Fed's Powell says job strength shows inflation fight may last 'quite a bit of time' (Reuters) - Friday's blockbuster jobs report showed why the battle against inflation will "take quite a bit of time," Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Tuesday, acknowledging that interest rates may need to move higher than expected if that sort of economic strength threatens the Fed's progress in lowering inflation. In a question-and-answer session before the Economic Club of Washington, Powell declined several times to say explicitly that the surprising addition of 517,000 new jobs in January would necessarily force the Fed's benchmark interest rate higher than the 5% to 5.25% range currently anticipated, a level implying quarter-percentage-point increases at the Fed's next two meetings then a pause. But it was another data surprise in an era that has been full of them, and the Fed chief said policymakers were open to shocks in either direction - ready to approve even tighter monetary policy if continued strong job gains lead to higher wages and prices, but also open to the idea that inflation may continue to cool despite ongoing job gains. "We didn't expect it to be this strong," Powell said, but it "shows why we think this will be a process that takes quite a bit of time." Based on history the current 3.4% unemployment rate, a 53-year-low, may be beyond "maximum employment" and likely would need to rise for inflation to return to the Fed's 2% target, Powell said. But with its roots in an unprecedented health crisis, "this cycle is different from other cycles ... It has just confounded all sorts of attempts to predict," Powell said, noting that wage growth has slowed even with continued strong job gains. "It is good that we have seen a very strong labor market ... At the same time, we're seeing wages moderating ... Inflation is starting to come down," Powell said. "But it will do what it will do. Our job is to get inflation down to 2%," a process that he said was still just getting started and would likely take until at least into next year. In the meantime interest rates will continue to rise, though how high remains unclear, with Powell's remarks moving little beyond the comments he made after last week's Fed policy meeting. Officials raised the target interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to a range between 4.5% and 4.75% at that session, and said in the latest policy statement that "ongoing increases" would be needed. Despite the strong jobs report, Powell repeated that he felt a process of "disinflation" was underway in the United States, with the Fed now watching how quickly it spreads to service industries where inflation has proved less quick to slow. His latest remarks were "pretty similar" to the tone set after last week's Fed meeting, wrote JPMorgan economist Michael Feroli. "This was a message of data dependency ... He's emphasizing what conditions require more or less restraint" as the Fed watches how the economy responds to the rate increases approved so far, and particularly whether inflation continues what has been a consistent decline since the middle of last year.
Powell: A "couple of years" before Fed nears end of balance sheet decline (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Tuesday the U.S. central bank has some distance left to run in terms of shrinking its balance sheet. When it comes to setting a stopping point for shedding bonds from the central bank's holdings, "we haven’t put a specific target on it,” Powell said at an appearance before the Economic Club of Washington. "It will be a couple of years" before the balance sheet reduction process concludes, Powell said. Noting that the current effort is passive, Powell also said selling bonds, rather than allowing them to mature and not be replaced, is "not something on the list of active things” officials are considering.The Fed's process of reducing its holdings of Treasury and mortgage bonds began last summer and is designed to largely on autopilot alongside the central bank's ongoing effort to raise rates to lower high levels of inflation. As of last autumn, the Fed began to allow just under $100 billion per month of bonds to mature, and it has been sticking to that pace without signaling any looming changes. The Fed more than doubled the size of its balance sheet since the advent of the coronavirus pandemic. It used bond purchases first to calm markets in the spring of 2020 and then as a form of stimulus to augment the near zero short-term rate target then in place. The Fed's balance sheet peaked out at right around $9 trillion and is now at about $8.4 trillion. Some market participants had been warning that what they saw as dwindling bank reserves could cause the Fed to end its drawdown this year. But officials, in recent comments, have said that bank liquidity, when properly measured, is still quite large, which gives the Fed a lot of room to run on cutting holdings.
Fed Governor Christopher Waller warns that interest rates could go higher than expectations -Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller on Wednesday talked tough on inflation, warning that the fight is not over and could result in higher interest rates than markets are anticipating. Speaking to an agribusiness conference in Arkansas, Waller said the January jobs report, showing nonfarm payroll growth of 517,000, indicated that the employment market is "robust" and could fuel consumer spending that would maintain upward pressure on inflation. "We are seeing that effort begin to pay off, but we have farther to go," Waller told the Arkansas State University Agribusiness Conference in prepared remarks. "And, it might be a long fight, with interest rates higher for longer than some are currently expecting. But I will not hesitate to do what is needed to get my job done." The comments come a week after the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee approved a quarter percentage point increase that took the benchmark borrowing rate to a target range of 4.5%-4.7%, the highest since October 2007. Markets have been taking some encouragement off recent remarks from Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, who has said that he is seeing disinflationary signs. Inflation hit a 41-year peak last summer, forcing the Fed off its insistence that the price increases were "transitory" and into the current tightening posture. But Waller said he sees inflation still too high while he expects just moderate economic growth this year. He did note that wage data is "moving in the right direction," but not enough for the Fed to lower rates. "Some believe that inflation will come down quite quickly this year," he said. "That would be a welcome outcome. But I'm not seeing signals of this quick decline in the economic data, and I am prepared for a longer fight to get inflation down to our target." Markets currently expect the Fed to approve two more rate increases — a quarter-point each at the March and May meetings, according to CME Group data. They then expect a quarter-point cut by the end of the year as the economy slows and possibly drifts into recession. Waller did not specify his view on where rates are headed, saying only he sees tight monetary policy lasting "for some time," a phrase used repeatedly by Powell and other Fed officials.’
Fed's Cook eyes more hikes to reach 2% inflation target — More interest rate increases are likely needed for inflation to return to 2%, Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook said Wednesday, expressing hope that "restrictive" Fed policy can occur without causing economic turmoil. While inflation has moderated, Cook said it remains "unacceptably high" and requires more action from the Fed, which over the past year has raised the cost of borrowing aggressively in an effort to slow spending and inflation. "I think we are not done yet with raising interest rates," Cook said at a Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies event in Washington, D.C. "And we will need to keep interest rates sufficiently restrictive to bring inflation back to our target over time." The comments — which line up with Fed Chairman Jerome Powell's remarks Tuesday that "ongoing increases" will be necessary — come as markets start rethinking their earlier betsthat the Fed will soon pause its rate hikes or even cut rates later this year. CME's Fedwatch tool shows most observers expecting the Fed's key interest rates will go no higher than 5.25% this year. The Fed has tamped down its aggressive pace of tightening, raising rates by its traditional amount of 0.25% last week rather than its supersized rate increases of last year. Moving in "smaller steps" is appropriate while "we assess the effects of our cumulative tightening" over the past year, Cook said, noting that the full effect of the Fed's actions on spending often come with a lag. But economic data are "telling us a pretty clear story right now," she said, noting that the labor market is "historically strong" while inflation remains elevated.
Fed's Waller warns farmers to brace for long-term higher rates - Economic relief might be coming for American farmers, but not on the monetary policy front, Federal Reserve Board Gov. Christopher Waller said Wednesday. During a speech at an agribusiness conference hosted by Arkansas State University, Waller said he expects personal consumption and price growth trends to benefit agriculture this year. But, he noted, the sector will have to deal with elevated interest rates in borrowing for "some time." The assessment follows a message the Fed has been signaling for months, that once interest rates are high enough to reduce consumer demand for goods and services, they will likely stay that way for an extended period. The projection does not bode well for farmers who rely on credit lines and other loans to cover their expenses between harvests. Waller acknowledged this dynamic but reassured the audience that the Fed's rate hikes will pay dividends for the economy in the long run. "Of course, we know that higher interest rates pose challenges for farmers and ranchers who must borrow to smooth out the costs and returns from agriculture over the year," Waller said. "But, excessive inflation is a larger challenge because it has the potential to become a lasting problem weighing on economic growth, undermining living standards, and hurting consumers, who farmers depend on." In his speech, Waller noted that after rising sharply during 2020 and 2021, consumer spending on groceries fell in 2022. He attributed this trend to people returning to restaurants and an overall drop in food spending driven by inflation, which he expected to normalize in the year ahead. "Looking forward, I expect personal consumption will grow modestly and price increases will moderate, and I think such outcomes would bode well for the agricultural sector this year," Waller said. "It looks as though economic activity may be moderating further in the first quarter of 2023, but I expect the U.S. economy to continue growing at a modest pace this year, supported by a strong labor market and by encouraging progress in lowering inflation."
"The Irony Is If Higher Rates Mean Higher Wage Growth, And Higher Inflation" - Our Fed watcher Philip Marey has responded to Fed Chair Powell’s chat yesterday with a 50bps upward shift in his Fed Funds call for 2023. Rather than pausing at 5.00% after a 25bps hike next month, Philip now sees the Fed raising rates to 5.50% via an additional two hikes over the year – and he is flagging upside risks that Fed Funds may need to go as high as 6%. (See ‘Long Road Ahead’.) I know markets have the memory of goldfish, and everybody was always right, but 12 months ago that view would have been seen as science fiction.This forecast revision, clearly sign-posted by Philip in advance, was not driven by Powell’s comments on goods disinflation (though notice the 2.5% m-o-m January surge in US used car prices on one industry measure). Rather it was because the Fed Chair stated the current US labor market dynamic “feels more structural than cyclical,” and his biggest worry is inflation in core services ex-housing as well as possible new exogenous shocks.“Structural”. There’s a difficult word for markets to deal with. They can cope with the idea that there has been a nasty cyclical shock, because of ‘exogenous events nobody foresaw’, so rates had to go higher; but the idea there might be a permanent change in the economy so rates have to STAY HIGHER, is something nobody is contemplating. Including the Fed. How else do they project inflation coming back down to 2% by 2024, and only a moderate increase in unemployment at the same time? Do structural changes on the endogenous and exogenous fronts simultaneously resolve themselves in 18 months? How? [ZH: here's how, as we explained last year "3.9 Trillion Reasons Why The Fed Will Raise Its Inflation Target"] Relatedly, oligopoly specialist @matthewstoller tweets: “If the Fed doesn't continue to tighten financial conditions I worry inflation could re-accelerate. Auto industry giants have gotten used to high mark-ups and are not increasing production to meet demand.” He isn’t alone in that view.In May 2022, the Boston Fed concluded: “The US economy is at least 50% more concentrated today than it was in 2005… Our findings suggest that the increase in industry concentration over the past two decades could be amplifying the inflationary pressure from current supply-chain disruptions and a tight labour market.” In April 2022, the Economic Policy Institute argued ‘Corporate profits have contributed disproportionately to inflation. How should policymakers respond?’, lobbying for an excess profits tax not rate hikes, by showing contributions to growth in unit prices in the US corporate sector for 1979-2019 being corporate profits (11.4%), non-labour input costs (26.8%), and labour costs (61.8%) vs. Q4/2020–Q4/2021’s corporate profits (53.9%), non-labour input costs (38.3%), and labour costs (7.9%). In other words, a supply shock and ‘costs-plus’ price increases in a concentrated corporate sector led US prices higher (after loose fiscal policy). Now we might have a structurally tight labour market on top!
Why the MBS Roll-off from Fed’s Balance Sheet Will Speed Up – Wolf Richter - It was half the maximum pace. But rising home sales and, lo-and-behold, rising mortgage refis are about to change that. By Wolf Richter - In its Quantitative Tightening plan laid out last spring, the Fed fixed caps that limit how much of its Treasury securities and mortgage-backed securities (MBS) are allowed to roll off the balance sheet every month: $60 billion a month for Treasury securities and $35 billion a month for MBS. As of the latest weekly balance sheet, total assets have dropped by $532 billion from the peak. The Treasury roll-off has been near the cap, but the MBS roll-off has been far lower. The Fed phased out purchases of MBS in mid-September. From that point on through the end of November, the four-week average roll-offs of MBS was around $20 billion. In December and January, the four-week average dropped to $17 billion, running at around half the maximum pace. Since the beginning of QT in June, the roll-off of MBS amounts to just $103 billion. But if the roll-off had occurred near the cap, the roll-off of MBS should amount to about $260 billion by now. This chart shows the actual balance of MBS (red) and my estimate of the balance if the roll-off had proceeded near the cap, including the phase-in over the summer with a nod to the lags with which MBS showed up on the balance sheet. There are now some dynamics in the mortgage market that will speed up the MBS roll-off in the spring and summer. It might not be enough to get the roll-off to the cap – we’ll have to see – but it’s going to get it a lot closer. MBS come off the balance sheet primarily via pass-through principal payments that all MBS holders receive when regular mortgage payments are made and when the underlying mortgages are paid off, such as when the home is sold or when the mortgage is refinanced with a new mortgage. People are still making their regular mortgage payments just fine. But mortgage payoffs have collapsed as the volume of refis has collapsed by around 80% from a year ago, and as home sales have plunged by around 34% from a year ago. And the torrent of pass-through principal payments that the Fed received a year ago and that far exceeded $35 billion a month has turned into a trickle.The worst period was over the winter. Now the spring selling season starts, when sales volume picks up every year from the winter doldrums and the holiday slowdown of the housing market. Even during Housing Bust 1, sales volume picked up in the spring. The point when a mortgage gets paid off occurs at closing, so it aligns roughly with reported closed sales. The low point in closed sales is in January or February, based on deals made weeks earlier, so mostly in December and early January, during the dead-point. In March, closed sales pick up and rise through the spring selling season and peak in the summer. Last year, between the January/February low and the August peak, monthly sales volume of existing homes (not seasonally adjusted, reported by the National Association of Realtors) rose by 34%. Each time a mortgaged home is sold, the mortgage is paid off. If the mortgage was securitized, the principal portion is eventually passed through to the MBS holders. This stream of pass-through principal payments to the Fed will pick up substantially through the summer, compared to where it was over the last few months, simply by that fact that home sales volume will increase seasonally. This is hard to believe, but Americans are at it again: Refis have started to tick up this year from the collapsed levels last year, mostly cash-out refis. People are actually refinancing a lower-rate mortgage with a higher-rate mortgage in order to cash out some of their home equity. Maybe they expect mortgage rates to go back to 3% by August, and then they could refinance again or whatever. At any rate, the refi volume started rising at the beginning of January. From the collapsed levels at the end of December, the weekly Refinance Index, released today by the Mortgage Bankers Association, has now jumped by 77% to the highest level since September.
Shrinking Money Supply Undercuts "Soft Landing" Narrative - The better-than-expected non-farm payroll report for January along with the smaller interest rate hike delivered by the Federal Reserve at its February meeting increased optimism that the central bank can bring price inflation back to 2% without tanking the economy. But the shrinking money supply undercuts this soft landing narrative.While Fed rate hikes and balance sheet reductions aren’t likely big enough to permanently take down inflation, they are shrinking the money supply and that generally means a recession is looming.Money supply growth went negative for the first time in 28 years in November and fell again in December.The money supply grew at an unprecedented rate during the pandemic. As Mises Institute senior editor Ryan McMaken pointed out in a recent article, between April 2020 and April 2021, money supply growth in the United States often climbed above 35% year over year. That was well above the “high” levels experienced from 2009 to 2013.The last time year-over-year money supply growth went negative was in November 1994. Negative money supply growth continued for the next 15 months.McMaken explains why this matters.Money supply growth can often be a helpful measure of economic activity and an indicator of coming recessions. During periods of economic boom, money supply tends to grow quickly as commercial banks make more loans. Recessions, on the other hand, tend to be preceded by slowing rates of money supply growth. However, money supply growth tends to begin growing again before the onset of recession.”McMaken points out that a declining money supply appears to be connected to yield-curve inversion, another recession signal.For example, the 3s/10s yield spread often heads toward zero as money supply growth moves in the same direction. This was especially clear from 1999 through 2000, from 2004 to 2006, and during 2018 and 2019, and beginning in 2022. This is not surprising because trends in money supply growth have long appeared to be connected to the shape of the yield curve. As Bob Murphy notes in his book Understanding Money Mechanics, a sustained decline in TMS growth often reflects spikes in short-term yields, which can fuel a flattening or inverting yield curve.”McMaken emphasized that it is not necessary for money supply growth to turn negative in order to trigger recession, defaults, and other economic disruptions.
Yellen: 'You don't have a recession' when U.S. unemployment at 53-year low (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Monday said she saw a path for avoiding a U.S. recession, with inflation coming down significantly and the economy remaining strong, given the strength of the U.S. labor market. "You don't have a recession when you have 500,000 jobs and the lowest unemployment rate in more than 50 years," Yellen told ABC's Good Morning America program. "What I see is a path in which inflation is declining significantly and the economy is remaining strong." Yellen said inflation remained too high, but it had been falling for the past six months and could decline significantly given measures adopted by the Biden administration, including steps to reduce the cost of gasoline and prescription drugs. U.S. Labor Department data released Friday showed job growth accelerated sharply in January, with nonfarm payrolls up by 517,000 jobs and the unemployment rate dropping to a 53-1/2-year low of 3.4%. The strength in hiring, which occurred despite layoffs in the technology sector, reduced market expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve was close to pausing its monetary policy tightening cycle.
Record Demand For Blockbuster 10Y Auction Sends Yields Tumbling - After yesterday's horrific 3Y auction printed with some of the ugliest metrics in history, including the biggest tail in at least 7 years, many were incredulous: how is it possible that the mood in the bond market could reverse so fast after a barrage of stellar coupon auctions in January. Some speculated that this was purely due to the auction taking place in the slipstream of Powell's speech which sent yields sharply higher and confused investors in the primary market. As it turns out they were right, because moments ago the Treasury sold $35 billion in 10Y paper as part of refunding week, which was a mirror image of yesterday's catastrophic auction and had some of the strongest metrics in history. Starting at the top, the high yield printed at 3.613%, which stopped through the When Issued 3.643% by 3bps, which was the second biggest stop through in at least 7 years, and a wild reversal from the record tail hit just two months ago when everyone was selling bonds with the bathwater in December. While the bid to cover was also a big improvement, coming in at 2.66, up from 2.53 in January and the highest since Feb 22, it was the internals there were truly off the charts: after a series of already elevated Indirect awards in the past years, January's Inidrect takedown soared from 67.0% to 79.5%, which was the highest on record!
Biden economy keeps defying predictions. Will it last? --As President Biden prepares to deliver the State of the Union address Tuesday night, he finds himself presiding over an economic puzzle.The Federal Reserve has raised interest rates by 4½ percentage points over the past 11 months, one of its sharpest moves in several decades, in a bid to cool off the economy and ease rising prices.Yet employers continue to hire as if the good times will never end. In January, they added 517,000 jobs — almost twice as many as in December — while the unemployment rate fell to its lowest mark since 1969.Speaking in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on Friday, the president took a victory lap, declaring the “state of the economy is strong.” His annual appearance before a joint session of Congress is almost certain to include an assertion that the economic rebound is no accident; it’s the result of administration policies, including the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan and work to smooth snarled supply chains.This Biden boom certainly is confounding skeptics who have been predicting for months that the Fed’s anti-inflation campaign would trigger an imminent recession. But the economy’s unexpected performance also is testing the ability of policymakers to keep the recovery going. “This is not a standard business cycle. … It’s unique,” Fed Chair Jerome H. Powell said last week. “Certainty is not appropriate here.Indeed, the post-pandemic economy is proving hard to fathom.Growth has slowed from an annual rate of 7 percent in late 2021 to 2.9 percent in the most recent quarter, which the president anticipated in public statements one year ago.That downshift was the first step along the path to a “soft landing” — curing inflation without a sharp jump in unemployment. But ebbing growth was expected to be followed by a similar moderation in job creation, and Friday’s blockbuster report, which included upward revisions for November and December, showed that hasn’t happened yet. With jobs sprouting instead of shrinking, the Fed is likely to keep increasing the cost of borrowing for businesses and consumers. The danger is that, in trying to control inflation, the Fed will go too far and shove the economy into a recession. Whether the U.S. can keep defying the recession odds may depend on what happens in industries such as leisure and hospitality, health care and entertainment. These service businesses are enjoying a boomlet as consumers return to their pre-pandemic lifestyles.Restaurants can’t find workers because they’ve found better jobs. Hotels, airlines, medical clinics all are hiring like mad. The Las Vegas Sands, a casino and resort company, lists 50 job openings on its website, including for cybersecurity specialists, attorneys and a corporate receptionist. HCA Healthcare, which operates medical facilities in 21 states and the United Kingdom, is hiring doctors in Texas, nurses in Kansas and lab assistants in Colorado.Goods prices, a major contributor to inflation last year, have started to come down. Other major spending categories are expected to soon follow. Advertised apartment rents, for example, are cooling off. But it takes time for those changes to be reflected in official government data.White House aides see signs that wages in the services portion of the economy are not rising as quickly as they did last year. If that moderation continues, it would take pressure off prices and allow the Fed to stop hiking rates, according to a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. “We don’t see it. It’s not happening yet,” Powell told reporters this week, referring to any reversal in services inflation. The bigger problem is that Friday’s jobs report shows that it’s just not getting any easier to understand the economy. While the worst of the pandemic is in the past, businesses and consumers still bear its scars Americans behaved differently during the days of covid restrictions, buying significantly more goods than they normally would and consuming fewer in-person services.The economy responded. Transportation and warehousing companies bulked up and now employ roughly 1 million more workers than in February 2020, while companies in the leisure and hospitality sector are still 495,000 workers short, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.They are almost 1.5 million short of the workers they would be expected to need now if they had grown over the past three years at their typical pace, according to Daleep Singh, chief global economist for PGIM Fixed Income.Standard economic models that economists use to predict future developments are built on the experience of recent decades.There is no playbook for navigating the aftermath of a global pandemic that included societal lockdowns, shuttered factories and staggered national reopenings. Standard relationships — such as the link between job gains and wages or between employment and inflation — are breaking down.“We have a dismal understanding of how this post-pandemic economy works,” Bernard Baumohl, chief global economist for the Economic Outlook Group, wrote in a client note on Friday.
Most Americans say Biden has not accomplished much since taking office, Post-ABC poll finds --Two years into a presidency that the White House casts as the most effective in modern history, President Biden is set to deliver a State of the Union address Tuesday to a skeptical country with a majority of Americans saying they do not believe he has achieved much since taking office, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.The poll finds that 62 percent of Americans think Biden has accomplished “not very much” or “little or nothing” during his presidency, while 36 percent say he has accomplished “a great deal” or “a good amount.” On many of Biden’s signature initiatives — from improving the country’s infrastructure to making electric vehicles more affordable to creating jobs — majorities of Americans say they do not believe he has made progress, the poll finds.The dynamic arguably raises the stakes of Biden’s prime time speech on Tuesday. The president is expected to use the platform to tout his accomplishments and remind voters that many of the laws he signed during the first half of his term are just now being implemented.It’s a message he has pushed since before the midterm elections, when his party’s better-than-expected performance convinced many aides that, despite his low approval ratings, Americans largely support his agenda. Biden has said one of his main goals for the year is to make sure Americans feel the impact of the laws he signed during his first two years in office, including a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, legislation aimed at combating climate change, a $52 billion effort to boost domestic manufacturing and a cap on the price of insulin for seniors.“It’s one thing to have passed it all — now we have to make sure we’re on it every single day. Not a joke,” Biden said in a Jan. 26 speech on the economy. “Implementing it so people can see what we’ve delivered and give it to them directly.”Overall, the poll’s findings are not reassuring for either party. On the looming fight over the debt limit, most Americans are closer to Biden’s position than the GOP’s, and most dismiss Republican plans to investigate the government’s “weaponization” as political.And Americans have little confidence in either Biden or House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to make the right decisions for the country’s future. Just under 2 in 10 Americans have “a great deal” or “a good amount” of confidence in the speaker to do so; 71 percent have “just some” or no confidence at all. A similarly high 72 percent say they lack such confidence in congressional Republicans, and 68 percent say the same about Biden and 70 percent about congressional Democrats.But Biden is the one who will be making his case to the American people Tuesday. And many of them say he has not yet made much progress on key issues.While 77 percent of Democrats say Biden has accomplished at least a good amount, that drops to 32 percent among political independents. Only seven percent of Republicans say he has accomplished much, while 93 percent say he has accomplished not very much, little or nothing.
Top U.S. House Republican McCarthy wants compromise on debt ceiling, cuts from Biden - (Reuters) - Republican U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy called on Democratic President Joe Biden to agree to compromises and spending cuts, as the two remain deadlocked over raising the nation's $31.4 trillion debt ceiling. McCarthy spoke on Monday before Biden is set to give the annual State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, aiming to get ahead of the president and reinforce his role as the leading congressional negotiator. The White House has said Biden will discuss federal spending cuts with Republicans, but only after the debt ceiling is lifted, while McCarthy has said Republicans will only lift the ceiling if Biden agrees to spending cuts. While the two sides disagree on the order of the subjects they are tackling, both say they will continue to talk. "Mr. President, it's time to get to work," said McCarthy, whose Republicans won a narrow majority in the House of Representatives in November's election. "We must commit to finding common ground on a responsible debt limit increase. Finding compromise is exactly how governing in America is supposed to work, and exactly what the American people voted for just three months ago," McCarthy said. "Defaulting on our debt is not an option, but neither is a future of higher taxes, higher interest rates and an economy that doesn't work." House Republicans want to use the debt ceiling, which covers the spending programs and tax cuts Congress previously approved, as leverage to push spending cuts, after two years of Democratic control of the House and the Senate.Biden on Tuesday is expected to insist that raising the debt limit is not negotiable and U.S. lawmakers should not use it as a "bargaining chip," his top economic adviser Brian Deese said on M"This bedrock idea that the United States has met all of its financial obligations for its existence as a country isn't something that anybody should be using as a bargaining chip. It's not a negotiable item," Deese said.Biden seemed to question McCarthy's ability to keep Republicans in line last week, calling McCarthy "a decent man, I think," but noting the concessions he made to become speaker in January. Those included changing a rule of the chamber to allow any member to call for a vote that would remove him, rather than requiring a majority from either party. Despite what appears to be a standoff, McCarthy emerged from a meeting with Biden last week saying he believed the two could find common ground.
Biden will insist that raising debt limit is not 'bargaining chip' -White House (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden will insist in his State of the Union address that raising the debt limit of the United States is not negotiable and should not be used as "bargaining chip" by U.S. lawmakers, his top economic adviser Brian Deese said on Monday. "This bedrock idea that the United States has met all of its financial obligations for its existence as a country isn't something that anybody should be using as a bargaining chip. It's not a negotiable item," Deese said. He said the economic consequences of questioning that principle could be "quite severe" and could allow adversaries to claim the "full faith and credit" of the United States had been weakened. The U.S. government hit its $31.4 trillion debt ceiling last month, prompting the Treasury Department to warn that it may not be able to stave off default past early June. Biden, a Democrat, last week met with Republican U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy to discuss a path forward. Latest Updates Top U.S. House Republican McCarthy wants compromise on debt ceiling, cuts from Biden Derailed train cars in Ohio drained of toxic chemical amid mass evacuation New York police abused demonstrators at George Floyd protest, report finds FBI charges neo-Nazi leader in plot to attack Baltimore power grid U.S. failed to detect past Chinese spy balloons, Air Force general says The White House has said Biden will discuss federal spending cuts with Republicans, but only after the debt ceiling is lifted, while McCarthy has said Republicans will only lift the ceiling if Biden agrees to spending cuts. Deese said Biden would express an "openness and, in fact, an eagerness to have a real serious conversation about the fiscal and economic priorities of the country" and potential ways to lower costs for families while continuing to invest and create more manufacturing jobs.
Biden on Republicans: ‘Their dream is to cut Social Security and Medicare’ - — A jubilant President Joe Biden kicked off his post-State of the Union blitz on Wednesday, buoyed after a night of touting his wins from the past two years and challenging Republicans.“Folks, I hate to disappoint them, but the Biden economic plan is working,” the president told a crowd gathered inside a union training center. “It’s working.”The president used his stop in the battleground state to drive home the themes from his national address, primarily his optimism about his economic plan. Biden also will continue hitting the road as he prepares to launch an expected reelection bid in the coming months.After running through his usual economic talking points, Biden capitalized on his handling of a tense exchange the previous night with Republicans for wanting “Medicare and Social Security to sunset.” While Biden didn’t name Sen. Rick Scott during his State of the Union speech, he did so on Wednesday, pulling out the Florida Republican’s “Rescue America” pamphlet that calls for all federal legislation to include such a provision.Then the president quoted Sen. Ron Johnson’s (R-Wis.) stance on the issue, prompting the crowd to boo.“They sure didn’t like me calling them on it,” Biden said, noting that Rep.Marjorie Taylor Green (R-Ga.) stood up and called him a “liar” during Tuesday night’s speech. “Look, a lot of Republicans — their dream is to cut Social Security and Medicare. Well, let me just say this. It’s your dream, but I’m going to use my veto pen and make it a nightmare.”A post-State of the Union barnstorming swing has become a traditional part of the calendar for modern presidents, with great thought put into the location for a visit inherently bound to receive more media attention than an average trip.For the Biden White House, it was always going to be Wisconsin. White House aides suggested that a lot of the year ahead will look just like this day. They believe that a message of blue collar populism works for the president, saying he is the first Democratic standard bearer in decades to successfully chase a demographic drifting steadily toward Republicans. A labor hall filled with union workers was considered a perfect backdrop for this particular president. Biden aides said they hoped to fill his schedule with events like this one — and like last week’s twin infrastructure events in Maryland and New York — to showcase the president’s record in creating jobs and tangible, real-world projects.
New study: Budget deficit jumps in concern as COVID worries decline - More Americans say they’re concerned about the nation’s budget deficit, new polling shows, as the ongoing battle over the debt limit continues to dominate attention on Capitol Hill. Survey results released by the Pew Research Center on Monday showed 57 percent of respondents see reducing the budget deficit as a top priority for the president and Congress this year — up 12 percent from last year. A closer look at the numbers revealed some partisan lines on the matter, with 71 percent of Republican and Republican-leaning respondents saying they saw the issue as a top priority, compared to 44 percent of Democratic and Democratic-leaning respondents who said the same. At the same time, fewer Americans say they see tackling the coronavirus outbreak as a top priority, with roughly a fourth of respondents calling the issue a top priority. The number, Pew notes, is a sharp contrast from recent years, when the nation also spent billions in coronavirus aid as it grappled with the pandemic. The results come as Congress feuds over how to address the nation’s borrowing limit, weeks after it crossed the roughly $31.4 trillion threshold lawmakers set more than a year ago.
Economy Remains the Public’s Top Policy Priority; COVID-19 Concerns Decline Again | Pew Research Center - With a new era of divided government beginning in Washington, the public’s top policy priority has not changed: Strengthening the economy tops Americans’ agenda, as it did a year ago.However, there have been some notable changes in Americans’ priorities for the president and Congress to address this year. Reducing the budget deficit is now a higher priority for the public than in recent years (now 57% vs. 45% a year ago). The change has come among members of both parties, though Republicans and those who lean to the Republican Party (71%) are far more likely than Democrats and Democratic leaners (44%) to view cutting the deficit as a leading priority. And dealing with the coronavirus outbreak is now one of the lowest priorities for Americans – just 26% now say it should be a top priority for the president and Congress, but it was among the top priorities in both 2021 and 2022.Overall, 75% of Americans say strengthening the economy should be a top priority this year, according to a new Pew Research Center survey conducted Jan. 18-24, 2023, among 5,152 U.S. adults. The public continues to express negative views of national economic conditions, despite continued job growth and signs that inflation may be easing. Just 21% rate economic conditions as excellent or good, which is only a slight increase from October (17%).Aside from the economy, no single policy area stands out. About six-in-ten rate several issues as top priorities: reducing health care costs (60%), defending against terrorism (60%), reducing the influence of money in politics (59%), reducing the budget deficit (57%), reducing crime (57%) and improving education (57%).About half of Americans (53%) say reducing the availability of illegal drugs, including heroin, fentanyl and cocaine, should be a top priority for the president and Congress. Similar shares say the same about dealing with immigration (53%), improving the energy system (52%) and improving the job situation (49%).Among the lowest items on the public’s agenda for the president and Congress are dealing with climate change (37%), dealing with global trade issues (34%) and addressing issues around race (32%). The public gives the lowest priority to dealing with the challenges facing parents (27%) and dealing with the coronavirus outbreak (26%). (For a closer look at the top policy priorities of partisan and demographic groups, see thedetailed tables accompanying this report.)While there are sizable differences in the shares of Americans who rate each of the 21 items included in the survey as a “top priority” for the president and Congress to address this year, in most cases large majorities rate each one as either a top priority or as an “important but lower priority.” Relatively few Americans say these policies “should not be done” or are “not too important.” At most, about 10% say a handful of policies should not be done (including 11% who say this about dealing with climate change and 9% for dealing with the coronavirus outbreak).
Here are the spending cuts Republicans have pitched in debt limit talks -President Biden ripped Republicans during his State of the Union address for efforts to use the nation’s debt ceiling as leverage to extract spending cuts from Democrats. “Some of my Republican friends want to take the economy hostage, I get it, unless I agree to their economic plans,” Biden said Tuesday night as the White House gears up for a budget battle with House Republicans “Next month when I offer my fiscal plan, I ask my Republican friends to lay down their plan as well. I really mean it.” GOP lawmakers have yet to unify around a specific plan to cut spending and reduce the debt in exchange for lifting the borrowing limit. With just four months until the Treasury Department could run out of ways to stave off a default, time is running down for Republicans to find common ground among each other, let alone Democrats.
- Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has voiced support for limits on new discretionary funding, after he agreed to work toward a balanced budget in 10 years as part of the concessions he made with GOP rebels to secure the Speakership gavel last month. Many Republicans have looked to nondefense programs as a way to trim expenditures and capping spending other than Social Security and Medicare at fiscal 2023 levels. But there have been concerns among Republicans amid talks of budget caps over how it could impact defense spending, which makes up much of what the government spends outside of entitlement programs.
- There has been some early chatter around work requirements for safety net programs, specifically Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) told Semafor that he has begun “socializing” a pitch to other Republicans that involves work requirements for Medicaid. Others have expressed openness to the idea. “I think, generally, able-bodied people that don’t have small kids and meet all the criteria should be seeking work,” Rep. Don Bacon (Neb.), a GOP moderate, told The Hill, saying he was open to the idea. Gaetz also led a group of five conservatives — Reps. Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Dan Bishop (N.C.), Lauren Boebert (Colo.) and Norman — in a letter to Biden ahead of his address on Tuesday, urging “structural reforms” for SNAP to cut spending amid talks. Both pitches are unlikely to head anywhere in the Democratic-led Senate.
- Some Republicans are looking to take back unspent COVID-19 pandemic relief funds from state governments as they plot their next steps in talks. Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), chair of the House Rules Committee, told NBC News that the idea “ought to be on the table,” and “certainly could” fit in whatever legislative deal Republicans hope to strike with Democrats in the coming months. But some Republicans are concerned that they could face legal hurdles and opposition from Democratic lawmakers, who are less willing to claw back the money.
- Biden took aim Tuesday at Republicans for proposed reforms to programs like Social Security and Medicare, accusing some of wanting to cut the programs in remarks that prompted immediate GOP pushback. “Some Republicans want Social Security and Medicare to sunset,” Biden said to jeers from Republicans. The president appeared to be referring to a proposal by Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) to sunset all federal legislation after five years.
Nord Stream Sabotage Was CIA, US Navy Covert Op: Seymour Hersh Bombshell Prompts White House Response - Famed journalist and Pulitzer prize winner Seymour Hersh, who for decades was a star reporter writing for The New York Times and New Yorker, on Wednesday published a new bombshell as his first Substack post, prompting a quick White House response. After conducting his own investigation into who sabotaged the Nord Stream pipelines via a series of underwater blasts on Sept. 26, Hersh has concluded the United States blew up the Russia-to-Germany natural gas pipeline as part of a covert operation under the guise of the BALTOPS 22 NATO exercise. Hersh, relying on unnamed national security sources, describes months of discussions and back-and-forth involving the Biden White House, CIA, and Pentagon. The report says planning was in the works all the way back to December 2021, with a special task force formed under the aegis of US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan."The Navy proposed using a newly commissioned submarine to assault the pipeline directly. The Air Force discussed dropping bombs with delayed fuses that could be set off remotely. The CIA argued that whatever was done, it would have to be covert. Everyone involved understood the stakes," the report, entitled How America Took Out The Nord Stream Pipeline reads. "The Biden Administration was doing everything possible to avoid leaks as the planning took place late in 2021 and into the first months of 2022," it continues. As momentum gained to proceed with a covert sabotage attack, "Over the next few weeks, members of the CIA’s working group began to craft a plan for a covert operation that would use deep-sea divers to trigger an explosion along the pipeline," Hersh writes. But there was significant push back within the intelligence community, but any reservations were overcome in the lead-up and aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. According to the investigative report: Throughout “all of this scheming,” the source said, “some working guys in the CIA and the State Department were saying, ‘Don’t do this. It’s stupid and will be a political nightmare if it comes out.’”Nevertheless, in early 2022, the CIA working group reported back to Sullivan’s interagency group: “We have a way to blow up the pipelines.”What came next was stunning. On February 7, less than three weeks before the seemingly inevitable Russian invasion of Ukraine, Biden met in his White House office with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who, after some wobbling, was now firmly on the American team. At the press briefing that followed, Biden defiantly said, “If Russia invades . . . there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it.”Twenty days earlier, Undersecretary Nuland had delivered essentially the same message at a State Department briefing, with little press coverage. “I want to be very clear to you today,” she said in response to a question. “If Russia invades Ukraine, one way or another Nord Stream 2 will not move forward.”As for Washington motives in such a risky covert sabotage mission, Hersh writes, "As long as Europe remained dependent on the pipelines for cheap natural gas, Washington was afraid that countries like Germany would be reluctant to supply Ukraine with the money and weapons it needed to defeat Russia."
Kremlin says those behind Nord Stream blasts must be punished (Reuters) -The Kremlin said on Thursday the world should know the truth about who sabotaged the Nord Stream gas pipelines and that those responsible should be punished after an investigative journalist said U.S. divers blew them up at the behest of the White House. A sharp drop in pressure on both pipelines was registered on Sept. 26 and seismologists detected explosions, triggering a wave of speculation about sabotage to one of Russia's most important energy corridors. In a blog post, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh cited an unidentified source as saying that U.S. navy divers had destroyed the pipelines with explosives on the orders of President Joe Biden. Reuters was unable to corroborate the allegations. The White House dismissed them as "utterly false and complete fiction". Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Hersh's blog post deserved more attention and that he was surprised it had not been covered more fully by Western media. "The world must find out the truth about who carried out this act of sabotage," Peskov told reporters. "This is a very dangerous precedent: if someone did it once, they can do it again anywhere in the world." He called for "an open international investigation of this unprecedented attack on international critical infrastructure", adding: "It is impossible to leave this without uncovering those responsible and punishing them." Russia, without providing evidence, has repeatedly said the West was behind the blasts affecting the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines last September - multibillion-dollar infrastructure projects that carried Russian gas to Germany. President Vladimir Putin has accused "Anglo-Saxon" powers of blowing up the pipelines, a Kremlin-designed project to circumvent Ukraine in exporting its gas under the Baltic Sea directly to western Europe. Investigators from Sweden and Denmark - in whose exclusive economic zones the explosions occurred - have said the ruptures were a result of sabotage, but have not said who they believe was responsible. In his blog post, entitled "How America Took Out The Nord Stream Pipeline", Hersh said a plan was hatched in 2021 at the highest levels in the United States to destroy the pipelines. The report said a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) working group came up with a covert operation plan to put explosives on the pipelines. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier this month that Washington was directly involved in the sabotage of the pipelines.
So Much for Sanctions on Russia - In February 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, the US orchestrated a perhaps unprecedented sanctions clampdown on Russia. A month later, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen declared with certainty that "the Russian economy will be devastated as a consequence of what we’ve already done."She was wrong. The sanctions on Russia have failed to achieve their primary goal: they have not forced Russia to end its war with Ukraine. They have even failed to achieve the means to that goal: they have not devastated the Russian economy.Yellen boasted that "We have isolated Russia financially. The ruble has been in a free fall. The Russian stock market is closed. Russia has been effectively shut out of the international financial system." Not one of those boasts turned out to be true.It should not be surprising that the sanctions on Russia failed either to force a regime change or a change in the regime’s plans. Years of US led sanctions have not brought about their desired effects in Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, Iran, Syria or Russia.Sanctions can have undesired consequences, though. In addition to frequently harming the civilian population more than the government, they can even rally the population behind that government. Sanctions can hurt the people the US is trying to help and help the government the US is trying to hurt. That has been true in the past in Russia. In The Putin Paradox, Richard Sakwa observes that, though past sanctions were meant “to shape Russian policy” or lead to “regime change,” they “tended only to reinforce solidarity around the Kremlin” while they “rallied the country behind Putin.” That seems also to be true today.In using sanctions in pursuit of its goal of maintaining US hegemony in a unipolar world, the US may have helped reinforce the unintended opposite. Sanctions have only driven Russia closer to China, India, Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia and other nations. They have strengthened the multipolar world. Russia and China’s relations are closer than ever. That is the antithesis of the signature US foreign policy of triangular diplomacy that prescribes keeping at least one of those two countries closer to the US at any given moment than they are to each other.
How far is President Biden willing to ascend the escalation ladder on Ukraine? - By any accounting, Tuesday’s State of the Union was short on talk of foreign policy. President Biden made scant reference to America’s role in the world, absent a brief but cadenced assertion of commitments to “the most basic of principles;” namely, “sovereignty,” life “free of tyranny,” and “the defense of democracy.”About an hour in, the address showcased Oksana Markarova, Ukraine’s ambassador to Washington, but reference to American material support came only in passing assurance of “as long as it takes.” This stands in stark contrast to last year’s address, delivered during the opening weeks of Russia’s invasion, when President Biden opened with a blistering critique of Vladimir Putin and encouragement of the Ukrainian people.Some in Kyiv may have hoped that Biden’s exhortative “Let’s finish the job” refrain might have been applied to a collective goal—say, the recapture of Crimea or the assurance of advanced fighter jets. This was not their speech.Rather, President Biden’s most remarked upon reference to Ukraine of late came last week when a reporter’s question about the possibility of providing F-16 fighter jets was met with a brusque “No.” This brief exchange was widely viewed as a setback for Ukraine. Deputy Foreign Minister Andriy Melnyk has lately implored allies to establish a “fighter jet coalition” that would summon not only F-16s but also a multinational fleet of Eurofighters and Tornados alongside French Rafales and Swedish Gripens. However, if past is precedent, “no” rarely means “never” when it comes to American support. This applies to statements—or lack thereof—from the president and key deputies, alike. To the contrary, it usually means “not yet.” As if to confirm the corollary, Oleksii Reznikov, the Ukrainian defense minister, has remarked “All types of assistance at the beginning went through the ‘no’ stage. This means ‘no’ as of today.” Consider recent reversals. At the end of December, the Biden administration announced it would respond to Kyiv’s urgent requests for more advanced ground-based air defenses by sending Patriot missile batteries. The White House had previously demurred from providing the systems, presumably because they are manpower- and training-intensive, ill-suited to contend with drones and smaller ballistic missiles deployed by Russia, and enormously expensive. Meanwhile, Colin Kahl—President Biden’s undersecretary of defense for policy—observed to reporters that “The Abrams tank is a very complicated piece of equipment. It’s expensive, it’s hard to train on. It has a jet engine; I think it’s about three gallons to the mile of jet fuel. It is not the easiest system to maintain. It may or may not be the right system.” He then echoed Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s concerns that “We should not be providing the Ukrainians systems they can’t repair, they can’t sustain, and that they, over the long term, can’t afford, because it’s not helpful.” One week later, the Pentagon confirmed it would provide 31 M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine. This announcement was released in coordination with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s statement that his government will provide 14 Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.
