this time led by Steve Mnuchin and an increasingly desperate-seeming Donald Trump, came back on October 9th with a $1.8 trillion proposal. Reeling as he stumbled toward Election Day thanks to a series of missteps and scandals, Trump seemed anxious to go beyond his previous numbers, if it meant he’d get to sign more checks before Election Day:
Ocasio-Cortez: I'm 'not ready' to be Speaker but Pelosi and Schumer need to go - Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said she is “not ready” to be Speaker but lamented that the Democratic Party desperately needs new leadership and that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) need to go. In an interview with The Intercept's podcast, the progressive hero and firebrand said that Democrats have failed to create a succession plan once Pelosi and her generation of longtime leaders — many of them now in their 80s — step aside. Pelosi has indicated that this upcoming two-year term will be her last as Speaker. “I do think that we need new leadership in the Democratic Party … the internal dynamics of the House has made it such that there's very little option for succession,” said Ocasio-Cortez, who is 31. “It's easy for someone to say, ‘Oh well, you know, why don't you run?’ but the House is extraordinarily complex, and I'm not ready. It can't be me. I know that I couldn't do that job." “Even conservative members of the party who think Nancy Pelosi is far too liberal for them don't necessarily have any viable alternatives, which is why whenever there's a challenge, it kind of collapses,” she continued. “And that is, I think, the result of just many years of power being concentrated in leadership with lack of … real grooming of a next generation of leadership.” Ocasio-Cortez’s remarks were an indirect jab at House Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries, a fellow New York Democrat and a Congressional Black Caucus member whom many Democratic colleagues have pointed to as a natural heir to Pelosi once she leaves. Another possible successor is incoming Assistant Speaker Katherine Clark (D-Mass.). Pelosi’s caucus unanimously nominated her last month to serve another two years as Speaker after she ran unopposed. But it’s not absolutely certain she can win the Speaker’s gavel in a House floor vote on Jan. 3. Because House Democrats unexpectedly lost more than a dozen seats in the November election, their majority is now down to just single digits, meaning a handful of Democratic defections could deny Pelosi of another term leading the party. Ocasio-Cortez, however, gave no indication that she will vote against Pelosi on the floor, even as other moderate Democrats have. Some progressives have also floated Ocasio-Cortez as a potential primary challenger to Schumer in 2022, though she’s sidestepped questions about whether she’s interested in running. Many of her fans want Ocasio-Cortez, who backed Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the Democratic primary this year, to run for president after she turns 35 year old. She would be eligible to run for the White House in 2024.
Kathleen Rice picked over Ocasio-Cortez for spot on House Energy and Commerce committee - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced appointments to several powerful committees on Thursday, most notably the selection of Rep. Kathleen Rice over fellow New Yorker Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.The New York lawmakers had been jockeying for a seat on the panel, according to several media reports, and lobbying to colleagues behind the scenes for weeks, Politico reported.The committee oversees a broad range of issues, including consumer protection, food and drug safety, public health, health care policy and climate issues.Politico reported that there was a contentious private meeting on Thursday at the Steering and Policy Committee, where there was a secret ballot to vote on the two candidates. The news outlet said the vote was 46-13.Ocasio-Cortez, a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and a rising star in the party, has been outspoken on many of the issues the committee would tackle. She is currently a member of the powerful House Committee on Oversight and Reform. She also co-chaired a panel advising President-elect Joe Biden on climate policy during his campaign. Rice is a more moderate member of the party, a former district attorney who represents parts of Long Island. She currently serves on the House Committee on Homeland Security. Rice's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Government shutdown looms as Congress crafts coronavirus stimulus bill - Congress moved perilously close to letting the government shut down as lawmakers failed Friday to put the finishing touches on a massive spending and coronavirus rescue package. Ahead of the midnight Friday deadline to pass a spending bill, the House introduced a two-day stopgap bill to keep the government running. Lawmakers gave themselves about seven-and-a-half hours to get it through both chambers of Congress, including a Senate where one member's objection can block its swift passage. Leaders on Capitol Hill have said for days they are close to a deal on a $900 billion relief proposal that would accompany a $1.4 trillion spending bill. However, some new disputes have prevented Washington from sending fresh aid to struggling Americans for the first time in nearly nine months. Reaching a deal on an enormous spending and pandemic aid plan, let alone stopping government spending from lapsing, looked challenging by Friday afternoon. While bipartisan House officials including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., backed the temporary funding bill, the Senate will pose bigger problems. Passing a temporary spending measure known as a continuing resolution "could prove to be a pretty heavy lift," No. 2 Senate Republican John Thune of South Dakota told reporters Friday. To approve the measure quickly, the Senate would need the support of every senator. A handful of lawmakers have suggested they could hold up passage of a short-term spending bill. Thune also signaled it could take days more to iron out a final coronavirus aid package as millions of Americans await help. "It's coming together, it's just taking time, but it's slower," he said. "And you know I think we have to assume that even when there's a deal announced, that by the time it gets written up and processed, we're going to be pushing through the weekend." Just after 2 p.m. ET on Friday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said the chamber would go into a recess until 5 p.m. while congressional leaders try to get a "clearer picture" of how to move forward. He told representatives to keep Friday night, Saturday and Sunday free. If lawmakers can approve a spending bill before Monday, the damage from a lapse in federal funding would be limited. Congressional leaders have pledged to work through the weekend and pass a bill before they head home for the holidays. The health and livelihoods of millions of Americans depend on Congress sending out more aid before the end of the year.
Coronavirus Relief Package Stalled Ahead Of Shutdown Deadline - Hours before the federal government runs out of money, bipartisan leaders of the House and Senate were still negotiating on a coronavirus relief package to attach to the annual spending bill. Lawmakers from both parties insist they will not leave Washington for the holidays until they get a deal, and they say there won't be a shutdown, even as federal agencies are set to run out of money at midnight Friday. As the deadline grew closer, House and Senate leaders moved to pass a two-day stopgap funding bill to continue negotiations over the weekend. But some outside the small group of the top leaders finalizing the roughly $900 billion package — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer — are frustrated the details of the emerging deal haven't been shared more widely. "I think this is reaching a point — it's beginning to reach a point of absurdity. ... It's time for leadership to put on the table what they've got. It's time for them to brief members what they got," GOP Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri told reporters. Hawley has been pushing for another round of direct payments in the legislation, along with Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. The bill is expected to include this type of assistance, but it's unclear how large the checks will be. Article continues after sponsor message It's unclear whether Senate leaders will get commitments from lawmakers in the upper chamber to back a stopgap bill to avoid a shutdown — as Sanders has not said whether he will agree and only one objection can block quick passage. Separately, Democrats are objecting to efforts by Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., to add a provision to the bill that they say will make it more difficult for the incoming Biden administration to access emergency powers for additional lending authority. GOP Sen. John Cornyn of Texas admitted to reporters it was a difficult issue to resolve. He said what Toomey is aiming to do is to ensure the lending authority isn't used by the Federal Reserve for "unauthorized purposes." "It could potentially be used as a backdoor to do state local aid, which I think is the idea, without Congress' approval, and particularly when we negotiated these other items," Cornyn said. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer blamed the top Senate Republican for the hold up on the COVID-19 package. "I think McConnell is the principal culprit. But I don't think the rest of us are without blame," he said. Hoyer noted that Democrats set aside their demands for more money for state and local governments. "But right now what I think the Republicans are doing are trying to get an advantage against Biden in the next administration. That's what this Toomey amendment is about." Biden's camp is also pushing back at including the provision.The main elements of the bipartisan legislation include more money for the Paycheck Protection Program to help struggling small businesses, help for unemployed Americans and resources for vaccine distribution. Lawmakers from both parties also largely agreed on an annual spending bill that would fund federal departments through September 2021.
GOP senator blocks bill to provide $1,200 stimulus checks - GOP Sen. Ron Johnson (Wis.) on Friday blocked an effort to pass a second round of stimulus checks, arguing coronavirus relief needs to be targeted and raising concerns about the country's debt. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) tried to get consent, which requires the cooperation of every senator, to pass his bill that would provide $1,200 for individuals who make up to $75,000 — the exact same language that Congress passed as part of the CARES Act in March. "What I'm proposing is what every senator has supported already, this year. ... What I'm proposing will give working folks in my state and across this country a shot ... at getting back up on their feet," Hawley said from the Senate floor. But Johnson objected. Under the Senate's rules any one senator can request to pass a bill but any other senator can object and block it. "I completely support some kind of program targeted for small businesses. ... So what I fear we're going to do with this bipartisan package and what the senator from Missouri is talking about is the same thing, is a shotgun approach," Johnson said. "We will not have learned the lessons from our very hurried, very rushed earlier relief packages," Johnson added. Hawley, a potential 2024 presidential contender, has been pushing for Congress to pass a second round of stimulus checks before the end of the year. He teamed up with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to try to get it into a one-week continuing resolution (CR) that passed last week or part of a sweeping deal to provide year-end coronavirus relief and fund the government until Oct. 1, which is still being negotiated. Congress needs to pass the agreement, or a stopgap bill, by the end of Friday in order to prevent a government shutdown. Hawley warned Friday that he won't allow a CR to pass until he knows what's in the potential agreement. "I'm not going to allow a CR to go through until I know what's actually in the package," he said.
Congress passes bill to avert shutdown as coronavirus talks drag into weekend --Congress passed a days-long stopgap bill on Friday, hours before the government was scheduled to shut down, as negotiations over another coronavirus stimulus bill stretched into the weekend. The legislation, which passed the Senate in a voice vote, extends the government funding deadline from Dec. 18 to the end of Dec. 20, giving negotiators more time to finish a sweeping deal to provide year-end coronavirus relief and fund the government through Oct. 1. The House already passed the two-day continuing resolution (CR), meaning it now goes to President Trump’s desk. He’ll need to sign it before midnight in order to prevent a temporary, middle-of-the-night lapse in government funding. “I think all of our colleagues understand our present situation. Both sides of the aisle are firmly committed to finalizing another pandemic rescue package. ... But alas we are not there yet. Given that, our urgent task is to pass a stopgap funding measure,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). It wasn’t clear throughout Friday that the Senate would be able to pass the stopgap bill, with several senators being noncommittal. Because the Senate went down to the deadline, they needed agreement from every senator in order to allow the CR to be voted on and passed Friday night. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) initially interrupted passage of the bill on Friday night as though to object but ultimately did not. “Majority Leader McConnell and I do not agree on much but as I understand it we are in agreement on at least one point and that is that the Senate cannot go home until a COVID emergency relief bill is passed," Sanders said. Lawmakers approved the stopgap bill with leaders still haggling over a deal that would tie roughly $900 billion in coronavirus aid to a $1.4 trillion bill to fund the government. Leaders had indicated Tuesday night that they were closing in on an agreement, after months of stalemate, only for the talks to drag on for days over a myriad of last-minute hurdles that Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the No. 2 Senate Republican, compared to “whack-a-mole.” “There’s some, always last-minute stuff that pops up, but it's coming together. It's just taking time but it's slower and, you know, I think we have to assume that even when there’s a deal announced that by the time it gets written up and processed we’re going to be pushing through the weekend,” Thune told reporters Friday. Negotiators had hoped to be able to announce a deal on an overarching package by Friday night’s deadline, but have yet to resolve several key sticking points. Tensions flared Friday over an effort by Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) to include language in the bill codifying the end of an emergency federal lending facility and preventing the incoming Biden administration from restarting it. Democrats view the demand as a non-starter but the push has wide support among Republicans. “Legal experts, senior banking officials, and former Republican and Democratic regulatory officials all agree: the proposal to pull back on the Fed’s 13(3) authority would set a terrible precedent, hurt the Fed’s independence, and weaken its ability to respond quickly to future crises,” said Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.). A Democratic aide characterized the Toomey language as a “purely political, unrelated provision to tie Biden’s hands and risk throwing the economy into a tailspin.”
Trump signs bill to keep government open amid relief talks - President Trump on Friday signed a stopgap funding measure that will keep the government funded for another 48 hours while lawmakers attempt to finalize an agreement on an economic relief bill.Trump signed the bill just after 10 p.m., according to the White House.The House passed the continuing resolution (CR) by a vote of 320-60, while the Senate passed it unanimously. Government funding would have expired at midnight had Congress not passed the stopgap measure.Congressional leaders are planning to attach the coronavirus relief to a massive spending package to keep the government funded through the rest of the fiscal year. Lawmakers have in recent days insisted they are close to a final agreement on the relief package, but it has been held up by thorny issues.Democrats have balked at language supported by Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) that would wind down the Federal Reserve's authority to set up credit lending facilities. Meanwhile, Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) have pushed for the inclusion of $1,200 direct stimulus payments to Americans, but Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) blocked the proposal Friday. Instead, negotiators are likely to agree on $600 direct payments.The two parties have struggled to reach an agreement on coronavirus relief since the summer. But the negotiations have gained momentum after a bipartisan group of lawmakers provided a $908 billion framework earlier this month. The pandemic has worsened in the U.S. while Congress fails to pass relief. The country surpassed 300,000 deaths from the coronavirus earlier this week, and on Wednesday set a record for deaths in a single day at more than 3,600.
Jeff Stein: Trump's last-minute push for larger stimulus checks example of 'long-running tension' with other Republicans Washington Post economics reporter Jeff Stein on Friday highlighted his reporting that White House aides intervened Thursday to prevent President Trump from publicly calling for larger coronavirus stimulus checks amid negotiations on Capitol Hill, an incident Stein called part of a “long-running tension” between the president and establishment Republicans. In an interview on Hill.TV’s “Rising,” Stein said Trump had told allies that he wanted new stimulus checks as large as $2,000 per person, even as congressional leadership is preparing a package that would provide checks of just $600 each. “I think as Trump leaves, one of the only recent presidents to be defeated after one term, one of the major questions is, did the economic populism that he at least superficially campaigned on in 2016 … did he abandon that office?” the Post reporter said. “I think the question of his inability to get another round of stimulus checks is sort of bringing that question to the fore.” “We’ve seen this over and over again where he has these impulses that are not like the normal, traditional business Republicans, and often he’s surrounded himself, including by the aides that are in the story, by people who are skeptical of that mission,” Stein continued. “There’s sort of this long-running tension between Trump’s sort of quasi-economic populist instinct at least and the governance reality and his coalition partners within the Republican party, and this is such a vivid, dramatic and kind of honestly fun example of that.” Watch part of Stein’s interview above.
Senators urge IRS to provide late filing and payment relief amid pandemic- A bipartisan group of senators is urging the IRS to provide relief for taxpayers who had difficulties filing and paying on time because of the coronavirus pandemic. "The pandemic has created unique challenges for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), tax practitioners, and taxpayers alike," the lawmakers wrote in a letter this week to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig. "It is clear that Americans need a concerted effort by the IRS to work in good faith with them to address the challenges facing taxpayers during this pandemic." Fourteen senators signed the letter, including Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), John Kennedy (R-La.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.). The IRS took a number of steps earlier this year to help taxpayers during the pandemic, including extending the tax filing and payment deadlines from April 15 to July 15. As is typically the case, taxpayers were able to request filing extensions to Oct. 15. But some still had challenges filing and paying taxes on time as a result of the pandemic. The senators said that the IRS should do more to ease burdens. They recommended that the IRS create a special first time tax abatement program for those who had difficultly filing their returns because of the pandemic, provide written guidance that directs IRS customer service representatives to liberally grant coronavirus-related abatement requests, provide coronavirus-related examples to customer service representatives of situations that qualify for reasonable cause tax abatements, and create a dedicated telephone line for taxpayers and their representatives to use to request coronavirus-related penalty relief. Additionally, the senators urged the IRS to consider stopping sending correspondence about tax compliance until the agency resolves its mail backlog, in an effort to "limit taxpayer confusion and reduce unnecessary correspondence with the IRS." "Many taxpayers are facing economic hardships, and business closures due to COVID-19," the senators wrote. "Taxpayers expect fair treatment from their government, and the current unwillingness to provide an expedited process for taxpayers and their advisors to request pandemic-specific relief places an undue burden on them." The senators' letter is similar to requests that groups representing tax preparers have made to the IRS.
US Treasury and Commerce department email systems reportedly hacked -- Major US news outlets reported on Sunday that hackers had broken into the US Treasury and Commerce department computer systems and were monitoring internal email activity for months without detection. Unidentified experts and government officials “familiar with the matter” were quick to conclude that the hackers were “believed to be” working for Russian intelligence. Among the first to report the hack was Reuters, which wrote that their sources “feared the hacks uncovered so far may be the tip of the iceberg,” and that “the hack is so serious it led to a National Security Council meeting at the White House on Saturday.” Reuters reported that US government officials have not said much publicly about the hack other than the acknowledgment by the Commerce Department that “there was a breach at one of its agencies and that they asked the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the FBI to investigate.” John Ullyot, Deputy Assistant to the President, Senior Director for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council, told Reuters the agency was “taking all necessary steps to identify and remedy any possible issues related to this situation.” The report went on to say that the hack appears to have taken place when software updates from government IT service provider SolarWinds had been tampered with in what is known as a “supply chain attack.” The technology platform—which serves US government customers “across the executive branch, the military, and the intelligence services”—was attacked with malicious code embedded “in the body of legitimate software updates.” The Austin, Texas-based SolarWinds issued a statement late on Sunday acknowledging it had “experienced a highly sophisticated, manual supply chain attack” on its Orion platform software. On Monday, the firm stated that fewer than 18,000 of its 300,000 customers had software compromised by the hack. The SolarWinds hack did not involve stealing usernames and passwords, a common technique used to gain widespread access to secure systems. Instead, once the hackers were in the SolarWinds network management software through the updates breach, they were able to insert counterfeit “tokens,” essentially electronic indicators that provide an assurance to Microsoft, Google or other providers about the identity of the computer system to which its email systems are communicating.
CYBERSECURITY: Major hack hits energy companies, U.S. agencies -- Tuesday, December 15, 2020 -- Top cybersecurity officials are scrambling to assess the fallout from a far-reaching hack of U.S. federal agencies and global companies, with electric power utilities, at least two Energy Department national labs and thousands of other organizations potentially breached.The Homeland Security, Treasury and Commerce departments have each had some networks hacked, Reuters first reported, though other agencies also likely fell victim to the cyber espionage campaign given its massive reach.At the center of the intrusions is U.S. IT service provider SolarWinds. The Austin, Texas-based company said yesterday its widely used Orion software platform had been hit by a "highly sophisticated" cyberattack "likely conducted by an outside nation state." The Washington Postreported the Russia-backed hacking group nicknamed "Cozy Bear" is believed to be responsible, citing anonymous sources.SolarWinds counts most U.S. Fortune 500 companies, the National Security Council, the Pentagon and the White House among its customers, according to its website."This is really a big deal," Joe Slowik, senior threat researcher at DomainTools, said in an interview. "A lot of people's holidays are going to be ruined, because given the size, scope and duration of this activity, anyone who thinks that they might have been compromised is going to have to take a hard look at a lot of things," from email usernames and passwords to the sensitive operational networks used to manage parts of the power grid and oil and gas sector.Slowik, who formerly led the cybersecurity emergency response team at DOE's Los Alamos National Laboratory, said it was notable that both the Sandia and Oak Ridge national labs use SolarWinds products."And they're just the ones that are publicly listed," Slowik said. "SolarWinds [Orion] is very popular software, particularly for very large and complex networks like the national labs."Oak Ridge in Tennessee houses one of the world's fastest supercomputers and leads nuclear fusion research, among other activities. Sandia, based in New Mexico, tests the reliability of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile and studies a range of energy and computing technologies."From a national lab perspective, this is an excellent ingress point to get access to potentially classified networks," Slowik said. "The implications here are pretty significant and can't be slept on. Security teams at those institutions are probably very busy right now." He called the Orion software tool "a bull's-eye" for attackers — so effective that it could even crack into a publicly traded cybersecurity company like FireEye Inc., which disclosed it was breached last week (Cybersecurity Update, Dec. 10).
US government caught blindsided over sophisticated cyber hack, experts say - Russia has long been viewed as a threat in cyberspace. But after one of the most successful cyber intrusion campaigns in U.S. history, questions are being raised over how the federal government was so completely blindsided by an attack many experts have seen coming. The successful hacking of multiple federal agencies and tens of thousands of individual federal and private entities — widely presumed to be a Russian intrusion and which federal officials warn is ongoing — managed to subvert sophisticated protections by targeting third-party software contractor SolarWinds. “We shouldn’t have been surprised, the Russians are very sophisticated, they are very dedicated and relentless, and this appeared to be a soft target they were able to exploit,” Christopher Painter, the former State Department cybersecurity coordinator under both the Trump and Obama administrations, told The Hill on Friday. Russia, alongside China, North Korea and Iran, is considered one of the pressing threats to the U.S. in multiple fields. Following the 2016 presidential election, when Russian agents launched a sweeping and sophisticated campaign designed to sway the election toward now-President Trump, top federal agencies began a four-year process designed to shore up the election and ensure this type of attack could never happen again. These officials, led by the two-year-old Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), largely succeeded, with Election Day seeing few security incidents. However, some say the U.S. may have turned attention away from other attack vectors used by Russia. As of Friday, agencies including the Department of Energy and its National Nuclear Security Administration, the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department, and the Treasury Department had reportedly been breached as part of the espionage incident. SolarWinds has reported it believes at least 18,000 of its customers were compromised by the hack. The hackers accessed systems as early as March, and questions have mounted over how much they took or were able to access. “This is the most significant cyberattack in the history of the United States,” Tom Kellermann, a former member of an Obama administration cybersecurity commission and current head of cybersecurity at VMWare CarbonBlack, told The Hill. “It’s unprecedented in the 22 years I’ve been in the business.” Kellermann said he and his team believed that Russia had stepped up its cyberattacks against the U.S. in retaliation for the success of securing the 2020 elections and following the disruption of international botnet group “TrickBot” that targeted U.S. critical infrastructure with ransomware viruses. He noted that ransomware attacks on hospitals over the fall “should have been a signal and a red line that dramatic escalation is occurring.” Key details are emerging of overlooked vulnerabilities. “It’s important to focus-in on this nuance that there is a small set of actions that can help prevent incidents like this in the future and that, could have, potentially discovered it earlier,” “The penetration of SolarWinds appears to be the product of poor cyber hygiene at the company,” . “And let’s not undersell the skill sets of the perpetrators. The Russian intelligence services – SVR – are capable adversaries."
Lawmakers call for action after 'devastating' nation state cyberattack on federal government - U.S. officials and experts are calling for action after a devastating cyberattack aimed at the federal government by nation state hackers, which may have exposed sensitive government data for the past several months. “The reported breach of our Federal networks is serious and disturbing,” House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) told The Hill in an emailed statement. “Congress must understand the scope of what happened and what resources Federal agencies will need to secure their networks.” The cyberattack targeted Austin, Texas-based IT vendor SolarWinds. Hackers inserted a vulnerability into updates put out by the company between March and June of this year for its Orion software, according to a Monday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Reuters first reported that the hackers had successfully hacked into the Treasury Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). However, the attack was likely even more catastrophic. According to a post on SolarWinds' website removed Monday, the company’s customers also include all five branches of the military, the Justice and State departments, the National Security Agency, the Postal Service, and 425 of the U.S. Fortune 500 companies. The Washington Post reported that a prolific Russian military intelligence unit known as “Cozy Bear” was behind the attack on SolarWinds. The group was previously tied to an attack on the State Department and groups doing research on COVID-19 vaccines and treatments. No federal agency had publicly confirmed that this group was responsible. “While many details are still unknown, the attack emphasizes the importance of strong cybersecurity protections and rapid incident responses across all federal agencies,” Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.) and Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) said in a joint statement Monday following a briefing on the attack from the Commerce Department. “Cyberattacks by nation states like Russia and China threaten our economy and national security. Our response should be swift and clear,” they added. SolarWinds noted in the SEC filing that while it had notified 33,000 customers of the potential months-long breach, it believed that only around 18,000 customers were impacted, and that the hackers had been able to gain access to company emails through exploiting Microsoft Office 365 tools. Microsoft on Sunday night published a blog post emphasizing that it had “not identified any Microsoft product or cloud service vulnerabilities” while responding to the incident, but noted that it concurred that “this is nation-state activity at significant scale, aimed at both the government and private sector.” The attack came less than a week after major cybersecurity group FireEye announced that it had been hacked by a nation state in a related attack.
Durbin says alleged Russian hack 'virtually a declaration of war' - Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) called Russia’s alleged hack of multiple government agencies “virtually a declaration of war.” During an interview on CNN, the Senate minority whip said the reported hack shows that the U.S. needs an “honest reset” in terms of its relationship with Moscow. “We can’t be buddies with Vladimir Putin and have him at the same time making this kind of cyberattack on America,” Durbin said. “This is virtually a declaration of war by Russia on the United States and we should take that seriously.” Reuters reported on Sunday that the Treasury Department and a Commerce Department agency were breached as part of an attack on IT company SolarWinds earlier this year. The Washington Post reported that “Cozy Bear,” a Russian military intelligence unit that has previously hacked the State Department, was behind the attack. Most recently, The New York Times reported that branches of the Defense Department and State Department were successfully breached. When asked if he felt like the Trump administration was “asleep at the wheel” regarding the hack, Durbin said the administration was “completely compromised.” “In one hand we knew what the Russians have been doing during the last four years and how much they put America’s security at risk and what it means to our own personal privacy. And the president has put his arm around the shoulder of Vladimir Putin and has called him his best friend,” Durbin said. “So, we can’t have that kind of dichotomy between policy and reality.” Lawmakers and experts have already expressed alarm about the hack, and are calling for action. Following a classified briefing on the hack, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) tweeted on Tuesday that he was “deeply alarmed, in fact downright scared.” “Americans deserve to know what's going on,” Blumenthal tweeted. “Declassify what’s known & unknown.”
Trump downplays impact of massive hacking, questions Russia involvement (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump in his first comments about a widespread data breach across the U.S. government downplayed the seriousness and impact of the cyber espionage campaign, and questioned whether Russia was to blame. “The Cyber Hack is far greater in the Fake News Media than in actuality,” Trump said on Twitter on Saturday. “Russia, Russia, Russia is the priority chant when anything happens because Lamestream is, for mostly financial reasons, petrified of discussing the possibility that it may be China (it may!).” Trump’s assertion that China may be behind the hacking spree, which has so far affected more than a half dozen federal agencies including the Commerce and Treasury Departments, runs counter to comments by his own Secretary of State and multiple lawmakers briefed on the matter. “We can say pretty clearly that it was the Russians that engaged in this activity,” said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday in an interview. Republican lawmaker Mitt Romney in a tweet on Thursday said the hack was “like Russian bombers have been repeatedly flying undetected over our entire country.” A State Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday.Adam Schiff, the Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said in a tweet in reaction to Trump’s comments, “Another day, another scandalous betrayal of our national security by this president. Another dishonest tweet that sounds like it could have been written in the Kremlin.” The Kremlin has denied any involvement.
Biden forms team of insiders -- Call it the insider administration. The incoming Biden administration is shaping up to be a team of insiders filled with Washington household names. Biden has picked Obama-era officials, members of Congress, and people from his inner circle for his White House, a move that indicates he is aiming for stability and expertise as he inherits a recession and public health crisis. This tactic to staff up the White House is the opposite of the drain-the-swamp movement from four years ago, which led to lobbyists scrambling to get to know the incoming Trump administration officials. “We’re in a transition from an unorthodox administration to an orthodox administration in such a time of chaos with the pandemic and with the transition being somewhat challenged,” said Ivan Zapien, a longtime Democratic lobbyist. “I get that draining the swamp and being against Washington insiders and lobbyists polls well but, in reality, there are times when you need experience and this is one of them,” he added. A number of the nominees are familiar to Biden from the Obama years. Biden this week announced he would name Obama’s Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack as his Agriculture secretary, Obama’s chief of staff Denis McDonough as his secretary of Veterans Affairs and Obama’s national security adviser Susan Rice as his director of the Domestic Policy Council. “To the permanent class of Washingtonians, the Trump administration looked a little bit like the bar scene in ‘Star Wars.’ Like, who are all these people and what’s all going on,” “What Biden wants is the ‘Cheers’ bar. You walk in, everybody knows your name, they know where you sit, they know your drink, and they value predictability and stability as core things,” O’Neill said, a partner at Arnold & Porter. A transition official said the Biden team is focused on constructing a group of officials who will be ready and able serve Biden and the country from day one. “Amid the crises facing the country, President-Elect Biden is building a team of qualified and competent leaders to get things back on track and advance his bold agenda to build back better. Each of these nominees are forward-thinking, crisis-tested and experienced, and they are ready to quickly use the levers of government to make meaningful differences in the lives of Americans and help govern on day one."
Biden’s choice for US trade representative signals anti-China stance --In his choice of US trade representative, President-elect Joe Biden has made clear that he will continue the aggressive anti-China confrontation launched by the Obama administration a decade ago and stepped up under Trump. While the appointee is responsible for US trade policy internationally, Biden’s nomination of Katherine Tai last Friday targeted China in particular. In justifying his decision, Biden praised Tai’s record as “the chief trade enforcer against unfair trade practices by China, which will be a key priority in the Biden-Harris administration.” He highlighted her role as the chief legal counsel for the US at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) between 2011 and 2014, where she marshaled international support, including from the EU, Japan and Australia, against Chinese limits on the export of rare earths. China imposed a ban on the export of rare earths to Japan in 2010 amid sharp tensions over the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu islets in the East China Sea, which are controlled by Tokyo but claimed by both countries. The conflict was exacerbated by the Obama administration’s belligerent stance towards Beijing, which was made explicit in its “pivot to Asia” announced in November 2011. China’s export restrictions on rare earths were later extended to the US and Europe, then dropped in 2015 after an adverse WTO ruling. Biden said Tai would work closely with his economic, national security and foreign policy officials. “She understands that we need … to be considerably more strategic than we’ve been in how we trade, and that makes us all stronger, how we’re made stronger by trade,” he declared. Tai, whose parents were born in China and raised her in Taiwan, is closely connected to the Democrats and currently serves as the chief trade lawyer for the ways and means committee in the Democrat-dominated House of Representatives. She has been part of the push by the military establishment to ensure key supply chains are based in the US. Tai has not just been active on trade issues. She has also been involved in recent months in mobilising Democratic Party support for the escalating US propaganda campaign over alleged Chinese human rights abuses of Muslim Uyghurs in the western province of Xinjiang.
Joe Biden selects Pete Buttigieg as Transportation secretary -- President-elect Joe Biden said Tuesday he has chosen former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg to be his Transportation secretary. "South Bend was once called one of America's 'dying cities.' Today, it's a hub of innovation and job growth. Mayor Pete Buttigieg led that resurgence, and has been nominated by the President-elect to continue that work as Transportation Secretary," the Biden-Harris Presidential Transition team said on Twitter. Buttigieg, who was an opponent of Biden's during the 2020 primary elections, is expected to play a central role in the incoming president's plans to restore and repair roads and bridges throughout the U.S. "This is a moment of tremendous opportunity—to create jobs, meet the climate challenge, and enhance equity for all," Buttigieg tweeted. "I'm honored that the President-elect has asked me to serve our nation as Secretary of Transportation." The president-elect has for months said smart, climate-friendly infrastructure projects can help the U.S. emerge from the coronavirus recession stronger and help support thousands of jobs. Buttigieg, 38, quickly became a household name during the 2020 elections as a younger, yet still moderate option for Democrats hoping to prevent a second term for President Donald Trump. Though Buttigieg dropped out of the 2020 race in March despite winning in the Iowa caucuses, the openly gay politician soon thereafter endorsed Biden for president. The president-elect has often offered high praise for Buttigieg as emblematic of the next generation of Democrats and was widely expected to name him to a high-level administration post. A business ally of Biden's told CNBC that Buttigieg could have a big impact on the administration's infrastructure proposal since he's not connected to the stagnant talks in Congress about how to pay for such a plan. "He will not be inhibited by what has always been the limitations on Capitol Hill," the person said. Among its many proposals, the Biden campaign floated a $2 trillion plan that, married to his climate goals, would "build a new American infrastructure and clean energy economy." The expansive plan includes more general investments for roads and bridges, and more specific proposals like providing every American city with 100,000 or more residents with high-quality, zero-emissions public transportation options. Buttigieg, a military veteran, is perhaps best known in politics for his two terms as the mayor of South Bend from 2012 to 2020. Under his tenure, the city embarked on extensive urban development and economic revitalization projects similar to those championed by Biden in promises to revitalize American infrastructure. Critics of his time as mayor say his revitalization plans for South Bend did not necessarily benefit racial minorities as much as hoped. For example, many were optimistic about his plans to knock down or repair nearly all of the city's vacant homes, a demanding initiative that experts thought beyond possible. The program concentrated on the city's lowest-income black and Hispanic neighborhoods, where homes were in disrepair. And while many said they were happy to see dilapidated structures removed, they lamented a lack of planning on what would fill the space.
Xavier Becerra: Biden makes phony “left” gesture with Health and Human Services cabinet pick - President-elect Joe Biden announced last week the nomination of California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. The department, with a yearly budget of more than $1.4 trillion, is expected to play an outsized role in the opening days of the Biden administration in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. Before his role as attorney general, Becerra, a Democrat, was in the US House of Representatives for 24 years, representing a Los Angeles-area district. He held leadership positions as chairman of the House Democratic Caucus and chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. California Governor Gavin Newsom appointed Becerra state attorney general in 2017 when Kamala Harris left the position after she was elected to the US Senate. Becerra was elected to a full term in that office in 2018. His tenure thereafter was marked by a number of lawsuits filed against the Trump administration over its attempts to roll back state- and federal-level regulations relating to the US census, health care, immigration, the environment, gun control, civil rights, the US postal service and consumer protections among other issues. Becerra’s office has filed more than 100 lawsuits against the Trump administration, often serving as the lead for other Democratic attorneys general in other states with fewer resources. With the president’s extreme unpopularity in California—he received only 34 percent of the vote in the 2020 election—Becerra’s aggressive posture worked to his political benefit. A significant contributing factor in Biden’s choice of Becerra to lead HHS—aside from fulfilling identity politics demands of Democrats in choosing several Latinos for major departments—was the California official’s reputation as a defender of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) against the Trump administration’s repeated attempts to diminish and ultimately repeal the law. These included a lawsuit filed in July 2020 with 23 other state attorneys general for injunctive relief against the Trump administration’s attempt to remove gender non-discrimination clauses from the ACA. An earlier 2017 lawsuit sought to prevent Trump from stopping federal subsidies to the ACA. Perhaps the most important part of Becerra’s time as attorney general, however, has been largely absent from recent coverage of the HHS announcement. That is his intransigent opposition to any kind of police accountability measures while millions protested against the police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and numerous others.
Biden looking for Commerce secretary to rebuild relationships with business community --President-elect Joe Biden’s Commerce secretary will play a critical role in proving his administration can work effectively with the business community, which is eager to reestablish a relationship with the White House. Biden has named the majority of his Cabinet selections but Commerce is still outstanding. Two notable businesswomen,Meg Whitman and Mellody Hobson, have been floated as possible nominees, with some suggesting he could choose a Republican for the role. Whoever he picks will have an opening to rebuild relationships. The powerful pro-business Chamber of Commerce, for example, has not shied away from being critical of Trump on high-profile policy issues, a departure from previous norms for the historically GOP-leaning group. “Trump’s decision to abandon the Chambers of Commerce leaves an opening Biden could really take advantage of politically. Business leaders consistently say they long for normalcy and predictability. This present team has not sought input from the business groups as in the past. Choosing a Republican or someone close to the business community would go a long way to help solidify his support among this neglected segment," a former senior Trump Commerce official said. Biden is also taking diversity into consideration after promising to create a “Cabinet that looks like America.” His top contenders for attorney general, outgoing Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.) and Judge Merrick Garland, could indicate he’s likely to choose a woman or person of color to run Commerce. If nominated, Hobson would earn a warm reception from Black lawmakers and civil rights groups that have pushed Biden to appoint more Black leaders, and Black women in particular, to his Cabinet. One Democratic source described filling the remaining Cabinet slots as a game of musical chairs, suggesting that nominating a Black woman to lead Commerce could give Biden cover to nominate Jones, a white man, for attorney general, while nominating a Latina for a different role, like head of the Small Business Administration.
Ted Cruz says Senate will likely blockade Biden's nominations based on debunked election fraud allegations -Some Republican senators are using their unfounded election fraud claims as an excuse to muddy President-elect Joe Biden's transition. Biden has spent the past few weeks since the election filling out his Cabinet, hoping quick confirmations will help him get a quick start on reversing President Trump's policies. But "as long as there's litigation ongoing, and the election result is disputed, I do not think you will see the Senate act to confirm any nominee," Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told Axios. The Senate typically starts hearing from an incoming president's Cabinet nomineesbefore Inauguration Day, allowing them to more quickly be confirmed and start work as soon as a new president is sworn in and can formally nominate them. That's especially essential during a pandemic — something retiring Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) noted to Axios on Friday. But much of the Republican Senate and House have yet to acknowledge Biden's win. More than 100 of those congressmembers joined Texas' lawsuit Thursday aimed at overturning the election results in four states that went for Biden. The lawsuit alleges Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin improperly changed voting rules in the 2020 election, but is unlikely to succeed in the Supreme Court, not least because several states included on the suit made similar changes by the same means. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) meanwhile wants a chance to challenge Biden's nominees on their credentials, particularly his controversial Defense Secretary pick retired Gen. Lloyd Austin.
Senate GOP warns Biden against picking Sally Yates as attorney general - Sorry, the video player failed to load.(Error Code: 101103) Top Republicans are warning against President-elect Joe Biden picking former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates to helm the Department of Justice (DOJ). Yates has been floated as being on Biden's shortlist to lead the DOJ, but Republicans are warning she would be a tough, if not impossible, confirmation fight. "I think there's plenty of people that he wouldn't have to take a chance on her," said Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who will chair the Judiciary Committee if Republicans keep control of the Senate. He added that Yates's ties to the FBI's 2016 Russia investigation were "very worrisome."Asked if he thought a GOP-controlled Senate would confirm Yates to be attorney general, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), an adviser to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and a member of the panel, replied bluntly, "No." Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who currently chairs the committee, said he could give a "thumbs-up" to either ousted Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.) or Circuit Judge Merrick Garland, whose 2016 Supreme Court nomination Republicans stonewalled. But asked about Yates as attorney general, he replied, "I don't think so." Though Biden has named several top Cabinet picks since he was projected the winner just over a month ago, he hasn't yet tapped who he will name attorney general. The Washington Post reported on Friday that Yates and Jones were considered the top candidates to lead Biden's Justice Department.
U.S. calls Switzerland, Vietnam currency manipulators in Trump trade shot (Reuters) - The Trump administration labeled Switzerland and Vietnam currency manipulators on Wednesday, in another parting shot at trading partners that could complicate matters for U.S. President-elect Joe Biden’s incoming team. emergency use. In a long-overdue report, the U.S. Treasury also added India, Thailand and Taiwan to a list of trading partners it says may be deliberately devaluing their currencies against the dollar. The COVID-19 pandemic has skewed trade flows and widened U.S. deficits with trading partners, an irritant to outgoing President Donald Trump, who won office four years ago partly on a promise to close the U.S. trade gap. The Swiss National Bank said it does not manipulate its currency and “remains willing to intervene more strongly in the foreign exchange market”. Vietnam’s central bank said it would work with U.S. authorities to ensure a “harmonious and fair” trade relationship. “Vietnam’s foreign exchange rate policy has for years been managed in a way to contain inflation, ensure macro stability and not to create unfair trade advantage,” the State Bank of Vietnam said in a statement. The manipulator labels will ramp up pressure on Biden before he takes over, Per Hammered, chief emerging markets strategist at SEB in Stockholm, said. “You set the agenda and force him (Biden) into positions that he will have to get out of somehow,” Hammered said. A U.S. Treasury official said Biden’s transition team had not been briefed, adding: “They are not implicated in this.” U.S. Treasury Secretary nominee Janet Yellen could alter the findings in her first currency report, which is due in April.
Treasury’s FX Report – Currency Manipulation versus Currency Misalignment – Menzie Chinn - The Treasury’s semi-annual report designated Switzerland and Vietnam as currency manipulators. Without taking a definitive stand on currency manipulation, I do want to highlight where Vietnam (and Switzerland) stand if evaluated by the Big Mac Parity/Penn Effect: Clearly, if one used simple purchasing power parity (PPP), one would find massive undervaluation for the Vietnamese currency, massive overvaluation for the Swiss franc. However, as is well known, PPP — the proposition that the price of an identical bundle of goods should have the same price when expressed in a common currency — does not generally hold. That’s obvious to the tourist traveling to a variety of countries at very different levels of economic development. Hence, I rely on the “Penn effect” which implies that a proper assessment of currency misalignment should consider the country’s per capita level of income, as highlighted in my survey for the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Economics Finance. (A recent blogpost, using relative prices/relative incomes, and quantile regression, is here.) The nonlinear specification is due to Hassan (2016), and shown by the red dots.The prediction interval (60%, gray dots) indicates that there is some imprecision regarding whether the US dollar is truly overvalued, whether the Vietnamese dong is undervalued, relative to a multilateral assessment of the best fit estimate of the relationship. The results suggest that if one is using Big MacParity accounting for income levels, then Trump should really be pursuing… Russia, Ukraine and South Africa.Jason Furman and Joe Gagnon discuss the wrong-headedness of designating Vietnam a currency manipulator (separate from the issue of currency misalignment or undervaluation). See also Mark Sobel on who might better fit into the manipulator category.The raw Big Mac data is here. (And for a deeper analysis of MacParity, see David Parsley and Shang-Jin Wei’s incredibly thorough piece on the subject in 2007 Economics Journal; ungated version: A Prism into the PPP Puzzles.) For a recent assessment using price level data, see Cheung, Chinn and Xing (2017), referring to exchange rates in 2014.
The Sabotage of the U.S. Postal Service Is a National Security Matter -Among the growing list of priorities for the incoming Biden administration is a comprehensive investigation of the efforts to sabotage the U.S. Postal Service. In August, Aaron Gordon, reporting for Vice’s Motherboard, published a leaked internal document from the U.S. Postal Service showing that management was planning to eliminate hundreds of high-speed sorting machines in the midst of a pandemic. Sources inside the Postal Service that spoke with Gordon told him that they had “personally witnessed the machines, which cost millions of dollars, being destroyed or thrown in the dumpster.”Documents reviewed by Gordon also “laid out detailed plans to reroute mail to sorting facilities further away in order to centralize mail processing even if it moves the mail across further distances.” Gordon reported that a union official wrote on the document: “This will slow mail processing.”When this news swept across mainstream media, it was characterized as an effort to interfere with mail-in ballots and boost the chances of a Trump election win. But the slowdown at the U.S. Postal Service continues, making it look more like an all-out effort to sabotage a government mail program in order to destroy its reputation for timely delivery and boost the fortunes of private mail shippers.Any effort to sabotage a vital government function that impacts the efficiency with which U.S. businesses operate is a matter of national security. The GDP of the United States, already hit hard by the rolling pandemic shutdowns, depends on the timely delivery of mail.What is currently happening to the reputation of the U.S. Postal Service during this pivotal holiday shipping period could sabotage its reputation for years going forward. No one would like this more than Charles Koch and his network, which has been on a quest to privatize all government functions and shrink the federal government.Prior to this sabotage effort, the U.S. Postal Service had the approval of 91 percent of Americans, according to a May research report from the Pew Research Center.Count me among those who trusted the reliability and efficiency of the U.S. Postal Service for the more than two decades that I worked for two Wall Street firms. During those two decades, I mailed thousands of checks via the USPS to the clients for whom I managed money. The Wall Street firms’ computer systems issued thousands more checks via USPS for clients who were on automatic payout of their stock dividends and/or bond interest.Over those two decades, I do not recall ever hearing from a client about a lost check or even a delayed check. That is a far cry from what is happening today.
Trump Administration Finalizes Plans To Send Asylum-Seekers To El Salvador - The Trump administration has finalized an agreement to send certain asylum-seekers picked up at the border to El Salvador to seek protection in the Central American country, according to a Department of Homeland Security announcement sent to congressional staffers on Tuesday. It is unclear how quickly the agreement would be implemented and whether the administration will actually invoke it prior to the arrival of President-elect Joe Biden. The controversial plan was initially signed in 2019, but implementation of the deal was delayed. Earlier this year, US officials met with El Salvador's president, Nayib Bukele, about the deal. Last December, Bukele told CBS’s 60 Minutes that El Salvador was not ready for asylum-seekers from other countries. “Implementation of the Asylum Cooperative Agreement between the United States and El Salvador is a critical step in the establishment of a truly regional approach to migration, and, more specifically, to the offer of protection to those migrants who are victims of persecution,” Chad Wolf, the DHS’s acting secretary said in the statement. The announcement added that the deal was put in place “in order to confront the ongoing humanitarian and security crisis at the Southwest border due to historic levels of irregular migration and human smuggling.” “Under the ACA,” the statement continued, “certain migrants requesting asylum or similar humanitarian protection at the U.S. border will be transferred to El Salvador to seek protection in El Salvador.” News of the plans comes at the tail end of the Trump administration’s broader efforts to restrict asylum at the southern border, including a policy that forces asylum-seekers to remain in Mexico for the duration of their US immigration cases. In recent months, DHS has relied on a public health provision to expel people from the US citing the coronavirus pandemic. The safe-third-country-like deals with Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras — agreements with all three countries to accept asylum-seekers — were signed last year after negotiations led by then–DHS secretary Kevin McAleenan. The Guatemala agreement was implemented late but plans to send asylum-seekers to El Salvador and Honduras stalled.
Supreme Court punts on Trump bid to exclude immigrants from census - The Supreme Court has rejected as premature a legal challenge to President Donald Trump’s bid to exclude all unlawful immigrants from apportionment data for the 2020 census. The ruling, which appeared to split the court along ideological lines, leaves unresolved the possibility that Trump or a future president may be able to leave out some groups of non-citizens from the critical tally used to allocate House seats. The court’s majority did not squarely address the legality of excluding from the count all foreigners illegally in the country, but said that it appears impractical to do so. “Everyone agrees by now that the Government cannot feasibly implement the memorandum by excluding the estimated 10.5 million aliens without lawful status,” an unsigned opinion from the court’s majority read. “Yet the only evidence speaking to the predicted change in apportionment unrealistically assumes that the President will exclude the entire undocumented population.” The court’s three Democratic appointees dissented, saying that the dispute is ripe for review, and that the court should declare now that Trump’s policy seeking to remove foreigners from the count violates the Constitution. “The plain meaning of the governing statutes, decades of historical practice, and uniform interpretations from all three branches of Government demonstrate that aliens without lawful status cannot be excluded from the decennial census solely on account of that status,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote, joined by both of the court’s other Democratic nominees, Justices Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor. “The Government’s effort to remove them from the apportionment base is unlawful, and I believe this Court should say so.” The Census Bureau's ability to produce the data needed to identify classes of immigrants who could potentially be excluded in time for the Trump administration to take such action remains unclear. President-elect Joe Biden's administration is expected to shelve that effort if it isn't complete by the time Biden is sworn in.
Supreme Court throws out challenge to Trump census plan to exclude undocumented immigrants - The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a challenge to President Donald Trump’s plan to leave undocumented immigrants out of the final census count, giving the president a partial victory, though possibly a temporary one. By a 6-3 vote, the court said too much is unknown about whether the administration can even carry out the plan and about what effect it would have on the states. “This case is riddled with contingencies and speculation,” the court said in a short, unsigned opinion, referring to the states' challenge to Trump's plan. “The policy may not prove feasible to implement in any manner whatsoever.” The census, required by the Constitution and conducted every 10 years, is used to determine how many members of Congress each state gets in the House of Representatives. The data is also used to calculate a local government's share of $1.5 trillion in funds under many federal programs. As a legal matter, the president could now try to carry out his plan, but the states would undoubtedly come right back and challenge it. Dale Ho, of the American Civil Liberties Union, who represented the challengers before the Supreme Court, said the decision is only about timing. "The legal mandate is clear: Every single person counts in the census, and every single person is represented in Congress," Ho said. "If this policy is ever actually implemented, we'll be right back in court challenging it." In a post on Twitter, he added, "If the administration actually tries to implement this policy, we'll sue. Again. And we'll win." In July, Trump issued a memo that said people who are undocumented should not be included in the final count. Under his plan, the Census Bureau would report two sets of figures to the White House: one including everyone counted and another allowing him to leave out undocumented immigrants. The president could then report the smaller number to Congress for use in reapportionment.
Trump Orders Record-Setting Number Of Executions Before Leaving - The Trump administration is seeking to execute as many people as they possibly can before leaving office, and some of the executions have already taken place. There was a 17-year pause on federal executions in the United States until this summer when the Trump Administration resumed the practice. Over the summer, seven people were executed since the rules were changed. There hadn’t been a federal execution since 2003 until the Trump administration took office. Before 2003, only three people had been executed by the federal government in the past 50 years, according to the Bureau of Prisons data. Democrats have suggested that Trump is rushing executions because Biden has promised to end capital punishment. If all of the planned executions go forward, Trump will have overseen more executions than any other president in US history, with 13 executions since July. Among those scheduled to be executed is Lisa Montgomery, the first woman to be put to death in 67 years. Despite his terrible record on criminal justice, president-elect Joe Biden promises that he will eliminate capital punishment.
US Justice Department shuts down UAW corruption investigation, praises union “reforms” -In a deal worked out between federal prosecutors and the United Auto Workers (UAW) union, the Justice Department said it would wind up its more than five-year investigation of the UAW in exchange for a few token reforms. To date, the investigation has led to the conviction of 15 people, including former UAW Presidents Gary Jones and Dennis Williams as well as Joe Ashton, former UAW president for General Motors, and Norwood Jewell, former UAW vice president for Fiat Chrysler. The investigation led to jail time for three Fiat Chrysler executives, other ranking UAW officers and the widow of late UAW vice president for Fiat Chrysler General Holiefield. In a press conference Monday afternoon, US Attorney Matthew Schneider announced that the Justice Department had agreed to a civil settlement with the UAW that includes an independent monitor overseeing the union for six years. He said the government would not bring racketeering charges against the UAW as federal prosecutors had previously threatened. In addition, the UAW agreed to hold a membership referendum on a change to the union constitution to permit the direct election of top union officers instead of officers being chosen by convention delegates. The UAW also agreed to pay back $15 million improperly diverted from joint training centers and pay an additional $1.5 million in back taxes and penalties. For its part, the Justice Department said it is ending its investigation into UAW corruption and essentially handed the remaining top union officers a clean bill of health, including President Rory Gamble and others such as Vice President Cynthia Estrada, who had earlier been named as a target of the probe. It leaves in place all current UAW international officers and executive board members and imposes no fines or other penalties on the union. As for the “independent” monitor, the individual will be chosen from among a list proposed by the UAW.
The Biden administration can reverse much of Trump’s bad labor policy without Congress -- For the last four years, at every turn, the Trump administration systematically promoted the interests of corporations and shareholders over those of working people. Through a series of executive orders and agency regulations, the Trump administration attacked workers’ health and safety, wages, and collective bargaining rights. It is critical that the Biden administration work from day one to reverse these actions and strengthen workers’ rights. Here, we review the Trump administration’s anti-worker executive and regulatory actions and chart a course for the new administration to address these harmful actions.
Barr to step down as attorney general - Attorney General William Barr will step down from his position in the coming days, leaving the Trump administration about a month before Joe Biden's inauguration. President Trump announced Barr's decision on Twitter after a meeting with him at the White House, saying that the two had a "very good" relationship and praising Barr for doing an "outstanding job." Trump had sharply criticized Barr in recent days, prompting talk that he could be fired. Barr plans to leave the Justice Department on Dec. 23, according to his resignation letter. “As discussed, I will spend the next week wrapping up a few remaining matters important to the administration and depart on December 23rd,” Barr wrote. Trump said that Jeffrey Rosen, the current deputy attorney general, will take over Barr’s role atop the Justice Department and that Richard Donoghue, who over the summer moved to a role at main Justice from the Eastern District of New York, would be deputy attorney general. Biden, who was affirmed the winner of the presidential race by the Electoral College earlier Monday, will be inaugurated on Jan. 20. Barr, who was confirmed as Trump’s second attorney general in February 2019, has been one of the president’s staunchest allies in the Cabinet. But significant cracks developed in their relationship in recent weeks. Trump over the weekend lashed out at Barr over reports that he kept information about a federal investigation into Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, from public view before the election. Trump even shared a tweet that called on Barr to be fired if the reports were true. “A big disappointment!” Trump wrote in response to the tweet on Saturday. Barr also broke with Trump in spectacular fashion by telling The Associated Press in an interview two weeks ago that the Justice Department had not found evidence of widespread election fraud that would alter the results of the election. The statement represented a public contradiction of Trump’s wild fraud claims by one of his closest Cabinet members and quickly spurred speculation he could be fired or resign.
Attorney General Barr resigns as Trump considers appointing special counsel to investigate Hunter Biden - On Monday, President Trump announced on Twitter that Attorney General William Barr would be resigning effective December 23, clearing the way for the appointment of Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen as the acting head of the US Justice Department. Rosen has already indicated that his own deputy, Richard Donoghue, a former soldier in the 82nd Airborne Division who has led the US government’s attack on Chinese telecom giant Huawei, will replace him shortly thereafter. Barr’s resignation is the latest in a series of firings and resignations that have occurred during the month since Trump’s electoral defeat. In recent weeks, Trump has fired Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Christopher Krebs, who was sacked after he rejected Trump’s claims of massive fraud and a stolen election and declared that the November 3 vote was the most fair and secure in US history. Despite the mutual niceties, it had been widely reported that Trump was threatening to fire Barr in response to his public statement two weeks ago undercutting White House claims that the election results were fraudulent and the real winner was Trump. In a December 1 interview with the Associated Press, Barr said the Justice Department had found no evidence of fraud that “could have effected a different outcome in the election.” More recently, reports have proliferated that Trump was incensed over Barr’s refusal to publicly announce an ongoing Justice Department investigation of Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden. The investigation centers on Hunter’s tax affairs and possible money laundering operations involving companies doing business in China. Trump had pressured Barr and the Justice Department to announce the investigation in the run-up to the election, Barr instead instructed Justice Department personnel to make no statements to the media on the investigation. Barr’s resignation and the expected elevation of Donoghue could clear the way for Trump to have a special counsel appointed to continue the Hunter Biden investigation after he leaves office. In an opinion posted in the Wall Street Journal titled “A Special Counsel Christmas for Hunter Biden,” the Journal notes that Trump “wants his attorney general to name one.” There is also the possibility of other efforts to punish Trump’s political opponents during the final weeks of his term.
Head of White House security office has his right foot amputated because of severe COVID-19 and is facing 'staggering medical bills - Crede Bailey, who heads the White House security office, lost part of his lower right leg, including his foot, and a toe of his left foot during a months-long battle with COVID-19, Bloomberg reported on Monday.Bailey, whose office handles White House credentials and works with the Secret Service, contracted the coronavirus in September. He's been hospitalized for three months but is said to be recovering from the illness.Friends of Bailey's have raised more than $35,000 through a GoFundMe campaign to help pay for his rehabilitation and healthcare."Crede beat COVID-19 but it came at a significant cost: his big toe on his left foot as well as his right foot and lower leg had to be amputated," Dawn McCrobie, who organized the fundraiser, wrote in an update last week.A White House representative declined to comment about Bailey's condition to Business Insider. Bloomberg reported that Bailey's family requested that the White House not publicly acknowledge his illness.McCrobie wrote last month that Bailey's family "has staggering medical bills from a hospital stay of 2+ months and still counting in the ICU and a long road ahead in rehab before he can go home." She added that Bailey would need to pay for alterations to his home and a car he could operate to accommodate his disability. Dozens of top administration officials and people tied to the White House have contracted COVID-19, and President Donald Trump has consistently downplayed the threat the virus poses. The president, who contracted the virus and was hospitalized for several days in October, has told Americans not to be afraid of COVID-19, mocked those who wear face masks, and condemned states' aggressive measures to slow the spread of the virus.
Interior secretary tests positive for COVID-19 after two days of meetings with officials: report - Department of Interior Secretary David Bernhardt has tested positive for COVID-19 following days of meetings with political appointees, a department spokesman confirmed to The Washington Post Wednesday. Interior spokesman Nicholas Goodwin told the Post in an email that Bernhardt, 51, received the diagnosis ahead of a scheduled Cabinet meeting with President Trump Wednesday, which Bernhardt did not attend following his positive test. “He is currently asymptomatic and will continue to work on behalf of the American people while in quarantine,” Goodwin added. The spokesman also said that the secretary is “following all CDC guidelines and consulting with medical professionals as appropriate,” and that, “Interior will continue to follow all CDC guidelines (i.e. identifying close contacts, cleaning work spaces, etc.) regarding the Secretary’s positive test result.” The Post reported that Bernhardt has spent the past two days in meetings with a number of Trump officials, and also attended a portrait unveiling for former secretary Ryan Zinke last week. Others at that gathering included Sens. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.). Two individuals who spoke to the Post on the condition of anonymity to openly discuss internal discussions said that employees at Interior were informed that a holiday party scheduled for Thursday has been cancelled due to Bernhardt’s diagnosis. According to the Post, Bernhardt is at least the third top Interior official to test positive for COVID-19 since November, following Daniel Jorjani after he served as an election observer in Pennsylvania and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Aurelia Skipwith. Bernhardt’s positive test comes the same day the State Department canceled its holiday party after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was forced to go into quarantine after being exposed to someone with the virus. The party's guest list had included 180 foreign ambassadors, chiefs of missions and their spouses, the Post reported. A State Department spokesperson had confirmed that Pompeo entered quarantine after coming into contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. He had tested negative, but was “being closely monitored by the Department’s medical team,” the spokesperson said.
Reporter covering Biden tests positive for COVID-19 - A member of the press who traveled with President-elect Joe Biden to Georgia on Tuesday has since tested positive for the novel coronavirus, leading the transition team to direct one of its communications staffers to quarantine out of an abundance of caution, Biden's office said. The journalist received a positive COVID-19 test Wednesday, after serving in the Biden transition press pool on both Monday and Tuesday. Biden’s office said in a statement that officials “immediately” began contact tracing and determined that the member of the press was never in close contact with Biden as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “Out of an abundance of caution, one member of our traveling communications team who was in close contact with this individual will self-quarantine for 7 days and other members of the traveling press pool who were in close contact with this individual are not on pool duty today and will not be until they clear the window for being infectious,” Biden’s office said. “No other member of the President-elect's staff has been assessed to be at risk for exposure or transmission of the virus.” The White House Correspondents’ Association in an email to reporters disclosing the positive test said the individual in question is experiencing “mild symptoms” and isolating so as not to spread the virus. The case was revealed just before Biden introduced Pete Buttigieg as his nominee for Transportation secretary in Wilmington, Del. Coronavirus cases are surging across the country and the United States surpassed 300,000 deaths due to COVID-19 earlier this week. Health experts have warned that cases could further increase after the holidays and have discouraged Americans from traveling or gathering in large numbers.
Biden Orders Hazmat “Exorcism” of Trump White House -- President-elect Joe Biden has ordered what is being called an “exorcism” of the Trump White House before he makes it his home next month. Biden told his staff that he wants the large building to be thoroughly disinfected before he moves in. White House historian Kate Andersen Brower said that, “There is a five-hour window between presidents. That’s when 95 staff will have to pack up all the Trump possessions and move the Bidens in. They will clean or replace everything.” In that short time, a team in hazmat suits will spray the entire building with disinfectant, along with removing carpets, curtains, and furniture, then replacing them with new selections. ‘The incoming President and First Lady get to choose their new furniture from a secret warehouse,” Andersen said, according to the Mail Online. A member of Biden’s transition team said that the precautions are due to the large number of coronavirus infections that spread throughout the Trump administration. “Mr Trump’s administration has been riddled with the coronavirus. The Bidens are taking no chances. The entire property will be deep-cleaned down to replacing doorknobs and taking down soft furnishings. The virus can linger on hard surfaces so the entire residence and executive offices will be wiped clean with disinfectant to exorcise any trace of Team Trump,” the staff member said. Just last week, Trump announced that his lawyer Rudy Guiliani had tested positive for the virus. CNN reported that Giuliani has exposed hundreds of people to the virus in the time that he was contagious. Last month, Giuliani’s son, Andrew, who is a White House staffer, tested positive for COVID after attending a Trump campaign legal team news conference with his father in Washington, DC. Donald Trump Jr. was also infected with the virus last month. He was at the White House on election night where several of Trump’s staff later tested positive for COVID, including White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.
Baffling': Trump Admin Reportedly Slashing Vaccine Allocations to States While Millions of Doses Sit on Shelves --Officials from more than a dozen states say the Trump administration has informed them that next week's Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine allotments to their jurisdictions are being substantially reduced, prompting confusion and outrage. The development comes even as Pfizer insists that it has millions of doses ready to ship if given instructions by the federal government.Coronavirus inoculation in the U.S. began Monday as the country's pandemic death tollsurpassed 300,000. Hundreds of thousands of people—mostly frontline healthcare workers and nursing home residents whom the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) agreed to prioritize—have already received their first dose of the vaccine.But Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) tweeted Thursday that the CDC "has informed us that [Washington's] vaccine allocation will be cut by 40% next week—and that all states are seeing similar cuts.""This is disruptive and frustrating," Inslee added. "We need accurate, predictable numbers to plan and ensure on-the-ground success. No explanation was given."The Associated Press reported Friday that "California, where an explosion in cases is straining intensive care units to the breaking point, will receive 160,000 fewer vaccine doses than state officials had anticipated next week—a roughly 40% reduction."Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) said his state was also told it would receive a smaller shipment than expected, The Hill reported Thursday. In addition, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) on Wednesday said he "anticipates about half as many doses as was originally promised."Other affected states, AP reported, include Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, and New Hampshire.Adding to the chorus of governors expressing concern was Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who said Wednesday that "new shipments were 'on hold,' and that if they arrive, he is anticipating fewer doses than he was previously told," The Hill reported. But unlike his colleagues in other states, DeSantis blamed unspecified "production issues."Pfizer on Thursday denied that underproduction is the cause of diminished vaccine distributions, instead assigning fault to the lack of direction provided by the Trump administration.In a statement, the company said that it "successfully shipped all 2.9 million doses that we were asked to ship by the U.S. government to the locations specified by them." "We have millions more doses sitting in our warehouse but, as of now, we have not received any shipment instructions for additional doses," Pfizer added.
Trump retweets call to jail Georgia governor and secretary of state - In the middle of a barrage of tweets amplifying his message that the election was stolen from him, President Trump on Tuesday retweeted Georgia attorney Lin Wood’s suggestion that the president will soon prosecute Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger — both Republicans — for refusing to overturn the results in their state.“President Trump @realDonaldTrump is a genuinely good man,” Wood wrote. “He does not really like to fire people. I bet he dislikes putting people in jail, especially ‘Republicans.’ He gave @BrianKempGA & @GaSecofState every chance to get it right. They refused. They will soon be going to jail.”The tweet included photos of Kemp and Raffensperger doctored to show them wearing face masks emblazoned with China’s flag.Since the race was called for President-elect Joe Biden, Trump and his allies, including Wood, have made dozens of baseless claims of coordinated voter fraud in Georgia and other states that voted for Biden. Trump and his legal team have lost virtually every single court challenge — numbering more than 50 — and the Electoral College cast votes Monday confirming Biden’s victory.Trump has been particularly obsessed with Georgia, where Biden defeated him by just 12,284 votes, and where Republicans hold the top statewide offices. Two audits, including a full hand recount, confirmed the results.Late last month, the president called on Kemp to “overrule” Raffensperger, Georgia’s top election official, who had said that the election was conducted fairly and that the vast majority of fraud claims being brought to his office were not credible.“The truth matters,” Raffensperger said. “There are those who are exploiting the emotions of many Trump supporters with fantastic claims, half-truths and misinformation, and frankly they are misleading the president as well, apparently.”
