week ending May 1

When Will The Fed Begin Tapering: Here's What 10 Wall Street Strategists Think - To answer this question, Bloomberg has sifted through and compiled the thoughts of ten of Wall Street's top rates strategists and economists for their outlooks when the Fed will broach the subject of tapering. Here are the results:

• Bloomberg (Carl Riccadonna) Our view is that the tapering happens in the first quarter of next year. This will give plenty of opportunity to pre-announce/forewarn/hint/etc. starting from the July semi-annual testimony, through Jackson Hole and over the course of the second half.”
• Bank of America (Bruno Braizinha and Mark Cabana, April 23 report) “Recent rate decline does not change our view for higher yields this year” For 10-year, current range of 1.4%-1.7% should move to 1.75%-2.10% as economy improves and Fed signals on taper during second half of year
• Barclays (Anshul Pradhan, others, April 22 report) Recommends trades “for a rangebound environment” Front end is “still being too aggressive in pricing in inflation and hikes,” while long end has “room to push real yields higher” based on “scope for the growth outlook to be revised higher”
• Citi (Jason Williams, April 23 report) Treasury to “take precautionary measures and reduce the size of the 20y auction,” which has experienced “a clear and consistent concession” in contrast to the 30- year “There is a clear demand for long-duration bonds, but the 20y does not appear to be fulfilling that role for investors” Treasury may “foreshadow a reduction in 20s for the August refunding, with a risk that it does a marginal cut this quarter”
• Goldman Sachs (Praveen Korapaty, others, April 23 report) “There appears to be a good case for some asymmetry on the outlook for real rates vis-à-vis inflation,” in which further inflation upside doesn’t move liftoff pricing forward very much “but a softer outlook could see the timeline shift further out” More bullishness on inflation “would likely have a greater impact on the pace of hiking beyond liftoff rather than pulling forward the liftoff date by much”
• JPMorgan (Jay Barry, Phoebe White, Natalie Matejkova, April 23 report) Treasury yields “need a new catalyst” to move higher from current levels, and “tightening labor markets and a Fed tapering could spark such a move, but we do not see this driving Treasuries until the summer”
• Morgan Stanley (Guneet Dhingra, April 23 report) “The complete lack of reaction to the recent upside surprises in economic data shows the high degree of optimism embedded in Treasury yields” Risks of prolonged virus challenges “will be enough to keep the Fed a lot more patient than the optimistic path priced by the Treasury market” Rate-hike expectations are likely to move “deeper into 2023,” and 5- and 10-year yields “could be around 65bp and 140bp if the market prices the first hike in June 2023”
• NatWest (John Briggs, April 24 report) Recommends short positions in Treasuries, especially intermediates, based on rising expectations that Fed will begin to discuss tapering asset purchases in September, following similar moves by Canada and possibly U.K. in the meantime Tapering “will lead to the market pricing in more hikes down the road,” beginning in 2023, “and then as in 2013, just roll that rate hike pricing over time until we actually get there”
• Soc Gen (Subadra Rajappa, others, April 22 report) “With the U.S. economy at an ‘inflection point’ and bond yields at the lower end of the recent range, we see room for yields to rise on strong data” Fed “is set to take baby steps towards preparing the markets for a taper announcement, while the ECB retains a more cautious stance,” which should lead to U.S.-German 10-year spread widening
• TD Securities (Priya Misra, Gennadiy Goldberg, Penglu Zhao, April 23 report) It’s too soon to expect any sign on tapering asset purchases from the FOMC meeting Recent price action “is just a temporary breather in the longer-term trend towards higher rates” driven by economic improvement, increased supply of duration and higher inflation risk premium Expects 10- year yield to reach 2% by year end, 5s30s curve to steepen

Meanwhile, Bloomberg summarizes the result of its survey noting that more than two-thirds of the economists surveyed expect the FOMC will give an early-warning signal of tapering this year, with the largest number - 45% - looking for a nod during the July-September quarter.

El-Erian: Fed Should Start Tapering Now... But It Won't --I suspect that Federal Reserve officials are not the only ones looking for an uneventful policy meeting this week. The majority of market participants are also expecting an undramatic event that will include an upgrade of the economic outlook, a reiteration of uncertainties and the signaling of nothing new on policies. Unfortunately, it’s an outcome that kicks the policy can further down the road when the central bank should be thinking now about scaling back its extraordinary measures. Although Fed officials raised their growth estimates significantly at their last meeting, they will most likely upgrade their economic outlook for 2021 again after the recent string of  strong economic data. This will be accompanied by the usual Covid-related qualifications when accelerating vaccine deployment continues to race against growing infectionsand the threat of new variants of the virus.The further improvement in the economic outlook is unlikely to change the Fed’s policy guidance, however.Rather than follow the lead of the Bank of Canada, which last week  began cutting back on bond purchases and signaled a quicker time frame for the next interest rate increase, the Fed will most likely take an approach similar to the one the European Central Bank conveyed last Thursday.It will maintain policy as is, remind markets that it is willing to do even more should downside risks materialize and play down the risk of inflation and other overheating as transitory.Markets have validated this policy attitude over the past month. After spiking to 1.76% in reaction to the improved economic outlook and inflation concerns, the yield on 10-year government bonds has declined, closing 20 basis points lower last week. Despite some small wobbles, risk-taking in the equity markets has remained robust. And all this has come in the context of reassuring statements from top Fed officials – not just playing down the significance of the coming increase in inflation but also indicating that there is no need to worry about risks to financial stability.Such a policy approach does have the attractiveness of repressing financial volatility at a time of economic, policy and institutional transitions. It is also an approach that papers over the growing inconsistency between ultra-loose financial conditions on the one hand and a strongly recovering economy, rising inflationary pressures and yet more evidence of pockets of excessive and, at times, irresponsible risk-taking on the other.The attractiveness of short-term calm comes at the risk of more significant policy challenges down the road.Rather than do what it is most likely to do this week — that is, accompany the ECB in stoking ultra-loose financial conditions even though the U.S. economic outlook is brighter than Europe’s — the Fed should seriously consider following the Bank of Canada’s example by initiating a gradual and careful retreat. The longer it takes to do so, the harder it will be to pull off an eventual normalization without risking both significant market volatility and damaging what should and must be a durable and inclusive economic recovery.

 FOMC Statement: No Policy Change, Upgrade to Outlook - Fed Chair Powell press conference video here starting at 2:30 PM ET.  FOMC Statement:  The Federal Reserve is committed to using its full range of tools to support the U.S. economy in this challenging time, thereby promoting its maximum employment and price stability goals.  The COVID-19 pandemic is causing tremendous human and economic hardship across the United States and around the world. Amid progress on vaccinations and strong policy support,indicators of economic activity and employment have strengthened. The sectors most adversely affected by the pandemic remain weak but have shown improvement.Inflation has risen, largely reflecting transitory factors. Overall financial conditions remain accommodative, in part reflecting policy measures to support the economy and the flow of credit to U.S. households and businesses.  The path of the economy will depend significantly on the course of the virus, including progress on vaccinations. The ongoing public health crisis continues to weigh on the economy, and risks to the economic outlook remain.  The Committee seeks to achieve maximum employment and inflation at the rate of 2 percent over the longer run. With inflation running persistently below this longer-run goal, the Committee will aim to achieve inflation moderately above 2 percent for some time so that inflation averages 2 percent over time and longer‑term inflation expectations remain well anchored at 2 percent. The Committee expects to maintain an accommodative stance of monetary policy until these outcomes are achieved. The Committee decided to keep the target range for the federal funds rate at 0 to 1/4 percent and expects it will be appropriate to maintain this target range until labor market conditions have reached levels consistent with the Committee's assessments of maximum employment and inflation has risen to 2 percent and is on track to moderately exceed 2 percent for some time. In addition, the Federal Reserve will continue to increase its holdings of Treasury securities by at least $80 billion per month and of agency mortgage‑backed securities by at least $40 billion per month until substantial further progress has been made toward the Committee's maximum employment and price stability goals. These asset purchases help foster smooth market functioning and accommodative financial conditions, thereby supporting the flow of credit to households and businesses. In assessing the appropriate stance of monetary policy, the Committee will continue to monitor the implications of incoming information for the economic outlook. The Committee would be prepared to adjust the stance of monetary policy as appropriate if risks emerge that could impede the attainment of the Committee's goals. The Committee's assessments will take into account a wide range of information, including readings on public health, labor market conditions, inflation pressures and inflation expectations, and financial and international developments.

 US Fed a “long way” from withdrawing massive financial support for Wall Street The US Federal Reserve this week again emphasised it is a “long way” from withdrawing the massive financial support that has fuelled the rise of Wall Street and asset prices over the past year during the COVID-19 pandemic, transferring hundreds of billions of dollars into the hands of the corporate and financial elites. The Fed’s commitment to continued support—the purchases of Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities at the rate of $120 billion per month and the maintenance of the base interest rate at virtually zero—came despite it upgrading the outlook for the US economy and signs that inflation is starting to rise. The Fed’s policy-making committee said that “amid progress on vaccinations and strong policy support, indicators of economic activity and employment have strengthened.” It noted that inflation had risen but said this was largely due to “transitory factors.” This was to allay concerns in some sections of the financial markets that rising inflation numbers would bring a tightening of the Fed’s monetary policy. In his opening remarks to a press conference following the two-day policy meeting, Fed chairman Jerome Powell indicated that recent price rises would not impact on its accommodative measures. “Readings on inflation have increased and are likely to rise somewhat further before moderating,” he said. They were due to one-time effects, such as upward pressure on prices as the economy re-opened. Powell emphasised that the Fed would maintain its present policies until maximum employment was achieved and inflation expectations were “well-anchored” at 2 percent. “We expect to maintain an accommodative stance of monetary policy until these employment and inflation outcomes are achieved,” he said, noting that a “transitory rise in inflation above 2 percent this year would not meet this standard.” In a further reassurance to financial markets that the Fed was not yet even thinking about tapering its support, Powell said: “The economy is a long way from our goals, and it is likely to take some time for substantial further progress to be achieved.” There is nervousness in financial markets and within the Fed itself that Wall Street has become so dependent on the outflow of cheap money that any winding back could bring a repeat of the “taper tantrum” of 2013 that saw significant turbulence in response to indications that the quantitative easing program, initiated after the 2008 financial crisis, could start to be eased. But there are also concerns that if the Fed does not start to prepare markets for some withdrawal of support, then it may have to sharply tighten monetary policy if inflation starts to rise faster than expected.

BEA: Real GDP increased at 6.4% Annualized Rate in Q1 -- From the BEA: Gross Domestic Product, First Quarter 2021 (Advance Estimate) Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 6.4 percent in the first quarter of 2021, according to the "advance" estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the fourth quarter of 2020, real GDP increased 4.3 percent. ...The increase in real GDP in the first quarter reflected increases in personal consumption expenditures (PCE), nonresidential fixed investment, federal government spending, residential fixed investment, and state and local government spending that were partly offset by decreases in private inventory investment and exports. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased. The advance Q1 GDP report, with 6.4% annualized growth, was slightly below expectations.

Q1 GDP Advance Estimate: Real GDP at 6.4%, Beats Forecast -The Advance Estimate for Q1 GDP, to one decimal, came in at 6.4% (6.39% to two decimal places), an increase from 4.3% (4.33% to two decimal places) for the Q4 Third Estimate. Investing.com had a consensus of 6.1%.Here is the slightly abbreviated opening text from the Bureau of Economic Analysis news release: Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 6.4 percent in the first quarter of 2021 (table 1), according to the "advance" estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the fourth quarter of 2020, real GDP increased 4.3 percent.The GDP estimate released today is based on source data that are incomplete or subject to further revision by the source agency (see "Source Data for the Advance Estimate" on page 3). The "second" estimate for the first quarter, based on more complete data, will be released on May 27, 2021.The increase in real GDP in the first quarter reflected increases in personal consumption expenditures (PCE), nonresidential fixed investment, federal government spending, residential fixed investment, and state and local government spending that were partly offset by decreases in private inventory investment and exports. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased (table 2). [Full Release] Here is a look at Quarterly GDP since Q2 1947. Prior to 1947, GDP was an annual calculation. To be more precise, the chart shows is the annualized percentage change from the preceding quarter in Real (inflation-adjusted) Gross Domestic Product. We've also included recessions, which are determined by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). Also illustrated are the 3.18% average (arithmetic mean) and the 10-year moving average, currently at 2.26%.

Economy looks strong -- James_Hamilton - The Bureau of Economic Analysis announced today that seasonally adjusted U.S. real GDP grew at a 6.4% annual rate in the first quarter, well above the 3.1% average growth that the U.S. experienced over 1947-2019.  Real GDP growth at an annual rate, 1947:Q2-2021:Q1, with the 1947-2019 historical average (3.1%) in blue. Calculated as 400 times the difference in the natural log of GDP from the previous quarter.  The new data put the Econbrowser recession indicator index at 0.4%, historically a very low value. The number posted today (0.4%) is an assessment of the situation of the economy in the previous quarter (namely 2020:Q4), where we use the additional quarter to allow for data revisions and to gain better precision. This index provides an automatic procedure that we have been implementing for 15 years for assigning dates for the beginning and ending quarters of economic recessions. As we announced on January 28, the COVID recession ended in the second quarter of 2020.  GDP-based recession indicator index. The plotted value for each date is based solely on the GDP numbers that were publicly available as of one quarter after the indicated date, with 2020:Q4 the last date shown on the graph. With the exception of the the end of the 2020 recession, shaded regions represent the NBER’s dates for recessions, which dates were not used in any way in constructing the index. The indicated end to the 2020 recession comes from the algorithm described in Chauvet and Hamilton (2005).  The NBER Business Cycle Dating Committee has yet to issue an official declaration that the recession has ended.  The Dating Committee may be waiting until the levels of variables like GDP return to their values of 2019:Q4 before the COVID recession began. The 2020:Q1 value is still 0.9% below the value of 2019:Q4.  100 times the natural logarithm of the level of real GDP, 1990:Q1 to 2021:Q1, normalized at 2019:Q4 = 100. A movement on the vertical axis of 1 unit corresponds to a 1% change in the level of real GDP. The value for 2020:Q4 of 99.1 indicates that real GDP in 2021:Q1 was 0.9% below the value in 2019:Q4.  In terms of the breakdown of the Q1 GDP numbers, consumption spending, spurred by more stimulus money, led the way. Direct spending by the federal government also accounted for 0.9 percentage points of the 6.4% annualized GDP growth rate. Private fixed investment made a positive contribution, though this was smaller than the contribution of fixed investment to the 2020:Q3 and Q4 figures. The Federal Reserve reiterated yesterday its commitment to keep interest rates low. That should provide continuing stimulus to house prices and residential fixed investment in 2021.

Q1 Real GDP Per Capita: 5.8% Versus the 6.4% Headline Real GDP -  The Advance Estimate for Q1 GDP came in at 6.4% (6.39% to two decimals), up from 4.3% (4.33% to two decimals) in Q4 2020. With a per-capita adjustment, the headline number is lower at 5.82% to two decimal points.Here is a chart of real GDP per capita growth since 1960. For this analysis, we've chained in today's dollar for the inflation adjustment. The per-capita calculation is based on quarterly aggregates of mid-month population estimates by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, which date from 1959 (hence our 1960 starting date for this chart, even though quarterly GDP has is available since 1947). The population data is available in the FRED series POPTHM. The logarithmic vertical axis ensures that the highlighted contractions have the same relative scale. The chart includes an exponential regression through the data using the Excel GROWTH function to give us a sense of the historical trend. The regression illustrates the fact that the trend since the Great Recession has a visibly lower slope than the long-term trend. In fact, the current GDP per-capita is 9.9% below the pre-recession trend (2008). The real per-capita series gives us a better understanding of the depth and duration of GDP contractions. As we can see, since our 1960 starting point, the recession that began in December 2007 is associated with a deeper trough than previous contractions, which perhaps justifies its nickname as the Great Recession. The standard measure of GDP in the US is expressed as the compounded annual rate of change from one quarter to the next. The current real GDP is 6.4%. But with a per-capita adjustment, the data series is lower at 5.8%. The 10-year moving average illustrates that US economic growth has slowed dramatically since the last recession and has dropped significantly during the COVID recession.

Seven High Frequency Indicators for the Economy --These indicators are mostly for travel and entertainment.  The TSA is providing daily travel numbers. This data shows the seven day average of daily total traveler throughput from the TSA for 2019 (Light Blue), 2020 (Blue) and 2021 (Red). The dashed line is the percent of 2019 for the seven day average. This data is as of April 25th. The seven day average is down 42.7% from the same day in 2019 (57.3% of 2019).   The second graph shows the 7 day average of the year-over-year change in diners as tabulated by OpenTable for the US and several selected cities. This data is updated through April 24, 2021.  Note that this data is for "only the restaurants that have chosen to reopen in a given market". Since some restaurants have not reopened, the actual year-over-year decline is worse than shown. Dining picked up during the holidays, then slumped with the huge winter surge in cases.  Dining was picking up again, but has moved up and down over the last couple of weeks.  This data shows domestic box office for each week and the median for the years 2016 through 2019 (dashed light blue).   The data is from BoxOfficeMojo through Apr 22nd.   Movie ticket sales were at $24 million last week,  down about 83% from the median for the week. This 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 - before 2020). Occupancy is now above the horrible 2009 levels. This data is through April 17th. Hotel occupancy is currently down 13% compared to same week in 2019.   This graph, based on weekly data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), shows gasoline supplied compared to the same week of 2019. Blue is for 2020.  Red is for 2021. As of April 16th, gasoline supplied was off about 3.2% (about 96.8% of the same week in 2019). Gasoline supplied was up year-over-year, since at one point, gasoline supplied was off almost 50% YoY in 2020.   This graph is from Apple mobility. From Apple: "This data is generated by counting the number of requests made to Apple Maps for directions in select countries/regions, sub-regions, and cities." There is also some great data on mobility from the Dallas Fed Mobility and Engagement Index. However the index is set "relative to its weekday-specific average over January–February", and is not seasonally adjusted, so we can't tell if an increase in mobility is due to recovery or just the normal increase in the Spring and Summer. This data is through April 24th for the United States and several selected cities. The graph is the running 7 day average to remove the impact of weekends. Here is some interesting data on New York subway usage (HT BR). This graph is from Todd W Schneider. This is weekly data since 2015. Schneider has graphs for each borough, and links to all the data sources. 

 Early Q2 GDP Forecasts: 10% -- From Goldman Sachs:  We launched our Q2 GDP tracking estimate at +10.5% (qoq ar). [Apr 30 estimate] From the NY Fed Nowcasting Report: The New York Fed Staff Nowcast stands at 5.3% for 2021:Q2. [Apr 30 estimate]   And from the Altanta Fed: GDPNow:The GDPNow model estimate for real GDP growth (seasonally adjusted annual rate) in thesecond quarter of 2021 is 10.4 percent on April 30. [Apr 30 estimate]

Democrat Manchin praises GOP infrastructure proposal --Sen. Joe Manchin said he would support a more targeted version of President Joe Biden's sprawling $2 trillion infrastructure package before focusing on other items as part of a separate plan. "I do think they should be separated, because, when you start putting so much into one bill, which we call an omnibus bill, makes it very, very difficult for the public to understand," the moderate West Virginia Democrat said during an interview on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday. Manchin, a key figure in negotiations over the president's proposal, also praised the Republicans' counteroffer proposal, which is a fraction of the cost of the one Biden has unveiled and excludes, which is a fraction of the cost of the one Biden has unveiled and excludes Democratic goals like care for elderly and disabled Americans. Manchin said the GOP plan is "a good start" and that a bipartisan proposal should tackle traditional infrastructure issues, such as repairing roads and bridges. "And they have worked it together. So, we know it has bipartisan support," Manchin said. "We just have to look to see if we have gotten everything in there that we need. And we will be working on that together. So, I'm very, very pleased with that." Biden has said he wants to have an infrastructure bill Republicans also support, though it's unclear what kind of legislation would receive bipartisan consensus. Democrats could also move forward to pass a bill on their own through budget reconciliation, which requires only a simple majority in the Senate, if the GOP doesn't agree to a deal. However, Manchin has said he opposes using reconciliation. Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, who backed the GOP bill along with Roger Wicker of Mississippi, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and John Barrasso of Wyoming, said on Sunday that she's received an "encouraging" response from the Biden administration regarding their plan. "I have talked to our ranking members. I have talked to my committee chairmen. I have talked to Democrats," Capito said on CNN. "This is an active conversation, and I think that it's a good beginning." The president has met with Republican and Democratic lawmakers twice about infrastructure in recent weeks and is expected to unveil the second part of his infrastructure and economic recovery plan next week.

Manchin floats breaking up Biden’s infrastructure proposal Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said Friday that Congress should focus on "conventional" infrastructure and floated breaking up President Biden's sweeping plan. Manchin, speaking at a press conference with a bipartisan group of lawmakers and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R), said the administration and Congress should take Biden's plan "step by step" and focus first on areas that could get bipartisan support like water, roads, bridges and the internet. "What we think the greatest need we have now, that can be done in a bipartisan way, is conventional infrastructure whether it's the water, sewer, roads, bridges, Internet — things that we know need to be repaired, be fixed," Manchin said. "Why don't you take the greatest need that we have and do it on something that we all agree on?" Manchin added. Biden's $2.3 trillion proposal includes money for roads and bridges, broadband, rail and water systems but also includes funding for in-home care, housing, clean energy, public schools and manufacturing. Manchin, who referred to the proposal as a "conceptual plan," broke it down between "conventional" and "human" infrastructure, and argued that the former could get bipartisan support. "The other things that are conceptional, we can work on piece by piece, committee by committee," adding that a bipartisan bill on "conventional" infrastructure was "doable." Manchin, the most conservative member of the Senate Democratic caucus, is a key vote in the 50-50 Senate. He previously helped sink Neera Tanden's Office of Management and Budget nomination, is helping lead a bipartisan group of 20 senators looking for potential deals and kept the Democrats' coronavirus package in limbo for hours as he secured additional changes to the unemployment language. Manchin isn't the only Democrat who has suggested breaking up the White House plan. Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), a close Biden ally, has floated peeling off what could get bipartisan support into one bill and then passing what can't in another package under reconciliation, which allows Democrats to bypass the filibuster.

The Heroic Congressional Fight to Save the Rich --Matt Taibb --iJosh Gottheimer, Democrat of New Jersey, made an inspired plea recently. The Harvard man and Alpha Epsilon Pi brother is a member of the so-called “SALT caucus,” a group of congressfolk threatening to hold up Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill if it doesn’t include a full repeal of a Donald Trump-imposed $10,000 cap on deductions of state and local taxes. “It is high time that Congress reinstates the state and local tax deduction, so we can get more dollars back into the pockets of so many struggling families,” intoned Gottheimer, one of 32 members of the SALT caucus, which includes 8 Republicans. Pressure on Biden to repeal the SALT cap has been amping up, mainly from tri-state Democrats like Gottheimer, fellow New Jerseyan Bill Pascrell, and Tom Suozzi of New York. “No SALT, no deal!” the trio power-tweeted a few weeks back. Just a few days ago, Gottheimer even came up with a new way to argue the plan, offering to pay for the repeal of the SALT cap by increasing audits. “There is a way to do this by going after what people owe already,” he said. The effort by the “SALT caucus” to hold a $2 trillion relief bill hostage in order to help what they’re calling “struggling families” in the “middle class” is just the latest development in a years-long saga revealing Congress at its phoniest and most shameless. This issue that “means so much to the American people,” according to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is really a niche matter concerning a sliver of the most well-off Americans in a handful of blue states, who were made the target of a political prank of sorts by the Trump administration in 2017. There are a lot of people who own homes in blue states, could use the deduction, probably don’t think of themselves as rich, and would balk at the idea that repealing the cap would be a luxury giveaway. The story has been framed in the press as more of an everyman issue, and the fact that most of the money at stake involves people at the very top of the curve has been obscured.

 $15 Minimum Wage: Biden to Give Nearly 400,000 Workers Raise -- The White House released an executive order on Tuesday that President Biden will sign the same day, requiring federal contractors to pay workers at least $15 an hour. Such workers currently earn a minimum of $10.95 an hour, and Tuesday’s order guarantees them a wage hike of around 37 percent, the Associated Press reported. Affected workers include custodial staff, “nursing assistants who care for veterans, cafeteria workers providing for the military and laborers who build and repair federal infrastructure,” the AP continued, and the new wage is indexed to inflation, so it will increase every year.The order will raise wages for up to 390,000 workers, the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute estimated on Tuesday. Advocates for a higher minimum wage have long supported such a measure for federal workers. Though Biden can’t raise the federal minimum wage for all workers without Congress, raising the wage for federal contracts helps hundreds of thousands and bypasses a legislative body that is stifled by the filibuster.The White House dismissed fears that a higher minimum wage could be bad for the economy. “This executive order will promote economy and efficiency in federal contracting, providing value for taxpayers by enhancing worker productivity and generating higher-quality work by boosting workers’ health, morale, and effort,” the White House said in a statement.While the Senate dithers about the filibuster, Biden’s latest executive order creates a kind of pilot program for a higher minimum wage nationwide. Assuming the sky doesn’t fall — and it won’t, given existing examples in states and municipalities that have already raised the minimum wage — it’ll be harder for opponents to argue that a $15 minimum wage represents a grave economic threat. Biden’s order is no replacement for a nationwide $15 per hour floor, but it does expand the boundaries of what the political class considers to be possible. That matters, even as the Fight for $15 and a Union goes on.

Up to 390,000 federal contractors will see a raise under the Biden-Harris executive order - Today the Biden-Harris administration issued an executive order requiring federal contractors to pay a minimum wage of $15 per hour. This is very welcome news. We estimate that up to 390,000 low-wage federal contractors will see a raise under this policy, with the average annual pay increase for affected year-round workers being up to $3,100. Roughly half of workers who would see a raise will be women and roughly half will be Black or Hispanic workers.  To arrive at these estimates, we first estimate the state- and industry-specific shares of federal contract employment using FY2020 federal contract obligations from USA Spending and input-output tables from 2019Bureau of Labor Statistics employment requirements data. We then combined these results with the EPI Minimum Wage Simulation Model, assuming that the state- and industry-specific wage distributions for federal contractors are similar to the state- and industry-specific overall wage distributions. Following this methodology, we project that the policy will raise wages of up to 390,000 federal contractors in 2022. We say “up to” 390,000 to account for the fact that some workers who would otherwise be affected by a $15 minimum wage will already be receiving a higher wage as a result of the Davis-Bacon Act or the Service Contract Act. An extreme lower bound for the number of contract workers affected by this executive order after accounting for these other wage standards is 226,000. (This lower bound is generated by entirely excluding the construction industry and, outside of construction, raising the underlying wage distribution by an industry-specific union wage premium.)  We are thrilled that the administration is increasing the minimum wage for workers on federal contracts to $15 per hour and raising wages for hundreds of thousands of workers, and we encourage the administration to go further to help ensure that the estimated two million total jobs held by federal contract workers are good jobs. This would include steps like ending practices that allow low-road contractors to win bids that are so low they are inconsistent with decent pay and working conditions, and banning federal government contractors from requiring contract workers to sign forced arbitration and class action waivers, which limit the ability of these workers to challenge illegal practices.

Here's what's in Biden's $1.8T American Families Plan  --  -- President Biden on Wednesday will outline the American Families Plan, an ambitious package that would call for $1 trillion in new spending and $800 billion in new tax credits and aim to significantly expand access to preschool and community college, as well as child care and health care benefits. Biden will detail the proposal during a speech before a joint session of Congress in which he is expected to lay out his agenda for the coming months. The centerpiece of the speech will be the families plan, which is being rolled out less than a month after Biden unveiled a $2.3 trillion infrastructure proposal. The American Families Plan calls for a $200 billion program offering universal pre-kindergarten for all three- and four-year-olds; $109 billion for tuition-free community college for any American who wants it; $85 billion to increase Pell Grants to benefit low-income and minority students; and more than $4 billion in funding for larger scholarships, certification and support programs for teachers. The plan would build upon provisions of the American Rescue Plan by extending the Affordable Care Act premiums tax credits indefinitely and make the earned income tax credit expansion for childless workers permanent. It would permanently make the child tax credit fully available to the lowest-income families, while extending other aspects of the expansion of the credit, such as the increase in the credit amount, through 2025. The proposal also calls for the creation of a national paid family and medical leave program. The $225 billion investment would provide workers up to $4,000 a month if they require leave to care for a new child, care for a seriously ill loved one, deal with an illness or another serious reason. Other measures Biden will call on Congress to pass include a $45 billion investment in meal programs for children and low-income families; unemployment insurance reform; $225 billion for investments in child care that would include a $15 minimum wage for early childhood staff and expanded child care center accessibility. Officials said the plan would be paid for through tax reforms targeted at wealthy Americans, such as an increased capital gains tax rate, a higher top income tax rate and increased IRS auditing enforcement on high-income individuals and businesses.  The plan, which faces an uncertain future in Congress, does not go as far as some Democrats hoped. Some have pressed for a permanent expansion of the child tax credit, and it’s not clear that lawmakers will be satisfied by the proposal to make part of the expansion permanent while extending other parts through 2025. Key Democrats signaled on Tuesday that the House bill would include such a provision despite Biden not putting it in his initial proposal. Biden has also faced pressure from members of his party, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), to include health-related provisions expanding health coverage and lowering drug prices. The ideas had initially been expected to be part of the plan, but Biden did not include them in the final version. Asked why such provisions were not included, a senior administration official said that the permanent ObamaCare premium tax credit represents a “critical investment” and insisted that Biden remains “fully committed to negotiations to reduce the cost of prescription drugs. The White House views the proposal as a companion to Biden’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure and climate plan he announced last month, and officials said that the investments would be made over a 10-year period. The two plans combined total more than $4 trillion in government spending, on top of the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill that Biden signed into law about 50 days into his term. The administration’s two most recent proposals include tax increases that would pay for both plans in full over a 15-year period.

Biden Just Gave the Most Ideologically Ambitious Speech of Any Democratic President in Generations - President Joe Biden’s address to a joint session Congress was the most ambitious ideological statement made by any Democratic president in decades—couched in language that made it sound as if he wasn’t making an ideological argument at all. Make no mistake that he was. He called for trillions in new spending in a robust expansion of government’s role in multiple arenas of American life in ways that would have been impossible to contemplate in Barack Obama’s presidency. He plunged into subjects—racial and class inequities, immigration, gun violence—that were rubbed raw until bleeding in Donald Trump’s. Though Biden is rarely described as gifted orator, his speech was a remarkable performance in part because it didn’t soar and largely didn’t even try to. In plain-spoken language, he depicted a breathtakingly large agenda as plain common sense. Instead of imploring partisans to take sides, he projected bewilderment that any practical-minded person of any persuasion could be opposed. Under a pose of guilelessness, Biden’s speech was in fact infused with political guile. The agenda he promoted to expand both free pre-school and community college, to subsidize the shift to a low-carbon economy, to fund a massive way of new public works construction by taxing the very wealthy, represented years of pent-up demand by progressives. But much of the money would be spent in ways designed to break up the Trump coalition, which was powered heavily by middle- and lower-middle class whites who do not have college degrees with contempt for many parts of the progressive agenda. Referring to his infrastructure proposal, Biden argued: “Nearly 90 percent of the infrastructure jobs created in the American Jobs Plan do not require a college degree. Seventy-five percent don't require an associate’s degree. The American Jobs Plan is a blue-collar blueprint to build America.” The bet is that material gains—i.e. a recovery that produces lots of working class jobs and allows families to more easily educate their children—can trump the cultural grievances that sent many of these people into the conservative movement over the past two generations, beginning with George Wallace’s hardhat supporters and later becoming a flood of “Reagan Democrats.” In fact there was a nod—was it subconscious, or were Biden and his speechwriters thinking of it explicitly?—to one of Reagan’s great arguments, made in 1981 when a 38-year-old Biden had already been in the Senate for eight years. At his first inaugural address, Reagan declared, “Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem.” Biden explicitly rejected the conservative notion of government as an outside or hostile force, as distinct from average Americans. “Our Constitution opens with the words, ‘We the People.’ It’s time we remembered that ‘We the People’ are the government,” Biden implored. “You and I. Not some force in a distant capital. Not some powerful force we have no control over. It’s us. It’s ‘We the People.’” The passage was a notable reminder of the arc of Biden’s career. For most of his half-century in government, Biden has been operating in a climate in which Democrats of his generally centrist ilk had to practice defensive politics. They knew that the union movement that had been the foundation of the old Democratic coalition was steadily weakening. They knew that decadeslong erosion of respect in government and nongovernment institutions had helped fuel a contempt-driven conservative movement. To support Democrats, many people needed constant reassurance that candidates weren’t brazenly or irresponsibly liberal.

Goldman Is Surprised At How "Narrow" Biden's $1.8TN American Families Act Is: Full Reaction -Earlier today, we previewed Joe Biden’s American Families Plan (AFP) which provides $1.8 trillion over ten years in new benefit spending and tax credits.  Commenting on the proposal, Goldman economist Alec Phillips writes that he was surprised by the focus of the released plan which is "somewhat narrower than we had initially expected several weeks ago, as it omits any housing or Medicare proposals and focuses solely on child care and nutrition,education, paid leave, and extending a number of the tax credits Congress enacted earlier this year." On the payment side, the White house proposes $1.5 trillion over ten years in additional taxes to cover most of the cost, with a capital gains tax hike contributing to this, but in today’s release the White House has provided few new details on the topic. The $303BN funding balance will come from an increase in the US budget deficit. Biden will present the plan when he addresses a joint session of Congress at 9pm ET tonight.  Below we list the main points from the plan as summarized by Goldman:

• 1. The spending would be spread roughly evenly over the next ten years. The White House release provides no details on the timing of spending, but judging by the types of spending President Biden proposes, it appears that the spending will be spread roughly evenly over the next ten years. An exception would be the expanded child tax credit that Congress recently enacted, which Biden proposes to extend only through 2025 (he proposes to make permanent a less expensive aspect of recent expansion). However, in essentially all other cases, the White House appears to propose to make these policies permanent.
• 2. The proposed savings from IRS enforcement are likely to look smaller once they reach Congress.  The White House estimates the proposal would produce $1.5 trillion in additional revenue, of which $700bn would come from closing the gap between what taxpayers owe and what they pay.   But according to Goldman, Congressional Democrats might have to look elsewhere to gain this much revenue.
• 3. The proposed capital gains tax hike also looks likely to face resistance.  President Biden proposes to tax capital gains and dividends at the top marginal rate (39.6%) and to tax gains greater than $1mn at death (under current law, the basis of an asset steps up at death to the transfer value, so the recipient has no taxable gain upon receiving it). The Tax Policy Center has estimated such a policy would raise around $370bn/10yrs. Even with exceptions for active businesses and even with a long payment schedule for any payments due—a recent congressional proposal would allow such taxes to be paid over 15 years — it seems likely that at least a few Democrats will raise concerns about the impact on family businesses and farms. In our view, a capital gains tax increase looks more likely to come in around 28% and to eliminate the step-up in basis at death but to stop short of actually taxing those gains upon death.
• 4. Health care is notably absent from the proposal. The proposal includes an extension of the recent expansion of health insurance subsidies, but it omits the other Biden campaign proposals, like lowering the Medicare eligibility age to 60. . The omission is likely due to expected resistance from a few congressional Democrats whose support would have been necessary to pass the bill, and the fact that some of the proposal also omits the Medicare eligibility change. That said, there is still a chance that Congress will include more incremental savings measures in the upcoming legislation.
• 5. Congress will want to add and subtract. At a minimum, we expect that congressional Democrats will want to add a reinstatement of the deduction for state and local taxes (SALT) that congressional Republicans capped in 2017. The policy would cost on the order of $80bn per year, or $400bn to reinstate it through 2025, after which it is already set to revert to the pre-2017 policy. Since most of the benefit would go to those with very high incomes, it looks unlikely that there will be sufficient support to fully reinstate it. Instead, we expect Congress to raise the cap to something like $50k,or reinstate it for taxpayers under a certain income threshold, which could be done at a fraction of the cost.
• 6. The legislative strategy should be clearer in a few weeks.
• 7. The details will probably remain in flux until Q3.

Private Equity and Hedge Fund Barons Having a Hissy Over Carried Interest Grift Because Biden Isn’t Staying Bought -  by Yves Smith -Your humble blogger will endeavor unpack the multi-layered kabuki battle brewing over the indefensible and mislabeled “carried interest” loophole. If you believe the press, Biden is taking aim at it. Since the carried interest abuse had supposedly been an endangered species for at least a decade, yours truly is not about to take the hissing and spitting about its imminent demise seriously until its death really does look, well, imminent. The posturing and whinging about the fate of the carried interest loophole obscures the fact that money mavens would not find it hard to rearrange their affairs to preserve their economics. But it offends their view of their place in the universe to be told what to do. So bear with us as we pull the signal out of considerable noise.  What is called carried interest in the US is not actually “carried interest,” which comes about when a participant in a deal borrows money (typically from other principals) to buy his equity stake. Instead, what the press widely calls carried interest is a profits interest that gets preferential tax treatment. To underscore the key point: the carried interest loophole allows private equity and hedge fund honchos to have their labor income taxed at more favorable capital gains rates. That preferential treatment is the reason someone going into asset management is twice as likely as someone going into tech to become a billionaire. The Wall Street Journal story, Private Equity and Hedge Funds, Facing a New Tax Burden, Prepare Their Defense, demonstrates that the fight over the carried interest tax break is following a well-established script, save a plot twist. Biden got far more support from private equity firms and hedge funds. Yet here he is, biting the hands that fed him! From the Journal: Hedge funds and private-equity firms are among those that would be affected by Mr. Biden’s proposal, given his plan would get rid of lower rates on long-term capital gains for high-income households and end what the administration calls the “carried-interest loophole.” The moves would mean investment managers would no longer be allowed to pay a lower rate on a substantial portion of their compensation. Lobbyists for the private-equity industry responded to the proposal by arguing it might do more harm than good. They said private investment has been beneficial to the U.S. economy, including investing in renewable energy and healthcare, providing jobs and supporting pension plans. The proposed taxes would threaten that investment, they said. Understand what these lobbyists are asserting, because it’s a howler. They are trying to say, with a straight face, that investment in private equity might shrink because the pay levels for the top dogs might fall from egregious to merely embarrassingly lucrative. Or to paraphrase supermodel Linda Evangelista, “I never get out of bed for less than half a million a day.” Pray tell, what could these Masters of the Universe possibly do that that would generate anything within hailing distance of what they earn now? Even if lower after-tax pay were a real threat, they’ve got nowhere to go, even before getting to perks like getting to push around investment bankers and top lawyers and fly private class. The fact that men that are unseemly wealthy like Steve Schwarzman and Henry Kravis are still working well into their 70s says it’s not for the money. They really like the job.

U.S. Says It Will Be Able to “Take Action” in Afghanistan Even After Withdrawal — Since President Biden announced his plan to withdraw from Afghanistan by September 11th, US officials have been clear that they want to maintain some sort of presence in the country. In an interview on Sunday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken insisted that the US will still “have the means” to monitor Afghanistan and “take action” if needed.  “We will have the means to see if there is a resurgence, a reemergence of a terrorist threat from Afghanistan,” Blinken said. “We’ll be able to see that in real-time with time to take action. And we’re going to be repositioning our forces and our assets to make sure that we guard against the potential reemergence.”   Last week, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said the US plans to continue “paying salaries ” for the Afghan military and suggested the US wants to maintain the ability to bomb Afghanistan. A report from The New York Times said US officials are considering repositioning forces in neighboring  Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan for “counterterrorism” purposes.  The US currently has 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, but there is another heavy US presence in the form of contractors working for the Pentagon. The latest numbers released in January said there are currently 18,000 US military contractors in Afghanistan, 1,575 of which are armed mercenaries.  Blinken also said in his interview on Sunday that the US needs to reshift its resources to focus on China, which the Pentagon recently identified as the top “threat” facing the US. While the US is shifting its foreign policy focus away from counterterrorism in the Middle East towards so-called “great power competition” with Russia and China, Afghanistan is in Central Asia and shares a small border with China’s Xinjiang province. Considering the country’s location, the US likely hopes to maintain some influence or capabilities in Afghanistan, whether it be through contractors, proxies, or a CIA presence.

 Beijing reacts to mounting US belligerence with nationalist boycott campaign The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime has responded to Washington’s sanctions and escalating threats by whipping up a foul nationalist campaign at home and the boycott of foreign companies involved in the bogus “human rights” campaign to stop buying cotton from China’s western province of Xinjiang. The Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) involving European and American clothing manufacturers has emerged as the Biden administration is ramping up the false claim that the Chinese government is engaged in the genocide of the minority Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang and horror stories of mass detentions, forced sterilisations and the placement of children in state institutions. While the CCP is undoubtedly using police-state measures to suppress opposition in Xinjiang, as is the case throughout China, the US denunciations have nothing to do with defending democratic rights but are a central feature of the demonisation of Beijing as Washington prepares for war. The Chinese regime has reacted by deliberately encouraging anti-foreign hysteria and has given all but formal support to a boycott of foreign clothing manufacturers. The Communist Youth League (CYL) was one of the main instigators with a statement on March 24 on its Weibo account targeting the Swedish fashion brand H&M. The CYL declared that H&M, which supported the BCI campaign against Xinjiang cotton last September, “has not cooperated with any garment factory in Xinjiang, nor has its sourced products or raw materials from this region.” The CYL attacked the Swedish company for “deliberately making trouble for Xinjiang cotton” and “spreading rumours,” and encouraged the public to boycott H&M. Within hours, a storm of nationalist protest on social media hit out at international brands such as H&M, Nike and Uniqlo. Nearly a hundred major international brands, most of which have partnerships with BCI, were identified and condemned. At the same time, China’s state media also began to publish incitements to nationalist anger, with netizens spreading the content across the Chinese internet. A large number of videos were circulated on the internet showing that within a few days, the stores of the targeted brands in many regions were closed. Well-known online shopping platforms such as Taobao have also blocked related brands and products.

 The big Pentagon internet mystery now partially solved (AP) — A very strange thing happened on the internet the day President Joe Biden was sworn in. A shadowy company residing at a shared workspace above a Florida bank announced to the world’s computer networks that it was now managing a colossal, previously idle chunk of the internet owned by the U.S. Department of Defense. That real estate has since more than quadrupled to 175 million addresses — about 1/25th the size of the current internet. ”It is massive. That is the biggest thing in the history of the internet,” said Doug Madory, director of internet analysis at Kentik, a network operating company. It’s also more than twice the size of the internet space actually used by the Pentagon. After weeks of wonder by the networking community, the Pentagon has now provided a very terse explanation for what it’s doing. But it has not answered many basic questions, beginning with why it chose to entrust management of the address space to a company that seems not to have existed until September. The military hopes to “assess, evaluate and prevent unauthorized use of DoD IP address space,” said a statement issued Friday by Brett Goldstein, chief of the Pentagon’s Defense Digital Service, which is running the project. It also hopes to “identify potential vulnerabilities” as part of efforts to defend against cyber-intrusions by global adversaries, who are consistently infiltrating U.S. networks, sometimes operating from unused internet address blocks. The statement did not specify whether the “pilot project” would involve outside contractors. The Pentagon periodically contends with unauthorized squatting on its space, in part because there has been a shortage of first-generation internet addresses since 2011; they now sell at auction for upwards of $25 each. Madory said advertising the address space will make it easier to chase off squatters and allow the U.S. military to “collect a massive amount of background internet traffic for threat intelligence.”

Majority disapproves of Biden's handling of immigration at border: poll  - More than half of U.S. adults questioned said they disapprove of President Biden's handling of the surge in Central American migrants, particularly young unaccompanied children, at the border with Mexico, according to a survey published early Sunday. In the Washington Post/ABC News poll, 53 percent of respondents said they disapprove at least somewhat of the job Biden has done managing the rising number of immigrants and asylum-seekers arriving at the border, while 37 percent approved. Nearly half-- 44 percent -- strongly disapproved. Sixty-four percent of Democrats approve of Biden's handling of the immigration situation at the border, compared to 10 percent of Republicans. The findings follow weeks of pressure on the administration from both GOP critics who say the president's reversal of former president Trump's policies, including the so-called "remain in Mexico" policy, are contributing to the rise in migrants, as well as critics on the left who say the Biden administration is going back on campaign promises to help undocumented immigrants and releasing children from detention centers. They also come ahead of the president's speech to a joint session of Congress later this week marking his first 100 days in office, where he is likely to address the issue as well. The administration has placed Vice President Harris in charge of immigration, last week she announced the rollout of a plan to address various issues in Central America that officials believe are driving the migrant crisis. Biden scored highest in the new poll on his efforts to fight the coronavirus pandemic with 64 percent of respondents approving. Just more than half – 52 percent – approved of his work on the economy. The Washington Post/ABC poll was conducted between April 18-21 with responses from 1,007 U.S. adults. The margin of error is 3.5 percentage points.

Money Alone Can’t Fix Central America – or Stop Migration to US -- To stem migration from Central America, the Biden administration has a US$4 billion plan to “build security and prosperity” in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador – home to more than85% of all Central American migrants who arrived in the U.S. over the last three years.The U.S. seeks to address the “factors pushing people to leave their countries” – namely, violence, crime, chronic unemployment and lack of basic services – in a region of gross public corruption.The Biden plan, which will be partially funded with money diverted from immigration detention and the border wall, is based on a sound analysis of Central America’s dismal socioeconomic conditions. As a former president of Costa Rica, I can attest to the dire situation facing people in neighboring nations. Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador comprise Central America’s “Northern Triangle” – a poor region with among the world’s highest murder rates.These countries need education, housing and health systems that work. They need reliable economic structures that can attract foreign investment. And they need inclusive social systems and other crime-prevention strategies that allow people to live without fear.No such transformation can happen without strong public institutions and politicians committed to the rule of law.Biden’s aid to Central America comes with strict conditions, requiring the leaders of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to “undertake significant, concrete and verifiable reforms,” including with their own money.But the U.S. has unsuccessfully tried to make change in Central America for decades. Every American president since the 1960s has launched initiatives there.During the Cold War, the U.S. aimed to counter the spread of communism in the region, sometimes militarily. More recently U.S. aid has focused principally on strengthening democracy, by investing in everything from the judiciary reform and women’s education to agriculture and small businesses.The Obama administration also spent millions on initiatives to fight illegal drugs and weaken the street gangs, called “maras,” whose brutal control over urban neighborhoods is one reason migrants say they flee.Such multibillion-dollar efforts have done little to improve the region’s dysfunctions. If anything, Central America’s problems have gotten worse. COVID-19 is raging across the region. Two Category 5 hurricanes hit Honduras within two weeks in late 2020, leaving more than 250,000 homeless. Some experts have been calling for a “mini-Marshall Plan” to stabilize Central America, like the U.S. program that rebuilt Europe after World War II.

Texas, Stephen Miller sue to force deportation of children, other migrants due to pandemic - The state of Texas, with assistance by former President Trump aide Stephen Miller, filed another suit challenging President Biden’s immigration policies on Thursday, turning to the courts to force the administration to expel all migrants using a law that allows swift deportation in the name of the coronavirus pandemic. The Biden administration has been relying heavily on a Trump-era "Title 42" rule to quickly deport a majority of those who attempt to cross the southern border, but it has made exceptions for unaccompanied children and some families. Texas’s suit argues that the administration’s “abandonment of their authority” under the law means “more Texans will be exposed to Covid-19, more Texans will contract Covid-19, more Texans will die of Covid-19 and Texas will incur significant costs in terms of health care and law enforcement resources.” In March alone, the Biden administration used its Title 42 authorities to expel more than 100,000 of the 172,000 people who crossed the southwest border, many of them single adults. Another 68,000-plus were expelled under Title 8, which allows deportation of those who violated immigration law by entering the country between ports of entry. Still, the Biden administration is dealing with record numbers of children in government custody along with pressure to ensure proper coronavirus protocols in both its facilities and for Department of Homeland Security (DHS) workers. As of Wednesday, the government had more than 21,000 children in custody. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the northern district of Texas, argues the Biden administration violated the Administrative Procedures Act, among other laws, and asks for an injunction to force DHS to “return all covered aliens to Mexico” or detain them for at least 14 days before release. DHS did not respond to request for comment. But administration officials have repeatedly said they would not use Title 42 or any other law that would leave children stranded alone on the other side of the border. Critics called the Texas suit an attack on children, given that exceptions to Title 42 have largely gone to minors. "There is no lower order than being one who spends his day finding ways to attack kids who are running for their lives," said Jorge Loweree, policy director at the American Immigration Council. The suit is one of several from the Lone Star State, which has also challenged the Biden administration’s detainer policy allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to request local authorities to hold foreign national convicts for up to 48 hours after their jail sentences are scheduled to end. The state also sued President Biden for rescinding Trump’s “remain in Mexico” policy barring people from applying for asylum within the U.S. n But it’s one of the first from America First Legal, a group founded by Miller to aid conservative causes.  Miller has been credited with crafting the Trump administration’s child separation policy.

U.S. to provide urgently needed vaccine components, medical supplies to India (Reuters) - The United States will immediately provide raw materials for COVID-19 vaccines, medical equipment and protective gear to help India respond to a massive surge in COVID-19 infections, a White House spokeswoman said on Sunday. "The United States is working around the clock to deploy available resources and supplies," National Security Council spokeswoman Emily Horne said in a statement. Horne said the materials would help India manufacture the Covishield vaccine. The United States would also send therapeutics, rapid diagnostic test kits and ventilators. Washington was under mounting pressure to help India, the world's largest democracy, after Britain, France and Germany pledged aid over the weekend. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged all citizens to be vaccinated and exercise caution, as the country set a global record for new COVID-19 infections in a single day. (Graphic on global case and deaths) https://tmsnrt.rs/34pvUyi The United States was also pursuing options to provide India with oxygen generation and related supplies. U.S. officials are also considering sending India its unused COVID-19 vaccines doses from AstraZeneca Plc, the top U.S. infectious disease official Dr. Anthony Fauci told ABC News on Sunday. "That's something that certainly is going to be actively considered," Fauci said in an interview. AstraZeneca's vaccine is not yet approved in the United States, which has millions of doses, and top U.S. health officials have said they have enough doses of approved versions by three other drugmakers to inoculate all Americans in coming weeks. The nation's top business lobbying group has also pushed the administration to send AstraZeneca's vials to countries with rising cases. The White House had no comment on the possibility of sending AstraZeneca vaccine to India. Senior U.S. officials have expressed concern that new variants of the virus emerging in India could undermine progress made in the United States.

As US Lifts Export Ban to Assist India, Biden Urged to 'Keep His Word' by Supporting Vaccine Patent Waiver -In the face of rising public pressure, the Biden administration on Sunday partially lifted export controls on raw materials for coronavirus vaccines in an effort to help India combat a surge that is overwhelming hospitals and threatening to derail nascent inoculation campaigns in developing countries. While welcomed by progressives who have been pushing the Biden administration to shift critical resources to India—which is experiencing the worst Covid-19 wave in the world—the White House is facing calls to take more sweeping action by supporting an international effort to suspend coronavirus vaccine patents, a move advocates say would allow India and other countries to quickly ramp up production. "This is a start. But not nearly enough," U.S. healthcare activist Ady Barkan said Sunday in response to the Biden administration's decision to relax an export ban that was preventing India from obtaining key materials for the production of its Covishield vaccine. "President Biden promised that intellectual property law would not block the Global South from producing the vaccine," Barkan added. "He must keep his word. Millions of lives depend on his choice." In an interview with Barkan during the 2020 presidential campaign, Biden vowed to not let intellectual property (IP) barriers prevent other countries from mass producing coronavirus vaccines. "It lacks any human dignity, what we're doing," Biden said of his predecessor's refusal to participate in global vaccination initiatives. "So the answer is yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. And it's not only a good thing to do, it's overwhelmingly in our interest to do." However, since taking office in January, the Biden administration has upheld Trump's opposition to India and South Africa's proposal to temporarily waive sections of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), a step that would allow generic manufacturers to replicate vaccine formulas and bolster global supply. Thus far, the vast majority of vaccine doses have been administered in rich and upper-middle-income countries as production remains largely under the control of a small number of pharmaceutical companies. Several U.S. members of Congress, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), echoed that call during a virtual event on Friday as the World Trade Organization prepares to consider the waiver proposal once again next month. "We have the tools to save human lives, and those tools should be readily available to all people," said Sanders. "Poor people in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and throughout the world have as much a right to be protected from the virus, to live, as people in wealthier nations. To me, this is not a huge debate, this is common human morality."

Pharmaceutical Industry Dispatches Army of Lobbyists to Block Generic Covid-19 Vaccines  - THE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY is pouring resources into the growing political fight over generic coronavirus vaccines. Newly filed disclosure forms from the first quarter of 2021 show that over 100 lobbyists have been mobilized to contact lawmakers and members of the Biden administration, urging them to oppose a proposed temporary waiver on intellectual property rights by the World Trade Organization that would allow generic vaccines to be produced globally.Pharmaceutical lobbyists working against the proposal include Mike McKay, a key fundraiser for House Democrats, now working on retainerfor Pfizer, as well as several former staff members to the U.S. Office of Trade Representative, which oversees negotiations with the WTO.Several trade groups funded by pharmaceutical firms have also focused closely on defeating the generic proposal, new disclosures show. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable, and the International Intellectual Property Alliance, which all receive drug company money, have dispatched dozens of lobbyists to oppose the initiative.The push has been followed by a number of influential voices taking the side of the drug lobby. Last week, Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., released aletter demanding that the administration “oppose any and all efforts aimed at waiving intellectual property rights.” Howard Dean, the former Democratic National Committee chair, has similarly criticized the proposal, echoing many of the arguments of the drug industry.Currently, only 1 percent of coronavirus vaccines are going to low-income countries, and projections show much of the world’s population may not be vaccinated until 2023 or 2024. In response, a coalition of countries, led by India and South Africa, have petitioned the WTO to temporarily suspend intellectual property rights on coronavirus-related medical products so that generic vaccines can be rapidly manufactured.The waiver requests a suspension of IP enforcement under the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, or TRIPS, treaty. If granted, local pharmaceutical plants could be granted compulsory licenses to produce coronavirus vaccines without the threat of being sued by the license holder.The proposal has gained traction globally, with hundreds of members of the European Parliament, dozens of American lawmakers led by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and increasingly vocal voices in the public health community expressing support.But the waiver petition has encountered fierce opposition from leading drug companies, who stand to lose profit and who fear that allowing a waiver would lead to less stringent IP enforcement in the future.

NIH Scientist Who Developed Key Vaccine Technology Says Patent Gives US Leverage Over Big Pharma --A leading National Institutes of Health scientist who helped develop a key technologyused in Pfizer and Moderna's coronavirus vaccines said this week that the U.S. government's ownership of the patent for the invention gives the Biden administration significant leverage to compel pharmaceutical companies to help boost global production.Dr. Barney Graham, deputy director of the NIH's Vaccine Research Center, told theFinancial Times in an interview this week that "virtually everything that comes out of the government's research labs is a non-exclusive licensing agreement so that it doesn't get blocked by any particular company."Part of the team of scientists that in 2016 conceivedthe spike-protein technology being utilized in thehighly effective mRNA vaccines, Graham told FTthat "one of the reasons" he joined NIH was "to be able to use the leverage of the public funding to solve public health issues."While Pfizer's partner BioNTech has licensed the technology from the U.S. government and is paying royalties, Moderna has not—and the Biden administration has not attempted to enforce the patent.According to researchers at New York University School of Law, Moderna—whose vaccine was developed with a massive infusion of public funding—could be on the hook for more than a billion dollars in compensation should the U.S. decide to sue the pharmaceutical giant, which has thus far sold most of its doses to rich countries.But the researchers argue in a new report (pdf) that instead of taking Moderna to court for patent infringement, the U.S. government should "use the threat of litigation of the '070 patent to bring Moderna back to the negotiation table and convince Moderna to share its own patents, trade secrets, and other intellectual property on [its vaccine] with the U.S. government and with vaccine manufacturers around the world."Going that route, the researchers say, would help "accelerate scale-up of global mRNA vaccine manufacturing, vaccinate the world, and bring the Covid-19 pandemic to a conclusive end."

  White House knocks Joe Rogan: 'Did Joe Rogan become a medical doctor while we weren't looking?' -White House communications director Kate Bedingfield on Wednesday dissuaded Americans from taking medical advice from Joe Rogan, noting the popular podcaster's lack of credentials after he suggested that young, healthy people don’t need to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.“I guess my first question would be, did Joe Rogan become a medical doctor while we weren’t looking? I’m not sure that taking scientific and medical advice from Joe Rogan is perhaps the most productive way for people to get their information,” Bedingfield said on CNN’s “New Day” when asked about Rogan’s recent comments.Bedingfield acknowledged that Rogan’s remarks could cause listeners to “question” the need to get a vaccine but she pointed to polls showing that more Americans are willing to get vaccinated.“I think what we’re seeing, and what we have seen in the data and what we’ve seen as people continue to get vaccinated, is the people who are most influential in encouraging people to get vaccinated are their friends, their neighbors, people who have received the shot themselves who they know and they trust. And so, what we see is the number of people who say that they are willing to get vaccinated is rising. It’s now up to, I believe, 67 percent in a recent public poll,” Bedingfield said.Surveys have actually shown a higher percentage of Americans are willing to get a coronavirus vaccine. An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll in March found that 75 percent U.S. adults said they are willing to get vaccinated or had received at least one dose, an increase from 67 percent in January. And a Monmouth survey released in April found that 21 percent of Americans said they would not get the vaccine, a decrease from 24 percent in January and March.

'Letting the Terrorists Win'? Manchin Suggests Pro-Democracy Reform Would Spark Another Insurrection -Sen. Joe Manchin won praise from the Daily Caller and Fox News contributors while infuriating voting rights advocates on Tuesday with his suggestion that scrapping the filibuster and passing sweeping, popular pro-democracy reforms would spark a second insurrection just months after a right-wing mob stormed the U.S. Capitol.The West Virginia Democrat's comments came in a wide-ranging interview with Vox. With an evenly split upper chamber in which Vice President Kamala Harris breaks tie votes, the party's most conservative senator plays a key role in advancing or thwarting the legislative efforts of President Joe Biden and Democratic congressional leaders. In contrast to his discussions with Republicans about Biden's infrastructure proposal, Manchin publicly insists he is "not a roadblock" to the president's agenda.The For the People Act, which passed the Democrat-controlled House in March and isbacked by Biden, aims to modernize voting registration, restore the Voting Rights Act, end gerrymandering, increase election security and campaign transparency, empower small donors, and implement various ethics reforms. A wave of voter suppression bills introduced this year by GOP state lawmakers has bolstered demands for enacting it.As Vox senior politics correspondent Andrew Prokop reported Tuesday: Some filibuster reformers hope that, as the year goes on, the reality of Republican obstruction will become clear to Manchin and he'll be driven to change his mind—that Senate rules will in the end be just as negotiable to him as the details of Biden's stimulus bill. For instance, reformers hoped a GOP filibuster of Democrats' big voting rights bill, the For the People Act,could spur holdout senators to change the rules to pass it, because it's so important.Manchin recoils at the very idea. "How in the world could you, with the tension we have right now, allow a voting bill to restructure the voting of America on a partisan line?" he asked. He says that 20 to 25% of the public already doesn't trust the system and that a party-line overhaul would "guarantee" that number would increase, leading to more "anarchy" like that at the Capitol on January 6. He added: "I just believe with all my heart and soul that's what would happen, and I'm not going to be part of it." Manchin, who has repeatedly made clear that he is opposed to abolishing the 60-vote legislative filibuster, insisted to Prokop that he will not be "that one vote that would basically destroy it." The senator also reportedly believes his strategy to force bipartisanship is working, saying that because fellow Democrats know he is "adamant" about it, "there have been more talks of compromise now."

Law enforcement arm of the US Postal Service tracking social media activity The law enforcement arm of the United States Postal Service (USPS) has been monitoring the social media activity of the US public and sharing its findings with local, state and federal police agencies and private security firms connected to the state. The covert surveillance program—known as the Internet Covert Operations Program (iCOP)—involves USPS analysts combing through the social media pages and events looking for “inflammatory” posts, according to a March 16, 2021 “Situational Awareness Bulletin” obtained and published by Yahoo News on Wednesday. The iCOP program has been operating under the direction of the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) and specifically “monitored significant activity regarding planned protests occurring internationally and domestically on March 20, 2021,” according to the bulletin, which is marked “law enforcement sensitive.” The document was circulated through the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) fusion centers, which serve as a “primary conduit” of federal law enforcement information to states and major urban areas as well as “private sector partners” across the US. The significance of March 20 is that this is the date that two national and international political demonstrations were being planned. One was a far-right anti-vaccine “Worldwide Rally for Freedom” promoted by QAnon groups. The other was a global campaign called “Stop 5G” promoted by radical anti-science groups decrying the alleged harmful effects of radio waves used by the latest generation of wireless networks. The bulletin included details about both events as they were promoted on social media, including the date that the events were first published on Facebook and the hashtags used on Twitter to promote them. The iCOP report also provides the number of Facebook followers for each as of March 16. It states, “Locations and times have been identified for these protests, which are being distributed online across multiple social media platforms.” The document provides screenshots of both Facebook event pages and says, “Online inflammatory material has been identified, which suggests potential violence may occur; however, there is currently no intelligence to suggest specific threats.” The report says that a “prominent Proud Boys North Carolina based member [name redacted] known as NobleBeard made a comment regarding the event stating it would take place at ‘Every state capital on March 20th.” This information was found on the right-wing platform Parler. While most of the detailed information in the iCOP bulletin pertains to “inflammatory or violent messages” from participants in the extreme right-wing demonstration who discussed plans to “confront BLM” and “do some serious damage,” the document also states that the “Global Action to Stop 5G” rallies were being held in California, Denver, Virginia and Vermont.

US Supreme Court makes it easier to sentence minors to life in prison - In a 6-3 decision on Thursday, the US Supreme Court ruled that sentencing judges no longer have to make a special determination that convicted minors are beyond rehabilitation in order to sentence them to life in prison. According to previous court cases limiting judges’ ability to sentence juvenile offenders to life without possibility of parole, a judge would have to demonstrate that the convicted youth would not be rehabilitated in prison, and therefore should spend the rest of their lives locked up with no chance of release. The ruling in this case, Jones v. Mississippi, concerning Brett Jones, a 15-year-old boy who killed his grandfather, handed judges more discretion in sentencing minors, reversing several years of precedent limiting the ability of judges to hand down harsh sentences to underage offenders. Conservative Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a Trump appointee, wrote the majority decision ruling that sentencing can be brought down without making a separate finding of “permanent incorrigibility” before issuing life without possibility of parole sentences. Courts have ruled over the last several decades that harsh sentences for juvenile offenders, such as the death penalty, constitute a violation of the US Constitution’s prohibition of “cruel and unusual punishment,” with numerous scientific studies concluding that the brains of youth are not fully developed and as such lack certain adult qualities such as impulse control, effective reasoning and understanding of consequences. These studies have historically informed sentencing decisions in handing out punishment to those young people convicted of crimes. Being less capable of understanding their decision and actions, juveniles are less culpable for crimes and therefore should not receive the harshest of punishments for them, according to recent judicial precedent. The Supreme Court’s latest barbaric decision, however, reverses years of limitations on punishment for juveniles, essentially making it easier for them to be sentenced to die in prison for crimes committed while under legal age.

Supreme Court takes up major Second Amendment case -- The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a challenge to restrictions on carrying firearms outside the home, teeing up a potentially landmark dispute over the scope of the Second Amendment. In an unsigned order, the justices took up a bid by two gun owners and a New York affiliate of the National Rifle Association to challenge the state’s denial of their applications for concealed-carry licenses for self-defense. The case represents the first time the 6-3 conservative court will hear arguments over the nation’s long-running and fraught debate about gun rights in America. It will be heard next term, which begins in October. In the brief order issued Monday, the justices said they would hear the case and focus on whether "the State's denial of petitioners' applications for concealed-carry licenses for self-defense violated the Second Amendment." The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Robert Nash and Brandon Koch, who were denied concealed carry permits for self-defense because New York officials had determined that they had failed to show a "special need" to carry weapons as required under state law. Their lawsuit argues that such restrictions on concealed carry permits violate the Second Amendment. If they prevail in front of the Supreme Court, it could upend concealed carry laws across the country. According to the gun control activist group the Giffords Law Center, 31 states currently require residents to obtain a permit in order to carry a concealed weapon, with varying degrees of restrictions on those permits.

Almost half of Republicans say Chauvin jury reached wrong verdict: poll -  Nearly half of all Republicans questioned in a new poll said that they believe former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was wrongly convicted of murdering George Floyd.A total of 46 percent of respondents to the CBS News-YouGov poll who identified as Republican said the Hennepin County jury reached the "wrong verdict." Only 10 percent of Democrats said the same thing. Among all respondents, 75 percent said the jury reached the right verdict, while 25 percent said it did not.The 25 percent of Americans who said they believe the jury reached the wrong verdict also said they strongly disagree with the ideas of the Black Lives Matter movement, CBS News noted. Chauvin was found guilty on all three counts he faced following Floyd's death last summer, including second-degree murder. He faces more than 40 years in prison following his conviction. The case was widely considered a referendum on police brutality and systemic racism in law enforcement. Chauvin's conviction is seen as a milestone victory for the social justice movement in America, and Democratic lawmakers hope his conviction will spur momentum on efforts to pass comprehensive police reforms.   Overall, 60 percent of Americans in the CBS News poll indicated they approve of President Biden's handling of Floyd's murder and Chauvin's conviction. “We can’t leave this moment or look away thinking our work is done,”Biden said the day Chauvin was convicted. “We have to listen. ‘I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe.’ Those were George Floyd’s last words. We can’t let those words die with him.”The CBS News survey was conducted by YouGov among 2,527 residents in the U.S. interviewed between April 21 and April 24. The margin of error of is 2.3 percentage points. 

US CEO pay soars during pandemic - For the majority of the population, the COVID-19 pandemic has been a catastrophe on a scale not seen since the Second World War. With a death toll over 586,000 in the US alone, millions of families have lost loved ones, as parents, spouses, siblings, and even children fell ill and succumbed to the virus in a matter of days. Millions more have survived an infection only to face debilitating long-term consequences to their health.For those employed in factories, warehouses and countless other workplaces which have remained open, the workday has become a gamble with death. For the millions of others who have been thrown into unemployment and deprived of adequate incomes, the threat of destitution, hunger and homelessness is ever-present.But for a small section of society, the last year has produced a windfall. Pay packages for CEOs at major US companies soared over the course of the pandemic, according to annual corporate filings released in recent weeks. And some executives received much bigger payouts than others, “earning” stratospheric compensation topping the until recently unprecedented amount of $100 million:

• Chad Richison, CEO of Paycom, a software company based in Oklahoma, took in over $211 million in salary and share options.
• Amir Dan Rubin, CEO of 1Life Healthcare, a chain of health clinics in San Francisco, was awarded over $199 million.
• John Legere, CEO of cell provider T-Mobile—which consummated a merger with rival Sprint last year—received over $137 million.
• James Murren, chairman and CEO MGM Resorts, the Las Vegas-based hotel and casino giant, received an exit compensation package of $32 million when he left last year, making him the 14th-highest paid executive in 2020, despite a loss of $1 billion by the company.
• Chris Nassetta, head of the Hilton hotel chain, was awarded $55.9 million, coming in at number five on the list of highest-paid executives. The company reported a loss of $720 million for the year.
• David Calhoun, president and CEO of aerospace manufacturing giant Boeing, received over $21 million in compensation, even though the company reported a colossal loss of $12 billion.