Bipartisan bills would repeal authorization of Gulf, Iraq wars - Two bipartisan bills introduced on Thursday would repeal the war authorizations for the Gulf War in Kuwait in the early ’90s and for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, both of which remain on the books years after the U.S. military withdrew troops from the Middle Eastern nations. The pieces of legislation would formally repeal the 1991 authorization for the Gulf War and the 2002 authorization for the Iraq War to prevent a future president from exploiting them, while also reasserting the role of Congress in deciding when to send troops to battle, both senators and House members said in a press release. The bill was introduced by Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Todd Young (R-Ind.) in the Senate. In the House, Reps. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Chip Roy (R-Texas), Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) and Tom Cole (R-Okla.) introduced paired legislation. Kaine said the war authorizations are “no longer necessary, serve no operational purpose, and run the risk of potential misuse.” “Congress is responsible for both declaring wars and ending them because decisions as important as whether or not to send our troops into harm’s way warrant careful deliberation and consensus,” the senator said in a statement. Previous legislation to repeal the war authorizations were introduced by Kaine and Young in 2019 and 2021. Also in 2021, the House voted to repeal the war authorizations, but the measure got snagged up that year in the Senate. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he supports the new legislation from Kaine and Young. “The Iraq war has been over for more than a decade. Saddam Hussein is no longer around; his regime has long been removed,” Schumer said in a statement. “Every year we keep this authorization to use military force on the books is another chance for a future President to abuse or misuse it.
How the Media Ignores Yemen - Since 2014, the tiny country of Yemen has been devastated by the ongoing civil war following the Houthi takeover of the government. It only got worse as in March 2015; President Barack Obama began to aid the Saudi Arabians in the war effort. As of February 2022, over 370,000 people have lost their lives thanks to the war thanks to lack of food, medical necessities, and bombings. Despite the severity of the war, the press has covered extraordinarily little of the war. Between 2015 and 2019, the media only covered about ninety-two minutes of the ongoing war. Based on the atrocities, this is shockingly low. It is especially low when the media chose to cover the false Russian election meddling. MSNBC even went an entire year without mentioning the conflict.With this in hand, you might be asking yourself, why isn’t the media covering this? The reasoning for this is because the United States would be seen as bad guys.Ever since our involvement in the war, the United States has done nothing but harm to the region. Not even a year into United States involvement, and the United States was already being accused of war crimes by the HumanRights Watch. They reported 10 unlawful airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition led to over 300 civilians dying and 400 more wounded in 2015.In October 2016, a Saudi Arabian bomb was dropped on funeral ceremony in Sanaa, Yemen’s capitol. Over 100 people died and 500 wounded; many of whom were children in an apparent war crime. Footage shows charred and mutilated bodies strewn in and outside of the funeral hall.Another horrible incident occurred in September 2018, when a bomb was dropped on a school bus on a field trip. Many of the children on board were under the age of 15; all 40 of the children would die in another war crime.To make things worse for the United States (who is on the side of Saudi Arabia), these bombs were manufactured by an American company calledLockheed Martin.The Saudi-led coalition continued to do harm towards the people of Yemen. They would begin to target grain silos, livestock, horses, irrigation systems, trucks, and other aspects of food distribution.The United States has continued to make the humanitarian crisis even worse by installing a naval blockade on the country that had become 90% dependent thanks to the government destroying domestic food distribution.
Yellen says China should move faster on some debt restructurings - (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Thursday that she wants China to move more quickly to support specific debt restructuring for developing countries, especially for Zambia, while leaving broader restructuring questions to separate talks. Yellen told an event at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington that China has held up restructurings because Beijing has demanded that the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and other institutions also participate in reducing debts for distressed countries. "China really needs to come to the table. China's lack of willingness to comprehensively participate and to move in a timely way has really been a roadblock," Yellen said. She said she is encouraged through multiple conversations, including with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, in Zurich last month, that Beijing "understands the problem and may be willing to work to make faster progress". But she said that some broader questions, such as whether international financial institutions participate in debt restructurings, are blocking progress on specific cases.m
China Reacts With "Strong Dissatisfaction" After US Shot Down Spy Balloon --After a US stealth fighter jet shot down the Chinese surveillance balloon off the South Carolina coast on Saturday afternoon, the reaction from Beijing abruptly changed from expressing regret to being defensive and outraged.China's Foreign Ministry published a statement on Sunday morning, stating its "strong dissatisfaction and protest against the US's use of force to attack civilian unmanned airships.""China will resolutely uphold the relevant company's legitimate rights and interests, and at the same time reserving the right to take further actions in response," the ministry said.The ministry continued: "The Chinese side clearly requested that the US appropriately deal with this in a calm, professional and restrained manner."It added:"For the United States to insist on using armed force is clearly an excessive reaction. As early as Wednesday, President Biden wanted to blast the balloon out of the sky, though Pentagon officials persuaded him to wait until the balloon was safely over the Atlantic Ocean. Beijing has stated the balloon accidentally veered off course and was primarily used for "meteorological purposes." But not according to US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, he accused China of using the balloon to "surveil strategic sites in the continental United States." The incident forced US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to postpone his weekend trip to Beijing, indicating high-level talks between both countries to calm tensions won't happen for some time.
House lawmakers draft resolution to condemn Chinese spy balloon - House lawmakers are prepping a bipartisan resolution to condemn China after the U.S. shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon over the weekend, which ratcheted up tensions between Washington and Beijing. Though Republicans have sharply criticized the Biden administration for waiting for days as the balloon traveled across the continental U.S. to South Carolina before shooting it down, the resolution is not expected to focus blame on President Biden. “We want it to be a bipartisan resolution about China, not about us fighting each other,” Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told reporters Monday night. “It’s too important of an issue, you know. We want to stand strong together against China instead of having our internal fights.” McCaul said he sent a draft resolution to Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), the ranking member of the panel, who has “made his comments.” The two were set to meet Monday evening to “hash it out,” according to McCaul. He said the resolution could be released as soon as this week.
U.S. imposes security zone in search for Chinese balloon remnants (Reuters) - The U.S. Coast Guard on Monday imposed a temporary security zone in waters off South Carolina during the military's search and recovery of debris from a suspected Chinese spy balloon that a U.S. fighter jet shot down.The White House said the balloon's flight over the United States had done nothing to improve already tense relations with China and its national security spokesperson dismissed Beijing's contention that the balloon was for meteorological purposes as straining credulity. Beijing condemned the shooting down of the balloon and urged Washington to show restraint over the episode. White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters: "Nobody wants to see conflict here."U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken postponed a planned Feb.5-6 visit to China because of the balloon's flight into U.S. airspace last week. It was shot down off the Atlantic Coast on Saturday.Kirby said Blinken would seek to reschedule the trip when the time is right.
Naval Recovery Mission Underway To Find Chinese Spy Balloon Debris -The U.S. military has started a recovery mission for debris from the Chinese spy balloon that was shot down by a U.S. fighter jet on Feb. 4, according to the Pentagon. Several U.S. Navy and Coast Guard vessels established a security perimeter where the balloon hit the water, about six nautical miles off the coast of South Carolina, and were searching for debris, a senior defense official and a senior military official said on Feb. 4.“The nature of the debris is still being assessed. But recovery options will seek to recover all debris and any material of intelligence value,” the defense official said. “And we’ll make sure that we’re working closely with the FBI on the chain of custody as we do so.”The two officials didn’t give an estimate of how long the recovery will last but noted that the mission should be “fairly easy,” since the balloon came down in a shallow area.The recovery of the balloon will allow analysts to examine any sensitive Chinese equipment, according to the defense official.“I would also note that while we took all necessary steps to protect against the PRC surveillance balloon’s collection of sensitive information, the surveillance balloon’s overflight of U.S. territory was of intelligence value to us,” the defense official said, using the acronym for the People’s Republic of China.“I can’t go into more detail, but we were able to study and scrutinize the balloon and its equipment, which has been valuable.” Navy divers and a salvage vessel under U.S. Northern Command will join the recovery effort, the military official noted. “We have learned technical things about this balloon and its surveillance capabilities. And I suspect if we are successful in recovering aspects of the debris, we will learn even more,” the military official said.
China spy balloon: Rough seas complicate US recovery operations - Navy vessels were off the coast of South Carolina on Monday to recover pieces of the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon shot down this past weekend, though rough waters initially complicated the effort, according to the head of U.S. Northern Command. A Navy dock landing ship, the USS Carter Hall, is in the vicinity of where the balloon splashed down after President Biden on Saturday ordered the U.S. military to shoot down the aerial object that had spent days floating over the country, Gen. Glen VanHerck told reporters. The ship is currently collecting and categorizing debris while an oceanographic survey ship, USNS Pathfinder, is mapping out the balloon’s debris field, predicted at about 1,500 meters by 1,500 meters, or “more than 15 football fields by 15 football fields,” he said. As the military is worried that material on the balloon could contain explosives or be hazardous, an explosive ordnance disposal team was on-site Monday morning. The forces deployed unmanned underwater vehicles with side-scan sonar to further locate sunken debris, VanHerck noted. FBI and Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents are also working with U.S. forces on the salvage operations, though VanHerck couldn’t say where the debris is going to go for a final analysis. He added that rough seas on Sunday curtailed some recovery operations such as underwater surveillance and said some debris may float to shore due to ocean currents. Should that happen, he asked the public to avoid contact with any debris and to contact local law enforcement if they find it.
White House wants to ‘exploit’ what it can recover from China balloon - White House national security officials on Monday said the Biden administration is working to recover the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon shot down over the Atlantic Ocean on Saturday. National security adviser Jake Sullivan said recovering the balloon will take time but be beneficial “so that we can then exploit what we recover and learn even more than we have learned.” He offered the remarks during an appearance as part of a panel at the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition summit. Sullivan said the U.S. has been able to learn a good amount already because officials monitored the balloon when it traversed the U.S. before it was shot down. National security spokesman John Kirby echoed those comments in a briefing on Monday, noting how valuable it will be to surveil the balloon. “Our efforts to surveil this balloon and what we’re going to learn from the recovery will prove to be valuable,” he said. “The time that we had to study this balloon over the course of a few days last week, we believe, was important and will give us a lot more clarity not only on the capabilities that these balloons have but what China is trying to do with them,” Kirby added. He also said he would not discuss assessments of whether Chinese President Xi Jinping was aware of the balloon before it was revealed by the U.S. “As you know, we are still in recovery mode on the balloon remnants itself both on the surface and under sea. And we expect we’ll learn more through that recovery effort,” he said.
U.S. failed to detect past Chinese spy balloons, Air Force general says (Reuters) - A senior U.S. general responsible for bringing down a Chinese spy balloon said on Monday the military had not detected previous spy balloons before the one that appeared on Jan. 28 over the United States and called it an "awareness gap."The Pentagon said over the weekend that Chinese spy balloons had briefly flown over the United States at least three times during President Donald Trump's administration and one previously under President Joe Biden.Air Force General Glen VanHerck, head of U.S. North American Aerospace Defense Command and Northern Command, said the latest balloon was 200 feet (60 meters) tall and the payload under it weighed a couple thousand pounds.He did not provide details on previous balloons, including where over the United States they flew."I will tell you that we did not detect those threats, and that's a domain awareness gap," VanHerck said.
Balloon was part of wider Chinese snooping effort, Pentagon says - A Chinese spy balloon that was shot down last week and several others that crossed into U.S. territory were part of a broader surveillance effort by Beijing, the Pentagon’s top spokesperson said Wednesday.The surveillance balloon program has been operating “for several years,” Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters at the Pentagon.Though he wouldn’t address intelligence underpinning U.S. assessments of the balloons, Ryder said the U.S. is aware of four previous balloons that have crossed into U.S. airspace — three during the Trump administration and one early in President Joe Biden’s term.“We are aware that there have been four previous balloons that have gone over U.S. territory. This is what we assess is part of a larger Chinese surveillance balloon program,” Ryder said. “You’ve heard us talk in the past about the fact that this is a program that’s been operated for several years.”Last week, the military tracked a balloon that crossed the U.S. before it was shot down off the coast of the Carolinas on Saturday. The military is still working to recover debris from the airship.Outrage over Beijing’s encroachment last week was further fueled by revelations of several more Chinese balloons that crossed into U.S. territory but went undetected. Ryder said the military has since “learned a lot on how to track” the balloons.Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who postponed a visit to Beijing over the balloon, echoed the assessment that China’s surveillance was widespread. He said the U.S. has “shared information with dozens of countries.”“We’re not alone in this,” Blinken told reporters on Wednesday. “Countries across five continents have also had surveillance balloons [fly over] their territory, which is why we’re sharing this information with others.”“We continue to look to China to act responsibly,” he said.The global surveillance network was first reported by The Washington Post.There’s bipartisan furor over China’s incursion, but Biden is also taking heat, mostly from Republicans, over waiting to shoot down the balloon.Biden said he ordered the craft shot down last week, but military brass advised waiting until it was over water to minimize risks to people on the ground.
"It's Disinformation": Trump, Former Officials Slam Anonymous Report Of Chinese Spy Balloons Under Their Watch -Former President Donald Trump lashed out at a report from an anonymous US Defense Department official who said over the weekend that spy balloons transited over US territory while he was president. "This never happened. It would have never happened," Trump told Fox News on Sunday, adding that the Chinese regime "respected us greatly" under his watch. "It never happened with us under the Trump administration and if it did, we would have shot it down immediately," Trump added. "It's disinformation." Trump said the Biden administration is spreading this because "they look so bad, as usual." "They are incompetent," he said. -Fox News
Chinese 'spy' balloon: Marjorie Taylor Greene wants probe into why Trump was unaware of previous balloons - Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) on Monday called for a probe into why former President Trump was apparently not informed of previous Chinese surveillance balloons that Biden officials are saying crossed over the U.S. at least three times during the previous administration. “If it’s true the Pentagon purposely did NOT tell President Trump of Chinese Spy Balloons during his administration then we had a serious breach in command during the Trump admin,” Greene said on Twitter. “The POTUS is the Commander in Chief. We must investigate and hold accountable those who broke rank,” the longtime Trump ally said. President Biden ordered the U.S. military on Saturday to shoot down a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that had spent days floating over the country in what defense officials later said was a clear effort to spy on sensitive sites. A Pentagon official revealed on Sunday that similar aircraft had been spotted at least three additional times under Trump, but the former president swiftly denied that balloons had entered U.S. airspace on his watch. Former Trump national security adviser John Bolton said he was not aware of any such incidents during his tenure — and other Trump administration officials have chimed in with the same. Bloomberg reported Sunday, citing a senior administration official, that the U.S. didn’t learn about the previous balloon flights until after Biden had replaced Trump in the Oval Office — though it remains unclear how the Biden officials eventually learned about the past instances. The defense official noted that previous flights — including an additional sighting at the beginning of the Biden administration — had not transited U.S. airspace for as long as the balloon recently shot down.
China refused conversation with US defense secretary following downing of suspected spy balloon - China refused a conversation with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin following the downing of the suspected Chinese balloon, the Pentagon said in a statement Tuesday.The Defense Department submitted a request for a call between Austin and China’s Minister of National Defense Wei Fenghe immediately after the US fighter jets shot down the balloon on Saturday afternoon. But China declined the request, according to the Pentagon.“We believe in the importance of maintaining open lines of communication between the United States and the [People’s Republic of China] in order to responsibly manage the relationship,” Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said in the statement.China maintains the vessel was a weather balloon thrown off course but did offer a rare expression of “regret” over it in a statement Friday.US Secretary of State Antony Blinken postponed a trip to Beijing that was due to take place last weekend over the presence of the balloon, and President Joe Biden’s decision to shoot it down has further heightened tensions between Washington and Beijing.Beijing’s rhetoric hardened significantly after the US military shot down the balloon, with China’s Foreign Ministry accusing the US of “overreacting” and “seriously violating international practice.” The Defense Ministry, meanwhile, expressed “solemn protest,” warning China “reserves the right to use necessary means to deal with similar situations.”On Monday, China’s Foreign Ministry said the debris of the balloon does not belong to the US. “The airship is China’s, not the US,’” a spokesperson for the ministry said at a regular news conference, when asked about whether the US should return the remnants of the balloon to China.
Biden says China spy balloon ‘not a major breach’ - President Biden on Thursday said that the suspected Chinese spy balloon that flew over much of the U.S. last week was “not a major breach,” comparing it to intelligence gathering conducted by countries around the world. “It’s not a major breach. Look, the total amount of intelligence gathering that’s going on by every country around the world is overwhelming,” Biden said in an interview with Noticias Telemundo that airs this evening. Biden, however does acknowledge that in the case of last week’s incident, China sending the balloon was “a violation of international law.” “It’s our airspace. And once it comes into our space, we can do what we want with it,” the president said. Biden ordered a U.S. military take down of the suspected spy balloon off the South Carolina coast on Saturday after it was first reported flying over Montana last Wednesday with the ordeal intensifying tensions between Washington and Beijing. The balloon had antennas to collect communications and solar panels to power its sensors as it traversed the U.S., a State Department official said earlier on Thursday.The president faced a rash of criticism over the weekend, mostly from Republicans, who said he acted too slowly to shoot down the balloon. Biden has since defended his position, saying he was advised to wait to shoot it down until it went over water to avoid any potential deaths on the ground.
Downed spy balloon may muddy US-China medical supply chains - A planned early-February visit between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing had buoyed hopes for smoothing a cratered relationship between the world powers.Then a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon hovering over a sensitive US nuclear site at Montana's Malmstrom Air Force Base on Feb 2 led Blinken to cancel his trip. Two days later, the United States shot down the balloon off the coast of South Carolina, outraging China.As the US Navy examines the balloon and searches for its cargo, experts fear the incident's effects on the US-China medical supply chain, according to an article yesterday in Scrip. The United States relies on overseas manufacturing for 18 of 21 critical antibiotics and 72% of its active pharmaceutical ingredients.The incident shows there is still a long way for Washington and Beijing to return to the table."From upending the US Food and Drug Administration's [FDA's] regulatory inspections in China … to lucrative cross-border funding and deal-making, the incident shows there is still a long way for Washington and Beijing to return to the table," Scrip reported.
North Korea displays enough ICBMs to overwhelm U.S. defense system against them - North Korea has just revealed a large enough number of missiles to conceivably overwhelm the United States’ defense against them, blowing a hole in decades of denuclearization and homeland security policies.Images from state-run media show North Korea’s military rolling 10 to 12 Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missiles down the streets of Pyongyang during a Wednesday night parade. The U.S. only has 44 ground-based interceptors to launch from Alaska and California to destroy an oncoming ICBM in flight. Assuming North Korea’s weapons can fit four warheads atop them, it’s possible Pyongyang can fire more warheads at the U.S. than America has interceptors.U.S. officials and experts have long felt it was only a matter of time before North Korea built its way out of the missile-defense problem.The Hwasong-17 has the theoretical range to make it all the way to the United States from North Korea. But Pyongyang has yet to demonstrate the warhead’s survivability upon reentry or that it could hit a desired target from so far away.Regardless, the message from North Korea and its leader Kim Jong Un is clear: Despite repeated efforts, the U.S. can’t stop us. It’s a defiant display that both underscores the nation’s stunning military advancement and Western failures to get the ruling Kim family to part with its weapons.“It punches a hole in 20-plus years of U.S. homeland missile defense policy predicated on defending against a ‘limited’ missile threat from North Korea. That threat is no longer limited and the United States cannot count on missile defense to confer anything close to invulnerability to North Korean retaliation in a conflict,” said Ankit Panda, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and author of “Kim Jong Un and the Bomb.”Critics of the ground-based midcourse defense system, or GMD, say it wouldn’t take so many North Korean missiles to get past it. It might only take one.The problem may only get worse. North Korea also showcased a series of vehicles carrying solid-fuel missile canisters representing their effort to develop land-based, solid-fuel ICBMs. Those weapons don’t need to spend time fueling up before launch — they essentially come preloaded — shortening the time Pyongyang has to rush them out for launch before an adversary shoots them on the ground.
Elon Musk: "Most Are Oblivious" To The Danger Of World War 3 - Tesla founder Elon Musk warned that “most are oblivious to the danger” of World War 3 as the conflict in Ukraine continues to escalate. The comment was in response to a speech by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to the General Assembly on Monday during which he expressed his fear that humanity was marching toward a “wider war” with its “eyes wide open”.“Could we please not do WWIII,” asked commentator Luke Rudkowski.“Most are oblivious to the danger,” responded Musk.Despite Musk providing his SpaceX Starlink satellite internet systems to the Ukrainian government, supporters of prolonging the war have attacked Musk for calling for peace.Last week, Mikhail Podoliak, an aide to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, even claimed, without evidence, that Musk was restricting the reach of pro-Ukraine Twitter accounts in order to help spread “Russian propaganda”.“Maybe a regulator is needed to explain competition rules to the owner?” Podoliak suggested.The Twitter CEO previously warned that the “relentless escalation” of the conflict in Ukraine was placing the security of the world in jeopardy.
'High-altitude object' over Alaska shot down by US military - President Joe Biden told CNN that the shoot-down of a "high-altitude object" hovering over Alaska on Friday "was a success," shortly after American national security officials disclosed that the commander-in-chief gave the U.S. military approval to take the action. The announcement — marking the second time American fighter jets have taken down an object flying over U.S. airspace in a little less than a week — comes after the administration was subjected to a slew of questions about the timing of Biden's decision to shoot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina last Saturday. This time, the president took more decisive action to swiftly take down the object near Alaska, but key questions about the origin of the object and its functionality remain unanswered. After the object was first detected on Thursday, F-35 fighter jets were sent to up to investigate, according to a U.S. official. The object, National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby said during a White House press briefing, was flying at an altitude of 40,000 feet and "posed a reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flight." Along with the effort by F-35s on Thursday, fighter aircraft also engaged with the object again Friday morning. Both engagements yielded "limited" information, Kirby told reporters. "We were able to get some fighter aircrafts up and around it before the order to shoot it down, and the pilots assessment was this was not manned," Kirby added. The president was first briefed Thursday night "as soon as the Pentagon had enough information," Kirby said, adding that at the recommendation of the Pentagon, Biden ordered the military "to down the object — and they did." The object was brought down by fighter aircraft assigned to U.S. Northern Command. And U.S. officials have said the object was taken down over frozen Arctic Ocean waters near the Canadian border, about 10 miles off the north coast of Alaska. The U.S. expects to recover the debris, Kirby said.
A climate scientist is evaluating America's spy programs - President Joe Biden’s Intelligence Advisory Board now includes a top climate scientist. Biden recently announced the appointment of Kim Cobb, an earth sciences professor at Brown University and a lead author of the most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, released in 2021, to the White House council that’s tasked with evaluating the effectiveness of the nation’s intelligence community. The council provides recommendation to the White House, and presidents have both followed and ignored its advice in the seven decades since it was founded. Shortly after taking office in January 2021, Biden issued a series of climate-related executive orders, including one that required the intelligence community to assess the national security threats posed by climate change. The result was a National Intelligence Estimate that predicted rising geopolitical risks as nations increasingly argue over each others’ failures to reduce greenhouse gases. That could lead countries to harden their borders against high-carbon products and climate migrants. The report also warned that conflicts between nations could rise over water, minerals used in clean energy technology and food. “The cooperative breakthrough of the Paris Agreement may be short lived as countries struggle to reduce their emissions and blame others for not doing enough,” the report said. For years, climate science has been an important consideration for the U.S. intelligence community, a sprawling collection of at least 19 agencies including the Director of National Intelligence, the CIA and the Energy Department’s Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence. “It’s very clear that in order to get the best possible intelligence assessment of security threats around the world, one has to integrate the environment in which those threats are operating and what may influence those threats,” said John Conger, principal deputy undersecretary of Defense in the Obama administration and senior adviser to the Center for Climate and Security. “That includes things like food security, water scarcity, extreme heat, melting of arctic ice caps and different weather patterns that are going to influence people on the ground.”
New law forces wind energy behind oil drilling in the Gulf -President Joe Biden’s administration is tapping the brakes on offshore wind energy development in the Gulf of Mexico to make way for a new fast-tracked effort to open more federal waters to oil and gas drilling. The move, which runs counter to Biden’s ambitious goals for cutting greenhouse gas emissions and speeding the growth of renewable energy, will delay the first-ever auction of wind energy lease areas in the Gulf by at least six months.Wind energy companies had been lining up to bid on a 174,000-acre area south of Lake Charles and a 508,000-acre area near Galveston, Texas in late December. The two lease areas have the potential to generate enough power for almost 3 million homes, according to the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. But Biden’s signing of theInflation Reduction Act put those plans on hold, likely until sometime this summer, federal regulators confirmed this week. The nearly $370 billion spending package has what some critics say are conflicting aims. On one hand, it offers a historic investment in clean energy, mostly through tax credits for solar and wind energy projects. But buried at the end of the 725-page law are special provisions for fossil fuel extraction in the Gulf.The act requires that the government offer new drilling opportunities across a vast area of the Gulf and mandates that wind energy projects take a back seat to oil and gas projects on public lands and waters.The provision was included to secure the support of Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat who often sides with Republicans and receives strong financial backing from the oil and gas industry. Manchin praised the provision, saying increased drilling is “critical to American energy security” and will help “ease the pain Americans are feeling from record inflation and high energy prices.”Environmental groups blasted the Biden administration for hindering progress on its own climate and renewable energy goals.“It’s self-defeating to handcuff renewable energy development to massive new oil and gas extraction,” said Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “It’s a slap in the face to the communities fighting to protect themselves from filthy fossil fuels.” Last year, the Biden administration canceled a pair of oil and gas lease sales, citing conflicting court rulings on proposed lease sales. The Inflation Reduction Act revived both sales as well as a previously nullified lease sale from 2021. BOEM has had to take staff off other projects to meet upcoming leasing deadlines set by the act, a bureau spokesman said. The Biden administration’s goal of generating 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030 will require pushing more than a dozen large wind farms through a new and convoluted regulatory process for offshore wind energy. So far, only two offshore wind farms are operating in U.S. waters. Two projects are under construction near Massachusetts and New York, and several more are planned along the East Coast.
Biden's oil comments drew laughs, but our children's future is no joke | National Catholic Reporter - The State of the Union is usually heavily scripted, as the president lays out plans for the country. But one of President Joe Biden's most important remarks during the Feb. 7 address may have been improvised.While talking about soaring corporate profits, he noted that the oil industry took home $200 billion in profits last year. He said executives justified this by telling him they were afraid he would shut down oil refineries anyway, so why would they invest in increasing domestic production?"We are going to need oil for at least another decade," the president responded during the speech, earning guffaws from some in the chamber. Apparently many in the audience simply couldn't imagine a world without oil — 10 years feels so unrealistic that it must have been meant as a joke.But the president wasn't joking. And the dire future facing young people today, with many even worried about having children because they fear an unlivable planet, is no laughing matter.When it comes to oil production in the United States, the Biden administration has taken two, somewhat contradictory, approaches.Earlier this month the administration approved a massive oil drilling project on the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, which is projected to produce about 600 million barrels of oil over 30 years. Opponents call the drilling plan a "carbon bomb."At the same time, in his State of the Union address the president touted his Inflation Reduction Act as "the most significant investment ever to tackle the climate crisis.""Let's face reality," Biden said. "The climate crisis doesn't care if your state is red or blue. It is an existential threat. We have an obligation to our children and grandchildren to confront it." But our children and grandchildren aren't waiting for older Americans to confront the problem anymore. They are taking the matter into their own hands.With their future uncertain and drawing inspiration and guidance from their church, young Catholics are calling on their leaders to act on the appropriate scale needed for the climate crisis.This month, high school students in the Archdiocese of Chicago are hosting a Youth Climate Summit for their peers, connecting climate science to their Catholic faith.And Catholic young adults now have a yearlong fellowship opportunity through the Catholic Climate Covenant — the Common Home Corps — to receive education on how best to engage church leaders on climate change and to urge concrete actions.
What climate law? Voters clueless about Biden's top achievement - President Joe Biden and his team are fanning out across the country to tout the climate-change-fighting, job-creating, money-saving benefits coming from Democrats’ landmark Inflation Reduction Act. The problem? Most Americans have probably heard more about Republican complaints that Biden is coming for their gas stoves. Biden used his platform at Tuesday’s State of the Union address to call the Inflation Reduction Act and its $369 billion in green incentives “the most significant investment ever to tackle the climate crisis,” while proclaiming that the law will trigger a boom in U.S. clean energy manufacturing. His Energy Department followed that up Thursday by announcing it was lending $2 billion to a Nevada company that promises to create thousands of jobs producing materials for electric vehicle batteries. The sales pitch for Biden’s signature legislation would be crucial to any reelection effort he wages in 2024. But polls show that few Americans are aware of the climate law and how it could benefit them — creating a political challenge that the president’s Democratic allies acknowledge. “If we can’t figure out how to sell that story over the next two years, we should find a different job,” Senate Environment and Public Works Chair Tom Carper (D-Del.), whose committee wrote a sizable chunk of the law, said in an interview. “And I don’t have any plans to find a different job.” It won’t be an easy task. A third of registered voters have heard “nothing at all” about the climate law, while another 24 percent heard “a little” and 29 percent heard “some,” according to a Yale Project on Climate Change Communication poll conducted in December. A Washington Post-ABC News poll released Monday found that 62 percent of Americans thought Biden had accomplished “not very much” or “little or nothing.” “I really feel sympathy with the president,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) told POLITICO. “You do really important things that might have an impact and there’s a day or two of news coverage. If important political points are not getting out to the public, it’s not just the politicians’ fault.”
'Missed opportunity': Lawmakers lament Biden permitting snub - President Joe Biden laid out a list of policy priorities Tuesday night in his State of the Union address, but one item missing was a central ambition for many energy-focused lawmakers: permitting reform. For key members, the failure to mention the ongoing effort to smooth environmental reviews of energy projects was a missed opportunity. “It’s accepted across the aisle that permitting has to be done,” Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) told reporters. “It should have been mentioned. I would have liked to see that.” Lawmakers from both parties are seeking to relaunch efforts at a permitting overhaul after it ran into a blockade last year from conservative Republicans and progressive Democrats. Democrats have maintained that permitting reform remains crucial to a full implementation of last year’s Inflation Reduction Act, which contains $369 billion in climate-related spending. Manchin met with House Natural Resources Chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) last week to kick-start talks on the matter. Manchin said he would like to see the House take the lead on negotiations (E&E Daily, Feb. 2). Lawmakers are looking to build off permitting efforts Manchin led last year. The seeds of a deal seem both tantalizingly close and far off. Republicans have long sought to streamline permitting approval for fossil fuel projects, while Democrats are interested in unleashing more transmission and renewable energy infrastructure to combat climate change. Some Republicans suggested a permitting overhaul wasn’t that big of a priority for the party. “There were a lot of missed opportunities, like the reality is that Democrats need permitting reform more than Republicans do,” Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.) said following the speech.
Manchin 'raising hell' over White House handling of marquee Dem bill - President Joe Biden and Joe Manchin met at the White House about a month ago on a topic that’s critically important to the West Virginia senator: implementing the sweeping tax, climate and health care law that both men shaped. And if you ask Manchin, things have not gone well since that huddle. That’s because the West Virginia Democrat is livid about how his party’s president and his administration are rolling out a party-line bill that served as a crowning achievement for both men — and he’s particularly peeved at a delay in new guidelines on who gets the law’s generous electric vehicle tax credits. In addition to lobbying the president at the previously unreported Jan. 3 sitdown, Manchin has introduced a bill that would halt the credits until Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen implements strict requirements for electric-vehicle battery sourcing. As Manchin sees it, using the credit to boost U.S.-manufactured rather than overseas-made vehicles is essential to making the law succeed. He’s even talked directly to Yellen several times about the matter. Summing up his approach of late, Manchin said: “I’ve been raising hell.” “They almost act like they gotta send $7,500 or a person won’t buy a car. Which is crazy, ludicrous thinking for the federal government,” Manchin said in an interview this week. “I just totally and absolutely am disagreeing with what they’re doing.” A frustrated Manchin is nothing new for Democrats, but the current situation is plainly untenable for them. He’s still undecided on reelection next year in a state that’s critical to keeping their Senate majority. And as Energy Committee chair, he has the power to wreak havoc by slowing down nominees, hauling in Biden officials for public testimony and pushing legislation against the administration’s wishes. What’s more, Manchin’s grievances go beyond just the tax credit. He dislikes the public perception of the law he insisted on calling the Inflation Reduction Act, which he sees as an energy security measure rather than a climate change-fighting one — a distinction with a political difference in a deep-red, fossil-fuel state like West Virginia. Notably, the Manchin-backed law also requires new sales of oil and gas leases that his progressive colleagues might otherwise have opposed. So as he weighs a bid for reelection, he’s touting the power of the bill he wrote in order to puncture Democratic hopes of ending U.S. reliance on fossil fuels.At Wednesday’s Senate Democratic retreat, Manchin handed out a one-page summary of his perspective on the proposal he revived last summer in a nearly singlehanded show of force, telling colleagues that the U.S. is on track to energy independence as a result of it, according to a person briefed on the meeting who spoke candidly on condition of anonymity.“This is bullshit. So they’re gonna basically starve us out of energy that we have a tremendous, abundant supply of because of their aspirational thoughts?” Manchin said of fellow Democrats who want to quickly transition the nation away from oil and gas. “I will continue to fight and I’ll do everything I can to make sure the public knows what they’re doing and what it will do to you and your economy and your lifestyle.”
Republicans blast Biden's attack on fossil fuel industry -President Joe Biden endeavored during his State of the Union address Tuesday night to reassure lawmakers — and the American public — that fossil fuels are here to stay for the next decade. But for Republicans, such reassurances did little to neutralize his broadside against Big Oil and the record profits raked in by the industry’s giants amid a global energy crisis. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) called it “a superficial demagogic attack on oil,” while Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), the ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said it was part of a “dog whistle speech aimed at appealing to the far left.” “It’s a stereotypical soundbite,” said Rep. John Curtis (R-Utah), the chair of the Conservative Climate Caucus. “My district is full of Small Oil. And it’s often overlooked. And these several large companies are always blamed for every problem.” Referring to the fossil fuel industry as “Big Oil,” Biden maligned the biggest oil companies for collectively posting nearly $200 billion in profits last year as gas prices skyrocketed following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “It’s outrageous,” he said. “They invested too little of that profit to increase domestic production and keep prices down. Instead, they used those record profits to buy back their own stock, rewarding their CEOS and shareholders. “Corporations ought to do the right thing,” Biden continued. “That’s why I propose we quadruple the tax on corporate stock buybacks to encourage long-term investments instead.” Biden's comments were not entirely new: The administration has, for the last few weeks, been sounding the alarm on the need to tax oil company stock buybacks, specifically, to encourage investment in production to lower prices. If Biden’s tax hike were to be implemented, the advocacy group Climate Power estimates buybacks from the first nine months of 2022 would have raised $4.4 billion toward funding clean energy projects. The Inflation Reduction Act has already raised $1.1 billion from corporate stock buybacks, according to Climate Power.
Manchin pushes DOE to invest in coal that earned him millions - Sen. Joe Manchin pressured a top Energy Department official on Thursday to expand markets for coal waste, a high-polluting energy source that has earned Manchin’s family millions of dollars.At a hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, the West Virginia Democrat pressed Deputy Energy Secretary David Turk on why the Biden administration hasn’t used more federal money to help commercialize new uses for coal waste. Also known as gob, the toxic byproduct of mining is a mix of coal, rock and other material.Over three decades, Manchin has built a lucrative business called Enersystems Inc., that supplies gob to the last power plant in West Virginia that burns it. In 2021, Manchin earned more than $500,000 from that company, according to his financial disclosures, which values Manchin’s stake in the firm at up to $5 million. (The senator has said the company is operated by his son and held in a blind trust.) Asked after Thursday’s hearing about advocating for a fuel that personally profits him, Manchin said that he’s been working with coal waste since the 1990s. That work, he asserted, converted an an environmental hazard into something that can help remediate the acidic runoff from coal mines.“I mean, I live in coal country, so if you don’t work in coal country, you don’t work in West Virginia, usually. I can tell you, 50 out of 55 counties — it’s just our way of life, OK?” Manchin told reporters.As the Senate Energy chair, Manchin has used his influence to add hundreds of millions of dollars for minerals research to bipartisan infrastructure legislation — with a focus on coal waste that has boosted the coal industry. Ethics experts say that has created an apparent conflict of interest (Climatewire, April 4, 2022).On Thursday, Manchin continued in that effort. After accusing the Biden administration of undercutting fossil fuels, he said the Energy Department was dragging its feet specifically on programs to demonstrate coal waste’s potential beyond burning it for energy.Coal waste could produce graphite and rare earth elements for batteries, he said, “in more sustainable ways than the traditional methods being used today.”“It’s already been mined, you don’t have to do anything, just clean it up,” he said.
Can Congress find consensus on mining overhaul? - Most everyone in Congress agrees that the U.S. needs to step up its game on securing critical minerals and overhauling the nation’s mining laws, but a House hearing Thursday showcased the pitfalls that could trip up those efforts as well as bipartisan opportunities. Amid that conversation, mining interests have upped their lobbying spending in the past year, pouring millions into swaying lawmakers. At the hearing Thursday, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle on the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations agreed that national security risks exist around the nation’s lack of domestic supply chains for minerals that are needed for EV batteries, renewables and defense. The bulk of those minerals are mined and processed abroad. “Our country has a dangerous reliance on foreign nations for energy and critical minerals,” Republican Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona, the subcommittee chair, said at the outset of the hearing. Republicans and industry groups largely fumed over the slow pace of permitting, environmental constraints and political roadblocks for U.S. mines. Democrats, for their part, reiterated that the scramble for such minerals is an international and complex problem requiring more responsible sourcing. The shared focus on shoring up supply chains is fueling a bipartisan push for permitting overhaul on Capitol Hill (E&E Daily, Feb. 9). That renewed interest has caught the attention of the mining and minerals sector, which is ramping up efforts to lobby federal officials on matters like easing environmental reviews and boosting demand for minerals. A top priority for many of the companies is to convince the Interior Department’s U.S. Geological Survey to designate copper as a “critical mineral,” which would direct federal resources toward boosting its domestic supply and processing. The National Mining Association reported it spent $2.2 million on federal lobbying last year, a 5 percent increase from 2021, while the American Exploration & Mining Association spent $45,000, more than double the previous year. Some of the biggest companies in the industry boosted spending as well. First Quantum Minerals Ltd. Spent $1.1 million lobbying in 2022, up 20 percent from 2021, while Rio Tinto Group boosted its spending 35 percent to $1.3 million.
100K clean energy jobs announced since climate bill became law: analysis - More than 100,000 climate-friendly jobs were created in the months following the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, a new analysis from an environmental group has found. The legislation, passed with only Democratic votes as part of a unique budget process that prevented the bill from being filibustered in the Senate, included tax credits for the production of carbon-free energy technology. The tax credits were widely expected to spur significant investments in renewable energy. The analysis released Monday by a group called Climate Power showed that companies announced 101,036 new jobs in carbon-free energy and more than 90 new clean energy projects since the passage of the legislation. The new jobs are being created by the wind, solar, batteries and electric vehicle industries and include electricians, mechanics, construction workers and technicians. “There is a clean energy boom happening in every part of this country,” said Lori Lodes, Climate Power’s executive director. “It’s because of the certainty the companies have … because of the Inflation Reduction Act that these jobs are happening.”
Mexico opposes restart of U.S. 'Remain in Mexico' immigration policy | Reuters (Reuters) - The Mexican government said on Monday it is opposed to a possible restart of the U.S. immigration policy known as "Remain in Mexico" which required asylum seekers to wait for U.S. hearings in Mexico. President Joe Biden has sought to end the program, which had been introduced by the Trump administration and is currently suspended. But U.S. states such as Texas and Missouri filed a lawsuit to keep the program active and in December a U.S. judge paused Biden's attempt, saying the Department of Homeland Security had failed to adequately explain why the policy was ineffective and should be scrapped. Mexico's foreign ministry did not state its reasons for its opposition. Activists argue the policy, officially called Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), leaves migrants in dangerous border cities where they face threats of kidnapping and extortion. If the Mexican government remains firm in its opposition, U.S. officials would likely have to consider whether asylum seekers can stay in the United States while their claims are evaluated or make other arrangements to remove them from the country.
One-way busloads to Canada add to urgency of border policy revamp - — The Canadian government had been looking to revamp its border policy with the United States, motivated by the arrival of thousands of migrants who have crossed into the country from New York in recent years.Now there’s new urgency around the issue after New York City Mayor Eric Adams provided migrants with bus fare to Plattsburgh, N.Y., just south of the border, as he struggles to handle an influx of tens of thousands of asylum seekers at his own doorstep.The travelers from New York City are part of a record number of migrants entering Canada via an unofficial crossing point at Roxham Road — a rural lane about 20 miles north of Plattsburgh — and claiming asylum through a loophole in a two-decade-old treaty that Canada’s Immigration Minister Sean Fraser said needs to be broadly reconfigured.“I’m hopeful that we’re going to have a permanent lasting solution to the situation, not just at Roxham Road, but to modernize the ability for people to make asylum claims within the confines of Canadian and international law in the near future,” he told reporters Tuesday.The Safe Third Country Agreement, which the United States and Canada signed in 2004, requires migrants to seek asylum in the first nation they enter. The accord, however, is only enforced at official crossings, which is why people coming from the U.S. have been able to apply for asylum after crossing via Roxham Road. The Canadian government has been saying for several years that it is working with American counterparts to update the agreement, but no major changes have been announced. Fraser did not give a timeline for reaching an accord, but said negotiations are on track.The Roxham Road crossing — two dead-ends that nearly meet at the border — has been a thorn in the side of Canada’s Liberal minority government for years after thousands of asylum seekers began using it to enter Quebec from New York in 2017.The juncture has gained new prominence in the wake of a recent New York Post report detailing the flow of asylum seekers from New York City.The National Guard, the Adams administration and several nonprofits have assisted migrants in obtaining bus tickets to Plattsburgh. From there, vans and taxis shuttle migrants to the unauthorized crossing point, which is then traversed by foot, according to the Post report.Quebec Immigration Minister Christine Fréchette called the Post’s account “astonishing,” and argued it was proof of the urgent need to update the Safe Third Country Agreement, which she said should apply to the entire Canada-U.S. border.That same day, Adams appeared to acknowledge in a television interview some migrants who arrived in New York wanted to leave the U.S. altogether.“We are assisting in interviewing those who seek to go somewhere else,” he told local news station FOX 5. “Some want to go to Canada, some want to go to warmer states, and we are there for them as they continue to move on with their pursuit of this dream.” Quebec lawmakers have urged U.S. officials to accept responsibility for the situation and stop busing migrants to the threshold of the country.“They are not merchandise, they’re humans,” Quebec interim opposition leader Marc Tanguay told Global News in what has become a common refrain between leaders of North American municipalities who have struggled to pay for migrant services.
