Fed Signals Eventual Shift From Easy-Money Pandemic Policies – WSJ --The Federal Reserve has begun to telegraph an eventual shift away from the easy-money policies implemented during the pandemic as evidence builds of a robust economic recovery and mounting inflation. Several Fed officials said this week that the central bank is closely watching economic developments and will be ready to adjust policy when necessary. Minutes from the central bank’s policy meeting in late April, released Wednesday, reported that some Fed officials want to begin discussing a plan for reducing the Fed’s massive bond-buying program at a future meeting. “If we got to the point where we were comfortable on the public health side that the pandemic was largely behind us, and was not going to resurge in some way that was surprising, then I think we could talk about adjusting monetary policy,” St. Louis Fed President James Bullard told reporters after a speech Wednesday. “I don’t think we’re quite to that point yet, but it does seem like we’re getting close.” Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic, a voting member of the Fed’s rate-setting committee, made similar remarks in a Bloomberg television interview. “We’re going to have to be very nimble in terms of our monitoring of the economy and our policy responses,” Mr. Bostic said Wednesday. The latest public remarks came ahead of the Fed’s release of minutes from its April 27-28 meeting. The minutes showed general agreement among officials on the need to continue supporting the economy with near-zero interest rates and bond purchases. But they also dropped the Fed’s first hint that policy makers could soon begin discussing a slowdown in the pace of its Treasury and mortgage-bond purchases, which currently total at least $120 billion a month. “A number of participants suggested that if the economy continued to make rapid progress toward the committee’s goals, it might be appropriate at some point in upcoming meetings to begin discussing a plan for adjusting the pace of asset purchases,” the minutes said. They noted that many officials echoed Chairman Jerome Powell’s view that the Fed should give markets plenty of advance warning before it begins reducing the purchases. Long-term bond yields jumped and stocks extended losses after the minutes were released. Yields on 10-year Treasury notes rose as high as 1.692%, up from 1.62% on Wednesday morning.. “I think they’re recognizing that you can’t have a fixed view of the world when this cycle is continuing to throw surprises at you.” The April meeting took place before economic data showed a surge of inflation, a slower-than-expected pace of hiring and mounting supply constraints. Fed officials have said for months that they think higher inflation this year will be temporary, allowing them to maintain easy-money policies until the labor market more fully recovers from the pandemic. “However, a couple of participants commented on the risks of inflation pressures building up to unwelcome levels before they become sufficiently evident to induce a policy reaction,” minutes from the April meeting said.
The Fed hinted it could reconsider easy policies if economy continues rapid improvement -- Federal Reserve officials at their April meeting said a strong pickup in economic activity would warrant discussions about tightening monetary policy, according to minutes from the session released Wednesday. "A number of participants suggested that if the economy continued to make rapid progress toward the Committee's goals, it might be appropriate at some point in upcoming meetings to begin discussing a plan for adjusting the pace of asset purchases," the meeting summary said. Markets have been watching closely for clues about when the central bank might start tapering its bond purchases, which currently are at least $120 billion a month. The Fed balance sheet is just shy of $7.9 trillion, nearly double its level before the Covid-19 pandemic. Fed officials have been steadfast that they won't change policy until their economic goals, particularly regarding employment and inflation, have been hit. The discussion revealed in the minutes is the first time that central bankers have indicated that a reduction in purchases could happen ahead, though there was no timetable. Stocks briefly added to losses following the release and government bond yields remained mostly higher on the session. Chairman Jerome Powell said after the meeting that the recovery remains "uneven and far from complete" and the economy was still not showing the "substantial further progress" standard the committee has set before it will change policy. However, since then the consumer price index showed inflation rising at a 4.2% year over year pace, GDP is expected to show growth approaching 10% in the second quarter, and indicators in manufacturing and spending are showing strong upward momentum. The one exception was a stunningly slow pace of hiring in April, with nonfarm payrolls rising just 266,000 against expectations for a 1 million gain. At the April session, the policymaking Federal Open Market Committee voted to hold benchmark short-term borrowing rates near zero and keep the bond purchase level intact. Along with that decision, the Fed upgraded its view on the economy, saying growth has "strengthened" and inflation was rising. The April meeting was held before inflation and employment numbers for the month were released. Fed officials took a largely sanguine view of inflation at the meeting, anticipating that near-term price pressures would fade as the year goes on. Those at the April 27-28 session said they expected rising demand with an economic reopening to combine with supply chain issues to push prices above the Fed's 2% inflation target. "After the transitory effects of these factors fade, participants generally expected measured inflation to ease," the minutes said. The minutes stated that "various participants" anticipated that it will "likely be some time until the economy had made substantial further progress toward the Committee's maximum-employment and price-stability goals relative to the conditions prevailing in December 2020 when the Committee first provided its guidance for asset purchases."
FOMC Minutes: Concern about "supply chain bottlenecks and input shortages" --From the Fed: Minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee, April 27–28, 2021. A few excerpts: In their comments about inflation, participants anticipated that inflation as measured by the 12-month change of the PCE price index would move above 2 percent in the near term as very low readings from early in the pandemic fall out of the calculation. In addition, increases in oil prices were expected to pass through to consumer energy prices. Participants also noted that the expected surge in demand as the economy reopens further, along with some transitory supply chain bottlenecks, would contribute to PCE price inflation temporarily running somewhat above 2 percent. After the transitory effects of these factors fade, participants generally expected measured inflation to ease. Looking further ahead, participants expected inflation to be at levels consistent with achieving the Committee's objectives over time. A number of participants remarked that supply chain bottlenecks and input shortages may not be resolved quickly and, if so, these factors could put upward pressure on prices beyond this year. They noted that in some industries, supply chain disruptions appeared to be more persistent than originally anticipated and reportedly had led to higher input costs. Despite the expected short-run fluctuations in measured inflation, many participants commented that various measures of longer-term inflation expectations remained well anchored at levels broadly consistent with achieving the Committee's longer-run goals.
Markets Worry the Federal Reserve Is Making a Mistake - --Mohamed A. El-Erian -- A once-unthinkable notion is becoming possible: The European Central Bank may start talking about ratcheting back easy-money policies before the Federal Reserve does. Even more curious is that this would not be the result of the usual policy drivers relating to inflation, growth, financial stability and fiscal policy. Rather, it would reflect a Fed-specific duality happening now: Not only does the U.S. central bank appear to be to lagging behind developments on the ground and the emerging consensus among some other central banks, but it’s also being held hostage to a monetary framework that, while designed to capture structural change, risks being ill-suited for the Covid-disrupted world. Such possible ECB considerations of a taper would follow actual steps taken this month by the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England. 1 And they would make the U.S. central bank even more of an outlier in the advanced world as Fed officials almost universally reiterate their long-standing message that it is not time yet to even start “thinking about thinking” about a change in the current “pedal-to-the-metal” policy approach. This emerging contrast cannot be explained away by traditional drivers of monetary policy. If anything, those factors would suggest that the Fed should be ahead of the other central banks in slowly and carefully tightening financial conditions. As an illustration, consider the following:
- *Growth in the U.S. is outpacing that in Europe, and is likely to continue to do so for 2021 as a whole;
- *Fiscal policy in the U.S. is significantly more expansionary than it is in Europe;
- *Inflationary pressures are more pronounced and broad-based in the U.S. than in Europe, and
- *There is a greater proliferation in the U.S. of excessive financial risk-taking in non-banks, which poses a danger to future financial stability.
None of these things explain the Fed’s position; in fact, they run counter to it. And yet U.S. central bankers remain fixated on their oft-repeated conviction that inflation is “transitory.” They are holding to this line despite data and corporate evidence that support a more open mindset, and even as other central banks take different approaches and an increasing number of economists and Wall Street analysts voice concern about the Fed’s stance. Fed policy makers may well end up being correct in their stubbornness to dismiss all this. However, judging from the market action, including today’s selloff in assets that historically do not move together, it’s clear worries are growing about the risk of a policy mistake. After all, one of the last things the economy and markets need is a late Fed that is forced to slam its brakes.
Divisions mount over US monetary policy - Minutes from the Fed’s April 27–28 policy making committee released yesterday indicate a possible divergence in the central bank’s governing body over the direction of monetary policy amid concerns that financial authorities are ignoring growing dangers that inflation could get out of control. According to the minutes of the meeting, members of the Federal Open Market Committee generally agreed that the US economy remained “far” from the Fed’s goals of full employment and price stability, with a level of inflation consistently around 2 percent, and this required the central bank maintaining the ultra-loose monetary policy initiated in March 2020. But they also showed that a number of members indicated during the discussion that the time may be rapidly approaching when a discussion should begin on rolling back the Fed’s asset purchases of $120 billion a month—more than $1.4 trillion a year. However, when Fed chair Jerome Powell reported on the Fed’s deliberations immediately after the meeting three weeks ago he made no reference to this significant discussion. According to the FOMC minutes: “A number of participants suggested that if the economy continued to make rapid progress towards the committee’s goals, it might be appropriate at some point in upcoming meetings to begin discussing a plan for adjusting the pace of asset purchases.” The issue was very much a live one at the Fed meeting, with significant financial analysts and commentators warning it had to give some indication of when it might begin the tapering process lest it was forced to jam on the monetary brakes in face of an inflationary surge. Former US Treasury Secretary Summers had warned that combined with the stimulus measures of the Biden administration, the Fed’s policies could lead to the kind of inflation seen in the 1970s. These views were clearly evident at the Fed meeting, with the minutes recording that “a couple of participants commented on the risks of inflation pressures building up to unwelcome levels before they become sufficiently evident to induce a policy reaction.” Summers returned to the monetary policy fray earlier this week in comments at a conference hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. He said both the Biden administration and the Fed had “underestimated the risks, very substantially, both to financial stability as well as to conventional inflation of protracted extremely low interest rates.” The latest policy projections from the Fed, based on the assumption that price rises—a 4.2 percent increase for the year to April—are “transitory” effects of the economic reopening and it will keep interest rates at historic lows at least until 2024. In his remarks Summers took direct aim at this scenario. “Policy projections suggesting rates may not be raised for … close to three years are creating a dangerous complacency,” he said, warning the Fed could be forced into a rapid tightening that would hit financial markets and the broader economy. “When, as I think is quite likely, there is a strong need to adjust policy, those adjustments will come as a surprise,” he said, and the “jolt” would “do real damage to financial stability, and may do real damage to the economy.”
Fed Alert: Overnight Reverse Repo Usage Soars Above Covid Crisis Highs --In today's FOMC Minutes there was a brief section that received little focus amid the broader analysis of the Fed's tapering, inflation language, yet which could be far more important in coming weeks in light of the violent move higher in overnight reverse repo usage.This is what the Fed said in its discussion of money market rates and the Fed's balance sheet:Reserve balances increased further this intermeeting period to a record level of $3.9 trillion. The effective federal funds rate was steady at 7 basis points. However, amid ongoing strong demand for safe short-term investments and reduced Treasury bill supply, the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) stood at 1 basis point throughout the period. The overnight reverse repurchase agreement (ON RRP) facility continued to effectively support policy implementation, and take-up peaked at more than $100 billion. A modest amount of trading in overnight repurchase agreement (repo) markets occurred at negative rates, although this development appeared to largely reflect technical factors. The SOMA manager noted that downward pressure on overnight rates in coming months could result in conditions that warrant consideration of a modest adjustment to administered rates and could ultimately lead to a greater share of Federal Reserve balance sheet expansion being channeled into ON RRP and other Federal Reserve liabilities. Although few survey respondents expected an adjustment to administered rates at the current meeting, more than half expected an adjustment by the end of the June FOMC meeting." This language confirms what we said last night when we discussed the spike in overnight reverse repo usage as part of the coming QE endgame..
Inflation sparks concerns in financial markets - There is growing nervousness in financial markets over the effect of inflation on the massive asset bubble that has developed in the past year as a result of the multi-trillion interventions by the US Federal Reserve and other central banks. Inflation warning signals have started to flash with the report last week that US consumer price inflation rose by 4.2 percent in April from a year earlier. While the Fed has insisted its ultra-easy monetary policies, which have fuelled the asset boom, will continue for the foreseeable future, there are fears that either interest rates in the bond market will start to rise or that the central bank will be forced to slam on the monetary brakes if price rises prove to be structural rather than “transitory” as it has maintained. Speaking at a conference last Tuesday, Lael Brainard, a member of the Fed’s Board of Governors, said the central bank had to be “patient” in pursuing its policies and made it clear the Fed was not even beginning to contemplate removing its support for financial markets. Having just overseen the Fed’s Financial Stability Report, which pointed to “vulnerabilities” in the financial system as investors engaged in increasingly risky strategies in the search for yield, Brainard was acutely aware that even the suggestion of an interest rate rise could have adverse consequences for the stock market and other financial assets. Speaking in the wake of figures showing a marked slowdown in labour market growth—April data revealed the US economy added only 266,000 jobs in April, well below expectations—she said: “The outlook is bright, but risks remain, and we are far from our goal. The latest employment report reminds us that realised outcomes can diverge from forward projections and underscores the value of patience.” On inflation, speaking before the latest numbers came out, she said remaining “patient” during a “transitory surge” in prices associated with re-opening would ensure that underlying momentum was “not curtailed by a premature tightening of financial conditions.” In other words, the Fed would not do anything to “spook” the financial markets and set off a major sell-off. The Fed is haunted by the prospect of a return of the conditions of March 2020, when markets froze, and the events of February 25 this year, when a tremor went through the financial system because 40 percent of a Treasury bond issue was not able to be sold.
Slack in the Economy, Not Inflation, Should Be Bigger Worry --With US consumer prices rising at 4.2% on an annual basis in April, the fears of those who have recently been predicting a sharp rise in inflation seem finally to have come true. Shortages of some commodities and some types of labor are fueling the debate about the possibility that inflation has come back to stay, making its way into expectations and forcing the Federal Reserve to change soon its current very expansive monetary stance. Some economists, like Lawrence Summers and Olivier Blanchard, were especially vocal in pointing out the dangers associated with the stimulus package later approved by Congress, fearing that another major fiscal effort on top of those enacted in 2020, would be much more than what would be needed to close the recessionary gap, thus causing overheating and potentially stoking long-dormant inflation. Others, like Paul Krugman, have judged these fears to be excessive. Based on the general consensus on the very flat slope of the Phillips curve in recent decades, he has noted that even an overheated economy would be unlikely to produce serious inflation. The latest numbers, far from entirely confirming the former view, reveal instead a rather nuanced situation. The increase of prices in April comes 12 months after the biggest drop due to the initial impact of the pandemic closures – which automatically produces high numbers. Moreover, it seems to be concentrated in particular items and sectors (used and rental cars, airfares, commodities such as copper and lumber) where a combination occurred, possibly of short duration, of bottlenecks in supply and a suddenly increasing demand. Officials at the Federal Reserve do not seem to be much worried, at least for the time being. They expected some increase in the rate of inflation associated with the re-openings, and bet that it will be transitory. Expected inflation as implicit in long-term interest rates, though increasing in 2021, is still quite moderate. Whether the US economy runs a serious risk of inflation will become clear in the next months. But one aspect of the debate is crucial, and it has to do with the supposed relationship between the size of the fiscal stimulus and the inflationary pressures. The main argument of those who predict a resurgence of inflation is that the big fiscal stimulus, even assuming cautiously small values for the various fiscal multipliers and even allowing for some savings on the part of the recipients of public transfers, could boost actual output several times well beyond the output gap – the distance between actual output and potential output. The latter is inferred from the estimates and projections produced by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), particularly in its last release ofFebruary 2021.
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).This data is as of May 16th.The seven day average is down 34.5% from the same day in 2019 (65.5% of 2019). (Dashed line) The second graph shows the 7 day average of the year-over-year change in diners as tabulated by OpenTable for the US and several selected cities. This data is updated through May 15, 2021.This data is "a sample of restaurants on the OpenTable network across all channels: online reservations, phone reservations, and walk-ins. Dining picked up during the holidays, then slumped with the huge winter surge in cases. Dining was picking up again. Florida and Texas are above 2019 levels. 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 May 13th. Movie ticket sales were at $30 million last week, down about 85% 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 slightly above the horrible 2009 levels.This data is through May 8th. Hotel occupancy is currently down 17% compared to the 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 May 7th, gasoline supplied was off about 3.8% (about 96.2% 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.
This data is through May 15th for the United States and several selected cities. The graph is the running 7 day average to remove the impact of weekends. According to the Apple data directions requests, public transit in the 7 day average for the US is at 74% of the January 2020 level and moving up. Here is some interesting data on New York subway usage. 
This graph is from Todd W Schneider. This is weekly data since 2015. This data is through Friday, May 14th. Schneider has graphs for each borough, and links to all the data sources. Voodoo Economics Handbook, 14th Edition -- Menzie Chinn - Also known as Rich States, Poor States by Arthur Laffer, Stephen Moore and John Williams. From an email announcing the new edition:The new edition finds that even through the pandemic, states with policies such as low or no income taxes and worker freedom are more economically competitive and better positioned for wage growth, job creation and domestic in-migration compared to states with higher taxes and government spending. The new rankings also reveal that, as proven by new 2020 Census data, Americans “vote with their feet” by moving from high-tax to low-tax states. From the same section.The Economic Outlook Ranking is a forecast based on a state’s current standing in 15 state policy variables. Each of these factors is influenced directly by state lawmakers through the legislative process. Generally speaking, states that spend less — especially on income transfer programs — and states that tax less — particularly on productive activities such as working or investing — experience higher growth rates than states that tax and spend moreFrom last year’s edition:The empirical evidence and analysis in this edition of Rich States, Poor States illustrate which policies encourage greater economic opportunity and which are obstacles to growth. The evidence is clear that competitive tax rates, thoughtful regulations, and responsible spending lead to more opportunities for all Americans. State economies grow and flourish when lawmakers trust people, not government, to create long-term prosperity.There is no discussion of empirics in this issue, just as there was none last year. Maybe that’s because there is no robust evidence that the Economic Outlook Ranking — with Utah and Florida at the top and Vermont and New York last — means anything. In my own analysis (discussed in this post), using data through the 12th edition of Rich States, Poor States, I found the ranking has essentially no predictive power for subsequent growth, as measured by employment (dlempl) or real GDP (dlrgdp). This is shown in the table. The variable rsps is the ranking provided by Rich States, Poor States, with lower values indicating a purportedly better business environment.
Biden, Reversing Trump, Permits Key Putin Goal: New Russian Natural Gas Pipeline To Germany - Greenwald - That the Kremlin had taken over American political institutions through its blackmail control of former President Donald Trump was a media conspiracy theory as pervasive as it was deranged. This once-exciting script was excavated from the CIA’s Cold War basement, dusted off by their operatives, and then kicked off by the intelligence community’s purposeful dissemination of the now-debunked Steele Dossier. And once this fairy tale was launched, there were seemingly no limits on the depths to which media figures would sink to promote it. Journalists published best-selling books and column after column hyping this melodrama of international intrigue. In what was just one of many low points, MSNBC’s host Chris Hayes earnestly interviewed New York Magazine’s Jonathan Chait about the latter’s 2018 cover story speculating that Trump may have been groomed as a Russian intelligence asset since 1987. “Unlikely but possible” declared the on-screen cable graphic as Hayes spoke, summarizing the media’s Trump-era renunciation of all standards of rationality and evidence for disseminating unhinged conspiracies to their audience, at great profit for themselves but great harm to everything and everyone else.In the world of reality, the exact opposite was happening. When it came to actual vital Russian interests — as opposed to the symbolic gestures hyped by the liberal cable and op-ed page circus — Trump and his administration were confronting and undermining the Kremlin in ways Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, had, to his credit, steadfastly refused to do.Indeed, the foreign policy trait relentlessly attributed to Trump in support of the media’s Cold War conspiracy theory — namely, an aversion to confronting Putin — was, in reality, an overarching and explicit belief of President Obama’s foreign policy, not President Trump’s. During the 2012 presidential election, Obama and the Democratic Party famously and repeatedly mocked GOP nominee Mitt Romney’s warnings about the threat posed by Russia as a “relic of the Cold War.”
Energy expert Dan Yergin says the U.S. is looking for a way to 'peel Russia back' from China - The U.S. wants Russia to pivot away from China, and may be showing flexibility on sanctions as an "olive branch," according to Daniel Yergin, vice chairman of IHS Markit. Washington on Wednesday imposed sanctions on some vessels and entities involved in the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that would bring natural gas from Russia to Germany. But sanctions against the company running the project, its CEO Matthias Warnig and its corporate officers have been waived "in the national interest of the United States," a press statement from the U.S. State Department said. While the company is German, its CEO is an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Reuters reported that Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov had indicated the waiving of those sanctions may help normalize ties between the U.S. and Russia. Yergin described this as an "olive branch" to encourage Russia to back away from China at a time where U.S.-Russia relations are tense. "That is, I think, a priority strategy for this administration," he told CNBC's "Street Signs Asia" on Thursday. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday at the sidelines of an Arctic Council ministerial meeting and acknowledged the differences between Washington and Moscow, but said the two sides can still work together. Ties between Moscow and Beijing have deepened in recent years, with the two countries cooperating on economic, political and defense issues. The countries' space agencies also signed a memorandum of understanding in March this year, committing to creating a new lunar space station. Yergin said Putin has been "increasingly estranged from the West" since the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. On the other hand, China is a growth market for Russia, and Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping are "like-minded about what they call absolute sovereignty," he said. Being flexible on sanctions is partly a U.S. strategy to "peel Russia back from its … growing alliance with China" despite difficulties between Washington and Moscow, said Yergin.
China Resisting US Attempts At Nuclear Talks, Says UN Envoy - In recent years the Trump administration had attempted to bring China into so-called trilateral arms control negotiations, which Beijing consistently balked at. Trump had considered landmark 20th century arms treaties with Russia to be "weak" due to not accounting for China's rapidly advancing defense technology and arsenal. For example, in summer of 2019 the US announced its formal withdrawal from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with Russia, citing that a "new, better" agreement was needed which will bring in China. Also of note is that the INF had prevented the US from deploying ground-based intermediate-range missiles in Asia. The New START nuclear arms control agreement had also reportedly been on the chopping block by the tail end of the Trump administration, but among Biden's first major actions in office was to extend it by five years. But it now appears that Biden agrees with Trump's fundamental principal of the urgency to bring China to the nuclear negotiating table. Trump's central rationale was articulated in one July 2020 statement as follows: "The president believes that it shouldn’t just be the U.S. and Russia... The days of unilateral American disarmament are over."On Tuesday US disarmament Ambassador Robert Wood indicated in new statements that China is still "resisting" nuclear talks:"Despite the PRC's dramatic build-up of its nuclear arsenal, unfortunately it continues to resist discussing nuclear risk reduction bilaterally with the United States," Woods told a United Nations conference. "To date Beijing has not been willing to engage meaningfully or establish expert discussions similar to those we have with Russia," Woods said. "We sincerely hope that will change."
War as the Enemy of Reform: Biden’s Dilemma or His Excuse? - Is President Biden afflicted with the political equivalent of a split personality? His first several months in office suggest just that possibility. On the home front, the president’s inclination is clearly to Go Big. When it comes to America’s role in the world, however, the administration’s overarching foreign-policy theme is Take It Slow. Biden’s Build Back Better domestic campaign qualifies as a first cousin once removed of Roosevelt’s famed New Deal. That said, any political leader who embarks on an aggressive domestic reform program has to prevent the outside world from getting in the way. The New Deal was already running out of gas when the danger posed by a global struggle against Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan brought it to a screeching halt. Not least of all, during the ensuing Cold War, standing in immediate over-armed, over-funded readiness for the next war became a permanent priority. As a consequence, domestic matters took a backseat to a fundamentally militarized conception of what keeping Americans safe and guaranteeing their freedoms required. As the self-designated guardian of the “Free World,” the United States became a garrison state Let me suggest that the lessons of the Vietnam War remain notably relevant to our reform-minded administration of the present moment. Johnson’s mistake was to defer to an entrenched but deeply defective national security paradigm when the success of his domestic reforms demanded that he reject it. President Biden should take heed. To preserve his status as the latest reincarnation of FDR, Biden will have to avoid the errors in judgment that consigned LBJ’s Great Society to history’s junkheap. On the foreign-policy front, the Biden team can already claim some modest, if tentative achievements. President Biden has indeed preserved the New Start nuclear agreement with Russia. Unlike his predecessor, he acknowledges that climate change is an urgent threat requiring concerted action. He has signaled his interest in salvaging the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, more commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal. Perhaps most notably, he hasordered the complete withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, ending the longest war in American history. But Biden has left essentially untouched the core assumptions that justify the vast (and vastly well funded) national security apparatus created in the wake of World War II. Central to those assumptions is the conviction that global power projection, rather than national defense per se, defines the U.S. military establishment’s core mission. Washington’s insistence on asserting global primacy (typically expressed using euphemisms like “global leadership”) finds concrete expression in a determination to remain militarily dominant everywhere. So far at least, Biden shows no inclination to renounce, or even reassess, the practices that have evolved to pursue such global military dominion. These include Pentagon expenditures easily exceeding those of any adversary or even plausible combination of adversaries; an arms industry that corrupts American politics and openly subverts democracy; a massive, essentially unusable nuclear strike force presently undergoing a comprehensive $1.7 trillion “modernization”; a network of hundreds of bases hosting U.S. troop contingents in dozens of countries around the world; and, of course, an inclination to use force unmatched by any nation with the possible exception of Israel.
Exclusive: Inside the Military's Secret Undercover Army -- The largest undercover force the world has ever known is the one created by thePentagon over the past decade. Some 60,000 people now belong to this secret army, many working under masked identities and in low profile, all part of a broad program called "signature reduction." The force, more than ten times the size of the clandestine elements of the CIA, carries out domestic and foreign assignments, both in military uniforms and under civilian cover, in real life and online, sometimes hiding in private businesses and consultancies, some of them household name companies. The unprecedented shift has placed an ever greater number of soldiers, civilians, and contractors working under false identities, partly as a natural result in the growth of secret special forces but also as an intentional response to the challenges of traveling and operating in an increasingly transparent world. The explosion of Pentagon cyber warfare, moreover, has led to thousands of spies who carry out their day-to-day work in various made-up personas, the very type of nefarious operations the United States decries when Russian and Chinese spies do the same. Newsweek's exclusive report on this secret world is the result of a two-year investigation involving the examination of over 600 resumes and 1,000 job postings, dozens of Freedom of Information Act requests, and scores of interviews with participants and defense decision-makers. What emerges is a window into not just a little-known sector of the American military, but also a completely unregulated practice. No one knows the program's total size, and the explosion of signature reduction has never been examined for its impact on military policies and culture. Congress has never held a hearing on the subject. And yet the military developing this gigantic clandestine force challenges U.S. laws, the Geneva Conventions, the code of military conduct and basic accountability.
Omar: 'Appalling' for US to move forward with arms sale to Israel - Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said Monday it would be “appalling” for the Biden administration to proceed with a planned precision-guided munitions sale to Israel amid its ongoing conflict with Gaza. “It would be appalling for the Biden administration to go through with $735 million in precision-guided weaponry to Netanyahu without any strings attached in the wake of escalating violence and attacks on civilians,” Omar said in a statement, referring to the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “If this goes through this will be seen as a green light for continued escalation and will undercut any attempts at brokering a ceasefire,” added Omar, one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress. The Biden administration at the beginning of the month notified lawmakers that it approved a $735 million arms sale to Israel, mostly of Boeing-made Joint Direct Attack Munitions that can turn so-called “dumb” bombs into precision-guided missiles, a congressional aide confirmed to The Hill. The notification set off a 15-day congressional review period in which lawmakers could block the sale. But that window is all but closed now. There are four days left in the review period, and any resolution of disapproval has to sit in committee for 10 day before someone can force a vote to bring it to the floor. The approval for the arms sale came five days before Hamas, the militant group that controls the Gaza Strip, began firing rockets toward Israel in response to Israeli police action at Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of the holiest sites in Islam. But it is now eliciting scrutiny amid the escalating violence. The crisis, now in its second week, is the worst between the two sides since 2014. The rocket fire from Hamas has been met with Israeli airstrikes that have killed nearly 200 Palestinians, including more than 50 children, and leveled several Gaza City buildings, including one hit over the weekend that also housed employees for The Associated Press and Al Jazeera. In her statement on the arms sale, Omar said the United States “should not stand idly by while crimes against humanity are being committed with our backing.”
Tlaib Confronts Biden Over 'Unconditional Support' for Israel Amid Gaza Atrocities - Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, the first woman of Palestinian descent to serve in Congress, directly confronted President Joe Biden on Tuesday over his unwavering support for a right-wing Israeli government that continues to massacre civilians in the occupied Gaza Strip—in some cases using U.S.-made bombs and aircraft.When Biden arrived in Detroit for an event Tuesday, Tlaib greeted the president on an airport tarmac and—according to an aide—expressed that "Palestinian human rights are not a bargaining chip and must be protected, not negotiated.""The U.S. cannot continue to give the right-wing [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu government billions each year to commit crimes against Palestinians," Tlaib said during the brief exchange, which was captured only in photographs. "Atrocities like bombing schools cannot be tolerated, much less conducted with U.S.-supplied weapons."The Michigan Democrat also told the president that "the status quo is enabling more killing, that the current U.S. approach of unconditional support for the Israeli government is not working, and that the White House must do far more to protect Palestinian lives, dignity, and human rights," Tlaib's aide said.While it is not clear what Biden said in response to Tlaib's remarks on the tarmac, the president praised the Michigan congresswoman during a speech at a Ford Factory in Dearborn."I admire your intellect, I admire your passion, and I admire your concern for so many other people," Biden said. "From my heart, I pray that your grandmom and family are well. I promise you, I'll do everything to see that they are."Tlaib is among the group of progressive lawmakers that has vocally criticized Biden's inaction as the Israeli government—with the diplomatic and military support of the U.S.—has killed more than 200 Palestinians in Gaza, leveled residential buildings, bombed the besieged territory's medical facilities, and attacked the offices of local and international media outlets.Throughout the onslaught, the president has defended the Israeli government's actions as reasonably proportionate and categorized the devastating bombing campaign in Gaza as "self-defense."In response to Biden's belated endorsement of a cease-fire during a call with Netanyahu on Monday, Tlaib tweeted, "If you support a cease-fire, then get out of the way of the U.N. Security Council and join other countries in demanding it." "Apartheid-in-chief Netanyahu will not listen to anyone asking nicely," Tlaib added. "He commits war crimes and openly violates international law."
Ocasio-Cortez Unveils Resolution to Block Biden's $735 Million Weapons Sale to Israel - With time running out to act, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Wednesday introduced a resolution aimed at blocking the Biden administration's proposed sale of $735 million in advanced weaponry to the Israeli government as it continues its deadly assault on the occupied Gaza Strip. The new resolution (pdf)—which Ocasio-Cortez introduced alongside Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Mark Pocan (D-Wis.)—came just ahead of the May 20 deadline for congressional action on a weapons deal that would send Boeing-made Joint Direct Attack Munitions and Small Diameter Bombs to the government of right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu."For decades, the U.S. has sold billions of dollars in weaponry to Israel without ever requiring them to respect basic Palestinian rights," Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement. "In so doing, we have directly contributed to the death, displacement, and disenfranchisement of millions.""At a time when so many, including President [Joe] Biden, support a cease-fire, we should not be sending 'direct attack' weaponry to Prime Minister Netanyahu to prolong this violence," the New York Democrat added.The Biden administration first notified Congress of the proposed weapons sale on May 5, just days before Israel began its latest deadly bombardment of Gaza. Under current law, the House has just 15 days to object to the weapons sale with a resolution of disapproval.But in a press release on Wednesday, Ocasio-Cortez's office noted that "after that time period has lapsed, Congress can still block or modify any sale up to the point of delivery."Additionally, as Jewish Currents contributing writer Alex Kane pointed out, "if a senator introduced a resolution [of disapproval] before the end of May 20th, the bill would be required to get a vote in the Senate."Joining Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib, and Pocan, six House lawmakers backed the resolution as original co-sponsors, including Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), and Cori Bush (D-Mo.)."Our government is directly complicit in the human rights atrocities being inflicted by the Israeli military on Palestinians, and it is our job as members of Congress to make sure that we stop funding these abuses," Bush said in a statement. "In the midst of a deadly pandemic, the Israeli military, which is one of the most advanced militaries in the world, is attacking a largely defenseless, captive civilian Palestinian population." "In Gaza, we are witnessing bombing near hospitals and schools, deliberately targeting residential buildings where families live," Bush continued. "These atrocities are being funded by billions of our own American tax dollars while communities like mine in St. Louis are hurting and are in need of life-affirming investment here at home."
How the United States Helps To Kill Palestinians - By Medea Benjamin - The U.S. corporate media usually report on Israeli military assaults in occupied Palestine as if the United States is an innocent neutral party to the conflict. In fact, large majorities of Americans have told pollsters for decades that they want the United States to be neutral in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But U.S. media and politicians betray their own lack of neutrality by blaming Palestinians for nearly all the violence and framing flagrantly disproportionate, indiscriminate and therefore illegal Israeli attacks as a justifiable response to Palestinian actions. The classic formulation from U.S. officials and commentators is that “Israel has the right to defend itself,” never “Palestinians have the right to defend themselves,” even as the Israelis massacre hundreds of Palestinian civilians, destroy thousands of Palestinian homes and seize ever more Palestinian land. The disparity in casualties in Israeli assaults on Gaza speaks for itself. So how should Americans respond to horrific images of bleeding, dying children and homes reduced to rubble in Gaza? The tragic relevance of this crisis for Americans is that, behind the fog of war, propaganda and commercialized, biased media coverage, the United States bears an overwhelming share of responsibility for the carnage taking place in Palestine.U.S. policy has perpetuated the crisis and atrocities of the Israeli occupation by unconditionally supporting Israel in three distinct ways: militarily, diplomatically and politically.On the military front, since the creation of the Israeli state, the United States has provided $146 billion in foreign aid, nearly all of it military-related. It currently provides $3.8 billionper year in military aid to Israel.In addition, the United States is the largest seller of weapons to Israel, whose military arsenal now includes 362 U.S.-built F-16 warplanes and 100 other U.S. military aircraft, including a growing fleet of the new F-35s; at least 45 Apache attack helicopters; 600 M-109 howitzers and 64 M270 rocket-launchers. At this very moment, Israel is using many of these U.S.-supplied weapons in its devastating bombardment of Gaza.The U.S. military alliance with Israel also involves joint military exercises and joint production of Arrow missiles and other weapons systems. The U.S. and Israeli militaries have collaborated on drone technologies tested by the Israelis in Gaza. In 2004, the United States called on Israeli forces with experience in the Occupied Territories to give tactical training to U.S. Special Operations Forces as they confronted popular resistance to the United States’ hostile military occupation of Iraq.The U.S. military also maintains a $1.8 billion stockpile of weapons at six locations in Israel, pre-positioned for use in future U.S. wars in the Middle East. During the Israeli assault on Gaza in 2014, even as the U.S. Congress suspended some weapons deliveries to Israel, it approved handing over stocks of 120mm mortar shells and 40mm grenade launcher ammunition from the U.S. stockpile for Israel to use against Palestinians in Gaza. Diplomatically, the United States has exercised its veto in the UN Security Council 82 times, and 44 of those vetoes have been to shield Israel from accountability for war crimes or human rights violations. In every single case, the United States has been the lone vote against the resolution, although a few other countries have occasionally abstained.
How Social Media Companies are Suppressing the Voice of Palestinians ---Over the past two years, it has become increasingly apparent that social media companies are using their clout to control the narrative to suit its own purposes, particularly when it came to stifling Donald Trump and his followers and the substantial portion of the population that does not believe the mainstream views on the pandemic and the use of mRNA and other experimental vaccines. While it receives little attention from the mainstream media, social media companies are also using their substantial powers to control the pro-Israel/anti-Palestinian narrative as you will see in this posting. First, let's look at a position paper entitled "Systematic Efforts to Silence Palestinian Content on Social Media" by Mona Shtaya, a member of the 7amleh Advisory Council, a Palestinian Digital Activism Forum. Shtaya opens by noting that, following the Palestinian popular uprising, in 2015, Palestinian contest began to disappear from social networks particularly Facebook, Twitter and Google. This content included issues regarding Palestinian rights and Israeli human rights violations and removal of this information was used to delegitimize and silence Palestinian voices. Here is a quote from the paper showing how Israel has played a role in this removal: “Since 2015, Israel has been developing new ministries and special units that report Palestinian content to social media companies. In 2015, the Israeli Ministry of Justice developed a special ‘Cyber Unit’ to support Israel’s National Cyber Crime Unit (Lahav 433) and the Israeli Law, Information and Technology Authority at the Ministry of Justice. 8 The Cyber Unit is also responsible for making requests -- based on the alleged violations of domestic laws, as well as the companies own guidelines, terms and standards -- to tech companies like Facebook and Google. Even though Adalah and ACRI argued that the Cyber Unit cannot submit “voluntary” requests to bypass constitutional and administrative norms, including transparency and due process, these processes continue and as a result of Israeli efforts, large amounts of Palestinian content has been taken down and severe limitations on freedom of expression and opinion have been imposed by Facebook and other social media companies.”
Biden Urges "Significant De-Escalation" By "Today" In Gaza Call With Netanyahu - In their second call in just a few days as the Gaza death toll soars amid unrelenting Israeli airstrikes, President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday that he expects a "significant de-escalation" in violence which can open a window for a ceasefire soon.According to the White House call readout, the two leaders held "a detailed discussion on the state of events in Gaza, Israel’s progress in degrading the capabilities of Hamas and other terrorist elements, and ongoing diplomatic efforts by regional governments and the United States," after which "The President conveyed to the Prime Minister that he expected a significant de-escalation today on the path to a ceasefire."It appears the building international pressure as well as domestic pressure from progressives within the Democratic party is belatedly pushing Biden to get firmer in his rhetoric. After ten days of fighting, Gaza's Health Ministry has counted about 220 deaths, with about one-third of them children, with Israel saying 12 of its civilians have died due to Hamas rocket fire.During a Monday phone call with Netanyahu Biden had stopped short of outright demanding de-escalation, only vaguely expressing "support" for a ceasefire. As The Hill notes of the new communication between the two close allies: "Wednesday was the first time that Biden set a deadline on when he would like to see a reduction in violence, which has persisted in the Middle East for more than a week and led to Israeli and Palestinian civilian deaths."Netanyahu's response in the first phone call had been that he wanted to "complete all the goals of the Gaza operation"before there was any chance of ceasefire. On Wednesday widespread reports are saying that Israel's shelling and airstrikes on the Gaza Strip have actually intensified. Meanwhile there's been further worrisome escalation along Israel's northern border with Lebanon:
Pelosi Joins Call To Boycott 2022 Winter Games Over China's Human Rights Abuses --With the Tokyo Summer Olympics expected to be the most underwhelming event in the history of the modern games (that is, if safety officials from the IOC ultimately allow it to continue), pressure for an international boycott of the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing is growing. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi just became the first senior American official to call for a boycott of the China games over Beijing's treatment of Uygher Muslims in the far-flung northwestern province of Xinjiang.Heads of state who go to China for the Olympics in light of genocide would not have moral authority to speak out about human rights, Pelosi insisted according to a newswire report.She also called out the corporate sponsors of the game for "looking the other way" at China's human rights abuses."How sad it is to see the Olympic corporate sponsors look the other way on China’s abuses out of concern for their bottom line."
As Covid Ravages Poor Nations, Pharma Vaccine Profiteering Has Created 9 New Billionaires - A new analysis out Thursday shows that pharmaceutical companies’ immensely profitable monopoly control over coronavirus vaccines has produced nine new billionaires since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, which continues to ravage developing nations left largely without access to the life-saving shots. According to The People’s Vaccine Alliance—a global coalition of public health and humanitarian organizations—the nine newly minted billionaires have a combined net worth of $19.3 billion, “enough to fully vaccinate all people in low-income countries 1.3 times.” Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel and BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin have amassed the largest fortunes of the newly created billionaires, with wealth of $4.3 billion and $4 billion respectively. Others on the list include Moderna founding investor Timothy Springer ($2.2 billion), Moderna chairman Noubar Afeyan ($1.9 billion), and CanSino Biologics co-founder Zhu Tao ($1.3 billion). “The highly effective vaccines we have are thanks to massive amounts of taxpayers’ money, so it can’t be fair that private individuals are cashing in while hundreds of millions face second and third waves completely unprotected,” said Heidi Chow, senior policy and campaigns manager at U.K.-based advocacy group Global Justice Now. “It is a sad indictment of the loyalties of some current governments that a handful of people working for pharmaceutical companies have been allowed to become billionaires off the back of publicly-funded efforts to end the pandemic,” Chow added. On top of adding to the global billionaire total—which has grown by the hundredssince the pandemic began—pharmaceutical companies’ stranglehold on vaccine production has significantly boosted the wealth of existing billionaires whose portfolios include vaccine manufacturers. The People’s Vaccine Alliance found that eight billionaires with “extensive” investments in coronavirus vaccine makers have “seen their combined wealth increase by $32.2 billion, enough to fully vaccinate everyone in India.”
Biden Administration/CDC “Mission Accomplished” Mask Reversal: Hubris? Incompetence? Toadying to Business? - Yves Smith -- Whatever the abrupt and confusingly communicated CDC volte face on masking was about, it certainly wasn’t “following the science”. That is, unless “Follow the science” actually means “Follow what credentialed officials say, irrespective of whether it makes any sense.” At a minimum, Congresscritters need to haul CDC head Rochelle Walensky and Covid talking head in chief Anthony Fauci in to ‘splain their masking and social distancing 180. As readers have likely heard, the CDC issued new guidelines on Thursday which amount to declaring victory against Covid, with only 35% of Americans fully vaccinated and it not known whether “breakthrough” asymptomatic cases can spread the disease. The CDC thinks it’s now reasonable to operate on a vaccination honor system and have the vaccinated ditch masks and social distancing. This comes after at least two months of fulminating about the necessity of vaccine passports. I guess someone got the memo, as we pointed out early on, that they are non-starters in most US states due to privacy and civil rights laws. And if anyone was so deluded as to think this change would create an incentive to get vaccinated, they weren’t very imaginative: Recall that large-scale repeated testing in the UK has established that elementary-school children were 2x as likely as adults to bring Covid into a household, and older children, 7x as likely. These cases would all or nearly all have been asymptomatic. We have no basis for thinking that asymptomatic cases among the vaccinated operate any differently until we have evidence. But in an bureaucratic version of putting fingers in ears and yelling “Nah Nah Nah,” the CDC announced the week prior that it was no longer going to keep tabs on asymptomatic cases. The CDC’s own rationalization, to the extent it has one, is embarrassingly off point. Per CNN: A fresh batch of data from a big study of health care workers across the country helped prompt the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to say fully vaccinated people can go without masks in most circumstances, the agency said Friday. The study found that real-life use of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines provided 94% protection for the front-line workers immunized at the beginning of the vaccine rollout. A single dose provided 82% protection, the CDC-led team reported in the agency’s weekly report, the MMWR. “This report provided the most compelling information to date that COVID-19 vaccines were performing as expected in the real world,” Walensky said in a statement Friday. This is absurd. What about an irrelevant sample don’t you understand? First, having a medical professional in the family confers a health and longevity advantage, particularly in lower-income cohorts. Second, health care workers are by definition working…so this study omits the elderly, the population most at risk from bad Covid outcomes Third, the majority of heath care professionals are robust and active. Nurses, nursing home workers, ER doctors and surgeons spend a lot of time on their feet. Finally, health care workers would be super duper masked up at work, often with shields too, using gloves….and with high quality ventilation, and strict hygiene standards! How can drug efficacy in a setting of required mask use tell you anything about efficacy with no masks?!?!
An Indictment of US Covid Policy - Yves Smith - Reader GM, who hangs with scientists who have published dozens of cutting-edge immunology papers, including on topics directly relevant to the intricacies of Covid pathogenesis, has provided, through a series of e-mails, a damning critique of US Covid policy. Thanks to America’s status in the global economy, it is well nigh impossible for other countries to pursue a markedly different path. As he described in a recent e-mail: The question that I have no answer to is when exactly was it decided to not contain it. If you remember, some information came out about early and mid-February 2020 closed Senate meetings, after which senators were selling their shares in hotels and airlines, i.e. what was going to happen in late March was known at that time. But it was not in fact too late to contain it in early February, it could have been done with test-trace-isolate. So maybe it was perceived at the time that it could not be, assuming the decision was made as late as possible within that timeline. But the earlier that decision happened, the more nefarious motivations one would have to suspect were involved, because why would you not at least try to contain it when it was eminently doable? After all SARS-1 was contained even though it reached hundreds of cases in Canada and the US. And then what followed was the outright sabotage of testing and detection by the CDC,1 the CDC allowing strongly suspected to be infected people to just get off their flight and walk right back into the community, and a rather long list of other such absurd actions. Maybe one day internal information will leak and we will learn the truth, who knows…Also, this all becomes even more gruesome when one realizes that the decision of the US to allow it to become endemic meant the same decision was imposed on most of the rest of the world, as the US controls it. As I said above, Eastern Europe (except for Belarus and Russia) took it very seriously early on and locked down before it had gotten out of hand, and was in fact very close to elimination. Montenegro, which eventually ended up being one of the worst affected countries, actually did eliminate it in May 2020.But once it became clear the US will not eliminate and the EU will not eliminate, those countries had no choice, although they could have at least held out for vaccines instead of letting it rip. There was never going to be a world in which the EU and Latin America have indefinitely banned travel out of the US, not with US military bases stationed all over Europe. And there was never going to be a world in which Bulgaria and Romania ban travel from Germany.The really sad part is that a country like Russia supposedly does have that independence, and could have gone for elimination and closed borders and a bubble with China. But modern Russia is not the USSR, it’s just as, if not more neoliberal than the US, so they let it rip too, for the same reasons as in the US…And now some the countries that did the right thing — Taiwan, Vietnam, and Laos — are encircled and battling their worst outbreaks since the start, which is heartbreaking to watch.
Sen. Kennedy presses CDC chief Rochelle Walensky on Wuhan virus research - Republican Sen. John Kennedy pressed CDC Director Rochelle Walensky during a Senate hearing Wednesday to follow up on a tense exchange last week between Dr. Anthony Fauci and Sen. Rand Paul on funding for so-called “gain of function” research in the Chinese lab at the center of COVID-19’s origins. Kennedy questioned Walensky about whether the US provided funding to the Wuhan lab for the controversial research, which focuses on making a virus more potent in the laboratory as a way to produce better vaccines against it. “Not to my knowledge,” she said, adding that Fauci would be the best person to answer that question. “Fauci seems confused,” Kennedy responded. “I’m asking, with all due respect, I’m asking you to give us that information: Where throughout the world, including, but not limited to the United States of America, are we doing research on these viruses to make them contagious in order to study them, that’s what I mean by ‘gain of function,'” Kennedy said. Walensky said she would have her staff look into it. “You’re the head of the CDC, I bet you get your phone calls returned,” he retorted. The Louisiana Republican also pressed Walensky to explain the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines released last week that have caused confusion about when masks are still required in certain situations. He asked why, for example, he doesn’t have to wear a mask in the Senate because he’s vaccinated for coronavirus but must still wear one if he walks across the Capitol to the House of Representatives. “Based on CDC recommendations, if I walk over to the House, are you recommending I wear a mask,” he asked Walensky. “We have really encouraged that the policies of mask wearing be locally driven, and the reason for that is because every community, every county has different rates of disease and different rates of vaccination,” she said. “What’s different about the House?” he asked. Walensky responded that she didn’t know the rate of vaccination for members of Congress off the “top of my head.”
IRS to start monthly payments of child tax credit July 15 - The Biden administration on Monday announced it will start to make monthly payments of the expanded child tax credit on July 15. Households that account for about 65 million children, or 88 percent of children in the United States, will receive the payments without needing to take any additional action. Payments will be made automatically to about 39 million households, the administration said. The administration’s announcement, which coincides with Monday’s deadline for individuals to file their 2020 tax returns, provides more details about how the Treasury Department and the IRS plan to implement a key part of the coronavirus relief law President Biden enacted in March, called the American Rescue Plan Act. “The American Rescue Plan is delivering critical tax relief to middle class and hard-pressed working families with children,” Biden said in a statement. “With today’s announcement, about 90% of families with children will get this new tax relief automatically, starting in July.” Biden’s coronavirus relief law expanded the child tax credit in several ways for 2021, in an effort to reduce child poverty. One aspect of the changes to the credit is that the relief law directs the IRS to make advance payments of the credit on a periodic basis from July to December, so that people receive funds in installments throughout the year rather than a single payment when they file their 2021 tax returns. The advance payments are aimed at helping families to better plan their budgets. Biden’s relief law also increased the maximum credit amount from $2,000 to $3,600 for children under age 6 and $3,000 for older children. Additionally, the law made the credit fully refundable, which will allow the lowest-income families to be eligible for the credit. Treasury and the IRS said that families will receive up to half the amount of the credit to which they are entitled for 2021 in monthly payments from July through December, and they will receive the other half when they file their 2021 tax returns next year. Eligible families will receive monthly payments of up to $300 for children under 6, and up to $250 for children ages 6 and older.
New York included undocumented immigrants in pandemic aid, and 290,000 workers will benefit: Other states should replicate the program --EPI Blog --This April, New York committed an unprecedented $2.1 billion of the state budget to make up for the exclusion of undocumented immigrants from federal aid during the COVID-19 pandemic.Over a year ago, the pandemic hit New York early and brutally hard. Hospitals were full, and there were heart-wrenching backlogs in burying the dead as its limit. It quickly became clear that immigrants and people of color were disproportionately among those falling sick and dying. At the same time, the notion of “essential workers” took hold, and New Yorkers applauded the people keeping life going for the rest of us, knowing that many were immigrants, including large numbers who were undocumented. The unemployment rate spiked to16% and was even higher for people of color and immigrants.Yet, the first round of desperately needed federal aid very specifically excluded many immigrants. Future rounds of aid under both the Trump and Biden administrations continued to exclude undocumented individuals from expanded unemployment insurance and stimulus checks. The exclusion of undocumented immigrants, and in some cases their families, came as a slap in the face to community groups and immigrant advocates. Make the Road New York—an immigrant-led workers’ rights advocacy group—conducted a survey that showed overwhelming job loss and loss of life among the communities they serve. In the end, 90 members of Make the Road alone passed away because of COVID-19. Out of this sense of outrage came the Fund Excluded Workers Coalition, which quickly gained over 200 member organizations and moved forward powerfully under the leadership of Make the Road, New York Communities for Change, and other groups with deep roots in immigrant communities and communities of color.The coalition led an escalating campaign with rallies, a protest outside the governor’s office, a day when two New York City bridges were shut down, and a moving hunger strike that lasted for 23 days. The Fiscal Policy Institute’s (FPI) Immigration Research Initiative was a part of the coalition.When the New York Assembly and Senate each put $2.1 billion in their budget proposals, we kept the pressure on by bringing media attention to the fact that the real need was even higher, helping ensure that negotiations didn’t whittle that number down. When there was a pause between campaign actions, we helped keep the issue in the news by showing the recession’s devastating impact on people of color and immigrants. And, when the deal was finalized, we showed how many workers would benefit, and what the boost would be to local economies.
Manchin, Murkowski call for bipartisan Voting Rights Act reauthorization - Volume 90% Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) are urging congressional leaders to advance a reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act that could garner bipartisan support. Manchin and Murkowski, moderate-minded senators at the center of the Senate, sent a letter on Monday to Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) saying that they "must not allow" voting to become a partisan issue. "Inaction is not an option. Congress must come together – just as we have done time and again – to reaffirm our longstanding bipartisan commitment to free, accessible, and secure elections for all. We urge you to join us in calling for the bipartisan reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act through regular order. We can do this. We must do this," they wrote in the letter. Congress last reauthorized the 1965 Voting Rights Act in 2006. But the Supreme Court, in 2013, gutted the law when it struck down the formula for determining if state and local governments were required to get Justice Department preclearance for voting and election changes, arguing that it was outdated. Democrats have rallied around the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, which would revive the formula and try to strengthen the 1965 law. But while previous reauthorizations of the Voting Rights Act have gotten bipartisan support, the bill would likely face challenges getting the votes needed to defeat a filibuster in the Senate. Murkowski was the only GOP co-sponsor for the bill during the previous Congress. Manchin and Murkowski, in their letter, don't specifically throw their support behind one bill in particular. "We reflect not just on the positive impact this legislation has had on individual Americans' ability to exercise their most fundamental right – the right to vote – and the strength of our democracy writ large, but on the important work we still have to do to realize that promise of ensuring the right of all to vote," they wrote. Schumer in bind over fight to overhaul elections
Progressives nearly tank House Democrats' Capitol security bill ---A small group of progressives known as the “squad” came close to sinking the House Democrats’ Capitol security spending bill on Thursday over concerns about Capitol Police accountability. Democratic Reps. Cori Bush (Mo.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.) and Ayanna Pressley (Mass.) all voted “no,” while Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) and Jamaal Bowman (N.Y.) voted “present.” Their opposition created a dramatic scene on the House floor leading up to the vote, as Democratic leaders scrambled to secure the necessary support and prevent an embarrassing loss on a high-profile proposal to address the security failures of the Jan. 6 insurrection. Every Republican opposed the measure, leaving little room for error. Voting “present” allowed those three Democrats to express their frustrations without actually tanking the legislation. If all six of the Democratic defectors had voted “no” with all Republicans, then the bill would have failed. In the end, Democratic leaders secured passage only narrowly in the nail-biter 213-212 vote with the three “present” votes. The near-miss offered the latest example of the challenges Democrats face with a historically tight House majority, in which they currently hold only 219 seats over Republicans’ 211, with five seats vacant. House Democratic leaders held open a procedural vote right before the final passage of the security funding bill for more than an hour as they tamped down the last-minute progressive protest. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other House Democratic leaders could be seen intensely huddling on the House floor with House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and the progressive lawmakers threatening to vote against the bill. Bowman said that he was “concerned about adding additional funding to a police budget that's already very large and bloated.” “But I always wanted to support the cleaners and the custodial staff who throughout this process have been sort of ignored, and not a part of the conversation. What about their mental health? What about their hazard pay? What about just ensuring that they are safe as they come to work, to and from work? Not from a police perspective, but from a psychological security perspective,” Bowman said. Bowman denied that the progressives received concessions from leadership in exchange for only voting “present” so that their opposition didn’t tank the bill. “We were in communication with each other and leadership throughout the day. And I didn't decide on what I was going to do until I actually did it,” Bowman said. Black Lives Matter activists praised the progressive lawmakers for their opposition after the vote. “The attacks on January 6th were a symbol of white supremacy. We don't respond to white supremacy by giving more money to the police. Period,” they wrote in a tweet.
Anti-LGBT legislation gaining traction in the US, again - 2021 is set to become “the worst year” for state legislative attacks against LGBTQ people in history. Our new paper, released with IGLYO, an LGBTQI youth organization, cited the 2017 GLSEN School Climate survey showing that two-thirds of students in the United States had not been exposed to representation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people and their history in school. New bills in the pipeline this year risk blindsiding LGBTQ students even more.States where students might benefit from having their eyes opened to diversity, keep classes closed to lessons that can be taught from inclusion. Bills in Arkansas and Tennessee are going through that would allow parents to waive curriculum for their children related to LGBTQ people. Legislation in Idaho awaiting Senate approval also requires parental notifications and opt-ins for discussion of sexual orientation outside of sex education classes. Lawmakers in Missouri are considering measures that would require parents to be notified before instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity but would exclude historical references.In Iowa, a bill requires parents to give written consent for gender identity to be discussed with their children, while a separate bill requires a curriculum covering gender identity to specify “the potential harm and adverse outcomes of social and medical gender interventions.” Another bill in Arkansas, passed in the state House last month, obliges teachers to refer to students by their “biological sex.” A similar bill in Arizona was recently vetoed by Gov. Doug Ducey (R). The alternative he suggests is for all sex education curriculum to be posted online, with no exceptions. In North Dakota, the governor signed a House bill into law last month, which will allow student groups that receive state funding through their universities to turn away LGBTQ students “under the guise of free speech.” In Tennessee, House bill 1182, which aims to prevent transgender people from using bathrooms aligning with their identity, has gone up to the governor for approval. Legislators in 28 states have already considered or passed bills, as in Arkansas and Idaho, that prohibit transgender girls from playing on girls’ sports teams. A recent such law in Florida makes it possible for schools to require a genital inspection of student athletes suspected of being transgender. These bills will have far-reaching implications for children and young people’s lives. be given equal protection. Without protection, bullying, discrimination and exclusion can run wild. In the United States, 12.5 percent of lesbian, gay and bisexual students reported not going to school at least once in the previous 30 days because they felt unsafe at or on their way to and from school, compared with less than 4.6 percent of heterosexual students.
Cheney primary challenger says he impregnated 14-year-old when he was 18 --A state senator in Wyoming who's running against U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney and four others in a Republican primary acknowledged he impregnated a 14-year-old girl when he was 18, vowing not to end his campaign for Congress.It was a disclosure he said he was forced to make because of "the establishment swamp," but he did not explicitly blame Cheney or any of the other candidates in the race."Everybody has something in their life that they did ... We’ve all had these problems. Why is this a big deal?" state Sen. Anthony Bouchard said Thursday in a Facebook Live video about the relationship." So, bottom line, it's a story when I was young. Two teenagers, girl gets pregnant. You've heard those stories before. She was a little younger than me, so it's like the Romeo and Juliet story," he said. In the 424-year-old William Shakespeare tragedy "Romeo and Juliet," Juliet's age is given as 13, but Romeo's age is not mentioned. Bouchard did not mention his age or the girl's age in the video, but later told the Casper Star-Tribune that she was 14 and he was 18 at the time he impregnated her in Florida, where the age of consent was and remains 18.
Parler's return to Apple store poses new challenges -Parler returned to the Apple App Store on Monday after getting kicked off more than four months ago in the wake of the Jan. 6 insurrection.The social media app popular with conservatives will look different on Apple devices now that the company has pledged to remove certain content labeled as “hate” that will still be available on other versions of the platform.Parler, which presents itself as a free speech alternative to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, faces a battle on two fronts as it navigates a return to mainstream app marketplaces.The platform risks losing its core set of conservative users as it toes the line with new content moderation policies, but those same policies have critics questioning whether the company will take a hard enough stance against hate speech.“This current configuration is a half measure that really doesn't get at the root of the problem,” said Carmen Scurato, senior policy counsel at Free Press Net. “Parler is this app that can be weaponized and manipulated.”Apple agreed to allow Parler back on its App Store last month after a review of changes made to the platform. The Silicon Valley giant did not respond to inquiries Monday about what changes Parler made to comply with app store policies.Interim Parler CEO Mark Meckler suggested Monday that some content on Parler would be restricted in the iOS app but still available through the web and Android app.With its new version for iPhones and iPads, Parler will use an artificial intelligence moderation system to filter posts labeled as “hate.” Those posts won’t be visible for users on the iOS devices. The update was first reported by The Washington Post, and confirmed by Parler.
Chinese businessman with links to Steve Bannon is driving force for a sprawling disinformation network, researchers say - A sprawling online network tied to Chinese businessman Guo Wengui has become a potent platform for disinformation in the United States, attacking the safety of coronavirus vaccines, promoting false election-fraud claims and spreading baseless QAnon conspiracies, according to research published Monday by the network analysis company Graphika.The report, provided in advance to The Washington Post, details a network that Graphika says amplifies the views of Guo, a Chinese real estate developer whose association with former Trump White House adviser Stephen K. Bannon became a focus of news coverage last year after Bannon was arrested aboard Guo’s yacht on federal fraud charges. Graphika said the network includes media websites such as GTV, for which Guo last year publicly said he was raising funds, along with thousands of social media accounts that Graphika said amplify content in a coordinated fashion. The network also includes more than a dozen local-action groups over which Guo has publicly claimed an oversight role, Graphika found. Graphika’s research sheds more light on Guo, a onetime billionaire real estate developer who, in addition to his relationship with Bannon, has drawn attention for the confusing mix of disinformation and invective he has broadcast since moving to the United States, including contradictory attacks on both the Chinese Communist Party and anti-CCP dissidents in the West.The Graphika report “is an important forensic analysis of the ways that rich and politically motivated people can manipulate social media,” said Joan Donovan, director of the Technology and Social Change Research Project at Harvard’s Shorenstein Center.Other analysts also have identified the network as boosting Guo-related media and aligned political messaging. Alethea Group, a firm that tracks disinformation and other online threats, said it had detected an effort in November to spread disinformation in Spanish.
New York attorney general opens criminal investigation into Trump Organization - Donald Trump is facing growing legal danger after the attorney general’s office in New York said it had opened a criminal investigation into his business activities and those of other Trump family members. The attorney general, Letitia James, had been conducting a civil inquiry into the Trump Organization. On Tuesday night, her office said it was joining a sweeping criminal investigation being conducted in parallel by Manhattan’s district attorney, Cyrus Vance. The move – communicated in a recent letter from James to the Trump Organization – significantly raises the stakes for the former Republican president, who now faces three separate criminal investigations. “We have informed the Trump Organization that our investigation … is no longer purely civil in nature,” James’s office said. “We are now actively investigating the Trump Organization in a criminal capacity, along with the Manhattan DA. We have no additional comment at this time.” Trump is accused of falsely manipulating the value of Trump Organization properties in order to secure bank loans and lucrative tax breaks. Trump said in a statement on Wednesday: “There is nothing more corrupt than an investigation that is in desperate search of a crime.”
Report shows CEOs in US cashed in during the pandemic as workers lost jobs, wages and lives -- The Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) published a significant report on May 11 that details the rigging of executive compensation plans by corporate boards during the pandemic, so that vast sums could be funneled into the pockets of millionaire executives while workers suffered unemployment, reduced wages, exposure to COVID-19 and death. Under the title “Pandemic Pay Plunder,” the top finding of the IPS’ 27th Annual Executive Excess report is that among the top US corporations with the lowest paid workforces, CEOs received a 29 percent increase in compensation, while workers’ wages fell by 2 percent on average last year. The IPS research shows that 51 out of the 100 corporations on the S&P 500 list with the lowest median worker wages bent corporate rules during the pandemic to ensure that their CEOs increased their compensation by an average of $4 million, to a total of $15.3 million, while workers’ wages fell by more than $550 to $28,187. The CEO-to-worker pay ratio for these corporations reached 830 to 1. “American families have been simply unable, on their own, to bear the COVID crisis. Meanwhile, corporate chief executives in the United States have continued to score the sorts of windfalls that have ballooned billionaire wealth.” In explaining how corporate boards modified compensation rules to ensure a windfall for executives, the report says that the companies engaged “in various rigging maneuvers” such as (1) lowering the performance numbers so executives could meet their bonus targets, (2) awarding special “retention” bonuses, (3) excluding poor second-quarter (March-May 2020) results from performance evaluations and (4) replacing performance-based awards with time-based awards. The IPS report says that “an army of ‘independent’ compensation consultants” was retained by the corporate boards in order to “give all this rule-rigging a veneer of legitimacy.” In relation to the Carnival compensation scam, the report notes that the company stranded employees at sea for months while it scrambled to get customers back home. But after securing $6 billion in low-cost financing from the US Federal Reserve, it gave CEO Arnold Donald special pandemic “retention and incentive” stock grants valued at more than $5 million. “Arnold’s total 2020 compensation came to $13.3 million, 490 times the company’s $27,151 median worker pay” the report states. The IPS study does not mention reports that nearly a dozen cruise line workers died in suicides committed during the lengthy period of forced isolation without pay on ships, or as a result of mental health problems after they came ashore.
Irreconcilable Billionaires -“FILING FOR DIVORCE,” a family lawyer once told me, “is like pulling the thread from a seam . . . everything that was contained within falls out.” In the unraveling of the marriage of Bill and Melinda Gates, who announced their plan to divorce a few weeks ago, the noxious innards are now falling out. On May 16, more details emerged about nerdy and soon-to-be-single Mr. Gates’s friendship with the convicted and now dead sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The Daily Beast reports that a disgruntled Gates used Epstein’s Manhattan home as an escape from his “toxic” but then still intact marriage numerous times between 2011 and 2014. Epstein was for Gates the buddy who hears your complaints about married life and tells you to call it quits. For his part, Gates reportedly told Epstein to repair his own reputation—to put that 2008 guilty plea for solicitation of sex with a minor in the past. The fact that his bachelor buddy was involved—even then—in such nefarious acts appeared not to be a concern to Gates. By 2019, shortly after Epstein was found dead, Gates tried to explain away the relationship, telling the Wall Street Journal, “I met him. I didn’t have any business relationship or friendship with him.”As sources presumably connected to Melinda are telling it now, it was Bill’s friendship with Epstein, added to his history of allegedly harassing female employees at Microsoft (he stepped down from the board after an investigation into such allegations), that prompted her to consider divorce. She is reported to have started conversations with lawyers about filing for divorce in 2019, although she was aware of Bill’s meetings with Epstein at least as far back as 2013.With that knowledge, Melinda French Gates was in a difficult position. In the meantime, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation chugged along in the business of saving the world. The Annual Bill and Melinda Gates letters went out, signed as before by the two of them. Notably, the 2021 letter does not show the couple together but sitting at their own work-from-home stations, presumably still saving the world from home. There is Bill Gates the billionaire in a magenta sweater, staring deep into his screen as he considers the world’s thorny problems, with little time to sort out the couple’s irreconcilable differences. That was Melinda’s predicament—she was not just in a marriage, she was also a principal in a huge global operation. The second part is arguably more crucial and raises questions about the very nature of global philanthropy and power. Was Bill Gates’s proclivity for hanging out with a pedophile and the reported harassment he engaged in at Microsoft a moral indictment of a man who branded himself as the world’s savior? Should we consider his lapses, known and unknown, as aberrations in an otherwise decades-long record of selflessness? After all, billionaires are people too.
Biden, Harris both millionaires, in top one percent of incomes - Both President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are millionaires, whose income places them in the top one percent of the US population, according to tax returns and personal financial statements that were made public on Monday. May 17 was the deadline this year for US taxpayers to file their tax returns. Both Joe and Jill Biden and Kamala Harris and her husband Douglas Emhoff had incomes well above the approximately $539,000-a-year that puts a family into the top one percent. The Bidens made $607,336, while Harris and Emhoff reported $1,695,225. Both the Bidens and Harris and Emhoff filed joint returns and paid tax rates at the standard percentage for their high tax brackets, according to the returns—26 percent for the Bidens, 36.7 percent for Harris and Emhoff. President Biden and his wife Jill Biden reported the adjusted gross income of $607,336 in 2020, when he was running for president and she was a community college professor in Virginia. The bulk of their income came from two S corporations the couple established to hold royalties and fees from various books and speaking engagements. An S corporation is a legal tax dodge regularly employed by the wealthy to shelter income from taxation. According to one analysis, the two S corporations established by the Bidens—CelticCapri Corp. for him, Giacoppa Corp. for her—reported more than $13 million in profits in 2017 and 2018, and less than $329,000 in profits in 2019 and 2020, when Biden halted most paid speechmaking to focus on his presidential campaign. The two corporate entities, which had no function except to avoid taxes, particularly the Medicare surtax of 3.8 percent for higher incomes—a provision of the Affordable Care Act—saved the Bidens an estimated $500,000 or more in payments they would otherwise have made to the US Treasury. The corporations also paid out $1.3 million in “salaries” to the Bidens, their nominal corporate “executives.” This was the bulk of their family income during the period when Biden was out of office, between leaving the vice-presidency in January 2017 and entering the White House in January 2021. According to the financial disclosure form, CelticCapri Corp. will remain dormant during the Biden administration, continuing to receive any book royalties but no longer paying him a salary as its president. Giacoppa Corp. may continue to pay a salary to the “first lady.” Biden has proposed closing this “S corporation loophole,” one with which he is certainly familiar, as part of his proposed tax increases on the wealthy. In their personal financial statement, which is required by law, the Bidens reported total assets of between $1.2 million and nearly $2.9 million. The bulk of this is between $950,000 and $2 million in cash held in a number of bank accounts. They also own a mortgaged home in Wilmington, Delaware, and a $2.7 million beach house on the Atlantic shore, which they bought in 2017, but these are not covered by the disclosure form. Harris and Emhoff reported an adjusted gross income of $1,695,225 in 2020, most of it from Emhoff’s legal practice. He was a partner at the law firms of DLA Piper and Venable, both in southern California, where he focused on the entertainment industry. Harris reported her Senate salary of about $170,000 and about $360,000 in advances from a publisher for a book she authored as part of her brief presidential campaign. The couple reported combined assets of between $3 million and $7 million, minus a debt of $2.7 million, largely on mortgages on two homes.
Crypto bros take the fight back to Elon as prices tank - If there’s one thing the market’s learned over the past few years, it’s to avoid putting too much hope in Elon Musk.Whether you’re a short seller, a retail investor, New York state or even a customer, a relationship with anything Musky seems to end in some form of disappointment.And if you have spent any time on the internet in the past few days, you will no doubt know that the latest victims are the intellectual heavyweights that have become known as the crypto bros.Up until recently utterly enamoured with the self-stylised technoking, the brodom has become incensed after Musk sent the price of bitcoin sliding bytweeting first that Tesla would no longer be accepting bitcoin (because of itsenvironmental impact), and then sent it down further over the weekend afterappearing to suggest that Tesla would dump its bitcoin holdings because of the way he was being treated by the bros. (He later clarified that Tesla had not, at this point, sold any bitcoin.) Of course, he also found time to boast about his superior knowledge of money due to his time at PayPal.Bitcoin tanked 9 per cent to just under $43,000, before recovering to circa $45,000 at pixel time. Twenty-four hour chart via Cryptocompare:In a continuation of the “hmm there might be some correlation here” theme we’ve banged on about since at least 2018, every other major coin including ether (-8 per cent), XRP (-6 per cent) and litecoin (-9 per cent) tanked at the same time. (Tether of course was steady at $1 comme toujours which makes sense now that we know that the $58bn stablecoin is backed by a whole 2.9 per cent of cash.) Our fearsome crypto bros aren’t the types to take a setback like this lying down. They know how to fight back. Some of them used their intellectual heft to take on our poorly informed Elon, but that just made him harden his position on errr, dogecoin: Others were more creative. Because after all what better way is there to fight back against FUD being thrown at a magical money token than by proving how easy it is to create another new magical money token out of thin air?Presenting a coin that we shall not be referring to by name at this time:Even funnier (our sides are literally splitting), it’s not even the only anti-Musk token on the market: With bitcoin languishing around its lowest levels since February, someone needs to sort this out, sharpish.