  Outrage over OCC bid to levy higher fines on former Wells Fargo execs An industry group representing bank directors is accusing regulators of acting unfairly when they sought to collect millions of additional dollars from three individuals implicated in the fake-account scandal at Wells Fargo. The proposed increases were disclosed last month in legal filings and came more than a year after the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency filed its notice of charges. The increases would at least double and in one case more than triple the amounts initially sought. “As far as we know, this is unprecedented,” the American Association of Bank Directors said Tuesday in an email to its members. “To learn at this late date that the penalties sought are two or three times higher than stated in the notice is extraordinarily unfair.”The OCC has not brought cases in connection with the fake-account scandal against any current or former members of Wells Fargo’s board of directors. But the charges against the three former Wells executives rely on the same legal authorities that regulators often use to seek penalties from bank directors. David Baris, the industry group’s president, expressed concern about the precedent being established. “Will the sudden doubling and tripling of civil money penalties sought mid-stream in the Wells actions make it impossible from a practical level for a target in the future to avail himself or herself of their constitutional and statutory rights to an administrative review process?” he asked. OCC spokesman Bryan Hubbard declined to respond, citing the fact that the litigation is currently pending. The OCC asked for the higher penalties in filings that also sought a ruling by an administrative law judge recommending that the cases be resolved in the agency’s favor. Responses from the three former Wells Fargo executives are expected soon. The OCC is now seeking a $10 million civil money penalty from former community banking executive Claudia Russ Anderson, up from the $5 million it had previously sought. The agency is also seeking a $7 million penalty from former chief auditor David Julian, up from $2 million before, and $1.5 million from former executive auditor Paul McLinko, up from $500,000. The cases against executives implicated in the fake-account scandal represent one of the largest efforts ever by U.S. regulators to punish individual bankers. The OCC has reached settlements with former Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf, who agreed last year to pay a $17.5 million penalty, and six other individuals whose monetary payments totaled approximately $8.5 million. The three former Wells executives who now face potential penalties totaling $18.5 million are scheduled to go to trial in September in Sioux Falls, S.D. The OCC alleges that they failed to perform their duties and responsibilities adequately, and also misled others about the extent of the bank’s problems. The defendants’ attorneys have called the allegations unfounded.

 Lawmakers clash over OCC rule validating loan sales to nonbanks - — Democratic senators made clear their hopes of blocking a rule that makes it easier for national banks to sell loans to third parties, but invalidating the measure in the tightly divided Senate could be an uphill battle. At issue is the ability of banks to partner with nonbanks in loan transactions and still enjoy interest-rate flexibility. Under the Office of the Comptroller's rule finalized in October, a national bank is considered to the "true lender" if it is named as such in a loan agreement or it funds the loan. Banks say the rule is necessary to provide legal clarity when they engage in loan sales across state lines. The "true lender" rule followed a previous measure from the OCC saying that when a national bank makes a loan in compliance with applicable laws at the time, it will be compliant when sold anywhere else. But consumer advocates and many Democratic lawmakers say the rules enable nonbanks to engage in "rent-a-bank" schemes to evade state usury laws and overcharge customers. "As we've heard, this new, so-called 'true lender' rule really just opens up the floodgates to rent-a-banks and predatory lending," said Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., at a Senate Banking Committee hearing on Wednesday. Van Hollen introduced a resolution last month — accompanied by one in the House — that would nullify the true lender rule under the Congressional Review Act. The law allows Congress to overturn regulations by simple majority, with the president's backing, if lawmakers act within 60 legislative days of the rule being published. "I do hope that Congress will muster the votes to overturn it," Van Hollen said. But whether Democrats have the votes is unclear. Republicans largely oppose the measure and, in general, the Democrats' majority in the Senate relies on a tie-breaking vote from Vice President Kamala Harris. That means that if just one member of the Democratic caucus votes against the resolution, it will be harder to pass it. Still, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, was reported to have expressed confidence in the resolution in comments to reporters on Wednesday. Politico reported that he indicated there may be some Republican support. "I am almost certain we're going to do it," Brown said, according to the news outlet. "We've got to count votes. We are awfully close to 50, or maybe above 50 because there is some Republican interest." However, others in Congress have generally supported the OCC’s approach to the true lender rule, framing the issue as a matter of consumer choice and saying the rule allows for robust market competition. “Contrary to some claims, the rule is not intended to facilitate rent-a-charter arrangements where banks don't comply with the law,” said Sen. Pat Toomey, ranking member on the Senate Banking Committee, during the hearing. Among the witnesses testifying at the hearing was former acting Comptroller of the Currency Brian Brooks. He has argued that the OCC’s rule would better enable the agency’s bank examiners to supervise nonbank activity and clamp down on predatory loans.

BankThink OCC 'true lender' rule is wrong path to small-dollar lending by banks - Research shows that payday and similar loans damage millions of Americans’ financial health every year. The Pew Charitable Trusts found that the average payday loan borrower has $375 in outstanding borrowings five months of the year — and pays $520 in fees alone for that credit. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has jurisdiction over these loans. By all means, the bureau should immediately reinstate its 2017 payday lending rule, which before being rescinded in 2020 provided necessary consumer safeguards for single-payment loans without restricting installment loans or lines of credit. But bank regulators such as the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency make decisions that are just as important as anything the CFPB could do in determining the financial fate of millions of households that have no margin for error. Banks are an obvious source of small-dollar credit. Every one of the 12 million Americans who use payday loans each year has a checking account, which is one of two requirements — along with earning income — for taking out a payday loan. But if banks chose to have a more direct impact by making loans to their checking-account customers, the advantages would be numerous. A bank has an existing relationship with the customer; has no customer acquisition costs; can spread its overhead costs across a full suite of products; can borrow money at a much lower rate than payday lenders do; can use the customer’s cash flow to automate an assessment of the customer’s ability to repay; and can deduct payments only when there is a sufficient balance. Banks faced too much regulatory uncertainty to make small-dollar loans on a large scale until May 2020, when they received clear joint guidance from the OCC, Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., and National Credit Union Administration. That guidance was compatible with the CFPB’s 2017 payday lending rule, which encouraged loans to be repayable in installments with terms of more than 45 days. This meant that banks could now offer installment loans and lines of credit to their customers who had previously been using payday and other high-cost loans. Two of the country’s five largest banks — U.S. Bank and Bank of America — are now offering loans consistent with that guidance. Problem solved? Not exactly, because just as banks can offer consumer loans at a much lower cost than payday lenders, they can also help payday lenders evade state laws that protect consumers. In fact, a small number of banks are now originating loans for payday lenders that would otherwise be illegal under the payday lender’s state’s laws. The banks, which under their charters are exempt from such laws, make the loans and sell them to payday lenders that in turn market, service and absorb any losses from the loans. The arrangement allows companies to charge more than the state laws allow. Although these arrangements aren’t widespread, they’ve increased in the past few years. And a new OCC regulation could make this problem much worse by declaring that the bank should always be considered the “true lender” if it originates or funds a loan, even if that loan is quickly sold to a high-cost lender. This regulation does nothing to aid a bank in serving its own customers or enlisting technology providers; instead, it strengthens the hand of high-cost lenders who use bank partners as a rationale for ignoring state laws.

Brown sides with small banks in opposing ILCs, fintech charters - — Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown sharply criticized megabanks and fintech companies as he pitched his FedAccounts proposal to an audience of community bankers. At an Independent Community Bankers of America virtual conference on Tuesday, the Ohio Democrat blasted the biggest banks while praising smaller institutions that he said have helped consumers and small businesses navigate the coronavirus pandemic. He also advocated for legislation supported by community banks to block approvals of financial technology and industrial loan company charters. “People just don't trust the largest banks in this country,” said Brown. “Americans feel like they don't have control over their own money, if they put it in the bank. … That's where community banks come in. We've seen small banks step up when the biggest Wall Street banks turn their backs on Main Street. I hear stories of community banks in Ohio, making the small-dollar loans, thousands or tens of thousands, not millions, that aren’t as profitable, but are [a] lifeline to small businesses and farmers.” Brown’s speech comes as community bankers have advocated for a ban on industrial loan company charters. The industry has also criticized national trust charters that have been approved by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for fintech firms. These firms are not required to have federal deposit insurance but can still accept deposits. Brown said ILC approvals from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and fintech charters approved by the OCC allow companies to skirt tough regulations. “Nonbanks are using ILC and OCC chartering loopholes to get around banking laws and consumer protections,” Brown said. “These options might seem like a quick fix, but they often trap people in predatory loans with sky-high interest rates.” Brown added that he will work to pass legislation to ban ILC and fintech charters. “We'll continue to work together to close the ILC and OCC chartering loopholes and ensure a level playing field for all institutions,” Brown said. Brown also attempted to pitch his proposal to offer all consumers free FedAccount digital wallets, made available through U.S. Postal Service locations as well as community banks that would be backed by the Federal Reserve. Brown said the proposal would help community banks attract more customers, though community banks have opposed the proposal. “One way we can get more people through their doors is through my plan for no-fee accounts,” Brown said. “It helps give Americans more power over their own money and build relationships with banks.”

Fed's Quarles- Bank supervisors don't get crypto— The Federal Reserve’s top supervisory official said Thursday that bank regulators should be paying more attention to the rise of stablecoins and digital currency. The comments from Fed Vice Chairman for Supervision Randal Quarles come at a time when several of the nation’s largest banks have reportedly started offering wealthy customers the ability to invest in bitcoin funds as cryptocurrencies enjoy a surge in popularity around the globe. The rise of stablecoins and digital currencies in general has been "one of the more interesting developments" in the financial markets, Quarles said Thursday at a conference hosted by the Options Clearing Corporation. “I think the depth of consideration that has been given to a lot of policy talk around those issues hasn't been as robust as I would like it to be.” Quarles added that much of the last year has been dedicated to the COVID-19 pandemic response, leaving little room for policymakers to do a deep dive into digital currency. “People have had a lot of other things to think about over the course of last year as these issues have been rising in salience and so I understand why,” he said. “I think over the course of the next year or two [we should be] really thinking carefully about the issues that are presented by stablecoins.” Stablecoins are a specific form of cryptocurrency typically tied to the value of a fiat currency, such as the U.S. dollar. The Fed previously said in 2019 that global stablecoins could pose a risk to financial stability if they are poorly designed, and warned that operational failures in a digital currency could disrupt other areas of the financial system. Still, banks have reportedly begun testing the cryptocurrency waters. CNBC reported last month that Morgan Stanley has started offering its wealth management clients access to bitcoin funds. Goldman Sachs also later told CNBC that it is planning to offer cryptocurrency investments to its private wealth clients. CoinDesk reported Monday that JPMorgan Chase is set to offer an actively managed bitcoin fund to select clients, and on Tuesday U.S. Bancorp announced it would soon start offering custody services for clients’ digital assets. Those moves followed a January notice from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency that gave banks the green light to process stablecoin payments, in which it argued that the use of decentralized payments technologies is simply the latest development in banks’ longstanding role as institutions that move money. Although Fed officials have in the past expressed skepticism about digital currency, bank supervisors need to understand it better in order to successfully fulfill their oversight role, Quarles said. “The inexorable march of technology is a huge opportunity but also a supervisory challenge for the financial system,” he said.

Tech giants risk squeezing out banks, French watchdog warns Payment services run by Apple, Google and Amazon may need monitoring as the tech giants’ largely unregulated financial products squeeze out those of banks, France’s competition authority warned. Big technology platforms “have the capacity to draw significant profits without being subject to regulatory constraints weighing on banks,” the authority said in a report on Thursday. Popular brands, the loyalty of huge numbers of existing customers and extensive data sets give Big Tech a huge potential advantage in gaining new business, it said. Banks risk being stuck with back-end transactions with high fixed-costs and strict regulation “while being marginalized” in customer-facing services where the value lies, the report warns. Ultimately this could call into question less profitable banking services such as handling cash or checks. Regulators across the globe are ratcheting up scrutiny of powerful technology companies amid concerns that the pandemic has allowed them increase profits and expand into new businesses, such as financial services. Apple is expected to face a European Union escalation of an antitrust probe into its App Store rules for music streaming as soon as this week. The French authority also highlights access to near-field communication on smartphones used for contactless payment, an issue that has already triggered EU and Dutch antitrust probes and potential legislation to respond to banks’ complaints that Apple unfairly blocks their access on its devices. The companies that the French agency calls “les BigTech” are armed with “considerable financial power” to invest in new technologies and will have lower marginal costs compared to banks. Access to large volumes of data and processing power may allow them better assess customers financial health and offer them targeted services, the authority said. Integrating payments in other services allows them to offer a “customer journey” that can’t be matched or replaced easily by competitors, the authority said. The report also cites concerns over blockchain, over anti-competitive agreements or potentially an abuse by a person or organization controlling access to the blockchain. Amazon declined to comment. Apple and Google didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Abolish the OCC -- Yves Smith - It’s much more fashionable these days to talk about abolishing the police, but there are nefarious actors on the finance front who are still doing harm to the welfare of ordinary citizens. One is the Office of the Controller of the Currency, or the OCC, which regulates nation banks and Federal savings associations. It has the weird half-pregnant status of being an independent branch of the Treasury. The OCC has become not just hopelessly captured, but also so impregnable to reform that as we’ll see below, Georgetown law professor Adam Levitin, who was special counsel to the Congressional Oversight Panel and later a significant force in fighting foreclosure and servicing abuses, is calling for its abolition.Admittedly, Levitin is amplifying an article in March by Carter Dougherty at Washington Monthly,Abolish the Comptroller of the Currency. The trigger for Levitin’s post is a new offense by the OCC. Levitin walks through how the OCC is lobbying to defend its Orwellianly-named “True Lender” rule, by defending sham transactions that allow banks to evade state usury laws….even though the Supreme Court and many state supreme courts have held that substance, and not form, is what dictates the application of usury laws. For a Beltway insider like Levitin to join the calls to shutter the OCC says that the stench of corruption at the OCC has become too noisome to perfume away.We’ll give a bit of sorry history via our introduction to a 2014 cross post from Bill Black, OCC as Case Study of How Regulators Decide to Fail:  […] Seven years later, and Levitin is calling for the abolition of the OCC because he sees the regulator’s front line staff as so deeply captured by banks as to be immune to reform. You’d have to get rid of most of the rank and file and start over. Levitin also describes how the OCC is not an essential regulator and its continued existence appears solely to preserve various types of regulatory arbitrage, some of which are remarkably blatant.  From Levitin at Credit Slips:Tom Curry was on the right side of policy issues, but he did not have the ability to fight the staff regarding a repeal of the OCC’s patently illegal 2011 preemption regulations….I’m skeptical that it will be possible to overcome the intellectual capture of the career front office employees. That’s why I think Carter Dougherty’s right and abolishing the OCC—and ending the dual banking system—should start to get serious policy consideration.

Wall Street bonuses at risk amid new clamor to finish Dodd-Frank Titans of finance, already threatened by President Biden’s push for the biggest tax hike on wealthy Americans in decades, face another peril: Progressives are demanding action on a long-stalled requirement that Washington clamp down on Wall Street bonuses. Behind the scenes, consumer groups such as Public Citizen and Better Markets are reminding administration officials that the never-finished pay constraints are mandatory under the Dodd-Frank Act. Democrats — upset that the rules languished when Donald Trump occupied the White House — are also exerting pressure, arguing that years after the 2008 financial crisis, banks’ compensation practices continue to incentivize dangerous behavior. The limits are “critical to reining in the reckless Wall Street culture that encourages executives to juice their pay with risky, short-term gains,” Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a well-known critic of lavish bonuses, said in a statement. “It’s long past time regulators revisit the rule and use it to prevent greedy executives from crashing our economy again.” Meinzahn/Getty Images/iStockphotoThe pay strictures are among Dodd-Frank’s most controversial provisions, with watchdogs putting them off even during the Obama administration — a time when the government was eager to tighten Wall Street’s leash. Regulators had been hesitant to insert themselves into how private companies reward employees. Also, because the economy can’t function if bankers completely shelve their animal spirits, it proved difficult to strike the right balance between allowing some risk but not too much. And considering how important annual bonuses are to financial executives, lobbying over the issue has been intense going back a decade. “It’s revealing that of the hundreds of rules in Dodd-Frank, this is one of the few that’s never been finalized,” said Bartlett Naylor, a financial-policy advocate at Public Citizen. Naylor said his group has met with Biden administration officials who gave the impression that “they don’t want to let four years pass and not get this done.” “People can be highly confident” that Biden’s financial watchdogs will implement the regulations, said Dennis Kelleher, the president of Better Markets, which advocates for aggressive oversight of banks and other firms. White House officials declined to comment. Unlike the plan Biden released this week that would fund social programs by raising taxes for the rich, the rules targeting Wall Street bonuses won’t have to go through Congress, where major policy changes are challenged by Democrats’ razor-thin Senate majority. With progressives like Warren and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez feeling emboldened by Biden’s victory, the Federal Reserve, Securities and Exchange Commission and other agencies will probably be urged by Capitol Hill to pass regulations with teeth. High-profile blowups like last month’s collapse of Archegos Capital Management, Bill Hwang’s family office, aren’t helping the financial industry’s cause. The implosion contributed to more than $10 billion of combined losses for firms including Credit Suisse Group AG, Nomura Holdings, UBS Group and Morgan Stanley. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said the incident revealed risk management failures at a number of banks.

The Fed Has Misled the Public about the “Strength” of the Wall Street Mega Banks: This Chart Shows the True Picture - Pam Martens  -What happened as a result of the tanking share prices of the mega bank stocks in the spring of 2020 is that the Federal Reserve had to quickly reassemble many of the same Wall Street bailout programs that it had created in 2008, for example: the Commercial Paper Funding Facility (CPFF), the Primary Dealer Credit Facility (PDCF), the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF), the Money Market Mutual Fund Liquidity Facility (MMLF), and numerous other programs and bailout measures.The concept of taxpayers backstopping federally-insured banks holding the life savings of average Americans is that in times of economic crisis those banks will not have to worry about bank runs and will be able to lend to consumers and businesses in order to get the economy back on a sound course.But as Americans witnessed in horror in 2008, it was the mega banks themselves that actually brought on the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression through greed, reckless derivative bets and insane packaging and selling of subprime debt that bank insiders knew was doomed to fail.The Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation passed in 2010 was supposed to fix the ugly warts that were exposed in the aftermath of the 2008 financial collapse on Wall Street. But it fixed nothing. All it did was kick the can down the road to the next crisis.What caused the Wall Street bank stocks to tank so much worse than the broader market in March 2020 is the same thing that caused the banks to tank much worse than the broader market in 2008 – interconnectivity via derivatives and leverage.The federal agency created under the Dodd Frank legislation, the Office of Financial Research (OFR), strongly warned about these five banks and their interconnectivity in a report in 2015. According to the OFR study:“The larger the bank, the greater the potential spillover if it defaults; the higher its leverage, the more prone it is to default under stress; and the greater its connectivity index, the greater is the share of the default that cascades onto the banking system. The product of these three factors provides an overall measure of the contagion risk that the bank poses for the financial system. Five of the U.S. banks had particularly high contagion index values — Citigroup, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, and Goldman Sachs.”These five banks are highly interconnected via derivatives because they have exposure to the same counterparties (the entities on the other side of their trillions of dollars in derivative trades). Sophisticated traders on Wall Street understand these risks and want to run from these banks in any crisis situation.According to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s most recent report for the quarter ending December 31, 2020, these same five holding companies held the notional (face amount) of $185.61 trillion in derivative contracts – representing a mind-numbing85 percent of all derivatives in the banking system, which consists of more than 5,000 banks. (See Table 2 in the Appendix here.)

Mega Banks on Wall Street Held $3 Billion in Archegos-Related GSX Techedu, Months after Numerous Short Sellers Wrote that it Was a Fraud -- Pam Martens -- This morning, UBS reported that it had experienced a hit in the first quarter of $774 million related to its exposure to the implosion of the family office hedge fund, Archegos Capital Management. That brings the tally thus far to more than $10 billion in losses to the global mega banks that have acknowledged losses from their relationship with Archegos.The only thing surprising to us about the Archegos announcement from UBS was that it didn’t take a bigger hit.According to the stock positions reported by UBS on its 13F filing with the SEC for the quarter ending December 31, 2020, it had significant exposure to seven of the same stocks that Archegos had arranged swap contracts on with its numerous prime brokers: ViacomCBS, Discovery, Tencent Music Entertainment Group, Vipshop Holdings, iQIYI Inc., Baidu, and GSX Techedu. (For how these swap contracts with Archegos worked, see our report: Archegos: Wall Street Was Effectively Giving 85 Percent Margin Loans on Concentrated Stock Positions – Thwarting the Fed’s Reg T and Its Own Margin Rules.) The large position of more than 11 million shares that UBS held in GSX Techedu immediately caught our attention. As of December 31, 2020, that would have had a market value of more than $568 million. That’s a very large exposure to a company that numerous short sellers had publicly called a fraud in early 2020.On May 18 of last year, short seller Muddy Waters released a 25-page detailed reporton GSX Techedu, a Chinese online tutoring company. The breathtaking report included the following allegations:“We are short GSX because we conclude that it is a near-total fraud.“We conclude that at least ~70% of its users are fake, and we think it’s quite likely that at least ~80% of its users are fake.”GSX Techedu trades on the most iconic stock exchange in the world — the New York Stock Exchange which, ostensibly, vets what it allows to list there. Perhaps not so much these days.But after the numerous detailed fraud reports were issued, instead of collapsing in share price, GSX Techedu actually spiked from about $30 a share to over $100. (See chart above.) That’s decidedly not normal and suggests that Archegos was propping up the stock with more highly leveraged purchases.While a reckless family office hedge fund is currently free to make such irresponsible bets in secret, a looming question is why would it want to make such a gamble against a tidal wave of fraud allegations. Equally inexplicable, why would some of the largest global banks on the planet want to finance those highly leveraged bets to prop up a potential fraud.

The CEO of Emergent, the company that ruined 15 million J&J vaccine doses, sold more than $10 million in stock before prices fell - The CEO of Emergent BioSolutions, the company that ruined 15 million doses of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine, sold more than $10 million worth of his stock in the company before the price fell, The Washington Post reported. Robert Kramer sold the stocks in January and early February, right before the price fell on February 19 after the company's published financial report. The price has since dropped from $125 a share to $62, a more than 50% drop, the Post reported. The stocks Kramer sold would now be worth $5.5 million and were his first substantive sales of the company's stock since 2016. He made his current sale because of the compensation package the company gave him. He was able to buy the stocks for about $2.5 million and then sell them for market price. The sale was a part of a November 13 trading plan, the Post reported. Those plans are made in advance on when stocks are bought and sold and help protect members of the company from being accused of insider trading. On March 31, it was reported that Emergent, which also produced coronavirus vaccines for AstraZeneca, had ruined 15 million Johnson & Johnson vaccines due to human error when employees mixed up ingredients for the two different vaccines.  After the news of the ruined doses, shares in the company tumbled by as much as 14.5%. Democrats in the House of Representatives also recently launched an investigation into whether or not the company was granted a federal contract to make the shots because of a connection to a top former Trump administration official, CNBC reported.

SEC’s Gary Gensler Picks a 20-Year Wall Street Bank Defender for His Crime Chief - Pam Martens - The only thing worse than SEC Chairman Gary Gensler’s pick for Director of Enforcement at Wall Street’s so-called watchdog is the way corporate media is attempting to spin it.On April 22 Gensler announced that he had appointed Alex Young K. Oh to be his top Wall Street crime fighter. Reuters (and numerous other media outlets) spun the announcement like this:“The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday named former federal prosecutor Alex Oh as its new head of enforcement, the first woman of color to lead the division, which plays a crucial role in policing U.S. financial markets.”Yes, Alex Young K. Oh was a former federal prosecutor, but one of numerous assistant U.S. Attorneys working in the Southern District of New York more than two decades ago. What Oh has been doing for the past two decades is working as an attorney for Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, the law firm that major Wall Street banks repeatedly choose to fight their serial fraud charges.Oh has been with Paul Weiss since October 2000. She became a partner in January 2004. Her stint as an assistant U.S. Attorney was for a brief three and one-half years, from January 1997 to June 2000, according to her LinkedIn profile.Career attorneys at the SEC are disgusted that someone from their own ranks is never selected as Director of Enforcement to make a genuine effort at fighting crime on Wall Street.Brad Karp is the Chairman of Paul Weiss. Max Moran, writing for the American Prospect in February 2020, had this to say about Karp:“But if the Democrats do nominate a candidate of the old guard, the traditional school of money-for-access politics, chances are high that one name will be at the top of their list of advisers: Brad Karp. After all, Karp’s name shows up on almost every bundler [fundraiser] list the 2020 race has seen so far. If money is seductive in politics, then Karp is a master of seduction. And he’s in it for a reason: to make sure the next president doesn’t appoint regulators and prosecutors who will bring his corporate clients to heel…” In terms of both billable hours and serial crimes, one of Karp’s biggest clients has been Citigroup – the bank that imploded in the 2008 Wall Street collapse only to be resuscitated by government bailouts and $2.5 trillion in secret, cumulative loans from the Fed from 2007 to the middle of 2010.

SEC enforcement chief Alex Oh resigns days after taking job --The Securities and Exchange Commission’s new enforcement chief abruptly resigned Wednesday, citing a complication in a case from her prior legal career, an early and significant setback in Chairman Gary Gensler’s tenure running the Wall Street regulator. Alex Oh’s surprise move, announced just a week after she got the job, means Gensler won’t have his preferred pick leading what’s arguably the agency’s most important division. Melissa Hodgman, who was previously serving as acting director of the enforcement unit, will return to that role, the SEC said in a statement. “A development arose this week in one of the cases on which I worked while still in private law practice,” Oh, the first Asian American woman to head the enforcement division, said in an emailed resignation to Gensler that was reviewed by Bloomberg. “I have reached the conclusion that I cannot address this development without it becoming an unwelcome distraction.” Before joining the SEC, Oh was a partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, where her corporate clients included Exxon Mobil. In that role she was defending the oil company against two-decade-old allegations that it supported killings and tortures in Indonesia, court documents show. Her conduct during the litigation was called into question this week by the U.S. District Court judge overseeing the case. On April 26, Judge Royce Lamberth ordered Oh to demonstrate why she shouldn’t be sanctioned for alleging that her opposing counsel was “agitated, disrespectful, and unhinged” during a deposition without providing evidence. The enforcement chief is one of the most distinguished jobs at the SEC, with the director leading a group of 1,300 officials who investigate violations of securities laws and sanction individuals and firms for misconduct. Former heads of the division have gone on to be the top lawyers at global banking giants, including JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank. While Oh’s departure represents a headache for Gensler, left-leaning advocacy groups seized on it to push him to appoint someone with fewer ties to firms the SEC regulates. The practice of the agency hiring corporate defense attorneys has long been a sticking point with progressive lawmakers including Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts senator and vocal financial industry critic. 

 Value Investing Icon Jumps Off Manhattan Skyrscraper To His Death Days After Liquidating Fund --Desperate analysts languishing on the bottom rung of finance's long career ladder aren't the only ones committing suicide anymore.  Charles de Vaulx, a renowned value investor and co-founder of International Value Advisors, "died suddenly Monday afternoon, leaving the asset management industry in shock. It was an apparent suicide, according to the New York Police Department, who confirmed to the press that de Vaulx jumped from the 10th floor of a Manhattan skyscraper to his death. The apparent suicide comes just days after he finished winding down his investment firm.   As Barrons adds, "de Vaulx, 59, had built a long career as a risk-aware global investor who never deviated from his deep-value approach, even when it meant keeping as much as 40% of his funds in cash because he couldn’t find attractive investments during a 13-year stretch in which the markets favored faster-growing companies. De Vaulx’s conviction set him apart in the industry, even among other battle-tested contrarians." He was also a father of two.For de Vaulx and thousands of other dedicated value investors, the last decade or so, where the Federal Reserve has perverted the price discovery process by flooding the financial system with liquidity, has been led to an extended drought for their businesses. Though value enjoyed a brief resurgence earlier this year, momentum growth funds and cryptocurrencies have produced world-beating returns while dividend-producing value stocks have seen valuations stagnate at levels well below their momentum rivals as investors place a premium on projections in a low-yield universe.

 Why are complaints about credit bureaus soaring ---Something doesn’t add up. Consumer credit has held up remarkably well during the pandemic, and household debt has shrunk. Even among consumers who have lost jobs or sustained other economic harm during the recession, credit card balances have fallen. Yet the number of complaints to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau about credit reporting issues soared last year. Equifax, Experian and TransUnion were directly named in 246,000 direct complaints last year, more than double in 2019. If one includes more general grievances about credit reporting, the number rises to 283,000 — which was 58% of all CFPB complaints, up from 44% the previous year. The spike is a mystery especially given that the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act last year required financial firms to categorize certain accounts as current for consumers affected by COVID-19. Meanwhile, debt collection ground to a halt during the pandemic for various reasons, including temporary moratoriums imposed by states. The trade group that represents the three big credit bureaus, the Consumer Data Industry Association, is denying blame for the increase and pointing the finger at credit repair firms. These firms are filing millions of complaints to deliver on their promises of boosting consumers' credit scores, the CDIA and some credit experts claim. “They are using the legal structure of filing disputes as a tactic to remove accurate but negative information from credit reports,” said Francis Creighton, the CDIA's president and CEO. "Banks, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and other regulators have not seen a decline in credit quality or any issues suggesting the credit reporting system is a problem. The problem here is credit repair." Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, lenders must investigate every dispute within 30 days or a negative item gets dropped from a credit report. Financial firms also must respond to complaints made to the CFPB within 15 days. Banks, credit card companies, auto lenders and debt collectors that furnish information to the credit bureaus are overwhelmed by disputes to the industry’s automated system, called e-Oscar, and by complaints to the CFPB, Creighton said. The flood of disputes often results in negative but legitimate debts being dropped from credit reports if a financial firms does not respond within the legal time frame, he said. The CFPB acknowledged in a March report that credit repair companies are indeed behind some of the increase in complaints. But a CFPB spokesman said consumer reporting agencies "have provided no credible evidence that the increase is the result of unauthorized submissions by credit repair organizations.” The CFPB, which shares oversight of the credit bureaus with the Federal Trade Commission, has criticized them for failing to respond to many complaints during the pandemic. In 2020 the credit bureaus "stopped providing complete and accurate responses in many of these complaints," the CFPB said, adding that the credit bureaus frequently mentioned "suspected third-party activity in their responses to these complaints, but did not detail steps taken to authenticate consumers or respond to the subject."

Podcast Hitting the brakes on subprime auto lending — Below is a lightly edited transcript of the podcast: 

The Corporate Food Takeover -- by Yves Smith  Yves here. Many of you have probably noticed some of the many signs of increasing corporate buyouts in the agriculture industry. I knew Japanese companies in the bubble years that were acquiring chicken farms and processors in Vietnam and hedgies in the 1990s who were buying agricultural land in Africa and South America. In more recent years, China has been buying food producer in Africa. Corporate interests have been hoovering up potable water sources in the US and many other major countries. And these examples only scratch the surface. This post describes how this trend, along with increased techno-monitoring, is set to increase, but efforts are underway to stem this tide.

Banks play key role in push to eliminate food deserts -- A small Chicago grocery chain rehabilitates a vacant strip mall in an area lacking food stores. In western Massachusetts, a popular food cooperative plans a second location in a rural town to reduce customer travel time. A twice-expanded Houston food bank gives groceries away to needy families hit hard by this year’s devastating winter storms. What these stores and pantries have in common is that they give their communities a source of fresh, healthy food. The other thing they have in common is that they exist because of a multipronged, decadelong effort by the federal government, community development financial institutions, banks and others to expand healthy food access and reduce the footprint of “food deserts” — areas all over the country where the building blocks of a nutritionally adequate diet are not easily accessible. There is evidence that these efforts are making a durable impact on the dual issues of food insecurity — defined as inability to afford the food one needs — and the prevalence of food deserts. But the pandemic has laid bare how serious these problems are. Feeding America, a national trade group for food banks and pantries, estimated that more than 35 million Americans experienced food insecurity in 2019 — a 20-year low. But in 2020 that number jumped to more than 42 million. The problem was urgent enough for President Biden to sign an executive order on Jan. 22 increasing Supplemental Nutritional Access Program benefits by 15% for families with children, one of his first actions as president. “They are in this situation through no fault of their own,” Biden said at the signing ceremony. “It's unconscionable.” But in many communities hard hit by the pandemic, there are innumerable barriers to even accessing the kind of varied and healthy diet — fruits, vegetables, fresh meats and grains — that prevent chronic or acute illnesses, such as diabetes, hypertension, stroke, heart disease and even cancer. “You can give people resources to buy fruits and vegetables, but if they can't get to a grocery store, I think your impact is going to be greatly diminished,” said Brian Lang, director of the Food Trust’s National Campaign for Healthy Food Access, based in Philadelphia. One of the biggest barriers is the physical proximity to a grocery store, and the amount of time and effort required to get to one.

America Hasn’t Reckoned with the Coup That Blasted the Black Middle Class --  By Lynn Parramore If you were a Black person in America in the 1890s, you wanted to live in Brooklyn. Not Brooklyn, New York. No, you wanted to be in the bustling Brooklyn district of Wilmington, North Carolina. At that time, 25,000 people lived in the thronging Cape Fear River port, the state’s largest city. More than half of them were Black. In Brooklyn, you could meet Black seamstresses, stevedores, cobblers, restauranteurs, shop owners, artisans, midwives, merchants, doctors, lawyers, bankers, and police officers. The federal customs agent was Black. So was the county treasurer. And even the town jailor. Wilmington was the most racially progressive city in the South. It was America’s future. But very soon, it would be awash in blood — transformed into the country’s traumatic past. This repressed and unresolved trauma haunts the present in a thousand ways, most recently in the shocking siege on the U.S. capitol. It continues to damage us all. Here is the story of what happened, and why we need to talk about it.

   CFPB gives lenders extra 15 months to meet QM standard - The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Tuesday officially moved ahead with an earlier proposal to postpone the full adoption of the new qualified-mortgage ability-to-repay rule until October 2022, citing a need to maximize borrower credit access. The term “qualified mortgage” is an indication that a loan satisfies the legal mandates of the ability-to-repay rule, a regulation within the Dodd-Frank Act that requires lenders to assess a borrower’s income, assets, employment status, liabilities, credit history, and the debt-to-income ratio in order to establish that the borrower can repay the loan. For example, the original QM rule requires loans to maintain a debt-to-income ratio of no more than 43% to indicate an ability to repay. But mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are exempt from that requirement under a temporary 2014 provision commonly referred to as the “QM patch,” which, after multiple extensions, will expire when the new QM rule takes effect. The new definition, which most notably removes that maximum 43% debt-to-income ratio and certain income requirements, was expanded in part to minimize changes to the government-sponsored enterprises’ underwriting related to the expiration of the QM patch. Instead of imposing the debt-to-income limit and other requirements in the old definition, the new QM rule requires lenders to use standards that include a new one based on the loan’s price. The 15-month delay in mandating use of the new QM rule could make mortgage companies more comfortable selling loans in the QM category to either the GSEs or the private market for a longer period of time. The new QM rule retains a lot of flexibility for the GSEs, but there are some rare exceptions. The small market for short reset adjustable-rate mortgages with a fixed rate period that lasts for five years or less, for example, will not meet the new QM definition. “So many consumers have been hit hard by the pandemic and the economic downturn, and we want to ensure that responsible, affordable mortgages remain available,” Dave Uejio, the CFPB's acting director, said in a press release.

FHFA adds refi option for low-income borrowers — The Federal Housing Finance Agency is launching a new program to help lower-income homeowners with Fannie Mae- or Freddie Mac-backed mortgages take advantage of rock-bottom rates. The new refinancing option could save qualifying borrowers an average of between $100 and $250 a month, the FHFA said. The program will be available to single-family borrowers who only make 80% of their area's median income or less. To qualify, borrowers must not have missed a mortgage payment in the last six months or missed more than one payment in the last year. Qualifying homeowners must also have a credit score of at least 620. They cannot have a debt-to-income ratio that is higher than 65% or a loan-to-value ratio that is higher than 97%. “Last year saw a spike in refinances, but more than 2 million low-income families did not take advantage of the record low mortgage rates by refinancing,” FHFA Director Mark Calabria said in a news release. “This new refinance option is designed to help eligible borrowers who have not already refinanced save between $1,200 and $3,000 a year on their mortgage payment.” The refinance program will require lenders to offer at least $50 in savings to borrowers on their monthly mortgage payments and a reduction of at least 0.5% in the loan’s interest rate. Lenders will also be able to provide a $500 credit for an appraisal. Through the new option, lenders can also skip a 50-basis-point fee required by the FHFA that is designed to protect Fannie and Freddie from crisis-related losses. In the program announced Wednesday, that fee is waived for borrowers wanting to refinance if their loan balance is below $300,000. The government-sponsored enterprises began charging the adverse market refinance fee in December in light of the economic uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic. In 2020, the 30-year fixed mortgage rate averaged about 3.1% according to Freddie Mac, a 90-basis-point drop from the previous year. That ignited a wave of refinancing as borrowers looked to lower their monthly mortgage payments. But many borrowers didn’t meet the qualifications to refinance, which include a minimum 720 credit score or at least 20% equity in a home, according to Black Knight, a mortgage and real estate data and analytics firm. Still, mortgage rates are expected to tick up this year, and refi applications are already 20% lower than they were last year, meaning lower-income borrowers may not be able to benefit from the program as much as they could have last year. 

 Freddie Mac: Mortgage Serious Delinquency Rate decreased in March -- Freddie Mac reported that the Single-Family serious delinquency rate in March was 2.34%, down from 2.52% in February. Freddie's rate is up from 0.60% in March 2020. Freddie's serious delinquency rate peaked in February 2010 at 4.20% following the housing bubble, and peaked at 3.17% in August 2020 during the pandemic. These are mortgage loans that are "three monthly payments or more past due or in foreclosure".   Mortgages in forbearance are being counted as delinquent in this monthly report, but they will not be reported to the credit bureaus.  This is very different from the increase in delinquencies following the housing bubble.   Lending standards have been fairly solid over the last decade, and most of these homeowners have equity in their homes - and they will be able to restructure their loans once (if) they are employed. Also - for multifamily - delinquencies were at 0.17%, up from 0.14% in February, and up more than double from 0.08% in March 2020.

Fannie Mae: Mortgage Serious Delinquency Rate Decreased in March - Fannie Mae reported that the Single-Family Serious Delinquency decreased to 2.58% in March, from 2.76% in February. The serious delinquency rate is up from 0.66% in March 2020. These are mortgage loans that are "three monthly payments or more past due or in foreclosure".  The Fannie Mae serious delinquency rate peaked in February 2010 at 5.59% following the housing bubble, and peaked at 3.32% in August 2020 during the pandemic. By vintage, for loans made in 2004 or earlier (2% of portfolio), 5.66% are seriously delinquent (down from 5.90% in February). For loans made in 2005 through 2008 (2% of portfolio), 9.65% are seriously delinquent (down from 10.01%), For recent loans, originated in 2009 through 2021 (96% of portfolio), 2.13% are seriously delinquent (down from 2.29%). So Fannie is still working through a few poor performing loans from the bubble years.  Mortgages in forbearance are counted as delinquent in this monthly report, but they will not be reported to the credit bureaus.  This is very different from the increase in delinquencies following the housing bubble.   Lending standards have been fairly solid over the last decade, and most of these homeowners have equity in their homes - and they will be able to restructure their loans once they are employed.

MBA Survey: "Share of Mortgage Loans in Forbearance Slightly Decreases to 4.49%" -- Note: This is as of April 18th. From the MBA: Share of Mortgage Loans in Forbearance Slightly Decreases to 4.49%: The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) latest Forbearance and Call Volume Survey revealed that the total number of loans now in forbearance decreased by 1 basis point from 4.50% of servicers’ portfolio volume in the prior week to 4.49% as of April 18, 2021. According to MBA’s estimate, 2.25 million homeowners are in forbearance plans.The share of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans in forbearance remained the same relative to the prior week at 2.44%. Ginnie Mae loans in forbearance decreased 7 basis points to 6.09%, while the forbearance share for portfolio loans and private-label securities (PLS) increased by 8 basis points to 8.42%. The percentage of loans in forbearance for independent mortgage bank (IMB) servicers remained the same relative to the prior week at 4.72%, and the percentage of loans in forbearance for depository servicers declined 3 basis points to 4.64%.“After two weeks of large declines, the share of loans in forbearance decreased for the eighth straight week, but by only 1 basis point. New forbearance requests increased, and the rate of exits declined,” said Mike Fratantoni, MBA’s Senior Vice President and Chief Economist. “More than 40 percent of borrowers in forbearance extensions have now exceeded the 12-month mark.” 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 (#) increased relative to the prior week: from 0.05% to 0.06%."

Black Knight: Number of Homeowners in COVID-19-Related Forbearance Plans Increased Slightly - Note: Both Black Knight and the MBA (Mortgage Bankers Association) are putting out weekly estimates of mortgages in forbearance.  This data is as of April 27th.  From Black Knight: A Jump in Portfolio/Pls Forbearances Breaks Eight-Week Improvement Streak New data from our McDash Flash Forbearance Tracker showed an increase in forbearance volumes for the first time in nine weeks. Mid-month increases have been relatively common in recent months, and despite the 20,000 weekly increase in forbearance plans, plan volumes are still down 228,000 (-8.9%) from the same time last month.  We saw continued improvement among GSE (-9,000) and FHA/VA forbearances (-2,000), but these decreases were more than offset by an increase of 31,000 forbearance plans among portfolio-held and privately securitized mortgages.  More than 200,000 plans are still set to expire in April. With less than a week remaining in the month, the opportunity still remains for additional improvement in late April/early May. As of April 27, there are 2.33 million (4.4% of) homeowners in COVID-19 related forbearance plans, including 2.6% of GSE, 7.8% of FHA/VA and 5% of portfolio/PLS loans.  With the large amount of plans up for review in the next week, it’ll be worth watching these numbers going into May. We’ll have another update here on our blog next Friday, May 7.

MBA: Mortgage Applications Decrease in Latest Weekly Survey - From the MBA: Mortgage Applications Decrease in Latest MBA Weekly SurveyMortgage 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 April 23, 2021.... The Refinance Index decreased 1 percent from the previous week and was 18 percent lower than the same week one year ago. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 5 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index decreased 4 percent compared with the previous week and was 34 percent higher than the same week one year ago.“Mortgage applications decreased last week, even as mortgage rates dropped for the third week in a row. The 30-year fixed rate was down 3 basis points to 3.17 percent, which is still 32 basis points higher than the low reported in December 2020. Even with a few weeks of lower rates, most borrowers have likely already refinanced, which is why activity has decreased in seven of the last eight weeks,” said Joel Kan, MBA’s Associate Vice President of Economic and Industry Forecasting. “The purchase market’s recent slide comes despite a strengthening economy and labor market. Activity is still above year-ago levels, but accelerating home-price growth and low inventory has led to a decline in purchase applications in four of the last five weeks.”...The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($548,250 or less) decreased to 3.17 percent from 3.20 percent, with points decreasing to 0.30 from 0.36 (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 below recent levels since mortgage rates have moved up from the record lows.The second graph shows the MBA mortgage purchase index

 'Mom And Pop' Landlords Dying On The Vine As Un-Evictable Tenants Enjoy Pandemic Protections -As millions of renters across America continue to benefit from sweeping protections against eviction during the COVID-19 pandemic, their landlords haven't been so fortunate. According to Bloomberg, nearly $47 billion in rent relief from the Biden Administration has been slow to materialize, forcing "mom-and-pop" landlords into financial hardship - or forced to sell to wealthy investors. Bloomberg, perhaps to invoke sympathy for the landlord class, focused on the impact felt by minority landlords.Like their tenants, these landlords are more likely to be nonwhite or to be immigrants using real estate for their economic foothold. Now, mortgage, maintenance and tax bills are piling up, putting landlords in danger of losing their buildings or being forced to sell to wealthier investors hunting fordistressed deals.  The tens of billions of dollars that Congress allocated for rent relief -- starting in December and then with a second allotment in March -- was supposed to help by covering back rent and unpaid utility bills. But the rollout has been moving at the speed of bureaucracy, which varies from state to state. -BloombergIn one example, airport janitor Joaquin Villanueva has had to take out a home-equity loan to make ends meet while maintaining a three-unit rental house in East Boston. One of his tenants is eight months behind on rent, while another - an unemployed restaurant dish washer, owes him $5,000. "I don’t want to lose my house so I’m doing whatever I have to do," said Villanueva - an El Salvadorian immigrant who works at Logan International Airport, adding "I’m not rich like a Donald Trump."

With Marcia Fudge at HUD, opportunity awaits for minority homebuyers -The confirmation of U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge presents an opportunity to restore the legacy of homeownership in America, something that for our communities of color has long been out of reach. With a fresh perspective and approach to expanding housing opportunities to all Americans, Fudge has committed to prioritizing equality among homebuying. From her early days as the mayor of a small town in Ohio, Fudge began tackling housing affordability and availability — and she didn’t stop as a member of the U.S. House representing Ohio’s 11th district. Given her long track record and current post at the head of HUD, I am hopeful she might leave a lasting and positive impact on this critical government agency and the millions of households it serves. “We need to make the dream of homeownership — and the security and wealth creation that comes with it — a reality for more Americans,” said now-HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge. “That will require us to end discriminatory practices in the housing market." Bloomberg NewsAnd there couldn’t be a better time for someone with Fudge’s experience to take the reins. Today’s consumers represent a new generation of homebuyers transitioning from renting to owning. The new homeowner’s profile will largely be made up of minorities, primarily Hispanic, Black and Asian. Among all buyers, though, down payments remain the largest barrier to homeownership — particularly for minorities. At large, the BIPOC community lacks the intergenerational wealth needed to provide our own down payment. This is why down payment assistance programs are critical to right sizing the homeownership gap. Without DPA programs to help bridge this gap, we risk further deepening these racial disparities. In 2020, more than 40% of all Federal Housing Administration purchase transactions had some form of down payment assistance. This data reflects the need and the diversity of the millennial generation coming into homeownership. Since our formation, CBC Mortgage Agency helped tens of thousands of borrowers across the country with their down payment assistance through the Chenoa Fund program. In 2020, 55% of our borrowers were minorities, with 75% representing the first generation in their family to ever own a home. And contrary to some opinions, FHA loans with DPA from a governmental entity perform better than loans from family members, including intergenerational wealth families. And that’s something we’re proud of. We’re committed to seeing our borrowers successfully transition into sustainable homeownership.

Home Ownership Rate: 65.6% in Q1 2021 -- The Census Bureau has now released its latest quarterly report with data through Q4 2020. The seasonally adjusted rate for Q4 is 65.6 percent, down from Q3. The nonseasonally adjusted Q4 number is 65.8 percent, also down from the Q3 2020 67.4 percent figure. Over the last decade, the general trend has been consistent: The rate of homeownership continued to struggle. The recent recession as a result of the COVID-19 global pandemic has caused a massive, but brief, jump in homeownership due to grossly reduced spending. Here's an excerpt from the press release: Announcement: Due to the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), data collection operations for the CPS/HVS were affected during the first quarter of 2021, though to a much lesser extent than previous quarters, as in-person interviews were allowed for 98 percent of the country. The remaining interviews were conducted over the telephone. If the Field Representative was unable to get contact information on the sample unit, the unit was made a Type A noninterview (no one home, refusal, etc). We are unable to determine the extent to which this data collection change affected our estimates. See the FAQ for more information.National vacancy rates in the first quarter 2021 were 6.8 percent for rental housing and 0.9 percent for homeowner housing. The rental vacancy rate of 6.8 percent was not statistically different from the rate in the first quarter 2020 (6.6 percent) and 0.3 percentage points higher than the rate in the fourth quarter 2020 (6.5 percent). The homeowner vacancy rate of 0.9 percent was 0.2 percentage points lower than the rate in the first quarter 2020 (1.1 percent) and 0.1 percentage points lower than the rate in the fourth quarter 2020 (1.0 percent).The homeownership rate of 65.6 percent was not statistically different from the rate in the first quarter 2020 (65.3 percent) and not statistically different from the rate in the fourth quarter 2020 (65.8 percent).The Census Bureau has been tracking the nonseasonally adjusted data since 1965. Their seasonally adjusted version only goes back to 1980. Here is a snapshot of the nonseasonally adjusted series with a 4-quarter moving average to highlight the trend.

HVS: Q1 2021 Homeownership and Vacancy Rates --The Census Bureau released the Residential Vacancies and Homeownership report for Q1 2021.  It is likely the results of this survey were significantly distorted by the pandemic.   This report is frequently mentioned by analysts and the media to track household formation, the homeownership rate, and the homeowner and rental vacancy rates.  However, there are serious questions about the accuracy of this survey. This survey might show the trend, but I wouldn't rely on the absolute numbers. "National vacancy rates in the first quarter 2021 were 6.8 percent for rental housing and 0.9 percent for homeowner housing. The rental vacancy rate of 6.8 percent was not statistically different from the rate in the first quarter 2020 (6.6 percent) and 0.3 percentage points higher than the rate in the fourth quarter 2020 (6.5 percent). The homeowner vacancy rate of 0.9 percent was 0.2 percentage points lower than the rate in the first quarter 2020 (1.1 percent) and 0.1 percentage points lower than the rate in the fourth quarter 2020 (1.0 percent)  The homeownership rate of 65.6 percent was not statistically different from the rate in the first quarter 2020 (65.3 percent) and not statistically different from the rate in the fourth quarter 2020 (65.8 percent). " The HVS homeownership rate decreased to 65.6% in Q1, from 65.8% in Q4The HVS homeowner vacancy increased to 0.9% from 1.0% in Q4.  The rental vacancy rate increased to 6.8% in Q1 from 6.5% in Q4.  The quarterly HVS is the most timely survey on households, but there are many questions about the accuracy of this survey.

FHFA House Price Index: Up 0.9% in February -The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has released its U.S. House Price Index (HPI) for February. Here is the opening of the press release– House prices rose nationwide in February, up 0.9 percent from the previous month, according to the latest Federal Housing Finance Agency House Price Index (FHFA HPI®). House prices rose 12.2 percent from February 2020 to February 2021. The previously reported 1.0 percent price change for January 2021 remained unchanged.For the nine census divisions, seasonally adjusted monthly house price changes from January 2021 to February 2021 ranged from +0.3 percent in the Middle Atlantic division to +1.6 percent in the Mountain division. The 12-month changes ranged from +10.5 percent in the West North Central division to +15.4 percent in the Mountain division.“Annual house price growth acheived a new record high in February” said Dr. Lynn Fisher, FHFA’s Deputy Director of the Division of Research and Statistics. “The 12.2 percent gain represents an increase of $35,000 for a median-priced home that sold a year ago at $290,000 in the Enterprises’ data.” The chart below illustrates the monthly HPI series, which is not adjusted for inflation, along with a real (inflation-adjusted) series using the Consumer Price Index: All Items Less Shelter.

Case-Shiller: National House Price Index increased 12.0% year-over-year in February --S&P/Case-Shiller released the monthly Home Price Indices for February ("February" is a 3 month average of December, January and February prices). This release includes prices for 20 individual cities, two composite indices (for 10 cities and 20 cities) and the monthly National index. From S&P: S&P Corelogic Case-Shiller Index Reports 12.0% Annual Home Price Gain in February 2021:  The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index, covering all nine U.S. census divisions, reported a 12.0% annual gain in February, up from 11.2% in the previous month. The 10-City Composite annual increase came in at 11.7%, up from 10.9% in the previous month. The 20-City Composite posted an 11.9% year-over-year gain, up from 11.1% in the previous month. Phoenix, San Diego, and Seattle reported the highest year-over-year gains among the 20 cities in February. Phoenix led the way with a 17.4% year-over-year price increase, followed by San Diego with a 17.0% increase and Seattle with a 15.4% increase. Nineteen of the 20 cities reported higher price increases in the year ending February 2021 versus the year ending January 2021.... Before seasonal adjustment, the U.S. National Index posted an 1.1% month-over-month increase, while the 10-City and 20-City Composites both posted increases of 1.1% and 1.2% respectively in February. After seasonal adjustment, the U.S. National Index posted a month-over-month increase of 1.1%, and the 10-City and 20-City Composites both posted increases of 1.1% and 1.2% respectively as well. In February, all 20 cities reported increases before and after seasonal adjustments.“Strong home price gains continued in February 2021,”  The National Composite Index marked its ninth month of accelerating prices with a 12.0% gain from year-ago levels, up from 11.2% in January. This acceleration is also reflected in the 10- and 20-City Composites (up 11.7% and 11.9%, respectively). The market’s strength continues to be broadly-based: all 20 cities rose, and 19 cities gained more in the 12 months ended in February than they had gained in the 12 months ended in January. The first graph shows the nominal seasonally adjusted Composite 10, Composite 20 and National indices (the Composite 20 was started in January 2000).  The second graph shows the year-over-year change in all three indices. The Composite 10 SA is up 11.7% compared to February 2020.  The Composite 20 SA is up 11.9% year-over-year. The National index SA is up 12.0% year-over-year.

Zillow Case-Shiller House Price Forecast: "Red Hot", 12.8% YoY in March - The Case-Shiller house price indexes for February were released today. Zillow forecasts Case-Shiller a month early, and I like to check the Zillow forecasts since they have been pretty close.  From Matthew Speakman at Zillow: February 2021 Case-Shiller Results & Forecast: Red Hot: Already rising at a blistering pace, home price appreciation pressed higher in February as competition for housing remained red hot.  As more signs emerge that the economy’s recovery is gathering steam, a wave of eager buyers – many of them seeking their first home purchase – remain determined to find their next home. But with relatively few for-sale homes on the market, bidding wars have become increasingly common, pushing sale prices higher and leading homes to sell at a record pace. In the near-term, it appears unlikely that these upward price pressures will relent meaningfully, particularly as recent retreats in mortgage rates offer many home shoppers increased buying power. However, after pausing in February, home listing activity has shown a meaningful improvement in recent weeks and some recent signs suggest that the historically tight inventory pressures may finally be starting to ease. Should those signs materialize, the meteoric rise in home prices may finally have a reason to come back down to earth. For now, red hot home price appreciation shows few signs of cooling.  Monthly growth in March as reported by Case-Shiller is expected to slow slightly from February in both of the smaller 10- and 20-city composite indices, and accelerate slightly in the national index. Annual growth is expected to accelerate across the board. S&P Dow Jones Indices is expected to release data for the March S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices on Tuesday, May 25.  The Zillow forecast is for the year-over-year change for the Case-Shiller National index to be at 12.8% in March, up from 12.0% in February.  The Zillow forecast is for the 20-City index to be up 12.7% YoY in March from 11.9% in February, and for the 10-City index to increase to be up 12.3% YoY compared to 11.7% YoY in February.

NAR: Pending Home Sales Increased 1.9% in March - From the NAR: Pending Home Sales Grow 1.9% in March: Pending home sales increased in March, snapping two consecutive months of declines, according to the National Association of Realtors®. All but one of the four major U.S. regions experienced month-over-month gains in March, while each area recorded year-over-year growth.  The Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI), a forward-looking indicator of home sales based on contract signings, rose 1.9% to 111.3 in March. Year-over-year, contract signings jumped 23.3%, with the difference due in large part to the pandemic-induced lockdown in March 2020. An index of 100 is equal to the level of contract activity in 2001. ... The Northeast PHSI rose 6.1% to 97.9 in March, a 16.7% increase from a year ago. In the Midwest, the index fell 3.7% to 98.6 last month, up 14.1% from March 2020. Pending home sales transactions in the South jumped 2.9% to an index of 137.2 in March, up 27.9% from March 2020. The index in the West grew 2.9% in March to 94.5, up 29.8% from a year prior.  This was below expectations for this index. Note: Contract signings usually lead sales by about 45 to 60 days, so this would usually be for closed sales in April and May.

New Home Prices ---released last week, 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 March 2021 was $330,800. The average sales price was $397,800." 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 March 2021 was $397,800, up 6% year-over-year.  The median price was $330,800, up just 1% year-over-year.  Builders are reporting same home prices are up sharply, so the mix has changed. The second graph shows the percent of new homes sold by price.  Very few new homes sold were under $150K in March 2021 ("Less than 500 units" in March 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 68%) in the U.S., are in the $200K to $400K range.

 No bubble in housing market, Fed’s Powell says - Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said that concerns of a housing bubble are overblown, but that the central bank is closely monitoring surging home prices that could make it more difficult for entry-level borrowers to obtain mortgage loans. The Fed has drawn some criticism for loose monetary policy, which some critics say has fueled the boom in the housing market as more borrowers compete for fewer available homes. But Powell said Wednesday at a press conference following a meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee that he doesn’t have any financial stability concerns about such a competitive real estate market. “It's part of a strong economy with people having money to spend and wanting to invest in housing, so in that sense it's good,” he said. “It's clearly the strongest housing market that we've seen since the global financial crisis. My hope would be that over time, housing builders can react to this demand and come up with more supply and workers will come back to work in that industry.” Beginning in March 2020, the Fed started purchasing mortgage-backed securities and Treasury securities to keep borrowing costs down. The central bank is currently buying $40 billion worth of agency MBS each month with no sign of slowing. However, Powell said that he doesn’t believe those purchases are fueling any kind of housing bubble. “It's not meant to provide direct assistance to the housing market. That was never the intent,” Powell said. “It's a situation where we will taper asset purchases when the time comes to do that and those purchases will come to zero over time, and that time is not yet.” Unlike the 2008 financial crisis, Powell added, borrowers looking to buy homes are “in very good shape financially.” “We don't have that kind of thing where we have a housing bubble where people are over-levered and owning a lot of houses,” he said. “There's no question though that housing prices are going up and so we're watching that carefully.” Powell also reiterated separately that he wants the Fed to carefully explore the idea of a central bank digital currency in the U.S. without worrying about the pace at which other countries are adopting digital currencies. China, for one, has moved quickly on its “digital yuan,” raising concern from some officials that the country is looking to oust the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. Yet that potential is overstated, Powell said.

U.S. Personal Incomes Soar by Most on Record on Fiscal Stimulus U.S. personal incomes soared in March by the most in monthly records back to 1946, powered by a third round of pandemic-relief checks that also sparked a sharp gain in spending. The 21.1% surge in incomes followed a 7% decline in February, Commerce Department figures showed Friday. Purchases of goods and services, meanwhile, increased 4.2% last month, the most since June. U.S. government stimulus sparks huge gain, bolstering consumer spending The increase in personal spending and incomes provides the economy a solid hand off heading into the second quarter after a robust pace of growth at the start of the year. Economists projected a 20.3% jump in incomes and a 4.1% gain in personal outlays, according the Bloomberg survey medians. The March data showed transfer receipts that include stimulus checks and unemployment aid nearly doubled from a month earlier to nearly $8.2 trillion. Wages, meanwhile, rose modestly in March. Inflation-adjusted personal spending increased 3.6% in March after a 1.2% drop a month earlier. Goods outlays climbed 7.3%, while spending on services rose 1.7%. The personal savings rate jumped to 27.6% from 13.9% in February. Disposable income, which exclude taxes and are adjusted for inflation surged 23% in March. A separate report on Thursday showed that gross domestic product expanded at a 6.4% annualized rate in the first quarter, driven by the second-fastest pace of personal consumption since the 1960s. With spending on the rise, more cash in people’s bank accounts and vaccinations driving reopenings, economic growth is poised to further accelerate in the coming months. The agency’s key measure of consumer prices, known as the personal consumption expenditure price index, that the Federal Reserve officially uses for its target rose 2.3% in March from a year earlier, the biggest gain since 2018. The so-called core PCE price index, which excludes volatile food and energy costs, climbed 1.8% after a 1.4% gain in February. Inflation metrics are being temporarily impacted by so-called “base effects.” Year-over-year increases in the price metrics appear large because they are being compared to the very weak inflation prints seen at the start of the pandemic.

Real Disposable Income Per Capita in March, All-Time High - With the release of this morning's report on March's Personal Incomes and Outlays, we can now take a closer look at "Real" Disposable Personal Income Per Capita. At two decimal places, the nominal 23.57% month-over-month change in disposable income is cut to 22.94% when we adjust for inflation and an all-time high. This is an increase from last month's -7.91% nominal and -8.13% real increases last month. The year-over-year metrics are 31.77% nominal and 28.78% 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%.

PCE Price Index: March Core at 1.37% YoY -The BEA's Personal Income and Outlays for March was published this morning by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The latest Headline PCE price index was up 0.52% month-over-month (MoM) and is up 2.32% year-over-year (YoY). Core PCE is now at 1.83%, 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 inflation rate over the longer run is primarily determined by monetary policy, and hence the Committee has the ability to specify a longer-run goal for inflation. 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. The Committee judges that longer-term inflation expectations that are well anchored at 2 percent foster price stability and moderate long-term interest rates and enhance the Committee's ability to promote maximum employment in the face of significant economic disturbances. In order to anchor longer-term inflation expectations at this level, the Committee seeks to achieve inflation that averages 2 percent over time, and therefore judges that, following periods when inflation has been running persistently below 2 percent, appropriate monetary policy will likely aim to achieve inflation moderately above 2 percent for some time." Read the August 2020 statement here

Consumer Confidence Highest Since February 2020 -- The headline number of 121.7 was an increase of 12.7 from the final reading of 109.0 for April. This was above theInvesting.com consensus of 113.0. “Consumer confidence has rebounded sharply over the last two months and is now at its highest level since February 2020,” said Lynn Franco, Senior Director of Economic Indicators at The Conference Board. “Consumers’ assessment of current conditions improved significantly in April, suggesting the economic recovery strengthened further in early Q2. Consumers’ optimism about the short-term outlook held steady this month. Consumers were more upbeat about their income prospects, perhaps due to the improving job market and the recent round of stimulus checks. Short-term inflation expectations held steady in April, but remain elevated. Vacation intentions posted a healthy increase, likely boosted by the accelerating vaccine rollout and further loosening of pandemic restrictions.” Read more The chart below is another attempt to evaluate the historical context for this index as a coincident indicator of the economy. Toward this end, we have highlighted recessions and included GDP. The regression through the index data shows the long-term trend and highlights the extreme volatility of this indicator. Statisticians may assign little significance to a regression through this sort of data. But the slope resembles the regression trend for real GDP shown below, and it is a more revealing gauge of relative confidence than the 1985 level of 100 that the Conference Board cites as a point of reference.

Michigan Consumer Sentiment: Continued Gains --The April Final came in at 88.3, up 3.4 from the March Final. Investing.com had forecast 87.4. Since its beginning in 1978, consumer sentiment is 2.5 percent above the average reading (arithmetic mean) and 3.6 percent above the geometric mean. Surveys of Consumers chief economist, Richard Curtin, makes the following comments: The April survey recorded continued gains in consumer confidence due to a growing sense that the upward momentum in jobs and incomes will persist. The renewed confidence is due to record federal stimulus spending, both recently passed and proposed, as well as the positive impact from a growing share of the population who are vaccinated. The largest and most important change in April was that an all-time record number of consumers expected declines in the unemployment rate during the year ahead. Even if a booming economy resulted in higher inflation, consumer optimism would not diminish since consumers have already anticipated a temporary increase. Overall, the data indicate an exceptional outlook for consumer spending through mid-2022. The size and persistence of the spending gains depend on continued job growth as well as wages that effectively draw people back into the labor force. While temporary price hikes are anticipated, the robust increases in consumer demand will act to lengthen and heighten inflation above the modest increases now anticipated. It will be a challenge to fine-tune fiscal and monetary policies that allow inflation to modestly exceed the 2% target for a limited time without contributing to an underlying upward momentum in inflation. Home buying conditions slipped only modestly in April in spite of an all-time record number of complaints about high home prices (38%-see the chart). The natural tendency of higher prices is to lessen demand, but this reaction will be overwhelmed by strong growth in jobs and incomes. Rising home prices and rising incomes create the most fertile soil for the growth of inflationary psychology. While it is critical to first secure robust and equitable economic growth, contingency plans are urgently needed to avoid declining inflation-adjusted incomes and surging interest costs. [More...] See the chart below for a long-term perspective on this widely watched indicator. Recessions and real GDP are included to help us evaluate the correlation between the Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index and the broader economy.

Shhhh, They’re Listening – Inside the Coming Voice-Profiling Revolution - You decide to call a store that sells some hiking boots you’re thinking of buying. As you dial in, the computer of an artificial intelligence company hired by the store is activated. It retrieves its analysis of the speaking style you used when you phoned other companies the software firm services. The computer has concluded you are “friendly and talkative.” Using predictive routing, it connects you to a customer service agent who company research has identified as being especially good at getting friendly and talkative customers to buy more expensive versions of the goods they’re considering.This hypothetical situation may sound as if it’s from some distant future. But automated voice-guided marketing activities like this are happening all the time.If you hear “This call is being recorded for training and quality control,” it isn’t just the customer service representative they’re monitoring.It can be you, too.When conducting research for my forthcoming book, “The Voice Catchers: How Marketers Listen In to Exploit Your Feelings, Your Privacy, and Your Wallet,” I went through over 1,000 trade magazine and news articles on the companies connected to various forms of voice profiling. I examined hundreds of pages of U.S. and EU laws applying to biometric surveillance. I analyzed dozens of patents. And because so much about this industry is evolving, I spoke to 43 people who are working to shape it. It soon became clear to me that we’re in the early stages of a voice-profiling revolution that companies see as integral to the future of marketing.

 Even Credentialed Young People Pessimistic About Their Futures --Although it probably comes as no surprise, the degree of rentierism around the world has apparently hit the point that young people even in what most would see as good positions, by virtue of being educated and working in white-collar jobs, are downbeat about their futures. Admittedly, this Financial Times survey is hugely flawed from an analytical standpoint. It’s an Internet poll, so there’s no control over sampling and no assurance that the respondents were truthful about their own demographics. But the flip side is the participants would have no particular reason to lie either, and if anything, survey participants tend to exaggerate how well they are doing. So for 1700 Financial Times readers, meaningly literate, presumably well to very well educated, and in a professional position, to report so much concern about their futures, is if nothing else awfully striking, large-scale anecdotal evidence. Consider its headline, ‘We are drowning in insecurity’: young people and life after the pandemic, and this table:Notice how on the various measures, the US comes out poorly, with only the Netherlands, Singapore, and South Africa tallying a bit worse.No one is saying that these individuals are facing hardship…at least now. It’s that the inability of even those who did everything they were supposed to do in our pretend meritocratic system to attain a comfortable lifestyle and support a family is eating away at its last veneer of legitimacy.From the pink paper:Many describe feeling as if there is nothing solid under their feet. “Most people my age are paddling so hard just to stay still,” says Tom, an architect. “It’s exhausting — nobody is asking for an easy ride, but all my friends have worked so hard all their lives, and many are losing faith in the system.”For Killian Mangan, who graduated during the pandemic last year and struggled to find a job, it feels as if “we are drowning in insecurity with no help in sight”. A twenty-something who works for a central bank says: “I sometimes have this feeling that we are edging towards a precipice, or falling in it already.”And they also wonder how they can afford a dignified old age. As one participant said, “My retirement plan is to die in the climate wars.” And as we’ll see, this isn’t the whinge of pampered New Yorkers (pre Covid) that you can’t get by on $500,000 a year, between taxes, housing, private school and extras, summer rentals and nanny costs. These young people are falling sort of more modest financial goals, like being able to raise children in something other than cramped quarters. They are all finding that not being able to get meaningful monetary support from their parents puts them on a vastly different track than their peers that do.

The Price of the Stuff That Makes Everything Is Surging - The prices of raw materials used to make almost everything are skyrocketing, and the upward trajectory looks set to continue as the world economy roars back to life. From steel and copper to corn and lumber, commodities started 2021 with a bang, surging to levels not seen for years. The rally threatens to raise the cost of goods from the lunchtime sandwich to gleaming skyscrapers. It’s also lit the fuse on the massive reflation trade that’s gripped markets this year and pushed up inflation expectations. With the U.S. economy pumped up on fiscal stimulus, and Europe’s economy starting to reopen as its vaccination rollout gets into gear, there’s little reason to expect a change in direction. One Direction Commodities from food to metal are soaring Source: Bloomberg JPMorgan Chase & Co. said this week it sees a continued rally in commodities and that the “reflation and reopening trade will continue.” On top of that, the Federal Reserve and other central banks seem calm about inflation, meaning economies could be left to run hot, which will rev up demand even more. “The most important drivers supporting commodity prices are the global economic recovery and acceleration in the reopening phase,” said Giovanni Staunovo, commodity analyst at UBS Group AG. The bank expects commodities as a whole to rise about 10% in the next year. China, a crucial source of supply and demand for raw materials, is playing a big role, particularly as the government tries to reduce production of key metals like steel and aluminum. It’s also buying up massive amounts of grains. Food prices are also being affected as poor weather in key growing nations like Brazil and France hits harvests.