Hours After Being Assaulted In DC, Dem Congresswoman Voted To Overturn Weakened DC Criminal Code -- Just hours after Democratic Minnesota Rep. Angie Craig was assaulted in her Washington, D.C., apartment, she and 31 Democrats voted in favor of a resolution to block the Washington, D.C., Council’s Revised Criminal Code Act of 2022, which would have lowered penalties for a number of violent offenses.“This morning around 7:15 a.m., Rep. Craig was assaulted in the elevator of her apartment building in Washington, DC. Rep. Craig defended herself from the attacker and suffered bruising, but is otherwise physically okay,” her office said in a statement just after the 250-173 vote that passed the House. “Rep. Craig called 9-1-1 and the assailant fled the scene of the assault. There is no evidence that the incident was politically motivated.”Congress can exercise authority over D.C. local affairs, according to the District Clause of the Constitution (Article 1, Section 8, Clause 17), and Congress must review all D.C. legislation before it can become law. Congress can change or even overturn D.C. legislation and can impose new laws on the district.Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN) speaks at a press conference on the reintroduction of the bill “Ensuring Women’s Right to Reproductive Freedom Act” outside the U.S. Capitol Building on February 02, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)In November 2022, the D.C. Council approved the Revised Criminal Code Act (RCCA). The RCCA reduces penalties for certain violent criminal offenses, including carjackings, robberies, and homicides. Democratic Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser vetoed the bill on Jan. 4. The council then overrode Bowser’s veto on Jan. 17 by a vote of 12-1.Craig and 31 Democrats in Congress joined Republicans to block the RCCA on Thursday.D.C. police arrested Kendrick Hamlin, also known as Hamlin Khalil Hamlin for allegedly assaulting Craig, they announced Thursday evening.Craig has opposed defunding the police in the past. In 2021, Craig opposed a Minneapolis ballot initiative that would have replaced the city’s police department with a new Department of Public Safety.
NPS under fire for plan to clear D.C. homeless encampment - Despite growing pressure to reverse course, the National Park Service said it will proceed next week with plans to shut down the largest homeless encampment in Washington, D.C., due to rising crime and unsafe conditions.NPS said that three people have died in the past six months from exposure or drug overdoses at the McPherson Square camp, located in a 1.7-acre federal park between the White House and K Street in the heart of the city’s business district.The agency also said U.S. Park Police officers have made roughly 30 arrests at the camp in the last 11 months, for a range of crimes that include assaults, threats and possession of narcotics. “NPS has received increasing community complaints of trash and debris blocking public access, prostitution, open air drug and alcohol use, and public harassment of residents and visitors to the area,” Jeffrey Reinbold, superintendent of the National Mall and Memorial Parks, said in a letter to the city.Homeless advocates said the plan runs counter to President Joe Biden’s efforts to end homelessness because more people will be displaced. They’re hoping to block the shutdown and have sent hundreds of emails to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, who oversees NPS and who experienced homelessness herself as struggling single mother (E&E Daily, Oct. 22, 2020).“We have sent over 600 emails to the secretary urging her to use her power to stop these evictions, but we have not heard back one way or the other,” said Jesse Rabinowitz, senior manager for policy and advocacy at Miriam’s Kitchen, a homeless outreach organization. “It seems like it’s full steam ahead toward evicting our neighbors in the middle of hypothermia season, without a plan.” While NPS has closed other encampments in the city, the situation is somewhat unusual for the agency. NPS said its involvement with homeless encampments has largely been confined to the nation’s capital, where it controls nearly 90 percent of all parkland — more than 6,700 acres, or roughly 20 percent of the city’s land. Most urban parks in the country are managed by cities or local park districts.
The Inflation Reduction Act alone won’t lower prescription drug costs - “Make no mistake,” President Biden told Congress in his State of The Union address this week, “if you try to do anything to raise the cost of prescription drugs, I will veto it.” His remarks follow years of sharp increases in prescription drug prices. This year, Pfizer alone hiked the price on 90 of its drugs — including two of its cancer treatments, which are now eight percent higher than they were in 2022. That’s unwelcome news for millions of Americans, many of whom are already struggling with high inflation. People are choosing between paying for essential medications and putting food on their tables. The Biden administration took steps last year to control runaway prescription drug costs as part of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). But many of the bill’s provisions fall short, and some are years away from helping Americans gain access to drugs at a reasonable cost. Americans spend more on prescription drugs than any other nation in the world. On average we pay $1,300 per year for these medications, and that’s on top of the rising costs of health insurance, which is outpacing wages across the country. A major reason prescription drugs are so expensive is the federal government has been on the sidelines in negotiating prices with pharmaceutical companies. Third-party pharmacy benefit managers (PBM) have historically played this role, working with health insurance plans to negotiate price discounts with drug companies. A 2019 U.S. Senate staff report claimed drug companies increase list prices to give larger rebates to PBMs in exchange for better placement on a health plan’s formulary. PBMs will face tough questions from both parties in Congress this year, and bipartisan legislation limiting their power over drug pricing has already been introduced in the U.S. Senate. Changes are on the way which should eventually help lower prescription drug costs — but they won’t be felt broadly anytime soon. The IRA gives the federal government the authority to negotiate costs for “some” drugs covered under Medicare, but many price reductions won’t take effect until 2026. The legislation also requires pharmaceutical companies to refund Medicare if prices rise faster than the rate of inflation, but it’s unclear how this will be tracked or enforced. More immediate price relief will occur for those who require insulin, but not everyone will benefit. For over a million eligible Medicare Part D users of the therapy, prices will now be capped at $35 per month. This will bring relief to these patients, but the price cap only applies to those on Medicare, which excludes 20 million others with private insurance. In his address this week, Biden called on Congress to make insulin available at $35 a month “for every American who needs it.”
Biden misses the point on cancer fight -- In President Biden’s state of the union address Tuesday night, he pledged his devotion to a fierce “fight against cancer,” invoking a heart-tugging story of baby “Ava,” who began battling kidney cancer at the age of 1. Biden spoke of a reignited “Cancer Moonshot” search for a cure for cancers that are impacting far too many lives, and of measures to cut healthcare costs to make treating cancer more affordable. But nowhere in his lengthy prime-time address did Biden speak of working to rein in the vast, virtually unchecked, flood of environmental chemical contaminants that scientists say cause cancer.A new book scheduled for release in May written by journalist Kristina Marusic lays out in stark terms how already-staggeringly highly rates of cancer are sure to continue to climb if we don’t slash our exposure to the chemicals known to cause cancer.The harsh statistics are detailed by Phil Landrigan, director of the Program for Global Public Health and the Common Good at Boston College, in the introduction to Marusic’s A New War on Cancer: The Unlikely Heroes Revolutionizing Prevention.Landrigan writes: “From 1975 to to 2019, the number of new cancer cases per 100,000 Americans—the incidence rate—increased for multiple cancers. Incidence of multiple myeloma rose by 46%, incidence of non-Hodgkin lymphoma by 76%, and incidence of testicular cancer by 70%. In the same years, incidence of childhood leukemia increased by 35% and incidence of childhood brain cancer by 33%. These increases are far too rapid to be of genetic origin. They cannot be explained by better diagnosis.”“The explanation for the increasing incidence of cancer lies in our world of chemicals. Since the dawn of the chemical era in the early twentieth century, more than 300,000 new chemicals have been invented. These are novel materials that never before existed on Earth. Many are made from oil and natural gas. They are manufactured in enormous quantities, and global production is on track to double by 2030.Chemical pollution has become so widespread and complex that in 2022, an expert body at the Stockholm Environmental Institute concluded that chemical pollution now exceeds our ability to monitor and contain it and thus threatens the sustainability of human societies.The World Health Organization has determined that more than 100 manufactured chemicals can cause cancer in humans.”The fact that many widely used chemicals cause cancer – not to mention a range of other human health problems – is widely known in scientific circles.But for Biden and most of our elected leaders, these facts are clearly too politically uncomfortable to address, or even acknowledge.
House passes bill to end COVID vaccine requirement for foreign air travelers - Legislation that would eliminate a requirement that most foreign travelers arriving in the U.S. be vaccinated against COVID-19 passed the House Wednesday. Under the requirement imposed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), all adult visitors who are not citizens or permanent residents of the U.S. are required to show proof of COVID vaccination before boarding their flight to the country. The legislation passed on a mostly party-line vote of 227-201. Seven Democrats joined all Republicans voting in favor. “This policy is out of touch with the rest of the world,” Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee Health Subcommittee, said on the floor during debate. Ending the requirement “will align the United States with the rest of North America’s COVID-19 vaccine policy for people coming into the country and recognize COVID-19 is an endemic—rather than a pandemic,” Guthrie said. Democrats argued the legislation doesn’t allow for any future mandates if cases rise or the virus mutates, putting more people at risk. “This is dangerous and ties the hands of our public health experts to the political whims of the most ideologically extreme in a way that makes our nation less safe and more vulnerable in the future,” said Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee. The bill, from Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), would also prevent the CDC from implementing any similar mandates to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination. Massie, who has said he is not vaccinated, has long questioned the safety and efficacy of the COVID vaccines. But experts and officials all agree the benefits of vaccination in preventing severe outcomes, including hospitalization and death, outweigh the possible risks. And hundreds of millions of Americans have safely received COVID shots. The Biden administration in June dropped its requirement that people arriving in the country by air must test negative for COVID-19, but the CDC vaccination requirements remain. Experts noted that the testing requirement did not seem to be serving much purpose, given that COVID-19 is already circulating widely within the United States. The CDC says vaccines continue to be the most important public health tool for fighting COVID-19 and recommends all travelers be vaccinated. In a statement, the White House said it was reviewing the policy as part of its preparation to end the pandemic public health emergency, and opposed rescinding it without a scientific review.
Estimate of misspent Covid unemployment payments leaps to $191B - Federal officials acknowledge that they cannot precisely identify how much federal aid was wrongfully sent out.The Labor Department’s internal watchdog identified nearly $30 billion more in pandemic unemployment benefits that were wrongfully sent out than previously estimated, according to testimony submitted Wednesday to the House Ways and Means Committee.Approximately $191 billion may have been misspent, according to theupdated estimate issued by DOL Inspector General Larry D. Turner. Last year, Turner’s office pegged the amount of questionable payments at about $163 billion “with a significant portion attributable to fraud.”The Labor Department believes a larger share of unemployment insurance benefits were improperly paid than its previous calculations — 21.5 percent versus 18.7 percent of the total last year — accounting for the upward shift in the estimated amount lost to waste and fraud.But federal officials acknowledge that they cannot precisely identify how much federal aid was wrongfully sent out.UI benefits are just one of a handful of large government programs that were created or expanded during the pandemic to help individuals and businesses harmed by the disruptions it caused to the economy.At the time, policymakers made the choice to prioritize getting money out quickly, sometimes at the expense of safeguards to prevent fraudsters from exploiting the system, and the government has subsequently stepped up efforts to recover misspent funds or prosecute bad actors. Wednesday’s hearing comes a week after one held by the House Oversight Committee with an overlapping witness list. During that earlier hearing government officials warned that these types of assistance programscontinue to have significant gaps that leave them susceptible to theft and wrongful spending.
Medicare Fines for High Hospital Readmissions Drop, but Nearly 2,300 Facilities Are Still Penalized | Kaiser Health News - The federal government has eased its annual punishments for hospitals with higher-than-expected readmission rates in an acknowledgment of the upheaval the covid-19 pandemic has caused, resulting in the lightest penalties since 2014.The Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program has been a mainstay of Medicare’s hospital payment system since it began in 2012. Created by the Affordable Care Act, the program evaluates the frequency with which Medicare patients at most hospitals return within 30 days and lowers future payments to hospitals that had a greater-than-expected rate of return. Hospitals can lose up to 3% of each Medicare payment for a year.The pandemic threw hospitals into turmoil, inundating them with covid patients while forcing many to postpone elective surgeries for months. When the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services evaluated hospitals’ previous three years of readmissions, as it does annually, the government decided to exclude the first half of 2020 because of the chaos caused by the pandemic. CMS also excluded from its calculations Medicare patients who were readmitted with pneumonia across all three years because of the difficulty in distinguishing them from patients with covid.Akin Demehin, senior director of quality and patient safety policy at the American Hospital Association, said the changes were warranted. “The covid pandemic did a lot of really unprecedented things to care patterns of hospitals,” he said.After making those changes, CMS evaluated 2½ years of readmission cases for Medicare patients who’d had heart failure, heart attacks, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, coronary artery bypass grafts, and knee and hip replacements. As a result of its analysis, CMS penalized 2,273 hospitals, the fewest since the fiscal year that ended in September 2014, a KHN analysis found. The average payment reduction was 0.43%, also the lowest since 2014. The reductions will be applied to each Medicare payment to the affected hospitals from Oct. 1 through next September and cost them $320 million over that 12-month period.
Federal judge says constitutional right to abortion may still exist, despite Dobbs - A federal judge in Washington, D.C., suggested Monday that there may be a constitutional right to abortion baked into the 13th Amendment — an area she said went unexplored by the Supreme Court in its momentous decision last year overturning Roe v. Wade.In a pending criminal case against several anti-abortion activists, U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization concluded only that the 14th Amendment included no right to abortion but stopped short of definitively ruling out other aspects of the Constitution that might apply.“[I]t is entirely possible that the Court might have held in Dobbs that some other provision of the Constitution provided a right to access reproductive services had that issue been raised,” the judge wrote. “However, it was not raised.”Kollar-Kotelly noted that there is some legal scholarship suggesting that the 13th Amendment — which was ratified at the end of the Civil War and sought to ban slavery and “involuntary servitude” — provides just such a right. She is asking the parties in the criminal case, which involves charges of blocking access to abortion clinics, to present arguments by mid-March. In particular, the judge is asking them to address ”whether the scope ofDobbs is in fact confined to the Fourteenth Amendment” and “whether, if so, any other provision of the Constitution could confer a right to abortion as an original matter … such that Dobbs may or may not be the final pronouncement on the issue, leaving an open question.”Kollar-Kotelly’s request stems from a year-old case against 10 defendants, who are charged with conspiring to block access to a Washington, D.C., abortion clinic. One of those defendants, Lauren Handy, contended that the conspiracy charge is no longer legitimate because the Dobbs decision took Congress out of the business of making laws related to abortion access.“There is no longer a federal constitutional interest to protect, and Congress lacks jurisdiction,” Handy’s attorneys wrote. “The Dobbs court did not indicate that there is no longer a constitutional right to abortion; the court has made clear there never was.”Kollar-Kotelly, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, indicated that she viewed this position as overly broad. Dobbs, she noted, confined its analysis to the 14th Amendment alone, although she conceded it contains sweeping statements that could lead one to conclude the justices were convinced nothing in the Constitution protects abortion rights.
Democrats launch effort to expel Santos from Congress A group of House Democrats unveiled a resolution on Thursday to expel Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) from Congress, citing the long and growing list of résumé fabrications that have defined his first weeks on Capitol Hill. “This is not just a simple liar,” Rep. Daniel Goldman (D-N.Y.) told reporters on the steps of the Capitol. “This is a conman who does not belong in Congress, and he needs to go.” Sponsored by Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the proposal has little chance of getting a vote in a chamber controlled by GOP leaders who are defending Santos’s right to keep his seat. But Democrats are hoping the measure will draw new attention to the embattled lawmaker, link the broader GOP to Santos’s many scandals, and force Republican leaders to stand by their opposition to his removal even as the questions surrounding his background and campaign finances pile up. “We’re going to send the clear message that if [Speaker] Kevin McCarthy [R-Calif.] refuses to hold George Santos accountable, we will,” Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) said. Torres was flanked by the other sponsors of the resolution — Reps. Garcia, Goldman, Becca Balint (D-Vt.) and Eric Sorensen (D-Ill.) — as well as a staffer holding a sign listing some of Santos’s most prominent transgressions. All but Goldman are members of the Congressional Equality Caucus, which promotes LGBTQ rights, and they’re taking special umbrage with Santos’s lies about employees dying in the 2016 mass shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando.
House GOP seeks to divide, conquer Democrats on socialism As House Republicans aim to use their majority to divide Democrats on toxic political issues, they found early success this month making new hay out of an old idea: the “horrors” of socialism. House GOP leaders staged a vote Thursday on a resolution condemning socialism as a fundamental threat to American prosperity and independence — a proposal that split Democrats and provided a potentially potent new attack line for GOP candidates heading into the 2024 elections. While a majority of Democrats voted in favor of the measure, 100 of the 212-member caucus declined to endorse it. And GOP leaders wasted no time pouncing when the tally was in. “That wasn’t a college vote on a college campus. That was a vote in the U.S. Congress that 100 Democrats couldn’t say socialism was wrong,” Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told reporters in the Capitol. “That’s a scary point of view.” As a logical argument, Republican attacks on socialism have been undermined by their support for social-welfare programs, including McCarthy’s recent vow to protect federal benefits under Social Security and Medicare — programs that are run exclusively by the government and funded collectively by taxpayers, who are required to contribute. Republicans have, for decades, castigated those entitlements as socialist initiatives that trample on free enterprise and individual liberties, and Democrats are warning that, despite the rhetoric, GOP leaders are still eyeing cuts. “We’re not fooled by Speaker McCarthy’s promises, by the way,” Rep. Jim McGovern (Mass.), the top Democrat on the Rules Committee, said. “We know what he means when he says he wants to ‘protect these programs,’ it’s code for cuts. We’ve seen this movie before.” From a political vantage, however, the GOP’s efforts to link Democrats to “socialism” as an abstract concept have historically been effective, resonating with broad swaths of conservative voters and helping Republicans gain vast ground in states like Florida, which has shifted squarely in recent years from a purple battleground to a red stronghold.
House Republicans’ wanted list: Hunter Biden, big tech and the FBI -House Republicans’ opening act on the probe into Hunter Biden quickly revealed the tangled nature of the conference’s many investigative targets — and the murky road of attempting to prove political bias. The six-hour Oversight Committee hearing was already expected to focus on two of the GOP’s favored topics: the president’s embattled son and big tech. But Republicans dragged a third bogeyman into the hearing as they questioned Twitter officials about the decision to censor a New York Post story on Hunter Biden’s laptop in 2020: the FBI. There wasn’t much left to drag out of the ex-Twitter employees on that point, as several have openly said they had made the wrong call in blocking the story and repeated that point Wednesday. Instead, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), a member of the Oversight Committee and chair of the Judiciary Committee, said he believed Twitter officials had been “played by the FBI” — a reference to unfounded GOP claims that the federal government pressured the platform to block the story. It’s an early preview of what will almost certainly be a frequent thread across many of the GOP’s investigations, including the party’s claims that the government has been politicized against Republicans and social media companies have engaged in biased content regulation. And their first public shot at proving that point at times didn’t find its mark, with witnesses describing multiple instances where snap decisions infuriated both parties. Still, Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) told reporters after the hearing concluded that he was satisfied with the results. “We had to have a hearing about the laptop to prove that that wasn’t Russian disinformation, to prove that that was in fact Hunter Biden’s laptop and, again, we’ll move forward with the Biden family influence-peddling investigation,” Comer told reporters. He added that he plans future hearings on government collusion with tech companies as part of the investigation. Twitter officials admitting the company made the wrong call has not satisfied Republicans’ calls for accountability. Rather, they’ve continued to point to the decision as an example of what they see as a social media company attempting to silence conservatives in favor of Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign — sparking accusations from Democrats on Wednesday that the GOP was improperly using their power to fixate on a two-year-old event.
Facebook, Instagram Threaten To Restrict Or Ban Project Veritas -Facebook and Instagram have threatened to restrict or ban Project Veritas from their platforms, both owned by Meta, after a journalist confronted a senior YouTube official about the removal of a video about Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccines.On Friday, the nonprofit journalism organization Project Veritas published footage that appears to show one of its reporters confronting YouTube’s vice president of Global Trust and Safety, Matt Halprin.The video shows the reporter approaching Halprin in public regarding YouTube’s removal of a video featuring a senior Pfizer official, unaware he was being recorded, discussing how the company is considering mutating the COVID-19 virus to develop new vaccines proactively.Halprin refused to answer the reporter’s inquiries and instead told the reporter not to touch him while also threatening to call the police, before walking away.“YouTube took down our Pfizer exposé. YouTube gave us a strike and will not let us post for a week,” said James O’Keefe, head of Project Veritas, in a video.Facebook and Instagram warned Project Veritas that its video of Halprin violates “Community Standards.”“We have these standards because we want everyone to feel safe, respected, and welcome,” the warning said. “If your content goes against our Community Standards again, your account may be restricted or disabled.”Project Veritas also announced Friday that it had been “wrongfully locked out” of its Twitter account for two hours over a post that featured the video of one of its journalists questioning Halprin. The organization said it received a warning from Twitter that the post was “abuse and harassment.”
Biden calls for ban of online ads targeting children - focused on protecting children’s privacy online. Biden’s speech called out tech companies’ grip on young Americans, and sounded the alarm on how social media affects teenagers’ mental health. “It’s time to pass bipartisan legislation to stop Big Tech from collecting personal data on our kids and teenagers online,” Biden said. “Ban targeted advertising on children, and impose stricter limits on the personal data that companies collect on all of us.” He called for similar measures at last year’s State of the Union as well. Biden’s speech gives significant momentum to Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), who plans to reintroduce the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act this Congress. “This Congress, Senator Markey will continue to prioritize passage of his COPPA 2.0 legislation, which would finally put in place commonsense guardrails to stop Big Tech from tracking, targeting, and traumatizing America’s kids online,” said Rosemary Boeglin, a Markey spokesperson.The biggest change from the original 1998 bill is that it increases the cut-off age for privacy protections from 13 to 16. Under COPPA, tech companies and data brokers are still allowed to collect and share data belonging to people over the age of 13, as well as target ads to teenagers.Lawmakers and advocacy groups are concerned this has caused mental health issues for teens, which President Biden raised as a concern in his speech on Tuesday.COPPA 2.0 would ban targeted advertising to children, aligning with Biden’s remarks on Tuesday night.The bill also creates a Youth Privacy and Marketing division at the FTC to address issues related to kids’ online privacy.COPPA 2.0 failed to get a floor vote in the Senate last year after it passed outof committee.Republicans on the committee largely opposed the bill, arguing that Congress should focus on privacy legislation for all Americans instead. Republicans were also concerned about giving the FTC more rulemaking authority under the bill.Markey has attempted to pass an update for kids’ privacy regulations since 2011. While he has momentum from the Biden administration, a split Congress could mean a 13th attempt in 2024.Biden’s focus on online protections for children mustered support from key advocacy groups, which have called for some form of updated measures.
Jan. 6 rioter who carried Confederate flag sentenced to three years in prison - A man who carried a Confederate battle flag through the halls of the Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, was sentenced to three years in prison on Thursday. Kevin Seefried was found guilty last summer on one felony of obstructing an official proceeding and four misdemeanors connected to his participation on Jan. 6. “I never should’ve entered,” a tearful Seefried said at Thursday’s sentencing. Federal prosecutors had asked the judge for a 70-month sentence, while Seefried’s attorneys asked for no more than one year and one day. Judge Trevor McFadden, who sits in D.C.’s federal trial court and was nominated by former President Trump, called Seefried’s conduct “humiliating” and said he had every reason to know he shouldn’t be there. “Bringing the Confederate flag into one of our nation’s most sacred halls was outrageous,” McFadden said. Seefried’s attorneys argued that he did not consider “the logic of those who see the flag as a symbol of American racism.” .
Chris Hedges: Woke Imperialism - The militarists, corporatists, oligarchs, politicians, academics and media conglomerates champion identity politics and diversity because it does nothing to address the systemic injustices or the scourge of permanent war that plague the U.S. It is an advertising gimmick, a brand, used to mask mounting social inequality and imperial folly. It busies liberals and the educated with a boutique activism, which is not only ineffectual but exacerbates the divide between the privileged and a working class in deep economic distress. The haves scold the have-nots for their bad manners, racism, linguistic insensitivity and garishness, while ignoring the root causes of their economic distress. The oligarchs could not be happier. Did the lives of Native Americans improve as a result of the legislation mandating assimilation and the revoking of tribal land titles pushed through by Charles Curtis, the first Native American Vice President? Are we better off with Clarence Thomas, who opposes affirmative action, on the Supreme Court, or Victoria Nuland, a war hawk in the State Department? Is our perpetuation of permanent war more palatable because Lloyd Austin, an African American, is the Secretary of Defense? Is the military more humane because it accepts transgender soldiers? Is social inequality, and the surveillance state that controls it, ameliorated because Sundar Pichai — who was born in India — is the CEO of Google and Alphabet? Has the weapons industry improved because Kathy J. Warden, a woman, is the CEO of Northop Grumman, and another woman, Phebe Novakovic, is the CEO of General Dynamics? Are working families better off with Janet Yellen, who promotes increasing unemployment and “job insecurity” to lower inflation, as Secretary of the Treasury? Is the movie industry enhanced when a female director, Kathryn Bigelow, makes “Zero Dark Thirty,” which is agitprop for the CIA? Take a look at this recruitment ad put out by the CIA. It sums up the absurdity of where we have ended up.The engines of white supremacy, which constructed the forms of institutional and economic racism that keep the poor poor, are obscured behind attractive political personalities such as Barack Obama, whom Cornel West called “a Black mascot for Wall Street.” These faces of diversity are vetted and selected by the ruling class. Obama was groomed and promoted by the Chicago political machine, one of the dirtiest and most corrupt in the country. “It’s an insult to the organized movements of people these institutions claim to want to include,” Glen Ford, the late editor of The Black Agenda Report told me in 2018. “These institutions write the script. It’s their drama. They choose the actors, whatever black, brown, yellow, red faces they want.” Ford called those who promote identity politics “representationalists” who “want to see some Black people represented in all sectors of leadership, in all sectors of society. They want Black scientists. They want Black movie stars. They want Black scholars at Harvard. They want Blacks on Wall Street. But it’s just representation. That’s it.”
Judge: Banning guns for marijuana users unconstitutional (AP) — A federal judge in Oklahoma has ruled that a federal law prohibiting people who use marijuana from owning firearms is unconstitutional, the latest challenge to firearms regulations after the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority set new standards for reviewing the nation’s gun laws. Lawyers for Jared Michael Harrison had argued that their client’s Second Amendment right to bear arms was being violated by a federal law that makes it illegal for “unlawful users or addicts of controlled substances” to possess firearms. Harrison had been charged after being arrested by police in Lawton, Oklahoma, in May 2022 following a traffic stop. During a search of his car, police found a loaded revolver as well as marijuana. Harrison told police he had been on his way to work at a medical marijuana dispensary, but that he did not have a state-issued medical-marijuana card. His lawyers had argued the portion of federal firearms law focused on drug users or addicts was not consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation, echoing what the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled last year in a case known as New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen. That case set new standards for interpreting the Second Amendment. Federal prosecutors had argued that the portion of the law focused on drug users is “consistent with a longstanding historical tradition in America of disarming presumptively risky persons, namely, felons, the mentally ill, and the intoxicated.” U.S. District Judge Patrick Wyrick in Oklahoma City agreed with Harrison’s lawyers, ruling on Friday that federal prosecutors’ arguments that Harrison’s status as a marijuana user “justifies stripping him of his fundamental right to possess a firearm ... is not a constitutionally permissible means of disarming Harrison.” “But the mere use of marijuana carries none of the characteristics that the Nation’s history and tradition of firearms regulation supports,” said Wyrick, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump. In his ruling, Wyrick highlighted that under Oklahoma law, marijuana can be bought legally at more than 2,000 store fronts in the state.
JPMorgan Says Epstein Accuser's Claims Are "Unsupported" - JPMorgan responded to a Jeffrey Epstein accuser's claim that former executive Jes Staley "personally observed" Epstein's abuse, calling the claim "unsupported" and "conclusory." On Tuesday night the bank asked a federal judge to dismiss an amended lawsuit filed in January by Epstein victims who say that since Staley witnessed abuse, the bank therefore facilitated and had "direct and actual knowledge of Epstein's sex-trafficking venture," Bloomberg reports.According to JPMorgan, the unsupported allegation that Staley observed Epstein's abuse couldn't be used to impute knowledge to the bank."Actual knowledge of Plaintiff’s battery cannot be established by the unsupported assertion that, at an unspecified time, Staley ‘observed [Plaintiff] in circumstances indicating sexual abuse and trafficking,'" reads the response.Staley, who is not named as a defendant in the suit, has consistently denied knowledge of Epstein’s abuse. He left JPMorgan in 2013 and was later appointed chief executive officer at Barclays Plc. He stepped down in 2021 following a UK Financial Conduct Authority probe into his ties to Epstein.The amended complaint alleges that Staley, who was JPMorgan’s head of private banking at the time, frequently visited Epstein’s properties, including his New York townhouse massage room, a “stash house” apartment on Manhattan’s Upper East Side and a US Virgin Islands estate. He met many of Epstein’s trafficking victims and witnessed the financier “sexually grabbing” some of them, the suit claims. -BloombergJPMorgan argues that while Epstein's grabbing was "odious," it doesn't establish that the plaintiff was a victim of sex-trafficking, much less that Staley knew that she was, and that the crime of sex-trafficking only applies to children or adults who are forced or coerced.
QAnon is spreading outside the US. A conspiracy theory expert explains what that could mean - The name crops up all over the place, but many people have no real understanding of what QAnon is, or why an estimated 22% of Americans accept one of its core beliefs: that some kind of political "storm" is coming and that violence could be necessary to achieve it.In the U.S., Georgia politician Marjorie Taylor Greene(MTG), previously a fan of QAnon, has just been appointed to the influential House of Representatives' homeland security committee.Yet although the far-right conspiracy theory movement started gaining supporters in the U.S. in 2017, it has now spread internationally with increasing uptake in Russiaand Germany. The German QAnon is firmly pro-Putin and anti-Kyiv in its support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Conversely, Russian QAnon followers are less supportive of Putin.This cult-like movement, most famous for its part in the storming of the U.S. Capitol in January 2021, originated on an online message board called 8kun before being popularized on 4Chan. The first QAnon content was posted by an anonymous self-proclaimed senior intelligence officer with access to supposedly classified material, calling themselves Q and later QAnon (their identity is still not known).This material focused on baseless predictions around the fortunes of the Trump administration, and conspiracy theories about individuals and groups seeking to undermine Trump. These included the presence of a powerful pedophile ring operating at the top of global politics, celebrity, finance and royalty.Other self-styled insiders and experts joined in posting "insider information" alongside and in support of QAnon, with sympathizers enthusiastically posting this content across mainstream social media platforms.The movement started to come to prominence offline in 2018 when its followers appeared at Trump rallies and other political events wearing identifying items or carrying placards with Q on them. At the same time more QAnon-related content started appearing on social media platforms.As of now, QAnon has spread to multiple online platforms, and its followers are present in various countries. But QAnon does not have a formalized leadership structure.This has meant QAnon has expanded the number of subjects it talks about, including COVID-19 and its subsequent vaccines, most of which have been thoroughly refuted by fact checkers and experts. The decentralized nature of the movement means that QAnon followers largely communicate via the internet and messaging services such as Telegram, Signal and Parler.QAnon's core theories center on its belief that there is a global cabal of Satan-worshiping, child sex trafficking elites who control governments, financial institutions, and the media. QAnon believes that the aim of the elite cabal was to undermine Donald Trump when he was president, steal the 2020 election from him, and erode his Make America Great Again (MAGA) agenda. QAnon followers also claim that Donald Trump and his close circle are working to expose this pedophile cabal and bring its members to justice.
"Confidential Letters": FTX Demands Politicians Return Millions In SBF Donations -Just when you thought the FTX travesty couldn't get any more bizarre, the now bankrupt company is trying to claw back political donations and other spending that took place at the direction of former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried. A press release made its way out mid-day Sunday that FTX's debtors and the company had sent "confidential messages to political figures, political action funds, and other recipients of contributions or other payments that were made by or at the direction of the FTX Debtors, Samuel Bankman-Fried or other officers or principals of the FTX Debtors" requesting the funds back. "These recipients are requested to return such funds to the FTX Debtors by February 28, 2023," the release states. It continues: "The messages follow the December 19, 2022, announcement by the FTX Debtors that they have established arrangements for such recipients to return funds voluntarily by contacting (FTXrepay@ftx.us)."Then, the release threatens legal action to those who are unwilling to return funds: "To the extent such payments are not returned voluntarily, the FTX Debtors reserve the right to commence actions before the Bankruptcy Court to require the return of such payments, with interest accruing from the date any action is commenced.""Recipients are cautioned that making a payment or donation to a third party (including a charity) in the amount of any payment received from a FTX Contributor does not prevent the FTX Debtors from seeking recovery from the recipient or any subsequent transferee," the release says. We noted back in December that $73 million in political donations were now at risk as a result of the bankruptcy. SBF also donated to Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres of New York, who last year was one of 8 members of Congress who lobbied against regulating crypto. "Nobody ends up looking great in this," said University of Rochester political science professor, David Primo, at the time. While there’s precedent for forcing political entities to return contributions in cases of fraud, recovery prospects are unclear in FTX’s case. Recouping campaign funds as part of the bankruptcy proceedings is a complicated and lengthy process, and the scope of the total funds eligible for clawback depends on myriad federal and state laws. It is also subject to the bankruptcy lawyers’ judgment on what money, which may be long spent by the time the FTX trustees try to go after it, is worth the effort.Bankman-Fried is facing additional scrutiny for recently saying he gave equally to Republicans and Democrats, but funded conservatives through “dark money” groups that don’t identify donors. The claim is almost impossible to verify unless the recipients voluntarily disclose they received money from him. -
U.S. judge extends FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried's bail restrictions (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Thursday extended a ban on FTX cryptocurrency exchange founder Sam Bankman-Fried's ability to contact employees of companies he once controlled and use encrypted messaging technology while out on bail awaiting trial on fraud charges.U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan on Feb. 1 had temporarily barred Bankman-Fried from contacting any current or former employees of FTX or Alameda Research, his hedge fund, after prosecutors raised concerns that the 30-year-old former billionaire may be trying to tamper with witnesses . As a condition of his release on $250 million bond, the judge also prevented Bankman-Fried from using messaging apps such as Signal that let users auto-delete messages.After rejecting an agreement between defense lawyers and prosecutors to loosen those conditions on Tuesday, Kaplan on Thursday said the restrictions would remain in place until Feb. 21 and instructed both sides to explain by Feb. 13 how they could be sure Bankman-Fried would not delete electronic messages. "I am far less interested in the defendant's convenience" than in preventing possible witness-tampering, Kaplan said at a hearing in Manhattan federal court."There is still snail-mail and there is still email and there are all kinds of ways to communicate that don't present the same risks," Kaplan added. Defense lawyers have argued that Bankman-Fried's efforts to contact an FTX general counsel and its new chief executive John Ray were attempts to offer "assistance" and not interfere..
Sam Bankman-Fried Needs Tighter Bail Restrictions, Judge Says - The New York Times - A federal judge on Thursday ordered lawyers for Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder of the bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency exchange, to create a plan with prosecutors that would ensure Mr. Bankman-Fried did not delete text messages he sent while awaiting trial on charges that he orchestrated the theft of billions of dollars in customer deposits. Judge Lewis A. Kaplan issued his instructions at a hearing in Federal District Court in Manhattan two days after rejecting an agreement that federal prosecutors in Manhattan struck with Mr. Bankman-Fried’s lawyers to limit his ability to use certain encrypted messaging services like Signal. Judge Kaplan said the proposal had done “nothing but spark more questions in my mind,” explaining that it did not fully eliminate the potential for Mr. Bankman-Fried to send messages that he could later delete. “I read all the spy novels,” Judge Kaplan said. The back and forth in court arose from a dispute over the conditions of Mr. Bankman-Fried’s bail. Prosecutors sought additional conditions last month after presenting evidence in court filings that Mr. Bankman-Fried had sent messages over email and Signal to Ryne Miller, the general counsel of the U.S. arm of FTX. In court filings, prosecutors said Mr. Miller, who was not identified by name, could be a potential witness against Mr. Bankman-Fried. They asked the judge to stop Mr. Bankman-Fried from contacting former FTX employees and using Signal or other encrypted apps, arguing that the technology might enable Mr. Bankman-Fried to secretly engage in witness tampering.Mr. Bankman-Fried’s lawyers denied that he was trying to influence a witness. But after Judge Kaplan temporarily imposed the new restrictions, defense lawyers reached an agreement with prosecutors to bar Mr. Bankman-Fried from using certain encrypted apps but explicitly permit him to engage in other forms of electronic communication. At the hearing, Judge Kaplan said he was not satisfied with the agreement, noting “I am far less concerned about the defendant’s convenience.” He gave both parties until Tuesday to submit a new proposal and until Feb. 21 to make it final.
Court keeps secret for now who backed bail for FTX's Bankman-Fried - The names of wealthy backers who guaranteed a $250 million bail bond for indicted former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried will remain a secret — for now. On Tuesday, Bankman-Fried's lawyers filed court documents indicating their plan to appeal a Manhattan district court judge's January 30 decision to unseal the names. They are asking that the matter be decided by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. The request to make the names public was made by a group of news organizations that contend the public has a right to the information. The guarantors made it possible for the former crypto CEO to post the $25 million in assets required to stay out of custody while he awaits trial. U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan previously ordered unsealing to take place on Tuesday based on his expectation that the guarantors, known as bail sureties, were less likely to face the same level of scrutiny and harassment that Bankman-Fried's parents allegedly received, and given that such information is typically made public. Judge Kaplan said the issue, if appealed, would be paused by the district court until 5 p.m. on February 14, so that any adversely affected party could request a stay from the Second Circuit.
18 States Send a Message to FTX Bankruptcy Judge John Dorsey: We’re Watching You - by Pam Martens and Russ Martens - A showdown in the Delaware bankruptcy proceedings for Sam Bankman-Fried’s collapsed crypto exchange, FTX, before presiding Judge John Dorsey is scheduled for next Monday morning at 9:30. (You can listen to the hearing live at this link. Just turn on your speakers and click on the box with the flag.) The battle lines have been drawn for the showdown – but not in the manner that Big Law firm, Sullivan & Cromwell, had hoped.The U.S. Trustee, who represents the U.S. Department of Justice in bankruptcy cases, has been asking Judge Dorsey to agree to the appointment of an independent examiner in the case since December 1. And over the past two months, the deeply conflicted Sullivan & Cromwell law firm has been aggressively opposing the U.S. Trustee’s pursuit of an independent examiner.Yesterday, a Joinder was filed by the securities regulator of Texas, supporting the motion by the U.S. Trustee. The joinder included letters from 15 other state securities regulators and Washington, D.C., also supporting the appointment of an independent examiner. The states included the three largest U.S. states by population: California, Texas and Florida. The states of Wisconsin and Vermont had previously filed their own joinders requesting the appointment of an independent examiner, meaning that the position of the U.S. Trustee is currently being advocated by 18 state securities regulators and the District of Columbia.In the joinder filed by Wisconsin’s Attorney General and state securities regulator on December 21, it made the following points:“Here, the [bankruptcy] estate, creditors, and society writ large would benefit from the investigation of a neutral, third-party, as the U.S. Trustee’s motion argues. As part of the broader societal interest, state and federal government regulators would benefit from a neutral fact-finder’s investigation, which would enable them to learn from a disinterested source what happened and how it happened under the current regulatory framework (or lack thereof to address this particular industry). These answers are necessary so that government regulators can put into place an effective regulatory framework to ensure that something like this — a colossal fraud costing billions of dollars in economic waste — never happens again.”The U.S. Trustee has another pesky detail on its side: the appointment of an examiner is mandatory under U.S. Bankruptcy Code Section 1104 if requested by the U.S. Trustee and the debtor meets the statutory debt threshold of $5 million or greater. (FTX and its more than 100 affiliated companies owe billions of dollars in debts to investors and customers.)In the latest court filing yesterday by the U.S. Trustee, it explains that every U.S. District Court to publish a decision on this issue has agreed that the appointment of an independent examiner is mandatory under the terms of Section 1104 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. The only Court of Appeals to issue a published opinion, the Sixth Circuit, has taken the same view.Notwithstanding the plain language of the law and legal precedent, Judge Dorsey previously stated in open court during a hearing that he doesn’t believe the appointment of an independent examiner is mandatory. Bench rulings (an unpublished ruling by a Judge which carries no weight in terms of legal precedent) in the Delaware bankruptcy district have also taken the position that the appointment of an independent examiner is not mandatory. (This might explain why Sullivan & Cromwell law partners are arguing their case in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware instead of in Manhattan where their office is located.)Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, whose office is prosecuting the criminal case against former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (who has pled not guilty) and two other executives, Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang (who have pled guilty and are cooperating with prosecutors) has called the FTX collapse “one of the biggest financial frauds in American history.” The new CEO of FTX, John Ray, testified to the House Financial Services Committee on December 13 that $8 billion of customer funds are missing.On the basis of those facts alone, one would think that Judge Dorsey would be anxious to comply with the Justice Department’s U.S. Trustee and quickly agree to the appointment of an independent examiner. Instead, and despite the fact that Sullivan & Cromwell has filed multiple declarations revealing raging conflicts of interest in the case, Judge Dorsey has ignored multiple objectors and signed an order allowing the law firm to become the lead counsel in the bankruptcy proceedings – which effectively puts the firm in charge of investigating its own conduct.