As Bitcoin Crashes 34 Percent in a Week, U.S. Congressman Ted Budd Pushes Bank Regulator to Approve More Crypto National Bank Charters - Pam Martens - Yesterday, Bitcoin put on a display that should put to rest any lingering doubts that it is a stable currency that could be used to pay for products or services. The current month Bitcoin futures contract at the CME swung between a low of $30,250 to a high of $43,530 – a difference of $13,280 in one trading session. From its intraday high of $58,140 on Wednesday, May 12, to its close one week later on Wednesday, May 19, Bitcoin had lost 34 percent of its value.As we explained here at Wall Street On Parade on May 12, some of the smartest minds in the investment community think Bitcoin is very bad for America. One of the most iconic investors in America, Warren Buffet, stated in May 2018 that Bitcoin is “probably rat poison squared.” In January of the same year, Buffet told CNBC in an interview that “In terms of cryptocurrencies, generally, I can say with almost certainty that they will come to a bad ending.” Also in 2018, Bill Harris, the former CEO of Intuit and PayPal, wrote a detailed critique of Bitcoin for Vox, under the headline: “Bitcoin is the greatest scam in history.”In July 2019, NYU Professor and economist Nouriel Roubini offered this analysis of Bitcoin and crypto in a Bloomberg News interview: “It is not a means of payment, nobody, not even this blockchain conference, accepts Bitcoin for paying for conference fees cause you can do only five transactions per second with Bitcoin. Nobody’s using it for any transactions. It’s trading one sh*tcoin for another sh*tcoin. That’s the entire trading or currency in the space where’s there’s price manipulation, spoofing, wash trading, pump and dumping, frontrunning. It’s just a big criminal scam and nothing else.”None of that sound logic seems to have found its way to the office of Congressman Ted Budd, who represents North Carolina’s 13th Congressional District.At a House Financial Services Committee hearing yesterday, called to take testimony from and question banking regulators, Budd sounded like a lobbyist for the crypto industry. The exchange went as follows with the newly appointed acting head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Michael Hsu:
- Budd: “Comptroller Hsu, the OCC has received a number of applications from crypto trust banks, and after conditionally approving three – I believe it’s three, you can correct me on that if it’s a different number – I think they were Anchorage, Protego, and Paxos. So what is the timetable for approving the remaining charters that are out there?”
- Hsu: “I don’t know the timetable right now. It’s under review. It’s under discussion. I just got here. This is my tenth day I believe. We’ve got this in the pipeline to look at. We’re not going to drag it out. That I can tell you…”
More Nonsense by Menzie Chinn - Judy Shelton talks crypto: The momentum behind the rise of cryptocurrencies is being fueled by populist aspirations to decentralize finance in the name of democracy—in radical defiance of central bank polices that are perceived as favoring big investors, big business, and big government. Even as the Fed appears to be signaling its willingness to comply with a progressive agenda that would enlist our nation’s central bank in efforts to focus on climate change or systematic racism, there is growing skepticism that the solution to such problems is to be found in Fed purchases of Treasury debt and government-backed mortgage securities.The entire essay is useful as a compendium of gobbledygook. For a more reasoned interpretation of cryptocurrency popularity, see Charles Engel’s paper, “Lessons for Cryptocurrencies from Foreign Exchange Markets”: We have maintained that cryptocurrencies do have a fundamental value, arising principally from their ability to potentially provide greater privacy and anonymity compared to the conventional banking system. But that feature is difficult to value, which makes cryptocurrency exchange rates volatile and subject to bubbles. In addition, that very feature makes these assets desirable for the conduct of illegal activities, which is likely to invite increasing surveillance and regulation. In turn, those controls will work to reduce the value of cryptocurrencies, not only for use in illicit transactions, but for legitimate users as well. In other words, cryptocurrencies might be gaining value exactly for reasons opposite of what Dr. Shelton highlights. From Laboure, “The Shadow Economy: From Cash to Crypto ,” Deutsche Bank, July 21, 2020 (not online): Cryptocurrencies are already widely used in the shadow economy (second only to cash). They make up one of the largest unregulated markets in the world. A study reported that approximately one-quarter of bitcoin users are involved in an illegal activity. Approximately $76 billion of illegal activity per year involves bitcoin, or 46 percent of all bitcoin transactions. This amount is close to the scale of the US and European markets for illegal drugs. Much of this illegal activity involves trading within darknet marketplaces. Another study reported that 44 percent of all bitcoin transactions were illegal. There is strong demand for legal uses of cryptocurrencies, but along with those good uses, criminal conduct is facilitated. In other words, it is all blended, and therefore problematic.
Cryptocurrency market loses 47% of its value in just 7 days - The cryptocurrency market suffered a sharp sell-off on Wednesday. Its value has now tumbled by 47% in just the last seven days.The market cap for global digital currencies came in at $1.35 trillion on Wednesday, down from a recent peak of $2.56 trillion on May 12, according to data from CoinMarketCap.com.The most recent plunge was triggered by the People's Bank of China announcementthat digital tokens can't be used as a form of payment by financial institutions."The cryptocurrency market is under relentless selling pressure at the moment," Nicholas Cawley, an analyst at DailyFX, told Insider. "The speed of the sell-off suggests that leveraged accounts are being hit badly and the indiscriminate slump across the space also points to a lack of buying intent."Bitcoin at one point fell as much as 31%, to$30,016.83, while ether slipped by 44% to $1,918.77 at intraday lows.Bitcoin still hasn't recovered from Elon Musk's climate-related concerns over its mining process, which sent shockwaves across the digital asset ecosystem.But some experts such as Jeffrey Wang, head of America's at the Amber Group, are not too concerned."Crypto is an inherently volatile asset class, so swift and violent moves are going to happen over the course of time," he told Insider. "This was a large flush out and if the market wants to continue higher it was likely necessary to remove some of the froth from overleveraged positions."John Wu, president of Ava Labs, the team behind altcoin Avalanche, for his part noted that recent news such as China and Musk are just excuses for the sharp movements - not the real cause."Over the last few months, growth stocks in the equity markets have been collapsing," Wu told Insider. "As institutional money entered crypto over the last year, the correlation between these high-growth tech stocks and bitcoin has tightened compared to previous years."Looking ahead, Wu said some of those growth names have stabilized. Cryptocurrencies, he said, could be at the tail end of this correction as the last asset class to absorb the slide in growth stocks.
Price volatility limits usefulness of crypto for payments, Powell says — The Federal Reserve signaled Thursday that it is looking to expand its oversight of stablecoins, just one day after China issued a warning about the financial stability risks of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. In a video message, Fed Chair Jerome Powell also said the central bank would publish a discussion paper this summer detailing its current thinking on central bank digital currency and digital payments. He added that regardless of the Fed’s decision to develop a digital dollar, the Fed would “expect to play a leading role in developing international standards for CBDC.” At the same time, Powell took a swipe at cryptocurrencies, arguing that while they could have benefits, they have “not served as a convenient way to make payments, given, among other factors, their swings in value.” “As stablecoins’ use increases, so must our attention to the appropriate regulatory and oversight framework,” Powell said. “This includes paying attention to private-sector payments innovators who are currently not within the traditional regulatory arrangements applied to banks, investment firms, and other financial intermediaries.” Powell’s comments follow a move from China earlier in the week to bar banks and payments companies from providing services related to cryptocurrency transactions, which accompanied a warning to investors against speculative trading. As a result, many digital currencies plunged in value on Wednesday. Still, Powell said Thursday that the same technological advances that gave rise to cryptocurrencies could enable the Fed to issue a digital dollar, an area the central bank has been studying in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He added that following the release of the Fed’s discussion paper exploring CBDC, it plans to solicit public feedback on data privacy, financial inclusion and information security, in the hopes of “stimulat[ing] broad conversation.” “We are committed at the Federal Reserve to hearing a wide range of voices on this important issue before making any decision on whether and how to move forward with a U.S. CBDC, taking account of the broader risks and opportunities it could offer,” Powell said. “The paper represents the beginning of what will be a thoughtful and deliberative process.” Powell has maintained that if the U.S. chose to create a digital dollar, it would not replace cash, and would instead serve as a complement to existing payments. “Our key focus is on whether and how a CBDC could improve on an already safe, effective, dynamic and efficient U.S. domestic payments system,” he said Thursday. The Fed is also working on rolling out a real-time payments system, called FedNow, sometime in 2023. When FedNow is available, any financial institution with an account at one of the Fed’s regional banks will be able to use the service to process payments 24 hours a day year round.
Banks, crypto exchanges would report client transactions under tax plan -- The U.S. Treasury Department estimated that wealthy taxpayers as a group are hiding more than half their income outside of wages and salaries, a conclusion that aims to bolster the Biden administration’s call for Congress to approve expanded IRS funding and broad new financial-transaction reporting requirements. The department detailed in a report Thursday the administration’s proposed measures to raise $700 billion in additional revenue over a decade through Internal Revenue Service enforcement. The release follows criticism from Republican lawmakers and tax analysts that the estimate is unrealistically high. The enforcement plan is a central component of President Joe Biden’s quest to fund his roughly $4 trillion in long-term economic proposals. The administration called for banks and cryptocurrency exchanges to report transactions to the Internal Revenue Service, which would also get new auditors and an upgraded information-technology system. “The IRS will be able to deploy this new information to better target enforcement activities, increasing scrutiny of wealthy evaders and decreasing the likelihood that fully compliant taxpayers will be subject to costly audits,” the Treasury said of the proposed reporting requirements. Income earned from small businesses, rental properties and other so-called pass-through entities is increasingly becoming a target for the Biden team as it looks for ways to close the tax gap -- the difference between taxes owed and those paid, which is projected to reach $7 trillion in the next decade. While both Democrats and Republicans have backed stronger enforcement as a means of paying for long-term economic development programs, challenges have emerged. GOP lawmakers have warned against government overreach -- especially with regard to account-flow reporting -- and congressional rules could limit the ability of Democrats to apply the Treasury’s estimate to funding for Biden’s spending plans. The Treasury’s plan includes requiring banks and financial institutions to report account flows -- information that the IRS currently doesn’t have. The idea is to make pass-through income more like wages, which employers must report to the agency. Taxpayers report only 45% of their income when the IRS doesn’t have visibility into their earnings, the Treasury estimated. That compares with a 99% compliance rate for wages where employers are required to report to the IRS, the Treasury said. “The annual return would report gross inflows and outflows on all business and personal accounts from financial institutions, including bank, loan and investment accounts,” the report said. “The reporting regime would also cover foreign financial institutions and crypto asset exchanges and custodians.”
Crypto Craze: Treasury, Federal Reserve and Senate Banking Each Release Strong Statements on Thursday - Pam Martens - The chart above should provide ample proof to any thinking American that Bitcoin is about as appropriate as a payment mechanism as Elon Musk is appropriate as the CEO of an S&P 500 company. The U.S. Dollar Index, the orange line, is steady as she goes – meaning you have a stable currency to make payments for goods and services. In contrast, Bitcoin, the green line, looks like a heart attack patient being mugged on a gurney.A crypto crash in U.S. markets on Wednesday, spurred by China taking decisive action on barring cryptocurrencies as a means of payment at financial institutions and payment companies, apparently lit a fire under the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve to finally come out of their bunkers on the subject. Senator Sherrod Brown, Chair of the Senate Banking Committee, released a powerful letter to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the regulator of national banks (those that operate across state lines), warning about its chartering of crypto banks.The U.S. Treasury released a report dubbed “The American Families Plan Tax Compliance Agenda.” It had this to say on crypto: “Still another significant concern is virtual currencies, which have grown to $2 trillion in market capitalization. Cryptocurrency already poses a significant detection problem by facilitating illegal activity broadly including tax evasion.“This is why the President’s proposal includes additional resources for the IRS to address the growth of cryptoassets. Despite constituting a relatively small portion of business income today, cryptocurrency transactions are likely to rise in importance in the next decade, especially in the presence of a broad-based financial account reporting regime. Within the context of the new financial account reporting regime, cryptocurrencies and cryptoasset exchange accounts and payment service accounts that accept cryptocurrencies would be covered. Further, as with cash transactions, businesses that receive cryptoassets with a fair market value of more than $10,000 would also be reported on. Although cryptocurrency is a small share of current business transactions, such comprehensive reporting is necessary to minimize the incentives and opportunity to shift income out of the new information reporting regime.” A footnote in the report added that “the IRS has identified cryptocurrency transactions as an enforcement priority and recently included cryptocurrency reporting on the individual tax return, Form 1040.”This approach from Treasury is like putting a Disney Princess band aide on a rattlesnake bite and hoping the poison doesn’t kill the patient.Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla, used $1.5 billion of corporate cash in January to buy Bitcoin as a Tesla asset. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Tesla wrote that the action came with the approval of its Audit Committee. Then you have Morgan Stanley, which has one of the largest fleets of retail brokers on the planet, announcing in its own SEC filings that it plans to stuff Bitcoin futures in its mutual funds and an annuity product for retirees. Bitcoin is an enigma shrouded in both mystery and darkness. Its creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, is a fictitious character. When we asked the CME exchange that trades Bitcoin futures yesterday to give us a list of the 10 largest traders in Bitcoin futures contracts on Wednesday, the day of the crash, we were told: “we do not make client trading information available to the public.” Exchanges are supposed to police the trading of their members. The CME apparently views these giant hedge funds and Wall Street trading houses as “clients” who need to be shielded from public scrutiny.
Senate Democrat calls on OCC to halt crypto charter approvals — Senate Banking Committee Chair Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, called on the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to "reassess" the agency's conditional charter approvals for cryptocurrency firms and halt any future approvals. In a letter addressed to acting Comptroller Michael Hsu, Brown argued that the crypto firms conditionally approved by the OCC in recent months “seek access to the benefits of a bank charter” without meeting “the same set of regulatory and consumer protection standards that banks are required to meet.” “A firm that cannot meet the rigorous requirements applicable to other banks should not be allowed to present itself to the public as a bank,” Brown wrote in the letter, dated May 19 and first reported by Politico. Brown also wrote that it was “unclear whether the OCC engaged in the appropriate due diligence to stand behind this ‘seal of approval’ before granting these charters.” Under the two acting comptrollers preceding Hsu, Brian Brooks and Blake Paulson, the OCC issued conditional approvals for national trust charters for three crypto firms: Paxos, Anchorage and Protego. National trust charters do not carry the requirement of deposit insurance, resulting in a smaller regulatory burden.In the letter, Brown said the OCC’s regulatory approvals were cause for concern, particularly because such firms point to their federal oversight to suggest “their business model is as safe, stable and dependable for customers as a local community bank.” Paxos, for instance, claims to have “cutting-edge technology with bank-level oversight,” the letter said. “The fact is, given the many uncertainties present in the digital asset landscape as identified by other regulators, the volatility of digital asset valuations, and the disproportionate influence individuals can have on entire cryptocurrency markets, the OCC is not in a position to regulate these entities comparably to traditional banks,” Brown wrote. Hsu, who started at the agency just last week, had already suggested on Wednesday that he intends to scrutinize a number of actions taken by the OCC under the Trump administration, particularly fintech policy decisions. "At the OCC, the focus has been on encouraging responsible innovation. For instance, we created an Office of Innovation, updated the framework for chartering national banks and trust companies, and interpreted crypto custody services as part of the business of banking,” Hsu said in congressional testimony earlier this week. “I have asked staff to review these actions."
California regulator hires consumer advocate to lead fintech office -- The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation has hired a veteran consumer advocate to lead a newly created Office of Financial Technology and Innovation based in San Francisco. Christina Tetreault, who most recently had been a manager of financial policy at Consumer Reports and was a former senior staff attorney at Consumers Union, will lead the office created to regulate fintechs. The state regulator said Tetreault has expertise in emerging financial technologies and financial data use. She plans to host listening sessions in San Francisco to gather feedback on how the fintech office can provide support and guidance to emerging businesses that will spur job creation and safeguard consumers. “We are creating a national model in California that will better protect consumers, help innovators and entrepreneurs understand our expectations, and support the creation of responsible financial products,” DFPI Commissioner Manuel P. Alvarez said in a press release. In February, the California regulator announced that Suzanne Martindale, who most recently served as senior policy counsel at Consumer Reports, was hired to lead the agency’s Consumer Financial Protection Division. Martindale is also a lecturer in student loan law at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. She was a key architect of California’s Consumer Financial Protection Law, which gave the department expanded oversight and enforcement authority over previously unregulated industries including debt collectors, fintech firms and credit reporting agencies. The law went into effect Jan. 1. The department also said that this month it had hired Brian Gould, a deputy executive director at CalSavers, a new state retirement savings program, to lead the newly created Office of the Ombuds. The office will provide an impartial review of complaints and resolutions with a goal to improve and streamline department operations.
Colonial Pipeline CEO Tells Why He Paid Hackers a $4.4 Million Ransom – WSJ --The operator of the Colonial Pipeline learned it was in trouble at daybreak on May 7, when an employee found a ransom note from hackers on a control-room computer. By that night, the company’s chief executive came to a difficult conclusion: He had to pay.Joseph Blount, CEO of Colonial Pipeline Co., told The Wall Street Journal that he authorized the ransom payment of $4.4 million because executives were unsure how badly the cyberattack had breached its systems or how long it would take to bring the pipeline back.Mr. Blount acknowledged publicly for the first time that the company had paid the ransom, saying it was an option he felt he had to exercise, given the stakes involved in a shutdown of such critical energy infrastructure. The Colonial Pipeline provides roughly 45% of the fuel for the East Coast, according to the company.“I know that’s a highly controversial decision,” Mr. Blount said in his first public remarks since the crippling hack. “I didn’t make it lightly. I will admit that I wasn’t comfortable seeing money go out the door to people like this.”“But it was the right thing to do for the country,” he added. For years, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has advised companies not to pay when hit with ransomware, a type of code that takes computer systems hostage and demands payment to have files unlocked. Doing so, officials have said, would support a booming criminal marketplace. But many companies, municipalities and others debilitated by attacks do pay, concluding it is the only way to avoid costly disruptions to their operations.Mr. Blount said Colonial paid the ransom in consultation with experts who had previously dealt with the criminal organization behind the attacks. He and others involved declined to detail who assisted in those negotiations. Colonial said it has cyber insurance, but declined to provide details on ransomware-related coverage. In return for the payment, made in the form of bitcoin, about 75 in all, according to a person familiar with the matter, the company received a decryption tool to unlock the systems hackers penetrated. While it proved to be of some use, it was ultimately not enough to immediately restore the pipeline’s systems, the person said.
OCC chief signals new direction on bank supervision, fintech policy— The new head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency warned that some banks are taking undue risks and signaled a more conservative approach than his predecessors toward fintech firms seeking national bank charters. In wide-ranging remarks prepared for congressional testimony, acting Comptroller Michael Hsu suggested that some institutions have become too lax in their risk management as the economy charts a path out of the pandemic. He pointed his finger specifically at larger banks. “I believe the banking system, especially large banks, is at risk of becoming complacent,” he said in testimony that he plans to present to the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday. The OCC released his remarks Tuesday afternoon. Hsu, who is scheduled to appear at the hearing with other financial regulators, said that "in a dynamic economy, there is a constantly evolving set of products, practices, and clients that banks avoid, or limit exposure to, based on their risk appetite.” “In some cases, banks have done the work necessary, developed the risk management capabilities, and put in place the appropriate resources to engage prudently with these products, practices, and clients,” Hsu said. “In other cases, because of market demand and/or a fear of losing client share, banks have set aside their initial risk management concerns and engaged with more risk imprudently.” Hsu, who took the helm of the agency May 10 after working at the Federal Reserve, also suggested a more cautious stance on fintech chartering than previous comptrollers, and indicated that the OCC will focus more aggressively on the impact of climate change on the financial system. The release of Hsu's remarks followed a pair of other actions taken by the agency Tuesday. The OCC previously announced that it was halting implementation of most of the key provisions of its 2020 rule reforming the Community Reinvestment. The agency earlier in the day also released its semiannual risk report, which for the first time cited climate change among the significant risks facing banks and the financial system. In the prepared testimony, Hsu said the agency will scrutinize previous actions such as guidance from former acting Comptroller Brian Brooks endorsing banks' providing custody services for cryptocurrency firms. "At the OCC, the focus has been on encouraging responsible innovation. For instance, we created an Office of Innovation, updated the framework for chartering national banks and trust companies, and interpreted crypto custody services as part of the business of banking. I have asked staff to review these actions," Hsu said. “My broader concern is that these initiatives were not done in full coordination with all stakeholders,” he added. “Nor do they appear to have been part of a broader strategy related to the regulatory perimeter. I believe addressing both of these tasks should be a priority.” On how the OCC approaches fintech firms, Hsu said he would prefer a strategy that is more in coordination with other agencies.
Financial regulators extend comment period on AI policies to July 1 - Five federal regulators are giving financial institutions and the public an extra month to comment on the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning, which could be the first step toward an interagency policy on the use of AI. The Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the National Credit Union Administration said Monday that an initial 60-day request for information had been extended to July 1. Financial institutions had raised concerns that they needed more time to analyze and respond to “the complex technical nature and significance of the topic,” the agencies said. “An extension of the comment period will provide additional opportunity for the public to analyze the RFI and prepare comments to address the questions posed by the agencies,” the regulators said in a press release. Artificial intelligence is the term used to describe work in which computers are used to perform tasks typically reserved to humans, such as credit underwriting. The initial request for information, published in the Federal Register on March 31, asked for comments on the use of AI in companies’ business practices including for fraud prevention, personalization of customer services, underwriting, and other operations. Financial regulators also are looking for comments on the appropriate governance, risk management and controls over AI as well as any challenges institutions may have in developing, adopting and managing AI.
Fidelity Launches Trading Accounts For Teens As Battle For Next Generation Of Day Traders Heats Up --Fidelity once tried to offset its image as a stodgy retirement-focused investment giant by allowing customers to integrate their crypto holdings into their Fidelity dashboard. But after Robinhood and WeBull attracted millions of millennial customers, Fidelity is finally trying to woo the next generation of investors in an effort to protect its business from shifting generational tastes. And since younger investors have signaled that they prefer the gamefied, zero-commission speculation free-for-all to contributing a predetermined percentage of their paychecks to a retirement account, Fidelity has decided to give them what they want. As WSJ reports, in an effort to "open the door to a new generation of investors", Fidelity is launching new credit and debit cards, along with investing and savings accounts, to teenagers aged 13 to 17. Like Robinhood and its other competitors, Fidelity won't charge account fees or Fidelity already operates one of the largest online brokerages in the country and offers $0 trading fees like Charles Schwab, E-Trade and the other big discount brokerages. But competition for the next generation of customers has grown particularly fierce over the past year. And after lagging its competitors on earlier innovations like zero-fee stock trading, the firm is angling to get a jump start on getting more teenagers addicted to day trading. In the case of Fidelity's new offering, a parent must open the account and agree to backstop their child's trading. But after that, the teenager will have complete control over all trades. Parents can sign up for alerts for the child's transactions, and step in to close the account if things get out of hand, but that's not required. And with so many other things to keep track of, including their child's activities on social media, parents can easily lose track of their child's trading.
Opinion | Archegos and the Huge Family Funds that Could Sink the Economy - Alexis Goldstein - In 2012, Mr. Hwang, a former hedge fund manager, pleaded guiltyto wire fraud and settled insider trading charges. But he started over in 2013, using $200 million from his shuttered hedge fund tocreate Archegos Capital Management — a so-called family fund. The scandal-tainted Mr. Hwang then turned that $200 million into some $20 billion, betting big on a portfolio of high-flying media and tech stocks. But Mr. Hwang built those riches on a mountain of debt — and when his bets went bad, it wasn’t just Archegos that paid the price: The banks that lent Mr. Hwang money, including Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley, lost over $10 billion, while the stocks he gambled on shed $33 billion in value. From regulators to the financial press, everyone seemed mystified by the implosion of Archegos. In part, this is because when Congress passed the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, which brought new measures of oversight to private money managers, they exempted family funds like Mr. Hwang’s. Hedge funds must publicly report certain stock and option positions every quarter, filing a Form 13Fwith the Securities and Exchange Commission. But family funds don’t need to file a 13F, so their portfolio positions remain hidden. For the average American dealing with the ravages of life under Covid, the story of Bill Hwang and Archegos may seem like just another Wall Street fat cat who got too greedy. But there may be many more Archegos-size risks — hidden from regulators, lawmakers and traders alike — now threatening to spark the next financial crisis. In 2021 Archegos bet that the price of approximately nine hot stocks, including ViacomCBS, Discovery and Baidu, would keep climbing. It seemed to have good reason: Discovery and ViacomCBS were investing in streaming services, a booming sector. But Archegos wasn’t just buying and holding. It used borrowed money and underregulated derivatives to make bigger, riskier bets. Just as you can borrow money against the value of your home, you can borrow money against a portfolio of stocks. Regulators limitnonprofessional investors to two-to-one leverage — brokers will let them purchase $200 in stock for every $100 in assets. But private money managers like Mr. Hwang face no hard upper limit: Many private funds are able to borrow five or 10 times the value of their portfolio. Archegos may have gotten as high as 20-to-one. Once Mr. Hwang’s investments starting soaring, he wanted more. Rather than cashing out, he kept borrowing from the world’s biggest banks, driven to make even bigger bets. To do so, he used what’s known as a total return swap, a type of derivative that provides all the economic benefits of owning a stock without requiring Archegos to spend the money to actually buy it. If the banks knew how big Archegos’s position was, they may have realized other banks were supplying it with the same leverage — and reconsidered the trade. But a set of worrisome regulatory loopholes kept them from detecting this lurking whale. As a family fund, Archegos did not have to file reports with the S.E.C. detailing its positions. Even if it were a hedge fund, there is no requirement for reporting total return swaps on 13Fs. In addition, Archegos’s lenders may have presumed that the fund wasn’t simply long on all its stock. That is to say: They most likely believed Mr. Hwang balanced his risk by taking at least a few “short” positions, or betting on a fall in price like most funds. Reporting indicates Archegos shorted only indexes, not individual stocks, meaning it would profit only if the whole market fell. But even if Archegos reported its positions, its total exposure would have remained a mystery: The S.E.C. alsodoesn’t require the reporting of short positions on 13Fs.
Known Stock Market Leverage Hits WTF High. Out the Other Side of Its Mouth, the Fed Warns About Hidden Leverage that Blew up Archegos -- Wolf Richter - Stock market margin debt jumped by another $25 billion in April, to a historic high of $847 billion, according to FINRA data. It has exploded by $188 billion in six months, and by 61% year-over-year, and by 55% from February 2020: Excess leverage is the precise and predictable result of the policies the Fed is promoting out of one side of its mouth with its interest rate repression and asset purchases.Out of the other side of its mouth, the Fed – via its blissfully ignored Financial Stability Report – is warning about leverage, stock market leverage, and particularly the vast and unknown parts of leverage among hedge funds and insurance companies.It named names: The family office Archegos, a private hedge fund that has to disclose very little, and that then blew up because none of the brokers providing it with leverage knew about the other brokers also providing leverage, and no one knew how much total leverage the outfit had. The amount of leverage didn’t come out until it blew up.And this form of hidden leverage is not included in the known stock market margin debt reported monthly by FINRA, based on reports by its member brokerage firms.This known stock market leverage is an indicator of the trend in leverage, the tip of the iceberg. History shows that a big surge in margin balances preceded and perhaps was a precondition for the biggest stock market declines.In April, it exploded to a new WTF high of $847 billion, up by $188 billion in six months, having ascended to the zoo-has-gone-nuts level: In this type of chart that covers two decades during which the purchasing power of the dollar has dropped, long-term increases in absolute dollar amounts are not the focal point; but the steep increases in margin debt before the selloffs are.Leverage creates buying pressure and drives up prices. As prices rise, the collateral can be leveraged up further, and leverage builds with rising asset prices. And then when prices decline, the leveraged bets are sold to pay down the debt, and the selling triggers more price declines, and forced selling sets in. This is when Archegos blew up. And so the Fed says in its Financial Stability Report that “measures of hedge fund leverage are somewhat above their historical averages, but the data available may not capture important risks from hedge funds or other leveraged funds.”
Are Record-Setting Commodity Prices a Result of Demand or Futures Manipulation? - By Pam Martens --During the current month of May, 2021, the following commodities have all set record high prices: lumber, iron ore, steel and copper. The volatility in the price of lumber this month has looked not all that dissimilar to the crazy price swings in the shares of GameStop, which have been under investigation for months by the U.S. Senate Banking and House Financial Services Committees. Thus far, however, there have been no announced hearings into what is causing these wild moves in commodity prices.From 2016 through 2019, lumber prices traded between $300 and $600 per 1,000 board feet. During just this month, however, lumber has spiked to as high as $1,733.50. It closed on Friday at $1,390.These skyrocketing prices in commodities are more than a little peculiar. The federal government believes that the economy of the U.S. is at such grave risk that Congress needed to infuse $1.9 trillion into the economy in a stimulus bill passed just two months ago. Just a year ago, GDP in the U.S. for the second quarter had plunged by 32.9 percent, a worse quarterly record than even during the Great Depression. The grave worry then was deflation. All of these commodities that have been setting historic record prices have one thing in common: they all trade on futures exchanges owned by the CME Group.
Banks balk at Biden plan to collect clients' tax data - The Biden administration is eyeing banks as a resource to force wealthy Americans to pay more taxes. Banks say they aren't cops for the Internal Revenue Service. A plan still in the early stages to expand the tax reporting that banks do on their customers' accounts — so the government can collect more on now-underreported investment and business income — has sparked a strong pushback from the financial services industry. The administration wants to close the "tax gap" between what high-net worth Americans pay based on current reporting and what they actually owe. Many speculate this could mean an expansion of 1099 reporting for banks to provide account flow data that is now more opaque. A common 1099 form is submitted by banks with the amount of interest customers earn on their accounts. But industry representatives and other observers say the idea — presumably to fund an infrastructure overhaul and the American Families Plan — would be a mistake. They say financial reporting is already robust, the expansion would prove costly and complicated for banks and their customers, and the benefits of expanded account flow reporting are questionable. "This proposal will have real costs, not only for government, but also for financial institutions, small businesses, and individual taxpayers," several bank and credit union trade groups said in a recent letter to the Senate Finance Committee, which is exploring the idea. "Strengthening IRS funding to facilitate targeted auditing of questionable tax returns is a much more efficient and effective approach to closing the tax gap." Some observers worry that expanding the reporting requirements could cause the IRS to receive more data than it actually needs, and damage the relationship between banks and their customers. "We have to put the right protections on that data inside the IRS so it doesn’t burden taxpayers unnecessarily and cause a blowback to the financial institution," said Nina E. Olson, executive director of the Center for Taxpayer Rights. Olson wants to limit the IRS's use of the data to sophisticated modeling for more targeted audits of wealthy taxpayers and not allow a new 1099 to be used as evidence that tax filers have underreported their income. An alternative approach puts the burden on the IRS, she says, not the taxpayer or the bank, to identify who should provide additional information. The administration's plan represents the first serious effort in decades to collect taxes on underreported income from sole proprietorships, partnerships and other structures. Some have speculated that the administration aims to add new data entries on 1099 forms for bank account inflows and outflows for those types of entities. “The President’s proposal would change the game — by making sure the wealthiest Americans play by the same set of rules as all other Americans," according to President Biden's American Families Plan. "It would require financial institutions to report information on account flows so that earnings from investments and business activity are subject to reporting more like wages already are.” Any proposal also would need to include unregulated entities such as Venmo and PayPal, mobile payment apps and cryptocurrency exchanges, observers say.
FDIC asks industry for input about digital assets — The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Monday issued a wide-ranging request for information on activities by banks to facilitate customers' use of cryptocurrencies and other digital assets. The request, previewed by FDIC Chair Jelena McWilliams last week, also asks for feedback on the factors that regulators should weigh as they develop supervisory practices for the use of digital assets. “Given that banks are increasingly exploring the emerging digital asset ecosystem, the FDIC is issuing this request for information ... to help inform its understanding of the industry’s and consumers’ interests in this area,” the agency said in a press release. Comments will be due on July 16. The request for information breaks down potential digital asset activities into four categories, including “technology solutions” involving payment systems and “other token-based systems for banking activities.” The agency included a second category for “asset-based activities, such as investments, collateral, margin lending and liquidity facilities,” and a third category on “liability-based activities, such as deposit services and where deposits serve as digital asset reserves.” The fourth category outlined by the FDIC focuses on “custodial activities, such as providing digital asset safekeeping and related services.” The request for information follows previous steps by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to issue multiple interpretive letters on national banks’ ability to offer digital asset custody services, and charter approvals for limited-purpose trust institutions that hold cryptocurrency assets. The FDIC also asked banks for feedback on whether traditional bank supervision practices are sufficient to address legal challenges and risks posed by digital assets. “To what extent are ... [insured depository institutions'] existing risk and compliance management frameworks designed to identify, measure, monitor, and control risks associated with the various digital asset use cases?” the agency said. The FDIC also asked whether some digital asset activities under bank consideration would “result in IDIs’ developing entirely new or materially different risk and compliance management frameworks.” The agency asked bankers to give their thoughts on the implications that digital assets could have in the context of bank failure and receivership.
Banks Fight $4 Billion Debt Relief Plan for Black Farmers - The New York Times — The Biden administration’s efforts to provide $4 billion in debt relief to minority farmers is encountering stiff resistance from banks, which are complaining that the government initiative to pay off the loans of borrowers who have faced decades of financial discrimination will cut into their profits and hurt investors. The debt relief was approved as part of the $1.9 trillion stimulus package that Congress passed in March and was intended to make amends for the discrimination that Black and other nonwhite farmers have faced from lenders and the United States Department of Agriculture over the years. But no money has yet gone out the door. Instead, the program has become mired in controversy and lawsuits. In April, white farmers who claim that they are victims of reverse discrimination sued the U.S.D.A. over the initiative. Now, three of the biggest banking groups — the American Bankers Association, the Independent Community Bankers of America and National Rural Lenders Association — are waging their own fight and complaining about the cost of being repaid early. Their argument stems from the way banks make money from loans and how they decide where to extend credit. When a bank lends money to a borrower, like a farmer, it considers several factors, including how much interest it will earn over the lifetime of the loan and whether the bank can sell the loan to other investors. By allowing borrowers to repay their debts early, the lenders are being denied income they have long expected, they argue. The banks want the federal government to pay money beyond the outstanding loan amount so that banks and investors will not miss out on interest income that they were expecting or money that they would have made reselling the loans to other investors. They also want other investors who bought the loans in the secondary market to get government money that would make up for whatever losses they might incur from the early payoff. Bank lobbyists, in letters and virtual meetings, have been asking the Agriculture Department to make changes to the repayment program, a U.S.D.A. official said. They are pressing the U.S.D.A. to simply make the loan payments, rather than wipe out the debt all at once. And they are warning of other repercussions, including long-term damage to the U.S.D.A.’s minority lending program. “If U.S.D.A. does not compensate lenders for such disruptions or avoid sudden loan payoffs, the likely result will be less access to credit for those seeking U.S.D.A. guaranteed loans in the future, including U.S.D.A. farmers/ranchers,” they wrote to Mr. Vilsack in April. The relief legislation that Congress passed in March provided “sums as may be necessary” from the Treasury Department to help minority farmers and ranchers pay off loans granted or guaranteed by the Agriculture Department. Most of the loans are made directly to farmers, but about 12 percent, or 3,078, are made through lenders and guaranteed by the U.S.D.A. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the loan forgiveness provision would cost $4 billion over a decade.
Lingering pain point for PPP lenders- Forgiveness on large loans As the final cutoff for Paycheck Protection Program lending nears, forgiveness for large-dollar loans continues to be a sticking point for lenders. Though some bankers say the Small Business Administration has made progress whittling down a backlog of overdue forgiveness applications, others complain about requests that have sat in the queue for months with no word from the agency about when they’ll be resolved. "With smaller loans, they get them in and get them out. ... It's a really straightforward process,” said Bobby Berman, group executive vice president, research and strategy at the $44 billion-asset Frost Bank, a unit of San Antonio-based Cullen/Frost Bankers. “On the larger ones that require more review, it just seems like they're a little resource constrained." Per program regulations, loans can be forgiven if a borrower proves that the bulk of the money was used to make payroll, pay rent and meet other expenses. The SBA has 90 days to review a forgiveness application once a lender submits it. For smaller loans, especially those under $100,000, three months is proving to be more than enough time. But the agency has struggled mightily to hit that time target on larger loans. “We have 200 or 300 loans that have blown past 90 days; some of them past 200 days,” Berman said. “That's a tough conversation, when a company has applied for a loan, gone through all the rigor of an extra review, given all the documentation they need and here we are, 200 days later. They're saying, `Frost, what's going on?'" Frost approved more than 32,000 PPP loans for $4.7 billion. Forgiveness applications covering three-fourths of its 2020 originations have been submitted to the SBA, Berman said. As of May 10, the SBA, which has administered PPP along with the Department of the Treasury, reported forgiving nearly 60% of the 5.2 million loans approved last year. At the same time, it noted 182,000 loans, totaling $84.3 billion, remain under review. Loans of $2 million or more make up a significant portion of that total, lenders and trade group representatives said. Overall, lenders have originated just under 11.2 million loans for $788.1 billion, making PPP the largest emergency relief program in American history.
Biden Orders Gov. Agencies to Address Financial Climate Change Risks -- President Biden on Thursday ordered agencies across the federal government to prepare for risks to the American economy posed by climate change. The harms inflicted by human-caused global warming are already being felt in the form of rising sea levels, extreme weather, wildfires, and droughts, but "these risks are often hidden," the White House said. The executive order directs federal agencies to identify and mitigate climate risks in order to protect worker pensions, improve the resilience of food, water, and emergency supplies, and prepare infrastructure for climate impacts. The order directs White House climate adviser Gina McCarthy and economic adviser Brian Deese to develop a government-wide strategy within four months to identify financial risks. The SEC is already working on climate risk disclosure regulations, which experts say will create an incentive for corporations to mitigate climate risks in order to avoid losing investors.
What could be in store for banks after Biden climate change order — Several financial regulators were already moving in the direction of incorporating climate change risk in their monitoring of banks and financial institutions. On Thursday, they got validation from the highest level of government. President Biden's sweeping order directing member agencies of the Financial Stability Oversight Council to examine financial risks posed by climate change could lead to concrete changes in bank stress tests, mortgage underwriting rules and flood insurance pricing, observers said. Broadly speaking, the move brings new urgency to steps regulators have already explored or considered, some said, while providing agencies with more cover to craft regulatory policies that Republicans have attacked as politically motivated. The executive order requires the FSOC to issue a report on policy recommendations in 180 days. “In some ways, it is going to be a modern day war chest, in that Democrats are going to look at the executive order and say, ‘This is exactly what we need to do to ensure the safety and soundness of these institutions and of our economy, and there is a direct connection between the environment and the economy,’ ” said Ed Mills, a policy analyst with Raymond James. The administration's missive on climate-related financial risks outlines a “whole of government” approach to safeguarding financial stability. “This executive order I think does have the appropriate urgency, and we appreciate that the president did it in his first 150 days, and [that] each of those areas have a timeline,” said Steve Rothstein, managing director at the Ceres Accelerator for Sustainable Capital Markets. “It is an urgency that we hope every bank feels.” Biden’s directive urges the FSOC to issue recommendations on how agencies can incorporate climate risk into regulatory and supervisory practices. The order echoes comments from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who chairs the council, indicating that she wants addressing climate change risk to be one of the panel's priorities. The order also instructs Biden’s national climate advisor, Gina McCarthy, and Brian Deese, the director of the National Economic Council, to develop within 120 days a “comprehensive government-wide climate-risk strategy” to pinpoint and disclose climate-related risks to government programs, assets and liabilities. “With so much at stake, this Executive Order ensures that the right rules are in place to properly analyze and mitigate these risks,” a fact sheet outlining the directive reads. “That includes disclosing these risks to the public, and empowering the American people to make informed financial decisions.” Under the order, the Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge, along with the heads of the Agriculture Department and the Department of Veterans Affairs, will also be required to consider incorporating climate risk into underwriting standards for government-backed mortgages.
Will FDIC, OCC follow Fed into global climate group?-— It was hailed as a coup when the Federal Reserve announced in December that it was joining a global collective of financial regulators focused on climate change policies. Six months later, other U.S. bank regulators are under increasing pressure to follow suit. Convened in 2017, the Network for Greening the Financial System has 90 members, including central banks and regulatory agencies that develop policy recommendations for members to combat the financial system threats from a warming climate. It also includes the New York State Department of Financial Services. Some had complained that the Fed was too slow to join. Critics now say the absence of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is conspicuous. While the Fed sets monetary policy and oversees large U.S. bank holding companies, observers note that the OCC regulates the largest U.S. bank subsidiaries and the FDIC is the sole federal agency insuring bank deposits. "It’s particularly important for regulators who regulate banks and bank holding companies with global operations [to join] because it would be potentially really problematic if those institutions are subject to different sets of rules and different sets of expectations in different countries,” said Erik Gerding, a professor at the University of Colorado Law School, specializing in banking and securities law. The U.S. regulators are still in the early phases of exploring what threats their institutions face in the coming years from climate change. The Fed is the furthest along, having identified climate change as a risk to financial stability and forming a Supervision Climate Committee and a Financial Stability Climate Committee. An expanded U.S. presence with the network could accelerate that process. The group’s policy recommendations have included integrating climate risks into financial stability monitoring and supervision, developing climate-related disclosures and incorporating sustainability into regulators’ own portfolio management.
Bank regulators grilled on climate efforts, ILCs, 'true lenders' — House lawmakers peppered federal financial regulators with questions Wednesday on a host of issues, highlighting the lingering tensions tied to the transition from the Trump administration to the Biden administration. Two Trump appointees, Federal Reserve Vice Chairman of Supervision Randal Quarles and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Jelena McWilliams, appeared before the House Financial Services Committee alongside National Credit Union Administration Chairman Todd Harper and acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu, both appointed to their posts by Democrats. “I have long been critical of the long list of harmful deregulatory actions taken by the last administration’s appointees, and particularly their actions to roll back key Dodd-Frank reforms and other consumer protections,” said committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters, D-Calif. “I am … pleased that the Biden administration’s appointees are bringing a better approach to regulation that prioritizes consumers, and that regulators are starting to take steps to protect the financial stability of our system against climate risks and other threats.” Democrats largely praised the new acting regulators’ policy decisions, while Republicans warned that moves to reverse Trump-appointee policies leave financial institutions without a clear road map. “These positive steps forward are stuck in limbo, or worse, in danger of being scrapped altogether for political optics,” said Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, the top Republican on the panel. “This is not the right way to regulate. But I fear this is just the start of Democrats’ one-party-rule mentality in practice." The hearing highlighted partisan divisions over rulemakings leftover from the Trump administration, particularly policies that former Comptroller of the Currency Joseph Otting and former acting Comptroller Brian Brooks attempted to finalize. The event was also a display of Republicans efforts to push back against the Biden administration's climate-risk mitigation efforts. Lawmakers from both parties also raised concerns about how industrial loan company, or ILC, charters could risk mixing banking with commerce. Here are three takeaways from regulators visit to Capitol Hill: Lawmakers press OCC over rules in limbo Lawmakers bemoaned the Biden administration’s failure to nominate a permanent comptroller of the currency. Earlier this month, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen appointed Hsu as an acting head of the agency, as the Biden administration has stalled in naming a permanent comptroller. Hsu replaces Blake Paulson, who served in an acting capacity after Brooks resigned in January. “I think it’s safe to say that many of us expected to hear from the confirmed comptroller of the currency at this point,” said McHenry. “There’s been a lot of speculation about who President Biden’s nominee will be. He seems to be taking a Goldilocks approach here. First, Michael Barr was deemed too conservative, if you can call someone who helped write Dodd-Frank conservative. Then Mehrsa Baradaran, who advocates for socialized banking and opposes innovation. She seems to appease far-left progressives, but still, no formal nomination.”
Bank lobbyists blast lawmakers’ plans for ‘unbanked’ Americans - The biggest U.S. banks criticized a pair of proposals designed to help consumers who don’t use their services. Lawmakers’ recent proposals, such as opening bank branches in post offices or offering Federal Reserve checking accounts to every U.S. consumer, may not work to resolve the problem of the so-called unbanked Americans, industry trade groups argued in a paper published Tuesday. Instead, they urged officials to consider creating new types of identification that consumers can show to access financial services, or encouraging Americans to open low-cost bank accounts when they’re enrolling to receive government assistance. “Instead of establishing a large, duplicative and potentially expensive banking infrastructure to create bank accounts through the Federal Reserve or the U.S. Postal Service (postal banking), there are more effective and less costly ways to address the unbanked/underbanked challenge,” the trade groups said in a statement accompanying the paper. The groups represent U.S. banks and credit unions and include the Clearing House, the American Bankers Association, the Consumer Bankers Association, the Credit Union National Association, the Mid-Sized Bank Coalition of America and the National Bankers Association. For years, lenders have offered low-fee checking accounts as part of an industrywide initiative known as Bank On. But those efforts haven’t been a total success: Consumers still spend billions each year in overdraft and other account fees, and 7.1 million households across the country continue to lack access to a bank account. While that number has declined in recent years, the proportion of unbanked Black and Hispanic households remains higher than the national average. As protests over racial inequality engulfed the U.S. last year, policymakers and banks alike vowed to do more to ensure communities of color could access low-cost financial services as a way to close the persistent racial wealth gap. “Obviously it’s important because of the spotlight last year on all of the horrific events that our country endured,” Alice Rodriguez, managing director and head of JPMorgan Chase’s community-impact organization, said in an interview. “Several years ago we absolutely saw the need to lean in more, particularly from a financial-health perspective, and that led us down this path of the unbanked and the underbanked.” Without access to traditional financial services, consumers often turn to nonbank competitors, which typically charge higher rates or bigger fees. Check-cashing companies, for instance, can take as much of 10% of a check’s value for their services. Relying on prepaid debit cards can cost consumers as much as $300 a year.
Banks no longer have to limit savings withdrawals, but some still do -- In the early days of the pandemic, the Federal Reserve temporarily axed a requirement that had limited the ability of depositors to make transfers and withdrawals from savings and money market accounts. At the time, the nation was largely in lockdown, so consumers were having a hard time conducting in-branch transactions, which were exempt from the preexisting rules. One year later, the Fed has declared that the changes are permanent, though some additional tweaks may still be made — an example of a crisis prompting long-lasting change. The changes give banks freer rein to make their own decisions about the terms of their savings accounts. And while some banks have not budged, others have dropped a six-transaction limit that was required under the old rule. “We just thought of it as an accommodation: How could we help customers while the pandemic is happening, and they can’t necessarily get out?” said William Calderara, president and CEO of Ulster Savings Bank in Kingston, New York, which received the Fed’s approval to waive the monthly transaction limit a few weeks before the temporary rule change was announced. But Calderara’s thinking has evolved as the U.S. economy has returned to greater normalcy. His $1.3 billion-asset mutual savings bank does not plan to reinstate the six-transaction limit. “Why are we doing this temporarily, and does this rule still make sense?” he asked. The Fed’s interim final rule enabled banks to allow customers to make an unlimited number of “convenient transfers and withdrawals” from savings and money market accounts during a time when the economic shock of the pandemic made “such access more urgent,” the central bank said in a press release at the time. Under the old rules, remote transactions, such as those made online, were limited to six per month, though in-branch, ATM and telephone transactions were excluded from the limit. The change — effective on April 24, 2020 — was an amendment to Regulation D, the federal rule that requires banks and credit unions to keep a certain amount of reserves on hand to satisfy withdrawal requests. It was announced a month after reserve requirement ratios were reduced to zero, a change to the Fed’s monetary policy that had undercut the rationale for the old limits. A Fed spokeswoman said recently that the rule is considered final. On its website, the central bank states that its board of governors “does not have plans to re-impose transfer limits,” although there may be “adjustments to the definition of savings accounts” based on comments received about the interim final rule. Banks’ responses to the relaxed rule have been a mixed bag, in part because the banks were not obligated to make any changes and, at least in some cases, because of confusion about whether the amendment is final. While some banks discontinued the cap of six transactions per month, either temporarily or permanently, others made no changes at all.
Debt-relief firm agrees to pay $5.4M in restitution to consumers- CFPB - A large debt-settlement firm has agreed to pay $5.4 million in restitution to consumers for allegedly charging upfront fees before providing any debt-relief services, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said. DMB Financial, a debt-settlement firm near Boston that operates in 24 states, agreed to a proposed settlement filed by the CFPB in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. The bureau alleged that DMB engaged in abusive and deceptive acts or practices by requesting and receiving fees before performing services and by collecting fees based on debt amounts that were higher than combined debts at the time of enrollment. Under the proposed settlement, the CFPB asked the district court to impose a judgment of $7.7 million that would be suspended once the firm paid $5.4 million in restitution to consumers. Matthew Guthrie, the owner of DMB Financial, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. “Charging upfront fees for debt settlement is a violation of federal law, and the CFPB will continue to act decisively when we see companies taking advantage of consumers in this way,” CFPB Acting Director Dave Uejio said in a press release Monday. “DMB Financial preyed on consumers who were struggling financially, charging millions of dollars in illegal upfront fees and hiding the true cost of its services.” The bureau filed a lawsuit against DMB in December. It alleged the company had violated the Telemarketing Sales Rule’s prohibition on abusive and deceptive acts and practices.
OCC hits brakes on rollout of Trump-era CRA rule— The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on Tuesday halted the implementation of its 2020 rule overhauling the Community Reinvestment Act. “The OCC has determined that it will reconsider the June 2020 rule,” the agency said in a bulletin. The move was widely anticipated by analysts after President Biden's victory in November, and came just days after the administration appointed acting Comptroller Michael Hsu. In the bulletin, the OCC wrote that the decision to suspend compliance deadlines for the regulation “will provide for an orderly reconsideration of the June 2020 rule” as well as “provide the OCC with the opportunity to consider additional stakeholder input, to evaluate issues and questions that have been raised, to reassess the necessary data, and to take additional regulatory action, as appropriate.” In addition to reconsidering the entire rule, the OCC said it will "not object" to banks ending efforts to comply with the most significant changes that are due to go into effect starting in 2023. The agency also said it will not finalize a proposed rule from December to establish new benchmarks for CRA scoring, and will discontinue an information collection request announced in December. While the rule has technically been in effect since October after being finalized in May 2020, the regulation’s most significant changes and compliance requirements were not due to take effect until 2023 or 2024, depending on the size of the bank. The rule will not be thrown out entirely, however. The OCC said that it would “continue to implement the provisions of the June 2020 CRA rule that had a compliance date of October 1, 2020,” which includes the agency’s illustrative list of activities likely to qualify for CRA credit.The move marks the end of one of the Trump administration’s most controversial regulatory pushes in financial policy. Just this month, a coalition of financial industry groups called on the OCC to withdraw the rule in the hopes that the agency will join the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Federal Reserve in issuing an interagency rule to reform the 1977 anti-redlining law.
Homeowners’ Insurance Companies in Florida Are Raising Rates by Unprecedented Amounts, Effectively Confiscating the Stimulus Checks from Struggling Families and Seniors – Pam Martens - On February 24, President Joe Biden renewed the 2020 Presidential Proclamation, making it clear that the National Emergency related to the COVID-19 pandemic is still in effect. Most Americans don’t expect to become the victims of state-sanctioned price gouging during a National Emergency. But across Florida, struggling families and senior citizens are opening their homeowners’ insurance renewal notices to learn that their policy will now cost them $800 to $1200 more than it did last year.Rates are going up by 30 to 40 percent in many cases – during a National Emergency. Making the outrage among residents more palpable is the fact that a hurricane didn’t even touch down in Florida in 2020.A three bedroom/two bath cement block home with a tile roof is costing anywhere from $2800 to more than $3000 to insure in South Florida. In the three most southern counties on the East Coast of Florida (Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade) homes located inland can cost over $6,000 to ensure with nose-bleed increases occurring for waterfront homes.Florida insurance companies (some of which are paying multi-million dollar salaries to their CEOs and paying out tens of millions of dollars each year in stock buybacks and cash dividends to benefit their shareholders), have succeeded in convincing the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation that they deserve the rate hikes because they are the victims of frivolous lawsuits by unconscionable lawyers; they are experiencing financial hardship for claims still being paid for Hurricane Irma in 2017 and Michael in 2018; and that their reinsurance costs have risen.One Florida State legislator who’s not buying the spin that the insurers are successfully selling to state regulators is Florida State Senator Gary Farmer. Farmer was quoted by Dennis Bailey, a former Circuit Judge and now head of the Trial division at the Merlin Law Group, as follows:“They hide their profits. They pay them to sister and related companies…The insurers are just cooking the books and coming here and crying poverty to us and everything is being done on the backs of homeowners.”Bailey reports that “The insurance companies together made anywhere from $240 million to $406 million a year just on their flood work since 2011 — without having to pay any claims.” The culprit behind these rate increases is the Florida Office of Insurance Regulationwhich granted 105 rate hikes last year, sometimes giving a rate increase multiple times to the same company. That Office is led by Florida Insurance Commissioner David Altmaier, who previously worked as a Florida-licensed insurance agent and a high school math teacher, according to his official bio.
Millions in US Face Eviction When Moratorium Ends - — Families across the U.S. don't know if they're going to have a place to stay as states challenge the federal moratorium on evictions imposed during the pandemic. The trickle of evictions could soon become a flood as renters owe $53 billion to landlords. Anthony Upshaw and his 17-year-old son are among those being evicted after Upshaw lost this job early in the pandemic and has been struggling since. Constables placed his belongings in the front yard of the Dallas property. "They going to show up and kick me out. My kid is up here doing his school work. There's like three weeks of school left before the kids graduate," Upshaw said. The Texas Supreme Court lifted the moratorium on evictions on March 31. The Dallas-Fort Worth area has the third-most eviction filings in the country. "They are going to put everyone out the first chance they got," Upshaw said, adding that he doesn't know where he and his son will go. "We haven't figured that part of it out yet." "My goal was just to make it to the end of the school year and then in the summer, we can make plans and try to reassess the national situation, getting vaccinated and then make adjustments to our lives from there. But the moratorium was supposed to protect everybody until the end of June," he said. This could be the beginning of an expected tsunami of evictions as the nationwide moratorium is lifted on June 30. Up the 40 million Americans are at risk of losing their homes, according to the Aspen Institute. On average, Black renters are twice as likely as White renters to face evictions, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
MBA Survey: "Share of Mortgage Loans in Forbearance Decreases to 4.22%" ---Note: This is as of May 9th. From the MBA: Share of Mortgage Loans in Forbearance Decreases to 4.22%: The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) latest Forbearance and Call Volume Survey revealed that the total number of loans now in forbearance decreased by 14 basis points from 4.36% of servicers’ portfolio volume in the prior week to 4.22% as of May 9, 2021. According to MBA’s estimate, 2.1 million homeowners are in forbearance plans.The share of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans in forbearance decreased 8 basis points to 2.24%. Ginnie Mae loans in forbearance decreased 21 basis points to 5.61%, while the forbearance share for portfolio loans and private-label securities (PLS) decreased by 29 basis points to 8.26%. The percentage of loans in forbearance for independent mortgage bank (IMB) servicers decreased 16 basis points to 4.42%, and the percentage of loans in forbearance for depository servicers declined 12 basis points to 4.35%.“More homeowners exited forbearance in the first full week of May, leading to a 14-basis-point decrease in the forbearance share – the 11th straight week of declines. The rate of new requests dropped to 4 basis points, which is the lowest level since last March,” said Mike Fratantoni, MBA’s Senior Vice President and Chief Economist. “Of those in forbearance extensions, more than half have been in forbearance for more than 12 months.”Added Fratantoni, “The opening of the economy, as the successful vaccination effort continues, should lead to further reductions in the forbearance share. However, many homeowners continue to struggle. Borrowers who are reaching the end of their forbearance term should reach out to their servicer to review their options.”This graph shows the percent of portfolio in forbearance by investor type over time. Most of the increase was in late March and early April, and has trended down since then.The MBA notes: "Total weekly forbearance requests as a percent of servicing portfolio volume (#) decreased relative to the prior week: from 0.05% to 0.04%"
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 May 18th. From Black Knight: After Sustained Improvement, Forbearance Volumes Increase This week, forbearance volumes rose by 16k (+0.74%), which marks only the second increase over the past twelve weeks. The rise this week is attributed to typical mid-month behavior, which had been suppressed in recent months due to strong declines. The 1k (-0.1%) weekly decline in forbearances among GSE loans was more than offset by a 4k (+0.5%) increase among FHA/VA loans and a 13k (+2.2%) increase among portfolio held and privately securitized mortgages.Plan starts were driven up this week thanks mostly to an increase in restart activity, which was expected for the middle of the month and amidst the large volume of removals we’ve seen in recent months. Removals also fell to their lowest level since February, driven by the low volume of review activity that took place this week. Nearly 190k plans are still listed with May 2021 expirations, providing a moderate opportunity for additional improvements over the next two weeks and more acutely in early June. Another 830k plans are currently slated for review for extension or removal in June, the final quarterly review before early forbearance entrants begin to reach their 18-month plan expirations later this year.As of May 18, 2.18 million (4.1% of) homeowners remain in COVID-19-related forbearance plans, including 2.4% of GSE loans, 7.3% of FHA/VA loans, and 4.7% of portfolio/PLS loans.
Black Knight: National Mortgage Delinquency Rate Decreased in April --Note: A year ago, in April 2020, the delinquency rate increased sharply (see table below). Loans in forbearance are counted as delinquent in this survey, but those loans are not reported as delinquent to the credit bureaus.From Black Knight: Black Knight’s First Look: Mortgage Delinquencies Decline Another 7% in April; At Current Rate of Improvement, Delinquencies to Return to Pre-Pandemic Levels By Year’s End
• The number of past-due mortgages improved again in April, as the national delinquency rate fell to 4.66% from 5.02% in MarchAccording to Black Knight's First Look report, the percent of loans delinquent decreased 7.1% in April compared to March, and decreased 27% year-over-year. The percent of loans in the foreclosure process decreased 6.3% in April and were down 29% over the last year. Black Knight reported the U.S. mortgage delinquency rate (loans 30 or more days past due, but not in foreclosure) was 4.66% in April, down from 5.02% in March. The percent of loans in the foreclosure process decreased in April to 0.29%, from 0.30% in March.The number of delinquent properties, but not in foreclosure, is down 900,000 properties year-over-year, and the number of properties in the foreclosure process is down 58,000 properties year-over-year.
• New delinquencies rose 23% from March's record lows, but are down 33% from April 2019, while more than 400,000 (14% of) homeowners past-due on their mortgages became current on payments
• Serious delinquencies (loans 90 or more days past due but not yet in foreclosure) saw strong improvement as well, falling by 151,000 for the month
• Nearly 1.8 million first-lien mortgages remain seriously delinquent, 1.3 million more than there were heading into the pandemic
• Both foreclosure starts and active foreclosure inventory hit new record lows once again in April as both moratoriums and borrower forbearance plan participation continue to limit activity
• Mortgage prepayments fell nearly 23% in April to their lowest level since May 2020, reflecting the impact on refinance activity of interest rate spikes earlier this year
• Black Knight’s April Originations Market Monitor report also showed that rate locks have fallen further over the past month, suggesting prepay volumes will likely be muted in the months to come.
MBA: Mortgage Applications Increase in Latest Weekly Survey - From the MBA: Mortgage Applications Increase in Latest MBA Weekly Survey_ Mortgage applications increased 1.2 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending May 14, 2021.... The Refinance Index increased 4 percent from the previous week and was 2 percent lower than the same week one year ago. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 4 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index decreased 4 percent compared with the previous week and was 2 percent higher than the same week one year ago.“Mortgage rates increased last week, with all loan types hitting their highest levels in two weeks. Rates were still lower than levels reported in late March and early April, providing additional opportunity for borrowers to refinance. Despite the 30-year fixed rate rising to 3.15 percent, applications for conventional and VA refinances increased. Ongoing volatility in refinance applications is likely if rates continue to oscillate around current levels,” said Joel Kan, MBA’s Associate Vice President of Economic and Industry Forecasting. “A decline in purchase applications was seen for both conventional and government loans. There continues to be strong demand for buying a home, but persistent supply shortages are constraining purchase activity, and building material shortages and higher costs are making it more difficult to increase supply. As a result, home prices and average purchase loan balances continue to rise, with the average purchase application reaching $411,400 – the highest since February.”... The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($548,250 or less) increased to 3.15 percent from 3.11 percent, with points increasing to 0.36 from 0.32 (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
Steve Mnuchin Takes 21% Haircut On Selling His $25 Million Manhattan Co-Op --Not even being former Treasury Secretary of the United States can help your real estate appreciate in Manhattan right now, as Steven Mnuchin just found out the hard way.Mnuchin just sold his Manhattan co-op for a "deep discount", according to Bloomberg, reportedly suffering a 21% price reduction before finding a buyer for his duplex at 740 Park Ave. The five bedroom property was originally listed at $32.5 million in September of 2018 and finally just sold after being listed for $25.75 million. It marks the most expensive co-op to sell in Manhattan over the last 18 months. The final sale price will be recorded with the city in coming months. Co-ops like Mnuchin's have been difficult to sell recently - not only because they are "old school" in the face of brand new high-end luxury condo skyrises - but also as many residents with deep pockets, including many businesses, have left New York in favor of red-leaning, tax friendly states, like Florida. Co-op owners get shares in a corporation that owns the building and don't hold deeds to their specific units. Boards of the building can approve or deny buyers and have full say over all aspects of managing the building's residents. Luxury condos have been "outselling co-ops nearly every year for a decade", data from broker Olshan shows. Their data also shows that through April 25, 2021, there were 406 deals for condos listed at $4 million or more, compared to just 108 co-op purchases in the same category. And despite the "prestige" of 740 Park Ave., it hasn't been spared from the trend.
NAR: Existing-Home Sales Decreased to 5.85 million in April --From the NAR: Existing-Home Sales Decline 2.7% in April --Existing-home sales waned in April, marking three straight months of declines, according to the National Association of Realtors®. All but one of the four major U.S. regions witnessed month-over-month drops in home sales, but each registered double-digit year-over-year gains for April. Total existing-home sales, completed transactions that include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, slipped 2.7% from March to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 5.85 million in April. Sales overall jumped year-over-year, up 33.9% from a year ago (4.37 million in April 2020). ... Total housing inventory at the end of April amounted to 1.16 million units, up 10.5% from March's inventory and down 20.5% from one year ago (1.46 million). Unsold inventory sits at a 2.4-month supply at the current sales pace, slightly up from March's 2.1-month supply and down from the 4.0-month supply recorded in April 2020. These numbers continue to represent near-record lows. NAR first began tracking the single-family home supply in 1982. This graph shows existing home sales, on a Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) basis since 1993. Sales in April (5.85 million SAAR) were down 2.7% from last month, and were 33.9% above the April 2020 sales rate. The second graph shows nationwide inventory for existing homes. According to the NAR, inventory increased to 1.16 million in April from 1.05 million in March. Headline inventory is not seasonally adjusted, and inventory usually decreases to the seasonal lows in December and January, and peaks in mid-to-late summer. The last graph shows the year-over-year (YoY) change in reported existing home inventory and months-of-supply. Since inventory is not seasonally adjusted, it really helps to look at the YoY change. Note: Months-of-supply is based on the seasonally adjusted sales and not seasonally adjusted inventory. Inventory was down 20.5% year-over-year in April compared to April 2020. Months of supply increased to 2.4 months in April from 2.1 months in March. This was below the consensus forecast.
Existing vs. new home sales: sales have peaked, expect prices to soon -- Even though existing home sales constitute about 90% of the housing market, they have much less impact on the economy overall than new home sales (because all of the economic activity involved in building the house, and then landscaping the outside and furnishing the inside). But they can be a comparison with new home sales, particularly as they are a competing product. And the procession of data is the same: interest rates lead sales, which in turn lead prices, which in turn lead inventory. Existing home sales for April confirmed what we have already seen with new home sales: the market peaked at the turn of the year. Sales declined 2.7%, seasonally adjusted, compared with March, to 5.85 million units annualized. That is the lowest number since last July’s 5.90 million. It is about -12% below the January peak of 6.66 million. Below I show both new (blue) and existing (red) home sales for the past year: Earlier this week we saw that housing permits and starts are both also off of their highest point of December and January. Median prices, however, continued to climb to a new all time high of $341,600, a YoY gain of 19.1%, the highest YoY gain on record. Inventory continued to decline, to less than 2 months’. I fully expect prices to reverse in the coming months, and I also expect inventory to increase.
Real-Estate Frenzy Overwhelms Small-Town America: ‘I Came Home Crying’ – WSJ -- Dominic Pollock, still in his work boots, stood on the lawn of a 1960s-era three-bedroom house for sale in the former steel town of Bethlehem, Pa., 60 miles north of Philadelphia. It was listed at $250,000. “I really, really like it,” Mr. Pollock told his real-estate agent Danny Hazim, a buddy from high school in neighboring Allentown, Pa. Groups of other interested buyers huddled nearby and whispered to their agents in urgent tones, casting sly glances at rivals.Mr. Pollock, 25 years old, was willing to go above the asking price. He and his fiancée, Brooke Terplan, 26, had made more than 20 offers on houses over nine months. Each time, they were outbid.The couple had hoped to land a home by their wedding this week and begin a life together. Mr. Pollock lived with his brother, and Ms. Terplan, a labor-and-delivery nurse, lived with her parents. Like many would-be buyers, they braced for disappointment. Home prices in the U.S. have shot up in the past year, driven by limited supply, record-low interest rates and buyer demand. Bidding wars have spread from such high-profile locations as Palm Beach, Fla., and the suburbs outside New York City to smaller cities and towns, including long-neglected locales where properties typically sat on the market for months.Local buyers bid against one another as well as against investors who now comprise about a fifth of annual home sales nationally. Online platforms such as BiggerPockets and Fundrise make it easier for out-of-town investors to buy real estate in smaller cities across the U.S., said John Burns of California-based John Burns Real Estate Consulting.Often, Mr. Burns said, “the cash flows are better in the Tulsas and Allentowns of the world” for those seeking to rent out properties. In the fourth quarter of 2020, nearly a fifth of homes sold in the Allentown area were bought by investors, according to Mr. Burns’s data.The median listed price for a house jumped 24% in January from a year earlier in the metropolitan area surrounding Allentown, the Rust-Belt city whose decline was memorialized in a 1982 Billy Joel song, according to data from Realtor.com. It was the same in such spots as Martin, Tenn., a small city 150 miles from Nashville, where the median asking price went up 159% over the same period; in Kendallville, Ind., about 30 miles outside Fort Wayne, it climbed 56%. The average price for a house in the Allentown metro area, which includes Bethlehem, was about $225,000 a year ago, said Jonathan Campbell, vice president of DLP Realty in Bethlehem. It has since shot past $270,000 in a market so hot that open houses trigger traffic jams, and properties sell in 48 hours. Many homeowners want to sell while prices are high but hesitate for fear they won’t find an affordable place to move. Housing supplies can’t meet demand.Buyers feel pressure to make snap decisions, and some forgo routine home inspections for fear of losing to another bidder. “If you’re a buyer, this is the most frustrating time,” Mr. Campbell said. The local market, he said, is outpacing the mid-2000s housing boom.
Comments on April Existing Home Sales – McBride -- Earlier: NAR: Existing-Home Sales Decreased to 5.85 million in April - A few key points:
- 1) This was the highest sales rate for April since 2006, and the 4th highest sales rate for April on record (behind 2004, 2005, and 2006). Some of the increase over the last ten months was probably related to record low mortgage rates, a move away from multi-family rentals, strong second home buying (to escape the high-density cities), a strong stock market and favorable demographics. Also, the delay in the 2020 buying season pushed the seasonally adjusted number to very high levels over the winter. This means there are going to be some difficult comparisons in the second half of 2021!
- 2) Inventory is very low, and was down 20.5% year-over-year (YoY) in April. Also, as housing economist Tom Lawler has noted, the local MLS data shows even a larger decline in active inventory (the NAR appears to include some pending sales in inventory). Lawler noted: "As I’ve noted before, the inventory measure in most publicly-released local realtor/MLS reports excludes listings with pending contracts, but that is not the case for many of the reports sent to the NAR (referred to as the “NAR Report!”), Since the middle of last Spring inventory measures excluding pending listings have fallen much more sharply than inventory measures including such listings, and this latter inventory measure understates the decline in the effective inventory of homes for sale over the last several months." It seems likely that active inventory is down close to 50% year-over-year.Months-of-supply at 2.4 months is still very low, but above the record low of 1.9 months set in December 2020 and January 2021. Inventory will be important to watch in 2021, see: Some thoughts on Housing Inventory
- 3) As usual, housing economist Tom Lawler's forecast was closer to the NAR report than the Consensus. The NAR reported 5.85 million SAAR, Lawler estimated the NAR would report 5.96 million SAAR, and the consensus was 6.09 million SAAR.
This graph shows existing home sales by month for 2020 and 2021.The year-over-year comparisons will be easy in May and June, and then difficult in the second half of the year. The second graph shows existing home sales for each month, Not Seasonally Adjusted (NSA), since 2005.Sales NSA in April (513,000) were 37.5% above sales last year in April (373,000). This was the highest sales for April (NSA) since 2006.
Housing Starts decreased to 1.569 Million Annual Rate in April - From the Census Bureau: Permits, Starts and Completions: Privately‐owned housing starts in April were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,569,000. This is 9.5 percent below the revised March estimate of 1,733,000, but is 67.3 percent above the April 2020 rate of 938,000. Single‐family housing starts in April were at a rate of 1,087,000; this is 13.4 percent below the revised March figure of 1,255,000. The April rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 470,000.Privately‐owned housing units authorized by building permits in April were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,760,000. This is 0.3 percent above the revised March rate of 1,755,000 and is 60.9 percent above the April 2020 rate of 1,094,000. Single‐family authorizations in April were at a rate of 1,149,000; this is 3.8 percent below the revised March figure of 1,194,000. Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 559,000 in April The first graph shows single and multi-family housing starts for the last several years. Multi-family starts (red, 2+ units) increased slightly in April compared to March. Multi-family starts were up 91% year-over-year in April.Single-family starts (blue) decreased in April, and were up 59% year-over-year (starts slumped at the beginning of the pandemic). The second graph shows total and single unit starts since 1968.The second graph shows the huge collapse following the housing bubble, and then the eventual recovery (but still not historically high).Total housing starts in April were below expectations, and starts in February and March were revised down.
Single-Family Housing Starts Crash In April - After April's massive catch up surge (following March's weather-driven dip), Housing Starts and Permits data was expected to slow (or contract) in April as higher rates, and even higher prices (amid demand and higher commodity costs) begin to stymie the unprecedented buying-panic in the housing market over the past year. However, the retracement was far larger with Starts plunging 9.5% MoM (against -2.0% MoM expected) after March's upwardly revised 19.8% rise and Permits rising just 0.3% MoM (half the expected 0.6% MoM rise) after March's revised lower 1.7% rise... Is the housing boom over? Housing Starts plunge was dominated by a 13.4% plunge in Single-family home starts (while Multi-family (Rental) was up 4.0%)... Housing Permits saw the opposite pattern to Starts with Single Family down 3.8% and Multi-family (Rental) up 11.1% The Midwest saw Starts crash 34.8% (and the South dropped 11.5%) while The West (+9.0%) and Northeast (+6.2%) both rose. The Widwest also led the weakness in Permits, dropping 9.9%, along with The West (-4.1%) while The South (+3.9%) and Northeast (+8.4%) both saw increased activity. Finally, as we noted yesterday, the vast gap of incredulity between homebuilders' record high confidence and homebuyers' record low confidence remains a key harbinger of problems ahead (and/or perhaps a sign of the inexorably growing inequality gap created by The Fed)...