Surging U.S. crop prices reverse fortunes in rural Iowa - A surge to eight-year highs in U.S. corn and soybean prices is boosting farmers' incomes and their demand for land, tractors and tools. It is a turnaround for the agricultural sector after farmers struggled for years with a series of challenges: an oversupply of grain, former President Donald Trump's trade war with China and then the pandemic. In western Iowa, where Arkfeld lives, the rise in farm income is helping to revitalize the rural economy, after a deadly flood in 2019 submerged fields and drove some growers out of business. Farm families are spending more at stores that sell clothing, grooming products and home improvement supplies, local businesses said. Iowa's economy is particularly tied to agriculture as the state is the No. 1 U.S. producer of hogs and corn, as well as home to many seed and agricultural equipment dealerships. "When farmers make money, they spend money, which is good for the economy all the way around," said Bret Hays, a farmer in Malvern, Iowa, in Mills County. Hays is sowing crops this spring with his first new planter in about a dozen years, a hulking Deere & Co machine that costs nearly $350,000. It is a stark contrast to 2019 when he cleared sand and debris left in his fields from floods and crop prices slumped during the U.S.-China trade war. Now, soaring grain prices make it easier to swallow the price tag of the planter he ordered last year and to pay off debt. The uptick in the agricultural economy began last year when commodity prices started climbing as China accelerated imports of U.S. crops. China increased purchases after the Phase 1 trade deal signed with Washington in January 2020, following two years of acrimony and a steep drop in imports. Although China's 2020 imports fell short of the trade pact's goals, the purchases tightened U.S. grain supplies and rallied prices. Values for good-quality Midwest farmland rose 4% in last year's fourth quarter from the third quarter, while repayment rates for non-real-estate farm loans notched their first year-on-year increase in seven years, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Low interest rates, a lack of farmland for sale and record-large aid payments to farmers from the Trump administration are helping push up farmland values. 

'Sticker Shock" At The Grocery Store Imminent As Ag Futures Surge Most In 8 Years – Mish - The Bloomberg Agriculture Spot Index surged the most in nearly nine years, driven by a rally in crop futures. With futures surging, Grocery Price Shock Is Coming to a Store Near You. With global food prices already at the highest since mid-2014, this latest jump is being closely watched because staple crops are a ubiquitous influence on grocery shelves — from bread and pizza dough to meat and even soda.“The relentless rise in prices acts as a misery multiplier, driving millions deeper into hunger and desperation,” Chris Nikoi, the World Food Programme’s regional director for West Africa, said earlier this month.It’s “pushing a basic meal beyond the reach of millions of poor families who were already struggling to get by.”And commodities aren’t the only component in driving up the price of food. Higher freight costs and other supply-chain headaches as well as packaging can all add up. Food and beverage giants are already signaling they’re watching margins. Coca-Cola Co. has flagged higher costs in plastic and aluminum, as well as coffee and high-fructose corn syrup, the key ingredient in soda. Nestle SA, the world’s biggest food company, warned it won’t be able to hedge all of its commodity costs and it’s raising prices where appropriate.

U.S. Durable Goods Orders Rise 0.5% In March, Much Less Than Expected - - A report released by the Commerce Department on Monday showed new orders for U.S. manufactured durable goods increased by much less than expected in the month of March. The Commerce Department said durable goods orders rose by 0.5 percent in March after falling by a revised 0.9 percent in February. Economists had expected durable goods orders to spike by 2.5 percent compared to the 1.2 percent slump that had been reported for the previous month. The much weaker than expected durable goods orders growth was partly due to a continued decrease in orders for transportation equipment. Largely reflecting a sharp pullback in orders for non-defense aircraft and parts, orders for transportation equipment tumbled by 1.7 percent in March after plunging by 2.0 percent in February. Excluding the drop in orders for transportation equipment, durable goods orders jumped by 1.6 percent in March after dipping by 0.3 percent in February. The increase matched economist estimates. The rebound in ex-transportation orders reflected notable increases in orders for fabricated metal products, primary metals and machinery. The report also showed orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft, a key indicator of business spending, increased by 0.9 percent in March after falling by 0.8 percent in February. Shipments in the same category, which is the source data for equipment investment in GDP, jumped by 1.3 percent in March after slumping by 1.1 percent in the previous month. "Taken together, the data confirm that business investment momentum re-accelerated at the end of Q1 and is likely to provide positive support to GDP growth,"

April Dallas Fed Manufacturing --This morning the Dallas Fed released its Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey for April. The latest general business activity index came in at 37.3, up 8.4 from 28.9 in March. All figures are seasonally adjusted.Here is an excerpt from the latest report:Texas factory activity expanded at solid clip in April, according to business executives responding to the Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey. The production index, a key measure of state manufacturing conditions, fell 14 points to 34.0, a reading still well above average and indicative of robust output growth. Other measures of manufacturing activity also pointed to strong growth this month, with demand, labor, price and wage indexes reaching all-time highs.Expectations regarding future manufacturing activity pushed further positive in April. The future production index moved up to 47.2, and the future general business activity index inched up to 36.6. Most other measures of future manufacturing activity also rose, and all remained solidly in positive territory. Monthly data for this indicator only dates back to 2004, so it is difficult to see the full potential of this indicator without several business cycles of data. Nevertheless, it is an interesting and important regional manufacturing indicator. The Dallas Fed on the TMOS importance:Texas produced $159 billion in manufactured goods in 2008, roughly 9.5 percent of the country’s manufacturing output. Texas ranks second behind California in factory production and first as an exporter of manufactured goods.

Richmond Fed Manufacturing: Improvement in April - Fifth District manufacturing activity showed continued growth in April, according to the most recent survey from the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. The composite index remained at 17 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 improved in April, according to the most recent survey from the Richmond Fed. The composite index held steady at 17, indicating continued growth, as all three component indexes—shipments, new orders, and employment—remained positive. Survey responses indicated supply constraints, with the backlog of orders and vendor lead time indexes registering historic highs. Meanwhile, inventories shrank as the indexes for inventories of finished goods and raw materials reached their lowest values on record. Manufacturers 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.

April Regional Fed Manufacturing Overview -- Five out of the twelve Federal Reserve Regional Districts currently publish monthly data on regional manufacturing: Dallas, Kansas City, New York, Richmond, and Philadelphia. Regional manufacturing surveys are a measure of local economic health and are used as a representative for the larger national manufacturing health. They have been used as a signal for business uncertainty and economic activity as a whole. Manufacturing makes up 12% of the country's GDP. The other 6 Federal Reserve Districts do not publish manufacturing data. For these, the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book offers a short summary of each districts’ manufacturing health. The Chicago Fed published their Midwest Manufacturing Index from July 1996 through December of 2013. According to their website, "The Chicago Fed Midwest Manufacturing Index (CFMMI) is undergoing a process of data and methodology revision. In December 2013, the monthly release of the CFMMI was suspended pending the release of updated benchmark data from the U.S. Census Bureau and a period of model verification. Significant revisions in the history of the CFMMI are anticipated." Five out of the twelve Federal Reserve Regional Districts currently publish monthly data on regional manufacturing: Dallas, Kansas City, New York, Richmond, and Philadelphia. The latest average of the five for April is 17, unchanged from the previous month.  Here is the same chart including the average of the five. Readers will notice the range in expansion and contraction between all regions.

 Weekly Initial Unemployment Claims at 553,000 - The DOL reported: In the week ending April 24, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 553,000, a decrease of 13,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 19,000 from 547,000 to 566,000. The 4-week moving average was 611,750, a decrease of 44,000 from the previous week's revised average. This is the lowest level for this average since March 14, 2020 when it was 225,500. The previous week's average was revised up by 4,750 from 651,000 to 655,750. This does not include the 121,749 initial claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) that was down from 133,358 the previous week.  The following graph shows the 4-week moving average of weekly claims since 1971. The dashed line on the graph is the current 4-week average. The four-week average of weekly unemployment claims decreased to 651,000. The previous week was revised up. Regular state continued claims decreased to 3,813,109 (SA) from 3,886,198 (SA) the previous week. Note: There are an additional 6,974,068 receiving Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) that decreased from 7,309,604 the previous week (there are questions about these numbers). This is a special program for business owners, self-employed, independent contractors or gig workers not receiving other unemployment insurance.  And an additional 5,192,711 receiving Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) down from 5,605,935.  Weekly claims were higher than the consensus forecast.

 Shortage of delivery drivers means some gas station pumps could run dry - More than a year after the U.S. was forced into lockdown by the pandemic, Americans are taking to the road again, whether returning to work or taking long-delayed vacations — but travel plans could be disrupted in the months ahead due to the possibility of gasoline shortages. Unlike the twin oil shocks of the 1970s, petroleum today is in abundant supply. What has become scarce are the drivers needed to get fuel from refineries to service stations. According to one trade group, almost one-quarter of the country’s tanker trucks are currently idled because there’s no one to put behind the wheel. “Trucking’s driver shortage already exceeds 50,000 drivers,” wrote National Tank Truck Carriers, an industry trade group, in a recent report. That’s only part of the problem, the NTTC adds. “The trucking industry’s workforce shortage is not confined to drivers alone,” the group said. “Trucking companies also require dispatchers and back office staff. Trained mechanics are also in short supply. Tank truck operations face further critical shortages of registered inspectors and design-certified engineers who can inspect and repair cargo tank truck trailers.” When the pandemic hit, America went into lockdown. Millions lost their jobs and many more started working from home. The travel industry took a big hit while traffic in major markets like Los Angeles, Chicago and New York fell by as much as 80 percent through the spring, according to tracking service TomTom. For those who were still on the road, the good news was that fuel prices dropped to as little as $1 a gallon in some parts of the country. But prices have been on the rise as more and more Americans have begun driving again. More Americans traveled by car over the Easter and Passover holidays than during any holiday since the pandemic began. On Wednesday, AAA reported that the average motorist is now paying $2.88 for a gallon of unleaded regular. And experts forecast the upward trend will continue. There have already been spot shortages in Florida, Arizona and Missouri due to a lack of tank truck drivers — and what is more concerning is that it could become harder to find fuel, especially over the upcoming summer holidays. Truck drivers, in general, have been in increasingly short supply in recent years. Older drivers are retiring and, facing long hours and relatively low pay, it has been difficult to recruit new ones, said the American Trucking Associations, an industry trade group. The ATA has warned of a “significant tightening of the driver market” that shows sign of only growing worse. Turnover is a rising challenge for the industry, the ATA said. It rose to 94 percent for large truck carriers during the first quarter of this year, up 20 percentage points from the first quarter of 2017. The rate varies from one company to another and depending upon the type of cargo drivers handle, but data shows that about 70 percent of tanker drivers quit the business or changed jobs during the pandemic. Complicating matters is the fact that not everyone licensed to haul an 18-wheeler can operate a tank truck. Beyond the basic commercial license, a driver needs to get additional certification considering the dangerous loads they’ll be hauling.

Working from home means longer hours, fewer sick days, and fewer bonuses, according to a major report. We break down 4 of its key findings. - The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted bold predictions that the future of work will be from home, after millions were forced out of offices for more than a year but able to do their jobs remotely.But this week, the UK's Office for National Statistics (ONS) published a major report on the phenomenon — based on surveys of hundreds of thousands of people over nearly a decade from the country's Annual Population Survey – and made some startling findings.  Homeworkers were working longer hours for less reward compared with their peers going into offices, the research found.  Here are the report's four main takeaways.

• 1. Those who mostly worked from home were less likely to get bonuses.  The ONS study found that, based on analysis of survey respondents between 2013 to 2020, people who mainly worked from home were on average 38% less likely to receive a bonus in salary compared with those who never worked from home in the same period.The ONS suggested two possible reasons for the discrepancy. It may "reflect biases in the labor market with people who worked mainly from home being overlooked for promotions and bonuses due to a lack of visibility at work."
• 2. Remote workers were less than half as likely to call in sick.  The sickness absence rate for employees working from home in 2020 was 0.9% on average, compared with 2.2% for those who worked from offices in their main job, the ONS report found. Though it is possible remote workers were less exposed to illness, the report suggested that many people were simply just working through periods of illness or injury. "When sick, homeworkers may not have travelled to a workplace to work but still felt well enough to work from home," the ONS said.
• 3. And they did more hours of unpaid overtime. In 2020, people who "mainly," "occasionally" or "recently" worked from home all did an average of around six hours of unpaid overtime a week. This was almost double the 3.6 hours by those who never worked remotely.
• 4. They were also more likely to work in the evenings. The pandemic appears to have caused a shift in the working day.  In September 2020, homeworkers were more likely to work between the hours of 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. compared with those never working at home, according to the ONS report.This contrasted with an earlier sample in April, at the start of the pandemic, when homeworkers "tended to keep hours close to typical office hours, because homeworking was new to many."

Airline bans Alaska state senator for violating mask rules (AP) — Alaska Airlines has banned an Alaska state senator for refusing to follow mask requirements. “We have notified Senator Lora Reinbold that she is not permitted to fly with us for her continued refusal to comply with employee instruction regarding the current mask policy,” spokesman Tim Thompson told theAnchorage Daily News on Saturday, adding that the suspension was effective immediately. Reinbold, a Republican of Eagle River, said she had not been notified of a ban and that she hoped to be on an Alaska Airlines flight in the near future. Last week, Reinbold was recorded in Juneau International Airport arguing with Alaska Airlines staff about mask policies. A video posted to social media appears to show airline staff telling Reinbold her mask must cover her nose and mouth. Reinbold told the newspaper that had been inquiring about a “mask exemption with uptight employees at the counter."“I was reasonable with all Alaska Airlines employees,” she said, adding that she was able to board the flight to Anchorage.Reinbold has been a vocal opponent to COVID-19 mitigation measures and has repeatedly objected to Alaska Airlines’ mask policy, which was enacted before the federal government's mandate this year. Last year, she referred to Alaska Airlines staff as “mask bullies” after being asked by flight attendants to wear a mask aboard a flight, the newspaper reported. After the incident, she reportedly sent a cake to some flight attendants bearing the inscription: “I’m sorry if I offended you.”

 Federal judge orders Los Angeles to remove all homeless people from Skid Row -- Federal Judge David O. Carter issued a ruling on Tuesday ordering the city and county of Los Angeles to carry out the removal of all homeless people from downtown’s Skid Row neighborhood by October. Skid Row, infamous for hosting one of the largest concentrations of homeless people in the United States, is plagued by all the attendant miseries that come with living on the streets. Those in the area report rampant drug abuse, and sanitation has been so poor as to see the reemergence of diseases like Typhus. Official surveys have largely been suspended since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic last year, but it is certain that under such conditions the virus has ripped through the homeless population. There are just short of 5,000 homeless people living in Skid Row, with about half of them unable to find any form of shelter and sleeping outdoors on any given night. The order comes on the heels of the forced eviction of the homeless encampment in Los Angeles’ Echo Park at the end of March. Echo Park, previously home to several hundred people was cleared out overnight. When enforcing the eviction, the Los Angeles Police Department arrested journalists and National Lawyers Guild observers and beat protesters, breaking several people’s bones. As for the homeless themselves, the city’s answer has been to place them in temporary shelters, taking advantage of some programs made available during the pandemic. However, such relocations are always temporary. The experience of all efforts to alleviate the homeless crisis in the last decade has followed roughly the same formula.The homeless population concentrated in a given area—usually a wealthy one or one that could otherwise be prime real estate—are rounded up and taken to remote shelters. In the process, any sort of community that would have been built up is torn apart as people are taken to different centers. Then, after a time, when whatever funds were made available dry up, or voucher programs expire, a portion of them find themselves on the streets again, only in a new area, typically a much poorer one, where they will be less of a burden on property values. This was the case with the removal of the homeless encampment in Anaheim several years ago, and more or less the same could be expected today.

Biden administration expanding summer food program to feed over 30M schoolchildren -- The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced the launch of a program to feed over 30 million low-income students during the summer months. The new effort, funded by the American Rescue Plan, will provide roughly $375 to families of low-income children to buy food for the summer months when they are out of school. Low-income families are typically provided $6.82 per weekday during the school months. The department’s announcement expands the Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfer (P-EBT), which was established in March 2020 to feed students when schools were closed due to COVID-19. The administration found that summer feeding programs reach less than 20 percent of students who are fed during the school year. “Help is here for financially stressed families trying to put food on the table,” said Stacy Dean, deputy undersecretary for the Agriculture Department's Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services. “Our nutrition assistance programs are powerful tools that are critical to America reaching a full and equitable recovery from the pandemic.” The American Rescue Plan provided $12 billion in new nutrition assistance. It extended SNAP benefits by $1 billion per month to 25 million people and funded meals for young adults experiencing homelessness through Child and Adult Care Food Program emergency shelters, among other provisions.

 How Biden’s Request for More Education Funding Would Shift More Power to the Federal Government -- The president has called on Congress to make a “historic investment” in the Title I grant program. The program provides financial assistance to school districts that have high numbers or percentages of students from low-income families. The Biden administration wants US$36.5 billion for the program, an increase of $20 billion from the 2021 enacted level.  As a political scientist who examines education policy, I believe this larger influx of cash would give the president more power to shape the structure of American education.  I also believe it could make it harder for states to push back against the federal government when it comes to such matters as standardized testing.  History shows how a larger federal role is part of an ongoing trend. Since the passage of theElementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, the federal government has attached conditions that states and districts must meet to get federal education funds. Based on these conditions, if Biden succeeds in his plan to increase federal spending by 41% in fiscal 2022, then the federal government will have even more control over school spending.  The federal government covers about 8.5% of K-12 school districts’ budgets. However, the percentage varies by state. In fiscal 2017 in New York, for example, federal funding made up approximately $1.6 billion of the more than $70 billion that the state spent on elementary and secondary education. Given that there are costs associated with meeting the conditions necessary to get Title I funds, it might make sense for the state to forgo Title I grants and instead increase state school aid for high-need school districts.The country’s elementary and high school education does not mandate what states and school districts do. Instead, school districts and states apply for Title I grants, and the federal government comes up with the conditions to get the money. People close to the Biden administration are aware of Title I’s power to nudge states and school districts to do things they might not otherwise want to do. For instance, Ary Amerikaner, vice president of The Education Trust, a nonprofit that advocates for low-income students and students of color, as well as a member of Biden’s education transition team, supports the requested $20 billion increase in Title I. However, she wants the Biden administration to “leverage it to change the vast rest of the public education spending inequities in our country.”

Judge tosses suit that sought to bar transgender athletes from competing in girls sports -- A federal judge on Sunday dismissed a lawsuit in Connecticut that sought to prevent transgender athletes from competing in girls high school sports in the state. The lawsuit was filed in February 2020 by a group of cisgender high school students seeking to prevent transgender girls from competing in track events. The students alleged that they would “face unfair competition” from two transgender students.  The group of cisgender students filed the lawsuit against several school boards and the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference, which oversees school sports in the state and allows students to participate in sports aligned with their gender identities. They alleged that the policy provided fewer opportunities for cisgender girls competing against transgender girls.  U.S. District Court Judge Robert Chatigny dismissed the lawsuit in a ruling released Sunday, finding that there was no longer an issue to resolve because the two transgender students identified in the lawsuit had graduated.   The Biden administration earlier this year withdrew federal support for the lawsuit, reversing the former Trump administration’s position. Former Attorney General William Barr had previously argued that Connecticut’s policy violated Title IX, which guarantees girls equal access to sports and other school opportunities. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) celebrated the ruling. Joshua Block, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU, called the dismissal “good news for transgender students in Connecticut and around the country.” “Today’s ruling shows that allowing transgender students to fully participate in school — including sports — is consistent with existing federal law," Block said in a Sunday statement.

Gimme an 'F': Court to rule on Cheerleader's Salty Language -- George F. Will -- The case of the cheerleader's salty language comes to the Supreme Court today, at a moment when technological and social changes should cause the court to expand First Amendment protections of student speech. Social media necessitate rethinking the proper scope of government's jurisdiction, through public schools, in controlling students. And the fact that freedom of speech is besieged in academic settings justifies judicial supervision of schools' attempts to extend their controls.When B.L., a Pennsylvania ninthgrader, failed to make the varsity cheerleading team, she posted on Snapchat a picture of her raised middle finger and this (edited) caption: ''F—- school f—- softball f—- cheer f—- everything.'' Another student brought this episode of adolescent volatility to the attention of the school's coaches, who suspended B.L. from the junior-varsity cheerleading team because she had damaged the school's image by violating the requirement to ''have respect'' for coaches and the rule against ''foul language and inappropriate gestures.'  B.L.'s parents sued the school district for violating her First Amendment rights. Two lower courts sided with her, citing cases beginning with the Supreme Court's 1969 ruling about two Des Moines high school students who planned to wear black armbands to school to protest the Vietnam War. The Iowa school preemptively adopted a rule making refusal to remove an armband grounds for suspension. The students' parents sued.Two lower courts upheld the rule as reasonably related to maintaining school order.The Supreme Court ruled otherwise, saying that armbands are quiet and passive, and hence neither disruptive nor violative of the rights of others.The court said students do not lose their constitutional rights when they enter school property. In 1969, however, the world was young and social media were nonexistent. Today, tens of millions of students are doing ''remote learning,'' and off-campus social media speech saturates schools. B.L.'s school says she has scant First Amendment protections even away from school because social media guarantee that what is said off-campus does not stay off campus.

 Michigan teachers conduct wildcat sickout against in-person learning, cuts to pandemic safety measures -Teachers in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, conducted a job action this week to fight against deadly school reopenings. One-hundred sixteen teachers called in sick across the school district on Wednesday, April 28, including 47 at Grosse Pointe North High School (GPN), in a coordinated “sickout.” Administrators at GPN were forced to gather students in the gym while they scrambled to find substitutes. Michigan leads the US by far in the rate of daily new COVID-19 cases. The state’s rate of 47 new cases per 100,000 people per day is 60 percent higher than the next worst state, Minnesota. K-12 schools are the source of more outbreaks than any other settings, according to data from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS). However, schools remain open for face-to-face learning across the state on a district-by-district basis. The sickout came two days after a school board meeting during which teachers asked to switch from full in-person learning to a hybrid model due to the ongoing statewide surge. Instead, the board voted 6–1 to not only continue full in-person instruction, but to also reduce the definition of “close contact” from six to three feet for the explicit purpose of keeping more students in the classrooms as the pandemic continues to spread. The Grosse Pointe rule change, effective immediately, means that now when students or teachers test positive for COVID-19, only those who came within three feet of them are to quarantine or participate in contact tracing. This defies both the MDHHS and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which call for contact tracing and quarantining after exposure at six feet. Also at Monday’s board meeting, GPN teacher Sean McCarroll delivered a powerful resignation speech, which has been viewed more than 63,000 times in three days on YouTube. “You’ve done more damage to our students, our district, and our profession in the last 12 months than we’ve seen in the last decade,” he said to board members.The actions of these teachers to stop in-person learning to save lives have taken place outside of the trade unions, which have not lifted a finger to protect teachers or shut schools to slow the spread of the deadly disease. Grosse Pointe Educators Association (GPEA) union president Christopher Pratt confirmed to Fox 2 news that the sickout was not a union-sponsored activity.

UC and Cal State systems plan to require coronavirus vaccinations in the fall --The University of California and California State University systems announced Thursday that they plan to require that all students, faculty and staff be vaccinated before returning to campuses in the fall. The announcements are the largest vaccine requirement directives that U.S. higher education has yet seen, according to the Los Angeles Times, impacting more than 1 million members of the two public university systems. The requirements, however, are not yet final. Both universities are waiting for a vaccine to receive full approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before putting the directives into effect. The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines are both being administered under an emergency-use authorization from the FDA. According to the Los Angeles Times, health experts expect that at least one will receive formal approval by the fall. The University of California added that the requirement is contingent on “adequate availability of the fully approved vaccines.” In a press release announcing the proposed policy, University of California President Michael V. Drake said receiving a vaccine is a “key step” in helping the campus bring an end to the pandemic. “Receiving a vaccine for the virus that causes COVID-19 is a key step people can take to protect themselves, their friends and family, and our campus communities while helping bring the pandemic to an end,” Drake said. California State University Chancellor Joseph I. Castro said the school system is sharing this information now to give students, their families and employees “ample time to make plans to be vaccinated prior to the start of the fall term.” The two university systems join more than 60 colleges nationwide that will require all students to be vaccinated in the fall, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.

 Divestment gains at some colleges, but can it spread where oil rules? -Fossil fuel divestment advocates at wealthy colleges have had many cases to celebrate in recent years. Yale University announced this month that its Board of Trustees approved a set of ethical investing guidelines for the university’s multibillion-dollar endowment. Rutgers University announced in March that it would divest from fossil fuels, following in the footsteps of institutions including American University, Brown University, Columbia University, Georgetown University, Middlebury College, the University of Southern California and the University of Cambridge.. After years of activism, divestment advocates can now point to a growing list of institutions outlining plans to sell oil and gas holdings. The shift in momentum could support what divestment advocates have argued for years: that divestment from oil, gas and coal companies is inevitable and that it’s only a matter of time before holdouts like Harvard University ditch their fossil fuel assets. But in parts of the United States where oil is a significant part of the economy, divestment isn’t discussed. Divestment advocates in Texas have made little progress convincing the state's Permanent University Fund -- which owns mineral rights on more than two million acres of land -- to part ways with oil. Jim Johnsen, the former president of the University of Alaska system, said he can’t remember ever being asked by students or employees about divestment, despite the university’s strong ties to the oil industry. Two members of the University of Alaska system's Board of Trustees have experience working in the fossil fuel sector, and parts of the university system's revenue can be traced back to oil and gas. Continuing disinterest at some universities presents a challenge for divestment advocates. Students and employees often spend years pushing university leaders to dump their fossil fuel assets. Divestment might be a powerful tool, but it has greater potential to influence corporate behavior if many institutions participate. Will divestment movements ever gain traction in states that rely heavily on fossil fuel industries?

How Dodgy Government Accounting Fueled Rapid Rise of Federal Student Loans --Yves Smith - Silly me! Here I thought the main reason for funneling so much money into higher education via what has become lax student loan screening was patronage. Academics and administrators have a strong tendency to vote Democratic. So a debt-fueled expansion of colleges and universities could only help Team Dem. But in finance, bad accounting regularly drives bad outcomes and that looks to the far more immediate cause for the expansion in student loans, and the resulting escalation in higher education costs.  A much less convoluted mechanism encouraged the Federal government again and again to expand its student loan programs, even when that implied extending credit to more and more marginal borrowers (remember a creditworthy borrower can be made not so but having them take on excessive debt). As the Wall Street Journal explained, a change in government accounting standards in the 1990s allowed the Federal government to book anticipated student loan profits and reduce Federal debt requirements.¹ As the Journal explains:Before then [1990], the budget treated student loans as an expense. If the government lent $1 billion, the deficit rose by that amount, absent offsetting measures.The law changed in 1990 to incorporate expected future repayments. Suddenly, loans became a potential source of profits, by assuming that most borrowers would repay with interest. This created an incentive for Congress to expand student lending. Doing so would increase access to higher education either at no cost to the government or with a gain in federal revenue, at least on paper.Keep track of the dates. See how quickly changes that weren’t in the interest of helping students from non-affluent households afford an education kicked in: Changes in 1992 made loans available for the first time to students from upper-income households, and provided that interest would start accumulating while borrowers were still in school, instead of after graduation. Congress also lifted a ceiling on how much parents could borrow for their children.In 1993 the government introduced “Income-contingent” loans, under which monthly repayments were set as a share of borrowers’ income instead of fixed, and repayment could be spread over 25 years instead of 10.This encouraged bigger loans. Congress and the Obama administration later expanded these kinds of loans. In all, the changes, by making nonpayment of student loans seem less likely, were justified as preventing losses from student lending.The BankRate article goes on to explain that the inability of borrowers to achieve loan discharge is mismanagement by the Department of Education and loan servicers. But one has to question that this incompetence is an accident. Both the DoE and servicers have incentives to keep borrowers paying even if their student loan balances are required to be wiped out. The servicers get servicing and other fees and the DoE keeps showing profits on the loans.²Back to the Journal:One instance of how accounting drove policy came in 2005 with Grad Plus, a program that removed limits on how much graduate students could borrow. It was included in a sweeping law designed to reduce the federal budget deficit, which had become a concern in both parties as the nation spent on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and as baby-boomer retirement was set to raise Social Security and healthcare outlays.A key motive for letting graduate students borrow unlimited amounts was to use the projected profits from such lending to reduce federal deficits, said two congressional aides who helped draft the legislation.In other words, the policy aims of advancing students’ education (however you choose to define that) was becoming hostage to budget aims of generating more interest income.

Safe Speech vs Free Speech: Higher Education’s False Dilemma - Universities in the US and the UK have become a battleground in the war between safe speech and free speech. I believe that this is a false dilemma – and understanding its falsity can enable us to detect the social forces imposing it on us.  “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear,” wrote George Orwell in 1945 in an introduction to Animal Farm. The introduction was so controversial that it was not made public until 1972.   The university has consistently been a fortress, sheltering freedom of speech from both prevailing public opinion and the intrusions of political authority. And yet, in a curious shift, over the past decade universities have transformed into spaces for safe speech – as students claim that the university is akin to a home. College campuses in the US and Europe have experienced major student protests, because some students feel that absolute freedom of speech on campus promotes a hostile environment that harms minority students and hinders their ability to learn.They have argued, compellingly, that denying hateful or historically ‘privileged’ voices a platform is necessary, so that the marginalised and vulnerable can finally speak up. They demand censorship and prohibitions against giving offence.As a result, universities have created ‘safe spaces’ in which offensive or disagreeable speech is prohibited and punished. ‘Cancel culture’ and ‘de-platforming’, codifying ‘protected categories’ of students: these are all now part of university life. The ‘equal respect agenda’ is enforced through disciplinary and grievance procedures, and ‘safe space marshals’ patrol events looking for macro- and microaggressions. Is this the end of free speech in the university? I don’t think so. We can resolve the deadlock between safe speech and free speech if we remember the original mission of free speech. It was not meant as a tool of information, but one of liberation; it was conceived as a political weapon – a weapon against the oppression of dogma and the abuse of power.To quote George Orwell again, freedom of speech is a right to express “what one believes to be true, without having to fear bullying or blackmail from any side”.Exactly because the original vocation of free speech is to fight dogma, we should not transform it into a dogma. And to ensure this, we must consistently use it as a tool for fighting oppression. Whenever speech is used to oppress, to bully or to humiliate, it is no longer free speech because it violates the very spirit of the concept. This means that the grievances of those calling for a ban on offensive speech because it deepens existing injustices are valid. But they are valid because our societies have been subjected tomassive precarisation, which has indeed left many feeling homeless. Public authority has responded to the growing social decay with autocratic shortcuts: for example, sending the police into schools or speech marshals into universities.

 Book-burning comes to America --In a major act of censorship, with chilling implications for democratic rights, publisher W.W. Norton has announced its decision to “permanently” remove Blake Bailey’s biography of American novelist Philip Roth (1933–2018) from print. Several individuals have accused Bailey of sexual wrongdoing, including rape, dating back to 2003. None of them have come forward with any evidence to back up the claims. Bailey’s 880-page book, well-received critically and considered one of the important works of the year in its field, will be pulped. Norton also reported its dropping of Bailey’s 2014 memoir. In a statement dripping with hypocrisy, Norton’s president, Julia A. Reidhead, asserted that “Mr Bailey will be free to seek publication elsewhere if he chooses.” In fact, overnight Bailey has become a “non-person,” he has ceased to exist. Grotesquely, the book company also said it would match the amount of Bailey’s book advance to donate to “organisations that fight against sexual assault or harassment and work to protect survivors.” Already, a search on Norton’s website for Philip Roth: The Biography lands one at a message that reads: “Our apologies! We can’t find the page you’re looking for.” The purging of Bailey’s book sets a sinister example, intended to intimidate artists, biographers and scholars alike. The message being sent is clear: any influential figure who rubs establishment public opinion the wrong way can be denounced and dispatched in like manner. The filthy snout of the New York Times has been busily at work in this affair. On April 21, the Times published an article setting out the “sexual assault allegations” against Bailey. There is no reason to give the slightest a priori credence to the claims made in the Times article, which conforms to a pattern of trial-by-media that has been “perfected” since the launching of the #MeToo witch-hunt in October 2017. Bailey has never been charged with or convicted of a crime. None of the alleged incidents were ever reported to the authorities.

'Long haulers' study suggests even mild COVID-19 could increase risk of death up to 6 months after infection - Mild COVID-19 made people more likely to die for six months in a large-scale study published Thursday in Nature. The study, of nearly 73,000 mostly male veterans, found that people who had COVID-19 but weren't hospitalized were 59% more likely to die more than a month after diagnosis, compared to someone without the virus. A higher risk of death extended to at least six months. The study's authors, from the US department of Veterans Affairs, estimated that mild COVID-19 would cause eight more deaths per 1,000 people six months out from diagnosis, compared to an average group of people on the US department of Veterans Affairs database. The numbers were higher for those who had hospital treatment — a separate group of nearly 14,000 people in the study. The authors estimated that out of 1,000 people who received hospital treatment for COVID-19, 28 more would die within six months of diagnosis, compared with an average group of 1,000 on the database. Due to the nature of the study, it was not possible to say whether COVID-19 caused these deaths. The cohort for mild COVID-19 comprised more than 73,000 mostly white (76%), male (90%) war veterans with an average age of 66, so it is not clear whether the findings apply to a wider population. The US department of Veteran Affairs researchers also found that those not needing hospital treatment required 20% more ongoing care than someone who hadn't gotten infected. Some of these people had lingering symptoms, including respiratory symptoms, headaches, mental-health conditions, and metabolic disorders. A previous study from France, reported on by Insider's Aria Bendix in March, found that 40-year-old women were most at risk of so-called "long-COVID," — a range of symptoms lasting a month or more after first catching coronavirus or that appear weeks after infection. The authors of the new study didn't provide much detail about the symptoms, including how long they lasted for, and whether the veterans had preexisting conditions before they caught COVID-19. The authors also reported increased use of certain medications, including pain medication, cough medicines, inhalers, and mental health treatments in those who had COVID-19, but didn't give much detail.

High-dimensional characterization of post-acute sequalae of COVID-19 – Abstract -  The acute clinical manifestations of COVID-19 are well characterized^1,2; however, its post-acute sequalae have not been comprehensively described. Here, we use the national healthcare databases of the US Department of Veterans Affairs to systematically and comprehensively identify 6-month incident sequalae including diagnoses, medication use, and laboratory abnormalities in 30-day survivors of COVID-19. We show that beyond the first 30 days of illness, people with COVID-19 exhibit higher risk of death and health resource utilization. Our high dimensional approach identifies incident sequalae in the respiratory system and several others including nervous system and neurocognitive disorders, mental health disorders, metabolic disorders, cardiovascular disorders, gastrointestinal disorders, malaise, fatigue, musculoskeletal pain, and anemia. We show increased incident use of several therapeutics including pain medications (opioids and non-opioids), antidepressants, anxiolytics, antihypertensives, and oral hypoglycemics and evidence of laboratory abnormalities in multiple organ systems. Analysis of an array of pre-specified outcomes reveals a risk gradient that increased across severity of the acute COVID-19 infection (non-hospitalized, hospitalized, admitted to intensive care). The findings show that beyond the acute illness, substantial burden of health loss — spanning pulmonary and several extrapulmonary organ systems — is experienced by COVID-19 survivors. The results provide a roadmap to inform health system planning and development of multidisciplinary care strategies to reduce chronic health loss among COVID-19 survivors.

Staying 6 feet apart indoors does almost nothing to stop the spread of COVID-19, MIT study finds - The widely used rule of staying 6 feet away from others does little to affect the risk of exposure to COVID-19 in indoor spaces, according to a new study out of MIT.According to MIT researchers, the rule is based on an outdated understanding of how the coronavirus moves in closed spaces.They said other variables — like the number of people in a space, whether they wear masks, what they are doing, and the level of ventilation — were much more important.The 6-foot rule is used in various forms around the world: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises 6 feet of separation indoors and outdoors, while in the UK the figure is 2 meters. In much of Europe, the figure is 1 meter, which is also recommended as a minimum distance by the World Health Organization.But while such distancing rules are easy to remember, and purport to suit any situation, the new study says they may not be that useful.The study was released online ahead of its publication in the peer-reviewed journal PNAS on Tuesday.It says a better way of controlling indoor exposure is to do individual calculations based on variables for that space.In some cases, the exposure level might be the same at 6 feet as at 60 feet, one of the study authors has said.Martin Bazant and John Bush, both MIT professors in applies mathematics, developed a formula to estimate how long it would take for a person to hit dangerous levels of exposure from one infected person entering a room.The calculation is more sophisticated version of the traffic-light system previously proposed by MIT. It takes into account the number of people in the room, the size of the space, what they are doing, whether masks are being worn, and what kind of ventilation is in place.Using this calculation, it could be that the level of exposure is high in some spaces even if people are more than 6 feet away. It could also be lower than expected."The distancing isn't helping you that much, and it's also giving you a false sense of security because you're as safe at 6 feet as you are at 60 feet if you're indoors. Everyone in that space is at roughly the same risk, actually," Bazant told CNBC.

Quebec schools without air purifiers have 3 to 4 times more COVID-19 cases, says dad running citizen count -- It's been about four months since Montreal schoolchildren began, unintentionally, to take part in what may end up being a huge naturally occurring science experiment: how well air purifiers work. Since January, most English public schools in the Montreal area have had air purifiers, air exchangers or some other form of extra air-quality device if they don't have built-in mechanical ventilation. French public schools in the same types of buildings have not had air purifiers. The provincial government continues to say that air purifiers aren't necessary or proven to work, but the citizen paying the closest attention to the numbers says that based on his data so far, it seems they do. "I can measure that," Olivier Drouin, who runs the website Covid Ecoles Quebec, told CJAD radio on Friday. "I can measure that with not just two or three sample data... with 1,000 schools, and with 60 schools plus that have air purifiers," he said. More specifically, he's found that the schools without air purifying devices have more than three times as many COVID-19 cases as the others, he said. "The number of cases that [schools with air purifiers] reported, on average, per school versus where there's no... air quality measures... is three to four times fewer cases," he said. "Air quality measures," for his purposes, include not just air purifiers but air exchangers and a couple of similar devices that serve a similar function, Drouin said. Drouin also spoke in March to La Presse about these patterns. He told the paper that in a sample of 677 schools with confirmed COVID-19 cases since the beginning of January, he'd found 4,223 cases in total, an average of 6.8 cases per school. But in the 62 schools with purifiers, he only found 110 cases or an average of 1.8 cases per school, about a quarter of the broader rate.

The Impact of Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions on the Spread of COVID-19 - A Lesson from South Korea and Sweden -- One of the most severe and unprecedented government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic has been the use of stay-at-home orders and government-forced business and school closures among others.  While governments would have us believe that these measures have been successful at reducing the spread of COVID-19, until now, there has been little research into the effectiveness of these two most restrictive non-pharmaceutical interventions or NPIs.  Thanks to research by Eran Bendavid, Christopher Oh, Jay Bhattacharya and John Ioannidis at Stanford University, we now have an evaluation which compares the use of less restrictive NPIs or lrNPIs and more restrictive NPIs or mrNPIs on the spread of COVID-19.  The use of non-pharmaceutical interventions was justified by governments around the world to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 in the absence of pharmaceutical options (i.e. vaccines etcetera) thereby reducing death, disease and health system overloading.  The early adoption of the most restrictive NPI policies (also known as lockdowns) was justified at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic as the disease spread rapidly and overwhelmed national and local health systems.  That said, it has become apparent that the most restrictive NPIs had a series of unintended but related health consequences including hunger, increase in non-COVID-19 diseases from missed health appointments, higher rates of opioid overdose deaths, mental health issues including suicide and higher rates of domestic abuse.  Some of these health consequences are related to the significant negative economic impacts of the lockdown measures.  To better weigh the real world benefits of non-pharmaceutical interventions, one must balance the positives and the negatives.  For the purposes of the study, the authors used data from ten nations as follows: England, France, Germany, Iran, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, South Korea, Sweden and the United States.  The authors used South Korea and Sweden as examples of nations with less restrictive policies (lrNPIs) and compares the impact of their modest responses on the spread of COVID-19 to nations with more restrictive policies (mrNPIs).  South Korea's strategy relied on isolation of infected cases and their contacts and intensive investments in both testing and contact tracing.  In the case of Sweden, the government implemented only social distancing guidelines, discouragement of domestic and international travel and a ban on large gatherings.  The results obtained by Sweden and South Korea are then compared to the nations with more restrictive NPIs.

Single-pill treatment for COVID-19 could be available this year -- — Drugmaker Pfizer is currently testing a single-pill treatment for COVID-19, and if all goes well, the drug could be available this year. The drug, called PF-07321332, is currently in a Phase One clinical trial with healthy adults. According to the Telegraph, the protease inhibitor may be available as soon as this year. The pill was unveiled at the American Chemical Society Spring 2021 meeting in early April. The drug works by targeting the main protease of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. By inhibiting the protease, the drug prevents the virus from reproducing itself within the body. 6-foot rule may not protect you from COVID indoors, study says Mikael Dolsten, Pfizer’s chief science officer, said in a press release that the pill could be prescribed “at the first sign of infection” without requiring critical care or hospitalization. “For the foreseeable future, we will expect to see continued outbreaks from COVID-19,” Charlotte Allerton, Pfizer’s head of medicine design, told C&EN. “And therefore, as with all viral pandemics, it’s important we have a full toolbox on how to address it.” Protease inhibitors are currently used to treat HIV around the world.

Humans can infect cats with COVID-19 — what that means for variants -- Scientists have found new evidence that humans can infect their cats with COVID-19.The findings are especially worrisome, given that animal transmission may encourage the breeding of new coronavirus variations, and set off a new wave of infections.Other instances of cats coming down with COVID-19have been reported; whether it was transmitted via humans could not be confirmed at the time.But there have now been at least two confirmed cases of pet owners having passed SARS-CoV-2 to their cats, according to Scottish researchers at the University of Glasgow, who published their findings in the journal Veterinary Record.The two cats were of different breeds and lived in different households. One, a 4-month-old female Ragdoll kitten, developed symptoms consistent with COVID-19 in March 2020, and was euthanized due breathing difficulties and rapidly declining health in April. Around the same time, the other case study, a 6-year-old female Siamese, showed only mild symptoms of illness, such as nasal discharge and conjunctivitis.Veterinarians say this research is critical, not only to the health of our pets, but as a way of better understanding how coronavirus variants develop — the fear is that animals may act as a “viral reservoir” for pathogens to mutate.“These two cases of human-to-animal transmission, found in the feline population in the UK, demonstrate why it is important that we improve our understanding of animal SARS-CoV-2 infection,” said Margaret Hosie, lead author and medical researcher at the University of Glasgow.Talking to the BBC, Hosie said, “Currently, animal-to-human transmission represents a relatively low risk to public health in areas where human-to-human transmission remains high. However, as human cases decrease, the prospect of transmission among animals becomes increasingly important as a potential source of SARS-CoV-2 reintroduction to humans.”

21,000 tested positive in one week after first vaccine dose: analysis --About 21,000 of the roughly 470,000 people who tested positive for COVID-19 in the U.S. in the week ending April 18 had received one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, a Washington Post analysis published on Saturday found. As the Post reported, this is not evidence that vaccines don't work. Rather, these people contracted the virus before the vaccine could take full effect. A study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in March found the vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna are about 80 percent effective at preventing coronavirus infection after one dose. Both vaccines reach their full effectiveness of 90 to 95 percent about two weeks after a second dose is administered. Health experts have said that until vaccines fully take effect, there is little difference between vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals, so it is important to continue observing COVID-19 guidelines. However, there are some benefits offered to those who become infected between doses, the Post reports. “Even if you develop disease, you already have a head start from an immune system standpoint on controlling the virus,” C. Buddy Creech, the director of Vanderbilt University’s vaccine research program, told the Post. “The real challenge is we have to show the blueprint to the immune system with enough lead time,” he added.

Women selling breast milk with COVID-19 antibodies online: report -Some nursing mothers who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 or recovered from the disease are selling their breast milk online, according to US News & World Report. Several listings have popped up on websites that sell breast milk with antibodies in recent months amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the outlet. A search for COVID-19 antibody breast milk on website Only the Breast yields more than 27 pages of results. "I had COVID in October and get tested for antibodies regularly as I work in healthcare. My baby got COVID and was over it in one day due to my antibodies," reads one listing on the site from a Chicago mom. "She continues to be protected by them as studies show that they are passed on through breast milk for as long as the mother has them." Another ad on Only The Breast advertises breast milk from a donor who has been vaccinated with Pfizer's vaccine at $2.50 per ounce. "Provide your baby with safe antibodies!" it reads, according to the report. Some breast milk is being marketed as having COVID-19 antibodies that come from mothers with special dietary restrictions, such as vegan, paleo or gluten free diets. In addition, several ads include statements about scientific findings on babies getting antibodies from their mothers through nursing. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has provided guidelines to nursing mothers amid the pandemic, stating that mothers are unlikely to pass the disease onto their babies should they become infected. Less conclusive information exists on whether mothers can effectively give their children immunity through antibodies in breast milk. The CDC notes that clinical trial testing for the vaccines authorized for emergency use in the U.S. did not include mothers who were breastfeeding.

Israel examining heart inflammation cases in people who received Pfizer COVID shot (Reuters) - Israel's Health Ministry said on Sunday it is examining a small number of cases of heart inflammation in people who had received Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine, though it has not yet drawn any conclusions. Pfizer said it has not observed a higher rate of the condition than would normally be expected in the general population. Israel's pandemic response coordinator, Nachman Ash, said that a preliminary study showed "tens of incidents" of myocarditis occurring among more than 5 million vaccinated people, primarily after the second dose. Ash said it was unclear whether this was unusually high and whether it was connected to the vaccine. Most of the cases were reported among people up to age 30. "The Health Ministry is currently examining whether there is an excess in morbidity (disease rate) and whether it can be attributed to the vaccines," Ash said. Ash, who spoke about the issue in a radio interview and during a news conference, referred to it as a "question mark", and emphasized that the Health Ministry has yet to draw any conclusions. Determining a link, he said, would be difficult because myocarditis, a condition that often goes away without complications, can be caused by a variety of viruses and a similar number of cases were reported in previous years. Pfizer, asked by Reuters about the review, said it is in regular contact with Israel’s Health Ministry to review data on its vaccine. The company said it "is aware of the Israeli observations of myocarditis that occurred predominantly in a population of young men who received the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine". "Adverse events are regularly and thoroughly reviewed and we have not observed a higher rate of myocarditis than what would be expected in the general population. A causal link to the vaccine has not been established," the company said.

South African variant may 'break through' Pfizer vaccine protection, but vaccine highly effective, Israeli study says --A study in Israel found Pfizer/BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine to be less effective on the variant found in South Africa.However, the variant's occurrence in the country is low, and the research has also not been peer-reviewed. The study, released on Saturday, compared almost 400 people who tested positive at least two weeks after receiving one or two doses of the vaccine against the same number who had tested positive but were unvaccinated. It also matched age and gender, among other characteristics. South Africa's variant was found to make up 1% of all cases in the study, according to Tel Aviv University, and the country's largest healthcare provider, Clalit. They found that the variant was eight times more prevalent in patients who had received two doses of the vaccine, compared to those who were unvaccinated. According to Tel Aviv University professor Adi Stern, the data suggests that the South African variant is able to break through the vaccine's protection to some extent. The researchers cautioned that the data was not intended to deduce overall vaccine effectiveness against other variants, since it only looked at people who had already tested positive for COVID-19, instead of overall infection rates. Pfizer and BioNTech could not be immediately reached for comment outside business hours.

 A COVID Triple-Mutant Found in India Could Be Much More Deadly - As India contends with its second major wave of COVID cases and adouble-mutated variant of the virus, it now faces a new threat — a triple-mutant variant.Scientists found two triple-mutant varieties in patient samples in four states: Maharashtra, Delhi, West Bengal, and Chhattisgarh. Researchers in the country have dubbed it the "Bengal strain" and say it has the potential to be even more infectious than the double-mutant variant.This is because three COVID variants have merged to form a new, possibly deadlier variant. The Times of India spoke to Vinod Scaria, a researcher at the CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology in India, who said the triple-mutant was also an "immune escape variant" — a strain that helps the virus attach to human cells and hide from the immune system. He added that it could have evolved from the double-mutant variant — which experts say is likely behind the recent surge of COVID in the country. Sreedhar Chinnaswamy, a researcher from the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics in India, told the Times of India that the variant also carried the E484K mutation, a characteristic found in the variants first identified in South Africa and Brazil. "In other words, you may not be safe from this variant even if you were previously infected by another strain, or even if you have been vaccinated," Chinnaswamy said. Paul Tambyah, a professor of medicine at the National University of Singapore, said the good news is that there is no concrete evidence that the triple mutation is deadlier or more transmissible. "Singapore researchers have done some work trying to link the mutations with clinical outcomes and transmissibility and have found no link between more severity or more transmissibility with newer mutants compared with the original lineages of SARS-CoV2," Tambyah said. Other scientists studying COVID have detected quadruple- and quintuple-mutants in samples as well, he said, without it necessarily affecting how well vaccines work.

Reinfections of COVID-19 after natural infection or vaccination -- On April 5, Bridge Michigan reported that 246 fully vaccinated people in Michigan were later infected with the coronavirus, including 11 hospitalized and three who died. A spokesperson from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) was quoted by Bridge Michigan a week later that the deaths have since undergone a more “detailed review,” and all three had histories of earlier infections before vaccination. Moreover, neither COVID-19 nor any “other acute respiratory infection” was identified on the trio’s death certificates. Vaccinations have shown to be safe and highly effective at reducing hospitalization and death. Recently the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that out of 75 million people that had been fully vaccinated, there had been 5,800 reported infections, of which 396 required hospitalization, of which 74 died. While the deaths might appear to be literally one in a million, many of the 75 million continued to quarantine and social distance, and so were protected by other means than just the vaccine. An alarming study published by the CDC last week was based on an investigation conducted by the Kentucky Department for Public Health on a COVID-19 outbreak at a skilled nursing facility attributed to an unvaccinated symptomatic health care worker. It was reported that 75 of the 83 residents (90.4 percent) had already received both doses of the Pfizer mRNA vaccine, while only 61 (53 percent) of the 116 health care personnel had completed their immunization. The investigation found that 26 residents and 20 workers were diagnosed with a COVID-19 infection. Eighteen of the infected residents and four infected workers were beyond the 14-day window of their second dose. The CDC report mentioned that the genetic sequencing of the virus identified it as an R.1 lineage variant, characterized by the E484K and other mutations within the spike protein. Though this variant has not been classified as a variant of concern or interest, it possesses several mutations known to make it more transmissible and immune evading. The report attempts to downplay concerns raised by the infection of fully vaccinated individuals arguing that the attack rate was four times higher among unvaccinated individuals. Those who were vaccinated were much less symptomatic and required fewer hospitalizations. However, one fully vaccinated resident did die. The infection rate among vaccinated residents was 24 percent. Among the health care workers, it was 6.6 percent. These findings raise serious and critical questions about the safety of a reopening campaign relying largely on vaccines to assure the public they are safe from catching and spreading the infection.

US “excess deaths” in 2020 surpassed the toll during the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic -According to a report published Friday by the New York Times, in 2020 the United States suffered the biggest single-year surge in its death rate since the federal government began publishing statistics, significantly surpassing the rise in the death rate during the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic. The Times conducted its own analysis of annual US death rates going back a century and found that the rate jump from 2019 to 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, was 16 percent, as compared to the 12 percent surge in the US during the global pandemic that occurred over a century ago. The total number of COVID-19 deaths in the US is already approaching 600,000, on track to surpass the 675,000 estimated to have been killed in the US during the 1918 pandemic. By the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluations modeling projections, the COVID-19 death toll is expected to surpass 600,000 before June, reaching 620,000 by August under a best-case scenario. The Times report aligns with an analysis of mortality data conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which found that from March 2020 until February 20, 2021, there were 574,000 more Americans who died than would be expected in a typical year. This places the deaths nationwide at 21 percent higher than what has usually been observed. A JAMA report published online on April 2, 2021, authored by Dr. Steven H. Wool and colleagues from Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, corroborated these findings in their analysis. They found that between March 1, 2020 and January 2, 2021, there were 522,368 excess deaths, accounting for a 22.9 percent increase in all-cause mortality. At the time, there had been 378,039 confirmed COVID-19 deaths. As they explained, “Excess deaths not attributed to COVID-19 could reflect either immediate or delayed mortality from undocumented COVID-19 infections, or non-COVID-19 deaths secondary to the pandemic, such as from delayed care or behavioral health crises.” Adjustments must be made for the differences in population size of the United States in 1918 compared to 2020. Additionally, as health care and public health measures have improved, the population’s lifespan has risen. As a result, the per capita death rates for the two periods are substantially different, which adds complexity to these comparisons. Nevertheless, the 16 percent increase in the death rate in 2020 from preceding year, compared to the 12 percent jump during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, is staggering.

Michigan hospitals see increasing numbers of younger COVID-19 patients: report --Volume 90% Michigan is seeing an increasing number of serious cases of COVID-19 among younger adults, stressing the state's hospital system, according to an organization of community hospitals. The Michigan Health and Hospital Associate (MHA) told The New York Times the rate of hospitalizations of coronavirus patients in their 30s and 40s is double the numbers the state saw during a pandemic peak last fall. The Hill has reached out to MHA for more information about the data. The Times notes the surge of younger patients comes as more older Americans are fully vaccinated. But higher rates of vaccination doesn't fully explain the increase, the Times says, pointing to new, more contagious variants spreading among young people. Michigan is facing the highest rate of new COVID-19 cases per capita of any state in the country; the state's governor has called for the public to exercise caution and responsibility to slow the spread of the virus while pointing to successful GOP legal challenges to her previous COVID-19 restrictions as a reason why she has not implemented new statewide efforts to slow the virus's spread. In October the state's Supreme Court handed Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) a defeat on the issue and ruled that she could not continue extending a state of emergency order under which she had implemented lockdowns. The state did see its test positivity rate drop by more than 10 percent over a 7-day period ending last week, a sign that Michigan's surge may be abating at least somewhat. As of Thursday, roughly a third of the state's adult population was vaccinated, according to state health officials.

COVID-19 deaths surge in Michigan -- Michigan, the center of auto production in the United States, is facing the deadliest wave of COVID-19 anywhere in the country. Since the beginning of the month, more than 1,200 Michigan residents have died from COVID-19. The 7-day average of daily deaths has more than quadrupled from its low in mid-March, from 16 lives lost per day to 67. Michigan hospitals are now admitting twice the number of those in their 30s and 40s compared to during the fall and winter peak, according to data aggregated by the Michigan Health & Hospital Association. Like last spring, hospitals are once again implementing “surge protocols” to handle the emergency. Despite the disaster, however, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has rejected the necessary measures to contain the disease, including closing schools, limiting after-school activities or shutting bars. In an effort to blame the population for the outbreak, Whitmer has insisted that the state has a “compliance problem,” not a “policy problem.” Whitmer’s inaction has led scientists and public health experts to demand emergency measures to contain the pandemic. “As a matter of disease mitigation, there’s no question” that closing schools and other restrictions would slow transmission and save lives, Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, associate dean for Public Health Practice and Training at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told the Detroit Free Press. He urged that “stronger action” be “seriously considered.” Children have also been increasingly hard hit, in Michigan and nationally. At least 70 were in intensive care last week in the state, double the number during the worst days of last November. The American Academy of Pediatrics reported that the 10–19 age group had the most new infections in the second week of April, averaging 1,150 new cases each day. Nationally, children now make up about 1 in 5 new cases, and at least 582 deaths have been caused by the deadly contagion.

COVID-19 strains hospitals, will likely trigger new restrictions -  The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Oregon rose to 318 Monday, straining hospital resources and passing a state-set threshold that puts several counties on track for the “extreme risk” category. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown is expected to announce updated risk levels early this week, and counties that qualify will see increased restrictions on businesses and gatherings starting Friday. The new hospitalization figures come as COVID-19 variants are becoming more established in Oregon. Cases have risen dramatically over the last week. “In the race between vaccines and variants, the variants are gaining ground and have the upper hand,” Brown said in a press conference Friday. Today, that wave appears to be a rising number of hospitalizations in Oregon. Only Montana and Washington have seen sharper spikes. Oregon’s cases rose by 51% over the last two weeks: that’s the fastest increase in the United States. For counties to be placed in Oregon’s “extreme risk” category, they must meet certain metrics. On April 6, Josephine and Klamath counties met the threshold. To stop restrictions from being imposed, Gov. Brown added an additional requirement: at least 300 hospital beds must be occupied by COVID-19 patients in the state. Now, a dozen counties are set to move to “extreme risk” status this week. In addition to Klamath and Josephine counties, Baker, Clackamas, Columbia, Crook, Deschutes, Jackson, Linn, Marion and Polk counties meet the criteria for “extreme risk.” Brown indicated a twelfth county could be on the threshold, but did not name it.

5M Americans have missed second vaccine dose: report -More than 5 million Americans have missed getting their second coronavirus vaccine dose, indicating a growing trend that could endanger the U.S.’s efforts to return to normalcy.The New York Time reports that the rate of people missing their second dose of the Pfizer of Moderna vaccine has more than doubled since the beginning of the national vaccine rollout. Five million people accounts for about 8 percent of those who received a first dose of the Prizer or Moderna vaccine. Several people interviewed by the Times said they were afraid of the vaccine's side effects, while others told the newspaper they felt protected by one dose. But some patients were unable to get a second dose due to issues with vaccine availability, the Times reported. Several people who got their vaccines at Walgreens told the Times that after their first dose, they were sent to a pharmacy that carried a vaccine from a different company. Some were able to get the proper vaccine in time, but others gave up. Jim Cohn, a spokesman for Walgreens, told the Times that this problem accounted for "a small percentage" of the people who were vaccinated through the pharmacy chain, adding that 95 percent of people who got vaccinated at Walgreens received their second dose. Two of the three coronavirus vaccines being administered in the U.S. require two doses. A third, from Johnson & Johnson requires only one dose. A single shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine induces a significantly weaker immune response than the two doses. One dose will provide some protection, but it will not be as robust and may not protect against the COVID-19 variants that are spreading around the world and in the U.S.

62 Kansas counties decline weekly vaccine allotment amid wane in demand --A drop in demand led more than half of the counties in Kansas to decline their weekly allotment of COVID-19 vaccine doses. The Associated Press reported that 62 out of Kansas's 105 counties turned down their weekly allotment of doses last week, falling in line with a trend seen across the U.S. in which vaccine supply has outpaced demand. A spokesperson for Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly (D) said many Kansas residents are delaying getting their vaccines due to the drop in new cases, hospitalizations and deaths in the Sunflower State, according to the AP. Kansas state officials are planning to roll out a campaign to encourage those who are indifferent or hesitant to get the vaccine to get immunized, the AP reports, with plans to target younger people who are making up a larger portion of new cases. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Kansas has administered almost 2 million doses of coronavirus vaccines. At least 37.5 percent of the state's population has received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine. The AP earlier reported that states such as Louisiana and Mississippi have asked the federal government to stop sending their full allotments of vaccines due to dwindling demand among their residents. The U.S.'s vulnerability to the virus has slowly dropped as vaccine administration expands and more people gain immunity to COVID-19. However, multiple health experts have warned that the threat posed by COVID-19 variants is still present and the best way to prevent a new outbreak from the more infectious strains is to get immunized. Nationally, more than a quarter of all American adults are fully immunized against the coronavirus, according to the CDC. In order to reach herd immunity, health experts have said that around 70 to possibly 90 percent of the U.S. population will need to be protected against the coronavirus.

Iowa declines 22K vaccine doses amid slowdown in demand - Health officials in Iowa are refusing thousands of coronavirus vaccine doses from the federal government, citing a lack of demand. State officials told the Des Moines Register this weekend that they declined 18,300 of the 34,300 doses of Moderna vaccine they were slated to receive this week, and did not accept 3,510 of the 46,800 Pfizer doses planned. “Along with several other states, we are seeing a slowdown of vaccine administration, but we are working with our local partners and community leaders to determine where additional education is needed and to gain an understanding of the needs of each county’s unique population,” Sarah Ekstrand, a spokeswoman for the local health department, said. Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) said last week that more than 30 percent of Iowa's counties had indicated they did not need their allotted weekly vaccine doses from the state, The Associated Press reported. More than half of Iowa adults have received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Meanwhile, more than 40 percent of Iowans have been fully vaccinated against the disease, the AP noted. Federal health officials announced last week that all U.S. adults are now eligible for a coronavirus vaccination and encouraged inoculations as several states report a dip in demand.

Most common coronavirus variant in Hawaii is California strain - The state's also reporting 86 cases of the U.K. variant, eight from the South African variant and seven of the Brazil variant. -- There's 555 cases of COVID-19 variants or mutations of the coronavirus in the islands. More than 200 reported in the past two weeks. According to the state most of the cases are on O'ahu and across Maui County. By far the most common variant is the California strain about 450 cases reported in Hawaii. The state's also reporting 86 cases of the U.K. variant, eight from the South African variant and seven of the Brazil variant. "None of this is super surprising right, this is a virus that adapts. And it's adapting slowly to humans, and it's making the changes to do well in terms of spreading from person to person. It's also facing a world of vaccines so it's trying to figure out how to evade those," Chief of Infectious Disease of Kaiser Permanente Hawaii, Tarquin K. Collis, said. He says as the variants continue to spread it's more important than ever to get vaccinated.

April 26th COVID-19 Vaccinations, New Cases, Hospitalizations; 7-Day Average Cases Lowest Since March 21st -  According to the CDC, 230.8 million doses have been administered. 37.0% of the population over 18 is fully vaccinated, and 53.9% of the population over 18 has had at least one dose (139.2 million people over 18 have had at least one dose). And check out COVID Act Now to see how each state is doing.  Almost 17,000 US deaths were reported so far in April due to COVID.This graph shows the daily (columns) 7 day average (line) of positive tests reported.Note: The ups and downs during the Winter surge were related to reporting delays due to the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. This data is from the CDC. The 7-day average is 54,406, down from 57,197 yesterday, and down from the recent peak of 69,878 on April 13, 2021. This is also below the summer surge peak of 67,337 on July 23, 2020.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 36,654, down from 38,111, reported yesterday, and well above the post-summer surge low of 23,000.

Two additional strains of COVID-19 identified by Texas A&M scientist (KBTX) -Scientists at the Texas A&M University Global Health Research Complex (GHRC) have identified two additional strains of the COVID-19 virus. On Monday, the university announced the first strain BV-1 was identified in an individual who only had mild symptoms. BV-2 and BV-3, named for the Brazos Valley, were recently identified from samples collected from on campus testing of students and faculty. Mandatory COVID-19 saliva testing for students living, studying, or working on the Texas A&M University campus in Bryan-College Station began back in March. The Global Health Research Complex says the first sample that led to the identification of the BV-1 strain came from a student who resides off campus but is active on campus originations. The student’s sample tested positive on March 5 and was later re-tested and confirmed by an independent federally regulated lab at St. Joseph Regional Hospital. At this time, details of the origin of the two additional strains have not been released. “The student later provided a second sample that tested positive on March 25, indicating the variant may cause a longer-lasting infection than is typical of COVID-19 for adults ages 18-24,” a statement from the Texas A&M University Global Health Research Complex read. “A third sample obtained on April 9 was negative and revealed no evidence of virus. The student presented mild cold-like symptoms in early to mid-March that never progressed in severity and were fully resolved by April 2.” Texas A&M professor of biology and GHRC Chief Virologist Ben Neuman says the new strains identified are only slight variations from the previously identified variant. “So the piece of the coronavirus spike that’s actually going to stick onto the cell is kind of shaped like a banana and even curved like a banana,” said Neuman. “So at one end of the banana, you’ve got the change that makes the UK variant stick a little bit better. One of these that we found BV-2 has another change at the opposite end of the banana, and we think that one might also make it stick a little bit better or may block some antibodies.  Neuman says the lab is paying close attention to the variant BV-3, which seems to be a combination of variants.BV-3, I think is an interesting one because it looks like it is partly a very common strain that you’d find in this area and partly the UK variant,” said Neuman. “It’s a recombinant, which means that somebody probably had caught two versions of the virus at the same time, two different variants, and the virus kind of recombined mixed together inside of them, and so you get this little monstrosity.

Study from Omaha, Nebraska shows vast failure to detect COVID-19 in schools - A recent study conducted in three Omaha, Nebraska, public schools shows that the vast majority of COVID-19 cases in K-12 schools are likely going undetected. The study, overseen by the University of Nebraska Medical Center, found that infection rates in the three schools were almost six times higher for students and two-and-a-half times higher for staff than what was recorded through self-initiated tests and reporting. The authors also found that “when compared to conventional reporting in our setting (passive case finding), our results suggest that as many as 9 in 10 student COVID-19 cases and 7 in 10 staff COVID-19 cases may be missed by conventional reporting mechanisms.” The study, released on April 17, involved weekly saliva polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing at two middle schools and a high school over a five-week period from November 9 to December 11, 2020. PCR testing is more reliable than rapid antigen tests, as it detects the genetic material specific to the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. Almost 3,000 saliva samples were tested from 773 asymptomatic staff and students, with 46 positive cases found. The case rate detected by PCR testing for students was 70/1000, while only 12/1000 were detected through conventional reporting. For staff, 53/1000 were detected by PCR, and only 21/1000 were detected by conventional reporting. Significantly, the three schools studied were only operating at one-quarter of normal classroom densities. As the authors note, “our results may underestimate the risk of in-school transmission for schools operating at more normal density.” The Omaha study confirms the findings of a study conducted by the INOVA Health System, Virginia Department of Health and George Mason University. The Virginia study, published in March, found that 8.5 percent of children aged 0 to 19 tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies, nearly double the rate in adults. The Virginia study tested 1,038 children in northern Virginia from July to October 2020. Of those children testing positive, 66 percent “had no history of symptoms of COVID-19 infection, which highlights the silent or asymptomatic infection in children, and subsequent risk of transmission of infection to others,” the authors wrote.

 April 27th COVID-19 Vaccinations, New Cases, Hospitalizations; Vaccinations have Slowed -- According to the CDC, 232.4 million doses have been administered. 37.3% of the population over 18 is fully vaccinated, and 54.2% of the population over 18 has had at least one dose (139.9 million people over 18 have had at least one dose). And check out COVID Act Now to see how each state is doing.  Almost 17,500 US deaths were reported so far in April due to COVID.This graph shows the daily (columns) 7 day average (line) of positive tests reported.Note: The ups and downs during the Winter surge were related to reporting delays due to the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.  This data is from the CDC. The 7-day average is 55,186, down from 56,013 yesterday, and down from the recent peak of 69,878 on April 13, 2021. This is also below the summer surge peak of 67,337 on July 23, 2020.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 37,092, up from 36,654 reported yesterday, and well above the post-summer surge low of 23,000.

 New variant strain of COVID-19 found in Shelby County, officials say – — A new COVID variant from India has been detected in Shelby County. Deputy Shelby County Health Director David Sweat said so far, they’ve only detected one case of the strain from India.  person who tested positive recently traveled to India and returned with COVID symptoms. The World Health Organization has declared the B1617 strain from India a variant of interest. Sweat said the person who tested positive in Shelby County is in isolation. He said 10 percent or more of people who get COVID in Memphis are getting their samples sequenced. That allows health officials to detect new variants like these. Sweat said the detection of the Indian variant is a reminder that the pandemic is not over, and letting up on safety measures like masking would be premature. “We need to recognize the virus knows no boundaries and knows no boarders,” Sweat said. “Variants and emerging threats can come to us from anywhere in the world at any point in time. It’s important for all of us here to remain vigilant and follow the best protocols we can to protect ourselves.” MORE: Mobile program works to vaccinate homebound population in Shelby County Because there’s only been one reported case so far, health officials said it’s possible to keep the variant from spreading in our community. But to do that, more people must get vaccinated.