Bombshell Emails Raise Questions about What Sullivan & Cromwell Knew about Fraud at Sam Bankman-Fried’s Crypto Firms - By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: - Just four days before Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto exchange, FTX, collapsed into bankruptcy, Sullivan & Cromwell law partner Andrew (Andy) Dietderich sent an email to an attorney representing Voyager Digital’s Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in its bankruptcy proceedings, stating that FTX was “rock solid.” At the time, Sullivan & Cromwell was representing FTX in a very aggressive move to purchase $1 billion of Voyager’s crypto assets.The law partner representing the Voyager creditors was Darren Azman of law firm McDermott Will & Emery. The email exchange on November 7, 2022 went as follows, according to exhibits McDermott Will & Emery submitted to the Voyager bankruptcy court in the Southern District of New York last week: Azman: “We are getting a lot of inbounds regarding liquidity issues at FTX/Alameda. We also had a lot of leftover questions from the last town hall. I’m thinking we’d like to do another one next week and would like you for your team to be a part of it. We can’t be silent on these issues and I don’t want to speak for FTX. Let me know your thoughts on timing and who on your side would be best to join and handle FTX-related questions.” Dietderich of Sullivan & Cromwell responded the same day as follows: “That’s just Binance silliness. FTX is rock solid, doesn’t use customer funds or take credit risk at all. It cannot have ‘liquidity’ issues because it doesn’t lend.”The very day after Dietderich sent that “rock solid” email, FTX halted customer withdrawals on November 8. On November 11, FTX and more than 100 of its opaque crypto companies filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.And from day one of that FTX bankruptcy filing, Sullivan & Cromwell has been calling the shots and aggressively pushing to become lead counsel in the bankruptcy proceedings – which it accomplished on January 20 with an order signed by the presiding Judge, John Dorsey. The Judge’s order came despite overwhelming evidence that Sullivan & Cromwell was deeply conflicted in the FTX matter.Federal prosecutors have indicted Sam Bankman-Fried and two of his first lieutenants, Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang. Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty while Ellison and Wang have pleaded guilty and are cooperating with prosecutors. According to the criminal indictments and civil cases brought by securities regulators, Bankman-Fried’s hedge fund, Alameda Research, was being used by the top executives to loot billions of dollars of FTX customer funds. The new CEO at FTX, John Ray, testified to the House Financial Services Committee on December 13 that $8 billion of customer funds are missing.The Sullivan & Cromwell emails surfaced last week in the Voyager Digital bankruptcy case because the Voyager creditor’s committee, represented by Azman and his colleagues at McDermott Will & Emery, are objecting to creditors’ claims made by FTX and Alameda Research (which they refer to as the “FTXAlameda criminal enterprise”) on the basis that FTXAlameda set out to perpetrate a big fraud on Voyager.
FTX bankruptcy fees near $20 million for 51 days of work -FTX's top bankruptcy, legal and financial advisors have billed the company more than $19.6 million in fees for work done in 2022, according to Tuesday bankruptcy court filings. More than $10 million of that was for work done in November 2022 as Sam Bankman-Fried's crypto empire entered bankruptcy protection in Delaware. The firms will initially only be paid a little over $15.5 million, or 80% of the value of their work, under a court-ordered interim compensation plan. The law firms that billed FTX are Sullivan & Cromwell, Landis Rath & Cobb, and Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan. Professional advisor Alvarez & Marsal and financial advisor AlixPartners also billed the company. Some of the work the firms billed for involved taking meetings with other companies that also were billing FTX for their time or corresponding with former and current executives, including Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Bankman-Fried's hedge fund, Alameda Research. Landis Rath & Cobb and Sullivan & Cromwell, FTX's primary legal firms, billed the company a combined $10.7 million for more than 8,400 hours of work. Landis Rath & Cobb billed $1.16 million for work done between Nov. 11 and Nov. 30.
FTX Bankruptcy Lawyers Channel their Inner Sam Bankman-Fried – Bill $21,000 for their Meals Over Just 20 Days –by Pam Martens and Russ Martens - The shenanigans going on in Judge John Dorsey’s bankruptcy courtroom, which is overseeing the FTX bankruptcy proceedings of Sam Bankman-Fried’s collapsed crypto empire, are reaching levels that should be attracting the attention of federal prosecutors. The head of the newly-created FTX Task Force, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, has called the looted FTX customer accounts “one of the biggest financial frauds in American history.”On Monday, February 6, the lead counsel in the bankruptcy case, Sullivan & Cromwell, and its hand-picked CEO for FTX, John Ray, argued vehemently against the appointment of an independent examiner in the FTX matter. The independent examiner has been requested since December 1 by the U.S. Trustee, who works for the U.S. Department of Justice. Sullivan & Cromwell law partner, James Bromley, and Ray, cited the high cost likely to be charged by the independent examiner as one of their arguments against the appointment.The very next day, Tuesday, February 7, Sullivan & Cromwell submitted a compensation request for $7.6 million in legal fees for 19 days work in November, plus $105,000 in expenses. As part of those expenses, Sullivan & Cromwell included a request to be reimbursed for $7,202.19 for “Conference Room Dining,” and $1,840.00 for “overtime” meals. Accentuating the increasingly tone deaf nature of this law firm, just a few months ago Sam Bankman-Fried was making headlines for spending $2500 on lavish lunches for himself and staff while his customers’ accounts were being looted.Bromley, who was so concerned about the cost that might be incurred if an independent examiner was hired, billed at an hourly rate of $2,165 for a total of $381,689.50 in legal fees for the period of November 11 through November 30, 2022. Another Sullivan & Cromwell law partner, Andrew Dietderich, also billed at an hourly rate of $2,165 for a total of $465,042.00 over the same span of time. (Emails recently surfaced in another crypto bankruptcy case where Dietderich had written in an email to a different law firm on November 7 that FTX was “rock solid.” FTX halted customer withdrawals the next day and filed bankruptcy on November 11. See Bombshell Emails Raise Questions about What Sullivan & Cromwell Knew about Fraud at Sam Bankman-Fried’s Crypto Firms.)As lead counsel in the FTX bankruptcy matter, Sullivan & Cromwell is well aware that the bankruptcy estate is missing $8 billion of looted customer funds. What it bills is highly likely to reduce what the defrauded customers get paid.Sullivan & Cromwell’s $7.6 million in legal fees for 19 calendar days comes out to $400,000 per day. Annualized, that’s $146 million over the course of a year. The bankruptcy proceeding is expected to last as long as two years.
Tom Brady's Team Were Convinced They Saw FTX's 'Legit Financials': FT - Advisors to Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen weren't able to spot any issues with FTX's underlying financials before the celebrity couple piled cash into the now-bankrupt crypto exchange, the Financial Times has reported. The then-couple spent over $84 million buying 1.8 million shares in Sam Bankman-Fried's crypto empire after their team found no issues with its financial documentation, according to the report Tuesday. Brady and Bündchen's team were extremely diligent and "saw what they believed were legit financials," an unidentified former FTX employee told the FT. "People wanted shares. There was some FOMO, but people always saw financials," the source said. FTX filed for bankruptcy in November after CoinDesk reported that its sister trading firm Alameda Research held most of its portfolio in the exchange's native FTT token. Rival firm Binance responded by selling all of its FTT holdings, triggering a solvency crisis that eventually forced FTX to file for bankruptcy. The following month, founder Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas and extradited to the US. Prosecutors say that he knowingly used at least $4 billion of FTX customers' funds to prop up Alameda's balance sheet. Owners of FTX shares, including NFL star Brady and international supermodel Bündchen, lost all their investment due to the bankruptcy proceedings. That led to potential major losses for both NFL star Brady and international supermodel Bündchen.
BankThink: Brokered deposits add new wrinkle to Silvergate saga | American Banker - Way back in 2020, when the FDIC board was voting on changes to the agency's brokered deposit rules, Gruenberg warned that the then-proposed changes would allow a bank to "rely for 100% of its deposits on a sophisticated, unaffiliated third party without any of those deposits considered brokered." The risk of that arrangement, he said, was that a bank whose capital levels fell into dangerous territory could continue relying on a single counterparty for the entirety of its deposit base, effectively creating "an end-run around the statutory prohibition on less-than-well-capitalized banks receiving brokered deposits." If you don't spend a lot of time thinking about brokered deposits or even knowing what they are, you are very far from alone. The gist of it is this: You and I deposit our money in a bank, and we get whatever return we get. But if you have lots of deposits that you can move all at once, you can jump from bank to bank seeking the highest rate of return. Those are brokered deposits, and what makes them different is that a bank can't necessarily rely on them to stick around, particularly when the going gets tough — that's why they're sometimes called "hot money." The FDIC has rules around which banks can accept brokered deposits and what a bank has to do to make up for their loss if it accepts them and they go elsewhere. That changed in 2020 when then-FDIC Chair Jelena McWilliams and her allies on the board fleshed out a "primary purpose exemption" from the brokered deposit rules that would allow more types of deposit arrangements to be exempt from those "hot money" restrictions. The rationale behind those changes was that fintechs and other newfangled firms sometimes develop exclusive deposit-taking arrangements with a bank, and because the nonbank counterparty's primary purpose in the relationship isn't maximizing deposit return, those deposits shouldn't be considered "hot" in the same way traditional brokered deposits are because they're less likely to be lured away by higher returns elsewhere. But, as it turns out, there's more than one way to lose a deposit. If, for example, one of those exclusive banking arrangement partners is itself taking customer funds in exchange for cryptocurrency and those customers decide they'd rather have their money back than have their cryptocurrency, the bank is suddenly experiencing a run. That's not a problem if the bank has a broad and diverse deposit base, but if it's not, then it can be a problem, and something like that seems to be what happened to Silvergate Bank late last year.
Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken settles SEC crypto staking suit - Crypto exchange Kraken will shutter its U.S. cryptocurrency staking operation and pay a $30 million fine to settle an enforcement action alleging it sold unregistered securities, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Thursday.The SEC claims Kraken failed to register the offer and sale of its crypto staking-as-a-service program. U.S. investors had crypto assets worth over $2.7 billion on Kraken's platform, the SEC alleged, earning Kraken around $147 million in revenue, according to the SEC complaint. Many centralized exchanges like Kraken and Gemini offer customers the option to stake their tokens in order to earn yield on their digital assets that would otherwise sit idle on the platform. With crypto staking, investors typically vault their crypto assets with a blockchain validator, which verifies the accuracy of transactions on the blockchain. Investors can receive additional crypto tokens as a reward for locking away those assets. More than 135,000 unique U.S. users registered for Kraken's staking platform, the SEC said. "Whether it's through staking-as-a-service, lending, or other means, crypto intermediaries, when offering investment contracts in exchange for investors' tokens," companies must "provide the proper disclosures and safeguards required by our securities laws," SEC chair Gary Gensler said in a statement. It's the latest in a series of SEC actions targeting the crypto industry and comes just weeks after the SEC alleged that crypto lender Genesis and crypto exchange Gemini allegedly offered and sold unregistered securities. The SEC alleged that, to incentivize users, Kraken promised investors in the staking program "enhanced liquidity and immediate rewards." Kraken marketed and touted the staking platform as an investment opportunity, the SEC claimed, with net income from U.S.-based users reaching nearly $15 million on revenue of $45.2 million. Kraken advertised on its website returns of up to 20% annual percentage yield through its staking product.. The exchange also promised on its website to deliver those rewards to customers twice per week. Kraken did not admit or denying the allegations made in the SEC's complaint. Shares of crypto exchange Coinbase slid sharply on Thursday after CEO Brian Armstrong warned that potential SEC action in retail crypto staking would be a "terrible path."
Kraken To Pay $30 Million, Shut Down Staking Business In SEC Settlement - Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has agreed to pay $30 million in penalties and shut down its staking business in a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Thursday. The crypto exchange had more than $2.7 billion in crypto assets in its staking program in April 2022 and advertised annual returns of up to 21%, according to the SEC’s complaint. Under the staking program, individual investors locked up their crypto-assets in a pool “staked” by Kraken to validate blockchain transactions in exchange for rewards. A validator is rewarded for successfully verifying information on a blockchain, and that reward is shared with the investors who stake their assets. “When investors provide tokens to staking-as-a-service providers, they lose control of those tokens and take on risks associated with those platforms, with very little protection,” the SEC said in a press release. The SEC contends that Kraken’s staking program was an “unlawful offer and sale of securities.” Since this was an unregistered offering, the SEC said in its complaint that investors lacked material information about Kraken’s staking program including investment risks, fees charged, and the company’s financial condition. “Kraken not only offered investors outsized returns untethered to any economic realities, but also retained the right to pay them no returns at all,” said Gurbir Grewal, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, in a press release. 2 Kraken agreed to this settlement without admitting or denying these allegations.
Crypto Company Paxos Is Being Investigated by New York Regulator -The New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) is investigating stablecoin issuer Paxos, CoinDesk has learned. The full scope of the investigation is unclear. Paxos’ stablecoins include the Pax dollar (USDP) and Binance USD (BUSD), a Binance-branded stablecoin offered through a white-label service. A NYDFS spokesperson said the agency could not comment on ongoing investigations. Paxos has been in the news recently over rumors the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency – a federal bank regulator – may ask it to withdraw its application for a full banking charter. Paxos has denied these rumors. However, an ongoing investigation by a state regulator suggests the company, which received a provisional bank charter from the OCC in 2021, is indeed under closer scrutiny than its peers may be. Paxos also holds a virtual currency license – commonly referred to as BitLicenses – issued by NYDFS. A Paxos spokesperson did not return a request for comment by press time. NYDFS published stablecoin guidance in June, directing issuers to ensure their stablecoins be fully backed with assets segregated from the issuers’ funds and attested to regularly. The guidance, which was issued in the wake of the collapse of the terraUSD/luna stablecoin ecosystem, is focused on asset-backed stablecoins. NYDFS had been working on the guidance since prior to the collapse, Superintendent Adrienne Harris told CoinDesk at the time.
Charlie Munger’s OpEd in the WSJ Is Spot On About Banning Crypto; But Calling It “Gambling” Fails to Capture Its Dangers - By Pam Martens and Russ Martens - Charlie Munger is the 99-year old billionaire who graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law and has been the close business partner of legendary investor, Warren Buffett, at Berkshire Hathaway for more than four decades.For years now, both Munger and Buffett have been outspoken about the dangerous scam called cryptocurrencies. Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal gave Munger space for a 393-word OpEd in which he urges the U.S. to ban crypto as China has done (and a lot of other countries). Unfortunately, those 393 words are competing with years of a nonstop barrage of hyped promises from right-wing Republicans in Congress who are happy to take big political donations from the crypto cabal; big public relations and marketing firms padding their bottom lines with what effectively amounts to money from defrauded crypto customers; K-Street lobbyists also on the dole to crypto firms; celebrities whoring on television for crypto; and, worst of all, Big Law firms attempting to legitimize myriad crypto frauds as “innovation” in order to compete for billable hours.In one paragraph of the OpEd, Munger writes this:“Such wretched excess has gone on because there is a gap in regulation. A cryptocurrency is not a currency, not a commodity, and not a security. Instead, it’s a gambling contract with a nearly 100% edge for the house, entered into in a country where gambling contracts are traditionally regulated only by states that compete in laxity. Obviously, the U.S. should now enact a new federal law that prevents this from happening.”Gambling describes just what the customer is doing. That is, as Microsoft founder Bill Gates has said, cryptocurrencies are “100 percent based on some sort of Greater Fool theory,” where the gambler is betting that a Greater Fool will be willing to take the worthless crypto off his hands for more than he paid for it.We have seen these kinds of Greater Fool financial frauds throughout history. At the peak of the Tulip Bubble in Holland in 1637, a single tulip bulb sold for many times the annual wage of a skilled laborer. FOMO, or Fear of Missing Out, as it’s called today, was at the heart of the Tulip Bubble. The South Sea bubble in the 1700s was built around the British South Sea Company which seduced investors with the vision of great wealth from trade with South America. When the company’s share price eventually collapsed, it seriously impacted the British economy. Subsequent investigations revealed bribes and trading manipulations to pump up the price in order to suck the public into buying shares.While gambling describes what the customer is doing with crypto, it fails to capture this complex and deeply-layered fraud.For reasons that the world’s smartest scientists cannot even explain, the ongoing frauds against crypto customers begin with crypto “mining.” This is how Senator Elizabeth Warren described this “mining” at a Senate hearing in June of 2021:“Finally, there are the environmental costs of crypto. Many cryptocurrencies are created through ‘proof-of-work’ mining. It involves using computers to solve useless mathematical puzzles in exchange for newly minted cryptocurrency tokens. Such mining has devastating consequences for the climate. Some crypto mining is set up near coal plants, spewing out filth in return for a chance to harvest a few crypto coins. Total energy consumption is staggering, driving up demand for energy. If, for example, Bitcoin — just one of the cryptocurrencies — were a country, it would already be the 33rd largest energy user in the world — using more energy yearly than all of the Netherlands.“And all those promised benefits – the currency that would be available at no cost to millions of unbanked families and that would provide a haven from the tricks and traps of big banks – well, those benefits haven’t materialized.” If you have ever paid a bill using “pay by phone,” you understand why crypto is the horse and buggy compared to existing technology. There is no “mining” or crypto token created out of thin air needed to digitally pay a bill by phone. You simply call the “pay by phone” number, and within minutes, if not seconds, the invoice amount is deducted from your checking account.
The unlikely crypto companies using the Trump-era 'hot money' rule - Some crypto-related companies are using a provision in the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s brokered deposit rules adopted in the waning days of the Trump administration to more freely place deposits at banks. The companies' strategy demonstrates the way that crypto firms have crept further into the traditional banking system, and how those companies can place deposits at banks with far less restriction than an ordinary deposit broker. And combined with the recent high-profile bankruptcies in the crypto industry, the use of the purported loophole also revives fears about brokered deposits — sometimes known as "hot money" — leaving the banking system en masse, critics say. Coinbase and Paxos are the largest crypto companies listed in the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s 12-page long document of firms using what's called the "primary purpose exception," which allows them to escape roadblocks applied to brokered deposits. . "The 12-page long list of entities claiming the loophole illustrates its dangerousness, which is also highlighted by crypto firms like Coinbase and Paxos claiming the exception," said Dennis Kelleher, president and CEO of Better Markets. "Like water seeping into the cracks of a foundation, crypto companies have been relentless in attempting to penetrate the core of the banking business for years and this appears to be one of the cracks." Other big names in the crypto world also appear on the list, even if they don't exclusively deal in the industry. Those include MetaBank NA (recently rebranded as Pathward NA), whose precipitous drop in brokered deposits around mid-2021 reflects the dramatic decline in what could be considered "brokered" after the Trump-era change, as well as fintechs that dabble in crypto such as PayPal and Chime. At issue is a 2020 rulemaking at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which finalized a new framework for classifying brokered deposits. Brokered deposits refer to deposits collected by a third-party and deposited into a bank as a single block. Critics sometimes refer to these deposits as "hot money," because investors might pull the money in search of better interest rates elsewhere. That's precisely what happened in the run-up to the savings and loan crisis, leaving many small institutions to fail. In response, regulators began putting up roadblocks for brokered deposits, such as prohibiting undercapitalized banks from accessing them, or demanding that those institutions hold more liquidity to offset their risk. Brokered deposits also tend to garner more regulatory attention and can demand higher deposit insurance premiums. So the incentive to avoid deposits being considered "brokered" is high. "It makes [traditional] deposits more attractive to the banks," said Paul Clark, senior counsel at Seward & Kissel. "It's really got to do with the stigma that the FDIC has attached to the notion that a deposit is brokered."
Bitcoin Sinks Below $23,000 as Crypto Regulation Scrutiny Intensifies - Bitcoin (BTC) is again under pressure as the leading cryptocurrency briefly sank to a four-week low of $22,408 on Thursday morning before climbing back to prices of around $22,715 by press time, according to CoinGecko. Today’s drop comes after Bitcoin’s convincing performance in January, which saw BTC soar almost 40% since the start of the year, raising investors’ expectations for a renewed bull run. The latest price action also saw Bitcoin shed about $10 billion in market capitalization, which fell to $437.9 billion at the time of writing from $$448 billion on Wednesday. The world’s largest cryptocurrency currently accounts for 39.4% of the market, followed by Ethereum’s 17.7% share of the pie. The industry’s second-largest cryptocurrency lost 2% over the day, currently trading around $1,640. Other major cryptocurrencies, including Binance Coin (BNB), Cardano (ADA), and Dogecoin (DOGE) are following a similar price trend, with daily losses being in the range between 2% and 3.5%. Today’s market drop comes in the wake of the reports of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigating popular cryptocurrency exchange Kraken for alleged securities laws violations. While Kraken declined to comment on the subject, Bloomberg cited an unnamed person familiar with the matter who claims that the probe is at an “advanced stage” and “could lead to a settlement in coming days.” In an almost simultaneous development of events on Wednesday, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong took to Twitter to deliver a lengthy thread on what he called “rumors that the SEC would like to get rid of crypto staking in the U.S. for retail customers.” “I hope that's not the case as I believe it would be a terrible path for the U.S. if that was allowed to happen,” he said.
PayPal pauses stablecoin work amid regulatory scrutiny of crypto - PayPal is pausing work on its stablecoin as regulators increase scrutiny of cryptocurrencies and a key partner in the project faces a probe by the New York State Department of Financial Services. PayPal had hoped to debut the stablecoin, which will be backed one for one by the US dollar, in the coming weeks, but will delay that work as it seeks to understand the changing regulatory landscape for such digital assets, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. New York regulators have been investigating Paxos Trust, a cryptocurrency firm PayPal was working with on its stablecoin effort, Bloomberg News reported this week. "We are exploring a stablecoin," Amanda Miller, a spokeswoman for PayPal, said in an emailed statement. "If and when we seek to move forward, we will, of course, work closely with relevant regulators." Paxos didn't respond to requests for comment. Stablecoins are intended to hold a set value, and some are underpinned by a matching reserve of assets such as cash and bonds. Bloomberg News first reported last year that San Jose, California-based PayPal was exploring the launch of its own stablecoin as part of its cryptocurrency push.
Fed's Waller: Innovations in crypto sector should not be stifled - Federal Reserve Board Governor Christopher Waller is not a fan of cryptocurrency personally, but he sees value in the underlying technology for traditional finance, he said Friday at a conference on digital money, decentralized finance and cryptocurrencies in La Jolla, California. In his prepared remarks, he said digital assets and their supportive technologies present many unique challenges and risks for banks, but cautioned against disregarding them completely. "While it is critical that we ensure that the financial stability risks associated with crypto assets are mitigated, it is important that we keep the various parts of the crypto ecosystem distinct in our minds as the debate about if and how to regulate crypto rolls on," Waller said at the event, which was hosted by the Global Interdependence Center, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit. "Doing so will ensure we do not unduly limit the development and potential future uses of the positive features of the crypto ecosystem." Waller expressed no opinion on the regulatory treatment of crypto assets, but his view on their potential benefits is rosy in bank supervision circles. In recent public remarks, Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr and Fed Gov. Lisa Cook both have described crypto as an area that should have limited engagement with traditional banking. Other regulators, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, have gone so far as toenact specific rules around crypto assets. In late January, the White House released a "roadmap to mitigate crypto risks," that encouraged agencies to go further. Waller, in his speech, said he has not invested in cryptocurrency but he has no problem with others "playing" in the space, so long as they are aware of the risks involved, namely that the value of the assets could fall to zero. He added that those who dabble in the space should not expect "taxpayers to socialize [their] losses." People have long ascribed value to items that are intrinsically worthless, Waller said, citing research from the economist Paul Sameulson on "the social contrivance of money" dating back to 1958. In this sense, he said, cryptocurrency presents nothing "fundamentally new or interesting."
UN report: North Korea stole more crypto in 2022 than ever before -A new United Nations report says that North Korea set a record for its cryptocurrency crimes last year. In a confidential report obtained and published by Reuters on Monday, independent sanctions monitors said that South Korea estimated that North Korean-linked hackers stole virtual assets worth at least $630 million in 2022. One cybersecurity firm estimated that North Korean cybercrime yielded cyber currencies worth more than $1 billion, according to the report. The sanctions monitors said groups controlled by the Reconnaissance General Bureau, North Korea’s primary intelligence organization, carried out the majority of the reported cyber attacks, adding that hacking teams under the names of Kimsuky, the Lazarus Group and Andariel were under those groups and tracked by the cybersecurity industry. “These actors continued illicitly to target victims to generate revenue and solicit information of value to the DPRK including its weapons programmes,” the U.N.’s report said, using an acronym for North Korea’s official name. The sanctions monitors also said those groups used malware for various methods such as phishing, noting that one campaign using this method targeted employees in organizations across various countries. “Initial contacts with individuals were made via LinkedIn, and once a level of trust with the targets was established, malicious payloads were delivered through continued communications over WhatsApp,” the report added. North Korea, which was accused by the monitors of conducting cyber attacks to fund its nuclear and missile programs, has previously denied any allegation of hacking or cyberattacks. Diplomats told Reuters that the report, which was submitted to the 15-member North Korea sanctions committee last week, will be released publicly later in February or early March.
Fintech partner's predatory puppy loans get TAB Bank low CRA rating - In what may be a shot across the bow for banks partnering with fintechs that make high-cost consumer loans, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has lowered Transportation Alliance Bank's Community Reinvestment Act rating from "satisfactory" to "needs to improve," based on the behavior of one of its fintech lending partners. The FDIC did not say which TAB Bank partner was at fault nor what the improper behavior was, other than that it was an "illegal credit practice" that violated Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act, Unfair or Deceptive Acts or Practices. The violation affected a large number of consumers over an extended period of time, according to the FDIC, which declined a request for an interview. "TAB Bank has a significant history of receiving outstanding CRA ratings from the FDIC over the life of the bank," a spokesman for the bank said. "TAB Bank is working with the FDIC and has committed to do everything necessary to return its CRA rating to outstanding." Other banks with fintech partners that make high-cost consumer loans could be next. "It is black-letter regulatory policy that a bank like TAB is ultimately responsible for the actions of its fintech partners, but oversight and enforcement in this area was spotty," said Todd Baker, a senior fellow at the Richman Center for Business, Law and Public Policy at Columbia University and the managing principal of Broadmoor Consulting. "We can expect more regulatory actions in the future as partner banking arrangements are increasingly a focus of examiners." It's unusual for a violation of this type to affect a CRA rating decision, Baker said. "But in some ways a CRA downgrade is a tougher penalty for TAB to deal with than a fine or consent order," he said. One of TAB Bank's partners, EasyPay Finance in Carlsbad, California, has been in the crosshairs of consumer and animal activist groups for a year. The company makes so-called puppy loans, auto loans and other consumer loans at high interest rates. EasyPay did not respond to a request for an interview. Last March, the Humane Society and other animal groups publicized TAB's practice offunding predatory puppy loans through EasyPay. Such loans typically finance the purchase of pets raised in abusive puppy mills, animal-rights advocates have said.
Credit Suisse Tanks Yesterday to $3.02; It’s Lost Over 90 Percent of Its Market Value Since 2007; It’s Not Alone -- Pam Martens and Russ Martens Credit Suisse continued its long death spiral yesterday, losing 15.64 percent of its market value in one trading session to close at $3.02 on the New York Stock Exchange. The trading action came on the heels of an earnings report that was excruciatingly bad – even for Credit Suisse. The Global Systemically Important Bank (G-SIB), which means it’s interconnected to other G-SIBs that could bring down the global financial system, reported yesterday that its clients had yanked over $100 billion in just the fourth quarter — which was more than eight times the outflow in the third quarter. Its pre-tax loss for the quarter was $1.51 billion, marking its fifth consecutive earnings loss. Credit Suisse is Switzerland’s second largest bank, after UBS, but its troubled history looks more like that of a bank in a banana republic. On March 26, 2021, the family office hedge fund, Archegos Capital Management, defaulted on margin calls to its prime brokers and went belly up, leaving major investment banks with more than $10 billion in losses. Credit Suisse took the lion’s share of those losses, acknowledging a loss of more than $5.5 billion. (To fully appreciate the wild risks that mega banks were taking with Archegos, see our report: Archegos: Wall Street Was Effectively Giving 85 Percent Margin Loans on Concentrated Stock Positions – Thwarting the Fed’s Reg T and Its Own Margin Rules.) The Board of Credit Suisse decided to hire the Big Law firm, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, to conduct an internal investigation of the Archegos fiasco. Paul Weiss issued a 165-page report in July of 2021, detailing its version of what had happened. Paul Weiss, reliably, found that no fraud had occurred — just zombie risk management at a Global Systemically Important Bank. (Some shareholders might have been more comforted with a finding of fraud.) Paul Weiss investigators portrayed the zombie risk managers at Credit Suisse as follows: “The Archegos-related losses sustained by CS [Credit Suisse] are the result of a fundamental failure of management and controls in CS’s Investment Bank and, specifically, in its Prime Services business. The business was focused on maximizing short-term profits and failed to rein in and, indeed, enabled Archegos’s voracious risk-taking. There were numerous warning signals — including large, persistent limit breaches — indicating that Archegos’s concentrated, volatile, and severely under-margined swap positions posed potentially catastrophic risk to CS. Yet the business, from the in-business risk managers to the Global Head of Equities, as well as the risk function, failed to heed these signs, despite evidence that some individuals did raise concerns appropriately.” Credit Suisse’s reputation has taken more hits from its involvement in the Greensill Capital scandal and the infamous spy-gate scandal in 2019 where the bank spied on and followed various employees. (You can’t make this stuff up.)
Fed's Barr aims to 'eradicate' racial discrimination in banking The Federal Reserve's top regulator wants to "eradicate discrimination" from the financial services sector and he's ready to use all the tools at his disposal to do so.Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr delivered a speech on financial inclusion Tuesday afternoon at Jackson State University, a historically Black research university in Mississippi. In it, he said the central bank would incorporate screening for discriminatory practices into all of its supervision practices, including evaluating applications for mergers and acquisitions."Congress provided regulators with supervisory and enforcement tools to help ensure that supervised firms resolve consumer protection weaknesses as well as the more pervasive risk management issues that often lead to those weaknesses," Barr said. "We have a close working relationship with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and other regulators and integrate other regulators' consumer-focused reviews—such as examinations for unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices, as well as fair lending—into our assessments of bank holding companies, including in the context of applications for mergers and acquisitions."During his prepared remarks, Barr highlighted racial wealth gaps, the difficulties Black-owned small businesses have in obtaining credit and the fact that Black households are nearly six times as likely to be unbanked as their white counterparts. He said many of these issues are part of the "long shadow" of past discriminatory practices at banks and policies set by the U.S. government. "For most of our country's history, the United States government and many state and local governments, as well as many private individuals, corporations, and organizations, did not merely fail to protect minorities from discrimination, they actively reinforced segregation, entrenched inequality, and enforced unequal policies," he said, "including through brutal violence."
Fed rolls out 2023 stress-test scenarios, with wrinkle for biggest banks - The Federal Reserve Board is adding a component to its annual stress-testing program for large banks this year. Along with its usual baseline and severely adverse scenarios, this year's examination will include an exploratory market shock that will be applied to the trading books of the country's biggest and most complex banks. The market shock scenario will only be applied to global systemically important banks, and it will not be factored into their capital requirements. However, it will be used to evaluate the resiliency of the banks' testing, and it could shape how future tests are conducted. The Fed rolled out the scenarios that will be used in this year's stress test on Thursday afternoon. The severely adverse scenario, which runs from the first quarter of 2023 through the first quarter of 2026, includes a 6.5 percentage-point rise in the unemployment rate to 10%, severe market volatility, a widening of corporate bond spreads and a collapse in asset prices. Residential and commercial real estate values decline by 38% and 40%, respectively. There are also sharp drops in gross domestic product in the U.S. as well as the United Kingdom and Japan. The baseline scenario, against which the results of the severely adverse scenario are measured, is based on third-party forecasts. The adverse scenario is not a projection for future economic outcomes, but rather a set of conditions devised by the Fed to evaluate banks' abilities to maintain tier 1 equity under duress. Compared with last year's adverse scenario, 2023's will see a higher ultimate unemployment rate and a sharp fall in home prices — the Fed's response to rising property values through the end of 2022. This year's scenario will also begin with higher starting interest rates, due to monetary adjustments made by the Fed last year, which will give them more room to fall over the testing period. Other factors in the 2023 adverse scenario, such as potential spillover effects on corporate bonds and equity prices, and inflation risks, are less severe than last year's. In its publication about the scenario, the Fed noted this change was intended to "limit procyclicality in the survey."
Explaining the Fed's climate test - Turns out modeling catastrophic climate change is harder than it looks. Just ask the Federal Reserve.The U.S. central bank is now in the process of gauging six major banks’ approach to preparing for the economic realities of a warming world. And as part of that effort, the Fed is developing a “pilot climate scenario analysis” that will test those lenders’ ability to model — and then handle — a variety of climate-related events, such as a major hurricane strike in the northeastern United States or a future with robust climate laws.Climate risk experts have lauded the move as a critical first step toward addressing the financial threats of global warming. But the Fed’s efforts also have drawn criticism and elicited a long list of questions — including what the Fed and the six banks will gain from the effort, and what comes next.“This is the Fed engaging in an extremely narrow exercise,” Sarah Bloom Raskin, a partner at climate advisory firm Kaya Advisory and a distinguished professor of practice at Duke University School of Law, said in an email.To be clear, the Fed isn’t asking banks to estimate how many dollars they may lose amid intensifying extreme weather events or the clean energy transition. Instead, the idea is to gain a better understanding of banks’ approach to the issue by asking them to assess how a narrow portion of their business would fare under specific climate futures. But as Raskin sees it, the key question going forward is whether the Fed will “step up this so-called climate scenario analysis from a weak, six-bank-only pilot into a supervisory tool that is realistic and credible.”The pilot program will zero in on six major banks — JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp., Wells Fargo & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley and Citigroup Inc. — and their exposure to climate impacts, or physical risks, and the clean energy transition (Climatewire, Jan. 18).To gauge physical risk, the lenders will assess how their current commercial and residential real estate portfolios would perform over a one-year period if hurricanes of varying strengths were to hit the country’s northeast corner.The lenders also will be asked to design and test the implications of their own climate “hazard” that could occur in another region of the country where they have substantial real estate portfolios. That could include, for example, a major wildfire that devastates the Southwest. Further, the Fed will ask the banks to consider how the physical scenarios would unfurl with and without insurance coverage.As to transition risk, the Fed wants the banks to consider the implications of two scenarios for their commercial real estate and corporate loan portfolios.The first is a future in which governments fail to adopt additional climate policies — and carbon-intensive industries continue operating business as usual.In the second, the world successfully limits global warming using “stringent climate policies and innovation.” Notably, the banks will be required to test the impacts of those scenarios on their present-day books over the next decade.
Wall Street's CO2 agenda drives green bank GLS to quit alliance -One of Germany's greenest banks has quit the world's biggest climate-finance alliance in protest, citing concerns that Wall Street is preventing the group from achieving its stated goal.GLS Bank, a founding member of the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, said it no longer wants to be part of the group as much bigger signatories in the US still support oil, gas and coal projects in emerging markets."It has come to our attention that some large NZBA member banks continue to finance new fossil-fuel infrastructure projects on the African continent," Nora Schareika, a spokeswoman for GLS, said in an emailed response to questions. GLS, which became the first bank to exit NZBA when it made the decision in January, didn't identify any Wall Street banks by name.A spokeswoman for NZBA said the group doesn't comment on individual exits. That said, it is "inevitable over time that individual members may, for a variety of reasons, decide to leave," she said.NZBA, which is a subgroup of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, was created to get the banking industry aligned with the goal of preventing global warming from exceeding the critical threshold of 1.5C.But the combination of an energy crisis fueled by war and an increasingly difficult political environment in the U.S. has made that goal harder to reach.Against that backdrop, several Wall Street banks fought efforts last year that would have imposed binding fossil-finance restrictions on NZBA members. JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America even threatened to leave the alliance if such limits were enforced, people familiar with the process said at the time. The pushback from banks resulted in GFANZ loosening ties with Race to Zero, which is the United Nations-backed group that was behind the proposed restrictions.The upshot is that "a significant proportion of NZBA members continue to lack an appropriate approach to their own climate and environmental impact," said Schareika of GLS, which has about $10 billion of assets.
Biden calls for crackdown on 'junk' fees in State of the Union address — Despite loud jeers from Republicans on several occasions, President Biden emphasized his administration's work on "junk fees" and highlighted what he said is a rebounding economy in Tuesday night's State of the Union address, widely seen as the opening salvo of his 2024 reelection bid. Biden touted the work his administration has done to address the fees and urged Congress to pass the Junk Fee Prevention Act. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau last week proposed a rule that would drop credit card fees to $8 from $30, threatening $9 billion a year in fees for banks and credit card companies. "Junk fees may not matter to the very wealthy, but they matter to most folks in homes like the one I grew up in," he said. "They add up to hundreds of dollars a month. They make it harder for you to pay the bills or afford that family trip. I know how unfair it feels when a company overcharges you and gets away with it." He also said that his administration has "reduced exorbitant bank overdraft fees," which he said amounted to more than $1 billion a year.
Small banks urge crackdown on big banks with lax check-fraud controls - Bankers in Illinois are urging federal regulators to take action on check fraud by forcing large banks to resolve disputes over bad checks in a timely manner. The Community Bankers Association of Illinois is calling for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to issue supervisory guidance for large financial institutions to reimburse other banks for fraudulently-altered checks within 90 days. It is highly unusual for banks to request guidance from federal regulators on other banks. But check fraud has become so pernicious that it has prompted community bankers to raise concerns about compliance with Know Your Customer regulations, a legal requirement for financial institutions to establish a customer's identity. The Illinois trade group provided a list of "worst culprits" — large banks and credit unions that routinely fail to respond to bad check disputes. "We want action, we want something done," said David Schroeder, senior vice president of federal government relations at the Community Bankers Association of Illinois, who sent a letter this week to prudential regulators. "This is a big bank problem and it's impacting customers of small community banks who are the front-line victims of this fraudulent activity." Schroeder described a cycle of criminality in which check fraud has become so commonplace in the financial system that small banks are being pitted against large banks. The bank trade group named names — Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Navy Federal Credit Union, U.S. Bank, PNC Financial Services Group, Truist Financial, Capital One Financial, Regions Bank and Citigroup are all institutions that repeatedly fail to reimburse for bad checks..
OCC says key antitrust metric is obsolete -The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said Friday that the agency's key antitrust compliance metric may be increasingly unable to capture relevant measures of market competition due to the growth in nonbank and online banking services. In remarks to a crowd at a bank merger symposium, OCC Senior Deputy Comptroller and Chief Counsel Benjamin McDonough said the OCC believes it is worth evaluating how the merger review process may need a reboot, given rising concerns around anti-competitiveness, systemic risks, and potential harm to consumers. In particular, he believes the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index, which uses bank deposit data to measure market concentration and therefore competition, may be ineffective as deposits are an increasingly poor proxy for measuring market share. "In some ways HHI might have become less relevant since the bank merger guidelines were last updated in 1995," McDonough said. "This is so because a bank's deposit base may have become less probative of its offering of other banking products. In addition, the size of the relevant markets for these products may have expanded exponentially with the rise of online banking products and services, while nonbank competitors have grown to an extent unimagined in 1995." Recent notable mergers have led industry experts to question whether the current framework has kept pace with today's shifting banking landscape. Banks believe that the merger evaluation framework used by both financial and antitrust regulators — circa 1995 — needs to be partially dismantled. They posit that the framework disadvantages them compared with nonbanks, with whom they increasingly compete for market share of deposits and services. Progressive consumer advocates agree the rules are outdated, but instead want stricter standards for consolidation. They say today's runaway state of consolidation creates perverse incentives for banks that become too-big-to-manage, and can harm consumers by producing low-yield deposit rates, less banking access, and greater macroeconomic instability.
BankThink: OCC has identified the problem with big banks. Now it should act. | American Banker - When the top regulator of the biggest American banks describes the problems that he regularly encounters with them and announces a process for downsizing or even breaking them up, there is reason for optimism. But there is cause for pessimism, too, since that regulator's agency is historically Wall Street's biggest friend in Washington.Michael Hsu, the acting comptroller of the currency, has outlined a plan for fixing problems at banks that are what he calls "too big to manage" — the dynamic at work when a bank has reached a size measured in trillions of dollars, but cannot properly safeguard customers from its own illegal activity. Giants including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup could be forced to sell off business lines or even break up into smaller companies.Hsu is tentatively headed in the right direction. But he needs to prove that the OCC has the fortitude to see its task through. The OCC's track record simply does not inspire confidence.This issue screams "Wells Fargo." The bank is scandal-ridden enough to be on late-nightcomedy shows — even before it was hit with yet another multibillion-dollar fine recently. Laughs aside, Wells Fargo seems unable to stop abusing consumers, whether by opening fake bank accounts in its customers' names or mistakenly foreclosing on their homes orripping off Black borrowers.Hsu runs a government agency with a long history of being too friendly with banks.Before the 2008 financial crisis, the OCC went easy on Wall Street, as subsequent investigations showed. Sheila Bair, a longtime Republican financial regulator called forabolishing the OCC entirely. Tom Curry, tasked with cleaning up the OCC after the crisis,leans the same way. Decades of scholarship demonstrate how the OCC has done Wall Street's bidding.The megabanks have influence in Washington. Wells Fargo alone spent $16.7 million on campaign contributions and lobbying in the last presidential election cycle, according to data from the watchdog OpenSecrets. In the last five years, the number of lobbyists Wells employs has doubled. And the revolving door still spins for megabanks: a top OCC lawyerjust left the agency for the Bank Policy Institute, a lobbying and advocacy organization that counts the country's biggest banks among its members. Hsu seems a little too enamored of the banks he supervises. In a speech at the Brookings Institution, he opened his remarks by praising them, rather than highlighting the trouble they routinely cause.Millions of consumers have lost money or their homes at the hands of Wells Fargo. JPMorgan Chase has racked up violations for market manipulation, money laundering andbribery. Citigroup only exists because taxpayers bailed them out in 2008. And the sheer size of these banks lessens competition, to the detriment of consumers and businesses, especially in Black and brown communities.
New York City tightens eligibility for banks holding its deposits New York City will now require banks that want to hold city deposits to provide detailed plans about what they're doing to root out discrimination in their lending and employment practices. The city will also, for the first time, accept public comments online or in person as part of its biennial process to determine which banks are eligible. Both actions are designed to help New York make decisions about where to put its deposits. The transparency measures, which were announced Friday morning by the New York City Banking Commission, come less than a year after the city said it would no longer open any depository accounts at Wells Fargo due to mounting discrimination claims against the bank. The decision to cut ties with Wells Fargo was one factor in the commission's decision to reevaluate its process for designating city depositories, City Comptroller Brad Lander said in an interview Friday. Lander is one of three members of the banking commission, along with New York City Mayor Eric Adams and the city's department of finance commissioner, Preston Niblack. "There were several key steps that weren't part of the process," Lander said. "We thought it was important to develop a new set of certifications and forms to provide information about ways they are working to meet the needs of our communities, and create a public comment opportunity." Every two years, banks must apply to become approved depositories for the city's billions of dollars of public funds. Each bank must supply a list of documents by March 1 and, in May, the banking commission determines designated depositories by majority vote. There are currently 28 banks approved to hold the city's deposits. The list includes several of the nation's largest banks — names like JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, U.S. Bancorp and PNC Financial Services Group — as well as midsize and smaller regionals such as KeyCorp, M&T Bank and Webster Financial, and a few foreign-owned banks.