Comments on April Housing Starts - Earlier: Housing Starts decreased to 1.569 Million Annual Rate in April It is possible that supply constraints held back housing starts in April. Here is a comment from MBA SVP and Chief Economist Mike Fratantoni: “Single-family starts in April dropped more than 13% compared to last month, but permits to build single-family homes saw a smaller decline. This is consistent with reports that builders are delaying starting new construction because of the marked increase in costs for lumber and other inputs. Moreover, builders are also reporting difficulty obtaining other inputs like appliances."Total housing starts in April were below expectations, and starts in February and March were revised down slightly. Single family starts decreased in April, but were up 59% year-over-year (starts declined at the beginning of the pandemic). The volatile multi-family sector is up sharply year-over-year (apartments were under pressure from COVID). The housing starts report showed total starts were down 9.5% in April compared to March, and total starts were up 67.3% year-over-year compared to April 2020.Low mortgage rates and limited existing home inventory have given a boost to single family housing starts. The first graph shows the month to month comparison for total starts between 2020 (blue) and 2021 (red). Starts were up 67.3% in April compared to April 2020. The year-over-year comparison will be easy again in May and June. 2020 was off to a strong start before the pandemic, and with low interest rates and little competing existing home inventory, starts finished 2020 strong. Starts have started 2021 strong (February was impacted by the harsh weather).Below is an update to the graph comparing multi-family starts and completions. Since it usually takes over a year on average to complete a multi-family project, there is a lag between multi-family starts and completions. Completions are important because that is new supply added to the market, and starts are important because that is future new supply (units under construction is also important for employment).These graphs use a 12 month rolling total for NSA starts and completions.The blue line is for multifamily starts and the red line is for multifamily completions.The rolling 12 month total for starts (blue line) increased steadily for several years following the great recession - then mostly moved sideways. Completions (red line) had lagged behind - then completions caught up with starts- then starts picked up a little again late last year, but have fallen off with the pandemic.The last graph shows single family starts and completions. It usually only takes about 6 months between starting a single family home and completion - so the lines are much closer. The blue line is for single family starts and the red line is for single family completions. Single family starts are getting back to more normal levels, but I still expect some further increases in single family starts and completions on a rolling 12 month basis - especially given the low level of existing home inventory.
Quarterly Starts by Purpose and Design - Along with the monthly housing starts for April this week, the Census Bureau released Quarterly Starts by Purpose and Design through Q1 2021. This graph shows the NSA quarterly intent for four start categories since 1975: single family built for sale, owner built (includes contractor built for owner), starts built for rent, and condos built for sale.Single family starts built for sale (red) were up 23% in Q1 2021 compared to Q1 2020. This was the strongest first quarter since 2006. Owner built starts (orange) were down 13% year-over-year.Condos built for sale decreased, and are still low.The 'units built for rent' (blue) and were down 10% in Q1 2021 compared to Q1 2020. The housing boom has been mostly in single family homes.
New Residential Building Permits: Up 0.3% in April, Annual Revisions Made - The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development have now published their findings for April new residential building permits. The latest reading of 1.760M was up 0.3% from the March reading and is below the Investing.com forecast of 1.770M. Annual revisions were made. Here is the opening of this morning's monthly report, including a note regarding revisions: Privately‐owned housing units authorized by building permits in April were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,760,000. This is 0.3 percent (±1.2 percent)* above the revised March rate of 1,755,000 and is 60.9 percent (±1.8 percent) above the April 2020 rate of 1,094,000. Single‐family authorizations in April were at a rate of 1,149,000; this is 3.8 percent (±1.0 percent) below the revised March figure of 1,194,000. Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 559,000 in April. [link to report]Here is the complete historical series, which dates from 1960. Because of the extreme volatility of the monthly data points, a 6-month moving average has been included.Here is the data with a simple population adjustment. The Census Bureau's mid-month population estimates show substantial growth in the US population since 1960. Here is a chart of housing starts as a percent of the population. We've added a linear regression through the monthly data to highlight the trend.
NAHB: Builder Confidence Unchanged at 83 in May -- The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) reported the housing market index (HMI) was at 83, unchanged from 83 in April. Any number above 50 indicates that more builders view sales conditions as good than poor. From the NAHB: Building Materials Top Housing Concerns: Builder confidence held stable in May, despite growing concerns over the price and availability of most building materials, including lumber. The latest NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) released today shows that builder confidence in the market for newly built single-family homes is 83 in May, unchanged from April.“Builder confidence in the market remains strong due to a lack of resale inventory, low mortgage interest rates, and a growing demographic of prospective home buyers,” . “However, first-time and first-generation home buyers are particularly at risk for losing a purchase due to cost hikes associated with increasingly scarce material availability. Policymakers must take note and find ways to increase production of domestic building materials, including lumber and steel, and suspend tariffs on imports of construction materials.” “Low interest rates are supporting housing affordability in a market where the cost of most materials is rising,” “In recent months, aggregate residential construction material costs were up 12% year over year, and our surveys suggest those costs are rising further. Some builders are slowing sales to manage their own supply chains, which means growing affordability challenges for a market in critical need of more inventory.”... The HMI index gauging current sales conditions held steady at 88, and the gauge charting sales expectations in the next six months rose one point to 81. The component measuring traffic of prospective buyers fell one point to 73. Looking at the three-month moving averages for regional HMI scores, the South rose one point to 84, and the West held steady at 90. The Northeast fell four points to 82, and the Midwest posted a three-point drop to 75. This graph show the NAHB index since Jan 1985. This was at the consensus forecast, and a very strong reading.Housing and homebuilding have been one of the best performing sectors during the pandemic.
Homebuilder Comments in Mid-May: "Reducing Sales, Limiting Sales" --Some twitter comments from Rick Palacios Jr., Director of Research at John Burns Real Estate Consulting Here's May mid-month home builder channel check I hinted at earlier. Builders are pushing prices w/little pushback, though some starting. Some builders are using price escalators & highest/best offer. Many limiting pre-sales, shifting to spec, & pricing home later in build cycle.#Dallas builder: “Not selling build jobs in May, starting specs only, and not selling until drywall. Costs are too out of control for us to take the inflation risk on build jobs. So sales are way down.”
#SanAntonio builder: “Only selling specs at Sheetrock stage. Last month, it was frame stage.”
#Austin builder: “Stopped sales until we pour a foundation. Lumber too erratic to sell prior. I know others have gone to a bid process. I have heard all parties, including that people who win the bid, feel like they have lost.”
#LasVegas builder: “Reducing sales releases in attempt to moderate the impact of labor & material shortages. Homes are priced once a Truss delivery date is confirmed which triggers the lumber lock pricing. We are also considering online auctions, but appraisals are a concern.”
#Denver builder: “Limiting sales at all communities and gapping out on lots. Material availability is becoming more concerning.”
#Phoenix builder: “Metering sales. Could be higher if we released more, but construction can’t keep up & trades are raising costs post start of home, so we are delaying sales releases even further. Delaying release of to-be-built homes & selling only specs deeper in the cycle.”
#SaltLakeCity builder: “Very, very careful with home releases, generally 2 – 4 permits pulled for each subdivision each month. Those homes are not released for sale until the homes are 60-80 days into the construction schedule.”
#Charlotte builder: “No pre-sales as of now. Starting specs and will price at drywall. Sales are still strong but we are starting to see a little bit of a slowdown as we have pushed pricing considerably.”
#Nashville builder: “Prices are starting to flatten out. Sales are down by design as we are not offering presale contracts, & are not writing contracts on inventory homes until they have completed rough ins, with all remaining items confirmed as to availability."
#RaleighDurham builder: “Starting to see some reluctance/concern around home prices balance, to some extent, the buying frenzy that we have seen over the last few months. Continue to raise prices – we get material/labor cost increase notices EVERY SINGLE DAY!”
#Wilmington builder: “Presales are limited & have escalation clause. Not pricing specs until Sheetrock - then they are gone & we wait for next houses to get to drywall. Raising prices across all segments to keep up with cost until the market or appraisal stops us.”
#Atlanta builder: “Locking in costs with purchase orders at time of foundation. Cannot sell a home until foundations go in. Costs are crazy. We are hitting the top of the market in some places and can't push prices. We are seeing margin compression.”
#Birmingham builder: “We have presales turned off in about half our communities to burn through current backlog. We’re holding off sales and using escalation clauses.”
#Charleston builder: “Holding off on selling a home until framing, as that has been our most volatile cost from month to month. We aren't selling to-be-built homes in order to control costs and not commit to a sales price before some of our largest expenses are actualized.”
#Chicago builder: “Many builders are putting everything on hold or putting foundations in the ground and not going any further until they see where costs are headed. Trim, windows and doors supplier says they are starting to feel a slowdown and are preparing for a bigger one.”
#Indianapolis builder: “Not selling/pricing spec inventory until late in the construction process, to account for rising costs. We continue to raise prices on contract builds but have not added escalation clauses.”
#DC builder: “Capping sales by community with few exceptions. We cannot continue to sell further out to future. Limited sales at most communities and raised prices dramatically to keep pace with rising costs.”
#Philadelphia builder: “Holding off opening up some of the new sections until we can catch up to the sales backlog a bit.”
#Tampa builder: “We’re closed for the first half of May. Working on catching up to what we already have. We will significantly limit sales for the next several months.”
#Orlando builder: “Restricting releases to limit quantity of sales while production catches up. Increasing pricing every few sales.”
#Sarasota builder: “Everyone is starting construction on homes after permits are obtained and then quickly hitting unpredictable material shortages, masonry block as one primary example.”
#Jacksonville builder: “Revised all sales contracts, allowing us to adjust base price of home due to cost increases up until time slab is poured. Converting to spec sale program on single-family detached homes as new phases come online this summer.”
#LosAngeles builder: “Waiting to offer homes for sale until we have building permits in hand and can lock lumber pricing.”
#Riverside builder: “We sell out within a week of release. If sales volume drops it’s a result of no inventory. Banging prices each week. Scary high. Costs are stupid high. I’m not saying we’re out of buyers but sales team is telling me that their buyer list is getting smaller."
#SanJose builder: “Doing highest bidder approach at two communities. Seeing $100K over asking at one of them. Buying lumber sooner now, but may push out starting more units with the anticipation of lumber prices coming back down. Costs are eating up all price increases.”
#EastBayCA builder: “Holding back on releasing for sales until we have the phase contracted, so we know what our costs are going to be.”
#Reno builder: “We have gone to ‘Offer & Acceptance’ approach on sales releases where we are able to improve price and terms. This approach has been effective in maintaining our margins and keeping pace with all the increases we are getting."
AIA: Architecture "Design activity strongly increases" in April - Note: This index is a leading indicator primarily for new Commercial Real Estate (CRE) investment. From the AIA: Design activity strongly increases: Continuing its meteoric rebound, the Architecture Billings Index (ABI) recorded its third consecutive month of positive billings, according to a new report today from The American Institute of Architects (AIA). AIA’s ABI score for April rose to 57.9 compared to 55.6 in March (any score above 50 indicates an increase in billings). Neither score has been achieved since before the Great Recession. During April, new project inquiries and new design contracts reached record highs with scores of 70.8 and 61.7 respectively.“This recent acceleration in the demand for design services demonstrates that both consumers and businesses are feeling much more confident about the economic outlook,” said AIA Chief Economist Kermit Baker, Hon. AIA, PhD. “The pent-up demand for new and retrofitted facilities is keeping architecture firms in all regions and building sectors busy.” ...
• Regional averages: Midwest (60.6); South (58.3); Northeast (55.0); West (52.4)
• Sector index breakdown: commercial/industrial (59.1); multi-family residential (56.9); institutional (56.7); mixed practice (55.0)
This graph shows the Architecture Billings Index since 1996. The index was at 57.9 in April, up from 55.6 in March. Anything above 50 indicates expansion in demand for architects' services. Note: This includes commercial and industrial facilities like hotels and office buildings, multi-family residential, as well as schools, hospitals and other institutions. This index had been below 50 for eleven consecutive months, but has been solidly positive for the last three months. The eleven months of decline represented a significant decrease in design services, and suggests a decline in CRE investment through most of 2021 (This usually leads CRE investment by 9 to 12 months), however we might see a pickup in CRE investment towards the end of the 2021.
Hotels: Occupancy Rate Down 16% Compared to Same Week in 2019 --Note: The year-over-year occupancy comparisons are easy, since occupancy declined sharply at the onset of the pandemic. However, occupancy is still down significantly from normal levels. The occupancy rate is down 16.4% compared to the same week in 2019.From CoStar: STR: US Hotel Average Daily Rate Hits New Pandemic High: U.S. weekly hotel occupancy reached its second-highest level since the start of the pandemic, according to STR‘s latest data through May 15. May 9-15, 2021 (percentage change from comparable week in 2019*):
• Occupancy: 59.1% (-16.4%)
• Average daily rate (ADR): US$113.54 (-15.4%)
• Revenue per available room (RevPAR): US$67.05 (-29.2%)
Friday/Saturday occupancy came in higher than any weekend since Valentine’s Day weekend in 2020. Additionally, ADR reached its highest point of the pandemic but was still US$20 less than the corresponding week in 2019.The following graph shows the seasonal pattern for the hotel occupancy rate using the four week average.The red line is for 2021, black is 2020, blue is the median, and dashed light blue is for 2009 (the worst year on record for hotels prior to 2020). Occupancy is now slightly above the horrible 2009 levels. Note: Y-axis doesn't start at zero to better show the seasonal change.
Lawler: Is the “Owners’ Equivalent Rent” Index Set to Accelerate Sharply? -- From housing economist Tom Lawler: While single-family home prices have recently soared and single-family rents appear to have accelerated, the “Owners’ equivalent rent of primary residence” index (OERPR) of the Consumer Price Index has shown no meaningful acceleration. The YOY gain in the OERPR in April was just 2.04%, about the same as in the previous three months. The OERPR index attempts to measure what property owners would receive if they were to rent their home. While the “Rent of primary residence” index mainly (though not solely) reflects rents on multifamily properties, the OERPR index mainly (though not solely) reflects “imputed” rents on single-family homes. There are many issues with how the OERPR in calculated (there is an extensive literature on the subject), and many feel that that it is a lagging indicator of trends. However, it would appear as if (1) the OERPR is understating this measure of housing costs; and (2) the measure is likely to accelerate, probably significantly, during the remainder of the year. The OERPR represents a little over 23% of the overall CPI and a little underx. 14% of the PCE price index. CR Note: This will be something to watch.
West Coast Ports Rush To Clear Record Ship Congestion Before "Peak Season" Arrives -- It's hardly a secret that the recent collapse of trans-pacific supply chains has been among the main reasons for soaring prices, and it's also hardly a secret that the weakest link in said supply chains are West Coast ports where congestion remains off the charts (as recently discussed in "It's About To Get Much Worse": Supply Chains Implode As "Price Doesn’t Even Matter Anymore" and "Port Of LA Volumes Are "Off The Charts".") Which is why the first, and most critical step to restoring normalcy in both supply chains - and prices - will come from stabilizing and normalizing shipping congestion and backlog... at some point. And while nobody knows just when this fateful moment will arrive, today Bloomberg writes that ship congestion outside the busiest U.S. gateway for trade with Asia showed glimmers of easing as port officials race to clear a backlog of arriving cargo before peak season begins in about three months. There is some good news: while congestion is still clearly present, it's getting better - a total of 19 container ships were anchored waiting for entry into Los Angeles and Long Beach, California, as of Sunday, compared with 21 a week earlier, according to Bloomberg data. The bottleneck has persisted since November, peaking around 40 vessels in early February when the loading area looked like a parking lot.But things may get much worse quick as another 18 container carriers are scheduled to arrive over the next three days, with nine of those expected to drop anchor and join the queue.Meanwhile, benefiting from the modest improvement in backlogs, the average wait for berth space was 6.1 days, compared with 6.6 a week ago, according to the L.A. port. That number had peaked around 8 days in April.Last week, the Port of Long Beach said last week volume was the strongest-ever for any April, the 10th consecutive monthly high. It was largely due to imports. Exports haven’t fared as well because shipping companies, charging record-high rates to move goods on transpacific routes, would prefer return containers to Asia empty rather than wait for U.S. exporters’ business.At the neighboring Port of Los Angeles, we noted that the surge in ocean freight containers has pushed the ratio of imports to exports to a record 4.3 to 1, executive director Gene Serokasaid on a webcast last week.
U.S. Airlines May Start Weighing Passengers At The Gate --U.S. airlines may need to start weighing passengers in order to comply with FAA rules. For safety reasons, carriers need to calculate an aircraft’s weight and balance, and it has to be within allowable limits for the plane. However the assumptions they’ve been using for passengers are outdated. Americans are getting fatter, and the federal government wants airlines to find out how much fatter their passengers have gotten, at least for smaller aircraft. The FAA realizes that passenger weight can vary by route and airlines may want to document this difference. Standard weights may not be appropriate for smaller planes, with smaller sample size and greater likelihood of variance from average. Airlines can use standard weights published by the CDC for larger aircraft, with variance for winter and summer based on greater weight assumptions for clothing in the winter. However they outline a method for smaller aircraft to determine “[a]ctual passenger and bag weights” and to determine whether aircraft up to 70 seats should be considered small or large for this exercise.
NC gas shortage update: Fuel outages at gas stations near me continue to fall as Colonial Pipeline returns to 'normal' operations - -- The state has seen a minor change in the number of gas stations regaining fuel in the last day, according to GasBuddy which is now reporting 47 percent of North Carolina stations are without gas. North Carolina hovered somewhere in the upper 50s since Sunday, peaking several days ago with more than 70 percent of stations being empty.Recent Stories from ABC 11 On Monday, Colonial Pipeline reiterated that the supply chain will take some time to catch up since the pipeline system restart last Wednesday. The company said operations are back to normal. Experts say the Colonial Pipeline hack didn't cause the shortage. Instead, it was the panic-buying that happened in response. State officials continue to discourage panic-buying. They say people rushing out to fill up all their vehicles and topping off their tanks despite not really needing it was a major reason for all the gas station outages in the first place. GasBuddy says data shows North Carolina remains one of the hardest hit states during the shortage. However, all states in the southeast are slowly getting back to normal. AAA said North Carolina will start to see more relief in the coming days. The organization said gas prices will likely continue to climb heading into Memorial Day weekend. Currently, prices are trending more than $1 higher than last year. At $2.93, North Carolina gas price averages are 29 cents more than this time in May 2019, according to AAA.
Gas hits highest price in 6 years, fuel outages persist despite Colonial Pipeline restart - Fuel outages persist in parts of the Southeast on Monday -- and the national gas price average remains at its highest level in six years -- even as the Colonial Pipeline has resumed operations following a ransomware attack.The national gas price average on Monday was $3.04, according to data from the American Automobile Association. The AAA said a price increase leading up to Memorial Day weekend was expected, but last week's pipeline shutdown caused prices to surge in the weeks ahead of the holiday."The Southeast will continue to experience tight supply this week as terminals and gas stations are refueled," Jeanette McGee, an AAA spokesperson, said in a statement Monday. "Over the weekend, gas prices started to stabilize, but are expected to fluctuate in the lead up to Memorial Day weekend."Gas prices in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina all jumped 21 cents over the past week, according to AAA data, while gas prices in Virginia and Tennessee climbed 18 cents. Nationally, average gas prices have jumped eight cents on the week. "This is going to be an expensive summer for motorists," McGee added, though she said they don't expect this to deter people from taking road trips this summer.Meanwhile, swaths of gas stations throughout many southeastern states are still grappling with fuel outages.Some 57% of gas stations in North Carolina have fuel outages as of Monday morning, according to data from fuel-price tracker Gasbuddy, marking the highest percentage of any state. This is followed by 49% of stations in South Carolina and 33% of stations in Virginia.The District of Columbia, meanwhile, is dealing with a whopping 83% of stations reporting fuel outages, according to Gasbuddy.
Gasoline Volume Sales Down Almost 16% from All-Time High -The Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration (EIA) monthly data on volume sales is several weeks old when it released. The latest numbers, through mid-March, are now available. Gasoline prices and increases in fuel efficiency are important factors, but there are also some significant demographic and cultural dynamics in this data series. Because the sales data are highly volatile with some obvious seasonality, we've added a 12-month moving average (MA) to give a clearer indication of the long-term trends. The latest 12-month MA is 15.9% below its all-time high set in August 2005 and has surpassed its -8.6% low set in August 2014 after the last recession. The next chart includes an overlay of real monthly retail gasoline prices, all grades and formulations, adjusted for inflation using the Consumer Price Index (the red line). We've shortened the timeline to start with EIA price series, which dates from August 1990. The retail prices are updated weekly, so the price series is the more current of the two.As we would expect, the rapid rise in gasoline prices in 2008 was accompanied by a significant drop in sales volume. With the official end of the recession in June 2009, sales reversed direction. As a result of COVID-19 and the resulting recession, both gas prices and sales have dropped rapidly. The moving average for the latest month is 13.5% below the pre-recession level. Clearly, gasoline prices were falling beginning in 2018 and the global pandemic facilitated a further and rapid drop.
Cost of natural gas increases for Columbia Gas customers- The cost of natural gas will be increasing for customers with Columbia Gas. Columbia Gas of Kentucky has received approval from the Kentucky Public Service Commission (PSC) for its most recent Gas Cost Adjustment (GCA). The cost will be $4.9177 per Mcf (1,000 cubic feet), an increase of $0.5049 from the last quarter. This goes into effect June 1. The next scheduled adjustment will be in September. Officials with Columbia Gas of Kentucky say they adjust its gas supply cost quarterly to reflect current market conditions. They must be approved by the PSC. Natural gas distribution companies don’t earn a profit on their gas commodity costs and Columbia Gas of Kentucky passes the cost along to customers without markup.
Empire State Mfg Survey: Continued Growth in May -This morning we got the latest Empire State Manufacturing Survey. The diffusion index for General Business Conditions at 24.3 was a decrease of 2.0 from the previous month's 26.3. The Investing.com forecast was for a reading of 23.9.The Empire State Manufacturing Index rates the relative level of general business conditions in New York state. A level above 0.0 indicates improving conditions, below indicates worsening conditions. The reading is compiled from a survey of about 200 manufacturers in New York state.Here is the opening paragraph from the report.Business activity continued to grow at a solid clip in New York State, according to firms responding to the May 2021Empire State Manufacturing Survey. The headline general business conditions index was little changed at 24.3. New orders and shipments continued to expand strongly, and unfilled orders increased. Delivery times lengthened significantly, and inventories moved somewhat higher. Employment levels grew modestly, and the average workweek increased. Both input prices and selling prices rose at a record-setting pace. Looking ahead, firms remained optimistic that conditions would improve over the next six months, and expected significant increases in employment and prices. [full report] Here is a chart of the current conditions and its 3-month moving average, which helps clarify the trend for this extremely volatile indicator:
Philly Fed Mfg Index: Decline in May, but Remain Elevated - The Philly Fed's Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey is a monthly report for the Third Federal Reserve District, covers eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey, and Delaware. While it focuses exclusively on business in this district, this regional survey gives a generally reliable clue as to the direction of the broader Chicago Fed's National Activity Index.The latest Manufacturing Index came in at 31.5, down 18.7 from last month's 50.2. The 3-month moving average came in at 42.1, up from 38.7 last month. Since this is a diffusion index, negative readings indicate contraction, positive ones indicate expansion. The Six-Month Outlook came in at 52.7, down 13.9 from the previous month's 66.6.The 31.5 headline number came in below the 43 forecast at Investing.com.Here is the introduction from the survey:Manufacturing activity in the region continued to grow, according to the firms responding to the May Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey. The survey’s current indicators for general activity, new orders, and shipments declined from April’s readings but remained elevated. Additionally, employment increases were less widespread this month, while both price indexes reached long-term highs. Most future indexes moderated this month but continue to indicate that the firms expect growth over the next six months. (Full Report)The first chart below gives us a look at this diffusion index since 2000, which shows us how it has behaved in proximity to the two 21st century recessions. The red dots show the indicator itself, which is quite noisy, a nd the 3-month moving average, which is more useful as an indicator of coincident economic activity. We can see periods of contraction in 2011, 2012, and 2015, and a shallower contraction in 2013. The contraction due to COVID-19 is clear in 2020.
Weekly Initial Unemployment Claims decrease to 444,000 --The DOL reported: In the week ending May 15, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 444,000, a decrease of 34,000 from the previous week's revised level. This is the lowest level for initial claims since March 14, 2020 when it was 256,000. The previous week's level was revised up by 5,000 from 473,000 to 478,000. The 4-week moving average was 504,750, a decrease of 30,500 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 1,250 from 534,000 to 535,250.This does not include the 95,086 initial claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) that was down from 103,678 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 504,750.The previous week was revised up.Regular state continued claims increased to 3,751,000 (SA) from 3,640,000 (SA) the previous week.Note: There are an additional 6,605,416 receiving Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) that decreased from 7,284,088 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 5,141,311 receiving Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) down from 5,291,528.Weekly claims were lower than the consensus forecast.
US states begin eliminating unemployment aid even as nearly half a million jobless claims were filed last week - The US Department of Labor (DOL) reported Thursday that combined federal and state unemployment claims last week topped 500,000, demonstrating that over a year after the worst public health disaster in a century and steepest economic crisis to hit the working class since the Great Depression, millions of workers continue to struggle to find safe, well-paying and consistent work. For the week ending May 15, according to the report, an estimated 444,000 workers filed for state unemployment, while over 95,000 initial claims were filed under the CARES Act’s Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, designed for so-called “gig” and contract workers. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt gestures as he speaks during a news conference Monday, May 17, 2021, in Oklahoma City. Oklahoma will end a $300-a-week federal supplemental unemployment benefit next month. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki) The nearly 540,000 combined claims between state and federal programs are over twice the pre-pandemic average of 225,000. Overall, some 15,975,000 jobless claims were filed across all programs, and under any other circumstances, the figures in the report would be considered catastrophic. However, the somewhat stagnant trajectory of new jobless claims is being hailed in the capitalist press as a sign that the economy is “back on track.” On Thursday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki claimed the jobless numbers were a vindication of the Biden administration’s economic policies and the American Rescue Plan, which halved federal unemployment payments from the $600-a-week under the CARES Act to only $300. In reality, over 8 million jobs have yet to return since March 2020, with last month's jobs report revealing that roughly 2.7 million workers have been out of work for over a year, representing about 29 percent of all jobless workers. Following April’s job report, which showed only 266,000 new jobs were added, well below Wall Street economists’ hyped “expectations” of 1 million new jobs, a coordinated campaign by businesses and governors alike emerged, demanding an end to all pandemic-related unemployment benefits in order to resume the exploitation of the working class and boost the production of profits. Unconcerned with the health and wellbeing of the majority of the population, Wall Street and their politicians are attempting to blunt demands by workers for safe jobs and increased wages by ending the miserly federal unemployment benefits included in the American Rescue Plan. The $300 federal unemployment supplement is set to expire September 6, however, as of this writing, 22 states have announced they will be terminating the benefit by the end of July, affecting some 3.6 million people. While every state so far that has announced it will be ending the supplement is governed by a Republican, Democrats have signaled they support the ending of benefits as well. Meanwhile, the Biden White House, in its trademark fecklessness, has claimed it can do nothing to prevent Republican governors from denying unemployment benefits to eligible workers.Speaking for a growing number of Democrats and their wealthy backers, Democratic West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin told Politico last week he will “never vote for another extension” of unemployment benefits given the existence of vaccines, of which less than half of the population has received a single dose in the US.
Poll: Plurality of voters say unemployment benefits causing job growth slowdown - More voters think people are not returning to work because they would rather rely on unemployment benefits, than those who think poor working conditions and low wages are the reason, according to a new Hill-HarrisX poll. Those surveyed were asked which statement comes closest to their views: that many are relying on unemployment benefits rather than trying to go back to work; and low wages and poor working conditions are preventing people from looking for work. Forty-four percent of registered voters in the May 14-15 survey said the first statement came closest to their views, compared to 18 percent who said the second statement did. Twenty-seven percent said both statements came closest to their views, and 10 percent said neither did. A majority of Republican voters, 65 percent, cast unemployment benefits as the reason people weren't returning to work. Many GOP office holders have blamed overly generous benefits for serving as a disincentive to work. The most recent COVID-19 relief bill included a $300 per week federal benefit, though some states led by GOP governors have ended it. Seventy-two percent of voters who backed former President Trump in 2020 said the unemployment benefits were to blame. A plurality of Democrats and people who voted for President Biden said it was both the unemployment benefits and low wages that were keeping workers out of the labor force, at 36 and 37 percent, respectively. Democrats have argued a series of factors, including problems with child care, are contributing to people not returning to work. The debate was turbo-charged by a disappointing jobs report for the month of April.
BLS: April Unemployment rates down in 12 States --From the BLS: Regional and State Employment and Unemployment Summary: Unemployment rates were lower in April in 12 states and the District of Columbia and stable in 38 states, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Forty-eight states and the District had jobless rate decreases from a year earlier and two states had little change. The national unemployment rate, 6.1 percent, was little changed over the month, but was 8.7 percentage points lower than in April 2020.Nonfarm payroll employment increased in 9 states and the District of Columbia, decreased in 2 states, and was essentially unchanged in 39 states in April 2021. Over the year, nonfarm payroll employment increased in all states and the District....Hawaii had the highest unemployment rate in April, 8.5 percent, followed by California, 8.3 percent, and New Mexico and New York, 8.2 percent each. Nebraska, New Hampshire, South Dakota, and Utah had the lowest rates, 2.8 percent each. Hawaii has been impacted by lower levels of tourism.
Silicon Chip Shortage Leads To Potato Chip Shortage: Farmers Halt Equipment Shipments To Dealers -Readers have been briefed on the ongoing semiconductor shortage that may last a "couple of years." The auto industry has grabbed the spotlight as the hardest-hit industry, with some of the world's biggest manufacturers restricting production. According to a new report, the worldwide chip shortage is impacting the agriculture industry that may last for a couple of years and has already impacted the price of potato chips.Hoosier Ag Today reports, "The biggest factor impacting the ability of US farmers to produce the food we need has nothing to do with the weather, the markets, trade, regulations, or disease. The worldwide shortage of computer chips will impact all aspects of agriculture for the next two years and beyond... farm equipment manufacturers have halted shipments to dealers because they don't have the chips to put in the equipment... not only have combine, planter, tillage, and tractor sales been impacted, but even ATV supplies are limited. Parts, even non-electric parts, are also in short supply because the manufacturers of those parts use the chips in the manufacturing process. As farmers integrate technology into all aspects of the farming process, these highly sophisticated semiconductors have become the backbone of almost every farming operation." Rabobank's Global Economics & Markets desk commented on the Hoosier Ag Today report and cautioned on the"technological wonders of a global economy based on just-in-time supplies of a few key inputs from only a few locations; and then demand surged due a virus that ran rampant through said global economy; and supply chains got snarled for that, and other reasons; and now a lack of silicon chips even impacts on the price of potato chips (in the US) and chips (in the UK)." The shortage has caused Reynolds Farm Equipment, one of Indiana's largest John Deere dealers, to inform customers that order times are unknown at the moment because production for specific equipment has been disrupted because of the lack of chips.
Texas bans abortions under “heartbeat” bill, executes man on same day - Texas Governor Gregg Abbott signed a reactionary “heartbeat” abortion ban into law on Wednesday de-facto banning abortions, on the very same day that Quintin Jones was executed following a rejection by the Texas parole board to spare his life and Abbott’s decision to ignore Jones’s plea for clemency. The Republican governor’s actions mark a definite escalation of the assault on democratic rights in the United States. Jones was convicted in 2001 for the murder of his great-aunt, Berthena Bryant. Bryant’s sole surviving sibling forgave Jones in a clemency petition, and both she and Jones’s twin brother asked the governor and the state pardons board to commute his sentence. Abbott and the pardons board ignored these appeals. Notably, media were not allowed to witness the execution, the first time reporters have not been present at a Texas execution in over 40 years. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice later apologized, claiming that it was an error and the result of miscommunication. Serious questions as to whether Jones had an intellectual disability that exempted him from the death penalty were raised in legal filings by Jones’s lawyers, who argued that the psychologist testifying for the state was using a discredited psychopathy checklist. A Texas A&M professor speaking to the Texas Tribune called the checklist “unreliable, unscientific, and misleading in capital cases because [it] cannot reliably predict behavior in prison.” The draconian anti-abortion bill approved by Abbott has no exceptions for instances of rape or incest, instead claiming that “public and private agencies provide...emergency contraception for victims of rape or incest.” Justifying this, the bill’s sponsor, Republican Senator Bryan Hughes, stated cynically, “Let’s harshly punish the rapist, but we don’t, we don’t punish the unborn child.” That is, if someone gets raped in Texas, she will be forced to have the rapist’s child under threat of the state. The state government has overseen the deaths of more than 50,000 Texans from COVID-19, and has now executed a person on the same day as it enacted the anti-abortion law. The government has no moral standing whatsoever to be claiming to care about the lives of anyone.
NYPD investigating toppling of crucifix at Brooklyn church as hate crime -The New York Police Department’s (NYPD) hate crimes task force is investigating surveillance video of a suspect who destroyed a crucifix and burned an American flag on the property of a Catholic church in Brooklyn. The NYPD released footage of the man they say jumped over a fence before vandalizing the relic at the St. Athanasius Roman Catholic Church in Bensonhurst late Thursday night. Church leaders said the statue depicting Jesus on the cross was smashed and the burnt flag was discovered outside of the rectory by Monsignor David Cassato early Friday morning during his walk to greet students at the academy.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot Granting Interviews "Only To Black Or Brown Journalists" --Ah, yes, another important "woke" step toward wiping out racism in the country: judging people by the color of their skin.In which the Mayor of Chicago, Lori Lightfoot, most recently known for watching droves of her citizens flee the city during the chaos that broke out (and was emboldened by her office) in 2020, now is being accused of only granting interviews to people of color, according to Fox. That's the allegation that reporters in Chicago are making, with NBC 5 Chicago political reporter Mary Ann Ahern expressing discontent on Twitter about her inability to get an interview with the mayor. She wrote: "As @chicagosmayor reaches her two year midway point as mayor, her spokeswoman says Lightfoot is granting 1 on 1 interviews - only to Black or Brown journalists."
7 nooses found at Amazon construction site in Connecticut in past month - A $100,000 reward is being offered for information leading to those responsible after seven nooses were discovered at the construction site of an Amazon distribution center in Windsor, Connecticut, in the past month.The first incident was reported to police on April 27, after a hangman’s noose was found hanging from a steel beam on the second floor of the building, according toNew Haven ABC affiliate WTNH.Two days later, five more ropes that resembled a noose were found on several floors throughout the building, WTNH reported.The latest noose was discovered Wednesday afternoon at the site, hanging on overhead beams, according to WTNH. The incident occurred during a lunch break, when many workers had left the area, police said.The construction site will be shut down until at least Monday, as Amazon works with law enforcement to install new security measures, officials said during a press briefing Thursday.Amazon said it is "deeply disturbed" by the incidents. It increased its reward for information that would identify those responsible to $100,000 from $50,000 following the discovery of the seventh noose.
Video shows officer saying 'you shouldn't be able to breathe' moments before jailed man's death --Body camera footage obtained by a local Tennessee outlet showed law enforcement officials told a jailed man they restrained, “you shouldn't be able to breathe” shortly before he died. When William Jennette, 48, refused to get into a restraint chair in a Marshall County Jail, the jailers called Lewisburg Police for backup,NewsChannel 5 Nashville reported.The footage of the incident, obtained by the news source, shows officers yelling at the man as he tells them he can’t breathe."You shouldn't be able to breathe, you stupid bastard," a female officer can be heard saying, according to the outlet.Jennette was arrested two days prior to the incident for resisting arrest, public intoxication and indecent exposure. He was “detoxing” and “hallucinating,” according to jail log records.Officers kept a knee to Jennette’s back while one spoke up and said: "Easy, easy — remember asphyxiation, guys," the footage shows, according to NewsChannel 5. “That's why I'm not on his lungs, to let him breathe,” an officer replied. The last thing Jennette said before his death was “I’m good” when an officer yelled back at him saying "No, you ain't good. You're going to lay right there for a fucking minute.” A lawsuit has been filed against the officers, county and the city by Jennette’s daughter for the "beating, suffocation and resultant death" of her father, the local outlet reported.
Stores drop masks for fully vaccinated after CDC says no masks indoors - Retailers started announcing changes to face mask policies for fully vaccinated customers a day after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new masking guidelines. Trader Joe's, Walmart, Sam's Club, Costco and Publix were among the first to confirm updates to mask requirements, leading the way for mask-free shopping, though customers who live in areas that have state or local mask requirements may still have to wear them – regardless of vaccination status. In some cases, vaccinated store employees can also go to work without a mask.Many retailers, including Apple and Walgreens, say they are still evaluating the CDC guidance but say they could update policies.Target announced Monday that it would no longer require vaccinated customers and employees to wear masks, effective immediately, except where required by local or state mandate. CVS also announced masks would not be required for vaccinated customers. Starbucks updated its policy to make masks "optional for vaccinated customers beginning Monday, May 17, unless local regulations require them by law."So far, businesses have said proof of the vaccine won't need to be shown and will be on the honor system. Publix's mask update started Saturday and is for fully vaccinated shoppers and workers.
US educators and autoworkers denounce changes to CDC mask guidelines - Last week, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) changed its health and safety guidelines to allow vaccinated individuals to stop wearing masks or practice social distancing indoors. On the same day, American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten called for the full reopening of all US schools in the fall. Sean Glass, a bartender at The Smiling Moose Bar/Restaurant, shows his COVID-19 protective covering he has at the ready Friday, May 14, 2021, in Pittsburgh's South Side neighborhood. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic) However, the pandemic is far from over and these moves are entirely premature. With only 37 percent of the US population vaccinated, the CDC’s loosening of its mask guidelines will undoubtedly lead to unnecessary infections and deaths. Daily new cases in the US alone remain at over 30,000 infections, itself a gross underestimation. Across the globe, more dangerous variants of the coronavirus are rapidly spreading in countries such as India and Brazil, affecting people of all age groups. Significantly, doctors treating patients in India and Singapore have noted that the new B.1.617 and B.1.617.2 variants have caused cases among children to be more frequent and more severe. In the face of these alarming developments, the World Socialist Web Site continues to call for the immediate closure of all schools and nonessential workplaces and the continued use of masks outside people’s homes, while the population is safely vaccinated. It is imperative that the working class follow the latest scientific developments regarding the pandemic in order to combat the deadly pseudoscience that the ruling class is peddling to force open the economy. The anti-scientific and politically motivated move by the CDC has received significant opposition from leading epidemiologists and within the working class. The WSWS spoke with educators and autoworkers on these developments and the role of the unions in pushing for a full reopening of schools and workplaces. A supporter of the rank-and-file committee at the Faurecia Gladstone plant in Columbus, Indiana said, “It is too soon to remove the mask requirement. If you go by the actual statistics, there are still too many people getting COVID-19. They have a lot of ads out that are giving kudos to people who are getting the shot, but overall they are misdirecting the public. “With the CDC lifting restrictions, that’s giving people a false sense of security that the pandemic is under control when in reality it’s not. This is motivated by the capitalists. I am just so angry about it because none of them are putting their lives on the line every day the way we are. I saw the assistant plant manager today for the first time in a week. He was out for a couple of weeks with COVID-19, but he never told anybody. “They have been concealing infections from day one. They are still covering them up. And the union is in with them. We found out today that the South Plant in Columbus and the Fort Wayne plant were both getting hazard pay during the pandemic, but the Gladstone plant did not. You would have thought that the union would be right on top of that, but all they say when you ask them about it is ‘we’ll have to check into that.’ It's a cover-up.” The Faurecia worker concluded, “It’s not only a matter of the spread of the virus. We are fighting a murderous regime of working people to death.”
Video shows students still get paddled in US schools --The image of a teacher paddling or spanking a student at school may seem to belong in a history book – as archaic a practice as the dunce cap. However, for thousands of students across America each year, the use of corporal punishment for violating school rules is still a routine part of their education.Surprising to many, corporal punishment in schools remains legal in 19 states nationwide. In the 2015-2016 school year, more than 92,000 public school students were paddled or spanked at the hands of school personnel, with most of these incidents concentrated in fewer than 10 states, mostly in the South.Corporal punishment has again captured national attention following the release of a video in May 2021 of a Florida principal paddling a young girl. The video, secretly captured by the student’s mother, shows the principal striking the student with a wooden paddle in response to her damaging a computer. While a violation of district policy, the principal’s actions were deemed legal by both the local sheriff’s office and the state attorney’s office.Many who have viewed the video have questioned how this practice remains legal and in use in the United States. As an educational researcher who studies school discipline – and as a former teacher who has seen other teachers use this practice – I have found that the answer to this question is complex. In 1977, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Ingraham v. Wright that corporal punishment in schools is constitutional, establishing a federal standard for its continued legal use.While corporal punishment remains legal in 19 states, there have been efforts in some of those states to ban the practice. In May of 2021,Louisiana considered such a bill. However, these efforts have not been able to get much traction. Louisiana’s bill failed to pass in the House, with critics pointing to a preference for local school districts to make the decision. In fact, the last state banoccurred in 2011, when New Mexico outlawed the practice.
Disabled students failed by virtual learning - 9-year-old Maki climbed onto a trampoline behind his Northern Virginia home and began screaming like he had been shot.He was crouched in a squat, face rigid with fear. He yelled at his mother to take away the gigantic reptile about to wrap itself around his neck. She tried to tell him there was no snake. Maki was suffering a breakdown in his ability to perceive reality. More than a dozen doctors and child psychiatrists later told his parents that they believed the months Maki spent learning at home last spring, away from daily school rituals and other children, contributed to his stunning deterioration. They said it was vital that he return to in-person school, full-time if possible. Maki, whose parents asked that his last name not be revealed to protect his privacy, was briefly hospitalized, then finally he went back into a classroom in November for several days a week. But for months, he was alone with a monitor, using an iPad to follow his teacher’s remote instruction. More than a year after the pandemic began, officials in school districts across the country concede they failed during the crisis to deliver the quality of education that students with disabilities are legally entitled to receive. The consequences of this failure are likely to linger for years, if not decades, advocates and experts warn. More than 7 million students are eligible for special educational services under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). These children, each of whom follow an individualized education program that spells out what extra or different services they need at school, account for an estimated 14 percent of all U.S. schoolchildren. While some thrived while learning from home during the pandemic — including a boy whose wheelchair left him feeling out of place at school but who became indistinguishable from his classmates on Zoom — most did not, and advocates and educators say many have suffered significant developmental setbacks. The pandemic forced schools and districts to acknowledge ways they have long struggled to meet the needs of their most vulnerable students. It spurred school officials in some places to get creative in reaching students stuck at home, leading to the development of technology, tactics and techniques that will probably outlive the pandemic.
CDC clarifies mask guidance for schools - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is recommending the continued use of masks and social distancing in schools after issuing new guidance last week that stated vaccinated people do not need to wear masks. On Saturday, the CDC released an Operational Strategy for K-12 schools in which it pointed to data that suggest schools that abide by mask mandates and social-distancing requirements have been able to safely remain open. In the post clarifying mask guidance for schools, the CDC argued that schools need to make efforts to remain open as a way to combat "systemic health and social inequities" among students of color. "The absence of in-person educational options might disadvantage children from all backgrounds, particularly children in low-resourced communities who might be at an educational disadvantage," the CDC said. "These students might be less likely to have access to technology to facilitate virtual learning and more likely to rely on key school-supported resources such as school meal programs, special education and related services, counseling, and after-school programs." Children aged 12 to 15 years old were recently made eligible to receive the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine. However, the CDC points out that full immunity is not achieved until two weeks after the last vaccine dose is administered and there is not enough time for eligible students to achieve full immunity before the school year ends. The agency also said schools will likely need some time to adjust the policies they have put up in the past year in response to the pandemic. "Systems and policy adjustments may be required for schools to change mask requirements for students and staff while continuing to ensure the safety of unvaccinated populations," the CDC wrote. Last week, the CDC issued new guidance that stated fully vaccinated people could go maskless both outdoors and indoors. "Anyone who is fully vaccinated, can participate in indoor and outdoor activities, large or small, without wearing a mask or physical distancing," Rochelle Walensky, director for the CDC, said during a briefing. ""If you are fully vaccinated, you can start doing the things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic. We have all longed for this moment, when we can get back to some sense of normalcy."
Schools face new pressures to reopen for in-person learning - Schools across the country are facing new pressure to open for in-person learning this fall given the authorization of a vaccine for children ages 12 to 15 and new federal guidance that vaccinated people do not need to wear face masks indoors or outdoors. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona in an interview with The Hill reiterated that he expects all schools to fully reopen in the fall and said the vaccine and mask guidance updates this week will likely adjust how schools plan for the next school year. “I'm hopeful that with another month under our belt and continued lowered transmission rates, whatever fears some may have about fall are going to dissipate, and we're going to be able to return to school every day, all day for all children,” Cardona said. At the same time, he sought to ease any political pressure on schools, saying whether to open and how to open shouldn’t become a political battle. “I do believe that this isn't a partisan issue,” Cardona said. “It's a student issue. We need to get our students in school as quickly as possible. But I also know that we can't compromise safety to do that. “ Questions over when and how to reopen schools have been a politically divisive issue for months, as Republicans have criticized President Biden’s administration for moving too slowly on reopening schools. The Education Department has not issued new guidance to schools at this point, but on Saturday the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended the continued use of masks and social distancing in schools The Pfizer-BioNTech authorization was granted for most high school-aged students after the administration said it achieved getting a majority of K-8 schools fully reopened by Biden’s 100th day in office. Cardona said the administration needs to “aim higher” beyond the original goal and give high schoolers the same opportunity to return. More officials have joined in the appeals to reopen for the upcoming school year in recent days, including Biden’s chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci, who said Thursday that school should be open “full blast” by the fall. Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) — the second largest teachers union in the U.S. — announced her support Thursday as well as a $5 million campaign to get educators to meet with parents about returning strategies and safety precautions. She told The Hill that vaccines became the “real game changer” in the effort to get children back in schools, saying it’s ramped up in the last few weeks amid a downturn in cases and emerging data on the vaccines’ effectiveness. “As a result, we felt that it was time to be unequivocal and unambiguous about reopening schools full time, and having the resources to recover and to reimagine,” she said.
Teacher berates vaccinated student for not wearing mask: video --A Wisconsin high school teacher was caught on camera berating a vaccinated student for not wearing a face mask — calling the teen a “jerk” in the foul rant. “I don’t care if you’re vaccinated, you little dink!” the teacher in the Poynette school district tells the student in the video. “I don’t want to get sick and die! There’s other people you can infect just because you’re vaccinated. You know what? You’re not a special person around here,” she continues as the student sits with his back against a wall. “You should hear about how everyone talks about you around here. You’re a jerk! You’re a jerk and you need to have respect for other people in your life. You’re not a big man on campus — quit walking around here like you have a stick up your butt,” the unidentified woman adds. Talk radio host Vicki McKenna posted the viral video, which she said she obtained from TikTok and edited to protect the teen’s identity, according to the Portage Daily Register. She also declined to say who had posted the TikTok video. Meanwhile, district Administrator Matt Shappell said the teacher had been placed on administrative leave “pending the outcome of the investigation.”
Parents outraged after Florida high school edits girls’ yearbook pictures to make clothes more conservative --A high school in Florida is facing accusations of sexism after it reportedly edited dozens of yearbook pictures to make female students’ outfits more conservative. According to Action News Jax, Bartram Trail High School altered 80 different yearbook photos – all of them of girls. In many of them, crudely photoshopped rectangles in the colour of the girls’ clothing can be seen covering up their chests. Many of those students have expressed outrage. “I felt confident that day and I looked good, in dress code,” ninth grader Zoe Iannone told Action News Jax. “When I sent it to my mom and all of us saw it, I felt very sexualized, like that was what they were worrying about.” Parents are furious as well. “Our daughters of Bartram deserve an apology,” one anonymous mother told the station. “They are making them feel embarrassed about who they are.” In a statement, the high school defended the alterations. “Bartram Trail High School’s previous procedure was to not include student pictures in the yearbook that they deemed in violation of the student code of conduct,” the school said, “so the digital alterations were a solution to make sure all students were included in the yearbook.” The school also offered to refund any parents unhappy with the yearbook, and delicately added that administrators had been “receiving feedback” about it. But some families say a refund isn’t enough, and complain of a double standard. While 80 girls were covered up, the school left alone a photo of the boys’ swim team – who were wearing speedos. “It doesn’t make any sense that they looked at that and were like, ‘This is okay, but this is not,’” Riley O’Keefe, a ninth grade student whose photo was edited, told First Coast News. Riley’s mother, Stephanie Fabre, added that the “code of conduct” isn’t even being applied consistently to the girls. “Yesterday she happened to be wearing the shirt again so after school, we went up to the school and asked if she was in dress code and they said yes,” Ms Fabre told the station. “So my next question was, if the shirt is in dress code and is good enough for school and your school ID, why is it not enough for the yearbook?”
Penn State To Stop Using "Freshman", "Sophomore", Other Terms Because Of "Male-Centric" History -In yet another case of selective bigotry, Penn State is removing all gendered and binary terms from their course and program descriptions to be more “inclusive.” The Penn State Faculty Senate approved a proposition in April, which would change the terms freshman, sophomore, junior and senior to first-year, second-year, third-year and fourth-year. And, the terms “underclassmen” and “upperclassmen” would be replaced with “lower division” and “upper division.” According to the proposition, terms like “freshman” and “upperclassmen” carry a male-centric and binary connotation, making them sexist and classist. It adds that terms like “junior” and “senior” are similar to male father-son naming conventions. The university has supposedly “grown out of a typically male-centered world.” Students beyond the fourth year of undergrad, usually called “super-seniors” could instead be referred to as “advanced-standing students.” What’s more, they want to stray from the use of gendered pronouns when referring to students, faculty, staff and guests in all admissions materials, scholarship information, housing materials and websites. Words like he, him, his and she, her, hers would be replaced with they, them, theirs or student, faculty, staff member, etc. So, even if you identify as a female, you would instead be referred to as a they. Forcing pronouns on students who enroll at a university to receive an unbiased education is neither progressive nor inclusive. In fact, it is quite the opposite.
Students should be allowed to buy cars with financial aid - As lawmakers sharpen their attention on infrastructure, much of the conversation focuses on reducing reliance on cars. But what about people with no choice? Today, 99 percent of community college students commute to campus — and a sizable number of community collegesaren’t accessible by public transportation. The Biden administration is calling for bold investments in community and technical colleges. Recent proposals include a $62 billion grants fund to support proven strategies for student success, $12 billion for campus improvements and $109 billion for two years of free community college tuition. Community and technical colleges educate 36 percent of college students — for the students who can get there. To be fully successful, the administration’s community college agenda must include automobile access and affordability.The proposed Biden free community college plan covers two years of community college tuition, enabling students to use federal grant aid and federal loans to cover living expenses. When a college is not accessible by public transit — which is the status quo at 37 percent of community and technical colleges — students should be able to use federal financial aid for a car purchase. This seems intuitive, but actually it is illegal. The good news is that the Biden administration can take meaningful steps toward ensuring community college students can get to campus — without congressional engagement. Currently, higher education institutions are prohibited from including the cost of purchasing a vehicle in their cost of attendance (COA). This figure is a college’s “all in” sticker price, and one of the most critical aspects of a student’s college financial aid package. The Department of Education (ED) has the authority to allow car purchase as part of students’ COA. The ED can establish a “car” as an allowable COA category for students at commuter schools. Another option would be to grant schools permission to use professional judgement to adjust COA to allow a student to purchase a vehicle. For a student at any given institution, that school’s COA is a critical number, as it also represents the top limit for the grant and scholarship aid a student can accept to attend a school and the limit for how much a student can borrow from the federal government to support their education. Community college presidents often observe that their students are “one flat tire away from dropping out.” With food and housing insecurity among community college students now in the double digits, few students have cash available to deal with that flat tire.
Hannah-Jones's tenure stopped because her background was not 'traditional academic-type' --Leaders at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill said Thursday that the tenure application for New York Times Magazine journalist and The 1619 Project lead author Nikole Hannah-Jones was terminated because she did not come from a “traditional academic-type background.” The Associated Press reported Thursday that the trustee who heads the subcommittee that oversees tenure applications, Charles Duckett, decided to postpone the review of Hannah-Jones’s tenure submission in January because of her background. “We’re talking about a lifetime position here, so they’re not entered into lightly,” Richard Stevens, the chairman of the board of trustees for UNC’s Chapel Hill campus, told reporters, according to the AP. “And it’s not unusual for a member of the board, or in particular the chair of the committee, to have questions for clarification about background, particularly candidates that don’t come from a traditional academic-type background," he added. "In this case, Chair Duckett asked for a little bit of time to be able to do that." Hannah-Jones’s tenure submission never made it to the full board for approval, the AP noted. The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist instead welcomed a five-year appointment to the faculty of The Hussman School of Journalism and Media at UNC. The journalism school announced Hannah-Jones’s hire last month, revealing that the acclaimed New York Times journalist would be joining the university as the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism in July.
Student loan borrowers perplexed by Biden administration’s continued defense of Trump-era lawsuits --Amanda Kulka expected her six-year fight for student loan cancellation would be over by now. Powerful allies, including a state attorney general and a federal judge, agreed that she and other students in Massachusetts had been defrauded by the defunct for-profit chain Corinthian Colleges. The courts even granted all 7,200 of them a full discharge of their debt in June, rebuking former education secretary Betsy DeVos’s attempt to block their request for relief. The Trump administration appealed the decision, bringing the order to a standstill. But with the arrival of a new administration, one with a keen interest in consumer rights, Kulka believed the case would soon be over. She was wrong. “When Biden was elected, I was like 'Yes, here is someone who has heard about our fight, who heard about our struggles. He’ll take care of this,” said Kulka, 33, who owes $10,000 in federal student loans for a certificate in medical administration. “But we’re still here. I want to be optimistic, but I’ve been waiting for so long.” The Biden administration continues to defend lawsuits against the Education Department over Trump-era policies on student loans and career training regulation. Biden’s Education Secretary Miguel Cardona has begun dismantling his predecessor’s policies. The department this week lifted a ban on colleges providing emergency grants to undocumented and international students. It has also extended student debt relief to disabled borrowers and some defrauded students. But advocacy groups are baffled as Justice Department attorneys representing the federal agency hold the line on legal positions that are out of step with Biden’s agenda. Justice has reversed the government’s position in several high-profile cases involving the Affordable Care Act, voting rights and sentencing since Biden took office. Federal attorneys have even dropped a Trump-era lawsuit accusing Yale University of discriminating against Asian and White applicants. Yet when comes to cases involving federal student aid, consumer attorneys say the Biden administration is moving at a glacial pace.
When Medicare chips in on hepatitis C treatment for Medicaid patients, everyone wins -Untreated hepatitis C can lead to serious and life-threatening health problems like cirrhosis and liver cancer. Direct-acting antiviral therapies introduced in recent years are highly effective, with cure rates above 95%. But most Medicaid beneficiaries with hepatitis C don't get these drugs, which cost $20,000-$30,000, due to state budget constraints. Now, a new USC study finds that a Medicaid-Medicare partnership could cover the lifesaving medications -- and still save $1 to $1.1 billion over 25 years. Medicaid is a joint federal and state program that provides health coverage for low-income families and others. Medicare is the federal health insurance program for people 65 and older. The study was published today in the American Journal of Managed Care. Researchers with the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics studied the state of Maryland's "total coverage" proposal, where the state receives a credit from Medicare to offset Medicaid investments in hepatitis C treatments that could lead to Medicare savings. Hepatitis C complications tend to snowball as time goes on, leading to costly treatment by the time the patient is eligible for Medicare. "Our findings show that Medicare has significant financial incentives to partner with Medicaid to treat the majority of hepatitis C cases," said William Padula, a fellow with the USC Schaeffer Center and an assistant professor of pharmaceutical and health economics at the USC School of Pharmacy. "Joint Medicaid-Medicare coverage provides a cost-effective solution to treat all patients now to reduce harm caused by chronic infection in the United States."
Hospitals Serving The Poor Struggled During COVID. Wealthy Hospitals Made Millions - Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center is what’s known as a safety-net hospital — one of the largest in the country. And that makes the reality inside a daily financial struggle to care for every patient who walks through its doors. Patients other hospitals often try to avoid.One recent week brought a man who said he came to the hospital to “sleep and eat,” a man with dementia that staff couldn’t identify, and a woman found on the street covered in feces after walking out of a skilled nursing facility. Patients who can only pay a little. Patients who can’t pay at all. Patients with difficult problems.Few of these patients, if any, have private insurance. And because the hospital must also find a place for many of them to go when their health improves, doctors say some patients have stayed as long as three years.This past year the nation’s more than 300 safety-net hospitals found themselves on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic, which disproportionately affected the communities that safety-net hospitals are most likely to serve. They took on a greater share of the patient burden, even as other hospitals emerged from the pandemic with huge profits, an investigation by NPR and FRONTLINE has found, further widening the gap between wealthy hospitals and hospitals like LAC-USC.“Our costs went way up and revenue went down,” says Brad Spellberg, chief medical officer at LAC-USC. “Unlike a private hospital, we don’t make money from our [operating rooms]. Medicaid and Medicare do not reimburse at a level where if you say, if we do more things, I’m going to make more money.”Safety-net hospitals are funded in large part by taxpayers: In this case, LA county taxpayers, state taxpayers in California, and federal taxpayers, which pay for Medicaid and Medicare.But that tax money doesn’t pay hospitals nearly as much as private insurance does.It’s just simple math. A decade and a half ago, private insurance paid about $1.50 for every $1 Medicare paid — for the same hospital services, according to a study by the medical journal Health Affairs. Medicaid paid even less. By 2018, studies showed private insurance was paying almost $2.50 for every $1 Medicare paid for services. And researchers say that every time the government does shell out a dollar, it’s underpaying for what the services actually cost. The $2.50, on the other hand, is covering things quite well.The result is that over the past 20 years, for-profit and even some nonprofit hospitals have leveraged the $2.50 into some of the largest profits and revenue the industry has ever seen. Many safety-net hospitals have wound up in the red or are barely making ends meet.
New coronavirus discovered—and dogs are spreading it --A newly discovered coronavirus that originated in dogs has been found in patients who were hospitalized with pneumonia in Malaysia. A study published Thursday in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases details how researchers in 2018 analyzed the nasal swabs of 301 people treated for pneumonia at a hospital in Sarawak, Malaysia. Epidemiologists from Duke University used a new test that worked like a SARS-CoV-2 test but could detect a wider range of coronaviruses, even types that have yet to be identified. Among the 301 patients tested, researchers discovered evidence of a coronavirus similar to one found in dogs in eight of the patients, all but one of them children. The eight patients were treated and released from the hospital after up to six days in the hospital, where they were provided oxygen. While the study suggests the virus jumped from dog to humans, the infection may be a dead end as there’s no evidence yet of transmission from human to human. Researchers have also yet to determine whether the newly discovered virus causes pneumonia. “We don’t really have evidence right now that this virus can cause severe illness in adults,” Anastasia Vlasova, an author of the study and professor at The Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CFAES), said in a news release. . “At this point, we don’t see any reasons to expect another pandemic from this virus, but I can’t say that’s never going to be a concern in the future,” Vlasova said. Researchers note that the virus could be the eighth coronavirus known to cause illnesses in people and needs to be confirmed through further studies. This is the first report suggesting a novel coronavirus similar to one found in dogs can replicate in humans.
Coronavirus New Strain Can Infect Your Eye Cells, All You Need To Know --Coronavirus has impacted our lives for more than a year now. It is primarily a respiratory infection, but experts have suspected that the virus can also infect your eye cells. A team of US researchers has, in an alarming study, found direct evidence that Covid-19 is harming your cells in the eye. SARS-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19, is thought to transmit and begin infection in the upper respiratory tract. For this reason, the use of face masks has been recommended for the general public. However, the new study by the Mount Sinai Hospital researchers found that cells in the eye can be directly infected by SARS-CoV-2. While aerosol transmission is thought to be the primary route of spread, viral particles have been detected in ocular fluid suggesting the eye may be a vulnerable point of viral entry. The findings showed that SARS-CoV-2 can infect surface cells of the eye. The exposed cells revealed the presence of infection-associated proteins including ACE2 -the virus receptor -and TMPRSS2 -an enzyme that allows viral entry. IFN-beta — a protein that has antiviral and antibacterial properties — was also found to be suppressed from exposure to the virus.In addition, the researchers found that ocular surface cells, particularly the limbus, were susceptible to infection, while the central cornea was less vulnerable.“We hope this new data results in additional measures to protect the eyes. We also intend to use these models to test approaches to prevent ocular infections,”
Vaccine-hesitant Americans list false side effects among concerns: poll - Coronavirus vaccine-hesitant Americans list multiple false or undocumented side effects — such as DNA alteration — among their reasons for not getting the shot, according to a recent Harris poll reported by Axios on Monday.Among the 1,061 people in the survey who say they are unlikely to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and listed side effects as a concern, 60 percent named blood clots, which have indeed been reported in extremely rare cases. But 24 percent listed infertility, and just as many cited potential birth defects, which are not considered possible from any of the vaccines that have been approved. Twenty-two percent said they were concerned about potentially getting cancer from their coronavirus vaccine, another false side effect. Approximately 65 percent of baby boomers and half of Generation Z respondents said they were concerned about potential flu-like symptoms, which are possible after the shots. Polling results are based on interviews conducted on April 23 to 25 and May 7 to 9. A margin of error was not listed. Lingering hesitancy about the shots poses a stumbling block as the Biden administration seeks to vaccinate harder-to-reach Americans. Earlier this month, President Biden announced a goal of getting at least one shot into 70 percent of Americans and to have at least 160 million adults fully vaccinated by July 4.
Strain on Healthcare: Nurses talk about working on the COVID-19 floor - Healthcare workers never know what the work day could bring. In 2020 when COVID-19 hit, the pandemic sent them into unknown territory. “At first we didn’t know what equipment we were going to need, what we were going to have available. You hear all these stories about ‘we’re going to run out of this, or we’re going to run out of that’,” At Raleigh General Hospital they turned the 4 North floor into the COVID floor. Director of 4 North, Tammy Womack, said no matter how much experience you have it doesn’t prepare you for what they handled this past year. “One of our nurses is a brand-new nurse, and she’s had to come to my office and cry because of not seeing as much illness, people as sick as what the COVID has been at times,” Womack said. “This was the one that really scared us all because we knew what they were saying on the news, we knew how many had already died from it. So, I think it scared us worse then anything we had ever dealt with,” Tammy Pritt, License Practical Nurse at RGH, said. Families were not able to visit family members in the hospital because of fear of spreading the virus, so the nurses got creative, finding ways to bring those families together. Flint said it’s hard to see patients isolated from loved ones. “I remember a patient telling me that when he was getting plasma that this is the most contact he’s had with anybody since he’s been here,” Flint said. “He was just like, ‘you can stay here as long as you can’ because he hasn’t had that much contact with people.” Nurses 59 News spoke with said the hardest thing for them to face in 2020 were all the deaths. “You see young people passing away and there is nothing that you can do, and you just don’t understand why,” Pritt said. “Seeing so much death, and the death has not just been elderly but seeing younger people die, it’s been really hard,” Womack said. What started as fear is now anger. “They don’t understand what we have dealt with. That day when you have to call a patient’s family and say your 35-year-old son passed away, and then you’ve got somebody saying ‘this is not real’. It causes a lot of anger and a lot of emotions,” Pritt said.
Total deaths due to COVID-19 underestimated by 20% in US counties -Deaths caused by indirect effects of the pandemic emphasize the need for policy changes that address widening health and racial inequities. More than 15 months into the pandemic, the U.S. death toll from COVID-19 is nearing 600,000. But COVID-19 deaths may be underestimated by 20%, according to a new, first-of-its-kind study from Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH), the University of Pennsylvania, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Published in the journal PLOS Medicine, the study uses data from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to estimate the number of deaths in 2,096 counties from January to December 2020 above what would be expected in a normal year, or "excess deaths." For every 100 excess deaths directly attributed to COVID-19, there were another 20 excess deaths not attributed to COVID-19. In other words, 20 out of every 120 excess deaths, or 17%, were not directly attributed to COVID. The researchers found that the proportion of these excess deaths not directly attributed to COVID-19 was higher in counties with lower average socioeconomic status and less formal education, as well as in counties located in the South and West. Counties with more non-Hispanic Black residents--who were already at high risk of dying directly from COVID-19--also reported a higher proportion of excess deaths not assigned to COVID-19. "Our findings suggest that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mortality has been substantially underestimated in many communities across the US," says study lead author Dr. Andrew Stokes, assistant professor of global health at BUSPH. "Several factors, including severe testing shortages, overwhelmed health care systems, and a lack of familiarity with the clinical manifestations of COVID-19 has likely led to significant underreporting of COVID-19 on death certificates, especially early in the pandemic. Official COVID-19 death tallies also fail to capture the pandemic's profound social and economic consequences, including the downstream effects of interruptions in receiving health care, loss of employment, evictions, and social isolation and loneliness."
CDC: At least 600,000 kids 12 to 15 have received first COVID-19 vaccine dose - At least 600,000 kids in the United States ages 12 to 15 have already received their first dose of the coronavirus vaccine nearly a week after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended the Pfizer-BioNTech shot for the age group. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky revealed the latest numbers during a press briefing Tuesday, saying a total of about 3.5 million people younger than 18 are already vaccinated, according to agency data. NBC News reported that while Walensky initially said Tuesday that 4.1 million people under 18 had been vaccinated, the CDC later said it was a clerical error. President Biden asked states to immediately make the Pfizer-BioNTech shot available for adolescents after Walensky adopted a recommendation from an independent advisory panel that endorsed the vaccine’s safety and efficacy among the age group. Some clinics in states such as Pennsylvania, Maine and Georgia did not wait for the CDC recommendation and instead began administering the vaccine to young people ages 12 and 15 after it was authorized for emergency use for the age group by the Food and Drug Administration. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which is administered in two doses three weeks apart, had already been authorized for use in people as young as 16 years old, while the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson shots have been recommended only for those 18 and older. Although severe cases of COVID-19 are relatively uncommon among younger populations, the American Academy of Pediatrics has recorded more than 3.9 million cases among children in the U.S., accounting for about 14 percent of total infections in the country.
Nearly 3% of Americans take immune-weakening drugs that may limit COVID vaccine response -- A national study from researchers at Michigan Medicine found that nearly 3% of insured U.S. adults under 65 take medications that weaken their immune systems. The findings, published in JAMA Network Open, are based on data from over 3 million patients with private insurance. They focus on patients' use of immunosuppressive drugs, including chemotherapy medications and steroids such as prednisone. The analysis reveals nearly 90,000 people met the study criteria for drug-induced immunosuppression that may elevate risk for severe COVID-19 symptoms and hospitalization if they became infected. Two-thirds of them took an oral steroid at least once, and more than 40% of patients took steroids for more than 30 days in a year. "This study gives us previously unavailable information about how many Americans are taking immunosuppressive medications," says Beth Wallace, M.D., a rheumatologist at Michigan Medicine and lead author of the paper. "It also reinforces that many Americans continue to take oral steroids, which are associated with serious side effects and can often be avoided or substituted with alternative medications." When the team of researchers examined the data, a vaccine against COVID-19 was not yet available outside clinical trials. The evidence is growing, however, that taking immunosuppressive drugs may reduce the efficacy of the shot, Wallace says. "We're starting to realize that people taking immunosuppressive drugs may have a slower, weaker response to COVID vaccination, and, in some cases, might not respond at all," she says. "We don't have a full picture on how these drugs affect the vaccine's effectiveness, so it's difficult to formulate guidelines around vaccinating these patients." Wallace mentions several strategies, including holding medications around the time of vaccination and giving an extra "booster" shot, that scientists are testing to look into this question.
FDA recommends not using syringes from Chinese firm after safety issues with vaccine injections The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday asked healthcare providers to stop using certain syringes and needles manufactured by Chinese medical device maker Guangdong Haiou Medical Apparatus Co (HAIOU). At least one pharmacist that Reuters spoke to said the syringes had been shipped for use with the Pfizer Inc /BioNTech SE COVID-19 vaccine.An FDA spokesperson said the devices stopped being shipped in COVID-19 vaccination kits as of March 22. The agency does not believe that stopping use of these syringes will cause vaccination delays. The FDA said it has received information about quality issues, including certain HAIOU needles detaching from the syringe and getting stuck to the patient's arm after injection and a few incidents involving accidental needlestick injuries to healthcare providers.The agency has recommended against use of two of HAIOU's syringe-needle combinations - 1mL syringe with 25Gx 1-inch needle and the 1mL syringe with 23G x 1-inch needle - until further notice.
Nation's largest nurses union condemns new CDC guidance on masks --The nation’s largest nurses union condemned the new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that stipulates fully vaccinated people do not have to wear masks in most settings. National Nurses United (NNU) in a statement Saturday said it was concerned that it would put patients, front-line workers and nurses at risk amid a pandemic that is still present in the U.S. “This newest CDC guidance is not based on science, does not protect public health, and threatens the lives of patients, nurses, and other frontline workers across the country,” said NNU Executive Director Bonnie Castillo. “Now is not the time to relax protective measures, and we are outraged that the CDC has done just that while we are still in the midst of the deadliest pandemic in a century.” “CDC issued this new guidance even though the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) emergency temporary standard mandated by President Biden’s Jan. 21 executive order has been delayed for two months. This lack of protection compounds the dangers that nurses and other essential workers continue to face on the job,” Castillo added. The union specifically noted that more than 35,000 new cases are tallied daily in the U.S. and that fears linger over the spread of highly contagious variants. The rebuke comes two days after the CDC said that people who are fully vaccinated no longer need to wear face coverings or practice social distancing. The administration touted the guidance as a victory and a return to normalcy after more than a year of death and confusion. "Anyone who is fully vaccinated can participate in indoor and outdoor activities, large or small, without wearing a mask or physical distancing," CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said during a White House briefing. "If you are fully vaccinated, you can start doing the things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic. We have all longed for this moment when we can get back to some sense of normalcy." The new guidelines do not apply in health care settings, correctional facilities or homeless shelters. People also will be required to follow local business and workplace guidelines. In addition, Americans will still be required to wear masks in airports and while traveling on airplanes buses and trains.
Mask mandate lifted for vaccinated people in national parks, federal buildings -- The federal government is lifting mask requirements for vaccinated people in its buildings and in national parks following last week’s guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). A notice from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) sent to all federal government agencies lifts the mask requirement for anyone two weeks post-vaccine. It’s change not only for the nation’s more than 2 million federal workers but any contractor or visitor to a federal facility, including post offices and at the country’s more than 400 national parks. “If you are fully vaccinated (at least 2 weeks past your final dose), you are no longer required to wear a mask,” OMB wrote in the memo. “If you are not fully vaccinated (at least 2 weeks past your final dose), please continue to wear a mask consistent with the requirements set forth in your agency workplace safety plan,” the agency continued. The guidance was distributed to agencies late Thursday after the CDC announced vaccinated people don’t need to wear masks indoors or outside. More than 117 million Americans, or about 35 percent of the population, are now fully vaccinated, though the announcement sparked concern that the shift could remove an incentive for unvaccinated people to get inoculated. National parks preparing for a busy summer season have urged unvaccinated people to continue wearing masks even when outdoors. “Consistent with CDC recommendations, people who are not fully vaccinated must continue to wear masks indoors and in crowded outdoor spaces,” the National Park Service says on its website. All visitors, regardless of vaccination status, are required to wear masks on public transportation within parks. The announcement was one of the first major updates to an executive order President Biden signed on Inauguration Day that required federal employees to wear masks. The order says agencies should be in “compliance with CDC guidelines.” The move has had ramifications beyond the civilian federal workforce. The Department of Defense announced Friday that vaccinated personnel would no longer have to wear masks, lifting the requirement for more than 600,000 service members and 250,000 civilian employees.
