As Fed shifts gears, shaping consensus gets trickier for Powell - In his nearly six years on the Federal Reserve’s board of governors before becoming its chair, Jerome Powell never once cast a dissenting vote on monetary policy. That doesn’t mean he always agreed. His concerns about the U.S. central bank’s continued asset purchases after the 2007-2009 recession, which were shared by two other Fed governors, helped force a policy turn in 2013 that compelled it to start reducing its massive holdings of bonds despite then-Chair Ben Bernanke’s misgivings. Now it is Powell, the Fed chief since 2018, who is feeling the heat and, like Bernanke, has to try and shape consensus as policymakers approach yet another critical turning point: when and how to start withdrawing the extraordinary stimulus they put in place to shield the economy from the COVID-19 pandemic. In recent days, a steady drumbeat of Fed officials have offered competing timelines about when to start tapering the Fed’s $120 billion in monthly purchases of Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities amid surging inflation and strong job gains. Discord among the core group of the Federal Open Market Committee’s permanent voting members, who are typically more reticent to voice firm views, has also sprung out into public, a sure sign of intense debate behind closed doors. For his part, Powell, has said the Fed is “a ways off” from meeting the “substantial further progress” threshold that was to set in motion the start of the bond-buying taper. He has also repeatedly said he thinks high inflation readings are temporary. Data on Wednesday showed U.S. consumer price gains slowed in July even as they remained at a 13-year high on a yearly basis amid tentative signs inflation has peaked. The Fed has long been a “consensus” body which derives much of its credibility from policy actions that for decades have been overwhelmingly backed by voting members. Formal dissents occur — three regional Fed presidents dissented in 2019 — but in the last quarter of a century only two Fed governors have done so. The last time was in 2005. Still, even “the threat of dissent is powerful,” said Narayana Kocherlakota, a University of Rochester economics professor who dissented a number of times while he was president of the Minneapolis Fed from 2009 to 2015. “If you were a voter, there was an attempt made to stretch what the committee was putting together in order for everybody to go along with it ... the chairs I worked under preferred not to have dissents.”
The Fed Just Published 36 Years of Its Money Data. It Shows a Spike in Repo Loans Is an Early Warning of an Impending Market Crash - Pam Martens - On July 29 the Federal Reserve released its Annual Report for 2020. The Appendix contains 13 statistical tables that would make most folks’ eyes glaze over. Table G.5A., however, provides a 36-year history of, among other things, the Fed’s deployment of Repurchase Agreements (Repo Loans) at the outbreak of a crisis; its Loans and Other Credit Extensions; and its Securities Held Outright – which have exploded since the Fed adopted Quantitative Easing (QE) in 2008. QE is the Fed’s wonky expression for it buying up trillions of dollars in notes and bonds to push interest rates down to near zero, thus forcing money in search of a return into the stock market, which is majority-owned by the top 10 percent of the wealthiest Americans. In other words, QE is a wealth transfer system in drag as monetary policy.To keep our analysis of Table G.5A. as clear as possible, we’ve extracted in the charts below the first three columns of the table. Notice that Repurchase Agreements (Repo Loans) exploded from $30.37 billion at the end of 1998 to $140.64 billion at the end of 1999 – an increase of 363 percent in one year.Now, this is the epiphany moment: year end 1999 was just 70 days away from the start of the Dot.com bust. The Nasdaq stock market would set a closing high of 5,048.62 on March 10, 2000. The Nasdaq then proceeded to lose 78 percent of its value over the next 2-1/2 years. Nasdaq reached a closing low of 1,114.11 on October 9, 2002.If you were wise to the siren sound of the spike in Repo Loans at the Fed, you could have escaped that 4,000 points of carnage. But, of course, this single occurrence does not make a fool-proof case. So, next we looked at the explosion in Repurchase Agreements (Repo Loans) from the end of 2007 to the end of 2008. They went from $46.5 billion to $80 billion – an increase of 72 percent. But, remember, by year end 2008 the Fed had moved from bailing out Wall Street with Repo Loans to pumping out money through an alphabet soup of emergency lending operations. So, you have to also look at the third column, “Loans and other credit extensions.” That exploded from $72.6 billion at the end of 2007 to $1.6 trillion (yes, trillion) at the end of 2008. (You can see the actual breakdown of those emergency lending facilities on the Fed’s H.4.1 balance sheet for Wednesday, December 24, 2008 here.)The Wall Street crash of 2008 was the worst financial calamity the U.S. had experienced since the Great Depression of the 1930s. It left millions of Americans jobless and unable to pay their mortgage, which resulted in millions of foreclosures. The crisis resulted from the Fed and other regulators’ failures to rein in unprecedented corruption at the banks. Unrepentant Wall Street bankers used billions of dollars of the bailout funds to pay themselves million dollar bonuses.
Climate movement keeping close eye on Biden Fed chair nomination --Climate activists are starting to map out a coordinated campaign to oppose the potential renomination of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, because they view his record on fighting climate change through the banking system as scant and not aggressive enough.The campaign will kick off Aug. 26 at the start of the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium, a gathering of Federal Reserve and economic officials. Through demonstrations on the road from the airport and at the entrance to the lodge where the conference is held, the activists want to nudge President Biden to appoint someone new to lead the Federal Reserve. They want Biden to pick a chairman who views climate policy as significant as monetary policy and maximum employment.
GDP at (Covid) Risk? – and State and Behavioral Response --Menzie Chinn - As of last week, GDP originating in counties with rising death rates accounts for 60% of total; still below the 80% recorded in the Winter. Source: Deutsche Bank, Covid Tracker, 5 August 2021. Source: Deutsche Bank, Covid Tracker, 5 August 2021. These are results based on reported data as of 4 August. It is unclear what the economic implications of high Covid death rates would be. If state authorities impose public health measures such as restricting indoor business activity, then one might see a decline in high contact service related activity and hence output. However, reaction functions vary widely across states. For instance, we can see hospitalization rates rising above peak in Florida, and yet there is no evidence of a state government response. Hence, there may be no short run impact on activity (although risk averse behavior might come into play, reducing economic activity nonetheless). Source: Newnodes, accessed 8/9/2021.(The above regards short-run implications. Obviously, with a sufficiently high death/incapacitation rate, hours worked might decline measurably in the longer term, as suggested in some models.).More on Florida from several days ago (the situation is changing fast) here.
Early Q3 GDP Forecasts: Around 6% to 7% with "Significant downside risk" --From BofA: We look for growth of 7.0% qoq SAAR in 3Q ... We forecast retail sales fell by 2.3% mom in July, reflecting cooling service demand on Delta concerns and weaker online spend from the pull forward in the timing of Prime day. This poses significant downside risk to our 3Q GDP forecast; if we are correct, 3Q GDP tracking could fall to 3%. [August 13 estimate] From the NY Fed Nowcasting Report: The New York Fed Staff Nowcast stands at 3.8% for 2021:Q3. [August 13 estimate] And from the Altanta Fed: GDPNow: The GDPNow model estimate for real GDP growth (seasonally adjusted annual rate) in the third quarter of 2021 is 6.0 percent on August 6, down from 6.1 percent on August 5. [August 6 estimate]
Seven High Frequency Indicators for the Economy --These indicators are mostly for travel and entertainment. The TSA is providing daily travel numbers.This data is as of August 8th. This data shows the 7-day average of daily total traveler throughput from the TSA for 2019 (Light Blue), 2020 (Blue) and 2021 (Red). The 7-day average is down 21.7% from the same day in 2019 (78.3% of 2019). (Dashed line) There was a slow increase from the bottom starting in May 2020 - and then TSA data picked up in 2021 - but the dashed line has mostly sideways over the last six weeks. 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 August 7, 2021. Since some restaurants have not reopened, the actual year-over-year decline is worse than shown. Dining picked up during the holidays, then slumped with the huge winter surge in cases. Dining was generally picking up, but has moved sideways or down recently. The 7-day average for the US is down 9% compared to 2019. 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 August 5th. Movie ticket sales were at $119 million last week, down about 47% from the median for the week. This graph shows the seasonal pattern for the hotel occupancy rate using the four week average. Occupancy is well above the horrible 2009 levels. With solid leisure travel, the Summer months have had decent occupancy - but it is uncertain what will happen in the Fall with business travel. This data is through July 31st. The occupancy rate is down 6.2% compared to the same week in 2019. Note: Occupancy was up year-over-year, since occupancy declined sharply at the onset of the pandemic. 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 July 30th, gasoline supplied was up 1.3% compared to the same week in 2019. This is the 4th week so far this year when gasoline supplied was up compared to the same week in 2019.
Yields Plunge After Strongest 10Y Auction On Record -After yesterday's solid 3Y auction, we speculated that demand for today's benchmark 10Y refunding auction would depend completely on today's CPI print. Well, after the first CPI miss since February earlier today, it was full speed ahead and nowhere was that more obvious than in the just concluded sale of $41 billion in 10Y paper which may have been the strongest 10Y auction in years, if not history.Starting at the top, the high yield of 1.34% was a stunner because the 10Y When Issued was trading at 1.372% just moments before the auction suggesting a burst of demand into the 1pm deadline. This was the biggest stop through in our record which goes back some 7 years, cementing just how furious demand for today's auction was.The Bid to Cover surged from 2.39 to 2.65 which was the highest since May 2020; naturally it was far above the six-auction average of 2.42. But it was the internals that were the biggest surprise because with Indirects taking down 77.2%, this was the highest award to foreign buyers on record! And with Indirects taking an all time high, while Directs were more or less in line at 13.1%, down from 17.5% last month, Dealers were left with a record low award, taking down just 9.6%, the lowest on record.
Biden's infrastructure bill on cruise control to Senate passage - President Joe Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure deal cleared its final serious Senate hurdle Sunday night, putting the legislation on a glide path to passage as soon as late Monday. In a 68-29 vote, the Senate closed down debate on a bill negotiated by a bipartisan group of 10 senators that spends $550 billion in new money on the nation’s physical infrastructure. Sunday’s vote came after senators spent the weekend haggling over amendments and time agreements to consider them. Final passage of the legislation is expected late Monday night, or the wee hours of Tuesday at the latest, unless a deal is reached among all 100 senators to speed it up. A 50-hour budget debate and an unlimited "vote-a-rama" on nonbinding but politically symbolic topics will follow immediately after. "We will move forward to wrap this up as expeditiously as possible, and then move on to the budget resolution," said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer after the vote. "The two-track process is moving along. It's been a process that has been a very good process. It's taken a while, but it's going to be worth it." A total of 18 Senate Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, joined all 50 Senate Democrats to advance the physical infrastructure bill. Sens. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) supported ending debate, after previously voting against moving forward. Meanwhile, Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), who is up for reelection in 2022, announced he would oppose the bill, citing concerns about the national debt. Young was part of a larger group of 20 senators that supported the bipartisan infrastructure talks. Prior to the vote Sunday evening, senators spent the weekend trying to negotiate amendments changing the infrastructure bill’s cryptocurrency regulations and allowing coronavirus aid money to be spent on infrastructure. But they did not reach an agreement. Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) said Saturday that he would not allow the infrastructure bill to pass more quickly, dampening the Democratic majority’s enthusiasm for allowing the GOP to have more amendment votes. The Senate has considered more than 20 amendments to the bill thus far, but attempts to vote on two dozen more fell apart on Thursday night after Hagerty refused to expedite the bill as a condition of the deal. Hagerty on Sunday afternoon attempted to bring up 17 amendments by unanimous consent, but Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) objected, citing his refusal to come to a time agreement and potential objections from other senators. Other GOP senators also tried unsuccessfully on Sunday to bring up their own amendments. “We have wasted all day Thursday, Saturday and now through Sunday,” said an exasperated Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). “That’s enough time to vote on a multitude of amendments, and we just sat around those three days, accomplishing nothing.” Grassley voted against ending debate Sunday, citing his complaints about the amendment process. However, he told reporters after that he'd still support final passage. The infrastructure bill could theoretically be amended after Sunday’s vote. But that would require cooperation from all 100 senators, making the prospects unlikely.
Senators reach bipartisan deal on cryptocurrency amendment - Republican Sens. Pat Toomey (Pa.) and Cynthia Lummis (Wyo.) said an amendment to the infrastructure bill that would redefine who falls subject to cryptocurrency regulation requirements will be brought for a unanimous consent vote on Monday afternoon after a group of bipartisan senators and the Treasury Department came to an agreement. The amendment, which will be co-sponsored by Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), seeks to amend the definition of a “broker” in the underlying infrastructure bill in a way that would keep software developers and transaction validators from being subject to the new reporting requirements. Notably, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who was a leading force in the charge to amend the definition, is not sponsoring the amendment. Wyden signaled he would not oppose the amendment, tweeting that it is “certainly better than the underlying bill.” “We’ve been working hard to get a deal. I don’t believe the cryptocurrency amendment language on offer is good enough to protect privacy and security, but it’s certainly better than the underlying bill. Majority Leader [Charles] Schumer [D-N.Y.] says he won’t block a unanimous consent request on it,” Wyden tweeted shortly before the deal was announced. Toomey said senators will put forward the amendment this afternoon. It would take just one senator to block a vote on the compromised amendment, leaving the underlying infrastructure bill with the language fiercely opposed by the cryptocurrency industry based on arguments that it would call for developers and so-called miners to report information to tax collectors that they don’t have access to. Wyden had put forward an amendment last week with Toomey and Lummis with broader exemptions laid out to limit who would be subject to the reporting requirements. The amendment pitted the Democratic finance chair against the Biden administration. The administration chose to back a competing bill that Warner, Portman and Sinema proposed with more narrow cryptocurrency regulation exemptions. “While we each would have drafted this solution differently, we all agree it’s important to ensure that these obligations are properly crafted to apply only to entities that are regularly effectuating transactions of digital assets in exchange for consideration. To best memorialize this common understanding, we propose to incorporate this important amendment into the infrastructure bill and urge our colleagues to join us in enacting this bipartisan clarification,” Toomey, Warner Lummis, Sinema and Portman said in a joint statement.
Democrats leave out debt ceiling hike from budget for $3.5T spending plan - Senate Democrats on Monday unveiled a budget blueprint that paves the way for a massive spending plan they want to pass without GOP support later this year. The budget resolution, which includes instructions for how to draft the $3.5 trillion bill, does not include an increase to the debt ceiling. Democrats can pass the budget resolution and the spending plan on their own if all 50 of their members stay unified, under a process known as reconciliation. Republicans, bristling at the spending package, have warned that they won't put up the 10 GOP votes needed to raise the debt ceiling outside of the budget process. Though the budget resolution can still be changed, the Democratic plan to leave it out paves the way for a massive fight this fall over the nation's borrowing limit. Democrats want to pass the budget resolution this week, after the Senate wraps up its work on a roughly $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package. Senate committees will then have until mid-September to write their parts of the $3.5 trillion bill, in what is expected to be a weeks-long haggling session to try to lock down support from all 50 Democrats. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a letter to his caucus that the budget resolution was a starting point for the negotiations among Democrats over the spending package. "Please remember that the resolution only includes 'top-line' reconciliation instructions to the committees, and that every Senator will have opportunities to shape and influence the final reconciliation bill after adoption of the Budget Resolution," Schumer wrote to the caucus. He added that the budget resolution "provides a target date of September 15th to the committees to submit their reconciliation legislation. We will work towards this goal and meet, as a caucus, during the week of the 15th to review the bill." The budget resolution includes instructions for 12 Senate committees to have a hand in drafting the $3.5 trillion spending plan. It also greenlights Democrats to include a slew of major priorities in their spending package later this fall including universal pre-K for 3- and 4-year-olds, expanding Medicare, providing "lawful permanent status for qualified immigrants" and clean energy technology. The details of the spending plan are expected to go through weeks of intense negotiations among Democrats as Schumer tries to work to lock down support from every member of his caucus. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) has raised concerns about the price tag and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) has sent warning signs over the debt. But any attempt to go smaller would likely spark fierce pushback from progressives in both chambers.
McConnell doubles down on debt ceiling fight - - Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) doubled down Monday on his warning that Republicans won’t help raise the debt ceiling as Democrats appear poised to exclude it from a spending package they can pass along party lines. “Here’s the comedy, they won’t let Republicans have any say in this monstrosity but they want our help raising their credit card to make it happen,” McConnell said, referring to Democrats’ plans to pass a $3.5 trillion spending package. “Democrats want Republicans to help them raise the debt limit so they can keep spending historic sums of money with zero Republican input and zero Republican votes,” he added. Congress and the Trump administration agreed to suspend the debt ceiling in 2019. The borrowing limit then kicked back in earlier this month, with the Treasury Department using “extraordinary measures” to help keep the government solvent. But they’re expected to need to formally raise, or suspend, the debt ceiling later this year. Republicans, bristling over the Democratic spending package, have been pushing Democrats to include it in a massive spending package they will try to pass without GOP votes under a process known as reconciliation. But Democrats released a budget resolution on Monday that includes instructions for drafting the spending package that did not include language paving the way for including a debt ceiling hike. That means Democrats will need GOP support in order to raise the debt ceiling. To raise it outside of the budget process, they will need at least 10 Republican votes. Democrats could also try to attach it to a must-pass bill, like a government funding measure, to try to jam Republicans into voting for it.
Senate budget resolution includes Interior funding after Democratic urging - The budget reconciliation framework released Monday by the Senate’s Democratic majority includes more than $200 billion for energy and environmental policy items, including funding for Interior Department programs Democrats were concerned could be excluded. Under the framework described in a Dear Colleague letter Monday, the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources would receive the instruction of $198 billion. This includes funding for a clean electricity payment program, as well as the addition of Department of Interior programs to the framework. The potential exclusion of Interior programs from the framework had been a major bone of contention, with both activists and congressional Democrats urging Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) to ensure those funds were included in the framework. In a letter Friday, 13 Democratic senators representing western states called it “imperative” that the reconciliation process include major Interior and U.S. Forest Service programs. “Without that funding it will appear the American West, and the millions of people who call it home, have been abandoned at a time when the rest of the country is seeing generational investments in their future,” they wrote. In a separate letter, Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee wrote that "We cannot claim to be taking climate change seriously if our budget does not invest in Interior Department programs aimed at mitigation and resiliency." Separately, the framework includes $67 billion for the Environment and Public Works Committee, including funds for Environmental Protection Agency climate and research programs, federal funding for energy-efficient buildings and a fee for methane polluters to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It also includes $726 billion for the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, including funding for a Civilian Climate Corps, which has been a major agenda item for both environmental advocates and the White House. The resolution separately includes funding for climate-related transportation initiatives such as clean energy, manufacturing and transportation tax incentives under the umbrella of Finance Committee funding. The reconciliation process allows measures to pass the 50-50 Senate with a simple majority. The Senate has reached a separate bipartisan infrastructure agreement, which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has said the House will only take up alongside a reconciliation package.
Senate Passes $1 Trillion Infrastructure Bill - — The Senate gave overwhelming bipartisan approval on Tuesday to a $1 trillion infrastructure bill to rebuild the nation’s deteriorating roads and bridges and fund new climate resilience and broadband initiatives, delivering a key component of President Biden’s agenda. The vote, 69 to 30, was uncommonly bipartisan. The yes votes included Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, and 18 others from his party who shrugged off increasingly shrill efforts by former President Donald J. Trump to derail it. “This historic investment in infrastructure is what I believe you, the American people, want, what you’ve been asking for for a long, long time,” Mr. Biden said from the White House as he thanked Republicans for showing “a lot of courage.” Mr. McConnell, who publicly declared that his priority was stopping the Biden agenda, said in a statement that “I was proud to support today’s historic bipartisan infrastructure deal and prove that both sides of the political aisle can still come together around common-sense solutions.” The measure faces a potentially rocky and time-consuming path in the House, where Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a majority of the nearly 100-member Progressive Caucus have said they will not vote on it unless and until the Senate passes a separate, even more ambitious $3.5 trillion social policy bill this fall. That could put the infrastructure bill on hold for weeks, if not months. The legislation is, no doubt, substantial on its own. It would be the largest infusion of federal investment into infrastructure projects in more than a decade, touching nearly every facet of the American economy and fortifying the nation’s response to the warming of the planet. Funding for the modernization of the nation’s power grid would reach record levels, as would projects to better manage climate risks. Hundreds of billions of dollars would go to repairing and replacing aging public works projects. With $550 billion in new federal spending, the measure would provide $65 billion to expand high-speed internet access; $110 billion for roads, bridges and other projects; $25 billion for airports; and the most funding for Amtrak since the passenger rail service was founded in 1971. It would also renew and revamp existing infrastructure and transportation programs set to expire at the end of September. Its success, painstakingly negotiated largely by a group of Republican and Democratic senators in consultation with White House officials, is a vindication of Mr. Biden’s belief that a bipartisan compromise was possible on a priority that has long been shared by both parties — even at a moment of deep political division. “This is what it looks like when elected leaders take a step toward healing our country’s divisions rather than feeding those very divisions,” Senator Kyrsten Sinema, Democrat of Arizona and a key negotiator, said before the bill’s passage. Senator Rob Portman, Republican of Ohio, said that “everyone involved in this effort can be proud of what this body is achieving today — the Senate is doing its job.” With a bipartisan victory pocketed, Democrats turned immediately to a more partisan venture, a second social policy package that would fulfill the remainder of their spending priorities. The Senate’s $3.5 trillion social policy budget, which is expected to pass along party lines late Tuesday or early Wednesday, will allow Senate committees to draft legislation packed with policies to address climate change, health, education, and paid family and medical leave, and pass it over the threat of a filibuster. It will also include tax increases — and is expected to generate unanimous Republican opposition.
Five things you didn't know were in the infrastructure bill - The Senate's massive $1.2 trillion infrastructure package marked a big bipartisan achievement after months of negotiations.The legislation, which still needs to be passed by the House, would provide $550 billion in new federal spending over five years.The new investments would reach far beyond the traditional infrastructure projects for roads, bridges and railroads. There's also money to improve Americans' access to broadband, for electric school buses and to start addressing racial discrimination in infrastructure. The bill would also change the tax reporting requirements for cryptocurrencies and delay a controversial drug rebate rule -- both included as ways to help pay for the investments. Still, the bill leaves out a number of other nontraditional infrastructure investments that President Joe Biden had called for. His original $2.25 trillion proposal, known as the American Jobs Plan, included money for caregiving for aging Americans and for workforce training -- provisions that Republicans argued did not belong in an infrastructure bill. The bipartisan bill also does not include corporate tax hikes, like Biden first proposed to pay for the spending. Instead, lawmakers found other ways to help cover the cost, like imposing new Superfund fees and repurposing some Covid relief funds approved by Congress during the pandemic. But an estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that those provisions would not completely pay for the bill and the legislation would add $256 billion to the federal budget deficit over 10 years. Despite that analysis, the bill's authors say the new spending would be offset by a combination of savings and new revenue that total $519 billion, only some of which is reflected in the CBO score since the agency is limited in what it can include in its formal report. Here are five things in the bill that might surprise you:
- 1. Broadband upgrade. The legislation would provide a $65 billion investment in improving the nation's broadband infrastructure, according to the bill text. It's a smaller investment than the $100 billion Biden initially wanted. The legislation aims to help lower the price households pay for internet service by requiring federal funding recipients to offer low-cost affordable plans, by creating price transparency and by boosting competition in areas where existing providers aren't providing adequate service. It would create a permanent federal program to help more low-income households access the internet, according to the White House.
- 2. Electric school buses. The bill makes a big investment in electric vehicles and the infrastructure needed to use them. It would help school districts across the country buy clean, American-made, zero-emission buses, aiming to replace the yellow school bus fleet by providing $5 billion for zero-emission and clean buses and $2.5 billion for ferries. The bill would invest $7.5 billion to build a nationwide network of plug-in electric vehicle chargers along highways to enable long-distance travel, as well as within communities where people live, work and shop.
- 3. Addressing racial discrimination in infrastructure. The legislation contains $1 billion to reconnect communities, disproportionately Black neighborhoods, that were divided by highways and other infrastructure, according to the White House. It would fund planning, design, demolition and reconstruction of street grids, parks or other infrastructure.Many Black homes, businesses and neighborhoods across the country were bulldozed in the 1950s and 1960s to clear space for interstate highways, displacing many residents and entrepreneurs and cutting others off from the rest of the community.
- 4. New tax regulations on cryptocurrencies. A provision tucked away at the end of the Senate bill would impose new tax reporting requirements on cryptocurrency transactions -- a move that congressional estimates say could raise $28 billion in new revenue to help pay for the infrastructure package. The legislation could have sweeping ramifications for cryptocurrency investors and innovators. The provision appears aimed at cryptocurrency exchanges that help investors trade bitcoin and other virtual currencies. But opponents argue that the measure is written so broadly it could also unintentionally affect others in the cryptocurrency ecosystem -- from software developers to bitcoin miners, who aren't considered financial brokers in any practical sense. Industry advocates have said those non-brokers couldn't provide the tax information that would be required under the law and could be driven overseas as a result, with negative effects on innovation and US technological leadership.
- 5. Delaying a drug rebate rule. To help pay for the infrastructure spending, the legislation would delay the implementation of acontroversial Trump administration rule that would radically change how drugs are priced and paid for in Medicare and Medicaid. It's expected to save $51 billion. The rule, which the Trump administration unveiled last November, would effectively ban drug makers from providing rebates to pharmacy benefit managers and insurers. Instead, drug companies would be encouraged to pass the discounts directly to patients at the pharmacy counter. The Trump administration had backed down from issuing this rule in 2019 after it was found to raise costs for seniors and the federal government. The proposed rule, which was expected to raise Medicare premiums, would also have increased Medicare spending by $170 billion over 10 years, according to the CBO.
U.S. Senate pivots to $3.5 trillion bill, key to Biden's agenda --– The Democratic-controlled US Senate on Tuesday passed a massive infrastructure bill and immediately debated a $3.5 trillion spending blueprint for President Joe Biden’s key priorities on climate change, universal preschools and affordable housing. started. Here the bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure bill, passed by the 100-member chamber in a 69-30 vote, could provide the nation’s biggest investment in decades in roads, bridges, airports and waterways. With a small majority in the Senate, Democrats here increasingly turned to a budget proposal directed at spending for a multi-trillion dollar follow-up package. They plan to push the package forward over the next few months using a process called “budget reconciliation,” which bypasses the chamber’s usual rules requiring 60 votes to pass most laws. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi has repeatedly said that her chamber will not take up the infrastructure bill or the spending package until both are delivered, requiring the Democratic leadership to bring legislation to Biden’s table. This would require holding together its narrow majority in Congress. “Today we’re taking this country in a very different direction” with a budget plan that will ask “the wealthiest people in our country to start paying their fair share of taxes,” said Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, one of the Senate’s most liberal members, said Tuesday as the debate began. Senator Lindsey Graham, the top Republican on the budget committee, said against the spending plan, it would fuel inflation, inflict higher taxes and energy costs on working Americans, and open the border to more illegal immigration. “In 2022, that idea will be on the ballot, and my goal and my Republican allies’ is to fight like hell,” Graham said, referring to next year’s contests that will determine Congress’s control. The Senate on Tuesday launched a “vote-a-rama,” a process that gives senators the opportunity to propose amendments to the budget proposal. The debate can go on for days unless party leaders agree to a shorter duration. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Democrat, said if the Senate passes it, the House will return on Aug. 23 to consider the budget proposal.
Senate OKs $3.5T budget plan after energy, enviro debates - The Senate early this morning adopted a $3.5 trillion budget framework that sets the stage for congressional Democrats to pass sweeping legislation aimed at combating climate change and expanding other domestic programs this fall. The Senate adopted the budget in a party line vote, 50-49, after debating several amendments related to energy and the environment, including a unanimous vote against the Green New Deal. Even though the amendments were nonbinding, they aimed to put lawmakers on the record about hot-button issues. The Senate is now in its summer recess. House Democratic leaders announced yesterday they would return from their recess on Aug. 23 to adopt a budget plan, which is likely to match the Senate effort. The maneuvering would allow committees in both chambers to begin drafting the budget reconciliation package with hopes of having legislation ready soon after Congress returns in mid-September. While the details of the legislation are still to come, the contours outlined in the budget direct several committees to draft plans for a federal clean energy standard for the first time, an overhaul of renewable energy tax incentives, and record levels of spending on climate initiatives, among them a Civilian Climate Corps (Greenwire, Aug. 9). Democrats say their plan would complement and build on a $1.1 trillion dollar infrastructure bill that passed the Senate yesterday and is also expected to pass the House (Greenwire, Aug. 10).The Senate, ahead of the budget resolution’s final passage, held a wide ranging debate on hundreds of amendment, with Republicans notching some largely symbolic wins on contested energy matters.Senators adopted 57-42 an amendment by Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) to bar the White House Council on Environmental Quality and EPA from promulgating regulations of guidance to ban hydraulic fracturing.Fracking, Cramer argued, has made the U.S. a global leader in oil and gas production, reducing emissions and the domestic use of imported and dirtier fuels from places like Russia.But Budget Chair Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) invoked this week’s dire report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to push back. "We have got to move away from fossil fuel,” he said. “We have to end fracking."The Democrats supporting Cramer’s amendment all hailed from fossil fuel-producing states, including New Mexico’s Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján, Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper of Colorado, Montana’s Jon Tester, and Energy and Natural Resources Chair Joe Manchin of West Virginia. Independent Sen. Angus King of Maine also supported the amendment.
The Senate Passes A $3.5 Trillion Budget Proposal. It's The Latest Win For Biden : NP — Democrats pushed a $3.5 trillion framework for bolstering family services, health, and environment programs through the Senate early Wednesday, advancing President Joe Biden's expansive vision for reshaping federal priorities just hours after handing him a companion triumph on a hefty infrastructure package.Lawmakers approved Democrats' budget resolution on a party-line 50-49 vote, a crucial step for a president and party set on training the government's fiscal might at assisting families, creating jobs and fighting climate change. Higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations would pay for much of it. Passage came despite an avalanche of Republican amendments intended to make their rivals pay a price in next year's elections for control of Congress. House leaders announced their chamber will return from summer recess in two weeks to vote on the fiscal blueprint, which contemplates disbursing the $3.5 trillion over the next decade. Final congressional approval, which seems certain, would protect a subsequent bill actually enacting the outline's detailed spending and tax changes from a Republican filibuster in the 50-50 Senate, delays that would otherwise kill it. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., once a progressive voice in Congress' wilderness and now a national figure wielding legislative clout, said the measure would help children, families, the elderly and working people — and more. "It will also, I hope, restore the faith of the American people in the belief that we can have a government that works for all of us, and not just the few," he said. Republicans argued that Democrats' proposals would waste money, raise economy-wounding taxes, fuel inflation and codify far-left dictates that would harm Americans. They were happy to use Sanders, a self-avowed democratic socialist, to try tarring all Democrats backing the measure.If Biden and Senate Democrats want to "outsource domestic policy to Chairman Sanders" with a "historically reckless taxing and spending spree," Republicans lack the votes to stop them, conceded Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. "But we will debate. We will vote."The Senate turned to the budget minutes after it approved the other big chunk of Biden's objectives, a compromise $1 trillion bundle of transportation, water, broadband and other infrastructure projects. That measure, passed 69-30 with McConnell among the 19 Republicans backing it, also needs House approval.Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., assured progressives that Congress will pursue sweeping initiatives going beyond the infrastructure compromise. It was a nod to divisions between the party's moderates and liberals that he and Pelosi will have to resolve before Congress can approve their fiscal goals. Democrats control the House but only narrowly. "To my colleagues who are concerned that this does not do enough on climate, for families, and making corporations and the rich pay their fair share: We are moving on to a second track, which will make a generational transformation in these areas," Schumer said.
Brace For "Nasty" Debt Ceiling Fight As GOP Goes Full "Scorched Earth Mode" On Democrats - After Senate Republicans handed Democrats enough votes to pass their $1.2 trillion infrastructure package on Tuesday,they're digging in and planning to go into 'scorched earth mode' over the debt ceiling, according to RBC strategist Blake Gwinn, who says that a "nasty standoff" is all but guaranteed."I get that they would prefer a suspension of the limit vs. a numerical increase, but I can’t see any way Democrats are going to get 10 Republican votes for a debt ceiling deal in regular order, short of some extremely painful concessions," Gwinn said according to Bloomberg, adding "I expect GOP will be in scorched Earth mode this fall."As Bloomberg explains, "this means further bill paydowns and a decline in the Treasury’s cash balance will drive a richening of bills versus OIS, flattening of the front-end bill curve toward zero, "specific mispricings" of Treasuries around the anticipated drop-dead date, repo softness. Worse comes to worst, there’s the risk of potential ratings action, though it hasn’t come to this since the 2011 debt ceiling episode."The news comes after the Wall Street Journal reported that 46 Senators have signed a pledge to force Democrats to raise the debt ceiling via budget reconciliation - a process which doesn't rely on at least 10 GOP Senators to pass legislation.In the letter, the Republicans said that Democrats need to take responsibility for the consequences of their spending, including the $1.9 trillion coronavirus-relief package that passed the Senate earlier this year without any Republican support. CBO said last month that faster economic growth spurred by the relief bill will likely offset the measure’s entire cost, and estimated that deficits over the next decade will be slightly lower than last projected in February, before the bill passed. -WSJ"Democrats, at any time, have the power through reconciliation to unilaterally raise the debt ceiling, and they should not be allowed to pretend otherwise," reads the letter, which adds that Republicans won't be a party to boosting the debt limit via stand-alone bills or any other vehicle."They shouldn’t be expecting Republicans to raise the debt ceiling to accommodate their deficit spending," said Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, echoing previous comments by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) that Democrats shouldn't expect any help from Republicans on the debt limit."This debt ceiling is going to cover all of the things that all of us have been opposing," McConnell reiterated on Tuesday, adding that the Democrats "need to do the responsible thing and raise the debt ceiling, because America must never default on its debt." The brewing conflict has sent October and November Treasury Bills down relative to the rest of the short-end curve, while the timing over when the government will actually hit the debt ceiling is unclear. As of August 9, the Treasury's cash balance sat at $444 billion, up from $443 billion the prior session. While it started deploying 'extraordinary measures' this month to keep the government running, it wasn't able to provide a specific estimate as to how long it will last. On Aug. 1, the debt limit, which had been suspended under a 2019 law, was reinstated at around $28.5 trillion, a figure that includes debt held by the public and debt held by government agencies. The Treasury uses emergency accounting maneuvers to conserve cash so the government can keep paying its obligations, but those measures are expected to run out some time in the fall. Unless Congress steps in to suspend the debt limit again, the Treasury could begin to miss payments on its obligations and default. -WSJ
Biden’s pushes for drug pricing reform while attempting to keep Democrats together on infrastructure deal -President Joe Biden called on Congress to move his $3.5 trillion plan forward that would among other things, lower the cost of prescription drugs. “There aren’t a lot of things that almost every American could agree on,” Biden said during a speech Thursday. “But I think it is safe to say that all of us, whatever our background or our age and where we live, could agree that prescription drug prices are outrageously expensive in America.” Three specifics of the plan would be allowing Medicare representatives to negotiate on prices wirth drug makers, putting a cap on how much seniors pay out of pocket and increase the number of more affordable generic drugs available. “These prices have put the squeeze on too many families, and stripped them of their dignity. They’ve been forced, forced people into terrible choices between maintaining their health, paying their rent or their mortgage, putting food on the table. I mean, literally,” Biden said. Prices for insulin and Multiple Sclerosis medication have jumped 1,200% and 1,000% respectively since the 90’s. Biden overcame skepticism, deep political polarization and legislative gamesmanship to win bipartisan approval in the Senate this week of his $1 trillion infrastructure bill. But as the bill moves to consideration in the House on Aug. 23 alongside a $3.5 trillion budget that achieves the rest of Biden’s agenda, the president is facing an even more complicated task. He must keep a diverse, sometimes fractious Democratic Party in line behind the fragile compromises that underpin both measures. If Biden and Democratic leaders in Congress hope to succeed with what they’ve called a two-track legislative strategy, the months ahead will almost certainly be dominated by a tedious balancing act. With exceedingly slim majorities in Congress, Biden can’t afford many defections in a party whose members include moderates and progressives. “Is it going to be easy?” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday. “Absolutely not. But if past is prologue, we got a chance — a decent chance.” The trouble has been brewing for months. In a May 17 letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Schumer, a group of 59 House Democrats referred to new investments in the range of $7 trillion to $9.5 trillion. The Senate Democrats also had their share of members with concerns. In a letter to leadership, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, one of two high-profile moderate senators, expressed misgivings about the size of the $3.5 trillion package. “It is simply irresponsible to continue spending at levels more suited to respond to a Great Depression or Great Recession — not an economy that is on the verge of overheating,” Manchin said in a statement. He urged colleagues “to seriously consider this reality as this budget process unfolds.” At the same time, progressives in the House, fresh off forcing the administration’s hand on reviving a moratorium on evictions, have made clear they see a moment to wield power. With no votes to spare in the evenly split 50-50 Senate and a slim margin in the House, any single senator or a few representatives could deny Biden the majority he needs for passage. Knowing that they must appease all in their party, Biden and the Democratic congressional leadership have pushed to simultaneously pursue the infrastructure and budget bills.
Moderates revolt on infrastructure in new challenge for Pelosi -- The Democrats' strategy for enacting President Biden's agenda hit a major snag Friday when nine House moderates bucked party leaders with threats of tanking a $3.5 trillion budget bill unless they can vote first on the Senate’s $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure deal. The ultimatum flips leadership’s preferred sequence on its head, and it presents a blunt challenge to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who has laid out carefully choreographed plans to withhold a House vote on the bipartisan bill until the Senate passes a second, larger package of health, climate and safety net benefits later this year. The notion of linking the two bills reflects the demand of House progressives, who simply don’t trust their moderate colleagues — particularly those in the Senate — to support the “family” benefits package if the more popular funding for physical infrastructure has already become law. The budget resolution, which lays the groundwork for the larger reconciliation package, has already passed the Senate and is scheduled for a House vote the week of Aug. 23. Yet the competing demands from the party’s furthermost ideological wings has created an impasse, at least temporarily, and if Biden’s year-one economic agenda is to be enacted, one side will have to give in. That means either some progressives will have to change their tune and support infrastructure without Senate passage of the $3.5 trillion social benefits package, or some moderates will have to drop their threat and support the budget resolution without an infrastructure vote beforehand. Neither side appeared ready to budge on Friday. "With the livelihoods of hardworking American families at stake, we simply can’t afford months of unnecessary delays and risk squandering this once-in-a-century, bipartisan infrastructure package,” the nine moderates, led by Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), wrote to Pelosi. “It’s time to get shovels in the ground and people to work.” Liberals wasted little time firing back. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), citing Biden’s pledge to fortify the post-pandemic economy for all Americans, argued Democrats have “a moral imperative” to deliver on that promise. “Anyone who votes to slow down or stop progress on this popular and necessary Build Back Better reconciliation package is voting against the President’s and the Democrats' agenda,” Jayapal, the head of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said in a statement. In sharper words, Jayapal blasted out a campaign fundraising email warning that the moderates were threatening to sink Biden’s plans to expand paid leave, housing subsidies, Medicare and efforts to address climate change. “Blocking this from passing means blocking these priorities — and we can’t allow it,” the email reads. Pelosi, for her part, has remained silent on the topic. And White House officials, who did not hold a press briefing Friday, did not respond to a request for comment.
National Academies’ Report Took Pharma-Friendly Stance After Millions in Gifts From Drugmakers - -To several U.S. senators, it looked wasteful, even outrageous. Every year, taxpayers pay for at least $750 million worth of expensive pharmaceuticals that are simply thrown away. Companies ship many of the drugs in “Costco”-size vials, one lawmaker said, that once opened usually cannot be resealed or saved for other patients. Yet pharma gets paid for every drop.So Congress turned to the prestigious National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine for advice, given its reputation for “independent, objective reports” on such matters. The national academies’ influential report, released in February, struck physicians who’ve tracked the issue as distinctly friendly to Big Pharma. It advised against an effort to recoup millions for the discarded drugs. It concluded that Medicare should stop tracking the cost of the drug waste altogether.Yet the report left out a few key facts, a KHN investigation has found.Among them: One committee member was paid $1.4 million to serve on the board of a pharmaceutical corporation in 2019 and in 2020 joined the board of a biotechnology company that lists government “cost containment” efforts as a risk to its bottom line.Another committee member reported consulting income from 11 to 13 pharmaceutical companies, including eight that Medicare records show have earned millions billing for drug waste. His pharma ties were disclosed in unrelated publications in 2019 through this year.Those committee members said they reported relevant relationships to the national academies and that the information is readily available outside of the report.What’s more: The National Academy of Sciences itself for years has been collecting generous gifts from foundations, universities and corporations, including at least $10 million from major drugmakers since 2015, its treasurer reports show. Among the donors are companies with millions to retain or lose over the drug waste committee’s findings.
Biden on Afghanistan: Not my problem - As the Taliban blitz across Afghanistan and U.S. officials scramble to assess just how quickly the government in Kabul could fall, President Joe Biden is recalibrating his message to Americans.Where he once insisted that two decades of U.S. backing had left Afghan forces capable of defending themselves, Biden and his aides have shifted to a more cold-blooded mantra: If they can’t, that’s not our problem.Inside the administration, top aides are just trying to keep up with the rapidly changing battlefield. U.S. officials now believe Kabul could be surrounded or fall under Taliban control within weeks, and even the future of the fortress-like U.S. Embassy is increasingly in doubt.The president, meanwhile, is holding firm to last spring’s decision to withdraw U.S. combat troops, calculating that war-weary voters would rather tune out the alarming developments in a conflict they’ve largely ignored.“I do not regret my decision,” Biden told reporters Tuesday, after pointing out that the U.S. has spent more than a trillion dollars and lost thousands of its own troops to train and equip Afghanistan’s military.“Afghan leaders have to come together,” he said. “They've got to fight for themselves, fight for their nation.”It’s a message the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department and others are publicly stressing now after years of private pressure on Afghan leaders, many of whom had hoped the U.S. would never follow through on pledges to leave. Biden administration officials say the U.S. has better intelligence and other enhanced capabilities to thwart any future terrorist plots against America that might emerge from Afghanistan, where Osama bin Laden once planned the 9/11 attacks. They also stress that the U.S. will continue to offer humanitarian aid for Afghans and financial support for the Afghan military, including, for now at least, air support.
Biden Must Call Off the B-52s Bombing Afghan Cities - By Medea Benjamin - Nine provincial capitals in Afghanistan have fallen to the Taliban in six days – Zaranj, Sheberghan, Sar-e-Pul, Kunduz, Taloqan, Aybak, Farah, Pul-e-Khumri and Faizabad – while fighting continues in four more – Lashkargah, Kandahar, Herat & Mazar-i-Sharif. U.S. military officials now believe Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, could fall in one to three months.It is horrific to watch the death, destruction and mass displacement of thousands of terrified Afghans and the triumph of the misogynist Taliban that ruled the nation 20 years ago. But the fall of the centralized, corrupt government propped up by the Western powers was inevitable, whether this year, next year or ten years from now.President Biden has reacted to America’s snowballing humiliation in the graveyard of empires by once again dispatching U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad to Doha to urge the government and the Taliban to seek a political solution, while at the same time dispatching B-52 bombersto attack at least two of these provincial capitals. In Lashkargah, the capital of Helmand province, the bombing has already reportedly destroyed a high school and a health clinic. Another B-52 bombed Sheberghan, the capital of Jowzjan province and the home of the infamous warlord and accused war criminal Abdul Rashid Dostum, who is now the military commander of the U.S.-backed government’s armed forces.Meanwhile, the New York Times reports that U.S.Reaper drones and AC-130 gunships are also still operating in Afghanistan.The rapid disintegration of the Afghan forces that the U.S. and its Western allies have recruited, armed and trained for 20 years at a cost of about $90 billion should come as no surprise. On paper, the Afghan National Army has 180,000 troops, but in reality most are unemployed Afghans desperate to earn some money to support their families but not eager to fight their fellow Afghans. The Afghan Army is also notorious for its corruption and mismanagement. When the BBC asked General Khoshal Sadat, the national police chief, about the impact of high casualties on police recruitment in February 2020, he cynically replied, “When you look at recruitment, I always think about the Afghan families and how many children they have. The good thing is there is never a shortage of fighting-age males who will be able to join the force.”
McConnell calls for US airstrikes to stop Taliban advance --Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Friday that the U.S. should start conducting airstrikes against the Taliban and provide support to Afghan forces to stop the insurgent group from capturing the Afghan capital amid the withdrawal of U.S. troops. McConnell said in a statement that “it is not too late to prevent the Taliban from overrunning Kabul. The Administration should move quickly to hammer Taliban advances with air strikes, provide critical support to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) defending the capital, and prevent the seemingly imminent fall of the city.” “If they fail to do so, the security threat to the United States will assuredly grow and the humanitarian cost to innocent Afghans will be catastrophic,” the Kentucky senator warned. McConnell also mentioned that he had spoken with the Afghanistan ambassador to the U.S., saying they had “an urgent conversation” regarding “the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan and the unfolding humanitarian crisis." Republicans have in recent days ramped up their criticism of President Biden’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops as conditions in Afghanistan have been rapidly deteriorating amid the Taliban’s recent gains. The Taliban now control 14 of the country’s 34 provincial capitals,according to The Associated Press. Several major cities, including Kandahar and Herat, were captured this week. Biden defended his decision to withdraw troops last month, rejecting the notion that a Taliban takeover in Afghanistan was “inevitable.” “The Taliban is not the North Vietnamese Army. They're not remotely comparable in terms of capability,” he said during a speech in the White House East Room. “There's going to be no circumstances where you’re going to see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy in the United States from Afghanistan.” The president made a similar sentiment on Tuesday, pointing to the amount of money that the U.S. has spent on Afghanistan and the number of Afghan forces the U.S. trained. "We spent over $1 trillion over 20 years. We trained and equipped with modern equipment over 300,000 Afghan forces," Biden said at a news conference. "And Afghan leaders have to come together. We lost thousands, we lost to death and injury, thousands of American personnel. They’ve got to fight for themselves, fight for their nation."
Biden restates commitment to Afghan drawdown amid Taliban offensive - President Joe Biden showed no sign of backing away from his decision to withdraw all troops and a significant portion of the diplomatic corps from Afghanistan, restating his determination to leave the country in a statement released Saturday. Biden authorized the deployment of some 5,000 U.S. troops to ensure "an orderly and safe" drawdown of U.S. and allied personnel in Afghanistan, which came after reports of the evacuation of U.S. Embassy staff in Kabul to the international airport as the Taliban rapidly close in on the capital. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been directed to support President Ashraf Ghani and other Afghan leaders amid turmoil in the region, Biden said. Ambassador Tracey Jacobson was charged with overseeing the relocation of Afghan special immigrant visa applicants and other Afghan allies. Biden further said he had ordered U.S. armed forces and the intelligence community to maintain the capability to address "future terrorist threats from Afghanistan." Biden, who is currently at Camp David, criticized the actions of his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, on Afghanistan in the months before leaving office, before adding, "I was the fourth President to preside over an American troop presence in Afghanistan—two Republicans, two Democrats. I would not, and will not, pass this war onto a fifth." Meanwhile, staff at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul are being swiftly evacuated to the international airport as the Taliban close in on the capital city, one person familiar with the situation told POLITICO. Some of the staff members have already arrived at the airport, this person said, protected by U.S. troops ahead of a likely onslaught by the militants who have swept across the country in recent days.
Biden Follows Trump On Foreign Policy - We are now looking at a humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan. It looks like the Taliban will probably take control of Kabul and thus Afghanistan in the near future. Reports already show that where they control women cannot go to school and appear in public without a veil in public and much more. Many women there are unfortunately going to suffer greatly as a result of this. I am so very deeply sorry. Yes, as an American who supported the original invasion of Afghanistan 20 years ago to overturn the Taliban and end support for al Qaeda who did the 9/11 attack two decades ago, I am also frustrated that we did not get the heck out once the Taliban were overthrown. But it remains unclear why we did stay then, especially given that the W. Bush admin turned to invading Iraq. Latest I have checked it seems that it was Rumsfeld who played the key role in deciding that that the US stay in Afghanistan, even as that admin basically gave up on getting bin Laden. So this should not be a partisan issue in the US. Pres.Biden long ago, including as Obama’s VP, led opposition to increasing efforts in Afghanistan. He accurately understood that this was an ultimately bad situation to get more deeply involved in, And he then made it clear he thought we should be getting out. This was the position of Biden’s predecessor, Trump, who also called for the US leaving Afghanistan. He steadily reduced the US troop presence, and negotiated a final full withdrawal. But various advisors held him back from effectuating the final withdrawal, leaving that to his successor. But what was left was not sustainable. There are other areas where Biden seems to be following Trump policies. These include his reluctance to rejoin the JCPOA Iranian nuclear deal, which he promised to do, and he should have done. But now there is a new hardline president in Iran in reaction to just this, the failure of Biden to rejoin the deal. This is simply awful. The list is long, and I frankly do not get why Biden has held back on so much of this. So, he has yet to remove almost any of the stupid garbage Trump tariffs. He has if anything made Trump’s prohibition of receiving refugees from abroad harder. And he is all in on Trump’s Afghanistan policy, which looks now to be a total humanitarian disaster. But the GOP is already falsely claiming the disaster will all be Biden’s fault, not Trump’s.
Biden administration sued over conditions at emergency sites housing migrant teens - Lawyers representing migrant children in U.S. custody on Monday asked a federal court to order the release of teenagers being held at two emergency housing sites in Texas.As CBS News reports, teens at the facilities have reported mental distress, prolonged stays and substandard living conditions. The attorneys representing the migrants accused the Biden administration of violating the 1997 Flores Settlement Agreement, which sets certain standards that facilities housing migrant minors must meet. The two Texas facilities in question are located at the Fort Bliss Army base and at a camp for oil workers in the remote town of Pecos.In court documents filed on Monday, the attorneys said children had been exposed to "deplorable conditions," as well as receiving little in the way of religious and educational services or recreation. CBS notes that this is the first time the Biden administration has been sued by attorneys working to ensure that the government is adhering to the Flores agreement. In the court documents, multiple children were quoted as speaking on how the conditions at the facilities negatively impacted their mental health. Federal judge suggests 'gamesmanship' at play in Biden administration... Grim Afghan news raises risk for Biden of Taliban takeover Two brother said they had been held at the facility for 65 days despite having an uncle in Houston who was willing to take them in. "Every day, I wake up and feel very sad. I am frustrated because I see other kids leave before me," one of the brothers said in court testimony. CBS reports that there are currently 1,800 and 800 unaccompanied minors at Fort Bliss and Pecos, respectively.
Biden officials still can't find the parents of 337 children separated at the Mexico border by the Trump administration, court docs show -US officials are struggling to locate the parents of more than 300 children who were separated at the US-Mexico border during the Trump era, court filings show. To date, activists and US officials have helped reunited 861 children with their parents, but 337 still remain in limbo, according to a court filing Wednesday by the Justice Department and the American Civil Liberties Union. In February, President Joe Biden signed an executive order that established a task force to address the issue and the number of children left without their parents has been slowly going down. The Biden administration found that 3,913 children were separated from their parents as part of the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy at the US-Mexico border launched in 2018, CNN reported. But that practice actually started in 2017, according to the ACLU, a year in which more than 1,000 families were separated. The ACLU said in the Wednesday filing that the parents of 75 children are currently believed to be in the US, but that the parents of 250 children are no longer in the country. Lawyers and authorities also do not have contact details for the parents, sponsor, or attorney of 12 children, the ACLU added.
Census Data Show America’s White Population Shrank for the First Time – WSJ - The first detailed results of the 2020 census show a diversifying nation where the total white population shrank for the first time in its history and where large metropolitan areas, especially in the South and Southwest, saw the strongest growth. The non-Hispanic white population dropped 2.6% between 2010 and 2020, a decline that puts that group’s share of the total U.S. population below 60%. The number of people who identify as more than one race or ethnicity grew at the fastest rate of any group, partly due to changes that captured more detailed responses. The nation’s population grew just 7.4% during the decade, the second slowest on record for a decennial census. Only the 1930s—the era of the Great Depression—saw slower growth. Slightly more than half, or 51%, of the total U.S. population growth in the latest period came from increases among Hispanic or Latino residents, the Census Bureau said. The new data show an overall aging of the nation’s population. Those under age 18 totaled 73.1 million, or 22.1% of the U.S. population in 2020, a 1.4% decrease from 74.2 million in 2010. The decline was partly due to lower fertility rates in recent years, the Census Bureau said. As many cities and suburbs expanded, the bureau said, the trend toward rural depopulation continued during the decade. More than half of U.S. counties—52%—had smaller populations in 2020 than in 2010. “Population growth was almost entirely in metropolitan areas,” said Marc Perry, a senior demographer for the Census Bureau. The cores of metro areas with more than a million people grew 9.1%, while their suburbs grew 10.3%, a Wall Street Journal analysis of the new data shows. Smaller metro areas grew 7.1%. By contrast, small towns and rural areas saw their combined populations drop 0.6%. Among the 10 largest U.S. cities, Phoenix saw the greatest percentage-point gain in growth during the decade, with its population increasing by 11.2%. The Arizona city replaced Philadelphia as the country’s fifth largest. New York easily remained the nation’s biggest city with 8.8 million people. It recorded a population gain of 7.7%, a growth rate that among the 10 largest cities was behind only Phoenix, Houston, Dallas and San Antonio. Los Angeles, the second-biggest city, grew by 2.8% during the decade. Chicago, the third-largest, saw the smallest gain among the 10 biggest cities, growing just 1.9%.
Answers begin to emerge about FBI probe of Saudi complicity in 9/11 --Piece by piece, the puzzle of the heavily censored FBI 2012 Summary Report about Operation Encore, the bureau’s once-hush-hush probe of Saudi government involvement in 9/11, appears to be giving up its secrets.On the vast, often-underground docket of the enormous New York civil case that pits 9/11 victims against Saudi Arabia, court records recently have appeared like answers floating to the surface of an upended Magic 8-Ball.For the first time, witnesses cited in the 2012 report as having had contact with the suicide hijackers during their early days in the U.S. have been publicly identified. Named, too, is an apparent target of a federal grand jury the report says was then investigating a suspected U.S. support network for the hijackers.The records also reveal the grand jury was shut down abruptly in 2016 while actively hearing testimony from witnesses.The four-page report, released to Florida Bulldog in late 2016 amid Freedom of Information litigation, was the first confirmation of an active FBI investigation into questions of Saudi government involvement in the attacks since the 9/11 Commission closed down in 2004. The report was so thickly redacted that even the investigation’s code name, Operation Encore, was blanked out.The U.S. government has taken extraordinary steps to keep a lid on what else is in that FBI report and related records. In 2019 and again last year, Attorney General William Barr blocked release of additional “classified national security information” in the report by personally asserting the state secrets privilege in the case. The Biden Administration has been asked to reconsider that assertion.
The head of Facebook-owned WhatsApp slammed Apple's plan to scan iPhones for child abuse images as a 'setback for people's privacy all over the world' - Will Cathcart, the head of Facebook's WhatsApp instant messaging app, called out Apple's decision to scan iPhones for child abuse images in a Twitter thread.One tweet in the thread read, "I read the information Apple put out yesterday and I'm concerned. I think this is the wrong approach and a setback for people's privacy all over the world."Apple previously announced a plan to release software that could search and detect child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on the phones of US users. Human reviewers could then alert authorities of potential illegal activity.Cathcart's thread began by denouncing child sexual abuse crime, saying, "Child sexual abuse material and the abuser who traffic in it are repugnant." He added that WhatsApp has worked to streamline ways to report and ban those who traffic in CSAM without breaking the encryption and the privacy of its users.Cathcart also said the Apple software would allow access to "scan all of a user's private photos on your phone — even photos you haven't shared with anyone." Facebook recently hired a team of researchers to study ways to analyze data without decrypting it, The Information reported. The research would allow Facebook to collect user data for targeted ads without reading encrypted information shared between users or sharing it with advertisers.
A U.S. scientist settled his federal whistle-blowing complaint over Covid treatments. --Rick Bright, the virologist who claimed the Trump administration retaliated against him last year by ousting him from his job, has settled his whistle-blower complaint against the federal government and will receive back pay and compensation for “emotional stress and reputational damage,” his lawyer said Monday.Dr. Bright’s removal last April as head of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Agency created upheaval within the Department of Health and Human Services in the earliest days of the coronavirus pandemic.He said he was removed from his post after he pressed for rigorous vetting of hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug embraced by President Donald J. Trump as a coronavirus treatment, and that the administration had put “politics and cronyism ahead of science.” Those allegations are still being investigated by the Office of Special Counsel, which protects federal whistle-blowers. Under Mr. Trump, H.H.S. officials denied any wrongdoing. Neither side disclosed details or specifics of the settlement. But Dr. Bright’s lawyer, Debra S. Katz, said her client had been compensated to the fullest extent allowed by the law. She said he will receive back pay, as well as damages to cover the costs of private security and temporary housing that he required after receiving threats. He will also receive compensation, Ms. Katz said, for distress “associated with the disparaging comments and threats” made by administration officials including Mr. Trump, who had blasted Dr. Bright on Twitter as a “creep” and a “disgruntled employee.”Dr. Bright now works for the Rockefeller Foundation, where he is developing a new institute devoted to pandemic prevention that will function as a hub for scientists in government, the private sector and academia.
After Taking Millions in Speaking Fees from Wall Street, Treasury Secretary Yellen Redacted 73 Meetings or Phone Calls in First 3 Months in Office – Pam Martens -After stepping down as Fed Chair on February 3, 2018, Janet Yellen began a whirlwind of speaking engagements that netted her millions of dollars over the next two years. But when it came time to disclose those fees after she was nominated by President Biden to become Treasury Secretary, Yellen disclosed only the fees she had made in 2019 and 2020, not the millions she had made in fees in 2018. What Yellen did disclose showed more than $7 million in speaking fees, with the bulk of that coming from Wall Street banks, trading houses and hedge funds.As the news broke this past January about Yellen’s cash haul, Senior Reporter Jesse Eisinger of ProPublica Tweetedthis: “Deeply troubling two-fisted money grab from banks by Janet Yellen. This is corruption, but isn’t called that because it’s so quotidian.” Eisinger added: “Sure, Yellen might think she can make independent decisions once in office. But how arrogant is it to imagine that money corrupts everyone but you?”Yellen brought this distrust on herself. Now the American people have a right to echo Jesse Eisinger and ask: how arrogant is it for Janet Yellen to think she can black out phone calls and meetings on her daily appointment calendar as U.S. Treasury Secretary and not fall under suspicion.Yellen’s Daily Appointment Calendar shows that in her first three months in office, she has blacked out (redacted) 73 phone calls or meetings.There must be something particularly embarrassing about the people involved in at least some of these redacted meetings and phone calls because there are unredacted names on her appointment calendar that certainly raise eyebrows.On January 28, Yellen had a 30-minute phone call with former President Bill Clinton. The Treasury Department is the parent agency of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Bill Clinton’s Clinton Foundation has had tax questions swirling around it for years.On February 11, Yellen had a 15-minute phone call with billionaires Bill and Melinda Gates. Bill Gates has one of the largest family office hedge funds in the world, Cascade Investment LLC. But as we reported in May, Cascade stopped filing its 13F listing of stocks in its portfolio with the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2008, despite Cascade holding tens of billions of dollars in securities. See our reporting here.On March 2, Yellen had a 15-minute phone call with James Gorman, the CEO of Morgan Stanley. Morgan Stanley is one of the Wall Street firms that paid Yellen an undisclosed amount for a speaking engagement in 2018.On March 11, Yellen had a 15-minute phone call with Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, the giant asset manager. BlackRock was retained on March 24, 2020 in a no-bid contract to manage the $750 billion corporate bond buying programs as part of the Fed’s emergency bailouts of Wall Street. The Treasury, using taxpayer money under the CARES Act, guaranteed $75 billion of this program. BlackRock was allowed to buy up its own Exchange Traded Funds under one part of this program. (See our reporting here.)On March 28, Yellen had a 30-minute phone call with Henry (Hank) Paulson, former Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, who had worked at Goldman for three decades before he became Treasury Secretary under President George W. Bush. Paulson sat at the helm of Goldman Sachs when a large portion of its toxic collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) were sold to unsuspecting investors. Paulson helped to structure the Wall Street bailout in 2008, with his former firm being a major beneficiary.
Allegation that Ken Griffin Is Running Citadel Connect as a Dark Pool Is Posted on SEC Chair Gensler’s Twitter Page --By Pam Martens ~ On August 4, the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Gary Gensler, sat for an interview on CNBC. During that interview, Gensler mentioned that his Twitter followers were posting comments on his Twitter page about Dark Pools. Specifically, this is what Gensler said: “We are taking a real close look at market structure and I recently started, you know, engaging on Twitter and to some of those Twitter followers that are writing about Dark Pools, we are looking very closely at this market structure that so many of our orders, retail public orders are not going to the lit markets but are going to internalizers, going to wholesalers, were taking the retail public’s trades rather than sending them to the stock exchanges.” Dark Pools are opaque, thinly regulated trading platforms that function much like private stock exchanges operating inside the mega banks on Wall Street and at other entities. Instead of sending their stock trades to the New York Stock Exchange or another independent stock exchange, the Dark Pools execute the trades in unlit markets – raising the potential for enormous conflicts of interests. Wall Street On Parade has repeatedly questioned the legality of what is going on in these Dark Pools, including the highly doubtful legality of Wall Street mega banks being allowed to trade shares of their own bank stock in their own unlit Dark Pool.In the days before and after Gensler made it official that the SEC is reviewing market structure, including Dark Pools, a number of posters to Gensler’s Twitter page had specifically called out billionaire Ken Griffin’s trifecta of trading operations. On August 7, @jpollitto posted this:
- Citadel LLC (Hedge Fund)
- Citadel Securities (Market Maker)
- Citadel Connect (NONREGISTERED Dark Pool)
- All 3 are owned by Ken Griffin?
- Let me get this straight, the company shorting the stock also directs the order and fills it
- Definition of “conflict of interest”
Other commenters raised similar questions about Griffin’s operations.
More than a Decade after the Volcker Rule Purported to Outlaw It, JPMorgan Chase Still Owns a Hedge Fund - Pam Martens - On July 21, 2010, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act) became the law of the United States. Its promise to Americans was that it would reform the corrupt practices on Wall Street that had led to the worst financial collapse in 2008 since the Great Depression and the largest taxpayer bailout of Wall Street in history.But here we are, 11 years later, with every one of those corrupt practices in full display at the Wall Street mega banks today.Losses from wild derivative bets check. Trading for the house(proprietary trading), check. Secret bailouts from the Fed, check. Credit Default swaps, check. The continuance of the private justice system on Wall Street, check. Banks paying rating agencies for ratings, check. Banks giving insanely leveraged loans to hedge funds, check.And if we wanted to find the poster child for every failed financial reform promise, we need look no further than JPMorgan Chase, the largest federally-insured bank in the United States as well as, officially, the riskiest. The bank has also racked up five felony counts from the U.S. Department of Justice since Dodd-Frank was signed into law.Just three years after Dodd-Frank became law, the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a 300-page report on how JPMorgan Chase had allowed traders in its London office to use bank depositors’ funds from its federally-insured U.S. bank to gamble in exotic derivatives and lose $6.2 billion. Proving just how weak and ineffective Dodd-Frank was at reining in the cowboy casino on Wall Street, the woman who was in charge of supervising JPMorgan’s traders in London, Ina Drew,didn’t even have a trading license.Equally outrageous, even though the legislative intent of Congress in the Dodd-Frank Act was clearly to prevent federally-insured banks from owning hedge funds, JPMorgan Chase has skirted that mandate for the past 11 years, with no pushback from its federal regulators. Throughout that period and to this day, JPMorgan Chase has owned the hedge fund, Highbridge Capital Management. (Adding an extra element of revulsion, the purchase of the hedge fund by JPMorgan Chase was brokered with the assistance of the sexual pervert and predator, Jeffrey Epstein, according to the New York Times.) To attempt to mollify progressives in 2010 that were demanding the restoration of the Glass-Steagall Act, which would have legally separated federally-insured commercial banks from the trading casinos (investment banks) on Wall Street, Section 619 was placed in the Dodd-Frank Act instead. Section 619 was known as the Volcker Rule, named after former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker. It promised the following:“PROHIBITION.—Unless otherwise provided in this section, a banking entity shall not— (A) engage in proprietary trading; or (B) acquire or retain any equity, partnership, or other ownership interest in or sponsor a hedge fund or a private equity fund. ” But Wall Street’s lobbyists succeeded in stalling the implementation of the Volcker Rule. The final rule was not even released by federal regulators until June of last year. The final rule contained so many exceptions that it was just one more on a heaping pile of jaded and broken promises by Congress to reform Wall Street.
For card issuers, Fed's Durbin proposal sows confusion -Banks and credit unions that issue debit cards should brace for a range of challenges if the Federal Reserve advances a plan to amend certain regulations for card-not-present transactions.The Fed has proposed clarifications to the Durbin amendment’s Regulation II, which required the agency to place limits on the fees banks can charge retailers for debit card transactions. The Fed has suggested that one change, requiring that card-not-present transactions must be capable of being processed across at least two competing networks, would be “non-substantive” in terms of new obligations and compliance. A glance at the more than 450 comments to date shows that this has become the latest battleground between issuers and merchants over interchange and enforcement of Reg II.