Stronger than expected US jobs report for January evokes concerns on Wall Street --On Friday morning, the US Department of Labor reported that the economy added 517,000 new jobs in January, far above earlier projections of 187,000. Employment estimates for November were also revised upward by 34,000 and the estimate for December was revised upward by 37,000. The official unemployment rate fell to 3.4 percent, a 53-year low. The stronger than expected job numbers were seen as a setback by wealthy investors. The report evoked concerns on Wall Street that the Federal Reserve’s program of interest rate increases has not sufficiently slowed economic growth and increased unemployment to break the back of militant wage demands in the working class in the face of soaring prices, expressed in strikes and mounting opposition to the trade union bureaucracies. The potential for explosive struggles this year over contracts impacting hundreds of thousands of autoworkers, truck drivers, health care workers, educators and others, and an indefinite extension of recessionary interest rate increases by the Fed, led to a fall in the stock market Friday. Fed officials have blamed “excessive” wage increases for near-record rates of inflation. However, the official inflation rate, reported currently at 6.5 percent, down from 9 percent last year, is well ahead of reported wage gains of 4.4 percent, down from 4.6 percent in December. The official inflation figures undoubtedly understate the real impact of price increases on workers. Prices of many basic items have increased far in excess of 6.5 percent, including food, which is up 10 percent, heating oil, up 40 percent since last year, and natural gas, up 24 percent. While the official unemployment rate fell to its lowest level since May 1969, the labor force participation rate, the percentage of the total workforce employed, is still below pre-pandemic levels, reflecting the fact that millions of workers have been forced out of the workforce due to the impact of the ongoing pandemic. This highlights the reality of relatively low unemployment figures obscuring increasing hardship among ever broader sections of the population who are seeing wages eaten up by inflation, pandemic-related government social support being withdrawn, and employers demanding brutal work schedules.
FHFA's Thompson: Taxpayers are stakeholders in FHLBs - — Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Sandra Thompson said that taxpayers are "absolutely" stakeholders in Federal Home Loan Banks, an issue that's increasingly of interest to policy watchers as revelations about the ways that crypto banks have used the FHLBs to offset plummeting deposits. The issue of how much government support FHLBs receive is a tricky topic, especially as the banks receive more scrutiny from the FHFA. Thompson, speaking Friday at an event hosted by the Brookings Institution, noted that they benefit from their close relationship with the government. "Certainly the debt that's issued has the implied guarantee, as far as I can tell, implied from the United States government," she said. "As far as I can tell, the home loan banks aren't paying taxes, as far as I can tell there are a number of benefits that the home loan banks get." The Federal Home Loan Bank council, meanwhile, says that the banks receive no taxpayer support. The banks have come under criticism lately for their apparent role as a lender of last resort for crypto bank Silvergate, which saw its deposits drop dramatically as crypto exchange FTX unwound, a move from Silvergate that drew the attention of some lawmakers. Given the FHLBs' unusual relationship with the government, Thompson also addressed concerns that those banks' executive compensation is too high, compared to, for example, a government salary. "I do have views in regards to executive compensation, but my views will be articulated at the end of the review period," Thompson said.
CFPB warns mortgage shopping sites on RESPA violations - Digital mortgage shopping platforms could be violating the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act's anti-kickback rules if they provide more prominent placement of a lender on their sites based on compensation rather than neutral decision criteria, the Consumer Financial Bureau said. In an accompanying statement to the advisory opinion, CFPB Director Rohit Chopra cited a Federal Trade Commission settlement with LendEDU, although that particular situation did not involve transactions that were covered by RESPA's Section 8. "The operator's conduct involved both fake reviews and pay-to-play steering of consumers to platform participants," Chopra said. "If similar conduct is observed in the mortgage market, the CFPB will not hesitate to act." The regulator presents two specific instances that could make these providers subject to enforcement activities: presenting one or more service providers in a non-neutral way; and biasing the platform's internal formula to favor preferred providers. "People often turn to purportedly objective and unbiased comparison-shopping platforms for help finding the best lender or service provider," Chopra said. "But sometimes, these platforms produce results that are rigged." Chopra's statement pointed to a 1996 Department of Housing and Urban Development policy ruling that clarified that referral fees paid to what it then called "computerized loan origination systems" were a Section 8 violation, declaring those currently apply to today's sites. "The advisory is a warning to digital marketing platforms of the potential consequences of business relationships with mortgage lenders," said Jonathan Pompan, a partner in Venable's Financial Services Practice group. "The CFPB has a direct sightline into the marketing activities of mortgage lenders through routine examinations, and has previously announced that digital marketers that are involved in the identification or selection of prospective customers or the selection or placement of content to affect consumer behavior are typically service providers for purposes of the law."
Delayed Reaction? 2-Year & 10-Year Treasury Yields Jump, Mortgage Rates Spike 40 Basis Points in Two Days to 6.39% - by Wolf Richter - The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate spiked to 6.39% today, according to Mortgage News Daily, having bounced by 40 basis points in two days off the low of 5.99% on Thursday, giving up a month worth of declines in two days. Gone are the hopes for “stability” in mortgage rates – meaning lower mortgage rates with smaller moves – that the housing industry has been hoping for and talking about, including homebuilders that just gave their Q1 guidance based on mid- to late-January sales orders, when mortgage rates were a lot lower and apparently heading lower still. And now the wild ride has started all over again. The two-year Treasury yield has jumped by 37 basis points since the close on Thursday, the day after Powell had spoken: 16 basis points today and 21 basis points on Friday, to 4.46%, unwinding in two days more than half of the 65-basis-point decline from the high in early November:The 10-year Treasury yield has jumped by 25 basis points since the close on Wednesday, Powell-day, including 11 basis points today so far and 13 basis points on Friday, to 3.64% at the moment, unwinding in three days over a quarter of the large 88-basis-point drop since late October. In an amazing feat, the bond market blew off – temporarily, so to speak – Fed Chair Powell’s discussion about inflation last Wednesday, how “core services inflation without housing,” which constitutes 55% of the core PCE price index that the Fed uses as its inflation yard stick, was not subsiding at all; how further rate “increases,” plural, meaning two or more, would be coming, and how no rate cut was on the table for 2023.They looked at his slumped posture and heard his soft voice, and heard how he struggled to politely answer the same stupid leading questions over and over again, instead of just Tasering the reporters one after the other, or something. (I listed these stupid leading questions at the bottom of my What-Powell-Really-Said article.) And markets, whoever they are, thought Powell was promising a pivot or whatever.I mean, it’s the markets, and they’re a crazy bunch and they do whatever for whatever reason, and a big bout of short-covering might have had something to do with it last week. That willful misreading of what Powell actually said was funny nevertheless. But the honeymoon ended on Friday, when the jobs report drove home in vibrant detail what Powell had said about the labor market on Wednesday – that it was still feeding into “core services inflation ex-housing,” and that therefore a pivot wasn’t on the table this year. And today, it sank in further, and WOOSH go yields.
Freddie Mac House Price Index Declines for 7th Consecutive Month in December - Today, in the Calculated Risk Real Estate Newsletter: Freddie Mac House Price Index Declines for 7th Consecutive Month in December. A brief excerpt: Freddie Mac recently reported that its “National” Home Price Index (FMHPI) declined for the seventh consecutive month on a seasonally adjusted basis in December, putting the National FNHPI down 2.5% from its May 2022 peak, and down 5.0% Not Seasonally Adjusted (NSA) from the peak. On a year-over-year basis, the National FMHPI was up 4.1% in December, down from 6.0% YoY in November. The YoY increase peaked at 19.3% in July 2021. In December, 36 states and D.C. were below their 2022 peaks in December, Seasonally Adjusted. The largest seasonally adjusted declines from the recent peak were in Arizona (-8.5%), Idaho (-7.2%), Nevada (-6.8%), Washington (-6.7%), California (-6.3%), Utah (-5.4%), and Colorado (-5.2%).... Based on the recent trend, this index will be negative year-over-year in March.
CoreLogic: House Prices up 6.9% YoY in December; Declined 0.4% MoM in December NSA --The CoreLogic HPI is a three-month weighted average and is not seasonally adjusted (NSA). From CoreLogic: Peak Fall Mortgage Rates Further Cooled Home Price Growth in December, CoreLogic Reports: CoreLogic® ... today released the CoreLogic Home Price Index (HPI™) and HPI Forecast™ for December 2022. The effect of rising mortgage rates on housing demand in 2022 became even more evident in December, with annual home price growth dipping to 6.9%, down from a series high of 20% appreciation in April. Only nine states registered double-digit year-over-year price increases in December, compared with 48 that posted double-digit gains in April. “The continued slowing of home prices at the end of 2022 reflects weaker housing market demand, primarily caused by higher mortgage rates and a more pessimistic economic outlook in general,” said Selma Hepp, chief economist at CoreLogic. “But while prices continued to fall from November, the rate of decline was lower than that seen in the summer and still adds up to only a 3% cumulative drop in prices since last spring’s peak.” “Some exurban regions that became increasingly popular during the COVID-19 pandemic saw prices jump and affordability erode at the time, but these areas are now seeing major corrections,” Hepp continued. “And while price deceleration will likely persist into the spring of 2023, when the market will probably see some year-over-year declines, the recent decrease in mortgage rates has stimulated buyer demand and could result in a more optimistic homebuying season than many expected.” U.S. home prices (including distressed sales) increased by 6.9% year over year in December 2022 compared to December 2021. On a month-over-month basis, home prices declined by 0.4% compared to November 2022.
U.S. city centers undergo influx of White residents and gentrification - In the 20th century, “White flight” transformed many American cities as White people moved in droves from urban centers to the suburbs.In the last decade, that exodus kicked into reverse.The White population increased between 2010 and 2020 in hundreds of neighborhoods at the center of many large cities, even as it declined almost everywhere else in the country. This influx, which in some cases began before 2010 but has accelerated and expanded, has brought about new upheavals, making some of the country’s biggest urban cores feel increasingly unrecognizable to longtime Black, Hispanic and Asian residents. Some remember when they or their families were forced to live in certain inner-city neighborhoods, restricted by economics or racial covenants from moving to the leafy suburbs. Now many wonder how much integration is really happening between old and new neighbors — and whether there is still room for them in the neighborhoods they call home.Using census data from 2010 and 2020 on population totals by race and ethnicity, The Washington Post identified nearly 800 neighborhood-size tracts across the nation with the highest White population gains. In these neighborhoods, located mostly at the center of major urban areas, the total number of White residents increased by over half a million,while the number of Black residents declined by 196,000 and the number of Hispanic residents fell by 45,000. The Asian population declined in traditional Chinatown neighborhoods close to downtown in cities such as Los Angeles, New York and Philadelphia.Some families of color have left of their own accord, opting for larger houses and more open space as suburban America has become more accessible to people of diverse backgrounds. Others have been squeezed out by skyrocketing rents or homeowner fees.“You have minorities who are looking for more affordable housing, so they’re moving out to the suburbs,” said Derek Hyra, a professor of urban policy at American University.Experts offered various explanations for the return of White residents to urban cores.“Some of this is probably disillusionment with the suburban dream, a generation that grew up in the suburbs … wanting to get away, a revalorization of city life,” said Philip Kasinitz, a professor of sociology at CUNY Graduate Center. A decline in crime starting in the early 1990s also probably played a part, he said.In some cases, cities made investments with the goal of attracting newcomers. They added bike lanes, tram lines, and pedestrian and commercial zones. Developers built upscale residential buildings with studios and one-bedroom apartments designed for childlessprofessionals and empty nesters, with luxury perks such as lounges, pools and on-site dog parks.Longtime neighborhood residents laud some of the changes that come with gentrification, such as renovated parks and schools. But they worry about the impact that rising property taxes and rents will have on their families’ futures. Often, old-timers cannot afford or are not interested in the new amenities, which “cater to the tastes and preferences of the gentrifiers,” Hyra said. “They may be able to stay in place, but they feel out of place. … ‘This community isn’t for me anymore. Even if I have my housing subsidized, maybe we want to move closer to where the small mom-and-pop shop went, where the barbershop went, where the cleaners went.’” Amid all the development in the nation’s capital, the Southwest Waterfront and the neighborhoods around it embody some of the most extreme contrasts. The area has views of the U.S. Capitol dome and the Washington Monument, and quick access to downtown by Metro, bike or car. But, sitting in a picnic chair on her front patio, longtime resident Linda Brown, 63, can also tell you the downsides. Across the street, a new residential development advertises a pet spa and a rooftop pool. In the surrounding blocks, other new buildings tout an in-house Tesla for residents’ use, a car elevator and apartments for sale for up to $12 million.
Commentary: To unlock the IRA's full potential, we need to include low-income renters - As we enter 2023, Gallup pollsters report the economy — inflation, in particular — remains America’s self-perceived “most important problem.” 2022 was a historic year for inflation. In June, inflation reached 40 year highs. And while inflation shows signs of slowing, the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics report still shows a 6.5% annual price growth across consumer goods. Energy and housing prices are particularly volatile, growing at 7.3% and 7.5% respectively over the past 12 months. Inflation hits low-income Americans the hardest. The lowest-income American families are most vulnerable to inflation because they spend the greatest portions of their budgets – upwards of 80%– on essentials. For energy, the gap is particularly striking: low-income Americans spend three times as much of their incomes on energy bills as middle- and upper-income Americans. High quality affordable housing, powered by efficient, clean energy, can help fight inflation and more. Affordable housing provides economic relief to low-income families while reducing crime and increasing property values. Home energy efficiency cuts monthly bills and offers numerous health benefits. Clean energy-powered buildings mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and can help keep the lights on during extreme weather emergencies. Current U.S. policy leaves too many of these benefits on the table. The original Build Back Better (BBB) Act legislation, passed by the House of Representatives in November 2021 but unsupported by the Senate, included $150 billion in funding for affordable housing. The Biden Administration expected this money to lead to the construction and improvement of over a million affordable housing units. Combined with historic funding for clean energy, BBB promised to simultaneously address the dual crises of U.S. housing unaffordability and climate change, paving the way for an equitable, inclusive transition to an affordable, clean energy future. But the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), signed into law in August 2022 in place of BBB, removed the $150 billion dedicated to affordable housing, instead addressing housing indirectly through energy investments and incentives.
Hotels: Occupancy Rate Down 0.3% Compared to Same Week in 2019 - From CoStar: Hotels: Occupancy Rate Down 6.2% Compared to Same Week in 2019 - U.S. hotel performance increased from the previous week, according to STR‘s latest data through Jan. 28.
Jan. 22-28, 2023 (percentage change from comparable week in 2019*):
• Occupancy: 56.3% (-0.3%)
• Average daily rate (ADR): $142.66 (+13.4%)
• Revenue per available room (RevPAR): $80.32 (+13.0%)
*Due to the pandemic impact, STR is measuring recovery against comparable time periods from 2019. Year-over-year comparisons will once again become standard after the first quarter. The following graph shows the seasonal pattern for the hotel occupancy rate using the four-week average. The red line is for 2023, black is 2020, blue is the median, and dashed light blue is for 2022. Dashed purple is 2019 (STR is comparing to a strong year for hotels). The 4-week average of the occupancy rate is at the median rate for the previous 20 years (Blue). The 4-week average of the occupancy rate will increase seasonally over the next few months.
Jan. 29 to Feb. 4, 2023 (percentage change from comparable week in 2019*):
• Occupancy: 55.3% (-7.3%)
• Average daily rate (ADR): $145.35 (+13.9%)
• Revenue per available room (RevPAR): $80.45 (+5.6%)
*Due to the pandemic impact, STR is measuring recovery against comparable time periods from 2019. Year-over-year comparisons will once again become standard after Q1.
The following graph shows the seasonal pattern for the hotel occupancy rate using the four-week average. The red line is for 2023, black is 2020, blue is the median, and dashed light blue is for 2022. Dashed purple is 2019 (STR is comparing to a strong year for hotels). The 4-week average of the occupancy rate is at the median rate for the previous 20 years (Blue). The 4-week average of the occupancy rate will increase seasonally over the next few months.
Tesla Delivers 66,051 China-Made Vehicles In January, Up 18.4% From December -After promising preliminary numbers, it now appears final that Tesla deliveries in China continued to buck the larger national trend of sales for January. The American EV manufacturer reported 66,051 China-made cars delivered for the month of January, up 18.4% from December 2022, according to final data from China's Passenger Car Association. The data indicates 26,843 vehicles sold in China and 39,208 vehicles exported from China for the month. The spike in delivered vehicles was likely helped by price cuts that Tesla put into place during the end of 2022. Tesla's numbers continue to buck a broader trend in China. Recall we reported yesterday that preliminary data showed overall sales of passenger vehicles in China were down 43% from December, at just 1.24 million units. The decline can be attributed to some customers pulling forward demand in order to take advantage of subsidies before the end of the year. As we wrote, Tesla is now reportedly planning to increase output at its Shanghai plant - bringing its run rate back toward where it was in September 2022 - in order to continue meeting the demand from price cuts on its best selling models.
Heavy Truck Sales Up 6% Year-over-year - The BEA released their estimate of vehicle sales for January last week. This graph shows heavy truck sales since 1967 using data from the BEA. The dashed line is the January 2023 seasonally adjusted annual sales rate (SAAR). Heavy truck sales really collapsed during the great recession, falling to a low of 180 thousand SAAR in May 2009. Then heavy truck sales increased to a new all-time high of 570 thousand SAAR in April 2019. Click on graph for larger image. Note: "Heavy trucks - trucks more than 14,000 pounds gross vehicle weight." Heavy truck sales declined sharply at the beginning of the pandemic, falling to a low of 308 thousand SAAR in May 2020. Heavy truck sales were at 466 thousand SAAR in January, down from 501 thousand in December, and up 6.4% from 438 thousand SAAR in January 2022. Usually, heavy truck sales decline sharply prior to a recession. Sales were solid in January.
Wholesale Used Car Prices Increased in January, Down 12.8% Year-over-year - From Manheim Consulting today: Wholesale Used-Vehicle Prices Increase in January: Wholesale used-vehicle prices (on a mix, mileage, and seasonally adjusted basis) increased 2.5% in January compared to December. The Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index (MUVVI) rose to 224.8, down 12.8% from a year ago. January’s increase was driven in part by the seasonal adjustment. The non-adjusted price change in January was an increase of 1.5% compared to December, moving the unadjusted average price down 11.0% year over year. This index from Manheim Consulting is based on all completed sales transactions at Manheim’s U.S. auctions. The Manheim index suggests used car prices increased in January (seasonally adjusted) and were down 12.8% year-over-year (YoY). It is likely this index will be down further YoY in early 2023.
CPI Just Got Revised Higher for October through December. The Revisions Take a Bite out of “Disinflation” Hoopla by Wolf Richter - On Friday afternoon, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its annual revisions to the Consumer Price Index for December, with some revisions going back to 2018. These revisions came just ahead of the January CPI to be released on Tuesday.What was actually revised were the seasonal adjustments, and thereby the seasonally adjusted month-to-month CPI readings that everyone is talking about as a measure of current inflation, whether it’s accelerating or slowing down.The revisions for the December month-to-month readings were all to the upside, including:
- Overall CPI (CPI-U), old -0.1%; new +0.1%. So there goes that.
- “Core CPI” (without food and energy), old +0.3%; new +0.4%
- Services CPI, old: +0.6%; new +0.7%. This is where nearly two-thirds of consumer spending goes. And it is red hot.
In addition, the readings for October and November were also revised up, taking a bite out of the “disinflation” scenario. The indices were also revised for certain months going back to 2018, some months up, some months down. But for October, November, and December, they were all revised up. In terms of magnitude, not necessarily direction, the December revisions were in line with revisions in prior years, the BLS said. So we want to look at the two most important revisions, in terms of gauging how deep inflation has penetrated into the overall economy and what its direction might be. The services CPI was revised to a red-hot +0.7% for December from November (originally 0.6%). And it was also revised up for November and October. This chart shows the revised services CPI (red) and the original (green). The core CPI was also revised up for October, November, and December, showing much less “disinflation” in October and November, and accelerating inflation in December. The revisions also took out some of the spikes in 2022 and 2021. The red line shows the revised core CPI, green is the original version: Disinflation means inflation, but easing rather than worsening inflation. These revisions for the past three months show that there was less disinflation in October and November than cited in all the hoopla about it, and that there has been worsening inflation in December. They’re revisions of seasonal adjustments. The not-seasonally adjusted data was not revised. But it’s the seasonally adjusted inflation figures that everyone is tossing around, with the month-to-month figures – including the original negative CPI-U of -0.1% for December – being held up as of the disinflationary scenario. And the scenario just got a lot less disinflationary.
We've Got Great News- Wholesale Egg Prices Collapse The soaring cost of eggs at grocery stores has been a major pain point for consumers. There's a glimmer of hope that retail egg prices per dozen might have peaked as wholesale prices tumble. New data from Urner Barry, a market research firm that tracks wholesale food prices, shows its Urner Barry Egg Index has plunged 57% since peaking at $4.65 per dozen on Dec. 19. Wholesale prices are now at $2.01. "Prices have collapsed, "Angel Rubio, senior analyst at Urner Barry, told CNBC. He added:"That's a big, big adjustment downward."The plunge in wholesale prices won't immediately reflect in retail prices though prices have likely peaked. This is wonderful news for breakfast lovers.Recall that the cause of soaring egg prices was the worst avian flu outbreak ever that devastated domestic egg-laying bird populations. Tens of millions of chickens were culled last year to prevent the spreading of the deadly disease. In December, retail prices of a dozen large Grade A eggs cost around $4.25, up a mindboggling 200% since Aug. 2020, according to monthly Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
Trade Deficit increased to $67.4 Billion in December -- From the Department of Commerce report: The U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis announced today that the goods and services deficit was $67.4 billion in December, up $6.4 billion from $61.0 billion in November, revised. December exports were $250.2 billion, $2.2 billion less than November exports. December imports were $317.6 billion, $4.2 billion more than November imports. Exports decreased and imports increased in December. Exports are up 8% year-over-year; imports are up 2% year-over-year. Both imports and exports decreased sharply due to COVID-19 and then bounced back. Both have decreased recently. The second graph shows the U.S. trade deficit, with and without petroleum. The blue line is the total deficit, and the black line is the petroleum deficit, and the red line is the trade deficit ex-petroleum products. Note that net, exports of petroleum products are positive. The trade deficit with China decreased to $23.5 billion in December, from $36.2 billion a year ago. The trade deficit was slightly smaller than the consensus forecast.
US Trade Deficit 2022: Imports, Exports of Goods and Services, by Product Category and Country by Wolf Richter - The US trade deficit in goods and services in 2022 ballooned by 12% to an all-time magnificent breath-taking record of $948 billion, according to data by the Commerce Department. A trade deficit is not a sign of a vibrant economy. Instead, it’s a negative for GDP, a negative for US jobs, and a negative for the overall economy. It exists because Corporate America went in search of cheap labor and products to fatten up its profit margins. Services trade surplus declines fourth year in a row. The US trade surplus in services dipped further in 2022, from the already beaten down levels of 2021, to $244 billion, the lowest since 2012, and the fourth year in a row of declines. Imports of services jumped by 24% to a record $680 billion. Exports of services jumped by 16% to $924 billion. Spending for international travel is part of the trade in services. When Americans travel overseas and spend their money overseas, it counts as imports of services. Conversely, it counts as exports of services when foreign tourists, foreign students, etc. spend money in the US. Think of it in terms of money-flows: when tourist spend their money in the US, money flows from overseas to the US, as it does with other exports. International travel has been thrown out of whack during the pandemic. By 2022, most of the travel restrictions were lifted or at least loosened, and travel in both directions has rebounded. We’ll get to the details in a moment. The services surplus of $244 billion (green) was dwarfed by the trade deficit in goods, which worsened by 12%, to $1.19 trillion, by far the worst ever (red). We’ll get to the ugly details of goods in a moment. Services exports by major category: The top four categories account for 73% of services exports. Travel (#3) jumped by 91% year-over-year, as travel restrictions were lifted. This is spending by foreign travelers in the US, and includes travel for personal, health-related, and educational purposes; business travel; and for seasonal/short-term work. The #4 category, Charges for the Use of Intellectual Property, accounts for software, movies, music, licensing agreements, etc. Travel as imports of services – Americans spending money overseas – doubled year-over-year and tripled from 2020 as travel restrictions were lifted and “revenge travel” set in.The trade deficit in goods worsened by 9% to a mind-bending record of $1.19 trillion. Exports of goods jumped by $324 billion, or by 18%, to $2.09 trillion Crude oil and petroleum products reign. Of the total exports of goods, $208 billion, or 10%, were crude oil (up 69% from a year ago) and petroleum products, such as gasoline (up 42%). Price increases were in part responsible for this huge surge. Pharma products were #3, at $90 billion. The largest agricultural category by value is soybeans (up 25% year-over-year), at $36 billion, in 18th place, accounting for 1.7% by value of US exports. Here are the 54 largest categories with an export value of at least $10 billion. Have a good look. There’s some fascinating stuff in it: Imports of goods spiked by $425 billion, or by 15%, to $3.28 trillion. This caused some heartache when those global supply chains got tangled up, triggering all kinds of shortages, but the search of cheap labor and products rules the day.Of the total imports of goods, crude oil was #1 by value at $198 billion, up 49% year-over-year thanks to the price increases. Pharma products were #2, at $190 billion. Passenger cars were #3.Note the imports of tech equipment, categories #5 through #10.
Employment of “People with a Disability” Spiked to Record in Hot Labor Market. Applications for Disability Benefits Fell to 20-Year Low - The tight labor market over the past two years has had an amazing effect on people who have a disability: An additional 1.55 million were working in January, compared to the pre-pandemic January 2020, up by 27%, according to the employment data by the Bureau of Labor Statistics today. And according to the Social Security Administration, the number of people who applied for disability benefits, and the number of people who received disability benefits, both dropped to the lowest levels in many years. In January, there were 32.6 million people aged 16 and over who had a disability, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Lots of times, you see the word “the disabled,” but that’s wrong. Many of them are not “disabled.” The correct term is “people with a disability.” They may be vision impaired, or they returned from a war with a limb blown off, or they have some disease. A lot of disabilities are the natural result of getting old. Many of the lucky ones that make it to 80 years have some kind of disability, and yet some still work and earn money, and you’ll find some in the US Congress, making good money too. Others are elderly and retired; others receive disability benefits and are not working; others are wealthy and don’t need to work; others are full-time students, etc. The number of people with a disability in the labor force started spiking with the tight job market in early 2021, which encourage people with a disability to go look for work, and thereby join the labor force. A record 7.85 million people with a disability were in the labor force in January, meaning there were either working or actively looking for a job in January. This was up by 24%, or by 1.62 million, from January 2020! At the same time, in this tight labor market, companies, beset with difficulties in hiring people to fill the record number of job openings, began opening more doors to people with a disability. (None of the data here is seasonally adjusted. To reduce some of the month-to-month variations, I used three-month moving averages): The number of people with a disability who were employed in January spiked by 27% from January 2020, to 7.29 million in January — with December at 7.37 million having been the highest in the data from the BLS going back to 2008: The unemployment rate for people with a disability — people who were unemployed and were actively looking for a job — dropped to a record low of 5.0% in December, not seasonally adjusted, amid a surge of seasonal hiring by the retail industry before the holidays. In January, those seasonal jobs ended, and the unemployment rate rose of 7.1%. The three-month moving average of the unemployment rate, which irons out the month-to-month fluctuations, dropped to 6.0% in January, the lowest in the data going back to 2008. However, the unemployment rate for people with a disability remains far higher than for the overall labor force (3.5% in December and 3.4% in January, seasonally adjusted), attesting to the difficulty people with a disability face in getting hired even in a hot labor market. People with a disability who want to work face a harsh reality: Finding a job is tougher for them than for people without a disability. And so the unemployment rate is always higher. But as the labor market got historically tight, employers were encouraged to hire people with a disability, and people with a disability were encouraged to look for a job. The results are great to see. Here is the thing: Over the past two years, people with a disability added 1.62 million more workers to the labor force, even as the overall labor force has not been able to recover to pre-pandemic trend due to excess deaths, a wave of retirements, and other factors, which has been dogging this labor market for the past two years.
Watchdog group says DTE Energy is one of nation’s worst for shutting off power to customers — Michigan Radio -DTE Energy shut off electric power to its residential customers 220,905 times between 2021 and June of 2022, according to a report by the Energy and Policy Institute, a utility and energy watchdog group.The number of electricity shutoffs is the third highest of any utility operating in the 35 states in the report.All told, DTE Energy shut off power, including natural gas, 377,492 times from 2020 through October, 2022, while paying $2,065,000,000 in dividends to shareholders.Karlee Weinman, a Research and Communications Manager at the Institute, said that shows the utility's priorities."The cost of fixing this problem pales in comparison to what shareholders are raking in," she said. Weinman said DTE also stands out in another way."DTE has further harmed its customers by selling their utility debt," she said, "which is particularly predatory, and it stacks on top of those disconnections and the impact of those disconnections on its customers."In a statement, DTE Energy said "the report appears to ignore the significant outreach the utility does every day to connect our at-risk customers to financial aid and avoid an interruption of service, which is a last resort we always strive to avoid. We offer special protections during the winter and for senior citizens, place customers on payment plans that lower their bills, and last year we connected customers to nearly $200 million in financial aid. DTE Energy is one of Michigan Radio's corporate sponsors.
South Dakota lawmakers seek foreign-owned land investigation (AP) — South Dakota lawmakers are advancing a number of bills that would curb Chinese influence in South Dakota’s farmland amid concerns among Republican leaders after a spy balloon was spotted and shot down last week. Republican Rep. Will Mortenson proposed Thursday investigating partnerships between landowners and foreign entities. It comes a week after other lawmakers pushed forth other propositions tackling foreign influence, like banning contracts between state land and foreign countries, and establishing a committee to oversee future foreign purchases. “We don’t know what we don’t know, and we’re going to start finding out so we can make the next step,” Mortenson said, after his bill passed a house committee vote with a unanimous vote. The proposals stem from Republican Gov. Kristi Noem’s recent history of curbing the state’s relationship with China. Last year, she banned state employees and contractors from accessing the video platform TikTok on state-owned devices, citing its ties to China. She also said late last year that the state held no direct investments in China after a review. Noem’s emphasis on her perception of threats posed by China comes as she plans for a series of three policy speeches in Washington that seem to portend the rollout of a possible 2024 bid for the Republican presidential nomination.
East-Oregon Movement To Secede And Create 'Greater Idaho' Picks Up Steam - A movement by east-Oregon conservatives to secede and join Idaho is picking up steam, according to the Daily Mail, which interviewed the movement's leader, Mike McCarter. Armed with just $70,000, McCarter has been lobbying for the move in the two states - and has seen allies introduce legislation in Oregon last month. He also has a bill ready to go in Idaho that would accelerate discussions for 15 counties to immediately secede. "I think people within the United States are watching Oregon's movement, hoping that it'll establish a pathway for them in the future," he told the Mail. McCarter's office, adorned with muzzle-loading rifles and the head of a musk deer, "could not be further from the image of Oregon as a haven for woke politics, where a majority voted to decriminalize hard drugs in 2020, where coastal valleys provide the perfect climate for the delicate pinot noir grape and where the liberal lifestyle was sent up in the TV comedy Portlandia," reads the report.That is Portland, with its homeless encampments outside artisan doughnut stores. By contrast, central and eastern Oregon is a land of hardy ranchers, loggers and sawmill workers. Where daytime temperatures dropped below zero at the weekend after a snowstorm.And where locals say they have more in common with next-door Idaho than they do Portland and its $6 caffe lattes.
New York mayor ending COVID vaccine mandate for city workers (Reuters) - New York Mayor Eric Adams said on Monday that he was lifting a controversial COVID-19 vaccine mandate for municipal workers and the city's Department of Education employees. The United States' largest city by population will also end the vaccination requirements, which began in late 2021, for nonpublic school, early child care, and daycare staff. The mandate will end on Friday if the decision is ratified, as expected, at the upcoming city Board of Health Meeting, Adams, a Democrat, said in a statement. Adams noted that since more than 96% of the city's workers have taken the COVID vaccine "this is the right moment for this decision." "I continue to urge every New Yorker to get vaccinated, get boosted, and take the necessary steps to protect themselves and those around them from COVID-19," the mayor said. The decision comes four months after New York ended a COVID vaccine mandate for private employers, and 10 months after the mayor lifted vaccine requirements for professional athletes and performers.
Trends in Educational Attainment in the U.S. Labor Force - The first graph shows the unemployment rate by four levels of education (all groups are 25 years and older) through January 2023. Note: This is an update to a post from a few years ago.Unfortunately, this data only goes back to 1992 and includes only three recessions (the stock / tech bust in 2001, and the housing bust/financial crisis, and the 2020 pandemic). Clearly education matters with regards to the unemployment rate, with the lowest rate for college graduates at 2.0% in January, and highest for those without a high school degree at 4.5% in January.All four groups were generally trending down prior to the pandemic. And all are close to pre-pandemic levels now. Note: This says nothing about the quality of jobs - as an example, a college graduate working at minimum wage would be considered "employed". This brings up an interesting question: What is the composition of the labor force by educational attainment, and how has that been changing over time? Here is some data on the U.S. labor force by educational attainment since 1992. Currently, almost 63 million people in the U.S. labor force have a bachelor's degree or higher. This is almost 44% of the labor force, up from 26.2% in 1992. This is the only category trending up. "Some college" has been steady (and trending down lately), and both "high school" and "less than high school" have been trending down. Based on current trends, probably half the labor force will have at least a bachelor's degree sometime next decade (2030s). Some thoughts: Since workers with bachelor's degrees typically have a lower unemployment rate, rising educational attainment is probably a factor in pushing down the overall unemployment rate over time.Also, I'd guess more education would mean less labor turnover, and that education is a factor in lower weekly claims.A more educated labor force is a positive for the future.
Preschool gives a big boost to college attendance, finds study -Attending preschool at age four makes children significantly more likely to go to college, according to an empirical study led by an MIT economist.The study examines children who attended public preschools in Boston from 1997 to 2003. It finds that among students of similar backgrounds, attendance at a public preschool raised "on-time" college enrollment—starting right after high school—by 8.3 percentage points, an 18% increase. There was also a 5.4 percentage point increase in college attendance at any time."We find that 4-year-olds who were randomly allocated a seat in a public Boston preschool during this time period, 1997 to 2003, are more likely to attend college, and that it's a pretty large effect," says Parag Pathak, a professor in MIT's Department of Economics and co-author of a newly published paper detailing the study's results. "They're also more likely to graduate from high school, and they're more likely to take the SAT."The study does not find a connection between preschool attendance and higher scores for students on Massachusetts' standardized tests. But it does find that children who attended preschool had fewer behavioral issues later on, including fewer suspensions, less absenteeism, and fewer legal-system problems."There are many things that influence whether you go to college, and these behavioral outcomes are relevant to that," says Pathak, who is also a director of Blueprint Labs, an MIT research center that uses advanced empirical methods to examine issues in education, health care, and the workforce. The paper, "The Long-Term Effects of Universal Preschool in Boston," is published in the February issue of The Quarterly Journal of Economics.
Opinion | What do we owe a Virginia 6-year-old accused of shooting his teacher? - The Washington Post - How did society fail the 6-year-old boy accused of shooting his teacher in a Virginia classroom? And what does it owe him now? Answering those questions can help us clarify our obligations to all children, including the most vulnerable. What the public has learned about the boy’s life before the shooting is both frightening and terribly sad. The small child “threw furniture and other items in class,” “barricaded the doors to a classroom” and talked about wanting “to light a teacher on fire and watch her die.” Clearly, he was struggling. Acknowledging that such behavior signals a need for support takes nothing away from the fear of the people subjected to it. After all, a 6-year-old “is really a very vulnerable little person, very sensitive emotionally” under the best of circumstances, “The Yale Child Study Center Guide To Understanding Your Child” noted that at 6 years old a child is just gradually developing“ the ability to recognize and tolerate the limits imposed by reality.”Reporting by my colleagues at The Post suggests that the adults in this boy’s life were trying to support him as he navigated an unspecified “acute disability.” His teacher asked for help. His parents were, until the day of the alleged shooting, attending class with him. But the Newport News, Va., school system, like many others, is experiencing ongoing teacher shortages. Last summer, the district was looking to hire 300 teachers, special education professionals and school psychologists. As of September, 260 of those positions were still open.Filling them wouldn’t have guaranteed peaceful classrooms. Still, adequate staffing might have given the teacher, Abigail Zwerner, or the boy’s parents a break and let the school direct resources to children struggling in less spectacular and urgent ways. And it would certainly have left the district better prepared for the aftermath of the shooting.This long-term failure to help this specific child — though not for lack of great effort — appears to have been compounded by a more scandalous short-term abdication of duty on the day of the alleged shooting. Three times, school administrators were apparently informed that the child had threatened another student or that he might possess a gun. Three times, they neglected to remove him from class or to conduct a thorough search for a weapon.The system failed to protect the boy’s teacher from being shot. It failed to protect her students from the trauma of seeing their teacher wounded. And it failed to save a child from committing a heinous act.It doesn’t diminish the nature of this crime to say that 6-year-olds may still be in the process of learning that death is final, or that, as Bates and Ilg put it, “Good ethical behavior in many comes much later than Six.” Even children who are well begun on what William Damon described in “Moral Child” — his foundational 1988 book — as “a gradual process” of developing ethical sense may need considerable help to live up to their own evolving “values and behavioral standards.” Rather, it is a reminder of grown-ups’ responsibility to safeguard children from their own impulses. So, what should come next for this child in Virginia?Proposals are elusive. That is, in part, because young children commit serious crimes very, very rarely. According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program, just 5 of 16,425 “murder offenders” in 2019 were 8 years old or younger. Another 16 who fatally wounded someone were aged between 9 and 12. In 2018, there were just two “murder offenders” 8 or younger, and in 2017 there was only one. (Age breakdowns are not available for other categories of violent crime.)The United States lacks consensus on a question as basic as the youngest age at which a child can be prosecuted: Virginia, similar to 23 other states, has no minimum age for charging a child with a crime. Theage of criminal responsibility in England and Wales is 10; the global average is 14.Nor do we know enough to make sure the first crimes committed by children are also their last. As a newsletter from the Justice Department’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention acknowledged in 2020, “national recidivism rates are not available.” The agencies that are supposed to collect that data don’t do so in consistent formats and use incompatible software. Even if they wanted to share their findings, they couldn’t. The Justice Department has created grantsintended to rectify this void.Meanwhile, it’s better for adults dealing with extremely young offenders to be guided by common sense and compassion rather than denial and fear.
Biden calls for ban of online ads targeting children - focused on protecting children’s privacy online. Biden’s speech called out tech companies’ grip on young Americans, and sounded the alarm on how social media affects teenagers’ mental health. “It’s time to pass bipartisan legislation to stop Big Tech from collecting personal data on our kids and teenagers online,” Biden said. “Ban targeted advertising on children, and impose stricter limits on the personal data that companies collect on all of us.” He called for similar measures at last year’s State of the Union as well. Biden’s speech gives significant momentum to Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), who plans to reintroduce the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act this Congress. “This Congress, Senator Markey will continue to prioritize passage of his COPPA 2.0 legislation, which would finally put in place commonsense guardrails to stop Big Tech from tracking, targeting, and traumatizing America’s kids online,” said Rosemary Boeglin, a Markey spokesperson.The biggest change from the original 1998 bill is that it increases the cut-off age for privacy protections from 13 to 16. Under COPPA, tech companies and data brokers are still allowed to collect and share data belonging to people over the age of 13, as well as target ads to teenagers.Lawmakers and advocacy groups are concerned this has caused mental health issues for teens, which President Biden raised as a concern in his speech on Tuesday.COPPA 2.0 would ban targeted advertising to children, aligning with Biden’s remarks on Tuesday night.The bill also creates a Youth Privacy and Marketing division at the FTC to address issues related to kids’ online privacy.COPPA 2.0 failed to get a floor vote in the Senate last year after it passed outof committee.Republicans on the committee largely opposed the bill, arguing that Congress should focus on privacy legislation for all Americans instead. Republicans were also concerned about giving the FTC more rulemaking authority under the bill.Markey has attempted to pass an update for kids’ privacy regulations since 2011. While he has momentum from the Biden administration, a split Congress could mean a 13th attempt in 2024.Biden’s focus on online protections for children mustered support from key advocacy groups, which have called for some form of updated measures.
Dad files federal lawsuit after Wisconsin police officer filmed kneeling on 12-year-old's neck — An Illinois man filed a federal lawsuit alleging that an off-duty Wisconsin police officer improperly restrained his 12-year-old daughter during a fight in a middle school last year by placing his knee on her neck similar to how Derek Chauvin fatally restrained George Floyd.Jerrel Perez, who lives in Zion, Illinois, but who used to live about 10 miles north in Kenosha, Wisconsin, filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin on Monday. He alleges that the officer, Shawn Guetschow, used excessive force and inflicted lasting injuries on his daughter. The filing seeks unspecified damages and attorney fees from Guetschow, the city of Kenosha, and its school district.In the 14-page complaint, the girl's attorney, Drew DeVinney, said Guetschow used "unreasonable and excessive" force and that he "acted with malice or in reckless disregard" of the girl's rights when he restrained her during a lunch room fight at Lincoln Middle School by placing his knee on her neck for more than 20 seconds.Guetschow had been working part-time as a school security guard for the school district while also serving as a Kenosha police officer. He resigned from his role with the school district a few days following the incident, but in his resignation letter called out the district for a lack of support.In a statement on Tuesday, the Kenosha Police Department confirmed that Guetschow is still an active officer with the department. Guetschow was placed on administrative duty pending the outcome of three separate investigations but the department found that he did not violate anyone's civil rights, nor committed a crime, and was returned to active duty last week, the statement reads.
COVID in California: Masks again required at 4 Marin County schools --Here are the latest updates on COVID in the Bay Area and California. The conclusion of the U.S. national health emergency status, slated to end May 11, will be felt mostly in the delivery and cost of pandemic health care. For California school kids, the shifting pandemic outlook means the government will not require them to get a coronavirus shot to attend classes. By the end of the month, the Bay Area's largest county will have shut down its mass vaccination and testing sites, turning to the private health sector to pick up those services, in yet another sign of a new pandemic era. Four elementary schools in Marin County have temporarily reinstated indoor mask mandates in individual classrooms due to COVID-19 outbreaks, officials said Monday. Dr. Matt Willis, the county’s public health officer, told the Marin Independent Journalthat the county also is tracking coronavirus cases at two other elementary schools where infections are spreading. “We should expect some normal waxing and waning of transmission within the general downward trend,” Willis said. “I think that’s what we’re seeing — since our wastewater levels continue to decline.” He did not name the schools that were experiencing the outbreaks. Marin County’s public school coronavirus dashboard reported 53 cases within elementary schools last, 16 at middle schools, and 30 at high schools.