 B.1.617 strain spreads to Michigan with Clinton County case identified --Michigan's first known case of the B.1.617 COVID-19 variant has been identified in Clinton County, health officials said. Scientists first detected the B.1.617 strain in India in December. Now, the variant has been identified in an adult resident of Clinton County who recently traveled to India, according to a news release Friday from the Mid-Michigan District Health Department.MMDHD was first notified of the  B.1.617 variant on April 21, department spokeswoman Leslie Kinnee said. It's typical for viruses to mutate over time and preliminary research suggests the B.1.617 variant could be more contagious.Michigan is suffering from the nation's worst COVID-19 outbreak with 3,623 new cases reported Thursday. Just over 40% of Clinton County residents ages 16 and over are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 compared to 37% of eligible residents statewide, according to a state dashboard updated Thursday. "Our best defense is for everyone to get vaccinated," MMDHD Health Officer Marcus Cheatham said in a statement.

US Restricts Travel From India Over COVID Strain  (AP) — The U.S. will restrict travel from India starting on May 4, the White House said Friday, citing a devastating rise in COVID-19 cases in the country and the emergence of potentially dangerous variants of the coronavirus. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said President Joe Biden’s administration made the determination on the advice of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “The policy will be implemented in light of extraordinarily high COVID-19 caseloads and multiple variants circulating in the India,” she said. With 386,452 new cases, India now has reported more than 18.7 million since the pandemic began, second only to the United States. The Health Ministry on Friday also reported 3,498 deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 208,330. Experts believe both figures are an undercount, but it’s unclear by how much. The U.S. action comes days after Biden spoke with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the growing health crisis in his country and pledged to immediately send assistance. The U.S. has already moved to send therapeutics, rapid virus test and oxygen to India, along with some materials needed for that country to boost its domestic production of COVID-19 vaccines. Additionally, a CDC team of public health experts was expected to soon be on the ground in India to help health officials there move to slow the spread of the virus. The White House waited on the CDC recommendation before moving to restrict travel, noting that the U.S. already requires negative tests and quarantines for all international travelers. Other restrictions are in place on travel from China, Iran, the European Union, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, Brazil and South Africa, which are or have been hotspots for the coronavirus.

 Hospitals 'feeling the strain,' as B.C. records 853 new cases of COVID-19 and 1 more death  -B.C. health officials announced 853 new cases of COVID-19 Thursday and one more death due to the disease, noting hospitals in some parts of the province, particularly in the Lower Mainland, continue to shoulder a heavy burden. The province initially reported 874 new cases but revised it in the afternoon. There are currently 503 people who are in hospital with the disease caused by the novel coronavirus — a slight decrease from yesterday's all-time high of 515 — but the 178 patients in intensive care is the highest it's ever been. Henry said with hospitals in the Fraser Health and Vancouver Coastal Health regions being pushed the hardest right now, people in those regions need to be especially cautious. . "Our hospitals in these regions are feeling the strain more than ever." She said hospitals in smaller communities also cannot handle any unexpected patient influxes and so staying local is important. Henry also said B.C. is expecting to begin receiving much greater supplies of vaccines in coming weeks which will speed up the age-based and worker-based vaccination programs. As of Thursday, 1,749,375 doses of COVID-19 vaccine had been administered, 90,296 of which are second doses. There are currently 7,996 active cases of COVID-19 in B.C. and 11,628 people are under public health monitoring due to exposure to known cases. So far, B.C. has recorded 128,742 cases of COVID-19, including 1,577 people who have died.

British Columbia hospitalizations set new record as COVID-19 variants spread -- British Columbia’s health care system is becoming increasingly strained as active COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations reach their highest-ever levels in Canada’s West Coast province. As of Saturday evening, 486 people stricken by COVID-19 were hospitalized and 160 in intensive care. The rapid rise in infections is the direct product of the provincial New Democratic Party (NDP) government’s reckless open economy/open schools policy, which has created an ideal environment for the new, more infectious variants to flourish among younger, working-age adults. Currently, there are 8,842 active COVID-19 cases in BC and a further 12,608 people are in self-isolation after public health agency warnings that they have potentially been exposed to infected persons. Hospitals in four of the province’s five health regions are nearing capacity. Already on April 19, 94.9 percent of total beds were occupied and 80.9 percent of critical care beds. Hospitals in the Vancouver Coastal Health region were at 100 percent of critical care capacity before emergency “surge beds” were added. Surge capacity, it should be noted, commonly consists of patients being placed in hospital hallways, waiting rooms, shower rooms, sunrooms, or having to be kept in the emergency room for abnormally long periods due to a lack of availability of in-patient units. Dr. Kelly Kasteel, a doctor from Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster, wrote a public Facebook post last weekend detailing the conditions she is working under and the growing crisis hospital staff are bearing witness to. “Last week, all of our emergency beds including suture beds and casting beds had admitted patients in them and I only had 2 chairs to assess patients in,” she wrote. Dr. Kasteel went on to describe assessing a patient on the floor of the emergency room. “She was in the Covid area,” explained Dr. Kasteel, “and after waiting four hours was feeling so faint she decided it was better to lay on a disgusting emergency floor than to collapse. Covid patients who are transferred in by ambulance because their oxygen is critically low are waiting 3 hours for a bed. ICUs are refusing our transfers out because they literally have no space to care for patients. This is dangerous care. Nothing about this situation is acceptable.”

Despite a few rich countries doing well, global COVID-19 cases are the highest they've ever been -- Global COVID-19 cases remain at an all-time high even as some rich countries report fewer and fewer of them. The graph below, from the World Health Organization's COVID-19 Dashboard, shows the number of daily new coronavirus cases recorded globally as of Sunday: It shows the number of daily new cases recorded in WHO's South-East Asia region, which consists of 11 countries including India, rising dramatically while the number of new cases in the Europe region gets smaller. India is facing a devastating surge of the virus, having recorded more than 300,000 daily new cases for the past five days in a row. Hospitals have reported dire oxygen shortages and are turning patients away, leaving many people to die while waiting for help. Meanwhile, Europe and the US have recorded fewer daily new cases as their vaccination rollouts continue. As of Sunday, nearly 140 million people in the US — more than 40% of the population — had received at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the UK, the proportion of people given a single shot passed 50%, with small nations like Israel, Bahrain, and Bhutan also having strong vaccine drives. But the vast majority of countries are nowhere close to that. The US has pledged to supply India with raw materials for vaccine production as well as personal protective equipment, testing kits, and ventilators. The UK is also sending ventilators and oxygen devices.

Another Australian capital city COVID outbreak highlights danger of global pandemic - The latest COVID-19 crisis in the Western Australian (WA) state capital of Perth has shown how vulnerable Australia, like the rest of the world, is to the more infectious variants now ravaging entire countries, and how quickly infections could spread across the continent. Premier Mark McGowan’s state Labor Party government yesterday ended a three-day partial lockdown of the city, despite a still unknown number of infections from an outbreak that spread from a defective quarantine hotel for returned travellers. McGowan told a media conference that only about half the more than 1,100 close or casual contacts of infected people tested had so far received negative results. Nevertheless, schools, workplaces and other venues, including restaurants, pubs and cafes, would reopen. For the next four days, masks would remain mandatory, except for primary school students. The state government had been forced to announce a three-day shutdown last Friday after it was revealed that three people, including a pregnant mother and her four-year-old girl, had contracted COVID-19 while in hotel quarantine, from a returned traveller from India. Among those infected was a Victorian man who spent five days in Perth before flying to Melbourne, on the other side of the continent, on April 21, where he tested positive. The virus strain involved has been identified as the UK variant, one of the mutations that have spiralled out of control in India, resulting in catastrophic levels of infections and deaths. Until now, the coronavirus has remained at low levels in Australia since a “second wave” killed more than 700 people last May to October, but this is the second outbreak in Perth this year. There have been outbreaks also in recent months in every other mainland state capital—Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide—including of highly-contagious variants.

Pfizer confirms fake vaccine shots on sale in Mexico, Poland: reports - US drugmaker Pfizer on Wednesday confirmed that suspect doses of its coronavirus vaccine that were seized in Mexico and Poland were indeed fake, with doses going for as much as $1,000 a shot, according to US media. At a clinic in Mexico some 80 people received bogus doses of the drug, which appeared to have been physically harmless, though offering no protection against the potentially deadly disease ravaging the country, a report in the Wall Street Journal said. The vials were found in beer coolers and were initially identified by fabricated lot numbers and expiration dates, Mexican officials said. The liquid in the confiscated vials in Poland was a cosmetic substance, thought to be anti-wrinkle cream, the company said. "We are cognizant that in this type of environment -- fueled by the ease and convenience of e-commerce and anonymity afforded by the internet -- there will be an increase in the prevalence of fraud, counterfeit and other illicit activity as it relates to vaccines and treatments for Covid-19," a Pfizer spokesperson told ABC News. In February, health authorities in the northern Mexican state of Nuevo Leon warned about "clandestine" sales of "alleged Covid vaccines" and urged people not to take them. In March, the World Health Organization also warned of "falsified" Pfizer vaccines found in Mexico and warned that the shots "may still be in circulation in the region." Pfizer tested the bogus vials and found they did not contain the two-shot vaccine it developed with BioNTech. Lev Kubiak, Pfizer's head of global security, said the desperate need and the shortfall in vaccines had led to the scams. "We have a very limited supply, a supply that will increase as we ramp up and other companies enter the vaccine space. In the interim, there is a perfect opportunity for criminals," he told the Wall Street Journal.

 India's COVID-19 surge is highlighting a ruthless, global black market for oxygen, where sellers jack prices up to 1,000% - India is having to deal with a black market for oxygen amidst a record-breaking COVID-19 surge that has exhausted supplies in many hospitals.  It is a trend that has been seen in many countries around the world during the COVID-19 pandemic. Six hospitals in India said Thursday that hey had run out of medical oxygen, one of the most important treatments for those struggling with COVID-19 symptoms.Demand for oxygen is likely to shoot up in coming days in twelve states in India as the country continues to report hundreds of thousands of new cases each day, the Indian Express reported.  The Times of India reported Thursday that the average cost of an oxygen cylinder has "skyrocketed", to 20,000 to 25,000 rupees, about $250-330.One man in India told AFP that he paid 45,000 rupees, about $600, for a cylinder of oxygen. That is about nine times its normal price,AFP reported on Thursday.One advertisement circulated on social media offering a cylinder for 30,000 rupees, about $400. Another offered it for 35,000, about $460, the Times of India reported.According to World Bank data, the Gross National Income per capita in India is $2,120 per year. India is not alone in facing this issue. 25 countries around the world are reporting a surge in demand for oxygen, mostly in Africa, the World Health Organization (WHO) said. More than half a million COVID-19 patients need oxygen treatment every day, per WHO estimates. That means 1.1 million oxygen cylinders every day.

Lacking oxygen, scores in India suffocate to death as COVID-19 infections reach record high Setting yet another grim record, India’s new COVID-19 infections surpassed 300,000 for the fifth day in a row yesterday. A further 352,991 cases were reported Monday, the highest single-day total ever recorded in India or, indeed, anywhere. Officially, India’s active case count stands at more than 2.6 million, underscoring the potential for continued exponential growth in COVID-19 infections. This in a country where hundreds of millions live in squalid urban slums or in rural areas where public health facilities do not exist; and where in great metropolitan centres, like Mumbai and Delhi, the health care system has already been overwhelmed by the deluge of COVID-19 cases. Yesterday, India recorded its highest number of new COVID-19 deaths to date, 2,812. The official death tally since the beginning of the pandemic now stands at 195,123. According to Indian Health Ministry data, 16,257 people died from the virus, during the week ending Sunday, April 25, nearly double the previous week’s 8,588 deaths. India’s emergence as the world’s COVID-19 epicentre—accounting for more than 40 percent of all new cases worldwide last week—is the direct product of the “profits before lives” policy enforced by Narendra Modi and his far-right Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government. As terrible as the official death toll is, it indubitably grossly understates the true scale of the calamity now unfolding in the world’s second most populous country. Prior to the pandemic, Indian authorities medically certified less than 30 percent of all fatalities. With the country’s ramshackle health care system now collapsing, proper attribution of deaths is in even greater disarray. India’s Economic Times reported last Friday that official figures for deaths from coronavirus in Lucknow, the capital city of India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, stood at 145 in the six days between April 11 and April 16. But testimony from health and crematorium workers and other witnesses showed that “just two of the city’s main crematoriums reported more than 430 or three times as many cremations under COVID-19 protocol” during the same period. Hospitals in major cities, including the national capital Delhi and in Maharashtra, the second most populous state, have been forced to turn away hundreds, possibly thousands, of extremely ill patients because of shortages of beds, trained personnel, drugs, and oxygen. Scores of patients have died in recent days gasping for breath after the hospitals in which they were being treated exhausted their medical oxygen supplies, and could not, despite harrowing pleas to government for emergency help, be resupplied in time.

India Covid-19 cases and deaths are going unreported, experts say – CNN --India, home to the world's worst ongoing coronavirus outbreak, has reported more than 17.6 million cases since the pandemic began last year.But the real number, experts fear, could be up to 30 times higher -- meaning more than half a billion cases.Health workers and scientists in India have long warned that Covid-19 infections and related deaths are significantly underreported for several reasons, including poor infrastructure, human error, and low testing levels.Some things have changed since then -- testing has greatly increased in the wake of the first wave, for instance. But still, the true extent of the second wave now ravaging India is likely much worse than official numbers suggest."It's widely known that both the case numbers and the mortality figures are undercounts, they always have been," said Ramanan Laxminarayan, director of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy in New Delhi."Last year we estimated that only one in about 30 infections were being caught by testing, so the reported cases are a serious underestimate of true infections," he said. "This time, the mortality figures are probably serious underestimates, and what we're seeing on the ground is many more deaths, than what has been officially reported."CNN has reached out to the country's health ministry for comment about the claims of underreporting.As the first wave began to ebb in September last year, the government pointed to its low death rate as a sign of its success in handling the outbreak, and to support its decision to lift some restrictions. Prime Minister Narendra Modi celebrated the low figures as boosting "the confidence of people," and predicted that "the entire country will emerge victorious in the battle against Covid-19," according to a press release in August.  The country's daily death toll is now projected to continue climbing until mid-May, according to prediction models from the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluations.The death toll could peak at more than 13,000 a day -- more than four times the current daily death toll, the predictions show. "I don't think any family has been spared a Covid death," said Laxminarayan. "There's a missing person in every family that I can think of."

Two die and more than 100 test positive in coronavirus outbreak among US diplomatic staff in India -- There has been a major coronavirus outbreak among US diplomatic staff in India with two locally employed staff dying and more than 100 people testing positive in recent weeks as the country struggles to cope with a dramatic surge of the deadly disease, two sources familiar with the situation told CNN.Reported Covid-19 case rates in India have hit global highs for the past five consecutive days, hospitals have run out of beds, medicine, ventilators and oxygen, and thousands have died amid a devastating second wave, which began last month.The sources did not provide details where in the country the staff died and tested positive but the US operates five consulates in different cities and an embassy in the capital of New Delhi.US personnel, family members and locally employed staff in India only began receiving their Covid vaccines within the past two weeks, one of the sources said. Within the past six weeks -- even as India's case rates were ticking up and staff had not yet been vaccinated -- there were two high-level trips by Biden administration officials to the country.Sources told CNN that some staff were frustrated because they felt that they were not given clear information about when the US diplomatic mission would receive vaccines and they felt they were not being prioritized because many diplomatic staff in Europe and the US had already received their shots.One source told CNN that the State Department had worked to get vaccines to locations where personnel live on campus -- including in Kabul and Baghdad -- which may have contributed to the Mission being so late in the queue. However, as one source noted, the vaccines "came too late for the two people who died ... it's horrible."

India passes grim milestone of 200,000 COVID-19 deaths  --India became the fourth country in the world to pass 200,000 deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic on Wednesday as the country continues to struggle against a deadly second wave of infections that has overwhelmed most of the country's hospitals. Data compiled by Johns Hopkins University indicated that Indian health officials had recorded just over 201,000 deaths from the virus as of Wednesday morning, U.S. eastern time. India has now also recorded nearly 18 million total cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began, second only to the U.S. The country joins a grim club of nations who have experienced the worst of the pandemic; only India, the U.S., Mexico and Brazil have recorded more than 200,000 deaths since the beginning of 2020. U.S. COVID-19 deaths sat at just above 573,000 as of Wednesday, far outpacing any other country including Brazil, which has recorded the second-most deaths at 395,000. Indian hospitals face dwindling supplies, not enough vaccines and insufficient space for new patients as the country's death toll and case count continue to climb; supplies including oxygen are in particular short supply, and have left many with severe COVID-19 symptoms unable to find a hospital where they can receive treatment. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said last week that the country was in its most serious battle against the virus so far.

 India coronavirus cases may peak next week: government adviser - (Reuters) - India’s coronavirus cases may peak between May 3-5, according to a mathematical model of a team of scientists advising the government, a few days earlier than a previous estimate as the virus has spread faster than expected. The world’s second-most populous country has reported more than 300,000 new infections daily for nine consecutive days, hitting another global record of 386,452 on Friday. The surge has led to a public health crisis in India, forcing the government to seek oxygen, medicines and other essentials from countries around the world. “Our belief is that by next week, the daily new cases nationwide would have peaked,” M. Vidyasagar, head of a government-appointed group of scientists modelling the trajectory of infections, told Reuters. The group previously told senior government officials in a presentation on April 2 that cases would peak between May 5-10, said Vidyasagar. “We said (at that presentation) that it was not a matter of putting up some structures that would come up in July or August, because by then the wave will have ended,” he said. “Try to figure out how we’re going to fight the fight for the next four to six weeks, that was the message. Don’t waste a lot of time putting up long-term solutions because your problem is right now.” India’s first wave of the pandemic peaked in mid-September with 97,894 cases. The country is now reporting more than three times as many infections daily, taking the total number of cases to 18.8 million with 208,000 deaths. The real number of infections is believed to be 50 times more, said Vidyasagar, as many people who contract the disease show no symptoms.

Coronavirus crisis in India drives global COVID-19 surge -- COVID-19 is surging out of control in India. Crematoriums have been running at capacity while bodies pile up. As a resident of Delhi told the Time s of India, “I have lived here all my life and pass through this area twice a day. I have never seen so many bodies burning together.” Official figures indicate that the country saw another record one-day high with almost 380,000 cases of COVID-19 and 3,647 deaths yesterday. There were an unprecedented 5 million cases in less than three weeks. The country just surpassed 200,000 COVID-19–related deaths. Experts insist that the crisis in India is far more massive than official reports indicated. The actual caseload may be 10 to 30 times higher than official statistics. Based on the unprecedented number of funerals taking place, some have placed the death toll at 10 times the figures cited by state epidemiologists and political representatives. India’s reporting system for all-cause mortality is woefully inadequate. One in seven deaths is never registered. Of those that are, barely one in four is certified by a physician. The pandemic has further exacerbated this situation, as a death attributed to COVID-19 requires a recent positive test result. Despite the massive surge in cases, testing outside major urban centers remains very limited. According to the Economist, “Even with more than 1.5 million Indians now getting tested each day, the rate of testing relative to population is still less than a tenth of that in Britain. And because of the surge in cases, labs, even in Delhi, India’s capital, are overwhelmed. They now take days to deliver results; many die without knowing they are positive, or after getting a false negative.” The positivity rate in Delhi is above 30 percent, implying that one in three tests results in a confirmed infection. Social media apps are being flooded with panicked requests by people and pleas for oxygen, medicines, and basic medical supplies to care for their families at home because hospitals can no longer admit patients. According to Becker ’ s Health IT, Aanchal Agrawal, a 29-year-old “content creator,” is working with 200 volunteers combing through her 42,000 Twitter followers to source oxygen, beds, antivirals for residents infected with the coronavirus.

Indian Covid Strain: New Indian COVID-19 variant: 'Double mutant' strain risks and how COVID is evolving worldwide  -A new variant of COVID-19 has been found from testing samples collected in India. The UN has dubbed this as theB.1.617 variant, aka the "double mutant". The Indian variant was detected on Tuesday and has since been detected in "at least 17 countries," according to the GISAID open-access database.Scientists are still determining if the variant may be more or less infectious when facing the vaccines.As with the common flu, it seems COVID-19 keeps changing in small ways as it passes from one person to another. Some mutations can be insignificant whereas others may trigger changes in the spike protein that the virus uses to latch on to and enter human cells, which in layman's terms would mean they could be more infectious and are more likely to not respond to vaccines.The vaccines are claimed to work in the following ways: the vaccine that is used in this particular case is supposed to protect us by stimulating our bodies to make antibodies, even though vaccine producers now claim that the vaccine does not provide full protection and that you may still get COVID-19.The World Health Organization (WHO) said in its weekly epidemiological update on the COVID-19 pandemic that "most sequences were uploaded from India, the United Kingdom, USA and Singapore." India is witnessing a massive surge in fresh COVID-19cases and deaths, with mounting fears that the variant could be contributing to the unfolding calamity and now the surge has also spread to neighbouring countries, such as Nepal.The virus has now killed over 3.1 million people worldwide and, according to the WHO, the double variant "has a higher growth rate than other circulating variants in India, suggesting potential increased transmissibility.""Indeed, studies have highlighted that the spread of the second wave has been much faster than the first," the WHO said, underscoring that although "other drivers" could be contributing to the surge, such as comprising mass gatherings and lax observance of public health measures."Further investigation is needed to understand the relative contribution of these factors," the agency said. The WHO also underlined that "further robust studies" into the attributes of B.1.617 and other variants, comprising impacts on transmissibility, risk and severity of reinfection, were "urgently needed."However, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in India says this new "double mutant" variant has not been found in sufficient numbers to account for the increase in COVID-19 cases across the country. That, rather, is likely to be because of the large public gatherings such as weddings, the opening of cinema halls and gyms, as well as large political rallies in West Bengal, where elections are due to be held soon.

Indian COVID strain spreads in Israel, also among vaccinated - The Health Ministry has identified 41 new cases of the Indian coronavirus variant in Israel, including four in people who have been vaccinated against COVID-19.Israel's genomic sequencing system found that 24 of those infected with the variant, which experts say may be more contagious than other variants, had returned recently from abroad. The other 17 contracted it via community transmission, including five schoolchildren. The Health Ministry and the IDF Home Front Command are carrying out widespread testing at the schools where the children are enrolled.  Twenty-one of the people who tested positive for the variant are foreign nationals. Last week, Israel banned entry to tourists from India over concerns about the variant's spread and the severe increase in cases there. As part of the new restrictions, only 300 Indian caregivers and students will be allowed to enter the country per month. They will be required to quarantine at coronavirus hotels designated for those coming from India, unless they have either recovered from or were vaccinated against COVID-19 in Israel.A Health Ministry statement said that new restrictions which would forbid Israelis from traveling to countries with high infection rates (save for exceptional cases) are awaiting approval from the relevant ministries before it can be sent to government approval. Israelis returning from these countries would also need to quarantine, even if they have been vaccinated against or recovered from COVID-19. Foreign nationals from these countries would also not be allowed to enter Israel, and those who have received permission to do so would have to quarantine at designated hotels, as is the case with arrivals from India.   Last month some 1,000 people entered Israel from India, and only about a quarter of them were vaccinated. Among those who entered, 63 tested positive for the virus, but not all of them had necessarily been infected by the Indian variant. The Indian variant is of concern to experts because it consist of two mutations of its protein, which could make it more resistant to the coronavirus vaccine. Last month, the Indian Health Ministry reported on a strain of the virus that includes two genetic changes and constitutes a kind of “union” of two variants previously known as E484Q and L452R.

Top Israeli health official: Not clear if vaccine effective against India strain - A top health official on Wednesday said it was not clear that COVID-19 vaccines offer protection against the so-called Indian variant of the disease, and cited this concern as a key reason why Israel must ban travel to countries with high coronavirus infection rates. “We don’t know about the Indian variant, we don’t know enough,” Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis, head of public health services at the Health Ministry, said of the strain of the disease ravaging India. Asked about claims and indications that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is effective against the Indian strain, she said: “I didn’t see any research on this.” Earlier Wednesday, BioNTech co-founder Ugur Sahin voiced confidence that the vaccine his company jointly developed with Pfizer — the primary vaccine used in Israel — works against the Indian variant. Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories FREE SIGN UP “We are still testing the Indian variant, but the Indian variant has mutations that we have already tested for and which our vaccine works against, so I am confident,” said Sahin. In an interview with Channel 13, Alroy-Preis also warned that mass Lag B’Omer gatherings at a Galilee pilgrimage site on Thursday night, expected to draw hundreds of thousands of people, could drive an outbreak of the coronavirus. She said a framework had been painstakingly negotiated “by everyone” to regulate the gathering, and fumed that it had not been implemented. “It’s a disgrace,” she said. She expressed support for the Health Ministry’s proposed new travel restrictions for Israelis, which would ban travel to seven high-risk countries including India, and force even vaccinated travelers from those countries to enter quarantine upon their return to Israel. Israel has issued a travel warning for seven countries: India, Ukraine, Ethiopia, Brazil, South Africa, Mexico and Turkey. Again, though, Alroy-Preis, complained, the urgent restrictions have not been implemented. The Health Ministry’s recommendations, which have not yet been adopted by the government because ministers in the outgoing coalition have been arguing over other issues this week, would also require non-citizens entering Israel from the specified highly infected countries to self-isolate in quarantine hotels.

Children from 5 schools among Israel's 41 cases of Indian COVID strain  - Israel has identified 41 cases of the Indian COVID-19 variant, including five children as well as other cases not linked to returnees from abroad, indicating community spread, the Health Ministry said Thursday. Four of the 41 people have been fully vaccinated. According to the ministry’s statement, 24 cases of the mutated strain were found among people who returned recently from abroad, including 21 foreign residents. But 17 of those infected hadn’t been abroad, and some of them had no obvious links to someone who did, indicating that the variant is spreading undetected.  Moreover, five kids from five schools were diagnosed with the Indian variant. Since children cannot currently be vaccinated, this has raised fears of a new outbreak after infections have been steadily dropping for several months following the country’s rapid inoculation campaign. The schools included Shvilim in the town of Pardes Hanna, known for its nonconformist residents, where many are refusing to vaccinate and where several virus cases have been identified recently, concerning health officials. With dozens of active patients, the town has now been classified as “orange” under the government’s traffic light system, making it one of only two localities in the country not rated as “yellow” or “green.” The other schools where a student has the Indian strain are Keshet in Ashdod, Yosef in Holon, and Dekel Vilnai and Tzemah Hasadeh in the West Bank settlement of Maale Adumim.

China Rocked by Double Mutant COVID Strain As Nation Fears Fresh Outbreak - The "double mutant" coronavirus strain that was found in India has now been detected in China, the country's chief epidemiologist has said in a major announcement ahead of this weekend's public holiday. At a Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention press conference held in Beijing on Thursday, Wu Zunyou revealed the "Indian variant" had been found in "some Chinese cities," without elaborating. The news has sparked intense discussion online about stricter border controls amid the five-day Labor Day break beginning Saturday. The country where COVID-19 was first reported some 16 months ago is preparing to step up public health measures in order to allay fears of a fresh outbreak caused by the "double mutant" strain B.1.617. Citizens are rightly concerned about the variant, Wu said, noting: "The virus has been mutating since the start of the pandemic." It will not stop mutating until the pandemic is over, he added."Implementing containment measures is key to stopping the spread of mutant strains, and also to prevent the occurrence of new mutations," the senior health official said

Vietnam records Covid cases with Indian virus strain -  Four Indian experts and a Vietnamese man working at the hotel they were quarantined in have been infected with an Indian strain of the coronavirus, the Ministry of Health said. The result was announced Friday following genetic sequencing of the patients' samples by the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology. The Indian variant, B.1.167, is a "double mutant" strain, which is recorded for the first time in Vietnam. The Vietnamese man was a receptionist at Nhu Nguyet 2 hotel in the northern province of Yen Bai. The 63-year-old man made contact with the group of Indian experts as they came to the hotel on April 18 for quarantine. Among 11 Indians, four had been confirmed as Covid-19 cases. The B.1.617 strain contains two key mutations called E484Q and L452R, which have been found separately in other variants but not together in a single strain. These mutations have been shown to make the virus more transmissible and to be less susceptible to neutralizing antibodies. The World Health Organization (WHO) said the predominant lineage of B.1.617 was first identified in India last December, although an earlier version was spotted in October 2020. The WHO has described it as a "variant of interest", suggesting it may have mutations that would make the virus more transmissible, cause more severe disease or evade vaccine immunity. Other strains with known risks, such as those first detected in the United Kingdom, Brazil and South Africa, have been categorized as "variants of concern," a higher threat level, Reuters reported. The Indian variant has been found in at least 17 countries. Vietnam's Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long said he is "deeply concerned about the risk of imported cases causing the fourth wave in the country." He asked leading institutes to conduct genetic sequencing of recent entrants who are infected with the coronavirus to figure out appropriate preventative measures. The Pasteur Institute in HCMC previously found that nearly 86 percent of imported positive cases from Cambodia carry the B1.1.7 variant (U.K.), and over 14 percent the B.1.351 variant (South Africa). Vietnam has recorded almost all kinds of new coronavirus variants. After over a month of no community transmissions, the country has recorded 13 new local cases since Thursday, starting with a migrant worker from Japan who tested positive two days after finishing his two-week quarantine.

Indian variant in Europe: Where is it and should we be concerned?  A so-called “double mutant” version of the novel coronavirus first detected in India has now reached several European countries. Health authorities in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Romania, Switzerland and Belgium have detected cases of the so-called Indian variant, formally known as B.1.617. The cases have raised alarm over a possible rapid spread in infections driven by the strain, which brings together two key mutations on the spike side of the virus previously spotted in other dominant coronavirus variants. B.1.617 contains two notable mutations – formally known as E484Q and L452R. This has led to it sometimes being dubbed the “double mutant” strain, though this is something of a misnomer as it actually carries more than a dozen mutations altogether. Preliminary evidence suggests the mutations make B.1.617 more transmissible and less susceptible to vaccines than other strains, but scientists are still attempting to determine the extent to which that is the case. The World Health Organization (WHO) has designated it as a “variant of interest”, suggesting it may be more infectious than other versions of the virus, cause more severe disease or evade vaccine immunity to a greater degree. But other strains with known risks, such as those first detected in the UK, Brazil and South Africa, have been categorised as “variants of concern” – a higher threat level. B.1.617 has been recorded in at least 17 countries worldwide since first being detected in India, which is currently battling a devastating wave of COVID-19 infections. In Europe, the UK has been the most affected country, with health authorities recording 193 cases of the variant to date.

"What Are The Symptoms Of Chlamydia" Most Googled Sex Question As STDs Soar -- As STD rates soar in America, new data has revealed that the most popular sex question over the last year was, “What are the symptoms of chlamydia?”   - Research by health clinic From Mars finds that the search term racked up more than 2 million hits in 2020 while searches for “STD testing near me” also quadrupled between April 2020 and the end of the year.“Search queries are an X-ray into the public psyche, and when it comes to sex and relationships, we may have some issues,” reports Axios."the most Googled sex question in 2020 was 'What are the symptoms of chlamydia?'...Google queries for 'STD testing near me' nearly quadrupled between April 2020 and the end of the year" https://t.co/dyPjke4Oix As we highlighted last week, the search data correlates with the continuing rise of STD cases in America.Sexually transmitted diseases hit a record high for the sixth straight year, with CDC researchers finding a 30 per cent increase in STDs from 2015 to 2019.According to the latest data, 2.5 million Americans had either chlamydia, gonorrhea or syphilis infections in 2019, with chlamydia cases rising 61 per cent and gonorrhea cases spiking 42 per cent among young people aged 15 to 24.Meanwhile, early data on searches for 2021 indicates that more relationships are breaking down, with queries for “What is ghosting?” having doubled between November 2020 and February this year. Maybe all that promiscuous, STD riddled, sexual degeneracy has got something to do with it.

Nuclear fallout is showing up in U.S. honey, decades after bomb tests -- Fallout from nuclear bomb tests in the 1950s and ’60s is showing up in U.S. honey, according to a new study. Although the levels of radioactivity aren’t dangerous, they may have been much higher in the 1970s and ’80s, researchers say.“It’s really quite incredible,” says Daniel Richter, a soil scientist at Duke University not involved with the work. The study, he says, shows that the fallout “is still out there and disguising itself as a major nutrient.”In the wake of World War II, the United States, the former Soviet Union, and other countries detonated hundreds of nuclear warheads in aboveground tests. The bombs ejected radiocesium—a radioactive form of the element cesium—into the upper atmosphere, and winds dispersed it around the world before it fell out of the skies in microscopic particles. The spread wasn’t uniform, however. For example, far more fallout dusted the U.S. east coast, thanks to regional wind and rainfall patterns. Radiocesium is soluble in water, and plants can mistake it for potassium, a vital nutrient that shares similar chemical properties. To see whether plants continue to take up this nuclear contaminant, James Kaste, a geologist at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, gave his undergraduate students an assignment: Bring back local foods from their spring break destinations to test for radiocesium.One student returned with honey from Raleigh, North Carolina. To Kaste’s surprise, it contained cesium levels 100 times higher than the rest of the collected foods. He wondered whether eastern U.S. bees gathering nectar from plants and turning it into honey were concentrating radiocesium from the bomb tests.So Kaste and his colleagues—including one of his undergrads—collected 122 samples of locally produced, raw honey from across the eastern United States and tested them for radiocesium. They detected it in 68 of the samples, at levels above 0.03 becquerels per kilogram—roughly 870,000 radiocesium atoms per tablespoon. The highest levels of radioactivity occurred in a Florida sample—19.1 becquerels per kilogram. The findings, reported last month in Nature Communications, reveal that, thousands of kilometers from the nearest bomb site and more than 50 years after the bombs fell, radioactive fallout is still cycling through plants and animals.

Deadly air pollutant ‘disproportionately and systematically’ harms Americans of color, study finds -Nearly every source of the nation’s most pervasive and deadly air pollutant disproportionately affects Americans of color, regardless of their state or income level, according to a study published Wednesday. The analysis of fine-particle matter, which includes soot, shows how decisions made decades ago about where to build highways and industrial plants continue to harm the health of Black, Latino and Asian Americans today.The findings of researchers from five universities, published in the online journal Science Advances, provide the most detailed evidence to date of how Americans of color have not reaped the same benefits as White Americans, even though the country has made major strides in curbing pollution from cars, trucks, factories and other sources. The particles studied have diameters of no more than 2.5 micrometers — one-thirtieth the width of a human hair — and can become embedded in the lungs. Known as Particulate Matter (PM) 2.5, they account for between 85,000 and 200,000 premature U.S. deaths each year.The new paper, coupled with two other analyses also released Wednesday, bolsters the argument that environmental advocates have made for years that Black, Latino, Asian and Native Americans bear a heavier burden. And this growing body of research is showing the full scope of the problem. Black, Hispanic and Asian Americans face a higher level of exposure than average to PM 2.5 from industry, light-duty vehicles, diesel-powered heavy trucks and construction, while Black Americans are exposed to greater-than-average concentrations from all categories in the Environmental Protection Agency National Emissions Inventory. White Americans have slightly higher-than-average exposure from agriculture and coal-fired power plants, the analysis found, because of where both are located.“The deck is stacked against people of color, for almost every emission source,” Joshua Apte, one of the authors and an engineering professor at the University of California at Berkeley, said in an interview. “The recipe we’ve had for improving air quality for the last 50 years, which has worked well for the country overall, is not a good recipe for solving environmental inequality.”The study found that Black people are exposed to 21 percent more fine-particle pollution compared to average Americans, while exposure was 18 percent greater for Asian Americans and 11 percent more for Hispanics. White Americans, by contrast, have 8 percent less pollution exposure than the average.

Lead poisoned Flint, Michigan residents, health care professionals raise concerns about bone scan required for compensation - Health care professionals, including Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, are raising serious concerns that victims of the Flint, Michigan water crisis may be exposed to harmful radiation from bone scans required to qualify for compensation from the $641.25 million water settlement. Residents must prove their bodies were damaged by lead-in-water poisoning by submitting themselves to x-rays. However, the portable devices being used on residents to detect lead have not been approved by the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use on humans. The state’s settlement provides home and business owners a maximum of only $1,000 per household. To qualify for higher compensation, residents must prove lead exposure by having their bones scanned. Lead dissipates in the blood in a matter of days, but it remains in the bones for years. The fee for the scan is $500, which will be deducted from whatever compensation is awarded. The only portable bone scanners are owned by the law firm which led the settlement negotiations, Napoli-Shkolnik. The law firm’s doctor, Aaron Specht, is the sole provider for the testing in Flint. Access to the testing has been limited to one day per week for those who are not clients of the law firm.  The settlement is the paltry amount agreed to by the state of Michigan for carrying out the water poisoning, which, until the COVID-19 pandemic, was the largest public health catastrophe in the United States. The money offered to residents who qualify hardly compensates for the untold suffering, including deaths, miscarriages, life-long illnesses, financial devastation for homeowners and small businesses, as well as developmental damage to children. An estimated 32 percent of the settlement will be consumed by legal fees. Dr. Hanna-Attisha, whose analysis of blood testing helped to expose the Flint water catastrophe, does not recommend bone scans for children. She says the risk, even if low, comes without benefits. She described as “maddening” the news that the scanner was used over the weekend on a pregnant woman. Amber Stebbens, 22 years old and 28 weeks into her pregnancy, told the Detroit Free Press she was given a bone scan Sunday at the office run by Napoli-Shkolnik. She was never asked whether she was pregnant or given a lead shield or any other form of protection. Bone scans are not routinely performed on or recommended for pregnant women, because of concerns about exposing the fetus to radiation. Florlisa Fowler, Stebbens’ mother, told the WSWS, “This is harming us more. We are being re-victimized. We did not have a requirement to get poisoned but now we have to meet requirements to show we were poisoned! Anyone living in a Flint household on the water system should automatically be included in the settlement. It’s happening in the whole world. The Flint water poisoning is just one example. It’s not just water, it’s the whole system.”

Prenatal exposure to pesticides increases the risk of obesity in adolescence - Exposure before birth to persistent organic pollutants (POPs)-- organochlorine pesticides, industrial chemicals, etc.--may increase the risk in adolescence of metabolic disorders, such as obesity and high blood pressure. This was the main conclusion of a study by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a research centre supported by the "la Caixa" Foundation. The study was based on data from nearly 400 children living in Menorca, who were followed from before birth until they reached 18 years of age. POPs are toxic, degradation-resistant chemicals that persist in the environment. Examples of such compounds are pesticides and organochlorine insecticides (DDT, etc.). POPs have adverse effects on both human health and the environment and their use is regulated globally. Prenatal exposure to these substances has been associated with cardiometabolic risk factors in childhood, but there were previously no studies assessing whether such associations continue into adolescence, a developmental stage characterised by significant changes in the endocrine system and rapid increases in body mass. The aim of this investigation, carried out within the framework of the INMA Project-Environment and Childhood, was to study the associations between prenatal exposure to POPs and body mass index (BMI) as well as other markers of cardiovascular risk in adolescence. Data from 379 children in Menorca was analysed. POP levels were measured in umbilical cord blood samples and the children were then seen periodically between the ages of 4 and 18 years. At these visits, BMI, body fat percentage and blood pressure were recorded as they grew. When the child reached 14 years of age, the scientists measured blood biomarkers of cardiometabolic risk (cholesterol, triglycerides, glucose, etc.). The results of this study, published in the journal Environment International, suggest an association between prenatal POP exposure and a higher BMI in adolescence, particularly in the case of the fungicide hexachlorobenzene (HCB) and the insecticide compound dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT). Exposure to these two organochlorides--HCB and DDT¬--was also associated with higher blood pressure in childhood and adolescence and increased cardiometabolic risk at 14 years of age.

Stunning DDT dump site off L.A. coast much bigger than scientists expected --When the research vessel Sally Ride set sail for Santa Catalina Island to map an underwater graveyard of DDT waste barrels, its crew had high hopes of documenting for the first time just how many corroded containers littered the seafloor off the coast of Los Angeles.But as the scientists on deck began interpreting sonar images gathered by two deep-sea robots, they were quickly overwhelmed. It was like trying to count stars in the Milky Way.The dumpsite, it turned out, was much, much bigger than expected. After spending two weeks surveying a swath of seafloor larger than the city of San Francisco, the scientists could find no end to the dumping ground. They could’ve kept going in any direction, they said, and uncovered even more.“I was pretty shocked that it just kept extending as far as it did,” said Eric Terrill of UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, who led the mission of 31 scientists and crew members. “We couldn’t keep up with the flow of data coming in.”Terrill shared these findings Monday in a U.S. congressional briefing led by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who has been pushing for action since The Times reported last fall that the nation’s largest DDT manufacturer once dumped its waste into the deep ocean. As many as half a million barrels could still be underwater today, according to old records and a recent UC Santa Barbara study that provided the first photos of this pollution bubbling 3,000 feet under the sea.“This mission confirms my worst fear: that possibly hundreds of thousands of barrels and DDT-laced sediment were dumped just 12 miles off our coast,” said Feinstein, who said she plans to ask the U.S. Justice Department to look into companies that may have illegally dumped waste into the ocean and whether they can be held accountable.   “We need everyone to come to the table with all the resources necessary to solve a problem of this size.”

Man dies after attack by ‘very aggressive’ bees as he mowed lawn in Texas - (AP) — A Texas man died after going into cardiac arrest when he was attacked by an aggressive swarm of bees outside his home, authorities said.Thomas Hicks, 70, was mowing his lawn Monday when he was repeatedly stung by the bees outside his home in Breckenridge, about 130 miles west of Dallas, authorities said.The Breckenridge Fire Department said first responders faced “very aggressive bee activity” when they arrived at the home. Medics and firefighters attempted emergency care but Hicks died, the fire department said.Hicks’ wife, Zoni Hicks, told TV station KTAB that she had been out grocery shopping when she returned to find her husband screaming and covered in bees.“You couldn’t even see his back and his whole head — he was just covered,” she said.Zoni Hicks was also stung repeatedly, and she was treated at a hospital. The hive was located inside a tree and firefighters killed the bees by spraying foam onto them, authorities said.

 Alarm as Florida Set to Begin Release of Genetically Engineered Mosquitoes --Environmentalists and Florida residents voiced concern and outrage Monday as state government officials and the biotechnology giant Oxitec announced plans to move ahead this week with a pilot project that involves releasing up to a billiongenetically engineered mosquitoes in Monroe County over a two-year period.Presented by local authorities as an effort to control the population of Aedes aegypti — a mosquito species that can carry both the dengue and yellow fever virus — critics warn that the effort's supposed benefits and its potential negative consequences have not been sufficiently studied.Responding to news that the first boxes of genetically modified mosquitos are set to be placed in six locations in Monroe County this week, Friends of the Earth noted in a press release that "scientists have raised concerns that GE mosquitoes could create hybrid wild mosquitoes which could worsen the spread of mosquito-borne diseases and could be more resistant to insecticides than the original wild mosquitoes."Dana Perls, food and technology program manager at Friends of the Earth, called on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) — which approved the project last May — to "halt this live experiment immediately."  "The release of genetically engineered mosquitoes puts Floridians, the environment, and endangered species at risk in the midst of a pandemic. This release is about maximizing Oxitec's profits, not about the pressing need to address mosquito-borne diseases."The Florida Keys Mosquito Control District and Oxitec said late last week that "less than 12,000 mosquitoes are expected to emerge each week" in Monroe Country over a duration of around three months, the initial phase of the experiment.The stated goal of the project is for Oxitec's genetically altered, non-biting male mosquitos to mate with the local biting female population, producing female offspring that die in the larval stage before they can spread disease.As the Miami Herald explained earlier this year: "A 'death mechanism' designed into mosquitoes is meant to ensure no viable female offspring will result from the mating, according to Oxitec. The male offspring will pass on the 'self-limiting gene' to half of their offspring, said company spokesman Ross Bethell."While Oxitec's CEO claims "strong public support" from Florida Keys communities, the project has sparked protests and pushback from local residents since the proposal was first floated.

Breakthrough Malaria Vaccine Is 77% Effective, Giving Hope Against One Of The World’s Biggest Killers -- The Oxford University team behind the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 shot has created the first vaccine against malaria that reaches the World Health Organization’s 75% efficacy threshold, according to preliminary results from a clinical trial published Thursday, a breakthrough in the fight against one of the world’s biggest killers.  The vaccine, known as R21, is 77% effective against malaria, according to preliminary results from a Phase 2 clinical trial that have not been peer reviewed.The vaccine has a significantly higher efficacy rate than existing shots and is the first vaccine to reach the WHO’s goal of bringing a vaccine with at least 75% efficacy to market by 2030. Buoyed by the promising results, the researchers, who studied the vaccine in 450 children in Burkina Faso, west Africa, have started recruiting for a larger Phase 3 clinical trial, which will include nearly 5,000 children across four African countries.      Professor Adrian Hill, director of the Jenner Institute at Oxford and one of the study’s authors, said the “vaccine has the potential to have major public health impact” if licensed, adding that the group has partnered with the Serum Institute of India to manufacture at least 200 million doses a year if the trials are successful.

Large swarms of locusts fly into southern Israel - (video) Large swarms of locusts flew into southern Israel over the past weekend, April 24 and 25, 2021. Yellow insects flew into the areas surrounding Eilat, with some even coming from the sea.Their yellow color is an indication of their age as these bugs are mature and skilled fliers.Throughout history, locusts have been symbolic of major devastation as depicted in legends and ancient texts all over the world. According to ILTV Israel News, Israeli nature experts are saying there is nothing to worry about:

Florida Crisis Highlights a Nationwide Risk From Toxic Ponds  -- They are ponds the size of city blocks: Wastewater pits that hold the hazardous byproducts of coal. Lagoons brimming with diluted pig excrement. Vast pools atop stacks of radioactive tailings.The risks posed by pools of waste like these, a common feature at thousands of industrial and agricultural sites across the country, have been brought into sharp relief by a giant wastewater pond in Piney Point, Fla., that in recent days had appeared in danger ofcatastrophic failure.Officials on Monday said the threat of collapse had passed and residents were allowed to return home after an emergency effort had pumped millions of gallons of water out of the pond and into local waterways. The environmental effects of such a large release of contaminated water remained unknown. This past weekend, the specter of a deluge had prompted the authorities to evacuate hundreds of people from their homes.Open-air ponds are vital to major industries, like livestock and power generation. But environmental groups say they pose major environmental, health and safety risks, whether from mismanagement, or, increasingly, from the effects of climate change.“They’re just an irresponsible way to store very dangerous waste,” The Florida emergency, at a former phosphate mining plant south of Tampa, is particularly dire. There, a pool that initially held more than 400 million gallons of wastewater, with traces of heavy metals and other toxic substances, sits atop a pile of phosphogypsum tailings at least 70 feet tall. Tailings are waste that is left behind when ores from phosphate mining are processed to create phosphoric acid, an ingredient used in fertilizer.For decades, the tailings, a radioactive wet slurry containing traces of radium along with arsenic, lead, and other elements, were placed in ponds and left to evaporate, leaving behind enormous stacks of phosphogypsum topped by water. The fear was that if the pond collapsed it could wash away the tailings, sending a “wall of water” over nearby homes and businesses.The mounds of tailings like these, which are scattered across more than two dozen sites across Florida, are some of the tallest earthen structures in the state. Florida is the world’s largest phosphate-producing area, according to the E.P.A., and accounts for about 80 percent of the nation’s phosphate mining. The United States mines and consumes about 23 million tons of phosphate a year.But at the site of the current breach, evaporation has not kept up with rainfall, which continued to add to the site’s ponds, according to the Bradenton Herald. On numerous occasions over the past year, the site’s owner, HRK Holdings, found tears in the plastic liner that holds wastewater and warned local officials that the ponds were fast running out of capacity, the Herald reported.

Is Your Fish Fake? Report Shows Rampant Global Seafood Fraud -- How can you tell that the fish on your plate is the real thing? You can't — and that's the problem. A new report in The Guardian's "Seascape" series on the state of the world's oceans surveyed 44 separate studies published since 2018, and found that almost 40 percent of 9,000 seafood products from restaurants, markets and fishmongers were mislabelled. According to Food & Wine, the report detailed how rampant seafood fraud has become on a global scale.  The U.S. and Canada had the highest rates of mislabeling followed by Europe, Eat This reported. Food & Wine also highlighted how seafood fraud is not a new issue: in 2017, a study found that half of Los Angeles sushi was not what it claimed to be, while a 2018 study revealed that more than 25 percent of supermarket fish in New York was mislabeled."And yet, despite government action and the promise of technical solutions like detectors and databases, it's not getting better," Food & Wine lamented.The studies in the Seascape report used new DNA techniques and tests to ascertain exactly what was ending up on consumers' plates. They found fish substitutions from the same family, such as low-grade tuna species, being sold as higher-valued species, such as bluefin. The lower-value, lower-quality substitutions point to fraud more than error, the report suggested.There are "so many opportunities along the seafood supply chain" to falsely label low-value fish as high-value species, or farmed fish as wild," Beth Lowell, deputy vice-president for U.S. campaigns at Oceana, told The Guardian. She noted that all the studies found mislabeling in the global seafood industry to be common and pervasive.There were also substitutions for entirely different species, including Singaporean prawn balls that repeatedly tested negative for containing prawn DNA, and were instead made almost entirely of pork, Seafood Harvestreported. Other mixed seafood products turned out to be similarly mislabeled.Among the most alarming substitutions were rare and endangered species being marketed otherwise. One study found that 70 percent of UK snapper instead consisted of 38 different species of fish, many of them critical reef-dwellers, The Guardian reported. This deceptive swapping is a problem for coral reefs that already suffer from overfishing of key fish species that eat algae and allow for a healthier ecosystem, The Guardian added.

Who’s to Blame for the Lawbreaking and Habitat Destruction in U.S. Fisheries? --There is one main U.S. law that governs the management of marine fisheries in federal waters: TheMagnuson–Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA). Originally intended to address the concern over foreign fisheries operating near U.S. waters, the MSA, which was passed in 1976, extended the nation's exclusive fisheries zone from 12 to 200 nautical miles from the coastline. The law was amended in 1996 and 2007 to prevent overfishing, rebuild overfished stocks, establish annual catch limits, put accountability measures in place, strengthen the use of science through peer review, and ensure the overall sustainability of the fishing industry.Since it was passed, and through past bipartisan reauthorizations, the MSA has notched up many successes, including the rebuilding of at least 40 fisheries stocks — some of which were on the verge of collapse — in the last two decades. "Under the MSA, we are ending overfishing and rebuilding stocks, which strengthens the value of fisheries to our economy and marine ecosystems," according to the National Marine Fisheries Service, the office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) within the Department of Commerce that is responsible for the stewardship of U.S. ocean resources and their marine habitats. But a new report has found that the nation's fishery managers are failing in their duty to protect designated "essential fish habitat" (EFH) as required by the MSA. Released in April by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a nonprofit environmental advocacy group headquartered in New York, the report is based on a detailed review of how each of the eight federal regional management councils has administered the MSA's requirement to minimize the negative impact of fishing on EFH.

Sea of worms: biting critters invade Southern coastline --  A mere year after US beaches started reopening post-lockdown, a biblical plague of biting creatures called clamworms has invaded the South Carolina coastline, prompting scientists to issue an advisory to beachgoers.“You may not want to go swimming . . . as clamworms do have a set of hooked jaws,” warned the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR) on Facebook. “These animals that ordinarily live on the seafloor undergo an incredible transformation under new and full moons in spring – their bodies morph into reproductive forms called ‘epitokes’ as they swarm in coastal waters.”An accompanying video depicts the orange critters, which evoke a feather crossed with a centipede, swarming on the surface of the water like krill during their spring spawning season. But don’t let their flamboyant appearance fool you. These marine invertebrates are known to clamp onto fingers with their hook-like jaws, which are strong enough to break the skin, according to experts at Walla Walla University in Washington.Despite the danger, “it’s hard not to appreciate such an unusual coastal sight,” writes SCDNR. “Nothing says spring on the coast — like a frenzy of marine worms?”

 Biting Marine Worms Swarm South Carolina Coast -- The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR) posted a video April 14 of coastal waters teaming with round, pink worms. "Sometimes called clamworms, these animals that ordinarily live on the seafloor undergo an incredible transformation under new and full moons in spring – their bodies morph into reproductive forms called 'epitokes' as they swarm in coastal waters," the agency wrote.This phenomenon occurs every year at the agency's marine headquarters in Charleston, South Carolina and is a boon to other wildlife, as fish and birds gather to feast on the teaming worms. However, the worms are not defenseless."You may not want to go swimming with epitokes, as clamworms do have a set of hooked jaws," SCDNR wrote.In fact, those jaws are strong enough to break human skin, WBTW reported. The worms also have lips, a mouth and two pairs of eyes. They can grow to be up to seven and a half inches long, according to Texas A&M University at Galveston.Common clam worms are also called pile worms and are scientifically referred to as Alitta succinea. They are not unique to South Carolina. In fact, they are considered an invasive species because of how easily they spread, according to CABI's Invasive Species Compendium.  "Populations in the North Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea coasts may be native or may have been introduced with the earliest shipping. Many other populations in eastern Asia, Africa, and Central and South America are considered cryptogenic by many authors, though are likely to have been introduced with the advent of intercontinental shipping. Clam worms are common in ports and estuaries. They can impact native species by competing with them for food or by altering the nutrients available in the sediment when they burrow. This can increase bacterial activity and move contaminants from the sediment up the marine food chain. The surface swarming observed in South Carolina this spring is the end of the clam worm's life cycle. The worms only survive as epitokes for a few days and die shortly after spawning. Within 36 hours, their eggs develop into small, plankton-eating larvae. Once the larvae develop enough, they return to the sediment to burrow and start the process all over again.

Peak Water: Are We Running Out Of A Critical Resource?  -- Freshwater is a fundamental resource in our world, even more than crude oil. Without freshwater, it would be impossible to maintain the current agricultural production that manages to feed nearly 8 billion human beings. Most of the world's agriculture, nowadays, is based on irrigation. It means that production depends on water that has been stored somewhere, naturally or artificially. And once you start depending on a limited stock of resources, you face a problem. Even though your resource may be renewable, if you exploit it faster than it renews itself, you will eventually run out of it. It is the phenomenon called "overexploitation".There lies a truly nasty problem that we may be facing in the near future. A lot of water used for irrigation nowadays is "fossil water." It means it has been stored underground by natural processes that may have been active only in the ancient past or that may be very slow, sometimes of the order of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years. Underground water deposits are called "aquifers." Some are fast replenished by natural phenomena, but in most cases, the rate of water withdrawal is much faster than that of the natural flow into the aquifer. That's a recipe for disaster. "Peak Water" is an idea that has been going in parallel with that of "Peak Oil." Both assume that the production of limited resources, fossil fuels and fossil water, will follow a "bell shaped" curve. The production peak of liquid fuels may have been passed during the past few years. About "peak water" the situation is less clear, but the data indicate depletion problems in several areas of the world. Above, you see the historical and predicted water production from the Texas section of the Ogallala Aquifer. The data approximately follow a "Bell Shaped" (Hubbert) curve, typical of the depletion of non-renewable resources. In this case, the peak seems to have arrived in the late 1990.A classic case of an agricultural region that ran out of fossil water is that of Saudi Arabia. Starting with the 1980s, Saudi Arabian farmers started extracting water that had been lying underground for hundreds of thousands of years, from a time when the Arabian peninsula was green. That was true fossil water in the sense that the replenishment rate of the aquifers was practically zero. The result was a boom in agricultural production that quickly peaked in 1990 following an evident bell-shaped curve. The curve had a second cycle during the 2010s, but that changed little to the situation. Right now, Saudi Arabia's agricultural production is reduced to practically zero and all the food must be imported.

 California Officials Move to Stop Nestlé From Taking Millions of Gallons of Water From Public Streams --California water officials have accused Nestlé of draining more water out of southern California's Strawberry Creek in the San Bernardino National Forest than permitted. The drafted cease-and-desist order, which was sent to the company on Friday, asked Nestlé to stop draining millions of gallons of water out of the forest every year and comes at the same time California's Governor Gavin Newsom declared a drought emergencyin two counties. Nestlé, which sells its bottled water under the Arrowhead brand, maintains rights to California spring water that date back to 1865, The Guardian reported. But state officials say the company, which is based in Switzerland, has been taking more than its share, citing a 2017 investigation which found that Nestlé was illegally drawing from Strawberry Creek, a tributary of the Santa Ana river, which supplies over 750,000 residents with clean drinking water."We have a limited amount of water," said Julé Rizzardo, the assistant deputy director of the Division of Water Rights, according to The Guardian. "And as we face our second dry year in a row, it's important that we use our authority to protect the municipal water supply and the environment."Currently, the U.S. Forest Service issues a $2,100 permit to Nestlé per year to operate in the San Bernardino National Forest, but it does not charge for water, The San Joaquin Sun reported. Last year, Nestlé took 58 million gallons of California water -- "far surpassing the 2.3m gallons per year it could validly claim," The Guardian reported. So the company could be draining 25 times more water than it has the right to, The Story of Stuff Project, an environmental organization, pointed out. "Paying next to nothing in royalties, Nestlé makes billions of dollars a year selling our water. In communities across North America, the pattern repeats itself: Nestlé enters a local town making promises of local job opportunities and the highest sustainability and environmental standards to its water bottling operations," The Story of Stuff Project wrote in a statement, regarding its campaign aimed at taking back public control of water.The draft cease-and-desist order, which still requires approval from the California Water Resources Control Board, is a product of years of organizing by grassroots campaigns."These are people who just want to make money, but they've already dried up the upper Strawberry Creek and they've done a lot of damage," said Amanda Frye, an activist who has been protesting Nestlé's pumping from Strawberry Creek for years, according to The Guardian. "They're a foreign corporation taking our natural resources, which makes it even worse." Environmental groups say that as droughts and wildfires in California worsen, Nestlé's water usage will impact both local communities and ecosystems. "In the context of a global pandemic and increasing droughts and wildfires across North America, it's clearer than ever that water should be owned by and for the people," The Story of Stuff Project wrote. "All too often over recent years, we've seen water being privatized and sold in plastic packaging that's accelerating a waste crisis instead."

Laguna del Farallón in Veracruz lost 75 percent of its water in several months, Mexico -  Laguna del Farallón -- a 180 ha (445 acres) lagoon in Veracruz, Mexico -- has lost 75% of its water over the past several months due to lack of rain and drought.As of April 22, drought conditions are covering 85 percent of Mexico. In Veracruz, 32 of the state's 212 municipalities are under severe drought conditions.Images below show Laguna del Llano and Laguna del Farallon in April 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 as seen by the Sentinel-2 satellite. A majority of the boats belonging to the local fishermen sit resting on the lagoon’s severely cracked bottom, while others are barely wet, the Riviera Maya News reports. Locals attribute the lake's drying up to the intense heat and lack of rain, which has been noted to be well under the seasonal average.

600 large sinkholes open in Turkey's breadbasket amid worsening drought - Huge sinkholes fill the drought-stricken breadbasket areas of Konya, Turkey, posing a challenge for farmers as they look for other means to water their fields, the French Press Agency (AFP) reports. Experts have so far counted around 600 large sinkholes-- nearly twice the number of 350 in 2019, as the dry spell situation gets worse this year. "The drought situation is getting worse," said 57-year-old farmer, Tahsin Gundogdu, whose harvest includes potatoes that he sells to PepsiCo Inc. in the United States. Sinkholes appear when underground chambers created by drought can no longer hold the weight of the layer of soil above. The situation left farmers worried as attempts to collect water by other means would be more expensive, thus, cutting their income. However, continued dependence on groundwater will possibly aggravate the problem. According to Fetullah Arik, a professor at the Konya Technical University Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences and the head of Sinkhole Research Center, around 600 sinkholes have opened in the Konya plain this year-- almost twice the 350 counted in 2019. Experts said they want the government to do more effort in addressing the severe drought, blaming the lack of proper water management policy. "We usually would water the land twice a year but now we're doing it five or six times," said Karapinar farmer Hazim Sezer. Gundogdu, on the other hand, said some farmers use groundwater illegally to water their fields. The drought situation will affect farmers and consumers 'as much as, if not worse,' than the economic shock of COVID-19, if left unaddressed, said Baki Remzi Suicmez, head of Turkey's Chamber of Agricultural Engineers (ZMO). "Until last year, we had never seen a drought like this," farmer Kamil Isikli remarked, adding that he was more hopeful for 2021 as rain fell earlier this year. "Farmers no longer have enough money from one month to the next to pay their bills. They can't afford anything anymore." Sezer urged the government to make underground systems that redirect water to the plains, which would otherwise end up in the ocean. Murat Akbulut, head of ZMO's Konya branch, noted that this could provide a "significant" solution for Konya, where Beysehir Lake has seen its reserves drop from 450 million tons to 123 million in 2020, which "will lead to real irrigation issues for the plain." Almost 77 percent of Turkey's water is consumed by the agricultural sector, Suicmez told the AFP.

One sneaker takes up to 40 years to decompose in a landfill. These 10 brands are changing that by making shoes from recycled and renewable materials. - More than 23 billion pairs of sneakers are produced every year, but behind the great demand for footwear is an industry so wasteful it's almost beyond measure. Most of these new pairs use virgin plastic, rubber, and petroleum, producing alarming amounts of carbon dioxide. According to sneaker startup Nothing New, about 300 million pairs of shoes are thrown out every year and, on average, it takes 30-40 years for a pair to fully decompose in a landfill. In the past, most shoppers would have put little thought into exactly how the items they bought were made, but that is no longer the case all around. In addition to demanding trendsetting styles and groundbreaking innovations, the educated consumers of today expect products to be made responsibly. Sportswear retail expert Matt Powell explained to Insider that younger people are very concerned with how their purchases are affecting the environment. "Sustainability is an important theme in retail, so much so that younger consumers are willing to pay more for sustainable products," said Powell. "Brands have long been concerned about making products sustainably, but they're being more forward and open about it." If you're looking to make better, more sustainable choices, we hear you. We are too, which is why we rounded up this list of brands that are using innovative, eco-friendly materials and more sustainable production methods to make sneakers. From performance sneakers made by popular brands like Nike and Adidas to fashion-forward trainers from startups like Everlane and Allbirds, you'll find plenty of brands new and old working to set new standards.

PPE May Save Human Lives, But It’s Deadly for Wildlife - One of the most distinguishable features of the COVID-19 era is the public, everyday use of personal protective equipment (PPE), mainly in the form of disposable face masks and latex gloves. And while these thin layers protect us and others from transmitting and contracting SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes the lower respiratory tract disease, scientists are now beginning to understand just how harmful these objects can be for ecosystems and wildlife. Dr. Peter Tsai, said that countries should stockpile PPE as if they were on a war footing. "Weapons are not profitable," he said in August. "But they need to have the weapons and then they don't use them for 10 or 20 years. You need to see this kind of PPE as military weapons." A majority of U.S. states, as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, have instituted "mask mandates" requiring people to wear face coverings in public to limit the spread of COVID-19.But while these "weapons" that fight coronavirus have proved to be lifesaving for humans, an increasing number of non-human animals are finding them to be a brand-new, and often deadly, threat that has suddenly littered their natural habitat. One main problem is that face masks and latex gloves are disposable, and people often do not dispose of them properly. How many times have you seen a used mask or glove lying on the street or stuck in a bush or floating in a waterway? Welcome to the world's new pollution problem. (As if the scourge of plastic waste weren't enough of an issue for the global ecosystem.) According to the World Health Organization, the fabric masks that should be used to fight the pandemic are made of three layers of fabric: an inner layer of absorbent material like cotton, a middle layer of non-woven non-absorbent material, like polypropylene, which is a kind of plastic, and an outer layer of non-absorbent material, like polyester. That means that these masks, if improperly discarded, have the power to threaten ecosystems for many decades, even centuries, to come. Polypropylene takes 20 to 30 years to decompose in a landfill. Polyester can take up to 200 years. Researchers from the University College London Plastic Waste Innovation Hub recently released a report that estimated that about 70,000 tons of plastic waste would be produced if all Britons wore a single-use mask each day for a year.

Canadian beavers chomp down town’s internet - Beavers have been blamed after a town in the Canadian province of British Columbia lost their internet service for some 12 hours. The provider Telus said that parts of the underground cabling, servicing Tumbler Ridge, had been found in the beavers' home. Some 900 internet users and 60 TV customers were affected, it said. Telus spokeswoman Liz Sauvé described it as a "very unusual and uniquely Canadian turn of events". The service went down at around 04:00 local time on Saturday. Telus said when crews went to a nearby dam they found beavers had "chewed through our fibre cable at multiple points, causing extensive damage". The cable had been buried about a metre (3ft) underground and protected by a 12cm (4.5 inch) thick conduit, which they had also chewed through. Telus said it had managed to fully restore the service to Tumbler Ridge, which has a population of 2,000, by 15:30 on Sunday. Beavers are Canada's national animal, however they have a mixed reputation. The rodents are loved by some as the ultimate environmental engineers whose dam-building skills bring an array of ecological benefits. But their incredibly strong teeth can cause extensive damage and farmers in particular worry at the havoc they could cause to crops and trees. Beavers are Canada's national animal, but the rodents have a mixed reputation Just two weeks ago, the mayor of Grenville-sur-la-Rouge, a town in Quebec, blamed them for extensive flooding which damaged property and infrastructure. Roughly 800 beavers had created some 200 dams around the town and Mayor Tom Arnold said more flexibility was needed to manage the rodents. "It's a problem that we have to get rid of. The beavers have to be eradicated," he was quoted by CBC News as saying.

The Idaho senate has approved a bill to kill 90% of the state's wolves - The Idaho Senate has approved a plan that will allow up to 90% of the state's wolves to be killed in a move that animal welfare campaigners warn will allow them to be killed "without limits."The bill was approved Wednesday in a 26-7 vote and is designed to cut the wolf population from 1,500 to around 150, The New York Times reported, meaning it will now pass to the State House of Representatives.Republican Idaho Sen. Mark Harris, who sponsored the bill, said during a debate on the Senate floor, per AP: "These wolves, there's too many in the state of Idaho now. We're supposed to have 15 packs, 150 wolves. We're up to 1,553, was the last count, 1,556, something like that. They're destroying ranchers. They're destroying wildlife. This is a needed bill." The bill would give Idaho's Wolf Control Fund an extra $190,000 to pay contractors to kill wolves, the New York Times reported, in addition to an existing $400,000 budget, with restrictions removed on the number of wolves a hunter is allowed to kill.Former Idaho Sen. Jeff Siddoway, who introduced the bill on behalf of Republican Rep. Van Burtenshaw, said that the bill was designed to deal with "the increasing wolf population that we've been living with" since they were introduced to Idaho in 1995, Phys.Org reported. Wolves were removed from Idaho's list of endangered species in 2011, and wolves that attack livestock or domestic animals can already legally be killed without a permit.