FDIC seeks industry feedback on the future of remote exams -— The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is asking banks to comment on their experience with remote exams in the pandemic.The FDIC's request for information, published in the Federal Register on Thursday, appears aimed at helping the agency develop longer-term best practices for off-site bank monitoring. The agency asked bankers to reflect on more than a year and half of largely remote bank examinations, with comments due Oct. 12. The agency is ”seeking comment on what worked well in the off-site examination context to inform plans for future examinations, consistent with applicable law and the purpose of examinations,” it said in the RFI.
Ginnie Mae extends comment period on nonbank capital plan -- Ginnie Mae will give more time for financial institutions to comment on a plan that would impose new risk-based capital requirements on nonbanks and clarified that the changes will not take effect this year.Ginnie, an arm of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, said late Thursday that it will extend the comment period by 60 days to Oct. 8 on its request for input. The guarantee agency had asked for feedback on a plan to increase net worth and liquidity requirements on all financial institutions that issue Ginnie Mae securities. Ginnie initially gave lenders 30 days to respond.The plan has sparked an outcry from mortgage lenders because it would subject nonbanks to a 10% risk-based capital ratio — with a risk weight of 250% for mortgage servicing rights.
Fraudsters pick new targets, but threats to banks persist -U.S. banks and credit unions have again seen fraud attacks on their online services rise, but for the time being they have fallen off the fraudsters' favorite target list. That unenviable distinction goes to facets of the entertainment industry.Suspected online fraud attempts in global financial services climbed 18.8% globally and 38.3% in the United States in the second quarter compared with the same period in 2020, according to TransUnion's Global Fraud Solutions midyear report. Those figures are notably lower than the 149% increase globally and 109% increase in the U.S. during the first four months of 2021 compared with the previous four months. What caused the slowdown? A major reason is fraudsters shifted attention to more vulnerable sectors that conduct perhaps even more transactions than banking companies. Attacks rose 393% in gaming and 155.9% in travel and leisure worldwide. In the U.S., those rates increased 261.9% in gaming and 136.6% in travel and leisure.
FFIEC urges banks to strengthen customer authentication — U.S. financial regulators are calling on banks to strengthen their authentication processes to better protect customer accounts and information systems.The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council on Wednesday issued new guidance for how financial institutions can properly employ an authentication process for customers, employees and third parties as the number of access points to information systems has expanded along with mobile computing and smartphone applications.“These technologies and access points provide attackers with more opportunities to obtain unauthorized access, commit fraud and account takeover, or exfiltrate data,” the guidance said. “Certain authentication controls, previously shown effective, no longer provide sufficient defense against evolving and increasingly sophisticated methods of attack.”
Will AML rules be extended to crypto? — For decades, the government has leaned on banks to help crack down on illicit finance, requiring them to comply with a bevy of anti-money-laundering rules. But as cryptocurrencies enter the mainstream, policymakers are increasingly looking at how to expand the federal AML regime to include digital assets.The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has been building up its resources to address cryptocurrency risks, such as hiring Michele Korver, a former Department of Justice official, as the agency's first-ever chief digital currency advisor. Congress also passed legislation last year that was partly aimed at helping improve Fincen's technology resources. But that is just a drop in the bucket compared to what observers say is needed to track suspicious activities among the more than 1 million cryptocurrency transactions completed every day. Some suggest lawmakers could mull broader reforms to apply Bank Secrecy Act requirements to cryptocurrency exchanges and other digital-asset firms.
Anthro-washing --The connection between anthropology and business is not new. Corporate support for anthropologists goes back to the very founding of the discipline in the 1920s. From the philanthropic funding of colonial expeditions led by anthropologists to the Rockefellers finding positions for anthropologists at the newly created Harvard Business School—itself founded in part with a Rockefeller donation—businesses have long supplied alternatives to the precarity of life as an academic anthropologist. Throughout their intertwined history, corporations’ interest in anthropology has not been purely philanthropic. It’s often been a symbiotic relationship: in exchange for funding, for example, the Rockefellers were looking for a “social science” that would provide an empirical basis for increasing worker productivity and crushing union drives. This legacy continues today in the form of anthropology-influenced courses at Harvard’s and Northwestern’s MBA programs and dedicated degrees, like market and management anthropology, which aims to develop “socially responsible managers.” Like most business-theory fads, corporations rediscover the value of anthropology every few decades, often coinciding with larger economic cycles and the strength of their balance sheets. After a fallow period during the Great Depression and World Wars, a succession of corporations—Motorola, Nokia, Herman Miller, Intel, and the aforementioned Xerox—all hired anthropologists to study their workers and customers. Microsoft, which brought them on in the early 2000s to figure out how to convince small businesses to adopt its products, was widely believed to be the second-largest employer of anthropologists in the world. They were only behind the U.S. Army, which hired anthropologists to help them understand the enemy in conflicts ranging from Korea to Iraq. (The latter program, the Human Terrain System, ended in 2014.)
New York regulator resigning after report ties her to Cuomo PR effort - The head of the New York State Department of Financial Services will resign from her post later this month, the latest fallout from the sexual harassment scandal that toppled Gov. Andrew Cuomo.NYDFS Superintendent Linda Lacewell announced in an emailed letter to the agency’s staff that she would depart Aug. 24, which is the same day Cuomo plans to leave. Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul will become governor.“It has been a privilege to lead you over the past two and a half years. With a new governor about to take office, it is time for me to move on and make way for new leadership,” Lacewell said in the letter.
How the pandemic is accelerating trends in financial advice and changing the way Americans manage their money. - American Banker podcast - After a year of disruption in wealth management -- widespread working from home, virtual meetings between financial advisors and their clients, volatility in the stock market -- the world will hopefully begin recovering later this year. Many of the trends the pandemic in finance accelerated may be here to stay. Catherine Keating brings us her dispatches from the front lines of financial advice. Join us to hear about: Where is wealth management headed in a post-pandemic world?
What can wealth management do to help Americans fight student debt, underfunded retirement plans, and the difficulties of saving?
How can we increase diversity among wealth managers while serving an increasingly diverse population of investors?
How can we invest in a low-interest-rate environment?
Stress tests show GSEs would have enough capital to cover crisis losses --The mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would face up to $20 billion in combined credit losses in the event of a severe financial downturn, according to stress test results released Friday by the Federal Housing Finance Agency.Although the credit losses would exceed those forecast under previous stress test scenarios, Fannie and Freddie likely maintain a large enough capital cushion to cover the projected losses. The government-sponsored enterprises, as part of an annual exercise required for institutions with more than $250 billion of assets, were tested against a hypothetical financial crisis scenario that featured a severe global recession with stressed commercial real estate and corporate debt markets as well as a global market shock.
Is leadership void at Ginnie Mae stymieing mortgage policy? --Last month, nonbank lenders were outraged over a Ginnie Mae plan to impose capital requirements. Industry observers say such a consequential policy underscored a long-held concern about the often-overlooked agency: It has lacked a permanent leader for more than four years.The leadership void — outlasting the previous administration entirely — is inconsistent with the agency's role in facilitating affordable housing and the market for mortgage-backed securities, experts say. Now run by career staff, Ginnie had a record amount of outstanding obligations last year, exceeding $2 trillion.Its last permanent president was Ted Tozer, who departed in 2017 just before former President Donald Trump took office. Between then and October 2019, the agency — housed inside the Department of Housing and Urban Development — was led by politically appointed acting presidents. But since then it has been run by slightly less senior executives.
HUD to team with Fannie, Freddie regulator on fair housing oversight --The Federal Housing Finance Agency and the Department of Housing and Urban Development on Thursday entered into a memorandum of understanding aimed at increasing Fair Housing Act enforcement for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan banks.Under the agreement the two agencies will share information and coordinate investigations and compliance reviews. HUD is primarily tasked with enforcing the Fair Housing Act, and the FHFA regulates the government-sponsored enterprises. "FHFA oversees entities that have significant control over a large share of the mortgage market. Stepping up our collective fair housing oversight of their activities will make an enormous impact,” HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge said in a press release.
CFPB servicing rule aims to stave off another foreclosure crisis -The impending termination of government aid for struggling homeowners is expected to spark a flood of foreclosures as early as next month, but the mortgage industry hopes a recent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule will help limit the damage.Federally sponsored forbearance plans begin expiring in September after a temporary foreclosure moratorium ended July 31. Many analysts believe foreclosures will soon be inevitable for hundreds of thousands of borrowers who were delinquent as soon as the pandemic began last year.But a CFPB rule taking effect Aug. 31 is designed to help servicers handle the flood of defaults and modification requests. A key provision enables lenders to process quick foreclosures for loans beyond repair, so they can focus on working with other borrowers and thereby mitigate cumulative foreclosures from COVID-19.
Fannie and Freddie: REO inventory declined in Q2, Down 49% Year-over-year 
Fannie and Freddie earlier reported results for Q2 2021. Here is some information on single-family Real Estate Owned (REOs). Note that COVID is impacting foreclosure activity, from Fannie: "The decline in single-family REO properties in the first half of 2021 compared with the first half of 2020 was due to the suspension of foreclosures that began in March 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. In response to the pandemic and with instruction from FHFA, we have prohibited our servicers from completing foreclosures on our single-family loans through July 31, 2021, except in the case of vacant or abandoned properties." Freddie Mac reported the number of REO declined to 1,477 at the end of Q2 2021 compared to 2,812 at the end of Q2 2020. For Freddie, this is down 98% from the 74,897 peak number of REOs in Q3 2010.Fannie Mae reported the number of REO declined to 6,363 at the end of Q2 2021 compared to 12,675 at the end of Q2 2020.For Fannie, this is down 96% from the 166,787 peak number of REOs in Q3 2010. Here is a graph of Fannie and Freddie Real Estate Owned (REO). REO inventory decreased in Q2 2021, and combined inventory is down 49% year-over-year.This is well below a normal level of REOs for Fannie and Freddie.
MBA Survey: "Share of Mortgage Loans in Forbearance Decreases to 3.40%" --Note: This is as of August 1st. From the MBA: Share of Mortgage Loans in Forbearance Decreases to 3.40%: The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) latest Forbearance and Call Volume Survey revealed that the total number of loans now in forbearance decreased by 7 basis points from 3.47% of servicers’ portfolio volume in the prior week to 3.40% as of August 1, 2021. According to MBA’s estimate, 1.7 million homeowners are in forbearance plans.The share of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans in forbearance decreased 5 basis points to 1.74%. Ginnie Mae loans in forbearance decreased 12 basis points to 4.18%, while the forbearance share for portfolio loans and private-label securities (PLS) decreased 7 basis points to 7.37%. The percentage of loans in forbearance for independent mortgage bank (IMB) servicers decreased 4 basis points to 3.63%, and the percentage of loans in forbearance for depository servicers decreased 10 basis points to 3.49%.“Forbearance exits increased as August began and new forbearance requests declined, resulting in the largest decrease in the share of loans in forbearance in three weeks,” said Mike Fratantoni, MBA’s Senior Vice President and Chief Economist. “1.7 million homeowners remain in forbearance, 13% of whom were current on their payments as of August 1st. Of those who exited forbearance last week, more than 10.5% were current. Forbearance has surely provided both insurance and assurance for many of these homeowners who worried about ongoing hardships, and it is positive to see so many continue to be able to make their payments while in forbearance.”“Delinquency rates have increased slightly for borrowers who have exited forbearance and began repayment plans, deferral plans, or modifications over the course of the pandemic. However, July’s strong job market report provides evidence of a rebounding economy, which should provide further support for homeowners exiting forbearance in the months ahead.” This graph shows the percent of portfolio in forbearance by investor type over time. Most of the increase was in late March and early April 2020, 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 0.06% to 0.04%."Visit website
In A Boost To Landlords, Supreme Court Blocks Part Of New York's Eviction Moratorium - The Supreme Court ruled in favor of landlords and partially blocked part of New York's eviction moratorium on Thursday.The 6-3 ruling (the court's three liberal judges—Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor—dissented) lifts the part of the moratorium that allowed tenants to claim economic hardship by filling out a form; now, according to the Supreme Court, tenants must prove economic hardship with evidence in court.The ruling stated the moratorium "violates the Court's longstanding teaching that ordinarily 'no man can be a judge in his own case' consistent with the Due Process Clause.""While I respect the U.S. Supreme Court as a separate judicial entity, I am deeply disappointed in the injunction issued yesterday that invalidates eviction protections for hundreds of thousands of tenants and denies New Yorkers this still necessary public health measure," State Senator Brian Kavanagh, who co-sponsored the legislation, said in a statement.After the decision was announced, Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul, who will become New York's Governor on August 24th, issued a statement, "No New Yorker who has been financially hit or displaced by the pandemic should be forced out of their home. As New York State's next Governor, I look forward to working with the Legislature to quickly address the Supreme Court's decision and strengthen the eviction moratorium legislation. I will work with our partners in the Legislature to help get the funding available to those in need as soon as possible."
U.S. Supreme Court strikes down part of New York's eviction ban -The U.S. Supreme Court has struck down at least part of New York's eviction moratorium, potentially leaving thousands of renters in the state at risk of being forced out of their homes.The court's order Thursday focused on the state's policy of allowing tenants to self-attest that they've experienced a Covid-related hardship, rather than documenting the setback with evidence. "This scheme violates the court's longstanding teaching that ordinarily 'no man can be a judge in his own case,'" the majority wrote. Five New York landlords and one landlords' association brought the challenge against the ban.The decision could trigger a humanitarian crisis in the state, said Rebecca Garrard, legislative director at Citizen Action of New York. "Given the sudden notice of this decision, we could see eviction numbers like we've never seen before," Gerrard said. The statewide ban was supposed to be in effect through August, but now the entire protection is in jeopardy, she said, "If you've had a notice of eviction served within the last 30 days, you could be evicted today."More than 830,000 tenants in New York are behind on their rent, with an average debt of $4,000.The ban was too broad and placed an "enormous burden" on landlords, said Olga Someras, general counsel at the Rent Stabilization Association of New York City."All you had to do was check a box; in theory, it applied to millionaires," Someras said. "There were stories where tenants were using the law meant to protect vulnerable New Yorkers as a sword rather than a shield to take advantage of landlords."The ruling on New York's ban is separate from the new nationwide eviction moratorium, announced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier in the month. That protection applies until Oct. 3 and to places where Covid rates remain high.However, the ruling suggests that broader ban may, too, be at risk."This is a very bad sign for how the Supreme Court is going to land and rule on the CDC's moratorium when it inevitably lands at their feet," Garrard said.
Evicted, Despite a Federal Moratorium: ‘I Do Not Know What I am Going to Do’ - — Inside Courtroom 8A of Las Vegas Justice Court last week, the benches were packed with renters and landlords battling over evictions that continued at a brisk pace despite a last minute, two-month extension of the federal protections meant to keep people in their homes. Vanessa Merryman, 41, was among the tenants ordered to leave her apartment. “I have never been homeless in my life,” she said through tears, slouched on a metal bench outside the courtroom as the scorching Las Vegas sun beat through the windows. She was shellshocked that the court session that upended her life lasted all of 15 minutes. “I do not know what I am going to do,” she said. “It is really scary.” The federal moratorium on evictions — combined with billions of dollars in rent subsidies — was supposed to avert the scenario of millions of Americans being turned out of their homes after they lost their jobs during the pandemic and were unable to afford their rent. Yet despite these efforts, many local governments and courts were not sure how to apply the extension, and desperate tenants continued to flood local government websites seeking rental assistance that was usually slow in coming. “The lay of the land has been confusing at every level, not just to tenants, but also to landlords, court personnel and judges,” said Dana Karni, manager of the Eviction Right to Counsel Project in Houston. In extending the moratorium last week, the Biden administration hinged it to high local coronavirus infection rates — the idea being that protection was warranted in areas where the virus was surging. Clark County, including Las Vegas, was among hundreds of counties that meet the criterion for high infection rates, but the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines gave some leeway to judges to instead apply state laws, which at times allowed for evictions. “While the extension of C.D.C. protections is much needed, the confusion that surrounds its existence waters down its impact,” Ms. Karni said. For many tenants, it was too late anyway. With state moratoriums expiring and the expectation that the federal guidelines would be gone soon, court dockets like those in Las Vegas overflowed with eviction cases. Tenants had to actively file for protection under the C.D.C. measures, but many of them were unaware of that. And as eviction proceedings rolled forward, some landlords won, citing reasons other than nonpayment of rent for seeking to remove tenants.
Mortgage Applications Increase in Latest MBA Weekly Survey - Mortgage applications increased 2.8 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending August 6, 2021.... The Refinance Index increased 3 percent from the previous week and was 8 percent lower than the same week one year ago. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 2 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index increased 1 percent compared with the previous week and was 18 percent lower than the same week one year ago.“Mortgage applications rebounded last week, including an increase in purchase applications for the first time in nearly a month. Rates slightly rose but remained below 3 percent, driven by an end-of-week increase in the 10-year Treasury yield following the positive July jobs report,” said Joel Kan, MBA’s Associate Vice President of Economic and Industry Forecasting. “Homeowners continue to respond to lower rates, with refinance activity climbing to the highest level since February 2021. The refinance share of loan counts was at 68 percent, compared to a 63.4 percent share for refinances by dollar volume, as purchase loans continue to see significantly higher loan sizes.”Added Kan, “The higher level of purchase activity last week was driven by more government purchase applications, including a 3.3 percent increase in FHA loans. With low for-sale inventory keeping home-price appreciation in many markets at record highs, the jump in FHA purchase applications is potentially a sign that more first-time buyers are finding purchase options despite the high prices.”...The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($548,250 or less) increased to 2.99 percent from 2.97 percent, with points decreasing to 0.30 from 0.33 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value ratio (LTV) loans.
Leading Index for Commercial Real Estate "Pulls Back in July" --From Dodge Data Analytics: Dodge Momentum Index Pulls Back in July: The Dodge Momentum Index fell to 155.8 (2000=100) in July, a 6% decline from the revised June reading of 164.9. The Momentum Index, issued by Dodge Data & Analytics, is a monthly measure of the first (or initial) report for nonresidential building projects in planning, which have been shown to lead construction spending for nonresidential buildings by a full year.Both components of the Momentum Index fell in July. Commercial planning fell 3%, while institutional planning dropped 9%.The Momentum Index posted strong gains through much of the winter and spring as the economy and building markets began to stabilize following the recession. While the economy has continued its forward progress through the summer, the Index has regressed somewhat as higher material prices and shortages of skilled labor continue to exert a strong influence over the construction sector. Despite the declines in June and July, the Momentum Index remains near levels last seen in 2018. Compared to a year earlier, the Momentum Index was 25% higher than in July 2020 — institutional planning was up 27% and commercial planning was 25% higher than last year.This graph shows the Dodge Momentum Index since 2002. The index was at 155.8 in June, down from 164.9 in June.According to Dodge, this index leads "construction spending for nonresidential buildings by a full year". This index suggests a decline in Commercial Real Estate construction through most of 2021, but a pickup towards the end of the year, and growth in 2022 (even with the decline in the July index).
Close to 50% of US Workers Can’t Afford to Rent One Bedroom Housing --Yves Smith - I am late to post on an important study by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, Out of Reach 2021, which is embedded at the end of this post. However, it appears to have gone under the radar when it first appeared last month; CNN was one of the few major US outlets to write up the damning report. The Guardian helped correct this lapse by posting on the report yesterday, which is how I cam across it. Among other things, it finds that a minimum wage worker can’t afford a one-bedroom rental in any county in the US.Needless to say, before gentrification, many US cities has housing alternatives for low wage workers or those who’d had a bad run of luck. They were called “flophouses” in the Depression and later “single room occupancy hotels” in New York City: a not large room with a bed, and communal toilets and showers. Now their options are things like couch surfing, living in their car (assuming they have one), being a roommate (often in an overcrowded unit), going to a shelter, sleeping on the street, or going into debt. And even seeming middle class workers can’t make ends meet due to housing costs:Ironically, the National Low Income Housing Coalition lists JP Morgan as its lone big supporter.The linchpin to the analysis is that HUD sees 30% as a realistic maximum for what a full time worker should pay for rental housing. The National Low Income Housing Coalition using that to derive a National Housing Wage:The 2021 National Housing Wage is $24.90 per hour for a modest two- bedroom rental home and $20.40 per hour for a modest one-bedroom rental home….The federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour falls well short of both the two-bedroom and one- bedroom National Housing Wages…Thirty states, the District of Columbia, and several dozen counties and municipalities now have minimum wages higher than the federal minimum wage, but even taking higher state and county minimum wages into account, the average minimum wage worker must work nearly 97 hours per week (more than 2 full- time jobs) to afford a two-bedroom rental home or 79 hours per week (almost 2 full-time jobs) to afford a one-bedroom rental home at the fair market rent. People who work 97 hours per week and need 8 hours per day of sleep have around 2 hours per day left over for everything else— commuting, cooking, cleaning, self-care, caring for children and family, and serving their community. Doing so is an impossibility for a single parent who needs a larger-than-one-bedroom apartment. Even for a one-bedroom rental, it is unreasonable to expect individuals to work 79 hours per week to afford their housing….The struggle to afford rental housing is not confined to minimum-wage workers. The average renter’s hourly wage of $18.78 is $6.12 less than the national two-bedroom Housing Wage and $1.62 less than the one-bedroom Housing Wage. As a result, the average renter must work 53 hours per week to afford a modest two- bedroom apartment. Many single parents or caregivers find it difficult to work those hours.
Delta variant, supply-chain chaos could derail back-to-school shopping -U.S. shoppers are growing more anxious about visiting stores and trying on clothing in dressing rooms, according to a recent survey. Some of those polled by First Insight also say they are beginning to cut back on spending due to the resurgence in Covid cases. Both trends threaten to slow momentum for what many were predicting to be an incredibly strong back-to-school shopping season. Deloitte has estimated that back-to-school spending for kids in grades K-12 would reach $32.5 billion this year, up 16% from 2020 and 17% from 2019. That averages out to about $612 per student. The consulting firm's estimates were based on a poll of 1,200 parents completed from May 27 to June 5. A lot has changed since then. Although parents may have extra cash after rounds of government stimulus checks and child-tax credit payments, the recent surge in Covid cases fueled by the delta variant could upset these predictions. Couple that with tight inventories, caused by shipping disruptions and conservative planning on the part of retailers and things may not be as rosy as they looked when students began their summer breaks. No doubt, there are worries back-to-school plans could change at the last minute. After all, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reversed its policy on masking, calling for vaccinated individuals to once again wear masks indoors to prevent Covid's spread. The new guidance has prompted consumers to rethink decisions about dining out, traveling and making other purchases. Fifty-six percent of consumers say they're proactively cutting back their spending at retail establishments, First Insight found in a survey of 1,038 people it fielded on Thursday. That's up from 52% a month earlier, when the predictive consumer analytics firm asked consumers the same questions about their shopping behaviors tied to the pandemic. First Insight's poll also found that 64% said they are generally anxious about the pandemic, up from 51% in July. Fifty-six percent reported feeling nervous about interacting with sales associates in stores, a sharp increase from 43% in July. "The tail winds that retailers and restaurants have enjoyed recently may be short-lived," S&P Global Ratings analyst Sarah Wyeth said in a report to clients.
BLS: CPI increased 0.5% in July, Core CPI increased 0.3% - From the BLS:The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased 0.5 percent in July on a seasonally adjusted basis after rising 0.9 percent in June, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 5.4 percent before seasonal adjustment.The indexes for shelter, food, energy, and new vehicles all increased in July and contributed to the monthly all items seasonally adjusted increase. The food index increased 0.7 percent in July as five of the major grocery store food group indexes rose, and the food away from home index increased 0.8 percent. The energy index rose 1.6 percent in July, as the gasoline index increased 2.4 percent and other energy component indexes also rose.The index for all items less food and energy rose 0.3 percent in July after increasing 0.9 percent in June. Along with shelter and new vehicles, the indexes for recreation, for medical care, and for personal care increased in July. The index for used cars also increased in July, but the 0.2-percent advance was much smaller than in recent months. The index for motor vehicle insurance declined in July, and the index for airline fares fell slightly.The all items index rose 5.4 percent for the 12 months ending July, the same increase as the period ending June. The index for all items less food and energy rose 4.3 percent over the last 12 months, while the energy index rose 23.8 percent. The food index increased 3.4 percent for the 12 months ending July, compared to a 2.4-percent rise for the period ending June. CPI was at expectations, and core CPI was slightly below expectations. I'll post a graph later today after the Cleveland Fed releases the median and trimmed-mean CPI.
Consumer Price Index: July Headline Remains at 5.4% - The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the July Consumer Price Index data this morning. The year-over-year non-seasonally adjusted Headline CPI came in at 5.37%, down fractionally from 5.39% the previous month. Year-over-year Core CPI (ex Food and Energy) came in at 4.27%, down from 4.47% the previous month and above the Fed's 2% PCE target.Here is the introduction from the BLS summary, which leads with the seasonally adjusted monthly data:The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased 0.5 percent in July on a seasonally adjusted basis after rising 0.9 percent in June, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 5.4 percent before easonal adjustment.The indexes for shelter, food, energy, and new vehicles all increased in July and contributed to the monthly all items seasonally adjusted increase. The food index increased 0.7 percent in July as five of the major grocery store food group indexes rose, and the food away from home index increased 0.8 percent. The energy index rose 1.6 percent in July, as the gasoline index increased 2.4 percent and other energy component indexes also rose.The index for all items less food and energy rose 0.3 percent in July after increasing 0.9 percent in June. Along with shelter and new vehicles, the indexes for recreation, for medical care, and for personal care increased in July. The index for used cars also increased in July, but the 0.2-percent advance was much smaller than in recent months. The index for motor vehicle insurance declined in July, and the index for airline fares fell slightly.The all items index rose 5.4 percent for the 12 months ending July, the same increase as the period ending June. The index for all items less food and energy rose 4.3 percent over the last 12 months, while the energy index rose 23.8 percent. The food index increased 3.4 percent for the 12 months ending July, compared to a 2.4-percent rise for the period ending June. Read moreInvesting.com was looking for a 0.5% MoM change in seasonally adjusted Headline CPI and a 0.4% in Core CPI. Year-over-year forecasts were 5.3% for Headline and 4.3% for Core.The first chart is an overlay of Headline CPI and Core CPI (the latter excludes Food and Energy) since the turn of the century. The highlighted two percent level is the Federal Reserve's Core inflation target for the CPI's cousin index, the BEA's Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index.
"Transitory" Inflation Cooling As "Sticky" Heats Up: Here Is The Heatmap From Today's CPI Report -First the facts: core CPI rose 0.3% (0.33% unrounded) mom in July, coming in a touch below consensus at 0.4% mom and cooling off notably following the prior three months of average 0.8% spikes. Unfavorable base effects led to the % yoy rate dropping to 4.3% (4.27% unrounded) from 4.5% yoy in June. At the same time, headline CPI came in stronger at 0.5% (0.47% unrounded), boosted by a 1.6% pop in energy and 0.7% jump in food, which kept the % yoy unchanged at 5.4%.According to BofA - and judging by the market's delighted kneejerk response - this month revealed significant cooling in transitory inflation. First on the goods shortages theme: used car prices edged up 0.2% mom, even though new cars were much stronger at 1.7% mom. Some joked that this is an example of carbitrage, where "people buy new cars then flip them for profit as used cars"That said, and as noted earlier, given the signal from wholesale used car prices as per the Mannheim Used Vehicle Indexwhich began to turn lower in June, BofA expects negative readings in CPI used cars beginning next month in further relief to "transitory" inflation. Car/truck rental prices also dropped 4.6% mom following record gains in previous months, likely reflecting the start of a negative payback.Meanwhile, price pressures were mixed across commodities: household furnishings/supplies edged up 0.1% mom, apparel was flat, and both medical commodities and other goods rose 0.2% mom. Meanwhile, recreation and education/communication commodities saw stronger readings of 0.5% and 0.8%, respectively.Not everything "transitory" declined, however: reopening strength continued with lodging exploding 6.0% mom. However, airline fares edged down -0.1% mom leaving prices still 9.7% below pre-pandemic levels, perhaps in response to the recent media panic over the Delta variant. High frequency travel data have shown signs of plateauing in recent weeks, amid rising virus cases, which point to limited upside in airline fares in coming months. The broader transportation services sector plunged 1.1% mom, with a 2.8% dive in motor vehicle insurance a big drag. This largely reflects distorted seasonal factors after auto insurance credits were offered in spring 2020. Finally, seasonal factors support another big decline in August, though turn favorable in September which should lead to choppiness.
Producer prices soar 7.8% annually in July, most on record | Fox Business - Producer prices accelerated at the fastest annual pace on record in July as supply chain disruptions and materials shortages continued to put upward pressure on costs. The producer price index for final demand increased at a 7.8% pace for the 12 months ended July, according to the Labor Department. The July print was faster than the 7.3% pace recorded in June and ahead of the 7.3% rate that analysts surveyed by Refinitiv were expecting. The reading was the strongest since recordkeeping began in November 2010. Producer prices rose 1% in July, matching the increase from June. Analysts were anticipating prices would grow at a 0.6% pace. Nearly three-quarters of the increase was due to the 1.1% rise in prices for final demand services, the largest on record. Almost half of the increase was due to a 1.7% rise in margins for final demand trade services, which measure changes in margins received by wholesalers and retailers. Approximately 20% of the increase can be attributed to margins for automobiles and automobile parts retailing, which jumped 11.2%. Airline passenger services and hospital outpatient care were among the other indexes that saw gains. Portfolio management saw a 1.8% decline. Indexes for chemicals and allied products wholesaling and for fuels and lubricants retailing also turned lower. Prices for final demand goods, meanwhile, rose 0.6%. Prices for tobacco products saw a notable 2.7% increase while prices for beef and veal fell 11.6%. Core producer prices, which exclude food and energy, rose 1% in July, double the 0.5% gain that was expected. Core prices climbed 6.2% annually, compared to the 5.6% increase that was forecast. The year-over-year increase was the largest since the data series began in August 2014.
Weekly Initial Unemployment Claims decrease to 375,000 --The DOL reported:: In the week ending August 7, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 375,000, a decrease of 12,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 2,000 from 385,000 to 387,000. The 4-week moving average was 396,250, an increase of 1,750 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised up by 500 from 394,000 to 394,500.This does not include the 104,572 initial claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) that was up from 94,427 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 394,000.The previous week was revised up. Regular state continued claims decreased to 2,866,000 (SA) from 2,980,000 (SA) the previous week.Note: There are an additional 4,820,787 receiving Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) that decreased from 5,156,982 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 3,852,569 receiving Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) down from 4,246,207.Weekly claims were close to the consensus forecast.
BLS: Job Openings Increase to Series High 10.1 Million in June - 
From the BLS: Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary; The number of job openings increased to a series high of 10.1 million on the last business day of June, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Hires rose to 6.7 million and total separations edged up to 5.6 million. Within separations, the quits rate increased to 2.7 percent. The layoffs and discharges rate was unchanged at 0.9 percent, matching the series low reached last month.The following graph shows job openings (yellow line), hires (dark blue), Layoff, Discharges and other (red column), and Quits (light blue column) from the JOLTS.This series started in December 2000.Note: The difference between JOLTS hires and separations is similar to the CES (payroll survey) net jobs headline numbers. This report is for June, the most recent employment report was for July. Note that hires (dark blue) and total separations (red and light blue columns stacked) are usually pretty close each month. This is a measure of labor market turnover. When the blue line is above the two stacked columns, the economy is adding net jobs - when it is below the columns, the economy is losing jobs.The huge spikes in layoffs and discharges in March 2020 are labeled, but off the chart to better show the usual data.Jobs openings increased in June to 10.073 million from 9.483 million in May. This is a new record high for this series.The number of job openings (yellow) were up 65% year-over-year. Quits were up 46% year-over-year. These are voluntary separations. (see light blue columns at bottom of graph for trend for "quits").
June JOLTS report: at last, new hires (slightly) outpace record job openings -- This morning’s JOLTS report for May was the best we have seen since the immediate rebound from the pandemic lockdowns. There was yet another record level continued all of unfilled job openings, yet another new record low in layoffs and discharges, an enhanced number of people quitting their jobs, and finally - for the first time this year - a huge number of new hires, setting a new m/m record high outside of the immediate lockdown rebound last year. Here are the month over month percentage changes for each of those metrics: As noted above, headline job openings (blue), which have been making new all-time records for month, were finally joined by a nearly 700,000 gain in actual hires (gold): Voluntary quits also rose, and are higher than any other prior month except this past April: The record number of people voluntarily quitting their jobs (meaning they are not eligible for unemployment benefits) is testimony to the record robustness of the jobs market. Finally, while total separations (light blue, left scale) are at normal levels, layoffs and discharges (violet, right scale) declined to yet another all time low: This is a market that is beginning to arrive at a new equilibrium, after having been out of equilibrium for most of this year. Almost nobody is getting laid off, but lots of people are quitting. But the big change is, while there are continued record openings, finally there is hiring outpacing the level of new openings to fill them. I want to share two other graphs that I came across recently. The first, from Wolf Richter, shows that continued unemployment claims have declined in the aggregate in States that have cut off pandemic unemployment benefits vs. those that have retained them: One drawback of this graph is that we can’t tell if the difference is driven by just one or two of the big States, but I think it makes a valid point that is also consistent with this second graph, which I have posted previously but was forwarded to me again last week: Together, these show that while undoubtedly for some of those people not entering the job market continued pandemic jobless benefits are an issue, for many more the lack of COVID safety in the locale where they live, the unavailability of reasonable-cost child care, or the general low pay for the labor required, are keeping them on the sidelines. A great deal depends on the course of the Delta wave. If it burns through the dry tinder and recedes over the next 45 days, then we may see openings gradually level off and begin to decline, while hiring continues to increase sharply. If not, well, . . . .
Average grocery, restaurant worker pay hits $15 an hour for first time - Average pay for restaurant and grocery workers rose above $15 an hour for the first time, according to Labor Department data reviewed by The Washington Post.The Labor Department reported that in June, the most recent month where data is available, nonmanagerial restaurant workers earned an average of $15.31 an hour, which is a more than 10 percent increase from the $13.86 hourly wage workers were taking home before the pandemic, the Post noted. Grocery store workers took home on average $15.04 an hour in June, which was up 7 percent from when the pandemic began.Workers in seafood markets, office supply stores, liquor stores, day care services and janitorial services also saw hourly wages surpass the $15 benchmark, according to the Post, in addition to parking lot attendants and individuals who care for the elderly or disabled. Overall, almost 80 percent of all workers in the U.S. now take home paychecks that offer at least $15 an hour, according to the Post. In 2014, that number sat at just 60 percent.The U.S. added 943,000 jobs in July, causing the unemployment rate to drop 0.4 percentage points to 5.4 percent. The increase in jobs came amid a summer rush of travel and recreation spending, as severe COVID-19 restrictions eased. Democrats on Capitol Hill tried to pass a federal minimum wage increase as part of the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill in February, but the Senate Parliamentarian ruled that the boost is not in line with budget rules.
Census data shows LGBT Americans hit harder by economic, food insecurity amid pandemic U.S. Census Bureau data released this week revealed that LGBT Americans have reported larger rates of economic and food insecurity amid the coronavirus pandemic than Americans who do not identify as members of the community. The findings came in the latest Household Pulse Survey, which the Census Bureau first launched in April 2020 to measure U.S. household experiences during the pandemic. This week’s report is the first to include data on gender identity and sexual orientation. The data, which was collected from July 21 to Aug. 2, found that nearly 20 percent of LGBT adults reported a loss of income in the previous four weeks, compared to about 17 percent of non-LGBT adults. Additionally, about 13 percent of adults who identified as LGBT said they lived in a household where there was either sometimes or often not enough food available to eat within the past week, compared to roughly 7 percent of non-LGBT adults. LGBT Americans were also more likely to report issues of covering basic expenses and other living costs, with nearly 37 percent saying they lived in a house that “had difficulty paying for usual household expenses” in the previous week. Comparatively, 26 percent of non-LGBT adults reported challenges in paying for household expenses. In homes that were rented or owned with a mortgage or loan, 8 percent of LGBT adults said they were not confident they would be able to meet their next housing payment, while 6 percent of non-LGBT Americans said the same. The latest data, which came from survey responses from a total of more than 64,000 U.S. households, suggests that the coronavirus pandemic may be exacerbating the financial challenges among LGBT Americans, who even before COVID-19 hit had already been more likely to experience greater financial hardship than non-LGBT people.
New Orleans Jazz Fest is canceled amid rise in virus cases. -The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival has been canceled, officials said Sunday, citing the “exponential growth of new Covid cases in New Orleans and the region.”The festival, normally held in the spring, had been rescheduled for Oct. 8 to 17 in the hope that vaccinations would make the event possible. Ticket holders will receive emails soon outlining refund options.Reported cases hit a record high this month in Louisiana, with the state reporting an average of 4,600 new cases a day in the past week, according to a New York Times database. Hospitalizations are up 140 percent to a daily average of 2,037, and deaths have risen 193 percent to an average of 30 a day.Louisiana reinstated indoor mask mandates this month to try to help contain the infections that have been fueled by the state’s low vaccination rate and the highly contagious Delta variant of the virus. Only 37 percent of the state’s population has been fully vaccinated, according to New York Times data.Many employers have already canceled or delayed return-to-office plans, but Jazz Fest was one of the first major events to be canceled amid a wave of reported cases that Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has called the “pandemic of the unvaccinated.”
Judge allows cruise line to temporarily require proof of vaccination in Florida. --A federal judge on Sunday granted Norwegian Cruise Line’s request for a preliminary injunction, temporarily allowing the company to require proof of vaccination from passengers despite a Florida law that bans businesses from doing so. Gov. Ron DeSantis’s office said in an emailed statement on Monday that it plans to appeal the ruling. Mr. DeSantis signed a state law in May that set fines for businesses requiring customers to provide proof of vaccination. Norwegian’s next cruise ship to sail from Florida is set for Aug. 15, out of Miami. In a statement on Sunday, the company said the ruling would allow it to “operate in the safest way possible.”“We welcome today’s ruling that allows us to sail with 100 percent fully vaccinated guests and crew, which we believe is the safest and most prudent way to resume cruise operations amid this global pandemic,” said Frank Del Rio, the president and chief executive. In the order, Judge Kathleen Williams of U.S. District Court noted that scientific research shows that “cruise lines are hotbeds for Covid-19 transmission.” She also cited the potential for the cruise line to suffer financially if Norwegian was forced to cancel trips or reroute around Florida.
American, Delta, Southwest Airlines: No Immediate Plans For COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates Three major U.S. airlines - American, Delta, and Southwest - are currently not requiring COVID-19 vaccine mandates for staff, though they haven’t definitively ruled it out as a matter of future policy, according to reports and statements from spokespersons. Southwest CEO Gary Kelly wrote in an internal memo cited by CNN that he would “continue to strongly encourage” employees to get vaccinated, but that it would not be a requirement at this stage. “Obviously, I am very concerned about the latest Delta variant, and the effect on the health and safety of our employees and our operation, but nothing has changed,” Kelly wrote. A Southwest spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement that “we still are strongly encouraging our Employees to vaccinate themselves and to share with us their vaccination status,” but beyond that “we don’t have anything else to share” on the topic.
Sturgis Motorcycle Rally kicks off amid COVID-19 surge fueled by Delta variant - Thousands of bikers have converged on the tiny South Dakota community of Sturgis for the annual 10-day Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.The rally got underway on Friday amid a surge of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. being fueled by the highly-contagious Delta variant. In South Dakota, cases spiked nearly 70% in the days before the rally started.The rally kicked off ceremoniously, with no mask mandates. No proof of vaccinations are needed, Mola Lenghi reports for "CBS This Morning: Saturday.""We're not going to start checking papers. I mean, that's not really an American way," said Daniel Ainslie, city manager of Sturgis, which has a population of 7,000.Last year's rally was pinned a superspreader event. This year, people can drink on the streets to avoid crowded bars.
Washington State sets vaccine mandate for government and health care workers. -The Washington State police in Seattle last month. Gov. Jay Inslee announced on Monday that state workers must be vaccinated against the coronavirus as a condition of employment.Credit...Jason Redmond/ReutersGov. Jay Inslee of Washington announced Monday that most state employees and all health care workers must be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus by Oct. 18, or risk losing their jobs.“We have essentially a new virus at our throats,” Mr. Inslee said at a news conference, referring to the Delta variant.Mr. Inslee went beyond similar orders issued by other states by saying that a refusal could lead to being fired. This would apply to both private and public sector workers, including 60,000 state employees, as well as 14,000 that work for King County and 10,000 employed by Seattle. The policy also includes contractors who work at state, county and city locations, like construction sites, offices and health care facilities.“These workers live in every community in our state, working together and with the public every day to deliver services,” Mr. Inslee said. “We have a duty to protect them from the virus, they have the right to be protected, and the communities they serve and live in deserve protection as well.” Applications will be considered for “legitimate medical reasons or sincerely held religious beliefs,” the governor said, but not for philosophical objections. Employees will not be able to forego the vaccine and get tested weekly.Mr. Inslee’s office said that the bill for coronavirus tests would be in the millions of dollars if continued indefinitely and the testing option had not worked well in public facilities like prisons, privately-run hospitals or nursing homes. “We’re past the point where we can test our way to safety,” he said. “They don’t solve the problem.”Mr. Inslee is using the emergency authority powers he was granted during the coronavirus pandemic to issue the new order, his office said. The state licenses health care workers in private facilities and settings, and the governor said that the same enforcement mechanism that comes into play when a medical error or the wrong medicine is given. “This is a life-and-safety rule,” he added.The directive does not extend to workers in higher education, public education, or employees of the legislative and judicial branches. “The reason we’re in this pickle today is because 30 percent of our eligible citizens, so far, have chose not to get to the vaccine,” Mr. Inslee said, emphasizing that it was not too late for both residents and state employees. But those on public salaries “essentially have to have your last vaccine by Oct. 4,” he said.
A wave of vaccine mandates sweeps the U.S. -As the Delta virus variant gathers speed, so are Covid-19 vaccine mandates: from the local level, like San Francisco’s strict mandate for indoor public spaces, to the vast federal bureaucracy.The flurry of increasingly strict vaccine rules for public workers, private companies and colleges comes as virus cases and hospitalizations have risen sharply, reaching rates not seen since their winter peak and testing the limits of hospitals across the United States. The mandates are only expected to accelerate once the Food and Drug Administration grants full approval to the vaccine in the coming weeks.About 50 percent of Americans are fully vaccinated, and vaccination rates have begun climbing again, to nearly 700,000 new doses administered every day. But tens of millions of Americans are still holding out.On Thursday alone, Covid vaccine mandates proliferated and gained support with a stunning swiftness:
- San Francisco leaders unveiled some of the nation’s toughest restrictions on unvaccinated people, barring them from indoor dining, bars, nightclubs, gyms, large concerts, theaters and other events held inside. The new rules, which take effect on Aug. 20, would apply even to people who can show they have tested negative for the coronavirus. City employees and restaurant and bar workers will be given a grace period.
- The Department of Health and Human Services said it would require more than 25,000 health workers — including contractors and volunteers — to receive coronavirus vaccines, becoming the latest federal agency to implement such a mandate. That goes beyond President Biden’s announcement last month that civilian federal workers would either have to be vaccinated or submit to severe restrictions. The mandate applies to members of the Indian Health Service and the National Institutes of Health who work in federally run facilities and deal with patients, and the U.S. Public Health Service, which is led by the surgeon general.
- The Department of Veterans Affairs will require nearly every worker, volunteer and contractor within its vast health care system to be vaccinated against the coronavirus over the next eight weeks. Last month, the department began requiring shots for 115,000 of its frontline health care workers, making it the first federal agency to mandate that employees, including doctors, dentists and registered nurses, be inoculated. The expansion will impact about 245,000 more workers.
- The Supreme Court allowed Indiana University to require students to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who oversees the federal appeals court in question, turned down a request for emergency relief from a group of eight students who had sued, saying the requirement violated their constitutional rights to “bodily integrity, autonomy and medical choice.”
- The nation’s largest teachers’ union, the National Education Association, offered its support to policies that would require all teachers to get vaccinated against Covid or submit to regular testing. The announcement comes after Randi Weingarten, the powerful leader of the American Federation of Teachers, another major education union, signaled her strongest support yet for vaccine mandates on Sunday.
Peter Singer on compulsory vaccination - Peter Singer: The reason is that we are not good at protecting ourselves against very small risks of disaster. Each time we get into a car, the chance that we will be involved in an accident serious enough to cause injury, if we are not wearing a seat belt, is very small. Nevertheless, given the negligible cost of wearing a belt, a reasonable calculation of one’s own interests shows that it is irrational not to wear one. Car crash survivors who were injured because they were not wearing seat belts recognize and regret their irrationality – but only when it is too late, as it always is for those who were killed while sitting on their belts.We are now seeing a very similar situation with vaccination. Brytney Cobia recently posted on Facebook the following account of her experiences working as a doctor in Birmingham, Alabama:“I’m admitting young healthy people to the hospital with very serious COVID infections. One of the last things they do before they’re intubated is beg me for the vaccine. I hold their hand and tell them that I’m sorry, but it’s too late. A few days later when I call time of death, I hug their family members and I tell them the best way to honor their loved one is to go get vaccinated and encourage everyone they know to do the same. They cry. And they tell me they didn’t know. They thought it was a hoax. They thought it was political. They thought because they had a certain blood type or a certain skin color they wouldn’t get as sick. They thought it was ‘just the flu.’ But they were wrong. And they wish they could go back. But they can’t.”The same reason justifies making vaccination against COVID-19 compulsory: otherwise, too many people make decisions that they later regret. One would have to be monstrously callous to say: “It’s their own fault, let them die.” I look forward to Jason Brennan’s rebuttal.
"No Mingling": Hawaii Revives COVID-19 Restrictions Over Fear Of Delta Variant -The state of Hawaii announced it would reintroduce restrictions on social gatherings due to the COVID-19 Delta variant.“With COVID-19 cases going up, the State of Hawaiʻi is taking precautions now to avert a strain on our healthcare systems. To that end—I’ll be signing an Executive Order that will limit social gatherings, effective immediately,” Gov. Dan Ige, a Democrat, announced Wednesday on Twitter.The order would limit capacity at restaurants, bars, gyms, and social establishments to 50 percent of capacity. It also caps indoor and outdoor gatherings to 10 and 25 people, respectively.“Patrons in restaurants bars and social establishments must remain seated with parties maintaining at least 6 ft distancing between groups (with maximum groups size of 10 indoors and 25 outdoors); there will be no mingling, and masks must be worn at all times except when actively eating or drinking,” according to a news release from his office.The order also stipulates that county governments “will review proposals for all professionally sponsored events for more than 50 people, to ensure that appropriate safe practices will be implemented.” “Organizers of these professional events must notify and consult with the following county agencies prior to the event. County approval is required for professional events for more than 50 people,” Ige’s office added.The policies will remain in effect until Oct. 18, according to Ige’s office, unless another order is implemented.
San Francisco announces strict requirements barring the unvaccinated from indoor spaces. - San Francisco leaders on Thursday unveiled some of the nation’s toughest restrictions on unvaccinated people, barring them from indoor dining, bars, nightclubs, gyms, large concerts, theaters and other events held inside. The new rules, which take effect on Aug. 20, would apply even to people who can show they have tested negative for the coronavirus.The rules are similar to those announced by Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York earlier this month, except that San Francisco will require patrons to be fully vaccinated while New York requiresonly a minimum of one dose. The new requirements come amid a flurry of increasingly strict vaccine rules for public workers, private companies and colleges and as virus cases and hospitalizations have risen sharply across the country that are only expected to accelerate once the Food and Drug Administration grants full approval to the vaccine in the coming weeks.San Francisco’s order does not apply to people dining outdoors, entering a restaurant to order take-out or to children under 12, who are not yet eligible for vaccines.City officials indicated that they will give more leeway to employees of affected businesses than to patrons. Restaurant and bar workers have until Oct. 13 to prove that they are fully vaccinated, a move that the mayor said was designed to prevent people from losing their jobs. The city is also giving a grace period toits 35,000 municipal employees, who are required to be vaccinated 10 weeks after the final F.D.A. approval. Health care workers and those who work in homeless shelters, jails and other congregate settings considered high risk have until Sept. 15 to be vaccinated.
Big City Mayors Leaving Office After COVID, Mass Protests --The unprecedented COVID-19 crisis, major financial problems, race reckoning, and the movement to defund the police have caused a growing number of big city mayors look for new careers. They are citing burnout and a feeling of being blamed for problems far beyond their control, according to Politico. Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan will not seek a second term even though she has many years of experience in politics having served as a federal prosecutor. Washington state was hit hard and early by COVID and Durkan was unprepared for the tremendous challenges of running a city during a pandemic. She was faced with pandemic surges and demonstrations over police brutality. For her, it was like running an Ironman at a sprint pace. "When you're in the cauldron, making those tough decisions, it becomes much more clear. I could either do the job they elected me to do or run to keep the job. But I couldn't do both," Durkan, a Democrat and daughter of Martin Durkan, a state legislator and power broker in Washington state, told Politico. Durkan had proposed cutting the Seattle police budget by $20 million or about five percent and she wanted more police reforms in response to George Floyd's death. Protestors and even some city councilors who supported the Defund the Police movement wanted a 50% cut. A large group of demonstrators including a city councilor marched in her neighborhood last summer after they determined her address which had been hidden. Durkan and her family had been receiving death threats. She received messages like "Guillotine Jenny" that were written on her street. "You can come to my house 100 times and that's not going to stop me from doing what I think is right. But it did make things inordinately more difficult because I was worried not just about my own personal security but the security of my family," said Durkan. The lockdowns caused by COVID led to a huge economic downturn that damaged city budgets. Eventually federal aid helped alleviate some of the problems but not before many people lost their jobs and businesses. The killing of George Floyd led to big protests in many U.S. cities and then there were problems created by the most contentious presidential election in recent times. Some cities were literally burning because of these controversies. Many city leaders want out some for personal reasons or because they are termed-out but others want out because they believe it is not worth the stress or that another person might be more suited for the job. "It is time to pass the baton," said Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms as she announced she would not seek a second term. Bottoms does not know what her next move will be.
Arkansas’ governor says it ‘was an error’ to ban mask mandates.-Gov. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas said on Sunday that he had made a mistake in signing a law banning mask mandates in his state.“It was an error to sign that law. I admit that,” Mr. Hutchinson, a Republican, said on the CBS program “Face the Nation.”Arkansas, which has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country, has seen cases approach last winter’s surge counts. It now has a seven-day rolling average of 2,351 new daily cases.“Facts change, and leaders have to adjust to the new facts and the reality of what you have to deal with,” Mr. Hutchinson said. “Whenever I signed that law, our cases were low, we were hoping that the whole thing was gone, in terms of the virus, but it roared back with the Delta variant.”Mr. Hutchinson signed the bill banning mask mandates in April, and he had been working to modify it in the wake of rising case counts and outbreaks at schools. But the state legislature has declined to take up the new legislation. On Friday, a judgetemporarily blocked the ban, allowing schools and other government entities in Arkansas to require masks.
New data shows a mass exodus from U.S. public schools, especially kindergarten. -As the pandemic upended life in the United States, more than one million children who had been expected to enroll in public schools did not show up, either in person or online. The missing students were concentrated in the younger grades, with the steepest drop in kindergarten — more than 340,000 students, according to government data. Now, the first analysis of enrollment at 70,000 public schools across 33 states offers a detailed portrait of these kindergartners. It shows that just as the pandemic lay bare vast disparities in health care and income, it also hardened inequities in education, setting back some of the most vulnerable students before they spent even one day in a classroom.The analysis by The New York Times in conjunction with Stanford University shows that in those 33 states, 10,000 local public schools lost at least 20 percent of their kindergartners. In 2019 and in 2018, only 4,000 or so schools experienced such steep drops.The months of closed classrooms took a toll on nearly all students, and families of all levels of income and education scrambled to help their children make up for the gaps. But the most startling declines were in neighborhoods below and just above the poverty line, where the average household income for a family of four was $35,000 or less. The drop was 28 percent larger in schools in those communities than in the rest of the country.While kindergarten is optional in many states, educators say there is no great substitute for quality, in-person kindergarten. For many students, it’s their introduction to school. They are taught to cooperate and to identify numbers and letters. They learn early phonics and number sense — the concept of bigger and smaller quantities.
Some children who had mild Covid are facing confounding long-term symptoms.Will Grogan stared blankly at his ninth-grade biology assignment. It was work he had mastered in class the day before, but now it looked utterly unfamiliar.“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he blurted to his teacher and classmates, who reminded him how he’d answered questions about the topic the previous class. “I’ve never seen this before,” he insisted, becoming so distressed that the teacher excused him to visit the school nurse.The episode, earlier this year, is one of numerous cognitive mix-ups that have plagued Will, 15, since he contracted Covid-19 in October, along with fatigue, aching legs and dizziness. As young people across the United States prepare to return to school, many are struggling to recover from lingering neurological, physical or psychiatric symptoms.Often called “long Covid,” the symptoms vary from patient to patient, as does the duration and severity. Studies estimate long Covid may affect 10 percent to 30 percent of adults infected with the coronavirus. Estimates from the handful of studies of children so far range widely.Pediatric coronavirus cases have risen sharply, driven by the highly contagious Delta variant and the fact that well under half of 12- to 17-year-olds are vaccinated and children under 12 are still ineligible.
DeSoto Parish superintendent debunks rumor of 100+ kids being out with COVID . (KSLA) - The superintendent of DeSoto Parish Schools is addressing a rumor that has been circulating about more than 100 kids being out due to COVID-19.KSLA reached out to Superintendent Clay Corley Wednesday, Aug. 11 after receiving messages from a number of concerned parents. The superintendent provided us with the following response:“We have seen some instances of positive Covid cases. Similar to what we saw throughout last school year. We continue to monitor our numbers closely and communicate daily with the Dept. of Health to work through all close contact and quarantine situations. We would like to remind parents and families to remember to follow the self-screening guidance and keep children at home if they are experiencing any symptoms. We will also be offering vaccination clinics at all schools throughout the school year for students and staff beginning next week. Dates are available on our website and through our various social media platforms.” The Louisiana Department of Health (LDH) tracks outbreaks at schools in the state. Click here to keep up with their data.
Dallas schools to defy governor's order and require masks - A Dallas school district is defying Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's (R) ban on mask mandates in schools and will require all staff, students and visitors to wear face coverings on district property beginning Tuesday. The Dallas Independent School District (ISD) said the new measure comes as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Dallas County health officials have increased the local COVID-19 alert to level red, and reported that hospitalizations are increasing at the quickest pace since the beginning of the pandemic, including among children. The district noted in a statement that while no vaccines are authorized for children under the age of 12, “school attendance is mandatory, and virtual learning is not an option at this time.” It said it will provide masks and sanitizer at buildings within the district and continue contact tracing in "keeping with the top priority of safeguarding the health and well-being of staff and students.” The new policy comes after Abbott signed an executive order in May that prohibited “governmental entities in Texas,” including school districts, counties, cities, public health authorities and government officials, from imposing mask mandates. The governor’s office said that individuals who try to violate the order by requiring masks be worn could be subject to a fine of up to $1,000. The Dallas ISD addressed Abbott’s executive order in its statement, writing that the governor demand “does not limit the district’s rights as an employer and educational institution to establish reasonable and necessary safety rules for its staff and students.” “Dallas ISD remains committed to the safety of our students and staff,” the district added. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has signed a similar order prohibiting mask mandates in schools throughout the Sunshine State.M
Tennessee schools face state threats over mask mandates - Tennessee’s two largest school districts’ attempts to protect more than 200,000 students, teachers and staff from COVID-19 face threats of funding cuts from state officials. Memphis/Shelby County and Nashville/Davidson County school systems have implemented mandatory mask wearing for students, teachers, staff and anyone else entering schools and school buses. Memphis schools open today, August 9, and Nashville schools tomorrow, August 10. Memphis established the policy some time ago for this school year while Nashville’s school board approved the policy by an 8-1 vote on Thursday. As of this writing, Nashville and Memphis are the only two school systems in the state to have such mandates. A high-ranking state official immediately shot back that he would ask the governor for a special session of the state legislature to create what amounts to an emergency voucher program for those opposed to school mask mandates. “I’m going to ask the governor for legislation to allow those parents in those school districts to take their money through school choice and to go wherever they deem they need to go,” House Speaker Cameron Sexton told the Tennessean . Memphis, one of the poorest cities of its size in the United States, has 223 schools serving 113,198 students, far and away the largest K-12 public school system in the state. Nashville follows with 168 schools and 85,500 students. Following a distant third is Knox County (Knoxville) where masking in the schools is optional. It has 91 schools and 61,545 students. When schools open, state officials could have a sword of financial destruction held over the heads of the two districts. The threat of funding cuts is directed against mask mandates, remote learning, or any effort to “segregate classrooms based on who has and hasn’t been vaccinated,” the Tennessean newspaper reported last week.
Parents surround health workers advocating for masks in schools: 'We know who you are' -A group of parents in Tennessee surrounded health care professionals outside of a school board meeting on Tuesday, after they advocated for mask mandate in the local school district, The Tennessean reported.According to video circulated on social media, a group of parents in Franklin, Tenn., surrounded the health care workers while they were leaving a building during a Williamson County School District Board meeting. The footage shows parents chanting "we'll not comply" as the workers exit through building doors. Some parents are seen yelling obscenities toward one health care professional as he heads into the parking lot. One woman can be heard yelling "take that mask off!" As the footage continues, an unmasked man in a black shirt can be seen yelling at the health care worker who has made it into his car. "You're not on our side!" he yells. "We know who you are." Another man in a blue, long sleeved shirt confronted the driver. “We know who you are. You can leave freely, but we will find you,” he said, pointing a finger at the driver's side window. The confrontation between parents and medical workers comes after the Williamson County Schools (WCS) voted on Tuesday to require a mask mandate for students and faculty members in their district, according to the Tennessean. Some of the parents in the district said that the mask mandate amounts to child abuse, according to the footage. The four-hour school board meeting drew a crowd of anti-mask protesters including former sports journalist and conservative political commentator Clay Travis, who has children that attend schools in the district, the Tennessean reported. Another video showed a male protester being escorted out of the building during the meeting by local authorities for being disruptive. Other protesters followed suit by leaving the board meeting as well.
DeSantis threatens to withhold salaries in school mask-mandate dispute -In his ongoing crusade against mask mandates in schools, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) announced on Monday that the Florida Board of Education could withhold the salaries of superintendents and school board members who defy his ban on facial coverings."With respect to enforcing any financial consequences for noncompliance of state law regarding these rules and ultimately the rights of parents to make decisions about their children’s education and health care decisions, it would be the goal of the State Board of Education to narrowly tailor any financial consequences to the offense committed," DeSantis's office said in a statement to WFOR-TV. His office added that DeSantis's priorities were "protecting parents' rights" and "ensuring that every student has access to a high-quality education that meets their unique needs." "For example, the State Board of Education could move to withhold the salary of the district superintendent or school board members, as a narrowly tailored means to address the decision-makers who led to the violation of law," the statement continued.The Florida governor has already threatened to cut off funding to schools that enact mask mandates for students.DeSantis has been engaged in an ongoing spat with the Biden administration regarding his decision to prohibit mask mandates in Florida. Last week, two lawsuits were filed against DeSantis challenging his ban's constitutionality.One of the suits argued that the Florida state constitution guaranteed a safe school environment and provided counties with the power to govern themselves.Fellow Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas said last week that he regretted signing a ban on mask mandates, asking the state legislature to reverse the decision. Hutchinson said he had signed the law when cases were low in his state and argued that even if he hadn't signed it, the legislature would have overridden him.
Local officials in Florida prepare to defy the governor’s no-mask mandate. - The recent rise in U.S. coronavirus cases has led local leaders to defy Republican governors who have banned mask mandates in states like Florida and Texas, where the virus is surging.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last monthrecommended universal masking in schools, regardless of vaccination status, and urged schools to reopen for in-person education.Starting on Tuesday, the Dallas public school district will require everyone on school property, including students, employees and visitors, to wear masks. The Austin public school district also announced its own universal mask mandate, which will start on Wednesday.The rules come as Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas remains one of the most strident opponents of mask mandates: His office said in a statement on Monday that he “has been clear that we must rely on personal responsibility, not government mandates.”In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis is threatening to withhold the salaries of local superintendents and school board members who enact them, even though just half of people in the state are vaccinated, and the Delta variant is driving a surge that has made the state one of the worst-hit in the nation. Forty-three percent of the state’s adult intensive-care beds are filled with coronavirus patients, The Wall Street Journal reported.Mr. DeSantis signed an executive order last month that blocked local officials from enacting mask mandates. But several local officials and community leaders are preparing to defy him.Schools in Leon County, Alachua County and Duval County have decided in recent weeks to require masks for students, although some schools are allowing students to opt out or are mandating them only for certain grades.The Broward County School District, one of the largest in Florida, also voted last month to require its students to wear masks, although in light of the governor’s recent executive order, the district said in a statement that it was “awaiting further guidance before rendering a decision on the mask mandate for the upcoming school year.”Other opponents of the bans are turning to the courts. Lawsuits have been filed against Mr. DeSantis’s order in Florida. In Texas, the top elected official in Dallas County sued Mr. Abbott on Monday evening, arguing that his ban on mask mandates violates state law.
Virginia will require masking in all K-12 schools. -Governor Ralph Northam of Virginia on Thursday announced a public health order requiring a universal mask mandate for all indoor school settings in kindergarten through 12th grade, becoming one of the latest governors to weigh in on the contentious fight over face coverings in schools.The order comes as schools around the United States have started returning to the classroom with a patchwork of approaches to masking and as the highly contagious Delta version of the coronavirus continues to spread rapidly around the country, leading to a rise in new infections and what the Centers for Disease and Control director called a “pandemic of the unvaccinated.”Virginia’s new policy, which went into effect immediately, echoes a state law signed in January that requires schools to follow guidelines issued by the C.D.C. Yet despite the law and the C.D.C.’s update to include broader masking guidelines, at least two school districts had voted as recently as this week to make masks optional. The announcement from Gov. Northam marks a shift from last month, when Virginia’s Department of Health and Department of Education released back-to-school guidance that merely advised masking in schools in all indoor settings, including for those in middle and high schools who were not fully vaccinated, but stopped short of issuing a mandate, instead leaving the decision up to the districts. But that guidance was released before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention escalated its mask recommendations on July 27, a spokesperson for the governor said.
Union head indicates teachers may drop opposition to vaccine mandate. --Randi Weingarten, the head of the powerful American Federation of Teachers, expressed her strongest support to date for mandatory vaccination of educators against Covid-19, saying on Sunday that she would urge her union’s leadership to reconsider its position against vaccine mandates.“It’s not a new thing to have immunizations in schools,” Ms. Weingarten said on the NBC program “Meet the Press.” “And I think that on a personal matter, as a matter of personal conscience, I think that we need to be working with our employers, not opposing them, on vaccine mandates.”She called the rising number of coronavirus cases in the United States a “public health crisis. And the politics are infecting it.”She added that she felt the need “to bring people together and to stand up and say this as a matter of personal conscience.” Ms. Weingarten, who recently traveled to Missouri and Florida, both of which are reporting surges in Covid cases among the unvaccinated, said her change of heart was motivated by the rapid spread of the highly contagious Delta variant, the need to return children to the classroom, and her particular concern for the health of children under the age of 12, who do not have the option of getting vaccinated.
Newsom Announces Nation's First Vax-Or-Test Rule For All Teachers And Staff -California has become the first state in the nation to require all teachers and school employees to be vaccinated or submit to regular Covid-19 testing.In a Wednesday announcement, Governor Gavin Newsom (D) made official a policy already employed by several school districts, including Long Beach Unified and districts in San Francisco, Oakland and Sacramento.As Fox5 notes, Los Angeles Unified School District - the largest in the state, and second-largest in the nation - has a slightly stricter policy in place, requiring weekly testing for all students and staff regardless of vaccination status.Newsom’s order, first reported Tuesday night by Politico and later confirmed by various media outlets, was announced by the governor during a late-morning visit to an elementary school in Alameda County. Newsom said California is the first state in the nation to implement such a sweeping requirement.The vaccination-or-testing requirement already has the support of the powerful Service Employees International Union, which represents thousands of school workers across the state. -Fox5Newsom's latest edict won hilarious praise from the Service Employees International Group (SEIU) union, which less than two weeks ago opposed Newsom's order requiring state workers show proof of vaccination or undergo regular testing due to the 'abruptness' of notification."We share Governor Newsom’s commitment to increasing the rate of vaccination so we can better protect the students and families we serve from sickness and death, and prevent the virus from spreading to our own families and communities, and we support public health measures such as this which are designed to do so while giving workers a choice," said SEIU California executive board member, Max Arias. "Worker-led school safety protocols have created the model for safe school reopening, and many school workers have already created similar agreements."
