week ending Mar 27

 The Fed has embraced the 'punchbowl' and has no intention of taking it away - The Federal Reserve has come a long way from the days of warning about "irrational exuberance." Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan famously sent up a flare in December 1996 about stretched asset valuations triggered by wild dot-com speculation that had produced an unbridled bull market. It took three years for the warning from "The Maestro" to come true, but the statement is still considered a seminal moment in market history where a Fed leader issued such a bold warning that went unheeded. Flash forward 25 years and the attitude from the Fed is considerably different, even though market valuations look a lot like they did back around the time the dot-com bubble burst. Central bank officials repeatedly have been given the opportunity to advise caution on asset valuations, and each time they have largely passed. Other than acknowledging that prices are higher than normal in some instances, Fed speakers have largely attributed market moves as the product of an improving economy buoyed by aggressive fiscal stimulus and low interest rates that will be in place for years. Just a few days ago, San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly spoke on the issue and said the Fed has no intention of tightening policy even in the face of roaring bull markets across several asset classes. "We won't be preemptively taking the punchbowl away," Daly said during a virtual Q&A on Wednesday. The "punchbowl" metaphor was interesting in that the term became a bit of a pejorative following the 2008 financial crisis. Its origin in policy circles dates to William McChesney Martin, the longest-serving Fed chairman who held the position from 1951-70. The Fed's role, Martin said, was to act as a "chaperone who has ordered the punchbowl removed just when the party was really warming up." The statement delineated the cautionary role the Fed should be playing when it spots signs of excess. Taking away the punchbowl 'doesn't work now' But Daly implied that such a duty either does not exist today or is not relevant to the current situation. "That's something that worked maybe in the past, definitely doesn't work now, and we're committed to leaving that punchbowl or monetary policy accommodation in place until the job is fully and truly done," she said.

 On One Day Last Year, the Fed Had $495.7 Billion in Loans Outstanding to Unnamed Wall Street Trading Houses - By Pam Martens - Yesterday the Federal Reserve released its “audited” financial statements with the following caveat, among numerous others: “Due to the unique nature of the Reserve Banks’ powers and responsibilities as part of the nation’s central bank and given the System’s unique responsibility to conduct monetary policy, the Board has adopted accounting principles and practices in the FAM [Financial Accounting Manual for Federal Reserve Banks] that differ from accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (GAAP).”  The Federal Reserve is the regulator of the largest bank holding companies in the United States and, since December of 2007, has been shoveling trillions of dollars at the trading houses owned by these bank holding companies almost on a non-stop basis, if you include Quantitative Easing (QE) programs 1, 2, 3 and 4 and the repo loan bailout that began on September 17, 2019 – months before there was any financial crisis due to the pandemic.As of last Wednesday, the Fed’s balance sheet had climbed to $7.7 trillion (yes, trillion with a “t”) from $959 billion on September 11, 2008, the Wednesday before Wall Street blew itself up along with the U.S. economy as a result of lax Federal Reserve regulation. And the Fed can’t blame that $7.7 trillion on the pandemic because its balance sheet stood at $4.2 trillion on December 25, 2019 before there was any pandemic in the U.S.Given the Fed’s history, one might think that Congress would be demanding transparency from the Fed on behalf of the American people. But that’s not the case. While the Fed has released monthly reports showing the names of  recipients of its largesse under some of its bailout programs, it has refused to provide the names of the Wall Street loan recipients under the following four programs: the repo loan bailouts; the Primary Dealer Credit Facility (PDCF); the Commercial Paper Funding Facility (CPFF); and the Money Market Mutual Fund Liquidity Facility (MMLF).The financial statements released yesterday by the Fed did nothing to shed any light on which Wall Street trading firms were in such dire liquidity straits that they needed billions of dollars from the Fed on a daily basis in the fall of 2019 and much of 2020.What we did learn, as shown from the graph above, is that one day last year, the Fed’s agent, the New York Fed, had lent out $495,700,000,000 under its repo [repurchase agreement] loan program versus an average daily amount of $97.7 billion. What we also know is that the only entities that are eligible to borrow that repo money are the Fed’s 24 primary dealers, which include the securities units of big U.S. banks like JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America and Wells Fargo. The primary dealers also include the U.S. based securities units of foreign banks like Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, and Societe Generale (SocGen).The American people have a right to know if the five-count felon JPMorgan Chase is getting money from the Fed; or if Citigroup, which secretly received over $2.5 trillionin cumulative loans from the Fed during the 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath, is on the dole again; or if troubled foreign banks that are counterparties to Wall Street’s unreformed derivatives mess are back to getting secret handouts from the Fed as they were in 2008. The American people also have a right to the granular details of financial dealings between the Fed and the Wall Street banks that make the case that the Fed is a captured regulator of the sprawling global banks that so convincingly demonstrated their ability to bring the U.S. economy to its knees in 2008.

 Larry Summers Warned About Inflation. Fed Officials Push Back. – NY Times -- Federal Reserve officials pushed back on Thursday against concerns raised by two prominent economists — Lawrence H. Summers, the former Treasury secretary, and Olivier J. Blanchard, a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund — that big government spending could overheat the economy and send inflation rocketing higher. Those warnings have grabbed headlines and spurred debate over the past two months as details of the federal government’s $1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill came together. Mr. Summers in particular has kept them up since the legislation passed, saying it was too much on the heels of large spending packages last year. He recently called the approach the “least responsible” fiscal policy in 40 years while predicting that it had a one-in-three chance of precipitating higher inflation and maybe stagflation, or a one-in-three chance of causing the Fed to raise rates and pushing the economy toward recession. But two leaders at the Fed, which is tasked with using monetary policies to keep inflation steady and contained, gave little credence to those fears on Thursday. Richard H. Clarida, the central bank’s vice chairman, and Charles Evans, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, both responded to questions specifically about Mr. Summers’s and Mr. Blanchard’s warnings. “They have both correctly pointed out that the U.S. has a lot of fiscal support this year,” Mr. Clarida said on an Institute of International Finance webcast. “Where I would disagree is whether or not that is primarily going to represent a long-term, persistent upward risk to inflation, and I don’t think so.” Mr. Clarida said that there was a lot of room for the economy to recover — some 9.5 million jobs that were lost during the pandemic are still gone — and that the effect of the government’s relief spending would diminish over time. He also said that while spenders had pent-up demand, there was also pent-up supply because the service sector had been shut for a year. “At the Fed, we get paid to be attentive and attuned to inflation risks, and we will be,” Mr. Clarida said. But he noted that forecasters didn’t see “undesirable upward pressure” on inflation over time. Mr. Evans told reporters on a call that he wasn’t sure what “overheating” — the danger that top economists have warned about — actually meant. “First off, there’s a conversation of is this the best way to spend money,” he summarized, adding that he didn’t have anything to say about that. “But then there’s sort of like, ‘Oh, this is so much that it is going to overshoot potential output, and there’s a risk that we’re going to get overheating, and then inflation.’” He continued: “What is the definition of overheating? It’s a great word, it evokes all kinds of images, but it’s kind of like potential output is always a strange concept anyway. Can output be too high?”

PCE Price Index: February Core at 1.41% -  The BEA's Personal Income and Outlays for February was published this morning by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The latest Headline PCE price index was up 0.23% month-over-month (MoM) and is up 1.55% year-over-year (YoY). Core PCE is now at 1.41%, below the Fed's 2% target rate.  The adjacent thumbnail gives us a close-up of the trend in YoY Core PCE since January 2012. The first string of red data points highlights the 12 consecutive months when Core PCE hovered in a narrow range around its interim low. The second string highlights the lower range from late 2014 through 2015. Core PCE shifted higher in 2016 with a decline in 2017, 2019, and 2020. The first chart below shows the monthly year-over-year change in the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index since 2000. Also included is an overlay of the Core PCE (less Food and Energy) price index, which is Fed's preferred indicator for gauging inflation. The two percent benchmark is the Fed's conventional target for core inflation. Most recently, the Fed reviewed their monetary policy strategy and longer-term goals and released a statement, mentioning its federal mandate to promote "maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate long-term interest rates". They also confirmed their commitment to using the two percent benchmark as a lower limit:The Committee reaffirms its judgment that inflation at the rate of 2 percent, as measured by the annual change in the price index for personal consumption expenditures, is most consistent over the longer run with the Federal Reserve's statutory mandate.

Chicago Fed: "Index suggests economic growth declined in February" -  "Index suggests economic growth declined in February." This is the headline for this morning's release of the Chicago Fed's National Activity Index, and here is the opening paragraph from the report: Led by declines in indicators related to production and personal consumption and housing, the Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI) fell to –1.09 in February from +0.75 in January. Two of the four broad categories of indicators used to construct the index made negative contributions in February, but all four categories decreased from January. The index’s three-month moving average, CFNAI-MA3, decreased to –0.02 in February from +0.46 in January. [Download report] The Chicago Fed's National Activity Index (CFNAI) is a monthly indicator designed to gauge overall economic activity and related inflationary pressure. It is a composite of 85 monthly indicators as explained in this background PDF file on the Chicago Fed's website. The index is constructed so a zero value for the index indicates that the national economy is expanding at its historical trend rate of growth. Negative values indicate below-average growth, and positive values indicate above-average growth. The first chart below shows the recent behavior of the index since 2007. The red dots show the indicator itself, which is quite noisy, together with the 3-month moving average (CFNAI-MA3), which is more useful as an indicator of the actual trend for coincident economic activity.

Q4 GDP Growth Revised up to 4.3% Annual Rate; PCE Growth Revised Down to 2.3% From the BEA: Gross Domestic Product, (Third Estimate), GDP by Industry, and Corporate Profits, Fourth Quarter and Year 2020: Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 4.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2020, according to the "third" estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the third quarter, real GDP increased 33.4 percent.The "third" estimate of GDP released today is based on more complete source data than were available for the "second" estimate issued last month. In the second estimate, the increase in real GDP was 4.1 percent. The upward revision primarily reflected an upward revision to private inventory investment that was partly offset by a downward revision to nonresidential fixed investment Here is a Comparison of Second and Advance Estimates. PCE growth was revised down to 2.3% from 2.4%. Residential investment was revised up from 35.8% to 36.6%. This was above the consensus forecast.

Q1 GDP Forecasts -- Note that the forecasts of the automated systems (based on released data) are declining, whereas the forecasts of economists have been increasing anticipating strong growth in economic activity in Marchdue to the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. From BofA yesterday:  "Total card spending, as measured by BAC aggregated card data, increased 45% 1-yr and 23% 2-yr for the 7-days ending Mar 20.  The strong gain owes to the latest stimulus: total card spending for stimulus recipients is running 40% above the Feb avg."  From Merrill Lynch:   1Q GDP tracking stands at 7.0% qoq saar. [Mar 26 estimate]   From Goldman Sachs:  We left our Q1 GDP tracking estimate unchanged at +7.5% (qoq ar). [Mar 26 estimate]   From the NY Fed Nowcasting Report  The New York Fed Staff Nowcast stands at 6.1% for 2021:Q1 and 0.7% for 2021:Q2. [Mar 26 estimate] And from the Atlanta Fed: GDPNow:The GDPNow model estimate for real GDP growth (seasonally adjusted annual rate) in the first quarter of 2021 is 4.7 percent on March 26, down from 5.4 percent on March 24. [Mar 26 estimate]

Social Security gives IRS data to speed delivery of COVID-19 relief checks -The Social Security Administration (SSA) on Thursday sent the IRS data necessary to deliver coronavirus stimulus checks to people receiving government assistance after lawmakers expressed alarm that the payments were delayed. President Biden on March 11 signed into law Democrats' $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package, which provides relief checks of up to $1,400 per person, similar to previous rounds of direct payments. But nearly 30 million people receiving Social Security and Supplemental Security Income benefits had yet to automatically receive their checks. The delay was a result of the SSA being unable to immediately transfer data to the IRS upon the law's enactment on those beneficiaries who don't have to file tax returns because their incomes fall below the minimum threshold. A spokesperson for the SSA told The Hill on Wednesday evening that the agency didn't have the authorization to send the beneficiary files before the pandemic relief law was enacted, despite preliminary discussions with the IRS. The SSA had to first establish a reimbursable agreement with the IRS to fund the work providing the files, and then had to test the new system. But the agency had expected to deliver the final files to the IRS by Thursday. Senior Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee had demanded Wednesday that the SSA deliver the beneficiary information to the IRS within 24 hours. The lawmakers said Thursday that they were informed by the SSA that it had transmitted the files to the IRS at 8:48 a.m. "We are gratified that the SSA leadership finally recognized the urgency of the moment and acted swiftly on our ultimatum," House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) and Democratic Reps. Bill Pascrell (N.J.), Danny K. Davis (Ill.) and John Larson (Conn.) said in a joint statement. "The delays imposed by [SSA] Commissioner [Andrew] Saul defied congressional intent and imposed needless anxiety and pain on taxpayers. Now the IRS needs to do its job and get these overdue payments out to suffering Americans. Further delays will not be tolerated by this committee," the lawmakers added. The Ways and Means members had also expressed concern about delayed stimulus checks for people who receive Veterans Affairs and Railroad Retirement Board benefits and similarly don't normally have to file tax returns and should receive checks automatically based on their beneficiary status. Those agencies also only just transmitted information on beneficiaries to the IRS this week. Despite the delay, Saul said the SSA ultimately provided the IRS with the necessary files about a week faster than it did during the first round of stimulus checks last year.

 USDA increasing SNAP benefits with pandemic relief funds - The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced on Monday that it would be increasing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, also known as food stamps, by 15 percent through funds from Democrats' $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill. According to a press release from the White House, the increase will provide around $3.5 billion to around 41 million people in households experiencing food insecurity, working out to an average $28 more per person every month, varying from state to state. “We cannot sit by and watch food insecurity grow in the United States,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in the release. “The American Rescue Plan brings help to those hurting the most due to the pandemic. It increases SNAP benefits so households can afford to put food on the table. It invests in working people and small towns and small businesses to get the economy back on track. And it makes the most meaningful investments in generations to reduce poverty.” The USDA plan will also provide $1 billion in nutrition assistance to Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands and American Samoa. An additional $1.135 billion will be provided to U.S. states over three years, which they will not be required to match. The additional funds will also go toward expanding online SNAP purchases as well as the development of "mobile payment technologies," to help with SNAP benefits. "With these investments, we hope to make it easier for participants, especially individuals in rural areas, as well as those with physical limitations, to order and pay for their groceries online," the USDA said in its plan.

Biden Team Prepares $3 Trillion in New Spending for the Economy - — President Biden’s economic advisers are pulling together a sweeping $3 trillion package to boost the economy, reduce carbon emissions and narrow economic inequality, beginning with a giant infrastructure plan that may be financed in part through tax increases on corporations and the rich.After months of internal debate, Mr. Biden’s advisers are expected to present the spending proposal to the president and congressional leaders this week, as well as begin outreach to industry and labor groups. On Monday, Mr. Biden’s national climate adviser, Gina McCarthy, discussed his infrastructure plans — and their role in combating climate change — in a meeting with oil and gas industry executives.Administration officials caution that details remain in flux. But the enormous scope of the proposal highlights the aggressive approach the Biden administration wants to take as it tries to harness the power of the federal government to make the economy more equitable, address climate change, and improve American manufacturing and high-technology industries in an escalating battle with China.The $1.9 trillion economic aid package that Mr. Biden signed into law this month includes money to help vulnerable people and businesses survive the pandemic downturn. But it does little to advance the longer-term economic agenda that Mr. Biden campaigned on, including transitioning to renewable energy and improving America’s ability to compete in emerging industries, like electric vehicles. Administration officials essentially see those goals — building out the nation’s infrastructure and shifting to a low-carbon future — as inseparable. The package under consideration would begin that effort in earnest. “President Biden’s plan represents a stunning shift in priorities, addressing many of the nation’s most pressing challenges,” said Seth Hanlon, a senior fellow at the liberal Center for American Progress think tank, contrasting the plan with the priorities of Mr. Biden’s predecessor President Donald J. Trump. “As reported, the plan is very wide-ranging, reflecting the fact that we’ve underinvested in so many areas.”Just how to approach the legislative strategy is still under discussion given the size of the proposal and the thin majority that Democrats hold in the House and the Senate. Mr. Biden’s advisers plan to recommend that the effort be broken into pieces, with Congress tackling infrastructure before turning to a second package that would include more people-focused proposals, like free community college, universal prekindergarten and a national paid leave program. Some White House officials believe the focus of the first package may be more appealing to Republicans, business leaders and many moderate Senate Democrats, given the longstanding bipartisan push in Washington for an infrastructure bill.

White House eyes sweeping $3T spending proposal - The Biden administration is preparing a massive spending proposal on infrastructure and other domestic priorities like child care and drug costs that could put fights over hot-button issues like climate change and taxes front and center. A source familiar with the plans confirmed that administration officials are eyeing $3 trillion as the topline figure for its Build Back Better jobs and infrastructure proposal, though they cautioned talks are fluid and the final number could change. The sweeping package would constitute the White House’s follow-up to the $1.9 trillion economic relief measure signed into law earlier this month. The new package is expected to be split into two separate bills. The first would focus on infrastructure, with spending on manufacturing and climate change measures, broadband and 5G, and the nation’s roads and bridges. The other measure would include funds for pre-K programs, free community college tuition, child tax credits and health care subsidies, according to multiple reports. The White House declined to confirm details of the proposal, saying nothing had been finalized. "President Biden and his team are considering a range of potential options for how to invest in working families and reform our tax code so it rewards work, not wealth,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement Monday. “Those conversations are ongoing, so any speculation about future economic proposals is premature and not a reflection of the White House's thinking.” The administration has signaled for weeks that it planned to tackle infrastructure after getting the COVID-19 relief bill across the finish line. The issue has generally received bipartisan support, and President Biden has already met with members of both parties to discuss a potential deal. But there’s daylight between Democrats and Republicans on how to pay for such a package. Republicans have balked at tax increases, particularly amid the pandemic. Biden has previously voiced support for raising the corporate tax rate to 28 percent. The rate was lowered from 35 percent to 21 percent under a 2017 tax-cut law. Progressives are also likely to push for tax increases on wealthy Americans, which polling suggests is supported by a majority of the country. The approaching fight could force the White House and Senate Democrats to make critical choices in how to move forward. Democrats will be forced to choose between budget reconciliation, which requires only a simple majority in each chamber for passage, or securing at least 10 GOP votes in the 50-50 Senate. Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.), an influential moderate Democrat, has signaled he would like to work through regular order to pass an infrastructure package. Looming over the upcoming talks are the increasing calls from Democrats to modify or do away with the legislative filibuster, which requires 60 votes in the Senate to move forward with a bill. “I think they’re going to try to give regular order a try, and they’re going to see what negotiations look like before definitely making a decision about how they want to proceed in the end,”

POLITICS: Republicans won't 'take the bait' on infrastructure -- Wednesday, March 24, 2021 -- Top congressional Republicans are warning Democrats against splitting up the upcoming infrastructure package, raising new doubts for the prospects of bipartisan cooperation on a top Biden priority in the months ahead.

Democrats: legislate the society you want to live in first; worry about how to pay for it afterward -- I want to add my voice to and amplify several themes I have read elsewhere in recent weeks. To summarize:

• 1. If there is no majority to kill the Senate filibuster, reforming it into an actual talking filibuster is almost as good, and maybe even better.
• 2. Each element of the democratic constituency should have at least one tangible and visible priority of theirs enacted during the Congress, and all other democratic constituencies should support that enactment, so that at midterm election time, Democrats have something to tout to their voters.
• 3. In contrast to how democrats governed when they had both the Presidency and Congressional majorities in 1993-94 and 2009-10, when they adopted “pay-go,” meaning they had to come up with revenue sources before passing their actual priorities, they should reverse the order now: enact the programs they think are important, and worry about paying for them later.

Let me discuss each of the above in a little more detail in turn.. Right now the Senate rules are exactly what the GOP wants them to be: they were able to fill all the judicial vacancies left behind from the Obama years, plus all the new ones with right wing ideologues, via simple majority. Similarly, they only needed a simple majority for tax cuts. Since the GOP does not want any new legislation, and can strangle existing laws simply by refusing to enforce them, they don’t care about a 60 vote supermajority for passing new legislation. Meanwhile Democrats need 60 votes to pass all of the important legislation that they have been begging for in some cases going all the way back to 1980. This situation is anathema. The filibuster must be changed.  The cudgel that the GOP always held over Democrats is that they would be willing to repeal or privatize even the Crown Jewels of the 20th Century Democratic agenda - Social Security and Medicare - if they got majorities not subject to Democratic filibuster. At this point Democrats should be willing to call the GOP’s bluff. If the GOP were to do such a thing, not only would they be signing their own death warrants, but Democrats should promise to reenact those programs in full and retroactively once they get back into power.  Once this bluff is called, the question remains what to do about the filibuster. I actually think that maintaining it, but requiring a real, old-fashioned talking filibuster is the best option - and it seems to be supported by Biden, Manchin, and several other old-school Democrats.Retaining a talking filibuster means that if the GOP ever achieves a governing trifecta, while Democrats couldn’t *prevent* the enactment of the GOP agenda, they could make it front page news for several weeks while they hold the floor of the Senate in protest. During that time it’s not too difficult to imagine that outraged citizens would be deluging their GOP Senators with opposition and disapproval, in the cases of popular economic programs in particular. In such a case, even minority Democrats might wind up prevailing.

 Democrats Continue to Prop Up High Cost Medical System by Buying Health Insurance -When Democrats pushed through a two-year expansion of the Affordable Care Act in the covid-relief bill this month, many people celebrated the part that will make health insurance more affordable for more Americans.But health care researchers consider this move a short-term fix for a long-term crisis, one that avoids confronting an uncomfortable truth: The only clear path to expanding health insurance remains yet more government subsidies for commercial health plans, which are the most costly form of coverage.The reliance on private plans — a hard-fought compromise in the 2010 health law that was designed to win over industry — already costs taxpayers tens of billions of dollars each year, as the federal government picks up a share of the insurance premiums for about 9 million Americans.The ACA’s price tag will now rise higher because of the recently enacted $1.9 trillion covid relief bill. The legislation will direct some $20 billion more to insurance companies by making larger premium subsidies available to consumers who buy qualified plans.And if Democrats want to continue the aid beyond 2022, when the relief bill’s added assistance runs out, the tab is sure to balloon further.“The expansion of coverage is the path of least resistance,” said Paul Starr, a Princeton University sociologist and leading authority on the history of U.S. health care who has termed this dynamic a “health policy trap.”“Insurers don’t have much to lose. Hospitals don’t have much to lose. Pharmaceutical companies don’t have much to lose,” Starr observed. “But the result is you end up adding on to an incredibly expensive system.”By next year, taxpayers will shell out more than $8,500 for every American who gets a subsidized health plan through insurance marketplaces created by the ACA, often called Obamacare. That’s up an estimated 40% from the cost of the marketplace subsidies in 2020, due to the augmented aid, data from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office indicates.Supporters of the aid package, known as the American Rescue Plan, argue the federal government had to move quickly to help people struggling during the pandemic.

 Congress passes two-month PPP extension -- Bankers were quick to applaud Congress for passing the Paycheck Protection Program Act Extension Act. The bill, which was approved by the Senate Thursday after clearing the House of Representatives last week, extends the program’s funding authority from March 31 to May 31. The bill, which President Biden is expected to sign it shortly, also gives the Small Business Administration until June 30 to process applications. “Providing an additional two months for small business borrowers to access PPP funding and an extra month for SBA to process PPP loans is a common-sense step that will support the economic recovery,” American Bankers Association President and CEO Rob Nichols said in a press release. “The banking industry has moved heaven and earth to remain a source of strength for small businesses and welcomes the extended timeline to assist even more of the hardest-hit businesses through this program,” Richard Hunt, president and CEO of the Consumer Bankers Association President and CEO, said in a separate release. With the extension of the PPP’s lending authority all but assured, the question shifts to how long the remaining funding, estimated at about $79 billion, will last. Though a number of large lenders have stopped accepting applications, many including Truist Financial have indicated that they would consider reopening their portals if Congress extended the program. JPMorgan Chase, the nation’s biggest PPP lender, plans to extend its PPP lending activity following the Senate vote, a spokeswoman said.

 Top admiral: Possibility China tries to invade Taiwan 'closer to us than most think' - The possibility of China trying to invade Taiwan could happen sooner than most people think, the admiral nominated to lead U.S. military forces in the Indo-Pacific region said Tuesday. Adm. John Aquilino, currently the head of U.S. Pacific Fleet, made the comment while testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee for his confirmation hearing to become head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (Indo-Pacom). Asked by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) about a recent prediction from the current head of Indo-Pacom that China could try to invade Taiwan in as little as six years, Aquilino declined to endorse that specific timeline, saying “there’s many numbers out of there” ranging from “today to 2045.” But Aquilino did suggest he thinks it is liable to happen sooner rather than later, saying Beijing views annexing Taiwan as its “No. 1 priority.” “The rejuvenation of the Chinese Communist Party is at stake” when it comes to Taiwan, Aquilino said. “My opinion is this problem is much closer to us than most think, and we have to take this on,” he added, advocating that a multibillion-dollar fund known as the Pacific Deterrence Initiative (PDI) be put in place “in the near term and with urgency.” The current commander of Indo-Pacom, Adm. Philip Davidson, has proposed Congress provide the PDI with about $4.7 billion in fiscal 2022 and about $27 billion through fiscal 2027 to fund items such as an Aegis Ashore missile defense system on Guam, upgrades to training ranges and expanded wargames. Asked later Tuesday about the Defense Department’s confidence in the military’s ability to prevent China from moving on Taiwan, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby declined to “speculate about potential future operations” but said “nobody wants this to result in conflict.” “The secretary is concerned at the significant changes that have been taking place in the PRC’s strategic forces,” Kirby said, referring to the People’s Republic of China. “And he's also concerned about the lack of transparency by Beijing about what they're doing. We would certainly welcome greater transparency about both their intentions and their modernization program. But again, nobody's interested in seeing this resulting conflict of any kind.” U.S.-Chinese tensions have picked up in recent weeks as the Biden administration raises concerns with Beijing's human rights and economic abuses and other aggressive behavior in the Indo-Pacific region. The administration is also seeking to cooperate with China in areas of mutual concern, such as climate change. But the Biden administration’s first meeting with Chinese officials, which took place last week in Alaska, quickly turned into a verbal sparring match. After Davidson’s prediction earlier this month that China could try to invade Taiwan in as little as six years, Beijing accused Washington of hyping up the threat.

Russia says US refused Biden-Putin call amid tensions --The Russian Foreign Ministry is blaming the United States for hurting relations by refusing a proposal to hold a live-broadcast discussion between President Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin. “We regret to note that the American side has not supported the proposal made by President of Russia Vladimir Putin to US President Joe Biden to hold a live-broadcast discussion on March 19 or 22, 2021, on the problems that have accumulated in bilateral relations, as well as on the subject of strategic stability,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “One more opportunity has been missed to find a way out of the deadlock in Russian-US relations created through the fault of Washington. Responsibility for this lies entirely with the United States,” the statement reads. Biden on Friday had given the proposal the cold shoulder, saying in response to a question about the offer: “I’m sure we’ll talk at some point.” Biden has signaled a tougher line with Russian than former President Trump, agreeing with a television anchor's question last week that Putin was a "killer," and adding that sanctions on Russia will “come in time.” In the March 17 interview with ABC News, Biden also warned that the Kremlin will “pay a price” for its efforts to interfere in the 2020 election. In response, Putin, during a televised video conference, wished Biden “good health.”  “What would I tell him?” I would say ‘stay healthy.’ I wish him good health. I am saying this without irony or joking,” Putin said. Putin also gave an "it-takes-one-to-know-one" reply in response to Biden's comments, pointing to the U.S. history of slavery, killing Native Americans and the World War II atomic bombing of Japan, The Associated Press reported.. Russia’s foreign ministry on Wednesday withdrew its ambassador to the U.S. following Biden’s remarks, writing in a statement that the envoy was brought back “in order to analyse what needs to be done in the context of relations with the United States.” According to a report from TASS New Agency, the ambassador returned to Russia on Sunday.

As COVID-19 surges in Europe, NATO steps up threats against Russia and China - As COVID-19 cases and variants spread across Europe, NATO foreign ministers met in two days of talks in Brussels that ended yesterday. The summit again exposed the NATO governments’ utter contempt for human life. NATO, the alliance between the United States, Canada and Europe that includes most of the world’s wealthy countries, has seen over 1.3 million of its citizens die of COVID-19. Its collective military spending in 2020, of $1.03 trillion, dwarfs the projected cost of vaccinating the world’s population, projected at roughly $100 billion. Yet the summit announced no new measures on the pandemic, launching instead a NATO 2030 initiative to prepare for nuclear war with Russia and China. The first major NATO summit since Joe Biden’s inauguration as US president, it was billed as an attempt to reaffirm US commitment to NATO after the public breakdown of relations between the European powers and Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump. Trump not only mocked NATO as “obsolete” but threatened European powers with hundreds of billions of dollars in trade war tariffs and speculated about using nuclear weapons in Europe. The summit opened on Tuesday with a joint press conference between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. Blinken began by stressing both the current “pivotal moment” for the NATO alliance and “the United States’ steadfast commitment to that alliance. … I’ve come to Brussels because the United States wants to rebuild our partnerships, first and foremost, with our NATO allies. We want to revitalize the alliance to make sure it’s as strong and effective against the threats of today as it has been in the past.” The conference showed that NATO is trying to band together on a program of “herd immunity” against their populations at home and military threats abroad. They are plunging trillions into their militaries—made available by maintaining nonessential production and thus ensuring continued mass infections among workers—in order to further threaten Russia and China. Stoltenberg set out the summit agenda. “I strongly welcome the Biden administration’s message on rebuilding alliances and strengthening NATO. This is what our NATO 2030 initiative is all about. Because we face great global challenges: Russia’s destabilizing activities, the threat of terrorism, cyber attacks and nuclear proliferation, disruptive technologies, and the rise of China, and the security impact of global warming and climate change.”  The claim that the NATO alliance supports deterrence—that is, policies to discourage the use of nuclear weapons—is a fraud. Its members, led by the United States, have scrapped multiple arms control treaties, including the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty in 2001 and the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty in 2018, in order to escalate pressure on Russia and China. Stoltenberg dishonestly blamed the resulting nuclear arms race not on NATO, which canceled the arms control treaties, but on its targets.

 Russia and China Are Sending Biden a Message: Don’t Judge Us or Try to Change us. Those Days Are Over - The past week has marked a watershed moment in Russia’s relations with the West — and the US in particular. In two dramatic, televised moments, US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin have changed the dynamics between their countries perhaps irrevocably.Most commentators in the West have focused on Putin’s “trolling” of Biden by dryly — though, according to Putin, unironically — wishing his American counterpart “good health”. This, of course, came after Biden called Putin a “killer”.But a more careful and complete reading of Putin’s message to the US is necessary to understand how a Russian leader is, finally, ready to tell the US: do not judge us by your claimed standards, and do not try to tell us what to do.Putin has never asserted these propositions so bluntly. And it matters when he doesThe tense test of strength began when Biden was asked about Putin in an interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos and agreed he was “a killer” and didn’t have a soul. He also said Putin will “pay a price” for his actions.Putin then took the unusual step of going on the state broadcaster VGTRK with a prepared five-minute statement in response to Biden.In an unusually pointed manner, Putin recalled the US history of genocide of its Indigenous people, the cruel experience of slavery, the continuing repression of Black Americans today and the unprovoked US nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the second world war.He suggested states should not judge others by their own standards:Whatever you say about others is what you are yourself.Some American journalists and observers have reacted to this as “trolling”. It was not.Putin invited Biden to hold a live online conversation; Biden said he’s sure they’ll talk ‘at some point’.It was the preamble to Putin’s most important message in years to what he called the American “establishment, the ruling class”. He said the US leadership is determined to have relations with Russia, but only “on its own terms”.Although they think that we are the same as they are, we are different people. We have a different genetic, cultural and moral code. But we know how to defend our own interests.And we will work with them, but in those areas in which we ourselves are interested, and on those conditions that we consider beneficial for ourselves. And they will have to reckon with it. They will have to reckon with this, despite all attempts to stop our development. Despite the sanctions, insults, they will have to reckon with this. This is new for Putin. He has for years made the point, always politely, that Western powers need to deal with Russia on a basis of correct diplomatic protocols and mutual respect for national sovereignty, if they want to ease tensions. But never before has he been as blunt as this, saying in effect: do not dare try to judge us or punish us for not meeting what you say are universal standards, because we are different from you. Those days are now over.

North Korea’s new missile a strategic game-changer– North Korea’s ballistic missiles tested on March 25 were a new, advanced model that confounds defenses, state media revealed today.The tests received a lukewarm reaction from US President Joe Biden and South Korean President Moon Jae-in. But the revelation about the missile’s new capability – notably, its unpredictable flight path – sparked fevered analysis in South Korea given the challenges and complications it presents for Seoul’s defense doctrines.More worryingly for defense planners in Japan and the US as well as South Korea, maneuverable ballistic missiles were just one item on a long, ambitious list of new weapon systems North Korean leader Kim Jong Un announced were under development in January.Thursday’s test suggests that the other capabilities Kim announced during the Workers Party Congress (WPC) must be taken seriously. This presents major problems for South Korea, and more distantly, Japan and the US.Even if the new class of North Korean military assets are set to be used as bargaining chips in possible future negotiations, to be credible as leverage they must be credible as threats, which, in turn, requires credible defensive mechanisms.The latter represent a steep, perhaps impossible, challenge for Seoul while adding yet further fuel to an ongoing regional arms race.North Korea’s Sunday test launch of cruise missiles, which fly on flat trajectories, raised few eyebrows. But Thursday’s test of ballistic missiles that fly in a parabola did. They represented the first such missile launches since March 2020 and so the first of the Biden administration. Though the missiles tested yesterday were short to medium range and thus lack the distance to hit the US mainland, their launch breaches UN Security Council resolutions. Pyongyang, however, has a long tradition of ignoring global censure.Asked about the tests during the first press conference of his nascent presidency, Biden was measured, according to reports from Washington.“We’re consulting with our allies and partners and there will be responses if they choose to escalate,” he said. “We will respond accordingly.” Biden also said that North Korea represents the greatest foreign policy threat to the US.

Medea Benjamin: 10 Things Wrong With Biden’s Foreign Policy (video and transcript) Hi, I’m Paul Jay, and welcome to  theAnalysis.news. Please don’t forget, there’s a donate button at the top of the web page. And if you’re watching on YouTube, you could hit the subscribe button. You can also come on over and hit the donate button.In a recent article in Common Dreams, Medea Benjamin and Nicholas Davies write, “By the end of his second term, Obama did have two significant diplomatic achievements with the signing of the Iran nuclear deal and normalization of relations with Cuba. So progressive Americans who voted for Biden had some grounds to hope that his experience as Obama’s vice president would lead him to quickly restore and build on Obama’s achievements with Iran and Cuba as a foundation for the broader diplomacy he promised.Instead, the Biden administration seems firmly entrenched behind the walls of hostility Trump built between America and our neighbors, from his renewed Cold War against China and Russia to his brutal sanctions against Cuba, Iran, Venezuela, Syria and dozens of countries around the world, and there’s still no word on cuts to a military budget that has grown by 15 percent since fiscal year 2015.”Medea has outlined 10 problems with Biden’s foreign policy, and she joins us now to discuss them. Medea is co-founder of Global Exchange and Code Pink, and she’s the author of the 2018 book, ‘Inside Iran: The Real History and Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran’. Her previous books include ‘Kingdom of the Unjust: Behind the US – Saudi Connection’ in 2016, ‘Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control’, and ‘Don’t Be Afraid, Gringo: A Honduran woman speaks from the heart’.Thanks for joining us, Medea. So let’s go through the 10, and we can just talk about each one as it goes. So here I’ll just read the heading of number one and then over to you. So the first one you have, is failing to quickly rejoin the Iran nuclear agreement. So where are we on this? Certainly, Biden promised to rejoin it when Jake Sullivan did an interview with Fareed Zakaria very early on in this administration. He, I thought, indicated that the United States was ready to rejoin, essentially without condition to rejoin the JCPOA…

The F-35 may be unsalvageable -The 2021 reviews of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) are in, and they are not glowing. On Jan. 14, 2021, then-Acting Department of Defense (DOD) Secretary Christopher Miller labeled the JSF a “piece of [expletive].” Then, on March 5, 2021, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.) called the program a “rathole,” and asked whether it was time to stop spending that much money for “such a low capability?” The JSF has become the embodiment of the DOD’s broken weapons acquisition system, which has been on the Government Accountability Office’s High-Risk List since 1990. The F-35 was originally conceived as the low-end of a high-low strategy consisting of numerous cheap aircraft that would replace Cold War workhorses like the F-16 and A-10 among other aircraft. The plan was for the JSF to be complimented by a smaller fleet of more advanced fighters, to be developed later. The program has been under continuous development since the contract was awarded in 2001 and has faced innumerable delays and cost overruns. Total acquisition costs now exceed $428 billion, nearly double the initial estimate of $233 billion, with projected lifetime operations and maintenance costs of $1.727 trillion.  The JSF has been plagued by a staggering array of persistent issues, many of which were highlighted in the fiscal year (FY) 2019 DODOperational Test and Evaluation Annual Report, which revealed 873 unresolved deficiencies including 13 Category 1 items, involving the most serious flaws that could endanger crew and aircraft. While this is an overall reduction from the 917 unresolved deficiencies and 15 Category 1 items found in September 2018, the report stated that “although the program is working to fix deficiencies, new discoveries are still being made, resulting in only a minor decrease in the overall number of deficiencies.” Many of the problems with the program can be traced to the decision to develop and procure the aircraft simultaneously. Whenever problems have been identified, contractors needed to go back and make changes to planes that were already assembled, adding to overall costs. Despite the abject failure of the JSF, the DOD is revisiting the high-low approach. According to Air Force Chief of Staff General Charles Brown, the F-35, intended to serve as a low-end utilitarian aircraft, is now a high-end sports car: “You don’t drive your Ferrari to work every day, you only drive it on Sundays.” On March 10, 2021, the Air Force accepted deliveryof the first of 144 upgraded F-15EXs. Gen. Brown is targeting the FY 2023 budget request to fund an F-16 replacement. The old low-end has become the new high-end, and those F-16s and A-10s still need to be replaced.

Disturbing video captures migrants drowning in Rio Grande -- A tragic video appears to show young migrants drowning in the Rio Grande, a deadly turn in the escalating border crisis. The footage, captured by fisherman Jesus Vargas, shows three people in the water near the border town of Laredo, Texas, with only their heads bobbing above the surface. “You don’t have life jackets, nothing? They’re drowning, these guys!” Vargas is heard shouting at US Border Patrol agents standing on the shoreline nearby. “That girl didn’t come out no more!” Vargas yells of one apparent victim. He used his fishing reel to save one boy, about 13 years old, but he claims a woman and two teenage boys drowned. Border Patrol said only two people died. The incident took place after agents “foiled a human smuggling attempt,” the agency’s Laredo sector posted on Facebook. The post said that agents saw several people attempt to swim across the river into Mexico and that some were taken into custody while others safely made it to the Mexican riverbank. “Two individuals succumbed to the dangerous currents of the Rio Grande river and perished,” the statement said.

US attempting to house 15K unaccompanied immigrant children -- US government officials are scrambling to find bed space for some 15,500 unaccompanied immigrant children who have poured over the southern border in record numbers. US Customs and Border Protection officials reported Saturday that more than 5,000 minor immigrants are being held in facilities along the Mexican border — including a make-shift tent facility in southern Texas, CBS News reported. Nearly 10,500 others are being sheltered in emergency shelters by the Department of Health and Human Services, CBS said. The border crisis comes as Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Sunday that unaccompanied minors will not be turned away. But border officials are being overwhelmed by the numbers — more than 9,400 children crossed the border illegally last month, a February record, and the number is expected to spike again this month when more than 500 migrant minors are crossing daily. “The staggering number of children in CBP custody is both heartbreaking and profoundly concerning,” The children, who enter the US without their parents or another adult, are now spending an average of 136 hours in border patrol custody before being turned over to Heath and Human Services. The amount of time allowed under US law is 72 hours. HHS has been forced to open emergency makeshift facilities, including one in Pecos, Texas that was initially expected to accommodate 500 children. But the facility, once used to house oil workers, could be expanded to house as many as 2,000 of the unaccompanied children, CBS said.

Texas Democrat's office reveals photos of crowded Border Patrol facility --Photos released by Rep. Henry Cuellar's (D-Texas) office on Monday revealed crowded conditions in a temporary Customs and Border Protection (CBP) facility as the number of migrants trying to cross the southern border grows. The photos taken over the weekend show the makeshift accommodations for migrant children in an overflow facility in Donna, Texas. Many of the migrants are wearing masks, but are placed closely together amid the COVID-19 pandemic inside rooms walled off by what appears to be a clear tarp-like material. The Biden administration has not allowed independent journalists to visit the migrant holding facilities. Some lawmakers like Cuellar have visited the sites, however. A spokesperson for Cuellar declined to say who provided the photos to the border-district lawmaker. Cuellar told Axios, which first obtained the photos, that the facility amounted to "terrible conditions for the children" and that they should be moved into care from the Department of Health and Human Services instead of Customs and Border Protection. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday that the Biden administration is "working around the clock to move those children out of the Border Patrol facilities into the care and custody of the Department of Health and Human Services that shelters them." "I have said repeatedly from the very outset that a Border Patrol station is no place for a child," Mayorkas said. The Homeland Security secretary cited the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic for declining to allow reporters to view the southern border facilities, including during a visit with a bipartisan group of senators last week. Mayorkas also told "Fox News Sunday" that the administration is "working on providing footage so that the American public can see the Border Patrol stations." CBP announced the opening of the Donna facility in February to provide extra processing capacity for migrants in its custody while a permanent processing center in McAllen, Texas, is undergoing renovations.

ICE inks $86.9 million deal to lodge migrants in hotels -- US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has inked an $89.6 million contract with a Texas nonprofit to shelter Central American migrants in hotel rooms while the feds process a massive backlog of new arrivals at the border, according to the agency and reports.The eight-figure deal was announced Saturday, as migrants continued to arrive at the border at a ratenot seen in 20 years, including unaccompanied children crammed into jail-like detention centers to await transfer to federal shelters across the country.ICE “has signed a short-term contract with the non-profit division of Endeavors to provide temporary shelter and processing services for families who have not been expelled and are therefore placed in immigration proceedings for their removal from the United States,” said ICE Acting Director Tae D. Johnson in a statement. “The $86.9 million contract provides 1,239 beds and other necessary services.”The families will be put up in hotels close to the border, including in Texas and Arizona, under the deal, which is set to run six months but could be extended, Axios reported, citing officials from the federal Department of Homeland Security.Jon Allman, CEO of the San Antonio-based Endeavors, told Fox Business that the contract includes “critical services to migrant families, which is a continuation of services we have delivered to the migrant population since 2012.” Added Johnson, “The families will receive a comprehensive health assessment that includes COVID-19 testing.”

Rio Grande Valley border agents releasing migrants without court dates: reports --Border agents in the Rio Grande Valley were reportedly authorized on Sunday to release adults and families from U.S. custody before they've been given a date to appear in court for their hearings. The move from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is “intended to mitigate operational challenges, including risks to national security, during significant surges of illegal migration as currently exist in the Rio Grande Valley," according to documents obtained by NBC News. NBC notes that this procedure is a departure from CBP normally providing migrants with a "notice to appear" before they are released or sent to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). “In some cases, families are placed in removal proceedings further along in the release process rather than while they are at the Border Patrol station," a CBP spokeswoman told NBC News. "All families, however, are screened at the Border Patrol station, including the collection of biographical and biometric information and criminal and national security records checks." The Hill has reached out to CBP for further comment. Migrants who spoke to NBC said they were asked for contact information by border agents upon being released and were given documents that had “to be determined” court dates. They were reportedly told that they would be contacted within 30 days. However, other migrants said their contact information was not taken before being released and were instead given documents they were told to show local authorities if they were stopped while in the U.S. NBC reports that releasing adults and families will free up space for the surge of unaccompanied minors at the border. A report from Saturday found that there were 15,000 unaccompanied minors in U.S. custody. Hundreds of these minors have been kept in custody for longer than is legally allowed.

HHS asks Pentagon to house migrant children at two Texas bases - The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has asked the Pentagon to temporarily house unaccompanied migrant children at two Texas military installations, the Department of Defense (DOD) confirmed Tuesday. HHS sent a request for assistance to the Pentagon for specific use of a vacant dorm at Joint Base San Antonio, in Lackland, and vacant land at Fort Bliss outside of El Paso, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters. Kirby could not say if the request included the number of children that would be housed at each location, saying he had not seen the document and referring further questions to HHS. “We have just received this request so I don’t have much more detail than that. We’ll analyze it and evaluate it just like we would any other request for assistance,” he said. The two bases had previously not been disclosed as under consideration to house migrant children, who have increased in number at the southwestern border in recent months. While the Biden administration is deporting most single adults and families attempting to cross the border illegally, it is not doing the same to unaccompanied children. HHS-run shelters typically house the minors before they can be released to parents or other sponsors in the United States, but the department’s facilities have become strained under the current flood of border crossings. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas acknowledged last week that the number of attempted crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border is expected to reach its highest level in 20 years. The Pentagon revealed in early March that the Bidenthat the Biden administration was considering Fort Lee, Va., about 30 miles south of Richmond, as a possible location to place some children and had conducted a site assessment. DOD has not yet received a formal request for assistance from HHS to use the Army facility. Kirby said HHS also held a site assessment at Joint Base San Antonio last week. He did not have information about such a visit to Fort Bliss. He added that he did not know of any other U.S. military locations under consideration by HHS. The United States in the past has used military bases to house unaccompanied children. In 2014 during the Obama administration, Joint Base San Antonio in Lackland; Naval Base Ventura County, Calif.; and Fort Sill, Okla., housed roughly 7,500 unaccompanied minors from Central America, but closed after four months. In 2019 under the Trump administration, the Pentagon was asked to find space to house up to 5,000 immigrant children.

Biden administration to open second facility for migrant children in Texas - The Biden administration plans to open a second facility to house migrant children in Texas amid a surge in accompanied minors traveling across the U.S.-Mexico border, officials said Tuesday. A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services’s (HHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) said in a statement that the second facility in Carrizo Springs, Texas, will have the capacity to house 500 children, with the possibility of additional semi-permanent housing in the future. The official said the facility will open when it “is ready to safely receive children,” adding it will serve as another location to “ensure children are moved into ORR shelters, where children receive educational, medical, mental health, and recreational services until they can be unified with families or sponsors without undue delay.” The announcement comes after the Biden administration faced bipartisan criticism for reopening a Trump-era facility for migrant children, also in Carrizo Springs, last month. While lawmakers and immigration advocates accused President Biden of hypocrisy after condemning the Trump administration’s treatment of migrants at the border, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at the time that the use of the facility for migrant children was a “temporary reopening during COVID-19.” “To ensure the health and safety of these kids, [HHS] took steps to open an emergency facility to add capacity where these kids can be provided the care they need before they are safely placed with families and sponsors," she added. Psaki said the Carrizo Springs location, which was open for one month under the Trump administration, was needed to adhere to social distancing guidelines amid the pandemic. The original Carrizo Springs facility houses up to 700 migrants ages 13 to 17, and while the ORR spokesperson said Tuesday that the office has “worked to build up its licensed bed capacity to about 13,500 beds" they said that "additional capacity is urgently needed to manage both enhanced COVID-19 mitigation strategies and the increasing numbers of UC referrals from DHS.” The spokesperson added that it is implementing certain measures to ensure the safety and wellbeing of children in the facilities, including implementing COVID-19 mitigation strategies, reducing the amount of time it take to unify an unaccompanied minor with a sponsor and establishing emergency intake sites to reduce overcrowding in Customs and Border Protection (CBP) facilities. All children age 17 and younger who are found unaccompanied at the Southern border are transferred from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to the HHS refugee office. The plans shared by the ORR spokesperson come the same day the Department of Defense (DOD) confirmed that HHS has asked the Pentagon to temporarily house unaccompanied migrant children at two Texas military installations. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby did not specify while speaking to reporters if the request included the number of children that would be housed at each location, adding he had not seen the document and referring further questions to HHS.

San Diego Convention Center to be used by Biden administration to detain 1,400 migrant children - Federal officials announced Tuesday that the San Diego Convention Center in downtown San Diego, California, will be used to hold up to 1,400 unaccompanied migrant children. The Biden administration is currently detaining over 14,000 children in federal custody. Over 9,500 children are held by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), while the remaining 4,500 are in the custody of Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The move to place 1,400 children in the convention center comes as photos have surfaced showing children sleeping on thin mats on hard floors in dire and overcrowded Customs and Border Protection holding cells. Earlier this week Representative Henry Cuellar (Democrat, Texas) shared photos of the facility in Donna, Texas, which is comprised of eight plastic sided “pods,” each with a 260-person occupancy, noting that one overcrowded pod held over 400 male minors. The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), part of the US Department of Health and Human Services, is responsible for the unaccompanied minors and normally runs 13,500 beds in official state-licensed immigration prisons for children. Responding to the recent surge in unaccompanied minors, the ORR has turned to other facilities and has added 7,852 beds, including the San Diego Convention Center, which could begin to hold children as soon as this weekend. A second facility for holding up to 500 children is being opened in Carrizo Springs, Texas, and HHS officials are seeking approval from the Pentagon to use an empty dormitory at Joint Base San Antonio and open land at Fort Bliss in El Paso for additional detention centers. Posing as a humanitarian, San Diego’s Democratic mayor Todd Gloria explained to reporters on Tuesday, “What we have are young people who are in unacceptable conditions and this condition [the convention center] can be better for them.” HHS plans to operate the site for three months with children held for up to 35 days in the convention center before being transferred to the custody of family or a guardian in the US. Gloria and San Diego County Board of Supervisors Chair Nathan Fletcher released a statement on Monday stating that the children “will be provided with food, medical care, a place to sleep and showers. A safe and secure recreation area will also be created on the exterior of the facility. The children are not permitted to leave the convention center until reunification occurs.” While the center is being hailed as a more “humane” place to hold children, the reality is that it remains a prison, one in full violation of the immigration laws to protect children from being detained for longer than 72 hours before being placed with a sponsor or family member.

Biden administration prepares to escalate deportations of families detained at the border -- Department of Homeland Security (DHS) data leaked to Axios indicates the Biden administration utilized “Title 42” to deport approximately 13 percent of the more than 13,000 migrants attempting to cross the US–Mexico border as a family between March 14 and March 21. According to the data, 42 percent of families were expelled to Mexico last month, down from 64 percent in January and 91 percent in October. The fall in the share of families being deported comes as the number of migrants, including unaccompanied children, crossing and being detained at the US–Mexico border has risen sharply. In addition to US immigration detention centers being overcrowded, Mexico has been unable to take in more families expelled from the US. However, the Axios report made clear that the Biden administration is working to ramp up deportations. A DHS spokesman told the website that the US is “working with our partners in Mexico to increase their capacity.” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said at her regular press briefing Monday that there had been a delay in deportations in recent weeks since it “takes a minute to ensure there is proper transportation and steps in place to do that.” Psaki insisted that there are only “narrow, narrow circumstances in which families can’t be expelled.” Title 42 is a provision of federal law allowing the US government to deny migrants’ right to apply for asylum on American soil. Citing health concerns over COVID-19, the Biden administration deported more than 70,000 migrants under the law in February. At the time, this accounted for 70 percent of migrants detained that month. Families that have not been immediately kicked back to Mexico face an uncertain future. They will be allowed to remain in the US as they go through immigration proceedings. However, there is no guarantee the migrants will be granted asylum. Because immigration proceedings can take years, families could make a new home in America, only to be forcibly removed some time later. Despite the increase in migrants being allowed into the US, the Biden administration has declared that migrants who are caught crossing the border outside official ports of entry will eventually be sent back to Mexico. “Our policy remains that families are expelled, and in situations where expulsion is not possible due to Mexico’s inability to receive the families, they are placed into removal proceedings,” a DHS spokesperson told Axios . .

Susan Collins on her border trip: 'This is a crisis' --Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) on Thursday after a trip to the southern border called the conditions there and the “huge influx” of migrants a “crisis.” Collins was a part of a Senate delegation visiting the border. “I spent the last 3 hours with Border Patrol on night shift in McAllen, TX,” Collins tweeted. “18 Senators learning about the huge influx, 3,000 people per day, including unaccompanied children, illegally entering.” President Joe Biden’s administration has had to open up six facilities in the past month in order to accommodate the number of migrants crossing the border. Three of those sites are dedicated to housing unaccompanied children. “Mexican cartels control who crosses the border. A young mother from Guatemala, sitting on an aluminum blanket with her 1-year-old, told me she paid smugglers $6,000,” Collins said. While Republicans are arguing the influx of migrants is due to Biden’s policies, Democrats are saying this is a normal influx because it is safer to cross the border in the spring due to the desert temperatures not being too hot. Biden at his first press conference as president on Thursday said the situation was unacceptable but said the wave of migrants wasn't happening because he's "a nice guy." "I’d like to think it’s because I’m a nice guy, but it’s not,” Biden said. “It happens every year.” Along with concerns about the influx of unaccompanied children and other migrants, Republicans are focusing on human trafficking and the cartel in their push for stricter immigration policies. “Border Patrol is overwhelmed, overworked, & discouraged by new policies,” Collins said. “Agents took us through a dangerous path to the Rio Grande where we could hear the Cartel members taunting us across the river,” said Collins. “Human trafficking, child abuse, & drug smuggling are rampant. This is a crisis.”

 Reporters ask Biden zero questions on COVID-19 -President Biden didn't get a single question at his first press conference about the coronavirus pandemic that has been the biggest story for the last year. Biden did make announcements related to the pandemic at the outset of the press conference, announcing his goal of administering 200 million vaccine shots to Americans by the end of his first 100 days in office. “We will, by my 100th day in office, have administered 200 million shots in people’s arms,” Biden said. “I know it’s ambitious — twice our original goal — but no other country in the world has come close, not even close, to what we’re doing.” Biden also announced a new $10 billion investment meant to expand vaccine uptake in minority and rural communities. But no reporters asked him about the pandemic, vaccinations or anything else related to the coronavirus during the more than an hour that Biden fielded questions on immigration, gun control and foreign policy. Biden took questions from 10 reporters on the filibuster, bipartisanship, withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, his plans to run for reelection and China. The surge of migrants at the southern border was the most popular topic. The lack of focus on the pandemic shows how the press’s attention is shifting from the health crisis to other issues, notably immigration and the filibuster. Biden’s chief of staff, Ron Klain, seemed to recognize the lack of questions on the pandemic, retweeting several tweets from journalists and political figures that noted the same. Bid

Enemy within: Experts warn US not learning from past pandemic mistakes -When it comes to combating COVID-19, experts and officials warn the U.S. is its own worst enemy as governors across the country lift restrictions and the public grows increasingly weary of pandemic life. The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned Monday that the U.S. is at “a fork in the road” on the pandemic, with the two extremes perhaps best illustrated by spring breakers partying in Florida over the weekend while about 1,000 people are dying of COVID-19 every day. Despite an aggressive pace of vaccination, the number of new infections across the country is rising in states across the Northeast and Upper Midwest and has essentially plateaued nationally. Nearly 83 million Americans have gotten at least one vaccine dose to date, including 69 percent of people over the age of 65. Vaccines offer the promise of a return to normality, and the more people get vaccinated, the quicker that can happen. But more infectious variants of the virus, particularly one first found in the United Kingdom, are adding to the threat of a new spike as they become more prevalent. Amid those competing factors, governors across the country are lifting restrictions, including capacity limits and mask mandates. Governors from both parties have pointed to the progress made in increasing vaccinations and decreasing hospitalizations as reasons for lifting restrictions, though some are going further than others. Experts say the U.S. is in a race between vaccines and variants, and by reopening too fast and ignoring public health recommendations, the country may be at risk of losing and bringing on another wave of infections just like the winter. “We have a hard time learning the lessons of even a few months ago, I think,” said Josh Michaud, associate director for global health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation. Revelers are packing the bars and streets in Miami and other spring break destinations. Miami Beach officials have declared a state of emergency and imposed a curfew due to the crowds, which the city’s Democratic mayor partially blamed on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) for throwing open the doors for tourists. “The problem is we’re still in the midst of a pandemic. It’s certainly not in our rearview mirror yet by any means and it certainly is not in my county, in my city. So that’s a challenge,” Mayor Dan Gelber (D) said in a CNN interview Monday. Despite CDC guidance against traveling, the Transportation Security Administration said more than 1.5 million people traveled through U.S. airports on Sunday, the first time since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic that aviation throughput has been this high. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said she needs people to keep following pandemic restrictions. “Believe me, I get it. We all want to return to our everyday activities and spend time with our family, friends and loved ones, but we must find the fortitude to hang in there for just a little bit longer,”

Trump's CDC director makes shocking statement about origin of COVID-19 in Wuhan lab - Former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Robert Redfield, who was at the helm of the government agency at the very beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in late 2019, spoke on CNN during the network’s upcoming retrospective on how the pandemic unfolded. Talking to Sanjay Gupta, Redfield opined on where he thinks the virus originated from. His best guess? A laboratory. “I am of the point of view that I still think the most likely etiology of this pathogen in Wuhan was from a laboratory,” he said.  He noted that it is not unusual for respiratory viruses and pathogens to escape from laboratories during experimentation, likely by infecting a scientist. The prevailing theory surrounding the origins of COVID-19 suggests that it stemmed from a wet foods market, where live animals and their meats are sold, potentially exposing humans to a myriad of viruses transmitted from animals. Redfield’s theory that the virus originated from a lab is bolstered by the fact that Wuhan — the COVID-19 epicenter — is home to the eponymous Wuhan Institute of Virology, which has reportedly experimented with bat coronaviruses in the past. “Normally when a pathogen goes from a zoonose to human, it takes a while for it to figure out how to become more and more efficient in human to human transmission,” he explained. “I just don’t think this makes biological sense.” Just as widely as this theory has been circulated, multiple entities have pushed back against it, including the World Health Organization and Chinese officials. Redfield emphasizes as well that this is simply his opinion as a private citizen and virologist. His colleague, infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci, recently responded to the comments on Friday at the White House. He said that “there are a number of theories,” and that there are still “other alternatives.” Fauci also added that the virus was also likely to have spread weeks or months prior to detection, giving it time to adapt and spread between humans more efficiently.

Postal Service Saboteur Louis DeJoy Is Making Biden And Congress Look Impotent – Or Worse - Many people are wondering why Biden hasn’t fired or suspended Trumpist postal saboteur Louis DeJoy whose goal has always been to wreck the postal system and who is continuing as though Trump were still in the White House. If Biden wanted to stop him, there have got to be ways to do so short of a much-deserved bullet between the eyes. This morning Washington Post reporter Jacob Bogage noted that “DeJoy will unveil the largest rollback of consumer mail services in a generation as part of his 10-year plan for the U.S. Postal Service, according to two people briefed on the proposal, including longer first-class delivery windows, reduced post office hours and higher postage prices.” This is super-unpopular with the public and at some point DeJoy’s cooties are going to run off on Biden– and congressional Democrats.His his 10-year plan for the U.S. Postal Service? DeJoy shouldn’t have had a 10-minute plan for the U.S. Postal Service once Biden was inaugurated. He should have had a plan of looking for another job. Bogage reported that today’s announcement was “part of DeJoy’s strategic vision for the agency, one that has left postal advocates wary of any changes that could further diminish operations. Mailing industry experts have warned that substantial service cuts could drive away business and worsen the Postal Service’s already battered balance sheet.” Flying right in the face of what the Congress and the White House claims is their vision– the one most voters opted for– DeJoy emphasized “the need for austerity to ensure more consistent delivery and rein in billions of dollars in financial losses, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive conversations. The agency is weighed down by $188.4 billion in liabilities, and DeJoy told a House panel last month that he expects the USPS to lose $160 billion over the next 10 years. The plan, which he told the panel was eight months in the making, is meant to reset expectations for the Postal Service and its place in the express-shipping market. It’s couched in the notion that the historically high package volumes of the pandemic era will persist, and reorients the agency around consumers who don’t use the mail service for letters, advertisements or business transactions as much as they once did. ‘Does it make a difference if it’s an extra day to get a letter?’ DeJoy told the House Oversight and Reform Committee in February. ‘Because something has to change. We cannot keep doing the same thing we’re doing.'” Bogage noted that DeJoy was rolling out his plan ‘as Democrats have renewed calls for his ousterand the removal of the agency’s governing board, which backs him and the proposals. More than 50 House Democrats last week asked President Biden to fire the board’s six sitting members for cause– citing ‘gross mismanagement,’ ‘self-inflicted’ nationwide mail delays and ‘rampant conflicts of interest’– and to allow a new slate of Biden nominees to consider DeJoy’s fitness for office. Biden already has nominated two Democrats and a voting rights advocate to fill three of four vacancies (board Chairman Ron Bloom, a Democrat, is serving in a one-year holdover term) on the board of governors. If confirmed by the Senate, Democrats and Biden appointees would hold a 5-to-4 majority with the votes to remove DeJoy, if desired.” Is there someone who think Schumer should call a vote on these nominations… yesterday?

Incomplete and Indecisive USPS Board Flounders and Awaits Direction - It is undecided yet, as to whether a newly assembled USPS Board of Governors would jointly act under the leadership of Ron Bloom, a Democrat and former Obama administration appointee, to dismiss PMG Louis DeJoy. President Biden has appointed three additional members to the Board including;

• – Ron Stroman, formerly the deputy postmaster general (resigned);
• – Amber McReynolds, a voting rights activist; and
• – Anton Hajjar, a former American Postal Workers Union official,

to fill the three vacancies currently open. The Senate still has to approve their appointments. If confirmed, the USPS Board of Governors would have all nine seats occupied for the first time in more than a decade. It would consist of a balanced makeup of four Republicans, four Democrats, and one independent.  It was thought that the Board would fire PMG Louis DeJoy. The Board is the only ones who can do such regardless of whether Congress stamps calls for such to happen. It also appears, the existing members appointed by former President Trump show little interest in firing DeJoy.  Democrat, Obama appointee, and Chair of the Board Ron Bloom has shown little interest in taking such action. Indeed, he reiterated recently he had worked with DeJoy on the 10-year business plan and he would support it. Previously. Ron Bloom helped write a helped write a National Association of Letters Carriers report castigating postal management for proposing to slash services and standards. Chairman Bloom is serving in a holdover year which will expire in December. He approved of DeJoy’s appointment last year (2020).  Campaign- minded Biden, vowed to fill the board vacancies, put the Postal Service on firmer financial footing, help postal employees join unions, and defend the agency’s obligation to deliver to every address in the country.  The postal board can only have five presidential-appointed members from the same party by law. Four board slots will expire in the next two years. Biden has an opportunity to take USPS leadership in a different direction in his first term if needed. Perhaps I am wrong; but, I believe Biden will sit this one out for a bit while he handles other pressing issues with the pandemic, McConnell, the economy, and getting as much done before the next election in 2022.

IRS researchers: Top 1 percent avoids taxes on one-fifth of their income - The top 1 percent of households in terms of income fail to report an astonishing 21 percent of their income to the IRS, according to a new paper co-authored by IRS researchers and prominent academics in the National Bureau of Economic Research. In comparison, the paper found that the bottom half of earners fail to report about 7 percent of their income. The IRS captures data on most wage income from employers, who report the wages they pay through W-2 forms. Other income, however, earned from freelance work, collecting rent, self-employment and other avenues, must be reported directly. Of the 21 percent of income unreported from the top tier of earners, 6 percent reportedly comes from avoidance methods that even audits would have trouble finding, such as undeclared foreign accounts and the use of pass-through businesses to hide income. In comparison to previous estimates, the study finds that unreported income is larger by a factor of 1.1, a figure that rises to 1.3 for the top 1 percent and 1.8 for the top 0.1 percent. Unreported income will account for some $600 billion in lost government revenues this year, and $7.5 trillion over a decade alone,, according to The New York Times.Though the new analysis focused on a few types of tax avoidance in particular, the researchers said the true figures are even higher."We stress that our estimates are likely to be conservative with regard to the overall amount of evasion at the top," they wrote.In recent years, audit rates have declined, particularly for the rich, as IRS funding was scaled back. A Congressional Budget Office report from July found that audit rates dropped 46 percent from 2010 to 2018, and fell 61 percent for millionaires in the same time period.  The latest findings, the National Bureau of Economic Research researchers argue, show that tax evasion bolsters inequality.

 Why Can’t the IRS Just Send Americans a Refund – or a Bill? --Yves here.  It’s not just H&R Block that keeps the IRS hostage. From ProPublica in Inside TurboTax’s 20-Year Fight to Stop Americans From Filing Their Taxes for Free: Intuit’s QuickBooks accounting product remains a steady moneymaker, but in the past two decades TurboTax, its tax preparation product, has driven the company’s steadily growing profits and made it a Wall Street phenom….But the success of TurboTax rests on a shaky foundation, one that could collapse overnight if the U.S. government did what most wealthy countries did long ago and made tax filing simple and free for most citizens.For more than 20 years, Intuit has waged a sophisticated, sometimes covert war to prevent the government from doing just that, according to internal company and IRS documents and interviews with insiders. The company unleashed a battalion of lobbyists and hired top officials from the agency that regulates it. From the beginning, Intuit recognized that its success depended on two parallel missions: stoking innovation in Silicon Valley while stifling it in Washington. Indeed, employees ruefully joke that the company’s motto should actually be “compromise without integrity.”Internal presentations lay out company tactics for fighting “encroachment,” Intuit’s catchall term for any government initiative to make filing taxes easier — such as creating a free government filing system or pre-filling people’s returns with payroll or other data the IRS already has.Although The Verge in 2020 said maybe there is hope, thanks to that another ProPublica story:Earlier this year, ProPublicapublished a report showing how Intuit, the company behind TurboTax, was misleading users into paying to file their taxes — something that’s supposed to be free in the first place for many. They, along with H&R Block, went so far as to keep the free versions from showing up in search engine results. This made it harder for users to find the free versions online, and many people ended up paying to file their taxes when they really didn’t have to. Now, ProPublicareports that the IRS is taking steps against this.On Monday, the IRS released an addendum to its Free File program — the agreement with tax preparation companies intended to keep tax filing free — that now prohibits these companies from hiding the pages that allow you to file for free from Google and other search engines. They’ve also eliminated a restriction against the IRS making its own filing software.In several other countries, filing your taxes is a lot easier. The government uses data it already has on your income to fill out your taxes. But in the United States, Intuit has spent millions each year lobbying against these simpler systems which would eliminate the need for their services.   When ProPublica published their groundbreaking report in April, they found that TurboTax’s main page didn’t even link to the page that lets you file for free. You couldn’t access the free version from TurboTax.com at all. Some of the links in the free version of TurboTax would link to the paid version, tricking you into paying more than you should. And TurboTax had also deliberately targeted students and low-income users with the paid version of their service, moving necessary forms like student loan interest deduction into the “Deluxe” tier.