DC lifts mask mandate for fully vaccinated people - Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) on Monday announced that the nation’s capital is lifting its mask mandate in most places for fully vaccinated individuals, aligning with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) guidance released last week.As of Monday, fully vaccinated people in Washington, D.C., must wear a mask or practice social distancing only in settings where doing so is required, including in businesses that mandate masks, taxis and rideshares, schools, health care settings, and homeless shelters.Washingtonians will also have to continue wearing masks on the Metro and on buses.Bowser told reporters that restrictions on most “public and commercial activity” in Washington, D.C., including capacity limits, will be lifted beginning Friday at 5 a.m.Bars, nightclubs, and other sports and entertainment venues will be able to resume normal operations as of June 11. The mayor told reporters on Monday that the city’s number of COVID-19 cases, hospital capacity and other metrics are “moving in the right direction.”“We continue to have confidence that those metrics are a positive indicator of where we are with the virus and the progress that we have made with the vaccine,” she said.Bowser added that “previously, before we had a vaccine, the best way to protect yourself was to wear a mask, social distance and wash your hands frequently.”“Now, of course, your best protection is to be fully vaccinated,” she said.
COVID-19 variant first found in India detected in Maine -A COVID-19 strain first detected in India — which has already been deemed a “variant of concern” in the UK — has been discovered in Maine, according to a new report. One case of the B.1.617.2 variant has been reported in the state in York County, WGME reported. So far, 11 variants have been discovered in Maine COVID cases — most of them the B.1.1.7 variant first detected in the UK. But the variant detected in India — which is now facing a catastrophic surge in infections — is “more transmissible” than the UK one, England’s chief medical officer, Prof. Chris Whitty, told the BBC. “We expect, over time, this variant to overtake and come to dominate in the UK,” Whitty said. Maine has reportedly seen 11 different variants of COVID-19, most being the UK variant. Maine has reportedly seen 11 cases of variants of COVID-19, most being the UK variant. AP Now UK officials are racing to contain the variant — which experts previously warned could kill up to 1,000 people per day, the Sun reported. It could also hijack the nation’s effort to finally lift all its lockdown restrictions by June, according to reports out of London. “If the virus is significantly more transmissible, we are likely to face some hard choices,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson told reporters Friday. “I have to level with you that this could be a serious disruption to our progress.” India has been overwhelmed with COVID-19 cases as daily deaths and cases surged.
May 17th COVID-19 New Cases, Hospitalizations, Vaccinations --According to the CDC, on Vaccinations. Total administered: 274,411,901, as of yesterday 272,925,411. Day: 1.49 million. (U.S. Capacity is around 4 million per day)<
2) 1) 59.8% of the population over 18 has had at least one dose (70% goal by July 4th).
2) 123.8 million Americans are fully vaccinated (160 million goal by July 4th)
And check out COVID Act Now to see how each state is doing. Almost 9,500 US deaths were reported so far in May due to COVID.This graph shows the daily (columns) 7 day average (line) of positive tests reported.This data is from the CDC. The 7-day average is 30,211, down from 31,629 yesterday, and down sharply from the recent peak of 69,881 on April 13, 2021. This is the lowest since June 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 26,726, down from 27,992 reported yesterday, but still above the post-summer surge low of 23,000.
P1 COVID strain identified in wastewater by UofL researchers -- University of Louisville (UofL) research that uses wastewater to monitor rates of COVID-19 infection was the first to detected the P1 strain in Louisville before traditional testing. UofL says the research and identification gave officials time to work to contain the strain. The P1 variant was found in a wastewater sample from western Jefferson County early April. Once researchers received the results, Louisville Metro Department of Health and Wellness was alerted, which confirmed a positive case in the same zip codes with different testing methods a week later. “The ability to detect viruses early, such as in this case, gives officials more time to take precautions and contain their spread,” professor of medicine Aruni Bhatnagar said. “With pandemics, every second counts. In as little as one week, the virus can spread significantly, and then it becomes much harder to contain. This work gives us more time and an opportunity for targeted testing.” The Louisville/Jefferson County Metro Sewer District has sent weekly samples from 12 sites representing multiple neighborhoods and five wastewater treatment facilities that aggregate the entire county to Co-Immunity Project researchers. Bhatnagar said understanding that connection could “revolutionize the way we track and contain pandemics, and not just COVID-19.” Rather than rely solely on direct testing, such as with nasal swabs, wastewater testing can give health departments another tool to gauge the severity of community infection and to identify areas where the infection is prevalent. The tool also is faster, more efficient and less invasive. “This is cutting-edge work – and the fact that it’s being done right here in Louisville – right here at UofL – places us at the forefront of public health innovation,” Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said. “It shows we’re doing the work to keep our city and cities around the world safe.”
Louisville's COVID-19 cases hit lowest level since July, while variant strains hit record high — The Louisville Metro reported its lowest number of new COVID-19 cases since July, but the number of variant strains hit an all-time high.Jefferson County had 542 confirmed cases of COVID-19 last week, according to Dr. Sarah Moyer, director of the Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness. Those new cases included an increased number of variant strains."The B117 is still the majority of the cases, but also seeing an increase in our P1 and B1429 cases across our city," Moyer said.Health officials now estimate two-thirds of Kentucky's COVID-19 cases are variants of concern."If you get COVID now, it's probably one of the variants," Moyer said.
South Carolina reports first cases of India COVID-19 strain - Four cases of a COVID-19 strain found in India have been reported in South Carolina, as health officials fear a possible Memorial Day spike in new cases.
Ohio vaccination rate jumps 28 percent after lottery announcement - Coronavirus vaccinations in Ohio jumped 28 percent in the days following the governor's announcement of a lottery for residents who get the shots, state health officials said Thursday. Vaccinations among people 16 and older had been down 25 percent May 7 to 10, compared to the previous weekend. After Gov. Mike DeWine (R) announced the lottery on May 12, and vaccination rates increased 28 percent in the period of May 14 to 17, the state Department of Health said. Residents who have been vaccinated will be eligible for five drawings of $1 million each. “This dramatic increase in vaccinations indicates that the Vax-a-Million drawing has been impactful in creating momentum for vaccinations throughout Ohio,” Stephanie McCloud, director of the Ohio Department of Health, said in a statement. “We are grateful that the drawings are helping spur Ohioans to take this important measure to protect their health, their loved ones, and their community." Following Ohio's announcement, New York and Maryland both unveiled plans for their own versions of a lottery. Public health officials have said that this stage of the vaccination campaign is more challenging since the most eager recipients have already gotten their shots. The number of vaccinations nationally has fallen to about 1.8 million per day, down from more than 3 million a day during parts of April, according to Our World in Data. “I know that some may say, 'DeWine, you’re crazy! This million-dollar drawing idea of yours is a waste of money.' But truly, the real waste at this point in the pandemic -- when the vaccine is readily available to anyone who wants it -- is a life lost to COVID-19,” DeWine wrote on Twitter earlier this month when announcing the program.
100 million J&J vaccine doses may need to be thrown out - Emergent BioSolutions CEO Robert G. Kramer admitted to the House of Representatives on Wednesday that more than 100 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine are on hold and possibly contaminated. It was the first time that Kramer admitted the high figure of potentially spoiled vaccines after The New York Times reported last month that the facility may have jeopardized 62 million of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine doses, after ruining 15 million doses of the vaccine through cross-contamination with ingredients for AstraZeneca's vaccine. "No one is more disappointed than we are that we had to suspend our 24/7 manufacturing of new vaccine," Kramer told members of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis. The Subcommittee is investigating the company and its factory mishaps. "I apologize for the failure of our controls," Kramer added. Members asked questions about whether Kramer used political connections to win government contracts for vaccine production at the company's facilities. The millions of possibly contaminated Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine doses haven't been distributed to the public. A representative for Johnson & Johnson told Insider that, "The quality and safety of our COVID-19 vaccine are paramount. We continue to work with the US Food & Drug Administration and with Emergent, in order to secure Emergency Use Authorization in the US for drug substance manufactured at Emergent Bayview as quickly as possible."
Manitoba transfers 3 COVID-19 ICU patients to Ontario due to ‘extreme strain’ on resources - The risk of hitting critical care capacity at Manitoba hospitals has led to COVID-19 patients in ICU from Manitoba being transferred to Ontario for care. A spokesperson from Shared Health confirmed two patients, both described as COVID-19 positive and in stable condition, were transferred to Thunder Bay Tuesday, while another patient was transferred on Wednesday. “These transfers gave us some much needed capacity in the immediate term while planning continues to shore up staffing resources within our ICUs,” the Shared Health spokesperson said in an email. “Over the past week, Manitoba’s hospitals have been dealing with a significant increase in admissions, to both medicine units and ICUs. “The compounding effect of multiple days of admissions well over the norm and far beyond what we experienced during wave two has placed extreme strain on our staffing resources.” The spokesperson said the decision to transfer the patients came after Manitoba ICUs admitted 34 COVID-19 patients in a 96-hour period between May 13 and 17. “To put into context, that is nearly half of our normal pre-COVID baseline capacity (72) in critical care for our province. This does not include patients who require care in an ICU for non-COVID reasons,” the spokesperson said. “Yesterday, this combination of continued high admissions, no ICU patients that were sufficiently recovered for a move to a medicine ward, and an increase in the number of very sick patients in our medical wards at risk of needing to be transferred into ICU placed our critical care capacity at significant risk.” On Monday Siragusa said she expected demand for ICU beds to soon reach a record level as COVID-19 numbers continue to rise in the pandemic’s third wave. At the time there were 120 patients in intensive care beds, nine shy of the peak last December during the second wave of the pandemic.
Third oil worker dies from COVID-19 outbreak at Canadian Natural Resources’ Alberta worksite - The massive COVID-19 outbreak at Canadian Natural Resources’ Horizon oil tar-sands worksite in northern Alberta claimed another worker’s life Tuesday, bringing the publicly acknowledged death toll among the workforce to three. With the local health system collapsing, the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, where the Horizon mine and most other Canadian oil tar-sands operations are located, declared a local state of emergency late last month. Since then infections and deaths have continued to surge. The latest victim was a worker in his 60s, who had two children and seven grandchildren. He had been employed at CNRL’s Horizon site as a pipefitter from late March. Alberta has been ravaged by a third wave of the pandemic directly attributable to the Canadian ruling class’ policy, implemented by the federal Liberal government and with especial gusto by the province’s United Conservative Party (UCP) government, of prioritizing corporate profits over saving lives. Currently Alberta has among the highest per capita infection and active COVID-19 case rates in North America, and in proportionate terms Wood Buffalo is the hardest-hit region in Alberta. According to local public health officials, there are currently 30 workplace and 19 school outbreaks in Wood Buffalo, and 31 COVID-stricken patients are hospitalized at the Northern Lights Regional Health Centre (NLRHC) in Fort McMurray, Wood Buffalo’s principal population centre. Eight of the 31 are in intensive care (ICU), but just during the past week 16 other ICU patients were transferred from NLRHC to Edmonton hospitals. Across the province, there are 241 COVID patients in ICUs. In anticipation of a continuing wave of infection and death, the UCP government is hastily building more field hospitals, even as it orders schools across the province, with the lone exception of those in Wood Buffalo, to reopen next Tuesday. Throughout the pandemic oil-sands mining operations and the work camps that support them have been designated an essential service by the hard-right, Jason Kenney-led UCP government, and have thus been exempt from any restrictions on their operating at full-tilt. When the government was recently compelled to announce a new rule that workplaces with 10 or more infections must close, the energy sector was excluded as an “essential service.”
COVID Cases in Mumbai Down 70%, Slowing in Other Parts of India -- COVID-19 cases in Mumbai declined by nearly 70% in the past week, from 11,000 daily cases to fewer than 2,000 a day in India's financial capital. On Monday, the Associated Press reported an average of 340,000 daily cases in India to below 300,000 in the last week.With active cases over 3.6 million, hospitals are still swamped by patients. With over 24 million confirmed cases and 270,000 deaths, India's caseload is the second highest after the U.S.But experts believe that the country's steeply rising curve may finally be flattening—even if the plateau is a high one. Izhaar Hussain Shaikh, an ambulance driver in Mumbai, drove about 70 patients to the hospital last month. Two weeks into May, he'd carried only 10 patients. "We used to be so busy before, we didn't even have time to eat," Shaikh said.The success was credited to a well-enforced lockdown and vigilant authorities, along with testing and other resources being able to make it to the more populated areas of India.Even the capital of New Delhi is seeing faint signs of improvement as infections slacken after weeks of tragedy and desperation playing out in overcrowded hospitals and crematoriums and on the streets.It is still too early to say things are improving, with Mumbai and New Delhi representing only a sliver of the overall situation.For one, drops in the national caseload, however marginal, largely reflect falling infections in a handful of states with big populations and/or high rates of testing. So the nationwide trends represent an incomplete and misleading picture of how things are faring across India as a whole, experts say."There will always be smaller states or cities where things are getting worse, but this won't be as clear in the national caseload numbers," said Murad Banaji, a mathematician modeling India's cases. Given India's size and population of nearly 1.4 billion, what's more important to track is a cascade of peaks at different times instead of a single national one, experts said. "It seems like we are getting desensitized by the numbers, having gotten used to such high ones," . "But a relative change or drop in overall cases does not diminish the magnitude of the crisis by any means." Experts also warn that another reason for an apparent peak or plateau in cases could be that the virus has outrun India's testing capabilities. As the virus jumps from cities to towns to villages, testing has struggled to keep pace, stirring fears that a rural surge is unfurling even as data lags far behind.Combating the spread in the countryside, where health infrastructure is scarce and where most Indians live, will be the biggest challenge. "The transmission will be slower and lower, but it can still exact a big toll," said K. Srinath Reddy, president of the Public Health Foundation of India.Even in big cities, testing has become increasingly harder to access. Labs are inundated and results are taking days, leading many to start treating symptoms before confirming a coronavirus infection. In the last month, cases have more than tripled and reported deaths have gone up six times—but testing has only increased by 1.6 times, said Mukherjee. Meanwhile, vaccinations have plummeted by 40%.
India Sees Highest Single-day Covid Deaths, Daily Cases Lowest in A Month - India recorded the highest single-day Covid fatalities as the death toll climbed to 2,78,719 with a record 4,329 new deaths. The single day rise in coronavirus cases stood at 2.63 lakh, the lowest in 28 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Tuesday. The country reported 2,63,533 new cases in a span of 24 hours, taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 2,52,28,996, the data updated at 8 am showed.A total of 2,59,170 cases were reported in a span of 24 hours on April 20. The active cases further reduced to 33,53,765 comprising 13.29 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 85.60 per cent, the data updated at 8 am showed.Here is all you need to know about coronavirus in India in ten points:– India reports 2.63 lakh new Covid cases, 4.22 lakh new recoveries, 4,329 new deaths in the last 24 hours. There has been a dip of 1.63 lakh in active cases. – The new cases recorded in the country is the lowest in last 4 weeks. New deaths have been record high since the pandemic began last year. The daily deaths remained above 4,000 for the third consecutive day. – The country has registered highest single day dip in active cases. Over 1 lakh dip for the second consecutive day. Fall in active cases for the 5th consecutive day. – 27 states and UTs report fall in active cases. Cases rising in 9 states including 5 North Eastern states. – Difference between new cases reported in the last 7 days and the preceding 7 days is -18%. Whereas the same difference globally is -14%. – Karnataka reports 3,860 new cases, Tamil Nadu 33,000 and Maharashtra 2,660. Maharashtra reports 1000 new deaths, Karnataka 476 and Delhi 340. – 18.69 lakh new tests have been conducted in the last 24 hours. Test positivity rate is 14.1% in compared to 17.9% on the previous day. – Test positivity rate in the states are as follows: Karnataka 39.70%, Goa 36.62%, Sikkim 36.84%. Uttar Pradesh 3.68%, Bihar 4.72%, Gujarat 5.82% and Delhi 8.42%. – 15.10 lakh new vaccinations. 12.67 lakh received their first dose yesterday, 2.43 lakh their second dose. 18.44 crore total vaccinations – Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Maldives reporting steep rise in new cases.
50 Doctors Reported Dead In 1 Day From Covid Across India: Medical Body - Anas Mujahid, 26, a junior Resident Doctor at Delhi's Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital -- a dedicated Covid specialty -- died within hours of testing positive due to Covid. He is the youngest of 244 doctors who have lost their lives to Covid this year in India's second wave. Last year, 736 doctors had lost their lives during the first wave. A total of nearly 1,000 doctors across India have lost their lives due to Covid so far. Mujahid is survived by his parents and four siblings. A week has gone by, but his friend and colleague Dr Aamir Sohail is still struggling to come to terms with the loss. Mujahid had minor symptoms like sore throat and tested positive in an antigen test at the hospital. In a rare case of sudden progression, he collapsed soon after and died due to intracranial bleeding. He had not been vaccinated. "It was shocking. He had no comorbidity. His parents also told us that he has never faced any health issue. We just could not understand how it happened," Dr Aamir Sohail said. "He had not been vaccinated. Many colleagues here, including me, have not taken the jab. Our process of getting vaccinated while being on Covid duty, is long. We have to inform superiors and get their signature etc. He was planning to get the jab in the next few days." Dr Sohail added that he got infected last month and had moderate symptoms and is now doing fine. But he said it was hard to comprehend how his friend, who seemed perfectly fine hours ago, suddenly faced such severe issues and died. According to the Indian Medical Association, 244 doctors have lost their lives due to Covid in the second wave. Of them, 50 deaths were recorded on Sunday. The highest number of fatalities have been reported from Bihar (69) followed by Uttar Pradesh (34) and Delhi (27).
As India’s daily COVID-19 deaths reach new high, Modi opposes free vaccinations - Although India’s new daily COVID-19 infections dropped this week below 300,000 for the first time in almost a month, the official death toll reached record highs on successive days, with 4,329 fatalities registered on Tuesday and 4,529 on Wednesday. Making the situation even worse, the pandemic has found new breeding grounds in India’s remote and rural areas, where more than 65 percent of the country’s population—over 800 million mostly oppressed and impoverished people—reside. Health care facilities are virtually nonexistent in rural areas. As horrific as the official infections and death tallies are, they are widely seen by health experts as gross underestimates of the true extent of India’s COVID-19 catastrophe. Some scientists project that the real number of deaths in India’s “second wave” of the pandemic, which began in mid-February, is between five and 10 times higher than the official figure. This would mean that tens of thousands of people are currently dying from COVID-19 every single day. Responsibility for this disastrous state of affairs lies squarely with Modi, his far-right Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government and India’s venal capitalist elite, which less than two months ago were still boasting about India’s purported exemplary management of the pandemic. Modi systematically ignored warnings from his scientific advisers about the developing second wave, which was driven by new and more infectious variants—including the B.1.617 strain, which was first identified in India and has now spread around the world. Instead, Modi continued to insist, as his government has done for over a year, that nothing can be allowed to get in the way of corporate profits. Even as the official daily death toll reached 3,000 in mid-April and India emerged as the epicentre of the global pandemic, Modi declared that it was necessary to “save India from lockdown,” not from the virus. The government’s vaccine rollout, which is in complete disarray, is of a piece with Modi’s “profits before lives” strategy. His government is categorically refusing to provide free vaccines to the Indian population, which in practice means that hundreds of millions of impoverished people will go without. The BJP government has also left vaccine production and a significant portion of vaccine distribution to private companies, which are raking in huge profits thanks to the exorbitant costs the government has allowed them to charge. In addition to further enriching India’s fabulously wealthy elite, the Modi government took the decision to rely on private companies so as to showcase the prowess of Indian capitalist enterprise to the world. The result of this policy is that India has one of the highest prices in the world for COVID-19 vaccines. Covishield, which is based on the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, costs $12 per dose, while Covaxin, produced by Bharat Biotech, is priced at $17 per dose. Both vaccines require two doses. To put this into perspective, a recent report noted that the pandemic has pushed a further 235 million Indians below the government “poverty line,” which is a set at an income of 375 rupees or about $5 per day. Thus, for a substantial section of the population, the vaccines are effectively out of reach.
Charging Indians for COVID Vaccines is Bad, Letting Vaccine Producers Charge What They Like is Unconscionable --Countries around the world are racing against time to vaccinate their populations against the coronavirus. But India has thus far been a poor performer, with only 9.6% of its population receiving a vaccine so far (compared to 51.8% in the UK, 45% in the US, 32.1% in Germany and 14.9% in Brazil).While there are a few issues plaguing the vaccine roll out, the most egregious is the fact most Indians, many of whom live in poverty, are being made to pay for their shots. And the government is allowing vaccine producers to charge whatever they like. The reason appears to be a belief – based on zero evidence – that the two “Made in India” vaccines would be sufficient to meet India’s domestic needs and international commitments.However, the same standards did not appear to have been applied to the other two vaccines – Covishield was given approval in January, even though its immunogenicity data were not yet available. Trial data from the UK, South Africa and Brazil published in The Lancet was considered adequate at the time.Similarly, Pfizer was compelled to withdraw its application for emergency approval because the drug regulator insisted conducting a local bridging study would be necessary. However, Covaxin was given approval in January even when its Phase 3 data on efficacy were not available.Second, the vaccine business is risky, given the amount of money that has to go into research, development, and testing, and many won’t end up being effective. Early public investments reduce risk exposure for vaccine companies and help raise their production capacities. Countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany made large at-risk investments in vaccine companies for research and capacity expansion. India failed to do so.Third, India failed to place advance purchase orders for adequate quantities of vaccines. The first purchase order wasn’t placed until January this year. By this time, capacities of vaccine producers were already locked into other supply commitments elsewhere.As a result, vaccination centres are being closed, and people are being turned away. In most cities, the mobile application – CoWin – used to book appointments for vaccination, isn’t allowingpeople to register. And even if people manage to register, appointments are not available formany months.There is enormous public anger against the government of India for this, as well as for the serious flaws in its public health system which have been exposed by the sharp rise of infections in the second wave. This includes a lack of oxygen in hospitals and even a lack of space for funerals in crematoriums.
COVID-19 mutations trigger new outbreaks across Southeast Asia - The COVID-19 catastrophe in India is threatening to spread to Southeast and East Asia, including in locations such as Vietnam, Singapore and Taiwan, where lockdowns and other safety restrictions had previously kept infections low. The outbreaks across the region are another stark warning of how quickly new waves of the pandemic, driven by more infectious variants like B.1.617, first identified in India, can get out of control and overwhelm chronically-underfunded and inadequate hospital and quarantine systems. In the past month, B.1.617 has appeared in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, accelerating infections and deaths. In some countries, especially Cambodia, the British variant, known as B.1.1.7, has also taken hold. This has been aided by the refusal of governments worldwide to implement effective lockdown and containment measures because that would affect corporate profits. The emerging crisis has been worsened by “vaccine nationalism.” Unconscionable delays in global vaccination programs, particularly for the billions of people living in the most impoverished parts of the world, caused by the mercenary interests of the wealthiest Western powers and the pharmaceutical giants, have allowed more transmissible and deadly mutations to develop. With the exception of Singapore and Cambodia, less than 10 percent of the adult population in each country across the region has received a single vaccine dose. Even according to official statistics, the regional toll is soaring, and it is almost certainly much higher, especially in rural areas, as reported recently by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, which calculated that COVID-19 deaths globally are twice the recorded figures. * New reported cases in Malaysia have more than tripled in the past month, hitting 4,765 on May 12. This forced the government to introduce a four-week partial national shutdown, but it is still allowing factories and businesses to operate. Malaysia had recorded over 470,000 cases with 1,902 deaths as of Sunday. It has the third highest infection rate in the region, behind Indonesia and the Philippines, despite Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin declaring a state of emergency in January, ostensibly to contain the pandemic.
All about new COVID-19 strain which is infecting children in Singapore - The government of Singapore has announced a new strain of the COVID-19 virus that is affecting children, thus shutting down schools. The government also issued a warning saying that the new virus variant first found in India was affecting children. Singapore's education minister Chan Chun said that "mutations are much more virulent, and they seem to attack the younger children". The education minister added that the government is working on a plan to vaccinate all the students under the age of 16 in the country. Singapore had recorded 333 COVID-19 cases on Monday putting the authorities on high alert. Health Minister Ong Ye Kung also said that the B.1.617 strain is affecting the children more. "We know that this is a very difficult period for everyone. This is clearly a setback in our fight against COVID-19. But we are resolved to keep fellow Singaporeans safe and to see Singapore safely through this crisis." Minister for Education of Singapore, Lawrence Wong Shyun Tsai added. As Singapore draws up plans to vaccinate its young, reports state that the children who have contracted the virus so far are not seriously ill and a few of them have mild symptoms of coronavirus. In view of this, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, on Tuesday, urged the Centre to suspend all air operations with the Southeast Asian country.
COVID is surging in the world's most vaccinated country. Why? - The small archipelago nation of Seychelles, northeast of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, has emerged as the world’s most vaccinated country for COVID-19.Around 71% of people have had at least one dose of a COVID vaccine, and 62% have been fully vaccinated. Of these, 57% have received the Sinopharm vaccine, and 43% AstraZeneca.Despite this, there has been a recent surge in cases, with 37% of new active cases and 20% of hospital cases being fully vaccinated. The country has had to reimpose some restrictions.How can this be happening? There are several possible explanations:
- the herd immunity threshold has not been reached — 62% vaccination is likely not adequate with the vaccines being used
- herd immunity is unreachable due to inadequate efficacy of the two vaccines being used
- variants that escape vaccine protection are dominant in Seychelles
- the B1617 Indian variant is spreading, which appears to be more infectious than other variants
- mass failures of the cold-chain logistics needed for transport and storage, which rendered the vaccines ineffective.
What does the country’s experience teach us about variants, vaccine efficacy and herd immunity?There are reports of the South African B.1.351 variant circulating in Seychelles. This variant shows the greatest ability to escape vaccine protection of all COVID variants so far.In South Africa, one study showed AstraZeneca has 0-10% efficacy against this variant, prompting the South African government to stop using that vaccine in February.The efficacy of the Sinopharm vaccine against this variant is unknown, but lab studies show some reduction in protection, based on blood tests, but probably some protection.However, no comprehensive surveillance exists in the country to know what proportion of cases are due to the South African variant.
COVID-19: Experts warn against coronavirus vaccine hesitancy amid threat of mutant strains - A leading epidemiologist expert has warned Australians not to hesitate getting thecoronavirus vaccines, saying delays could expose them to a higher chance of being infected by a mutant strain.New statistics published by Nine newspapers found a third of adults are 'unlikely' to get the jab, citing concerns over side effects and the belief there isn't a rush so long as international borders remain closed.Professor Mary-Louise McLaws, one of Australia's leading epidemiologists, says the results of the survey are "very damaging" to the nation's recovery."Yesterday we had an amazing day of 100,000 injections and that's what we need every day for a year to be able to say that we are safe to open our borders," Prof McLaws told Weekend Today."When we do open our borders, we will have the 'variants of concern', those very, very transmissible infections."I would be going for about 85 per cent of adults (vaccinated)."
Britons’ freedom to hug overshadowed by spread of Indian strain of coronavirus - Concerned about the spread of an Indian variant of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson called on the population to exercise “a heavy dose of caution” as restrictions ease further on Monday, with people allowed to be served indoors in bars and restaurants, attend movie theaters and hug family and friends.
- The new step in the government’s “road map” to ease the economy out of lockdown also allows mixing indoors, lifts restrictions on outdoor meetings for groups of fewer than 30 people, and removes mandatory mask-wearing in schools.
- A top scientific adviser to the government, however, cautioned on Monday that the restrictions could return if the spread of a highly transmissible variant detected in India leads to another wave of the pandemic.
- Health secretary Matt Hancock said there was “increased confidence” that vaccines worked against the variant. According to official numbers, 69% of the U.K. adult population has received at least one dose of the available shots, with 38% now fully vaccinated.
- A legal ban on travel abroad has also been lifted on Monday, but the government has cautioned against holidays outside its limited “green list” of 12 countries, mostly small islands, deemed safe for travel — with Portugal the only European Union member on the list.
Johnson has been criticized for delaying by two weeks a ban on travelers from India, out of a desire not to irk Prime Minister Narendra Modi just as Johnson was due to make a high-profile trip to New Delhi. The trip was later canceled.
India variant will be dominant UK Covid strain ‘in next few days’ - The Covid variant first detected in India is set to be the dominant strain in the UK within days, experts have said, with the government and health teams struggling to contain cases, which have risen by more than 75% since Thursday. With the rapid spread of the more transmissible B.1.617.2 variant threatening to reverse moves to ease lockdown, the government faced intense pressure to more fully explain the delay in adding India to the so-called red list of countries. Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s former chief adviser, joined the criticism on Monday, calling the UK’s border policy a “joke”. Johnson is now set to delay plans to announce an end to social-distancing rules, postponing the conclusion of a review expected by the end of the month, casting significant doubt over the wider plan to relax most lockdown rules on 21 June. Speaking on the day indoor hospitality and other venues were allowed to reopen, Matt Hancock told MPs that 2,323 cases of the variant known as B.1.617.2 had been confirmed, up from 1,313 on Thursday, with 483 of those in the outbreaks in Bolton and Blackburn. There are now 86 local authorities with five or more confirmed cases, he said. Describing a “race between the virus and the vaccine”, the health secretary rejected calls from Labour to consider a push to vaccinate all adults in the most affected areas, saying that surge testing was the best remedy. Hancock said 35,000 more tests had been distributed or collected in Bolton and Blackburn, along with a push to target those eligible for vaccinations, with 6,200 jabs carried out in Bolton alone over the weekend. But new data from the the Wellcome Sanger Institute’s Covid-19 genomic surveillance, which excludes samples from recent travellers and surge testing, has shown how rapidly and widely the variant appears to be embedding. According to an analysis of the data by Prof Christina Pagel, the director of the Clinical Operational Research Unit at University College London and a member of the Independent Sage group of experts, the variant was detected in almost 30% of Covid samples collected in England in the week ending 8 May. Paul Hunter, a professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia, said the India variant seemed set to supplant that first detected in Kent, which was in turn notably more transmissible than earlier forms of coronavirus. “There is no evidence that the recent rapid rise in cases of the B.1.617.2 variant shows any signs in slowing,” he said. “This variant will overtake [the Kent variant] and become the dominant variant in the UK in the next few days, if it hasn’t already done so.”
Signs of rise in Covid infections in England amid variant warnings --Covid infection levels are showing early signs of an increase in England, data has revealed, as experts continue to warn the variant of concern first detected in India could grow exponentially in the UK. On Friday, Boris Johnson told broadcasters in Portsmouth he has seen nothing to suggest it will be necessary to “deviate from the roadmap”, indicating that the planned lifting of all coronavirus restrictions in England on 21 June may yet go ahead. However speaking at an online meeting of the Independent Sage group of experts, Prof Ravi Gupta of the University of Cambridge, a co-opted member of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group, said that despite the UK’s vaccination programme, community spread of the India variant, B.1.617.2, will continue to rise. “We still have people under the age of 30 not vaccinated, we have many people with only one dose, so this virus has plenty of space to expand exponentially and reach very high levels of infection with quite high levels of morbidity overall,” he said. His comments came as data from the Office for National Statistics infection survey revealed early signs of a potential rise in the percentage of people testing positive for Covid in England. According to data for the week ending 15 May, about 49,000 people in England, or one in 1,110, were positive for the virus, up from 40,800 or one in 1,340 the week before – although overall rates remain low. “There were early signs of an increase in the percentage of people testing positive in the north-east, Yorkshire and the Humber and the south-east in the week ending 15 May 2021,” the ONS team noted. By contrast around one in 4,340 people in the community in Wales, one in 1,550 in Northern Ireland and one in 1,960 in Scotland are thought to have had Covid in the most recent week.
UK covid cases rise due to ending containment and spread of Indian variant - Coronavirus cases in England have begun to rise once more, after being in decline for weeks, due to the reopening of the economy and widespread circulation of the highly transmissible Indian variant (B.1.617.2). On Friday, the health ministry announced that the R (reproduction) rate in England has risen to between 0.9 and 1.1, meaning the virus is no longer in retreat, with every 10 people carrying the virus transmitting it to between nine and 11 other people. Public Health England (PHE) announced Thursday that 3,424 cases of B.1.617.2 had been confirmed in Britain—a 160 percent rise on the 1,313 cases confirmed a week earlier. The 3,424 cases marked an increase of 15 percent in just one day, with the figure standing at 2,967 Thursday. The seven worst Covid hotspots in England are all large ethnically diverse urban areas with a substantial working class and Indian sub-continent population—Bolton, Blackburn, Bedford, Kirklees, Burnley, Hounslow and Leicester. The spread of the variant nationwide is clear in that Hounslow is in west London, Bedford in south England Leicester in the East Midlands, Kirklees in West Yorkshire, and other areas in the north west of England. Bolton recorded 982 new B.1.617.2 cases in seven days, the equivalent of 341.5 cases per 100,000 people. The previous seven days saw a ratio of 189.2 per 100,000. As the spread of the variant escalated, local authorities are being forced to defy Covid vaccine regulations, which so far have been aimed at immunising the most vulnerable first with older age groups prioritised. On Friday, Manchester—the largest city of the north west and centre of the Greater Manchester region that contains Bolton—announced it would rollout the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to unvaccinated 16-year-olds in a “preventative vaccination plan” in target wards with a black, Asian and minority ethnic population above 50 percent. Bolton authorities already have a similar vaccination programme underway. The effectiveness of vaccination in combating the Indian variant is under review, with positive results indicated in India itself and elsewhere. But there is some evidence that the variant can infect those who have been vaccinated.
UK daily COVID cases highest in a month, Indian variant rising sharply (Reuters) - Britain reported its highest daily total of new coronavirus infections in a month while cases of a variant of concern first found in India continue to climb, official statistics showed on Thursday. The overall incidence of infections in Britain is still low, while the number of people in hospital with COVID-19 fell to its lowest level since September on Thursday. But clusters of the B.1.617.2 variant, believed to be more transmissible than the dominant Kent variant, are growing quickly, and could derail Prime Minister Boris Johnson's plans to reopen England's economy by the summer. British cases of the B.1.617.2 variant first found in India have risen to 3,424, up by 2,111 compared to comparable figures last week, Public Health England said. It also represents a steep rise compared to figures given on Wednesday, when Health Minister Matt Hancock said there had been 2,967 cases of the variant. "PHE will continue to monitor all variants closely, paying particular attention to the impact on hospitalisations and deaths which will help us to understand the protective effects of the vaccine," said Meera Chand, COVID-19 Incident Director at PHE. Britain reported 2,874 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, the highest daily figure for new cases since April 19 The uptick comes as Johnson eases restrictions in England, and as a quick rollout of vaccines decouples the link between case numbers and hospitalisations and deaths. On Thursday, the total number of patients in hospital fell below 900 for the first time since September. Britain recorded another 7 deaths within 28 days of a positive COVID-19 test, and the statistics portal showed 37.25 million people had been given a first dose of vaccine.
Indian COVID variant: What are the symptoms to look out for? - Numbers of COVID cases in the UK have been reassuringly low over the past couple of months, but the emergence of a new Indian variant of the virus threatens to disrupt the progress. With suspicions that the variant could be far more transmissable than other versions of the virus, experts are urging caution as we edge close towards 'normal' life resuming. The Indian variant of coronavirus is now thought to be most prevalent in areas such as Bolton, Blackburn, and parts of London. As it continues to spread around the country, it's vital we know what symptoms to look out for. We could probably all pass some sort of exam on the key symptoms of COVID-19, at this point, with the most common signs being a high temperature, a new, continuous cough, and a loss or change to your sense of smell or taste. But according to one doctor based in India, there's another symptom that's emerging, and may theoretically be linked to the Indian variant. Dr GB Sattur told a local newspaper in Bangalore about one patient, a 55-year-old man, who arrived at hospital with extreme dryness of the mouth. He also had conjunctivitis, which the GP knew to be a possible sign of the virus (it's listed by the World Health Organisation as one of the "less common" symptoms), and so he did further investigations. "I had read that conjunctivitis can be one of the symptoms of COVID. Though he didn’t have a fever, he said that he was tired," explained the doctor. "I suspected that it could be a symptom of COVID and asked him to take a PCR test which turned out to be positive. He was then admitted to hospital and then recovered." The case has led the doctor to urge his fellow clinicians to pay attention to complaints of a dry mouth when assessing possible COVID cases. "Doctors should keep an eye on tongue complaints and not ignore them," said Dr Sattur.
As Indian variant spreads in Europe, governments reopen across the continent -- While scientists warn of the dangerous implications of the spread of the more contagious Indian variant of the coronavirus, governments across Europe are pushing ahead rapidly to reopen their economies fully and lifting any limited lockdown measures that have remained in place. The reopening is taking place amid a competition among the European states over which economy can most quickly restart, and particularly over access to tourism revenue for the Summer holiday season. The B.1.617 variant, first identified in India, may be up to 50 percent more contagious than even the so-called UK variant, according to a UK government advisory committee, though further studies are required. The B.1.17 variant had first been identified in the UK in September, but has since rapidly become the dominant strain and makes up the majority of cases across Europe. In the UK, the number of identified cases of the Indian variant has rapidly accelerated in the past 10 days to more than 2,300. By Tuesday, it had reached 2,300 in the UK, a rise of 75 percent from four days earlier. The strain now accounts for at least 20 percent of new infections, and scientists predict that it will become the dominant strain within days. However, yesterday the government admitted that the official count of cases of the new strain was already outdated by a week. The Johnson government’s own scientific advisors have made statements warning against the ending of lockdown measures that it is pushing through. The reopening in Europe, under conditions where only a small portion of the population has been vaccinated, poses clear dangers of a new catastrophic overwhelming of hospitals and mass deaths. It is being pursued as part of the European Union’s policy of placing corporate profits before lives, with case numbers already too high for any systematic testing, tracing and isolation system to be put in place. In France, cafes and restaurants opened for outdoor dining yesterday. Theaters, museums, public monuments and cinemas also reopened. The nightly curfew was pushed back from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Indoor and outdoor physical sports, except for contact sports, are again legally permitted. On June 9, restaurants are to reopen completely. Only slightly over 13 percent of the French population has been vaccinated, compared to scientific estimates that, to prevent the virus’ spread, a population immunity rate of between 80-90 percent would be required. The Indian variant has already been detected in France, though the number of daily cases remains unknown. More than 17,000 cases were reported on Tuesday in the country, while the seven-day average for deaths remains at almost 200.
Coronavirus: Germany declares UK a virus variant region - Germany's Robert Koch Institute for public health declared Britain and Northern Ireland a virus variant region on Friday.The move, which will come into force on Sunday, will see significant travel restrictions introduced.Germany, where new coronavirus infections have been falling lately, adjusted the classification as cases of a worrying coronavirus variant first found in India continue to rise in Britain.Anyone entering Germany from the United Kingdom will be required quarantine for two weeks on arrival, even if they test negative for the coronavirus.Airlines, rail and bus companies will only be able to bring German citizens or people who reside in Germany into the country."We want to play it safe," a German government source told Reuters news agency. "In this important phase of the vaccination campaign, the entry of problematic mutations must be avoided as far as possible."
Argentina's gravediggers plead for vaccines as death toll climbs (Reuters) - Argentina's gravediggers are threatening to strike over demands that cemetery workers burying the dead are vaccinated against COVID-19, a test for the South American country's government which has faced hold-ups to its vaccine roll-out. "We face a daily war in this place," Aguirre told Reuters. "The fear is real, that's why we want the vaccine to arrive for everyone so that, at least, we can live a couple more years," he said with a wry laugh. Argentina is seeing a sharp second wave of the pandemic, with the average daily death toll hitting a record at over 450 lives lost a day. The country has recorded over 70,000 deaths since the pandemic hit. Daily new cases now average just below 25,000, prompting calls for tighter restrictions. (Graphic on global cases and deaths) https://tmsnrt.rs/34pvUyi Meanwhile the country's inoculation campaign has only fully inoculated 4.5% of the population and 18% has received at least one dose, according to a Reuters analysis. At an average of 132,000 doses given per day, it will take another 69 days to inoculate another 10% of the population. (Graphic on vaccinations) https://tmsnrt.rs/3tUM8ta Argentina's union representing cemetery, crematorium and funeral workers has threatened a national strike if it does not reach a deal with the government on vaccines. The strike could start this week after a government-enforced conciliation period ends. The burial protocol for COVID-19 victims involves disinfecting and handling the coffin, where workers have to wear protective gear including body suits, face masks, goggles and gloves. Polig explained that beyond the physical risk of infection, workers had to deal with the emotional pain of consoling relatives and having to restrict how many family members can visit the grave due to COVID protocol measures. "It's hugely sad and complicated," he said.
Amid warnings of “catastrophic” COVID-19 third wave, Brazil’s state governors reopen economy -As deaths decrease in the immediate aftermath of April’s second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil, the number of new cases are already rising again since the beginning of May. The rolling average of new daily cases has increased from 56,533 on April 26 to 64,665 on May 19, well on its way to reaching the levels of the March surge that resulted in a historically unprecedented population decrease in April in many states, including heavily populated states in the south and southeast, as a direct result of COVID-19 deaths. Since April, the death toll has been decreasing, dropping to 1,901 on May 17. However, since March, both the death toll and the number of new cases have remained above the scale of the first wave of May-August of last year. A May 13 report from the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) pointed out that “The continuing high level observed, despite the slight reduction in the severity indicators, demands that all safety measures be maintained because a third wave now, with such high rates, could represent an even graver health crisis.” Brazil has registered a total of more than 15,800,000 cases and 440,000 deaths so far, ranking as the second country with most deaths for more than a year before India’s current deadly surge saw it surpass fatalities in both Brazil and the US on Thursday. Fiocruz warned that a new surge, given the current scenario of high incidence rates, “will be catastrophic.” It will also present an “opportunity for the emergence of new variants of the virus due to the intensity of transmission, as we have seen in other regions and countries.” These warnings have not stopped the drive to reopen the economies of every state in Brazil, covered up by lying claims that the stabilization of cases means that the pandemic is “under control.” The current number of occupied ICUs in São Paulo is above 10,000, much worse than during the first wave, when it reached a peak of 6,500. There are currently seven states with ICU beds filled to over 90 percent, and seven others reporting rates above 80 percent.
Delhi’s Covid-19 positivity rate drops below 5%, city sees 3,009 new cases and 252 deaths - According to the latest health department bulletin, issued on Friday, 63,190 samples were tested in the last 24 hours, thus giving a positivity rate of 4.76%.Delhi’s Covid-19 positivity has dipped below 5%, as the city recorded 3,009 new cases from 63,190 samples tested for the viral disease in the last 24 hours, a health department bulletin showed on Friday. The cumulative infection tally has reached 1,412,959, with a related death toll of 22,831, as 252 people succumbed to the infection in this time period, the bulletin further showed.According to Friday's bulletin, the Capital's positivity rate, which has undergone a decline in the last few days, stands at 4.76%. Positivity rate means the total number of samples returning a positive result out of every 100 samples tested for Covid-19 per day, and is different from the cumulative positivity rate, which is currently at 7.6%, as per the latest data. Previously, Delhi's positivity rate was at 5.50%.The number of tests conducted in the preceding 24 hours were an increase from the corresponding figure from the 24-hour period before that -- 58,744. Of the samples tested in the last 24 hours, 45,685 underwent RTPCR/CBNAAT/TueNat testing, while rapid antigen tests were conducted on the remaining 17,505 samples. Total 18,595,993 samples have been tested thus far and samples tested per million are at 978,736.The cumulative recoveries and active cases, meanwhile, are at 1,354,445 and 35,683 respectively. While there were 7,288 recoveries in the last 24 hours, active cases declined by 4,531 cases. Recoveries, active cases and deaths constitute 95.85%, 2.52% and 1.61 of the city’s infection tally, respectively. The national capital is currently under a lockdown, which is scheduled to be lifted at 5am on May 24, unless extended. The lockdown came into force at 10pm on April 19 and was scheduled to end at 5am on April 26. It has been extended four times since then.
Moderate-to-high TV viewing in midlife linked to later cognitive and brain health decline --— Spending moderate to high amounts of time watching television throughout midlife was linked to greater cognitive decline and lower gray matter volumes in the brain later in life, according to preliminary research from three studies (P149, MP24 and MP67) to be presented at the American Heart Association’s Epidemiology, Prevention, Lifestyle & Cardiometabolic Health Conference 2021 (EPI). The meeting is virtual, May 20-21, and offers the latest science on population-based health and wellness and implications for lifestyle. “While studies have shown the benefits of exercise to support brain health, less is known about the potential consequences of prolonged sedentary behavior such as television viewing on brain structure and function. This is important to look at because other studies have shown that physical activity and sedentary behaviors may have different effects on health and disease,” said Kelley Pettee Gabriel, M.S., Ph.D., FAHA, lead author of one of the studies and a professor of epidemiology in the School of Public Health at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “Engaging in healthy behaviors during midlife, between ages 45 to 64 years in the context of our study, may be important factors to support a healthy brain later in life.” Cognition includes one’s abilities to remember, think, reason, communicate and solve problems. Life expectancy is increasing in the United States, which experts believe will likely be associated with an increase in the prevalence of cognitive impairment and dementia. An aging population with multiple factors that do not support a healthy brain may lead to an increased number of people with dementia. Worldwide, more than 7 million new dementia cases are diagnosed annually. By 2050, the prevalence of dementia is expected to increase by 116% in high-income countries and 264% in low-income countries. “There are currently no medications available to cure or stop dementia. However, a recent report showed that nearly 40% of worldwide dementia diagnoses may be prevented or delayed by modifying twelve risk factors including exercise,”
CDC urges against kissing, snuggling poultry in salmonella warning -The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued an advisory on Thursday warning people against getting too close to backyard poultry, citing concerns that the chickens may be spreading salmonella. In an investigation notice, the CDC noted that backyard poultry owners should take precautionary measures when handling their animals after 163 confirmed cases of salmonella were reported in 43 states. "Don’t kiss or snuggle backyard poultry, and don’t eat or drink around them," the CDC wrote. "This can spread Salmonella germs to your mouth and make you sick." According to the CDC, no one has died from the reported salmonella cases, and children under 5 made up one-third of the cases that have been recorded. More cases could go unreported, the CDC noted, as few people are tested for the bacterial infection that can cause fever, stomach cramps and diarrhea. The public health agency advised backyard poultry owners to frequently wash their hands after handling poultry, carefully handle eggs, and supervise children around the poultry. "Don’t let children younger than 5 years touch chicks, ducklings, or other backyard poultry. Young children are more likely to get sick from germs like Salmonella," the CDC wrote.
Delhi: Nearly 200 cases of black fungus reported so far -- In the national capital Delhi, a total of 197 cases of black fungus were reported till Wednesday night (May 19), Health Minister Satyendar Jain said on Friday said. “There were 197 cases of black fungus across all hospitals in Delhi till Wednesday night. These included patients who have come from other states for treatment," Jain told media. All Mumbai is spending tens of millions of dollars to build the pediatric units and is already procuring ventilators, monitors, and other medical equipment. India's Covid-19 crisis: How this city is gearing up fo .... Meanwhile, India has seen an unabated rise in fresh covid-19 cases in the last few days, with daily additions touching over two lakh Delhi airport facilitates 100 air ambulance movements s .... He added that there is an acute shortage of Amphotericin-B injections used in the treatment of black fungus or mucormycosis in the entire country. The Centre is likely to provide 2,000 injections to Delhi, which will then be given to hospitals. The Delhi health minister further cautioned Covid-19 patients against taking steroids without a doctor's advice. People who have been on steroids should take care of these things. They should exercise caution, not get out of home or meet people for at least a week, the minister said. It is imperative to control blood sugar levels. Any virus, fungus, or bacteria multiplies rapidly when blood sugar level increases in the body, he said. It is better to take precautions because the black fungus is hard to cure, Jain added. “This is very dangerous. A patient's immunity becomes zero when he/she takes steroids. Black fungus, which is found in soil or decaying matter inside homes, doesn't affect healthy people. Chances of infection are more in those with low immunity," Jain added. Yesterday, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also said the city government will declare black fungus an epidemic if the need arises. Black fungus, the rare fungal infection is on the rise in several parts of the country, including Delhi. As per the Union Health Ministry, mucormycosis or black fungus is a complication caused by a fungal infection. People catch mucormycosis by coming in contact with the fungal spores in the environment. According to AIIMS Director Dr Randeep Guleria, the Covid-19-linked infection has claimed more than 7,000 lives in the country.
Epigenetic mechanism can explain how chemicals in plastic may cause lower IQ levels -The chemical bisphenol F (found in plastics) can induce changes in a gene that is vital for neurological development. This discovery was made by researchers at the universities of Uppsala and Karlstad, Sweden. The mechanism could explain why exposure to this chemical during the fetal stage may be connected with a lower IQ at seven years of age - an association previously seen by the same research group. The study is published in the scientific journal Environment International. "We've previously shown that bisphenol F (BPF for short) may be connected with children's cognitive development. However, with this study, we can now begin to understand which biological mechanisms may explain such a link, which is unique for an epidemiological study." The speaker is Carl Gustaf Bornehag, Professor and head of Public Health Sciences at Karlstad University. He is the project manager of the Swedish Environmental Longitudinal Mother and Child, Asthma and Allergy (SELMA) study, from which the data were taken. External factors can cause changes in gene activity through an "epigenetic" mechanism. This means that individual genes are modified by means of "methylation". Increased methylation in a DNA segment makes it more difficult for the cellular machinery to read that specific part. As a result, expression of methylated genes is often impaired. The scientists measured BPF levels in urine from pregnant women in the first trimester and subsequently monitored their children after birth. DNA methylation was measured in the children at age seven, and their cognitive ability was investigated. Since the fetus comes into contact with the mother's blood via the placenta, it is also exposed to substances in the mother's body. The analyses demonstrated that in fetuses exposed to higher levels of BPF, methylation increases in a specific part of the GRIN2B gene, which has a key neurological role. Further, higher methylation was associated with lower IQ in the children. However, the study also found that there appears to be a sex difference in these children's susceptibility to BPF. The epigenetic link between BPF and cognition was observed only in boys. "The fact that we've been able to identify DNA methylation as a potential mechanism behind BPF's effect on IQ adds an important piece of evidence in work to understand how environmental chemicals affect us on a molecular level,"
Just 20 companies are responsible for over half of 'throwaway' plastic waste, study says— Just 20 companies are the source of more than half of single-use plastic items thrown away globally, according to a study that highlights the devastating impact on the environment.The Plastic Waste Makers Index, published Tuesday, names the companies that are at the forefront of the plastic supply chain and manufacture polymers, known as the building block of plastics. It also highlighted that the firms identified are supported by a small number of financial backers.Single-use plastics, such as bottles, bags and food packages, are the most commonly discarded type of plastic. Made almost exclusively from fossil fuels, these "throwaway" plastics often end their short lifecycle polluting the oceans, being burned or dumped into landfills.The study says 20 petrochemical companies are responsible for 55% of the world's single-use plastic waste.The findings were published by the Minderoo Foundation, one of Asia's largest philanthropies. The research was conducted by academics from the London School of Economics, the Stockholm Environment Institute, Wood Mackenzie, among others. U.S. energy giant ExxonMobil tops the list, contributing 5.9 million metric tons to global plastic waste, closely followed by U.S. chemicals company Dowand China's Sinopec. The study says 100 companies are the source of 90% of global single-use plastic production.Nearly 60% of the commercial finance funding the plastic waste crisis comes from just 20 global banks, the study said. A total of $30 billion of loans from these institutions, including Barclays, HSBC and Bank of America, has supported the sector since 2011. The research also assessed the countries that are the biggest contributors to the single-use plastic crisis, based on per head of population. Australia and the U.S., respectively, were found to produce the greatest amounts of "throwaway" plastics, at more than 50 kg per person per year in 2019.South Korea and the U.K. were found to generate 44 kg of single-use plastic waste per person. By contrast, the average person in China — the largest producer of single-use plastic by volume — produces 18 kg of single-use plastic per year. For India, that figure is as low as 4 kg per year, the study said. "As awareness of the toll of plastic pollution has grown, the petrochemical industry has told us it's our own fault and has directed attention toward behavior change from end-users of these products, rather than addressing the problem at its source,"
Who’s Making — and Funding — the World’s Plastic Trash? - ExxonMobil is the world's single largest producer of single-use plastics, according to a new report published today by the Australia-based Minderoo Foundation, one of Asia's biggest philanthropies.The Dow Chemical Company ranks second, the report finds, with the Chinese state-owned company Sinopec coming in third. Indorama Ventures — a Thai company that entered the plastics market in 1995 — and Saudi Aramco, owned by the Saudi Arabian government, round out the top five.Funding for single-use plastic production comes from major banks and from institutional asset managers. The UK-based Barclays and HSBC, and Bank of America are the top three lenders to single-use plastic projects, the new report finds. All three of the most heavily invested asset managers named by the report — Vanguard Group, BlackRock, and Capital Group — are U.S.-based."This is the first-time the financial and material flows of single-use plastic production have been mapped globally and traced back to their source," said Toby Gardner, a Stockholm Environment Institute senior research fellow, who contributed to the report, titled The Plastic Waste Makers Index.The report is also the first to rank companies by their contributions to the single-use plastic crisis, listing the corporations and other financiers it says are most responsible for plastic pollution — with major implications for climate change.
"The trajectories of the climate crisis and the plastic waste crisis are strikingly similar and increasingly intertwined," Al Gore, the former U.S. vice president, wrote in the report's foreword. "Tracing the root causes of the plastic waste crisis empowers us to help solve it."The world of plastic production is concentrated in fewer hands than the world of plastic packaging, the report's authors found. The top twenty brands in the plastic packaging world — think Coca Cola or Pepsi, for example — handle about 10 percent of global plastic waste, report author Dominic Charles told DeSmog. In contrast, the top 20 producers of plastic polymers — the building blocks of plastics — handle over half of the waste generated.
Waste Watch: Turkey Bans Plastic Waste Imports - Jerri-Lynn Scofield -- Turkey on Tuesday moved to ban most plastic waste imports. The move follows BBC and Greenpeace investigation that showed British recycling dumped or left to be burnt in Adana, in southern Turkey.The ban will cover to ethylene polymer plastics and will take effect in 45 days, according to theAssociated Press. Plastic drinks bottles, which are made of polypropylene, are not includedAccording to the Guardian:Greenpeace visited 10 sites in the southern city of Adana in March. Investigators found waste including British supermarket packaging in waterways, on beaches and in illegal waste mountains. Under both UK and EU rules, plastic waste should only be exported if it is destined to be recycled or incinerated in a energy from waste facility. The AP elaborated on the Turkish government’s actions:The environment minister, Murat Kurum, said 152 waste facilities were audited in southern Adana province after “undesirable images were revealed.” Twenty-nine of them shut down, 32 were fined and criminal complaints filed against businesses that were causing pollution. He said Wednesday monitoring would continue in all recycling processes.Kurum added Turkey didn’t import garbage and added that the import of mixed plastic waste was outlawed in 2021. Companies importing recyclable plastics to process into raw materials for use in Turkey are required to hold an identification code that allows for monitoring.“Our goal is a national industry that can get a 100% of its raw materials from the domestic market and end imports of waste from the world and a very clean Turkey,” he said. Yet the Turkish policy alone will not solve the plastics problem. Much more can – and must- be done to reduce creation of plastic waste. The UK produces more plastics waste per capita than any other country except the United States. The Greenpeace report on its investigation. TRASHED: HOW THE UK IS STILL DUMPING PLASTIC WASTE ON THE REST OF THE WORLD, includes details how the UK still relies unduly on the ineffective recycling fairy as the primary solution to its plastics crisis.
EPA Admits to Faulty Glyphosate Review Under Trump but Still Won't Take It off U.S. Market -The Center for Food Safety on Wednesday denounced the Biden administration's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for arguing that Roundup should remain on U.S. shelves for an undisclosed period of time even after admitting that the Trump-era review of glyphosate — the key ingredient found in Roundup, the world's most widely used herbicide — was flawed and requires a do-over. In its federal court filing requesting to redo the Trump administration's faulty assessment of glyphosate, the EPA failed to provide a deadline for a new decision; instead, the agency maintained that Roundup — created by agrochemical giant Monsanto, which was acquired in 2018 by the German pharmaceutical and biotech company Bayer — should stay on the market in the meantime. The EPA's request comes as it faces two lawsuits, including one brought by a coalition of farmworkers and environmentalists represented by the Center for Food Safety (CFS), that seek to reverse the Trump EPA'sapproval of glyphosate, a decision that was made despite evidence that the substance — described by the World Health Organization as "probably carcinogenic" — poses threats to human health and to pollinators such as bumblebees and monarch butterflies."Rather than defend its prior decision, at the 11th hour EPA is asking for a mulligan and indefinite delay, despite having previously spent far too long, over a decade, in re-assessing it," CFS legal director George Kimbrell said Wednesday in a statement. "Worse, EPA admits its approval risks harms to farmers and endangered species, but makes no effort to halt it." According to CFS:EPA is required by law to re-assess each pesticide every 15 years in a process known as registration review. EPA completed part of its registration review of glyphosate in 2020, designating it an "interim" decision because it had failed to assess glyphosate's impacts to endangered species, or complete other key assessments, such as glyphosate's potential to disrupt hormonal systems and harm pollinators. The 2020 interim decision represented EPA's first comprehensive assessment of the herbicide since 1993. Some of the harmful effects of glyphosate, according to CFS, include a heightened risk of cancer among farmworkers and others who spray glyphosate-based herbicides or are nonetheless subjected to it as a result of "off-field drift." Moreover, farmers must contend with the development of glyphosate-resistant superweeds, the organization said.In addition, CFS noted, because Roundup kills the milkweed on which monarch butterflies rely for survival, it poses a danger to the once-ubiquitous pollinators.
9th Circuit Upholds $25 Million Judgment Against Monsanto for Glyphosate Liability Jerri-Lynn Scofield - Last Friday, a three-judge panel of the United State Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Court upheld a $25 million judgment against Monsanto, the maker of Roundup, the world’s best-selling herbicide, of which glyphosate is the active ingredient.This decision, Hardeman v. Monsanto, is the first appeal of a glyphosate verdict to be decided thus far. From the summary of the opinion:The panel affirmed the district court’s judgment in favor of Edwin Hardeman in his action alleging that Monsanto’s pesticide, Roundup, caused his non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.Roundup is pesticide with the active ingredient glyphosate. Since 2015, thousands of cancer victims sued Monsanto in state and federal court. This appeal arose out of the first bellwether trial for the federal cases consolidated in a multidistrict litigation. The jury awarded Hardeman $5,267.634.10 in compensatory damages, and $75 million in punitive damages. The district court reduced the punitive damages award to $20 million.Bayer acquired Monsanto in 2018 for $63 billion , in what The Wall Street Journal has since described as one of the worst corporate deals in recent memory. Bayer assumed all Monsanto’s outstanding legal liabilities, including those related to glyphosate litigation. Bayer’s spectacular miscalculation of the value of such liabilities will be a prime topic for future study in business and law schools.In June 2020, Bayer agreed to a $10.9 billion settlement (see my earlier post, Bayer Agrees to $10.9 Billion Glyphosate Settlement). Bayer faced liability for about 125,000 lawsuits throughout the United States. The settlement included between $8.8 billion and $9.6 billion set aside to settle claims brought by lawyers representing some 95,000 plaintiffs. For the remaining 30,000 potential glyphosate plaintiffs who had yet to file lawsuits, the original settlement included $1.25 billion to cover their claims, and a controversial provision to allow a specially-created scientific panel to decide whether glyphosate causes cancer and at what levels, thus taking that decision away from future juries. Bayer and other litigants would nonetheless be bound by the panel’s determination in future proceedings. In July the presiding federal district court judge, Vince Chhabria, disallowed the controversial provision of the settlement, and Bayer withdrew the part of its original settlement proposal that focused on future lawsuits (see my earlier post, Federal Judge Nixes Part of Glyphosate Settlement That Would Allow a Panel of Scientific “Experts”, Rather Than Juries, to Decide Whether the Chemical is Carcinogenic for Future Claims.Bayer has since sweetened its settlement offer, setting aside $2 billion for these claims. The plaintiffs agreed to these settlement terms and this proposal is now pending before Judge Chhabria for preliminary approval (see Reply Brief Filed in Support of Motion for Preliminary Approval of Proposed Class Settlement). A hearing on this proposal is scheduled for May 19, according to Agri-Pulse, Roundup verdict of $25M upheld by federal appeals court:
How Environmentally Friendly Are Balcony Plants? - Deutsche Welle - From violets and pansies to kitchen herbs, the longer spring goes on in the northern hemisphere, the more diverse our options are for outdoor flowers and plants. According to the German environmental nonprofit BUND, about a billion garden and balcony plants are sold in the country each year.And those splashes of spring color on balconies and in gardens across Europe leave a lot of environmental damage elsewhere. Particularly cheap plants, which many people grab while shopping in the supermarket or hardware store, are often not grown sustainably."Most of them come from countries like Ethiopia, Kenya or Costa Rica," said Corinna Hölzel, a pesticide expert at BUND.The climate in these regions is particularly suitable for cultivation, but young plants or cuttings are then flown from there to be grown further in the countries where they will be sold. Transport by plane releases CO2greenhouse gases, but that's not the only problem, Hölzel said."Many pesticides are used in the countries of origin, sometimes even some that are banned in the EU because they are dangerous to our health," Hölzel explained. "In many companies there is hardly any protective clothing. The workers often work long days, have no fixed contracts, no trade unions, and often don't know what substances they are coming into contact with." According to BUND, so-called compressing agents are also used in the cultivation of ornamental plants. These chemicals slow growth so the plants are neither too big nor in bloom before they can be sold. It is an example of using chemicals just for aesthetic reasons.
Roads and highways disrupt bee pollination --The planet is sliced into pieces by millions of miles of roads, which have, unsurprisingly, caused some problems for the nonhuman, non-drivers among us. The ecological impacts of roads are vast, from habitat fragmentation to direct traffic collisions with wildlife (AKA “roadkill”). One understudied relationship is how roads affect insects, and pollinators in particular. A new study, recently published inThe Journal of Applied Ecology, examines how roads may limit the movement of plant pollinators like bees. “Especially in urban areas, our roads are basically going through a lot of different habitats,” says study coauthor Chatura Vaidya, a PhD candidate in ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Michigan. Roads can act as a barrier, preventing the typical flow of DNA between populations of pollinators as well as the plants they pollinate, Vaidya says, leading to lower genetic diversity, and even extinction. Working in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the summer of 2020, the researchers placed two species of potted flowering plants at 47 sites near roads that had a range of speed limits as well as a variety of sizes, from pedestrian sidewalks and bike paths to five-lane roads. The scientists doused the flowers with a fluorescent pigment, a stand-in for pollen, which would be picked up by a visiting pollinator and deposited at their next flower destination. A second, un-pigmented set of plants were placed across the road from the first, and a third set of un-pigmented plants were situated the same distance away on the same side of the road. These plants were checked at night using UV lights to track whether they’d picked up any pigments. The researchers found that plants on the opposite side of the road ended up with far less pigment than the plants placed on the same side of the road as the plants that had the pigment added to them. ForCoreopsis plants, those on the other side of the road had 50 percent less pigment transfer (again akin to pollination) than those plants on the same side of the road as the plants with the added pigment. ForMonarda plants, that pigment reduction was 34 percent.
Judge cites threat to sea turtles, halts Georgia dredging plan -- U.S. District Judge R. Stan Baker on Thursday ordered an immediate halt to a dredging plan in Georgia due to the threat it posed to sea turtles nesting on a nearby beach. Baker issued the injunction to the Army Corp of Engineers, which is trying to overturn a policy that has limited the dredging of sand and mud in harbors in Florida and the Carolinas to only the winter months for the past 30 years, The Associated Press reports. The policy had been enacted in order to protect sea turtles from being killed by the dredging equipment, the AP notes. The Army Corps claims that the seasonal policy is now irrelevant, pointing to a report released last year in which federal government scientists found sea turtles could endure around 150 deaths per year from dredging. The corps argued that seasonal limit focuses too much on the turtles. However, Baker argued against that assertion. "Frankly it’s a stretch to believe the Corps would have abstained from spring and summer dredging in the area for decades if it did not believe there was a significant danger to loggerhead sea turtles during that time,” he said, according to the AP. Baker issued the injunction after conservation group One Hundred Miles filed a lawsuit in federal court over the proposed change to the policy. The judge stated that dredging efforts would be limited to December unless the agency could use a different type of dredging that was less harmful to the turtles. “There is a strong likelihood that a substantial and appreciable number of those turtles would be killed by hopper dredging during those months,” Baker said at the end of a hearing on Thursday, the AP reports. Giant loggerhead sea turtles, which nest on beaches in Florida and the Carolinas during the spring and summer, are a federally threatened species. Small numbers of green and Kemp’s ridley sea turtles also lay eggs in this region, the AP notes.
China reports H5N8 avian flu outbreak in wild birds in Tibet (Reuters) - China's agriculture ministry on Wednesday said it had confirmed an outbreak of H5N8 avian influenza in a flock of wild birds at a wetlands park in the city of Nagqu in Tibet. The outbreak infected and killed 268 of the birds, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said in a statement.
Coffee, Oranges at Risk as Brazil Runs Out of Water - Brazil, the world’s biggest exporter of coffee, sugar and orange juice, just had a rainy season that brought hardly any rain.Soils are parched and river levels are low in the nation’s Center-South region, a powerhouse of agricultural output. The drought is so severe that farmers are worried they’ll run out of the water reserves that help keep crops alive over the next several months, the country’s dry season.Mauricio Pinheiro, 59, started irrigating his arabica-coffee crops in March, two months earlier than normal, after his 53-hectare (131-acre) plantation got less than half of the rain it needed. He’s using so much water for the plants that there isn’t enough left for his home. In order to keep the showers and faucets running, he’s had to search for another well.“My irrigation reservoir is drying up now -- that usually happens in August,” said Pinheiro, who lives in Pedregulho in the Alta Mogiana region, in Sao Paulo state. “I’m really concerned about running out of water in the coming months.” The prospect of withering orange trees and coffee plants is coming at a time when agricultural crops are rallying to multiyear highs, which has fanned fears of food inflation. Higher food costs may exacerbate hunger, a problem around the globe that the Covid-19 pandemic has made more acute. Coffee and raw-sugar contracts on the ICE Futures exchange in New York have already touched four-year highs.If even irrigated areas can’t get enough water, Brazil’s coffee and orange output may decline for a second year in a row. Brazil’s current orange crop shrunk 31% from the previous season, the most in 33 years, and production of arabica coffee, the high-end kind used by chains like Starbucks Corp., is also dropping sharply. Rainfall was disastrously low for many areas in Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais from January to April, said John Corbett, Chief Executive Officer at aWhere Inc. The worst hit areas received less than half of normal precipitation, at a critical time when coffee plants need moisture for the beans to grow. It is also a period when the soil stores water to cope with the dry season.That came on top of adverse drier-than-normal conditions in some parts last year, notably in Sao Paulo and Parana, .“The levels of rivers and lakes has been very concerning,” “The situation is affecting most of Sao Paulo state and still harming next season’s crop.”
La Nina Turbocharges Drought In Brazil Putting World's Coffee, Sugar, & Oranges At Risk -- Global crop and food prices are skyrocketing to multi-year highs, and the culprit could be due to La Nina, a weather pattern characterized by the cooling of the equatorial Pacific and triggers atmospheric shifts that cause droughts in some regions of the world and wetter conditions in others. The prospect of a severe drought in the US has already be outlined in previous notes. Now it appears the worst drought in 20 years has struck agricultural rich Brazil.Over the last month, Brazil has been faced with drought during its traditional rainy season. "Soils are parched, and river levels are low in the nation's Center-South region, a powerhouse of agricultural output. The drought is so severe that farmers are worried they'll run out of the water reserves that help keep crops alive over the next several months, the country's dry season," said Bloomberg. The cost of this year's drought could severely impact coffee, sugar, and orange crop yields. Coffee farmer Mauricio Pinheiro, 59, began irrigating his arabica-coffee crops in March, more than two months earlier than usual after his 131-acre farm received only half the rain it needed. He's using so much water that his wells are running dry. "My irrigation reservoir is drying up now -- that usually happens in August," said Pinheiro, who resides in Pedregulho in the Alta Mogiana region, in Sao Paulo state. "I'm concerned about running out of water in the coming months."One of the worst droughts to hit the country in decades is coming at a time when agricultural prices have rallied to multi-year highs, fanning fears of food inflation.
40 percent fruit crop loss after days of intense hailstorms hit Kashmir Valley, India - -Intense hailstorms affecting Kashmir Valley over the past couple of days have caused extensive losses to apple orchards and other fruit crops. While damage occurred almost everywhere in the valley, more than 40% of fruit crops were destroyed in the districts of Kulgam and Kupawara.After above normal maximum temperature during most of May 14, the weather suddenly changed in the evening, with strong winds, rain, and hailstorms in many parts of the valley.Manzoor Ahmad, a fruit grower from the Kulgam district said that the frequent hailstorm has left the entire community anguished as it has led to huge losses yet again."In the last couple of years, the growers have been suffering huge losses due to one reason or another," Ahmad told The Dispatch.Director Horticulture, Kashmir Aijaz Ahmad Dar told KNO that South Kashmir's Kulgam district and Handwara area in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district have suffered 40% losses due to the hailstorm.The worst-hit villages in the districts include Awgam, Zazripora, and Puniwah where damage to the maximum extent has taken place.Other areas where moderate hailstorm damage has been reported are Nowpora, Daderkoot, Checki Hanjan, Hanjan, Sheganpora, Sofipora, Akipora, Behibagh, Srandoo, Arreh, Mohammadpora, Tazipora, Khandypora, Batapora, Jadipora Dedipora, Shurath, Laroo, Kharvot, Sangus, Akipora, and Awhatoo.
Impressive hailstorm leaves 50 cm (1.6 feet) of ice on roads, causes severe damage to crops, Albania – - video - An impressive hailstorm lashed Shkodra in northern Albania on Friday, May 14, 2021, leaving about 0.5 m (1.6 feet) of ice on roads and causing severe damage to crops.The storm lasted for around 50 minutes, covering the entire city, as well as some surrounding areas. The hail caused problems to traffic for a few minutes but had a major impact on agricultural lands. In Kuc, Guri i Zi, the hail destroyed significant cultures of fruits and vegetables.