California orders all teachers to be vaccinated or face regular testing. - California became the first state to issue a vaccine mandate for all educators in public and private schools on Wednesday when Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered teachers and school staff members to provide proof of vaccination against Covid-19 or face weekly testing.“We think it’ll be well-received to keep our most precious resource healthy and safe,” he said, “and that’s our children.”The policy applies to staff members serving students in kindergarten through 12th grade and will go into effect on Thursday, with the deadline for full compliance being Oct. 15.Similar mandates are gaining momentum among public and private employers as cases across the United States have jumped with the spread of the Delta variant.In Hawaii, officials announced last week that all state and county employees, including public-school teachers, must be vaccinated or be tested weekly. But California’s policy goes a step further by including private schools. While California officials initially emphasized they were merely encouraging everyone to get vaccinated, the governor announced late last month that the state would require vaccines or testing at least weekly for health-care workers and state government employees. Last week, state health officials made the requirement even more stringent, largely removing the testing option for more than two million health-care workers. But it wasn’t clear then whether California would extend a mandate to hundreds of thousands of educators.
The largest U.S. teachers’ union announces support for vaccination or testing for educators - The nation’s largest teachers' union on Thursday offered its support to policies that would require all teachers to get vaccinated against Covid or submit to regular testing.It is the latest in a rapid series of shifts that could make widespread vaccine requirements for teachers more likely as the highly contagious Delta variant spreads in the United States.“It is clear that the vaccination of those eligible is one of the most effective ways to keep schools safe,” Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, said in a statement.The announcement comes after Randi Weingarten, the powerful leader of the American Federation of Teachers, another major education union, signaled her strongest support yet for vaccine mandates on Sunday.Ms. Pringle left open the possibility that teachers who are not vaccinated could receive regular testing instead, and added that local “employee input, including collective bargaining where applicable, is critical. Her union’s support for certain requirements is notable because it represents about three million members across the country, including in many rural and suburban districts where adults are less likely to be vaccinated. Overall, the union said, nearly 90 percent of its members report being fully vaccinated.
Los Angeles and Chicago schools will mandate teacher vaccinations. - As schools prepare to reopen five days per week amid an alarming surge in the coronavirus, Los Angeles and Chicago, the second and third-largest districts in the nation, announced on Friday some of the strongest teacher vaccine mandates to date.Educators and school staff in both cities will have to be fully vaccinated by Oct. 15. School begins in Los Angeles on Aug. 16 and in Chicago on Aug. 30.In Los Angeles, district employees will also have to submit to regular virus testing, regardless of vaccination status. In Chicago, staff will be tested weekly until the vaccine deadline. Both systems said there will be an exemption process for those with disabling medical conditions or sincerely held religious beliefs.California and Illinois are also both requiring everyone to use masks inside schools when they reopen.The new vaccine mandates will put pressure on other large school systems, particularly those in liberal states, to institute similar policies. New York City, the nation’s largest district, is currently planning to offer teachers the choice of either vaccination or weekly virus testing.Leaders of both national teachers’ unions, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, have said they support vaccine mandates, but that details should be negotiated locally.Nearly 90 percent of the nation’s educators are vaccinated, according to a survey from Education Week. Yet a small but vocal group of rank-and-file educators oppose vaccine requirements.
The racist campaign against “critical race theory” threatens democracy and economic transformation - EPI Blog - Over the past several months, conservative lawmakers and activists have carried out a concerted assault against a wide range of efforts and ideas that raise awareness about the history of racial injustice in the United States, its embeddedness in our society, and the resulting inequities observed today. Attackers have grouped and conflated all these concepts and ideas into what they are dubbing “critical race theory.” But those carrying out this campaign are not interested in what the actual academic critical race theory (CRT) says. In fact, what is actually under attack is the reinvigorated movement across the United States to engage in dialogue about our country’s continuing legacy of racial hierarchy and oppression—and the policy choices that could finally begin to redress that legacy. And while the campaign against critical race theory is recent, it is merely the latest tool many states have wielded in order to disempower and further disenfranchise Black people as well as cut off any broad-based support for structural reform.Before the latest right-wing scapegoating tactic, critical race theory was seldom discussed among the general public. It is an academic discourse mostly taught in law schools that calls for an examination of our legal system from a racial lens, arguing that the law is not neutral and has been a tool to maintain racial hierarchy. Conservative attackers fomenting controversy rarely engage with the substance of critical race theory; instead, they attack any public discussion, organizing movement, policy effort, or—most concerningly—public education that acknowledges that the founding of our nation is rooted in the enslavement of people of African descent for their labor, and the genocide and plunder of Indigenous peoples for their land. They also attack any call for changes in our economic, legal, and cultural domains to address some of these harms that have compounded for centuries.
Pennsylvania slashes over 1,500 higher education jobs with union support - Last month, Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) Chancellor Daniel Greenstein gave his stamp of approval for a plan that will lay off thousands of workers and reduce the quality of education at the PASSHE. The restructuring plan, approved on July 14, will merge six universities into two schools: California, Clarion and Edinboro on the one hand and Bloomsburg, Lock Haven and Mansfield on the other. It will lay off faculty members, reduce educational opportunities, and do nothing to alleviate the skyrocketing cost of tuition and the debt students will carry after graduation. In addition, the overhaul includes a wholesale reduction in staff and other cost-saving measures, sparing no school. According to a recent study conducted by the Political Economy Research Center at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, more than 1,500 jobs will be axed, including 809 faculty and over 600 staff. These huge layoffs will have a cascading impact on local economies, as these small-to medium-sized towns rely on the universities to survive. The PASSHE system comprises 14 public universities across the state and enrolls over 95,000 students primarily from working-class backgrounds, employing over 11,000 workers and faculty. Student enrollment has dropped by 21 percent since the 2008 financial crisis. The system lost roughly $52 million last year from continued enrollment declines and refunds issued to students who had refused to attend unsafe schools during the surge of the COVID-19 pandemic. The latest announcement will accelerate the crisis under conditions in which the pandemic is surging once again, with statewide daily new infections increasing by more than sevenfold in the past alone. Many comments noted the fact that Pennsylvania ranks 48th in the US in public expenditure on higher education, with the Democratic Party at the helm over the last two election cycles, while stressing the horrific, prolonged impact these cuts will have on the students who attend these schools.
The University of Texas at San Antonio opts to start fall classes remotely.-- It is what many universities fear. After months of gearing up for a fall semester that seemed like normal, with in-person classes and packed football games, the University of Texas at San Antonio announced Wednesday that almost all courses will be held online for the first three weeks.The university’s president, Taylor Eighmy, notified the campus of 30,000 students of the shift, blaming a surge in Delta variant cases in San Antonio.Fully remote classes are something leaders of universities across the country hope to avoid this fall, after three semesters of pandemic disruption on their campuses.Yet, even as infections rise, public universities in Texas are denied the most potent tools to stop the spread — they cannot force students or staff to get vaccines or even wear masks. Gov. Gregg Abbott of Texas renewed his ban on vaccine and mask mandates in late July. As many as 20 Republican-led states forbid vaccine mandates in some form.While their public institutions are hamstrung, more than 500 other public and private colleges around the country have instituted vaccine requirements.“The goal of university presidents is to get shots in arms,” said Terry W. Hartle, senior vice president of the American Council on Education, an industry group. “But in deep red states, mandating a vaccination is likely to draw hard and fast battle lines.”
The Supreme Court won’t block Indiana University’s vaccine mandate. - The Supreme Court allowed Indiana University on Thursday to require students to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.Eight students had sued the university, saying the requirement violated their constitutional rights to “bodily integrity, autonomy and medical choice.” But they conceded that exemptions to the requirement — for religious, ethical and medical reasons — “virtually guaranteed” that anyone who sought an exemption would be granted one. Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who oversees the federal appeals court in question, turned down the students’ request for emergency relief without comment, which is the court’s custom in ruling on emergency applications. She acted on her own, without referring the application to the full court, and she did not ask the university for a response. Both of those moves were indications that the application was not on solid legal footing. The students were represented by James Bopp Jr., a prominent conservative lawyer who has been involved in many significant lawsuits, including the Citizens United campaign finance case. He argued that the university’s vaccine requirement was putting his clients at risk. “The known and unknown risks associated with Covid vaccines, particularly in those under 30, outweigh the risks to that population from the disease itself,” Mr. Bopp told the justices. “Protection of others does not relieve our society from the central canon of medical ethics requiring voluntary and informed consent.”The ruling capped a string of setbacks for the students in the case, which was the first to reach the Supreme Court concerning the coronavirus in the context of an educational institution. The court has previously ruled on many emergency applications arising from the government’s response to the virus in other settings, including houses of worship and prisons. A trial judge had refused to block the university’s requirement, writing that the Constitution “permits Indiana University to pursue a reasonable and due process of vaccination in the legitimate interest of public health for its students, faculty and staff.” A unanimous three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, in Chicago, declined to issue an injunction while the students’ appeal moved forward.
Analysis: 15 percent of US coronavirus cases are now children - Recent reports show that children are accounting for 15 percent of COVID-19 cases in the U.S., as the delta variant causes an uptick in cases around the country. According to new data collected by the American Academy of Pediatrics, almost 94,000 COVID-19 cases in children were reported over a two-week period from July 29 to August 5, which the academy dubbed "a continuing substantial increase." The outbreak increased the total number of child cases by 4 percent. Since the pandemic began, nearly 4.3 million children have tested positive for the virus — 14.3 percent of total cumulative cases. The new figures come as children's hospitals in COVID-19 hotspots have reported an increase in young patients battling the virus. An Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock reported that of 23 patients admitted for COVID-19 under the age 18, 10 were in the ICU and five were placed on ventilators. St. Louis Children’s Hospital in Missouri had more than a dozen patients come in with COVID infections last week, notes NBC News. The American Academy of Pediatrics noted that although "at this time, it appears that severe illness due to COVID-19 is uncommon among children," the long-term impacts on their physical and mental health and remain unclear. "There is an urgent need to collect more data," the report notes. "After declining in early summer, child cases have steadily increased since the beginning of July," the report added.
Children's hospitals see spike in COVID-19 cases in high-transmission areas- Hospitals in areas of the country where coronavirus cases are rising are seeing an uptick in the number of children who are sick with the disease, according to a new report. Health care professionals in several states and cities with rising coronavirus case counts told NBC News the age of patients they are treating for coronavirus is lowering, as the delta variant of the virus rips through the nation and parents and teachers prepare for the start of the school year.At Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock, 23 patients under 18 have been admitted to the hospital's system last week, NBC News reported, including ten in the ICU and five on ventilators.More than a dozen children came to St. Louis Children’s Hospital in Missouri for coronavirus in the last week of July, the outlet reported, and at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, coronavirus positivity rates have reportedly risen from around 3 percent to above 10 percent among kids. “Absolutely, household infections are the beginning of this pandemic; that is a major driving force in the spread of infections. We see it often within households, parents to children,” Jim Versalovic, the chief pathologist and interim chief pediatrician at Texas Children’s, told NBC News. “We have certainly seen siblings — more than two at times — with an infection at the same time, so spread within households is certainly a very real phenomenon.”The reported surge in coronavirus cases comes as federal health officials race to approve a vaccine for use in children. A Food and Drug Administration (FDA) official said a COVID-19 vaccine could be approved under emergency use authorization for children under 12 years old as soon as early to mid-winter.
Falls, difficulty walking, angst: A new study shows Covid can look very different in older people. Americans over 65, the age group that is most vulnerable to the effects of the coronavirus, got an early start on Covid-19 vaccination and have the highest rate in the country — more than 80 percent are fully inoculated.But with infections increasing once more, and hospitalization rising among older adults, a large-scale new study in the Journals of Gerontology provides a timely warning: Covid can look different in older patients.“People expect fever, cough, shortness of breath,” said Allison Marziliano, lead author of the study. But when the researchers combed through the electronic health records of nearly 5,000 people, all over the age of 65, who were hospitalized for Covid-19 at a dozen hospitals in March and April of 2020, they found that one-third had arrived with other symptoms, unexpected ones.The team, searching through records using language software, found that about one-quarter of older patients reported a functional decline. “This was falls, fatigue, weakness, difficulty walking or getting out of bed,” said Dr. Marziliano, a social and health psychologist at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, part of the large Northwell Health system across New York State.Eleven percent experienced altered mental status — “confusion, agitation, forgetfulness, lethargy,” she said. About half the group with atypical symptoms also suffered from at least one of the classic Covid problems — fever, trouble breathing, coughing.
Covid: Dr. Gottlieb says delta variant surge may be the ‘final wave’ in U.S. - Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC on Monday the current surge in Covid infections caused by the more contagious delta variant may be the "final wave" of the virus in the United States. "I don't think Covid is going to be epidemic all through the fall and the winter. I think that this is the final wave, the final act, assuming we don't have a variant emerge that pierces the immunity offered by prior infection or vaccination," the former Food and Drug Administration commissioner said on "Squawk Box." "This is probably going to be the wave of infection that ends up affecting the people who refuse to get vaccinated." Gottlieb said Americans have a couple months remaining where they need to take pandemic-related precautions, particularly in northern U.S. states as cases begin to peak in the South, until the wave of infections begins to decrease again. "I think this is going to be a difficult period right now," he said. However, Gottlieb said the contagious nature of the delta variant and increased vaccination rates could change the trajectory of future infections. "We're going to reach some level of populationwide exposure to this virus, either through vaccination or through prior infection that's going to stop circulating at this level, at this rate," said Gottlieb, who led the FDA from 2017 to 2019 under the Donald Trump administration. The seven-day average of new daily coronavirus cases in the U.S. is 108,624, according to a CNBC analysis of Johns Hopkins University data. That's up 36% compared with one week ago. The highly transmissible delta variant, first identified in India, is estimated to comprise 83% of all sequenced Covid cases in the country, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates. With the surge in infections coinciding with school reopening plans in the fall, Gottlieb warned that schools may need to begin the year with heavier mitigation measures in place like mask-wearing, testing, physical distancing and gathering through pods. "The goal has to be to get schools open and keep them open, and we can't expect to change all the behaviors in terms of what we're doing with respect to mitigation in schools and get the same result, especially with this new delta variant which is more contagious, and is inevitably going to be hard to control in the schools," said Gottlieb, who serves on the board of Covid vaccine maker Pfizer.
Fauci fears a COVID variant worse than Delta could be coming -- If America’s current COVID-19 surge continues unabated into the fall and winter, the country will likely face an even more deadly strain of the virus that could evade the current coronavirus vaccines, NIAID director Anthony Fauci told McClatchy Wednesday. Fauci’s comments underscore the importance of acting quickly to vaccinate the tens of millions of Americans who have not been inoculated against the virus.The current surge in coronavirus cases nationwide is being driven by the Delta variant, which is already more contagious than the original strain of the virus. As the virus continues to spread due to insufficient vaccination rates, it is being given “ample” time to mutate into a more dangerous new variant in the fall and winter, Fauci said.
- “[Q]uite frankly, we’re very lucky that the vaccines that we have now do very well against the variants — particularly against severe illness,” Fauci said, emphasizing that this might not be the case with a new variant.
- “If another one comes along that has an equally high capability of transmitting but also is much more severe, then we could really be in trouble,” he said.
- “People who are not getting vaccinated mistakenly think it’s only about them. But it isn’t. It’s about everybody else, also.”
State of play: Other variants are already cropping up. On Tuesday South Korea announced that it had detected two cases of the Delta Plus variant, one in a man who had recently returned from the U.S., Reuters reports. Some experts believe the Delta Plus variant could be more contagious than the Delta variant. The Lambda variant, which originated from Peru last year, has already been detected in the U.S. Recent studies indicated that Lambda could be more resistant to the current COVID-19 vaccines, according to Reuters. …
SARS-CoV-2 Iota variant increases mortality risk among older adults. - A study conducted at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, USA, and the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, USA, has determined the transmission rate, immune escape ability, and infection fatality rate of the B.1.526 variant of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The findings reveal that the variant has considerably higher transmissibility and immune escape potential than previously circulating variants and that it can increase the infection fatality rate by 62% - 82% among older adults. The study is currently available on themedRxiv* preprint server. With the progression of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, several new variants of SARS-CoV-2 have been identified. Because of increased infectivity and pathogenicity, some of these variants have been designated as Variants of Concern (VOC) or Variants of Interest (VOI) by the World Health Organization (WHO). The B.1.526 variant of SARS-CoV-2, also known as the lota variant, was first identified in New York City in November 2020. Later, the variant has been detected in all 52 states in the United States, as well as in 27 countries across the world.As observed in a laboratory-based study, this variant is modestly resistant to neutralization by therapeutic monoclonal antibodies and vaccine/infection-induced antibodies. In contrast, evidence indicates that the variant does not increase the risk of breakthrough infections in vaccinated or previously infected individuals.In the current study, the scientists have analyzed multiple epidemiological and population datasets collected in New York City and performed mathematical modeling to determine the transmission rate, immune evasion ability, and infection fatality risk of the B.1.526 variant.In New York City, the population-level prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection was estimated to be 16.6% at the end of the first pandemic wave. Similarly, at the end of the second wave, the estimated prevalence was 41.7%. While most infections occurred in the older population during the first wave, the second wave caused infections in all age groups.
Study shows Pfizer booster shot has similar side effects to second dose -A preliminary study conducted in Israel found that the Pfizer-BioNTech booster shot causes similar side effects to the second dose, such as soreness at the injection site.Israel began administering booster shots to fully vaccinated individuals over the age of 60 last month as part of its effort to stop the spread of COVID-19, especially as the highly infectious delta variant continues to take hold in the country as the dominant strain.Israel’s largest health care provider, Clalit, announced on Sunday that more than 240,000 people have received a third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, according to Reuters.Of those recipients, roughly 4,500 people participated in a survey about the booster shot, which they all received between July 30 and Aug. 1, Reuters reported.Eighty-eight percent of participants said they felt “similar or better” compared to how they felt after receiving their second dose.Thirty-one percent reported having side effects, the most common symptom being soreness at the spot where the shot was administered.Roughly 0.4 percent of respondents said they had trouble breathing, and 1 percent said they received medical treatment because of one or more side effects.
Moderna may be superior to Pfizer against delta variant — breakthrough odds rise with time - The mRNA vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech may be less effective thanModerna's against the delta variant of the coronavirus, according to two reports posted on medRxiv on Sunday ahead of peer review. In a study of more than 50,000 patients in the Mayo Clinic Health System, researchers found the effectiveness of Moderna's vaccine against infection had dropped to 76% in July - when the delta variant was predominant - from 86% in early 2021. Over the same period, the effectiveness of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine had fallen to 42% from 76%, researchers said. While both vaccines remain effective at preventing Covid hospitalization, a Moderna booster shot may be necessary soon for anyone who got the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines earlier this year, said Dr. Venky Soundararajan of Massachusetts data analytics company nference, who led the Mayo study.In a separate study, elderly nursing home residents in Ontario produced stronger immune responses - especially to worrisome variants - after the Moderna vaccine than after the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. The elderly may need higher vaccine doses, boosters, and other preventative measures, said Anne-Claude Gingras of the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute in Toronto, who led the Canadian study. When asked to comment on both research reports, a Pfizer spokesperson said, "We continue to believe... a third dose booster may be needed within 6 to 12 months after full vaccination to maintain the highest levels of protection."People who received their second dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine five or more months ago are more likely to test positive for Covid-19 than people who were fully vaccinated less than five months ago, new data suggest. Researchers studied nearly 34,000 fully vaccinated adults in Israel who were tested to see if they had a breakthrough case of Covid-19. Overall, 1.8% tested positive. At all ages, the odds of testing positive were higher when the last vaccine dose was received at least 146 days earlier, the research team reported Thursday on medRxiv ahead of peer review. Among patients older than 60, the odds of a positive test were almost three times higher when at least 146 days had passed since the second dose. Most of the new infections were observed recently, said coauthor Dr. Eugene Merzon of Leumit Health Services in Israel. "Very few patients had required hospitalization, and it is too early to assess the severity of these new infections in terms of hospital admission, need for mechanical ventilation or mortality," he added. "We are planning to continue our research."
More Dangerous Side Effects Potentially Linked To mRNA Vaccines, EU Warns --As shares of MRNA-vaccine purveyors Moderna and BioNTech tumbled on Wednesday, Reuters reported that the EMA, the EU's medicines regulator, is looking into new potential side effects from the still-experimental MRNA jabs, including suspicious skin reactions and kidney ailments.According to Reuters, three new conditions have been reported by a small number of people after vaccination with jabs from Pfizer and Moderna. The ailments include Erythema multiforme, a form of allergic skin reaction; glomerulonephritis, or kidney inflammation; and nephrotic syndrome, a renal disorder that leads to heavy urinary protein losses. All of the cases are being studied by the EMA to determine whether the vaccines might be linked to the conditions. This isn't the first time regulators have raised issues with an MRNA vaccine. As we reported a few months ago, the FDA determined that one side effect of the jabs in a small number of male patients with certain complications included heart inflammation. Still, the FDA, CDC and WHO have insisted that the risks posed by the jabs are far outweighed by their benefits to society.The finding comes as Israeli health authorities have found that a small number of patients still managed to get infected with the virus even after their third dose of the vaccine.Neither Pfizer nor Moderna responded to Reuters' request for comment.Just over 43.5MM doses of Moderna's vaccine, Spikevax, have been administered in the European Economic Area as of July 29, compared to more than 330MM doses of the Pfizer shot, Comirnaty, which was developed in partnership with Germany's BioNTech. Details about the new side effects were pretty sparse, with the EMA saying only that it had requested more data from the vaccine's makers so they could determine any potential relation. So far, the EMA hasn't made any recommendation regarding the labeling of the vaccines, and whether any new side effects should be noted.The agency disclosed the new side effects during a routine update to the safety section of the approved vaccines' database. MRNA jabs rely on new technology that reprograms the immune system to fight off the virus, however critics maintain that long term side effects and safety risks simply aren't well understood since the jabs were rushed to the finish line.
Eric Topol Discusses Covid Vaccines Not Meeting Expectations, Breakthrough Cases Sicker - Yves Smith - It looks as if conventional wisdom on the Covid vaccines has run head first into some ugly realities. Eric Topol, formerly a “Get vaccinated, problem solved” cheerleader, grapples out loud with troubling data about Covid deaths and breakthrough cases with a serious journalist, David Wallace-Wells of New York Magazine. The short version is that both measures are much worse than expected and the trajectory bodes ill. We’ll go through many of the bad trends Topol and Wallace-Wells identify, including one we hadn’t wanted to believe when IM Doc started telling us of it privately via e-mail weeks ago, and presented in comments yesterday: that his breakthrough cases have been typically sicker than those among the unvaccinated. Topol is seeing the same thing and his population isn’t from IM Doc’s part of the world. Topol may have fallen for orthodox thinking, but sits on the Scripps Research board as the founder of the Scripps Research Translational Institute , he has tremendous clout and can’t be dismissed, both by virtue of his reputation and because the data he and Wallace-Wells discuss speaks for itself. But the officialdom has bet so heavily on magical vaccines being the solution for Covid that the denialism is likely to remain strong and get even uglier. Topol and Wallace-Wells substantiate what we and our experts, IM Doc, GM, KLG and Iganacio have been saying from early on: the vaccines were overhyped. For starters, there was no basis for believing a vaccine for a coronavirus would produce immunity that lasted more than months to at most a year. While the vaccines were under development, data from Imperial College indicated that the rate of decline in neutralizing antibodies from contracting Covid provided immunity on the order of six to eight months. A vaccine might produce more durable immunity, but not vastly so. Plus no expert expected a vaccine for a respiratory virus to confer sterilizing immunity. Yet not only did our putative leaders tell outrageous howlers, with both the CDC’s Rochelle Walensky and Biden repeatedly and falsely stating that if you got vaccinated, you would not get Covid (“If you’re vaccinated, you’re protected”), they also committed the cardinal sin of betting on their own PR. They treated vaccines as the one-stop answer to the Covid problem. And not only did they actively discourage the use of non-pharmaceutical interventions like masking and social distancing (can’t harsh the mellow of convention sponsors and holiday makers) but they also crippled an already slipshod Covid data gathering system by telling public health officials not to collect data on breakthrough cases among the vaccinated. So now we have to rely on figures from less incompetent countries like Israel, and Topol is forced to make back-of-the-envelope computations. Some of the grim news from Too Many People Are Dying Right Now: What I just can’t understand is why all three things are all moving up together so rapidly. Given everything we’ve seen in other countries and everything we think we know about the vaccines, even if cases rose dramatically, we’d expect much lower rates of hospitalization and death. But we’re not. It’s like we didn’t have vaccines. Or worse. I was just putting this talk together and I made the same observation. I’m looking at the four waves, and, as you know, in the monster wave, we got to 250,000 cases per day. And at that time we had 120,000 plus hospitalizations [per day]. About half. What’s amazing is, we’re at about 120,000 cases now, and we’re over 60,000 hospitalizations.
COVID-19 Vaccines Don’t Really Work as Hoped – Gail the Actuary - Last week, the CDC announced a surprising finding: “Delta infection resulted in similarly high SARS-CoV-2 viral loads in vaccinated and unvaccinated people.” Public officials had known from the early days of vaccine development that vaccinated people could catch COVID-19, but the assumption had been made that they were not going to be spreaders of COVID-19.It turns out that the delta variant is sufficiently different from the original Wuhan version of the virus that the vaccines work much less well. The CDC performed ananalysis of COVID-19 cases arising from one public gathering in Massachusetts. They found that the gathering led to 469 COVID-19 delta cases among Massachusetts residents, with 74% of these c ases in fully vaccinated attendees. Massachusetts is a highly vaccinated state, with approximately 64% of the population fully vaccinated.There are other issues coming up as well. How long does the vaccine really last? Is the vaccine itself part of the reason that the virus is mutating as rapidly as it is? Are we making problems for ourselves by creating an army of people with very light cases of COVID-19 who can spread the virus to both the vaccinated and the unvaccinated without realizing that they have more than a cold? Aren’t we inadvertently killing off the least able of the virus mutations and allowing the most virulent to multiply?My training is as an actuary, so I am familiar with modeling. I am also a “systems thinker.” I know that it is important to look at longer term impacts as well as short-term impacts. If a person works in the healthcare field, it is easy to consider only the obvious short-term benefits. It takes some analysis to figure out that today’s vaccines may lead to stronger variants (such as delta) and more overall spread of COVID-19.In this post, I will explain some of the issues involved.
- [1] Today’s vaccines provide only a fraction of the true level of protection required. Their actions are in many ways similar to applying weed killer at half the strength needed to kill the weeds or providing antibiotics at half the dose required to stop the spread of bacteria.
- [2] In a way, getting sick from a virus is helpful. It tells us to stay at home, away from others. It is the fact that humans experience symptoms from viruses that tends to limit their spread.
- [3] It is becoming clear that people immunized with today’s vaccines can both catch the delta variant and spread it to others.
- [4] With nearly all of the current vaccines, the immune system is trained to look for the spike protein from the original Wuhan virus. This narrow focus makes it relatively easy for the virus to mutate in ways that outsmart the vaccine.
- [5] Given the likelihood of mutations away from the narrow target, it seems strange that the governments have set very high expectations for the new vaccines.
- [6] Leaky vaccines, if widely used, can encourage the virus to mutate toward more virulent (severe) forms. Ultimately, the problem becomes viruses that mutate to more virulent forms faster than the vaccine system can keep up.
Deadly Lambda variant could be vaccine-resistant, new study says - As the US struggles to suppress the rapidly advancing coronavirus Delta variant, new evidence has emerged that the latest Lambda mutation — ravaging parts of South America — won’t be slowed by vaccines. In a July 28 report appearing on bioRxiv, where the study awaits peer review prior to getting published, researchers in Japan are sounding the alarm on the C.37 variant, dubbed Lambda. And it’s proven just as virulent as Delta thanks to a similar mutation making them even more contagious. The strain has been contained in 26 countries, including substantial outbreaks in Chile, Peru, Argentina and Ecuador. “Notably, the vaccination rate in Chile is relatively high; the percentage of the people who received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine was [about] 60%,” the authors write. “Nevertheless, a big COVID-19 surge has occurred in Chile in Spring 2021, suggesting that the Lambda variant is proficient in escaping from the antiviral immunity elicited by vaccination,” they warn. The Lambda variant is thought to have emerged somewhere in South America between November and December 2020, and has since turned up in countries throughout Europe, North America and a few more isolated cases in Asia, according to GISAID data. The proportion the Lambda variant has of COVID-19 cases in the US is low with just one-tenth of 1% of the share — about 911 cases. Compare that to Delta, which has infected some 77,692 Americans so far. “In addition to increasing viral infectivity, the Delta variant exhibits higher resistance to the vaccine-induced neutralization,” the authors said. “Similarly, here we showed that the Lambda variant equips not only increased infectivity but also resistance against antiviral immunity.” Lambda has so far been labeled a “variant of interest” by the World Health Organization, compared to the Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta strains, which have all risen to “variant of concern,” or VOC, status.
15 states are keeping COVID-19 breakthrough cases under wraps - State health departments across the country are taking various approaches to how they keep records on COVID-19 breakthrough cases, with 15 states deciding not to publish any data on the rare incidents. An analysis by The Hill found that 35 states have disclosed some data on fully vaccinated people who later contracted COVID-19. The information ranged from a one-time percentage of residents who experienced a breakthrough infection to weekly detailed overviews broken down by demographics such as age, sex and race. Figures on breakthrough cases are not available on the health department websites, social media or other publicly accessible sites for the other 15 states: Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas and Wisconsin. The Hill reached out to the health departments of all 15 states for comment. A handful of states, including New York, Texas and Wisconsin, provided the numbers upon request. Alicia Shoults, a spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Health, told The Hill that the agency plans to publish a dashboard with breakthrough hospitalizations and deaths Friday. Of the states already reporting data, Utah topped the list, with 0.36 percent or 5,265 breakthrough cases in its 1,462,313 fully vaccinated residents from Jan. 16 until this week. In that period, the state reported approximately 115,000 coronavirus cases. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stopped monitoring nonsevere breakthrough cases in May. Some states have followed the CDC in publicly reporting breakthrough hospitalizations and deaths but not the total number of cases. Tennessee’s Department of Health references the CDC’s policy in its critical indicator reports, where breakthrough cases with severe outcomes are regularly included. As of July 29, the state had reported 31 breakthrough deaths and 218 breakthrough hospitalizations. Like many other states, Tennessee does not specify when it started collecting COVID-19 breakthrough data. Illinois, too, only reports breakthrough infections that result in hospitalization or death. Its department of public health said the approach will “maximize the quality of the data collected on cases of greatest clinical and public health importance.” On Wednesday, Illinois reported 714 breakthrough hospitalizations and 180 deaths, representing 2.58 percent of COVID-19 deaths since data collection began in January. The state is one of a handful that feature breakthrough case data on their COVID-19 dashboards, joining Virginia, Maryland, Idaho, Indiana, Utah and the District of Columbia. Either through those dashboards or separate report summaries, 18 states publish data on breakthrough infections regularly. Although most updates are weekly, Idaho’s are the most frequent, revised every weekday, while Oregon publishes breakthrough numbers monthly. The CDC announced in May it would only investigate and publish COVID-19 breakthrough cases that result in hospitalization or death. The change was intended to “help maximize the quality of the data collected on cases of greatest clinical and public health importance,” the agency said. Nationally, an exceedingly low number of fully vaccinated people have contracted the virus. Out of the 101 million people vaccinated from January through April, the CDC reported 10,262 breakthrough infections in 46 U.S. states and territories. The agency’s latest update, on July 26, identified 6,239 hospitalizations and 1,263 deaths, about a quarter of which were asymptomatic or not related to COVID-19.
Fauci urges more testing to track breakthrough Covid cases - Anthony Fauci urged on Sunday that more coronavirus testing be done among vaccinated people to learn more about breakthrough cases. “We know now from experience here and other countries that you will have people who are asymptomatic who get into contact with an asymptomatic person who is infected, and you’ll know there will be more infections that otherwise would have gone undetected,” the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said on NBC’s "Meet the Press." “We need to do more testing.” Fauci explained that early on in the pandemic, the protocol was to test people who had been in contact with others who were infected with Covid-19 or symptomatic. Now, he said, "It’s very clear you have to go beyond that." With the Delta coronavirus variant on the rise, people are concerned that they are at risk even after becoming fully vaccinated. Some people hesitant to get vaccinated may be swayed if the Food and Drug Administration issues its first full approval of a Covid-19 vaccine — likely Pfizer's — which Fauci hopes will happen this month. "Fortunately for us, the vaccines do quite well against Delta particularly in protecting you from severe disease," Fauci said. "But if you give the virus the chance to continue to change, you're leading to a vulnerability that we might get a worse variant and then that will impact not only the unvaccinated, that will impact the vaccinated because that variant could evade the protection of the vaccine." "So," he added, "people who were unvaccinated should think about their own health, that of their family, but also the community responsibility to crush this virus before it becomes even worse." Fauci said that even though breakthrough cases among vaccinated people will occur because “no vaccine is 100 percent protective,” vaccinated people are protected “extremely well” from getting severe disease. The bad news is, if a vaccinated person does become infected, they can transmit Covid-19 to both unvaccinated and vaccinated people.
Rightwing radio host and anti-vaxxer dies of Covid -A rightwing TV and radio host who was a vociferous critic of Dr Anthony Fauci and who urged his listeners not to get vaccinated against Covid-19 has died after contracting the virus.Dick Farrel, who had described Fauci as a “power-tripping, lying freak” who conspired with “power trip lib loons”, had urged people not to get vaccinated as recently as June.He reportedly changed his opinion about vaccines after falling ill and later being admitted to hospital before passing away on 4 August aged 65. “He texted me and told me to ‘Get it!’ He told me this virus is no joke and he said, “I wish I had gotten [the vaccine]!” close friend Amy Leigh Hair wrote on Facebook.Farrel, a native of Queens, New York, anchored radio shows in Florida and also acted as a stand-in anchor for the rightwing news outlet Newsmax, wasdescribed as a pioneer “shock talk” host. His partner, Kit Farley, said: “He was known as the other Rush Limbaugh. With a heavy heart, I can only say this was so unexpected. He will be missed.”
Antivax Memes -- Based on various sources, including the recent NY Times podcast with interviews of vaccine resisters/hesitant, here’s my list of common elements.
- 1. Assuming the sole criterion for whether to take the vaccine is its effect on your own health—not taking into account whether you may infect someone else. Antivax people nearly always justify their choice in terms of their perceived risk of getting Covid and the personal risk posed by the vaccine and not in terms of the vaccine’s potential role (or lack of it) in reducing the extent and duration of the pandemic.
- 2. Bodily violation: resistance to accepting a foreign substance into their body. Also resistant to pressure from others, such as employers and government, to allow this substance to cross the “skin line”.
- 3. Personal responsibility for health. Some antivax people think that how sick you get from Covid depends on your general state of health, itself perhaps the result of the measures you’ve taken to protect it: if you get sick it’s because you failed to cleanse, build up your immune system, tune your energy or otherwise do what you should have done. Conversely, if you’ve followed the program you’re not at risk and don’t have to vaccinate.
- 4. Apparent inability to think probabilistically. A common remark is that you can get Covid even if you’re vaccinated, so what’s the point? Risk is perceived in binary terms: it exists or it doesn’t.
- 5. Fatalism. Whatever happens happens. There’s no point to getting vaccinated; you’ll get sick and die sooner or later anyway.
- 6. Distrust. These are experimental vaccines that haven’t been approved by the FDA yet. And even when the FDA says it’s OK, who believes them? The government and the media lie with abandon. The vaccines are also being pushed by corporations that just want to make as much money as they can.
Efforts to persuade people to drop their resistance to the vaccines need to begin by listening to them and communicating with them where they are.
FDA fast tracks review of extra shots for millions of immunocompromised people - Federal health officials are racing to ensure that millions of Americans with weakened immune systems can get additional shots of coronavirus vaccines to protect them against the highly contagious delta variant.The extra shots are expected to be authorized within days or weeks, according to federal officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the plan has not been announced.The stepped-up activity reflects increased urgency by the Biden administration to shield some of the nation’s most vulnerable adults as coronavirus cases rise sharply. The pressure has also grown as other countries have taken steps to get additional shots to people who are immunocompromised or older — and as some Americans pursue such shots on their own.Infectious-disease expert Anthony S. Fauci on Aug. 5 said the U.S. is working to give additional coronavirus booster shots to at-risk Americans. (Reuters)In the next week or two, the Food and Drug Administration is expected to review data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention supporting the use of additional vaccine doses for the immunocompromised. If officials are persuaded, they will amend the emergency use authorizations for the vaccines to permit the extra inoculations. Advisers to the CDC and the agency, in turn, will urge people with certain medical conditions to talk to their doctors or pharmacists about getting the shots.Immunocompromised patients represent about 7 million adults in the United States, including those who have received organ transplants, patients on cancer treatments and those with rheumatologic conditions and HIV, according to the CDC. They are more likely to become seriously ill from covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, and might more frequently spread the virus to others, experts say.“It is extremely important for us to move to get those individuals their boosters, and we are now working on that,” Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Thursday at a White House briefing. He said many immunosuppressed people did not have a vaccine response “that we feel would be adequately protective.” The focus on the immunocompromised comes as officials scramble to develop a more comprehensive strategy for vaccine boosters for others, including older people, as first reported by the Wall Street Journal. But those plans will not be completed until September, when additional data is collected, and would be put into effect only if officials conclude that boosters are needed more broadly because of waning immunity. Those shots would probably not be rolled out until October, they said.
The F.D.A. will authorize a third dose of vaccine for some people with weak immune systems. Federal regulators are expected to authorize a third shot of coronavirus vaccine as soon as Thursday for certain people with weakened immune systems, as the highly contagious Delta variant sweeps the nation.The decision to expand the emergency use of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines is meant to help those patients with immune deficiencies who are considered most likely to benefit from an additional shot. It covers people who have had solid organ transplants and others whose immune systems are similarly compromised, according to an official familiar with the plan.The Food and Drug Administration is working with Pfizer and Moderna to authorize a third shot of the companies’ coronavirus vaccines for certain vulnerable populations with weakened immune systems.The development will give physicians latitude to recommend additional shots for those patients. About 3 percent of Americans have weakened immune systems for a variety of reasons, from a history of cancer to the use of certain medications such as steroids.Many scientists argue that the immunocompromised population is too diverse to uniformly recommend additional shots of coronavirus vaccine. Some may be protected by the standard vaccine dosage, despite their conditions. Others may be poorly shielded by the vaccines, but unable to benefit from an additional shot.Studies suggest that patients such as organ transplant recipients are in between — often showing little immune response to the standard vaccine regimen, but benefiting from a third shot. One recent randomized, placebo-controlled study by Canadian researchers found that a third dose of the Moderna vaccine improved the immune response of people in that group.The Food and Drug Administration’s decision to authorize a third shot for organ transplant recipients and those with similarly compromised immune systems will be considered by an advisory committee to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, scheduled to meet on Friday. Although the F.D.A.’s action is independent of the panel’s recommendation, in practice many physicians wait to act until the C.D.C. weighs in.If the committee votes to endorse the shots, as expected, the C.D.C. could issue a recommendation the same day. That could give further guidance to physicians and pharmacists about how to proceed.
Fauci calls booster shots ‘likely,’ not now but in future, citing early signs that vaccine immunity may wane. --With approval for additional Covid-19 vaccine shots for immunocompromised people “imminent,” Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert, said on Thursday that federal health authorities were “likely” to call for third shots as boosters for a broader swath of the population at some point, though there was no immediate need to do so.In an interview on the CBS program “This Morning,” Dr. Fauci noted that federal health authorities were tracking various cohorts of vaccinated people and had seen some early signs that the shots may need shoring up. That is often the case with vaccines.“We are already starting to see indications in some sectors about a diminution over time” in vaccines’ durability, Dr. Fauci said. Dr. Fauci made the same points in an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Thursday.Federal regulators are expected to authorize as soon as Thursdayadditional shots for people with weakened immune systems. In aninterview last week, Dr. Fauci made the point that, for people with weakened immune systems, “giving them an additional shot is almost not considered a booster, it’s considered part of what their original regimen should have been,” since they need more vaccine to be protected.In contrast, boosters would be used in the broader population to counter any diminution of the vaccines’ protective power.There are no immediate plans to authorize boosters, Dr. Fauci said, but federal authorities are actively monitoring different groups for signs of waning protection.“We are following cohorts of individuals, elderly, younger individuals, people in nursing homes, to determine if in fact the level of protection is starting to attenuate,” Dr. Fauci said. “And when it does get to a certain level we will be prepared to give boosters” — preferably, he added, with the same vaccine received earlier.Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, echoed Dr. Fauci’s comments at a briefing of the White House Covid-19 Response team on Thursday, saying that “at this time only certain immune-compromised individuals may need an additional dose.”
The F.D.A. authorized a third dose of Covid vaccines for immunocompromised people. - The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday authorized third doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s and Moderna’s coronavirus vaccines for some people with weakened immune systems, giving physicians more leeway to protect those who did not respond enough to an initial series of shots.The authorization, in the form of updates to the existing emergency use authorizations for the two vaccines, applies to people who received solid organ transplants and others with similarly compromised immune systems, the F.D.A. said.The agency’s decision came a day before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s independent advisory committee was set to consider and vote on whether to recommend the move. The committee is likely to give its approval, and the C.D.C. would follow with its own endorsement of the additional doses.“The F.D.A. is especially cognizant that immunocompromised people are particularly at risk for severe disease,” Dr. Janet Woodcock, the acting F.D.A. commissioner, said in a statement. “After a thorough review of the available data, the F.D.A. determined that this small, vulnerable group may benefit from a third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna Vaccines.”The authorization of the third doses kicks off what promises to be a busy next stretch for federal vaccine regulators — and a new phase of the nation’s inoculation drive. By the start of next month, the agency is expected to grant full approval to Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine. That will most likely prompt a wave of vaccination mandates from companies and organizations that waited to require vaccination until the F.D.A. fully cleared a vaccine.At the same time, government scientists and regulators are grappling with whether more Americans will need booster shots, a hotly debated move that many scientists argue is not yet supported by data. Other countries such as Israel and Germany have implemented booster policies.“Other individuals who are fully vaccinated are adequately protected and do not need an additional dose of Covid-19 vaccine at this time,” Dr. Woodcock said in her statement Thursday, adding that the agency was “actively engaged in a science-based, rigorous process with our federal partners to consider whether an additional dose may be needed in the future.”The United States is the latest country to begin offering third doses to those with weaker immune systems. France has offered additional vaccine doses to certain people with poor immune responses since April, and Germany and Hungary recently followed suit.
Fight-or-flight response is altered in healthy young people who were diagnosed with COVID-19 - New research published in The Journal of Physiology found that otherwise healthy young people diagnosed with COVID-19, regardless of their symptom severity, have problems with their nervous system when compared with healthy control subjects. Specifically, the system which oversees the fight-or-flight response, the sympathetic nervous system, seems to be abnormal (overactive in some instances and underactive in others) in those recently diagnosed with COVID-19. These results are especially important given the emerging evidence of symptoms like racing hearts being reported in conjunction with “long-COVID.” The impact of this alteration in fight-or-flight response, especially if prolonged, means that many processes within the body could be disrupted or affected. This research team has specifically been looking at the impact on the cardiovascular system - including blood pressure and blood flow - but the sympathetic nervous system is also important in exercise responses, the digestive system, the immune function, and more. Understanding what happens in the body shortly following diagnosis of COVID-19 is an important first step towards understanding the potential long-term consequences of contracting the disease. Importantly, if similar disruption of the flight-or-fight response, like that found here in young individuals, is present in older adults following COVID-19 infection, there may be substantial adverse implications for cardiovascular health.
The burden of the COVID-19 pandemic may contribute to outbreaks of violent protest and antigovernment sentiment --The COVID-19 pandemic is the most severe global health crisis of the 21st century. While media reports and policy directives tend to focus on the health and economic aspects of the pandemic, new research suggests that the pandemic is also destabilizing the fundamental relationship between citizens and the state. “The pandemic has disrupted our normal way of living, generating frustrations, unprecedented social exclusion, and a range of other concerns,” said Henrikas Bartusevičius, a researcher with the Peace Research Institute Oslo and coauthor on a paper published in the journal Psychological Science. “Our investigations show that the psychological toll of living through a pandemic also stoked antigovernment and antisystemic attitudes that led to political violence in a number of countries.” Bartusevičius and his colleagues asked 6,000 adults from the United States, Denmark, Italy, and Hungary if and how the COVID-19 pandemic had negatively affected their health, finances, relationships, and rights. The interviewees were asked to report if they felt dissatisfaction with their societies and governments and whether they were motivated to engage in or had already engaged in protests or political violence. The results from this survey uncovered striking associations between the psychological burden of COVID-19 and highly disruptive sentiments and behaviors, including the use of violence for a political cause. In contrast, the research revealed no consistent correlations between the COVID-19 burden and the motivation to engage in peaceful forms of activism. “We were also surprised to find that COVID-19 burden does not need additional triggers to motivate political violence,” said Bartusevičius. “It is seemingly enough on its own.”
COVID-19 cases in United States hit new six-month record -New coronavirus infection totals hit a new six-month high in the United States on Friday, with more than 130,000 cases reported, according to the Worldometer site, which compiles a running total worldwide. The rise in the United States was greater than for the next three countries combined—India, Indonesia and Brazil—although their combined population is six times that of the US, and far more of the American population have been vaccinated. Such a comparison underscores the criminal role of the American ruling class and both its political parties, the Democrats as much as the Republicans, in sabotaging the only effective public health response to a pandemic of such lethality as COVID-19: a full-scale lockdown, with mass testing and contact tracing, combined with mass vaccination, until the virus is exterminated. While the Biden administration claims to be fighting COVID-19, it is spreading the illusion that the pandemic is virtually over, and that vaccines by themselves will be sufficient, while all public health measures can be relaxed. Most dangerously, the administration is demanding that all public schools be reopened, beginning this month, with full in-person instruction. Given that there is no vaccine for children under 12 and that the Delta variant, which now dominates, is highly transmissible, this is a recipe for mass infection and death. Already, children’s hospitals across the Southern US, the current epicenter of the pandemic, are filled to capacity. Infections have been reported among infants who cannot yet walk and deaths of children barely old enough to go to school.
US facing a deluge of COVID-19 hospitalizations as Delta variant spreads rapidly - The US added 235,099 cases of COVID-19 to its growing tally of cases Monday, according to the New York Times COVID tracker. It was the highest number of new infections recorded on a single day since mid-January. However, this shocking number is clearly inaccurate, as many states have scaled back their reporting on cases and deaths, thus making sense of the sudden jump in infections challenging and troubling. As Dr. Jorge Caballero, who has called sending unvaccinated children and teachers back into schools “immoral,” recently tweeted, many states are dumping the backlog of weekend numbers, making tracking daily statistics impossible. Weekly trends now must stand in to provide a semblance of a picture, but in the context of a highly transmissible virus, they cannot aid in tracking and tracing infections. Nonetheless, the seven-day moving average continues to climb, having reached 117,000 new infections each day. The last time the US saw such a rate was in the first week in February, just over six months ago. Florida, which is facing a rapidly worsening health care crisis, only releases weekly reports, making it impossible to determine where infections are occurring and how they are spreading. Adding to the confusion, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) arbitrarily divided the 56,633 cases reported by Florida over the weekend, recording 28,316 new COVID cases on Saturday and 28,317 new cases Sunday. Rather than demanding timely and accurate data, such casual data manipulation only confirms it has abdicated its leadership. Still, what remains certain is that the positivity rate for the state is now close to 20 percent, as the state has broken hospitalization records for COVID-19 for nine consecutive days. As of last week, close to 14,000 people were hospitalized in Florida, with 2,835 in intensive care, representing 45 percent of the state’s ICU capacity. On Sunday, COVID-19 patients accounted for 25 percent of all hospital patients. On August 5, 2021, US News reported that despite the rise in cases, seven states—Florida, South Dakota, Iowa, Alaska, Maine, Michigan and Oklahoma—have reduced the frequency of reporting their COVID-19 statistics, while Nebraska stopped updating its COVID dashboard on June 30, around the time Governor Pete Ricketts ended a state of emergency. Dr. Bob Rauner, chief medical officer of OneHealth Nebraska, plainly told the Lincoln Journal Star, “It’s a bad idea to not report data so others can’t analyze it.” Presently, there are almost 69,000 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in the US, an increase of 2,591 from the week before. Of these, 16,828 are in ICUs. Every state except Utah has seen a rise in new cases. The daily average of COVID-19 deaths has risen by more than 100 percent over two weeks, standing at over 550 per day. There is also a rising trend among fully vaccinated people hospitalized with severe breakthrough infections. These individuals are generally the elderly with comorbidities who live in long-term care facilities. It underscores the dangers of the new variants and the need to expose the dangerous idea that vaccination alone can navigate the world through the pandemic without the comprehensive social measures—masking, social distancing and the lockdown of non-essential businesses—that have proven to save lives.
Covid-19 is crushing Louisiana, which leads the country in new Covid-19 cases - Normalcy appears to be out of the country’s grasp with the recent uptick in Covid-19 cases fueled by the delta variant, a highly contagious strain of Covid-19. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the delta variant was identified in 80 to 87 percent of all US Covid-19 cases in the last two weeks of July. This has impacted states with low vaccination numbers the most.Louisiana, where just over 37 percent of residents are fully vaccinated, is the fifth-least vaccinated state, according to the Mayo Clinic, and is currently leading the country in aneruption of new cases after infection rates began to climb in early July.Daily records continue to go up and the state reported over 6,000 new cases on Friday, according to the Louisiana Department of Health. According to a recent update fromBaton Rouge General Hospital obtained by WAFB’s Steve Caparotta, 47 percent of the patients infected with Covid-19 in the hospital’s care are in the ICU and only 15 of these patients had been vaccinated. The hospital stated that workers this weekend are “in the middle of their toughest fight against this virus.”Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards reinstated the indoor masking mandate Monday in response to the worsening crisis. “It has become extremely clear that our current recommendations on their own are not strong enough to deal with Louisiana’s fourth surge of Covid,” Edwards told reporters after announcing the mandate.During a Friday press conference, Edwards made a grim assessment: “Things are, if anything, worse today than they were on Monday. Unfortunately, the eyes of the nation are on Louisiana right now.”Though less than a week old, the mask mandate has already faced backlash, notably at a school board meeting in St. Tammany parish on Thursday. One parent falsely claimed their child would be hindered from learning due to masks cutting off oxygen to the brain. The conspiracy theory was debunked last year by Reuters and others.
COVID-19 outbreaks appear in Western North Carolina, some cases in vaccinated residents --COVID-19 outbreaks have been appearing in nursing home facilities and other group settings across Western North Carolina. According to the state’s COVID-19 cluster and outbreak report updated at 4 p.m. Aug. 3, the Carolina Pines at Asheville reported two cases in staff, although none in residents. The Laurels of Summit Ridge has reported three cases in staff and 12 in residents for a total 15 cases. A COVID-19 outbreak in Haywood County has grown to eight total cases, most of whom are fully vaccinated, but has resulted in little to no symptoms among those who have tested positive. The outbreak at Maggie Valley Nursing and Rehab in Maggie Valley that's now up to eight cases brings the total number of cases related to outbreaks in Western North Carolina to 50. As of the state's report Aug. 3, the outbreak at Maggie Valley Nursing and Rehab only showed two cases in residents and none in staff, but Haywood County Health Department reported a total of three staff cases and five resident cases Aug. 6. "The five residents are fully vaccinated and two of the employees are fully vaccinated," according to a statement from Maggie Valley Nursing and Rehabilitation. "We immediately began taking necessary steps to slow the spread of this virus in our facility." Staff were immediately isolated, the statement says, and residents were isolated in the facility's designated COVID-19 unit with designated staff. Marydith Parton, a registered nurse and director of nursing at Maggie Valley Nursing and Rehabilitation, said the virus is breaking through vaccinations and diligent cleaning, hand washing and mask-wearing.
COVID hospitalizations are rising faster in Oregon than ever before. No one is sounding the alarm The number of Oregonians hospitalized with COVID-19 has skyrocketed over the past month, rising faster than in previous waves and almost entirely among the unvaccinated. Hospital leaders say COVID-positive patients requiring hospitalization are younger on average than ever before. With a quicker onset of symptoms, patients are more ill when admitted to hospitals and rapidly declining in health compared to previous surges. On Friday, the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 reached 496, including a record 135 in intensive care. At the current trajectory, Oregon is on pace to exceed its all-time high of 584 COVID-positive patients as soon as next week. But hospital leaders and Gov. Kate Brown have not sounded the alarm, as they did during earlier waves. Brown warned in June 2020 – when 108 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 – that hospitals “could be overwhelmed” within weeks based on modeling. Brown renewed restrictions in November – when 285 people were hospitalized – saying that hospitals could withstand a surge but “that needs to be a last resort.” And in April – with 328 people hospitalized – Brown again restored some restraints because rising hospitalizations were “threatening to overwhelm doctors and nurses.” • N95 and KN95 face masks, respirators on sale: Where to find them at best prices as COVID-19 cases surge amid delta variant The reasons such dire warnings and capacity concerns haven’t returned this summer appear three-fold: With vaccines readily available and known to dramatically reduce the need for hospitalization, healthcare providers have shifted their focus to pushing for more people to be vaccinated; the current hospital surge has largely spared the Portland area — where hospitals have developed ways to better manage hospital capacity — giving the state an extra buffer for more sick patients; the governor handed off COVID-19 safeguards to individual counties, where local leaders are reluctant to institute them for communities feeling worn-out after being given the green light just weeks ago. Oregon’s governor has largely taken a hands-off approach to the current wave, deferring to county officials to implement restrictions to slow spread since she lifted statewide restrictions June 30. So far, no county has acted, although some hospital systems have voluntarily postponed non-emergency procedures to manage capacity.
Lessons from Oregon’s July COVID-19 breakthrough report – OPB –About one out of every five COVID-19 infections reported in Oregon in July were breakthrough cases; those which were were diagnosed in people who are fully vaccinated, according to the Oregon Health Authority (OHA). And 18% of Oregon’s July COVID-19 fatalities were also in fully vaccinated people. That’s a big increase from the June breakthrough report, which showed that vaccinated individuals made up just 8% of COVID-19 cases and 6% of deaths.“While the July deaths show a higher percentage of vaccinated people have died from COVID-19 than in previous months, it’s too early to tell if this change represents a trend we will see in coming reports,” Dr. Melissa Sutton, the medical director for respiratory viral pathogens at OHA, said in a press release Monday.Those are concerning numbers, and they highlight two key takeaways: Vaccines make a person much less likely to both contract and die from COVID-19, but at the speed the delta variant is circulating, people should take addition measures to stay safe.COVID-19 cases are surging in Oregon and across the country, fueled by the more contagious, more severe delta variant. Oregon hospitals are quickly reaching capacity, and many counties are seeing more hospitalizations than they were in December before vaccinations were available. The delta variant appears to be two to three times more infectious than other COVID-19 variants. As Sutton put it during a Friday press conference, “for unvaccinated individuals, the risk of COVID-19 has never been greater.”
Delta Forces Hospitals Across U.S. to Ration Scarce ICU Beds - Hospitals across the U.S. are parceling out beds for Covid patients, hunting for doctors and nurses as the delta variant sweeps coast to coast. The disease is outstripping any mitigation measures. In a few states, the unvaccinated are entering intensive care at rates matching the winter wave. The vaccinated are coming to realize that a sweet summer of release may have been a fantasy, as they again calculate the risks of working, seeing relatives and circulating in society.
Austin down to just six available ICU beds as COVID cases surge - As available ICU beds trickle down to just six, Austin Public Health sent texts, phone calls and emails en masse to warn residents of the now "dire" COVID surge.With fewer than ten ICU beds and roughly 313 ventilators left available in the metro of 2.4 million people, Austin Public Health Medical Director Desmar Walkes called the situation a potential "catastrophe" and said, "the situation is critical.""Our hospitals are severely stressed and there is little we can do to alleviate their burden with the surging cases," Walkes said.The city is at Stage 5 as of Aug. 5, the highest level of APH's COVID-risk-based guidelines, after hospital admissions increased sixfold and cases increased 10 times in July. The seven-day moving average for new hospital admissions reached 78.4 on Friday.The highly contagious Delta variant has been largely to blame for the surge, APH officials said, and they recommend that residents stay home and mask up whenever possible regardless of vaccination status.While vaccinated residents are contracting COVID, they are being hospitalized at much lower rates. Just one ICU patient at Ascension Seton Medical Center Austin was vaccinated after receiving the shot following a positive COVID test result, pulmonary critical care specialist Dr. John David Hinze said on Friday."No one would be in my ICU (if everyone was vaccinated)," Hinze said. "This is an overwhelming surge and we're right at capacity in our ICU."Hinze joins APH officials in urging Austinites to get vaxxed as the virus mutates and latches on to unvaccinated hosts. Austin is in the CDC's "highest risk"category as APH officials raise their goal to an 80% vaccination rate in order to reach herd immunity. Before that threshold is reached, officials and frontline doctors say that new groups are being affected by this "meaner" virus, including young people and pregnant women.Hinze said that patients as young as 19 are being admitted into the ICU as they make tough calls on who receives ECMO treatment, a last-ditch lifesaving machine used to help give the lungs rest. Unlike past surges, children under 12, who are not eligible to be vaccinated, are seeing more frequent cases, and pregnant women are seeing a higher ICU admission and mortality rate.In order to combat the emergency and keep ICU beds under capacity, the city hopes to see businesses employ masking policies and social distancing as they ramp up vaccine outreach efforts to achieve herd immunity
Abbott announces COVID-19 mitigation measures, asks hospitals to postpone elective procedures - Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) announced new COVID-19 mitigation measures on Monday, including asking hospitals to delay elective medical procedures and bringing in medical personnel from out-of-state. In a press release, Abbott's office said the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) will be bringing in out-of-state personnel to assist in operations as coronavirus cases surge across the nation, driven by the highly contagious delta variant. Abbott also sent a letter to the Texas Hospital Association, asking that they voluntarily delay elective medical procedures that can be put off without detriment to patients in order to conserve hospital space. According to the statement, Abbott has also asked DSHS and the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) to open more COVID-19 antibody infusion centers that can treat COVID-19 patients who don't need hospitalization. "The Governor is also directing TDEM and DSHS to increase vaccination availability across the state and encourages all Texans to get the COVID-19 vaccine," the statement read. "The State of Texas is taking action to combat the recent rise in COVID-19 cases and ensure that our hospitals and communities have the resources and support they need to mitigate the virus," Abbott said. "Texans can help bolster our efforts by getting vaccinated against COVID-19. The COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective, and it is our best defense against this virus." Abbott notably did not mention any action regarding masks. In May, he banned local governments and schools from issuing mask mandates.
Texas children and children’s hospitals are under siege from two viruses: RSV and COVID-19 - Estefani López’s 11-month-old baby was struggling to breathe. López rushed her to an emergency room where the staff began initial treatments, putting tubes down her throat to pump her lungs with oxygen. But the baby’s condition required care at a pediatric hospital, and none of the ones in the Houston area could take her in. They were all full. Instead, López had to watch as hospital staff placed her baby in a helicopter to be airlifted 150 miles away to Temple for emergency care at the nearest children’s hospital with space. López spent the next three hours driving to the hospital, praying her baby would survive. More children are being treated in Texas hospitals for COVID-19 than ever before. But there’s a second factor that is putting pediatric hospitals on the path to being overwhelmed: an unseasonable outbreak of respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, a highly contagious virus that can require hospitalization mostly among children 5 years and younger and especially infants.During the last year, RSV was largely dormant, which experts believe was due to people masking up during the pandemic. Now, in just the last several weeks, thousands of Texas children have tested positive for the virus.In addition, the delta variant of COVID-19 appears to affect unvaccinated children more often than previous variants. It’s unclear if children are also becoming sicker from it than from other variants of COVID-19. And with the regular flu season approaching, medical experts are concerned over how hospital capacity could be affected. From the start of the pandemic through Aug. 9, over 5,800 children in Texas have been hospitalized with COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There were 783 children admitted to Texas hospitals with COVID-19 between July 1 and Aug. 9. Nationwide, nearly 94,000 children contracted COVID-19 last week, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association.
Migrants are not causing a rise in virus cases, border-area officials say. -Cities in South Texas, the busiest crossing point along the border with Mexico, are at a harrowing place where two international crises intersect: an escalating surge of migrants and the rise of the Delta variant of the virus.Amid a ferocious resurgence of infections in many parts of the country, some conservative politicians, including the governors of Texas and Florida, have blamed the Biden administration’s failure to halt the influx of migrants for the soaring case numbers.In fact, that is extremely unlikely, public health officials and elected leaders say, noting that the region was facing rising case numbers, even before the recent increase in border crossings.“We can’t attribute the rise in Covid numbers to migrants,” Mayor Javier Villalobos of McAllen, Texas, said in an interview. He said city and county officials issued a disaster declaration on Aug. 2 andmoved to set up a quarantine center after it became apparent that the surge in border crossings posed a health risk to local residents.Of the 96,808 migrants who have passed through McAllen this year and been checked for the coronavirus, 8,559 had tested positive as of Tuesday.Yet the prevalence of the virus among migrants thus far has been no greater than among the U.S. population overall, according to medical experts, and the highest positivity rates in the country are not in communities along the border. Rather, they are in areas with low vaccination rates and no mask mandates.The positivity rate among migrants serviced by Catholic Charities in McAllen reached 14.8 percent in early August, after hovering between 5 and 8 percent from late March to early July, but it has not surpassed the rate among local residents.In Hidalgo County, the migrant positivity rate was about 16 percent last week compared with 17.59 percent for residents, who have had little, if any, interaction with the migrants.“Is this a pandemic of the migrants? No, it’s a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” Dr. Iván Meléndez, the health a uthority in Hidalgo County, said last week during a news conference.
Doctors say more fully vaccinated people in Illinois are getting mild breakthrough cases of COVID-19, as delta variant spreads - -- When Betsy and Chad Thalheimer’s 10-year-old daughter tested positive for COVID-19 last week, they thought they might avoid catching the illness.The Barrington couple had been vaccinated earlier this year, with Moderna shots for her and a Johnson & Johnson injection for him.But within days, both of them also started feeling ill and lost their senses of taste and smell. Their two younger daughters, ages 6 and 8, caught COVID-19 as well.All five family members had relatively mild cases. The girls continued playing through their fevers and are now feeling much better. Chad Thalheimer, 40, ran a fever for a few days before recovering, and Betsy Thalheimer, 38, developed a cough, headache and congestion but never spiked a fever — low-grade symptoms that she attributes to the fact that they were vaccinated.Still, she said, their experience shows that things have changed in the last few weeks, even for vaccinated people, as the number of COVID-19 cases again grows.“I think for a while we were living in this world of, ‘Oh we’re vaccinated, we’re untouchable, everything is fine,’” she said.That may no longer be the case, as stories of vaccinated people with mild cases of COVID-19 seem to be becoming more common in Illinois with the spread of the delta variant. There’s no way to know exactly how many fully vaccinated people in Illinois have developed mild cases of COVID-19 because the state only tracks infections of vaccinated people involving hospitalization or death. But some Chicago-area doctors say that while the vast majority of new cases are still among unvaccinated people, they’re seeing an uptick in fully vaccinated patients also catching COVID-19.
Massachusetts coronavirus breakthrough cases rise 2,232 last week amid delta variant spike -More than 300 fully vaccinated people in Massachusetts tested positive for the coronavirus on a daily basis last week, as cases rise across the state amid the more highly contagious delta variant.Breakthrough infections continue to account for about one-third of the Bay State’s cases.Last week, the state reported more than 1,000 daily COVID cases on multiple days, as those who are unvaccinated make up the significant portion of cases, hospitalizations and deaths. Those who are unvaccinated are at a higher risk for infection and a severe case. Overall, 9,969 fully vaxxed people have tested positive for the virus, according to new data from the state Department of Public Health on Tuesday. That’s 0.23% of the more than 4.3 million fully vaxxed people in Massachusetts on that date.The 9,969 overall cases is an increase of 2,232 breakthrough infections from last week — or a daily average of 319 fully vaccinated people testing positive.The previous weekly increase was a jump of 1,364 cases — or a daily average of 195 breakthrough cases.The prior week to that was 1,207 breakthroughs — a daily average of 172 breakthrough infections.COVID hospitalizations remain at a significantly lower rate for those who are fully vaccinated. There have been 445 hospitalizations among fully vaccinated people in Massachusetts, which is 0.01% of those who are fully vaxxed.The 445 total patients is a one-week increase of 50 fully vaxxed patients. The previous weekly increase was 34 fully vaxxed patients.
Mass. reports 2,232 new breakthrough COVID-19 cases in past week — Massachusetts public health officials reported 2,232 new COVID-19 breakthrough cases in fully-vaccinated people in the past week, data from the Department of Public Health shows. A breakthrough case is when an individual tests positive for COVID-19 after they've been fully vaccinated against the disease. Numbers from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health show there have been 9,969 cases of COVID-19 in fully-vaccinated individuals as of Aug. 7. Last week, the DPH reported 7,737 total breakthrough cases of of July 31. The 9,969 positive COVID-19 cases are among the 4.39 million residents considered fully vaccinated in Massachusetts, or just over 0.2% of those individuals. The state health department said 445 of those 9,969 cases resulted in hospitalization and 106 cases resulted in death based on information reported to date. Last month, the DPH confirmed genetic sequencing of initial samples associated with the Fourth of July weekend COVID-19 cluster in Provincetown tested positive for the delta variant. Massachusetts hospitals have seen a surge in hospitalizations since the Fourth of July, with the number of COVID-19 patients more than quadrupling, from a low of 80 on July 4 to 334 as of Tuesday. The seven-day average of hospitalizations has increased from a low of 85 on July 9 to its current mark of 278.