 Republicans introduce 253 bills to restrict voting rights in states across the US - Republican lawmakers in 43 states have introduced a total of 253 bills aimed at restricting access to the ballot box for tens of millions of people. Republican-controlled states, including Southern states that employed “lynch law” terror to block African Americans from voting during the decades-long period of Jim Crow segregation, are flooding their legislatures with measures to effectively disenfranchise working class, poor and minority voters. The laws largely focus on tightening voter ID requirements, purging voter rolls and restricting absentee and mail-in ballots. Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett speaks during a confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Monday, Oct. 12, 2020, on Capitol Hill in Washington [Credit: AP Photo/Patrick Semansky] In the United States, state governments have the authority to oversee elections and determine election procedures and rules, including for national elections. Within each state, individual counties have a great deal of latitude in the conduct of elections. Republicans control both the lower and upper legislative houses in 36 of the 50 states, and both the legislatures and governorships in 23 states, making it very possible for far-reaching barriers to the ballot box to be imposed across much of the country. The attack on voting rights, led primarily by the Republican Party, has been facilitated by the 2013 US Supreme Court ruling in Shelby County vs. Holder. The court ruled 5-4 to effectively gut Section 5, the main enforcement mechanism, of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Section 5 of the landmark civil rights law required states with a history of discriminatory voting practices to clear any changes in election rules and procedures with the US Justice Department.

A Biden Appointee's Troubling Views On The First Amendment - When Columbia law professor Timothy Wu was appointed by Joe Biden to the National Economic Council a few weeks back, the press hailed it as great news for progressives. The author of The Curse of Bigness: Antitrust in the New Gilded Age is known as a staunch advocate of antitrust enforcement, and Biden’s choice of him, along with the appointment of Lina Khan to the Federal Trade Commission, was widely seen as a signal that the new administration was assembling what Wiredcalled an “antitrust all-star team.”“Big Tech critic Tim Wu joins Biden administration to work on competition policy,” boomed CNBC, while Marketwatch added, “Anti-Big Tech crusader reportedly poised to join Biden White House.” Chicago law professor Eric Posner’s piece for Project Syndicate was titled “Antitrust is Back in America.” Posner noted Wu’s appointment comes as Senator Amy Klobuchar has introduced regulatory legislation that ostensibly targets companies like Facebook and Google, which a House committee last year concluded have accrued “monopoly power.”Wu’s appointment may presage tougher enforcement of tech firms. However, he has other passions that got less ink. Specifically, Wu — who introduced the concept of “net neutrality” and once explained it to Stephen Colbert on a roller coaster — is among the intellectual leaders of a growing movement in Democratic circles to scale back the First Amendment. He wrote an influential September, 2017 article called “Is the First Amendment Obsolete?” that argues traditional speech freedoms need to be rethought in the Internet/Trump era. He outlined the same ideas in a 2018 Aspen Ideas Festival speech: Listening to Wu, who has not responded to requests for an interview, is confusing. He calls himself a “devotee” of the great Louis Brandeis, speaking with reverence about his ideas and those of other famed judicial speech champions like Learned Hand and Oliver Wendell Holmes. If you hear a “but…” coming in his rhetoric, you guessed right. He does imagine something better. The Cliff’s Notes version of Wu’s thesis: — The framers wrote the Bill of Rights in an atmosphere where speech was expensive and rare. The Internet made speech cheap, and human attention rare. Speech-hostile societies like Russia and China have already shown how to capitalize on this “cheap speech” era, eschewing censorship and bans in favor of “flooding” the Internet with pro-government propaganda. — As a result, those who place faith in the First Amendment to solve speech dilemmas should “admit defeat” and imagine new solutions for repelling foreign propaganda, fake news, and other problems. “In some cases,” Wu writes, “this could mean that the First Amendment must broaden its own reach to encompass new techniques of speech control.” What might that look like? He writes, without irony: “I think the elected branches should be allowed, within reasonable limits, to try returning the country to the kind of media environment that prevailed in the 1950s.”

Democrats and Republicans use House hearing on social media “disinformation and extremism” to advance internet censorship - A joint hearing entitled “Disinformation Nation: Social Media’s Role in Promoting Extremism and Misinformation” was held on Thursday by two subcommittees of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and at which the CEOs of Facebook, Google and Twitter testified. The hearing—hosted jointly by the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology and the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce—began at noon and lasted for more than five hours. After the respective committee and subcommittee chairpersons gave their opening statements, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google (Alphabet) CEO Sundar Pichai and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey delivered their prepared remarks. This was followed by statements and questioning of the tech CEOs by dozens of representatives for five minutes each. This was the first congressional hearing to ostensibly address the role of online platforms in the January 6 assault on the US Capitol and fascistic coup attempt orchestrated by Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential elections. Other topics brought up during the hearing were online information about the pandemic and the COVID-19 vaccines, racist and anti-Asian violence and the growth of teen suicide in the US. There were also proposals for modifications to the Section 230 provisions of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 that provide immunity for online platforms from third-party content. To say that none of these subjects was addressed in any comprehensive or clarifying manner during the hearing would be an understatement. Instead, in the longstanding formula for such hearings in the US House of Representatives, the proceeding was used by Democrats and Republicans as an opportunity to advance their respective political agendas. These positions both call for government regulation of online platforms from slightly different but nonetheless equally reactionary positions. They can be summarized as follows: The Democrats are demanding that social media and internet content—especially left-wing criticism of the Biden administration considered “divisive,” “harmful” and “extremist”—be directly regulated by the government. The Republicans are demanding that the government intervene to halt supposed “discrimination” against extreme right-wing and fascist ideology and organizations online and that these be protected by “free speech” rights. The Democratic Party position was articulated by Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone of New Jersey in his opening statement. Pallone said, “The dirty truth is ... the more outrageous and extremist the content, the more engagement and views these companies get from their users. ... The time for self-regulation is over. It is time we legislate to hold you accountable.” The Republican stance was outlined by Ranking Member Cathy McMorris-Rodgers in her opening remarks which included, “You’ve broken my trust. Yes, because you’ve failed to promote the battle of ideas and free speech. Yes, because you censor political viewpoints you disagree with. Those polarizing actions matter for democracy.”

YouTube will not remove a three-hour livestream of the Colorado grocery store shooting  -- On Monday, 10 people were killed in a shooting at a King Soopers grocery store in Boulder, Colorado.As the shooting unfolded, Dean Schiller began livestreaming what he saw on YouTube. The video captures the bodies of victims on the ground and police activity. At one point in the video, Schiller argues with the police, who had asked him to stop filming."I'm a journalist — there's a lot of people who want to watch this right now," Schiller says in the video. "I'm willing to risk my life for this."Despite depictions of graphic violence, YouTube said it wasn't removing the video."Following the tragic shooting in Boulder, bystander videos of the incident were detected by our teams. Violent content intended to shock or disgust viewers and hate speech are not allowed on YouTube, and as a result we have removed a number of videos for violating our policies," Elena Hernandez, a YouTube spokesperson, told Insider. "We do allow certain violent or graphic content with sufficient news or documentary context, and so we've applied an age restriction to this particular content," Hernandez said. "We will continue to monitor this rapidly changing situation."

Manchin says he doesn't support House-passed background check bill -- Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said Tuesday that he does not support House-passed legislation to expand background checks to all gun sales. "What the House passed? Not at all," Manchin said, when asked if he supports the legislation. The House passed two bills this month: one to extend the window for completing a background check before a gun sale and a second that would extend background checks to all sales and transfers. However, the second bill provides exemptions including for transfers between family members, responding to an immediate threat or temporary transfer for hunting. Manchin, however, suggested he wanted a bill that provided a bigger carve-out for private sales between individuals who know each other. "I come from a gun culture. I'm a law-abiding gun owner," Manchin said, adding that he supports "basically saying that commercial transactions should be background checked. You don't know a person." "If I know a person, no," Manchin said. Manchin and Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) previously offered legislation to expand background checks to all commercial sales, including those at gun shows or on the internet. Of the GOP senators who supported the bill in 2013, only two are still in the Senate: Toomey and Sen. Susan Collins (Maine). Collins reiterated Tuesday that she still supports the proposal.

South Dakota governor signs bills strengthening state's pro-gun laws - South Dakota's GOP governor signed several bills into law over the past week strengthening protections for the state's gun owners, including one clarifying the state's "stand your ground" law. The governor's website indicated that three bills related to gun ownership and the use of deadly force were signed into law over the past week: Senate bills 111, 100 and 1212. Among the provisions signed into law are restrictions on the seizure and restriction of firearms for those accused of a crime, and a reduction in state fees for concealed-carry permits. Police officers will still be allowed to temporarily disarm people while they are lawfully detained. One bill also added new clarifications for the state's "stand your ground" law, which allows residents to use deadly force to protect themselves anywhere they are legally allowed to be. GOP senator tweets statue of himself holding gun to Biden: 'Come and... Two-thirds back tougher gun laws, but Republican support drops: poll Residents are also allowed to use deadly force "to prevent the imminent commission of a forcible felony," according to the guidelines. Together, the bills represent a pro-gun push by the state's Republicans as the nation reels from mass shootings in Atlanta and Boulder, Colo. Democrats have renewed calls for further restrictions on gun ownership including enhanced background check legislation. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) has promised to bring legislation that would require private or unlicensed gun sellers to conduct background checks before making gun sales to the floor of the Senate, though the legislation faces an uphill battle absent the removal of the filibuster due to the Democrats' slim majority.

At least 2 dead, 8 injured after shootings in Virginia Beach --Police are investigating multiple shootings in Virginia Beach that left at least two people dead and eight others injured late Friday. The Virginia Beach Police Department said in a press release early Saturday that officers were patrolling the 1900 block of Atlantic Avenue when they heard “multiple gunshots” shortly after 11 p.m. Officers then located “several gunshot wound victims,” with eight being transported to the hospital for injuries, some of which police said ranged from “serious to life-threatening.” Police added that one officer was also transported to the hospital with minor injuries after he was struck by a car, though his injuries were not believed to be life-threatening, according to local NBC affiliate WAVY-TV. While police were responding to the first shooting, officers heard additional shots fired nearby, which they said led to an “individual being confronted by a uniformed Virginia Beach police officer, resulting in a police intervention shooting.” Police said Saturday that the suspect in this shooting, which is believed to be related to the first, was eventually shot and killed by the officer. Police identified one “adult female victim” who died as a result of gunshot wounds, though police Chief Paul Neudigate said that she appeared to have been shot in a separate shooting unrelated to the first two shootings, WAVY-TV reported. 

House chamber fortified with bulletproof doors: report - The House chamber is reportedly being fortified with bulletproof doors to give the chamber extra protection after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.An Axios reporter saw the workers replacing the doors on Wednesday with staffers reportedly saying they were being replaced with kevlar.Security has been high around the Capitol since the insurrection, which took the lives of five people, including one Capitol Police officer. Outer fencing around the complex was just removed this week, almost three months after the attack.Photos from that day showed the pro-Trump mob breaking windows and doors to move about the Capitol during their attempt to stop Congress from certifying the 2020 Electoral College vote. Police had to barricade the House chamber with their guns drawn so rioters could not enter.A report on security in the wake of the assault recommended that the Architect of the Capitol "expedite repair and hardening of vulnerable windows and doors."Workers told Axios that work on the doors will be ongoing when House members return from their recess in two weeks. The Hill has reached out to the Architect of the Capitol for comment.

Former federal prosecutor says facts support sedition charges against leaders of January 6 assault on US Congress -In an interview that aired on CBS’ 60 Minutes program on March 21, former acting US Attorney for the District of Columbia Michael Sherwin revealed that the government is considering sedition charges against some of the more than 400 people who have been charged to date in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. Sherwin also confirmed that investigators were looking into possible criminal charges against former President Donald Trump. In the interview, Sherwin, who until last week was leading the criminal investigation into the January 6 assault on the Capitol, said of potential sedition charges, “I personally believe the evidence is trending toward that, and probably meets those elements.” In response to a follow-up question from his interviewer, Scott Pelley, Sherwin added, “I believe the facts do support those charges. And I think that, as we go forward, more facts will support that.” Sherwin’s statements on 60 Minutes echo previous comments made on January 26, when Sherwin said, “We are closely looking at evidence related to the sedition charges… We are working on those cases. I think the results will bear fruit very soon.” CNN previously reported that prosecutors were seeking sedition charges against some of the accused, but were “awaiting approval from the Justice Department, according to people briefed on the matter.” The last sedition case US prosecutors brought was in 2010 against members of a Christian fundamentalist militia in Michigan called Huatree. Those named were accused of plotting to overthrow the government, but the charges were dismissed by a federal judge in 2012. Under federal law, a “seditious conspiracy” occurs when “Two or more persons… conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States… or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States…”

Trump reiterates support for January 6 Capitol siege -Former President Donald Trump doubled down on his support for the January 6 coup attempt in a Fox News interview on Thursday evening, declaring that those who took part in the violent assault on the Capitol “love our country.” Trump falsely claimed that the fascist mob that stormed the Capitol posed “zero threat” to politicians hiding inside. Speaking on the attempted coup, which he orchestrated in concert with right-wing militias, sections of the Republican Party and elements of the state, including the Department of Defense, the intelligence agencies and the police, Trump attempted to downplay the imminent danger posed by thousands of pro-Trump supporters, many of whom were chanting “Hang Mike Pence” as they broke into the building. Outside the building the insurrectionists set up a gallows. “It was zero threat right from the start, it was zero threat.” Trump said on the Laura Ingraham show. At least five people died during the siege on the Capitol, including Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who died after getting doused with bear spray during the attack. Capitol Police have reported that over 130 officers suffered injuries that day, including chemical burns, lacerations, broken bones and brain injuries. A major reason the death toll was not higher was the failure of two pipe bombs to detonate and the timely apprehension of an Alabama man, Lonnie Coffman, who was found outside the Capitol with 11 Molotov cocktails in his vehicle, along with a loaded M-4 Carbine assault rifle and a pistol. The pipe bombs were planted the evening of January 5 and were discovered at the Republican and Democratic National Committee headquarters, which are less than 3 blocks from the Capitol, as the siege was underway. The discovery of the pipe bombs prompted a wider search of the Capitol grounds, leading to the arrest of Coffman. Despite the deadly intentions of the crowd, several of whom were seen carrying zip ties and clubs as they entered the Capitol and attempted to kidnap and assassinate lawmakers, Trump attempted to paint his supporters as good patriots. “They wave American flags,” he told Ingraham. “In many cases, they are waving the American flag, and they love our country.” While Trump falsely claimed that the fascist mob posed no threat to lawmakers, many of whom were being ferried by police along underground tunnels as the attack was underway, Trump correctly noted the cordial attitude many of the Capitol Police officers displayed in dealing with the insurrectionists. “Look—they went in, they shouldn’t have done it. Some of them went in and they’re hugging and kissing the police and the guards. They had great relationships,” Trump said.

 Sanders says he isn't 'comfortable' with Twitter's Trump ban -Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) says in a newly published podcast interview that he does not “feel particularly comfortable” with Twitter's permanent ban on former President Trump. Sanders appeared on The New York Times podcast “The Ezra Klein Show” on Tuesday to discuss the state of the Democratic Party and was asked about criticisms from conservative figures that liberals had become “too censorious” and “too willing” to censor others. “Look, you have a former president in Trump, who is a racist, a sexist, a homophobe, a xenophobe, a pathological liar, an authoritarian, somebody who doesn’t believe in the rule of law. This is a bad news guy,” Sanders said. “But if you’re asking me, do I feel particularly comfortable that the president, the then-president of the United States, could not express his views on Twitter? I don’t feel comfortable about it.” However, Sanders maintained that internet platforms should not allow for “hate speech and conspiracy theories” to spread out across the country or be used for “authoritarian purposes and insurrection.” “So how do you balance that? I don’t know, but it is an issue that we have got to be thinking about. Because of anybody who thinks yesterday it was Donald Trump who was banned, and tomorrow it could be somebody else who has a very different point of view,” Sanders added. The Vermont senator said he also did not like “giving that much power to a handful of high-tech people.” Shortly after the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol breach, social media companies including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube either banned Trump's accounts or restricted his access. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has said he felt banning an account was a "failure" for his company "to promote healthy conversation" though he maintained that he believed it was the "right decision for Twitter." Other prominent figures have suggested platforms relax their restrictions. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, for example, said in a February interview that he believed companies should eventually allow Trump back on. “I think at some point he probably will be allowed back on and probably should be allowed back on,” Gates told CNBC at the time.

Ocasio-Cortez endorses Turner in Ohio special election -- Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Monday endorsed Nina Turner, the former Ohio state senator and national co-chair of Sen. Bernie Sanders's (I-Vt.) 2020 presidential campaign, in her race to represent Ohio's open 11th Congressional District.“Nina is a bold, unapologetic progressive who has spent her entire career advocating for the working people of Northeast Ohio, and a powerful voice for progressive values and policies that will make a meaningful difference in the lives of working people across this country — like Medicare for All, a $15 minimum wage, and a Green New Deal,” Ocasio-Cortez, herself a veteran of Sanders's 2016 campaign, said in a statement.“I need her alongside me in Congress in the fight for racial, economic, social, and environmental justice,” she added.Turner said she was “honored” to receive the endorsement, adding that she looks forward to “working together to build a democracy where no child goes hungry, no worker earns a starvation wage, and where every business respects our planet.”The 19th News first reported on the endorsement. The seat in Ohio’s 11th District opened when then-Rep. Marcia Fudge (D)was tapped by President Biden to head the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Fudge, a former chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, was first elected to Congress in 2008.

Meeting between Trump, Ohio Senate candidates turns tense: report -A meeting former President Trump held with four hopefuls vying for Ohio’s open Senate seat during a fundraiser at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Wednesday night soon turned tense, according to Politico. Trump was holding the fundraiser to benefit Max Miller, a candidate he’s supporting in an upcoming Ohio House race in the hopes of ousting a sitting Republican who backed his impeachment. But he reportedly took the opportunity to convene a group of candidates looking to fill the seat that will be left vacant by Sen. Rob Portman (R), who is not seeking reelection in 2022. Before the dinner kicked off, according to Politico, Trump met in a backroom with former state Treasurer Josh Mandel; former state GOP Chair Jane Timken; tech executive Bernie Moreno; and investment banker Mike Gibbons to discuss the Senate race.Mandel and Timken have already announced their bids for the seat, while Moreno and Gibbons are expected to jump in soon.The meeting, which reportedly lasted 15 minutes, was described to Politico by one source as being like the “Hunger Games,” and a surprise, awkward confrontation for the Senate hopefuls.According to sources cited by Politico, the huddle covered everything from the candidates’ support of Trump and opposition to his impeachment, previous endorsements and donations, and early polling in the race. During the meeting, Trump noted that Timken at one point defended Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (Ohio), the Republican who supported the former president’s impeachment, according to Politico.A consultant affiliated with one of the campaigns told The Hill that most of the back and forth during the meeting was between Timken and Mandel. The Hill has reached out to representatives for both candidates. A separate source close to one of the candidates told The Hill that Trump asked Mandel why he abandoned his planned 2018 campaign against Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). Mandel dropped out in January of that year, citing a need to spend more time with his family.Trump mentioned Timken in his subsequent speech backing Max Miller, the only Senate candidate who got a mention.Trump has not yet formally endorsed any candidate in the Senate race, though the reported meeting reflects how valuable his endorsement is for ambitious Republicans looking to win seats in Congress.

 Medium had an internal panic after its algorithm kept recommending erotic stories to the official POTUS account used by Biden, report says -Medium's algorithm recommended erotic short stories to the official POTUS account used by President Joe Biden, The Verge reported.A partnerships manager at Medium working with the White House first discovered the problem while in a video conference call with a White House staffer, the report said.It is said to have prompted an internal communication titled "President Joe Biden is Being Served Erotica on Medium.com."That manager made the discovery while sharing his screen with the White House staffer and logging in to the @POTUS account to talk about Biden starting to post, the outlet said.The first erotic post is said to have been one called "A is for After," which was described in a subheadline as "a cuckold love story."It tells the story of a woman who seeks out multiple sex partners in an evening, with her husband's permission.The post doesn't include pornographic imagery but does include graphic descriptions of sex and profanity.It is by the author Bella Cooper, who posts several stories a week, all sexual in nature.It's not clear whether the White House staffer saw that recommendation, per the report.It said the manager tried to change the recommendations by reading more political content from the account.But, per the report, that didn't work — and the next recommendation for Biden was another story by Cooper, similarly explicit, called "Getting a Piece (and Some Pizza Too)." It has the subheadline "step sister taboo erotica."The @POTUS account has 39,000 followers but has not yet posted any content. Biden used Medium when running for president under the handle @JoeBiden. He posted once on that account since he became president, writing about the coronavirus on March 1.

Not The Onion: Bill Clinton To Host Chat With Kamala Harris On "Empowering Women" --An event with the theme of ‘women’s empowerment’ to be hosted by the Clinton Foundation has been roundly ridiculed after it emerged that it will feature Bill Clinton. A Press release announced that Kamala Harris will discuss “the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on women, and empowering women and girls in the US and around the world,” with Clinton on Friday.The choice of Bill Clinton, a serial adulterer and accused rapist, to be part of this conversation stoked mockery:

 BankThink Time for Fed to tap brakes on relief programs -- As the country looks forward to putting the pandemic behind us, it’s urgent we begin planning for a shift from stabilizing the economy to reining in the record asset and debt bubbles that have been compounded by a decades-long expansion of federal budget deficits. Without action, there could be an economic catastrophe akin to that of 2008, a shock that would almost certainly undo much of the forecasted recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. Knowing firsthand the events of the last financial crisis — as once head of the bygone Washington Mutual Bank and the other, a former leader at the Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines — we understand how quickly a collapse can unfold, turning unheeded warnings into missed opportunities for action. It is imperative that the U.S. government and the Federal Reserve learn the lessons from that era and begin taking necessary steps to reduce the risk of a similar scenario as soon as possible. The Fed received much criticism for withholding liquidity from the struggling financial system in the crucial days leading up to the 2008 financial meltdown. Their inaction helped cause a freezing of the capital markets, setting in motion the system’s collapse. To their credit, the Fed finally stabilized the economy by injecting massive liquidity via huge growth of the money supply, ultra-low interest rates, and extraordinary asset-purchase and guarantee programs. The Fed used the appropriate medicines at the time, but those medicines became addictive and their continued use over many years produced severe side effects. Specifically, these Fed policies led consumers, businesses and governments to embrace record levels of debt. Rapid growth in student and auto loans have left individual households stretched. Corporations have borrowed heavily to finance acquisitions, share repurchases and expansions. The federal government debt is predicted to exceed 100% of GDP this year based on a full fiscal year, and that’s not including the full costs that the pandemic necessitated through expansive Fed policies and unprecedented budget deficits. All the while, the availability of cheap money coupled with the Fed’s asset-purchase and guarantee programs has driven up the prices of assets ranging from stocks, housing and commercial real estate, to luxury goods and art. While most prices have reached record levels, the frenzy has left many forgetting that such meteoric rises do not last. All combined, the nation is on the precipice of any number of massive debt or asset bubbles busting, the repercussions of which could easily lead to an economic downturn and potentially another financial crisis.

Fed won't renew a pandemic concession for banks, suggesting the honeymoon is over -  The Federal Reserve will not maintain a change it made in April 2020 that eased banks' leverage requirements, per The New York Times. As of 2013, large banks (those with more than $250 billion in assets, per Reuters) must hold capital equal to 3% of their total assets to protect against losses. But in 2020, the Fed tweaked the rule to allow banks room to expand their loan books and spur more lending to customers amid the pandemic's economic fallout. Under the change, Treasuries and cash reserves held at the Fed were excluded from banks' leverage calculations until March 31, 2021. The regulator has now declined to extend these exemptions, though it did leave the door open to future tweaks around leverage ratio calculations.Retiring the leverage concession could make banks less eager to lend—and be premature given the precarious nature of the US' fight against the pandemic. With US coronavirus cases declining from their January high, a stimulus package dispensing aid to consumers, and vaccinations climbing, the Fed may feel that now is the time to reinforce pre-pandemic levels of accountability among banks. However, if case counts surge again due to new strains of the virus and states have to lock down again, the Fed may have to walk back its decision to stimulate more relief lending.The Fed's move may portend the end of a period in which banks enjoyed concessions in exchange for working with the government to mitigate the pandemic's economic effects. Unlike during the 2008–2009 financial crisis—when banks on a long regulatory leash were a big part of the problem—the Fed has looked to financial institutions (FIs) as partners in helping US consumers weather the pandemic.FIs were in position to reap significant goodwill from regulators in exchange for taking actions like disbursing stimulus payments, handling loans through the Paycheck Protection Program, and offering relief to customers like loan forbearance. For example, Wells Fargo got a temporary pause on the asset cap imposed on it by the Fed in 2018. But by allowing the leverage rule change to expire, the Fed appears to be returning to its pre-pandemic regulatory stance, under which it will hold banks to stricter standards.

Fed will lift limits on capital distributions for some banks — but not until 3Q— The Federal Reserve is leaving in place its current restrictions on bank dividend payments and share repurchases for the second quarter of this year, but will lift those caps at the end of June for banks that exceed the minimum required amount of capital, the central bank said Thursday. Between June and December of last year, banks could not repurchase shares and had to limit dividends to what they paid out in the second quarter of 2020 in an effort to conserve capital as financial institutions dealt with the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. Those restrictions were eased starting in January, following midcycle stress tests, with dividends and buybacks capped at an amount based on 2020 income. For banks that pass this year’s upcoming stress tests — the results of which will be announced by July 1 — the Fed said it will lift the restrictions on shareholder payouts and subject those institutions instead to the stress capital buffer, a unique benchmark of how much capital a bank has to hold in the coming year based on its performance in the stress tests. If a bank does not meet the stress capital buffer target, it faces automatic limits on the amount of money it can pay out to shareholders. “The banking system continues to be a source of strength and returning to our normal framework after this year’s stress test will preserve that strength,” Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Randal Quarles said in a news release. Banks that fail the 2021 stress tests will have to comply with the current restrictions on dividend payments and share repurchases for an additional three months until Sept. 30, according to the release. Meanwhile, the restrictions for banks on a two-year stress testing cycle and not subject to this year’s tests will lift after June 30, and those banks from that point forward will use their stress capital buffer that is calculated based on last year’s test to determine what level of capital distributions they can make.

Will PPP runoff expose revenue weakness at banks -Forgiven Paycheck Protection Program loans are generating short-term revenue for banks, but they have also increased pressure on lenders to find ways to replace those credits and shore up revenue over the long run. The Small Business Administration, as of March 11, had forgiven more than a third of the $521 billion of PPP loans originated last year. The PPP has provided emergency aid to small businesses harmed by the pandemic and led to billions of dollars of originating fees for participating lenders. Bankers should brace for questions during quarterly earnings calls about their growth strategies as the program tapers off. But bankers might be loath to serve up specifics until vaccines are more widely distributed and an end to the pandemic is in sight. “The PPP was huge — but what comes next?” said Sam Pappas, CEO of Mystic Asset Management. “What’s the plan for growth?” While Congress is considering a bill to extend the PPP’s expiration date from March 31 to May 31, it is becoming clear that the program is in its home stretch, industry observers said. “We look at the program as akin to a cowboy having arrived in the nick of time to save the day in an old Western town,” “The job is largely over and the cowboy begins to ride into the sunset.” About 5% of the banking industry’s loan portfolio is “basically going into a runoff mode,” which is creating “a visible headwind for reported loan growth over the next several months,” Siefers added. Many community banks have been reluctant to overpromise, largely because of lingering uncertainty with commercial real estate lending. Many are leery of diving back into anything tied to offices, retail, restaurants or hotels — businesses that proved vulnerable during the pandemic and are still relying heavily on federal stimulus. “We have a lot of businesses that have done really well, but others that are still hurting and struggling,” “There will be pockets of opportunity — and we’ll find them. But for a while, we’ll take a conservative bent.” Bankers are likely to play their cards close to their vests for a couple more months — at least until vaccines prove effective,  

Fed’s Quarles aims to clear up confusion about Libor deadline - Regulators are preparing to penalize any banks that use the London interbank offer rate on new contracts after this year, said Federal Reserve Vice Chair of Supervision Randal Quarles. In a speech in New York hosted by the Alternative Reference Rates Committee, Quarles set out to correct the misperception that companies have a while before they must adopt an alternative benchmark rate for new deals. The Libor administrator and U.K. Financial Conduct Authority legacy financial contracts could continue to refer to Libor until the middle of 2023, but Quarles said that does not apply to new business. The extension should allow banks to “deal more intensively with legacy contracts later,” Quarles said, but, “These announcements are absolutely not meant to support new Libor activity or continued business as usual." “These announcements are absolutely not meant to support new Libor activity or continued business as usual," said Fed Vice Chair of Supervision Randal Quarles.Bloomberg NewsQuarles said examiners will be looking at banks' specific exposures to the transition away from Libor, which will no longer be published after Dec. 31 of this year. The Fed will be interested in whether banks are updating contractual language and operating rules with vendors who have relied on Libor, he said. Quarles said despite guidance in November from the Fed and other U.S. regulators about Libor’s end date, some are not getting the message. “Market participants have had many years to prepare for the end of Libor, yet over the last few years they have actually increased use of Libor,” Quarles said. The leading candidate to replace Libor is the Secured Overnight Financing Rate, or SOFR, which is based on overnight repurchase agreements. Other possibilities have emerged that are based on some currency markets while some banks have adopted Ameribor, which is tied to transactions such as overnight funding, unsecured borrowing and lending for U.S. banks and corporations. Though regulators around the world have tried to drive Libor's exit, the announcement of an extension for legacy deals followed hand-wringing over what to do with existing contracts that were drafted on the benchmark rate but that will not mature for years. The total amount of these contracts is estimated to be $223 trillion, up from $200 trillion three years ago, according to the AARC. However, many of these contracts have been tweaked to include fallback language that will take effect once Libor expires. Roughly $90 trillion in contracts will mature after the June 30, 2023, deadline for legacy deals. On Monday, Quarles stressed the need for a legislative fix for this part of the market.

Libor’s end leaves nearly $2 trillion of debt facing legal limbo - Almost $2 trillion of debt pegged to dollar Libor, much of which can’t easily be shifted to an alternative benchmark, won’t mature until after the discredited rate expires in mid-2023, according to the Federal Reserve-backed group guiding the transition. As much as $1.6 trillion of securitizations and $300 billion of bonds risk falling into legal limbo in the coming years because they lack provisions necessary to switch to new benchmarks, the Alternative Reference Rates Committee said in a report Monday. Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York has proposed legislation in the state’s budget plan to impose fallback rates on so-called tough legacy contracts that fall under state law, while Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell last month said national legislation is needed to ensure a smooth transition. The figures come in a progress report that reveals how entrenched the benchmark remains in the financial system, with roughly $223 trillion in total exposure remaining less than 10 months before the final deadline for issuing new contracts pegged to the reference rate. While the vast majority of that is in the form of financial derivatives, about $300 billion of floating-rate notes, $800 billion of mortgage-backed securities and $500 billion of collateralized loan obligations aren’t set to mature until after mid-2023, according to the report. “These figures indicate that the task now before market participants in ending new use of Libor this year will be challenging,” the ARRC said in a statement. The benchmark remains hardwired across markets more than three years after global regulators began efforts to phase out Libor following a manipulation scandal and shortage of underlying trading data. While most Libor rates will retire at year-end, regulators have extended key dollar tenors for a further 18 months, driven partly by slow progress toward replacement rates. The benchmark also remains particularly entrenched in the loan market. Only a handful of banks have begun to offer bilateral business loans linked to the Secured Overnight Financing Rate — the main U.S. Libor replacement — and are in the process of moving their new business away from Libor. Most lenders continue to use Libor as their primary or sole floating-rate business loan option. “The exposure that matures past mid-2023 is certainly a concern, but this is why the ARRC is flagging it — it’s an attempt to accelerate the transition,” said Gennadiy Goldberg, senior U.S. rates strategist at TD Securities in New York. “Thankfully the lenders and borrowers in these contracts have some time to renegotiate before mid-2023 and there is time to work on legislative solutions.”

Senate Democrats initiate reversal of OCC 'true lender' rule — Democratic lawmakers have announced plans to overturn the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's "true lender" rule, which was intended to address uncertainties about bank partnerships with nonbanks but that critics say enables predatory lending. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., have introduced a Congressional Review Act resolution to reverse the rule, which was finalized in October by former acting Comptroller Brian Brooks. “The Trump administration ripped consumer protections to shreds, leaving Americans vulnerable to unscrupulous predatory lenders who charge outrageous interest rates,” Van Hollen said. “When this rule was finalized in October, I vowed to use every tool at our disposal to strike it down.” The Congressional Review Act is a 1996 law that allows Congress to overrule a federal regulation, albeit with certain restrictions. A joint resolution striking down a rule must be passed by simple majorities in both the House and Senate and be signed by the president within 60 legislative says of Congress's formal receipt of a the regulation in question. The OCC rule was passed on October 27, and a spokesperson for Brown's office said the deadline for offering the resolution is April 4. The OCC’s rule clarifies that a national bank is considered a “true lender” if, at the time of a loan’s origination, it is named as the lender in a loan agreement or if the bank funds the loan. That means the national bank is responsible for ensuring the loan complies with consumer protection laws, but it also means that state interest rate caps do not apply. Democrats and consumer groups have criticized the regulation as enabling “rent-a-bank” schemes, in which payday lenders can skirt state interest rate caps through national banks. “For years, under both Democratic and Republican administrations, federal regulators cracked down on abusive ‘rent-a-bank’ schemes in which payday lenders funnel their high-interest, predatory loans through national banks to evade state interest rate caps,” Brown said. “The OCC’s rule is a complete reversal of this policy, a betrayal of hardworking American families, and a shameful attack on states’ ability to protect their citizens from predatory loans.” Bryan Hubbard, a spokesperson for the OCC, disputed the claim that the agency’s rule enables rent-a-bank schemes. “The rule prevents harmful ‘rent-a-bank’ arrangements by clarifying that when a bank is the ‘true lender’ of a loan it retains the compliance obligations associated with the origination of that loan, making it easier for the agency to hold banks accountable for improper lending, including loans made in the context of partnership between banks and third parties,” Hubbard said.

 Industry urges OCC to halt proposal restricting use of bank premises — Banking industry groups want the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to withdraw a proposal that would impose new restrictions on how banks use real estate premises that they own. The proposal, issued in early January under former acting Comptroller Brian Brooks, would replace the flexible, principles-based approach to determining a permissible use of bank real estate with bright-line standards. For example, at least half of a given space would need to be devoted to the business of banking. But that would throw decades of bank property management practices into doubt and would pose new occupancy challenges for institutions in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a comment letter by three trade groups. “We believe the proposal should be withdrawn because it would eliminate the necessary flexibility for navigating the wide variety of facts and circumstances that can pertain to premises investments and changes to real estate needs and use,” wrote the American Bankers Association, Bank Policy Institute and Independent Community Bankers of America. “Changes are particularly likely to occur in the near future as a result of the pandemic.” The letter said under the proposal banks would be forced to quickly shed properties if in-person staff levels go down. "If the bank’s need for staff at a particular office location over time decreased, whether because of changing market needs (such as increased use of online banking) or increased efficiency, a bank could be forced to sell the entire property if it is unable to dispose of a portion of the facility or land to meet the 50 percent usage threshold, despite still having a good-faith use for the former premises as bank premises," the groups said. For over a century, federal law has subjected banks to limitations when purchasing property to discourage bankers from engaging in real estate speculation. A given real estate transaction must meet certain requirements to pass regulatory scrutiny, usually by proving the land will be necessary to conduct the business of banking. At the same time, bank regulators have allowed for certain exceptions on a case-by-case basis. The OCC has opted not to use concrete standards to evaluate bank property usage.

 Three new candidates emerge to head OCC— The field of candidates to be the Biden administration's nominee to lead the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has grown to as many as six people with the addition of two Obama-era financial regulators and a Federal Reserve bank president, say sources familiar with the situation. The emergence this week of three additional names — Kara Stein, a former member of the Securities and Exchange Commission; Sarah Bloom Raskin, formerly a Federal Reserve Board governor and deputy secretary of the Treasury; and Raphael Bostic, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta — suggests the selection process is more fluid than had been presumed recently, the sources say. The other candidates previously reported to be in the running were Michael Barr, a former Treasury official and professor at the University of Michigan; Mehrsa Baradaran, a former banking lawyer and professor at the University of California, Irvine; and Manny Alvarez, commissioner of California's Department of Financial Protection and Innovation. Kara Stein (left), a former SEC commissioner and Senate Banking Committee staffer; Sarah Bloom Raskin, a senior fellow at Duke University and former Federal Reserve Board governor; and Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic are said to be among as many as six candidates to lead the OCC.Bloomberg Earlier this month, American Banker reported Baradaran, a progressive known for her scholarship on the racial wealth gap, to be the administration’s top pick to lead the OCC, replacing Barr as the position’s front-runner. It is unclear whether the consideration of Raskin, Bostic and Stein means that Baradaran's chances have diminished or, if so, by how much. The Atlanta Fed declined to comment about the reported consideration of Bostic. Raskin and Stein did not respond to requests for comment. Comptroller of the currency is a powerful position as the OCC, which regulates national banks, overseeing roughly 70% of the banking industry's assets; also, the comptroller does not have to answer to a board as do the leaders of the Federal Reserve Board and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The OCC is currently led by acting Comptroller Blake Paulson, who was promoted from chief operating officer to succeed Brian Brooks, who stepped down from the comptroller job in January.

Senator Warren: “BlackRock Manages More Assets than the Entire GDP of Japan.” (How About JPMorgan Chase Having Custody of Assets That Are 5.8 Times the GDP of Japan.) Yesterday, during a Senate Banking hearing with witnesses Fed Chair Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Senator Elizabeth Warren grilled Yellen on why BlackRock wasn’t being investigated for posing a systemic risk to the U.S. financial system. Warren stated:“BlackRock is the world’s largest asset management firm, overseeing nearly $9 trillion in assets. That’s more than double where it was 10 years ago. It also holds a stake in just about every company listed on the S&P 500. To put that in perspective, Blackrock manages more assets than the entire GDP of Japan, or Germany, or Great Britain or any other nation in the world, except the United States and China.”BlackRock may, indeed, pose a systemic risk to the U.S. financial system but it’s not because it holds a stake in just about every company listed on the S&P 500. It’s because it produces Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) which promise intraday liquidity for buyers and sellers, which clearly is not the case during a market panic. During the market panic over the pandemic last year, the Fed gave a no-bid contract to BlackRock to manage its corporate bond buying programs, which included allowing BlackRock to bail out its own junk bond and investment grade bond ETFs that were tanking. (See Icahn Called BlackRock “An Extremely Dangerous Company”; the Fed Has Chosen It to Manage Its Corporate Bond Bailout Programs.)But if we’re going to seriously talk about systemic risk to the U.S. financial system we need to start at the top rung of the ladder. That’s JPMorgan Chase. According to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the regulator of national banks, JPMorgan Chase “maintains one of the world’s largest and most complex fiduciary businesses with total fiduciary and related assets of $29.1 trillion, including $1.3 trillion in fiduciary assets and $27.8 trillion of non-fiduciary custody assets.”Not to put too fine a point on it, but $29.1 trillion is 5.8 times the $5 trillion GDP of Japan in 2020 while BlackRock’s assets are just 1.8 times Japan’s GDP in 2020.In addition, BlackRock has never been charged with a felony by the U.S. Department of Justice. JPMorgan Chase has been charged with five felony counts by the Department of Justice in the last seven years and admitted to all of them.Making it appear that felonious behavior is a feature, not a bug, at JPMorgan Chase is the fact that its Board of Directors has seen fit to keep Jamie Dimon as its Chairman and CEO throughout this unimaginable crime spree at the largest federally-insured bank in the United States. The Board has also very generously compensated Dimon. (SeeJamie Dimon Gets $31.5 Million Pay Despite Bank’s Criminal Charges as U.S. Slides Below Uruguay on Corruption Index.)

  Fed, Treasury vow to evaluate climate change risk to financial system — Two top Federal Reserve officials and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen reaffirmed the government's commitment to assessing the risks that climate change pose to the financial system. In a speech Tuesday, Federal Reserve Board Gov. Lael Brainard announced the formation of the central bank's Financial Stability Climate Committee. The panel will have a macroprudential focus “to identify, assess and address climate-related risks to financial stability,” she said. The committee will address “not only potential climate shocks, but also whether climate change might make the financial system more vulnerable in ways that could amplify these shocks and cause broader knock-on effects that could harm households, businesses, and communities,” Brainard said in a speech at a virtual conference hosted by the Boston-based nonprofit Ceres. Fed Chair Jerome Powell, testifying Tuesday alongside Yellen before the House Financial Services Committee, said separately that the central bank is “at a very early stage of understanding the risks to regulated financial institutions from climate change.” He argued that the Fed has a responsibility to assess climate change risks to ensure the soundness of the banking system, despite the view among some GOP lawmakers that the central bank should avoid the issue. “It is an exploration in understanding better what the risks are to the core of our financial system, and we feel like that’s our obligation to understand that,” Powell said. “The financial institutions are very much actively doing this on their own. It’s not something we’re forcing them to do.” The Fed's new committee is in addition to the Fed’s new Supervision Climate Committee, which aims to develop a program to safeguard the resilience of banks to climate risk, Brainard said. Brainard had signaled her support last month for subjecting lenders to a “scenario analysis” to identify risks from extreme weather events, an idea that Yellen also floated in February. Climate-related scenario analysis would allow “financial institutions and… regulators to better understand the risks that climate change pose to the health and resilience of core financial institutions, and it will help those institutions better manage and understand the risks,” Yellen said Tuesday at the House hearing.

Big banks’ trillion-dollar finance for fossil fuels ‘shocking’, says report --The world’s biggest 60 banks have provided $3.8tn of financing for fossil fuel companies since the Paris climate deal in 2015, according to a report by a coalition of NGOs. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic cutting energy use, overall funding remains on an upward trend and the finance provided in 2020 was higher than in 2016 or 2017, a fact the report’s authors and others described as “shocking”. Oil, gas and coal will need to be burned for some years to come. But it has been known since at least 2015 that a significant proportion of existing reserves must remain in the ground if global heating is to remain below 2C, the main Paris target. Financing for new reserves is therefore the “exact opposite” of what is required to tackle the climate crisis, the report’s authors said. US and Canadian banks make up 13 of the 60 banks analysed, but account for almost half of global fossil fuel financing over the last five years, the report found. JPMorgan Chase provided more finance than any other bank. UK bank Barclays provided the most fossil fuel financing among all European banks and French bank BNP Paribas was the biggest in the EU. Overall financing dipped by 9% in pandemic-hit 2020, but funding for the 100 fossil fuel companies with the biggest expansion plans actually rose by 10%. Citi was the biggest financier of these 100 companies in 2020. A commitment to be net zero by 2050 has been made by 17 of the 60 banks, but the report describes the pledges as “dangerously weak, half-baked, or vague”, arguing that action is needed today. Some banks have policies that block finance for coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, but almost two-thirds of funding is for oil and gas companies. The report’s authors said targeting of banks by campaigners and activist shareholders could help change bank policies but that action by governments was also needed. “When we look at the five years overall, the trend is still going in the wrong direction, which is obviously the exact opposite of where we need to be going to live up to the goals of the Paris Agreement,” said Alison Kirsch, at Rainforest Action Network and an author of the report. “None of these 60 banks have made, without loopholes, a plan to exit fossil fuels.” “We have seen progress in restricting financing for special places like the Arctic or greenhouse-gas-intensive forms of oil, like tar sands, but these are such a small piece of the pie,” she said. “One bank after another is making solemn promises to become ‘net zero by 2050’,” said Johan Frijns, at BankTrack, part of the coalition behind the report. “But there exists no pathway towards this laudable goal that does not require dealing with bank finance for the fossil fuel industry right here and now.”

Federal Reserve's digital dollar momentum worries Wall Street -The financial services industry, braced for what could be its biggest disruption in decades, is about to get an early glimpse at the Federal Reserve's work on a new digital currency. Wall Street is not thrilled. Banks, credit card companies and digital payments processors are nervously watching the push to create an electronic alternative to the paper bills Americans carry in their wallets, or what some call a digital dollar and others call a Fedcoin. As soon as July, officials at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which have been developing prototypes for a digital dollar platform, plan to unveil their research, said James Cunha, who leads the project for the Boston Fed. A digital currency could fundamentally change the way Americans use money, leading some financial firms to lobby the Fed and Congress to slow its creation — or at least ensure they're not cut out. Seeing the threat to their profits, the banks' main trade group has told Congress a digital dollar isn't needed, while payment companies like Visa and Mastercard are trying to work with central banks to make sure the new currencies can be used on their networks. "Everyone is afraid that you could disrupt all the incumbent players with a whole new form of payment," said Michael Del Grosso, an analyst for Compass Point Research & Trading. Lawmakers, U.S. Treasury Department officials and the Fed haven't yet approved the rollout of a U.S. virtual currency, which could still be years away. Nor have they decided how a digital dollar would interact with the existing global payments network. Still, the U.S. and other countries seem committed enough to digitizing their currencies that it's making financial industry executives nervous. "The fire has been lit," said Josh Lipsky, who has helped convene government officials from the U.S. and other countries working on digital currencies as director of the GeoEconomics Center at the Atlantic Council. "The world is moving very quickly on these projects." At issue are forms of digital cash being considered by the U.S. and other governments. The growing popularity of bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies, whose market value has grown to more than $1 trillion, inspired the projects. Unlike those privately created tokens, the new currencies would be issued by central banks as an alternative to paper bills. Cash wouldn't go away, but its use would likely decline. Using the currencies could be as simple as holding up the screen of a mobile phone to be scanned. Behind the scenes, the digital cash would move from one account to another. This is similar to how most money already works — the majority of U.S. dollars are just digital entries in bank accounts — but the new currency could potentially avoid the go-between of a commercial bank or credit-card network. For vendors, settlement would happen almost immediately, without having to wait for the money or worry about fraud.

‘We don’t need to rush’ on Fed digital dollar, Powell says — Though Democratic leaders have endorsed the concept of a government-operated digital currency to give underserved consumers more banking options, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell indicated the central bank will take its time to study the idea before moving forward. Speaking on a virtual panel hosted by the Bank for International Settlements Monday morning, Powell said it is better to weigh all the factors that would go into a central bank digital currency than racing to become the first county to offer one to the public. “We have an obligation to be on the cutting edge of understanding the technological challenges, as well as the potential costs and benefits, of issuing a CBDC," Powell said, using the abbreviation for central bank digital currency. But, he added, "Because we’re the world’s principal reserve currency, we don't need to rush this project, and we don't need to be first to market.” Powell said a dollar-backed central bank digital currency "would have potentially large implications here and around the world." "We'll be sure to think carefully about all of that and engage very broadly with the public, around the world and particularly here in the United States, before we even approach a decision,” he said. While officials such as Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Senate Banking Committee Sherrod Brown have argued such an instrument could be used to expand access to the financial system, banks are increasingly worried that a digital dollar could replace them as financial intermediaries. On the panel, Powell reiterated his desire to have congressional backing before the Federal Reserve actually issues a digital dollar, preferably in the form of new legislation. “We would not proceed with this without support from Congress, and I think that would ideally come in the form of an authorizing law, rather than us trying to interpret our law, to enable this,” Powell said. Later in the discussion, Powell said a Fed digital dollar would not be intended as an alternative or competitor to nongovernment cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and Ethereum. “Our work on CBDCs is not primarily motivated by the appearance on the scene of cryptocurrencies and stablecoins,” he said. Powell noted that certain stablecoins backed by sovereign currencies could one day play a larger role in the global financial system, but he cautioned that such assets could not replace the function of central bank currency.

Fed chief warns public of Bitcoin, cryptocurrency risks - Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Monday warned of the risks associated with cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, in part because of their high volatility. “They're highly volatile, see Bitcoin, and therefore not really useful as a store of value and they're not backed by anything,” Powell said during adigital panel discussion hosted by the Bank of International Settlements. He added that crypto assets are more used for “speculation,” rather than a “means of payment.” “They're more of an asset for speculation, so they're also not particularly in use as a means of payment. It's more a speculative asset that's essentially a substitute for gold, rather than for the dollar,” he said. Powell also addressed the potential for the Federal Reserve to institute its own central bank digital coin. He said the Fed is “exploring” the issue, but that it is “not in a mode of trying to make a decision at this point.” He added that they are experimenting with technology and discussing policy. Bitcoin prices have surged in the past year as large companies and many banks begin adopting cryptocurrencies, Markets Insider reported. In February, Tesla purchased $1.5 billion worth of bitcoins and announced plans to accept the cryptocurrency as payment in the future. According to Markets Insider, the price of bitcoins increased to more than $61,000 each earlier this month, as more investors try to profit off the cryptocurrency's growing popularity.

 Digital fraud focuses on younger consumers -- The abrupt shutdown of retail a year ago led to a rise of digital shopping — and fraud. And the most tech-savvy consumers may be the most vulnerable. In the last 12 months, fraud attempts in digital channels against businesses worldwide increased 46%, according to a new TransUnion study. On the consumer side, 36% of users said they were targeted by digital fraud related to COVID-19 in the last three months, versus 29% who said so approximately a year ago, before the virus spread around the world. TransUnion based its findings on a study of billions of global transactions flowing through its fraud-analysis screening tools. Younger consumers — typically considered digital natives — were more likely than retirees to be vulnerable to scams during the pandemic, according to new research from TransUnion. Among U.S.-based Gen Z consumers born between 1995 and 2002, 53% experienced digital fraud attempts, while 40% of U.S. millennials born between 1980 and 1994 were hit by digital fraud, TransUnion said. “Ordinarily younger generations tend to be more tech-savvy and less likely to fall for scams, but when you have a situation like the pandemic where millions of people are on unemployment and expecting checks or stimulus funds, that mindset and need interferes with their judgment,” said Melissa Gaddis, senior director of customer success in TransUnion’s global fraud solutions unit. Fraud declined in only one area — community forums where fraudsters have to work to convince victims to leave the forum and share their payment details. That fact underscores the relative ease of perpetrating simpler types of fraud in the pandemic’s chaos, Gaddis said.

There’s a Plot to Suck in More Retail Traders at the Top of a Bubble Market -  Pam Martens --At both the March 9 Senate Banking Committee and March 17 House Financial Services Committee hearings on the conflicts with Robinhood and Citadel in trading small investors’ shares in GameStop and other meme stocks, the same witness was called by the Republican side of the Committees. His name is Michael Piwowar. In Piwowar’s opening statements to both Committees, he introduced himself as the Executive Director of the think tank, the Milken Institute, and a former Commissioner at the Securities and Exchange Commission. He apparently supplied this same information to the Chairs of both Committees because that is also how Senate Banking Chair Sherrod Brown and House Financial Services Chair Maxine Waters introduced Piwowar.What was not disclosed for the public record at either hearing is the fact that Piwowar is also being paid as a Senior Advisor to a Wall Street trading firm called GTS. Wall Street On Parade verified that information with GTS. Piwowar has served as a Senior Advisor to GTS from March 2019 to the present, according to the company. GTS is the majority owner of ClearList, which seeks to raise money for private companies. In January, the company received approval from the self-regulator, FINRA, to operate an alternative trading system (ATS) which the company said would pave the way “for ClearList to offer secondary trading in private company securities on its platform.” And it just so happens that at both recent congressional hearings, Piwowar was pushing for the SEC to redefine its Accredited Investor definition to open the way for small investors to buy shares of private companies. This topic had nothing to do with the GameStop/Robinhood/Citadel issues around which the Committees had called the hearings, but Piwowar was determined to advance the topic. In his written testimony to the House Financial Services Committee, Piwowar pushed this agenda as follows: “The SEC’s accredited investor definition essentially divides the world of private company investors into two arbitrary categories of individuals — those persons who are accorded the privileged status of being an accredited investor and those who are not. In short, if you make $200,000 or more in annual income or have $1 million or more in net worth, then you are in the privileged class and could choose to invest in the full panoply of investments, whether public or private. If not, the SEC has decided that, for your protection, you are restricted access to invest in private companies…I challenge the SEC’s investor protection rationale for prohibiting non-accredited investors from investing in high-risk companies. ”Piwowar is not the only person connected to GTS that is pushing to gut the SEC’s definition of Accredited Investor. In a November 1, 2019 opinion piece in Barron’s, Ari Rubenstein, the CEO of GTS and Chairman of ClearList, wrote the following:“Due to federal securities laws passed in the 1930s, only institutions and wealthy individuals can invest in many of our country’s most exciting young companies. While I fully agree that smaller investors should be protected from risky and opaque schemes, precluding them from investing in innovative companies at reasonable valuations perpetuates an undemocratic, two-tiered system.”As Americans learned the hard way during the dot.com bust when hundreds of dodgy IPOs went belly up after Wall Street firms had pushed their initial public offerings (IPOs) to the public at the same time they were calling the companies “dogs” and “crap” in internal emails, there is already plenty of risk for the small investor in new stock issues.

 Canadian Pacific Buys Kansas City Southern For $25BN In Largest Deal Of 2021   Canadian Pacific Railways has agreed to buy Kansas City Southern for $25 billion ($28.9 billion including debt) in the largest takeover deal this year. The transaction which sees CP take over the smallest of the seven Class 1 railway operators that dominate a significant share of freight activity in the US, is the biggest in CP’s history and will create a 20,000-mile rail network including the first U.S.-Mexico-Canada railroad.As the FT, which first reported the transaction, notes, the deal marks the latest effort to shake up a structure among the big railroads in the US and Canada that has been unchanged since CSX and Norfolk Southern — the two big operators in the eastern US — took over Conrail and divided it between themselves in 1999.The transaction gives CP access to the Kansas City, Missouri-based company’s sprawling Midwestern rail network that connects farms in Kansas and Missouri to ports along the Gulf of Mexico. It would also give it reach to Mexico, which made up almost half of Kansas City Southern’s revenue last year, and create the only network that cuts through all three North American countries. “This transaction will be transformative for North America,” The Calgary-based company will pay $275 per share - a 23% premium to Friday’s record close - comprised of $90 in cash and the remainder with its stock, receiving 0.489 CP shares for every share they own. To pay for the deal, CP will issue 44.5 million new shares and raise $8.6bn in debt. according to a statement from both companies on Sunday. Shares of Kansas City Southern have more than doubled in the past year. Last September, the company rejected a takeover bid from a Blackstone and Global Infrastructure Partners-led consortium that valued its shares at $21BN. The two companies notified the Surface Transportation Board, the US freight rail regulator that will need to approve the combination, about the deal on Saturday, people with direct knowledge of the matter said. Investors have been concerned that any further consolidation would run into problems with the STB. As it stands, there are two competing big operators in Canada (CP and Canadian National), CSX and Norfolk Southern in the eastern US and Union Pacific and BNSF in the west. Kansas City Southern, the smallest Class 1, is the only operator focused on north-south operations.

 Trade Stocks as You Sit On the Toilet – Yes, This Ad Actually Promotes That -- Pam Martens - There’s a full-blown assault occurring right now to lure young, unsophisticated investors to trade their own accounts instead of investing in low-cost passive index funds or using an investment advisor.The enticements are the worst we have ever seen and harken back to what was occurring in the lead up to the devastating 1929 stock market crash that ushered in the Great Depression. Consider the video advertisement shown below from stock and options trading app, Gatsby, owned by Gatsby Digital, Inc. A young black man sits unshaven in his bathrobe tapping on his mobile phone, ostensibly getting stock quotes or placing trades. A voice-over reassures him: “Of course you’re ready. You were born ready. And with Gatsby, it’s so easy. You can do it from anywhere.” Fade to the man in the bathrobe sitting on a toilet seat, ostensibly still trading his account.On top of that type of seduction, the trading app informs customers on its website that “Gatsby allows users to earn rewards points with every trade. Customers can then redeem their rewards for gift cards at top retailers.”According to the self-regulator, FINRA, Gatsby uses the name ViewTrade Securities, Inc. for its broker-dealer, which is based in Boca Raton, Florida, 1200 miles from Wall Street. Like the Robinhood trading app, Gatsby offers commission-free trading, then ViewTrade Securities sells its customer orders in exchange for payment-for-order-flowto high-frequency trading hedge funds that also have an affiliated market-making firm. Also, like Robinhood, one of the market-makers that ViewTrade is selling its orders to is Citadel Securities. The other major trading firms paying ViewTrade for stock order flow are Two Sigma Securities, Virtu Financial, and UBS Securities (part of the giant global bank).As congressional hearings have recently suggested, these trading apps appear to be enticing the so-called “dumb money” from retail investors so that high-frequently traders can capture an ever-bigger share of the bid-ask spread. There is no shortage of academic studies that have conclusively found that retail investors attempting to trade their own account lose money, and do so consistently. In a recent study, released in October of last year, Barber and Odean joined with Xing Huang to assess Attention Induced Trading and Returns: Evidence from Robinhood Users. They summarized their findings as follows: Using data from Robinhood, we find that Robinhood investors engage in more attention-induced trading than other retail investors, and Robinhood outages disproportionately reduce trading in high-attention stocks. The evidence is consistent with Robinhood attracting relatively inexperienced investors. However, we show that it can also be partially driven by the app’s unique features. Consistent with models of attention-induced trading, intense buying by Robinhood users forecast negative returns. Average 20-day abnormal returns are -4.7% (-19.6%) for the top stocks purchased each day (extreme herding events).”

A Massive Increase in Trading in GameStop by Dark Pools Owned by the Mega Wall Street Banks Coincided with the Spike in its Share Price By Pam Martens  -If the Securities and Exchange Commission is not taking a hard look at the involvement of Dark Pools owned by the biggest banks on Wall Street during the meteoric spike in the price of GameStop shares in late January, then we have to conclude that it doesn’t want to actually get at the truth.Wall Street On Parade spent one hour combing through the Dark Pool trading data available through Wall Street’s self-regulator, FINRA, and the evidence of Dark Pools’ involvement in the dodgy trading in GameStop is striking. (GameStop is a New York Stock Exchange listed company and it has been trading like a penny stock operated out of a boiler room – raising questions about the integrity of U.S. markets.)FINRA only provides Dark Pool data lumped together for an entire week, instead of on a daily basis. But even using the less-than-transparent weekly data, the correlation is striking.From the week of December 21 to the week of January 25, Dark Pools’ trading volume in GameStop went from 4.9 million shares in total for the week to 44.1 million shares for the week of January 25 – an increase of 800 percent. The share price of the stock, likewise, went from a closing price of $15.53 on December 21 to a closing price of $193.60 on January 28 – an increase of 1,146.62 percent.There is something else quite notable in what the Dark Pools were doing under the cover of darkness. During the week of that big spike in share price, the week of January 25, two of the biggest names on Wall Street used their Dark Pools to trade big amounts of GameStop shares. UBS’s Dark Pool ranked number one in both share volume and the number of trades. It traded 10.66 million shares of GameStop in a total of 217,118 trades. One of JPMorgan Chase’s Dark Pools, JPM-X (the SEC allows it to have two Dark Pools) ranked number two for the week with 5.15 million shares of GameStop traded in a total of 30,835 trades.But here’s what doesn’t make sense about those numbers. Both UBS and JPMorgan Chase focus on institutional and high net worth clients. If you divide the January 25 weekly share volume for UBS by the number of trades, it works out to an average trade size of approximately 49 shares – an odd lot. If you do the same for JPMorgan’s Dark Pool, it works out to an average trade of 167 shares. These are institutions that should be trading in lots of 1,000 to 10,000 shares – which raises the question, what was really going on here?

The Bullshit Economy Part 2: Payday Loans 2.0, aka Early Paycheck Apps - Money doesn’t buy you love, and a love of Doritos doesn’t buy you Doritos. To walk out of the store with them, you need to exchange money for the chips in real time—this is how most day-to-day purchases are made. Wages, the grease that lubricates these purchases, are built different. You exchange something of value in real-time, labor, and with some exceptions, that labor is compensated just twice a month. A person works for two weeks without pay, then receives income on the final day of the two-week pay period for the previous two weeks of work: employees provide an advance on their labor at 0% financing to their employer. Not only is this a free loan for employers, it benefits employers’ cash flow at the expense of workers. In a business sense, positive cash flow—more liquid money coming in than going out—enhances a company’s growth through enabling it to buy raw materials, pay workers, conduct R&D, invest in new machinery to grow the business, etc. It’s crucial for everyday operating costs. Going back to our Doritos-craver, there’s no way for that same person to get gas at 0% down, 0% for the first month. Conoco wants the money now. For people who are underbanked and low-income, a cash flow impediment presents a problem. This conundrum mostly used to be exacerbated (or solved, depending on whether or not you worked for a payday loan company) by payday loans. Ostensibly, payday loans are quick-cash solutions for people who may not have access to a bank or need cash before a paycheck arrives. Despite payday loans evaporating, the addressable market isn’t:  1 in 3 adults report “having difficulty covering basic expenses.” 0% loans on labor, years of flat wage growth, and disproportionate costs in other major areas, has ensured the market has stayed ripe.  Notwithstanding their decline, the ethos of payday loans lives on in applications that allow people to access their paychecks in advance of payday: charge exorbitant amounts to those who can least afford it so that they may access their own wages in a timeframe that’s more reflective of reality. Apps such as Earnin, Dave, DailyPay, and many others give users access to their paychecks early. Each early-access app has its nuances around how paychecks are accessed and how each makes money; however, the effective interest rates charged by each mirror their payday loan forebears quite closely. Equally obscene APRs, repackaged in brightly-hued homescreen apps.

 CFPB complaints skyrocket as credit reporting issues again top the list - More than a half million consumers flooded the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau with complaints last year — and while some of the complaints were pandemic-related, the vast majority cited inaccurate information on credit reports. Complaints to the CFPB jumped 54% to 542,300 in 2020, according to an annual report to Congress that the bureau released Wednesday. During the pandemic, the bureau has issued bulletins analyzing thousands of complaints it has received mentioning coronavirus and related terms. “The pandemic has been among the most disruptive long-term events we will see in our lifetimes,” CFPB Acting Director Dave Uejio said in a press release. “Not surprisingly, the shockwaves it sent across the planet were felt deeply in the consumer financial marketplace.” Yet those complaints amounted to 5.9% of the total. Credit and consumer reporting have consistently topped the CFPB’s list of complaints for years and accounted for nearly 60% of all complaints last year, up from 44% in 2019. A significant portion of the complaints in 2020 involved attempts to address identity theft-related issues, according to the CFPB. It said it plans to issue a separate report later this year about the handling of complaints by the three big credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. The companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment. While the credit bureaus typically provide detailed responses to complaints, the CFPB said they “stopped providing complete and accurate responses” to many complaints. Instead, the bureaus noted that a dispute was filed but “otherwise failed to address the issues consumers raise in their complaints.” The CEO of the Consumer Data Industry Association — a trade group whose members include Equifax, Experian and TransUnion — blamed "predatory" credit-repair companies for inflating the number of complaints against credit bureaus. "They essentially spam the [CFPB's] complaint portal, making it difficult to help consumers with legitimate problems," Francis Creighton said in an email to American Banker. The industry with the second-highest complaints was debt collection at 15% of all complaints last year. Last month, Uejio called out financial firms generally for dragging their feet in responding to complaints. He also said the bureau plans to analyze disparities in how companies address complaints from minorities compared with those of white consumers. "The CFPB expects companies to respond to these concerns and that consumers receive responses from companies that address the issues consumers raise in their complaints," Uejio said in the release Wednesday.

 Goldman didn’t discriminate with Apple Card, N.Y. regulator says - Goldman Sachs Group didn’t use discriminatory practices when deciding whether to extend credit to prospective customers of its Apple Card, said the New York State Department of Financial Services. “While we found no fair lending violations, our inquiry stands as a reminder of disparities in access to credit that continue nearly 50 years after the passage of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act,” Superintendent of Financial Services Linda A. Lacewell said in a statement Tuesday. The regulator in November 2019 announced it would open an inquiry into Goldman’s credit card practices after a viral tweet from a tech entrepreneur alleged gender discrimination in the then-new Apple Card’s algorithms when determining credit limits. The department did fault Goldman for “deficiencies in customer service” and said that “a perceived lack of transparency undermined consumer trust in fair credit decisions.”

  Illinois caps consumer rates at 36%, adopts state-level CRA --Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a bill Tuesday capping interest rates on consumer loans at 36% and another bill that establishes community reinvestment standards for state-chartered financial institutions. The anti-predatory-lending law, which takes effect immediately, applies across all consumer loan categories. Auto title loans in Illinois currently have an average annual percentage rate of 179%, and payday loans have an average APR of 297%, according to the governor’s office. The other new law establishes standards for state regulators to assess lending by state-chartered banks, credit unions and nonbank mortgage lenders in economically disadvantaged communities. Pritzker, a Democrat, said the two measures are part of a package of new laws that address racial-equity gaps in Illinois. Other bills that he signed Tuesday address discrimination by employers against people with criminal records, aim to provide access to state contracts for minority-owned businesses and seek to improve access to public housing. “While there is more work to do, we are a better state for what’s in this legislation today,” Pritzker said in a written statement.

MBA Survey: "Share of Mortgage Loans in Forbearance Decreases to 5.05%" --Note: This is as of March 14th.From the MBA: Share of Mortgage Loans in Forbearance Decreases to 5.05% The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) latest Forbearance and Call Volume Survey revealed that the total number of loans now in forbearance decreased by 9 basis points from 5.14% of servicers’ portfolio volume in the prior week to 5.05% as of March 14, 2021. According to MBA’s estimate, 2.5 million homeowners are in forbearance plans....“New forbearance requests decreased to their lowest level since last March. Combined with a steady pace of exits, this drop in new requests resulted in a larger decline in the share of loans in forbearance across all investor categories,” said Mike Fratantoni, MBA’s Senior Vice President and Chief Economist. “More than 11 percent of borrowers in forbearance have now exceeded the 12-month mark. We anticipate that servicers will be busy over the next month, with many homeowners opting for the extension for up to 18 months recently made available for federally-backed loans.”Fratantoni added, “The pace of economic activity is picking up as the vaccine rollout continues. We expect that a stronger job market will help many successfully exit forbearance in the months ahead.”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 trended down since then.The MBA notes: "Total weekly forbearance requests as a percent of servicing portfolio volume (#) decreased relative to the prior week: from 0.07% to 0.05%, the lowest level since the week ending March 15, 2020."