Republican state senators call on Trump to declare martial law to overturn Biden election victory - Within the last 48 hours, two Republican state senators, Bob Steinburg of North Carolina and Amanda F. Chase of Virginia, through public Facebook posts and in subsequent interviews, have declared that President Donald Trump should suspend civil liberties and declare martial law in order to stay in power. Both state senators have repeated Trump’s baseless claims of widespread election fraud and various other right-wing conspiracies. Steinburg was reelected to the statehouse this past year, while Chase is running for governor of Virginia. In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Steinburg reiterated comments made earlier this month by retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney, suggesting Trump invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807, deploy soldiers and suspend habeas corpus. In an interview with WRAL Tuesday night, Steinburg alleged he was just “putting out there options that others say still remain on the table,” although he later added that he would welcome a coup, insinuating a vast conspiracy was working against Trump. “There’s something going on here bigger than what anybody is willing to talk about,” Steinburg told WRAL. “I’m not nuts. ... I’m not a conspiracy theory person ... but something is going on here that’s bigger than meets the eye.” Steinburg, unprompted, offered to take a psychiatric evaluation, alleging that the CIA and the FBI both knew of the coup against Trump but were unwilling to do anything about it. Steinburg was not able to articulate what habeas corpus was, stating that he was just “repeating what the general said.” However, when WRAL reporters explained that suspending habeas corpus would allow the state to detain people indefinitely without a trial Steinburg replied, “If that’s what needs to be done, if there are people who have been identified as folks who are suspected of high crimes and misdemeanors, who are threatening the very security and foundation of our nation ... for whatever period of time it takes to round them up, then yes.” These remarks from elected officials come as Trump continues to defy Monday’s electoral college certification and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s recognition of President elect Joe Biden’s victory, pushing forward with his efforts to subvert the election results, claiming his loss was fraudulent and inciting his supporters against those who claim otherwise. In an early Wednesday morning Twitter post, Trump warned McConnell that people were “angry” after he congratulated Biden on his victory from the Senate floor on Tuesday. Trump urged the Republican Party to “finally learn to fight.” Trump was joined in his incitements by his fascistic allies in and around the Republican Party. Incoming Republican freshman Georgia Congresswoman and QAnon conspiracy theorist, Majorie Taylor Greene, tweeted Tuesday: “Every ‘Republican’ that isn’t fighting for [Trump’s] 2020 landslide victory is supporting the Chinese Communist Party takeover of America.” Attorney L. Lin Wood, who represents Trump, as well as fascist Illinois shooter Kyle Rittenhouse, also incited fascistic violence against McConnell writing a racist and xenophobic threat against the senator’s Chinese-American wife and current transportation secretary, Elaine Chao, tweeting that “Mitch McConnell is not a patriot. Ask his wife. She knows.” Wood added, “McConnell is a traitor to American Patriots. His day of judgement is coming.”
MAGA leaders call for the troops to keep Trump in office - An 1807 law invoked only in the most violent circumstances is now a rallying cry for the MAGA-ites most committed to the fantasy that Donald Trump will never leave office. The law, the Insurrection Act, allows the president to deploy troops to suppress domestic uprisings — not to overturn elections. But that hasn’t stopped the act from becoming a buzzword and cure-all for prominent MAGA figures like Sydney Powell and Lin Wood, two prominent pro-Trump attorneys leading efforts to overturn the 2020 election, and even one North Carolina state lawmaker. Others like Michael Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser who was recently pardoned for lying to the FBI, have made adjacent calls for Trump to impose martial law. The ideas have circulated in pro-Trump outlets and were being discussed over the weekend among the thousands of MAGA protesters who descended on state capitols and the Supreme Court to falsely claim Trump had won the election. At its core, the Insurrection Act gives the president authority to send military and National Guard troops to quell local rebellions and violence, offering an exemption to prohibitions against using military personnel to enforce domestic laws. Historically, it has been used in moments of extreme national strife — the Civil War, the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, violent labor disputes, desegregation battles, rioting following Martin Luther King Jr.’s death. Only once, however, has it been used in the wake of an election — and that was to stop a literal militia from seizing the Louisiana government on behalf of John McEnery, a former Confederate officer who had lost the 1872 governor’s race. Nonetheless, in the minds of some authoritarian-leaning and conspiracy-minded Trump supporters, the Insurrection Act has become a needed step to prevent President-elect Joe Biden from assuming the presidency. Their evidence-deficient reasoning: Democrats illegally rigged the election and are attempting a coup, and Trump must send in the troops to undo this conspiracy. The conviction shows how hard-edged MAGA ideology has become in the wake of Trump’s election loss. While scattered theories about a “deep state” arrayed against Trump have long circulated in MAGA circles, calls for troops to stop a democratically elected president from taking office have taken those ideas to a more conspiratorial and militaristic level. It also displays the exalted level to which Trump has been elevated among his most zealous fans as his departure looms.
Study of 50 Years of Tax Cuts For Rich Confirms ‘Trickle Down’ Theory Is an Absolute Sham -- Neoliberal gospel says that cutting taxes on the wealthy will eventually benefit everyone by boosting economic growth and reducing unemployment, but a new analysis of fiscal policies in 18 countries over the last 50 years reveals that progressive critics of “trickle down” theory have been right all along: supply-side economics fuels inequality, and the real beneficiaries of the right-wing approach to taxation are the super-rich. The Economic Consequences of Major Tax Cuts for the Rich (pdf), a working paper published this month by the International Inequalities Institute at the London School of Economics and written by LSE’s David Hope and Julian Limberg of King’s College London, examines data from nearly 20 OECD countries, including the U.K. and the U.S., and finds that the past five decades have been characterized by “falling taxes on the rich in the advanced economies,” with “major tax cuts… particularly clustered in the late 1980s.” But, according to Hope and Limberg, the vast majority of the populations in those countries have little to show for it, as the benefits of slashing taxes on the wealthy are concentrated among a handful of super-rich individuals—not widely shared across society in the form of improved job creation or prosperity, as “trickle down” theorists alleged would happen. “Our research shows that the economic case for keeping taxes on the rich low is weak,” Hope said Wednesday. “Major tax cuts for the rich since the 1980s have increased income inequality, with all the problems that brings, without any offsetting gains in economic performance.” In their study, the pair of political economists note that “economic performance, as measured by real GDP per capita and the unemployment rate, is not significantly affected by major tax cuts for the rich.” However, they add, “major tax cuts for the rich increase the top 1% share of pre-tax national income in the years following the reform” by a magnitude of nearly 1%.
MacKenzie Scott, ex-wife of Jeff Bezos, gives away $4 billion in four months - Author Mackenzie Scott donated more than $4 billion over just four months this year, still just a small dent in her pledge to give away a majority of her wealth. A year after Scott, who is the 18th richest person in the world according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, signed onto the Giving Pledge, she announced she had donated $1.7 billion to 116 non-profit organizations. Since then, she has given an additional almost $4.2 billion in gifts to 384 organizations across all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Washington D.C. "Though I’m far from completing my pledge, this year of giving began with exposure to leaders from historically marginalized groups fighting inequities, and ended with exposure to thousands of organizations working to alleviate suffering for those hardest hit by the pandemic," she wrote in a blog post on Medium. Through the pledge, established in 2010 by billionaires Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett, Scott made a public commitment to donating a majority of her wealth. With a net worth of $60 billion, her donation thus far accounts for roughly ten percent of her divorce settlement with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos alone. In addition to being an award-winning author, Scott is also a major shareholder of Amazon, which had a revenue of $281 billion in 2019. In the wake of Black Lives Matter protests this summer, Scott focused heavily on social justice philanthropy. As of a post in July, 91 percent of the racial equity organizations she had donated were run by leaders of color, 100 percent of the LGBTQ+ equity organizations were run by LGBTQ+ leaders and 83 percent of the gender equity organizations were run by women. Her update on Dec. 15, titled “384 Ways to Help,” included a list of those organizations and others chosen through a rigorous process of research. "We do this research and deeper diligence not only to identify organizations with high potential for impact, but also to pave the way for unsolicited and unexpected gifts given with full trust and no strings attached," she said in the post.
Trump Regulator Set to Consider Approving the Banking Model that Ushered in the Great Depression – Uninsured Deposits - Pam Martens - Seven banking and credit union associations have sent a letter to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the regulator of national banks in the U.S., spelling out the dangers of the OCC approving a pending bank charter that would allow a national bank to accept and hold deposits that lack federal deposit insurance. The lack of federal deposit insurance triggered the bank runs and banks collapses that played a key role in ushering in the Great Depression. (More on that in a moment.) The bank making the proposal for uninsured banking is Figure Bank, N.A., part of the blockchain startup, Figure Technologies. The organizations wisely arguing against it are the American Bankers Association, Bank Policy Institute, Credit Union National Association, Independent Community Bankers of America, National Association of Federally Insured Credit Unions, The Clearing House, and Consumer Bankers Association.The organizations make the following points in their letter to the OCC: “…the precedent-shattering approach of granting a national bank charter to an institution that accepts only uninsured deposits would violate the Federal law, the consistently expressed intent of Congress, and public policy considerations essential to the functioning of the nation’s financial system….” “…the public information released by the OCC includes only a skeletal description of Applicant’s proposed activities and does not provide the public with a sufficient factual basis to comment on the application.” “…the Associations understand that, in addition to ‘conducting lending, payments, and custody activities,’ as identified in the public information released by the OCC, Applicant will also accept deposits in minimum denominations of $250,000 from its affiliates and third parties that are ‘accredited investors.’ ” “As an uninsured national bank, Applicant would evade core prudential standards and limits that Congress has established to ensure the safety and soundness of banks, protect the financial stability of the United States, and prevent the mixing of banking and commerce.” Concerns about the safety and soundness of banks that lack federal deposit insurance and are built on imprudent business models are well founded and based on one of the darkest eras in U.S. financial history.
Fed's Powell calls climate change 'an emerging risk' to banks— Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said addressing climate change is relevant to its congressional mandate and that although the central bank is an independent agency, it has a duty to minimize risks to the financial system. His remarks came Wednesday at a press conference after a meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, and a day after the Fed announced it had formally joined the Network for Greening the Financial System — a global coalition of central bankers and regulators focused on mitigating climate risk on the financial sector. “Climate change is an emerging risk to financial institutions, the financial system and the economy, and we are, as so many others are, in the very early stages of understanding what that means, what needs to be done about it and by whom,” Powell said. The Fed in recent months has been more upfront in addressing the risk that global warming poses to the banking system, highlighting it as a financial stability concern for the first time in November. But its moves to address climate change have been met with pushback, particularly from Republican lawmakers who have expressed concern that there is a lack of data that demonstrates how warming temperatures would affect the financial system, and that the Fed's incorporating climate-risk analysis into its supervisory framework would shut out some companies from obtaining banking services. A group of 47 congressional Republicans urged Powell and Vice Chair for Supervision Randal Quarles in a Dec. 9 letter to carefully evaluate whether it should account for climate risk as part of its supervision regime. “Politicizing access to capital and choking off funding to industries that millions of Americans rely on is unacceptable, especially in times of economic and financial uncertainty,” read the letter, which was signed by a number of prominent Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee, including Reps. Andy Barr of Kentucky and Blaine Luetkemeyer of Missouri. Powell on Wednesday emphasized that the Fed is a “nonpolitical agency,” but said that it also has a directive to insulate the financial system from emerging risks. “We're not the forum where all the great issues of the day are to be hashed out debated and addressed, unless and only to the extent that those issues are directly relevant to our statutory goals and are addressable through our legal authorities,” he said. “Climate change is nonetheless relevant to our existing mandates under the law.” But Powell added that that Fed wouldn’t rush to make any abrupt climate-related changes to its supervision and regulation. “I think there's work to be done to understand the connection between climate change and the strength and resilience of financial markets and financial institutions,” he said. “I think that work is in its early days, and again, we'll be careful, we'll be thorough and transparent and engage with the public on all that.” Powell also said he has met with President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team and has spoken with Janet Yellen, a former Fed chair and Biden’s nominee to serve as Treasury Secretary, although only to congratulate her. “I did work very closely with her for five years before she left, and I've stayed in touch,” he said. “But I have not discussed policy with her, and I'm not going to do that until she's confirmed.”
BlackRock makes climate change central to its investment strategy for 2021 - Investors are increasingly interested in companies that are environmentally and socially conscious, and the world's largest asset manager is no exception.In an annual letter to CEOs earlier this year, BlackRock Chairman and CEO Larry Fink said "climate change has become a defining factor in companies' long-term prospects … But awareness is rapidly changing, and I believe we are on the edge of a fundamental reshaping of finance."Now, the firm has updated its global principles and guidelines to reflect its commitment to climate and diversity. In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, "investors and others will be looking to see how companies are rebuilding their businesses for long-term sustainability and value creation," BlackRock said in its 2021 stewardship expectations. "The changes we have made to our stewardship principles and voting guidelines strengthen our expectations of management and boards in ensuring companies have a sustainable long-term business model." Among the changes being implemented in 2021, BlackRock said it expects companies to disclose a plan for transitioning to a lower carbon economy, report key stakeholders and business interests, and improve racial and gender diversity on large corporate boards. Indeed, with assets under management close to $7.81 trillion as of the third quarter, BlackRock has significant influence in proxy battles. In 2020, BlackRock held a substantial stake in approximately 91% of S&P 500 companies and across these companies that position averaged 7.7%, according to data compiled by Jackie Cook, director of sustainable stewardship research at Morningstar, based on annual proxy reports. Given the size BlackRock's vote represents, these new guidelines could be the difference between the slow pace of change at companies and more immediate action. "Where we believe companies are not moving with sufficient speed and urgency, our most frequent course of action will be to hold directors accountable by voting against their re-election," BlackRock said in the report. "The effectiveness of voting against directors is well-documented." Cook said it's the first time BlackRock "really said explicitly that shareholder resolutions work in driving change." "That's exactly what shareholder proponents have been saying for a long time," she added.
Banks’ billions in payouts hinge on Fed’s view of the pandemic - As with most things related to 2020, COVID-19 will be a deciding factor as the Federal Reserve considers whether banks are able to increase their dividends or resume share buybacks. The central bank releases results of its second round of stress tests at the end of the week. It scheduled the review to better understand the potential long-term effects of the pandemic on banks’ finances after coming up with a temporary formula earlier this year to determine its payout policy, which included a suspension of share buybacks. Two banks had to also curtail dividends as a result of those rule changes. “A lot of uncertainty was introduced during the pandemic, and now we’re in a second wave,” said Monica O’Reilly, who leads the U.S. financial services industry group for Deloitte. “Even as the vaccine arrives, there’s no certainty of the economic repercussions for the next six months. The Fed has to take that into account.” Even though the central bank has published detailed economic scenarios it will use to test the firms’ financial strength in the second round, many analysts have instead been looking at policymakers’ speeches and other signs to guess whether the restrictions will be eased or kept in place a bit longer when results come out Friday afternoon. Fed Gov. Lael Brainard has criticized the central bank’s willingness to permit limited dividends, arguing that the crisis is still raging and banks may need that capital before it’s over. That view has been echoed by prominent Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee, including its ranking member, Sen. Sherrod Brown, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren. On the other side, Randal Quarles, the Fed’s vice chairman for supervision, has praised banks as a “source of strength” to the economy, and said he hopes Friday’s results will let the industry return to “regular order.” The Fed will no longer need temporary payout restrictions “after we emerge from the COVID event,” Quarles said in a speech last week. JPMorgan Chase and other large U.S. banks have indicated they’re ready to restart buybacks in the first quarter, as soon as the central bank gives the green light. But Brian Kleinhanzl, an analyst at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, said it’s a “fool’s errand” trying to predict when that will happen. “The test just gives them cover to do whatever they want,” Kleinhanzl said in an interview. “COVID isn’t going in the right direction and they still seem worried about the economy, so they might keep the buyback ban for six more months. Or they may allow a few to resume repurchases. Anything is possible.” The Fed’s bank-by-bank approach contrasts with European regulators, who instituted blanket bans on capital distributions at the outset of the pandemic. Now they’re relaxing some of the prohibitions introduced in March. The Bank of England said last week that while banks can resume paying dividends, they will have to be capped at about 25% of quarterly profit, among other rules. The European Central Bank said Tuesday that it would allow the resumption of dividends with multiple conditions, including that they don’t exceed 15% of a firm’s cumulative profit for 2019 and 2020. Those are similar to the Fed’s current restrictions, which froze dividends at their midyear level, corresponding to about 25% of income for the top six banks.
Fed extends dividend restrictions after stress test results — The Federal Reserve is extending restrictions on bank dividend payments and share repurchases into the first quarter of next year, but will still allow banks to make payments to shareholders based on income earned over the past year. The Fed announced its decision as it released results of the first-ever "mid-cycle" stress tests. The central bank added the supplemental test in light of economic uncertainties from the coronavirus pandemic. The balance sheets of 34 banks with at least $100 billion of assets were assessed against a “severely adverse” and an “alternative severe” scenario, using data collected from after the onset of the pandemic. The central bank also voted unanimously not to adjust any firm’s stress capital buffer, in an effort to prevent banks from having to raise additional capital in the midst of stressed economic conditions, according to senior Fed officials. The analyses found that the firms in aggregate would achieve risk-based capital ratios well above the required minimum even under the most stressed circumstances, and that banks have actually built combined capital thanks both to the Fed’s earlier restrictions on dividend payments and to large loan-loss reserves. However, a number of institutions were only able to meet roughly the minimum in their individual scores. And in a less severe scenario — envisioning a slow recovery coming out of the pandemic — 19 of the 34 banks were only able to achieve the minimum capital ratio that the central bank used as its basis. The institutions meeting just the minimum in the less severe scenario included Bank of America, Capital One Financial, Credit Suisse and PNC Financial Services Group. The other 15 exceeded the minimum standard. In a statement, Fed Gov. Lael Brainard cited that performance as the reason for her dissent from the Fed's decision to restrict dividends and share repurchases. She had also voted against the Fed’s earlier restrictions announced in June, arguing that more dramatic actions were warranted. “For several large banks, projected losses take capital levels very close to the minimum requirement, in the range where banks tend to pull back from lending, even before payouts," Brainard said. "Today’s action nearly doubles the amount of capital permitted to be paid out relative to last quarter. Prudence would call for more modest payouts to preserve lending to households and borrowers during an exceptionally challenging winter.” In the most severe scenario — which envisioned a double-digit unemployment rate at the end of 2021 as well as a sharp global slowdown — the capital ratio of banks in aggregate would decline from 12.2% to 9.6%, well above the minimum 4.5% requirement. However, the Fed found that under both of the tested scenarios, banks would still suffer more than $600 billion in total losses. The Fed cited the economic uncertainty stemming from the persistent pandemic as the primary reason for extending its restrictions on dividends and share repurchases. Since the end of June, banks have not been allowed to repurchase shares and have had to limit dividend distributions to the levels banks paid out in the second quarter. But the Fed, in the first quarter of next year, will instead adjust the maximum amount banks can pay out and buy back to an amount based on income earned this past year. If a bank did not earn income, it will be prohibited from paying out dividends or buying back shares entirely. “The modified restriction will continue to preserve capital and ensure that large banks can still lend to households and businesses,” the Fed said in a release.
FDIC report suggests M&A has been positive for many small banks— Community banks are still consolidating at a quick pace, but fewer new charters are more to blame than mergers and many smaller institutions are even reaping the rewards of the industry's restructuring, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Wednesday. In a sweeping report on community banking trends, the FDIC found that the number of local financial institutions continues to dwindle — from 6,802 community banks in 2011 to 4,750 at the end of 2019. But the report, which is an update to a previous study released in 2012, found that community bank performance was strong heading into the pandemic year of 2020. And while hundreds of banks are still being acquired through mergers and acquisitions, the vast majority of those deals involved a community bank as the acquirer. (The reported contained data updated through the end of last year.) "After the 2012 study the banking industry continued to consolidate, but existing community banks were less likely to close than noncommunity banks," the agency said in the report. "Of the 6,802 institutions identified as community banks at year-end 2011, just under 30 percent had closed by year-end 2019. In comparison, over the same period, more than 36 percent of the 555 institutions that identified as noncommunity banks had closed." Still, the dominance of industry assets by the largest banks has continued to grow. In 2019, the average asset size of noncommunity banks was $38.4 billion, about 80 times larger than the average size of community banks. In 2009, that gap was only about 50 times. “Look, community banks are still consolidating,” said Diane Ellis, director of insurance and research at the FDIC. “That definitely is the state of affairs right now.” "It's still a consolidating industry and I think our expectation is that it's going to continue," she added. While the report clearly is focused on smaller banks, the FDIC does not use asset size strictly to determine which institutions fall into the community bank bucket. The agency instead uses a mix of factors like geographic spread and financial ratios such as core deposits to loans. Banks with only a specialty focus, like credit card lending, are excluded from the designation. Banks below an "indexed asset threshold" of $1.65 billion are assumed to be included, but the study includes certain banks above that threshold and leaves out other institution below that threshold. The report also found that when community bank consolidation does occur, more often than not the buyers have been other community banks. Among community banks that ceased operations between 2012 and 2019, two-thirds were acquired by other community banks. Among banks with less than $100 million of assets, 89% of buyers were community banks, compared to 65% of banks between $100 million and $500 million, and 32% of banks between $500 and $1 billion. As bank failures declined in the years after the financial crisis, the FDIC found that voluntary mergers between unaffiliated institutions — meaning banks not already owned by the same holding company — was the “predominant cause of the decline in the number of insured depository institutions.” But notably, the FDIC found that “the main contributor” to the actual number of banks dropping industry-wide stemmed less from consolidation and more from a drastic decline in the number of newly chartered institutions. From the end of 2011 to the end of 2019, the total number of depository institutions fell from 7,357 to 5,177.
Bank regulators mull stricter rules for reporting of data breaches --The federal banking agencies are poised to propose new rules that could spell out banks’ obligations to notify their regulators promptly about a data breach. The rulemaking, which has not been previously reported, would represent the first update in 15 years of banks’ responsibilities to report a cyber intrusion to the government. Officials from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Federal Reserve Board and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency have been involved in the talks in recent months, according to sources. The FDIC is poised to take the first public action on the issue with the agency’s board scheduled to vote Tuesday on a proposed rulemaking dealing with “computer-security incident notification.” An FDIC spokesman declined on Monday to comment further. Banks have long been subject to a smorgasbord of breach-notification laws in various states, which contain rules for alerting both state agencies and customers that have been affected by breaches. At the federal level, banks are subject to interagency guidance that was last revised in 2005, two years before the launch of the first iPhone. That guidance states that financial institutions should establish incident response programs, which can be tailored to the size and complexity of their operations. It is seen as less up-to-date than many state laws that have been modernized as cyber threats have evolved. The 2005 guidance lacks specificity in some areas. For example, it states that banks should notify their primary regulator “as soon as possible” about incidents involving unauthorized access to sensitive customer information, establishing an ambiguous time frame that can be subject to interpretation. It is unclear exactly what will be in the proposal voted on by the FDIC board. In their recent discussions, the U.S. bank regulators have discussed a requirement that banks notify their primary federal overseer within one to three days of a cyber breach, according to one source. Under the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, which took effect in 2018, companies are generally required to notify their regulators of personal data breaches within 72 hours. The U.S. guidance from 2005 lacks the formal authority that a rule would carry, though Nathan Taylor, a lawyer at Morrison Foerster who represents companies that have suffered data breaches, said that banks may treat the existing guidance as mandatory. “My advice to clients consistently has been to always notify the regulators first,” he said. Taylor said that under the current guidance, regulators expect banks to alert them promptly about severe incidents, but they may allow for aggregated notification regarding less severe breaches, particularly given that large banks are targets of frequent attacks. The impact of any proposed new rules on the U.S. banking industry will depend on their scope, according to Taylor. “This could be dramatic or mundane, and everything in between,” he said.
Banks would have 36 hours to report cyberattacks under proposed rules - New federal rules proposed Tuesday would require U.S. banks to notify their regulators about major computer security incidents within 36 hours. If the rules are enacted, they would cover sophisticated criminal attacks and failed system upgrades, and would provide a hard near-term deadline where none currently exists. Still, government officials said that the proposal is tailored narrowly. They estimated that it would apply to only approximately 150 cyber incidents per year. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued the proposal on Tuesday, and the Federal Reserve Board is expected to do so soon. FDIC Chairman Jelena McWilliams pointed to a rise in both the frequency and severity of cyberattacks, and noted that prompt notification to regulators could help contain the damage. “The rule proposed by the agencies today provides appropriate balance — avoiding unnecessarily difficult or time-consuming reporting obligations while ensuring that regulatory agencies are in a position to provide assistance to a bank or the broader financial system when significant computer-security incidents occur,” McWilliams said in a written statement. Under the proposal, banks would be required to notify their primary federal regulator within 36 hours of making a good-faith determination that an incident could materially disrupt, impair or degrade their operations, or threaten U.S. financial stability. Such a notification could be as simple as making a phone call or sending an email to an agency official. The proposed rules would also impose new obligations on banks’ technology vendors. Once vendors determined that a computer security incident met certain thresholds, they would have to notify their bank customers immediately. The FDIC said Tuesday that the proposed rule is designed to fill a gap in banks’ existing reporting requirements. Under 15-year-old interagency guidance, banks are supposed to notify their primary regulator “as soon as possible" about incidents involving unauthorized access to sensitive customer information. But that guidance does not apply to disruptive incidents in which no customer data is exposed.
OCC proposes to let certain banks skip money laundering reports— The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued a proposal Thursday to allow certain banks to opt out of filing suspicious activity reports, a compliance requirement that often draws industry complaints. The proposed rule would exempt national banks from certain SAR requirements provided they’ve developed “innovative solutions intended to meet Bank Secrecy Act requirements more efficiently and effectively,” according to a press release. Each of the four bank and credit union regulators — the OCC, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Federal Reserve and National Credit Union Administration — have their own regulations involving anti-money-laundering reporting. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network uses those reports to work with law enforcement to identify illicit activity within the financial system. For a bank to be fully exempted from the reporting obligations, it would also need to also need to receive an exemption from Fincen, according to the OCC proposal. Under the proposed rulemaking, the OCC would require banks to submit a request in writing for an exemption. “In reviewing such requests,” the agency wrote in the proposal, “the OCC would consider whether the exemption is consistent with safe and sound banking, and any other appropriate factors, such as any outstanding supervisory concerns related to BSA/AML, including informal and formal enforcement actions.” The FDIC issued a similar proposal Tuesday to create a process for obtaining SAR exemptions. The agency indicated then that “similar exemptions” will be proposed by the Fed and the NCUA.
FDIC finishes long-awaited rules on brokered funds, ILCs— Banks and some of their deposit-gathering businesses won additional regulatory relief Tuesday when the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. finalized a new framework for classifying brokered deposits enabling a broader set of companies to escape restrictions. The final overhaul roughly tracks with a December 2019 proposal aim at modernizing the definition of brokered deposits for the digital age. That definition has huge ramifications; banks with capital levels below the "well capitalized" mark are barred from accepting brokered funds. At a public meeting, the agency's board of directors also finalized long-awaited standards for the corporate parents of industrial loan companies. Nonbanks such as fintech firms have sought greater clarity on the process for seeking ILC charters, while community banks have opposed many high-profile ILC charter bids. But revamping the brokered deposit classification drew greater interest. In the final rule, the agency went further compared to the proposal in providing relief in key areas. For example, the final rule removed certain provisions that banks complained could apply the brokered deposits definition too broadly, including a definition of "deposit broker" that would rely on whether such entities shared information with banks. The rule, which will fully go into effect in 2022, also codifies some past advisory opinions exempting certain firms from the "broker" label, meaning such opinions could potentially be applied more broadly, but the agency signaled that many of those opinions will not match the new framework and therefore will be eliminated. Yet the core of the rule remains the same as the proposal, which narrowed the FDIC’s definition of deposit brokers and introduced a new exemption application process built around the statute’s “primary purpose” clause. The FDIC board approved both the brokered deposit and ILC rules by a vote of 3-1, with former FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg dissenting. The other members of the board hailed the brokered deposit overhaul, saying it reflects the reality of the industry's continued digital transformation. "The rule modernizes the concept of brokered deposits in a way that supports consumer choice and access to financial services by supporting responsible fintech-bank partnerships," said acting Comptroller of the Currency Brian Brooks, who sits on the FDIC board. Yet officials and industry representatives called on Congress to make other necessary changes. “Today marks the culmination of this multiyear effort,” FDIC Chair Jelena McWilliams said. But she also repeated her long-running request for Congress to consider replacing Section 29 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act, which requires the agency to restrict brokered deposits. “I would like to reiterate the challenges associated with implementing the brokered deposits statute,” McWilliams said. “Creating a broadly applicable rule for every type of deposit arrangement involving a third party is an enormous challenge, and new products will continue to arise that challenge any framework attempting to do so.” In a statement, American Bankers Association President and CEO Rob Nichols commended the FDIC but echoed the call for Congress to do away with Section 29. “Today’s final FDIC rule is an important step that recognizes that markets have evolved, and new technologies have changed the ways banks gather deposits and the ways bank customers access and manage their funds,” Nichols said. “We thank FDIC Chairman McWilliams for her leadership on this critical issue and echo her call for Congress to revisit Section 29 of the FDI Act, and to consider whether it still achieves the policy goals it was enacted to accomplish.”
Accounting firm settles FDIC claims tied to Chicago bank's failure - A Chicago accounting firm has reached a settlement with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. over its alleged role in the December 2017 failure of Washington Federal Bank for Savings. Bansley & Kiener, which denied responsibility, agreed to pay $2.5 million to resolve claims it was liable for the Chicago bank’s collapse. The accounting firm had signed off on years of financials for Washington Federal at a time when alleged fraud was taking place. The FDIC recently announced the settlement, which was reached in late August. Washington Federal was closed when the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency determined that it was insolvent and had millions of dollars in nonperforming loans. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. sold the bank to Royal Savings Bank in Chicago. Regulators intervened less than two weeks after John Gembara, the thrift’s chairman, president and CEO, was found dead at another customer's home. The Cook County Medical Examiner’s office ruled the death a suicide. A subsequent review by an internal government watchdog agency determined that supervisory lapses at the OCC made the failure’s costlier to the Deposit Insurance Fund than it should have been. The Treasury Department’s Office of Inspector General determined in a material-loss review released in November 2018 that if had examiners acted in a timelier manner the fraud “may have been uncovered sooner and the loss to the DIF and individual account holders may have been reduced.” Four former employees of Washington Federal were charged in August with taking actions that led to the bank’s failure.
Crypto firm co-founder gets year in prison over debit card scam - A co-founder of a cryptocurrency firm was sentenced to a year in prison after pleading guilty to tricking investors out of more than $25 million in an investment scam promoted with the help of celebrities including Floyd Mayweather and the musician DJ Khaled. Robert Farkas, 34, who created the firm Centra Tech with two other former co-workers at a luxury car rental company, was sentenced on Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Lorna G. Schofield in Manhattan. Farkas’s two co-founders have also pleaded guilty to their role in the scheme. Prosecutors said in 2018 the men solicited investors to commit funds to an initial coin offering for a digital currency they called “Centra tokens” or “CTR tokens” by falsely claiming to have developed a debit card that would allow users to make purchases with digital currency at any business accepting Visa or Mastercard. They also said they had a Harvard-educated chief executive with more than 20 years of business experience, partnerships with large companies including MasterCard and Visa and licenses in more than 38 states. The men quickly found investors thanks to social media mentions by celebrities including Mayweather and Khaled, who later agreed to settle charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission that they failed to disclose they had been paid to promote the firm.
CFPB finalizes disclosure requirements for debt collectors - The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a final rule outlining steps debt collectors must take to disclose the existence of a debt to a consumer, and prohibiting collectors from taking legal action over so-called time-barred debts. The rule released Friday requires that debt collectors provide detailed disclosures at the beginning of any oral, written or electronic communication with a consumer about a debt, as well as information to help the consumer respond. The rule also bars collectors from filing a lawsuit or threatening to do so to collect a time-barred debt that has exceeded the statute of limitations. The rule goes into effect Nov. 30, 2021. “Today’s final rule provides clear rules of the road for debt collectors on how to disclose details about a consumer’s debt and informs consumers how they may respond to the collector, if they choose to do so,” CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger said in a press release. “Our final rule reflects our commitment to ensuring that consumers are better informed; informed consumers are empowered consumers.” The 354-page rule revises Regulation F, which implements the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. It generally requires collectors to take one of several actions to contact a consumer about a debt. Collectors can speak to consumers by phone, mail a letter or send an electronic text message. For texts and “snail” mail, debt collectors have to wait roughly 14 days before sending information to a credit bureau. If the collector receives a notice that such communications were “undeliverable,” then additional steps have to be taken to reach the consumer. The final rule also requires that debt collectors provide information that a consumer can use to dispute the debt or to request information about the original creditor. The rule also provides a safe harbor for compliance with the disclosure requirements for debt collectors that use a model validation notice provided by the bureau. The rule comes less than two months after the CFPB issued a broad debt collection rule that restricts how often debt collectors can call borrowers. That October rulemaking for the first time said debt collectors can use voice mail, email and text messages to communicate with borrowers. Consumers can opt out of those technologies.
Fed developing tools to help banks assess climate risk- Brainard *The Federal Reserve has begun to lay the groundwork to address climate risks to the financial system, including developing the data and tools needed to help banks identify climate-related threats to their loan and investment portfolios, Federal Reserve Gov. Lael Brainard said Friday. While Brainard stopped short of saying banks would be required to conduct climate stress tests, she said they would be wise to evaluate how their businesses could be affected under various climate-related scenarios. In a wide-ranging virtual talk hosted by the Center for American Progress, she also discussed other steps the Fed has taken over the past year to better understand and confront climate risk to the financial sector. “We’re investing in much more granular data that we’re going to need. We’re certainly investing in the expertise, the research and resources we’re going to need,” she said. “We’re working with the [Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures] to support enhanced, more standardized disclosures that will contribute to greater transparency and more efficient pricing of risk.” “Climate change is not confined to any particular jurisdiction,” said Fed Gov. Lael Brainard of the central bank's decision to join the Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System. “There’s a lot we can learn from our counterparts, and I think this is a very beneficial organization for us to participate in as full members.”Bloomberg Brainard’s comments were the latest indication that climate change is likely to become a top priority for bank regulators once President-elect Joe Biden takes office next month. Janet Yellen, Biden’s nominee for Treasury secretary, is widely expected to elevate the issue given her support for a carbon tax and her role in the G-30’s working group on climate change and finance. Though it’s been a tougher sell in the U.S. than it has elsewhere, the idea of stress testing for climate risk has also recently gained traction. Brainard described what’s also called “scenario analysis” as a useful tool in helping to understand how financial firms might price risk or adjust their business models under various scenarios. “Climate change is inherently complex and it’s very uncertain, and so with that high degree of uncertainty, scenario analysis is valuable,” she said. “It allows you to explore a range of different situations to understand how those financial institutions might be exposed and might react differently to different scenarios on climate and on transition.” For example, sea levels are expected to rise as the planet continues to warm, so banks that lend in coastal areas could conceivably use stress-testing tools to evaluate the short- and long-term risks to property values and tourism. Similarly, they could use the tools to identify risks in their portfolios from extreme weather events such as hurricanes and wildfires. A consistent challenge for bankers and regulators has been the lack of robust data and methodologies needed to assess those risks over a longer time horizon. The Fed recently joined a global panel of central bankers and supervisors focused on climate risk in large part, she said, so it can collaborate with its peers abroad to create better data sets and uniform methodologies for evaluating those risks.
A $7 trillion climate change warning to the stock market from its biggest shareholder - The evidence of climate change — from global temperature records to Arctic ice melt, wildfires, hurricanes and flooding — is accelerating. So is investment pressure on corporations. In the past week, Exxon Mobil was targeted by activist investors, as well as CalSTRS, one of the nation's largest pension funds. New York State's $226 billion pension fund announced a plan to potentially divest from oil and gas stocks in the years ahead. The world's largest money manager, BlackRock, issued an update to its approach to engaging with corporations, indicating it will be more inclined to vote in favor of shareholder resolutions, and against boards of directors at companies. While that BlackRock strategy change — utlined in a new investment stewardship document published Wednesday night— may seem to be the mundane one among recent climate actions in the market, impact investing experts say that ahead of the 2021 annual shareholder meeting season, the $7 trillion fund manager's plans represent an important change. "We've been talking about this for 20 years and some of the changes we saw this week were unlike anything we've seen before," said Mindy Lubber, CEO and president of Ceres, a sustainability nonprofit that works with investors on climate change. Ceres announced this week a consortium of investors managing $9 trillion in assets that have committed to investing along net zero carbon goals. While it is not part of the new net zero investor coalition, with $7 trillion in assets on its own, BlackRock's decisions influence other investors and corporations. "BlackRock owns every company in the market," Lubber said. A BlackRock spokesman downplayed the significance of its new report in a call with CNBC earlier this week, but impact investing experts, who have been critical of the company in recent years for a weak voting record on shareholder resolutions, say it is significant and should lead to more action that mirrors the strong words of CEO Larry Fink on climate. According to new data included in the report, BlackRock already changed its approach to voting shareholder proposals. Since July 2020, it supported eight out of nine environmental proposals brought by shareholders. "That level of support, if it continues, is a distinct break with their historical record," said Jackie Cook, director of sustainable stewardship research at Morningstar, who has tracked shareholder climate proposals for years. They pointed to one particular aspect of the new BlackRock report: an analysis conducted by the company on the impact of shareholder resolution votes. BlackRock concluded that the data shows the votes work to influence corporate management. " That's validating for proponents who've been saying exactly this for years," says Cook. Given BlackRock's history of votes against environmental and social shareholder resolutions and the size its vote of shares represents, this shift could be the difference between the slow pace of change at companies and more action. Votes from BlackRock and Vanguard can move a shareholder resolution from 10% to 40% in favor.
It’s the Index, Stupid! Our New Not-So-Neutral Financial Market Arbiters - Over the course of 2020, Elon Musk’s wealth skyrocketed from $27.7 billion to $147 billion. Musk even overtook Bill Gates, to become the second richest person in the world. This was a tremendous jump in fortune: Musk was only at 36th place in January 2020. Musk’s enrichment was mainly due to Tesla’s rising stock price (TSLA:US), which surged from $86 in January to $650 in December. Tesla is currently one of the ten most valuable companies in the US stock market. In an already record-breaking year, Tesla’s largest and most rapid increase in valuation came in November, due to its announced inclusion into the S&P 500 index, now scheduled for 21 December 2020. Within a week of this announcement, Tesla’s share price rose by 33%, as passive funds now have to invest more than $70 billion. This was a remarkable boost for stock of a company that many analysts say is already obviously overvalued. Just a few weeks earlier, on 21 September 2020, Yinghang ‘James’ Yang was arrested for insider trading by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Yang was an employee at S&P Dow Jones Indices (S&P DJI),sitting on an index committee that decided about which companies were to be included and excluded from S&P DJI indices. Yang had used this insider knowledge, to trade options on these companies through a friend’s account, making almost $1 million in the process. The case is currently being investigated by US authorities. While these seem like unrelated incidents, both these episodes in index committee decision making are part of a tectonic shift that has fundamentally transformed capital markets globally. That is, the move towards passive index investing — and the concomitantly growing power of index providers. Based on a recently published research paper, let’s explore the rising importance of indexing in this new era of US financial markets. While rarely discussed by industry outsiders, grasping the contemporary state of index provision is indispensable for making sense of financial markets. Today, indices rather than ‘the market’ increasingly steer financial flows.
Mnuchin rules out freeing Fannie-Freddie before Biden takes over - Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has all but ruled out letting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac exit U.S. control before he steps down, leaving it to the Biden administration to decide the fates of the mortgage giants. In a Wall Street Journal interview, Mnuchin said he’s not going to pursue any actions that put taxpayers at risk or limit consumers’ access to home loans. His decision prevents a major policy change in the last days of the Trump administration that risked disrupting the $10 trillion mortgage market. Because of the stakes involved, freeing Fannie and Freddie before President-elect Joseph Biden’s Jan. 20 inauguration has long been considered a long shot. But it’s an approach that Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mark Calabria, the companies’ regulator, has been pushing for behind the scenes. The agreements that provide the companies with government support prevent them from leaving federal control without the Treasury Department’s sign-off. Fannie fell 8.8% to $2.50 at 8:23 am New York time in pre-market trading Tuesday, while Freddie slipped almost 14% to $2.33. Before today, Fannie had fallen 12% this year and Freddie had declined 10%. Mnuchin’s decision means he will fall short of a goal he pledged to accomplish relatively quickly just days after President Donald Trump’s 2016 election win. But fully privatizing Fannie and Freddie proved more complicated than the Treasury secretary might have assumed. It also got sidetracked by more pressing issues, like pushing Trump’s tax cut through Congress and responding to the COVID-19-fueled economic downturn. Speaking to reporters last week, Mnuchin described Fannie and Freddie as “the one area I feel like we didn’t make enough progress.” In recent weeks, Mnuchin has told government officials that he plans to agree to at least some sort of changes to Fannie and Freddie’s bailout agreements, as well as to create a blueprint for what he thinks should happen with the housing-finance system after he leaves. He indicated in the Wall Street Journal interview that he would likely permit the companies to hold more capital, without stating a specific amount. Fannie and Freddie don’t make mortgages. They buy them from lenders, wrap them into securities and guarantee to investors the payment of principal and interest — essentially backstopping roughly $5 trillion of home loans. The government took them over during the 2008 financial crisis, putting them under the FHFA in conservatorships. Private shareholders of Fannie and Freddie shares, which include major hedge funds, have clamored for the companies to be released, which would potentially allow them to start collecting profits again. The option that Calabria had advocated for would allow Fannie and Freddie to leave conservatorship with close to their current levels of capital. The companies would operate under a consent order that limits their dividends and other business activities until they reach the hundreds of billions of dollars in capital that the FHFA says they need to operate safely.
FHFA proposes formal liquidity rules for GSEs — The Federal Housing Finance Agency is proposing to codify banklike liquidity requirements it already imposed on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that will require the mortgage giants to hold more liquid assets to cover sudden funding shortfalls even after they exit conservatorship. The proposal, which builds on existing FHFA guidance issued to the government-sponsored enterprises earlier this year, is designed to “protect taxpayers and support the mortgage market,” the agency said in a release. “A companion to the new capital rule, today’s proposed rule will better ensure that the Enterprises are positioned to fulfill their countercyclical mission,” FHFA Director Mark Calabria said in a news release. “Requiring the Enterprises to have enough liquid assets to continue supporting the mortgage market during times of severe stress protects taxpayers and the housing market.” The proposed liquidity rules, like the FHFA guidance that the GSEs are already complying with, are broken into four components: a 30-day “cash flow stress test” enabling the GSEs to continue providing market liquidity while also holding a $10 billion buffer; a measure of the companies’ ability to meet cash flows for a year to provide market liquidity under stressed conditions; a minimum ratio of long-term debt to “less-liquid” assets; and minimum standards for the term of liabilities relative to assets. The requirements resemble liquidity rules the U.S. regulators developed for banks with more than $250 billion of assets following the financial crisis. This includes the so-called Liquidity Coverage Ratio, which went into effect in 2015 and requires financial institutions to hold an amount of high-quality liquid assets that would be enough to fund cash outflows for at least 30 days in a period of stress. In theory, the proposal would replace the existing liquidity benchmarks, and would be a requirement for the GSEs to meet once the companies are returned to private hands. The GSEs had warned in filings earlier this year that the new requirements could result in lower net interest income. “The updated liquidity guidance is more stringent than our existing liquidity requirements and liquidity requirements of banks and other depository institutions, which could result in higher funding costs in the future and may negatively affect our net interest income,” Freddie said in its second-quarter 10-Q filing. “In addition, the updated liquidity guidance may impact the size and the allowable investments in our other investments portfolio.”
'Seriously delinquent' mortgages remain elevated, OCC says -Delinquency rates on residential mortgages held by the nation’s top banks remained elevated in the third quarter but showed some improvement from the second quarter, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said Wednesday. The percentage of seriously delinquent mortgages that are 60 or more days past due hit 5.8% in the third quarter, compared with 1.5% a year earlier, according to the OCC’s Mortgage Metrics report. However, the third-quarter decline marked an improvement from the second quarter when 6.8% of mortgages were seriously delinquent. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act provided 180 days of forbearance and another 180 days, if needed, to struggling borrowers while also waiving late fees and additional interest. While that relief only applied to loans backed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Federal Housing Administration and other smaller agencies, the OCC said that “banks implemented the CARES Act forbearance moratoriums for all covered loans.” The CARES Act prohibits servicers from reporting borrowers as delinquent if they have asked for forbearance. Some borrowers have stopped paying their mortgage and have not asked their servicer for relief, resulting in higher delinquency rates. Despite the financial devastation of the coronavirus pandemic, foreclosures have largely been put on hold because of a national moratorium that was extended until the end of the year by the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Mortgage servicers initiated just 329 new foreclosures in the third quarter, up from 249 in the second quarter, and nearly 20,000 in the first quarter. The figures include loans held by borrowers in bankruptcy whose payments are 30 or more days past due, the OCC said. "Events associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, including foreclosure moratoriums that began March 18, 2020, and have been extended to January 31, 2021, have caused significant decreases in these metrics," the report stated. Additionally, servicers completed 14,097 mortgage modifications in the third quarter, of which roughly 71% included multiple actions such as an interest rate reduction and a term extension. Roughly 41% of loan modifications in the third quarter reduced a borrower’s monthly payments, the OCC said. The OCC's data covers first-lien residential mortgage loans serviced by seven national banks: Bank of America, Citigroup, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, PNC Financial Services Group, U.S. Bancorp, and Wells Fargo. The banks serviced roughly 14.4 million loans or 27% of all residential mortgage debt outstanding, as of Sept. 30.
Tenants of Donald Trump and Jared Kushner companies receive $3.65m in PPP loan money, report says - Tenants in real estate properties owned by President Donald Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner received $3.65m of loan money through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), according to an analysis by NBC News. The news organisation analysed what businesses benefited from pandemic relief programs put in place by the federal government. Data from the Small Business Administration (SBA) found that companies linked to the Trump Organisation as well as the Kushner Companies, which is owned by Mr Kushner’s family, received funding. More than 25 PPP loans were given to businesses located in properties owned by Trump Organisation or Kushner Companies, and paying rent to those landlords, NBC News reports. The SBA released data on Tuesday night about every small business that received either PPP loans or Economic Injury Disaster (EIDL) loans after months of litigation. These loans, created by the federal government, were intended to give small businesses emergency relief in order to pay employees, rent, and mortgage expenses. The loans to the president and his family’s tenants included one to Triomphe Restaurant Corp., at the Trump International Hotel & Tower in New York City for the sum of $2.14m. Additionally, two tenants in Trump Tower in NYC received $100,000 each but only kept three jobs, which went against the requirements of receiving a PPP loan. Four tenants at a Manhattan building owned by Mr Kushner each received more than $204,000, but they only kept six jobs. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and her family also benefited from the program. Her parent’s Florida roofing company received $2m from the program. It was previously disclosed in July that the company was one of the PPP recipients. The SBA argued that 87 per cent of loans went to small businesses prior to the data release, but a majority of the loans actually went to larger corporations, The Washington Post reports.
MBA Survey: "Share of Mortgage Loans in Forbearance Decreases to 5.48%", More Borrowers Seeking Relief -- Note: This is as of December 6th. From the MBA: Share of Mortgage Loans in Forbearance Decreases to 5.48% The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) latest Forbearance and Call Volume Survey revealed that the total number of loans now in forbearance decreased from 5.54% of servicers’ portfolio volume in the prior week to 5.48% as of December 6, 2020. According to MBA’s estimate, 2.7 million homeowners are in forbearance plans. ... “The share of loans in forbearance decreased in the first week of December. However, more borrowers sought relief, with new forbearance requests reaching their highest level since the week ending August 2, and servicer call volume hitting its highest level since the week ending April 19,” said Mike Fratantoni, MBA’s Senior Vice President and Chief Economist. “Compared to the last two months, more homeowners exiting forbearance are using a modification – a sign that they have not been able to fully get back on their feet, even if they are working again.” Added Fratantoni, “The latest economic data is showing a slowdown, particularly an increase in layoffs and long-term unemployment. Coupled with the latest surge in COVID-19 cases, it is not surprising to see more homeowners seeking relief.” ... By stage, 18.72% of total loans in forbearance are in the initial forbearance plan stage, while 78.72% are in a forbearance extension. The remaining 2.56% are forbearance re-entries. This graph shows the percent of portfolio in forbearance by investor type over time. Most of the increase was in late March and early April, and has been trending down for the last few months. The MBA notes: "Total weekly forbearance requests as a percent of servicing portfolio volume (#) increased relative to the prior week: from 0.08% to 0.12%. ... As a percent of servicing portfolio volume (#), calls increased from the previous week from 5.3% to 9.4%."
Black Knight: Number of Homeowners in COVID-19-Related Forbearance Plans Increased Slightly - Note: Both Black Knight and the MBA (Mortgage Bankers Association) are putting out weekly estimates of mortgages in forbearance. This data is as of December 15th. From Black Knight: Past Week Sees an Expected Mid-Month Rise in Forbearance Plans: After a slight decline last week (-12,000) forbearances have increased once again, but there is some good news in terms of plan starts. Our weekly snapshot of McDash Flash daily tracking data showed the number of mortgages in active forbearance saw a 37,000 increase from last Tuesday, mirroring what’s become a common trend of mid-month upticks that we’ve observed so far in 2020. As a reminder, since the recovery started, we’ve regularly seen the strongest declines early in the month, as expiring forbearance plans are removed. The primary driver behind this week’s rise – as is the case with the aforementioned trend of mid-month upticks in general – came from a pullback in such plan exits, which were down considerably – but expectedly – week over week. With more than 550,000 plans still set to expire at the end of December, we could see more positive news in terms of plan removals in the first week of January. Overall, the number of active forbearance plans is now up 31,000 from the same time last month, and – as of December 15 – 5.3% of all mortgages (2.79 million) are in forbearance. Together, they represent $563 billion in unpaid principal. The week saw an increase of 18,000 FHA/VA forbearance plans, 14,000 among PLS/portfolio loans and a modest 5,000 rise in GSE plans. Overall forbearance plan starts, along with both new plans and re-starts, fell this week, which can be seen as good news given last week’s increases among all three of those categories.
MBA: Mortgage Applications Increase in Latest Weekly Survey - From the MBA: Mortgage Applications Increase in Latest MBA Weekly Survey: Mortgage applications increased 1.1 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending December 11, 2020. ... The Refinance Index increased 1 percent from the previous week and was 105 percent higher than the same week one year ago. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 2 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index decreased 2 percent compared with the previous week and was 26 percent higher than the same week one year ago. “U.S. Treasury rates stayed low last week, in part due to uncertainty over the prospects of additional pandemic-related government stimulus, as well as concerns about the continued rise in COVID-19 cases across the country. Mortgage rates as a result fell to another survey low, with the 30-year fixed mortgage rate dropping five basis points to 2.85 percent,” said Joel Kan, MBA’s Associate Vice President of Economic and Industry Forecasting. “Homeowners once again acted on the decline in rates, with refinance activity rising for the second straight week and up 105 percent from a year ago.” Added Kan, “The ongoing strength in the housing market has carried into December. Applications to buy a home increased for the fourth time in five weeks, as both conventional and government segments of the market saw gains. Government purchase applications rose for the sixth straight week to the highest level since June – perhaps a sign that more first-time buyers are entering the market.” ... The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($510,400 or less) decreased to a survey low of 2.85 percent from 2.90 percent, with points decreasing to 0.33 from 0.35 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value ratio (LTV) loans. The first graph shows the refinance index since 1990. The refinance index has been very volatile recently depending on rates and liquidity. But with record low rates, the index remains up significantly from last year.
Housing Starts increased to 1.547 Million Annual Rate in November -- From the Census Bureau: Permits, Starts and Completions: Privately-owned housing starts in November were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,547,000. This is 1.2 percent above the revised October estimate of 1,528,000 and is 12.8 percent above the November 2019 rate of 1,371,000. Single-family housing starts in November were at a rate of 1,186,000; this is 0.4 percent above the revised October figure of 1,181,000. The November rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 352,000. Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in November were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,639,000. This is 6.2 percent above the revised October rate of 1,544,000 and is 8.5 percent above the November 2019 rate of 1,510,000. Single-family authorizations in November were at a rate of 1,143,000; this is 1.3 percent above the revised October figure of 1,128,000. Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 441,000 in November.The first graph shows single and multi-family housing starts for the last several years. Multi-family starts (red, 2+ units) increased slightly in November compared to October. Multi-family starts were down 18% year-over-year in November. Single-family starts (blue) increased in November, and were up 27% year-over-year. This is the highest level for single family starts since 2007. The second graph shows total and single unit starts since 1968. The second graph shows the huge collapse following the housing bubble, and then eventual recovery (but still historically low). Total housing starts in November were slightly above expectations, however starts in September and October were revised down, combined. …
Comments on November Housing Starts – McBride - Earlier: Housing Starts increased to 1.547 Million Annual Rate in NovemberTotal housing starts in November were slightly above expectations, however starts in September and October were revised down, combined. The single family sectors has increased sharply, but the volatile multi-family sector is down year-over-year (apartments are under pressure from COVID).The housing starts report showed starts were up 1.2% in November compared to October, and starts were up 12.8% year-over-year compared to November 2019.Single family starts were up 27% year-over-year. Low mortgage rates and limited existing home inventory have given a boost to single family housing starts.The first graph shows the month to month comparison for total starts between 2019 (blue) and 2020 (red). A key point: Housing starts averaged 1.590 million SAAR in the three months prior to the pandemic! That is higher than the last couple of months. 2020 was off to a strong start, and with low interest rates and little competing inventory, starts are solid.Starts were up 12.8% in November compared to November 2019. Last year, in 2019, starts picked up at the end of the year - and were strong in early 2020 - so the comparison next month will be more difficult. Don't be surprised if starts are down year-over-year sometime over the next few months.Starts, year-to-date, are up 7.0% compared to the same period in 2019. This is close to my forecast for 2020, although I didn't expect a pandemic!I expect starts to remain solid, but the growth rate will slow.Below is an update to the graph comparing multi-family starts and completions. Since it usually takes over a year on average to complete a multi-family project, there is a lag between multi-family starts and completions. Completions are important because that is new supply added to the market, and starts are important because that is future new supply (units under construction is also important for employment). These graphs use a 12 month rolling total for NSA starts and completions.The blue line is for multifamily starts and the red line is for multifamily completions.The rolling 12 month total for starts (blue line) increased steadily for several years following the great recession - then mostly moved sideways. Completions (red line) had lagged behind - then completions caught up with starts- then starts picked up a little again late last year, but have fallen off the pandemic. The last graph shows single family starts and completions. It usually only takes about 6 months between starting a single family home and completion - so the lines are much closer. The blue line is for single family starts and the red line is for single family completions.Single family starts are getting back to more normal levels, and I expect some further increases in single family starts and completions on rolling 12 month basis.
AIA: "Architecture billings lose ground in November" -Note: This index is a leading indicator primarily for new Commercial Real Estate (CRE) investment.From the AIA: Architecture billings lose ground in November:Architecture firm billing activity is contracting once again after two months of a slowing decline, according to a new report from the American Institute of Architects (AIA).The pace of decline during November accelerated from October, posting an Architecture Billings Index (ABI) score of 46.3 from 47.5 (any score below 50 indicates a decline in firm billings). The pace of inquiries into new projects slowed, but remained positive with a score of 52.0, however the value of new design contracts dipped back into negative territory with a score 48.6.“In previous design cycles, we typically haven’t seen a straight line back to growth after a downturn hits,” said AIA Chief Economist, Kermit Baker, Hon. AIA, PhD. “The path to recovery is shaping up to be bumpier than we hoped for. While there are pockets of optimism in design services demand, the overall construction landscape remains depressed.”...
• Regional averages: Midwest (50.1); West (48.3); South (46.7); Northeast (38.7)
• Sector index breakdown: multi-family residential (52.2); mixed practice (49.5); commercial/industrial (47.5); institutional (41.9) This graph shows the Architecture Billings Index since 1996. The index was at 46.3 in November, down from 47.5 in October. Anything below 50 indicates contraction in demand for architects' services.
Note: This includes commercial and industrial facilities like hotels and office buildings, multi-family residential, as well as schools, hospitals and other institutions. This index has been below 50 for nine consecutive months. This represents a significant decrease in design services, and suggests a decline in CRE investment through most of 2021 (This usually leads CRE investment by 9 to 12 months).This weakness is not surprising since certain segments of CRE are struggling, especially offices and retail.
NAHB: Builder Confidence Decreased to 86 in December --The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) reported the housing market index (HMI) was at 86, down from 90 in November. Any number above 50 indicates that more builders view sales conditions as good than poor. From the NAHB: Builder Confidence Down from Record High, Still Strong Ending a string of three successive months of record highs, builder confidence in the market for newly built single-family homes fell four points to 86 in December, according to the latest NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) released today. Despite the decline, this is still the second-highest reading in the history of the series after last month’s mark of 90.“Housing demand is strong entering 2021, however the coming year will see housing affordability challenges as inventory remains low and construction costs are rising,” said NAHB Chairman Chuck Fowke. “Policymakers should take note to avoid increasing regulatory costs associated with land development and residential construction.”“Builder confidence fell back from historic levels in December, as housing remains a bright spot for a recovering economy,” said NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz. “The issues that have limited housing supply in recent years, including land and material availability and a persistent skilled labor shortage, will continue to place upward pressure on construction costs. As the economy improves with the deployment of a COVID-19 vaccine, interest rates will increase in 2021, further challenging housing affordability in the face of strong demand for single-family homes.”...The HMI index gauging current sales conditions dropped four points to 92, the component measuring sales expectations in the next six months fell four points to 85 and the gauge charting traffic of prospective buyers also decreased four points to 73.Looking at the three-month moving averages for regional HMI scores, the Northeast fell one point to 82, the Midwest was up one point to 81, the South rose one point to 87 and the West increased two points to 96.
Hotels: Occupancy Rate Declined 37.4% Year-over-year -- From HotelNewsNow.com: STR: US hotel results for week ending 12 December: U.S. weekly hotel occupancy remained relatively flat from the previous week, according to the latest data from STR through 12 December.6-12 December 2020 (percentage change from comparable week in 2019):
• Occupancy: 37.8% (-37.4%)
• Average daily rate (ADR): US$85.88 (-31.7%)
• Revenue per available room (RevPAR): US$32.49 (-57.3%)
Since there is a seasonal pattern to the occupancy rate - see graph below - we can track the year-over-year change in occupancy to look for any improvement. This table shows the year-over-year change since the week ending Sept 19, 2020: This suggests no improvement over the last 3 months. The following graph shows the seasonal pattern for the hotel occupancy rate using the four week average. The red line is for 2020, dash light blue is 2019, blue is the median, and black is for 2009 (the worst year since the Great Depression for hotels - before 2020). Seasonally we'd expect the occupancy rate to decline into the new year..
48% Of US Small Businesses Fear That They May Be Forced To "Shut Down Permanently" Soon -- What would the United States look like if we lost half of our small businesses? The reason I ask that question is because approximately half of all small business owners in the entire country believe that they may soon be forced to close down for good. Not even during the Great Depression of the 1930s did we see anything like this. The big corporate giants with extremely deep pockets will be able to easily weather another round of lockdowns, but for countless small businesses this is literally a matter of life and death. Every day we are seeing new restrictions being implemented somewhere in the nation, and the politicians that are doing this are killing the hopes and dreams of countless small business owners. According to a recent Alignable survey, 48 percent of U.S. small business owners fear that they could be forced to “shut down permanently” in the very near future… Based on this week’s Alignable Q4 Revenue Poll of 9,201 small business owners, 48% could shut down permanently before year’s end. In fact, this number jumped from 42% just two months ago, demonstrating how several factors have converged to devastate small businesses: COVID resurgences, forced government reclosures, elevated customer fears, and a surge in online shopping at Amazon and other national ecommerce giants. When a small business with only a few employees closes down forever, it never makes any national headlines. But the truth is that small businesses are the heart and soul of our economy, and we are losing more of them with each passing day.
Retail Sales decreased 1.1% in November -- On a monthly basis, retail sales decreased 1.1 percent from October to November (seasonally adjusted), and sales were up 4.1 percent from November 2019. From the Census Bureau report: Advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for November 2020, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $546.5 billion, a decrease of 1.1 percent from the previous month, but 4.1 percent above November 2019. Total sales for the September 2020 through November 2020 period were up 5.2 percent from the same period a year ago. The September 2020 to October 2020 percent change was revised from up 0.3 percent to down 0.1 percent.This graph shows retail sales since 1992. This is monthly retail sales and food service, seasonally adjusted (total and ex-gasoline). Retail sales ex-gasoline were down 1.0% in November. The second graph shows the year-over-year change in retail sales and food service (ex-gasoline) since 1993. Retail and Food service sales, ex-gasoline, increased by 5.9% on a YoY basis. The decrease in November was well below expectations, and sales in October were revised down (September was revised up).
Flow Of US Imports Continues To Surge, Now At Twice The Rate Of Exports - With no let-up in consumer demand, container imports into the 10 largest US ports soared by 25% last month,compared with the previous year. And with the forward booking visibility of transpacific carriers indicating that the US import boom is set to continue to at least the Chinese New Year in February, import throughput is likely to stay high.However, the intense focus on repositioning empty equipment back to Asia, to meet export demand and benefit from the exceptional high market rates, has skewed the trade imbalance further. Blue Alpha Capital’s analysis of the top ten US ports recorded a 24.5% jump in imports through the west coast in November to 1,042,331 teu, and 26.6% more containers for east and Gulf coast ports to 965,485 teu.This combined total of 2,007,816 teu takes throughput for September, October and November to over 6.1m teu – 18.8% higher than the year before. And with December import volumes equally strong – port of Los Angeles Signal data for this week and next forecasts increases of 49% and 46% – the year is set to record ‘modest growth’.But this seemed inconceivable at the start of the pandemic, said Blue Alpha Capital founder John McCown, adding: “With the likely gain for December, 2020 will close out with an annual gain in the 1.5% range. That would have been unthinkable at the outset of Covid in March and would be a reversal of the modest 0.9% decrease in 2019.”The consultant noted that several import sectors saw big spikes in volume during November, the furniture, sporting goods and toy categories recording a 55% gain, up on the 52% and 41% gains seen in October and September.“The stay-at-home lifestyle has generated volume in an array of consumer products,” said Mr McCown, and he added that some of the demand surge was due to consumers reallocating what they would normally spend on vacations, dining out and entertainment. Despite the positive import numbers, November US exports fell 4.2%, the ninth consecutive monthly drop, further worsening the trade imbalance to a near-historical record ratio of 2.32 import loads for every one export, according to Blue Alpha Capital.
Philly Fed Manufacturing "growth was less widespread" in December, Kansas City Fed "Activity Expanded Further" --From the Philly Fed: December 2020 Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey Manufacturing activity in the region continued to grow, but growth was less widespread, according to firms responding to the December Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey. The survey’s current indicators for general activity, new orders, and shipments remained positive for the seventh consecutive month but fell notably from their readings in November. Some future indexes also moderated this month but continue to indicate that firms expect growth over the next six months. The diffusion index for current activity fell 15 points to 11.1 in December, its lowest positive reading following its fall to long-term lows in April and May... On balance, fewer firms reported increases in manufacturing employment this month. The current employment index has remained positive for six consecutive months but decreased 19 points to 8.5 in December. This was lower than the consensus forecast.And from the Kansas City Fed: Tenth District Manufacturing Activity Expanded Further: The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City released the December Manufacturing Survey today. According to Chad Wilkerson, vice president and economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, the survey revealed that Tenth District manufacturing activity expanded further in December. Manufacturing activity was still below year ago levels, but expectations for future activity were positive.“Regional factories reported another month of solid growth, but activity continues to lag preCOVID levels,” said Wilkerson. “The recent wave of COVID-19 has negatively affected manufacturers, but many firms still indicated significant capital spending plans for the coming year.”...The month-over-month composite index was 14 in December, up from 11 in November and 13 in October Here is a graph comparing the regional Fed surveys and the ISM manufacturing index: These early reports suggest the ISM manufacturing index will show expansion in December, but will likely decrease from the November level.The Employment Situation is Worse than the Headline Unemployment Rate Suggests – Mcbride - The headline unemployment rate has fallen to 6.7% in November, but that significantly understates the current situation. Note that the headline unemployment rate was 3.5% at the end of 2019. Here is a table that shows the current number of unemployed and the unemployment rate. Then I calculated the unemployment rate by including the number of people that have left the labor force since early 2020, and the expected growth in the labor force. As the economy recovers, many of the people that left the labor force will probably return, and there will likely be more entrants into the labor force (although recent demographic data has been dismal). This will keep the unemployment rate elevated for some time, and suggests the need for additional disaster relief. This is just the headline unemployment rate. There are also 2.3 million additional involuntary part time workers than in February (these workers are included in U-6). Note: I'd be careful looking at the weekly initial claims report in addition to the BLS report. The weekly claims report suggests there are millions of workers receiving pandemic assistance, but this should be captured in the BLS household surveys (so I wouldn't add the numbers together).