Czech Republic sees extreme snow as another Arctic front descends on Europe - Wide swaths of the Czech Republic, including Labska Bouda, have been buried in extreme snowfall this late in the season. The unseasonal winter weather conditions were brought by a cold Arctic air mass descending on Europe and keeping much of the continent under below-average temperatures.Extreme snowfall engulfed vast regions of the Czech Republic, including Labska Bouda in the Krkonose Mountains in mid-May.Jaroslav Palivoda, a snowplow driver in the area for almost 40 years, said he has only experienced this level of accumulation on three occasions and never this late in the season.Ales Hnizdo, operations director of Labska Bouda, pointed out that there has been "an extreme amount of snow" this year. The rare Czech snowfall was due to a descending Arctic air mass on Europe, which was swept unusually far south by a weak meridional jet stream flow. Meanwhile, weather forecasts suggest that northwest Russia will be swept by a cold blast as another powerful Arctic front engulfs much of the European continent.This setup is expected to persist for the rest of the month of May and may further intensify. Late-May frosts may hit major growing regions, such as France and Ukraine.Unprecedented snowfall is also forecast to cover the continent's higher elevations, including the northern UK.Record cold recently invaded parts of Europe in early April, following an unusually warm March which also saw historic temperatures.
Sydney records coldest run of May nights since 1967, Australia - A record-breaking cold snap is affecting eastern Australia this week, with Sydney, NSW recording its coldest run of May nights since 1967. The minimum temperatures in the city dropped to 8.6 °C (47 °F) on Thursday morning, May 20, 2021, marking the coldest run of May nights (5 in a row) since 1967, when the temperature fell below 9 °C (48 °F) for six nights in a row. According to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM), the past 5 days also marked the coldest run of nights this early in the year since 1955.The cold air mass that swept through northern parts of NSW on May 16 brought record low temperatures this early in May, including -7.5 °C (18.5 °F) in GlenInnes, -5.2 °C (22.6 °F) in Tenterfield, 2.5 °C (36.5 °F) in White Cliffs, and 5 °C (41 °F) in Ballina.The temperatures are expected to drop again on Friday morning, May 21, and continue over the weekend, with parts of NSW ranges dropping below freezing.Frosts are forecast across parts of the Southern Downs in Queensland, through the northern ranges of New South Wales, the ACT, northern Victoria, and Tasmania.Meanwhile, two cold fronts are expected to arrive this weekend in Western Australia's South West, bringing showers, possible storms, and even the potential for snow, BOM meteorologists said.The first front on Saturday, May 22 will bring widespread rain to the South West of the state, while the second cold front, arriving on Sunday, will be the coldest front experienced in WA this year.Snow is possible on Sunday night on Bluff Knoll in the Stirling Ranges. Temperatures will drop from 6 - 9 °C (11 - 16 °F) through inland parts of the southwest between Friday and Sunday. Perth will only get to a high of 19 °C (66 °F) on Sunday, 17 °C (62.6 °F) on Monday and cold conditions will continue throughout early next week. The wind chill will make it feel even colder, BOM said.Monday is forecast to be the coldest day. Katanning is expected to record the coldest temperature of 11 °C (51.8 °F), with several other places in the Great Southern expected to only reach 12 °C (53.6 °F).The coldest morning is forecast to be Tuesday, May 25. Areas in the Wheat Belt and Great Southern may only reach 2 - 3 °C (35.6 - 37.4 °F) overnight.A vigorous southerly air stream from the Southern Ocean is driving this early taste of winter, particularly with the second, stronger cold front. The last time we had snow was on September 21, 2020, at Bluff Knoll. Typically when snow falls in WA it's between July and September, but has arrived as early as April.
At 23 degrees, Delhi records lowest temperature in May since 1951 --A record 119.3 mm of rainfall pounded Delhi under the impact of cyclonic storm Tauktae and a western disturbance in 24 hours ending 8:30 am on Thursday, breaking all the previous records for May, the IMD said on Thursday. The city had also recorded a maximum temperature of 23.8 degrees Celsius on Wednesday, 16 notches below normal and the lowest in the month of May since 1951, it said. "A record 119.3 mm rain fell in Delhi between 8:30 am on Wednesday and 8:30 am on Thursday, which is a new record for May. The capital had recorded 60 mm rainfall in a 24-hour period on May 24 in 1976," an Kuldeep Srivastava, the head of India Meteorological Department's regional forecasting Centre said. The rainfall in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, northern Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand on Wednesday was a result of interaction between the remnant of cyclonic storm Tauktae and a western disturbance, the IMD said. Rainfall recorded below 15 mm is considered light, between 15 and 64.5 mm is moderate, between 64.5 mm and 115.5 mm is heavy, between 115.6 and 204.4 is very heavy. Anything above 204.4 mm is considered extremely heavy rainfall. R K Jenamani, senior scientist, national weather forecasting centre, said, "May remains generally dry. Normally, Delhi gets maximum of 30 mm or 40 mm (24-hour rainfall) in this month. The rain lasts only an hour or less. But this is completely different system coming from Arabian Sea and meeting with a western disturbance. Because the feature is rarest, so this much rain is not a surprise."
Delhi records highest 24-hr May rainfall on record and lowest May temperature since 1951 - Under the impact of remnants of Cyclonic Storm "Tauktae" and Western Disturbance, the Indian capital Delhi recorded 60 mm (2.36 inches) of rainfall from 08:30 to 20:30 LT on May 19, 2021 -- its highest 24-hour rainfall for the month of May since May 24, 1976.However, since there was more rain after 20:30 LT, 'the record has already been broken,' R K Jenamani, a senior scientist at India's weather forecasting center, said."May remains generally dry. Normally, Delhi gets a maximum of 30 mm or 40 mm (1.1 to 1.6 inches) of 24-hour rainfall in this month. The rain lasts only an hour or less. But this is a completely different system coming from the Arabian Sea and meeting with a Western Disturbance. Because the feature is rarest, so crossing 60 mm (2.36 inches) is no surprise," he said.The city also recorded a maximum temperature of 23.8 °C (74.8 °F) on the same day, 16 °C (28.8 °F) below normal and the lowest in the month of May since 1951, according to data provided by the India Meteorological Department (IMD). Tropical Cyclone "Tauktae" made landfall over the coast of Gujarat on May 17 with winds reaching 200 km/h (124 mph), making it the strongest cyclone to hit the region since 1998.Some 16 500 homes were damaged in Gujarat as the storm forced evacuations of more than 200 000 people and cut power for millions in the affected region.The death toll rose to 118 on May 20, with 37 confirmed deaths from a barge that sank off Mumbai and 81 more in other parts of India's western coast. 38 people who were on the barge are still missing.
Severe storms lash Texas and Louisiana, flood emergency declared -Severe storms lashed parts of Texas and Louisiana over the past days, prompting the National Weather Service (NWS) to declare a flash flood emergency. Widespread flooding was reported throughout Lake Charles, which saw its third wettest day on record on Monday, May 17, 2021. Multiple days of heavy rainfall will likely continue to cause considerable flash and urban flooding impacts across portions of eastern Texas, Oklahoma, western Arkansas, and extreme western Louisiana this week. New and renewed widespread minor to isolated major river flooding is expected, and will continue into next week on slow-to-drain rivers. Severe weather and heavy rains doused much of the southern Plains over the recent days, intensifying on Monday night. Hailstorms struck several areas in Texas late Sunday, May 16, with some stones exceeding 10 cm (4 inches) in diameter. In Lake Charles, more than 300 mm (11.8 inches) of rain was recorded in 24 hours ending Monday afternoon, making it the city's third wettest May day on record. A flash flood emergency has been issued for the city and surrounding areas. "This is a particularly dangerous situation. Seek higher ground now," the NWS warned. "The flash flooding throughout Lake Charles and Southwest Louisiana is dangerous and potentially life-threatening," Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards stated. The Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office also asked residents to stay off the roads. "CPSO has deployed high water vehicles and boats on both sides of the parish and we are prepared to handle any flood-related call we receive," said Sheriff Tony Mancuso. "We are urging all residents to be vigilant and keep an eye on the evolving weather situation. We are also urging residents to stay put and do not travel on the roadways; driving on the roadways at this time is putting yourself in danger, along with causing damage to other residents’ property from the rising water." By night, cities in Texas registered more than 254 mm (10 inches) of rain, with up to 406 mm (16 inches) reported in Fannett.Images and videos on social media showed homes, roads, and businesses inundated in the same areas hit by both hurricanes Laura and Delta in 2019.Heavy rains are expected to persist across the central and southern Plains this week, with the potential for substantial flooding.According to AccuWeather Meteorologist Jake Sojda, "The combination of high pressure over the Southeast and a storm in the Southwest are going to work together to funnel a lot of moisture into the southern and central Plains this week.""The flow out of the Gulf of Mexico will act as a fire hose, bringing a constant stream of moisture into the region for several days, leading to rounds of rain and thunderstorms each day."
Louisiana State of Emergency: Flooding Traps People in Baton Rouge; Hundreds of Lake Charles Homes Damaged --Widespread flooding that prompted Louisiana's governor to declare a state of emergency continues to cause problems Tuesday.Several streets in New Orleans were already impassable as were roadways in St. Charles Parish, according to WVUE.Overnight, a flash flood emergency was issued for the southeast Baton Rouge area, where radar estimated up to a foot of rain had fallen.Officials said first responders made more than 250 water rescues in East Baton Rouge Parish alone, according to WBRZ.St. George Fire Department crews rescued several people who drove into high water, spokesman Eldon Ledoux told The Advocate.The department also used boats to evacuate residents of the Siegen Calais apartments after floodwater entered first-floor apartments and swamped cars in the parking lot, WBRZ reported.Water also flowed into homes in Gonzales, southeast of Baton Rouge.East Baton Rouge Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome issued a disaster declaration about 2 a.m. Tuesday.The flooding also has forced a stretch of Interstate 10 south of Baton Rouge from Highland Road to Siegen Lane to close, according to the state Transportation Department. It remained closed Tuesday.More than 15,000 homes and businesses were without power in East Baton Rouge Parish on Tuesday morning, according to WBRZ.Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency Monday after flooding across the southwest corner of the state.Extensive flooding was reported throughout Lake Charles, which is still trying to recover from major damage caused by hurricanes Laura and Delta last year and an ice storm in February. More than a foot of rain was recorded at the airport, while nearly 18 inches was reported southwest of the city. Lake Charles Mayor Nic Hunter said the flooding affected hundreds of homes, some of which were damaged in last year's hurricanes.
Historic rainfall, significant flood threat continues for south-central U.S., at least 5 fatalities in Louisiana (videos) A widespread and significant flood risk continues across the south-central U.S. from repeated rounds of intense rain and strong to severe thunderstorms. Flash flood watches are in effect for a large part of the ArkLaTex. Officials in Louisiana said Tuesday they are investigating five deaths as weather-related after massive rains and widespread floods hit the region over the past couple of days.Three people died and one is still missing after their vehicles ended up submerged in floodwaters in different parts of the state, officials said. Two people died in a hospital after their oxygen machines failed during power outages.Lake Charles (population 75 000) was one of the worst affected this week, with more than 300 mm (11.8 inches) of rain recorded in 24 hours ending Monday afternoon, making it the city's third wettest May day on record. In just 2 hours, the city received about 152 mm (6 inches) of rain. A flash flood emergency has been issued for the city and surrounding areas.The city has received more than 406 mm (16 inches) as of May 19, which is nearly 6 times the average amount of rainfall during the first 18 days of the month, AccuWeather Meteorologist Jessica Storm said. Cities like Fannett and Ganado in Texas, received over 330 mm (13 inches) of rain early this week.While Houston, TX reported nearly twice its normal rainfall amount so far this May, New Orleans, LA has had nearly five times its normal rainfall."Moisture from the Western Gulf of Mexico will continue to flow across the Plains and Mississippi Valley through Friday, May 21," NWS forecaster Ziegenfelder said.The showers and thunderstorms will produce heavy rain over the region producing numerous areas of flash flooding. Additionally, the heavy rain may cause many streams and possibly larger rivers to flood.The main threats from severe thunderstorms are frequent lightning, severe thunderstorm wind gust, hail, and a few tornadoes.
Inslee, Murray, Cantwell reject Simpson's dam-breaching proposal -– After months of relative silence since Idaho Rep. Mike Simpson unveiled his proposal to breach the four Lower Snake River dams, on Friday Gov. Jay Inslee and Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell made their clearest statements yet rejecting the Idaho Republican’s plan to save Idaho’s dwindling salmon runs. Simpson, who represents most of Boise and the areas east of the Idaho capital, has been angling to include $33.5 billion to fund his proposal in an infrastructure package Congress is crafting, even if the details of the proposal would need to be hammered out in future legislation. But in a joint statement Friday morning, Inslee and Murray said they “do not believe the Simpson proposal can be included in the proposed federal infrastructure package.” “Regional collaboration on a comprehensive, long-term solution to protect and bring back salmon populations in the Columbia River Basin and throughout the Pacific Northwest is needed now more than ever,” Inslee and Murray wrote. “However, a solution must ensure those who rely on the river in the Basin and across the Pacific Northwest are part of the process.” Cantwell, who told The Spokesman-Review in March she didn’t think Simpson’s plan would be part of the infrastructure package, was not part of the joint statement. But in a statement to the Seattle Times, Cantwell joined her fellow Washington Democrats in opposing the GOP congressman’s pitch, though she suggested the infrastructure bill could include pieces of the Simpson proposal. “This proposal has some things we should focus on; diversifying beyond hydro is a great idea, planning for new investment is a great idea, but the rest is not well thought out enough at this point,” Cantwell said. Since Simpson released his proposal in February, it has shaken up the Northwest’s long-simmering “salmon wars.” It drove a wedge between otherwise simpatico GOP lawmakers, with Washington Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Dan Newhouse and Jaime Herrera Beutler taking a strong stance against the plan and Simpson’s collaboration with Oregon Democrats, including Gov. Kate Brown and Rep. Earl Blumenauer.
Major damage after worst flooding in 11 years hits Cuenca, Ecuador - Severe floods swept through Cuenca, capital of Azuay Province in Ecuador on Saturday, May 15, 2021, resulting in major damage that affected around 500 people. According to authorities, it was the worst flood the area has seen since 2010.Nearly 70 homes were damaged or destroyed by floodwaters more than 1 m (3 feet) deep, affecting around 500 people from 100 families, the National Risk and Emergency Management Service (SNGRE) reported.Three of Cuenca's rivers burst their banks on Saturday afternoon, with the Rio Tarqui registering historic levels. Tarqui River reached 249 cubic m (8 793 cubic feet) on the weekend, which was its highest since 2010, when it hit 200 cubic m (7 062 feet), according to the Hydrometeorological Network of the Municipal Company Etapa."This is the worst natural disaster we have faced in years and our police, firefighters and public utility personnel are doing all they can to protect human life, livestock, and property," said Cuenca Mayor Pedro Palacios. Emergency teams reported making nearly 100 rescues through Sunday.
Severe flooding hits Brazil as Amazon rivers rise to near-record levels -- Heavy rains in Brazil's Amazon rainforest have triggered the rise of rivers to near-record levels, flooding towns and threatening Manaus City. According to authorities, the water level at the Rio Negro is the third-highest in history and may surpass the record 2012 flood.More than 400 000 residents have been affected by flooding, said the Civil Defense, many of whom were evacuated as the water levels increased.The Rio Negro was rising by around 3 cm (1.2 inches) per day and as of Monday, May 17, 2021, streets in Manaus were submerged underwater."The water level is the third highest in the history of the city. If it continues like this, it will pass the record 2012 flood," said mayoral spokesman Emerson Quaresma.Philip Fearnside, an ecologist at the National Institute of Amazonian Research in Manaus, said climate change has brought heavy rainy years and dry years, impacting farming. Amazon deforestation may also contribute to long-term changes but does not affect rainfall year to year, he added.Authorities have built wooden walkways for pedestrians to access the Manaus market as the area is engulfed in floodwater.Small riverside towns, including Anama, have been totally inundated, forcing residents to evacuate. In Manaus, homes of 4 700 families are in danger.
Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm "Tauktae" makes landfall over the coast of Gujarat, India - Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm "Tauktae" has started to make landfall over the coast of Saurashtra, Gujarat, India at around 15:00 UTC on May 17, 2021. This is the first named storm of the 2021 North Indian Ocean cyclone season and the strongest to hit Gujarat since 1998."The forward sector of the eye is entering into the land. The center of the cyclone will cross the Saurashtra coast to the east of Diu within the next 3 hours. Outer cloud band lies over Saurashtra," the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said 15:46 UTC. At the time of landfall, the system had maximum intensity near the center of 165 - 175 km/h (100 - 110 mph), gusting to 195 km/h (120 mph), according to the IMD. At 11:00 UTC, Takutae's maximum 3-minute sustained winds were 195 km/h (120 mph), gusting up to 215 km/h (130 mph). Maximum 1-minute sustained winds were at 215 km/h (130 mph). The system's central barometric pressure was 950 hPa. It was moving N at 13 km/h (8.1 mph). Heavy to very heavy rainfall is continuing over north Konkan, including Mumbai, and will continue for the next 12 hours, Rainfall reported from 03:00 to 12:00 UTC today: Mumbai (Colaba) 189 mm (7.44 inches), Santacruz 194 mm (7.63 inches), Alibag 105 mm (4.13 inches), and Dahanu: 73 mm (2.87 inches).
Tropical Cyclone Tauktae Is Fifth-Strongest Cyclone on Record in the Arabian Sea --Extremely dangerous Tropical Cyclone Tauktae made landfall in western India's Gujarat coast on the Arabian Sea around 1:30 p.m. EDT (1730 UTC), May 17.In its last advisory just after landfall, at 18 UTC, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) rated Tauktae a major category 3 storm with 125 mph winds (1-minute average). At 9 UTC, the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the official agency responsible for issuing tropical cyclone forecasts in the Indian Ocean, rated Tauktae an "extremely severe cyclonic storm" with peak winds of 115 mph (three-minute average), and a central pressure of 950 mb.Satellite imagery (see Tweet by Scott Bachmeier) showed that Tauktae's structure had changed markedly just before landfall, with the eye growing more distinct and the thunderstorms in the eyewall growing more intense, with colder cloud tops.As of 11 a.m. EDT May 17, ANI reported that Tauktae had killed six and injured nine in India. A barge owned by the state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), moored to an oil drilling platform in the Heera oil fields (110 miles west-northwest of Mumbai), capsized on Monday, after breaking its mooring. Satellite imagery suggests that the eye of Tauktae passed directly over the site. Working in "challenging conditions," two ships have saved 88 of the 273 people on board the barge; recovery efforts continue. The cyclone likely brought severe wind damage where the eyewall winds hit, a portion of the coast not heavy populated by India's standards. The largest city in the region, Diu (population 52,000), recorded a wind gust of 83 mph (133 kph) in the weaker western eyewall of Tauktae at 12:30 EDT (9:30 p.m. local time). The winds were strong enough to bring down a cell phone tower in the nearby city of Una, Chintan Gandhi reported in a Tweet.0 Perhaps the biggest threat from Tauktae is its storm surge, a threat that will continue for many hours past landfall. The Gulf of Khambhat, to the east of Tauktae's landfall location, is a funnel-shaped bay, ideal for concentrating storm surge water. IMD predicted that the storm surge could reach four meters (13 feet) at the head of the bay. Heavy rains causing flashing flooding and river flooding will also be a major concern all across northwestern India through Tuesday. Evacuation and recovery efforts for Tauktae's impact are sure to complicate India's ongoing severe COVID-19 pandemic in the region.
New tropical cyclone forming in the Bay of Bengal -- Just several days after the very destructive Tropical Cyclone "Tauktae" hit India, claiming the lives of more than 100 people, another tropical cyclone is brewing in the Bay of Bengal. The new cyclone is expected to form by May 24 and be named Yaas, the 2nd named storm of the 2021 North Indian Ocean cyclone season. Forecast models indicate the cyclone will reach the Odisha - West Bengal coast on May 26 and make landfall somewhere in the region. A low pressure area (LPA) is likely to form over the east-central Bay of Bengal and adjoining north Andaman Sea around May 22, intensify into a depression on May 23, and into a cyclonic storm by May 24, RSMC New Delhi said on May 21. The cyclone is very likely to move NW and reach near Odisha - West Bengal coast on the morning (LT) of May 26. While most of the numerical models, including IMD, NCEP, ECMWF, and NCUM, are indicating the formation of LPA around May 22 and intensification up to the Very Severe Cyclonic Storm category, there is still a large divergence concerning landfall location. The mean model guidance currently indicates that the system would reach the Odisha - West Bengal coasts on the morning of May 26 (LT).
Subtropical Storm Ana, First Named Storm of Atlantic Hurricane Season, Forms Near Bermuda --Subtropical Storm Ana has formed near Bermuda, starting the Atlantic hurricane season off to an early start for the seventh straight year. An area of low pressure became better organized overnight Friday into Saturday and the National Hurricane Center (NHC) initiated advisories Saturday morning. Ana is moving toward the west-southwest and is expected to have a slow and erratic motion through Saturday night. Little change in strength is anticipated today but gradual weakening will likely begin. The system is a subtropical cyclone since it is still entangled with an upper-level low but it does have some tropical characteristics. A subtropical storm has features of both tropical and non-tropical systems, including a broad wind field, no cold or warm fronts, and generally low-topped thunderstorms displaced from the center of the system. They are named from the same list the NHC uses for tropical storms and hurricanes. Ana's track may bring Bermuda some bands of rain and gusty winds, but overall, impacts should be minimal. It will not threaten any other land areas during its existence. A tropical storm watch has been issued for Bermuda, meaning sustained winds of 40 mph are possible as this system sweeps by. Ana is forecast to be short-lived and should meet its demise as it moves back northeastward into the north Atlantic Ocean later this weekend or early next week. Hurricane season in the Atlantic officially begins June 1, but this is the seventh season to have at least one named storm form before that date. The June 1 through Nov. 30 start and end dates for hurricane season were selected to encompass 97% of all Atlantic tropical storms and hurricanes, according to NOAA's Hurricane Research Division. Since 2015, at least one named storm has developed before June 1 each hurricane season, some of which have had impacts in the United States and elsewhere in the Atlantic Basin.The National Hurricane Center has not yet adjusted the start of hurricane season earlier to account for these pre-season storms. However, this year they began issuing routine Atlantic tropical weather outlooks on May 15, rather than June 1.
Hurricane Season Spurs Hog Waste Worries in North Carolina --As North Carolina heads into another hurricane season, some residents and organizations fear the stormy season will again flood communities with hog waste.The state's hog waste management works by funneling feces, urine, and blood from hog farms into massive open waste lagoons, which let off foul odors and methane gas. When the lagoons become full, the waste water is often sprayed onto fields as nutrients for crops. The waste, which contains harmful bacteria like E. coli or salmonella, can wash off into local waterways and cause groundwater contamination and fish kills.Hurricanes hasten this pollution. In 1999, Hurricane Floyd swept through the region, causing significant damage to swine operations and flooding waste lagoons.In 2018, Hurricane Florence hit, leading to damage or flooding in at least 110 lagoons and putting the problem of hog waste on full display once again."There is nothing outdated about the lagoon and sprayfield system," said CEO of the North Carolina Pork Producers Council, Roy Lee Lindsey in a statement to EHN. "It remains the most sustainable manner for us to manage our farms."But the state, environmental advocates, and community members disagree. And Will Hendrick, environmental justice advocate for the North Carolina Conservation Network and staff attorney with the Waterkeeper Alliance's Pure Farms program, told EHN the industry has not made "meaningful changes" in response to increasingly frequent and severe storms.Meanwhile, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is predicting a higher than averagehurricane season for North Carolina in 2021. On the Atlantic coast the agency estimates 16 to 20 major named storms, seven to 10 hurricanes, and three to five major hurricanes.
Deadly dust storms hit Karachi, Pakistan - Severe dust storms and heavy rains struck parts of Karachi, Pakistan, on Tuesday, May 18, 2021, resulting in at least four fatalities and damaged properties. The storms came amid a severe heat spell in the city and the onslaught of Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm "Tauktae" which made landfall in India.Parts of Karachi-- Pakistan's largest city-- have been impacted by dust storms and heavy rains on Tuesday as temperatures rocketed to 43 °C (109 °F) and Tauktae lashed coastal areas in Sindh.At least four fatalities have been reported. In Dabba Colony, a man and a woman died when strong winds caused roofs to collapse. Among the fatalities was a 10-year-old child who was hit by a collapsed wall at the Sher Shah Muhammadi. The fourth casualty was reported in Baladia No. 14.Two people were also injured in separate incidents when strong winds felled a billboard at the Rashid Minhas Road.Power outages were reported in North Nazimabad, Nazimabad, New Karachi, Federal B Area, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Scheme 33, Surjani Town, Orangi, Korangi, Landhi, Malir Shah Faisal, and Gadap.According to the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD), the dust storms were caused by the influence of the cyclone, combined with local weather conditions.Meanwhile, Tauktae has killed at least 40 people since it made landfall in Gujarat, India, on Monday night. It is expected to weaken further on Wednesday, May 19, as it moves north into Rajasthan state.
Moscow swelters through record May heat, Russia ago -Russian capital Moscow has smashed heat temperature records over 100 years old for the second consecutive day on Tuesday, May 18, 2021. The city saw 29.2 C (84.6 °F), beating the previous record set in 1897. Tuesday's record temperature came one day after temperatures broke the May 17 record, with 30.4 °C (85.7 °F) beating the past record of 30 °C (86 °F) set in 1897. The rest of European Russia also set dozens of heat records, with temperatures averaging 7 to 14 °C (12.6 to 25.5 °F) higher than the usual, while abnormal heat lingered in the Urals and the Volga regions for about a week. On Wednesday, May 19, temperatures reached more than 30 ºC (86 ºF) in the Arctic Circle, with the western Russian Arctic now 20 to 24 ºC (36 to 43.2 ºF) hotter than normal for this time of May. Further east, in Salekhard, meteorologists forecast the heat to climb to 26 °C (78.8 °F) by Friday, May 21.
Forest fires from last summer rekindle in Siberia, sparking wildfire season early this year - Siberia has started seeing the first forest fires of 2021 this May as wildfires that have not been extinguished since last summer rekindle, becoming the so-called 'zombie' fires. Meteorologists forecast 'red heat' or above average air temperatures from May to July, exacerbating the fires.Fires that have not been contained last summer have continued to smolder and are rekindled amid milder temperatures and drier weather in Siberia.The zombie wildfires, which have been triggered by an intense spring heatwave this year, kicked off the country's wildfire season early this year.Some parts of the country have already reported a record number of wildfires as smoke plumes from some blazes have drifted across half the nation, even extending as far as Finland.In late April, the Omsk region saw a record-high number of wildfires, with a day registering nearly a thousand new cases. In Novosibirsk, a thick cloud of smoke caused zero visibility and poor air quality.The Siberian Times also reported that 50 houses were destroyed in the area, as well as another 27 in Kemerovo, with more destruction in other surrounding districts. As summer approaches, Siberian wildfires are not showing signs of slowing down and are even sparking in colder areas in the north. On May 2, images gathered by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites show a group of wildfires near Oymyakon, a rural area known as one of the coldest places on Earth. Other satellite images show fire hotspots growing among snowy landscapes.Roman Vilfand, the scientific director of the Hydrometeorological Center, warned that in the Northern Hemisphere, the average air temperatures from May to July will be above normal, with a "red heat" likely to occur from May to July. This may lead to new wildfires across the country."This is not a definitive forecast. Here are the concepts: above the norm, below the norm, the norm. Everywhere in the Northern Hemisphere, it is painted over in red, which corresponds to the probability of more than 70 percent that the class will be above normal."
Another Dangerous Fire Season is Looming in the Western U.S., and the Drought-Stricken Region is Headed for a Water Crisis - Just about every indicator of drought is flashing red across the western U.S. after a dry winter and warm early spring. The snowpack is at less than half of normal in much of the region. Reservoirs are being drawn down, river levels are dropping and soils are drying out. It’s only May, and states are already considering water use restrictions to make the supply last longer. California’s governor declared a drought emergency in 41 of 58 counties. In Utah, irrigation water providers are increasing fines for overuse. Some Idaho ranchers are talking about selling off livestock because rivers and reservoirs they rely on are dangerously low and irrigation demand for farms is only just beginning. Scientists are also closely watching the impact that the rapid warming and drying is having on trees, worried that water stress could lead to widespread tree deaths. Dead and drying vegetation means more fuel for what is already expected to be another dangerous The U.S. Several types of drought are converging in the West this year, and all are at or near record levels.When too little rain and snow falls, it’s known as meteorological drought. In April, precipitation across large parts of the West was less than 10% of normal, and the lack of rain continued into May.Rivers, lakes, streams and groundwater can get into what’s known as hydrological drought when their water levels fall. Many states are now warning about low streamflow after a winter with less-than-normal snowfall and warm spring temperatures in early 2021 speeding up melting. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said Lake Mead, a giant Colorado River reservoir that provides water for millions of people, is on pace to fall to levels in June that could trigger the first federal water shortage declaration, with water use restrictions across the region.Dwindling soil moisture leads to another problem, known as agricultural drought. The average soil moisture levels in the western U.S. in April were at or near their lowest levels in over 120 years of observations.
Wildfires burning at extremely dangerous levels across Manitoba, Canada - Wildfires are blazing out of control across Manitoba, Canada, some of which have caused evacuations. As of Wednesday, May 19, 2021, the government reported 12 fires at extremely dangerous levels, prompting air-quality warnings for the western and central areas due to smoke.The biggest fire reported is in Homebrook, estimated to be 144 000 ha (355 800 acres), more than 80 km (50 miles) long, and roughly 16 km (10 miles) wide at its widest point."Important value protection efforts [are] underway to preserve the Manitoba Hydro Bi Pole Lines 1 and 2," the Manitoba Government wrote on its 10th Fire Bulletin.Smoke from the fire could affect a number of communities in the area, including Grand Rapids, Misapawistik Cree Nation, Homebrook, Skownan First Nation, Waterhen, Mallard, and Gypsumville.The third biggest fire is reported in the Spruce Woods Provincial Park, estimated at 5 600 ha (13 800 acres), which prompted a local state of emergency in the rural municipality of North Cypress and Carberry. "There is also potential for smoke to affect Spruce Woods Provincial Park and Swan Lake First Nation," wrote the government. "The Spirit Sands Trails in the Carberry desert are closed.""Hikers are urged to avoid the area and should not ignore closed trail signs. The suppression effort continues jointly between the Department of National Defence from Shilo, Manitoba Wildfire Service, and local authorities."
Significant eruption at Sangay volcano with ash to 12.2 km (40 000 feet) a.s.l., Ecuador - A significant eruption took place at Sangay volcano, Ecuador at 09:40 UTC on Sunday, May 16, 2021, with ash moving north to an estimated height of 12.2 km (40 000 feet) a.s.l., according to the Washington VAAC. The farthest volcanic ash at 11:00 UTC was 55 km (35 miles) to the north, the center said. A significant eruption took place at Sangay volcano, Ecuador at 09:40 UTC on Sunday, May 16, 2021, with ash moving north to an estimated height of 12.2 km (40 000 feet) a.s.l., according to the Washington VAAC. The farthest volcanic ash at 11:00 UTC was 55 km (35 miles) to the north, the center said. Two clouds of ash are seen rising from the Sangay volcano in satellite imagery acquired on May 16, Ecuadors' Geophysical Institute (IGEPN) said. The main column is directed towards the north, which could potentially generate slight ashfalls in the provinces of Morona Santiago, Tungurahua, and possibly Chimborazo and Cotopaxi. This phenomenon has been persistent within the current eruptive period that began in May 2019, the institute added. On May 15, IGEPN said they received signals associated with mud and debris flows and warned the local population that heavy rains could remobilize accumulated material, generating mud and debris flows that would descend the flanks of the volcano and flow into adjacent rivers. The last significant explosive eruption at Sangay took place from 08:15 to 10:45 UTC on March 11, 2021. According to the Washington VAAC, volcanic ash rose to 12.5 km (41 000 feet) above sea level, and was extending up to 46 km (29 miles) in all quadrants as of 10:50 UTC, with additional volcanic ash up to 12.5 km possible up to 111 km (70 miles) W of the summit.
Ash produced by Sangay volcano rising up to 9.5 km (31 000 feet) a.s.l., Ecuador -- (animated satellite view) A new volcanic ash emission produced by Sangay volcano, Ecuador is rising to an estimated height of 9.5 km (31 000 feet) above sea level as of 08:40 UTC on May 20, 2021, according to data provided by the Washington VAAC.The ash is moving SW and was extending about 111 km (69 miles) from the summit at 09:30 UTC. Another volcanic ash emission up to 7.6 km (25 000 feet) a.s.l. is moving S and SE, and extending 75 - 110 km (46 - 68 miles) from the summit.The activity could potentially generate slight ash falls in the provinces of Morona Santiago, Chimborazo, and Azogues, Ecuador's Geophysical Institute (IG) warns."This phenomenon has been persistent within the current eruptive period that began in May 2019. It is recommended to take pertinent measures and receive the information from official sources," IG volcanologists said.A significant eruption took place at the volcano at 09:40 UTC on Sunday, May 16, 2021, with ash moving north to an estimated height of 12.2 km (40 000 feet) a.s.l. On May 15, IGEPN said they received signals associated with mud and debris flows and warned the local population that heavy rains could remobilize accumulated material, generating mud and debris flows that would descend the flanks of the volcano and flow into adjacent rivers.
Strong eruption with large lava fountaining at Sangay volcano, Ecuador - Volcanic activity at Sangay volcano, Ecuador increased significantly at 00:20 UTC on May 22, 2021, producing strong paroxysmal eruptive episode 500 - 1 000 m (1 640 - 3 300 feet) from the crater. The Aviation Color Code was raised to Red at 00:40 UTC and lowered back to Orange at 05:20.Ash plume rose up to 9.1 km (30 000 feet) above sea level, drifting SE, W, and SW.Slight ashfall was reported in the parishes of Alausí, Tixán, Sibambe, and very slight in Achupallas. The seismic tremor started decreasing at 01:30 UTC.Ash emissions ended at 02:30 UTC but IG warned slight ashfall is still possible in the provinces of Chimborazo, Bolívar, Los Ríos, Guayas, Cañar and Azuay.
Etna volcano erupts again after 6 weeks of relative calm, Italy - Strong Eruption at Stromboli volcano, pyroclastic flow reaches the coastline, Italyactivity resumed at Etna's Southeast Crater at 00:21 UTC on May 19, 2021, and evolved into the 18th paroxysmal eruptive episode since February 16 and the first since April 1. The entire event lasted about 5 hours.Strombolian activity intensified at 00:34 UTC today, with a sudden increase of volcanic tremor to high values and ash emissions toward the E. The source of the tremor was localized near the Southeast Crater at a depth of about 2.5 km (1.5 miles) above sea level.The activity continued intensifying and evolved into a new paroxysmal episode at around 01:17 UTC, producing a small lava flow at 02:35 UTC.The Aviation Color Code was raised to Red at 01:21 UTC for the first time since April 1.The volcanic ash emissions rose up to 6 km (20 000 feet) a.s.l. at 02:38 UTC.Lava fountaining ended around 05:16 UTC, while the small lava flow that expanded in the SW direction appeared to be poorly feed.Volcanic tremors started decreasing at the time, settling at average levels at depths between 2.8 - 2.9 km (1.7 - 1.8 miles) a.s.l.The Aviation Color Code was lowered to Orange at 05:19 UTC.
Another episode of lava fountaining at Etna, Italy - Strombolian activity increased again at Etna's Southeast Crater at 23:34 UTC on May 20, 2021, with the eruptive cloud moving in the SE direction. The Aviation Color Code was raised to Red at 00:58 UTC on May 21 and lowered back to Orange at 03:07. The volcanic ash cloud rose to an estimated height of 6 km (20 000 feet) a.s.l.At around 01:04 UTC on May 21, strombolian activity evolved into lava fountaining -- the 19thparoxysmal eruptive episode since February 16, just 48 hours after the 18th.Lava fountaining lasted through 02:54 UTC, producing a small lava flow toward the SW. "Lava flow is cooling down and the amplitude of volcanic tremor returned to low values, comparable to those that preceded lava fountaining," INGV said at 06:33 UTC.
Eruption at Stromboli volcano, pyroclastic flow reaches the coastline, Italy - A notable increase in explosive activity started at Stromboli volcano, Italy at around 12:47 UTC on May 19, 2021, followed by a pyroclastic flow at 12:51 UTC that reached the coastline and traveled 1 km (0.62 miles) over the sea. Explosive activity at the volcano started on May 17, when the Aviation Color Code was raised from Yellow to Orange.A volcanic ash cloud reaching an estimated height of about 1.5 to 2 km (4 900 - 6 500 feet) above sea level was generated during the event.Other lower intensity pyroclastic flows occurred from 13:02 to 13:35 UTC, producing modest clouds of ash, INGV reports. A more intense explosive activity was observed during these events. A flyover is underway with the firefighter helicopter to acquire further information on the phenomenon in progress, INGV said at 14:33 UTC. A new eruption and the 18th paroxysmal eruptive episode since February 16 was also observed at Etna volcano earlier today. Stromboli, the NE-most of the Aeolian Islands, has lent its name to the frequent mild explosive activity that has characterized its eruptions throughout much of historical time. The small, 924-m-high (3 031 feet) island is the emergent summit of a volcano that grew in two main eruptive cycles, the last of which formed the western portion of the island.
Mount Nyiragongo erupts, causing nearby residents to flee in panic, DR Congo - Mount Nyiragongo in the Democratic Republic of Congo started erupting at around 17:15 UTC on May 22, 2021, producing high lava fountains and lava flows that forced nearby residents to evacuate in panic.According to local media reports, many residents of the nearby city of Goma (population 670 000) grabbed their belongings and evacuated toward neighboring Rwanda.Red glow filled the sky above the city, sending panicked residents fleeing, Reuters reported.Volcanologist Dario Tedesco said Goma does not appear to be at risk because lava is flowing east in the direction of the Rwandan border.According to Reuters, Tedesco earlier said he thought lava might hit Goma, but later he said this was not the case.A source at the United Nations said their helicopter overflew the erupting volcano, adding that lava is not flowing toward Goma or any major population center.
Newly-discovered asteroid 2021 JU6 flew past Earth at 0.17 LD --
A newly-discovered asteroid designated 2021 JU6 flew past Earth at a distance of 0.17 LD / 0.00044 AU (65 820 km / 40 900 miles) from the center of our planet at 15:01 UTC on May 14, 2021. This is the 57th known asteroid to fly by Earth within 1 lunar distance since the start of the year and the 6th so far this month. 2021 JU6 was first observed at Palomar Mountain -- ZTF, California on May 14, on the same day it made its close approach to our planet. The object belongs to the Apollo group of asteroids and has an estimated diameter between 8.9 and 20 m (29 - 65 feet).
Climate Emissions Shrinking the Stratosphere, Scientists Reveal -- Humanity’s enormous emissions of greenhouse gases are shrinking the stratosphere, a new study has revealed. The thickness of the atmospheric layer has contracted by 400 metres since the 1980s, the researchers found, and will thin by about another kilometre by 2080 without major cuts in emissions. The changes have the potential to affect satellite operations, the GPS navigation system and radio communications. The discovery is the latest to show the profound impact of humans on the planet. In April, scientists showed that the climate crisis had shifted the Earth’s axis as the massive melting of glaciers redistributes weight around the globe. The stratosphere extends from about 20km to 60km above the Earth’s surface. Below is the troposphere, in which humans live, and here carbon dioxide heats and expands the air. This pushes up the lower boundary of the stratosphere. But, in addition, when CO2 enters the stratosphere it actually cools the air, causing it to contract. The shrinking stratosphere is a stark signal of the climate emergency and the planetary-scale influence that humanity now exerts, according to Juan Añel, at the University of Vigo, Ourense in Spain and part of the research team. “It is shocking,” he said. “This proves we are messing with the atmosphere up to 60 kilometres.” Scientists already knew the troposphere was growing in height as carbon emissions rose and had hypothesised that the stratosphere was shrinking. But the new study is the first to demonstrate this and shows it has been contracting around the globe since at least the 1980s, when satellite data was first gathered. The ozone layer that absorbs UV rays from the sun is in the stratosphere and researchers had thought ozone losses in recent decades could be to blame for the shrinking. Less ozone means less heating in the stratosphere. But the new research shows it is the rise of CO2 that is behind the steady contraction of the stratosphere, not ozone levels, which started to rebound after the 1989 Montreal treaty banned CFCs.The study, published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, reached its conclusions using the small set of satellite observations taken since the 1980s in combination with multiple climate models, which included the complex chemical interactions that occur in the atmosphere.
Arctic warming three times faster than planet as a whole: research - A new report reveals that the Arctic is warming at a faster pace than the rest of the Earth and could experience its first summer without any sea ice by 2050 under most scenarios where the world is unable to limit climate change.The study, released by the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), found that the "vast majority" of climate models predict that the Arctic would begin experiencing summers in which all sea ice in the region melts away by 2050. The Arctic region has also warmed by more than 3 degrees Celsius since 1979, according to the report, compared to about 1 degree Celsius for the world as a whole. The likelihood of such an event occurring, which has not happened in recorded human history, becomes 10-times greater once the Earth warms past 1.5 degrees Celsius, which it is expected to do even if the goal of the Paris climate accord is met in full. "Because the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and some emissions of short-lived climate forcers, are driving Arctic climate change, the Arctic States, Permanent Participants, and observers to the Arctic Council should individually and collectively lead sustained, ambitious, and global efforts to reduce these emissions and fully implement the Paris Agreement," advise the report's authors. "Changes in the Arctic have global implications. The rapid mass loss of the Greenland ice sheet and other Arctic land ice contributes more to global sea level rise than does the melting of ice in Antarctica," the report continued. Sea level rise poses a major threat to coastal communities around the world. It is currently estimated that at least 300 million people live on land that will flood at least once a year by 2050 due to sea level rise.
Arctic Warming 3x Faster Than Earth's Average Rate, Study Finds -- Over the past five decades, the Arctic has warmed three times faster than the world as a whole, leading to rapid and widespread melting of ice and other far-reaching consequences that are important not only to local communities and ecosystems but to the fate of life on planet Earth.The Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP) issued that warning on Thursday in a new report that summarizes the latest findings on Arctic change and projections of future transformations under different climate scenarios. The publication of AMAP's report coincides with this week's meeting of the Arctic Council in Reykjavík, Iceland, which brings together policymakers from countries bordering the region.According to the report, the Arctic's annual mean surface temperature surged by 3.1ºC between 1971 and 2019, compared with a 1ºC rise in the global average during the same time period. Arctic warming has been accompanied by a decrease in snow cover and sea and land ice; an increase in permafrost thaw and rainfall; and an uptick in extreme events. "The Arctic is a real hotspot for climate warming," Jason Box, a glaciologist at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, told Agence France-Presse on Thursday. "No one on Earth is immune to Arctic warming," the report said. "The rapid mass loss of the Greenland ice sheet and other Arctic land ice contributes more to global sea-level rise than does the melting of ice in Antarctica."Some projections estimate that by 2050, 150 million people worldwide will be displaced from their homes just by rising sea levels.Without an adequate international effort to slash greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, that number could be far higher.According to the report, the latest climate models indicate that "annual mean surface air temperatures in the Arctic will rise to 3.3–10°C above the 1985–2014 average by 2100, depending on the course of future emissions.""Under most emission scenarios," the report said, "the vast majority" of climate models "project the first instance of a largely sea-ice-free Arctic in September occurring before 2050," and possibly as early as 2040.Because each fraction of a degree of warming makes a difference, the stakes for adequate climate action are immense.If the global temperature rises to 2°C above pre-industrial levels, the report pointed out, an ice-free Arctic summer is 10 times more likely than if planetary heating is limited to 1.5ºC, the more ambitious target of the Paris agreement.
World’s largest iceberg forms in Antarctica -- Al Jazeera --A giant slab of ice has calved from the frozen edge of Antarctica into the Weddell Sea, becoming the largest iceberg afloat in the world, according to the European Space Agency. The iceberg, dubbed A-76, is about 4,320km square (1,668 sq miles) and is slightly larger than the Spanish island of Mallorca, ESA said in a statement on Wednesday. It is 175km (106 miles) long and 25km (15 miles) wide. The world’s second-largest iceberg is also located in the Weddell Sea – the A-23A, which is approximately 3,880km square (1,305sq miles). Scientists spotted the A-76 in recent satellite images captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission. ESA said the iceberg had broken away from the western side of Antarctica’s Ronne Ice Shelf, which is near the base of the Antarctic Peninsula. Ronne is one of the largest floating ice sheets that connect to the continent’s landmass and extend out into surrounding seas. Periodic calving of large chunks of those shelves is part of a natural cycle, said Ted Scambos, a research glaciologist at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and the breaking off of A-76 is not linked to climate change. Because the ice was already floating in the sea before dislodging from the coast, its break-away does not raise ocean levels, he said in an email. Some ice shelves along the Antarctic Peninsula, farther from the South Pole, have undergone rapid disintegration in recent years, a phenomenon scientists believe may be related to global warming, according to the US National Snow & Ice Data Center.
Massive iceberg 4 times the size of NYC breaks off in Antarctica - -- The world's largest iceberg, estimated to be 80 times the size of Manhattan, has broken off from Antarctica. The iceberg, called A-76, measures about 105 miles in length and is over 15 miles wide. It broke from the western side of Ronne Ice Shelf in Antarctica's Weddell Sea, the European Space Agency said. The iceberg is slightly larger than the Spanish island of Majorca and four times the size of New York City, the ESA said. The iceberg's break from Antarctica is not attributed to climate change. Scientists say it's part of a natural cycle, CNN reported. The massive berg was first spotted last week by a polar oceanographer with the British Antarctic Survey. When it melts, the iceberg won't raise sea levels because it was part of a floating ice shelf already in the ocean. By contrast, chunks that break off Antarctica's ice sheet, which is on land, would raise the sea level. Last month, a Harvard study said a possible collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which has been associated with global sea-level rise, has been underestimated. One simulation showed that global sea rise caused by the melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet could increase 20% by the year 2100.
Climate disasters ‘caused more internal displacement than war’ in 2020 - Intense storms and flooding triggered three times more displacements than violent conflicts did last year, as the number of people internally displaced worldwide hit the highest level on record.There were at least 55 million internally displaced people (IDPs) by the end of last year, according to figures published by the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC).There were more than twice as many people displaced within their own country as forced out of their country as refugees, the IDMC said. The number is the highest on record, but in line with its steady rise over the past decade.During a year that was the warmest on record, 5 million more people were displaced than in 2019.In total, about 48 million people have been uprooted from their homes as a result of conflict and violence, while 7 million have been displaced by disasters. The IDMC said the latter was likely to be a significant underestimate due to incomplete data.About 20 million IDPs were children aged under 15 and 2.6 million were over 65. Most live in low- and middle-income countries.The IDMC report said: “Every year, millions of people are forced to flee their homes because of conflict and violence. Disasters and the effects of climate change regularly trigger new and secondary displacement, undermining people’s security and wellbeing.“The scale of displacement worldwide is increasing, and most of it is happening within countries’ borders.”
Nations Must Drop Fossil Fuels, Fast, World Energy Body Warns - The New York Times - Nations around the world would need to immediately stop approving new coal-fired power plants and new oil and gas fields and quickly phase out gasoline-powered vehicles if they want to avert the most catastrophic effects of climate change, the world’s leading energy agency said Tuesday. In a sweeping new report, the International Energy Agency issued a detailed road map of what it would take for the world’s nations to slash carbon dioxide emissions to net zero by 2050. That would very likely keep the average global temperature from increasing1.5 Celsius above preindustrial levels — the threshold beyond which scientists say the Earth faces irreversible damage. While academics and environmentalists have made similar recommendations before, this is the first time the International Energy Agency has outlined ways to accomplish such drastic cuts in emissions. That’s significant, given the fact that the influential agency is not an environmental group but an international organization that advises world capitals on energy policy. Formed after the oil crises of the 1970s, the agency’s reports and forecasts are frequently cited by energy companies and investors as a basis for long-term planning. “It’s a huge shift in messaging if they’re saying there’s no need to invest in new fossil fuel supply,” said Kelly Trout, senior research analyst at Oil Change International, an environmental advocacy group. Several major economies, including the United States and theEuropean Union, have recently pledged to zero out their emissions responsible for global warming by midcentury. But many world leaders have not yet come to grips with the extraordinary transformation of the global energy system that is required to do so, the agency warned. “The sheer magnitude of changes needed to get to net zero emissions by 2050 is still not fully understood by many governments and investors,” Fatih Birol, the agency’s executive director, said in an interview.
Scrap sale of gasoline cars and stop investing in fossil fuels to meet net-zero targets, IEA says - The world's pathway to developing an energy sector with net-zero emissions by the middle of the century is a viable but narrow one, the International Energy Agency said Tuesday. In a statement released alongside the publication of a major new report, the Paris-based organization said achieving the net-zero target would require an "unprecedented transformation of how energy is produced, transported and used globally." And, in a stark sign of how much work needs to be done, the IEA's report said current pledges fell "well short of what is necessary to reach net‐zero emissions globally by 2050." According to the IEA's roadmap to net-zero, over 400 "milestones" will need to be achieved if the 2050 goal is to be met. These include scrapping new sales of fossil fuel boilers by 2025 and ending sales of new internal combustion engine cars by 2035. In addition, from now on there should be "no investment in new fossil fuel supply projects, and no further final investment decisions for new unabated coal plants." Under the IEA's scenario, solar photovoltaic and wind will become the planet's leading sources of electricity before the end of this decade, going on to account for almost 70% of generation by 2050. Solar, according to the IEA's roadmap, will become the planet's "single largest source of total energy supply" by the middle of this century. Fossil fuels, by contrast, will see their share "fall from almost four-fifths of total energy supply today to slightly over one-fifth." And while jobs in "clean energy" will increase by 14 million in the period to 2030, roles in oil, gas and coal would fall by approximately 5 million. "Our Roadmap shows the priority actions that are needed today to ensure the opportunity of net-zero emissions by 2050 — narrow but still achievable — is not lost," Fatih Birol, the IEA's executive director, said in a statement. "The scale and speed of the efforts demanded by this critical and formidable goal — our best chance of tackling climate change and limiting global warming to 1.5 °C — make this perhaps the greatest challenge humankind has ever faced," Birol added. The shadow of the Paris Agreement looms large over the IEA's report. Described by the United Nations as a legally binding international treaty on climate change, the accord aims to "limit global warming to well below 2, preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels." Cutting human-made carbon dioxide emissions to net-zero by 2050 is seen as crucial when it comes to meeting the 1.5 degrees Celsius target.
‘Overwhelming’ Evidence Facebook Is Failing to Tackle Climate Misinformation - Facebook is "fuelling climate misinformation" through its failure to get to grips with misleading content, according to a new report that calls on companies to boycott the platform until significant action is taken.Campaign group Stop Funding Heat, which produced the report, warns that the problem is likely to escalate in the coming months as the next major UN climate summit, COP26, approaches and wants to see action taken against "repeat offenders."The social media giant recently announced its operations were now running on 100 percent renewable energy and it had reached "net zero" emissions. But the new report argues this counts for far less than the role Facebook plays in allowing climate misinformation to spread on its platform.Bringing together existing research on the issue, the report calls on the company to incorporate climate misinformation into its policies governing use of the social media platform, which do not make explicit mention of climate change currently.Lead Researcher Sean Buchan told DeSmog: "This year sees the most important UN climate summit since the Paris Agreement in 2015. Important events like this have been derailed by disinformation campaigns before — as seen with "climategate" in 2009 and the recent UN Compact for Migration. Facebook needs to take action before misinformation escalates on its platform at this crucial time.""People should certainly be free to say and post what they want, but freedom of speech does not equate to freedom of reach. Facebook has control of how much it spreads harmful content and our recommendations all focus on reduction, not censorship. The exception is paid adverts, because we firmly believe that no organization, Facebook included, should directly receive money to spread climate misinformation," he added.Last year, DeSmog revealed a Facebook page called Eco Central, linked to a number of pro-Brexit Conservative MPs, had been running paid adverts claiming climate change was a "hoax."
Thousands of Australian high school students protest climate change inaction - On Friday, thousands of high school students struck from class and joined protests opposing the refusal of governments to take action on climate change. Some 47 separate rallies were held including in all of the capital cities, as well as a host of regional centres and smaller towns. In Sydney, Australia’s largest city, around 4,000 people attended, while some 5,000 participated in Melbourne. There were crowds ranging from the hundreds to a couple of thousand in cities such as Brisbane, Adelaide and Hobart. Attendees expressed the broader popular opposition to the failure of successive Liberal-National and Labor governments to address the mounting environmental crisis. Over recent years, the Australian population has been battered by bushfires, floods, droughts and other disasters. The turnout, however, was substantially lower than at similar climate strikes in recent years. This can not only be explained by concerns over COVID-19. Most restrictions have been lifted, as part of a pro-business reopening of the economy spearheaded by governments and the corporate elite. Rather, the relatively low attendance reflects the impasse of the protest politics advanced by the environmental groups organising the protests, and a growing scepticism among students that appeals to official politicians are of any value.
FLORIDA: State court nixes youth climate case -- Thursday, May 20, 2021 -- A Florida appeals court on Tuesday affirmed dismissal of a lawsuit filed by eight young people challenging the state's reliance on fossil fuels.
CAMPAIGN 2021: Sunrise Movement picks favorite in Ohio House race -- Tuesday, May 18, 2021 -- The youth-driven climate group Sunrise Movement is backing Nina Turner, a progressive Democrat running to succeed former Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) in the House.
Half of emissions cuts will come from future tech, says John Kerry - The US climate envoy, John Kerry, has said 50% of the carbon reductions needed to get to net zero will come from technologies that have not yet been invented, and said people “don’t have to give up a quality of life” in order to cut emissions.He said Americans would “not necessarily” have to eat less meat, because of research being done into the way cattle are herded and fed in order to reduce methane emissions.“You don’t have to give up a quality of life to achieve some of the things that we know we have to achieve. That’s the brilliance of some of the things that we know how to do,” he told BBC One’s Andrew Marr show. “I am told by scientists that 50% of the reductions we have to make to get to net zero are going to come from technologies that we don’t yet have. That’s just a reality.Kerry is visiting London next week to meet government representatives before the UN climate change conference Cop26 due to be held in Glasgow in November.On Saturday Kerry met Pope Francis in Rome, and he described him as “one of the great voices of reason and compelling moral authority on the subject of the climate crisis”.“I think that his voice will be a very important voice leading up to and through the Glasgow conference, which I believe he intends to attend,” Kerry told Vatican News. “We need everybody in this fight. All the leaders of the world need to come together and every country needs to do its part.”When asked by Marr if the US would support an end to all coal-fired power stations if called for by the UK at Cop26, Kerry said Joe Biden had set a goal of making the US power sector carbon-free by 2035 but he could not speak for the president on specific proposals.“What’s the phase-out schedule? Is it reasonable? Is everybody working in the same direction? Those are questions I’m sure President Biden will want answered, but he is leading this charge to move America on to renewable, alternative energy,” Kerry said.The US is the second largest producer of greenhouse gas emissions after China, and has one of the highest per capita CO2 emission rates. “We’re determined to turn that around,” Kerry said. “We are going to be moving very rapidly to a new economy, building out a new grid, moving towards alternative renewable energy, and pushing the curve on the discovery of new technologies.”
Kerry says US examining carbon border tax, sees risks (AP) — U.S. climate envoy John Kerry said Tuesday that Washington is looking into the possibility of introducing a fee on imports from countries that don’t tax heavy polluters, but he cautioned that such a move could carry risks “downstream.” Kerry said President Joe Biden had instructed U.S. officials to examine “what are the consequences, how do you do the pricing, what is the impact.” “But he wants to make sure we’ve thoroughly vetted it and thought about it as a matter of policy, particularly because our friends are doing so,” Kerry said. The European Union has indicated it will put forward plans next month for a ‘carbon border adjustment mechanism’ aimed at pushing its trading partners into doing more to cut carbon emissions if they want to sell their goods in the world’s largest single market. Although still vague, the EU’s proposal has drawn significant concern, particularly from major emerging economies such as China, Brazil, India and South Africa. Speaking to reporters in Berlin before talks with his EU counterpart, European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans, Kerry said Washington and Brussels had agreed to consult each other on the issue as they also push for greater international efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions before this year’s U.N. climate summit in November. “We want to make sure that it’s not going to have a counter impact, a negative impact on this process,” Kerry said. “Nobody wants their businesses disadvantaged” by introducing carbon taxes that businesses elsewhere don’t pay, he said.
White House environmental justice advisers express opposition to nuclear, carbon capture projects --The White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council expressed opposition to nuclear and carbon capture projects as well as projects that expand capacity for fossil fuel production in a report issued Friday.The volunteer advisory council listed such projects as among “examples of the types of projects that will not benefit a community,” in a set of recommendations issued to the White House. The recommendations issued by the council, w hich is made up of leaders in the environmental justice movement, are meant to advise the Biden administration, but don’t necessarily reflect administration policy. In fact, the opposition appears to be somewhat at odds with policies the administration has backed, like President Biden’s promotion of a carbon capture tax credit in his infrastructure plan. The report did not specify why the advisory panel considers such projects not to be beneficial, but opponents have raised concerns about nuclear waste. Carbon capture’s opponents have expressed skepticism about the still-developing technology aiming to capture the greenhouse gas from activities like burning fossil fuels. They argue that the government shouldn’t be boosting the fossil fuel industry. Proponents of the technologies see them as methods for generating power in a cleaner way. The approximately 90-page report broadly endorsed transformative investments in capacity building, technical assistance and consultation for communities that have been historically underserved. The report also puts forth specific policies and programs that the council believes should be included in President Biden’s pledge to have 40 percent of the benefits of his environmental policies go to disadvantaged communities, called Justice40.
TVA net zero emissions target undercut by new gas - Energy and Policy Institute - The Tennessee Valley Authority announced earlier this month a target of reaching net zero emissions by 2050, but the goal falls far short of President Biden’s call to decarbonize the electric grid by 2035. The federal utility has proposed more than 1,500 megawatts of new gas construction which would operate well beyond 2035, raising questions about stranding those assets and their costs on the backs of TVA’s consumers. The Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) net zero plan lacked details for how the utility planned to achieve its goal, but TVA CEO Jeffrey Lyash said that TVA will need new technologies such as carbon capture and storage to fully decarbonize by 2050, fifteen years beyond President Biden’s goal. TVA’s failure to align with Biden’s carbon reduction goal comes after Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm’s presented to the TVA board about the Administration’s goals and offered the Department of Energy’s assistance.TVA has come under fire in recent years for a series of actions suppressing clean energy, its lack of transparency, and weak oversight from its board of directors. The utility is also facing pressure from local power companies, some of which are threatening to drop TVA as their power provider largely due to high wholesale power costs from legacy coal and gas plants and contract inflexibility.TVA has announced plans to build 1,500 megawatts of new gas capacity at shuttered coal plant sites in Kentucky and Alabama and appears to be counting on carbon capture and storage being commercially viable by the mid-2030s. TVA did not include any carbon capture and storage costs into its analysis when determining whether to build its new gas plants. Just to TVA’s south, Alabama Power admitted in an air permit for a new gas-fired power plant that carbon capture and storage costs were “plainly excessive” and could cost the utility, and ultimately customers, as much as $322 million per year. TVA’s gas build-out plans were the second highest of any utility in the nation, according to a recent Sierra Club analysis. An environmental assessment released by TVA on its proposed gas plants did not consider any potential alternatives to new gas, such as renewable energy, battery storage, or energy efficiency and demand response. Previous analysis in TVA’s 2019 integrated resource plan (IRP) showedthat TVA could forego 1,900 MW of gas-fired power plant construction by instead expanding energy efficiency and demand response programs, technologies available and cost-effective today.
Supreme Court Gives Big Oil a Win in Climate Fight With Cities - The New York Times -- The Supreme Court handed a victory to fossil fuel companies on Monday in a major climate change case, but gave the industry far less than it had asked for.The decision in the case did not deal with the merits of the lawsuit,which Baltimore filed to try to compel fossil fuel companies to help pay the costs of dealing with climate change. Instead, the justices focused on narrow issues concerning the rules for appealing lower-court decisions that send cases to state courts.By a 7-1 decision, the Supreme Court on Monday sent the case back to the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to reconsider the industry’s demand that it review a lower-court decision to have the case proceed in state courts.The issue of whether to hear these cases in federal or state court has been a major point of contention in about 20 similar cases filed around the country.The fossil fuel companies prefer the federal courts. That’s partly because state and federal laws typically treat cases like these, which depend on the common law of nuisance, differently. Aunanimous 2011 Supreme Court decision said that, under federal law, the Clean Air Act displaced common law of nuisance, giving jurisdiction to the Environmental Protection Agency.But plaintiffs like Baltimore have argued that state laws should take precedence. They may also see the local courts as a friendlier venue.While the companies won the day, “it was a bullet dodged” for Baltimore, said Patrick Parenteau, an expert on environmental law at Vermont Law School. “The oil companies were looking for a kill shot,” he said, in which the justices would vote to throw the Baltimore case and the rest out, or at least use language in the decision that would send a message to the lower court that the cases would get a skeptical hearing at the Supreme Court level.Instead, Justice Neil M. Gorsuch’s opinion focused on the narrow procedural issues.Baltimore filed its suit in July 2018, arguing that the companies’ “production, promotion and marketing of fossil fuel products, simultaneous concealment of the known hazards of those products, and their championing of anti-science campaigns” harmed the city. The lawsuit noted that Baltimore “is particularly vulnerable to sea level rise and flooding,” and that it has spent “significant funds” to plan for and to deal with global warming. The case cited the cost of health-related issues associated with climate change, including increased rates of hospitalization in summer.
Big Agriculture Is Leading to Ecological Collapse -Today, there is more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than at any point in the past 3.6 million years. On April 5, atmospheric carbon dioxide exceeded 420 parts per million—marking nearly the halfway point toward doubling the carbon dioxide levels measured prior to the Industrial Revolution, a mere 171 years ago. Even amid a pandemic-induced economic shutdown—during which global annual emissions dropped 7 percent—carbon dioxide and methane levels set records in 2020. The last time Earth held this much carbon dioxide in its atmosphere, sea levels were nearly 80 feet higher and the planet was 7 degrees Fahrenheit warmer. The catch: Homo sapiens did not yet exist.Change is in the air. U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines announced climate change is “at the center of the country’s national security and foreign policy.” Business-as-usual is no longer a viable strategy as more institutions consider a future that will look and feel much different. In this context, it is striking to read a recent piece in Foreign Policy arguing “big agriculture is best.”“Big agriculture is best” cannot be an argument supported by empirical evidence. By now, it is vitally clear that Earth systems—the atmosphere, oceans, soils, and biosphere—are in various phases of collapse, putting nearly one-half of the world’s gross domestic product at risk andundermining the planet’s ability to support life. And big, industrialized agriculture—promoted by U.S. foreign and domestic policy—lies at the heart of the multiple connected crises we are confronting as a species.The litany of industrial agriculture’s toll is long and diverse. Consider the effects of industrial animal agriculture, for example. As of this writing, animal agriculture accounts for 14.5 percent of total anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions annually. It is also the source of 60 percent of all nitrous oxide and 50 percent of all methane emissions, which have 36 times and 298 times, respectively, the warming potential of carbon dioxide. As industrial animal agriculture has scaled up, agricultural emissions of methane and nitrous oxide have been going in one direction only: up. Efforts to scale industrial agriculture are undermining the planet’s capacity to support life at more local scales too. Consider Brazil, home to the Amazon Rainforest, which makes up 40 percent of all remaining rainforest and 25 percent of all terrestrial biodiversity on Earth. Forest loss and species extinctions have only increased as industrial agriculture has scaled up in Brazil. Farmers are burning unprecedented amounts of forest to expand their operations in pursuit of an industrial model. In August 2019, smoke blocked the sun in São Paulo, Brazil, 2,000 miles away from the fires in the state of Amazonas.
Can We Have Both Industrial Civilization and a Habitable Planet? - Not long ago I wrote about the problem of stopping climate change, or at least mitigating its worst results, and concluded:The climate crisis threatens to end our economic system not only if it’s ignored. It threatens to end our system if it’s addressed.This is the Catch-22 that makes the coming climate crisis different from a meteor strike, for example. In the meteor case, the current economic order is destroyed only if the meteor lands. Diverting its impact preserves the economic status quo.Not so the climate. In that case, preserving the economic status quo guarantees collapse, as does the meteor strike, but addressing it effectively also guarantees a different economic and political order, since the current economic and political system cannot address it at all. Quite a dilemma for those presently in charge.But I think the problem is greater than that; it can’t be fixed only by changing the economic order and removing the current ruling class from power. The problem that needs to be fixed is, in fact, modern life itself — specifically, “high energy” life. Watch the trailer for the new film, Bright Green Lies, to see what I mean. There’s a book associated with the film, also called Bright Green Lies, available at a number of places, including here. Its premise is simple: The only way to build the bright green narrative is to erase every awareness of the creatures and communities being consumed. The true facts about supposedly renewable energy are hard, and worse than inconvenient. The first truth is that industrial civilization requires industrial levels of energy. The second is that fossil fuel—especially oil— is functionally irreplaceable. Scaling the current renewable energy technology, like solar, wind, hydro, and biomass, would be tantamount to ecocide. Consider that 12 percent of the continental United States would have to be covered in windfarms to meet current electricity demands. But electricity is only one-sixth of the nation’s energy consumption. To provide for the U.S.A.’s total energy consumption, fully 72 percent of the continent would have to be devoted to wind farms. In reality, solar and wind development threaten to destroy as much land globally as expansion of urban sprawl, oil and gas, coal, and mining combined by 2050.Third, solar, wind, and battery technology are, in their own right, assaults against the living world. From beginning to end, they require industrial-scale devastation: open-pit mining, deforestation, soil toxification that’s permanent on anything but a geologic timescale, extirpation and extinction of vulnerable species, and use of fossil fuels. In reality, so-called “green” technologies are some of the most destructive industrial processes every invented. They will not save the earth. They will only hasten its demise. Don’t miss the detail buried in the second paragraph. First, there’s not enough land left — after the land required to sustain a seven-billion-plus population — to provide solar and wind farms. Second, building those energy farms is itself a high-energy, destructive industrial process.So the question we’re left with is simple: Is industrial civilization incompatible with a habitable planet?
What a rapid transition from fossil fuels to carbon-free energy alternatives looks like | TheHill --If the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us anything it is that an early, science-based response to a rapidly unfolding disaster is critical. In recent years we have witnessed the mounting effects of climate change in the form of droughts, worsening storms, more frequent floods and record wildfires. Many of these burdens fall inequitably on citizens with lower incomes. Although we need to address the many causes of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, three-quarters of U.S. emissions come from burning fossil fuels. Thus, the most important thing we must do to halt climate change is rapidly transition from fossil fuels to carbon-free energy alternatives. Fortunately, the solutions at hand have improved markedly in the last 10 years. The costs of electricity from solar and wind energy have declined dramatically and are now the cheapest sources of electricity in much of the U.S. — about one-quarter the cost of new nuclear power. There is growing agreement on a course of action for addressing climate change:
- Maximize energy efficiency.
- Deploy low-cost solar and wind electricity as rapidly as possible. Aclean electricity standard (CES) that requires 100 percent of electricity to be carbon-free by 2035 is the best tool to get there, and Congress needs to act.
- Electrify as many of our energy uses as possible to take advantage of this carbon-free energy.
- Continue to develop carbon-free and carbon-neutral fuels for those limited applications that are difficult or very expensive to electrify.
How can we have a reliable grid with largely weather-dependent generation? There are a variety of ways we can address this. For almost a decade, NREL and others have developed best practices to integrate variable renewables into the grid at least cost. Options include expanding balancing areas to minimize variability, using advanced weather forecasting and shortening grid dispatch times, adding transmission and storage, utilizing demand flexibility in buildings and many others.Many analysts see a clear path to achieving an 80 or 90 percent renewable electricity grid. Addressing that last 10 or 20 percent will also likely require long-term storage as well as grid modernization including improved market design. Although some observers have called for amassive R&D effort to develop innovative solutions to the climate crisis, the truth is that we already have the technologies we need to solve most of the problem, and our chief focus must be on enabling and deploying them First, the more efficient we make our transportation, buildings, and industrial sectors, the less additional electricity we will need. Another important step is to keep our existing nuclear reactor fleet running for as long as we can safely do so. We can also electrify in stages starting with those energy uses that provide the biggest immediate climate change benefits. Cars and trucksaccount for over 80 percent of our transportation-related GHG emissions, and battery electric vehicles use energy much more efficiently than internal combustion engines, so electrifying that segment is a priority. Following vehicle electrification, using heat pumps to electrify heating in buildings and low-temperature industrial processes is next. Electrifying new buildings avoids the capital investment and long-term commitment in natural gas equipment and piping. (It will take somewhat more effort to economically electrify existing buildings.) Electrifying higher-temperature industrial processes can wait until the grid is sufficiently carbon-free.
Senate Democrats unveil resolution calling for carbon-free electric sector by 2035 - Senate Democrats unveiled a resolution on Tuesday calling for a decarbonized electric sector by 2035 and put forward policies they argue can help reach that goal. The measure, led by Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), says the goal should be achieved through mechanisms such as incentivizing deployment of electric heaters and ending fossil fuel subsidies. President Biden has likewise called for a carbon-free power sector by 2035, and House Democrats also laid out this goal in legislation earlier this year. Heinrich said during a press conference Tuesday that he is introducing the plan as a resolution rather than a bill to become law because they want to “create the narrative” for now and put the policies in place at a later time. “What we’re trying to do right here is create the narrative. That’s why this is a resolution about how this must be informing our decisions on infrastructure. And then, as we move forward, we’re going to be working ... to put the individual Lego blocks into the bigger picture,” Heinrich said. “We need to figure out all of these friction points and use the jobs and infrastructure package to really be able to solve these friction points,” he said. Specifically, the resolution calls for incentivizing residential and commercial deployment of battery storage, electric heat pumps, electric stoves, electric vehicle chargers and electric water heaters. It also calls for expanding transmission capacity between regions, “improving” permitting and leasing for zero-emissions electricity generation on public lands and offshore sites, and providing seed funding for a clean energy and sustainability accelerator.