Black Knight: Number of Homeowners in COVID-19-Related Forbearance Plans Decreased --This data is as of March 23rd.From Black Knight: Another Week of Improvement in Forbearance Numbers: Active forbearance plans fell again this week, dropping by another 19,000 (-0.7%) from last Tuesday. In total, this puts the number of active plans down by 134,000 over the last month – a 5% reduction. This monthly decline represents the strongest rate of improvement since late November 2020 and is a direct result of servicers working through the 1.2 million plans that entered this month with scheduled March month-end expirations for extension and/or removal.Of particular note when taking a look at this week’s numbers: even with such strong monthly improvement, there are still more than 460,000 active plans with March month-end expirations, which provides the potential for additional improvement in the coming weeks.Early extension activity suggests that mortgage servicers continue to approach forbearance plans in three-month increments, with the bulk of would-be March expirations being extended out through June. Plan extensions have accounted for 75% of all extension/removal activity in recent weeks, but removals are up simply as a result of the volume of expirations that were scheduled for this month.Finally, the McDash Flash Payment Tracker shows that 90.7% of observed borrowers had made their payment through March 22, up from 89.8% at the same time in February suggesting that the recent improvement in outstanding mortgage delinquencies may resume in March after taking a step back last month. We’ll keep watching to see if this upward trend continues, and will post another weekly update on this blog next Friday, April 2.The number of loans in forbearance has slowly declined over the last few months.

Black Knight: National Mortgage Delinquency Rate Increased in February - Note: Loans in forbearance are counted as delinquent in this survey, but those loans are not reported as delinquent to the credit bureaus.From Black Knight: Black Knight’s First Look: Mortgage Delinquencies Rise for the First Time in Nine Months; Increase Largely Calendar-Driven but Bears Watching

• After eight consecutive months of improvement, the national mortgage delinquency rate rose in February from 5.85% to 6.0%
• The rise was largely calendar-related, as February is both a short month and ended on a Sunday – cutting the days on which payments can be processed – which has historically impacted performance metrics
• Delinquency rate increases were seen broadly across portfolios, geographies and asset classes
• The increase was primarily seen in early-stage delinquencies, while the number of loans 90 or more days past due but not yet in foreclosure (including those in active forbearance) saw a modest decline
• Prepayment activity edged upward in February as well, but recent 30-year interest rate increases are likely to put downward pressure on prepayment rates in the coming months
• Both foreclosure starts and active foreclosure inventory again hit new record lows, as recently extended foreclosure moratoriums continue to suppress activity

According to Black Knight's First Look report, the percent of loans delinquent increased 2.6% in February compared to January, and increased 83% year-over-year.  The percent of loans in the foreclosure process decreased 1.1% in February and were down 30% over the last year.  Black Knight reported the U.S. mortgage delinquency rate (loans 30 or more days past due, but not in foreclosure) was 6.00% in February, up from 5.85% in January. The percent of loans in the foreclosure process decreased slightly in February to 0.32%, from 0.32% in January. The number of delinquent properties, but not in foreclosure, is up 1,449,000 properties year-over-year, and the number of properties in the foreclosure process is down 71,000 properties year-over-year.

 MBA: Mortgage Applications Decrease in Latest Weekly Survey -- From the MBA: Mortgage Applications Decrease in Latest MBA Weekly Survey: Mortgage applications decreased 2.5 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending March 19, 2021. ... The Refinance Index decreased 5 percent from the previous week and was 13 percent lower than the same week one year ago. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 3 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index increased 3 percent compared with the previous week and was 26 percent higher than the same week one year ago. “The 30-year fixed mortgage rate increased to 3.36 percent last week and has now risen 50 basis points since the beginning of the year, in turn shutting off refinance incentives for many borrowers. Refinance activity dropped to its slowest pace since September 2020, with declines in both conventional and government applications. Mortgage rates have moved higher in tandem with Treasury yields, as the outlook for the U.S. economy continues to improve amidst the faster vaccine rollout and states easing pandemic-related restrictions,” said Joel Kan, MBA’s Associate Vice President of Economic and Industry Forecasting. “Purchase applications were strong over the week, driven both by households seeking more living space and younger households looking to enter homeownership. The purchase index increased for the fourth consecutive week and was up 26 percent from last year’s pace. The average purchase loan balance increased again, both by quickening home-price growth and a rise in higher-balance conventional applications.” The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($548,250 or less) increased to 3.36 percent from 3.28 percent, with points increasing to 0.42 from 0.41 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value ratio (LTV) loans.The first graph shows the refinance index since 1990.  With low rates, the index remains elevated, but falling as rates rise.  The second graph shows the MBA mortgage purchase index<.

NAR: Existing-Home Sales Decreased to 6.22 million in February --From the NAR: Existing-Home Sales Descend 6.6% in February -- Total existing-home sales, completed transactions that include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, decreased 6.6% from January to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 6.22 million in February. Sales in total climbed year-over-year, up 9.1% from a year ago (5.70 million in February 2020). Total housing inventory at the end of February amounted to 1.03 million units, equal to January’s inventory and down 29.5% from one year ago (1.46 million). Unsold inventory sits at a 2.0-month supply at the current sales pace, slightly up from January’s 1.9-month supply and down from the 3.1-month amount recorded in February 2020. NAR first began tracking the single-family home supply in 1982. Note: January was revised down from 6.69 million to 6.66 million SAAR. This graph shows existing home sales, on a Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) basis since 1993. Sales in February (6.22 million SAAR) were down 6.6% from last month, and were 9.1% above the February 2020 sales rate. The second graph shows nationwide inventory for existing homes. According to the NAR, inventory was unchanged at 1.03 million in February from 1.03 million in January. Headline inventory is not seasonally adjusted, and inventory usually decreases to the seasonal lows in December and January, and peaks in mid-to-late summer. The last graph shows the year-over-year (YoY) change in reported existing home inventory and months-of-supply. Since inventory is not seasonally adjusted, it really helps to look at the YoY change. Note: Months-of-supply is based on the seasonally adjusted sales and not seasonally adjusted inventory. Inventory was down 29.5% year-over-year in February compared to February 2020. Months of supply was increased to 2.0 months in February from 1.9 months in January (tied for all time low).

Comments on February Existing Home Sales – McBride - Earlier: NAR: Existing-Home Sales Decreased to 6.22 million in February.  A few key points:

• 1) This was the highest sales rate for February since 2006, and the 2rd highest sales for February on record. Some of the increase over the last eight months was probably related to pent up demand from the shutdowns in March and April.  Other reasons include record low mortgage rates, a move away from multi-family rentals, strong second home buying (to escape the high-density cities), a strong stock market and favorable demographics.  The delay in the buying season has pushed the seasonally adjusted number to very high levels.   For example, assuming the buying season was shifted three months by the pandemic, this number of sales, Not Seasonally Adjusted (NSA) in November, would have given a 4.9 million Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR), as opposed to the reported 6.22 million SAAR for February.   So the delay in the 2020 buying season is probably a factor in the headline number being so high. This also means there are going to be some difficult comparisons in the second half of 2021!
• 2) Inventory is very low, and was down 29.5% year-over-year (YoY) in January.  Also, as housing economist Tom Lawler has noted, the local MLS data shows even a larger decline in active inventory (the NAR appears to include some pending sales in inventory). Lawler noted:  "As I’ve noted before, the inventory measure in most publicly-released local realtor/MLS reports excludes listings with pending contracts, but that is not the case for many of the reports sent to the NAR (referred to as the “NAR Report!”), Since the middle of last Spring inventory measures excluding pending listings have fallen much more sharply than inventory measures including such listings, and this latter inventory measure understates the decline in the effective inventory of homes for sale over the last several months." It seems likely that active inventory is down close to 50% year-over-year. Months-of-supply is just above the record low set in December 2020 and January 2021.  Inventory will be important to watch in 2021, see: Some thoughts on Housing Inventory
• 3) As usual, housing economist Tom Lawler's forecast was closer to the NAR report than the Consensus. The NAR reported 6.22 million SAAR, Lawler estimated the NAR would report 6.29 million SAAR, and the consensus was 6.50 million SAAR. This graph shows existing home sales by month for 2020 and 2021. The year-over-year comparisons will be easy in the first half of 2021 - especially in April, May and June - and then difficult in the second half of the year.    The second graph shows existing home sales for each month, Not Seasonally Adjusted (NSA), since 2005. Sales NSA in February (364,000) were 8.7% above sales last year in February (335,000).This was the highest sales for February (NSA) since 2006.

New Home Sales decrease to 775,000 Annual Rate in February - The Census Bureau reports New Home Sales in February were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of 775 thousand.The previous three months were revised up. Sales of new single-family houses in February 2021 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 775,000, according to estimates released jointly today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is 18.2 percent below the revised January rate of 948,000, but is 8.2 percent above the February 2020 estimate of 716,000.The first graph shows New Home Sales vs. recessions since 1963. The dashed line is the current sales rate.The last nine months saw the highest sales rates since 2006.   This was decent year-over-year growth.The second graph shows New Home Months of Supply. The months of supply increased in February to 4.8 months from 3.8 months in January.The all time record high was 12.1 months of supply in January 2009. The all time record low is 3.5 months, most recently in October 2020.This is in the normal range (about 4 to 6 months supply is normal)."The seasonally-adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of February was 312,000. This represents a supply of 4.8 months at the current sales rate. "Starting in 1973 the Census Bureau broke inventory down into three categories: Not Started, Under Construction, and Completed.The third graph shows the three categories of inventory starting in 1973.The inventory of completed homes for sale is low, and the combined total of completed and under construction is a little lower than normal.The last graph shows sales NSA (monthly sales, not seasonally adjusted annual rate).

New home sales fall more than 18 percent in February -Sales of new homes plunged in February as harsh winter weather and supply issues interrupted a scorching hot housing market, according to data released Tuesday by the Commerce Department. The seasonally adjusted number of new homes sold fell 18.2 percent in February, dropping to an annualized rate of 775,000 from a revised 948,000 in January. New home sales fell in every region of the country as damaging winter storms wrecked havoc across the U.S., straining an already tight supply of homes. “There are now more real estate agents than actual homes available for sale in the U.S. Existing home sales are recorded at the contract closing, so the drop is a reflection of the diminishing supply back in December and January,” said Yelena Maleyev, an economist at Grant Thornton, in a Tuesday analysis. “Electricity outages in Texas and bursting pipes across much of the South also likely delayed closings.” A surge of home buyers driven by COVID-19 competing for a meager supply of new and existing houses for sale have driven up prices dramatically since last spring. The median sale price of a home sold in February was $349,400 and the average sale price was $416,000, according to the Commerce Department. Study suggests adults under stay-at-home orders gained nearly two... Putin getting coronavirus vaccine Tuesday The department estimated that just 312,000 new homes were up for sale by the end of February, enough to cover 4.8 months at the current seasonally adjusted rate of sales. While the housing market boom has been a boon for homeowners and those who can afford to upgrade or expand their property holdings, it has also raised concerns about a potential market bubble. The surge in housing prices, which is also driven by shortages of homebuilding materials, has also exacerbated a long-standing affordability crisis, which could fuel even greater income and wealth inequality. “The question is whether more affordable supply will be available for millennials who are entering their prime home-buying years. Mortgage rate movements will start to price out some price-sensitive buyers while soaring materials costs for builders are hindering their ability to meet demand quickly and pass on costs to buyers,” Maleyev said.

A few Comments on February New Home Sales – Mcbride - New home sales for February were reported at 775,000 on a seasonally adjusted annual rate basis (SAAR). Sales for the previous three months were revised up significantly. This was well below consensus expectations for February. The weather was harsh in February - and probably played a role in the decline in sales - but the large year-over-year declines were in the West and Northeast. If the sales decline in February had been mostly weather related, we'd expect large declines in the mid-West and South regions (but sales were up year-over-year in those regions). Still, the last nine months saw the highest sales rates since 2006. Clearly low mortgages rates, low existing home supply, and favorable demographics have boosted sales. A surging stock market has probably helped new home sales too. Earlier: New Home Sales decrease to 775,000 Annual Rate in February. New Home Sales 2018 2019Click on graph for larger image. This graph shows new home sales for 2020 and 2021 by month (Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate). The year-over-year comparisons are easy in early 2021 - especially in March and April. However, sales will likely be down year-over-year in August through October - since the selling season was delayed in 2020. And on inventory: note that completed inventory (3rd graph) is near record lows, but inventory under construction is closer to normal. New Home Sales, Months by Stage of ConstructionOn inventory, according to the Census Bureau: "A house is considered for sale when a permit to build has been issued in permit-issuing places or work has begun on the footings or foundation in nonpermit areas and a sales contract has not been signed nor a deposit accepted." Starting in 1973 the Census Bureau broke this down into three categories: Not Started, Under Construction, and Completed. This graph shows the months of supply by stage of construction.. The inventory of completed homes for sale was at 40 thousand in February was just above the record low of 37 thousand in 2013 (when sales were much lower). That is about 0.6 months of completed supply. The inventory of new homes under construction, and not started, is about 4.2 months - close to normal.

New Home Prices --As part of the new home sales report released this morning, the Census Bureau reported the number of homes sold by price and the average and median prices.  From the Census Bureau: "The median sales price of new houses sold in February 2021 was $349,400. The average sales price was $416,000."The following graph shows the median and average new home prices.During the housing bust, the builders had to build smaller and less expensive homes to compete with all the distressed sales.  When housing started to recovery - with limited finished lots in recovering areas - builders moved to higher price points to maximize profits. Then the average and median house prices have mostly moved sideways since 2017 due to home builders offering more lower priced homes.  Prices picked up again during the pandemic.The average price in February 2021 was $416,000, up 7.7% year-over-year.  The median price was $349,400, up 5.3% year-over-year The second graph shows the percent of new homes sold by price. Very few new homes sold were under $150K in February 2021 ("Less than 500 units" in February 2021, rounded down to zero).  This is down from 30% in 2002.  In general, the under $150K and under $200K brackets are going away.   The $400K+ bracket increased significantly after the housing recovery started, but has been holding steady recently.  A majority of new homes (about 63%) in the U.S., are in the $200K to $400K range.

AIA: "Architecture billings climb into positive territory after a year of monthly declines" in February -- Note: This index is a leading indicator primarily for new Commercial Real Estate (CRE) investment. From the AIA: Architecture billings climb into positive territory after a year of monthly declines: Continuing the positive momentum of a nearly three-point bump in January, the Architecture Billings Index (ABI) reached its first positive mark since February 2020, according to a new report today from The American Institute of Architects (AIA).AIA’s ABI score for February was 53.3 compared to 44.9 in January (any score above 50 indicates an increase in billings). February also marked the first time the design contract score rose back into positive territory since the pandemic began with a score of 51.6 compared to 48.8 in January. The new project inquiries score for February reached a 22-month high water mark with a score of 61.2 compared to 56.8 in January.“Hopefully, this is the start of a more sustained recovery. It is possible that scores will continue to bounce above and below 50 for the next few months, as recoveries often move in fits and starts,” said AIA Chief Economist, Kermit Baker, Hon. AIA, PhD. “Beyond the encouraging billing data, architecture employment added 700 new positions in January and has now regained 45 percent of the jobs that were lost since the beginning of the pandemic.”
• Regional averages: South (52.4); West (49.5); Midwest (49.3); Northeast (46.9)
• Sector index breakdown: mixed practice (52.5); commercial/industrial (50.5); multi-family residential (48.3); institutional (47.8)
This graph shows the Architecture Billings Index since 1996. The index was at 55.3 in February, up from 44.9 in January. Anything above 50 indicates expansion 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 was been below 50 for eleven 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).The weakness over the last year was not surprising since certain segments of CRE are struggling, especially offices and retail. 

Hotels: Occupancy Rate Highest in a Year; Down 15% Compared to Same Week in 2019 --Note: Starting this week, the year-over-year comparisons are easy - since occupancy declined sharply at the onset of the pandemic - but occupancy is still down significantly from normal levels.The occupancy rate is down 15.4% compared to the same week in 2019.From CoStar: STR: US Weekly Hotel Occupancy Reaches 85% of 2019 Level: U.S. weekly hotel occupancy jumped almost seven points from the previous week to the highest level in the country since early March 2020, according to STR‘s latest data through March 20, 2021.
March 14-20, 2021:
• Occupancy: 58.9%
• verage daily rate (ADR): US$108.07
• Revenue per available room (RevPAR): US$63.62
The 58.9% absolute occupancy was a 93.9% increase from the comparable, pandemic-affected week last year, but more importantly, represented almost 85% of occupancy regained from the 2019 benchmark. There was also more improvement in ADR, which reached 81% of the comparable 2019 level. The following graph shows the seasonal pattern for the hotel occupancy rate using the four week average.The red line is for 2021, black is 2020, blue is the median, and dashed light blue is for 2009 (the worst year since the Great Depression for hotels prior to 2020). Even when occupancy increases to 2009 levels, hotels will still be hurting..

 Personal Income decreased 7.1% in February, Spending decreased 1.0% -- The BEA released the Personal Income and Outlays report for January: Personal income income decreased $1,516.6 billion (7.1 percent) in February according to estimates released today by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Disposable personal income (DPI) decreased $1,532.3 billion (8.0 percent) and personal consumption expenditures (PCE) decreased $149.0 billion (1.0 percent). Real DPI decreased 8.2 percent in February and Real PCE decreased 1.2 percent; goods decreased 3.3 percent and services decreased 0.1 percent. The PCE price index increased 0.2 percent. Excluding food and energy, the PCE price index increased 0.1 percent. The February PCE price index increased 1.6 percent year-over-year and the February PCE price index, excluding food and energy, increased 1.4 percent year-over-year. The following graph shows real Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) through February 2021 (2012 dollars). Note that the y-axis doesn't start at zero to better show the change.  The dashed red lines are the quarterly levels for real PCE. Personal income was at expectations,  and the decrease in PCE was slightly below expectations.  Using the two-month method to estimate Q1 PCE growth, PCE was increasing at a 6.3% annual rate in Q1 2021. (using the mid-month method, PCE was increasing at 3.3%). However, these methods are understating growth in Q1, due to the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. Both income and spending increased sharply in March, from BofA yesterday:  "Total card spending, as measured by BAC aggregated card data, increased 45% 1-yr and 23% 2-yr for the 7-days ending Mar 20. The strong gain owes to the latest stimulus: total card spending for stimulus recipients is running 40% above the Feb avg."

Real Disposable Income Per Capita in February --With the release of this morning's report on February Personal Incomes and Outlays, we can now take a closer look at "Real" Disposable Personal Income Per Capita. At two decimal places, the nominal -7.99% month-over-month change in disposable income is cut to -8.20% when we adjust for inflation. This is a decrease from last month's 11.42% nominal and 11.05% real increases last month. The year-over-year metrics are 4.56% nominal and 2.96% real.  Post-recession, the trend was one of steady growth, but generally flattened out in late 2015 with increases in 2012 and 2013. As a result of the CARES Act and the COVID pandemic, a major spike is seen in April 2020 and January 2021. The first chart shows both the nominal per capita disposable income and the real (inflation-adjusted) equivalent since 2000. This indicator was significantly disrupted by the bizarre but predictable oscillation caused by 2012 year-end tax strategies in expectation of tax hikes in 2013 and more recently, by the CARES Act stimulus. The BEA uses the average dollar value in 2012 for inflation adjustment. But the 2012 peg is arbitrary and unintuitive. For a more natural comparison, let's compare the nominal and real growth in per-capita disposable income since 2000. Nominal disposable income is up 108.6% since then. But the real purchasing power of those dollars is up 43.1%.

Real Personal Income less Transfer Payments -- Government transfer payments decreased sharply in February compared to January, but were still $1 trillion (on SAAR basis) above the February 2020 level.  Most of the increase in transfer payments - compared to the level prior to the crisis - is from unemployment insurance and "other" (includes direct payments).  This table shows the amount of unemployment insurance and "Other" transfer payments since February 2020 (pre-crisis level).  The increase in "Other" was mostly due to other parts of the relief acts (including direct payments). There will be another large increase in "Other" in March.A key measure of the health of the economy (Used by NBER in recession dating) is Real Personal Income less Transfer payments.This graph shows real personal income less transfer payments since 1990.This measure of economic activity increased 0.2% in February, compared to January, and was down 2.5% compared to February 2020 (previous peak). Another way to look at this data is as a percent of the previous peak.  Real personal income less transfer payments was off 8.1% in April. This was a larger decline than the worst of the great recession. Currently personal income less transfer payments are still off 2.5% (dashed line).

 Consumer Spending Explodes, Driven By Vaccine Recipients, Millennials Splurging On Airlines, Restaurants  --Now that the awful February retail sales report is in the rearview mirror, as is its huge miss to consensus expectations - just as we warned - due to i)  payback from the stimulus-induced gain in January; ii) delayed tax refunds; and ii) the Texas winter blizzard,, the most recent card spending data from both Bank of America and JPMorgan confirms that the latest stimmy checks have not only arrived but have been put to good use, mostly by millennials but also by those elderly vaccinated Americans (whom BofA calls "traditionalists") who just can't wait to jump on a plane or cruise ship, and enjoy some time away from house arrest, following a year of unprecedented government-overreach lockdowns. The latest BofA card spending data (as measured by aggregated BAC credit and debit card data) for the week ending March 13 showed a 7.4% 1-year change and 8.9% 2-year change for the 7-days ending March 13th, both numbers confirming a substantial rebound from February's spending freeze. Looking ahead to next week, BofA economists expect the 1-year growth rate to soar given two things: the first round of lockdowns went into effect one year ago (i.e. the base effect now comes into play) and indeed, as shown below some categories are already showing the effects; ii) card spending next week will also likely be greatly impacted by the distribution of the latest round of stimulus checks. And speaking of the base effect and the March 2020 lockdowns, BofA shows that spending at department stores and on clothing shot up on a 1-year comparison - if not 2 years - which shows that people had already pulled back this time last year. Meanwhile, overall retail spending remains modestly lower compared to the pre-covid average according to JPM data, while on a one-year basis consumer spending is now up almost 24% Y/Y.

March Vehicle Sales Forecast: Bounce Back from Weather Impacted Sales in February --From WardsAuto: U.S. Light Vehicle Sales & Inventory Forecast, March 2021. This graph shows actual sales from the BEA (Blue), and Wards forecast for March (Red).The weather impacted sales in February, and sales are expected to bounce back in March to close to the January level. The Wards forecast of 16.5 million SAAR, would be up about 5% from last month, and up 45% from a year ago (sales collapsed in March 2020).

Music sales spike in 2020 amid coronavirus pandemic - Music sales rose sharply in 2020 as more people turned to streaming services for entertainment during the pandemic, leading to billions of dollars in growth for the music industry, according to a report released Tuesday. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), a nonprofit organization that represents the recording industry, found in its annual Global Music Report that the global recorded music market grew by 7.4 percent in 2020, the sixth consecutive year it increased. The report noted that the increase was primarily driven by an 18.5 percent increase in revenues from paid subscription streaming services, with a total of 443 million users of music streaming services recorded by the end of 2020. Revenue for both paid and advertising-supported streaming services increased by 19.9 percent to reach $13.4 billion, accounting for roughly 62 percent of total global recorded music revenues, according to IFPI. In terms of 2020’s best-selling artists, K-pop stars BTS came out on top, followed by singer and songwriter Taylor Swift, rapper Drake, singer The Weeknd and pop star Billie Eilish. The rise in streaming revenues helped to significantly offset the losses in revenue from other formats, including physical format and performance rights as lockdown orders prevented people from making in-person purchases, as well as attending concerts and festivals. “As the world contends with the COVID-19 pandemic, we are reminded of the enduring power of music to console, heal and lift our spirits,” IFPI CEO Frances Moore said in a statement along with Tuesday’s report. “Some things are timeless, like the power of a great song or the connection between artists and fans. But some things have changed,” Moore continued. “With so much of the world in lockdown and live music shut down, in nearly every corner of the globe most fans enjoyed music via streaming.” The chief executive went on to say, “As record companies continue to expand their geographical footprint and cultural reach, music has become more globally connected today, than ever before and this growth has spread across all regions around the globe.” “With many impacted by the pandemic, and concerned with growing social injustices, record companies have worked hard to make a meaningful, lasting contribution to the world we want to live in,” Moore added.

Cabin Fever: Americans (of Means) Keen to Travel. How Many Will Play it Safe? -  Yves Smith - Europe is in the midst of a Covid surge. The Qantas CEO is talking up vaccination passports, and the EU is planning on one for within the bloc, although the WHO is not on board. New variants are spreading abroad in the US. Yet with infection rates merely down to where they were five months ago, and only about 10% of the population fully vaccinated (and no solid data on whether/how much having been vaccinated reduces spread), American are sick of being cooped up. Many people want back to some semblance of the old normal and don’t want to hear that holding back another month would make a big difference. As the Wall Street Journal reports tonight, web searches and bookings show a keen desire to travel.But there’s travel and there’s travel. Leaving town does not have to entail much in the way of Covid risks. The data indicates that flying is not too bad since planes circulate their air frequently and have high quality filtration; the big risk appears to crowding when getting on and off board, and being unlucky enough to have been seated near someone with Covid who is coughing. Wearing a N/KN95 mask and taking it off only very briefly (as in eat and drink in short intervals) ought to further cut the hazard level. Driving is even better.But then there’s the wee question of what you plan to do when you arrive. I will confess to traveling pretty regularly under Covid for medical treatments, and no, I didn’t engage in side activities. And staying in hotels where service level have been cut to the bone isn’t very glam (no doorman or porter, when even a wheelie bag isn’t easy to manage with my injuries). By contrast, South Beach overrun by partiers and then put on curfew was the lead story of the Daily Mail last night. As of January, Carnival Cruise Lines ihad more bookings for 2022 than it had for 2019. Las Vegas is moving closer to an old-normal footing. From Las Vegas Review-Journal:Room rates shot up over the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament. Hotel rooms at Palazzo, Linq and Planet Hollywood are available seven days a week again. Buffets and dayclubs — two major taboos at the height of the pandemic — are returning, albeit with amended operations. Fans are back at Golden Knights games again. Nearly 40 shows are performing on the Strip.The list goes on.Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority President and CEO Steve Hill said the problem many entertainment venues are facing now is that to maintain social distancing, crowds are greatly reduced and many shows, including Cirque du Soleil performances, need a full house to be profitable.“Elimination of social distancing will be key to filling entertainment venues,” Hill said….Conventions are coming back too. The World of Concrete booked the Las Vegas Convention Center for June 8-10, and three other trade shows were approved in the next 24 hours.

DOT: Vehicle Miles Driven decreased 9.6% year-over-year in January -- This will be something to watch as the economy recovers.  The Department of Transportation (DOT) reported:Travel on all roads and streets changed by -11.3% (-28.4 billion vehicle miles) for January 2021 as compared with January 2020. Travel for the month is estimated to be 223.3 billion vehicle miles.  The seasonally adjusted vehicle miles traveled for January 2021 is 247.1 billion miles, a -9.6% (-26.2 billion vehicle miles) decline from January 2020. It also represents 1.2% increase (2.8 billion vehicle miles) compared with December 2020.  Cumulative Travel for 2021 changed by -11.3% (-28.4 billion vehicle miles). The cumulative estimate for the year is 223.3 billion vehicle miles of travel. This graph shows the rolling 12 month total vehicle miles driven to remove the seasonal factors. Miles driven declined during the great recession, and the rolling 12 months stayed below the previous peak for a record 85 months. Miles driven declined sharply in March, and really collapsed in April.

Railroads Strike a $25 Billion Merger – WSJ - Canadian Pacific agreed to acquire Kansas City Southern in a transaction valued at about $25 billion that would create the first freight-rail network linking Mexico, the U.S. and Canada. The combination, which faces a lengthy regulatory review, is a long-term wager on an interconnected North American economy. The three countries are reopening at different speeds after the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted supply chains and upended global trade. Rail volumes, which plunged last year, have rebounded though backlogs at California ports have delayed imports from Asia and stalled some U.S. factories. It marks the third major U.S. railroad that the Canadian company has targeted in its quest to create a transcontinental network. Canadian Pacific abandoned the two prior efforts—in 2014 and 2016—amid resistance from the takeover targets themselves as well as opposition from rivals, shippers and U.S. regulators. Keith Creel, chief executive of Canadian Pacific, said lessons were learned from the failed bids. He expects Kansas City’s support for the proposed merger and said the lack of rail-line duplication between the two companies will minimize potential regulatory concerns. Patrick Ottensmeyer, CEO of Kansas City, said the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, which replaced Nafta in July 2020, creates a unique opportunity to ship freight through the three countries as their economies recover from the pandemic. “This company is going to have a North America rail footprint that is truly unmatched,” Mr. Ottensmeyer said in an interview. The combined railway could reduce the need for trucks to link production sites and allow cargo to avoid congested California ports. If approved by regulators, the deal would unite the two smallest of the seven major North American freight carriers, linking factories and ports in Mexico, farms and plants in the Midwestern U.S. and Canada’s ocean ports and energy resources. The transaction will need approval from the U.S. Surface Transportation Board, which requires major railroad combinations to demonstrate they are operating in the public interest by enhancing competition. The merger partners said they expect the STB review to be completed by the middle of 2022. The combined company, to be renamed Canadian Pacific Kansas City, would have about $8.7 billion in annual revenue and employ nearly 20,000 people. It would be run by Canadian Pacific’s Mr. Creel. Kansas City investors would own about 25% of the combined entity’s shares. Mr. Creel said there are no plans to reduce staff if the merger is approved.

 Canadian Pacific to buy Kansas City Southern in $25 billion railway bet on trade (Reuters) - Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd agreed on Sunday to acquire Kansas City Southern in a $25 billion cash-and-stock deal to create the first railway spanning the United States, Mexico and Canada, standing to benefit from a pick-up in trade. It would be the largest ever combination of North American railways by transaction value. It comes amid a recovery in supply chains that were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and follows the ratification of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) last year that removed the threat of trade tensions that had escalated under former U.S. President Donald Trump. The combination needs the approval of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board (STB). The companies expressed confidence this would happen by the middle of 2022, given that the deal would unite the smallest of the seven so-called Class I railways in the United States, which meet in Kansas City and have no overlap in their routes. The combined railway would still be smaller than the remaining five Class I railways. The STB updated its merger regulations in 2001 to introduce a requirement that Class I railways have to show a deal is in the public interest. Yet it provided an exemption to Kansas City Southern given its small size, potentially limiting the scrutiny that its acquisition will be subjected to. “I don’t see it as the kind of consolidation that should raise concerns because it’s what you call an end-to-end or vertical merger. Their networks fit nicely with each other and help fill out North America with real service,” An STB spokesman said the regulator had not yet received a filing from the companies, which would start its formal review process. He declined to comment further. Still, Canadian Pacific agreed in its negotiations with Kansas City Southern to bear most of the risk of the deal not going through. It will buy Kansas City Southern shares and place them in an independent voting trust, insulating the acquisition target from its control until the STB clears the deal. Were the STB to reject the combination, Canadian Pacific would have to sell the shares of Kansas City Southern, and one source close to the agreement suggested they could be divested to private equity firms or be relisted in the stock market. Kansas City Southern shareholders would keep their proceeds. There is a $1 billion reverse breakup fee that Canadian Pacific would have to pay Kansas City Southern if it cannot complete the formation of the trust, the source added. 

 Richmond Fed Manufacturing: Continued Improvement in February - Fifth District manufacturing activity expanded in March, according to the most recent survey from the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. The composite index remained rose to 17 in March from 14 in February and indicates expansion.The complete data series behind today's Richmond Fed manufacturing report, which dates from November 1993, is available here.Here is a snapshot of the complete Richmond Fed Manufacturing Composite series.Here is an excerpt from the latest Richmond Fed manufacturing overview:Fifth District manufacturing activity expanded in March, according to the most recent survey from the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. The composite index rose from 14 in February to 17 in March, driven by a sharp increase in the shipments index while the other two components — new orders and employment — held steady. Businesses reported lengthened vendor lead times, as this index rose from 46 in February to 61 in March, breaking a 25-year-record for the third month in a row. Survey respondents were optimistic that conditions would continue to improve in the coming months. Link to ReportHere is a somewhat closer look at the index since the turn of the century.

 Kansas City Fed Survey: Solid Manufacturing Growth in March - The latest index came in at 26, up 2 from last month's 24, which indicates expansion in February. The future outlook increased to 35 this month from 34. Here is a snapshot of the complete Kansas City Fed Manufacturing Survey. Quarterly data for this indicator dates back to 1995, but monthly data is only available from 2001. Here is an excerpt from the latest report: Tenth District manufacturing activity grew solidly compared to a month ago and a year ago with positive expectations for future activity. [Full report here]Here is a snapshot of the complete Kansas City Fed Manufacturing Survey. The next chart is an overlay of the general and future outlook indexes — the outlook six months ahead. Future factory indexes increased to 35.  For comparison, here is the latest ISM Manufacturing survey.

 One year later, unemployment insurance claims remain sky-high -EPI Blog - One year ago this week, when the first sky-high unemployment insurance (UI) claims data of the pandemic were released, I said “I have been a labor economist for a very long time and have never seen anything like this.” But in the weeks that followed, things got worse before they got better—and we are not out of the woods yet. Last week—the week ending March 20, 2021—another 926,000 people applied for UI. This included 684,000 people who applied for regular state UI and 242,000 who applied for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), the federal program for workers who are not eligible for regular unemployment insurance, like gig workers.Last week was the 53rd straight week total initial claims were greater than the second-worst week of the Great Recession. (If that comparison is restricted to regular state claims—because we didn’t have PUA in the Great Recession—initial claims are still greater than the 14th worst week of the Great Recession.)Figure A shows continuing claims in all programs over time (the latest data for this are for March 6). Continuing claims are currently nearly 17 million above where they were a year ago, just before the virus hit. The good news in all of this is Congress’s passage of the sweeping $1.9 trillion relief and recovery package. It is both providing crucial support to millions of working families and setting the stage for a robust recovery. One big concern, however, is that the bill’s UI provisions are set to expire the first week in September, when, even in the best–case scenario, they will still be needed. By then, Congress needs to have put in place long-run UI reforms that include automatic triggers based on economic conditions.

BLS: February Unemployment rates down in 23 States - From the BLS: Regional and State Employment and Unemployment Summary: Unemployment rates were lower in February in 23 states and the District of Columbia, higher in 4 states, and stable in 23 states, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Forty-five states and the District had jobless rate increases from a year earlier and five states had little or no change. The national unemployment rate, 6.2 percent, was little changed over the month, but was 2.7 percentage points higher than in February 2020. Nonfarm payroll employment increased in 11 states, decreased in 3 states, and was essentially unchanged in 36 states and the District of Columbia in February 2021. Over the year, nonfarm payroll employment decreased in 48 states and the District and was essentially unchanged in 2 states. Hawaii and New York had the highest unemployment rates in February, 9.2 percent and 8.9 percent, respectively, while South Dakota, 2.9 percent, and Utah, 3.0 percent, had the lowest rates. Hawaii is being impacted by the lack of tourism.

Agricultural employers are asking the Supreme Court to make it harder for farmworkers suffering from poor pay and working conditions to unionize -- EPI - In California, union organizers can temporarily access an agricultural employer’s property outside of work hours in order to talk to farmworkers about their legally protected right to join a union. Two agricultural employers, however, contend that the regulation allowing that access is equivalent to an uncompensated and unconstitutional “taking” of their property and should therefore be struck down. On Monday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in this dispute: In Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid, two agricultural employers are challenging the 1975 California regulation that allows union representatives to visit private farms. The case could have implications for union organizing across the country. If the challenge by the employers is successful, it will keep the United Farm Workers (UFW) away from their employees, so they won’t be able to organize them. Such a restriction would be particularly egregious given the harsh working conditions farmworkers face and given that a growing share are temporary migrant workers with H-2A visas who live in housing that is either owned or controlled by their employers. Farmworkers are employed in one of the most hazardous and lowest paying jobs in the entire U.S. labor market, a fact that isn’t often mentioned in the mainstream coverage. As research I coauthored has shown, farmworkers suffer very high rates of wage and hour violations, yet the number of inspections of agricultural employers has been cut in half in recent years, likely due to the U.S. Department of Labor being perennially underfunded by Congress. In addition, a majority of farmworkers either lack an immigration status and fear retaliation and deportation, or they are migrant workers who have a precarious and employer-contingent immigration status such as an H-2A visa, a temporary visa that ties them and indentures them to one employer—meaning that if they lose their job or their status, they become deportable.Our report revealed that between 2000 and 2019, 11% of all federal wage and hour investigations on farms found H-2A violations and agricultural employers were required to pay out $55 million in stolen wages and civil money penalties as a result of those violations. A report published last year by Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, a migrant worker advocate group, detailed the findings of in-depth interviews with 100 H-2A workers, who “reported discrimination, sexual harassment, wage theft, and health and safety violations by their employers—and a chilling lack of recourse.” Every single H-2A worker interviewed “experienced at least one serious legal violation of their rights, and 94% experienced three or more.” Considering the challenges and abuses that H-2A workers face while employed on U.S. farms, being able to communicate with them is critical to their protection.

The police crackdown in Miami Beach: Who is responsible for the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic? -Riot police cracked down on spring break partiers in Miami Beach, Florida on Saturday, just hours after the mayor declared a state of emergency and implemented an 8 p.m. curfew. SWAT teams blocked the streets and deployed a deafening sound cannon while officers fired pepper balls into a crowd that had gathered along the city’s famed South Beach. More than two dozen people were arrested, and police report more than 1,000 arrests since the beginning of the spring break season. On Sunday, Miami Beach officials extended the curfew for up to three weeks, closing off access to the main tourist thoroughfare for four nights a week. Gatherings such as those of young people in Florida are not safe and should be discouraged. The pandemic remains a dire threat, and new variants are spreading rapidly throughout the country. Florida already leads the country in the number of confirmed cases of the B.1.1.7 variant, which is more contagious and deadlier than earlier variants. However, the response of the state is hypocritical to the extreme. First of all, the militarized crackdown on largely working-class and African American youth was not driven by public health concerns. Rather, police were deployed in response to complaints from wealthy residents that the crowds were blocking their access to the bars and beach front. Thousands of college students and others have been welcomed to gather in Miami Beach and throughout the region as part of annual spring break festivities. Miami tourism boosters used a $5 million grant from local government to run its largest ad campaign in two decades. Airlines have been offering cheap fares to Miami for as low as $50. Hundreds of thousands of tourists have traveled to the state in recent weeks to gather in large crowds, from the 300,000 who attended Bike Week earlier this month up the coast in Daytona Beach to this week’s revelry in Miami Beach. Florida has no statewide mask mandate or social distancing restrictions on businesses, with Republican Governor Ron DeSantis pursuing a “business-friendly” pandemic policy that has resulted in more than two million COVID-19 infections and over 32,000 deaths in just one year.

Piedmont Natural Gas seeks rate increase in North Carolina - Charlotte Business Journal - Piedmont Natural Gas Co. Inc. is asking regulators in North Carolina to approve a 10.4% overall rate hike that would go into effect in November. The increase would raise $109 million in new annual revenue for the company. Under the proposal filed today with the N.C. Utilities Commission, residential rates and small commercial company rates would increase 11.9 %. A typical residential customer’s average monthly bill would go up almost $8, to about $76 from a current monthly average of $68. Customers tend to have their largest bills from October to March, as heating costs rise. Large industrial customers who get firm service will see their rates go up 17%. Industrial customers with interruptible service — those who agree to allow their service to be curtailed during emergencies and unusual peaks — will see rates go up 5%. The increase would cover about $1.7 billion in capital investments.

Study of utility shutoffs during COVID-19 finds disproportionate impact in southeastern states More than 750,000 households had their power disconnected during COVID-19 across ten states for which data is publicly available, with the greatest impacts centered in southeastern states including Georgia, Florida and the Carolinas, according to an analysis from the Center for Biological Diversity.. Georgia Power disconnected 131,000 residential customers between July 2020 and January 2021, but shutoffs have since reached pre-pandemic levels, which averaged 19,000 residential customers per month, according to a company spokesperson. In addition to highlighting the disparities created by states' varied approaches to shutoff moratoriums during the pandemic, Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors' Association, said the Center's report illustrates existing economic disparities and the need for improved reporting of shutoff data. An effort by the Center for Biological Diversity to quantify the number of Americans who had their power shut off during COVID-19 may not be comprehensive, but it does illustrate the two Americas that emerged during the pandemic, according to Wolfe. The report, released earlier this week, focuses on just ten states due to the lack of publicly available data, according to Greer Ryan, the author of the report and an energy policy analyst at the Center for Biological Diversity. Ten other states had no shutoffs due to emergency moratoriums, leaving about 30 states for which Ryan said she was unable to obtain data. Even so, Wolfe said, the report paints a stark picture of the discrepancies that unfolded across the U.S. in 2020 as a result of differences in policy and prosperity. While some states, including Georgia and Florida, reported hundreds of thousands of disconnects during the pandemic, in others only a few thousand residents were reportedly cut off. "What the paper is really saying, is we have two different countries here," Wolfe said. "One part of the country with strong protections, and one weak. There's no concern in New York or California. The concern is in Georgia."

 COVID-19 homelessness is a public health problem — it's about to get worse -As we mark the one year anniversary of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) declaration of the pandemic, we can see signs of long awaited progress. President Biden has accelerated the vaccine delivery timetable, now promising every adult who wants one will be eligible by May 1. Nearly 25 percent of the nation’s adult population has already received at least one dose. Many states are seeing decreasing numbers of new cases and deaths. There’s still work to do, but there’s undeniable excitement that we’re headed in the right direction. For America’s homeless, however, there will be little celebration when we reach herd immunity. Before the pandemic struck, the number of unsheltered people in the U.S. was on the rise for three straight years. California alone recorded a 16 percent increase in 2019. At the time, then-Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Ben Carson said the problem in California demanded “crisis-like urgency” from state and local leaders. Federal leadership was sadly lacking and we have yet to start a national conversation about how to make housing affordable for all. It’s no surprise COVID-19 has had a disproportionate impact on America’s homeless. Nearly twice the number of homeless suffer from underlying health conditions in the areas of hypertension and diabetes, among others, heightening exposure risk to the virus’s most serious effects. Washington alone reported a 54 percent increase in the number of homeless who died in 2020 compared to the previous year. As of last October, the death rate for the sheltered homeless in New York was 75 percent higher than that of New York City. COVID-19 precautions — hand washing, social distancing and wearing clean masks — pose significant challenges for the unsheltered, especially for those who suffer from untreated mental illness. Safety isn’t always the priority when daily survival is the primary objective. Being homeless also complicates nutritional health, regular access to bathrooms and medical care and the ability to store, cook and consume food in a safe manner. President Biden showed great leadership in ordering the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to reimburse states and cities that paid hotels to house the homeless during the pandemic, such as those in L.A. County. It was an important stopgap measure but it didn’t go far enough to address the underlying problem. Now, a federal order by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) prohibiting landlords from evicting tenants with delinquent payments to prevent further spread of COVID-19 is set to expire at the end of this month. With nearly one in five adult renters behind in their payments, millions of Americans could soon be displaced with nowhere to go. Extending the CDC moratorium is needed to prevent this problem from becoming far worse. But it will take bold action by Congress, Biden and a national plan to reverse the rising trend of homelessness in America. Children and families deserve stable and safe housing, and it is past time we as a nation examine the root causes of homelessness to reduce the number of Americans who live in extreme poverty.

Homelessness in the US exploded before the pandemic--A new “point-in-time” report from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) shows that homelessness increased significantly during the Trump administration. The report includes a detailed snapshot of the state of homelessness in the US in January of 2020—just before the COVID-19 pandemic set in—and compares it to figures from previous years. It stands as an indictment of the Trump administration and begs the question of exactly how many more people have become homeless over the last year as millions lost their jobs and fell behind on their rent or mortgages. The report found that essentially all major metrics of homelessness are on the rise. At the beginning of 2020, there were over 580,000 homeless people in the US, or just under one in 500. Last year was the fourth consecutive year of growth in the homeless population in the country. While the homeless population under the Trump administration increased by some 30,000 people, or about five percent, the number of unsheltered homeless—those who lacked any sort of nighttime shelter at all, for example, a car—increased by 28 percent. Moreover, the number of chronically homeless people, those who have been homeless for over a year or who are consistently in and out of homelessness, increased by a massive 40 percent, reaching levels last seen only in the fallout of the 2008 financial crisis. The growth in homelessness was distributed across both “red” and “blue” states, those traditionally controlled by the Republicans and Democrats respectively, though Democratic stronghold states tend to have much higher homelessness rates. California has the largest single state homeless count at 130,000, and percentage-wise is only behind Washington D.C., New York and Hawaii. In President Joe Biden’s home state of Delaware, an infamous tax haven, homelessness increased by 26 percent between 2019 and 2020. But the report only describes the prevailing conditions that existed before the pandemic. The HUD will not release a similar report for January 2021 until early 2022. But until then, a study of some key events of 2020 allows for an informed guess as to how these figures have risen still further over the course of the pandemic. While the pandemic changed everyday life in many ways, it did not change either the basic policies of the ruling class or its attitude towards the working class.

Pittsburgh-area cops called Black Lives Matter protesters 'thugs,' 'terrorists' in Facebook group: report -- Police in and around the city of Pittsburgh operated a private Facebook group in which some members posted racist and transphobic messages about the Black Lives Matter movement and other groups, according toan investigation from The Associated Press.The AP's investigation published Monday uncovered posts in a group titled the "Pittsburgh Area Police Breakroom," many of which were openly hostile and sometimes racist towards protesters who rallied in the city following the death of Antwon Rose, an unarmed Black teenager who was killed while running from police. “If you are a law enforcement officer and you kneel or lie on the ground so easily over the false narrative of police brutality, you will one day be executed on your knees or your stomach without a fight by the same criminals that you are currently pandering to,” wrote a police officer named Joe Hoffman with the West Mifflin Borough, according to the AP. A representative for the West Mifflin Borough Police Department told The Hill that it would be "premature" to comment at this time, but added that the department was "internally" investigating Hoffman's comments. Other posts in the group referred to Black Lives Matter protesters as "terrorists" and "thugs," a term experts have pointed out comes with racial connotations. Other posts from unidentified officers reportedly encouraged using guns, dogs and water cannons on Black Lives Matter protesters, similar to how civil rights protesters were treated in the 1960s. Still other posts included transphobic language directed at Rachel Levine, a transgender woman who previously served as Pennsylvania's Health secretary and now awaits a full Senate vote on her confirmation as assistant secretary at Health and Human Services. “Someone needs to shoot this thing!!” one retired officer wrote, according to the AP.

 Tennessee GOP bill would ban textbooks with LGBTQ content -A bill proposed by Republican Tennessee state lawmakers would ban textbooks and teaching materials that contain LGBT content. The bill, H.B. 800, was introduced by state Rep. Bruce Griffey (R) in February and is slated to be considered by the state's Education Instruction Subcommittee on March 30, according to KENS5.According to the legislation's summary of the bill, "LEAs (local education agencies) and public charter schools are prohibited from locally adopting or using in the public schools of this state, textbooks and instructional materials or supplemental instructional materials that promote, normalize, support, or address lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, or transgender (LGBT) issues or lifestyles." The bill's text also states that it is unknown if some textbook material currently in use is in violation of the proposed legislation. If the bill is passed, it would go into effect in July of this year and would be implemented in school districts statewide for the 2021-2022 school year, according to the local news station. Earlier this year, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee (R) remarked that transgender girls should be prohibited from middle and high school sports teams that match their gender identity, or they will “destroy women’s sports.”Tennessee Republicans also advanced legislation last year that would penalize state schools for including transgender girls in athletic events and teams.

Chicago school attendance figures show less than a quarter of students actually going to schools in person - After weeks of stonewalling, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) released attendance figures indicating just 24 percent of students were actually participating in in-person learning. In light of the continued resistance of parents and the wider community to reopening schools during the pandemic, the administration of Mayor Lori Lightfoot and CPS district officials are doing everything they can bring more students back into classrooms, including revoking teacher accommodations allowing them to teach remotely. Though CPS administration claimed to be “encouraged” by the figures, there is a high degree of sensitivity surrounding the release of this information, indicated by its release late on Friday afternoon. Such a practice is almost exclusively reserved for information which the releasing party hopes will get buried in the news cycle. Moreover, the figures themselves demonstrate widespread opposition the policies of Lightfoot, the Democratic Party and the school district among working class families. According to the data, 49,281 students have attended in-person learning in school buildings at least once between February 11 and March 12. That number represents 24 percent of the 205,383 students that have been eligible to attend since the district reopened schools for elementary and special education students. CPS officials claim 73 percent of students who opted in to in-person learning show up to schools each day on average. The release of these partial attendance figures show that interest has continued to fall for in-person learning since CPS asked parents to opt-in in December. Back then, the number of CPS students whose families said they wanted them in schools was 77,000. This fell to 60,278, by late February—just 29 percent of students in eligible grades. There is reason to believe the district’s attempts to return a large mass of high school students and educators to schools by April 19, the beginning of the fourth quarter academic term, has met with some difficulty. Just hours before the March 19 deadline for parents to opt-in to in-person learning for their students, the district announced it would be extending the deadline through Tuesday, March 23.

7 in 10 parents concerned children will face setbacks in schools due to pandemic - A new poll found that about 7 in 10 parents are concerned that their children will face setbacks in school, academically and socially, due to the coronavirus pandemic that caused many schools to switch to online learning for months. The University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll showed that 69 percent of parents are somewhat concerned about their child falling behind academically. Similarly, 70 percent of parents are at least somewhat concerned their child will fall behind socially due to the loss of sports and other activities, the poll found. Many schools have not been fully in person, five days a week for a year. Sports seasons have been canceled or limited because of the pandemic. One study showed middle and elementary school students are falling behind in math, while another study showed that students who have been in person for class were less stressed than those still in online learning. However, concerns with their children falling behind in school are coupled with a concern that schools reopening could cause coronavirus cases to rise. The poll showed that 64 percent of parents are at least somewhat concerned that schools reopening could cause a spike in coronavirus cases. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has changed the recommendation for social distancing from 6 feet to 3 feet in schools. This will allow for class sizes to increase, as desks had to be taken out of classrooms to accommodate for 6 feet of social distancing.

Michigan schools reopened. Then came a spike in COVID outbreaks - Coronavirus outbreaks are skyrocketing in Michigan schools, with some districts retreating to fully online learning just weeks after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s March 1 deadline urging all schools to reopen classrooms. Data released Monday by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services revealed a 30-percent increase in one week in cases connected to new or ongoing coronavirus outbreaks tied to middle and high schools, rising to 1,412 staff and students from 1,085. New and ongoing elementary school outbreak cases rose 23 percent in the past week, to 169 cases from 137. The outbreaks may be tied to highly contagious coronavirus variants. There are now more outbreaks than on Nov. 15, when Whitmer ordered middle and high schools to go fully remote for three weeks. When she made that announcement, there were 777 staff and students who had tested positive in new or ongoing school outbreaks, half the number as now. While more schools may lurch back to homebound learning as outbreaks spread, state officials indicated Tuesday that there are no current plans for another statewide pause in in-person learning. State officials are “very concerned” but “want schools to be able to remain open for in-person learning and for students to be involved in extracurricular activities, including sports,” said Lynn Sutfin, a state health spokesperson. The increase at schools mirrors an overall surge in the state, where weekly cases have more than tripled to more than 19,000 from just over 6,000 in mid-February. And after weeks in which less than 4 percent of COVID cases were positive, 12 percent were so on Tuesday, a clear sign of community spread of a disease that has killed nearly 16,000 people in Michigan. “The community spread is being mirrored by the schools,” said Erik Edoff, superintendent of L’Anse Creuse Public Schools in Macomb County, which now has an outbreak involving three students at a middle school. “There’s definitely been an uptick in recent weeks.”

Data shows schools are fueling third surge of COVID-19 in Michigan --A third surge of the COVID-19 pandemic has begun in Michigan, fueled by huge numbers of outbreaks at K-12 schools and school-related sporting events. Daily new cases in the state have nearly tripled since their low one month ago, climbing from 1,045 per day on February 20 to 2,998 per day on March 20. During this period, the number one source of new COVID-19 outbreaks in the state was K-12 schools. According to Covid Act Now, Michigan’s overall rate of infection is 1.23, meaning that on average a person who catches COVID-19 in Michigan will infect 1.23 other people, the highest such rate of any state in the US. In St. Clair County—where cases doubled in one week after its schools switched from hybrid to fully in-person learning on March 1—the rate is 1.47. At a press conference on March 19, the state’s Chief Medical Executive Dr. Joneigh Kaldhun revealed the extraordinary fact that “in January and February, local health departments identified 315 outbreaks associated with different sports teams” related to schools or recreational clubs. “We are going in the wrong direction,” she said, explaining that the highest increase in cases statewide has been observed in children aged 10 to 19 years old. Michigan is also the state with by far the highest per capita rate of the more infectious and lethal B.1.1.7 variant of the virus, whose transmission has been especially associated with school sports. The variant has now been detected 756 times across 31 of the state’s counties. Not only new variants but horrifying medical afflictions associated with COVID-19 have appeared in the petri dish of Michigan's schools. Ninety-five Michigan children have now developed MIS-C (Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children), a condition seen only in children who catch COVID-19 in which a child’s brain, heart, kidneys and other organs swell and malfunction. Last month, 10-year-old Dae’Shun Jamison of Shelby beat MIS-C but tragically lost both arms and both legs. Fourteen-year-old Honestie Hodges of Grand Rapids did not survive. Any rational person would conclude from these facts that face-to-face learning and school sports must be stopped immediately, in order to contain the spread of COVID-19 and save countless lives. Instead, officials at the local, state and federal levels are fighting to open schools where they remain closed and to reduce to insignificance any remaining safety policies.

Texas implements new CDC guidelines in public schools - Potentially millions of additional schoolchildren in Texas will be packed into classrooms in the few remaining weeks of the school year, with state officials announcing Thursday their total support for the politically-motivated Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) policy that social distancing between students be reduced from six to three feet in K-12 schools. The city of Austin is pressing ahead with the change, despite COVID-19 test positivity rates ranging from a low of 3.3 percent among preschoolers to as high as 7 percent among middle school students. While rates of infection in schools have fallen recently, the decline generally tracks with closures caused by the recent Texas power crisis. Coronavirus testing rates are also down. The region of Waco, for example, has recently seen the number of daily tests for coronavirus fall by 85 percent over previous peaks. The Texas government’s move, combined with the statewide lifting of the mask mandate earlier this month, jeopardizes the lives and health of millions of educators and schoolchildren. So far, there have been 127,196 confirmed cases of COVID-19 among students and 67,740 among staff statewide. The endless refrain that these numbers are of little significance because kids get “mild cases” of the illness is cold comfort for the dozens upon dozens of families whose children have died. This logic expresses the callous indifference toward the long-term health consequences of COVID-19 for children, which are poorly understood but initial research indicates can be severe. As for educators, the hundreds among the nearly 48,000 Texans dead from COVID-19 are simply bodies to be stepped over for the politicians and so-called health experts pushing these policies. The three-feet guideline itself is just a recommendation that can be violated, with the state explaining Thursday that schools should “ encourage students to practice social distancing” when it’s possible to do so without “ disrupting the education experience” (emphasis added). The fact that the state’s Republican governor Greg Abbott is implementing the recommendations of the CDC—which was pressured by the Biden administration to distort science in order to meet his political goal of reopening all K-8 schools—underscores the fact that educators and families are confronting a combined assault of both parties of big business. In an effort to appear as an advocate for educators and schoolchildren, state representative Democrat Shawn Thierry of Houston recently introduced a bill into the state legislature that would require a single school nurse for every 750 students in Texas schools. In reality, Thierry’s effort reveals the grotesque character of public education in the state and the total unwillingness of anyone in the political establishment to do anything about it. Despite the propaganda campaign by the Texas political establishment and the Biden administration, backed by the CDC, teachers unions and other officials, there is still enormous opposition to the reopening policies.

More students sent back to Las Vegas schools, as health expert claims Nevada is reaching “herd immunity” - On March 22, thousands of sixth, ninth, and twelfth graders returned to in-person learning at Clark County District Schools (CCSD), which includes children from Las Vegas, Nevada and surrounding communities. This follows the return of pre-K to third graders to school buildings on March 1. The remaining grades will return in a hybrid model on April 6, with all elementary students scheduled to return to campuses five days a week. While an estimated 26,764 students were expected to return Monday, the parents of 44,912 students chose to keep them in remote learning, despite the barrage of propaganda from the media and political and union officials that in-person learning is not only safe, but essential to the mental well-being of students. As one teacher noted on social media, “41 students got off buses today at my high school. ...We had less than a 100 on campus, but we were supposed to have 400.” As for the pre-K to third grade students who were sent back on March 1, 36,440 are in Cohort A and attend in-person classes on Mondays and Tuesdays, and 32,685 are in Cohort B, which meets on campuses on Thursdays and Fridays. According to the district, 93,644 pre-K through third grade students remain in remote learning. Students and teachers returned to schools in accordance with a Memorandum of Agreement reached between CCSD and the Clark County Education Association (CCEA) on December 14, 2020. The deal was approved by the CCSD trustees on January 14, 2021. The CCEA not only did not put up any struggle but left the wording of the document so ambiguous that social distancing measures were allowed to be reduced weeks before the CDC reduced its guidelines from six to three feet to pack more children into classrooms. In total disregard for the safety of educators, students and the community at large, the CCEA has backed the drive to reopen schools. When the district first threw open its doors, union officials declared on Facebook, “We want to wish all pre-k through 3rd grade educators a great first day back with students in the building today! We want to hear how your day goes! Let us know what your favorite thing that happens today is and what you’re looking forward to most the rest of the week. Share your photos and share your stories!” This post was followed by a smiley face. The reopening of schools has been accompanied by a months-long media blitz feigning concern over the academic and emotional well-being of students. This comes after decades of annual budget cuts to programs, which are designed to address the mental health and other needs of children.

Facebook threatens teachers’ groups opposing unsafe school reopenings - On Monday and Tuesday, Facebook threatened two groups—Illinois Refuse to Return and Educators Rank and File Safety Committee—with being shut down for sharing information that is opposed to the unsafe reopening of schools amidst the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The Facebook threat was sent to administrators of the two groups in the form of a “Group Quality” communication. The message contained “Warnings” about a post by a group member that had been removed because it “goes against our Community Standards on misinformation that could cause physical harm.” The warning also stated that the approval of the member’s post by administrators was considered an “Admin violation” and, if further instances occur of such violations, “we may disable your group.” The group member who posted the comment in the two groups was World Socialist Web Site writer Benjamin Mateus. Mateus was also notified that this post was considered a violation of Facebook’s Community Standards and that it had been removed. Benjamin Mateus is the pseudonym used by a practicing physician in the US with extensive clinical experience. Mateus shared his post on Illinois Refuse to Return on Monday and Educators Rank and File Safety Committee on Tuesday. The post exposed the use by the US Congress and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of a study coauthored by Brown University economist Emily Oster that justified the loosening of guidelines and claimed that children are not at high risk for COVID-19. The full text of the post is as follows: “A person like Emily Oster who has been advocating right wing fashion for schools to open and repeatedly getting it wrong who has no training in public health and infectious diseases should be a red flag for the CDC to use her study. This is no better than the hydroxychloroquine hype promoted by the flawed French researcher to treat COVID-19. Yet, the CDC and congress put on a deadly show for all Americans and teachers. ‘We will manipulate statistics and promote bad data and sell it as sound science to get you back in the classrooms!’”

New York City charter school threatens to fire educators who refuse to teach in-person - Public Prep, a charter school network in New York City that teaches pre-K, primary and middle school students, has threatened to fire teachers who do not teach in-person classes for two weeks a month. According to teachers, administrators told them in virtual meetings that anyone who refused to return would be terminated. To ensure that teachers come into buildings, administrators have arbitrarily declared “blackout days” during which educators will not be paid for taking sick days or time off for family responsibilities. In some cases, blackout days have been applied retroactively. The demand comes as more infectious variants of the coronavirus now comprise over half of all new infections recently tested in the city. On Sunday, one person was diagnosed with the deadly P.1 variant first discovered in Brazil. Nevertheless, yesterday, public high schools resumed face-to-face instruction for the first time in a year, as part of the Biden administration’s campaign to rapidly reopen schools in order to compel parents to return to unsafe workplaces. While New York City’s test positivity rate remains at roughly 7 percent, 25 zip codes have positivity rates of 10 percent or more. Public Prep, which has generally followed the public school opening and closing policies during the pandemic, opened up its schools for full-time face-to-face instruction on March 1. The charter’s reopening plan is a hybrid model for teachers, but seeks to maintain fully in-person classes for students. To do so, the network has hired part-time staff, who make an hourly wage of $20 an hour, have no work protections or health care benefits and are required to come to school five days a week. Many of the full-time staff at the schools are new teachers, graduate students, or teachers who are not certified in New York but are in other states. They are under tremendous pressure to ensure student achievement and are told that if they do not perform their jobs to an amorphous “standard” they may be terminated.

110 school bus drivers have died from COVID-19 -- At least 110 school bus drivers have died from COVID-19 in the past year in the US according to the tracker School Personnel Lost to Covid. In total, 1,145 school personnel have died from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic. School bus drivers are particularly at risk of infection. School buses have been specifically noted as potential areas of high spread, with students and drivers in a largely closed air system lacking proper ventilation. Air conditioning and heating systems can act as conveyors for the virus, while the lowering windows in freezing or raining weather threatens the health of students and drivers through more conventional illnesses. From late December to early January, two Southern Regional School District bus drivers in New Jersey died from COVID-19 just weeks after the district switched to remote instruction following a rise in cases on campus and in the community. The district did not release the names of the bus drivers. In Miami-Dade, Florida school bus driver Donna Blatch died from COVID-19 in February after voicing concern that she was not being informed about which of her students had been sent home to quarantine. She was one of three district employees who died from the virus in a two-week period, passing just four days after testing positive for infection. In an interview with the news station Local 10, a co-worker of Blatch commented that “The kids are not keeping their mask on their faces, kids are not socially distancing on the bus [and] we are in a closed confined space. They [the district] should treat us with some dignity.” She continued by saying “I lost my best friend to this COVID. How many more Donna Blatch’s is it going to be before it happens to one of us? We’re scared; we have underlying conditions, we have families with underlying conditions that we may take this COVID home to our families, and they need to take into consideration when they talk about opening these schools, they need to take our lives in consideration. The teachers can work and do that from home, we can’t do that. So, we are asking for our community, pastors, the governor, and the mayor to help us. Make it safer for these kids and us on these Dade County school buses. We have not got any recognition for what we are doing as bus drivers and we are afraid of losing our lives.” There are no national statistics on school bus driver infections, but the conditions facing school workers in general provide insight into the potential hazards they face. According to the National COVID-19 School Response Dashboard, among data collected for 1.5 million school employees between August 31 and February 28, roughly 78,000 school workers have been infected. That is more than five percent of the surveyed school staff infected, and a death rate upwards of 1.5 percent of those infected. These deaths and many more come at a time when, after cases have been declining nationally for weeks, school districts are starting to see an increase in cases. These issues have exacerbated the existing general shortage of school bus drivers around the country, making it difficult for districts to fill all positions needed to cover routes. .

 Inequity in college admissions is a threat to US prosperity - At the initial news conference announcing indictments in the Varsity Blues scandal two years ago, U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling summed up the case succinctly: “The real victims in this case are the hardworking students” who were displaced in the admissions process by “far less qualified students and their families who simply bought their way in.” His comments underscored the broader cultural reality behind the scandal, in which dozens of wealthy families used more than $25 million in bribes to manipulate athletics admissions processes at several elite schools so their children could get unfairly enrolled. Netflix’s new documentary about the scandal reopens the wounds of this deceit and greed, but doesn’t confront the systemic problems at the root of this situation. The ongoing pandemic, however, has done that for us. It has shown how much economic inequality stacks the deck against the college dreams of talented low-income students. As the CEO of the National Association for College Admission Counseling, an organization of 22,000 admission and counseling professionals, I know all too well that the admissions system favors the wealthy. And that is mostly because of how we fund colleges and universities. In 1967, then-newly elected California Gov. Ronald Reagan summed up the approach that has led us to this situation when he said taxpayers should not support “certain intellectual luxuries.” He later announced budget cuts to the University of California, which until then had been not only premiere but free. Across the ensuing decades, as state after state did the same, higher education increasingly has been treated as a private rather than a public good. Meanwhile, America has experienced a rise in economic inequality that is far greater even than it was 100 years ago, in its Gilded Age. Now, to balance budgets, schools turn to the wealthy, not only for full-pay enrollment fees for their children but also for philanthropic support. Until we confront how higher education is funded, the admissions system will continue tilting toward the upper-classes and away from highly qualified students from other backgrounds. The pandemic has starkly shown us why change is needed. Its financial impacts on low-income families have been far worse on average than for other families and as a result college applications across lower-income families have declined dramatically. Without systemic changes, these disparities will continue worsening. This is not simply students’ personal problem, either. It’s a societal one. College graduates disproportionately boost the tax base, build entrepreneurial enterprises, generate high-income opportunities for other works, serve in community leadership and contribute to family stability.

University of Cincinnati does not renew contract of professor who called COVID-19 'the Chinese virus' -The University of Cincinnati has made the decision not to renew the contract of a professor who reportedly used the term “Chinese virus” when discussing COVID-19. University spokesperson M.B. Reilly told The Cincinnati Enquirer following an investigation into College of Engineering and Applied Science adjunct instructor John Ucker. The university launched the probe in September after a student shared a screenshot of Ucker’s email, which went viral and racked up nearly 200,000 interactions on Twitter. Evan Sotzing, a third-year engineering student, had emailed Ucker to tell the professor that he would not be able to attend an in-person lab because his girlfriend had tested positive for the coronavirus. While he had tested negative, Sotzing was instructed to quarantine for two weeks. "For students testing positive for the chinese (sic) virus, I will give no grade," Ucker responded. Shortly after, UC’s Dean of Engineering and Applied Science, John Weidner, said he was "looking into it" and referred the matter for review to the university's Office of Equal Opportunity and Access. "These types of xenophobic comments and stigmatizations around location or ethnicity are more than troubling. We can better protect and care for all when we speak about COVID-19 with both accuracy and empathy – something we should all strive for," Weidner wrote in a statement.