Maryland Considering Bill That Would Allow The Vaccination Of Children Without Parent's Consent --The State of Maryland has introduced a bill for consideration (Senate Bill 378) that would allow healthcare workers to vaccinate a child who is deemed "able to understand the benefits and potential consequences of getting vaccinated" without parental consent. The determined age of consent for a child to "choose" to be vaccinated is 14, though, such laws are often a slippery slope as guidelines and goalposts can be adjusted once a bill is passed to include even younger people.It should be noted that Maryland law prevents children of 14 or older to refuse vaccination ordered by parents. In other words, they are considered competent enough to get vaccinated without parent's knowledge, but not competent enough to refuse vaccination with parent's knowledge. The push among some states to provide or legalize medical procedures on minors without advising parents has been growing in multiple sectors of healthcare the past few years, from abortions to gender affirmation surgeries.It sounds like a remnant from two years ago when Democrat run states like New York were talking seriously about the forced internment of people who were "potential dangers" to public health. The concept of constitutional rights were going out the window and the US barely dodged an Orwellian end. Parental rights are often considered a vital barrier to state interference with vulnerable children who are easily manipulated into accepting procedures that could affect their rest of their lives.The potential consequences are obvious - Schools and other government institutions could very easily exploit medical personnel to convince children that they MUST submit to vaccination. They could also influence minors to believe it was "all their idea." The same scenario could involve overzealous doctors or nurses in a hospital setting. With the informed parental shield removed, the sky is the limit in terms of what the state can do to the younger generation.Though the bill mentions that decisions by minors be made "without coercion", a child may not be able to identify coercion when it happens. Not all manipulation requires open and obvious threats.
COVID school enrollment shows thousands of missing kids, homeschooling - She’d be a senior right now, preparing for graduation in a few months, probably leading her school’s modern dance troupe and taking art classes. Instead, Kailani Taylor-Cribb hasn’t taken a single class in what used to be her high school since the height of the coronavirus pandemic. She vanished from Cambridge, Massachusetts’ public school roll in 2021 and has been, from an administrative standpoint, unaccounted for since then. She is among hundreds of thousands of students around the country who disappeared from public schools during the pandemic and didn’t resume their studies elsewhere. An analysis by The Associated Press, Stanford University’s Big Local News project and Stanford education professor Thomas Dee found an estimated 240,000 students in 21 states whose absences could not be accounted for. These students didn’t move out of state, and they didn’t sign up for private school or home-school, according to publicly available data. In short, they’re missing. “Missing” students received crisis-level attention in 2020 after the pandemic closed schools nationwide. In the years since, they have become largely a budgeting problem. School leaders and some state officials worried aloud about the fiscal challenges their districts faced if these students didn’t come back. Each student represents money from the city, state and federal governments. Gone is the urgency to find the students who left — those eligible for free public education but who are not receiving any schooling at all. Early in the pandemic, school staff went door-to-door to reach and reengage kids. Most such efforts have ended.
Thousands of American high school students illegally forced into Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps - As the US expands the US/NATO war against Russia and prepares for war with China, the military faces a growing shortage of new recruits. Large numbers of young people are increasingly wary, if not hostile, to service in the military. In response, school authorities and the armed services are forcing children by the thousands, probably tens of thousands, into the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) at their high schools. The collusion of high schools in the implementation of mandatory JROTC enrollment, a violation of both international law and military rules, was highlighted by the New York Times in December. Attempting damage-control, four Democratic lawmakers—senators Bernie Sanders (Vermont) and Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts) and representatives Ted Lieu (California) and Chrissy Houlahan (Pennsylvania)—have asked the Department of Education and Department of Defense to respond to a series of questions. In its December feature, the Times reported that hundreds of public records requests had proven that “thousands of public school students were being funneled into the [JROTC] classes without ever having chosen them, either as an explicit requirement or by being automatically enrolled.” Andreya Thomas told the Times that she was auto-enrolled as a freshman at Pershing High in Detroit. She said she pleaded to be allowed to drop JROTC, but school administrators refused. She was not alone in being involuntarily enrolled into JROTC. Ninety percent of the school’s 2021-22 freshman class was enrolled. Thomas frequently skipped the class and got a failing grade, but was nevertheless put back in for her sophomore year. She said recruiters pushed the claim that a military career could help pay for college. Three other high schools in the Detroit Public Schools Community District enroll more than 75 percent of their ninth-grade students in military training. Detroit is far from unique. The list of schools that force students into JROTC spans the US. Florida parent Julio Mejia told the Times that his daughter was initially refused permission to drop JROTC. Only after he met with several administrators personally could he secure her release from the program. Cities with some schools enrolling more than 75 percent of students include: Vincent, Alabama; Spring, Texas; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Cape Coral, Florida; Charlotte, North Carolina; Memphis, Tennessee; Port Gibson, Mississippi; San Diego, California. Cities where more than half of all students are slotted into ROTC training include Baltimore, Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston Miami, St. Louis and Washington D.C.
Teen overdose deaths lead California schools to stock reversal drug - — When a student at a Sacramento high school collapsed in an apparent overdose last fall, staff were able to render immediate first aid, administering a newly stocked dose of the opioid reversal drug naloxone. “The results were pretty immediate,” said Victoria Flores, a health administrator with the Sacramento Unified School District. “The individual’s life was saved.” Such incidents, though relatively rare, are behind a new push in California to not just stock school campuses with naloxone, sold under the brand name Narcan, but also allow students to carry and administer the drug. With overdoses near record highs because of the prevalence of fentanyl, Gov. Gavin Newsom called in his recent budget proposal for $3.5 million to supply middle and high schools with naloxone — even as a potential deficit looms and some programs face cuts. “This is a top priority,” the Democratic governor said last month. “There’s not a parent out there that doesn’t understand the significance of this fentanyl crisis.” The second-largest school district in the country isn’t waiting. Los Angeles Unified placed naloxone in each of its schools last fall. And Superintendent Alberto Carvalho announced this week that the district will allow students to carry the overdose antidote to stem the “devastating epidemic” brought on by fentanyl. “We remain committed to expanding access, education and training for this life-saving emergency medication,” Carvalho wrote in a memo to parents Tuesday. Fentanyl — which is about 50 times stronger than heroin — is almost entirely responsible for a spike in youth overdose deaths in California, where such incidents were once rarer than in the rest of the country. Some young people buy pills from dealers over social media thinking they’re pure oxycodone, Xanax or Adderall, but they’re increasingly laced with fentanyl. Others knowingly ingest the drug, a risk when just 2 milligrams can end a person’s life. “It’s not that more teens are using drugs. It’s that the drug supply has gotten more deadly,” said Chelsea Shover, a UCLA epidemiologist.
South Dakota poised to ban gender-affirming care for trans youth - South Dakota is set to be the latest state to ban gender-affirming health care for transgender youth after state senators on Thursday voted to send a measure barring minors from accessing certain medications and procedures to Republican Gov. Kristi Noem, who has signaled she will sign the bill into law. South Dakota’s House Bill 1080, introduced in January by state Republican Rep. Bethany Soye, seeks to prohibit state health care providers from “knowingly” prescribing puberty blockers or hormones or performing surgeries that “validate” a minor’s sex if it is inconsistent with the sex they were assigned at birth. The bill includes exceptions for intersex youth, minors diagnosed with sexual development disorders, and minors that require treatment for an infection, injury, disease or disorder that has been “caused or exacerbated by” gender-affirming medical intervention. Health care professionals who continue to provide treatment will have their medical licenses revoked, according to the bill, although physicians that have initiated a course of treatment for a minor patient prior to July 1 may “systematically reduce” that treatment through Dec. 31. An amendment proposed Thursday by Sen. Tim Reed, one of just four Democrats in the South Dakota Senate, would have allowed transgender minors to have access to puberty blockers, which he said can help alleviate a child’s anxiety about their gender “so that counseling can begin.” “Blockers have a place helping families navigate through an extremely difficult situation,” Reed said Thursday. “We need to be able to give these kids a chance.” Reed’s amendment failed to pass with the support of just nine senators.Another amendment, which the Republican-controlled Senate also rejected, would have required South Dakota’s Department of Social Services to provide mental health counseling for minors experiencing gender dysphoria.
Heartland Institute sends 8,000 teachers climate denial ‘textbook’ - After decades of intense public debate and misinformation campaigns, nearly three-quarters of Americans now accept that climate change is happening; not only that, more than half understand it is caused by human activity. This shift has forced fossil fuel companies — and the organizations they fund — to alter their tactics to avoid regulation. But the Heartland Institute, the infamous, free-market think tank that has operated at the center of climate misinformation for decades, is still hanging onto the old ways as it pushes on with its attempt to discredit established climate science.This week, the organization sent copies of its book “Climate at a Glance” to 8,000 middle and high school teachers across the country, in order to provide them, it says, with “the data to show the earth is not experiencing a climate crisis.” H. Sterling Burnett, who directs Climate and Environmental Policy for the Heartland Institute and edited “Climate at a Glance,” said he hoped the book would reach educators who are teaching climate change, “not to replace the material they have, but to supplement it.”But science education advocates aren’t too worried about the impact of the materials.“This is not Heartland’s first rodeo,” said Glenn Branch, deputy director of the non-profit National Center for Science Education, which promotes and defends accurate science education. “In previous campaigns, the bulk of teachers and students who received the materials threw them out or put them in the recycling bin.” The new 80-page document, presented in the style of a slick and authoritative textbook, covers 30 climate topics often discussed in science classes. Many of the sections acknowledge modest planetary warming, but assert that it is either good for species and ecosystems, or doesn’t really have the impacts on extreme weather events that climate scientists say it does. “They typically give a straightforward observation or statistic that’s not in dispute and add some commentary that’s wildly exaggerated or a completely false interpretation,” said Branch. A section on crop production, for example, notes how a longer growing season improves yields; it does not acknowledge the net-negative impact of a hotter, drier climate and extreme precipitation on agriculture in the long term. A page on sea-level rise says “levels have been rising at a fairly steady pace since at least the mid-1800s,” but the rate has actually more than doubled in the 2000s when compared to most of the 20th century. “It’s a misleading interpretation of scientific facts and questionable inferences drawn from cherry picked data from unreliable sources,” said Robert Brulle, a visiting professor of sociology at Brown University who has researched the public relations strategies of the fossil fuel industry. “It almost seems quaint that they’re still running with this. It’s like ‘The 1990s called. They want their scientific misinformation back.’”
Position paper on ChatGPT outlines opportunities for schools and universities - The public launch of ChatGPT has led to considerable dismay at schools and universities. However, a position paper authored by more than 20 scientists at TUM and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) working in educational, social, computer and data sciences shows that the so-called language models also present many opportunities for education. The work is published on theEdArXiv preprint server.In this interview, the coordinator Prof. Enkelejda Kasneci explains how the new technology could benefit learners and make teachers' work easier.
- The New York School District has banned the use of ChatGPT. It that the right way forward? We think it's the wrong way. It's also the easy way out. The development of language models like ChatGPT is a technological milestone. There is no going back. The tools are in the world. They will get better and we have to learn how to use them constructively. We're convinced that they offer big opportunities for the empowerment of previously disadvantaged people. ChatGPT and similar programs can lead to greater educational equity.
- Who could benefit from ChatGPT applications? First, this is a tool that makes it possible for everyone in the world with internet access to learn—regardless of the quality of the education system in their own country. Second, it can help people to express themselves better in writing who otherwise have difficulty doing so, for example due to a disability. That can offer them new opportunities to participate in society.
- And how about at school? Here we see major potential for the personalized use of such tools to overcome the individual weaknesses of each child, to bring out strengths and contribute to constructive learning successes. We're talking about an AI-based tool that can recognize and produce various forms of text. Pupils could get suggestions for alternative wordings or better text compositions. That can help them improve their ability to express themselves.My research chair team has just developed a tool that can analyze an essay using large language models and provide feedback such as: "It would be better to use a consistent verb tense" or "You could pay more attention to the subjunctive." This feedback could be adjusted to the age and skill levels of the individual children.
- At present, people seem to be worried that language learning will deteriorate. We don't see it like that. On the contrary, applications like this can promote the understanding of language. But they can also be helpful in other subjects, for example by creating questions on a certain topic. Students preparing for exams at home could use it as a study partner that would focus on points where more work is needed. That is a level of individualized learning that would be difficult to achieve in the classroom.
Opinion | Why I'm not worried about my students using ChatGPT - - ChatGPT has many of my university colleagues shaking in their Birkenstocks. This artificial-intelligence tool excels at producing grammatical and even insightful essays — just what we’re hoping to see from our undergraduates. How good is it, really? A friend asked ChatGPT to write an essay about “multiple realization.” This is an important topic in the course I teach on the philosophy of mind, having to do with the possibility that minds might be constructed in ways other than our own brains. The essay ran shorter than the assigned word count, but I would have given it an A grade. Apparently ChatGPT is good enough to create an A-level paper on a topic that’s hardly mainstream. Universities are treating the threat as more dire than an epidemic or even a budget reduction. The most obvious response, and one that I suspect many professors will pursue, involves replacing the standard five-page paper assignment with an in-class exam. Others expect to continue with the papers but have suggested that the assigned topics should be revised to focus on lesser-known works or ideas about which a chatbot might not “know” too much. Good luck with that. If ChatGPT can pen a solid essay on multiple realization, an issue on which I happen to be a world authority in good part thanks to lack of company, I doubt it would have difficulty constructing essays about lesser-known Shakespearean sonnets or unremarkable soldiers who fought for the Union Army. Besides, if we’re going to demand deep thought from our students, shouldn’t it be about the more important stuff? Here’s what I plan to do about chatbots in my classes: pretty much nothing. Let me say first that as much as I value the substance of what I teach, realistically my students will not spend more than a semester thinking about it. It’s unlikely that Goldman Sachs or Leakey’s Plumbing or wherever my students end up will expect their employees to have a solid background in philosophy of mind. Far more likely is that the employees will be required to write a letter or an analysis or a white paper, and to do this they will need to know how to write effectively in the first place. This is the skill that I most hope to cultivate in my students, and I spend a lot of time reading their essays and providing them with comments that really do lead to improvements on subsequent assignments. In-class exams — the ChatGPT-induced alternative to writing assignments — are worthless when it comes to learning how to write, because no professor expects to see polished prose in such time-limited contexts.
Student Loan Payment Pause Benefits High-Income Households the Most - A great deal has changed since March 2020, when executive and Congressional action paused payments on most federal student loans. The national unemployment rate spiked at 14.7 percent in April 2020, but receded dramatically and has stayed below 4 percent since December of 2021. Meanwhile, inflation climbed from an average of 1.2 percent in 2020 to 9.1 percent in June 2022—the biggest jump in 40 years.Yet, following nine extensions, the payment pause on student loans remains in place at an approximate direct cost of $5 billion per month. The Biden Administration also has moved to end some repayments altogether, by forgiving hundreds of billions of dollars in federal student loans. Whether the forgiveness program is legal, and whether millions of Americans will have to repay their student loans back in full, is now before the U.S. Supreme Court. Justices will hear the case on February 28.These two policies may be tethered to one another in court, but they have strikingly different distributional impacts. While the White House claims that nearly 90 percent of the relief provided under the forgiveness plan would go to families with incomes less than $75,000, the payment pause has provided more than 65 percent of the relief to families with incomes greater than $75,000. In fact, the top 20 percent of households receive nearly 30 percent of the benefit while only accounting for 16 percent of families with federal student debt.We look at the household student loan balances, payments, as well as earnings, to determine the relative impacts of the payment pause program on lower- and higher-income Americans. Our analysis shows the across-the-board pause on federal student loan payments disproportionately benefits the most affluent borrowers. Continuing the payment pause without means-testing its benefits leads to ballooning costs for taxpayers. Still, in the absence of some payment relief, approximately 12 percent of families, who disproportionately have low and moderate incomes, have payment-to-income ratios greater than conventional metrics for excessive student debt burden. If both the payment pause and promise of partial loan forgiveness end with an adverse Supreme Court ruling in early 2023, these borrowers are at risk of significant negative financial impacts.The reliance on the payment pause may have made other avenues of relief, including relief under Income-Driven Repayment plans and the Fresh Start program, less salient for the most vulnerable borrowers. Yet these more stable avenues represent the best way to assist borrowers most in need of government support. Encouraging families to seek out these options now, while the pause is still in effect, is an important safeguard for borrowers’ longer-term financial health.
CDC adds COVID vaccine to routine immunization schedule for kids, adults - COVID-19 vaccines are now included among the routine shots recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for children, adolescents and adults. The 2023 list includes shots for the flu, measles mumps and rubella, polio, and other inoculations. The vaccine schedule represents the current recommendations for people as a regular part of their vaccinations against common infectious diseases. It does not mean the CDC is requiring a COVID-19 shot for children or that schools will have to require that students receive the shot before enrolling. The vaccine schedule is an important resource for physicians, especially pediatricians, that can help guide them on when it’s best to administer certain vaccines. The CDC does not have the authority to mandate vaccines; that decision is left up to states and local jurisdictions. For example, the flu vaccine has long been on the schedule of recommended childhood immunizations, but hardly any state actually mandates it for public schools. Under the new guidelines, healthy children 6 months to 4 years old should receive a primary series of two doses of either the Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech monovalent COVID-19 vaccine followed by a third dose of a bivalent vaccine. Children 5 to 11 years old should receive two doses of the Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine followed by a bivalent shot. Children 12 years and older should get either two doses of the Moderna, Pfizer or Novavax vaccine followed by a bivalent booster. Nearly 85 percent of adults in the U.S. have completed their primary COVID-19 vaccination series, according to the CDC, but only about a third have received a bivalent booster. The recommendations were first made by a CDC advisory panel in October. Panel members at the time said that since the coronavirus is not going away, it makes sense to recommend children get vaccinated.
CDC analysis finds more Staph bloodstream infections in Blacks, Hispanics -People on dialysis for kidney disease are 100 times more likely to have Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infections than other people, and, of this group, Black and Hispanic patients—who have disproportionately higher rates of end-stage kidney disease—have higher rates of bloodstream infections than their White counterparts, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today in a new Vital Signs report.The CDC said the findings point to a need for more equitable access to lower-risk vascular access types and other measures to prevent the infections. It added that dialysis comes with known risks, given that needles and catheters can introduce Staphylococcus into the bloodstream.Infections, some of them resistant to commonly used antibiotics, can be serious or fatal. Of 14,822 infections, more than one-third were due to Staph, which was strongly associated with vascular access through a central venous catheter.Staph rates were elevated in Black and Hispanic patients, with the highest risk in Hispanic people—40% higher than in White people.Black patients had a 10% higher risk, but that rate failed to reach statistical significance, according to aMorbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) paper outlining the findings. Black people, however, make up 40% of all people receiving dialysis even though they constitute only 12% of the US population. So a small increased risk can have an outsized impact.The risk was also higher in those ages 18 to 49 years old. In addition, the team found that Staph bloodstream infections were higher in settings of poverty, household crowding, and lower education, hinting that factors other than race and ethnicity play roles.
Two-dose COVID vaccine efficacy durable against severe Omicron but drops in elderly --Overall two-dose vaccine effectiveness (VE) against Omicron variant-related hospitalization or death remained above 70% for at least 6 months among adults in Hong Kong but dropped to below 62% in those aged 80 and older, necessitating a third dose, finds a case-control study published today in JAMA Network Open.Hong Kong researchers used linked administrative data to estimate VE of the CoronaVac and Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines among 32,823 adults who died or were hospitalized due to Omicron from Jan 1 to Jun 5, 2022 (case participants) and 131,328 infected control participants listed in a public health registry during the same period. The average age in both groups was 65 years.Most (62.1%) of the 9,362 case participants who died and 49.5% of the 16,236 who died or were hospitalized were unvaccinated, compared with 37% of 37,488 and 21.4% of 131,328 controls, respectively.VE against severe disease rose with the number of doses for both types of vaccine. The overall VE of CoronaVac against death climbed from 56.4% after one dose to 71.1% after two doses to 88.5% after three. VE of the Pfizer vaccine against death increased from 62.2% after one dose to 70.8% after two doses to 84.4% after the third.For at least 6 months, VE against severe outcomes after a second dose of the CoronaVac and Pfizer vaccines was 74.0% and 77.4%, respectively. Two-dose VE against death in participants aged 18 to 49 years was 86.4% and 92.9% among CoronaVac and Pfizer vaccine recipients, respectively, but fell to a respective 61.4% and 52.7% in those aged 80 and older after 6 months.
COVID Rebound Can Happen Even without Paxlovid - Scientific American -Paxlovid gets a bad rap over concerns about COVID “rebound.” That’s the primary takeaway from a series of papers showing that whether or not people take the antiviral medication, many have symptoms that wax and wane before going away completely. Over the past few months a number of peer-reviewed and preprint studies have looked at patients with COVID in the placebo groups of clinical trials for Paxlovid and other treatments. As part of the trials, the patients in these groups were required to fill out daily symptom trackers. Researchers consistently found that as many as 30 percent of those who did not take an antiviral experienced a rebound in coughing, fatigue, headache or other symptoms after initially feeling better. The studies aim to address concerns over a phenomenon called Paxlovid rebound, which occurs when someone who has taken an antiviral such as Paxlovid (a combination of nirmatrelvir and ritonavir tablets) experiences a resurgence in symptoms or a positive test after testing negative soon after they stop taking the drug. One of the first papers to describe COVID resurgence after an antiviral was a case study co-authored by Davey Smith, an infectious disease physician and researcher at the University of California, San Diego, and his colleagues. It wasn’t long before Smith’s research came back to haunt him, however. As anecdotal reports of the phenomenon began to pile up last summer—reports that included high-profile cases such as President Joe Biden and the National Institutes of Health’s Anthony Fauci—public opinion of Paxlovid began to decline. The drug once hailed as a savior for high-risk patients was suddenly being dismissed as not worth the effort. Despite Paxlovid’s proved efficacy at preventing severe disease and death in people considered high-risk, Smith found increasing resistance to it. “ Perhaps more worrisome, however, is the fact that some physicians have become hesitant to prescribe it. “The drug kept people out of the hospital and kept them from dying,” Smith says, and “I felt guilty because I’d started it all.” Because he knew that respiratory viral symptoms have a tendency to come and go no matter the virus or treatment, Smith set out to better characterize the course of COVID itself. In one of the studies, published in JAMA Network Open last October, Smith and his colleagues looked at a group of placebo-group subjects in the ACTIV-2 trial and found that 30 percent experienced at least two symptom-free days before one or more of their symptoms returned. Of those who had this symptom rebound, almost all had symptoms that were mild to moderate and none required hospitalization. In another study, posted as a preprint and now undergoing peer-review, Smith and others assessed placebo-group patients for both symptom rebound and viral load (the amount of virus infected people were shedding), as measured by a PCR test, the most sensitive test for infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID. The researchers found that 10 percent of their untreated subjects had recurrent symptoms after having their symptoms completely resolve, 27 percent had their symptoms improve somewhat before feeling worse again and 12 percent showed resurgence of detectable virus itself. But a viral comeback rarely coincided with worsening symptoms: only 1 to 2 percent of the study subjects experienced both.
Sewers reveal new coronavirus wave in parts of Bay Area - The pandemic has dramatically dropped down on the list of Americans’ top concerns, falling far behind the economy, health care costs and many other issues, a new study finds. But the pandemic still claims some 3,500 American lives per week, and long COVID prolongs suffering for many, with research now identifying at least seven symptoms distinctly associated with the long-term illness. In Marin County, reported outbreaks at four elementary schools have led to temporary reinstatement of a mask mandate. Coronavirus levels monitored in Bay Area wastewater reveal another COVID-19 wave is under way in several regions despite the low case rates reported on the local health department dashboards. The San Jose sewer shed in Santa Clara County shows a “high” level of the coronavirus gene per gram of waste solids, according to state data on viral counts in wastewater. Samples from the Alameda County, Marin County and San Francisco sewer sheds show similar spikes, with a sharp increase beginning in early February.California’s health department dashboard shows cases at a plateau. But health officials say the wastewater data offers a better glimpse at pandemic trends than the official numbers. Those government counts do not capture the true proportion of the virus circulating in the community because a majority of people use home tests, the results of which are not reported to public health authorities.“If the wastewater is up, put your mask on,” Dr. Sara Cody, Santa Clara County’s health officer, said at a briefing last week. She noted that while cases have drifted down since their December peak they have recently leveled off at a relatively high rate.The three other sewer sheds in Santa Clara County, the Bay Area's most populous, show a “medium” level of viral particles in circulation. Public health officials say that the levels of coronavirus in the sewer sheds typically appear before the cases. The wastewater also catches asymptomatic infections. The trend lines appear to mirror the rise in cases the Bay Area experienced before the COVID-19 surge in early December. COVID-19 hospitalizations have also started rising again across the Bay Area. There were 490 patients admitted to hospitals with confirmed infections as of Tuesday, compared to 451 a week earlier.
New COVID variant CH.1.1 spreads across USA - The Jerusalem Post - A new COVID-19 subvariant CH.1.1, also known as "Orthrus," has been gaining traction as it spreads across the United States in recent weeks.According to the Centers for Disease Control, this strain is currently the fifth most prevalent strain in the United States, representing roughly 1.6% of cases nationwide as of February 4th, 2023.
Is Orthrus the Next Top-Dog COVID Variant? -The Omicron subvariant XBB.1.5 -- aka "Kraken" -- has climbed to more than 66% of new COVID-19 cases in the U.S., but a relatively new Omicron subvariant named after a two-headed dog may be nipping at its tentacles.Over the last several weeks, CH.1.1 -- deemed "Orthrus" after a monster canine in Greek mythology -- accounted for less than 2% of new COVID cases in the U.S. as of January, per the CDC. However, Orthrus has a mutation, L452R, previously seen in the highly pathogenic Delta variant, and highly transmissible BA.4 and BA.5 variants, according to researchers from the Ohio State University in Columbus.In a BioRxiv preprint, Shan-Lu Liu, MD, PhD, and colleagues said Orthrus emerged in Southeast Asia in November 2022, and now accounts for about a quarter of cases in the U.K. and New Zealand. At other times in the pandemic, the U.K. has served as a bellwether of what could hit the U.S. in terms of new variants and potential surges.They also explained that Orthrus, along with another new variant, CA.3.1, possess a "consistently stronger neutralization resistance than XBB, XBB.1, and XBB.1.5, which is astonishing and warrants continuous monitoring and further investigations." Liu's group called for continuing current vaccination strategies, or the investigation of new ones, and the ongoing surveillance of emerging variants.The February 2023 COVID epidemiological update from the World Health Organization (WHO) lists Orthrus among the top three most prevalent variants in Europe, clocking in at 12.3%, slightly behind BQ.1 at 13% and BQ.1.1 at 31.3%."WHO is currently prioritizing the tracking of four Omicron descendent lineages," the agency stated. "These variants are included on the basis of signals of an increase in prevalence or signs of growth rate advantage in some countries relative to other circulating variants, and additional amino acid changes that are known or suspected to confer fitness advantage." During the second week of January, there were 3,473 (13.9%) sequences of BA.2.75, from which Orthrus is descended. That included BA.2.75.2 at 35 sequences (<1%), and then Orthrus, at 1,672 sequences (6.7%), according to WHO. Recent CDC data show U.S. COVID cases, hospitalizations, and deaths trending down as of Feb. 1. Weekly cases were at 280,911, with daily average hospitalizations at 3,459, and weekly deaths at 3,452.Liu and colleagues pointed out that "our study highlights the continued waning of 3-dose mRNA booster efficacy against newly emerging Omicron subvariants. This effect can be partially saved by administration of a bivalent booster, though escape by some subvariants, particularly CH.1.1 and CA.3.1, is still prominent."
If You Test For Covid At Home, Let Us Know Results, FDA Says | Kaiser Health News Now that at-home testing is the norm, public health officials are having difficulty tracking covid trends, prompting a call for more people to submit results to an official site. Separately, a study suggests the tripledemic may have infected nearly 40% of U.S. households. FDA asks people to report home test results. With a majority of people now using over-the-counter coronavirus tests at home, public health officials are having a hard time tracking COVID-19 case trends. To that end, the Food and Drug Administration on Monday encouraged people to start submitting their test results on the website MakeMyTestCount.org. “The FDA encourages you to voluntarily and anonymously report your positive or negative test results every time you use an at-home COVID-19 test,” the agency wrote. “This valuable test data help public health departments assess and modify their response to COVID-19 in their local communities, states, or across the country.”
Study: 60% of COVID-infected cancer patients report viral symptoms 6 months later | CIDRAP - A study published yesterday in eLife shows that 60% of cancer patients still have COVID-19 symptoms for 7 months after infection, similar to the general population. University of Texas researchers identified 312 patients at MD Anderson Cancer Center who tested positive for COVID-19 from Mar 1 to Sep 1, 2020, and followed up with them until May 2021. Participants completed daily questionnaires on viral symptoms for 14 days after infection, then weekly for 3 months, and then monthly thereafter.The researchers also reviewed patients' electronic health records to identify the persistence or emergence of new COVID-related symptoms documented at any clinic or hospital visit in the 30 days before infection and up to 14 months later.Median patient age was 57 years, 75% of patients had solid tumors, and 60% reported lingering COVID-19 symptoms for a median of 7 months and up to 14 months. The most common symptoms were fatigue (82%), disturbed sleep (78%), muscle pain (67%), and gastrointestinal symptoms (61%). Less common symptoms were headache, impaired taste or smell, shortness of breath (47%), and cough (46%).Women reported long-COVID symptoms much more often than men (63% vs 37%). Of the 188 patients with persistent symptoms, 8.5% were readmitted for COVID-related indications. Rates of risk factors for long COVID (eg, depleted white blood cells, need for extra oxygen, hospitalization, multiorgan failure) were similar in both sexes.We also found no underlying condition or severity of illness during acute COVID-19 that would predict long COVID-19. Of note, patients diagnosed as having high blood pressure (BP) were less likely than others to develop long COVID. Although high BP is a risk factor for severe infection, it appears t beo less important for the development of long COVID, the authors said."Even in this high-risk patient population, long COVID-19 was not associated with a high rate of hospital admissions," senior author Issam Raad, MD, said in an eLife news release. "We also found no underlying condition or severity of illness during acute COVID-19 that would predict long COVID-19."
Long COVID Is Keeping So Many Young People Out of Work - There are still so many questions to answer about long COVID, but one thing is becoming increasingly clear: It’s affecting a lot of people. Some data suggest that at least 1 in 13 adults in the US have long COVID—meaning they are living with symptoms that have lasted at least three months after their initial infections and didn’t experience prior to contracting COVID.The physical and emotional effects can be devastating: Research shows fatigue is the most common sign of long COVID, and it’s been compared to the overwhelming tiredness that characterizes chronic fatigue syndrome. More studies are needed, but it’s evident that long COVID symptoms can vary greatly from person to person; some people havepersistent headaches or brain fog, while others develop heart complications or experience psychiatric effects.It’s no surprise, then, that recent data also show long COVID is keeping people out of work; when you’re completely exhausted, in pain, or emotionally depleted, it can be tough to do any job, whether you’re on your feet all day or sitting through meeting after meeting.According to a recent analysis of 3,139 established COVID-related worker’s compensation claims in New York, between January 2020 and March 2022, 71% of people who reported having long COVID were unable to work for six months or more or they needed continuous medical treatment; 18% of people with long COVID didn’t return to work after more than a year, and 75% of them are under the age of 60. (Adults over 60 had “significant difficulty” returning to work life too.) It’s also worth noting that the report categorized 83% of “COVID-19 claimants” as essential workers—and that these numbers only include established claims, not the people who couldn’t see a doctor for a diagnosis because of, say, lack of insurance or people who needed to continue working despite their illness to support their families. A small 2022 survey published in the journal Occupational Medicine also analyzed data from 145 workers, more than half of whom reported working in health care, social care, or education. The workers, most of whom reported having COVID symptoms that lasted longer than six months, faced obstacles like fatigue, difficulty managing symptoms at work, “inappropriate sickness absence management policies,” and a lack of “COVID-aware” organizational cultures. The researchers also discovered that people who were able to modify their work schedule and had flexible return-to-work planning or supportive management felt more accommodated by their employers. One report from the Brookings Institution, a nonprofit public policy organization that conducts research dedicated to solving societal problems, posits that long COVID is keeping millions of people out of work in this country.
These are the 7 most common long COVID symptoms, new study finds -Despite the plethora of symptoms reported by patients with long COVID, a new study points to just seven that are unique to the illness. However, some long COVID researchers and doctors who've treated the disease believe this list is far from comprehensive.The goal of the study was to look for long COVID symptoms that appear or persist more than a month after the initial infection and are distinct from symptoms of other common respiratory viruses, such as the flu or common cold. To do so, researchers used Cerner Real-World Data, a database containing information extracted from the electronic medical records from 122 health systems in the U.S.They analyzed data from electronic health records of more than 17,000 patients diagnosed with COVID before April 14, 2022; more than 17,000 patients diagnosed with a different respiratory virus between March 1, 2020, and April 1, 2021; and 15,694 people with no virus diagnosis but who sought health care between 2020 and 2022.Researchers concluded that some symptoms typically associated with long COVID do not appear more often after a COVID infection than they do with other respiratory viruses, according to the report published in Open Forum Infectious Diseases.Compared to other viral respiratory illnesses, long COVID was most strongly associated with:
- Heart palpitations (fast beating, fluttering or pounding)
- Hair loss
- Fatigue
- Chest pain
- Dyspnea (difficulty breathing)
- Joint pain
- Obesity in the postinfectious period
The hope is that this research will help patients and their doctors more easily recognize long COVID, study co-author Dr. Adnan Qureshi, neurologist at University of Missouri Health Care, tells TODAY.com. The research may help “health care providers know what they should be screening for,” Qureshi adds.The surge in long COVID cases caught the health care system by surprise, Qureshi says.“We thought once you survived the acute infection, then everything would be over,” he explains. “Now that survival has improved a lot, it’s quite apparent that this is not a one-time thing for many.”“There has been a dramatic shift in disability and loss of productivity on a nationwide scale that is quite out of line with what we expected,” Qureshi adds. “The whole health care system has to gear up to meet that existing demand.”
Lifestyle influences long COVID risk, according to Harvard-led study – Harvard Gazette - Women who followed most aspects of a healthy lifestyle, including healthy body weight, not smoking, regular exercise, adequate sleep, high quality diet, and moderate alcohol consumption, had about half the risk of long COVID compared with women without any healthy lifestyle factors, according to a study led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.“With ongoing waves of COVID-19, long COVID has created a serious public health burden. Our findings raise the possibility that adopting more healthy behaviors may reduce the risk of developing long COVID,” said Andrea Roberts, senior research scientist in the Department of Environmental Health and senior author of the study.The study appeared online Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine.It’s estimated that 8 million to 23 million Americans suffer from long COVID, which is defined as having COVID-19 symptoms four weeks or more after initial SARS-CoV-2 infection. Symptoms can include fatigue, fever, and a variety of respiratory, heart, neurological, and digestive symptoms.The researchers analyzed data from more than 32,000 female nurses in the Nurses’ Health Study II, who reported on lifestyle in 2015 and 2017 and reported history of SARS-CoV-2 infection from April 2020 to November 2021.During that time, more than 1,900 participants contracted COVID-19. Among these, 44 percent developed long COVID. Compared to women without any healthy lifestyle factors, those with five or six had 49 percent lower risk of long COVID. Among the six lifestyle factors, maintaining a healthy body weight and getting adequate sleep (seven to nine hours daily) were the ones most strongly associated with lower risk of long COVID. The results also showed that, even among women who developed long COVID, those with a healthier pre-infection lifestyle had 30 percent lower risk of having symptoms that interfered with their daily life.The authors noted that one possible explanation for the associations they observed is that, based on prior research, an unhealthy lifestyle is associated with increased risk of chronic inflammation and immune dysregulation, which have been linked with increased risk of long COVID.
Long COVID diagnosis puts extra strain on family caregivers -For Louise Salant, long COVID has meant new stress, new responsibilities, and multiple medical crises to manage. It's transformed her life.But there's a twist. She's had to deal with this condition not just as a patient but also as a caregiver for her 86-year-old aunt Eileen Salant, who has coped with long COVID's disabling symptoms for almost three years.Eileen and Louise both caught an acute bout of COVID-19 in March of 2020. Eileen had been taking care of her brother, who was admitted to a New York City hospital with heart failure during those dark days of the early pandemic. He got COVID there, and died from his infection with the virus. Both aunt and niece also became very ill.Over the years, Louise, now 72, has worked at various times as an art therapist, taught piano to children and adults and done medical interviewing for a cancer research team. But when COVID hit, all that ground to a halt. Though she hadn't always been emotionally close to her aunt, she says, she took on the caregiving role, "because someone needed to" — even as she, too, dealt with her own symptoms of long COVID, including crushing fatigue and shortness of breath.Between 8 and 23 million Americans are thought to have long COVID — meaning they have long-lasting symptoms that endure or arise months after infection, such as difficulty concentrating ("brain fog"), extreme tiredness, anxiety and shortness of breath. But there is no solid estimate of how many need caregiving help. Stats from one clinic hint at the size of the problem: Out of the 1,782 patients seen at the Penn Medicine Post-COVID Assessment and Recovery Clinic between June 2020 and January 2023, about one-fifth said they felt uncomfortable dealing with daily activities like driving, shopping, or using public transit, suggesting the need for a caregiver. And, like roughly 40% of U.S. caregivers, Louise had her own chronic health problems to manage. It was the exhaustion of long COVID that almost took her under, especially in the first months of caregiving. After three or so hours of helping her aunt, she says, "this sickening feeling would come over my whole body, and I'd have to go home. I'd be in bed sick for two or three days." In August 2021, Louise got a new inhaler from her lung doctor that helped her breathe better and started to give her more energy.
Long covid will be with us a long time and presents new challenges - By the Editorial Board, The Washington Post -When the covid-19 pandemic first stormed the globe three years ago, thecoronavirus was believed to be largely a respiratory ailment that also damaged the cells that line the blood vessels. But research is now showing that the virus can spread throughout the body and remain lodged in organs. This might offer one clue about the lingering phenomenon of “long covid” and suggest why it will remain a serious problem for individuals and the heath-care system for some time to come. The entire world will have to prepare for a legacy of long-covid sufferers. It is not yet known how many people have long covid, why and what their prospects for recovery are, let alone what the long-term impact on society will be. The U.S. government reported in August that “no laboratory test can definitively distinguish” long covid from other causes of illness. But some general definitions are that long covid, or “post-acute sequelae of covid-19,” is a series of symptoms that continue or develop after the initial infection, that persist three months or moreafter the first sickness, and that can include fatigue, shortness of breath,cognitive dysfunction, pain, difficulty sleeping, racing heart rate,gastrointestinal problems and other ailments that interfere with everyday functioning. Research is providing new insights into why. In a study published in Nature in December, researchers carried out 44 autopsies in search of how far and wide the virus had spread in patients who had died, a group largely older and unvaccinated. The researchers found that the virus can spread throughout the entire body and that it is capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier, infecting and replicating in the human brain, but they also noted that it seems to reserve most of its damage for the respiratory system. A separate study, published in Nature in January, pointed out that long-covid symptoms can crop up in the heart, lungs, immune system, pancreas, gastrointestinal tract, neurological system, kidneys, spleen and liver, blood vessels and reproductive system. It is also possible that covid causes long-term damage to the endothelial cells that line blood vessels, and that such damage is leading to persistent symptoms.The U.S. Census Bureau added questions about long covid to its Household Pulse Survey last year, and the results suggest, according to aBrookings Institution analysis, that some 3 million Americans might be out of the workforce due to long covid. That’s 1.8 percent of the entire U.S. civilian labor force, representing $168 billion in lost annual earnings. The National Bureau of Economic Research found in a September study that in a typical week of the pandemic, 10 workers per 1,000 missed an entire week of work due to their own health problems, compared with six in an average week in the years before. That study estimated covid reduced the U.S. labor force by 500,000 people at an annual cost of $62 billion. Worldwide, a conservative estimate is that 10 percent of the documented 651 million covid cases might have long covid — that’s 65 million people.This could portend enormous changes in workplaces, economies and health care. President Biden last spring took initial steps to begin research into how the government and health-care system should respond. But much is still unknown, such as whether long covid will unleash a tidal wave of disability claims from workers who find they no longer have the stamina or good heath they enjoyed before the pandemic. The Department of Health and Human Services hasdetermined that long covid can be a disability under the Americans With Disabilities Act, but to qualify for Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income, people must be unable to work and have health conditions lasting for at least a year, and it is unknown how many will meet this criteria. Another worrisome prospect is that those suffering long covid will lose not only jobs and income but also health insurance to support their treatment.
COVID vaccine uptake low among older people, especially in poorer nations | CIDRAP - In 2022, the median global COVID-19 vaccination rate among people aged 60 and older—who make up over 80% of deaths from the virus—was 76%, substantially lower than the World Health Organization (WHO) goal of 100%, according to a study today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) had particularly low uptake.Researchers from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the WHO parsed data on COVID-19 deaths in 2020 and 2021 and recent vaccine coverage data to estimate death rates and vaccine uptake among people 60 and older by country and World Bank income status.In fall 2020, the WHO published a plan for prioritizing COVID-19 vaccination, followed by a strategy brief inOctober 2021 and a July 2022 update prioritizing at-risk people, including older adults. The goal was 100% coverage with a complete COVID-19 vaccine series for this group by mid-2022. Surveillance and weekly reports documented 5.4 million and 2.5 million COVID-19 deaths in 2020 and 2021, respectively. The WHO model showed an estimated 14.9 million excess deaths. People 60 and older made up 80% of COVID-19 deaths reported through surveillance and 82% of deaths from the WHO's model.In 73% of low-income countries and 31% of lower–middle-income countries (mostly in the WHO's African, Eastern Mediterranean, and European regions), estimated excess mortality was more than 10 times higher than the total deaths reported through surveillance, while most high-income countries saw a doubling of excess deaths. Upper- and lower–middle–income countries accounted for 81% of excess deaths among people 60 and older, and lower–middle–income countries made up 52% of excess deaths in this age-group (annual excess death rate, 1,039 per 100,000 people).
Study: No new COVID variants from China since zero-COVID policy lifted – Fears that China’s lifting of its zero-COVID policy could result in fresh coronavirus variants seem to have not (yet) materialized.A study published in The Lancet on Wednesday found there had been no new COVID-19 variants in the country since it lifted its draconian policy last year, a move which triggered a surge in cases and deaths.The analysis by researchers in China of more than 400 new cases in Beijing between November 14 and December 20 shows that more than 90 percent were of the Omicron subvariants BA.5.2 and BF.7.These variants are similar to the ones circulating in the EU/EEA during the fall of 2022, before the surge in cases in China, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said, and there is no evidence they pose a greater risk compared with those circulating in the EU/EEA now. China has been criticized for its lack of transparency throughout the pandemic, including during this most recent wave of infections. But the EU’s disease agency, the ECDC, confirmed that its own analysis — which included sequencing cases detected through airport arrivals in several European countries and wastewater analysis of airplanes arriving in Europe from China — found that BA.5.2 and BF.7 were dominant, although they cautioned that this wastewater data is “quite limited and are still being verified.” While the authors of the Lancet study conducted their analysis in Beijing, they write that the results “could be considered a snapshot of China.”But others caution against such a leap.“The SARS-CoV-2 molecular epidemiological profile in one region of a vast and densely populated country cannot be extrapolated to the entire country,” write Wolfgang Preiser and Tongai Maponga of Stellenbosch University in South Africa in a linked comment in The Lancet.