Why Biden's Infrastructure Plan Shouldn’t Use Tax Credits to Encourage Clean Energy - Since they were first introduced in the 1970s, tax credits for renewables have helped scale up and dramatically reduce the cost of clean power in the United States. But in recent years they have also created opportunities for a small handful of major investment banks to skim billions off the top, extracting lavish fees and control over clean energy projects as part of deals shrouded in secrecy. Public power providers—who serve nearly a third of retail electricity customers—have trouble accessing clean energy tax credits at all. The infrastructure package the Biden administration has proposed, and which is currently being debated by lawmakers, presents an opportunity to change that. It could open up incentives to co-ops, municipal utilities, and public power districts while kicking out the rentiers. Or instead, it could apply the current model to a much wider range of green infrastructure, leaving companies to compete for the same, highly concentrated set of investors, and empower those investors to make key planning decisions about how this country tackles an existential threat. The U.S. renewable tax credit system has created a novel model for financing utility-scale wind and solar here. Traditionally, power generation has been financed in a few predictable ways in the U.S. Vertically integrated utilities that build their own power-generating infrastructure—like Southern Company and its subsidiaries in the Southeast—will approach regulators at their public service commission to ask for a rate hike to finance new plants. Co-ops enter into agreements with either independent, for-profit power providers or buy from generation and transmission co-operatives for a certain number of years. That’s intended to provide a guarantee so that whatever entity is responsible for building the plant can recoup its investments down the line.In order to take advantage of the Investment and Production Tax Credits extended in 2015, the Special Purpose Vehicles, or SPVs, that build large renewables projects—typically some combination of independent power producers and third-party clean energy companies like the Danish multinational Ørsted, a major wind developer in the U.S.—generally have to turn to “tax equity” investors in order to “monetize” those tax breaks. Essentially this means they sell off claims on any money they’ll earn from the credit to tax-equity investors in return for the upfront capital needed to build a solar farm or wind project, allowing them to get projects off the ground in the short term. Approximately 65 percent of the capital backing the typical wind project and 35 percent for the typical solar project come from tax-equity investors, with remaining funds raised through either debt or equity financing. That means those benefiting most directly from policies encouraging renewable energy through tax credits are a highly concentrated set of tax-equity investors at major banks, insurance companies, and even companies like Amazon and Google looking for opportunities to shrink their tax bill. Demand for these tax shelters has grown rapidly, up to as much as $18 billion in 2020 from $13 billion in 2019. In both years, JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America accounted for more than half the market. Ironically, the Biden administration raising taxes would be expected to further boost demand for tax-equity deals, with more companies seeking relief.
Biden administration to develop performance standards for federal buildings - The Biden administration announced on Monday that it is taking several actions aimed at making buildings cleaner, including new “performance standards” for federal buildings. A fact sheet released by the White House on Monday didn’t give specific details on what exactly the performance standards would entail but said it plans to “establish metrics, targets, and tracking methods to reach federal carbon emissions goals.” Acting General Services Administration (GSA) Administrator Katy Kale made similar comments during a Monday webinar, saying "this administration and GSA believes in leading by example." Meanwhile, the administration will also create new Energy Star standards for heat pumps, central air conditioners and electric water heaters, according to the fact sheet. Energy Star standards are government-backed indicators of energy efficiency for consumer products. The administration also said it is starting an initiative to increase market adoption of efficient water heaters in residential and commercial buildings, expanding partnership programs with the goal of increasing efficient upgrades in underserved homes. It’s additionally investing $30 million in workforce development to help fund job creation in areas such as constructing, upgrading and electrifying buildings. The Energy Department will put $10 million toward accelerating research and adoption of heat pump technology. "These systems use electricity to strategically transfer heat to make spaces cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter and they're a cleaner and more cost-effective alternative to gas-powered furnaces and standard air conditioners," Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said during the webinar. #160;
Biden Considering Point-of-Sale Rebates for Electric Car Buyers - The Biden administration wants to give consumers rebates for purchasing electric vehicles to help the U.S. compete against China in manufacturing the next generation of automobiles, White House Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy said.President Joe Biden is “looking to invest more than $170 billion and he’s going to build out the electric charging stations that we need for consumers to buy these vehicles and feel confident that they can get where they want to go and back again,” McCarthy said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Bloomberg Technology.”“He’s looking at actually providing consumer rebates at the point of sale,” she said.As part of his multitrillion-dollar infrastructure package, Biden has asked Congress to help pay for 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations and provide consumers with rebates for their electric car purchases.Motorists already have some financial incentive to forgo conventional gas-powered cars for electric models. An existing tax credit is valued at as much as $7,500 for the purchase of an electric vehicle, though Tesla Inc. and General Motors Co. have already passed a 200,000-per-manufacturer ceiling at which the value of those credits phases down. Critics say the current EV tax credit has chiefly benefited wealthy Americans. By contrast, a point-of-sale rebate -- which is also championed by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer -- could help encourage more low- and middle-income motorists to buy electric vehicles.
Nebraska’s ethanol production almost to pre-pandemic levels - The head of Renewable Fuels Nebraska says the state’s ethanol production has almost returned to pre pandemic levels. Pam Miller tells Brownfield nearly every plant is back online after many were shut down this time a year ago. “Most plants are back up at full production, which is somewhere near 2.5 billion gallons of ethanol a year that we produce – the second largest producing state in the country,” Miller says. “It’s great to be back. It’s great to be running these plants at full speed making a wonderful product.” During COVID-19 shutdowns many ethanol plants helped produce hand sanitizer for businesses in Nebraska and across the country. She says ethanol helps meet climate sustainability goals. “Ethanol is a very low carbon fuel, and we feel that in Nebraska we feel that already,” she says. “We want to see more ethanol used, higher blends used so that we continue to have greater benefits for the environment and the air we breathe”
Marathon converts Dickinson Refinery to renewable diesel plant; wind turbines to power site - Marathon Petroleum has converted its Dickinson Refinery into a plant that turns soybean and corn oil into renewable diesel, and soon the facility will run in part on wind power.Plans to convert the refinery west of Dickinson have been in the works for years after it opened in 2015 and struggled financially. The facility stopped processing oil in April 2020. The transition took place a few months earlier than planned after the coronavirus pandemic hit and caused demand to fall for motor fuels made at the refinery, said Ray Brooks, Marathon’s executive vice president of refining. “The whole beauty of this thing being located where it is in North Dakota is that the feedstock is in that area,” he said, referring to abundant soybean and corn production in the state. “A lot of the feedstock is brought in from rail cars from facilities, from farms, essentially, in that general area." Heat and hydrogen are used to process soybean and corn oil into renewable diesel. The fuel differs from biodiesel, which usually made from vegetable oils but is blended into petroleum diesel for use in certain vehicles. Biodiesel can gel up inside a vehicle when the temperature drops in winter, so it tends to make up a smaller fraction of the fuel into which it’s blended, Brooks said. Renewable diesel, on the other hand, flows well even when it’s cold and can be used alone in diesel engines, though it too is often blended.The Dickinson plant began producing renewable diesel late last year and has ramped up to its full capacity in recent weeks. It has the ability to produce 12,000 barrels per day of the biofuel.California is the primary consumer of renewable diesel in the United States, Brooks said. To get its oil there, Marathon is shipping fuel from the Dickinson facility to the West Coast via train. It’s then loaded onto ships that take it south.
Ohio lawmakers want to decrease setbacks for wind farms --Democratic lawmakers want to decrease the minimum setback for utility-scale wind farms in Ohio to boost renewable energy development in the state. House Bill 302 would revert the setbacks for wind farms of 5 megawatts or more to pre-2014 levels. Currently, the minimum setback rule is 1,125 feet from the tip of the turbine’s nearest horizontal blade to the nearest adjacent property line. The legislation would change that back to be measured from the nearest home, not property line. The change in 2014, inserted into the state’s budget bill, hindered new wind development in Ohio. It was inserted at the last minute, with no public input, said Rep. Kent Smith, D-Euclid, and nearly tripled the minimum setback requirements, making it one of the most stringent statewide setback laws for wind power development in the country. Smith introduced the legislation May 19 to the House Public Utilities committee with co-sponsor Rep. Michael Skindell, D-Lakewood. Smith wore a face mask reading “Renewable energy? I’m a big fan” during his testimony. “This bill seeks to ease the regulatory burden on new wind farms in Ohio and provide a more business friendly environment for clean energy,” Smith said. According to American Wind Energy Association estimates from 2017, cited by Skindell, Ohio is missing out on an estimated $4.2 billion in economic benefits because of its restrictive setback requirements. That includes 13,000 jobs, $660 million in tax payments to local governments and schools and $440 million in lease payments to landowners over 30 years. “Plans to generate 3,300 megawatts of new wind projects that would supply electricity to more than 900,000 homes have been on hold or canceled now,” Skindell said.
Renewables supporters unhappy with changes to Ohio local control bills - WKBN.com- Supporters of renewable energy and private property rights are unhappy with changes made to an Ohio Senate bill that proposes giving locals the power to approve utility-scale solar and wind projects. Instead of setting up a referendum process for residents to approve each large renewable energy project, the sub bill added onto Senate Bill 52 and House Bill 118 would let townships set aside certain areas of the community for wind and solar development. The new mechanism for local control, announced last week during the House Public Utilities committee, was created in part to address concerns from the renewables industry that the original bill would have resulted in a de facto moratorium on large-scale wind and solar development, said Sen. Rob McColley, cosponsor of SB 52. The solar industry, though, says it was not involved in the drafting of the sub bill. “It would result in lost jobs, lost revenues, and unfairly harm businesses, workers and farmers,” said Jason Rafeld, executive director of the Utility Scale Solar Energy Coalition, in a statement. “The bill was job-killer to begin with, but last week, behind closed doors, the Ohio Senate redrafted a substitute bill that is no better.” Opponent and proponent testimony and discussion on the legislation went on for three hours May 19 during the Senate Energy and Public Utilities committee. More than 80 people submitted testimony, including many farmers who are against the bills. The original language of House Bill 118 and Senate Bill 52 would have created a referendum process by which locals would approve utility-scale solar and wind projects before they went to the Ohio Power Siting Board. The sub bill would instead allow townships to create a resolution designating certain parts of the township as “energy development districts” where large wind and solar farms could be built. The district could contain the entire township or only parts of it, McColley said. The creation of such districts would be subject to a referendum. Under the proposed legislation, the Ohio Power Siting Board could not grant a certificate to a facility unless it was located in an energy development district of a municipality.
LIA: NYers statewide should share offshore wind costs – The Long Island Association said New Yorkers across the state should share the costs of investing in offshore wind, which is expected to diversify the region’s fuel supply, add jobs and fuel the economy.In a letter to the New York State Public Service Commission, the LIA, the region’s largest business group, said that accommodating the additional renewable energy source would require “substantial investments will be necessary to upgrade the electric transmission system.”The letter comes as stakeholders in the region are striving to develop 9,000 megawatts of offshore wind by 2035, a state initiative that the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority says would power up to 6 million homes.In the LIA letter from last week by the group’s vice president of government affairs, Matt Cohen, the group noted that the commission, in March, issued an order that said 75 percent of the “costs of the infrastructure upgrades associated with offshore wind should be borne by those who will benefit most from the upgrades; downstate utilities and their customers.” But last week, the PSC delayed that decision since “hearing more arguments from the Long Island Power Authority (“LIPA”), Con Edison and other downstate utilities.” The LIA said it “unreasonable and unfair” to put “such a disproportionate burden on Long Island residents and businesses when the infrastructure upgrades will benefit all New Yorkers” as the state aims to fulfill the state’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act objectives to reverse climate change and promote clean energy.
50-car Union Pacific train derails in Minnesota = Local police are ordering people to shelter in place after a 50-car Union Pacific train carrying a mix of unknown substances derailed Saturday afternoon. Authorities in the city of Albert Lea, located about 10 miles north of Minnesota’s border with Iowa, said in a Facebook post that nearby intersections had been blocked and that pedestrians should avoid the area as they responded to the derailed train. Police later updated the post saying that no injuries were reported, with video of the scene showing derailed cars lying on the ground next to Minnesota’s Goose Lake. An officer can be heard in the Facebook footage saying police would need the local fire department come to “figure out what’s in those tanks, and we may need to do some evacuating.” Authorities ordered a local shelter in place, and the police department later said that hazardous material safety officers had arrived at the scene to “assist with material load containment,” though it added that any materials that may be exiting the cars were not airborne. Union Pacific said in a statement to local news outlets that about 28 of the 50 cars on the train had derailed near the lake, adding, “The train crew was not hurt, and the cause is under investigation.” The railway company, which operates one of the largest railroads in the U.S., added that the train was “carrying mixed commodities,” but added it was still “working to identify what is in the derailed cars.” When reached for comment by The Hill, the police department said it had no additional updates as the situation was still developing.
Crews Continue Cleanup After 50-Car Train Derails In Albert Lea – – Union Pacific Railroad says crews worked through the night to clean up a train derailment in Albert Lea. Police in Albert Lea Saturday asked the public to avoid Hawthorne Street and Ulsted Avenue after a 50-car train derailed in the area. Freeborn County officials say the train derailed in the 1300 block of Eastgate Road. There was a hazardous material leak, and local residents were asked to shelter in place. The leak was not airborne, police said. Early Saturday evening, authorities confirmed that the substance leaking from the derailed cars was hydrochloric acid. “Around 1:45 p.m., approximately 28 cars on a Union Pacific train derailed near Goose Lake in Albert Lea. The train crew was not hurt, and the cause is under investigation,” Union Pacific said in a statement. Authorities on the scene say there were no injuries reported as a result of the derailment. The train derailed shortly after 1:30 p.m. on Saturday. Sunday morning, Union Pacific said about eight cars had been cleared from the track, and heavy equipment had arrived to help the cleanup efforts.
NERC identifies 4 regions facing potential summer energy shortages - A preview of the North American Electric Reliability Corp.'s (NERC) 2021 Summer Reliability Assessment warns several regions are at risk of energy shortfalls in the case of above-normal temperatures. Cybersecurity is also a growing concern, according to NERC, in the wake of recent supply chain compromises. In particular, the report warns California will need 11 GW of late-afternoon energy transfers to meet system demand as solar output declines. Texas, New England and parts of the Midwest could also face shortages. Preliminary summer reliability conclusions were presented to theNERC board of trustees on Thursday. Director of Reliability Assessment and System Analysis John Moura said that despite the risks the report shed light on, there were still positive findings in the assessment, including improved restoration time following outages related to extreme weather and fewer instances of system misoperation. Extreme weather has caused blackouts in Texas and California in the past year, leaving millions without power. NERC said those states could face more problems this summer, and could be joined by New England and part of the Midwest.Texas, New England and the Midcontinent ISO were found to have "elevated risk." California is the "greatest concern," said NERC. The 11 GW of energy imports could be necessary to meet late afternoon peak demand — in contrast to the 1 GW needed on a normal day. CAISO officials acknowledge there is cause for concern, but say the system is better situated that it was a year ago.The California Public Utilities Commission in February and Marchapproved measures aimed at shoring up resources, including directing utilities to contract additional capacity from a variety of sources. CAISO "anticipates supply conditions in 2021 to be better than 2020, but continues to see potential challenges in meeting demand during extreme heat waves," the grid operator said in its 2021 Summer Loads and Resources Assessment. ISO New England issued a statement saying "we expect to have adequate resources to meet demand under normal and above average temperatures this summer. We'll be releasing our full summer outlook shortly." The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which operates most of the state's grid, has said it anticipates sufficient generation to meet peak loads this summer, but on May 6 also detailed three low-probability scenarios where extreme weather could lead to blackouts.Texas grid officials say they expect record demand for electricity this summer, due to heat as well as population and economic growth in the state. ERCOT is heading into summer with a 15.7% reserve margin, according to the grid operator.
Generac CEO says 5G rollout increases demand for backup power generation - Generac CEO Aaron Jagdfeld told CNBC Monday that the backup power generator company expects to benefit from the adoption of 5G wireless technology. "We think that that's a space that is going to grow tremendously over the next five years," he said in an interview with Jim Cramer on "Mad Money." For Generac, the opportunity particularly lies in the telecommunications arena. The company is already a top provider of backup generation for major wireless providers, Jagdfeld said. The rollout of 5G technology, or fifth-generation mobile network, promises to bring faster network speeds and connect more activities to the internet of things. The way people learn, drive and take care of their health are all expected to be impacted by the new technologies. Because the networks will become even more critical to society, Jagdfeld said demand for power security will only increase. "None of it works without a continuous source of power and what the telecom companies are going to have to do is they're really going to have to up their game in terms of reliability, and that's where we come in," he said.
Legislation Would Help Create Power Line For Renewable Energy Made In Aroostook County - There was early momentum Tuesday for what could be Maine's next big transmission project linked to renewable energy goals, this one in Aroostook County. The latest plan, as envisioned in legislation before the utilities committee, got a positive review at the State House. Energy analysts say the County has some of the state's best potential for developing cost-effective wind and other renewable energy resources. But the area lacks a major transmission connection to the regional electricity grid, relying instead on energy routed through Canada. Now lawmakers are considering a bill that aims to get a power line built to unlock that potential and bring cost-effective renewable energy to Maine and beyond. "Aroostook County is really leaning into this. We've been waiting for decades to produce our renewable energy up here and get it to the markets where it's needed," says Paul Towle, president of the Aroostook Partnership, a public-private economic development group. He says county residents are generally supportive of developing big energy infrastructure. And he says this one — costing as much as a half-billion dollars — would be less contentious than the New England Clean Energy Connect transmission line in western Maine. "This would fly through pretty seamlessly in my prediction. The ensuing projects promise to generate millions in economic benefits to a much-needed area in northern Maine through jobs, payroll taxes, local taxes, etc. And climate advantages obviously (are) there — we all know what we're doing this stuff for," he says.
New York interconnector riverbed survey starts - US power company Rise Light & Power has begun a survey of the Hudson River’s riverbed for a proposed 1200MW transmission line that will facilitate more renewable energy in New York. The proposed Catskills Renewable Connector will supply approximately 15% of New York City’s electricity needs and help increase the state’s solar generation by nearly 50% wind energy by 15%. Rise Light & Power is working with marine scientists to carry out the riverbed survey to understand river environment and ecology in advance of clean energy development. The data gathered from the surveys – from Ravena to the Harlem River – will help map the submarine cable route and reduce impacts to river ecology. A high-tech vessel will use an instrument suite to map the contours of the seafloor and riverbed, any potential obstructions, and any significant submerged historic cultural resources along the proposed cable route. The Catskills Renewable Program, offered by Rise Light & Power in response to a request-for-proposal from NYSERDA’s newly established Tier 4 REC programme, would create a 1.2GW submarine and underground renewables-transmission line that delivers clean, affordable wind and solar energy from across upstate to the downstate region. If approved by NYSERDA, Rise Light & Power will contract with renewable energy developers in upstate New York to build thousands of megawatts of new wind and solar energy, and it will build the Catskills Renewable Connector to deliver that clean energy to customers in New York City. Collectively, this programme will create more than 5000 jobs for New Yorkers and generate more than $2bn the company said.
State opposes opening up TVA transmission lines for other power suppliers - May 19—Tennessee's attorney general claims an effort by local power companies to try to bring cheaper power to their customers along Tennessee Valley Authority transmission lines will hurt most of the state's electricity users by shifting costs and reducing power reliability. Although the state of Tennessee has no regulatory role over the federally owned TVA, the state's top legal officer is asking the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to block a motion by four TVA distributors to go elsewhere for their power supplies. Volunteer Energy Cooperative, Athens Utilities and two other TVA distributors are asking FERC to order TVA to carry power from other utilities and power producers along TVA's transmission lines to deliver what the four local utilities claim will be cheaper electricity than what TVA now provides. In an 11-page brief filed with FERC, Tennessee's attorney general contends that "granting the petition (to use TVA transmission lines to wheel outside power into the Valley) would create unnecessary risks of significant harm to TVA and the citizens TVA serves" and "may significantly disrupt the health of TVA." The federal utility bundles both its power generation and transmission into a single delivered price to provide electricity to nearly 10 million people across TVA's 7-state service territory. The attorney general acknowledged that "Tennessee historically has had a limited role in defining electricity public policy in the state," but the state decided to intervene "in light of the evolving developments resulting from the electricity crisis in Texas" that left more than 3 million persons in the dark in February. "If FERC approves the petition, other local power companies on the TVA system may reconsider their long-term relationship to TVA," said Sara Hiestand, senior assistant attorney general in the state's Office of Attorney General. "Reduced aggregate TVA revenues may shift the burden of cost recovery."
'Collective amnesia': Texas politicians knowingly blew 3 chances to fix the failing power grid - Ten years ago, Texas power plants froze during a fast-moving winter storm, causing rolling electricity blackouts across the state. Outraged Texas regulators and lawmakers, vowing to crack down, debated requiring energy companies to protect their equipment against extreme weather to ensure reliability. But they didn’t. Nine years ago, two state agencies that regulate utilities and the oil and gas industry warned that natural gas facilities that lost power during outages couldn’t feed electricity generation plants, creating a spiral of power loss. The agencies jointly recommended that lawmakers compel gas suppliers and power plants to fix the problem. But they didn’t. Eight years ago, economists warned that the state’s free-market grid left companies with little incentive to build enough plants to provide backup power during emergencies. With the support of then-Gov. Rick Perry, legislators and regulators considered increasing power rates to encourage the construction of more power plants, so that Texas, like other states, would have sufficient reserves. But they didn’t. In the wake of each power failure, or near-failure, over the past decade, Texas lawmakers have repeatedly stood at a fork in the road. In one direction lay government-mandated solutions that experts said would strengthen the state’s power system by making it less fragile under stress. The other direction continued Texas’ hands-off regulatory approach, leaving it to the for-profit energy companies to decide how to protect the power grid. In each instance, lawmakers left the state’s lightly regulated energy markets alone, choosing cheap electricity over a more stable system. As a result, experts say, the power grid that Texans depend on to heat and cool their homes and run their businesses has become less and less reliable — and more susceptible to weather-related emergencies. “Everyone has been in denial,” said Alison Silverstein, a consultant who works with the U.S. Department of Energy and formerly served as a senior adviser at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. “They treat each individual extreme event as a one-off, a high-impact, low-frequency event, which means, ‘I hope it doesn’t happen again.’” With each passing year, the grid has steadily become less reliable. In 1989, Texas suffered a cold snap considered worse if not equal to the winter storm earlier this year yet managed to keep the grid functioning, with only a few hours of rotating outages. By comparison, February’s Winter Storm Uri brought the Texas power grid to within five minutes of complete collapse, officials acknowledged. Millions of residents were left without power for days in subfreezing temperatures; nearly 200 died. “Our system now is more vulnerable than it was 30 years ago,” said Woody Rickerson, vice president of grid planning and operations at the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. “With the generation mix we have now, the weather has the ability to affect wind and solar and (the gas supply). Those are things we can’t anticipate.”
New UCS Research: Utilities’ Uneconomic Coal Use Is Being Called Out in 25 States - Union of Concerned Scientists --When I came to UCS three years ago, coal self-commitment—the practice of coal plants running when cheaper (and cleaner) resources are available on the grid—was still a nascent and poorly understood issue. Our analysis highlighting the issue at that time called it the “coal bailout nobody was talking about,” Now, new research from the Union of Concerned Scientists finds that 25 states have taken up substantial discussion of the issue of coal self-commitment in state public utility proceedings.Consumer advocates, environmental advocates, and commercial customers (like Google, Target, and Facebook) have partnered up across the country to address this issue with lots of progress and some very tangible successes to date. And yet, there is still lots to be done.The issue of coal plants running when cleaner and cheaper resources are available has now become a far more commonly understood and talked-about issue. Using Advance Energy Economy’s PowerSuite software, UCS was able to sift through hundreds of public utility dockets across the country and find all the dockets where the issue of uneconomic self-commitment has been raised and substantively discussed by the public and by experts in these proceedings. From public comments in Washington, to expert reports to public utility commissions, this issue is now part of the industry zeitgeist. In “Used but how Useful?” UCS named some of the worst actors in the MISO region after analyzing 2018 as a test year. We found that much of the problem was being driven by a handful of bad actors. Some of the worst actors, like Cleco in Louisiana, quickly made the switch to seasonal operations and eventually opted to retire their uneconomic coal plants. Others, like Michigan-based DTE, remain intractable despite mounting evidence that they are operating the pool of generation resources sub-optimally and that is costing customers tens of millions of dollars and an indeterminant amount in the form of health costs from increased pollution. They still remain as one of the worst actors, based on UCS data.
Environmental groups plan to sue EPA over sulfur dioxide pollution in Detroit Three environmental groups have notified the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency they plan to sue because the agency has not come up with a plan to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions in areas of Detroit and Baltimore. The Center for Biological Diversity, the Center for Environmental Health, and the Sierra club filed a notice this week. “In the case of Detroit, the EPA already disapproved the state’s plan because it wasn’t going to sufficiently clean up the area. And, so, now it’s on EPA to issue a plan,” said Elena Saxonhouse, an attorney with the Sierra Club. She says the EPA should have done something many years ago. Sulfur dioxide contributes to heart and lung diseases, especially among children and the elderly. The groups say EPA's illegal delay in cleaning up the air pollutant endangers the health of thousands of people. The EPA website indicates the largest source of sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere is the burning of fossil fuel by power plants and other industrial facilities, but also comes from locomotives, ships, and other engines that burn high sulfur diesel. In Southwest Detroit there are several industries which currently emit sulfur dioxide or did when they’re operating. A steel mill is idle right now. A coal-burning power plant is scheduled to be closed. “This part of Wayne County is an area that’s just absolutely pummeled with multiple pollutants from all kinds of facilities. It’s an environmental justice hotspot. So, it’s really urgent that they implement this plan with speed,” Saxonhouse said. If the EPA does not respond in 60 days, the environmental groups will file the suit, asking the court to set a deadline to devise a plan to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions.
Environmental groups sue federal mining agency over West Virginia mine cleanup process -The Sierra Club and two local environmental groups have filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration, alleging that the Interior Department’s Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) has been derelict in handling mine cleanup in West Virginia. In the lawsuit, filed Monday in the Southern District of West Virginia, the Sierra Club, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and West Virginia Highlands Conservancy accused OSMRE of failing to satisfy requirements of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA). The provision of the law in question requires a determination on whether surface mining programs in the state must be improved. The same plaintiffs in 2020 filed a separate lawsuit over the issue, which led the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection to notify the Interior Department that its current mine reclamation bonding program was insolvent, according to the Sierra Club. “Because the current West Virginia Special Reclamation Fund is not able to ensure that sufficient money will be available to complete land and water reclamation on all existing and future bond forfeiture sites, in accordance with the requirements of 30 C.F.R. § 800.11(e), and the Special Reclamation Fund Advisory Council refuses to meet in its responsibility to oversee such fund, the Defendant must determine that a state program amendment is necessary,” the lawsuit states. The plaintiffs seek a declaration that OSMRE has violated the SMCRA and an injunction ordering it to comply. “It’s unfortunate that this lawsuit even needs to be filed. The response from OSMRE last year, following our suit compelling WVDEP to notify the federal agency of the dire financial situation of its reclamation programs, failed to meet the moment,” Peter Morgan, a senior attorney with the Sierra Club’s Environmental Law Program, said in a statement. “Hopefully, under the Biden administration, OSMRE will be up to the challenge of requiring adequate and reliable reclamation funding not just in West Virginia but around the country.”
Inventory of Unreclaimed Mine Land Grows More Dangerous and Expensive - The Daily Yonder Appalachia has an abandoned mine land (AML) problem, and it’s much bigger and costlier to clean up than people thought. And the time to do it is running out. The federal AML inventory estimates that the cost of cleaning up all abandoned mine land–land that was mined before the passage of the Surface Mine Control and Reclamation Act in 1977– is $11 billion. But a new report from the Ohio River Valley Institute shows the cost is more than double what the federal inventory previously claimed – $26 billion. “Anyone at a mine reclamation agency will tell you that the federal AML inventory is a low-ball estimate. And yet it’s the most widely cited figure we have,” said Eric Dixon, the author of the report. “The real size of the problem is two or three times what’s in the official inventory.” Large-scale coal mining began in Central Appalachia in the 1870s, fueling America’s industrial revolution and forming the economic backbone of the region through the 20th century. It wasn’t until a century later that Congress passed the first and most consequential federal law regulating the environmental impacts of coal mining, the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA). SMCRA created the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) and required that coal companies set aside money to pay for the restoration of all land permitted after the law’s implementation. The law also designated any land mined prior to 1977 as Abandoned Mine Land (AML), and set up a fund to reclaim these sites by collecting a small fee on each new ton of coal produced. The AML Fund has collected a total of $11.496 billion, of which only $2.23 billion remains. But Dixon’s research shows this is not nearly enough. According to the report, of the 1.2 million acres designated as abandoned mine land, only 27% has been cleaned up since the 1970s. The cost of reclaiming the remaining 850,000 acres is an estimated $26.3 billion, a price that will only increase if sites are left to degrade for decades more. Unreclaimed mine lands pose significant threats to nearby communities and ecosystems, and can contribute to global warming. Fatalities caused by falling debris from highwalls, rockslides, and flooding are just some of the dangers posed by unreclaimed land. High rates of water pollution, Acid Mine Drainage, and underground mine fires release harmful toxins which have been linked to cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses and cancer. The pollution from the sites also drastically reduces biodiversity in the region and holds back much-needed economic development. Additionally, abandoned coal mines are a significant source of methane and other greenhouse gasses, which contribute to climate change. This damage is concentrated in Appalachian states, with 82.4% of AML costs and their associated consequences located in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee, and Alabama. 5.5 million Appalachians and 1 in 3 West Virginians live within 1 mile of an AML site, according to Dixon. Such high human, environmental, and economic costs demand decisive action. But at the current rate of AML fee collection, Dixon predicts a revenue gap of $25.6 billion. In other words, the total cost of reclaiming all abandoned mine sites by 2050 will exceed the amount available in the AML fund by tens of billions of dollars.
Georgia nuclear plant now delayed until 2022 as costs mount (AP) — Georgia Power Co. said Tuesday that delays in completing testing means the first new unit at its Vogtle plant is now unlikely to start generating electricity before January at the earliest. The unit of Atlanta-based Southern Co. had in recent years been aiming to complete the first unit in November, but officials told investors last month that it would probably be finished in December. Company officials said Tuesday that testing began in late April, would take three weeks longer than expected and is unlikely to be completed before late June, adding more time to construction and startup. The additional month will add another $48 million to the cost of the two nuclear units being built alongside two existing units near Augusta. The project is now projected to cost more than $26 billion for all its owners, including Georgia Power, electric cooperatives and municipal utilities. Ultimately, most electric customers in Georgia, except those in the northwest corner of the state served by affiliates of the Tennessee Valley Authority, will have to pay for the plant. Florida’s Jacksonville Electric Authority is also obligated to buy power from Vogtle. The further delay was disclosed in a periodic hearing with the Georgia Public Service Commission to discuss spending and construction progress on the only nuclear plant being built in the U.S. Commissioners must ultimately decide how much of Georgia Power’s share of the spending is allowable and how paying the bill will be phased in for 2.6 million ratepayers. Customers are already paying for part of the plant. Rates have gone up 3.4% to pay for earlier costs and Georgia Power projects rates will rise another 6.6 percentage points for a total increase of 10%
Georgia Power customers to find out new tab for Vogtle expansion this fall - On Tuesday, it felt like Groundhog Day for Prenovitz, who posed the same question to Georgia Power executives and project leaders in a virtual hearing as they miss another deadline for the third reactor to come online, which is now expected to happen in the first quarter of 2022. In the coming months, Georgia Power and its parent company Southern Co., and consumer advocacy organizations will make their cases before the Public Service Commission for how much of Vogtle’s ballooned unit 3 costs should be passed onto electric consumers’ bills. The next ratepayer hearing on who will pay for the massive nuclear plant expansion project is scheduled for mid-October. The Georgia Public Service Commission is set to decide on Nov. 2 how much ratepayers or company shareholders will pick up of the tab. The heavily scrutinized project south of Augusta has doubled in cost from early projections of $14 billion and repeatedly missed deadlines set by company officials. During Tuesday’s hearing on Vogtle’s latest monitoring report, Prenovitz referenced his 2012 column in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where he predicted Vogtle’s expansion would face the same inflated price tag as the first phase. During the 1970s and 1980s, the cost of Vogtle’s first two reactors jumped from $660 million to nearly $9 billion. “Isn’t that still true that basically since it requires more lead time and the company has little control over cost and scheduling,” said Prenovitz, who represents the Concerned Ratepayers of Georgia. “We don’t know how much it’s going to cost moving forward… and this is what we wondered 15 years ago.” Unit 3 was supposed to start delivering electricity by 2016 and Unit 4 was supposed to be complete in 2017. Over the years, Vogtle has been saddled with exploding costs, caused in large part by the bankruptcy of original contractor Westinghouse Electric, the pandemic and many other problems. Company officials said Tuesday the lingering effects of a pandemic added several months of work while electrical and other remediation problems have slowed down progress. The third reactor is nearly complete, and the goal is to still have the final phase finished in the fall of 2022, said Jeremiah Haswell, Georgia Power’s nuclear development director.
Indian Point nuclear plant closure plan wins New York approval -- The state Public Service Commission has O.K.'d the sale of the Indian Point nuclear power facility to Holtec International subsidiaries, a key step in a protracted round of approvals needed to lock up the sale.The PSC's approval came with benchmarks that Holtec must meet, including keeping enough money in a trust to ensure the shutdown and remediation of the site are finished. The state first announced its approval was on track on April 15.Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who had been pushing for the shutdown of the plant for more than a decade, announced the PSC ruling on Wednesday."As Governor and previously as Attorney General, I have been deeply concerned with the safety of the Indian Point nuclear power facility given its proximity to some of the most densely populated areas in the nation," Cuomo said in a statement. "This is a win for the health and safety of New Yorkers, and the protection of our environment."The sale of the plant by Entergy to Holtec has been controversial. State and federal leaders and environmental groups had expressed concern that money would run out before the 240-acre site was fully cleaned. The shuttering of the plant will cost hundreds of local jobs and impact the local property tax base.
Chernobyl is showing signs of a possible new nuclear accident, scientists say - Scientists are warning that another explosion could occur in Chernobyl due to the spike in neutron numbers in an underground room called 305/2. The numbers may indicate that new fission reactions are taking place, and there’s a possibility the smoldering nuclear reaction — in a room that’s currently unreachable — could lead to an explosion, Business Insider reported.. "[It is] like the embers in a barbecue pit," Neil Hyatt, a professor of nuclear materials science and engineering at the University of Sheffield Lecturer, told Science magazine. Fellow scientist, Maxim Saveliev, a senior researcher with the Institute for Safety Problems of Nuclear Power Plants (ISPNPP) in Kyiv, Ukraine, agrees with Hyatt, saying "there are many uncertainties, but we can't rule out the possibility of [an] accident." The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident near the No. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, close to the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR. The April 26, 1986 disaster is considered the worst nuclear disaster in history for the amount of money it cost and the number of lives lost. The Chernobyl disaster is one of two energy-related accidents that were rated a level 7, the maximum. About 50 people were killed, and the explosion resulted in thousands of radiation-related deaths. As of now, the New Safe Confinement (NCS), a $1.8-billion protective confinement shelter, was built in 2019 to stop the contamination of radioactive. The NSC was also created to lower the neutron counts, with Saveliev saying the issue of a possible explosion might resolve itself. After 35 years, the evacuated city still resembles a ghost town..
China Furious As Japan Refuses To Address Its Radioactive Fukushima Water Dumping Concerns --Angry that Japan has yet to respond directly to the concerns of the international community, China again urged Japan on Monday to face up to its responsibility and refrain from "wantonly" disposing the radioactive, polluted Fukushima waterbefore reaching consensus with all stakeholders and international agencies through consultations.China Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian made the remarks at a daily news briefing when asked to comment on Seoul's request to the International Maritime Organization (IMO) calling for exploring ways to cooperate with the UN nuclear watchdog to ensure safety in Japan's planned release of Fukushima nuclear polluted water. Zhao expressed China's understanding and support for the South Korean side's actions, saying the international community as well as within Japan have expressed deep concern and opposition over the past month after Japan announced its decision.And in the most harshly worded indication that China will not stand idly by as Tokyo releases 1 million tons of radioactive Fukushima water into the Pacific, Zhao said that "Regrettably, the Japanese government has turned a deaf ear to the protests from many governments, international organizations, environmental groups and people in various countries and has to date refused to respond directly to the concerns of the international community."He reiterated that Japan's decision to dump the nuclear polluted water into the sea will endanger the global marine environment and international public health and safety. The spokesperson stressed that Japan's move lacks transparency and is irresponsible, adding that its attempts would only serve its own selfish gains while leaving the international community and future generations with endless problems.
West Valley contamination concerns - Contractors are in the homestretch of clearing the West Valley Demonstration Project of buildings. Fifty-one of 55 structures have been taken down, and the most contaminatedof them all — the Main Plant Processing Building — is scheduled for demolition this fall.How hot are its five stories of reinforced concrete? A trio of activists said it “could be one of the most radioactive buildings in the country.”The demolition might be welcome news, but the manner in which contractors plan to bring the building down is causing concern, even alarm, in some quarters.Plans call for an open-air demolition of the building. Some experts and local activists want it “tented.” That is, enclosed by a temporary cover to reduce the amount of radioactive dust and debris that can escape into the environment.“You’re dealing with a significant quantity of dangerous material which is dangerous in microscopic quantities,” said Robert Alvarez, a senior advisor to the Department of Energy in 1990s, told Investigative Post “Until we have reasons to trust that nothing can get out, we need to take all the steps that are necessary to prevent the irreversible contamination of our region,” said Diane D’Arrigo, an activist and radioactive waste specialist at the Washington, D.C.-based Nuclear Information and Resource Service.“I’m not aware of any other Department of Energy incident where that many people are exposed or known to be exposed,” said Dr. Ed Lyman, director of nuclear power safety for the Union of Concerned Scientists. “This is not a cotton-candy factory,” he said. “You’re dealing with a high-hazard, nuclear facility that is unique.” The West Valley plant was built in 1963 as part of the federal government’s attempt to spark a commercial nuclear industry. New York officials said it would transform the state economy. Operations began in 1966 under Nuclear Fuel Services. The facility closed in 1972 to expand its capacity and improve safety controls mandated by new government regulations. In 1977, the company decided not to make the necessary investment and pulled out, leaving behind 600,000 gallons of high-level radioactive liquid and 2 million cubic-feet of solid waste. Federal and state governments have been overseeing a cleanup of the site since 1980. Congress split the cleanup obligations between the Department of Energy, which pays 90 percent of the bill, and the New York State Energy and Research Development Authority, which covers the balance. The price tag so far is $3.1 billion, according to a Government Accountability Office report published in January. Work is expected to continue into the 2040s. Costs could reach $10.6 billion, according to government projections.
Matt Borges disputes major portions of House Bill 6 allegations in Ohio Elections Commission affidavit - – For the first time since his arrest, Matt Borges – one of the central figures in the federal investigation into House Bill 6 – detailed his side of the story, denying key portions of the U.S. Justice Department’s case against him.Borges, former chairman of the Ohio Republican Party, along with Republican then-House Speaker Larry Householder, top aide Jeff Longstreth and political consultants Neil Clark and Juan Cespedes, were arrested in July 2020 in what federal prosecutors described as a $60 million bribery scheme to pass HB6 – a ratepayer funded bailout of two nuclear plants formerly owned by FirstEnergy.Borges and Householder deny any wrongdoing. Cespedes and Longstreth pleaded guilty. Clark also maintained his innocence, though died by an apparent suicide earlier this year.As the case moves toward trial, Borges has been limited in what he can share, bound by a protective order on evidence in the federal case.However, in a May 13 affidavit filed with the Ohio Elections Commission following Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s decision to refer aspects of the case for prosecution, Borges – who called LaRose’s filing “absurd” and a “frivolous complaint” – gave specific details of his recollection about the events that transpired between him and Tyler Fehrman, a consultant who became a major informant for the FBI case.“When the Chief Elections Officer decides to make accusations that have serious consequences, you would hope that there would be some investigation rather than just tag-teaming with others,” said Karl Schneider, Borges’ attorney, in a statement. “Apparently no investigation or fact checking was done by the Secretary of State. Matt’s affidavit presents the truth, which will prevail.”In their case against him, the feds allege Borges was instrumental in trying to recruit Fehrman to act as a double agent and help kill a referendum to overturn HB6. That included bribes and threats against Fehrman, according to the indictment against Borges. Fehrman, both to the FBI and in an interview with cleveland.com/The Plain Dealer, described Borges as a “close friend” and “mentor” and has worked both for and with him in the past.
Judge says shareholders can sue FirstEnergy for disregarding ‘red flags’ in House Bill 6 nuclear bailout - cleveland.com-- A federal judge has sided with shareholders in a key ruling over lawsuits involving FirstEnergy Corp.’s push to pass House Bill 6. U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley refused to throw out the consolidated cases filed against the company’s board of directors. “This Court finds [the shareholders] have alleged by clear and convincing evidence that [the board] ‘knew or recklessly disregarded reports and red flags that FirstEnergy was paying massive amounts of illicit bribes’” to pass the legislation, the judge said in the 44-page decision. Marbley’s order, filed last week in federal court in Columbus, offers a strong rebuke of the utility. Already, about two dozen state and federal lawsuits have been filed regarding the tainted legislation. Federal records show FirstEnergy and its affiliates paid more than $60 million in bribes to then-Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and a group of allies who pushed the legislation. In return, Householder and his colleagues pushed through the Ohio Statehouse a $1.3 billion bailout of two aging nuclear plants, which were then owned by a FirstEnergy subsidiary, according to the records. The bill became law in 2019, but legislators voted earlier this year to repeal bailout subsidies to the plants. “Taken as true, these allegations together support this Court’s inference that a majority of the [board members] recklessly disregarded their duties to the company and allowed the criminal scheme to continue unchecked,” Marbley wrote. A spokeswoman for FirstEnergy declined to comment about pending litigation. Attorneys in the case did not return calls seeking comment. The lawsuits, filed by the Employees Retirement System of the City of St. Louis, the Massachusetts Laborer Pension Fund and others, are shareholder claims brought against the board on behalf of the company. The claims are known as derivative lawsuits. Marbley’s ruling cited that shareholders have made proposals “for increased disclosure, transparency and accountability in connection with the company’s lobbying efforts in March 2017.” The move came shortly after FirstEnergy flew Householder on a private jet to Washington for then-President Donald Trump’s inauguration, according to an FBI affidavit and documents filed by prosecutors.
FirstEnergy calls the millions of dollars spent on House Bill 6 ‘contributions’ that were legal, protected - cleveland.com --Attorneys for FirstEnergy Corp. and its top executives say the millions of dollars used to pass House Bill 6 were political contributions channeled legally through a nonprofit.In hundreds of pages of documents filed Tuesday, the attorneys urged a federal judge to throw out a civil lawsuit alleging securities fraud against the Akron utility. They called the money spent on the legislation “issue-advocacy” donations.Federal investigators have referred to the money as bribes. The payments, which totaled $60 million from the company and its affiliates, ended up in the hands of then-Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and a group of friends to steer a $1.3 billion bailout of two nuclear plants by state lawmakers, according to federal court records. A subsidiary of FirstEnergy had once owned the plants.Tuesday’s filings address dark money’s role in House Bill 6. Under federal law, companies can funnel unlimited amounts of money anonymously through nonprofits. In this case, FirstEnergy and its affiliates shipped the money to Generation Now, which served as a bank account for Householder’s clique, authorities say.The documents come as FirstEnergy works with the Justice Department on an agreement of deferred prosecution.Such an agreement often calls for a business to cooperate and pay a fine to avoid charges. FirstEnergy noted the talks with authorities in a regulatory filing earlier this year.The lawsuit involving investors was filed in U.S. District Court in Columbus days after federal authorities arrested Householder and four colleagues on racketeering charges. The suit alleged the company issued false and misleading statements to investors about its internal controls and business practices, including pushing for “legislative solutions” to help solve problems with its nuclear facilities.The solutions, the lawsuit said, came in the form of “an illicit campaign to corrupt high-profile state legislators.”FirstEnergy’s filings stressed that the contributions the company and its affiliates made were legal, saying the First Amendment protects the right to contribute anonymously “to groups that speak or advocate on matters of public concern.”Records show FirstEnergy Solutions, which had owned the plants, contributed $56.6 million to Generation Now, the nonprofit that authorities say Householder controlled.The lawyers for the company said the securities lawsuit brought by investors failed to show a direct link between the contributions from FirstEnergy and its affiliates and the passage of the law. “That FirstEnergy made contributions to Generation Now does not establish a return promise from Householder or anyone else as to any specific official act,” the attorneys wrote.
Are Ohio House Republicans planning to expel Larry Householder? Speaker Bob Cupp still won’t say - cleveland.com —Since the beginning of this year’s legislative session, reporters have asked House Speaker Bob Cupp on a regular basis about whether GOP lawmakers will expel state Rep. Larry Householder, who’s charged with overseeing the largest bribery scheme in state history.Every week, Cupp offers an (non-)answer similar to the one he gave Wednesday: “I have nothing further to report.”It’s not because Householder’s fate isn’t on lawmakers’ minds, as Cupp said when pressed by a reporter. “Members talk about it a lot to each other,” he said. “But there’s nothing further to report.”If there’s all this talk among lawmakers, is there any consensus emerging about Householder’s fate?“I have nothing further to report,” Cupp said.When asked why he has nothing further to report, and why he’s withholding such information from the public, Cupp replied: “I’m not withholding anything from the public. I don’t have anything to report.”The House speaker was similarly tight-lipped when asked whether he saw any issue with Householder continuing to draw a legislative salary of more than $60,000 per year. “As you know, my position is Larry Householder should resign,” Cupp answered without any elaboration.Multiple lawmakers and observers have said a comparatively small – though influential – group of House Republicans is holding up the expulsion of Householder, a Perry County Republican.Householder was arrested last July and accused of using more than $60 million in bribe money from FirstEnergy Corp. entities to secure passage of House Bill 6, which included a $1 billion-plus ratepayer bailout for two Northern Ohio nuclear power plants. Householder has maintained his innocence, though two allies and a dark-money group have pleaded guilty to their roles in the scheme. Soon afterward, the House voted to remove Householder as speaker. But House Republican said at the time they didn’t want to expel Householder from his legislative seat because they can’t expel a member twice for the same offense -- meaning if they forced him out then, they wouldn’t be able to do so again this session.
Your Dominion natural gas fees shot up $1.53. What just happened? - Your next natural gas bill from Dominion Energy Ohio will be $1.53 higher – and that's not from the cost of gas.Dominion Energy Ohio is in the midst of a 25-year-long massive replacement of its aging pipelines. Ohio law allows regulated utilities to recoup costs the utility spends on infrastructure with some oversight from the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, so that means customers pay it.In total, Dominion is replacing 5,576 miles across its Ohio territory, which includes West Ohio and Northeast Ohio. In the Akron area, Dominion serves parts of Summit, Stark, Portage and Medina counties.The project was first approved in a rate case in 2008. Collection of what’s called the Pipeline Infrastructure Replacement Cost (PIR), which is included among other charges in the “Total Monthly Charge” on your Dominion bill, began being collected in 2010. The costs to consumers are always a year behind the actual costs incurred by Dominion, which has to turn in documentation to be audited by the PUCO regulators, said Vicki Friscic, Dominion director of regulator & pricing. They have also been incremental increases. The fee started at 72 cents a month in January 2010 and is now $14.98 a month, effective with May bills after May 12. Last year’s rate was $13.45.
Ohio legislature spending energy on energy legislation --Energy is a hot topic at the statehouse these days. The Ohio General Assembly is reviewing several proposals dealing with energy sources, including solar and wind facilities, oil, gas, and gas pipelines. The proposals raise a critical question about where control over energy production activities should lie: with the state or with local communities? The proposals offer contrasting views on the answer to that question. We reported in March that companion bills H.B. 118 and S.B. 52 were on hold due to conflicts with the proposals, which would have allowed citizens to use the referendum process to reject proposed large scale wind and solar energy developments in their communities. On May 12, the bill sponsors offered a substitute bill to the House Public Utilities Committee. The new approach in the substitute bill would allow a township to adopt a resolution designating all or parts of the township as “energy development districts.” Doing so would allow wind and solar facilities to be constructed within the designated district(s) and would prevent the Ohio Power Siting Board from approving any projects that are not within a designated district. The residents in a township, however, would have the right to petition an energy development district designation and submit it to a vote by township residents. A proposal regarding energy generation from fossil fuels and gas pipelines takes an opposite approach on local control. H.B. 192, sponsored by Rep. Al Cutrona (R-Canfield) would prohibit counties, townships, and municipal corporations from prohibiting or limited the use of fossil fuels for electricity generation and the construction or use of a pipeline to transport oil or gas. About a dozen opponents testified against the bill at its third hearing before the House Energy and Natural Resources in early May, with most arguing that the proposal removes rights of local communities to control their energy sources and violates the home rule authority for municipalities provided in Ohio’s Constitution. A bill that guarantees access to natural gas passed the House of Representatives on May 6, largely along party lines. H.B. 201,sponsored by Rep. Jason Stephens (R-Kitts Hill), guarantees that every person has a right to obtain any available distribution service or competitive retail natural gas service from gas suppliers, and bars a political subdivision from enacting laws that would limit, prevent, or prohibit a consumer within its boundaries from using distribution services, retail natural gas service, or propane. Opponents argue that the bill violates home rule authority and is unnecessary, since no community in Ohio has ever banned the use of natural gas. The bill was referred to the Senate Energy and Public Utilities Committee on May 12.
Ohio lawmakers include language promoting oil and gas in budget bill – The Ohio House version of the 2022-23 state operating budget includes language that would make it state policy to “promote” oil and gas development, exploration and production.The House also added in provisions to make it easier to lease mineral rights under state lands.The state’s oil and gas industry welcomed these small, but significant, changes. Environmental groups are concerned about what it means for public transparency and protecting the state’s public lands. “It’s a thumb on the scale,” said Nathan Johnson, director of public lands at the Ohio Environmental Council. “It slants the playing field dramatically in favor of the industry.”Until now, it’s been basically impossible for any state agency to lease its mineral rights for oil and gas development, said Matt Hammond, president of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association. The law, signed in 2011 under then-Gov. John Kasich, created the Oil and Gas Leasing Commission. The commission was supposed to oversee any leasing activity on state lands.The problem, for the oil and gas industry, is that no one was appointed to the commission until 2017. That only happened after the legislature tried, through the budget bill, to take away the governor’s power to control appointments to the commission. Even after the commission was staffed, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources never promulgated any rules to govern the commission. Under the language put in the House budget bill, the commission would create its own rules, including setting a standard lease to be used by state agencies.State agencies could then lease public land parcels without consulting the commission. Johnson said these changes basically render the commission obsolete and takes the leasing process out of the public eye. “It robs the public of those protections,” he said. “If we’re basically announcing a policy of drill, baby, drill in those places that Ohioans really rely on today more than they ever have, for getting out there, getting away, breathing clean air, I think that’s a sad state of affairs that we’re dealing with in Ohio right now.” According to the bill, the commission would still accept nominations for parcels to be leased and approve bids.The provisions would allow state leasing revenue to be used more broadly. The current law says those funds need to be reinvested into the public lands. The budget bill would have that money be put into a general administrative fund.The new process would also allow oil and gas companies to submit title work to streamline the process, Hammond said. That’s something the state is required to do now, but the industry is better equipped to do, he said. The state Senate is still crafting its own version of the budget bill. Hammond said if this language gets through with the final budget, leasing could happen on state lands immediately.In some areas, drilling can’t happen because of private land’s connection to public lands. When natural gas prices recover, it may make financial sense for producers to lease large swaths of land in state parks or state forests, Hammond said.
Letters to the editor - 05/20/2021 - chagrinvalleytoday.com - - Amendment could threaten parks. This is a message from Protect Geauga Parks. Changes to legislation would promote drilling in Ohio parks.The Ohio House slipped a last-minute provision into the budget bill that aggressively promotes fracking/drilling on state public lands.This legislation would make it state policy to “promote” oil and gas drilling on Ohio’s public lands. Worse yet, it mandates that leasing revenues be used to promote more drilling.Hunters, fisherman, boaters, hikers, campers — anyone using the public lands — will be negatively impacted.Private gas wells and fracking are not what public land is about. There are plenty of private properties to drill on.Fortunately, you can help!Call and email the three senators below. Simply say: “Please remove the proposed language changes to HB 110 regarding oil and gas leasing on public lands.”
- Senator Matt Dolan, Chair, (614) 466-8056 or dolan@ohiosenate.gov
- Senator Theresa Gavarone, Vice-Chair, (614) 466-8060 or gavarone@ohiosenate.gov
- Vernon Sykes, Ranking Member, (614) 466-7041 or sykes@ohiosenate.gov
Our public lands are for all to enjoy . . . not for a few to destroy.
Utica Midstream event in Canton recognizes future trends call for less carbon – The focus remains on oil and natural gas, but companies drilling in the Utica Shale recognize the trend toward alternative fuels and energy sources.Hydrogen was mentioned several times during the ninth annual Utica Midstream program Thursday at the Holiday Inn, Belden Village.Liquid hydrogen has been used as a fuel to power batteries, including in public transportation vehicles.The Utica Midstream featured presenters from companies involved in collecting, processing and transporting oil and natural gas. The Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce and Shale Directories have been presenting the meetings, as well as similar events for upstream and downstream operations.Speakers included representatives from major pipeline companies that have seen their business change because of oil and natural gas produced through shale drilling. The oil and gas produced in the Utica Shale and other shale plays around the country is being used as feedstock of plastics as well as for fuels.This year's conference caught the attention of environmental groups, which announced plans to protest at the event. That effort was canceled because turnout numbers were too low, an organizer said in an email.The groups remain concerned oil and gas drilling threatens the environment and results in public health problems. Ben Hunkler, an organizer with Concerned Ohio River Residents, said economic studies show that "new gas development is a non-starter, and one that would only exacerbate the severe body burden of fossil fuel extraction."
Utica Shale Academy continues to grow — With 38 students on the list to possibly graduate from the Utica Shale Academy this year, the fledgling school continues to nearly double in size and improvements to the financial balance each year. During Tuesday’s board meeting, Superintendent Bill Watson said the school graduated 20 students a year ago and nine the year before that. There are currently 87 students enrolled and 28 of those have completed everything in preparation to graduate. The other 10 are working toward it. Graduation is in early June, but Watson indicated some students may have to finish in July.Additionally, the board approved a five-year forecast that shows the Shale Academy had a fiscal year end balance of $98,196 in the summer of 2020 and is on pace to have a balance of $235,883 at the end of this June. Over the next four years, Treasurer Bob Barrett estimates an increase each year bringing the end of fiscal year balance in 2025 to $806,948. He said this will hold true if the enrollment remains the same.Board President Karl Blissenbach noted the school is “considerably more solid than we were a year ago.”Although Watson acknowledges it will be difficult to continue doubling indefinitely, he believes by continuing to double enrollment, the school will be doing fine.The school has included several students from other schools trying to catch up on missed credits through the virtual learning academy.
Gulfport Energy Corporation Successfully Emerges From Chapter 11 --Gulfport Energy Corporation today announced that it has successfully completed its restructuring process and emerged from chapter 11 protection. As contemplated by Gulfport’s Plan of Reorganization (the "Plan") that was confirmed by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas on April 28, 2021, Gulfport has exited bankruptcy with a new Board of Directors; a strengthened balance sheet, with $853 million of total debt representing more than $1.2 billion of deleveraging through the Chapter 11 process; and approximately $135 million of liquidity. At emergence, Gulfport’s net-debt-to-EBITDA is approximately 1.5x. Please refer to Gulfport’s emergence presentation for more details which will be provided in a Form 8-K and can also be found on the Company’s Investor Relations site: https://ir.gulfportenergy.com. Gulfport Energy is an independent returns-oriented, gas-weighted, exploration and development company and is one of the largest producers of natural gas in the contiguous United States. Headquartered in Oklahoma City, Gulfport holds significant acreage positions in the Utica Shale of Eastern Ohio and the SCOOP Woodford and SCOOP Springer plays in Oklahoma.
Chesapeake Looking to Build Lower 48 Natural Gas Supply, Searching for New CEO --Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy Corp. expects to up the natural gas mix in its production portfolio to 85% in 2022 from 77%, executives said Wednesday in the first quarter earnings call. The recently restructured company expects its gas production to hit 715-735 Bcf this year. Capital expenditures are set at $670-740 million, executives said. At one time the largest natural gas producer and biggest leaseholder in the Lower 48, Chesapeake succumbed to bankruptcy last June. In February it completed a restructuring process, erasing an estimated $7.8 billion in debt.The company is now looking for a new CEO to replace Doug Lawler. “We expect it to take several months and we’ve planned for several months,” interim CEO Michael Wichterich told investors. He told analysts “we want change now, we want fresh perspective now.”Chesapeake achieved production of 436,000 boe/d in the first quarter. The company is operating seven rigs across its portfolio, with three rigs in Appalachia, three rigs in the Haynesville Shale and one rig in South Texas.The company generated $409 million of operating cash flow and ended the quarter with $340 million of cash on hand. The company also declared an annual dividend on common shares of $1.375/share. The dividend is to be paid quarterly, with the first payment to be payable on June 10, 2021.Wichterich highlighted cost per lateral foot efficiencies. In Appalachia, “we’re pretty proud to get $700-750 a foot; in 2019 it was $985 a foot. Now during bankruptcy, this says the team continues to execute.” In the Haynesville, “we are seeing really good base production support in all the fields,”
Report: Alaska natural gas production could harm Marcellus LNG exports - Appalachian natural gas producers are looking forward to liquid natural gas exports as a new growth market to serve many power-hungry Asian markets. But a new report says that competition from a far-away shale play in Alaska could make that more difficult. Shale CEOs have talked up the opportunities for Appalachian natural gas for LNG, shipped via pipeline to either the Gulf Coast or a Dominion export terminal in Cove Point, Maryland. Big markets are Mexico as well as Asia and Europe, including South Korea, Japan, Spain and the United Kingdom. But a new report from West Virginia University said that domestic natural gas basins will be impacted by the development of natural gas in the Alaska North Slope and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Pipeline projects could bring natural gas from the Alaska North Slope, even without tapping into ANWR. The report predicts a jump from zero to 1.9 million trillion cubic feet of natural gas production from Alaska’s north Slope, which would be about 6% of the country’s entire natural gas production. Alaska coming online with large amounts of natural gas would impact the domestic market, which at the moment has been struggling with too much supply anyway. Yet Alaska’s natural gas production provides a unique opportunity in LNG. The reason? “Transportation cost is a big factor,” Carr told the Business Times on Friday. For LNG exports to get from the Gulf Coast or Cove Point to Asia, they all have to go a long way via ocean, either taking smaller ships through the Panama Canal or larger ships around the horn of Africa. “It takes more time and the cost of shipping is based on how many days the ship takes,” Carr said. With Alaska, on the other hand, it’s a straight shot from there to Asia. “It’s important for Alaska … (and) important for Appalachia in a negative way,” Carr said. “It’s another competitor and a competitor that is geographically in a better position.” The report said that increased production in Alaska would have a negative impact on prices for other natural gas producers, particularly in the Marcellus and Utica shales, which is the biggest area for natural gas production in the U.S., and also cutting down on LNG exports from Cove Point and the Gulf Coast. The report said that increasing production in Alaska isn’t needed with the United States’ position as an exporter of both oil and gas. “This unnecessary production could harm the nation’s continental producers by causing additional existing production to shut in due to suppressed prices tied to associated gas from petroleum production,” the report said.
TENORM: Stories on Fracking's Radioactive Waste - PUBLIC HERALD - Public Herald -- Below is a complete list of Public Herald’s investigations covering or mentioning fracking’s radioactive waste, a.k.a. TENORM (technically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive material), since the beginning of the publication in 2011. Public Herald’s three documentary films — 1. Triple Divide 2. Triple Divide [Redacted] 3. INVISIBLE HAND — each include reporting on fracking’s TENORM waste.
Pipeline protester arrested after 5½-hour blockade in Giles County - A protester from West Virginia was arrested Tuesday after blockading a path to a Mountain Valley Pipeline worksite, according to the Virginia State Police. Sydney M. Browning, 28, of Whitesville was found attached to the interior of a disabled 2000 Isuzu Rodeo that was blocking a right of way used by MVP crews, authorities said. The demonstration was reported by pipeline security staff about 5:40 a.m. along Doe Creek Road, about 1.5 miles from U.S. 460 in Giles County. In addition to the SUV, which had flattened tires and was painted with slogans like "Who Killed The World?", about a dozen activists were nearby, officials said. Appalachians Against Pipelines said the protest was able to halt pipeline work for about five and a half hours. The move was the latest in a series of efforts designed to delay construction and add cost to the controversial, 303-mile natural gas pipeline project. In a statement shared by the protest group, Browning, whom other activists referred to as Max, said: “Often, when people who fight extraction talk about the world ahead, we talk about it in terms of the coming apocalypse caused by catastrophic climate change. There is no doubt that unchallenged extraction and consumption are pushing our ecosystems to the brink. Corporations, MVP included, and the so-called leaders that enable and protect them are the answer to that question painted on this blockade, ‘Who killed the world?’”The state police said a team of specially trained troopers was dispatched to open the SUV. Its doors had been welded shut, and its windows covered by rebar. The state police charged Browning with the misdemeanor offenses of trespassing, obstruction of justice, interfering with the property rights of another and obstructing free passage. Traffic citations were also issued for operating an uninsured vehicle, coasting a vehicle and failing to have a vehicle registered. Appalachians Against Pipelines said Browning remained in custody as of 4 p.m. Tuesday with bail set at $2,500.
LG&E can condemn Bullitt County land for pipeline, judge rules - Louisville Gas & Electric Co. can condemn key parcels of land in Bullitt County for a proposed natural gas pipeline, a judge ruled Tuesday. The order by Bullitt Circuit Judge Rodney Burress found that LG&E met its requirements under Kentucky’s eminent domain law, while dismissing landowners' claims of fraud and collusion as irrelevant to the condemnation cases. Buress noted that some of LG&E's representatives "may have been overzealous" in their dealings with property owners, but he found no evidence that the company didn't negotiate in good faith. And he ultimately agreed that the line is “necessary to improve natural gas service for residential and commercial customers in Bullitt County by increasing capacity and improving reliability.” The decision affects seven of the eight condemnation cases involving the pipeline plan; a separate lawsuit, against Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest, is pending in Bullitt Circuit Court. Eric Farris, the attorney for Bullitt County Economic Development Authority, called the ruling a "really significant development for Bullitt County as a whole." Thomas Clay, an attorney representing some landowners, said Wednesday that he and other lawyers are considering their next steps, which could include appealing to the Kentucky Court of Appeals. "Some of the tactics that were used to gain approval from some of the land owners in Bullitt County for this pipeline, I think they deserve scrutiny," he said. LG&E spokeswoman Natasha Collins said in a statement that the private, publicly-regulated utility continues to pursue the remaining permits and other approvals needed to start construction, including permits from Kentucky Division of Water and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. LG&E’s plan to run a 12-mile natural gas pipeline across Bullitt County has run into opposition from some landowners who don’t want a high-pressure line crossing their property. They’ve refused to sell easements for the project, leading to the condemnation lawsuits filed in 2019. Some of the most vigorous opposition has been from Bernheim, which owns land that the pipeline would cross north of the popular forest and recreation area. It is planning a wildlife corridor there. Opponents also have raised concerns about a process that kept key details about the route and opportunities for public input hidden until after state utility regulators approved the project.
Judge: LG&E can take Bullitt County landowners' property for pipeline --A judge ruled this week that Louisville Gas and Electric Co. can take control of pieces of property that several Bullitt County landowners don't want to give up so the utility can advance its plans to build a natural gas pipeline. Bullitt Circuit Court Judge Rodney Burress ruled LG&E is legally allowed to secure easements on the property owners' land so it can install a 12-mile-long pipeline that would start in eastern Bullitt County and end near Interstate 65. "I think it's incredibly disheartening for us," Kimberly Brown, one of the landowners involved in the legal dispute, told The Courier Journal Thursday. More: 'This line terrifies me': Deadly pipeline explosion stokes Bullitt homeowners' fears John Cox, a Louisville attorney representing Brown and a couple other landowners, said this battle isn't over, despite the new ruling. "We have the ability to appeal this," he said Thursday. "There’s also numerous environmental questions that may be challenged." LG&E’s plan to take control of these parcels of land revolves around the concept of eminent domain, which refers to the right of a government (or, in certain cases, a utility company) to take private property for a public use. In these types of cases, Cox said, "Most of the time landowners just get run over by the utility. And that's not going to happen here, so we'll continue fighting..." Landowners involved in this dispute argued LG&E's pipeline would serve a private rather than a public use, saying it primarily would supply natural gas to Jim Beam's distilleries in Clermont and Boston, Ky., per court records. "There is no question that Jim Beam stands to benefit greatly from this pipeline project," the judge said in his ruling. "Nevertheless, the Court finds this project would undoubtedly serve the broader public in addition to greatly benefiting Jim Beam."
With $900K tax break, Rensselaer gas-fired power plant will keep operating— Helped by a $900,000 reduction in its property tax bill, the operator of a gas-fired power plant here says it will continue to operate, despite earlier talks of a possible closure.“Empire wants to stay open and be an integral part. We’re going to be needed. As new renewables come on you’re going to need a plant to firm the renewables when there is no sun or wind,” said Dan Hudson, CEO of the Texas-based Empire Generating Co. LLC.Hudson had earlier said they might not be able to stay open without some kind of financial break, given the current low natural gas prices and the declining subsidies they get.The Rensselaer County Industrial Development Agency, or IDA, then agreed to reduce their PILOT, or payment in lieu of tax bill, from $2 million to $1.1 million, which Hudson says has kept the plant operating for now.The reduction has pinched municipal and school budgets but officials say it’s better than losing the plant entirely. Rensselaer school Superintendent John Kardash said the PILOT reduction translates into a $300,000 cut in their property tax revenue.
NESE pipeline developer receives two-year extension; environmentalists are disappointed in the ruling -Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Company, LLC, (Transco) received a two-year extension of time to construct and place into service the expansion facilities authorized by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for the Northeast Supply Enhancement project (NESE) as of May 19. The Williams Company operates the Transco pipeline, a 10,000-mile interstate transmission pipeline system that transports much of the natural gas consumed in the northeastern United States. The system includes more than 50 compressor facilities and currently features more than 500 miles of pipe and five compressor facilities in New Jersey, according to information provided by Williams regarding the NESE project. The NESE project is a proposed $1 billion enhancement of existing Transco infrastructure in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York that includes a proposed new compressor facility in Franklin Township, known as Station 206. The facility would feature two natural gas-fired turbine compressor units with a combined output of 32,000 horsepower. The preferred location is a 52-acre tract about 1 mile south of the intersection of Route 27 and Route 518; the 16-acre site would be surrounded by a wooded buffer, according to the company. For more than five years, residents have expressed concerns because of the proximity of the proposed compressor station to the Trap Rock Industries rock quarry in Kingston; the potential for clay byproducts to be disturbed during construction; the possibility of leaks, fires and explosions; and quality of life disruptions due to health and environmental concerns. “It is completely shameful that Transco is back, again. FERC has granted them two more years to try to get permits even though both New Jersey and New York denied their permits last year. Now, New Jersey needs to step up and use the 401 Water Quality Certificate to stop this project once and for all,” Taylor McFarland, chapter coordinator of Sierra Club New Jersey, said in a prepared statement. “We’ve beat Transco twice, and we’re going to keep fighting until we beat them again. This project is completely unnecessary. The gas companies get the money, New York gets the gas, and we get the pipe. We must continue to fight to stop this project to protect the public health and safety, and the environment.”
Lawmakers: NC needs more fuel pipelines :: WRAL.com — In the wake of a gas pipeline shutdown last week that prompted panic buying and widespread gas shortages, state lawmakers on Tuesday signaled a renewed push to bring more fuel pipelines into North Carolina.The Colonial Pipeline was offline for five days following a ransomware attack on May 8. Drivers quickly lined up at gas stations across North Carolina to fill up, draining available supplies and raising frustration and anxiety levels for those unable to get to a pump. At one point last week, three of every four gas stations in North Carolina reported being out of fuel.Many stations still had no gas on Tuesday, although the supply situation was steadily improving and the long lines have disappeared.The pipeline provides almost all of the gas used in North Carolina, and energy industry executives told state lawmakers Tuesday that North Carolina similarly has a single supply pipeline for natural gas, making the state vulnerable to outages."The Colonial Pipeline disruption could have been much worse, and it's foolish to presume North Carolina will not face a more severe energy supply shock in the future," Sen. Brent Jackson, R-Sampson, told members of the Senate Agriculture, Energy and Environment committee. "It could happen next week, next year [or] next decade, but it's a question of when and not if."While the electric grid has increased its defenses against hackers, the pipeline industry is more vulnerable. If either of North Carolina's pipelines was to be disabled for a longer period of time, Jackson said, the economic and public safety fallout would be huge."The bottom line is, we should treat the fallout of the Colonial Pipeline attack as a warning and prepare accordingly," he said.
Experts: 1 pipeline each for NC natural gas, fuel a concern — North Carolina is particularly susceptible to energy interruptions because gasoline and natural gas supplies originate mainly from two pipeline systems, energy industry experts told a state Senate committee Tuesday. Representatives of utility giants Duke Energy and Dominion Energy were among those who addressed the chamber’s energy panel in light of this month’s ransomware cyberattack upon the Colonial Pipeline. North Carolina motorists were hit particularly hard — 43% of the state’s gas stations remained out of fuel Tuesday afternoon, according to GasBuddy. Up to 75% of each day’s supply of refined petroleum products in North Carolina run through the Colonial Pipeline, said David McGowan, executive director of the North Carolina Petroleum Council. And the Transco pipeline is currently the lone interstate natural gas transmission line for North Carolina. Both lines move products south to north. Natural gas increasingly fuels electric generation. A lack of diverse distribution and redundancy in distribution networks make widespread outages for electricity and natural gas hard to overcome quickly, whether from natural disasters or cyberattacks, said Ed Finley, the former chairman of the North Carolina Utilities Commission. “When it goes out, people’s lives are disrupted,” Finley said, adding that the inability for consumers and businesses to turn on electricity and natural gas “would be crippling to the state’s economy.” Finley said hardening the electrical grid against physical damage and cyber attacks should be considered. Duke Energy, which uses natural gas to generate 30% of its electricity during the coldest weather, has backup fuels at most of these plants, said Nelson Peeler, a company senior vice president. But the diesel fuel immediately available only would last a couple of days, he said. Efforts to diversify natural gas supplies in North Carolina, particularly by moving the fuel from deposits in the north, have stalled in recent years. The Atlantic Coast Pipeline, proposed by Dominion Energy and Duke, was canceled last summer after legal challenges, construction delays and ballooning costs. And a proposed extension of the Mountain Valley Pipeline from Virginia into North Carolina is in jeopardy after the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality denied a water quality certification. Rusty Harris, a Dominion Energy vice president, said that without expanding natural gas being piped into North Carolina, the utility may have to look to creating more storage facilities to plan for an interruption. Harris and Peeler said separately that alternative forms of energy, such as solar, wind or a greener form of natural gas, can diversify fuel sources. But they cautioned the technology or economics don’t yet make them a reasonable or reliable substitute. “The message from today’s hearing couldn’t be clearer: North Carolina’s reliance on a single pipeline is a critical vulnerability,” .