Live updates: Minnesota logs 5,600 breakthrough COVID-19 cases, 57 deaths (AP) — Health officials say Minnesota has seen around 5,600 breakthrough cases of COVID-19 and at least 57 deaths among fully vaccinated people. The Minnesota Department of Health also says there have been 514 breakthrough cases resulting in hospitalizations. The department says it will begin reporting breakthrough case figures weekly as the highly infectious delta variant surges across the state and country. But the department cautions that the numbers will lag because of reporting delays. Health officials say COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective, and only a small percentage of people who are fully vaccinated will still get the disease if exposed. The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) announced Tuesday that the number of COVID-19 cases in the state has increased by 1,690, bringing the cumulative total to 620,591.Seven more people died, bringing the cumulative death total to 7,705 since the pandemic began. Health officials say 4,528 deaths have taken place in long-term care or assisted living facilities.As of Monday, officials say a total of 333 people were hospitalized and being treated for the virus on an inpatient basis. Of those patients, 92 required ICU care. Monday was the third straight day over 300 people have been in Minnesota hospitals for COVID-19. Total hospitalizations since the arrival of COVID have risen to 33,678.
US daily hospital admissions for children reach an all-time pandemic high - “We have reached a grim juncture: more US children are hospitalized with COVID than at any other time point in the pandemic, and this number will continue to grow as the Delta variant spreads.”—Dr. Heather Haq, Baylor College of Medicine, August 9, 2021 The United States has reclaimed its position as the global epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic—a criminal “achievement” of the American ruling elite—due to the rapid transmission of the Delta variant, which now accounts for more than 93 percent of all sequenced cases.Every reputable epidemiologist and public health official had warned that abandoning mitigation measures combined with ending mask mandates was a recipe for disaster. Now the disaster is here.The country saw almost 700,000 new cases of COVID-19 last week, a 17 percent increase over the previous week. The death toll last week was 3,500 people, a 13 percent rise from the preceding week, and deaths are a lagging indicator. They will increase more rapidly. Every state in the US is reporting a rise in daily case rates. The current cumulative totals are 36.63 million COVID-19 infections and over 633,000 deaths.According to the COVID tracker of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the current seven-day moving average (the daily rate averaged over a seven-day period) is 683 percent above the lows observed on June 19, 2021. In contrast, the number of COVID tests has barely climbed 15 percent. This means that American society is flying blind into a new pandemic storm.The current seven-day average of positive tests is close to 10 percent. The seven-day average for new hospital admissions of patients with confirmed COVID-19 in the United States in the first week of August was 8,308, a 22 percent increase from the last week in July. In total, there are now 66,477 people admitted to US hospitals for complications from COVID.Much of the current surge is taking place across Southern states—Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas and Missouri—that have had relatively low rates of COVID vaccinations compounded by resistance to implementing any significant measures to contain the spread of the virus. However, former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb recently warned that Northern states may see a rapid rise in cases once children are back in school.
Texas hospitals are overloaded. - Hospitals in Texas are warning of strained resources during a week in which more than 10,000 coronavirus patients have been admitted to hospitals in the state. At least 53 Texas hospitals had intensive care units that were at maximum capacity. Two in Houston have been so overwhelmed that officials ordered overflow tents to be erected outside. In Austin, intensive care units were running short of beds. And in San Antonio, virus cases reached alarming levels not seen in months, with infants as young as 2 months tethered to supplemental oxygen.“If this continues, and I have no reason to believe that it will not, there is no way my hospital is going to be able to handle this. There is no way the region is going to be able to handle this,” Dr. Esmaeil Porsa, president and chief executive of the Harris Health System, in Houston, told state legislators on Tuesday. “I am one of those people that always sees the glass half-full, I always see the silver lining. But I am frightened by what is coming.” Recently, Texas has averaged more than 14,000 new cases a day, more than double the number seen just two weeks ago, according to a New York Times database. The spike comes as about one in five U.S. hospitals with intensive care units, or 583 total hospitals, recently reported that at least 95 percent of their I.C.U. beds were full as the highly contagious Delta variant fuels surges across the country.The sudden increase of infections has refocused national attention on the efficacy of masks and comes as Gov. Greg Abbott of Texasremains firm in his refusal to allow cities and school districts to mandate masks. To manage the surge, he appealed to out-of-state health care workers to travel to Texas, where coronavirus-related hospitalizations are projected to exceed 15,000 by the end of August, according to the University of Texas at Austin.Dr. David Persse, Houston’s chief medical officer, blamed state officials for giving inadequate attention to the importance of vaccinations to stem the surge. Mr. Abbott’s framing of vaccinations as an issue of individual rights is “the wrong approach,” Dr. Persse said. The unvaccinated, he said, “are endangering themselves and their families.”In a new and unnerving development, as of Tuesday, about 240 Texas children were hospitalized with the virus, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. Citing those figures, President Biden on Wednesday told reporters that he was exploring whether the federal government has the authority to intervene in the orders issued by Mr. Abbott. Earlier this week, at the Children’s Hospital of San Antonio, an increasing number of children were being admitted with severe symptoms of coronavirus. Many arriving with unrelated illnesses were also testing positive for the virus, hospital officials said.
Florida church vaccinates hundreds after 6 members die from COVID-19 in 10 days - Six members of a Florida church died from COVID-19 within 10 days. Now, Impact Church in Jacksonville has vaccinated more than 1,000 people in the community and is looking to calm congregants’ fears about coronavirus vaccines. George Davis, a senior pastor at the nondenominal church, confirmed to USA TODAY that the church lost the six members over a 10-day span and that four of those who died were under 35. Davis said another male member of the church died from COVID-19 just days ago. Everyone who died was unvaccinated. The senior pastor noted that even though the church has about 6,000 members, "it's just been ripping our hearts apart.” “Even those who didn't know them, just to know that they're part of the church community, has made it tough for all of us,” Davis said. The church held a vaccine event Sunday in partnership with Duval County health officials and University of Florida Health to vaccinate 269 people. Impact Church noted in a Facebook post that 35% of those vaccinated were teenagers. Davis told USA TODAY the church had experts from University of Florida Health come to the event to answer questions from people who had concerns about the vaccines. But Davis noted that the church has taken on encouraging congregants to get vaccinated against COVID-19 because some community members “are just more comfortable with their church than they are with government entities, or even some medical entities.”
Florida doctors are exhausted and angry as the state's COVID-19 surge unleashes pandemonium inside hospitals: 'Humanly, you just break at some point' - The unrelenting pandemic has made it hard at times for Ed Jimenez — CEO of the teaching hospital in Gainesville which counts more than 1,000 beds — to sustain morale among his workforce."Everybody I talked to was putting up a wonderful exterior: 'We got this. We're helping people,'" he recounted in an interview this week with Insider.Still, he could see the anguish behind their eyes. The nurse reminded him of what has become one of the pandemic's most sobering scenes."When we're on that path to where somebody's not going to make it, we go get the family, so at least they can say goodbye through the glass window," she told him. An explosion in the virus' highly-transmissible Delta variant hasmired the state in its most vicious fight with the disease in recent weeks. Florida has become the epicenter of a new wave of infections in the US, and its vaccination rate is far short of states like Connecticut and New York.On Saturday, nearly 24,000 new COVID-19 cases were reported in Florida, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, marking an all-time one-day high for the state. An additional 93 people died, and more than 13,000 people were hospitalized.For comparison, the state reported just 1,250 new infections on June 1.A spokesperson for the UF Health Shands Hospital told Insider that, as of Saturday, the facility had admitted 204 COVID-19 patients. Forty-four were receiving ICU treatment.Baptist Health, a system of 11 hospitals, counted 810 COVID-19 patients as of Friday, a representative confirmed, which is a 97% increase from two weeks ago. Intensive care units in Florida are filling up, and final moments with loved ones, separated by face shields and glass barriers, have become a resurgent reality.
More Hospitals Nearing Breaking Point as Covid Spikes; Scrimping on Nurses’ Pay Made Bad Situation Worse - Yves Smith- We warned that the failure to treat nurses well would come back to bite the hospitals that went into Scrooge mode. As we posted on August 3: In other words, if we have another crisis in hospitals, it’s due not just to Delta but also rule by MBAs: Today’s press has many stories about hospitals in Texas, Florida, and some other states being strained to the breaking point due to the latest Covid surge. Obviously, the big driver of this dire situation is the rapid rise in cases. Some also mention staffing levels and even say that their capacity constraint is not beds but manpower. That’s reflected in the super-high pay on offer for “traveling” nurses who go to hospitals that are willing to pay up for extra hands on deck. However, not being willing to ante up to give nurses and other hospital support staff hazard pay (while eventually paying through he nose for traveling nurses) is an insulting statement about how much management values them. Why should they risk life, limb, and their mental health when the top brass makes clear it cares more about preserving and increasing its pay than spending up to take care of patients and employees? It wasn’t hard to see that with Delta being super infectious and the US not heavily vaccinated enough to ground out contagion of wild type Covid, even before factoring in reduced efficacy of the Covid vaccines against Delta, that the US was set to suffer a nasty big spike and was likely to see overloaded hospitals again. We also warned that it is seen as unacceptable to the powers that be for heart attack, stroke, and car crash victims not to be able to get adequate care in emergency rooms. Associated Press reported that St. Petersburg is at that point:In St. Petersburg, some patients wait inside ambulances for up to an hour before hospitals can admit them — a process that usually takes about 15 minutes, Pinellas County Administrator Barry Burton said. While ambulances sit outside emergency rooms, they are essentially off the grid.“They’re not available to take another call, which forces the fire department on scene at an accident or something to take that transport. That’s caused quite a backlog for the system.”…At no other time during the pandemic have intensive care units seen a percentage of COVID patients as high as in the last two days. Last year around mid-July, the percentage edged to 45% with about 1,400 patients. Officials ramped up beds at hospitals and at their peak reported about 2,500 ICU patients at a time. At the height of last year’s summer surge, Florida had about 10,170 COVID-19 hospitalizations overall.Notice the manpower concerns: Nearly 70% of Florida hospitals are expecting critical staffing shortage in the next seven days, according to the Florida Hospital Association. The COVID-19 influx is also hitting as Florida hospitals are seeing “unusually high numbers of very ill non-COVID patients,” said the association’s president Mary Mayhew. Associated Press also ran a stand-alone story on nurse shortages. Key sections: The rapidly escalating surge in COVID-19 infections across the U.S. has caused a shortage of nurses and other front-line staff in virus hot spots…Florida, Arkansas, Louisiana and Oregon all have more people hospitalized with COVID-19 than at any other point in the pandemic, and nursing staffs are badly strained.
Mississippi’s Largest Hospital Converting Garage to COVID Ward as State Short on ICU Beds - The University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC), the state's largest hospital, is clearing out the bottom floor of its parking garage to build a COVID-19 ward.The hospital is asking the federal government to provide additional medical professionals to work in the garage's field hospital, according to the hospital. UMMC does not have enough staff for the growing number of COVID-19 patients, and the current staff is pushed to its limits, the hospital said. Mississippi is one of the worst-hit states in the nation in the current wave of cases, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH). The state reported over 3,000 new cases and 25 deaths on Tuesday. Nearly 1,400 people are currently hospitalized for a confirmed COVID-19 case in the state, 388 of whom are in the ICU and 249 are on ventilators, according to MSDH. UMMC Vice Chancellor Dr. LouAnne Woodward said Mississippi is in "distress" over the latest wave of coronavirus cases. She also encouraged people to get the vaccine to prevent more hospitalizations in the state. The influx of new patients is overwhelming the entire hospital, not just the COVID-19 ward.
Mississippi requests a Navy hospital ship amid shortage of medical staff. - The Mississippi health authorities have asked the federal government to send a Navy hospital ship to ease the strain on its medical centers, as the state grapples with its highest surge in new cases since the pandemic began.The Mississippi State Department of Health asked the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to send to its shores either the U.S.N.S. Mercy or the U.S.N.S. Comfort, both 1,000-bed ships, the state authorities said in a news briefing on Wednesday.“The situation in many of our hospitals is much worse than what we saw last week and worse than what we saw during our peak earlier this year,” said Jim Craig, the state health department’s director of health protection.Mississippi is reckoning with one of its worst crises since the pandemic began. The state has seen a dramatic rise since July in the number of new infections and hospitalizations, according to a New York Times database.On Wednesday, the seven-day average of new infections in Mississippi reached 2,689, up from a low point of 104 on June 21. Only January’s numbers came close to this average, when the seven-day average peaked at 2,432 on Jan. 10.Mr. Craig said his department had requested a hospital ship to help cover the state’s staffing shortage. More than 200 patients in the state were waiting in emergency rooms for I.C.U. beds to open up, he said.The state’s hospitalization numbers have surged to a seven-day average of 1,404 on Wednesday. Hospitalizations and new infections waned in the summer after the Covid-19 vaccines became widely available, and the seven-day hospitalization average reached 152, its lowest point, on June 23.Only 42 percent of Mississippi’s population is at least partially vaccinated, which is much lower than the national rate of 59 percent, according to a New York Times database. While the state authorities hope a Navy hospital ship will alleviate staffing troubles, the extra help failed to solve similar hospital bed shortages in New York and Los Angeles last year. When theU.S.N.S. Comfort and the U.S.N.S. Mercy docked off Manhattan and Los Angeles, respectively, most of the beds sat unused, angering hospital leaders whose facilities had been overwhelmed with people sick with Covid-19.
State reports more COVID breakthrough cases, deaths among fully vaccinated — The Maryland Department of Health reported eight additional COVID deaths and 65 new hospitalizations among patients who are fully vaccinated. The state health agency also reported a 34% increase in the number of COVID cases among the fully vaccinated since its first report on breakthrough cases on Aug. 5.Still, breakthrough cases among the vaccinated make up a small percentage of overall coronavirus metrics reported by government health agencies.There have been 5,139 coronavirus cases among the fully vaccinated from late January through Aug. 8, according to MDH. The state previously reported 3,836 COVID-19 cases among the vaccinated earlier this month. That is an increase of 1,303 cases.The state health agency reported there have been 61 deaths statewide and 519 hospitalizations attributed to COVID among the fully vaccinated from Jan. 26 through Aug. 8.Those are also up from the state’s first report on breakthrough deaths and hospitalizations linked to the virus. On August 5, Maryland health officials reported there had been 53 deaths and 454 hospitalizations for COVID among the vaccinated since late January.The fully vaccinated make up 4.1% of the state’s coronavirus cases, 4% of deaths and 4.3% of hospitalizations since January, according to MDH.There have been 9,652 deaths attributed to COVID in Maryland since the start of the pandemic in 2020.The breakthrough cases come as Maryland and other U.S. states see a rise in overall cases and hospitalizations attributed to the coronavirus’ Delta variant. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control — which has also now recommended COVID jabs for pregnant women — reported 7,101 hospitalizations and 1,507 deaths attributed to the coronavirus among the fully vaccinated nationally.The CDC’s breakthrough cases totals were reported Aug. 2 when 164.1 million Americans had been fully vaccinated. That number now stands 167.1 million — or 50.3% of the U.S. population.Other states are also dealing with breakthrough cases. In New Jersey, 18.5% of new COVID cases at the end of July were among the vaccinated. Cases among the vaccinated are also further impetus for vaccination booster shots from the U.S. government and pharmaceutical companies.
Four more COVID-19 deaths of people fully vaccinated in Ventura County - Four more fully vaccinated Ventura County residents died of COVID-19, public health officials reported this week. The deaths push the total “breakthrough” deaths in Ventura County to seven out of 1,046 fatalities linked to the coronavirus throughout the pandemic. All seven people were 60 and older and diagnosed with pre-existing conditions that likely made them more vulnerable to the coronavirus. The four newly reported fatalities occurred in the last three weeks. They were revealed Wednesday in weekly data from the California Department of Public Health. The metrics show that as COVID-19 cases rise across the county and nation in a surge targeting the unvaccinated, infections continue to hit people who have received all of their shots. At least 289 more breakthrough infections in the county were reported or confirmed over a week, pushing the tally of fully vaccinated COVID-19 cases so far this year to 977. Doctors and public health officials said the vaccines are very effective in preventing severe illness and hospitalizations. The county's 51 "breakthrough" hospitalizations make up only 0.01% of the more than 480,000 Ventura County residents who are fully vaccinated. "There is enough data to show that the vaccine works," said Dr. Gagan Pawar, interim CEO of the private Clinicas del Camino Real health system, then citing masks and social distancing. "What’s changed is we stopped taking the precautions before we reached herd immunity." The trends are confusing. About 18% of all of the county's COVID-19 infections are breakthrough cases since mid-June when California ended many of its restrictions. Health officials say the number is misleading because far more people are now vaccinated than are not. More than 66% of county residents 12 and older are fully inoculated. Of those people, only 0.2% have tested positive for the virus. However, that rate is rising.
Coronavirus in Minnesota: Case positivity up; more than 300 hospitalized --As the delta coronavirus variant continues to surge across Minnesota and the nation, more governments and businesses are implementing — or considering — mandates requiring vaccines or masks. University of Minnesota officials said Monday the school will require vaccines for students as soon as the federal government fully approves them. Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Sunday he hoped the U.S. Food and Drug Administration would give that final authorization by the end of August. Right now, the COVID-19 vaccines are being administered under what’s known as an Emergency Use Authorization.The Associated Press reports that as more colleges require vaccines for students, school officials are worried about people buying up fake vaccine cards.Also locally, the Minnesota State Fair is mulling an indoor mask mandate.Some politicians and other officials have still objected to vaccine mandates, saying the government shouldn’t force people to make a medical decision they don’t want to. Texas has also banned mask mandates in schools and Arkansas instituted a ban on all mask requirements. But Texas’ rule has been challenged in court and a judge in Arkansas temporarily blocked that state’s regulation. Education Minnesota President Denise Specht said “any mandates for the COVID-19 vaccine must be locally negotiated.”On Tuesday, the Minnesota Department of Health said it would release data weekly on “breakthrough” COVID-19 cases, which are when someone who is fully vaccinated contracts COVID-19.The state says it has identified 5,599 people — of nearly 2.95 million fully vaccinated Minnesotans as of July 11 — who got COVID-19. Of those people with known breakthrough cases, 514 have been hospitalized and 57 (0.002 percent) have died.Data from MDH show the state added 5,601 new COVID-19 cases in the seven days between Aug. 4 and Aug. 10, for an average of 800 new cases per day. That’s up from a 593 new-case daily average the week prior. At the height of the pandemic in late November of 2020, Minnesota averaged more than 7,000 new cases per day.
Breakthrough cases up in Colorado, but serious illness among vaccinated remains low - Health experts say the increase in breakthrough COVID cases does not mean the vaccine isn’t working. Quite the opposite: The cases underscore how well the vaccines are holding up against its most formidable foe yet -- the delta variant. “You can still get COVID ... but there is a much higher chance you would have minimal to no symptoms,” said Dr. Bill Plauth, the chief medical officer for Penrose-St. Francis Hospital. Plauth said the numbers bear out how effective the vaccines are, even if you fall ill with the coronavirus. “About 95 percent of those who are admitted to the hospital have not been vaccinated, so we do have some patients who have finished their full vaccination and needed to be in the hospital. But they tend to be less severe and do relatively well unless they have underlying medical issues that would lead to them being sicker.” According to the state health department, between Jan. 1-Aug. 3, 8,300 breakthrough cases were reported in Colorado, accounting for less than 4 percent of all infections. No vaccine is full-proof, and doctors like Plauth always expected to see some vaccinated people get the virus. “The traditional flu vaccine might only be 30-70 percent effective, and so you would absolutely expect to see breakthrough cases. With the delta variant, it’s two to three times more contagious than the other strains of COVID and we have seen more breakthrough cases.” It’s also basic math: the more the virus circulates, the more breakthroughs are expected. El Paso County and the state as a whole are currently seeing more breakthrough cases because the region is seeing more COVID cases in general.
Don’t Panic, But Breakthrough Cases May Be a Bigger Problem Than You’ve Been Told Current public-health messaging may understate the scale and risk. The vaccines were never tested to prevent transmission, only symptomatic disease, and those who knew the science expected, from the outset, that we would see some number of such cases, and that they would be, overwhelmingly, mild. But Delta appears to have changed things. Not everything: The vaccines are working to suppress severe outcomes from COVID infection — according to a New York Times analysis, by more than a factor of 100 for some states, and at least fivefold for even the states where the effect has been most muted. That is, by the standards of historical vaccines, game-changingly well. But most of the data in that analysis comes from before the arrival of the Delta variant, and during the current surge there does seem to be considerably more “leakage” in the protection that vaccines offer against pandemic spread than has widely been acknowledged. While more severe breakthrough cases remain, in relative terms, very rare, we may be seeing a rise in those numbers with Delta, as well. Over the last few weeks, in the wake of an attention-getting internal CDC presentation on the severity of the current wave, we’ve heard a lot — from epidemiologists, public-health officials, journalists like me — about how the leaked slides lacked context, implying a much scarier near-term future than was really suggested by the data, which showed that vaccines were working, that breakthrough cases remained rare and mild, that the pandemic was now largely a pandemic of the unvaccinated. On July 30, the Kaiser Family Foundation published a comprehensive-seeming report, much passed-around, which compiled partial breakthrough data from 24 states and the District of Columbia, and declared that the relative risk to the vaccinated of infection, hospitalization, and death was close to — or mathematically equal to — zero, and that in almost all states only about one percent of identified cases were breakthrough events. This reading was echoed by the later Times analysis, and itself echoed earlier reassuring statements by Anthony Fauci, that 99.2 percent of deaths in June were unvaccinated people, and by Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, that, as of July 18, “99.5 percent of COVID deaths are among the unvaccinated.” “The message that breakthrough cases are exceedingly rare and that you don’t have to worry about them if you’re vaccinated — that this is only an epidemic of the unvaccinated — that message is falling flat,” Harvard epidemiologist Michael Mina told me in the long interview that follows below. “If this was still Alpha, sure. But with Delta, plenty of people are getting sick. Plenty of transmission is going on. And my personal opinion is that the whole notion of herd immunity from two vaccine shots is flying out the window very quickly with this new variant.”
What to Know About Breakthrough Infections, Cases and Symptoms – WSJ - As the highly transmissible Delta variant spreads, more vaccinated Americans are reporting they have tested positive for Covid-19. Here’s what you need to know about these so-called ‘breakthrough’ cases:A breakthrough infection is when someone who received a Covid-19 vaccine contracts the virus more than 14 days after they have been fully vaccinated. Authorized vaccines have been shown in studies to work well against the virus and variants. Yet the Delta variant, in particular, is more contagious than older versions of the virus, and breakthrough infections have happened on rare occasions. Most don’t require hospitalization, according to Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.Vaccinated people who have breakthrough Covid-19 infections may not know that they are infected, since some show no symptoms. Olympic athletes and others who are regularly tested have been surprised by positive Covid-19 results, since they didn’t feel sick.For others who do feel sick, the symptoms are often shorter in duration and milder than those who contract Covid-19 without a vaccine. Those symptoms include cough, fever, headaches and fatigue, according to a preprint study published in late May in the U.K. by researchers at King’s College London.They usually aren’t serious, on the rare occasions they occur. Research indicates that authorized vaccines are effective at preventing severe Covid-19, including hospitalizations. What some vaccinated people who developed a breakthrough case described was something worse than a cold, lasting several days. They were largely bed-bound but didn’t need to go to a hospital.Doctors say the elderly and those with compromised immune systems are most at risk for breakthrough infections.This is because aging impairs the body’s intrinsic ability to adapt to an immune response, according to Dr. Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist at Yale University.People who are immunocompromised due to an underlying illness are also at risk because they may not be able to generate the amount of antibodies required to fight infection altogether, she said.Doctors and immunologists say these infections are relatively rare. A report from late May by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Infection found more than 10,000 cases of Covid-19 in vaccinated people at least 14 days after their final shot across 46 states and territories between Jan. 1 and April 30 of this year. That equates to about 0.01% of the roughly 100 million people who were fully vaccinated as of April 30. Of those roughly 10,000 people, about 10% were hospitalized. Of that 10%, nearly a third didn’t show symptoms or were in the hospital for a reason unrelated to the coronavirus; 2%—or 160 patients, died.
Arizona reports 3,418 new COVID-19 cases, 27 more deaths Saturday – Arizona health officials on Saturday reported 3,418 new COVID-19 cases, exceeding 3,000 for the second consecutive day, and 27 additional deaths from the disease. The latest documented totals are 962,410 infections and 18,462 fatalities, according to the Arizona Department of Health ServicesCOVID-19 dashboard.Hospitalizations in the state related to COVID-19 have nearly tripled since the end of May, but deaths are down significantly from Arizona’s previous waves.People who aren’t fully vaccinated now account for almost all of the serious illnesses and deaths.The number of confirmed or suspected COVID-19 inpatients in the state’s hospitals increased by 11 overnight to 1,601 on Friday, the most since Feb. 20.The number of ICU beds used by COVID-19 patients decreased by eight to 382.The dashboard also showedthat 3,886,821 people (54.1% of the state’s population, based on 7,189,020 residents) have received at least one dose of vaccine in Arizona and 3,413,642 people are fully vaccinated (47.5% of the population). The nationwide rates are 59.4% with at least one dose and 50.5% fully vaccinated, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The state health department’s daily updates present case and death data after the state receives statistics and confirms them, which can lag by several days or more. They don’t represent the actual activity over the past 24 hours. The hospitalization numbers posted each morning are reported electronically the previous evening by hospitals across the state.
COVID catastrophe fuels unrest in Southeast Asia - Popular disaffection is rising across Southeast Asia as millions of people, mostly impoverished, suffer the worsening impact on lives and livelihoods of the failure of capitalist governments throughout the region and worldwide to protect society from COVID-19. Home to more than 650 million people, Southeast Asia has become an epicentre of the global Delta surge that has resulted from the corporate profit-driven policies by which governments have refused to impose, or prematurely lifted, safety restrictions, allowing more virulent mutant strains to spin out of control. Across the region, the disaster has been compounded by the near-collapse of chronically underfunded health care systems, lack of access to vaccines and widespread losses of jobs and incomes. One of the most severely affected countries, Indonesia, last week passed a damning milestone—100,000 officially confirmed COVID-19 deaths. Just days earlier, President Joko Widodo eased restrictions on July 29, allowing small businesses and some shopping malls to reopen. To appease the financial elite, Widido lifted the already limited lockdowns, even in the worst-hit areas, such as Jakarta and Bali, despite warnings by health experts that this would lead to a resurgence of infections. Virologists also warned of the potential for new variants to emerge, which has occurred when the virus has been allowed to run rampant in countries with large populations. “The decision doesn’t seem to be related to the pandemic, but to economics,” Pandu Riono, an epidemiologist at the University of Indonesia, told Reuters. It took 14 months for Indonesia to exceed the 50,000-death mark at the end of May, and just over nine weeks to double it. Despite a fall from July’s peak of more than 57,000 new daily infections, the Health Ministry is still recording more than 1,700 new deaths of COVID-19 every day. As in other countries, these figures are believed to be a substantial undercount. Low testing rates and a lack of contact tracing means many thousands of deaths are going unrecorded. Since the beginning of June, more than 2,800 people have died at home, according to LaporCOVID-19, a non-government virus data group. Some of those deaths were counted in official figures but others were not. “They were rejected by the hospitals, so they went back home and did the self-isolation at home with limited access to medicine, no oxygen and no monitoring from doctors until they died,” Ahmad Arif, one of LaporCOVID-19’s founders, told Associated Press (AP).
Covid is hitting parts of Asia harder now than beginning of pandemic — Southeast Asia experienced a major surge in Covid-19 cases last month that has shown little signs of slowing, and the situation is expected to delay most of the region's economic recovery.Major economies in this part of the world including Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines saw a sharp rise in daily reported cases and deaths from the disease in July.Information compiled by online publication Our World In Data showed, based on a seven-day moving average basis, Malaysia recorded 515.88 confirmed Covid infections per million people on July 31. That number steadily increased since June 30, when it was around 180.85.Behind Malaysia was Thailand with 236.02 new cases per million people on July 31, followed by Indonesia with 147.20 cases even as it imposed a partial lockdown and ramped up contact tracing and quarantine efforts. Cumulatively, Indonesia recorded more than 1.2 million new cases in July.Vietnam, Philippines and Singapore also saw increases in daily new cases per million people, but the figures were smaller compared with those of the other three countries.Bank of America in a research note last week said its calculations showed average daily cases in the region surged by 162% last month to reach a new record of 72,200, while daily deaths tripled from 500 a day to 1,500 people on average.Indonesia and Malaysia recorded the highest death rates per million population in July, according to the bank.The situation forced Southeast Asian governments to reintroduce lockdowns and social restrictions in an attempt to slow the spread as some ran out ofhospital beds, medical equipment and oxygen supplies.Malaysia struggled to tame the outbreak despite implementing multiple rounds of restrictions and a state of emergency. Reports say that the country will relax some restrictions for fully vaccinated people in eight states that have reduced case numbers and achieved higher inoculation rates.Singapore tightened restrictions in July following the emergence of several clusters around karaoke lounges, wet markets and hawker food centers. Those measures are now gradually being eased.Vietnam, the Philippines, and Thailand have extended some of the restrictions into August as reported Covid cases show no signs of slowing down.
After Months as a Covid Success Story, China Tries to Tame Delta --In the battle against the coronavirus, few places seemed asconfident of victory as China.The country of 1.4 billion people had eradicated the virus so quickly that it was one of the first in the world to open up in spring last year. People removed their masks and gathered for pool parties. In recent months, the government has contended with sporadic outbreaks in various provinces, but stamped them out swiftly bymobilizing thousands of people to test and trace infections, as well as locking down communities.That model is now looking increasingly fragile in a world that passed a grim milestone on Wednesday: the 200 millionth recorded case of infection.China is facing its biggest challenge since the virus first erupted in the Chinese city of Wuhan last year: the highly transmissible Delta variant that is rapidly spreading throughout the country. Chinese officials have acknowledged that curbing this outbreak will be much harder than the others, owing to the fast and asymptomatic spread of the variant.Globally, the virus is continuing to infect at an astonishing rate. It took more than a year for the pandemic to reach its 100 millionth case, and little more than six months to double that.While the number of cases in China are still relatively low compared to the United States and elsewhere, these new outbreaks — happening in cities such as Nanjing, Wuhan, Yangzhou and Zhangjiajie — are showcasing the limitations of China’s zero-tolerance approach to Covid. They may also undermine the ruling Communist Party’s argument that its authoritarian style has been an unquestionable success in the pandemic.
China punishes local officials over a growing outbreak fueled by the Delta variant. -- China has fired or reprimanded dozens of officials nationwide, saying they mishandled a coronavirus outbreak that is the country’s worst in more than a year.More than 30 people in four provinces, including government leaders, hospital staff and airport and tourism personnel, have been punished over the outbreak, according to the state-backed tabloid Global Times. At least 15 were in Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu Province, where the outbreak began late last month at the city’s international airport.The outbreak, which is driven by the more contagious Delta variant of the virus, has since grown to hundreds of cases and spread to more than half of mainland China’s 31 provinces,challenging the government’s zero-tolerance approach toward the virus.Officials have also been disciplined in Zhangjiajie, a tourist city in Hunan Province; Yantai, a coastal city in Shandong Province; and Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan Province, which was recently hit by deadly flooding.In Yangzhou, a city in Jiangsu Province that has replaced Nanjing as the country’s biggest virus hot spot, at least eight officials were punished or reprimanded after mismanagement at a testing site caused more than 20 infections, the government said. “The epidemic is in a concentrated outbreak period,” Wu Zhenglong, the governor of Jiangsu, said on Saturday, according to Yangzhou Daily. “The situation of epidemic prevention and control is very serious and complicated.”After largely eradicating the virus early last year, China has responded to periodic outbreaks with mass testing and strict lockdowns of neighborhoods or entire cities. The central city ofWuhan, where the virus was first detected in late 2019, tested all of its 11 million residents over the weekend after reporting its first Delta cases earlier this month. Mass testing is also being carried out in Yangzhou, Zhengzhou and other cities. While countries like Singapore are shifting their strategies after concluding that it’s unrealistic to insist on zero virus cases, Chinese officials have resisted that idea. Gao Qiang, the former health minister, wrote in the official People’s Daily on Saturday that China’s antivirus measures were “a double insurance strategy” that combines precise epidemic control with widespread vaccination, rather than trying to achieve herd immunity, let alone “living with the virus.”
Republican report concludes COVID-19 leaked from Wuhan lab prior to Sept. 12, 2019 | Taiwan News — A report released by U.S. House Republicans earlier this month has concluded that the "preponderance of evidence" points to COVID-19 leaking from one of the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) labs in early September 2019 at the latest. On Aug. 2, Mike McCaul (R-TX), the lead Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, released an 84-page report on the origins of COVID. The report dismissed the infamous Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market as a source of the outbreak and concluded that "the preponderance of the evidence proves the virus did leak from the WIV and that it did so sometime before September 12, 2019." Rather than the Biosafety Level IV (BSL-4) lab most frequently mentioned in debates over the WIV's new campus, the report focused on its headquarters at the institute's original location in Wuhan's Wuchang District, where BSL-2 and BSL-3 labs are situated. The report states it was there that the WIV's lead researcher Shi Zhengli (石正麗) — also known as "Bat Woman" — had conducted gain-of-function experiments on bat coronaviruses in the years leading up to the pandemic. The report pointed out that there have been a number of reports of safety concerns regarding the WIV facilities, including a warning by George Gao, the director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention of the dangers of "synthetic bat-origin SARS-like coronaviruses" that have acquired the ability to infect human cells. The document then listed a number of maintenance and repair projects undertaken at the WIV in 2019, including a hazardous waste treatment system renovation project. On Sept. 12, 2019, the WIV's public database of 22,000 samples and virus sequences gathered from bats and mice was suddenly and inexplicably taken offline. To date, the database has yet to be made public again, with Shi giving contradictory accounts as to why it went offline. An analysis of satellite imagery over the two-and-a-half years prior to Dec. 19, 2019, found that parking lots at the six hospitals closest to WIV headquarters were at their fullest in September and October of that year. During this period, Wuhan-based searches for the terms "cough" and "diarrhea" on Chinese search engine Baidu also began to climb. China's state-run media reported in January of 2020 that People's Liberation Army (PLA) Major General Chen Wei, an expert in biology and chemical weapon defense, was dispatched to Wuhan to take the reins at the WIV's BSL-4 lab. However, the report cited testimony from a former senior U.S. official as saying that Chen had actually begun overseeing the lab in late 2019, possibly indicating the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was aware of the outbreak even earlier. The authors of the report asserted that "it is reasonable to conclude" that based on the WIV's work manipulating bat viruses and the events in September, lab scientists had become infected with either a natural virus collected from the wild or one that had been genetically manipulated. The infected researchers then likely spread the virus while taking shuttle busses or the Wuhan Metro Line 2, which serves the WIV, Wuhan CDC, Huanan Seafood Market, and Wuhan International Airport.
Wuhan Lab Worker Bat Infection a Probable COVID Origin Theory—WHO Official - COVID potentially started when a Wuhan laboratory researcher got infected by a bat, according to World Health Organization (WHO) official Peter Embarek. Embarek, who led the WHO's COVID origins investigation mission to China earlier this year, has now told Danish news broadcaster TV 2 that the bat infection scenario is a probable theory. Embarek said: "An employee who was infected in the field by taking samples falls under one of the probable hypotheses." However, he added that WHO experts could find no direct evidence to support the theory that the pandemic stemmed from Wuhan bat research. The so-called lab leak theory in regards to the origins of the COVID pandemic has been a controversial subject for several months, causing tensions on the international stage. In the WHO's initial report, the scenario of COVID being introduced via a laboratory incident was labeled "extremely unlikely." However, Embarek told TV 2 that while investigators were able to get access to laboratories in Wuhan, China, and have their questions answered, "we did not get to look at any documentation at all." The WHO official added that while the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) has received a lot of attention in regards to origin theories, another lab, run by the Chinese health authorities, is also worth looking at. Embarek said he had been told by management there that the lab had changed premises in early December 2019—around the time COVID was first detected. He said it would be "interesting to look at that period and this laboratory" at some point.
Israel, Widely Vaccinated, Suffers Another Covid-19 Surge – WSJ —After becoming one of the first countries to open up thanks to a widespread Covid-19 vaccination campaign, Israel is again on guard, this time against the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus. Mask mandates are back, including requirements to mask up for large outdoor gatherings. Many venues require people to show proof of vaccination, a negative Covid-19 test or proof of recovery from the virus. People returning from most countries have to quarantine for at least a week, even if they are fully vaccinated. Over-60s are being offered a third, booster shot of Pfizer Inc.’s vaccine, and the government is planning to offer it to younger recipients with the hopes it can suppress the rise of cases of severe illness. Health officials are warning that Israel could face a fourth lockdown during the Jewish holiday season in September if the country doesn’t deliver more booster shots and improve on its wider vaccination rate; 60% of the total population are fully vaccinated, making up around 80% of adults. A little over a month ago, day-to-day life in Israel was quickly getting back to normal. People were dining indoors or attending concerts without needing the so-called green pass, a digital certificate stored on phones to show the holder is fully vaccinated. But the more contagious Delta variant is forcing a change in tack, in a test case for what could happen elsewhere, including countries with high vaccination rates. “That window when we weren’t concerned about things was so brief,” said Rena Magun, 61 years old, who co-runs a tourism and Jewish events-planning business with her husband in Jerusalem. Ms. Magun said when she sent an invite to her friends for a meal last week she was careful to emphasize it would take place outside on the porch. Her business has been badly damaged as families hoping to celebrate bar or bat mitzvahs with their children in Israel have been forced to reschedule the trips up to four times already since March 2020. “It’s absolutely devastating,” Ms. Magun said. .
TV: 14 Israelis who got 3rd shot later infected with COVID-19 | The Times of Israel - Fourteen Israelis have been diagnosed with COVID-19 despite having been inoculated with a third COVID-19 vaccine dose, according to Health Ministry data reported by Channel 12 news on Sunday. According to the network, two of those infected after receiving the booster shot have been hospitalized. It was not immediately clear whether the 14 contracted the virus before or after receiving the booster. Such sporadic instances would not be enough for medical officials to draw conclusions as to the third dose’s general effectiveness in fighting off the Delta variant of the disease. Eleven of the 14 cases were over the age of 60, and the remaining three were immunocompromised individuals under 60, the network said. The two that were hospitalized were over 60. Some 420,000 Israelis have been administered a third booster shot so far, in a drive that began last week. Meanwhile, in a Sunday meeting, government ministers fought over the prospect of a nationwide lockdown during the upcoming High Holiday period amid surging COVID-19 cases, according to leaks published on Hebrew-language media. Reports on Channels 12 and 13 and elsewhere said Education Minister Yifat Shasha-Biton, who has courted controversy by calling plans to vaccinate students in schools a “crime,” said during the cabinet meeting that the option of a lockdown must be “taken off the agenda.”
Israel Rolls Out Booster COVID-19 Shots for All 50+ Amid Delta Surge --Israel started delivering booster doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to over 50s on Friday as the country tries to control a new surge in cases."Starting this morning, people between the ages of 50 and 60 have been vaccinated at Clalit clinics across the country," said Ran Balicer, chief innovation officer at Clalit Health Services and the chairman of Israel's national expert panel on COVID-19, France 24 reported.The use of booster doses of the vaccine was approved late Thursday night, the Israeli Health Ministry said in a statement.Healthcare workers, people with weakened immune systems, prisoners, and wardens can now also receive a booster shot, the ministry said in a statement.Israel started giving booster shots to people over 60 two weeks ago, citing a drop in protection over time against severe disease driven by the Delta variant. Vaccines help protect against severe COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. Israeli Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz said at the time that if the booster shot succeeds in lowering cases of severe illness, that would "give us a powerful tool against the pandemic," The Wall Street Journal reported.The move to expand booster shots to people over 50 comes as COVID-19 cases surged in Israel, reaching more than 6,000 new cases a day, according to John Hopkins University data. That is in spite of almost 60% of the population being fully vaccinated, according to the data.
Israel Tightens Coronavirus Restrictions as New Cases Surge (AP) — Israel’s government on Wednesday advanced a raft of new coronavirus restrictions, including sweeping implementation of a digital vaccine passport and tighter restrictions on mass gatherings, as the country struggles with skyrocketing new infections. The country that had appeared to put the coronavirus pandemic behind it a few months ago after a world-leading vaccine drive is now re-imposing regulations in a bid to clamp back down on infections. The Cabinet gave its approval for the tighter measures — including limitations on people gathering indoors and restricting entry to venues and restaurants to “Green Pass” holders — as new cases of the highly infectious delta variant of the coronavirus surge despite widespread vaccination against COVID-19. Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said the government would be “giving a booster” to the country’s healthcare system as new coronavirus cases continue a precipitous climb. He said Israel had to prepare for a situation of mass hospitalizations, and was allocating 2.5 billion shekels ($774 million) to help boost capacity at hospitals nationwide. Despite its vaccination campaign, Israel has seen new coronavirus cases rise in recent weeks. The Health Ministry recorded 5,755 new cases on Wednesday, the highest daily figure since February, and serious cases have grown from 19 in mid-June to 400. At least 6,580 Israelis have died from coronavirus since the start of the pandemic, according to Health Ministry figures. The government had largely lifted coronavirus restrictions by May following its vaccine drive, but with new infections on the rise, has reinstated limitations on assemblies and indoor mask mandates. Over 58% of the country’s 9.3 million citizens have received two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. Israel had secured a large supply of the Pfizer vaccines in exchange for trading medical data. Earlier this month Israel starting giving third vaccine doses to immunosuppressed individuals and citizens over the age of 60.
Sydney’s outbreak spreads across NSW as Australia’s COVID crisis continues A major coronavirus outbreak, which continues to result in hundreds of new infections in Sydney each day, is spreading across the state of New South Wales (NSW), the most-populous in the country, with growing numbers of cases and exposure sites in regional areas. Inner-west Sydney COVID-19 testing station (Photo: WSWS Media) The extension of the highly-contagious Delta variant throughout NSW further demonstrates that the outbreak is a national crisis, not confined to one city. Over the past week, the virus had already resulted in dozens of cases in Victoria and Queensland, which neighbour NSW, prompting limited snap lockdowns in both states. The pro-business policies of state, territory and federal governments, Labor and Liberal-National alike, have imperiled millions of people with infection by Delta, a particularly virulent and deadly strain, which has resulted in COVID catastrophes in countries such as India and Indonesia and ongoing surges in the US, Britain and Europe. As is the case there, public health has been subordinated to profit interests, with governments rejecting calls from medical experts for stringent lockdown measures, because of the impact they would have on business activities. Late last week, cases were detected in the Newcastle and Hunter regions several hours north of Sydney. Greater Newcastle alone has a population of close to half a million. Throughout the pandemic, there had been only a handful of infections in the areas, which include a host of working-class suburbs. The latest outbreak there has already resulted in 30 infections, including a record 13 today, with transmission continuing despite the announcement of a limited lockdown on Thursday. As is the case throughout NSW, numbers of the cases are unlinked, so sources of transmission are unknown. There are dozens of exposure sites, with 11 more added to the list yesterday. The dangers of a broader spread were underscored by a biosecurity lockdown of an inner-city Newcastle hotel yesterday, and the announcement that potentially-infected people visited several sites at the University of Newcastle, including one of its main libraries. Students in the university’s International House residential college were forced into isolation after NSW Health announced that anyone who lives on campus and has been there between July 28 and August 7 is considered a “close contact” of infected individuals. Yesterday, Tamworth, a city of more than 40,000, located in inland northern NSW was thrown into a week-long lockdown, after it was discovered that a Newcastle resident had visited last Wednesday, and had gone to a host of public venues, including stores and cafes. Armidale, another city in the northern tablelands, was placed under restrictions several days ago, after two positive cases were detected, also linked to Newcastle. Also in northern NSW, the coastal town of Byron Bay and surrounding areas, including Lismore, the Richmond Valley and Ballina Shire, were placed into a snap lockdown. A man traveled to the area from Sydney late last month, where he is thought to have contracted the virus, meaning Delta may have been circulating in the region undetected for close to two weeks. The NSW authorities are asserting in a number of cases, including the Byron Bay outbreak, that the spread is the result of individuals violating health directives. The strategy is the same that has been used in Sydney, where working-class residents of the city’s west and south-west have been accused, without a shred of public evidence, of widespread rule-breaking. In reality, the extension of the virus crisis throughout the state has been warned of since the Sydney outbreak began on June 16. As the state capital, Sydney has myriad links to regional towns and cities across NSW. The state Liberal-National government has refused to enforce any containment line around Sydney, instead merely issuing directives against the city’s residents travelling elsewhere. Even these rules contain a host of exemptions, especially for work-related activities.
Nine people died after oxygen system failed at Russian hospital. --Nine coronavirus patients died on Monday in a hospital in southern Russia after a system that supplied oxygen failed, according to statements by local authorities and reports in Russian media.The deaths are the latest in a series of accidents and fires related to oxygen supply in Russian hospitals, which have struggled to treat a new Delta variant-driven wave of patients. About 19 percent of Russia’s total population is now fully vaccinated.There were 71 patients in the intensive care unit at the Republican Clinical Hospital for Emergency Medicine in Vladikavkaz when the system failed, the regional health ministry said in a statement.The hospital relied on an oxygen generator that fed the gas through an underground pipe to the intensive care unit, Interfax reported. The underground pipe was worn out and had a leak, the news agency reported.The report cited the acting regional health minister, Soslan Tebiyev, saying doctors were carefully monitoring the survivors. “The rest of the patients are strictly controlled,” he said. Those patients get oxygen from canisters, reports said. Twenty patients died last fall in Rostov-on-Don, also in Russia’s south, when a hospital ran out of oxygen. In a separate incident last fall, the oxygen supply of a hospital in the Ural Mountain city of Chelyabinsk exploded and set the hospital on fire, forcing the evacuation of 158 critically ill Covid-19 patients. Local media reported two patients died in that incident.
Anti-vax nurse gave 8,600 people saline, not COVID vaccine: police --A German nurse is being investigated for allegedly injecting thousands of people with a placebo instead of the coronavirus vaccine. Based on witness testimony, police investigator Peter Beer said there was “a reasonable suspicion” that the rogue medical professional had administered shots of saline solution to up to 8,600 patients who were slated to receive the COVID jab, Reuters reported.. “I am totally shocked by this episode,” Sven Ambrosy, a local councilor, said of the alarming switcheroo, which reportedly occurred in March and April in Friesland in northern Germany. It’s unknown why the shot-blocker — reportedly a Red Cross nurse — had injected people with blanks; however, she had reportedly broadcast anti-vax views on social media, investigators reported. And while the faux jab was harmless, it may have disproportionately affected elderly people, who are at a greater risk of contracting the virus. In order to prevent casualties from the fake shots, authorities are imploring thousands of people to get a second jab. “The district of Friesland will do everything possible to ensure that the affected people receive their vaccination protection as soon as possible,” Ambrosy wrote in a Tuesday Facebook post.
'Living through a war': In Cuba, a race to vaccinate as Covid surges - Over the last month, daily case numbers in the communist-ruled island have tripled as the delta variant of the coronavirus has taken root. While total daily case numbers remain under 10,000, the country now has the highest contagion rate per capita in Latin America, although the mortality rate remains well below the regional and world averages.The central province of Ciego de Ávila, where Rodriguez lives, is the current hot spot. With the local health care system overwhelmed, the government last week converted two of 30 hotels in the province into hospitals. Two hundred Cuban doctors were also withdrawn from posts in Venezuela to treat the surge in cases.“These are good decisions, but they could have been taken earlier,” Rodríguez said. “The local [Communist] Party has been badly organized.”Government leaders agree. “We needn’t be embarrassed that [the virus] has exceeded the capacities of our institutions — this has happened around the world,” Prime Minister Manuel Marrero said last week. “But we ought to be embarrassed when ... effects are increased by our shoddy work, our negligence and our errors.”Such pointed self-criticism from the government is rare. The change in language reflects a deteriorating situation on the ground, as well as, perhaps, an attempt to chime with popular discontent following unprecedented anti-government protests last month.Throughout last year the island, which touts its status as the country with the highest doctor-to-patient ratio, implemented a successful track, trace and isolation regimen. All positive patients were hospitalized, including asymptomatic patients. Cuba's government reported that just 146 people died from the virus last year, the equivalent of 13 deaths per million throughout the year (the U.S. recorded 1,024 deaths per million over the same period). But last week alone, the death toll was 602.
Melioidosis confirmed in Georgia, one dead — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirms one person has died of melioidosis in Georgia. The CDC said melioidosis is caused by a bacterium found in contaminated water and soil. The deadly infectious disease can infect humans and animals, and it is predominantly found in tropical climates, including Southeast Asia and northern Australia.According to the CDC, the new fatal case of the rare disease in Georgia is linked to three other cases of the disease in adults and children in Kansas, Texas, and Minnesota. Experts said genome sequencing shows the bacterial strains that made the four patients sick suggest a common source.They said that bacteria appears to be closely related to strains found in South Asia, even though none of the four patients had traveled internationally recently. Two of those four people, including one person in Georgia, have died.According to the CDC, the patients had no known risk factors for melioidosis. None of the 100 samples taken from products, soil, and water in and around those patients' homes have tested positive for the bacteria that causes the illness. According to the CDC, melioidosis has "a wide range of signs and symptoms," which can be mistaken for other diseases like common forms of pneumonia and tuberculosis.
Alarming CDC report says new tropical disease had killed two in US -- Alongside the rampant delta variant outbreaks, public health experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are now contending with new incidents of a rare tropical disease that has emerged in parts of the continental U.S.Melioidosis, also known as Whitmore’s disease, is a bacterial infection usually found in Southeast Asia and northern Australia. The bacteria causing the infection is usually found in contaminated waters and soils and spread within both animals and humans through contact with the contaminated source. Ingestion and contact with skin abrasions are the most common vehicles of infection.Recent genome sequencing at the CDC headquarters in Atlanta confirms that four cases of melioidosis are in the U.S., with two being fatal.No other information on the patients has been released by the CDC. One case was confirmed in Georgia and was traced to three prior cases in different states, namely Kansas, Texas and Minnesota.After testing more than 100 soil and water samples near the patients’ homes, none came back positive for the bacteria that causes melioidosis. This leaves public health officials to believe that the cause is most likely an imported product or an ingredient found within an import, such as a food, beverage, cleaning product or medicine.Notably, it is rare to contract melioidosis from another person. “Although healthy people may get melioidosis, underlying medical conditions may increase the risk of disease,” the CDC wrote. “The major risk factors are diabetes, liver or kidney disease, chronic lung disease, cancer or another condition that weakens the immune system.”
Sunscreen Worries Grow as Another Potential Carcinogen Found -Researchers asked U.S. regulators to pull some sunscreens from the market, including brands such as Coppertone, Banana Boat and Neutrogena, saying they've found evidence of a potential carcinogen. Scientists petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to remove for sale all sunscreens containing the active ingredient octocrylene. Products made with the chemical may contain benzophenone, a suspected carcinogen that also can interfere with key hormones and reproductive organs, according to a group led by Craig Downs, executive director of the nonprofit Haereticus Environmental Laboratory that studies risks to health and the environment. Some 2,400 sun-protection products are made with octocrylene and "we don't know what their safety is," said Downs, who filed the petition Thursday. "The FDA doesn't know what their safety is and it's unconscionable that the FDA would allow something that we don't know if it's safe or not." Concerns about sunscreens began heating up in 2019 when the FDA asked manufacturers for safety data on chemical ingredients, including octocrylene. In May, an independent testing lab found levels of another probable carcinogen, benzene, in several products, leading to some recalls. FDA research shows that the body absorbs enough of sunscreens' chemical ingredients to warrant further testing. Yet there's no indication companies have provided the safety data the FDA requested two years ago, said David Andrews, a senior scientist at the Environmental Working Group, an advocacy organization. Working with researchers at the Paris-based Sorbonne University, Downs and Joe DiNardo, a toxicologist who formerly worked in the cosmetics industry, tested 16 octocrylene-based sunscreens purchased in France and the U.S. The brands included Beiersdorf AG's Coppertone Water Babies spray, Edgewell Personal Care Co.'s Banana Boat SPF 50 lotion and a Neutrogena Beach Defense spray and lotion from Johnson & Johnson. All of them tested positive for benzophenone. Downs and DiNardo's findings were published in the journal Chemical Research in Toxicology in March. Later, Belgian researchers published similar results after testing products containing octocrylene.
Microplastics destabilize lipid membranes by mechanical stretching - PNAS -Abstract: Estimated millions of tons of plastic are dumped annually into oceans. Plastic has been produced only for 70 y, but the exponential rise of mass production leads to its widespread proliferation in all environments. As a consequence of their large abundance globally, microplastics are also found in many living organisms including humans. While the health impact of digested microplastics on living organisms is debatable, we reveal a physical mechanism of mechanical stretching of model cell lipid membranes induced by adsorbed micrometer-sized microplastic particles most commonly found in oceans. Combining experimental and theoretical approaches, we demonstrate that microplastic particles adsorbed on lipid membranes considerably increase membrane tension even at low particle concentrations. Each particle adsorbed at the membrane consumes surface area that is proportional to the contact area between particle and the membrane. Although lipid membranes are liquid and able to accommodate mechanical stress, the relaxation time is much slower than the rate of adsorption; thus, the cumulative effect from arriving microplastic particles to the membrane leads to the global reduction of the membrane area and increase of membrane tension. This, in turn, leads to a strong reduction of membrane lifetime. This study demonstrates that microplastic beads ranging from 1 to 10 μm attach to lipid membranes. This attachment leads to significant stretching of the lipid bilayer without requiring any oxidative, or biological, e.g., inflammatory, reactions. This mechanical stretching can potentially lead to serious dysfunction of the cell machinery.
Microplastics: A trojan horse for metals -Scientists worldwide have already demonstrated the alarming ecological ubiquity and longevity of plastic particles. The particles measure between one micrometer and a half centimeter in size. They develop in part when larger plastic components break apart in the sea or wind up in the rivers and subsequently in the ocean directly from wastewater stemming from land. Microplastics are toxic in very high concentrations. In addition, they can also accumulate, transport and release other pollutants. While data has already been published on organic pollutants in this context, there is little known about the interactions between the microplastic particles floating in the water and dissolved metals. This is why scientists from the Institute of Coastal Environmental Chemistry at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon have now systematically studied these interactions in the laboratory.The team, which includes first author Dr. Lars Hildebrandt, studied the accumulation of fifty-five different metals and semi-metals on polyethylene and polyethylene terephthalate particles, measuring 63 to 250 micrometers in size. “In regard to water polluted by plastics, the two types of plastics we studied play a vital role,” says environmental chemist Hildebrandt. “This is due to their wide range of application and the associated high production volumes. Most shopping bags, for example, are made of polyethylene (recycling code 4, LDPE), and plastic drinking bottles are almost without exception made of polyethylene terephthalate (recycling code 1, PET).” “In the study, we determined that the accumulation becomes stronger when the particles become smaller and that there are significant differences between the various elements (metals and semi-metals) in terms of the extent of enrichment,” says coauthor Dr. Daniel Pröfrock, department head of Inorganic Environmental Chemistry at Hereon. Some metals, or more precisely their ions, such as chromium, iron, tin and the rare earths attached themselves almost entirely to the microplastics. Others, such as cadmium, zinc and cooper, showed almost no accumulation on the plastic over the entire test period. In addition, the polyethylene particles showed significantly greater accumulation than the polyethylene terephthalate particles.In the second phase of the test, the Hereon scientists could show that the particles loaded with metals or semi-metals almost completely released the respective metal contents again under chemical conditions, such as those that prevail in the digestive tract. “Our test set-up in the laboratory was actually simplified and without model organisms. Nonetheless, the results provide important evidence that microplastic particles, when absorbed by the body, act as a type of trojan horse for metals and that these metals can possibly be introduced into organisms to a greater extent in that way,”
Environmental impact of bottled water ‘up to 3,500 times greater than tap water’ The impact of bottled water on natural resources is 3,500 times higher than for tap water, scientists have found.The research is the first of its kind and examined the impact of bottled water in Barcelona, where it is becoming increasingly popular despite improvements to the quality of tap water in recent years.Research led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) found that if the city’s population were all to drink bottled water, this would result in a 3,500 times higher cost of resource extraction than if they all drank tap water, at $83.9m (£60.3m)a year.Researchers also found the impact of bottled water on ecosystems is 1,400 times higher than tap water. The authors concluded that the reduction in environmental impacts more than offset the small risk of bladder cancer associated with drinking tap water. The process of treating drinking water generates low levels of trihalomethanes (THM), which have been associated with a higher risk of bladder cancer. THM levels in drinking water are regulated in the EU. The lead author of the study, the ISGlobal researcher Cristina Villanueva, said: “Health reasons don’t justify the wide use of bottled water. Yes, strictly speaking, drinking tap water is worse for local health, but when you weigh both, what you gain from drinking bottled water is minimal. It’s quite obvious that the environmental impacts of bottled water are higher compared to tap water.”In the US, 17m barrels of oil are needed to produce the plastic to meet annual bottled water demand. In addition, bottled water in the UK is at least 500 times more expensive than tap water.Villanueva added: “I think this study can help to reduce bottled water consumption, but we need more active policies to change that.“For example, in Barcelona, we could have more education campaigns to make the public aware that the health gains from drinking bottled water are minor compared to the environmental impacts. We need to improve access to public water, to public fountains, to public buildings where you can bring your own bottle and don’t need to buy one. We need to facilitate access to public water in public streets.
Coca-Cola Is #1 Most Littered Brand on UK Beaches - Coca-Cola is once again the brand name most likely to show up on trash collected from UK beaches, the latest installment in a yearly analysis has shown.The analysis was the result of a yearly brand audit conducted by ocean conservation group Surfers Against Sewage as part of a beach clean event. The group found that Coke was one of 12 parent companies responsible for more than 65 percent of all branded pollution."Our annual Brand Audit has once again revealed the shocking volume of plastic and packaging pollution coming directly from big companies and some of their best known brands," Surfers Against Sewage Chief Executive Hugo Tagholm said in a press release. "Serial offenders including Coca-Cola – which tops the leader board year on year as the worst offender – are still not taking responsibility."The audit was based on the group's Million Mile Clean, in which more than 50,000 volunteers cleaned a total of 350,000 miles and collected 26,983 items of packaging pollution from May 11 to 23. This effort revealed the "Dirty Dozen" companies whose various product names were most often found on bags and bottles: Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Anheuser-Bush InBev, McDonalds, Mondelez International, Heineken, Tesco, Carlsberg Group, Suntory, Haribo, Mars and Aldi.Further, the analysis revealed the top 12 most polluting brands: Coca-Cola, Walkers, McDonalds, Cadbury, Tesco, Lucozade, Costa Coffee, Budweiser, Mars- Wrigley, Stella Artois, Haribo and Aldi. (Walkers is a UK chip company owned by Pepsi).There were many repeat offenders on the lists, including Coke, which has taken the top spot for every year since 2019. However, the coronavirus pandemic does seem to have influenced the lists somewhat."Brands such as Stella Artois and Budweiser have moved up into the top 12 polluting brands with Anheauser-Bush InBev moving from eight to third in the Dirty Dozen companies ranking," the report authors wrote. "This is likely to be due to the closure of pubs, bars and restaurants increasing personal alcohol consumption in public recreational settings during lockdowns."
Record Levels of Harmful Particles Found in Great Lakes Fish -- A record-setting fish was pulled from Hamilton Harbor at the western tip of Lake Ontario in 2015 and the world is learning about it just now.The fish, a brown bullhead, contained 915 particles—a mix of microplastics, synthetic materials containing flame retardants or plasticizers, dyed cellulose fibers, and more—in its body. It was the most particles ever recorded in a fish."In 2015 we knew a lot less about microplastics and contamination in fish. I was expecting to see no particles in most fish," Keenan Munno, then a graduate student at the University of Toronto, told EHN. Every sampled fish had ingested some particles. Munno's 2015 master's work has spun out into six years' worth of research, including the new Conservation Biology paper that reports these findings.The findings point to the ubiquity of microplastics and other harmful human-made particles in the Great Lakes and the extreme exposure some fish experience—especially those living in urban-adjacent waters. While direct links between microplastics and fish and human health are still an issue of emerging science, finding plastics within fish at such high amounts is concerning.Researchers collected fish from three locations in both Lake Superior, Lake Ontario and the Humber River (a tributary of Lake Ontario). In all they gathered 212 fish and 12,442 particles.In Lake Ontario, besides the record-setting bullhead, white suckers from Humber Bay and Toronto Harbor had 519 and 510 particles, respectively. A longnose sucker from Mountain Bay in Lake Superior had 790 particles. In the Humber River even common shiners, minnows which rarely get to eight inches long, had up to 68 particles."It was obviously concerning," said Munno, now a research assistant at University of Toronto. She extracted and counted all the microplastics and other particles from the fish's digestive tracts by hand. That includes all 915 record-setting particles.
Young Turtles Are Ingesting Lots of Plastic, Study Confirms --The 8.7 million species that inhabit this Earth did not evolve in a world dominated by human activity, and this can cause problems when pollution transforms a previously advantageous environment into a perilous one.This is the case for juvenile sea turtles, a study published in Frontiers in Marine Science this month has found. The animals' natural development strategy puts them at greater risk of swallowing some of the eight million tons of plastic that enter the world's oceans every year."Once hatchlings leave the nesting beach all but one species enter in ocean currents to develop[] in open ocean areas," "In the past this strategy was beneficial due to lower predator numbers and an abundance of food items. However now these are areas of high plastic accumulation therefore exposing them to higher ingestion risk." What happens to juvenile sea turtles is what the study authors call an "evolutionary trap." This, the study authors explained, is the word for situations in which large numbers of a species are attracted to a particular resource or habitat that ends up harming them. That young sea turtles tend to frequent parts of the ocean where they are more likely to encounter plastic is not a new observation, Sea Turtle Conservancy Executive Director David Godfrey, who was not involved with the research, told EcoWatch. Conservationists have been aware of the problem for at least 30 years. However, much of this awareness is based on anecdotal evidence, such as when large numbers of young turtles wash up dead after a storm. That difficulty is part of what makes the new research so important, according to Duncan. Her team was able "report the high incidence of plastic ingestion in this vulnerable and difficult to study life stage," she wrote.They did this by examining 121 stranded and bycaught juvenile sea turtles from Queensland Australia, which borders the Pacific Ocean, and Western Australia, which borders the Indian. Their sample included members of five of the world's seven sea turtle species: green, loggerhead, hawksbill, olive ridley and flatback turtles. They then recorded what percentage of each species had plastic in their stomachs, and which ocean they were found in. The results are as follows. Pacific Ocean
- Loggerheads: 86 percent
- Greens: 83 percent
- Flatbacks: 80 percent
- Olive ridleys: 29 percent
New Strain of Deadly Marine Mammal Virus Identified in Stranded Maui Dolphin - When a Fraser's dolphin washed up dead in Maui in 2018, researchers did not suspect that this could be the first sign of a deadly outbreak.But now, a paper published in Scientific Reports on Monday reveals that the dolphin was infected with a previously unknown strain of morbillivirus, a disease related to human measles and smallpox that has killed off large numbers of cetaceans — whales, dolphins and porpoises — around the world."This finding identifies an important threat to Fraser's dolphins and to the approximately 20 other species of cetaceans that call Hawaii home," study lead author and University of Hawaii at Mānoa's Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology associate researcher Kristi West told EcoWatch in an email.Cetacean morbillivirus is an airborne virus that can spread rapidly between very social species like whales and dolphins. It can also travel between different whale and dolphin species and between a pregnant mother and her calf. "Cetacean morbillivirus has been identified as one of the biggest disease threats because it has been responsible for mass mortalities of dolphins and whales that have occurred worldwide," West said. "Morbillivirus has been show[n] to spread rapidly through populations – especially as cetaceans are especially social and travel in large groups – therefore if it were to spread through a population that was already classed as vulnerable it could have a devastating impact," she wrote. In the case of the waters off Hawaii, this is a real risk, the study authors noted. That is because the islands are home to many unique populations that are already low in numbers. For example, the endangeredHawaiian false killer whales (Pseudorca crassidens) only number around 167.