Weekly Initial Unemployment Claims increased to 885,000 - The DOL reported: In the week ending December 12, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 885,000, an increase of 23,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 9,000 from 853,000 to 862,000. The 4-week moving average was 812,500, an increase of 34,250 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised up by 2,250 from 776,000 to 778,250.This does not include the 455,037 initial claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) that was up from 415,037 the previous week. The following graph shows the 4-week moving average of weekly claims since 1971.
Jobless claims negative trend reversal likely; expect a poor December jobs number * This week new jobless claims rose further from their recent pandemic lows, while continuing claims, seasonally adjusted, made a new pandemic low. Nevertheless I strongly suspect the downward trend has broken. On a unadjusted basis, new jobless claims declined by 21,335 to 935,138. Seasonally adjusted claims, on the other hand, rose by 23,000 to 885,000. The 4 week moving average also rose by 34,250 to 812,500, the highest reading in a over a month. Here is the close up since the end of July (for comparison, remember that these numbers were in the range of 5 to 7 million at their worst in early April): Because of the huge distortions caused by the pandemic in seasonally adjusted numbers, and because we are at a time of year when seasonality causes the most distortions in any event, let’s also take a look at the YoY changes in all of the above metrics: There is now a 5 week trend of increasing YoY comparisons of the weekly data, and the 4 week average also looks like it has started a trend higher YoY. Thus it is very likely that the renewed explosion of the pandemic has indeed caused new jobless claims to break into an upward trend due to the rampaging pandemic. Nevertheless, as I wrote last week, I won’t feel certain unless and until seasonally adjusted new claims rise over 900,000 and the 4 week average over 850,000, which would take both out of the range they have been in over the past 4 months. We’re not quite there yet. The “good” news was that continuing claims, which historically lag initial claims typically by a few weeks to several months, fell by 312,257 to 5,492,701 on an unadjusted bases, and also declined by 273,000 to 5,508,000 after seasonal adjustment, a new pandemic low: Because these lag initial claims, I strongly suspect we will see an upward reversal in the next few weeks. Additionally, although I won’t bother with a graph, both initial and continued claims remain at or above their worst levels from the Great Recession. Finally, the increase in new jobless claims has averaged 72,000 in the past 4 weeks. Here’s what that looks like vs. monthly job gains or losses this year (note that the 2 week change in jobless claims is inverted so that an increase shows as a downward bar: I mention this because such a dramatic increase in jobless claims over a month has never occurred outside of a recession, and has always coincided with a *loss* of jobs in the monthly report: Because we are in uncharted territory all I really feel comfortable saying is that I suspect that the December jobs report is going to be the weakest since May. A negative number is very possible, and if there is a positive number, it looks likely to be well under 200,000. Additionally, I also suspect the unemployment claims situation is going to continue to worsen as long as the pandemic does. I have no idea how much worse it will get.
US retail giants shut off pandemic hazard pay to workforce while funneling billions into share buybacks - The Brookings Institution, a Washington, DC-based think tank, released a report in November examining how the largest store chains in the United States have cut off critical pay support for workers even as cases of COVID-19 are spiking. The study, titled “Windfall Profits and Deadly Risks,” examined pandemic hazard pay at Amazon, Walmart, Target, Kroger, Costco, Albertsons, Ahold Delhaize (which owns the grocery store chain Giant Foods), Walgreens, CVS Health, Home Depot, Lowe’s, Best Buy, and Dollar General. These 13 companies, ranging from big-box stores to grocery chains to electronics stores and pharmacies, are all among the 20 largest retail companies in the US and collectively employ over six million workers. They account for more than one third of employment in the US retail sector, which had about 15 million workers in 2019, equal to about one in 10 workers. Wages in retail were already at or below poverty level before the pandemic. The median starting wage for retail jobs such as cashiers and stock clerks at companies like Kroger and CVS is between $11 and $12 an hour. At the 13 companies examined by Brookings for the report, only Amazon and Costco had a starting wage of $15 or more before the pandemic started. Since the pandemic started, Target and Best Buy have raised their starting pay to $15. All the companies in the report implemented so-called “hero pay” or “Appreciation Pay” as COVID-19 was beginning to spread, which amounted to an average of only $1.11 an hour over the course of the entire pandemic. Eight of the 13 companies paid their workers less than $1 an hour extra during the pandemic when spread out over the entire course of March to today. At Albertsons, employees have earned an average of just $0.83 per hour extra when spread out over the course of the pandemic. At CVS Health, hazard pay spread out since March has amounted to a meager $0.21 per hour in additional pay for cashiers and clerks. “Amazon and Walmart could have quadrupled the hazard pay they gave their frontline workers and still earned more profit than the previous year,” the report states. However, almost every company ended additional hazard pay by early summer as lockdown measures across the country were being relaxed. According to the report, on average, workers have been on the job for 133 days since last receiving hazard pay. The report declares: “The numbers are stark—they paint a picture of most companies prioritizing profits and wealth for shareholders over investments in their employees.” On average, the companies paid workers hazard pay for only 79 days of the pandemic. When averaged out over the past nine months, the average wage increase was miniscule. Workers received an additional $0.95 an hour at Amazon and $0.63 more at Walmart, about a 6 percent raise. Almost all of the companies studied phased out their hazard pay by June, however. As the US case numbers continue to escalate into uncharted territory, not one of the 13 companies studied has reinstated hazard pay for frontline workers.
Tyson Foods Fires 7 Plant Managers Over Betting Ring On Workers Getting COVID-19 : NPR - Tyson Foods has fired seven managers at an Iowa pork plant after investigating allegations they bet on how many workers there would get sick from the coronavirus. The company, one of the country's largest meat suppliers, launched an independent investigation into the complaints last month, suspending without pay the managers allegedly involved. Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder led the investigation. "The behaviors exhibited by these individuals do not represent the Tyson core values, which is why we took immediate and appropriate action to get to the truth," Tyson Foods President and CEO Dean Banks said in a statement Wednesday. "Now that the investigation has concluded, we are taking action based on the findings." A spokesperson for Tyson, Gary Mickelson, told NPR that there isn't a report to share from the investigation, but "we can tell you that Mr. Holder and his team looked specifically at the gaming allegations and found sufficient evidence for us to terminate those involved." Banks traveled to the plant on Wednesday to meet with workers and community leaders. More than 1,000 employees at the plant in Waterloo have been infected by the virus, and at least six have died. The virus spread across the community: Black Hawk County has seen some 12,000 cases and 193 deaths. Many of the plant's 2,800 employees are immigrants and refugees. Black Hawk County Sheriff Tony Thompson visited the plant along with health officials in April. He told The New York Times that working conditions there — workers crowded elbow to elbow, not wearing face coverings — "shook me to the core." Thompson and other officials lobbied for Tyson to close the plant, but the company refused. It was around this time, according to a complaint from the family of one employee who died, that the manager of the Waterloo facility organized a "cash buy-in, winner-take-all betting pool for supervisors and managers to wager how many employees would test positive for COVID-19." According to the lawsuit filed by the family of Isidro Fernandez, who died in April, Tyson had employees move between a different Iowa plant where an outbreak was occurring and the Waterloo plant, and did not adequately test or quarantine them before they entered the Waterloo facility. The lawsuit also alleges that supervisors outwardly denied there were cases of the virus at the Waterloo plant but began avoiding the plant floor because they were afraid of contracting the virus. The complaint says Tyson offered $500 "thank you bonuses" to employees who showed up for every scheduled shift for three months — a policy that the plaintiffs argue incentivized sick workers to keep working.
New York Times smears COVID-19 whistleblower Rebekah Jones - On Friday the New York Times published an article aimed at smearing COVID-19 whistleblower Rebekah Jones. Jones was fired from her position in the Florida Department of Health in May for refusing to manipulate data to support Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis’ back-to-work and back-to-school campaign. She went on to help create and oversee Florida COVID Action and The COVID Monitor, the most comprehensive databases for tracking COVID-19 infections and deaths in Florida and in K-12 schools across the US, respectively. In retaliation, Florida state police barged into Jones’ home last week with guns aimed at her and her family. The officers seized her phone, computer and several hard drives, preventing her from continuing to publish data on COVID-19 outbreaks. The Times, which provides the line of the Democratic Party, has not published a single denunciation of this vicious attack on democratic rights. Instead, the so-called “newspaper of record” is digging up completely irrelevant episodes from Jones’ past in an effort to discredit her work in exposing the state cover-up of COVID-19 cases, and particularly the spread of the virus in schools. Downplaying the significance of the attack on her, the Times refers to Jones’ “tiff with the governor,” as if what is involved is just a petty quarrel. The Times then provides an account of the raid that is devoted largely to repeating the claims of the police. In fact, the police footage itself shows a police officer pointing a gun at Jones, and the officer then enters the house with the gun. Footage released by Jones shows the police pointing a gun up the stairs at her family. As for the warrant, Jones notes that she was only presented with it hours after the raid began, as officers were leaving. In an attempt to further discredit her, Mazzei writes that “the search warrant served this week did not represent Ms. Jones’s first brush with the law.” It goes on to highlight criminal charges Jones faced in Florida involving a relationship with one of her students when she was a graduate assistant at Florida State University—none of which resulted in a conviction. How any of these allegations have to do with, let alone justify, the fascistic police raid on her home and family is not explained. However, the implication is that Jones has a criminal past and perhaps is responsible for her present “brush with the law.”
New York City to halt indoor dining as coronavirus cases surge -- Restaurants in New York City will be required to close their indoor dining rooms on Monday until further notice, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Friday. The increased restrictions come as coronavirus cases in New York City surge alongside the US at large. The five boroughs averaged 41 new cases per 100,000 people over a 14-day time span, with the number gradually increasing in recent weeks. Indoor dining resumed in the city in September with capacity limited to 25%. "We learned this lesson in the spring the hard way: the crowding is a problem," Cuomo said. Restaurant closings have become a hotbed issue after federal economic relief largely ran out over the summer. Los Angeles County, the most populous in the country, suspended all in-person restaurant dining — both indoor and outdoor — in November, causing outrage from some business owners. Major US stock indexes hit session lows as Cuomo announced the news. Roughly 17% of US restaurants have permanently closed this year, and industry groups are warning thousands more will come soon without further loans or grants allowing owners to close without causing more financial pain. "The federal government must provide relief to bars and restaurants in this next package," Cuomo said, adding that the state will extend its commercial eviction moratorium. Efforts to pass a second relief package have been mired in congressional gridlock since August.
Mobility is NOT a business: Why the pandemic-induced collapse of mass transit should concern us all - People have always needed to get from here to there whether by foot, by horse, by ship, by train, by car, by bus or by plane. Civilization DEPENDS on the mobility of humans and the produce they cultivate and extract from the earth. Without mobility everything would grind to a halt. Governments typically organize transportation systems and then build the necessary infrastructure and purchase the vehicles or license the purchase of vehicles by others. This is how it is done because mobility is NOT optional for civilization. Mass transit—the kind of transit in deep trouble right now because of the pandemic—is a product of cities' dense accumulations of people. Though we identify mass transit with the modern industrial city, it has been around for as long as cities themselves. Any locale where there has been a rickshaw, livery horse or carriage for hire has mass transit—by which I mean a system of vehicles that is SHARED by unrelated persons. You can easily find stories today about the deepening financial distress of mass transit systems in New York City and Washington, D.C. In my experience, the Washington Metro, the tri-state light rail system, isn't entirely empty as depicted in the linked story. But it is very far from the packed-to-gills, standing-room-only affair it used to be during rush hour. Ridership is reported to be down 80 percent. In the San Francisco Bay Area, theBART light rail system in down 90 percent. Who still rides on these systems? People who have to because their livelihoods depend on it. This is another grouping of essential workers who tend the grocery stores, staff the hospitals, round out the construction crews and serve at the few restaurants still open. They also tend to other people's children and clean other people's houses and care for other people's gardens and lawns. These activities depend heavily on the reliability and availability of public transit. What most people don't know is that public transit systems get only a little more than a third of their operating revenues from fares. So, while the drop in fares has been painful, the expected drop in local and state funding due to plummeting tax revenues and transit-dedicated sales and property taxes will be even more painful. Cities and states do not have the option of running deficits. The U.S. federal government can run deficits, and it is running huge ones already to combat the economic downturn associated with the pandemic. With cities and states faced with having to shrink their spending at a time of rising need, there is a big fight in the Congress over providing more aid to cities and states. Those who pretend to be concerned with the health of Americans and of the American economy need to understand that the two are heavily dependent on the essentials of civilization which government must generally organize and substantially fund. Transit is one of those essentials. To expect transit to "pay for itself" is fundamentally to misunderstand its purpose. Transmit makes possible much of the private commercial activity of cities, not the other way around.
Washington Monument closed after visit from Interior secretary who’s positive for COVID-19 --The National Park Service temporarily closed the Washington Monument on Friday after a recent visit by Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, who tested positive for the coronavirus on Wednesday. Bernhardt, a Colorado native, visited the iconic District of Columbia monument “recently,” Interior Department spokesman Nicholas Goodwin said in an email. Employees who came into contact with the secretary had to quarantine, leaving too few to safely operate the site. Tourists normally ride an elevator to the observation deck 500 feet up, where they can enjoy views for miles. “Out of an abundance of caution, a couple of employees have quarantined resulting in a temporary workforce reduction at the monument and its temporary closure,” Goodwin wrote. The National Park Service posted an alert to potential visitors with a similar explanation on its website. “Washington Monument is temporarily closed due to a reduction in its workforce resulting from a potential COVID-19 exposure,” the alert said. The Washington Post reported that Bernhardt gave a group of appointees a tour of the site this week. The Park Service is part of Interior.
Temporary halt to Detroit water cutoffs extended until 2022 due to COVID-19 - Last Tuesday, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan extended the moratorium on water shutoffs that the city began in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic until 2022. The abatement had been scheduled to end on December 31, but it has now become clear that the coronavirus outbreak is out of control and will continue to rage well into next year. The respite in the city’s cruel water cutoff policy is a welcome development for thousands of Detroit residents, especially in the midst of the pandemic during which basic hygienic practice and frequent washing of hands are essential in the prevention of the spread of the disease. It is, however, in no way a commitment by the city administration to anything of substance. The tiger has not changed its stripes. As President-elect Joe Biden casually announces that another quarter million people will die in the US by February, the Democrats, along with the Republicans, refuse to take any measures to prevent the massive spread of the virus. The bipartisan demand that workers accept the opening of schools and workplaces is a program of social murder. While the severity of the pandemic has compelled Duggan to enact a hiatus on the most egregious of offenses against the population, workers should have no illusions that this represents any real solution. He declared his goal “is to stop water shutoffs to low-income Detroiters once and for all,” yet this amounts to an empty promise. Just six months before Duggan and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer had implemented the emergency moratorium on cutoffs, the health department under Whitmer denied a legal appeal to prohibit water shutoffs for the health dangers lack of access to water creates. There is no commitment to protect the social rights of the working class. Middle-class radicals, pseudo-lefts and self-described water activists who operate firmly in the orbit of the Democratic Party work might and main to sow illusions that protests and legal campaigns are all that is necessary to resolve what are the most foul examples of class oppression. These layers end up collaborating with kleptocrats like Duggan.
Eight million plunged into poverty since US coronavirus aid ended --The cutoff of federal supplemental unemployment benefits in July has driven eight million Americans into poverty in the ensuing five months, according to a study published Wednesday by the University of Chicago and the University of Notre Dame. The increase of 2.4 percentage points in the poverty rate, in the space of only five months, is the fastest increase since the US government began collecting figures on poverty in 1960. It is twice the size of the worst previous increase, during the 1979–1980 oil crisis. The increase in poverty is greater for African Americans (3.1 percentage points) and for those with only a high school education or less (5.1 percentage points). The biggest increases in poverty were found in those states with the most primitive unemployment compensation systems, such as Florida. Even these figures grossly understate the colossal impact of the coronavirus pandemic on working-class living standards. The official US poverty line stands at $26,200 for a family of four, an income that would leave such a family homeless or near starvation in most major US metropolitan areas. The study confirms that driving workers and their families into poverty is the deliberate policy of the US government and the two corporate-controlled political parties. The bipartisan CARES Act, adopted in March, led to a significant decline in poverty during the first three months of the pandemic. The $600-a-week federal supplemental benefit and other subsidies, such as the one-time $1,200-per-person check from the Treasury, were more than many workers had received in low-paying jobs which they lost because of the coronavirus pandemic. Once the back-to-work drive began in May, employers began to complain that workers would not go back to their jobs, mainly out of fear of contracting coronavirus, but in part because they would actually lose money. Senate Republicans and the Trump administration blocked any extension of the federal benefit past the July 31 deadline which they had agreed on with the Democrats, and the federal supplement expired, leaving most workers with nothing more than state unemployment compensation. US state-paid unemployment insurance is among the worst of any industrialized country and expires after six months in most states, and even sooner in some. In many European countries, by contrast, unemployment benefits can last for as long as two years and pay 80 percent of lost wages, while US jobless benefits average only 20 percent. With workers reduced to benefits as low as $100 a week, the poverty rate accordingly began to increase significantly. As the study details: “Poverty rose by 2.4 percentage points from 9.3 percent in June to 11.7 percent in November, adding 7.8 million to the ranks of the poor.” The increase comes despite the decline in the official unemployment rate from 11.1 percent to 6.7 percent during this period. This latter figure is a dubious one, since millions of workers dropped out of the labor force and are no longer being counted.
Pandemic exacerbates internet access crisis in Midwestern US -- The US is experiencing a crisis of internet access in rural and urban communities. The continued lack of high-speed internet for millions of people well into the 21st century is called the “digital divide.” This divide was starkly exposed this year as school districts nationwide were forced to implement online instruction programs some or all of the time, and a significant portion of routine health evaluations were also moved online as a consequence of the coronavirus pandemic. Nationwide, around 95 percent of urban areas have broadband access, but less than 60 percent of rural areas do. The Pew Research Center published that nationwide, one in four residents in rural areas does not have access to high-speed internet. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) estimates that $80 billion would be required to close the broadband gap across the country. The agency defines broadband as internet service with a minimum download speed of 25 Megabits per second (Mbps) and a minimum upload speed of 3Mbps. These guidelines are themselves inadequate in the modern age, where multiple people in a household are working, streaming video, or gaming at the same time. As a result of the pandemic, states are seeing drastic cuts in their budgets that threaten existing weak and piecemeal broadband expansion plans. Even in states with wider coverage, deeply unequal access persists. One-third to one-half of children in working class and poor neighborhoods of Chicago, including Austin, Humboldt Park and Englewood, lacked broadband access as of April 2020. When schools went online, this lack of basic infrastructure undermined their education. Affluent Chicago neighborhoods have coverage of 90 percent or better. In Detroit, Michigan 45 percent of households lack broadband access. School districts providing hotspots to rural students and teachers is no guarantee of adequate access, as internet speeds will stay slow if the town has poor cell tower coverage. In school districts across the country, school buses equipped with Wi-Fi park in neighborhoods to allow students to complete their coursework. Very poor connectivity was one of the many pressures on rural school districts in the ongoing bipartisan drive to reopen schools full-time and put workers back on the job as COVID-19 infection rates soar. Large internet providers use the profits they make from broadband service in urban areas to increase the dividends of stockholders, instead of using them to improve infrastructure and expand to connect rural customers. While fiber internet is being installed in some rural parts of the country, much of rural America still deals with slower internet speeds than large cities. Nationwide, the U.S. Census Bureau found 36.4 percent of black households, 30.3 of Hispanic households and 21.2 percent of white households have no broadband or computers in 2017.
Michigan high schooler contracts COVID-19 after being forced to take in-person SAT test- A Bloomfield Hills, Michigan physician is speaking out on behalf of a 17-year-old Bloomfield Hills High School student who suffered for more than two months from COVID-19, apparently contracted while taking the SAT college admissions test in-person. The girl had repeatedly requested to be excused from the test rather than take the chance of contracting the disease or potentially infecting her mother who is at-risk. Instead of providing an accommodation, the district told the senior she would not graduate if she failed to report, so she sat for the test in person as required. The child took the test wearing two masks, one over the other, but despite these attempts at precautions she contracted the virus. The student was then forced to quarantine herself in her room, away from her mother for over two months, to protect her family. “She’s doing much better now,” her mother told the Detroit Free Press. She said that most of her child’s symptoms have abated, although severe fatigue was a long-term problem. The family has publicized her case through their physician to preserve anonymity, while warning others not to be pressured into taking college entrance exams. The Michigan Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee fully opposes these reckless testing policies, which are clearly very dangerous. Our committee is fighting to mobilize the working class across industries to demand the shutdown of schools and save lives. In a statement on December 11, our affiliate, the Texas Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee, specifically noted, “The state government’s claim that they are conducting… tests out of concern for students’ welfare is fraudulent. Sending students back to school buildings during a pandemic will needlessly put thousands of lives at risk, including those of teachers proctoring the exam.” Michigan state requirements actually do not require that students take the SAT to graduate. Ignoring the rising caseloads in the state and falsely invoking Michigan law, Bloomfield Hills School District officials brazenly insisted to the family that the test was mandatory. A district spokesperson justified the policy to the media, saying, “the vast majority of our students in the class of 2021 took the test” on the same day, September 23. According to the Detroit Free Press, the physician who spoke out about the 17-year-old’s infection also reported that two of the girls’ friends who took the SAT that day “had extremely similar symptoms, all within 12 hours of each other, and this certainly indicates a common source.”
Supreme Court denies request to block Covid restrictions at Kentucky schools - The Supreme Court on Thursday denied a request from a religious school in Kentucky to block regulations that temporarily restrict in-person instruction in elementary, middle and upper schools in the state due to Covid-19. The court's unsigned order is the most recent to come from the justices dealing with religious groups that are challenging Covid-19 restrictions as a violation of First Amendment rights, although it is the first dealing with a school. In other recent orders, the court had sided with houses of worship and against state officials. Here, the court noted that the state's regulation expires in the coming days and that there is "no indication that it will be renewed." The court said that because of the "timing and impending expiration" of the order, it would deny the request to block it but said the school could come back if a new order is issued next year. Justices Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito dissented, saying that the executive order from Kentucky Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear "resulted in unconstitutional discrimination against religion."
Trump appoints new members to 'patriotic education' commission - President Trump appointed new members to the 1776 Commission on Friday in a final effort to bolster the “patriotic education” group in the closing days of his administration. The White House said in a press release that Larry Arnn, a longtime Trump ally and president of the conservative Hillsdale College, will chair the panel. Carol Swain, a former law professor at Vanderbilt University and a conservative television analyst, will serve as vice chair. Among the other high-profile members of the panel are conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant (R) and Brooke Rollins, the president’s domestic policy adviser. The appointments are for two years, though it’s unclear if the commission will ever meet once President-elect Joe Biden takes office next month. Georgia sets new voting record for runoffs Obama shares that Malia's boyfriend quarantined with their family... The 1776 Commission is the highly-touted White House push against critical race theory and The New York Times Magazine’s 1619 Project, which focuses on the country’s history of slavery and racism. Trump has said the project is divisive and teaches students to “hate their own country,” while supporters have said it is an important way to press the country to reckon with an ugly past. The president created the commission in November by executive order with the stated goal of “better [enabling] a rising generation to understand the history and principles of the founding of the United States in 1776 and to strive to form a more perfect Union.” Critics said the announcement was an effort to push back against protests that had gripped the nation throughout the summer and fall against police brutality and systemic racism which were sparked by police shootings of unarmed Black Americans.
Biden breaks the Obama mold on teachers union strife - When teachers were upset about the stringent accountability measures Barack Obama imposed on them as president, their union boss turned to Joe Biden for some empathy. “He listened,” recalls Randi Weingarten, who heads the 1.7 million-member American Federation of Teachers. Obama’s vice president may not have agreed with her during those conversations, Weingarten said in an interview this week, but Biden became her “go-to” when things got tense amid the regime of education reform. Now the good cop has to call the shots — and Biden’s rhetoric and policies suggest the president-elect is still listening closely to teachers unions in a way Obama often did not, including as Biden’s team considers potential nominees for Education secretary. Obama was questioned about possible signs of daylight between the two men on education policy in a recent interview with New York magazine. When asked whether Biden seemed intent on rolling back his “education-reform legacy,” Obama demurred, “Ah, we’ll see.” In the hours between Trump’s exit from the White House and Biden’s entrance, a team of cleaners will wipe down every surface and mist the air with disinfectant. After that, masks will be mandatory and testing will be constant. POLITICO’s Alice Miranda Ollstein breaks down how Biden and his team are working to transform the White House from hotspot to bubble. “Here’s what I know,” Obama said. “Joe Biden and Kamala Harris also believe that every child should get a good education, and that requires changes in how we teach that go beyond just money." Biden, a self-described "union guy" whose wife is a community college professor, may soon find that it is far easier to be the compassionate vice president than it is to make the tough political calls on education policy himself. While it’s unifying to rally Democrats around their shared hatred for Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and her anti-union agenda, the work of reviving a U.S. education system upended by the pandemic will be difficult and often unpopular. “I know it's going to be controversial with some of you,” Biden warned governors in a call Wednesday to detail his plans to reopen most U.S. schools within his first 100 days in office.Biden is starting off with a plan that his wife, while pointing to herself, likes to say is “teacher-approved.” He has pledged to nominate a former teacher as his education secretary and told union members, “You will never find in American history a president who is more teacher-centric and more supportive of teachers than me.”Biden is starting off with a plan that his wife, while pointing to herself, likes to say is “teacher-approved.” He has pledged to nominate a former teacher as his education secretary and told union members, “You will never find in American history a president who is more teacher-centric and more supportive of teachers than me.”
Was teacher watching porn in class? Broward schools is investigating --Broward County Public Schools is investigating whether one of its high school teachers was watching a pornographic movie while teaching a virtual class.In the video, Michael Braeseke, who teaches social sciences at South Broward High School, is shown sitting at a desk looking down as sound is heard in the background of a woman loudly having sex.The video was posted on Twitter Monday night, and at least a dozen people who say they are either current or former students at the school posted comments alleging past misconduct by the teacher.The video appears to have been shot by someone using a cellphone to record the virtual class session as it played on a laptop. Farther down in the post’s comment thread, another Twitter user posted what appears to be the same video with the same sound, indicating more than one student witnessed the incident.Braeseke could not immediately be reached for comment.The district released a statement Tuesday that it has launched an investigation into the video: “Broward County Public Schools takes all matters and allegations involving the safety of students and staff very seriously. When school leaders were made aware of the alleged teacher misconduct during a virtual class, they took immediate action and began to look into allegations and follow proper protocols prior to social media posts. The incident and allegations were reported to the District’s Special Investigative Unit to initiate an internal investigation. The District and school administration remain committed to the safety and emotional well-being of students.”
Blaming young adults for current COVID-19 surge, Justice orders weekly testing of college students - --As the first doses of COVID-19 vaccine began arriving in West Virginia, Gov. Jim Justice on Monday called for weekly testing of all college students in the state in hopes of curbing an ongoing surge in virus cases.Justice said the state’s third surge of COVID-19 cases is the longest and most severe to date, and blamed 18- to 35-year-olds for the spread. “They’re running around everywhere under the sun, and many of them — many of them — are people with COVID, and they have no idea,” Justice said Monday, blaming young, asymptomatic carriers for the surge. “We need to really bear down on the sector of 18- to 35-year-old people,” Justice said, calling for weekly testing of all college students to reach a portion of that age group. The governor, who in recent weeks has refused to impose any new restrictions on businesses or activities to curb COVID-19 spread, said the magnitude of the current surge is much more severe than surges in April and in late-June through July. On Monday, Justice again downplayed the usefulness of closures, saying, “How many times have I told you? There’s not any need I can see to going into Mineral County and shutting down the bars.” The county, which borders Maryland, has been particularly hard-hit, with daily infection rates approaching 200 per 100,000 population in the past week, or nearly eight times the rate to be designated under the red color code for extremely high rates of spread. On Monday, the state set records for total number of active cases (21,076), total deaths (978), people currently hospitalized (720), and in intensive care (199), as well as for the daily positivity rate (8.33%) and cumulative positivity (4.10%). During his COVID-19 briefing Monday, the governor used charts to show how the spring surge of cases peaked after four weeks and the summer surge peaked after five weeks. The charts showed that the current surge is in its eighth week, with no signs of abating. Justice said he has directed the Department of Health and Human Resources to come up with a plan for weekly testing of college students, potentially by using lower-cost antigen tests, frequently referred to as rapid tests. DHHR Secretary Bill Crouch said the state has about 86,000 antigen tests warehoused, 200,000 tests on order and would need about 550,000 to test college students on four consecutive weeks.
The deadly impact of US college reopenings in the fall, a balance sheet - As the university and college campuses in the US begin to wrap up the fall semester, the devastating impact of campus reopenings for in-person classes in the middle of the worst pandemic in a century is becoming ever more clear. According to new data collected by the New York Times, American college campuses have officially reported nearly 400,000 cases of COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic in March. More than 85 campuses have reported at least 1,000 cases each—with some registering well over 5,000. More than 75,000 of the cases have come since early November alone. Those cases include more than 90 deaths involving college employees and students. Contrary to many nefarious statements from school administrators seeking to shift the blame of the outbreaks on students, spread of the virus on campuses has very little to do with misguided social gatherings or partying. The conditions in student dormitories, and even off campus housing, are simply not conducive to proper social distancing. Furthermore, according to census data, more than 1.1 million undergraduates work in health-related occupations, including more than 700,000 who serve as nurses, medical assistants and health care aides in their communities, putting them at higher risk of contracting COVID-19. As was predicted well before the fall semesters began, the spread of the virus among students and faculty was not contained to college campuses. Towns and cities with colleges that reopened for in-person learning, or which, for one reason or another, allowed large numbers of students to return to their dorms, quickly become some of the worst hot spots in the country. The Times data comprises an analysis of more than 200 counties with substantial college student populations. According to the data, the overall COVID-19 deaths have risen faster in these counties than elsewhere in the country. In fact, deaths in those counties have doubled since the end of August, compared with a 58-percent increase elsewhere. The experience over the last four months in the schools, both K-12 and college campuses, have produced incontrovertible evidence that in-person learning has led to an increase in community spread, hospitalizations and deaths.
A Moral Necessity': House Dems Introduce Resolution Pushing Biden to Cancel Up to $50,000 of Student Loan Debt --Four House Democrats late Thursday unveiled a proposed resolution calling on President-elect Joe Biden to use his executive power to cancel up to $50,000 of student loan debt for borrowers across the U.S., a move they said would immediately boost the economy and help to narrow racial wealth gaps. Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Alma Adams (D-N.C.), and Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) introduced the resolution, a companion to a bill introduced in the U.S. Senate earlier this year by Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).Schumer applauded the House members' resolution.Both proposals push Biden to go beyond the student loan forgiveness plan he has already expressed interest in enacting, which could cancel up to $10,000 of debt for student borrowers. Such a measure would fall short of addressing the student debt crisis as the "racial and economic justice issue" that it is, Pressley said in a statement Thursday."Broad-based student debt cancellation is precisely the kind of bold, high-impact policy that the broad and diverse coalition that elected Joe Biden and Kamala Harris expect them to deliver," the congresswoman said, noting that upon taking office on January 20, Biden will have the power to help tens of millions of Americans by canceling billions of dollars in student debt.The resolution calls on Biden to use authorities already granted to the president under the Higher Education Act to direct his education secretary to cancel the debt. It also urged the president-elect to ensure the IRS doesn't hold borrowers accountable for taxes on their canceled debt to extend President Donald Trump's suspension of federal student loan payments for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic.The total student loans now owed by Americans has reached about $1.6 trillion, with 45 million people in debt. One in 10 loans are in default, and the Federal Reserve estimates that the average monthly payment is between $200 and $300—in an economy in which, prior to the pandemic, 78% of people were living paycheck to paycheck and one-third of people had less than $500 saved in case of an emergency.
Fate Winslow, sentenced to life in prison for selling $20 worth of pot, is released after serving 12 years -- Twelve years after being sentenced to life for selling $20 worth of marijuana to an undercover cop, Fate Vincent Winslow will walk out of Louisiana State Penitentiary on Wednesday a free man. “Today is a day of redemption,” the 53-year-old wrote to Yahoo News following his resentencing hearing on Tuesday. “I get my freedom back, I get my life back. There are no words that can really explain my feelings right now.” Winslow’s release comes through the work of the Innocence Project New Orleans (IPNO) and specifically Jee Park, its executive director, who felt confident that there was a path to freedom for Winslow as soon as she found his case. “You read the transcript of his trial and you’re just horrified about what happened,” Park told Yahoo News. “[His attorney] doesn’t object when he gets sentenced to life. He doesn’t file a motion to reconsider … he doesn’t do anything. He just says, ‘Sorry, you got a guilty verdict, you’re going to prison for the rest of your life.’” Park said that had Rubenstein emphasized that Winslow was homeless at the time of arrest, or that he was merely acting as a “runner” for a white dealer who — despite pocketing the majority of money — was never arrested, the jury might have ruled differently. Had Rubenstein, then a public defender, flagged to the judge that Winslow’s three prior convictions were all for nonviolent offenses, the judge might have decided that a life sentence was excessive.
Pain: The Next Public Health Challenge --With a COVID vaccine on the horizon, what is the greatest public health challenge facing the US? The surprising answer, by many metrics, is pain. Chronic pain is one of the most frequent reasons adults seek medical care: it restricts mobility and daily activity, contributes to anxiety, depression, and dependence on opioids, increases disability, and costs over $500 billion annually in medical care costs and reduced productivity (Institute of Medicine 2011). And with half of adults reporting that they suffer from a musculoskeletal condition, chronic pain is among the most common medical conditions. Recent analyses suggest that pain is on the rise among working age adults in the US (Case et al. 2020). Like many public health challenges, the burden of pain is unequal – those with fewer years of education report more pain. We set out to understand the experience of pain by education focusing on one important example, knee pain. We chose knee pain because of its leading role in disability – it is the top joint problem for Americans – and because clinical measures of knee anatomy permit one to measure the degree of physical injury quite well. Recent analyses suggest that pain is on the rise among working age adults in the US. Like many public health challenges, the burden of pain is unequal. This column explores why knee pain – the top joint problem in the US – differs by education. It finds that physical demands on the job and obesity each explain about one-third of the education gradient in knee pain and that there is an interaction between the two, with physical requirements on the job associated with knee pain primarily in those who are obese.
COVID-19 patients at higher risk of death, health problems than those with flu - Washington University -- Almost a year ago, COVID-19 began its global rampage, going on to infect about 69.5 million people and kill about 1.6 million as of early this month. From the beginning, most scientists have said that COVID-19 is deadlier than the seasonal flu, while fringe theories have circulated widely, suggesting it is less deadly or flu’s equal. Evidence is accumulating, however, to show just how much deadlier COVID-19 is compared with the flu and the extent of complications related to the two illnesses. The new research — a deep dive into federal data by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System — reveals a clearer distinction between the two contagious viruses: Among hospitalized patients, COVID-19 was associated with an increased need for ventilators, more admissions into intensive care units (ICUs), longer hospital stays and nearly five times the risk of death than faced by those with the flu. And although both illnesses attack the lungs, the analysis showed COVID-19 also can damage other organs. It revealed that COVID-19 was associated with a higher risk of complications such as acute kidney and liver damage, as well as heart disorders, stroke, severe septic shock, low blood pressure, excessive blood clotting and new-onset diabetes. The findings are published online Dec. 15 ET in the journal The BMJ. “Many high-profile, public comparisons between COVID-19 and the flu have been made; however, those comparisons mostly were drawn using disparate data and statistical methods that have resulted in a lot of conjecture,” said senior author Ziyad Al-Aly, MD, assistant professor of medicine at Washington University. “Our research represents an apples-to-apples comparison between the two diseases.”
COVID-19 spread increases when UV levels decrease Natural variations in ultraviolet radiation influence the spread of COVID-19, but the influence is modest compared to preventive measures such as physical distancing, mask wearing, and quarantine, according to new research from Harvard University. "These findings suggest that the incidence of COVID-19 may have a seasonal pattern, spreading faster in the winter when it's darker than in the summer."Analyzing daily COVID-19 and weather data from over 3,000 administrative regions in more than 170 countries, researchers found that the spread of COVID-19 through a population tended to be lower in the weeks following higher UV exposure. Findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.The seasonality of COVID-19 has been a mystery since the disease first emerged one year ago, though there have been some clues that UV could play a role. Related species of coronaviruses such as SARS and MERS were found to be sensitive to UV radiation and recent laboratory studies show that UV inactivates SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, on surfaces. Attempts to understand the influence of UV in the real world, however, have been limited by scarce data and the difficulty of isolating climate variables from other drivers of transmission. To test for an environmental signal within the noise of the pandemic, the team compiled and cleaned data from statistical agencies around the world. To avoid potentially confounding factors that differ across regions, such as healthcare infrastructure or population density, the team examined how transmission within a particular population changed according to variations in sunlight, temperature, precipitation and humidity experienced by that same population.While this research shows that COVID-19 exhibits a seasonal pattern due to changes in UV, the full seasonality of COVID-19 remains unclear because of uncertain influences from other environmental factors such as temperature and humidity.
People Thought Covid-19 Was Relatively Harmless for Younger Adults. They Were Wrong. -- The largest burden of Covid-19 has undoubtedly fallen on people older than 65; they account for around 80 percent of deaths in the United States. But if we momentarily eclipse that from our mind’s eye, something else becomes visible: The corona of this virus. Young adults are dying at historic rates. In research published on Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, we found that among U.S. adults ages 25 to 44, from March through the end of July, there were almost 12,000 more deaths than were expected based on historical norms. In fact, July appears to have been the deadliest month among this age group in modern American history. Over the past 20 years, an average of 11,000 young American adults died each July. This year that number swelled to over 16,000. The trends continued this fall. Based on prior trends, around 154,000 in this demographic had been projected to die in 2020. We surpassed that total in mid-November. Even if death rates suddenly return to normal in December — and we know that they will not — we would anticipate well over 170,000 deaths among U.S. adults in this demographic by the end of 2020. While detailed data are not yet available for all areas, we know Covid-19 is the driving force behind these excess deaths. Consider New York State. In April and May, Covid-19 killed 1,081 adults ages 20 to 49, according to statistics we gathered from the New York State Health Department. Remarkably, this figure towers over the state’s usual leading cause of death in that age group — unintentional accidents including drug overdoses and road accidents — which combined to cause 495 deaths in this demographic during April and May of 2018, the most recent year for which data are available to the public. After the Northeast’s horrific first surge this spring subsided, similar trends began to become apparent in other regions over the summer. As caseloads among the younger population rose nationwide, Covid-19 became a leading cause of death among younger adults in other regions. While deaths from the virus temporarily exceeded opioid deaths among young adults in some areas this year, we are also concerned that unintentional overdose deaths have increased during the pandemic as well. Nor is it an illusion that people of color constitute a disproportionate fraction of the dead. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, among adults 25 to 44, Black and Hispanic people make up not just a disproportionate number but a majority of Covid-19 deaths through Sept. 30. Stay-at-home policies have saved lives, but their benefits have not been equally distributed. Among essential workers, many of whom are people of color, sheltering-in-place was never a real option. For too long, the message has been repeated — by us and our colleagues, by government officials and the public — that Covid-19 is dangerous for the old and that younger people do well. It’s true that deaths among adults ages 25 to 44 account for fewer than 3 percent of Covid-19 deaths in the United States, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. But what we believed before about the relative harmlessness of Covid-19 among younger adults has simply not been borne out by emerging data. In the past, it took us too long to respond to the epidemics of opioids and H.I.V./AIDS when the young started dying in large numbers. Now that we have similar information about Covid-19, we must immediately address it. We need to amend our messaging and our policies now. Outreach in the coming weeks and months is imperative. We know it can help. The use of lifesaving medications like methadone and buprenorphine increased after awareness of the devastation of the opioid epidemic became commonly understood, saving many lives. We need to tell young people that they are at risk and that they need to wear masks and make safer choices about social distancing.
COVID-19 can invade testicles, University of Miami researchers find. What can this mean? - COVID-19 can invade tissues in the testicles in some men who are infected with the novel coronavirus, according to a new study by a team of University of Miami Miller School of Medicine researchers. The UM study was published Tuesday in The World Journal of Men’s Health. “These findings could be the first step in discovering COVID-19’s potential impact on male fertility and whether the virus can be sexually transmitted,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Ranjith Ramasamy, an associate professor and director of reproductive urology at UM’s Miller School. Ramasamy and eight colleagues analyzed testis tissue from the autopsies of six men who died of COVID-19 infection in Miami-Dade County. They found impaired sperm function in three of the testis specimens and evidence of COVID-19 using electron microscopy in the tissue of one. “We also identified the presence of the virus in a man who underwent a testis biopsy for infertility but had a previous history of COVID-19. So the patient tested negative and was asymptomatic after having COVID-19 but still showed the presence of the virus inside the testes,” Ramasamy said in a statement. The COVID-19-positive autopsy patients’ ages ranged from 20 to 87, according to the health journal. The COVID-19-negative patients’ ages ranged from 28 to 77. The average length of time from the first positive COVID-19 test to death was 11 days, with one case tested after the man’s death.“This is the first published research to report on the case of a live patient to demonstrate the presence of COVID-19 in testis tissue of a patient who recovered from the virus. The finding is novel, remarkable, and certainly worthy of further exploration,” Ramasamy said. Researchers know that COVID-19 can affect the lungs, heart, kidneys and liver. But until UM’s study, little was known about the pathogenesis of the virus in the testes, The World Journal of Men’s Health reported. According to the school, “it makes sense that the testes, which are responsible for sperm and testosterone production, are a target for COVID-19 infection. The virus has an affinity for angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 receptors, which are in many of the body’s organs —including the lungs, heart, intestines, kidneys and testes.” But there is still a question about how much of the virus needs to be present in the testes to be detected in semen, as well as what threshold of viral load is needed in the semen to be sexually transmitted. Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article247022937.html#storylink=cpy
Research strongly suggests COVID-19 virus enters the brain - More and more evidence is coming out that people with COVID-19 are suffering from cognitive effects, such as brain fog and fatigue. And researchers are discovering why. The SARS-CoV-2 virus, like many viruses before it, is bad news for the brain. In a study published Dec.16 in Nature Neuroscience, researchers found that the spike protein, often depicted as the red arms of the virus, can cross the blood-brain barrier in mice. This strongly suggests that SARS-CoV-2, the cause of COVID-19, can enter the brain. The spike protein, often called the S1 protein, dictates which cells the virus can enter. Usually, the virus does the same thing as its binding protein, said lead author William A. Banks, a professor of medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine and a Puget Sound Veterans Affairs Healthcare System physician and researcher. Banks said binding proteins like S1 usually by themselves cause damage as they detach from the virus and cause inflammation. "The S1 protein likely causes the brain to release cytokines and inflammatory products," he said. In science circles, the intense inflammation caused by the COVID-19 infection is called a cytokine storm. The immune system, upon seeing the virus and its proteins, overreacts in its attempt to kill the invading virus. The infected person is left with brain fog, fatigue and other cognitive issues. Banks and his team saw this reaction with the HIV virus and wanted to see if the same was happening with SARS CoV-2. Banks said the S1 protein in SARS-CoV2 and the gp 120 protein in HIV-1 function similarly. They are glycoproteins - proteins that have a lot of sugars on them, hallmarks of proteins that bind to other receptors. Both these proteins function as the arms and hand for their viruses by grabbing onto other receptors. Both cross the blood-brain barrier and S1, like gp120, is likely toxic to brain tissues. "It was like déjà vu," said Banks, who has done extensive work on HIV-1, gp120, and the blood-brain barrier.
FDA endorses safety and efficacy of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine - A coronavirus vaccine manufactured by Moderna is on the verge of authorization after Food and Drug Administration (FDA) scientists found it to be safe and 94 percent effective at preventing severe cases of COVID-19. The evidence will be discussed during a panel meeting of independent experts on Thursday. Based on the track taken by the vaccine manufactured by Pfizer and BioNTech, the FDA could grant emergency use authorization for the Moderna vaccine as soon as Friday. The vaccine was effective across all races and genders, the FDA found, similar to the Pfizer vaccine. Both Pfizer and Moderna developed their vaccines using experimental mRNA technology, and both rely on two doses to be effective — Moderna's must be taken 28 days apart, while Pfizer's are given 21 days apart. Moderna is asking for authorization in people ages 18 and over, while Pfizer's vaccine was cleared for people as young as 16. The lack of data among 16 and 17-year-olds led some of the members of the agency's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee to vote against Pfizer's authorization. Side effects included chills, injection site soreness, fever, headache and fatigue, but most did not last longer than a day, the agency found. The FDA said there appears to be some protection against COVID-19 following one dose; however, there wasn't enough information about longer-term protection beyond 28 days after a single dose. The anticipated authorization would give America two different vaccines against COVID-19. The Trump administration's Operation Warp Speed has invested $4.1 billion in federal funds in the development and distribution of Moderna's vaccine. The federal government signed a deal last summer to deliver a total of 100 million doses in the first quarter of 2021. Last week the administration announced that it had purchased another 100 million doses from Moderna for the second quarter. Between Moderna and the vaccine from Pfizer/BioNTech, health officials said they expect to deliver enough doses to vaccinate 20 million people with the first dose by the end of the year. Moderna's vaccine is anticipated to create fewer logistical challenges, as it does not require the same ultra-cold storage of Pfizer's vaccine. It can remain stable for up to 30 days at the same temperature as a standard refrigerator.
US plans to ship 6 million doses of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine straight after the FDA authorizes it — double its initial shipment of Pfizer's shot - The US plans to ship 6 million doses of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine as soon as the Food and Drug Administration authorizes it for emergency use, officials said Monday — more than double the nation's initial shipment of Pfizer and BioNTech's shot.Emergency authorization by the FDA is "likely" to come by Friday, the head of the White House's vaccine effort known as Operation Warp Speed said Sunday. A panel of FDA experts is scheduled to review the vaccine Thursday.Gen. Gustave Perna, the head of logistics for Operation Warp Speed, said during a press briefing Monday that the US would ship "just a little bit short of 6 million doses out to the American people" following authorization."Our goal would be for the Moderna product to be available this time next week across the United States," Perna said Monday.Six million doses would be more than double the US's initial shipment of 2.9 million doses of Pfizer and BioNTech's vaccine."The difference in quantities was about what was available when we were doing planning for initial delivery," Perna said."As early as November 15, I snapped the chalk line on what was available to Pfizer so states could do planning ... We wanted them to have as much time to do planning and realize where they wanted it to go first."The key is we catch up in our following cadence and allocations," he added.Moderna's initial doses are to be packaged and distributed to 3,285 sites across the US — significantly more than for the Pfizer-BioNTech shot. While Pfizer is shipping doses directly from its warehouses via FedEx and UPS because of its ultracold chain facilities, Moderna is using the medical-supply company McKesson, which in turn will work alongside FedEx and UPS for the final stages of delivery, Alex Azar, the secretary of health and human services, said at the briefing.
FDA gives green light to Moderna COVID-19 vaccine - The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday cleared the nation's second coronavirus vaccine, giving additional hope that the end of the pandemic could be in sight. The official emergency use authorization for the Moderna vaccine comes after an agency advisory panel voted 20-0 in favor of the vaccine Thursday. The authorization now allows the Trump administration to begin shipping nearly 6 million doses of the vaccine across the country. Once a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) panel meets and votes this weekend, vaccinations will be allowed to begin. Between Moderna and the vaccine from Pfizer/BioNTech that has already been approved, health officials said they expect to deliver enough doses to vaccinate 20 million people with the first dose by the end of the year. Still, it will be a long time before vaccines are widely available. Even under perfect conditions, the general population likely won't get vaccinated until late spring or summer. Until then, health officials are warning everyone that the coming months will be dire. Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine require two doses, and officials said they intend to hold back the second dose and ship it to states separately to ensure there's no waste. Both vaccines are about 95 percent effective for the general population, although Moderna’s was 86 percent effective for people over age 65. Moderna's vaccine is anticipated to create fewer logistical challenges, as it does not require the same ultra-cold storage as Pfizer's vaccine. It can remain stable for up to 30 days at the same temperature as a standard freezer. Unlike Pfizer, Moderna's vaccine was developed with significant federal financial support. The administration's Operation Warp Speed has invested $4.1 billion into the vaccine's development and distribution, and the National Institutes of Health helped run clinical trials for the company. Moderna has also contracted the federal government directly to run the distribution, so the administration will have more control over the logistics than it has with Pfizer. The government has contracted with McKesson, one of the world's largest wholesale drug distributors, for vaccine distribution. The vaccine will be shipped from the manufacturer to McKesson distribution sites, and then will be sent out to the 64 different jurisdictions that will receive doses. That approach contrasts with Pfizer, which because of the cold storage requirements, ships its vaccines directly to hospitals and health centers. The Trump administration signed a deal last summer to deliver a total of 100 million doses of the Moderna vaccine in the first quarter of 2021. Earlier this month, Warp Speed officials announced that the administration had purchased another 100 million doses from Moderna for the second quarter.
Moderna, McKesson and U.S. Army general begin rolling out new COVID vaccine -(Reuters) - Distribution of Moderna Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine to more than 3,700 locations in the United States has begun, vastly widening the rollout started last week by Pfizer Inc, U.S Army General Gustave Perna said on Saturday. Moderna has already moved vaccines from its manufacturing plants to warehouses operated by distributor McKesson Corp where they are being packed into containers and loaded on to trucks on Saturday, Perna said during a news conference. Trucks will set out on Sunday and shipments will start reaching healthcare providers as soon as Monday, he said. The Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved an emergency use authorization for Moderna’s vaccine, the second COVID-19 vaccine to be approved. The jab developed by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech SE was approved Dec. 11. Workers in pharmaceutical services provider Catalent Inc’s facility in Bloomington, Indiana, are filling and packaging vials with Moderna vaccine and handing them to McKesson, which will ship doses from facilities including Louisville, Kentucky and Memphis, Tennessee. Those locations are close to air hubs for United Parcel Service Inc and FedEx Corp. The start of delivery for the Moderna vaccine will significantly widen availability of COVID-19 vaccines as U.S. deaths related to the respiratory virus set records. Perna apologized to U.S. governors for confusion on the vaccine’s availability after the U.S. government this week reduced allocation figures it had given to states to help them plan this coming week’s rollout. States including Oregon and Washington said this week their allocation had dropped by as much as 40%. Perna said he made an error estimating the number of doses that would actually be cleared by regulators for shipment, which was fewer than the number of doses that had been produced. He said there are no problems with Pfizer’s or Moderna’s manufacturing processes. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said it still expects to deliver 7.9 million doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines nationally this week.
Surgeon general urges vaccine education among communities of color - Surgeon General Jerome Adams on Monday stressed the need for education about the COVID-19 vaccine in communities of color, specifically in Black communities, which have justifiably low levels of trust in health care institutions. “Having a vaccine is only the first step. We must now move from vaccines to vaccinations. And it would be a great tragedy if disparities actually worsened because the people who could most benefit from this vaccine won't take it,” Adams said at a press conference from George Washington University Hospital in Washington, D.C. “We know that lack of trust is a major cause for reluctance, especially in communities of color. And that lack of trust is not without good reason, as the Tuskegee studies occurred in our lifetimes. To encourage diverse enrollment in clinical trials, we must first acknowledge this real history of mistreatment and exploitation of minorities by the medical community and the government,” he added. Adams, who is Black, was referring to a project also known as the Tuskegee syphilis study, which was started by the Public Health Service in 1932. The premise of the study was to “record the natural history of syphilis.” The Black men who participated in the study were given free medical exams in payment but were never offered treatment for the disease, even after penicillin became the main form of treatment for syphilis. While all of the subjects agreed to be part of the study, they did so unaware of the nature of the study and were, in fact, misled by researchers. The federal study wasn’t ended until 1972. Today, disparities in the health care system have significant negative impacts on Black Americans. Black women are nearly three times more likely to die during childbirth than white women. The U.S.’s Black infant mortality rate is more than two times greater than its mortality rate for white infants.
FDA investigating allergic reactions to Pfizer vaccine reported in multiple states - The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is investigating allergic reactions to the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine that were reported in multiple states after it began to be administered this week. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, told reporters late Friday that the reactions had been reported in more than one state besides Alaska and that the FDA is probing five reactions. “We are working hand in hand with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and we’ve actually been working closely with our United Kingdom colleagues, who of course reported the allergic reaction. I think we’ll be looking at all the data we can from each of these reactions to sort out exactly what happened, and we’ll also be looking to try to understand which component of the vaccine might be helping to produce them,” Marks said. “I think we have at this point the right ... mitigation strategy with the availability of treatment for a severe allergic reaction being at the ready, and we’ll continue to monitor it very closely,” he added. Marks said the FDA was not certain what caused the reactions but indicated a chemical called polyethylene glycol, which is present in the vaccines produced by Pfizer and BioNTech as well as by Moderna “could be the culprit.” He added that the reaction some people have experienced could be more common than once thought. “We’ll obviously be monitoring very closely what’s going on. We’re working very closely with the CDC on these, and there have been meetings between the CDC and FDA pretty much every day this week making sure we’re keeping very close track of what’s going on,” he said. Overnight Health Care: CVS, Walgreens to begin nursing home... FDA gives green light to Moderna COVID-19 vaccine The reports of allergic reactions in Alaska follow two similar cases reported last week in Britain, the first nation to approve Pfizer’s vaccine. The FDA’s current guidance says that most Americans with allergies should be cleared to take the vaccine but that people who’ve had severe reactions to other vaccines should not get vaccinated. It also said Friday that people with a history of severe allergic reactions to any components of the Moderna shot should avoid getting that vaccine.
Further Discussion of the Red Flags in the Pfizer Vaccine Paper in the New England Journal of Medicine -Yves Smith - Earlier this week, we posted An Internal Medicine Doctor and His Peers Read the Pfizer Vaccine Study and See Red Flags [Updated]. Most readers responded very positively to the write-up by IM Doc, which included the reactions of the eight other members of his Journal Club who reviewed the article and its editorial, as they have done regularly with important medical journal articles. We have embedded the Pfizer article from the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) below; the link to the editorial is here.However, some took issue with IM Doc noting that two nurses in the UK had suffered anaphylaxis, a severe, potentially life threatening allergic reaction, after getting the Pfizer shot. IM Doc criticized the paper and editorial for not including or adding a discussion of any exclusion criteria, particularly since Pfizer’s proxies admitted that severe allergies were an exclusion criterion. From MedicalXpress: “Looking into the data, patients or subjects with severe allergic reaction history have been excluded from the clinical trial. Slaoui is the co-head of Operation Warp Speed and previously head of GlaxoSmithKline’s vaccine department. Other media outlets and professional medical writers (see here and here for examples) picked up his statement that subjects with severe allergic reactions were excluded. If you look at the article below, you will see that it is not searchable. That indicates an expectation that it would be read as a print out only. You will find it make no mention of “exclusion criteria”. Neither does the the separate editorial by NEJM editors. The article does does mention “protocols” in the text, twice, but does not have a link to where to find them, does not have a written URL, nor does it provide a name or location to assist in finding them. Some critics argued that the protocol (which you need to search through to find the selection process for candidates, including the exclusion criteria, for the Phase III trials) could “easily” be found in the Supplemental Materials and further asserted that any regular reader of medical papers would be able to find then. The fact that IM Doc, who has been reading medical papers for 30 years, and his eight colleagues did not locate them is already significant counter-evidence, particularly since the NEJM’s media kit lists the publication’s audience solely as physicians. No doubt scientists read it too, but the eyeballs advertisers really want to reach are doctors, academics or scientists in the employ of competitors. IM Doc could not find the Supplemental Materials because the PDF that the NEJM generates does not include them. It is in the online version, and opens up to a dropdown menu, with the first item “Protocols” which takes you to a document via an external link. Since readers have every right to assume that online and PDF versions of the same article are identical, there was no reason for him to look further.It turns out that the data waters appear to have been muddied by the NEJM itself…
FDA authorizes first fully at-home, over the counter COVID-19 test -- The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday granted emergency authorization to the first over the counter, fully at-home test for COVID-19. The move is a significant step forward in expanding the reach of rapid, at-home coronavirus tests, something experts have been advocating for months. Still, there will be limitations on supply and cost could be a barrier to widespread, repeated use. “Today’s authorization is a major milestone in diagnostic testing for COVID-19,” said FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn. “By authorizing a test for over-the-counter use, the FDA allows it to be sold in places like drug stores, where a patient can buy it, swab their nose, run the test and find out their results in as little as 20 minutes.” A spokesperson for Ellume said the company’s “intention is to price the test at $30 or less,” adding that “while our initial investments in manufacturing are very large and the initial price may be higher, we are aiming to make this product as accessible as possible.” The company said it received $30 million from a National Institutes of Health program to spur test development, which helped speed up development. The test correctly identified 96 percent of positives and 100 percent of negatives in people with symptoms, the FDA said. In people without symptoms, that was 91 percent and 96 percent. “This test, like other antigen tests, is less sensitive and less specific than typical molecular tests run in a lab,” said Jeff Shuren, head of the FDA device center. “However, the fact that it can be used completely at home and return results quickly means that it can play an important role in response to the pandemic.”
Biogen conference linked to as many as 300K COVID-19 cases -- A team of scientists using genetic sequencing found that between 205,000 and 300,000 coronavirus cases across the US are linked to a “superspreader” medical conference in Boston in late February. The conference was previously thought to have been associated with about 20,000 cases in the Boston metro area, but the researchers say it actually spread much further after about 100 people caught the virus at the gathering, CBS News reported. Through Nov. 1, the genetic marker found in the strain of the virus linked to the conference was found in 51,000 cases around Boston. It also spread to other locations where conference attendees returned, including in Florida, where 29 percent of the conference-linked cases ended up; Indiana and North Carolina. The strain of virus was found as far away as Australia and Slovakia, according to the research, published in the journal Science. “We don’t think these strains had a propensity to spread more than any other,” said Jacob Lemieux, the study’s lead author. “We suspect that these types of events have been happening over and over again, and are major contributors to the propagation and spread of SARS-cov2 throughout the world.
USC study: Young adults who identify as Republicans eschew COVID safety precautions -- Young Californians who identify themselves as Republicans are less likely to follow social distancing guidelines that prevent coronavirus transmission than those who identify as Democrats or Independents, according to new USC study published today in JAMA Internal Medicine. The findings among 18- to 25-year-olds mirror what many have observed about America's politicized response to COVID-19, and are a source of alarm for public health experts. The United States is now averaging 207,000 new cases and 2,319 deaths per day, as of Friday. “You might expect middle-aged or older adults to have established ideologies that affect their health behavior, but to see it in young adults who have historically been less politically inclined is unexpected," said Adam Leventhal, director of the USC Institute for Addiction Science. "Regardless of age, we would never hope to find results like this. Public health practices should not correlate with politics." Of the young adults contacted, 891 identified as Democrat, 148 as Republican, 320 as "Independent or Other," and 706 declined to answer or said they didn't know what political party they identify with. Researchers found that 24.3% of Republican young adults said they don't frequently social distance from others, compared with just 5.2% of Democrats. Differences in social distancing practices were also found when Republicans were compared to Independents and young adults who did not report a political party affiliation. Researchers discovered that Republicans versus other groups were more likely to visit public indoor venues such as malls, restaurants, bars or clubs, or attend or host parties with 10 people or more.
Mink in Utah is first wild animal to test positive for COVID-19 - A mink in Utah has tested positive for the contagion — the first-ever known case in a wild animal, according to officials.While the small mammals are known to get infected — with Denmark infamously announcing plans to slaughter 17 million of them — they have until now only been found in farms.“To our knowledge, this is the 1st free-ranging, native wild animal confirmed with SARS-CoV-2,” the US Department of Agriculture said Monday as it announced the alarming discovery. Several animals from different wildlife species were sampled and all tested negative, the USDA added. The agency said it notified the World Organisation for Animal Health but maintained there is no evidence the virus has been widespread in wild populations around infected mink farms. Last month, an Oregon mink farm was put in quarantine after an outbreak was found — infecting staff along with the animals. COVID-19 has been found on mink farms in Michigan and Wisconsin, along with numerous other nations, including the Netherlands, Italy, Sweden and Spain. The virus has also been found in zoo tigers and household cats and dogs.
New Hampshire's Republican governor is calling on people to wear masks after the state's House Speaker died of COVID-19 - The Republican governor of New Hampshire is urging people to wear masks to stop the spread of COVID-19 after state Rep. and House Speaker Dick Hinch died from the virus. Hinch, 71, was found dead in his home on December 9, one week after he accepted a nomination for New Hampshire's speaker of the house at an outdoor swearing-in ceremony, an event that hundreds of people attended and many opted not to wear masks, The Washington Post reported. At a press conference on Thursday, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu called Hinch's death a "stark reminder" that "no one is immune." He also criticized criticized Republican legislators for not wearing masks during large gatherings.
White House head of security has lost his lower right leg to COVID and spent three months in the ICU -- The White House's director of security has lost his right leg and part of his left foot to COVID after spending three months in the ICU, a friend has revealed.Crede Bailey, 54, was first revealed to have contracted the virus in early October but a friend who set up a GoFundMe has now revealed the full extent of his battle.He lost his lower right leg and the big toe of his left foot during the three-month battle which appears to have begin in early September, as much as a month before his illness was revealed.The married father of one's role at the White House included overseeing the issuing of security credentials and liaising with the Secret Service. He is a career civil servant who previously worked for the Army. Two people familiar with Crede Bailey's condition confirmed the details to Bloombergin a Monday report as a GoFundMe page for the White House aide, which was set up earlier this year, was revealed.Dawn McCrobie set up the GoFundMe page for Bailey, which as of Monday afternoon has raised more than $36,000 for his rehabilitation. It is not immediately clear if President Donald Trump, who tested positive for COVID early in October, has made a donation. McCrobie wrote on the page on December 7 to update contributors of Bailey's condition. 'Crede has recently been released from the ICU and is now at a full-time rehabilitation center where he is focused on gaining strength and learning to live a new normal,' she wrote last Monday. While experts are still unsure the extent to which COVID-19 can affect the body, a possible symptom is loss of blood flow as the virus can attack the vascular system and cause blood clots.The White House has not publicized Bailey's illness by request from his family, and Trump has never publicly acknowledged it despite the severity of his condition.Bailey was known for being a strong Trump supporter. Trump has repeatedly dismissed COVID-19 risks, including on his Twitter account in early October as he was recovering from the illness at Walter Reed Medical Center following the White House outbreak.
Minnesota state lawmaker dies of COVID-19 complications -Minnesota state lawmaker Jerry Relph (R) died on Friday of complications from the coronavirus, according to family and the state's Senate majority leader. Relph, who was a first-term state senator, is reportedly the first lawmaker from the state whose death is connected to COVID-19, according to MPR News. “Jerry dedicated his life to service, and representing Senate District 14 was one of the highest honors he had,” his wife, Pegi Broker-Relph, said in a statement, according to MPR News. “I can’t count the number of times he would come home at night and tell me about helping solve a constituent’s problem, or a story he heard from someone in a parade or at a public event, or even just someone he met during a ‘day on the hill’ event." He was elected in 2016 to the Minnesota Senate, where he filled a vacant seat after the incumbent did not seek reelection. He narrowly defeated Dan Wolgamott, who now serves in the Minnesota House. Relph was 76 years old and a Vietnam War veteran. The lawmaker went to the emergency room twice in November for coronavirus-related symptoms but was never hospitalized, even after a positive diagnosis. Following that, his family remained private about Relph's condition, the news outlet reported. .
United Airlines helps to contact passengers after man on flight dies a possible COVID-19-related death -- United Airlines is helping to contact passengers after it was determined that a man who passed away on a Monday flight could have died of a heart attack due to COVID-19 complications, The New York TImes reports.The plane, scheduled to fly from Orlando to Los Angeles, made an unplanned landing in New Orleans after a man aboard the flight suffered a medical emergency.While the man was being tended to for his cardiac arrest, flight crew members overheard his wife telling first responders that her husband had been experiencing symptoms consistent with COVID-19. He had not disclosed the symptoms, which included loss of taste and smell, prior to boarding the flight, according to the Times.It hasn't been confirmed if the man had been infected or not."We implore passengers not travel if they have been diagnosed with Covid-19 or have Covid-related symptoms," United Airlines said. "If in doubt, the best option is to get tested."The airline was contacted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) after the incident, and has been complying with its request to provide passenger information, the Times reports."We are sharing requested information with the agency so they can work with local health officials to conduct outreach to any customer the C.D.C. believes may be at risk for possible exposure or infection,” the airline said. News of the possible COVID-19 exposure to plane passengers spread on social media, with one passenger noting that they didn't have their temperatures checked before boarding and there wasn't a plane change after leaving New Orleans.