 Bill Allowing 90 Percent of Idaho’s Wolves to Be Killed Passes House and Senate -- A bill allowing hunters and private contractors to kill up to 90 percent of the state's wolves passed the Idaho House on Tuesday.The measure also passed the Idaho Senate last week, which means that the fate of around 1,000 wolves now lies with Republican Gov. Brad Little. "If this horrific bill passes, Idaho could nearly wipe out its wolf population," Andrea Zaccardi, Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) senior attorney, said in a statement emailed to EcoWatch. "Unless we can stop this from becoming law, decades of progress towards wolf recovery will be lost." The bill, which is supported by the agricultural industry, expands wolf-killing methods, such as using night-vision equipment and hunting from snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles, The AP reported. The bill also allows the state to hire private contractors to kill wolves and increases the amount of money provided from the Idaho Department of Fish and Game to the Idaho Wolf Depredation Control board from $110,000 to $300,000. Ultimately, the bill allows the state to whittle down its wolf population to 150, the lower limit on state wolves earmarked by Idaho's 2002 wolf conservation and management plan. However, Idaho's wolf population has hovered around 1,500 for the past two years. The bill's proponents argue that wolves harm livestock and wildlife. Cattle and sheep ranchers claim wolves cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars because they either kill animals outright or scare them to the point of losing weight. However, environmentalists and animal-rights advocates challenge this view. About 12 conservation groups, including CBD, sent a statement to Gov. Little urging him to veto the bill. A study in Yellowstone National Park found that wolves improve the health of ecosystems, the groups said. They argued that wolves also benefit elk and deer herds by killing diseased animals as well as coyotes, who are bigger threats to livestock. Wolves kill less than one percent of the state's livestock, and elk numbers are above the population target in most of the state, CBD pointed out.

  UK hit by frostiest April on record, farmers and growers reporting considerable damage - Provisional records for April 2021 show the United Kingdom has experienced the most air frosts since records began in 1960, the UK Met Office reported Tuesday, April 27, 2021. This month has already seen an average of 13 days of air frosts for the country, with many farmers and growers reporting considerable damage due to the harsh conditions.This month has already recorded an average of 13 days of air frosts, topping the 11 days set in April 1970.As of Tuesday, April 27, England has seen frost for 12 days, Wales 11 days, and Scotland 16 days-- their frostiest April since record-keeping began in 1960. Northern Ireland has so far experienced 8 days of frost, not yet surpassing their record of 11 days set in April 1983."We’ve been seeing a high frequency of frosts overnight throughout April thanks largely to persistent clear skies for most," said Mark McCarthy from the National Climate Information Center."This will be reflected at the end of the month statistics, which are already showing above-average sunshine duration, as well as low minimum temperature readings overnight, with some parts of northern England and Scotland reporting minimum temperatures 3.5 °C (6.3 °F) lower than the average for April."Many farmers and growers have reported considerable damage due to the harsh conditions."Considerable damage has been experienced in many gardens with flowers such as camellia and magnolias being scorched, and cherry, plum, and pear blossom injured so that the fruit crop will be reduced," Chief Horticulturist at the Royal Horticultural Society Guy Barter said.The risk of frost is expected to persist throughout the week. Gardeners are advised to keep tender plants indoors or cover them with horticultural fleece."As April draws to a close, cloud and showers will continue to move from northern Scotland south across the country," the Met Office said."There will be rain or showers at times for many, which is likely to be welcomed by many farmers and gardeners after a dry April so far. However, as is the nature of showers, there will also be some good dry and sunny spells so it’s by no means a washout."

France declares ‘calamité agricole’ after record cold: What is it? - Farmers across France will receive government support after the agriculture minister acknowledged the damage the cold had wreaked on crops; with the cold snap set to continue across the country. Minister of Agriculture Julien Denormandie confirmed a state of “calamité agricole” - or farming disaster - yesterday (April 8), to acknowledge the damage that many farmers had suffered to their crops as a result of the freezing weather. Normally, a calamité agricole is uninsurable. But the government recognition and official definition of the situation means that it has committed to providing financial aid as compensation to the farmers and producers affected, as well as ensuring that insurers and banks will also cooperate. Those affected will now also have access to compensation from the national agriculture risk fund, le Fonds national de gestion des risques en agriculture (FNGRA). An official calamité agricole must be recognised by authorities before funds from insurers and other sources can be released. In France, the situation is most often declared due to drought, but this time it has been confirmed due to unseasonably cold temperatures, especially at night. Mr Denormandie also said that the government had called on insurance companies to confirm their cooperation and support, as well as bankers and lenders. He said: “We are organising a total emergency response so that support measures can be put in place as quickly as possible to ensure that no one is left behind.” He said that the amount had not yet been finalised, but that it would depend on the losses incurred. These might apply to a loss of harvest, drop in production, or a loss of earnings leading to a drop in production ability.

Around 8 000 families affected, 2 000 displaced by flooding in Burundi --Flooding from the rising Lake Tanganyika in Burundi has affected around 8 000 families and displaced 2 000 as of Sunday, April 25, 2021. The water levels at the lake have been rising since February, with heavy rainfall since early April aggravating the situation.On April 19, the level stood at 776.5 m (2 547 feet), surpassing the average level of 772.7 m (2 535 feet). If the level exceeds 777 m (2 549 feet), areas around Bujumbura port will be inundated, media warned.Around 8 000 families have been affected, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA) reported on Sunday, with 2 000 others displaced in lakeside communities, including Bugarama, Kanyenkoko, Muhuta, Nyanza-Lac, Gatumba, Rukaramu, Kibenga, Gisyo, and Kabondo.Tharcisse Ndayizeye, an environment expert, pointed out that the flooding is linked to the geographic location of the lake and the city of Bujumbura.He also raised the issue that significant amounts of waste in the city go to the lake. "In short, if the bottom of the basin is full of waste, bags, sand... the water in the lake will inevitably rise, conquer other spaces."

Torrential rain causes widespread flooding in Mecca, Saudi Arabia -- Widespread flooding hit the city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia following torrential rains on Tuesday, April 27, 2021. Many vehicles were submerged and several people were washed away by raging waters. Streets and roads were heavily inundated in Mecca after a sudden storm on Tuesday afternoon. Many vehicles were stranded in the road, while several people were swept away by fast-flowing waters. The Civil Defense said it has been assisting people in affected areas in the city, as well as areas of Mecca Region. Videos of the event made rounds on social media, showing people being carried away by the flood. Prior to the severe weather, authorities had warned people of heavy rain and thunderstorms in Mecca, as well as in Medina, Al Baha, Jazan, and Najran, with possible flooding in the Eastern Province, Riyadh, and Qassim.

 Baseball-sized hail hits Norman, causing damage worth millions of dollars, Oklahoma - (video) A severe storm moved through Norman City in Oklahoma at around 01:00 UTC on Thursday, April 29, 2021 (20:00 LT on Wednesday, April 28), bringing winds of up to 115 km/h (70 mph) and hail the size of a baseball. According to local media, the storm will likely result in damages worth millions of dollars as businesses and homes were badly hit. Rain and storms began forming across central Oklahoma in the afternoon (LT), with a severe thunderstorm warning in place for Caddo County. By evening, residents in Norman reported hail up to 5 cm (2 inches) in diameter. KFOR Chief Meteorologist Mike Morgan described the storm as 'essentially a hurricane with large hail,' as it caused extensive damage to homes, businesses, and vehicles. News 9 Chief Meteorologist David Payne said the storm is likely to be a multi-million-dollar storm as many windows were busted and cars were smashed throughout the city. Winds of up to 115 km/h (70 mph) ripped through the area. Norman resident Beth Van Horn said the wind roared like a tornado, causing her and the neighborhood to think that a tornado might have hit the area. The hail was the loudest she has ever heard, she told KOCO 5, as hailstones crashed through her windows. Multiple windows at the Motel 6 were shattered, while several vehicles at the dealership had significant damage to their windshields. No injuries were reported.

Destructive hail and tornadoes slam southern U.S., causing billion dollars worth of damage Severe hailstorms and tornadoes pounded the southern U.S. on Wednesday and Thursday, April 28 and 29, 2021, leaving a trail of destruction. As a result, more than 28 000 customers were without power in Texas alone, and damages across the region amounted to a billion dollars.A strong line of storms brought powerful hail, tornadoes, and flooding in the south. The Storm Prediction Center (SPC) received a total of nine tornado reports from Oklahoma and Arkansas, as well as Missouri, Tennessee, and Illinois. Preliminary reports show damage to residential properties and snapped trees.In Texas, powerful supercell thunderstorms caused the National Weather Service (NWS) to issue tornado warnings through early Thursday.More than 28 000 customers lost access to electricity that day. The system also brought hail up to 7.6 cm (3 inches) in diameter to San Antonio and Fort Worth. SPC received at least 100 reports of hail from Texas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma, with the latter bearing the brunt of the extreme weather. Baseball-sized hail battered the state, particularly the Norman area, inflicting major damage to homes and businesses. “It quickly became clear that we were almost certainly facing a billion-dollar event," said Steve Bowen, head of catastrophe insight at Aon Insurance. "Unfortunately, we saw significant hail swaths impact highly exposed areas around San Antonio, Fort Worth, and Norman." Northern Illinois University meteorologist Victor Gensini also stated that the storms on Wednesday night (LT) was "certainly a billion-dollar hail loss day across the U.S., San Antonio and Fort Worth, Texas-- along with Norman-- were all impacted with large to significant hail." Gensini added that there was one gargantuan hail report near Hondo, Texas, measuring around 10 cm (4 inches). According to CNN senior meteorologist Dave Hennen, it would be the second billion-dollar disaster this year in Texas, following the deep freeze in February.

Wildfires reach record high in Omsk as air pollution grips Novosibirsk, Western Siberia, RussiaThe Omsk region in Western Siberia has reported a record-high number of wildfires, with one day last week registering nearly a thousand new cases per day. Meanwhile, in Novosibirsk, a thick cloud of smoke resulted in zero visibility and poor air quality due to wildfires. As of Tuesday, April 27, 2021, the total area of land scorched has reached 170 000 ha (420 000 acres) in the region. On Sunday, April 25, a fire broke out in the Leninsky District of Omsk. The Russian Emergencies Ministry deployed 67 people and 13 equipment to combat the flames. According to local media, three families were left homeless as their houses caught fire. Preliminary data showed that one house caught fire at first, but due to dry and windy weather, the fire spread to neighboring structures. The Omsk region has reported a record-high number of fires, with a day last week counting nearly a thousand new cases a day. Omsk region emergency services said the number of wildfires is seven to ten times above the usual.   Meanwhile, in Novosibirsk, a thick cloud of smoke engulfed highways, resulting in almost zero visibility. According to air pollution monitoring site AirVoice, the air quality in the city is at seven out of 10.  The maximum carbon monoxide concentration was recorded Tuesday morning at 808 μg per cubic m. Air pollution in the area can be associated with fires due to grass burning, Russian media reported. By Tuesday, the total area scorched by wildfires has reached 170 000 ha (420 000 acres) in the region solely. It was only on Monday that the first forest fire in Chanovsky District was reported.  "Over the past two weeks, employees of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations recorded about 2 000 thermal points, which is half of the total number of thermal points registered last year," said Yevgeny Lebedev, First Deputy Head of the Main Directorate of EMERCOM of Russia for the region.

 Lahar flows within the river system in the Red and Orange Volcano Hazard Zones at St. Vincent - According to information received from the Scientists at the Belmont Volcano Observatory, there were lahar flows within the river system in the Red and Orange Volcano Hazard Zones at St. Vincent island from 09:00 to 10:00 LT on April 27, 2021.Lahar is a rapidly flowing dense mixture of debris, ash, and water, NEMO St. Vincent and the Grenadines said. They usually occur during heavy rain which creates mudflow that destroys everything in its path as it rushes down the volcano’s slopes faster than a river.The lahars can pose a danger to persons visiting the Red and Orange Zones. As a result of this, the Royal St. Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force will be restricting persons traveling into the Red and Orange Hazard Zones.According to the forecast received from St. Vincent and the Grenadines Meteorological Services, occasional showers are expected to continue from late Wednesday, April 28 into the end of the week.Residents and motorists should remain alert due to rain-soaked ash and possible poor visibility due to volcanic ash. The National Emergency Management Organisation (NEMO) is also urging persons to desist from visiting the Red and Orange Volcano Hazard Zones due to the potential danger. Soufrière St. Vincent is the northernmost and youngest volcano on St. Vincent Island. The NE rim of the 1.6 km (1 mile) wide summit crater is cut by a crater formed in 1812. The crater itself lies on the SW margin of a larger 2.2 km (1.3 miles) wide Somma crater, which is breached widely to the SW as a result of slope failure. Frequent explosive eruptions since about 4 300 years ago produced pyroclastic deposits of the Yellow Tephra Formation, which blanket much of the island. The first historical eruption took place in 1718; it and the 1812 eruption produced major explosions.

Phreatic explosion at Dieng volcano, Indonesia --A phreatic explosion occurred at Sileri crater of Dieng Volcanic Complex, Java, Indonesia at 11:25 UTC (18:25 LT) on April 29, 2021. The last notable eruption of this volcano took place on July 2, 2017, injuring 10 people.An examination of the crater at 01:03 UTC (08:03 LT) today, showed traces of the distribution of mud material to the south and east, with a distance of 200 - 400 m (650 - 1 300 feet) from the edge of the crater. A thin white gas gust was observed rising up to 50 m (165 feet) from the surface of the crater.The results of measurement of gas concentration show the value of SO₂ gas at 2.8 ppm, H₂S 1.8 ppm, and CO₂ 0% vol.The temperature measurement at the eruption point showed a value of 65 - 89 °C (149 - 192 °F), while at the reference point daily monitoring showed 51.2 °C (125 °F).The gas concentration and temperature values ​​are still at the average value of normal conditions before the eruption. The results of visual and instrumental monitoring to date have not detected any signs of increased activity leading to further eruptions.The level of activity of Dieng is at Level I (Normal) with a recommendation that the community is not active within a radius of 500 m (1 650 feet) from the Sileri crater, and not to move around the Timbang crater to avoid the threat of high concentrations of volcanic gases that endanger lives."For the time being, the Banjarnegara-Batang road is closed. Because there are a lot of rocky materials that can endanger motorists. There are rocks as big as an adult's fist, right now, it's a danger to motorists," Batur Police Chief AKP Agung Setyawan told AFP. There was no relocation of residents due to the eruption, Agung added. "The distance of the Sileri crater to the nearest residential areas is about 1 and 1.5 km (0.62 - 0.93 miles). From the experience of the eruptions in 2017 and 2018 [volcanic material] does not reach residential areas, so we urge residents to remain calm."

Record-breaking solar flare erupts from Proxima Centauri -- Scientists have observed an extreme, record-breaking solar flare from Proxima Centauri, our sun's closest star. The outburst was roughly 100 times more powerful than any similar event seen from our own sun.Proxima Centauri is a small but 'mighty' red dwarf, said Meredith MacGregor, an astrophysicist at the University of Colorado (CU) Boulder. This star only has roughly one-eighth the mass of our own sun and is located four light-years or more than 32 trillion km (20 trillion miles) away.In their new study, MacGregor and her team observed Proxima Centauri for 40 hours with nine telescopes on the ground and in space. They spotted a burst of radiation near the surface of the star, and it was one of the most violent in the galaxy."The star went from normal to 14 000 brighter when seen in ultraviolet wavelengths over the span of a few seconds," the astrophysicist noted. The findings suggest new physics that could change the way scientists see stellar flares. The star has been a target for scientists hoping to find life beyond the solar system.Proxima Centauri hosts at least two planets, one of which may be similar to the Earth. Designated Proxima Centauri b, this planet resides in what researchers call the "habitable zone"  -- an area around a star that has the right range of temperatures for retaining water on the surface.  However, red dwarves, which are the most common stars in the galaxy, are unusually active. "A lot of the exoplanets that we've found so far are around these types of stars. But the catch is that they're way more active than our sun. They flare much more frequently and intensely."The team pointed nine different instruments at the star for 40 hours in several months in 2019. Five of them registered an enormous flare, capturing the event as it generated a wide spectrum of radiation."It's the first time we've ever had this kind of multi-wavelength coverage of a stellar flare. Usually, you're lucky if you can get two instruments," said MacGregor. It was one of the most in-depth anatomies of a flare from any star in the galaxy. The event, which was observed on May 1, 2019, lasted seven seconds. It generated both ultraviolet and millimeter radiation."In the past, we didn't know that stars could flare in the millimeter range, so this is the first time we have gone looking for millimeter flares," she explained. The millimeter signals could help researchers collect more information about how stars produce flares. As of now, scientists assume that these outbursts happen when magnetic fields near a star's surface twist and snap, creating explosive consequences."Proxima Centauri's planets are getting hit by something like this not once in a century, but at least once a day if not several times a day. There will probably be even more weird types of flares that demonstrate different types of physics that we haven't thought about before." "If there was life on the planet nearest to Proxima Centauri, it would have to look very different than anything on Earth. A human being on this planet would have a bad time."

‘Unsettled’ Review: The ‘Consensus’ On Climate – WSJ --Physicist Steven Koonin kicks the hornet’s nest right out of the gate in “Unsettled.” In the book’s first sentences he asserts that “the Science” about our planet’s climate is anything but “settled.” Mr. Koonin knows well that it is nonetheless a settled subject in the minds of most pundits and politicians and most of the population. Further proof of the public’s sentiment: Earlier this year the United Nations Development Programme published the mother of all climate surveys, titled “The Peoples’ Climate Vote.” With more than a million respondents from 50 countries, the survey, unsurprisingly, found “64% of people said that climate change was an emergency.”But science itself is not conducted by polls, regardless of how often we are urged to heed a “scientific consensus” on climate. As the science-trained novelist Michael Crichton summarized in a famous 2003 lecture at Caltech: “If it’s consensus, it isn’t science. If it’s science, it isn’t consensus. Period.” Mr. Koonin says much the same in “Unsettled.”The book is no polemic. It’s a plea for understanding how scientists extract clarity from complexity. And, as Mr. Koonin makes clear, few areas of science are as complex and multidisciplinary as the planet’s climate.He begins with a kind of trigger warning for readers who may be shocked by the book’s contradiction of four points of climate orthodoxy: “Heat waves in the US are now no more common than they were in 1900” and “the warmest temperatures in the US have not risen in the past fifty years. . . . Humans have had no detectable impact on hurricanes over the past century. . . . Greenland’s ice sheet isn’t shrinking any more rapidly today than it was eighty years ago. . . . The net economic impact of human-induced climate change will be minimal through at least the end of this century.” But Mr. Koonin is no “climate denier,” to use the concocted phrase used to shut down debate. Mr. Koonin makes it clear, on the book’s first page, that “it’s true that the globe is warming, and that humans are exerting a warming influence upon it.” The heart of the science debate, however, isn’t about whether the globe is warmer or whether humanity contributed. The important questions are about the magnitude of civilization’s contribution and the speed of changes; and, derivatively, about the urgency and scale of governmental response. Mr. Koonin thinks most readers will be surprised at what the data show. I dare say they will.

 Senate votes to reinstate methane rules loosened by Trump - — Congressional Democrats are moving to reinstate regulations designed to limit climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions from oil and gas fields, as part of a broader effort by the Biden administration to tackle climate change. The Senate approved a resolution Wednesday that would undo an environmental rollback by President Donald Trump that relaxed requirements of a 2016 Obama administration rule targeting methane emissions from oil and gas drilling. The resolution was approved, 52-42. Three Republican senators — Susan Collins of Maine, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Rob Portman of Ohio — joined 49 Democrats to approve the measure, which only needed a simple majority under Senate rules. Five Republicans and one Democrat did not vote. The legislation now goes to the Democratic-controlled House, where it is expected to win approval. The Environmental Protection Agency approved the looser methane rule last year. The agency's former administrator, Andrew Wheeler, declared the change would "strengthen and promote American energy'' while saving companies tens of millions of dollars a year in compliance requirements. Democrats and environmentalists called it one of the Trump administration's most egregious actions to deregulate U.S. businesses. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming, packing a stronger punch in the short term than even carbon dioxide. Preventing methane leaks at oil and gas sites "is a huge part of how we prevent a 1.5 degree (Celsius) rise in global temperatures,''

Exxon Accused by Activist Firm of ‘Distorting’ Emissions Targets - Exxon Mobil Corp.’s proxy battle with a fund manager intensified after the activist investor accused the oil giant of obscuring the trajectory of its greenhouse gas emissions through disingenuous reduction targets. Exxon’s chief carbon goal of cutting upstream emissions intensity -- a measure of pollution per barrel of oil produced -- by as much as 20% by 2025 is so limited it only includes about 10% of its overall carbon footprint, investment firm Engine No. 1 said Monday in a presentation. Even if Exxon achieved the goal, its emissions intensity would be 6% to 8% higher than in 2009-2010, according to its 81-page document. “Exxon Mobil has sought to obscure long-term risk by distorting its long-term emissions trajectory,” the San Francisco-based firm said. “Even by its own limited standards, ExxonMobil has gone backwards and aims to do worse in 2025 than 2010.” Engine No. 1 began a rare proxy contest against the West’s biggest oil company in December after a decade of poor financial returns and a strategy the firm claims fails to meet the needs of the energy transition. The fund only has a 0.2% stake in Exxon, but has won support from California State Teachers’ Retirement System and New York’s state pension fund. Exxon has resisted publishing a mid-century net zero emissions target, insisting that oil and gas have a profitable future for decades to come even if the world lowers emissions in line with the United Nations’ Paris Agreement on climate change. But the U.S. company’s tone around environmental issues has changed significantly in recent years as calls from investors and public to tackle climate change increased.

Climate scientists: concept of net zero is a dangerous trap – Resilience -Sometimes realisation comes in a blinding flash. Blurred outlines snap into shape and suddenly it all makes sense. Underneath such revelations is typically a much slower-dawning process. Doubts at the back of the mind grow. The sense of confusion that things cannot be made to fit together increases until something clicks. Or perhaps snaps. Collectively we three authors of this article must have spent more than 80 years thinking about climate change. Why has it taken us so long to speak out about the obvious dangers of the concept of net zero? In our defence, the premise of net zero is deceptively simple – and we admit that it deceived us. The threats of climate change are the direct result of there being too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. So it follows that we must stop emitting more and even remove some of it. This idea is central to the world’s current plan to avoid catastrophe. In fact, there are many suggestions as to how to actually do this, from mass tree planting, to high tech direct air capture devices that suck out carbon dioxide from the air. The current consensus is that if we deploy these and other so-called “carbon dioxide removal” techniques at the same time as reducing our burning of fossil fuels, we can more rapidly halt global warming. Hopefully around the middle of this century we will achieve “net zero”. This is the point at which any residual emissions of greenhouse gases are balanced by technologies removing them from the atmosphere. This is a great idea, in principle. Unfortunately, in practice it helps perpetuate a belief in technological salvation and diminishes the sense of urgency surrounding the need to curb emissions now. We have arrived at the painful realisation that the idea of net zero has licensed a recklessly cavalier “burn now, pay later” approach which has seen carbon emissions continue to soar. It has also hastened the destruction of the natural world by increasing deforestation today, and greatly increases the risk of further devastation in the future.

Biden's only hope to cut emissions in half? His infrastructure plan. -In the spring of 2015, nine months before world leaders assembled in Paris to hammer out a landmark agreement on climate change, President Barack Obama quietly announced his pledge to cut carbon emissions. The proposal was relatively modest: a cut in emissions by as much as 28 percent by 2025. If the U.S. has come close to meeting that goal (by the end of last year, emissions were 21.5 percent below 2005 levels), it was largely by accident.  Most of the country’s emissions cuts came from the rapid decline of coal and, more recently, the devastation and lockdowns stemming from the coronavirus pandemic.  Now, the country has a new pledge, announced as President Joe Biden gathered 40 world leaders in Washington for a two-day climate summit on Thursday. Biden wants the U.S. to cut greenhouse gas emissions 50 to 52 percent by 2030 — a goal on par with some of the most ambitious in the world. But it’s an open question whether the country can get it done.  The Biden administration’s best hope for meeting that 50 percent reduction target appears to be his $2 trillion infrastructure package — a plan that still has to make its way through both houses of Congress before lawmakers try to pass it through the tangled budget reconciliation process. (It’s already been panned by conservatives as the “Green New Deal in disguise” and “a far left wish list.”) And, as currently envisioned, the package doesn’t include legally binding limits on carbon pollution; instead, it would dole out money to boost clean energy technologies, banking on the fact that emission cuts will naturally follow. “It’s a little weird to have an ambitious target in a world where there’s not policies that reflect that target,” said Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist and the director of climate and energy at the environmental think tank Breakthrough Institute. “We hope that things like the infrastructure bill will get us there. But we just don’t know.”

Green Energy in America Needs a Lot More Land: Map - At his international climate summit last week, President Joe Biden vowed to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030. The goal will require sweeping changes in the power generation, transportation and manufacturing sectors. It will also require a tremendous amount of land. Wind farms, solar installations and other forms of clean power take up far more space on a per-watt basis than their fossil-fuel-burning brethren. A 200-megawatt wind farm, for instance, might require spreading turbines over 19 square miles (49 square kilometres). A natural-gas power plant with that same generating capacity could fit onto a single city block. Achieving Biden’s goal will require aggressively building more wind and solar farms, in many cases combined with giant batteries. To fulfill his vision of an emission-free grid by 2035, the U.S. needs to increase its carbon-free capacity by at least 150%. Expanding wind and solar by 10% annually until 2030 would require a chunk of land equal to the state of South Dakota, according to Bloomberg and Princeton University estimates. By 2050, when Biden wants the entire economy to be carbon free, the U.S. will need up to four additional South Dakotas to develop enough clean power to run all the electric vehicles, factories and more. To be clear, Biden’s plan doesn’t need to entirely rest on wind and solar. Nuclear energy, which requires far less space, is also emission free. Same for hydroelectric power. Plus, wind farms can be installed at sea. Solar panels work wonderfully on rooftops. And plenty of companies are placing bets that fossil-fuel plants can be retrofitted to burn hydrogen or equipped with systems to capture their carbon dioxide emissions. But no matter how you slice it, the U.S. will need to dedicate more land to producing power in an emissions-free future. Here’s how researchers at Princeton University’s Net-Zero America project estimate it can be done.

Power Player: How Manchin Is Key to Biden’s Energy, Climate Goals On Earth Day, President Joe Biden convened world leaders for a climate summit, where he laid out an ambitious goal for U.S. policy on climate change.“The United States sets out to cut our global warming emissions in half by the end of the decade,” Biden said. “That’s where we’re heading as a nation.”But Biden has 50 votes in an evenly divided Senate, and unless he can persuade a Republican to cross the aisle, he can’t get anything done without West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin.As Biden attempts to cut carbon emissions and clean up the electric power sector, Manchin can shape energy legislation to help Appalachian coal communities that have lost jobs.Manchin has a unique and powerful position in Washington. His influence on energy policy could have tremendous influence on the state, the Ohio Valley region, and the nation at large. Manchin has a unique and powerful position in Washington. His influence on energy policy could have tremendous influence on the state, the Ohio Valley region, and the nation at large.   “As chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee, ensuring all coal miners aren’t left behind as America transitions to a cleaner energy future is one of my top priorities,” he said at an event on Monday about the energy transition hosted by the National Press Club.West Virginia has lost more than 10,000 coal jobs since 2011. Those jobs are not likely to come back as coal has fallen out of favor to natural gas, wind and solar for producing electricity.Manchin wants to preserve as many of the remaining coal jobs as he can. He’s pushing for federal funding to develop carbon capture and storage technology, which could help extend the life of some coal-burning facilities. Carbon capture and storage has long been an elusive goal for the Department of Energy, which invested heavily in research projects to remove CO2 from coal power plant emissions. Similar efforts to apply the technology to commercial facilities have also failed.

Granholm: White House prefers legislation for energy infrastructure --Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm emphasized Monday that the Biden administration would prefer to meet its renewable energy goals through legislation — not executive action. Asked in a virtual Politico Playbook interview whether the administration would consider executive action if it can't get its $2 trillion infrastructure package approved by Congress, Granholm said the administration would “use every tool we can to make this happen, but the American Jobs Plan is a big tool in the toolbox.” Granholm went on to express confidence that the $2 trillion package “will get passed, the question is what does it look like” in its final form. “We’ve got to figure out what are the components that could get enough votes to get us across the finish line,” she added. It's unclear how the package will move through the Senate, where it does not have Republican support. There have been discussions about moving the large package with the use of budget reconciliation rules that sidestep the filibuster, meaning the bill would just need 50 votes and Vice President Harris's tie-breaking vote to get through the chamber. But there have also been talks about splitting off the traditional infrastructure parts of the package as part of a bipartisan product. Granholm said “conversations are being had right now” about passing the measure through reconciliation, which would only require a simple majority, but said “the bottom line is we want to get bipartisan support.” Granholm also emphasized the administration’s goal of ensuring workers in the fossil fuel industry were able to transition into renewable energy rather than outright losing their livelihoods, saying, “The question is for us, as a country and a globe, how you can help [coal-dependent] communities reduce their CO2 exposure through coal.” “We cannot abandon those workers who have made the choice and for their lives have been told ‘you’ve got to power America,’” she said.

Who will pay for the energy transition? Kemp (Reuters) - The transition from a fossil-fuel dominated energy system to one with zero emissions would require trillions of dollars of investment in new production, distribution and consumption equipment worldwide.New investments could support millions of new jobs in construction and manufacturing, but policymakers are struggling to decide whether to recover the costs from consumers or taxpayers. In most countries, the cost of providing energy commodities and services, including gas, electricity, other heating fuels, and road fuels, is normally recovered from users in the same way as other services and merchandise. But the proposed energy transition is likely to be expensive, with a high proportion of upfront capital costs for new generating units, transmission and distribution systems, and consumer equipment such as electric vehicles. Lower-income households already spend a much higher share of their income on energy services and would be especially hard hit if costs are recovered in the normal way (https://tmsnrt.rs/3sQXf5H). In the United States, for example, poorer households in the second of the fourth deciles spent an average of 10-14% of their post-tax income on gas, electricity, other heating fuels, and road fuels in 2019. In contrast, richer households in the seventh through ninth deciles spent just 5-6% of their post-tax income on the same energy items (“Consumer expenditure survey”, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2020).  Precise details differ in other countries, but the poorest households almost always spend the highest proportion of their income on basic energy services for heating, cooking, lighting and surface transport. As a result, cost recovery exclusively through utility bills and the private purchase of new consumer equipment, such as heating systems and electric vehicles, will hit the poor hardest unless they are given government support.  In many cases, the proposed transition would swap higher upfront capital costs for lower long-term fuel bills, for example by replacing gasoline-fuelled private cars by battery-driven vehicles charged by wind power.  But the poorest households are least able to afford upfront capital costs and risk becoming stuck with outdated and increasingly expensive legacy energy products.  Unless it is handled carefully, the energy transition could worsen energy inequalities and energy-related poverty.

China Has a Grand Carbon Neutrality Target But Where Is the Plan? - As the world’s largest greenhouse-gas emitter, China will make or break the global quest for climate neutrality by the middle of the century – the only way to limit the global average temperature increase to 1.5°C. Consequently, President Xi’s announcement in September 2020 of China’s new objective to peak CO2 emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060 was broadly welcomed. But President Xi offered no detail on how China could turn this vision into reality, and an examination of China’s current plans shows clearly the goal will not be achieved without major changes. Following Xi’s announcement of the goals at the United Nations General Assembly, some details of how China might approach its targets were provided at the December 2020 Climate Ambition Summit. Here, Xi outlined preliminary elements of the new Nationally Determined Contribution that China is due to submit – like all other Paris Agreement signatories – ahead of COP26 in late 2021. Xi stated that China would aim by 2030 to cut carbon intensity per unit of GDP by more than 65% from 2005 levels (compared to the existing target of 60%-65% by 2030), and would increase the share of non-fossil fuels in energy consumption to 25% by 2030 (compared to the existing target of 20%).As a continuation of the progress already being made by China, rather than an acceleration, these preliminary targets raised doubts about the feasibility of China peaking its emissions before 2030 and securing carbon neutrality by 2060. China’s continued investments in coal, the primary component of the county’s energy mix, have reinforced those doubts (Figure 2).Instead of cutting its reliance on coal, China put 38 gigawatts (GW) of new coal-fired power capacity into operation in 2020, equal to the entire coal-fired power generation capacity currently installed in Germany. While one could argue that the pandemic made 2020 a difficult year for China to focus on climate, it remains to be seen when and how China will reveal how it intends to peak emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. The most obvious place to look for such information is China’s 14^th Five Year Plan (FYP), which was announced at the National People’s Congress in March 2021. Five Year Plans are the main guiding force behind policy in China at all levels of government. Unfortunately, on climate measures, the 14^th FYP falls short. It essentially outlines a continuation of existing trends, rather than an acceleration of climate action. Strongly focused on the development of the manufacturing sector (notably through strict targets on state-led innovation), the plan mentions neither a coal cap, nor an emissions cap (Table 1).

Eminent domain benefits fossil fuels — could it also help renewables? -- For renewable energy to power the United States, the country will need ambitious politicians, public buy-in, and billions of dollars in investment. But there’s a slightly less flashy tool that will also play a key role in the renewable energy transition: eminent domain law. Eminent domain is the government’s power to seize private property for public use (with fair payment). It’s controversial — many Americans staunchly defend their private property rights — but the truth is that eminent domain has shaped the U.S. into the country we know today. From highways to national parks to public buildings such as courthouses, there is infrastructure in every corner of the country that would not have been built without the use of this legal power. Eminent domain has long been a critical tool for the fossil fuel industry, most recently for natural gas because it allows companies to obtain the many parcels of property needed to build vast networks of pipelines. As a result, over the past decade the legal practice has become a popular target for environmentalists, who have teamed up with landowners to oppose its use for projects including the Dakota Access Pipeline, the recently canceled Atlantic Coast Pipeline stretching from West Virginia to North Carolina, and the controversial PennEast Pipeline, which would transport natural gas from Pennsylvania to New Jersey. But legal experts say eminent domain could soon shift from being one of climate activists’ biggest foes to a vital ally. President Biden announced plans last week to cut U.S. emissions 50 to 52 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. For the country to realize its clean energy goals, it will need a massive overhaul of its infrastructure, including finding a way to transport electricity from wind and solar farms in rural areas to population centers where energy is in demand. “Eminent domain is critical to building a green sustainable grid,” said John Echeverria, a professor at the Vermont Law School who specializes in environmental and property law. “Whenever you’re dealing with linear infrastructure, whether it’s a road or a pipeline or an electric transmission line, eminent domain is essential in order to construct the project.”

DeSantis Urged To Veto Bills That Would Make It Harder For Cities To Reduce Emissions --The Sierra Club of Florida has sent a letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis urging him to veto twelve bills, including some that would make it harder for local governments to reduce fossil fuel emissions, the leading driver of climate change. The letter sent Monday lists twelve bills that Sierra Club staff, members and supporters have labeled as anti-environment and/or anti-democracy. “Sierra Club is appalled by the Legislature’s unprecedented attack on our state’s natural resources and the transparent, fair processes that Floridians have used to protect the environment and public health in the past,” said Deborah Foote, acting Florida chapter director. “This then is the ultimate test for Governor DeSantis. When he addresses this list of bills, he will show himself to be either the enemy of environmental protection and the public process or their champion.” Among the bills listed in the letter are three introduced or co-introduced by Sen. Travis Hutson (R-Palm Coast). Related: Local Efforts To Fight Climate change Could Be Stymied By State Lawmakers SB 856 preempts the regulation of transportation energy infrastructure by local governments, leaving that power solely in the hands of the state. The bill would prevent local governments from banning gas stations or requiring gas stations to have electric vehicle charging stations. The proposal originally aimed to prevent local governments from banning natural gas fracking, but was dramatically changed to focus on transportation. SB 896 would expand the term “renewable energy” to include “biogas” and “renewable natural gas,” among other things. Methane, the main component in natural gas and biogas, is the second most prevalent greenhouse gas in the U.S. behind carbon dioxide, according to the EPA. Although carbon dioxide has a longer-lasting effect, methane’s warming power is much higher. SB 1128 would preempt local governments’ ability to regulate the type or the fuel sources of energy production, though the bill does say that governmental entities would not be prevented from regulating a utility that it owns or operates and directly controls. JEA, the predominant electric utility in Jacksonville, is owned by the city.

State lawmakers pass bill mandating only electric cars sold by 2035— The state Senate on Monday passed a bill that would essentially mandate that all new passenger cars sold in the state run on electric power by 2035. The measure, which had earlier passed in the Assembly, would also have trucks and other heavy duty vehicles run on electricity by 2045. The measure was sponsored by two Democrats, Assembly Environmental Conservation Committee Chair Steve Englebright from Long Island and Westchester Senator Pete Harckham.   The bill will now go to Gov. Andrew Cuomo for approval or vetoing.Specifically, the bill directs the state Department of Environmental Conservation to establish regulations to ensure that 100% of new passenger vehicles are electric by 2035 and that medium- and heavy-duty vehicles are electric by 2045.  With more than 11 million vehicles in New York, environmentalists have pointed out that the transportation sector is the single largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the state.

THAT’S RICH: The Wealthy are Mostly Benefitting from State’s E-Car Rebate – The richest 30 percent of New York State residents have gotten more than 62 percent of all electric car rebate checks while the bottom 50 percent of state earners collected just 21 percent of the benefits — evidence that a state program to encourage the purchase of expensive electric cars is helping the wealthy far more than the poor.And in some of the richest New York City ZIP codes, scores of people got the rebates, while in at least one of the poorest neighborhoods, just a single resident took advantage of the subsidy, which ranges from $500 to $2,000, depending on how many miles the vehicle can go entirely on electric power and the cost of the car itself  Since March, 2017, the “Drive Clean” rebate program has doled out $54 million to 36,800 people across the state, an average rebate of $1,467. Here’s how the distribution of the funds breaks down geographically in New York City: Streetsblog’s analysis follows a similar finding by our sister site, Streetsblog Mass, which discovered that 79 percent of the Bay State’s “MOR-EV” program rebates went to car buyers in ZIP codes where the median household income exceeds the statewide median income. And only 9 percent of the program’s subsidies went to lower-income ZIP codes, where median household income was less than 80 percent of the statewide median income. (The federal government also gives up to $7,500 to e-car purchasers — but that tax credit is scaled to a person’s tax liability, meaning low-income taxpayers may not qualify for the full rebate.) In New York City, the map of the e-car rebates looks similar to the map of income levels. The Upper West Side’s 10023 ZIP code, with its median income of $135,000, is home to 91 rebate recipients (average rebate $1,518). The wealthy 11201 ZIP code of Brooklyn Heights (median income $129,000) had 126 rebate recipients for an average rebate of $1,473. Meanwhile, the 10474 ZIP code of Hunts Point in The Bronx, where the median income is just $23,000, registered just two rebates, averaging $1,250 apiece. The program certainly encourages the purchase of electric cars — but it may be encouraging more car ownership overall, given that a large portion of rebates are being collected in neighborhoods with traditionally low car ownership. For instance, according to census data, in the wealthy section of Brooklyn Heights mentioned above, only 6 percent of the residents drive themselves to work every day — far less than the citywide 22 percent. But 36 percent of the households now have access to a car.

The radicals want the state to take away your cars - Apparently the liberal brain trusts say Earth will reach a “dangerous level of climate change (an average temperature increase of 2.7℉) as early as 2027 – nearly two decades earlier than initially projected.” They instill fear that California is suffering these “monumental climate challenges” with “hotter summers, a shorter rain season, toxic air quality, and wildfires causing hundreds of billions in damages – will grow in intensity by nearly 50 percent over the next 10 years.”  Remember Al Gore telling us back in Dec. 14, 2008 that we had 10 years left, that the polar ice caps would melt in five years and the sea levels rise?  The internet is replete is dire predictions which came to pass as complete farces. Let’s face it, climate change is a cash cow for government. It allows government to bilk businesses out of “cap and trade” dollars and allows government to control you and me. It’s all about control and money, folks.   Being the radical group they are, Climate-Safe California  wants California to phase out gas-powered vehicles, provide incentives rewarding clean energy generation and (here it comes) jobs in disadvantaged communities, community choice clean energy expansion, ban food waste from landfills, and use working lands and landscapes to capture carbon.UC Merced professor Teenie Matlock, who helped to write the report, said: “California’s climate policies must show working people and disadvantaged communities that they won’t be left behind. We need to invest in them to ensure they continue being an essential part of the fabric of California.” What does that even mean? The radical Tom Steyer who ran for president and was rejected by voters far greater than Kamala Harris was, is part of this effort. He said: “California always set the standard for climate leadership but the natural world is demanding even more and it’s demanding it now.” Oh my gosh, the “natural world” is demanding the state clamp down on us all – now even more than it has! News flash, California is governed by already strict environmental rules. We have a summer blend gas that burns cleaner and costs us all more. We all have to smog our cars to make sure they burn clean. To put this in perspective, at 39 million people California represents a small fraction of the world’s population of 7.8 billion. China has 1.44 billion. India has 1.39 billion. California has a population equal to 0.028 percent of India’s. And further radical policies of this already-clean state are going to make a difference when these other nations are polluting into the same atmosphere like there’s no tomorrow? In 2019, 1.67 million deaths in India were attributable to air pollution. This was nearly one in every five deaths in the country or 17.8 percent of all deaths. So which nations really need to get with the program? It’s not the USA or the People’s Republic of California.

Late taxes another troubling sign for electric truck startup (AP) — The failure of an Ohio-based electric truck startup to pay $570,000 in real estate taxes due in early March is yet another troubling sign for a company that has been barraged by bad news this year. Lordstown Motors Corp. stock has plummeted from nearly $31 a share on Feb. 11 to just over $10 on Tuesday in the wake of a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission inquiry and the filing of four potential class-action lawsuits by investors who claim they have been defrauded. The company appeared to be primed for success last June during a showcase event at the massive former GM plant outside Youngstown, Ohio. Then-Vice President Mike Pence sat in the passenger seat of an Endurance prototype as it rolled onto a stage to hearty applause. Noisy, colorfully lit robots building nothing gyrated nearby. The first drip of bad news came in January when an Endurance pickup truck prototype caught fire 10 minutes into its initial test drive in Michigan. A company spokesperson issued a statement afterward saying, “No one was hurt, and like all of our test findings, we do it to create a great product.” Spokesperson Ryan Hallet said Tuesday the non-payment, initially reported by the Tribune Chronicle in Warren, was an “unfortunate administrative error” and that the company is in the process of paying the taxes and a 10% penalty of around $57,000. Company officials announced in January it had received more than 100,000 pre-orders for the Endurance and production was scheduled to begin this September, which critics claim is untrue. Lordstown Motors CEO Steve Burns acknowledged during an earnings call in March that the SEC was conducting an inquiry based on a lengthy and hyper-critical report by the investment firm Hindenburg Research, which holds a short position on Lordstown Motors stock. The shareholder lawsuits filed in federal court in Youngstown are largely based on the Hindenburg Research report, which says Lordstown Motors has “no revenue and no sellable product” and has “misled investors on both its demand and production capabilities.” The report and lawsuits say production of the Endurance is three to four years away based on information provided by a former employee.

Global electric vehicle numbers set to hit 145 million by end of the decade, IEA says --The number of electric cars, buses, vans and heavy trucks on roads is expected to hit 145 million by 2030, the International Energy Agency said on Thursday. According to the IEA's Global Electric Vehicle Outlook, if governments ramp up their efforts to meet international energy and climate goals, the global electric vehicle fleet could increase further still, hitting 230 million by the end of the decade. Both of these projections exclude two- and three-wheeled electric vehicles. The Paris-based organization said roughly three million new electric cars were registered last year, a record amount and a 41% rise compared to 2019. This jump pushed the total number of electric cars on the road to over 10 million, a figure supplemented by approximately 1 million electric buses, vans and heavy trucks. The rise in electric car sales in 2020 came even as the worldwide automobile market contracted by 16% due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. In the first quarter of 2021, electric car sales were almost two and a half times higher than during the same period in 2020. "While they can't do the job alone, electric vehicles have an indispensable role to play in reaching net-zero emissions worldwide," Fatih Birol, the IEA's executive director, said in a statement. "Current sales trends are very encouraging, but our shared climate and energy goals call for even faster market uptake," he added. Birol urged governments to use Covid economic recovery packages to "invest in battery manufacturing and the development of widespread and reliable charging infrastructure." The IEA said consumer spending on electric cars in 2020 totaled $120 billion, a 50% increase compared to 2019, with government support measures designed to encourage electric vehicle take-up coming in at $14 billion. With regards to the latter figure, the IEA said it was "the fifth year in a row in which they have fallen as a share of total spending." "Even if government subsidies remain important for spurring the uptake of electric vehicles, this suggests sales are increasingly being driven more by consumer choice," it added. Taking on Tesla Around the world, authorities are looking to increase the number of low- and zero-emission vehicles on their roads in a bid to tackle air pollution and move away from the internal combustion engine. The U.K., for example, has announced plans to stop selling new diesel and petrol (gasoline) cars and vans from 2030. The European Commission's "Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy," meanwhile, wants at least 30 million zero-emission cars on the road by 2030. Faced with these targets, major carmakers are looking to increase their electric vehicle offering and challenge Elon Musk's Tesla.

Bill Gates and His Carbon Footprint --With Bill Gates seeming to be everywhere and an expert in everything over the past year and with the recent release of his 2021 book on avoiding a climate disaster, a look back at research from October 2019 gives us a real sense of his actual, "boots on the ground" commitment to the reduction of greenhouse gases.  First, let's look at one of Bill Gate's preferred modes of travel:  Bombardier BD-700-1A10 Global Express Takeoff at EFHK – YouTube   The Bombardier BD-700 is owned through Challenger Administration LLC and has hourly fuel costs of this:  Somewhat hypocritically, Gates flew in his private jet to the 2015 Paris Climate Summit: Gates, the world's foremost untrained climatologist (along with his expertise in vaccines, viruses and everything but software that actually works) lives in this 66,000 square foot home:   Now that we have a very basic understanding of Bill Gates' personal tastes, let's look at the 2019 study by Stefan Gossling entitled "Celebrities, air travel and social norms".  The author opens by noting that frequent air travel is linked to a disproportionately large carbon footprint and plays a key role in carbon inequality, a concept which describes the massive differences in individuals' contributions to greenhouse gas emissions.  Flying is considered to be a very energy intensive means of transportation with frequent fliers contributing a significantly higher portion of total greenhouse gas emissions. The authors goes on to note that the world's most affluent people have significantly different travel patterns than the rest of humanity; they tend to move more frequently, have access to private transportation and have multiple real estate holdings.  This is particularly the case for celebrities and, given the fact that they need to keep their "brand" in the spotlight, means that they tend to travel more frequently than the sweaty masses.Celebrities often adopt a "climate friendly" persona as a means of appealing to their followers, however, there are a wide range of celebrity climate types as shown on this table:

TVA 'hardens infrastructure' since deadly April 27, 2011 tornadoes --The Tennessee Valley Authority is looking back on how it responded to the April 27, 2011 tornadoes and how they've changed their business over the last decade to help keep the lights on during severe weather. TVA now has a new building that can withstand an EF-5 tornado. Inside it, they've put some of their most important equipment to make sure the power stays on if another strong storm hits. "I didn't know if my family was ok. They live in Madison, we didn't know exactly where the storm had hit," said Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant Site Vice President Matthew Rasmussen. Rasmussen wasn't alone in that feeling on April 27, 2011. He and most of North Alabamians feared the worst as tornadoes tore through the area. "I couldn't get in touch with my wife or my three young children at the time. We just didn't know. So you went hours without knowing 'are they OK, are they safe," said Rasmussen. Rasmussen had to work that day. He's now the plant site vice president at Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant. But 10 years ago, he was an operator in the control room.

 Biden administration offers $8.25 bln in loans for power grid - (Reuters) -The U.S. Energy Department said on Tuesday it is offering up to $8.25 billion in loans for companies to boost the power grid as part of the Biden administration's goal to set the country on a path to 100% clean energy by 2035. The department is making financing available for projects that improve resilience and expand transmission capacity across the grid, "so we can reliably move clean energy from places where it's produced to places where it's needed most," Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said. The financing will be available in two pools. The Loan Programs Office, or LPO, at the Energy Department is seeking applications for up to $5 billion in loan guarantees to support innovative transmission projects, along with transmission projects owned by federally recognized tribal nations or Alaska Native Corporations. Those projects will include high-voltage lines, transmission to connect offshore wind, and facilities sited along rail and highway routes. Up to $3.25 billion will be available from the Western Area Power Administration's Transmission Infrastructure Program revolving loan program. The federal debt financing program is congressionally mandated to support transmission and related infrastructure projects that facilitate the delivery of clean power in the U.S. West. The LPO has more than $40 billion in funds left over after the financing went mostly unused during the Trump administration. It has nearly $18 billion in direct loan authority to support manufacturing of fuel-efficient, advanced technology vehicles and components.

Biden Rolls Out $8 Billion Plan For U.S. Power Grid After Texas Crisis -The Biden administration on Tuesday announced a more than $8 billion plan to improve the U.S. power grid, after an electricity crisis in Texas this year underscored risks posed by climate change and equipment that has not been weatherized. The Department of Energy will launch two programs to finance the construction of high-voltage transmission lines, which carry electricity long distances and are key in renewable energy distribution plans. About $5 billion will go toward federal loans for projects focused on high-voltage transmission and connection to offshore wind facilities, administration officials said. The DOE will also make available another $3.25 billion worth of project loans through a federal initiative focused on energy infrastructure in Western states. In its announcement, the administration cited the historic grid failure in Texas in February, which became one of the worst outages in U.S. history after it left millions without power for hours to days. “After the Texas transmission debacle this winter, no one can doubt the need to invest in our electric grid,” said Gina McCarthy, a senior climate adviser to President Joe Biden. The move was part of a broader effort by President Joe Biden to transition the nation away from fossil fuels, which generate power and contribute to climate change through carbon dioxide emissions. Biden has pledged to put the nation on track to be carbon neutral by 2050, meaning its net emissions of the gas would be zero.

ERCOT names new, temporary leader two months after deadly winter storm - The board overseeing the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the independent nonprofit entity that operates and manages the electricity grid that covers much of Texas, named former executive Brad Jones on Tuesday to be interim president and CEO. Jones, who worked for Texas energy companies and in senior roles at ERCOT before leading New York state’s power grid operator as president, takes ERCOT’s top job from Bill Magness, who was fired as president and CEO in early March after a winter storm in February left millions of people in the dark for days amid freezing temperature and claimed more than 100 lives. Jones’ hiring as interim president and CEO, after stints as a vice president and chief operations officer at ERCOT between 2013 and 2015, provides more time for the organization to find a permanent leader. Magness will soon depart ERCOT after a 60-day termination notice handed to him by ERCOT’s board of directors in March.

ENERGY POLICY: White House identifies $38B for struggling coal communities -- Friday, April 23, 2021 -- An interagency White House task force dedicated to advancing efforts to revitalize struggling coal communities says in a report this morning that it has identified nearly $38 billion in existing federal resources to assist the hardest-hit areas affected by a shift away from the fossil fuel.

Federal group says Southwest Virginia is fourth most coal-dependent area in U.S. - A federal working group convened to examine how the economies of communities dependent on fossil fuels can be revitalized as the nation transitions to renewable energy has identified Southwest Virginia as the fourth most coal-dependent area in the U.S. The finding, which is based on the percentage of total direct coal jobs relative to all employees within a region, designates Southwest Virginia as a priority community for “initial federal investments.” Thirteen counties, from Lee in the state’s westernmost tip to Patrick farther east, and three cities are included in the federal government’s definition of the area. Roughly $38 billion in federal funding could be available for communities likely to be hard-hit by coal mine and power plant closures. The findings appeared Friday in the first report issued by the Interagency Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities, which consists of 11 federal agencies and the Appalachian Regional Commission and was created by President Joe Biden by executive order in January. Of the 25 most coal-dependent areas identified by the working group, the top four are all found in the Appalachian region. Southwest Virginia’s coal dependency is outstripped only by that of the southern West Virginia non-metropolitan area, the East Kentucky non-metropolitan area and the Wheeling, West Virginia-Ohio area.

DEP plans $125,000 fine for Lexington Coal Company for water pollution permit violations --West Virginia environmental regulators plan to fine a Kentucky-based coal company $125,000 for water pollution permit violations. The state Department of Environmental Protection made public a proposed settlement with Lexington Coal Company Friday. Under the conditions of the settlement, the company would pay a $125,000 civil administrative penalty after exceeding water pollution limits at 15 different sites across five southern coalfield counties from 2018 through 2020.  Per the settlement, the company would have to immediately comply with selenium pollution limits at the Premium Energy No. 3 Surface Mine and Surface Mine No. 2 in Mingo County (with Ben Creek listed as the receiving stream for past exceedances there), the Whitman No. 2 Surface Mine in Logan County (Whitman Creek and Trace and Copperas Mine forks) and the Cherry Tree Refuse Facility in Boone County (Wilderness Fork). The company would also have to immediately comply with aluminum limits at the Wayne Mine Complex in Wayne County (with Laurel Creek, the East Fork of Twelvepole Creek and the Right Fork of Camp Creek listed as the receiving streams for past exceedances) and iron limits the Locust Fork Surface Mine in Boone County (Locust Fork).  The Department of Environmental Protection also documented effluent exceedances at Lexington Coal Company’s Surface Mine No. 7, Surface Mine 5A, Chesterfield Surface and Jacks Branch Buffalo mines in Boone County; Crystal Fuels Alma Deep Mine and Surface Mine No. 9, and Kermit Mine No. 1 and Preparation Plant in Mingo County; and Mine No. 15 in Nicholas County.A federal judge ruled earlier this month that discharges from Lexington Coal’s Low Gap No. 2 and No. 10 mines, in Mingo County, caused environmental damage in surrounding waterways, violating state and federal water quality and surface mining standards. The company is in talks with environmental groups to settle a federal lawsuit the groups filed in 2019 alleging federal Clean Water Act and Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act violations at the two Mingo County mines.

Closing plants mean mess - Marietta Times - Federal and state officials have another question to answer, as communities across the country — but particularly here in Appalachia — face the realities of a changing economic and energy landscape. What happens to the shuttered coal-fired power plants once they are no longer keeping the lights on? Unfortunately, the folks in Clermont County are getting a first-hand look, as pieces of the retired Walter C. Beckjord power plant toppled into the Ohio River … and stayed there this winter. Metal, bricks, mortar and more mess created enough of a problem that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has ordered contractors to clean it up. “I do have huge concerns,” Pierce Township Fire Chief Craig Wright told another media outlet. “It’s not just Clermont County’s drinking water, it’s the city of Cincinnati’s and Hamilton County’s and Northern Kentucky’s. It’s much larger than just us.” According to the Sierra Club, Ohio has more coal plant closures and retirements announced than any other state. Who, then, will be responsible for making sure those closings don’t leave dangerous and unmonitored sites to create bigger problems down the road? Will we see an increase in the number of former facilities listed as Superfund sites, or will there be measures put in place to ensure the owners of these properties do the job properly from the start? It is yet another piece of the puzzle that will require careful planning as we forge ahead with the diversification of our economy and our energy portfolio. Federal and state officials must be sure the work they are doing does not leave behind both a literal and figurative mess.

Alberta halts coal exploration on Rocky Mountains -  After receiving feedback from 25,000 people, the Canadian province of Alberta decided to halt all coal exploration projects on Category 2 lands, which cover a 90,000-square-kilometre area on the eastern slopes and Foothills of the southern part of the Rocky Mountains. Public feedback was provided via an online survey that ran from March 29 to April 19, 2021. “An initial review of the results illustrates that many Albertans have significant concerns about coal exploration,” the Ministry of Energy said in a media statement. “Based on this insight, the Coal Policy Committee – an independent group appointed to lead comprehensive public engagement to inform the development of a modern coal policy – has recommended to the government that coal exploration in Category 2 lands be suspended.” According to Energy Minister Sonya Savage, the affected companies have said they will cooperate with the pause. There are currently six coal projects in the exploration stage – four of which began under the 1976 policy, and two that were approved after the policy was revoked in May 2020. Given what the public has said, the minister mentioned that she is inclined to go for the second round of consultations based on a more in-depth analysis of the responses. Savage pointed out that preliminary analyses of the survey show that the majority of respondents feel the management of the province’s coal resources affects them and believe that there are areas of the province that are not appropriate for coal development. Although detailed results of the survey were not released, the government official also said that most respondents expressed concerns about coal exploration and are interested in participating in the engagement process through additional online surveys and virtual meetings.#160;

Shut U.S. coal plants seen as potential sites for small reactors (Reuters) - Recently shut U.S. coal-fired power plants could serve as sites for a new generation of small nuclear reactors, the head of the nation's largest public power utility and a U.S. senator from West Virginia said on Wednesday. Hundreds of coal plants have been shutting due to competition from cheap natural gas and falling costs for renewable power, resulting in massive job losses in communities that depend on mining and power generation. Since 2010 more than 250 U.S. coal-fired power plants have shut. "I see those sites as very viable small modular reactor (SMR) sites," Jeff Lyash, president and chief executive of the Tennessee Valley Authority, or TVA, said during a virtual Atlantic Council event. TVA first started using coal-fired plants in the 1950s, but has begun to retire older, less efficient units in keeping with its commitment to generate cleaner energy. It has three traditional nuclear reactors. Shut coal power plants would be ripe for SMR development because of their available water resources and existing power grid connections, Lyash said. SMRs are regarded by some as a critical carbon-free technology that power grids will need to supplement intermittent sources like wind and solar. They have been touted by the last three U.S. administrations, but face high costs and delays. "Some of our better manufacturing sites are the coal-fired power plants," said Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia. "You could come online much quicker and we could accomplish this at a much faster rate than anything else we could do," he said about the SMR potential. The first U.S. small-scale project, NuScale Power LLC, majority-owned by construction and engineering firm Fluor Corp , is planning to develop 12 60-megawatt modules at the Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory. The estimated cost has shot to $6.1 billion, up from $3.6 billion in 2017. Last year, the Trump administration approved $1.35 billion for the project over 10 years, funding that depends on annual approval by Congress, on top of $230 million the DOE had pumped into the project since 2013.

Georgia Power's progress on Plant Vogtle expansion moves forward with last major test of new nuclear reactor -  Georgia Power has begun the last phase of testing for the first of two new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle as the company works to meet a November deadline, the company announced Monday. The expansion project at Vogtle Electric Generating Plant near Waynesboro, Ga., has faced delays and unexpected costs for years. In 2020, pandemic complications and precautions decreased productivity at the site, ultimately setting back progress by three or four months and causing more than $150 million in extra expenses for The Southern Co. (NYSE: SO) subsidiary. Hot functional testing on Unit 3 is the last in a series of major tests required before the initial fuel load for the new nuclear reactor, which had originally been planned for April 2021. The company expects the testing will take six to eight weeks. Plant Vogtle received its first nuclear fuel shipment for the new reactor in December 2020. If Georgia Power does not have Unit 3 ready for commercial service by this November, the company will have to pay an estimated $25 million for each month that it is not operational. In March, Southern Co. said it was "likely" Georgia Power would miss that deadline. The in-service date for the second nuclear reactor, Unit 4, is November 2022. Georgia Power placed the last of the prefabricated modules that make up the structure of the nuclear reactors, setting a massive water tank on top of Unit 4, the company announced Monday. Installing this piece of the reactor’s passive cooling system is the final stage of construction on the Plant Vogtle expansion that requires major crane lifts. Construction on Unit 4 was more than 75% completeas of about two months ago, according to Southern Co. Chairman, President and CEO Tom Fanning’s comments during a Feb. 18 earnings call.

N.J. approves 3 more years of $300 million subsidies to keep its nuclear plants going - New Jersey’s utility regulator on Tuesday awarded the state’s three nuclear energy facilities $300 million per year for another three years under a program set up to keep the power plants from closing down.Critics of PSEG and Exelon say the energy companies have exaggerated the financial troubles facing their nuclear plants, but the companies and state officials say propping up the facilities is critical to meeting New Jersey’s clean energy goals and that, if they close, fossil fuel plants may rise up to fill the void.“Were these plants to close, we would lose the single largest source of the state’s overall clean energy power supply,” said Board of Public Utilities President Joe Fiordaliso, “and be forced to make up that supply with sources such as fossil fuels.”The subsidies will be funded through charges to all New Jersey electricity customers, and the board said in a press release that “collection of funds to pay for the credits the Board approved today will begin immediately.”The northern connection would be at the former Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in Lacey Twp; the southern connection would be at the former B.L. England plant in Upper Twp.In 2019 the board approved the first round of subsidies through the so-called Zero Emission Certificate program, awarding the $300 million annual subsidy to the three nuclear plants for three years in a controversial vote. PSEG and Exelon co-own Salem Units 1 and 2, while PSEG owns Hope Creek outright.At the time, the BPU’s five commissioners only had the ability to award the full $300 million per year or deny the applications in full. They were restricted from awarding a lower amount.This time, however, the board did have discretion to give the nuclear plants a less generous subsidy if they deemed it was sufficient to maintain the state’s “air quality and environmental objectives.”But several commissioners said during the board’s virtual meeting Tuesday morning that officials and board members at PSEG told them they would close the nuclear plants for anything less than the full $300 million subsidy.“Apparently the legislature’s call for data-based decision making, months of analysis by various consultants, and the preparation of voluminous reports by numerous parties were a meaningless exercise,” said Commissioner Bob Gordon. “Personally, I’m very disappointed by the level of intransigence in this exercise of market power.”

Gone Fission: Controversial nuke plant near NYC shuts down— Indian Point will permanently stop producing nuclear power Friday, capping a decades-long battle over a key source of electricity in the heart of New York City’s suburbs that opponents have called a threat to millions living in the densely packed region. The retirement of the Indian Point Energy Center along the Hudson River could increase New York’s short-term reliance on natural gas plants, despite the state’s goal of reducing carbon emissions. But Gov. Andrew Cuomo and others who fought for its shutdown argue any benefits from the plant are eclipsed by the nightmare prospect of a major nuclear accident or a terror strike 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of the city. “There are 20 million people living within 50 miles of Indian Point and there is no way to evacuate them in case of a radiological release. And the risk of that is quite real,” said Paul Gallay, president of the environmental group Riverkeeper. The actual shutdown will be straightforward: a control room operator for Indian Point’s Unit 3 will push a red button to shut down the reactor Friday night. It will complete a contentious closing of the plant’s two reactors years in the making. The Unit 2 reactor shut down exactly a year ago under a 2017 agreement among the Cuomo administration, Riverkeeper and the plant’s operator, Entergy Corp. Unit 3′s shutdown under the same agreement paves the way for a decommissioning that is projected to cost $2.3 billion and take at least 12 years. The tall twin domes visible from the river will eventually be demolished.

TVA completes refueling, power upgrade at Browns Ferry nuclear plant -The Tennessee Valley Authority has completed its biggest equipment upgrade in part of its oldest and biggest nuclear power plant.More than 500 extra TVA contractors and employees worked over the past seven weeks refueling and installing a major turbine upgrade at the Unit 2 reactor at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant near Athens, Alabama.The new equipment and related steam piping and bellows comprise the biggest turbine upgrade at Browns Ferry in its 48-year history and will help boost the electricity output from the unit by 7 megawatts, or enough to power to supply more than 4,000 additional homes.The additional power from the Unit 2 reactor at Browns Ferry will be gained through the improved efficiency offered by the new turbine. It comes just two years after TVA completed a four-year, $475 million power upgrade at all three of the Browns Ferry reactors which collectively added 465 megawatts of additional generating capacity at the three-reactor plant.Browns Ferry now has a total generating capacity of more than 3.4 gigawatts, making Browns Ferry the second biggest nuclear power plant in America behind only the Palo Verde nuclear plant in Arizona."This investment by TVA helps ensure Browns Ferry continues to provide safe, reliable, clean energy to our local power companies as we enter the region's summer peak season and beyond," Browns Ferry Site Vice President Matt Rasmussen said in a statement Monday. "The work completed during this outage demonstrates our team's high level of commitment to our mission of service and to the people living in the communities we serve."More than 18,000 work activities were completed during the outage, including major repairs to reactor components and the installation of 320 new fuel assemblies along with upgrades, modifications, repairs and testing of other plant equipment and routine maintenance of key safety systems.Browns Ferry Unit 2, which began operation in 1974, is one of seven nuclear reactors TVA operates. The initial 40-year license for Browns Ferry gained a 20-year extension until 2033 and TVA President Jeff Lyash said he hopes to get another 20-year extension for its oldest nuclear plant.TVA's seven nuclear reactors collectively generated more than 42% of TVA's electricity last year.M

Fukushima's radioactive water can't be completely cleaned - Japan has a problem. And it’s getting bigger by the day. The energy company Tepco no longer knows what to do with the water contaminated with radioactivity after the nuclear disaster in Fukushima ten years ago. More than 1.2 million tons of it are now stored at the damaged nuclear power plant. That’s enough to fill 500 Olympic-sized swimming pools. And since groundwater is still flowing into the damaged reactors, new water is added daily. The water pumped out of the reactors is highly radioactive. That’s because it has come into contact with reactor’s melted fuel elements. Dumping the water into the sea in this form would be irresponsible. That's why Tepco set up a system after the disaster to remove as much contamination from the water as possible. This is done in a multi-stage process. In a first step, the abundant cesium-137 and strontium-90 isotopes are filtered out of the water. These isotopes are particularly feared because their chemical similarity to potassium and calcium means they are easily absorbed by muscles or bones and can cause cancer. The water is then transferred to the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS). Here, semipermeable membranes and ion exchangers are used to reduce the concentration of 62 other radioactive isotopes. But tritium, a «superheavy» hydrogen isotope, cannot be filtered out this way. Removing it from the water would require a staggering effort, says nuclear engineer Horst-Michael Prasser, a researcher at ETH Zurich’sLaboratory of Nuclear Energy Systems. Tepco and the Japanese government say the tritium, and the vanishingly small amounts of other isotopes, pose no danger to the environment. Even if all the contaminated water were to be discharged into the sea in the space of a year, the additional exposure would represent an increase of one one-thousandth above the natural radiation levels in Japan. But the Japanese government's plan goes far beyond that. First of all, the water is to be painstakingly purified once again before it is dumped. This is because only 30 percent of the 1.2 million tons meet the government’s regulatory requirements right now. As Tepco admitted in 2018, the other 70 percent have isotope concentrations up to 100 times too high, despite filtration efforts. The reason for this is that in the first few years after the accident, large quantities of water were channeled through the ALPS system in a short time. As a result, too many isotopes slipped through the filters. In addition, there have been repeated problems with the filters in the past. Before dumping, the water will be diluted a hundredfold. This should reduce the activity of the tritium to 1500 becquerels per liter. This is one-fortieth of the concentration allowed by law, and one-seventh of what the WHO recommends as an upper limit for drinking water. On top of that, the water will be dumped over a period of 40 years. Simulations show the tritium concentration should drop below natural background radioactivity levels once it’s two kilometers from the intake point.

Chernobyl Is Encouraging Educational Tourism 35 Years After Nuclear Explosion -- On the night of April 26, 1986, reactor No. 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded and caught fire, sending radioactive material into the air just 65 miles north of the capital city of Kyiv. Despite the health risks of the explosion, Soviet leaders attempted to keep the accident quiet, according to the AP.  The explosion's radiation killed 31 plant workers and firemen in the immediate aftermath, and later killed thousands more due to radiation-related illnesses, such as cancer, The Guardian reported. Eventually, tens of thousands of residents were evacuated from the surrounding areas. "This is a place of tragedy and memory, but it is also a place where you can see how a person can overcome the consequences of a global catastrophe," said Bohdan Borukhovskyi, Ukraine's deputy environment minister, according to the AP. "We want a new narrative to appear — it was not a zone of exclusion, but a zone of development and revival." Ukrainian officials are hoping to classify Chernobyl as a UNESCO World Heritage site as part of the plan to transform Chernobyl's grim narrative. "We believe that putting Chernobyl on the UNESCO heritage list is a first and important step towards having this great place as a unique destination of interest for the whole of mankind," said Oleksandr Tkachenko, Ukraine culture minister, according to The Guardian. "The importance of the Chernobyl zone lays far beyond Ukraine's borders... It is not only about commemoration, but also history and people's rights," he added. Officials have taken initial steps toward making the site a monument in hopes of attracting more tourists and funding, the AP reported. Other initiatives include using part of Chernobyl's exclusion zone as a storage ground for the country's nuclear waste for the next 100 years. Currently, Ukraine transports its nuclear waste to Russia, so the new repository at Chernobyl will save the government up to $200 million a year, the AP reported. Ukrainian officials also hope to turn Chernobyl into a tourist attraction; visitors doubled in 2019 following the release of the critically acclaimed HBO mini-series about the disaster, Euronews reported. Although pandemic restrictions halted travel in 2020, officials hope the site will eventually earn more money for future restoration."Our tourism is unique; it is not a classic concept of tourism," said Borukhovskyi, according to Euronews. "This is an area of meditation and reflection, an area where you can see the impact of human error, but [where] you can also see the human heroism that corrects it."