Liberty Utilities angles for 20-year natural gas contract - Last year, Liberty Utilities withdrew what had turned into a very contentious proposal to construct a large, expensive pipeline called the Granite Bridge Project. Critics said it was too big, too expensive, and that it would harm the environment. It led to protests and drew fierce opposition from climate-change activists who oppose building new fossil fuel infrastructure. In the wake of that failed proposal, Liberty has put forward another project that is now being considered by the Public Utilities Commission — a 20-year agreement to increase its natural gas capacity in the state by about 20 to 25 percent through a purchase agreement with Tennessee Gas Pipeline. The company says it needs to increase its capacity in order to meet customer demand. The new proposal was put forward in January, and it has been proceeding quietly ever since, with none of the dramatic opposition that Granite Bridge garnered. But some environmental advocates still oppose the 20-year contract as an unacceptable option in the face of climate change. “This is a major step in the wrong direction,” said Nick Krakoff, a staff attorney at the Conservation Law Foundation. The foundation is one of the parties involved in the docket at the utilities commission. While burning natural gas emits less carbon dioxide than coal, methane leaks can occur while the gas is moving through the pipelines, harming the environment. Methane leaks can also happen when the gas is being extracted. A 2020 study by the Environmental Defense Fund looked at natural gas produced in the Permian Basin in Texas and found that 3.7 percent of the gas extracted was leaking into the atmosphere. Once methane is released into the environment, it is a much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. From Krakoff’s standpoint, 20 years is a long time; he is pushing for a shorter contract. Along with climate change activists, he has argued that the issue is urgent.
U.S. natgas soars to 3-month high on rising air conditioner use (Reuters) - U.S. natural gas futures jumped 5% to a three-month high on Monday on forecasts for warmer weather over the next two weeks that is expected to prompt power generators to burn more gas to meet rising air conditioning use. Traders noted that was the biggest daily percentage gain since the Texas freeze in mid February. They noted the price gain came despite a slow but steady increase in production and small declines in exports this month even though gas prices in Europe and Asia were soaring. Front-month gas futures NGc1 rose 14.8 cents, or 5.0%, to settle at $3.109 per million British thermal units (mmBtu), their highest close since Feb. 17. Speculators, meanwhile, boosted their net long gas futures and options positions on the New York Mercantile and Intercontinental Exchanges for a second week in a row last week to their highest since early March. They were acting on expectations U.S. prices would rise as exports return to record highs with gas prices in Europe TRNLTTFMc1 near their highest since 2018 and Asia JKMc1 over $10 per mmBtu.
June Natural Gas Futures Fizzle After Biggest Advance as Prompt Month; Cash Prices Fall -- Natural gas futures on Tuesday gave back a big chunk of the gains made in a weather-driven surge a day earlier. Analysts said forecasts remained bullish for gas demand, but the Monday rally was overcooked and traders responded by taking profits the next day. The June Nymex contract dropped 9.7 cents day/day and settled at $3.012/MMBtu. A day earlier, the prompt month surged nearly 15 cents. July fell 8.6 to $3.078 on Tuesday. NGI’s Spot Gas National Avg. declined 2.5 cents to $2.810. The most intense heat currently in the 15-day forecast lies early next week, and analysts look for sustained cooling demand to arrive by June. But near-term conditions remained mild Tuesday, and analysts said markets may need confirmation of summer demand to arrive before futures rally further. “Underlying bullish sentiment is strong,” EBW Analytics Groups said Tuesday. While prices were bound to fall back near the $3.00 level this week, “additional gains are likely as soon as sustained hot weather arrives.” Temperatures were generally comfortable across the Midwest and into the East on Tuesday. But “demand will increase late this weekend into the middle of next week as strong upper high pressure builds over the eastern U.S.,” NatGasWeather said. The firm also noted that liquefied natural gas (LNG) volumes pulled back to near 10 Bcf early Tuesday after eclipsing the 11 Bcf level to start the previous day – likely due to ongoing maintenance work at multiple Gulf Coast exports facilities. Planned maintenance is common in May, however, and analysts are increasingly confident in robust LNG demand through the summer cooling season, suggesting any further declines this month will likely prove to be blips. European stockpiles are low after a combined harsh winter and chilly spring across much of the continent, driving the need for U.S. exports. Demand from Asia for American deliveries of the super-chilled fuel is also steadily strong. LNG feed gas volumes have topped the 11 Bcf level repeatedly this spring – hanging near all-time highs.
U.S. natgas slips on mild weather forecast, export declines (Reuters) - U.S. natural gas futures slipped on Wednesday as exports dipped and on forecasts for milder weather and lower demand over the next two weeks than previously expected. Traders noted gas prices were also following oil futures lower. U.S. crude fell more than $2 a barrel on renewed global demand concerns as coronavirus cases in Asia rise, among other things. O/R Front-month gas futures NGc1 fell 4.8 cents, or 1.6%, to settle at $2.964 per million British thermal units. Data provider Refinitiv said gas output in the Lower 48 U.S. states averaged 90.8 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) so far in May, up from 90.6 bcfd in April. That is still well below November 2019's monthly record of 95.4 bcfd. With the coming of summer air-conditioning use, Refinitiv projected average gas demand, including exports, would rise from 81.1 bcfd this week to 84.2 bcfd next week. The forecast for next week, however, was lower than Refinitiv projected on Tuesday because the latest outlook was for milder weather that should reduce the amount of gas power generators burn to keep air conditioners humming. The amount of gas flowing to U.S. LNG export plants averaged 10.9 bcfd so far in May, down from April's monthly record of 11.5 bcfd. The decline was due to short-term issues and normal spring maintenance at a few Gulf Coast plants and the gas pipelines that supply them.
US gas storage injection falls below average as tight market balance persists | S&P Global Platts - US natural gas storage fields added 71 Bcf last week, marking the fourth straight below-average injection this season that comes as tighter supply-demand fundamentals in the US market endure. Inventories edged up to 2.1 Tcf for the week ended May 14, the US Energy Information Administration reported May 20. The addition to US stocks was less than the 84 Bcf injection reported during the corresponding week in 2020 and below the five-year average build of 86 Bcf, according to EIA data. As a result, stocks were 391 Bcf, or nearly 16%, below the year-ago level of 2.491 Tcf and 87 Bcf, or 4%, less than the five-year average storage level of 2.187 Tcf. While still bullish, the mid-May inventory build outpaced levels anticipated by an S&P Global Platts survey of analysts, which predicted a 67 Bcf injection earlier this week. Following the release of the EIA's storage report, the NYMEX Henry Hub prompt-month futures contract fell about 5 cents from its previous settlement price as the market absorbed news of the slightly larger-than-anticipated build. By early afternoon, the June contract retraced some of its mid-morning losses to finish trading at $2.93/MMBtu — down about 4 cents on the day, S&P Global Platts data showed. In the second week of May, the US market balance tightened compared with the prior week, as abnormally low US temperatures boosted late-season heating demand across much of the Lower-48 states. During the week, total US demand averaged nearly 80 Bcf/d — up over 800 MMcf/d, or about 10%, compared with the week prior. The weekly gain was propelled mostly by lower temperatures in the Midwest and the Northeast, where residential-commercial demand was up sharply. In the Midwest, population-weighted temperatures averaged just 50.1 degrees Fahrenheit, or about 9 degrees below normal, during the week ended May 14. As a result, gas-fired heating demand climbed nearly 1.2 Bcf/d compared with the week prior. In the Northeast, a smaller but still significant drop in temperatures lifted heating demand there some 600 MMcf/d. Along with smaller gains in other regions, the total US residential-commercial figure climbed more than 2.3 Bcf/d during the week, Platts Analytics data shows. Stronger demand in the week ended May 14 was only partially offset by a 300 MMcf/d increase in domestic production which climbed to an average 90.5 Bcf/d. Imported pipeline supply from Canada was also up last week by about 240 MMcf/d but was mostly offset by a 180 MMcf/d increase in exports to Mexico. Compared with pre-pandemic production levels at over 95 Bcf/d, upstream supply remains depressed and will likely keep the US domestic market balance significantly tighter this injection season.
U.S. natgas futures ease to fresh 3-week low as output slowly rises (Reuters) - U.S. natural gas futures eased to a fresh three-week low on Friday as production continued to edge higher and exports slip. The price decline came despite forecasts that warmer weather in coming weeks will boost the amount of gas power generators burn to keep air conditioners humming. Front-month gas futures NGc1 fell 1.9 cents, or 0.6%, to settle at $2.906 per million British thermal units, their lowest close since April 27. That also put the front-month down for a fourth day in a row for the first time since early March and down almost 2% for the week after gaining more than 16% during the prior five weeks. Data provider Refinitiv said gas output in the Lower 48 U.S. states averaged 90.9 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) so far in May, up from 90.6 bcfd in April. That is still well below November 2019's monthly record of 95.4 bcfd. With the summer air conditioning season approaching, Refinitiv projected average gas demand, including exports, would rise from 81.3 bcfd this week to 84.8 bcfd next week and 86.1 bcfd in two weeks. That was similar to Refinitiv's forecasts on Thursday. The amount of gas flowing to U.S. LNG export plants averaged 10.9 bcfd so far in May, down from April's monthly record of 11.5 bcfd. The decline was due to short-term issues and normal spring maintenance at a few Gulf Coast plants and the gas pipelines that supply them. U.S. pipeline exports to Mexico, meanwhile, averaged 6.0 bcfd so far in May, just off April's monthly record of 6.1 bcfd, Refinitiv data showed.
Weekly Natural Gas Cash Gains Defy Weather, but Futures Languish Absent Summer Heat - The continuation of moderate weather ahead of what is expected to be a record-breaking summer did little to stop spot gas price gains during the week of May 17-21. NGI’s Weekly Spot Gas National Avg. climbed 5.5 cents to $2.745. June Nymex futures, meanwhile, blew past $3.00 early in the period as weather models teased at intense heat arriving in the coming days. However, a quick retreat in the amount of projected demand sapped momentum, while the latest storage data sealed its fate. The June contract closed the week at $2.906, off 20.3 cents from Monday’s close.The gains in the spot gas market occurred even as widespread heat failed to materialize across the United States. Even in Texas, where conditions are typically hot and humid by this time of year, heavy rains throughout the week kept daytime temperatures in the 70s and 80s.East Coast markets posted the largest increases week/week as pipeline maintenance events upstream in Appalachia restricted gas flows.Algonquin Citygate spot gas prices averaged $2.570 for the May 17-21 period, up 28.0 cents on the week. Transco Zone 6 NY was up 20.0 cents to $2.505.In the Southeast, Transco Zone 5 spot gas prices averaged $2.945 for the week, an increase of 6.0 cents week/week.Henry Hub added only a penny on the week to average $2.890, while OGT in the Midcontinent slipped 4.0 cents to $2.660.A handful of Texas markets also landed in the red this week, with Agua Dulce and Houston Ship Channel each sliding 6.5 cents to $2.875 and $2.880, respectively.
Natural Gas, America’s No. 1 Power Source, Already Has a New Challenger: Batteries – WSJ -- Vistra Corp. owns 36 natural-gas power plants, one of America’s largest fleets. It doesn’t plan to buy or build any more.Instead, Vistra intends to invest more than $1 billion in solar farms and battery storage units in Texas and California as it tries to transform its business to survive in an electricity industry being reshaped by new technology.“I’m hellbent on not becoming the next Blockbuster Video, ” said Vistra Chief Executive Curt Morgan. “I’m not going to sit back and watch this legacy business dwindle and not participate.”A decade ago, natural gas displaced coal as America’s top electric-power source, as fracking unlocked cheap quantities of the fuel. Now, in quick succession, natural gas finds itself threatened with the same kind of disruption, only this time from cost-effective batteries charged with wind and solar energy.Natural-gas-fired electricity represented 38% of U.S. generation in 2019, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, or EIA, and it supplies round-the-clock electricity as well as bursts during peak demand. Wind and solar generators have gained substantial market share, and as battery costs fall, batteries paired with that green power are beginning to step into those roles by storing inexpensive green energy and discharging it after the sun falls or the wind dies.Battery storage remains less than 1% of America’s electricity market and so far draws power principally from solar generators, whose output is fairly predictable and easier to augment with storage. But the combination of batteries and renewable energy is threatening to upend billions of dollars in natural-gas investments, raising concerns about whether power plants built in the past 10 years—financed with the expectation that they would run for decades—will become “stranded assets,” facilities that retire before they pay for themselves. Across the country, much of the growth in renewable energy to date has been driven by state mandates that have required utilities to procure certain amounts of green power, and by federal tax incentives that have made wind and solar more economically competitive.But renewables have become increasingly cost-competitive without subsidies in recent years, spurring more companies to voluntarily cut carbon emissions by investing in wind and solar power at the expense of that generated from fossil fuels. And the specter of more state and federal regulations to address climate change is accelerating the trend
It's Time to Kick Gas – McKibben --We’re used to the idea that CO2—one carbon atom, two oxygen atoms—is a dangerous molecule. Indeed, driving down carbon-dioxide emissions has become the way that many leaders and journalists describe our task. But CH4—one carbon atom combined with four hydrogen atoms, otherwise known as methane—is carbon dioxide’s evil twin. It traps heat roughly eighty times more efficiently than carbon dioxide does, which explains why the fact that it’s spiking in the atmosphere scares scientists so much. Despite the pandemic lockdown, 2020 saw the largest single increase in methane in the atmosphere since we started taking measurements, in the nineteen-eighties. It’s a jump that, last month, a scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration called “fairly surprising and disturbing.” If there’s any good news, it’s that the spike in methane doesn’t—yet—seem to be coming in large percentages from the runaway melt of methane-ice formations beneath the polar oceans or those in tundra soils. That would be a nightmare scenario because there wouldn’t be anything we could do about it—it’s global heating on automatic. Two decades ago, people thought that natural gas, though a fossil fuel, might help slow climate change because, when you burn it in a power station, it produces less carbon than burning coal does. Now we understand that natural gas—which is primarily made of methane—leaks unburned at every stage from fracking to combustion, whether in a power plant or on top of your stove, in sufficient quantities to make it an enormous climate danger. But plugging leaks isn’t enough: we’ve got to stop producing natural gas as quickly as possible, and replace it with renewables that generate neither carbon nor methane. As I wrote last month, that’s now entirely possible; sun and wind power have become so cheap so fast that they’re more economical than gas, and batteries are coming down the same kind of cost curve, so nightfall is no longer the problem it once was. But there are other reasons to kick gas. A report from Australia’s Climate Council, released last week, finds that the health impact of having a gas cooktop in your home is roughly equivalent to having a cigarette smoker puffing away in the corner, and accounts for about twelve per cent of childhood asthma. “It’s odourless, it’s invisible, it’s a bit of silent enemy,” the C.E.O. of Asthma Australia said. “People might feel differently if they understood that their gas appliances were emitting a range of toxic substances.” That is why the gas industry has lobbied so hard to prevent that perception. In at least fourteen U.S. states, the industry lobby is pushing bills that would prevent local governments from restricting the use of gas; a particular threat comes from the new appliances—chiefly air-source heat pumps and water heaters, and induction cooktops—that are now widely available and increasingly cheap. Indeed, leaked documents obtained last week by E&E News show that fifteen big gas utilities have mounted a Consortium to Combat Electrification. “If you’re going to bend this curve, and we bend it quickly, there are going to be casualties. Some will transform, some will consolidate, some will go away.”
Ted Cruz cites pipeline attack to push natural gas bill --Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz cited recent fuel shortages following the Colonial pipeline hack to justify immediate passage of legislation to codify Trump-era regulations on liquefied natural gas shipments by rail.
‘Colonial Pipeline resumes normal operations after ransomware hack - Colonial Pipeline resumed normal operations on Saturday after a ransomware attack forced the pipeline to shut down last week, the company announced. The pipeline is now delivering fuel to states that had experienced gas shortages at the same capacities as before the extortion scheme hit the critical pipeline, which runs from Texas to New York and carries roughly 100 million gallons of fuel per day. Colonial Pipeline restored limited services on Wednesday but said it would take several days for the product delivery supply chain to return to normal. "Our team members across the pipeline worked safely and tirelessly around the clock to get our lines up and running, and we are grateful for their dedicated service and professionalism during these extraordinary times," the company said."Colonial has and will continue to put safety and system integrity first and will invest the required resources to maintain safe and reliable operations of our pipeline." According to crowdsourced data collected by GasBuddy, gas stations in 13 states and the District of Columbia were still experiencing fuel shortages as of 9:12 A.M. ET on SaturdayPatrick De Haan, a senior petroleum analyst at Gasbuddy, said in a tweet Thursday that it could take between two and 14 days for fuel services to be fully restored depending on the state. The hacker group DarkSide, which was responsible for the ransomware attack that shut down the pipeline, claims to be shutting down after it lost access to the infrastructure needed to carry out its extortion operations. Security experts warn that cyber criminal groups often disband and return under different names, and it therefore can't be determined if the disruption to DarkSide's infrastructure is legitimate or permanent.
Colonial Pipeline confirms it paid $4.4M to hackers (AP) — The operator of the nation’s largest fuel pipeline confirmed it paid $4.4 million to a gang of hackers who broke into its computer systems. Colonial Pipeline said Wednesday that after it learned of the May 7 ransomware attack, the company took its pipeline system offline and needed to do everything in its power to restart it quickly and safely, and made the decision then to pay the ransom. “This decision was not made lightly,” but it was one that had to be made, a company spokesman said. “Tens of millions of Americans rely on Colonial – hospitals, emergency medical services, law enforcement agencies, fire departments, airports, truck drivers and the traveling public.” Colonial Pipeline’s CEO, Joseph Blount, told The Wall Street Journal he authorized the payment because the company didn’t know the extent of the damage and wasn’t sure how long it would take to bring the pipeline’s systems back. The FBI discourages making ransom payments to ransomware attackers, because paying encourages criminal networks around the globe who have hit thousands of businesses and health care systems in the U.S. in the past year alone. But many victims of ransomware attacks, where hackers demand large sums of money to decrypt stolen data or to prevent it from being leaked online, opt to pay. “I know that’s a highly controversial decision,” Blount told the Journal. “But it was the right thing to do for the country.” Blount said Colonial paid the ransom in consultation with experts who previously dealt with the group behind the attacks, DarkSide, which rents out its ransomware to partners to carry out the actual attacks. Multiple sources had confirmed to The Associated Press that Colonial Pipeline had paid the criminals who committed the cyberattack a ransom of nearly $5 million in cryptocurrency for the software decryption key required to unscramble their data network.
PIPELINE HACK: Panels set votes, hearings on cybersecurity concerns -- Monday, May 17, 2021 -- The House Homeland Security Committee will vote on legislation this week meant to protect pipelines from cyberattacks.
SECURITY: Cantwell preps hearing on pipeline cyberattack -- Tuesday, May 18, 2021 -- Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Chairwoman Maria Cantwell is planning a hearing on the Colonial pipeline hack, while also pressing the Department of Homeland Security on its track record overseeing pipeline security.
Colonial Pipeline shipment scheduling hit by network issues Colonial Pipeline's is having network issues preventing shippers from planning upcoming shipments of fuel, the company said, just after the system reopened after a week-long ransomware attack. Last week's closure of the 5,500-mile (8,900-km) system was the most disruptive cyberattack on record, preventing millions of barrels of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel from flowing to the East Coast from the Gulf Coast. Colonial has been using its shipper nomination system to schedule batches of fuel deliveries to bring flows back to normal. A prolonged outage could prevent shippers from scheduling deliveries - once again hampering fuel delivery across the U.S. southeast and east coasts. Despite the nomination issues, market sources familiar with the matter said barrels currently in the line are continuing to flow.
Colonial Pipeline's customer communications system back online after experiencing problems - — Colonial Pipeline's communications system for shippers came back online late May 18 after experiencing problems for most of the day, again disrupting operations even though the petroleum products artery is up and running again after being halted for nearly a week following a cyberattack. Refined products shippers were unable to make nomination changes on Colonial for most of the day, despite the line resuming normal operations May 13, sources said. Colonial halted all pipeline operations May 7 because of a ransomware attack, restricting the primary artery for gasoline and refined products from delivering more than 100 million gal/d of fuels. Colonial stretches more than 5,500 miles from the Houston refining hub to New York Harbor, supplying about 45% of all the gasoline and diesel fuel consumed on the East Coast. A combination of regional shortages and panic-buying caused 50% or more of gas stations in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, Florida, and Washington to run out of fuel, and some regional shortages were continuing May 18. "Colonial has restored service to our nominations system, and customers can once again place nominations," Colonial said in a statement after 1900 GMT. "Our internal server that runs our nomination system experienced intermittent disruptions this morning due to some of the hardening efforts that are ongoing and part of our restoration process. These issues were not related to the ransomware or any type of reinfection," Colonial said earlier. "The Colonial Pipeline system continues to deliver refined products as nominated by our shippers."
Rep. Slotkin Warns of Vulnerability to Cyberattacks After Colonial Pipeline Hack --National security experts say the recent hack affecting a major U.S. pipeline is just one in a wave of recent cyberattacks. Earlier this month, a cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline shut down a major gas line that carries fuel to millions from Texas to New York. This shutdown sparked panic buying and price gouging along the East Coast. While picturing the devastation of a terror attack or mass shooting is easy, visualizing a cyberattack is more difficult. But that does not make virtual attacks any less serious a threat to national security. Rep. Elissa Slotkin is a Democrat representing Michigan’s Eighth Congressional District. She is the chairwoman of the Intelligence and Counterterrorism subcommittee within the House Committee on Homeland Security. Slotkin says whether it is ransomware or an attack for disruption, the U.S. needs to ensure that its infrastructure is protected from these cyberattacks. Slotkin says the recent pipeline cyberattack has proven to the average American that the U.S. is exceptionally open to cyberattacks. “The way we control our infrastructure has modernized and it’s more online. It’s more network, and in general we think that’s a good thing. Except it just exposes all these vulnerabilities.” According to Slotkin, most members of Congress think about cybersecurity policies from two perspectives, the first being defense. “What would happen if, in Lansing, we had a major cyberattack on the state? What would happen if in the middle of winter, there was an attack on Michigan’s electrical grid and 26 elderly people froze to death in their home?” Slotkin says these scenarios are what the U.S. needs to prepare for. Slotkin says the second way of thinking about cybersecurity is through offense, which is more “sticky and complicated” because the U.S. has no doctrine for cyber war. “What the public I think sees, people can hack us, people can attack us in the cyber realm and there’s no response. And what I will tell you is yes, there is some response, it’s just we’re not there as a nation, as a government, on how to respond to these attacks effectively,” she says.
Granholm expresses openness to pipeline cyber standards after Colonial attack -Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm on Wednesday threw her tentative support behind the idea of mandatory standards to secure pipelines in the wake of the debilitating ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline earlier this month. When asked by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) during a hearing whether pipelines should be subject to similar strict mandatory security standards that the electric sector is, Granholm testified that the U.S. is currently “inadequate” on pipeline security. “I think that this is an example potentially of that,” Granholm said of the attack on Colonial Pipeline. “If we had had standards in place, would this particular ransomware attack have been able to happen? You know, I’m not 100 percent sure.” “I do know that having good cyber hygiene on the private side as well as on the public side is a critical basic defense, and for entities that provide services to the public like that, especially critical services like energy, I think it’s an important consideration for this committee for sure,” she added. She also pointed to the fact that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has established cybersecurity standards for the electric grid and suggested that the federal government could do the same for pipelines, boosting current Transportation Security Administration (TSA) authorities. “FERC issued mandatory cybersecurity standards for electricity for electricity owners and operators ... TSA has voluntary guidelines, and one wonders whether it’s time we match what we’re doing on the electric side with what we’re doing on the pipeline side,” she said. Granholm’s remarks appear to differ from those made by President Biden last week on cybersecurity standards, in which he rejected the idea of mandated cybersecurity standards. “The bottom line is that I cannot dictate that the private companies do certain things relative to cybersecurity,” he said at the time. The hearing came a week after Colonial Pipeline began to restart operations following a devastating ransomware attack earlier this month on its IT system, with the company temporarily shutting down the pipeline to protect operational controls. Colonial Pipeline CEO Joseph Blount confirmed to The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday that the company paid the hackers, who President Biden said last week were likely based in Russia, the equivalent of $4.4 million to regain access to encrypted systems and get the pipeline up and running again.
19 GOP AGs urge Biden to reinstate Keystone, protect energy infrastructure in wake of Colonial Pipeline attack - Nineteen Republican attorneys general sent a letter to President Biden calling on his administration to support energy infrastructure, including reinstating the Keystone XL Pipeline permit, in light of the cyberattack that shut down the Colonial Pipeline. On Tuesday, Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen sent a letter with 18 of his GOP colleagues from around the country to Biden, saying the "aftermath" of the cyberattack that took the Colonial Pipeline offline "has been alarming." The attorneys general likened the price increases, "fuel shortages and gas lines" Americans are currently experiencing to "those seen in the Carter administration" and said the situation shines light on the "widespread disruption and public panic" when a fuel pipeline goes down. "Americans depend upon safe and secure energy supplies, which is why we must build and maintain robust energy infrastructure that is resilient in the face of accidents and sabotage," wrote the attorneys general. "A temporary shutdown of one pipeline’s full-capacity operations shouldn’t bring half the country to the brink." The group said the "safe and clean energy sources" America needs includes the Keystone XL Pipeline – which Biden canceled via executive order – and pointed out that Biden supported pipelines when he served as former President Obama's vice president. "But your administration’s current approach exchanges those fact-based conclusions for the faddish preoccupations of your coastal elite constituencies," the group stated in the letter. "Indeed, hours after you took office, you purported to kill thousands of jobs, extinguish billions in economic opportunity, and jeopardize American energy independence because of the ‘message’ Keystone XL sends to the global community – whatever that means," they added. The attorneys general lambasted Biden for his "impulse to bow to an extreme climate agenda untethered to scientific fact or reality." Additionally, they said the decision to cut the pipeline "undercuts" American energy independence while damaging relations with "geopolitical allies like Canada," who would benefit from the pipeline.
PolitiFact | No, the East Coast gas shortage isn’t related to the Keystone Pipeline or Biden’s order - A fuel shortage hit the East Coast on May 7 after the Colonial Pipeline was shut down following a cyberattack, but some people on social media blamed the fuel woes on President Joe Biden’s order halting construction of the Keystone XL pipeline project in the Great Plains."When you can't find gas, remember who executively ordered the Keystone Pipeline to close," a Facebook post read on May 10.Similar claims linking the Colonial and Keystone pipeline issues have been made elsewhere on Facebook and by politicians on Twitter, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif, and Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about ourpartnership with Facebook.)The post gets a few things wrong. First, Biden’s order didn’t close the Keystone Pipeline; it’s still operating. Second, Keystone doesn’t supply gasoline; it carries Canadian crude oil to U.S. refineries. Third, the gasoline shortages are due to a problem with the operator of the Colonial Pipeline, not a lack of crude oil — or anything connected with Keystone or Keystone XL.The Colonial Pipeline, which runs for 5,500 miles from Houston to New Jersey, supplies the East Coast with 45% of its gasoline. When a ransomware attack targeted the computer network of the Georgia-based company that operates the pipeline, the company decided to halt all operations in order to contain the attack. The temporary shutdown of the pipeline resulted in fuel shortages and price hikes throughout the East Coast.Keystone XL would have been an extension to the still operationalKeystone Pipeline, which stretches for 2,687 miles from Hardisty, Alberta, in Canada to Illinois and Texas. The extension would have created another to carry crude oil from Alberta to U.S. refineries and terminals and expanded the network’s capacity. Construction on the Keystone XL project began on April 7, 2020, and less than 100 miles of the 1,179-mile extension was completed by the time President Biden issued an executive order revoking the construction permit on Jan. 20, 2021.
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer Pushes Enbridge Pipeline Shutdown as US Faces National Gas Shortage - Amid the national gas shortage the U.S. is facing, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer continues her pursuit to shut down the Enbridge pipeline. In a Washington Post op-ed on Friday, the Democrat Governor explained that the Line 5 pipeline, which was owned and operated by Enbridge Inc., has pumped crude oil for 70 years through the cross-section of Lake Michigan and Huron and the Straits of Mackinac. The Michigan Governor also mentioned that the two 4.5 mile sections are ticking time bombs in the area.According to Fox News, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer stated that oil and water do not mix, especially when the latter involves the Great Lakes. She mentioned that it is the repository of more than 20 percent of the fresh water in the world.Whitmer also added that she is taking every action that she can have to shut them down to protect the two Great Lakes. She also shared that she wants to protect jobs that depend on them.Line 5 is part of a network that moves crude oil and other petroleum products from Western Canada. It transports around 540,000 barrels daily.Also, Whitmer mentioned that the incident in 2010 alerted the whole nation because of the dangers imposed by a possible oil spill after Line 6B of the Enbridge pipeline ruptured is what she is attempting to avoid.However, the recent Colonial Pipeline hack, which shut down the entire 5,500-mile stretch and caused the scramble at the gas pump, drove prices to record highs and caused major shortages. Reports even mentioned that a gas station raised its regular gas prices to $7 per gallon.In November, Whitmer filed a lawsuit against Enbridge that notifies the state of Michigan that it would allow the pipeline 180 days to cap oil flow operations. The governor threatened to disgorge the company of all profits unjustly earned upon refusal to comply. But Enbridge replied that they will continue pumping until a court orders them to stop. Whitmer also concluded that running pipelines through the water of the Great Lakes is and always has been a dangerous threat. She also emphasized that she will not sit idle as the time bomb keeps ticking.
Michigan Line 5 opponents serve ‘eviction notice’ at Enbridge pumping station — On the day after a state deadline for Enbridge to shut down its Line 5 pipeline in Michigan’s Straits of Mackinac, hundreds of tribal and environmental activists served an “eviction notice” to the Canadian energy company at its McGulpin Point pumping station.Sean McBrearty, campaign coordinator for the nonprofit Oil and Water Don’t Mix, read the symbolic order before posting it on the pumping station gates on Thursday. The demonstration followed a two-mile march on the second day of protests around Enbridge’s May 12 deadline to cease sending oil through its 68-year-old Line 5 pipeline on the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac. “Enbridge has a history of not only neglecting the environment but neglecting their duty under the law,” McBrearty told Energy News Network. “They’re doing that again today by operating without an easement.”After serving the eviction notice at the pumping station, protesters continued down the road as tribal members performed traditional songs and dances. The procession stopped at the edge of the waterway linking Lake Michigan to Lake Huron — a place of cultural and spiritual significance to the Ojibwe, Odawa, Potawatomi, and other tribal nations in the Great Lakes States.“This is a sacred place. It’s our Jerusalem,” said Nathan Wright, a member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians and a main organizer of the demonstrations. “We as Anishinaabe have a responsibility to protect this place. We’re here to let Enbridge know their time is up.” Enbridge continues to run Line 5 as it challenges Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s shutdown order in court, arguing that pipeline decommissioning decisions must be made at the federal level and that the governor does not have that authority. Some Republican lawmakers also oppose the shutdown, citing the pipeline’s economic impact. The governor, meanwhile, has threatened to start seizing the company’s profits if it continues to operate the pipeline, which moves up to 23 million gallons of crude oil and natural gas liquids each day from Superior, Wisconsin, to Sarnia, Ontario.
Ohio lawmakers make plea to keep Line 5 open, citing potential Toledo-area job losses -- Four Ohio lawmakers — including a Republican and two Democrats from northwest Ohio — pleaded with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Tuesday to back down from her effort to close the controversial Line 5 pipeline that runs along the Straits of Mackinac. So far, Governor Whitmer has given no indication she is willing to do that. Ohio Sen. Theresa Gavarone (R., Bowling Green) opened a news conference in Columbus by saying the attempted closure “at best, is a mistake by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and, at worse, is an attack on Ohio workers.” Their thoughts echo words reiterated in Toledo earlier this month by Lt. Gov. Jon Husted and other high-ranking Ohio officials over the past couple of years before that, including Gov. Mike DeWine, Attorney General Dave Yost, Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz, and Oregon Mayor Mike Sefarian. The bipartisan consensus is that Toledo-area refineries operated by BP-Husky Toledo and PBF Energy Toledo Refining Co. have the potential of losing 1.200 jobs if Ms. Whitmer succeeds. The pipeline also serves northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan. Enbridge has thus far refused to comply with Ms. Whitmer’s May 12 shutdown deadline, which the governor announced last November. Her office gave no response to The Blade about the latest plea or about two symbolic resolutions in the Ohio General Assembly calling for that pipeline to remain open. Neither House Resolution 13 nor Senate Resolution 41 have any authority in the matter. Both were passed to express the Ohio lawmakers' opinion about the Line 5 controversy. Neither require Gov. Mike DeWine’s signature, and they don’t require the same language. The Ohio House resolution was passed in March by a 73-10 vote. The Ohio Senate has not taken a vote on the resolution introduced into that chamber.
Gretchen Whitmer's Pipeline War -- Wall Street Journal editorial - The cyber attack on the Colonial Pipeline has led to surging gasoline prices on the East Coast. But that isn’t stopping Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer from trying to shut down another crucial pipeline, no matter the harm across the Midwest and Canada. Enbridge Energy’s Line 5 transports more than half a million barrels a day of oil and natural gas liquids through Canada and the Great Lakes region. Late last year Ms. Whitmer moved to revoke and terminate an easement that lets the pipeline operate for 4.5 miles across the Straits of Mackinac. She’s seeking a state court injunction to force Enbridge to shut down Line 5 and “permanently decommission” the pipeline. Ms. Whitmer claims Enbridge has created an “unacceptable risk of a catastrophic oil spill in the Great Lakes that could devastate our economy and way of life.” But the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, the federal regulator that oversees Line 5, said in January that it is “presently aware of no unsafe or hazardous conditions that would warrant shutdown of Line 5.” No mode of moving energy is risk-free, but pipelines are much safer than rail. Enbridge says that over two decades Line 5 has seen five incidents that resulted in the release of 882 gallons of product. Compare that to the 2013 Lac-Mégantic disaster, where a train carrying oil derailed, spilling some 1.6 million gallons and causing an explosion that killed some 47 people. Refineries in Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania would lose much of their crude oil supply. United Steelworkers Local 912 President Justin Donley has warned that closing Line 5 would jeopardize the Toledo Refining Company, which isn’t equipped to receive oil by truck. The result would be a “devastating loss of income” for nearly 350 union workers and “further economic collapse of the Northern Ohio/Southern Michigan economy,” he said.Ms. Whitmer is also causing a foreign policy flap. A 1977 treaty between the U.S. and Canada bars a “public authority in the territory of either” signatory nation from taking actions that would have the effect of “impeding, diverting, redirecting or interfering with in any way the transmission of hydrocarbon in transit” by pipeline between the two countries. The treaty makes exceptions for emergencies or natural disasters and temporary shutdowns for safety concerns, but not for gubernatorial whim.The Canadian government raised these treaty concerns this month in an amicus brief filed in U.S. federal court. Refineries in Ontario depend on the pipeline, and so does the Toronto Pearson International Airport for jet fuel. “A Line 5 shutdown would severely disrupt the supply and increase the price consumers pay for fuel across Quebec and Ontario,” the Canadians argued, adding that “in western Canada, the loss of Line 5 would have a devastating impact on the industry and economy.”
Offshore Worker Dies in Gulf of Mexico - Fieldwood Energy has confirmed that a fatal incident occurred on May 15 involving a contractor at the Eugene Island 158 #14 offshore facility in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM). The incident was said to have happened during a non emergency casing pressure test on a shut in well. No other personnel were injured and the shut in well remains secure and poses no threat of environmental harm, the company noted. Fieldwood Energy said details of the incident are still being established and revealed that an investigation into the incident is currently underway. “Fieldwood Energy is committed to safe operations, and the health and well-being of our entire workforce is a top priority,” the company said in a statement posted on its website, adding that it was “deeply saddened” by the event. “We have notified and are working with the appropriate regulatory agencies. We have no additional details to share at this time,” Fieldwood Energy went on to note in the statement. Fieldwood Energy is one of the largest operators in the GOM, according to its website. The company produces more than 130,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day from assets in the shallow continental shelf and deepwater U.S GOM and Gulf Coast region and has expanded to develop new assets in the territorial waters of Mexico, Fieldwood Energy notes on its site.
NTSB Releases Report on Capsized Gulf of Mexico Vessel - The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has published a preliminary report as part of its ongoing investigation of the fatal capsizing of the Seacor Power liftboat, which occurred on April 13, near Port Fourchon, Louisiana.According to the report, the Seacor Power departed Port Fourchon at about 1:30 p.m. on April 13 and was bound for the oil and gas lease area Main Pass Block 138 in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM). At about 3:30 p.m., as the vessel transited the open waters of the GOM, a rain squall passed over the liftboat, and as visibility dropped and winds increased significantly, the crew decided to lower the vessels legs to the seafloor to hold it in position until the storm passed, the report outlined.The crewmember at the helm attempted to turn the Seacor Power into the wind as the legs began to descend, but before the turn was completed, the liftboat heeled to starboard and capsized, the report revealed. Several people were able to escape onto the exposed, port side of the Seacor Power deckhouse but high winds and seas that had built to 10 to 12 feet prevented rescuers from reaching those who remained on the vessel, according to the report. Some were said to be washed into the water and six were eventually rescued, with one survivor suffering a serious injury, the report highlighted.The report noted that there were 19 people aboard the U.S.-flagged, 175 foot long vessel at the time of the accident. Six people were rescued by the Coast Guard and Good Samaritan vessels, six people died in the accident, and seven remain missing.NTSB investigators interviewed survivors, other personnel who previously crewed the Seacor Power, representatives for the owner and charterer, vessel inspectors and surveyors, and search and rescue responders. When the Seacor Power is salvaged, NTSB investigators intend to return to inspect the vessel and collect further evidence.The NTSB emphasized that information in its report is preliminary and subject to change as the investigation progresses. As such, it says no conclusions about the cause of the accident should be drawn from the report.
U.S. shale oil output to climb for first time in 3 months in June -EIA (Reuters) - U.S. oil output from seven major shale formations is expected to climb by 26,000 barrels per day (bpd) in June to 7.73 million bpd, the first rise in three months, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in a monthly forecast on Monday. The biggest increase is set to come from the Permian, the top producing basin in the country, where output is expected to rise by 54,000 bpd to about 4.59 million bpd, the highest since March 2020. Output in nearly every other large basin such as the Bakken in North Dakota and Montana, as well as the Eagle Ford in South Texas is expected to decline. In the Bakken, production is expected to drop by about 7,000 bpd to 1.1 million bpd, the lowest since July 2020. Natural gas production from the major shale basins was expected to decline for the third month in a row in June for the first time on record, according to EIA’s drilling productivity report going back to 2007. Total gas output will decline about 0.1 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) to 83.6 bcfd in June. That compares with a monthly record high of 86.9 bcfd in December 2019. Gas output in Appalachia, the biggest shale gas basin, was expected to decline 0.1 bcfd to 34.2 bcfd in June, its lowest since October 2020. That compares with a monthly record of 35.6 bcfd in December 2020. If correct, that would put output in Appalachia down for a record sixth month in a row. Gas output in the Haynesville area, meanwhile, will rise 0.1 bcfd to a record 12.8 bcfd in June. EIA said producers drilled 513 wells and completed 754 in the biggest shale basins in April. That left total drilled but uncompleted (DUC) wells down 241 to 6,857, their lowest since October 2018.
Oil drillers and Bitcoin miners bond over natural gas -(Reuters) - On U.S. oil patches stretching along the Rockies and Great Plains, trailers hitched to trucks back up toward well pads to capture natural gas and convert it on the spot into electricity. The trailers - carrying pipes, generators and computers - are called “mining rigs.” But their owners aren’t there to drill for oil. They are using stray natural gas unwanted by oil companies to power their search for another treasure: cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Cryptocurrencies are virtual coins exchanged without middlemen, such as central banks, to purchase goods and services. Extracting the currency from cyberspace, however, requires vast amounts of often-expensive electricity. Supercomputers must run constantly in a race against other “miners” to solve complex math problems in order to unlock digital vaults holding the currency. Placed in mobile trailers, these supercomputers run as hot as 160 degrees Fahrenheit (71 degrees Celsius), and in the cold of western North Dakota, people stay warm just by sitting near them, cryptocurrency miners say. The miners are increasingly sending these rigs out to oil fields because it’s one of the cheapest ways to obtain the energy they need. Oil and natural gas come from the same wells, but at these sites, drillers are seeking crude oil and have no pipelines to get the gas to market. That typically forces them to burn it off in a process called flaring - creating carbon dioxide emissions - or to vent it into the atmosphere directly as methane. "The sweet spot for us is stranded, low volumes of gas that don't justify a pipeline," said Steve Degenfelder, land manager at Wyoming-based producer Kirkwood Oil and Gas LLC, which has formed an alliance with Bitcoin miners. Oil companies face pressure from investors and government officials to reduce emissions that lead to global warming. Sometimes they give the gas away for free to cryptocurrency miners; other times they sell it. Story continues
Prices rebound, but oil may no longer be king - Oil and gas companies are emerging from the global pandemic more resilient to market downturns, but will most certainly be a smaller driver of economic growth for the Houston region in the coming years. The first three months of 2021 saw most oil majors and large independents post their first profitable quarter since the novel coronavirus broke out last year, offering the clearest sign yet that the industry is rebounding from the worst oil bust in decades. The rollout of COVID -19 vaccines is filling restaurants, airports and vacation destinations across the country, bolstering demand for crude. “Today, we’re seeing this rebound, which is happening faster than we thought and for some sectors, rising to higher levels than anticipated,” Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods told analysts this month. “One thing is for sure, these margins and prices will continue to move.” West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. crude benchmark, has rebounded to around $65 a barrel, a price at which many producers can turn a profit. A year ago, crude prices had plunged into negative territory for the first time in history as the pandemic forced most Americans home and slashed demand for petroleum products such as gasoline and jet fuel. However, oil companies aren’t taking $65 oil as a sign to drill, baby, drill. Despite returning to profitability and growing revenues, most oil companies have promised to hold down spending for new drilling projects — which may disappoint the tens of thousands of oil workers laid off during the pandemic. EOG CEO Bill Thomas told analysts this month that supply and demand will dictate the Houston shale producer’s growth plans — not the price of a barrel of crude. Companies are exercising restraint in part because the economic recovery from the pandemic remains tenuous. New coronavirus strains are running amok in countries such as India, while the pace of vaccinations in the U.S. is slowing. OPEC and its allies are gradually ramping up production to meet growing demand, putting pressure on U.S. producers. Oil executives have also promised capital discipline as part of an industry-wide effort to woo investors back to the sector after years of lackluster performance. Instead of spending to drill new wells and boost production, oil companies are focused on paying down debt and boosting returns through increased dividends and share buybacks.
Averting crisis: Path to weatherize Texas power plants and some gas wells set under compromise bill — Texas would require weatherization of electrical generating plants and some natural gas wells and related pipelines and compressors under a compromise bill that House leaders unveiled Tuesday. But in a concession to the oil and gas industry, a revised omnibus electricity measure would reduce how many natural gas facilities must be upgraded. A newly created interagency “supply chain security and mapping committee” would identify which chunks of the natural gas industry actually feed power generators – and only those would have to be weatherized, under rules to be set later. Environmentalists and consumer advocates, while wincing over the Texas natural gas industry’s clout, were relieved that the House’s version of the session’s major grid-overhaul bill took a softer approach to renewable energy than a Senate-passed version did. The House version, approved unanimously by the House State Affairs Committee on Tuesday, would remove language that would potentially force wind and solar power companies to pay billions for replacement power needed when the grid faces maximum demand. That change on “ancillary services” was hailed by Austin Democratic Rep. Donna Howard and spokesmen for groups such as Environment Texas, Public Citizen and the U.S. Green Building Council’s Texas chapter. Senate Bill 3, which advances to the House Calendars Committee, constitutes the Legislature’s single most far-reaching response to this year’s winter storm.
Texas's Oil and Gas Industry Is Defending Its Billions in Subsidies Against a Green Energy Push – On a spring morning more than three decades ago, Don Henderson, a lawyer closely allied with the fossil-fuel industry, introduced a bill to slash the tax on natural gas wells deemed particularly tough to develop. “They can be huuuuuuge wells,” he told the finance committee. If these wells were so alluring, why did taxpayers need to offer Texas drillers a handout? Because, Henderson explained, the wells were “expensive and chancy.” So much for the image of risk-taking and self-sufficiency that the state’s oil and gas industry liked to tout. The federal government had long given producers of these wells a tax break, but that was to be phased out the following year. Henderson insisted that the state act to keep its oilmen competitive. “We need to continue to give an incentive to Texas producers,” he warned, noting that the type of wells targeted by the subsidy accounted for “a large part of the natural gas reserves of this state.” The committee unanimously approved the tax break, which was easily passed by the full Legislature. At first, the largesse spread slowly. In 1997 it applied to wells producing just 3 percent of Texas gas, costing the state a paltry $23 million. But then the fracking revolution hit, unleashing unimaginable quantities of gas from previously tough-to-crack rock. The many wells that could be tapped by the high-dollar technology qualified gas producers for a gusher of a handout. Of course, fracking ballooned not just expenses but also profits. By 2009, with the fracking frenzy in full swing, 61 percent of all the gas produced in Texas benefited from the tax break. Its cost to other state taxpayers that year, according to a University of Texas study: $1.5 billion, or $169 per household in the state. Since then, continued tech improvements have made producing fracked gas ever cheaper. Yet tax breaks, like old soldiers, seldom die, and Texas’s so-called high-cost gas-well subsidy remains on the books. All of which made a bit rich the supposedly righteous fury aimed during this spring’s state legislative session at subsidies for wind and solar energy. That anger, expressed through a handful of bills intended to raise the costs of renewables, blamed the death and economic devastation wreaked by the statewide February blackouts on lapses in wind and solar power. Never mind that state inquiries have shown that the major culprit in crashing Texas’s main electricity grid was the freezing not of renewable energy equipment but of the system that distributes gas to fuel power plants. And never mind that Texas is well positioned to profit from renewables, thanks to its ample wind and sun, its investment in transmission lines to move clean electricity, and the applicability of much of its oil and gas expertise to new challenges such as installing offshore wind turbines and drilling for geothermal energy.
Texas bars city climate plans from banning natural gas as fuel source --Gov. Greg Abbott has signed a bill into law that prohibits Texas cities from banning natural gas as a fuel source for new construction and utility services.House Bill 17, which Abbott signed Tuesday, according to the Texas Legislature’s online portal, is a response to a trend in progressive California cities. Abbott’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Joe Deshotel, D-Beaumont, argued that banning natural gas would restrict consumer choices. Deshotel was not immediately available for comment Tuesday, but he previously told The Texas Tribune that he filed the bill in response to “what is happening on the West Coast,” where cities have passed energy efficiency plans that prohibit new subdivisions from offering natural gas heating, requiring instead that new homes be heated by electricity.Using electricity to heat homes rather than natural gas reduces greenhouse gas emissions. The bulk of emissions from residential and commercial buildings in San Francisco are attributed to burning natural gas, which spurred the city’s efforts to mandate a transition, Inside Climate News reported in November.In Austin, the city’s initial climate action plan would have virtually eliminated gas use in new buildings by 2030, but it was altered after Texas Gas Service opposed the measure, the Texas Observer reported in March.The new law, which takes effect immediately, prevents cities or municipalities from “discriminating” against any particular fuel source.At least a dozen similar bills were filed in states including Kansas, Minnesota andOhio.
Deep earthquakes in Texas driven by shallow wastewater injection - Virginia Tech geoscientists have found that shallow wastewater injections can drive widespread deep earthquake activity in oil and gas production fields. The team came up with the finding after studying the Delaware Basin in western Texas, one of the most productive and unconventional hydrocarbon fields in the United States. Well drillers dispose of large volumes of brine-- a toxic wastewater byproduct of oil and gas production-- by injecting them into subsurface formations where it can drive earthquakes. Since 2010, the Delaware Basin has seen a major increase in shallow wastewater injection and widespread deep seismicity, including the recent M5.0 event near Mentone. Most of the tremors were relatively small, but some were large and widely felt. "It is quite interesting that injection above the thick, overall low-permeability shale reservoir can induce an earthquake within the deep basement, despite a minimal hydraulic connection," said lead author Guang Zhai, a postdoctoral research scientist in the Department of Geosciences, who is also part of the Virginia Tech College of Science and a visiting assistant researcher at the University of California, Berkeley. "What we have found is that the so-called poroelastic stresses can activate basement faults, which is originated from the fluid injection causing rock deformation." Study co-author Manoochehr Shirzaei, an affiliated faculty member of the Virginia Tech Global Change Center, added, "This finding is significant because it puts poroelastic stresses in the spotlight as the main driver for basinwide earthquakes in the Basin." Predicting the amount of seismic activity from wastewater injection is troublesome, said Zhai, because it involves numerous variables, including injection depth. Although deep injection is known to be the dominant reason behind fluid pressure increase, it is still questionable how shallow injections cause earthquakes.The team looked at how varying amounts of injected brine disturbed the crustal stresses deep under the Delaware Basin and how the disturbances lead to earthquakes. "Fluids such as brine and natural groundwater can both be stored and move through rocks that are porous," Zhai explained. The researchers used data analytics and computer modeling to imitate the large volume of fluid extraction from shale reservoirs from more than 1 500 shale production wells from 1993 to 2020, with 400 wells injecting brine in sandstone formations from 2010 to 2020. They found that the basinwide earthquakes mainly take place where the deep stress increases due to shallow injection. This indicates that there is a causal link between deep earthquakes and shallow fluid injection via elastic stress transfer.
US oil, gas rigs fall 12 to 543 on week, as industry focuses on recovering oil demand— The US oil and gas rig count fell 12 to 543 on the week, rig data provider Enverus said May 20, despite oil prices that have persisted above $60/b and drilling activity that has generally headed up in 2021. Analysts are painting a generally optimistic picture for the rest of the year as oil demand continues to recover from the coronavirus pandemic. But for the week ended May 19, rig losses prevailed in most of the eight largest domestic basins, with the Permian Basin of West Texas/New Mexico down four to 237 and the Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas down three to 41. The natural gas-prone Marcellus Shale, mostly in Pennsylvania, lost two rigs to 33, while the Haynesville Shale, a dry gas play in east Texas/northwest Louisiana, and the Utica Shale, largely sited in Ohio, each shed one rig for respective totals of 50 and 11.The natural gas rig count lost six units in the past week for a total 120 – four in the Haynesville and two in the Marcellus. The total domestic fleet was also down six oil rigs to 423. . The only major domestic basin to gain rigs this week was the SCOOP-STACK in Oklahoma, which pushed the play's total to 22 – the highest level of activity for that play since mid-April 2020. Both the Bakken Shale of North Dakota/Montana and the DJ Basin mostly in Colorado were unchanged for the week at 17 and 14 rigs, respectively. For the same week ended May 19, crude prices remained strong, although down a bit, while gas prices were largely static, according to S&P Global Platts estimates. WTI averaged $64.86/b, down 32 cents, while WTI Midland averaged $65.17/b, down 20 cents and Bakken Composite, $62.84/b, down 81 cents. Natural gas prices at Henry Hub averaged $2.90/MMBtu, up 1 cent, while at Dominion South, the average was $2.21/MMBtu, down 5 cents.
Is DEEPROP A Missing Ingredient For More Efficient Fracking In Shale Wells? The shale revolution has occupied the first 20 years of the new century. The key to success was technology – a long horizontal well (up to two miles long) fracked up to 40 times along its length. Each fracking operation basically cracked up the shale rock around the horizontal well, and by using up to 40 separate fracking operations, the shale was cracked up along the entire length of the horizontal well. Oil or gas molecules could find their way to a crack, and then hustle along a series of crack conduits to the horizontal well. Voila! a commercial well. But one important step is missing. After fracking operations cease, the crack conduits tend to close under the intense stress of the rock. If they close, the oil and gas has no preferred pathways, and the well is not profitable.The traditional antidote has been to inject proppant – a variety of sand - into the well. The sand grains act to prop open the cracks and stop them from closing. For shale oil or gas wells, what operators found out quickly was that conventional 20-40 sized sand, used for decades in fracking operations, could not be pumped into the cracks because the cracks in shale were too thin in width. It was like trying to fit walnuts into a crack in the sidewalk. They had to reduce the size of the proppant and found by trial and error the best sand was a mix of 100-mesh and 40-70.For over 20 years, this has been the status quo. But in 2014, the position waschallenged: finer sand should have an advantage because it would fit into smaller cracks and hold them open, and this would allow even more molecules of gas or oil to get to the wellbore.The report told of a study of gas production from five shale wells, where the correlations implied that using more 100-mesh proppant in the fracking recipe led to greater gas production. But others argued theoretically for less 100-mesh sand because it was weaker than 40-70 mesh sand and less resistant to crushing by higher stresses trying to close the fractures.In the last few years, a new type of proppant has come along. Its smaller in size than 100-mesh, rounder, and stronger, and it’s called DEEPROP. It is sometimes called microproppant because of its small size: 400-500 mesh (about 0.05 mm or 1/20 of a millimeter). DEEPROP is a tiny microproppant material that has been shown to increase well productivity by between 20-40% in multi-year trials, in over 250 wells in 6 major US shale plays. Mesh size of the proppant is 400-500 (0.05 mm). The particles are made of ceramic and are spherical. DEEPROP allows operators to place proppant in smaller fractures, further from the wellbore and it has been shown to slow flowrate decline and increase estimated ultimate recovery (EUR) from a shale gas or shale oil well.
IEA’s First 1.5°C Climate Model Rejects New Fossil Fuel Extraction --For years, we've seen fossil fuel companies and governments justify their fossil fuel expansion plans – from the TransMountain tar sands pipeline expansion to Arctic oil drilling to the Adani coal mine – on the backs of scenarios from the International Energy Agency (IEA).This was possible because, until today, the world's most influential energy modeling agency had not produceda scenario actually aligned with the full ambition of the Paris Agreement goals. That's true no longer.Now, after years of pressure from climate advocates, investors, businesses, and diplomats, the IEA has finallyreleased its first ever fully-fledged energy scenario aligned with the urgent goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (°C). As with past IEA modeling efforts, this new scenario needs some fixes (more on that below), and we're still analyzing all of its implications. But one conclusion in particular stands out to us at Oil Change International (OCI).In its Summary for Policymakers, in a bolded headline, the IEA finds that, "There is no need for investment in new fossil fuel supply in our net zero pathway."They add, "Beyond projects already committed as of 2021, there are no new oil and gas fields approved for development in our pathway, and no new coal mines or mine extensions are required."This is huge. An agency that has consistently boosted new oil and gas development in its flagship annual World Energy Outlook (WEO) is now backing up the global call to stop the expansion of fossil fuel extraction.Big Oil and Gas companies and the governments of fossil fuel-producing countries have lost one of their key covers for claiming that developing new oil and gas reserves is fully consistent with their commitments to "net zero" or the Paris Agreement. People around the world who have been demanding that governments, banks, and other financial institutions stop enabling the expansion of oil, gas, and coal extraction can point to the IEA's "authoritative" analysis reaching the same conclusion. Of course, the IEA is behind the curve. OCI has been analyzing the disconnect between new fossil fuel development and the Paris goals since 2016. We found then that already operating or under construction oil and gas fields and coal mines contain enough fossil fuel reserves to push the world well beyond 1.5 degrees of warming. The implication was as clear then as it is now: The world must stop digging new holes, and focus instead on managing a rapid and equitable wind down of already developed extraction.
The Renewables vs Oil Spend of Majors - BP and Total have the biggest announced renewables targets to 2030 among the oil and gas majors, according to Rystad Energy, which highlights that the companies are aiming for 50 gigawatts (GW) of capacity.This is more than double that of any other major during the same period, with Eni, Shell, Equinor, and Repsol all targeting under 20 GW of renewables capacity, Galp aiming for 10 GW and Chevron aiming for well under five GW, Rystad outlines.If we take BP and Total’s 50 GW target by 2030 as their renewables investment benchmark, the companies will have to spend roughly $5 billion to $6 billion per year on new projects within renewables to reach their targets, according to Vegard Wiik Vollset, Rystad Energy’s vice president of renewable energy.In comparison, Vollset highlighted that BP’s planned capital expenditure (CAPEX) on oil and gas projects to 2030 is $8 billion per year and Total’s planned CAPEX on oil and gas projects to 2030 is around $10 billion per year. Going by the figures above, on average, BP’s annual oil and gas spend would be around 37.5 percent to 25 percent higher than its annual renewables spend to 2030 and Total’s annual oil and gas spend would be around 50 percent to 40 percent higher than its annual renewables investment during the same period..“Whereas the European majors have already made strategic shifts into renewables, the U.S. majors have yet to make any material investments within renewables energy,” Vollset added.Commenting on what the potential percentage breakdown of investment among the majors may look like to 2050, Emma Richards, a senior oil and gas analyst at Fitch Solutions, noted that it would be hard to gauge as CAPEX projections tend to be short run.“Net zero ambitions can offer a guide, but what this means in terms of spending on renewables versus oil and gas will depend on a host of factors, not least the deployment of carbon capture technologies and the use of carbon offsets,” Richards told Rigzone.
Analysis finds $8.1 billion gap in New Mexico bonding requirements, clean up costs for oil and gas - Oil and gas infrastructure could leave the state with a hefty price tag for cleanup if companies go bankrupt, according to a new analysis completed by the Center for Applied Research. The analysis found an $8.18 billion difference between the bonds for the infrastructure in the state and the cost of cleaning up the sites. Companies issue bonds to provide financial assurance that the sites will be cleaned up in case of bankruptcy. The Center for Applied Research is an economic consulting firm that focuses on “resource valuation and market analysis pertaining to tribal lands and state trust lands,” Chad Linse, an economist with the organization, told NM Political Report in an email. According to the report, it will cost approximately $8.38 billion to clean up the oil and gas infrastructure currently located on state and private lands in New Mexico. The amount of money available through the required financial assurances, or bonds, is $201.42 million. That leaves the approximately $8.18 billion gap. Some of the infrastructure does not have any bonding requirements. This includes compressor station sites, freshwater frac ponds and storage facilities or warehouses. Additionally, companies with a larger number of wells pay less per well. For example, operators with more than 100 wells carry an average of $127 in bonds per well. Meanwhile, a company operating a single well would have an average of $13,203 in bonds for that well. The report states that market volatility is common in the petroleum industry and it is not uncommon for an operator to file bankruptcy in the middle of operations. This is particularly true if there is an economic downturn or if demand for petroleum decreases. Related: With oil’s future uncertain, orphaned wells on public lands could become a big problem for New Mexico “We have completed several studies related to the oil and gas industry’s use of New Mexico state trust lands in the past,” Linse said. “However, this is the first study we have undertaken looking at financial assurance requirements for oil and gas infrastructure.” Linse said the Center is hopeful that its findings will be useful during discussions about bonding policies in New Mexico.
Rare FERC move sparks heated debate over commission's role assessing pipeline climate impacts | Utility Dive --Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioners on Thursday resparked the debate about whether federal regulators should take climate change into account when considering the environmental impacts of a gas pipeline project. Commissioners voted 3-2 to approve two pipeline projects proposed by the Northern Natural Gas Company in Minnesota and the Tuscarora Gas Transmission Company in Nevada, after reviewing their respective climate impacts. The projects were poised to be rejected by FERC before Commissioner James Danly, who briefly chaired the commission under President Donald Trump, proposed a last minute amendment to avoid setting a precedent on examining climate impacts — and to secure his own vote. FERC for the first time in March considered how a proposed pipeline project's downstream emissions would impact the climate, ultimately determining they were not significant enough to deny certification. But the two projects put in front of the commission on Thursday had "significantly higher" emissions impacts, according to Chairman Richard Glick, leading him and Commissioner Allison Clements to oppose, in part, the certifications.Last minute changes to FERC orders are legal, but rare, and Thursday's amendment sparked a heated debate during the monthly commission meeting over whether the timing of such a change was appropriate. "I talked to you many times yesterday. I talked to you again this morning. You didn't even mention [the amendment] once," said Glick. "You didn't share it with anyone." "This is not a game," said Commissioner Neil Chatterjee. "People are watching this, the markets are watching this. We are toying with these companies. If this sentence is what it would have taken to have gotten us the three votes, it should have been offered before the meeting." The amendment offered a single sentence, tacked onto each of the certificate orders for the two pipelines: "The forgoing analysis of greenhouse gas emissions is offered for informational purposes only, does not inform any part of this order’s holding, and shall not serve as precedent for any future certificate order." Without this sentence, Danly said he couldn't support the certification process, because the commission in this case and in the previous case was departing from precedent without acknowledging the departure in a meaningful way. It's "unfair" to make such changes while FERC is in the midst of a broader review of how it approves gas infrastructure, Danly said.
PUBLIC LANDS: Barrasso bill would unlock nearly 100K acres in Wyo. -- Friday, May 21, 2021 -- -Nearly 100,000 acres of federal lands in Wyoming would return to less restrictive uses under a new proposal from Sen. John Barrasso.
North Dakota regulators approve McKenzie County pipeline project - North Dakota regulators have approved a pipeline project in McKenzie County that will direct more Bakken crude to a Wyoming oil hub. Bridger Pipeline plans to convert 27 miles of an oil gathering pipeline into a transmission line. It also will build an additional 2.4 miles of pipe to extend the line, which will run from Johnson’s Corner east of Watford City to Bridger’s Wilson Station south of the town. Other pipelines will transport the oil to Guernsey, Wyoming, and then to market in other states. Gathering lines tend to be smaller, collecting oil from wells, whereas transmission lines tend to be larger, taking oil from central locations such as a terminal or storage facility to market. The state Public Service Commission voted unanimously Wednesday to authorize the project. Commission Chair Julie Fedorchak said she sees it as a sign of the Bakken’s recovery following the oil downturn brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. “Any time these companies are adding more infrastructure and spending money, I think it shows a belief this play is here for the long haul,” she said. “I feel that it sends a strong message this company and others are still pretty hopeful and confident in the future of the Bakken.” She said commissioners “feel very comfortable” with Bridger’s pipeline monitoring plans after discussing them with the company at a hearing earlier this year. Fedorchak referenced past sloughing issues the company has faced, saying Bridger has since focused more on land stability and pipeline monitoring. Bridger is part of True Companies. A pipeline operated under a different True Companies subsidiary leaked 12,615 barrels or 530,000 gallons of oil in Billings County in 2016 when a hill slumped.
DAPL cites Colonial Pipeline outage as reason to remain open -The owners of the Dakota Access Pipeline cited the recent Colonial Pipeline outage from a cyberattack and a May 16 train derailment in Iowa as reasons to keep the major Bakken Shale crude oil artery open as it faces a potential court-ordered shutdown. The DAPL court filing on May 17 also quotes US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm talking about the urgency to get the Colonial petroleum products pipelines back online -- and not relying too long on alternate truck or rail transport -- when she said, "Pipe is the best way to go." Colonial was down for about a week, triggering more than half of all fueling stations in several Southern states to run out of gasoline amid panic-buying, and they are only slowly being replenished as of May 17. There is an ongoing sense of urgency for DAPL proponents to state their case because US District Judge James Boasberg of the District of Columbia is expected to rule in the coming days or weeks whether to close the 570,000 b/d pipeline while the US Army Corps of Engineers completes a court-ordered environmental review that could put the pipeline in proper legal standing. That Environmental Impact Statement study is not expected to be finalized until March 2022. Pipeline operator Energy Transfer also is appealing to the US Supreme Court. This effort comes after the April 23 denial of the rehearing en banc request from the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit which means the previous ruling stands: The four-year-old pipeline is operating without a legal water-crossing easement. The DAPL case is closely watched by industry and environmental observers alike because it could potentially set a standard for attempting to close existing pipelines and other fossil fuel infrastructure. The new DAPL court filing contends Granholm's comments are "instructive on the severe disruption of a pipeline shutdown, as well as the relative superiority of pipeline transportation over rail or truck." Colonial is the primary supplier of gasoline to the South and East Coast, while DAPL moves the most Bakken crude to refineries. DAPL ships more than 40% of Bakken oil and is responsible for 4.5 percent of all daily U.S. crude production, the filing noted. "Thus, DAPL -- like Colonial -- is a vital component of the supply chain for petroleum and petroleum products in the United States. And, as is the case with Colonial, rail and truck are inferior alternatives due to their limited availability in the short term, and the greater economic, environmental, and safety costs they impose," the court filing concluded, also highlighting a May 16 Union Pacific derailment in Iowa involving a train carrying petrochemicals.
Judge allows DAPL to keep flowing during environmental review | INFORUM - The decision comes as a relief to a North Dakota oil industry that has been on edge over the fate of DAPL for the better part of a year, as well as a discouraging blow to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and environmental activists who have vigorously opposed the pipeline since its construction began in 2016. — The same federal judge who almost a year ago ordered an immediate shutdown of the Dakota Access Pipeline ruled Friday, May 21, that the embattled project can keep running through the completion of an extensive environmental review.The much-anticipated decision allowing the pipeline to continue operations even though it lacks a key legal permit comes as relief to a North Dakota oil industry that has been on edge for the better part of a year. It's also a major blow to Indigenous and environmental activists who had hoped that the court's prior position on the pipeline could foreshadow another shutdown order.U.S. District Judge James Boasberg's ruling also comes in the wake of decisions by officials in President Joe Biden's administration to punt on opportunities to shutter the pipeline themselves, leaving its short-term future in the hands of the court."The Court acknowledges the Tribes' plight, as well as their understandable frustration with a political process in which they all too often seem to come up just short," Boasberg wrote. But he added that "judges may travel only as far as the law takes them and no further. Here, the law is clear, and it instructs that the Court deny Plaintiffs' request for an injunction."
NoDAPL Legacy: A pivotal moment of togetherness for Indigenous peoples -Five years have passed since the world watched as the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe stood against the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline just north of their tribal land. And, the pipeline continues to be a source of division to this day. While the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers completes a new environmental report on the pipeline, new research by the American Petroleum Institute shows that shuttering the pipeline would cut oil production from the Bakken shale region, killing thousands of jobs and costing state and local governments millions in tax revenues generated by energy production. For Monday’s report, we are exploring a different conversation. NoDAPL united thousands of water protectors, including representatives from more than 300 tribal nations. It’s easy to look back on NoDAPL as a divisive time where one side was pitted against the other, but in all actuality, it was a time of togetherness for Indigenous communities. Alayna Eagle Shield was there when thousands of water protectors began arriving to camp. “I had always heard about it growing up that we were going to come together again, I just didn’t know it would be in my lifetime or my kid’s lifetime,” said Mni Wiconi Clinic and Farm Co-Executive Director Eagle Shield. People from all over the world who knew traditional medicines and healing practices came together. Integrating everything from medicinal herbs, to acupuncture, to even midwifery. A baby was born at camp. “That’s something we’ve been told over and over by our elders. Don’t say that we’re bringing back these ways, or we’re going back to this because they’ve never left. They’ve always been here. They’ve just been in a different state,” explained Eagle Shield.
North Dakota PSC Approves Bridger Pipeline -- May 21, 2021 -The ND Public Service Commission approved a crude oil pipeline conversion project this week that can serve as an alternative route for North Dakota oil producers to deliver Bakken crude to market.The Bridger Pipeline project originates near Johnson’s Corner in McKenzie County, and runs 29.4 miles southwest to Bridger’s Wilson Station located seven miles south of Watford City where it interconnects with Bridger’s existing crude oil transmission network. The projects consists of 2.4 miles of new pipeline and the conversion of an existing 27-mile gathering line. The $21 million, 8-inch pipeline project will be capable of transporting up to 50,000 barrels of oil per day to a Wyoming hub, which interconnects with other pipelines that would move the crude to refineries in the Midwest or Gulf Coast. PSC Chair Julie Fedorchak noted that the pipeline runs through some rough terrain prone to landslides, but said she is comfortable that the company is familiar with potential hazards and is prepared to deal with them.
Porter blasts oil CEOs: 'Declined to answer to the American people' --Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) on Wednesday chastised oil company executives who declined her invitation to testify before the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, saying they “declined to answer to the American people.” Porter, who chairs the subcommittee, invited the CEOs of ExxonMobil, Devon Energy and EOG Resources to testify at a hearing, which was titled, “Misuse of Taxpayer Dollars and Corporate Welfare in the Oil and Gas Industry.” All three, as well as officials with the trade group Western Energy Alliance, ultimately declined. “I have long said that congressional hearings are opportunities for representatives and witnesses to be in conversation with Americans. Yet, despite receiving billions in taxpayer subsidies, every witness that we invited today from the oil and gas industry declined to answer to the American people,” Porter said, responding during Wednesday’s hearing. Porter particularly pointed to tax breaks meant to encourage fossil fuel production, what she described as “outdated” royalty rates and rental fees for public lands drilling as well as coronavirus-related aid. Exxon also declined to participate in a separate Senate hearing that took place last month. Exxon spokesperson Casey Norton told The Hill last week in an email, “We provided our responses to the members of Congress, and we will continue to engage with them on the important issue of climate change.” Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Western Energy Alliance, told The Hill via email last week that the group had a board meeting at the same time, but also characterized the hearing as political. “I’ve willingly participated in many hearings over the years, and am always happy to engage in a rational dialogue with Congress on important energy issues. But this hearing has no clear goals with a Chair who’s more interested in scoring messaging points than discussing issues, so I didn’t feel inclined to rearrange my schedule,” Sgamma said. Asked for additional comment on Wednesday, she also pushed back on Porter's remark about taxpayer subsidies, saying in an email that the industry "pays many times over in state, federal and local taxes (corporate, income, severance, property, etc.) and royalties... what are incorrectly claimed to be subsidies." EOG and Devon didn’t respond to The Hill’s request for comment last week, and none of the companies immediately responded to The Hill’s request for additional comment on Porter’s remarks on Wednesday.
Third oil worker dies from COVID-19 outbreak at Canadian Natural Resources’ Alberta worksite - The massive COVID-19 outbreak at Canadian Natural Resources’ Horizon oil tar-sands worksite in northern Alberta claimed another worker’s life Tuesday, bringing the publicly acknowledged death toll among the workforce to three. With the local health system collapsing, the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, where the Horizon mine and most other Canadian oil tar-sands operations are located, declared a local state of emergency late last month. Since then infections and deaths have continued to surge. The latest victim was a worker in his 60s, who had two children and seven grandchildren. He had been employed at CNRL’s Horizon site as a pipefitter from late March. Alberta has been ravaged by a third wave of the pandemic directly attributable to the Canadian ruling class’ policy, implemented by the federal Liberal government and with especial gusto by the province’s United Conservative Party (UCP) government, of prioritizing corporate profits over saving lives. Currently Alberta has among the highest per capita infection and active COVID-19 case rates in North America, and in proportionate terms Wood Buffalo is the hardest-hit region in Alberta. According to local public health officials, there are currently 30 workplace and 19 school outbreaks in Wood Buffalo, and 31 COVID-stricken patients are hospitalized at the Northern Lights Regional Health Centre (NLRHC) in Fort McMurray, Wood Buffalo’s principal population centre. Eight of the 31 are in intensive care (ICU), but just during the past week 16 other ICU patients were transferred from NLRHC to Edmonton hospitals. Across the province, there are 241 COVID patients in ICUs. In anticipation of a continuing wave of infection and death, the UCP government is hastily building more field hospitals, even as it orders schools across the province, with the lone exception of those in Wood Buffalo, to reopen next Tuesday. Throughout the pandemic oil-sands mining operations and the work camps that support them have been designated an essential service by the hard-right, Jason Kenney-led UCP government, and have thus been exempt from any restrictions on their operating at full-tilt. When the government was recently compelled to announce a new rule that workplaces with 10 or more infections must close, the energy sector was excluded as an “essential service.”