San Joaquin region are out of ICU beds as COVID-19 surges - A 12-county region in California is out of ICU-bed capacity as a second wave of COVID-19 ravages the state’s rural Central Valley. San Joaquin County, an agriculture hub where the majority of fruits and vegetables in the US are grown, has been hit particularly hard in recent weeks. ICU capacity at all seven hospitals in the county stood at 100 percent on Saturday, the highest rate anywhere in California, according to the state’s Department of Public Health.A team of 17 nurses is expected to arrive Monday at one local hospital that has built a second ICU area where it plans to take in coronavirus patients from San Joaquin County’s six other overflowing hospitals. Many of the patients are Latino farm workers. A doctor at Adventist Health Lodi Memorial hospital in Lodi, which is about 100 miles east of San Francisco, said that during the first COVID wave in the spring, 75 percent of patients were Latino. The hospital investigated the trend and found COVID warnings were not reaching many in the community, because of a lack of trust in the hospital staff and government. “We don’t have the same culture and the rigidity around following the guidance here than, for example, San Francisco [has]. We need to educate, educate, as much as we can so we can get some relief,” Dr. Patricia Iris said.
December 14 COVID-19 Test Results; Record 7-Day Cases and Deaths, Record Hospitalizations - Note: The week-over-week growth in positive cases has slowed. Hopefully that continues. The US is now averaging well over 1 million tests per day. Based on the experience of other countries, for adequate test-and-trace (and isolation) to reduce infections, the percent positive needs to be under 5% (probably close to 1%), so the US has far too many daily cases - and percent positive - to do effective test-and-trace. There were 1,883,575 test results reported over the last 24 hours.There were 193,384 positive tests.Almost 33,000 US deaths have been reported so far in December. See the graph on US Daily Deaths here. This data is from the COVID Tracking Project.The percent positive over the last 24 hours was 10.3% (red line is 7 day average). The percent positive is calculated by dividing positive results by the sum of negative and positive results (I don't include pending). And check out COVID Exit Strategy to see how each state is doing. The second graph shows the 7 day average of positive tests reported and daily hospitalizations.• Record Hospitalizations (Over 110,000)
• Record 7 Day Average Cases
• Record 7 Day Average Deaths
Oregon reports record COVID-19 deaths in single day - Oregon Health Authority reported a record number of COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday. The 54 new deaths bring the toll to 1,214. "Today’s record-high death toll tragically reminds us that the pandemic is far from over despite the arrival of vaccines in Oregon," said OHA Director Patrick Allen. "These Oregonians and the ones who passed before them were loved ones who will be dearly missed by their families, for whom we express our sincerest condolences.” Officials said the record deaths are due in part to a surge in cases in November. It takes time to process COVID-19 deaths from death certificates and for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to review the cause of death. On Tuesday, OHA also reported 1,129 new confirmed and presumptive cases, bringing the total to 96,092. Hospitalizations have risen to 544 in Oregon, and 112 COVID-19 patients are in intensive care units. Officials are reminding the public to maintain six feet of distance, wear a face covering when outside the home, wash hands, avoid gatherings with non-household members, and if you have symptoms, consult a medical provider. Below are the deaths added on Tuesday:
California officials order 5,000 body bags as state’s intensive care units near full capacity - On Tuesday, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that state officials had ordered 5,000 additional body bags and 63 refrigerated trailers to store the exploding numbers of dead from COVID-19. Across California, a public health catastrophe is now unfolding, with coronavirus infections growing exponentially. On Wednesday, the California Department of Public Health reported over 61,000 new daily cases and 407 deaths, by far the highest rates of the pandemic. The average number of daily cases in California has more than quadrupled over the last month while the number of hospitalizations has more than tripled. With the virus spreading unchecked, hospitalizations will likely double again over the next month, putting unprecedented pressure on entire health care system. More than 12,000 COVID-19 patients are hospitalized statewide and hospital intensive care units (ICU) are nearing capacity. As of December 16, only about 4.1 percent of the state’s ICU beds were currently available. Even before the pandemic, ICU beds were typically run just above demand to minimize costs with hospitals routinely shuffling patients between ICUs and other hospital wards as needed. With about 2.1 ICU beds per 10,000 inhabitants, California was among the least prepared states in the nation to respond to the dramatic increase in the number of critically ill patients brought on by the pandemic. Overwhelmed hospitals in Orange County, Imperial County, San Bernardino County and elsewhere have set up field hospitals in tents and trailers. Emergency rooms and paramedic providers have reported that ambulances have had to wait hours to offload their patients, and hospitals are being forced to divert ambulances to other medical facilities. The situation is especially dire in southern and central California. Available ICU beds have dropped to 0.5 percent in the Southern California Region. Los Angeles County only had 56 ICU beds still available on Tuesday for a population of 10 million. The 16-county San Joaquin Valley Region in central California has seen its ICU capacity fall to zero percent, meaning that some critically ill patients will have to be treated without adequate equipment, or turned away altogether. Riverside County, population 2.74 million, also had zero ICU beds available as of Wednesday. In Orange County, average daily infections have grown by a staggering 500 percent over the last month, and on Monday, the county’s ICU capacity also fell to zero percent. Last week, Dr. Carl Schultz, director of Emergency Medical Services at Orange County’s Health Care Agency, warned that the county’s emergency medicine system was in a state of crisis and “may collapse unless emergency directives are implemented now.”
COVID-19 vaccine comes too late for the 300,000 U.S. dead - The cavalry was on its way this week after months of a devastating pandemic, but it came too late for the more than 300,000 people who have already died from coronavirusin the United States. The vaccine that could help conquer the virus began rolling out on the same day the country reached this grimmest of milestones. “The numbers are staggering -- the most impactful respiratory pandemic that we have experienced in over 102 years, since the iconic 1918 Spanish flu,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious-disease expert.It took four months for the virus to claim its first 100,000 American lives. But with cold weather driving people inside, where the virus spreads more easily, months of reluctance in many states to require masks, and an increase in gatherings over the holidays, some public health experts project 100,000 more could die before the end of January, Adam Geller and Heather Hollingsworth report. U.S. Vaccine Push: The largest vaccination campaign in U.S. history got underway with health workers getting the first shots. “Relieved” was the reaction of one nurse who got vaccinated. All will need another shot in 21 days. The injections begin an effort to try to beat back the coronavirus — a day of hope amid grief as the nation’s death roll hit another terrible milestone. How well initial vaccinations go will help reassure a wary public when it’s their turn next year, Lauran Neergaard reports.Hundreds more U.S. hospitals are also gearing up to vaccinate their workers, and federal health officials are reviewing a second vaccine. About 400 hospitals and other health care facilities will get their first shipments of the Pfizer vaccine today. State officials are rationing the first shots to front-line health workers and nursing home residents, Matthew Peronne reports. The Food and Drug Administration is set to publish its analysis of a second potential COVID-19 vaccine, developed by Moderna. If cleared, U.S. officials predict they will have supplies to give 20,000 first injections by year's end.
Maine sees record-high 554 new coronavirus cases and 2 more deaths - Maine has marked its worst day yet in the coronavirus pandemic on Wednesday with a record-high 554 new coronavirus cases and two more deaths. Wednesday’s report brings the total number of coronavirus cases in Maine to 17,311. Of those, 15,142 have been confirmed positive, while 2,169 were classified as “probable cases,” according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.The agency revised Tuesday’s cumulative total to 16,757, down from 16,760, meaning there was an increase of 551 over the previous day’s report. As the Maine CDC continues to investigate previously reported cases, some are determined to have not been the coronavirus, or coronavirus cases not involving Mainers. Those are removed from the state’s cumulative total. The Bangor Daily News reports on the number of new cases reported to the Maine CDC in the previous 24 hours, rather than the increase of daily cumulative cases. With these latest deaths, the statewide death toll stands at 267. Nearly all deaths have been in Mainers over age 60. The two deaths reported Wednesday was a woman in her 80s from Androscoggin County and a man in his 80s from Oxford County.
Nevada sets record for COVID-19 deaths -Nevada reported a record number of coronavirus deaths in a single day and saw hospitalizations top 2,000 for the second time in three days, according to state data posted Wednesday. The 57 COVID-19 deaths eclipsed the previous record of 50 reported Dec. 10. It also drove the moving seven-day average of deaths reported daily to a record high of 38. The latest data from the state Department of Health and Human Services also showed 2,366 additional cases of the disease caused by the new coronavirus. That was well below the seven-day moving average of daily case reports of 2,538. The update brought Nevada totals to 2,653 deaths and 194,098 cases. The state’s two-week positivity rate, meanwhile, registered its seventh-straight decline to reach 20.7 percent. The rate, which tracks the proportion of people tested who are confirmed to have the disease, has now declined more than 1 percentage point since reaching a recent top of 21.8 percent on Dec. 8. Hospitalizations of suspected or confirmed COVID-19 patients in the state rebounded after a one-day decline, rising by 29 patients to 2,008. The state topped the 2,000 mark for the first time on Monday, when 2,025 patients were recorded.
NC breaks more records for COVID-19 deaths, hospitalizations, positive test rates -North Carolina reported record highs for COVID-19 deaths, hospitalizations and positive test rates on Wednesday. Play Video The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services reported 98 new COVID-19 related deaths in the state, more than on any other day since the onset of the pandemic. The previous daily high for deaths was 82 reported on Dec. 2. A total of 5,979 in North Carolina have died as a result of COVID-19. The state also had a record-high positive test rate, with 12.5% out of 37,467 tests conducted Monday. The previous high was 11.7%, first set on Dec. 7 and tied on Dec. 10. There are 2,811 North Carolinians currently hospitalized with the virus, topping the previous high of 2,735 reported Tuesday. Experts say many of the cases are linked to people gathering for the Thanksgiving holiday. With Christmas and New Year's days away, there is reason for more concern, said Dr. Mandy Cohen, the state's health secretary. "Hospitalization is a lagging indicator, and I am very concerned about where we're going to be as a state in two to three weeks," Cohen said last week. For North Carolina, there have been 451,874 cases overall since late March. The daily high of 7,540 was reported Friday. In Forsyth County's Wednesday report, there were 189 new cases and no additional deaths.
Arkansas logs 58 virus deaths, a new daily record; 2,306 more cases reported — Arkansas on Wednesday set a new daily record for COVID-19 deaths. The state reported that 58 people had died from the virus, three more than the previous record set last week. Five of those deaths were probable and 53 were confirmed. The death toll is up to 3,074. The state on Wednesday reported 2,306 new cases of the virus, of which 1,638 were confirmed and 668 were probable. Total confirmed and probable cases were up to 191,504. There were 20,774 active cases. Hospitalizations increased by nine to 1,079. The state logged 8,885 daily PCR tests and 4,696 antigen tests, a new daily record. “Yesterday was a new record in antigen testing in Arkansas, and new cases are running flat week over week," Gov. Asa Hutchinson said in a written statement. "Regretfully, we also saw another record in new deaths, with 58 deaths reported yesterday. We are distributing the vaccine across the state for our health care workers, and we continue to see high levels of community spread." Arkansas received its first shipment of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine on Monday. Hutchinson has said the vaccine could be widely available by late spring.
Coronavirus: California shatters another record as cases, hospitalizations, deaths reach new highs - On the same day the first American received the COVID-19 vaccine, the country’s death toll surpassed 300,000 and California shattered another record for daily infections, as officials warned the darkest days of the pandemic were still ahead, amid a glimmer of hope. Monday afternoon in Los Angeles, the first nurse in California was inoculated. But by the end of that day’s count, new cases around the state numbered 41,419, according to data compiled by this news organization, soaring past the previous record set last week. A sliver of intensive-care beds remained open around the state.“These are the folks we’re going to count on the most,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said at a Tuesday morning news conference, commending the initial vaccine doses reaching frontline workers. “As I’ve said often, there’s light at the end of the tunnel but we’re still in the tunnel. That means we’re going through perhaps the most intense and urgent moment since the beginning of this pandemic.”At approximately 32,800 cases and 164 deaths per day over the past week, California is averaging more new infections and fatalities from the virus than at any other point of the pandemic. It’s the fourth time since the start of December that California has broken its daily record for cases, coming most recently last Friday, when the state reported more than 35,000 new cases. In the past two weeks, the state’s average daily case count has increased 132% and its average daily death toll by even more: 157%. California’s cumulative death toll grew to 21,194, after counties around the state reported another 150 victims of the virus. A total of 1,145 Californians have been added to the state’s death toll in the past week, more than any other seven-day period of the pandemic. The past seven days have also been the nation’s deadliest, with more than 17,000 fatalities reported in the past week — an average of more than 2,400 per day — to bring the cumulative total over 301,000, according to the New York Times. Hospitalizations also continued to grow in California while capacity in its ICUs fell to its lowest point of the pandemic. A net of nearly 600 patients were admitted to hospitals around California on Sunday, bringing the active total to 13,635, 75% more COVID-positive patients than two weeks ago and nearly double its previous summertime peak. Statewide, ICU beds are 93.5% full but few remain available anywhere in the southern portion of the state. In all of the Southern California region, ICUs were filled to more than 97% capacity Monday, according to the latest data from the state, and in the San Joaquin Valley region, staffed and licensed beds had reached capacity. The According to estimates from state health officials — that about 12% of cases require hospitalization and at least 12% of those end up in the ICU — the record-shattering surge of cases over the past week, totaling nearly 230,000, could result in more than 3,000 new ICU patients in the coming weeks. There are currently just over 1,400 staffed and licensed beds available across the state.
L.A. County hospitals ‘under siege’ from COVID-19 as deaths, cases hit new daily highs - LA Times - A ferocious COVID-19 surge is besieging Los Angeles County’s hospitals like never before, officials said Wednesday, as the region reported an all-time daily high of 134 deaths from the disease and a record number of new infections. Single-day records were shattered across California Wednesday. A Times county-by-county tally found 51,724 new coronavirus cases reported, shattering the state’s single-day record broken on Monday, when 42,088 cases were reported. The Times tally also found 393 COVID-19 deaths Wednesday across the state, breaking the record set Tuesday, when 295 deaths were recorded. Cumulatively, California has now reported 1.7 million coronavirus cases and 21,887 COVID-19 deaths. California is now tallying an average of 203 COVID-19 deaths a day over a weekly period, and 35,200 cases a day — both records, and both quadruple the numbers from mid-November. A great deal of the state’s surge has been fueled by L.A. County, where the unrelenting rise in the number of coronavirus-infected Angelenos falling ill enough to require professional care is straining the county’s medical system, raising renewed fears that the need for beds could outstrip those available despite healthcare workers’ herculean efforts to expand capacity. Dr. Christina Ghaly, the county’s director of health services, put it bluntly Wednesday: “Our hospitals are under siege, and our model shows no end in sight.” More harrowing still, she said, is that “the worst is still before us.”
US officials report 3,500 new Covid-19 deaths, a record for the coronavirus pandemic – CNN - Wednesday brought more bad and good news as the US endures the 10th month of the coronavirus pandemic. There was a trio of all-time highs in the data. A record number of new deaths -- more than 3,500 -- was reported Wednesday and there were more than 240,000 newly reported coronavirus cases. And the number of people in hospitals was at a high for the 11th day in a row. The daunting numbers come on a day more people were vaccinated and we learned there is some evidence more doses of the vaccine can be derived from one vial than originally thought. The Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine is shipped with five doses in each vial. But some pharmacists have found they can get six and possibly even seven doses from each one. "FDA is aware of the issue and working with Pfizer to determine the best path forward, and will share additional updates as we have them," an FDA spokeswoman told CNN. She said the FDA says it is acceptable to squeeze additional doses out of leftover solution, "pending resolution of the issue." Right now hospital officials are vaccinating high-risk health care workers, and drug store chains CVS and Walgreens are helping to get shots to long-term care resident or staff members. In Pompano Beach, an 88-year-old resident at a long-term care facility was administered the vaccine as Florida became one of the first states to inoculate the most vulnerable residents. About 20 million people are expected to get their first shots by the end of this month. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said officials will soon provide a dashboard with the number of Covid-19 vaccinations completed, "so we know exactly how we're doing on getting shots in arms."
New U.S. Cases, Hospitalizations and Deaths All Set New Records - The U.S. logged its latest record-high number of newly reported Covid-19 cases in a day, while also setting new daily records for reported deaths and for hospitalizations. The nation reported more than 247,000 new cases on Wednesday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, up from 198,357 a day earlier and surpassing the previous record of 233,133 reported for Friday. The data include a surge of cases in California, which on Tuesday reported a record 41,081 infections in addition to a backlog of around 12,500 cases. Johns Hopkins showed 63,817 cases for Wednesday in California, up from 33,249 Tuesday. Subtracting the backlog, the overall number of infections reported for Wednesday in the U.S., according to Johns Hopkins, would be more than 234,000. The U.S. also reported 3,656 deaths for Wednesday, according to Johns Hopkins data, surpassing a record 3,306 reported Friday. It reported 3,019 deaths for Tuesday. Overall, more than 307,500 people have died of the disease in the U.S., according to Johns Hopkins data. Hospitalizations were also at a record high, for the 11th day in a row, according to the Covid Tracking Project, which reported 113,090 people in hospitals across the country. That included another record of 21,936 in intensive care. Meanwhile, the nation continued its vaccine rollout, with Pfizer planning to complete its first round of shipments Wednesday. A winter storm on the East Coast threatened to pose a challenge for distribution, but governors in affected states said they intended to keep deliveries rolling anyway. Nearly 17 million people in the U.S. have been infected with Covid-19, according to Johns Hopkins data. World-wide, more than 74.28 million have been infected and nearly 1.65 million have died.
US sets new daily records of 3,700 Covid deaths, 250,000 cases - Al Jazeera - The United States set a double record on Wednesday registering more than 3,700 deaths and over 250,000 new Covid-19 cases in just 24 hours, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University. With the new reported fatalities, the death toll in the US has now reached more than 307,291. The country has seen a spectacular spike in Covid infections for more than a month now, with some 113,000 people currently hospitalised due to the virus, according to data from the Department of Health and Human Services. The numbers far outpace the rest of the world. About five percent of the US population has contracted the virus, or about 17 million people. The United States has already rolled out its vaccination programme against COVID-19, and it aims to get 2.9 million doses of the vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc and German partner BioNTech, by the end of the week. But Dr Robert Redfield, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), earlier warned that the country’s healthcare system could face a collapse before vaccines become more widely available by next year. Earlier this month, the University of Washington’s influential Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation had projected the death toll could reach nearly 450,000 by March 1 without greater attention to social distancing and mask-wearing. Biden, Pence to get vaccine As this developed, the White House announced on Wednesday that US Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen will be vaccinated for COVID-19 on Friday in a public event. Surgeon General Jerome Adams also will get the vaccine on Friday. The announcement comes as sources close to President-elect Joe Biden say he is expected to receive the shot as soon as next week. Biden said on Tuesday that Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, advised him to get the vaccine “sooner than later”. Biden, 78, is in a high-risk category for the coronavirus because of his age.
As Pandemic Rages On, Analysis Finds 1 in 5 People in US Prisons Infected With Covid-19 -Amid swelling calls to reduce the nation's incarceration rates in light of the ongoing pandemic, The Marshall Project and The Associated Press released a new analysis Friday finding that one in five state and federal prisoners has tested positive for Covid-19.That rate is "more than four times as high as the general population," the analysis noted. More than 1,700 prisoners have died from the virus, the data also showed.The figures are based on data collected weekly in prisons since March, and account for cases and deaths as of Tuesday. The Marshall Project and AP have been tracking Covid-19 data in prisons since March. So far, they found, at least 275,000 prisoners have been infected with the virus—though the tally is likely an undercount.The analysis cites Homer Venters, former chief medical officer at New York’s Rikers Island jail Homer Venters, who said, "I still encounter prisons and jails where, when people get sick, not only are they not tested but they don't receive care."Included in the analysis are 24 state prison systems that had even higher rates than one in five. In South Dakota, for example, three out of five prisoners have been infected with Covid-19—the highest rate. Arkansas had the second highest prisoner infection rate, with four of every seven having tested positive.The analysis further noted: Racial disparities in the nation's criminal justice system compound the disproportionate toll the pandemic has taken on communities of color. Black Americans are incarcerated at five times the rate of whites. They are also disproportionately likely to be infected and hospitalized with Covid-19 and are more likely than other races to have a family member or close friend who has died of the virus. Human rights groups and public health experts have been urging states to roll out plans for the early release of prisoners. Calls began as early as March for compassionate releases. The months since have seen soaring infection rates and prison officials beingaccused of mishandling the response to the virus and denying basic necessities to stop its spread.
Mississippi hospitals overwhelmed by surge in COVID-19 cases - Despite admonishing the public on the surge in new infections that have seen intensive care units (ICUs) reach full capacity, Mississippi Today reported that Republican Governor Tate Reeves is planning several Christmas parties at the governor’s mansion during the holiday season. The governor’s executive order to curb the tide of COVID-19 infections issued last week restricts social gatherings to no more than 10 people indoors and no more than 50 people outdoors. While the order includes a mask mandate for all schools statewide, Reeves has resisted issuing a general statewide directive. How people working in factories and busy warehouses will comply with these orders is a moot point. These measures are aimed at deflecting all responsibility for the mounting social crisis onto the backs of workers who are forced to brave dangerous conditions. Meanwhile, the soirees that include state House and Senate members are proceeding as they customarily have in the past, and without masks. Since early November, the pandemic has been surging again throughout the state, as cases began rising in a natural response to school openings that practically threw the door wide open for the virus. The seven-day average has peaked at over 2,000 cases per day. Daily fatalities have also been climbing, lagging by three to four weeks. The present spike in cases has been attributed to the Thanksgiving period. Dr. Thomas Dobbs, the State Health Officer, tweeted December 11, “9.8 percent of COVID cases end up in the hospital. Mississippi ICUs are full and many hospitalizations on the way. Beginning next Tuesday, elective surgeries that require hospitalizations must be delayed statewide.” Up to mid-November, the proportion of COVID-19 cases nationally that resulted in hospitalization stood at 3.5 percent. This has been declining more recently because as hospitals are filling up, fewer people are being admitted and those admitted tend to be more critically ill. However, according to Dr. Dobbs, the situation in Mississippi, with 9.8 percent of cases ending in hospitalization, would indicate that the patient population is in poorer health. To confirm this observation, we calculated the crude fatality rate in Mississippi due to COVID-19 and compared it to the national rate. For Mississippi, the crude fatality case rate stands at 2.9 percent, while it is 2 percent for the United States. The dire situation in the state can be traced to extreme levels of poverty and attendant poor health. The median household income in Mississippi is the lowest among the 50 states. It stands just under $45,000, far less than the national median annual income of almost $62,000. Mississippi leads in nearly every major category in cause of death compared to other states, which include heart, Alzheimer’s, and kidney disease. The state ranks second in cancers, stroke, diabetes, pneumonia, and infections. Obstetric statistics are abysmal, ranking first in preterm deliveries, low birth weight, and cesarean deliveries. The obesity rate is just above 40 percent. Life expectancy stands at 74.4 years of age, the lowest in the 50 states.
Nurses speak on burnout and PTSD as COVID-19 hospitalizations in US reach new highs - As the Democrats and Republicans and news media hail the release of new vaccines, the reality facing health care workers battling the current surge of COVID-19 cases is one of death, exhaustion, burnout and fear. While a vaccine should be celebrated, data from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) shows that the rolling out of the vaccine will lower the projected deaths by April 1 by only 10,000. Considering the US is projected to see another 215,000 people die from the virus by the beginning of March, it is clear that immediate emergency measures must be implemented to stop the explosive spread of the pandemic and save hundreds of thousands of lives. This includes the shutdown of nonessential production and schools and providing compensation for all those affected by an emergency lockdown. The voices of nurses and other health care workers paint a vivid picture of the consequences of the bipartisan policy of “herd immunity,” which they are experiencing firsthand through the rapid increase in hospitalizations and breakdown of the nation’s health care infrastructure. In a recent thread on a national Facebook group “Nurses Talk Corona,” nurses discussed their experiences amidst the latest and worst surge of the coronavirus. Tara, a nurse from Indiana, wrote, “Our ICUs are maxed out. Our [cardiovascular] ICU and [medical surgical] ICU is now having to fill with COVID patients instead of surgical because of need. They filled our [pediatric] ICU with adults, so that’s four full ICUs with RNs having to work four and five shifts trying to make staffing better. They had to intubate and hold a patient on a regular floor until our ICU could make room.” Tara is describing a phenomenon experienced across the world where ICUs have run out of the beds as hospitalization rates reach all-time highs. COVID-19 hospitalizations in the US have now exceeded 110,000, an increase from 60,000 in July. If projections hold, hospitalizations will peak at 180,000 by January 15. According to data released from the CDC last week, within the past month all age groups have reached their highest weekly hospitalization rate since the start of the pandemic. As hospitalizations rise, already exhausted health care workers are spread increasingly thin. In many cases, nurses are pushed to take on patient loads far above pre-pandemic limits, an unsafe if not deadly state of affairs for patients and nurses alike. Some hospital units are forced to come up with strategies to cope with the onslaught of patients such as putting new, inexperienced nurses into settings that far exceed their skill level or requiring high levels of overtime hours.
US Coronavirus: Nation surpasses 17 million official Covid-19 cases as FDA panel recommends Moderna's vaccine - The number of Americans in the hospital with Covid-19 was at a record high for the 12th day in a row Thursday as the US Food and Drug Administration said it plans to issue emergency use authorization for a second coronavirus vaccine for the country. More than 114,200 people were hospitalized with the disease, according to the Covid Tracking Project. The United States, which started distributing and using its first authorized vaccine this week, is also dealing with record rates of new daily cases and daily deaths. The FDA was widely expected to grant emergency use authorization for Moderna's vaccine candidate -- as it did for Pfizer's vaccine last week -- after its vaccine advisory panel voted to recommend it. The CDC would need to greenlight the vaccine before shots can be administered -- and a CDC advisory panel is expected to meet on the matter Saturday, raising the possibility that the Moderna vaccine could be used next week. The recently authorized Pfizer vaccine, meanwhile, has been administered to hundreds of US health care workers this week, and drug store chains CVS and Walgreens are helping to get shots to long-term care residents and staff members. The Pfizer vaccine requires each patient to receive two doses about 21 days apart, and the Moderna vaccine also would require two doses. Assuming the Moderna vaccine is authorized, the two products could combine for an availability of 40 million doses, for 20 million people, by the end of December, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has said. What we know about Moderna's coronavirus vaccine and how it differs from Pfizer's What we know about Moderna's coronavirus vaccine and how it differs from Pfizer's But as vaccinations begin, recorded cases, hospitalizations and deaths are rising to levels not previously seen, as hospital staff around the country warn they're running out of space and energy toprovide sufficient care:
- • Average cases: The country's average number of daily cases across a week was 215,729 on Wednesday -- a record high, Johns Hopkins University data show. That's more than three times what the daily case average was during a summer peak in July.
- • Cases in one day: The US recorded 247,403 cases on Wednesday, a record for one day.
- • Deaths: The nation averaged 2,569 deaths daily across the last week -- the highest average yet. The total reported Wednesday -- 3,656 -- is a one-day high.
• Record Hospitalizations (Over 114,000)
• Record 7 Day Cases
• Record 7 Day Average Deaths
Coronavirus cases growing at 'staggering rate' in California - As California set a single-day record for coronavirus deaths, San Francisco imposed a 10-day quarantine on travelers arriving from outside the region. New coronavirus cases hit a record high of 52,330 in a single day across California Wednesday, and the state recorded 51,209 new cases on Thursday. In the Bay Area, new cases topped 4,500 on Wednesday and 4,000 on Thursday, down from the bleak all-time high of 6,775 on Monday. The number of open ICU beds statewide fell to its lowest level Thursday, just 3%. That means just 1,260 intensive-care beds were available for the state’s medical emergencies, down from more than 4,500 in April. Bay Area hospitals were doing better, but still hovered at dangerously low levels. ICU availability rose slightly to 13.1% Thursday from 12.9% the day before. California also set yet another record for single-day deaths. Across the state, 394 people died of COVID-19 Wednesday, topping the previous highest count of 295 lives lost to the virus, set just a day earlier. On Thursday, an additional 288 people died of COVID-19 across the state. “Cases are accelerating at a staggering rate, and we want to take every step possible to stop them,” San Francisco public health Director Grant Colfax said Thursday in announcing the travel order that takes effect at 12:01 a.m. Friday. While counties wait desperately for vaccines to arrive, their hope is that stay-at-home orders will reduce cases. The state’s orders were triggered this week for the nine Bay Area counties and Monterey and Santa Cruz counties after ICU availability fell below 15%. Six of the counties had earlier voluntarily adopted the restrictions, which includes a ban on outdoor restaurant meals, gatherings and store occupancy above 20%. “We have reached a point where COVID-19 is so widespread in California that just leaving the house is a risky behavior,” Dr. M ark Ghaly, California secretary of Health and Human Services, told The Chronicle. With its quarantine, San Francisco joined one other Bay Area county, Santa Clara, which ordered a similar restriction Dec. 2. Under the quarantine, people traveling into San Francisco from anywhere beyond these counties — San Mateo, Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa, Solano, Sonoma, Napa, Marin and Santa Cruz — are required to stay home and interact with no one outside of their household except in an emergency or if they need medical care. Doctors and first responders are among those exempted. Violating the travel ban is technically a misdemeanor, Colfax said at a news briefing, adding that the county isn’t expecting to fine people but hopes people will comply “because it’s the right thing to do.”
California breaks daily coronavirus case record again as deaths continue to rise – LA Times - More Californians are dying of COVID-19 now than at any other point in the pandemic.But as ferociously as the coronavirus has spread this autumn, it still continues to stalk certain communities much more than others.More than 1,500 people lost their lives to COVID-19 in the last week — a number that represents 7% of the state’s more than 22,000 total coronavirus-related fatalities.The death tolls seen Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday — 295, 394, 288 and 265, respectively — represent the four deadliest days the state has seen throughout the entire pandemic, according to data compiled by The Times. California on Friday broke a record for most coronavirus cases in a single day with 53,326, topping the high last set Wednesday, when 52,330 cases were reported, according to The Times’ county-by-county survey. The state is now averaging more than 40,000 new coronavirus cases a day over the last week, a new record and 10 times the figure from Halloween. The record for the number of Californians currently hospitalized for COVID-19 has been broken for 20 days in a row, rising to 16,019 by Thursday, including 3,447 people in intensive care units. COVID-19 hospitalizations have multiplied sevenfold since mid-October. The state recorded 265 COVID-19 deaths Friday, its fourth-largest single-day tally. California is now averaging 226 deaths a day, also a new record, and five times the comparable figure from early November.
Illinois nursing homes hit new COVID-19 death records - Chicago Tribune -- A record number of Illinois nursing home residents with COVID-19 died in the past week, as people in long-term care try to hold out until they can get vaccinated against the virus. An unprecedented 605 resident deaths were attributed to COVID-19 in the past seven days, state figures showed Friday — far more than the previous high of 480 two weeks ago. The number of recorded new infections in the state’s long-term care facilities also set a record with 5,063 new cases, surpassing the previous high of 4,536 from two weeks earlier. This second surge of the virus again exceeds the worst trends of the first wave of cases and deaths in the spring. The toll fell markedly in the summer but has risen again since November, following increases seen in the broader population. One encouraging sign is that the numbers of cases and deaths statewide have dropped slightly in recent weeks. Researchers have reported that nursing home deaths generally follow the trends in the wider community, as workers contract the virus and bring it into the homes. The Health Care Council of Illinois, which represents long-term care facilities, issued a statement looking forward to a “turning point” when vaccinations are scheduled to begin in nursing homes Dec. 28.
Canada’s far north Nunavut Territory faces major COVID-19 outbreak - Until early November, Canada’s sparsely populated Nunavut territory was among the few inhabited places on the planet that had not seen a single case of COVID-19. Located in Canada’s remote far north, the territory was able to remain COVID-free for eight months after the virus took hold in North America, by implementing strict travel controls and social distancing in grocery stores and other places. However, as a second wave of the pandemic developed in Canada’s south this fall as a result of the reckless back-to-work and back-to-school policies pursued by the federal and provincial governments, the virus inevitably found its way into the territory. After the first COVID-19 case was reported last month, the virus quickly spread, forcing small and isolated Nunavut communities to cope with major outbreaks in the midst of harsh winter conditions. Only residents and essential workers were permitted to enter the territory as of March 24. Those coming from elsewhere who were approved to enter the territory had to undergo a mandatory 14-day period of self-isolation beforehand in either Ottawa, Winnipeg, Edmonton or Yellowknife. Health officials and community leaders in the territory knew that if the pandemic were to begin spreading in the isolated region, the consequences would be dire. The population of Nunavut, standing at just over 39,000—85 percent of whom are Inuit—has been burdened with simultaneous crises for many years. A chronic housing shortage, a food insecurity crisis and a decades-long struggle with tuberculosis are the main hardships already faced by those living there. In 2018, the federal government committed to ending TB among Inuit by 2030. But after just two years of effort, progress was officially stalled in January 2020 due to a lack of funding. Rates of tuberculosis among the Inuit are 300 times higher than those observed in non-Indigenous, Canadian-born citizens. Advocates for tackling the TB crisis in Nunavut acknowledge that the problem is inextricably bound up with a housing crisis, food insecurity and high levels of unemployment. Varied stressors of poor living conditions oftentimes allow for the disease to become active in a carrier, and this fact combined with the affected population living in overcrowded housing and suffering from malnourishment mean the likelihood of transmission is very high.Tuberculosis is a disease caused by bacteria that most commonly affect the lungs, causing chest pain, coughing and a host of other symptoms. A 2011Globe and Mail article labelled Nunavut as “one of the world’s worst places for respiratory health”
Barcelona hosts concert for 500 in COVID rapid-test experiment - Barcelona threw a free concert for 500 lockdown-weary residents Saturday — but they had to pass a rapid coronavirus test to get in. Barcelona’s Fight AIDS and Infectious Diseases Foundation set up the live music event as an experiment to weigh the efficacy of rapid tests used for large, cultural events. More than 1,000 residents gathered at the Apolo Theatre, where they were given a COVID-19 antigen test. About 500 of the volunteers whose tests came back COVID-free were randomly selected as audience members for the five-hour music festival. Those who were sent home will form a control group that will allow organizers to compare the virus spread among them with the group who was let into the concert. The goal of the experiment is to judge whether antigen tests — which produce results within 15 minutes but are said to be less effective than PCR tests — can safely allow large gatherings to happen once again. “This is not a party, this is a scientific study,” Dr. Boris Revollo, the virologist who designed the study’s protocols, told The Associated Press.. “This could be useful in all types of events, from cultural events, to business congresses, to sporting events. . . . And young people, as we have seen, are holding their own clandestine parties because they have no other outlet.”
New data expose catastrophe of Turkey’s “herd immunity” policy - The record COVID-19 case numbers in Turkey reflect the results of the murderous “herd immunity” policy of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government, supported by the parliamentary opposition parties and trade unions. It shows that government “restrictions” on movement during the pandemic only aim to control the anger of the working class, not to halt the spread of the disease. With nearly 30,000 daily cases, Turkey is in third place in the world after the United States and Brazil and now has risen to first place in Europe. The number of daily deaths—over 200 in recent days—is the highest since March 11, when the first case was detected in Turkey. Until recently, the Turkish government has refused to announce real data over the pandemic so as to force workers back to work and contain public anger, making an arbitrary, unscientific distinction between “cases” and “patients.” However, growing popular outrage against inadequate restrictions and figures announced by the Turkish Medical Association (TTB) and other institutions have forced the government to announce daily and total cases. On November 25, the Health Ministry announced 28,351 daily cases. The day before, it had announced only 7,381 “patients.” Sources: Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering. Last updated: December 13, 2020 On December 10, the Health Ministry also announced that there had been 1,748,567 total cases since the pandemic began. Case and death figures are still not reliable, however, and are likely underestimates. One of the world’s biggest cover-ups over the pandemic has taken place in Turkey as part of the criminal “herd immunity” policy implemented by governments all over the world in the interests of the financial aristocracy. Turkish Medical Association (TTB) Chair Prof. Dr. Şebnem Korur Fincancı stated that the Health Ministry’s latest figures are not completely transparent: “The table mentions 20 million tests. We know that the positivity rates, which were around 10 percent in March and April, have increased to 30 percent since mid-November. ... [I]f there is a 15 percent average test positivity, the number of cases should be 3 million.” Experts also pointed out that it is unrealistic to record one-third of all cases in the last few weeks.
WHO accused of conspiring with Italy to remove damning Covid report -- The World Health Organization has been accused of conspiring with the Italian health ministry to remove a report revealing the country’s mismanagement at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic – the publication of which was intended to prevent future deaths. Italy was the first European country to become engulfed by the pandemic. The report, produced by the WHO scientist Francesco Zambon and 10 colleagues across Europe, was funded by Kuwait’s government with the objective of providing information to countries yet to be hit. Called An Unprecedented Challenge: Italy’s First Response to Covid-19, the document was published on the WHO website on 13 May before being taken down the next day, as first reported by the Guardian in August. The 102-page report said Italy’s pandemic plan had not been updated since 2006 and that, due to being unprepared, the initial response from hospitals was “improvised, chaotic and creative”. It took time for formal guidance to become available, the report added. The document was allegedly removed at the request of Ranieri Guerra, the WHO’s assistant director general for strategic initiatives. Guerra was the director general for preventive health at the Italian health ministry between 2014 and late 2017, and was therefore responsible for updating the pandemic plan as per new guidelines laid out by the WHO and European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). Guerra is among the scientists on the Italian government’s Covid-19 taskforce. The outdated plan is a crucial element in the preliminary investigations being carried out by prosecutors in Bergamo – the Lombardy province hardest hit during the first wave of the pandemic – into possible criminal negligence by authorities. Covid-related deaths in Italy surpassed 60,000 on Sunday, the highest toll in mainland Europe.
Atmospheric pollution and COVID-19 spread in Italy - The spread of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus responsible for the current pandemic outbreak, has been speculated to be linked to short-term and long-term atmospheric pollutants exposure, mainly particulate matters (PMs). It is in fact possible for people living in highly industrialized areas, therefore exposed to higher pollution levels, to show more severe symptoms. Further studies have pointed out that atmospheric pollutants can act as virus carriers and boost pandemic diffusion. A study recently published on Environmental Pollution searched for any potential short-term correlation between these two phenomena. The research led by the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC) Foundation and carried out in collaboration with the University of Salento and the Italian National Institute of Health (ISS) focused on the analysis of atmospheric pollutants concentrations (PM10, PM2.5, NO2) along with the spatio-temporal distribution of cases and deaths (specifically incidence, mortality and lethality rates) across the whole Italian country, down to the level of individual territorial areas, including four of the most affected regions, i.e. Lombardy, Piedmont, Emilia-Romagna and Veneto. "The data analysis has been limited to the first quarter of 2020 to reduce the lockdown-dependent biased effects on the atmospheric pollutant levels as much as possible", explains Prof. Giovanni Aloisio, corresponding author of the study and also member of the CMCC Strategic Board, Director of the CMCC Supercomputing Center and Full Professor at the University of Salento, Dept. of Innovation Engineering. "Our results suggest the hypothesis of a moderate-to-strong correlation between the number of days exceeding the annual regulatory limits of PM10, PM2.5 and NO2 atmospheric pollutants and COVID-19 incidence, mortality and lethality rates for all the 107 Italian territorial areas under investigation, whereas weak-to-moderate correlations where found when the analysis was limited to four of the most affected regions in Northern Italy (Lombardy, Piedmont, Emilia-Romagna and Veneto)."
Ukrainian mayor dies from Covid after re-election - Gennadiy Kernes, the mayor of Ukraine’s second-largest city, died on Thursday from complications related to Covid-19, including kidney failure. "The great good heart of my best friend Gennadiy Kernes stopped,” Pavlo Fuchs, an oligarch who backed Kernes, wrote on social media. “The consequences of coronavirus infection caused serious complications to the work of vital organs and systems of his body. Eternal memory to you, my friend,” he added. Kernes had been treated at Berlin's Charité clinic since September. In October, he was re-elected mayor of Kharkiv, a post he has held since 2010. The 61-year-old was paralysed from the waist down in April 2014 after being shot while jogging by an unknown sniper. The shooting took place after Kernes flipped politically to support a pro-western leadership that gained power in Ukraine after kleptocratic pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovich fled for Russia amid the Maidan revolution. Kernes’ passing adds to a Covid-19 death toll of nearly 16,000 in Ukraine, while confirmed cases total 931,751. The coronavirus pandemic has claimed the lives of a handful of regional Ukrainian officials, of whom Kernes is the most prominent. President Volodymyr Zelensky and other top officials have recovered from Covid-19.
Father who 'begged' GP for an MRI scan dies from cancer after Covid backlog - A father-of-two who had to "beg" to get an MRI scan because of the coronavirus crisis has died of cancer, his family have revealed. Sherwin Hall, 27, from Leeds, West Yorkshire, went to hospital on March 23 suffering from leg pain but despite repeated visits he was only given a course of antibiotics for a misdiagnosis of prostatitis. After "begging for a scan" and 13 hospital visits in four weeks, Mr Hall was finally given an MRI on May 26 which revealed a 14cm malignant tumour in his pelvis and 30 small tumours on his lungs. Before his death, Mr Hall said: "I kept begging them in April and May to give me an MRI scan, but no-one would listen.. "Both my GP and my consultant told me that I couldn't get one because scanning services were slowed down because of the coronavirus." His widow, LaTroya Hall, who is being supported by the Catch Up With Cancer Campaign, said: "I am devastated. I have lost the love of my life. "If Sherwin's cancer had been found earlier it is likely he would still be here today. He would want me to do everything I can to prevent other families suffering as we have. "It worries me that the Government and NHS leaders continue to say cancer services are back to normal; our family's experience has been that, even now, this is simply not the case.” Mr Hall's death comes as cancer patients, celebrities and NHS staff have launched a Christmas video as part of a campaign calling on the Government to boost cancer services "devastated" by the Covid-19 crisis. The Catch Up With Cancer campaign was launched by the parents of Macclesfield beautician Kelly Smith who died after her treatment for bowel cancer was stopped because of the pandemic.
Coronavirus latest: ‘We have failed,’ Sweden’s king says of Covid strategy - Sweden’s king has admitted that the Scandinavian country has failed with its coronavirus strategy, which has left it with a far higher death toll from the pandemic than its neighbours. Carl XVI Gustaf told Swedes in his annual Christmas address that the country had suffered “enormously in difficult conditions” and that it was “traumatic” that many relatives of the almost 8,000 people to die with Covid-19 had not been able to say goodbye to them. “I think we have failed. We have a large number who have died and that is terrible. It is something we all have to suffer with,” the king said in comments released on Thursday and due to be broadcast in full on Monday. Sweden’s light-touch Covid strategy with no formal lockdown, no recommendations to use face masks, and weaker quarantine rules than elsewhere in Europe has been intensely debated internationally. An opinion poll for newspaper Dagens Nyheter on Thursday showed support for Sweden’s public health agency and its state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell continued to slide but remained at higher levels than other countries. The proportion of Swedes that had strong faith in the agency fell 7 percentage points to 52 per cent while Mr Tegnell’s support slipped 6 percentage points to 59 per cent. Support has dropped ever since Sweden was hard hit by the second wave of Covid-19 in Europe, something Mr Tegnell had insisted in the spring and summer was unlikely due to the heavy first wave. Sweden’s death toll from Covid is 7,802 compared with 402 for neighbouring Norway and 472 for Finland, both of which have about half its population.
Almost 1,000 daily COVID-19 deaths in Germany: The criminal outcome of keeping businesses and schools open - The campaign to reopen businesses and schools in Germany amid a raging pandemic has led to a massive resurgence of COVID-19 in the country, with a record 952 COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday. Despite these horrendous figures, all parties in the Bundestag (parliament) continue to put profit before lives and health. The so-called “hard lockdown,” which came into force yesterday, mainly protects the economy and does not go nearly far enough to save tens of thousands of lives. With the recent highs, a total of 23,427 people have been confirmed to have died from COVID-19 in Germany. If the numbers remain at this level, Germany could reach 40,000 deaths before the end of the year. It is more likely that they will be much higher, as the country’s hospitals are already on the verge of collapse. In Zittau, Saxony, a hospital director explained that in the last few days, his facility has already been forced to decide who is to be connected to ventilators and who is to be denied necessary treatment. Nursing homes are turning into death wards as these profit-oriented, cash-starved institutions do not even take rudimentary protective measures. Germany has long been advanced as a model for how to deal with the pandemic. Now, the daily death toll per capita in Germany has risen significantly higher than in the United States, the epicentre of the pandemic, where President Trump embodies like no other the ruthlessness of the ruling class and its anti-scientific ignorance. Germany’s policy, despite all the concerned rhetoric, differs little from that of the White House, neither in its criminal methods nor in its deadly consequences. The federal and state governments of all stripes accept tens of thousands of deaths in order to protect the profits of major banks and corporations. In the last few months, they refused to close any businesses. They kept schools open and even refused to restrict classes in schools, despite rapidly increasing numbers of infections. Workers were to be available to the companies without restrictions despite the pandemic. Thus, with the support of the trade unions and all the bourgeois parties, infection figures were pushed up, producing the terrible situation that is now claiming thousands of lives.
French President Macron tests positive for COVID-19 (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron has tested positive for COVID-19, the presidential Elysee Palace announced on Thursday. It said the president took a test “as soon as the first symptoms appeared.” The brief statement did not say what symptoms Macron experienced. It said he would isolate himself for seven days. “He will continue to work and take care of his activities at a distance,” it added. It was not immediately clear what contact tracing efforts were in progress. Macron attended a European Union summit at the end of last week, where he notably had a bilateral meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He met Wednesday with the prime minister of Portugal. There was no immediate comment from Portuguese officials. Macron on Wednesday also held the government’s weekly Cabinet meeting in the presence of Prime Minister Jean Castex and other ministers. Castex’s office said that the prime minister is also self-isolating for seven days. The French presidency confirmed that Macron’s trip to Lebanon scheduled for next week is being canceled.
New coronavirus strain spreading in UK has key mutations, scientists say(Reuters) - British scientists are trying to establish whether the rapid spread in southern England of a new variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 is linked to key mutations they have detected in the strain, they said on Tuesday. The mutations include changes to the important “spike” protein that the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus uses to infect human cells, a group of scientists tracking the genetics of the virus said, but it is not yet clear whether these are making it more infectious. "Efforts are under way to confirm whether or not any of these mutations are contributing to increased transmission," the scientists, from the COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium, said in a statement (bit.ly/3mhpTJX). The new variant, which UK scientists have named “VUI – 202012/01” includes a mutation in the viral genome region encoding the spike protein, which - in theory - could result in COVID-19 spreading more easily between people. The British government on Monday cited a rise in new infections, which it said may be partly linked to the new variant, as it moved its capital city and many other areas into the highest tier of COVID-19 restrictions. As of Dec. 13, 1,108 COVID-19 cases with the new variant had been identified, predominantly in the south and east of England, Public Health England said in a statement. But there is currently no evidence that the variant is more likely to cause severe COVID-19 infections, the scientists said, or that it would render vaccines less effective. “Both questions require further studies performed at pace,” the COG-UK scientists said. Mutations, or genetic changes, arise naturally in all viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, as they replicate and circulate in human populations. In the case of SARS-CoV-2, these mutations are accumulating at a rate of around one to two mutations per month globally, according to the COG-UK genetics specialists. “As a result of this on-going process, many thousands of mutations have already arisen in the SARS-CoV-2 genome since the virus emerged in 2019,” they said. The majority of the mutations seen so far have had no apparent effect on the virus, and only a minority are likely to change the virus in any significant way - for example, making it more able to infect people, more likely to cause severe illness, or less sensitive to natural or vaccine-induced immune defences. Susan Hopkins, a PHE medical advisor, said it is “not unexpected that the virus should evolve and it’s important that we spot any changes quickly to understand the potential risk.” She said the new variant “is being detected in a wide geography, especially where there are increased cases being detected.”
UK says new coronavirus strain is more infectious, but vaccines should still work (Reuters) - A new strain of coronavirus identified in the United Kingdom is up to 70% more infectious but it is not thought to be more deadly and vaccines should still be effective, Prime Minister Boris Johnson and scientists said on Saturday. Johnson and England’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said the variant strain had been discovered through Public Health England’s genomic surveillance and it was now confirmed that it spread more easily that the original version. “There’s no evidence that it causes more severe illness or higher mortality, but it does appear to be passed on significantly more easily,” Johnson told a news conference to announce tougher lockdown restrictions for millions of people. “Although there’s considerable uncertainty, it may be up to 70% more transmissible than the old variant, the original version of the disease. This is early data and it’s subject to review. “But it’s the best that we have at the moment and we have to act on information as we have it, because this is now spreading very fast.” Cases in Britain have soared in the last two weeks, and were rising fast, data showed. Britain’s Chief Scientific Adviser Patrick Vallance said COVID-19 vaccines appeared to be adequate in generating an immune response to the variant of the coronavirus. “We think it (the variant) may be in other countries as well,” Vallance told reporters. “It may have started here, we don’t know for sure.” Vallance said in parts of England, including London, the south east and east of England, the new variant was becoming the dominant form. “This virus has taken off,” he said of the mutation. “It’s moving fast and it’s leading inevitably to a sharp increase in hospital admissions.”
The Virus Trains: How Lockdown Chaos Spread Covid-19 Across India - India offered special trains to get fleeing migrant workers home during the pandemic. But they ended up spreading the virus across the country. - Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s coronavirus restrictions sent migrant workers fleeing. To get them home, the government offered special trains. But the trains would spread the virus across the country. SURAT, India — The crowds surged through the gates, fought their way up the stairs of the 160-year-old station, poured across the platforms and engulfed the trains. It was May 5, around 10 a.m. Surat was beastly hot, 106 degrees. Thousands of migrant laborers were frantic to leave — loom operators, diamond polishers, mechanics, truck drivers, cooks, cleaners, the backbone of Surat’s economy. Two of them were Rabindra and Prafulla Behera, brothers and textile workers, who had arrived in Surat a decade ago in search of opportunity and were now fleeing disease and death. Rabindra stepped aboard carrying a bag stuffed with chapatis. His older brother, Prafulla, clattered in behind, dragging a plastic suitcase packed with pencils, toys, lipstick for his wife and 13 dresses for his girls. “You really think we should be doing this?” Prafulla asked. “What else are we going to do?” Rabindra said. “We have nothing to eat and our money’s out.” They were among tens of millions of migrant workers stranded without work or food after Prime Minister Narendra Modi imposed a national coronavirus lockdown in March.. By spring and summer, these workers were so desperate that the government provided emergency trains to carry them back to their home villages. The trains were called Shramik Specials, because shramik means “laborer” in Hindi. But they became the virus trains. India has now reported more coronavirus cases than any country besides the United States. And it has become clear that the special trains operated by the government to ease suffering — and to counteract a disastrous lack of lockdown planning — instead played a significant role in spreading the coronavirus into almost every corner of the country. The trains became contagion zones: Every passenger was supposed to be screened for Covid-19 before boarding but few if any were tested. Social distancing, if promised, was nonexistent, as men pressed into passenger cars for journeys that could last days. Then the trains disgorged passengers into distant villages, in regions that before had few if any coronavirus cases. One of those places was Ganjam, a lush, rural district on the Bay of Bengal, where the Behera brothers disembarked after their crowded trip from Surat. Untouched by the virus, Ganjam soon became one of India’s most heavily infected rural districts after the migrants started returning.
India hits 10 million coronavirus cases but pace slows (Reuters) - India exceeded 10 million infections of the new coronavirus on Saturday, much later than predicted only a month ago as the pace of infections slows, despite many in the country giving up on masks and social distancing. After hitting a peak of nearly 98,000 daily cases in mid-September, daily infections have averaged around 30,000 this month, helping India widen its gap with the United States, the world’s worst affected country with more than 16 million cases. India reported 25,152 new infections and 347 deaths in the past 24 hours, data from the health ministry showed. The virus has so far killed 145,136 people in the country. India took 30 days to add the last million cases, the second slowest since the start of the pandemic. The country expects to roll out vaccines soon and is considering emergency-use request for three types, developed by Oxford/AstraZeneca, Pfizer and local company Bharat Biotech. But some health experts say the fall in cases suggests many Indians may have already developed virus antibodies through natural infection. “Herd immunity is a huge part of it ... which is helping us to break the transmission,” said Pradeep Awate, a senior health official in India’s worst-hit state of Maharashtra, home to Mumbai. India’s richest state was in dire straits back in September when its daily cases averaged 20,000 and hospitals ran out of beds and oxygen. It is now reporting fewer than 5,000 cases. The national capital territory of Delhi said on Saturday its third and the worst surge in cases has now ended. It reported 1,418 new infections and 37 deaths on Friday. “If infections were surging, we would have seen the number of patients in hospitals go up, especially after the festival season. That has not happened,” said Raman Gangakhedkar, who until recently headed epidemiology at the Indian Council Of Medical Research. A government-appointed panel tasked with making projections based on a mathematical model has estimated that 60% of India’s 1.35 billion people have already been infected with the virus.
New study links cadmium to more severe flu, pneumonia infections - High levels of cadmium, a chemical found in cigarettes and in contaminated vegetables, are associated with higher death rates in patients with influenza or pneumonia--and may increase the severity of COVID-19 and other respiratory viruses, according to a new study. "Our study suggests the public in general, both smokers and nonsmokers, could benefit from reduced exposure to cadmium," said lead author Sung Kyun Park, associate professor of epidemiology and environmental health sciences at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. Long-term exposure to cadmium, even at low levels, may undermine our defense system in the lungs, and people with high levels of the chemical may not be able to cope with influenza virus attacks, Park said. The study by researchers at U-M, the University of Southern California and the University of Washington is published in the December issue of Environmental Health Perspectives. "The associations we found need to be verified in other populations and also studied with respect to cadmium's potential impact on COVID-19 related morbidity and mortality," said senior author Howard Hu, professor and chair of USC's Department of Preventive Medicine and an occupational/environmental physician. "Unfortunately, the human body finds it much more difficult to excrete cadmium than other toxic metals, and its presence in many nutritious foods means it is critical to continue reducing sources of environmental pollution that contribute to its presence in air, soil and water."
Health Dept. Warns Against Eating Cannibal Sandwich, A Holiday Favorite --Health officials in the state of Wisconsin have warned residents against eating a “cannibal sandwich,” a dish that is a holiday favorite in the state. This meal doesn’t sound as bad as its name implies, but it is still pretty bad.A “cannibal sandwich” does not contain human meat as you would suspect, instead, it is basically raw ground beef on bread with sliced onions, salt, and pepper.While this is not cannibalism, it is still a very dangerous dish, and Wisconsin health officials are warning residents against it.“Eating raw meat is NEVER recommended because of the bacteria it can contain,” the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) said in a tweet on Saturday.Since the dish is so popular, this is a warning that the DHS needs to put out every single year.“Time for our annual reminder that there’s one #holiday tradition you need to pass on: raw meat sandwiches, sometimes called Tiger Meat or Cannibal Sandwiches,” the state health department wrote on Facebook.Some people who eat the dish actually think that the meat is safe if they get it from special distributors. The health department set the record straight on this myth as well. “Many Wisconsin families consider them to be a holiday tradition, but eating them poses a threat for Salmonella, E. coli O157:H7, Campylobacter and Listeria bacteria that can make you sick. (And, no, it doesn’t matter where you buy your beef!).” Every single holiday season there are hundreds of people throughout the midwest who are sickened by eating cannibal sandwiches, according to the US Department of Agriculture. In the state of Wisconsin alone, there have been at least eight raw meat-related outbreaks in Wisconsin since 1986, including a salmonella outbreak affecting more than 150 people in December of 1994.
3D printers may be toxic for humans -Risk researchers are asking new questions about the health and safety implications and how to mitigate any potential health risks to users of 3D printers and consumers of products manufactured with this emerging technology, especially children. Such printing is increasingly being used in homes, schools, libraries and other spaces where people commonly spend a lot of time. The particles released during the printing process, which are small enough to infiltrate deep into the lungs, can affect indoor air quality and public health. The wide use of 3D printers to manufacture face shields, respirators and other personal protective equipment for COVID-19 has created a new urgency on these questions.Several studies that aim to characterize and quantify the release and composition, particle size, and residence time in the indoor environment will be presented in the Exposure and Risk Assessment of 3D Printing and Emerging Materials symposium on December 15, from 12:00-1:30 p.m. ET at the 2020 Society for Risk Analysis virtual Annual Meeting held December 13-17, 2020.The base materials used in 3D printers include thermoplastics, metals, nanomaterials, polymers and volatile and semi volatile organic chemicals. The printing process may take several hours, and during this time a range of chemical by-products and particulates may be released into indoor environments.Given these unknowns, scientists have begun to conduct studies to understand these releases and their specific composition, particle size, and residence time in the indoor environment, producing data that can be incorporated into robust exposure and risk assessments. The study "Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) printer emission induced in vitro and in vivo toxicity," revealed that the emitted particles cause moderate toxicity in human lung cells and minimal toxicity in rats.
9-Year-Old Girl’s Asthma Death Officially Linked to Air Pollution in Unprecedented Coroner Ruling - A UK coroner ruled Wednesday that the asthma death of a nine-year-old girl was partly caused by the illegal levels of air pollution she was exposed to near her Southeast London home. The ruling is a legal first for the UK, The Guardian reported. Charities Asthma UK and the British Lung Foundation also said it was the first time anyone in the world had air pollution listed as a cause of death on their death certificate, CNN reported. "Ella died of asthma contributed to by exposure to excessive air pollution," inner South London coroner Philip Barlow decided Wednesday, as The Guardian reported. Ella Kissi-Debrah lived 80 feet from the extremely busy and polluted South Circular Road. Her ordeal began at the age of six, when she was taken to the hospital in 2010 because of a severe coughing fit, BBC News reported. She was placed in a medically-induced coma for three days to stabilize her condition. By 2012, she was classified as disabled because of her respiratory problems. She died Feb. 15, 2013 after a severe asthma attack. Between her first hospitalization and her death, she had been hospitalized 27 times and experienced multiple seizures. Immediately after she died, her cause of death was listed only as a severe asthma attack leading to respiratory failure, CBS News reported. But Stephen Holgate, the former chair of the UK government's advisory committee on air pollution and a professor at the University of Southampton, prepared a report for Ella's mother, Rosamund Kissi-Debrah. The report found that the times Ella was rushed to the hospital corresponded with times when air pollution spiked around her home, as EcoWatch reported in 2018. The report was then used to open a new inquest into Ella's death, according to CBS News. This was the process that led to Wednesday's ruling. "Air pollution was a significant contributory factor to both the induction and exacerbation of her asthma," Barlow said, according to a PA story reported by CNN. "During the course of her illness between 2010 and 2013 she was exposed to levels of nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter in excess of World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. The principal source of her exposure was traffic emissions." Barlow also said that her death might have been prevented if her mother had been given more information about the dangers of air pollution and its relationship to asthma.
Author says rural wastewater problems in US similar to issues in developing world - Author Catherine Coleman Flowers told Hill.TV that poor sewage infrastructure in some rural parts of the United States are comparable to problems seen in the developing world. “This is generally characterized as a third-world problem, but it’s definitely a problem of rural America as well,” said Flowers, author of the new book, “Waste: One Woman's Fight Against America's Dirty Secret.” Flowers said studies show faulty infrastructure could lead to “tropical parasites” and “potential diseases in families that were exposed to raw sewage.” She went on to describe some of the infrastructure problems she saw when she was an economic development adviser in Alabama. “There were people that had problems dealing with their waste, either they were street-piping, which is flushing and it going out into the ground, or they had failed septic systems that pushed the sewage back into the home or they were paying a wastewater treatment fee for these small treatment plants that generally also used lagoons and they had sewage coming into their home or out on top of the ground.” Those kinds of problems, she said, are not unique to Alabama. “It’s all over the United States, and it’s all over rural America, and I wanted to really highlight this so that we could find some long-term solutions and that the solutions have to also include not just a quick, political solution and leave the people once these systems are put in and they fail again,” she said. “We have to also work on technological solutions.”
Plastics pose threat to human health -Plastics contain and leach hazardous chemicals, including endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) that threaten human health. An authoritative new report,Plastics, EDCs, & Health, from the Endocrine Society and the IPEN (International Pollutants Elimination Network), presents a summary of international research on the health impacts of EDCs and describes the alarming health effects of widespread contamination from EDCs in plastics.EDCs are chemicals that disturb the body's hormone systems and can cause cancer, diabetes, reproductive disorders, and neurological impairments of developing fetuses and children. The report describes a wealth of evidence supporting direct cause-and-effect links between the toxic chemical additives in plastics and specific health impacts to the endocrine system. "Many of the plastics we use every day at home and work are exposing us to a harmful cocktail of endocrine-disrupting chemicals," The need for effective public policy to protect public health from EDCs in plastics is all the more urgent given the industry's dramatic growth projections. Pamela Miller, IPEN Co-Chair, commented, "This report clarifies that the current acceleration of plastic production, projected to increase by 30-36% in the next six years, will greatly exacerbate EDC exposures and rising global rates of endocrine diseases. Global policies to reduce and eliminate EDCs from plastic and reduce exposures from plastic recycling, plastic waste, and incineration are imperative. EDCs in plastics are an international health issue that is felt acutely in the global south where toxic plastic waste shipments from wealthier countries inundate communities." "Endocrine-disrupting chemical exposure is not only a global problem today, but it poses a serious threat to future generations," said co-author Pauliina Damdimopoulou, Ph.D., of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. "When a pregnant woman is exposed, EDCs can affect the health of her child and eventual grandchildren. Animal studies show EDCs can cause DNA modifications that have repercussions across multiple generations."
Plastic pipes are polluting drinking water systems after wildfires - it's a risk in urban fires, too - When wildfires swept through the hills near Santa Cruz, California, in 2020, they released toxic chemicals into the water supplies of at least two communities. One sample found benzene, a carcinogen, at 40 times the state’s drinking water standard.Our testing has now confirmed a source of these chemicals, and it’s clear that wildfires aren’t the only blazes that put drinking water systems at risk.In a new study, we heated plastic water pipes commonly used in buildings and water systems to test how they would respond to nearby fires. The results, released Dec. 14, show how easily wildfires could trigger widespread drinking water contamination. They also show the risks when only part of a building catches fire and the rest remains in use. In some of our tests, heat exposure caused more than 100 chemicals to leach from the damaged plastics. As environmental engineers, we advise communities on drinking water safety and disaster recovery. The western U.S.’s extreme wildfire seasons are putting more communities at risk in ways they might not realize. Just this year, more than 52,000 fires destroyed more than 17,000 structures – many of them homes connected to water systems. Heat-damaged plastic pipes can continue to leach chemicals into water over time, and ridding a water system of the contamination can take months and millions of dollars. The cause of drinking water contamination after wildfires has baffled authorities since it was discovered in 2017. After the 2017 Tubbs Fire and 2018 Camp Fire, chemicals were found in buried water distribution networks, some at levels comparable to hazardous waste. Contamination was not in the water treatment plants or drinking water sources. Some homeowners found drinking water contamination in their plumbing. Tests revealed volatile organic compounds had reached levels that posed immediate health risks in some areas, including benzene levels that exceeded the EPA hazardous waste threshold of 500 parts per billion. Benzene was found at a level 8,000 times the federal drinking water limit and 200 times the level that causes immediate health effects. Those effects can include dizziness, headaches, skin and throat irritation and even unconsciousness, among other risks.