Lawler: Update on the Dismal Demographics of 2020; "Smallest Population increase since 1918" - CR Note: Back in November, housing economist Tom Lawler wrote The Dismal Demographics of 2020. Here is an update:  Updated provisional data released by the CDC indicates that the US “demographics” in 2020 was even more dismal that what I indicated in my November report of last year. Provisional data through this week show that there were over 3.36 million deaths in 2020.

• Deaths: US deaths last year were up by 17.8% from 2019. Given reporting lags in some states the total death count for last year will be somewhat higher than that shown in the table below, these number will probably be pretty close to the total. While Covid-19 deaths were obviously the major reason for the spike in deaths last year, deaths not directly attributable to Covid-19 also increased significantly last year, especially (in % terms) for the 15-44 year old age groups. This increase may reflect Covid-related deaths not identified as such, the effect of some people not seeking medical help because of the pandemic, and a sharp rise in deaths related to drug overdoses.
  On the latter point, provisional CDC data (adjusted for estimated underreporting) show that there were an estimated 88,295 drug overdose deaths in the 12-month period ending August 2020, up 26.8% from drug overdose deaths in the 12-month period ending August 2019.
• Births: Provisional CDC data through September 2020 suggest that the multi-year downtrend in US births accelerated last year. According to these data, there were an estimated 2.729 million US births from January to September of last year, down 3.1% from the comparable period of 2019. If full year births for 2020 are down by the same Percentage from 2019, then US births for 2020 will total just 3.632 million, the lowest number of births since 1981.
  “Natural” Increase: Based on these death and birth data, the so-called “natural” increase in the US population (births minus deaths) totaled just 267,894 last year, the lowest such increase in what I believe is over a century.
• Net International Migration: While there is little doubt that combination of the pandemic and Trump administration policies resulted in a sharp decline in net international migration (immigration minus emigration), from what level to what level is not at all clear. There are not any good, timely data on either immigration or (especially) emigration, and historical data are not very reliable.  However, the State Department issues data on monthly immigrant visas issued, and in calendar year 2020 there were just 165,426 immigrant visas issued, down 64.2% from the previous year.

Virus variants found to be deadlier, more contagious; some may thwart vaccines (Reuters) - The following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus.

• Multiple variants can “escape” vaccines. Antibodies induced by the Moderna Inc and Pfizer Inc/BioNTech SE vaccines are dramatically less effective at neutralizing some of the most worrying coronavirus variants, a new study suggests. Researchers obtained blood samples from 99 individuals who had received one or two doses of either vaccine and tested their vaccine-induced antibodies against virus replicas engineered to mimic 10 globally circulating variants. Five of the 10 variants were "highly resistant to neutralization," even when volunteers had received both doses of the vaccines, the researchers reported on Friday in Cell. All five highly resistant variants had mutations in the spike on the virus surface - known as K417N/T, E484K, and N501Y - that characterize a variant rampant in South Africa and two variants spreading rapidly in Brazil. In keeping with previous studies, the proportion of neutralizing antibodies dropped 5- to 6-fold against the variants discovered in Brazil. Against the variant discovered in South Africa, neutralization fell 20- to 44-fold. A variant circulating now in New York has the E484K mutation. "While studies of the New York variant are ongoing, our findings suggest that similar variants harboring E484K may be harder for vaccine-induced antibodies to neutralize," said study leader Alejandro Balazs of Harvard University and the Massachusetts General Hospital. "Despite our results," he added, "it's important to consider that vaccines raise other kinds of immune responses which could protect against developing severe disease." (bit.ly/3bWB1Ko)
• Variant identified in UK is deadlier. The coronavirus variant first identified in the UK, known as B.1.1.7, is deadlier than other variants circulating there, a new study appears to confirm. Researchers analyzed data on 184,786 people in England diagnosed with COVID-19 between mid-November and mid-January, including 867 who died. For every three people who died within four weeks after being infected with another variant, roughly five died after becoming infected with B.1.1.7, according to a paper posted on medRxiv ahead of peer review. Overall, the risk of death with B.1.1.7 was 67% higher than the risk with other variants in England, the authors said. As with earlier variants, patients' risk of death increased with age, male gender, and pre-existing medical conditions. B.1.1.7 is now prevalent across Europe and predicted to become prevalent in the United States. "Crucially," the researchers wrote, "emerging data suggest that the currently approved vaccines for SARS-CoV-2 are effective against the B.1.1.7." (bit.ly/3r2vpCE)
• Variant identified in Brazil is doubly infectious. Between November and January in Manaus, Brazil, the frequency of COVID-19 cases involving the P.1 coronavirus variant increased from non-existent to 73%, and the number of infections there quadrupled compared to what the city experienced in the first wave of the pandemic, according to a report posted on medRxiv ahead of peer review. The greater infectiousness of the P.1 variant likely contributed to that, the report suggests. Based on national health surveillance data, the authors estimate that the P.1 variant is roughly 2.5 times more transmissible than previous variants circulating in Manaus. The spread of P.1 occurred despite the fact that 68% of the city's population had already been infected by the original strain of the coronavirus, the researchers noted. In their analysis, the risk of reinfection with P.1 was low. The ability of the variant to cause severe disease, or its pathogenicity, is still unclear. "The P.1 variant has already been detected in at least 25 countries," the authors said. "This calls for urgent ... studies of the P.1 variant, since greater transmissibility and pathogenicity can drive even well-prepared health systems to collapse." (bit.ly/38MGykw)

Explained: In cats and dogs, UK strain of coronavirus and a heart condition  The fact that the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 can infect animals, including pet cats and dogs, was established early in the Covid-19 pandemic. Now the first few cases have been reported of cats and dogs being infected with the so-called “UK variant” of the coronavirus, otherwise known as B.1.1.7. What is of particular concern is that some of the infected animals have also been diagnosed with a heart condition known as myocarditis. It is not yet established if this condition was caused by the coronavirus infection, although researchers have underlined the need for recognising the association.The infections have been detected in two places — in the UK and the US — and reported in separate studies. The humans of all the pets had tested positive before the infection was detected in animals, suggesting human-to-animal transmission.One study is part of an ongoing project undertaken by the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, and funded by the US Centers for Disease Control, that involves surveillance of pets living in “high risk” households with people who have Covid-19. Researchers detected infection with the B.1.1.7 variant in a black lab-mix dog and a domestic shorthair cat from a household where their human had been diagnosed with Covid-19 in mid-February.The heart condition was detected among a number of cats and dogs in the other study, conducted at The Ralph Veterinary Referral Centre near London. Two cats and a dog, which had presented with myocarditis, subsequently tested positive for the B.1.1.7 strain of SARS-CoV-2, while three more were found to have antibodies against the virus. The study is awaiting peer review and is currently on a preprint server. Myocarditis is an inflammation of the heart muscle that decreases the ability of the heart to pump blood normally. It can be caused by a number of factors, including a viral infection. The severity of symptoms varies; in extreme cases, patients of myocarditis can suddenly lose consciousness or show signs of heart failure.

Patients should receive COVID-19 vaccine before surgery to reduce risk of death --Governments should prioritise surgical patients for COVID-19 vaccination Patients waiting for elective surgery should get COVID-19 vaccines ahead of the general population - potentially helping to avoid thousands of post-operative deaths linked to the virus, according to a new study funded by the NIHR. Between 0.6% and 1.6% of patients develop COVID-19 infection after elective surgery. Patients who develop COVID-19 infection are at between 4- and 8-fold increased risk of death in the 30 days following surgery. For example, whereas patients aged 70 years and over undergoing cancer surgery would usually have a 2.8% mortality rate, this increases to 18.6% if they develop COVID-19 infection. Based on the high risks that surgical patients face, scientists calculate that vaccination of surgical patients is more likely to prevent COVID-19 related deaths than vaccines given to the population at large - particularly among the over-70s and those undergoing surgery for cancer. For example, whereas 1,840 people aged 70 years and over in the general population need to be vaccinated to save one life over one year, this figure is only 351 in patients aged 70 years and over having cancer surgery. Overall, the scientists estimate that global prioritisation of pre-operative vaccination for elective patients could prevent an additional 58,687 COVID-19-related deaths in one year. This could be particularly important for Low- and Middle-income Countries (LMICs) where mitigation measures such as nasal swab screening and COVID-free surgical pathways, which can reduce the risk of complications related to the virus, are unlikely to be universally implemented.

AstraZeneca: German team discovers thrombosis trigger - Researchers at the Greifswald teaching hospital in northern Germany said on Friday that they had discovered the cause of the unusual blood clotting found in some recipients of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, public broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) reported.The investigation showed how the vaccine caused rare thrombosis in the brain in a small number of patients.The discovery means that targeted treatment can be offered to those who suffer similar clotting, using a very common medication.The success was a result of cooperation between the Greifswald hospital, state health regulator the Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI), as well as doctors in Austria — a nurse there died from thrombosis in the brain after being vaccinated with the AstraZeneca jab.The researchers emphasized that treatment would only be possible in patients where blood clots appear, rather than as a preventative treatment.The information has been shared with hospitals around Europe.

Covid Is Airborne (on Airplanes)  Lambert Strether - B117[1] is the Covid variant shortly to become “dominant” in the United States. Where did it come from? Outside the United States. That makes border control, especially for air travel, of paramount concern. It’s not. Or else B117 wouldn’t be here! That’s basically the post, which is pure common sense as soon as you see it. But allow me to elaborate. First, I’ll briefly summarize the origins of B117, and first spread to the United States. Then I will describe how other Japan and Vietnam have successful controlled it, though [drumroll] border controls, among other techniques. Finally, I will contrast what other countries are doing to what we are doing, and conclude. (All in all, yet another case study for How the West Lost COVID, if preventing the virus from spreading be the appropriate metric for success.)At Virological.org, we find “Phylogenetic evidence that B.1.1.7 has been circulating in the United States since early- to mid-November,” which gives a brief history of the origin and spread of B117: “[A]n episode of heightened mutation, likely within a single host” likely means an immunocompromised individual. From Science, “U.K. variant puts spotlight on immunocompromised patients’ role in the COVID-19 pandemic“:In terms of the social determinants of health, it’s intriguing that B117 originated in Kent, the sort of place where immunocompromised are likely to be found. Be that as it may, B117 is not a good lineage to have been detected. From the Journal of the American Medical Association, “SARS-CoV-2 Viral Variants—Tackling a Moving Target“: Epidemiological studies indicate that the B.1.1.7/20I/501Y.V1 strain is 30% to 80% more effectively transmitted and results in higher nasopharyngeal viral loads than the wild-type strain of SARS-CoV. Also of concern are retrospective observational studies suggesting an approximately 30% increased risk of death associated with this variant. Unfortunately for us all, B117 travels by air. From bioRvix[2], “Phylogenetic analyses of SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7 lineage suggest a single origin followed by multiple exportation events versus convergent evolution” B117 came to the United States by air (and not by, say, ocean liner, by surface transport, or by hopping the border). From medRxiv, “Genomic epidemiology identifies emergence and rapid transmission of SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7 in the United States“: … [O]ur TMRCA [median time to the most recent common ancestor] estimates coincide with increased periods of travel, where the U.S. Transportation Security Administration reported over one million travelers crossing checkpoints for several days during the peak Thanksgiving season (November 20-29, 2020) and for twelve of eighteen days surrounding the Christmas and New Year’s holidays (December 18, 2020 to January 4, 2021) (TSA, 2021), providing a likely explanation for how B.1.1.7 may have been introduced via international travel and spread across the U.S. via domestic travel. From the New York Times, summarizing the above study in “Virus Variant First Found in Britain Now Spreading Rapidly in U.S.”: The first case turned up on Dec. 29 in Colorado, and Dr. Andersen found another soon after in San Diego. In short order it was spotted in many other parts of the country. The variant was separately introduced into the country at least eight times, most likely as a result of people traveling to the United States from Britain between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Now let’s look at how two other countries handled the appearance of B117.

Covid-19 Flight From Hell: My Run-In With An Infected Passenger -What’s more important: being safe or feeling safe? If you think the answer is obvious, think again.  Consider air travel, for example. Although flying is, statistically, one of the least deadly modes of transport—safer than cars, trains and boats—the mere thought of getting on a plane makes many people feel unsafe. The percentage of Americans who report being afraid to fly has, for years, hoveredabove 50%. In surveys, people point to any number of fear-inducing events that could play out in the sky, from turbulence to hijackings to mid-air collisions. And yet, the risk of dying in a plane crash is less than 1 in 11,000,000 (compare that to the 1 in 107 odds of dying in a motor-vehicle accident).  When it comes to flying, fear proves to be a more powerful motivator than facts. For many, feeling safe is more important than being safe.  Once the coronavirus hit U.S. shores, the reputation of air travel took another nosedive. Throughout 2020, opinion polls showed that Americans who weren’t previously afraid to fly were avoiding air travel over concerns of contracting the deadly virus on board a plane.  These fears devastated major airliners. Flight occupancy declined by 60% last year, causing an estimated $35 billion in net losses industrywide.  To combat the public’s growing paranoia over catching Covid-19 on an airplane, the largest carriers rallied together to give passengers a renewed sense of safety. Starting in the spring of 2020, each member of the “Big Four” aligned with the most recognizable names in medicine and household cleaning products:

• America Airlines launched its CleanCommiment with the help of Purell and the Vanderbilt University Medical Center
• United’s CleanPlus program is backed by Clorox and the Cleveland Clinic 
• Delta launched its CareStandard initiative in concert with the Mayo Clinic and the makers of Lysol
• The Southwest Promise involves a partnership with the Stanford University School of Medicine and the use of HEPA filters on board

The industry’s trade group, Airlines for America (A4A), even sponsored a study conducted by Harvard’s School of Public Health. The research collaboration confirmed that “flying poses less risk of viral spread than shopping or eating out” and that “there has been little evidence to date of onboard disease transmission.”The air-travel industry’s potent combination of clean-freakiness and third-party scientific validation seems to be paying off. Since April 2020, the number of Americans passing through TSA checkpoints has steadily increased. And according to TSA data, 1.357 million people passed through U.S. airports last Friday, more than on any day since March of last year. But even as planes remain a relatively safe (and increasingly relied upon) means of travel, a recent flight from San Diego to New York taught me an important lesson: When it comes to Covid-19, the goal of the airline industry isn’t to maximize passenger safety. It’s to maximize the feeling of safety. 

CDC director warns of 'avoidable surge' of COVID-19 amid relaxing precautions -Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky on Monday warned of an "avoidable surge" in COVID-19 cases if people do not take sufficient precautions. "We must find the fortitude to hang in there for just a little bit longer," Walensky said during a White House press briefing. "We are at a critical point in this pandemic, a fork in the road, where we as a country must decide which path we are going to take." Europe is currently seeing a new wave of cases as it struggles with a slower pace of vaccinations and with more infectious variants of the virus. Walensky pointed to the rise of the variants and said a similar situation could play out here. "We must act now and I am worried that if we don't take the right actions now, we will have another avoidable surge just as we are seeing in Europe right now and just as we are so aggressively scaling up vaccination," she said. She urged states to maintain restrictions and for individuals to keep taking precautions like wearing masks, avoiding crowds and avoiding travel for a little while longer until a wider share of the population is vaccinated. The warnings come as crowds of people on spring break flock to South Florida, forcing the city of Miami Beach to extend a curfew. "What I saw down in Miami, it didn't look like a whole bunch of vaccinated people, but I could be wrong," White House coronavirus response senior adviser Andy Slavitt said. The country has plateaued at a high level of about 50,000 new cases per day, highlighting the fact that there is still a large amount of virus circulating. Deaths have fallen as more vulnerable people get vaccinated, but there are still around 1,000 deaths from COVID-19 in the U.S. every day. Walensky noted on Monday that while it is good news that death rates are falling, it is still possible for younger people to die from the virus, even if they are less likely to, so continued high levels of cases still pose a risk.

Eli Lilly antibody treatment stopped due to spread of COVID-19 variants - The U.S. government has stopped the use of Eli Lilly’s COVID-19 monoclonal antibody treatments due to the spread of COVID-19 variants. The announcement about bamlanivimab came Wednesday from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response. The announcement only applies to bamlanivimab used alone. It can still be used in combination with etesevimab, which is another monoclonal antibody. CNN reported that the government has sent out nearly 800,000 doses bamlanivimab as of March 2. “Given the sustained increase in SARS-CoV-2 viral variants in the United States that are resistant to bamlanivimab administered alone, and the availability of other authorized monoclonal antibody therapies that are expected to retain activity to these variants, the U.S. Government, in coordination with Eli Lilly and Company will stop the distribution of bamlanivimab alone,” the statement said. The statement also said that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has updated its guidance on bamlanivimab, advising health care providers to consider alternative authorized monoclonal antibodies that can withstand circulating variants. In a statement to The Hill, Eli Lilly said, “We recognize the U.S. government has made the decision to no longer allow direct ordering of bamlanivimab alone due to concerns about the prevalence of the California (B.1.427/B.1.429) and New York (B.1.526) variants of SARS-CoV-2.” IRS: Masks, sanitizer bought to fight COVID-19 can be deducted from... Warner presses Zuckerberg to tackle vaccine misinformation on... “Lilly developed bamlanivimab and etesevimab for administration together to be prepared for the spread of SARS-CoV-2 variants that could resist treatment with either monoclonal antibody alone,” the statement said. “We believe that sites with access to bamlanivimab and etesevimab for administration together should use that therapy over bamlanivimab alone.”

NY’s first case of Brazilian COVID variant detected in Brooklyn resident - A Brooklyn nonagenarian with no travel history is the first person in New York to catch a confirmed case of the Brazilian variant of COVID-19, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office said Saturday. The state’s first case of COVID-19 P.1 was identified by scientists at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, and verified by the Department of Health’s Wadsworth Center Laboratories, Cuomo’s office said. The state Department of Health is working to learn more about the patient and potential contacts, Cuomo’s office said. The variant was first found in the U.S. in January in Minnesota, according to the Centers for Disease Control. There are currently 48 cases in 15 states, including Massachusetts and New Jersey, according to the CDC website. The Brazilian variant is considered more contagious than the first version of the coronavirus, and it’s possible the vaccines won’t be as effective against it. But Cuomo’s office was optimistic about such concerns. “While additional research is warranted, researchers at the University of Oxford recently released non-peer reviewed data that indicates the P.1 variant may be less resistant to the current vaccines than originally thought,” the governor’s office said. The city says nearly 3.9 million vaccine doses have been administered in the five boroughs.

March 22 COVID-19 Vaccinations, New Cases, Hospitalizations - According to the CDC, 126.5 million doses have been administered. 17.4% of the population over 18 is fully vaccinated, and 32% of the population over 18 has had at least one dose. And check out COVID Act Now to see how each state is doing. (updated link to new site)  Almost 28,000 US deaths have been reported in March due to COVID. This graph shows the daily (columns) 7 day average (line) of positive tests reported.  This data is from the CDC.  The 7-day average is 54,241, well above the low following the summer surge of 35,000.  The second graph shows the number of people hospitalized.  This data is also from the CDC. The CDC cautions that due to reporting delays, the area in grey will probably increase.  The current 7-day average is 33,302 well above the post-summer surge low of 23,000.

Former Head Of FDA Raises Concerns About New York COVID Variant And Possible Re-Infection – — The former head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expressing concerns about a coronavirus variant first identified in New York City.Very little clinical research has been done on the strain, known as B.1526.  Dr. Scott Gottlieb said he fears the current vaccines might not fully protect against the variant. “What we don’t understand with 1526 is whether or not people are being re-infected with it and whether or not people who might have been vaccinated are now getting infected with it,” he said on Face the Nation. “One of the concerns about this particular variant is that it has that mutation that’s also in the South African variant, in the 1351 variant, that we know in certain cases is causing people who have already had coronavirus to get re-infected with it.” Meanwhile, a variant first discovered in Brazil has been confirmed in a 90-year-old Brooklyn resident, who is now hospitalized.Mayor Bill de Blasio and his health team were asked about the variants Monday.“We’re going to learn more literately every day, but at least we have seen some trends so far that tell us we can beat these variants if we continue to aggressively get people vaccinated,” the mayor said “But we do have to take them seriously. They do pose a threat.”“We know that these variants that are here, present in New York City are more infectious — that is, one person is more likely to infect another person. So that’s a strong reason for why we continue to have very high rates of disease,” Dr. Jay Varma added. “So we are concerned about them.”

Yale New Haven Health identifies 45 cases 'New York COVID Strain' in CT The Department of Public Health announced on Monday that Yale New Haven Health has identified dozens of cases of the “New York COVID Strain” in CT. Officials confirmed that 45 cases of the variant were confirmed by Yale-New Haven Health. They say this is just a variant of interest, not of concern yet. Medical experts believe the New York COVID Strain has resulted in a 15-percent positivity rate in parts of New York City. They said more testing needs to be done to see how effective the vaccine is against the strain. The U.K., South African and Brazilian variants of the coronavirus have also been detected in Connecticut. The New York COVID Strain is known as “1526” and health experts don’t know how effective vaccines are at preventing that particular strain. “The fact that these cases are being detected, particularly in people who haven’t traveled recently, really raises the concern that this variant is here, it’s likely spreading much more than we know,” said Dr. Summer McGee of the University of New Haven.

Lamont: 40% of CT COVID cases could contain highly contagious strain -Gov. Ned Lamont said more than a third of Connecticut’s new COVID infections likely involve the variant first identified in the United Kingdom that experts say is a highly contagious and potentially more dangerous strain of the disease. “The B.1.1.7., aka the U.K. variant, which is highly-infectious, looks like it could be about 40 percent of our infections right now, maybe a little bit more in some of the states to the south of us,” Lamont said Thursday. The news is not unexpected. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said as early as January that the variant could become the predominant strain in the U.S. in March, suggesting Connecticut is actually behind that trajectory. But the increased detection of the strain comes as Connecticut is seeing a bump in overall COVID cases and an elevated positivity rate. “Considering that B.1.1.7 is moving toward the majority of the cases, it’s likely playing a bit of a role,” said Nathan Grubaugh, an assistant professor at the Yale School of Public Health who is tracking strains of the virus in the state. “However, I'd point out that human behaviors are the main driving force in the trends, so this may be happening even without B.1.1.7.” In the U.K., the variant caused the nation to begin a second lockdown in early January, after the rapidly-spreading variant led to rising hospitalizations. In Connecticut, 379 cases of the B.1.1.7 variant have been identified, according to state data released Thursday. Many of them have been found in the New Haven area. There have been 72 cases identified in New Haven, 30 in West Haven, 25 in Waterbury and 24 in Wallingford, the data shows. Branford, Bridgeport, East Haven and Hamden have each identified more than a dozen cases of the variant, according to the data. A study published this month in the health journal, Nature, estimated the variant makes the virus about 61 percent more deadly. Sequencing of COVID-19 samples by Yale University and Jackson Labs last week found 38 percent were cases of the B.1.1.7. variant, according to data released on Thursday. About 22 percent were cases of B.1.526, a variant first detected in New York. Connecticut is not tracking the cumulative number of cases of the strain, according to Yale’s report. The strain from New York is considered to be a “variant of interest,” and not a “variant of concern” like B.1.1.7. Lamont noted there is a “creep up” in cases among younger adults. “That’s where the infections are taking place, it’s a younger demographic — less complications, but perhaps a little less caution,” he said.

COVID rates rising across state, NYC struggles with variants - Coronavirus infection rates and hospitalizations are rising again across the state, with New York City still grappling with more contagious variants of the virus, Gov. Cuomo said Tuesday.The state recorded 6,801 new coronavirus cases and 4,681 people hospitalized with the virus — both figures a modest tick up from the previous day, the governor said.Fifty-three New Yorkers died Sunday from COVID, a dreadful toll that has been slow to decline from its recent peak in early January.”We’re working toward a future in which COVID is left behind and we can settle into the new normal,” Cuomo said in a statement. “(But) we have a ways to go until that happens.”The statewide positivity rate stood at 4.7%, according to the data released Tuesday. That’s a hefty increase from the seven-day average of 3.3%, suggesting that infections are increasing rapidly. New York City and the surrounding suburbs seem to be regaining their unwanted title as the epicenter of the pandemic in the state.Of the 53 deaths, at least 35 were people living in the five boroughs. Another six were from Long Island and seven were from northern suburbs, according to Tuesday’s data.The positivity rate has soared over 4% in all the boroughs except Manhattan. Long Island and the northern suburbs also recorded rates above 4%.

Brazilian COVID-19 strain found in New York - Governor Cuomo announced Saturday that a New York resident has been diagnosed with the Brazilian variant of the Coronavirus. This is the first discovery of the P.1 strain in the state. The case was identified by scientists at Mount Sinai hospital in New York City and verified by the Department of Health’s Wadsworth Center Laboratories. The resident is in their 90′s and lives in Brooklyn. They have no history of traveling. The Department of Health is working with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to learn more information about the patient and potential contacts. “The detection of the Brazilian variant here in New York further underscores the importance of taking all the appropriate steps to continue to protect your health,” Governor Cuomo said. “While it’s normal for a virus to mutate, the best way to protect yourself is to continue to wear a well-fitted mask, avoid large crowds, social distance, wash your hands and get vaccinated when it’s your turn.” The P.1 variant was first detected in the United States at the end of January 2021. The CDC reports 48 cases nationwide. The P.1 variant is a “variant of concern.” Officials say there is evidence of increased transmissibility, more severe disease, and the potential for reduced effectiveness of treatments and vaccines. However, researchers at the University of Oxford recently released non-peer reviewed data that indicates the P.1 variant may be less resistant to the current vaccines than originally believed.

New York, Tennessee, West Virginia, Arizona expanding eligibility for COVID-19 vaccines -- New York, Tennessee, West Virginia and Arizona on Monday announced expansions of COVID-19 vaccine eligibility requirements, lowering the minimum age for people to receive vaccines. New Yorkers age 50 and older will be eligible to receive a vaccine starting on Tuesday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) announced in a statement. "We continue to kick vaccinations into overdrive throughout the state by expanding eligibility, establishing new vaccination sites and allowing providers to reach new populations," Cuomo said. In Tennessee, Gov. Bill Lee (R) announced that adults age 55 and older, in addition to people who work in critical infrastructure industries, are now officially eligible to receive a vaccine. Lee also said that all state residents age 16 and older will be able to receive a vaccine beginning April 5. “And here’s the big news: no later than April 5, every Tennessean age 16 and up will be eligible to receive the vaccine,” he said in a video statement. “The federal government has asked us to make sure every adult can receive access by May 1, and Tennessee will beat that deadline.” All individuals age 16 and older in West Virginia are also now eligible to receive the vaccine, Gov. Jim Justice (R) announced. West Virginia on Monday became the third state to open COVID-19 vaccinations up to all adults, joining Alaska and Mississippi, The New York Times noted. And all individuals age 16 and older in Arizona will be eligible to receive vaccines at state-operated inoculation sites in Maricopa, Pima and Yuma counties beginning on Wednesday, Gov. Doug Ducey (R) wrote in a statement. "Our goal has been and remains to get vaccine into the community as quickly, widely and equitably as possible," Ducey said in a statement. "Given a thorough review of vaccination data, anticipated vaccine supply, and current demand among prioritized groups, now is the time to take this critical next step."

 Georgia allows all adults to receive vaccine starting Thursday - Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) said Tuesday that he will expand access to the COVID-19 vaccine to all people over the age of 16 living in the state, a policy that will go into effect Thursday and comes just a week after he eliminated special COVID-19 capacity limits for Georgia's bars and nightclubs. Kemp announced the expanded vaccine access at a press conference, while reportedly adding that he would get vaccinated on Friday, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Confirm your spot in line as quickly as possible,” the governor reportedly said. “This is our ticket back to normal, and we’re getting closer to that point every day.” The state has at least partially vaccinated 2.06 million people out of roughly 11 million total across the state, and another 1.1 million have received a second dose. Georgia's vaccination rate is ranked 45th in the nation, according to the Becker Hospital Review. During his press conference Tuesday, Kemp reportedly warned of available vaccines not reaching Georgians in a timely fashion, while the Journal-Constitution reported that some state-run vaccination sites have reported low numbers of appointments being scheduled. “We cannot afford to have vaccines sitting in the freezers, whether it’s in metro Atlanta or in rural Georgia,” the governor said, according to the Journal-Constitution.

N.J. now tracking 7 COVID variants with nearly 500 total cases led by more contagious U.K. strain - New Jersey has now confirmed nearly 500 cases of the coronavirus from seven different variants, with the vast majority from the more-contagious strain first identified in the United Kingdom, officials said Wednesday.In samplings of positive tests, the state has found 401 cases of the U.K. variant, 7 cases of two California strains, 6 cases of two Brazilian strains, and 1 case of the South African strain, according to the state Department of Health.Those are considered “variants of concern” by the federal Centers for Disease Control, showing evidence of increased transmissibility and more severe disease.There are also 80 cases of the New York variant, which is considered “of interest” by the CDC.Dr. Eddy Bresnitz, medical advisor to the New Jersey COVID-19 response team and chairman of the state’s COVID Professional Advisory Committee, said Wednesday that four strains are of particular concern: the U.K, South African, and two Brazilian. And the U.K. strain, he said, is the most concerning across America.“Yes, it’s true that it’s increased transmissibility, but it doesn’t seem to be the vaccines don’t have efficacy against hat variant, as well,” Bresnitz said during the state’s latest coronavirus briefing in Trenton.Asked Monday how the state is tracking the variants, state Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said: “We can’t trust this virus to act in any way that’s predictable, so we have not let our guard down at all.”“We are acting as if a surge is happening tomorrow, and we will be ready,” Persichilli added.Officials have suggested that the spread of variants are contributing to a recent rise in cases in New Jersey. The state on Wednesday reported another 3,227 confirmed cases of and 28 additional confirmed deaths, while the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations across the state was above 2,000 for the second straight day.The state’s seven-day average for new confirmed cases is now 3,339, up 6% from a week ago and 35% from a month ago.

Second COVID-19 strain found in North Dakota - Two different COVID-19 strains have been found in North Dakota: the U.K. variant, and now, the California variant. With COVID-19, the spike protein binds to the ACE2 receptor located on the human cell, but what officials are finding in these new variants is that these strains are binding quicker and easier. This makes it more contagious for people to catch and more critical when it’s contracted. Field Medical Officer Dr. Joan Connell says with fewer restrictions and more people going out, it could lead to a spike in cases. “It starts replicating. That increases the risk for more mutations and the potential creation of an even more dangerous virus. So the best way to respond to this is to not spread the virus,” explained Dr. Connell. Dr. Connell did say the vaccine is also one way to fight against mutated variants.

No doubt: Third surge of COVID has hit Michigan. Can we vaccinate fast enough? Michigan is amid a third substantial wave of coronavirus cases, spurred by the opening of schools, easing of business restrictions, increased travel and fatigue over the pandemic. The state reported 3,164 new cases on Wednesday — the most since Jan. 19 — and Michigan now has the fourth-highest rate of new cases in the nation. A little more than two weeks ago, on March 1, Michigan had one of the lowest rates in the country. But despite reporting 3,164 cases Wednesday, the state reported no COVID-19 deaths. Deaths often follow two weeks or more after contracting the virus, and the state is three weeks into the latest surge. Health officials are watching the increase with wariness, uncertain whether a massive vaccination effort can help the state avoid widespread deaths. “The question is can we dance with the virus or is it going to spike and start to fill up the hospitals again,” asked Eric Pessell, health officer for Calhoun County, where the rate of new infections has risen over 40 percent in a week. With the state vaccinating as many as 90,000 people a day, the pool of those with immunity is rising fast. But only 21 percent of the state population has received at least a first dose of the vaccines — while another 600,000 living residents have contracted COVID-19 and have some measure of immunity. That leaves large swaths of the population potentially vulnerable. Dr. Sarah Lyon-Callo, the state’s chief epidemiologist, said many of the new cases involve schools, but not classroom activity. “The classroom environment itself has not been a strong signal for outbreaks,” Lyon-Callo said during a Wednesday briefing. “It tends to be more the activities associated with schools, including sports, but not limited to sports.” There are numerous signs that Michigan residents, like many across the country, have pandemic fatigue and have resumed normal activities. Mobility data released by Lyon-Callo shows residents are moving about almost on par with pre-pandemic levels, taking far more “non-essential” trips than they did at the depths of the second wave in December. A “consistently low proportion” of those with symptoms are now self-isolating, making it that much harder to stop the spread, Lyon-Callo said. On Tuesday alone, the state reported that 9 percent of all coronavirus tests came back positive — three times as high a rate than the state hopes to have in order to control the virus.

Michigan sees a dramatic rise in hospitalizations with COVID-19 for those aged 30 to 50 - When the pandemic befell Italy and the rest of Europe a little more than one year ago, the United States watched in horror at the images of overcrowded hospitals and morgues filled to the brim. Desperate governments rapidly implemented national lockdowns to bring the scourge under control. Following suit, the United States also found itself confronting the coronavirus’s ravages. Hospitals in New York City quickly reached capacity with the sick and afflicted. Exhausted health care workers were decrying the lack of PPEs and N95s to protect themselves adequately. One year later, history (with the virus) appears to be attempting a similar rhyme with the added dangers of the more virulent strains growing ever more dominant. The US has essentially abandoned every mitigation measure to stem new infections. In this regard, the state of Michigan is quickly becoming the new epicenter for the pandemic. The seven-day moving average across the state has risen nearly four-fold, from a low 1,062 cases per day on February 19 to 3,753 cases a day as of March 24, and continues to accelerate. Yesterday Michigan reported 5,172 new cases. There have been more than 700,000 cases of COVID-19 and 17,000 deaths in the state. The dramatic turn in the pandemic curve is undoubtedly, and partially, attributable to the more transmissible B.1.1.7 variant, which was first identified in the United Kingdom. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports on its variant tracker that there have been 7,501 reported cases of this variant across every state in the country. In Michigan, 986 cases of the B.1.1.7 variant have been detected, a number that will soon exceed Florida’s, which has seen 1,042 cases reported. Of note, there have been 219 cases of the B.1.351 variant identified in South Africa across 27 states. The P.1 variant corresponding to the strain first originating in Brazil has only spread to 18 states thus far, and 61 cases have been identified. The main reason for these developments is the lifting of all restrictions and assuming a laissez-faire attitude by the political establishment towards the pandemic. The vaccines have absolved them of all responsibility for the health of their population. In this regard, hospitalization trends are a very troubling development and expose their ruthless disregard for the population’s welfare. With 249 cases per 100,000 over the last seven days, Michigan has the third-highest COVID-19 case rate in the United States. New Jersey with 330 and New York with 279 cases per 100,000 are also areas of significant concern, especially as school reopening has gotten underway and gyms and eating establishments are anxious to open for business.

Michigan has a new leader in the surge of COVID cases: children - COVID-19 cases in Michigan among kids ages 10 to 19 have risen 133% in the last four weeks, faster than any other age group as the state confronts another spike in virus cases.It's also the first time during the pandemic that this age group has led in confirmed and probable cases in Michigan, according to data from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. But the level is well below the surge seen in November and December.The rise in infections that began in mid-February is tied in part to youth sports resuming, according to state health officials, but also coincides with Michigan's push to get kids back in classrooms. On Thursday, Michigan added 5,224 new COVID-19 cases, the largest daily total this year and the most since Dec. 10, when the state reported 5,937 daily cases in the throes of a second deadly wave. Getting kids vaccinated, particularly teens who are about twice as likely to become infected compared to younger children, is crucial to fully reopening schools, achieving herd immunity and ultimately bringing the pandemic to an end, health experts tell The Detroit News. Michigan has seen a 77% increase in cases since mid-February, mainly attributable to youth sports,according to the state health department. New school outbreaks have increased since last week from 162 to 207 at education institutions including K-12 schools and 21 outbreaks in child care programs. Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, Michigan's chief medical executive, said while children are less likely to get severely ill from COVID-19, they still can pass it on to others who could be severely impacted. Tan, a pediatric physician of infectious disease, said children younger than age 10 appear to be less effective transmitters of the virus than teens, but they shouldn't be dismissedas the pandemic has had a long-lasting impact on schooling. "The negative impacts of the pandemic are significant including a major increase in adolescent mental health issues, falling standardizedtest scores, a decrease in academic progress for all students and an increased number of absences or have dropped out altogether," said Tan, adding as more people get vaccinated, "I think there's going to be a decrease of fear of returning to an in-person school setting." The state continues to monitor multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, a syndrome associated with COVID-19 that causes multiple organs to become inflamed, potentially cause long-term damage and even death. So far, 95 cases of MIS-C have been identified in Michigan children, resulting in five deaths. The number of unvaccinated children in Michigan has been increasing since 2018 and experts fear during the pandemic, the number of vaccinated children will continue to dwindle. According to data from the Michigan Care Improvement Registry, as of June, only 54% of Michigan children under 2 years old were fully immunized with recommended vaccines.

Case of Brazilian COVID-19 variant confirmed in Wisconsin. — A case of the Brazilian COVID-19 variant has been confirmed in Wisconsin, along with a second confirmed case of the South African variant. Continuing Coverage: Coronavirus in Wisconsin According to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, the Brazilian variant, or Variant P.1 was first discovered in four travelers from Brazil who were tested at an airport near Tokyo, Japan in early January 2021. Researchers have found this strain spreads more rapidly and easily than the original COVID-19 virus. The P.1 variant also has unique genetic mutations that may affect the body's ability to recognize and fight off the virus. Typically, antibodies developed through previous COVID-19 infection or through vaccination can fight off the coronavirus. However, if the virus has mutated, antibodies may not recognize it and leave you exposed to COVID-19 infection by this strain. The South African variant, or Variant B.1.351, was first discovered in South Africa in samples dating back to October 2020. Researchers have found that this strain also spreads more rapidly and easily than the original coronavirus. It is not yet known if this variant has any impact on disease severity. There is some evidence that this variant may affect how vaccine-induced antibodies respond to this virus. As of Friday, there were also 78 UK variant cases in the state. 

Variant cases re-infecting people previously diagnosed with COVID-19 --Florida recently became the first state to have more than 1,000 known cases of coronavirus variants. Dr. Aileen Marty at Florida International University said there is a danger for people who have already had the original COVID-19. "We have had to hospitalize, here in South Florida, persons who had COVID previously, mild cases that had recovered, but now have been reinfected," Marty said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says Florida has 1,070 variant cases, with the majority of them being the variant that originated in the United Kingdom. Marty said people who have been vaccinated are safer from it because the structure of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines produce a higher quality antibody to fight the virus than what a person would get naturally. Florida has seen a drop in cases in recent weeks, which is an encouraging sign, but the drop has also seemed to plateau lately. "We're quite worried, we're quite concerned that if we don't continue to adhere to the public health guidelines of distancing, masking and hygiene, we may see another uptick," Marty said. Florida's focus on vaccinating seniors should mean that if there is an increase in cases, it should be less deadly. Marty said the state should next focus on vaccinating hospitality workers. "Because there are the individuals who are on the front line of people coming from somewhere else, potentially with a variant that could then become endemic in our community," Marty said.

We Must Start Planning For a Permanent Pandemic- For the past year, an assumption — sometimes explicit, often tacit — has informed almost all our thinking about the pandemic: At some point, it will be over, and then we’ll go “back to normal.” This premise is almost certainly wrong. SARS-CoV-2, protean and elusive as it is, may become our permanent enemy, like the flu but worse. And even if it peters out eventually, our lives and routines will by then have changed irreversibly. Going “back” won’t be an option; the only way is forward. But to what exactly? Most epidemics disappear once populations achieve herd immunity and the pathogen has too few vulnerable bodies available as hosts for its self-propagation. This herd protection comes about through the combination of natural immunity in people who’ve recovered from infection and vaccination of the remaining population. In the case of SARS-CoV-2, however, recent developments suggest that we may never achieve herd immunity. Even the U.S., which leads most other countries in vaccinations and already had large outbreaks, won’t get there.  The main reason is the ongoing emergence of new variants that behave almost like new viruses. A clinical vaccine trial in South Africa showed that people in the placebo group who had previously been infected with one strain had no immunity against its mutated descendant and became reinfected. There are similar reports from parts of Brazil that had massive outbreaks and subsequently suffered renewed epidemics. That leaves only vaccination as a path toward lasting herd immunity. And admittedly, some of the shots available today are still somewhat effective against some of the new variants. But over time they will become powerless against the coming mutations.  . These viral avatars are popping up wherever there’s a lot of transmission going on and somebody bothers to look closely. A British, a South African and at least one Brazilian strain have already become notorious, but I’ve also seen reports of viral cousins and nephews showing up in California, Oregon and elsewhere. If we were to sequence samples in more places, we’d probably find even more relatives. We should therefore assume that the virus is already mutating fast in the many poor countries that have so far received no jabs at all, even if their youthful populations keep mortality manageable and thus mask the severity of local outbreaks. The variants we know of have become more infectious, but no less lethal. From an epidemiological point of view, that’s the worst news.  If this is the evolutionary trajectory of SARS-CoV-2, we’re in for seemingly endless cycles of outbreaks and remissions, social restrictions and relaxations, lockdowns and reopenings. At least in rich countries, we will probably get vaccinated a couple of times a year, against the latest variant in circulation, but never fast or comprehensively enough to achieve herd immunity.

US breaks record for most COVID-19 vaccines administered in a day --The United States set the world record for highest number of COVID-19 vaccinations administered in a single day on Friday, according to the White House. In a tweet, White House COVID-19 Data Director Cyrus Shahpar announced that the U.S. administered almost 3.4 million doses on Friday, passing the country's previous daily high of 2.9 million on March 12. The record-breaking news comes one day after President Biden doubled his previous goal of administering 100 million vaccines during his first 100 days in office. On Thursday, Biden announced he's upping the figure to 200 million vaccines. "That's right: 200 million shots in 100 days," Biden said. "I know it's ambitious, twice our original goal. But no other country in the world has even come close, not even close to what we are doing. I believe we can do it." The U.S. passed Biden's initial goal of 100 million administered doses given on March 12. As of Friday, 48,695,172 people are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, or 14.7 percent of the U.S.'s total population, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The same stats show that 89,559,225 people, or 27 percent, have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

  March 27 COVID-19 Vaccinations, New Cases, Hospitalizations There is growing concern about the UK, South African, and Brazilian variants. The UK and South African variants are causing a surge in cases in Michigan, New Jersey and New York. Notes: I've been posting this data daily for over a year. I'll stop once 70% of the population over 18 has had at least one dose of vaccine, new cases are under 5,000 per day, and hospitalizations below 3,000.According to the CDC, 140.2 million doses have been administered. 19.4% of the population over 18 is fully vaccinated, and 35.4% of the population over 18 has had at least one dose. And check out COVID Act Now to see how each state is doing. Over 33,000 US deaths have been reported in March due to COVID. This graph shows the daily (columns) 7 day average (line) of positive tests reported. This data is from the CDC. The 7-day average is 60,176, up from 58,790 yesterday, and well above the low following the summer surge of 35,000. The second graph shows the number of people hospitalized. This data is also from the CDC. The CDC cautions that due to reporting delays, the area in grey will probably increase. The current 7-day average is 32,849, up slightly from 32,843 yesterday, but well above the post-summer surge low of 23,000.

New surge in COVID-19 pandemic accelerates internationally --After seven weeks of steady declines in COVID-19 cases coming off the winter surge, the World Health Organization (WHO) is warning of a steady rise in new cases globally over the past five weeks. The week beginning March 15 saw 3.28 million new cases, up from 2.49 million the week of February 15, just one month ago. This is equivalent to 100,000 new cases per day globally. In five of six regions of the world—the Americas, Europe, Southeast Asia, the Eastern Mediterranean and the Western Pacific—cases have been rising. The number of new infections across the African continent has plateaued at high daily rates. In a word, the spring surge is well underway. Even more concerning is the fact that the weekly decline in deaths due to COVID-19 has ceased, and deaths are now on the upturn. After a low of 59,000 deaths worldwide the week beginning March 8, the death count for the week beginning March 15 has increased to over 60,000 and is still climbing. The WHO has confirmed that since the beginning of the pandemic just over a year ago there have been more than 22.5 million COVID-19 cases globally and over 2.7 million deaths. The pandemic has led to a massive loss of jobs in low- and middle-income countries, threatening hundreds of millions of people with hunger and homelessness, on top of illness and death. A report published in Science Advances in February found startling levels of income loss, with 70 percent of households across nine countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America reporting financial losses, forcing millions of people to eat smaller meals or skip them entirely. According to Edward Miguel, a University of California, Berkeley economist, “in the early months of the pandemic, the economic downturn in low- and middle-income countries was almost certainly worse than any other recent global economic crisis that we know of, whether the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s, the Great Recession that started in 2008 or the more recent Ebola crisis. The economic costs were just severe, absolutely severe.” Vaccine nationalism has exacerbated the pandemic. As of March 21, close to 440 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine had been administered worldwide, equivalent to 5.7 doses for every 100 persons. However, the distribution of these lifesaving medications has been inequitable and chaotic. The lion’s share of vaccines has been administered in the United States, with 124.5 million shots-in-the-arm reported, or 28 percent of all vaccines given globally. The United States accounts for only 4.25 percent of the world population. The US has provided at least one dose of a vaccine to 38 percent of its people so far. The seven-day average stands at around 2.6 million per day. By comparison, Europe, which has been struggling with issues related to production and distribution, and more recently concerns over AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine, has managed to inoculate only 13 out of 100 persons with at least one dose.

Global COVID-19 deaths up for first time in six weeks, WHO says -- A top expert at the World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday said that COVID-19 deaths are seeing a “slight increase” for the first time in six weeks, a trend that she called a “worrying sign.” “I do want to mention that it had been about six weeks where we were seeing decreases in deaths,” Maria Van Kerkhove, technical lead on COVID-19 at the United Nations health agency, told reporters. “And in the last week, we’ve started to see a slight increase in deaths across the world, and this is to be expected if we are to see increasing cases. But this is also a worrying sign.” Kerkhove also reported that four WHO regions are seeing an increase in transmission, making the fifth straight week of increasing transmission globally. In the last week, she said, cases have increased by 8 percent, and 12 percent in Europe. Kerkhove said that the increase in Europe is being driven by “several countries across the European region,” in addition to the coronavirus variant that was first discovered in the United Kingdom that is now circulating in several countries in the eastern part of Europe. Southeast Asia has seen a 49 percent week-to-week rise in cases, Kerkhove noted. She also said the WHO’s Western Pacific region recorded a 29 percent increase, which was largely driven by an increase in cases in the Philippines and Papua New Guinea. Kerkhove said there are a “combination of factors that are associated with increases in transmission,” including pressure to open countries, individuals and communities failing to comply with “proven control measures,” and the spread of “variants of concern,” especially the U.K. variant. Kerkhove also said the “unequal” and “inequitable” vaccine distribution has contributed to this increase in transmission, because inoculations are “not yet reaching those who are most at risk.”

End Vaccine Apartheid Before Millions More Die -  At least 85 poor countries will not have significant access to coronavirus vaccines before 2023. Unfortunately, a year’s delay will cause an estimated 2.5 million avoidable deaths in low and lower-middle income countries. As the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General has put it, the world is at the brink of a catastrophic moral failure. The EU, US, UK, Switzerland, Canada and their allies continue to block the developing country proposal to temporarily suspend the World Trade Organization (WTO) Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement to enable greatly increased, affordable supplies of COVID-19 vaccines, drugs, tests and equipment. Meanwhile, 6.4 billion of the 12.5 billion vaccine doses the main producers plan to produce in 2021 have already been pre-ordered, mostly by these countries, with 13% of the global population.Thirty two European and other rich countries also have options to order more, while Australia and Canada have already secured supplies enough for five times their populations. Poor countries, often charged higher prices, simply cannot compete. Big Pharma has also refused to join the voluntary knowledge sharing and patent pooling COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP) initiative under WHO auspices. Thomas Cueni, International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) Director General, snubbed the launch, claiming he was “too busy”. Pfizer’s CEO dismissed C-TAP as “nonsense” and “dangerous”, while the AstraZeneca CEO insisted, “IP is a fundamental part of our industry”. Such attitudes help explain some problems of alternative vaccine distribution arrangements such as COVAX. According to its own board, there is a high chance that COVAX could fail. Quite understandably, most developed countries opposing temporary TRIPS suspension have provisions in their own IP laws to suspend patent protection in the national interest and for public health emergencies. Canada, Germany, France and others have recently strengthened their patent laws to issue compulsory licences for COVID-19 vaccines and drugs. European Council President Charles Michel announced that the EU could adopt “urgent measures” by invoking emergency provisions in its treaties. Similarly, in the US, 28 US Code sec. 1498 (a) allows the government to make or use any invention without the patentee’s permission. To handle emergencies, the 1977 UK Patents Act (section 55) allows the government to sell a patented product, including specific drugs, medicines or medical devices, without the patentee’s consent.

 Inadequate isolation measures in Papua New Guinea as COVID-19 surges -Amid a surge of coronavirus cases, the Papua New Guinea (PNG) government implemented a nationwide isolation strategy on March 21. The belated move was a desperate bid to stop an explosive spread of COVID-19 as the number of confirmed cases in the impoverished country has more than tripled in the past month. On Thursday, PNG reported its largest number of confirmed infections over a 24-hour period, with two more deaths. The National Pandemic Response Controller and police commissioner David Manning reported 351 new cases, raising the national total to 4,109. This is an increase of 1,021 cases over a period of six days. The official death toll has risen to 39, with parliamentarian Richard Mendani among the deceased. Community transmission of the coronavirus is described by Prime Minister James Marape as “rife.” The official trend is alarming, but with a total of just 60,680 tests having been conducted in a population of 9 million, the sixth lowest rate in the world, and contact tracing near non-existent, these figures are undoubtedly a vast understatement. Jonathan Pryke, of Australia’s Lowy Institute, told the Sydney Morning Herald that residents in Port Moresby are now regularly hearing “house cries” as people mourn the death of loved ones. “You are just hearing anecdotally of people dropping dead right around the country,” he said. Under the PNG government’s month-long isolation strategy, movement of people between villages and districts is restricted and mask use in public venues mandatory. Domestic flights are allowed if travelers undertake temperature checks and produce a negative COVID-19 test result. Travel between provinces can continue for essential business, healthcare and returning home. There is a ban on gatherings of over 10 people and all sporting events are suspended. Nightclubs, hotels and gambling facilities will be closed. Religious gatherings, however, can go ahead with a maximum of 50 people. Schools will be shut.

 India Discovers First "Double-Mutant" COVID Strain As New Cases Surge - Following a series of reports warning about mutated COVID strains first identified in Brazil, the US and elsewhere spreading across Latin America, the US and Europe, scientists in India are one-upping them by identifying what they described as "a double-mutant" strain of the ubiquitous virus. The 'double-mutant' was identified, along with 770 other strains, gleaned from samples collected across 18 Indian states. Of the 10,787 samples collected, 736 tested positive for the UK variant, 34 for the South African variant and one for the Brazilian variant. The report comes as COVID cases in India are climbing once again after the nation managed to bring numbers close to zero. The country has reported a total of 11.7MM cases, and 160.4K deaths.While the Indian government insists there's no link between the variants and the surge in cases (India rolled back most of its virus-inspired restrictions on business and movement months ago). India became the fifth country in the world to sequence the COVID virus's genome last January.Still, a consortium of 10 national laboratories working with India's government said this week they would monitor the new double-variant, which was traced to Mahahrashtra state. Although scientists said none of the variants appeared to be circulating widely enough yet to be causing the surge in cases, they called on authorities to ramp up testing and ensure new cases caused by the variant are swiftly isolated. In response, the government is ramping up certain restrictions, along with its vaccination drive.As far as the remaining COVID restrictions are concerned, hundreds of thousands of Indians ignored them last week when they came out to celebrate Holi, a week-long affair commemorating the advent of spring. A scientist who spoke with the BBC explained why the double-mutation could make the strain more infectious, and more virulent. A double mutation, virologist Shahid Jameel explains, is "two mutations coming together in the same virus""A double mutation in the key areas of the virus's spike protein may increase these risks and allow the virus to escape the immune system and make it more infectious," he adds.

COVID-19 cases surges across India - Yesterday, India, the third worst-impacted country in the world, reported 53,364 coronavirus infections, the highest number in a single-day in more than five months. Its total caseload is now over 11.73 million with a death toll of more 160, 440, even according to under-reported official records. The rapidly increasing number of infections exposes repeated claims by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that his government has fought “the most successful battle” against COVID-19. Rijo John, a health economist and adjunct professor at Rajagiri College of Social Sciences in Kerala, told the India Spend website on March 22 that “daily new cases on a seven-day average have risen by 167 percent (from its seven-day average low point in February),” while “deaths have increased by 71 percent in the same period.”The surge in cases appears to be bound up with new COVID-19 variants. According to the Health Ministry, a new “double mutant variant” (a reference to two mutations, E484Q and L452R) of the coronavirus has been detected in 18 Indian states. This is in addition to other strains or variants of concern (VOCs) that have also been detected in other countries. A ministry press release on March 24 said: “Since INSACOG [a multi-agency Indian network monitoring genome variations of the virus] initiated its work, 771 VOCs have been detected in a total of 10,787 positive samples shared by States/UTs [Union Territories].” Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh told the media on March 23 that 81 percent of the 401 samples sent by his government for genome sequencing tested positive for the highly infectious UK variant. Maharashtra state, home to India’s commercial capital Mumbai, reported its highest-ever daily cases at 31,855 yesterday. On the same day, Dharavi, a massive Mumbai slum, registered its largest daily tally at 5,190, a massive jump from the previous day’s count of 3,514. Despite the surge, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Cooperation has not recommended a total lockdown. Dharavi, which is home to over 650,000 people, with a population density of 227,136 per square kilometre, has recorded a 62 percent increase in COVID-19 cases so far this month compared to February. Maintaining social distancing and hygienic conditions is virtually impossible in the slum where families of eight to ten members live in 10 x10 feet rooms. Similar or even worse conditions prevail in many other large cities throughout India. Apart from Maharashtra, 19 other states and Union Territories, including Karnataka, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, have reported their highest number of cases since January. According to an article in the Indian Express on March 25, over 50 percent of the 13,083 beds at dedicated COVID-19 healthcare facilities are occupied. “At least 65 percent of ICU beds are occupied, whereas only 281 of 987 ventilator beds are available,” the newspaper reported. A doctor from the King Edward Memorial government hospital in Mumbai, one of the oldest in the city, told Reuters: “If cases continue to rise like this for a week or so, a crisis is imminent.”   The prime minister has pursued a disastrous herd immunity policy, allowing the virus to spread across the country unchecked. State governments throughout India, taking a lead from Modi, are pursuing the same program.

New coronavirus strain detected in India --A new coronavirus strain has been detected in India, the nation's health ministry announced on Wednesday, but officials have not yet determined if the variant is contributing to a surge of cases in the country.An analysis of samples from the Maharashtra state found that there was an increase in the percentage of samples with two specific mutations, the health ministry wrote. The mutations that showed up in approximately 15 to 20 percent of the samples tested did not match any previously catalogued variants, it noted.According to The Associated Press, the state accounts for more than 60 percent of all active cases in India. The new variant has two mutations in the spiky protein, which the virus uses to secure itself to cells, said Dr. Rakesh Mishra, the director of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in India, one of the 10 research institutes sequencing the virus, according to the AP. Mishra added that these genetic differences could be of concern because they may help increase infectivity and help the virus escape the immune system. In addition to the new variant, sequencing in India also detected the United Kingdom, South African and Brazilian strains, the health ministry said. The most widespread in the country was the U.K. variant, it added. Health officials and experts, however, urged people not to link the variants with the surge in infections in India, the AP noted. The Hill's Morning Report - Biden shifts on filibuster According to data from the World Health Organization, coronavirus cases in India began to rise in February, after falling for several months. On Tuesday, the country reported 40,715 confirmed cases and 275 deaths, according to the WHO. Health officials are now worried about the upcoming spring festivals in India, the AP reported. The government has urged states to impose restrictions, but many celebrants have ignored the distancing and virus protocols, the news service noted.

300,000 deaths in Brazil: a capitalist crime against humanity --Brazil surpassed the grim milestone of 300,000 COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday. In each of the country’s states and regions, the Brazilian population has witnessed a brutal waste of lives, the result of the criminal indifference of its ruling elite. We have yet to complete three full months of the year 2021, but in this brief period more than 100,000 Brazilians have lost their lives to COVID-19. The toll of the pandemic has escalated very rapidly since the year began, with the average number of daily infections jumping from 36,000 to more than 77,000. They are still on an upward trend, with a record of 100,158 infections recorded on Thursday. The rampant advance of the virus throughout the country has provoked Brazil’s “greatest health and hospital collapse in [its] history,” according to the public health institution Fiocruz. Thousands of critically ill patients are waiting for an ICU bed on waiting lists that total approximately 900 people in Paraná, 750 in Greater São Paulo, 700 in Minas Gerais, 500 in Rio de Janeiro, 500 in Ceará, 400 in Goiás, and hundreds more in practically every state in Brazil. Doctors are already being forced to choose who will receive treatment and who will be left to die. But there are imminent threats that the depletion of hospital supplies, including medical oxygen and intubation medications, will seriously compromise the ability to care for even those who have managed to secure a hospital bed. The prospects for the coming weeks are terrifying. If immediate measures are not taken, researchers at Fiocruz have warned that Brazil will by April reach an average of 4,000 to 5,000 deaths per day. But Brazil’s catastrophe has an impact far beyond its national borders, which the coronavirus needs neither a passport nor a visa to cross. On Wednesday, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) warned of the devastating threat posed by the growing pandemic in Brazil to neighboring South American countries. The regions in Venezuela, Peru, and Bolivia that border the northern part of Brazil have reported serious increases in cases in recent days. On Brazil’s southern border, Paraguay is facing a hospital collapse, and Uruguay, which had exceptionally low numbers during the first wave of the pandemic, is suffering a rapid escalation of infections and deaths. The efforts of the governments in these countries to wall off their populations with border controls and restrictions on the entry of Brazilians are seriously undermined by the deep cross-border integration of economic and social life. Moreover, the more infectious Brazilian P.1 COVID-19 variant, a major factor in the explosion of cases in Brazil, has already spread widely to neighboring countries, as well as to other parts of the world.

COVID-19 infections shoot up in reopened UK schools -In the few weeks since the reopening of schools across the UK (in Scotland on February 22; in Wales on March 15; in England between March 8 and March 15) infections of COVID-19 have grown exponentially among pupils. Mask wearing and testing have not been made mandatory in schools, even as data proves that pupils and education staff have an elevated risk from contracting COVID-19. Public Health England figures for the week to March 21 show that 43 percent of all new coronavirus cluster outbreaks occurred in Educational Settings. Of the 233 outbreaks, 101 were in Education Settings. Public Health England graph showing that 43 percent of all new coronavirus cluster outbreaks last week occurred in Educational Settings (source: Public Health England) On March 23, TES (formerly, Times Educational Supplement ) reported that the number of pupils absent for COVID-related reasons had doubled in the second week since schools reopened. Citing recent data published by the Department for Education (DfE), the journal said that around 2 percent of state school pupils were absent on March 18 (up from 1 percent on March 11) due to having contracted or come into contact with the virus, or because their school was closed as a consequence of COVID-19. TES explained that this “includes a near fourfold rise in the number of pupils self-isolating after potential contact with the virus in school” —from 33,000 on March 11 to 127,000 on March 18. One in 10 secondary school pupils were absent on March 18. The DfE figures revealed than on March 18 there were:

• · 7,000 pupils with a confirmed case of COVID-19
• · 21,000 pupils with a suspected case of the virus
• · 127,000 pupils self-isolating due to potential contact with a case of the virus from inside the educational setting
• · 42,000 pupils self-isolating due to potential contact with a case of the virus from outside the educational setting
• · 4,000 pupils unable to attend because their school was closed due to Covid-related reasons

Covid-19: Covid variant first detected in UK now dominant strain in Spain  The new, more contagious strain of the coronavirus that was first detected in the United Kingdom now accounts for half of all new coronavirus cases in Spain. Given that the strain – known as B.1.1.7 – is more contagious, it has been able to spread across the country and is now the dominant variant in Spain, said Spanish Health Minister Carolina Darias on Wednesday. Speaking after a meeting of the Inter-Territorial Council of the National Health System, which brings together health officials from the central and regional governments, Darias warned that Spain is facing a “possible change in trend” as the incidence rate continues to rise. The news comes after the central government on Tuesday announced that it is lifting a ban on air and sea arrivals from the UK that had been in place since December in a bid to contain the B.1.1.7 variant. According to the latest Health Ministry report, released on Wednesday, the 14-day cumulative number of coronavirus cases per 100,000 inhabitants now stands at 132.22, up from 129.55 on Tuesday. After two months of a downward trend, as the third wave of the pandemic subsided, this data point has been steadily rising since last Wednesday. On January 27, the 14-day cumulative number of coronavirus cases per 100,000 inhabitants peaked at 900. The Health Ministry recorded 7,026 new coronavirus cases and added 320 deaths to the official toll, which now stands at 74,064“We are at a decisive moment,” said Darias. “We must strengthen all control measures and reverse this trend.” Although the Inter-Territorial Council of the National Health System did not reach an agreement on Wednesday on whether the restrictions planned for Easter week should be tightened, it did indicate that the regions – which are in charge of handling the response to the pandemic in their territories – may choose to strengthen the measures if considered necessary. In Wednesday’s report, the Health Ministry recorded 7,026 new coronavirus cases and added 320 deaths to the official toll, which now stands at 74,064. Eleven of Spain’s 17 regions, as well as the North African exclave cities of Ceuta and Melilla, reported a rise in the incidence rate from last week. Melilla continues to have the highest 14-day cumulative number of cases (511), followed by Ceuta (253), Madrid (228) and the Basque Country (199). On the other end of the spectrum are the Balearic Islands, Valencia region, Extremadura, Galicia, Murcia and La Rioja, where the data point is below 100. Darias warned that hospitals continue to be under pressure in many regions of Spain. While Covid-19 patients occupy 18.6% of all intensive care unit (ICU) beds in the country, this figure is more than 30% in Catalonia, Madrid and La Rioja. This percentage refers to total ICU capacity, including spaces in operating theaters. If only designated ICU beds are counted, the occupancy rate is closer to 100% in some regions.

Hong Kong expects findings of inquiry into BioNTech vaccine packaging defects next week: SCMP -(Reuters) - Hong Kong expects the preliminary findings of an investigation into packaging defects of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Germany's BioNTech SE as soon as next week, the South China Morning Post reported on Saturday, citing Secretary for the Civil Service Patrick Nip (bit.ly/3w3c1ZN). Nip said he had personally requested senior management of China’s Fosun Pharma to ship a new batch of the vaccines to Hong Kong if there were safety concerns with the existing ones, the SCMP reported.The BioNTech vaccine is distributed in Hong Kong and Macau through a partnership with Fosun Pharma. BioNTech partners with Pfizer Inc in markets outside greater China.BioNTech said on March 24 it had decided to pause further vaccination with the batch until the investigation is complete as a precautionary measure and that no other batches shipped to other regions are affected by this investigation.

Redfield tells CNN he believes origin of the coronavirus pandemic is a lab in China --  Former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield told CNN in an interview that aired Friday he thinks coronavirus originated from a lab in China."It's not unusual for respiratory pathogens that are being worked on in a laboratory to infect a laboratory worker," Redfield said.There is no hard evidence that the virus escaped from a lab, and Redfield noted that his comments are "my opinion." A World Health Organization team has called the theory that the virus escaped from a lab "extremely unlikely." “The findings suggest that the laboratory incidents hypothesis is extremely unlikely to explain the introduction of the virus to the human population," Peter Ben Embarek, a WHO expert, said in February.The WHO team has suggested that the virus passing from a bat through an intermediary animal to humans is the most likely origin, the Associated Press reported. Redfield said he did not think it makes "biological sense" that the virus would be able to spread so well between humans if it had just made the jump from animals to humans. The Wuhan Institute of Virology has been a focus of the theory that the virus escaped from a lab."I do not believe this somehow came from a bat to a human," Redfield said. Still, he noted continued uncertainty. "Science will eventually figure it out," he said.

Ohio health officials monitoring residents for exposure to Ebola in Africa -- Health officials are monitoring 44 Ohioans who may have had exposure to Ebola after returning from areas of Africa with active outbreaks. In a five-page statement explaining Tuesday why he vetoed Senate Bill 22, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said it is believed that all of those individuals are at a "very low risk" of having contracted the deadly virus.The World Health Organization has confirmed the first confirmed cases of Ebola since the outbreak in West Africa between 2014 and 2016 that killed more than 11,000 people. On Feb. 14, WHO declared an Ebola outbreak in Guinea after three fatal Ebola cases were confirmed in the the rural community of Gouéké in N’Zerekore prefecture.Guinea was one of the three hardest-hit countries during the last outbreak, the largest since Ebola was first discovered in 1976. The virus emerged in Guinea and ultimately infected more than 28,000 people in that country and in Sierra Leone and Liberia before the emergency was lifted in March 2016.In a Feb. 26 statement, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it is closely following the outbreak in not only Guinea, but also the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The CDC said the outbreaks were centered in remote area of those countries, with the risk of Ebola spreading to the United States being "extremely low."In accordance with public health measures, travelers returning to the U.S. from those two countries are being sent to one of six airports, where they are being asked to share information that will be passed onto to state and local health departments that will monitor them for symptoms.

Preservative used in hundreds of popular foods may harm the immune system -A food preservative used to prolong the shelf life of Pop-Tarts, Rice Krispies Treats, Cheez-Its and almost 1,250 other popular processed foods may harm the immune system, according to a new peer-reviewed study by Environmental Working Group.  For the study, published this week in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, EWG researchers used data from the Environmental Protection Agency's Toxicity Forecaster, or ToxCast, to assess the health hazards of the most common chemicals added to food, as well as the "forever chemicals" known as PFAS, which can migrate to food from packaging.EWG's analysis of ToxCast data showed that the preservative tert-butylhydroquinone, or TBHQ, has been found to harm the immune system both in both animal tests and in non-animal tests known as high-throughput in vitro toxicology testing. This finding is of particular concern during the coronavirus pandemic. TBHQ is a preservative that is pervasive in processed foods. It has been used in foods for many decades and serves no function besides increasing a product's shelf life. Using new non-animal test results from ToxCast, EWG found that TBHQ affected immune cell proteins at doses similar to those that cause harm in traditional studies. Earlier studies have found that TBHQ might influence how well flu vaccines work and may be linked to a rise in food allergies. Processed foods can be made without these potentially harmful ingredients, so shoppers should read labels carefully. TBHQ is often, though not always, listed on the ingredient label. It will be listed if it has been added to the product during manufacturing. But it can also be used in food packaging, particularly plastic packaging, in which case it may migrate to food.