Mass Death on Butte Creek: Record Spring Salmon Run on Sacramento River Tributary Turns into Disaster as Most Fish Die Before Spawning - In an extreme drought year where nearly all juvenile Sacramento River winter run Chinook salmon are expected to die before spawning due to alleged water mismanagement by the state and federal governments, the return of a record run of adult spring run Chinook salmon on Butte Creek this year was welcome news. But it didn’t stay that way. A record run of over 18,000 spring Chinook has returned to Butte Creek, a Sacramento River tributary, the second largest since 20,000 fish ascended the creek in 1998, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, or CDFW. Allen Harthorn, Executive Director of Friends of Butte Creek, estimates the size of this year’s run to be even larger, around 25,000 fish. Yet this has all changed recently. The potential of a successful spawn becomes increasingly dim as thousands of adult spring run salmon on Butte Creek die before spawning. “Disaster is really hitting home on Butte Creek, where over 12,000 adult spring run salmon have died prematurely,” said Harthorn. “There may be only a few thousand left to spawn if we’re lucky.” The CDFW detailed in their latest snorkel survey report on the creek that 12,370 salmon have died before spawning from June 1 to July 27, 2021. “The water is so turbid and they are so busy counting carcasses they can’t get a good estimate of how many fish are left,” noted Harthorn. The fish deaths were caused by heat-related oxygen deficiency and the outbreak of two fish diseases, ich and columnaris, as a result, according to the CDFW pathologist report. These two diseases were the same ones that killed over 38,000 adult fall run Chinook salmon on the lower Klamath River on the Yurok Reservation in September 2002. Spring run are a distinct run of Chinook salmon that have evolved over millions of years to ascend the high elevation tributaries of the Sacramento River to spawn every spring. They are river-maturing fish that don’t spawn until fall.
96,000 Fish Die in Chlorine Leak at Norwegian Fish Farm - Nearly 100,000 fish have died after one of the world's largest salmon farming companies released 4,000 gallons of chlorine into a Norwegian fjord on Tuesday.Grieg Seafood, which is headquartered in Norway, said that the leak occurred in one of their fish slaughterhouses in the town of Alta in the Norwegian Arctic, as The Independent reported."This is very sad," harvesting plant manager Stine Torheim said in a statement. "Our focus is now first and foremost on cleaning up. We will get all facts about this incident on the table, to ensure that it will not happen again."The company said that the leak did not harm any employees or other people. Further, police spokesperson Stein Hugo Jorergensen told Norwegian broadcaster NRK that no toxic chlorine gas had been released on land, according to The Independent. However, the leak did kill 96,000 fish in holding pens at the time.In addition to contaminating the fjord, the chlorine also flowed into the Atlantic Ocean, Norwegian police said on Twitter, as The Independent reported."The emergency services are working on site to get an overview of the incident," the police said.The company said it did not yet know how the leak might impact the environment of the fjord, but had contracted an assessment from Akvaplan Niva. In general, chlorine tends to dilute and break down rapidly once it enters water. "According to what we know today, the leak had a short-term, acute impact on organisms that were in the water around the harvesting plant when the incident occurred," the company said.
Thousands of fish killed by toxic red tide wash ashore on Florida beaches: - Hundreds of tons of dead marine life have washed ashore and wafted a putrid stench along Florida’s beaches in recent weeks amid a toxic red tide bloom spreading in its waters.“When I walk my dog in the morning, I can smell the dead fish,” Thomas Patarek told the Guardian. “I can feel the red tide in my throat.”While red tides occur naturally in the Gulf of Mexico, experts feared a large bloom was imminent after a toxic breach at the Piney Point phosphate plant in late May. In order to prevent a devastating collapse of the site’s reservoir – which held some 480 million gallons of wastewater – state officials pumped wastewater out of the reservoir and into storage containers and a local seaport, according to the Tampa Bay Times. On Thursday, the state’s environmental agency filed a lawsuit against the former phosphate mining facility’s owner over the breach. “Today, the department took a pivotal step to ensure this is the final chapter for the Piney Point site,” according to a statement by the agency’s secretary.The massive spill threatened nearby residents with a 20-foot wall of water and led to the evacuation of nearby residents and businesses. Experts now believe the wastewater that was dumped into Port Manatee, which leads into Tampa Bay, could be supplying a buffet of nutrients for bacteria to feast on, which could have caused the algae bloom. Warming waters due to climate change are also making red tides worse, according to experts. So far, the state has given $1m towards cleanup efforts for the fish killed by the red tide. Patarek and his group organized a protest calling for the state’s governor, Republican Ron DeSantis, to declare a state of emergency that would free up more resources to clean up the fish-clogged bay. The city council of St. Petersburg, one of the areas hardest hit by the scourge, also pushed for a state of emergency declaration to coordinate a state and federal response.
Gulf of Mexico 'dead zone' has grown larger than Connecticut --A “dead zone,” or an area of low to no oxygen, in the Gulf of Mexico has grown larger than Connecticut, creating an uninhabitable environment for some commercial marine life, and scientists are saying the sparse amount of tropical activity has played a role. An hypoxic zone, also referred to as a dead zone, is formed when excess nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus from agriculture and sewage from cities and farms upstream wash into the Gulf. Algae then feeds on these nutrients during the warmer months, and when that algae dies and sinks to the Gulf's floor, the bacteria that then eats away at the large tangled masses depletes the oxygen in the surrounding water. The resulting area of low oxygen is called a hypoxic zone, or a dead zone as it becomes unable to support marine life, and it forms in the Gulf every year. Not only can it harm local wildlife, but it can also financially impact fisheries. Hypoxic waters have been found to alter fish diets, growth rates, reproduction, habitat use and availability of commercially harvested species such as shrimp, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Now, fisheries along the coast of Louisiana will have to deal with a larger-than-average dead zone. The hypoxic area had previously been forecast to reach 4,880 square miles, but when scientists at Louisiana State University and at the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium had conducted the annual survey from July 25 to Aug. 1, they found a few anomalies. For one, the dead zone ended up measuring 6,334 square miles -- and while that doesn't appear much larger, the difference in square miles is roughly the size of Rhode Island. The scientists attributed the above-forecast size to a larger-than-average summer output of water from the Mississippi River, which meant more of the algae-feeding nutrients as well as more fresh water pumped into the basin.
Marine Protected Areas Are Less Effective Than We Thought — Illegal Fishing Is to Blame -- Are Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) effective? Yes, but not as well as we thought, a new study finds.Globally, illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing is known as one of the biggest threats to the health and future of the oceans. MPAs attempt to protect enough critical marine habitat to ensure survival of ocean life despite this. Unfortunately, illegal fishers intentionally target reserves because they know that fish are more abundant within those areas, Pew Charitable Trusts reported. Now, this study shows how detrimental illegal fishing is even to nearby protected areas, because of an "edge effect."Recently, IUU fishing has taken the global spotlight. To shed more light and galvanize collaborative solutions, the United Nations declared June 5 the International Day for the Fight Against Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing.For decades, marine policies have advocated for MPAs as a critical tool in the fight against illegal fishing, citing the "spillover effect" as the crucial benefit. The idea is that protecting certain areas from fishing and development will allow fish and invertebrate stocks to recover and migrate out (or spillover) to unprotected areas where fishing is allowed. Thus, overall fish populations should increase within MPAs and immediately outside.For the most part, MPAs work. A new study, however, shows that fishing right outside of protected areas similarly has a negative spillover effect that moves backwards into MPAs. Human pressures have a detrimental effect on marine wildlife living close to the edges of such regions. Illegal fishing and overfishingare the main human actions causing this reverse spillover, the study showed. It was published in the journalNature Ecology & Evolution.
Neonicotinoids Harm Bees at Far Below the Label Recommended Dose, Study Finds - - Ornamental plant nurseries — with their high concentration of different flowers — are an important food source for pollinators. In fact, University of California (UC), Riverside entomologists Jacob Cecala and Erin E. Wilson Rankin counted more than 150 species of wild bees at nurseries in California alone. So Cecala and Rankin conducted an experiment to see how the use of a common neonicotinoid on ornamental plants would impact the solitary alfalfa leafcutter bee (Megachile rotundata). The answer? Quite a lot.When the pesticide was applied at just 30 percent of the recommended dose, it still reduced the bees' reproduction by 90 percent."This result reminds us that while ornamental plants serve as critical resources for solitary bees, we must be vigilant about how we manage these plants and the chemicals we apply to them," Cecala told EcoWatch in an email. The research, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B last month, was designed to determine how different nursery pesticide management practices might help or harm bees. In particular, Cecala and Rankin wanted to know if the amount of water the plants received would make a difference. Because neonicotinoids are water soluble, Cecala thought that watering the plants more would lessen the pesticides' impact on bees, according to a UC Riverside press release. To test this, he and Rankin introduced bees to ornamental plants that had been treated with 30 percent of the label dose of a common neonicotinoid and plants that had not. Within each category, some of the plants were watered more, and some less. The particular pesticide they used was imidacloprid, a neonicotinoid sold as Marathon®. This is a pesticide designed for use in nurseries and greenhouses that has been on the market since 1994. What they found was a surprise, Cecala told UC Riverside. The pesticide-treated plants that had been watered more did have less imidacloprid in their nectar, but they were equally harmful to bee foraging and reproduction as the pesticide-treated plants that had been watered less.
African Faith Leaders to Gates Foundation: Drop ‘African Green Revolution’ --In August 2021, an alliance of African faith leaders delivered a powerful message to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: Stop promoting failing and harmful high-input Green Revolution programs, such as the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).Their call comes at a critical time. In Sub-Saharan Africa, 66 percent of people (724 million) now suffer moderate to severe food insecurity, up from 51 percent in 2014, according to the State of Food Insecurity report recently released by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. As food insecurity increases — intensified by the ongoing crises of climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic — the United Nations is convening a Food Systems Summit in September to address global failures to reduce hunger in line with commitments made in the Sustainable Development goals. The summit, which is led by AGRA President Agnes Kalibata, is mired in controversy, accused by farmer groups of promoting the same kinds of industrialized agricultural development that have failed to address the hunger crisis.The letter to the Gates Foundation detailed the negative impacts that industrialized agriculture has had on the land and in the communities of faith leaders from around the continent. At the press conference, presenters emphasized the need for the Gates Foundation and other donors to break with the current agriculture agenda and instead invest in more regenerative, agroecological approaches.“Farmers have become wary of programs that promote monoculture and chemical-intensive farming. They have lost control of their seeds. Now, they say they are being held hostage on their own farms,” says Celestine Otieno, a permaculture farmer from Kenya. “Is this food security or food slavery?” South African agroecology farmer Busisiwe Mgangxela reiterated that farmers practicing agroecology “do not feed the soil with chemicals, we feed it with organic matter and fertility from other companion plants.” As the letter details, input-intensive monoculture agriculture damages ecosystems, threatens local livelihoods, increases climate vulnerabilities and undermines smallholder farmers engaged in more sustainable methods of production.
First water cuts in US West supply to hammer Arizona farmers (AP) —Climate change, drought and high demand are expected to force the first-ever mandatory cuts to a water supply that 40 million people across the American West depend on — the Colorado River. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s projection next week will spare cities and tribes but hit Arizona farmers hard.They knew this was coming. They have left fields unplanted, laser leveled the land, lined canals, installed drip irrigation, experimented with drought-resistant crops and found other ways to use water more efficiently.Still, the cutbacks in Colorado River supply next year will be a blow for agriculture in Pinal County, Arizona’s top producer of cotton, barley and livestock. Dairies largely rely on local farms for feed and will have to search farther out for supply, and the local economy will take a hit.The cuts are coming earlier than expected as a drought has intensified and reservoirs dipped to historic lows across the West. Scientists blame climate change for the warmer, more arid conditions over the past 30 years.Standing next to a dry field, his boots kicking up dust, farmer Will Thelander said “more and more of the farm is going to look like this next year because we won’t have the water to keep things growing everywhere we want.”His father, Dan, tried to steer his kids away from farming, not because water would be scarce but because development was expected to swallow farms between Phoenix and Tucson where their family grows alfalfa, corn for cows, and cotton, some destined for overseas markets.Thelander manages almost half of the 6,000 acres his family farms under Tempe Farming Co., much of it devoted to corn for cows. He’s not planning on growing that crop next year, opting for others that will be more profitable on less land. He didn’t plant anything on 400 acres this year to cut down on water use. Farmers’ Colorado River water comes by way of Lake Mead, which sits on the Arizona-Nevada border and serves as a barometer for water deliveries to Arizona, Nevada, California and Mexico, in the river’s lower basin.The nation’s largest reservoir already has hit the level that triggers mandatory shortages — 1,075 feet above sea level. The Bureau of Reclamation will issue the official projection for 2022 water deliveries Monday, giving users time to plan for what’s to come.Arizona is expected to lose 512,000 acre-feet of water, about one-fifth of the state’s Colorado River supply but less than 8 percent of its total water. Nevada will lose 21,000 acre-feet, and Mexico will lose 80,000 acre-feet. An acre-foot is enough water to supply one to two households a year.The cuts will be most deeply felt in Arizona, which entered into an agreement in 1968 for junior rights to Colorado River water in exchange for U.S. funding to build a 336-mile canal to send the water through the desert to major cities.Agriculture won’t end in Pinal County, but the cuts to farmers will force more of them to rely on groundwater that’s already overpumped. Hardly anyone expects a more than 20-year megadrought to improve. Models show the Colorado River will shrink even more in coming years because of climate change, leading to additional cuts that could ultimately affect home taps.
Dangerous Heat Wave to Bake Northwest Set Record Highs in Seattle Portland In what has become the summer of high-temperature woes, another harsh heat wave is on its way to the Northwest and states are doing all they can to prepare.On Tuesday, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown declared a state of emergency ahead of the impending heat, urging residents to take proactive steps and make a game plan to keep cool. Such measures include preparing hydration, visiting one of the dozens of cooling centers across the state and checking in on friends and family.The northwestern United States has undergone a record-shattering, deadly heat wave and season of destructive fire activity this summer. While many residents are looking for extended relief, AccuWeather forecasters warn that more bad news is on the way for the region.A change in the overall weather pattern will allow temperatures to skyrocket across the northwestern U.S. and largely cut off chances for much-needed rainfall."Yet another stretch of record-challenging high temperatures is in store for some across the Northwest this week as an expansive dome of high pressure settles over the region," AccuWeather Meteorologist Brandon Buckingham said.Excessive heat watches and warnings went into effect across parts of Oregon and Washington on Tuesday, set to last into Wednesday. Seattle is expected to be under an excessive heat warning from 12 p.m. PDT Wednesday to 7 p.m. PDT Saturday, while an excessive heat warning has been issued for Portland, Oregon, from 12 p.m. Wednesday until 10 p.m. Saturday. Temperatures are forecast to peak at 104 on Thursday in Portland, which would tie the previous daily record of last set in 1994. In Seattle, while highs are forecast to fall just short of the century mark, a temperature of 98 is predicted on Friday, which would top the previous daily record of 92 from 2002.
East Coast And Pacific Northwest Hit By 100-Plus Degree Heat Waves : NPR - Some 195 million Americans — out of a population of more than 330 million — are facing dangerously high temperatures as much of the mainland U.S. is under excessive heat advisories beginning Thursday and expected to last until the weekend. Before relief arrives, temperatures will reach levels that feel hotter than 100 degrees Fahrenheit, the National Weather Service warns.Earlier this summer, a heat wave around the Portland, Ore., area and in Canada was blamed for the death of hundreds of people. This time around the oppressive heat will not only exacerbate drought conditions and wildfires in the West but also will make for dangerous conditions on the East Coast.The National Weather Service predicts the Interstate 95 corridor in the East could reach 100 F Thursday afternoon. Oppressive heat indexes, a measure of how hot it really feels outside, are expected to range between 105 to 110 degrees Fahrenheit.Dew points, a measure of the amount of moisture in the air, could reach as high as 80 in the Boston area. That's a number that is "basically record territory" for New England,according to WBUR, Boston's NPR news station. Some parts of Massachusetts could reach a heat index of 110.Several states have opened cooling centers for residents to stay safe in the heat.In the Pacific Northwest, temperatures could hit 105 F on Thursday, according to earlier predictions by the National Weather Service in Portland. Just over a month agotemperatures skyrocketed to a record 116 F.By Friday, the "worst-case scenario" has the region reaching as high as 111 F in some parts of western Oregon before finally cooling down over the weekend, according to the National Weather Service in Portland.These conditions all come just days after climate scientists released a major reportexamining how fast the climate is warming, showing heat waves, extreme rain and intense droughts are on the rise.
As Massachusetts experiences heat wave, climate data from last 125 years suggests Northeast experienced most significant temperature increases - The Northeast has experienced more significant temperature increases than anywhere else in the continental United States, Michael Rawlins, associate director of the Climate System Research Center at the University of Massachusetts Amherst told MassLive. Between 1895 to 2020, the commonwealth had a warming rate of 0.3 degrees Fahrenheit per decade, totaling 3.75 degrees Fahrenheit in the last 125 years, based on a best-fit trend line. This temperature increase signifies that the region of the U.S. containing Massachusetts is already closing in on a warming of two degrees Celsius, which exceeds the standards set in the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015, according to Rawlins. Other regions of the U.S. experienced different, less significant temperature increases. In January of 2017, Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center researchers Ambarish Karmalkar, a postdoctoral research associate with the NE CSC, and Raymond Bradley, NE CSC principal investigator and director of UMass’s Climate Systems Research Center, released a study also suggesting that temperatures across the Northeastern United States will increase much faster than the global average. “With the signing of the Paris Agreement to try and limit greenhouse gas emissions, many people have been lulled into a false sense of security, thinking that the 2-degrees C target is somehow a ‘safe’ limit for climate change. But the 2 C number is a global average, and many regions will warm more, and warm more rapidly, than the earth as a whole,” Bradley said. “Our study shows that the northeast United States is one of those regions where warming will proceed very rapidly, so that if and when the global target is reached, we will already be experiencing much higher temperatures, with all of the related ecological, hydrological and agricultural consequences.” Rawlins said the snow albedo complex is one explanation as to why the temperature increases are higher in the Northeast U.S. The snow albedo complex refers to how regions that have snow cover in the winter, like Massachusetts reflect a lot of sunlight. As snow is lost, darker surfaces are exposed. Those darker surfaces absorb more of the energy and warm the surface more and that tends to melt more snow. The cycle goes on and on. The same reason applies to why the Arctic is warming more than the rest of the world because the dark ocean is increasingly exposed to the sun.
Temperatures soar as Washington and Oregon endure another major heatwave - Washington and Oregon endured scorching temperatures, and a sense of deja vu hung in the air as the region baked in the second intense heatwave of the summer. Temperatures were expected to soar to triple digits again on Friday in Portland and Seattle. Forecasters said hot weather and wildfire smoke would pose a problem through the weekend. People sleep at a cooling shelter set up during an unprecedented heatwave in Portland, Oregon, 27 June. Temperatures in Portland reached 103F (39C) by late afternoon on Thursday – 20 degrees above average – and Seattle reached highs in the 90s. In Bellingham, Washington, the high hit 100F for the first time on record. Although the temperatures were not due to be as severe as during the heatwave in late June, when some areas exceeded 115F (46C), several cities declared excessive heat warnings. Much of the north-west was under such a warning through Saturday. The National Weather Service said heat advisories and warnings were also in effect from the midwest to the north-east and mid-Atlantic through at least Friday. In Beaverton, Oregon, where temperatures could reach 102F again on Friday, the community center was offering overnight air-conditioned shelter for those in need. Portland’s 102F on Thursday was hotter than temperatures recorded in Phoenix, where the high in the desert city was a below-normal 100F. Portland typically sees temperatures in the 80s during August. Volunteers scrambled to hand out water, portable fans, popsicles and information about cooling shelters to homeless people living in isolated encampments on the outskirts of the city. Oregon fire officials are braced for high temperatures and lightning raising the wildfire risk over the weekend. “We do have a large amount of fire across all of our lands. The next 72 hours will be critical,” Oregon’s fire marshal, Mariana Ruiz-Temple, told reporters. The huge Bootleg fire in southern Oregon has been almost entirely contained, with officials making efforts to keep it that way, amid more than a dozen wildfires alight in the state, many started by lightning strikes.
Seattle and Portland Aren't Built for Extreme Heat Waves - — Road crews sprayed water on century-old bridges in Seattle on Thursday to keep the steel from expanding in the sizzling heat. In Portland, Ore., where heat has already killed dozens of people this summer, volunteers delivered water door to door. Restaurants and even some ice cream shops decided it was too hot to open. For the second time this summer, a part of the country known for its snow-capped mountains and fleece-clad inhabitants was enduring a heat wave so intense that it threatened lives and critical infrastructure. The region’s latest round of sweltering temperatures further exposed how communities built for the mild summers of decades past are grossly unprepared for the extreme heat stoked by a warming climate. The previous heat wave, which baked the Pacific Northwest in late June, shattered temperature records. This week’s weather has not quite reached those same levels, but the heat was still jarring by historical standards: Portland averages about one 100-degree day a year. Wednesday and Thursday brought the fourth and fifth of 2021. Friday will likely be the sixth. In Seattle, which has recorded three 100-degree days this summer — as many as it did in the entire century before — officials are once again encouraging people to visit libraries and community centers to stay cool. But not all of them are available to help, because most of the city’s community centers and some of the libraries don’t have air conditioning, something the city is looking to change in the coming years. “It’s a stunning shift, even in government,” said Stephanie Formas, the chief of staff to Mayor Jenny Durkan. “We have to fundamentally shift how we think about infrastructure here — roads, homes, office buildings.” It is not just a matter of comfort. The region is still tallying a death toll from the June heat wave, and mortality data analyzed by The New York Times shows that about 600 more people died in Washington and Oregon during that week than would have been typical. Officials in Portland’s Multnomah County pointed to a lack of air conditioning in homes as a key factor in deaths. Unlike large swaths of the country where air conditioning is now standard, many in the Pacific Northwest live without such relief. Just 44 percent of residents in Seattle reported having some sort of air conditioning in 2019, although those numbers have been on the rise, with installers struggling to keep up with demand. Gov. Kate Brown of Oregon declared a state of emergency heading into this week’s heat wave, and Portland’s emergency management department has mobilized 2,000 volunteers, trained to respond to natural disasters, to help manage cooling centers and misting stations and to deliver water to people who might need it.
Heat island research spotlights disparities, solutions --On another white-hot day in Kansas City, about 60 people spent Friday driving up and down streets registering the temperature and humidity every second.The goal? To know in granular detail what intuition tells us more generally: that some places in cities are hotter than others — possibly as much as 20 degrees, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In 2017, in an attempt to demonstrate and understand that temperature differential, the agency began providing funds to cities to gather weather data. Grants this yearwent to nine cities including Kansas City and two communities in Indiana: Richmond and Clarksville. About 30 other cities, including Detroit and Cincinnati, have gathered this data since the initiative began.There’s some evidence that Kansas City has a worse-than-average urban heat problem. When it comes to the temperature difference between a city and the nearby countryside, Kansas City ranked seventh among 60 cities measured in a 2014 report by Climate Central. On a typical summer day, Climate Central estimated that Kansas City on average was 4.6 degrees hotter than surrounding rural land.The question now: Which parts of the city are the very hottest?A coalition of partners led by a University of Missouri-Kansas City researcher gathered the measurements and will now create a map combining tens of thousands of temperature and humidity measurements with a satellite map, allowing them to quickly learn the conditions in a given location.“We want to show how humans have impacted the weather,” said Fengpeng Sun, an assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences at the university who is leading the project. “This is not natural.”His primary goal is to educate Kansas City residents “that climate change is happening in our neighborhood, not just in the Arctic.”The results also could direct corrective action more specifically to the neighborhoods most in need.“It could very well show us that the temperature is spiking in a particular area of Kansas City,” said Kristin Riott, executive director of Bridging the Gap, a nonprofit whose mission includes tree planting. “If we went there and found out it didn’t have enough tree cover, we could plant more trees.”
Highest recorded temperature of 48.8C in Europe apparently logged in Sicily -The highest temperature in European history appears to have been recorded in Italy during a heatwave sweeping the country, with early reports suggesting a high of 48.8C (119.85F).If this is accepted by the World Meteorological Organisation it will break the previous European record of 48C (118.4F) set in Athens in 1977. The temperature was measured at a monitoring station in Syracuse, Sicily, and confirmed soon after by the island’s meteorological authorities.The finding comes amid a fierce heatwave stretching across the Mediterranean to Tunisia and Algeria. Fires have blazed across much of the region for more than a week. Italy’s government has declared a state of emergency. Turkey and Greece have also been hit by devastating conflagrations. Trevor Mitchell, a meteorologist from MetDesk, said: “The Società Meteorologica Italiana say that the temperature report of 48.8C is genuine. However, with potential records such as these there is typically a process of verification before they can be declared officially.“Sicily has been experiencing a heatwave in the last few days. The foehn effect [a change from wet, cold conditions on one side of a mountain to warmer, drier conditions on the other] in the lee of the mountains to the west of Syracuse is likely to have assisted in generating the 48.8C observed there today.”Scott Duncan, a Scottish meteorologist, said more heat records were inevitable. “A dangerous heatwave spanning much of north Africa and into southern Europe is unfolding right now. The focus of heat will shift west and north slightly in the coming days,” he tweeted.
Tunis registers record-breaking 49 °C (120.2 °F), Kairouan hits 50 °C (122 °F), Tunisia -- Tunisia's Meteorological Institute registered 49 °C (120.2 °F) in capital Tunis on Tuesday, August 10, 2021, setting a new all-time highest temperature record for the city. The previous highest recorded temperature in Tunis was 46.8 °C (116.2 °F) set in 1982.Other parts of the country also registered very high and record-breaking temperatures, leading to increased demand for power supply and resulting in power outages.Temperatures remained very high on August 11, with maximums expected between 40 and 49 °C (104 - 120.2 °F).A new all-time highest temperature record was set in Kairouan on Wednesday, August 11 when the city registered 50 °C (122 °F). Its previous record was 48.1 °C (118.5 °F) set in 1960.The country's all-time highest temperature record is 55 °C (131 °F) set in Kebili on July 7, 1931.
Grid emergency declared in New Zealand, cities plunge into darkness as polar blast brings nationwide all-time power demand -Power supply demand in New Zealand reached a nationwide all-time high on Monday, August 9, 2021, after a rapidly deepening low-pressure system moved east across central parts of the country, bringing heavy snow, severe gale southerlies, and frigid temperatures. As a result, the country's national grid operator - Transpower declared a 'grid emergency at 19:00 local time (07:00 UTC) on August 9."Tonight we have reached an all-time high in demand on the electricity system, but unfortunately we have not had enough generation in the system to maintain it," the company said."Insufficient generation has been made available to meet demand and manage a secure system."Transpower in our capacity as managers of the power system (the System Operator) has asked the distribution companies to reduce load across the country. Different companies will do this in different ways, some manage via load control on hot water, some manage via customer disconnections. The situation is expected to resolve at 09:00 pm tonight once peak demand for electricity has passed."1On one of the coldest nights of the year, cities and towns across the North Island were plunged into darkness, Stuff reported, adding that this was the first time in 10 years that such an emergency has happened.2Power distribution companies managed to increase available power by 5% by 20:20 LT and resolve supply shortages by 21:00, their report added.While the total number of affected customers remains unclear, reports mention up to 20 000 homes were left without 'heating after high winds brought down power lines and cold weather saw power use surge beyond generation capacity.'3"The low dragged up cold air all the way from Antarctica," said MetService Meteorologist Stephen Glassey.4 "Snow has been falling in parts of both the North and South Islands, affecting many roads."Temperatures in most parts of Auckland dropped to 5 °C (41 °F) at 21:00 LT on August 9, with the coldest in Ardmore at 3.3 °C (37.9 °F). Hamilton hit 0 °C (32 °F) at 22:00 LT.Capital Wellington dropped to 5 °C (41 °F) by 17:00 LT and to 2.6 °C (36.6 °F) at 18:00 in Lower Hutt.On the morning of August 10, Hanmer Forest was at -5.7 °C (21.7 °F), Reefton at -4.1° C (24.6 °F), Hamilton at -3.1 °C (26.4 °F), Lake Tapo at -2.8 °C (26.9 °F), Upper Hutt at -0.5 °C (31.1 °F) and Auckland at 1.4 °C (34.5 °F).Luckily, this event was short-lived and power outages were mostly resolved within 12 hours. This wasn't the case in Texas in February 2021 when hundreds of people died after a major polar blast brought exceptionally cold temperatures for a prolonged period of time.5, 6, 7
‘Where do I go?’ Thousands flee as Dixie Fire morphs into third-largest blaze in California’s history --Teresa Hatch, 61, had evacuated her rural Northern California town several days ago as the Dixie Fire menaced, but soon was allowed back. Then the alerts started lighting up her cellphone Wednesday, telling her to get out again — fast. She said she grabbed her dog, Scooby, filled three plastic bags with clothes and hopped into the first car that passed. Hatch, a fourth-generation Greenville resident, is among more than 18,000 people ordered evacuated around California as firefighters struggle to control two fast-growing wildfires. The Dixie Fire mushroomed in size overnight to become the largest wildfire burning in the United States and the third-biggest in California’s history, decimating century-old buildings in Hatch’s historic town. The smaller River Fire also threatened thousands of homes. The Dixie Fire covers more than 432,000 acres in Butte and Plumas counties, rapidly expanding from about 362,000 acres Thursday evening and fueled by hot, arid and windy conditions. The wildfire was 35 percent contained by Friday, pushing toward firefighters’ control lines. Fire officials expressed hope Friday that higher humidity would help them counter the blaze. “The potential was high this year for these kinds of conditions, and once you get an ignition, especially in areas that are a little bit difficult to access and with new communities all around there, it stresses the system.”The Dixie Fire’s status as California’s largest wildfire since last August is fueling concern in a year on track to break last year’s undesirable records. Climate change and a severe drought have worsened the state’s wildfire season, prompting alarms from scientists and concern about the challenging picture for firefighters and residents across the region.For Greenville, any progress containing the fire will come too late. Little of the sparsely populated mountain town remained after flames reached it Wednesday evening.The town library, torched. Abandoned cars, smoldering. The air, thick and gray. “The Dixie Fire burnt down our entire downtown,” Plumas County Supervisor Kevin Goss wrote on Facebook. “Our historical buildings, families homes, small businesses, and our children’s schools are completely lost. Every square inch of downtown holds countless memories for each member of our small community and ample amount of history from our ancestors.”The Dixie Fire has destroyed roughly 91 buildings and damaged five others since it broke out more than three weeks ago, officials said. In Greenville, the U.S. Forest Service estimated that only about a quarter of structures had been saved. Among them were a Dollar General store and Greenville High School.
Dixie Fire Grows to Second-Largest Wildfire in California's History - The Dixie Fire ballooned in size over the weekend, polluting air quality to dangerous levels across the West.The fire, the 6th-largest on record in California history just last Thursday is now the second-largest fire in California history and the state's largest-ever single-source fire with nearly 500,000 acres burned as ofSunday evening. At least five people are currently missing though that number could grow as residents, some armed, refuse to evacuate.Heat and drought, both of which are being made worse by human-caused climate change, have dried out the fire's fuel sources, leading to "fire activity that even veteran firefighters haven't seen in their career," Edwin Zuniga, a spokesman for Cal Fire told The Washington Post. "We're just in really uncharted territory."Smoke from fires in California and across the West has dangerously polluted air in multiple major cities, including Denver and Salt Lake City where air quality levels were among the worst in the world. That smoke, ironically, kept the fire from growing even faster over the weekend, but conditions are likely to clear and become more dangerous in the coming days.As reported by The Associated Press: The fire's cause was under investigation. The Pacific Gas & Electric utility has said it may have been sparked when a tree fell on one of its power lines. A federal judge ordered PG&E on Friday to give details by Aug. 16 about the equipment and vegetation where the fire started.Cooler temperatures and higher humidity slowed the spread of the fire, and temperatures topped 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius) instead of the triple-digit highs recorded earlier in the week.But the blaze and its neighboring fires, within several hundred miles of each other, posed an ongoing threat.
Dixie Fire destroys 893 structures, threatens 16 000 more, California - (videos) The massive Dixie Fire burning in Northern California since July 13, 2021, has destroyed 893 structures, damaged another 61 and threatens 16 000 more.At 198 378 hectares (490 205 acres) as of August 10, Dixie Fire is the second-largest fire in California history.1 The state's largest wildfire is the August Complex of 2020 at 198 978 ha (1 032 648 acres) - 935 structures destroyed and 1 fatality.California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency for the counties affected by the fire -- Butte, Plumas, Lassen, and Tehama -- along with the McFarland and Monument Fires, which collectively burned an additional 34 499 ha (85 000 acres).Last week, the fire destroyed much of the town of Greenville2, leaving 31 people unaccounted for. Plumas County Sheriff's Office said 27 people were found safe but 4 remain missing. The sheriff's office urged residents not to return to the town before evacuation orders are lifted.More than 12 000 people across 8 counties (11 large fires) are under evacuation orders, with the majority caused by Dixie Fire (9 500)."We're seeing truly frightening fire behavior, I don't know how to overstate that," said Plumas National Forest Supervisor Chris Carlton.3"We have a lot of veteran firefighters who have served for 20, 30 years and have never seen behavior like this, especially day after day, and the conditions we're in. So we really are in uncharted territory around some of these extreme, large fires and the behavior we're seeing."As of August 10, wildfires in California have burned 371 103 ha (917 016 acres) in 6 272 incidents, damaging or destroying 1 564 structures. No fatalities have been reported.4Wildfire smoke will continue to plague parts of the West Coast, the Intermountain West, and High Plains with poor air quality through Wednesday.Dangerous heat continues to impact a large portion of the U.S. as widespread excessive heat warnings and heat advisories are in effect, especially in several major metro areas from the Northwest coast to the Northeast coast.Numerous record warm lows are expected to be broken along the West Coast and east of the Mississippi River both Wednesday and Thursday mornings.This heatwave looks to stick around into Friday before gradually loosening its grip over these regions this weekend, NWS said.
PG&E Wildfire Victims Still Unpaid as New California Fires Weigh on Company’s Stock – WSJ - A year after PG&E Corp.funded a trust to compensate victims of California wildfires with company stock, most have yet to be paid, and the shares have fallen in value after the utility acknowledged it might have started this year’s worst fire.As part of its plan to exit bankruptcy last year, the San Francisco-based company agreed to use cash and stock to fund a $13.5 billion trust to compensate roughly 70,000 individuals who lost homes, businesses and family members in fires sparked by its equipment. Some victims expressed concern at the time that the deal carried steep risks for them, noting that the shares weren’t guaranteed to rebound and could fall if PG&E started more fires.Those concerns so far have proved prescient. PG&E shares are worth approximately the same as when the trust was funded, threatening victims’ ability to receive full compensation. Their value is down roughly 25% this year and fell steeply last month when the company disclosed that its equipment might have ignited this summer’s continuing Dixie Fire, which has consumed nearly 490,000 acres in the Sierra Nevada foothills and destroyed the town of Greenville.So far, the trust has made partial payments to fewer than 3,300 victims, or less than 5% of the total. It had distributed about $600 million in cash to victims at the end of July, nearly half of which amounted to preliminary payments to help victims address acute hardships, records show. It hasn’t sold any stock to help make payments as it grapples with challenges in estimating claims as well as unforeseen tax issues. Its assets are now worth around $10 billion.‘People thought they were going to get that money right away, and there was just no way.’A retired federal judge overseeing the trust said the tax and other issues are being resolved, and he expects it could begin selling company shares sometime next year. The trust faces restrictions in how much it can sell at one time, given its large ownership stake. With 478 million shares, the trust owns more than 20% of PG&E, making it the company’s largest shareholder.The situation has left many fire victims anxiously watching PG&E’s stock price, fearful that their compensation could be jeopardized further if the company starts more fires. California wildfire season typically peaks in the fall, and the state is facing a crippling drought that has heightened the risk of rapid fire spread through dry trees and brush.Cheri Cottrell’s home was among those destroyed in California’s 2018 Camp Fire, which was sparked by a PG&E transmission line, burned the town of Paradise and killed 84 people. She lived for eight months in a Best Western hotel and then moved into a trailer at a camp run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. She returned to Paradise in April when the nonprofit Samaritan’s Purse built a small modular house on her property, which is still bare of trees and grass.Ms. Cottrell has received a preliminary hardship payment but is still waiting for more. She said she fears it might no longer be enough to cover the cost of rebuilding on the site, which once had a log cabin with a wooded yard she carefully tended. With this year’s Dixie Fire burning to her northeast, she said she has packed and unpacked several times in recent weeks out of concern she would have to evacuate again.“I feel like I’m still in the FEMA camp, which was nothing but rock and gravel,” Ms. Cottrell said. “Without this money, I can’t rebuild my environment around me to try and feel normal again.”
Thousands forced to evacuate as massive wildfire spreads through Greek island of Evia - A massive wildfire burning in the northern part of the island of Evia, Greece since August 3, 2021, has forced more than 2 500 people to evacuate their homes. Hundreds of homes have been destroyed but the full extent of the damage caused by the fire burning for 7 days now is still unknown.While residents and officials called for more help, the mayor of the municipality of Istiaia in the northern part of Evia, said that it's already too late. "The area has been destroyed."1Nikos Hardalias, Greece's deputy civil protection minister, said emergency crews are undertaking 'superhuman efforts' against multiple fronts.2Water-bombing aircraft in the region faced several hurdles including low visibility caused by the thick plumes of smoke rising over the mountains and turbulence, Hardalias said.More than 2 500 people have evacuated their homes since the fire started on August 3. One of the evacuees compared the scenes to a horror movie:More than 600 firefighters are battling the flames on Evia, helped by 5 helicopters and 5 water-dropping planes.This is the most severe of dozens of wildfires that have broken across Greece in the past 7 days.3The fires hit the country during its worst heatwave in more than 30 years. 1 volunteer firefighter has lost its life and 4 others were injured.According to the European Forest Fire Information System, Greece has lost 56 655 ha (139 997 acres) to fires from July 29 to August 7. The average area burnt over the same 10 summer days between 2008 and 2020 was 1 700 ha (4 200 acres).4
Wildfires rage in Greece and Italy as EU mounts firefighting operation -- The devastating scale of destruction from a week of wildfires in Greece and Italy was being assessed as the EU mounted one of its largest firefighting operations ever and smoke from forest fires in Siberia reached the north pole. As UN experts on Monday said global warming was advancing faster than feared and that humanity was “unequivocally” to blame, firefighters and local residents battled massive blazes on the island of Evia, east of Athens, for a seventh straight day. The Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, apologised for failings in tackling the blazes in a televised address to the nation. He said burnt areas would be reforested with more fire-resistant trees and compensation would be paid from a €500m emergency relief fund.Mitsotakis said 586 fires had erupted in the past week “in all corners of Greece” and that the resulting destruction had “darkened the hearts of all of us”. He praised the professionalism of the emergency services but acknowledged “misjudgments”, saying: “I personally want to say sorry for any weaknesses that have appeared.”More than 2,600 people have so far been evacuated from Evia, the country’s second largest island, on a flotilla of boats, with elderly people and infirm being forced overnight Sunday to seek refuge on ferries or sleep on sun loungers on the beach.Greek media reported that multiple previously extinguished fires had reignited on Evia and were moving at speed towards yet more villages and the 7,000-population town of Istaia.
Destructive wildfires leave at least 65 dead in northern Algeria --Algerian authorities are reporting at least 65 lives were lost in wildfires raging through the mountainous region in the country's north over the past couple of days. As many as 50 fires broke out in a short period of time and spread rapidly due to high winds, very hot temperatures, and tinder-dry conditions.The deaths occurred around Tizi-Ouzou, capital of the Kabyle region, located about 100 km (62 miles) E of Algiers, and in Bejaia, on the Mediterranean coast.President Abdelmadjid Tebboune said 28 were soldiers deployed to help fight the fires and rescue villagers. Tebboune said soldiers saved more than 100 citizens in two areas, adding that some villagers were fleeing, while others tried to hold back the flames themselves, using buckets, branches, and rudimentary tools.1According to Algerian Prime Minister Ayman Benabderrahmane, 50 fires broke out simultaneously across several localities, suggesting this was a criminal act.2Several arrests have been announced, but identities or suspected motives have not been released.Since the region has no water-dumping aircraft, authorities hired two firefighting planes, previously used to battle fires in Greece. Neighboring countries also offered help.
Siberian wildfires dwarf all others on Earth combined - Smoke from massive wildfires in Russia's Siberia region has reached the geographic North Pole "for the first time in recorded history," according to NASA — while the forest blazes themselves are bigger than all the other wildfires currently burning in the world combined, one expert said. The U.S space agency published a photograph Saturday (Aug. 7) from one of its satellites that shows the acrid blanket of smoke stretching more than 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometers), from the Yakutia region in the northeast of Siberia up to the North Pole. According to their records, this may be the first time this has ever happened.Wildfires occur every summer in the heavily forested region — a landscape known as the taiga — but this year has been especially bad. Last year, the wildfires in Siberia were described by the Russian authorities as "very severe" and estimated to have caused the equivalent of 450 million tons (410 million metric tons) of carbon dioxide to be released throughout the whole season; but this year the wildfires have released an equivalent of more than 505 million tons (460 million metric tons) of carbon dioxide, and the wildfire season isn't over yet.NASA estimated the cloud of smoke from the wildfires measured more than 2,000 miles (3,200 km) from east to west and 2,500 miles (4,000 km) from north to south. The Chinese news agency Xinhua reported that the smoke could be seen in the sky above Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia, more than 1,200 miles (2,000 km) away.The Yakutia region, or Sakha Republic, where the Siberian wildfires are mainly taking place is one of the most remote parts of Russia. The capital city, Yakutsk, recorded one of the coldest temperatures on Earth in February 1891, of minus 64.4 degrees Celsius (minus 83.9 degrees Fahrenheit); but the region saw record high temperatures this winter. The Siberian Times reported in mid-July that residents were breathing smoke from more than 300 separate wildfires, but that only around half of the forest blazes were being tackled by firefighters — including paratroopers flown in by the Russian military — because the rest were thought to be too dangerous.The wildfires have grown in size since then and have engulfed an estimated 62,300 square miles (161,300 square km) since the start of the year. Russia's weather-monitoring institute Rosgidromet reported on Monday that the situation in the region "continues to deteriorate," with around 13,100 square miles (34,000 square km) of forest currently burning.
'Airpocalypse' smoke reaches North Pole for the first time ever - For the first time in recorded history, hazy smoke from raging wildfires in the Arctic has reached the North Pole, and NASA satellites have the images to prove it. On Aug. 6, the space agency's MODIS, an imaging sensor on the Aqua satellite, captured true-color images of what NASA called a "vast, thick, and acrid blanket of smoke" that clouded the North Pole. The smoke originated from enormous blazes in the Siberian region of northern Russia. According to China's Xinhua news agency, the Mongolian capital city of Ulaanbaatar was blanketed in "white smoke," NPR reported. The republic of Yakutia – home to Oymyakon, the coldest inhabited place on Earth – has also been shrouded in smoke, as captured by MODIS images on Aug. 8. The thick smoke in Yakutia sent air quality measurements in recent weeks plummeting to an extreme category dubbed "airpocalypse," a category described by officials to have "immediate and heavy effects on everybody," The Guardian reported. In the images captured on Aug. 6, that "airpocalypse" inducing smoke was shown to have traveled 1,864 miles from Yakutia to the North Pole, according to NASA. "The smoke, which was so thick that most of the land below was obscured from view, stretches about 2,000 miles (3,200 km) from east to west and 2,500 miles (4,000 km) from south to north," the agency wrote. "But it captures only a small part of the smoke from the Russian fires." To reach Ulaanbaatar on Aug. 4, NASA added that the smoke needed to have traveled more than 1,200 miles. From there, it appeared to waft over nearly the entire Arctic Circle, impacting Nunavut, Canada, and areas of western Greenland. Wildfires have been burning in Siberia more frequently than ever before. While the total number of burned acreage is difficult to determine in the remote area, Russia’s weather monitoring institute, Rosgidromet, said this week that close to 8.4 million acres were burning and more than 34.5 million total acres have been destroyed this season, the second-worst on record. For comparison, during the 2020 California wildfire season, which was the worst on record, just under 4.4 million acres were burned.
Severe flash floods hit Coahuila and Durango, Mexico (videos) Heavy rains hit the border region between the Mexican states of Coahuila and Durango early August 5, 2021, causing destructive flash floods. Ragging floodwaters swept away numerous cars and severely damaged at least 50 homes. One of the worst affected areas was the city of Torreón, Coahuila where a stream running through parts of the city overflowed. The flood was exacerbated by the illegal construction of homes and the accumulation of garbage and debris in the stream.
Over 350 villages inundated across Uttar Pradesh, India - (videos) Heavy monsoon rains affecting the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh over the past couple of days have inundated at least 357 villages across 21 districts, as of August 9, 2021.The worst-affected are the districts of Hamirpur and Jalun in the region of Bundelkhand, which usually experiences below normal to normal rain.According to NDTV, the Yamuna river in the region is flowing above the danger mark in at least 5 places. In addition, a primary school in the Gonda district of eastern Uttar Pradesh was washed away on August 8 after a rise in the water levels of the Ghahara river.97 of 357 affected villages have been completely cut off.Ganga river is currently flowing about 2 m (6.5 feet) above the danger level due to the discharge of large amounts of water from Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, leading to flooding of 50 villages.The Uttar Pradesh government asked all concerned officials to maintain a close vigil on the situation. People living in low-lying areas have started shifting to safer places, ANI News reports.
More than 40 feared buried under rubble after major landslide in Himachal Pradesh, India -- A major landslide took place on the Reckong Peo-Shimla Highway in Kinnaur District of Himachal Pradesh, India at around 07:15 UTC (12:45 LT) on August 11, 2021. The slide hit and buried a Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) bus with 40 people on board, one truck, and several other vehicles, according to local media reports and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP). Search and Rescue (SAR) operations started soon after the event and the National Disaster Response Force was placed on alert. ITBP said 10 bodies have been retrieved and 14 people rescued by 16:30 UTC. While there is no problem with manpower, the bus has not been traced yet. The wreckage of the bus was found at 23:55 UTC (05:25 IST, first light LT, August 12) at approximately 500 m (1 640 feet) below the road and 200 m (655 feet) above Sutley River. SAR operations were halted at around 07:30 UTC on August 12 due to shooting stones from uphill. 13 bodies have been retrieved so far, ITBP said.
Destructive flash floods hit Turkey's Black Sea Region - (video) Deadly flash floods hit Turkey's Black Sea Region this week, causing widespread damage and leaving at least 27 people dead and one missing. The event comes less than a month after 6 people died in floods in the northeast Rize province. Heavy rains started affecting the region on August 10 and continued through August 12, turning streets into raging rivers, causing landslides, and destroying buildings, roads and bridges. Search and rescue crews were deployed in areas affected by floods, evacuating people stranded in their houses and cars, and distributing aid to survivors.1 Rescuers were forced to evacuate a regional hospital holding 45 patients on August 11 in the region around the coastal city of Sinop on Wednesday. Four of them were in intensive care. "We are perhaps facing a disaster that we had not seen in 50 or 100 years," Agriculture and Forestry Minister Bekir Pakdemirli said of the flooding and heavy rains on Wednesday.2 In 24 hours to August 11, Ulus in Bartin Province recorded 302.4 mm (11.9 inches) of rain, while Ayancik in Sinop saw 240.5 mm (9.4 inches)and Küre in Kastamonu recorded 198.9 mm (7.8 inches). In the previous 24 hour period, Çayeli in Rize Province recorded 123 mm (4.8 inches) of rain, according to Turkey’s General Directorate of Meteorology.3 The country’s Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) confirmed on Friday, August 13, 25 people were killed in Kastamonu and 2 in Sinop.4 The search for one missing person in the Ulus Akörensökülar Village of Bartin Province continues.
Deadly floods hit Hubei, 774 reservoirs exceed flood warnings, China (videos)-At least 21 people have been killed and 4 others remain missing after heavy rains hit the central Chinese province of Hubei on August 11 and 12, 2021. In addition, at least 774 reservoirs in the province have exceeded flood warning levels, as of late August 12.At least 5 cities declared 'red alerts' over the past couple of days after heavy rains, in parts record-breaking, hit the province.The heaviest rains fell in the city of Yicheng's (Banqiaodian Town) where record-breaking 400 mm (15.7 inches) of rainfall fell on August 13. Rainfall in Yicheng's urban area is close to 300 mm (11.8 inches), the maximum in the city's recorded meteorological history.1The worst-affected cities include Liulin, part of the city of Suizhou where all of the fatalities were reported, Xiangyang and Xiaogan, China's Ministry of Emergency Management said.The storms caused widespread power cuts and damaged more than 3 600 houses and 8 110 ha (20 040 acres) of crops. The total losses are estimated at 16.57 million USD (108 million yuan), Hubei's emergency management bureau reported.2In some parts of the region, floodwaters were as deep as 5 m (16.4 feet). According to the official China News Service, as many as 774 reservoirs in Hubei had exceeded their flood warning levels by Thursday evening.
Lupit brings more than 1 300 mm (51 inches) of rain in just 2 days, Taiwan - (videos) Tropical Storm "Lupit" combined with seasonal southwesterly winds to bring extremely heavy rains to parts of Taiwan from August 5 to 7, 2021, causing destructive floods and landslides. Lupit made 2 landfalls in China -- the first in Shantou, Guangdong Province, and the second in Zhangzhou, Fujian Province -- before moving over Hsinchu and Miaoli counties in northeastern Taiwan on August 7. From 12:00 LT on August 5 to 18:00 on August 7, Xinmajia recorded 1 329 mm (52.3 inches) of rain, Jiamu 1 197 mm (47.1 inches), Xinfa 1 005 mm (39.5 inches), and Dahanshan 875 mm (34.4 inches).In 24 hours to 12:40 on August 7, Akushan in Chiayi County received 422 mm (16.6 inches) of rain, Fencihu 347 mm (13.5 inches), and Lijia 302.5 mm (11.9 inches)A section of a 100 m (328 feet) bridge in New Taipei City's Chajiao Borough near Dongyanshan collapsed, trapping some 300 people in the borough. The city government said the bridge's pillars had been reinforced but 'continuous rains and recent earthquakes caused the collapse of a 5 m [16.4 feet] section.'Landslides were also reported in Nantou County's Renai Township, cutting off transportation between Cueiluan and Rueiyan villages, the Taipei Times reports.A large section of the Minbaklu Bridge in Taoyuan District collapsed, effectively cutting off the district.At 09:00 UTC on August 8, the center of Tropical Storm "Lupit" was located about 324 km (201 miles) SSW of Sasebo, Japan. Its maximum sustained winds were 75 km/h (45 mph) with gusts to 110 km/h (70 mph). 1-minute maximum sustained winds were 85 km/h (50 mph).The minimum central barometric pressure was 990 hPa, and the system was moving northeast at 37 km/h (23 mph).
Tropical Storm Fred breaks Atlantic lull --The sixth-named storm of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season developed on Tuesday evening, breaking the basin's month-long lull. Tropical Storm Fred was named as it lingered just south of Puerto Rico at 11 p.m., local time, Tuesday. AccuWeather meteorologists had been tracking the disturbance that became Fred since last week, before it was even designated Potential Tropical Cyclone Six by the National Hurricane Center (NHC).The storm was blamed for power outages in Puerto Rico Tuesday night. The island's power grid remains fragile following the devastating effects of Hurricane Maria in 2017, The Associated Press reported. Eight shelters were opened across Puerto Rico, officials told the AP.Fred will track through the northern Caribbean before eyeing the United States as early as this weekend. Floridians are being urged to remain vigilant as the AccuWeather Eye Path® will bring the system close to the Sunshine State with the potential for heavy rainfall, gusty winds and severe weather and dangerous seas.The exact future track and intensity of the tropical system will determine the extent of the heavy rain and severe storm risks in the southeastern United States mainland next week, AccuWeather forecasters say.As of 11 a.m. EDT Wednesday morning, the center of Tropical Storm Fred was moving just south of the eastern Dominican Republic. The storm had maximum sustained winds of 45 mph, up from 40 mph at 8 a.m., and was moving west-northwest at a speed of 16 mph. Fred was located about 25 miles south-southeast of Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic.Tropical storm warnings have been discontinued for the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, but remain in place for most of the Dominican Republic's coastline. A tropical storm watch is in effect for parts of Haiti, the Turks and Caicos and the southeastern Bahamas.The system is forecast to continue on a generally west-northwest path near or over some of the islands in the north-central and northwestern Caribbean into Friday before it takes a turn toward the northwest and north that would bring the system northward toward the U.S. this weekend. How soon that northward turn begins will determine if the system strikes Florida or areas farther west along the Gulf of Mexico coastline.
Fred is likely to hit Florida as a tropical storm - - Fred hasn't dropped dead yet.Despite looking disorganized on satellite, the tropical depression may strengthen back into a tropical storm before impacting Florida as soon as early Saturday, the National Hurricane Center predicts. All while, the next named system that could impact the US is forming in the Atlantic. The forecast for Fred prompted tropical storm warnings Friday for the southwest Florida coast, including Key West and Naples. A tropical storm warning means tropical storm conditions are expected somewhere within the warning area within 36 hours.The warnings stretch from the Florida Keys west of Ocean Reef to the Dry Tortugas and all of Florida Bay. A tropical storm watch covers the southwest coast of Florida from Englewood south and east to Ocean Reef, as well as the Cuban provinces of Ciego de Avila, Camaguey, Las Tunas, Holguin and Granma.Fred on Friday morning was along the northern coast of Cuba with winds of 35 mph.From there, "the storm should track just north of eastern and central Cuba through tonight and near or across the Florida Keys on Saturday," says the National Hurricane Center. After passing the Keys, it should move into the Gulf of Mexico and toward Florida's Big Bend. Some computer models show Fred moving into the Florida Peninsula, while others put it as far west as the Alabama-Florida border."The models continue to show a slow strengthening of Fred before making landfall in the eastern panhandle or Big Bend area of Florida," CNN meteorologist Chad Myers said midmorning Friday. "None of the global models take Fred to hurricane strength, but we all too often watch rapid intensification with Gulf of Mexico storms."Heavy rain was falling Friday morning across eastern Cuba. Heavy rain is the main threat from this storm, as Cuba could see up to 5 inches of rain in some isolated areas.Even heavier totals are forecast across Florida."Heavy rainfall could lead to flooding across southern and central Florida into the Big Bend region through the weekend," CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar said."Much of the Florida peninsula is expected to be on the east side of Fred, which is where the heaviest rains and s trongest winds will be," the hurricane center said.
Series of pyroclastic flows at Merapi, heavy ashfall blankets nearby communities, Indonesia --At least 7 pyroclastic flows descended down the slopes of Merapi volcano, Indonesia starting at 21:58 UTC on August 7, 2021, with ash rising up to 3.6 km (12 000 feet) above sea level. No casualties were reported. The Aviation Color Code remained at Orange.According to the Merapi Volcano Observatory, series pyroclastic density currents (PDCs) were recorded on a seismogram with a maximum amplitude of 20 mm (0.78 inches) and a duration of 222 seconds (3.7 minutes).Ash-cloud generated by PDCs was estimated by ground observer reaching a height of 3.6 km (12 000 feet) a.s.l. and moving W.1The farthest sliding distance was 3 km (1.8 miles) to the southwest (Kali Bebeng).The rumbling sound of the eruption could be heard several kilometers away from the volcano, said Hanik Humaida, head of Yogyakarta’s Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Center.2Humaida said Merapi has seen increased volcanic activity in recent weeks, with the lava dome growing rapidly before partially collapsing during this eruption.Ash blanketed several villages and nearby towns.The volume of SW rim lava-dome at the end of July 2021 was estimated at 1 878 million m3 [1.9 km3 / 0.45 mi3] and material continued to collapse down the flank, USGS Volcanologist Sally Sennert noted.3The volume of the summit lava dome was 2 817 million m3.Four PDCs were reported from July 23 to 29, with the longest traveling down the SW flank as far as 2.5 km (1.5 miles).Avalanches of material that descended the W flank originated from lava emplaced in 1992 and 1998, and material that descended the NW flank is from 1948 lava, Sennert said.The Alert Level remains at 3 (on a scale of 1 - 4), and the public is warned to stay 5 km (3.1 miles) away from the summit.The current eruptive episode started on December 31, 2021 (VEI 1).The last major eruption of this volcano (VEI 4) took place in 2010, claiming the lives of 347 people.
Etna grows to record height of 3 357 m (11 014 feet), Italy - With approximately 50 paroxysmal eruptive episodes since February 16, 2021, Mount Etna has increased its height to a record 3 357 m (11 014 feet). Eruptive events that took place in 2021 have accumulated significant amounts of pyroclastic material and lava layers on the cone of the Southeast Crater - the youngest and most active of the four summit craters of Etna, leading to a significant transformation of the shape of the volcano, INGV-OE reports.1 Thanks to the analysis and processing of satellite images, the Southeast Crater reached 3 357 m (11 014 feet) and is now far taller than its 'older brother' - the Northeast Crater, an undisputed summit of Etna for 40 years. This historical data, which has a 3-meter (9.8 feet) uncertainty, was obtained through the processing of two Pléiades satellite images acquired on July 13 and 25, 2021, as part of the international partnership with Geohazard Supersites and Natural Laboratories (GSNL/), allowing Etna's digital surface model (DSM) to be updated. To eliminate the effect of cloudiness, as well as the gas plume emitted by the summit craters, the DSM derived from the July 25 acquisition was supplemented with the DSM derived from the July 13 acquisition for the southeastern portion covered by gas in the summit area. From the digital model obtained, the highest point of the volcano is now on the northern edge of the South-East Crater at 3 357 (± 3 m).
Elon Musk to launch a satellite that will beam advertisements into space - A Canadian technology startup will be partnering with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to make space advertisements a thing of the future, according to a report by Business Insider. Samuel Reid, the CEO and co-founder of Geometric Energy Corporation (GEC), told the outlet that the company is working to create a satellite called CubeSat. One side of the CubeSat will be used to promote ads, art and logos. People and companies will be able to pay to place their ads there by buying pixels on the display screen with cryptocurrency. America is changing faster than ever! Add Changing America to your Facebook or Twitter feed to stay on top of the news. The GEC is planning on launching CubeSat into space via one of Musk’s SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets, which will release it to orbit in space before the rocket heads to the moon.
NASA ups the odds of Bennu asteroid hitting Earth - A NASA scientist said Wednesday that the likelihood of the Bennu asteroid hitting Earth within the next century or two has increased. However, Davide Farnocchia stressed that Earthlings shouldn't be too worried. Scientists previously said that the odds that Bennu would strike the Earth into 2200 was 1 in 2,700, but those figures were adjusted to 1 in 1,750 into the year 2300, The Associated Press reported. Farnocchia works with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and told reporters that the Osiris-Rex spacecraft, which landed on Bennu in 2018 to collect samples, has given them a better idea of the asteroid’s future orbital path, according to the wire service. The spacecraft is slated to arrive back to Earth in 2023. “We shouldn’t be worried about it too much,” Farnocchia said, who was the lead author of the findings, which were published in the Icarus journal. Scientists say that Bennu will get within close proximity of the planet by 2135. Scientists said that the Earth’s gravity could affect Bennu’s orbit and create a collision with the planet in the next two centuries. However, they said that based on the data from Osiris-Rex spacecraft, the chances of gravity interfering with its trajectory are slimmer now. Lindley Johnson, a planetary defense officer for NASA, predicted that if the Earth was struck by the asteroid, the amount of area destroyed would equal the asteroid’s size 100 fold, according to the AP. If the asteroid hit the East Coast of the U.S., it “would pretty much devastate things up and down the coast,” Johnson added.
All of a sudden: Climate change tipping points appear with a vengeance - Across the world climate change seems to have arrived earlier than expected. We are now reaching tipping points in the direct, destructive and destabilizing effects of climate on humans and their infrastructure. We can no longer simply ignore these effects. We can no longer simply bask obliviously in the sunshine of unseasonably warm winter days without acknowledging their terrible message as many of my fellow Washingtonians did when I first arrived in the city in 2018. There are hidden tipping points waiting for us to hit them. And, there are ones that are out in the open and well-studied. When most viewers watched the 2004 fictional film "The Day After Tomorrow," they marvelled at the special effects while dismissing the collapsed timeline for a dramatic, sudden and overwhelming freeze in Europe and North America—within a week in the film. The freeze depicted results from the collapse of the Gulf Stream which pumps heat from tropical waters northward, keeping the American and Canadian eastern coasts and much of northern Europe far warmer than they would otherwise be. A cessation of this current is believed to be one of the possible outcomes of climate change.What scientists now suspect is that this critical river of water and heat in the Atlantic Ocean is not only slowing, but also losing its stability. The fear is that the current could shut down unexpectedly and suddenly and that effects would be felt within months—not as quickly as in a Hollywood movie, but quickly enough to create catastrophic consequences for the food supply, economic activity and human migration even while all those reading this sentence are still alive. And that is just one key tipping point.
A Hotter Future Is Certain, According to U.N. Climate Report - Nations have delayed curbing their fossil-fuel emissions for so long that they can no longer stop global warming from intensifying over the next 30 years, though there is still a short window to prevent the most harrowing future, a major new United Nations scientific report has concluded.Humans have already heated the planet by roughly 1.1 degrees Celsius, or 2 degrees Fahrenheit, since the 19th century, largely by burning coal, oil and gas for energy. And the consequences can be felt across the globe: This summer alone, blistering heat waveshave killed hundreds of people in the United States and Canada, floods have devastated Germany and China, and wildfires have raged out of control in Siberia, Turkey and Greece.But that’s only the beginning, according to the report, issued on Monday by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a body of scientists convened by the United Nations. Even if nations started sharply cutting emissions today, total global warming is likely to rise around 1.5 degrees Celsius within the next two decades, a hotter future that is now essentially locked in.At 1.5 degrees of warming, scientists have found, the dangers grow considerably. Nearly 1 billion people worldwide could swelter in more frequent life-threatening heat waves. Hundreds of millions more would struggle for water because of severe droughts. Some animal and plant species alive today will be gone. Coral reefs, which sustain fisheries for large swaths of the globe, will suffer more frequent mass die-offs.“We can expect a significant jump in extreme weather over the next 20 or 30 years,” said Piers Forster, a climate scientist at the University of Leeds and one of hundreds of international experts who helped write the report. “Things are unfortunately likely to get worse than they are today.” Humanity can still prevent the planet from getting even hotter. Doing so would require a coordinated effort among countries to stop adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere by around 2050, which would entail a rapid shift away from fossil fuels starting immediately, as well as potentially removing vast amounts of carbon from the air. If that happened, global warming would likely halt and level off at around 1.5 degrees Celsius, the report concludes.But if nations fail in that effort, global average temperatures will keep rising — potentially passing 2 degrees, 3 degrees or even 4 degrees Celsius, compared with the preindustrial era. The report describes how every additional degree of warming brings far greater perils, such as ever more vicious floods and heat waves, worsening droughts and accelerating sea-level rise that could threaten the existence of some island nations. The hotter the planet gets, the greater the risks of crossing dangerous “tipping points,” like the irreversible collapse of the immense ice sheets in Greenland and West Antarctica.
Landmark U.N. report delivers stark warning on climate change, says it's 'code red for humanity'- The world's leading climate scientists on Monday delivered their starkest warning yet about the deepening climate emergency, with some of the changes already set in motion thought to be "irreversible" for centuries to come. A highly anticipated report by the U.N.'s climate panel warns that limiting global warming to close to 1.5 degrees Celsius or even 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels "will be beyond reach" in the next two decades without immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. To be sure, the 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold is a crucial global target because beyond this level, so-called tipping points become more likely. Tipping points refer to an irreversible change in the climate system, locking in further global heating. At 2 degrees Celsius of global warming, the report says heat extremes would often reach critical tolerance thresholds for agriculture and health. U.N. Secretary-General, António Guterres described the report as "a code red for humanity." "The alarm bells are deafening, and the evidence is irrefutable: greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel burning and deforestation are choking our planet and putting billions of people at immediate risk," Guterres said. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's latest findings, approved by 195 member states on Friday, deals with the physical science basis of climate change and outline how humans are altering the planet. It is the first installment of four reports released under the IPCC's current assessment cycle, with subsequent reports scheduled to be published next year. The first part of the IPCC's Sixth Assessment Report provides world leaders with a gold standard summation of modern climate science ahead of U.N. climate talks, known as COP26, in early November.
Reduce methane or face climate catastrophe, scientists warn -- Cutting carbon dioxide is not enough to solve the climate crisis – the world must act swiftly on another powerful greenhouse gas, methane, to halt the rise in global temperatures, experts have warned. Leading climate scientists will give their starkest warning yet – that we are rushing to the brink of climate catastrophe – in a landmark report on Monday.The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will publish its sixth assessment report, a comprehensive review of the world’s knowledge of the climate crisis and how human actions are altering the planet. It will show in detail how close the world is to irreversible change. One of the key action points for policymakers is likely to be a warning thatmethane is playing an ever greater role in overheating the planet. The carbon-rich gas, produced from animal farming, shale gas wells and poorly managed conventional oil and gas extraction, heats the world far more effectively than carbon dioxide – it has a “warming potential” more than 80 times that of CO2 – but has a shorter life in the atmosphere, persisting for about a decade before it degrades into CO2. Durwood Zaelke, president of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development and a lead reviewer for the IPCC, said methane reductions were probably the only way of staving off temperature rises of 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, beyond which extreme weather will increase and “tipping points” could be reached. “Cutting methane is the biggest opportunity to slow warming between now and 2040,” he said. “We need to face this emergency.”Cutting methane could balance the impact of phasing out coal, a key goal at Cop26 because it is the dirtiest fossil fuel and has caused sharp rises in emissions in recent years. However, coal use has a perverse climate effect: the particles of sulphur it produces shield the Earth from some warming by deflecting some sunlight.