The guards caring for Chernobyl’s abandoned dogs -It wasn't long after he arrived in the irradiated landscape of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone that Bogdan realised his new job came with some unexpected companions. From his first days as a checkpoint guard in Chernobyl, he has shared the place with a pack of dogs. Bogdan (not his real name) is now in his second year of working in the zone and has got to know the dogs well. Some have names, some don't. Some stay nearby, others remain detached – they come and go as they please. Bogdan and the other guards feed them, offer them shelter, and occasionally give them medical care. They bury them when they die. All the dogs are, in a sense, refugees of the 1986 disaster in which Reactor No. 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded. In the aftermath, tens of thousands of people were evacuated from the Ukrainian city of Pripyat. They were told to leave their pets behind. (Read more about the long-term toll of the Chernobyl disaster.) Soviet soldiers shot many of the abandoned animals in an effort to prevent the spread of contamination. But, undoubtedly, some of the animals hid and survived. Thirty-five years later, hundreds of stray dogs now roam the 2,600km (1,000 sq mile) Exclusion Zone put in place to restrict human traffic in and out of the area. Nobody knows which of the dogs are directly descended from stranded pets, and which may have wandered into the zone from elsewhere. But they are all dogs of the zone now. Their lives are perilous. They are at risk from radioactive contamination, wolf attacks, wildfires and starvation, among other threats. The dogs' average lifespan is just five years, according to the Clean Futures Fund, a non-governmental organisation that monitors and provides care for dogs living within the Exclusion Zone.)

The American Petroleum Institute gave nearly $1.5M to help block House Bill 6 nuclear bailout – A trade organization for the oil and gas industry helped bankroll dark money groups trying to block Ohio's $1 billion nuclear bailout, newly available tax records show.The American Petroleum Institute, a U.S. trade association for the oil and natural gas industry, gave nearly $1.5 million to two dark money groups that tried to stop House Bill from becoming law, according to the association's tax form published by Environment & Energy Publishing.In 2019, API gave $975,000 to Ohioans Against Nuke Bailouts and $500,000 to Ohioans Against Corporate Bailouts. Both groups are 501(c)(4) nonprofits, which are often called dark money groups because they do not need to disclose their donors.Together, the groups spent nearly $5 million in advertising to stop House Bill 6 from becoming law, according to Ohio-based Medium Buying, a GOP media placement agency.API publicly opposed House Bill 6, which tacked fees onto Ohioans' electric bills to subsidize two nuclear plants in northern Ohio then owned by FirstEnergy Solutions. The group testified against the nuclear bailout in committee and later conducted a poll to show how unpopular the bill was with voters.“The practical effect of HB 6 is to direct hundreds of millions of dollars to one company to the exclusion of its existing or potential competitors,” API lobbyist Todd Snitchler, who previously served in the House and as a state utility regulator, said at the time. “API believes that businesses ought to follow the rules they agreed to and not try to unwind them when challenges arise.”It's not surprising that API was donating to block the bill, too. However, the extent of the donations wasn't known until now.  “API opposed HB 6 because it was deeply flawed legislation, which amounted to nothing more than a bailout for Ohio nuclear plants and further subsidies for others at the expense of Ohio ratepayers," API Ohio Executive Director Chris Zeigler said in a statement. " API’s activities were conducted in full accord with state law."

Local woman testifies on environment - Martins Ferry Times Leader— Jill Hunkler of Barnesville testified before the U.S. House Subcommittee on the Environment on Thursday — Earth Day 2021 — opposing government subsidies to the natural gas and oil industry. Also speaking were representatives of Harvard University and Stockholm Environmental Institute’s Climate Policy Program, along with Swedish youth activist Greta Thunberg, who is known around the world for her efforts. Hunkler has long opposed the fossil fuel industry and hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” — a process that uses high-pressure water, sand and chemicals to fracture the bedrock and release gases trapped within it. On Thursday, she described her experience of living in Appalachia.“Continuing to subsidize the fossil fuel industry will not only perpetuate the climate crisis, but the plastics pollution, environmental justice and public health crises as well,” she said. “I’m a fracking refugee. I was forced from my home at the headwaters of the historically pristine Captina Creek watershed … after being surrounded by oil and gas infrastructure and its associated pollution, including a compressor station, 78 fracking wells, an interstate and gathering pipelines — all within a 5-mile radius of my home.”Hunkler said air pollution from the industry “hovers in the hollows” of the local region. She said people living in the hills have health issues as a result, and that residents must deal with unsafe roadways due to industry traffic, air and noise pollution and spring and well water contamination. She also referred to the 2018 well pad explosion near Powhatan Point and a 2017 brine truck spill outside Barnesville.“I never imagined that my quiet country and healthy way of life would disappear. The negative health impacts we experienced were too much to bear,” she said. “Belmont County is the most heavily fracked within the state, with over 595 producing wells.” Hunkler is also worried about fracking wastewater being transported via barges on the Ohio River and opposes the PTT Global Chemical America ethane cracker plant proposed for the Dillies Bottom area along the river and Ohio 7.“In the years since the fracking boom began, Belmont and other Eastern Ohio gas producing counties haven’t gained jobs,” she said. “In fact, we have lost more than 6,500 jobs according to the data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the region’s population has declined by more than 13,000 people according to research by the Ohio River Valley Institute.” In answer to a question from U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Michigan, Hunkler said she had experienced odors, headaches, body aches, rashes and mental confusion. She said little action from the state came in response to complaints.“Now the petrochemical industry wants to invade and create even more toxic air pollution. The industry will require even more fracking in our region to make feedstock for plastics. The regulatory agencies are already failing to protect communities from air pollution from fracking, and now they have granted air permits to the PTT Global Chemical ethane cracker plant,” she said, adding she fears the facility would emit tons of hazardous contaminants into the air if constructed. She also expressed concerns about the proposed Mountaineer Natural Gas Liquids storage facility planned near the Ohio River in Monroe County, which would develop salt caverns to store materials such as ethane in proximity to the Ohio River.

Tomechko v. Garrett - Ohio's Seventh District Holds Adverse Possession of Shallow Gas Covers All Gas - Tomechko involved a 60.24-acre tract in Beaver Township, Noble County, originally owned by Herbert Garrett and John Garrett as tenants in common.[2] Herbert died in 1965 and devised his interest to his wife, Mary. In 1977, Mary conveyed it to Coralee Garrett, the wife of John Garrett, but reserved “one-half interest all the minerals in and under” the property and other lands (hereinafter, the “1977 Reservation.”).[3] …[…]…The amended complaint asserted, inter alia, that the 1977 reservation of “all minerals” did not actually include oil and gas, and that the shallow gas production adversely possessed all the oil and gas on the tract.[12] With regard to the question of whether “all minerals” in the 1977 deed included oil and gas, the trial court relied uponSheba v. Kautz and held that, because oil and gas development was common by this point, “all minerals” included oil and gas.[13] As to adverse possession, the trial court held that, as to the shallow rights, adverse possession was established because the Tomechkos’ actual production met the exclusivity requirements.[14]However, because the deep rights were not produced, exclusivity was not established, and adverse possession was not established as to the deep oil and gas on the property.[15] On appeal, the Seventh District agreed with the trial court: the reservation of “all minerals” in the 1977 deed included oil and gas.[16] In short, oil and gas development was common by 1977 and because there was no language compelling otherwise, oil and gas was included. As to adverse possession, however, the Seventh District disagreed. Acknowledging that neither party cited any cases addressing the “vertical limits of an adverse possessor’s rights to minerals[,]” the Seventh District discussed Diederick v. Ware, 288 S.W.2d 643, (C.A. Ky. 1956). The Kentucky court held that two wells producing on a 56-acre parcel that met the requirements for adverse possession “modified the subterranean structure under the large tract of land and this constituted constructive possession of all of the minerals underlying the entire 56-acre estate.”[17] The Kentucky court said this was because of the “fugacious nature of oil and gas and how it alters property and the strata upon withdrawal of oil and gas by drilling.”[18] Finding the facts before it similar enough, the Seventh District drew the same conclusion: “The Court finds that appellee possesses the deep rights in this case based upon the adverse possession of the shallow rights, the permeating nature of the drilling and production of oil and gas, and the lease with Trans Atlantic which provided for drilling to all strata.”[19]

Utica Oil Production to Inch Forward in May, Gas Output to Decline - Oil production from the Marcellus and Utica-Point Pleasant shale plays is expected to increase slightly in May, while natural gas output is anticipated to decline, according to the latest report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.The EIA’s monthly survey of oil and gas drilling production in the country’s shale plays shows that oil production in Appalachia – considered eastern Ohio, western Pennsylvania and West Virginia – should increase by 1,000 barrels per day throughout May.The region encompasses the Utica-Point Pleasant and Marcellus shale ranges, rock formations that produce mostly dry and natural-gas liquids.According to the EIA, the region’s wells produced 127,000 barrels of oil per day in April. That number is projected to increase to 128,000 barrels in May.Natural gas production, however, is expected to continue to decline as warmer months set in across this part of the country.EIA reports that natural gas output should drop to 34.14 billion cubic feet per day in May, a decline of about 65 million cubic feet from April.That’s still less a drop from earlier this year, the EIA reports. In March, natural gas production was estimated to decline by 260 million cubic feet per day, while production was expected to be down by 118 million cubic feet per day in February.Of the seven major shale plays in the United States, just two – the Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico, and the Haynesville in Texas and Louisiana – are expected to increase natural gas production in May, according to EIA.In addition to Appalachia, only the Permian is expected to increase oil production in May, the EIA reported.Meanwhile, drilling activity in Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties remains quiet. This week, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources reported a single permit issued to Hilcorp Energy Co. to deepen its Elkrun-Baker 7H well in order to drill a new horizontal leg. Hilcorp continues to be the most active driller in the northern tier of the Utica-Point Pleasant formation

CNX Still Sees Utica Shale in Longer-Term Growth Plan - CNX Resources Corp. got a lift from stronger first quarter commodity prices as it continued executing on a broader seven-year plan it laid out in 2020. The company said free cash flow (FCF), up for the fifth consecutive quarter, came in at $101 million. It has also increased its full-year FCF guidance to $450 million from a previous target of $425 million. Between 2020 and 2026, the company is aiming to generate $3 billion in FCF.  The gains helped the company to cut net debt by $70 million and repurchase 1.5 million shares at a total cost of $18 million under an existing buyback program. COO Chad Griffith said the Appalachian pure-play producer also expects costs to continue coming down as unused firm transportation (FT) capacity comes off the balance sheet and interest expenses are reduced. He said $10 million of unused FT would roll off this year, along with a modest amount in 2022, and another $20 million from 2023-2025 as contractual obligations expire. CNX turned five Marcellus Shale wells to sales during the first quarter and plans to bring another 13 online in the coming weeks at an average cost of $650/lateral foot. That compares to deep Utica Shale well costs in southwest Pennsylvania of $1,420/lateral foot. Griffith said the company brought online two deep Utica wells during the quarter. CNX has only four additional Utica wells planned in southwestern Pennsylvania through 2026, It also plans about a pad every year in the Utica window of central Pennsylvania. However, Griffith said the company is “excited about the deep Utica’s potential as either a growth driver if gas prices improve, or as a continuation of our business plan years into the future,” as costs for the wells continue to decline.CNX produced 140.6 Bcfe in the first quarter, up from 134.4 Bcfe in the year-ago period.  The company said its average realized commodity prices during the first quarter, including hedges, were $2.73/Mcfe, up from $2.59 in the year-ago period. Revenue also increased over the same time to $473 million, compared with $416 million in the year-ago period.

CNX's chief excellence officer talks about the driller's big moves in ESG - CNX Resources Corp., one of the region’s largest natural gas producers, unveiled initiatives that will dramatically reduce methane emissions and prevent leakage into the air. CNX (NYSE: CNX) was the first in the Marcellus and Utica Shale to employ all-electric hydraulic fracturing machinery, which removed diesel emissions and saved money during the natural gas drilling and completions process. It recycles 98% of its produced fluids that eliminate water withdrawals and disposal, as well as using pipelines instead of trucks. It has reduced scope 1 and scope 2 tier emissions, two measures of emissions in the industry, over 90% since 2011. Now, said CNX Chief Excellence Officer Olayemi Akinkugbe, it’s moving ahead with plans to make even further gains: The team, along with commercially available technology, have developed a method to minimize methane leaks from blowdown and pneumatic devices that CNX says makes up about half of its emissions. Instead of using gas on this equipment to move things along, it’ll be using compressed air. Pipelines are cleaned and maintained via a process known as pigging that allows work to go on even while the pipeline is maintained. But the traditional process requires venting of a portion of the pipeline during the pigging process, which allows an amount of methane to escape into the air. Instead, CNX’s innovation is to capture the methane before it escapes into the air and put it back into the pipe. That’s good for the environment and good for CNX’s bottom line because methane is sellable natural gas. “We’ve designed a system that allows us to have zero emissions from pigging, and we’re building around that right now,” Akinkugbe said. “Our goal is to make it the standard operational protocol for the team, where emissions from pigging could be a thing of the past for CNX.” That’s a significant development, not only because of the emissions at the well pad, but also because CNX is virtually alone among the larger gas companies because it owns its own midstream pipeline and compression system that brings natural gas from the well pad to the transmission pipelines or processing plants. And innovation for that whole chain is very much key to the whole process, he said. 

Ohio Valley Natural Gas Counties Get Small Piece Of National Economic Pie - An analysis of natural gas production in the Ohio Valley finds that the biggest gas producing counties in the region suffered economically over the past decade compared to the rest of the country, although natural gas production was high. The report released Wednesday by the Ohio River Valley Institute, a nonprofit think tank, shows that 22 counties in Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania produced more than 90% of the region’s natural gas, but saw declines in their share of income, population, and jobs between 2008 and 2019. Personal income and job growth in those counties lagged far behind the national average, and population declined.The report includes Belmont, Carroll, Guernsey, Harrison, Jefferson, Monroe, and Noble Counties in Ohio. The West Virginia counties include Doddridge, Harrison, Marshal, Ohio, Ritchie, Tyler, and Wetzel. Eight Pennsylvania counties are also included. Over 10 years ago, studies from industry and supporters said that natural gas production would boost local economies by providing new jobs and revenue. But according to the report titled, “Appalachia’s Natural Gas Counties: Contributing more to the U.S. economy and getting less in return”, job growth in the 22 counties only increased by 1.7%. Nationally, job growth grew by 10%. “It’s quite evident that not only among the public but even among policy makers, people in a position to know, they really don’t,” O’Leary said. “They really do imagine that there are more jobs and more development going on out there than in fact is the case.”Economic output in the 22 counties increased by 60%but there was little input into local economies. Jobs decreased by 7.5%, population fell by 9.6 %, and personal income decreased by 6.3%. O’Leary said that while money is being invested in the counties to produce gas and gas is being sold to produce revenue, very little of that is landing in the 22 counties. “While the facilities are located in these counties, the people who build them, the material with which they are built, various professional services that are required to do all this, are for the most part acquired from outside of the region,” O’Leary explained.

Infrastructure funding could be 'opportunity of a lifetime' to plug thousands of abandoned oil and gas wells | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette -By some accounts, Pennsylvania has the worst accumulation of old, unplugged, ownerless oil and gas wells in the nation. There are an estimated 200,000 of them, and the cost to plug them could exceed $6 billion. The state’s orphan well plugging program has been underfunded for decades, but it is primed to take advantage of an influx of cash.Part of President Joe Biden’s $2.3 trillion proposal to upgrade the nation’s infrastructure would dedicate $16 billion to reclaiming abandoned wells and mines across the U.S.Cementing shut wells that were left behind during more than a century of drilling has emerged as a popular policy in the past year. It bridges environmental groups — who want to cap scattered hazards that leak brine, oil and methane, a powerful greenhouse gas — and oil and gas companies — who see it as a growth area for their business as drilling declines.It isn’t certain that every item in the Biden administration’s sweeping infrastructure proposal will end up in final legislation before Congress or that a broad infrastructure bill will pass.But “there appears to be bipartisan coast-to-coast support for stimulus for orphan well plugging and remediation,” said Adam Peltz, a senior attorney at the Environmental Defense Fund.“There’s good reason for optimism that it will occur at some point this year.”Pennsylvania environmental regulators and the state’s conventional oil and gas industry have spent years drawing attention to the dire need for more funding and studying ways to plug vastly more abandoned wells.The Department of Environmental Protection has lined up 500 priority and nearby wells that could be bid right away when stimulus funding arrives.The federal money, if it comes through, would be “the opportunity of a lifetime,” said Seth Pelepko, environmental program manager at the oil and gas bureau. “A lot of what we do right now is looking for sources of money, looking for partnerships,” he said. Instead, his six-person team could turn to executing a plugging program for the 8,700 verified wells on Pennsylvania’s abandoned wells list and identifying the several hundred thousand wells that are believed to be scattered around the state but not yet on the list. Bills introduced in the U.S. House and Senate in recent weeks would dedicate between $5 billion and $8 billion to plugging orphan wells, with the bulk of the funds dispersed to states through grants administered by the Department of the Interior. Both proposals include initial grants of up to $25 million to states with established well cleanup programs, like Pennsylvania, that can quickly sign contracts to use a surge of funding within months. Even a fraction of the proposed cash would be more money than Pennsylvania’s well plugging program has ever seen.

Third producer makes move toward responsibly sourced natural gas - Another Appalachian natural gas producer will seek environmentally friendly natural gas certification from the two accreditors that EQT Corp. announced a partnership with earlier this month, the third move by a Marcellus and Utica shale producer to commit to methane-reduction standards. Northeast Natural Energy, which has about 100 wells and 115 billion cubic feet of natural gas production along the Pennsylvania border in West Virginia in and around Morgantown, announced early Thursday that it would work toward MiQ and Equitable Origin certification. Those are the same two organizations that struck a deal for certification of methane emissions standards with EQT (NYSE: EQT), the nation’s largest independent natural gas producer. This MiQ/Equitable Origins announcement marks another milestone in the certification of what is being called responsibly sourced natural gas. EQT was the first deal the two organizations made in North America. Thursday’s announcement with Northeast Natural Energy is the first private equity-owned company to reach a deal with MiQ and Equitable Origin. “Our team has always focused on operating with the highest environmental standards in the industry, and we have been exploring new technologies and certifications for several months,” said Northeast Natural Energy CEO Mike John in a statement. It will be using a technology from Baker Hughes subsidiary Avitas, Lumen Terrain, to reach the standards by the fourth quarter of 2021. Equitable Origins is a nonprofit that has started the EO100 Standard for Responsible Energy Development, which provides certification that natural gas producers are focusing on methane reduction and other ESG measures. MiQ, which is a nonprofit venture of the Rocky Mountain Institute and SystemIQ, has a grading program for methane intensity and sets a goal to continue to remove it from natural gas operations. Methane, which is the sellable component of natural gas, is also a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. There’s wide agreement that methane leaks have to be removed, and natural gas producers are seeing the certification not only as a way to meet environmental standards, but also as a potential premium market that is currently a price-sensitive commodity. “Methane abatement in the oil and gas sector is an urgent and vital action in the fight against climate change,” said Georges Tijbosch, senior adviser at MiQ. “The commitment made by NNE and others to diligently monitor and abate methane, which has 84 times the global warming potential of CO2, is a big step in the right direction.”>

Pipeline Developer Takes on New Jersey in Supreme Court Fight --The U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments Wednesday in a case pitting states’ rights advocates against energy companies. New Jersey and backers of the $1 billion PennEast natural gas pipeline face off over developers’ effort to seize state land along the project’s route. It’s the latest in a series of pipeline cases to reach the Supreme Court in the past year, an outgrowth of sweeping litigation surrounding a nationwide expansion of oil and gas infrastructure over the past decade. The justices heard an Atlantic Coast pipeline case a year ago, and fielded a flurry of filings involving Keystone XL last summer. Kirkland & Ellis LLP’s Paul Clement, a former solicitor general and powerhouse Supreme Court advocate who successfully argued the Atlantic Coast case, represents PennEast. The Biden administration is maintaining Trump-era support for PennEast’s arguments, a decision that disappointed many pipeline opponents. Some justices might find it challenging to weigh New Jersey’s asserted state property rights against pipeline lawyers’ claims of broad industry impacts in the case, University of Minnesota energy law professor Alexandra Klass said. “It tees up that issue directly in a way that some of these other cases have not,” she said. “Here is a situation where you have a state who is opposed to this particular pipeline and has actual land, saying a private party can’t use delegated eminent domain authority to take state land.” Backed by Enbridge Inc., Southern Co., and other companies, PennEast would stretch 116 miles across Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Construction hasn’t started, and PennEast faces other permitting and legal hurdles even if it prevails at the Supreme Court. The dispute centers on PennEast’s attempt to use eminent domain authority delegated under the Natural Gas Act to take state-owned lands and conservation easements along the pipeline’s proposed route in New Jersey. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit blocked the effort in 2019, ruling that New Jersey’s sovereign immunity bars a private company from bringing land condemnation proceedings against it. The Supreme Court agreed to review the case after PennEast and its allies across the oil and gas industry argued that the decision would disrupt pipeline development by giving states “veto authority” over federally approved projects. “The scope of that veto is nearly boundless given the extent of state property holdings,” PennEast said in its final brief this month, noting that states generally hold title to streambeds and other land. PennEast spokeswoman Patricia Kornick points to broad support the company has received from industry and labor groups, along with both the Trump and Biden administrations.

U.S. Supreme Court tackles pipeline company's bid to seize New Jersey land (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday wrestled with a bid by a group of energy companies seeking to seize land owned by New Jersey to build a $1 billion natural gas pipeline, as the state argues that its rights would be trampled. The justices heard arguments in an appeal by PennEast Pipeline Company LLC, a joint venture backed by energy companies including Enbridge Inc, of a lower court ruling in favor of New Jersey's government, which opposes the land seizure. Other companies in the consortium for the 116-mile (187-km) pipeline from Pennsylvania to New Jersey include South Jersey Industries Inc, New Jersey Resources Corp (NJR), Southern Co and UGI Corp. At issue in the case is a 1938 U.S. law called the Natural Gas Act that lets private energy companies seize "necessary" parcels of land for a project if they have obtained a certificate from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). It effectively gives private companies the power of eminent domain, in which government entities can take property in return for compensation. A ruling in favor of New Jersey would weaken the Natural Gas Act by allowing states to object to any attempts to seize their land. Although some justices appeared sympathetic to the state's legal arguments, they also seemed cautious about issuing a ruling that would overturn the longstanding understanding of the law and potentially imperil the PennEast project and others like it. Chief Justice John Roberts said that it is "quite extraordinary" that private entities have the power normally vested in the federal government to go to court to seize a state's land. But Roberts also noted that New Jersey opposes the project, meaning that if it does win the case there would be a "significant practical problem."

Appeals court rejects environmentalists’ call to halt Pinelands pipeline - A state Appellate Court on Thursday rejected an appeal by two environmental groups to halt construction of a natural-gas pipeline in South Jersey, saying there’s no evidence that the nearly complete project will hurt groundwater quality, damage endangered species or conflict with the principles that govern management of Pinelands preserve.The court dismissed arguments by the New Jersey Sierra Club and the Pinelands Preservation Alliance that the Pinelands Commission, which manages the region, was wrong in 2017 to approve the Southern Reliability Link — a 30-mile New Jersey Natural Gas pipeline that runs east from Chesterfield to near Lakehurst.The court upheld the commission’s arguments that the pipeline would not conflict with the Comprehensive Management Plan, a document that governs land use, development and natural resources protection in the Pinelands, rejecting claims by the environmentalists.A three-judge panel also supported the commission’s conclusions that there was no alternative route for the pipeline through the Pinelands; that building the pipeline through about 10 miles of the Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst would be consistent with the base’s functions; and that the pipeline would not damage forested wetlands.And it accepted the commission’s finding that the pipeline poses no threat to the sickle-leaved golden aster, a rare plant, if construction avoided horizontal directional drilling, and used conventional bore drilling instead. “After considering all of NJNG’s submissions, including surveys, maps, and changes to the planned construction, the commission’s staff concluded, ‘that the proposed-natural gas pipeline will be constructed almost entirely within existing rights-of-way and roads, the proposed project will not result in irreversible adverse impact on the survival of the local population of this  species,’” the court wrote, in a 39-page opinion.

Leaky collection pipe causes small crude oil leak on West Branch— The state Department of Environmental Conservation responded Monday night to a crude oil spill on a lease along West Branch Road in the town of Allegany. An undetermined amount of crude oil leaked from a rusty 3-inch collection line onto the ground. The smell of crude oil filled the air around the spill on Wednesday. DEC staff and the operator of the lease, who was not identified by DEC staff, worked into the night to stop the flow of oil through a leaking pipe and keep more oil out of the nearby stream. A member of the DEC Oil Spill Response Team was at the scene on Wednesday. The DEC planned to cover the area of the spill in tarps before rain forecast for Wednesday afternoon arrived. The operator has volunteered to clean up the oil spill, according to state Environmental Conservation Police.

Compressor station coming back online after April 6 shutdown— The energy company that owns the natural gas compressor station on the banks of the Fore River plans to start the facility back up, several weeks after the third unplanned gas release at the site since September. Enbridge, the Canadian-based energy company that built the compressor station, notified the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection this week that it may vent gas from the facility between April 29 and May 5 while it brings it back into service. Enbridge spokesman Max Bergeron said in an email that the process will take a few days and involve " controlled venting of natural gas through a stack specifically designed" for venting. "We are planning to use advanced specialized equipment to minimize the volume of natural gas vented into the atmosphere," he said. "In order to ensure awareness, we have notified state and local officials of these activities. We are proceeding with public health and safety as our priority." The compressor station is part of Enbridge’s Atlantic Bridge project, which expands the company’s natural gas pipelines from New Jersey into Canada. Since the station was proposed in 2015, residents have argued it presents serious health and safety risks. On April 6, the compressor unit had an issue and shut off to prevent equipment damage, Bergeron said. The facility then vented natural gas, which Enbridge was required to report to MassDEP. Bergeron said Enbridge has revolved the issue.

Appalachian Natural Gas, Coal Produce Most Methane in U.S., Kayrros Says --New measurements released last week by Kayrros quantifying emissions across the Appalachian Basin show the region is the biggest source of methane in the United States. emissions by basin Kayrros, which uses satellites and other methods to track emissions, said methane from Appalachia exceeds even the country’s most active oil and gas fields in the Permian Basin. But Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky are home to prolific natural gas and coal production. Methane emissions from the resources combine to outweigh those from other extraction states. Kayrros said recent data show emissions from fossil fuel production in the Appalachian Basin hit 3 million tons (Mt) in 2019 and 2.4 Mt in 2020. Excluding emissions from coal mines, emissions from natural gas produced largely from the Marcellus, Utica and Upper Devonian shales declined from 1.9 Mt in 2019 to 1.4 Mt in 2020. Methane from oil and natural gas production in the Permian declined from 2.7 Mt to 2.0 Mt over the same time. Across both basins, Kayrros said emissions fell by 20% in Appalachia and by 26% in the Permian last year, “largely due to the impact of the Covid pandemic on energy demand.” The company added that the “variation in the percentage decreases can be traced to the differing energy mixes within each basin.” Oil and gas representatives in Appalachia were quick to point out that Kayrros’ measurements also include coal emissions. The company, which monitors and measures energy and natural resource activity worldwide for customers analyzing industrial and environmental performance, did not release specifics on its data. Another analysis released last week by Rystad Energy found that operators in Appalachia had the lowest carbon dioxide emissions intensity of any onshore fields across the country. Rystad found that Scope 1 emissions, or those directly controlled by producers, were 7.1 kilograms per boe in 2020. “Such a level of CO2 intensity performance brings Appalachia to the top quartile among all oil and gas fields globally,” said Rystad analyst Emily McClain. “As the basin becomes more mature and modern, and environmental, social and governance best practices are implemented, we anticipate Appalachia to improve further in its CO2 intensity dimension in the next three to four years.” Methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Operators across the basin are working to better monitor and curb their emissions by transitioning to all electric hydraulic fracturing fleets and implementing special measures.

60+ Groups Urge Biden Administration to Suspend Mountain Valley Pipeline Permits — More than 60 conservation and environmental groups are calling on top Biden officials to suspend permits and approvals by the previous Trump administration for the controversial Mountain Valley Pipeline, contending it poses a grave threat to clean water, local communities, the environment, and the climate. If the administration follows the groups’ recommendations, it could result in blocking construction of the pipeline.“MVP’s construction impacts to date have already caused irreparable harm to landscapes and clean water — West Virginia and Virginia have assessed MVP more than $2 million in penalties for more than 350 environmental violations, mostly related to improper erosion control and stormwater management, and there are allegations of even more,” the groups write in a letter sent this week. “Yet there is much more high-risk construction still planned.“All this devastation is completely unnecessary,” they further write. “MVP is one of the last mega-gas pipelines promoted as part of the shale gas boom in our nation — a remnant of a dirty and destructive fossil fuel history that should be left in the past. There has never been any genuine documented need for this pipeline.”The groups urge Biden officials take “aggressive action” to implement an executive order President Biden signed on his first day in office to protect public health and the environment, restore science and tackle climate change. Because the Mountain Valley Pipeline project is inconsistent with the order’s goals, the groups argue, an environmental impact statement and other environmental approvals by the previous administration should be reversed and a pending application for a clean water permit should be closely reviewed.The groups note that the project still has to construct several hundred waterbody crossings; 74 percent of its proposed route would pass through more than 225 miles of high landslide risk terrain. That raises concern of more environmental damage.In addition, if completed and operated, the Mountain Valley Pipeline would add nearly 90 million metric tons of carbon pollution per year to the atmosphere — equivalent to the emissions from 23 U.S. coal plants, or more than 19 million passenger vehicles driven every year.

Living with natural gas pipelines: Appalachian landowners describe fear, anxiety and loss - More than 2 million miles of natural gas pipelines run throughout the United States. In Appalachia, they spread like spaghetti across the region.  Many of these lines were built in just the past five years to carry natural gas from the Marcellus Shale region of Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, where hydraulic fracturing has boomed. West Virginia alone has seen a fourfold increase in natural gas production in the past decade. Such fast growth has also brought hundreds of safety and environmental violations, particularly under the Trump administration’s reduced oversight and streamlined approvals for pipeline projects. While energy companies promise economic benefits for depressed regions, pipeline projects are upending the lives of people in their paths. The region has a long and complicated history with extractive industries, including coal and hydraulic fracturing. However, it’s rare to hear firsthand accounts of the long-term effects of industrial infrastructure development in rural communities, especially when it comes to pipelines, since they are the result of more recent energy-sector growth.  For all of the people we talked to, the process of pipeline development was drawn out and often confusing.  Some reported never hearing about a planned pipeline until a “land man” – a gas company representative – knocked on their door offering to buy a slice of their property; others said that they found out through newspaper articles or posts on social media. Every person we spoke with agreed that the burden ultimately fell on them to find out what was happening in their communities. One woman in West Virginia said that after finding out about plans for a pipeline feeding a petrochemical complex several miles from her home, she started doing her own research. “I thought to myself, how did this happen? We didn’t know anything about it,” she said. “It’s not fair. None of this is fair. … We are stuck with a polluting company.”  If residents do not want pipelines on their land, they can pursue legal action against the energy company rather than taking a settlement. However, this can result in the use of eminent domain. Through this process, residents can be forced to accept a sum that doesn’t take into consideration all effects of pipeline construction on their land, such as the damage heavy equipment will do to surrounding land and access roads. One woman, the primary caretaker of land her family has farmed for 80 years, found herself facing significant legal fees after a dispute with a gas company. “We were the first and last ones to fight them, and then people saw what was going to happen to them, and they just didn’t have – it cost us money to get lawyers. Lawyers ate us up,” she said. The pipeline now runs through what were once hayfields. “We haven’t had any income off that hay since they took it out in 2016,” she said. “It’s nothing but a weed patch.”

Groups ask Virginia environmental officials to reopen Chickahominy Power permit - Three groups are asking Virginia to reopen an air permit issued to Chickahominy Power in 2019 for a proposed natural gas plant in Charles City County, contending that the state’s analysis of the facility’s environmental justice impacts “contains many of the same defects” of a state air permit struck down by a federal court in January 2020. “The similarities are just so shocking,” said Taylor Lilley, an attorney with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, which penned the letter along with the Southern Environmental Law Center and Concerned Citizens of Charles City County. “It seems the process was just repeated. And that process was found to be faulty.” While the March 22 letter asked the State Air Pollution Control Board to reopen the permit, Chair Roy Hoagland said at meeting earlier this month that the board “does not have the authority to decide to reopen a permit.” Instead, he said, that authority lies with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. The two environmental groups and the Concerned Citizens argue that three “defects” plague the permit drafted by DEQ and approved by the air board in June 2019. First, they say, DEQ relied on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s EJSCREEN tool to determine that the communities surrounding the proposed facility did not have a greater proportion of minorities or low-income residents than Charles City as a whole despite “conflicting evidence in the record.” Second, they contend the agency “rested its environmental justice analysis” solely on compliance with federal and state air quality standards “without evaluating the risks to specific nearby communities.” And third, they say DEQ deferred to a local zoning approval “instead of independently determining whether the proposed location was suitable.” All three of these approaches were challenged in Friends of Buckingham v. State Air Pollution Control Board. In that case the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals eventually struck down an air permit from DEQ and the Air Pollution Control Board that allowed the Atlantic Coast Pipeline to build a natural gas compressor station in the majority-Black Union Hill community in Buckingham County. In its ruling, the 4th Circuit noted that the state had “erred” by failing “to make any findings regarding the character of the local population at Union Hill, in the face of conflicting evidence” and “to individually consider the potential degree of injury to the local population independent of (National Ambient Air Quality Standards) and state emission standards.”

As it takes up another contentious permit, air board wrestles with public engagement - Just months after an eight-hour meeting to consider a controversial air permit for the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, the Virginia State Air Pollution Control Board is readying itself for another marathon session to consider granting an air permit to a compressor station that would be built in Chatham as part of a planned offshoot of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. “This permit may have received as many as 400 comments,” Chair Roy Hoagland told the board at its April 23 meeting. “So take a guess: If you have 50 percent of them, that’s 200 people who would have an opportunity to speak up to three minutes apiece.” Consideration of the so-called Lambert compressor station comes as the air board, smarting from a federal judicial rebuke over its issuance of a permit to the now-canceled Atlantic Coast Pipeline’s Union Hill compressor station, has been working to revamp how it approaches public engagement. In the wake of yet another charged permit decision in June 2019, one related to the proposed Chickahominy Power Station in Charles City County, the board convened an ad hoc Committee on Public Engagement. “The same old, same old we know doesn’t work,” Hoagland told the Mercury over the summer. “Same old, same old may be legal, but it’s not sufficient.” Now, the committee’s work may face its first big test as the Lambert compressor station permit is scheduled to come before the citizen body this June. Officials expect the meeting where the board will render its decision of whether or not to grant the project an air permit to be heated. Mountain Valley Pipeline has been contested by environmental groups and local landowners alike since its inception.  Opponents say the 303-mile natural gas pipeline through Southwest Virginia is not only unnecessary as the state and nation move away from fossil fuels but environmentally destructive. Erosion and sedimentation problems have plagued the pipeline’s construction, leading Virginia to eventually collect $2.15 million in fines from developers. And courts have repeatedly stripped the pipeline of necessary permits, citing inadequacies in agency approvals.

Pipeline Run; MVP Opponents Continue the Protests - People who oppose the Mountain Valley Natural Gas Pipeline project are continuing the fight to stop it. This week, three women set out on a relay run through parts of Virginia and West Virginia.  They’re protesting the project with their feet, with a goal to highlight the sensitivity of potential water crossings along the pipeline’s route.It’s really hard to put into words all of the experiences we’ve had so far. We’ve been overwhelmed by the incredible community of folks who have come to our side to help us on this journey. I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to meet locals who have been fighting this pipeline from the very beginning. Hearing their stores and learning about their struggles, say Sarah HodderGrace Tuttle is with the group POWHR, which stands for, ‘protect our water, heritage rights.’ She says the run is to remind people, the pipeline is still not a done deal and that this is also a fund raiser for communities along the route, affected by the construction project.“The runners blew by their $6,000 fundraising goal before even hitting the pavement. And they've thus set a new goal of $10,000 and their first day of running, they encountered roads that were no longer in use and other challenging navigation issues, but it was nothing they were not equipped for what their bravery and some local expertise they were back on the road and continuing with their mission.”  Mercedes Walters, Sarah Hodder, and Katie Thompson began running and cycling April 25th along sections of the Mountain Valley pipeline construction path.  You can follow the run’s progress at mvpprotestrun.org

Group protests expanding pipeline into NC. Critics say it will dig up burial grounds — A group of activists in Charlotte gathered in Marshall Park on Thursday in protest of extending the Mountain Valley Pipeline from Virginia into North Carolina.  “We’re just kind of tired of being pushed aside,” said Crystal Cavalier-Keck, founder of the indigenous advocacy organization 7 Directions of Service.The proposed extension of the Mountain Valley Pipeline would run 40 miles into North Carolina from Virginia."It's going through Rockingham County, North Carolina and ending in Alamance County North Carolina,” Cavalier-Keck said. The project would allow for more natural gas transportation for energy companies, but Cavalier-Keck said it would dig up sacred burial grounds."These are the bones of our ancestors that are being disturbed, that are being dug up,” Cavalier-Keck said.Cavalier-Keck believes it could also contaminate bodies of water in the state."We know these pipelines corrode over time, these things will leak into the rivers and then you know, after like years people start developing these weird cancers and it's because we have all these environmental degradations that are happening,” Cavalier-Keck said.Corine Mack, president of the Charlotte NAACP, led the protest against the pipeline at Marshall Park on Thursday."We must believe in people over money and profit,” Mack said.Activist Freeda Cathcart came all the way from Virginia to speak."The North Carolina state government needs to do everything you can to fight to protect the water, to fight to protect the families,” Cathcart said.

N.C. regulators again reject proposed Mountain Valley extension - For the second time, environmental regulators in North Carolina have rejected a proposed extension of the Mountain Valley Pipeline into their state. The decision Thursday by the Department of Environmental Quality came less than two months after a federal appeals court sent the case back for additional review, ruling that the department had not adequately explained its reasons for denying a water quality certification for the controversial project. The North Carolina DEQ initially turned down the request for a 75-mile extension of the pipeline, called MVP Southgate, in large part because of uncertainties that remain with the main project, a 303-mile natural gas pipeline under construction from northern West Virginia to Pittsylvania County. Should the main project fail, its extension “would be a pipeline from nowhere to nowhere, incapable of carrying any natural gas,” Daniel Smith, director of the department’s division of water resources, wrote in a letter Thursday that reissued the earlier denial. The letter addressed questions raised by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals about why the state had denied approval outright, rather than issuing a conditional certification based on Mountain Valley regaining all of its permits that were earlier suspended for environmental reasons. Mountain Valley’s next move was unclear Thursday. The joint venture of five energy companies building the main pipeline has previously run into trouble with stream crossings, leading it to change methods of water body crossings that will require different approvals.

North Carolina once again rejects Mountain Valley Pipeline extension -- North Carolina environmental regulators have once again denied a request by the Mountain Valley Pipeline and Equitrans Midstream Corp. for a water quality permit for a proposed pipeline extension called MVP Southgate. The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality Division of Water Resources denied an appeal by MVP that followed a ruling by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals that said that the state had authority on impact to streams, lakes and wetlands by the pipeline but also had to clarify why the DEQ denied the permit instead of providing a conditional certification. “DWR (Division of Water Resources) concludes that a conditional approval in these circumstances does not provide the reasonable assurance of compliance with water quality requirements,” the DEQ said in a statement late Thursday. MVP Southgate is an extension planned for the Mountain Valley Pipeline that would bring Marcellus and Utica Shale gas from southwestern Pennsylvania and West Virginia through West Virginia and Virginia and then, with the extension, to North Carolina. MVP itself hasn’t been completed, as it has been mired in regulatory and legal challenges, but it’s expected to be on line by late this year or early next year. But it’s still under a Federal Energy Regulatory Agency stop-work order. In the denial letter issued Thursday, DWR Director S. Daniel Smith noted the concerns over the status of the main MVP. "Mere issuance of federal permits does not provide sufficient assurance that the Mainline Project will in fact move forward and, consequently, that impacts from the Southgate Project will not be unnecessary and avoidable," Smith wrote. He said that DEQ won't issue the 401 Water Quality Certification and another authorization on a buffer for Jordan Lake, until they get more information. Mountain Valley Pipeline and Equitrans expressed disappointment with the ruling. "The MVP Southgate project met every North Carolina water quality standard required for state approval, and we strongly disagree with the NCDEQ's decision to deny," said spokesman Shawn Day. "A conditional approval, as the state's hearing officer recommended, would have satisfied the NCDEQ's concerns about the separate Mountain Valley Pipeline project while recognizing the significant collaborative work by the project team and the NCDEQ staff over the past two years to protect natural resources while meeting North Carolinians' demand for natural gas."

Clean-up continues from massive gas spill in Huntersville — Signs of life are returning to Oehler Nature preserve in Huntersville, eight months after the Colonial Pipeline cracked, causing the largest gas leak of its kind in decades. The spot where the massive excavation of the pipe tore through the earth is now beginning to grow grass. But dozens of work trucks exposes pipes and massive frac tanks show the work to clean up the spill is far from complete. New estimates suggest the leak was much larger than initially anticipated. New data from imaging below the surface reveal the leak was at least 1.2 million gallons of petroleum, according to the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality. On-site Thursday, Angie Kolar, vice president of operational services for Colonial Pipeline, said the impact was greater and deeper than they initially thought. “We’re continuing to use the science and the data to learn more and more information about the site as we proceed,” Kolar said. “We continue to revise our estimate based on the best available data at the time.” For the latest breaking news, weather and traffic alerts, download the WCNC Charlotte mobile app. Colonial Pipeline has installed a network of 241 wells for monitoring and recovery of the product. Kolar said the company remains hopeful that the existing network in place will be sufficient to reach the new depths of the leak. The new discovery is in the same general vicinity as the original, Kolar said. “We may need to tweak it or to install additional wells to capture it, we don’t know that yet,” she said. Meanwhile, the wells continue pumping petroleum from the leak at a rate of 3-5,000 gallons per day, Kolar said. Large blue frac tanks then transport the recovered product off-site. There are air quality monitors lining the property. Scientists are also testing to ensure the safety of drinking well water that supplies the residents. To date the company has performed more than 600 tests on 22 wells, Kolar said. Thus far, they have not discovered any spillage in the water, she said.

Lower 48 Production Down on Maintenance as Natural Gas Futures Press Higher Early --Estimates showing a day/day drop in production helped natural gas futures extend their recent gains in early trading Tuesday. After picking up 6.0 cents in the previous session, the May Nymex contract was up 3.0 cents to $2.820/MMBtu at around 8:45 a.m. ET.The latest daily production estimate from Wood Mackenzie Tuesday showed a 2.4 Bcf/d day/day decline in Lower 48 supply, with output dropping to 89.1 Bcf/d from 91.5 Bcf/d as of Monday. “The largest impacts are concentrated in the Northeast, where there is planned pipeline maintenance as well as what appears to be unannounced operator field maintenance,” Wood Mackenzie analysts Nicole McMurrer and Laura Munder wrote in a note to clients. Flows in Northeast Pennsylvania were down 0.6 Bcf/d early Tuesday, according to the firm’s estimates. This coincides with planned maintenance on the Millennium Pipeline, the analysts said. McMurrer and Munder also pointed to maintenance events on the Nexus Gas Transmission and Rockies Express pipelines that were expected to restrict flows on Tuesday in Ohio. Meanwhile, weather models overnight continued to show colder trends for late this week over the Great Lakes and Northeast, according to NatGasWeather.

Natural Gas Futures Prices Start Week on Solid Footing as Exports Still Strong --Natural gas futures struggled to gain traction early Monday, but continuously strong export demand eventually pushed prices into the green. With options and the May Nymex contract’s expiration looming, the prompt month settled at $2.790, up 6.0 cents from Friday’s close. The June contract picked up 5.6 cents to land at $2.874. storage snapshot Spot gas prices were mixed as the East and West coasts put up notable gains, while the rest of the country softened. NGI’s Spot Gas National Avg. climbed 3.5 cents to $2.605. After last week’s late-season cold snap provided the futures market with a final blast of heating demand and boosted prices, weather models reflected a “quite bearish” pattern for most days through mid-May, according to NatGasWeather. Forecasts showed daytime temperatures mostly in the 60s to 80s across the United States, with only spotty areas of chilly overnight lows. However, export demand has continued to be robust, helping to stave off any significant declines for Nymex futures. Liquefied natural gas (LNG) feed gas came in not far below record highs over the weekend and on Monday, near 11.5 Bcf, according to NGI data. The strong LNG export demand has repeatedly aided in the resilience of Nymex futures. Further strength is likely in the coming months as more of the super-chilled fuel is needed to replenish storage inventories overseas, according to analysts. European stocks, for example, finished the traditional withdrawal season about 11% below the five-year average, but late-season cold expanded the deficit to about 23%.

U.S. natgas hit 9-week high on record exports and lower output   (Reuters) - U.S. natural gas futures rose 3% to a nine-week high on Tuesday, buoyed by record exports and declining production, despite forecasts for milder weather and lower heating demand over the next two weeks. Traders also noted that colder than usual April weather last week boosted heating by so much that utilities may have taken the unusual step of pulling gas from storage. The last time utilities pulled gas from storage in April was in 2018. With summer fast approaching, meteorologists forecast demand for air conditioning would exceed heating use over the next two weeks for the first time since last autumn. Most parts of the country, however, will use little air conditioning or heat during that time. On its second to last day as the front-month, gas futures NGc1 for May delivery rose 8.3 cents, or 3.0%, to settle at $2.873 per million British thermal units, highest close since Feb. 23. That increase pushed the front-month into overbought territory with a Relative Strength Index (RSI) over 70 for a second day in a row for the second time this month. The contract was also in overbought territory for two days last week. Data provider Refinitiv said gas output in the Lower 48 U.S. states has averaged 91.3 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) so far in April, down from 91.5 bcfd in March. That compares with a record monthly high of 95.4 bcfd in November 2019. Refinitiv projected average gas demand, including exports, would slide from 89.9 bcfd this week to 86.7 bcfd next week as the weather turns milder. Those forecasts were lower than Refinitiv projected on Monday. The amount of gas flowing to U.S. LNG export plants has averaged 11.5 bcfd so far in April, compared with a monthly record of 11.2 bcfd in March.

US gas storage injection measures well below average as East region withdraws: EIA | S&P Global Platts -US natural gas storage fields injected well below the five-year average for the week ended April 23 as cooler weather prompted a net withdrawal from the East region, Energy Information Administration data showed April 29. Storage inventories increased 15 Bcf to 1.898 Tcf for the week-ended April 23, EIA data showed. The build was more than the 9 Bcf addition expected by an S&P Global Platts survey of analysts, but measured well below the five-year average build of 67 Bcf, according to EIA data. Storage volumes now stand 302 Bcf, or 13.87%, less than the year-ago level of 2.200 Tcf and 40 Bcf, or 2.1%, less than the five-year average of 1.938 Tcf. The Midwest and Northeast drove a large share of the demand gains and on certain days inventories flipped to a net withdrawal, according to S&P Global Platts Analytics. As a result, inventories in the East region posted a 6 Bcf withdrawal compared to the five-year average build of 17 Bcf for the corresponding week. The NYMEX Henry Hub June contract fell 7 cents to $2.89/MMBtu in trading following the release of the weekly storage report. The prompt-month contract has still managed to gain more than 20 cents over the past two weeks. In its first day holding prompt-month position, the June Henry Hub NYMEX contract saw heavy selling pressure the morning of April 29 along with the rest of the balance-of-2021 strip as a slightly larger-than-expected storage injection last week likely cast a light on possibly over-bought conditions in the near-term futures market. June through August all traded lower by about 7 cents the morning of April 29 following the EIA report, while September through December followed closely behind, dropping 6 cents. Downward pressure has even extended out through 2022, with the entire calendar year next year falling by 2 cents in a collective, albeit slight, downward price correction after several weeks of heating up. Platts Analytics supply and demand model currently forecasts a 45 Bcf injection for the week ending April 30, which would measure nearly 40 Bcf less than the five-year average, further growing the storage deficit. Total demand this week is down by 6.1 Bcf/d to an average 89.6 Bcf/d, with a massive drop in residenial-commercial and industrial demand partly offset by a 1.6 Bcf/d uptick in power burn demand. Upstream, production is once again showing signs of life, with onshore receipts rising by 500 MMcf/d and offshore lending another 100 MMcf/d to the mix. Notably, the sharp increase in net Canadian imports seen during the reference week has gone essentially unchanged, leaving supply in a far more robust position than it was the previous week during a time of falling demand.

Natural Gas Futures Prices Slide After EIA Storage Data Falls Short of Expectations -- After a three-day run, natural gas futures screeched to a halt Thursday after the latest round of storage data showed inventories grew more than expected. On the first day in the prompt position, the June Nymex futures contract settled at $2.911/MMBtu, off 4.9 cents day/day. July fell 5.0 cents to 2.961. Spot gas prices also retreated across most of the country. NGI’s Spot Gas National Avg. dropped 9.5 cents to $2.680. The mild weather pattern on tap for the next couple of weeks has done little to aid in the recent price rally along the Nymex curve. However, traders looking to the latest storage data for justification of the rise in prices — or for a reason to pull back — were not disappointed. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) said Thursday inventories during the week ending April 23 rose by 15 Bcf, larger than what the market had been expecting. Ahead of the report, major surveys had clustered around a high single-digit build, though injection estimates were as high as 28 Bcf. The 15 Bcf build was much smaller than historical figures, expanding the deficit to the year-ago level and flipping the surplus to the five-year average to a deficit. However, traders were not impressed and immediately sent prices lower. Another surprise in the latest EIA data was the 6 Bcf withdrawal in the East. “It was much colder than normal over the interior U.S., slightly cool over the East, while warm over the West Coast,” NatGasWeather said of temperatures in the EIA report reference period. Elsewhere, Pacific inventories rose by 7 Bcf, while Midwest stocks increased by 6 Bcf, according to EIA. The Mountain region reported a 1 Bcf increase in stocks. Total working gas in storage as of April 23 was 1,898 Bcf, 302 Bcf below year-ago levels and 40 Bcf below the five-year average, EIA said.

U.S. natgas hits 9-week high on cooler forecast, record exports -(Reuters) - U.S. natural gas futures climbed to a nine-week high on Friday on forecasts for cooler weather and higher heating demand over the next two weeks than previously expected, record exports and a small decline in output. Front-month gas futures NGc1 rose 2.0 cents, or 0.7%, to settle at $2.931 per million British thermal units, their highest close since Feb. 22. That kept the front-month in overbought territory with a Relative Strength Index (RSI) over 70 for a fifth day in a row for the first time since August 2020. For the week, the contract was about 7% higher, putting it up for a third week in a row for the first time since February. For the month, the contract was up about 13% after falling around 6% last month. Data provider Refinitiv said gas output in the Lower 48 U.S. states slipped to an average of 91.3 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) so far in April from 91.5 bcfd in March due to routine spring pipeline maintenance. That compares with a record monthly high of 95.4 bcfd in November 2019. Refinitiv projected average gas demand, including exports, would slide from 89.5 bcfd this week to 87.5 bcfd next week and 86.0 bcfd as the weather turns seasonally milder. The forecast for next week was slightly higher than Refinitiv estimated on Thursday. The amount of gas flowing to U.S. LNG export plants averaged 11.5 bcfd so far in April, putting it on track to top the monthly record of 11.2 bcfd in March.

USA Set for Gas Boom --Natural gas production in the United States is set to grow to a new record of 93.3 billion cubic feet per day (Bcfd) in 2022 and will continue to rise thereafter, exceeding 100 Bcfd in 2024. That’s according to a new Rystad Energy analysis, which highlighted that the performance of the country’s key gas basins is going to attract increased interest from investors and markets, “with CO2 emissions intensity, capital efficiency, and potential bottlenecks drawing close scrutiny”. United States natural gas output hit a record 92.1 Bcfd in 2019, but production declined to 90.8 Bcfd last year as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, Rystad outlined. The company said it expects 2021 volumes will fall to 89.7 Bcfd but added that the trend will quickly change as the effect of the pandemic subsides and activity builds up across the country’s major gas basins. Rystad said the Haynesville play will offer the largest gas output growth going forward, risking bottlenecks unless more pipelines are approved. The Haynesville is forecasted to add about 10 Bcfd from 2020 to 2035, growing by 86 percent during that timeframe, Rystad highlighted. The region is projected to account for about 21 percent of the country’s gas production in 2035, compared to 13 percent in 2020, Rystad revealed. The company forecasts that associated gas from the Permian’s Delaware and Midland regions will account for more than five Bcfd of growth from 2021 to 2035, driven primarily by the Delaware, and anticipates a growth of about 16 percent in Appalachian gas production before a final plateau is reached, with the Marcellus and Utica forecasted to add five Bcfd over the next two decades. The company’s analysis showed that the Appalachian basin was best-in-class in the U.S. in 2020 when it comes to CO2 emissions intensity, with 7.1 kg of CO2 per barrel of oil equivalent (boe). The Appalachian region is said to be followed by the Haynesville shale, with a CO2 intensity of 7.5 kg of CO2 per boe, Niobara with 10.6 kg of CO2 per boe, the Permian Basin with 10.9 kg of CO2 per boe, south Texas’ Eagle Ford with 11 kg of CO2 per boe, and the Bakken play with 20.7 kg of CO2 per boe. “Such a level of CO2 intensity performance brings Appalachia to the top quartile among all oil and gas fields globally,”

Public response prompts DOT to host its own public pipeline hearings --The Georgia Department of Transportation says it will hold its own public hearing on the necessity for a petroleum pipeline in Coastal Georgia and its potential benefits to the state. GDOT’s announcement follows public outcry over hearings held by the company proposing to build the pipeline, Houston-based Kinder Morgan Energy Partners. “Due to the fact there were some Georgia citizens who were not happy with the process, we will be holding our own public hearing,” said Jill Nagel, GDOT spokesperson. Kinder Morgan Energy Partners held several hearings in coastal counties and in the Augusta area earlier this month to hear what the public had to say about the proposed Palmetto Pipeline project. The company plans to use the pipeline to transport gasoline, diesel and ethanol products underground for 360 miles, from Belton, S.C., to Jacksonville. The Palmetto line would connect to Kinder Morgan’s existing Plantation Pipeline that runs from Louisiana to Virginia. A preliminary path has the pipeline running through 24 miles of Glynn County, 18 miles of Camden County and 17 miles of McIntosh County. Nagel said the state began planning the hearing after consulting with the Attorney General’s office. Satilla Riverkeeper Ashby Nix was among those put off by public hearings held by the company on the issuance of a certificate of public convenience and necessity. If granted, the certificate could provide Kinder Morgan the power to use eminent domain, if necessary, to build its pipeline. “It’s suspicious when it’s the company and their lawyers taking the comments,” Nix said of the hearings she attended. She and other environmental watchdogs were befuddled after a meeting March 12 in Brunswick. Nix said it was more informational than anything else. Her concern now is that the one meeting that is planned may be difficult to get to for some coastal residents, depending on where it is held. She would like to see at least two meetings to ensure everyone has a chance to comment.

 OIL AND GAS: Fla. lawmakers revive push to spare coast from drilling -- Wednesday, April 28, 2021 -- While Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill continue to fight with each other over President Biden's energy agenda, Florida's bipartisan congressional delegation remains united in opposition to drilling off the state's coastline.

‘They gave people kibbles and bits’: Black Memphis residents are fighting oil pipeline land grab -The only things Karmen Johnson-Tutwiler has left to remind her of her mother are a few photographs and just under a quarter acre of land covered in bramble and wildflowers that backs up to a railroad track. When their mother, Sharon Watson, passed away in 2010, she and her sister inherited it. “She always told me it was important to have a piece of property as your own,” Johnson-Tutwiler said. The land is on the edge of a neighborhood called Boxtown, a community built by formerly enslaved people and annexed by the city of Memphis during the 1960’s and 1970’s. Boxtown is surrounded by industrial facilities, including a Valero oil refinery. Since February 2020, Byhalia Pipeline, a joint venture of Valero Energy Corporation and Plains All American Pipeline, has been trying to gain control of part of Johnson-Tutwiler’s land, which is along the route of the proposed 49-mile Byhalia Connection oil pipeline. The route would run through multiple majority-Black neighborhoods in southwest Memphis, and researchers and activists say a spill could threaten the city’s public water source: an aquifer the size of Lake Michigan. Johnson-Tutwiler does not currently reside on the stretch of land the company wants — .08 of an acre temporarily and .11 of an acre permanently — but it would prevent her or other family members from ever building a house. “That was the only thing that I had that my mom left with us that we could pass down through the lines of the family,” she said. The legal battle over the proposed pipeline has become a flashpoint in a national conversation about environmental justice and eminent domain, a right of the government to seize private property for public use that is increasingly being used by oil and gas companies to take private land. Johnson-Tutwiler and her sister are among at least 10 southwest Memphis families who have already lost or stand to lose some property rights to Byhalia Pipeline. The company has been trying to buy easements, or rights to pieces of property, from Shelby County landowners since 2020. If they refuse, the company has been taking them to court using eminent domain, a power embedded in the Fifth Amendment and conferred to states through the Fourteenth Amendment. The federal government and states have allowed energy companies, including oil and gas pipeline builders, to use it for over 100 years; since fracking was commercialized in 2007, fossil fuel companies have used it more often to build projects including the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines.

Company asks for pause in Memphis oil pipeline dispute (AP) — A company facing resistance to its plans to build an oil pipeline over an aquifer that provides drinking water to 1 million people has asked for a “mutual pause” in its dispute with city officials in Memphis, Tennessee. Plains All American Pipeline sent a letter to the Memphis City Council about a proposed city law that could make it harder to construct an underground oil pipeline through wetlands and neighborhoods in south Memphis and north Mississippi. Plains is part of a joint venture with Valero Energy to build the Byhalia Connection, which would link the Valero refinery in Memphis with another larger pipeline in north Mississippi. The council’s ordinance would establish a board to approve or deny construction of underground pipelines that transport oil or other potentially hazardous liquids near wells that pump millions of gallons of water daily from the Memphis Sand Aquifer. The ordinance is backed by pipeline opponents who fear an oil spill would endanger the aquifer. The council made no mention of the Plains letter during a vote Tuesday to delay a vote on the ordinance for two weeks. Councilors said they decided to postpone a decision so they could address questions they themselves had and allow input from the mayor’s office and the local water company. In the letter, Plains said Byhalia Connection is willing to suspend development activities and address city council and community concerns “if the City is willing to suspend consideration, adoption, or final reading of the existing or any new ordinance that could affect the pipeline or refinery.” “We very much appreciate your willingness to talk with us and receive our feedback and work to resolve any differences,” the letter said. “It’s in this light that we would like to propose a ‘mutual pause.’” Byhalia has threatened to sue if the ordinance passes. In a statement, project spokeswoman Katie Martin called the proposed law “an example of ill-conceived local government overreach that is preempted by state and federal law.”

$238,450 for gas is 'gouging,' Hot Springs exec says-- The Hot Springs Advertising and Promotion Commission has paid the $238,450.96 monthly gas bill it received for the Hot Springs Convention Center after February's winter storm, but filed a complaint against its natural gas supplier with the Arkansas attorney general's office accusing the supplier of "price gouging." Visit Hot Springs CEO Steve Arrison said the bill for February was paid "under protest" April 14. Little Rock attorney Randall Bynum with Dover Dixon Horne PLLC filed a formal complaint on behalf of the convention center with the attorney general's office April 19, saying the center's natural gas supplier may have violated Act 367 of 1997. The gas supplier, Symmetry Energy Solutions, denies the allegations, stating that they are "unfounded and reflect a misunderstanding of how the natural gas markets work." The Hot Springs Convention Center received the bill at the end of March, one month after record cold temperatures gripped the region. It was more than 2,000% what the center usually pays for one month and stemmed from using an independent gas supplier. Arrison told The Sentinel-Record on March 26 that the ad commission would not pay the bill. On Tuesday, he said the commission plans to get back most of the money paid under protest. "The main thing is we want to get our money back," Arrison said. "Hopefully we get this to a logical conclusion, and if not we will sue, but hopefully we won't have to." "Winter Storm Uri severely disrupted natural gas supplies at the very same time that demand was very high because of the record-setting frigid temperatures," a Symmetry Energy spokesperson said in an email Tuesday. "This high demand coupled with severely limited supply caused the market price of natural gas to rise to unprecedented levels," the email said.

Suit filed says sand operation polluting --Two Doddridge residents are suing companies in connection with a sand mining and fracking business nearby. The suit was filed in Miller County circuit court on behalf of 86-year-old Lottie Paige and 77-year-old Mary Bennett by Texarkana lawyer Bruce Flint. Named as defendants are 29 trucking and other companies doing business at the River Ridge Sand Flat owned by Performance Proppants. Performance Proppants is named as a defendant.   Paige lives on property on Miller County 4 that has been in her family for more than 100 years and Bennett owns property on Miller County 187. Both properties are located near the same road as River Ridge Sand Flat, which Performance Proppants purchased in 2019. "As a result of defendants' fracking business, 18-wheeler trucks drive right up against plaintiffs' properties 24 hours per day," the complaint states. The complaint refers to an article published in the Texarkana Gazette in February 2019 which estimates that 200 trucks per day will travel to and from the sand plant around the clock on Miller County 4. Paige alleges that the fracking and sand mining business has contaminated and dried up her well water. "Defendant's actions have prevented plaintiff from using any running water, including, but not limited to, flushing her toilets, taking baths and/or showers, and/or getting water from her faucets," the complaint alleges. Paige has been forced to buy bottled water and consider leaving her home during a global pandemic, it says. Paige and Bennett allege that air pollution created by the plant traffic and activities has caused them to develop asthma. The suit accuses the defendants of negligence and of creating a nuisance which has diminished the plaintiffs' property values and quality of life. Both women are seeking an award of monetary damages.

Lake Charles industry to pay $5.5 million over contaminating Calcasieu River estuary --Nine Lake Charles area chemical companies and oil refineries have agreed to pay the federal government $5.5 million for their contamination of much of the northern Calcasieu River estuary, the result of improper disposal practices over the past century. The settlement, announced this month by the Justice Department, is the latest in a series of federal and state legal actions against more than a dozen industrial plants in Lake Charles, Sulphur, Westlake and Mossville for polluting the river basin with toxic chemicals and heavy metals, including dioxin and mercury.  The amount of the settlement is not for cleaning up the pollution, only for the Environmental Protection Agency's response, and it's less than half of EPA's actual response costs. There's no estimate available on how much the industries have paid on cleanup, but even today parts of the estuary are still posted with health warnings against eating fish, crabs or shellfish swimming in the water, or even touching underwater sediment. A complaint filed with the settlement details how the companies were responsible for pollutants that flowed from discharge pipes at levels either in violation of federal and state permits or before such limits were set. The chemicals entered the water through accidents and seeped into groundwater from unlined waste disposal impoundments at some plants that began operating as early as 1920. Wilma Subra, a New Iberia chemist and science adviser to the Louisiana Environmental Action Network organization, which represents environmental groups in the area, said Lake Charles area residents first met with EPA and the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality about water contamination in the early 1980s, after blood samples from some residents indicated unsafe levels of dioxin and other chemicals. Dioxin is a highly toxic contaminant created during the manufacture of other chemicals, and is one of the chemicals identified as coming from several of the plants listed in the settlement. “We had residents with levels of dioxin in their blood at three times the national average, and those people were fishing in the estuary, in the main Calcasieu River and in all the bayous,” Subra said. “They still are.” The Louisiana Department of Health has posted health advisories on almost 350 miles of the river.

Several petrochemical companies to pay  $5.5 million for years of pollution in area waters  (KPLC) - Several petrochemical companies will pay $5.5 million to the federal government for costs incurred while investigating and addressing contamination of the Calcasieu Estuary Site.The pollution occurred over a number of years as the plants released chemicals into area waterways, according to the complaint filed in federal court.As part of the consent decree, the companies do not admit liability. The consent decree was filed on April 12.The $5.5 million will go to the EPA Hazardous Substance Superfund. The complaint states that the federal government has spent more than $13 million cleaning up the site.The Calcasieu Estuary Site encompasses Bayou Verdine, Bayou d’Inde, Coon Island Loop, Clooney Island Loop, Prien Lake, Lake Charles, and the Calcasieu River from the saltwater barrier to Moss Lake.The nine companies (some of which have merged) paying the $5.5 million are:

• · Axiall Corp.
• · CITGO Petroleum Corporation
• · Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations, LLC
• · Bridgestone Americas, Inc.
• · Firestone Polymers, LLC
• · Occidental Chemical Corporation
• · OXY USA Inc.
• · PPG Industries, Inc.
• · Westlake Polymers LLC

Environmental Justice and Refinery Pollution:: Benzene Monitoring Around Oil Refineries Found More Communities at Risk in 2020 - A 2015 federal Clean Air Act rule requires oil refineries to install air pollution monitors at their boundaries to identify benzene emissions escaping into surrounding neighborhoods. Benzene is a well-known carcinogen that contributes to cancer of the blood cells (leukemia) and respiratory ailments, and high concentrations indicate the presence of other air pollutants dangerous to human health.1 Whenever the monitoring results show that benzene levels at refinery fencelines average more than nine micrograms per cubic meter above background levels over a year, the 2015 rule requires the refinery to investigate and take action by cleaning up the emission sources causing the problem. 2 The regulation is designed to keep benzene and other toxins from drifting into communities adjacent to refineries, many of which are lower-income communities of color. Thirteen refineries exceeded EPA’s “action level” in 2020 for the 12 months ending on December 31, 2020, reporting annual benzene concentrations that range from 9.36 micrograms to more than 31 micrograms for the year.3 More than 530,000 people live within three miles of these refineries, with 57 percent being people of color and 43 percent living below the poverty line, according to U.S. Census Bureau and EPA data. 4 The number of facilities over EPA’s action level last year represents more communities at risk from benzene than in 2019, the first year for which data are available, when 11 refineries exceeded EPA’s action level. A refinery owned by the Delek corporation in Krotz Springs, Louisiana, about 45 minutes west of Baton Rouge, topped the 2020 list with benzene concentrations at its fenceline averaging more than 31 micrograms per cubic meter last year. That was more than three times EPA’s action level, and 29 percent worse than the previous year. A public library and a daycare center that serves lowincome children are located a quarter mile from the refinery (see map on page 20.)

Louisiana is home to 5 of the 13 U.S. oil refineries emitting high levels of this carcinogen - A new effort to measure the levels of benzene, a cancer-causing air pollutant, along the perimeters of U.S. refineries found that five of the 13 facilities with the highest levels are in Louisiana. What's more, the refinery with the worst emissions was Delek USA's Krotz Springs refinery, located 45 minutes west of Baton Rouge along the Atchafalaya River, according to the report by the Environmental Integrity Project, a national environmental nonprofit. There, fenceline monitors measured an average net concentration of 31.1 micrograms per cubic meter of benzene. That's more than triple the level allowed before the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency steps in.A 2015 EPA rule requires oil refineries to install air pollution monitors on their fencelines to measure how much benzene is escaping into surrounding areas. If the annual average exceeds 9 micrograms per cubic meter, refineries must search for the cause and take steps to fix it.Benzene is a component of oil and gasoline, and Eric Schaeffer, the nonprofit's executive director, said it's not surprising to see it leak out of industrial plants."You're always going to have some, a little bit of benzene in the air around refineries and chemical plants," he said. "But it's also a very potent carcinogen."Studies have found that lifetime exposure to heightened levels of benzene can cause respiratory issues. Air containing more than 13 micrograms per cubic meter presents a heavily increased risk of cancer such as leukemia.