Even small increases in NO2 levels could be linked to heightened risk of heart and respiratory death – -- Even small increases in nitrogen dioxide levels in the air may be linked to increases in cardiovascular and respiratory deaths, according to research published by The BMJ today. The findings suggest a need to revise and tighten the current air quality guidelines, and to consider stricter regulatory limits for nitrogen dioxide concentrations. Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is a common air pollutant formed by burning fuel for things like transport, power and industrial processes. It is measured in micrograms (one-millionth of a gram) per cubic meter of air or μg/m3. World Health Organization (WHO) air quality guidelines currently recommend that nitrogen dioxide levels should not exceed an annual average of 40 μg/m3. Many studies have reported the effects of short term exposure to NO2 on health, but most have been based on small samples, covered limited geographical areas, or used different study designs, so results are inconsistent. To address this uncertainty, a team of international researchers set out to investigate the short term associations between NO2 and total, cardiovascular, and respiratory deaths across multiple countries/regions worldwide. Their findings are based on daily concentrations of nitrogen dioxide from 398 cities in 22 low to high income countries/regions over a 45-year period (1973 to 2018). Daily weather data, including average temperature and humidity, were also recorded, and death records were obtained from local authorities within each country/region. A total of 62.8 million deaths were recorded over the 45-year study period, 19.7 million (31.5%) were cardiovascular related deaths and 5.5 million (8.7%) were respiratory deaths. On average, a 10 μg/m3 increase in NO2 concentration on the previous day was associated with 0.46%, 0.37%, and 0.47% increases in total, cardiovascular, and respiratory deaths, respectively. These associations did not change after adjusting for levels of other common air pollutants (sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide, ozone, and varying sizes of fine particulate matter) obtained from the same fixed site monitoring stations, suggesting that the results withstand scrutiny.

New study shows microplastics turn into 'hubs' for pathogens, antibiotic-resistant bacteria -- It's estimated that an average-sized wastewater treatment plant serving roughly 400,000 residents will discharge up to 2,000,000 microplastic particles into the environment each day. Yet, researchers are still learning the environmental and human health impact of these ultra-fine plastic particles, less than 5 millimeters in length, found in everything from cosmetics, toothpaste and clothing microfibers, to our food, air and drinking water.Now, researchers at New Jersey Institute of Technology have shown that ubiquitous microplastics can become 'hubs' forantibiotic-resistant bacteria and pathogens to grow once they wash down household drains and enter wastewater treatment plants—forming a slimy layer of buildup, or biofilm, on their surface that allows pathogenic microorganisms and antibiotic waste to attach and comingle. In findings published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials Letters, researchers found certain strains ofbacteria elevated antibiotic resistance by up to 30 times while living on microplastic biofilms that can form inside activated sludge units at municipal wastewater treatment plants.  "A number of recent studies have focused on the negative impacts that millions of tons of microplastic waste a year is having on our freshwater and ocean environments, but until now the role of microplastics in our towns' and cities' wastewater treatment processes has largely been unknown," . "These wastewater treatment plants can be hotspots where various chemicals, antibiotic-resistant bacteria and pathogens converge and what our study shows is that microplastics can serve as their carriers, posing imminent risks to aquatic biota and human health if they bypass the water treatment process.  "Most wastewater treatment plants are not designed for the removal of microplastics, so they are constantly being released into the receiving environment," "Our goal was to investigate whether or not microplastics are enriching antibiotic-resistant bacteria from activated sludge at municipal wastewater treatment plants, and if so, learn more about the microbial communities involved."

 Microplastics and Algae Tangle in the Great Lakes - Great Lakes algae is catching huge amounts of microplastics. Researchers found that one type of algae, which has greatly expanded its range within the Great Lakes and is one of the most abundant algae by weight there, could catch up to one trillion pieces of microplastic in the Great Lakes."It's just a massive amount of these microscopic particle pollutants that are now part of our environment," Julie Peller, a professor of chemistry at Valparaiso University whose recent research revealed the microplastics-algae dynamic, told EHN.Peller and colleagues say the study may offer insight into how we can stop the microplastic pollution — any plastic debris less than five millimeters long — from getting into the lakes. However, in the meantime, algae are often used as shelter for freshwater species at the bottom of the food chain, so the findings suggest that these microplastic hiding spots could be contaminating Great Lakes fish — and the people that eat them.There are a lot of microplastics in the Great Lakes, one of the world's largest freshwater ecosystems and thedrinking water source for 30 million people. While less well understood than ocean plastics, the tiny bits of plastic are pretty much ubiquitous throughout the five lakes. Research shows they're in tap water and beer brewed with water from the Great Lakes. Surface water samples show huge numbers of microplastics, but statistical models always predict more microplastics are in the lakes than are found by sampling.Finding them in algae helps close some of that gap."I think that we found one of those reservoirs where some of the microplastics have been, for lack of a better word, hiding," said Peller, whose recently published study in Environmental Pollution documented the close interactions between algae and microplastics. This study examined the most abundant group of algae in the Great Lakes: Cladophora. Cladophora, which looks a bit like green hair, readily tangles up with plastic microfibers, which are shed from synthetic clothing, carpets, and other cloth.Nearly every penny-sized sample of Cladophora collected from the lakes contained at least one microfiber, Peller said. Even samples from apparently pristine locations, like near Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in the northwest corner of Michigan's Lower Peninsula, contained microplastics.Peller's team also took clean, living Cladophora samples and added plastic microfibers to them. Plastic microfibers quickly adhered to the algae in a process called adsorption, in which two substances stick together because of a molecular attraction.

U.S. Military Ordered 'Clandestine Burning' of Toxic Chemicals in Low-Income Neighborhoods, Study Finds -New research conducted by environmental justice scholars at Vermont's Bennington College reveals that between 2016 and 2020, the U.S. military oversaw the "clandestine burning" of more than 20 million pounds of Aqueous Fire Fighting Foam in low-income communities around the country — even though there is no evidence that incineration destroys the toxic "forever chemicals" that make up the foam and are linked to a range of cancers, developmental disorders, immune dysfunction, and infertility."In defiance of common sense and environmental expertise, the Department of Defense (DOD) has enlisted poor communities across the U.S. as unwilling test subjects in its toxic experiment with burning AFFF," David Bond, associate director of the Center for the Advancement of Public Action at Bennington College, said in a statement earlier this week.Noting that scientists, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and even Pentagon officials have warned that "burning AFFF is an unproven method and dangerous mix that threatens the health of millions of Americans," Bond characterized the decision of the military to dump huge stockpiles of AFFF and AFFF wastewater into "a handful of habitually negligent incinerators" as a "harebrained" operation as well as a manifestation of environmental injustice."In effect," he added, "the Pentagon redistributed its AFFF problem into poor and working-class neighborhoods."After months of compiling and analyzing data — obtained last year from the Pentagon and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation — the team from Vermont launched an interactive website this week that publicizes for the first time the results of their investigation into all known shipments of AFFF to hazardous waste incinerators in the U.S.The Bennington College researchers summarized their findings as follows:

• Over 20 million pounds of the toxic firefighting foam AFFF and AFFF wastewater was incinerated between 2016-2020;
• The U.S. military, the EPA, and state regulators all expressed serious concern about the ability of incineration to destroy the toxic chemicals in AFFF during this time;
• Six incinerators were contracted to burn AFFF. Each is a habitual violator of environmental law. Since 2017, three of the incinerators were out of compliance with environmental law 100% of the time while the other incinerators were out of compliance with environmental law about 50% of the time;
• 35% of known shipments of AFFF (7.7 million pounds) was burned at the Norlite Hazardous Waste Incinerator in Cohoes, New York, located within a densely populated urban area and less than 400 feet from a public housing complex. Norlite burned 2.47 million pounds of AFFF and 5.3 million pounds of AFFF wastewater, which likely was burned in violation of its Resource Conservation and Recovery Act permit;
• 40% of the national stockpile of AFFF (5.5 million pounds) was sent to "fuel-blending" facilities where it was mixed into fuels for industrial use. It is not clear where the AFFF-laden fuel went next, although the DOD contract stipulates incineration should be the endpoint; and
• 970,000 pounds of AFFF was burned overseas.

AFFF contains contaminants known as perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS); exposure to trace amounts of these synthetic chemicals is associated with a variety of detrimental health effects, and some have argued that PFAS are so risky that they not only endanger public health but threaten to undermine human reproduction writ large.

 California Regulator Praised for 'Landmark' Proposal to List 'Forever Chemical' as Carcinogen -- A public health watchdog on Wednesday praised California's proposal to add the so-called "forever chemical" PFOA to the state's list of chemicals known to cause cancer. PFOA, or perfluorooctanoic acid, was formerly used to make DuPont's Teflon and other products. It's part of a group of chemicals called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Dubbed forever chemicals because they don't break down and can accumulate in the human body, PFAS contamination is widespread. Humans can be exposed through workplace environments, groundwater contamination, or household products.  The U.S. EPA says there's evidence PFOA can cause adverse health effects including reproductive and developmental, liver and kidney, and immunological harm.The proposed listing decision was announced last Friday by the California Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA). It said products with PFOA should carry a warning label that the chemical is known to the state to cause cancer under the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, or Proposition 65. That determination, said OEHHA, is based on findings from the National Toxicology Program.​PFOA has been phased out of production in the U.S., but public health watchdogs says there remain concerns about ongoing contamination, existing stockpiles, imported products, and the fact that some replacement chemicals present health dangers of their own.PFOA is already on the Proposition 65 list, but for reproductive toxicity. Adding the cancer warning to PFOA would be good news for public health, says the Environmental Working Group (EWG), because such labeling "historically has pushed manufacturers to remove listed chemicals from their products." "The damage to communities nationwide from PFOA-contaminated drinking water and exposure through everyday consumer products is almost unimaginable," said Cook, "but California's action underscores the urgency of addressing the crisis."

Mice biting hospital patients, ravaging farms as plague escalates across NSW  - Three hospital patients in regional New South Wales have been bitten by mice as the horror rodent plague escalates. "Reports of residents or patients receiving minor bites have been made … and appropriate treatment has been provided," said a NSW Health spokesperson. Western Local Health District has received one report of a mouse-related illness known as lymphocytic choriomeningitis [LCM] in the region. "The disease is linked to mice but it's very rare," said public health director Priscilla Stanley. "People described sore. Red eyes are a symptom. She said she was "surprised ... that we haven't seen any increased numbers of leptospirosis". The hospital incidents underscore how bad the mice plague has become in regional New South Wales. Farmers across the state are desperately seeking new rodent control methods to save their winter crops from destruction. Pest populations have drastically increased and so have reports of them ruining crops, destroying stored hay and invading silos, sheds and homes. New South Wales Farmers' Association president James Jackson said urgent action was needed by the state government to control the plague. "A lever we can pull is with the APVMA [the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority], and that is to get an emergency-use permit so we can actually treat farmers' grain that is not sterilised," Mr Jackson said. He said the permit would give farmers permission to use the lethal rodenticide known as zinc phosphide to treat their seed. "[The permit] will reduce the cost of the poisoning program and indeed give permission to put it on fallow fields," he said Norman Moeris, a farmer in the central west, said his property in Gilgandra was overrun. "[The mice] have done a hell of a lot of damage to hay that people were storing for the next drought … silo bags. They are just demolishing them," Mr Moeris said. "It's just like a wave of plague locusts on the ground. That's how bad they are."

"Horrific" Swarms Of Spiders, Snakes Invade Australian Homes Amid Devastating Floods- In recent years, Australia’s most populous state of New South Wales (NSW) has faced everything from drought to brushfires, a pandemic, a recent all-consuming plague of mice and now, devastating floods and massive hordes of spiders.In videos shared across social media, hundreds if not thousands of spiders can be seen scrambling through people’s homes and garages prior to an evacuation order being issued on early Saturday in expectation of the floods.In one video posted to Facebook by Melanie Williams, the arachnids of all sizes can be seen scrambling about in search of shelter from the coming deluge.The Guardian reports that Kinchela resident Matt Lovenfosse was pulling up to his home on Monday morning when he witnessed what appeared to be a sea of “millions” of spiders climbing about to escape the floodwaters.“So I went out to have a look and it was millions of spiders,” Lovenfosse said.“It’s amazing. It’s crazy,” he continued. “The spiders all crawled up on to the house, on to fences and whatever they can get on to.”The flooding has resulted in some 18,000 residents fleeing their homes since last week, with authorities warning that the cleanup could last until April.The floods have also seen thousands of snakes and insects of every kind scrambling to flee from the floods, with some snakes even leaping into rescue boats to avoid being drowned.“There were also skinks, ants, basically every insect, crickets – all just trying to get away from the flood waters,” vistor Shenae Varley told Guardian Australia. It’s just the latest reminder that Australia isn’t just another country – it may be its own entirely different world.

Florida Bans 16 Invasive Species, Including Popular Pets -  Despite public resistance, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission voted to ban the possession and breeding of 16 high-risk invasive species.The new ruling, approved late last month, includes Burmese pythons, Argentine black and white tegus, green iguanas and 13 other high-risk, non-native snakes and lizards which "pose a threat to Florida's ecology, economy, and human health and safety," the FWC wrote in a statement.So far, environmental groups have celebrated the decision, saying it will help protect Florida's natural ecosystems, waterways and native species, while exotic pet owners and breeders who benefit from the state's profitable animal trade have condemned it.More than 500 non-native species have been reported in Florida, 80 percent of which have been introduced through live animal trades, the FWC wrote. When these same animals are released into the wild, they reproduce and ultimately out-compete native species."I'm very sensitive to the people in the pet trade and enthusiasts. But this action is a result of the invasive species that continue to get into the wild," FWC Commissioner Robert Spottswood said in a statement about the ruling. "We have so many of these species now: pythons, tegus, iguanas. These animals are doing lots of damage and we are incumbent to do something."The public hearing lasted four hours and included more than 80 people from across the country, many of whom called in to oppose the rule, The Washington Post reported. Some exotic pet owners expressed concern over losing pets they considered family members. "If you take them away, "I would be really messed up," said one caller who owns pythons and iguanas, according to the Washington Post.The green iguana, first spotted in Florida in 1960 and deemed an "exotic curiosity," is now considered an environmental threat that carries salmonella, enters sewers and digs up sea walls, The Guardian reported. The FWC is now encouraging locals to humanely kill iguanas found on their property in order to prevent them from causing further ecological damage, The Guardian added.The ban will not require current owners to get rid of their pets as long as owners meet new compliance rules. It also gives businesses three years to "get rid of their breeding stock," The Washington Post reported.

U.S. House panel divides on party lines over how to better conserve public lands— In a preview of the arguments likely to be repeated as the Biden administration and Congress work toward conservation goals, Democrats on a U.S. House panel Tuesday outlined what they say is a need for aggressive action on climate. But Republicans worried increased federal involvement would be counterproductive to conservation goals while hurting rural economies. Democrats and most Republicans present at the first hearing of the year for a House Natural Resources subcommittee that oversees public lands agreed conservation was a worthy goal, but had differing visions of what increased conservation should look like. Republicans voiced fears that added conservation efforts would bring more restrictive designations of public and private lands, making the management of forest fires more difficult and endangering livelihoods tied to ranching, mining and forestry. Democrats, while arguing that more aggressive federal lands management was a necessary part of mitigating climate change, downplayed the scope of federal protections and said increased conservation could bring more — not fewer — jobs to rural communities. Molly Cross, a scientist and climate change adaptation coordinator at the Wildlife Conservation Society, said the changing climate affects the supply of clean air and water, wildlife protections and natural disasters, but could be mitigated by conservation. “The scientific consensus is clear: The earth’s climate is changing and human activities, including fossil fuel emissions and land conversion, are the reason,” she said. “The good news is there are actions we can take.” Members of the panel’s Democratic majority spent much of the morning responding to what full committee Chairman Raúl Grijalva called “misinformation” about the scope and purpose of increased conservation designations. “Despite what some have suggested, protecting lands is not about locking them up,” Grijalva (D-Ariz.), said. “We also need to acknowledge that merely extraction, whether it’s mining, oil, gas, or clearcutting… is not conservation, no matter how you dress it up.” Republicans, including Idaho Gov. Brad Little, who was a witness at the hearing, said they favored “active conservation” but that some existing federal laws made effective land management harder and hurt the environment. Little made a distinction between what he called well-intentioned efforts at preservation — which he framed as completely restrictive of any human use that did more harm than good — and a widely popular “active conservation” approach that allows for multiple use of public lands, including grazing and forestry. “The no-action approach generally does little more than incubate dangerous conditions, prevent active management and hurt rural communities,” Little said. Several Republicans on the panel expressed willingness to work with Democrats on conservation goals, but said they opposed what they’d seen so far from the Biden administration and the Democratic-led House. “We desperately need to do conservation, we desperately need to take care of what we’ve got and leave it in better hands for future generations,” committee ranking member Bruce Westerman, (R-Ark.), said. “If you’re talking about that kind of action, I think you can get a lot of support across the aisle. But if you’re talking about truly locking stuff up in wilderness areas, as the definition of wilderness is, then it’s going to be hard for us to support that.”

Deforestation, forest conversion and palm oil plantations linked to disease outbreaks - Deforestation, certain types of reforestation and commercial palm plantations correlate with increasing outbreaks of infectious disease, shows a new study in Frontiers in Veterinary Science. This study offers a first global look at how changes in forest cover potentially contribute to vector-borne diseases--such as those carried by mosquitos and ticks--as well as zoonotic diseases, like Covid-19, which jumped from an animal species into humans. The expansion of palm oil plantations in particular corresponded to significant rises in vector-borne disease infections. "We don't yet know the precise ecological mechanisms at play, but we hypothesize that plantations, such as oil palm, develop at the expense of natural wooded areas, and reforestation is mainly monospecific forest made at the expense of grasslands," says lead author Dr Serge Morand, ". "Both land use changes are characterized by loss of biodiversity and these simplified habitats favor animal reservoirs and vectors of diseases." Deforestation is widely recognized to negatively impact biodiversity, the climate and human health generally. Deforestation in Brazil has already been linked to malaria epidemics, but the global consequences of deforestation and forest cover changes on human health and epidemics has not been studied in detail. Morand and his colleague looked at changes in forest cover around the world between 1990 and 2016. They then compared these results to the local population densities and outbreaks of vector-borne and zoonotic diseases. Confirming past hypotheses, they found that both deforestation and afforestation had significant correlations to disease outbreaks. They found a strong association between deforestation and epidemics (such as malaria and Ebola) in tropical countries like Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Indonesia, Myanmar and Malaysia. In contrast, temperate regions like the USA, China and Europe showed clear links between afforestation activities and vector-borne diseases like Lyme disease.

Oil palm growers’ misdeeds allow an opportunity to save West Papua’s forests— A government review has identified a massive area of forest in Indonesia’s West Papua province that has been earmarked for oil palm plantations but that can still be saved. Keeping this forested area standing could potentially prevent the release of greenhouse gases equivalent to two-fifths of Indonesia’s total annual emissions, experts say — if the concession holders can be made to relinquish their hold over the land. Twenty-four palm oil companies control a combined 576,090 hectares (1.42 million acres) of land in West Papua, of which 383,431 hectares (947,479 acres) — an area two and a half times the size of London — is intact forest. A recently concluded government review of oil palm license holders has determined that this area remains untouched because of a litany of administrative and legal violations by the companies that prevents them from clearing the forest and starting to cultivate oil palms. This forested area holds an estimated 185.5 million tons of above-ground carbon dioxide, according to Arief Wijaya, the climate and forests senior manager of the think tank World Resources Institute (WRI) Indonesia. That’s equivalent to nearly 40% of Indonesia’s total emissions in a year. “Saving these 383,000 hectares of intact forests in Papua is significant in reducing emissions,” Arief told Mongabay. “If it can be done, then it could strengthen the achievement of reducing deforestation, our climate target, as well as supporting the commitment of the government of West Papua in conserving 70% of its area.”  The recent license review, carried out by the West Papua government working with the national anti-corruption agency, or KPK, found 13 of the 24 concession holders had not yet started operating on the ground. It found most of the companies in violation of laws and regulations on permits and taxes, among other things. The findings are in line with a 2019 government audit of the palm oil industry, which found more than 80% of plantations in Indonesia, the world’s biggest producer of the crop, violating numerous regulations, such as by encroaching into protected areas and failing to comply with national sustainability standards. In the case of the West Papua concessions, the companies’ violations give local authorities leverage to win back control of the concessions and prevent them from being cleared.

Pension and endowment funds linked to conflict-plagued oil palm in DRC -- Well-known investment funds in the U.S., Europe and South Africa are financing a set of oil palm plantations that have been at the center of more than a century of discord in the northeastern quadrant of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to a new report from the Oakland Institute, a California-based policy think tank. People from communities around the Boteka, Lokutu and Yaligimba plantations managed by Plantations et Huileries du Congo (PHC) say that their ancestors’ land was stolen from them for a massive palm oil-producing plantation when Belgian colonial officials were in control. The oil palm concessions cover more than 107,000 hectares (264,000 acres) in three separate locations in DRC. Today, residents say their rights to the land and their livelihoods continue to be sidelined in favor of profits sought by the company and outside investors. The Oakland Institute and other organizations say workers on the plantations are paid little for arduous and dangerous work, including exposure to pesticides used to keep the rows of palms producing their oil-bearing fruit. They have also raised concerns about the nutrient-rich runoff from the plantations that enters local tributaries of the Congo River. A map shows the locations of the three oil palm plantations in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Image courtesy of the Oakland Institute. Despite the publicity around these issues, several major foundations, endowments and pension funds based in the United States, the United Kingdom and South Africa have continued to invest in funds that support PHC’s operations. In the past decade, European development banks have also funneled tens of millions of dollars into the plantations. “While several of the investors claim to promote socially conscious and environmentally sustainable investments, they have turned a blind eye to the legacy of abuses in the PHC concessions,” Andy Currier, the report’s author, said in a statement. Currier added that complicated ownership structures allow these funds to “maintain distance from the extensive history of documented abuses against the local communities, while seeking a profitable return on their investment.” The most recently documented of those abuses came in mid-February 2021, when a resident of a community near the Lokutu plantation named Blaise Mokwe was arrested. He was accused of having stolen oil palm fruit from the plantations and arrested by PHC-contracted security guards. While Mokwe was in custody, he was beaten, and days later, he died.

Podcast: Palm oil plantations and their impacts have arrived in the Amazon –- Today we discuss a new investigative report by Mongabay’s contributing editor for Brazil, Karla Mendes, that looks at the impacts of the palm oil industry’s growth in the Amazon. In an article titled “Déjà vu as palm oil industry brings deforestation, pollution to Amazon,” Mendes details the results of a year-long investigation into allegations that the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of the palm oil industry’s operations in southeast Asia are now being felt by Indigenous communities in the Amazon rainforest. We speak with Mendes on the program today. She tells us about visiting the Turé-Mariquita Indigenous Reserve in Brazil’s Para state, where she experienced the effects of pesticide use in a nearby oil palm plantation firsthand. Members of an Indigenous community within the reserve say that they have been experiencing health problems like headaches, skin rashes, and stomach ailments since the plantation was put in with no buffer zone between it and their community. We also speak today with Sandra Damiani, a researcher at the University of Brasília who led a study to determine whether or not these increasing health issues were the result of oil palm plantations’ activities. Damiani’s study found herbicide and pesticide residues in both the surface water and the groundwater of the Turé-Mariquita Indigenous Reserve. While the levels of these residues found by Damiani’s study fall within legal limits in Brazil, elsewhere, such as in the European Union, those levels far surpass what’s allowable. Our third and final guest on today’s show is Felício Pontes Júnior, a federal prosecutor in the Amazon region who is trying to hold palm oil companies accountable for polluting Indigenous communities. Pontes Júnior helped file a lawsuit on behalf of the affected communities all the way back in 2014, and has been fighting in court ever since to have a forensic investigation done in order to prove whether or not oil palm operations are responsible for the pesticide contamination and other social, environmental, and health impacts in the Turé-Mariquita Indigenous Reserve and elsewhere.

Biden Pushes Colombia to Restart Glyphosate Spraying Program -  After a six-year halt, Colombia plans to restart the toxic aerial spraying of glyphosate on coca crops as early as next month—drawing "most welcome" support from U.S. President Joe Biden and sharp criticism from 150 regional experts who wrote to Biden, "your administration is implicitly endorsing former President Trump’s damaging legacy in Colombia."On March 2nd, the Biden administration welcomed Colombia’s decision to restart its aerial coca eradication program in Biden's first annual 2021 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report: "The government of Colombia has committed to re-starting its aerial coca eradication program, which would be a most welcome development." Colombia halted the controversial spraying program in 2015. In 2018, Colombia’s then-new President Ivan Duque vowed to resume the program but has yet to restart the aerial spraying The country faced increasing pressure from the United States to restart the program. “You’re going to have to spray,” former US President Donald Trump told Duque at the White House during a March 2, 2020 meeting. Aerial fumigation had been a central component of Plan Colombia, the 2005 multi-billion dollar U.S. program to finance the Colombian government war on coca cultivation and their war on FARC, which was Colombia's largest rebel group before being disbanded in 2017. But in 2015, the Colombian Supreme Court ruled that the spraying must end if the spraying of glyphosate was creating health problems. Also, in 2015, the World Health Organization found that glyphosate—also known as "Roundup"—was harmful to the environment and health, potentially causing cancer.VICE News is reporting: More than 150 experts on drugs, security, and environmental policy in the region have written an open letter to Biden, saying Duque’s spraying campaign is “misguided” and Biden’s decision “could not have come at a worse time.” “The recently announced decision sends an unfortunate message to the Colombian people that your administration is not committed to abandoning the ineffective and damaging war on drugs internationally, even as your administration takes bold steps to mitigate its multiple impacts on Black, Indigenous, and people of color in the United States,” says the letter, spearheaded by the Center for Studies on Security and Drugs at the Bogotá-based Los Andes University. “By backing fumigation, your administration is implicitly endorsing former President Trump’s damaging legacy in Colombia,” the letter says. “It was your predecessor who, shortly after taking office, intensified demands on our country to resume spraying with glyphosate, which has been shown to pose significant health and environmental risks to affected populations.”The experts point to how aerial spraying with glyphosate can cause serious health problems, such as cancer, miscarriages, and respiratory illness, and environmental destruction—biodiversity loss, soil damage, and contamination of water sources.The aerial fumigation program using glyphosate in Colombia continued throughout the US presidencies of Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama.

The US wood shortage can be traced to a decades-old beetle infestation in Canada --Lumber is in such short supply in the US that its prices have skyrocketed to an all-time high—so much so that the expense of building the average single-family home has risen by $24,000 since last April to reflect the cost of wood. The reason, in significant part, is the changing climate—and how it enabled a beetle species to infest forests in the Canadian province of British Columbia years ago.  In the US, since the spring of 2020, the price of lumber has risen by more than 180%, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). Futures contracts in lumber now hover around $1,000 per thousand feet of board, nearly four times their April 2020 prices. Robert Dietz, the chief economist of the NAHB, noted that around 81,000 new homes across the US are awaiting construction in part because of the rising cost of materials like lumber. The NAHB and other housing industry associations have written to the US government, seeking “immediate remedies.” But the shortfall in supply is also part of an older saga, involving Dendroctonus ponderosae: the mountain pine beetle, a quarter-inch insect with a shiny black exoskeleton. The beetle has been in Canadian forests for decades, but they’re usually kept in check by cold winters, said Kevin Mason, managing director of ERA Forest Products Research, a Montreal-based research company. But in the late 1990s, the beetles started to live longer and reproduce quicker—an outcome, scientists believe, of a warming climate. They swarmed through the pines of British Columbia, attacking more than 44 million acres of forest, an area four times the size of Switzerland. “You could go up in an airplane above British Columbia and see the damage,” Mason said. “I’m a little color-blind, but others could see it better than me. The dead pines had a red tinge to them, so you could fly an hour and just see this red kill.” Before the infestation, British Columbia used to provide 15-17% of the lumber going into US markets, making up half of Canada’s lumber exports across the border. After the infestation, those numbers dropped, Mason said: “There were points where, for British Columbia, the figure was below 10%, and Canada now is at around 25%.“ The after-effects of the infestation Many pines killed by the beetle could still be harvested for a period of 5-10 years, and the government of British Columbia offered incentives to the industry to process these dead trees. Mason thinks roughly 800 million cubic meters of dead pine was harvested over a period of 15-odd years, until 2015 or thereabouts. But once that was done, forests had to regrow.”We’re talking about a diminished harvest in British Columbia for decades,” Mason says.

A bug acquired the DNA of a toxic plant, and now it’s running rampant – Over the course of the pandemic, the novel coronavirus has morphed into new variants that have featured genetic changes capable of altering its behavior. Whether it’s a single-cell organism or a multi-cell being, any living creature can go through mutations that will allow it to adapt better to its surroundings.But researchers have just observed a rare phenomenon. A bug known as a whitefly received a gene from a plant, and that DNA influx completely changed it in the most unexpected way. The bug has been causing massive damage to tomato, potato, and tobacco crops, as the new gene allowed it to evade protections that plants develop against these pests. Humans will now have to alter the genetic code of affected plants to reenable protection. “As far as we know, ours is the first example of horizontal transfer of a functional gene from plant to animal,” Ted Turlings told Inverse of the new study published in Cell magazine detailing the surprising genetic change.A professor of chemical ecology at the University of Neuchâtel and co-author of the research, Turlings explained that horizontal gene transfer occurs when a species gets genetic code from another species and then incorporates those genes in its DNA. Genes are typically transmitted vertically, from parents to offspring, and don’t involve inter-species crossover. Horizontal gene change is common between bacteria but very rare between multicellular organisms.The researchers found that the whitefly (B. tabachi) obtained a gene dubbed BtPMaT1, which gave it protection against toxins found on plants — toxins that should protect them from insects like the whitefly. The researchers fed the whiteflies a diet containing the toxic phenolic glycosides, with a control group receiving a solution without the toxin. That’s how they proved the bug received the gene from a plant and then incorporated it into its DNA. The whitefly would have to ingest those phenolic glycosides when feeding on the tomato plant and that would usually kill it. But the BtPMaT1 gene neutralizes these toxins, so the whitefly can continue to destroy crops undisturbed. Essentially, the whitefly incorporated the plant’s defense mechanism into its own genome to beat the plant.

 Texas reports 111 dead from February winter storm that knocked out power and water for millions --The Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) reported the official statewide death toll from winter storm Uri now stands at 111. This surpasses the 103 deaths attributed to Hurricane Harvey in 2017, one of worst disasters in Texas history. The reported deaths occurred between February 11 and March 5, with the majority being associated with hypothermia. The DSHS stated the first deaths from the extreme weather came toward the beginning of February, but due to long-term effects, some Texans succumbed to illness and injury as late as March 11. Texas workers continue to grapple with the physical and economic devastation along with an enduring emotional toll. Deaths related to the storm had a range of causes. Most victims succumbed to hypothermia amid record low temperatures, such as an 11-year-old boy who froze to death in his family’s bed in Conroe. The storm caused many other kinds of deaths as well, including accidents on frozen roads, falls and fires. Some people's medical equipment stopped working without power and others died of carbon monoxide poisoning as they desperately tried to heat their homes or keep warm in their cars. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo called it a “disaster within a disaster,” stating there were at least 300 calls regarding carbon monoxide poisoning in her county, which includes Houston, the fourth largest city in the US. The new death count is nearly twice what officials estimated last week and will likely continue to grow. Locales such as Tarrant County, which includes Fort Worth, have yet to report any deaths related to the storm. Harris County reported 31 deaths, more than in any other county. Travis County, home of the state capital Austin, saw nine deaths. Galveston County saw six deaths, and the rest were scattered in 47 other counties around Texas. The latest DSHS report includes three deaths in Dallas County, the county’s first confirmed deaths. The county’s medical examiner is investigating as many as 17 deaths that could be related to the storm. Officials fear an accurate number will never be available. Texas was devastated when the state’s power grid collapsed because of the frigid temperatures and a record demand for electricity. More than 4 million homes and businesses lost power at the height of the crisis. As the temperatures dropped, the demand for electricity soared, all while supply plummeted as power facilities started falling offline. Millions lost access to water in their homes for days on end, forced to queue for supplies in frigid temperatures. The storm spread ice and snow over nearly all the state, crippling power generation and forcing millions to weather the conditions in dark and poorly insulated homes. Even after the storm passed and temperatures rose, it took days for power to return and even longer for water service to be restored across the state.

The Water Crisis in Jackson, Mississippi, Is a Dire Warning Sign – Jackson, Mississippi, is finally on its way out of a nightmare water crisis.  Freezing winter storms wreaked havoc on Jackson’s old and crumbling water infrastructure. In mid-February the city experienced over 80 water main breaks, leaving tens of thousands of residents without running water. But while the Texas blackouts dominated the news cycle, Jackson’s water crises received far less attention, even as it extended into its fourth week. Jackson’s residents, 80 percent of whom are Black and nearly 30 percent of whom live below the poverty line, have been forced to boil water to drink, bathe, and use the bathroom. They’ve collected rainwater to flush their toilets and bought bottled water to brush their teeth. In the middle of a pandemic, residents of Jackson haven’t had reliable access to clean water to wash their hands. This water crisis was years in the making. For the past 50 years the Republican-led state government has been cutting taxes and neglecting to invest in infrastructure repairs. Jackson’s shrinking tax base has been exacerbated by white flight and the fact that, unlike other capital cities, Jackson doesn’t make money off property taxes for state-owned buildings. The city of Jackson has a $300 million budget. According to Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, Jackson’s wastewater and drinking water systems require at least $2 billion of repairs.  “It isn’t a matter of if these systems will fail, it’s a matter of when these systems will fail,” Lumumba tells Nathalie Baptiste on the Mother Jones Podcast. “Pipes were bursting throughout the system because they are over 100 years. They’re like peanut brittle.” On March 17, the city of Jackson Mississippi finally lifted its boil water notice. But Jackson’s water crisis laid bare the budget, infrastructure, and equity issues that leave cities like Jackson vulnerable to future extreme weather events.

Storm drops snow, pushes strong winds across New Mexico– A storm dropped snow and pushed strong winds across much of northern and central New Mexico on Wednesday as authorities warned of difficult travel conditions in some areas. A high wind warning was in effect into Wednesday afternoon in the Albuquerque area where the National Weather Service said gusts of up to 68 mph were recorded at the airport. Snowfall accumulations were expected to range from several inches to up to a foot, the weather service said. Low visibility and other travel impacts were expected in the Aztec and Bloomington area of San Juan County in northwestern New Mexico, along Interstate 40 east of the Sandia and Manzano mountains and on Interstate 25 between Santa Fe and Raton, the weather service said. Weather conditions were expected to gradually improve Wednesday afternoon but another storm was expected to drop additional snow on the northern mountains and northwestern New Mexico late Thursday and into Friday, the weather service said. Scattered closures include public schools in Gallup and Las Vegas.

First of two snowstorms hits Southwest Colorado --getting hit with snow overnight, Southwest Colorado can expect to see rain, sometimes mixed with snow, Wednesday through early Friday. Wednesday morning, Durango reported 3.2 inches of snow overnight. Elsewhere, Cortez reported 3 inches; Telluride, 7 inches; Olathe, 4 inches; Aztec, 1.5 inches; Ouray, 2.5 inches; and the area southwest of Navajo Dam, 6 inches. “You could see up to 2 more inches during the day (Wednesday) in Durango, but it might fall as rain. It’s hard to tell this time of year,” said Brianna Bealo, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Junction. Cortez weather watcher Jim Andrus said Cortez has received 9.8 inches of snow in March, 181% above the monthly average for March 5.4 inches. The water equivalent from this month’s precipitation in Cortez is at 0.81 inch, compared with a monthly average of 1.04 inches, which 78% of the average. John Palmer, Colorado Department of Transportation deputy superintendent of maintenance, reported winter conditions Wednesday morning on highways across Southwest Colorado. “We have adverse weather conditions across the region, especially along highways leading into New Mexico and on our high mountain passes. Air temperatures are hovering at or below freezing, so road surface conditions will be wet and slick at lower elevations and in valleys, and snowpacked and icy on mountain passes,” Palmer said Wednesday morning. “This nasty weather is sticking around through Friday, so travelers should really pay close attention to weather forecasts and to road condition reports.” he added. “Chain laws or highway closures can be put into place or lifted with swift-changing conditions.” On Wednesday morning: U.S. Highway 550: Chain laws in place from Purgatory Resort to Ouray for all vehicles.U.S. Highway 160 on Wolf Creek Pass: Oversize loads prohibited. Roads snowpacked, slushy and icy in spots.U.S. Highway 160 east: Closed at La Veta Pass, between Alamosa and Walsenburg. 

 Double-digit snow totals possible as third wave of snow rolls through Colorado --Following snow on Tuesday that dropped more than a foot of accumulation in parts of Colorado and another storm that dropped big totals over the past weekend, more snow is on the way. While winter storm alerts are still active in parts of southern Colorado through Wednesday evening (calling for a few more inches of snow and slick driving conditions), another round of snowfall is set to hit later this week. The next wave of powder is set to fall from Thursday through Friday night, according to Joel Gratz of OpenSnow.com, likely to drop around a foot in parts of southwest Colorado near Wolf Creek pass, Durango, and Telluride. Snowfall will likely take place elsewhere in Colorado's mountains, though will likely be in the range of a few inches (See full mapping and resort-specific predictions on OpenSnow.com). The National Weather Service has posted a 'hazardous weather outlook' that mirrors predictions on OpenSnow.com, specifying that the highest snow totals are expected along the mountains of the Continental Divide and in the eastern San Juans, with up to a foot of snow possible in this mountain range. Snow accumulation will likely be restricted to the state's mountainous areas where colder temperatures will be present. While precipitation is predicted along parts of the Front Range metro on Friday, highs in the 40s will likely keep conditions too warm for much to stick if any snow does fall.

Unseasonal snow grips Istanbul following mostly dry winter, Turkey (videos) Heavy snowfall hit Istanbul, Turkey, on Wednesday, March 24, 2021, after a mostly dry winter season the country's third-warmest winter in the last five decades. The snow was also an unusual occurrence for this time of the year in the city, which experienced two brief but heavy snow spells in the last two months.Heavy precipitation first gripped Istanbul's Asian side early Wednesday, before heading to the European side, bringing morning traffic to a standstill in some areas. A brief hailstorm was reported in some districts.Stranded motorists had to wait for hours, especially on sections of the D-100 Highway. Meanwhile, a road accident occurred at a road connecting Arnavutkoy and Hadimkoy districts as a truck drifted on the icy road and overturned. The sudden snow also delayed travel as bus stops and stations were crowded. An underwater rail service linking the city's European and Asian sides were also packed with passengers who avoided traffic on bridges over the Bosporus.

 Heavy rain and snowfall persist in Jammu and Kashmir, landslides leave hundreds stranded – (videos) The Jammu-Srinagar national highway was closed on Tuesday, March 23, 2021, following heavy snowfall in the Jawahar Tunnel area that led to multiple landslides, stranding more than 300 vehicles. Heavy precipitation continued into Wednesday, March 24, for the fourth consecutive day, resulting in a temperature drop in much of Jammu and Kashmir.Persistent rainfall in most parts of the highway triggered landslides at almost a dozen areas between Banihal and Chanderkote, leaving more than 300 vehicles stranded on both sides.According to Parul Bhardwaj, Deputy Superintendent of Police Traffic, a few hundred vehicles were stuck on the road since Monday night, March 22."Despite incessant rain and the lurking threat of shooting stones, the men and machinery kept the highway open. The majority of the stranded vehicles in Ramban were cleared last night itself," he told PTI news agency.Heavy precipitation continued into Wednesday, bringing fresh snowfall in the mountainous regions of Kashmir while the plains were drenched by rain. Officials reported up to 0.3 m (1 foot) of snow in Gulmarg, a popular skiing destination.Fresh snowfall also occurred in other areas of the valley, including Sonamarg in the Ganderbal district and Pahalgam in the Anantnag district. Around 0.3 m (1 foot) of fresh snow was recorded in Sadhana Top and Z-Gali in Kupwara District, while other areas registered about 15 cm (6 inches).The meteorological department said there is a chance of further rain and snow in the valley for the next few days.

Taiwan cuts water supply amid worst drought in 50 years (video) Taiwan has further reduced its water supplies as the country faces its worst drought in 50 years. The government has issued its first red alert on water supply in six years on Wednesday, March 24, 2021, warning that reservoirs in the central region are dropping at dangerously low levels.Authorities in Taiwan have stepped up their battle against the country's worst dry spell in five decades, further reducing water supplies to many areas, including a major hub of semiconductor manufacturing.Water supply will also be cut by 15 percent to companies in two major science parks in Taichung, according to economics minister, Wang Mei Hua. Non-industrial users across Taichung and Miaoli County will lose water supply two days a week beginning April 6, Wang added. The government is reportedly under pressure to ensure continuous supply to water-intensive industries, such as semiconductor manufacturing, at a time when companies are clamoring for chips. Meanwhile, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) said the restrictions would not affect their production."Some TSMC fabs will slightly increase the proportion of water from tanker trucks to improve flexibility. The new requirement for us to cut water usage by 15 percent starting April 6 will not impact our operations," it stated.Wang noted that earlier in March, Taiwan had enough water reserves to keep its technology companies operating smoothly until May, when seasonal rains often replenish supplies depleted during drier winter months.

'Prolonged and Widespread Drought' Predicted for Much of U.S. in New NOAA Report -- Drought, warmth are the big story of NOAA's spring 2021 outlook – YouTube - A megadrought worsened by climate change is creating and exacerbating problems across the Western U.S. as NOAA predicts precipitation levels below historical norms through June. NOAA's official spring outlook, released late last week, predicts expanding and worsening drought from Louisiana to Oregon and unusually warm temperatures in almost the entire country — which in turn make drought worse. "We are predicting prolonged and widespread drought," National Weather Service Deputy Director Mary Erickson told the AP. "It's definitely something we're watching and very concerned about." Shrinking snowpack means even less water will be available for everything from drinking water to hydropower to irrigation, and reservoirs such as Lakes Mead and Powell are already at below-normal levels. Climate change exacerbates drought in multiple ways, including by creating weather patterns that, "leav[e] the southwestern states mostly warm, dry, and prone to wildfires,'' Jennifer Francis, a senior scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center, told Bloomberg. As reported by CNN:The greatest area of snow drought expansion has been in the Sierra Nevada where no large storms have occurred since the strong atmospheric river in late January. This has left almost all of t  he Sierra Nevada weather stations below the 30th percentile of snow water equivalent, and a few locations in the Southern Sierra are even below the 10th percentile.But what is bad for some can be good for others in terms of snowpack. It's the ultimate dichotomy.That's because unlike in some previous years, that lack of snowmelt means flooding will be less severe across the Plains and Midwest, but it also means lack of necessary water for the western states that rely on it to keep drought conditions in check.

 Massive dust storm engulfs West Texas, causing near-zero visibility - A line of severe storms brought a massive amount of dust in West Texas on Monday afternoon, March 22, 2021. The dust storm turned skies into dark orange and left motorists with near-zero visibility.A massive dust storm kicked up by severe storms blanketed the skies over West Texas on Monday afternoon, leading to extremely low visibility.The thick dust turned the day into dark as an orange hue engulfed parts of the South Plains, blocking sunlight in the late afternoon.A dust storm warning was issued for Lubbock and surrounding counties by Monday evening due to damaging wind gusts over 96 km/h (60 mph) and near-zero visibility due to blowing dust.Dust storms are usually caused by intense thunderstorms. They often occur in areas with dry soil as loosely bound particles are lofted into the air, remaining suspended due to high winds.Most dust storms in the U.S. occur in the South or Southwest, specifically Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and California.

Suez Canal: EverGiven Container Ship Got Stuck in High Winds, Dust Storm --The Ever Given, the massive container ship stuck in the Suez Canal, Egypt, was grounded by high winds and a huge dust storm, according to authorities.The 1,300-foot-long cargo ship ran aground at around 7.40 a.m. local time on Tuesday, the ship's technical manager Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM) said in a statement to Insider.As of midday Wednesday local time, tugboats and cranes were attempting to free it without success. An Egyptian official, speaking on condition of anonymity on Wednesday, told the Associated Press that freeing the ship could take at least two days. Images show the Ever Given blocking to the channel and barring traffic in one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, which connects Europe to Asia.A smaller second channel of the canal, opened in 2015, may allow some traffic to move. It is unclear if it is in use.Lt. Gen. Osama Rabie, chair of the SCA, second right, speaks to other staff onboard a boat near the stuck cargo ship MV Ever Green Wednesday, March 24, 2021. Suez Canal Authority via APAuthorities have blamed the accident on weather conditions. Lieutenant-General Osama Rabie, chair of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA), said it probably happened due to "strong winds and a dust storm that obstructed the view," according to the Egyptian newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm.  This meant the ship was unable to steer, Reuters reported the SCA as saying. 

Worst floods since 1971 hit parts of New South Wales, Australia -- About 18 000 people have evacuated their homes after torrential rains hit New South Wales, Australia, causing severe flooding in many parts of the state on Saturday and Sunday, March 20 and 21, 2021. More evacuations are expected as the severe weather is forecast to continue mid-week.

• The deluge has inundated coastal areas of NSW, including parts of Sydney, prompting authorities to warn eight million residents to avoid unnecessary travel. 
• Several hard-hit areas recorded 250 mm (10 inches) of rain in a 24-hour period, while most of the coast has seen March rainfall records broken.
• The government has signed 34 natural disaster declarations, as of March 21.

Heavy downpours began Friday, March 19, causing severe flooding which as described by the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) as "potentially life-threatening". As the severe weather continued into the weekend, hundreds of schools were shut and about 18 000 people have been forced to evacuate. Parts of the state experienced the worst flooding in 50 years, authorities said Sunday.Floodwaters raged from Bellingen to Port Macquarie, Mount Seaview, Wauchope and Gloucester, and Wingham. The Kindee Bridge peaked at 12.1 m (40 feet) on Saturday, March 20, breaking the 2013 major flood record.By Saturday afternoon, officials had issued nine evacuation orders for 15 areas.NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian stated that the region was experiencing a "one-in-100-year" event, and 34 areas have been declared natural disaster areas."I don’t know any time in a state history where we have had these extreme weather conditions in such quick succession in the middle of a pandemic."She added, "Whilst we don't think things will worsen on the Mid North Coast, definitely conditions will continue, so the rainfall will continue across the parts that have already been affected."

Persistent heavy rains trigger flooding and landslides, affecting more than 3 000 homes in Peru - Heavy rains have caused flooding and landslides in northern Peru over the past few days, affecting as many as 3 000 homes.  Around 160 mm (6.2 inches) of rain fell in a 24-hour period in Yurimaguas, capital of Alto Amazonas Province in Loreto Region, which is more than half the city's March average rainfall of 257 mm (10.1 inches). Torrential rains caused flooding and landslides in the northern region, flooding as many as 3 000 homes. In Yurmaguas, around 160 mm (6.2 inches) of rain fell in a 24-hour period to March 20 but much of the total fell in a three-hour period. Several areas of the city were submerged in 2 m (6.5 feet) of floodwater. About seven districts in the city were flooded, particularly around Yurimaguas Airport. Parts of the San Martin region were also inundated. According to disaster authorities, around 20 homes were damaged or destroyed in Rioja, prompting more than 30 people to evacuate between March 16 and 21. Meanwhile, around 400 people were impacted in Moyobamba from March 21.  As of March 22, people in Yorongos were left isolated after a road collapsed on the Rioja highway.

 Severe weather leaves 45 people dead, more than 2 000 homes damaged in Colombia -  As many as 45 people have died while more than 2 000 homes have been damaged as a result of severe weather in Colombia since March 1, 2021, according to a statement by the country's National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD) on Tuesday, March 23. Recently, heavy rains have caused major flooding in the municipality of Dabeiba in Antioquia on Monday, March 22.A total of 318 severe weather events were reported in 193 municipalities and 20 departments, leaving around 451 families affected, UNGRD said.At least 45 people have died while three others were missing. About 23 people were also injured. As many as 2 382 homes have been damaged, while 30 houses were destroyed.The disaster risk management added that there were 175 landslides and 89 floods, including flash floods, during this period, as well as storms, hail, and strong winds.The highest number of recorded severe weather events have been Cundinamarca with 35, Huila 29, Narino 24, Valle del Cauca 23, and Antioquia 21.In Antioquia, heavy downpours triggered severe flooding in Dabeiba Municipality on Monday. The Dabeibba Municipal Risk Council reported damage to at least 10 vehicles, markets, and businesses, while about 50 families have been affected. There were no injuries, according to preliminary reports

 Hurricanes, unchecked pandemic produce humanitarian disaster in Nicaragua - A humanitarian disaster has developed in Nicaragua as the government of President Daniel Ortega crawls before corporate interests, particularly US imperialism, in its response to compounding political, economic and environmental crises. Most pressingly, four months after two major hurricanes devastated much of the impoverished northern Caribbean region of Nicaragua, hundreds of thousands remain deprived of basic necessities. About half a million people in the northern Caribbean coastal region remain without running water, according to UNICEF, and “are relying on rainwater for consumption and sanitation” as the dry season begins. The agency adds that 1.8 million people are still in need of humanitarian aid, including 720,000 children. The predominantly Miskito indigenous communities in the Caribbean region have been struggling for months with limited food, power and no water, while they struggle to reconstruct their homes from fallen trees. An Onda Local report published last week found that the government aid has been limited to insufficient zinc sheets, nails and kitchenware, while residents demand wood, water, food and clothes. Moreover, relocations of entire towns and solid infrastructure for homes, roads, bridges, public buildings, water treatment and power are urgently needed as experts warn of a further intensification of storms due to global warming. At Haulover, which had more than 1,000 inhabitants, the economy was based on receiving tourists attracted to its beaches, now turned into a mosquito-ridden wasteland. At Wauhta Bar, which depends on agriculture, a woman explained: “Before the hurricane, we raised animals, sold fish. … But we are now entirely paralyzed.” Families have no money to invest in grains, animals or boats, the report adds. The United Nations World Food Program estimated that the population going hungry multiplied by four in the last two years in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, with 1.7 million suffering an “emergency” level of food insecurity. Food scarcity is particularly critical along the Pacific region, which has been dubbed “The Central American Dry Corridor” after years of severe droughts. Meanwhile, the coronavirus continues to spread unhindered. The Health Ministry has reported a total of 6,582 coronavirus cases and 176 deaths—the lowest official death toll per million in the Americas, except for Haiti. However, the Ortega administration never implemented a shutdown of schools or nonessential activities, and these figures are a gross undercount. Reports of overwhelmed hospitals and nightly burials as early as May 2020 were followed by a wave of firings of outspoken health care workers.

 Major Damage Reported After Tornado Hits Near Birmingham, Alabama --A severe storm with radar confirmed tornadoes was being tracked across north-central Alabama on Thursday afternoon. The storm has moved more than 130 miles from Bibb County all the way to Calhoun County by 3 p.m. CDT."This is a particularly dangerous situatiton. Take cover now!" the National Weather Service warned after declaring a rare tornado emergency.A tornado was first confirmed near Moundville, Alabama, at 12:21 p.m. CDT, the National Weather Service said. It moved across northern Hale County into Bibb County.Bibb County's Emergency Management Agency reported damage to several houses and mobile homes around the Mount Carmel area in West Blocton, according to WBMA. No injuries had been reported.By 1:30 p.m., the storm was nearing Pelham, Alabama, about 15 miles south of Birmingham, in Shelby County, WVTM reported. Radar indicated debris over the very populated area, the station reported.The Fire Department in Helena, just northwest of Pelham, was responding to a collapsed structure, the NWS said. The Helena Police Department said, "Helena has received major damage as a result of the tornado."The Pelham Fire Department was also responding to numerous calls.Several trees were downed at Pelham High School. Damaged homes and extensive tree damage was reported at Heardmont Park, near Oak Mountain State Park northeast of Pelham. Power lines and trees were down in Indian Springs Village.The Pelham Police Department said numerous houses were damaged in the Chandalar community and utility lines were down along U.S. Highway 31 and State Highway 119. The Pelham Civic Complex also was damaged. Bearden Road at Crosscreek Trail was not passable.Numerous structures were damaged in the Eagle Point and Greystone subdivisions, the NWS said. The Hoover Fire Department treated one person for injuries in Greystone Farms, and an ambulance was called to transport a second person, the Hoover Sun reported.Shortly before 2:30 p.m., a tornado was spotted near Ragland in St. Clair County. It was approaching Ohatchee.Earlier, another tornado was reported near Aliceville, Alabama, near the Mississippi state line.

Tornado leaves at least 1 dead in Newnan, Georgia - A severe tornado that tore through a Georgia county early Friday has left at least one person dead, with widespread damage to buildings and houses also reported. ABC’s Atlanta affiliate WSB-TV reported that officials in the city of Newnan, located in Coweta County, said that at least one person who had a medical emergency died as first responders attempted to rescue the man. Other minor injuries were reported, and Coweta County Schools were closed Friday as residents woke up to heavily damaged or destroyed homes, with photos and aerial footage posted to social media showing downed trees and toppling buildings. The National Weather Service for Atlanta tweeted Friday evening that preliminary reports indicated it was a EF-4 intensity storm, with wind speeds racing up to 170 mph in the hardest hit areas. The storm came after the Weather Service issued a tornado warning and a special tornado emergency Thursday evening as it received reports of a large tornado moving from Heard County to Coweta County, according to local NBC affiliate WXIA-TV. Keith Stellman of the National Weather Service said at a press conference Friday, “It’s clear it was a tornado that went through here last night.” The storm downed power lines, prompting power outages throughout the city, with WXIA-TV reporting that several residents were still without power Friday afternoon. Officials also told the local outlet that they had to begin recording 911 calls on paper after the power outages downed their emergency operating system.

Extensive damage after deadly tornadoes rip through Alabama, U.S. (several videos) At least 23 tornadoes touched down in Alabama and Georgia on March 25, 2021, leaving extensive damage, at least 5 people dead outside of Birmingham, Alabama, and multiple injuries. This is the second tornado outbreak in the region since March 17.Severe storms started affecting the region mid-afternoon and continued in several waves through the early evening and into the night. About 50 million people were in the path of severe weather, NWS Storm Prediction Center (SPC) said, with portions of Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee at most risk.The SPC issued a high risk of severe weather risk in the South for the second time this month. This was the first time the center has issued 2 high risks for severe weather in the month of March since 1991.Most of the tornadoes moved across Alabama (17 of 23 reported), destroying homes, knocking over trees, and leaving more than 50 000 customers without power in Alabama and Georgia.Calhoun County Coroner confirmed the deaths of five people who died in three residential structures. Three of them were killed inside a wood-frame home in Ohatchee when a tornado touched down around 15:00 LT. Another man was killed in a mobile home in Ohatchee. The fifth victim was a woman who died in a mobile home in Wellington, Alabama.Alabama Governor Kay Ivey issued an emergency declaration for 46 counties ahead of the storm, opening shelters in and around Birmingham.

Deadly Tornado Outbreak Strikes Alabama and Georgia --At least five people have died in a tornado outbreak that roared across the U.S. South Thursday and Friday, destroying homes and downing power lines.As many as eight tornadoes may have toucheddown in the state o Alabama on Thursday, Birmingham National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologist John De Block told AL.com. One of them travelled around 100 miles across the state. The deadliest scythed diagonally through the rural Calhoun County."Five people lost their lives and for those families, it will never be the same," Calhoun County Sheriff Matthew Wade said at a Thursday evening briefing reported by The Associated Press. The tornadoes also caused injuries and extensive damage, including in the counties around Birmingham.In the city of Pelham, 60 homes were damaged, 22 of them majorly, AL.com reported. Rick Partridge, who lives with his wife in the Cahaba Valleys Estates community in Pelham, said more than a dozen homes in the community were damaged or destroyed."It was horrible," Partridge said. "It didn't take 10 seconds."The storms also wreaked havoc on an airport in Centreville. "Airplanes strewn like toys, it was unreal," Centreville Mayor Mike Oakley told AL.com.Alabama Emergency Management Agency Director Brian Hastings estimated that the number of homes damaged or destroyed across the state was in the hundreds, as NPR reported. At the height of the storms, around 30,000 people were without power.De Block said the Alabama tornadoes were part of a "super cell" that later moved on to Georgia. A tornado likely touched down in the city of Newman, which is located southwest of Atlanta, around midnight Friday, NPR reported. The storm downed power lines and knocked out power for around 5,000 people, according to The Associated Press. It damaged buildings, including Newman High School."Crews tell me they've never seen a storm cause this much damage here," Atlanta-based journalist Sabrina Silva tweeted. Extreme weather lashed a large swathe of the South, threatening flooding and thunderstorms in Tennessee, Kentucky and the Carolinas, as The Associated Press reported. In Ohio, thunderstorms knocked out power for more than 100,000 people. There is evidence that the traditional "tornado alley" is shifting east, away from the Great Plains and towards the U.S. South. This makes tornadoes deadlier, since the South is more populated and people are more likely to live in vulnerable mobile homes. In addition, tornadoes in the region often strike at night. There is some evidence that the climate crisis is behind the shift.

NOAA Updates Extreme Weather Forecasting Ability --Long-lasting droughts, unprecedented rainfalls and sudden cold snaps are becoming a reality for people across the country, but accurate forecasting models to predict when the next extreme weather event might hit lags behind, AP News reported.In response, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on Monday announced an upgrade to its Global Forecast System, boosting its weather forecasting capabilities across the country. The new model improves its ability to accurately predict hurricanes, rainstorms, snowstorms and other weather events, NPR reported."This is going to have a fundamental impact on the forecasts that are provided day to day," Louis Uccellini, director of the National Weather Service, told NPR.While most weather occurs in the troposphere, the lowest layer of Earth's atmosphere, NOAA's new model will also improve resolution in the stratosphere, the next layer up, helping predict sudden warming events, The Washington Post reported. The cold snap in Texas and other parts of the southern U.S. in mid-February, for example, was brought on by a "sudden stratospheric warming event" that "spurred the disruption of the polar vortex, which, through a chain reaction of events, unleashed an outbreak of bitter Arctic air," The Washington Post reported. Better resolution in the upper atmosphere will also allow forecasters to track changes in the jet stream, which can carry storms across the country.

High level of volcanic gases measured close to the eruption site at Fagradalsfjall, Iceland  -A volcanic eruption in Geldingadalur​ near Fagradalsfjall on Iceland's Reykjanes Peninsula continues since March 19, 2021. Lava fountain activity is still low and mapping of the lava flow is in progress. While no volcanic ash has been detected, a high level of volcanic gases has been measured close to the eruption site. The public is advised to stay away from the area.The Aviation Color Code for the Reykjanes Peninsula remains at Red, signifying an eruption in progress.Specialists went yesterday to perform gas measurements at the eruption site. There are indications that gas emission is slightly lower than the day before, however, gas concentrations close to the lava flow were measured above the danger threshold.SO₂ concentration close to the volcano can surpass over 9 000 µg/m³, and CO₂ can also gather in valleys in the landscape, the Icelandic Met Office (IMO) said on March 23.The health protection limit is 350 µg/m³.IMO is advising residents and visitors to leave the area before 17:00, keeping away from valleys and following the marked path.

 Strong explosions at Pacaya volcano producing thick ash columns, Guatemala (pictures, videos) Increased eruptive activity continues at the Guatemalan Pacaya volcano, with strong ash emissions and lava flows.Moderate to strong explosions continue at the volcano, generating thick ash columns up to 4 km (13 120 feet) above sea level, moving N, NE, and NW to a distance of approximately 50 km (31 miles) on March 23, 2021.Lava flows are 1 500 km (4 920 feet) long on the southwest flank and 500 m (1 640 feet) on the eastern flank.

Ariane 44L rocket launched in 1992 creates fiery spectacle over Brazil – video - The body of Ariane 44L rocket launched in 1992 re-entered Earth's atmosphere over Brazil at around 21:46 UTC (18:46 LT) on March 16, 2021, two days after schedule. The event created spectacular fiery scenery above the Brazilian state of Para and was mistaken for a meteor fireball by many people.

Atlantic Coast Sea Levels Are Rising at Fastest Rate in 2,000 Years, Study Finds - Yet another study has confirmed the unprecedented impacts of the climate crisis: Sea levels along the eastern U.S. are rising at their fastest rate in 2,000 years. Researchers led by a team at the University of Rutgers studied sea level rise at six sites along the Atlantic coast. They found that the rate of change between 1900 and 2000 was more than double the average for the period between year 0 and 1800, Rutgers Today reported. "The increasing influence of the global component is the most significant change in the sea-level budgets at all six sites," the study authors wrote.  The research, published in Nature Communications on Tuesday, focused on sea level sites in Connecticut, New York City, North Jersey, South Jersey (Leeds Point and Cape May Courthouse) and North Carolina. The scientists examined sea-level budgets, which are the totality of regional, local and global factors that influence sea level change. Examples of regional factors include land subsidence, or sinking, while local factors include groundwater withdrawal, Rutgers Today explained. The study is the first to examine these factors across a large time frame at the Atlantic sites. Most sea level budget studies have only focused on the 20th and 21st centuries, and only on the global level.  The research found that the dominant force driving sea level change had shifted. During the totality of the 2,000 year period, land subsidence caused by the retreating Laurentide ice sheet drove the change. However, in the last century, global forces took over. "Where it used to be this regional land sinking being the dominant force, now it's this global component, which is driven by the ice melt and warming of the oceans," The findings aren't only important for understanding the scale of the current crisis, but also for helping policymakers deal with its consequences. Rising sea levels can increase sunny-day floods and make storms such as 2012's Hurricane Sandy more extreme. "Having a thorough understanding of sea-level change at sites over the long-term is imperative for regional and local planning and responding to future sea-level rise," Walker told Rutgers Today. "By learning how different processes vary over time and contribute to sea-level change, we can more accurately estimate future contributions at specific sites."

Harp Seal Pups in Trouble in Quebec Due to Low Sea Ice - The sea ice cover in Canada's Gulf of St. Lawrence is the lowest it has ever been since measurements began, and that is seriously bad news for the harp seals that are typically born on the ice.A cold-water mammal, Harp seals rarely spend any time on land, National Geographic explained. Instead, they feed in the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, but every year return to the sea ice where they were born to give birth to their own young. But this year, the seals that usually return to the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to give birth on the ice around the Îles de la Madeleine in late February and early March were in for a shock."This year, there is absolutely no ice," wildlife photographer and expedition leader Mario Cyr told National Geographic. "These seals are out of options."Instead, hundreds of pups have washed up on a beach in Blanc-Sablon, Québec, where Cyr has photographed them for the magazine. Baby seals on land don't tend to do well. They are in danger of being crushed by ice, drowned or eaten by land carnivores like coyotes."They're evolutionarily designed for ice. They're not designed to survive onshore... and it puts them literally in the proximity of every predator out there. So yes, they're in trouble," National Geographic contributor Jen Hayes told ABC7.2021 is expected to be a bad year for baby harp seal mortality, and marine mammal expert Mark Hammill told National Geographic that it is unlikely the baby seals on the beach will make it.The Gulf of St. Lawrence is usually covered by more than 90,000 square miles of ice in March, according to ABC7. But this year, the gulf is essentially ice-free. The ice extent is the lowest it has been since record-keeping began in 1969.However, this isn't the first time that ice cover has been so low that it has impacted the seals and the community that relies on their nurseries to bring tourism to the Îles de la Madeleine, or Magdalen Islands. This is the fifth time that the seal observation season there has been canceled in the last decade."2010 was our rupture point," Ariane Bérubé, sales director for the Château Madelinot hotel, told The Guardian. "It was the first year we had to cancel.  It was the first time since 1958 that we had no ice. Then it happened again in 2011. And again in 2016 and 2017. And now this year."

London Seal Attack Highlights Importance of Respecting Wildlife --A seal that had won the hearts of West London had to be put to sleep after a dog attack Sunday.The 10-month-old harbor seal, nicknamed Freddie Mercury, was taken to the South Essex Wildlife Hospital, where staff discovered he had a fractured flipper and dislocated joint, the hospital wrote on Facebook. They also said he was not eating and had a spreading infection."At this stage we believe the only ethical and fair option we have is to end his suffering," the hospital wrote.Freddie first gained public fame in February after being rescued from the Teddington Lock in Southwest London, where he got a fishing lure stuck in his mouth, The Guardian reported. He was released on the Isle of Sheppey off the Kent coast, but returned to the Teddington stretch of the Thames to Londoners' delight.'We are so lucky to have these beautiful animals in our river, it's magical," Broni Lloyd-Edwards, a photographer whose images of Freddie appeared in Metro, told the paper.However, a dog mauled Freddie as he basked along the riverside on Sunday, The Guardian reported. Four people rushed to pry open the dog's jaws, including a vet. The dog and its owner then left, while emergency workers from the British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) rushed the seal to the hospital.In a Facebook post, BDMLR concurred that nothing more could be done for Freddie. "Freddie was a wild seal and after the ferocious attack on Sunday he suffered a serious broken and dislocated flipper," BDMLR CEO Alan Knight wrote on Facebook. "We contacted one of the UK's leading orthopedic surgeons, and he said that unfortunately the only option was to euthanize the seal."Both the hospital and BDMLR said the incident underscored the importance of giving wildlife the space they need.

Climate Anxiety Is an Overwhelmingly White Phenomenon - The climate movement is ascendant, and it has become common to see climate change as a social justice issue. Climate change and its effects—pandemics, pollution, natural disasters—are not universally or uniformly felt: the people and communities suffering most are disproportionately Black, Indigenous and people of color. It is no surprise then that U.S. surveys show that these are the communities most concerned about climate change.One year ago, I published a book called A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety. Since its publication, I have been struck by the fact that those responding to the concept of climate anxiety are overwhelmingly white. Indeed, these climate anxiety circles are even whiter than the environmental circles I’ve been in for decades. Today, a year into the pandemic, after the murder of George Floyd and the protests that followed, and the attack on the U.S. Capitol, I am deeply concerned about the racial implications of climate anxiety. If people of color are more concerned about climate change than white people, why is the interest in climate anxiety so white? Is climate anxiety a form of white fragility or even racial anxiety? Put another way, is climate anxiety just code for white people wishing to hold onto their way of life or get “back to normal,” to the comforts of their privilege? The white response to climate change is literally suffocating to people of color. Climate anxiety can operate like white fragility, sucking up all the oxygen in the room and devoting resources toward appeasing the dominant group. As climate refugees are framed as a climate security threat, will the climate-anxious recognize their role in displacing people from around the globe? Will they be able to see their own fates tied to the fates of the dispossessed? Or will they hoard resources, limit the rights of the most affected and seek to save only their own, deluded that this xenophobic strategy will save them? How can we make sure that climate anxiety is harnessed for climate justice?