In China’s Covid Fog, Deaths of Scholars Offer a Clue - The New York Times -We examined the obituaries published over the past four years by the state-backed Chinese Academy of Engineering and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.The academies’ members, who are drawn from research institutions across the country, help shape national policy and steer research priorities. The engineering academy currently has about 900 members, and the science academy about 800, according to their websites. The obituaries did not specify the scholars’ causes of death beyond “illness,” and the academies did not answer requests for more specifics. But the spike late last year coincided with the coronavirus’s rapid spread across the country.Infections had already begun rising in the fall, despite China’s strict “zero Covid” policy of lockdowns and mass testing. Then, after the government suddenly abandoned the policy in early December, amid a flailing economy and protests in multiple cities, cases soared. During that chaotic period, hospitals turned away patients and funeral homes staggered under the number of bodies. The government’s accounting, however, did not reflect those tragic scenes — for weeks it reported just three dozen deaths — and it drew widespread criticism for a lack of transparency. The government has released more data in recent weeks, saying it recorded about 80,000 deaths since it lifted Covid restrictions. Still, many experts say that figure is likely an undercount, as it includes only people who died in hospitals; some have estimated that the death toll in China could exceed 1 million people in the coming months. On Chinese social media, users have pointed to the skyrocketing number of obituaries published by places like the two academies, to suggest that the true number of deaths is much higher than the official figure.“It’s the government’s job” to gather and share accurate information, Dr. Jin continued. “But they’re not doing their job.” The deceased included molecular biologists, nuclear physicists and experts in agricultural chemistry. One academy member, Ma Jianzhang, 86, was a wildlife scientist who specialized in Siberian tigers. Reached by phone, a relative of Professor Ma said that she did not know whether he had contracted Covid, because he had not been tested. He had other underlying diseases, she added.The data drawn from the obituaries are far from conclusive. The institutions also did not answer questions about whether the obituaries — both during the outbreak and before — were exhaustive of all scholars who had died.Still, obituaries published by other institutions showed similar spikes in late December and early January.From 2019 to 2021, the Harbin Institute of Technology, one of the top engineering schools in the world, had published between one and three obituaries for professors and staff members in those months. Between December and last month, it announced 29 deaths.
China reverts to home-and-away format as COVID restrictions lifted (Reuters) - All matches in the Chinese Super League (CSL) will be played using the home-and-away format this year, the Chinese Football Association said on Tuesday, bringing to an end three seasons of COVID-19 restrictions. A start date for the 2023 season has yet to be announced, but clubs in the top three divisions will be permitted to host matches when the competitions return. The Chinese league system was heavily disrupted by COVID-19 restrictions, with matches played in centralised biosecure hubs without spectators during the first two years of the pandemic. A Efforts were made last season to play some matches on a home-and-away basis and allow limited numbers of fans to attend but the government's pursuit of a zero-COVID strategy often resulted in games being postponed or relocated at the last minute due to outbreaks within squads. The CFA has also amended a contentious rule which stated clubs must field a set number of players under the age of 23 in each CSL match. Initially imposed in 2017 with the number of players changing from season to season, the rule often saw young players substituted minutes into a game by coaches determined to field their strongest team for as long as possible. Authorities have also removed restrictions put in place in 2016 prohibiting clubs in China League One and Two relocating between provinces.
Thailand’s new Kraken, Orthrus strains evade immunity, virologist warns - – Writing on Facebook, Yong Poovorawan said the two new strains showed Covid-19’s ability to mutate over time to escape human immunity. Hence, people can be infected with the virus at any time, he added.He said Kraken, or Omicron XBB.1.5, is spreading rapidly from the US and Europe and could soon become the dominant variant. The strain is named after a legendary giant octopus said to destroy ships and kill sailors.Yong said that this dangerous new Covid-19 subvariant should be monitored closely.Orthrus, known scientifically as CH.1.1 and named after the two-headed dog in a Greek myth, is spreading in the US but has caused fewer infections than Kraken, he added.The dominant strain in Thailand is still Omicron BA.2.75, which accounted for 88% of infections last month, said Yong, citing a study by Chulalongkorn University’s Centre of Excellence in Clinical Virology, which he heads.However, one case of Kraken and four cases of Orthrus have been discovered in Thailand, he added.“Even though the severity has not increased, these variants are dangerous as they can escape immunity,” he said.
‘Tripledemic’ infected nearly 40 percent of households, survey finds -The winter’s “tripledemic” of respiratory viruses impacted nearly 40 percent of U.S. households, with someone there getting sick with the flu, COVID-19 or respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), according to a new survey from KFF released Tuesday. The flu and RSV hit much harder and earlier this year than in years past, as viruses kept at bay during the height of the pandemic began infecting people again following the resumption of every-day activities. The overlap between influenza, RSV and a cold-weather surge in coronavirus infections led to concerns of a so-called “tripledemic.” According to the survey, nearly half of respondents said the news of those three viruses spreading made them more likely to wear masks or take other precautions to avoid getting sick, such as wearing a mask in public or avoiding large gatherings. The flu affected 27 percent of households over the past month or so, with 15 percent saying someone in their homes got sick with COVID-19. RSV infected someone in about 10 percent of homes, the survey found. But as the COVID-19 pandemic turns 3 years old, 69 percent of the public said they are “not too” or “not at all” worried about getting seriously ill from the virus. Those numbers are partially reflected in the people who reported receiving the bivalent COVID-19 booster shot. As the federal government prepares to end its public health emergency declaration in May, just 28 percent of respondents said they received an updated COVID-19 bivalent vaccine booster shot, though that number is up slightly from 22 percent in December. The increase largely reflects a shift in booster rates among Republicans, who went from 12 percent in December to 20 percent in January, though Democrats still are twice as likely to have gotten the updated booster, the survey found. Studies have shown the bivalent booster has the most benefit for people at high risk, such as the immunocompromised and people aged 65 and older. Yet among those groups, only about half of adults at least 65 years old, and about a third of those who are immunocompromised said they have already received a bivalent booster dose. Half of people who have not received the bivalent shot said they feel they have enough protection from their initial vaccination or a prior infection, and 44 percent said they don’t think they need the new booster.
What is Valley Fever? Cases increasing on the Central Coast — Valley Fever is a fungal infection that attacks the lungs. People can become infected when they breathe in fungal spores. The fungus is in the soil in places like the Southwest and the Central Valley.Dr. Martha Blum, medical director of infectious prevention at Montage Health, said the Central Coast soil has the right chemistry and balance of minerals for the fungus.The fungus that creates the spores is found in dry soil and people can get sick when they inhale dust carrying the dust."We see the largest exposures are people who work outside in dry, dusty conditions. So, for example, agricultural workers, people who work on outdoor construction projects where they're really digging and lots of dry dust is coming up," Blum said.The infection is not transmitted from person to person. However, Blum said Valley Fever is still a concern for our area. In 2014, Monterey County had about 50 cases a year, and in 2022, the county reported more than 100 cases."Most of the people that get valley fever don't need any specific treatment. They'll experience it as a flu-like illness and they may not be able to distinguish it from any other sort of cold or flu. They just may feel feverish and achy for a few days and then it just resolves on its own and they don't get any worse," Blum said.However, Blum said that in some cases, people can develop severe illnesses like pneumonia and meningitis. "The symptoms that would require an evaluation by a medical professional would be very high fevers that aren't going away. Shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, a cough that's just very persistent and not going away," Blum said.
Study shows Valley Fever could spike in California - - Jose Lafontaine retired last week after 16 years as a corrections officer at Corcoran State Prison. "Walking throughout the institution, I couldn't breathe while talking. I couldn't talk and walk at the same time. I said, 'Something's wrong.' So it took me a while because I didn't want to go see a doctor right away. Once I did, I went to a local urgent care and I was misdiagnosed."But Jose knew something was wrong.He went to his primary care doctor, explained his symptoms and mentioned he worked at the prison.The doctor immediately got him tested for Valley Fever or coccidioidomycosis.In January 2019, he was diagnosed with it and went through an antifungal treatment for about nine months."I didn't think I was going to make it," he said. "It was terrible. I couldn't get out of bed. I couldn't move. Profuse sweating at night, lots of coughing and rashes."According to health experts, the fungus lives in dust and soil. The spores are released into the air after the ground is disturbed by humans or weather. "If there are storms and particularly if it's windy, dusty, be careful when you're going outside," says Dr. John Zweifler with the Fresno County Department of Public Health. "If you're on a construction site where they're digging up dirt, that is another real high-risk situation." Doctors say the majority of people recover from the infection -- some don't even realize they are infected.However, they say certain groups are at higher risk than others.Doctors say it's difficult to avoid breathing in the fungus. The most you can do to prevent it is to stay cautious when outside. A recent study by UC Berkeley shows Valley Fever could spike in California due to years of drought and our recent storms.
Valley Fever: How U.S. Can Prevent Disease Spread by Fungal Spores – A REGIONAL DISEASE in the American West is about to get a lot less regional as the planet heats up, scientists warn. It’s Valley Fever, a lung and throat disease caused by the coccidioides fungus. The fungus — basically, a dirt spore — isn’t new and it isn’t contagious, but many doctors and nurses aren’t very good at diagnosing the respiratory disease it causes. So it could spread largely unnoticed, via contact with dirt and dust, unless and until we revamp our health system, which lacks both the skills and the testing resources. Climate change is drying out the western United States, steadily expanding the hot, dry region where coccidioides — the fungus that causes Valley Fever — thrives. The fungus could head east and north, deeper into Washington State and Texas.The danger is that the fungus will spread faster than the U.S. healthcare system can adapt. “Given what we know about the expansion of Valley Fever — and the important threat that it imposes to people and animals — I do think this needs to be taken extremely seriously,” Schwartz says. Coccidioides is most common in the soil of California’s Central Valley and nearby desert areas. Breathing in coccidioides spores can cause a hard-to-diagnose and occasionally severe respiratory infection that, fortunately, isn’t contagious. But in a small number of cases, infection can spread to the nervous system, skin and bones. Pets are at risk, too — especially dogs.State authorities typically report around 20,000 Valley Fever cases annually to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Officially, around 200 people die of the disease every year. But both figures are almost certainly huge undercounts, as many states don’t include Valley Fever on the list of diseases they report to the CDC. Most problematically, Texas doesn’t report Valley Fever, even though the dry soil of the state’s western half is pretty hospitable tococcidioides. “The true number of cases each year is around 150,000,” Schwartz says. We don’t know the actual number of deaths, but it’s almost certainly more than the official figure.Mohanad Al-Obaidi, a University of Arizona infectious diseases expert, recommends three steps.First, more states need to start reporting Valley Fever cases to the CDC so that everyone has a better sense of where, and how quickly, the disease is spreading. The second priority is more fundamental: “Expanding our understanding of the biology of coccidioides,” Al-Obaidi says. More and deeper research into the fungus and the fever it causes could, in turn, support the third step — the development of faster testing methods and, most promisingly, a vaccine. While there isn’t currently a vaccine for human Valley Fever, an animal vaccine is under development at the University of Arizona. Galgiani says he expects the U.S. Department of Agriculture to approve it within a year. The animal vaccine could form the basis of a human vaccine. “There’s no reason it can’t go into a human,” Galgiani says, although the approval process — through the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the CDC, is different and much more stringent.
Mpox is simmering south of the border, threatening a resurgence - The near elimination of mpox in the United States is an extraordinary public health success, driven by a quick vaccination campaign and behavioral change by those most at-risk. But as the Biden administration moves past the emergency it declared in August, the disease is still simmering, just to the south, in Mexico and Latin America, where most governments have decided against the vaccination campaign that worked here. Public health officials fear it could prove another example of how victories over disease can be ephemeral when countries go it alone. The worldwide LGBTQ pride festival season, during which last year’s outbreak emerged in the U.S., is just around the corner. “Countries need to invest in vaccines, education campaigns and effective treatments for people who show up sick,” said David Harvey, the executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors. “Neighboring countries to the U.S. not investing in a broad-based approach to the problem will ultimately affect the U.S.,” he said. For now, the situation here looks good. On the verge of spiraling out of control last summer, when cases exceeded 450 a day, mpox is now all but gone, with the CDC reporting an average of two new cases a day, as of Feb. 1. But across the globe, cases started to rise again at the end of last month, according to the World Health Organization, which will decide on Thursday if the outbreak still constitutes an international emergency. The number of cases reported worldwide was slightly over 400, with most of the new ones in the Americas and Africa. Of the 13 countries that saw an increase, Mexico reported the highest weekly hike, reaching 72 cases. The United States’ southern neighbor is now among the 10 countries in the world with the highest overall number of cases during the current outbreak. But unlike the other nine — which include the United States, Spain, and France — Mexico has not acquired any vaccines against mpox, nor seems to be planning to. Top Mexican health officials have claimed the shot has not yet been proven safe and effective.
Quick takes: Nigeria Lassa emergency, measles in Paraguay, new polio cases | CIDRAP
- The Nigeria Center for Disease Control and Prevention on Jan 30 activated its emergency operations center to boost its response to an unprecedented spike in Lassa fever cases compared to previous years. The rise has come with an increasing number of states reporting cases and rising numbers of healthcare worker infections.
- Paraguay has reported its first local measles case since 1998, which involves a 14-month-old boy who was sick in September and had recently received one vaccine dose, the World Health Organization said yesterday in an outbreak notice. Genetic analysis by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed that the virus didn't match the vaccine strain. Though the boy had no travel history, one of his contacts had similar symptoms and has a family member who frequently travels to Buenos Aires, Argentina.
- Five countries reported more polio cases this week, all involving circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative said in its weekly update. Affected nations are the Central African Republic (1 case), Chad (7), Indonesia (1), Nigeria (1), and Yemen (1). All new infections are included in country totals for 2022 except the case in Indonesia, which is its first of 2023 and marks its second such case.
Oman confirms MERS in 60-year-old man -Oman has reported a Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection in a 60-year-old man who didn't have direct contact with camels, though camel racing exercises were held near his house before he got sick.In a notification today, the World Health Organization (WHO) said the man's symptoms—including chest discomfort, shortness of breath, and fever—began on Dec 28, 2022, and he sought care at two healthcare facilities before he was hospitalized on Jan 2.He was tested for MERS-CoV the next day, which revealed his infection with the virus. His condition improved, and he was discharged from the hospital on Jan 16. No other illnesses were found in the man's contacts, which included 51 healthcare workers. Seven of the man's 76 contacts had mild respiratory symptoms, but all tested negative for MERS-CoV. Investigators found that the man, who worked as a driving instructor, had no history of contact with camels, goats, or sheep, and did not have any exposure to camel products, milk, or urine. However, camel racing exercises had taken place near his house in North Batinah governorate, which is in the far northwestern part of the country. Oman reported its last case in May 2022, which involved a farmer from Al Dhahira governorate, also in the northwest, who had direct contact with camels. The case marks the 26th in Oman and lifts the global total to 2,603, of which 935 were fatal, for a 36% case-fatality rate. The virus was first detected in humans in 2012, and the vast majority of cases have been reported in Saudi Arabia
Sudan's tropical disease spike reflects poor health system (AP) — The two Sudanese women thought they had malaria and were taking their medication, but things took a dire turn. Both complained of a splitting headache and fever that didn’t respond to the anti-malaria treatment. By the time she was diagnosed with dengue fever, Raqiya Abdsalam was unconscious. “Soon after they examined me, I fell into a coma,” she said, recounting her ordeal some three months ago. Both women have since recovered and are at home in the city of El Obeid in the central province of North Kordofan. For decades, Sudan’s underfunded public health sector has struggled to effectively diagnose or treat patients as significant government spending went to its vast security services. A recent spike in mosquito-borne diseases — such as dengue fever and malaria — has underscored the fragility of the African country’s health system, boding ill for future challenges driven by climate change. Sudan’s best-equipped hospitals are concentrated in the capital, Khartoum, leaving those from far-flung provinces reliant on aid projects. But many of those have disappeared. In October 2021, Sudan’s leading military figure, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, led a coup that derailed the country’s short-lived democratic transition. The move spurred a sharp reduction in aid, with the U.N Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reporting that funding levels fell to less than 50% of required needs for both 2021 and 2022. Burhan with his ruling generals and several other political forces pledged in December to install a new civilian government. But political wrangling is impeding a final deal, and it remains unclear when — and if — donor funding will return to previous levels. In late fall, a young doctor at a North Kordofan hospital thought that what she was seeing was a new malaria outbreak. Patients arriving at her hospital had malaria-like symptoms — high fever, body fatigue and a migraine-like headache. But after blood samples were sent to a laboratory in Khartoum for testing, a worrisome picture emerged. Some of the patients did have malaria, which is caused by a parasite, but others had dengue fever — similar in symptoms but caused by a virus. If severe and untreated, dengue fever can lead to organ failure and death. The young physician said the hospital lacked the facilities to deal with the outbreak. “Patients had to either lie on the floor or bring their own beds to the hospital,” she said. While malaria is common across central and southern Sudan, large dengue outbreaks are rare. But, since last fall, dengue fever spread to 12 of the country’s 18 provinces, killing at least 36 people and infecting more than 5,200, according to Sudan’s Ministry of Health. However, the actual numbers are likely higher, given the limitations on testing.
WHO warns of intensifying cholera outbreak in Malawi --Malawi is experiencing its deadliest cholera outbreak ever, and a sharp increase in cases over the past month signals that the situation will worsen without strong interventions, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today in an update.Though cholera is endemic in Malawi, the current outbreak began in March 2022 and has extended through the dry season. So far, nearly 37,000 cases have been reported, with about 1,200 deaths, for a case-fatality rate (CFR) above 3%. The WHO said the outbreak has been marked by a consistently high CFR and large geographic spread. Cases have been reported from all 29 of the country's districts.High CFRs have been recorded from three districts where sick people presented too late to healthcare facilities. Malawi's government declared a public health emergency on Dec 5, but the pace and scope of the outbreak is stretching its ability to respond. The WHO said Malawi's outbreak is one of several cholera outbreaks that have put pressure on the supply of vaccines and treatments.Adolescents, teens, and young adults are among the hardest-hit groups, with males making up 57% of cases. However, most deaths have occurred in people ages 60 and older.So far, two oral cholera vaccination campaigns have been conducted across 21 districts.The WHO said Malawi's rainy season is under way and typically runs from November through May, and cases are likely to increase further, along with the risk of international spread. The WHO put the risk to both Malawi and the region as high. Cases have already been confirmed in bordering Mozambique. In January, the WHO said the global risk from cholera is very high due to ongoing multiple outbreaks across multiple regions.
Meningitis outbreak reported in southeast Niger -- Niger is experiencing a spike in meningitis cases, and though the country has seasonal outbreaks every year, activity is tracking higher than in previous seasons, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today in an outbreak announcement. The epicenter is Zinder region in southeastern Niger. Since Nov 1, 2022, and through Jan 27, a total of 559 cases have been reported, 18 of them fatal, for a case-fatality rate of 2.3%. For comparison, Niger reported 231 cases over the same period the previous year.The vast majority (93.7%) of the 111 lab-confirmed cases in this season's outbreak involve Neisseria meningitidis serogroup C. More than half of the cases involve males, and people younger than 20 are the hardest-hit group (96.3% of cases).Health officials have launched campaigns using the trivalent ACW meningococcal vaccine.The WHO said Zinder region borders Nigeria's Jigawa state, where a similar meningitis outbreak is occurring. Population displacement and other humanitarian issues in the region pose a risk of meningitis spread to other West African countries, the agency added. It assessed the risk to Niger as high, to the region as moderate, and to the rest of the world as low.Part of Niger is in Africa's meningitis belt, and epidemics typically follow a season that runs from January through June. A large meningitis outbreak in 2015, which also involved serogroup C, resulted in about 10,000 cases.
Studies spotlight growing threat of drug-resistant Shigella -Two studies published last week highlight how a highly drug-resistant enteric pathogen is challenging clinicians and public health officials. The studies, which appeared in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, describe an outbreak of different strains of multidrug-resistant (MDR) Shigella in Washington state and the emergence of an extensively drug-resistant (XDR) strain in England. Both studies suggest that drug-resistant Shigella presents a growing public health challenge that demands a coordinated response.The first study, led by researchers with the University of Washington (UW) School of Medicine, describes an ongoing outbreak of shigellosis that began in Seattle and King County, Washington, in 2017 and accelerated after 2020.Shigellosis is a gastrointestinal condition caused by one of the four species of Shigella bacteria: Shigella sonnei, S flexneri, S boydii, or S dysenteriae. Symptoms range from mild diarrhea to severe dysentery. Most cases are self-limiting, but antibiotics are frequently used to treat symptoms and reduce shedding, which can help limit transmission.While shigellosis is commonly associated with exposure to food or water that has been contaminated by human feces and is known to spread in settings with overcrowding and poor sanitation, oral and anal sex has become a major route of transmission, particularly among men who have sex with men (MSM). In recent years, there have been a growing number of reports of strains of MDR and XDR Shigella spreading among networks of MSM.Ferric Fang, MD, a senior author of the study and director of the clinical microbiology lab at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, said clinicians at the hospital were well aware that there was transmission of drug-resistant Shigella among MSM in the area. But in 2020 they started to notice an increase in drug-resistant shigellosis cases in Seattle's homeless population, driven by a lack of sanitation—an issue that became worse when city officials closed public restrooms because of the COVID-19 pandemic."Especially during the pandemic, a lot of public facilities were closed that homeless people were used to using," Fang told CIDRAP News.The outbreak in England provides the backdrop for the second study. Since 2009, England has seen a successive wave of sexually transmitted Shigella outbreaks in MSM driven by both MDR strains of S flexneriand S sonnei.In January 2022, the UK Health Security Agency (HSA) reported an increase in XDR S sonnei infections with resistance to all but two antibiotic classes. Similar increases have been reported in other parts of Europe.The emergence and the spread of XDR S sonnei among MSM in England motivated researchers with the HSA and the University of Liverpool to examine national surveillance data to see if an XDR strain of S flexneri might also be emerging. They were concerned about this prospect because XDR S sonnei harbors a mobile multidrug-resistance gene (blaCTX-M-27) that could potentially be shared with other Shigella species through horizontal transfer.From Sep 1, 2015, to Jun 12, 2022, they identified 37 S flexneriisolates that harbored the blaCTX-M-27 gene, 26 of which were identified from September 2021 onward. Of those 26 isolates, 8 were XDR and 18 were MDR. All the cases occurred in adult men, and of the 13 patients who filled out questionnaires, 10 (77%) identified as gay men and 7 (54%) reported sexual contact in the weeks preceding symptom onset. Possible treatment failures were reported in 2 patients. When the researchers analyzed the plasmids—the mobile pieces of DNA that carry antibiotic resistance genes—from the S flexneri isolates, they found "high similarity" to the plasmids characterized during the XDR S sonnei outbreak.
UN report highlights environmental dimension of antibiotic resistance -A new report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is calling for stronger measures to reduce the spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in the environment.The report, released this week ahead of the sixth meeting of the Global Leaders Group on AMR, calls for a multisectoral response to curtail the release of antibiotics, microorganisms, resistant pathogens, and other pollutants into the environment by pharmaceutical manufacturers, farms, hospitals, and urban sewer systems. Although the environmental dimensions of AMR are complex, the authors of the report say this type of pollution is exacerbating the problem, with potentially devastating impacts on human and animal health, food security, and economic development. "The same drivers that cause environment degradation are worsening the antimicrobial resistance problem," said Inger Andersen, executive director of UNEP, said in a press release. "The impacts of antimicrobial resistance could destroy our health and food systems." While overuse and misuse of antibiotics in humans and animals is the primary factor in the rise and spread AMR, the report lays out how environmental pollution contributes to the development and transmission of resistant pathogens, which are estimated to have caused 1.27 million global deaths in 2019. The sources of the pollution are plentiful. They include antibiotic manufacturing plants that release effluent laced with antibiotic residues and other chemicals into nearby streams; hospital wastewater, which contains excreted, unmetabolized antibiotics and resistant microorganisms; farm runoff that contains herbicides, bacteria, and manure from animals that are routinely given antibiotics; overwhelmed urban sewer systems that emit raw sewage harboring antibiotics and mobile AMR genes; and wastewater treatment plants that can't filter out all the pollutants.Waterways are the primary recipients of this pollution, and they provide an environment where even trace amounts of antibiotic residues can mix with AMR genes, microorganisms, nutrients, and other chemicals and create selection pressure for resistant pathogens to multiply. Heavy metals in waste streams can accelerate this process. Once in the water, AMR genes and resistant pathogens can be transmitted to humans through exposure to insufficiently treated water.
WHO: Don’t assume bird flu risk to humans will remain low – The recent spillover of bird flu to mammals has led the World Health Organization to warn that while the risk to humans currently remains low, it cannot be assumed that this will remain the case. WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday that cases of avian influenza in minks, otters, foxes and sea lions reported in recent weeks need to be monitored closely. “For the moment, the WHO assesses the risk to humans as low,” he said. Tedros pointed to the fact that since the emergence of H5N1 in 1996 there has only been “rare and non-sustained” transmission to and between humans. “But we cannot assume that will remain the case and we must prepare for any change in the status quo,” he said. In October, the H5N1 virus was detected in a mink farm outbreak in Spain's Galicia region. While investigations found mink-to-mink transmission may have taken place at the farm, all staff there tested negative for the virus. Worldwide, four people were infected by the avian flu virus (H5N1) last year, one of whom died, said Christian Lindmeier, WHO spokesperson, in emailed comments. Avian flu poses an ongoing threat to human health due to its potential to cause a future pandemic and therefore strong disease surveillance remains critical, he said. “Surveillance in animals is important to catch any changes in the virus that have implications for human health,” the spokesperson said. On Wednesday, Tedros called on countries to strengthen their surveillance of areas where humans and animals interact. The WHO is also working to ensure that if the worst happens, supplies of vaccines and antivirals are available. Tedros said the WHO was continuing to engage with manufacturers on this issue
Peru confirms H5N1 avian flu in marine mammals, part of southward spread - Veterinary authorities in Peru yesterday confirmed H5N1 avian influenza in sea lions and a dolphin, adding more reports of detections in mammals as the virus continues its push into Central and South America.Peru's National Agrarian Health Service (SENASA) said surveillance for marine species on the country's coasts are part of its response to outbreaks in poultry. Tests on three sea lions found dead in November and one dolphin were positive for H5N1, SENASA said in a statement, which was translated and posted by Avian Flu Diary, an infectious disease news blog.In a follow-up, SENASA said at least 585 sea lions and 55,000 wild birds have been found dead in seven of the country's coastal nature preserves, likely due to avian flu.Also, media reports citing Peru's health ministry said tests on a zoo lion in central Peru identified H5N1 as the cause of death.The reports add to a growing number of detections in mammals, including recent reports from the United Kingdom and H5N1 in farmed minks in Spain. The United States has so far reported 110 detections in mammal species. The H5N1 clade circulating in birds, poultry, and an increasing number of mammals has a mutation that makes the virus more recognizable by mammalian airway cells.Seven human H5N1 infections have been reported, all involving people who had close contact with poultry. Some illnesses were mild, but some were severe or fatal. So far, no human-to-human transmission has been reported.
Adding an alligator gene to reduce infections in farmed catfish - A team of aquaculture and aquatic scientists at Auburn University has found a way to reduce infection rates in catfish raised on fish farms by giving them an alligator gene. The group used the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing system to add a special gene to the catfish genome that helps alligators ward off infections. They have presented their results in a paper uploaded to the bioRxiv preprint sever.Catfish is a prized delicacy in many parts of the Southern U.S. and is in high demand. Keeping up with the demand has proven to be challenging, however, which has led to the creation of catfish farms. Such farms have been found to be highly profitable, but suffer from low yields due to high bacterial infection rates. Currently, only 55% of fingerlings survive to adulthood—a number fish farmers would like to see greatly increased. Catfish farming is big business, accounting for roughly half of all fish farming efforts in the U.S., so improving yields would greatly increase profits. In this new effort, the researchers looked to alligators for assistance.Prior research has shown that alligators have a gene that codes for cathelicidin, a protein that helps alligators ward off infections from cuts they incur during battles with other alligators. The team in Alabama wondered what might happen if they removed that gene and inserted it into the genome of a catfish. They used CRISPR/Cas9 to find out, but they did it in a clever way. They inserted the gene into the catfish in a part of the genome involved in reproduction. This effectively rendered the fish infertile, which is an important attribute for a genetically modified fish to keep it from propagating out into the wild should one or more of them escape from their enclosure.Testing showed the experiment worked as hoped—the engineered fish had a survival rate 100%–400% higher than native catfish. More testing is required to ensure that other changes to the catfish do not arise. Also, getting people in the deep South to accept genetically modified catfish might be a challenge.
Bluestreak cleaner wrasse found to recognize self in photograph after passing mirror test -A team of biologists at Osaka City University, working with a colleague from the University of Neuchâte, reports that a type of cleaner fish can pass the mirror test and then recognize itself in a photograph. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describes their work, which involved studying brain capabilities in the species of fish. The bluestreak cleaner wrasse specializes in removing dead skin and other materials from other fish or sea creatures. Prior work has shown that the small blue-and-silver-striped fish are capable of passing the mirror test. In the test, they are exposed to a mirror for a period of time, then a mark is placed on their face, and they are able to understand that the mark on the fish in the mirror is actually on their own body. They respond by trying to scrape it off on nearby rocks. In this new effort, the researchers wondered if the fish could also retain a memory of their own face compared to others of their species. To find out, they set up and carried out a simple experiment.The researchers placed a mirror in a tank with several of the fish for a period long enough to allow them to acclimate to seeing themselves reflected. They then removed the mirror and replaced it with a picture of the same fish with a mark on its face. The fish responded by trying to remove the mark. The researchers also placed pictures of other similar fish in the tank with the same mark on their faces. The wrasses attacked them, seeing them as rivals.When wrasses that had not been exposed to the mirror images of themselves were shown their own photographs, the fish attacked them, a clear sign that they were not able to recognize themselves because they had not seen what they looked like in the mirror.The research team suggests their findings indicate thatself-awareness and self-recognition may be more widespread in the animal kingdom than has been previously thought.
Another Wisconsin county reports first CWD in wild deer -- The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) yesterday reported the first chronic wasting disease (CWD) detection in a wild deer in Langlade County in the town of Wolf River, which is located in the north central part of the state.In a press release, the WDNR said the animal was a 1-year-old hunter-harvested buck. Based on state law, the detection triggers the renewal of a 3-year baiting and feeding ban in the county and a 2-year ban in border counties within 10 miles of a CWD detection. Langlade County borders the Menominee Reservation in Menominee County and Octonto County. The Menominee tribal government has imposed its own baiting ban for the reservation's exterior boundaries, and the WDNR said it is working with tribal officials regarding the baiting and feeding bans, which are steps taken to prevent deer from congregating in areas that may be contaminated by sick animals.Officials noted that Oconto County is already under a ban due to detections in that county.The WDNR asked local hunters and landowners to help assess the extent of spread in the southeastern part of the county by applying for surveillance permits, which allow the harvesting of adult deer, which must be tested for CWD.Earlier this month, the WDNR reported CWD in a wild deer harvested from Sheboygan County, a 4- to 5-year-old doe taken during the 2022 gun deer season. And in January, it reported CWD for the first time in a wild deer from Waupaca County, which came just a month after the first detection in a Buffalo County wild deer.CWD, a fatal prion disease, can spread among cervids like deer, elk, and moose. The disease spreads through contaminated environments, antler velvet, and body fluids and tissues. Though CWD isn't known to infect humans, health officials warn against eating the meat of infected animals due to concerns that it could cause an illness similar to another prion disease, bovine spongiform encephalitis ("mad cow" disease).
More than one-third of animals, plants at risk of extinction in US: report - More than a third of both animals and plants in the U.S. are currently at risk of extinction, while more than 40 percent of ecosystems are at risk of collapse, according to an analysis released Monday by nonprofit NatureServe. The nonprofit group’s analysis, based on 50 years of data, determined that 34 percent of plants and 40 percent of animals are threatened, with wide variations for particular species and by region. About 37 percent of bee species are at risk, for example, with the threat greater in the Western U.S. than in the East. The plant species threatened include about 20 percent of grasses, some 200 tree species and nearly 50 percent of cacti. The report was first shared with Reuters. The most at-risk animal species are those in freshwater habitats, including snails, amphibians, crayfish and mussels, according to the report. Not only are the conservation needs of those species frequently overlooked in environmental strategies, but they are also often essential to their ecosystems, risking a potential domino effect on their surroundings if they were to vanish.At the ecosystem level, a slight majority — 51 percent — of 78 grassland types are at risk of collapse, while 40 percent of 107 native U.S. forests are at risk of collapse, according to the report. The analysis found a major risk for tropical ecosystems, with 100 percent in the U.S. at the highest threat level, but those make up a relatively small percentage of total ecosystems as there are only seven nationwide.“For fifty years, the NatureServe Network has been collecting the information necessary to understand biodiversity imperilment in the United States. This new analysis of that data, a first in 20 years, makes crystal clear the urgency of that work,” Regan Smyth, vice president for data and methods at the nonprofitNatureServe, said in a statement. “Two-fifths of our ecosystems are in trouble. Freshwater invertebrates and many pollinators, the foundation of a healthy, functional planet, are in precipitous decline. Understanding and addressing these risks is critical if we are to forestall devastating consequences for the biodiversity that humanity needs to survive.”
We’ve been fighting over gas stoves for decades. Forty years ago, the federal government seemed to be on the brink of regulating the gas stove. Everything was on the table, from an outright ban to a modification of the Clean Air Act to address indoor air pollution. Congress held indoor air quality hearings in 1983, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) were both investigating the effects of gas appliances. Backed into a corner, the industry that profits from selling consumers natural gas for their heating and cooking sprang into action. It filed comments to agencies disputing the science. It funded its own studies and hired consultants to assess the threats it would face from further regulation. To prove that voluntary action was effective and regulation unnecessary, utilities produced their own literature for consumers, like Northern States Power Company’s warning that “Homes Need Fresh Air During the Heating Season.” And it nervously eyed media reports, like Consumer Reports’ conclusion in 1984 that “the evidence so far suggests that emissions from a gas range do pose a risk” and “may make you choose an electric one.” The research on gas stoves’ health effects was “provocative, not conclusive,” concluded a 1984 Energy Bar Association report drawn up by gas industry consultants. Ultimately, the US did not pass new regulations. Instead, natural gas became even more embedded in American homes and lives, in 2020 supplying fuel to 70 million homes. All the while, scientists continued to warn that gas can produce a range of emissions and pollutants: nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, formaldehyde, hydrogen cyanide, and particulate matter, among others. The methane from gas is a growing contributor to climate change. Now, the US runs the risk of repeating history, and natural gas utilities find themselves in a similar position to the one they were in four decades ago. We have dozens of studies and better quantification of exposures and risks than ever, but the industry, dependent on selling fuel to tens of millions of homes, is reprising an age-old playbook used by any industry that finds itself on the defense over public health.
Wait, Are Those Scented Candles We’re Obsessed With Actually Toxic? - Saloni Rao’s aspiration for a life of calm and mindfulness was briefly punctuated by scented candles. But within a few days of regularly lighting the candles, Rao began experiencing unpleasant symptoms. “The smell got to me. I felt gross, my lungs felt weird. I had splitting headaches and [felt] anything but calm,” she said. “Apart from the base wax and essence, you don’t know what the manufacturers [are adding to the candles] for a longer shelf life.” As paraffin wax candles are made from petroleum byproducts, a friend of Rao’s suggested opting instead for environmentally friendly candles. More sustainable candles are made of soy, stearin (made from vegetable or animal fat and oils), and beeswax. However, these didn’t help Rao, either. “I tried soy candles, but the effects were the same,” she said. So, when did candles become such an important part of our lives – more than just alternative sources of light during power cuts or part of religious rituals? During the pandemic, the demand for candles shot up in various parts of the world. In part, because scented candles help add a little personality to any home. For some others, the visual of pretty lights glowing with scent after sunset can make a vibe happen in the quickest way possible. For Rao, though, giving into these trends was actually a vibe kill. After feeling disappointed with various scented candles, Rao opted for oil-based diffusers and was pleasantly surprised that they produced the same calming effect she’d expected from scented candles, minus the watery eyes, splitting headaches, and feelings of unease. According to a 2021 study that analysed the burning of five types of pillar candles with different wax and wick compositions, “all candle types were dominated by soot.” The study did clarify that the emission of such particulate matter varies over time and that “stressed burning” – burning candles for more than five or six hours at a single stretch – can lead to more emissions. Pulmonologist Indu Bubna told VICE that she gets the appeal of scented candles. “[But] anything that’s burning and emitting black smoke, which is basically soot, is going inside your lungs. It could be incense sticks, scented candles or even mosquito coils. In the long run, they will cause harmful effects.” These harmful effects, Bubna explained, can vary. Burning scented candles might trigger symptoms in those who have respiratory issues such as asthma or pneumonia, and can also aggravate migraines. Babies and the elderly can also be adversely affected. She attributed the practice of burning scented candles to a lack of awareness. “It’s definitely harmful if the candle is not plant-based. But there are other factors that influence emissions such as the composition of the candle, wick size, and the number of hours you’re burning it.”
States are taking aim at toxic chemicals - Amid growing awareness of the dangers posed by toxic chemicals, many states are poised to take legislative action this year. According to an analysis released today by Safer States, a national alliance of environmental health organizations, at least 31 states will consider more than 260 policies to address the dangers of “forever chemicals,” polyvinyl chloride, formaldehyde, parabens, and other substances.“It’s a super exciting year,” Sarah Doll, Safer States’ national director, told me. She said the gathering momentum and “bipartisan-ness” of proposed policies bodes well for public health and the environment.As in the past two years, Safer States’ report found that so-called “forever chemicals” — shorthand for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS — are expected to “dominate” states’ toxics-related agendas in 2023, with at least 16 states considering tighter regulations to limit or disclose their use in products like food packaging, cookware, and clothing. PFAS are a class of more than 9,000 chemicals that have been used since the 1940s for their water- and stain-resistant properties, but research now links them to cancer, immune disease, and hypertension and shows that they don’t break down in the environment. Studies have found PFAS in the blood of 98 percent of the U.S. population.Some states that have already restricted PFAS are going further — either by banning their incineration or by extending the statute of limitations for lawsuits against the chemicals’ manufacturers.Thousands of lawsuits have already been filed against PFAS manufacturers in an effort to recoup cleanup costs, and some estimates say manufacturers could face liabilities of up to $30 billion. Other policies on the docket involve eliminating chemical additives from cosmetics, setting up testing and monitoring programs for microplastics in drinking water, and creating new disclosure requirements for chemicals of concern. Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, and New Jersey are considering banning heavy metals and chemical additives from plastics labeled as recyclable.
Southern California Regulators Let Industrial Polluters Exceed U.S. EPA Guidelines - The air quality regulator for much of Southern California is risking public health by allowing emissions of ethylene oxide, a highly toxic gas associated with lymphoid and breast cancer, at levels far above the federal cancer risk guidelines for the chemical, warn environmental health experts.The South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) says that it is bound by law to use health values adopted by the state more than 35 years ago to guide acceptable ethylene oxide emissions at three medical device sterilization facilities in its region. But other experts, including a former AQMD board member, argue that the agency already has the authority it needs to use a far stricter health guideline adopted by the federal EPA in 2016.The levels of ethylene oxide being released from facilities in Vernon, Carson and Ontariothat sterilize medical equipment are “way too high for public health,” said Jane Williams, executive director of California Communities Against Toxics, an environmental advocacy group. She said it is “rubbish that South Coast [AQMD] says that they cannot use the more protective emission limits at these sterilizers.” Earlier this year as part of an air monitoring program, the AQMD found that the three facilities were emitting far larger amounts than previously known of the highly toxic colorless and odorless gas, which is used to sterilize medical products. Homes and schools are within blocks of the Carson and Vernon sites. The AQMD set up air monitors around the three plants and required the facility operators to begin the process of installing better pollution control devices. If emission levels rise above certain trigger thresholds at one of the facilities, the plant operators are required to cut emissions by specific amounts within specific timeframes.
Bill seeks to prevent federal takeover of Indiana air pollution program — Indiana’s air pollution permitting program is low on money, edging toward violation of the federal Clean Air Act — and a potential U.S. Environmental Protection Agency takeover. And it’s because air pollution is decreasing. Lawmakers hope to head EPA action off with a bill allowing the state agency responsible to raise its fees. But Senate Bill 155 could get pushback from colleagues who want more oversight over agencies, not less, and those who want to lower, not raise, taxes and fees.“You’re increasing the fees and the cost of it for the people that are in business, and that’s going to be the hard sell here,” said Sen. Rick Niemeyer, R-Lowell, the bill’s author.“But the other part of it is that members of the committee and other senators don’t want the federal government taking over this program,” Congress amended the 1963 Clean Air Act in 1990 to create a national air operating permitting program called the Title V. States typically run their own, Indiana included. The Indiana Department of Environmental Management approves permits for large polluting businesses that say how much, and which, pollutants they’re allowed to emit. The program is supposed to be self-sufficient — Indiana’s runs off emission-based fees. But air pollution has gotten better, and revenue has dropped. “This is an ironic-type thing because emissions are going down,” Niemeyer said. “It’s working. It’s working!” “Some 30 or 40 years ago, there was this acid rain problem, because facilities that burned coal, including many of our power plants, released sulfur dioxide to the air,” said Indra Frank, environmental health and water policy director for the Hoosier Environmental Council. “That acid rain was damaging forests and waterways that were downwind. And that problem is virtually gone at this point.” “This is assuredly to the benefit of the environment and public health,” IDEM spokesman Barry Sneed told the Capital Chronicle in an email. “However, with an emissions-based fee structure, the agency is at a disadvantage when it comes to sufficiently funding our permit program.”
Mobilizing against pesticides from the ground up - Americo Prado is a supervisor for the United Farm Workers’ Emergency Relief Program in California, and is cherished by the community as a warmhearted leader in a project that began in 2020.The nationwide service program is split into a ground effort that helps laborers with COVID vaccination and personal protective supplies, and services like food banks. Prado oversees the other half of the program, a free Monday-Friday call center that answers questions about everything from workers' rights to counseling on immigration laws.But it’s pesticide exposure that is often on callers’ minds.“Folks have called us consistently regarding pesticides, either direct or indirect exposure,” Prado says. “Sometimes campesinos(farmworkers) are working from block to block, and unknowingly they'll walk into an area that has just been sprayed. They are a quarter of the way in and start feeling the symptoms of pesticide exposure, their eyes are watering or they are getting rashes. In those instances, we mobilize.”When dealing with pesticide reports, Prado and his team act quickly. Prado knows it’s his job to help keep the community safe. “First and foremost we make sure that farmworkers are okay. If we need to jump on a call with 911 to get them to help, we offer translation services. Health comes first,” Prado says.A caller’s legal status might lead to hesitation among some to call 911. UFW’s history of advocating for farmworkers' rights helps the union provide a safer alternative.After a call, Prado and his statewide team of four collect data. An incident report is filed for an inspection by local, state or even federal farm and pesticide regulators. And, if needed, Prado’s team sends out a UFW organizer to represent, or protect, a caller. “They are a quarter of the way in and start feeling the symptoms of pesticide exposure, their eyes are watering or they are getting rashes. In those instances, we mobilize.”“We had one example where a worker was undocumented, his supervisor kind of dangled that over his head, and made him dump pesticides in a nearby river,” Prado says. “So in that case we mobilized the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency]. We’ve seen a little bit of everything.”