Microplastics Weathered by Water Are More Likely to Infiltrate an Animal’s Cells -Microplastic particles exposed to freshwater or saltwater environments are more likely than original, non-exposed particles to be taken up into an animal's cells, according to new research. The study offers new evidence that certain microplastics have more potential to infiltrate animals' bodies than previously thought – and this could be of particular concern for aquatic animals. Over time, plastics discarded by humans break down into small pieces and spread across the environment, especially marine and freshwater ecosystems, and are consumed by organisms including mussels and zebrafish. But so much about microplastics has not been studied, including whether particles can enter the cells of different animals and organisms and cause health risks, or affect the environment. "There are plenty of knowledge gaps," "For instance, microplastics go from the digestive tract into the tissue [of certain aquatic organisms], but no one knows exactly why." In the new study, Laforsch and colleagues found that microplastics exposed to freshwater or saltwater for several weeks are around 10 times more likely to enter the cells of mice compared to pristine particles. While the study was only done using mice cells, it's possible that a similar relationship could be observed in aquatic animals that encounter such non-pristine microplastics on a regular basis, which could also have further unknown implications for their predators (including humans). These microplastic particles develop a coating of other molecules and microorganisms – acting somewhat like a "Trojan horse": other cells are more likely to engulf the coated microplastic particles (compared to pristine, uncoated particles), which can then potentially infiltrate an organism's circulatory system. However, the results don't necessarily suggest that microplastics exposed to freshwater or saltwater pose a greater health risk to human or other organisms – that still needs to be studied further. "We can't make direct conclusions about the health effects [of the microplastics studied]," While there is research about the health risks of inhaling particulate matter, little is known about the health effects of microplastics. Still, the new research adds one piece to a big puzzle. Many physical and biological properties – for instance, the texture, charge, or size – of a particle may be responsible for the environmental and health effects of microplastics. And understanding which properties are responsible is a step-by-step scientific process.
Amazon Must Stop Flooding Our Oceans With Plastic Waste -Just last month, Jeff Bezos, the CEO and founder of Amazon, announced that he would be donating $791m to 16 environmental organisations to help combat the effects of climate change. The impressive donation is coming from a $10bn fund set up in February to address this critical issue. Amazon also launched the “Climate Pledge” last September, which encompasses several ambitious goals, including a commitment to be carbon neutral by 2040. Unfortunately, as Amazon and its leader make news for their contributions to the fight against climate change, plastic packaging used by Amazon floods municipal waste systems and, a part of it, pollutes waterways and seas around the world.According to a new Oceana report, Amazon generated an estimated 465 million pounds of air pillows, bubble wrap and other plastic packaging waste in 2019, which, in the form of air pillows, would provide enough plastic to circle the Earth more than 500 times. Up to 22 million pounds of this waste, the report estimates, found its way into freshwater and marine ecosystems – the equivalent of a delivery van full of plastic packaging being dumped into the world’s waterways and oceans every 70 minutes. The company disputes these figures but has not yet provided alternative data or specific estimates – by country – for its and its marketplace vendors’ plastic footprint.Marine animals can mistake plastic for food, or swallow it inadvertently while feeding or swimming. Once swallowed, plastic can obstruct their digestive tracks or lacerate their intestines, leaving them unable to feed or obtain nourishment. These problems can lead to starvation and death. Recent studies estimate that 90 percent of all seabirds and 52 percent of all sea turtles have ingested plastic. According to a recent Oceana study, some 88 percent of animals that have swallowed or have been entangled in plastic were members of species listed as endangered or threatened with extinction under the Endangered Species Act.As part of its efforts to reduce waste and combat climate change, Amazon has recently prioritised the use of flexible lightweight packaging partially made of plastic over more-bulky non-plastic options such as cardboard boxes. But while doing so, it failed to fully acknowledge the additional environmental damage its increased use of plastic would cause to the seas.
Trump Admin Delays Protecting Threatened Monarch Butterflies Until 2023 –- The Trump administration said Tuesday that federal protection for monarch butterflies under the Endangered Species Act is still a few years away. The reason? The administration cited 161 vulnerable species that are already waiting in line ahead of monarchs. Monarchs will likely have to wait until 2023 to be added by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Reuters reported. Monarch butterfly populations have exponentially decreased in the past decade, mostly due to habitat loss, pesticide use and climate change. Overall, the Western monarch population declined by more than 97 percent to fewer than 30,000 between 1997 and 2019, Reuters reported, while the Eastern U.S. population declined 84 percent during the same period. "We conducted an intensive, thorough review using a rigorous, transparent science-based process and found that the monarch meets listing criteria under the Endangered Species Act," U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Aurelia Skipwith told CBS News. "However, before we can propose listing, we must focus resources on our higher-priority listing actions." Monarch butterflies may not have the time to wait. "Forty-seven species have gone extinct waiting for their protection to be finalized," Tierra Curry, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity, told CBS News. "This decision continues the delay in implementing a national recovery plan which monarchs desperately need."A decline in milkweed plants partly explains the falling monarch numbers. Monarch caterpillars only eat milkweed, but the plants are being killed off thanks to farmers spraying Roundup, a common herbicide, on their crops, The New York Timesreported. Milkweed generally grows in between crops and cannot survive Roundup. It doesn't help that affected farmland is also prime monarch breeding ground
Record snow storm in Northeast drops over 40 inches in Pennsylvania and New York - An early winter wallop of snow, sleet and ice slammed parts of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast on Wednesday and Thursday, bringing accumulations exceeding 40 inches in spots and a slick glaze of ice for some. Strong shoreline winds and coastal flooding accompanied the system, contributing to near-blizzard conditions as the intensifying strip of low pressure swept northeast. Sixty million Americans were placed under advisories, watches or warnings in advance of the storm, which was continuing to pivot into northern New England early Thursday afternoon. One snowfall jackpot as of sunrise Thursday was near the National Weather Service office in Binghamton, N.Y., where a staggering 40 inches fell. It observedan astonishing 20.5 inches in six hours. The city obliterated its record for the heaviest two-calendar-day snowstorm. The previous top spot of 35.3 inches is held by a storm that struck during mid-March in 2017. Binghamton’s previous biggest December snowstorm was just around 14 inches, said Lily Chapman, a meteorologist at the Weather Service office in Binghamton. “We really blew out it of the water,” Chapman said.Several nearby locations had logged more than 40 inches. Litchfield, Pa., in the very northern part of the state, reported 43 inches, which would exceed the Pennsylvania 24-hour snowfall record of 38 inches (from March 1958) if confirmed.Southern Vermont proved to be another jackpot zone for snowfall where several locations topped 40 inches, including a 44-inch total in Ludlow. In New Hampshire, snowfall rates were as high as seven inches per hour.In Boston, 12.9 inches fell while wind gusts topped 35 mph.Farther south along Interstate 95, totals lessened as the snow mixed with sleet and freezing rain. New York City’s Central Park posted 10.5 inches. While about half as much as initially forecast, the amount topped the city’s entire snowfall from last winter, just 4.8 inches. Up to 12.8 inches fell in the Bronx. At Philadelphia International Airport, 6.6 inches fell, demolishing the 2019-2020 seasonal total of 0.3 inches. Snow had ended in central and eastern New York state, but many areas remain buried — particularly between Binghamton and Albany along Interstate 88.The band of snow responsible, which also dropped a swath of 20 to 40-plus inches of snow in southern Vermont and western New Hampshire, swept through Maine in the afternoon. The coastline between Portland and Bar Harbor was being hammered by “sudden and brief snowfall rates of 3 to 4 inches per hour.” The same system was responsible for other severe weather as well, including multiple damaging tornadoes in the Tampa area, as well as a possible twister in North Carolina.
'Unbelievable' snowfall blankets parts of the Northeast (AP) — The Northeast’s first whopper snowstorm of the season buried parts of upstate New York under more than 3 feet of snow, broke records in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania and left snowplow drivers struggling to clear the roads. “It was a very difficult, fast storm and it dropped an unbelievable amount of snow,” Tom Coppola, highway superintendent in charge of maintaining 100 miles of roads in the Albany suburb of Glenville, said Thursday morning. “It's to the point where we're having trouble pushing it with our plows.” The storm dropped 30 inches on Glenville between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m. Thursday, leaving a a silent scene of snow-clad trees, buried cars and heavily laden roofs when the sun peeked through at noon. “If you do not have to be on the roads, please don't travel,” said New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. He said there were more than 9,000 power outages, 600 accidents and two fatalities by midmorning Thursday. Nearly 40 inches of snow fell in Binghamton, where the National Weather Service said the storm sets a new two-day snowfall record, eclipsing the previous record of 35.3 inches in March 2017. In Ithaca, it took Fred Cullin, 23, more than an hour and a half to dig out of his steep, lakeside driveway that was packed with nearly 3 feet of snow piled up by plows. Much of the Pennsylvania’s western and central regions saw accumulations in the double digits. “Williamsport Regional Airport made history,” the National Weather Service in State College said, reporting 24.7 inches of snow and breaking the previous record of 24.1 inches set there in January 1964. Boston had more than 9 inches of snow early Thursday morning, breaking the previous record for the date of 6.4 inches in 2013. In Boston's Seaport neighborhood, the streets were mostly empty except for an army of workers snowblowing sidewalks in front of luxury apartment buildings, stores and office towers.
Military deployed after record snowfall strands more than 2 000 vehicles in Japan The snow was falling at an unprecedented rate over parts of Japan this week, stranding more than 2 000 vehicles and forcing authorities to deploy the military to help trapped people. In addition, more than 10 000 homes were left without electricity. JMA said that heavy snow will continue to fall through the weekend, mainly in areas on the Sea of Japan coast. As many as 2 100 vehicles were stranded on the Kanetsu Expressway, which connects capital Tokyo and Niigata Prefecture on the Sea of Japan coast, on Thursday, December 17, 2020, after the season's most powerful cold air mass brought unusually heavy snow to wide swaths of Japan since Wednesday, December 16. The line of cars at one point stretched up to 16.5 km (10 miles). Toru Obata, East Nippon Expressway president, said some people have been taken to hospital after feeling unwell, while apologizing to those who are still stranded. Food, fuel, blankets and portable toilets were distributed to drivers of stuck vehicles, he said. 670 to 1 000 vehicles remained stuck on Friday, December 18. Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said more than 10 000 households lost power in Niigata, stretching across the Sea of Japan coast, and Hyogo Prefecture in western Japan, among other places, Kato said. On Wednesday, December 16, meteorologists said the snow was falling at an unprecedented rate due to the combination of unseasonably cold Siberian air and unseasonably warm ocean temperatures. In 72 hours to 08:00 LT on December 17, Minakami in Gunma Prefecture received a record 217 cm (7.1 feet) of snow, while Yuzawa in Niigata Prefecture saw over 180 cm (5.9 feet). In just 24 hours, parts of Gunma recorded 128 cm (4.2 feet) of snow and Niigata 113 cm (3.7 feet) of snow. The Japan Meteorological Agency said that heavy snow will continue to fall on Friday and through the weekend, mainly in areas on the Sea of Japan coast. Officials are warning of possible traffic disruptions, avalanches, snow sliding off roofs, and snow accumulation leading to downed power lines and trees. In 24 hours through Saturday evening (LT), about 80 cm (1.9 feet) of snowfall is expected in Niigata, 60 cm (1.9 feet) in Tohoku, and 50 cm (1.6 feet) in northern Kanto, Nagano Prefecture, and the Sea of Japan side of Hokkaido.
Severe storm brings massive rains to Queensland and NSW, Australia -- An intense low-pressure trough off the coast of southeast Australia has brought torrential rains, floods, damaging winds, and dangerous waves to southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales over the weekend, with authorities describing the impacts as similar to that of a Category 1 cyclone. While the threat has eased on Monday, December 14, severe thunderstorm and flood warnings remain in force.In Queensland, up to 738 mm (29 inches) of rain fell in Upper Springbrook a 72-hour period to Monday, including 323 mm (13 inches) in six hours overnight, from December 12 to 13, triggering coastal flooding."Many of the impacts from this weather event will be similar to a category-one cyclone event," Queensland emergency services minister Mark Ryan told ABC.Queensland Fire and Emergency Services Commissioner Greg Leach added that the storms represented a "significant change in the weather pattern" in the state. "Only last week we were dealing with bushfire situations and now the big wet has arrived... and so we need to be prepared not only for the weather we are dealing with now but we’re likely to see over the coming month."
Category 5 Severe Tropical Cyclone "Yasa" to strike Fiji with destructive winds, storm surge and very heavy rain -Yasa has rapidly intensified into a Category 5 cyclone on the Australian tropical cyclone intensity scale by 15:00 UTC on December 15, 2020, and is expected to move over Fiji on December 17, bringing destructive winds, storm surge with waves as high as 16 m (52 feet) and widespread heavy rain. Yasa is the first Category 5 cyclone in the South Pacific (east of 135 °E) since Zoe in 2002..
- A Tropical Cyclone Warning is now in force for Yasawa and Mamanuca Group, Viti Levu, Vanua Levu, and nearby smaller islands and expected to be in force for the rest of the group later today, December 16.
- A Tropical Cyclone Alert remains in force for the rest of Fiji.
- A Strong Wind Warning remains in force for the rest of Fiji.
- A Storm Surge and Damaging Heavy Swell Warning is now in force for coastal waters of Rotuma, Yasawa and Mamanuca Group, Viti Levu, Vanua Levu and nearby smaller islands.
- A Heavy Rain Warning remains in force for the whole of Fiji.
- A Flash Flood Alert is now in force for all low lying areas and areas adjacent to small streams along Komave to Navua Town, Navua Town to Rewa, Rewa to Korovou and Korovou to Rakiraki in Vanua Levu and is also in force for all low lying areas and areas adjacent to small streams of Vanua Levu along Bua to Dreketi, Dreketi to Labasa and along Labasa to Udu Point.
A Tropical Cyclone Warning is now in force for Yasawa and Mamanuca Group, Viti Levu, Vanua Levu, and nearby smaller islands and expected to be in force for the rest of the group later today, December 16. A Tropical Cyclone Alert remains in force for the rest of Fiji. A Strong Wind Warning remains in force for the rest of Fiji. A Storm Surge and Damaging Heavy Swell Warning is now in force for coastal waters of Rotuma, Yasawa and Mamanuca Group, Viti Levu, Vanua Levu and nearby smaller islands. A Heavy Rain Warning remains in force for the whole of Fiji. A Flash Flood Alert is now in force for all low lying areas and areas adjacent to small streams along Komave to Navua Town, Navua Town to Rewa, Rewa to Korovou and Korovou to Rakiraki in Vanua Levu and is also in force for all low lying areas and areas adjacent to small streams of Vanua Levu along Bua to Dreketi, Dreketi to Labasa and along Labasa to Udu Point. All non-essential civil servants are required to stay home during the height of the storm, Fiji's Disaster Management Office (NDMO) said at 22:00 LT on December 16 (10:00 UTC; Fiji's timezone is UTC+12). The Maritime Safety Authority of Fiji issued a NO SAIL for all vessels in Fiji waters effective from 23:59 LT tonight, December 16. All public transportation services were ordered to cease operations from 23:00 LT tonight until further notice. The office urged people living in coastal areas to evacuate to the nearest evacuation center while they can. The Fiji Meteorological Service advised coastal dwellers to expect storm surge with waves as high as 16 m (52 feet).
Cyclone Yasa rips through Fiji, killing at least 2 people and destroying homes --Hurricane force winds and torrential rain brought by Cyclone Yasa have destroyed scores of houses and flattened crops in Fiji's northern regions, aid agencies said on Friday. Two casualties have been confirmed, according to the Fiji National Disaster Management Office. That number is expected to rise. Cyclone Yasa, a top category 5 storm, made landfall over Bua province on the northern island of Vanua Levu on Thursday evening, bringing torrential rain, widespread flooding and winds of up to 285 kilometers per hour (177 miles per hour) across the archipelago. Fiji had on Thursday declared a state of natural disaster, ordered its entire population of nearly 1 million people to seek shelter, and implemented a nightly curfew. The alarm was largely heeded, and as a result, humanitarian groups said it appeared the initial impact of Cyclone Yasa was less than originally feared, though still extensive. "We are very concerned for the safety of thousands of people who have experienced the brunt of this monster storm," Images shared on social media showed roads blocked by landslides, floodwaters and fallen trees. All roads in Rakiraki, a district on the main island with about 30,000 residents, were flooded, Fiji's Road Authority said.
Strong explosive eruption at Etna volcano, Italy -- A strong explosive eruption started at Etna volcano on December 13, 2020, ejecting volcanic ash up to 4.8 km (16 000 feet) above sea level by 23:00 UTC. The Aviation Color Code was raised to Red. Monitoring networks observed increased strombolian activity at the SE Crater starting at 19:20 UTC on December 13, INGV's Etna Observatory reported. At the same time, there was a sudden increase in the magnitude of the volcanic tremor that has risen from average to high levels, the observatory said at 22:22 UTC, adding that the amplitude is still growing. In addition, an increase in infrasonic activity has been observed both in the number and amplitude of infrasonic events. Two eruptive fissures opened on the southeastern side of the SE Crater, producing two lava flows propagating towards the S and SW, whose fronts remained confined to an altitude of about 2 850 m (9 350 feet) a.s.l. Three pyroclastic flows were observed at 22:15 and 22:16 UTC. Surveillance cameras showed a significant decrease in explosive activity at 22:50 UTC, with variable levels over the next 4 hours. Explosive activity decreased by 07:05 UTC on December 14, with weak ash emissions still ongoing. The Aviation Color Code was lowered to Orange at 07:06 UTC.
Video shows volcano in Sicily erupting, spewing fiery lava - A volcano in Italy erupted on Sunday evening in an explosion that sent streams of fiery lava fountaining down the mountain slope. Mount Etna, an active volcano on the east coast of Sicily, sent plumes of ash and columns of lava into the air for a brief moment that was caught on video. In the video, fiery chunks of incandescent, red-hot lava can be seen spewing out in short and mild bursts. Mount Etna is one of the world’s most active volcanoes, according to the National Museum of Natural History. In 2017, the smoldering peak injured 10 people in a violent explosion when its magma touched the snow, which created high-pressure pockets of steam. Sicily is the largest island of the Mediterranean Sea with a population of about 5 million people.
Increased activity with strong ashfall at Santiaguito volcano, Guatemala - Increased activity has been observed at Guatemala's Santiaguito volcano over the past couple of days, characterized by pyroclastic flows and strong ashfall which engulfed areas in Finca Montebello, Loma Linda, and San Marcos Palajunoj.Volcanic activity at the volcano intensified on December 11, with ash columns reaching up to 3 300 m (10 830 feet) above sea level, according to the bulletin issued by the National Institute of Seismology, Volcanology, Meteorology, and Hydrology (INSIVUMEH) on December 12.Furthermore, information from the National Coordination for Disaster Reduction of Guatemala (CONRED) indicated that ashfalls were reported in the villages of Finca Montebello, Loma Linda, and San Marcos Palajunoj, and likely in the surrounding areas of Las Marias and San Felipe Retalhuleu.On December 13, INSIVUMEH reported that block avalanches and ash were accompanied by moderate pyroclastic flows, moving west-southwest of the volcanic edifice. Ash explosions dispersed to the south, southwest, and west at a distance of 20 km (12 miles). Due to the period of high activity in Santiaguito, INSIVUMEH warned that it may continue to generate moderate to strong pyroclastic flows. People were advised to avoid getting near the volcano."Do not ascend the domes of the volcanic complex because it is an unstable area with the danger of major explosions, ballistic falls, and collapses of the Caliente dome," the bulletin stated.
Ocean heatwave has triggered new toxic algal blooms on the US west coast - Fishermen, swimmers and seafood enthusiasts may already know the dangers of "red tides," but a recent study in Frontiers in Climate shows that climate change is increasing the frequency of one type of highly toxic algal bloom off the US west coast. These algae produce a neurotoxin -- called domoic acid -- that causes severe and potentially lethal digestive and neurological symptoms. This threat to marine wildlife and humans is restricting shellfish harvest in the region, but local bulletins are helping to forecast the blooms. "This study shows that climate change can influence the occurrence and intensity of some harmful algal blooms (HABs) by creating new seed beds for their survival and distribution," says lead author Dr Vera L Trainer, of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Seattle, Washington. "Coastal communities, including Native Tribes, will suffer from the effects of HABs more frequently in the future, illustrating the importance of early warning systems such as Harmful Algal Bloom Bulletins that are becoming operational in the US and other parts of the world." In 2015, the severe heatwave in the northeast Pacific Ocean triggered a new record-breaking Pseudo-nitzschia bloom that closed shellfish harvest and caused widespread marine mammal mortalities. As a result, a region in northern California near the Oregon border has become a new toxic hotspot that has prevented shellfish harvest every year since that heatwave event. Due to the water currents and coastal topography, the region near the California/Oregon border provides favorable conditions for recurring algal blooms in the future -- called retentive regions. At this site, and other retentive regions along the US west coast, Pseudo-nitzschia can remain dormant in sediments for years until ocean upwelling brings the algal cells to the surface and temperatures become warm enough for the algae to multiply.
Climate Change Threatens to Destroy the Marshall Islands - Along U.S. coastlines, from California to Florida, residents are getting increasingly accustomed to "king tides." These extra-high tides cause flooding and wreak havoc on affected communities. As climate change raises sea levels, they are becoming more extreme. King tides are nothing new for the Marshall Islands, a nation made up of 29 low-lying coral atolls that stretch across more than a million square miles of Pacific Ocean northeast of Australia. By 2035, the U.S. Geological Survey projects that some of the Marshall Islands will be submerged. Others will no longer have drinking water because their aquifers will be contaminated with saltwater. As a result, Marshallese would be forced to migrate away from their homelands. As part of our research on climate justice, we visited the Marshall Islands and interviewed leaders and community organizers in 2018 and 2019. We learned that large-scale adaptation measures that could save both these and other islands are still possible, and that Marshallese leaders are committed to adapting in place. But their nation's colonial history has made it hard for them to act by leaving them dependent on foreign aid. And, to date, outside funders have been unwilling or unable to invest in projects that could save the nation. Most of the world's other island nations share similar colonial histories and face comparable climate challenges. Without swift and dramatic adaptation, entire island nations could become uninhabitable. For the Marshall Islands, this is expected to occur by midcentury. The Marshall Islands were settled at least 2,000 years ago and fell under colonial rule during the 19th century. The U.S. captured the islands during World War II and became colonial administrator through theUnited Nations, accepting "sacred trust" obligations to protect the health and welfare of the Marshallese people and promote their political and economic self-determination. Instead, from 1946 to 1958, the United States tested 67 nuclear weapons on inhabited Bikini and Enewetak Atolls, forcing these and other exposed communities to evacuate their homelands. Thousands of Marshallese remain in exile to this day, largely on tiny islands that are extremely climate-vulnerable or in the United States. Others have returned to their atolls, where radioactive fallout still contaminates the land. All of those exposed to radiation continue to face long-term health risks.What options does the Marshall Islands have for protecting its citizens from climate change?
BlackRock makes climate change central to its investment strategy for 2021 - Investors are increasingly interested in companies that are environmentally and socially conscious, and the world's largest asset manager is no exception.In an annual letter to CEOs earlier this year, BlackRock Chairman and CEO Larry Fink said "climate change has become a defining factor in companies' long-term prospects … But awareness is rapidly changing, and I believe we are on the edge of a fundamental reshaping of finance."Now, the firm has updated its global principles and guidelines to reflect its commitment to climate and diversity. In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, "investors and others will be looking to see how companies are rebuilding their businesses for long-term sustainability and value creation," BlackRock said in its 2021 stewardship expectations. "The changes we have made to our stewardship principles and voting guidelines strengthen our expectations of management and boards in ensuring companies have a sustainable long-term business model." Among the changes being implemented in 2021, BlackRock said it expects companies to disclose a plan for transitioning to a lower carbon economy, report key stakeholders and business interests, and improve racial and gender diversity on large corporate boards. Indeed, with assets under management close to $7.81 trillion as of the third quarter, BlackRock has significant influence in proxy battles. In 2020, BlackRock held a substantial stake in approximately 91% of S&P 500 companies and across these companies that position averaged 7.7%, according to data compiled by Jackie Cook, director of sustainable stewardship research at Morningstar, based on annual proxy reports. Given the size BlackRock's vote represents, these new guidelines could be the difference between the slow pace of change at companies and more immediate action. "Where we believe companies are not moving with sufficient speed and urgency, our most frequent course of action will be to hold directors accountable by voting against their re-election," BlackRock said in the report. "The effectiveness of voting against directors is well-documented." Cook said it's the first time BlackRock "really said explicitly that shareholder resolutions work in driving change." "That's exactly what shareholder proponents have been saying for a long time," she added.
CLIMATE: Lindsey Graham wants Senate to vote on Paris Agreement -- Thursday, December 17, 2020 --Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) yesterday suggested the Senate vote on the Paris climate agreement after President-elect Joe Biden rejoins next year.Graham tweeted that he is "working hard to secure a vote in the U.S. Senate" on the Iran nuclear deal, another Obama-era agreement that President Trump pulled out of early in his term."Also believe Senate should be on record in support or opposition to any decision to reenter Paris Climate Accord," Graham said. "As currently drafted, the Accord is a big win for China and India."Paris is likely to be a centerpiece of the back-and-forth messaging on climate next year, since reentering the agreement is one of the few actions Biden will be able to take without approval from Congress and before potentially contentious confirmation fights for his EPA and Interior nominees.The Biden administration will also be expected to announce a new nationally determined contribution (NDC) with more ambitious emissions targets, which would likely face opposition from the GOP.A Senate vote on Paris would revive old arguments for Republicans, who for years have opposed the agreement for being too favorable to India and China and because they believe it should have been sent to the Senate for ratification.Sens. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) all filed resolutions in 2015 as negotiators were finishing the agreement expressing that it should be subject to Senate ratification, as did several House Republicans, though none received a vote,according to the Congressional Research Service.Should they control the Senate after the Georgia runoffs next month, Republicans could also largely stymy new efforts to address climate change and meet the nation's Paris goals, outside of regulatory changes by the Biden administration.Paris is a subsidiary agreement to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which the Senate ratified in 1992.
Oil companies fight to get climate cases before Supreme Court - - Some of the world’s largest oil companies are hoping to convince the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether they should be held liable for climate change. In the middle of a years-long legal fight with state attorneys general across the country, Exxon Mobil and the Canadian oil company Suncor Energy filed a petition with the Supreme Court earlier this month, asking the justices to overturn a ruling by the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals that sent a climate lawsuit filed by local officials in Colorado to state court. That might sound like a technicality, but it has potentially significant implications for efforts by state and local governments to hold fossil fuel companies financially responsible for their greenhouse gas emissions as both sides battle for a more favorable setting in which to make their case. The Supreme Court ruled unanimously in 2011 that federal pollution laws prohibited corporations from being sued for greenhouse gas emissions, effectively blocking litigation through the federal courts. But the opinion, written by the late liberal justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, did not address state laws, leaving open the question of whether plaintiffs could still sue on the basis of state nuisance laws that allow financial compensation for environmental damage. So far, oil companies have been unable to convince federal court judges to hear their cases. But attorneys representing Exxon and other companies believe that if they can get the Supreme Court to declare federal courts the correct venue for the lawsuits, they will have a better chance of winning their argument that federal pollution laws preempt state law, said James Coleman, a law professor at Southern Methodist University. “States have to follow the federal laws just like they do the Constitution,” Coleman said. “But there’s a realist judgment that state judges are more protective of state laws, and less willing to say a state law has been preempted.”
Exxon Calls Massachusetts Fraud Suit Punishment for Opinion - Exxon Mobil Corp. told a judge that a fraud lawsuit filed by Massachusetts last year amounts to illegal punishment for the energy giant’s views about fossil fuels, the latest twist in their bitter clash over climate change.The suit by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey should be dismissed because it violates a state law prohibiting litigation that has the effect of punishing a defendant for statements on public policy matters, Exxon said in a July motion made public Wednesday in state court in Boston.Exxon’s filing revisited allegations it has made repeatedly against Healey and other state officials who’ve investigated the company’s public statements on climate change and its potential impact on the business as well as government efforts to go green.“Those, like Exxon Mobil, who decline to parrot the attorney general’s call for an immediate transition to renewable energy are not simply diverse viewpoints in a public debate with state, federal, and global policy implications, but targets who must be silenced through ‘lawfare,’” the Irving, Texas-based oil and gas producer said.Healey’s office rejected the oil company’s claim.“These baseless motions are nothing more than another attempt by Exxon to evade responsibility for its illegal ongoing campaign to deceive Massachusetts consumers about the impacts of its products on the environment and our investors about the massive risk climate change poses to its business and the global market,” the attorney general said in a statement. “Exxon is not above the law and we’re going to continue our fight to stop its illegal actions.”The suit, filed in October 2019, alleges Exxon hid its early knowledge of climate change and misled investors in Massachusetts about the projected financial impact of global warming on its business. It also accuses Exxon of misleading consumers by suggesting in marketing materials that some of its gasoline and motor oil products were good for the environment.
REGULATIONS: 'Good cause': EPA moves could obstruct Biden rules -- Friday, December 11, 2020 -- The Trump administration is evoking a little-used procedural tool in an apparent effort to solidify its environmental rollback agenda before President-elect Joe Biden shows up Jan. 20.
Biden taps former EPA head Gina McCarthy as domestic 'climate czar': reports President-elect Joe Biden has tapped former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) head Gina McCarthy to oversee domestic climate policy in his administration, according to multiple reports. McCarthy, who served as EPA chief during former President Obama’s second term, will take a role designed to serve as a counterpart to special envoy John Kerry, who will represent the U.S. as a "climate czar" on international matters. Like Kerry, McCarthy’s role as White House Climate Policy Coordinator is a first of its kind position. Based in the White House, McCarthy will help oversee Biden’s commitment to ensure a “whole of government approach” on climate change, considering climate action within every government agency. She will also help him follow through on a pledge to help the U.S. reach net-zero emissions by 2050. McCarthy comes to the role from the Natural Resources Defense Council. She has used her perch at one of the nation’s largest environmental groups to serve as a vocal critic of numerous Trump-era environmental rollbacks. “I’m here to remind the political leadership at the EPA that what they do matters, and it’s time for them to step up and do their jobs. Just do your jobs. Right now this administration is trying to systemically undo health protections by running roughshod over the law,” McCarthy said at a House hearing last year where a bipartisan group of EPA administrators questioned the agency’s direction under the Trump administration. The Biden transition team did not immediately respond to request for comment from The Hill. The domestic climate role came into sharper focus after Biden tapped Kerry to join his administration — prompting pushback from progressive groups who argued a second role was needed to shepherd climate policy. “Biden needs a climate czar with direct access to the president and needs to wield considerable influence in decision-making across policy, budget-setting, and program implementation across all departments and agencies,” Sunrise Movement, a progressive youth climate movement, wrote on Twitter just hours before the McCarthy news broke. McCarthy’s role won’t require Senate confirmation, sparing her a repeat of the lengthy battle with the Senate she faced when Obama nominated her in 2013. McCarthy oversaw the EPA as it rolled out some of Obama’s most ambitious and controversial environmental policies, including the Waters of the United States rule and the Clean Power Plan, both of which have since faced lengthy court battles. Prior to leading the agency, McCarthy was assistant administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation and served as commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection. According to The Washington Post, Ali Zaidi, New York’s deputy secretary for energy and environment who was also seen as a contender for the job, will serve as McCarthy’s deputy. Zaidi, who is now New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s (D) top climate adviser, previously worked on environmental issues at the Office of Management and Budget during the Obama administration.
Biden to tap former Michigan Gov. Granholm to lead Energy Department -President-elect Joe Biden will pick former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm to run the Energy Department, the agency that would play a key role in helping develop the technologies needed fulfill his pledge to move the country off fossil fuels. Granholm, who served two terms as Michigan's governor, is experienced in dealing with the auto industry — a potentially big advantage as the new president seeks to speed the rollout of electric vehicles and the network of charging stations needed to power them. Granholm's ardent support of the auto industry may help Biden's team strengthen its appeal to blue-collar workers and the manufacturing sector as the incoming administration pitches its climate-centric economic transformation. And it would be a marked change of course from President Donald Trump's first Energy secretary, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who used the position to promote natural gas exports and push regulators to prop up coal as a power source. Most of the Energy Department's budget is devoted to maintaining the country's nuclear weapons arsenal, but it also operates the 17 national labs that have helped develop advanced technology used in renewables, nuclear energy and fossil fuel production. Under former President Barack Obama, the Energy Department oversaw tens of billions of dollars in loan guarantees and grants that expanded the adoption of solar and wind power, helping drive a steep drop in the prices of renewable electricity. Those achievements were tarnished at the time by the scandal over Solyndra, a solar technology company that collapsed after taking more than $500 million in federal funds. DOE also will play a key role in reducing emissions from the nation’s building, another target of Biden’s climate plan. DOE has responsibility over setting appliance standards, conducting research on innovations like electric heat pumps and overseeing building and residential energy efficiency programs. Granholm has sought to position herself as a figure who can help U.S. industry transition to a clean energy economy, a process that Biden has made one his top four goals. “[T]he private sector needs greater support and political will from our policymakers to help us fully realize the potential of a zero-carbon future,” Granholm wrote in a Nov. 7 op-ed in The Detroit News. “The economics are clear: The time for a low-carbon recovery is now.” If confirmed, Granholm — who defeated Trump Education Secretary Betsy DeVos' husband to win her second term as governor — would be only the second woman to lead the department since its creation in 1977.
Green Groups Applaud Biden Picks for Energy Secretary, White House Climate Czar - President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. reportedly has chosen former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm to lead the Department of Energy and former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy to serve as White House climate czar under the new administration. A two-term governor, Granholm served from 2003-2011. During her tenure, she signed into law bipartisan clean energy and energy efficiency legislation, promoted advanced battery and renewable energy manufacturing in the state, and helped orchestrate the 2009 federal bailout of General Motors Co. and Chrysler. McCarthy, meanwhile, ran the EPA under President Obama from 2013 to 2017. She oversaw several landmark rulemakings, including the Clean Power Plan in 2015, which set the first national standards for reducing carbon emissions from power plants. The selections, which Biden is expected to officially unveil this week, follow the announcement on Tuesday of former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg as Department of Transportation secretary, another position with implications for energy and climate policy. Biden last month named former Secretary of State John Kerry as special presidential envoy for climate. McCarthy would serve as Kerry’s domestic counterpart, overseeing U.S.implementation of Biden’s ambitious agenda to fight climate change. The McCarthy and Kerry positions are direct presidential appointments, while Granholm’s would require confirmation by the Senate. All three positions could prove vitally important to the success of Biden’s climate proposals, particularly if Republicans retain control of the Senate after the two runoff elections in Georgia that take place in January.
Biden Energy secretary pick Jennifer Granholm has past ties to utilities, chemical companies - President-elect Joe Biden's expected pick for Energy secretary has ties to several influential political donors, including companies from an industry she may have to regulate if she is confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Jennifer Granholm, the Democratic former governor of Michigan, is likely to be formally announced as Biden's choice to lead the Department of Energy. While she led Michigan from 2003 until 2011, Granholm supported laws that encouraged energy efficiency. Campaign finance records show that her previous stances on energy and other policies have led, in part, to campaign funding from various businesses and their leaders, including DTE Energy. In 2008, she signed into law a package that would require more electricity to come from renewable sources and curtail competition among power companies, according to a local report at the time. Since her time as governor, Granholm has been supportive of the idea of electric and autonomous cars, and has pushed back on any potential impact the creation of these vehicles could have on jobs. Biden's campaign energy plan includes a push for "100% clean energy economy and reaches net-zero emissions no later than 2050" and an "investment in clean energy and climate research and innovation." People familiar with the transition told CNBC that Granholm has a strong record when it comes to clean energy. They say she helped transform Michigan's economy, making her an ideal choice for Energy secretary if she's nominated. Part of her success, these people noted, involved listening to all stakeholders across the spectrum. Granholm would bring that same mindset to running the Department of Energy, they said. A transition official told CNBC that the Biden administration will hold all officials to the highest ethical standards and ensuring transparency. Both the sources and the transition official declined to be named as Granholm has not officially been chosen for the post. The Department of Energy's office of enforcement "within the General Counsel's Office engages in compliance and enforcement efforts to ensure products sold in the U.S. meet the energy and water conservation standards," according to the department's website. The department regulates utility companies, which in the past has included Michigan-based DTE and CMS Energy. The DTE portfolio includes electrical and natural gas utilities as well as "non-utility energy businesses focused on power and industrial projects, natural gas pipelines, gathering and storage, and energy marketing and trading," according to the company's website. In the buildup to Granholm's 2006 bid for reelection against GOP businessman Dick DeVos, the husband of current Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Granholm's campaign saw at least $34,000 from DTE's political action committee, according to Michigan election records reviewed by CNBC. In between campaign contributions from DTE's company PAC, Granholm appointed Stephen Ewing, the then president and chief operating officer of DTE Energy Gas, to the board of Michigan's Early Childhood Investment Corporation. Ewing separately gave $3,4000 in 2004 to Granholm's campaign, records show.
Biden Taps Brenda Mallory for Environmental Quality Council - President-elect Joe Biden has tapped Brenda Mallory to lead the Council on Environmental Quality, a role that would have her coordinating government-wide efforts to combat climate change and promote sustainable development. If confirmed, Mallory would be the first African American to hold the position since its creation more than half a century ago. Mallory’s nomination was confirmed by two people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named before a formal announcement. Mallory, 63, is a lawyer who has spent decades pursuing environmental and public health protections in government and the private sector. Mallory previously served as the council’s general counsel under former President Barack Obama. Most recently, she has been the director of regulatory policy for the Southern Environmental Law Center, a group that uses litigation to promote clean air, safe water and wildlife conservation. Her selection comes as Biden assembles a team to carry out his energy and environment policy -- and nears a choice on who will lead the Environmental Protection Agency, which is central to those efforts. On Tuesday, Biden interviewed North Carolina regulator Michael Regan, a top contender to be EPA administrator, according to a person familiar with the matter. If confirmed as chair of the CEQ, Mallory would play a pivotal role guiding environmental policy decisions across the federal government. The council oversees implementation of the National Environmental Policy Act, including government reviews of the consequences of agency decisions on everything from land use and endangered species to oil drilling and offshore wind farms. Under President Donald Trump, the agency has sought to expedite environmental reviews and permitting of pipelines, highways and other projects. Under Biden, the office is expected to play a bigger role addressing environmental inequities, with poor people and minorities more likely to live near refineries, highways and factories and disproportionately affected by the pollution they generate. The council also may look to bolster the government’s calculation of the social cost of carbon, a metric estimating the potential economic damage from climate change historically used to justify environmental policies.
Biden Taps Rep. Deb Haaland to Lead Interior in Historic Move –- President-elect Joe Biden announced Thursday that he picked New Mexico Representative Deb Haaland to serve as Secretary of the Interior. If confirmed by the Senate, Haaland would be the first Native American to hold a cabinet secretary position. However, her appointment as head of the Department of the Interior is especially significant, since the department has historically committed injustices against Indigenous Americans and currently is the agency most responsible for their welfare. "A voice like mine has never been a Cabinet secretary or at the head of the Department of Interior," Haalandtweeted Thursday. "Growing up in my mother's Pueblo household made me fierce. I'll be fierce for all of us, our planet, and all of our protected land. I am honored and ready to serve." Haaland hails from the Pueblos of Laguna and Jemez, Indian Country Today reported. She made history in 2018 as one of the first two Indigenous women to be elected to Congress. In the House, she currently acts as the vice chair of the Committee on Natural Resources and chair of the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands. As head of Interior, Haaland will oversee the department that manages around 500 million acres of public lands, including national parks, habitat for endangered species and oil and gas drilling sites, The New York Times reported. The department also manages the Bureau of Indian Education and the Bureau of Trust Funds Administration, which controls funds held in trust for Native Americans, making it the most impactful department for the nation's 1.9 million Indigenous people. Haaland will bring to the post a clear commitment to both Indigenous rights and environmental justice. As committee vice chair, she has worked to keep the climate crisis front and center while also supporting clean energy plans that help create new jobs and opportunities for former fossil-fuel workers, InsideClimate News reported. She supports the Green New Deal and a ban on fracking. In 2016, she appeared in person to support the Standing Rock Sioux tribes' opposition to the Dakota Access pipeline, The Washington Post reported. "She brought her own cooking things and opened her trunk up, and said, 'This is the best I can do,'" Archambault said. "The stew was really good; the tortillas were excellent." Haaland's appointment is itself a victory for Indigenous and environmental groups, who loudly supported her to the Biden transition team. Biden was reportedly leaning toward appointing Senator Tom Udall of New Mexico, according to The New York Times. But a combination of activists, Congressional Democrats and celebrities, including Mark Ruffalo, spoke up in her favor. The Lakota People's Law Project launched a petition that was backed by more than 120 tribal leaders. More than 130 tribal leaders also wrote letters to Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris supporting her appointment, and groups such as NDN Collective andIllumiNative campaigned online, Indian Country Today reported. The Indigenous Environmental Network alsorallied around her, and the climate-justice focused Sunrise Movement also supported Indigenous activists in backing her nomination.
Deb Haaland helming the Interior Department would be a first step in healing the 'horrible relationship' between the federal government and Native Americans, activists say - President-elect Joe Biden has officially tapped Rep. Deb Haaland as his nominee to serve as Secretary of the Interior,the Washington Post reported on Thursday. Haaland, a first-term congresswoman representing New Mexico's 1st Congressional District, is a citizen of the Laguna Pueblo tribe in New Mexico and, along with Rep. Sharice Davids of Kansas, was one of the first two Native American women elected to Congress in 2018. If confirmed, Haaland would the first-ever Native American to serve at the Cabinet level in a presidential administration. In addition to the historic and symbolic nature of her selection, Haaland would directly oversee the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Bureau of Indian Education, and the bureau charged with managing financial assets Native Americans hold with the federal government. That role would give her the power to play a key role in restoring trust and repairing the historically fraught and painful relationship between the federal government and the 574 federally-recognized Native American tribes, Native activists told Insider. "The Department of the Interior is the agency really charged with holding that federal trust responsibility that the US government has with tribal nations here in the United States. And it's been a horrible relationship. It's been an abusive relationship. It's one that has been wrought with fraud and corruption...with mismanagement of tribal funds and just very paternalistic, very unhealthy," Crystal Echo Hawk, the executive director of nonprofit IllumiNative and a citizen of the Pawnee Nation, told Insider in early December. Haaland recently told Insider's Kayla Epstein that one of her top priorities as Interior Secretary would to be to improve the tribal consultation process, the procedure by which the federal governments seeks input from Native tribes on a wide array of environmental and other issues that directly impact them. Haaland said the Trump administration has tossed that process "out the window" in pursuing development and resource extraction on public lands.
Michael Regan Is Biden’s E.P.A. Pick - The New York Times— President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. has selected Michael S. Regan, North Carolina’s top environmental regulator, to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, Mr. Biden’s transition team announced Thursday. The decision elevates for the first time a Black man to lead the powerful department, which is central to achieving the new administration’s climate change agenda. Mr. Regan was not the president-elect’s first choice, and he lacks some of the political star power of Mr. Biden’s other cabinet picks. But he will be on the front lines of the incoming administration’s effort to undo one of President Trump’s most sprawling transformations of the federal government: the unraveling of a half-century of pollution and climate regulations, and the diminishment of the science that underpinned them. “He faces a massive reconstruction and rebuilding operation,” said Jody Freeman, a Harvard University law professor who served as White House counselor for energy and climate change in the Obama administration. Mr. Regan “has to go in and restore the morale of the career staff,” she said. “He has to make it clear that science and integrity are back. He’s got a raft of rules that he’s got to rescind and replace and strengthen.” And, Ms. Freeman added, “He’s got to do this under some time pressure.” The decision rounded out Mr. Biden’s emerging climate team, which will be led by two political heavyweights: Gina McCarthy, who served as President Barack Obama’s E.P.A. chief, will lead a new White House Office of Climate Policy to coordinate domestic efforts, and John Kerry, the former secretary of state, will be Mr. Biden’s international climate envoy. Mr. Biden also chose Representative Deb Haaland of New Mexico to lead the Department of Interior. She would be the first Native American to lead the department and is expected to curtail the oil and gas leasing on federal lands that Mr. Trump has overseen. Brenda Mallory, an experienced former federal lawyer, will lead the Council on Environmental Quality. But no agency will be more fundamental to the politically sensitive work of actually reducing United States planet-warming emissions than the E.P.A. Mr. Biden has vowed to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 and, along the way, eliminate fossil fuel emissions from the power sector by 2035. With a partisan, deadlocked Congress, those tasks will fall almost entirely to E.P.A. The new administrator will need to first eliminate barriers that the Trump administration erected to make new rules difficult to enact, and then to expand Obama-era efforts to curb greenhouse gases from power plants, automobiles and oil and gas sites.
In Secret-Ballot Vote, House Democrats Overwhelmingly Deny AOC a Powerful Committee Seat -- In an early indication of which ideological faction of the Democratic Party will control the policy agenda in the upcoming Congress, a House body tasked with deciding committee assignments overwhelmingly voted Thursday to deny progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez a spot on the powerful Energy and Commerce panel, instead handing the seat to centrist Rep. Kathleen Rice. The landslide 46-13 vote in favor of Rice by the House Steering and Policy Committee—which is chaired by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)—was viewed as establishment backlash against Ocasio-Cortez over her willingness to publicly break with the party brass on key policy matters and criticize Pelosi's leadership, as she did in an interview with The Intercept released this week. But Ocasio-Cortez, a supporter of the Green New Deal and Medicare for All, did receive significant support from the New York congressional delegation in her push for the coveted slot on Energy and Commerce, which has jurisdiction over a broad array of policy areas including climate and public health. House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), dean of the New York delegation, signed a letter in support of Ocasio-Cortez, as did more than a dozen other members.Rice—a New York Democrat who, unlike Ocasio-Cortez, voted against Pelosi for speaker last year—received some support from the state delegation as well.Reporting on Thursday's secret-ballot vote indicates that Ocasio-Cortez's support for Medicare for All and the Green New Deal, both of which would come under the purview of the Energy and Commerce Committee, was a factor in the vote to hand the seat to Rice, who does not support either progressive policy."Some senior Democrats, including on the Energy and Commerce panel, had privately voiced concerns about Ocasio-Cortez landing the seat," Politico reported. "Some feared that the firebrand Democrat, who backs progressive priorities like the 'Green New Deal' and 'Medicare for All,' could cause issues as Congress attempts to draft bipartisan health and climate policies next year."
EU Leaders Agree to Cut Emissions 55 Percent by 2030 - European Union leaders reached an eleventh-hour agreement Friday to reduce the bloc's collectivegreenhouse gas emissions by 55 percent of 1990 levels by 2030. The deal, hashed out over a negotiation all-nighter, managed to reconcile differences between wealthier Western European countries and Eastern European countries such as Poland that are still heavily dependent on coal, The New York Times reported. "Europe is the leader in the fight against climate change," European Council President Charles Michel tweeted Friday morning, announcing the news. The deal comes after the European Commission, the EU's executive branch, drafted a law in March that would make the 27-country bloc carbon neutral by 2050. Activists like Greta Thunberg criticized the plan for setting a benchmark so far in the future. While Thunberg also thought 2030 was too far of a target, analysts told The New York Times that Friday's deal makes the EU's 2050 target more credible.European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen championed the new deal. "Today's agreement puts us on a clear path to climate neutrality in 2050," The Guardian reported her saying. The agreement was also reached in time for von der Leyen to announce it at a virtual UN climate meeting Saturday, The New York Times reported. The deal will also focus on accelerating the transition to electric vehicles and mandate an investment of $420 billion a year this decade for decarbonizing the energy sector, Reuters reported. The deal will now need to be approved by the European Parliament, which supports a more ambitious emissions reduction of 60 percent by 2030." It is important not to be fooled into thinking that a net target of 55 percent is sufficient," Jytte Guteland, the parliament member taking the lead on climate legislation, tweeted Friday. "I have a strong mandate from the elected representatives in the European Parliament to push for more climate ambition. I intend to do that when we meet and negotiate." "Governments will no doubt call it historic, but the evidence shows this deal is only a small improvement on the emissions cuts the EU is already expected to achieve. It shows that political convenience takes precedence over climate science, and that most politicians are still afraid to take on big polluters,"Greenpeace EU policy advisor Sebastian Mang told The Guardian.
Canada's 'Hydrogen Moment Has Come,' as Government Eyes Potential to Replace Natural Gas -- Pipeline, processing and storage capacity additions would be needed to replace natural gas with zero-carbon hydrogen, according to a review of emerging international fuel substitution goals issued Wednesday by the Canadian government. “At any pressure, the volumetric energy density of hydrogen is about one-third that of natural gas,” said the 141-page report, Hydrogen Strategy for Canada: A Call to Action. . However, replacing carbon-emitting fossil fuels would require more than only expanding current facilities and refilling them with hydrogen. “There will be a need for dedicated infrastructure, such as hydrogen pipelines and liquefaction plants,” researchers said. The Canadian report stopped short of promising that hydrogen projects would avoid the intense opposition mounted against fossil fuel facility construction by environmental groups and native tribes. “Hydrogen pipelines may offer a unique low environmental risk alternative to move energy within Canada, though local land disruptions through Indigenous territories will still need to be considered,” the report noted. Residential, commercial and industrial consumers would also have to be turned into hydrogen supporters, the research suggested. Convincing the public might be achieved by government policies, such as carbon taxation, which increase the cost of fossil fuels by adding costs attributed to their greenhouse emissions. “Hydrogen is not yet cost-competitive compared to conventional fuel options,” researchers noted. “For example, hydrogen used as a carbon-free heating fuel is about five times more expensive than natural gas.” The government called the hydrogen strategy review a “strategic directional document” that creates a “framework” for charting a “decarbonization pathway.” Instead of announcing action, the report lists topics requiring further work by federal and provincial authorities. “Achieving long-term 2050 targets represents a radical transformation of the energy sector and requires clear, coordinated efforts,” the review noted. “Policies and regulations that encourage the use of hydrogen technologies include low carbon fuel regulations, carbon pollution pricing, vehicle emissions regulations, zero emission vehicle mandates, creation of emission-free zones and renewable gas mandates in natural gas networks. Mechanisms to help de-risk investments…are also needed.”.
Tesla Ordered By German Court To Stop Cutting Down A Forest To Make Space For Its German Gigafactory -- Tesla, best known as the automaker that is supposedly saving the planet and/or mankind, depending on what type of Musk-cult-member you're talking to that day, has been officially ordered by a German court to stop cutting down trees on a site it is clearing for its first car plant in Germany.Because, as we all know, you can't save the Earth without a little deforestation in the process.The top administrative court in the Berlin-Brandenburg region issued a temporary ban to stop the cutting down of trees after two environmentalist groups appealed a lower court's decision to allow it, according to AP. We have been documenting the battle between these groups and Tesla for months. Tesla CEO Elon Musk had previously said of the forest: "This is not a natural forest — it was planted for use as cardboard & only a small part will be used for GF4." The court has said that the ban would last until a decision is made on the appeal that has been filed by the groups. The groups have claimed that there are animals living in the forest that have not yet been safely resettled prior to Tesla's "clearing of trees" across 200 acres. The groups are worried most about "sand lizards and smooth snakes", which are both protected species in Germany, they wrote in their appeal. Meanwhile, Tesla has planned to open the factory next year at some point and the halt in land clearing could throw a wrench in the company's gears. With that being said, Tesla is no stranger to missing timelines (by a mile), so we're sure that even if the factory is delayed, no one will notice and the sell side will still find an excuse to upgrade the company's stock.
The Real Trees Delivering Fake Climate Progress for Corporate America - Jack Branning is a prosperous Mississippi businessman, with commercial interests stretching from Hattiesburg to Baton Rouge, La. He’s seen a lot of deals in his 89 years, but few were as curious as the one he was offered back in 2013. That’s when a forester walked into his office in Vicksburg and inquired about 1,700 acres of former soybean fields he owned nearby. The man worked for GreenTrees LLC, a small company that says it combats climate change by reforesting thousands of acres of farmland along the lower Mississippi River. GreenTrees says it pays landowners to convert their croplands to forests, tallies the planet-warming carbon absorbed by those trees, and then sells credit for the carbon reductions to big corporations that want to offset their own greenhouse gas emissions. GreenTrees couldn’t reforest Branning’s land, because he’d already planted trees there more than a decade earlier thanks to a government conservation program. But the forester said the land still qualified for carbon payments. In effect, GreenTrees was offering to pay Branning for doing something he’d already done—and then take credit for it. “It worked out good for a guy like me,” says Branning, who’s collected thousands of dollars from the deal so far. “I had the trees there anyway, and they were not going away.” GreenTrees calls itself the largest carbon reforestation project in North America. It has signed contracts with more than 550 landowners since its inception 13 years ago, and claims its payments cause landowners like Branning to plant and then protect forests, thereby taking credit for the carbon dioxide soaked up by their trees. GreenTrees then sells these credits, known as carbon offsets, to some of the world’s biggest corporations, including Royal Dutch Shell, Duke Energy, Norfolk Southern, United Airlines, and the Walt Disney Co. The corporate buyers can use the credits to say they’ve reduced their own carbon footprints. Bank of America, MetLife, Salesforce.com, Microsoft, and Boston Consulting Group are among the companies that have purchased GreenTrees offsets to help represent that their operations are “carbon neutral”—meaning they’ve zeroed out their contributions to global warming. But interviews with 17 participating landowners, as well as an examination of hundreds of pages of contracts and project documents, reveal that GreenTrees usually takes credit for trees that were already planted, or would have been planted anyway. Because GreenTrees’ payments aren’t causing most of the carbon sequestration to happen, the climate benefits claimed by the project are inflated. That means corporations buying offsets from GreenTrees aren’t really cutting their greenhouse gas emissions as much as they contend.
How Do You Make Flying Carbon Neutral? - There aren’t many good ideas about how to solve the climate problem of aviation.Or, well, let me rephrase that: There are a lot of ideas. Some companies argue that business commuters of the 2040s will take short hops, such as from D.C., to Philly, on six-seater electric vehicles that take off and land vertically. But these vehicles—sometimes felicitously called “flying cars,” though their formal name is VTOL, for “vertical takeoff and landing”—can go only so far, and the most successful VTOL prototypes have barely gotten off the ground. For medium distances, such as from New York to Cleveland, Airbus says it is trying to develop a zero-emissions jet that uses hydrogen as its main fuel source. But for long-haul flights? “There’s nothing on the drawing board,” Scott Kirby, the chief executive of United Airlines, told me yesterday. You could try to make liquid fuels out of plant matter, but that would gobble up an enormous amount of land. Or you could look at the recent progress in technology that captures carbon pollution directly from the air and say, “Why don’t we just do that?” Why can’t planes stay on fossil fuels forever (or at least indefinitely) and pay to clean up the climate damage immediately?Last week, United announced that it’s going down that compelling but fraught path. Its decision, which I talked with Kirby about, points to how far carbon capture has come in the past few years—but also how far it still has to go.A quick refresher: Flying is a tough one, climate-wise, to say the least. Planes burn jet fuel, of course, which releases carbon pollution. But they also disturb the atmosphere, depositing pollutants and forming heat-trapping cirrus clouds at high altitudes. This means that planes cause more global warming than their greenhouse-gas emissions would strictly predict: Aviation accounts for about 3.5 percent of the warming in any year, even though it makes up a smaller share (about 2.5 percent) of the carbon pollution.These numbers cannot really be contextualized in a noncontroversial way. Flying’s share of global emissions is significantly below that of cars and trucks—both in the United States and abroad, SUVs are a bigger climate problem than planes—but flying is also hyperconcentrated, both logistically and socially. That is, a single flight is much dirtier than a single SUV ride, and rich people take the most flights. As the world gets more prosperous, experts assume that flying will become a bigger problem. The International Civil Aviation Organization says that carbon pollution from flying could more than triple by 2050.
Dominion, Smithfield Align in Utah RNG Project, with Expansion Eyed Across Country - Dominion Energy is making good on its plans to invest in renewable natural gas (RNG), as CEO Thomas Farrell indicated in July. Dominion and Smithfield Foods, through their joint venture Align Renewable Natural Gas, initially are going to manufacture RNG at a facility in Milford, in southwestern Utah. The RNG would be produced from a large network of around 26 family hog farms that are under contract to Smithfield, a pork producer and food processing company based in Smithfield, VA. Align is to be one of the first efforts in Utah to take methane produced by the farms and create RNG. The partners estimated the RNG production could heat more than 3,000 homes and businesses. As important, it would reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) substantially. “We’re excited to witness the completion of our initial project in Utah, as we continue to scale and implement renewable energy projects across the country,” said Smithfield’s Kraig Westerbeek, senior director of renewables and hog production environmental affairs. “Our Align RNG partnership with Dominion Energy is a key component of Smithfield’s carbon reduction strategy, which promises to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across our domestic supply chain 25% by 2025 and become carbon negative in all U.S. company-owned operations by 2030.” Because of the difference in favor of captured GHG from farms versus the gas usage from consumers, RNG is considered a “carbon-beneficial” energy source. When operating at maximum capacity, it could help reduce annual emissions from the farm network by more than 100,000 metric tons/year. Put another way, the reduced emissions are equivalent to taking an estimated 23,000 vehicles off the road, or planting around 1.8 trees annually.
Don’t fall for fossil fuel propaganda --The consequences of climate change do not impact all Californians equally, and here in the San Joaquin Valley, community members and agricultural workers are on the frontlines of the air pollution, water scarcity and increased heat that are inextricably tied to climate change. Our health, well-being and future prosperity depend on enacting meaningful solutions to accelerate the transition off of polluting fuels. That’s why it’s so disheartening when the lawmakers we’ve elected to represent us push false climate solutions rather than championing the bold action we so desperately need. California legislators have pushed a misleading picture of the climate benefits of so-called “renewable natural gas” while ignoring the air quality and water impacts that will further burden San Joaquin Valley communities. Numerous studies show that renewable natural gas – the fossil fuel industry term for biogas produced from organic material like crops or animal manure – is limited, expensive, environmentally risky and a potential environmental justice disaster. It is not the silver bullet against climate change that fossil fuel companies and their backers describe. In fact, documents from fossil fuel companies show that renewable natural gas is at the center of a communications campaign aimed at stalling the transition to clean energy. By claiming that mixing a small amount of renewable natural gas into the existing gas system can cancel out climate pollution from gas, fossil fuel executives intend to stall the transition to truly clean and green energy. By ramping up the production of renewable natural gas for use in buildings and in cars and trucks, California will expand unsustainable agricultural practices that continually pollute nearby communities. The San Joaquin Valley won’t benefit from larger dairies – we will, however, benefit from sustainable agricultural practices that not only produce food for local communities, but also protect our air and groundwater.If the renewable natural gas supply is expanded, we also risk expanding and creating new sources of methane emissions. Renewable natural gas facilities only capture and convert a portion of the methane produced from manure on factory farms into gas. Meanwhile, more cows mean more methane from enteric emissions, more air pollution and more groundwater pollution. Renewable natural gas is four to 17 times more expensive to generate than fossil gas. Without corporate welfare, in the form of taxpayer subsidies, the renewable natural gas machine runs dry.
Leader of green-energy ballot initiative indicted --John A. Clark Jr., who led the initiative petition drive that would have diverted tens of millions of dollars of city of Columbus money toward vague green-energy initiatives, has been indicted on felony charges of filing false campaign finance reports. Clark, 50, of the Near East Side — who also has gone by John Clarke — was indicted on two counts of tampering with government records, both third-degree felonies, and two counts of election falsification, both fifth-degree felonies, Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O'Brien's office announced Wednesday. The charges relate to false information provided on campaign finance reports filed with the city of Columbus' campaign finance office on July 31, 2019 and on Aug. 18, 2019. O'Brien's office said the false statements are related to the source and amount of contributions made to the ballot initiative. The 2019 initiative would have redirected $57 million dollars in city money to proposed green-energy initiatives by ProEnergy Ohio LLC, a limited partnership group Clark led. “These false statements (on the campaign finance reports) hit at the core of our elections and was an attempt to mislead the City of Columbus and its voters," O'Brien said in a statement. O'Brien said investigators found that five people listed on the campaign finance report — one who was listed as contributing $13,000 and the other four listed as contributing $10,000 each — apparently gave nothing at all. "Either the money didn’t exist in the first place or the money came through straw contributions," O'Brien said during an interview Thursday. He said investigators interviewed four of the five donors. "None of these people had that kind of money," O'Brien said. "The whole thing was a fiction," he said.
Greene County Citizens for Greene Acres against Vesper Energy solar farm near Yellow Springs want commissioners to intervene -- A group of residents is asking Greene County commissioners to intervene in a potential solar project that would be built near Yellow Springs.Texas-based Vesper Energy, formerly known as Lendlease, has plans to develop more than 1,200 acres of farmland in Miami Twp., Xenia Twp. and Cedarville Twp. into a solar farm. Vesper Energy plans to call the development Kingwood Solar Farm.The Kingwood Solar Farm would run along Clifton Road and Wilberforce-Clifton Road near John Bryan State Park. Vesper Energy has secured long-term leases with some of the land owners in that area.Jenifer Adams, a member of the grassroots group Citizens for Greene Acres, asked commissioners to intervene in the Ohio Power Siting Board (OPSB) process. Citizens for Greene Acres are a group of people who liver or farm near the potential site.Governments or groups that wish to intervene in the OPSB process have 30 days from the day a company applies, Adams said. The group is asking commissioners now, so that when Vesper Energy applies, they could have time to intervene if they wanted to. Vesper Energy told Citizens for Greene Acres that they plan to start the application process in the beginning of 2021.
RENEWABLE ENERGY: In reversal, Interior solicitor bolsters fishermen over wind -- Tuesday, December 15, 2020 -- Interior's top lawyer yesterday set a stricter standard for the department to follow when considering whether to permit offshore wind farms where they might "interfere" with fishermen and other ocean users.
Guest column: Give fishermen a voice in the wind energy debate - Picture a band of floating wind turbines towering over the Gulf of Maine; steel anchors and cables securing their hulls to the ocean floor. The turbines would harness the generous winds of the Outer Continental Shelf and produce clean energy for New England’s population centers, where there is a growing appetite for stable electric power. This clean energy source is expected to generate surplus electricity, 36 times greater than Maine’s total demand. By conducting an independent study, I learned that energy developers Diamond Offshore Wind and RWE Renewables can provide the expertise necessary for offshore wind deployment in Maine. The corporations are currently channeling investments worth $100 million to the joint venture, New England Aqua Ventus LLC, which intends to make modifications to the University of Maine’s turbine demonstration. I am confident that if Mainers capitalize on research and development for this cutting-edge technology, they could potentially tap into the $70 billion investments projected to support offshore wind in the United States through 2030. According to the state’s 10-year Economic Development Strategy, offshore wind projects like Aqua Ventus could determine the trajectory of Maine’s energy future. In addition to the financial benefits, offshore wind can bring Mainers closer to the state’s goal of adopting 80% clean energy by 2030 and 100% by 2050. Climate change mitigation is critically important to environments like the Gulf of Maine, which has been shaken by rising surface temperatures. In mid-August alone, temperatures were as high as 69.85 degrees Fahrenheit according to the Gulf of Maine Research Institute. In an effort to alleviate this crisis, Gov. Janet Mills, et al are eager to explore offshore wind as a new frontier. Perhaps not surprisingly, not all of those dependent on the Gulf welcome this consensus. Gov. Mills — who pitched for offshore wind research — faced early pushback from fishermen. It is sensible to consult fishermen before planting floating wind turbines on 16 miles of viable fishing grounds. Aware of these concerns, Mills seems to be taking precautions. At a recent briefing, she said, “I believe Maine can lead the country in floating offshore wind technology, but it must be done in partnership with Maine’s fishermen to form a science-based mutual understanding of how best to design and operate floating wind turbines in the precious Gulf of Maine.”
MISO Prepares Members for Pricey Transmission Expansion - MISO executives last week said an evolving energy industry heralds big spending on transmission projects in the RTO’s footprint. “If you love renewables, you better love transmission,” a MISO executive says as the grid operator anticipates large-scale transmission projects in the coming years.
Government spending bill to include bipartisan energy provisions - Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on the Senate Floor on Monday that a bipartisan energy bill will be included in an appropriations bill to fund the government. "The appropriations bill will include several important pieces of related legislation. One that doesn't get enough attention is a bipartisan energy bill," Schumer said on the Senate floor, an apparent reference to a proposal from Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) that was stalled earlier this year. "Earlier this year during the debate over the energy bill, Senate Democrats insisted that a provision to reduce [hydrofluorocarbons] HFCs, a very harmful greenhouse gas that is driving our climate change problem, must be included in the bill," he added. "I'm very happy to report that we have made very good progress towards an agreement on HFC reduction. We are about to get it done, and that's one of the biggest victories to fight global warming in a very long time." The Washington Examiner first reported that bipartisan energy provisions would be included in the omnibus bill. According to The Examiner, the bill will also include provisions to bolster advanced nuclear power, energy storage and carbon capture technology. A proposed amendment by Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Joe Kennedy (R-La.) that would aim to phase down the use of HFCs became a sticking point in the negotiations over the energy bill earlier this year. In September, the lawmakers, along with Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), who opposed the HFC provision, reached a compromise that aimed to reduce the use of the gases over a 15-year period, but that would restrict states from imposing tighter regulations for at least five years. A Carper spokesperson confirmed to The Hill that they expect the HFC provision to be included in the omnibus legislation. The Murkowski-Manchin bill would boost research and development into renewable energy and technology to ease pollution from fossil fuels. It has been touted by supporters as the best chance to modernize the country’s energy policies.