Major climate polluters accused of greenwashing with sports sponsorship -Polluting industries are pouring hundreds of millions of pounds into sports sponsorship in an attempt to “sports-wash” their role in the climate crisis, according to the authors of a report published on Monday.The study reveals more than 250 advertising and sponsorship deals between some of the biggest corporate polluters and leading sports teams and organisation. Andrew Simms, a co-director of the New Weather Institute and one of the report’s co-authors, said:“Sport is in the frontline of the climate emergency but floats on a sea of sponsorship deals with the major polluters. It makes the crisis worse by normalising high-carbon, polluting lifestyles and reducing the pressure for climate action.”The report, by the New Weather Institute, the climate charity Possible and the Rapid Transition Alliance, identified advertising and sponsorship deals with major polluters across 13 different sports, including football, cricket and tennis. Football was found to have the most deals, receiving 57 sponsorships from high-carbon industries ranging from oil and gas corporations to airlines.Simms said: “We know about ‘greenwash’ – when polluters falsely present themselves as environmentally responsible. This is ‘sports-wash’ – when heavily polluting industries sponsor sport to appear as friends of healthy activity, when in fact they’re pumping lethal pollution into the very air that athletes have to breathe, and wrecking the climate that sport depends on.”He said “major polluters” had replaced tobacco companies as big sports sponsors. “They should be stopped for the same reason tobacco sponsorship ended: for the health of people, sports and the planet.”  The study follows a high-profile campaign against UK arts institutions’ sponsorship deals with oil and gas giants. Several have now cut their ties to fossil fuel companies. The authors of the report say sport will be the next battlefield in challenging the social licence of polluting industries.  The report claims that the car industry is the most active high-carbon sector courting sports sponsorship, with 199 different deals across all sports. Airlines come second with 63, followed by oil and gas companies such as Gazprom and Ineos, whose deals have previously been criticised by climate campaigns.

Major gas utility goes net-zero: Game changer or green washing? -- Wednesday, March 24, 2021 -- The nation's largest gas utility, Southern California Gas, said yesterday that it would target net-zero greenhouse gas emissions within 25 years and ramp up capacity of hydrogen and biomethane — but did not commit to phasing out natural gas.

SoCalGas announces net-zero emission goal by 2045, but some stakeholders remain skeptical -Southern California Gas (SoCalGas), the largest gas utility in the country, announced Tuesday that it is aiming to ensure its operations and energy deliveries reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045, the same year California is looking to entirely decarbonize its electricity. Technologies like renewable natural gas (RNG), hydrogen and carbon capture could play a role in getting SoCalGas to that goal, CEO Scott Drury told reporters on Tuesday. "It's our view that as we decarbonize California, the infrastructure that we have in place will be an essential tool to ensure that energy stays not only clean, [but] safe, reliable and resilient," he added. Some stakeholders, however, are skeptical about the utility's plan. "Any gas company that's serious about climate change and keeping energy affordable for customers needs to be planning to contract their footprint between now and 2045, and there's nothing in their plan about reducing costs," Merrian Borgeson, a senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), said. SoCalGas plans to spend more than $2 billion on modernizing its infrastructure over the next half decade, in part to help decarbonize its business. The utility believes that its existing infrastructure could play a key role in California's broader clean energy trajectory by providing continuous sources of energy to customers and storing renewable energy for long periods of time, even months. The company is exploring multiple paths to get to that goal, including RNG and hydrogen, according to Drury. However, he did not rule out the possibility that there might still be some natural gas in the utility's portfolio by 2045, noting that SoCalGas hasn't completed its modelling and it's hard to predict with certainty exactly what the fuel mix will look like in 2045. "But the value of the gas infrastructure to managing the volatility in … electricity demand is going to be incredibly important and of course our goal will be to meet that with all of the decarbonized fuels and clean gases we can — but it is quite possible, and some might say likely, that there will be some level of natural gas in that broad energy portfolio," Drury said.

 60 largest banks in the world have invested $3.8 trillion in fossil fuels since the Paris Agreement -Major banks around the world are still financing fossil fuel companies to the tune of trillions of dollars. A new report, published Wednesday from a collection of climate organizations and titledBanking on Climate Chaos 2021, finds 60 of the world's largest commercial and investment banks have collectively put $3.8 trillion into fossil fuels from 2016 to 2020, the five after The Paris Agreement was signed."This report serves as a reality check for banks that think that vague 'net-zero' goals are enough to stop the climate crisis," says Lorne Stockman, a Senior Research Analyst at Oil Change International, one of the organizations authoring the report, in a statement released with the report. "Our future goes where the money flows, and in 2020 these banks have ploughed billions into locking us into further climate chaos."On an annual basis, total fossil fuel financing dropped 9% in 2020. But the report attributes that to Covid-19-related restrictions on demand.The report also found that "fossil fuel financing ... from the world's 60 largest commercial and investment banks was higher in 2020 than it was in 2016," the first full year the Paris climate greement was in effect. It is worth noting that President Donald Trump withdrew from the international agreement in 2017. President Joe Biden rejoined The Paris Agreement on his first day in office.The three banks that did the most fossil fuel financing in 2020, according to the report, were JPMorgan Chase at $51.3 billion; Citi at $48.4 billion; and Bank of America with $42.1 billion.A representative of JPMorgan Chase told CNBC Make It that the bank could not comment on a third party report. But the bank did direct CNBC Make It to its initiatives addressing climate change, including "adopting a financing commitment that is aligned to the goals of the Paris Agreement" and facilitating $200 billion in clean, sustainable financing by 2025.Citi directed CNBC Make It to a blog post published Tuesday from Val Smith, the bank's Chief Sustainability Officer. In the post, Citi said it will work with existing fossil fuel banking clients to transition first to a public reporting of greenhouse gas emissions and then to a gradual phase out of financing offered to companies that don't comply in adhering to carbon reduction standards.

Oil Industry Titans Vow Climate Collaboration With White House - Chief executives of some of the largest U.S. oil companies promised to collaborate with the Biden administration in its campaign against climate change during a meeting Monday with White House National Climate Adviser Gina McCarthy. The oil industry leaders pledged support for federal regulations explicitly limiting emissions of methane from wells and other oilfield equipment -- a declaration that dovetails with President Joe Biden’s vow to clamp down on leaks of the potent greenhouse gas. They also cheered the U.S. return to the Paris climate agreement and urged greater government support of carbon-capture and hydrogen technology that can help the country fulfill new carbon-cutting pledges set to be unveiled next month, according to two people familiar with the session that was conducted over Zoom. McCarthy underscored how Biden’s “plans to tackle the climate crisis are centered around propelling our equitable economic recovery, positioning America to win the 21st century and creating millions of good-paying, union jobs directly in American communities,” the White House said in a statement after the session.“She made clear that the administration is not fighting the oil and gas sector, but fighting to create union jobs, deploy emission reduction technologies, strengthen American manufacturing and fuel the American economy.” The meeting, which included executives from three industry trade groups and 10 oil companies -- including Exxon Mobil Corp., BP Plc, ConocoPhillips, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Chevron Corp. and Devon Energy Corp. -- was the first of its kind since Biden’s inauguration in January. It comes after he imposed a moratorium on the sale of oil and gas leases on federal land, and as his administration prepares to unveil a new emission-reduction goal next month as part of the U.S. return to the Paris climate agreement. The meeting was described as pleasant, without the kind of acrimony that colored some of the oil industry’s exchanges with former President Barack Obama’s administration. The format did not allow for a deep, back-and-forth dialogue. Instead, McCarthy opened the meeting, followed by remarks from Laura Daniel-Davis, the Interior Department’s principal deputy assistant secretary for land and minerals management, and each of the industry participants. Dave Lawler, the chairman of BP America Inc., kicked off their comments.

 U.S. drillers, miners would be out billions if paid climate, health costs: study (Reuters) - U.S. coal, natural gas and motor fuel producers get implicit benefits worth tens of billion of dollars a year by not having to pay for the damage their products do to the climate and human health, a study said on Monday. As the world begins to transition to technologies that emit less pollution to generate electricity and fuel vehicles, economists are attempting to estimate the cost to society of burning fossil fuels. In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Yale University economist Matthew Kotchen calculated that U.S. fossil fuel companies get direct benefits of $62 billion a year in implicit subsidies due to what he calls “inefficient pricing”. The overall health, climate and transportation costs to society are about $568 billion, the study, titled “The producer benefits of implicit fossil fuel subsidies in the United States”, said. Peabody Energy Corp got about $1.56 billion in implicit subsidies in 2018, while Arch Resources got a little over $1 billion in the same year, the study said. Natural gas producer EQT Corp got about $696 million while Exxon Mobil got about $688 million, it added.

Senators eye rollback of Trump methane rule with Congressional Review Act - Lawmakers are weighing using the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to reverse a Trump era-rule that limits the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to regulate methane. Sens. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and Angus King (I-Maine) have drafted a resolution of disapproval on the August methane rule, according to a copy reviewed by The Hill, the first step in using the CRA to unwind a regulation. The act allows Congress to nix any regulations finalized in the previous 60 legislative days, a period stretching back to mid-August. Critics described the former Trump administration's rule as a gift to the oil and gas industry, eliminating existing requirements on oil and gas companies to install technology to monitor methane emissions from pipelines, wells and facilities. The agency argued at the time that the standards it rescinded were redundant, overlapping substantially with other regulations regarding volatile organic compounds. The rule was especially alarming to environmentalists given that methane is significantly more harmful to the planet than carbon dioxide. Some studies indicate that the climate change-linked gas is 80 times more adept at trapping heat in the atmosphere in the first 20 years than carbon dioxide. King had previously blasted the regulation calling it “the single worst thing that could be done to attack the climate.” “This is a serious national security concern and it’s a serious concern for the future of this country. I just hope these people have to face their grandchildren and explain to them why they took this step,” he said. Neither Heinrich's nor King’s office responded to request for comment on the draft. If the lawmakers proceed to introduce the legislation, it would be the first rollback of Trump environmental policy Democrats target with the CRA. It also would come as lawmakers are rapidly approaching the deadline to use the technique, with advocates urging action prior to recess in order to safely comply with the act’s timelines. The CRA was a legislative tool favored by Republicans in the early days of the Trump administration, used by a GOP-led Congress to strike down 14 regulations from the Obama era.

Biden faces ‘moment of truth’ as he weighs key U.S. climate promise - In far-flung corners of the federal government, staffers have been busy calculating how quickly the United States could embrace electric cars or phase out the last of the nation’s coal-fired power plants. They are estimating how fast the country can construct new battery-charging stations and wind turbines, as well as how farmers can store more carbon in the soil — and how much Congress might allocate to fund such efforts. They’re urgently trying to tally up the elements of a major promise, one that could shape how aggressively the world takes on climate change.By April 22, when President Biden convenes world leaders for an Earth Day summit, he is expected to unveil a new, aggressive plan to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions between now and 2030. The moment is aimed at reestablishing American leadership in the fight to limit the Earth’s warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius compared with preindustrial levels — a threshold beyond which scientists predict irreversible environmental damage.As he crafts the much-anticipated pledge, Biden is facing conflicting political pressures at home and abroad. A sizable chunk of the Democratic Party’s base and climate activists who helped elect Biden — and a chorus of scientists — want the United States to take bold action to slash emissions at least in half by the end of this decade, compared with 2005 levels. They argue that’s critical to pressure other major economies to follow suit and to help the world avoid catastrophe. Image without a caption But many Republicans warn that societal changes needed to cut emissions so quickly could harm an already battered economy, particularly in communities closely tied to the fossil fuel industry. And they are poised to campaign against such a plan in the midterms against vulnerable Democrats in swing states, despite Biden’s argument that the shift to cleaner energies and less pollution will create a flurry of new jobs.As Biden walks that political tightrope at home, leaders around the world have been clear that they expect the United States to step up after four years of the Trump administration disparaging global efforts to fight climate change. “It’s a moment of truth for the Paris agreement,” said Laurence Tubiana, chief executive of the European Climate Foundation and an architect of the 2015 international accord to cut greenhouse gases. “We need a boost, and I do think that the U.S. announcement will be that boost.” But any commitments the United States makes must also be attainable, she said. “Nobody will be satisfied with good targets without anything backing it up.”

U.S. green energy push sets global edible oils alight, raises food inflation fears - (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden’s green fuel push using edible oils is helping drive up vegetable oil prices that are already near record highs, hitting key cost-sensitive consumers in India and Africa and stoking global food inflation fears.The United Nations’ vegetable oils price index has rallied 70% since last June to nine-year highs after labour shortages at Asian palm plantations and bad weather in key sunflower, rapeseed and soybean hubs pinched edible oil output and cut inventories to 10-year lows.The run-up in edible oil prices has helped fuel a rise in the UN’s broader food price index to its highest since 2014, stinging consumers in developing countries and posing a challenge to policymakers trying to spur economic growth.(Graphic: Edible oils lead the charge as global food prices push to multi-year highs: )A steep recovery in edible oil demand as consumers and businesses restocked following COVID-19 lockdowns has exacerbated the tightness, as has Biden’s election win and promised ‘Clean Energy Revolution’ that looks set to ignite biofuel demand.“There’s been a new factor which has come after the election of President Biden that has projected higher demand for soyoil, which is 100% biodiesel,” leading edible oils analyst Dorab Mistry said.“Four refineries have already said that they will terminate refining fossil fuel (and) instead start producing vegetable oil based fuel.”(Graphic: Global edible oil output, demand, imports & stocks: ) The sharp price climb in all edible oils, which are critical for food preparation and in the daily diets of billions of people, is already hurting some consumers.A 20% rise in palm oil prices in Myanmar since a Feb. 1 military coup is one of many troubling signs for vulnerable people there, the World Food Programme (WFP) said this week.Pricier oils are also stifling demand in India, the top global vegetable oil buyer, and are expected to curb imports as consumers are forced to cut back despite moves to reopen the economy from COVID-19 lockdowns.“We were expecting a recovery in demand after the country opened up, but India’s edible oil imports will remain at last year’s level at 13.2 million tonnes,” said Sandeep Bajoria, chief executive officer of Sunvin Group, a vegetable oil broker.“Earlier, 2021 imports were forecast at 14 million tonnes but higher prices are leading to demand destruction.”(Graphic: Global veg oils march to multi-year highs on tight supply, rising demand; outperform fuel prices: )

Will Clean Energy Kickstart A New Resource War? - Before a United States-owned oil well drilled into what no one yet knew was the largest single source of petroleum on the planet on March 3, 1938, Saudi Arabia was a sparsely populated country of desert nomads. Just 12 years after that first discovery, on the eve of the Cold War, Saudi Arabia’s international status had been so radically transformed that U.S. President Harry Truman was pleading allegiance to the Saudi King.  The world’s geopolitical map has been drawn and redrawn by oil over the last century. After the world began to turn around the Gulf States the balance was upset and recalibrated by the United States’ shale revolution which flooded the market with cheap crude which loosened the Middle East’s chokehold on the global energy industry seemingly overnight. And now the geopolitical power of the shale revolution, too, is fading as the flood of cheap crude out of the Permian Basin slows and peak oil demand is suddenly upon us.  What will the world look like when oil is no longer a leading force in global geopolitics? Some of the world’s leading research organizations, universities, and even some countries are hard at work trying to answer just that question. The Rand Corporation, which has been designing war games alongside the Pentagon for nearly 70 years, is now aiming its arsenal of brainiacs toward the newest pressing geopolitical question: what will the green energy transition do to the world? Gaming out what this will mean for peace and conflict is a tricky challenge. On one hand, clean energy will be a democratizing resource which allows countries to produce their own energy and become energy secure and sovereign regardless of what natural resources they sit on top of. “After all, a latter-day Saddam Hussein would have little reason to invade Kuwait to seize its solar parks, as he did in 1990 for its oil wells, because there would no longer be anything special about Kuwait’s patch of desert,” points out Bloomberg Green. “It would be cheaper to buy panels to put on his own.” On the other hand, many countries are sure to be left behind in the new green world order. New struggles, inequities, and competitions will arise over access to technology, infrastructure, finance, and a new set of world-building raw materials. In the near future, rare earth metals–needed to construct clean energy technologies such as photovoltaic solar panels and electric vehicle batteries–will be the new oil. As of now, China controls over 90 percent of some of these essential ingredients and has shown that it’s more than willing to wield that power for political gain and intimidation.

Ohio on track to waste billions of dollars on energy -A new report from a coalition of environmental groups reframes energy efficiency in terms that might better resonate with Ohioans across the political spectrum.“While efficiency is a correct term, what we’re really talking about is reducing energy waste,” said Miranda Leppla, vice president of energy policy for the Ohio Environmental Council.And Ohio is on track this decade to waste a lot of energy — and money.The environmental groups’ report projects that reducing energy waste by 1% to 2% per year would save Ohio ratepayers between $2 billion and $5 billion over 10 years.The March 2021 analysis was conducted by energy consulting firm Gabel Associates and funded by Ceres, E2, the Environmental Law & Policy Center, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Ohio Environmental Council, and the Ohio Hospital Association.   “Efficiency investments come back to consumers as dividends that lower their costs over time,” said Tom Bullock, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board of Ohio.  Those investments are no longer required of Ohio electric utilities, however, since the state’s scandal-tainted HB 6 power plant bailout law gutted state standards that had required utilities to achieve increasing levels of energy efficiency through 2027, among other things. While some lawmakers had tried for years to gut Ohio’s clean energy and efficiency standards, that didn’t happen full scale until HB 6 was pushed through the General Assembly by former House Speaker Larry Householder and signed into law by Gov. Mike DeWine in 2019. Despite the law, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio can still authorize voluntary energy conservation programs for electric and gas utilities, but it has yet to do so despite two proposals from utilities. Ohio utilities’ energy efficiency programs have become “kind of an orphan issue that’s been left on the side of the road,” Bullock said. “It wouldn’t be, but for the corruption of HB 6.”

Rivian planning to install 10,000 EV chargers across the US and Canada by 2023 -  Amazon-backed electric vehicle startup Rivian will install more than 10,000 fast chargers across the US and Canada by 2023, the company announced. The Rivian Adventure Network is designed to allow quick recharges along highways and also includes Level 2 charges at more remote locations near parks and other destinations. Rivian described the network in a blog post: Each site will have multiple chargers and will be conveniently located on highways and main roads, often by cafes and shops. These DC fast chargers will be for Rivian owners only, with details on pricing and associated programs coming soon. The company also is installing waypoint Level 2 AC chargers, each with a 11.5 kW charging speed, to add about 25 miles of range every hour for Rivian’s R1T pickup and R1S SUV. These chargers will be located along routes that Rivian thinks its drivers will take. The first such waypoint chargers are being installed in Colorado’s state parks beginning in July, and will be accessible to any electric vehicle with a J1772 plug.

On an island north of Scotland, tidal power is providing juice for electric vehicles - An electric vehicle charging point which uses tidal energy has started operations, providing road users on an island north of mainland Scotland with a new, renewable option for running their cars. The facility is located on Yell, which is part of Shetland, an archipelago of roughly 100 islands. The charging point gets its electricity from Nova Innovation's Shetland Tidal Array, a four turbine installation in Bluemull Sound, a strait between Yell and another island called Unst. In an announcement Monday, Nova Innovation described the project as "the first ever electric vehicle … charge point where drivers can 'fill up' directly from a tidal energy source." A battery storage system has also been deployed to ensure a constant supply for vehicles. The Scottish government is one of many around the world looking to move away from internal combustion engine vehicles. It wants to phase out the need for new diesel and gasoline vans and cars by the year 2030. Funding for the project on Yell has come from Transport Scotland, the country's transport agency.

Exclusive: U.S. senators press Biden to set end date for gas-powered car sales  (Reuters) - California’s two U.S. senators are urging President Joe Biden to set a firm date to phase-out gas-powered passenger vehicles as the White House grapples with how to rewrite vehicle emissions rules slashed under President Donald Trump. In an unreported letter going to Biden Monday, Democratic Senators Alex Padilla and Dianne Feinstein called on Biden “to follow California’s lead and set a date by which all new cars and passenger trucks sold be zero-emission vehicles.” They also urged Biden to restore California’s authority to set clean car standards. In September, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order directing the state’s air resources agency to require all new cars and passenger trucks sold in California to be zero-emission by 2035. Biden’s campaign in 2020 declined to endorse a specific date to end gas-powered vehicle sales, but he has vowed to dramatically boost electric vehicles and charging stations. In January, Biden said the administration would replace the federal government’s fleet of 650,000 vehicles “with clean electric vehicles made right here in America made by American workers.” The senators also say Biden should use a compromise deal that California struck with automakers including Ford Motor Co, Honda Motor, BMW AG and Volkswagen AG that falls between the Trump administration and Obama-era requirements. “We believe the national baseline should, at an absolute minimum, be built around the technical lead set by companies that voluntarily advanced their agreements with California,” Padilla, who replaced Vice President Kamala Harris in the Senate, and Feinstein wrote in the letter seen by Reuters. “California and other states need a strong federal partner.”

 Your Smart TV May Be Wasting Lots of Energy When 'Off' --While the energy efficiency of America's smart televisions has improved greatly since flat panel models were first introduced, some of the energy savings are at risk due to new "smart wake" features that can waste a lot of power when the TV is in standby mode.These features provide the user with the convenience of waking their TV through a voice command to a nearby smart speaker, or to seamlessly shift from watching content on a tablet or phone to the TV, without using a remote control. Our extensive laboratory testing on the standby power of 10 different models found that in many cases, enabling these features caused a TV's overall annual electricity consumption to skyrocket by as much as 75 percent.  All that extra standby power adds up. NRDC estimates it will cost purchasers of 2021 TVs who enable smart wake features an additional $750 million on their utility bills over these TVs' seven-year lifetime, barring future manufacturer design improvements. The extra electricity consumption also will lead to more than 3 million tons of additional carbon dioxide emissions.

Hampden waste plant sale now expected by the end of June - A Pennsylvania-based company expects to finish its purchase of a shuttered Hampden waste plant by the end of June, according to the organization that represents the 115 towns and cities that send their trash to the plant. Delta Thermo Energy has told the Municipal Review Committee to expect a deal on or before June 30, according to a document posted on the committee’s website. The company has been in negotiations to purchase the $90 million plant for several months.The Coastal Resources of Maine plant has been closed since it ran out of funds to pay its bills and for a series of performance upgrades last May. Delta Thermo was one of seven companies that vied to take over the shuttered plant, and it signed a tentative agreement to negotiate the purchase in late December. The Municipal Review Committee owns the land on which Coastal Resources sits and holds the Maine Department of Environmental Protection permits that allow the site to operate. Yet the sale’s final approval has to come from a group of bondholders who hold a majority financial stake in the plant. Delta Thermo Energy specializes in a waste-to-energy process in which it mixes wastewater sludge with household trash, then burns the mixture to produce electricity.The Hampden plant is currently set up to process municipal solid waste and recyclables, but not wastewater sludge. Delta Thermo would reopen the plant using the operation’s existing technology before looking to deploy its own technology in the future, which would require new permits, Van Naarden has said.

 Bitcoin, Easter Island-ism, and the Cowardice of Green New Dealers --It is hardly a secret that Bitcoin mining consumes ginormous amounts of energy (we’ll leave other cryptocurrencies out of the discussion since it’s not necessary to include them to make our case).It is also hardly a secret that Bitcoin has no legitimate use:Is there any use case for bitcoin, etc. except making illegal activity and money laundering invisible to authorities?— Steve Roth (@asymptosis) February 22, 2021“Speculation for speculation’s sake” is not a legitimate purpose; the social benefit of speculation is to facilitate price discovery in markets for assets of societal value. Oh, and possibly to provide entertainment if it doesn’t come at a high cost to the general public. There are tons of existing speculative vehicles and venues, and broadly speaking, they provide some net benefit or at least don’t do much harm. By contrast, the profligacy and and destructiveness is reminiscent of Easter Island, where a once-thriving society came to ruin by depleting its a resource for the purpose of display.  I have been stunned at the failure of governments to crack down on Bitcoin and crypto due to their significant and obvious role in facilitating crime and tax evasion (although as we’ll discuss below, India has announced that it is implementing the most stringent anti-crypto policies in the world). There is or should have been no other side to this argument if anyone dimly credible with political clout had made a stink early on. Banks’ failure to act as opponents is curious but they find making nice with bad guys to be highly profitable (look at Standard Chartered’s money laundering abuses as a starter). They’ve also faffed about to see if they could devise businesses around blockchain (which has long looked like a technology hunting for an application).But libertarian world views are so deeply internalized that officials don’t bother taking a stance until lobbyists show up, although once in a while activists can get their attention.So where have the environmentalists been? Look at this excerpt from a February Truthout article:That’s part of the reason why Bitcoin mining has a growing environmental impact. In 2018, Princeton Professor Arvind Narayanan estimated in congressional testimony that the Bitcoin network accounted for slightly under 1 percent of world electricity consumption — a bit more than the electricity consumption of the state of Ohio or the state of New York. Scientists writing in the journal Nature warned in 2018 that Bitcoin’s growth could single-handedly push global emissions above 2 degrees Celsius. More recent estimates found that the carbon emissionsof Bitcoin mining “sits between the levels produced by the nations of Jordan and Sri Lanka.” The University of Cambridge Judge Business School’s Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index estimates that Bitcoin mining will consume more than 120 terawatt-hours of electricity globally this year — more energythan Argentina. (One terawatt-hour is equal to outputting 1 trillion watts of energy for one hour.) Researchers have also found that Bitcoin mining is more energy-intensivethan mining both gold and platinum. As the price of Bitcoin skyrockets, so do the incentives to mine it.

A "Green" Product That’s Dirty To Make, and a Fight Between Danish Manufacturers and West Virginians - Tracy Danzey wheeled herself through Copenhagen Airport with aching arms, crutches crisscrossing her lap, hands covered in blisters, her left foot bleeding. In November 2019, she had just finished a two-week, 100-kilometer march across Denmark to deliver an important message from the people of West Virginia: Rockwool International, a keystone of Denmark’s green-building industry, was outsourcing its pollution. “It wasn’t an enjoyable hike,” Danzey, 41, recalls a year later from her home in Shepherdstown, W.Va. In 2005, Danzey, a nurse, lost her right leg and hip to a rare form of bone cancer. She also suffers from thyroid disease. Danzey is intimately familiar with how pollution can destroy a community’s health: She grew up next to a DuPont chemical factory in Parkersburg, W.Va., which produced a Teflon-related chemical linked to kidney cancer, testicular cancer and thyroid diseases like Danzey’s. The class-action lawsuit against DuPont spanned nearly two decades and led to a $670 million settlement in 2017.  So Danzey was paying attention when Rockwool, a producer of mineral wool insulation, broke ground for its new facility in Ranson, W.Va. — right across from an elementary school — in the summer of 2018.  Mineral wool plants give off carbon dioxide and hazardous chemicals as volcanic rocks and slag are melted down in large furnaces, spun into wool, bound, cured, cooled and bagged. Rockwool says it is a ​“net carbon negative company” because its insulation saves ​“100 times the energy consumed and [carbon dioxide] emitted in its production.” Local communities bear the brunt of its emissions.  Rockwool had actually started talks with West Virginia officials in 2017, under the name ​“Project Shuttle,” but the community says it was kept in the dark.  When residents finally found out, they started making noise with elected officials and WVDEP. They hired scientists, who raised concerns about Rockwool’s air quality and stormwater permits, and suggested the plant could pollute the groundwater. Community members contend Rockwool never would have attempted such a high-emission factory across from an elementary school in eco-conscious Denmark, fearing public outcry. Indeed, Rockwool has chosen (or transitioned to) a lower-carbon and cleaner production process in plants in Norway and France — a process that is more expensive. But in West Virginia, the demonstrations have gained little traction. The state has long led the country in coal jobs and is known for being industry-friendly. Danzey and many of her neighbors believe the West Virginia location was chosen specifically because of this reputation.

Bill to require electric, utility providers to winterize right move --As the 87th session of Texas Legislature works its way through a huge raft of bills, we were given hope by the bill authored by Rep. Chris Paddie, who represents the 9th District in East Texas, that would require the state’s electric and utility providers to winterize their operations. It’s the right move. As we reported last week, Paddie’s bill would require the following:

• •  Implement measures to prepare facilities to maintain service quality and reliability during a weather emergency.
• •  Make all reasonable efforts to prevent interruptions of service during an extreme weather emergency.
• •  Reestablish service within the shortest possible time, should an interruption occur due to an extreme weather emergency.
• •  Make reasonable efforts to manage emergencies resulting from a failure of service caused by an extreme weather emergency, including issuing instructions to its employees on procedures to be followed in the event of an extreme weather emergency.

Much of this should have been done after the storm in 2011, but it’s good to see the state’s leaders taking this matter seriously — we hope. With GEUS having to take out a $20 million loan it shows how vulnerable many small providers can be if the state doesn’t take action. The next action should be focused on rolling back those excessive charges for utilities that were forced to buy power outside of their normal routes, which is exactly why GEUS was forced to make huge expenditures during the winter storm.

Scrutiny of Texas power grid failure moves to Washington - The chief executive of the Texas grid operator, a state oil and gas regulator and the mayor of Houston appeared before a congressional panel Wednesday investigating the power outages during February's deadly Texas freeze. The testimony before a virtual meeting of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations had a familiar feel of finger-pointing, echoing the flavor of state hearings held in February related to the outages, which left more than 50 Texans dead and many millions more desperate, cold and in the dark. The hearing revealed other themes as federal officials take a closer look at how things devolved in Texas last month — already, federal agencies concerned with electricity reliability have started their own investigations. Democrats on the panel again and again linked the power outages to the consequence of a changing climate as they build momentum for proposals to increase renewable energy infrastructure nationally. The lesson, said subcommittee chair U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., is that "extreme weather events are devastating and happening more frequently." Republicans, meanwhile, pointed to the rise of renewable energy as an Achilles heel to energy grids — even though all sources of energy failed to some extent during the exceptionally cold temperatures. Replacing nuclear plants and coal "with variable renewable sources could make (the grid) less resilient," said Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash. Republicans also argued that grid problems were not unique to Texas as they tried to stave off federal regulation of the Texas grid. “Texans can and will solve the problem within its borders," said Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Lewisville. Damages from the power outages, set in motion by plunging, persistent cold weather, have been pegged at nearly $200 billion. Statewide, water service was disrupted for more than 12 million people as pipes froze and burst — an estimated 325 million gallons of water were lost in Austin alone due to burst pipes, according to Austin Water Director Greg Meszaros. Testimony from the Texas witnesses Wednesday reflected the blame game that has already played out in hearings in Austin. "Time and time again, the No. 1 problem that we heard reported from (oil and gas) operators was a lack of power at their production sites," Christi Craddick, chairwoman of the Texas Railroad Commission, told members of the panel, a subcommittee of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. "The oil fields simply cannot run without power, making electricity the best winterization tool," she continued. Craddick's observation was an implicit criticism of power plant operators and the state grid operator. But Bill Magness, chief executive of the state grid operator, the Electric Reliability of Council, said, "ERCOT is not a policymaking body." "We implement the policies adopted by the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Texas Legislature," said Magness, who was fired in March by the ERCOT board but remains at the helm for at least another month.

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: EPA deal with Ala. polluter undercuts Biden equity pledge -- Monday, March 22, 2021 -- When a special team of EPA inspectors first showed up at an industrial plant belching carcinogens on the worn outskirts of Birmingham, Ala., in 2011, their findings of flagrant regulatory violations were later deemed serious enough to warrant a referral to the Justice Department. But what happened — and didn't happen — next tells a disquieting tale of a status quo that has long left people of color and low-income communities disproportionately exposed to toxic air pollution, an E&E News review has found. And, while the Biden administration now trumpets a renewed commitment to environmental justice, the saga surrounding the ABC Coke complex, which produces a fuel made from coal, also exposes the barriers to achieving those equity goals. Among them: a regulatory system that cedes front-line oversight to state and local officials who may be unwilling or ill-equipped to crack down on influential polluters; cautious, far-removed EPA managers; and a secretive enforcement apparatus that in this instance seems to have treated a vulnerable community as an afterthought. "We're breathing this stuff, and they should have at least been telling us something about it," Deborah Anderson, a public school lunchroom supervisor whose home lies within eyeshot of the facility, said in an interview. "But they didn't." Instead, federal regulators dithered. Local officials obfuscated. And the coke plant, located less than a mile from an elementary school, has continued to spew tons of cancer-causing benzene and other hazardous pollutants each year. Almost a full decade passed before a court-enforced cleanup agreement was locked in — and that happened earlier this year only after EPA fought residents' efforts to amend the final deal.  EPA's regional office in Atlanta said that the plant's owner, Drummond Co. Inc., has already made most of the physical improvements required by the settlement, which was made final as a consent decree in January. A Drummond spokesperson failed to respond to written questions or phone messages. In court papers and other records, the privately held coal company denied wrongdoing and said it had made fixes even when disagreeing with EPA over regulatory requirements. Drummond has long been a force in Alabama politics; in 2018, a federal jury convicted its top lobbyist at the time in a bribery scheme aimed at avoiding Superfund cleanup liability for contamination linked to the ABC Coke complex (Greenwire, Oct. 24, 2018.)

EPA head: 'COVID-19 created a perfect storm for environmental justice communities'  - New Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan pledged Wednesday to address the disparate impacts of pollution on underserved communities, saying the need to address environmental justice "has only become more urgent” as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. In a virtual “fireside chat” at the 2021 Ceres Conference, Regan said that under his leadership the agency will explore the question of “what does real change look like in underserved communities.” “Environmental justice is near and dear to my heart,” he said, adding that "COVID-19 created a perfect storm for environmental justice communities." Regan has a background in such issues specifically, having created North Carolina’s Environmental Justice and Equity Board in 2018 during his previous position as head of the state’s Department of Environmental Quality. “We will be driven by our convictions that every person in our great country has the right to clean air, clean water and a healthier life, no matter how much money they have in their pockets, the color of their skin or the community that they live in,” Regan said in December when then-President-elect Biden introduced him as his EPA nominee. Nonwhite Americans are more likely to live in areas with higher levels of air pollution, which can exacerbate the effects of the coronavirus, as well as comorbidities such as heart disease and hypertension. A preliminary study from last year indicated that long-term average exposure to fine particulate matter increases the risk of death from the virus. Regan also addressed what he said was the need for restoring morale within the EPA after the Trump administration. “Under my leadership we will be listening to the voices of our career public servants and EPA scientists,” he said. “There were a few times during the last administration when the voices of our scientists were not at the forefront.” He specifically pointed to the EPA’s removal of a web page on climate change, which the Biden EPA restored last week. “We’re bringing back scientific integrity and climate action. We are committed to bringing back underserved communities,” Regan added.

The Coal Plant Next Door — ProPublica - Near America’s largest coal-fired power plant, toxins are showing up in drinking water and people have fallen ill. Thousands of pages of internal documents show how one giant energy company plans to avoid the cleanup costs. - Mark Berry raised his right hand, pledging to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. He pulled his microphone close to his yellow bow tie and glanced left toward five of Georgia’s most influential elected officials. As one of Georgia Power’s top environmental lobbyists, Berry had a clear mission on that rainy day in April 2019: Convince those five energy regulators that the company’s customers should foot the bill for one of the most expensive toxic waste cleanup efforts in state history. When Berry became Georgia Power’s vice president of environmental affairs in 2015, he inherited responsibility for a dark corporate legacy dating back to before he was born. For many decades, power companies had burnt billions of tons of coal, dumping the leftover ash — loaded with toxic contaminants — into human-made “ponds” larger than many lakes. But after a pair of coal-ash pond disasters in Tennessee and North Carolina exposed the environmental and health risks of those largely unregulated dumps, the Obama administration required power companies to stop using the aging disposal sites. Berry had spent nearly two decades climbing the ranks of Southern Company, America’s second-largest energy provider and the owner of Georgia Power. By the time he was under oath that day, company execs had vowed to store newly burnt coal ash in landfills designed for safely disposing of such waste. But an unprecedented challenge remained: Figuring out what to do with 90 million tons of coal ash — enough to fill more than 50 Major League Baseball stadiums to the brim — that had accumulated over the better part of a century in ash ponds that were now leaking. Georgia Power would have to shut down roughly 30 ponds from the Appalachian foothills to the wetlands near the Georgia coast. After draining all the ponds, the company would have two options for disposing of the highly contaminated dry ash left behind: It could either move the ash into a landfill fitted with a protective liner, or pack the dry ash into a smaller footprint and place a cover on top — leaving a gaping hole in the ground that, in some places, would be larger than Disneyland. The former would cost more but vastly reduce the possibility of toxic leakage; the latter lowered expenses but would perpetually risk contaminating drinking water in neighboring communities.As scientists had grown more aware of the threat posed by coal ash, Southern states like Virginia and North Carolina had forced utilities to move ash into lined landfills. But Georgia was something of an outlier. The state historically was known as a coal ash capital, a place where lawmakers touted their pro-business bona fides by denouncing regulations, and Georgia Power had a track record of delaying or blocking efforts to regulate pollution. The company was lobbying hard for the cheaper option.

Community group created to advise TMI cleanup - Communities surrounding the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear plant near Harrisburg now have a citizens committee to help guide decommissioning of the plant’s Unit 2 reactor, which partially melted down in 1979. The Community Advisory Panel is made up of 15 people who represent the plant and its neighbors, including townships, school districts, first responders, nuclear planners and state historians. Londonderry Township manager Steve Letavic will lead the group. He said they hope to make decommissioning plans more transparent. “If people aren’t engaged and you’re not getting the right information out, then they have no other options than to jump to conclusions, or draw their own conclusions,” Letavic said. Decommissioning company EnergySolutions agreed to work with a citizen committee after state regulators objected to accelerated plans to dismantle the site last year. “We’re going to get to work directly with EnergySolutions through the decommissioning process and really make sure that we’re all on the same page, we all have the same information, and we all know the next steps as we move forward through decommissioning,” Letavic said. DEP Secretary Patrick McDonnell wrote to the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission last April detailing concerns including unknown levels of radiation left on site and cost to dismantle. In 2018, the reactor’s then-owner reported that a decommissioning trust fund for TMI-2 held about $899 million, while the estimated clean-up costs were $1.35 billion. In December, the NRC approved the reactor’s license transfer from FirstEnergy to TMI-2 Solutions for decommissioning. The company is a subsidiary of Utah-based EnergySolutions, which aims to profit by dismantling nuclear sites under budget.

Southern Company identifies 'likely' nuclear construction delay on Vogtle unit - Southern Company's Vogtle nuclear unit will come into service at least a month later than scheduled, due to additional construction remediation work the company identified in an 8-K filing on Friday. The utility's nuclear operating company identified construction remediation work that would "likely" delay the November 2021 in-service date for Vogtle Unit 3. Delays past the service date will create approximately $25 million additional capital costs per month for Southern subsidiary Georgia Power, which holds 45.7% ownership of the project, the according to the financial disclosure. Unit 4 of Plant Vogtle was not mentioned in the 8-K filing, though Southern CEO and President Thomas Fanning said in the Q4 earnings call that the final reactor's November 2022 in-service date is on pace for the third quarter of that year.Vogtle Unit 3 was approximately 98% complete according to the last quarterly update, but both units faced a lot of delays in construction due to COVID-19."Since the onset of the pandemic and most acutely during the fourth quarter of 2020, the impacts from COVID-19 have included high absenteeism and disruptions to planned or ongoing work as we isolated personnel," Fanning said in the February earnings call.Southern Nuclear Operating Company identified additional construction remediation work, and is reviewing Unit 3's "construction quality programs and, where needed, implementing improvement plans consistent with these processes," the filing said. The inspection and review results could require additional remediation, although, as noted in the financial disclosure, "the ultimate outcome of these matters cannot be determined at this time."

 No wonder HB 6 is still in force. Fossil-fuel bills show lawmakers still kowtow to utilities. --The March 17 story, “Lawmakers seek to limit local authority over fossil-fuel use,” best explains why House Bill 6, the allegedly corrupt legislation passed by Ohio legislators to enrich Ohio’s utilities over consumers, has still not been repealed: Elected officials are still owned by and kowtow to utilities and their big money to get reelected.  House Bill 201 and Senate Bill 127 would prohibit local bans on the use of fossil fuel for power generation, while House Bill 192 would prevent local bans on oil or gas pipelines. These are local policies best left to local government. Local residents should have the power to decide where or if pipes carrying fossil fuels are allowed to potentially contaminate their backyards. State Rep. Al Cutrona of Mahoning County, who introduced HB 192, when asked why communities shouldn’t be allowed to decide these issues for themselves, responded that he was working to do what’s best for his community. Thanks, Big Brother, for protecting little ol’ me! That wouldn’t have anything to do with campaign funds for you, would it?

Injection wells exist to hold fracking wastewater — but the water can move. Here's how --Salty wastewater produced by fracking for oil and gas has to go somewhere. Often, it’s injected into disposal wells deep underground. But sometimes that wastewater can find its way back to the surface and cause environmental problems. Injection wells, oil and gas wells, and older, abandoned wells are often all in one area.“When you have this many wells in the landscape that makes the landscape Swiss cheese,” said geologist Terry Engelder, Penn State professor emeritus. Engelder’s work, indicating how much natural gas might be accessible by fracking, earned him the nickname “Father of the Marcellus Shale.” Injecting wastewater into underground rock layers could create problems if there are a large number of wells in the vicinity.Just last month, an unused gas well in Noble County, Ohio started spewing salty brine water. According to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR), more than 1.5 million gallons of the wastewater were collected, but not before enough escaped into a nearby creek to kill fish and salamanders. This screenshot from a video posted to Facebook by Amber Deem shows what she claims is the gas well spewing what’s suspected to be wastewater from fracking operations.Engelder examined state records and thinks that brine spray was wastewater from a nearby injection well.The injection well and the unused well were drilled into the same underground rock formation, a sandstone layer nearly 6,000 feet underground.“It flowed along the Medina [sandstone] 2.54 miles, and then back up,” he said. He also theorized that the wastewater could have come from another injection well in the Medina sandstone nearly four miles away.Drilling an injection well into the same layer as other oil and gas wells makes wastewater migration more likely, Engelder said.He looked at a sample of 35 injection well depths in Ohio and found many were drilled to the Medina sandstone layer, the same layer as many older, abandoned oil and gas  wells.In another migration incident in 2019, in Washington County, Ohio, ODNR concluded that brine from an injection well drilled into shale migrated into an adjacent layer of sandstone, contaminating multiple gas wells five miles away.

State Republicans seek to ban cities from limiting natural gas development  - Ohio lawmakers are considering a pair of bills that would block cities and counties from opting out of pipeline projects or limiting the use of natural gas. Lobbyists representing the coal and natural gas industries appeared before the House Energy and Natural Resources committee Wednesday in support.House Bill 192 would prohibit city or county governments from banning the use of “any fossil fuel” for energy generation or the construction of a natural gas pipeline through the jurisdiction. House Bill 201, similarly, would block local governments from passing any ordinance that “limits” or “prevents” consumer access to natural gas. Supporters of the state legislation, namely the energy industry, say cities banning energy sources will lead to price increases for consumers and an unworkable minefield of regulations and no-fly zones for energy providers.“[HB 201], in turn, will keep Ohio from becoming a hodgepodge of local ordinances where one community has access to fossil fuel energy and another, just a short distance away, does not,” said Ohio Oil and Gas Association President Matthew Hammond.As Jimmy Stewart, president of the Ohio Gas Association noted, some Ohio cities have shifted away from fossil fuels. Cleveland, Cincinnati, Euclid and Lakewood have all passed resolutions establishing a goal of operating on 100-percent clean, renewable energy by 2025. The city resolutions came after the passage of House Bill 6 in 2019, which gutted the state’s efficiency and renewable energy standards.The bill is now at the center of a federal bribery investigation that has yielded the indictment of the former House Speaker Larry Householder, former Ohio GOP chairman turned lobbyist Matt Borges and late lobbyist Neil Clark. Householder’s political strategist, Jeff Longstreth, and lobbyist Juan Cespedes have pleaded guilty to their role in the alleged racketeering scheme.

Ohio, Louisiana want to intervene in Line 5 federal lawsuit -The states of Ohio and Louisiana have asked to intervene in a federal court case over the future of Enbridge's Line 5 pipeline through Michigan's Straits of Mackinac. The states, led by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, filed a request Friday seeking amici status in Enbridge's case against the state government's revocation of its 1953 easement through the Straits of Mackinac. As early as July 2019, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine's office expressed concern about how a Line 5 closure would hurt refinery jobs, fuel costs and disrupt airline schedules that rely on timely deliveries of fuel that stems from the pipeline.Ohio's two refineries near the Michigan border supply fuel to Ohio and southeast Michigan, including Detroit Metro Airport, DeWine said in the 2019 letter. Ohio could lose up to 1,000 refinery employees in Toledo if Line 5 were shut down, the motion said."The threat is not limited to Ohio or its refineries; it extends to workers, consumers and industries throughout Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and the surrounding region and could result in additional layoffs and other economic harm," the motion said.  Line 5 owner Enbridge has argued the state can't shut down the dual pipeline because it falls under the jurisdiction of federal regulators, such as the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. The Canadian pipeline giant and the state of Michigan are expected to have their first meeting with a mediator in April. Michigan has not supported Ohio and Louisiana's intervention in the case, according to the motion.

 Ohio, Louisiana argue against Line 5 shutdown in federal court— Ohio Attorney General David Yost is asking a federal judge in Grand Rapids to block Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s effort to shut down the Enbridge Line 5 pipeline, arguing on behalf of Ohio refineries and the state of Louisiana that closing the submerged oil line would have economic impact beyond Michigan. Yost filed an amicus brief on Friday, March 19 in the case Enbridge brought against Whitmer last fall, which is pending before Judge Janet Neff in the Western District of Michigan. The case is scheduled to begin mediation in April. In the brief, Yost argues that closing the pipeline segment under the Straits of Mackinac would cause economic hardship for businesses supplied by the pipeline. In November, Whitmer announced termination of the 1953 easement that allows the pipeline to cross the lakebed where lakes Michigan and Huron connect. She gave Enbridge until May 12 to stop the oil flow, a deadline the company says it won’t comply with absent a court order. “Ohio refineries, their employees, and key industrial stakeholders directly rely on Line 5′s crude oil supply, and its economic effects are strongly felt in the Buckeye State and beyond,” Yost wrote. “Ohio, joined by Louisiana, respectfully urges the court to carefully balance protections for both the environment and the economic health of individuals and businesses on both sides of the border by allowing Line 5 to continue to operate safely.” Case documents indicate Michigan opposes the motion but the state has not yet filed a reply. Enbridge allies have mounted a full-throated defense of the controversial pipeline this year. Canadian government and business officials are lobbying the Biden Administration to intercede in Whitmer’s decision and are threatening to invoke a 1977 treaty governing the operation of cross-border pipelines unless Michigan backpedals the closure order. Seamus O’Regan, Canadian natural resources minister, told a parliament committee earlier this month that the pipeline’s operation is “non-negotiable.” The 68-year-old, 645-mile pipeline runs from Superior, Wisconsin to Sarnia, Ontario by way of Michigan. It is a key part of Enbridge’s Lakehead network that carries light crude and natural gas liquids under the Straits of Mackinac. Its existence has caused escalating concern since another Enbridge pipeline caused a massive oil spill in 2010 on the Kalamazoo River. Because the pipeline crosses both Michigan peninsulas and many waterways, opponents see little benefit but substantial risk for the state from its existence and dismiss economic concerns around its closure as overblown.

Chesapeake fined $1.9 million for wetland, stream violations in PA - Federal and state regulators have proposed a $1.9 million fine against Chesapeake Energy for damaging dozens of wetlands and streams at its gas drilling sites in Pennsylvania. According to a complaint lodged in federal court in Williamsport, Oklahoma-based Chesapeake illegally damaged wetlands and streams at 76 well sites, in Beaver, Bradford, Sullivan, Susquehanna, and Wyoming counties. The regulators say the company filled in, dredged, or otherwise encroached on protected waterways at the sites without obtaining the proper permits. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection says the company alerted regulators about the possible violations in 2014, after a similar investigation in West Virginia found the company had diverted or impacted over 2 miles of streams. The company conducted an internal audit of its Pennsylvania operations and found it diverted or filled in over 28 acres of wetlands and 2,300 feet of streams. As part of a proposed consent decree with federal and state regulators, the company will restore a total of 55 acres of wetlands and repair over 4,000 feet of streams. “This settlement resolves many violations over several years and leads to a net increase of wetlands and restored streams,” said DEP secretary Patrick McDonnell, in a statement. McDonnell applauded Chesapeake for coming forward to disclose its violations.  The investigation and subsequent agreement in Pennsylvania was held up byChesapeake’s bankruptcy case, which ended in January.

Every Pa. community deserves protection from the harms of fracking - All communities, whether rural or densely populated, deserve protection from harm. Public and private water supplies are critically important to the individuals, families, and communities who rely on them.For far too long, extractive industries have paved the way for our elected officials to turn the Ohio River into a dumping ground. Five million people rely on the river for their drinking water, yet it remains one of the most polluted in the country, despite decades-long cleanup efforts. Communities throughout the region have had enough: local residents are coming together to create a world that puts people’s health and well-being over fossil-fueled corporate profits.For residents of the Ohio River Valley, news of the Delaware River Basin Commission’sdecision to permanently ban hydraulic fracturing in the Delaware River Basin was met with conflicting emotions. While the victory is tremendous because it is (finally) an admission of the harms of fracking, and the precedent established is critically important, it just isn’t enough.Until every community in every region is shielded from the health and economic damage and destruction the petrochemical industry wields, our work is not finished.After more than a decade of research, we’ve learned unequivocally that it’s impossible to make hydraulic fracturing safe; the process is inherently dangerous and laden with risk. We cannot prevent the fine particulate pollution and release of radioactive materials into our environment any more than we can control for a potential methane leak or prevent an earthquake from forming under the ground on which we stand. Fracking puts our communities and the people we love at constant risk, and it weighs heavily on all of our shoulders.The toll of the petrochemical industry’s destructive tactics is devastating. Oil and gas companies roll into our communities, destroy our land, pollute our air, and accelerate the global climate crisis – then leave when profits are low and liabilities high.A growing body of research has linked fracking to negative impacts on pregnancy and infant development, asthma, skin rashes, heart problems, and potentially cancer. Many of us in southwestern Pennsylvania have been paralyzed with fear as rare childhood cancers have spiked in four of our heavily-fracked counties.The People Over Petro Coalition believes that people—our health, welfare, and interests—must be respected and protected over petrochemicals and the life-cycle impacts of its upstream and downstream industries, including plastics. Together, we are working to reverse the expansion of the petrochemical industry in the Appalachian Basin and encourage a clean, renewable, and regenerative economic foundation.

Consumer protection law can’t be used to sue gas and oil firms over land leases, Pa. Supreme Court says - The state attorney general’s office can’t invoke Pennsylvania’s consumer protection law to sue two oil and natural gas firms on behalf of private landowners who claim they got raw deals in leasing their mineral rights, a divided state Supreme Court has ruled. With Justice Kevin Dougherty dissenting, the high court concluded the Pennsylvania Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law protects only buyers, not sellers, from being swindled. That law therefore cannot be invoked in the case the AG’s office filed against Chesapeake Energy Corp. and Anadarko Petroleum Corp. because those firms were buying, not selling, leases to secure rights to oil and natural gas reserves beneath land the property owners possesses in Marcellus Shale regions of the state, Justice Sallie Mundy wrote in the Supreme Court’s majority opinion. That decision voids a ruling by Commonwealth Court ruling that upheld the legal ability of the AG’s office to press on with the suit it originally filed in Bradford County Court. The case focused on the actions by Anadarko and Chesapeake in the purchase of natural gas leases in Bradford, Centre, Clinton, Lycoming, Potter, Sullivan, Tioga and Wyoming counties. The AG’s office claimed the firms struck a deal to divide the territories between them, thereby eliminating competition and keeping down the prices the firms had to pay for leases. That constituted an unfair and deceptive business practice, the AG’s office contended. The consumer protection law isn’t the vehicle for addressing that issue, Mundy found, because it “simply does not regulate buyers’ conduct in commercial transactions.” In dissenting, Dougherty argued the AG should be allowed to continue pressing the suit because the consumer protection law governs “trade and commerce,” and that is what Anadarko and Chesapeake were engaging in when they sought leases.

PA Democrats allowed to intervene in Delaware River anti-fracking lawsuit -The first round in the ongoing lawsuit challenging the Delaware River Basin Commission's authority to ban fracking in its jurisdictional waters has gone to the State Democratic Caucus. A knockout blow could be landing as soon as April. "About two weeks ago in New Hope, we announced the filing of our initial motion" to be added to the case as interveners, said State Sen. Steve Santarsiero, D-12 of Lower Makefield, during a news conference Wednesday afternoon. "The court has granted that motion and entered that order last Friday. "We now will not file anything at least until April, and that will be a motion to dismiss." Santarsiero and the democratic caucus filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit seeking to stem Republican attempts to again open up the Delaware River basin to fracking. Hydraulic fracturing, also referred to as "fracking," is the process of drilling into host formations such as shales and tight sandstones, and injecting fluids and sand under pressures great enough to fracture the rock formations to allow the extraction of oil and gas, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. In a one-page order from U.S. Eastern District of Pennsylvania Judge Paul S. Diamond, the judge allowed the "Senator Intervenors," namely Santarsiero, Carolyn Comitta, Amanda Cappelletti, Maria Collett, Wayne Fontana, Art Haywood, Vince Hughes, John Kane, Tim Kearney, Katie Muth, John Sabatina, Nikil Saval, Judy Schwank, Sharif Street, Tina Tartaglione, and Anthony Williams, to be added as defendants in the Sen. Gene Yaw v. The Delaware River Basin Commission. Yaw and other GOP lawmakers want the ban overturned and filed suit after the commission banned fracking in the watershed last month after years of discussion and debate. "The motion will seek to dismiss the case on the grounds that is not supported by state law; I feel our position is strong and the plaintiffs lack standing, " Santarsiero said. "As I mentioned a few weeks ago when we filed to intervene, the Pennsylvania Constitution is pretty clear."

Opponents of Pennsylvania-New Jersey LNG plan cheer federal ruling -Critics of a plan to transport liquefied natural gas from northeastern Pennsylvania to a port on the Delaware River in New Jersey welcomed a recent federal ruling that they say could put up significant regulatory speed bumps – or possibly derail the project altogether.The ruling, by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, involved an LNG facility in Puerto Rico run by New Fortress Energy. The company had sought a ruling that FERC lacked jurisdiction over the facility but the commission ruled on March 19 that it does have oversight.That decision is significant for what bearing it might have on another New Fortress Energy-related project, which would process natural gas at a plant in Wyalusing, Pa., liquefy it through super-low temperatures and then send it via rail and/or highway to a port in Gibbstown, N.J.“With the caveat that this is speculation, but informed speculation, I will say yes, this does have an impact on Wyalusing,” said Jordan Luebkemann, an associate attorney for Earthjustice, which opposed the New Fortress special permit allowing LNG to be transported by rail.New Fortress has sought to have FERC disclaim jurisdiction over the project, which has already gained numerous federal, state and local permits, including one from the Delaware River Basin Commission.A full-fledged FERC review could set off environmental assessments that could consider the ecological, cultural and human impacts of the project.That, in turn, could also mean opportunities for litigation to challenge the quality and thoroughness of those reviews – all of which could amount to added time, scrutiny and chances for the project to be delayed or derailed. New Fortress has two filings pending before FERC seeking declarations that both the Wyalusing and Gibbstown sites are free of its oversight. A FERC spokeswoman, Tamara Young-Allen, said the filings remain pending. Citing regulations against discussing the timing of a proposed action, she would not estimate when the commission might render rulings.

Federal court ruling may clear the way for natural gas pipeline through WNY -The long-delayed Northern Access natural gas pipeline may have received its final approval Tuesday – from three federal judges in New York City. That panel of the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously against the state Department of Environmental Conservation and the Sierra Club in their efforts to block the project, even though the judges wrote that National Fuel "flimflammed" the DEC in a dispute over legal deadlines. It's the latest – and, unless the DEC and the Sierra Club appeal to the Supreme Court, perhaps the last – courtroom victory for National Fuel and its Empire Pipeline subsidiary. While the DEC said it was "disappointed" by the ruling and was considering its options, National Fuel said it was "very pleased." "Today’s ruling certainly clears the most significant hurdle facing the continued development of the Northern Access project," spokeswoman Karen Merkel said. "We're going to keep fighting this," said Diana Strablow, vice chair of the Sierra' Club's Niagara Group. The company's $500 million pipeline would carry natural gas from the fracking fields of McKean County, Pa., through Allegany, Cattaraugus and Erie counties, to a connection to a Canadian pipeline beneath the Niagara River at Chippawa, Ont. The package also includes some additions to National Fuel's system in Niagara County: about 2 miles of pipelines; a gas dewatering station on Liberty Drive in Wheatfield; and a pair of 22,000-horsepower compressors on Killian Road in Pendleton. But the main project is the 96.5-mile pipeline from Pennsylvania to the Niagara River. It's a 24-inch-wide pipeline, to be laid in a 75-foot-wide right of way. New York's highest court has ruled National Fuel has eminent domain power to seize land from property owners along the route.

Why A Federal Order In The Weymouth Compressor Case Has The Natural Gas World Worried - In the six years since Massachusetts residents began fighting a proposed natural gas compressor station in Weymouth, the controversial and now-operational project has mostly been an issue of local concern. Not anymore. As a challenge to the compressor station’s permit to operate winds its way through the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) — the agency in charge of approving interstate energy projects — some on the five-person body have signaled that they’re no longer interested in doing business as usual. In a 3-2 vote last month, the commission began what some FERC experts are calling “a seemingly unprecedented” review process that not only raises questions about the future of the Weymouth Compressor, but has many in the gas industry worried about the fate of their current and future projects. At the simplest level, this case is about whether FERC should hold a hearing to relitigate the Weymouth Compressor’s license to operate, known as a “service authorization order.” This happens all the time when project opponents appeal a FERC decision. But two things make this situation unique: the potential precedent it could set, and the fact that FERC has a new commissioner who has promised to give more weight to climate change and environmental justice concerns.  The Weymouth Compressor was designed to be the linchpin of a large interstate gas pipeline system called the Atlantic Bridge Project. The project connects two pipelines and allows fracked natural gas from western Pennsylvania to flow through New Jersey and New England, and into Maine and eastern Canada for local distribution. Though no public opinion polling about the compressor exists, there is intense opposition to it here in Massachusetts, that tends to focus on four issues:

• Public health and safety: Though rare, compressor stations occasionally catch fire and explode. For this reason, most are built in rural places. The Weymouth Compressor, however, is in a densely populated area that’s prone to flooding and near a busy highway. The site itself is near schools, senior housing and a mental health facility. Safety concerns about the compressor increased after two unplanned shutdowns in September triggered a federal investigation.
• Environmental justice: Weymouth has a long history of air pollution and soil contamination. The compressor site is near two state-designated “environmental justice” communities, not to mention a gas-fired power plant, a chemical plant, a sewage pelletizing plant, a gas metering station and the highly trafficked Fore River Bridge. Residents in the area have statistically higher rates of cancer, pediatric asthma and cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, and according to the Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility, the “compressor station is, even by data provided by the company itself, likely to worsen the health and safety at this already at-risk community.”
• Climate change: Between growing evidence that natural gas pipelines emit a lot of the potent greenhouse gas methane, and the fact that the compressor station will periodically release gas and other volatile organic compounds during “blowdowns,” many environmentalists worry about the project’s climate impacts.
• Whether the project is needed: When the compressor was first proposed, the developer said it had customers lined up to buy the gas. In the years since, that picture has changed. Enbridge, the company that now owns and operates the Weymouth Compressor, says it currently has contracts with six gas distribution companies in Maine and Canada, though it declined to say how much gas each receives. Anti-compressor activists are skeptical about the actual demand, and maintain there are enough questions to warrant another look from federal regulators.

 Fracking No Cure-All for Appalachia's Economy -Fracking has rapidly raised the economic output of northern Appalachia, but a new report finds rural residents haven’t gained much from that growth.“In a perfect world, the other indicators — jobs, income and population — would go up more or less proportionately (with output), and that’s what manifestly did not happen,” said Sean O’Leary, the author of the document for the Ohio River Valley Institute.Natural gas organizations said the report cherry-picks data, and they pointed out that it comes from a think tank that supports transitioning away from natural gas.The report looks at the change in several economic metrics for 22 fracking-heavy counties in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia between 2008 — before the drilling boom — and 2019.The most spectacular increases came in gross domestic product — the value of goods and services produced. The shale counties grew at three times the national average, O’Leary said. They also produced the 10 largest GDP increases among the nearly 300 counties in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New York and Maryland, according to supplementary analysis by Lancaster Farming.A big boost in GDP would usually mean local people see their incomes rise accordingly, but O’Leary found that only about 20% of the economic growth entered the county economies. Many natural gas workers and allied businesses come from out of state, and royalty recipients are not spending or investing all of their windfall locally.“Much of the revenue is landing elsewhere,” O’Leary said. Job growth was one of the biggest selling points for the industry at the advent of the drilling boom. Studies projected fracking would feed the three states over 450,000 jobs — more than the population of Pittsburgh. By O’Leary’s count, the industry has fallen far short of that hype, eking out just 5,600 jobs across the 22 counties.

 The Fracking Shill Local Newspapers Love to Publish --   “If we hit our CO2 targets and every one of us are living in abject poverty, is that really how you really want to live?” Greg Kozera is making his pro-fracking case to me. Later in our phone call, he’ll argue that renewable energy depends on child labor in Congolese cobalt mines and observe that his golden retriever lived to the ripe age of 14 years old romping around three fracking wells, proving that the practice poses no health risks. He makes a version of this case every weekend in the opinion pages of newspapers throughout Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania—the case for natural gas, for industry, and, if you take his word for it, for America.Four years ago, an editor at the Parkersburg News and Sentinel in West Virginia contacted Shale Crescent USA, a nonprofit “messaging” organization in Marietta, Ohio, whose funders include natural gas companies and pipeline construction companies, to ask what the group’s work entailed. Kozera, a former oil and gas salesman who now serves as Shale Crescent’s head of marketing, responded by suggesting the paper run a five-part series, authored by himself, about how to return jobs to the Mid-Ohio Valley by embracing natural gas. The series debuted in August 2017 and was such a hit, to hear Kozera tell it, that the paper offered him a weekly column. Then the column started getting picked up by other regional papers, including the Charleston Gazette-Mail and occasionally the Columbus Dispatch. Today, Kozera’s weekly pro-fracking column often runs in eight to 10 local papers throughout the Ohio River Valley, reaching anywhere from 60,000readers to well over 200,000 if his column is picked up by the region’s major papers like the Gazette-Mail, Dispatch, or Akron Beacon Journal.It reaches even more when recirculated by national publications like the New York Daily News, which has one of the largest readerships in the country. Four years after the News and Sentinel’s initial inquiry, Kozera is now one of the most ubiquitous voices in the fracking conversation in the Marcellus Shale region, which stretches from southern New York down through the three crucial battleground states of West Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. And for nearly as long as he’s been writing those columns, environmentalists and climate scientists have asked the newspapers publishing his words a simple question: Why have they given this man a megaphone?

Mountain Valley Pipeline's once-favorable gas economics fall amid completion hurdles - As EQM Midstream Partners tries to overcome legal and regulatory hurdles that have so far prevented it from completing its Mountain Valley Pipeline, a further delay or cancellation of the project could impact US Northeast gas flows and prices after Dominion Energy scrapped the Atlantic Coast Pipeline in 2020, S&P Global Platts Analytics data show.Despite demand from downstream customers in the mid-Atlantic and Southeast, new pipelines that would connect those markets with abundant supplies of Appalachian Basin gas have struggled to get built due largely to permitting challenges, pressure from environmental groups and shifting economics.A group of Republican lawmakers is pushing legislation that would speed up permitting and reduce costs of new US energy infrastructure, but the prospects are uncertain under the Biden administration and Democratic-led Congress. Dominion cancelled the $8 billion ACP last July, citing legal hurdles and ballooning costs.While the 303-mile, 2 Bcf/d Mountain Valley Pipeline could feasibly argue that its value proposition has only grown in the wake of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline cancellation, the project's once-favorable economics have been diluted by a combination of rising costs and narrowing spreads. When it was initially filed, Mountain Valley proposed a maximum interruptible rate of about $0.97 per dekatherm -- the equivalent of the all-in cost for firm transportation, including reservation and variable charges.But at that time the project was estimated to cost roughly $3.25 billion. Substantial delays and permitting challenges have caused cost estimates to balloon to as high as $6 billion, indicating that all-in costs to ship on Mountain Valley, when it does come online, could be nearly double the rate assumptions underpinning the early project prospectus.And while the costs to ship on the project have grown, the spreads the pipeline is designed to capture—between Dominion South on the upstream end and Transco Zone 5 downstream—have come under heavy pressure as earlier demand-growth forecasts for the mid-Atlantic region have failed to fully materialize, Platts Analytics data show.In 2014, when Mountain Valley was initially offered at open season, spreads between Dominion and Zone 5 for calendar year 2022 were trading at nearly $1.50/MMBtu, well above the roughly $1 it would cost to ship on Mountain Valley.But now, nearly seven years later, that spread has collapsed to only around $1/MMBtu, while costs have risen. Even if the project's costs remained flat over the last seven years, the spread would still generally be out of the money.

FERC rejects bid to halt Mountain Valley construction -- Thursday, March 25, 2021 -- The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission yesterday denied a bid to stop construction on parts of the embattled Mountain Valley pipeline, despite a stern rebuke from the agency's two Democratic members.