Key Takeaways From the New IPCC Report - Eight years of research from more than 14,000 papers have been telescoped into the exhaustive new report, part of the sixth comprehensive assessment in the IPCC’s 33-year history.The report finds that Earth is on the doorstep of the much-discussed 1.5°C threshold, more likely than not to be reached by 2040. The hazards of compound impacts – such as heat and drought together – have risen to new prominence since the last assessment, and the risks of cataclysmic tipping points continue to loom.“Unless there are immediate, rapid, and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, limiting warming to 1.5°C will be beyond reach,” said Ko Barrett, senior advisor for climate for NOAA’s Office of Atmospheric Research and one of three IPCC vice-chairs, in a press briefing on Sunday, IPCC is one of the most expansive science review efforts in global history. Rather than conducting its own research, the panel evaluates studies by thousands of scientists from around the world. The idea is to gauge which findings represent the most solid guidance needed for policymakers, governments, businesses, and individuals to address climate change.The most startling conclusions from IPCC tend to be contextual: how a range of recent studies fit together into a coherent picture. Like a jigsaw puzzle, the result of a complete IPCC assessment can be more illuminating than any single piece. The newly appreciated threats from compound impacts are a prime example.Notably, the IPCC has stepped up its graphics game in the new report, which has a number of crisp, striking visualizations (see below).As always, the IPCC makes clear that the amount of climate change ahead depends crucially on if and how quickly the world ramps down greenhouse gas emissions. Many impacts, including the most fearsome weather extremes, are expected to increase roughly in proportion with emissions, and that’s not even counting the most fraught tipping points (see below).What do the high- and low-end scenarios indicate? Emissions growth slowed to a crawl in the 2010s, and COVID-19 brought emissions in 2020 down by a few percent, roughly to the same level as a decade ago. Experts assume a sharp rebound this year and next. Given longer-term global trends that include a dramatic swing away from coal, though, it now seems unlikely that the world will follow a high-end emissions path similar to SSP5-8.5.On the other hand, following the lowest-end SSP1-1.9 scenario would take an extraordinary global effort. SSP1-1.9 assumes that total global CO2 emissions will drop by roughly 25% by 2030 and about 50% by 2035. A total of 137 countries have already thrown themselves behind a goal of carbon neutrality, most of them targeting 2050. If enough countries line up behind a roughly 50% cut by 2030 – with similar goals already set by the European Union, United Kingdom, and United States – then the SSP1-1.9 path could be within reach.It’s unsettling, however, that all five of the new emission scenarios bring the planet to at least 1.5°C of warming over preindustrial levels between now and 2040.It’s even possible that global temperature could briefly hit the 1.5°C threshold as soon as 2025,especially with any bump-up from a strong El Niño event. This result would likely precede crossing the threshold in a more sustained way. (Likewise, any volcanic eruption on the scale of 1991’s Mt. Pinatubo would tamp down global warming for one to three years, but it wouldn’t change the long-term picture.)
Opinion | To Address the Climate Crisis, Focus on More Than Carbon Dioxide - By Kathy Castor, chair of the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis.In conversations around the climate crisis, there’s often a focus on carbon dioxide. It is trapping heat and warming our atmosphere, fueling deadlier climate disasters than normal and costing billionsyear after year. We are right to focus on carbon dioxide. In 2019, it made up about 80 percent of human-caused, heat-trapping pollution in the United States. Reducing it remains the key to achieving as soon as possible a net-zero economy.But an alarming new report, released today, by the United Nations-backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, sheds light on the urgent need to cut down on another harmful pollutant: methane. Over a 20 year period, methane has more than 80 times the heat-trapping power of carbon dioxide, making it a major contributor to the climate crisis.The new report makes it clear: If we are to keep global temperatures in check, we urgently need to focus on cutting methane pollution. When every fraction of a degree counts, moving quickly to reduce this super pollutant is one of the most immediate and powerful ways to start solving the climate crisis. And because of methane’s relatively short life span — it lingers in the atmosphere for around 12 years, while carbon dioxide hangs around for hundreds of years — bringing down our methane emissions will help clear the atmosphere, helping to moderate temperatures and making a real impact on our near-term climate goals.The panel’s findings have important implications for our clean energy future. When it comes to generating electricity in the United States, increased use of so-called “clean” natural gas hasoften made up for decreased use of carbon-intensive coal. This has led some of my Republican colleagues to call for expanded natural gas production and the easing of restrictions on exporting the resource abroad. But the natural gas we use is made up of 85 to 90 percent methane. Yes, natural gas often emits somewhat less carbon dioxide than does coal when burned at power plants. Methane, however,escapes at every point of its production and distribution, from when it’s extracted from drilling or fracking sites to when it’s transported through gas pipelines to when it’s purified at refineries. These leaks undermine the potential climate benefit of natural gas.
'Answer to the code red': Dems cite IPCC for climate agenda - Congressional Democrats are pointing to yesterday’s major U.N. climate change report as new justification for their legislative proposals to slash greenhouse gas emissions and enact President Biden’s climate agenda. Republicans, on the other hand, had less to say about the report, with one member warning that "flawed policies" would only benefit China and Russia. The report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found, among other conclusions, that many impacts of human-induced global warming are now “irreversible” and there’s a small window for world leaders to dial back emissions and avoid the worst results (Climatewire, Aug. 9). As Senate Democrats prepare this week to start considering a $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package that would include a Clean Electricity Payment Program to cut the power sector’s emissions, the party sees the report as evidence their plans are needed. “An intergenerational movement of climate leaders are calling on Congress to include major climate action in the budget reconciliation package — which is our best opportunity to respond with solutions to the impacts outlined by the IPCC,” Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) said in a statement. He added: “With policies to drive deep cuts in emissions, protect communities from climate impacts, and provide equity and justice to overburdened communities, we can respond to overwhelming evidence and take the necessary action to save our people and our planet." In a video posted to Twitter, Markey said the budget resolution “is the answer to the code red, which the U.N. IPCC issued for the planet today. “A green budget resolution that we pass this week can begin to solve this code red. Wind, solar, all electric vehicles, Civilian Climate Corps, a clean energy revolution. That’s the answer to what Exxon Mobil and all the polluters have been shooting up into the atmosphere for generations,” Markey said. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) said he hopes the report will help put the concerns of people affected by climate change above those of the fossil fuel industry. “My hope is that this report will also translate into strong commitments from the international community at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in November — and that the United States steps up to do its fair share,” he said. “I’m going to do all that I can to ensure that happens, while we still have a shot at avoiding the very worst of climate chaos’s impacts.”
The amount of warming that world leaders collectively agreed to avoid? It's inevitable in the next 20 years, a new report shows. - When world leaders from 195 countries gathered in Paris almost six years ago, they agreed to try to cut greenhouse-gas emissions enough to keep global temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius.According to a new climate report, however, Earth's temperature is set to blow past that mark in the next 20 years — under any conceivable scenario of future emissions.The findings, released on Monday, come from the sixth climate assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) — a United Nations body that recruits hundreds of scientists from across the globe to synthesize years of climate research and modeling.The report found that human-driven emissions have already caused the planet to warm by 1.1 degrees in the last 170 years, and that warming trend will continue until over the next two to three decades to some degree, regardless of how much emissions drop.Global temperatures have risen faster in the last 50 years than any other 50-year period in the last 2,000 years. That's because humanity emitted about 2.4 trillion tons of carbon dioxide between 1850 and 2019. Every trillion tons causes the world's average temperature to increase roughly 0.45 degrees Celsius (0.9 degrees Fahrenheit).The IPCC report outlined five potential future scenarios, each of which assumes a different quantity of carbon emissions between now and the year 2100. So the scenarios all result in different levels of warming. Even if emissions drop to net zero in the next 30 years — the IPCC authors' best-case scenario — the global temperature will rise at least 1.5 degrees between now and 2040, the report found. In the worst-case scenario, in which emissions double by 2050, temperatures would rise 2.4 degrees above pre-industrial levels between 2041 and 2060. Then that increase would nearly double by 2100.
Is Childbearing Immoral Amid Climate Change? -One of the most fascinating existential questions has been posed on the business news channel CNBC, of all places, as would-be parents consider the wisdom of having children. While there are climate deniers like most of the US Republican Party and other reality-challenged individuals, most reasonable people accept the premise that global temperatures are rising due to human activity. The recent IPCC report leaves us in no doubt that things are getting worse in this regard. Already, we are witnessing severe climate change negatively affecting human life. So, the question is: Does it make sense to have children who will grow up on a degraded planet?The article is interesting in probing a number of angles on this question, the answer to which will ultimately have significant implications on the future of humanity:
- 1. What is the carbon footprint of raising a child?
- 2. How does a warming planet impact fertility rates?
- 3. Is it ethical to bear children knowing their quality of life will be negatively impacted by worsening climate change?
As a Catholic educator, the third question is the most interesting one to me. The obvious "Christian" answer would be that we should not presume things will get worse: It is still within the current generation's abilities to limit the future negative effects of climate change on future generations, although that window of opportunity is rapidly closing (see Pope Francis' 2015 encyclical Laudato Si). Given the massive collective action problems we have, though--including a main political party in the world's second-largest carbon emitter the United States denying the very existence of climate change--what are the chances of global citizens clamoring and working towards improvement? As the article suggests, more thoughtful would-be parents are giving these considerations a lot of though provided the almost non-existent progress on arresting warming trends observed around the world. There are no easy answers going forward.
Climate alliance suspends Exxon over lobbyist's comments on carbon tax support - The bipartisan Climate Leadership Council announced Friday that it has suspended ExxonMobil months after a lobbyist for the company told an undercover activist it only backed a carbon tax for the good publicity. “After careful consideration, we have decided to suspend ExxonMobil's membership in both the Council and Americans for Carbon Dividends, our advocacy arm,” CEO Greg Bertelsen said in a statement Friday. “We continue to believe that we will establish lasting climate solutions by bringing together a broad and diverse group of stakeholders who can work together to address this enormous challenge. This will continue to be our guiding principle.” In the June recording, senior lobbyist Keith McCoy told a Greenpeace activist “the cynical side of me says, yeah, we kind of know that but it gives us a talking point that we can say, well what is ExxonMobil for? Well, we’re for a carbon tax.” Exxon was a founding member of the organization in 2017. The announcement also comes amid reports that the nation’s largest oil producer is considering announcing a net-zero carbon emissions target by 2050. The consideration reportedly comes amid pressure to take more aggressive action to reduce emissions from three members of its board of directors who also work with the hedge fund Engine No. 1. The Climate Leadership Council's "decision is disappointing and counterproductive,” Exxon said in a statement to The Hill. “It will in no way deter our efforts to advance carbon pricing that we believe is a critical policy requirement to tackle climate change. It’s more important than ever for organizations to work together to advance meaningful policy solutions to address shared challenges and society’s net zero ambitions.” The company also pointed to the council's comments in the immediate wake of the recording, when it said, “ExxonMobil has helped bring other organizations on board in support of carbon pricing, and its senior executives regularly join us on Capitol Hill to advocate for this climate solution.” The decision is reportedly the result of internal deliberations that have been underway since the release of the recording.
Bill Gates Pledges $1.5 Billion for Infrastructure Bill’s New Climate Projects – WSJ --A roughly $1 trillion infrastructure bill passed by the Senate this week would give the Energy Department $25 billion for demonstration projects funded through public-private partnerships, part of more than $100 billion to address climate change. The House hasn’t yet approved the legislation.Mr. Gates, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, said a fund run by his Breakthrough Energy could spend the money over three years on projects aimed at slowing thegreenhouse-gas emissions that cause climate change. The Breakthrough projects, which would have to compete with other applicants for the funds, could include emissions-free fuel for planes and technology to suck carbon dioxide out of the air.. “Critical for all these climate technologies is to get the costs down and to be able to scale them up to a pretty gigantic level,” Mr. Gates said. “You’ll never get that scale up unless the government’s coming in with the right policies, and the right policy is exactly what’s in that infrastructure bill.” Breakthrough will likely shift funding for the biggest projects to Europe and Asia instead if the package doesn’t become law, he added. The Energy Department program hasn’t been a flashpoint in debate over the legislation, but some Republicans have criticized the overall bill for what they see as excessive spending and an increase in federal powers. The bill passed the Senate in a 69-30 vote Tuesday, with only Republicans opposed. “Washington must learn to live within its means,” said a statement this week from Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, the top Republican on the Senate Energy Committee. To address climate change, the bill includes more than $100 billion for programs that improve the electrical grid, harden infrastructure against natural disasters and subsidize a transition to emissions-free cars, trucks and buses. The public-private partnership program is one way the bill embraces industrial policy, the idea that governments direct critical industries rather than leaving things to the market. Gregory Nemet, a University of Wisconsin professor who has written a book about recent innovation in solar power, said the policy shift will put pressure on government officials who will have to sort through complex market dynamics while managing demands from companies seeking profits and lawmakers pushing for home-state handouts. Industrial policy “is really a good way of accelerating innovation, but it’s risky because it goes beyond anything we’ve done in the last four decades,” Mr. Nemet said, referring to the U.S. Public-private partnerships have helped commercialize nascent energy technology before, going back to the U.S. nuclear-power industry in the mid-20th century. But the results were mixed and politically controversial when financial-crisis recovery funds went to similar efforts at the Energy Department a decade ago.
Exclusive: U.S. weighs 2050 target in bid to wean airlines off fossil fuels (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration is quietly discussing a target date of 2050 for weaning aircraft off fossil fuels as part of the White House’s broader push to fight climate change, sources familiar with the matter said. The White House in recent days has stepped up efforts aimed at transforming the U.S. economy, including promotion of climate-directed infrastructure spending and bringing auto companies on board for its push for more electric vehicle use. The Biden administration is contemplating incentives to support private-sector production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) as it searches for ways to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions in the hard-to-electrify aviation industry. The administration is looking at a 2050 target for airlines to fly on 100% jet fuel from renewable sources, said two sources, who spoke anonymously to be candid about the discussions. The discussions are still in the early stages with few details available, the sources said. The United States and Europe are trying to find ways to encourage production and adoption of SAF, which is two to five times more expensive than standard jet fuel. Sustainable aviation fuel, made from feedstocks such as used cooking oil and animal fat, at present accounts for only a miniscule amount of overall jet fuel use. The administration confirmed that SAF is on its radar but did not comment on or confirm the 2050 target. “As part of the Build Back Better agenda, President Biden proposed catalytic investments to propel innovation and deployment of sustainable aviation fuels,” said Ali Zaidi, the Deputy National Climate Advisor for the White House. “The administration is committed to advancing climate solutions in every sector and segment of the economy - with the urgency that the climate crisis demands.” The aviation sector cannot count on electrification as a near-term solution because of the weight of the batteries. Biden’s administration, which has set a goal for net-zero emissions by 2050, has discussed incentives and targets to increase SAF. It is currently taking a different approach than Europe, where regulators are seeking to force suppliers to blend rising amounts of SAF into their kerosene, a move opposed by U.S. airlines. The White House and industry groups are expected to meet virtually later this month to promote alternative jet fuels, although specific actions that might be taken are not clear, three sources said. Environmentalists say a European-style mandate is needed to raise production and bring down SAF’s price. However, Angel Alvarez Alberdi, secretary general of the European Waste-based and Advanced Biofuels Association, fears the EU’s mandate will redirect the limited pool of affordable feedstocks available to make SAF.
Maritime shipping causes more greenhouse gases than airlines - Ships transport more than 10 billion metric tons of cargo each year, including clothing, electronics, and oil. Almost all of these ships run on fossil fuels, so they emit a lot of carbon pollution. Maritime shipping causes about 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions – even more than airplanes. In 2018, the U.N. agency that regulates global shipping set a goal of reducing ships’ carbon emissions to half of 2008 levels by mid-century. But Bryan Comer of the International Council on Clean Transportation says little progress has been made. “Currently, the global shipping sector is not on track to meet even its initial greenhouse gas strategy goals,” Comer says. He says there are promising technologies – such as hydrogen fuel cells – that could dramatically cut ships’ emissions. But they’re still expensive and not widely used. “There’s an opportunity now to start using cleaner fuels,” he says. “But right now what’s missing is that there’s … no regulations at the global scale that would incentivize that change.” So he says we need policies and enforceable standards to motivate the shipping industry to invest in cleaner technologies.
How Much Carbon Comes From a Liter of Coke? Companies Grapple With Climate Change Math – WSJ --From farm to bottler to supermarket cooler, a liter of Coca-Cola creates 346 grams of carbon dioxide emissions, the company’s data show.That’s less than half the tree-to-toilet 771-gram carbon footprint of a mega roll of Charmin Ultra Soft toilet paper, as measured by the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group.Math like this is fast becoming obligatory. Investors are increasing pressure on businesses to disclose the emissions of greenhouse gases related to their products and services. Regulators are starting to ask about that, too. Within the next couple of years, every public company in the U.S. might well be required to report climate information.Such an effort would be the biggest potential expansion in corporate disclosure since the creation of the Depression-era rules over financial disclosures that underpin modern corporate statements. Already it has kicked off a confusing melee as companies, regulators and environmentalists argue over the proper way to account for carbon.U.S. and European regulators already demand or are expected to require that public companies disclose their greenhouse-gas emissions. That might include the emissions produced by their suppliers and customers.Regulators also want better disclosure of climate-related risks for public companies. These can range from physical ones such as effects from extreme weather to financial risks such as if a fossil-fuel asset like a coal mine loses value.“When it comes to disclosure, investors have told us what they want,” Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler said in a speech last week. “It’s now time for the commission to take the baton.”The demands from some investors for more and better climate-related information carry increasing weight as “green” financial products surge in popularity. Some $51 billion poured into sustainable U.S. mutual funds and exchange-traded funds last year, according to data provider Morningstar Inc. That was almost 10 times the level of 2018 and represented nearly a quarter of the cash that went into all U.S. stock and bond funds last year, Morningstar said.The SEC is working on a potential climate-disclosure regulation and has sought public comment. It has the backing of the White House, which has called for drastic cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions. Countries in Europe already require that companies doing business there honor governments’ demands for climate disclosures.The SEC and other regulators say climate change poses specific risks to companies that investors should be told about. Among them is the risk that companies producing a lot of greenhouse gases could be avoided by some lenders, insurers or investors, either because those parties see the companies as harming the environment or because they view the companies’ businesses as vulnerable. A scientific panel working under the auspices of the United Nations stated in a report Monday that effects of a warming climate are unequivocally driven by greenhouse-gas emissions from human activity.
Biden-backed ‘blue’ hydrogen may pollute more than coal, study finds - The large infrastructure bill passed by the US Senate and hailed by Joe Biden as a key tool to tackle the climate crisis includes billions of dollars to support a supposedly clean fuel that is potentially even more polluting than coal, new research has found.The $1tn infrastructure package, which passed with bipartisan support on Tuesday, includes $8bn to develop “clean hydrogen” via the creation of four new regional hubs. The White House has said the bill advances Biden’s climate agenda and proponents of hydrogen have touted it as a low-emissions alternative to fuel shipping, trucking, aviation and even home heating. But a new study has found surprisingly large emissions from the production of so-called “blue” hydrogen, a variant being enthusiastically pushed by the fossil fuel industry and probably falling under the definition of clean hydrogen in the Senate bill.Blue hydrogen involves splitting gas into hydrogen and carbon dioxide and then capturing and storing the CO2 to ensure it doesn’t heat the planet. But this process involves the incidental release of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, and uses a huge amount of energy to separate and then store the carbon dioxide, some of which escapes anyway.This means that the production of this hydrogen actually creates 20% more greenhouse gases than coal, commonly regarded the most polluting fossil fuel, when being burned for heat, and 60% more than burning diesel, according to the new paper, published in the Energy Science & Engineering journal.“It’s pretty striking, I was surprised at the results,” said Robert Howarth, a scientist at Cornell University who authored the paper alongside Mark Jacobson, a Stanford University researcher. “Blue hydrogen is a nice marketing term that the oil and gas industry is keen to push but it’s far from carbon free. I don’t think we should be spending our funds this way, on these sort of false solutions.” The Hydrogen Council, a group that includes the oil companies BP, Total and Shell among its members, has said that hydrogen has a “key role to play in the global energy transition” by replacing more polluting fuels, predicting it will account for 18% of total energy demand by 2050.Dozens of gas companies in the US have started producing hydrogen or testing its viability in existing gas pipelines, which some climate campaigners have said is a step towards entrenching fossil fuel infrastructure at a time when the world needs to rapidly move to net-zero emissions.
Democrats Will Ruin the Climate – WSJ - Notwithstanding that we are passing the 18th month of a global Covid-19 pandemic that has killed 4.3 million people and crushed national economies, the United Nations decided that what the world needs just now is more bad news, as summarized by the New York Times : “The new report leaves no doubt that humans are responsible for global warming, concluding that essentially all of the rise in global average temperatures since the 19th century has been driven by nations burning fossil fuels, clearing forests and loading the atmosphere with greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane that trap heat.” What’s more, the report says climatic destruction is going to get worse no matter what we do. I do sometimes wonder what it would be like to be alive when the world ends. The U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change even includes an interactive atlas depicting that global warming’s ruin will be everywhere, meaning there’s nowhere to hide. Now what? My short answer: Don’t put the Democrats in charge of Noah’s Ark. It will sink. If only for the sake of discussion, let’s stipulate the U.N.’s climate report may be right that warming is a problem. One still may pose a practical political question: Instead of mitigating the world’s climate challenge, what evidence exists that these progressive advocates—Democratic politicians or affiliated scientists—would do anything other than make it worse if we put them in charge of the solutions?
Dingell, reps say bipartisan Senate bill 'falls far short' on EV charging infrastructure — U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell led over two dozen of her colleagues this week in saying the bipartisan infrastructure bill passed Tuesday by the Senate "falls far short" when it comes to funding to build out an electric-vehicle charging network across the nation. Dingell, a Dearborn Democrat, wrote to Democratic leadership with New York Rep. Yvette D. Clarke and 26 other House Democrats, who want to see $85 billion included in an infrastructure package toward the effort, rather than the $7.5 billion passed by the Senate. They said the larger spending amount would create tens of thousands of jobs and would boost adoption of clean energy transportation options."(A) rapid and extensive build-out of electric vehicle charging infrastructure supported by the federal government is crucial if consumers are to adopt zero-emission vehicles at the scale and pace needed to stave off climate catastrophe and ensure an equitable transition," wrote the lawmakers, including U.S. Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Detroit and Brenda Lawrence of Southfield. Dingell in an interview said $85 billion is what she wants to see incorporated into the Senate Democrats' $3.5 trillion budget bill that senators are taking up next. "We have to have enough money in there to support the goal that was set out last week," Dingell said. She was referring to an event at the White House on Thursday, where the CEOs of Detroit's three automakers joined President Joe Biden as he announced a goal to make half of all new vehicles sold by 2030 emissions-free. The automakers said they are aiming sell 40%-50% electric vehicles in the same time period, including battery electric, fuel cell and plug-in hybrids. The automakers' pledges are voluntary.The Biden administration last week also issued new, long-awaited rules requiring 5% annual emissions reductions for Model Years 2024 through 2026.Dingell said the goals can't be reached if the the appropriate resources aren't there, including charging stations to combat so-called "range anxiety." The lawmakers, including House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chair Peter DeFazio of Oregon, sent the letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. Michigan lawmakers also are eyeing other EV-related priorities for the Senate budget bill. U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing, told The Detroit News on Monday that she’s pushing to include her legislation an increase in consumer tax credits for EVs to up to $12,500 for the next five years.
Billionaire-backed mining firm to seek electric vehicle metals in Greenland (Reuters) -Mineral exploration company KoBold Metals, backed by billionaires including Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates, has signed an agreement with London-listed Bluejay Mining to search in Greenland for critical materials used in electric vehicles.KoBold, which uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to hunt for raw materials, will pay $15 million in exploration funding for the Disko-Nuussuaq project on Greenland's west coast in exchange for a 51% stake in the project, Bluejay said in a statement. The license holds metals such as nickel, copper, cobalt and platinum and the funding will cover evaluation and initial drilling.KoBold is a privately-held company whose principal investors include Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a climate and technology fund backed by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Bloomberg founder Michael Bloomberg, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and Ray Dalio, founder of the world's largest hedge fund Bridgewater Associates.Other KoBold investors include Silicon Valley venture capital fund Andreessen Horowitz and Norwegian state-controlled energy company Equinor.BlueJay said previous studies found the area in western Greenland has similarities to the geology of Russia's Norilsk region, a main producer of nickel and palladium.
Power-guzzling crypto miners racing to find cheaper energy sources -- Even after bitcoin mining activity dipped in recent months, the cryptocurrency network consumed almost as much energy as the entire nation of Chile and more than twice what homes and businesses in Denmark use in a year, real-time estimates show. Such heavy power consumption explains why operators of the sprawling and lucrative data centers used to verify, process and record transactions of cryptocurrencies are racing to find inexpensive energy to keep their costs down. If the energy is clean, so much the better. China cracked down on its massive bitcoin industry in June, citing environmental and regulatory concerns. The decision accelerated an exodus of crypto miners heading to new and affordable nations such as Kazakhstan, Russia and Canada. Crypto miners are also moving their operations to energy-producing U.S. states like Pennsylvania, Texas and Wyoming. The U.S. this year surpassed Russia to become the second-largest market after China for miners of bitcoin and other much smaller cryptocurrencies known as altcoin, according to the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index. "The trend is clearly for the U.S. to be gaining market share," said Anton Dek, a co-author of the well-respected index. Whereas Chinese provinces were concerned that energy-guzzling bitcoin mining centers would undercut their climate goals, Texas has used incentives like generous demand response programs for large industrial and commercial customers to lure crypto miners to the Lone Star State. Under such programs, miners that offer to turn off their computers and curtail their energy consumption by at least 100 kWh on days when energy demand peaks can expect to receive tens of thousands of dollars annually from the state. Such arrangements can offset whatever business miners lose by turning off their computers and ease energy costs. The demand response programs serve as a magnet for bitcoin miners, said Katie Coleman, a Texas energy attorney and expert on the state's electricity market. "Electricity is the largest overhead cost for most of these facilities," Coleman said. "Texas provides unique opportunities for demand response providers compared to other regions that are not fully deregulated and have a different resource mix. It is a huge draw not only for bitcoin mining but for any energy-intensive industry."M
Transmission corridor in jeopardy after judge vacates lease of public land to CMP - A state judge has vacated a lease of public land to Central Maine Power Co. for a 1-mile section of a planned 145-mile transmission corridor through western Maine, jeopardizing the entire project. Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy said in her ruling Tuesday that state public land officials failed to make a required finding that the lease would result in no reduction or substantial alteration to the public lands being leased and, therefore, the agreement was not valid.Thorn Dickinson, head of the company that will build the corridor, NECEC Transmission, issued a terse statement saying the company is “reviewing the Superior Court’s decision to determine our next steps on the matter.” Opponents, meanwhile, said the ruling will, at the least, create a substantial hurdle for the company’s plan. CMP holds the lease for the land in question, but is transferring it to NECEC Transmission, the company that was formed to oversee construction of the project. Both CMP and NECEC Transmission are owned by Avangrid, the U.S. subsidiary of Iberdrola Group, a multinational energy company based in Spain. The decision means corridor-builder NECEC Transmission will have to go back to the state to negotiate the lease of the public land that will be used for part of the corridor, which would connect hydroelectric power generated in Quebec with the New England power grid in Lewiston. Most of the electricity being generated is intended for Massachusetts power customers, who are paying for the project.
Hydrogen pilot projects advance, evolve at gas utilities | S&P Global Market Intelligence -- Gas utilities continue to advance hydrogen pilot projects as the industry focuses on long-term solutions for decarbonizing pipeline networks. Local distribution companies offered updates on their programs during a packed day of quarterly earnings conference calls Aug. 5. The commentary illustrated how utility operators around the country are tailoring their early phase efforts to meet state climate goals, leverage existing assets, and respond to industrial demand for the low- or zero-carbon hydrogen supplies. New Jersey Resources Corp., or NJR, announced that construction has begun at the company's first green hydrogen project, located in Howell, N.J. The power-to-gas project will use electricity from an adjacent solar facility to power electrolyzers, which split water into hydrogen and oxygen. NJR will then blend the green hydrogen into its gas distribution system. When the project goes into service in the fall, NJR will be the first East Coast gas utility to directly inject green hydrogen into its system, according to NJR President and CEO Stephen Westhoven. During its November 2020 analyst day, NJR reported plans to spend $23 million to $24 million for renewable natural gas and renewable hydrogen projects in 2021 and $19 million to $20 million for investments in 2022. The capital spending plans come as NJR seeks to align its business with New Jersey climate policy. Also on Aug. 5, South Jersey Industries Inc. signaled it would move forward with its green hydrogen pilot project with Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind LLC. The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, or BPU, on June 30 awarded Atlantic Shores a contract to develop 1,510 MW of offshore wind energy, part of the largest-ever combined U.S. offshore wind award, totaling 2,658 MW. The award enables SJI and Atlantic Shores to execute an agreement to pilot green hydrogen production using excess electric power from the offshore wind development. In granting the award, the BPU cited the pilot project as an additional benefit of the contract.
WV environmentalists condemn Gov. Justice for fossil fuel-favoring energy appointments following sobering climate change report - Monday brought a tale of two messages to West Virginians about the urgency of reducing emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.The first message came from 234 scientists from 66 countries who reviewed more than 14,000 peer-reviewed scientific papers to produce a long-awaited United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report that urged reaching net zero carbon dioxide emissions to stabilize the global climate and reduce extreme rainfall and flooding in West Virginia and throughout the eastern United States for generations to come.The second message came from Gov. Jim Justice.“In the country today, again, whether it be coal, oil or gas, our energy industry is under attack,” Justice said, reading at a news briefing on the state’s COVID-19 response from a press release his office released Saturday announcing hisreactivation of a potentially powerful state board that had been dormant for the past decade in an effort to foster fossil fuel development.Justice, a coal magnate whose companies have been assessed millions of dollars for environmental violations, added that he also wanted to embrace renewable energy sources.But environmentalists view Justice’s latest moves as signals that he is kowtowing to the coal industry rather than taking climate change seriously.
Adams County lawmaker wants 'all questions answered' on coal plant cleanup — A state lawmaker from Adams County is demanding answers from the Ohio EPA after the WCPO 9 I-Team revealed the owner of the retired Killen Generating Station pumped untreated coal ash into the Ohio River last summer. Rep. Brian Baldridge, a Republican from Winchester, wants to learn more about the incident and make sure EPA officials are closely watching the cleanup at Killen and J.M. Stuart Station, which Commercial Liability Partners also owns. “We’re left with over 500 acres of ash ponds for all those years of service to the state of Ohio for energy generation,” Baldridge said. “I just want to make sure that we are not left with a nightmare on into our future.” Baldridge asked for a formal inquiry into plant owner CLP four days after the I-Team reported CLP workers placed a drainage pump too deep in an ash pond, causing sediment to follow into the river in July and August of 2020. In the July 22 report, CLP said it self-reported the violations as required and no fine was imposed. Ohio EPA said the incident did not have a significant impact on the river’s water quality. But a former Ohio EPA official, George Elmaraghy, said the company could have been fined for federal Clean Water Act violations.
Climate change means more flooding, raising concerns about Missouri coal ash ponds. Our warming planet is the catalyst behind heavier rains that threaten to bring about a hidden danger — rising water tables seeping into unlined coal ash pits, mixing with and contaminating groundwater used not only for agriculture, but as drinking water. In Missouri, out of the 16 coal-fired power plants and 41 coal ash ponds, almost every major coal-fired power plant is located alongside a river. These plants are located in close proximity to rivers because they use the water for cooling processes. Everyday, for instance, over a billion gallons of water is pumped from the Missouri River. It is used to generate steam that turns the coal plant turbines and generates electricity. After it is used, the water is pushed back out into the river. “It’s a very old technology of cooling a power plant that as a result, everything they do is right near the water,” “The coal ash ponds, which have operated for decades and in some places as many as six decades, were all built along the rivers and they’re in the water table,” The coal ash ponds are dug deep into the ground near rivers, exposing the groundwater to harmful toxins. A study from the Environmental Integrity Project shows 91% of coal plants have unsafe levels of one or more coal ash toxins in groundwater on or around the property.Climate change could make contamination from ash ponds worse throughout the Missouri flood plains. With heavy rainfall events increasing due to climate change, flooding in the Midwest has become even more prolific. Missouri is home to three major rivers: the Missouri, Mississippi and the Meramec. The rivers converge on the borders of the state, which means that anything throughout the floodplains is susceptible to high and intense flood waters.
‘It is Peabody’s duty’: Activists say Peabody is not cleaning up mines on Black Mesa - Navajo Times - Environmental activists want to ensure Peabody Western Coal Company cleans up harmful environmental impacts at Kayenta Mine, where low sulfur coal was produced and shipped to the Navajo Generating Station for more than four decades. Activists Nicole Horseherder and Ben Nuvamsa say they have not seen remediation actions since the mine closed in August 2019. Peabody Energy is inching closer to filing for bankruptcy protection, delaying reclamation work. Nuvamsa said thousands of acres of Navajo and Hopi lands and the water supply have been destroyed by Peabody’s mining since 1970, when the Kayenta operation began on Dziłyíjiin. “Both mines are now closed after having dug up and damaged more than 20,000 acres of our land,” said Nuvamsa, former chairman for the Hopi Tribe, in a recent meeting with the House Committee on Natural Resources on environmental justice for coal country. “Lands that our people lived on for centuries, lands that we use for farming, and where we raise our families,” Nuvamsa said. “Now these lands are not suitable for habitation and are now unusable.” Horseherder, executive director of Dziłyíjiin-based Tó Nizhóní Ání, said the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement is supposed to oversee reclamation. “But (OSMR) today has been completely unhelpful in ensuring that reclamation proceeds in a timely and adequate manner,” Horseherder said. “(It) has allowed Peabody to leave a mess at Black Mesa Mine and has taken no action to move along reclamation work at Kayenta Mine.”M
State regulators poised to set Georgia Power's toxic coal ash storage legacy - Sometime next year, Pam Wolff hopes to stop lugging heavy five-gallon jugs of clean water into her home every week so she can cook meals, brew her coffee and her grandkids can brush their teeth. Wolff says next year is probably as soon as she can expect to connect her home to a new Monroe County water line being rolled out on the county dime to give residents living in the more than 850 homes near Plant Scherer the choice of clean water. About 300 homes have been connected so far. But Wolff says the $20 million county water line won’t be enough to quiet her. She said she remains concerned about Georgia Power’s plans to leave about 16 million tons of toxic coal ash in an unlined pit, where it sits in as much as 25 feet of groundwater. “I’m sure there will be some people who will get complacent with it. ‘Oh well, I’m good now’ kind of thing,” she said. “The ones who have been so long-term medically and financially hurt by it will not be backing off. We’ll be fighting it to the end.” Wolff was among the dozens of Juliette residents who showed up at the state Capitol last winter – before the COVID-19 pandemic upended life – to pressure lawmakers to require the state’s largest electric utility to excavate all its coal ash waste and move it to lined landfills. Republican lawmakers have resisted those calls. And this year, a GOP measure requiring utilities to monitor the groundwater near coal ash ponds for 50 years after closure – as opposed to 30 years – cleared the House before stalling in the Senate. The bill remains alive for next year. Wolff says she is baffled by Georgia Power’s decision to move coal ash to lined landfills at some locations, like Plant Branch in Milledgeville, but not all. “I get that it is more cost involved and all that but when you’re talking about people’s lives and having viable water, money shouldn’t be a thing – especially for a power company that has massive forces behind them,” she said.
Claxton playground contaminated with radioactive dust still open -- For two decades, children in Anderson County have been playing — unaware — on a sports field constructed with the Tennessee Valley Authority’s radioactive coal ash waste, Knox News confirmed this week. The nation’s largest public power provider is now acknowledging it used a mix of dirt and “bottom ash” — the most toxic and radioactive form of TVA’s coal ash waste — to build a ball field that's part of a larger park that contains a playground, as well. The ball field has played host to youth sports games since it opened in 2001. Coal ash is the byproduct of burning coal to produce electricity, and it contains a toxic stew of 26 cancer-causing pollutants and radioactive heavy metals. Duke researcher Dr. Avner Vengosh — a renowned expert in coal ash detection and testing — noted the “absolute concentrations” of toxic heavy metals in the soil of the adjacent playground were low. TVA did not install a clay liner — a thick layer of compacted clay typically used to seal off TVA’s coal ash waste in its dumps — on top of the ball field to protect children from direct exposure to coal ash dust. Instead, TVA said in a statement to Knox News that the radioactive fill dirt mixture was topped with gravel, mulch and slope stabilizers known as “geofibers.” TVA did not notify residents or Anderson County leaders that the ball field contains coal ash. The utility also did not warn residents or Anderson County leaders that its coal ash contains concentrated levels of radioactive heavy metals or that coal ash dust is dangerous to breathe.
FirstEnergy bribery scandal raises questions about vetting at the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio - – Revelations that Sam Randazzo was hired to run the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio without first disclosing the millions he’d recently been paid by FirstEnergy, one of the companies he was supposed to regulate, raise questions about the vetting process for PUCO nominees. And especially now that FirstEnergy has said the payment was a bribe given in exchange for favorable state treatment, some advocates have renewed calls to reform the PUCO appointment process, including proposing electing commission members or taking other steps to limit utility influence on the commission. In a mandatory state ethics forms he filed in April 2019, shortly after Gov. Mike DeWine hired him, and again in 2020, Randazzo disclosed making money consulting through two companies he owned – the Sustainability Funding Alliance of Ohio and the IEU Administration Company. But he didn’t list the amounts. State officials only must disclose the amount they made if it came from an entity looking to do business with the agency where they work. Randazzo didn’t mention that FirstEnergy was a major client. And so, Gov. Mike DeWine has said he didn’t know FirstEnergy had paid Randazzo, through the consulting company, more than $20 million over the past decade, including $4.3 million just weeks before he was hired. The payment came to light as part of the scandal surrounding House Bill 6, the energy bill that’s the center of an ongoing corruption probe. Randazzo has denied wrongdoing and hasn’t been charged with a crime. FirstEnergy has called the payment a bribe in a deal it filed in court last month with federal prosecutors Paul Nick, director of the Ohio Ethics Commission, which investigates and enforces state ethics laws, said his agency has followed legal developments and media reports detailing payments Randazzo received from FirstEnergy. He indicated Randazzo may have broken state law by not listing the $4.3 million he’d been paid by FirstEnergy on his disclosure form. Falsely filling out a state disclosure form is a first-degree misdemeanor. “Understanding the facts as they’re becoming known, I think you could say it creates a question whether he should have, but it’s a question of fact,” Nick said.
Environmental groups tried to warn DeWine not to appoint regulator accused embroiled in scandal - Late last year, as his administration was plunging deeper into a scandal over a nuclear bailout, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said he supported keeping the billion-dollar ratepayer subsidy even though the original deal creating it was part of a $61 million bribery and money-laundering scheme.The governor said he supported scrapping the law creating the billion-dollar subsidy, but the subsidy itself should be kept in place for environmental reasons.“One (reason) is at least 85% of our non-carbon production in the state of Ohio is nuclear,” DeWine said. “If you get rid of that, you’ve totally changed your percentage that is non-carbon. You’re virtually down to nothing. So that doesn’t seem like a great idea.”But the governor didn’t seem so concerned with carbon-free energy production when he appointed Sam Randazzo to the state’s top regulator, the Public Utility Commission of Ohio. Before Randazzo’s appointment, five environmental groups on Feb. 1, 2019 took a possibly unprecedented step: They sent a letter to DeWine urging him to pick somebody else. Even when they’re unhappy with prospective regulators, the groups are reluctant to publicly oppose them. That’s because they want to be heard as regulators make far-reaching decisions about renewable energy, conservation and the like. But they judged Randazzo, who had long experience representing industrial customers before the PUCO, to be so bad that they had to speak up.
Ohio AG freezes former PUCO chair's assets in FirstEnergy probe | wkyc.com — Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost told 3News today that his office filed legal papers to garnish assets of ex-Public Utilities Commission of Ohio Chair Sam Randazzo. Yost earlier filed a lawsuit to force Randazzo to return a $4.3 million he received from FirstEnergy Corp. The company recently admitted the payment to Randazzo was bribe. “One thing we did yesterday that has not been reported yet is we went to court to freeze accounts of Sam Randazzo, the former PUCO chairman who FirstEnergy has admitted paid a $4 million bribe to,” Yost told 3News in an exclusive interview. “We filed that today – the garnishment -- and so far frozen a little over $300,000. We are still working through the bank accounts and looking for other assets. But this is the first action to freeze assets that flowed out of this corrupt deal.”You can watch comments from Yost in the player below:
Radioactive loads enter landfills - Republic Services Carbon Limestone Landfill is one of the eight landfills in Ohio currently receiving waste from unconventional oil and gas operations, according to information acquired by Public Herald from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency. The company is the second-largest provider of nonhazardous solid waste collection, transfer, disposal, recycling and energy services in the United States, as measured by revenue, according to its website. In 2019, the landfill received more than 1.3 million tons of waste — including radioactive fracking waste, according to Public Herald.In Ohio, TENORM (technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive material) disposal at landfills falls under the Ohio Revised Code, which states that a solid waste facility cannot accept or transfer TENORM if it contains radium-226, radium-228, or any combination of the two at more than 5 picocuries per gram (pCi/g) over the natural background.Not much testing has been done on TENORM waste in Ohio, but much of the TENORM waste arriving at Ohio landfills is from the Marcellus Shale — the same shale waste that has been tested in a 2016 Pennsylvania TENORM study. In that study, radium levels from fracking waste in the Marcellus were detected as high as 13 pCi/g, more than 2.5 times greater than the Ohio code permits. The average load for combined radium reported in the study from 18 samples was 5.847 pCi/g, again exceeding the Ohio code of 5 pCi/g. But even though Ohio’s TENORM code places a strict standard on radioactive waste disposal, the state hasn’t produced documentation to Public Herald of measurement and enforcement for radium at landfills.“It is an extremely, overwhelmingly strong bet that the waste and disposal practices in Ohio are seeing a great deal of material that exceeds the limits,” Ohio attorney Terry Lodge said.
Disposal of radioactive fracking waste alarms activists - Youngstown Vindicator - Everyone knows that oil and gas wells produce oil and natural gas, but these wells also produce radioactive material being disposed of in communities alongside household trash.The Environmental Protection Agency defines the radioactive portion of this waste as TENORM (technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive material). Though Ohio has strict regulations governing radioactive waste that comes across its borders, the state code doesn’t require the kind of extensive testing necessary to adequately measure radioactivity in TENORM waste, Public Herald reports.Surrounding Youngstown are four separate facilities processing radioactive fracking waste. According to Public Herald, they are:
- * Carbon Limestone Landfill, Republic Services, Lowellville;
- * Mahoning Landfill, Waste Management, New Springfield;
- * Wastewater treatment plant in Lowellville;
- * “Chief’s order” facility called Ground Tech Inc. in Youngstown. Chief’s order facilities have special permission to operate outside of existing law, critics say.
Lynn Anderson said she has spent nearly a decade working with FrackFree Mahoning Valley to keep Poland Township and the surrounding area safe from radioactive contamination. But the fight against the industry often seems unwinnable, Anderson said. “People’s lives matter. You can’t sacrifice them for corporate profit,” she said. Never before has the nation undertaken an experiment with radioactive material like the one happening now across the country thanks to technological advances in hydraulic fracturing, a deep, water-intensive, chemical-laden process to extract hard-to-reach fossil fuels.The formations being fracked in Appalachia, including Ohio, from the Marcellus and Utica Shales, happen to be the hottest in the country — as in the most radioactive, researchers have said.In 2020, Harvard scientists revealed that radiation downwind of unconventional fracking development is significantly higher than background levels and moreso in the Marcellus and Utica Shale due to the higher uranium content of those formations.According to the industry, every part of the oil and gas continuum involves radioactivity. A 1982 report commissioned by the American Petroleum Institute stated: “[a]lmost all materials of interest and use to the petroleum industry contain measurable quantities of radionuclides that reside finally in processing equipment, product streams, or waste.”Oil and gas companies drill deep into the earth and blast water and chemicals into bedrock to access minerals. The process produces waste that includes drill cuttings, synthetic drilling muds, fracking chemicals, and naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) that would otherwise stay locked underground.That waste is taken to facilities across the country, and in Ohio that includes local landfills, where rain filters through trash, carrying contaminants with it.In landfills, the contaminated rainwater called “leachate” is transported to local sewage treatment facilities, which add the liquid to sewage for processing before dumping the leftovers into local waterways. But sewage is not treated for radioactive materials, so whatever TENORM goes into the facility also goes into the river, eventually. Or, TENORM can be lodged in sludge and filters making them radioactive for any material they come into contact with.
Ohio oil and gas waste migrated, but drinking water safe for now, state says - Though oil and gas industry waste fluids migrated in 2019 beyond their original Ohio disposal site, a new report from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources says nearby drinking water wells were not affected. The department previously confirmed hydraulic fracturing waste from a class II injection well in Washington County showed up in 28 nearby gas-producing wells. "Naturally occurring fissures exist between the Ohio shale formation and the Berea sandstone formation, allowing wastewater to migrate between formations and into the production wells," according to ODNR records. While the state agency has said it's "unlikely that wastewater will migrate farther — including into underground sources of drinking water due to the composition of the rock layers and other factors," an expert says it's possible. The state paid an environmental firm, Groundwater & Environmental Services, Inc. (GES), a little more than $50,000 to test private water wells of those who live near the affected area, according to a report GES issued in June. There were 596 parcels along with 48 private water well locations that were identified within one-half mile radius of nine oilfield wells. The company analyzed samples for chloride and bromide, essentially salt, to detect if the well water contained waste fluids — called "brine" in the industry — that's present in horizontal hydraulic fracturing, a method that came into widespread use by the oil and gas industry in the 2010s to extract fuel from shale formations deep underground. "GES does not believe that ... water wells that were sampled during this investigation were impacted by brine associated with the Redbird injection well," according to the report. However, waste water from hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as fracking, will continue to migrate, said Amy Townsend-Small, an associate professor of environmental science and geology at the University of Cincinnati who conducts research on hydraulic fracturing and its effects on groundwater. Water samples were taken more than a year after the initial reports of the waste migrating. It's possible that samples were taken at the wrong location because it's challenging to determine the location many months after, she said. "Are they going to provide ongoing monitoring? Because one-time sampling may not be sufficient," Townsend-Small said.
Ascent Res. 2Q: Drilled 23 Wells, Produced 1.95 Bcfe/d, Lost $617M - Ascent Resources, originally founded as American Energy Partners by gas legend Aubrey McClendon, is a privately-held company that focuses 100% on the Ohio Utica Shale. Ascent is Ohio’s largest natural gas producer and the 8th largest natural gas producer in the U.S. The company issued its second quarter 2021 update earlier this week. The company produced 1.95 billion cubic feet equivalent per day (Bcfe/d) during 2Q (91% natural gas). Ascent generated $38 million of free cash flow, but like other M-U drillers, hedging bets on derivatives resulted in a big loss of $617 million for the quarter.During 2Q Ascent operated four drilling rigs and one fracture stimulation crew. The company spud (drilled) 23 wells, hydraulically fractured 17 wells, and turned to sales 26 wells with an average lateral length of 12,247 feet.Of the 26 new wells brought online, 23 were located in the dry gas or lean gas areas, while the other three wells were located in the liquids-rich window.As of June 30, 2021, Ascent had 635 gross operated producing Utica wells.The company is one of the lowest-cost producers in the M-U. Ascent’s well costs averaged approximately $546 per lateral foot during 2Q, a 12% reduction compared to 1Q. Ascent’s official update for 2Q, with an overview of the financials:
Summit Midstream 2Q: Volumes Up Some, Profits Down Some - Summit Midstream Partners, formed in 2009 and headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas, operates natural gas, crude oil, and produced water gathering (pipeline) systems in several unconventional shale plays, including the Marcellus and Utica. Last week Summit issued its second quarter 2021 update. The company’s Utica Shale segment continued to be the star performer. Flows through the company’s pipeline system are up, although revenues were down slightly from the same period a year ago. Summit averaged 1,441 MMcf/d (million cubic feet per day) in natural gas throughput during 2Q, up from 1,391 MMcf/d in the second quarter of 2020, as Utica Shale production remained strong. Operated natural gas volumes increased 7.1% relative to the first quarter of 2021, largely due to continued strong performance from the four Utica Shale wells connected in the first quarter of 2021 and 20 new wells that were turned to sales during the second quarter of 2021 across the Utica Shale, Williston Basin and Marcellus Shale segments. Here’s a chart showing average daily throughput by reportable segment for 2Q21. The Utica and Marcellus segments grew.
First major US hydrogen-burning power plant nears completion in Ohio - Touted as a first-of-its-kind power plant in the United States, the Long Ridge Energy Generation Project, a 485-MW facility being equipped to run on a mix of natural gas and carbon-free hydrogen, is nearing completion at the site of a former aluminum smelter on the banks of the Ohio River."We are currently in the startup phase," Bo Wholey, president of Long Ridge Energy Terminal, an affiliate of Fortress Transportation and Infrastructure Investors, said in an Aug. 11 email. The power plant in Hannibal, Ohio, will be "fully operational" in early September, with hydrogen to be introduced in November, Wholey added.The facility first will burn a fuel blend that includes 5% hydrogen in a General Electric Co. H-class gas turbine. The plant is intended to transition to 100% green hydrogen over the next decade by relying increasingly on renewable energy to power electrolysis machines that split water into its hydrogen and oxygen elements.The project has access to industrial byproduct hydrogen for initial testing, according to Long Ridge, but the company is partnering with New Fortress Energy for the green hydrogen transition. It is also exploring underground salt formations for large-scale hydrogen storage."Having multiple pathways to generating carbon-free energy is a high priority, and we believe, extremely valuable," Fortress CEO Joseph Adams told investment analysts during a July 29 earnings call. The $600 million project, underpinned by seven- and 10-year fixed-price power sale contracts, is two months ahead of schedule, Adams said.The hydrogen-natural gas generation project is the centerpiece of an intended sweeping makeover of the industrial site, where Long Ridge also plans to develop a 125-acre data center campus with 300 MW of capacity. Advocates hope the project marks the beginning of a new era for hydrogen in helping to decarbonize the power sector and other areas of the economy.Major global equipment suppliers Mitsubishi Corp., Siemens and Wärtsilä Oyj, numerous big U.S. electric and gas utilities and a host of project developers are also placing big bets on hydrogen. Several additional U.S. natural gas-hydrogen hybrid power projects are underway, the largest of which is the Intermountain Power Agency's planned conversion of an existing coal plant into an 840-MW combined-cycle gas facility by 2025 that would combust up to 30% hydrogen and gradually move to only green hydrogen. Most of the plant's output is under contract with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. But the Union of Concerned Scientists and other clean energy groups have pushed back on burning hydrogen. They have flagged concerns over dangerous nitrogen oxide emissions that occur even with green hydrogen, even though they are supportive of hydrogen fuel cells, which can produce power without combustion.
Study finds blue hydrogen worse than gas or coal -- The carbon footprint of creating blue hydrogen is more than 20% greater than using either natural gas or coal directly for heat, or about 60% greater than using diesel oil for heat, according to joint research by Cornell and Stanford universities in the US. The paper, which was published in Energy Science and Engineering, warned that blue hydrogen may be a distraction or something that may delay needed action to truly decarbonise the global energy economy. A research team claimed blue hydrogen requires large amounts of natural gas to produce and said that even with the most advanced carbon capture and storage technology, there are a significant amount of CO2 and methane emissions that won’t be caught. Professors from the universities calculated that these fugitive emissions from producing hydrogen could eclipse those associated with extracting and burning gas when multiplied by the amount of gas required to make an equivalent amount of energy from hydrogen. The paper comes hot on the heels of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report claiming methane has contributed about two-thirds as much to global warming as CO2 and as many governments are looking to invest in hydrogen production. Robert Howarth, a Cornell University professor and co-author of the study, said: “Political forces may not have caught up with the science yet. Even progressive politicians may not understand for what they’re voting. Blue hydrogen sounds good, sounds modern and sounds like a path to our energy future. It is not.” The UK is high up on the list of countries aiming to put blue hydrogen at the core of its energy transition agenda. UK energy consultancy Xodus recently launched a new report urging a bolder vision to enable the country to become a global leader in the adoption of hydrogen. The researchers, on the other hand, recommended a focus on green hydrogen, which is made using renewable electricity to extract hydrogen from water, leaving only oxygen as a byproduct. “This best-case scenario for producing blue hydrogen, using renewable electricity instead of natural gas to power the processes, suggests to us that there really is no role for blue hydrogen in a carbon-free future. Greenhouse gas emissions remain high, and there would also be a substantial consumption of renewable electricity, which represents an opportunity cost. We believe renewable electricity could be better used by society in other ways, replacing the use of fossil fuels.”
Frackers, Shippers Eye Natural-Gas Leaks as Climate Change Concerns Mount – WSJ —Drones darted in patterns above natural-gas wells in the hills of southwest Pennsylvania, as workers atop water tanks pointed specialized cameras, and a helicopter outfitted with a laser-light detection system swooped in low. All searched for an invisible enemy: methane. The American gas industry faces growing pressure from investors and customers to prove that its fuel has a lower-carbon provenance to sell it around the world. That has led the top U.S. gas producer, EQT Corp. and the top exporter, Cheniere Energy Inc., to team up and track the emissions from wells that feed major shipping terminals. The companies are trying to collect reliable data on releases of methane—a potent greenhouse gas increasingly attracting scrutiny for its contributions to climate change—and demonstrate they can reduce these emissions over time. “What we’re trying to really do is build the trust up to the end user that our measurements are correct,” said David Khani, EQT’s chief financial officer. “Let’s put our money where our mouth is.” Natural gas has boomed world-wide over the past few decades as countries moved to supplant dirtier fossil fuels such as coal and oil. It has long been touted as a bridge to a lower-carbon future. But while gas burns cleaner than coal, gas operations leak methane, which has a more potent effect on atmospheric warming than carbon dioxide, though it makes up a smaller percentage of total greenhouse gas emissions. EQT’s fracking site in Mannington, W.Va., is powered by a turbine rather than conventional diesel engines, which are more typical. The control room at EQT’s field office in Canonsburg, Pa. Oil-and-gas companies use setups like this to remotely monitor—and even run—some operations. Investors, policy makers and buyers of liquefied natural gas, known as LNG, are rethinking the fuel’s role in their energy mix because of concerns about methane emissions, which were highlighted this week as a significant contributor to climate change by a scientific panel working under the auspices of the United Nations. Those concerns, pronounced in Europe and increasingly in Asia, are a problem for LNG shippers, as some of their customers signal plans to ease gas consumption over time. In a policy draft last month, Japanese regulators said the country would have LNG make up 20% of its projected power generation by 2030, down from a prior target of 27%. The European Union has been weighing how to pressure LNG shippers to cut emissions. It could, for example, include LNG among the imports subject to a recently proposed carbon border tax.
PennEast aims to complete first phase of natgas pipe in 2022, despite right-of-way delay (Reuters) - PennEast Pipeline said on Thursday it still expects to complete the first phase of its $1.2 billion natural gas pipe in Pennsylvania in 2022 even though it put off acquiring rights of way for the project due to legal and regulatory hurdles. PennEast, which seeks to complete the pipeline's second phase from Pennsylvania into New Jersey in 2023, is just one of several long-delayed projects facing opposition from Northeastern states as the region transitions from fossil fuels to cleaner forms of power, like wind and solar. "Given the uncertainty on timing to resolve the remaining legal and regulatory hurdles, PennEast believes it is not prudent to complete the acquisition of the rights of way in the pending actions in Pennsylvania, as it might not be necessary for some time," PennEast said in a statement. That "uncertainty" caused PennEast partner New Jersey Resources Corp NJR.N last week to announce a $72.7 million after-tax impairment charge related to its investment in the project. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a Third Circuit decision that blocked PennEast from using federal eminent domain rules to seize New Jersey state-owned or controlled land. That victory cleared one hurdle, but more remain. In addition to completing the rights of way, PennEast still needs permits from environmental Pennsylvania and New Jersey regulators and others before it can start construction. The U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved PennEast's request to build the pipeline in January 2018. The company had hoped to complete the project in 2019. The 120-mile (193 kilometer) pipe is designed to deliver 1.1 billion cubic feet per day of gas from the Marcellus shale to customers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Seneca FY3Q: More Drilling to Fill New Pipeline Capacity - Last Friday National Fuel Gas Company (NFG), the parent company for Seneca Resources and Empire Pipeline, issued its latest quarterly update for the quarter ending June 30 (NFG’s third fiscal quarter, everyone else’s second quarter). The exciting news from the update is that with two pipeline projects getting completed this year, Seneca Resources is ramping up its Marcellus/Utica drilling program to take advantage of selling more gas at higher prices.NFG’s FM 100 pipeline project, coming online this year, extends an existing pipeline network in northwestern Pennsylvania to flow an extra 330 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of Marcellus gas to Williams’ mighty Transco Pipeline.A companion project at Williams called the Transco Leidy South expansion is also underway and due to be done this year. Leidy South will carry 600 MMcf/d from Pennsylvania to Atlantic Seaboard markets. Partial capacity on the system was brought online late last year (see Two Williams Projects Online Early: Leidy South & Southeastern Trail). The rest of the Leidy South expansion will be online by the end of this year. All of which means Seneca is ready to drill and complete more wells, to take advantage of their pre-reserved capacity along these pipelines: “For the remainder of the year, we are on track with our plans to ramp up production to fill Leidy South and capture premium winter pricing,” said Seneca President Justin Loweth during a conference call with analysts on Friday. He added: “We have begun the process of accelerating our completion pace and now have two active completion crews, which is a level of activity we expect to continue throughout the first half of fiscal 2022.” NFG/Seneca’s fiscal year (FY) 2022 begins in October.Seneca plans to produce 335-365 Bcfe (billion cubic feet equivalent) in FY 2022, some 25 Bcfe higher than 2021. The new production will come online beginning later this FY (prior to October) and into the beginning of next FY (after October and into early 2022). Seneca produced 83.1 Bcfe during 3Q, a huge increase of 27.1 Bcfe (48%) from the prior year. The improvement was primarily from a 27.3 Bcf increase in natural gas production, largely related to the purchase of Shell’s Marcellus assets last year–450,000 acres, 350 producing Marcellus and Utica shale wells in Tioga County. During 3Q Seneca drilled 12 new wells.
Activists, Chuck Schumer Protest National Grid’s Brooklyn Pipeline Ahead of Rate Hike Vote - The state’s Department of Public Service is expected to vote Thursday on whether to hike gas rates for National Grid customers in the city—an increase that would help fund a controversial fracked gas pipeline the utility company is constructing in Brooklyn. On Friday afternoon, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer joined other legislators, community members and environmental activists in Greenpoint to express his opposition to the National Grid North Brooklyn Pipeline Project. “There are a lot of reasons why this is a bad idea,” he said, citing both environmental justice concerns and that the new pipeline is in violation of the state’s progressive climate legislation. The press conference, held in an industrial corner outside the National Grid facility, was in advance of the expected vote Thursday by DPS to increase the utility company’s gas rates. Construction of the seven-mile fracked gas pipeline, which runs from Brownsville up to Greenpoint, was paused in May following multiple protests by environmental justice groups. But the state is still considering rate hikes—which National Grid estimates would increase customers’ monthly bills by $5.56 (or 3.77 percent) in the proposal’s second year and $4.89 (or 3.26 percent) in the third—would fund the work already done on the pipeline. If approved, the company would raise gas prices for its 1.9 million customers in Staten Island, Brooklyn and Southeast Queens, said Lee Ziesche, organizer with the nonprofit Sane Energy. Ziesche learned about the pipeline in 2019 while looking through public records filed with the Department of Public Service. She, along with more than a dozen environmental groups, mobilized to protest its construction. They gained the support of City Comptroller Scott Stringer and Mayor Bill de Blasio, leading National Grid to temporarily halt the project. But by the time the mayor came out against the pipeline in December 2019, four of the five pipeline’s sections had already been completed and begun transporting gas. Schumer declared his opposition to the project while standing among organizers Friday, claiming that the pipeline is in direct defiance of the state’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), ambitious legislation passed in 2019 aimed at transitioning to clean energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. “This pipeline violates the precepts of the CLCPA. How can we pass a law and then let them undo the law?” He was joined by Senator Julia Salazar, who told City Limits she’s opposed to both the pipeline and the rate hike. “It’s unhealthy and it’s unnecessary,” she said. “Let’s not grant a rate increase for something nobody wanted in the first place.”
New Yorkers Will Pay for New Gas Pipeline Through Brooklyn With Utility Bill Hike - New York state regulators voted unanimously this morning to increase 1.9-million residents’ utility bills to fund a controversial fracked gas pipeline running through Brooklyn. The New York State Public Service Commission’s (PSC) 7-0 approval of the rate hike comes after years of debate over the funding of National Grid’s Metropolitan Reliability Infrastructure (MRI) project, dubbed the North Brooklyn Pipeline by local activists. The seven-mile long route, construction of which has already been permitted and is nearly completed, runs primarily through Brownsville, Bushwick, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Williamsburg and Greenpoint. Thursday’s vote was over a joint proposal written in May by National Grid, the Long Island Power Authority, and the Department of Public Service, among others, that included rate increases for New Yorkers ($129-million of which will fund pipeline construction); energy efficiency enhancements; limitations on oil and gas marketing; and educational efforts around emissions reductions. “This reflects a solid, creative and responsible work on the part of staff,” said PSC commissioner John Maggiore of the joint proposal before voting yes for its passage in Thursday’s public hearing. “I also think this reflects a point in time and the evolution of this state towards greater reliance on renewable energy sources.” “This case is a gift that will keep on giving,” added PSC Chair John B. Howard following the vote. Though construction on the pipeline began in 2017, New York environmentalists say they were not aware of its existence until 2019, at which point opposition to the project mounted quickly. Over the last year-and-a-half, activists have staged rallies, marches, lock-ups and sit-ins along the pipeline route as the first four phases of its construction were underway. Most recently, the No North Brooklyn Pipeline campaign, apartnership between environmental groups Sane Energy Project, the Brownsville Residents’ Green Committee, Newtown Creek Alliance, and more, launched a gas bill strike across the city, urging New Yorkers to withhold $66 (an estimate of what consumers would be paying over time if the rate hike is approved) from their monthly National Grid payments in opposition to the pipeline.
New York state questions plan to boost capacity at Iroquois pipeline site in Athens— New York environmental officials have some pointed questions for the federal government about plans to upgrade a natural gas pipeline that runs through this Greene County community.The dispute, though, isn’t about plans for a new pipeline. It instead focuses on what might have earlier been an uncontroversial change to an existing line.The proposal by the Iroquois Pipeline Operating Company for adding compressors to their 414-mile eponymously named natural gas line brings into sharp focus the new considerations that state policymakers are weighing regarding energy infrastructure after passage of the 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act which sets ambitious greenhouse gas reduction goals in New York state.The enhancement by compression project would add a new 12,000-horsepower compressor to the 10,000-horsepower one already in place at the Athens pumping station. Additional compressors are also planned in Dover in Dutchess County and Brookfield, Conn, the latter of which is near company’s headquarters.Iroquois says the expansion would let them increase the flow of gas which runs from the Canadian border through upstate New York and Connecticut to supply New York and Long Island.Iroquois, as well as the utilities that would distribute the gas to customers — ConEd and National Grid’s KeySpan unit — have argued the extra fuel is needed to keep up with demand downstate.It would also offset the need for dirtier oil-burning sources, according to the company.Projected for completion in 2023, the company also says they will use the latest technology to capture methane leaks and use high-efficiency compression equipment.The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which oversees most aspects of such pipelines, has been moving the project through its review process.But a number of environmental organizations oppose the upgrade. Rather than making it easier to use natural more gas, they say any new energy initiatives should focus on solar, wind and other carbon-free sources.
West Milford NJ compressor station deal OK'd. What's next? — Township officials Wednesday approved a deal with Tennessee Gas Pipeline regarding the company's plan to build a new compressor station near the Monksville Reservoir. The agreement strikes a taxable value of $17.5 million for the property, a former quarry off Greenwood Lake Turnpike. It also requires the pipeline company to fund $10 million in general liability and excess liability insurance, initial and follow-up emergency response training and $20,000 in gas detection equipment for the municipality. In addition to more than $655,000 in expected annual property taxes for 2022, the company agreed to pay the township $200,000. The payment would come in two lump sums: $20,000 within 60 days and $180,000 when the station is federally authorized for service. Mayor Michele Dale said the goal of the agreement is to best position the township in the likelihood that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approves the project later this year. The federally regulated project would install a 19,000-horsepower turbine to push more gas through Tennessee Gas Pipeline's North Jersey infrastructure. Combined with two additional compressor station upgrades, it would provide enough capacity to end Consolidated Edison's moratorium on natural gas connections in Westchester, New York, records show. West Milford residents and environmental advocates have derided the project for its lack of local benefit. Food & Water Watch organizer Sam DiFalco called the agreement "an abdication of the council’s responsibility to protect their constituents." "For months, residents have spoken out against this project, out of genuine concern for protecting the health and safety of their communities," she said. "No amount of money that the town can get from this dirty energy project will make up for a major accident, fire, or a leak of toxins into the Monksville reservoir, a critical source of clean drinking water to millions of New Jersey residents." Local government officials in Bloomfield, Hamburg, Montague, Ringwood, Wantage and Vernon have adopted resolutions opposing the project.