Critics aim to reshape utilities rule they say negates energy-saving goals, keeps bills high A draft rule on how Florida power companies set their energy-savings goals is “stunningly short-sighted” and “ridiculous” because it does not promote energy efficiency that would lower customers’ power bills and reduce pollution, say critics who hope to reshape the rule. Released this week by the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC), the draft rule was condemned by public-interest and environmental organizations that closely monitor the PSC and the powerful, investor-owned utilities it regulates. “Among other actions, the groups plan to address roadblocks to capturing more energy savings for Floridians, especially low-income families,” the coalition of critics said in announcing their opposition to the draft of the rule. The PSC will hear public comments on the draft rule at a workshop scheduled for Jan. 14. The PSC regulates Florida Power & Light Co., Duke Energy Florida, Tampa Electric Co., Gulf Power Co., and Florida Public Utilities Co. In its announcement, the coalition says the PSC’s draft rule would perpetuate outmoded practices that have set Florida “almost dead last in state rankings for capturing energy savings” through efficiency measures. The effect, the critics say, is unnecessarily high utility bills that make life more difficult for low-income households – especially during the pandemic when hundreds of thousands of Floridians are jobless and protective benefits such unemployment insurance and a moratorium on evictions are set to expire in weeks. Utility disconnections, suspended for several months due to COVID-19, have resumed.
Energy Department says it was hacked in suspected Russian campaign -- The Energy Department was hacked as part of a massive, ongoing campaign against the U.S. government, a spokesperson said Thursday, making it the latest confirmed agency to have been breached by Russian spies. A number of federal agencies have been hit by a massive monthslong breach, which officials believe is the work of Russian intelligence, leaving the government scrambling to find out what was infected and how much information was stolen. "The investigation is ongoing and the response to this incident is happening in real time," Energy Department spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes said in a statement. "At this point, the investigation has found that the malware has been isolated to business networks only, and has not impacted the mission essential national security functions of the Department, including the National Nuclear Security Administration," she said. Much of the campaign came after the hacking of SolarWinds, an Austin, Texas-based company that counts many government agencies and a number of major U.S. companies as customers. The hackers planted malicious code into software updates, which bypassed the federal cybersecurity scans. The campaign, which is believed to have started in early March at the latest, was made public Dec. 8 when the cybersecurity company FireEye, which also does work for federal agencies, said it had been hacked. On Sunday, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, released an emergency directive to uninstall the compromised version of SolarWinds' software.
CYBERSECURITY: Huge federal hack ripples across energy industry -- Thursday, December 17, 2020 -- Electric utilities are grappling with the fallout from one of the most significant cyber intrusions in years, as the far-reaching impact of a sophisticated hacking campaign comes into sharper focus.Four days after the supply chain cyberattack on IT service provider SolarWinds was revealed, details on its global victims — from federal agencies to oil and electricity companies — are still emerging (Energywire, Dec. 15).The SolarWinds software hijacked by suspected Russia-linked hackers was widely used by U.S. power providers, experts say, leaving many companies scrambling to find out if they're affected by the breach. And sources say a simple software update or patch won't erase the threat from the "Sunburst" malware: Organizations targeted by the hackers will likely have additional malware installed that could be difficult to find."Any organization that says, 'Yep, we got it solved. It's all good,' in the next 90 days: I would respectfully disagree," said Jim Guinn, global managing director for cybersecurity in energy, chemicals, utilities and mining at Accenture.The number of agencies and organizations that may have been hit by the cyber espionage campaign is unclear. Reuters first reported that the Commerce, Treasury and Homeland Security departments were among those targeted. The list of agencies has since grown to include the State Department and the Pentagon, The New York Times reported, citing anonymous sources familiar with the ongoing investigations.In a joint statement yesterday, DHS's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the FBI and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said they have formed a "Cyber Unified Coordination Group to coordinate a whole-of-government response" to the hacking campaign."This is a developing situation, and while we continue to work to understand the full extent of this campaign, we know this compromise has affected networks within the federal government," the agencies said. According to federal records, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management had contracts with SolarWinds in recent years. It's not clear if the Orion product was used and if those agencies downloaded the malicious update. The Department of Energy's Sandia and Oak Ridge national laboratories also used SolarWinds, according to a now-deleted webpage listing the Austin, Texas-based IT firm's customers.DOE did not respond to requests for comment. FERC declined to comment. BOEM deferred comment to DHS, which is leading the federal response to the hack.
NYISO looks to market rules, transmission planning in 2021 | S&P Global Platts— The New York Independent System Operator will work with federal and state regulators on buyer-side mitigation rules, energy storage rules, transmission development and its Comprehensive Reliability Plan in 2021 as the state pushes ahead with energy transition initiatives, NYISO President and CEO Rich Dewey recently told S&P Global Platts.NYISO has been working with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on capacity market improvements and what is known as Buyer-Side Mitigation, which are rules to prevent buyers and sellers from taking actions that harm competition, according to the grid operator."We've taken the stance that New York's mitigation rules aren't perfect, but they do allow for strategic entry of some renewable resources and have worked pretty well to keep the supply/demand balance in the markets," Dewey said in a phone interview.Dewey remains optimistic NYISO can make the buyer-side rules work in New York noting that some of their renewable energy exemptions and BSM rules were approved by FERC earlier in 2020 and the rules can be "fine-tuned" and provide a "little leeway" for state-sponsored resources, he said. The deadline for those rules changes is Dec. 21.And NYISO's energy storage rules went live a few months ago so energy storage now can participate in the wholesale energy, ancillary service and capacity markets, Dewey said. The grid operator is also working on rules for hybrid storage resources like solar coupled with a battery which should be completed in 2021. "So, 2020 was the year of storage, 2021 will be hybrid resources and ... in 2022 we anticipate having our set of distributed energy resource rules in place," Dewey said. NYISO is also already mostly in compliance with FERC's recent Order 2222 (RM18-9) that enabled distributed energy resource DER aggregators to compete in all regional organized wholesale electric markets.
Newport wants National Grid to move customers to electricity over gas --The City Council has endorsed the most expensive option National Grid developed to replace the temporary Liquefied Natural Gas operation on Old Mill Lane in Portsmouth, which boosts gas capacity on Aquidneck Island when it is needed most. The council prefers a solution that does not require a major investment in new utility infrastructure, but relies instead “exclusively on electrification, demand response and efficiency,” says a resolution passed by the council last week. According to the 127-page Aquidneck Island Long-Term Gas Capacity Study,, prepared by National Grid in September and presented at council meetings in Newport, Middletown and Portsmouth, this option would cost a total of $190 million through the year 2035. The costs for each option can be viewed in the table on page 15 of the study. “We recognize that this solution has been presented as the most costly of the four [options] and we look forward to learning more about the elements of the cost structure,” says the letter from the city to National Grid. “However, the non-infrastructure is noted as being also the most environmentally supportive.” This plan calls for switching approximately 63% of forecasted gas customers to electricity by 2035, according to the study. “The biggest drawback for electrification of gas-heated customers in Rhode Island is the cost — both upfront cost and ongoing operating cost,” says the study. “The upfront cost of a heat pump and installation is often twice as high as the typical natural gas heating unit for which it would substitute.” “Although heat pumps are very efficient, the difference between natural gas costs and electric prices are a key factor in customer economics,” the study continues. “Switching from gas heating to electric heating is likely to lead to an overall increase in a customer’s annual utility bills, even when accounting for the increased efficiency of electric heat pumps and the corresponding air conditioning savings for those customers to whom that applies.”
No environmental viewpoint represented on Senate's gas and electric transmission infrastructure commission – Uprise RI -- In response to the Aquidneck Island gas supply disruption that left thousands of homes without heat during an intense cold spell, Senator Louis DiPalma (Democrat, District 12, Middletown, Little Compton, Newport, Tiverton) introduced legislation to study and evaluate Rhode Island’s electrical and fracked gas transmission and distribution infrastructure. Over a year later, in March of 2020, the commission was to hold its first meeting, but then Covid shut down the State House.Now, nearly two years after the near disaster that precipitated the commission, Senator DiPalma is holding the first meeting on Monday, December 21 at 10:30am. The meeting will be available to stream live on Capitol TV and, of course, UpriseRI will have video and a complete breakdown of the commission hearing soon after.“The purpose of this commission is to ensure that Rhode Islanders have a reliable and dependable utility infrastructure” said Senator DiPalma in a press release. “The necessity of heat and electricity is too great to allow the possibility of mass service problems, such as we had on Aquidneck Island almost two years ago, and this commission is tasked with preventing any future crises.”The original legislation called for the commission to be made up of three Senators, 13 representatives from various state agencies or private corporations, and four members of the public.
Behind Unsigned Editorials, a Columnist With Ties to Dominion | VPM - The Virginian Pilot and Daily Press on a table The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press published a series of editorials over the past year related to Dominion Energy. At least some of those pieces were written by a columnist whom the utility company keeps on retainer. (Photo: Alex Scribner/VPM News) The Virginian-Pilot and the Daily Press published a handful of unsigned editorials related to Dominion Energy this year written by a columnist who also works as a part-time speechwriter for the company. The pieces carry the distinctive style of Gordon “G.C.” Morse, a longtime columnist for the Hampton Roads newspapers. Morse started an ongoing, part-time speechwriting contract with Dominion Energy in 2006, according to a spokesperson for that company. Kris Worrell, the papers’ editor-in-chief, confirmed Morse wrote “some” of at least seven Dominion-focused editorials published from February through October but declined to specify which ones. The pieces praise the company’s projects, attack its critics, and in three cases, quote company press releases. Worrell said the board has taken steps to “bolster transparency and impartiality” since she assumed her role in August 2019, including removing reporters from the board. The board stopped assigning Morse pieces related to Dominion after they “recently” learned of his work for the company, according to Worrell. Kelly McBride, chair of the Poynter Institute's Center for Ethics and Leadership, said Morse’s undisclosed role in the editorials -- together with his ties to Dominion -- risked undermining reader trust in the newspapers. “They should come clean with their audience and say, ‘Yes, here are the contractors that we use. Here are the pieces that they wrote. And here are the conflicts of interest that they have,’” said McBride, who also serves as NPR’s public editor. In a series of emails, Morse denied the editorials were favorable to Dominion and questioned the motivations of this story. He said his writing drew from a breadth of experience that included work for corporations, politicians, and foundations. “The foundation of what I do has not changed since the early 1980s,” Morse said. “I simply write what I think and try to explain things based on what I know. The editorials flow from positions taken on different subjects by one or the other papers over the years.”
Report: Dominion Energy must start planning now for coal plant transition - An energy think tank has issued a dire warning to Dominion Energy: Devise a transition plan for its 8-year-old underperforming coal plant now or risk leaving a Southwest Virginia county in more of an economic lurch when market and policy changes likely force an abrupt shutdown.Analysts with the nonprofit Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis are demanding accountability from Richmond-based Dominion on the plant’s future in a report issued today. Dominion is, by far, Virginia’s largest utility. “Virginia Coal Plant’s Future Isn’t Bright: Preparation for Transition Should Commence Now” centers on the viability of the 624-megawatt Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center, which runs on coal and some wood waste. Institute researchers say the plant — completed in July 2012 — operated at about 20% capacity from January through August this year.The report details how the Wise County energy center’s situation is more precarious than Dominion has publicly acknowledged. It states that its closure would cost the community roughly 153 full-time plant jobs and up to 400 additional indirect jobs.As well, the region would lose between $6 million and $8.5 million in local annual tax revenues.Karl Cates, a transition policy analyst; Seth Feaster, an energy data analyst; and analyst Brent Israelsen jointly authored the report.“VCHEC’s underperformance, coupled with shrinking utility industry appetite and demand for coal-powered electricity, show clearly that there is no sensible business case for keeping the plant open other than to reward Dominion shareholders with ratepayer-subsidized dollars,” they wrote.During its peak performance in 2013 and 2014, the plant operated at slightly more than 65% of its capacity. However, their research shows that fell to 54% in 2018 and 22% in 2019. If the plant remains online, the report said Dominion estimates its annual capacity factor will average less than 7.7% over the next decade. That output will be insignificant on a grid operated by the 13-state PJM Interconnection, which has access to 180,000 MW of other generation capacity.
AIR POLLUTION: EPA sets hearing on bid to tighten Pa. ozone curbs -- Wednesday, December 16, 2020 -- On a timetable that will punt a final decision to the Biden administration, EPA is belatedly moving to address a call from ozone-plagued Northeastern states for tighter controls on Pennsylvania's coal-fired power industry.
Under court settlement, no coal ash for Colon mine in Lee County -- Coal ash will not be disposed of in a former clay mine in Lee County, according to a settlement between three environmental groups, Charah, Inc., and the NC Department of Environmental Quality.After a five-year legal battle, Charah has agreed that it would not deposit ash in the Colon mine, five miles north of Sanford, in Lee County. The state had originally permitted Charah to put8 million tons of coal ash on the 411-acre site.Debbie Hall and Keely Wood of EnvironmentaLee issued a statement that read in part, “We knew we were on the right side of environmental justice … Winning this five year court case just proves that community involvement and Lee County residents’ voices can and do make a difference.”Forty-one percent of households in the census block that includes the Colon mine are from a community of color, but is well above the state average of 33%.The Kentucky-based company had already stopped placing ash in the Brickhaven mine, near Moncure in Chatham County, and that site will be closed as required by the state permit. Brickhaven contains roughly 7.3 million tons of ash in lined cells on 145 acres.The coal ash originated from Duke Energy’s Sutton and Riverbend plants sites in North Carolina.Environmental groups were concerned that contaminants from the ash would leach into the groundwater and into drinking water wells. Contaminants have been detected in monitoring wells near Brickhaven, but there is some question on whether it is from the mine or naturally occurring.
A Legacy of Contamination - (see photos) Dredging at night was hard work. The pump inside the dredge clogged repeatedly, so Thacker took off his shirt and entered water up to his armpits to remove rocks, tree limbs, tires, and other debris, sometimes in below-freezing temperatures. Soon, ringworm-like sores crested along his arms, interwoven with his fading red and blue tattoos. Thacker’s supervisors gave him a cream for the skin lesions, and he began wearing long black cow-birthing gloves while he unclogged pumps. While Thacker knew that the water was contaminated — that was the point of the dredging — he felt relatively safe. After all, TVA was one of the oldest and most respected employers in the state, with a sterling reputation for worker safety. Then, one night, the dredging stopped. Sometime between December 2009 and January 2010, roughly halfway through the final, 500-foot-wide section of the Emory designated for cleanup, operators turned off the pumps that sucked the ash from the river. For a multi-billion dollar remediation project, this order was unprecedented. The dredges had been operating 24/7 in an effort to clean up the disaster area as quickly as possible, removing roughly 3,000 cubic yards of material — almost enough to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool — each day. Butofficial reports from TVA show that the dredging of the Emory encountered unusually high levels of contamination: Sediment samples showed that mercury levels were three times higher in the river than they were in coal ash from the holding pond that caused the disaster. Then there was the nuclear waste. According to a 2011 TVA report, the river-bound coal ash and sediments contained higher radiation levels than the holding pond. Half of the river sediment samples taken contained cesium-137, a highly soluble compound with a 30-year half-life that can contaminate large bodies of water for well over a generation. It’s best known as the predominant source of radiation in the fallout of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. It can cause burns, acute radiation sickness, and death. Exposure also increases the risk for cancer. Cesium-137 also happens to be a byproduct of the nuclear reactions and weapons testing that began in the 1940s at the 35,000-acre Oak Ridge Reservation, which is roughly 30 miles upstream from Kingston. The federal facility is infamous for its role in the Manhattan Project, which resulted in the U.S. dropping twin atom bombs on Japan at the end of World War II, demonstrating the horrific effects of radiation exposure to the world. The Kingston coal ash spill was the nation’s largest industrial disaster to date, releasing five times as much toxic material as the 2010 explosion of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig. Workers like Thacker now wonder what they were really exposed to during the cleanup. Coal ash is toxic in its own right, but additional radioactivity may have made the dredged material more dangerous than the ash alone.
The new operator of Pennsylvania's third largest coal mine remains a mystery -Last week, a mysterious new outfit took over the 40-year-old Cumberland Mine in Greene County.Few people, including those among the coal mine’s 700-person workforce, know the provenance of their new employer. The name of the company, Iron Senergy Holding LLC, is ringing no bells. It was just formed.Its team is so fresh that Iron Senergy’s new CFO, Michael Castle, just left his former employer, steel and mining company ArcelorMittal, last week. CEO Justin Thompson and COO Tim Runyan are also ArcelorMittal alumni. Mr. Runyan left the steel company in January for a short stint as head of production for Peabody Energy.The newly formed venture has kept its leadership secret, redacting officers’ names in Contura’s public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and providing no contact information. Anya LitvakContura found someone willing to take over its Cumberland coal mineMr. Castle, reached this week, said Iron’s management team wanted to first sit down with the union that represents its miners and Cumberland’s large suppliers before anyone else, but “COVID issues have kind of put the skids on that for a couple of weeks.”They plan to reach out to those stakeholders this week, he said.Chuck Knisell is eager for the contact. As District 2 Vice President of United Mine Workers of America, he said so far the union had received one e-mail from Iron’s legal counsel saying the new company will take over the labor agreement “as is” and plans to mine.That’s unmitigated good news, Mr. Knisell said.The UMWA has 580 workers at the mine and, he estimated, another 125 workers are in management positions there. The staffing levels are back to where they were three years ago, he said, before Contura Energy, Cumberland’s owner until last week, announced that it wanted to get out of mining thermal coal — the kind of coal burned at power plants — and focus on metallurgical coal used in steelmaking.
Regulators reverse decision requiring early coal plant closures --Colorado air-quality regulators have walked back plans to require the early closure of three Colorado coal-fired power plants, including the Craig Station in Moffat County that is responsible for hundreds of jobs in northwest Colorado. The Air Quality Control Commission on Wednesday unanimously reversed a preliminary decision it made last month to require the Craig Station, the Platte River Power Authority’s Rawhide plant and Colorado Springs’ Ray Nixon plant to close by the end of 2028 to address regional haze that impacts national parks and wilderness areas. Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association operates the Craig Station, and has planned to close the plant by the end of 2029. The other two plants reportedly have planned 2030 closing dates. The utilities had contended that mandating involuntary closures under a regional haze rule would have been unprecedented, exceeded the regulators’ authority and violated the utilities’ due process and property rights. That helped lead to commissioners this week voicing second thoughts about finalizing their November decision, and ultimately reversing it. “I think it makes good sense to make sure we’re doing the right thing 100 percent,” said Commissioner Randal Ahrens. The Craig Station is powered by coal from the nearby Colowyo and Trapper mines. Unit 1, one of three generating units there, is scheduled to close by the end of 2025, and Unit 2, by late 2028. In changing course this week, the Air Quality Control Commission approved a regional haze plan incorporating Tri-State’s voluntary commitment to close Unit 3 by the start of 2030. Units 1 and 2 are owned by multiple utilities, as is Trapper, which is expected to close once those units shut down. Tri-State solely owns Unit 3 and the Colowyo Mine. Under the newly approved regional haze plan, which is required under the federal Clean Air Act, Tri-State has voluntarily agreed to close Colowyo by the end of 2031, giving it the option to keep the mine open beyond Unit 3’s shutdown if it can find other customers for the mine’s coal.
Lighter Coal Regulations May Mean More Covid-19 Deaths - On Monday, the Environmental Protection Agency declined to put in place stricter regulations on coal. This is despite the evolving evidence that air pollution is correlated with worse Covid-19 outcomes. Ecological studies have shown that even a small increase in exposure to particulate matter of 1 µg/m3 (PM2.5) in the air leads to an 8% increase in Covid-related mortality. A study out of Yale yields similar findings that improved air quality during the quarantine period in China avoided a total of 8,911 NO2-related deaths, 65% of which were from cardiovascular diseases (hypertensive disease, coronary heart disease, and stroke) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (emphysema and bronchitis).The urgency of improving public health could not be more obvious at the present moment where Covid-related deaths near a quarter million at the writing of this article. Yet the present administration has engaged nature in battle with a series of ill-advisedpolicies targeting environmental protections from siding with fossil fuel industry to pulling out of the Paris agreement.In April 2020, the Trump administration rolled back regulations on automobile emissions even though their own analysis Safer Affordable Fuel Efficient (SAFE) Vehicles Rule, issued by the EPA and the Department of Transportation, suggested there would be an increase in premature deaths between 444 and 1,000. In 2018, the White House weakened rules on carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants, a move which the EPAestimated (pdf) would cause an additional 1,400 premature deaths annually.The administration is rolling back more than 100 environmental rules and regulations over four years, 27 of which involve air pollution and emissions. While the courts have overturned a handful of these, the assault on protections is left in place for the many with 84 rollbacks already completed (pdf). The pandemic has laid bare entrenched inequality in the United States and those most vulnerable to Covid-19 are often those most at risk from pollution and climate change.Studies before the pandemic have shown the effect of pollution on pre-existing lung conditions. Communities already disenfranchised are bearing a disproportionate burden of the disease from exposure, comorbidities, and often from working as essential employees. Poor neighborhoods and communities of color are frequently exposed to higher levels of air pollution than more affluent communities.
Coal Miner Blackjewel Accuses Ex-CEO of Self-Dealing – WSJ - Defunct coal company Blackjewel LLC, which left hundreds out-of-work when the business collapsed last year, has filed a lawsuit accusing its founder and former chief executive of using his position to enrich himself and his family members at the company’s expense.Jeff Hoops Sr., who resigned as CEO days after the coal producer filed chapter 11 last July, signed deals with other companies he or his family controlled that extracted millions of dollars from Blackjewel in the years leading up to the bankruptcy, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of W.Va., by lawyers who are liquidating the company.The lawsuit seeks to recover money from Mr. Hoops and his other businesses for what Blackjewel said were transactions that placed his financial interests above the company he founded and led until its failure.A lawyer for Mr. Hoops didn’t respond to requests for comment. Mr. Hoops has previously denied allegations that he used Blackjewel for his benefit, testifying in bankruptcy court last year that “my interest is always in the best interest of Blackjewel and never in my personal interest.” Blackjewel’s investigation of Mr. Hoops is one of the open-issues remaining in the company’s bankruptcy, which attracted national attention and scrutiny from the U.S. Labor Department after laid-off workers in Cumberland, Ky., spent weeks blocking a shipment of coal in protest of not receiving their final paychecks. Ultimately, the business receiving the coal shipment agreed to pay more than $5 million to cover the workers’ back pay.
Former SCANA chief Kevin Marsh to plead guilty in court - Kevin Marsh, the former CEO of the defunct South Carolina energy giant SCANA, will appear in federal court on Dec. 29 to plead guilty in person to federal conspiracy fraud charges, according to court documents filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Columbia. Marsh, 65, who lives in North Carolina, will appear before U.S. District Judge Mary Geiger Lewis, who is newly assigned to the case. Lewis will take Marsh’s plea. After that hearing, Marsh will appear before Magistrate Judge Shiva Hodges, who will set bond, records said. In late November, Marsh and his lawyers signed an agreement to plead guilty to fraud charges with federal prosecutors, who with the FBI have been investigating for three years Marsh’s role in the 2017 failure of a $9 billion nuclear project run by SCANA, at that time an investor-owned utility. SCANA’s junior partner in the ill-fated venture, was Santee Cooper, a South Carolina state agency. But no criminal charges have been brought against any Santee Cooper executives.
Statehouse committee looking into Madigan concludes suddenly — and finds no wrongdoing - Chicago Sun-Times - The committee looking into Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s dealings with ComEd did not find he did anything wrong in a vote that split along party lines, concluding its work after convening three times and hearing from one witness. In their first meeting since September, members argued over motions to subpoena the speaker and others tied to the investigation surrounding an alleged bribery scheme in which ComEd is accused of sending $1.3 million to Madigan’s associates for doing little or no work for the utility. On a motion brought by Rep. Natalie Manley, D-Joliet, to authorize the charge against Madigan, the six-member committee deadlocked, with the three Republicans voting to approve a charge that Madigan engaged in conduct unbecoming of a legislator while the Democrats voted no. Rep. Emanuel “Chris” Welch, D-Hillside, who chairs the committee, said, “This was the last committee hearing of the show trial.” “That’s what this was, a show trial,” Welch said after the meeting. “This is a political show that was concocted by Minority Leader [Jim] Durkin; this was a plain power grab by the minority party.” Asked why he didn’t push Madigan to appear, Welch said, “I do not support subpoenas in this process. “This is a sham, political show trial to help leader Durkin try to become speaker, and he’s abusing what this rule was meant for, and to to vote to support subpoenas in this process is pandering to that abuse, and I refused to do it,” Welch said. After the meeting, Rep. Tom Demmer, R-Dixon, called it a “failure of the House of Representatives.”
Michigan utilities funded candidates during key caucus leadership races - Michigan utilities made significant contributions to two state lawmakers as they challenged an industry critic for key House leadership positions. Campaign finance records show DTE Energy, Consumers Energy, ITC Holdings, and SEMCO gave over $50,000 to intra-party rivals of state Rep. Yousef Rabhi, who serves as Democratic House Floor Leader, the caucus’s number two position. The totals represent sizable sums for state legislature races and don’t include totals for dark money contributions, which aren’t available to the public. Rabhi, an outspoken industry critic, led the opposition to the utility-backed 2016 energy package that hobbled the state’s growing small-scale solar industry. He also co-sponsored 2019 legislation to reverse major components of the 2016 bills and doesn’t accept utility money. Precision spending on a behind-the-scenes, intra-caucus race highlights part of the utility industry’s larger political strategy — it attempts to influence politicians at key points in the legislative process, which could give it more sway over legislation and parties’ overall directions on energy policy. “It’s another example of the utility industry spending money to make sure that its agenda is in some ways protected in statehouses,” said Matt Kasper, research director with the Energy & Policy Institute, which tracks utility spending. The spending appears to be part of a pattern. Utilities helped fund a 2018 primary opponent to Sen. Tom Barrett after he — like Rabhi — opposed the 2016 energy package. Also in 2018, Consumers Energy was questioned for using its affiliated dark money nonprofit to help defeat Rep. Gary Glenn, a Midland Republican who vocally criticized the state’s utilities and chaired the House’s energy committee.
FirstEnergy Drops $250 Million Proposal for Aging Coal-Fired Power Plants | Earthjustice—The West Virginia Public Service Commission approved a settlement agreement between West Virginia Citizen Action Group (CAG) and Solar United Neighbors (SUN), FirstEnergy Corp., and other parties that halts FirstEnergy’s plan to spend approximately $250 million on two aging coal-fired power plants in West Virginia. CAG and SUN, represented by Charleston attorney Emmett Pepper and the nonprofit law firm Earthjustice, applaud the Commission’s approval of this settlement at a time when ratepayers should not be asked to foot the bill for spending on uneconomic power plants.“This agreement is a money-saving win for West Virginians,” said Autumn Long of Solar United Neighbors. “It confirms that solar energy is ready today to power our state. We look forward to seeing more solar on our homes and in our communities.”This settlement addresses the large capital-spending program for five coal-fired generating units operated by FirstEnergy’s West Virginia utilities, Monongahela Power Company and The Potomac Edison Company. Under this plan, the utilities’ customers would assume a long-term financial burden, while FirstEnergy and its shareholders would receive a guaranteed revenue stream for those capital costs. FirstEnergy made this proposal without considering whether it would be less expensive for its customers to retire one or more of these coal units. CAG and SUN submitted expert testimony showing that the coal units will likely lose money almost every year going forward.Under the settlement agreement approved by the Commission, FirstEnergy agreed to withdraw its application for this spending program. FirstEnergy will recover $5 million in 2021 for environmental compliance projects, but the larger spending program was not approved. Before FirstEnergy proposes any future spending program of this magnitude, the company must conduct a full economic analysis of the coal units. This requirement will help ensure that FirstEnergy considers retirement, and investments in clean energy options like solar and energy efficiency, before proposing additional spending on its coal units.
HB6 Supporters Say Delay Has Effective Auditing Measures | WKSU -- Lawmakers are trying to figure out what to do with the nuclear power plant bailout tied to a racketeering scheme. They have until the end of the month to make a change before ratepayers see new charges on their electric bills. But several Republican legislators believe the energy law is still what's right for Ohio.Rep. Dick Stein (R-Norwalk) says keeping the nuclear plants means saving jobs and retaining clean burning energy."It provides 90% of Ohio's carbon free energy generation in this state and 15% of its base load. Those are all policy reasons why we felt our I felt and I think other members felt HB6 was an advantage," Stein said.That's why Stein supports a new bill in the House, HB798, that delays the bailout rather than repealing it. Stein says the bill gets rid of measures that would financially benefit FirstEnergy, such as the decoupling provision, and attaches additional auditing requirements is the right way to go."To assure the public that we're taking and doing our due diligence to make sure that the funding that we're offering to what is now Energy Harbor is appropriate," Stein.The nuclear plants are owned by Energy Harbor, a former subsidiary of FirstEnergyknown as FirstEnergy Solutions.The bailout is linked to an alleged quid pro quo between a company believed to be FirstEnergy and Republican former House Speaker Larry Householder (R-Glenford).Stein, who did not support Householder for speaker, says the policy remains sound despite the process.
Ohio’s lame-duck legislative session is extended after lawmakers fail to finish work - — Ohio lawmakers are extending their lame-duck session after they failed on Thursday to wrap up business for the year on issues ranging from a $2.5 billion capital budget to rolling back the scandal-ridden House Bill 6 nuclear bailout law.But despite a marathon session that lasted into the wee hours of Friday morning, lawmakers didn’t hold final votes on a number of high-profile bills that appear ready for passage, including a revised version of the capital budget, K-12 coronavirus measures, a criminal justice reform bill, and a “stand your ground” bill changing when force can be used in self-defense.It remains to be seen whether lawmakers can reach agreement on other issues, too, including a one-year delay of a controversial new HB6 fee to bail out two Northern Ohio nuclear power plants and permitting charitable organizations to legally set up slot machine-like “electronic instant bingo” machines.The House and Senate have also passed competing versions of the fireworks legalization bill; the Senate’s version only allows their use on July 3-5, while the House’s bill permits them to be set off year-round.To complete their unfinished work, the Senate has scheduled another session day for today, while the House is set to reconvene next week before Christmas. The legislature’s current session expires Dec. 31.The Ohio General Assembly did send Gov. Mike DeWine a number of bills to sign, including legislation to ban executions of the seriously mentally ill, overturn his coronavirus order closing most county fair activities, prohibit the use of telemedicine for medication abortions, and allow the concealed-carry of knives and possession of switchblades. House Speaker Bob Cupp, a Lima Republican, blamed the whirlwind of last-minute activity on the coronavirus, which he said has “really affected our workflow in the legislature.” Some House members have been diagnosed with the disease in the last few weeks (including two who have been hospitalized), though it’s common for state lawmakers to hold these sort of long session days right before adjourning for the summer or at the end of the year.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine says he’s begun reviewing PUCO candidates - -- Gov. Mike DeWine said Wednesday his administration has begun considering candidates for the state’s commission that oversees utilities, but declined to say whether his administration has a particular person in mind for the job.But DeWine said ideal candidates for the two vacancies on the five-member Public Utilities Commission of Ohio would have expertise in energy law, an obscure specialty, and also would be able to be “fair and impartial” while ruling on regulatory issues.“It’s no different than any other position. You want someone with knowledge but you also want someone the public will have confidence in,” he said.DeWine is looking to replace Sam Randazzo, the former PUCO chairman who resigned last month, the same week the FBI searched his house and Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. disclosed paying $4 million to an entity connected to someone who matches Randazzo’s description shortly before Randazzo was hired. A second seat also could be up for grabs. The term for Commissioner Dennis Deters, whom DeWine appointed to the PUCO last year, is expiring soon.The process of appointing PUCO commissioners is getting unusual scrutiny, given the circumstances surrounding Randazzo’s resignation, and the ongoing FBI investigation into House Bill 6, an energy bill that bails out two nuclear plants formerly owned by FirstEnergy, and which prosecutors have said is at the center of a $61 million bribery scheme. The PUCO Nominating Council, a 12-member committee that screens potential PUCO candidates before submitting a list of names to the governor, has begun the process of replacing Randazzo. Among the 31 people who have applied for Randazzo’s former PUCO seat is Ohio Supreme Court Justice Judith French, a Republican who lost her re-election campaign last month. French appeared on a list of 8 finalists selected for interviews released by the nominating council on Wednesday evening. The PUCO Nominating Council also has begun soliciting applications for the seat currently held by Deters.DeWine said he understands public concern over appointing PUCO commissioners who might be seen as being too close to the entities they’re supposed to regulate. DeWine’s decision in January 2019 to hire Randazzo, a lawyer who represented large industrial electricity users, drew criticism from others in Ohio’s energy scene because of Randazzo’s past work for FirstEnergy.
Governor would sign nuclear bailout delay bill | The Blade — Gov. Mike DeWine said Wednesday that he will sign a bill that could be headed to his desk by week's end to put off the effects of the state's tainted $1 billion nuclear plant bailout law for a year.“If the legislature presents me with this bill, and the bill has in it what I think it is, then I certainly would sign it,” the Republican governor told The Blade.A vote in both the House and Senate on a delay could come as soon as Thursday, possibly the last day of two-year session. The bill would allow for the refund of any surcharges collected from consumers via their monthly electricity bills beginning in January, money that was supposed to fuel a $150 million-a-year fund to subsidize operations of the Davis-Besse nuclear plant near Oak Harbor and Perry plant near Cleveland.It would also put off until April, 2022 the scheduled flow of that money to Energy Harbor, the post-bankruptcy successor to FirstEnergy Solutions and owner of the plants.That buys lawmakers time while they consider the fate of House Bill 6, the law passed last year that is now believed to be the end product of a $61 million bribery scheme with Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. and related entities providing the cash.“I'm someone who always prefers improvement to status quo...,” Mr. DeWine said in an interview. “If you wait for the perfect to be for it, you may wait forever or a long time... It's not the repeal that I asked for, but it is an improvement, particularly in regard to the audit and getting data to determine a question that has been debated: How much money do [the plants] really need to keep going?”Former House Speaker Larry Householder (R., Glenford) and three alleged conspirators outside the Statehouse face federal racketeering charges. They are accused of trying to launder utility cash through a non-profit corporation to help elect representatives loyal to Mr. Householder in 2018, elect him speaker in 2019, get House Bill 6 to the governor's desk, and then kill an attempt to repeal it at the ballot.Two of the players have already pleaded guilty to racketeering charges for their roles in the scheme.
Ohio lawmakers move House Bill 6 reform bill ahead, but its future remains murky - cleveland.com The House Select Committee on Energy Policy and Oversight, set up to study what to do about HB6, waved forward House Bill 798, which would delay the bailout of two Northern Ohio nuclear plants by one year. Under HB6, from 2021 until 2027, every Ohio electricity customer will have to pay a new monthly surcharge that ranges from 85 cents for residential customers to $2,400 for large industrial plants. HB798 would impose stricter auditing provisions on Energy Harbor, the plants’ owner, to ensure it actually needs the money. In addition, it would eliminate some other provisions that critics say are meant to benefit FirstEnergy Corp., the company alleged to have provided $60 million toward the bribery scheme.Before moving HB798 forward, the committee removed the “emergency clause” from the bill, meaning if Gov. Mike DeWine signed it into law, it wouldn’t take effect for 90 days. As the nuclear bailout fee is set to begin Jan. 1, that means there would be a period of several weeks when the fee is collected before the bill takes effect and stops it for a year.Recognizing that, the committee also added a provision providing for immediate refunds of whatever fees are collected before the bill took effect.The revised bill would require Energy Harbor, the owner of the two nuclear plants, to notify the state ahead of time that it intends to seek bailout money the following year. It would also require a representative of the firm conducting the annual bailout audits (though not Energy Harbor officials themselves) to present their findings in person before House and Senate committees each year until the bailout expires in 2027.House GOP spokeswoman Taylor Jach didn’t immediately respond to a question about whether HB798 will be voted on by the full House on Thursday, the chamber’s last scheduled session day.HB798 was not included on the list of bills teed up for a Thursday floor vote by the House Rules Committee, though the House could still vote to waive the rules and pass it. It would then have to be quickly passed by the Senate, then signed by Gov. Mike DeWine.There has been speculation that legislative leaders might forego passing HB798 and instead dump the entire bill language into a completely unrelated (and non-controversial) bill, House Bill 264, that deals with water infrastructure financing. However, neither House nor Senate Republican spokespeople could confirm that.
"If Only I Would've Known" Oil & Gas Whistleblowers Speak Out About Exposure to Radioactivity on Fracking Jobs - Public Herald - The year is 2014, and the sleepy mining and agricultural towns of Northern Appalachia have transformed into gold-rush towns. But this is a new type of gold – Shale gas. These towns sit above an underground formation called the Marcellus Shale that could help make America the world’s greatest producer of natural gas – and in 2014 the Marcellus region is booming. The restaurants are buzzing, bars packed, hotels full for the first time since many people can remember. Each generation of this area has seen the boom and the bust of other major industries – timber, coal, steel – and shale gas is the next one. It’s marketed as energy independence, good paying blue collar jobs, the American Dream. In areas where decades of economic decline have created a culture of need, this dream is welcomed with open arms. Near Pittsburgh, Brandon is hearing about the same economic dream. He grew up in an industrial town as Pittsburgh’s steel industry died and crumbled. Running through his town was Chartiers Creek, which has long been one of the most industrially polluted streams in the region. As a kid, it was common knowledge to stay out of that water. Yet – he saw the environment start to bounce back as industry left the area and regulation increased. In 2013, he took a job with a local environmental cleanup company, Sunpro. They focused on hazardous material cleanup for oil and gas operations. The pay was good, the hours long, and they often worked for some of the big players in the Marcellus of southwestern Pennsylvania, like Range Resources. Brandon thought,“Regardless of how many regulations you can have in place, accidents happen,” and he had the skills and tools to make sure any hazardous materials were properly cleaned up. He and his colleagues took their jobs seriously and worked hard to make sure it was all done according to the books. Now the year is 2020. Brandon is standing next to Chartiers Creek, about 20 miles upstream from where he grew up. He left the industry a number of years ago and now owns his own business that provides holistic support for people dealing with serious illnesses like cancer. Nearby, foamy water spurts out into the creek from a massive concrete pipe leading to the local municipal sewage treatment plant. There’s evidence people come here to play – fishing lures, well worn paths, a lonely muddy sock. Across the stream is the local municipal landfill, Arden Landfill, where he used to drop off waste from the drilling process when he worked for Sunpro. In the past decade, this landfill has received over a million tons of solid oil and gas waste and is now one of the highest geological features in an area known for its rolling hills.
'The Fossil Fuel Industry Is Terrified': Gas Company Sues to Destroy Small Town's Rights of Nature Law – DeSmog In a clear signal of how the fossil fuel industry feels about efforts to enact Rights of Nature protections that safeguard communities and the environment from the impacts of coal, gas, and oil development, an energy company has — yet again — filed a federal lawsuit challenging a local law in Grant Township, Pennsylvania. This is the second time that Pennsylvania General Energy Company (PGE) has sued over the 2015 law, which aims to keep fracking waste injection wells out of the community of about 700 people. Though the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) also previously sued the township, earlier this year—in what Rolling Stone described as a “stunning reversal” — the department cited the law when rescinding PGE a waste injection permit. In March, the state department told the company — which is appealing the decision — that “Grant Township's Home Rule Charter bans the injection of oil and gas waste fluids… Therefore, the operation of the Yanity well as an oil and gas waste fluid injection well would violate that applicable law.” “We are over the moon that the permit was rescinded,” Grant Township Supervisor Vice-Chair Stacy Long said at the time. “However, we know the permit should never have been issued in the first place. We can't forget that DEP sued us for three years, claiming our charter was invalid. Now they cite that same charter as a valid reason to deny the industry a permit. It's hypocritical at best. Add this to the pile of reasons Grant Township did not trust the DEP to protect our environment, and why we've had to democratically work at the local level to protect our community.” Approved by over 70 percent of Grant Township's voters five years ago, the law recognizes the rights of local ecosystems. The measure was drafted with help from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), which explains that Rights of Nature “is honoring and recognizing that nature has the right to exist, flourish, and thrive.” The global movement calls for shifting away from the view of nature as property that owners and companies can legally pollute and destroy. “The fossil fuel industry is terrified the tactics taken in Grant Township are spreading,” Chad Nicholson, a CELDF organizer in Pennsylvania, said in a statement Tuesday. “This community continues to act as a lighthouse in a raging storm made up of oil and gas corporations, state permitting agencies, and enabling courts that have crashed down on them for over five years.”
Pennsylvania’s drilling impact fee sinks to record low amid pandemic losses --Pennsylvania’s drilling impact fee will hit a record low this year after the pandemic zapped energy demand. The Independent Fiscal Office said the price of natural gas on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), upon which the impact fee is based, declined 21 percent this year, landing at $2.08. The IFO estimates that any price below $2.25 would deplete funding for the impact fee by $53 million. The impact fee, first established under Act 13 of 2012, authorizes a tax on unconventional gas wells. The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission collects and redistributes the proceeds across the state’s 67 counties for economic development projects. In 2018, the impact fee reached $254 million after a state Supreme Court ruling narrowed the definition of a certain type of low-producing well called a “stripper well,” boosting fee collections by $30 million. But like most other industries in 2020, the pandemic hit natural gas production hard, depressing prices both in and out of state. “The COVID-related economic slowdown has softened global energy demand and the lack of pipeline take-away capacity in the region has impacted commodity prices, leading to a pullback in production activity,” said David Spigelmyer, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition. The coalition said the fee has generated nearly $2 billion in less than a decade for local governments. Gov. Tom Wolf and Democrats have proposed an additional severance tax on natural gas producers to help fund infrastructure projects across the state, though it remains unpopular among Republicans who worry about driving companies out. Natural gas production supports about 24,000 jobs, according to state data, and is second only to Texas in terms of overall gas procured, exceeding 6.8 trillion cubic feet in 2019.
Oil spill reported at lake in Kanawha County (WSAZ) - Investigators with the WVDEP’s Environmental Enforcement and Homeland Security Emergency Response units are on scene of a reported oil spill in a creek that flows into the Chaweva Lake in Cross Lanes. The incident report says just before 2:30 Saturday afternoon, someone called reporting fish kill and an unknown petroleum-scented oil. The report says the caller said a sheen had started appearing on the lake as well, and oil was coming from the Rocky Fork Watershed. Officials say the quantity of the spill is unknown, but it is considered hazardous or toxic. The West Virginia Division of Natural Resources has also been notified. WSAZ has a crew headed to the scene.
DEP investigating petroleum spill that killed wildlife in creek feeding Lake Chaweva - The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection is investigating an oil spill into a creek that flows into Lake Chaweva in Cross Lanes that was reported Saturday. The DEP’s Environmental Enforcement and Homeland Security Emergency Response teams are investigating the source of the spill and working with personnel from the Union Public Service District after a caller reported fish kill in a creek that feeds Lake Chaweva caused by an unknown petroleum-scented oil that was present at the site, according to a DEP report on the spill. A West Virginia Division of Natural Resources district fisheries biologist documented at least seven species of dead fish and noted dead salamanders, crayfish and worms as a result of the spill, according to Andy Malinowski, director of the state Department of Commerce’s Office of Marketing and Communications. Malinowski added that official numbers were not yet available. The caller noted a sheen had started appearing on the lake and that oil flow was coming from the path of the Rocky Fork watershed, according to the report. DEP staff placed absorbent pads and booms to clean up the material that are still in place as a precaution, said Terry Fletcher, DEP acting communications director. Fletcher declined to estimate how much product was spilled, saying an accurate estimate may not be possible given recent weather conditions and the nature of petroleum-based spills.
PA Pipeline Shift Will 'Share The Wealth' With Midwest Markets -- Energy Transfer’s (ET) recent announcement that it will convert the Mariner East 1 pipeline to help transport refined products from the Midwest to Pennsylvania and the northeast will be a boon to both northeast energy consumers and midwest producers, industry analysts say. “PA Access will utilize part of our Mariner East 1 pipeline to provide about 20,000 – 25,000 barrels per day of refined products from the Midwest supply regions through our Allegheny Access pipeline system into Pennsylvania and to markets in the Northeast,” the company said in November. The service will begin in the fourth quarter of 2020. “This is a critical development that will allow ET…to move in either direction between Chicago and New York City,” Jude Clemente, an editor for Real Clear Energy and a Principal at JTC Energy Research Associates, told InsideSources. Mark that up as a win for domestic energy security. This move will strengthen the network of transport options available. The increased access is a likely boon to Midwest refineries and suppliers, but also fills a void left by the recently closed Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery. “The reality is that the Midwest region has been producing more gasoline, for instance, than it requires, so this move gives ET much-needed flexibility,” Clemente said. For the past few years, Mariner East 1 has transported ethane and propane from Ohio and Pennsylvania to the Marcus Hook Industrial Complex in Delaware County. The pipeline was first built in the 1930s and was converted to transporting natural gas liquids in 2015, with the other pipelines in the Mariner system nearing completion of construction and expected to be online soon. The new pipeline will share 80 percent of the same pipeline corridor as its predecessor, passing through 17 Pennsylvania counties. “The portion of the 8-inch line that we’re converting that will be moving refined products,” said Energy Transfer Chief Commercial Officer Marshall McCrea, in early November. “I suspect we could see more conversions like this move from ET and others because new greenfield builds are likely going to become more difficult to come by under a different administration and congress,” Clemente concluded.
Forest Service supports Mountain Valley Pipeline route through Jefferson National Forest - wvgazettemail.com - The Mountain Valley Pipeline inched closer Friday to the Jefferson National Forest, where plans call for it to pass through 3.5 miles of woodlands and 90 feet under the Appalachian Trail. An environmental impact statement released by the U.S. Forest Service supported running a buried, 42-inch diameter pipe through the forest to transport natural gas at high pressure.A final decision is expected early next year for a portion of the pipeline in Giles and Montgomery counties and Monroe County, West Virginia. Building the pipeline is “consistent with the Forest Service’s mission,” the 315-page document stated at one point. It later added that under numerous laws and regulations governing all national forests, “the implementation of projects related to oil and gas development and transport is permissible.” However, the magnitude of Mountain Valley’s plans for a 303-mile pipeline would not normally be allowed under a resource management plan for the Jefferson National Forest So the environmental impact statement recommends 11 amendments to the forest’s plan — changing standards for the impacts on soils, old-growth forests and scenic integrity — to make it conform to Mountain Valley’s blueprint. “As mountain defenders and trail protectors, we won’t soon forget this parting gift to the gas industry,” said Russell Chisholm, co-chair of the anti-pipeline Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights coalition. The pipeline’s route through the forest was approved three years ago, but the decision was thrown out in 2018 by a federal appeals court. In siding with environmental groups who challenged the permit, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals chastised the Forest Service for being too accepting of Mountain Valley’s assurances that erosion and sedimentation would not be a major problem. Muddy runoff, both in the forest and elsewhere on the pipeline’s mountainous route, has complicated construction from the start.
MVP Clears Major Permitting Hurdle as Forest Service Completes Supplemental Review The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) has finalized a supplemental environmental review of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), a key step in resolving a permitting setback that has prevented construction on a small portion of the project routed through the Jefferson National Forest. Late last week, the USFS released a final supplemental environmental impact statement for the 303-mile, 42-inch diameter natural gas conduit. The move clears the way for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to issue a right-of-way (ROW) for the pipeline’s proposed 3.5-mile crossing through the Jefferson National Forest near the Virginia/West Virginia border. The document was prepared in response to a 2018 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, which vacated and remanded an earlier USFS decision permitting the project to cross protected forest lands. The latest environmental review “addresses the issues identified by the court and any relevant new information and changed circumstances,” according to USFS. The USFS review includes proposed amendments to the agency’s management plan to allow for the pipeline’s construction.“A Forest Service amendment is needed because the project would not be consistent with several Forest Plan standards,” the agency said. “Relatedly, there is a need to determine what terms and conditions should be provided to the BLM for incorporation into the ROW grant in order to protect resources and the public interest consistent” with the Mineral Leasing Act. Federal law requires a 30-day interval between finalizing the environmental impact statement and an agency record of decision, according to analysts at ClearView Energy Partners LLC. “We would therefore look for BLM to reissue these authorizations in mid-January 2021, most probably ahead of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration,” “We think it is possible, but not necessarily probable, that the incoming Biden Administration could act to suspend these permits if they are issued in the waning hours of the outgoing Trump Administration.” Still, while “progressive members of the Democratic Party” might pressure the new administration to suspend the permits, “we think that since the pipeline is largely complete, overt executive action may not be in the offing.” MVP continues to face legal challenges to its federal permitting, including a recent stay of updated stream-crossing permitting handed down by the Fourth Circuit. The court, however, sided with the pipeline in declining to issue a stay of the updated Endangered Species Act review for the project.
USFS Finalizes Review, Clearing Way for MVP to Cross National Forest- The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) has finalized a supplemental environmental review of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), a key step in resolving a permitting setback that has prevented construction on a small portion of the project routed through the Jefferson National Forest. Late last week, the USFS released a final supplemental environmental impact statement for the 303-mile, 42-inch diameter natural gas conduit. The move clears the way for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to issue a right-of-way (ROW) for the pipeline’s proposed 3.5-mile crossing through the Jefferson National Forest near the Virginia/West Virginia border.The document was prepared in response to a 2018 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, which vacated and remanded an earlier USFS decision permitting the project to cross protected forest lands. The latest environmental review “addresses the issues identified by the court and any relevant new information and changed circumstances,” according to USFS. The USFS review includes proposed amendments to the agency’s management plan to allow for the pipeline’s construction.“A Forest Service amendment is needed because the project would not be consistent with several Forest Plan standards,” the agency said. “Relatedly, there is a need to determine what terms and conditions should be provided to the BLM for incorporation into the ROW grant in order to protect resources and the public interest consistent” with the Mineral Leasing Act. Federal law requires a 30-day interval between finalizing the environmental impact statement and an agency record of decision, according to analysts at ClearView Energy Partners LLC. “We would therefore look for BLM to reissue these authorizations in mid-January 2021, most probably ahead of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration,” ClearView said in a note to clients Friday. “We think it is possible, but not necessarily probable, that the incoming Biden Administration could act to suspend these permits if they are issued in the waning hours of the outgoing Trump Administration.” Still, while “progressive members of the Democratic Party” might pressure the new administration to suspend the permits, “we think that since the pipeline is largely complete, overt executive action may not be in the offing.”
Mountain Valley gets another approval for pipeline construction - Mountain Valley Pipeline gained another 17 miles Thursday in its quest to complete construction of the natural gas pipeline by the end of next year. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved the company’s request to resume work on a stretch of the 303-mile pipeline that passes through Giles and Craig counties, between two sections of the Jefferson National Forest. In 2018, an appellate court threw out a U.S. Forest Service permit for the buried pipeline to cross 3.5 miles of the forest. FERC then issued a stop-work order for an approximately 25-mile segment of the pipeline, from where it enters the national forest atop Peters Mountain on the Giles County-West Virginia line, then runs through private property before re-entering a second part of the forest in Montgomery County. The buffer zone created by FERC was intended to prevent muddy runoff from construction zones on private land from being washed into adjacent federal woodlands. But in a 2-1 decision Thursday, the commission ruled that Mountain Valley had presented sufficient evidence to show that resuming work on a 17-mile segment of the pipeline on private land would not harm the forest. “That is a serious mistake,” commissioner Richard Glick wrote in a strongly worded dissent. Glick noted that Mountain Valley has yet to get renewed approval to pass through the national forest, and that other permits involving stream crossings and the protection of endangered species have been tossed out on appeal. “Given the MVP permits’ checkered litigation record, we should not authorize MVP to commence piece-meal construction, including construction affecting a national forest, before it has all the permits needed,” he wrote.
Commission OKs More MVP Work Near National Forest; Glick Dissents - In a split decision, FERC on Thursday authorized Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC (MVP) to resume pipeline construction activities within a 25-mile exclusion zone near the Jefferson National Forest. The order allows for some construction between mileposts 196.0 and 221.0 of the pipeline, where work had been on hold following a 2018 court ruling vacating federal authorization for MVP’s 3.5-mile crossing of national forest lands.Earlier this year, MVP asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to reduce the size of the exclusion zone and allow for additional construction activities to resume, providing supporting information indicating that portions of the route could be reopened without impacting the national forest. Chairman James Danly and Commissioner Neil Chatterjee, who made up the majority in the 2-1 vote approving Thursday’s order, said they agreed with staff findings that “project construction activities in the area from milepost 201.6 to 218.6 would not contribute sediment to any portion of the Jefferson National Forest or contribute sediment or turbidity to any waterbody” that would then flow into the forest. Danly and Chatterjee are both Republicans. Democrat Richard Glick dissented.Thursday’s decision follows the recent conclusion of a supplemental environmental review conducted by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) amending its management plan to allow for construction through protected lands. Project opponents have argued that MVP should not be allowed to resume construction while authorization for the forest crossing remains pending. Citing analysis on alternative routes conducted by BLM in 2018 and earlier this year, Danly and Chatterjee found that “the record gives us no reason to assume that there will be a change to the proposed route through the Jefferson National Forest, and authorizing the resumption of work outside of the Jefferson National Forest is permissible and does not improperly limit options available to BLM and Forest Service.” Glick in the dissenting opinion voiced strong disagreement with the majority, calling their position “bewildering.” He went even further, suggesting that construction should not move forward anywhere along the route until MVP once again had all requisite permits in hand.“Although unstated in today’s order, the Commission has previously taken the position that Environmental Condition 9” of MVP’s certificate of public convenience and necessity “is relevant only when a project developer first begins construction,” Glick wrote. “That interpretation is nonsensical and waters down an important environmental and landowner protection measure.” If serving the public interest meant that MVP had to have all required permits before starting construction, the same standard should apply when the developer seeks to resume construction, he said. “I see no reason why it is not equally important to require the pipeline to meet the same condition every time it recommences construction, especially after having a necessary permit invalidated by court order,” Glick wrote.
Virginia Natural Gas planning $205 million pipeline project in ‘rural crescent’ -Virginia Natural Gas is back with plans for a $205 million natural gas expansion project that would add about six miles of new natural gas pipeline and a compressor station in Prince William County’s “rural crescent,” four miles of pipeline in Fauquier County and upgrades to a metering station in Hanover County. The application for the project comes only weeks after a much larger Virginia Natural Gas expansion project, known as the "Header Improvement Project," was dismissed by the State Corporation Commission when plans for a new power plant in Charles City County, which the pipeline project would have serviced, failed to materialize.The new pipeline project, called the "Virginia Natural Gas Interconnect," is a scaled back version of the original proposal and cites increased demand from Columbia Gas of Virginia and Dominion Energy subsidiary Virginia Power Services Energy as the primary reason for the expansion.The new pipeline would start at an interconnect station along the existing Transco pipeline near the Prince William-Fauquier county line and traverse six miles through Prince William County and four miles through Fauquier County along a utility corridor before connecting with an existing pipeline in the Quantico area. The compressor station, an industrial facility that aids in the transportation of natural gas from one location to another, would be built on 36 acres of land just off Va. 28 in the Nokesville area, near Center Street and Farmview Road. The new infrastructure would add about 245,000 dekatherms per day of capacity. The Virginia Natural Gas Interconnect would add nearly 10 miles of new pipeline in Prince William and Fauquier counties as well as a natural gas compressor station off Va. 28 near Nokesville. The expansion is expected to raise rates for the nearly 300,000 customers in the Virginia Natural Gas service area, which includes the coastal plain and tidewater regions of Virginia.
LG&E Gas Pipeline's Path Would Remove Forest, Impact Endangered Species - Louisville Gas and Electric has disclosed new details about the environmental impacts of a proposed natural gas pipeline through conservation lands in Bullitt County. The nearly 12-mile-long gas pipeline would remove nearly 40 acres of forest, cross at least six major waterways and impact wetlands, sinkholes and habitat for more than a half-dozen threatened or endangered species, according to an LG&E stormwater pollution prevention plan. A consultant hired by LG&E outlined the environmental impacts in an October report sent to the Kentucky Division of Water for a water quality certification. The Division of Water has twice certified the project, but due to a recent change in federal rules LG&E has had to re-submit over technical details. LG&E expects the state will certify the plan a third time, spokeswoman Natasha Collins said. The latest application expands on minor changes and outlines the potential environmental damages and mitigation efforts for the proposed pipeline. The proposed path has sparked protest, yard signs and other advocacy campaigns, in addition to myriad legal challenges over permits, applications and condemnation. Bernheim is currently asking the public to write and email comments on the water quality certification. Bernheim Conservation Director Andrew Berry said the construction and operation of a gas pipeline on conservation lands would harm soil and water conditions and impact habitat for sensitive species. Bernheim alone would permanently lose about eight acres of forest including roosts for federally endangered Indiana and northern long-eared bats, he said.
In Weymouth, a brute lesson in power politics - The Boston Globe - A Globe investigation finds residents who fought a six-year battle with an energy giant over a controversial gas compressor never had much of a chance, with both the federal and state governments consistently ruling against them
Lawmakers Push For Gas Pipeline Safety In Climate Bill - With a compromise climate policy bill still under negotiation and time winding down in the legislative session, gas workers and nearly 50 lawmakers have been pushing to get new pipeline safety provisions enshrined into law."With limited time left in this unusual legislative session, the climate change bill in conference offers the best opportunity for us to accomplish significant improvements on a pressing public safety issue," the bipartisan group of 46 lawmakers wrote in a letter sent in October. Recent lobbying efforts have focused on the same topics.Specifically, the letter asks that the climate change conference report include a mechanism for the Department of Public Utilities to have more oversight of contractors performing work on or around gas lines, an extension of whistleblower protections for public utility workers, increased fines for violations of DPU's safety and emergency preparedness regulations, and more.The lawmakers said the provisions they hope will be included in a compromise climate bill include "elements of comprehensive gas safety legislation which were reported out of the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy with a favorable recommendation."Gas safety measures have been given a fresh look amid attempts to shore up the safety of natural gas infrastructure after the gas explosions and fires that killed one man, razed several homes and destroyed property across Lawrence, Andover and North Andover in September 2018.
Connecticut power plant proposal at odds with climate goals, critics say --Opponents of the planned Killingly Energy Center want Gov. Ned Lamont to intervene to block the 650-megawatt project. As Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont’s climate council finalizes recommendations for how the state can meet its greenhouse gas reduction goals, state agencies are simultaneously overseeing final approvals for a new natural gas-fired power plant. Opponents of the project say the two processes are working at cross-purposes, and it’s time the Lamont administration resolved the conflict. Environmental activists joined with a few state lawmakers Tuesday to repeat their demands that the administration find a way to stop the 650-megawatt facility, called the Killingly Energy Center. “This power plant not only doesn’t meet the energy needs of Connecticut — there’s actually no evidence that this energy is necessary to meet any sort of demand through ISO New England,” the regional electricity grid, said state Sen. Mae Flexer, whose district includes the town of Killingly. “And it clearly does not fall in line with our targets in Connecticut for moving toward green energy.” The long-embattled project, being developed by Florida-based NTE Energy, was approved by the Connecticut Siting Council in June 2019, after the developer had secured a future power generation commitment from ISO New England. The siting council pointed to that seven-year capacity supply obligation as proof that the power plant is needed. But environmentalists have questioned the region’s need for another gas-burning plant, especially at a time when states are making strides on ramping up renewables and efficiency efforts. A draft subcommittee report under review by the Governor’s Council on Climate Change acknowledges as much, saying that the Killingly plant “does not align with Connecticut’s decarbonization policy objectives; and its long asset life will make it challenging to meet the state’s emissions reduction goals.” A final report from the council is due in January. ISO New England has come under criticism for not sufficiently taking into account individual states’ renewable energy goals in its grid management. In October, Lamont joined four other New England governors in calling for reform of the grid operator’s regional electricity market design, transmission planning and governance. At the time, Lamont, who has set a target of 100% clean energy by 2040, said the ISO-NE system had “actively hindered our efforts to decarbonize the grid.” All the while, the Killingly plant has continued to move through the approval process. Activists say it is incumbent upon the governor to stop it.
New Jersey LNG Export Terminal Wins Key Regulatory Approval - A small-scale liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal proposed for New Jersey has cleared another regulatory hurdle after the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) this week voted to uphold a decision approving a key part of the project. DRBC, a quasi-regulatory agency involving four states and the U.S. government that oversees the Delaware River watershed, voted 4-0 to uphold its approval last year to build a second dock to load LNG tankers at the proposed Gibbstown Logistics Center. The facility is being developed by an affiliate of New Fortress Energy LLC. Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which represents the federal government, voted to uphold the decision. A representative from New York abstained after the state’s effort to delay the vote failed. The DRBC said there was sufficient information to conclude that the second dock wouldn’t significantly conflict with policies to best develop and use the basin’s water resources. DRBC’s initial authorization covered only plans to export liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) from one dock. Environmental groups have opposed the project, arguing that it wasn’t made clear that the expansion approved last year would include a second dock for LNG exports.“This is the worst decision the commission has ever made,” said New Jersey Sierra Club director Jeff Tittel. “Their decision is outrageous and dangerous.” Environmental groups vowed to appeal the decision in federal court.
Seven LNG Export Licenses Extended by DOE - The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has extended another seven long-term liquefied natural gas (LNG) export licenses through 2050, following a policy change implemented by the Trump administration earlier this year. The authorizations extend export terms for the Golden Pass facility under construction in Sabine Pass, TX, as well as the Texas LNG project proposed for Brownsville, TX, and the proposed Magnolia and Driftwood LNG terminals in Louisiana. Export licensenses were also extended through Dec. 31, 2050 for the Delfin floating LNG project offshore Louisiana and the Energía Costa Azul facility that was sanctioned for the west coast of Mexico last month. ECA has DOE authorization to import and liquefy U.S.-sourced natural gas for export from Mexico. In an effort to strengthen and promote domestic natural gas exports, the Trump administration in July extended export authorizations to non-free trade agreement (FTA) countries through 2050. The latest announcement follows 10 similar export license extensions that the DOE completed in October. The moves come as U.S. LNG exports are booming. Feed gas deliveries to terminals have hit record highs over the last week, exceeding 11 Bcf/d as the nation’s liquefaction trains run at or near peak capacity. Global natural gas prices are at some of their highest levels in the last two years as cargo loadings catch up to winter demand, supply disruptions add to seasonality and shipping constraints pressure the market.
Cameron LNG Ramping Up Operations After Brief Outage - A utility plant trip that knocked out Cameron LNG’s three liquefaction trains earlier this week has been fixed, a spokesperson said. It’s unclear what caused the incident, but Cameron said Tuesday the outage occurred overnight. “The issue is now resolved, and the operations team is in the process of restarting the trains,” said spokesperson Anya McInnis on Wednesday. Feed gas volumes to U.S. export terminals, which have been at record levels above 11 Bcf/d most of the month, dipped after the incident. Flows dropped from 11.37 Bcf on Monday to 9.53 Bcf on Tuesday, according to NGI’s U.S. LNG Export Tracker. Feed gas deliveries bounced back to 11 Bcf on Wednesday as the global gas market remains strong for exports. Cameron’s three trains can produce 12 million metric tons of LNG per year, or 1.7 Bcf/d. The facility, located in Hackberry, LA, was offline for a monthbetween August and September after Hurricane Laura made landfall. Operations again were disrupted in October when two vessels and an oil rig sank in the Calcasieu Ship Channel, which prevented LNG carriers from reaching the facility.