Montgomery County tree-sit ends with removal of second pipeline protester - — Nine-hundred and thirty-one days after the first pipeline protester went up in the trees off Yellow Finch Lane, the last one came down Wednesday. Using a construction crane, law enforcement officers removed a Massachusetts man from a tree stand where he had been blocking work on the controversial Mountain Valley Pipeline. The day before, a protester from Vermont was extracted in the same way. Ever since Sept. 5, 2018, an unknown number of mostly anonymous activists have taken turns living in two tree stands about 50 feet off the ground, near the top of a steep, wooded slope. Their strategic position in the pipeline’s path prevented tree-cutting without the risk of injury or death, and made removing them a challenge. But in the end, police went even higher. A crane stationed on Yellow Finch Lane, downhill from the tree-sits, used its boom to lift an industrial bucket, with two state police officers aboard, higher than the tallest tree, according to Sara Bohn, a member of the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors who was allowed to witness the removal. The officers were then lowered down to a spot where they could reach the protesters and pull them from their perches. Late Tuesday afternoon, Claire Marian Fiocco, 23, of Dorset, Vermont, was removed and charged with interfering with the property rights of Mountain Valley.The next day around noon, the last remaining tree-sitter — Alexander Samuel Parker Lowe, 24, of Worcester, Massachusetts — was extracted and charged with obstructing justice and interfering with property rights. Both Fiocco and Lowe were being held without bond Wednesday. Montgomery County General District Court Judge Gerald Mabe denied Fiocco bond on Thursday, saying that he was concerned that Fiocco is accused of violating a court order to leave pipeline property. Mabe said that normally a trespassing case would have no presumption against bond, but the nature of the tree-sitter case left him with no confidence that Fiocco would obey any restrictions he might impose. “It is with a heavy heart that the court is going to deny your motion for bond,“ Mabe said. The judge added that Fiocco could appeal his decision to the Circuit Court — the same court that ordered tree-sitters to come down last November – if she did not want to remain in jail until May 5, when her trespassing charge is scheduled to be resolved.

Byhalia Pipeline wants the land, but the Shelby County Commission isn’t selling - County-owned land sought by Byhalia Pipeline will stay with the county, the Shelby County Commission decided Monday. The commission’s 9-2 vote to hold onto two vacant properties that developers needed to construct the controversial 49-mile Byhalia Connection Pipeline puts a snag in the company’s plans to build the crude oil pipeline through southwest Memphis. It’s a win for the community organizers who have fought the project for months and more recently with the help of high profile backers such as former Vice President Al Gore and actors Danny Glover and Mark Ruffalo. But developers have already made clear that if one route was blocked, they’d try others. Before the vote, Commissioner Tami Sawyer urged her colleagues to reject the sale and thwart what she and other pipeline opponents consider environmental racism. “I’m just going to ask each of our fellow commissioners to rise to the occasion and listen to the people who are facing eminent domain, who already live in cancer clusters, who have lost a significant amount of family members to health issues due to dumping and pollution of their air and water — just due to the ZIP code that they live in,” Sawyer said. “We declared racism a pandemic six months ago and yet we continue to pass and ignore things that fall into the line of what racism as a systemic institution looks like. This is a case of environmental racism playing out once again in Shelby County.”

Proposed Byhalia Connection Pipeline finds resistance down so-called “path of least resistance” - The smoke stacks from the Valero Refinery poked above the tops of the leafless trees as Romone Anderson was taking bag after bag of trash to his curb. It was a Monday morning and a train had just finished rolling through, slightly visible between the trees behind his house. Following the route of those same tracks – who did not know until a reporter told him – is the path of the proposed Byhalia Connection Pipeline.  “We haven’t even been informed, and it’s running basically right through the back of our house. It’s really going to affect us and I want to learn what’s going on,” he said. Anderson and his family moved into the home two years ago. Being a Chicago native, he is no stranger to declining water quality, but he had no idea that an oil company had planned to build a pipeline a few hundred feet from his house. In an area that has been zoned for industries, spokespeople from Plains All American – the parent company of Byhalia Pipeline LLC – said that the planned route was decided as it was “the path of least resistance.” “That’s some real racist shit to say,” Anderson said, shaking his head while reading. “I don’t think they’re right though. These people have been here for 15 to 20 years, and I don’t think this is going to be as easy as [the company] thinks it’s going to be.” The “gaffe” has become somewhat of a rallying call to grassroots movements in the area, as well as to city, state and national representatives. On March 14, a rally was hosted by Memphis Community Against the Pipeline (MCAP), a Southwest Memphis group that has garnered national attention for their fight against Plains. That rally featured a range of speakers, from local landowners – such as Clyde Robinson and Scottie Fitzgerald, to national political figures – like former Vice President Al Gore and U.S. Congressman Steve Cohen.

Natural Gas Futures Post Back-to-Back Gains; Cash Prices Climb --Natural gas futures on Monday advanced for a second consecutive session, boosted by continued robust liquefied natural gas (LNG) levels. The April Nymex contract settled at $2.582/MMBtu, up 4.7 cents day/day. May gained 5.3 cents to $2.619. NGI’s Spot GasNational Avg. rose 4.0 cents to $2.310, with prices up across the Rocky Mountains region along with a snow storm to start the week.LNG feed gas volumes held well above 11 Bcf to start the week after approaching 12 Bcf during last Friday’s trading. The export activity boosted the prompt month on Friday by 5.4 cents and continued to help drive market momentum on Monday.Asian demand for U.S. exports continues after a particularly cold winter, and European demand for American gas is on the rise afterstorage inventories there dwindled early in 2021. As of mid-March, there was 361 TWh of natural gas in storage in the European Union, representing only a third of the region’s capacity, according to NGI data. That is nearly 270 TWh below the year-earlier level.However, domestic demand is in a precarious state with weather forecasts increasingly calling for warmth and minimized heating needs the rest of this month and into April. Analysts said the weather backdrop has prevented any sustained rallies this month and may challenge the current winning streak this week.Bespoke Weather Services said the picture was as bleak “as it can be at this time of the year.”

Natural Gas Futures Flop As Weather Conditions Overshadow LNG Momentum - Just as a rally started to mount, natural gas futures stumbled on Tuesday and dashed hopes for a three-day winning streak. Strong liquefied natural gas (LNG) levels had propelled the prompt month over the two prior trading sessions, but continued forecasts for weak domestic weather demand curbed the momentum. The April Nymex contract shed 7.4 cents day/day and settled at $2.508/MMBtu Tuesday. May fell 6.5 cents to $2.554. NGI’s Spot Gas National Avg. inched ahead 1.0 cent to $2.320. LNG feed gas volumes hovered close to 12 Bcf/d late last week – around record levels — and have held comfortably above 11 Bcf this week, thanks in part to strengthening European demand for U.S. exports. This strength is linked to “declines in European storage, suggesting that U.S. injection-season LNG exports are likely to be strong — tightening the market later this year,” EBW Analytics Group said. The LNG demand also reflects confidence in coronavirus vaccination programs and that “economic shut-ins are increasingly unlikely,” the EBW team said. Still, “LNG demand may remain subject to temporary reductions due to maintenance or tropical storms.” 

US gas in storage posts larger-than-expected pull in likely last draw of season | S&P Global Platts — US gas storage volumes declined more than the market expected in the week ended March 19, prompting a slight rise to the Henry Hub summer strip despite the likelihood of injection season starting a week ahead of schedule. Stay up to date with the latest commodity content. Sign up for our free daily Commodities Bulletin. Sign Up Storage inventories decreased 36 Bcf to 1.746 Tcf for the week ended March 19, the US Energy Information Administration reported the morning of March 25. The withdrawal was more than the 21 Bcf draw expected by an S&P Global Platts survey of analysts. It was also greater than the 26 Bcf draw reported during the same week last year but still under the five-year average withdrawal of 51 Bcf, according to EIA data. Regionally, most of the error came from underestimating the gains in demand as part of the long recovery from February's Arctic blast. While there was a slight uptick in total supplies, led by gains in net Canadian imports and bolstered slightly by higher production levels offshore, the tighter balances were mainly a reflection of stronger demand week on week, according to S&P Global Platts Analytics. The increase of about 400 MMcf/d of supply, which averaged right at 97 Bcf/d during the week, paled in comparison with the 1.7 Bcf/d increase seen on the demand side. Demand was mainly driven by continued gains in LNG feedgas deliveries and home heating demand, possibly the last gasp of winter as markets transition toward the summer injection season. Storage volumes now stand 263 Bcf, or 13%, less than the year-ago level of 2.009 Tcf and 78 Bcf, or 4.3%, less than the five-year average of 1.824 Tcf. The storage report added a modest dose of bullish sentiment into the market after a steady downward march the last six weeks. Prompt-month NYMEX Henry Hub April traded about 5 cents higher the morning of March 25 at $2.57/MMBtu, while the balance-of-summer strip added about 3.5 cents of support from the slightly larger-than-anticipated draw from inventories. With the summer strip now pricing in around $2.69/MMBtu, the outlook sits roughly 10 cents higher than a week ago, but still 10 cents lower than it did two weeks ago, indicating the market is wavering but relatively consistent on the expected price of gas from April onward. Platts Analytics supply and demand model currently forecasts a 14 Bcf net injection for the week ending March 26, which would stand in stark contrast to the five-year average draw of 24 Bcf. Warmer temperatures this week are driving a 7 Bcf/d decline in total US demand and positioning the markets for what will likely be the final reported storage withdrawal of the season before inventories start to replenish over the next seven months.

As Spring Warmth and Expiry Loom, April Natural Gas Futures Slide -Despite robust U.S. export levels and signs of stronger Gulf Coast industrial demand, natural gas futures drifted lower on Friday, finishing in the red for only the second time during the trading week. The April Nymex contract settled at $2.557/MMBtu, down 1.3 cents day/day. May, however, inched up three-tenths of a cent to $2.619. The April contract rolls off the board following Monday’s trade. If prices were to hold up through then, the new prompt month would open comfortably ahead of $2.600. NGI’s Spot Gas National Avg., meanwhile, fell 7.0 cents to $2.215. Demand for U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) held strong Friday, as it has for most of this month amid dwindling supplies and increasing need for imports in Europe. LNG feed gas volumes approached 11.6 Bcf on Friday, according to NGI data. Volumes held above the 11 Bcf threshold all week, as they have over a majority of days in March. This has helped to offset modest weather-driven demand domestically, as the Lower 48 segues into the spring season, when heating needs fade and most Americans only begin to run air conditioners amid mild temperatures. Bespoke Weather Services said Friday “below-normal demand is still favored quite easily over the next few weeks.” Bouts of rain and thunderstorms were expected to inject doses of regional heating demand in the week ahead. Overall, however, weather is expected to play a minor role for the next few weeks in terms of driving use of natural gas. That outlook kept futures in check Friday. That noted, recovering industrial demand following the Artic freeze that rattled the Texas energy industry in February could provide near-term boosts to demand. Analysts said such demand increases were evident in Thursday’s bullish inventory report.

State laws halting municipal gas bans unlikely to stem power burn declines in 2021 — As state governments across the US continue to ban local restrictions on natural gas usage, higher prices and growing renewable power supply are still likely to weaken demand for the fuel this year. Stay up to date with the latest commodity content. Sign up for our free daily Commodities Bulletin. Sign Up Kansas on March 24 moved one step closer to enacting legislation to require municipalities across the state to ensure the provision of gas and propane as options for consumers. Known as the Kansas Energy Choice Act, Senate Bill 24 was passed by the state's House of Representatives in a 93-29 vote. The measure was previously passed by the Kansas state Senate in February. With the approval of Governor Laura Kelly, a Democrat, Kansas would join Arizona, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Utah, Arkansas and Mississippi to have enacted legislation to preemptively stop municipalities from banning gas usage in local buildings, according to reporting from S&P Global Market Intelligence. The move comes in response to an ordinance passed in March 2020 by the city of Lawrence, home of the University of Kansas, setting a goal for 100% renewable-sourced power usage in the municipality by 2035. With pending legislation in another 15 states, lawmakers stretching from the East Coast to the Desert Southwest are now attempting to enshrine, within state laws, a guaranteed market share for gas. While those efforts will likely ensure continued demand for the fuel in some residential-commercial settings, the laws are unlikely halt price-driven fuel switching or growing wind generation in the power sector – both of which are likely to depress demand for gas this year. Across the Midwest, the Southeast and Texas, where the momentum for bans against local gas restrictions has been strongest, generator demand for the fuel is down this year. Gas-to-coal switching has impacted demand from power generators in all three regions, but year-on-year declines in the Midwest have been among the largest in percentage terms owing to the compounding effect of higher wind generation, which is more concentrated there. In the Upper Midwest, gas-fired power burn has averaged about 2.3 Bcf/d year to date, down about 600 MMcf/d, or nearly 21%, compared with demand over the same period last year. With late-winter cash prices at key regional hubs like Chicago city-gates, Mich Con city-gate and Northern Ventura up about 85 to 90 cents/MMBtu compared with year-ago levels, generator switching away from gas is likely to blame, at least in part, for the lower power burns.

 Abandoned boats cause oil spill in Walker County (WBMA) — Boats left at an abandoned marina have leaked gallons of oil into White Oak Creek in Walker County.According to the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) crews were working to contain and clean up the spill.ADEM said it was notified on Saturday of the leaking vessels in the creek in Oakman, approximately a half mile upstream of the Warrior River.The leaking vessels had already caused a visible sheen atop the water when responders arrived on site. EPA’s Region 4 emergency rapid response contractors began placing boom and removing fuel from the water.Responders found five vessels at the abandoned marina – one sunk, another upside down and three partially submerged in the water.The area of the sheen at the marina is estimated at 12,000 square feet.ADEM said accessibility to the marina is limited due to poor road conditions in the area and a local bridge with weight capacity limits that may hamper a vacuum truck in getting to the marina. The Department said it will continue efforts to contain and clean up the spill, closely monitor the situation and investigate the incident.

NATURAL GAS: LNG project axed after climate pushback, lawsuits -- Tuesday, March 23, 2021 -- A coalition of energy companies is pulling the plug on a liquefied natural gas export terminal proposed for southern Texas, project developers said yesterday.

Annova LNG scraps plans for pipeline project in Port of Brownsville -(KVEO) —The Annova LNG gas terminal announced the end of their project for the fracking site at the Port of Brownsville after a 6-year-long battle with the surrounding community, including environmentalists and indigenous tribes. “Annova LNG is not going forward because of years and years of community opposition,” said Rebekah Hinojosa, the gulf coast campaign representative of the environmental group, the Sierra Club. LNG stands for liquified natural gas, and Annova LNG was met with backlash with multiple court hearings and protests from the Brownsville community. “The Point Isabel School District even went as far as to stop a tax subsidy for the project,” said Hinojosa. Hinojosa said that fracking is known to cause earthquakes, water contamination, and air pollution, which caused concerns for the neighboring Laguna Atascosa wildlife preserve. “Home to really critical endangered species…Like the endangered Ocelot, the Aplomado falcon,” said Hinojosa. The Port of Brownsville released a statement regretting the loss of Annova LNG: “The Port of Brownsville regrets Monday’s announcement that Annova LNG will not be moving forward with its proposed LNG export facility at the port. The project offered significant job and economic development opportunities for the entire Rio Grande Valley community over many decades. We appreciate our work with the Annova team and their partnership throughout the process.” Annova LNG released a statement saying that the global market caused its cancelation despite the behind-the-scenes protesting from the area.

Activists Welcome Cancellation of Texas LNG Terminal - In what Indigenous and environmental activists hailed as a testament to the power of grassroots organizing, a leading U.S. fossil fuel company on Monday announced the cancellation of a planned fracked natural gas terminal in southern Texas.Reuters reports liquefied natural gas developer Annova LNG said it will immediately discontinue work on the Brownsville export terminal "due to changes in the global LNG market." The company's facility would have been capable of exporting 6.5 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of liquefied natural gas. The project was one of three proposed fracked natural gas terminals in the Rio Grande Valley."If built, Annova LNG would have destroyed wetlands, blocked a wildlife corridor threatening the survival of endangered wildlife, and put communities needlessly at risk," said the Sierra Club in a statement Monday."Today's victory is the result of six years of tireless efforts of the Rio Grande Valley communities in South Texas who have written comments, attended hearings, protested banks, and more to protect their health, their precious coastline, and the climate from Annova LNG's proposed fracked gas project," said Sierra Club Gulf Coast Campaign representative Bekah Hinojosa."No LNG export terminal has any place in our communities or our energy future, and today's news is a step in the right direction to putting an end to exporting fracked gas across the world," she added. Juan Mancias, chairman of the Carrizo Comecrudo tribe, welcomed the cancellation in a statement."Ayema ahua'p pele maute alpa Esto'k Gna," he said—It is a good day to be a human being.   "Thank you to all who have worked so hard to fight this fracked gas project and protect our sacred lands from pollution," said Mancias. "There's more work to do to ensure other proposed fracked gas export terminals, which would desecrate our burial sites and sacred lands, are never built, but today we celebrate this important victory for our people and our environment. The other two Rio Grande Valley proposed LNG terminals must be stopped." In addition to the cancelled Annova terminal, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission during the administration of former President Donald Trump also approved Texas LNG Brownsville's proposal for a four million metric tons per year terminal at the Brownsville Ship Canal and Rio Grande LNG's Rio Bravo pipeline terminal at the Port of Brownsville.

Crude Export Terminal Projects Itching To Join Battle For Barrels - The Moda Ingleside Energy Center (MIEC) in Corpus Christi, the Enterprise Hydrocarbons Terminal (EHT) in Houston, and the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP) have been loading more crude oil than any of their Gulf Coast competitors over the last year. In fact, they accounted for nearly half of the total oil exported. As many of the crude exporters have learned the hard way, leading the pack today is no guarantee you’ll still be out front six, 12, or 24 months from now. Despite the global pandemic and the market disruptions it has caused, a number of new export terminals and expansions to existing terminals are still under development, and all of them hope to draw barrels from their rivals. Today, we conclude our series with a look at planned capacity additions to Gulf Coast export facilities. As we said in Part 1, U.S. crude oil exports have been rising steadily since the ban on most exports was lifted in December 2015 — even during COVID-impacted 2020, when export volumes for the first time averaged more than 3 MMb/d. However, the volume of oil being exported from the 20-odd crude-handling terminals along the Gulf Coast varies widely, and since the start of last year almost half of those barrels have been loaded at only three facilities: Moda Midstream’s MIEC; Enterprise Products Partners’ EHT; and LOOP, which is co-owned by MPLX, Shell Pipeline, Shell Oil, Marathon Petroleum, and Valero Terminaling & Distribution. Each of these terminals has its unique features, of course, but what they have in common are access to major production areas, ample storage capacity, and the ability to efficiently load the larger vessels favored by shippers — fully loading Suezmaxes and partially loading VLCCs at MIEC (as we discussed in Part 1), fully loading Suezmaxes at EHT, and fully loading VLCCs at LOOP (see Part 2). The shift in volumes of crude oil being exported from Gulf Coast terminals over the last two-plus years suggests that the competition for barrels is remarkably fluid, not just among individual terminals but among the four major export areas (Corpus Christi, Houston, Beaumont, and Louisiana). For example, in 2019, crude exports out of the broader Houston area (including Freeport, Seabrook, and Texas City; green bar segments in Figure 1) averaged just over 1 MMb/d, followed by Corpus Christi (including Ingleside; yellow bar segments) with about 750 Mb/d, Beaumont (blue bar segments) with about 650 Mb/d, and Louisiana (led by LOOP; orange bar segments) with 225 Mb/d. In 2020, the Corpus Christi area rocketed to the top (with about 1.5 MMb/d of exports, on average), due largely to the start-up of three new Permian-to-Corpus pipelines in late 2019 and early 2020 as well as new storage and dock capacity at a number of export terminals in Corpus and Ingleside. Last year, exports out of the Houston area remained close to flat (at just under 800 Mb/d), while those from Louisiana increased (mostly because of gains at LOOP), and exports from Beaumont plummeted. In 2021 to date, the Corpus Christi area remains on top by a wide margin, with export volumes in the first two-and-a-half months of the year averaging nearly 1.6 MMb/d, or more than double the Houston area’s 740 Mb/d, followed by Louisiana’s 350 Mb/d and Beaumont area’s 170 Mb/d, according to RBN’s weekly Crude Voyager report.

Can't Get Enough - Ethylene Shortages From Plants Crippled by Deep Freeze Roil Petchem Markets - It’s been over a month since the Deep Freeze swept across Texas, shutting down the power grid, curtailing natural gas supplies, and generally wreaking havoc on the state’s population and infrastructure. The petrochemical industry was hit particularly hard, with every ethylene-producing steam cracker in the state and many in nearby Louisiana forced into hard shutdowns — that is, production coming to a screeching halt with little or no preparation. The result was unit damage well beyond what typically happens with other weather-related events like hurricanes, where there is usually some ability to manage an orderly shutdown. Consequently, at least half of the industry’s capacity to produce ethylene and its by-products remains offline, a development that is ricocheting through supply chains across the economy. Today, we examine the magnitude of the damage, consider what is happening in ethylene markets — the epicenter of the turmoil — and contemplate the longer-term implications of the outages.   To put the events of the past six weeks into perspective, let’s take a brief tour of ethylene production facilities in the U.S. There are 50 individual ethylene plants, but several petchem complexes include more than one plant at a given location. For example, ExxonMobil has three steam crackers in Baytown, TX, and Dow has two in Plaquemine, LA. As shown in Figure 1, almost 90% of the crackers in the U.S. are located along the Gulf Coast, and 60% of them are in one state: Texas. Only four U.S. ethylene plants are not on the Gulf Coast — one in Longview, TX, and the other three scattered across Illinois, Ohio, and Kentucky. The largest concentration of facilities in Texas are in Houston, Beaumont, and near Freeport. In Louisiana, the plants are clustered in Lake Charles and along the Mississippi River.  In the U.S., most steam crackers use natural gas liquids as their primary feedstocks, with ethane making up just under 80% of the total, propane 12%, and other liquids (butane, naphtha) making up the rest. As a group, the crackers in Texas and Louisiana can produce about 85 billion pounds per year (billion lb/y) of ethylene, not counting by-products. But all ethylene plants are not created equal. Some of them — mostly the ones built over the past few years — can crack only ethane (blue diamonds in Figure 1) or an ethane/propane mix (a blend of both ethane and propane; green diamond); the capacity of these plants adds up to about 28 billion lb/y of the total. Another 18 billion lb/y can be made by crackers that can separately crack both ethane and propane (red diamonds).  Another 39 billion lb/y is produced by crackers that can run various feedstocks (yellow diamonds), usually all the way from the lightest (ethane) to the heaviest (naphtha). That’s important because the heavier the feedstock, the more byproducts the cracker yields. 

East Austin Residents Without Gas for More Than a Month — A gas outage in East Austin’s historically Black neighborhood is exposing more issues with Texas low-income properties. Texas Gas Service crews turned gas line off on February 20 and hasn't turned it back on since after finding a leak.Families at Mount Carmel Apartments have been without hot water, hot food and heat for more than 30 days. Nonprofits and city leaders finally stepped in to help, but many residents are asking, why did it take so long? Austin City Council member Natasha Harper-Madison helping to provide accommodations. Several agencies are involved in the inspection process involving the gas line. Residents must relocate during construction for an uncertain period of time. Taniquewa Brewster’s balcony is normally a place of peace. She sits on her wooden chair on her second floor apartment looking out at the 12-acre property, waving to neighbors and watching the hustle and bustle of her little community. “You catch me here, most the days,” she said, laughing. “It lets me see everything, and be a part of my community.” Now, the mother of five is using her patio as a place to empower her community, as she stands on her balcony and passionately yells out to the crowd of at least 20 neighbors. She held a private meeting with all the tenants at Mount Carmel Apartments so they could work together to deal with their gas problem. “We can’t lean on anybody but each other,” Brewster said. . “Shouldn’t this have triggered something?” she asked. “This is a multi-family property that has children, disabled people, elderly people. I think after multiple days it should trigger something, somewhere.”

Texas’s chief energy regulator fiercely defended fossil fuels after historic blackouts. She also profits from oil and gas. - Washington Post - Late last month, as Texans were digging out from a historic winter storm and days-long power outages, the state’s chief oil and gas regulator had a clear message: Natural gas producers are not responsible for the disaster. “Some media outlets would have you believe that natural gas producers and frozen transmission lines caused the power shortages across the state,” said Christi Craddick, who chairs a three-member commission overseeing the industry, during a Texas House of Representatives hearing Feb. 26. “But … these operators were not the problem. The oil and gas industry was the solution.”  Craddick and her father, a well-known Republican state representative who sits on two Texas House committees overseeing oil and gas, have direct financial ties to that industry, including with some of the same gas-producing companies that have admitted to shutdowns of their own facilities during the storm. The father-daughter pair, who hail from Midland — the heart of the West Texas oil and gas boom of the past decade — own and manage land across the state that generated more than $100,000 from Texas’s largest natural gas producers in 2019, according to forms they submitted to the state Ethics Commission last year. The companies include XTO Energy, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil, and Pioneer Natural Resources, both of which reported equipment failures during the winter storm. Critics say the ownership stakes reflect a conflict of interest for the Craddicks and exemplify a major ethics loophole in Texas, where regulators are allowed to have financial interests in the companies they oversee, unlike in some other oil-rich states. The ties are also newly relevant in light of last month’s blackouts, which left more than 9 million Texans without power and may turn out to be the costliest weather event in the state’s history. Adrian Shelley, director of the advocacy group Public Citizen’s Texas office, said regulatory agencies in the state are “explicitly in service of industry.” He added that in the absence of robust conflict-of-interest laws preventing such situations, many Texans assume energy regulators are controlled by oil interests. “For [Christi] Craddick, in all of her visits to the various state committees, there hasn’t been any earnest self-reflection of the agency’s role. It’s just been a strict defense of the industry,” said Shelley.

 Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway pitching Texas on $8 billion power plan -As the Texas Legislature debated how to respond to last month’s winter storm-driven power crisis, executives at billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Energy were pitching lawmakers an idea: The group would spend over $8 billion to build 10 new natural gas power plants in the state. Lawmakers would agree to create a revenue stream to provide Berkshire a return on its investment through an additional charge on Texans’ power bills.Representatives for Berkshire Hathaway Energy have been in Austin meeting with lawmakers and state leaders for the past week and a half, according to a person working closely on the issue.The proposed company, which would likely be known as the Texas Emergency Power Reserve, would build and maintain plants that sit idle during normal times, according to a slide deck obtained by The Texas Tribune. Whenever demand for power in the state threatened to surpass supply, these new plants would kick in to make up the difference, if ordered to do so by the state’s grid operator.“When you flip that switch and say, look, demand has exceeded supply, it has to come on in 10 minutes,” Chris Brown, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Energy, said in an interview Thursday with the Tribune. “That’s the Texas Emergency Power Reserve promise — that’s the promise that we’re making to the citizens of Texas.”In the presentation, the representatives estimated the cost of that new charge to consumers as $1.42 per month for residential customers, $9.61 for commercial customers and $58.94 for industrial customers. The pitch to state leaders also included a poll conducted by Republican pollster Mike Baselice suggesting that Texans would be broadly supportive of paying a little more on their power bills to increase reliability. The poll was conducted from March 17-21 among 800 likely voters in Texas, according to top lines of the poll obtained by the Tribune. Over the past week, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, part of Buffett’s multinational conglomerate company Berkshire Hathaway, has hired eight lobbyists in Austin at a cost of more than $300,000, according to records filed with the Texas Ethics Commission. One of those lobbyists is Allen Blakemore, a Houston political consultant who serves as a top strategist to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. Blakemore did not respond to a request for comment.

KCI Airport gets $2.4M natural gas bill from Texas-based provider after February winter storm — If your natural gas bill took a giant jump after February’s cold snap, you certainly weren’t the only one. Kansas City International Airport received a $2.4 million bill.Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas posted on social media Monday saying the airport’s bill is usually about $80,000, but its latest bill for February skyrocketed.“We weren’t born yesterday, so expect some further talks from here,” the mayor wrote on Twitter.Lucas said KCI’s natural gas provider is Houston-based Symmetry Energy Solutions, which calls itself a “leading energy supplier” on its website and provides natural gas to more than 100,000 customers in over 30 states.During the winter storm last month, much of Texas’ power grid collapsed. Additionally, there were massive failures in coal, oil, and natural gas. Many residents would have to go without electricity or heat for days on end.Still, Lucas said he doesn’t want those energy struggles to affect KCI passengers. “Kansas City certainly understands the energy industry challenges from this winter, primarily originating in the southwest,” Lucas said. “We do not believe, however, those costs should be disproportionately assessed to our MoKan flying public.”

US oil, rig count jumps 11 to 513, as Permian keeps adding: Enverus— The US oil and gas rig count jumped 11 to 513 in the week ending March 24, rig data provider Enverus said, as the prolific Permian Basin of West Texas and southeast New Mexico continued to add rigs amid lower but still robust crude prices. Stay up to date with the latest commodity content. Sign up for our free daily Commodities Bulletin. Sign Up Permian rigs were up eight to 232 on the week. So far this year, the basin has added 56 rigs. Oil-directed rigs accounted for the week's jump, with counts up 12 to 387. Gas fields lost one rig, leaving 126. The Permian and nationwide US oil and gas rig counts are the highest they've been since April 2020, when totals began falling fast as crude prices plummeted amid the pandemic's initial spread. But that was a year ago, and since then WTI oil prices, which plummeted from just under $50/b in early March 2020 into the teens, have not only recovered but are now hovering around $60/b and well above breakeven levels of the $30s-$40s/b. "The longer crude prices stay above $55-$60/b, the more confidence operators will have in bringing rigs back," said Parker Fawcett, North American supply analyst for S&P Global Platts Analytics. "But we think rig additions will continue to be slow and steady throughout the year." The past week's rig additions were largely driven by privately held operators which have led the rig count recovery, Fawcett said. "Privates are now only 34% below pre-pandemic levels, publicly traded companies near 50%, and majors still lagging at 79%," he added. Most large US basins gained a rig or remained stable week on week, although the DJ Basin largely in Colorado lost two rigs, leaving 14. Up a rig each were the Bakken Shale (16 rigs), mostly in North Dakota; the SCOOP-STACK (19), of Oklahoma; and Utica Shale (12), largely in Ohio. Unchanged on week were the Haynesville Shale (47), of East Texas/Northwest Louisiana; the Eagle Ford Shale (37), of South Texas; and the Marcellus Shale (23), largely in Pennsylvania. 

 14 states sue Biden administration over oil and gas leasing moratorium -  Fourteen states filed suit on Wednesday against President Joe Biden'smoratorium on new oil and natural gas leases on public lands and waters.A coalition of 13 states, led by Louisiana, filed one lawsuit on Wednesday. Wyoming filed a separate lawsuit. The states in Louisiana's suit are Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah and West Virginia. All 14 states have Republican attorneys general."This moratorium might make for a nice headline about fighting climate change, but the real consequences of the action are far from certain and far from uniformly environmentally friendly," the Wyoming lawsuit said. Biden's order on Jan. 27 to pause new leasing was part of a series of executive actions to address climate change and transition the economy away from fossil fuel production and toward clean energy.In a statement Wednesday, Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry called Biden's order an "aggressive, reckless abuse of Presidential power."Biden also directed the secretary of the Interior Department to begin a thorough review of existing permits for fossil fuel development and ordered the federal government to conserve 30% of public lands and water by 2030.The suits also come as the Biden administration prepares to unveil its proposal for overhauling the nation's infrastructure, which is expected to include an ambitious set of climate-related proposals. The Louisiana lawsuit argued that the president's executive order would hurt communities dependent on oil and gas drilling and drive up energy prices. The lawsuit also requested the Bureau of Land Management be allowed to restart quarterly oil and gas lease sales.The Interior Department declined to comment on the lawsuits.The oil and gas leasing moratorium would not end fossil fuel extraction since the industry still holds undeveloped leases. Drilling on federal lands contributes to roughly a quarter of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and generates billions of dollars in revenue.

How a Burmese immigrant profited by flipping cheap oil leases from Trump auctions -- (Reuters) - A Myanmar-born U.S. perfume entrepreneur became a curiosity last year when she became the nation’s top buyer of oil-and-gas leases at the Trump administration’s federal auctions, despite having no apparent energy background. Since July, Levi Sap Nei Thang has spent about $3.7 million on nearly 300 government leases covering 133,000 acres in 12 states. She told Reuters at the time that she was keen to produce oil on the parcels. A Reuters examination of her dealings reveals she pursued a different strategy: selling the leases to other Burmese immigrants at inflated prices after billing them as great investments on social media, according to interviews with seven buyers and others familiar with her business, along with sales agreements and leasing documents they provided. Reuters confirmed four cases in which Thang sold one or more drilling leases to Burmese immigrants for prices ranging from one-and-a-half to 13 times what she paid. Thang made nearly $335,000 in the cases reviewed by Reuters, buying the leases for about $215,000 and selling them almost immediately for more than $550,000. Three of Thang’s buyers told Reuters they had met many others who described themselves as buyers of her leases, but Reuters could not determine the full scope of Thang’s lease sales, which are private transactions. In October, Thang invited dozens of buyers to Wyoming to meet her and tour their parcels, according to a buyer who attended. Photos and videos posted on her Facebook page show her with groups of smiling people in windy, cold weather. Thang told the buyers they were more like her “friends, siblings and families,” one video shows. Federal and state records show Thang has not transferred ownership of the drilling rights to the four buyers who told Reuters they purchase leases from her. Thang’s company is still listed as the owner of those parcels in government records. Of the nearly 300 leases Thang won at state and federal auctions, only two have been reassigned, both to the same new owner, according to a Reuters review of state and federal lease registries. In order to transfer ownership of a lease, both buyer and seller must submit a signed form to the state or federal land office.  In the biggest sale confirmed by Reuters, the owner of a sushi business in Texas, Tha Cin, gave Thang $510,000 in multiple payments last year for two leases in New Mexico that Thang had bought that summer for about $200,000, according to Cin and her lawyer, copies of the sale agreements, and lease records. 广告 Despite Cin’s purchase agreements with Thang, dated in early September, federal and state leasing documents still showed Thang’s company as the owner of the parcels as of Friday. That surprised Cin’s lawyer, Jeff Vaughan. Cin said she was moved by Thang’s spiritual references in Facebook videos. “All our money was taken by the person who we believed and trusted, who talked about God all the time,” she said.

White House climate adviser meets with oil and gas companies -National climate adviser Gina McCarthy on Monday met virtually with leadership from oil and gas companies to discuss “shared priorities” according to a readout from the White House. The readout, which did not specify which companies or individuals participated, said that these priorities included climate change, protecting and creating jobs and ensuring that the U.S. is a leader on clean energy. McCarthy “made clear that the Administration is not fighting the oil and gas sector, but fighting to create union jobs, deploy emission reduction technologies, strengthen American manufacturing, and fuel the American economy,” according to the White House. The meeting comes amid tensions between the White House and some in the industry over moves like putting a temporary pause on new leases for oil and gas drilling on public lands. That pause is pending a review from the administration of its oil and gas program, and the Interior Department will hold a forum this week where groups representing industry, tribal and environmental viewpoints will speak. The White House also said that Interior was represented at the meeting, though it did not say by whom, to discuss the pause, as well as outreach during the review of the program. Meanwhile, McCarthy also talked to the company leaders about how the president is committed to “bringing the voices and perspectives of all stakeholders to the table” on climate change and asked participants about their commitments and ideas on the topic.

HOUSE: Democrats introduce package to crack down on fracking -- Tuesday, March 23, 2021 -- A group of House Democrats introduced legislation yesterday that they say would hold big oil and gas companies accountable to national standards for environmental protection.

Fact Check-Though Keystone XL Pipeline had secured most of its funding, it was only 8% constructed - Reuters Fact Check - In the weeks following U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to scrap the Keystone XL oil pipeline, posts on social media have claimed that the project “was in Phase 4 & just about completed” and that it had been “paid for” by the time Biden “pulled the plug.” While it is true that the project had secured funding, which was largely expected to be paid out in 2021 and 2022, the claim is partly false, as less than 10% of the pipeline had been built by the time Biden formally revoked the permit. Examples of posts making this claim can be found here , here and here . These posts are referring to the Keystone XL Pipeline, a project cancelled by Biden on his first day in office on Jan. 21, 2021, dealing a death blow to a long-gestating project that would have carried 830,000 barrels per day of heavy oil-sands crude from Alberta to Nebraska (here). Environmental activists and indigenous communities hailed the cancellation, and traders and analysts said U.S.-Canada pipelines will have more than enough capacity to handle increasing volumes of crude out of Canada, the primary foreign supplier of oil to the United States (here). A map of the Keystone XL’s route alongside the existing Keystone Pipeline System, operating since 2010, can be seen here . By claiming that the project was in “Phase 4” of construction, the posts seem to conflate the Keystone XL Pipeline with the larger Keystone Pipeline System. Owned by North American company TC Energy, the Keystone XL Pipeline “is the fourth phase of the Keystone Pipeline System,” an existing 2,687-mile pipeline whose Canadian portion “runs from Hardisty, Alberta, east into Manitoba where it turns south and crosses the border into North Dakota,” according to the company’s website (here). In the United States, the existing Keystone Pipeline System runs from the North Dakota border “south through South Dakota to Steele City, Nebraska, where it splits – one arm running east through Missouri for deliveries into Wood River and Patoka, Ill., with the other running south through Oklahoma to Cushing and onward to Port Arthur and Houston, Texas.”   The Keystone XL Pipeline, a planned extension to this larger system that would run 1,210 miles from Hardisty, Alberta to Steele City, Nebraska, is considered “the fourth phase of the Keystone Pipeline System” (www.keystonexl.com/about/).  Reuters spoke via email with James Stevenson, a spokesperson for the Canada Energy Regulator, which oversees the Canadian portion of the Keystone XL Pipeline (here). Stevenson confirmed that as of late 2020, about 152 kilometers, or 93 miles, of pipeline had been laid near the U.S.-Canada border. Therefore, about 8% of the planned 1,210-mile XL extension had been built by the time President Biden revoked the permit.

Oil demand, future of Enbridge Line 3 argued before appeals court In a high-stakes hearing, Minnesota appellate judges had sharp questions Tuesday for the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) and Enbridge about the ultimate need for the company's new oil pipeline across northern Minnesota.The Minnesota Department of Commerce, along with several pipeline opponents, have challenged Enbridge's long-term oil demand forecast, which the PUC accepted when it approved the company's controversial new Line 3.While the $3 billion-plus pipeline is half-built, the Minnesota Court of Appeals could freeze work if it rejects Enbridge's oil demand forecast. A key issue before the court: Is the forecast simply a reflection of Canadian oil producers' supply projections? "It seems to take the approach of 'If we build it, they will come,' " Judge Peter M. Reyes Jr. said Tuesday during questioning.A three-judge panel of Reyes, Lucinda Jesson and Michael Kirk also heard arguments Tuesday on other challenges to the PUC's Line 3 approval, including whether the project's environmental review adequately considered effects of an oil spill in the Lake Superior watershed.The court has 90 days to make a decision on the appeals.The Commerce Department and pipeline foes have long argued that oil demand — including from Canada — will fall as the world migrates from fossil fuel, including by adopting electric vehicles. Enbridge's forecast didn't properly account for that transition, they say.Enbridge has long argued that its corridor of pipelines across northern Minnesota is so full that it can't meet oil shippers' demands — a condition that will continue for a long time. The PUC agreed, as it did with Enbridge's contention that new Line 3 is needed for safety.The current Line 3, one of six Enbridge pipelines across northern Minnesota, is corroding and can only run at half-capacity for safety. Calgary-based Enbridge, however, has continued running the old pipeline safely by essentially patching it up.At the heart of a continuing debate is the definition of oil demand under state law and PUC regulations.The Department of Commerce, which does research and other public interest work for the PUC, argues that by state law, demand is rooted in refineries' need for oil — and thus ultimately by consumers' need for products like gasoline. Jesson noted to Hinderlie that Minnesota's two oil refineries both support new Line 3. "We have refineries in Minnesota who say there is demand," she said.

Enbridge Is 'Funding And Incentivizing' Police To Crack Down On Its Opponents -  – Jane Fonda’s trip to Minnesota has not gone exactly as planned. She expected attention from the media. She did not expect attention from the police.The actress and climate activist told HEATED on Tuesday that her much-publicized press conference to oppose the Line 3 tar sands pipeline was delayed because of an extended interaction with the Minnesota State Patrol. On her way to the event, the vehicle leading her caravan was pulled over for failure to signal more than 100 feet before a turn.“We pulled over to wait for them, it took a long time to process their identification, and they ended up not being ticketed,” she said. “Then we drove 12 miles to the press conference and the police car followed us the whole way.” While being followed, they couldn’t tell what the speed limit was (unmarked roads, this is Northern Minnesota). So Fonda’s caravan drove at a glacial place to avoid getting stopped again, further delaying the press conference.Fonda’s experience on its own was benign. Her colleagues were not arrested, hurt, or ticketed. If you watch the video of the stop, the police officer actually seemed super nice. Really, it’s the woman driving who seems kind of mean.But Fonda does not see her experience in isolation. She views it as part of a coordinated effort between Minnesota law enforcement and the Canadian oil company Enbridge to harass, intimidate, and surveil opponents of the Line 3 pipeline. “This is a public police force that’s been privatized by a foreign oil company, and every minute they spend harassing the water protectors—and assaulting the water protectors—they turn in an invoice and they get paid,” she said. “They’re making a fortune off this.”“This was just a little taste of what these the local water protectors are getting every day,” she added. “I was sort of glad that I experienced it.”Ask anyone working to oppose Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline project in any capacity in Northern Minnesota, and they will tell you they’ve been followed by cops while driving alone. Most will tell you they’ve been intimidated—verbally, physically, or both. Some will tell you they suspect they are being surveilled. Others report violence and brutality. “The police presence has been strong,” said Tara Houska, a tribal attorney and founder of Giniw Collective, a frontline group resisting the pipeline through direct action. “We’ve seen groups of squad cars 20-plus strong from different counties guarding the line. Last week a car followed us for two hours straight.” Women who participate in direct actions against the pipeline aren’t the only ones who report being followed and intimidated by Minnesota police, either. Rita Chamblin, a resident of Bemidji, holds trainings on how to legally monitor the pipeline’s construction for the group Watch the Line MN—but tells everyone to always take someone with them. “I don’t go out and monitor alone, and I’m an old white woman,” she said.

Line 3 Pipeline Protest Arrests Include Fergus Falls Woman - KVRR Local News — A Fergus Falls woman is among the latest group of Line 3 pipeline protesters to be arrested. 30-year-old Brittney Jo Kakac was taken into custody along with 6 other people from across the country near Floodwood, Minnesota. St. Louis County Sheriff’s deputies say four protesters locked themselves to heavy machinery used by pipeline workers. The other two locked themselves to an access gate. All six were cut free and arrested. A seventh person was arrested who refused to leave when ordered. One was also a repeat arrest from last week in a similar incident. The full list of arrests is below:

Line 3 construction brings complication, controversy to Fond du Lac Reservation --About a month ago, Taysha Martineau walked out of the protest camp she built in a small patch of woods near her home on the Fond du Lac Indian Reservation and knelt in the middle of the road.Elders from her community surrounded her, scolding, telling her to leave. "Go!” they shouted. “We want you out of here! Don't do this to us!" For several weeks, Martineau had been welcoming activists to the plot of land she had dubbed Camp Migizi — which means “eagle” in the Ojibwe language — to take part in the yearslong fight against the Line 3 oil pipeline, a 380-mile replacement project that Enbridge Energy began building across northern Minnesota in December.  But for some in the community, the pipeline and the protest that follows its construction have attracted outsiders — and with them, trouble. A day earlier, growing tension over the protesters’ presence on the Fond du Lac Reservation had boiled over. The Carlton County Sheriff's Office said it had received a call alleging that three people connected to the pipeline protests had thrown suspicious packages into a Line 3 worksite, just a half-mile from the camp. An emergency alert was sent out to people in the area. The sheriff called in a bomb squad. No bomb was ever found, and the case remains under investigation. But accusations flew, on both sides. Martineau called it "law enforcement-induced hysteria" on Camp Migizi's Facebook page. Forty households within a half-mile radius had to be evacuated for several hours.It was that threat, in part, that brought the elders — among them, the tribal chairperson — to Martineau’s camp. But that moment at Camp Migizi was one among many, part of a long, complicated relationship between the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and Line 3.“I was a conduit for their misplaced anger and their grief, because I've been out here and I've been vocal,” she said. “When they're mad at protesters, they think of me, because I'm from here, and they know me.”For decades, a network of pipelines has crossed the Fond du Lac Reservation, c arrying millions of barrels of Canadian crude oil underneath its land every day. One of those pipelines is the existing Line 3, which has been around since the 1960s. When Enbridge first proposed replacing it with a new line, the Fond du Lac band was among the most vocal opponents, arguing the project wasn't needed and that it threatened tribal resources.But after state regulators first approved the project to replace Line 3 nearly three years ago, the band changed course, andagreed to allow the new line to be built across the reservation.

Fight over natural gas ban roils Nevada -A fight over the future of natural gas is simmering in Nevada, highlighting questions about equity and energy costs that could cloud efforts to decarbonize the buildings sector. Nevada is one of at least seven states this year where lawmakers are considering proposals to phase out or reduce the use of natural gas in homes and businesses, according to a tally by the American Gas Association. A state lawmaker, Assemblywoman Lesley Cohen (D), is set to introduce legislation that would set emissions reduction targets for buildings over the next 30 years, to ultimately achieve a 95% decrease in emissions from buildings by 2050. Under the plan, energy efficiency measures and electrification would be the primary means for decarbonization. While it’s unclear if the bill will pass, Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) backed a climate strategy last year that called for switching from gas-powered to all-electric buildings. The Nevada debate is also showcasing how gas ban proposals nationally can face resistance not just from gas utilities, but from business and union groups in states with Democratic-controlled legislatures. Supporters say the measure provides a framework for the state to plan a gradual, cost-effective transition away from natural gas that protects ratepayers from potential so-called stranded assets — such as new gas infrastructure that could be of little value in the future. They say the proposal is a natural step for Nevada to move toward its commitment to “zero or near-zero” greenhouse gas emissions economywide by 2050, as the state pledged to do under a bill passed in 2019. “Responsible energy planning isn’t just a necessity, it’s an unparalleled opportunity to create good jobs, diversify our economy, and lead the nation in renewable energy innovation,” Cohen said in a statement. “In a legislative session full of economic challenges and tough choices, this one is easy: let’s make sure we’re getting the best returns on our energy investments in the years to come.” But Southwest Gas, the utility that services the majority of homes and businesses in the state, plans to oppose the bill, and real estate and minority business groups are also raising concerns. Echoing arguments made in statehouses and cities around the country that have considered similar gas transition measures, opponents say that limiting the ability of new businesses and homes to connect to the gas system will drive up energy costs and hurt small businesses. Under the plan, gas providers would need to decrease emissions 2.5% by the end of 2022 relative to 2016 levels and continue reducing emissions every two years thereafter.

Settlement with Merit Energy resolves violations of oil pollution prevention regulations in Wyoming - Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a proposed settlement with Merit Energy Company (Merit) of Dallas, Texas, resolving alleged violations of the Clean Water Act, and its implementing regulations meant to prevent oil pollution. These violations include failure to comply with Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) requirements at a tank battery facility operated by the company in Hot Springs County, Wyoming. As a result of the proposed agreement, Merit will pay a civil penalty of $115,000 to resolve the alleged violations. Today's proposed settlement resulted from EPA's investigation of an oil spill that occurred on June 19, 2018, when Merit released approximately 455 barrels of crude oil from the Stateland Tank Battery Facility into Grass Creek, a tributary of the Big Horn River. In reviewing the spill, EPA discovered deficiencies in Merit's SPCC plan for the facility. The company has since corrected these deficiencies and submitted an updated plan to EPA, helping ensure the environment and nearby communities are better protected from damaging oil spills. 'Due to the harm oil spills can cause to public health and the environment, every effort must be made to prevent oil spills and to clean them up promptly once they occur,' said the EPA Region 8 Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Division Director Suzanne Bohan. 'We are encouraged by Merit's actions to come into compliance with the laws and regulations that protect the environment from the damages that can occur when oil is discharged into navigable waters or adjoining shorelines.' The Oil Pollution Prevention requirements of the Clean Water Act are intended to prevent and facilitate the response to the discharge of oil from non-transportation-related onshore facilities. All facilities with 1,320 gallons of oil that have the potential for a spill to reach waters of the United States are required to have an SPCC Plan. The $115,000 penalty will be deposited into the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, a fund used by federal agencies to respond to discharges of oil and hazardous substances. This proposed Consent Agreement is subject to a 30-day public comment period and final approval by the EPA's Regional Judicial Officer. To access and comment on the Consent Agreement, visit: https://www.epa.gov/publicnotices/notices-search/location/Wyoming

FERC OKs Gas Pipeline Job After First-Ever Climate Change Review - With the help of a Republican commssioner who was its Trump administration chairman, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved 87 miles of natural gas pipeline replacement in South Dakota and Nebraska after reviewing its effect on climate change—the agency's first such action. Neil Chatterjee joined current FERC Chairman Richard Glick and Allison Clements, both Democrats, in the 3-2 decision. Commissionsers James Daily and Mark Christie, both Republicans, dissented in the March 22 decision. “We find that the project’s contribution to climate change would not be significant,” the commission said in its review of Northern Natural Gas Co.’s request to replace a pipeline that was built in the 1940s and 1950s, the A-line that carries gas from South Sioux, Neb. to Sioux Falls, S.D. In a significant change in policy, FERC will continue to consider all appropriate evidence regarding the significance of a project’s reasonably foreseeable greenhouse gas emissions and their contribution to climate change, the agency said in the decision. Glick, who took over as chairman after President Joe Biden’s inauguration, said FERC is committed to treating GHG emissions' contribution to climate change the same as all other environmental impacts. “A proposed pipeline’s contribution to climate change is one of the most consequential environmental impacts and we must consider all evidence in the record to assess the significance of that impact,” he said. The order noted, however, that the evidence the commission relies on to assess significance may evolve. On Feb. 18 FERC issued a Notice of Inquiry seeking new information and additional stakeholder perspectives to help it decide whetherto revise its approach for assessing the significance of GHG emissions. Future changes would not affect its Northern Natural Gas decision, the order said. FERC compared the $173.8 million project’s foreseeable GHG emissions to total GHG emissions of the US. “This project could potentially increase CO2 emissions based on 2018 levels by 0.0003%, in subsequent years, the operations only would be 0.000006%,” the order said. The company wants to replace the existing pipeline because it has mechanical joints and acetylene welds that are more susceptible to leaks and hydrostatic pressure test failures. The existing pipeline will be sold to a salvage company and removed. Danly agreed that the project should be approved, but dissented in part, saying the commission violated the law “by reversing its longstanding determination that it is unable to assess the significance of a project’s GHG emissions or those emissions’ contribution to climate change without sufficient reasoning.” Danly said the order is “regulatory malfeasance at its most arbitrary and capricious,” and the change in policy direction announced is in “an obscure docket that is likely not to be appealed.”

Valve failure prompts oil spill in Divide County –A valve failure has led to an oil spill in Divide County, the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality reported Thursday. Summit Midstream Partners estimates that 532 barrels or 22,300 gallons of oil spilled at the site 16 miles southwest of Crosby. The spill occurred along piping going into a tank at Summit's Divide Station. The oil was contained to the site by a berm, according to a spill report the company filed with the state. Summit reported the spill to the state last Saturday. About three-quarters of the oil has been recovered, according to Environmental Quality. State inspectors will continue to monitor cleanup, the agency said.

North Dakota bumps budget due to faith in oil outlook (AP) — North Dakota’s Legislature on Monday bumped tax collection expectations for the next two-year spending cycle, with budget writers banking on stable oil prices and production. House and Senate appropriation committees predicted general fund tax collections at $4.04 billion, or $95 million more than the Republican-led Legislature’s budgetary starting point in January. Senate Appropriations Chairman Ray Holmberg called the Legislature’s numbers “very reasonable.” Lawmakers will rely on them to finish their work on the state’s 2021-2023 spending plan. “This is the one we hang our hat on,” Holmberg told the appropriations committee. “It’s the best guess we have at this point.” Lawmakers based their numbers on a pair of competing revenue forecasts presented last week. Lawmakers essentially split the difference between estimates done by state budget analysts and Moody’s Analytics, and their own economic consultancy, IHS Markit. While oil prices are a key contributor to the state’s wealth, oil revenues actually are a relatively small part of the state’s general fund, which finances state government and a variety of programs. The general fund can take in no more than $400 million in oil tax revenues per two-year budget cycle, a setup designed to protect the budget from price swings. Beyond that level the money goes to other state funds. The state’s general fund is financed mostly by taxes on sales, income, corporations, tobacco and gambling. Lawmakers assumed oil prices at $40 a barrel when crafting their budgetary starting point in January, though prices have hovered at around $60 a barrel since then, including on Monday. The Legislature’s appropriations committees on Monday adopted an estimated price of $60 a barrel, and predicted production would decline from about 1.1 million barrels daily to 1 million barrels in the second year of the budget cycle.

Are California Oil Companies Complying With the Law? Even Regulators Often Don’t Know. — ProPublica -- At the ragged edge of rapidly gentrifying downtown Los Angeles, the aging, yellow brick residential Portsmouth Hotel sits among knockoff watch dealers here, while a block away, a giant construction crane hoists materials skyward for new luxury apartments. Below ground is another story. Tucked out of sight, oil wells run thousands of feet deep, tapping thick crude from one of California’s many urban oil fields. And in the fall of 2019, investigators with the state’s oil agency flagged trouble. Nasco Petroleum was injecting huge amounts of water into well bores above the legal pressure limits, aiming to push more crude out of the aging downtown field. Similarly intense pressure led to a major oil spill in 2006, after a nearby well bore operated by Nasco’s predecessor ruptured. Hot crude and oily waste bubbled up from underground, filled an apartment building basement, oozed out of manhole covers and buckled sidewalks. More than 130 low-income tenants were evacuated. The pressure wasn’t the investigators’ only concern. They also noted that a number of “bad” wells had been left unfixed for years, with missing cement seals. The wells, investigators wrote in a report to a manager, posed “immediate” risks to drinking water aquifers. They urged supervisors at the California Geologic Energy Management Division, or CalGEM, to take the strongest possible enforcement actions: order Nasco to cease well operations, suspend approvals of the company’s project or both. No one ever did. While the agency said in a statement that it has taken less stringent measures, like mandating that Nasco lower injection pressure, it declined to provide evidence that the company had complied. Officials acknowledged they remain concerned about potential threats to drinking water, though they said they had no proof of contamination. In January, they said they would address the problems but declined to provide specifics. Today, three of the problematic wells are listed as active on CalGEM’s website. Less than 100 feet from Nasco’s oil operations, low-income residents of the Portsmouth Hotel said they’ve endured decades of problems from the site, including the ground trembling at all hours, fumes that cause headaches and nausea, and equipment catching fire.“People live in here with fear. ... They worry something’s gonna happen, an explosion or something, and we’re not gonna have a chance,” said Gregorio Villegas, the longtime building manager. A Nasco employee said its wells are operating with no problems. The owner did not respond to requests for comment. Emergency phone numbers on the site’s front entrance are disconnected, and no one responded to knocking on gates.

Haaland defends leasing pause during Interior forum  --Top officials at the Interior Department heard a variety of conflicting perspectives about drilling on federal lands and waters on Thursday amid tensions surrounding the Biden administration's pause on new federal oil and gas leasing. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland on Friday defended the pause as it “gives us space to look at the federal fossil fuel programs that haven’t been meaningfully examined or modernized in decades.” During a public forum on Friday, industry groups, environmentalists, Native leaders and labor organizations were among those that spoke with administration officials. The forum comes as the department is expected to produce an interim report on the program this summer. In an executive order, President Biden also put a temporary pause on new leases for federal lands, “pending completion of a comprehensive review and reconsideration of federal oil and gas permitting and leasing practice.” When he was on the campaign trail, Biden said he wanted to ban new oil and gas permitting on federal lands, but since taking office, his administration has not said it plans to do so. At the top of the forum Thursday, Haaland reiterated that “fossil fuels will continue to play a major role in America for years to come.” Republicans and some energy industry groups have criticized the pause, with 14 states recently suing over the move. During the forum, industry groups talked about jobs that come from public lands and waters drilling and argued that “responsible” development of federal land can be part of a climate solution. They also argued that the significant number of leases that are not being used does not constitute a stockpile, saying instead that not every lease can be used. “It takes several years ... for a company to analyze the underlying geology, perform the necessary technology and engineering assessments and arrange the logistics of exploration and development projects before a company can determine if a lease contains commercial quantities of oil and natural gas,” said Frank Macchiarola, the senior vice president of Policy, Economics and Regulatory Affairs at the American Petroleum Institute. Meanwhile, environmental groups warned of pollution and discussed oil spills resulting from these activities. Nathalie Eddy, interim field team manager at Earthworks, argued that the administration “should permanently halt all new oil and gas extraction on public lands.” Speakers from indigenous groups stressed that tribes are concerned by climate and environmental issues, but some also noted the importance of oil and gas for tribal economies. “Too often, well-intentioned but overly broad responses to the climate crisis are not good for all of Indian Country,” said Fawn Sharp, president of the National Congress of American Indians.

White House yanks Interior nominee after Murkowski opposition - The White House has withdrawn its nomination of Elizabeth Klein to become the Interior Department’s deputy secretary, as the Biden administration faced push back from Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, sources familiar with the situation said Monday. Details: Klein is a former Obama administration official and deputy director of the State Energy and Environmental Impact Center at the New York University School of Law who focused on renewable energy and climate change issues. The Biden administration pulled her nomination after hearing of opposition coming from Murkowski, a moderate Republican whose vote is crucial to Biden’s legislative agenda and who has sought to expand the oil and gas industry in her state, one of the sources familiar with the matter said. The White House and a spokesperson for the Department of Interior did not immediately respond to questions. A spokesperson for Murkowski did not reply to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Sen. Joe Manchin, the West Virginia Democrat who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that would have considered Klein’s nomination, did not immediately answer questions. Tommy Beaudreau, a former Interior official under the Obama administration and Alaskan native, is being vetted for a possible nomination as deputy secretary, said two people familiar with the matter. Murkowski floated Beaudreau’s name as a possible replacement for Klein, the people said. Beaudreau is currently a lawyer at law firm Latham & Watkins' environment, land & resources department, and global co-chair of the firm's project siting & approvals practice.

Canadian oil producers see new route to Gulf Coast refineries coming from CP Rail deal | Financial Post — Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd.’s blockbuster US$25-billion deal for Kansas City Southern offers new hope for expanded access to the Gulf Coast for Canadian oil producers that have struggled to reach heavy oil markets in Texas and Louisiana. Canadian oil and gas companies have for years tried to expand their options to ship heavy oil from Alberta to the southern coast of the United States, but their efforts to reach the world’s largest concentration of heavy oil refineries have been challenged time and time again. Most recently, U.S. President Joe Biden cancelled permits for the Keystone XL pipeline. Currently, only Canadian National Railway Co. offers a direct route for oil producers to ship crude from Alberta to the U.S. Gulf Coast, but the combined CP/KCS railway network could introduce some competition among the railways to move those barrels.The CP and KCS rail networks currently connect in Kansas City, from which point the KCS rail line offers direct connection to heavy oil markets in Louisiana (Shreveport, Baton Rouge and New Orleans) and Texas (Beaumont, Port Arthur, Houston and Corpus Christi).“In combination, the combined railroad can offer one-railroad connectivity between Alberta and U.S. Gulf Coast markets via these existing KCS connections,” The deal could also reduce overall shipping costs by boosting competition between CP and CN,   Currently, crude by rail accounts for about five per cent of revenue at CP and about two per cent at KCS. The two companies believe the deal will boost these revenues. CP spokesperson Jeremy Berry in an emailed statement said the company plans to use a crude-by-rail facility in Alberta that pulls the blending agents out of heavy crude oil to create a “pipeline-competitive way of delivering Alberta energy products to market by rail.”He added: “We can do this as the combination will provide for a more direct and efficient route to refineries on the Gulf Coast.”A combination of energy products, including crude oil and fracking sand, chemicals and plastics, make up roughly 20 per cent of CP Rail’s total freight revenue,

Donald Trump’s Parting Gift to the People of St. Croix: The Reopening of One of America’s Largest Oil Refineries - For years, Sonia Rivera and her husband have lived off the land, growing tomatoes, cucumbers, kale and other vegetables at their idyllic home in St. Croix, part of the U.S. Virgin Islands located just east of Puerto Rico and roughly a thousand miles from the shores of Florida. In early February, their paradise became a nightmare.  A flaring incident at the massive Limetree Bay oil refinery sent a plume of steam into the air and covered more than 130 houses in the Clifton Hill neighborhood, including the Rivera’s home and garden, with specks of oil.   Rivera said she had to dig up and throw out her whole plot, including more than 50 pounds of food. “Literally black spots were all over everybody’s roofs,” Rivera said. “We’ve already spent over $600 trying to replace the dirt that was contaminated.” It’s certainly not the first accident to occur at the 56-year-old facility, once one of the largest oil refineries in the world. The refinery site is home to one of the biggest, and least known, oil spills in U.S. history. Its previous owners faced a multi-million dollar settlement for violating the Clean Air Act. And over the past year, as new ownership rushed to reopen the plant after nearly a decade, Limetree Bay has experienced a series of mishaps and delays, including multiple fires, foul odors strong enough to close schools and several unscheduled flares like the one that doused Rivera’s home and garden. Now the plant stands as a prime example of what environmentalists see as the Trump administration’s unfettered and irresponsible deregulatory agenda and a penchant, late in President Trump’s term, for granting sweetheart deals to well-connected corporate interests. In Limetree’s case, the administration ignored decades of precedent in issuing new permits and expressed a willingness in emails to the refinery’s new owners to do almost anything they needed to restart it. Virgin Islands government officials touted the plant’s restart in February as a lifeline for the territory, still recovering from two Category 5 hurricanes in 2017—Irma and Maria—and crippled by a pandemic that devastated global tourism. Locals, like Rivera, worry what it will mean for them, and their tropical island, to once again live in the shadow of an oil refinery that has fouled St. Croix’s ecosystem throughout its existence.

The Biden EPA Withdraws a Key Permit for an Oil Refinery on St. Croix, Citing ‘Environmental Justice’ Concerns -  The Biden administration handed environmental justice advocates a major victory on Thursday when it announced it was withdrawing a key pollution permit for an oil refinery in the U.S. Virgin Islands that locals say has long fouled their air and water and endangered their health. Citing “environmental justice concerns” and the new administration’s priority to consider “the needs of overburdened communities,” the Environmental Protection Agency announced in a press release that it was withdrawing the federal air pollution permit for the Limetree Bay oil refinery, located on the territory’s southern island of St. Croix. The move, however, won’t require Limetree to cease refining operations. The company had operated the refinery as an oil storage facility for years, but last month reopened the refining portion utilizing that permit, which was issued by the Trump EPA in December 2020. “Withdrawing this permit will allow EPA to reassess what measures are required at the Limetree facility to safeguard the health of local communities in the Virgin Islands, while providing regulatory certainty to the company,” Walter Mugdan, EPA’s acting regional administrator, said in the release. The decision could lead to stricter pollution controls at the facility and marks the Biden administration’s most significant step so far to follow through on its pledges to elevate environmental justice to the top of its regulatory agenda. Nearly 75 percent of the people living in the communities just north of the refinery are Black, about a third identify as Hispanic or Latino and over a quarter fall below the national poverty line, according to a recent EPA analysis. “We are grateful to the Biden/Harris administration and the EPA for this significant first step in commitments to environmental justice and meaningful action on climate change,” Jennifer Valiulis, executive director of the St. Croix Environmental Association, said in a statement Thursday afternoon. “Our island community and environment have suffered for decades due to lax monitoring of emissions, poor enforcement, and inadequate protections.” The permit withdrawal comes just days after Inside Climate News reported that the St. Croix refinery had been the site of one of the largest oil spills in American history and that its previous owners had dodged a multi-million dollar settlement for violating the Clean Air Act.

Facing COVID-19 outbreaks and privatization, oil workers shut down refineries in Brazil - The deadly combination of worsening working conditions and the uncontrolled acceleration of the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil is provoking strikes and work stoppages at Petrobras refineries since the beginning of March. On Monday, the strike by nearly 900 oil workers at the Landulpho Alves Refinery (RLAM), in Bahia, entered its 18th day. It has been strengthened by the walkout of fellow Petrobras workers at the Gabriel Passos Refinery (Regap), in Minas Gerais. Both refineries have suffered severe COVID-19 outbreaks. At RLAM, two oil workers died this month after being infected with the coronavirus: operations technician Carlos Alberto, 55, and shift coordinator Wagner Plech, 52. In addition to these fatalities, more than 80 other workers have tested positive for COVID-19 at the facility, with eight of them being hospitalized and three admitted to an Intensive Care Unit. Striking workers at the Landulpho Alves refinery (RLAM) in Bahia, Brazil (Twitter) The coronavirus outbreak at RLAM began after management took action to prevent a strike in February, when workers were protesting against the sale of the refinery. “Workers report that cases of contamination by the virus began to multiply about six days after the eve of their [scheduled] strike [on February 17], when RLAM’s General Manager authorized the entry into the facility, without any kind of safety controls, of contract and outsourced workers, placing up to three teams of operators in CCLs [Local Control Houses], who slept on mattresses on the floor and in a closed environment,” the union reported. At Regap, the decision to stop the work was taken after more than 200 workers, including contract and outsourced employees, tested positive for COVID-19 in March alone. Eleven of them had to be hospitalized due to severe cases of COVID-19. The cases at Regap skyrocketed during a “maintenance stop,” a periodic procedure for check-up and renovation of the structure that requires the presence of up to 2,000 extra workers. The procedure was started on February 28 and was supposed to last about 30 days. The coronavirus is also spreading uncontrollably through Petrobras’ terminals and offshore platforms. According to a Reuters report, oil workers at the Campos Basin in Rio de Janeiro have pressed charges at the Labor Prosecutor’s Office demanding that Petrobras provides clarification on the spread of the coronavirus on oil and gas platforms, following a spike in cases in March. Considered by the government as “essential,” oil workers are being pushed into highly infected workplaces to ensure a high production of fuels and oil derivatives and meet Petrobras’ demand for profits. While subjecting its employees to deadly conditions, the company has closed 2020 with a net profit of 7 billion reais (US$ 1.27 billion).