Environmentalists push FERC on MVP environmental review plans, carbon impacts -A large coalition of environmental groups pressed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to pursue a more extensive review of the Mountain Valley Pipeline's amendment project, days before the commission was scheduled to release its environmental report for the natural gas pipeline. If granted, the lengthy filing backed by 19 groups including Allegheny-Blue Ridge Alliance could add to the timeline for environmental review of the 303-mile, 2 Bcf/d natural gas pipeline project. MVP has been seeking to restore permits and resume construction after legal and regulatory setbacks stalled progress (CP16-10, CP21-57).MVP, which would provide an added outlet for Appalachian gas supplies, in February proposed alternative water crossing methods for about 70 miles of the route. FERC had scheduled release of the environmental assessment for the amendment project for Aug. 13.MVP spokeswoman Natalie Cox, in an Aug. 6 email, said, "The MVP project team continues to expect its [environmental assessment] from the FERC in mid-August."The environmental groups, however, argued Aug. 3 that FERC erred legally in issuing a scoping notice July 1 that said it had decided on an EA.The supplemental EIS must analyze impacts of the amendment, along with MVP's requested Clean Water Act Section 404 permit from the US Army Corps of Engineers, they argued."FERC's environmental review must examine, on a crossing-by-crossing basis, alternative stream crossing methodologies — including the broader use of trenchless methods," and must fully consider cumulative effects of hundreds of stream crossings including those in the same stream or watershed, they wrote. The groups also targeted climate impacts, saying FERC must revisit its analysis given new executive orders and the Army Corps' involvement as a cooperating agency. FERC cannot rely on the "deficient and outdated discussion in its 2017 FEIS," they contended.
2 Mountain Valley Pipeline protesters locked themselves to drilling equipment (WSET) — Two Mountain Valley Pipeline protesters were arrested Friday morning after reportedly locking themselves to drilling equipment.The incident happened early Friday morning in Lawn, West Virginia, in Greenbrier County, where the Mountain Valley Pipeline crosses underneath Interstate 64. Activist group Appalachians Against Pipelines says the protesters halted work at the site for more than two hours before two protesters were extracted and arrested around 8:30. By 9:30, bail had not been set."In the expansive timeline of industrial extraction, halting work for a single day might feel molecular, but today’s action is anything but isolated," stated one of the people locked to the drill. "Today’s action stands in community with all that has transpired, all those that will continue to resist, painting a larger picture of the resiliency of grassroots organizing in Appalachia, the overwhelming value of direct action in rural spaces. As I write and as you read, 303 miles of Appalachian soil is being held captive by the Mountain Valley Pipeline. As pipeline construction intrudes upon the ground under the pads of our feet, we are reminded of the long history of rural communities, of Appalachian flora and fauna reduced to a mere commodity for the sake of bolstering a capitalistic agenda." The other person who took action today stated: "Today I am taking action against the MVP. For me, the only option is to take direct action against this pipeline which is tearing through the beautiful mountains of Appalachia. I am taking action today not only to oppose this pipeline, but as a part of a broader movement working to abolish the systems of capitalism, white supremacy, cis hetero patriarchy, and all the other systems that are destroying this earth. I am also taking this action in solidarity with Indigenous water protectors and allies fighting Enbridge’s Line 3 up in so-called Minnesota." Neither protester has been identified, and law enforcement has not yet commented on the arrests. The Mountain Valley Pipeline is a 42-inch diameter, 300-plus mile, fracked gas pipeline that runs from northern West Virginia to southern Virginia, with a 70-mile extension into North Carolina.
Mountain Valley Pipeline protesters arrested after locking themselves to drill tracks - Two people locked themselves to the drill tracks of the Mountain Valley Pipeline in Greenbriar County, West Virginia Friday morning. They are at a construction site 30 minutes outside Beckley, just beyond the intersection of Lawn Road and Route 27. In a press release from Appalachians Against Pipelines, the two protesters issued these statements
- Statement 1: “As I write and as you read, 303 miles of Appalachian soil is being held captive by the Mountain Valley Pipeline. As pipeline construction intrudes upon the ground under the pads of our feet, we are reminded of the long history of rural communities, of Appalachian flora and fauna reduced to a mere commodity for the sake of bolstering a capitalistic agenda.”
- Statement 2: “Today, I am taking action against the MVP. For me, the only option is to take direct action against this pipeline which is tearing through the beautiful mountains of Appalachia.”
There’s also a banner on site that reads “MVP is dead. Doom to the Pipeline.” Work on the pipeline has halted and Greenbriar County Sheriff deputies are on scene. UPDATE: The protesters have been removed and arrested, according to Appalachians Against Pipelines.
Sherriff: Two arrested in Mountain Valley Pipeline protest — Law enforcement officials say two people have been arrested after they were found chained to pipeline construction equipment in Greenbrier County.Local news outlets report that the two were found Friday morning in the Dawson area secured to pipeline equipment with chains and a welded pipe.According to the Greenbrier County Sheriff’s office, local fire department officials helped extract the pair, who were below ground level in a hole. Deputies say one individual voluntarily climbed out, while the other refused and had to be lifted out.The two have both face charges of trespassing, obstructing an officer and conspiracy. It was not immediately known if they had an attorney.Known as the Mountain Valley Pipeline, the project has faced various legal challenges from environmental groups because construction has led to violations of regulations meant to control erosion and sedimentation. The 303-mile pipeline will take natural gas drilled from the Marcellus and Utica shale formations and transport it through West Virginia and Virginia
Environmental Activists Halt Mountain Valley Pipeline Construction - Environmental activists temporarily shut down construction of the already over-budget and behind scheduleMountain Valley Pipeline in southwestern Virginia on Monday. Organizers with the group Appalachians Against Pipelines said 10 people locked themselves to construction equipment to protect native species threatened by the controversial pipeline that would carry fracked gas — primarily methane — more than 300 miles from West Virginia to southern Virginia. "Right now we're looking at a future with extreme water shortages, accelerating difficulty in growing food, mass human displacement due to natural disasters and manmade disasters caused by pipelines like these," said Mandy, one of the protesters. The temporary construction comes as activists across the state areramping up pressure to block the pipeline.
Nearly 100 protesters block work on Mountain Valley Pipeline; some are arrested - A crowd of nearly 100 crashed a construction site early Monday morning, loudly voicing their opposition to the Mountain Valley Pipeline. When police arrived at the scene off U.S. 460 in eastern Montgomery County and ordered them to leave, about 80 protesters obeyed, forming a procession as they marched, sang and chanted “Doom to the Pipeline.” About 10 activists remained, chained to heavy equipment and other objects. They were arrested and taken to jail, authorities said. Although human blockades along the construction right of way have become almost routine over the past three years, Monday’s demonstration was the largest of its kind so far to temporarily block work on the natural gas pipeline. Organized by Appalachians Against Pipelines and Arm In Arm, a national organization combating climate change, the protest drew local and out-of-state residents to denounce the project’s environmental damage, use of eminent domain and contribution to global warming. “President Biden, Gov. Northam and Mountain Valley Pipeline officials have been told that clearly the world and civilization as we recognize it cannot survive more conduits of fossil fuels,” said Jim Steitz of Charlotte, North Carolina. “I will not consent to that, and that’s why I’m here,” Steitz said by telephone from the protest site, which was quickly closed off by a large contingent of officers from the Virginia State Police and the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office.As of 2 p.m., five men and two women had been been taken in a jail van to the magistrate’s office in Christiansburg, according to Lt. Mark Hollandsworth of the sheriff’s office. Appalachians Against Pipelines later said that 10 people had been arrested. After the crowd dispersed, police briefly shut down U.S. 460 in both directions as the procession crossed the highway and formed a support line along the road for the protesters who remained.Many of them waved anti-pipeline signs, drawing honks of support from some motorists and quizzical looks from others.
FERC requests more evidence of reliability impacts as Spire STL pipeline seeks temporary approval --
- Spire STL Pipeline and stakeholders across its Missouri territory are continuing their push for federal regulators to approve temporary operations of the facility while the project assesses its path forward following a potentially detrimental court ruling.
- The pipeline has been in service since 2019, but in June, a federal court of appeals vacated the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission order that allowed the project to move forward, finding the commission did not sufficiently examine evidence of self-dealing and project need. Spire in July requested FERC grant it a temporary certificate of public convenience and necessity while the company sorts out what the court ruling will mean for the pipeline. FERC responded on Friday requesting more information from the company, including on the alleged reliability impacts of closing the pipeline.
- Missouri regulators, the governor, the attorney general and various labor and business groups have echoed Spire's call for a temporary certificate in comments filed with FERC over the past month. But environmental groups, including the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) which brought the pipeline company to court in the first place, say the proposal for temporary certification has "serious deficiencies."
Chesapeake to buy Haynesville gas producer for $2.2bn - -Chesapeake Energy will acquire natural gas producer Vine Energy through a $2.2bn cash and stock transaction that will expand Chesapeake's footprint in the prolific Haynesville shale.Under the terms of the deal, Chesapeake will increase its Haynesville net acreage to 348,000, up from 225,000 acres, and its Haynesville output will nearly triple. The combined company will have net Haynesville output of 1.6 Bcf/d (45mn m³/d), the largest of any producer in the field, Chesapeake said.The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter. Vine shareholders will receive a total of $15/share of consideration, consisting of 0.2486 shares of Chesapeake common stock and $1.20/share of cash.The transaction gives Chesapeake the scale to become the "dominant supplier" of natural gas to the US Gulf coast, Mike Wichterich, Chesapeake's interim chief executive said.The transaction marks the first major acquisition by Chesapeake since it restructured and emerged from bankruptcy protection in February. Chesapeake has since focused on developing its gas assets in the Haynesville in northern Louisiana and the US Appalachian region, home to the prolific Marcellus and Utica shales.Development of the Haynesville has increased sharply this year as Nymex prompt-month gas prices this summer climbed above $4/mmBtu, rebounding from last year's sub-$2/mmBtu levels. In addition, the Haynesville is close to key demand centers along the US Gulf coast and to LNG export terminals.The combined company will produce 415,000-435,000 b/d of oil equivalent (boe/d) this year, and 575,000-595,000 boe/d next year, Chesapeake said. Vine had first quarter production of 945mn cf/d and was expecting to increase output to more than 1 Bcf/d during the second quarter.Chesapeake's second quarter output was 433,000 boe/d, 77pc of which was gas. Output was up by 3pc from a year earlier. Chesapeake plans to operate 10-12 rigs next year, eight or nine of which will develop the company's gas asset while the others will develop the company's oil assets. The company operated seven rigs during the second quarter.
Sweeping Infrastructure Bill Goes Big on Energy Transition, Leaves Natural Gas Wanting - The $1 trillion infrastructure bill passed by the U.S. Senate Tuesday with bipartisan support includes a big boost in spending on renewable energy, the power grid and programs to broadly promote lower greenhouse gas emissions to slow climate change. The massive bill contains more than $550 billion in new spending. About $110 billion of that is for physical infrastructure such as roads and bridges, the largest share. But the legislation also invests $73 billion to modernize the nation’s aging electricity grid with new transmission lines that could transport renewable energy from sources such as solar and wind to rural communities in an effort to hasten the adoption of cleaner energy sources, a pillar of President Biden’s agenda.The bill would also invest more than $20 billion in environmental remediation, financing programs to advance the transportation and storage of hydrogen and captured carbon dioxide, among other efforts.Natural gas advocates applauded the legislation’s broad intentions – both the money tagged for traditional infrastructure and to encourage evolution in energy – with one outsized caveat: Gas must have a stated role in the nation’s energy foundation for years to come.The bill “creates new, game-changing programs for deploying low-carbon energy solutions and the pipeline and storage infrastructure that will deliver those solutions,” said Interstate Natural Gas Association of America CEO Amy Andryszak. However, she added, while Biden acknowledged the importance of natural gas during his campaign in 2020, the Senate-passed legislation does not account for the enduring role of gas that most in the energy sector expect would be necessary for decades to come.“Any serious plan to both address global climate change and develop a modern, reliable and affordable energy system must include natural gas as a foundational fuel,” Andryszak said.
U.S. natgas slips on drop in crude prices, lower demand forecasts (Reuters) - U.S. natural gas futures slipped to a near one-week low on Monday due to a drop in oil prices and forecasts for less demand over the next two weeks than previously expected. Traders noted the gas price decline came despite an outlook showing the weather will remain hotter-than-normal through late August. Front-month gas futures NGc1 fell 8.0 cents, or 1.9%, to settle at $4.060 per million British thermal units (mmBtu), their lowest close since Aug. 3. Oil prices dropped 2%, extending last week's steep losses on the back of a rising U.S. dollar and concerns new coronavirus-related restrictions in Asia, especially China, could slow a global recovery in fuel demand. O/R In the power market, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), grid operator for most of the state, projected hot weather this week would push peak demand over the current high for the year of 72,856 megawatts (MW) on July 26. The forecast peaks, however, were expected to fall short of the grid's all-time high of 74,820 MW in August 2019. Data provider Refinitiv said gas output in the U.S. Lower 48 states had risen to an average of 92.0 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) so far in August from 91.6 bcfd in July. That was still well below the all-time high of 95.4 bcfd in November 2019. With hotter weather expected, Refinitiv last week projected average gas demand, including exports, would rise from 93.4 bcfd this week to 94.4 bcfd next week as power generators burn more fuel to meet rising air conditioning use. Those forecasts, however, were lower than Refinitiv projected on Friday. The amount of gas flowing to U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plants has slipped to an average of 10.3 bcfd so far in August due to reductions at the Cameron and Sabine plants in Louisiana, down from 10.8 bcfd in July and a record 11.5 bcfd in April.
Wind Generation Seen Limiting Bullish Impact of Heat as Natural Gas Futures Slide -Natural gas futures fell in early trading Wednesday as analysts looked for wind generation to curb the bullish effect of peak summer heat in the forecast this week. As of around 8:50 a.m. ET, the September Nymex contract was down 5.6 cents to $4.033/MMBtu. From a national gas-weighted degree day standpoint, widespread heat over the eastern half of the country this week will result in the hottest stretch of the summer, according to Bespoke Weather Services. “Muting the bullish effect of the strong heat, however, remains much higher wind versus what we saw last week and the week before, although the wind declines back to low levels by Friday and into the weekend,” Bespoke said. “Heat pulls back into early next week, but into the final third of August, another round of above normal heat is favored in the Midwest and East.” EBW Analytics Group analysts told clients early Wednesday that they expect the peak summer temperatures to help technical support for the September contract hold above $4. Also supporting the front-month is the strength of winter-month contracts bolstered by the storage deficit, according to the firm. “Simultaneously, though, a major dip” in liquefied natural gas (LNG) feed gas demand in the Gulf Coast, which was “partially reversed” in Wednesday’s data, and “very high wind generation (expected to fade soon) have kept prices at Henry Hub in check, limiting the ability of futures to move higher,” the EBW analysts said. “How long this deadlock persists could depend upon this week’s storage report and continued forecast shifts.”
US working natural gas volumes in underground storage rise 49 Bcf: EIA - US working gas storage volumes increased by 49 Bcf for the week ended Aug. 6, slightly more than what the market expected as the NYMEX Henry Hub winter strip declined following the announcement. he build brought the US storage total to 2.776 Tcf, the US Energy Information Administration reported Aug. 12. The injection was more than the 44 Bcf addition expected by an S&P Global Platts' survey of analysts. Responses to the survey ranged from injections of 38 Bcf to 56 Bcf. The storage build was more than the five-year average build of 42 Bcf but less than the 55 Bcf injection in the corresponding week of last year. The Platts Analytics' supply and demand model proved closest at 47 Bcf. The analysts' survey has proved close to the mark over the past four weeks, missing the EIA estimate by an average of 4.5 Bcf. US storage volumes now stand 548 Bcf, or 16.5%, less than the year-ago level of 3.324 Tcf and 178 Bcf, or 6%, below the five-year average of 2.954 Tcf. The injection was much stronger than 13 Bcf added the week prior. Supplies were flat on the week with offsetting changes in production and imports from Canada, according to Platts Analytics. Downstream, however, total demand fell by 4.5 Bcf/d, driven mainly by a 4.3 Bcf/d decline in gas-fired power demand week on week. US power burns tumbled more than 5 Bcf/d year on year in July, because of higher natural gas prices and milder weather. Population-weighted temperatures have come in roughly one degree below the 10-year normal, while prices have tracked $2/MMBtu higher this July versus last. The NYMEX Henry Hub September contract slipped 14 cents to $3.91/MMBtu during trading Aug. 12. The winter strip, November through March, shed 16 cents to averaged $4.03/MMBtu, representing a net decline of 20 cents from one week prior. This kept the seasonal price spread flat at roughly 10 cents, which has been exceedingly small this summer to date. Spreads from this summer to next winter are now trading slightly above 10 cents/MMBtu, still not enough to clear storage cycling costs and prioritizing spot gas over future reliability in the event of a cold winter. Platts Analytics' supply and demand model currently forecasts a 35 Bcf injection for the week ending Aug. 13, which would measure 7 Bcf less than the five-year average.
U.S. natgas futures slide to 3-week low on forecasts for less hot weather (Reuters) - U.S. natural gas futures fell to a three-week low on Friday on forecasts for less hot weather and lower cooling demand than previously expected and despite expectations U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports will rise as Gulf of Mexico plants boost output after finishing maintenance work. Demand for U.S. LNG has been growing in Europe and Asia, where gas prices were almost quadruple U.S. prices. Front-month gas futures NGc1 fell 7.2 cents, or 1.8%, to settle at $3.861 per million British thermal units (mmBtu), their lowest close since July 19. For the week, the contract was down about 6%, its biggest weekly percentage loss since February. Last week it gained almost 6%. In the Atlantic basin, Tropical Depression Fred was expected to strengthen into a storm as it marches toward South Florida on Saturday. Traders noted Fred would likely result in cooler weather and power outages that would reduce gas demand but not affect output much since Florida produces almost no gas. Data provider Refinitiv said gas output in the U.S. Lower 48 states rose to an average of 92.0 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) so far in August from 91.6 bcfd in July. That compares with an all-time high of 95.4 bcfd in November 2019. Refinitiv projected average U.S. gas demand, including exports, would rise from 92.2 bcfd this week to 92.8 bcfd next week as LNG exports increase, before sliding to 92.4 bcfd as the weather turns less hot and air conditioning use declines. The forecast for next week was a little lower than Refinitiv expected on Thursday. The amount of gas flowing to U.S. LNG export plants was expected to jump to a four-week high of 10.9 bcfd on Friday from an eight-week low of 9.3 bcfd on Tuesday as several Gulf Coast plants, including Cameron and Sabine in Louisiana and Freeport in Texas, returned to near full service. That compares with an average for LNG feedgas of 10.2 bcfd so far in August, 10.8 bcfd in July and a record 11.5 bcfd in April. With European and Asian gas both trading over $15 per mmBtu, compared with around $4 for the U.S. fuel, analysts said buyers around the world would keep purchasing all the LNG the United States can produce. Prices at the Title Transfer Facility (TTF) in the Netherlands, the European benchmark, hit a record high on Wednesday. U.S. pipeline exports to Mexico have slipped to an average of 6.3 bcfd so far in August from 6.6 bcfd in July and a record 6.7 bcfd in June.
Oil dispersants used in BP disaster must undergo EPA health, safety review, judge rules -- After almost 30 years of delays and a range of health and environmental concerns raised by scientists, a federal judge has ordered the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to update its rules for the chemical dispersants that were used during BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil disaster.Judge William Orrick of the U.S. District Court in San Franciso agreed Monday with environmental groups that the update is long overdue. “I find that the EPA breached its non-discretionary duty to issue the final rule” and “delayed unreasonably” a process that scientists have been calling for since the mid-1990s, Orrick wrote. Orrick, an appointee of President Barack Obama, gave the EPA a May 31, 2023 deadline to update and finalize its rules. Citing past delays by the agency, Orrick also ordered the agency to file status updates every 180 days.Over the past four years, a flood of new research has blamed dispersants for a host of problems, including lingering human health effects from the BP disaster more than a decade ago.“We are delighted, although not really surprised, with the court’s finding that oil spill response regulations enacted more than 15 years before the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster are no longer aligned with current science and technology,” said Sumona Majumdar, a lawyer for Earth Island Institute, one of the groups that sued the EPA last year. “We urge the EPA to quickly issue a final rule that properly regulates these dangerous chemicals.”
Shreveport City Council approves ordinance calling for moratorium on oil, gas operations — The Shreveport City Council has approved an ordinance similar to one that failed to pass at last week’s Caddo Parish Commission meeting, which called for a moratorium on oil and gas operations and asked the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources to meet with concerned citizens.The ordinance proposed by Tabatha Taylor (District A) was voted 5-2 during a meeting on Tuesday. In late July, Caddo Parish Commissioner Ken Epperson similarly called for a six-month moratorium on drilling activity in his district after numerous complaints about noise and pollution. The resolution asked for meetings between the public and oil & gas operators and called on the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources to enact a six-month moratorium on drilling and fracking until the nuisance issues could be reached. After discussion during Thursday’s meeting, during which a motion by Commissioner John Atkins to take the request for a moratorium out failed, the resolution itself failed to win the necessary majority of the commission’s approval in a 6-6 vote along party lines.
Cheniere Sees Record LNG Exports, but Commodity Price Exposure Leads to Losses -Cheniere Energy Inc. reported record liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports from its terminals in Louisiana and Texas during the second quarter, when demand surpassed expectations as the global market tightened further. The largest U.S. gas exporter loaded 139 cargoes, or 496 TBtu of LNG, in the second quarter. Results shattered a previous record of 133 cargoes set in 1Q2021 and were up from the 78 cargoes exported during the same period last year. An improving outlook for the global gas market prompted Cheniere to revise its 2021 financial guidance upward. The company is now guiding for distributable cash flow of $1.8-2.1 billion, compared with the previous range of $1.6-1.9 billion.“The continued strengthening of the LNG market is yielding higher netbacks on open volumes,” said CEO Jack Fusco. “For context, since our first quarter earnings call in May, spot margins doubled and our portfolio optimization team has been able to capitalize on that with our open volumes.”The company has continued to debottleneck production through maintenance optimization and churn out higher volumes from its trains at the Corpus Christi and Sabine Pass terminals. It anticipates producing extra LNG through the second half of the year. Cheniere has also had success this year signing fixed-fee LNG sales agreements with multiple buyers for its excess volumes. The deals total 12 million metric tons of LNG to be delivered between 2021 and 2032, further underscoring “the strength in the LNG market today,” Fusco said. A cold winter that spilled into the spring and left natural gas inventories tight in Europe and Asia forced buyers to bid up prices for restocking. The trend has continued because of high cooling demand across the Northern Hemisphere this summer. Stronger-than-normal demand in South America amid a drought and global LNG production disruptions have also left the market short of cargoes.
Energy Transfer Says Jump in Gas Prices, Strength in NGL and Refined Products Boost 2Q2021 Results - U.S. midstream giant Energy Transfer LP said its natural gas storage and pipeline operation along with its natural gas liquids (NGL) business helped drive stronger second quarter 2021 earnings.Energy Transfer, whose pipelines held up amid Winter Storm Uri in Texas last winter when others’ did not, said Tuesday in reporting earnings that it continued to collect fee income from natural gas transports to meet demand during the historic deep freeze. It also benefited from rising natural gas prices this summer amid robust domestic cooling demand.Second-quarter earnings in Energy Transfer’s intrastate transportation and storage business rose 20% from a year earlier. It reported an increase of $52 million in transportation fees, with $39 million due to revenue related to Uri.The company also has ramped up its NGL and refined products transportation business to meet mounting global demand amid the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. It said earnings in the division rose about 9% from a year earlier.Energy Transfer said NGL and refined products terminal volumes rose nearly 60% from a year earlier. In addition to the pandemic recovery and higher throughput volumes, it cited increased export volumes at its Nederland Terminal in Texas due to the initiation of service on its propane and ethane export pipelines late in 2020.“The NGL segment is just unbelievably exciting. We can’t say enough about our team and all the effort we put together at the end of 2020,” co-CEO Marshall McCrea said Tuesday during a call with analysts.Total 2Q2021 revenue more than doubled from a year earlier to $15.1 billion. The company said its net income rose to $908 million from a $292 million loss a year earlier.
Midstream approach to renewables takes shape as more firms announce investments -Under pressure from shareholders and policymakers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, U.S. pipeline companies are firming up strategies for investing in existing renewable fuels facilities and decarbonizing oil and gas projects already under construction. In terms of acquisitions, the wave of clean energy-oriented M&A that industry experts expected to materialize following Kinder Morgan Inc.'s decision to buy renewable natural gas developer Kinetrex Energy for $310 million is beginning to take shape. Days after U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order calling for all-electric cars to make up 50% of new sales in the country by 2030, refiner Phillips 66 announced plans Aug. 9 to purchase a 16% stake in Novonix Ltd., which supplies materials for lithium-ion batteries. Phillips 66 will feed its existing business into Novonix's synthetic graphite manufacturing facility and expand that asset's capacity. "[Phillips 66's] production of specialty coke, which is used to make anode material for batteries, supports the development of a fully domestic supply chain for sales into the rapidly growing U.S. EV market," analysts at energy investment bank Tudor Pickering Holt & Co. told clients Aug. 10. "The acquisition bolsters PSX's commitment to pursue lower-carbon solutions." On Aug. 9, Tallgrass Energy LP closed the acquisition of a 75% membership interest in Escalante H2Power, which is developing a hydrogen-to-power project at the Escalante generating station in New Mexico. The company plans to convert the retired coal-fired power plant, owned by Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association Inc., into a clean hydrogen-fired power generating facility as gas utilities advance hydrogen pilot projects to decarbonize pipeline networks. While many midstream management teams have expressed interest in potentially blending limited amounts of hydrogen into existing gas pipelines, they have also maintained that retrofitting them for that purpose does not necessarily make financial sense. Midstream and end-use infrastructure will be another major challenge for blending, according to S&P Global Platts Analytics, since compressor stations, meters, natural gas turbines, furnaces, water heaters and gas burners would all need to be recalibrated to account for hydrogen's higher burn speed and lower calorific content.
Permian Basin Gets Vote of Confidence With Infrastructure Plan - The region at the heart of the once-booming U.S. shale industry is signaling confidence in a nascent recovery after the pandemic crushed demand and curtailed oil and gas drilling.The Permian Basin, which straddles West Texas and New Mexico, has grown over the past decade to produce more oil than Iraq. But it has struggled to cope with some of the effects of its expansion over the past decade: roads crumbling from a heavy volume of 18-wheelers, a lack of doctors, skyrocketing house prices and rents, and a lack of qualified workers.A coalition of energy companies, along with state and local partners, plans to spend $844 million on roads, education, workforce development, housing, broadband and health care in the region, according to the Permian Strategic Partnership, which assembled the group. The Texas Department of Transportation is providing most of the funds, while companies including Chevron Corp. and Halliburton Co. are also kicking in.The move gives some much-needed reassurance over the shale industry’s future after a dramatic contraction last year that came as virus shutdowns curtailed travel and sent the U.S. economy into a tailspin. The Permian, which produces more than a third of the crude oil and over a tenth of the natural gas in the U.S., is showing a modest recovery in production and jobs, even as other shale regions flatline and U.S. oil and gas companies focus on returning capital to investors rather than raising output. Texas’s transportation department is providing $675 million for roads and related projects, while the State of New Mexico is contributing $13 million, according to figures provided by the partnership. Companies, which range from multinationals including Chevron and Royal Dutch Shell Plc to large independents such as EOG Resources Inc. and service providers like Halliburton, are spending $48.5 million.
Oxy Looks to Ramp Permian Carbon Capture by Early 2024, Consider More JVs in Lower 48 - The world’s largest direct air capture (DAC) facility, designed to zap up to 1 million metric tons/year of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the Permian Basin, is tracking to start up by early 2024, Occidental Petroleum Corp. CEO Vicki Hollub said Wednesday. Oxy, as it is better known, issued its second quarter results on Wednesday. The Houston-based independent posted solid results across its U.S. and international holdings, with stronger profits and improved efficiencies. Several analysts, though, were keen to hear more about a project that has yet to break ground. Oxy in February pulled the trigger for the first phase offront-end engineering design (FEED) to build what would be the world’s largest DAC, a CO2 capture project set for West Texas. “The FEED study should be done, and we should have final investment decisions in the early part of next year,” Hollub said. “We hope to begin construction by the end of 2022 or beginning of 2023…It should be then online toward the end of 2023 or into 2024. It will be up and running certainly by 2024.”If the project captures 1 mmty of CO2, that would be around 5% of what Oxy sequesters every year through its enhanced oil recovery (EOR) business, also centered in the Permian.Oxy is partnering on the DAC facility with developer 1PointFive Inc. through Oxy Low Carbon Ventures LLC. Initial funding is from Rusheen Capital Management LLC. The unique technology was created by Carbon Engineering Ltd., in which Oxy is an equity owner. Questions still remain about the overall costs to build the facility. Financing overall has not been finalized, but Hollub said “there are multiple ways to fund it. “One is to make investment in the facility itself. Second is to commit to taking the CO2 credits. Third is to commit to purchasing the oil that’s generated from the CO2 that goes into enhanced oil recovery.“We’re working through that now and talking to a lot of interested parties. We should have more information on how we’re going to do that by early next year. But there’s definitely a lot of interest in making this happen.”“It’s for the U.S. and for the world. Direct air capture needs to happen successfully and happen in a big way. And so that’s generating the interest in the parties that want to be contributing to it and then get to participate in the results of it.”
Exxon Accelerates Deleveraging, Targets Sale Of Shale Gas Properties By End Of 2021 -Traditional oil and gas company-turned ESG darling Exxon (we're only half joking) is heading into the second half of 2021 with momentum. Not only has the oil giant benefitted from the tailwind of increased oil demand and rising prices, but now it is looking to accelerate its deleveraging by selling its shale assets. The company has restarted marking its shale gas properties in an attempt to "reduce debt taken on last year," according toReuters. Exxon is following through on plans it set three years ago to raise $15 billion from asset sales by December 2021. The pandemic threw a wrench in the gears for most of 2020, as the company had to deal with the dual threat of a demand zap coupled with lower oil prices. On top of that, the company was struggling to address its image as a oil and gas company in the midst of a historic adoption of stock market virtue signaling ESG investing. Exxon lost a record $22.4 billion in 2020, but has committed to making its dividend and deleveraging its priority.So far this year, the company has achieved sales and has pending sales totaling about $2.7 billion. Overall, it has reached about $5 billion of its $15 billion sales goal. The company has paid off more than $7 billion in debt this year. Exxon has about $60 billion in debt it now must deal with as a result. Its XTO Energy shale unit is looking to sell almost 5,000 natural gas wells in the Fayetteville Shale in Arkansas, the report says. Exxon has turned focus from these underperforming assets to newer wells in Guyana, offshore Brazil and - believe it or not - Texas's Permian Basin.
US oil, gas rig count jumps 14 to 617 on week as companies sound upbeat note - The US oil and gas rig count jumped 14 to 617 on the week, energy analytics and software company Enverus said Aug. 12, the highest activity level since early April 2020 as upstream companies concluded second-quarter earnings calls on an upbeat note. Oil rigs landed at 474, up 11, while natural gas-directed rigs were at 143, up three for the week ended Aug. 11. Horizontal rigs leaped forward by eight to 469 – also the highest that rig classification has been since mid-April 2020. "Looking ahead, we continue to expect relatively modest incremental horizontal activity improvement over the balance of Q3 2021, followed by a stronger ramp-up over the course of Q4," boutique investment bank Tudor Pickering Holt said in its Aug. 9 daily investor note. Geographically, the basin with the biggest weekly change was the Bakken Shale of North Dakota/Montana, which gained three rigs for a total 25. That is the highest activity level in that play, where the rig count has been fairly rangebound in recent weeks, since late April 2020. The gas-prone Haynesville Shale of East Texas/Northwest Louisiana picked up two rigs in the past week, for a total 57 rigs. And gaining a single rig were the Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas and the SCOOP-STACK play in Oklahoma, making totals of 41 and 30, respectively. In addition, the giant Permian Basin of West Texas/New Mexico lost one rig, as did the Marcellus Shale, mostly sited in Pennsylvania, leaving totals of 257 and 31, respectively. The DJ Basin of mostly Colorado and the Utica Shale were unchanged, at 15 and 13 rigs, respectively. E&P operators' quarterly earnings calls for Q2, most of which wrapped up over the past week, reflected a growing confidence in continued oil price strength and stability. Producers appeared not to be tempted by higher oil prices in recent months – even though those prices came down a bit in the last week. For example, WTI NYMEX oil prices averaged $68.28/b, down $3.23, while WTI Midland averaged $68.39/b, down $3 and Bakken Composite prices averaged $67.56/b, down $2.93, according to S&P Global Platts. But natural gas prices gained strength, averaging $4.14/MMBtu, up 15 cents, while at Dominion South they weighted in at $3.72/MMBtu, up 55 cents. Overall, E&Ps spent around 25% of their full-year budgets in Q2, or around 47% in the first half of 2021, while completing roughly 30% higher planned onshore wells (about 51% in H1 2021), Credit Suisse analyst William Janela said in an Aug. 11 investor note.
Noble agrees to pay $1 million penalty for oil spills -Noble has reached a settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Justice for alleged violations of the Clean Water Act. Noble, which includes Noble Energy, Inc., Noble Midstream Partners LP and Noble Midstream Services, LLC, announced on Tuesday that they have agreed to pay $1 million and take actions to prevent future spills. “EPA will continue to make sure facilities like the State M36 and Wells Ranch Facilities comply with the federal requirements that safeguard our communities and our rivers and streams,” said Suzanne Bohan, director of EPA Region 8’s Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Division. “This agreement will help prevent future oil discharges to Colorado’s waters by requiring Noble to invest in improved spill containment and response measures at all tank battery sites operating in floodplains.” The violations include discharging oil from the State M36 Facility into the Poudre River in 2014 and not following prevention and response regulations for oil spills at the Wells Ranch and State M36 Facilities. The Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, which pays for the oil and hazardous substances clean up, will receive the $1 million. Required containment and prevention measures include: installation of steel oil-spill containment berms, remote monitoring sensors and anchoring active tank batteries in Colorado floodplains. Response training, drills and exercise programs must be implemented at the Wells Ranch facility.
'Game changer'? Deal on orphaned wells sparks debate - Lawmakers are poised to make a historic investment to clean up abandoned oil and gas wells, but the $4.7 billion fund tucked into the bipartisan infrastructure proposal is missing a key reform sought by some Democrats. Democratic lawmakers have pushed for increased bonding on federal oil and gas development and for pressure on states to shore up their bonding regulations in return for federal dollars. “This funding is a useful first step, but it is crucial that we continue to work towards passing bonding reform,” said Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), whose bill, the "Oil and Gas Bonding Reform and Orphaned Well Remediation Act," S. 2177 would increase bonding rates on federal and tribal lands. He added: “Doing so would ensure we hold companies operating on public lands to the same high standards that responsible operators already follow.” Calls for bonding reform, echoed by many large environmental groups, are part of an attempt to stop abandoned wells from costing taxpayers in the future by ensuring that industry secures the cost of reclamation up front. Risk of abandonment will grow in the coming years, advocates say, especially as the world shifts toward cleaner fuels. “There is a concern, which is valid, that we may have many more orphan wells in the future,” said Adam Peltz, a senior attorney at the Environmental Defense Fund who supported the infrastructure funding as an important step. Orphaned well cleanup has garnered support on both sides of the aisle and proved a popular talking point for Biden officials. They say it addresses methane emissions harmful to the climate, while keeping oil and gas workers employed. But bonding at the national level has fallen along partisan lines, with Republican lawmakers from fossil fuel states saying the high cost of bonding can depress drilling. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.), acknowledged the exclusion of tougher bonding measures from the infrastructure package.
Republicans ask court to compel Biden administration to sell drilling leases - More than a dozen Republican-led states are asking a court to compel the Biden administration to sell leases for offshore drilling, arguing that the Interior Department is not following a court order requiring it to end a leasing pause. In a court filing on Monday, the states argued that the administration is not following a June injunction that ended its pause on issuing leases on new parcels of land for public lands and offshore drilling. “Defendants have violated the Court’s June 15 Order by their continued application of the Pause to refuse to hold new onshore lease sales or Lease Sale 257,” they wrote, referring to a specific offshore lease sale that was canceled in February. They added that the court should “order Defendants to comply with the law and this Court’s injunction by holding Lease Sale 257.” Under the pause — which was said to be temporary but had no announced end date — ongoing drilling on public land and water continued, and the Interior Department continued to issue permits for new drilling on land that it had already leased. In their filing, the states specifically ask the court to reinstate Lease Sale 257, which would have auctioned off about 78 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico for drilling. A spokesperson for the department declined to comment on this week’s court briefing. In testimony late last month, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland argued that even without having held sales, the administration was in compliance with the court order, citing the work that goes into organizing the sales. “We are complying with the court order right now. As we speak, the department is working. As I mentioned, there’s a lot of work that goes into even having a lease sale and so they are complying with the court order,” Haaland said.
Environmentalists push lawsuits after impact statement released on $3 billion rail project that would quadruple Uinta Basin’s oil output - An oil-hauling railway for the Uinta Basin took a big stride forward Friday with the release of an environmental impact statement (EIS) identifying a preferred route for the 85-mile line that would connect Utah’s oil patch with the national rail network. The Uinta Basin Railway, proposed by a group of energy-producing Utah counties, would move crude from a load-out near Myton west through Indian Canyon to a connection with the Union Pacific line at Kyune near the top of Price Canyon. Four to 11 100-car trains would travel the route each day, enabling the basin’s oil production to quadruple, increasing daily output to 300,000 barrels according to the EIS. The controversial project is under review by the federal Surface Transportation Board, which is expected to issue a final decision in the coming weeks that would allow permitting and construction to begin. The single-track railway would cross stream at 443 places, affecting 61 miles of streams, and could negatively affect 10,000 acres of wildlife habitat. But worse, according to environmentalists, it would promote increased fossil-fuel development at a time when the nation needs to be reducing climate-altering emissions of greenhouse gasses. The EIS takes only a cursory look at the impacts associated with increased drilling in the Uinta Basin, whose airshed already violates federal standards for ozone, according to the Center for Biological Diversity. “This document essentially ignores critical environmental issues by making plans to study them later, behind closed doors,” said Wendy Park, a senior attorney with the group. “Utahns are already choking on wildfire smoke, facing historic drought conditions and suffering sweltering heat waves. This colossal waste of public funds advances a filthy oil train that will only make our climate emergency worse.”
Oil pipeline protest in Green Bay aimed at stopping construction, protecting land and water (WBAY) - Protestors in Green Bay want the construction of two oil pipelines that run through Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan to stop.Action 2 News spoke with protestors on August 7 at City Deck about their environmental and safety concerns, while the energy company responsible says they’ve done everything to minimize them.“These pipelines are constantly leaking,” protest organizer and member of the JOSHUA Environmental Justice Task Force, Justice Peche, said. “There has never been a pipeline that doesn’t leak. They’re destroying the wild rice fields out in Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin. They’re violating treaty rights by destroying these lands that the First Nations have the rights to hunt, fish, and gather on.”The Line 3 and Line 5 pipelines are being repaired and expanded by Enbridge, one of the leading energy delivery companies in North America.“This Line 3 issue, we are involved because it is an international issue,” Bobbie Webster, chair of the JOSHUA Environmental Justice Task Force, highlighted. “It affects climate change, it affects treaty rights it affects human rights and it’s something that should concern all of us.”Line 3 travels about 1,100 miles from Alberta, Canada to Superior, Wisconsin. Line 5 picks up where Line 3 leaves off and continues into the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to transport crude oil and natural gas liquids. In a statement released on August 6, Enbridge said Line 3 construction permits include conditions that specifically protect wild rice waters. Their pipelines have coexisted with Minnesota’s most sacred and productive wild rice stands for over seven decades, Enbridge added.
An Oil Company Paid Police $2 Million to Defend Its Pipeline From Protests - Enbridge is funding police who have violently responded to protests of its Line 3 pipeline. A Canadian Oil company has given Minnesota law enforcement $2 million to fund the policing of protests against construction of its pipeline, Motherboard has learned. Calgary-based oil giant Enbridge set up a fund called the Public Safety Escrow Trust in May, 2020 as part of its permitting process for the Line 3 pipeline route, which carries tar sands oil from Edmonton, Alberta to Superior, Wisconsin. The funds in this account have been used to reimburse costs associated with “maintaining the peace” around the pipeline, including for officer wages, lodging, and boom trucks, according to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) and Line 3 permits. On July 29, a group of unarmed environmental activists protesting the pipeline in Thief River Falls, Minnesota were tear gassed, shot with rubber bullets, and arrested.“It was a really brutal scene,” Tara Houska, an Ojibwe lawyer and activist who was arrested at the protest, told Motherboard. “The level of force being used, partnered with the very close range that law enforcement was facing us, led to some pretty serious injuries … It was really an extreme level of force, partnered with a really punitive and oppressive style of jailing.”The nearby Marshall County Sheriff’s Department filed a reimbursement request for expenses associated with that day’s patrol, a spokesperson for the Minnesota PUC confirmed to Motherboard. According to the utility regulator, between June 8 and July 31, the Sheriff's Department was reimbursed $20,057.90 by Enbridge for personnel expenses associated with Line 3 assists. The Marshall County Sheriff’s Department did not respond to a request for comment. Enbridge's proposed 340-mile pipeline is an expansion of Line 3, a 1960s-era line. The company began construction on the Minnesota stretch of the route in December, 2020. Part of the pipe runs through waterways, including the Red River and the Mississippi River, which are home to wild rice paddies tended to by local communities.
Minnesota Cops Block Records on Surveillance of Pipeline Opponents -FOLLOWING CRITICAL STORIES about the policing of anti-pipeline activists, a Minnesota law enforcement agency barred a federally affiliated body from releasing documents through the state’s public records laws, according to documents obtained by The Intercept.The Minnesota Fusion Center, a police intelligence-sharing partnership affiliated with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, is sidestepping the state’s freedom of information law by citing security concerns, though it had in the past released records related to its policing of pipeline opponents. The fusion center is refusing to release any public records pertaining to activities, including surveillance, against opponents of the energy firm Enbridge’s Line 3 tar sands pipeline until after it is constructed, according to one of the documents.The unusual policy came after The Intercept and other media outlets published stories documenting law enforcement surveillance and coordination with private security during protests against Line 3, part of a trend in which aggressive policing against pipeline opponents across the U.S. was reported by media. Many of the news stories concerning Minnesota police activities were based on records provided under the Minnesota Data Practices Act and reporting on anti-pipeline struggles in other states has relied on similar public transparency laws.“It is a little unprecedented for a police agency to refuse to disclose records concerning its activities like this with respect to one specific construction project,” said Freddy Martinez, a transparency law expert and policy analyst for the group Open the Government. “I’ve never seen something quite like this.”Big Wind, a Northern Arapaho tribal member opposing the pipeline said police are attempting to cover up their activities because freedom of information requests have exposed damaging and embarrassing information about them that has helped further the struggle against the pipeline.“Freedom of information requests are how lots of things came to light about the police working with private mercenaries during Standing Rock, and also about how Enbridge is paying the police here in Minnesota,” said Big Wind, who is affiliated with the anti-pipeline Namewag Camp. “We know there is still a lot of information about what Enbridge and the police are doing to us here that they don’t want to be revealed.”The policy enacted by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which oversees the fusion center, asserts that it is withholding Line 3-related records to prevent “terrorists,” “criminals,” and “those who would create public safety hazards” from having access to them, according to a document obtained by The Intercept through a public records request.
Protesters against Line 3 tar sands pipeline face arrests and rubber bullets -- More than 600 people have now been arrested or received citations over protests amid growing opposition to the Line 3 oil sands pipeline currently under construction through Minnesota. Native American tribes including the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians, the White Earth Band of Ojibwe and indigenous-led environmental organisations such as Honor the Earth are leading opposition efforts in court and on the ground, mobilizing ‘water protectors’ to try to halt the project.Kelly Maracle, 57, a member of the Tonawanda Seneca and Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte, was one of seven women arrested on 19 July while protesting the construction of the pipeline by the energy firm Enbridge. Maracle, Honor the Earth executive director Winona Laduke and four other women chained themselves together at a right of way crossing on the Shell River in northern Wadena county, Minnesota. For about three hours, the women sat chained together in front of a line of police.Police officers arrested them on trespass charges and they were released two days later, while LaDuke was imprisoned an extra night in jail over charges related to previous actions. Enbridge is paying the salaries of the police officers who are providing security during the construction of the pipeline, as a part of a deal with the state: The pipeline was approved in exchange for a promise that taxpayers would not have to foot the bill for policing the expected protests.Maracle explained she got involved as a water protector in the fight to stop Line 3 for her grandchildren. For Maracle and other water protectors camping along the Line 3 construction route, the confrontations are becoming increasingly dangerous. On 30 July, water protectors at Line 3 were subjected to pepper spray and rubber bullets during a series of arrests, and protesters who’ve been jailed havereported mistreatment from officers such as lack of proper food, solitary confinement and denial of medications. Maracle noted the police presence at camps has increased in recent weeks, including more frequent police raids, sweeps, surveillance and helicopter flybys. “It’s a climate crime,” said Winona Laduke, executive director of Honor the Earth, who lives on the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota. “This is the largest tar sands pipeline in the world being built in the time of drought in Minnesota and catastrophic fires in Ontario and Manitoba.” Opponents of Line 3 have cited concerns over the environmental impact of constructing the pipeline on new routes through ecologically sensitive areas in Minnesota, as well as violations of US treaty rights with Native American tribes. And they object that expanding the tar sands gas pipeline will bring profit to a multinational corporation based in Canada, but will do nothing for the nearby communities. “It’s running this pollution through our country, and then exporting it. So there’s no benefit for us. We’re just getting the pollution,” “This line is not a replacement. It’s a reroute and an expansion… So they decided to bring it through tribal land on people who don’t have a voice and don’t have the political power to stop it.” Enbridge’s Line 3 oil sands pipeline is a 1,097-mile crude oil pipeline extending from Edmonton in Alberta to Superior, Wisconsin. In the US, most of the pipeline’s route is being built in Minnesota, where construction of Line 3 isreplacing an existing 282-milepipeline with a new 330-mile route. The project received federal approval under the Trump administration, and the Department of Justice under Joe Biden has supported the decision in court, rejecting arguments from Native American tribes and environmentalists that the US Army Corps of Engineers did not properly assess the environmental impacts of the pipeline.
Line 3 Drew Thousands of Protesters to Minnesota This Summer. Last Week, Enbridge Declared the Pipeline Almost Finished - - In the dense coniferous forests of northern Minnesota, they’ve shown up nearly every day to chain themselves to equipment and block traffic on roads, chanting “water is life.” Not a week has passed this summer that activists haven’t used their bodies to stymie construction of Line 3, an oil pipeline that would deliver energy-intensive Canadian crude from the tar sands of Alberta to the Midwest. But those efforts don’t appear to be stopping the project, which has steamrolled forward since obtaining its final permits late last year. All but the Minnesota section of Enbridge Energy’s 1,031-mile pipeline has been finished, and now the Canada-based energy giant says that that remaining work is 80 percent complete. The company said it’s on track to wrap up Line 3, including the 337 miles that run through Minnesota, by the end of the year. Activists haven’t admitted defeat, at least not publicly, and press releases calling on people to join the frontline demonstrations continue to get widely disseminated among social media feeds and in email inboxes. “We have to be brave. We have to stand strong,” Tara Houska, a prominent Indigenous leader in the anti-pipeline movement, said in a July 30 press release. “We have to try. Actions, not words.” And last Wednesday, in the latest attempt to derail the pipeline through legal action, the White Earth Band of Ojibwe tribe sued Minnesota’s Department of Natural Resources, arguing that when the agency granted Enbridge permission to divert nearly 5 billion gallons of water as part of Line 3’s construction work, it violated a 2018 tribal law that gives certain rights to wild rice plants. But the lawsuit’s implications remain uncertain, and legal scholars said that tribal court cases affecting state law are quite rare. “Tribal court decisions are binding in the tribal nation they are decided in,” Kathryn Fort, the director of the Indian Law Clinic at Michigan State University’s College of Law, told Reuters. “Beyond that, it gets very situation specific.” Once operational, the pipeline would pump 760,000 barrels of crude oil per day across 14 counties in northern Minnesota. And Indigenous activists say any spill from the pipeline could easily contaminate the hundreds of bodies of water it crosses, where local tribes fish, gather wild rice and perform cultural traditions. Indigenous and environmental activists say the pipeline not only poses a grave risk to Minnesota’s environment but hinders the state’s transition to clean energy and violates the long-held treaty rights of Native tribes that depend on the land for their cultural identities and livelihood.
MPCA reports more drilling mud spills along Line 3 route - Enbridge has spilled more drilling mud along the Line 3 construction route in northern Minnesota than previously reported — 28 spills so far this summer, creating at least 10,000 gallons of muck.State pollution regulators confirmed the totals Tuesday in a response to DFL lawmakers who called for a halt to drilling and demanded an accounting of the spills.Meanwhile, in a move that has alarmed Line 3 opponents, Enbridge has been buying water from the city of Park Rapids for dust suppression in the weeks since the state restricted the company's use of water from drought-stricken lakes and rivers. The company said it has also used water from Bagley.The health of the region's water supply has been at the heart of searing controversy surrounding Enbridge's replacement oil pipeline, which is now more than 80% complete. It will carry tar sands oil from Canada 340 miles across northern Minnesota to Superior, Wis.In a letter Monday to DFL lawmakers, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) Commissioner Peter Tester said the water pollution permit issued to Enbridge doesn't allow it to release drilling fluid "to any wetland, river or other surface waters." He said those spills are "under active enforcement investigation."The letter also said that the MPCA has increased the number of independent environmental monitors at sites and "required additional containment and response equipment" at active horizontal drilling sites.For example, the agency now requires fabric barriers called "turbidity curtains" to catch silt and sediment when Enbridge drills beneath rivers.A memo from Enbridge attached to the MPCA letter lists emergency gear the company has stationed at drilling sites, such as 70 straw bales, 800 sandbags, pumps and a small boat.Tester said in the letter that information on active investigations isn't public. But the MPCA was releasing some information to dispel "widespread rumor" about the Line 3 on social media.The letter and attached table detailed 28 inadvertent releases of drilling fluid from June 8 to Aug. 5, with individual spills ranging from 10 gallons to as much as 9,000 gallons. One spill occurred in the Willow River, 13 spills happened in wetlands, and 14 were on land, although in one instance the spill flowed into a wetland. All the spills involved Barakade Bentonite, a brand name for the sodium bentonite clay base that is mixed with water to create drilling mud, MPCA spokesman Darin Broton said. Many releases also involved one or more additives identified as Power Pac-L and Sandmaster, Power Soda Ash and EZ Mud Gold. Drilling mud can be considered a pollutant if it enters water, Broton said.
Winona LaDuke Feels That President Biden Has Betrayed Native Americans - The New York Times -- Right now in northern Minnesota, the Canadian oil-and-gas-transport company Enbridge is building an expansion of a pipeline, Line 3, to carry oil through fragile parts of the state’s watersheds as well as treaty-protected tribal lands. Winona LaDuke, a member of the local Ojibwe tribe and a longtime Native rights activist, has been helping to lead protests and acts of civil disobedience against the controversial $9.3 billion project. “I spend a lot of time,” she says, “fighting stupid ideas that are messing with our land and our people.” So far the efforts of LaDuke, who is 61 and who ran alongside Ralph Nader as the Green Party’s vice-presidential nominee in 1996 and 2000, have been in vain. The Biden administration declined to withdraw federal permits for the project, a stance that Line 3 opponents see as hypocritical given the president’s cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline as well as his vocal support for climate action. “I have had the highest hopes for the Biden administration,” LaDuke says, “only to have them crushed.” Not long after we spoke, LaDuke was arrested and jailed for violating the conditions of her release on earlier protest-related charges, which required her to avoid Enbridge’s worksites. She has since been released. How do you understand Biden’s decision to allow the construction of Line 3? He’s hellbent on destroying Ojibwe people with this pipeline. Why do we get the last tar-sands pipeline, Joe? It’s kind of like when John Kerry went and testified to Congress against the Vietnam War and said, Who’s going to tell that soldier that he’s the last one to die for a bad war? Who’s going to tell those Ojibwes that they’re the last ones to be destroyed for a bad tar-sands pipeline? What’s right about this? I organized people to vote for Biden. I drove people to the polls through seas of Trump signs. I drove Indian people to vote who hadn’t voted in 20 years. And what did we get from Joe? A pipeline shoved down our throats.He doesn’t have animosity, but he’s privileging a Canadian multinational. He knows that this pipeline runs right through our reservations. They know, and have a choice of what they’re going to support. I think it’s a trade-off for him: I canceled Keystone, and so we’ll just let this one go through, because it’s a replacement pipe. It’s not. It’s a new pipe. It’s horrendous. It’s a violation of not only the treaties but also every ounce of common sense. It’s a drought right now. But Enbridge put in an amendment: They get five billion gallons of water out of a region where rivers are 75 percent below normal. What’s with that? There was not a federal environmental impact statement on this pipeline, and the Biden administration just said we don’t need to do one. I mean, why?
Wyo drilling rig count triples during Biden leasing pause - The number of rotary rigs drilling for oil and gas in Wyoming tripled since President Joe Biden announced a pause on leasing federal minerals for development more than five months ago. Oil and Gas companies were operating five rigs in Wyoming the week of Jan. 29 when Biden announced a pause to review oil and gas leasing policies and royalty rates. This week, drillers, roughnecks and tool pushers were staffing 15 rotary rigs, according to Baker Hughes, a leading energy technology company.During the ongoing pause, the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission has granted 1,984 drilling permits to energy companies, according to commission records. That’s almost double the 1,059 issued during the same five months — February to June — in 2020.The activity somewhat erodes fearful statements exclaimed by the energy industry, its supporters and communities reliant on extraction that followed Biden’s executive order in January.The Bureau of Land Management stopped at least two scheduled lease sales in Wyoming this year, sales that historically have earned Wyoming millions of dollars earmarked for education and other services.But the industry has ample federal leases to develop, according to a 41-page report by the Conservation Economics Institute. The Natural Resources Defense Council funded the study, which was endorsed by various conservation groups, including Wyoming’s Powder River Basin Resource Council.
Despite promises, Biden admin pushing pro-fossil fuel agenda -Not long after taking office, the incoming Joe Biden administration was treated to a shower of media praise in response to the Interior Department’s announcement that it would halt new oil and gas leasing on public lands. Some conservation and environmental groups lauded the move, claiming it would have significant impacts, such as “improv[ing] the health of our communities, our climate and our wild places.” Overwhelmingly, coverage favored rose-tinted glad-handing and dispensed with the facts—namely that the administration’s move was mostly symbolic, temporary in nature, and would have no impact whatsoever on the enormous surplus of oil and gas leases already existing on public lands. In truth, there was no reason to believe, let alone report, that it would have any meaningful impact on fossil fuel production on U.S. public lands.Months later, the administration has not only laid bare the empty reality of its January move, it has proceeded to approve new oil and gas permits on public lands at a staggering pace. According to a recent analysis of government data by the Associated Press, the Biden administration has approved roughly 2,500 new drilling permits and is on pace to approve roughly 6,000 permits by year’s end. That number of approvals for new fossil fuel production on public lands would eclipse anything seen during the Trump years and would be the highest number of new permits issued in one year since 2008, during the Bush administration.Lest the administration's actions be misconstrued as administrative backlog-clearing after which the Interior Department can implement its desired agenda, in June Biden’s much-celebrated Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland told lawmakers that the Biden administration had no plan to make permanent its highly touted halt of new oil and gas leasing on public lands. During a meeting of the Natural Resources Committee, Haaland said, “I don’t think there is a plan right now for a permanent ban,” adding that “gas and oil production will continue well into the future.”
The Planet Can’t Survive a Repeat of Barack Obama’s Climate Denialism --The new IPCC report confirms that if the Biden administration gives us a repeat of Obama’s climate denialism and refusal to aggressively cut back emissions, the climate crisis will radically escalate, devastating the lives and livelihoods of workers around the world.after yesterday’s news cycle you didn’t feel a pang of doom, you’re either a zen master, a recluse living in a news vacuum, or a nihilist. The new United Nations report on climate change predicts an actual bona fide apocalypse unless our civilization discards our fetish for incrementalism, rejects nothing-will-fundamentally-change fatalism, and instead finally takes the crisis seriously.The bad news is that we’ve been here before during the last era of Democratic supremacy, and if the Obama Era we sleepwalked through now repeats itself, we’re done. It’s that simple.The glimmer of good news is that we still have a bit of time left to defuse the worst parts of the climate bomb, and at least one part of the political dynamic may finally be changing.But if we allow corporate media and the political class to erase our memory of how we arrived here, then history will probably recur and we will all burn. its core, the climate crisis is a product of bipartisan corruption and greed. Politicians bankrolled by oil and gas interests ignored scientists’ warnings and financed a fossil fuel economy knowing full well that it would destroy the ecosystem that supports all life on the planet.Republicans were more explicit about their corruption, actively denying the scientific facts and resurrecting their own version of a Flat Earth Society that reassured voters that nothing has to change and everything will be fine. Democrats settled on a different, but similarly pernicious, form of climate denialism: They acknowledged the science and issued progressive sounding press releases about the environment, and then they continued supporting fossil fuel development.This strategy worked for many MSNBC-addled liberals, who seem to most value rhetorical flourish. Focused on the red-versus-blue war, they want politicians who deliver inspiring speeches that make them feel smart, smug, and superior to the troglodyte Republicans — but they seem to care far less about whether the words eventually become legislation, policy, and law.The cynical formula crescendoed in the presidency of Barack Obama, who campaigned in climate poetry and then governed in fossil fuel prose.When Obama won the 2008 election, liberals lauded him for declaring: “Now is the time to confront this challenge once and for all. Delay is no longer an option. Denial is no longer an acceptable response.”Little noticed was the concurrent Obama-Biden pledge to “promote the responsible domestic production of oil and natural gas,” “prioritize the construction of the Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline,” and extract “up to 85 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil remains stranded in existing fields.And so four years after that campaign, Obama delivered a speech in Cushing, Oklahoma which perfectly summarized his actual legacy — and which future post-apocalypse historians (if any survive) will likely see as one of the pivotal moments in the cataclysm: “Under my administration, America is producing more oil today than at any time in the last eight years,” he said in a speech promising to boost pipeline capacity to flood the world with even more fossil fuels. “Over the last three years, I’ve directed my administration to open up millions of acres for gas and oil exploration across 23 different states. We’re opening up more than 75 percent of our potential oil resources offshore. We’ve quadrupled the number of operating rigs to a record high. We’ve added enough new oil and gas pipeline[s] to encircle the Earth and then some. So we are drilling all over the place — right now.”
White House calls for probe of 'divergences' between oil price and gasoline costs + The White House on Wednesday called for a probe into gasoline prices, citing “divergences” between oil prices and what people are paying at the pump. National Economic Council Director Brian Deese wrote a letter to Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan asking her to look into any potential illegal conduct or anti-competitive practices that have occurred. “During this summer driving season, there have been divergences between oil prices and the cost of gasoline at the pump,” Deese wrote. “While many factors can affect gas prices, the president wants to ensure that consumers are not paying more for gas because of anti-competitive or other illegal practices." He asked the FTC to look into what he described as an “asymmetrical phenomenon” in which gasoline prices rise during oil price spikes more quickly than they fall in price drops. FTC spokesperson Betsy Lordan confirmed that the commission received Deese's letter but declined to comment on its contents "at this time." Lordan did note that the agency would need to work with others including the Justice Department and state attorneys general for any such probe. The letter comes as both oil and gasoline prices have increased in recent months, with loosened coronavirus restrictions leading to more travel. New data from the Labor Department on Wednesday showed that gas prices are up more than energy prices over the past year, with gasoline jumping 42 percent and energy climbing 24 percent. Meanwhile, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan called on the group of oil-producing countries known as OPEC+ to increase their production amid pandemic-related cuts. “Higher gasoline costs, if left unchecked, risk harming the ongoing global recovery,” Sullivan said in a statement. Industry analysts told The Hill that they don't think an FTC probe would reveal any irregularities. "I think they're jawboning," said Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis at the Oil Price Information Service. "I wouldn't want to say this was about PR, but I don't think the investigations are going to reveal much."Instead, he cited high labor costs, a driver shortage and refinery closures as contributing factors. Republicans have repeatedly hammered Democrats over rising gas prices and inflation in general, seeking to tie them to President Biden’s economic and energy agenda.
API supports carbon pricing, but its allies remain skeptical - When Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) got wind in March that the American Petroleum Institute would come out in support of carbon pricing, he felt the nation’s oil lobby was bending to liberal pressure. “I’ve been disappointed in lots of corporations and corporate organizations that have found it really important, evidently, to curry some favor with the Biden administration,” Cramer told host Larry Kudlow on Fox Business Network. “And I’m afraid that’s what’s going on here with the API.” He soon heard from API President Mike Sommers. “They called to try to explain themselves to me,” Cramer told E&E News, attributing Sommers’ call to his Fox appearance. “Michael Sommers and I had a good long talk, and I said to him, ‘North Dakota’s largely made up of independents, not made up of multinationals, and understand that everybody has a different position, I understand yours as long as you understand mine.’” API told E&E News that the policy was approved unanimously by its board, which includes independent producers and other sectors of the industry. Cramer may have gotten more direct outreach on API’s carbon pricing proposal than the average decisionmaker in Washington. But like the rest of Congress, API didn’t change Cramer’s mind. In the five months since API released its Climate Action Framework and, for the first time, endorsed the idea of putting a price on carbon dioxide emissions as the main way to fight climate change, the national conversation on carbon pricing has barely nudged. No carbon pricing legislation has moved in Congress. No lawmaker has announced a change in their position on the matter, with Republicans still overwhelmingly opposed to the idea and many Democrats supportive, but only in combination with other policies like regulations or subsidies.
Pro-fossil fuel Facebook ads viewed 431 million times -- in one year - Big Oil is strategically using Facebook to blitz Americans with a steady stream of messages designed to delay the extinction of fossil fuel use, according to new research.Pro-fossil fuel ads were viewed more than 431 million times on Facebook's (FB) US platforms in 2020 alone, a report released Thursday by InfluenceMap found.Despite that vast reach, the oil-and-gas industry spent just $9.6 million on the ads, according to InfluenceMap, a think tank focused on energy and climate change."The oil and gas industry is using a more sophisticated playbook to undermine climate action, which involves the use of more subtle and nuanced messaging tactics," the report found. Out of the 25 organizations InfluenceMap studied, the biggest users of paid ads on Facebook's US platforms were ExxonMobil (XOM) and the American Petroleum Institute, the industry's powerful trade group. Exxon and the API accounted for a staggering 62% of the ads analyzed by researchers.
Cramer’s amendment would prohibit fracking ban - Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-ND, a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee member, has introduced an amendment to prohibit the Biden administration from releasing rules or guidance banning hydraulic fracturing. The Senate will vote on it for Senate Democrats’ fiscal year 2022 budget resolution.“Democrats enacting a ban on fracking would weaken national security, increase global emissions, and take more money out of the pocketbooks of hardworking Americans,” said Cramer.“If they reject our amendment to their reckless tax-and-spend proposal, Senate Democrats would be admitting that imposing their radical agenda on the American people is more important than lowering costs for their constituents, protecting our national security, or even decreasing the world’s carbon footprint. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting it.”In March 2021, when the Senate debated the fiscal year 2021 Budget Resolution offered by Senate Democrats, an identical amendment was introduced by Senator Mike Braun, R-Ind. It received the support of every Senate Republican and the following seven Senate Democrats: Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, both of Colorado; Bob Casey of Pennsylvania; Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luj’n, both of New Mexico; Joe Manchin of West Virginia; and Jon Tester of Montana.
Oil spill reported in McKenzie County - The North Dakota Oil and Gas Division was notified of an oil spill occurring Sunday, Aug. 8, at the Gunslinger Federal 1-12-1H well, about 13 miles northwest of Keene, North Dakota. Slawson Exploration Company, Inc. reported that 260 barrels of crude oil and 390 barrels of produced water were released due to an equipment failure/malfunction. The product was contained on-site and cleanup is underway. A state inspector has been to the location and will monitor any additional cleanup required.