U.S. LNG Exports Sail to Record Levels in November, Says EIA - After sinking to their lowest levels in more than two years over the summer, U.S. liquefied natural gas exports surged to a record high in November, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). The agency said U.S. LNG exports reached 9.4 Bcf/d last month, surpassing the previous record set in January on strong global demand and lower supply. That represents 93% of peak LNG export capacity utilization.A cold start to the winter in Asia has combined with fewer restrictions amid Covid-19 to drive up gas demand, sending spot prices to two-year highs. Chilly conditions in Europe, meanwhile, have resulted in a quick drawdown in storage inventories and an increased appetite for the super-chilled fuel.That’s a far different scenario than the summer, when an estimated 165-200 U.S. LNG cargoes were canceled because of depressed demand from the pandemic and other factors.Global LNG supply also has fallen because of unplanned outages at LNG export facilities in Australia, Malaysia, Qatar, Norway, Nigeria, and Trinidad and Tobago, according to EIA. However, 2.7 Bcf/d of new U.S. LNG export capacity was added in 2020, the agency said, and several U.S. LNG terminals affected by hurricanes and annual maintenance have resumed LNG shipments.Cheniere Energy Inc. is in the process of commissioning the third production unit at the Corpus Christi facility, and the ramp in production also helped elevate feed gas deliveries even further. NGI data showed flows to U.S. LNG export terminals crossing the 11 Bcf/d mark earlier this month, a level that has held fairly steady since.Notably, the robust demand overseas has prompted some analysts to alter their view on U.S. exports for 2021. BofA Global Research analysts said this week they expect Asian spot prices to remain strong enough next summer to prevent significant U.S. LNG cargo cancellations. NGI data shows the projected arbitrages from the Gulf Coast to Asia or Europe are both at least $1.00/MMBtu for all of 2021, with significantly higher arbitrage opportunities in the winter and fall.
China Buying More U.S. LNG to Meet Winter Demand, but Still Far Below Phase One Targets - U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports to China have ramped up this year but remain far below the levels specified in a phase one trade deal signed in January by the two countries to try to improve trade relations. Since U.S. LNG exports to China resumed in March after a hiatus of more than one year, the East Asian country has imported, or is scheduled to import, a combined 49 U.S. cargoes with a total volume of 7.92 million cubic meters, equivalent to about 168 Bcf of natural gas, according to data intelligence firm Kpler. Additionally, 18 LNG vessels with U.S. cargoes have not declared their destinations, so some of those could go to China. That compares with two U.S. LNG deliveries to China in 2019 with a combined volume equivalent to 6.9 Bcf and 26 exports in 2018 equivalent to about 90.5 Bcf, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. U.S. exports to China have accelerated in recent months, totaling at least 24 deliveries since October, Kpler said. “When looking at Chinese LNG imports, there is a strong seasonality traditionally resulting in higher deliveries during [the] November-January period, and it is confirmed by what we are seeing this year as well,” Kpler senior market analyst Ilya Niklyaev told NGI. He mostly attributed the significant ramp-up of U.S. exports since October to China buying supplies for winter demand and “very high exports from the U.S. in general.” Since Dec. 4, combined gas flow to the six U.S. LNG plants has topped 11 Bcf/d. Kpler expects “a big increase” in U.S. LNG deliveries to China in December, Niklyaev said, noting that there are multiple vessels headed to the Far East with U.S. supplies that could ultimately end up in China. He pointed out that the U.S. still accounts for a small portion of China’s overall LNG imports, with producers in Qatar and Australia benefitting the most from Chinese winter buying. Despite the increased U.S. LNG deliveries to China, the phase one targets “are wildly out of reach for 2020 and never really had much chance of being achieved, at least on the energy side, because of the huge dollar amounts involved,” Poten & Partners’ Jason Feer, global head of business intelligence, told NGI. China in the phase one deal committed to buy $200 billion of American goods over the next two years, including $52.4 billion of energy products including LNG, crude oil, refined products and coal. Reuters recently calculated that in the first 10 months of 2020, China’s purchases of U.S. crude oil, LNG, propane, butane and other energy products totaled $6.61 billion, or about 26% of this year’s $25.3 billion target. The Covid-19 pandemic has significantly reduced energy demand throughout the world and many analysts are optimistic that vaccinations will improve demand next year.
Significant U.S. LNG Cargo Cancellations Not Likely in 2021, BofA Analysts Say - - Asian liquefied natural gas (LNG) spot prices are at two-year highs and are projected to remain strong enough next summer to prevent significant cancellations of U.S. LNG cargoes in 2021, BofA Global Research analysts said. Projected U.S. LNG export arbitrages for next summer are now positive, in the range of $0.75-$1.00/MMBtu, the analysts said in a Dec. 11 note.“Thus, we assume near max utilization rates of U.S. LNG export facilities next year and see Asian demand supporting Henry Hub prices above $3/MMBtu in the summer,” they said.Combined gas intake at the six U.S. LNG export terminals has recently averaged more than 11 Bcf/d, according to NGI data.An estimated 165-200 U.S. LNG cargoes were cancelled earlier this year as depressed demand from the Covid-19 pandemic and other factors drove Asian and European benchmarks down to parity with Henry Hub prices for much of the summer, in the range of about $1.50-2.00/MMBtu. Even though the long-term, take-or-pay liquefaction fees of $2.25-3.50/MMBtu that U.S. LNG customers pay are sunk costs, customers would still cancel U.S. cargoes if the arbitrage between the U.S. and other markets would be less than their respective spot shipping and other variable costs.According to NGI data, the projected arbitrages from the Gulf Coast to Asia or Europe are both at least $1/MMBtu for all of 2021, with significantly higher arbitrage opportunities in the winter and fall. Spot LNG prices for delivery to northeast Asia in January were $8.075/MMBtu on Dec. 11, according to NGI data. The BofA analysts said they expect the February Japan Korea Marker (JKM) contract, which is currently trading at about $9.20/MMBtu, to drop to about $7/MMBtu as more supply becomes available. Prices have increased significantly as liquefaction outages and maintenance worldwide have driven LNG supply shortages heading into the winter heating season, especially in the Pacific Basin. Gulf Coast export arbitrages to Asia have widened recently to more than $3/MMBtu on JKM strength and Henry Hub weakness, “encouraging all possible US swing volumes to set sail for the Pacific,” the BofA analysts said. The surge in Asia-bound U.S. cargoes has delayed waiting periods to cross the Panama Canal to as long as 10-15 days, from previous waits of four or five days, they said.
Next U.S. LNG Exporter Says Project Ahead of Schedule - Construction on the next major liquefied natural gas export terminal in the U.S. is ahead of schedule and cargoes for a second project will be fully contracted by the middle of 2021, according to the developer’s top executive. Venture Global LNG Inc. plans to have six of 18 production units at the Calcasieu Pass plant in Louisiana installed by mid-February, Chief Executive Officer Mike Sabel said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. Commercial operations are expected in 2022. The first phase of Plaquemines LNG, the company’s second project in the state, will be fully contracted by the end of June, Sabel said. Venture Global’s momentum comes during what has been a difficult year for most U.S. LNG developers. The coronavirus pandemic sapped demand for the heating and power-plant fuel, hindering investment and adding to a global glut. Growing concern about climate change, meanwhile, has led to heightened scrutiny of gas projects. Tellurian Inc., which is also seeking to build a terminal in Louisiana, failed to finalize a deal with a key backer. France’s Engie SA, under pressure from an environmental group, decided against buying LNG from a Texas project planned by NextDecade Corp. Venture Global’s modular approach to construction has allowed Calcasieu Pass to proceed ahead of schedule despite the pandemic and a hyperactive hurricane season, Sabel said. The plant’s production units, called trains, are made at a Baker Hughes facility in Italy and shipped to Louisiana for installation./p>
U.S. LNG Developers Eye More FIDs in 2021 as Pandemic Recedes, Demand Rises --U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) developers are anticipating that 2021 will be much different than 2020. Covid-19 and uncertain long-term economics dashed the plans for a number of U.S. gas export projects to make a positive final investment decision (FID) this year. Most of those projects pushed their planned FID dates into 2021, with the expectation of coming online by the middle of the decade to meet what is expected to be global supply shortage. With vaccinations beginning, global gas demand is expected to rise, but the long-term profitability of U.S. LNG is still an open question. Arbitrage opportunities to Asia and Europe have decreased since the first wave of domestic projects was funded in the previous decade.The International Energy Agency said in October global gas demand would likely fall 3% in 2020 to 3.88 trillion cubic meters, or 375 Bcf/d. And the International Gas Union in August said LNG consumption in 2019 totaled a gas equivalent of 482 billion cubic meters, or 46.6 Bcf/d. It added that LNG use could fall about 4% this year but then rebound quickly in 2021, depending on the persistence of the pandemic.Meanwhile, Wood Mackenzie predicted in September that global LNG demand would continue to grow to 2030 by 4%/year, creating a potential supply shortfall of 100 million metric tons/year (mmty), equivalent to about 12.8 Bcf/d of gas, by the end of the decade. Qatar would likely account for a large portion of the new supply with a planned expansion at its North Field East facility, the analysts said. The United States has six export facilities in operation, with recent combined gas intake of more than 11 Bcf/d. The projects now under construction –Golden Pass in Texas, the sixth Sabine Pass train in Louisiana and Venture Global Calcasieu Pass also in Louisiana – would add roughly 4 Bcf/d of capacity in the next few years. Combined that would put total U.S output at around 15 Bcf/d. The proposed U.S. liquefaction capacity far exceeds what could be built. Seventeen projects with a combined volume of 28.9 Bcf/d have already received construction approval from FERC, a process that costs into the hundreds of millions. Four other projects with a combined output of up to 5.5 Bcf/d are in the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s pre-filing stage to identify major environmental issues and stakeholders. In addition, two more projects with a combined volume of 3 Bcf/d have been proposed to FERC but have not yet applied, according to the Commission. Of the 17 projects approved by FERC, only eight with a combined volume of 17.3 Bcf/d have an FID is planned next year, far more than global demand may warrant. Expansions at existing facilities are said to be more likely to get funding than greenfield projects. Three expansions proposed for the Cameron terminalin Louisiana, the Corpus Christi project in South Texas, and at the Freeport facility on the upper Texas coast, would have combined volume of about 4 Bcf/d. Those projects have not publicly provided 2021 FID dates, but if they are sanctioned, it could leave less room to FID greenfield projects next year.Two North American projects could potentially be funded this year, the 2.4 mmty Energía Costa Azul (ECA) facility in northwest Mexico and the 11 mmty stage 3 expansion at Corpus Christi. San Diego-based Sempra Energy last month sanctioned ECA, making it the only export project globally to reach FID this year.
Natural Gas Production Declines from Seven Major U.S. Regions to Continue into 2021, EIA Says - The downtrend in natural gas production from seven major U.S. producing regions that has persisted for much of 2020 will extend into 2021, according to updated projections from the Energy Information Administration (EIA). Gas production from the Anadarko, Appalachian and Permian basins, as well as from the Bakken, Eagle Ford, Haynesville and Niobrara formations, is set to decline 744 MMcf/d month/month (m/m) in January, to 80.777 Bcf/d, EIA said in its latest Drilling Productivity Report (DPR), published Monday. Among the major plays tracked in the DPR, only the Haynesville is expected to grow output from December to January, with production to rise 10 MMcf/d m/m to just over 11.3 Bcf/d. Conversely, output from the Appalachian Basin is expected to fall 154 MMcf/d to around 33.5 Bcf/d in January. The Anadarko (down 155 MMcf/d), the Bakken (down 66 MMcf/d), the Eagle Ford (107 MMcf/d), the Niobrara (down 115 MMcf/d) and the Permian (down 157 MMcf/d) are also set to see output fall in January, EIA said. EIA last modeled a m/m increase in natural gas output from the seven U.S. shale regions in early 2020. Since then, the DPR data has shown a continuous decline in output, coinciding with a sharp pullback in the U.S. rig count amid the economic fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, oil production from the seven regions is set to fall 137,000 b/d m/m in January, to 7.438 million b/d, according to the latest DPR. The Permian Basin is expected to show the largest drop-off from December to January, falling 44,000 b/d to 4.196 million b/d. Declines are also expected from the Anadarko (down 20,000 b/d), Appalachia (down 1,000 b/d), the Bakken (down 23,000 b/d) and the Niobrara (down 23,000 b/d). Looking at new-well productivity per rig, EIA expects average per-rig natural gas output to slide 568 Mcf/d to 6,710 Mcf/d in January. The Eagle Ford is expected to see the largest drop-off in per-rig productivity, falling by 517 Mcf/d m/m. In the gassy Appalachia and Haynesville regions, per-rig production is set to rise m/m by 27 Mcf/d and 2 Mcf/d, respectively, the DPR data show. New-well oil productivity per rig is set to fall 11 b/d to 1,025 b/d from December to January, according to EIA. The Eagle Ford is on track to see the largest m/m decline, with per-rig output expected to fall 163 b/d m/m. EIA data show the backlog of drilled but uncompleted wells (DUC) continued to shrink across each of the seven regions from October to November. The Niobrara drew down its DUC backlog by 41 m/m, to 456 in November, with the Eagle Ford posting the next largest drawdown, down 32 to 1,031 DUCs in November.
North American Natural Gas Marketers Hold the Line in 3Q2020, NGI Survey Shows - Leading natural gas marketers posted flat sales volumes in 3Q2020, snapping a streak of five consecutive quarters of year/year declines, according toNGI’s Top North American Natural Gas Marketer rankings. The 25 gas marketers participating in the latest quarterly survey reported combined sales transactions of 117.42 Bcf/d in 3Q2020.The 24 gas marketers covered in the survey for which year-earlier data were available collectively reported 114.56 Bcf/d for the latest quarter, level with the precise total reached in 3Q2019. Several of the largest gas marketers reported modest declines for the quarter as flat consumption was more than offset by lower production amid the continued impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Energy Information Administration (EIA) data show that 3Q2020 U.S. dry gas production averaged 89.7 Bcf/d, down 4.6% from 94.0 Bcf/d a year earlier.Longstanding No.1 BP plc reported volumes of 17.53 Bcf/d in 3Q2020, a 4% decrease from 3Q2019, while No. 2 Macquarie Energy reported 10.89 Bcf/d, a 3% decline. In at No. 3 (in a tie with Shell Energy NA), Tenaska reported 10.40 Bcf/d in 3Q2019, a 6% decline. Notably, “our annual FERC Form 552 data analysis shows the combined market share of the top U.S. 20 marketers has been trending down over the last decade, and that has been providing something of a volume headwind as well,” said NGI’s Patrick Rau, director of Strategy & Research. “So you have a long-term trend being accelerated by a shorter-term production decline” among the largest players.
LNG Recap: Natural Gas Price Rally Continues Amid Tight Market - Natural Gas Intelligence - Global natural gas prices again moved higher last week as forecasts trended colder, and supply disruptions and a tight shipping market continued. Spot prices in North Asia moved above $11.00/MMBtu last week, hitting a new two-year high. One bid for a January cargo was reportedly placed for more than $12.00 as the week got underway. Meanwhile, European natural gas prices moved upward for the third week in a row and front month Henry Hubfinished higher on Friday after a volatile week as forecasts show chillier weather on the way in the United States. European and U.S. benchmarks also posted gains on Monday. Congestion in the Panama Canal, ongoing supply outages and colder weather forecast for China, Japan and South Korea are all supporting the Japan Korea Marker (JKM). The JKM prompt contract started last week at $7.600 and finished Friday at $8.075. Strength in Asia is pulling LNG from the Atlantic market into the Pacific and helping to support prices in Europe. Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. said European storage drew by 146 Bcf last week, well above norms of 108 Bcf for this time of year. . The price of carbon credits in Europe also hit a record 31.30 euros/ton on Friday. The European Union agreed on Friday to cut net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by at least 55% by 2030 from 1990 levels, replacing a previous goal to cut emissions by 40% this decade. While the European Parliament still needs to approve the new target, carbon prices were still moving upward on Monday. Oil prices also moved higher on Monday, closing at $50.29/bbl. Brent moved higher after an oil tanker exploded in a reported attack by a boat filled with explosives in the Saudi Arabian port of Jeddah.In other news last week, Gunvor, the largest independent LNG trader in the world, announced a joint venture (JV) with United States-based Energy Capital Vietnam (ECV), which is leading the development of an LNG-to-power project in southeast Vietnam. The JV will be responsible for trading and shipping on behalf of ECV. Gunvor will also supply LNG to the JV on a long-term basis. While several projects are under development in the country, Vietnam does not yet import LNG. Elsewhere, Siemens Energy has partnered with Russia’s largest independent natural gas producer, Novatek, to develop solutions to cut Novatek’s GHG emissions by using hydrogen and increasing energy efficiency in LNG production.
Gains Mount for Natural Gas Futures as Frosty Temps Creep into Forecasts; Snow Storms Lift Cash - Natural gas futures extended their gains for a fourth consecutive session as weather models continue to tease more cold for the end of the month and into January. The January Nymex contract settled Monday at $2.682, up 9.1 cents from Friday’s close. February climbed 7.5 cents to $2.678. Spot gas prices also rallied at the start of the week as back-to-back weather systems drove up demand in key regions. Driven by multi-dollar gains on the East Coast, NGI’s Spot Gas National Avg. jumped 47.0 cents to $3.035. After earlier forecasts had all but written off cold weather for December, the recent shifts in the weather data provided a boost to futures. Though models are not in full agreement in the amount of cold seen moving through the country, there at least is some variability in play. Bespoke Weather Services said the American ensemble data attempts to develop a negative Eastern Pacific Oscillation on the Pacific side, which would signify colder risks heading into the turn of the new year. The European guidance is not reflecting this pattern, but still indicates the outlook is not entirely warm. NatGasWeather said a chilly pattern held for this week but a mild break was seen over most of the United States during the Dec. 20-23 period. The GFS does show stronger cold shots into the northern and eastern states Dec. 25-26, according to the forecaster, but it has been inconsistent on exactly how that might play out and overall still isn’t exactly frigid with them.It should be noted that even if the cold blasts do show up, the timing could impact how much demand increases given the expected arrival is right at Christmas. Thanksgiving proved to be a demand crusher, with only 1 Bcf of gas withdrawn from storage during the mild holiday week.
Natural Gas Futures Stall; Northeast Cash Strong Ahead of 'Near-Blizzard' Conditions - Natural gas futures shifted into neutral Tuesday amid some inconsistencies in the weather data and a dip in liquefied natural gas (LNG) demand. After four straight sessions in the green, the January Nymex gas futures contract settled flat on the day at $2.682. February also was nearly unchanged at $2.680. Spot gas prices were mixed across most of the United States, but big gains continued on the East Coast ahead of a second winter storm set to unleash frigid air on the region. NGI’s Spot Gas National Avg. climbed 21.0 cents to $3.245.Though recent weather model runs have been far from bullish, the projected variability in the outlook for the balance of December had supported the gas market. The January Nymex contract tested $2.381 three times over the past week but hit an intraday high of $2.708 on Monday. The prompt month traded near that level again on Tuesday, but ultimately finished the day in the red as weather model data continued to flip flop.NatGasWeather said the American and European models both shed demand from the 15-day outlook, but the European data continued to run significantly colder than the American Global Forecast System. Specifically, the model continued to show a cold enough pattern this week and in the Tuesday afternoon run, gained back more than half of the demand that was lost for the Dec. 25-27 period.The European model still showed a milder break around Dec. 28-29, “but we view that as potentially a brief one as cold reloads over Canada before making a return push into the U.S. around Dec. 30-31,” NatGasWeather said, noting that more data is needed to be confident in that theory. Meanwhile, Mobius Risk Group pointed out that from Monday through Thursday, the U.S. population-weighted heating degree days (HDD) count was predicted to be three more than the 30-year normal, while the comparable period last week (Dec. 7-10) was 14 HDDs warmer than normal. “With the most bullish days of the week still to come, and an Eastern seaboard snowstorm to boot, further upside could be forthcoming.”
Natural Gas Futures Prices Still Steady Ahead of Potentially Larger-than-Normal EIA Storage Report - After an earlier dip, natural gas futures recovered to ultimately close out Wednesday’s session nearly flat as the prospects for more cold in early January appeared to dim. With a sharp increase in liquefied natural gas (LNG) demand and the potential for a much larger-than-normal storage withdrawal, the January Nymex contract settled at $2.677, down a half-cent from Tuesday’s close. February climbed one-tenth of a cent to $2.681. Spot gas prices were mixed, but the Northeast mounted more gains as snow fell on the region. NGI’s Spot Gas National Avg. climbed 14.0 cents to $3.385. The blockbuster winter storm pummeling the East Coast notwithstanding, any momentum in the futures market was sapped early Wednesday as the latest weather data decreased the risk in achieving a colder pattern into the turn of the new year. This change was most apparent in the European ensemble, according to Bespoke Weather Services. “While the late-month situation remains a lower confidence one, a failure of cold to materialize would imply that the La Niña state is able to resist any notable shift eastward in tropical forcing,” the forecaster said. This could keep the overall warm state rolling into January, absent a strong North Atlantic Oscillation block. “This is what all of the long-term climate modeling suggests will occur, and is our lean as well, as even if we are to get colder in early January, we are not convinced of its durability,” Bespoke said. The midday Global Forecast System (GFS) model gained some demand for the Dec. 24-27 period, but remained mild in the days before and after that period, according to NatGasWeather. The forecaster pointed out, though, that the GFS was colder for Dec. 25-27, which moved it closer in alignment with the European model. The European model, however, is still more than 20 heating degree days colder compared to the GFS.
US working natural gas volumes in underground storage declines 122 Bcf: EIA — US working natural gas in storage posted its first triple-digit build of the heating season last week as South Central accounted for the largest regional draw on cooler weather and record-high LNG feedgas demand. Stay up to date with the latest commodity content. Sign up for our free daily Commodities Bulletin. Sign Up Storage inventories decreased by 122 Bcf to 3.726 Tcf for the week ended Dec. 11, the US Energy Information Administration reported Dec. 17. The withdrawal was weaker than an S&P Global Platts survey of analysts calling for a 127 Bcf pull. Responses to the survey ranged from a 103 to 145 Bcf withdrawal. However, the pull was stronger than the 97 Bcf draw reported during the same week last year as well as the five-year average withdrawal of 105 Bcf, according to EIA data. The draw was also stronger than the 91 Bcf withdrawal reported the week prior. Residential and commercial demand grew by 3.5 Bcf/d week on week and power demand gained 1.6 Bcf/d, according to S&P Global Platts Analytics. Incremental power demand was also spurred by falling wind generation, which declined by nearly 15 GWs, the equivalent of 2.5 Bcf/d in gas-fired generation. Total supply was up a marginal 100 MMcf/d week on week as lower US production was offset by a 700 MMcf/d increase in net Canadian imports. Storage volumes now stand 284 Bcf, or 8.3%, more than the year-ago level of 3.442 Tcf and 243 Bcf, or 7%, more than the five-year average of 3.483 Tcf. The NYMEX Henry Hub January contract slipped 3 cents to $2.64/MMBtu in trading following the release of the weekly storage report at 10:30 am ET. The remaining winter strip, February and March, also dipped 3 cents to average $2.63/MMBtu, a decline of 5 cents from the week prior. Entering the Dec. 17 EIA report, the prompt-month January NYMEX contract has been in a well-defined range this week – oscillating between $2.60 and $2.70/MMBtu. The relatively narrow range appears to be linked to weather model uncertainty entering January with some models pointing to a colder regime, while others predict a milder background state, according to S&P Global Platts Analytics. So far this withdrawal season, inventory has declined by a net total of 229 Bcf. Over the past five years, stocks have decreased by an average of 497 Bcf by this time of the heating season. Platts Analytics supply and demand model currently forecasts a 166 Bcf withdrawal for the week ending Dec. 18, which would shrink the surplus versus the five-year average by an additional 39 Bcf as cooler temperatures spike US-level demand week over week.
Natural Gas Futures Slip After EIA Data Fails to Sway Traders; Northeast Cash Mixed as Snowstorm Exits - Natural Gas Intelligence --Even with the East Coast buried under several feet of snow, and the potential for more frigid air to arrive by Christmas, natural gas futures fell short Thursday. The January Nymex gas futures contract settled 4.1 cents lower day/day at $2.636/MMBtu after the latest government storage report came in bullish, “just not record bullish.” Spot gas prices also retreated across most of the United States, but the Northeast notched the fourth straight day of gains as the Nor’easter that slammed the region beginning midweek was set to linger through the end of the week. NGI’s Spot Gas National Avg. climbed 17.5 cents to $3.560.After two eerily quiet Nymex trading sessions, the market appeared to be on pins and needles early Thursday. Traders appeared to have lost all confidence in the weather data, given the back-and-forth swings with each model run. Instead, market players were relying on the latest storage inventory report to finally move prices decisively one way or another.The Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported a 122 Bcf withdrawal from storage inventories for the week ending Dec. 11, which was generally in line with market expectations ahead of the report. However, some estimates pegged the draw to be much larger, with major surveys producing estimates as large as a 138 Bcf draw. The EIA figure compares with the 97 Bcf decrease recorded in the year-ago period and a five-year average pull of 105 Bcf.Bespoke Weather Services, which had expected a 115 Bcf withdrawal, said since the actual figure was right in the middle of the range of expectations, it was taking a neutral stance on prices. That said, the EIA stat is “very much reflective of a tight supply/demand balance.“We expect a much larger draw next week, although thanks to having more weather demand, the balance data does not appear quite as tight for this current week,” Bespoke said.Broken down by region, the EIA said South Central inventories dropped 38 Bcf during the reference week, including a 25 Bcf pull from nonsalt facilities and a 13 Bcf pull from salts. The Midwest withdrew 36 Bcf, while the East drew 34 Bcf. Inventories in the Mountain and Pacific region each fell by less than 10 Bcf.Total working gas in storage as of Dec. 11 stood at 3,726 Bcf, 284 Bcf higher than year-ago levels and 243 Bcf above the five-year average, according to EIA. Bespoke was surprised to see the market sell off following the EIA report, although weather changes are expected to continue holding the most weight moving forward. The American and European models favor more cold air penetrating the Lower 48 around Christmas, but Bespoke said any significant drop in temperatures that may arrive is likely to be temporary.
US natgas hits 2-week high on colder late December forecasts - - US natural gas futures rose to a two-week high on Friday on forecasts for near record liquefied natural gas exports, colder weather and more heating demand in late December. That price increase comes as spot power and gas prices in the US Northeast rose to their highest in a year as a major winter storm blanketed the region in snow this week. Front-month gas futures rose 6.4 cents, or 2.4%, to settle at $2.700 per million British thermal units, their highest close since Dec. 2. That put the contract up over 4% for the week after it gained less than 1% last week. Data provider Refinitiv said output in the Lower 48 US states averaged 90.8 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) so far in December. That compares with a seven-month high of 91.0 bcfd in November 2020 and an all-time monthly high of 95.4 bcfd in November 2019. Refinitiv projected average demand, including exports, would slip from 124.3 bcfd this week to 123.6 bcfd next week as the weather turns milder before rising to 127.8 bcfd in two weeks with the expected arrival of more cold. The amount of gas flowing to US LNG export plants, meanwhile, has averaged 10.7 bcfd so far in December, which would top November's 9.8-bcfd record. That increase comes as the third train at Cheniere Energy Inc's Corpus Christi LNG plant in Texas prepares to enter commercial service and as rising prices in Europe and Asia prompt buyers to purchase more US gas. Traders, however, noted LNG exports cannot rise much more until new units enter service in the second half of 2022 since feedgas to the LNG plants was already over their 10.5-bcfd export capacity. LNG plants can pull in a little more gas than they can export since they use some of the fuel to run the facility.
What made Columbia, Lexington homes rattle Friday night? It was 2 different events.— Depending on where you live in the Columbia and Lexington areas, a boom heard and felt Friday night could have had separate sources in what officials say is a near-simultaneous coincidence. Two potentially jarring events happened within about an hour of each other: an earthquake in Columbia and a natural gas line release near Saluda Dam near Irmo. The U.S. Geological Survey confirmed a 2.4 magnitude earthquake in Columbia at 8:37 p.m. The quake was centered just north of Benedict College in the old Allen-Benedict Court public housing community. A safety valve released at a natural gas regulatory station near Saluda Dam close to the same time. The mechanism is triggered when pressure builds in a gas line due to trash or similar blockage and the sound of the valve venting can be a boom or a champagne cork popping, said Tom Allen, safety director for the S.C. Office of Regulatory Staff, which oversees utilities in the state. Depending on the size of the gas line and amount of pressure, the sound can seem as loud as a jet engine. Allen said the first calls he received related to the gas valve were about an hour after the earthquake. “It served its purpose; that escape valve vented the natural gas as it was designed to do,” Allen said. “I would say it was probably more of a mundane issue than it was the earthquake.” The valve is designed to open based on pressure and shouldn’t be affected by physical jostling as from earthquake tremors — cars have crashed into the regulatory stations without triggering the valve, Allen said. Lexington, Irmo and St. Andrews residents might have heard the gas incident and other areas of Columbia were probably experiencing the earthquake, Allen said.
These Ladies Love Natural Gas! Too Bad They Aren’t Real. – The website Women for Natural Gas is a pink-tinged, fancy-cursive-drenched love letter to the oil and gas industry. A prominently featured promo video shows women in hard hats and on rig sites. “Who’s powering the world? We are!” enthuses the narrator. Viewers can click through to a “Herstory” timeline of women working in the oil sector. Another page, about the group’s grassroots network of supporters, announces, “We are women for natural gas,” and shows three professionally dressed ladies alongside their testimonials. There’s a Carey White gushing, “The abundance of oil and gas in Texas helps keep prices at the pump lower.” One Rebecca Washington raves, “Natural gas is a safe, reliable source of energy that provides countless numbers of jobs.” But there’s a catch: The women don’t exist. A few months ago, I received a tip to look into the website’s testimonials—my tipster suggested that the group was using stock photos to represent the women who had supposedly contributed testimonials about natural gas. A reverse image search revealed that two of the images were indeed stock photos. The third, supposedly of a woman named Carey White, was the professional headshot of Jessi Hempel, a senior editor at-large at LinkedIn. The photo had been published in a brochure when she appeared at a 2020 Tupelo, Mississippi conference for landscape architects. When I contacted Hempel, she said she had never contributed any photo or testimonial to Women for Natural Gas. She said she found it “incredibly disturbing” that the group was using her image without her permission. “Thank you so much for discovering my image on a website I guarantee you I never would have clicked on,” she told me. Texans for Natural Gas, an oil and gas industry group that created Women for Natural Gas, never responded to Hempel’s or Mother Jones’inquiries about the photo. The group did eventually swap out Hempel’s image, but only after being contacted twice by a lawyer for Hempel’s employer, LinkedIn. A closer examination of Women for Natural Gas revealed that for the last year, the group has cycled through different headshots of women and quotes. My reporting suggests that it’s unlikely that the testimonials are genuine. Back in May, the site showed testimonials from Natalie White, Carey White and Natalie Smith, with identical quotes for the two Natalies (notwithstanding the overlapping names). By August, the names had diversified, a little, to Rebecca Washington, Natalie Smith, and Carey White, and the identical quotes had also changed again.
Dickinson supports Enbridge tunnel pipeline — Dickinson County adopted a resolution Monday in support of Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline, urging completion of a tunnel replacement project with no disruption of service.The resolution comes in response to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s recent demand the company shut down its oil pipeline that crosses the bottom of the waterway connecting Lake Huron and Lake Michigan.“We can’t give up this fight,” said Commissioner Joe Stevens, saying a shutdown would severely restrict propane supplies in the Upper Peninsula, leading to price hikes.“I think we’ve been very proactive on this — our county,” Stevens said, predicting negative consequences statewide if the pipeline closes.The board adopted the measure unanimously, although Commissioner Kevin Pirlot said he’d like assurances a new tunnel can be completed in several years. “I support the concept of the tunnel, but it can’t take forever,” he said.Extensive inspections and safety tests have confirmed the integrity of Line 5, the county’s resolution states. It also notes Enbridge’s proposed $500 million investment in the replacement project and the crucial need to continue fuel shipments in the meantime.The 67-year-old pipeline has been targeted for shutdown by environmentalists who fear the implications of a spill in the Straits of Mackinac. A month ago, Whitmer accused Enbridge of failing to safeguard Great Lakes waters. A Michigan Department of Natural Resources report said Enbridge has failed to meet numerous safety standards.Enbridge, in turn, has filed a legal challenge to the Nov. 13 shutdown order, set to take effect in 180 days.Line 5 moves about 23 million gallons of oil and natural gas liquids daily between Superior, Wisconsin, and Sarnia, Ontario, traversing parts of northern Michigan and Wisconsin.The underwater section beneath the straits is divided into two pipes. Enbridge says they are in sound condition and have never leaked, while Whitmer contends they’re vulnerable to a catastrophic spill.
With Buttigieg as Transportation secretary, Michigan enviros envision a ‘federal ally’ in Line 5 fight ⋆ On Wednesday, President-elect Joe Biden made history in announcing former South Bend, Ind., Mayor and Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg as his choice to head up the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). If confirmed, not only would Buttigieg be the youngest secretary of the department and the first openly LGBTQ cabinet secretary — he would also likely be the department’s first leader to publicly oppose Michigan’s controversial and Enbridge-owned Line 5 pipeline. The DOT head matters for pipeline policy because the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), which oversees the nation’s pipeline infrastructure, is housed within the department. PHMSA’s office is currently headed up by the controversial President Donald Trump-appointed Howard R. Elliott, whose replacement has not been announced. At the very top, Buttigieg would be replacing Elaine Chao, current U.S. Secretary of Transportation and spouse of Republican U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). Chao previously was secretary of labor under President George W. Bush. Trump nominated her for DOT at the beginning of his term. In February, before Michigan’s presidential primary, Buttigieg signaled his opposition to the pipeline with a tweet: “With such a high risk of an oil spill under the Great Lakes, Michigan can’t afford to keep the Line 5 pipeline in operation,” he wrote. “In every community, we need new clean energy solutions to meet our climate crisis.” That won praise from Attorney General Dana Nessel, a big Line 5 opponent, at the time. She declined to endorse anyone in the primary, which Biden won. Former Democratic presidential contenders Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) also spoke out against Line 5 during their campaigns.
With Line 5 closure, a ‘game of chicken’ over how to heat Upper Peninsula - If the Enbridge Line 5 pipeline shuts down next spring, Michigan has a matter of months to find a new way to deliver propane to Upper Peninsula residents who collectively use tens of millions of gallons from the pipeline annually to heat their homes. But one month after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced that she’s giving the Canadian oil giant until May to shutter the 67-year-old pipeline that runs beneath the Straits of Mackinac, her administration still won’t say exactly how Michigan will make up the difference. Spokespeople for Whitmer did not respond to numerous calls, texts and emails asking about potential contingency plans. Spokespeople for key state agencies told Bridge Michigan they’re studying alternative ways to meet U.P. propane needs, but none identified specific solutions that would be in place by next heating season. And while state officials and industry experts have said they expect the free market to adjust on its own, industry representatives said so far, they’ve made only tentative progress on the infrastructure investments necessary to wean the U.P. off Line 5. Experts who spoke to Bridge for this article said it’s possible to transition the Upper Peninsula to other propane sources using delivery methods such as truck or rail, but it will take money, time, and a clear strategy — with no guarantee it’s possible to achieve in a matter of months. “A lot of things have to go right,” said Eric Pardini, a director with Lansing-based Public Sector Consultants, who led a state-commissioned study outlining pathways to transitioning the Upper Peninsula’s propane sector. “The number of potential solutions gives me optimism, but it doesn’t give me peace.” In the absence of a detailed plan from the state, Upper Peninsula propane providers complain that they’re left to decide for themselves how they’ll serve their customers next year. Some are pursuing other sources of supply. Others are stalling as Enbridge and state attorneys wage a court battle that could determine whether the shutdown order sticks. That, Pardini said, sets up a “game of chicken” between the industry and the Whitmer administration over changes that must happen to ensure a Line 5 shutdown doesn’t strand tens of thousands of U.P. residents without a reliable propane supply come next heating season.
Activists build political power, vow to keep fighting Boxtown pipeline at Saturday rally - MLK50: Justice Through Journalism – A capacity crowd of about 60 attended a rally against a proposed oil pipeline through Boxtown in Southwest Memphis on Saturday, where a series of speakers vowed to fight the development.“For too many years Boxtown has been the dumping place for the rest of Memphis,” said Batsell Booker, president of the Boxtown Neighborhood Association, at the event held in the gazebo at T.O. Fuller State Park. Booker and several other speakers condemned the pipeline and its planned route through the mostly Black community that already is surrounded by industry.The event, which was live-streamed on Facebook, was held by Memphis Community Against the Pipeline. The group was recently organized by young activists, including Kathy Robinson and Justin J. Pearson, who both grew upin Southwest Memphis. Some people were turned away from entering the area by park rangers when capacity was reached. There were social distancing rules in place, with seating numbered, and volunteers did temperature checks and took down identification information from attendees. at the rally. The group live-streamed the event for those not able to attend due to COVID-19 social distancing recommendations. Photo by Andrea Morales for MLK50 The goal of the rally was to take the lead away from developers, who made presentations at previous community meetings; to label the Byhalia Connection Pipeline plan asenvironmental racism, and gather support from more residents and local officials to stop the project, Pearson and Robinson said. Black people are 75% more likely to live near a polluting facility, according to a 2017 report by the NAACP and the Clean Air Task Force.
Rep. Garret Graves has dim view of oil and gas industry under Biden administration - In a meeting Monday with local business people, U.S. Rep. Garret Graves addressed the future of oil and gas, the likelihood of a new federal stimulus package and acceptance of Joe Biden’s win in the presidential race. Graves spoke during an online meeting of the Bayou Industrial Group, which includes about 15 businesses in Terrebonne, Lafourche and surrounding areas. Graves, R-Baton Rouge, said Biden’s win disappoints him, adding that Donald Trump was doing a good job. But until evidence arises to show otherwise, “Biden is the president-elect at this point and we’re going to have to move forward under those conditions.” "At this point, the Trump campaign, investigators, FBI, no one has been able to produce evidence showing that the election outcome was different than projected,” said Graves, whose district includes northern Terrebonne and Lafourche. As for Biden’s emphasis on renewable energy, Graves said the oil and gas industry still supplies most of the national and world's energy needs and will do so for many years to come. “We can sit here and have these dreams about unicorns powering our fires and other things but, the fact, the science, is very different,” he said. “The technology is not there right now, and the reality is that the biggest secret to reducing emissions over the last 15 years … is natural gas.” Paul Danos, owner of the Danos oilfeld services company, based in Gray, spoke before Graves delivered his speech. He said 2020 has been tough on the company but it was able to start two new businesses. “Obviously the oil and gas industry is the main driver for our region, and as we go into a new administration, our industry is not necessarily the darling of the administration,” Danos said. “So we have a couple of options: We can stick our head in the sand and hope that it all passes or we can wake up and ... do something about it.” Don’t panic, Danos said, because the world needs oil and gas, will will make up a significant portion of the globe’s energy production for the foreseeable future. This should be a source of confidence, he explained. “But then again, we also need to embrace the fact that the world is transitioning to renewable forms of energy,” he said. The people of Louisiana are well poised to take part in this transition, through innovation and experience, ultimately becoming leaders in the transition, Danos added.
Texas LNG Bunkering Project Starts Waterway Assessment Process with Coast Guard - A plan to build the first liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunkering terminal along the U.S. Gulf Coast is progressing through the permitting process by initiating a water suitability assessment with the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG). Pilot LNG LLC’s proposed Galveston LNG Bunker Port (GLBP) project would comprise an LNG production vessel that would be permanently moored off Pelican Island, TX. The island is in Galveston Bay, one of the busiest marine corridors in the United States, providing access to the ports in Houston, Galveston and Texas City.The project, which would have production capacity of 500,000 tons per year, equivalent to about 64 MMcf/d of gas, plans to make a positive final investment decision in late 2021 or early 2022 after getting regulatory approvals. Operations are slated to begin in 2024.Pilot LNG earlier this month submitted a letter of intent and a preliminary water suitability report to the USCG to initiate the evaluation, management said. The review would assess the potential safety, security, marine and economic impacts of expected marine traffic from the project. Bunker barges would load at the terminal and distribute LNG fuel to ships, but the project has not yet determined if it would operate its own fleet.The bunker port project in October reached a preliminary long-term supply deal with GAC Bunker Fuels, an affiliate of the GAC Group that procures fuel for customers in the shipping industry. The heads of agreement outlined the terms for Pilot to provide LNG bunker fuel to GAC customers on a delivered ex-ship basis.The project in July applied for key permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The U.S. LNG bunkering market is most advanced along Florida’s Atlantic Coast, primarily to serve ships transporting U.S. goods to Puerto Rico. Demand for LNG bunker fuel is poised to grow. International regulators have tightened emissions standards, and the maritime industry has increasingly turned to LNG as a fuel source because of its lower emissions profile and cost competitiveness. The International Maritime Organization has established the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from shipping by at least 50% by 2050 compared to 2008, and many LNG-fueled ships are expected to be produced going forward.
Natural gas leak repaired on rig near Bob Hall Pier — Magellan E&P Holdings, Inc., the operator of a platform located in the Mustang Island offshore planning area has repaired a natural gas leak. City officials say the leak occurred early in September. The leak happened because off a failed valve. Officials say no further leaks or emissions are expected. However, there are still repairs to be made and vessels involved in the repair process will remain visible from shore. City officials said the company continues to fully cooperate with all appropriate state and federal regulatory entities.
Oil and gas job losses in Texas were even worse than reported - The oil and gas industry in Texas lost more jobs than reported after the federal government revised its employment estimates. Nearly 60,000 oil drilling, production and services workers have lost their jobs between February and August, 20 percent higher than the 50,000 layoffs previously reported, according to a new report from the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers. The new job analysis from the statewide trade group comes after the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas revised its employment data, which showed that more jobs were cut in the oil-field services sector than previously thought.
US oil, gas rig count rises by 10 to 414 as producers try to hold output: Enverus — US oil and gas rigs rose by 10 to 414 in the week ending Dec. 16, rig data provider Enverus said, as operators continue to replace production setbacks earlier in the year from coronavirus-related curtailments. Stay up to date with the latest commodity content. Sign up for our free daily Commodities Bulletin. Sign Up The week's gains were split 50-50, five apiece between oil plays, where the number of rigs rose to 300, and gas fields, where the number increased to 114. Among individual basins this week, changes were a hodgepodge, with most basins adding or shedding a rig apiece. The Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas added two rigs for a total 32. Adding one rig each were the Permian Basin (181 rigs) of West Texas/New Mexico, the Haynesville Shale (46) in East Texas/Northwest Louisiana and the Marcellus Shale (30), mostly in Pennsylvania. Reducing fleets by a rig apiece on the week were the Bakken Shale (13) of mostly North Dakota, the SCOOP-STACK (13) of Oklahoma, and the Utica Shale (six), mostly in Ohio. The DJ Basin of Colorado was unchanged on week at nine rigs. "Overall, North American drilling and completions activity is tracking higher than expected," Wells Fargo analyst Christopher Voie said in a Dec. 17 investor note. "The Lower 48 rig count is above expectations, and based on discussions with [four large US drillers], the horizontal rig count is tracking above our models and should plateau through year-end." For the week ended Dec. 16, the horizontal rig count was 329, down two, according to Enverus data. While first-half 2021 visibility is limited, "we model 350-360 horizontal rigs by mid-2021, assuming private E&Ps' activity mirrors publics' budget discipline" which is conservative, Voie said. S&P Global Platts Analytics expects rigs to continue to recover through early 2023. More good news on a coronavirus vaccine could cause a further uptick from what Evercore analyst James West called "jaw-dropping" declines in North American rig counts this year. The current total rig count is now just shy of half its early March figure of 838, Enverus data shows, and the North American rig count is poised for to rise, albeit off a low base, West said.
U.S. Crude Oil Inventory Declines; Weekly Demand Increases But Remains Modest, EIA Says - After jumping a week earlier, domestic oil inventories dropped during the week ended Dec. 11, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said Wednesday. EIA said in its Weekly Petroleum Status Report that U.S. commercial crude oil inventories — excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve — decreased by 3.1 million bbl from the prior week. A week earlier, stockpiles increased by nearly 15.2 million bbl amid robust imports and after light post-Thanksgiving holiday demand, lifting crude storage to its highest level since August.The latest result “was a nice walk down from last week’s supersized” build, said Robert Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho Securities USA LLC. The prior week increase “threatened to overwhelm storage in a relatively short time span. This week’s report has reduced those concerns.”Despite a draw in the latest covered week, U.S. inventory of 500.1 million bbl is still about 10% above the five-year average for this time of year, EIA said.Demand, meanwhile, increased 4% week/week for the latest covered period, EIA said, but it remained weak relative to pre-pandemic levels in 2019. Demand has been choppy on a week-to-week basis but, aside from an occasional exception, it has been consistently below year-earlier levels in recent months.Demand for the Dec. 11 week was 11% below the comparable week of 2019, with jet fuel consumption down 44% year/year and gasoline off 15%.
Ban on federal drilling leases would cost eight U.S. states billions, study finds (Reuters) - A ban on new oil and gas drilling leases on federal lands would cost eight Western states $8.1 billion in tax revenue and $34.1 billion in investment in the next five years, according to a study released on Tuesday by the state of Wyoming. The report, commissioned by one of the nation’s top oil and gas-producing states, aims to push back against President-elect Joe Biden’s campaign promise to halt leasing on public lands as part of a sweeping plan to tackle climate change. “The economic predictions are devastating, to be blunt, to Wyoming,” Governor Mark Gordon said during a virtual press conference to unveil the study, which was conducted by University of Wyoming Professor Tim Considine. The policy would be most detrimental to Wyoming and New Mexico, the report said, where most drilling activity occurs on federal lands. Without new leasing, states would lose the opportunity to generate revenues from new wells on those lands. As a result, those states are projected to lose $304 million and $946 million a year in tax revenue, respectively, through 2025. Annual losses in revenue and investment are projected to increase through 2040 as the oil and gas industry becomes more productive and prices increase, the report said. Between 2036 and 2040, the investment losses are expected to reach $164.5 billion. Biden will assume office on Jan. 20 and has promised aggressive policies to reduce climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions. His administration will mark an abrupt shift from that of President Donald Trump, which has sought to boost domestic oil and gas production over the last four years. During the press conference, Wyoming officials said it was likely that a leasing moratorium would simply shift production and related emissions to other regions, such as Mexico or Canada, rather than having the desired effect of helping to curb global emissions from drilling activity.
Oil's collapse could spark growth in Colorado natural gas - For the first time in years, market conditions for natural gas may be poised to spark growth in Colorado’s oil and gas industry. The price for natural gas reflected in contracts for winter deliveries rose steadily in recent weeks. An upswing is normal as cold weather sets in, but contract prices are up 20% from the same point in 2019, and forecasts increasingly predict natural gas' price rise to hold beyond winter. Domestic oil and natural gas production has been dropping due to the collapse in the price of crude oil, and reduced supply is bolstering the price of natural gas. Prices are settling into a $2.50 to $3 per million British thermal unit range at the regional pipeline hub in Western Colorado — high enough for Colorado’s natural gas producers to consider expansion. “That puts a dry gas producer in the money,” said John Harpole, founder and president of Littleton-based Mercator Energy, a natural gas services and brokerage company. “The dry gas producers finally have a price.” Sustained conditions for even modest expansion would be a welcome change for a part of the state’s oil and gas industry that’s been quiet. Western Colorado is home to the Piceance Basin, the second-largest reserve of natural gas in North America. There’s also abundant natural gas in the San Juan Basin in southwestern Colorado. Denver also is home to the headquarters of Antero Resources (NYSE: AR), the third-largest U.S. natural gas producer, which operates in the Utica and Marcellus shale formations in eastern Ohio, western Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia. It primarily supplies the Northeast with natural gas, and exports liquified natural gas east to Europe. Crude oil’s collapse this spring has set the table for natural gas’ renaissance. Shale oil wells also produce natural gas, though the gas is treated by most companies as a byproduct of the more lucrative oil. The crash in crude prices this spring led to a 73% decline in the number of rigs drilling wells in U.S. oil and gas fields, a drop of 461 rigs since early March. The decline in drilling for oil is has cut associated natural gas production from domestic shale basins by 9% since March 6, Antero Resources' analysis shows. The output will remain down through 2021, the company predicts, while U.S. demand for natural gas is unchanged, and exports to Mexico and Europe are expected to rise.
Colorado's Boulder County Revamping Oil, Gas Rules, but Energy Industry Questioning Authority - Colorado’s energy industry has come out swinging against Boulder County’s attempt to impose more stringent oversight of oil and gas well operations. Operators working in unincorporated areas of Boulder County would be required to ensure well pad setbacks are at least 2,000 feet and generally 2,500 feet near homes, schools and licensed child care centers. The setbacks also would be required in light industrial, commercial, business and transitional zones. The three-member Board of County Commissioners unanimously approved the fourth draft last week to revise Article 12 of the Land Use Code. The revisions are “are the strongest rules in the state and will be a model for others,” said Commissioner Matt Jones. Listen to the most-recent episode of our podcast NGI’s Hub and Flow via: A review of the three-year-old land use regulations had begun in March, but Covid-19 stalled hearings. Also, the revisions are tied to state oversight, and the county commissioners wanted to wait for the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) to complete extensive rulemakings required by Senate Bill 19-181. Among other things, the COGCC last month granted additional authority to local governments to regulate the impacts of oil and gas development. The updated regulations would “provide for close scrutiny of all proposed oil and gas development and multiple opportunities for public input prior to any decision being made,” the county commission noted. “For any new oil and gas development applications, these regulations will allow staff, the Parks & Open Space Advisory Committee, the Planning Commission, and the Board of County Commissioners to consider site-specific circumstances and possible measures to avoid, minimize and mitigate adverse impacts in determining whether to approve or deny a proposal.” The proposed rules also “will help to ensure careful monitoring and enforcement over oil and gas operations,” including existing facilities. While the regulations are under review, the county is continuing a moratorium on new oil and gas development and seismic testing to the end of the year “so that any new applications to drill can be reviewed under the most protective, updated regulations that are ultimately adopted.” Colorado energy industry groups blasted the county revisions as unnecessary. Colorado Oil & Gas Association CEO Dan Haley told NGI’s Shale Daily that the state’s “communities can’t ban oil and natural gas development — either through outright bans or through regulations that make it impossible to access a mineral owner’s private property and investment. “
Line 3 construction barrels ahead, despite efforts to block it | MPR News - In northern Minnesota’s Aitkin County, just north of the tiny town of Palisade, construction workers are clear-cutting a wide path through the forest near the Mississippi River, heavy equipment rumbling, to make way for the new Line 3 oil pipeline replacement project. And Tania Aubid, a member of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, is there to try to stop them."They want to ship the tar sands, toxic oil. … And when that pipeline breaches, it's going to go into the waterways here," she said.Aubid has come to this place every day for more than a week, part of a group of people who call themselves water protectors — there to speak out against the pipeline and, in some cases, put their bodies in the way of construction.Tania Aubid of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe is among the “water protectors” who have demonstrated at a construction site in Aitkin County where the Line 3 oil pipeline is slated to cross the Mississippi River.Also out there every day: Law enforcement, including Aitkin County Sheriff Dan Guida."You're angry at me because you're mad at them,” Guida told Aubid last week, as he gestured toward the pipeline workers.“These guys are raping, murdering and killing Mother Earth,” Aubid shouted. “You're standing here and not doing anything about it!”Guida told Aubid he understood she’s fighting the pipeline for her grandkids. “We talked about that,” he said. “You're trying to keep their land safe. You're trying to keep their water clean. I understand that. But there is a law that has to be followed.”Construction has ramped up quickly on Line 3 since Enbridge Energy received its final state and federal permits late last month — and so have the protests of activists determined to stop work on the contentious project, at least until challenges can be heard in court. Guida says he respects the "energy" that both sides bring to this divisive project. Demonstrators have set up a gathering space alongside the Great River Road, just a few feet from the pipeline corridor."We want the people here to be safe. We want the people to be heard, we want to support their First Amendment [rights], we want to support their freedom of speech, we want to support all that,” he emphasized.Two people even camped high up in trees along the pipeline corridor for more than a week to try to block work on the project.The scene remained fairly low-key until early Monday afternoon, when several people were arrested, including Liam Delmain, the last person remaining in the trees, who was removed with the aid of a bucket truck. Dawn Goodwin, a member of the White Earth Nation and a leader in the fight against Line 3, witnessed the arrests, but said they left her undeterred. "It just gives me more energy and drive to continue on and do all that I can do to stop this horrible idea," she said.
Indigenous Groups Push Insurers to Abandon Fossil Fuel Projects --AS OIL AND gas projects expand across the United States and Canada, often imperiling Indigenous land without ever obtaining consent, land defenders are increasingly pressuring the financiers of fossil fuel infrastructure — banks, insurance companies, and asset managers — to respect their sovereign land right. Amplifying the calls of this grassroots movement, the largest organization representing American Indians and Alaskan Natives passed a historic resolution last month calling on “private insurance companies to end their underwriting of the expansion of tar sands oil, Arctic oil and gas, and LNG export terminals.”The resolution, put forward by the National Congress of American Indians, or NCAI, also asks insurance companies to adopt policies on “free, prior, and informed consent.” This principle, enshrined in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, is “really just a fancy way of saying that any corporation, any bank, any agency that wants to engage in a project that impacts Indigenous lands and treaty lands must get consent from that particular tribal nation or Indigenous community,” said Matt Remle, who is Lakota and the primary author of the resolution. “And if the community says no, that project doesn’t happen.”Remle is also the co-founder of Mazaska Talks, an Indigenous-led organization focused on campaigns to divest from projects that violate human rights and treaty rights abuses, which came out of an effort that began about five years ago to defund the Dakota Access pipeline. This movement pushed the city of Seattle to divest $3 billion from Wells Fargo in 2017, one of the main backers of the pipeline, and sparked similar campaigns throughout the country. More recently, every major bank has agreed to not fund drilling in the Arctic after facing pressure from Stop the Money Pipeline, a coalition of over 130 organizations which includes Mazaska Talks. Most Wall Street banks at least publicly acknowledge free, prior, and informed consent while still financing projects, like the tar sands pipelines, that face Indigenous-led opposition. Yet no major U.S. insurance companies, the biggest insurers of oil and gas projects across the globe, have released publicly facing statements about Indigenous rights, let alone the principle of free, prior, and informed consent, according to Elana Sulakshana, energy finance campaigner at Rainforest Action Network. This is, in part, why there has recently been more intense scrutiny of insurance companies’ enablement of fossil fuel projects on Indigenous land.
Bakken Oil Output Flat in October, but Natural Gas Up 2% from September - Oil production in the Bakken Shale during October remained flat month/month at 1.22 million b/d while natural gas output increased by 2% to 89 Bcf, the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) reported Monday. Oil production levels are not likely to grow until 2022, DMR director Lynn Helms said during a monthly webinar. “The resurgence we saw in July through September is pretty much done, and essentially all of the shut-in production has been put back online,” he said. Oil output was slightly above the state’s revised projection level of 1.2 million b/d. “Gas grew at the same time, which is sort of the history of the Bakken/Three Forks reservoirs, and we’re starting the phase where we see enough reservoir depletion and new wells are coming on with higher gas-oil ratios.” Total October oil production was 37.9 million bbl (1.22 million b/d), compared to 36.6 million bbl (1.22 million b/d) in September. Gas output reached 89 Bcf (2.87 Bcf/d) from 84.4 Bcf (2.81 Bcf/d). Gas capture was 93% in September and October, with the remaining 7% of output flared. “Industry now has the infrastructure in place, so capture stayed the same with a slight decrease in volumes/day” at 13 MMcf/d,” Helms said, “so we didn’t lose any ground on gas capture.” Well permitting, however, is “up and down and all over the place,” depending on the price of oil, which he said needs to be at least $55/bbl for significant increases in rigs and well counts.
Bakken Natural Gas Capture in North Dakota Said Improved from 2019, Stable Until 2025 - North Dakota is this year better equipped to capture vented and flared natural gas from the Bakken Shale than in 2019, and processing capacity is said to now be adequate for the next five years. north dakpta gas North Dakota Pipeline Authority director Justin Kringstad discussed the outlook during an interview with NGI’s Shale Daily. “The gas capture landscape has improved dramatically from 2019,” he said. “North Dakota’s gas production exceeded gas processing capacity for much of 2019, but during the second half of that year, the gas processing industry added 700 MMcf/d of new processing capacity to the region.” Overall processing capacity in the Bakken should remain stable through 2025, Kringstad said. “When factoring in additional planned processing capacity expected to come online in 2021-2022, I forecast plant capacity to be adequate until the 2024-2025 timeframe.” The U.S. Energy Information Administration recently reported that North Dakota and Texas led the nation last year in gas venting and flaring. Bakken gas production last year rose to 290 MMcf/d from 200 MMcf/d in 2010, according to federal statistics. “We have prior history to tell us that gas plant capacity needs in North Dakota cannot be viewed in a 1:1 ratio between field production and plant capacity,” Kringstad said. “Today’s current gas processing capacity in North Dakota is expected to be adequate for one to three years before additional capacity would be required.” Long-term projections of takeaway capacity are also enough to keep up with Bakken oil production, which is forecast to reach 1.7-1.8 million b/d by the late 2020s.
North Dakota Examining Potential for Bakken Natural Gas, Liquids Storage - North Dakota’s Industrial Commission (IC) has asked the state legislature to authorize pursuing options to add oil and natural gas storage for the Bakken Shale. The governor-led commission “pre-filed a bill for next year’s legislature to take on permitting of oil, gas and natural gas liquids storage,” said Department of Mineral Resources director Lynn Helms. “Those are critical infrastructure pieces.”To convert part of an oilfield for storage would require approval by the same percentage of surface landowners (55%) as required in field unitization, Helms said. All of the landowners would have to be “equitably compensated” by the storage operators. When at least 55% of the landowners approve pore leasing space for gas storage or a salt cavern for natural gas liquids (NGL), the IC could create a unit to pull all of the space together. There is a legislative vehicle “to move forward and a report is due from the Energy and Environmental Research Center at the University of North Dakota when lawmakers convene next year,” Helms said. A second report on salt cavern storage is to be released to the legislature about the same time.Early last year, the EERC concluded that if certain issues were resolved, injecting the gas produced with the Bakken oil into underground formations and later withdrawing it could allow for more oil production and help meetstate-mandated gas capture goals.Helms said the best potential locations for salt cavern storage locations are between Williston, in the far northwest corner of the state, and Minot in the north-central area. It would need to be along railroad, highway and pipeline routes within proximity of a large workforce.“All of that exists north of Lake Sakakawea and between the two cities,” he said. Caverns are typically used for storing NGLs for petrochemicals before they are processed and shipped to market. “Salt caverns worldwide are the way to store ethane; it looks like from some very preliminary work that it is feasible and we have the geology to support it.”Currently, North Dakota has no underground storage for oil, NGLs or produced associated gas. However, in the Montana portion of the Williston Basin is the largest underground gas storage facility in North America at 164 Bcf capacity, the Baker Storage Field.“At his time, there are no plans for residue gas storage in North Dakota,” said North Dakota’s Justin Kringstad, director of the Pipeline Authority. “The Baker storage is used by both Canadian and Williston Basin shippers.” Kringstad said he was not aware of any plans to expand Baker, which has ample capacity.
Oil companies turn to rapid virus testing to keep crews in field - Oil companies are increasingly relying on rapid tests to determine if any of their workers in the Bakken have contracted the coronavirus. “All 14 of our drilling rigs are using rapid testing for everybody who visits the rig site as well as for the crews coming on and off,” State Mineral Resources Director Lynn Helms said Monday at his monthly briefing on oil production. “The industry’s been buying rapid tests like crazy.” Oil companies have been purchasing the tests, but the industry is hopeful it can use some of the state government’s stash, said Ron Ness, president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council. State officials began a more concentrated effort last month to use up 150,000 tests North Dakota received from the federal government. Some of the tests were slated to go to first responders, health care workers, long-term care facilities, schools and Native American tribes. The Abbott BinaxNOW tests do not require lab processing and return results within 15 minutes. The North Dakota Department of Emergency Services and the Greater North Dakota Chamber are surveying large employers to see if they would be good fits for the state's tests, Ness said. He added that he’s hopeful smaller companies in the Bakken can make use of those tests too. The seven crews completing hydraulic fracturing work in the Bakken are using rapid tests, as well as workers at a gas plant construction site in Williams County, Helms said.
North Dakota oil production not likely to improve for months - North Dakota's oil production was essentially flat in October, and it's not likely to appreciably improve until well into next year or even 2022, the state's mineral resources director said. North Dakota, the nation's second-largest oil-producing state after Texas, pumped 1.22 million barrels of crude per day in October, down 236 barrels from the previous month, the state said Monday. Natural gas production, however, rose 2% from September to October. After the coronavirus pandemic decimated global oil demand, North Dakota's crude production fell to a seven-year low in May of only of 858,400 barrels per day. Output then rallied over the summer as oil prices recovered a bit and shut-in wells were reopened. However, "that surge in July, August and September is over," Lynn Helms, head of the North Dakota Mineral Resources Department, told reporters. The benchmark U.S. crude oil price — West Texas Intermediate (WTI) — has climbed over the past month from $41 to $47 per barrel, about where it was in early March. But Helms said WTI needs to get to at least $55 a barrel before oil operators in North Dakota start looking to drill new wells. Such new business is needed to boost total state oil output as production from existing wells naturally declines. "As we go into next year, I don't think it looks promising in terms of growth," he said. The pandemic's effects on demand and depression of crude prices might not correct itself until late 2021 or 2022. Helms also noted that the oil industry is increasingly challenged by "ESG" — environmental, social, and corporate governance — investors. ESG investors' influence is growing, Helms said. And they aren't partial to the carbon-intensive oil industry. As for 2020, "all and all, it was a terrible year for the industry," Helms said. Still, during his 40 years in the state's oil patch, he said two other oil busts — one in 1985 and 1986, the other in 1999 and 2000 — were worse.
U.S. shale should be worried about 'very aggressive' policies from Washington: Energy secretary - American shale producers are likely being kept up at night over what could be in store for their industry over the next four years, if pledges made by some lawmakers in Congress and President-elect Joe Biden are anything to go by. U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette seems to think so. Asked by CNBC's Hadley Gamble whether shale producers, whose drilling boom catapulted America to the position of the world's largest oil producer in 2018, should be worried about the incoming administration, Brouillette replied, "Of course." "I think they should be, frankly, because there are some in Congress who are going to drive a climate policy that's going to be very aggressive. So there may be some concern on the part of those folks, I know the ESG (Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance) movement is very strong." "The investment money may become a bit more difficult to get," he added. "Those are all policies where we'll have to wait and see what happens with this new Congress." A derrick man secures a length of drill pipe during drilling on a natural gas drill rig near Montrose, Pennsylvania, U.S., on Monday, April 5, 2010. Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images The ESG movement has picked up pace in recent years, with some major investors — notably BlackRock, the largest asset manager in the world — "making sustainability integral to portfolio construction," according to its CEO Larry Fink. Fink wrote this year that "climate risk is investment risk," and that it's brought the world to "the edge of a fundamental reshaping of finance." But climate action on a federal government level may be what scares shale producers the most. Biden has pledged to pursue "aggressive emissions reductions," focusing on a greener agenda that aims to reduce fossil fuel dependence in the fight against climate change, which climate scientists almost universally agree is a grave threat to the planet. A 2018 report by scientists in President Donald Trump's own administration warned that climate change will cost the U.S. hundreds of billions of dollars yearly and harm human health. Trump, who has consistently supported the fossil fuel industry in favor of American energy independence, replied by saying, "I don't believe it." The Democratic former vice president doesn't plan to outright ban fracking, the fossil fuel extraction process by which shale gas is produced, or oil and natural gas production generally, which employed nearly 1 million American workers in 2019, according to official U.S. figures. But he aims to significantly stifle it with regulation, many analysts say. Biden has pledged to protect national parklands and wildlife refuges, where Trump allowed or tried to allow drilling to take place, and says he will be "banning new oil and gas leasing on public lands and waters," according to his campaign website. He also promised to enact punishments for major corporate polluters, proposing fines and even jail time, and warned that he'd force "polluters to bear the full cost of the carbon pollution they are emitting." And when asked about his approach to the industry in a pre-election presidential debate with Trump, Biden said, "I would transition away from the oil industry, yes. The oil industry pollutes significantly. It has to be replaced by renewable energy over time." He later backtracked somewhat, telling reporters, "We're not getting rid of fossil fuels. We're getting rid of the subsidies for fossil fuels, but we're not getting rid of fossil fuels for a long time." .