175 Groups Urge Banks Not to Fund Massive 'Cancer Alley' Chemical Plant in Louisiana --Calling a planned petrochemical manufacturing complex in Louisiana's "Cancer Alley" a "textbook case of environmental racism," 175 organizations from around the world sent a letter to financial institutions Tuesday urging them not to fund, underwrite, or invest in the project, which could cost up to $12 billion.The letter — led by the faith-based grassroots group RISE St. James — says that Taiwan-based Formosa Plastics Group's 2,400-acre Sunshine Project, which is slated to be built in a vulnerable floodplain amid intensifying climate-driven hurricanes and tropical storms," presents an unnecessary burden for our already-polluted community.""We are fighting to protect ourselves from Formosa Plastics' disastrous environmental and human-rights record in the United States and around the world," the letter states.Residents of St. James Parish — nearly half of whom are Black — and environmental advocates strongly oppose the plant, which, if built as planned, will release carcinogenic chemicals and, according to one environmental watchdog, produce 13.6 million tons of planet-heating emissions annually. Formosa Plastics has also come under fire for failing to follow through on a promise to alter the plant's layout to lessen the exposure of nearby residents and schoolchildren to toxins, and for its failure to notify the community of the discovery of a burial ground for enslaved Black people.According to data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the cancer risk in predominantly Black areas of St. James Parish is as high as 105 per million, compared with 60 to 75 cases per million in majority white areas. The EPA's Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators database reported an 800% cancer hazard increase due to petrochemical facilities in the parish between 2007 and 2018. The Sunshine Project has drawn the attention and condemnation of environmental and racial justice groups,United Nations human rights experts, progressive lawmakers, and others. Last month, Democratic U.S. Reps. Raúl Grijalva (Ariz.) and Donald McEachin (Va.) urged President Joe Biden to deliver on his campaign promises to reduce pollution in frontline communities by blocking the project.

GLDD charged with causing oil spill in 2016 -Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company (GLDD) has been charged with violating the Clean Water Act in connection with an oil spill in 2016. According to the Bill of Information, GLDD negligently discharged and caused to be discharged a harmful quantity of oil into a navigable water of the United States, upon adjoining shorelines, and affecting natural resources. The spill took place on September 5, 2016, on the edge of Bay Long near the Chenier Ronquille barrier island, which is east of Grand Isle. If convicted, GLDD faces a possible term of probation and a fine of up to $200,000 or twice the gross gain to the defendant or twice the gross loss to any victim. “A bill of information is merely a charge, and the guilt of the defendant must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt,” the official statement reads. The case was investigated by the EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division, the Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General, and the Department of Commerce’s Office of Inspector General.

$302M in BP oil spill money budgeted to restore ecosystems (AP) Texas can get up to $79 million in BP oil spill restoration money, Mississippi nearly $69 million, and Florida almost $74 million for ecosystem recovery projects and programs approved or extended this week. Nearly $80 million more in work crossing state lines is listed among the RESTORE Council''s $302 million worth of projects and programs made public Wednesday as part 2 in a group of proposals that brought $130 million last year to Louisiana, and $26.9 million to Alabama. However, less than half of Wednesday''s total will be provided immediately. Nine of the 20 projects and programs are getting only planning money. The council said it is budgeting $161.5 million in longterm spending to put those plans into action, but they will need more evaluation and later votes. The council, which allocates money from Clean Water Act fines paid by BP and others after the catastrophic 2010 spill, is made up of officials from the five Gulf states and several federal agencies. Gulf-wide programmes OK''d on Wednesday include $11.9 million to continue the Gulf of Mexico Coast Conservation Corps and $927,000 to continue the Tribal Youth Coastal Restoration Programme. “Both seek to enhance the environmental vitality of the area''s natural resources while also building the local coastal restoration workforce and giving young adults the skills and experience needed to find jobs in this field,” the council''s report said. The Nature Conservancy, which runs GulfCorps with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, says its grant will create more than 400 jobs for young adults over four years.

US ends oil, gas lease sales from public land through June (AP) — The U.S. Interior Department is cancelling oil and gas lease sales from public lands through June amid an ongoing review of how the program contributes to climate change, officials said Wednesday. The action does not affect existing leases, and the agency has continued to issue new drilling permits during the open-ended review ordered by the White House, said Nada Culver, deputy director of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management. The petroleum industry and its Republican allies in Congress have said the oil and gas moratorium will harm the economies of Western states without putting a significant dent in climate change. There is no end date for the review, but an interim report due this summer could reveal the Biden administration’s long-term plans for lease sales. Sales had been tentatively scheduled in seven states and regions — Nevada, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming and the bureau’s eastern region, spokesperson Jeffrey Krauss said. Officials had previously postponed or suspended lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico, Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and many of the same states covered in Wednesday’s move.

BLM Scraps 2Q Oil and Gas Lease Sales - The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has announced that it will not hold oil and gas lease sales in the second quarter (2Q) of 2021. The BLM said the decision does not impact existing operations or permits for valid, existing leases, which it said continue to be reviewed and approved. It also noted that it remains committed to managing its programs in a way that restores balance on public lands, creates jobs, and provides a path to align the management of America's public lands with the nation's climate, conservation, and clean energy priorities. The decision to scrap 2Q lease sales comes amid the Interior Department’s ongoing review of the federal oil and gas program. This review is assessing, among other issues, whether the current leasing process provides taxpayers with a fair return for extraction of the nation’s oil and gas resources, how to ensure it complies with applicable laws, such as the National Environmental Policy Act, and the United States’ trust responsibilities, and how it will take into account climate change and environmental justice, according to the BLM. The organization highlighted that, in recent years, courts have found the current leasing process in violation of various governing laws, invalidating both the BLM’s guidance and a number of lease sales. In connection with the review, the BLM said it will analyze and ensure that any future leasing complies with applicable law— including requirements for evaluating greenhouse gas emissions and climate change impacts—to better withstand administrative and judicial review. The BLM stated that the Trump administration conducted a fire sale of public lands and waters, offering more than 25 million acres onshore during the past four years. Just 5.6 million of these were purchased, the BLM highlighted. Offshore, more than 78 million acres were offered for lease to oil, gas, and mineral development, and only five million acres were purchased, the BLM noted. Part of the U.S. Department of the Interior, the BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land located primarily in 12 Western states, including Alaska. It also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. Last month, the senate voted to confirm Debra Haaland to lead the Department of the Interior.

Before U.S. Senate Committee, Critics Blast Biden’s Moratorium on Federal Oil, Gas Lease Sales -Oil and natural gas industry leaders and politicians railed against President Biden’s decision to freeze oil and gas lease sales on federal lands and waters through at least June during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on Tuesday.  Government officials, meanwhile, defended the pause as a necessary step as they review the program to identify inefficiencies as well as the benefits of the program versus its impact on climate change.   “Retaining clarity for continuing operations is important while we aggressively work toward a collective transition plan,” said Occidental Petroleum Corp. CEO Vicki Hollub in her testimony. “To that end, administration action should provide regulatory certainty in the short- and long-term,” rather than a moratorium with no stated end date.  In remarks prepared for the hearing, Hollub noted that, like an increasing number of oil and gas companies, the Houston independent, better known as Oxy, is diversifying and committing to using carbon capture technology while working toward a goal of net-zero carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 2050.  However, Hollub said, oil and natural gas will play key roles in the transition between now and then, and drilling on federal land is an important component of the industry’s efforts to meet current energy needs.  Federal onshore drilling permits can take up to a year to earn approval, she explained, which requires operators like Oxy “to plan 18 months ahead of drilling operations. This long lead time means that as we evaluate our completions and geology, well design changes often result in the need to re-permit the same areas,” Hollub said. “Lack of clarity or permitting guidance can extend these times, often increasing the cost and the surface disturbance.”  Hollub and others who spoke at the hearing argued that the Biden administration review could be conducted without halting lease sales. The moratorium not only complicates matters for operators but also costs state governments income they rely upon, said Western Energy Alliance President Kathleen Sgamma.  From a “small impact on federal lands, the oil and natural gas industry generates about $4.2 billion in federal royalties and leasing revenue” – which is shared with states – “while delivering 288.6 million bbl of oil and 3.4 Tcf of natural gas to meet Americans’ energy needs,” Sgamma said in her prepared remarks. For every dollar spent managing the federal onshore program, Sgamma said the industry “returns 29 times that back to the federal government, an excellent return that funds education, public safety, and other vital health and human services in the West.”Additionally, “we have saved consumers hundreds of billions of dollars by making energy more affordable,” Sgamma said.

U.S. oil lease pause will not hit states' income near term, official says - (Reuters) - Revenues disbursed to states from federal oil and gas leasing are not expected to decline significantly in the near term due to the Biden administration's review of the program, an official said on Tuesday. Nada Culver, deputy director of policy and programs for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, told a Senate committee that no timeline had been set for completing the review, but that the agency did "not anticipate a significant effect on income to states and the Treasury in the near future during this current pause." Most revenues to states come from existing production, Culver said, rather than the new leasing the administration paused earlier this year. "We have thousands of permits available for drilling and millions of acres of land that can be developed right now," Culver said before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee at a hearing on the oil and gas leasing program.

Emails Show Oil Lobby Mobilized Democratic Governors' Opposition To Biden Energy Order --Fossil fuel trade groups in Louisiana and New Mexico rallied Democratic governors in opposition to President Joe Biden’s executive order pausing new oil and gas leasing on federal lands and in offshore waters, newly released emails show. The Biden administration paused new leases on Jan. 27 and launched a major review of the federal oil and gas leasing program. Interior Department officials have said the program currently is “not serving the American public well.” The behind-the-scenes lobbying included the Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil & Gas Association (LMOGA) introducing top energy officials in Louisiana and New Mexico to each other. LMOGA also provided the Louisiana official with industry talking points about how restricting oil and gas development would hurt the state’s economy, and it helped ghostwrite a letter that Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) sent to Biden arguing, among other things, that confronting climate effects depends on continued offshore fossil fuel development.The communications highlight the growing role regional industry associations play in fighting climate action as pressure mounts on big-name companies and highly visible national groups to put a softer face on regulatory obstruction.Edwards and New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) have both spoken out against the Biden administration’s leasing freeze, publicly and in letters to the president. Louisiana joined more than a dozen other states in suing the administration over the executive order, and Lujan Grisham requested New Mexico be exempt from the pause because of its climate change initiatives and greenhouse gas emission reductions. Both states are major oil and gas producers and rely heavily on revenue from fossil fuel development.“These documents show that the Lujan Grisham and Bel Edwards administrations are valuable assets in the oil industry’s fight against President Biden’s public lands policies,” said Jesse Coleman, a senior investigator with the watchdog group Documented.

Enterprise Products sues Texas municipal utility over $100 mln gas bill --(Reuters) - Oil and gas supplier Enterprise Products Partners on Monday sued CPS Energy, a Texas gas and power utility, alleging failure to pay nearly $100 million for natural gas delivered during the state's February winter storm. The lawsuit is the latest to emerge from a severe cold snap that drove prices and demand for natural gas and electricity to hundreds of times their pre-storm levels. Houston gas prices https://bit.ly/3noiRVL hit $400 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) from about $4.50/mmBtu a week earlier. Enterprise is suing San Antonio municipal utility CPS Energy over payment disputes for sales during the freeze. The suit, filed in a state court in Harris County, Texas, claims CPS owes $99.7 million for gas after paying $36.5 million towards the month's fuel bill. "CPS Energy is now engaging in a coordinated plan to avoid paying its bills," the lawsuit claimed, adding the utility has offered it $38.83/mmBtu for the gas. CPS Energy CEO Paula Gold-Williams said Enterprise had engaged in "egregious price gouging" and that the lawsuit came after it had tried to negotiate the dispute. "CPS Energy is committed to protecting its customers from unconscionable prices charged by certain natural gas suppliers," Gold-Williams said. A spokesman for Enterprise declined to comment, saying it would let the lawsuit speak for itself. CPS Energy, owned by the city of San Antonio, previously sued grid operator Electric Reliability Council of Texas seeking to block it from issuing a default for unpaid power charges. Enterprise next month is expected to report first-quarter earnings that analysts say will benefit from the storm-driven gas price run-up. Kinder Morgan last week reported a roughly $1 billion boost to earnings from selling high-priced natural gas to utilities. Enterprise could post an around $475 million profit from the storm in its coming report, analysts from consultancy East Daley Capital said in a note last week.

Pipeline operator Kinder Morgan posts $1 billion windfall from Texas winter storm -- Kinder Morgan Inc. surprised investors with a $1 billion dollar windfall from the historic winter storm that crippled Texas and boosted natural gas and power prices. The deadly mid-February storm swelled first-quarter results, President Kimberly Dang said during a conference call with investors on Wednesday. The gain was so outsized that the pipeline operator results surpassed the average estimate by almost three times. Kinder Morgan “was not really on anyone’s list of potential winners from Winter Storm Uri,” said Gabriel Moreen, an analyst at Mizuho Americas LLC. “Shame on us.” Kinder disclosed a $116 million net gain from voluntarily curbing power use during the disaster and reselling it at sky-high prices, which implies an $880 million windfall from gas sales. A Kinder Morgan spokesperson declined to comment on the figures. Power producers and utilities across the Lone Star state incurred billions of dollars in losses when the Arctic blast hobbled the electricity grid and disrupted gas deliveries, pushing prices to unprecedented levels. On the other side of that market, Kinder and drillers such as Comstock Resources Inc. reaped fat profits. Investors and analysts will be closely watching for similar positive surprises among Kinder’s pipeline-sector peers as they disclose first-quarter results in coming weeks. “Our storage assets performed exceptionally well, allowing us to deliver gas into the market throughout the storm,” said Chief Executive Officer Steve Kean. “These storage withdrawals, along with gas we purchased before and during the event, enabled us to deliver significant volumes of gas at contractual or prevailing prices.” Much of the extra gas Kinder sold went to power generators whose normal suppliers were shut down or blacked out as the catastrophe intensified, Kean said. The storm may have long-term ramifications for Kinder if costumers pay up to guarantee uninterrupted gas deliveries, which in turn would elevate the value of the company’s conduits and storage facilities, Moreen said in an interview.

BP likely made at least $1 billion during the Texas power crisis - BP likely made more than $1 billion from its energy trading business when natural gas prices skyrocketed during the February winter storm. The British oil major, which has one of the largest trading hubs in North America, on Tuesday said the business had an “exceptional” first quarter in which the company posted a $2.6 billion profit on $6.1 billion of revenue. Analysts had expected BP to report a first-quarter profit of $1.4 billion. BP said it doesn’t disclose trading numbers, but Citigroup analyst Alastair Syme said he estimates the company made a large profit during the storm. “Gains from trading in gas and power are not quantified, but the move in (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) suggest these easily topped $1 billion,” Syme said in a research note to clients. “Although not mentioned by name, we think positioning around the February storm in Texas, Storm Uri, has been the biggest driver of these gains.” An accounting of the energy industry’s winners and losers has emerged in the weeks since the storm and power grid collapse killed nearly 200 Texans and caused billions of dollars in damage. Vistra, the largest power generator in Texas, on Monday said it took a $1.6 billion financial hit as a result of the storm and crisis. Houston pipeline operator Kinder Morgan last week said it earned $1.6 billion after it was able to keep natural gas flowing through its pipelines, in large part because it had invested in safeguards to protect equipment from brutally cold temperatures. Natural gas prices skyrocketed as the winter storm plunged Texas into frigid darkness, causing gas production to fall by nearly half during the storm. Operators of gas-fired power plants said inadequate natural gas deliveries brought some of their operations to a halt, resulting in a cycle in which power outages took out more natural gas production that led to more blackouts. Vistra said it was forced to spend $1.1 billion on natural gas in the spot market at a price of $700 per million British thermal units to keep its natural gas-fired power plants operating during the storm. The company typically contracts for gas at about $3 per million British thermal units. BP said it generated surplus revenue of $1.7 billion during the first quarter, helping it to meet debt reduction targets a year ahead of schedule.

Southern Sells Gas Unit That Made $200 Million Off Freeze - Power provider Southern Company signed an agreement to sell its wholesale gas trading and services business after the unit brought in $200 million during the power crisis in Texas earlier this year.The sale of the utility’s Sequent Energy Management unit was disclosed in an earnings presentation Thursday, but the buyer and the terms of the deal were not revealed.“We did sell our wholesale gas trading business in Houston,” Chief Financial Officer Andrew Evans said in an interview with Bloomberg Thursday, adding that the sale reduces Southern’s risk, and was at book value so the company won’t see material gains or losses.Companies have begun to report profits and losses related to the arctic blast in February that caused widespread power outages across Texas. Last week, Kinder Morgan Inc. divulged a $1 billion gain due to wildly profitable gas sales during the freeze. Others weren’t so lucky. Utility Atmos Energy Corp. racked up $2.5 billion in fuel costs during the disaster.Southern, one of the biggest power providers in the U.S., donated about $75 million of the income made during the energy crisis to its community partners, Evans said on a conference call with analysts Thursday.Meanwhile, the Sequent deal was reached Wednesday evening, said Southern Chief Executive Officer Tom Fanning in the interview. The deal has been signed, but hasn’t closed yet. Both Evans and Fanning declined to name the buyer.

TEXAS BLACKOUTS: Energy CEO: 'We have to fix' natural gas -- Tuesday, April 27, 2021 -- Vistra Corp., Texas' largest power producer, singled out natural gas yesterday as the leading cause of a projected $1.6 billion financial hit to the company after February's winter storm and power outages.

$7B Gasoline Manufacturing Facility Planned for Texas --The Odessa Development Corporation and Nacero Inc have announced plans to build a $6.5 billion to $7 billion lower carbon gasoline manufacturing facility at a site in Penwell, Texas. The facility will be built in two phases, with phase one producing 70,000 barrels per day of gasoline component ready for blending and phase two increasing that capacity to 100,000 barrels per day, a statement posted on Nacero’s website revealed. The gasoline produced at the facility will contain no sulfur and will have half the lifecycle carbon footprint of traditional gasoline, according to the company, which said the gasoline will be made from a combination of natural gas, captured bio-methane, and mitigated flare gas. Construction of the Penwell facility, which is scheduled to begin before the end of the year, will employ a peak of 3,500 skilled workers during the four years of phase one construction, Nacero revealed. When fully operational, the plant will employ 350 full time operators and maintenance personnel in three shifts with a forecast annual salary of approximately $85,000 per person, the company noted. All of the plant’s electricity will come from renewable sources, according to Nacero, which said the plant will be the first in the U.S. to make gasoline from natural gas and the first in the world to do so with carbon capture and sequestration. The Odessa Development Corporation and the Economic Development Department of the Odessa Chamber of Commerce led negotiations that resulted in Penwell being chosen for the facility. “Ector County is the ideal location for us,” Nacero President and Chief Executive Officer Jay McKenna said in a company statement. “From a geographic and logistics standpoint you can’t beat it. We will be a major new market and beneficial home for the natural gas that is currently flared in the Permian Basin,” he added. Odessa Development Corporation Chairman Tim Edgmon said, “this project proves once again that West Texas in general, and Odessa in particular, leads the nation in energy innovation and production”.

ExxonMobil prepares to lock out hundreds of workers at Beaumont, Texas refinery ---Oil workers are heading into a major class battle as ExxonMobil prepares to lock out 650 workers at its Beaumont, Texas, refinery on Saturday unless they capitulate to its demands for further givebacks. The US-based multinational is already hiring potential strikebreakers to man its refining and packaging plant, which is located 85 miles east of Houston. In the face of this, the United Steelworkers (USW) has left the refinery workers isolated and has also signaled its willingness to abandon workers’ elemental demands for improved staffing levels and safety standards. The stage was set for ExxonMobil’s attack by the USW’s betrayal of the 2015 strike by more than 6,550 workers at 15 facilities. Throughout that months-long struggle, the USW kept tens of thousands of other oil workers on the job, including Beaumont workers, despite their willingness to join in a common struggle. It is clear the USW plans to acquiesce to ExxonMobil’s demands. On Wednesday evening, the USW agreed to an “orderly transfer” of the refinery to temporary workers if ExxonMobil locks out union-affiliated workers on Saturday. Union representative Richard “Hoot” Landry said union officials met with the company as early as Monday to discuss the possibility of a transfer. “We are communicating and preparing communications to the company because the union is ready and able to do whatever is necessary to meet with them and work toward a new agreement,” Landry told the Enterprise . USW Local 13–243 has 650 members at the oil refinery and adjacent lubricants blending and packaging plant. The complex has a production capacity of 369,024 barrels per day and is in the middle of an expansion project that could make it the largest refining facility in North America. The company and union have been negotiating since January on a contract to replace the agreement the USW forced through in 2015, when the refinery’s expansion began.

Big Oil Sees Cash Rolling In-- After one of the most difficult years in the oil industry’s history, crude prices have recovered and major producers are finally generating spare cash. Investors really want to get their hands on it, but most are likely to be disappointed. That’s because the pandemic has created a legacy of debt for the world’s biggest international oil companies, many of which borrowed to fund their dividends as prices crashed. For Exxon Mobil Corp. and Total SE, which bore the financial strain of maintaining shareholder payouts last year, any extra cash will go to easing debt. Chevron Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell Plc have said they want to resume buybacks, but not yet. Only BP Plc is dangling the possibility that shareholder returns could improve soon, after a year and a half of flip-flopping over its payout policy. The coming week’s first-quarter results should show a significant improvement in both profit and cash flow after a dire 2020, but probably nothing that will change investors’ disenchantment with the oil majors. “They have limited appeal as long-term investments because they can’t demonstrate that they can deliver cash flow on a sustainable basis and return it on a sustainable basis,” said Christyan Malek, JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s head of EMEA oil and gas. “The key is consistency. We haven’t had any.” The first quarter will be an inflection point for the industry, according to JPMorgan. Company data and estimates compiled by Bloomberg show free cash flow -- what’s left after operational spending and investment -- is set to rebound to $80 billion for the five supermajors this year, compared with about $4 billion in 2020. Shell will be the top of heap with about $22 billion, Exxon will total $19 billion and even lowest-ranked BP will have about $11 billion. That will be enough for each of the five majors to cover their planned 2021 dividends and together have more than $35 billion left over.

 Chevron Posts Bumper Cash Flow   -- Chevron Corp. generated the most free cash flow since the pandemic emerged as economies clawing their way out of more than a year of lockdowns and paralysis burn more fuel. The oil, natural gas and refining titan posted $3.4 billion in first-quarter cash flow on Friday, more than enough to cover its recently increased dividend, which is a closely watched metric for the oil supermajors. A key driver of the bonanza was a 43% spending cut as Chevron retreats from costly mega-projects to focus on less-risky endeavors such as shale drilling. The shares dropped 2% in pre-market trading. Despite the cash-flow increase, the company said it’s waiting for market conditions to improve before reinstating share buybacks. Chevron disclosed adjusted per-share profit of 90 cents, according to a statement, matching the average of analysts’ forecasts compiled by Bloomberg. Chevron followed European peers Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BP Plc in signaling the worst may be over from the dual menace of a worldwide glut and demand-killing Covid-19 lockdowns. Amid the brightening outlook, significant challenges remain. Chevron’s U.S. refining network lost money for the third time in four quarters, while its overseas fuel-making plants slashed crude-processing by 16% to cope with anemic demand for transportation fuels. The company also cited the negative impacts of the deadly winter storm that afflicted Texas in mid-February. Chevron flexed its financial might earlier this week by becoming the first Western supermajor to raise dividends above pre-pandemic levels. BP, Shell and Total SE all posted better-than-expected results in recent days, largely on the back of the crude-market rebound. Combined cash flow of the European giants exceeded $25 billion for the first time since late 2019. BP said it would begin buying back shares while Shell flagged a dividend increase.

Mich. lawmakers propose $250M natural gas fund  The Michigan Legislature is considering allocating $250 million to help utilities build out natural gas infrastructure, while a separate proposal would require the state to study the use of biogas, which the utilities have branded “renewable natural gas.” The subsidy, which was approved by the House Appropriations Committee on Thursday and will likely be voted on Tuesday, is strongly opposed by environmental groups and some Democrats. “This is crony capitalism at its worst and this is not what the government should be doing with these dollars,” said Democratic Minority House Leader Yousef Rabhi. “The utilities have raked in $2B in profits during the pandemic, and they should be spending that money to ensure more people have access to gas. It shouldn’t be up to the taxpayers.” The bill is largely designed to expand natural gas infrastructure to areas of the state’s Upper Peninsula with homes that are now predominantly heated with propane. With the impending shutdown of the Line 5 gas pipeline, which delivers propane to about 15% of the region’s homes, propane suppliers will soon be forced to truck in propane, which may slightly increase costs. The shutdown order sparked a conversation about energy delivery in the Upper Peninsula. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s Upper Peninsula Energy Task Force on March 31 delivered ideas on how to improve energy delivery and reliability in the region. Among its suggestions are electrification, increased coordination among utilities, and investment in energy efficiency projects. The task force did not call for expanding infrastructure for natural gas, which heats about 57% of the peninsula’s buildings and homes. The legislation would create a “natural gas expansion fund.” The state’s private utilities could pull from the $250 million pot for projects that expand service to currently “underserved or unserved” areas. The bill claims that the program would help improve “reliability and stability of energy delivery” to those parts of the state while lowering customers’ energy costs.

Michigan regulators will consider climate change in Line 5 decision - - The fate of the Line 5 pipeline is officially a climate issue in the eyes of Michigan regulators.The Michigan Public Service Commission on Wednesday ruled that it must consider evidence on greenhouse gas pollution caused by petroleum flowing through Line 5 as it decides whether Canadian oil giant Enbridge energy can relocate the pipeline inside of a tunnel designed to extend the pipeline’s life span in the Straits of Mackinac. Pipeline opponents called the decision historic: It’s the first time Michigan regulators have factored greenhouse gas emissions into their scrutiny of a project’s environmental impacts under the Michigan Environmental Protection Act.“It makes clear that our understanding of what counts as pollution changes over time, and our agencies and courts need to change with that,” said Margrethe Kearney, a senior attorney with the Environmental Law & Policy Center, which fought to include a consideration of climate change as a factor in the commission’s ruling. Enbridge, which had fought to keep climate change off the table, issued its own statement that did not address the commission’s climate findings. The statement said the company is “pleased” that commissioners rejected other attempts by its opponents to turn the commission’s deliberations into a review of the company’s entire pipeline system.“Our aim is simple,” a company statement read. “To replace the two pipelines in the Straits with an even safer pipeline encased in a concrete tunnel well below the lakebed.”The decision comes just weeks ahead of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s May 13 deadline for Enbridge to stop transporting petroleum through the existing lakebottom pipes  — an order Enbridge has vowed to defy.In hopes of extending the pipeline’s life amid public concern about the risk of an oil spill in the Straits from the 68-year-old lakebottom line, Enbridge wants to relocate a 4-mile segment of Line 5 inside of a concrete tunnel deep below the lakebed.The commission, which regulates pipeline siting in Michigan, must decide whether Enbridge can move the pipeline into the proposed tunnel. Enbridge is also awaiting permits to build the tunnel itself. As commissioners considered how broadly to scope their review of the relocation plan, environmentalists pushed them to weigh broad impacts of the pipeline, including its role as a conduit for environmentally damaging greenhouse gases. Enbridge, meanwhile, had urged the commission to take the narrowest possible view, considering only the immediate consequences of moving the pipeline.

Tribal Nation Challenges Pipeline Permit Approval -The Bay Mills Indian Community has challenged a permit issued to Enbridge Energy by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) that would allow Enbridge to build a massive tunnel beneath the Straits of Mackinac to house a new segment of its Line 5 pipeline. EGLE, despite recommendations from the MI State Historic Preservation Office and opposition from Tribal Nations, granted the permit before the key cultural and archaeological studies were completed — studies that were required by law as part of EGLE’s evaluation of the tunnel permit application.“It is incredibly disturbing to learn that EGLE approved this permit without performing sufficient analysis into this pipeline’s far-reaching impacts on our cultural resources and treaty-protected fish and plant populations,” saidWhitney Gravelle, President and Chairwoman of the Bay Mills Indian Community. “Side-stepping the concerns of Tribal Nations and rubber-stamping this project before the necessary studies were completed signals a deeply concerning indifference to Tribal sovereignty.”Earthjustice, in partnership with the Native American Rights Fund (NARF), represents the Bay Mills Indian Community in the Tribe’s fight to protect the Straits and the Tribe’s treaty rights throughout waters in Michigan.“EGLE sidelined the concerns of the Tribal Nations and the State Historic Preservation Office, a sister agency with expertise over historic preservation and cultural landscapes in Michigan, and ignored its statutory obligation to evaluate the Project’s effects on historic and cultural resources,” saidEarthjustice Attorney Adam Ratchenski.“Enbridge has failed to justify how this pipeline tunnel will be in the public interest while disturbing an area of such historic and cultural significance as the Straits of Mackinac”, said Native American Rights Fund attorney David Gover. “This permit was granted without the adequate information necessary to address the grave concerns of the Tribal Nations who stand the most at-risk from its approval.

Frustrated Canada presses White House to keep Great Lakes oil pipeline open (Reuters) - Canada is pushing on several diplomatic fronts against the U.S. state of Michigan's efforts to close a cross-border oil pipeline, the second such dispute since Joe Biden became U.S. president in January, complicating the governments' efforts to work together to lower carbon emissions. The conflict over the aging but key pipeline highlights the disruptions caused by a global shift away from fossil fuels. Both governments are working to accelerate the energy transition, but their oil industries are interdependent, so a policy shift in one country can affect energy supply, and the political balance, in the other. The United States imports more crude from Canada than any other nation, at about 3.7 million barrels per day, or about 80%of Canada's crude output. Ottawa's strategy, according to four sources familiar with the government's thinking, is to repeatedly raise the issue of Enbridge Inc's Line 5 with numerous U.S. counterparts - including Biden - to get them to pressure Michigan's Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer to keep the pipeline open. Last November, Michigan ordered Line 5 to shut by May 13, citing the environmental risk of a possible leak in the four-mile (6-km) stretch of the 540,000-bpd line passing under the Straits of Mackinac in the Great Lakes. The White House has shown no sign of responding to Canadian entreaties, so Ottawa is considering more drastic options, including a threat to invoke an obscure bilateral treaty to keep Line 5 operating or intervene in the legal dispute currently playing out in U.S. courts. Line 5, which flows crude oil and refined products from Wisconsin to Sarnia, Ontario, via Michigan, has been in operation for nearly 70 years, but officials in Michigan are increasingly alarmed by its advanced age. The line has never leaked into the straits but there have been at least eight other spills since 1980, according to U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration data. The imbroglio over Line 5 comes just three months after Biden angered the Canadian oil and gas industry by cancelling a permit for the long-delayed Keystone XL pipeline project on his first day in office. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government reluctantly accepted that decision, even though it killed thousands of construction jobs and further soured Ottawa's relationship with the main energy-producing province of Alberta. Ottawa has resolved to fight publicly to keep Line 5 open, which - unlike Keystone - is already operating and a vital link in Enbridge's export network that ships the vast majority of crude from Canada's western oil patch to the United States.

Oil pipeline disputes raise tensions between U.S. and Canada (AP) — Months after President Joe Biden snubbed Canadian officials by canceling Keystone XL, an impending showdown over a second crude oil pipeline threatens to further strain ties between the two neighbors that were frayed during the Trump administration. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a top Biden ally, ordered Canadian energy company Enbridge last fall to shut down its Line 5 — a key piece of a crude delivery network from Alberta’s oil fields to refineries in the U.S. Midwest and eastern Canada. Whitmer’s demand pleased environmentalists and tribes who have long considered the pipeline, which reaches 645 miles (1,038 kilometers) across northern Wisconsin and Michigan, ripe for a spill that could devastate two Great Lakes. A section roughly 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) long crosses the bottom of Michigan’s Straits of Mackinac, which connects Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. The area is a popular tourist destination, and several tribes have treaty-protected commercial fishing rights in the straits. But with the governor’s May 12 shutdown deadline approaching, Canadian officials are lining up behind Enbridge as it contests the order in U.S. court and says it won’t comply. The Calgary-based company says Whitmer is overstepping her authority and that the 68-year-old pipeline is sound. “Our government supports the continued safe operation of Enbridge’s Line 5,” Seamus O’Regan, Canada’s minister of natural resources, told The Associated Press in an email. “It is a vital part of Canadian energy security, and I have been very clear that its continued operation is non-negotiable.” A Canadian House of Commons committee this month warned of dire consequences from a shutdown: job losses, fuel shortages and traffic nightmares as 23 million gallons (87 million liters) of petroleum liquids transported daily through Line 5 are shifted to trucks and rail cars considered more susceptible to accidents.

Could an ancient, submerged cultural site stop Enbridge's Great Lakes pipeline? - The battles over Enbridge Energy's Line 5 pipeline and proposed tunnel project continue to escalate. For more than a year, archaeological discoveries in the Straits of Mackinac have caused concerns not only among field experts and environmental activists, but especially among Indigenous tribes because the history of their cultures is potentially at stake. At its basis are laws provided to multiple tribes under the umbrella of the Chippewa Ottawa Resource Authority, as part of the 1836 Treaty of Washington. The tribes include Bay Mills Indian Community, Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, Little River Band of Odawa Indians, Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, and the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians. Andrea Pierce, chair and founder of the Anishinaabek Caucus of the Michigan Democratic Party and member of Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, joined tribal members and environmentally conscious brethren to investigate. The caucus, with the aid of water advocates like Terri Wilkerson and Little Traverse Bay Bands citizen Fred Harrington, Jr., conducted side-scan sonar to see if something was amiss. Video footage and photographs taken during the excursions revealed a circle of stones thought to be part of a cultural site from as far back as 10,000 years ago, near the end of the Ice Age. "It's not just one little circle we're talking about," says Wilkerson, a retired real estate broker from Pinckney. "It's quite expansive. We're not talking about a 20-by-20-foot area." Similar rock formations have been located near Grand Traverse Bay and Beaver Island.

Nearly 50% of spring hearing respondents oppose new Line 5 (AP) — Almost half of the respondents to the Wisconsin Conservation Congress’ spring hearings questionnaire say they would support the organization if it opposes reconstructing Enbridge Inc.’s Line 5 pipeline across northern Wisconsin. The company decided to reroute the pipeline after the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa sued to force removal of the line from its reservation. The company is seeking permits from the Department of Natural Resources and state utility regulators to reroute the line. The Conservation Congress is a group of influential outdoor enthusiasts that advises the DNR on policy. The congress’ spring hearing questionnaire earlier this month said the line is aging and should be decommissioned. The questionnaire asked respondents if they would support the congress should it oppose construction to replace the portion of line that runs across the reservation. Respondents could file their answers online from April 12 through April 15. ADVERTISEMENT Nearly half of Wisconsin residents who responded during the three-day virtual response period — about 48% — said they would support the congress’ opposition. A little more than a third — about 38% — said they would not support a stance opposing the reconstruction and 16% were undecided. About 49% of all respondents, including those from outside Wisconsin, said they would support congress opposition. Thirty-four percent said they would not support opposition and about 17% were undecided. Only 165 respondents were from outside the state. The breakdown was the same to a question asking if respondents would support congress opposition to DNR permits for the reconstruction, with about 47% saying they would support opposition and about 34% saying they wouldn’t with about 18% undecided. The percentages were the same for both Wisconsin residents and all respondents.

Labor union study says St. Paul Park refinery becoming less safe - A large labor union said Marathon Petroleum has increasingly compromised safety at its St. Paul Park refinery, including dismantling part of its in-house fire department. Marathon, which bought the refinery in 2018, bristled at the allegations, saying that its firefighting capabilities are "robust" and that it has an "outstanding safety record." The report issued by the Laborers Union comes three months after the start of an ongoing labor dispute at the Marathon St. Paul Park refinery. The Laborers are not directly involved in that dispute, but they represent workers at union contractors that have been replaced by nonunion contractors at Marathon. Ohio-based Marathon, the nation's largest oil refinery company, has continued operating the plant with management employees from St. Paul Park and its other refineries. Marathon acquired the St. Paul Park refinery in 2018 as part of its $23 billion buyout of Andeavor LLC. Since then, union leaders said Marathon has increasingly relied on nonunion contractors — from repair projects carried out by pipe fitters to cleaning work by laborers. "It has moved from overwhelmingly union contractors to nonunion contractors from out of state," At the same time, Marathon has let safety slip at St. Paul Park, according to the report, which is largely built on interviews with striking in-plant employees and workers from outside contractors. Workers provided "multiple examples" of "hydrocarbon" — oil and gas — releases or chemical releases due to contractors' errors, the report said. They also told of unsafe work conditions, including improper handling of flammable chemicals. And workers brought in to replace union tradesworkers had an "obvious lack of experience and training," the Laborers' report said.M

Worker group alleges unsafe practices at Marathon Minnesota refinery (Reuters) - Inadequate safety standards at Marathon Petroleum's St. Paul Park refinery in Minnesota have caused avoidable hydrocarbon and chemical releases that pose a threat to the community, a local worker advocacy group said in a report on Sunday, as a lockout of unionized plant workers extends into its third month. The report by Local Jobs North, a union-backed organization, said that lax safety standards at the plant led to mistakes that could have ignited volatile hydrocarbons. It also cited inadequate installation of safety controls for pipe repair operations and use of poorly constructed scaffolding. The report, which was reviewed by Reuters, said that Marathon eliminated dedicated safety positions and removed experienced maintenance contractors to save on costs after taking over the plant in 2018. The report was based largely on information from employees who asked to remain anonymous due to fear of retaliation, according to its co-author Kevin Pranis, marketing manager for the Laborers' International Union of North America branch in Minnesota and North Dakota. Despite a general improvement in safety metrics at U.S. refineries, there have been some incidents at these facilities in recent years that have killed and injured workers as a result of aging equipment and human error, often by untrained employees. Marathon said it selects contractors through a comprehensive evaluation process, that they receive training for specific roles and meet federal and state regulations, and that independent auditors vet contractor health and safety programs.

DOE: Granholm enters Line 3 debate with call for 'clean' pipelines -- Monday, April 26, 2021 --Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm gave a thumbs-down at a CNN climate town hall to a Minnesota oil conduit environmentalists have targeted, though she acknowledged that the project isn't in her department.

PUC rejects investigating increased Enbridge oil shipments -  The oil flow through Enbridge's pipelines across northern Minnesota has grown significantly since the company set out to build its new Line 3. Honor the Earth, an Indigenous environmental group, in October asked for the state's utility regulators to investigate that change in volume, saying it negated the need for the $3 billion replacement for the existing Line 3. The Public Utility Commission (PUC) on Thursday declined to investigate in a 5-0 vote. The commissioners agreed with Enbridge that the panel lacked jurisdiction because its approval of the Line 3 project is now in front of the Minnesota Court of Appeals. "I don't want the court to somehow look at us as trying to interfere with its jurisdiction," said John Tuma, a PUC commissioner. "If we start monkeying around with the record, it could cause a delay at the Court of Appeals." Paul Blackburn, an attorney for Honor the Earth, said the record for the appeal is already set and wouldn't be reopened just to account for the group's complaint about Enbridge. Honor the Earth and other environmental groups, along with three Ojibwe bands, appealed the PUC's 2020 approval of Line 3. They said, among other things, that Enbridge's demand forecasts for the pipeline were faulty. The Minnesota Department of Commerce also has appealed the PUC's Line 3 approval on the oil demand issue. The appeals court held oral arguments on March 23. A decision, which could halt work on the pipeline, is due by June 21. Oil volume on Enbridge's Minnesota system rose steadily in the late 2010s, climbing past an annual average of more than 2.8 million barrels per day as the company increased its operating efficiency. The new Line 3 would add about 375,000 barrels per day of capacity to Enbridge's corridor of six pipelines across Minnesota. During the hearings for Line 3, Enbridge had reported that the system's effective capacity was just over 2.4 million barrels per day, meaning the company has added 400,000 barrels per day in capacity. Thus, Honor the Earth claims Enbridge provided incorrect information to the PUC during the Line 3 hearings.

Appeals court denies new hearing over Dakota Access pipeline permit - A federal appeals court on Friday declined to rehear a ruling against the Dakota Access pipeline after it agreed in January that its permit violated federal law. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld its January decision, which agreed with a lower court that the pipeline’s federal easement was a violation of the National Environmental Policy Act. The court declined without explanation to review that earlier decision. Dakota Access, the pipeline company behind the project, will likely seek to have the case heard by the Supreme Court, although the federal government has dropped its backing of the company. In its January decision, the appeals court ruled the pipeline’s easement was not subject to sufficient environmental review. In a separate case, a federal district court is considering a request from pipeline opponents, including the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, to shut down the pipeline over the easement issues. Although President Biden rescinded the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline as one of his first acts in office, the Justice Department has so far declined to halt the Dakota Access pipeline during the regulatory review process. This has caught the ire of a number of environmental groups that backed Biden in the presidential race, including the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council. “President Biden campaigned and was elected on the boldest climate platform ever. Minutes after being sworn in, Biden began taking real, meaningful climate action,” Sierra Club Director Michael Brune said in a statement earlier this month. “Yet, President Biden’s actions today fail to live up to the climate and Tribal commitments he made, nor is it in line with the bold action he has taken since taking office.” The Hill has reached out to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe for comment.

 Dakota Access loses appeals bid, setting the stage for a second shutdown showdown in Boasberg's court --Dakota Access has lost its bid for an appeal of a decision that vacated their permits last year and required more environmental study of the crossing 90 feet under Lake Oahe. That means things are still on track for a second shutdown showdown. The DC Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday declined to reconsider its decision upholding a lower court decision that vacated permits for Dakota Access and required the Corps to conduct additional environmental study due to the pipeline’s controversial nature. The appeals court’s order denying DAPL’s appeal offers little insight into the court’s reasoning. The decision leaves Dakota Access with dwindling options for appeal — the Supreme Court, which does not always take such cases up. This sets the stage for a second hearing into the shutdown question, which has already been proceeding concurrently with the appeals process. Dakota Access filed an updated estimate of economic harm caused by a shutdown in Boasberg’s court on that question Monday. The statement is a key metric Boasberg will have to consider in his decision, and it now includes the sworn testimony of MHA Nation’s Chairman Mark Fox, who said his tribe would lose $160 million in a one-year period and $250 million in a two-year period if the pipeline shuts down. Fox has also sent a letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers seeking one-on-one consultation on the pipeline’s continuity, in which he states that Dakota Access carries more than 60 percent of the Fort Berthold Reservation’s oil to market. A response to DAPL’s updated estimate are expected Monday from the Standing Rock Sioux and other parties opposing the pipeline, which will be another key metric in Boasberg’s consideration. North Dakota on Monday also filed a motion to intervene in the case, saying that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has abandoned its leadership role and no longer adequately represents the interests of the state. The motion followed a status report earlier this month in which the Biden administration said oil could continue to flow on the Dakota Access pipeline. That irked environmental and tribal groups, who had pressed the President to take direct action to shut the pipeline down. North Dakota, however, was also irked that the Corps didn’t take a strong stand defending their permit, and indicated its defense of the permit might not be as vigorous as before. The federal agency also said it is constantly evaluating the situation and could at any time change its position. North Dakota in its motion to intervene said it has a vital interest in defending its permitting processes, which were responsible for 358 miles of the Dakota Access pipeline’s 1,172-mile route. The Corps is responsible for just the 1.73 mile crossing 90 feet below Lake Oahe.

Judge orders Army Corps update on Dakota Access pipeline by May 3 -- A federal judge ordered the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to provide an update by May 3 on when it plans to complete an environmental review of the Dakota Access oil pipeline and whether it recommends the line should shut during the review process, court records showed on Monday. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia is considering a request by Native American tribes to shut the 557,000 barrel per day crude oil line out of North Dakota while the review is carried out. The Army Corps at a hearing earlier this month said it expects the review would be completed by March 2022, but it has not made a recommendation about whether to close the line during that process.

Judge gives U.S. 2nd chance to offer Dakota Access pipeline opinion -  — A federal judge faced with a motion on whether the Dakota Access oil pipeline north of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation should be shut down during an environmental review is giving the Biden administration another chance to weigh in on the issue.U.S. District Judge James Boasberg held a hearing earlier this month to give the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers an opportunity to explain whether oil should continue to flow during its study, after an appeals panel upheld Boasberg's ruling that the pipeline was operating without a key federal permit. The Corps instead told the judge it wasn't sure if it should be shut down.The decision not to intervene came as a bitter disappointment to Standing Rock, other tribes involved in the lawsuit and environmental groups. Even the judge appeared to be taken aback when the Corps opted to shrug its shoulders."I too am a little surprised that this is where things stand 60 days later," Boasberg said at the hearing, referring to the three months he gave the Biden administration to catch up on proceedings. "I would have thought there would be a decision one way or another at this point."Boasberg said in a one sentence order filed late Monday that the Corps has until May 3 to tell him when it expects the environmental review to be completed and give "its position, if it has one," on whether the pipeline should be shut down. The Corps said earlier it expected the review to be done by March 2022. Attorneys for the pipeline's Texas-based owner, Energy Transfer, have argued that shuttering the pipeline now that economic conditions are improving would cause a major financial hit to several entities, including North Dakota, and the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation located in the state's oil patch.

Oil-rich Bakken Shale shows promise of natural gas growth despite fewer rigs --Although oil production in most US shale basins is not expected to reach pre-coronavirus levels until at least late 2023, additional processing and higher gas-to-oil ratios might still lead to natural gas growth in the oil-rich Bakken. Oneok increased its first-quarter natural gas and natural gas liquids volumes processed in the Williston Basin and plans to bring another 200 MMcf/d of processing capacity online before year-end, which will further reduce flaring in North Dakota. Gas volumes processed in the Rocky Mountain region increased 5% while NGL raw feed throughput volumes grew 20%, the company reported in its first-quarter 2021 earnings call on April 28. This occurred despite winter storm production freeze-offs in February and lower year-over-year drilling activity in the region. "The Williston Basin continues to surpass our expectations," Oneok CEO Terry Spencer said. "Our increased operations were not reliant on increased rig activity or commodity prices. Instead, it is based on DUC inventory, rising gas to oil ratios and increased ethane demand." Oneok chief operations officer Kevin Burdick said: "There are 350 DUC wells on our dedicated acreage. With eight completion crews, there is no need for additional drilling or completion crews to maintain our volumes throughout the year. Any additional activity would provide upside." With more than 200 MMcf/d of natural gas still being flared in the Bakken, according to the latest data by the North Dakota Industrial Commission, more volumes of gas can still be captured even if production stagnates for the foreseeable future, especially with wells demonstrating higher gas-to-oil ratios. The company is moving forward with its 200 MMcf/d Bear Creek natural gas processing plant expansion and related infrastructure in the Williston Basin, which is slated for completion in the fourth quarter of 2021.

Continental Resources ramping up Bakken operations, adds rigs to Powder River Basin -- (Reuters) - Shale oil producer Continental Resources on Thursday said it will ramp up activity in North Dakota’s Bakken shale field this year as it shifts more of its production operations to crude oil from natural gas.  The company said roughly 70% of its well completions in the second half of the year will be focused on the Bakken versus about 50% of completions at the start of the year. The shift comes as the company is re-orienting its production portfolio to focus more heavily on oil, Chief Executive Officer Bill Berry told investors during an earnings call. U.S. oil prices have rebounded as coronavirus vaccine roll-outs pick up pace, and were trading around $64 a barrel on Thursday, versus around $15 a barrel a year ago as coronavirus lockdowns crushed fuel demand and battered the oil market. “We see supply and demand is coming back into balance and that bodes well for commodity prices in the future,” Continental Executive Chairman Harold Hamm told investors. There remains a supply overhang in the market, and upward momentum in oil prices largely depends on the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) “functioning as they do and have been,” he said.

Senate votes to restore Obama-era regulation of methane, a climate-warming gas --The U.S. Senate on Wednesday voted to reverse former President Donald Trump's move to weaken Obama-era regulations designed to reduce climate-changing methane emissions from oil and gas fields. The 52-42 vote sets up the first official reinstatement of one of more than 100 climate regulations dismantled by the Trump administration. Regulating methane, a primary component of natural gas, is critical for advancing President Joe Biden's goal to slash U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in half from 2005 levels over the next decade and achieve a net-zero economy by 2050. Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, as well as Sens. Martin Heinrich, D-NM, Angus King, I-ME, and Edward Markey, D-Mass., introduced the resolution under the Congressional Review Act, a law which allows Congress to quickly overturn a previous administration's regulations with a simple majority vote and a signature from the president. The Democratic-held House is expected to approve the measure and send it to President Joe Biden. The White House supports the passage of the bill, according to a statement on Tuesday from the Office of Management and Budget. Passing the bill would reinstate the 2012 and 2016 Oil and Natural Gas New Source Performance Standards set by the Obama administration. The Trump administration's rollback last year eliminated federal requirements for oil and gas companies to monitor and repair methane leaks from pipelines, storage facilities and wells. Three Republican senators voted for the bill: Susan Collins of Maine, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Rob Portman of Ohio. Trump's effort to dismantle the rule was a victory for the oil and gas industry, which comprises nearly 30% of U.S. methane emissions. Smaller oil and gas companies and fossil fuel lobbyists who supported Trump's rollback have argued that methane regulations are too expensive. Major oil and gas companies like BP, Shell and Exxon, who have promoted natural gas as a cleaner fuel than coal, have voiced support for methane regulation. A spokesperson for the American Petroleum Institute, the oil and gas industry's largest trade group, said the group is working with the Biden administration "in support of the direct regulation of methane for new and existing sources through a new rulemaking process."

California governor seeks ban on new fracking by 2024 (AP) — Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday said California will stop issuing fracking permits by 2024 and halt all oil drilling by 2045, using his authority to take on the state’s powerful oil and gas industry in a year he will likely face voters in a recall election. Newsom’s order is the beginning of a lengthy rule-making process that, if successful, would make California the largest state to ban fracking and likely the first in the world to set a deadline for the end of all oil production. “California needs to move beyond oil,” Newsom said in a news release, arguing it would “create a healthier future for our children.” California was once one of the largest oil-producing states in the nation, with a robust industry centered in the Central Valley just north of Los Angeles. But by 2020, the state’s oil production fell to its lowest level in state history, down 68% from its peak in 1985. Now, one of the state’s top exports is electric cars. The state has ordered automakers to sell more electric work trucks and delivery vans and, last year, Newsom ordered state regulators to ban the sale of all new gas-powered cars by 2035. Still, California is the seventh-largest oil producing state in the country, with an industry that directly employs about 152,000 people and is responsible for $152.3 billion in economic output, according to a 2019 study commissioned by the Western States Petroleum Association. Friday, WSPA President and CEO Catherine Reheis-Boyd vowed “to fight this harmful and unlawful mandate.” “Banning nearly 20% of the energy production in our state will only hurt workers, families and communities in California and turns our energy independence over to foreign suppliers,” she said. Eliminating California’s oil and gas industry won’t be easy. The state has more than 60,000 active oil wells, and industry executives and their allies have lots of influence at the state Capitol. But in the first quarter of 2021, permits for all types of oil drilling in California plunged 90%, according to an analysis of state data by FracTracker Alliance, an environmental advocacy group.

California's New Fossil Fuel Pledge Is Still a 'Half-Measure,' Say Climate Advocates --Climate campaigners on Friday cautiously applauded California Gov. Gavin Newsom's moves to cut off new hydraulic fracturing permits by 2024 and evaluate phasing out oil production by 2045, while also stressing that the timeline still needs to be accelerated.The embattled Democratic governor of the world's fifth-largest economy directed the state Department of Conservation's Geologic Energy Management (CalGEM) Division to initiate regulatory action to stop new fracking permits and requested that the California Air Resources Board (CARB) analyze how to stop extracting oil statewide."It's historic and globally significant that Gov. Newsom has committed California to phase out fossil fuel production and ban fracking, but we don't have time for studies and delays," said Kassie Siegel, director of the Climate Law Institute at the Center for Biological Diversity, in a statement."Californians living next to these dirty and dangerous drilling operations need protection from oil industry pollution today," she added. "Every fracking and drilling permit issued does more damage to our health and climate."Food & Water Watch California director Alexandra Nagy agreed that the governor's steps were significant andshared Siegel's frustrations with Newsom's refusal to immediately ban fracking by executive action."This announcement is a half-measure as it allows continued drilling and fracking for the next two-and-a-half years," Nagy said. "Directing his regulatory agencies to do the work over two-and-a-half years that the governor can do today is more of the dodging we've seen from Newsom during his entire tenure." Since taking office in January 2019, he has approved 8,610 oil and gas well permits, according to Consumer Watchdog and FracTracker's "Newsom Well Watch" website.

End fracking exemptions, a threat to maternal and public health - Chelsea Clinton, et al -  The adoption of safe, clean, renewable energy is an essential element for sustaining the U.S. economy and maintaining the health of its citizens. There are many paths to these goals. Hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking, is not one of them. To protect communities across the country today — from the Santa Maria Basin in California to the Appalachian Mountains in northern New York — as well as future generations, the country must rapidly phase out harmful fracking. Environmental pollutants caused by fracking are known risk factors for congenital heart defects, hormonal disruption, maternal stress, and preterm birth. Fracking rigs have become so abundant in the U.S. that their flares can now be seen from NASA satellites. An estimated 17 million Americans live within 1 mile of a fracking site.At a time when the world is grappling with the imminence and enormity of climate change, the continuation of fracking operations moves the U.S. away from its climate goals, not toward them. More immediately, the industry’s ability to avoid federal environmental regulation — and harm the health of the communities where fracking is being conducted — is alarming. In 2005 under the Bush-Cheney administration, the Energy Policy Act freed fracking from regulations required by the Environmental Protection Agency’s underground injection control program, which is designed to protect underground drinking water sources. This set of exemptions became known as the Halliburton loophole, named after the first fracking company, Halliburton, for which then-Vice President Dick Cheney was the former CEO.  The frightening reality of the Halliburton loophole is that it allows companies to inject massive amounts of potentially harmful chemicals into the earth and pollute the air without disclosing what they are doing. The fracking industry has sidestepped an astonishing list of federal regulations, including the Clean Water Act; the Clean Air Act; theResource Conservation and Recovery Act; the EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory Program; theCERCLA Superfund bill, which makes polluting parties liable for cleaning up injected fluids used in fracking; the Toxic Substances Control Act; and most state water-use regulations. “This means that for fracking, the suite of regulatory protections normally in place to reduce hazardous environmental exposures and protect public health do not apply,” explains Joan Casey, a colleague of ours who is an assistant professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University. Because companies conducting fracking operations don’t have to report to the Toxic Release Inventory Program, it is left to scientists to evaluate the impact of fracking on the air, waterways, and human health.

EPA, U.S. Virgin Islands officials launch second probe after Limetree Bay refinery releases noxious fumes - The Washington Post - Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Virgin Islands officials are investigating a second accident at a controversial refinery in St. Croix after it emitted noxious fumes that prompted some schools and a vaccination site on the island to close Friday. The release of sulfuric gases from the facility, which caused nausea and eye irritation in some residents and comes shortly after the Limetree Bay refinery showered oil on a neighboring community, has raised fresh questions about the operation. The company and territory officials gave differing accounts of what emanated from the plant. Jean-Pierre Oriol, U.S. Virgin Islands planning and natural resources commissioner, said in a statement Friday that the refinery had released hydrogen sulfide, which can cause serious health impacts at high exposure levels during a short period. The company, however, said the hydrogen sulfide had been converted to sulfur dioxide before entering the atmosphere. Oriol, said that his office was “aware of a foul, gaseous smell permeating through-out the Frederiksted area for the past few days” and is looking into the matter. He urged vulnerable residents to stay indoors until the fumes had dissipated.“[The Department of Planning and Natural Resources] is advising the public that persons with respiratory ailments such as allergies, lung disease and asthma should consider taking protective actions,” Oriol said. “Protective actions include staying indoors or relocating to areas less affected.”The fumes also forced the island’s covid-19 vaccination center on the University of Virgin Islands campus to close Friday. An official there said it was slated to reopen on Monday.The company confirmed in a statement that it had experienced an accident that began Thursday night and lasted until early Friday morning, “which created a strong odor detectable outside the facility. Limetree has corrected the problem and will continue to monitor any additional impact to the outside community.”On Saturday, it clarified that the upset had triggered a pressure relief valve that sent “an unusually high amount of sulfur-containing gases” into a flare, where they were burned before being released into the air.High levels of sulfur dioxide can not only irritate the eyes, nose and throat, but cause inflammation of the respiratory system. Over time, it can contribute to lung and heart disease. The refinery, which restarted operations nearly three months ago after the plant had been shuttered for nearly a decade, is already under scrutiny for a Feb. 4 accident that sent a fine mist of oil over broad swaths of the island, settling on houses as far as three miles away. The oil settled on cars, gardens, rooftops and cisterns filled with rainwater that residents use for drinking, cooking and bathing.

EPA to Send Investigators to Probe 'Distressing' Incidents at the Limetree Refinery in the U.S. Virgin Islands -The Environmental Protection Agency will send investigators to the U.S. Virgin Islands as early as this week, the agency announced Tuesday, as part of a larger probe into a series of accidents at a St. Croix oil refinery that residents worry has exposed them to dangerous levels of noxious fumes and poisoned their drinking water.The investigation, which will be done in conjunction with U.S. Virgin Islands officials, will look into recent mishaps at the Limetree Bay refinery, including an accidental flare last week that released large amounts of sulfuric gases, causing three schools to shut down on Friday and prompting local officials to issue a warning for those with breathing issues to stay indoors.The fumes also forced the island’s Covid-19 vaccination center on the University of the Virgin Islands campus to close Friday, the Washington Post reported last week.“We smell it outside, we smell it inside. It irritates your eyes, your throat,” said Olasee Davis, an ecology professor at the university, which is located about two and a half miles west of the refinery. “People are concerned about their health.”  It’s the second flaring incident, in which a refinery burns off gases or releases steam as a safety precaution, since the plant reopened in February under new ownership. An accidental flare on Feb. 4 covered more than 130 homes in the nearby Clifton Hill neighborhood with specks of oil and contaminated the drinking water for dozens of residents.  EPA’s announcement Tuesday was a sign that the agency may be ramping up its investigation into possible violations by Limetree and is the latest in a series of developments that have cast doubt on the future of the refinery. In March, the agency withdrew a key air pollution permit for the plant that would have allowed the company to expand its refining operations in the future, citing environmental justice concerns and a need to further review how to best safeguard the community. The refinery also shut down operations for about three weeks earlier this month due to an undisclosed mishap, and several top Limetree executives announced they were stepping down, according to reports from Reuters.

  Alberta Environment investigates oil spill - Alberta Environment and Parks has now identified the source of a recent oil spill in Stony Plain, that was classified as an environmental disaster. Clean up crews with ProNorth Environmental Services Inc. in Sturgeon County were on scene last week for several days securing the area and cleaning up the oil from a nearby creek. In the early afternoon on April 7, Alberta Environment informed the town of an oil spill in the North Business Park, where a used oil drum was found leaking into a nearby creek, west of the Stony Plain Lions RV Park & Campground. A ministry spokesperson provided an update and additional information, following an investigation. “Alberta Environment and Parks has tracked the source to a tipped over used oil above ground storage tank, outside of the fence line of a light industrial park,” said Paul Hamnett, press secretary to Jason Nixon, Minister of Environment and Parks. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article contentAt this time it is unknown who the owner of the tank is or how it tipped over and leaked. The total tank volume was 2,300 litres and it is unknown exactly when the spill occurred, noted Hamnett. “The oil travelled approximately 300 metres and goes through one culvert and then is contained by a hanging culvert that has been fortified with boom and an underflow weir to prevent further spread,” he said. “None has travelled past this point.” Hamnett noted that environmental contractors continued clean up at the site this week, at the direction of the Town of Stony Plain. About 1,500 litres of used oil have been collected and disposed of at an approved facility. Vac trucks were skimming the product and gently flushing stained vegetation and wildlife deterrents have been installed on the site. “A waste storage container has been mobilized to site to store contaminated soil prior to disposal,” said Hamnett. “Sampling continues to occur at the site and the downstream containment point is secure.”

BP beats first-quarter estimates on stronger commodity prices, improving oil demand — British energy major BP on Tuesday reported better-than-expected earnings for the first quarter, following a period of stronger commodity prices and a brighter demand outlook. It comes as oil and gas majors seek to prove to investors that they have gained a more stable footing amid the ongoing coronavirus crisis. BP's first-quarter underlying replacement cost profit, used as a proxy for net profit, came in at $2.6 billion. That compared with a profit of $115 million in the fourth quarter and $791 million for the first quarter of 2020. Analysts had expected BP to report first-quarter profit of $1.4 billion, according to Refinitiv. The London-based energy giant said the result was driven by "exceptional" gas marketing and trading performance, "significantly" higher oil prices and stronger refining margins. Net debt fell $5.6 billion to $33.3 billion at the end of the first three months of the year, meaning BP hit its target of reducing net debt to $35 billion. The company said it would now retire this goal, subject to maintaining a strong investment grade credit rating. Looking ahead, BP said it intends to resume share buybacks at a cost of around $500 million in the second quarter.

Shell raises dividend for second time in six months after first-quarter earnings beat forecasts — Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell on Thursday reported slightly better-than-expected first-quarter earnings, amid stronger commodity prices and growing expectations of a fuel demand recovery. Shell also raised its dividend by around 4%, its second increase in six months, as the oil major seeks to reassure investors it has gained a more stable footing. It comes after Shell slashed its payout for the first time since World War II in April last year. The Anglo-Dutch company reported adjusted earnings of $3.2 billion for the three months through to the end of March. That compared with $2.9 billion over the same period a year earlier, and $393 million for the fourth quarter of 2020. Analysts had expected first-quarter adjusted earnings to come in at $3.1 billion, according to Refinitiv. Ben van Beurden, CEO of Royal Dutch Shell, said in a statement that the company had made a "strong start" to the year and was "ideally positioned to benefit from recovering demand." Shell confirmed the massive winter storm that engulfed Texas in February had an aggregate impact of around $200 million on first-quarter adjusted earnings. It had warned this was likely to be the case in an update published April 7. Shares of Shell rose around 1.3% during morning deals in London. The firm's stock price has climbed more than 9% year-to-date, having tumbled nearly 40% in 2020. Net debt was reduced by $4 billion over the first three months of the year, falling to $71.3 billion. The company has targeted reducing its whopping debt pile to $65 billion as part of its plans for a sustainable future. Shell has urged investors to take part in an advisory vote on its climate plans at the group's annual shareholder meeting on May 13. Shell's van Beurden has previously said the firm's energy transition strategy, which sets out plans to become a carbon neutral company by 2050, is "designed to bring our energy products, our services, and our investments in line with the temperature goal of the Paris Agreement and the global drive to combat climate change." Activist shareholder group Follow This has criticized the firm's energy strategy, saying it is not consistent with the Paris Agreement — a landmark accord considered critically important to reduce the risk of a climate catastrophe. In its outlook for the second quarter, Shell warned of persistent "significant uncertainty" in economic conditions, with an anticipated negative impact on the oil and gas industry. The energy giant said sales volumes could be adversely impacted and it may need to take measures to curtail oil and/or gas production. "Such measures will likely have a variety of impacts on our operational and financial metrics," Shell said.

Marine Rescue Service performed oil spill response activities in Vanino port -- Marine Rescue Service says it is completing oil spill response activities in the port of Vanino (Khabarovsk Territory). The incident happened during the operation conducted by the Siziman tanker homeported in Vanino (owned by Far East Tanker Company) to bunker the Chios Trinity (flag of Panama, owned by Venture Shipping & Trading S.A.). Rescue forces of MRS Sakhalin branch’s Vanino subdivision conducted oil response activities upon the request of the Harbour Master. According to the operation control department, the spill of heavy fuel oil was caused by the fuel hose collapse. 200 liters were spilled on the deck of the Chios Trinity with 100 of the product spilling on the water. Boom-laying boat Spasatel Aleksyuk with a rescue team was sent to the incident site. They conducted oil spill containment having placed 200 meters of booms around the vessel and having collected the spilled oil products. The water area is currently being cleared with sorbents. Environment monitoring is underway.

 Total Declares Force Majeure on Mozambique LNG  --Total declared force majeure on its Mozambique LNG project on Monday. In a statement posted on its website, the company noted the evolution of the security situation in the north of the Cabo Delgado province in Mozambique and confirmed the withdrawal of all Mozambique LNG project personnel from the Afungi site. “Total expresses its solidarity with the government and people of Mozambique and wishes that the actions carried out by the government of Mozambique and its regional and international partners will enable the restoration of security and stability in Cabo Delgado province in a sustained manner,” Total said in the statement. In August last year, Total revealed that it had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Government of Mozambique regarding the security of Mozambique LNG project activities. The MOU provided that a joint task force would ensure the security of Mozambique LNG project activities in Afungi site and across the broader area of operations of the project, Total noted in a company statement at the time. In July 2020, Total announced the signing of a $14.9 billion senior debt financing agreement for the Mozambique LNG project, which is the country’s first onshore LNG development. Mozambique LNG represents a total post-financial investment decision investment of $20 billion, the company outlined in July last year. Total E&P Mozambique Area 1 Limitada, a wholly owned subsidiary of Total, operates Mozambique LNG with a 26.5 percent participating interest.

Bayelsa community Bemoans impact of oil spill from Shells pipeline -Residents of Ikarama community in Yenagoa local government area of Bayelsa State, have lamented the adverse impact of an oil leak from a nearby Shell’s oilfield, calling for the immediate remediation of the situation. The oil pollution is from the April 7, 2021 leak from Shell’s 14-inch Okordia-Rumekpe pipeline which discharged crude into the area. The Okordia-Rumemkpe crude trunkline is part of the Trans Niger Pipeline (TNP), operated by Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) and conveys crude to the oil firm’s crude export terminal at Bonny in Rivers State. LEADERSHIP gathered that a Joint Investigation Visit (JIV) was conducted and the report confirmed that the leak was traced to equipment failure which emanated from a rupture on the 14-inch crude delivery pipeline. The JIV exercise, which is a statutory probe into the cause of any recorded spill incident involving the oil firm, regulators, host communities and state ministries of environment, discovered that some 213 barrels which had no impact on the environment outside SPDC’s right of way leaked from its asset, while approximately 110 barrels polluted 1.34 hectares of land. Residents near the spill impacted site told LEADERSHIP that they have suffered untold hardship from the pollution of land, air and lakes near the area due to the evaporation of the leaked crude by the scorching sun. Mr Education Ikiowori, who works at the Ikarama oilfields and witnessed the JIV, said the spill was as a result of corrosion. He said that Shell and the regulators had visited and they excavated the place in search of the cause of the spill. “They all saw that the rupture was caused by corrosion, yet Shell disagreed. “Normally SPDC when they come even if the spill was caused by corrosion, they would try to influence it in their favour by saying it was caused by third party so as to avoid responsibility to the land owners. For this one, thank God that it was very obvious that it was equipment failure as the government representatives and regulators and all who were here confirmed it,” he said. Chief Washington Odoyibo said that residents have been experiencing the antics of Shell, attributing every spill incident to sabotage times without number.

Exxon Strikes More Oil Offshore Guyana   Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) on Tuesday reported another oil discovery in the Stabroek Block offshore Guyana. Located some 6.8 miles (11 kilometers) south of the Uaru-1 well, the most recent Uaru-2 well encountered approximately 120 feet (36.7 meters) of high-quality oil-bearing sandstone reservoir that includes newly identified intervals below Uaru-1, ExxonMobil noted in a written statement emailed to Rigzone. The company noted the latest discovery augments Stabroek’s previous recoverable resource estimate of approximately 9 billion barrels of oil equivalent. “The Uaru-2 discovery enhances our work to optimally sequence development opportunities in the Stabroek Block,” remarked Mike Cousins, ExxonMobil’s senior vice president of exploration and new ventures. “Progressing our industry-leading investments and well-executed exploration plans are vital in order to continue to develop Guyana’s offshore resources that unlock additional value for the people of Guyana and all stakeholders.” ExxonMobil affiliate Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited operates the Stabroek projects and owns a 45% interest in the block. Other stakeholders include Hess Guyana Exploration Ltd. (NYSE: HES) (30%) and CNOOC Petroleum Guyana Limited (HKG: 0883) (25%). “We expect to have at least six FPSOs on the Stabroek Block by 2027, with the potential for up to 10 FPSOs to develop the current discovered recoverable resource base,” commented Hess CEO John Hess in a separate written statement.