Oil, brine spill at McKenzie County well site -- — Almost 11,000 gallons of crude oil and more than 16,000 gallons of produced water spilled on a well site northwest of Keene in McKenzie County on Sunday, Aug. 8, according to a report from the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality. Produced water, or brine, is a byproduct of fracking that is highly saturated with salt and can contain fracking fluids, hydrocarbons and other contaminants damaging to local ecology and agricultural land. New Town-based Slawson Exploration Company operates the well site and reported the release of 260 barrels of oil and 340 barrels of brine to the state's Oil and Gas Division, attributing the spill to equipment failure. The spill was discovered when an employee arrived and noticed gas leaking from a building on the well pad. Immediately, the company killed its natural gas flares and shut in the oil wells, finding later that equipment had washed out, allowing for the oil and brine spills. All of the fluids were contained to the well pad, where cleanup is underway, according to the Department of Environmental Quality.
North Dakota Farmers Fear Environmental Damage From Fracking Boom That Made Some Rich - Both Dakotas pretty much gave themselves over to the extraction industry over the last couple of decades. It was there that fracking got to be the hot new thing. Now, the bills are coming due, and crows doth sit upon the drilling rigs.Fracking has also accelerated life on the surface. Some landowners have made millions of dollars from selling the rights to oil beneath their land to major corporations. And struggling agricultural crossroads, including Watford City, the county seat 20 miles southeast of Novak’s farm, have found new life as boomtowns. During the past decade, a new high school and hospital, and housing developments sprawling from Main Street into the prairie, have arisen to serve the more than 10,000 people who have come from afar to work in the McKenzie County oil field. But installing an industry atop an agricultural zone has brought less-heralded changes, too, including an elaborate system to deal with the saltwater, which is actually a polluted mix of naturally occurring brine, hydrocarbons, radioactive materials and more. Billions of gallons of it are produced by oil drilling and pumping each year. Tom Haines’ begins his story with an account of how one of the saltwater tanks got hit by lightning, whereupon it burst, sending its toxic contents spilling down washes and gullies and into a river, a lake, and one farmer’s groundwater. This was not an unusual occurrence.The damage to [Larry] Novak’s land, while dramatic, isn’t uncommon in the North Dakota oil fields. More than 50 saltwater spills happen each year in McKenzie County, when tanker trucks crash, pipelines leak, or well pads or disposal sites catch fire or otherwise malfunction. Many spills are contained on well pads and at disposal sites. But others drain into fields, farmyards and roadways. Novak worried about his pasture, a water source for cows, deer, pheasants and more. And he feared the cumulative impact of so many saltwater spills in a county that is home to hundreds of streams and springs, and where farmers and ranchers often rely on water wells for livestock and themselves. This, of course, puts the residents of the oil-rich state in the same bind as the poor folks down in Cancer Alley in Louisiana: What do you want, your job or your drinking water? Of course, in North Dakota, a lot of people got rich before being forced into that choice.
The Petro-Hunt Fires Are All Out North Of Charlson — August 9, 2021 --The last two to be put out had burned for sixteen days.
Judge orders EPA to update rules for dispersants used on oil spills - Alaska Public Media - A federal judge ordered the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to revise its regulations on oil dispersants, siding with Cook Inletkeeper and other plaintiffs that the current regulations don’t reflect updated research on how toxic those chemicals can be. Clean-up crews used dispersants in large quantities after the 1989 Exxon-Valdez spill and 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, but they haven’t been used in U.S. waters in over a decade, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Cook Inletkeeper Advocacy Director Bob Shavelson said he’s never seen them used in Cook Inlet. But, he said, it’s important to make sure it stays that way. “I think if you have a large oil spill, that’s one of the tools in the tool kit that would come out rather quickly,” he said. Dispersants break oil down into smaller parts that mix with water, which gets slicks off the surface of the ocean during spills. But research has since shown dispersants to be more damaging to humans and marine species than previously thought. Meanwhile, the EPA has not updated its regulations on oil dispersants since 1994. U.S. District Judge William Orrick said the EPA’s failure to update that part of its contingency plan in the face of updated science violates the Clean Water Act. Shavelson said the ruling could be especially significant to communities in the Arctic. “The concern is that as climate change ensues, as we see more of an ice-free Arctic, we’re going to see more shipping in areas that are dark and rough weather,” Shavelson said. “And it’s going to be very difficult to use traditional tools to clean up spills. So the oil companies and shipping companies are going to prefer to spray dispersants and just disperse it.” The EPA will have to finalize its new regulations on dispersants by May 31, 2023, per the agency’s own suggestion. The judge asked the EPA to file status reports on the process every 180 days until it is published.
Joe Biden blasted by Alberta for demanding more OPEC oil after cancelling Keystone XL - Wounded after U.S. President Joe Biden cancelled the Keystone XL pipeline that would have shipped Alberta crude to the United States, the province snapped at the White House’s call on the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries Wednesday to raise production faster than planned. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney was also critical of the Biden Administration. “The same US administration that retroactively cancelled Canada’s Keystone XL Pipeline is now pleading with OPEC & Russia to produce & ship more crude oil,” the premier tweeted. “This comes just as Vladimir Putin’s Russia has become the 2nd largest exporter of oil to the US.”
Canada Imported Cheaper, Lower Volumes of US Oil Amid Covid Pandemic - The Covid-19 pandemic cut the volume and value of Canadian oil imports from the United States but did not stop the northbound flows, according to the Canada Energy Regulator (CER) and IHS Markit. Canadian imports from the United States fell 20% year/year in 2020, to 550,000 b/d from 693,000 b/d in 2019 before global oil trade withered in the pandemic, CER records showed.Depressed volumes and prices because of the pandemic inflicted a 40% cut on the total value of Canadian oil imports from all sources, down to C$11.5 billion ($9.2 billion) in 2020 from C$18.9 billion ($15.1 billion) the year before.About four-fifths of the value reduction eroded American sales. U.S. production was 77% of Canadian oil imports in 2020, up from 72% in 2019, according to CER. Canadian refineries relied on imports for 40% of their supplies.IHS said Central and Eastern Canadian refineries rely heavily for oil from Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia on international pipelines that cross U.S. territory, such as Enbridge Inc.’s contested Line 5 through Michigan.“The relationship is truly symbiotic, with both nations relying on one another to meet domestic demand each day,” said IHS North American crude oil markets director Celina Hwang. The IHS report is the latest in a series of industry studies by the consulting firm.Re-exports of Western Canadian oil that flows across the northern United States to reach refineries in the eastern provinces run at about 480,000 b/d, according to IHS.
Reports of an oil spill in Gulf of Paria - Trinidad Guardian --Environmental group Fishermen and Friends of the Sea (FFOS) is reporting another oil spill in the Gulf of Paria, today. The group posted videos in its social media pages showing the spill in the waters of the Gulf, and warned “all fishers, seafarers and mariners to be on the lookout for this oil”. “Fishermen and Friends of the Sea have received reports of an oil spill in the vicinity of the Pointe-a-Pierre refinery stretching all the way to Claxton Bay. At the moment the oil is moving in northerly direction and is approximately one nautical mile from the coast,” the group said in its Facebook post. FFOS says it has alerted the relevant authorities about the spill, namely the Environmental Management Authority (EMA), the Institute of Marine Affairs (IMA) and the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries. “Our Authorities must initiate the National Oil Spill Contingency Plan (NOSCP) with the utmost urgency before this heavy crude reaches onshore,” FFOS said, in addition to demanding full transparency on this current spill, as it noted, “every drop of hydrocarbon has an ever-lasting impact on our marine ecosystem”. “We are calling on the Authorities to make public, the cause of the spill, volume, nature of the hydrocarbon spilled, and those who are responsible. Furthermore, pray that our Government/EMA act in the interest of our environment and prosecute this polluter.” According to FFOS, since 2015, there have been in excess of 377 oil spills in this country, but “no one has ever been charged or prosecuted.
Black Sea Oil Spill 400 Times Bigger Than Claimed, Russian Scientists Say - The Moscow Times -An oil spill off the coast of the Black Sea is at least 400 times larger than originally claimed, Russian scientists said Wednesday, citing satellite images. A Russian-Kazakh consortium said Monday that 12 cubic meters of oil had spread over 200 square meters on Saturday when a Greek-flagged tanker was taking on oil at a terminal in southern Russia. The Caspian Pipeline Consortium's statement added that the situation was “normalized” by Sunday and did not pose a threat to local wildlife or humans. But the Russian Academy of Science’s (RAN) space research institute said a satellite image taken on Sunday showed the size of the oil spill to be almost 80 square kilometers, with a 19-kilometer oil slick stretching from the shore to the open sea.“The spill is much larger than claimed,” it said in a statement on its website.World Wildlife Federation (WWF) Russia experts say the spill has spread across 94 square kilometers and caused billions of rubles in damages. The environmental group warned that the oil has already reached the shores of national parks and other protected areas and that most of the oil had dissolved in the water, posing a threat to living organisms and beaches. “The events are unfolding according to the worst-case scenario,” WWF Russia’s fuel and energy policy director Alexei Knizhnikov told The Insider news website. Video published to social media showed a visible layer of oil on the water's surface at a dolphinarium near the resort city of Anapa. Staff can be seen installing sorbent booms to protect the dolphins.
Russian investigators probe big Black Sea oil spill - Authorities initially estimated that the spill covered only about 200 square meters (2,153 square feet), but Russian scientists said Wednesday after studying satellite images that it actually covered nearly 80 square kilometers (nearly 31 square miles). WWF Russia has estimated that about 100 metric tons of oil have spilled into the sea. The Investigative Committee, the country’s top criminal investigation agency, said Thursday it was conducting a probe on charges of inflicting significant damage to marine biological resources. The committee said it performed searches at the Caspian Pipeline Consortium and inspected the area for damage. Russian media said traces of oil were spotted along the scenic Black Sea coast, including Abrau-Dyurso and a dolphin aquarium in Bolshoy Utrish, 25 kilometers (15 miles) to the west, where workers urgently put up barriers to protect the mammals. The spill’s oily film was also spotted in the resort city of Anapa, further west down the coast. Veniamin Kondratyev, the governor of the Krasnodar region, sought to downplay the impact of the spill, saying that he and other officials flew over the area in a helicopter and saw no trace of it at sea. “Quick measures were taken to eliminate the consequences,” Kondratyev said, according to the Interfax news agency. The governor later met with the head of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, who assured him that the sea has remained clean thanks to quick efforts to contain the spill.
Oil lifting temporarily suspended from CPC Marine Terminal due to oil seepage accident - Oil lifting was temporarily suspended from Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) Marine Terminal due to the oil seepage accident, Trend reports citing CPC. Oil seepage occurred on 7 August 2021 at 04:49 p.m Moscow time at CPC Marine Terminal in Yuzhnaya Ozereevka during the loading of the Minerva Symphony tanker (Greek flag, port of registry is Piraeus) from the Single Point Mooring (SPM 1). In accordance with the Oil Spill Prevention and Response Plan, CPC-R immediately took necessary emergency response measures. To contain the consequences of the incident, resources and equipment of the professional emergency response unit were promptly engaged (17 vessels), booms were deployed, four skimmers and oil storage tanks were used. Interaction with the discipline governmental regulatory authorities was arranged. The oil spill was contained and the oil spill response was completed by 10:42 p.m. Moscow time on 7 August. The Black Sea water area is being monitored. Independent laboratories are engaged to measure the condition of the water and air, they take samples from the territories adjacent to the Marine Terminal. The spill area amounted to 200 square meters, the volume is approximately 12 cu.m. The cause of the incident was the destruction of the internal space of the hydraulic damper which is an integral part of the SPM (supplier – IMODCO, MONACO). Oil lifting was temporarily suspended from CPC Marine Terminal while the emergency was being dealt with. According to the information as on the morning of 8 August, the situation was back to normal and posed no hazard to the local population or flora and fauna of the Black Sea. CPC has set up an ad hoc commission to investigate the causes and conditions of the incident. The increase focus of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium on assuring safe operation and readiness to emergencies allowed to contain the oil and mitigate its consequences within the shortest time.
Gas leak from ONGC pipeline triggers panic in South Tripura (PTI) Gas leak from a pipeline of the state-run ONGC at Dhananjoynagar in South Tripura district triggered panic on Friday, officials said.Locals saw in the morning that gas was gushing out of the pipeline.They immediately informed the Fire Services and local authorities.A team of technical experts from ONGC was rushed to the spot and the leakage was plugged, bringing the situation under control, officials said. Belonia Sub-divisional Magistrate Manik Lal Das, who visited the site, said the situation in the area is normal.
Cargo ship splits in two after running aground in Japan port - — A cargo ship broke into two pieces after running aground in a northern Japanese port and is spilling oil into the sea, Japan's coast guard said Thursday. All 21 Chinese and Filipino crew members were safely rescued by the coast guard, said the ship's Japanese operator, NYK Line. The 39,910-ton wood-chip carrier Crimson Polaris went aground Wednesday while sailing inside Hachinohe Port. It managed to free itself from the seabed, but suffered a crack which widened and eventually caused the vessel to split into two early Thursday, the coast guard said. Officials were trying to contain the oil spill. The amount of oil leaked is under investigation, NYK Line said in a statement. The broken hull of the Panamanian-registered ship has drifted about 4 kilometers (2.4 miles) off the coast, it said. (AP)
Oil spill from Crimson Polaris reaches Japan coast - An oil spill from a wood chip carrier, Crimson Polaris, that split in two after it ran aground at the Hachinohe Port on Wednesday, has reached Japanese shores. According to the Japanese Coast Guard, heavy oil that spilled from the Panama-flagged vessel reached the coast of Misawa City on Friday morning local time. The stranded oil has spread around 24 km north of the coastline, but the extent of any environmental impact remains unclear as the authorities continue to tackle the oil spill.The 49,500 dwt ship operated by Japan’s NYK Line had about 1,550 metric tonnes of heavy oil and about 130 metric tonnes of diesel oil on board, but the amount of oil that spilled into the ocean has not been identified. “The Maritime Disaster Prevention Center is trying to control it using oil-treatment agents and adsorption mats,” NYK Line said.The Crimson Polaris, owned by MI-DAS Line, an affiliate of Doun Kisen, broke apart at 4,15 hrs local time on Thursday. The vessel’s split hull is about 4 km offshore Japan. A crack that initially occurred between the No. 5 cargo hold and the No. 6 cargo hold at the rear of the vessel worsened, and the hull eventually split into two, NYK Line explained.The bow is floating and held by an anchor chain, and the stern appears to have become stranded on the seabed. MI-DAS Line is said to be in discussions with relevant authorities and salvage companies concerning towing and treatment of the separated hull.The 2006-built vessel, with 21 crewmembers on board, grounded and sustained structural damage on Wednesday morning as it was unable to navigate due to bad weather. The cause of the accident is currently being confirmed, and investigative authorities are interviewing the captain.
China’s Biggest Oil Refiner Sinopec Seen Cutting Runs as Delta Hits - China’s biggest oil refiner is scaling back operations as Beijing’s aggressive response to the delta virus variant saps demand for road and aviation fuel, according to an analyst. State-owned China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., commonly known asSinopec, is cutting run rates at some plants by 5% to 10% this month as compared with July levels, Jean Zou, an analyst at Shanghai-based commodities researcher ICIS-China, said in an interview. The analytics firm tracks refinery operations, maintenance plans and processing margins across China.
Africa Needs to Spend $15.7 Billion on Refineries to Curb Emissions -African nations need to spend about $15.7 billion on their refineries to curb emissions and meet climate-change targets as demand for oil and gas surges, according to an industry lobby group.Governments on the continent should focus on reducing sulfur levels in petroleum products because Africa’s consumption of fossil fuels will rise quickly in the coming decades even as the supply of clean energy expands, said Anibor Kragha, executive secretary of the African Refiners and Distributors Association, or ARDA. The pan-African body, based in Ivory Coast’s commercial capital of Abidjan, promotes the interests of the downstream oil industry.A “leapfrog” switch by African nations from oil and gas directly to renewables isn’t realistic, Kragha said in an emailed response to questions. “Africa needs a unique energy transition roadmap.”Governments in wealthier nations have set ambitious targets for a rapid shift to renewable energy to slash carbon-dioxide emissions, with many countries and companies making commitments to achieving so-called net-zero by 2050. Africa has accounted for about 2% of cumulative global emissions, according to the International Energy Agency, a figure the Paris-based organization sees rising to only as much as 4.5% by 2040.Africa’s overall energy consumption is set to increase at twice the pace of the global average as populations and economies grow, the IEA said in a 2019 report. Demand for oil and gas in Africa is expected to double to at least 7 million barrels per day and 317 billion cubic meters respectively by 2040, even as the contribution of renewables is forecast to soar more than tenfold from its current low base, according to IEA estimates.ARDA’s immediate priority is facilitating Africa’s switch to “cleaner” petroleum products, Kragha said. The group is working with the African Union to introduce harmonized measures across the continent that cap sulfur volumes in gasoline and diesel to 10 parts per million by 2030. That would bring it in line with existing limits in major economies including the U.S., the European Union, China and India.The 15 governments of the Economic Community of West African States have already adopted an ARDA proposal to implement policies to phase out imported and manufactured fuels with more than 50 ppm, Kragha said.
Shell to pay $111m over decades-old oil spills in Nigeria --Royal Dutch Shell has agreed to pay around €95m (£80.4m/$111.6m) to communities in southern Nigeria over crude oil spills in 1970, lawyers involved in the case have said.The decision is the latest involving Opec-member Nigeria’s oil-producing south where communities have long fought legal battles over oil spills and environmental damage.“The order for the payment of [$111m] to the claimants is for full and final satisfaction of the judgement,” a local spokesman for Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria said on Wednesday. Lucius Nwosa, a lawyer representing the Ejama-Ebubu community in Rivers state, confirmed the decision.“They ran out of tricks and decided to come to terms,” the lawyer said. “The decision is a vindication of the resoluteness of the community for justice.”The company said it maintained the spills were caused by third parties during Nigeria’s 1967-70 civil war when much damage was done to oil pipelines and infrastructure.“It is a confirmation of the issues we have raised about Shell’s environmental devastation of Ogoni and the need for a proper remediation of the land,” the MOSOP organisation for the local Ogoni people said in response. After a 13-year legal battle, a Dutch court in January this year ordered Shell to compensate Nigerian farmers for spills that polluted much of their land in the Niger Delta.The court ordered Shell to compensate three out of four farmers who lodged the case in 2008. The case has dragged on so long that two of the Nigerian farmers have died since it was first filed.
Aramco posts nearly 300% leap in second-quarter profit on global demand recovery - Saudi state oil giant Aramco reported a stunning 288% increase in net income to $25.5 billion for the second quarter, while maintaining its dividend of $18.8 billion, as big oil benefits from higher prices and a recovery in worldwide demand. Aramco's net income of $25.5 billion for the quarter compares to $6.6 billion in the same quarter of 2020. The result beat expectations, with analysts expecting a median net income of $24.7 billion for the quarter. "Our second quarter results reflect a strong rebound in worldwide energy demand and we are heading into the second half of 2021 more resilient and more flexible, as the global recovery gains momentum," Aramco president and CEO Amin Nasser said in a company statement published Sunday.Aramco said net income for the first half of the year was $47.2 billion,compared to $23.2 billion in the first half of 2020, representing a 103% increase. The company said the results were supported by the global easing of Covid-19 restrictions, vaccination campaigns, stimulus measures and accelerating activity in key markets. "While there is still some uncertainty around the challenges posed by Covid-19 variants, we have shown that we can adapt swiftly and effectively to changing market conditions," Nasser said.Aramco said free cash flow was $22.6 billion in the second quarter and $40.9 billion for the first half of 2021, compared to $6.1 billion and $21.1 billion, respectively, for the same periods in 2020. This is significant, because free cash flow has now risen above the quarterly dividend of $18.75 billion for the first time since the start of the pandemic. Aramco already pays the world's largest dividend, but the improving outlook has prompted some analysts to call for higher payouts."A dividend increase is needed to stay competitive," BofA analysts said in a research note ahead of the earnings release. "Higher oil prices and OPEC+ driven production increases should support a significant free cash flow increase over the next couple of years," it added. Aramco responded by saying its dividend is staying at the "normal level" for the quarter, but it would "advise later" as to whether it would stick to the current payout plan. Aramco, which is majority-owned by the Saudi Arabian government, is a key source of revenue for the kingdom. "All of this will be reviewed with our board, and we will decide at a later date regarding any additional dividend distribution," Nasser said.
‘Code red’ climate report sends oil prices sinking - Oil prices tanked on Monday morning driven by investors selling off holdings after the publication of a landmark report on the damaging effects of climate change signals “code red” for humanity. International benchmarks WTI and Brent Crude plummeted 4.1 per cent and 3.8 per cent respectively. A barrel of either benchmark costs well below $70. A landmark new climate report from the UN is 'code red' for humanity, secretary-general Antonio Guterres said today. A new report examining the potential trajectory of climate change and its impacts on humanity was published by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change this morning. The study found that the scale of recent changes to the world’s climate system were “unprecedented over many centuries to many thousands of years”. It also said that it was “unequivocal” that “human influence” had contributed to the world’s warming. Scientists warned that human activity is the primary driver of climate change and indicated that an international agreement to keep temperatures under 1.5C will be breached by 2040 in all scenarios. The report did highlight that if nations are able to significantly cut greenhouse gas emissions over the next decade, the worst effects of climate change could be avoided, suggesting that reliance on oil to facilitate economic activity will start to ease, causing demand to drop sharply. Oil company shares in London fell along with crude, BP shares were down 2.3 per cent, while fellow major Shell was down 1.9 per cent this lunchtime.
Oil Futures Sink as Virus Batters Asia's Top Oil Importer -- Oil futures nearest delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange and Brent crude on the Intercontinental Exchange dropped more than 2% in ending the first session of the new trade week, sending the international crude benchmark to just above $69 per barrel (bbl) and the U.S. crude benchmark to just below $66.50. The losses came amid a one-two punch of a strengthening U.S. dollar index joined with tightening restrictions on mobility and businesses operations in China and other southeast Asian countries that are leading to weaker fuel consumption. At settlement, NYMEX September West Texas Intermediate futures dropped $1.80 or 2.5% to $66.48 per bbl after briefly touching $65.15 per bbl, and Brent crude futures for October delivery settled at $69.04 per bbl, shedding $1.66 on the session. Both contacts declined more than 7% last week. NYMEX September RBOB contract fell 2.21 cents for a $2.2348-per-gallon settlement, paring a decline to an intrasession low of $2.1730 per gallon, and NYMEX September ULSD futures declined 4.24 cents or 2% to $2.0421 per gallon. Crude shipments to China -- Asia's leading oil importer -- shrunk more than 5% in the first five months of the year compared to the same period in 2020, said the China's Customs Bureau this morning, with China's new year beginning on Feb. 13. Beijing imported 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) less crude oil since last month's daily average and almost 3.3 million bpd below that level reported last year when Chinese refiners stocked up on crude. Another year of cupped soybeans is inspiring another wave of rumored causes, but scientists say... Imports of other commodities that are sensitive to economic expansion, including iron ore and cooper, also declined sharply, hammered by extreme weather and tightening COVID restrictions in several industrial hubs in China. Last month, Beijing reintroduced curbs on international and domestic travel, suspending flights and railroad services between COVID hotspots. City officials have ordered mass testing of residents in response to a rapidly spreading Delta variant, but many analysts believe that Beijing will have to pivot from its "zero tolerance" containment strategy sooner rather than later. Domestically, the seven-day average for new infections jumped above 110,000 cases daily as of Aug. 8 -- the highest point since mid-February, as the Delta variant sweeps through unvaccinated Americans. The United States averaged about 11,000 cases a day in late June.
Oil prices fall 4% more after global Covid surge -Oil prices slid Monday, building on last week's steep losses, as rising Covid cases prompted fears of a demand slowdown. West Texas Intermediate crude futures declined more than 4% at one point to trade as low as $65.15, a level not seen since May. The contract recovered some of those losses during afternoon trading and ultimately settled 2.64% lower at $66.48 per barrel. International benchmark Brent crude settled at $69.04 per barrel for a loss of 2.35%, after hitting a low of $67.60. "The biggest challenge for oil markets remains the uncertainty around COVID as the 'delta variant' has made for the highest daily case counts since early 2021," Bank of America said. Last week, both contracts dipped more than 7% for their worst week since October. The slide came amid demand worries as well as a surprise buildup in U.S. crude inventory. The U.S. Energy Information Administration said Wednesday that crude stocks rose by 3.6 million barrels in the prior week, while analysts surveyed by FactSet were expecting a 2.9 million barrel draw. Gasoline stocks, however, declined by a larger-than-expected 5.3 million barrels. Data out of China also weighed on crude on Monday. The country's export growth unexpectedly slowed in July, while imports rose 28.1% from a year earlier. This was below forecasts that called for a 33% increase. China, the world's second largest oil consumer, imported 9.7 million barrels per day in July, the fourth straight month below 10 million bpd, according to analysts Commerzbank. "The price slide is continuing [Monday] amid growing concerns about demand again," the firm wrote in a note to clients. "Market participants are watching the rising coronavirus figures in Asia with considerable alarm, as this could prompt the Chinese government to take drastic measures in line with its strict zero Covid strategy." A possible slowdown in demand as portions of the world reinstate lockdown measures follows a production boost this month by OPEC and its allies. In April 2020, the group implemented record production cuts of nearly 10 million bpd as the pandemic sapped demand for petroleum products. Oil has slowly recovered and WTI is still up 40% for 2020. In July, the contract traded as high as $76.98, a price not seen since 2014.
WTI Rallies as Traders Eye Stock Draw, Infrastructure Bill - (DTN) -- Recouping a portion of their steep losses from the previous two sessions, oil futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange and Brent crude on the Intercontinental Exchange rallied more than 2% on Tuesday. The gains came as traders positioned ahead of the weekly release of U.S. inventory data, with expectations for nationwide crude and gasoline inventories to have fallen last week amid peak demand for summer travel, while the passage of an infrastructure package by Senate lawmakers fueled additional buying interest. On the session, NYMEX September West Texas Intermediate futures rallied $1.81 or 2.9% to settle at $68.29 per barrel (bbl), and international crude benchmark for October delivery advanced $1.59 to $70.63 per bbl, with both benchmarks reversing off Monday's 2 1/2-month low settlements. NYMEX September RBOB contract rallied 3.31 cents to $2.2679 gallon, and NYMEX September ULSD futures surged 3.81 cents to $2.0802 gallon at settlement. Tuesday's higher settlements were spurred by a combination of bullish factors, including the bipartisan passage of a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill by the U.S. Senate that is seen bolstering employment and fuel consumption in the second half of the year joined with upbeat demand forecasts from the Energy Information Administration for the remainder of 2021 despite an uptrend in COVID-19 infections in oil-consuming behemoths like China and the United States. Support was also lent by expectations for the weekly change in commercial oil stocks, with U.S. crude oil stocks expected to have fallen by 600,000 bbl in the week ended Aug. 6, with gasoline stockpiles seen declining 1.8 million bbl from the previous week. Stocks of distillates are expected to have risen 100,000 bbl from the previous week. Refinery run rates likely rose by 0.4% to 91.7% of capacity. The closely watched inventory report from the American Petroleum Institute will be released 4:30 p.m. EDT, followed by Wednesday's release of official supply data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. In its monthly Short-term Energy Outlook released Tuesday afternoon, the EIA projected gasoline consumption would average 8.8 million barrels per day (bpd) this year, still 500,000 bpd below the level seen in the second half of 2019.
Oil recovers from three-week low as market shrugs off surge in Delta infections - Oil prices rose on Tuesday, recouping some of their losses in the previous session, as rising demand in Europe and the United States outweighed concerns over an increase in COVID cases in Asian countries. Brent crude gained $1.59, or 2.3%, to settle at $70.63 per barrel and U.S. oil settled $1.81, or 2.7%, higher at $68.29 per barrel. Both contracts dropped around 2.5% on Monday, but analysts believe the pandemic setback will not last for long. "This turbulence should remain temporary, not the least as Western world oil demand is back at, or above, pre-pandemic levels and is draining global supplies," said Nortbert Ruecker, analyst at Swiss bank Julius Baer. U.S. crude, gasoline, and other product inventories are likely to have dropped last week, with gasoline stocks forecast to fall for a fourth consecutive period, a preliminary Reuters poll showed on Monday. Crude oil inventories are expected to have fallen by about 1.1 barrels in the week to Aug. 6, according to the average estimate of six analysts polled by Reuters. In the United States, the Senate is set to vote on the passage of a $1 trillion infrastructure bill later on Tuesday, which if passed would boost the economy and demand for oil products, analysts said. Successful vaccination programmes in the West and encouraging economic data come in sharp contrast to rising infections in the East. In Australia, police are on the streets to enforce COVID-related restrictions, while some cities in China, the world's top crude oil importer, have stepped up mass testing as authorities try to stamp out a new surge of the virus. "The lockdowns (in China) could instigate a momentary pause in price action, but as COVID-19 cases are expected to abate quickly given the relatively low number of infections, the downside may be fleeting," said StoneX analyst Kevin Solomon. Economic data this week, especially the U.S. Consumer Price Index on Wednesday, will provide guidance on how hard the virus will hit global and regional oil consumption, analysts said.
WTI Slides After Small Crude Inventory Draw, Distillates Surprising Build -Oil prices have erased much of yesterday's gains after headlines reported the U.S. called on the OPEC+ alliance to revive production more quickly, as it appears the Biden White House is starting to panic over the highest gas prices in seven years...U.S. retail gasoline prices are running at about $3.18 a gallon at the pumps, up more than a dollar from last year at this time, according to the American Automobile Association. Which is ironic given that the call for OPEC+ to boost production also seems a quick turnabout from Thursday's executive order calling for hybrid and electric cars to make up 50% of U.S. auto sales by 2023.The White House on Wednesday also directed the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which polices anti-competitive behavior in domestic U.S. markets, to investigate whether illegal practices were contributing to higher U.S. gasoline prices."During this summer driving season, there have been divergences between oil prices and the cost of gasoline at the pump," Biden's top economic aide, Brian Deese, wrote in a letter to FTC chair Lina Khan.He encouraged the FTC to "consider using all of its available tools to monitor the U.S. gasoline market and address any illegal conduct."Additionally, some Asian buyers are taking less Saudi crude as delta spreads.For now, all eyes on inventories and demand to see if Delta is having an impact (as Southwest Airlines CEO says it is). API:
- Crude -816k (-600k exp)
- Cushing -413k
- Gasoline -1.114mm (-2.4mm exp)
- Distillates +673k (-600k exp)
DOE
- Crude -448k (-600k exp, Whisper +1.27mm!)
- Cushing -325k
- Gasoline -1.401mm (-2.4mm exp)
- Distillates +1.767mm (-600k exp)
After last week's unexpected build, analysts expected a return to crude builds (and API affirmed that expectation last night, albeit small), although BBG users 'whsipered' of a 1.27mm barrel build. Crude did manage a draw however, of only 448k barrels while Distillates saw a notable build of 1.767mm barrels which may be a warning signal for demand...
Oil turns positive, clawing back losses after White House calls on OPEC to boost production - Oil prices reversed losses to trade in the green on Wednesday, after the White House called on OPEC and its allies to increase oil production to support the global recovery from the pandemic. Futures for West Texas Intermediate crude settled 1.36% higher at $69.25 per barrel. Earlier in the session the contract dipped more than 2% and traded as low as $66.67 per barrel. International benchmark Brent crude advanced 1.15% to $71.44 per barrel. Oil prices moved lower Wednesday morning after CNBC reported that the White House said that OPEC+ needs to increase production. "Competitive energy markets will ensure reliable and stable energy supplies, and OPEC+ must do more to support the recovery," National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in a statement obtained by CNBC. The group agreed in July to increase production by 400,000 barrels per day, but that would leave output well below pre-pandemic levels. OPEC+ cut production by 10 million barrels per day in the middle of 2020. U.S. producers also scaled back production as demand dropped sharply. The White House said July's deal is "simply not enough." In recent months, consumer gas prices have climbed in the U.S. as the economy has reopened. The Biden administration is also asking the Federal Trade Commission to monitor the domestic market for potential illegal activity that could be adding to the rising prices. The national average for a gallon of gas stood at $3.186 on Tuesday, according to AAA, up by just over $1 in the last year.
Oil Up; Weak US Draws, White House Pressure on OPEC Limit Gains - Oil prices rose on Wednesday, helping market longs extend their recovery from a dismal week. But gains were limited somewhat by disappointing drawdowns in U.S. stockpiles. The market was also under pressure briefly after President Joe Biden pushed the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, collectively known as OPEC+, to boost production faster than the current pace of 400,000 barrels per month planned by the 23-nation group. “We've told OPEC that the output cuts implemented during the pandemic should be overturned,” Biden told a White House media briefing. Analysts, however, said they weren’t sure how much success the administration would have in pressuring OPEC+, especially with crude prices having declined about 10% or more from this year’s highs amid waning summer demand for oil and a renewed spike in Covid cases. Erlam noted that OPEC+ was no stranger to the White House trying to interfere in its decision making process, with former president Donald Trump being a constant critic of the group during his term. New York-traded U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude, the benchmark for U.S. oil, settled up 96 cents, or 1.4%, at $69.25 per barrel. WTI lost 7.7% last week, its sharpest weekly loss since October 2020. London-traded Brent, the global benchmark for oil, rose 85 cents, or 1.2%, to $71.48 per barrel by 2:50 PM ET (18:50 GMT). Brent lost 7.4% last week. Weekly consumption in U.S. crude oil and gasoline was less than expected during the week ended July 6, data from the Energy Information Administration showed, as demand slid in the twilight stretch of summer and amid a renewed spike in coronavirus infections. U.S. crude inventories fell by 448,000 barrels in the week to August 6, the EIA said in its Weekly Petroleum Status Report. Analysts tracked by Investing.com had expected a drawdown of 750,000 barrels instead. The EIA reported a smaller-than-expected crude draw as U.S. imports declined by 36,000 barrels per day from the previous week. But exports of U.S crude spiked by almost 760,000 bpd to 2.66 million. That suggested Production of U.S. crude, on the other hand, rose by 100,000 bpd to 11.3 million. Gasoline stockpiles also fell less than expected, sliding by 1.4 million barrels against a forecast 2 million, the EIA data showed. Distillates, which include diesel and heating oil, had the best numbers of the lot, drawing down by almost 1.8 million versus an expected 500,000 barrels.
Oil Up On Weaker Dollar | Rigzone - Oil rose as a weaker dollar offset a government report that showed a smaller-than-expected decline in crude stockpiles in the wake of a viral resurgence. Futures advanced more than 1.4% after falling as much as 2.4% earlier when the U.S. called on the OPEC+ alliance to revive production more quickly. The dollar weakened, boosting the appeal of commodities priced in the currency, with data showing consumer prices increased at a more moderate pace in July, reducing concern about an unwinding of some of the stimulus. “The dollar index is helping out all the commodities and it slipped to the negative side of the equation after the data release today, helping to support the crude market as well,” says Bob Yawger, director of the futures division at Mizuho Securities USA. Prices were under pressure earlier in the session after the U.S. called on the OPEC+ alliance to revive production more quickly. The world’s largest oil-consuming nation has seen gasoline prices firmly above $3 a gallon in recent months, putting pressure on drivers who are back on the road as pandemic restrictions ease. The Energy Information Administration report also showed gasoline stockpiles fell with strong draws in New York Harbor as well as on the West Coast, though overall demand for the fuel slumped. The lackluster shale supply growth is set to tighten markets as the third financial quarter unfolds. “We saw a lighter- than- expected crude oil draw, and exports that haven’t matched what we saw 12 months ago. All of that is a strong indication that delta is still having an impact on global demand.” Prices West Texas Intermediate for September delivery rose 96 cents to settle at $69.25 a barrel in New York. Brent for October gained 81 cents to end session at $71.44. The coalition agreed last month to restart the remaining offline supplies in careful installments, of 400,000 barrels a day each month. The tentative pace seemed in line with the market, which has seen prices soften in recent weeks as the delta variant prompts fresh lockdowns in China and other key fuel consumers in Asia. However, oil prices haven’t come down fast enough to substantially lower retail gasoline in the U.S., which have been at a seven-year high this summer and source of consternation for the White House.
WTI Dips on IEA Demand Downgrade, Non-OPEC Supply Growth -- Nearby-delivery-month oil futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange and Brent crude on the Intercontinental Exchange held lower in afternoon trade Thursday. This followed the overnight release of monthly oil market reports from the International Energy Agency and Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries forecasting rapidly growing oil production outside the 13-member cartel and stalling recovery in global oil demand as the COVID-19 impact drags on well into the second half of 2021. The IEA said Thursday morning that global oil demand recovery had gone into reverse midsummer with an estimated monthly fall of 120,000 barrels per day (bpd) on the back of a resurgent pandemic in China, Indonesia, Vietnam and elsewhere in Asia. The agency downgraded its estimate of 2021 demand growth by 100,000 bpd to 5.3 million bpd, while forecasting oil consumption next year would average 99.4 million bpd -- still 1.5 million bpd below the fourth quarter 2019. "Growth for the second half of 2021 has been downgraded more sharply, as new COVID-19 restrictions imposed in several major oil consuming countries, particularly in Asia, look set to reduce mobility and oil use," said IEA. While OPEC didn't make any revisions to its demand forecasts and actually raised its global growth estimates to 5.6% this year and 4.2% in 2022, it significantly upgraded its non-OPEC supply estimates. Non-OPEC oil production is now expected to expand by 1.1 million bpd in 2021 to average 64 million bpd, with the United States, Russia, Canada and Norway seen as main drivers of that growth. Put together with the IEA's demand forecast downgrades, Thursday's two reports paint a picture of an oil market that isn't as tight as forecast a few weeks ago. While the market will remain slightly undersupplied this year, rising supply in 2022 could once again leave the market in surplus. In currency markets, U.S. dollar index pushed higher against a basket of foreign currencies to settle above 93-level after weekly unemployment claims fell for the third straight week through Aug. 7 to the lowest since March 2020 at 375,000. Elsewhere, the Producer Price Index, which measures inflation on a wholesale level, increased more than expected last month, up 1% to 7.8% year-on-year growth. "Nearly three-fourths of the July increase in the final demand index can be traced to a 1.1% advance in prices for final demand services," said BLS, with the index for final demand goods up 0.6%. The jump in PPI index contrasted with Wednesday's release of inflation data at the consumer level, which showed a slight moderation last month.
Delta Variant Dents Oil Demand Recovery While OPEC Expects More Supply – WSJ - The economic impact of the Covid-19 Delta variant and rebounding output mean that expectations of global oil demand outstripping supply are fading, the IEA and OPEC said Thursday.In its closely watched monthly market report, the International Energy Agency said that the worsening of the pandemic, as well as revisions to historical data, mean its global oil demand outlook has been “appreciably downgraded,” with some of this year’s forecast recovery shifted to 2022.Investors have become concerned about falling commodities demand in China, where Beijing authorities last week canceled all large-scale exhibitions and events for the remainder of August. That, and other measures aimed atslowing the spread of the Delta variant, has in recent days spooked traders who were already worried about the fragile nature of China’s economic recovery.The IEA cut its 2021 global oil demand growth forecast by 100,000 barrels a day, while upgrading its 2022 forecast by 200,000 barrels a day. Both the IEA and OPEC expect the world’s thirst for oil to return to pre-pandemic highs in the second half of next year. The Paris-based IEA said the timing of the variant’s spread has coincided with planned supply increases from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies “stamping out lingering suggestions of a near-term supply crunch or supercycle.” OPEC, in its own report, significantly upgraded supply-growth estimates for its non-cartel counterparts for both 2021 and 2022. The Vienna-based cartel raised its 2022 supply-growth forecast by 840,000 barrels a day to 2.9 million barrels a day.While OPEC expects Russia to increase its production by a million barrels a day next year, it said “the U.S., with year-on-year growth of 0.8 million barrels a day, together with Brazil, Norway, Canada and Guyana, will be the other key drivers.”As the Delta variant sweeps the globe, scientists are learning more about why new versions of the coronavirus spread faster, and what this could mean for vaccine efforts. The spike protein, which gives the virus its unmistakable shape, may hold the key. Illustration: Nick Collingwood/WSJOil prices suffered a blow Wednesday, after the White House urged OPEC to boost oil production, saying planned increases are insufficient to fuel the post-pandemic economic recovery. The remarks came as the U.S. tries to tamp down rising consumer prices, particularly that of gasoline. Crude prices edged lower Thursday, with Brent crude oil—the global benchmark—falling 0.2% to $71.31 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate futures, the U.S. gauge, dropping 0.2% to $69.09 a barrel. U.S. crude is down 6.6% this month, with the price rally seen in much of 2021 foundering, largely due to worries about the Delta variant.
Oil Ends Lower Friday On Demand Concerns From Delta Variant Spread - Oil dipped, trimming a weekly advance, as the fast-spreading delta variant continues to cloud the short-term demand outlook. Futures closed nearly 1% lower on Friday in New York, narrowing a weekly gain to 0.2%. The latest Covid-19 wave is leading to tighter curbs on movement across the globe, though there are mixed assessments on its impact. The International Energy Agency reduced its demand forecasts for the rest of the year, while Goldman Sachs Group Inc. predicts only a transient hit to consumption. “The news surrounding delta is a bit worse than we expected, and the short-term view is becoming increasingly concerning as cases rise,” says Jay Hatfield, portfolio manager at AMCP, the InfraCap MLP exchange-traded fund. “Long-term indicators are still relatively bullish on oil, but for the near future, the delta variant and its hit to demand isn’t looking like it will burn itself out.” Delta has interrupted a rally that pushed oil prices more than 50% higher in the first half of the year as major economies such as the U.S. began moving again. A critical concern is the flare-up in China, where authorities have taken an aggressive approach to containing the outbreak. While the overall number of cases in the country are still in the hundreds, the spread of the variant to more than 17 provinces is raising international concerns about China’s near-term mobility. West Texas Intermediate for September delivery fell 65 cents to settle at $68.44 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent for October dropped 72 cents to end the session at $70.59 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange. The oil market’s structure has also weakened. Brent’s prompt timespread narrowed to 39 cents in backwardation -- a bullish signal where near-dated contracts are more expensive than later ones. That compares with 92 cents at the end of July. Global oil demand “abruptly reversed course” last month, falling slightly after surging by 3.8 million barrels a day in June, the IEA said in its monthly market report on Thursday. The drop in consumption comes as OPEC+ hikes output with a goal to steadily revive all of the production halted during the pandemic.
Oil Futures Lower Friday on Lingering Demand Concerns-- Nearby delivery month oil futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange and Brent crude on the Intercontinental Exchange accelerated losses in afternoon trade Friday. All of the contracts, however, closed the volatile week with gentle gains despite the relentless spread of the coronavirus Delta variant and a potential tightening of quarantine restrictions in coming weeks across industrialized economies and as peak summer demand for transportation fuels winds toward its end. While the seasonal decline in gasoline consumption in the United States and European Union is typical between August-September, this year could see a steeper drop due to the lack of commuting to work and the rising tally of COVID-19 infections. DTN Refined Fuels data showed U.S. gasoline demand down 2.6% during the week ended Aug. 6 compared to the same week two years ago, which was a further weakening from a 2.0% deficit relative to 2019 levels reported just the week prior. The U.S. Energy Information Administration forecasts gasoline consumption won't return to pre-pandemic levels even next year, averaging about 9 million barrels per day (bpd), some 300,000 bpd below 2019 levels. The relentless rise of COVID-19 infections and souring consumer sentiment might provide some clues for the trajectory of gasoline consumption in the coming weeks. The University of Michigan on Friday morning reported the consumer sentiment index plunged a staggering 13.5% in early August to a level that was just below the April 2020 low of 71.8. The losses in confidence were widespread across income, age and education subgroups and observed across all regions. Moreover, the losses covered all aspects of the economy, from personal finances to prospects for the economy, including inflation and unemployment. Following the shocking reading, the U.S. dollar index tumbled 0.57% against a basket of foreign currencies to finish at 92.510 but failed to lend support to the front-month West Texas Intermediate futures contract. NYMEX September West Texas Intermediate futures fell $0.65 to settle at $68.44 per barrel (bbl), and international crude benchmark Brent contract for October delivery declined 72 cents to $70.59 per bbl. NYMEX September RBOB contract dropped 1.28 cents to $2.2626 per gallon and NYMEX September ULSD futures plunged 2.60 cents or 1.2% to $2.0779 per gallon. Friday's lower settlements came as traders weighed flagging demand outlook against increased vaccination rates in the U.S. and globally. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data showed U.S. daily count of administered vaccines nearly doubled in the last four weeks from an average of 400,000 dozes at the start of July to 828,760 as of Aug. 6. Despite increased vaccination rates and reinstated mask mandates, the seven-day moving average of new daily infections still rose 33.7% from the prior week to 89,977, stoking concerns over the worsening progression of the pandemic in the fall months.
US Intelligence Revises Afghan Estimate: Kabul To Be Overrun "Sooner Than Feared" - Previously a widely reported US intelligence assessment from June predicted that after the US troop exit from Afghanistan is complete (which at this point has essentially been accomplished), the densely populated capital of Kabul could fall within six months. US defense officials have now greatly revised that estimate after this past week which saw the Taliban overrun no less than eight provincial capital cities within a mere week. Officials told The Washington Post Kabul's fall could likely occurwithin the next 90 days, according to a new military intelligence assessment, with some officials offering the more dire prediction of one month.The revised bleaker assessment comes a day after a senior EU official was widely cited as saying 65% of the country's territory is now under Taliban control, much of it gained without significant resistance, given the many reports of US-trained national forces fleeing in retreat. Further, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby conceded there's "not much" the US can do at this point if the Afghan Army isn't willing to put up more of a fight.The Washington Post writes Wednesday, "The Biden administration is preparing for Afghanistan’s capital to fall far sooner than feared only weeks ago, as a rapid disintegration of security has prompted the revision of an already stark intelligence assessment predicting Kabul could be overrun within six to 12 months of the U.S. military departing, according to current and former U.S. officials familiar with the matter."The outlook is such that US officials are said to be debating whether to even keep the sprawling, high-secured embassy in Kabul open; however, they assure plans remain the same to keep it in operation with hundreds of additional military security personnel guarding it. Amid the daily bad news reports of a rapid Taliban offensive to retake the country, President Biden says he has no regrets. "Look," Biden began at a White House press briefing, "we spent over a trillion dollars over 20 years. We trained and equipped, with modern equipment, over 300,000 Afghan forces." He indicated plans remain the same to declare 'mission accomplished' by the highly symbolic 9/11 anniversary.
Afghanistan war: Taliban back brutal rule as they strike for power BBC - The Taliban fighters we meet are stationed just 30 minutes from one of Afghanistan's largest cities, Mazar-i-Sharif. The "ghanimat" or spoils of war they're showing off include a Humvee, two pick-up vans and a host of powerful machine guns. Ainuddin, a stony-faced former madrassa (religious school) student who's now a local military commander, stands at the centre of a heavily-armed crowd. The insurgents have been capturing new territory on what seems like a daily basis as international troops have all but withdrawn. Caught in the middle is a terrified population. Tens of thousands of ordinary Afghans have had to flee their homes - hundreds have been killed or injured in recent weeks. The displaced people hoping for safety in Kabul I ask Ainuddin how he can justify the violence, given the pain it's inflicting on the people he claims to be fighting on behalf of? "It's fighting, so people are dying," he replies coolly, adding that the group is trying its best "not to harm civilians". I point out that the Taliban are the ones who have started the fighting. "No," he retorts. "We had a government and it was overthrown. They [the Americans] started the fighting." Ainuddin and the rest of the Taliban feel momentum is with them, and that they are on the cusp of returning to dominance after being toppled by the US-led invasion in 2001. "They are not giving up Western culture… so we have to kill them," he says of the "puppet government" in Kabul. Shortly after we finish speaking we hear the sound of helicopters above us. The Humvee and the Taliban fighters quickly disperse. It's a reminder of the continuing threat the Afghan air force poses to the insurgents, and that the battle is still far from over.
Israel Pays For Bibi’s Successful Campaign Against The JCPOA Iran Nuclear Agreement - In the last few days for the first time in many years, northern Israel has been on the receiving end of rockets fired out of southern Lebanon, the territory under the control of the Shia Hezbollah group long supported by Iranian interests, although apparently, some think that it was Palestinians living in this area who fired the rockets. Even if it was, clearly this would not have happened without approval from Iran.Also in the last few days, an oil tanker in the Persian Gulf controlled by the Israelis has been attacked by drones apparently from Iran. Israel has been suddenly on the receiving end of attacks either approved by Iran or actually from Iran. Why now?The obvious reason is that Iran got a new hardline president, al Raisi, on Tuesday. He is showing his hardline credentials, and the word is out that this is showing Iran’s unhappiness at the economic sanctions it is under due to the US withdrawal from the JCPOA nuclear agreement, with so far, much to my unhappiness, President Biden has failed to get the US and Iran back into the agreement.Of course, probably the worst enemy of the agreement, who played a major role in convincing then President Trump to withdraw from the agreement, was former Israeli PM, Bibi Netanyahu. He openly wanted Iran to be under economic sanctions to make it harder for it to arm Israel’s enemies among its neighbors. But now the ultimate result of that has arrived: Iran attacking Israel. Bibi’s campaign has come home to roost.
Israel launches aerial strikes on Lebanon escalating covert war on Iran Israel has launched a series of air strikes on Lebanon in a marked escalation of hostilities in response to the launching of a handful of rockets by militant groups in the south of the country. It is the first time that Israel has admitted conducting air strikes against Lebanon since 2014, although its fighter planes have for years breached Lebanese airspace on an almost daily basis as it prosecutes its covert war on Iran and its allies, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah group, in Syria. The strikes come in the wake of mounting tensions between Israel and Iran following the drone attack, which Washington, London and Tel Aviv have attributed to Iran, on the oil tanker MV Mercer Street. The tanker is operated by an Israeli-owned shipping company and was sailing in international waters off the coast of Oman. That attack, which killed the ship’s Romanian captain and British security officer, was likely in response to the long-running, covert offensive by Israel’s naval, air, security, intelligence and cyber forces against Iran. While the United States and Britain said they would work with their allies to respond to the attack, Israel said it reserved the right to act alone if necessary. Tensions rose further when several ships were delayed in the Gulf of Oman last Monday, after one of them appeared to hit a mine at sea. Later, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency reported the end of a “potential hijack” of one of the ships by armed attackers, in a sequence of events that are far from clear. On Wednesday, Israel launched 92 rounds of artillery fire against targets in south Lebanon, reportedly hitting an open area near the town of Mahmoudiya in the Marjayoun district and causing a fire in a nearby village. This assault was in response to what the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said were three rockets fired into Israel by Palestinian militants in the area earlier that day, without identifying the Palestinian group it held responsible. One of the rockets was intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome defence system, with two rockets landing inside Israel, sparking fires near Kiryat Shemona. It marked the sixth such incident in the last three months, including three sets of rockets fired at Israel from Lebanon during Israel’s 11-day war on Gaza in May and a further three since then, after reported Israeli airstrikes on Syria, meaning that there were more incidents on Israel’s northern border than on its border with Gaza.
Iran is reducing its supply and the series of towers destruction is escalating.. Iraq is facing a fierce war to deprive it of electricity - The Iraqi Ministry of Electricity announced that Tehran has reduced the export of gas for operating power stations, at a time when the series of “systematic” destruction of the country’s power towers continues. The Iraqi Ministry of Electricity announced that Iran has reduced the export of gas for operating power stations in the country, while the series of destruction of power towers continues, describing the destruction process as "systematic" in conjunction with a severe heat wave of up to 50 degrees Celsius. The ministry's spokesman, Ahmed Moussa, said that this reduction affected the rates of electricity production, and led to the loss of about 2,600 megawatts. For his part, the Executive Director of the Iranian Electricity Management Company announced the suspension of the export of electricity to Iraq, and said that this decision comes due to the need to meet the needs of his country internally. Tehran is demanding Baghdad to pay about $4 billion in debts owed by the Iraqi Ministry of Electricity, which is prohibited from paying any dollar amounts to the Iranian side due to US sanctions. Simultaneously, electric power transmission towers in Iraq are falling one after another, as a result of detonating them with explosive devices, causing the power to be cut off in large areas of the country. The General Company for Northern Electricity Transmission announced the destruction of 7 electricity transmission towers linking the governorates of Kirkuk and Salah al-Din, as a result of being targeted with explosive devices. The company affiliated with the Ministry of Electricity said, in a statement published on its Facebook page, today, Tuesday, that an act of sabotage targeted the Kirkuk-Baiji line, in the Riyadh district, south of Kirkuk, which led to the downfall of 7 electric power transmission towers. And she indicated in her statement, that "27 towers were bombed in the governorates of Nineveh, Kirkuk and Salah al-Din within one week." Moussa returned to say, in an interview with the government channel, that the Ministry of Electricity is being subjected to old and recent attacks, noting that there are indiscriminate and systematic attacks targeting areas of power.
The Disturbing Rise of the Corporate Mercenaries - When the journalist Jamal Khashoggi was assassinated by agents of the Saudi government in 2018, it caused an international scandal. Now, it turns out that his killers were trained in the US. In June, The New York Times reported that four Saudis involved in the killing had received paramilitary training from Tier 1 Group, a private security company based in Arkansas.This was no renegade operation, however. Tier 1 Group, whose training had approval from the US State Department, is part of a burgeoning global industry. Corporate mercenaries – or, more properly, private security and military companies – are increasingly taking over functions that were once carried out by states, with grave implications for human rights and democracy worldwide. It’s big business, too: Cerberus Capital Management, the private equity fund that owns Tier 1 Group, also owns a string of arms manufacturers. In April 2010, Cerberus merged with DynCorp International, one of the world’s largest corporate mercenary companies.Mercenaries – soldiers for hire – have existed for centuries, but this new breed is different. TheObservatory Shock Monitor, which tracks the impact of privatised war, argues that the corporate mercenaries stand out because of the internationalised, business-like services they provide. These companies are registered in one state but often work in another, offering their services via slick websites and a network of offices and facilities around the world. In the countries where they operate, they employ both foreign and local personnel. And the services they offer go far beyond the traditional role of mercenaries: from acting as security guards and patrolling public spaces, to military combat and operational support, to humanitarian work, clearing landmines or rescuing hostages. In short, they’re a replacement for a whole set of functions traditionally carried out by states, with access to the kind of military equipment that modern armies have at their disposal.As state security functions have gradually been privatised under neoliberalism, corporate mercenaries have reshaped the way that power is exercised, as well as tapping into a new source of profit.States have increased their reliance on private security contractors not only for international conflicts, but to strengthen their coercive power domestically. Corporate mercenaries have begun to focus on emerging sectors in the field of national security, such as protecting critical infrastructure from terrorism and cyber attacks, managing migration flows, running prisons and detention centres, and policing-like tasks including the ‘neutralisation’ of activists opposing the interests of states and multinationals.
IMF offers crumbs to poorer countries - To the accompaniment of overblown rhetoric and after months of haggling, the International Monetary Fund has agreed to try and boost the finances of low- and middle-income countries as they struggle to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic amid lack of access to vaccines and already inadequate public health services.Last week it signed off on a $650 billion expansion of its Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) program. SDRs have no conditions attached and do not have to be repaid, enabling countries to employ them without making compensatory cuts to public spending. But the decision will make little difference to the worsening situation confronting many countries as they face a continuing slowdown in the growth of their national income.This was acknowledged, at least indirectly, by the IMF itself in its latest update to its world economic outlook. It cut the forecast for growth for emerging-market and less-developed countries, reversing the trend that has prevailed over the past two decades and more.However, this did not stop IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva from talking up the SDR expansion when she announced it.She said it was a “historic decision—the largest SDR allocation in the history of the IMF and a shot in the arm for the global economy at a time of unprecedented crisis.“The SDR allocation will benefit all members, address the long-term global need for reserves, build confidence and foster the resilience and stability of the global economy. It will particularly help out most vulnerable economies struggling to cope with the impact of the COVID-19 crisis,” she continued.These claims are contradicted by the very structure of the allocation. The expansion of SDRs, the equivalent of newly printed money, will be allocated to the IMF’s 190 members in proportion to their share of the global economy. This means that only $275 billion will go to emerging and developing economies, with the rest allocated to the world’s major economies. Furthermore, it is estimated that only 8 percent of the new money will go to countries that are classified as “highly debt vulnerable.”
There’s yet another surge in shipping costs - FT Alphaville - The price of shipping goods from Asia to Europe has soared over the past year. But, over recent months, the rise has been particularly dramatic. Here’s a chart put together by Xeneta, an outfit that specialises in data on what it costs to book space on one of the 40ft containers across the world’s oceans: That’s about a $6,000 rise in shipping costs per container since the end of April.Not only has it become far more expensive to ship goods across the Indian Ocean and up the Suez Canal, the service has become poorer. Emile Naus, a partner specialising in supply chain management at consultants BearingPoint, says exporters are full of complaints: We have had numerous reports that containers are being left off vessels even after paying the high rates. This has certainly caused some customers to over supply products, to try and maintain stock levels in Europe. The result is that there will be an issue with warehouse capacity, and the bullwhip effect this will undoubtedly cause will actually lead to more uncertainty in shipping volumes well into 2022. According to project44, a data logistics outfit, delays on the China to Europe routes are rising too: In many manufacturing industries, the hurdles to making and distributing goods seen during the earlier days of the pandemic seem to have been overcome. Mark Dow, an independent macro trader who has a large following on Twitter, told us on last Friday’s Twitter Spaces that he now thinks the US has reached a point where rising Covid-19 numbers would do little to offset the economic rebound. The reason being that, by this stage, businesses have learnt to cope to the point where they could easily stomach the impact of rising caseloads.Yet what we are seeing on the Asia to Europe route may reflect broader inflationary trends across the market for ocean freight, especially since prices for freight going from East Asia to the US West Coast have also picked up in recent months.Indeed, month on month, the rise in freight costs has been 20 per cent – higher than for the European route (though the cost of shipping a 40ft container from Shanghai to LA is nowhere near as expensive as the journey from China’s East Coast to Hamburg or Rotterdam). Data, as before, via Xeneta:Lack of capacity remains an issue. But analysts think that one of the factors driving the trend of late is a rise in Covid-19 cases in China. Here’s Josh Brazil, vice president for marketing at project44:The fact that ships remain delayed and now Covid variant outbreaks in major Chinese manufacturing hubs are on the rise, indicates that there may be far-reaching down-stream consequences going into Black Friday and holiday shopping seasons . . . ...One of the few givens in 2021 is endemic delays, and the fact that conditions can change almost overnight.The big question now is how big the reverberations of this intensification of the logjams we’ve seen throughout the pandemic will be. We’ve already seen some edginess in global stock markets. Will we start to see it having a material impact on goods production, or have firms become better at building up inventories? We shall find out in the coming weeks.
Germany declares Israel a high-risk travel destination amid virus surge – report - Germany has added Israel to its list of high-risk travel destinations, along with the United States and Turkey, due to a surging coronavirus outbreak, it was reported Friday. Montenegro and Vietnam are also now considered high risk by the German government, said the Reuters news agency citing the FUNKE media group’s reporting based on government sources. Travelers to Germany from high-risk countries are required to quarantine for ten days unless they are vaccinated against the coronavirus or have recovered from COVID-19. The self-isolation can be shortened to five days with a negative test. The downgrade will take effect on Sunday, with the exception of Turkey which will be delayed until Tuesday due to the large number of Turkish-origin residents of Germany. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is set to visit Israel this month but the trip has remained unconfirmed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Last month, the US Centers for Disease Control raised its travel alert level in Israel due to rising coronavirus cases. Israel is now listed by the CDC at Level 3, the second highest, due to the rate of new daily cases per capita. A notice on the CDC website said travelers to Israel should be fully vaccinated and that anyone who is not should avoid non-essential trips.
Canada reopened its border to U.S. travelers more than a year after sealing it. — For the first time since March 2020, Canada on Monday reopened its borders to nonessential travel by U.S. citizens and residents who are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. But the pent-up demand created by the shutdown did not lead to a surge in traffic from Americans desperate to again visit their neighbors — at least, not immediately. Midmorning Monday at the border crossing at The Thousand Islands Bridge at Lansdowne, in Ontario, private cars were outnumbered by heavy trucks, for which the border was never shut. And so far the border reopening is only one way. Late last month, days after Canada announced that it would reopen its border, U.S. officials made clear that they would not immediately reciprocate. “The United States is extending restrictions on nonessential travel at our land and ferry crossings with Canada and Mexico through Aug. 21,” the Department of Homeland Security said. On Monday, even with the relatively light cross-border traffic, delays were reported to be common. Some travelers proved less adept at navigating Canada’s new pandemic rules than others. At the Thousand Islands Bridge crossing, Tim Guinnane, who drove from New Haven, Conn., with a kayak on the roof of his Toyota Prius and a bicycle in the back, said it had taken him three hours just to reach a border guard. “That’s not like a violation of the Geneva Convention,” he said before going into the base of the tower to buy a bottle of water. “I just thought it’d be more like an hour.” Once he reached the border booth, Mr. Guinnane said, he was questioned by a border guard for only about five minutes. Like several other travelers, he attributed the long wait to Americans who had failed to upload proof of vaccination and a recent negative coronavirus test to a Canadian government app. There were also travelers who had neither and were turned back. The scene was similar hundreds of miles west at the International Rainbow Bridge that connects Niagara Falls, Ontario, and Niagara Falls, N. Y.
From France to Thailand, demonstrations against pandemic measures grow. --Protests around the world are growing once again, with hundreds of thousands of people in Europe, Asia and South America taking to the streets over the weekend to oppose their governments’ handling of the pandemic.Demonstrators turned out in cities across France and Italy to protest new measures requiring proof of vaccination or a negative coronavirus test to carry out many daily activities.In the fourth consecutive weekend of protests in France, the turnout swelled to its largest in the past month as more than 230,000 people across the country demonstrated against a new law, set to be enforced starting Monday, that makes health passes mandatory for many indoor venues, including cafes and restaurants.Protesters throughout Italy voiced their opposition on Saturday toa similar pass that was introduced in the country the day before, arguing that the measure infringes on their freedom. While rallies in some countries have been prompted by new restrictions, protesters in other nations are blaming governments for failing to act forcefully enough in the face of coronavirus outbreaks.
Thousands Protest Against France's Coronavirus Health Pass As Stricter Rules Loom - Thousands of protesters took to the streets Saturday across France for the fourth consecutive weekend of rallies against a requirement for a new pandemic health pass needed to enter most businesses or use public transportation. The latest round of protests come after France's highest court upheld the majority of a new law requiring the health pass and for health care workers to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. The court wrote that those provisions complied with the nation's founding charter. According to a notice from the French government issued July 29, residents were required to "present a health pass to access leisure and culture venues and events bringing together more than 50 people." Beginning Monday, the health passes will be required to enter bars, restaurants, and malls — and to access long-distance travel by plane, train or bus. The pass — championed by President Emmanuel Macron — requires proof of vaccination, a negative coronavirus test result in the past 48 hours, or showing that one has recovered from the virus for at least 15 days (but not more than six months). As France enters a "fourth wave" of the coronavirus pandemic, Macron hopes the new rules will encourage residents to be vaccinated and stave off the fast-spreading delta variant. Polls show most people in France support the health passes. In July, Macron also announced that health care workers were required to get vaccinated by Sept. 15 — or they would be banned from work and not be paid. The Associated Press reported that a largely peaceful crowd of protesters walked through the streets of Paris surrounded by police clad in riot gear. The protesters carried signs that read: "Our freedoms are dying" and "Vaccine: Don't touch our kids." Confirmed case counts were on a largely downward trend in April through June before sharply increasing in mid July. The nation has so far recorded more than 112,000 deaths that have been attributed to the virus. More than 36 million people in France, about 54% of the population, have so far been fully vaccinated. At least 7 million have gotten their first vaccine shot since Macron announced the health pass on July 12.
Italy: COVID 'Green Pass' needed for museums, indoor dining — Pompeii's archaeological park is offering free swab tests, the Vatican Museums posted refund instructions and tourists whipped out smart phones to show QR codes along with admission tickets Friday as a new COVID-19 certification rule took effect in Italy as part of the government's plan to rein in a summer surge in infections. A so-called “Green Pass” is now required to enter archaeological sites, gyms, theaters, indoor pools and the indoor sections of restaurants, bars and cafes. To obtain a certificate, individuals must show they have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine approved for use in the European Union, recovered from COVID-19 in the past six months or have negative lab results from a test done within the previous 48 hours. The government announced the rule on July 22. Some 50 million of Italy's 60 million residents had downloaded the certification by late July. Vaccine certificates issued by the United States, Canada, Japan and Israel will be accepted for tourists arriving from those countries. Certification not written in Italian, English, Spanish or French must be accompanied by a sworn translation. Along the sidewalk flanking Vatican City's walls, visitors to the Vatican Museums - one of the world's most popular attractions - got ready to show their cellphones to workers at the entrance. Visitors from France found the new Italian system familiar. Their country has already introduced entrance requirements even tougher than Italy’s since they also apply to outdoor dining, While many find it convenient to flash their Green Pass on a phone, paper certification is acceptable in Italy. The Vatican Museums website cautioned visitors to have an identity document handy so staff could “verify actual ownership” of the Green Pass. For anyone unwilling or unable to comply, the website offered instructions on how to request a ticket refund.
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