SEC approves anti-corruption disclosure after lengthy campaign by oil firms - — The Securities and Exchange Commission voted Wednesday to implement a new regulation requiring American oil and mining companies to report on payments to foreign governments, after a decade-long lobbying campaign by oil companies to weaken transparency efforts.Under the new regulation, U.S.-based companies would be required to report overall payments to governments but not force them to do so on a project-by-project basis, as required in the European Union and Canada. That has drawn protest from anti-corruption groups, who say the rule will offer a general sense of the money flowing into government coffers, but not the details of whether revenues are being skimmed by corrupt officials or the country is getting its fair share for extracted oil and gas.The rule stems from the bipartisan Cardin-Lugar Anti-Corruption Provision passed in 2010 as part of Dodd-Frank, Congress’s effort to regulate Wall Street and limit the amount of risk banks could assume after the 2008 financial crisis.But in the years after Republican opposition grew amid persistent lobbying and a lawsuit by the oil and gas industry, claiming it would be put at a disadvantage in bidding for overseas projects where transparency might be considered a detriment.In 2017 Republicans and President Donald Trump passed new legislation ordering the SEC not to require as much detail in creating anti-corruption rule-making.Last year under SEC Chairman Jay Clayton, the SEC released a revised rule that drew protest from Democrats and cheers from the oil sector. "We appreciate the Commission’s work on this rule and the effort to balance transparency with the its overall mission to protect investors, competition and the efficiency of capital markets,” Stephen Comstock, a vice president at the American Petroleum Institute, said in a statement Wednesday. "It will set the world back years in the effort to fight corruption in the oil and mining industries," said Kathleen Brophy, U.S. director of the nonprofit Publish What You Pay. "It's part of a slew of other midnight rules the Trump administration is trying to push through."
John Day Dam oil leak spills into Columbia River - Maintenance technicians at John Day Dam estimated 63 gallons of oil spilled into the Columbia River from a pinhole leak in a turbine guide bearing chiller discovered on Monday, Dec. 7. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District (Corps) discovered the leak near the downstream side of the dam. Corps staff isolated the system, began identifying the exact number of gallons lost and started fixing the issue. The Corps is dedicated to rapid spill responses. “Daily, weekly and monthly inspections are a critical way for us to swiftly identify and respond to oil spills,” said Dwane Watsek, Operations Division chief. “The team’s attention to detail during one of these inspections led to the discovery of the pinhole leak. The unit will remain out of service and isolated from the river until technicians assess and repair it.” Corps officials notified partner agencies, including National Response Center, Oregon and Washington emergency management offices and the Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commission. This is the second spill at Corps dams on the Columbia River this month. The Dalles Dam spilled 45 gallons of oil into the river, Dec. 3. Corps technicians originally estimated the impacted turbine could have lost up to 200 gallons; however, they confirmed the lesser amount Dec. 11.
Oil continues to spill from sunken freighter off Vancouver Island; wildlife affected -- Federal officials say emergency response crews will work through the holidays to try to contain an oil spill from a historic shipwreck off the west coast of Vancouver Island. The coast guard says it is still working to confirm just how much fuel oil was on board the Holland America freighter when it ran aground in Nootka Sound and sank in January 1968. The 150-metre MV Schiedyk was carrying thousands of tonnes of wood pulp and barley bound for Portland, Ore. when it went down near Bligh Island. All 34 sailors aboard the ship survived the wreck. Related Stories •'A very serious situation': Coast guard scrambles to clean spill from sunken freighter Mariners and aviators in the remote area say small slicks of bubbling oil have long been apparent on the water’s surface, but last month those trickles turned into a plume of oil stretching upwards of two kilometres. The coast guard says it first received reports of an oil sheen near the island in September but investigators couldn’t locate its source until early this month. On Tuesday, officials said there are approximately 30 to 50 litres of oil on the water’s surface at any given time. Six pollution response vessels and 40 personnel are currently on scene, with two more expected to arrive over the coming weeks. Crews have deployed two oil skimmers and nearly 5,000 metres of containment booms around the site to contain what DFO officials say is a “continuous but slow discharge of oil pollution.” More than 40 additional pollution response workers from federal, provincial and local governments are managing the spill response on shore. Federal officials said Tuesday they don’t know how much oil has been collected to date. Samples of the oil have been sent to a lab for identification and officials say both bunker fuel and diesel were on board when the vessel sank. “Photo and video documentation from the ROV (remotely operated underwater vehicle) shows that the ship sustained significant damage when it sank in 1968,” said wreck co-ordination spokesperson Kiri Westnedge. “The upwell of oil is coming from several locations in the vessel.” Westnedge says a dead sea otter was found near the spill site and a necropsy will determine whether it died due to exposure to the oil. Another sea otter was found alive but covered in oil. Crews were attempting to capture the otter Tuesday to transport it to the Vancouver Aquarium’s Marine Mammal Rescue Centre. A blue heron was also found coated in oil.
Snare Falls Hydro unit removed from service after potential oil spill spotted - The Snare Falls Hydro Unit was removed from service on Dec. 10, according to a news release issued by the Northwest Territories Power Corporation (NTPC) Friday. The release states that a “potential spill” was spotted in the water near Snare Falls as staff spotted an oil sheen during testing of the unit. A report was called into the NWT Oil Spill Line on the same day. “A diesel unit at the Jackfish Generating Plant will provide backup power while Snare Falls is offline, if required,” states the release. Noel Voykin, president and CEO at NTPC, provided a statement saying that the corporation is prioritizing environmental safety and contending with maturing equipment as it attempts to bring the unit back online. “NTPC took a proactive approach to protecting the environment when it began work at Snare Falls,” Voykin stated. “We expect to face ongoing challenges with maintenance of aging hydro infrastructure until our hydro fleet can be refurbished. Friday’s release states that NTPC became aware that the Snare Falls unit was consuming a higher volume of oil than normal last week. At the time, there was no evidence that the oil was being released to the environment. As a precautionary measure, booms were put in place several weeks ago when maintenance work began to ensure that any leaks are contained. The cause of the spill is still under investigation.Last May, the Snare Falls unit was shut down for about three weeks in May 2020 as the result of a similar situation. “The timetable for completion of the investigation and maintenance work at Snare Falls are unknown,” states the release. The costs are also unknown.
Alaska environmental regulator reports 190-barrel oil spill at Hilcorp site on Cook Inlet - An oil spill at a Hilcorp Alaska facility on the west side of Cook Inlet was discovered Tuesday afternoon, a state environmental regulator said Wednesday. The state reported that 190 barrels leaked from containment layers. As of Wednesday afternoon, the spill was contained to the facility and had not reached Cook Inlet, according to an Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation report. The spill was discovered by an operator at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Trading Bay Production Facility, about 20 miles northwest of Kenai, and was reported two hours later, according to DEC. “It’s a large quantity of oil, however, the weather is working for us right now,” said Jade Gamble, a unit manager for DEC’s Prevention, Preparedness and Response Program. “The ground is frozen so it’s not able to seep through the ground as easily as it would in the summertime.” The spill is a mixture of 80% crude oil and 20% water, called “slop oil,” which can’t be sold, according to the report. On Tuesday, 15 barrels of oil were recovered from the spill. The spill happened during a transfer of oil from one tank to another, the state report said. An operator noticed that one tank wasn’t filling proportionately to how much oil was leaving the original tank. “After visual inspection, the operator observed oil under and around the edges of the secondary containment liner,” the state said. Gamble said the oil is on the ground and not being held by any other containment barrier, but is in the facility and is at this point staying put. She said the groundwater is more than 100 feet underground and currently believed to be safe from the spill. Hilcorp in a statement confirmed details of the state’s account of the spill. Spokesman Luke Miller in an email said the spill was “immediately isolated” and cleanup is underway. Gamble said the priority now is making sure the spill doesn’t reach Cook Inlet. She said the cause is still under investigation. In a report published online, the state cited “a leak in an underground line in the slop oil processing system.” The facility is near Trading Bay State Game Refuge and Redoubt Bay Critical Habitat Area, which contain important bird habitat, particularly in the summer, according to the state report. During winter, many species have migrated from the area, but it is home to rock sandpiper, which are known to overwinter there and might be in the area, the report states. Other potential overwintering wildlife include some species of waterfowl, seabirds, shorebirds, raptors and moose.
Groups to court: Stop 'headlong rush' to drill in ANWR -- Wednesday, December 16, 2020 -- A coalition of environmental and Indigenous groups last night asked a federal court to put an immediate halt to the Trump administration's plans to open the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas development.
ECA LNG Export License Extended As Panama Canal Bottleneck Tightens - The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has extended through 2050 the long-term liquefied natural gas (LNG) export license of the Energía Costa Azul (ECA) facility that was sanctioned for the west coast of Mexico last month. ECA was one of seven LNG export projects for which DOE granted an extension following a policy change implemented by the Trump administration earlier this year. In addition to ECA, DOE extended export terms for the Golden Pass facility under construction in Sabine Pass, TX, as well as the Texas LNG project proposed for Brownsville, TX, the proposed Magnolia and Driftwood LNG terminals in Louisiana, and the Delfin floating LNG project offshore Louisiana. ECA has DOE authorization to import and liquefy U.S.-sourced natural gas for export from Mexico. Equity stakes of 41.7% each are held in the project by Sempra LNG and Infraestructura Energética Nova (IEnova), while offtaker Total SE recently acquired the remaining 16.6%.The ECA project, one of multiple liquefaction terminals envisaged for Mexico’s west coast, would allow U.S. gas exports to bypass the Panama Canal and reach Pacific demand markets faster and more cheaply. The project’s geographic advantages explain why it was sanctioned this year in spite of the havoc wreaked by Covid-19 on the global LNG market, RBN Energy LLC analyst Jason Ferguson said in a blog post last week. He noted, however, that getting gas into the area “can sometimes be tricky,” citing that gas prices in the U.S. Desert Southwest and SoCalGas border regions have traded at premiums of about $0.20/MMBtu to the Louisiana and Texas Gulf Coast markets this year. Mexico Pacific Limited LLC’s (MPL) CEO Doug Shanda told NGI recently that commercial momentum for MPL’s LNG export project in Mexico’s Sonora state is building, citing that, “Asian countries don’t have indigenous resources and they’re really concerned about energy security.” LNG vessels have been waiting longer to pass through the Panama Canal in recent weeks, tightening an already stretched shipping market and creating logistical issues for U.S. LNG exports at a time when global gas prices are moving higher.
New Five-Year Plan for Mexico E&P Potential Sign of Future Bid Round Reactivation - The release of a new five-year plan by Mexican Energy Ministry Sener could be a sign that future exploration and production (E&P) bid rounds for private sector operators are in the offing. That’s according to analysis done by Mexican consultancy Talanza. E&P bid rounds have been frozen since President Andrés Manuel López Obrador came to power in late 2018, and this would be a sharp departure from current government policy. On October 28, Sener published the second five-year plan for E&P bidding processes as required by the Hydrocarbons Law. The first was published in 2015 with four subsequent annual updates from 2016 to 2019, but this is the first new plan published during the administration of López Obrador. “At the beginning of his administration, president López Obrador announced the suspension of future bidding rounds and the publication of this document raises suspicions about a possible policy change,” analysts Marco Cota and Ricardo Alcudia said. “However,” he warned, “this publication could be the outcome of a legal requirement.” The main differences between the new plan and the previous edition are the absence of unconventional areas and the increase in block size in the offshore. Learn More - LNG Insight “This five-year plan brings new hopes about reactivating bidding rounds in the future, based on the fact that Sener actually worked on a new proposal increasing block size and resources per block for offshore areas,” the analysts said. The previous plan included 187 blocks for unconventional areas covering 53,969 square km (20,838 square miles). López Obrador and Energy Minister Rocío Nahle have been adamant that hydraulic fracturing (fracking) would not be permitted during this 2018-2024 presidential term, even as regulation for the technique remains in place. The new five-year plan formally recognizes that all rounds are suspended, and “relaunching them is conditioned to private operators’ cooperation for achieving national energy objectives,” the Talanza analysts said. In other words, private sector operators need to show results from the contracts awarded during the previous administration. Mexico’s private sector organization Asociación Mexicana de Empresas de Hidrocarburos (Amexhi) is upbeat about the upstream performance of bid round winners. They said recently that E&P contracts awarded through Mexico’s 2013-2014 energy reform remain on track to reach targets. The group is aiming for natural gas production of 355 MMcf/d and oil output of 280,000 b/d by 2024 from the contracts, which were awarded through bid rounds, farmout tenders and the migration of oilfield service service contracts to E&P contracts between 2015 and 2018. “Practically all the oil companies in the world are cutting their investments,” the group said in an update published November 30. “Nonetheless, the commitment to Mexico is maintained.” The group said it expects private oil production to close 2020 at 57,000 b/d, up 20% from full-year output in 2020.
Venezuela's PDVSA starts oil transfer from offshore facility to barge, sources say - (Reuters) - Venezuelan state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela PDVSA.UL has begun transferring crude off of an offshore oil facility where governments in two neighboring countries have voiced concerns about a potential spill, two people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. The company this week began the first of several transfers from the Nabarima floating storage and offloading facility (FSO), anchored in the Corocoro oilfield off Venezuela's eastern coast, onto the Inmaculada barge, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The Inmaculada will ferry the crude onto PDVSA's Icaro tanker, a process expected to take weeks, the people said. Refinitiv Eikon tracking data show the Icaro navigated toward the Nabarima on Tuesday morning and anchored nearby in the Gulf of Paria. PDVSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company has previously dismissed concerns by environmental groups and the governments of neighboring Trinidad and Tobago and Brazil that the facility could be prone to a spill. The Nabarima is holding some 1.3 million barrels of crude, and images of the facility listing in September and October raised alarms about a potential spill. PDVSA corrected its tilt and said the vessel, part of the Petrosucre joint venture with Italy's ENI SpA ENI.MI was in satisfactory condition. PDVSA has suffered for years through cash flow shortages during an economic crisis that has led OPEC-member Venezuela to neglect maintenance of infrastructure. More recently, U.S. sanctions on the company aimed to oust Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro have hindered operations.
Oil refinery fined over spill, penguins get off scot-free - An oil refinery business has been fined for leaking thousands of litres of transformer oil into Wellington’s Seaview Marina. No penguins were harmed by the toxic oil, but only by the sheer chance that their breeding season was over. eNZoil (NZ) Ltd was convicted and fined $90,000 for discharging between 5000 and 6000 litres of refined transformer oil from their operation into the stormwater network and then Seaview Marina, on March 17 - 18 last year. Greater Wellington Regional Council laid charges against the company, which takes waste transformer oil and refines it into a usable product. In passing sentence, Judge Dwyer said the discharge was a result of gross negligence and significant failures. The spill was the result of a series of failures, including not closing a valve on a bund which should have contained any spill. The oil, despite being refined, is still toxic to sea life..”Given the proximity to the marina and the direct connection to the stormwater system, they should have been aware of the risks; processes should have be undertaken with the highest degree of care.” However, he acknowledged that eNZOil was an environmental and sustainability focused organisation, taking a waste product and making it reusable. eNZoil assisted with clean-up, which involved regional council harbours and environmental protection staff, Hutt City council officers, and marina staff. A spokesperson said the company immediately accepted responsibility. “We were implementing equipment and process changes which we believe would have prevented the event, but regrettably these were not in place at the time.” Ongoing improvements to their system would ensure no more spills. “eNZoil is a small business committed to removing a pollutant from the environment not adding one to it.”
Reliance, BP Ramp Up First of Three Massive Natural Gas Fields Offshore India - BP plc and Reliance Industries Ltd. have ramped up production from the first of a trio of ultra-deepwater natural gas fields offshore India that could meet the country’s rapidly expanding energy needs and reduce the need for imports. The R Cluster project in Block KG D6 is about 60 kilometers (37 miles) off the east coast of India. Satellites Cluster is set to come onstream in 2021, followed by the MJ project in 2022. Peak gas production from the three fields is forecast to be around 1 Bcf/d, or 30 million standard cubic meters/d (MMcm/d) by 2023. The three fields together could meet 15% of India’s gas demand by 2023 and account for 25% of total domestic production, sharply reducing the need for liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports. “This start-up is another example of the possibility of our partnership with Reliance, bringing the best of both companies to help meet India’s rapidly expanding energy needs,” BP Group CEO Bernard Looney said. “Growing India’s own production of cleaner-burning gas to meet a significant portion of its energy demand, these three new KG D6 projects will support the country’s drive to shape and improve its future energy mix.” The field is expected to reach plateau gas production of nearly 13 MMcm/d) in the coming year. It would produce from a subsea production system tied back to the existing KG D6 Control & Riser Platform (CRP) via a subsea pipeline. Reliance operates the field with a 66% stake; BP holds the minority interest. The partnership with BP “combines our expertise in commissioning gas projects expeditiously, under some of the most challenging geographical and weather conditions,” India’s growing energy needs “require rapid scaling across a wide spectrum of energy sources and technological solutions,” BP noted. India is the world’s third largest primary energy consumer today, according to BP’s Energy Outlook. The country’s primary consumption is set to more than double by 2050. “However, primary energy consumption per capita is significantly lower than most countries, indicating significant inequities in energy consumption,” BP noted. “Gas consumption is 60 billion cubic meters/d (165 MMcm/d), and more than 50% is imported.”
Japan considers ¥30 billion loan to Mauritius after oil spill - Japan is considering offering ¥30 billion ($289 million) in loans to Mauritius following a major oil spill in July off its coast caused by a Japanese freighter, Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said Sunday during a visit to the Indian Ocean country. Speaking after talks with Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth and Foreign Minister Nandcoomar Bodha, Motegi said Japan will also start delivering technical support to restore the Mauritian environment and local fisheries industry from next month. Motegi said Japan will "positively consider" meeting Mauritius' request for yen loans to help it recover from the spill and develop its economy, which has also been hit by the novel coronavirus pandemic. "Japan hopes to implement concrete cooperative measures thoroughly at an unprecedented speed and size," Motegi told reporters online from Mauritius, after he inspected a coastal area damaged by the oil spill. Tokyo is working to compile an aid package for Port Louis after Motegi promised Jugnauth over the phone in September to provide long-term assistance, including support for the local fisheries industry and for restoring damaged mangroves. Japan has since sent a team of experts to Mauritius to work out the package.
Japan operator says human error caused Mauritius oil spill - The Japanese operator of a bulk carrier that struck a coral reef and caused an extensive oil spill off the coast of Mauritius said Friday that the accident occurred after the ship shifted its course two miles (3.2 kilometres) closer to shore than planned so its crewmembers could get cellphone signals. Mitsui O.S.K. Lines said its investigation showed the accident was caused by human error, including inadequate nautical charts, navigation systems and risk awareness, and a lack of supervision and safety monitoring. The company said the tanker's nautical chart provided little information about depth and other necessary information. Crewmembers on duty also failed to conduct safety checks visually or by radar, it said. The captain and crewmembers were also using their cellphones while on duty, the company said. It said it will invest about 500 million yen ($4.8 million) to provide electronic nautical charts, training to strengthen safety culture and other systems to enhance safety. The environmental disaster began July 25 when the ship MV Wakashio strayed off course and struck a coral reef a mile (1.6 kilometres) offshore. After being pounded by heavy surf for nearly two weeks, the ship's hull cracked and on Aug. 6 began leaking fuel into a lagoon, polluting a protected wetlands area and a bird and wildlife sanctuary. The company apologized for the damage and in September offered 1 billion yen ($9 million) to fund environmental projects and support the local fishing community in Mauritius. More than 1,000 tons of oil spilled into the coastal waters. About 3,000 tons that remained on the ship was pumped into barges before the Wakashio broke in two several days later. Thousands of civilian volunteers worked for days to try to minimize damage from the oil spill, while environmental workers ferried baby tortoises and rare plants to shore and plucked trapped seabirds out of the goo.
Report indicts Shell employees for causing oil spills in Niger Delta -Employees of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) in Nigeria cause oil spills to enable them to make money from cleanups, a new report by Milieudefensie and Friends of the Earth Nigeria, verified by an independent journalist, has said. A statement issued by Head of Yenagoa Office of the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) in Bayelsa State, Alagoa Morris, revealed that Shell organises the oil spill cleanups in such a way that they generate income for the local population and that the oil giant was aware of the development, but was doing nothing about it. Milieudefensie said: “Shell employees are involved in the oil spills in Nigeria. This directly contradicts the picture that Shell paints, in which it places the responsibility for the spills on rebels and saboteurs. “Residents of Ikarama in the Niger Delta not only confirm that Shell employees hire residents to perpetrate spills, but also claim that they have approached everyone in the community. Most people are sensitive to the issue because their fields and fishponds are often too polluted by oil to earn a living.” A representative of the Ikarama community pointed out that “someone who is hungry is someone who easily consents.” “Shell employees, residents, and cleanup companies are working together. The employee points out where and when a spill occurs. Young people usually perpetrate spills. Then a Shell employee hires a cleanup company from among the perpetrator’s acquaintances and afterward, they divide the profit among themselves. At least 30 oil spills have been recorded in the Ikarama area in the past 10 years,” the statement added. The report described several key moments that prove that Shell was aware of the practices and, should, therefore, be Shell’s responsibility to protect the pipelines from the spills and also arrange for their cleanup.
IEA, OPEC Each Lower Estimates for Global Oil Demand, Citing Weak Transportation Fuel Consumption - Demand for transportation fuel remains weak amid a still-raging global pandemic, forcing downward revisions to oil consumption for 2020 and next year. The International Energy Agency (IEA) said Tuesday in its Oil Markets Report for December that it lowered its demand estimate for this year by 50,000 b/d and its projection for next year by 170,000 b/d. Citing pandemic-induced travel restrictions that continue to curb demand for jet fuel and gasoline in Europe and the United States, the Paris-based watchdog said 2020 oil demand would fall 8.8 million b/d when compared to 2019, to 91.2 million b/d, while 2021 consumption would increase by an estimated 5.7 million b/d. IEA researchers said coronavirus vaccines that hit the market this month – and more are expected early next year – provide upside to both economic growth and fuel demand in 2021, though the recovery is expected to prove gradual over the first half of the year. A full rebound is dependent on widespread inoculation bringing an end to the pandemic. It “will be several months before we reach a critical mass of vaccinated, economically active people and thus see an impact on oil demand,” IEA researchers said. “In the meantime, the end-of-year holiday season will soon be upon us with the risk of another surge in Covid-19 cases and the possibility of yet more confinement measures.” The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries this week also lowered its 2021 global oil demand forecast. In its Monthly Oil Market Reportreleased Monday, the cartel said it now expects consumption will rise by 5.9 million b/d to 95.89 million b/d in 2021. In November, it predicted demand would grow by 6.25 million b/d. Last month’s outlook reflected a 300,000 b/d drop from a previous forecast. OPEC expects oil demand to decline by 9.77 million b/d to 89.99 million b/d this year. It cited the festering impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on transportation fuel demand for the lowered 2021 outlook and the 2020 decline. The pandemic “and accompanying lockdown measures have had an unprecedented impact on world oil demand,” OPEC researchers said, “with the latest data pointing to a historic contraction” in 2020.“Uncertainties remain high,” they added, noting the likelihood of more virus outbreaks this winter and the unknown pace of vaccine rollouts, as well as the potential for long-term changes to consumer behaviors, “predominantly in the transportation sector.”
Oil prices steady after six weeks of gains, pressured by glut (Reuters) - Oil prices were little changed in choppy trade on Monday as persistent oversupply in the market largely offset hopes that a rollout of coronavirus vaccines will lift global fuel demand. Brent crude futures for February ended the session 32 cents, or 0.6%, higher at $50.29 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures for January settled up 42 cents, or 0.9%, at $46.99 a barrel. Prices slid more than 1% earlier in the session after OPEC said global oil demand would rebound more slowly in 2021 than previously thought because of the lingering impact of the coronavirus pandemic, hampering efforts by the group and its allies to support the market. Brent and WTI have rallied for six consecutive weeks, their longest stretch of weekly gains since June. “Price momentum has slowed appreciably during the past couple of weeks and while some fresh or unexpected bullish headlines may be required to advance the complex into new high territory, we will also note a market that appears to have developed immunity to bearish headlines that would normally be slapping the complex down,” Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch and Associates, said. Signs of rising supply have weighed on the market. Libyan oil production stood at 1.28 million barrels per day on Monday, a National Oil Corporation (NOC) source said, up from 1.25 million bpd in late November. In the United States, energy firms last week added the most oil and natural gas rigs in a week since January as producers continued to return to the well pad. Global onshore crude inventories in December are still well above 2019 and 2018 levels, market intelligence firm Kpler said, with the biggest onshore builds this year seen in China .
Oil prices rise to 9-month high on vaccine rollout, stimulus hopes - Oil prices gained on Monday amid hopes that a rollout of coronavirus vaccines will lift global fuel demand. Brent crude futures for February rose 32 cents, or 0.6%, to $50.29 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures for January were up 42 cents, or 0.9%, at $46.99 a barrel, its highest level in nine months. Brent and WTI have rallied for six consecutive weeks, their longest stretch of weekly gains since June. "Price momentum has slowed appreciably during the past couple of weeks and while some fresh or unexpected bullish headlines may be required to advance the complex into new high territory, we will also note a market that appears to have developed immunity to bearish headlines that would normally be slapping the complex down," Signs of rising supply have weighed on the market. Libyan oil production stood at 1.28 million barrels per day on Monday, a National Oil Corporation (NOC) source said, up from 1.25 million bpd in late November. In the United States, energy firms last week added the most oil and natural gas rigs in a week since January as producers continued to return to the wellpad. Global onshore crude inventories in December are still well above 2019 and 2018 levels, market intelligence firm Kpler said, with the biggest onshore builds this year seen in China . "Whilst the sharp jump of global stocks from the beginning of the Covid pandemic in spring to summer mirrored anemic fuels demand early this year, a still historic high volume of crude oil stocks indicates worldwide demand hasn't yet bounced back to pre-Covid levels," Major European countries continued in lockdown mode to curb the spread of COVID-19 which has reduced fuel demand. For example, Germany, the fourth largest economy in the world, plans to impose a stricter lockdown from Wednesday to battle the virus. In early trading, prices rose after a shipping firm said an oil tanker was hit in the Saudi port of Jeddah, which the energy ministry called a terrorist act. "Traders have for years now been used to tensions flaring in the region and when that happens, oil markets tick up," "(The blast) has caused concerns for stability in the major oil hub of Jeddah and for overall traffic security in the region."
Oil rises more than 1% to 9-month high as vaccine optimism offsets new lockdowns - Oil rose on Tuesday as optimism from the roll-out of coronavirus vaccines balanced out tighter lockdowns in Europe and forecasts of a slower demand recovery. The United States began vaccinating people on Monday as the country's COVID-19 death toll crossed the 300,000 mark. Britain and Canada have also begun to administer shots. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude settled up 63 cents, or 1.34%, at $47.62. Brent crude was up 41 cents, or 0.8% at $50.70 a barrel. Oil prices have recovered in the past few weeks, with Brent reaching $51.06 on Dec. 10, its highest since March, supported by hopes of a recovery in demand. Prices had dropped to historic lows in March as the pandemic took hold. "Brent is continuing to defy all the negative news," said Carsten Fritsch, an analyst at Commerzbank. "More and more countries in Europe and states in the U.S. are tightening the corona restrictions over Christmas and the new year, which is likely to weigh on demand." London stepped up pandemic restrictions requiring bars and restaurants to close, Italy is considering more stringent steps over Christmas and Germany is likely to be under lockdown until early 2021. Forecasters are also trimming demand numbers. The International Energy Agency on Tuesday said that any impact of the vaccines on demand is several months away. OPEC on Monday had said oil demand will rise more slowly than expected. "There is a growing agreement between forecasting agencies that the improvement in global oil demand might not start at the beginning of next year but in the second half," said Tamas Varga of oil broker PVM. The latest snapshots of U.S. oil supplies are expected to show a mixed picture, with gasoline and distillate stocks rising and crude inventories falling.
Oil prices slip on surprise gain in U.S. inventory, demand worries (Reuters) - Oil prices dropped on Wednesday on a surprise gain in crude oil inventories in the United States and as investors continued to worry about demand for fuel being squeezed amid tighter lockdowns in Europe to counter the coronavirus pandemic. Brent crude futures fell 8 cents, or 0.2%, to $50.68 a barrel at 0126 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 6 cents, or 0.1%, to $47.56 a barrel. “Crude prices are slightly softer after the API (American Petroleum Institute) inventory report posted a second consecutive build,” said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA. Crude inventories swelled by 2 million barrels in the week to Dec. 11 to about 495 million barrels, according to industry group API. Analysts had expected a draw of 1.9 million barrels, according to a Reuters poll. Official government data was scheduled for Wednesday. The rollout of vaccines this month to combat the coronavirus pandemic will not quickly reverse the destruction wrought on global oil demand, International Energy Agency (IEA) warned on Tuesday. The IEA revised down its estimates for oil demand this year by 50,000 barrels per day (bpd) and for next year by 170,000 bpd, citing scarce jet fuel use as fewer people travel by air. “On the demand side, the biggest near-term downside risk to oil demand expectations is the United States, predominately due to persistent weaknesses in U.S. gasoline demand, given the current trajectory of COVID-19 in the country,” analysts at FGE wrote in a note. Still, progress on vaccine rollouts continued on Tuesday after Moderna Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine appeared set for U.S. regulatory authorisation this week. The U.S. also expanded on Tuesday its rollout of the newly approved COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc and German partner BioNTech SE to hundreds of additional distribution centres on Tuesday, inoculating thousands more healthcare workers in a mass immunisation expected to reach the general public in the coming months.
Oil advances after larger-than-expected U.S. crude stockpile draw - Oil prices edged higher on Wednesday, buoyed by U.S. government data that showed crude stockpiles fell last week and by optimism about a coronavirus relief package in the United States. Brent crude futures rose 28 cents to $51.04 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures settled 20 cents, or 0.4%, higher at $47.82 per barrel. U.S. crude inventories fell by 3.1 million barrels in the week to Dec. 11, the Energy Information Administration said. Analysts had expected a 1.9-million-barrel drop, after stockpiles surged in last week's data. "We couldn't afford to have a build after last week," said Bob Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho. "A U.S. stimulus package seems on the way, which will also be supportive." U.S. congressional leaders said substantial progress has been made in the months-long standoff on coronavirus relief and a funding bill to avert a government shutdown. U.S. oil demand is down roughly 13% year-to-date due to the coronavirus pandemic, and Wednesday's figures on retail sales showed a second consecutive month of declining spending due to a resurgence in COVID-19 cases. Worldwide demand has been poor, with the most notable rebound coming in China. The International Energy Agency (IEA) warned on Tuesday that it will take some time to reverse the collapse in global oil demand during the pandemic. The IEA revised down its estimates for oil demand this year by 50,000 barrels per day (bpd) and for next year by 170,000 bpd, citing reduced jet fuel use as fewer people travel by air. In Europe, Germany entered a strict lockdown on Wednesday as the number of registered deaths from COVID-19 jumped by the highest daily increase yet.
Oil Prices Advance As US Inventories Decline -- Oil closed higher on a surprise decline in U.S. crude inventories, but gains were limited with increased gasoline and diesel supplies underscoring weaker fuel demand. Futures in New York rose for a third straight day on Wednesday after flipping between gains and losses during the session. A U.S. government report showed domestic crude supplies fell more than 3 million barrels last week. But the data showed fuel supplies rose and gasoline inventories are at the highest since August, highlighting the mixed picture within the petroleum complex. “The bounce-back in exports and significant decline in imports is driving the draw,” said Rob Thummel, a portfolio manager at Tortoise, a firm that manages roughly $8 billion in energy-related assets. Still, “lack of mobility will impact gasoline demand.” Despite the day-to-day fluctuations in headline crude futures, the rally in physical oil prices signals the fundamental strength underlying the market as Asia leads the recovery from the pandemic-induced demand slump. A slew of purchases from Indian and Chinese refiners have lifted crude values from Russia, the Middle East, Latin America and the U.S. At the same time, other areas of the petroleum markets are signaling strength. Higher diesel prices have lifted the profitability of processing a barrel of light crude into fuels, as diesel consumption has returned to pre-virus levels due to an e-commerce-driven boost in trucking. “Prices since the beginning November have trended higher, and have made up a lot of ground,” said Rob Haworth, senior investment strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management. “The faster we get the vaccinations globally, the more that helps the oil narrative.” West Texas Intermediate for January delivery gained 20 cents to settle at $47.82 a barrel, its highest since late February. Brent for February settlement gained 32 cents to end the session at $51.08 a barrel. The contract is at the highest since March. The rise in gasoline inventories comes as indicators of demand for the fuel trend lower. The four-week rolling average for gasoline consumption was down for a fifth straight week and it may weaken further amid expectations for fewer road trips in the U.S. during the Christmas holiday period. Meanwhile, the mixed outlook for oil has weakened the front end of Brent’s forward curve, which is now on the verge of a bearish contango structure in which nearer-dated contracts trade at a discount to later-dated ones. For comparison, Brent’s nearest contract last week traded at a premium of as high as 18 cents to the following month. Crude’s rally over the past month and a half also raises concerns over how well the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries can keep output in check, while the producer group and its allies move to taper some of their output cuts come January.
Oil prices rise, hit 9-month high on U.S. stimulus progress (Reuters) -Oil climbed on Thursday and touched a nine-month high, with traders optimistic about progress toward a U.S. fiscal stimulus deal and record-breaking refining demand in China and India. U.S. lawmakers edged closer to agreement on a $900 billion virus-relief spending package on Wednesday. The U.S. dollar set a 2-1/2 year low against major rivals on Thursday. Since crude is priced in greenbacks, this made oil cheaper for buyers holding other currencies. Brent crude futures settled up 42 cents at $51.50 a barrel, and touched a session high of $51.90. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose by 54 cents to $48.36 a barrel, with a session high of $48.59. Both benchmarks hit their highest since early March. “Asia was ahead of the curve in recovery mode from the Coronavirus,” said Phil Flynn, senior analyst at Price Futures in Chicago. “Looking at what we’re seeing in Asia is raising expectations that in the New Year we will see a rapid increase in crude oil demand, as the vaccine rolls out in the U.S.,” he said. The United States on Thursday expanded its campaign to deliver COVID-19 vaccine shots. U.S. crude inventories fell by 3.1 million barrels in the week to Dec. 11, the Energy Information Administration said, far more than analysts’ expectations of a 1.9-million-barrel drop.
Oil up a 4th straight session to settle at highest price in over 9 months - Oil futures on Thursday stretched their gains to a fourth straight session, as signs of progress toward another round of economic relief by U.S. lawmakers helped to keep prices at their highest levels in more than nine months. "Crude prices have been unstoppable the last several weeks as vaccine rollouts begin, oil inventories are starting to come down, Asian demand remains robust, and the dollar slide propels commodities higher across the board," Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda, said in a market update. "If Congress can get a virus relief bill done this week, that might be the last catalyst needed to help WTI crude make a run towards the $50 level," he said. West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery rose 54 cents, or 1.1%, to settle at $48.36 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, for the highest front-month contract settlement since Feb. 26, according to Dow Jones Market Data. February Brent crude , the global benchmark, added 42 cents, or 0.8%, to $51.50 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe to log the highest finish since March 3. "Sentiment has shrugged off slightly bearish monthly updates from OPEC, the EIA, and the IEA this week," Crude was lifted Wednesday after the Energy Information Administration reported that U.S. crude inventories (link) fell by a larger-than-expected 3.1 million barrels in the week ended Dec. 11. Meanwhile,Washington lawmakers were seen making progress toward a $900 billion package (link) of economic relief. The U.S. reported a record 247,000 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported (link), citing data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. There were 113,090 COVID-19 patients in U.S. hospitals on Wednesday, according to the COVID Tracking Project (link), up from 112,816 on Tuesday, as hospitalizations reached a record for an 11th-straight day. An advisory panel was widely expected on Thursday to recommend the Food and Drug Administration authorize a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Moderna Inc. If the FDA does so, it would be the second vaccine authorized by the FDA, joining the drug developed by Pfizer Inc. (PFE) and BioNTech SE (BNTX), which saw rollout begin this week. "The only thing that could get in the way of oil's rally is if any problems emerge with the coronavirus vaccine rollouts," Moya said. "Transportation issues and some slowness in getting people vaccinated may start to raise doubts that a return to pre-pandemic life will happen by mid-fall." Back on Nymex, natural-gas futures finished lower after the Energy Information Administration reported on Thursday that domestic supplies of natural gas declined (link) by 122 billion cubic feet for the week ended Dec. 11. On average, the data were expected to show a drop of 127 billion cubic feet for the week, according to analysts polled by S&P Global Platts.
Oil settles up, marking seventh straight weekly gain (Reuters) -Oil settled up at a nine-month high on Friday, rounding out seven straight weeks of gains as investors focused on the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines and a decline this week in the U.S. dollar. Pfizer has applied for approval in Japan for its vaccine, which is being used in the United Kingdom and the United States. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said U.S. approval for Moderna’s shot could come later on Friday. Brent crude settled up 76 cents, or 1.5%, to $52.26 a barrel after touching $52.48, its highest since March. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude settled up 74 cents, or 1.5%, to $49.10 after reaching $49.28, its highest since February. The U.S. dollar rebounded slightly on Friday but stayed near 2-1/2-year lows reached a day earlier. A weak dollar makes oil and other commodities cheaper for buyers using other currencies. U.S. lawmakers worked late to meet a deadline to agree on $900 billion in fresh relief for the pandemic-hit economy, but may instead may pass a third stopgap spending bill to keep the government from shutting down at midnight. The dollar’s weekly decline “is a significant move down and is pushing the oil complex higher,” said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital LLC in New York. Oil gained support this week from weekly U.S. supply data showing crude inventories fell more than expected. [EIA/S] The oil and gas rig count, an early indicator of future output, rose by eight to 346 in the week to Dec. 18, the highest since May, energy services firm Baker Hughes Co said in its closely followed report on Friday. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, known as OPEC+, are supporting the market by slowing the pace of a planned increase in supplies next year. OPEC+ plans to add 500,000 barrels per day of supply in January and will meet in early January to decide on next steps.
Oil Prices Post Another Weekly Gain -- Oil rose for a seventh straight week as efforts to pass another U.S. virus relief package added to optimism that the vaccine’s rollout will provide a long-awaited boost to demand. Futures rose 1.5% in New York on Friday, extending this week’s rally to over 5%. Talks on a relief package have made some headway, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell saying he’s “even more optimistic now” that an agreement is near. Recent progress in rolling out a Covid-19 vaccine has also buoyed the outlook for consumption. “It’s all about the return to pre-pandemic life, and we’re getting there,” said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda Corp. “You have major breakthroughs on the vaccine front, which has been very positive for the demand recovery outlook. People are also playing close attention to the overall trajectory of the U.S. dollar.” The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index is set for a weekly decline and has been trading near its lowest since 2018. A weaker dollar raises the appeal for commodities priced in the currency. Underlying the climb in headline crude prices, premiums on nearer-dated contracts relative to later ones are indicating improving demand. The bullish pattern known as backwardation has strengthened at the back end of oil’s forward curve. West Texas Intermediate’s nearest December contract trades more than a $1 a barrel higher than that for December 2022, compared to trading at a discount less than a month before. Yet, there are signs the market’s rally is due for a pause. Brent’s nearest timespread ended the week at parity, compared with a premium of as much as 18 cents the week prior. At the same time, premiums for real-world barrels are easing. “There’s great news about the arrival of vaccines, the promise they hold, and that global demand is likely to return in a big way as a result,” said Matt Marshall, director of market analytics at AEGIS. “But in the near term, that has zero effect on petroleum demand.” West Texas Intermediate for January delivery rose 74 cents to settle at $49.10 a barrel. Brent for February settlement gained 76 cents to $52.26 a barrel. Both benchmarks closed at their highest since late February. The spreading virus and lockdowns are weighing on demand, but the hit is much smaller than earlier in the year and is likely only a speed bump to rebalancing the market, according to a Goldman Sachs note. This will leave the oil market range-bound and choppy in coming weeks as vaccine enthusiasm is followed by headlines on tighten pandemic restrictions, the bank said. Meanwhile, as oil prices move higher, there are concerns this might lure producers to tap capacity that’s been sidelined during the pandemic. While the U.S. shale industry requires heavy reinvestment to boost output, the large amount of spare capacity could present a risk to further price gains.
Scientists warn of ‘imminent and devastating’ Red Sea oil spill from Houthi-held tanker - A decaying tanker moored off Yemen’s Houthi-controlled coast is on the verge of creating one of the world’s biggest oil spills, scientists have warned. The Safer tanker holds one million barrels of oil — four times the amount that leaked from the Exxon Valdez in the catastrophic 1989 spill in Alaska. The Houthi militia has repeatedly blocked experts from accessing the ship, which was abandoned in 2015. A paper published on Tuesday by a group of international experts warned that unless action was taken immediately, there would be a “regional environmental and humanitarian disaster.” The scientists developed a computer model of how the oil would disperse if a major leak unfolds during winter. Currents at this time of year would spread the oil much further along the Red Sea coast than in summer. The tanker, which was used as a storage and offloading vessel, is moored off the coast of Hodeidah, a key battleground in Yemen’s conflict between the Iran-backed Houthis and the internationally recognized government. “The time is now to prevent a potential devastation to the region’s waters and the livelihoods and health of millions of people living in half a dozen countries along the Red Sea’s coast,” said Karine Kleinhaus, an associate professor of the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University, who led the team of scientists. “If a spill from the Safer is allowed to occur, the oil would spread via ocean currents to devastate a global ocean resource, as the coral reefs of the northern Red Sea and Gulf of Aqaba are projected to be among the last reef ecosystems in the world to survive the coming decades.” She said that the region’s reefs can survive in much warmer waters compared to other coral around the world, which is being wiped out by rising temperatures due to climate change.
Researchers Warn of Looming Oil Spill Four Times Larger Than Exxon Valdez if Urgent Action Not Taken -- A team of scientists issued a stark warning Tuesday that the possibility of averting an oil spill bigger than the 1989 Exxon Valdez catastrophe and "disastrous environmental and humanitarian consequences" posed by an abandoned oil tanker in the Red Sea are "quickly disappearing." At issue is the corroding Safer, moored off the coast of Yemen and under control of Houthi rebels since 2015. After blocking such efforts for years, Houthi authorities last month approved a United Nations plan to visit the tanker early in 2021. U.N. Environment Program executive director Inger Andersen warned in July that the vessel's deteriorating condition and the over 1 million barrels of oil it holds threaten long-term damage to local ecosystems. In a policy brief published in Frontiers in Marine Science, researchers said the need to pump off the oil is urgent. "A massive leak of over 1 million barrels of oil (4 times the Exxon Valdez tanker spill) is anticipated shortly off the coast of Yemen, in the Red Sea, where the Safer floating storage and offloading unit (FSO) is in the final stages of decay." That quantity, they continued, "guarantees a regional environmental and humanitarian disaster," with impacts certain to affect dozens of coastal countries and the sea's rich biodiversity, including its coral reefs. Given the stakes, the paper called for the U.N. International Maritime Organization and U.N Secretary-General António Guterres to "take coordinated action and achieve access to the Safer by all means necessary in order to pump off the oil." That action must happen before winter, they added, pointing to models showing that "winter oil dispersion will extend further north and into the center of the Red Sea as compared to a spill dispersing during summer." "The time is now to prevent a potential devastation to the region's waters and the livelihoods and health of millions of people living in half a dozen countries along the Red Sea's coast,"
Saudi Arabia Reins In Spending to Contain Deficit – WSJ -Saudi Arabia plans to spend less next year to rein in a pandemic-induced budget deficit, pursuing austerity even as a rally in oil prices signals a higher demand for crude and a global economic recovery. The Saudi government expects to trim its budget deficit from 12% of economic output this year to 4.9% in 2021, as it lowers spending by about 7% to 990 billion Saudi riyals, equivalent to $264 billion, the country’s Finance Ministry said Tuesday. State revenues are forecast to grow nearly 10% to 849 billion riyals on higher taxes and oil revenues. Saudi Arabia’s budget announcement is a closely watched measure of spending in the wider Gulf region and an indicator of Riyadh’s expectations on the direction of oil prices. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is expected to face a tricky economic balancing act next year as the kingdom’s de facto ruler will have to cut spending on some projects related to his plan to diversify the economy yet still try to create jobs for his young population. The crown prince also faces a new administration in Washington that has indicated it would reassess the U.S. relationship with Riyadh, which could hamper already weak investment into the kingdom. Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure also has come under increasing attack, threatening its ability to earn revenues. This week, a boat loaded with explosives targeted an oil tanker at the Saudi port city of Jeddah, in the latest strike on the country’s hydrocarbon assets. While crude prices have rallied 30% since the start of last month, the International Monetary Fund predicts Saudi Arabia’s economy will shrink by 5.4% this year, compared with a global contraction of 4.4%. The Saudi government forecasts a return to growth of 3.2% next year. Unemployment among Saudis stands at roughly 15%, according to the latest government statistics.
U.S. energy secretary sees Middle East oil and gas security in pipelines, not tankers— Outgoing U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette is looking for alternative methods to transport Middle East oil and gas to ensure regional energy security. "Part of the conversation we're having with the Abraham Accords is to look for alternatives to shipping, so that's why these pipelines are so important," Brouillette told CNBC's Hadley Gamble on Wednesday. The energy secretary visited Abu Dhabi this week to meet with ministers from the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Israel. Their discussions follow September's signing of the Abraham Accords, which normalized diplomatic relations between Israel and several Arab states. With just over four weeks remaining in the role, Brouillette is making a final lap through the region as the Trump era of strong-arm oil diplomacy comes to an end in the U.S. Brouillette will be replaced by Jennifer Granholm, the former governor of Michigan who, unlike her predecessor, is widely seen as a climate hawk. As Brouillette leaves his post, Gulf leaders are questioning how Joe Biden will engage with the region on issues like Iran. Middle East allies still don't know how the United States, a primary external foreign policy actor in the region, will guarantee security and stability of supply to key markets in Asia and beyond. The Middle East holds over half the world's proven oil reserves, but exporting it through the narrow Strait of Hormuz can often prove difficult. The UAE and Saudi Arabia have long sought to find alternative routes to bypass the Strait, including through pipelines. The Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline has a capacity of 1.5 million barrels per day and carries the bulk of its production to the UAE port of Fujairah on the Indian Ocean. Saudi Arabia already exports some of its oil using a 745 mile-long pipeline that runs from its key production facilities in the east to the Red Sea port city of Yanbu in the west. A major expansion of its capacity is already underway. Robin Mills, CEO of Qamar Energy told CNBC there is "no perfect solution" for exports. "Tankers can be vulnerable at certain times, so can pipelines. The point is about having options and having a diversity of routes, about having backup. And that's really what Saudi Arabia and the UAE and tried to do with those pipelines," he said. "Pipelines can be vulnerable, but you can also protect them," Brouillette told CNBC on Wednesday. "If we can move natural gas more easily throughout the region, shipping becomes less of a concern. If we can move crude more easily, shipping becomes less of a concern."
Iran fights fire in southwest after oil pipeline spill -Firefighters were working to put out a blaze after a pipeline carrying crude oil to Iran's second-largest refinery ruptured and burst into flames on Sunday, Iranian news agencies reported. "The fire has not been contained but is under control. Its smoke is irritating, but it is not enough to injure anyone, and flames have not reached people's homes," Khosro Kiani, an emergency owicial in southwestern Iran, where the blaze occurred,told the semiowicial news agency Tasnim. 12/14/2020 Iran fights fire in southwest after oil pipeline spill | Deccan Herald https://www.deccanherald.com/international/world-news-politics/iran-fights-fire-in-southwest-after-oil-pipeline-spill-927039.html 4/32 The oil ministry's news agency SHANA said repair teams had shut ow the Maroun pipeline, which feeds the Isfahan refinery, Iran's second-largest with a capacity of about 375,000 barrels per day. Iran's ageing oil infrastructure has been long in need of rehabilitation, as refurbishment plans have been delayed by Western sanctions and local bureaucracy, analysts say. There have been several earlier instances of spillage from the pipeline that have adversely awected the region's agriculture and fishing,the state news agency IRNA reported.
“Zombie Angelina Jolie” Sentenced To 10 Years In Prison For “Promoting Public Corruption” - A young woman from Iran was sentenced to 10 years in prison for posting photos on social media where she looked like a “Zombie Angelina Jolie.” The 19-year-old Instagram star calls herself Sahar Tabar, but her real name is Fatemeh Khishvand. While her pictures online make her appear very strange and unhealthy, her online persona is merely an illusion. She uses a combination of make-up and photoshop techniques to make herself appear the way that she does in her photos. Still, under Iran’s strict social laws, her activities are considered “promoting public corruption.” She says that her page was intended to be a social commentary, but the government thought that she was a danger to society. Last year, she was arrested along with three other female Instagram influencers accused of similar offenses. In court this week, Tabar was sentenced to ten years in prison, which is much longer than the terms that were initially expected.
Investigative Reporting Details Massacres, Reign of Terror by US-Backed Death Squads in Afghanistan - An extraordinary investigation by Australian journalist Andrew Quilty published Friday by The Intercept reveals U.S.-backed Afghan government paramilitary death squads have been waging a campaign of terror targeting civilians—including children—in Wardak province as part of the American military occupation of the nation that began nearly two decades ago.In one December 2018 attack in Omar Khail, Wardak province, men in camouflage—some of them speaking English—took part in a nighttime madrassa raid. Afghan soldiers roused the sleeping boys, ages 9 to 18, before choosing the oldest-looking ones and taking them away. Twelve-year-old student "Bilal"—The Intercept changed his name for his protection—heard gunshots, explosions, and screams. The following morning, when he looked in the school's other rooms and in the basement, he found the bullet-ridden bodies of 12 of his classmates. The perpetrators of the killings are believed to belong to an elite, CIA-trained paramilitary force known as Unit 01 which—in concert with U.S. Special Forces and U.S.-led airstrikes—"unleashed a campaign of terror against civilians," according to Quilty. Unit 01 is nominally under the control of Afghanistan's intelligence service, the National Directorate of Security (NDS). The Omar Khail massacre was but one of at least 10 previously undocumented night raids in Wardak province that, starting December 2018 and continuing for at least a year, killed at least 51 civilians, mostly men and boys—some as young as eight years old. According to The Intercept, few of the victims were members of, or connected to, the Taliban.Residents of four Wardak districts—Nerkh, Chak, Sayedabad, and Daymirdad—described similar massacres, as well as summary executions, mutilations, kidnappings and forced disappearances, attacks on religious and medical facilities, and airstrikes on civilians. Children were often the unfortunate—but sometimes deliberate—victims of these attacks. "The prevalence of boys among those killed in Wardak indicates that Unit 01 was trying to eliminate not only existing enemies, but potential future foes as well," writes Quilty.Such barbarism has incensed local leaders. The Americans, said Wardak provincial council head Akhtar Mohammad Tahiri, "step on all the rules of war, human rights, all the things they said they'd bring to Afghanistan" and are "conducting themselves as terrorists.""They show terror and violence and think they'll bring control this way," he added. Quilty reports that not only do CIA advisers train Afhgan death squad members, they also choose their targets, which they refer to as "jackpots." American aircraft transport the Afghans to and from attacks, and U.S. warplanes are on standby to launch airstrikes, sometimes targeting homes, health clinics, and religious buildings.
Largest US overseas base placed on missile alert amid nuclear war warnings - In an extraordinary incident that points to the grave threat of global war, personnel at the US military’s largest overseas complex were given chilling instructions to seek cover from an incoming ballistic missile attack. The alert warnings last Saturday at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, the center of the so-called Kaiserslautern Military Community, consisting of 54,000 troops, civilian Defense Department employees, contractors and their families, were blared over sirens and the “giant voice” loudspeaker system that repeated the words “Aerial attack, aerial attack, seek cover, seek cover.” Cellphone messages were also sent out, at least to some. The incident was acknowledged by the military base’s Facebook page, which stated: “Today, the Ramstein Air Base Command Post was notified via an alert notification system of a real-world missile launch in the European theater. The Command Post followed proper procedure and provided timely and accurate notifications to personnel in the Kaiserslautern Military Community. The missile launch was then assessed to be part of a training exercise and not a threat to the KMC area.”
Pregnant woman has hands amputated and is thrown from back of truck by Mexican drug cartel for ‘being a thief’ --A pregnant woman and two men have been thrown from a moving vehicle after having their hands amputated by a Mexican drug cartel as punishment for alleged acts of robbery.The grisly incident happened in the Central Mexican state of Guanajuato.The victims, who remain in a critical condition, were rescued by witnesses near the town of Silao, Guanajuato. The Prosecutor General has opened an investigation into events. All three are believed to be between the age of 22 and 25. Guanajuato finds itself at the centre of a brutal turf war between the Cartel Jalisco Nuevo Generación (CJNG) and the Santa Rosa de Lima/Sinaloa Cartel alliance. In the absence of effective law enforcement from Federal authorities, local groups often uphold their own interpretations of the law themselves, often with extreme violence.The victims were accused by the CJNG of robbery. A note attached to one of the men read: “This happened to me for being a thief, and because I didn’t respect hard working people and continued to rob them. Anyone who does the same will suffer. Signed Elite Group.”. The Elite Group are a notoriously vicious enforcement arm of the CJNG. Video footage posted on Twitter, late on Friday night, showed the woman, who has not been named, begging eyewitnesses for help. The victim’s hands, which were placed in a bag next to the victims, were recovered at the scene by paramedics.
15-year-old is assassinated while being treated in hospital in Mexico as homicides reach record levels - On Sunday, a 15-year-old youth was shot and wounded and later assassinated while being treated for his wounds at the General Hospital of Tecate in the Mexican state of Baja California. Tecate sits on the US border and is home of the internationally known Tecate beer. This shocking incident has unfolded amid record levels of both coronavirus cases and homicides across the country, which are placing intolerable burdens on the already underfunded health care system. The response by local authorities and the federal government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (known as AMLO), which inflexibly prioritize capitalist profits over the lives of workers and youth, has only exacerbated the twin crises. While minimizing the danger of COVID-19 and seeking to normalize mass deaths, the AMLO administration refuses to carry out any policies to counter the widespread conditions of poverty and social inequality that lie at the root of the homicide levels and the uncontrolled spread of COVID-19. The government has projected that Mexico will reach 40,000 homicides by the end of the year, breaking 2019’s record of 36,476 killings. The bulk of the homicides are tied to organized crime and operations conducted by the Mexican police and military, ostensibly to combat the drug-trafficking cartels. At the same time, Mexico has reported more than 1,250,000 coronavirus cases and 114,000 confirmed COVID-19 deaths, as hospitals in Mexico City, Ciudad Juárez and other cities begin to fill up. Hospital occupancy in Baja California has increased from 33 percent to 72 percent since early November. At around 2 in the afternoon on Sunday, 15-year-old Martin W. was shot in the back. A local Facebook news service, CNR TECATE, reported the incident and showed the body of the young man being treated for a gunshot wound by the paramedics. There was reportedly still hope that the youth would recover. After he was transported to the hospital and was being treated for his wounds, a gunman walked into the hospital with the sole mission of finishing him off. The gunman found the youth in the emergency wing of the hospital, where he delivered the coup de grâce as horrified medical staff looked on. This sort of barbarism and unabashed act of criminality was once a rarity in the small city of 73,000 people. Nowadays, stories of execution-style murders are becoming ever more common. Organized crime is increasingly taking control of the city, even to the extent that cartel thugs can kill a young man in his hospital bed in plain view of the public.
Dutch government to shut down Netherlands through the holidays The Dutch government will impose further coronavirus restrictions and shut down much of the Netherlands through the holidays starting on Tuesday, the prime minister announced Monday. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said during a televised briefing that the Netherlands would start a five-week nationwide shutdown, which will close schools, nonessential businesses, museums and gyms, The Associated Press reported. The lockdown is scheduled to be in place until midnight on Jan. 19. As Rutte made the announcement, protesters blew whistles outside in a condemnation of the decision. “We have to bite through this very sour apple before things get better,” Rutte said during his address, according to the AP. “The reality is also that we are not dealing with an innocent flu, which some people, such as the demonstrators outside still think, but with a virus that can hit anyone hard," he added. The nonessential businesses, including hair salons, museums and theaters, will close on Tuesday, while schools and universities will be required to switch to remote learning by Wednesday. The restrictions limit people to have at most two guests older than 13 years old per day, although the rules will be loosened between Dec. 24 and 26 to allow three guests older than 13 due to the holiday. The announcement sparked lines at nonessential businesses as many people tried to squeeze in Christmas shopping before the shutdown, according to the AP. The Netherlands shut down bars and restaurants to in-person customers in mid-October, although many have continued to provide takeout, which initially reduced the infection rate before it continued to climb. The seven-day average for new daily cases in the country has jumped from 29.22 per 100,000 people on Nov. 29 to 47.47 per 100,000 people on Sunday. In total, the Netherlands has confirmed more than 632,000 cases and 10,168 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The Dutch prime minister’s announcement came a day after German officials declared that stores would shut down from Wednesday until at least Jan. 10. Germany has also encouraged its residents not to go Christmas shopping amid the rise in cases and new restrictions.
Germany is entering a stricter lockdown through Christmas and into the new year, as its COVID-19 cases reach record highs -- Germany will enter a stricter lockdown lasting through Christmas and into the new year, the chancellor, Angela Merkel, said Sunday. "We are forced to act, and we're acting too," Merkel said in Berlin, according to The Associated Press. Next Wednesday (December 16) schools and non-essential shops will close, remaining shut until January 10. The decision was announced at a news conference after Merkel met with leaders of Germany's 16 federal states on Sunday morning. "The coronavirus is out of control, so we don't want to do things piecemeal but act decisively," said Bavaria Premier Markus Söder, per the AP. Germany is well known for the elaborate Christmas markets that dot the country and attract tourists from around the world. For most of December, they take over public squares nationwide. Visitors usually sip mulled wine spiced with cinnamon and wander through tightly packed stalls selling holiday gifts and decorations. This year, the country had restricted foot traffic through those markets in a "lockdown lite," while other markets weren't set up at all. After Wednesday, all outdoor alcohol sales will be banned, according to reports. As will the sale of New Years Eve fireworks. Restaurants and bars had already been closed. "I would have wished for lighter measures. But due to Christmas shopping the number of social contacts has risen considerably," Merkel said Sunday, according to Reuters. Coronavirus cases and COVID-19 deaths have spiked to record numbers in Germany in recent weeks, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University. In the past month, 9,684 people died, with 573,269 new infections reported, both records.
Open schools and businesses in Germany are leading to record infections and mass death - The coronavirus pandemic has long run out of control in Germany. New record numbers are being reported daily. On Friday, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) reported the second consecutive daily record, with almost 30,000 new infections registered in 24 hours. Also, almost 600 COVID-19 patients died again in one day. This brings the total number of deaths to 21,000, and another 10,000 could be added by the end of the year. About 4,400 coronavirus patients are fighting for their lives in intensive care units. With these explosive figures, Germany has catapulted to the top of the European infection rankings. In terms of daily infection figures, it now ranks ahead of France, Britain and Italy. In Europe, 446,000 people have died of COVID-19 so far, which is more than a quarter of the almost 1.6 million coronavirus deaths globally. Twenty million people worldwide are currently fighting the SARS-CoV-2 lung disease, and 70 million have been infected since the beginning of the pandemic. The scale of this “winter of death” confirms all warnings of the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) and the World Socialist Web Site. Already in the spring, we called on workers to form rank-and-file safety committees to take protection from the pandemic into their own hands independently of the trade unions. Long before the beginning of the autumn semester, the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party, SGP), the WSWS and the IYSSE youth and student organization called on students, teachers, educators and parents to take action for their own protection and that of their children. “By returning to face-to-face teaching amidst rising infection rates, governments of all stripes are putting the health and lives of countless teachers, students and parents at risk,” we wrote in our August 14 statement titled “Stop school openings! Prepare for a general strike!” We predicted: “The mass deaths of teachers, parents and even students will be condoned in order to force workers back to work and secure the profits of the rich.” This warning has been tragically confirmed. On Thursday, Lothar H. Wieler, the head of the Robert Koch Institute called the spread of the coronavirus infection throughout the population “alarming.” There are now about twice as many outbreaks in nursing homes and homes for the elderly as in the spring. The measures officially ordered so far are wholly unsufficient, he said. The number of deaths would continue to rise in the coming weeks, Wieler confirmed, and more and more intensive care units will reach their limits. This was confirmed two days ago when the University Hospital of Augsburg halted all admissions for non-urgent treatment. The hospital was at full capacity with 163 COVID-19 patients, 33 of them in intensive care, the medical director of the hospital, Michael Beyer, told the Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation (BR). A doctor from the University Hospital pointed out that now, considerably more young patients were having to fight for their lives. “They are around 30, around 40, have no pre-existing conditions whatsoever and sometimes conduct this fight unsuccessfully.”
The British Empire Died on 1 September 2020 -- International Political Economy Zone by Emmanuel - What marks the end of Britain's dominance in world affairs? That question has always been tied to that on British identity in the post-WWII era. To be sure, there are some who would say the ascent of the United States relative to the United Kingdom's fall rendered that debate moot a long time ago. (And many now question whether the US remains hegemonic, anyway.) Regardless, there have been bits of evidence to suggest how Britain still plays an outsized role in global affairs even after its numerous former territories--most notably India--became independent. Prominent among these has been London's status as a global financial capital. Many have argued that, at least until recently, London vied with New York for this status. Brexit largely put paid to that argument--not so much that New York is outperforming London so much as London has slumped so far back of New York (even if NY is not appreciably moving ahead). For me, then, London's loss as a global financial capital reached its apotheosis a few months ago. On 1 September 2020, a single US-listed firm, Apple, was worth more than the entire 100 corporations making up the FTSE 100 stock index: Despite COVID-19 inflicting more damage Stateside than the UK, the US benefits from having many more "winners" in the pandemic era: technology companies offering the tools people living and working from home rely on nowadays. By contrast, British companies are in old school industries that have been losers during the pandemic. Think of the likes in energy, financial services, or even worse still, tobacco: But the [FTSE 100] index has also missed out on the technology boom seen in the US and elsewhere during the coronavirus pandemic. Businesses in tech and e-commerce, from Apple and Amazon to online retailers, have benefited from consumers turning to digital services for entertainment and shopping while stuck at home during lockdown. The FTSE 100 is light on technology businesses and heavily populated by companies badly affected by the pandemic in sectors including property, aviation, hospitality and bricks-and-mortar retail. Years of British stock underperformance have dispelled the argument the UK is economically better off outside the European Union. Yet, the beating UK stocks have received post-Brexit vote has been such that people are beginning to look at them as promising dirt-cheap investments [1. 2]. The larger point remains: any "empire" worthy of the name would be able to command higher valuations befitting the regard others show it instead of being bargain basement buys. Insofar as UK plc has been deemed nearly worthless as evidenced by the discount placed on British companies, 1 September marked an important milestone showing just how far Blighty's standing has fallen in global league tables. The British Empire died on 1 September 2020, indeed.
Brexit: Too Late for Fudge? - Yves Smith - I’m normally not keen about having a post consist largely of a tweetstorm, but this Brexit offering by Jon Worth is a showstopper…including his clever use of icons.As you’ll see, Worth looks at all the ways the EU and UK might buy themselves more time to get something done. He finds that pretty much all the paths are dead ends and/or require tons of trust, when trust has been in scarce supply.Note that he also assumes that the EU wants a deal and would be willing to participate in fudge-making. I’m not certain this follows. The EU has decided, for reasons I cannot fathom, to indulge the UK and negotiate down to the very last minute. Taking this approach is a tremendous disservice to its businesses, since they don’t know if they will be contending with a crash-out or a thin deal, presumably no tariffs and no quotas. The latter would still create a tremendous amount of friction at borders. I am surprised that multinationals and large domestic players haven’t made a huge stink about the neverending negotiations adding unnecessarily to Brexit damage. Given that the EU seems to be allowing the UK all the time it could possibly use to continue to dither, contrary to the EU’s own interests, one would also think they’d make this a talking point.So the other question is where the EU wants things to go. Their pointed permissiveness may be a way to let the UK hoist itself on its own petard. I am sure that Barnier and his team would very much like to get any deal done; it’s frustrating to invest so much effort in a project and have it go splat. But his principals may have concluded that if the UK still doesn’t appreciate how bad not having a deal would be, then let them drive off the cliff and find out how hard the landing will be. The EU will have vastly more negotiating leverage once the UK has left and EU businesses have made adaptations to work around the abrupt change. Put it another way: since the two sides have been thrashing around for months, why should we expect negotiations over a fudge to go better?
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