DENR to investigate possible oil spill in Manila Bay --The Department of Environment and Natural Resources is investigating a possible oil spill in Manila Bay.According to a report on "24 Oras Weekend" on Sunday, yellow stains can be seen in the water surrounding a yacht moored beside the sea wall of the Manila Yacht Club.The DENR said the possible oil spill spread about 500 meters.The DENR took samples of the water which were sent to the Environmental Management Bureau to determine if it was oil. The water has yet to be cleaned by authorities.

 Crews start clean-up of oil spill off Chinas Qingdao port - Clean-up crews worked on Wednesday to contain an oil spill in the Yellow Sea near the Chinese port city of Qingdao, a day after a collision between a tanker carrying around a million barrels of bitumen mix and a bulk vessel in thick fog. A preliminary study estimated about 500 tonnes (3,420 barrels) of oil had been spilled but this needs to be assessed further, a Shandong Maritime Safety Administration official who declined to be identified told Reuters by phone. The safety administration had said on its Weibo account on Wednesday morning that the collision caused a “minor” spill. The Liberia-flagged tanker A Symphony, which was at anchor at Qingdao port, was involved in the collision with shipping vessel Sea Justice on Tuesday during heavy fog. The impact caused a breach in its cargo tanks and ballast tanks. Visibility in the area is improving and is at about 500 to 1,000 metres, the Shandong Maritime Safety Administration official said, adding that when the accident took place on Tuesday it had been less than 200 metres. He added that 12 vessels have been dispatched to deal with the accident and cleanup but did not say whether the leak had been contained. “The accident took place about 11 nautical miles south-east of Qingdao port and so far there has been no direct impact on the operation of Qingdao port,” said the Shandong official. “There are oil spill experts on the scene that have started clean-up operations,” said a spokesman for Goodwood Ship Management, manager of A Symphony on Wednesday. The two ships were in stable condition, there were no casualties and a probe into the cause of the accident was under way, the safety administration said.

China says Yellow Sea oil spill is small - China said Wednesday that an oil spill caused by a collision the previous day between an oil tanker and a cargo ship in the waters of the Yellow Sea is “a small amount.” “The collision damaged the cargo compartments of the tanker and a small amount of oil spill was found in the sea,” the Maritime Safety Authority of eastern China’s Shandong province said today through social network Weibo. It said “the two ships are stable” and emergency work continues, although the crash did not cause injuries. After the accident, a security perimeter was created “to prevent secondary accidents,” the authority added. The event occurred at about 09:00 local time (01:00 GMT) on Tuesday, when the Panamanian-flagged bulk carrier Sea Justice collided with the Liberian-flagged tanker A Symphony anchored in waters near the important port of Qingdao, in eastern China. The A Symphony tanker, 272 meters long and almost 46 meters wide, was built in 2001 and is managed by Singaporean company Goodwood Ship Management. The company confirmed the event in a statement sent Tuesday to EFE. “The force of the impact on the front of the port side caused a crack in the cargo and ballast tanks, with a quantity of crude oil spilled into the ocean,” it said. According to Goodwood Ship Management, poor visibility off Qingdao Port has hampered emergency operations, which are continuing at the moment.

 Ships steer clear as oil spill clean-up continues off China’s Qingdao port -(Reuters) – Ships steered clear of A Symphony on Thursday as an oil spill clean-up in the Yellow Sea near the Chinese port city of Qingdao continued, two days after a collision between the tanker and a bulk vessel in thick fog. A preliminary study estimated about 500 tonnes (3,420 barrels) of oil had been spilled but this needs to be assessed further, a Shandong Maritime Safety Administration official who declined to be identified told Reuters by phone on Wednesday. The Liberia-flagged tanker A Symphony was at anchor off Qingdao port with a cargo of around a million barrels of bitumen mix on board when it was involved in the collision with shipping vessel Sea Justice on Tuesday. The accident took place about 11 nautical miles south-east of Qingdao port and the impact caused a breach in its cargo tanks and ballast tanks. Ships have been instructed to stay at least 10 nautical miles away from the A Symphony. Hong Kong-based fuel trading company Run Cheng International Resource (HK) Co has said it was the owner of the 150,000-tonne cargo of bitumen blend on board the A Symphony. Bitumen mix, a blend of heavy crude oil and residue, is used by China’s independent refiners as an alternative refining feedstock as it often incurs a lower import tax than crude oil. It is also used for road surfacing and roofing.

Tanker collision spilt 400 tonnes of oil off China coast: Authorities, Around 400 tonnes of oil spilt into the Yellow Sea after a tanker collided with another ship off China's largest crude-receiving port earlier this week, maritime authorities said Thursday. "The amount of oil spilt from the ship into the sea is about 400 tonnes, and the emergency disposal work is being carried out in an orderly manner," said Shandong Maritime Safety Administration in a social media post. "The collision incident has had no impact on ships entering and leaving Qingdao port." It added that 12 decontamination vessels were deployed to clean up the oil spill, which took place around 40 nautical miles (75 kilometres) off-shore from Qingdao port in northeast China. Panamanian bulk carrier "Sea Justice" struck the Liberian oil tanker "A Symphony" near Qingdao around 9 am Tuesday, causing the tanker to lose "a quantity of oil", according to a previous statement from vessel managers Goodwood Ship Management. "All crew members have since been accounted for, and there are no injuries." Also read | Oil spills off China's Qingdao port after ship collision An unnamed official with the Maritime Safety Administration told Chinese state newspaper Global Times on Thursday that the cargo was labelled as "bitumen solution" but its specific content requires further testing. "The oil leak is in full disposal now and if technological controls are in place, it will certainly keep the impact on the environment to the minimum," the official was quoted as saying. After the collision, vessels were told not to go within ten nautical miles (18.5 kilometres) of the area, according to a separate notice by the Maritime Safety Administration. Goodwood Ship Management said Thursday that "managers are continuing to work closely with the MSA on the clean up operation and the investigation into the incident." It previously said poor visibility in the area was hampering oil spill clean-up efforts.

Bohai spill shipowner says it follows sanctions -- Greek shipowner NGM told Argus today it has no knowledge if crude that spilled from one of its vessels off China's coast this week originated in Venezuela, a longtime target of US sanctions. "The cargo onboard the A Symphony was loaded in Asia," the company said. "NGM Energy's strict compliance policy continues to be that the vessels it manages do not carry Venezuelan cargo absent authorization from US sanctions authorities. NGM screens all shipment details and documentation for sanctions compliance. NGM has not knowingly loaded any unauthorized cargoes of Venezuelan origin, either in Venezuela or abroad." Chinese authorities are working to clean up around 400t (3,000 bl) of oil that spilled from the 20-year-old Suezmax tanker following a collision with another vessel earlier this week. The Liberia-flagged tanker collided with the Panamanian flagged bulk vessel Sea Justice on 27 April, causing an oil spill in the Bohai sea near Qingdao port in Shandong province. Shandong's maritime safety administration (MSA) said it has dispatched 12 vessels to help clean up the oil and the emergency response work is proceeding smoothly. The incident happened around 40 nautical miles (75km) from Qingdao. Vessel arrivals and departures are continuing as normal at Qingdao, the MSA said. Malaysia loading Vortexa data indicate the A Symphony loaded its cargo in Malaysia in early April, but it is not clear where the crude originated. The A Symphony was due to discharge around 1mn bl of crude in Qingdao on 27 April, according to data from Vortexa. Details of the charterer are unavailable. The cargo was booked by a local trading firm and destined for an independent refiner in Shandong province, market participants said. The cargo was classified as bitumen blend. Despite US sanctions meant to keep Venezuelan oil out of the market, supplies of bitumen-rich 16°API Merey blend routinely make their way to China through obscure intermediaries, often undergoing ship-to-ship operations in southeast Asia.

 Oil Market Spoiled by OPEC+   -- The oil market has frequently been spoiled by OPEC+, as the alliance has stepped in several times since the start of the pandemic to save prices when the demand outlook was worsening. That’s what Rystad Energy’s head of oil markets, Bjornar Tonhaugen, said in a statement sent to Rigzone on Tuesday, adding that the group’s technical committee is now looking at India and other countries with concern. “The market boosted prices today as it expects that OPEC+ will address the developments in India and, since the country is among its major clients, it may reconsider its output policy,” Tonhaugen said. “Traders do not want to miss out on a potential bullish OPEC+ meeting so a limited optimism is reflected in prices. Should OPEC+ turn a blind eye to India though, the gains may quickly evaporate,” he added. Tonhaugen noted that news from India set off a loud alarm on trader floors this week and that oil prices have taken a hit on expectations that oil demand will crash in a country that is among the commodity’s largest consumers globally. The Rystad Energy representative said Covid-19 infections in India are already out of control and that the country’s healthcare system is insufficient to handle the population’s needs, therefore things will likely get much worse before they get better, with severe consequences for all commodities including oil. The 16th OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting is due to be held via videoconference on Wednesday. In a statement posted on OPEC’s twitter account on Tuesday, the organization’s secretary general noted that the global economy continues to show positive signals of recovery but also underscored the need to continue with vigilance as uncertainties remain going forward. India has seen more than 300,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19, and more than 2,000 deaths, every day since April 22, according to the latest information from the World Health Organization (WHO). The country has administered more than 130 million vaccine doses as of April 20, WHO’s latest data shows.

Oil Prices Falter Under Virus Surge Cloud  -- Oil slipped with the rapid resurgence of Covid-19 in India and other countries casting a cloud around a return to normal consumption, even as OPEC+ projected a strong global demand recovery this year. Futures in New York closed 0.4% lower on Monday. While an OPEC+ technical committee raised its global oil demand growth forecast for 2021 to 6 million barrels a day and said most of the fuel inventory glut accumulated during the pandemic will have depleted by the end of this quarter, the group cautioned that virus cases in India, Brazil and Japan may have a negative impact on economic growth. In India, signs of strain on the nation’s refiners are emerging. Indian Oil Corp. is looking to sell gasoline into the spot market -- a potential indication of weak domestic demand. The country’s refiners are being forced to postpone planned shutdowns for maintenance at some plants as workers are either fleeing or falling ill. “India poses a significant risk to the global recovery, especially as more information comes out as to how widespread the virus is there,” . While U.S. demand appears to be picking up, the market need to “see a continuation of the easing of Covid restrictions and the actual summer travel season kick into full gear.” Despite signs of a recovery in demand in the U.S. and the U.K., the patchy rebound worldwide poses a risk to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, which have agreed to start adding more supply from May. OPEC Secretary-General Mohammad Barkindo told officials at the start of the online meeting that there are “positive signals” in the global economy, but also pointed to factors in the oil market that require ongoing vigilance. “The news, particularly in the U.S., is looking a lot better, making people optimistic” on the demand recovery, said Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research. “But there’s still so much trouble in India, it’s uncertain how far prices can really go.” The OPEC+ panel’s global demand growth estimate for 2021 is up from its projection of 5.6 million barrels a day last month, though in line with a report published by OPEC’s secretariat a couple of weeks ago. The committee sees global oil inventories declining by 1.2 million barrels a day this year on average. West Texas Intermediate for June fell 23 cents to settle at $61.91 a barrel. Brent for June settlement slipped 46 cents to end the session at $65.65 a barrel. Among the worrying signs for India’s demand recovery, IOC has not yet issued an expected tender to purchase West African crude and Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd. has cut processing rates. The world’s third-largest oil importing country has been a particular area of concern for the oil market in recent days as it faces record daily coronavirus case counts and renewed restrictions in some parts of the country.

Oil Rises Despite OPEC+ Sticking to Output Hike Amid India COVID Surge -  (Reuters) -Oil prices edged higher on Tuesday as OPEC, Russia and their allies agreed to stick to plans to raise output slightly from May 1, suggesting they don't see a lasting impact on demand from India's coronavirus crisis. OPEC+, as the producer group is known, has also ditched plans to hold a full ministerial meeting on Wednesday, sources said. A technical meeting on Monday had voiced concern about surging COVID-19 cases but kept its oil demand forecast unchanged. The panel decided to stick to policies broadly agreed at a previous April 1 meeting of OPEC+, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said after the talks. Brent crude ended the session up 77 cents, or 1.2%, at $66.42 a barrel after climbing to a session high of $66.51. U.S. oil gained $1.03, or 1.7%, to settle at $62.94. Prices gave up some gains in post-settlement trade after U.S. crude stockpiles rose by about 4.32 million barrels last week, sources said, citing data from the American Petroleum Institute. OPEC+ was set to slightly ease oil output cuts from May 1, under a plan agreed before the coronavirus surge in India. India, the world's third-largest crude importer, has recorded a daily rise of more than 300,000 cases for several days. It has also reported a total of almost 200,000 deaths. "The possibility that increasing OPEC+ production could be intersecting with weakening Asian oil demand suggests a possible end to the reduction in the global oil supply surplus that has been supporting the complex during the past year,"

WTI Settles Near $63 Amid Robust Signals   Rigzone -- Oil climbed by the most in nearly two weeks with the OPEC+ alliance and BP Plc pointing to signs of a robust demand recovery taking shape in parts of the world. Futures in New York jumped 1.7% on Tuesday. An OPEC+ committee decided this week to move forward with a planned gradual crude production increase, anticipating a strong demand rebound this year, even as coronavirus cases rise in countries such as India. The producer group decided to skip a Wednesday meeting and instead gather in early June. In the U.S., where a demand recovery is seen outpacing much of the world, President Joe Biden said that he intends to send new vaccines to India. Meanwhile, BP Plc Chief Executive Officer Bernard Looney said China’s oil demand is above pre-pandemic levels. The OPEC+ decision to “skip the ministerial meeting shows that the energy market is in pretty good shape right now. But if new risks emerge, we’ll see how sensitive the market is.” U.S. benchmark crude futures are up more than 6% so far this month amid signs of a consumption recovery in some parts of the world. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said Tuesday that there is optimism in the global oil market and global mobility is increasing. Meanwhile, shipping giant A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S raised its earnings guidance citing surging demand for its services, underscoring a boom in global trade. The uneven pace at which the world’s economies are emerging from their pandemic-driven slump has given rise to dislocations in crude flows. Canadian oil sellers have sent exports on rare voyages to the U.S. West Coast this month as the U.S. makes progress in its vaccine rollout. But at the same time, West African crude exports to Asia are poised to drop to their lowest since October as shipments to India slump. “You’re seeing incredibly strong demand in America and China,” said BP CEO Bernard Looney in a Bloomberg Television interview. “America is almost back to where it was. The vaccines are going to kick in now in Europe. Then of course the question is what happens in the rest of the world.” West Texas Intermediate for June rose $1.03 to settle at $62.94 a barrel. Brent for the same month gained 77 cents to end the session at $66.42 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange. Gains in U.S. benchmark crude futures on Tuesday outpaced those of its global counterpart. Brent’s underlying market structure softened, with the premium of the nearest contract narrowing against the following month. Meanwhile, the discount of WTI’s front-month contract to Brent’s was the smallest in more than a week.

WTI Dips After Surprise Crude Build -- Oil prices rallied today, with WTI back above $63 as the OPEC+ Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee came and went without issue (discussing the desire to gently raise production as demand comes back... as expected). The group confirmed it will not hold a full ministerial meeting on Wednesday as planned, delegates at the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) agreed at their meeting on Tuesday, signaling confidence in the current plans to ease the production cuts While India fears remain, many remain confident in the recovery in the rest of the world...“You’re seeing incredibly strong demand,” BP Plc Chief Executive Officer Bernard Looney said in a Bloomberg TV interview on Tuesday. China’s oil demand is above pre-pandemic levels, the U.S. is almost back there and “vaccines are going to kick in now in Europe.”  For now, the next clue will come from inventories...  API

• Crude +4.319mm (-200k exp)
• Cushing +742k
• Gasoline -1.288mm
• Distillates -2.417mm (-1.2mm exp)

After the prior week's surprise crude build (albeit small), analysts expected a small draw last week but were likely shocked when API reported a big surprise 4.319mm crude build... WTI hovered around $63.20 ahead of the print and dipped modestly after  Not everyone is excited:“If the grim trend continues, the oil demand loss India will experience could be the single largest reduction in absolute terms that any country has suffered since the beginning of the pandemic,” Rystad Energy said in a note. The firm added that there is some optimism around the plans by OPEC+. “Should OPEC+ turn a blind eye to India though, the gains may quickly evaporate,” Rystad added.

WTI Extends Gains, Above $64, As Gasoline Demand Hits Pre-Pandemic Levels -- Oil prices are higher this morning, after dipping on API's reported - and unexpected - crude build last night, as expectations strengthened for a revival in global consumption despite the resurgent pandemic in India and Brazil. “The market expects a major revitalization for global oil demand from this summer onwards,” said Bjornar Tonhaugen, head of oil markets at Rystad Energy.“As vaccination campaigns progress and as lockdowns are set to soon be lifted in Europe and other recovering economies, the need for road and jet fuels will increase and the result will be felt.”  All eyes for now on Crude stocks after last night (and the prior week's) surprise build.  DOE

• Crude +90k (-200k exp)
• Cushing +722k
• Gasoline +92k
• Distillates -3.342mm (-1.2mm exp)

After the prior week's surprise crude build (and API's surprise crude build for this week), analysts continued to expect official data to show a modest draw... but instead we saw a very modest 90k build. Distillates saw a 3rd straight week of draws...

Oil surges with U.S. demand bump driving global rebound optimism -— Oil advanced to the highest in over a month as a combination of declining U.S. petroleum product supplies and signs of stronger demand buttressed expectations for a revival in global consumption. Futures in New York jumped 1.5% on Wednesday, posting the largest back-to-back daily gains in two weeks. A U.S. government report showed total petroleum stockpiles dropped last week, led by the biggest weekly decrease in distillate inventories since early March. A gauge of demand for overall petroleum products rose to the highest in more than two months. Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is forecasting an unprecedented jump in global oil demand as vaccination rates rise. The hefty decline in U.S. distillate supplies comes as robust freight demand drives a trucking boom, providing another sign of the recovery underway in the world’s largest oil-consuming country. At the same time, retail gasoline prices in California rose to $4 a gallon for the first time in a year and a half as restrictions ease in the most-populous U.S. state. Still, a resurgence of the pandemic in countries such as India and Brazil are raising concerns around how long it will take to see a full-fledged demand rebound take hold worldwide. West Texas Intermediate for June delivery rose 92 cents to settle at $63.86 a barrel. Brent for June settlement gained 85 cents to $67.27 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange, posting the largest daily gain since April 14. Both benchmarks were at the highest since March 17

Oil Jumps To Six-Week High On Stronger Economic Outlook --Oil prices rose early on Thursday to their highest level in six weeks as a brighter outlook on the American economy and oil demand offset bearish demand prospects from the COVID crisis in India. As of 11:03 a.m. EDT on Thursday, WTI Crude was up 1.50 percent at $64.87, after touching $65 earlier in the day, and Brent Crude prices had risen 1.61 percent to cross the $68 a barrel mark, at $68.41.   A weaker U.S. dollar today also added fuel to the oil rally this week, which had accelerated on Wednesday when the EIA reported a small inventory build of 100,000 barrels for the week to April 23 and an average gasoline production of 9.6 million bpd, up from 9.4 million bpd in the previous week. In middle distillates, the EIA estimated an inventory draw of 3.3 million barrels for the week to April 23. U.S. refinery utilization rates also rose last week, to 85.4 percent from 85.0 percent in the previous reporting week, as per EIA data. The oil market saw another bullish factor for oil demand in the Federal Reserve’s statement from Wednesday that the U.S. economy is accelerating. “Amid progress on vaccinations and strong policy support, indicators of economic activity and employment have strengthened,” the Fed said in its FOMC statement, adding that it would continue with its easy monetary policy to support the economy and the flow of credit to U.S. households and businesses. The signs of strengthening the U.S. economy and oil demand trumped on Thursday concerns about the health crisis in India, which could offset some of the demand rebound elsewhere. Rystad Energy warned on Wednesday that the COVID crisis in India could disturb the nearly balanced global oil market, which could see a surplus of oil supply of as much as 1.4 million barrels per day (bpd) in May amid a sizeable loss of demand from the world’s third-largest oil importer. Goldman Sachs, however, continues to believe that the market will take India’s crisis in its stride and will realize the biggest jump ever over the next six months.

Oil Slips On Profit Taking, Stronger U.S. Dollar - Oil prices dropped early on Friday as profit-taking and a strengthening U.S. dollar put a stop to this week’s rally that saw prices hitting a six-week high on Thursday.As of 10:14 a.m. EDT on Friday, WTI Crude was trading down below $64 a barrel, at $63.43, down by 2.32 percent. Brent Crude prices were down by 1.87 percent on the day at $67.26.On Thursday, oil prices had jumped to their highest levels in six weeks as a brighter outlook on the American economy and oil demand offset bearish demand prospects from the COVID crisis in India.But on Friday, the rally took a breather as market participants turned to profit-taking. A rising U.S. dollar also weighed on oil prices on Friday, as a stronger U.S. currency makes crude buying more expensive for holders of other currencies.Continued concern over the worsening COVID crisis in India outweighed the bullish factors on Friday, but oil prices were still on track to post a monthly gain of 6-7 percent in April—the fifth rise in monthly oil prices in the past six months.On Friday, oil was dragged down by concerns that the health crisis in India could offset some of the demand rebound elsewhere. While the United States and parts of Europe such as the UK are already re-opening and seeing increased economic activity, travel, and consumer revenge spending, major economies such as India and Brazil are suffering under the COVID resurgence. The situation in India, the world’s third-largest oil importer, is particularly concerning. Some analysts, such as Rystad Energy, warned this week that the COVID crisis in India will result in a surplus of oil supply of as much as 1.4 million barrels per day (bpd) in May.

India demand fears, weak Japan crude imports knock oil prices 2% (Reuters) - Oil prices were down 2% on Friday, falling from six-week highs as investors unloaded positions after weak Japanese crude import data and on worries about fuel demand in India, where COVID-19 infections have soared. U.S. crude and global benchmark Brent were set for their biggest daily drops in about three weeks, but were still on track for monthly gains of about 8% and 6%, respectively. Fuel demand worldwide is mixed but consumption is rising in the United States and China. Brent crude fell by $1.30, or 1.9%, at $67.26 a barrel by 12:48 p.m. EDT (1648 GMT), the last day of trading for the front-month June contract. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude for June was at $63.67 a barrel, down $1.34, or 2.1%. "The tug of war between summer demand growth prospects and worsening COVID infections is still in full swing," JBC Energy analysts wrote on Friday. India, the world's third largest oil consumer, is in deep crisis, with hospitals and morgues overwhelmed, as the number of COVID-19 cases topped 18 million on Thursday. Japan's - another major crude oil importer - imports fell 25% in March from a year earlier to 2.34 million barrels per day, according to government figures. However, the country's factory activity expanded at the fastest pace since early 2018. "There are still several major countries struggling mightily with the COVID-19 and of course there is a humanitarian crisis developing in India," said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital. "These are two big sources of demand that are taking a hit." OPEC oil output rose in April due to more supply from Iran, countering the cartel's pact with allies to reduce supply. A Reuters survey forecast that Brent would average $64.17 in 2021, up from last month's consensus of $63.12 per barrel and the $62.3 average for the benchmark so far this year.

Oil Prices Show Monthly Increase  | Rigzone  -- Oil rose this month with a slew of positive economic data and signs of a budding fuel consumption revival in key economies offsetting a worsening coronavirus crisis elsewhere. Futures in New York rose this week, extending its monthly gain to 7.5%. The near-certain likelihood of higher fuel consumption in the U.S., China and the U.K has brightened the overall demand outlook, even as a resurgent pandemic in countries such as India, Brazil and Japan cloud those prospects. OPEC and its allies see world consumption rebounding by 6 million barrels a day this year, while Goldman Sachs Group Inc. this week said demand could post a record jump as vaccination rates increase.  Green shoots of a revival in fuel consumption are sprouting around the world. Travel across China is expected to pick up over an extended Labor Day holiday. In the U.S., a string of real-time data pointing to an economic rebound taking hold in the world’s largest oil consumer has stoked optimism around demand in coming months. Oil’s overall advance is in keeping with a broad-based surge in interest in commodities this week, driven by optimism in key economies and tightening supplies of raw materials. That’s pushed the Bloomberg Spot Commodity Index to the highest level since 2012 in previous sessions. West Texas Intermediate fell $1.43 to settle at $63.58 a barrel, but rose 2.3% this week. Brent for June settlement, which expires Friday, lost $1.31 to $67.25 a barrel. The contract is up 1.7% this week, and climbed 5.8% for the month. The more-active July contract declined $1.29 to $66.76. Still, it will likely be a bumpy road ahead for prices as the world’s economies reopen at varying paces. U.S. benchmark crude futures on Friday posted their largest daily loss in almost four weeks, with raw materials and U.S. equities cooling from a scorching rally. Further weighing on prices was a strengthening dollar, which makes commodities priced in the currency less attractive. A viral onslaught in India is the most notable threat to a worldwide oil recovery. Imports from the South Asian country could fall by over 1 million barrels a day in the coming weeks, if not three times more, consultant Kpler said in a report Friday. The loss of demand is showing up in U.S. physical markets, where sour crude differentials have weakened this week amid lower demand from India.

USA and Saudis Team up for Net Zero Project - The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has revealed that a net zero producers forum between the energy ministries of the United States, Canada, Norway, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia is being established. Collectively representing 40 percent of global oil and gas production, the countries will come together to form a cooperative forum that will develop pragmatic net-zero emission strategies, according to a joint statement from the project participants. The strategies include methane abatement, advancing the circular carbon economy approach, the development and deployment of clean-energy and carbon capture and storage technologies, the diversification from reliance on hydrocarbon revenues, and other measures in line with each country's national circumstances, the statement noted. “There is no greater challenge facing our nation and our planet than the climate crisis. That’s why President Biden has laid out the boldest climate agenda in our nation’s history – one that will spur an equitable clean energy economy and cement the United States on a path to net-zero emissions by 2050,” the DOE said in a statement posted on its website. “To achieve our global climate goals we need cooperation from all major emitters, including oil and gas producing nations, to identify and act on solutions to phase out unabated fossil fuel emissions, while reducing emissions to the maximum extent possible in the interim,” the DOE added. “For this reason, the U.S. Department of Energy has led on creating a new international forum dedicated to developing long-term strategies to reach global net-zero emissions,” the DOE continued. The net zero producers forum is part of a series of new initiatives announced recently by the DOE that will expand international cooperation around tackling the climate crisis, boosting clean energy innovation, and advancing an equitable transition to a net-zero future, the organization outlined. Other initiatives include a new partnership with India on speeding up clean energy deployment and joining a new public-private consortium to cut power sector emissions by at least 50 percent over 2020 levels in the next 10 years.

Saudi in Talks to Sell Aramco Stake to Energy Co  - -- Saudi Arabia’s crown prince said the kingdom is in talks to sell a 1% stake in state oil giant Saudi Aramco to a “leading global energy company” as he forecast an economic rebound after the coronavirus pandemic. The kingdom is looking at the potential sale -- which could be worth about $19 billion, based on the company’s market value -- as a way to lock in customer demand for the country’s crude, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman said in a rare interview on a Saudi television channel late Tuesday. While providing few details on which company is involved in the talks, he said the sale could take place in the next two years. “I don’t want to give any promises about deals finalizing, but there are discussions happening right now about a 1% acquisition by one of the leading energy companies in the world,” Prince Mohammed, the country’s de facto ruler, said. “I cannot mention the name but it’s a huge company. This deal could be very important in strengthening Aramco’s sales in the country where this company resides.” China is the largest buyer of Saudi Arabian oil. Almost 30% of the kingdom’s crude exports went to the Asian country last month, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Japan, South Korea and India were the next biggest importers. As well as China, Aramco is keen to make further inroads into India, the fastest growing market for oil consumption before the pandemic hit. But the company faces strong competition from other suppliers and Indian refiners are among the most price-sensitive in the world. The crown prince is increasingly leaning on Aramco, the world’s biggest oil company, to help finance his plan to transform and diversify the Saudi economy -- an initiative dubbed Vision 2030. That effort has faced hurdles in recent years, with investors spooked by the kingdom’s domestic political crackdown and the killing of Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, and then with the Covid-19 pandemic last year. Aramco’s 2019 initial public offering -- in which it sold about 2% of its stock on the Riyadh bourse -- raised almost $30 billion. The money was transferred to the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund and was meant to support investments to shift the biggest Arab economy away from a reliance on oil sales. Since then, Aramco has also taken on debt and started selling off some non-core assets to maintain a $75 billion dividend, most of which goes to the state.

Fire at COVID-19 hospital in Baghdad kills at least 82 people - After an accident caused an oxygen tank to explode, eyewitness accounts and video clips of the terrible scenes of the fire at the hospital treating COVID-19 patients have provoked shock and anger throughout Iraq. A hashtag demanding Health Minister Hassan al-Tamimi be sacked was soon trending on Twitter. Saturday’s fire at the Ibn Khatib hospital, an intensive care facility dedicated to COVID-19 patients in the Diyala Bridge neighbourhood, one of Baghdad’s poorer districts in the southeast of the city, has killed at least 82 people and injured 110. At least 28 patients with severe symptoms of the virus who were on ventilators were among the dead. This tragedy is but the latest horrific example of the devastating impact of decades of sanctions, illegal invasions, occupations and the deliberate stoking of a sectarian civil war orchestrated and led by successive US administrations that have reduced a once prosperous country, with one of the most advanced health and social infrastructures in the Arab world, to utter poverty and degradation. To this day, Iraq suffers from political violence, kidnappings and extortion at the hands of numerous militias, while accidents resulting from neglect and decrepit infrastructure have compounded the plight of the Iraqi people. In 2019, to cite but one example, at least 90 people drowned when an overloaded ferry carrying families on an outing sank in the Tigris River in the northern city of Mosul. The World Socialist Web Site has described the consequences of Washington’s onslaught on the Iraqi people as “sociocide,” the deliberate destruction of the entire infrastructure of a modern civilization (See: “The US war and occupation of Iraq—the murder of a society”). The blaze spread rapidly because without smoke detectors, sprinkler system or fire hoses, “the hospital had no fire protection system, and false ceilings allowed the flames to spread to highly flammable products,” said Maj. Gen. Khadim Bohan, the head of Iraq’s civil defence forces. He told the state-run Iraqiya TV, Officials said that some of the victims were older patients on ventilators who could not move from their beds when the fire started. Reuters news agency quoted an eyewitness as saying that patients and medical workers had jumped out of second-story windows to escape the flames.

Scores of Palestinians injured in Jerusalem as Jewish supremacists march chanting “Death to Arabs”’More than 100 Palestinians were wounded in violent clashes with the police that broke out in East Jerusalem after a march by hundreds of far-right Jewish supremacists chanting, “Death to Arabs! Death to Arabs! All the people want revenge!” on Thursday night. The clashes followed days of mounting tensions in the city. The police used water cannon and stun grenades on the Palestinians, many of them in family groups with young children dressed in their holiday clothes. They had gathered outside the Damascus Gate at the end of the day’s fast during Ramadan, which started on April 12. At least 20 Palestinians, injured by the security forces’ sponge-tipped bullets and stun grenades, had to be taken to hospital. One Israeli driver, slightly wounded in an attack by young Palestinians, and a police officer were also hospitalised. Dozens of Jews and Palestinians were arrested. The Damascus Gate, one of the entrances to the Old City, is the most important gathering place for East Jerusalem’s Palestinian community, with tens of thousands of people passing through or sitting there every evening. The plaza outside the Gate has witnessed multiple clashes between Palestinians and the police in the last days over barriers installed by the police to prevent people sitting there during the month of Ramadan. The authorities gave no valid reason for the barricades, precipitating largely peaceful demonstrations at the Gate and calls to “Open the barriers” that were aggressively dispersed by mounted police and torrents of foul-smelling “skunk water,” turning the plaza into a battlefield. Further fuelling tensions, the authorities disconnected the Al-Aqsa mosque’s loudspeakers so that the call to prayer would not disrupt Israel’s Memorial Day ceremony for fallen soldiers at the Western Wall and restricted the number of West Bank Palestinians attending Ramadan services at the compound to just 10,000, subject to vaccination, far fewer than the numbers wanting to attend. When young Palestinians posted videos of themselves assaulting Jews on social media, amid flare-ups in Jaffa where Palestinian Israelis beat up the head of a yeshiva (a religious seminary) leading to violent clashes with the police, right-wing Jewish extremists seized the opportunity to fan the flames and demand vengeance. On Sunday evening, legislators from the fascistic Religious Zionism party, accompanied by provocateurs singing songs of anti-Palestinian hatred and vengeance, demanded the police take tougher action to “protect Jewish dignity.” Shortly after, Mohammed Abu Ziyadeh, 17, was attacked at the light rail station on Jaffa Street. Then on Monday, assaults on Palestinians escalated as dozens of young Jewish racists went on a rampage through the city chanting “Death to Arabs” and attacking passersby with stones and tear gas. The police made a show of arresting six suspects, later releasing all of them, and allowed similar provocations to continue in the days that followed.

Crush at Israeli religious festival kills 45 (Reuters) -Medical teams worked on Friday to identify 45 people crushed to death in a stampede at a religious festival on the slopes of Israel's Mount Meron, with children among the dead. Witnesses spoke of seeing a "pyramid" of people who were asphyxiated or trampled in a passageway around 3 metres (10 feet) wide at the crowded event in the Galilee. Tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews had thronged to the tomb of 2nd-century sage Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai for the annual Lag B'Omer commemorations that include all-night prayer, mystical songs and dance. The festival was segregated by gender, and medics said the injuries and deaths were concentrated in the men's section. Police asked family members of those who were still missing to provide pictures and personal information to help with the identification process. By late afternoon, the Health Ministry said 32 of the dead had been identified. As sunset neared on Friday the process was halted for 24 hours in observance of the Jewish Sabbath, and would resume on Saturday evening. Videos posted on social media in the minutes after the crush showed Ultra-Orthodox men clambering desperately through gaps in sheets of torn corrugated iron to escape the crush. People who stayed on the scene through the night questioned how the situation so quickly spiralled out of control, though there had been concern for years about safety risks at the annual event. "There was some kind of mess, police, screaming, a big mess, and after half an hour it looked like a scene of a suicide bombing attack, numerous people coming out from there on stretchers," said 19-year-old festival-goer Hayim Cohen. "We were going to go inside for the dancing and stuff and all of a sudden we saw paramedics from (ambulance service) MDA running by, like mid-CPR on kids," 36-year-old pilgrim Shlomo Katz told Reuters. An injured man lying on a hospital bed described how the crush began when a line of people in the front of the surging crowd simply collapsed. "A pyramid of one on top of another was formed. People were piling up one on top of the other. I was in the second row. The people in the first row - I saw people die in front of my eyes," he told reporters. The Mount Meron tomb is considered to be one of the holiest sites in the Jewish world and is an annual pilgrimage site. The event was one of the largest gatherings in Israel since the coronavirus pandemic began more than a year ago. The Justice Ministry said investigators would look into whether there had been any police misconduct connected to the tragedy.

Israel stampede: Religious festival crush kills 45: Live updates -- A stampede at a religious festival is Israel this morning killed at least 45 people and left some 150 others injured.Israeli investigators are examining exactly how the crush happened at Israel's Mount Meron. In the meantime, here's what we know so far:

• What happened: A stampede broke out at Israel's Mount Meron, killing at least 45 people. Worshipers had gathered at the mountain to mark the Lag B'Omer holiday, an annual event where participants sing, dance and light fires in homage to second-century sage Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai at his burial site.
• Americans among the dead and injured: A State Department spokesperson said "multiple" US citizens were among those killed and injured in the stampede. Secretary of State Tony Blinken spoke with his Israeli counterpart on Friday to offer his condolences on the deadly incident.
• Event allowed during Covid-19 pandemic: Israel's health ministry had urged people not to attend the festival, warning of the risk of another coronavirus outbreak. However, case numbers have been low, and Israel has already fully vaccinated more than 58% of its population, so the event was allowed to proceed. Dov Maisel, vice president of operations at the volunteer-based emergency organization United Hatzalah, told CNN that around 100,000 people were in attendance.

Multiple US citizens were among those killed and injured at a religious festival in Israel overnight, a State Department spokesperson said Friday."We can confirm that multiple U.S. citizens were among the casualties," the spokesperson said, but did not provide details on numbers of wounded or how many were killed. “The U.S. Embassy is working with local authorities to verify whether any additional U.S. citizens were affected, and is providing all possible consular support to affected U.S. citizens and their loved ones,” the spokesperson added.“Out of respect for the families at this difficult time, we have no further comment,” the spokesperson said.“We offer our sincerest condolences to the families and loved ones of those injured and who perished in the tragedy at Mt. Meron during the Lag Ba’omer commemorations,” they said.

  UK to send largest Carrier Strike Group since Falklands/Malvinas war to South China Sea -- The British government has given details on the massive Royal Navy/Royal Air Force Carrier Strike Group being sent to the Indo-Pacific region. The mission, described as “a truly global deployment, from the North Atlantic to the Indo-Pacific,” provocatively includes sailing through the South China Sea. It could depart as early as May 18. British aircraft carriers HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Queen Elizabeth moored at Portsmouth harbour, November 2020 (credit: WSWS media) The NATO-backed mission is being led by the UK’s new £3.2 billion aircraft carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth, on its first operational deployment. The carrier, the navy’s largest and most powerful warship ever, was launched in October 2017 and has been involved in sea trials and operational training since. It is described by the Navy as being “able to strike from the sea at a time and place of our choosing…” No Royal Navy force has been mobilised on such a scale since the 1982 Falklands/Malvinas war. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said it would be the 'largest concentration of maritime and air power to leave the UK in a generation. The Spectator noted the significance of the Royal Navy sending a “battle fleet to Asia for the first time since the start of the Korean War in 1950.” With the end of the Cold War, Britain’s Royal Navy surface fleet of frigates and destroyers was scaled down and now contains just 19 vessels. But spending is being hiked up again by tens of billions of pounds across all the armed forces as part of the MoD’s “Defence in a Competitive Age” review. The Indo-Pacific mission enlists much of the current strength of the entire navy. The aircraft carrier will have 18 F-35B stealth fighters on board and be backed by the Type 45 destroyers, HMS Defender and HMS Diamond; Type 23 anti-submarine frigates, HMS Kent and HMS Richmond; and the Royal Fleet Auxiliary’s logistics ships, Fort Victoria and Tidespring. These will be backed by a latest Astute-class nuclear submarine armed with Tomahawk Cruise missiles. Also participating will be 14 naval helicopters, eight RAF fast jets and a company of Royal Marines. The carrier group will visit more than 40 countries over 28 weeks covering 26,000 nautical miles. It will take part in 70 engagements, including exercises with NATO and non-NATO partners when sailing through the Mediterranean to the Suez Canal. The US is participating with a destroyer, USS The Sullivans, and a squadron of 10 US Marine Corps F-35B Lightning II aircraft. The Royal Navy strike group will stop for a week at Duqm, the UK’s Joint Logistics Support Base in Oman. It will then conduct Indian Ocean operations with the Indian navy as well as joint exercises with South Korea and Singapore. Operations will be completed with up to two weeks of joint exercises with American and Japanese armed forces. The flotilla will carry out its provocative sailing of the South China Sea.

Abiy Ahmed’s Counterrevolution -- ON NOVEMBER 4, 2020, Ethiopians awoke to find that their country was in civil war. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed—the fresh face of a reformist agenda—announced that troops loyal to the previous government had attacked army bases in the northern region of Tigray, and he was launching a “law enforcement operation” to bring this “criminal clique” to justice. Hostility towards the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the leading party in the coalition that had ruled Ethiopia for twenty-seven years until Abiy took power in 2018, was already running high. Through November, Abiy’s operation seemed to be going according to plan. While drones destroyed the armor and artillery of the rebel region, federal forces closed in on the regional capital of Mekelle and occupied it. Abiy declared victory, claiming “not a single civilian” had been killed; the last remaining job was to round up renegade TPLF leaders who had fled to the hills. Some were captured or killed over the following weeks. Since then, this rosy account has unraveled, despite a blanket communication blackout. Abiy was first compelled to concede that there were indeed massacres needing to be investigated, most notoriously in the city of Axum. The killing of hundreds of civilians was painstakingly documented by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Evidence for dozens of other massacres seeped out, along with stories of mass rape. Having denied that the army of neighboring Eritrea was involved, Abiy then admitted their presence, hinting at their responsibility for abuses. A leaked report from the U.S. State Department said that the western part of Tigray had been ethnically cleansed by militia from the Amhara region, which were fighting alongside the national army. A humanitarian crisis deepened, its scale and nature obscured because journalists and aid workers were at first debarred from Tigray entirely, and then could only reach a handful of towns. Médecins Sans Frontièresannounced that most of Tigray’s hospitals and clinics had been ransacked. Eyewitness testimony and satellite imagery have revealed a scorched earth campaign of arson and pillage, with Eritrean and Ethiopian forces using starvation as a weapon and destroying farms, factories, and services. Tigray is on track to a man-made famine.

New Front in Digital Divide Exposed by India's COVID-19 Meltdown -As India’s daily coronavirus cases set global records, people desperately searching for hospital beds and oxygen cylinders are finding help on social media. But for others like Ruby Yadav, who has never heard of Twitter, time and hope is running out.Travelling by rickshaw, Yadav and her mother – who is seriously ill with COVID–19 – have been turned away by nearly a dozen public hospitals in the northern city of Lucknow this week as the country’s health system crumbles.“I’m losing hope. We know what will happen next, but I can’t bear to watch my mother collapse like this,” Yadav, 21, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone on Thursday.India reported more than 300,000 coronavirus cases within 24 hours on Thursday, marking the world’s highest daily tally and taking the country’s total cases to nearly 16 million.Shortages of ambulances, hospital beds, drugs and oxygen supplies are crippling healthcare in much of the country of 1.3 billion, prompting people to post appeals on Twitter in a desperate bid to get help for seriously ill loved ones.People in need and those with information or resources are sharing telephone numbers of volunteers, vendors who have oxygen cylinders or drugs, and details of which medical facility can take patients using hashtags like #COVIDSOS.Many people are creating Twitter accounts to seek help from those in positions of power, officials manning helpline numbers said, but hundreds of millions of mainly poorer Indians do not have access to a smartphone or use social media. “We’ve tried every helpline provided by the government and the only reply we’re getting is there are no beds available. I don’t know what Twitter is and didn’t think of asking for help on social media,” said Yadav, holding back tears.Twitter, which lawmakers, charities and political party helplines are using to share information and answer pleas for help, has only 17.5 million users in India, data shows.For the vast majority of Indians struggling to get help, repeatedly calling inundated phone lines or carrying patients to emergency wards in person is the only option – highlighting the impact of the country’s digital divide.

Indians on Twitter Are Desperate for COVID Help. They’re Getting Censored. Vice Social media has become a crucial lifeline for many in India.In the absence of an effective government response, hundreds of thousands of Indians have turned to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to find hospital beds, oxygen, and COVID-19 drugs for their loved ones. As COVID-19 numbers escalated - reflected in record-breaking daily new cases and unprecedented, but undercounted, COVID-19 deaths - so did criticism on social media. And then social media platforms started receiving takedown requests from the Indian government.Twitter admits it complied with these requests.As a matter of policy, Twitter discloses its takedown actions. In the first six months of 2020, Twitter complied with only 1% of the Indian government’s 2,600 takedown requests.However, some censored tweets relate to the shortage of medicine and beds in India and some censored tweets blame Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the COVID-19 healthcare crisis, calling for his resignation. Other censored tweets were by prominent Indians with a significant following. The tech news site Medianama reportedthat Twitter blocked 52 tweets that criticised the government’s handling of the COVID-19 surge, upon government orders. Medianama cited public Twitter disclosures, tracked by the Lumen database, a transparency project run by Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society.A Twitter representative also reportedly told Indian news channel NDTV that “action has been taken in response to a legal request from the Government of India” and that they’re “battling COVID-19 misinformation.”  On April 25, the Indian government also confirmed that it ordered Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to block close to 100 posts about COVID-19 calling them “misinformation”, “inflammatory” or aimed to “create panic.” It is unclear whether Facebook and Instagram complied.

'Not a Surprise, But Terrifying': At India's Request, Twitter Blocks Posts Critical of Modi Covid Response --"Not a surprise. But terrifying nonetheless." That's how Canadian author and activist Naomi Klein responded Sunday to news that India had requested—and Twitter had agreed—to have numerous tweets critical of the Modi government's response to the Covid-19 pandemic blocked from the popular social media platform. The Indian news outlet Medianama was the first to report the situation on Saturday, followed by Buzzfeed in U.S. press. According to Medianama's reporting by Aroon Deep and Aditya Chunduru: Twitter has complied with government requests to censor 52 tweets that mostly criticised India’s handling of the second surge of the COVID-19 pandemic. These tweets, which are now inaccessible to Indian users of the social media website, include posts by Revanth Reddy, a sitting Member of Parliament; Moloy Ghatak, a West Bengal state minister; actor Vineet Kumar Singh; and two filmmakers, Vinod Kapri and Avinash Das. Deep and Chunduru confirmed that several people who had their postings blocked were informed by Twitter what was coming ahead of the move and that the decision was based on a request made by the Indian government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In response to request, a Twitter spokesperson sent Medianama the following statement: When we receive a valid legal request, we review it under both the Twitter Rules and local law. If the content violates Twitter’s Rules, the content will be removed from the service. If it is determined to be illegal in a particular jurisdiction, but not in violation of the Twitter Rules, we may withhold access to the content in India only. In all cases, we notify the account holder directly so they’re aware that we’ve received a legal order pertaining to the account. We notify the user(s) by sending a message to the email address associated with the account(s), if available.   Modi's Hindu nationalist government, reported Buzzfeed on Saturday, also restricted dozens of tweets that criticized Modi or shared pictures of India's overflowing crematoriums and hospitals, in addition to a tweet from the Indian American Muslim Council, a Washington D.C-based advocacy organization of Indian American Muslims. That group shared a Vice storyabout the Kumbh Mela, a Hindu pilgrimage attended by hundreds of thousands of Indians earlier this month, and which turned into a super spreader event.

Pakistan's Tech Exports Exceed $1.5 Billion in First 9 Months of Fiscal Year 2020-21 **Pakistan's technology exports are continuing their growth trajectory, soaring 44% in the first 9 months (July-March) of the current fiscal year 2020-21 to reach $1.512 billion.   Tech exports accelerated 55% in the month of March 2021 to reach monthly record $213 million ,according to data released by the State Bank of Pakistan.  Information technology development depends mostly on available talent. Pakistan has seen significant increase in technology manpower since the massive expansion of higher education initiated by Dr. Ata-ur-Rehman and backed by huge increase in funding provided by President Pervez Musharraf's government.  Higher education in Pakistan has come a long way since its independence in 1947 when there was only one university, the University of Punjab. By 1997, the number of universities had risen to 35, of which 3 were federally administered and 22 were under the provincial governments, with a combined enrollment of 71,819 students. A big spending boost by President Pervez Musharraf helped establish 51 new universities and awarding institutions during 2002-2008. This helped triple university enrollment from 135,000 in 2003 to about 400,000 in 2008, according to Dr. Ata ur Rehman who led the charge for expanding higher education during Musharraf years. There are 161 universities with 1.5 million students enrolled in Pakistan as of 2014. Pakistan now boasts 220 universities with 40,000 faculty members and 1.5 million students, according to Dr. Javaid Laghari, former chairman of Higher Education Commission of Pakistan.  Pakistan is now producing over 20,000 information technology graduates annually, according to the Punjab ITminister Mian Aslam Iqbal. He says Pakistan has more than 2,000 IT companies and call centers, and 300,000 English speaking IT professionals.   Pakistan's digital gig economy has surged 69% during the COVID19 pandemic, putting the country among the world's top 4 hottest online freelancer markets, reports  Payoneer, a global payments platform company based in Silicon Valley, in its latest report. Payoneer attributes it to government programs such as Punjab government's e Rozgaar program that has been offering free online courses in digital freelancing. The sudden rush to learn skills online boosted the demand for instructors. The Pakistan government filled this demand by hiring alumni of programs like e Rozgaar who were successfully participating in the gig economy.

Nigerian women take action as rape, assault cases surge during pandemic – When Kehinde Osakede’s university closed due to COVID-19 last year, the visual arts student returned home to Lagos. A visit to a family friend nearby turned into a horrific ordeal. The friend began touching her, she said, and became violent when she asked him to stop. He then raped her, she said. “The last notion I had was to commit suicide.” Osakede is one of hundreds of women across Nigeria who have reported being raped or sexually assaulted in a surge since the pandemic began, according to police and officials. Some experts say this represents only a fraction of cases. Around the world, police and prosecutors, victim support teams and women’s movements, as well as the United Nations, have reported rising domestic violence during coronavirus-related lockdowns. Lagos state, where Osakede lives, saw a nearly 40% increase in rape and domestic and sexual violence in 2020, official data showed. After a string of high-profile attacks, including the gang rape of a 12-year-old girl in northern Jigawa state, President Muhammadu Buhari declared a nationwide state of emergency in June last year to tackle the crisis. Police did not respond to requests for comment for this article, but in June last year they said reports of rape had risen during the pandemic and introduced measures to improve police response to gender-based violence. Some Nigerian women are now acting to address the problem of sexual violence, saying that cases have ended in few prosecutions, widespread stigmatization and a tendency to blame victims. The National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons and the police did respond when asked how many prosecutions of rape cases in Nigeria there had been. Activists have launched centers to support women, an app to report attacks and a push to protect girl victims from being traumatized again in the legal system. They face a difficult path. Polling group NOIPolls found that 47% of Nigerians blamed rape on indecent dressing, and fewer than half thought offenders should be punished. The 2018 official Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey found that 30% of girls and women aged between 15 and 49 reported suffering sexual abuse. The government has declared a state of national emergency over rape and gender-based violence and says it has directed the police and the states to do everything they can to tackle it. Some activists and lawyers have described child rape cases settled for just 10,000 naira ($26), and courts where cases languish for years.

Global Military Spending Grew to Nearly $2 Trillion in 2020 Despite Pandemic - Despite the coronavirus pandemic, worldwide military spending rose to nearly $2 trillion in 2020, according to an analysis published Monday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.Global military expenditure in 2020—estimated to have reached $1.98 trillion—was 2.6% higher than in 2019 and 9.3% higher than in 2011, according to SIPRI's new report (pdf). A 2020 bump in military budgets was observed in Africa (5.1%), Europe (4.0%), the Americas (3.9%), and Asia and Oceania (2.5%). The Middle East was the only regional exception, where there was a 6.5% decrease in military spending in the 11 countries for which data is available.SIPRI researcher Diego Lopes da Silva told AFP that last year's growth in world military expenditure, which coincided with a 4.4% decline in global gross domestic product, was unexpected."Because of the pandemic, one would think military spending would decrease," he said. "But it's possible to conclude with some certainty that Covid-19 did not have a significant impact on global military spending, in 2020 at least."Given that military spending continued to escalate during an economic downturn, SIPRI found that the "global military burden," or military expenditure as a share of GDP, grew from 2.2% to 2.4%—the largest annual increase since the 2009 financial crisis.A substantial percentage of global military spending in 2020 was driven by a handful of countries. According to SIPRI's analysis of the data, 62% of the world's military expenditure was attributable to just five countries—the United States, China, India, Russia, and the United Kingdom. With a military budget of $778 billion in 2020, the U.S. alone was responsible for 39% of the world's total military expenditure last year.  When the military budgets of Saudi Arabia, Germany, France, Japan, and South Korea are added to the tally, these 10 countries accounted for $1.48 trillion, or 75%, of the world's total military expenditure last year.

Governments spend trillions on weapons, claim there is no money for health care -- As governments around the world last year rejected measures to contain COVID-19 on the grounds that there was no money to pay for them, the world spent unprecedented sums on nuclear weapons, tanks and missiles. The United States, which spends more on its military than the next 10 countries combined, increased its military spending by 4.4 percent compared to the year before. The country outlaid some $778 billion on its military last year alone.  The data comes from an annual report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), which has tracked global military spending going back over 30 years. Total global military spending rose to nearly $2 trillion last year, up 2.6 percent from a year ago, after adjusting for inflation. Amazingly, this growth took place even as world economic output shrank by 4.4 percent. As a result, military spending as a share of the global economy surged by the highest level in a decade. The SIPRI noted that the massive surge in US military spending is attributed to the policy—now spanning three presidents—of massively building up its military and conventional forces in preparation for “great power conflicts” with Russia and China. However, the surge in spending has extended to all of the imperialist powers. “Nearly all members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) saw their military burden rise in 2020. As a result, 12 NATO members spent 2 percent or more of their GDP on their militaries, the Alliance’s guideline spending target, compared with 9 members in 2019.” The report noted that France, whose President Emmanuel Macron declared the population must “learn to live with” COVID-19, “passed the 2 percent [military spending] threshold for the first time since 2009.” The country’s military spending surged by 2.9 percent in 2020. In the UK, where Prime Minister Boris Johnson last November declared, “No more f***ing lockdowns, let the bodies pile high in their thousands!” military spending likewise rose by 2.9 percent, putting the country on the list of the top five biggest spenders. Germany, which is rapidly rearming as it declares that it must once again become a “great power,” had its military spending expand by 5.2 percent, putting the figure 28 percent higher than in 2011. After the United States left the Intermediate Range Nuclear forces treaty last year, the world has been locked in a global arms race, with Russia and China, the targets of the US-NATO military buildup. They responded by increasing their own military spending, albeit at a slower pace than the global average. And India, which has shown itself totally unprepared for the COVID-19 pandemic as thousands die in the streets without access to medical care, increased its military spending by two percent. The fact that the same governments, who claimed there was “no money” to pay for lockdowns to save lives in the COVID-19 pandemic, found trillions to shell out to arms manufacturers makes clear what the real priorities of the capitalist system are.

Share Vaccine Recipes With Poor During Pandemic? One of World's Richest Men Bill Gates Says 'No' --Bill Gates, one of the world's richest men and most powerful philanthropists, was the target of criticism from social justice campaigners on Sunday after arguing that lifting patent protections on Covid-19 vaccine technology and sharing recipes with the world to foster a massive ramp up in manufacturing and distribution—despite a growing international call to do exactly that—is a bad idea. "[Bill Gates] acts like an optimist but has a truly dismal vision of the world." —writer Stephen Buryani Directly asked during an interview with Sky News if he thought it "would be helpful" to have vaccine recipes be shared, Gates quickly answered: "No." Asked to explain why not, Gates—whose massive fortune as founder of Microsoft relies largely on intellectual property laws that turned his software innovations into tens of billions of dollars in personal wealth—said that: "Well, there's only so many vaccine factories in the world and people are very serious about the safety of vaccines. And so moving something that had never been done—moving a vaccine, say, from a [Johnson & Johnson] factory into a factory in India—it's novel—it's only because of our grants and expertise that that can happen at all." The reference is to the Serum factory in India, the largest such institute in the country, which has contracts with AstraZeneca to manufacture their Covid-19 vaccine, known internationally as Covishield. The thing that's holding "things back" in terms of the global vaccine rollout, continued Gates, "is not intellectual property. It's not like there's some idle vaccine factory, with regulatory approval, that makes magically safe vaccines. You know, you've got to do the trial on these things. Every manufacturing process needs to be looked at in a very careful way."

When It Comes to a Travel Restart All Vaccines Are Not Equal -- With the resumption of global travel on the horizon, some people are discovering that their choice of vaccine could determine where they’re allowed to go. Already, the European Union is planning to allow Americans vaccinated with shots approved by their drug agency to enter over the summer, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen suggested in a New York Times interview Sunday. This means that those who have shots by Chinese makers like Sinovac Biotech Ltd. and Sinopharm Group Co. Ltd. are likely to be barred from entry for the foreseeable future, with stark consequences for global business activity and the revival of international tourism. As inoculation efforts ramp up around the world, a patchwork of approvals across countries and regions is laying the groundwork for a global vaccine bifurcation, where the shot you get could determine which countries you can enter and work in. For Chinese citizens who venture abroad regularly, and western nationals wanting to pursue business opportunities in the world’s second-largest economy, a dilemma is emerging about which shot to opt for. China so far recognizes only Chinese-made shots, and its vaccines are not approved in the U.S. or Western Europe. Hong Kong citizen Marie Cheung travels to mainland China regularly for her work with an electric vehicle company, a routine that’s been interrupted by lengthy mandated quarantine stays since the pandemic began. Of the two vaccine options available in the city -- one from Sinovac and another developed by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE -- Cheung plans to sign up for Sinovac for easier movement in and out of the mainland. Meanwhile, her British husband will go for the Pfizer-BioNTech shot, she says to boost his chances of visiting family in the U.K. “For people who need to work in or return to mainland, the Chinese vaccine is the only option for them,” Cheung said. “Westerners will only choose the vaccine recognized by their home country.” 

Fake Covid-19 Certificates Hit Airlines, Which Now Have to Police Them—Airlines are battling a scourge of passengers traveling with falsified Covid-19 health certificates.The documents are often the Covid-19 test results required by many countries on arrival. The International Air Transport Association industry body says it has tracked fake certificates in multiple countries, from France to Brazil, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Border control authorities and police forces have also reported arrests of people selling documents in the U.K., Spain, Indonesia and Zimbabwe, among others.The problem is hitting international flights more than domestic ones, which typically don’t require certification at the moment. Airlines that are more dependent on cross-border travel, particularly those operating in Europe, are growing increasingly alarmed as they look to the summer, when they still hope demand will start to return.The proliferation of fake health certificates is exposing a logistical blind spot, as airlines rush to navigate post-pandemic travel standards and retool their systems to ease compliance—and spur demand. Airlines say their staff aren’t equipped to handle and police all the new health certifications needed and worry the problem will be exacerbated when some countries also start to ask for vaccination certificates. At Brussels Airlines, staff have shared fake certificates that they have come across—including one from an incident last week—to stay abreast of the techniques fraudsters are using.

Mexico’s AMLO Locks Horns With Business Elite As Make-or-Break Elections Loom -- Business groups are once again in a lather about the reform agenda of Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, or AMLO as he’s often referred to. The latest bone of contention is his wide-ranging plans to overhaul Mexico’s energy sectors. The energy reforms will enhance the powers of energy ministry Sener and regulatory commission CRE to review and cancel midstream and downstream permits. They will also expand the role of national oil company Pemex and state-owned electricity utility CFE (Federal Electricity Commission).The EU’s Ambassador to Mexico, Gautier Mignot, recently described the reforms as a major source of worry to the European companies that “have invested and taken risks in the country.” Mary Ng, trade minister in the cabinet of Justin Trudeau — he of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion — declared that Canada was “increasingly concerned about the investment climate in Mexico” in light of the energy bill.  The ultimate goal of AMLO’s reforms is to roll back some of the sweeping energy reforms unleashed by AMLO’s predecessor Enrique Peña Nieto seven years ago. Those reforms opened up Mexico’s long-protected oil and gas sectors to global competition and expertise. They were supposed to lead to lower energy prices for domestic consumers as well as thrust Mexico into a more prominent position in the global hydrocarbons market. Instead, the opposite happened: prices of gas, diesel, natural gas and electricity soared. And rather than reversing Pemex’s decline, the reforms sharply accelerated it.  As Jacobin Magazine reports, many of Pemex and CFE’s global competitors did very nicely out of the new set up:  The CFE has calculated that, taking into account subsidies, inflation, exchange-rate fluctuations, irregular supply, and rate increases, the opening of the energy market to private suppliers has cost the nation some $412 billion pesos (US$20 billion). Of this, $56 billion pesos are to have gone to one project alone, the La Venta wind farm in the state of Oaxaca, operated by Spanish energy giant, Iberdrola. La Venta is one of some thirty-odd wind projects in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, all but a handful owned by foreign multinationals, which have become notorious for predatory contracts, unpaid taxes, a failure to properly consult with local populations, and miserly profit-sharing agreements of one percent minus costs, a quarter of what is paid abroad. And instead of benefiting the impoverished Huave, Mixe, Zapotec, and Chontal indigenous groups that live clustered around the parks, the subsidized energy goes to feed corporate clients such as FEMSA, Mitsubishi, Gamesa, and the Bimbo Group, which can then boast of their commitment to renewable energy in glossy brochures and at shareholder meetings.

Thousands of migrant workers labouring on Canada’s farms in unsafe conditions amid deadly COVID-19 third wave - With the spring planting season well underway, tens of thousands of migrant workers have arrived on Canadian farms amid the coronavirus pandemic’s raging third wave. Last year, some 2,000 farmworkers caught COVID-19 and at least three died. The situation was so alarming that Mexico had to temporarily suspend travel for migrant workers to Canada. One year later, nothing has fundamentally changed in terms of protection for migrant workers. The meagre investment of $59 million announced last July by Justin Trudeau’s federal Liberal government served primarily to modestly increase inspections. In most cases, these result in no action against unscrupulous employers, and in a slap on the wrist for a handful of particularly egregious bad apples. Meanwhile, thousands of workers will still be crammed into overcrowded bunkhouses, and with the additional risk of catching new, more contagious and deadlier variants of the virus, which are striking down workers in the prime of their life. Over 760 migrant workers have already been infected with COVID-19 in Ontario this year. On Tuesday, a report prepared by Ontario’s deputy chief coroner into last year’s COVID-19 deaths of Mexican migrant farmworkers Bonifacio Romero, Rogelio Santos, and Juan Chapparo was released. It stated the obvious— migrant farmworkers are at a higher risk of catching COVID-19 and other infectious diseases than the general population—and made a few timid recommendations aimed at perpetuating Canada’s highly exploitative migrant farmworker system. Showing that the federal and provincial governments have no real intention of improving safety for workers, Ottawa announced last month a new system that authorizes workers arriving from abroad to make the federally mandated three-day quarantine at their employer's farm instead of in designated hotels. This measure is entirely in the interests of farm owners, who won’t have to pay the hotel costs. In addition, it will facilitate the spread of the virus as potentially asymptomatic workers will quarantine in crowded dormitories.

European Parliament Seeks SWIFT Shut-Off For Russia "If Ukraine Aggression Continues" -- Days after President Putin warned the West of a "harsh" and "asymmetrical" response if it crosses Russia's 'red line' concerning NATO troop positioning and the recently renewed Ukraine standoff, the European Parliament in Brussels hasproposed a new resolution to disconnect Russia from the SWIFT payment system. Dated Wednesday, April 28, it's entitled, "European Parliament resolution on Russia, the case of Alexei Navalny, the military build-up on Ukraine’s border and Russian attacks in the Czech Republic." The over 50 European Parliament lawmakers cited "aggression and continued destabilization of Ukraine, hostile behavior towards and outright attacks on EU member states and societies."  It further appears a 'preventative' and threatening measure in the instance of any future scenario of major Russian troop build-up in Crimea and along Ukraine's border such as occurred over the last month. Despite the Kremlin last week ordering a troop draw down after the conclusion of Black Sea military drills, the EU is clearly seeking to drastically beef up the "cost" automatically imposed on Russia for "threats" against Ukrainian sovereignty. Here's what the key section of the new punitive resolution says on SWIFT:...Underscores that if such a military build-up were in the future to be transformed into an invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, the EU must make clear that the price for such a violation of international law and norms would be severe; insists, therefore, that in such circumstances imports of oil and gas from Russia to the EU be immediately stopped, while Russia should be excluded from the SWIFT payment system, and all assets in the EU of oligarchs close to the Russian authorities and their families in the EU need to be frozen and their visas cancelled;

Job cuts mount in German clinics and nursing homes despite the pandemic - In many parts of Germany, nursing staff have been working at their limits for over a year now. But now, in the middle of the country’s third wave of the pandemic, doctors, nurses and caregivers are faced with a new threat: clinics are laying off personnel to boost profits. This is a slap in the face of caregivers and nursing staff, for whom this will mean increased workload and even greater stress. For days now there has been a steady stream of news in the German media about planned layoffs and clinic closures. In Bremen, the municipal clinic association “Gesundheit Nord” (Geno) is in the process of cutting 440 full-time position. In order to get “in the black,” the Bremen senate coalition of Social Democrats, Left Party and Greens wants to cut more than one in five jobs in the clinic association by 2024. Striking nursing staff at the Berlin Charité hospital Bremen’s health senator Claudia Bernhard (Left Party) is also chairwoman of Geno’s supervisory board. She has defended the decision and glossed over the job cuts by claiming that nursing staff are not affected by layoffs. In reality, among those laid off are many nurses currently on temporary and contract work, nurses in their probation period as well as nursing assistants. In Cologne, the municipal hospitals are to be merged with the university hospital forming a “Charité of the West” in order to save 40 million euro. Several hundred jobs will be eliminated through “synergy effects.” Here, too, it can be assumed that the service sector union Verdi, which claims to be “against compulsory redundancies,” will support the reduction of non-permanent employees, just like the Left Party does in Bremen. In the city of Bernkastel-Kues on the Moselle river, the Median Group is in the process of closing one of four rehabilitation clinics, initially for two months. Together, the four clinics’ 630 employees care for more than 800 patients. In the last eight years, Median has already cut one in ten jobs in the Kueser Plateau region and closed one of its original five clinics. For weeks, nursing staff in Bernkastel-Kues have been fighting this exploitation and the reduction in wages. Every Thursday they march through the parks with banners and posters pointing out that they have not received a pay raise in seven years. Not even a promised one-time special pandemic payment of 1500 euro has been disbursed by the Median Group. Many nursing staff now assume that the closure of the rehabilitation clinic is a deliberate lockout and an act of intimidation to forestall a strike in May.

UK Prime Minister Johnson demanded “no more f***ing lockdowns, let the bodies pile high in their thousands!” - In the run up to the four week limited lockdown reluctantly implemented by the Conservative government last November, Prime Minister Boris Johnson blurted out bitterly, “No more f***ing lockdowns, let the bodies pile high in their thousands!” The Daily Mail reported, “He [Johnson] agreed to fresh restrictions but his frustration is said to have boiled over after the crucial meeting at No 10 in October.” The meeting was held on October 30, 2020. The revelation is one of a series of leaks during ongoing factional warfare within the Tory Party. . The Tory advocates of herd immunity, with Johnson in the forefront, never wanted the first lockdown, let alone a second. But with cases and deaths shooting up following the end of the first lockdown in July/August—fuelled by sending millions of pupils back to school in September—there were fears that not doing so would provoke social and political unrest. Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove was identified by the Daily Mail as playing a key role in shifting Johnson to backing a lockdown at the meeting. As told the newspaper by a “source close to Mr Gove”: “Michael said that if he [Johnson] didn’t impose a second lockdown there would be a catastrophe… Hospitals would be over-run, people would be turned away from [accident & emergency] and people would be dying in hospital corridors and hospital car parks…   Was that the image of his post-Brexit Britain he wanted the world to see? It was devastating. The PM had no answer.” On Monday, Johnson denied making the attributed comments, but the BBC cited “sources familiar with the conversation” confirming that he had. ITV’s political editor, Robert Peston, wrote that he had been told by two witnesses who said they did not brief the Mail that they had also heard Johnson say it. Moreover, while Johnson agreed to the November lockdown the perspective he blurted out, “no f***ing lockdowns, let the bodies pile high in their thousands” is now being implemented as official government policy. The November lockdown ended on December 3. Following a surge of COVID-19 cases, due to the relaxation of rules to allow a pre-Christmas shopping spree, on January 5, Johnson was forced to implement a third significantly less restrictive lockdown. But from then on, he and his government have insisted this would be the “last lockdown”. In February, despite the spread of new variants of Covid, including the more infectious and more deadly Kent variant that has become the dominant strain globally, Johnson announced that restrictions would be loosened from March, with the entire economy to be reopened by June 21.