Cheniere and Shell oil tankers change course to avoid Suez Canal as ships divert routes -Companies are scrambling to reroute shipping vessels to avoid the logjam at the Suez Canal, including at least two U.S. ships carrying natural gas for Cheniere and Shell/BG Group, according to data provided by MarineTraffic and ClipperData. At least ten tankers and containerships are changing course as the Ever Given, one of the world's largest containerships, remains stranded across the canal along Egypt, MarineTraffic spokesman Georgios Hatzimanolis told CNBC in an interview. "We expect that number to go up as this closure progresses," Hatzimanolis said. The1,300-foot ship ran aground Tuesday enroute from Malaysia to the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The stranded ship has caused other vessels to back up in the canal, holding up roughly $400 million an hour in goods, according to Lloyd's List shipping journal. That's slowly increased over the last several days after repeated efforts by Egypt to refloat the 247,000-ton containership have failed. Officials there are using eight large tugboats and excavation equipment on the banks of the canal to dig out sand around the grounded vessel. According to MarineTraffic, there are 97 vessels stuck in the upper portion of the canal, 23 vessels waiting in the middle and 108 vessels in the lower portion. The logjam stretches through the Red Sea, past the Gulf of Aden, all the way to the Border of Yemen and Oman. "From Asia to Europe we are seeing ships divert in the Indian Ocean, just below the southern tip of Sri Lanka," added Hatzimanolis. For Europe-bound ships coming from Asia, going around Africa instead of through the canal can add up to seven days to a ship's journey, he said. The Maran Gas Andros LNG tanker departed from Ingleside, Texas on March 19 loaded with Cheniere fuel and a carrying capacity of 170,000 cubic meters of liquified natural gas. The Pan Americas LNG tanker, which is carrying Shell/BG fuel, left Sabine Pass on March 17 and can carry up to 174,000 cubic meters of liquefied natural gas. Matt Smith, director of commodity research for ClipperData, confirmed which companies were using the ships. Both tankers changed course in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean before diverting to go around the Cape. ClipperData also shows the Suezmax Marlin Santorini loaded with 700,000 barrels of Midland West Texas Intermediate crude oil diverting away from the canal. Smith said the original route to the Suez was an "unusual diversion." "The vast majority of U.S. crude exports avoid the Suez Canal, heading either to Europe or around the Cape of Good Hope to Asia instead," Smith explained. The Suezmax Marlin was at Magellan's Seabrook terminal in Houston, Texas, on March 10, where it was topped off with 330,000 barrels of West Texas light crude oil before heading to Galveston lightering zone a day later. The vessel then left the U.S. declaring for Port Said in Northeast Egypt but took a turn south Thursday after passing the Azores Islands near Portugal. "The vessel is yet to update its declared destination," said Smith. ClipperData shows the number of fully loaded fuel tankers waiting off Port Said as well as the US Gulf Coast. As of Friday afternoon, another two tankers and a Suezmax, the largest tanker that can navigate the Suez Canal, carrying vacuum gasoil from the U.S. were passing Crete and set to anchor offshore Egypt.

About 4,000 liters of diesel oil pumped out of sunken ship in Mui Ne - A representative of Truong Tam Maritime Company today said that the company and related competent agencies made concerted efforts to pump nearly 4,000 liters of diesel oil mixed with water out of the wrecked ship safely. The operation was a race against time in 15 minutes. As media released, the Bach Dang ship, with a capacity of 2,500 metric tons, with seven sailors aboard capsized and sank on its way to carry the fly ash from Vinh Tan 2 thermal power plant in the province to the Southern Province of Dong Nai. Luckily, all of the sailors were rescued and 4,000 liters of diesel oil remained in the ship’s fuel tank when it capsized. The ship has since been lying upside down on the sea, with neither oil spill nor fly ash spreading. After all 4,000 liters of diesel oil was pumped out of the ship’s fuel tank, the salvage and treatment of fly ash will continue.

PTTEP loses high profile Montara oil spill lawsuit - On August 21, 2009, the Montara-H1 well blew out on the wellhead platform. An explosion and uncontrollable oil spill continued spewing between 400-2,000 barrels of oil per day into the Timor Sea until November 3, 2009 after a relief well was drilled and the leak stopped. It was the biggest oil spill in Australian history. A class action of 15,000 seaweed farmers took PTTEP to court several years ago, seeking roughly $200 million in damages to their seaweed crops, with the case taking more than five years to conclude. On Friday afternoon, the Federal Court of Australia in New South Wales ruled that oil from the Montara H1 production well had reached seaweed crops of Indonesia. PTTEP has officially lost the case a decade after the oil spill. PTTEP had argued that oil from the spill did not reach Indonesian waters. Federal Court justice Yates, however, ruled otherwise. "I am satisfied that oil spilled from the H1 Well blowout reached certain areas of Indonesia," justice Yates said when handing down his verdict this afternoon. PTTEP then argued that even if oil had travelled from the Montara oil spill to Indonesia, that by the time the crude floated there, it would have disintegrated and not caused damage. "I am satisfied that this oil caused or materially contributed to the death and loss of [the plaintiff's] crop," justice Yates ruled. This claim too, was dismissed by the Court. Justice Yates also found that PTTEP had been negligent in its operations of the Montara oil field, a fact PTTEP did not dispute, and awarded damages of about Rp252 million (A$22,500) to the lead plaintiff of the class action. Given there are 15,000 class action members, the cost of damages could reach well over $300 million. A spokesperson for Maurice Blackburn told Energy News they were "happy with the result." Justice Yates said he calculated the damaged as "the difference between the net income earned and the net income but for the respondents negligence." It has been a long wait for both the class action plaintiffs, represented by Maurice Blackburn, and the defendant PTTEP, represented by Allens. The Federal Court sat on the ruling for more than 12 months since the trial ended to reach its determination. PTTEP does have the right to appeal the judgment.

Grounding of cargo ship in Suez Canal could hurt the LNG market if prolonged, analyst says -The disruption caused by the grounding of a large container ship in Egypt's Suez Canal — halting marine traffic through one of the busiest and most important waterways in the world — could have a major impact on the liquefied natural gas (LNG) market if prolonged, according to an analyst at Wood Mackenzie. The ship, called Ever Given, ran aground on Tuesday morning after losing the ability to steer amid high winds and a dust storm, the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) said in a statement. Rescue efforts are currently underway with multiple tugboats sent to the scene to assist in the re-float operation, which can take days. "The impact of this disruption on the LNG market will be limited if the disruption is solved within a day or two. Only a handful of LNG cargoes were in the close vicinity of the Suez Canal when the incident started. At this stage, we don't expect major bottlenecks, unless the situation drags on," said Lucas Schmitt, principal analyst at Wood Mackenzie. The Suez Canal is a key channel for LNG ships – with around 8% of global LNG trade passing through. "So far in March 2021 a handful of cargoes have been transiting each day in both directions (until the disruption)," added Schmitt. The 120-mile long man-made waterway is a key point of global trade, connecting a steady flow of goods from East to West. Everything from consumer products to machinery parts to oil flows through its waters. Nearly 19,000 ships passed through the canal during 2020, for an average of 51.5 per day, according to the Suez Canal Authority. The Ever Given ship, was sailing from China to Rotterdam when it ran aground. The impact on the LNG market would be greater if the disruption is prolonged as the recent delays at the Panama Canal illustrated, according to Schmitt. Those delays lead to a spike in LNG prices and shipping rates, according to Reuters. "However, the timing of this incident means it will have less impact on prices than that of the Panama since we're entering the shoulder season for the LNG market," he noted. "Charter rates are currently low – around 30 k$/d – but could tighten up (reflecting the additional tonne-mile needed to bypass the canal) if the disruption lasts." Schmitt added further delays could "impact both loading and discharge schedules and disrupt some flows, mostly to the European market."

Australia Dangerously Dependent On China's Fuel Exports As 2 Of Its Last 4 Refineries Close --There's growing alarm in Canberra over what's expected to be Australia's inevitable increased dependence on foreign petroleum amid a major influx of cheaper refined oil products from China. It comes as China's crude oil refinery capacity is rapidly expanding and simultaneously Australia is about to see its last four refineries cut down by two, given the recent announced closures of an Exxon Mobil and separately a BP refinery. It's yet another way that Beijing has the upper hand and leverage amid the ongoing trade war which has seen the two sides slap tariffs and even a few import bans on each other. A recent report out this week in the South China Morning Post runs through the numbers which suggests China is poised to dominate crude exports in the Asia-Pacific region, particularly to "vulnerable" Australia - leaving Aussie government leaders concerned over self-sufficiency and if the country can weather the storm of Beijing's "coercive trade warfare". "Chinese exports of refined oil products to Australia rose from a few thousand tonnes before 2011 to nearly 300,000 tonnes at the end of last year, according to figures from China customs," the report begins by noting. Following the announced impending closures of BP’s Kwinana and ExxonMobil’s Altona plants, a third - Ampol’s Lytton plant - is now also said to be mulling a shutdown given its inability to compete with Asian refineries. And the fourth, Viva Energy’s Geelong refinery, has since last year been kept afloat by a federal government rescue package amid spiraling lossesestimated at over $100 million.

 Oil rises slightly despite demand fears amid European lockdowns - Oil steadied on Monday as hopes for a pick-up in demand later this year helped arrest last week's broad sell-off, but prices stayed under pressure as new European coronavirus lockdowns made a quick recovery look less likely. Brent crude was up 6 cents or 0.1% to $64.59 a barrel, while U.S. oil for delivery in April gained 13 cents to settle at $61.55 per barrel. The more active U.S. crude futures for delivery in May rose 14 cents or 0.2% to $61.58 a barrel. Both contracts fell more than 6% last week after making steady gains for months on the back of output cuts and an expected demand recovery. "Oil (had) its worst week this year as concerns grow over a flaring up in COVID-19 cases across Europe," "This comes at a time when there are clear signs of weakness in the physical oil market." Physical markets have come under pressure as refiners around the world, including China and the United States, begin maintenance activities. Chinese refinery maintenance season is due to peak in May and begin tapering in June, traders have said, depriving some crude grades such as those in West Africa of their main outlet. Nearly a third of French people entered a month-long lockdown on Saturday, while Germany plans to extend its lockdown into a fifth month, according to a draft proposal. "Vaccination campaigns haven't been as fast as the market had hoped for and consequently this will have an effect on the oil demand recovery, which in turn hurts prices," While a broad economic recovery remains elusive, Saudi Aramco Chief Executive Amin Nasser was optimistic on longer-term prospects for the world's top oil exporter. On Sunday Nasser said global oil demand was on track to reach 99 million barrels per day (bpd) by the end of 2021. "While I think demand is going to improve further as more economies ease travel restrictions in the coming months, the impact of this will be offset to some degree by rising oil supply," "OPEC+ will be easing supply restrictions slowly, while U.S. shale production is likely to ramp up due to the attractive oil prices again. All told, I can't see oil prices rising significantly further."  The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, together known as OPEC+, have put in place unprecedented production cuts to balance global markets after demand plunged during the COVID-19 pandemic. U.S. drillers meanwhile are starting to take advantage of the recent spike in prices, adding the most rigs since January in the week ending last Friday.

Oil falls as European coronavirus curbs point to demand hit - Oil tumbles 4% on concerns over Europe curbs, rollouts il prices fell more than 4% on Tuesday, hit by concerns over new pandemic curbs and slow vaccine rollouts in Europe as well as a stronger dollar. Brent crude futures were down by $2.69, or 4.2%, to $61.93 a barrel, having hit a low of $61.41. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) U.S. crude futures fell by $2.46, or 4%, to $59.10, after falling to as low as $58.47. Both contracts traded near lows not seen since February 12. The front-month Brent spread flipped into a small contango for the first time since January. Contango is where the front-month contracts are cheaper than future months, and could encourage traders to put oil into storage. "Continental Europe is tightening the coronavirus measures and thereby further restricting mobility," Commerzbank analysts said. "This is likely to have a correspondingly negative impact on oil demand." Extended lockdowns are being driven by the threat of a third wave of infections, with a new variant of the coronavirus on the continent. Germany, Europe's biggest oil consumer, is extending its lockdown until April 18 and asked citizens to stay home to try to stop a third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nearly a third of France entered a month-long lockdown on Saturday following a jump in COVID-19 cases in Paris and parts of northern France. A stronger U.S. dollar also weighed on prices. As oil in priced in U.S. dollars, a stronger greenback makes oil more expensive for holders of other currencies. Physical crude markets are indicating that demand is lower, much more so than the futures market. "Physical prices have been weaker than futures have been suggesting for several weeks now," said Lachlan Shaw, head of commodity research and National Australia Bank.

Oil prices drop 6% to enter correction territory - U.S. and global oil prices fell by roughly 6% on Tuesday to enter correction territory, as renewed lockdowns in Europe to combat the coronavirus pandemic looked likely to crimp energy demand. "Optimism around a swift global economic recovery has recently been dampened by setbacks in vaccine rollouts in parts of Europe and Southern Asia," said Christin Redmond, commodity analyst at Schneider Electric, in a market update. Meanwhile, "U.S. refineries continue to struggle to come back online following the mid-February winter storm, which has resulted in several consecutive weeks of crude inventory builds." West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery lost $3.80, or 6.2%, to settle at $57.76 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Front-month prices have fallen 12.6% from the recent high of $66.09 on March 5 to enter correction territory, according to Dow Jones Market Data. May Brent crude dropped $3.83, or 5.9%, to $60.79 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe. The global benchmark also marked a correction, down 12.7% from the recent high of $69.63 from March 11. Both WTI and Brent crude logged their lowest front-month contract settlements since February. Germany, Europe's largest economy, extended its lockdown measures by another month to April 18 (link), and imposed several new restrictions in an effort to drive down the rate of coronavirus infections. "A surge in virus cases in mainland Europe, where the rollout of vaccines has been painfully slow, has cast doubt on resumption of travel in the region...Among other things, this is hurting demand projections for crude oil and holidays," While Europe is struggling with extended shutdowns, the opposite is happening in the U.S., where a continued easing of social distancing restrictions, vaccine rollouts, and the release of government financial aid checks are expected to boost demand for crude in the world's largest oil-consuming country. The divergent trends were evident in the crack spreads -- the differential between products produced from a barrel of crude and the crude itself -- on either side of the Atlantic. He noted that the gas oil/Brent crack spread in Europe remains very low, below $5 a barrel. By comparison, the comparable U.S. spread is seen around $15 a barrel. Among other factors influencing trading, tensions between Saudi Arabia and Yemen rebels have provided some support for oil prices this month.

WTI Holds Big Losses After Surprise Crude Build -Crude prices crashed today, extending recent losses with WTI back below $58 at six-week lows amid dimming prospects of a steady recovery in demand from Europe to India.  “The weakness in crude prices isn’t likely to go away in the coming weeks, even as U.S. refinery utilization recovers to pre-storm levels,” “There is still the resurgence of Covid-19 in Europe and Asia, and refinery maintenance in China and these are likely to keep international demand weak for U.S. crude.”  Tonight's API-reported inventory data will give us the next trend direction API:

• Crude +2.927mm (-900k exp)
• Cushing -2.282mm
• Gasoline -3.728mm
• Distillates +246k

After four straight weeks of builds, analysts expected crude stocks to draw this week, but once again (if API is right) we saw a crude build. Gasoline stocks drew down once again.  WTI broke below a key technical level today and was hovering around $57.50 ahead of the API print and was unexcited by the data. “The swing lower was triggered by the deteriorating near-term demand outlook in the face of still hampered refineries, surging interest and renewed European lockdowns,” “With prices breaking below the 50-day moving average during the session, technical traders may well take WTI lower still.”Finally, we note that overseas buying isn’t expected to recover any time soon. China, the largest customer for U.S. oil, slowed its intake after purchasing heavily in recent months. Local producers are also competing with traders that have amassed large quantities in storage across the world and are looking to offload their supplies since it doesn’t pay now to store oil and sell in the future.

Oil rises on bargain-hunting but oversupply fears cap gains - Oil prices edged higher on Wednesday as investors looked for bargains following the previous day's plunge, but gains were capped as pandemic lockdowns in Europe and a build in U.S. crude stocks curbed risk appetite and raised oversupply fears. Brent crude futures rose 27 cents, or 0.4%, to $61.06 a barrel by 0108 GMT, after tumbling 5.9% and hitting a low of $60.50 the previous day. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures climbed 19 cents, or 0.3%, to $57.95 a barrel, having lost 6.2% and touched a low of $57.32 on Tuesday. Both benchmarks touched their lowest levels since early February on Tuesday and have now fallen more than 14% from their recent highs earlier this month. The front-month spread for both Brent and WTI slipped into contango, where front-month contracts are lower than the later months, a sign that demand for prompt crude is declining. "Investors adjusted positions from Tuesday's sharp selloff," "But the market sentiment remained bearish due to growing concerns about demand recovery in the wake of new pandemic curbs in Europe," he said. Germany, Europe's biggest oil consumer, extended its lockdown to April 18, and Chancellor Angela Merkel urged citizens to stay at home for five days over the Easter holiday. Worries over the pace of the recovery from the pandemic were also heightened after a U.S. health agency said the AstraZeneca Plc vaccine developed with Oxford University may have included outdated information in its data. Adding to pressure, U.S. crude oil stocks jumped by 2.9 million barrels in the week to March 19, against analysts' expectations in a Reuters' poll for a decline of about 300,000 barrels, according to trading sources citing data from industry group the American Petroleum Institute. But gasoline stocks fell by 3.7 million barrels, compared with expectations for a build of 1.2 million barrels. Human rights sanctions on China imposed by the United States, Europe and Britain, which prompted retaliatory sanctions from Beijing, also added to market concerns.

WTI Dips After Surprise Crude, Product Inventory Builds - After a brief dip, extending yesterday's losses, on the surprise crude build reported by API overnight, but anxiety over the Suez canal blockage potentially taking days to fix sent prices notably higher overnightTen tankers carrying 13 million barrels of crude could be affected after a container ship that ran aground in the Suez Canal blocked vessels passing through the waterway, oil analytics firm Vortexa said on Wednesday.The approximate rate of backlog is about 50 vessels a day and any delays leading to re-routings will add 15 days to a Middle East to Europe voyage, Vortexa added. DOE

• Crude +1.912mm (-900k exp)
• Cushing -1.935mm
• Gasoline +204k
• Distillates +3.806mm

Official data confirmed API's crude build surprise but it is the build in products that is most notable.

Oil gains more than $3/bbl after Suez Canal ship grounding (Reuters) - Oil prices jumped about 6% on Wednesday after a ship ran aground in the Suez Canal, and worries that the incident could tie up crude shipments gave prices a boost after a slide over the last week. The crude benchmarks, U.S. crude and London-based Brent, added to gains after U.S. inventory figures showed a further rebound in refining activity, suggesting U.S. refiners are mostly recovered from the cold snap that slammed Texas in February. Brent crude settled at $64.41 a barrel, gaining $3.62, or 6%, after tumbling 5.9% the previous day. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) settled at $61.18 a barrel, rising $3.42, or 5.9%, having lost 6.2% on Tuesday. The gains appeared to stabilize the market that had slumped from early this month, when prices hit their highest levels this year on expectations for demand recovery. Those hopes have since been dashed as European nations re-entered lockdowns to halt another wave of the pandemic. Oil has recovered from historic lows reached last year as OPEC and its allies made record output cuts. On Tuesday, both benchmarks touched their lowest since February. Ten tug boats struggled on Wednesday afternoon to free one of the world’s largest container ships after it ran aground and blocked the Suez Canal for more than a day, port agent GAC said. The GAC said the information it had received earlier claiming the vessel was partially refloated, allowing traffic to resume along the fastest shipping route from Europe to Asia, was inaccurate. “It’s one of those wild cards that is unique to the crude oil industry,” said Bob Yawger of Mizuho in New York. “Once you think you have everything nailed down, I can guarantee one thing: You don’t.” Oil prices were also supported by U.S. Energy Information Administration data that showed refinery runs recovering after a winter storm shut Texas refineries last month.

Oil Prices Fail to Get Boost from Blocked Suez  -- Oil dropped as a strengthening dollar and mounting lockdowns in Europe blunted the potential impact of crude cargoes backing up outside the blocked Suez Canal. Futures fell 4.3% in New York on Thursday in the wake of a stronger U.S. dollar, which reduces the appeal of commodities priced in the currency. Work to re-float the massive ship that’s stuck in the canal continued without success. While the Suez blockage is complicating trade, a long-term realignment of global crude flows has seen westbound shipments from Persian Gulf producers fall, limiting the impact on oil prices. The Suez Canal has “diluted importance as a transit hub for energy,” said Bob Yawger, head of the futures division at Mizuho Securities. Prices are facing pressure from the rising dollar, “the incredible inability of the euro zone in particular to take care of the Covid situation” and case numbers in the U.S. “going in the wrong direction.” At the same time, the U.S. reported the most new cases on Wednesday since Feb. 12 and European countries have tightened restrictions recently. Volatility has risen to the highest since November, and traders see the market shedding length with little to stoke immediate optimism ahead of a full-fledged economic reopening from the pandemic. Despite the recent sell-off, oil is still up around 20% this year and there is confidence in the longer-term outlook for demand as coronavirus vaccinations accelerate worldwide and OPEC+ continues to hold back supply. The alliance is scheduled to meet next week to decide production policy for May. “It all got a bit too excited earlier with talk about supercycles and massive stock draws in the first quarter,” said Paul Horsnell, head of commodities research at Standard Chartered. That was “never on the cards, the big stock draws come later.” Still, the prompt timespread for Brent has resumed trading in a bullish backwardation after briefly flipping to a bearish contango on Tuesday for the first time since January. The spread was 14 cents in backwardation on Thursday, compared with 67 cents at the start of the month. West Texas Intermediate for May delivery fell $2.62 to settle at $58.56 a barrel in New York. Brent for May settlement slipped $2.46 to end the session at $61.95 a barrel. Hedge funds had built up net long positions in WTI and Brent last month to the highest in over a year, according to a Bloomberg analysis of Commodities Futures Trade Commission and ICE data for four contracts. Since then, prices jumped to multi-year highs and above technical gauges indicating a correction was due, before last week’s price plunge sent futures in New York back near $60 a barrel.

Oil drops more than 4%, on pace for third straight week of losses - Oil prices fell on Thursday as a new round of coronavirus restrictions in Europe revived worries about demand, even as tug boats struggled to move a stranded container ship blocking crude oil carriers in the Suez Canal. Brent crude slid 3.8% to $61.95 per barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude dropped 4.28% to settle at $58.26 per barrel. Both contracts jumped about 6% on Wednesday after a ship ran aground in the Suez Canal, one of the world's most important oil shipping routes. The Suez Canal Authority said on Thursday it had suspended traffic temporarily while eight tugs work to free the vessel. "We believe that the incident mostly creates noise in the market and should remain without any lasting fundamental impact," said Norbert Rücker, analyst at Julius Baer bank. Wood Mackenzie's vice president, Ann-Louise Hittle, said a few days of delays in crude or product travelling through the Suez Canal to Europe and the United States should not have a prolonged impact on prices in those markets. The impact of the Suez Canal blockade on oil prices is also limited as the destination of most oil tankers is Europe, but European demand is currently weak due to a new round of lockdowns. "If Europe was in a better state in its COVID-19 battle, then the disruption would possibly create a more prolonged issue but this is not the case. That is why traders today quickly corrected some of the previous day's gains," said Rystad Energy's analyst Bjornar Tonhaugen. The technical manager of the ship said another effort to re-float the vessel will be undertaken later in the day after an earlier attempt failed. The salvage company said it might take weeks. Given the persistent demand worries and falling prices, expectations are growing that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, together called OPEC+, will roll over their current supply curbs into May at a meeting scheduled for April 1, four OPEC+ sources told Reuters. "Oil markets are unlikely to renew their upward momentum aggressively until OPEC+'s next meeting in early April, which should leave production cuts unchanged," said Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at OANDA. The global oil market was also under pressure as producers faced difficulties selling to Asia, especially China. Asian buyers instead took cheaper oil from storage while refinery maintenance has reduced demand, industry sources said. A strong dollar also weighed on oil prices. The dollar hit a new four-month high against the euro as the U.S. pandemic response continued to outpace Europe's.

Oil prices rebound on fears Suez Canal blockage may last weeks - Oil prices bounced back on Friday from a plunge a day earlier on concerns that a large container ship that ran aground in the Suez Canal may block the vital shipping lane for weeks, squeezing supply. Prices, however, were still headed for a third consecutive weekly loss. Brent crude advanced $1.16, or 1.9%, to trade at $63.12 per barrel, after dropping 3.8% on Thursday. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude advanced $1.25, or 2.1%, to trade at $59.81 per barrel, having tumbled 4.3% a day earlier. Both benchmarks were on track for a weekly loss of more than 3%, following a more than 6% decline last week. The trapped container ship is blocking traffic in the Suez Canal, one of the world's busiest shipping channels for oil and refined fuels, grain and other trade between Asia and Europe. Officials stopped all ships entering the canal on Thursday, and a salvage company said the vessel may take weeks to free. "Expectations that the blockage of the Suez Canal may last for weeks raised fears of supply tightness in oil markets," said Nissan Securities researcher Yasushi Osada. "But lingering worries that a fresh wave of lockdowns in Europe and elsewhere may slow a recovery of global fuel demand are expected to limit price gains," he said. Countries in Europe are renewing restrictions to curb the spread of COVID-19, which will likely reduce fuel demand from the region. Germany, Europe's largest economy, has seen its biggest increase in coronavirus cases since January. In parts of western India, authorities ordered people indoors as new infections hit the highest level in five months. The oil market was also under pressure as producers had difficulty selling to Asia, especially China. Asian buyers instead took cheaper oil from storage while refinery maintenance has reduced demand, industry sources said.

Oil jumps 4% on fears Suez Canal blockage may last weeks (Reuters) - Oil prices rose more than 4% on Friday on worries global supplies of crude and refined products could be disrupted for weeks as workers try to dislodge a giant container ship blocking the Suez Canal. Slideshow ( 2 images ) It was a rebound from a sharp decline the previous session on concerns that fresh coronavirus lockdowns in Europe would hurt demand. Brent crude rose $2.62, or 4.2%, to settle at $64.57 a barrel, after dropping 3.8% on Thursday. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude gained $2.41, or 4.1%, to settle at $60.97 a barrel, having tumbled 4.3% a day earlier. Brent rose 0.1% over the last week, while WTI dropped 0.7%, its third weekly loss. Oil trade was volatile this week, as traders weighed the potential impact of the Suez Canal blockage which happened on Tuesday against the effect of new coronavirus lockdowns. “Today the market is up again as traders in a change of heart decided that the Suez Canal blockade is actually becoming more significant for oil flows and supply deliveries than they previously concluded,” said Paola Rodriguez Masiu, Rystad Energy’s vice president of oil markets. The Suez Canal stepped up efforts on Friday to free the stuck mega vessel, after an earlier attempt failed. Efforts to free it may take weeks, with possible complications from unstable weather. Of the 39.2 million barrels per day (bpd) of total seaborne crude in 2020, 1.74 million bpd went through the Suez Canal, according to data intelligence firm Kpler. Additionally, 1.54 million bpd of refined oil products flow through the canal, about 9% of global seaborne oil product trade, Kpler said. On Friday, there were 10 vessels waiting at the entry points of the Canal carrying around 10 million barrels of oil, Kpler said. Reeling from the blockage in the Suez Canal, shipping rates for oil product tankers have nearly doubled this week, and several vessels were diverted. The oil markets were also lifted by worries over escalating geopolitical risk in the Middle East. Yemen’s Houthi forces on Friday said they launched attacks on facilities owned by Saudi Aramco. Prices also drew support from expectations that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies will maintain lower production. Goldman Sachs said it expects OPEC+ to keep production unchanged for May when the group meets next week, “with a still large ramp-up of 3.4 million barrels per day expected by September.” Acting a week ahead of the OPEC+ meeting, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) has deepened crude oil supply cuts to Asian customers in June to 10%-15% from 5%-15% in May, several sources said. In the United States, the number of rigs drilling for oil rose by six this week to 324, data from oil services firm Baker Hughes showed. Still, the potential negative effect on demand from the coronavirus pandemic loomed. Germany’s third wave of the coronavirus could turn into the worst one so far and 100,000 new daily infections is not out of the question, the head of the German Robert Koch Institute (RKI) said.

Oil’s Most Volatile Week In Months Closes With a Whimper - -- Oil in New York barely nudged this week despite whipsawing over several days, as renewed lockdowns in some regions blunted near-term demand outlooks and muted the impact of a standstill at the Suez. West Texas Intermediate futures fell less than 1% to close the week at $60.97, while Brent crude just barely eked out a gain, snapping a streak of back-to-back weekly declines. Futures rose almost 6% and fell nearly 5% in sessions this week as traders recalibrated their positions from day-to-day. Market volatility reached the highest since November. While optimism remains over the long-term outlook for a global demand rebound, the downbeat developments surrounding European lockdowns and rising case counts exacerbated an abrupt unwinding of long positions in a market that was signaling it may have rallied too far, too fast. Still, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said crude’s decline in recent weeks had overshot market fundamentals, and demand should still increase sharply through the northern hemisphere’s summer season. The stage is set for crude’s rally “but the whole recovery trade got a little bit ahead of itself and oil got a little bit ahead of itself,” said Jay Hatfield, CEO at InfraCap in New York. “Once we get the real demand coming back, we can start to see prices heading to $70, $80 or even a superspike.” Meanwhile, the Suez Canal remained blocked, with efforts to dislodge a massive container vessel expected to take until at least Wednesday. The impact on headline prices was muted. The grounding of the Ever Given ship on Tuesday set off a chain of events that’s wreaking havoc on global seaborne trade -- shipping rates have increased, hundreds of vessels remain backed up in the channel and ships are rerouting to avoid the logjam. Yet the impact on the oil market is likely smaller than it would have been in the past, with flows from the Middle East to Europe declining due to a long-term realignment of trade. And while plenty of oil is shipped from the North Sea to Asia, it’s usually carried on tankers that are too large to pass through the canal. Nevertheless, “the last days feel like oil investors are on a rollercoaster,” said Giovanni Staunovo, a commodity analyst at UBS Group AG. “Drops are followed by a rise the day after, with fundamental news not being able to explain those shifts.” Prices WTI for May rose $2.41 to settle at $60.97 a barrel. Brent for the same month gained $2.62 to end the session at $64.57 a barrel. Oil prices have come under renewed pressure recently amid softening physical demand, a strengthening dollar and the unwinding of long positions. The increased volatility over the past two weeks has been felt across oil markets. Combined open interest in WTI and Brent has fallen nearly 7% to the lowest since January, refined product prices have slipped from the highs they hit after last month’s deep freeze and crude’s underlying market structure weakened.  Still, prices are up roughly 25% this year and there’s confidence in the longer-term outlook as vaccination rates climb and OPEC+ keeps supply in check. The group meets next week to decide on its production policy for May. 

 Saudi Aramco profit slumps 44% after Covid-battered year, but maintains dividend –- Oil giant Saudi Aramco reported a 44% slump in full-year 2020 results, but maintained its $75 billion dollar dividend payout, with CEO Amin Nasser describing the last twelve months as one of the most "challenging years" in recent history. Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia's behemoth state oil firm, reported net income of $49 billion in 2020, down from $88.19 billion in 2019. The result was slightly below analysts expectations of $48.1 billion but still represents one of the highest of any public company globally. "In one of the most challenging years in recent history, Aramco demonstrated its unique value proposition through its considerable financial and operational agility," Saudi Aramco Chief Executive Amin Nasser said in company statement Sunday. Aramco said revenues were impacted by lower crude oil prices and volumes sold, and weakened refining and chemicals margins. The firm also said it expects to cut capital expenditure in the year ahead, and lowered its guidance for spending to around $35 billion from a range of $40 billion to $45 billion previously. Free cash flow slumped almost 40% to $49 billion, well below the level of its hotly anticipated dividend. Aramco also declared a payout of $75 billion for 2020, despite concern that it would take on additional debt to maintain it. "Looking ahead, our long-term strategy to optimize our oil and gas portfolio is on track and, as the macro environment improves, we are seeing a pick-up in demand in Asia and also positive signs elsewhere," he added. Shares in the top western oil and gas companies including Royal Dutch Shell and BP dropped to multi-year lows in 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic wrecked havoc across the global economy and sparked a historic collapse in the price of oil. Exxon Mobil, the largest U.S. energy company, posted its first annual loss. Escalating attacks on oil facilities Aramco's facilities have been the target of several attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels — attacks that have escalated this year, with Saudi Arabia and Iran, the latter of whom backs the rebels, on opposing sides of Yemen's bloody civil war. Houthi missile volleys in parts of Saudi Arabia that struck Aramco facilities earlier in March briefly sent the price of oil above $70 a barrel to its highest level in more than a year. Most recently, the rebels claimed responsibility for drone strikes on an Aramco facility in the capital Riyadh on Friday, causing a fire that the Saudi energy ministry said was quickly brought under control with no casualties. Asked how the company aimed to reassure investors and the global community that its infrastructure was well-protected and prepared to prevent serious disruption to its operations, CEO Amin Nasser stressed that there was "no impact on business" from the attacks. "I think the most important thing is the readiness of our people," Nasser told CNBC during a press conference following the earnings release. "There is always something you learn with each attack, and you go and you enhance your emergency response … and you make sure you have all what is needed to restore these facilities if they are attacked."

Saudi Forces Strike Yemen In Response To Attack On Aramco - Saudi-led coalition forces conducted airstrikes against Houthi military bases in Yemen’s capital Sanaa, Bloomberg reported, citing local residents and a Houthi-controlled TV channel. The attacks, according to the report, targeted military camps and Houthi facilities near the Sanaa airport and the suburbs of the city. They came in response to a Houthi drone attack on Saudi oil facilities that took place on Friday. According to Saudi media, the attack did not cause any damage.This is just the latest in a series of airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition against the Houthis, after the Yemeni rebel group, which is affiliated with Iran, struck a Saudi oil target earlier this month.  “The missile forces managed today to strike [a facility] of the Saudi Aramco company in Jeddah with a Quds 2 cruise missile. The strike was precise,” a spokesman for the Houthis said in early March. The Saudi side later confirmed the attack but said it had inflicted no significant damage.At the time, the Houthis warned there will be more attacks against Saudi targets and advised foreign companies and Saudi Arabia residents to be cautious.The Saudi response came soon enough in a series of airstrikes, with 32 carried out on March 9 alone, Zerohedge reported at the time.Saudi Arabia and the Houthis have been locked in a conflict since 2015. Many see it as a proxy war between the Saudis and the Iranian backers of the Yemeni rebel group, which overthrew the Saudi-affiliated Yemeni government and tried to assume power over the country.Oil facilities in Saudi Arabia are a favorite target for the Houthis because of the Kingdom’s reliance on oil revenues. The most notable attack that the Yemeni rebel group claimed responsibility for was the September 2019 attacks on Saudi Aramco’s oil facilities that cut off 5 percent of daily global supply for weeks, sending oil prices soaring. Saudi Arabia and the United States have said that it was Iran—and not the Houthis—who was responsible for the attack.

Saudi official made death threat against UN's Khashoggi investigator: report - A Saudi official reportedly issued what was perceived as a death threat against a United Nations investigator following her investigation into the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Speaking to The Guardian, Agnès Callamard, the organization's special rapporteur for extrajudicial killings, said she was alerted to the threat by a UN colleague in January 2020. Two threats were allegedly made toward Callamard by a Saudi official during a meeting of senior UN officials in Geneva, in which the official reportedly threatened to have her "taken care of" if she was not reined in by the UN. “A death threat. That was how it was understood," Callamard said when asked how her colleagues saw the statement. After UN officials voiced alarm at the threat, other Saudi officials tried to reassure them that the threat should not be taken seriously, the Guardian reports. But after the officials left, the Saudi official remained and repeated their alleged threat to the UN officials. “It was reported to me at the time and it was one occasion where the United Nations was actually very strong on that issue. People that were present, and also subsequently, made it clear to the Saudi delegation that this was absolutely inappropriate and that there was an expectation that this should not go further," Callamard told the Guardian. During the "high-level" meeting between Saudi diplomats in Geneva, visiting Saudi officials and senior UN officials, Callamard's investigation into the Khashoggi killing was angrily criticized by the Saudis, Callamard said. The Saudi officials also reportedly baselessly claimed that Callamard had been paid by the Qatari government. As the Guardian reports, Callamard's 100-page report published in 2019 concluded there was "credible evidence” that Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman was behind Khashoggi's death, along with other Saudi officials. The Saudi government has repeatedly denied that the crown prince ordered Khashoggi's death.

Oil nations tipped for political instability if the world moves away from fossil fuels— Algeria, Chad, Iraq and Nigeria will be among the first countries to experience political instability as oil producers feel the effects of a transition to low carbon energy production, according to a new report from risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft. In its 2021 Political Risk Outlook, published Thursday, the firm cautioned that countries that had failed to diversify their economies away from fossil fuel exports faced a "slow-motion wave of political instability." With the move away from fossil fuels set to accelerate over the next three to 20 years, and the Covid-19 pandemic eating into short-term gains gains in oil export revenues made in recent years, Maplecroft warned that oil-dependent countries failing to adapt risk sharp changes in credit risk, policy and regulation. Though some countries are increasing fossil fuel investment in the short term, consensus estimates indicate that "peak oil" will be reached in 2030, after which the transition toward a low carbon economy will gather steam and force oil-producing countries to adapt their revenue streams. Analysts suggested the worst-hit countries could enter "doom loops of shrinking hydrocarbon revenues, political turmoil, and failed attempts to revive flatlining non-oil sectors." Since the oil price crash of 2014, most exporters have either stagnated or reversed efforts to diversify their economies, Maplecroft data highlighted, with many doubling down on production in the ensuing years in a bid to plug revenue holes. "Despite this, the majority took a hit on their foreign exchange reserves anyway, including Saudi Arabia, which has burnt through almost half of its 2014 dollar stockpile," the report added. Break-even costs, the capacity to diversify and political resilience were identified as the three key factors determining the severity of the impact on stability when the expected energy transition begins to bite. "Currently, if countries' external break-evens – the oil prices they need to pay for their imports – remain above what markets can offer, they have limited choices: draw down foreign exchange reserves like Saudi Arabia since 2014, or devalue their currency like Nigeria or Iraq in 2020, effectively rebalancing their imports and exports at the expense of living standards," the report explained. Nigeria, Africa's largest economy, relies on crude sales for around 90% of its foreign exchange earnings and has devalued its naira currency twice since March last year. The IMF last month urged the country's central bank to devalue once again, but met with resistance. "Many, if not a majority, of net oil producers are going to struggle with diversification largely because they lack the economic and legal institutions, infrastructure and human capital needed,"   The most vulnerable countries are higher-cost producers that are heavily dependent on oil for revenues, have lower capacity to diversify and are less politically stable, the report said, identifying Nigeria, Algeria, Chad and Iraq as the first to be hit "if the storm breaks" due to their fixed or crawling exchange rates.

Europe sides with the US in imposing punitive sanctions against China -- In a deliberate escalation of geo-political tensions, the European Union joined the US, as well as Britain and Canada, in imposing coordinated sanctions against Chinese officials on Monday for alleged human rights abuses against the Muslim Uyghur minority in China’s Xinjiang province. The intensifying demonisation of China follows the modus operandi of US imperialism and its allies over the past three decades as they have prepared for one criminal war after another in the Middle East, the Balkans and Central Asia. The sanctions follow a fractious meeting between top US and Chinese officials in Alaska. The talks commenced last Friday with provocative public US condemnations of China across a range of issues, including its treatment of the Uyghurs—claims that were rebutted by China. The two days of talks ended without agreement or a joint statement. The US set the stage for the showdown in Alaska by imposing sanctions on Chinese officials over a new law tightening the electoral system in Hong Kong. Now it has targeted Wang Junzheng, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) secretary of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, and Chen Mingguo, director of the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau, for “serious human rights abuses” against Uyghur Muslims. The US froze assets and imposed travel restrictions. In a statement reeking of hypocrisy, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused China of continuing “to commit genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang” and called on Beijing to release “all those arbitrarily held in internment camps and detention facilities.” While the CCP regime undoubtedly uses police-state measures in Xinjiang, as it does more broadly against the Chinese working class, Washington—which is guilty of war crimes in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere—is again selectively exploiting “human rights” to advance its imperialist interests. Blinken’s accusation of Uyghur “genocide” by China—a designation only made by former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the dying days of the Trump administration—is intentionally inflammatory. While the term conjures up images of mass killings, it rests on nothing more than grossly distorted and largely unsubstantiated claims that China’s birth control methods in Xinjiang constitute “genocide.”

North Korea conducts first missile test since Biden took office - North Korea conducted a short-range missile test over the weekend, the first such launch since President Biden’s inauguration two months ago. In a background call with reporters Tuesday, two senior administration officials confirmed North Korea tested a “short-range system” over the weekend, but declined to provide additional details. The officials downplayed the test as “normal military activity” by North Korea, saying the weapons system was not one that is covered by United Nations sanctions. “North Korea has a familiar menu of provocations when it wants to send a message to a U.S. administration, ballistic missiles of various range, mobile- and submarine-launched platforms, nuclear and thermonuclear tests. Experts rightly recognized what took place last weekend as falling on the low-end of that spectrum,” one of the officials said. “Almost every kind of activity, missile, nuclear activity, is covered by U.N. Security Council resolutions, and so because this it does not, it probably gives you an indication of where it falls on the spectrum of concern,” added the other official. “We do not believe that it is in our best interest to hype these things in circumstances in which we would consider those activities as part of a ‘normal’ set of a tense military environment like we see on the Korean peninsula.” When asked about the missile test, Biden told reporters, “We have learned that nothing much has changed.” The test was first reported by The Washington Post. North Korea has been expected to conduct some sort of missile launch for weeks. It is typical for Pyongyang to test a new U.S. administration with some sort of provocation, and U.S. officials, lawmakers and experts have been warning for weeks the country could soon conduct a weapons test. Additionally, North Korea last week complained about joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises and issued a warning to the Biden administration over the drills. “We take this opportunity to warn the new U.S. administration trying hard to give off powder smell in our land,” Kim Yo Jong, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s sister, said in a statement carried by state news agency KCNA. “If it wants to sleep in peace for [the] coming four years, it had better refrain from causing a stink at its first step.” The annual spring U.S.-South Korean military exercises had already been scaled back over concerns related both to COVID-19 and provoking North Korea. The Biden administration is in the midst of a review of its North Korean policy, but has already tried to reach out to Pyongyang for talks. The administration has not gotten a direct response from North Korea, but in a statement carried by state media last week, Choe Son Hui, the first foreign minister, rejected talks until the United States “rolls back its hostile policy” toward Pyongyang. In Tuesday's call with reporters, one of the Biden administration officials said they do not see the recent weapons test as “closing that door” to diplomacy with North Korea.

Pakistan Tech Exports Soar 69% in February 2021 - (table, graphic) Pakistan's technology exports shot up by 69% in February 2021 from the same month last year. Tech exports soared 41% for the first 8 months (July 2020-February 2021) of the current fiscal year from the same period period last year, according data released by the State Bank of Pakistan. Technology services exports from Pakistan continued their momentum into February 2020, rocketing up 69% to $179 million, up from $106 million in February 2020. ICT exports for the first 8 months of the ongoing fiscal year 2020-2021 rose 41% to $1.3 billion, on track to reach or surpass the $2 billion mark this year. In addition to jump in tech services exports, Pakistan is also seeing double-digit growth in exports of engineering goods, up 19.74% for the first 8 months of the current fiscal year.  Export of electric fans posted over 15% growth and other electrical machinery 17.16%. There is real hope for Pakistan to dramatically increase its higher value-added exports if the current trends in tech services and engineering goods can be sustained. Seizing the opportunity to attract export-oriented investors will help Pakistan become the next Asian Asian Tiger economy. It will help the country avoid recurring balance-of-payments crises that have forced the nation to seek IMF bailouts with all their tough conditions. Focusing on "Plug and Play" Special Economic Zones (SEZs) is going to be essential to achieve this objective.

Garment Workers Win $22 Billion in Historic Victory Against Wage Theft -  For years, Amanda Lee McCarty had been working in the fashion industry as a buyer and product developer. But as COVID-19 cases surged and lockdown orders were implemented across the world, retailers were faced with a dramatic plummet in consumer demand for clothing. McCarty, who had been the sole breadwinner in her family for most of her life, was left without a steady income or health insurance. McCarty wasn’t the only one in the global apparel industry whose future was thrust into uncertainty. Thousands of miles away, in countries like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Cambodia, apparel factories had just received catastrophic news from retailers in the West. In order to offset the financial losses of the pandemic, executives had made a swift and nearly universal decision: They were going to steal $40 billion from their most vulnerable workers.“This wasn’t theoretical money,” said Elizabeth L. Cline, who works with the consumer activist nonprofit Remake. “This was garment workers not being paid for work already done, which is slavery.” For many brands, this theft was not only legal, but outlined in their contracts with factories overseas, which enabled them to cancel orders at any time. Retailers cited a force majeure clause to claim that they didn’t need to take clothing they had ordered before the pandemic — and they also didn’t have to pay for it, even if the product had already been made after hundreds of hours of painstaking labor.This decision was enforced by nearly all of the world’s most profitable apparel companies, only 20 of whom control 97 percent of the industry’s profits. Among the offenders were Walmart, Sears, Kohl’s, Nike, Forever 21, H&M, Gap, Adidas, The Children’s Place and Ross Stores.What followed was one of the largest transfers of wealth from the Global South to the West in recent history.The effect of the cancellations was immediate: factories, who could no longer afford to pay textile mills and workers, were forced to shut their doors. Millions of garment workers, most of them young women, were sent home without severance or pay.While wealthy fashion brands continued to deliver shareholder payouts, workers already living in poverty were plunged even deeper into debt and starvation.“Why were companies so comfortable robbing their factories in the middle of the biggest humanitarian crisis of our lifetimes?” Cline said. “It had a lot to do with the fact that the people impacted were in the Global South. They were women of color, who companies were used to being able to subjugate without any consequences — who they thought weren’t going to stand up to them.”The companies were wrong. In a matter of days, a movement was born, comprised of non-governmental organizations, or NGOs, and thousands of garment workers, grassroots organizers and consumers across the globe. They named their first campaign after their primary demand: PayUp.By March 2021, PayUp had secured $22 billion from brands who had initially refused to pay, and laid bare the exploitation fundamental to the global supply chain. It was one of the most successful labor rights campaigns in the fashion industry in modern times — and activists say they’re just getting started.

COVID-19 may leave 12M children unable to read, report warns - A new analysis says more than half of the world’s 10-year-olds could be unable to read and understand a sentence by the end of 2021, a figure that’s been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic.  The report released Monday from anti-poverty nonprofit One Campaign warned that 70 million 10-year-olds in 2021 alone could lack the basic literacy skills expected of a child of that age.  Of that 70 million, nearly 12 million could be unable to read as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on education. The analysis is based on official “learning poverty” figures from the World Bank and UNESCO, and population data from the United Nations.  The pandemic caused schools across the world to close for extended periods of time over the past year as governments imposed lockdown measures to stop the spread of the deadly virus. While schools in wealthier countries transitioned to online learning and hybrid models, children in some of the poorest countries have fallen behind in their education due to a lack of access to technology and infrastructure for remote education.  The learning crisis is particularly dire in Africa and Asia, with sub-Saharan Africa making up almost 40 percent of children at risk. Girls are also more seriously affected as the report estimates up to 20 million may never return to the classroom. “This has real world implications. When children can’t read by the age of 10, this has a knock-on effect on their whole education, impacting on their ability to learn, earn, start businesses,” David McNair, executive director for global police at The One Campaign said. “Governments must urgently step up and invest in the future of children around the world and ensure that budgets are spent efficiently and in a targeted manner. This virus has taken enough from us already, it must not take the futures of millions of children as well,” McNair added. The number of children lacking basic literacy by the age of 10 could rise to 750 million by 2030 if current trends continue, the analysis warns. The nonprofit urged governments to commit $5 billion for the Global Partnership for Education, which could enable 175 million children to learn over the next five years, as well as endorse two global targets on girls’ education set by the United Kingdom.

Australian paramedic details staffing crisis in New South Wales -- A recent report by the federal Productivity Commission revealed that the New South Wales (NSW) Ambulance service lags behind the national average in per-capita funding as well as every measure of patient satisfaction. Only 59 percent of patients in NSW, Australia’s most populous state, were satisfied with the length of time they waited for an ambulance to arrive, compared to the national average of 64.5 percent, which is itself low. Total expenditure on ambulance services in the state was just $136.68 per person in the 2019-20 financial year, an increase of 25 percent over 2010-11. In the same decade, the national spend increased by 34 percent to $159.46 per person. An ambulance in Sydney earlier this year (Credit: Wikimedia, Helitak430) Staffing levels fell compared to population in NSW. While the number of full-time equivalent positions increased by 39 percent across the country during the decade, NSW staffing levels grew by only 18 percent. This was despite the state’s population having increased by 23 percent since 2010, compared to a national increase of 17 percent. World Socialist Web Site reporters spoke to a NSW paramedic about the conditions ambulance workers face. “We are hugely understaffed at the moment. There needs to be an injection of permanent staff. We are overworked. Instead, the ambulance service has introduced part-time and contract work, with no permanent security for the workforce. The existing workforce isn’t happy with that because it doesn’t address the existing understaffing. “Because the minimum operating levels haven’t been increased for 10 to 15 years, workloads have increased massively. You almost never get your breaks. There’s a never-ending stream of jobs that mount up and not enough ambulances and staff to cover those jobs. The prospect of getting any meaningful down time or rest is non-existent. “A huge amount of your pay is penalties in lieu of breaks. If you take breaks, then you are actually taking a pay cut because your base salary is quite low. Miss your two allocated breaks, you get a penalty. Over two weeks, missing all your breaks amounts to several hundreds of dollars in pay. On top of that you are doing shift overtime, more than 12 hours. Most of the time you are finishing one, two, or even three hours after your shift is supposed to end. “On the off chance that you may be able to get an allocated 30-minute break, after that you are straight back out and working continuously. On a night shift, even if you get that break it is hugely fatiguing to continuously go to difficult and stressful jobs. It all contributes to huge levels of fatigue, demoralisation and burnout. This has been a problem for decades.” A 2018 study of Australian paramedics found that 55.9 percent suffered total burnout and 62.7 percent suffered work-related burnout. The rate of suicide among paramedics is four times that of the general population. “Rostered shifts in Sydney are 12 hours and 15 minutes long. A day shift could be a 6:45 am start. You have 15 minutes to do a pre-shift check of the ambulance, sign out any restricted medications, and prepare yourself and the vehicle to respond. If you find any issues you have to deal with it in that 15-minute window. Often, because the workload is so high, a dispatch centre will call and request you go out before you complete the mandatory checks. “That contributes to a whole bunch of negative interactions for paramedics. If you don’t sign out medications then you can’t administer them to patients. If some of the equipment, like oxygen cylinders, is missing in our kit then we can turn up on scene without them because we were told to leave before checking.

Suez Canal blocked as massive cargo ship turns sideways - Shipping traffic has essentially been shut down in Egypt's Suez Canal. A cargo container ship considered one of the largest in the world has turned sideways and blocked all traffic, according to officials. The situation is threatening to disrupt a global shipping system already strained by the coronavirus pandemic. The MV Ever Given is a Panama-flagged container ship that carries trade between Asia and Europe. The ship became grounded Tuesday. Evergreen Marine Corp., a major Taiwan-based shipping company that operates the ship, said in a statement provided to The Associated Press that the Ever Given had been overcome by strong winds as it entered the Suez  A Egyptian official, who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity as he wasn't authorized to brief journalists similarly blamed a strong wind in the area for the incident. Egyptian forecasters said high winds and a sandstorm plagued the area Tuesday, with winds gusting as much as 50 kph (31 mph). The Ever Given's bow was touching the canal's eastern wall, while its stern looked lodged against its western wall, according to satellite data from MarineTraffic.com. Several tug boats surrounded the ship, likely attempting to push it the right way, the data showed. Canal authorities could not be immediately reached by the AP early Wednesday. The Ever Given had listed its destination as Rotterdam in the Netherlands prior to getting stuck in the canal.

Cargo ship blocking Suez Canal could take weeks to move -- The massive container ship that ran aground in the Suez Canal,, halting traffic in one of the world's busiest waterways, is still stuck as tug boats continued to try to dislodge the ship on Thursday. A team of expert salvors from Smit Salvage have been called in to assist with the operation. The ship, called the Ever Given, became horizontally wedged in the waterway following heavy winds. Multiple tugboats were sent to the scene to assist in the re-float operation, which could take days or even longer. "We can't exclude it might take weeks, depending on the situation," said Peter Berdowski, CEO of Dutch company Boskalis. Berdowski, whose company is helping in the salvage efforts, made the comments on Dutch television, according to Reuters. At 8:30 a.m. ET Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, which is the technical manager of the vessel, said an earlier attempt to re-float the vessel had failed, and that another re-float attempt would be made later on Thursday. "Dredging operations to assist refloating the vessel continue. In addition to the dredgers already on site a specialised suction dredger has arrived at the location," the firm said. The enormous cargo carrier is more than 1,300 feet long and about 193 feet wide. It weighs more than 200,000 tons. One end of the ship was wedged into one side of the canal, with the other stretching nearly to the other bank. The 120-mile long man-made waterway is a key point of global trade, connecting a steady flow of goods from East to West. Cr "Dredgers are working to clear sand and mud from around the vessel to free her. Tugboats in conjunction with Ever Given's winches are working to shift the vessel," Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement said Wednesday evening. Bernhard Schulte said that there were no reports of injuries among the 25 crew members, and that no cargo has been damaged. Initial investigations have ruled out mechanical or engine failure as reason for the grounding. Everything from consumer products to machinery parts to oil flows through its waters. Nearly 19,000 ships passed through the canal during 2020, for an average of 51.5 per day, according to the Suez Canal Authority. The ship was sailing from China to Rotterdam when it ran aground. Satellite images showed a buildup of ships on either end of the waterway as the Ever Given halted the flow of traffic. The accident comes as the global supply chain already struggles to keep apace with demand. The shortages have been most acute in the chip industry, forcing automakers to suspend operations.

Suez Canal blockage could cause problems for the globe: Here's what you need to know --The behemoth cargo ship stuck in the Suez Canal and blocking traffic in one of the world's most important maritime trade chokepoints isn't set to break free just yet.  The Ever Given, a 220,000-ton mega ship nearly a quarter-mile long with a 20,000 container capacity, ran aground after being blown by strong winds while entering Egypt's Suez Canal from the Red Sea. It's completely blocked the passageway that is home to as much as 12% of the world's seaborne trade and through which 50 container ships normally transit per day.   Tugboats and dredgers are currently working to dislodge the ship, which has been stuck since Tuesday evening. But the operation could take weeks, one of the executives involved has warned.  "While we believe and hope the situation will get resolved shortly, there are some risks of the ship breaking," JPMorgan strategist Marko Kolanovic wrote in a note Thursday. "In this scenario, the canal would be blocked for an extended period of time, which could result in significant disruptions to global trade, skyrocketing shipping rates, further increase of energy commodities, and an uptick in global inflation." The crisis is another blow to the global supply chain after a brutal year ridden with delays, shortages and price squeezes on the back of the coronavirus pandemic.    The shipping delays could impact everything from the clothes and shoes you ordered online to gym equipment, electronics, food, and energy supplies — meaning gas prices could get higher, too. While it's still early to say what the full impact of the tanker crisis will be, the bank expects that in the near term, "the blockage is likely to add to industry supply strains, which are already hampered by ongoing supply chain bottlenecks'' in the form of port congestion and shortages of both vessels and containers due to Covid-19.  Ships are going to have to shift to entirely different routes, "will result in longer voyage times and causing further delays," JPMorgan wrote. And those delays could be more than 15 days for many ships, whose alternative is sailing around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa, which analysts say would increase shipping times by up to 30%.   "The immediate impact of delays in the canal will centre on European – Asian trade, adding delays to already disrupted supply chains affecting oil and refined products' supplies," ING senior economist Joanna Konings wrote in a client note Wednesday.   The Ever Given's misfortune has already impacted oil prices.  News of the Suez blockage drew in buyers, and along with other economic data contributed to international benchmark Brent crude's one-month futures contract gaining "its biggest one-day gain in nearly a year to close at $64.41" on Wednesday, according to Arctic Securities, though it lost some of those gains by Thursday. In the meantime, between 5% and 10% of all seaborne oil is transported through the Suez, meaning that for each day that the ship remains stuck, it delays the shipment of another 3 million to 5 million barrels of oil per day. Several tankers carrying jet fuel and gasoil are also held up on the Persian Gulf-Europe route, as well as empty tankers crossing to pick up North Sea oil, S&P Platts reported Thursday.

Dutch ready to block AstraZeneca if UK deal fails - The Netherlands is ready to block shipments of AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine if the United Kingdom does not agree to a deal to share vaccines more fairly with the EU, Dutch government officials told POLITICO."If such an [EU-UK] agreement on sharing the delay proves impossible and the Commission were to decide to block an export request, the Dutch government can be expected to follow the Commission in its verdict," said a Dutch diplomat.While the Netherlands "in principle" remained in favor of maintaining a free flow of vaccines across borders, it also was keen to make sure that AstraZeneca didn't abuse that openness to fulfil only its contract with the United Kingdom, they said."We must avoid a tipping point whereby exporting to third countries becomes problematic as a result of exports continuing whilst Astra's supply to the Continent is choked off. That would result in a lose-lose scenario. To avoid that, Brussels and London together with AstraZeneca must compromise on the doses produced on the Continent."Under an export control regulation imposed in January and recently extended until the end of June, EU countries can block shipments of vaccines after asking the Commission for an opinion on whether such exports pose a risk to the EU's orders known as advance purchase agreements. AstraZeneca has fallen short of its delivery promises to the EU.

Italy coronavirus: Easter lockdown preparations as Covid-19 cases grow exponentially -Italy is facing another lockdown, as the government attempts to contain a recent surge of coronavirus cases, marred by the presence of new variants. Half of Italy's 20 regions, which include the cities Rome, Milan and Venice, will be entering new coronavirus restrictions from Monday, March 15. The measures will be effective through April 6, according to a decree passed by Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi's cabinet on Friday. In regions demarcated as "red zones" people will be unable to leave their houses except for work or health reasons, with all non-essential shops closed. In "orange zones," people will also be banned from leaving their town and their region -- except for work or health reasons -- and bars and restaurants will only be able to do delivery and take-away service. Affected regions will be labelled red or orange, depending on the level of contagion. Regions that report weekly Covid-19 cases of more than 250 per 100,000 residents will also automatically go into lockdown, meaning that other regions could also be affected during this time period. The health ministry said that the aim of the measures is to get the R rate -- the number of people that one infected person will pass the virus onto -- down to 1. Additionally, over Easter weekend, the entire country will be considered a "red zone," and will be subject to a national lockdown from April 3 to 5. Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said new coronavirus measures are "necessary" because "we are unfortunately facing a new wave of infections" one year after the start of the pandemic. The country's R rate is now at 1.6 with coronavirus variants increasing the spread of the virus, according to the health ministry. The variant B.1.1.7, which was first identified in the United Kingdom, is also now prevalent in the country, according to the health ministry, who also said that they are worried about the presence of small clusters of the Brazilian variant. The UK variant was originally found to be more easily transmissible --- and new data published in the medical journal, the BMJ, supports claims from UK officials, based on preliminary data, that the variant may be more deadly, as well. Meanwhile, the variant first reported in Brazil, known as P.1, may be up to 2.2 times more transmissible and could evade immunity from previous Covid-19 infection by up to 61%, according to a modeling study, released earlier this month by researchers in Brazil and the UK.

Police in Germany clear streets to protect illegal demo by far-right coronavirus deniers -Up to 20,000 right-wing extremists and COVID-19 deniers marched through the Hessian city of Kassel on Saturday, attacking journalists and terrorising those opposing the demonstration. Police reacted by not only allowing the fascist mob to proceed, they cleared the streets for the illegal march and brutally attacked counter-demonstrators. They clearly sought to intimidate anyone who supports social distancing rules under conditions where infection figures in Germany are rising exponentially.Arguing on the basis of health considerations, a court decided that a single rally of 6,000 participants could take place outside the city centre. Thousands of demonstrators defied this legal requirement and marched in a number of different columns toward the city centre. They refused to respect the requirement to wear masks or the minimum distance recommendations.Demonstrators carried placards with slogans such as “End the lockdown” or “Take off the masks.” Many participants carried German flags, imperial flags or—as is usual at xenophobic Pegida demonstrations—the flags of the federal states from which they had travelled. Also on display were the identification badges of right-wing extremist organisations such as the Third Way party or the Q-Anon conspiracy group. The victims of National Socialism were mocked by persons wearing yellow stars and carrying portraits of the prominent victim of the Nazi holocaust, Anne Frank.In the run-up to the demonstration, the far-right milieu had mobilised for the Kassel demo throughout Germany and Europe. Appeals were made in far-right forums to “explore the city centre” and not comply with health protection measures. The demonstrators moved through the city centre from noon onwards and assembled at the city’s central Friedrichplatz, where they remained for the afternoon. The last of the demonstrators were only dispersed by police at around 7 p.m. For the rest of the day the demonstrators were able to move through the city centre largely unmolested. Police only resorted to the use of batons and tear gas when they were directly attacked with stones and bottles.

"I Take Full Responsibility": Merkel Cancels Draconian Easter Lockdown Amid Backlash From Furious Germans One day after imposing a 5-day ultra-strict lockdown set to take effect over Easter weekend (presumably to head off any holiday-inspired spread), German Chancellor Angela Merkel has abandoned the plan, though Germany is still planning to extend its current restrictions through April 18. Merkel is dropping the plan after it inspired an intense public backlash and resistance by politicians in the opposition and Merkel's coalition, anonymous sources reportedly told Bloomberg. Merkel informed the leaders of Germany's 16 states in a video call on Wednesday morning that she was dropping the five-day lockdown, which would have closed all businesses. Even supermarkets would have been forced to limit operations. The planned restrictions also prohibited private gatherings of more than five adults from two different households, and required Easter services at German churches to be conducted virtually, angering Germans who already spent their Christmas holiday isolated from family members. During a meeting earlier this week, Germany's local leaders reluctantly assented to the Chancellor's plan. "I take full responsibility for this misjudgement," Merkel told the state leaders. Asking forgiveness for the plan, she said that the shutdown was "created with the best of intentions" but it's strictures are simply unable to be implemented. Many within Merkel's ruling Christian-Democrat-led coalition applauded her decision. Bavarian Premier Markus Soder said that he respected the chancellor’s change of heart, while pointing out that the proposed restrictions had faced questions over their legality, RT reports. Merkel faced a barrage of criticism over the measures, including a ban on church services, which was particularly controversial. Clergy, and even Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, a longtime political ally, urged the chancellor to reconsider. Some state leaders even proclaimed that they would not abide by the rule. Saxony’s Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer said that his state would not prevent churches from holding in-person services.

Eviction ban in England extended to end of May, as tens of thousands of renters remain in crisis - As part of its reckless reopening of the economy, with everything to be fully reopened by June, the UK Conservative government is to end its ban on private sector evictions for rent arrears on May 31. The ban on evictions was introduced in March last year and has been extended several times. The government was forced into maintaining an eviction ban out of fear of the social backlash to hundreds of thousands of people being made homeless in the midst of a pandemic. With Prime Minister Boris Johnson declaring that the current lockdown will be the last, a massive wave of homelessness is set to hit the UK in England and Wales when the ban is lifted in just over two months. On March 10, Housing Minister Robert Jenrick announced that the evictions ban, that had been due to end March 31, would end May 31. In what is falsely described as a major concession, landlords and letting agents in England will, from May, have to give six-months’ notice of eviction, meaning that physical evictions can still start in November. However, those tenants with over 6 months’ accumulated rent arrears will still be able to be evicted after May 31 with just four weeks’ notice. Those deemed guilty of anti-social behaviour will also be able to be evicted with four weeks’ notice. The other main exemption is that landlords will be able to evict with just three months notice those deemed to have breached immigration rules under the “Right to Rent” policy. Housing charity Shelter warned that many tenants remain in a precarious position. “These extensions will come as a relief to the frightened renters who’ve been flooding our helpline with calls. While the threat level from the virus is still high, Shelter issued a March 16 press release based on a poll carried out for the charity by data analysis firm YouGov. The survey found around 14 percent of the population in England, around six million people feared homelessness because of big reductions in incomes and job losses following on from the pandemic. Shelter predicted, “With people’s incomes slashed, job losses mounting and people hanging onto their homes by a thread, the charity expects the pressure on its frontline services to grow.” The poll showed those renting privately were those most concerned about becoming homeless, with more than one in four (27 percent) expressing such fears. Nearly half (47 percent) of private renters were depressed or anxious about the housing situation compared to 26 percent of the general population. A quarter of private renters (2 million people) have suffered a cut in their incomes over the last six months leading to problems paying their rent. Over the last month, the survey showed, 24 percent of private renters have had to borrow money to meet their rent, while 18 percent had missed meals or cut back on food and 12 percent had cut back on heating in order to cover rent costs.

 Tests used in UK schools “not fit for purpose” - Mass testing of staff and students has been central to the UK government’s justification for the reopening of all schools in England. All secondary school pupils and primary and secondary school staff are being advised to self-administer lateral flow tests twice a week. The differences between lateral flow tests and the coronavirus polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests used since the start of the pandemic are significant. PCR tests are looking for the presence of the genetic material of the virus. The lateral flow kit contains antibodies that stick to any spike proteins of the virus in the test sample. A positive result is produced if a sufficient quantity of antibodies attach to the sample. The PCR test requires the sample to be sent to a laboratory, because the sample has to be copied a large number of times, before it can be analysed, and the presence of the coronavirus detected. The lateral flow tests can deliver a result in 30 minutes because there is no need to copy the sample in a laboratory. This comes at the cost of significantly reduced accuracy. In February, the British Medical Journal reported on a pilot study in Liverpool of the lateral flow test produced by Innova. The study found that 60 percent of infected asymptomatic people went undetected, as did 33 percent of those with high viral loads. During a time of high rates of infection in the city and when secondary age children were showing the highest rates of infection nationwide, teachers reported whole schools being tested and every test result coming back negative. There have been numerous reports since of workers such as teachers getting a negative lateral flow result followed by a positive PCR within the same 24-hour period. The tests were also used at universities around the UK in December to ensure that students were not COVID-positive before they returned home to their families. Data from the University of Birmingham showed a sensitivity of 3 percent, meaning the tests pick up just three in 100 of people with COVID-19. Meanwhile, universities in Scotland found that 58 percent of all positives were false positives . Professor Jon Deeks, a biostatistician at the University of Birmingham who leads the Cochrane Collaboration’s COVID-19 test evaluation activities, said of tests in response to the data: “They’re not fit for purpose. I’d rather they hang these tests on a Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square, that would be better.” According to the government’s own report, produced by Public Health England, the Innova test has a false negative rate of 21 percent when used by laboratory scientists, 27 percent when used by trained healthcare staff and 42 percent when used by members of the public. The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends that rapid diagnostic tests should miss no more than 30 percent of positive cases.