Big Gun, Part 2 - Why Natural Gas Production Took Off In British Columbia’s Montney Region --The Montney Formation in British Columbia and Alberta is exclusively responsible for the turnaround in Western Canada’s natural gas production in the past decade. Gas production in the Montney — a vast area with extraordinary reserves — has doubled in that time, with most of that growth coming from the BC side of the formation. This phenomenal growth story stems from a few key factors, including steadily improving gas well performance and increasing wellbore length, coupled with access to an established network of gas pipelines. Today, we delve into what has made BC’s portion of the Montney such as standout.After the acclaimed oil sands of Alberta, the Montney Formation is probably the most talked about geologic play in Western Canada in the past 20 years. Mostly known for its immense reserves and growing production of natural gas, the Montney has risen to prominence in the context of both the Canadian and broader North American gas markets. Within a few years, its reserves will also begin feeding the currently under construction LNG Canada liquefaction plant and export terminal on the BC coast, extending the access of Montney gas to overseas markets. In Part 1 of this series, we said that the immense Montney Formation straddles the provincial boundary between BC and Alberta (yellow-outlined region in Figure 1) and covers about 50,000 square miles (~130,000 square kilometers), making it about two-thirds the size of the Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico. Joint studies between the Canada Energy Regulator (CER) and the provincial energy agencies of BC and Alberta have estimated remaining recoverable reserves for the Montney at 567 Tcf, with about 342 Tcf in BC and 224 Tcf in Alberta. We noted that the Montney is sandwiched between the Duvernay Formation and the Alberta Deep Basin, areas that also have considerable hydrocarbon reserves.
U.S. halts operations at Caribbean oil refinery after breakdowns U.S. regulators ordered the Limetree Bay refinery on St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, to cease operations for at least 60 days, throwing the multibillion-dollar overhaul of the massive plant into jeopardy. The Caribbean refinery has suffered several financial and operational setbacks since its private equity owners sought to restart the 1,500 acre (607-hectare) facility idled since 2012. It voluntarily stopped processing this week after showering nearby homes with an oily mist for the second time this year. The incident exceeded the plant's permit for sulfur dioxide emissions, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said. The EPA ordered the facility closed "due to multiple improperly conducted operations that present an imminent risk to public health" and signaled it might take further action. A Limetree spokeswoman did not respond to requests for comment. On Thursday, a malfunction in a processing unit led the company to send staff to inspect local properties. It advised residents not to drink from rainwater cisterns. Its former owners filed for bankruptcy in 2015, facing heavy losses and U.S. Clean Air Act violations that required millions of dollars in upgrades. In 2016, Boston-based private equity firm Arclight Capital Partners acquired it and recruited other investors including EIG Global Partners that put about $3 billion into a plan to begin processing 210,000 barrels per day of crude into gasoline, diesel and fuel oil. Conditions at the old facility caused delays, as did the COVID-19 pandemic. After an extensive overhaul, operators last year began restarts that led to a fire. Oil rained on nearby homes for the second time in four months. "These repeated incidents at the refinery have been and remain totally unacceptable. Today, I have ordered the refinery to immediately pause all operations until we can be assured that this facility can operate in accordance with laws that protect public health," EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement.
Shell secures investor backing for its energy transition plan, but a growing minority rebel -— Royal Dutch Shell shareholders on Tuesday overwhelmingly voted in favor of the oil giant's energy transition plans at its annual general meeting, though a growing minority defied recommendations and insisted the company do much more to tackle the climate emergency.Shell said that the company's own resolution received 88.74% of shareholder votes. The Anglo-Dutch oil major's board had requested support for its Energy Transition Strategy — a vote that was the first of its kind in the energy sector.The result, while non-binding, was widely expected and ostensibly provides Shell with a shareholder mandate to proceed with its plans to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. However, 11% of shareholders voted against Shell's own climate plans. This contrasted with 19 other resolutions put forward at the online AGM, where up to 99% of investors followed management advice.To be sure, U.K. corporate governance code stipulates that any shareholder vote above 20% requires the company to go back to investors to discuss their concerns.What's more, it is perhaps a sharp increase in the number of shareholders choosing to support a separate motion on Tuesday that could be a catalyst for greater action. Shareholders rejected a second climate resolution put forward by activist investor Follow This by a vote of 69.53%. The Dutch group put forward the motion urging investors to vote with them to compel the company to be much more ambitious with its climate policy.Speaking to CNBC ahead of the vote, Follow This founder Mark van Baal had said he was confident a larger proportion of shareholders would back their proposal at Shell's AGM. This prediction has now been proven correct, with more than 30% of investors backing their motion — a marked improvement from a vote of 14.4% last year.In 2016, just 2.7% of investors supported Follow This' climate motion at Shell's AGM."This year for the first time, Shell put forward its own climate plan for a vote — and yet again, shareholders are sending a strong signal that Shell will have to set new targets. Shell's policy falls short of what is needed to protect investors from devastating climate change," Follow This' van Baal said in a statement shortly after the vote. He added the company would now have to revise its targets once again.
Oil Demand Is Rebounding Fast In Europe --Traffic on Europe’s highways and in the biggest cities has been rising in recent weeks as economies reopen, suggesting a rebound in road transportation fuel demand.Traffic on highways in Spain and France, one of the largest car markets in Europe, is now only slightly off the pre-COVID levels from 2019, according to data from highway operators quoted by Bloomberg.Many European countries have been gradually reopening over the past month while advancing vaccination rates prompt more people to travel on the roads. This is bullish news for gasoline and diesel demand, which is expected to be the first to recover to pre-pandemic levels, especially compared to the lagging aviation fuel demand.Traffic in European capitals is also intensifying, with traffic in 15 capitals reaching the busiest this year, according to data from location technology company TomTom NV cited by Bloomberg.Fuel sales in the United Kingdom surged this month to their highest level since the first lockdown in March last year, suggesting that the reopening that began in April is already resulting in higher oil demand and economic growth. With domestic restrictions easing, many European countries are now working to reopen to tourists from abroad in time for the summer vacations. As of Sunday, Italy is allowing tourists on “COVID-free flights” where passengers are tested before departure and on arrival regardless of whether they have received a vaccine or not. The more important thing is that those travelers, including those from the United States, Canada, and Japan, are not subject to quarantine upon arriving in Italy. This week, ambassadors to the EU from its 27 member states endorsed the proposal of the European Commission that the European Union open its borders to vaccinated tourists. The ambassadors decided that tourists should show vaccination certificates that they have been given a vaccine approved by the European Medicines Agency. The EU was also negotiating on Thursday the potential use of COVID certificates to open up tourism during the summer season.
Russia sells largest independent oil refinery in bankruptcy case -Russia's largest standalone oil processing plant, the Antipinsky oil refinery, was sold for almost 111 billion roubles ($1.50 billion) as part of bankruptcy proceedings, an online sale platform showed. The online platform showed that a company called Rusinvest completed the purchase of the plant located in West Siberia. Most of Russia's oil refineries are controlled by big oil companies, such as Rosneft and Lukoil. The refinery, which has a capacity of 7.5 million tons per year, filed for bankruptcy in 2019 after having halted operations on several occasions because of a lack of funds to pay for crude oil deliveries. Russia's largest bank, Sberbank, had been the refinery's main creditor.
Cyclone Sinks Indian Barge, 96 Still Missing -The Indian Navy launched a search operation for 96 missing people onboard barge P305 operated by state-run explorer Oil & Natural Gas Corp (ONGC). The barge first went adrift and subsequently sank at an offshore oilfield near Mumbai Tuesday morning after cyclone Tauktae, categorized as "extremely severe," barreled through the country's western coast, according to Bloomberg. "Long-range maritime surveillance aircraft were assisting the rescue effort but bad weather was hampering operations," Indian Navy Spokesman Vivek Madhwal said. He said a total of 273 people were onboard the P305 barge, and 177 were rescued in a night-long operation, with 96 still missing.The offshore oilfield is about 95 nautical miles off the west coast of Mumbai in the Gulf of Cambay. The barge went adrift after Tauktae crossed the region with winds gusting above 115 mph. The storm made landfall Monday at 830 pm local time on the Gujarat coast, a state on the western coast of India. Indian warships were deployed Tuesday to rescue hundreds of people from two other ONGC barges, which went adrift in the storm, Madhwal said.ONGC vessels, Indian Navy ships, and vessels of the Indian Coast Guard joined forces on Tuesday to search for survivors. Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, director-general of the national weather forecaster, said the cyclone was one of the hardest to hit the Gujarat coast since 1998. Meanwhile, residents of Mumbai and Gujarat experienced a powerful cyclone, the equivalent of a category 3 hurricane, with flooded streets, wind-damaged properties, fallen trees, and widespread power outages.
India scours sea after barge sinks, 2nd adrift in wake of cyclone - The Indian Navy was rushing to rescue crew members from a sunken barge and a second cargo vessel that was adrift Tuesday off the coast of Mumbai after a deadly cyclone struck the western coast. The navy said it had rescued 177 people of the total 400 on the two barges in the Arabian Sea. Three frontline warships, maritime patrol aircraft and helicopters were part of the rescue operations and were scouring the sea, the Navy said. Both barges were working for Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, the largest crude oil and natural gas company in India. The company confirmed that the vessels were in distress and rescue operations were ongoing on its website. Cyclone Tauktae, the most powerful storm to hit the region in more than two decades, packed sustained winds of up to 130 miles per hour when it came ashore in Gujarat state late Monday. Four people were killed in the state, raising the storm's total to 16. Residents emerged from relief shelters Tuesday to find debris strewn across roads, trees uprooted and electricity lines damaged. In Maharashtra, six people were killed Monday but the state's capital, Mumbai, was largely spared from any major damage even as heavy rains pounded the city’s coastline and high winds whipped its skyscrapers. Over the weekend, the cyclone had killed six people in Kerala, Karnataka and Goa states as it moved along the western coast. Download the NBC News app for breaking news and politics The cyclone has weakened, but the India Meteorological Department forecast heavy rainfall for many parts of Gujarat and Maharashtra in the coming days. Ahead of the cyclone, about 150,000 people were evacuated from low-lying areas in Maharashtra and Gujarat states. S.N. Pradhan, director of India’s National Disaster Response Force, said social distancing norms were being followed in evacuation shelters and rescue teams were clearing debris from affected areas. Both states, already among the hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic, had scrambled disaster response teams, fearing the storm could endanger India’s fight against the coronavirus, with supply lines cut, roads destroyed and lockdown measures slowing relief work. Tropical cyclones are less common in the Arabian Sea than on India’s east coast and usually form later in the year. But experts say changing climate patterns have caused them to become more intense, rather than more frequent.
Iran Awards $1.8B Gas Field Contract to Petropars - -- Iran’s Petropars Ltd. will be awarded a $1.78 billion contract by the National Iranian Oil Co. to develop the giant Farzad-B gas field that was previously intended to be tapped by a group of Indian companies. Petropars will produce 28 million cubic meters of gas a day from the offshore deposit within five years, according to the agreement, the Iranian oil ministry’s official Shana news service reported, with the contract to be signed on Monday. Farzad-B is estimated to hold reserves of around 500 billion cubic meters. An Indian consortium led by ONGC Videsh Ltd. was engaged in talks with Iran to develop the field but disagreements over investment volume and gas prices delayed progress and negotiations stalled completely after the U.S. reimposed sanctions on Iran in 2018. Prior to those penalties, Iran had intended to jointly develop several major oil and gas projects with foreign energy companies as part of a push to modernize its industry and improve expertise and know-how. Farzad-B is the latest major energy project awarded to Petropars following the exodus of foreign companies from the Islamic Republic’s oil and gas industry. Last year, it took over the development of an offshore phase of Iran’s South Pars field after its partners Total SA and China National Petroleum Corp. quit the $5 billion project because of sanctions. Iran is priming its oil fields -- and customer relationships -- so it can increase production and exports as it inches closer to an agreement with the U.S. that could lift sanctions on its economy and revive the 2015 nuclear deal.
Israel, Palestine Tension Heightens Energy Risk - Following escalating tension between Israel and Palestine, ports and offshore infrastructure remain at “heightened risk” with attacks and associated damage a “realistic possibility”. That’s according to Dryad Global, which added that attacks against bespoke targets including port, energy, and offshore infrastructure are “highly likely” to feature in any protracted engagement. In a statement posted on its website on Wednesday, Dryad Global noted that tensions between Israel and Palestine had risen “substantially” in the past 12 days. “Following the eviction of 12 Palestinian families from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East-Jerusalem, protests erupted which resulted in violent clashes between protesters and security forces,” Dryad Global said in the statement. “In the last 48 hours there has been a significant escalation of force which has seen Hamas and the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine (PIJ) conduct multiple indiscriminate rocket attacks against Israeli cities,” Dryad Global went on to say. The statement highlighted that a rocket attack on an oil facility near the port of Askhelon had occurred and that Chevron had shut in and depressurized the Tamar platform. Dryad Global noted, however, that it was understood that Chevron continued production from its offshore asset at the Leviathan field, whose platform is further north offshore Israel. According to a supplement to Chevron’s 2020 annual report, last year, net daily production from the Tamar field averaged 173 million cubic feet of natural gas per day, with 51 million cubic feet per day attributed to the company. Chevron noted in the report that progress continued on the Tamar SW development, which it highlighted consists of one well tied back to Tamar. The lease for the field covers approximately 15,000 net acres and the current term expires in 2038, Chevron revealed.
Saudi Aramco to co-lead report on cyber resilience in oil industry - Aramco, Siemens Energy and the World Economic Forum (WEF) have launched a co-lead report on Cyber Resilience in the oil and gas industry. The report, “Cyber Resilience in the Oil and Gas Industry Playbook”, establishes a blueprint for boards and business leaders to evaluate cyber risk and enhance cyber resilience across the industry. More than 40 senior executives from the oil and gas industry contributed by identifying cyber resilience best practices and offered new solutions that will help board directors mitigate cyber threats, protect supply chains and improve overall security in the sector. The playbook sets out six principles to help the oil and gas companies advance their approach to cybersecurity, and complements the World Economic Forum’s ten broader cyber resilience principles which apply to all organizations. The six principles of cyber-resilience for the oil and gas industry:
- Cyber-resilience governance
- Resilience by design
- Corporate responsibility for cyber resilience
- Holistic risk management approach
- Ecosystem-wide collaboration
- Ecosystem-wide cyber-resilience plans
Basim Al-Ruwaii, Chief Information Security Officer at Aramco said, “As a founding partner of the WEF Center for Cybersecurity, Aramco is proud to have collaborated with the World Economic Forum and business leaders from across the oil and gas sector to create this playbook, which aims to set the industry standard for improving cyber resilience. Establishing and aligning cybersecurity practices across the industry enhances our collective resilience efforts and allows us to present a united front against cybercrime and other critical security threats.”
Aftermath of Colonial outage to drive oil prices this week - The lingering impact of the Colonial fuels pipeline closure and emerging concerns about U.S. inflation could drive the price of crude oil this week, analysts said. The 5,500-mile-long Colonial pipeline is delivering fuel following its recovery from a May 7 ransomware attack that idled operations on a network that meets about half of the East Coast’s demand for refined petroleum products. After allegedly paying off the hackers with some $5 million, company said Thursday, “It will take several days for the product delivery supply chain to return to normal.” Looking to this week, Giovanni Staunovo, a commodities analyst for Swiss investment bank UBS, said the outage will show up in US federal data on commercial petroleum inventories a sharp drop in gasoline levels. The Energy Department reports inventories on Wednesday. “That said, the data will contain a lot of noise, with plunging oil product inventories at the East Coast, and rising ones at the Gulf Coast, where refineries are located,” he said. Inventory levels serve as a barometer for energy demand, with inventories falling when demand is high and rising when its low. In this case, trends may be harder to read because of the one-time event. “The Colonial situation should lead to a pinch on inventories but it’s transient,” said Abhi Rajendran, a research director at Energy Intelligence The only major move on crude oil prices last week was on Thursday, after the company announced volume increased on the pipeline. West Texas Intermediate, the US benchmark for the price of oil, declined 3.4 percent on Thursday, but ended the week up 1 percent to finish trading Friday at $65.37 per barrel. Elsewhere, emerging inflationary pressures are creeping up in the U.S. economy and that could spoil the otherwise optimistic mood. Cecilia Rouse, the chairperson of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said Friday that inflation was increasing at a rapid pace because the economy is coming off unusual lows during the pandemic.
Oil climbs 1% on economic recovery hopes despite fresh Asian restrictions --Oil prices rose more than 1% on Monday, lifted by European economic reopenings and rising U.S. demand after prices fell earlier due to surging coronavirus cases in Asia and underwhelming Chinese manufacturing data. Brent crude ended the session up 75 cents, or 1.1%, at $69.46 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude settled 90 cents, or 1.4%, higher at $66.27. The British economy reopened, giving 65 million people a measure of freedom after a four-month COVID-19 lockdown. With accelerating vaccination rates, France and Spain have relaxed COVID-related restrictions, and on Saturday, Portugal and the Netherlands eased travel restrictions. The promise of economic growth has supported oil prices in recent weeks, although the pace of inflation has kept many investors concerned that interest rates could rise, which could hit consumer spending. "The news is not all negative on the demand front as the U.S. saw air travel jump on Sunday to 1.8 million people, the highest total since March 2020," s United Airlines announced it will add 400 daily flights to July for European destinations, Moya noted. Summer travel bookings rose 214% from 2020 levels, the airline said, adding it planned to fly 80% of its U.S. schedule compared with July 2019. Investors remained worried about the coronavirus variant first detected in India. Some Indian states said on Sunday they would extend lockdowns to fight the pandemic, which has killed more than 270,000 people there. Domestic sales of gasoline and diesel by Indian state refiners plunged by a fifth in the first half of May from a month earlier. Singapore is preparing to close schools this week and Japan has declared a state of emergency in three more prefectures. China's factories slowed their output growth in April and retail sales significantly missed expectations as officials warned of new problems affecting the recovery in the world's second-largest economy. China's crude oil throughput rose 7.5% in April from the same month a year ago, but remained off the peak seen in the last quarter of 2020. Signs of rising supply also capped oil's gains.
Brent Oil Tops $70 On Reopening Optimism - Oil prices rose on Tuesday amid bets that energy demand will rise steadily following reopenings of the European and U.S. economies. Brent crude futures for July settlement climbed 0.9 percent to $70.07 per barrel, trading above $70 for the first time since March 15. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures for June delivery were up 0.8 percent at $66.80. New York State will no longer require masks in most public spaces for people fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Amid improved coronavirus case numbers, New Jersey is fully lifting its pandemic-related travel restrictions and quarantine requirements. Germany has decided to allow vaccinated travelers or people who have recovered from the virus to skip testing and quarantine. The French government is moving forward with its plans to almost completely end coronavirus restrictions by June 30. Elsewhere, Britain's unemployment rate unexpectedly fell again, reinforcing market expectations that the economy will bounce back strongly, helped by its fast pace of vaccine rollout and plans to ease lockdown measures. Limiting oil's upside is the prospect of a revival of Iran's nuclear deal that would allow the OPEC producer to fully restart exports. COVID-19 cases seem to be falling in India, though the daily death count is still on the rise.
Oil Prices Falter on Iran Negotiation Reports -- Oil sunk as investors weighed developments in ongoing talks between world powers on a revival of the Iran nuclear deal, which would bring more supply to the market. Futures in London fell 1.1% on Tuesday after a Russian envoy in Vienna said significant progress has been made in efforts to broker an agreement between Iran and the U.S, the BBC Persian news channel reported. However, the same diplomat, Mikhail Ulyanov, subsequently took to Twitter to play down reports that a major announcement on the matter was likely on Wednesday. “I said that significant progress have been achieved, in my view,” Ulyanov said in the tweet. “That is true. But unresolved issues still remain and the negotiators need more time and efforts to finalise an agreement on restoration of JCPOA.” A return to the 2015 nuclear deal could allow for the removal of U.S. sanctions on the Persian Gulf country’s crude exports, raising the prospects of more crude coming back to the market. Iran has already been preparing to ramp up global oil sales, though the flow of additional crude may be gradual even if a deal is struck. ”The devil is in the details,” said Tom Finlon of Brownsville GTR LLC, a trading and logistics firm based in Houston. Despite “periodic comments on progress,” talks have been at “an impasse on substantive issues, so it’s not going to be that easy.” Prices were already weak earlier in the session after Brent futures failed to sustain a rally past the key psychological $70-a-barrel mark, which it hasn’t closed above since May 2019. Meanwhile, concerns are lingering around the worsening Covid-19 crisis in India. The South Asian country’s gasoline exports soared 85% in the first half of May from the same period last month, according to Vortexa, as fuel sales there wane. Prices Brent for July settlement lost 75 cents to end the session at $68.71 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate for June delivery fell 78 cents to settle at $65.49 a barrel. Despite crude’s decline on Tuesday, oil is joining other commodities in a blistering rally this year. Crude prices are up more than 30% as raw materials emerge as a hedge against inflation. Much of Wall Street is calling for higher prices, with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. talking up the prospects of $80 a barrel oil. At the same time, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies are boosting supply to meet rebounding demand.
WTI Tumbles To $61 Handle After Russian Envoy Comments (Again) On JCPOA Deal --It's deja vu all over again in oil markets as the Russian Envoy Mikahil Ulyanov is once again commenting optimistically on the likelihood of a JCPOA deal occurring. Additionally, Iran's lead negotiator, Abbas Araghchi commented in a statement that "draft texts are mostly drafted for a return to the nuclear deal." And Oil is extending losses from the DOE crude build as traders eye the potential for a recovery in the nation’s exports. API:
- Crude +620k (+1.7mm exp)
- Cushing -53k
- Gasoline -2.837mm (-1.2mm exp)
- Distillates -2.581mm (-300k exp)
DOE
- Crude +1.32mm (+1.7mm exp)
- Cushing -142k
- Gasoline -1.963mm (-1.2mm exp)
- Distillates -2.324 (-300k exp)
After the prior two weeks' draws, analysts expected a modest crude build in the last week as Colonial shutdown issues ripple through the energy complex. API reported a small build, and the official DOE data showed a bigger build (as products drew down more than expected) As expected, we saw a giant weekly build in Gulf Coast gasoline inventories with the Colonial Pipeline down. Bloomberg Intelligence Senior Energy Analyst Vince Piazza noted that the cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline likely only had a temporary effect on U.S oil inventories, as some refineries used floating storage and others cut activity to navigate the interruption until operations resumed on May 15. US crude production remains 'disciplined' despite the recent surge in prices and rig counts now back at their highest since April 2020...
Oil prices dive $2 on fears of Asian pandemic, possible U.S. rate hikes (Reuters) -Oil prices dropped over $2 a barrel on Wednesday to their lowest in three weeks, on worries that surging COVID-19 cases in Asia would dent demand for crude and that U.S. inflation fears could prompt the Federal Reserve to slow economic growth with interest rate hikes. Traders also cited rumors that the Iran nuclear talks were making progress, which could boost global crude supplies and depress prices. Brent (LCOc1) futures fell $2.05, or 3.0%, to settle at $66.66 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell $2.13, or 3.3%, to settle at $63.36. Earlier in the day, WTI was down more than 5%. That was the lowest close for both benchmarks since April 27. On Tuesday, Brent rose to a 10-week high over $70 a barrel in intraday trade on optimism oil demand would surge with the reopening of U.S. and European economies. It retreated on fears of slowing fuel demand in Asia where surging COVID-19 cases prompted new restrictions in India, Taiwan, Vietnam and Thailand. "The global picture for demand is probably the most divided it has been since the start of the pandemic, with an improving demand picture in the West versus a deteriorating outlook in Asia," said Sophie Griffiths, market analyst with OANDA, noting the mixed picture fed volatility. Analysts have said Iran could provide about 1 million to 2 million barrels per day (bpd) in additional oil supply if a deal is struck. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said oil prices were stable and the market had roughly balanced. Speculation the Fed might raise rates weighed on the outlook for economic growth and prompted investors to reduce exposure to oil and other commodities, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, and stocks. A "number" of Fed officials appeared ready to begin considering changes to monetary policy based on continued rapid progress in the economic recovery, according to minutes of the U.S. central bank's April meeting. Data since then may have already changed the landscape. The U.S. dollar, meanwhile, gained against a basket of currencies a day after closing at its lowest since January. A stronger dollar can weigh on oil prices because it makes the commodity more expensive for holders of other currencies. Oil prices declined despite U.S. data showing a smaller-than-expected 1.3 million barrel build in crude inventories, a bigger-than-expected 2.0 million barrel decline in gasoline stockpiles and a 5% increase in gasoline use to pre-pandemic levels
Oil Prices Continue Losing Streak - Oil slumped to the lowest in nearly a month as traders focused on the likelihood of a renewed nuclear deal with Iran and the potential removal of sanctions on the country’s crude exports. Futures fell 2.1% in New York on Thursday, posting a third straight decline in the longest losing streak since March. Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said world powers have accepted that major sanctions on his country will be lifted. But he said diplomats are still discussing “details and finer points” before there’s “a final agreement.” The prospect of a return of Iranian supply is also being reflected in Brent’s prompt timespread. The spread’s backwardation narrowed to just a few cents, a sign that market tightness may be easing. Oil is “in a holding pattern until we get to June, because that’s when Europe’s going to start to reopen and the U.S. driving season will have officially kicked off,” said Jay Hatfield, CEO of Infrastructure Capital Management. “Between now and then, the main influences will be Iran headlines as a headwind” and signs of further improvement in the U.S. market as a supportive factor. Crude futures’ tumble pushed the benchmark to close below its 50-day moving average for the first time since late April, a bearish signal that may invite more sellers into the market. While a timeline for a revival of the 2015 nuclear deal remains unclear, Iran has already been boosting its exports and Indian refiners have signaled they would be willing buyers. India’s largest refiner said it will definitely restart buying Iranian oil when U.S. sanctions are lifted, and Hindustan Petroleum Corp. said Iran has been offering the nation’s refiners discounts on crude oil and expects these terms to be available after sanctions are withdrawn. “There continue to be positive statements out of Vienna from various participants, including Iran, that a deal is at hand,” said John Kilduff, a partner at Again Capital LLC. “Even though we know they have already been ramping up their exports, it is adding to negative market sentiment.” West Texas Intermediate for June, which expired Thursday, fell $1.31 to settle at $62.05 a barrel. The more-active July contract declined $1.41 to end the session at $61.94 a barrel. Brent for July settlement lost $1.55 to settle at $65.11 a barrel, the lowest since April 13
Oil rallies for the session amid possible Gulf of Mexico storm, prices fall for the week -- Oil futures rallied on Friday (link), finding support from a potential storm in the Gulf of Mexico. Prices still posted a loss for the week as traders continued to eye developments toward an Iran nuclear deal. The "possibility of the return on Iranian oil," pressured prices for the week, said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at The Price Futures Group. On Friday, however, prices got a boost from concerns about a weather system developing in the Gulf of Mexico (link), he said. "A tropical disturbance is a reminder that [Atlantic] hurricane season is upon us, and it seems to want to start early." Next week, oil traders are likely to "focus on the Iran deal, but also get a sense of the demand expected for the Memorial Day Holiday -- the unofficial kickoff to the summer driving season," said Flynn. West Texas Intermediate oil for July delivery rose $1.64, or nearly 2.7%, to settle at $63.58 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. For the week, prices based on the front-month contract, fell about 2.7%, according to FactSet data.
Oil Down 3% For Week As Fears Of An Iran Deal Offset Gain For Day -– Oil prices rose on Friday but still ended the week about 3% down on fears that Iran was nearing a nuclear deal that could remove U.S. sanctions, possibly adding two million barrels per day of crude to the market. Speculation of a storm forming in the Gulf of Mexico, where the bulk of U.S. energy installations are located, helped oil prices to rebound from Thursday’s losses triggered by worries over the Iranian situation. But the gain wasn’t enough to offset the slide for the week. “Much of the energy market has priced in more Iranian crude output later this summer,” said Ed Moya, head of research for the Americas at online trading platform OANDA. , the benchmark for U.S. oil, settled up $1.64, or 2.6%, at $63.58 per barrel. For the week though, WTI lost 2.7%. , which acts as the global benchmark for oil, settled up $1.33, or 2%, at $66.44. For the week, Brent fell 3.3%. WTI and Brent rose on the day as a weather system forming over the western Gulf of Mexico showed a 40% chance of becoming a cyclone in the next 48 hours, according to data from the U.S. National Hurricane Center. “This early storm prompted traders to buy crude ahead of the weekend in anticipation of potential production shut-ins,” said Phil Flynn, senior analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago. But the concerns over Iranian crude ramp-up were greater. World powers negotiating to bring Tehran back into a nuclear accord canceled by former U.S. President Donald Trump have accepted that major sanctions imposed since 2018 on the Islamic Republic’s crude exports be lifted, President Hassan Rouhani told Iranian television on Thursday. “Finer points” were being worked to finalize a deal, Rouhani said, even as European diplomats insisted that success was not guaranteed and that tough issues remained in the talks. At stake is an additional supply of some 500,000 to 2 million barrels of crude that could enter the market anytime between the next three to 18 months, those in the know say. Iran has said previously that it could return “within months” to its peak oil production of nearly 4 million barrels a day once the sanctions on its oil are lifted. Sources familiar with the country’s crude output currently estimated its production at around 2 million barrels daily. Analysts say the additional supply from Iran, whenever that comes, will force a reconfiguration of global oil supply that could be more bearish than bullish — especially with questions about demand resurfacing after new coronavirus flare-ups in No. 3 oil consumer India.
Top EU Negotiator "Quite Sure" Iran Nuclear Deal Will Be Reached Next Week --At the end of the latest round of talks (the fourth) in Vienna on Wednesday a top European Union envoy has said that the reviving of the Iran nuclear deal is now "shaping up". Enrique Mora, the EU's top negotiator for the Vienna nuclear talks, says he's "quite sure" a deal will be reached at a moment the text is being drafted, and as talks adjourn for a week.Documents outlining both Iran's compliance and the United States' return to the JCPOA nuclear deal are now said to be"mostly drafted" - according to Iranian statements, with the exception of "complicated differences". A "final round" of talks are now set for next week, with the Iranian side hoping for a deal to be reached prior to the Iranian presidential election in June, after which Hassan Rouhani will step down due to term limits.The Islamic Republic's chief negotiator, Abbas Araghchi, assessed on Wednesday that "I think good headway has been made with the talks over the past two weeks. A few key issues have remained, and they need further consideration, and decisions should be made about those issues in the capitals."This next week is being described essentially as a period where negotiators will go back to their respective capitals to prep for the final definitive meetings. Remaining "red lines" are expected to be decided on. The Guardian summarizes the three main remaining issues expected to be resolved by any agreement reached as follows:
- the precise sanctions the US is prepared to lift;
- the time Iran is allowed to reverse its steps away from the deal;
- ...and how to handle the knowledge Iran has acquired in the many months in which it has not been in full compliance with the deal, including its enrichment of uranium to 60% purity.
Israeli Missiles Destroy Gaza Building Housing Foreign Media Outlets -- A high-rise building in Gaza City where Associated Press and Al-Jazeera are based was destroyed by Israeli airstrikes Saturday, as the worst violence between Israel and Palestinian militants since 2014 continues to escalate. Israeli planes carried out airstrikes on Gaza and Hamas militants responded by firing rockets into Israel, as the violence between the two sides continued for a fifth night. A 12-story building that housed apartments and other offices in addition to the media organizations was toppled by Israeli missiles after the building’s owner received a warning by telephone from the Israeli military one hour before the attack that it would be struck. AP staffers and other building occupants evacuated the building immediately, but Al-Jazeera continued to broadcast the airstrikes as the building collapsed. “Al-Jazeera will not be silenced,” an on-air anchorwoman said. “We can guarantee you that right now.” AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt said in a statement the news organization was “shocked and horrified” over Israel’s attack on the building, while noting it received a warning from Israel. Pruitt said AP is seeking information from Israel and the U.S. State Department about the attack, from which a dozen staffers “narrowly avoided a terrible loss of life.” “The world will know less about what is happening in Gaza because of what happened today,” Pruitt warned. 'Human shields' The Israeli military said without evidence it destroyed the building because intelligence operatives within the Islamist militant group, Hamas, were using media offices as “human shields.”
Israel continues “full force” attacks on Gaza, backed by US and several Arab states - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu authorized Israel’s heaviest airstrikes on Gaza City yesterday, insisting that the war will go on “as long as necessary” and that attacks on Gaza would continue in “full force.” Israel “wants to levy a heavy price” from Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood group that rules Gaza, he added.Netanyahu proceeds with his criminal war on a largely defenceless people with the full backing of US President Joe Biden, who has repeatedly declared for “Israel’s right to defend itself.” On Sunday the US, for the third time in a week, blocked the United Nations from issuing a toothless call for a cease-fire. This was despite a warning from UN secretary general António Guterres to the imperialist powers that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict threatened to spiral out of control, fostering extremism and communal violence not only in the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel but across the region. On Sunday evening, Biden said he was telephoning Netanyahu but refused to call for a cease-fire.Joining the US for the first time in all but openly siding with Israel are the four Arab states who have signed the Abraham Accords normalizing relations with the Netanyahu government—the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan. “In what appeared to be a state-backed response, the hashtag ‘Palestine is not my cause’ circulated in the UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait over the weekend,” the Guardian reported.The attacks on Gaza overnight Sunday/Monday were more intense, covering a broader area and lasting longer than the bombardment the previous night in which 42 Palestinians were killed. A reported 54 fighter jets dropped 110 precision munitions on 35 targets in 20 minutes. Casualties in Gaza already stand at over 200, including two doctors, at least 35 women and 58 children, and about 1,300 wounded since Israel started its bombardment of the besieged enclave last Monday. Over 700 homes and 80 buildings have been destroyed, displacing 34,000 people who now lack the most basic necessities of life, including food. There have been 10 deaths in Israel, including two children and a soldier, killed in some 3,100 projectiles launched from Gaza.Civilians have borne the brunt of the Israeli attacks. The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that the raids had targeted houses and government buildings, including a four-storey home near al-Shifa hospital, Gaza's main medical facility. According to other local media reports, the airstrikes also hit the main coastal road west of the city, security compounds and open spaces, while Gaza’s power distribution company said the airstrikes had damaged a feeder line from the only power plant to much of southern Gaza City.
Netanyahu war on Gaza continues as imperialist powers and Arab states feign ceasefire efforts -The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) continued its murderous assault on Gaza overnight Wednesday, pounding central Gaza and the al-Rimal neighbourhood in an effort to destroy Hamas’s network of tunnels, destroying homes and killing at least nine people. The IDF also shelled “a number of targets” in southern Lebanon after four rockets were fired from Seddiqine, a village near the coastal city of Tyre, into northern Israel—the third such flare up since the start of the war on Gaza on May 11. At least 20 of Hamas’s military leaders have been assassinated, with IDF spokesman Brig.-Gen. Hidai Zilberman admitting, “Throughout the operation we have tried to assassinate Mohammed Deif. We've tried to kill him several times.” Deif is the head of Hamas’s military wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, and has escaped numerous assassination attempts. Israel’s sophisticated weaponry has killed at least 227 Palestinians, including 63 children and 36 women, and injured 1,530 others since May 10, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. This contrasts with the toll from the Palestinians’ largely home-made projectiles that have killed 10 Israelis, including two children and a soldier, as well as two Thai migrant workers. Speaking to foreign diplomats Wednesday afternoon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made clear that he had no interest in reaching a ceasefire with Hamas until he had achieved his objective of obliterating Hamas and further degrading Gaza. A further military escalation on Gaza was possible, he said, as Israel seeks to “degrade Hamas’ capabilities.” He added, “You can either conquer them, and that’s always an open possibility, or you can deter them, and we are engaged right now in forceful deterrence. But I have to say we don’t rule out anything.” That was taken to mean that eradicating Hamas as a political force and re-occupying Gaza were also being considered. Netanyahu can maintain his bellicose stance, despite mass popular opposition globally to his criminal war on Gaza, his plans to drive out the Palestinians from occupied East Jerusalem and sending fascistic goons to terrorise Israel’s Palestinian citizens because he knows he has Washington’s backing. He stressed that he “appreciate[d] the support of our friend, US President Joe Biden, for the State of Israel’s right to self-defence.” Biden has three times blocked the UN Security Council from issuing a non-binding statement criticizing Israel and calling for a halt to the war, has agreed a $735 million arms package for Israel and called for a ceasefire only at some unspecified time. On Wednesday, Biden issued an equally meaningless plea for a “de-escalation.” Netanyahu also has the support of the European powers who, despite their handwringing and calls for a ceasefire, refuse to denounce Washington or oppose its support for the Zionist State and its criminal war.
Israel Is Wiping Out Entire Palestinian Families on Purpose -- Fifteen Palestinian nuclear and extended families lost at least three, and in general more, of their members, in the Israeli shelling of the Gaza Strip during the week from May 10 through to Monday afternoon. Parents and children, babies, grandparents,siblings and nephews and nieces died together when Israel bombed their homes, which collapsed over them. Insofar as is known, no advance warning was given so that they could evacuate the targeted houses.Wiping out entire families in Israeli bombings was one of the characteristics of the war in 2014.On Saturday, a representative of the Palestinian Health Ministry brought listed the names of 12 families who were killed, each one at its home, each one in a single bombing. Since then, in one air raid before dawn on Sunday, which lasted 70 minutes and was directed at three houses on Al Wehda Street in the Rimal neighborhood of Gaza, three families numbering 38 people in total were killed. Some of the bodies were found on Sunday morning. Palestinian rescue forces only managed to find the rest of the bodies and pull them out from the rubble only on Sunday evening.Wiping out entire families in Israeli bombings was one of the characteristics of the war in 2014. In the roughly 50 days of the war then, UN figures say that 142 Palestinian families were erased (742 people in total). The numerous incidents then and today attest that these were not mistakes: and that the bombing of a house while all its residents are in it follows a decision from higher up, backed by the examination and approval of military jurists.An investigation by the human rights group B'Tselem that focused on some 70 of the families who were eradicated in 2014, provided three explanations for the numerous nuclear and extended families that were killed, all at once, in one Israeli bombing on the home of each such family. In any case, what stands out is the difference between the fate of the buildings that were bombed with their residents inside, and the "towers"—the high-rise buildings that were shelled as of the second day of this latest conflict, during the daytime or early evening. Reportedly, the owners or the concierge in the towers got prior warning of an hour at most that they must evacuate, usually via phone call from the army or Shin Bet security service, then "warning missiles" fired by drones. These owners/concierges were supposed to warn the other residents in the short time remaining.
Israel cracks down on Palestinian general strike, continues bombing Gaza - The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) responded with brutal repression to a Palestinian general strike across the occupied West Bank and Arab towns in Israel. The strike, a “day of rage”, was called by the Arab Follow-up Committee to protest the bombing of Gaza and worsening repression in East Jerusalem. The committee urged solidarity “from the sea to the river.” Supported by both Hamas and Fatah, the ruling party of the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, it was the first by Palestinians in both the occupied territories and Israel. The historic action saw the shuttering of all Palestinian workplaces, businesses, shops and schools. Security forces responded with lethal force, killing three Palestinians and wounding at least 63 more in the West Bank. Troops fired tear gas and live ammunition at hundreds of Palestinians burning tyres and hurling stones at the Beit El military checkpoint at Al-Birah near Ramallah, killing one Palestinian and wounding 70 more. Heavy clashes were reported in other towns and cities, including Hebron, Bethlehem, Nablus and Budrus. On Monday, Israeli soldiers had shot and killed a Palestinian teenager at the al-Arroub refugee camp, north of Hebron, preventing ambulances reaching the 18-year-old Obaida Akram Jawabra, while on Tuesday soldiers killed Fayyad Zahda in Hebron, claiming he was carrying weapons. In East Jerusalem, police used water cannon to disperse protesters in Sheikh Jarrah. They cracked down violently on protesters inside the Old City and around the Damascus Gate. Middle East Eye reported that Israeli police beat, pepper sprayed and removed the hijab of one of its correspondents, Latifeh Abdellatif, while she was filming the detention of a young boy. When Palestinians stepped in to protect Abdellatif, leading to scuffles with the police, several of them were arrested. Later, Israel’s police commissioner Yaakov Shabtai said his forces had restored calm after “riots in the Arab sector.” Foreword to the German edition of David North’s Quarter Century of War Johannes Stern, 5 October 2020 After three decades of US-led wars, the outbreak of a third world war, which would be fought with nuclear weapons, is an imminent and concrete danger. Israel renewed its criminal bombardment of Gaza’s defenceless Palestinians early Tuesday morning, firing 100 bombs and missiles against 65 targets described as a network of tunnels. Several buildings in Gaza city, including a six-storey block housing the Islamic University, were hit. It brings the total number of airstrikes since May 11 to 1,500. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged international pressure for a cease-fire, but “all in all, we are receiving very serious backing, first of all from the US.” US President Joe Biden has refused to call for an immediate halt to the war, reluctantly stating Monday evening he now “supports” a ceasefire but with no timetable. Asked whether a ceasefire was being discussed, a senior Israeli official said, “There is no such thing right now. There is no negotiation. There is no proposal. There is nothing on the table.”
Israel may cut power to Gaza, official warns ahead of tunnel strikes --Israel’s intelligence minister warned Tuesday that power to the Gaza Strip could soon be cut off — as the country’s military geared up for an “intensive night” of additional airstrikes against the region’s terror tunnels. Intelligence Minister Eli Cohen told Israel’s Channel 20 that he favored shutting down electricity to Gaza as the worst conflict in years stretched into its ninth day. “I think the next thing we should do – and I’ll raise this in the Cabinet – is to shut off electricity in Gaza,” he said in Hebrew, according to a video clip posted on Twitter. Cohen added, “There was no discussion about a cease-fire in the Cabinet.” “The international pressure is increasing but we owe it to our citizens,” he said. On Sunday, the Guardian reported that the power supply to Gaza had already been cut by more than half after six of 10 power lines were destroyed by Israeli strikes. “There are some border areas completely cut off from electricity,” Mohammed Thabet, a spokesperson for the Gaza Electricity Distribution Co., told the British news outlet. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces said it had an “intensive night ahead of us” Tuesday amid planning for aerial attacks on “new locations” of Gaza’s sprawling tunnel network, according to the Jerusalem Post.
Israel: An Apartheid State Created & Propped Up By the West - by Riaz Haq --As Israeli military pounds Gaza and kills large numbers of Palestinian men, women and children yet again, the western media and politicians are busy white-washing the Israeli crimes by repeating the same old mantra: "Israel has a right to defend itself". There's little mention of the decades-long occupation and continuing brutalization of the Palestinian people by the Israelis. Nor is there any discussion of how the West is culpable in this long-running injustice. The foundation of the state of Israel as we know it now was laid when the British government issued a public statement in 1917 called the "Balfour Declaration" in support of the creation of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine. The Balfour Declaration was contained in a letter of November 2, 1917 from British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Lord Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish community, for transmission to the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland. Winston Churchill disparaged Palestinians who had been living in the region for centuries as "dogs". Churchill said, "I do not agree that the dog in a manger has the final right to the manger even though he may have lain there for a very long time. I do not admit that right. I do not admit for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly wise race to put it that way, has come in and taken their place." Churchill's racist comments have clearly established here that the Israeli settler colonialism in the Middle East is no different than the European settler colonialism in America and Australia. A large number of European Jews, including victims of Nazi persecution, poured into Palestine before the end of the Second World War. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were driven out of their land and their homes and by these European Jews who had the full support of the West. Miko Peled, Israeli author of "The General's Son", has detailed and documented the history of forced mass expulsions of Palestinians by armed Jewish gangs during the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. The following quote from an interview with The Middle East Monitor captures the essence of what Peled has been saying: "In hindsight, that was catastrophic for the Palestinians, because a lot of it has to do with why we are here today – the fact that they dropped the struggle."
No Matter How Powerful Israel’s Military Becomes, It Still Can’t Win -Israel is the most powerful state in the Middle East. Its military forces may not match the likes of Egypt or Turkey in numbers, but the might of its training, equipment, technologies and nuclear weapons make it unassailable. Given its long-developed capabilities in public order control, such a position should also apply to its control of radical dissent within its own borders, as well as in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.Gaza may not be occupied in the conventional sense but it is a small territory with two million people living behind borders controlled by Israel. It lacks a port, its sole airport was destroyed many years ago and its Mediterranean coastline is patrolled by Israelis at all times. It is essentially an open prison.The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has persistently claimed that his country is indeed safe, that it has nothing to fear from the Palestinians and that the settlements can and should expand as Israel has established good relations with key Gulf states.More importantly, President Joe Biden’s administration has done little to repeal Donald Trump’s pro-Israel changes. There is no sign of moving the US embassy back from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, the US consulate in East Jerusalem that gave Palestinians a direct link to Washington has remained closed since 2019, as has the Palestinian office in Washington since 2018. There has been little pressure over the settlement expansion, and even the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNWRA) has only had $230m of its previous $380m US financial support restored. Taking all these elements into account, Israel should feel safe and secure – but in practice it doesn’t. Instead, an apt summary is of a state that is impregnable in its insecurity. It is impregnable in the sense that it cannot be defeated but insecure in that the underlying threats will not go away, as evident in the current violent confrontations. The threats stem from the underlying anger in Palestinian circles, especially in the occupied territories, as Netanyahu’s government moves ahead to get more settlers into East Jerusalem. This is seen in Palestine as straightforward ethnic cleansing, further encouraged by the far-Right Jewish parties that Netanyahu depends on for power.
United Nations meets Thursday to address 'rapid deterioration' in Mideast --The United Nations General Assembly will meet Thursday as violence between Israel and the Palestinians continues to escalate in the Middle East, Reuters reported Monday, citing General Assembly President Volkan Bozkir.Niger and Algeria, which chair the Organization for Islamic Cooperation group in New York, asked the 193 General Assembly member states to meet publicly “in light of the gravity of the situation and its rapid deterioration,” according to Reuters.The U.N. Security Council, made up of 15 countries, gathered publicly for the irst time Sunday amid the rising conflict between Israel and Hamas, which is designated as a terrorist group by the U.S., the wire service noted. The council, according to Reuters, has not been able to release a public statement on the conflict because the U.S., which is strongly allied with Israel, is fearful that any formal communication may hurt behind-the-scenes diplomacy. China, however, said on Sunday that it would again try to persuade the council to agree on a statement. Violence between Israeli forces and Hamas has escalated in the past week. The tensions began with Israeli police action at Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of the holiest sites in Islam, and were exacerbated by an impending, and since-postponed, Supreme Court hearing on a potential eviction order in a predominately Palestinian neighborhood in Jerusalem. Hamas began firing rockets into Israel on May 10. Gaza health officials, according to Reuters, said that 201 Palestinians have died in the conflict since it erupted last Monday, including 58 children and 34 women. Ten people have died in Israel, including two children, the wire service noted.
Egypt indicates a truce agreement between Israeli and Hamas forces - Israel and Hamas forces in Gaza may be edging closer to a cease-fire tonight, after 10 days of open war.Egyptian mediators say there's a truce agreement in principle. A top Hamas official says he expects fighting to stop in a day or two. Pressure to end the conflict built today, with 227 Gazans and 12 Israelis killed so far.In a telephone call before leaving the White House this morning, President Biden stepped up pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to ease the fight with Hamas in Gaza.The White House said Mr. Biden told his Israeli counterpart that he expected significant de-escalation today on the path to a cease-fire, the administration's most assertive public language yet. Later, Netanyahu seemed to rebuff the president, saying he is determined to continue this operation until its aim is met. Briefing foreign ambassadors to Israel, he said the aim is to return calm for Israelis and blunt attacks from the militant group.
Putin vows to 'knock out the teeth' of any power that tries to take Russian territory --Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday vowed to “knock out the teeth” of any power that attempts to take a portion of his country’s territory."Everyone wants to 'bite' us somewhere or 'bite off' something of ours, but those that would do this should know that we will knock out the teeth of all of them so they aren't able to bite. ... And the key to this is the development of our armed forces," Putin said during televised remarks at a virtual meeting with senior officials, according to Reuters.The wire service reported that Putin, when making these remarks, was discussing what he referred to as comments made by foreign entities that questioned Russia’s control of Siberia."Some even dare to say publicly that it is allegedly unfair that Russia owns the wealth of a region such as Siberia. Only one country does," Putin said, according to Reuters.Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, the news outlet noted, has been cited with making a similar comment, but has denied such claims.The comments from Putin come amid calls for a summit between him and President Biden, as tensions between the two countries have grown.Earlier this month, Biden said he is “confident” that he and Putin can meet in June, even though the details of any face-to-face meetings have not yet been agreed upon. “I'm confident we'll be able to do it. We don't have any specific time or place. That's being worked on,” Biden said.
Tensions will likely grow as China seeks bigger role in the Arctic - China's ambitions to take a more significant role in the Arctic will likely lead to growing tensions, according to risk consultancy firm Control Risks. China has developed a "prominent presence" in the region since joining the Arctic Council as an observer in 2013, Oksana Antonenko, director at Control Risks, told CNBC's "Squawk Box Asia." The Arctic Council is made up of eight Arctic States — Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States. It is an intergovernmental group that seeks to promote cooperation among the Arctic states as well as inhabitants of the Arctic. Their goal is to ensure the Arctic region, which faces harsh climates and extreme weather conditions, is protected and sustainably developed. In 2018, Beijing announced plans to build the "Polar Silk Road" — a network of Arctic shipping routes. It has also previously referred to itself as a "near-Arctic state," a proposition that ignited some controversy. Antonenko said Arctic states are concerned about China "playing a much more assertive role unilaterally." At the same time, Russia — which is facing Western sanctions targeting energy exploration in the Arctic — is getting funding from China. "China is providing investment, and therefore wants to take a much more significant role in allowing … transportation by the northern sea route," she said ahead of the Arctic Council's ministerial meeting on Thursday. "We're likely to see, potentially, growing tensions between China and the littoral states in the Arctic," she said. Alexander Gabuev of the Carnegie Moscow Center said Russia has "expanding interest" in developing large energy projects in the Arctic, but doesn't have the necessary capital. "It sees China as a potential investor and as a potential … market for hydrocarbons," said Gabuev, a senior fellow and chair of the Russia in the Asia-Pacific program. Arctic Council members want China to remain an observer in the group: Expert Despite growing cooperation, Russia doesn't want China to become a full member of the Arctic Council, he said. "Russia worked together with the U.S. and other full members in order to make the observers basically voiceless," he told CNBC's "Street Signs Asia" on Wednesday. "They sit at the table in the Arctic Council, but they don't have real power and I think that this is a shared interest between all of the Arctic powers," he added.
Watch: Communist Professor Declares That US Was Defeated In "Biological War" With China - A professor with close ties to the Communist Chinese Government has declared that his country ‘defeated’ the U.S. in 2020, winning a biological war, and putting America ‘back in it’s place’. The comments were made by Chen Ping, a Senior Researcher at The China Institute of Fudan University, a CCP affiliated think tank, and a professor at Peking University.The video, which appeared online recently, was translated by New York-based Chinese blogger Jennifer Zeng:Zeng writes that the researcher claims “the Western model has failed, the 500-year maritime civilization is doomed, the CCP has won and ‘will lead the way of the modernization in the new era after the biology revolution’ after the 2020 CCPVirus (COVID19) pandemic.”Ping states in the video that “In 2020, China won the trade war, science and technology war, and especially the biological war.”“The achievement is unprecedented. This is an epoch-making historical record,” he continues, adding “So for the liberal, America-worshiping cult within China, their worship of the U.S. is actually unfounded.”“After this trade war and biological warfare, the U.S. was beaten back to its original shape,” Ping emphasised.
Opposition erupts in Japan against the Tokyo Olympics - It has been over a year since Japan proclaimed its first one-month state of emergency back in April 2020. There have been many outbreaks throughout this year as a direct result of the non-existent COVID-19 mitigation measures by the government of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his successor Yoshihide Suga. For the entire year of the global pandemic, the Abe and Suga governments focused on downplaying the pandemic, doing everything in their power to ensure the Summer Tokyo Olympics will be held this year in July. This includes covering up the realities in the country's hospitals. There have been sharp increases in infections in the city of Osaka with a record of 1,262 cases in a single day. Osaka is in a healthcare crisis, with hospitals running over capacity with more than 17,000 COVID patients waiting at home to access care. There are increasing numbers of patients having to wait several hours in an ambulance before they can be admitted into a hospital. The longest wait reported was two whole days. Despite minimal testing, 12,002,383 people have tested positive (around a tenth of the total population) with a positivity rate of 7 percent. Japan’s official cumulative number of deaths from COVID-19 is 11,200 and the number of confirmed cases is at 659,987. However, there is every reason to believe these figures are seriously under reported. Hospital beds are in short supply nationally and the number of COVID-19 patients recuperating at home topped 28,823 as of May 5. Yet Japan still plans to proceed with the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games. Last month, the Tokyo Olympics Organizers requested the Japanese Nursing Association to dispatch 500 nurses as medical staff to assist the Games. This sparked immediate mass opposition among nurses. An online demonstration was initiated with the hashtag ＃看護師の五輪派遣は困ります (meaning “Dispatching nurses to the Olympics games cannot be done”) with more than 250,000 tweets over the course of four days. Tweets included: “We are desperately saving patients and assisting the Olympics Games is out of question”; “If a dispatch is possible they should be dispatched to hospitals”; and “Healthcare should be prioritized over the Olympic Games.” One declared: “This is an emergency, a life-or-death situation. We don’t have enough instructors and we cannot educate newly hired nurses. If we want to prevent nurses from leaving their job, better treatment for the nurses and publicly funded mass PCR tests will be needed.” A physician tweeted: “The first requirement in a hospital is that it should do the sick no harm. The current government is only doing harm to the people”. Another tweet declared: “I am a nurse. When the pandemic started, I was working in the ward and I was terrified not only for myself but also for my family for the risk of exposing them… I would work for hours and hours wearing a protective suit, lightheaded from the heat. Whenever there was an outbreak in the hospital, I would be terrified thinking I could be next and that I could lose my life. I would be full of regret and sorrow for all the patients who passed away. With all my feelings of fear and sorrow, I am doing my best to withstand them. And this is not for the Olympics. Under this situation, there is no way I can support the Olympics. It has been over a year. But it is not ending yet and I do not see the end… What is it that this country is trying to protect? Please choose to protect lives.”
Europe Finally Opens Doors To Vaccinated Tourists As Denmark Leads Reopening Push - Across the EU, borders are reopening to tourists from the US, UK and antipodes as a group of diplomats meeting in Brussels officially signed off on the plan. The European Commission, the unelected committee of bureaucrats that handles most of the bloc's executive policymaking, first got the word out back in April that tourists in wealthy countries who could prove their vaccination status could start booking European vacations again.According to the AFP, the recommendations will be officially adopted by EU ministers on May 21. Until then, non-essential travel to the 27-member bloc will be banned, as it has been since last spring, when the pandemic first emerged from Wuhan.The Commission has agreed to raft a list of approved vaccination certificates, and EU officials will also discuss on Thursday a "white list" of non-EU countries deemed to present a low risk of spreading the disease. The list will be updated based on the epidemiological situation and requires reassessments based on the infection rate every two weeks.Over the past week, more EU members have started to reopen, stoking hope in the European "miracle recovery" narrativethat is helping to sustain many equity bulls in the face of growing skepticism about the Fed's assistance that price pressures will be "transitory". Just yesterday, Denmark announced that it would be the first in the bloc to more or less fully reopen, with everything except nightclubs being allowed to reopen at full capacity as soon as Friday. At that time, it will phase out the use of a domestic vaccination passport. It plans to drop use of facemasks over the summer, according to the FT.Health minister Magnus Heunicke said Denmark was “in a very favourable place” in the pandemic despite a small rise in recent Covid-19 cases, and that its mass testing capabilities and the possibility of local lockdowns enabled it to push ahead with more reopening.
Denmark Begins Exhuming Buried Mink -- Denmark has begun to dig up millions of mink that were culled and buried to stop the spread of a coronavirusmutation.The country culled its entire population of around 17 million mink in November of 2020 after COVID-19 outbreaks erupted on several mink farms and mutations were found in people living nearby, as Reuters reported. While most of the mink were incinerated, around four million were buried in western Denmark, and now there are concerns they could contaminate drinking water and a nearby lake."Once the mink are no longer contaminated with Covid-19, they will be transported to an incineration facility, where they'll be burned as commercial waste," the ministry of food and agriculture announced in December of last year of the decision to exhume the mink, as BBC News reported at the time.The story of Denmark's mink has been troubled from the start, as VICE explained.First, it was revealed that the decision to cull the mink in the first place was illegal, forcing Minister of Agriculture Mogens Jensen to resign.Then, the mink that were buried were not buried deeply enough. This meant that some of the mink began to rise out of the grave like zombies, as some observers described it."As the bodies decay, gases can be formed," national police spokesman Thomas Kristensen explained to the state broadcaster DR in late November, as The Guardian reported. "This causes the whole thing to expand a little. In this way, in the worst cases, the mink get pushed out of the ground."Further, the Danish Environmental Protection Agency calculated that the buried mink would pollute nearby groundwater in two to three years, according to VICE."The disposal of the minks did not go optimally," Minister of Food, Agriculture, and Fisheries Rasmus Prehn told the daily German newspaper Tagesschau, as VICE reported. "Ideally, they would have been incinerated straight away, but we had capacity issues and chose the disposal option instead."The Danish parliament gave permission for the mink to be dug up in December of last year, but they have waited until May to begin, since that is when officials estimated the risk of coronavirus contamination from the corpses would have passed, as BBC News reported at the time. It’s Time to Kick Gas - Bill McKibben -- We’re used to the idea that CO2—one carbon atom, two oxygen atoms—is a dangerous molecule. Indeed, driving down carbon-dioxide emissions has become the way that many leaders and journalists describe our task. But CH4—one carbon atom combined with four hydrogen atoms, otherwise known as methane—is carbon dioxide’s evil twin. It traps heat roughly eighty times more efficiently than carbon dioxide does, which explains why the fact that it’s spiking in the atmosphere scares scientists so much. Despite the pandemic lockdown, 2020 saw the largest single increase in methane in the atmosphere since we started taking measurements, in the nineteen-eighties. It’s a jump that, last month, a scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration called “fairly surprising and disturbing.”
ECB Warns Of "Elevated" Financial Stability Risks Amid "Remarkable Exuberance" -In what some have dubbed a repeat of Greenspan's "irrational exuberance" description of the dot-com bubble in the 1990s, this morning the ECB warned in its Financial Stability Review (in which it used the word "exuberance" at least 8 times), that the euro-area faces "elevated" risks to financial stability as it emerges from the pandemic with high debt burdens and “remarkable exuberance” in markets as bond yields rose. The stark warning, first reported by Bloomberg, sent risk asset reeling and cryptocurrencies tumbling and highlights mounting concerns that the flood of fiscal and monetary stimulus needed to fight the crisis is also building up dangerous imbalances.If more upward surprises in U.S. inflation prompts investors bet on earlier monetary tightening, driving up bond yields without an accompanying improvement in economic growth, “spillovers from U.S. equity market repricing could be substantial,” theECB said.“A 10% correction in U.S. equity markets could therefore lead to a significant tightening of euro-area financial conditions, similar to around a third of the tightening witnessed after the coronavirus shock in March 2020,” the ECB warned said lamenting the trillions in debt added in response to the covid pandemic.The euro zone is vulnerable to such spillovers because, like most countries, it has built up significantly higher debt during the crisis. Rising yields would depress bond prices and weaken balance sheets at the region’s banks -- which have long suffered from feeble profitability. The ECB also said the uneven economic impact of the pandemic means financial stability risks are likely to materialize in sectors and countries with higher pre-existing vulnerabilities. The table below summarizes some of the key risks the ECB sees for financial stability.
Indifferent to the spread of the virus, Macron proceeds with reopening in France - The French government is moving forward with its plans to almost completely end coronavirus restrictions by June 30. It is in acting in response to pressure from financial and business circles to fully resume economic activity to guarantee the continued accumulation of profits amidst a continuing spread of the deadly virus. This reopening is also part of a fierce competition between European countries over creating the most business-friendly environment in the shortest time, ensuring they can profit from the summer tourist season. French President Emmanuel Macron delivers his speech on the Future of Europe and to and to mark Europe Day, at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, eastern France, Sunday, May 9, 2021. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias, Pool) Across Europe, the same policy is underway. At the end of April, bars and restaurants began reopening for outdoor service in Italy, along with cinemas, concert halls and theatres. Tourists from across Europe can now also travel to the country as of the middle of this month. The six-month state of emergency in Spain ended on May 9. In the UK, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is proceeding with plans announced in April to end lockdown measures completely by June 21. In France, as was the case for Macron’s reopening of primary and secondary schools after a short break on April 6 and May 3, the next steps in the reopening of May 19, June 9 and June 30 are fixed and will proceed regardless of the development of the pandemic. On May 19, the nightly curfew will be moved from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., nonessential shops will reopen, and cafés and restaurants will resume outdoor dining. Museums, cinemas, theatres and public monuments will also reopen. Physical activities, both indoor and outdoor, will be allowed again, except for contact sports. On June 9, the curfew will be pushed back to 11:00 p.m. Restaurants will reopen completely. Contact sports will resume outdoors. Large events (such as trade fairs) will be allowed again, and the recourse to online working from home will be restricted. After June 30, only nightclubs will remain closed, and only the compulsory wearing of masks and some other social distancing protocols will remain.
Spain sends troops to border after thousands of migrants swim into Ceuta from Morocco A sudden influx of migrants swimming into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in northern Africa is a serious crisis for Europe, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Tuesday, vowing to re-establish order promptly amid heightened diplomatic tensions with Morocco. Spain deployed troops to Ceuta to patrol the border with Morocco after around 8,000 migrants, many from Sub-Saharan Africa and including some 1,500 minors, entered the enclave on Monday and Tuesday by swimming in or climbing over the fence. Armoured vehicles were guarding Ceuta‘s beach on Tuesday, and soldiers and police used batons to clear migrants from the beach and threw smoke bombs to discourage others from crossing. A Reuters reporter on the ground said the number of arrivals by sea had slowed, and some migrants were voluntarily returning to Morocco. A few others could be seen being carried away by soldiers, but dozens still waded in the water towards Ceuta. One associate at the Emergent BioSolutions plant documented just one shower in 19 days of work, the FDA's report said. Spain said around 4,000 migrants had already been sent back to Morocco, under a readmission deal. ADVERTISING The regional leader of Ceuta criticised what he described as Morocco‘s passivity in the face of Monday’s surge, and some independent experts said Rabat had initially allowed it as a means of pressuring Madrid over its decision to admit a rebel leader from the Western Sahara to a Spanish hospital. The Spanish government did not make that connection, with Sanchez calling the north African nation a friend of Spain and the interior ministry citing cooperation over the readmissions, although Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya told Morocco‘s ambassador Spain rejected and disapproved of the mass arrivals.
Teachers’ union supports return to regular operations at schools and nurseries in Germany - In recent weeks, several federal states have already reopened schools and nurseries on a larger scale. Now, in connection with the general offensive to open up the economy, the complete return to regular operations is being prepared. In Germany’s most populous federal state North Rhine-Westphalia, schools are to switch to fully in-person teaching from May 31. In Schleswig-Holstein, all grades are again being taught face-to-face in almost all districts and towns in the state as of this week. In Bavaria, according to state Premier President Markus Söder (Christian Social Union, CSU), the “vast majority of pupils” should be back at school after the Whitsun holidays. The same goal is being pursued by the state government in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania led by state Premier Manuela Schwesig (Social Democratic Party, SPD). In all other federal states, including Thuringia, which is led by the Left Party, school and nursery reopenings are also being pushed forward. The fact that the federal and state governments are taking this step despite the still high incidence of infections, thus endangering the health and lives of millions of children, parents and educators, has exclusively economic reasons. Beyond seemingly endless demagogic reports about the psychological suffering, the endangerment of children’s well-being in the lockdown and studies about supposedly “safe schools” in the pandemic, the decision-makers are primarily concerned with freeing up parents to work. Like last year, the Education and Science Union (GEW) is playing a key role in pushing through the “profits before lives” policy in the face of enormous resistance among students, educators and parents. On Thursday, GEW national chair Marlis Tepe told the ZDF morning show, “We are in favour of opening schools as quickly as possible, depending on the incidence level.” Within a “range of 50 to 100” per 100,000, the GEW pleads “to stay with alternating teaching methods. If it then goes down, then you can go to face-to-face teaching.” Tepe had already backed the move to in-person teaching with the slogan, “Whoever opens, must vaccinate.” The early vaccination of all teachers meant “the health protection of teachers, pupils and their parents could be secured,” she claimed.
Germany to Ban Most Travel from U.K. Over Covid Variant Concerns - The New York Times - Germany is banning most travel from Britain starting on Sunday amid concerns about the spread of a coronavirus variant first discovered in India, the German authorities said on Friday.German citizens and residents of Germany will still be allowed to enter the country from Britain but will be required to self-isolate for two weeks upon arrival, Germany’s public health institution said as it classified Britain as an area of concern because of the variant.The move came just days after Britain reopened its museums and cinemas and resumed allowing indoor service in pubs and restaurants. Many people in Britain have been looking forward to traveling abroad in the coming months, and Spain is set to welcome visitors arriving from Britain without a coronavirus test starting on Monday. The spread in Britain of the variant first detected in India, known as B.1.617, could serve as an early warning for other European countries that have relaxed restrictions. This month, the World Health Organization declared the mutation a “variant of concern,” and although scientists’ knowledge about it remains limited, it is believed to be more transmissible than the virus’s initial form.Brazil, India and South Africa are among the dozen or so other countries that Germany considers areas of concern because of variants. As of Thursday, Britain had 3,424 cases of the variant first discovered in India, according to government data, up from 1,313 cases the previous week.Dozens of nations, including European countries and the United States, suspended travel from Britain or imposed strict restrictions earlier in the pandemic amid concerns about the spread of a variant first detected in England.Britain’s Office for National Statistics said on Friday that the percentage of people testing positive for the coronavirus in England had showed “early signs of a potential increase” in the week ending May 15, although it said rates remained low compared with earlier this year. At its peak in late December, Britain recorded more than active 81,000 cases, compared with about 2,000 this month. The country’s inoculation campaign is continuing apace, with an increased focus on second doses in an effort to thwart the sort of spikes that led to restrictions imposed earlier this year. More than 37 million people have received a first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine in Britain — 56 percent of the population. Yet most people under 30 have yet to receive a dose, and less than a third of the population has been fully vaccinated. Health Minister Matt Hancock said on Saturday that people over 32 could now book an appointment.Prime Minister Boris Johnson has vowed to proceed with a plan to lift all restrictions by June 21, although scientists have warned that the spread of the B.1.617 variant could delay such plans. Most cases of the variant have been found in northwestern England, with some in London.In Germany, the restrictions on travel from Britain come as outdoor service resumed on Friday in cafes, restaurants and beer gardens after months of closure. Chancellor Angela Merkel urged people to “treat these opportunities very responsibly.”“The virus,” she said, “has not disappeared.”
Anger mounts at UK government proposal to halve arts education subsidy --More than 160,000 in Britain have signed a petition against proposed cuts to funding of arts subjects. There has been widespread anger at the Conservative government’s call to halve its subsidy support for “courses that are not among its strategic priorities—covering subjects in music, dance, drama and performing arts; art and design; media studies; and archaeology.” This is deepening of the wholesale attack on arts education and cultural provision, that will deny larger sections of working class youth access to the field. The government is proposing a cut to the student subsidy support available from the Office for Students (OfS). Part of the £1.47 billion teaching budget, this helps institutions to fund teaching in high-cost subjects on top of tuition fees. The proposal would cut the subsidy for an individual student in the affected courses from £243 to £121.50. The government launched an OfS “consultation” on the proposal. The OfS made clear the nature of this consultation, stating that it was “not consulting on the total amount of funding available for distribution,” as this is predetermined by the government’s grant. The consultation only “seeks views” on “a statutory guidance letter… which sets out the funds available… and the related funding policies and priorities that [the government] wishes us to implement.” The exercise was to channel anger at the cuts in order to then implement the government’s proposals. These were laid out clearly in the statutory guidance letter, which proposed an increase to high-cost subject funding “for subjects identified as supporting the NHS [National Health Service] and wider healthcare policy, high-cost science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects and/or specific labour market needs.” This would be offset by “A reduction by half to high-cost subject funding for other price group C1 subjects—that is, for courses in performing and creative arts, media studies and archaeology.” The OfS sought to downplay the impact of the cuts, telling the Guardian that they “relate to a small fraction of how these courses are funded, equating to a reduction of… 1 percent of overall funding.” The spokesperson insisted again that the OfS “has a fixed funding budget that is set by government,” while pointing to a government commitment to deepen these cuts. The “difficult decisions about how to prioritise our increasingly constrained budget” were based on the understanding that it “will have to stretch further in the coming years.” This was laid out by Education Secretary Gavin Williamson in his statutory guidance letter, where he wrote, “The OfS should reprioritise funding towards the provision of high-cost, high-value subjects… We would then potentially seek further reductions in future years.
Post-Brexit interchange fee plan prompts outcry from U.K. merchants -Visa and Mastercard's proposal to raise scheme fees and U.K. interchange rates on cross-border transactions post-Brexit has increased pressure on regulators to cap them, and on merchants to seek alternatives. Before Brexit, U.K. merchants benefited from a European Commission-enforced cap on credit and debit card interchange fees for all transactions made between the U.K. and the EU. This no longer applies. Starting in October, Visa plans to increase the interchange fee on digital payments made between European customers and British businesses from 0.3% to 1.5%, as well as vice versa, while the interchange fee for cross-border debit card payments made online will also rise from 0.2% to 1.15%. Mastercard is planning to implement the same fee increases, but only for online card payments made between British customers and European merchants. Visa and Mastercard representatives told PaymentsSource that raising interchange fees on domestic-only transactions would not be possible, because they are capped by U.K. regulators. They also note that they do not directly benefit from increases in interchange, as these fees go to the issuing banks. However, the card networks are also planning to increase their scheme fees — fees paid on each transaction which go to the card brand, while the interchange fees go to the acquiring bank — on cross-border payments in 2022. Industry experts say that this represents a substantial part of their business model. “Interregional transactions are by far the most profitable for the card schemes,” said Mark Falcon, a former director of policy and strategy at the U.K.'s Payment Systems Regulator, who now runs payments consultancy Zephyre. “You can see that from their financial data, they make a third of their profits from interregional, which is the combination of the scheme fees and the foreign currency fees as well. Even though interregional is only a few percent of transactions in terms of volumes, it's extremely high profit in terms of revenue.” According to Visa and Mastercard, the scheme fee increases are needed to fund the various fraud prevention mechanisms which are an integral part of the e-commerce environment. But the proposed fees may prompt the Payments System Regulator and government officials to intervene. The British Retail Consortium's head of finance policy, Andrew Cregan, is pushing for regulators to abolish interchange fees altogether. “It's within the power of the PSR to set interchange fees at zero if they wish; nothing would need to change in legislation,” he said. The trade group also wants the card networks’ scheme fees to be capped.
No comments:
Post a Comment