Biden misses the point on cancer fight -- In President Biden’s state of the union address Tuesday night, he pledged his devotion to a fierce “fight against cancer,” invoking a heart-tugging story of baby “Ava,” who began battling kidney cancer at the age of 1.Biden spoke of a reignited “Cancer Moonshot” search for a cure for cancers that are impacting far too many lives, and of measures to cut healthcare costs to make treating cancer more affordable. But nowhere in his lengthy prime-time address did Biden speak of working to rein in the vast, virtually unchecked, flood of environmental chemical contaminants that scientists say cause cancer.A new book scheduled for release in May written by journalist Kristina Marusic lays out in stark terms how already-staggeringly highly rates of cancer are sure to continue to climb if we don’t slash our exposure to the chemicals known to cause cancer.The harsh statistics are detailed by Phil Landrigan, director of the Program for Global Public Health and the Common Good at Boston College, in the introduction to Marusic’s A New War on Cancer: The Unlikely Heroes Revolutionizing Prevention.Landrigan writes: “From 1975 to to 2019, the number of new cancer cases per 100,000 Americans—the incidence rate—increased for multiple cancers. Incidence of multiple myeloma rose by 46%, incidence of non-Hodgkin lymphoma by 76%, and incidence of testicular cancer by 70%. In the same years, incidence of childhood leukemia increased by 35% and incidence of childhood brain cancer by 33%. These increases are far too rapid to be of genetic origin. They cannot be explained by better diagnosis.”“The explanation for the increasing incidence of cancer lies in our world of chemicals. Since the dawn of the chemical era in the early twentieth century, more than 300,000 new chemicals have been invented. These are novel materials that never before existed on Earth. Many are made from oil and natural gas. They are manufactured in enormous quantities, and global production is on track to double by 2030.Chemical pollution has become so widespread and complex that in 2022, an expert body at the Stockholm Environmental Institute concluded that chemical pollution now exceeds our ability to monitor and contain it and thus threatens the sustainability of human societies.The World Health Organization has determined that more than 100 manufactured chemicals can cause cancer in humans.”The fact that many widely used chemicals cause cancer – not to mention a range of other human health problems – is widely known in scientific circles.But for Biden and most of our elected leaders, these facts are clearly too politically uncomfortable to address, or even acknowledge.
Regulators monitoring air, water after East Palestine train derailment -- Environmental regulators are monitoring air and water quality near East Palestine, Ohio, days after several freight cars carrying hazardous materials derailed near Beaver County on the Pennsylvania state line. About 50 cars derailed in East Palestine Friday night as a Norfolk Southern train was traveling from Illinois to Beaver County’s Conway Yard. Purple and black smoke from the fiery weekend wreckage could be seen billowing southeast into Darlington and Chippewa townships. No injuries to crew, residents or first responders have been reported. The National Transportation Safety Board said 10 of the cars that derailed carried hazardous, combustible materials including butyl acrylate and benzene residue from previous shipments, as well as “non-hazardous” materials such as plastic pellets, malt liquor and lube oil. More:East Palestine train derailment causes small number of evacuations in Beaver County At least five of the cars carried vinyl chloride, and one is “intermittently releasing” its contents via a pressure release device operating as designed, said East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency crews are working to remove contaminants from nearby streams. Vinyl chloride is a manmade, colorless gas that burns easily. It’s primarily used to make PVC, a plastic resin found in products like pipes, car parts, housewares, wire coatings and packaging materials. Long-term exposure to vinyl chloride through inhalation is associated with an increased risk of liver, brain and lung cancers, as well as lymphoma and leukemia, according to the National Cancer Institute. Breathing high levels of vinyl chloride can be deadly. Short-term symptoms of vinyl chloride exposure include fatigue, dizziness, exhaustion, abdominal pain and gastrointestinal bleeding, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At this time, “there is no indication that any potential exposure that occurred after the derailment increases the risk of cancer or any other long-term health effects in community members,” East Palestine officials said. Residents within 1 mile of the site, including those living in parts of Darlington Township, are under evacuation orders Monday amid a heightened risk of "catastrophic tanker failure” that could “cause an explosion with the potential of deadly shrapnel traveling up to a mile,” Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said. The dedicated evacuation shelter is located at East Palestine Junior and Senior High School.
Norfolk Southern releases list of chemicals on derailed train in East Palestine, Ohio (WKBN) — The fire in East Palestine is still burning as community members figure out what the new week will bring.First responders are still waiting until it’s safe enough to head back to the scene before it can be cleared. In the meantime, Norfolk Southern has released a fact sheet listing several chemicals being carried by the train. Some of those contents include hazardous and non-hazardous materials. Below is a description of each chemical and the potential dangers of each. Vinyl chloride is a colorless gas that burns easily. It has a wide variety of usages and is often used to make casings that go on the outside of electrical wires. Vinyl Chloride is known to cause cancer. According to Cancer.gov, vinyl chloride exposure is associated with an increased risk of a rare form of liver cancer, as well as primary liver cancer, brain and lung cancers, lymphoma, and leukemia. “Vinyl chloride in of itself is cancerous. Some of the other stuff is just as bad. The hydrogen chloride is bad enough that when you inhale it, it mixes with the water in your lungs and you could have acid burns in your lungs,” said hazardous materials specialist Silverio Caggiano. Butyl acrylate is described as a hazardous, colorless liquid with a fruity strong odor. It is used in the manufacture of polymers and resins, and in paint formulations. Butyl Acrylate can affect you when inhaled and by passing through the skin. Contact can irritate and burn the skin and eyes and inhaling it can irritate the nose, throat and lungs. Exposure to Butyl Acrylate can cause headache, dizziness, nausea and vomiting. Repeated exposure can lead to permanent lung damage. According to the Centers for Disease Control, benzene is a colorless or light yellow chemical with a sweet odor and it highly flammable.Benzene evaporates into the air very quickly. It dissolves only slightly in water and will float on top of water. People who breathe in high levels of benzene may develop the following signs and symptoms within minutes to several hours:
- Drowsiness
- Dizziness
- Rapid or irregular heartbeat
- Headaches
- Tremors
- Confusion
- Unconsciousness
- Death (at very high levels)
It is not clear what type of combustible liquids were on the derailed train. The United States Department of Labor defines combustible liquids as any liquid having a flashpoint at or above 100 °F.According to the Department of Labor and Industry, “under the Combustible and Flammable Liquids Act, the Department of Labor & Industry is responsible for approving the installation or relocation of tanks, pumps and dispensing devices associated with flammable and combustible liquids.”This includes ethanol, gasoline, naphtha, kerosene, fuel oil, or any other flammable or combustible liquid that is stored, sold or kept in any location, in an amount exceeding 30 gallons.The Environmental Protection Agency was at the press conference Sunday. They confirmed some amount of chemical runoff made it into a few creeks in town but say contaminants have not made it into the water supply.This fire is still burning and crews are waiting until it’s safe to assess the situation. “As we get that we’re going to put it out,” said Mayor Trent Conaway. “To tell you, you know, as far as all the chemicals in the air, they’re still safe.”The state of emergency and evacuation orders remain in place.The mayor and fire chief are asking people to stay away from the site — announcing Sunday night a person was arrested after being on the tracks. “You come here and start rubbernecking, I will hook you up. You’ll get a tour of the county from here to Lisbon,” said fire chief Keith Drabick.
Train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, prompts urgent evacuations within one-mile radius -- Officials continue to closely monitor the wreckage of a massive, fiery train derailment on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border in East Palestine, Ohio. It happened on the evening of Friday, Feb. 3 and the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating. Officials monitoring the crash site urgently warned hundreds of nearby residents who had declined to evacuate to do so Sunday night, saying a rail car was at risk of a potential explosion that could launch deadly shrapnel as far as a mile. Officials warned of "the potential of a catastrophic tanker failure" after a "drastic temperature change" was observed in that rail car, according to a statement from Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine's office that said teams were working to prevent an explosion at the scene in East Palestine. It didn't specify what was in that car or whether it was among those that had been carrying hazardous materials. Authorities urged anyone within a one-mile radius of the site to leave immediately. Many had, but local officials indicated more than 500 residents had declined to leave, the statement said. The evacuations extended into nearby areas across the board in Beaver County, Pennsylvania. Arrests of people staying put were possible, the Columbiana Sheriff's Office said.
East Palestine Train Derailment: Evacuations ordered with rail car at risk for explosion following massive fire - CBS Pittsburgh — Over 48 hours after a train derailed near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border Friday night, a fire continues to burn and evacuation orders have been issued ahead of a possible explosion. Early Monday morning, a small explosion was caught on video as crews continued to work to put out the burning rail cars. On Sunday, an emergency alert was issued to residents within the one-mile radius of the area, asking anyone within that area to evacuate immediately due to concerns over a possible explosion. The Columbiana County Emergency Management Director tells KDKA's Lauren Linder that the condition of one of the derailed train cars carrying vinyl chloride has degraded and that there's now a much higher concern for an uncontrolled release and explosion of the car. The Columbiana County Sheriff's Office says that individuals will face charges if they don't adhere to evacuation orders surrounding the train derailment. In the wake of the new risk of explosion, Gov. Mike DeWine is deploying the Ohio National Guard to East Palestine as concerns grow surrounding the situation. Gov. DeWine said that is an explosion were to occur, there's the potential for deadly shrapnel to travel up to one mile. The NTSB staged a second press conference on Sunday as crews continue to manage the wreckage of the train derailment. The NTSB continues to gather any perishable evidence from the scene and analysis of the incident will begin once all evidence is gathered. Any safety recommendations to prevent future accidents will be made after the analysis period, NTSB official Michael Graham said.Norfolk Southern provided a list of frequently asked questions related to the train derailment, the contents of the cars, and more. The ten hazardous material cars will be moved to a temporary staging area for further assessment once the scene is safe. The site remains active and dangerous. Drones will continue to be utilized to assist in the surveying of damage. Officials were able to recover the locomotive data recorder on Sunday as well as forward and in-facing camera video and audio recordings. This data will be reviewed and then sent to the NTSB's vehicle data recorder lab in Washington D.C. for a thorough evaluation. Video obtained from the wreck shows preliminary indications of mechanical issues on one of the railway axles, Graham added. More analysis of the video is needed before a conclusion can be reached. Members of the train crew also were interviewed by the NTSB, according to Graham. The crew did receive an alarm from a waist-side defect detector shortly before the derailment, indicating a mechanical issue, per Graham. The crew's statements are in the process of being verified with the data recorder to further analyze the crew's conduct before and during the derailment. The NTSB has requested records from Norfolk-Southern, including track inspection records, locomotive and railcar inspections, maintenance records, train crew records, and qualifications, Graham added. Additionally, the track team on Sunday conducted a one-mile walk-through of the track outside the hot zone, and they were able to identify the point of derailment. The on-scene portion of the investigation will continue as long as necessary, Graham noted.
Ohio train derailment: ‘We need you to leave now’: Crews scramble to avert a catastrophic explosion after a train carrying dangerous chemicals derails and burns - Officials are begging residents to leave the area around a burning derailed train in East Palestine, Ohio, where workers are trying to prevent a “catastrophic tanker failure” and explosion that could release toxic gas and shoot deadly shrapnel up to a mile away.The threat escalated as a massive inferno burned for a third night Sunday from the Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous materials. Officials implored those still within a 1-mile radius of the crash site to evacuate immediately as concerns grew about air and water quality. “There is a high probability of a toxic gas release and or explosion,” Columbiana County Sheriff Brian McLaughlin warned. “Please, for your own safety, remove your families from danger.” A “drastic change” was detected Sunday in a chemical – vinyl chloride – that officials had been concerned about, Fire Chief Keith Drabick said. Five of the derailed cars were carrying the substance, said the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the disaster. Breathing high levels of vinyl chloride can make someone pass out or die if they don’t get fresh air, the Ohio Department of Health said. The man-made chemical used to make PVC burns easily at room temperature; can cause dizziness, sleepiness and headaches; and has been linked to an increased risk of cancer in the liver, brain, lungs and blood. “If a water supply is contaminated, vinyl chloride can enter household air when the water is used for showering, cooking, or laundry,” the National Cancer Institute says. Anyone who refuses to leave the evacuation zone could be arrested on a misdemeanor charge of misconduct in an emergency, the sheriff posted on Facebook. If there are children in a household that doesn’t evacuate, “further charges of endangering children will apply also,” McLaughlin said.Residents will not be allowed to return to the 1-mile evacuation zone for the foreseeable future. “As of 8am this morning – the 1 mile evacuation zone will be enforced and you will not be able to enter the evacuation zone,” the village of East Palestine posted Monday on Facebook. Those outside the zone are asked to stay indoors and avoid travel “to keep the roadways clear for emergency services,” officials said. The scene was so dangerous by Monday morning that the East Palestine Police Department had evacuated a communications center for safety reasons, a spokesperson told CNN by phone Monday. “911 service will not be affected,” the department posted online. Monday classes at East Palestine schools and city meetings have been canceled, the mayor said.
Gov. Mike DeWine issues urgent evacuation notice in East Palestine, deploys National Guard - Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine issued an evacuation notice on Sunday for residents in East Palestine following Friday’s train wreck. DeWine also deployed the Ohio National Guard at around 8 p.m., officials said. East Palestine residents fear for their lives following train derailment The update comes following the 50-car derailment at around 9 p.m. on Feb. 3, according to the Associated Press. The AP says 20 of the cars contained hazardous materials. According to a press release, DeWine said there is a potential of a catastrophic tanker failure due to drastic temperature changes in one of the rail cars. With the potential tanker failure looming, DeWine said an explosion could occur and could send shrapnel up to a mile wide. “Although teams are working to prevent an explosion from happening, residents living within a mile of the site are advised to immediately leave the area,” DeWine said. While most individuals in the one-mile radius have already evacuated, local officials say that more than 500 people have declined to leave their homes.” DeWine said those who have the means to leave should evacuate immediately, and those who need help evacuating the area should call 330-426-4341.
Authorities say situation is worsening at Ohio train derailment site — Authorities were threatening to arrest anyone who doesn't leave an evacuation zone near the smoldering wreckage of an Ohio train derailment near the Pennsylvania state line and warned Monday there was a high probability of a toxic gas release. While crews were working to prevent a major explosion, residents were packing overnight bags, loading their pets into cars and searching for hotel rooms. Police in the village of East Palestine moved out of their communication center as the threat of an explosion increased. Authorities tell Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 the situation at the site of the train derailment in East Palestine is worsening and that an explosion is likely imminent. Right now a mandatory evacuation order is in effect for anyone living within one mile of scene, that includes part of Darlington Township in Beaver County. Officials say they have made contact with everyone in that radius telling them to move out. "We are at a risk now of a catastrophic failure of that container,” East Palestine Fire Chief Keith Drabick said. “Measures are being taken to try and control that and prevent that from happening." Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine activated the Ohio National Guard to help. "Residents living within a mile of the train derailment site who have not yet left their homes are asked to immediately evacuate due to the potential of a major explosion," DeWine tweeted. "Within the last two hours, a drastic temperature change has taken place in a rail car, and there is now the potential of a catastrophic tanker failure which could cause an explosion with the potential of deadly shrapnel traveling up to a mile," DeWine added. According to the Columbiana County Sheriff, those with children in their homes who decline to evacuate may be subject to arrest.
Ohio train derailment: 'Grave danger of death' near burning, derailed train, governor says. Now crews will try a 'controlled release' of hazardous chemical | CNN - The evacuation zone surrounding the fiery derailment of train cars carrying hazardous chemicals has expanded to two states, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said.Armed with new modeling information, the governors of Ohio and Pennsylvania have ordered immediate evacuations for a 1-mile-by-2-mile area surrounding East Palestine, on the eastern edge of Ohio, DeWine said Monday.Those still in the immediate area of the derailment in East Palestine could face “grave danger of death,” DeWine said. He said those in other nearby areas could face “severe injury … including skin burns and serious lung damage.” Five of the derailed train cars are carrying vinyl chloride – a chemical that is currently unstable and could explode, hurling toxic fumes into the air and shooting deadly shrapnel as far as a mile away, officials said.So on Monday afternoon, crews will try a “controlled release” of the hazardous chemical to try to avert a catastrophic explosion, DeWine said.The release should occur Monday, the governor said. “We are urging everyone in this area – actually, ordering them – to leave.”Crews will try to vent vinyl chloride from five train cars into a ground trench, said Scott Deutsch of Norfolk Southern. The rail company estimates the controlled release of chemicals could burn for one to three hours, DeWine said, but it’s not clear when residents will be able to return to their homes. [Breaking news update, published at 4:58 p.m. ET] The “controlled release” of hazardous materials at a train derailment site in East Palestine, Ohio, has begun, according to an official with Norfolk Southern. At around 4:38 p.m., a boom was heard and a large plume of black smoke could be seen in the area.
Toxic Fumes Released From Train That Derailed in Ohio to Avoid Explosion - A rail operator on Monday released toxic fumes from several derailed train cars that it said were at risk of exploding in East Palestine, Ohio, after the authorities ordered residents on both sides of the state’s border with Pennsylvania to evacuate to avoid a deadly threat.The train derailed on Friday night, with 50 of its 100 cars running off the tracks, igniting a fire that left much of the town in smoke and prompted repeated calls for evacuation.“We are ordering you to leave,” Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio said on Monday at a news conference. “This is a matter of life and death.”He added that there was “grave danger” of inhaling fumes from chemicals produced by the release, which the authorities identified as phosgene and hydrogen chloride. In high concentrations, both chemicals can cause severe and life-threatening respiratory issues.The release of the fumes began late Monday afternoon and was “completed successfully,” Norfolk Southern, the rail operator, said in a statement on Monday evening. The material was continuing to burn off, and was expected to “drain” for a number of hours, the operator said, adding that it would continue monitoring the air quality in the region together with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.Images posted to social media appeared to show fire and a toxicplume of black smoke billowing above East Palestine, a village of less than 5,000 people that is about 50 miles northwest of Pittsburgh. Residents crammed into emergency shelters, the authorities said, and schools were closed for the week, according to a statement posted to Facebook by the East Palestine City School District.The train, which had been traveling from Madison, Ill., to Conway, Pa., derailed at about 9 p.m. Friday in East Palestine. As of Monday afternoon, the fire appeared to still be burning, according to a spokeswoman for the Ohio Emergency Management Agency.Between 1,500 and 2,000 residents were asked to evacuate the areaafter the derailment, and Governor DeWine issued an urgent evacuation notice on Sunday night, addressing hundreds of residents who had declined to leave their homes within a one-mile radius of the site where the cars were scattered. There have been no reports of injuries or deaths.On Monday, the governor extended that evacuation order to include anyone in a one-mile by two-mile area surrounding East Palestine, which includes parts of Ohio and Pennsylvania. His office warned that the chemicals in the rail cars were “unstable and could potentially explode, causing deadly disbursement of shrapnel and toxic fumes.”
Reporter arrested during news event on Ohio train derailment - The Washington Post— A broadcast reporter was pushed to the ground, handcuffed and arrested for trespassing Wednesday while covering a news conference about the derailment of a train carrying toxic chemicals in Ohio.NewsNation posted video of correspondent Evan Lambert being arrested in the gymnasium of an elementary school in East Palestine where Gov. Mike DeWine was giving an update about the accident.Lambert was held for about five hours before being released from jail, NewsNation reported.“I’m doing fine right now. It’s been an extremely long day,” Lambert said after his release. “No journalist expects to be arrested when you’re doing your job, and I think that’s really important that that doesn’t happen in our country.”At the end of his news conference, DeWine said he didn’t authorize the arrest and reporters have “every right” to report during briefings. “If someone was stopped from doing that, or told they could not do that, that was wrong,” DeWine said.A following statement from the governor’s office said DeWine didn’t see the incident because a bank of cameras blocked his view but he did hear a “disagreement toward the back of the gymnasium.”Mike Viqueira, NewsNation’s Washington Bureau chief, called the arrest an infuriating violation of the First Amendment.The Washington, D.C.-based Lambert could still face charges of disorderly conduct and criminal trespassing, NewsNation said.The Columbiana County Sheriff’s Office administration said the arrest was made by officers from the East Palestine Police Department. A message seeking comment from the department was not immediately returned.
Toxic gases connected to Ohio train derailment cause concern - Days after crews released and burned toxic chemicals transported by a wrecked train in Ohio, residents remain concerned about the toxic substances that could be lingering in their evacuated neighborhoods.About 50 cars, including 10 carrying hazardous materials, derailed in a fiery crash Friday in East Palestine, according to rail operator Norfolk Southern and the National Transportation Safety Board. Vinyl chloride was slowly released into the air Monday from five of those cars before crews ignited it to get rid of the highly flammable, toxic chemicals in a controlled environment, creating a dark plume of smoke.Residents in the immediate area there and nearby in Pennsylvania were evacuated beforehand because of health risks from the fumes and can’t yet return Wednesday, as the impact of burning vinyl chloride is a concern.The gas is used to make the polyvinyl chloride hard plastic resin in plastic products. It is found in products such as credit cards, furniture and car parts, but is most notably used in PVC plastic piping, a common material for plumbing. Vinyl chloride is associated with increased risk of liver cancer and other cancers, according to the federal government’s National Cancer Institute. Officials warned the controlled burn would send phosgene and hydrogen chloride into the air. Phosgene is a highly toxic, colorless gas with a strong odor that can cause vomiting and breathing trouble and was used as a weapon in World War I.Hydrogen chloride is a colorless to yellowish gas with a strong odor and its primarily effect on humans is skin, eye, nose and throat irritation. It is considered safe at 5 ppm for an eight-hour exposure. Neil Donahue, a professor chemistry at Carnegie Mellon University in nearby Pittsburgh, said he worries that the burning could have formed dioxins, which are created from burning chlorinated carbon materials.“Vinyl chloride is bad, dioxins are worse as carcinogens and that comes from burning,” Donahue said.Dioxins are a group of persistent environmental pollutants that last in the ground and body for years and have been one of the major environmental problems and controversies in the United States. “Until there has been a thorough assessment, the soot as well as any other materials should in my opinion be treated as contaminated by vinyl chloride and/or dioxins or other contaminants until proven otherwise,”
North Lima woman finds chickens dead Tuesday, questions chemical release from train (WKBN) – People across the Mahoning Valley — including those who live in Mahoning and Trumbull counties — reported smelling chlorine after Monday’s controlled release in East Palestine. Officials said it wasn’t dangerous, but one North Lima woman is skeptical about that statement.Even though North Lima is a little more than 10 miles away from East Palestine, Amanda Breshears said the smell caused her eyes to water when she went to let her dog out. She believes it could be the reason why her birds are now dead.Breshears was going to feed her five hens and rooster Tuesday morning when she discovered them all lifeless, practically in the same position, with no signs of a predator entering their enclosure.“I’m beyond upset and quite panicked, ’cause this, they may be just chickens, but they’re family,” she said. Breshears said her chickens were alive and well on Monday.She believes that the smell following the detonation of the train carrying chemicals that derailed in East Palestine is to blame for her birds’ sudden death.“My video camera footage shows my chickens were perfectly fine before they started this burn, and as soon as they started the burn, my chickens slowed down and they died,” she said.“If it can do this to chickens in one night, imagine what it’s going to do to us in 20 years,” she added.Officials have said that the smell wasn’t toxic or dangerous but still advised people in the Mahoning Valley to stay indoors Monday night as a precaution.“For them to say the air quality is OK, I’m calling B.S.,” she said.Breshears said she is going to be taking the birds to a veterinarian to have them examined in the hopes of holding someone responsible for their deaths.Sources said this is not the only incident like this that they have heard of in the past day, however, those at the Ohio Department of Agriculture said they haven’t heard of any problems.
Derailed train cars in Ohio drained of toxic chemical amid mass evacuation (Reuters) - Nearly 2,000 residents of eastern Ohio remained under evacuation orders on Monday as railroad crews drained and burned off a toxic chemical from five tanker cars of a freight train that derailed in a fiery wreck three days earlier, officials said. The venting of pressurized vinyl chloride, a highly flammable and carcinogenic gas, began with a single explosion, as was anticipated, followed by a steady incineration of the remaining cargo, said Sandy Mackey, a spokesperson for the Ohio Emergency Management Agency."That controlled release was the one explosion," she told Reuters by telephone. "It went as planned. It seemed to be a successful incident." No injuries were reported, either from Monday's operation or the accident on Friday night, authorities said. Live video on Monday showed a towering column of thick, black smoke rising from the accident site in East Palestine, Ohio, a town close to the Pennsylvania border northwest of Pittsburgh. The train, operated by Norfolk Southern Railroad and consisting of three locomotives and 150 freight cars, was headed from Illinois to Pennsylvania when it derailed shortly before 9 p.m. EST on Friday, setting off a massive fire that forced the evacuation of hundreds of homes in the immediate vicinity. About 50 cars actually left the tracks, 20 of which carried hazardous materials, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
East Palestine, Ohio, residents can safely go home, officials say : Evacuated residents can safely return to the Ohio village where crews burned toxic chemicals after a train derailed five days ago near the Pennsylvania state line, East Palestine Fire Chief Keith Drabick said Wednesday.Authorities in East Palestine had warned that burning vinyl chloride that was in five of the derailed tanker cars would send hydrogen chloride and the toxic gas phosgene into the air. They said Wednesday subsequent air monitoring hasn't detected dangerous levels inside or outside the mile-radius evacuation zone, which stretched into Pennsylvania. Drabick said air and water samples taken Tuesday from the evacuation area show it's now safe, and the evacuation order is lifted. He thanked state and federal officials and agencies that helped with the emergency response over the past few days.James Justice of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said around-the-clock air monitoring has shown normal, un-concerning levels. Hundreds of data points from that "show that the air quality in the town is safe," he said.He reiterated that there was a robust air monitoring system in place and data from that showed nothing at a level that would be cause for health concern. Monitors did detect toxins in the air during the controlled burn at the derailment site, but other samples outside that area did not. Many nearby residents left shortly after the derailment, and others were ordered out before the controlled release of the chemicals because of concerns about serious health risks from it.The commander of the Ohio National Guard previously said that members wearing protective gear would take readings inside homes, basements and businesses as officials aimed to ensure the air was safe before lifting the evacuation order.Some residents have said they were worried about returning even if authorities say it's OK to go home.The fire from the chemical release is no longer burning, and crews have started removing some of the wreckage.About 50 cars, including 10 carrying hazardous materials, derailed in a fiery crash Friday night on the edge of East Palestine. Federal investigators say a mechanical issue with a rail car axle caused the derailment.No injuries have been reported from the derailment or from the controlled release of the chemicals on Monday, but some people have complained about smelling chlorine and smoke in the air and having headaches.
Wary residents return home after toxic train derailment (AP) — Hours after being told she could go home for the first time since a train hauling chemicals derailed and later sent up a toxic plume near the Pennsylvania state line, Melissa Henry nervously walked inside her house. First, she washed her sheets and pillow cases. Then she started throwing out everything left on her kitchen counters. She opened all of her windows too, hoping to air out whatever might have seeped inside while fearful of the air outside too. “Was that the right thing to do or not? You just don’t know,” she said Thursday. “It was a nightmare, it still is.” Residents forced to evacuate the Ohio village of East Palestine began trickling home after being told Wednesday that hundreds of air samples showed no dangerous levels of toxins following the controlled release and burn of five tankers that were among nearly 50 cars that derailed last Friday. Some, including Henry, came back within the first few hours while others were waiting to see the results of air sampling inside their homes before returning. “I was a nervous freaking wreck last night,” she said. “My kids are here that’s my biggest concern.” Henry and her two boys had stayed with her parents for nearly five days while waiting for the derailment to be cleaned up. She left on Saturday before the mandatory evacuations were ordered because her youngest son’s “eyes turned red as tomato and he was coughing a lot,” she said. Since coming home, she and the boys have been washing clothes, changing filters in the furnace and scrubbing down just about everything. “I don’t know if that’s going to work, but we have to do something,” she said. Mayor Trent Conaway acknowledged people remain frustrated by lingering odors, and promised the village is “not just taking the word” of rail operator Norfolk Southern Railway and has Environmental Protection Agency representatives involved in air testing. The village’s drinking water system is being tested daily and is safe, he said. The mayor expressed frustration that trains started running through the area again right after the evacuation order was lifted, and said that was sooner than he’d expected.
Class action lawsuits filed against Norfolk Southern for East Palestine, Ohio train derailment -(WKBN) — Several people filed class action lawsuits Tuesday against the operators of the train that derailed in East Palestine that forced the evacuations of dozens of homes and businesses. Chase and Cheri Kinder, entities Bird Dog Hill Kennels and Stonybrook Kennel and Pamela Taas filed a lawsuit late Tuesday against Norfolk Southern Corporation.The complaint said that the plaintiffs were forced out of their homes or businesses and sustained damages to property, economic loss and expense, emotional distress, discomfort and inconvenience and exposure to hazardous chemicals.The complaint was filed in Columbiana County Common Pleas Court. They are represented by attorney Jim Wise.In a separate lawsuit, David and Susan Scheufele of Clark Street in East Palestine as well as Harold Feezle of state Route 14 filed their suit Tuesday in the U.S. Northern District Court of Ohio against Norfolk Southern.They are represented by Wellsville attorney Nicholas Amato and Cleveland attorney Andrew Thompson of the law firm Shapero Roloff LPA. The complaint says Feezle owns a business on state Route 14, and because he has been forced to close his business, he has suffered damages.David Scheufele claims he suffered injuries due to his exposure to the fumes from the crash site, and Susan Scheufele said she suffered damages because she was forced to evacuate.Court records do not list a hearing date.The suit asks for damages as well as prohibiting the railroad from removing any equipment from the crash site until it can be examined and also asks that the railroad retain all records relating to the train and the spill.It also asks the judge to bar the railroad from trying to make possible class members sign any document that releases the company of any claims.Norfolk Southern is the operator of a train carrying chemicals that derailed at about 9 p.m. Friday in East Palestine. Since then, a number of homes and businesses close to the derailment to evacuate. The evacuation order was lifted Tuesday at about 5:30 p.m.
East Palestine train derailment compares to 2012 incident in New Jersey (WKBN) – The train accident in East Palestine is not the first time that a derailment caused a release of vinyl chloride. It happened in 2012 in Paulsboro, New Jersey. In that case, 20,000 gallons of the chemical were released. On that day on November 30, 28 residents sought medical attention for possible exposure, and the train crew and many emergency responders were also exposed, according to a report from the National Transportation Safety Board. This was a spill, not a burnoff such as the East Palestine derailment, but in both instances, there was a release of vinyl chloride into the ground and into the water. Local, state and government agencies investigated the derailment, and the NTSB issued recommendations and guidelines. Some of their findings included that eyewitnesses at the scene saw a “vapor cloud” engulfing the scene immediately following the accident and rapidly expanding along a creek. As many as 680 residents were evacuated because of the vinyl chloride release. At first, officials said erroneously that the vapor cloud was nontoxic, changing the evacuation order to shelter-in-place. “Therefore the community protective measures were based on incorrect information about the released material,” the report said. The report noted that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) mandates that no employee may be exposed to vinyl chloride at concentrations greater than 1 ppm averaged over any 8-hour period; that no employee may be exposed at concentrations greater than 5 ppm averaged over any period not exceeding 15 minutes; and that no employee may be exposed to vinyl chloride by direct contact with the material. Workers can easily be overexposed without becoming aware of vinyl chloride presence because the odor threshold is too high to provide warning for hazardous concentrations.The report said that vinyl chloride irritates the eyes, mucous membranes and respiratory tract. Extreme exposure can cause severe medical conditions or even death. Chronic exposure can cause liver damage, skin and bone issues. The US Department of Health and Human Services has classified vinyl chloride as a known human carcinogen, the report stated. The chemical is less troublesome for “aquatic organisms,” according to the report, and it is less of a danger if released into the air as opposed to the ground or water. In East Palestine, there has been fish kill due to the vinyl chloride contamination, officials said. West Virginia Governor Jim Justice said on Wednesday that chemicals from the East Palestine derailment spilled into the Ohio River in the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia. A report released by the New Jersey Department of Health in 2014 showed the effects vinyl chloride had on the residents of Paulsboro.A survey was conducted and information was collected from 1,930 people, including some who were evacuated and some who weren’t.The survey showed that more than half of Paulsboro residents responding to the survey experienced symptoms consistent with exposure to vinyl chloride.Residents were exposed to vinyl chloride in the air and “exposures to vinyl chloride were likely to have been high enough to cause reversible, short-term health effects.”Over 250 people visited the emergency room as a result of the incident. Patients reported experiencing headaches, irritation of the nose and throat, cough, difficulty breathing, eye irritation, dizziness and nausea. Vinyl chloride is known to be a cancer-causing chemical after long-term exposure. However, it was unclear whether or not short-term exposure increases the risk of getting cancer. The report also stated it was unclear if there could be long-term, non-cancer harmful health effects from the exposure to vinyl chloride that occurred in Paulsboro.
Fiery Ohio derailment raises railroad safety questions (AP) — The fiery derailment of a train carrying toxic chemicals — sending a huge plume of smoke in the air and forcing residents of a small Ohio town to evacuate — has highlighted the potentially disastrous consequences of train accidents and raised questions about railroad safetThe railroad industry is generally regarded as the safest option for most goods and federal data show accidents involving hazardous materials are exceedingly rare. But with rails crossing through the heart of nearly every city and town nationwide, even one hazardous materials accident could be disastrous, especially in a populated area.Rail unions believe the industry has gotten riskier in recent years after widespread job cuts left workers spread thin.“It raises all kinds of questions,” Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine told “Fox & Friends” this week when he was asked whether hazardous materials are too dangerous to transport by rail. “We’ve seen it up close and personal the last few days,” DeWine said. “This is a big, big deal.” About half of the 4,800 residents in the eastern Ohio town of East Palestine and those in the surrounding area, including parts of Pennsylvania, had to evacuate as officials monitored air and water quality following a controlled burn of chemicals released from damaged tank cars. The evacuation order was lifted Wednesday after the air was deemed safe. “ I’m scared to go back home, ” resident Brittany Dailey had said Monday. “I’m eventually going to have to go back, but it makes me want to sell my house and move at this point.” Ian Jefferies, head of the Association of American Railroads trade group, said 99.9% of all hazardous materials shipments reach their destinations safely. Federal Railroad Administration data showed hazardous chemicals were released during 11 train accidents nationwide last year, out of roughly 535 million miles (861 million kilometers), with only two injuries reported. In the past decade, releases of hazardous materials peaked at 20 in both 2018 and 2020.
‘Historic Arctic outbreak’ crushes records in New England - Minus one-oh-eight: That’s how cold it felt on top of New Hampshire’s Mount Washington early Saturday, and it wasn’t a whole lot warmer anywhere else in New England or in eastern Canada as an air mass that normally squats over the Arctic surged into the temperate latitudes and set wind chill and absolute-temperature records across the region.The Mount Washington Observatory’s wind chill calculation of minus-109 Fahrenheit set an all-time record for the United States. (The National Weather Service, the official keeper of records, said it was a smidgen warmer at minus-108.) The National Weather Service office serving the Boston region described the cold as “a historic Arctic outbreak for the modern era.” To drive that point home, the Weather Service declared “this is about as cold as it will ever get.” The temperatures were so extreme in Maine that residents reported “frost quakes,” or cryoseisms. The earthquake-like tremors are caused by rapidly plummeting temperatures, which cause water trapped in cracks in the ground to expand. In Boston, the morning low fell to minus-10 degrees at 5:15 a.m., the coldest reading observed in the city since Jan. 15, 1957, when Boston hit minus-12. The episode resembled the brutal Arctic blast on Valentine’s Day 2016, when Logan Airport dropped to minus-9 degrees.Coupled with winds gusting near 40 mph, Boston witnessed its lowest wind chill ever recorded at minus-39 degrees. Records date back to 1944. Wind chill is an index that attempts to quantify the combined impact of cold and wind on the human body, since strong winds blow away one’s body heat.Portland, Maine, recorded its all-time lowest wind chill at minus-45 degrees. A weather balloon launched by the National Weather Service in Gray, Maine, reported the all-time lowest 850-millibar (an air pressure level corresponding to approximately 5,000 feet in altitude) temperature ever observed by that office at minus-35.5 degrees.Farther north in Maine, Frenchville Airport in Aroostook County recorded a wind chill to minus-61 degrees, while Cadillac Mountain in Hancock County had a minus-62 degree wind chill. Even Bar Harbor, on the coast, logged a wind chill of minus-48. Greenville in Piscataquis County faced a wind chill of minus-58.Just across the Maine border in Canada, the province of New Brunswick recorded winds of over 35 mph Saturday afternoon and a wind chill of minus-35. The cold first hit the country on Friday in Ontario, which saw wind chills as cold as minus-50 in some areas and minus-24 at Toronto Pearson International Airport. On Saturday in the country’s Northwest Territories, the wind chill was minus-58, though temperatures eased later in the day, according to Environment Canada, the country’s official weather service. In Newfoundland and Labrador, in the northeast, winds were as strong as 70 mph in exposed areas near the coast as snow fell across the province. In Nunavut, the northernmost territory, wind chills were as low as minus-67.Beyond Mount Washington’s mind-boggling wind chill of minus-108, the actual air temperature scored at the summit was minus-46.2 at minimum — a new February record for New Hampshire. That coincided with wind gusts topping 110 mph. The Weather Service office serving the area tweeted that the wind chill was so low that its software for logging such data “refuses to include it!”
Generators, spoiled food: Slow power repairs anger Austin (AP) — Like thousands of other Austin residents, Darin Murphy began a sixth day Monday with no power in his home, wrapping his head around the city’s latest demoralizing update: Getting the lights fully back on may take another week. “We are planning for worst-case scenario,” he said. Making any plans has been difficult — and downright infuriating — for nearly 20,000 customers who still had no electricity Monday nearly a week after a deadly ice storm crippled the Texas capital and brought down power lines under the weight of fallen and frozen tree limbs. Schools finally reopened, but noisy generators rattled before dawn and outdoor extension cords running 100 feet (30 meters) or longer became lifelines between neighbors who had power and those who didn’t. The boiling frustration over the slow pace of restoring power, and officials repeatedly saying they could not offer timetables for repairs, escalated Monday as the future of Austin’s top city executive plunged into jeopardy even as the number of outages continued falling. Austin Mayor Kirk Watson, a Democrat, called a meeting for this week that will put City Manager Spencer Cronk’s job on the line. The move reflected the rising discontent in America’s 11th-largest city, where late Sunday night, Austin Energy issued a statement in the face of growing criticism that full power restoration may not happen until Feb. 12 — nearly two weeks after the outages began.
Northeast heat wave and tornado storms — a month of weird weather across the US - Seven northeastern states saw their warmest January on record, a federal report has found.The unseasonal temperatures were just one aspect of January’s broader pattern of weird weather, according to a report published on Wednesday by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA). Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey and Maine all broke average temperature records for the usually frigid month, NOAA reported on Wednesday.Those records came amid a winter heat wave that pushed national temperatures to 5 degrees above average, NOAA found.Most of the U.S. east of the Rockies experienced higher-than-average temperatures, and New York, Pennsylvania and Indiana each had their second-warmest January on record.The warm winter — which also brought a snow-free winter to New York — was part of a more extensive system of weird weather this January.The unseasonal temperatures also led to below-average consumption of natural gas, dropping prices, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported on Tuesday. But the unseasonal temperatures were just one aspect of January’s broader pattern of weird weather. More than 100 tornadoes struck the U.S. in January — a milestone that has happened only three times since 1950, according to the federal government.Sixty-one tornadoes hit the southern U.S. during a single storm in early January, NOAA reported.Those tornadoes were fueled by an enormous region-spanning storm, which was “part of the same system” as the succession of nine atmospheric rivers that pummeled California in December and January, National Weather Service meteorologist Allison Santorelli told Reuters in January.Those storms resulted in at least 21 deaths, 1,400 rescues and 700 landslides.Despite the lethal damage, the storm helped recharge California’s beleaguered snowpack, a natural “battery” that is the source of much of the state’s water.As of press time, snowpack levels ranged from 168 percent to 236 percent of their normal January levels, according to the state Department of Water Resources. But even these repeated downpours — which helped raise U.S. national precipitation totals to half an inch above average — were not enough to make a serious dent in the drought.
Arizona water chief predicts federal government will step in on Colorado River conflict - The federal government will likely end up putting its foot down in a state-to-state squabble over cuts in Colorado River consumption, Arizona’s water chief told The Hill. “We will continue to try to get an agreement,” said Tom Buschatzke, director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources. “The path we’re on seems like the federal government’s going to step in.” Negotiations among the seven states that rely on this key Western waterway have been taking place for months, with the goal of significantly reducing usage of an overallocated resource. The states had agreed to a rough deadline of Jan. 31, aware that the Federal Bureau of Reclamation had threatened to impose cuts itself if an agreement failed to materialize. What did materialize were two opposing proposals — a joint deal from six out of the seven states last Monday and a competing offer from the outlier, California, on Tuesday. The details of the plans are so incompatible that the government will likely intervene, either with a unilateral solution or a combination of imposed and voluntary measures, according to Buschatzke, who has served as Arizona’s chief negotiator in the matter. “Differences between the six-state proposal and California’s proposal just further cements in my mind that that’s the path we’re on,” Buschatzke said. Some 40 million people across seven U.S. states and Mexico rely on the Colorado River for drinking water, agriculture and hydroelectric power. But this lifeblood of the West is governed by a century-old agreement that allotted river users with more water than was actually available.
Rainmaking experiments boom amid worsening drought - As rain clouds swelled over Fort Stockton, Texas, last summer, a little yellow plane zipped through the sky. It was on a mission. Equipped with tanks of water and special nozzles on its wings, the craft soared beneath the gray-white billows. Then, at just the right moment, it released a spray of electrically charged water particles into the cloud. The goal? To squeeze some extra rain from the West Texas sky. “Water’s becoming very valuable and more and more scarce,” said Dan Martin, a research engineer with Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service who helped invent the technology. It’s a new spin on a decades-old practice known as “cloud seeding,” or efforts to boost precipitation by spraying special particles into the air. It’s one of the world’s most popular forms of weather modification, and it’s practiced across much of the western U.S., as well as China, Russia, parts of the Middle East and other countries. Developing new and improved forms of cloud seeding has taken on a greater urgency in recent years. Severe drought around the world, worsened by the steady progression of climate change, has sparked a growing interest in innovative forms of water management from researchers, governments and corporate giants. Cloud seeding can be relatively cheap compared with other water management strategies, like desalination, a chemical process that removes salts and other minerals from water to make it safe for drinking. But there’s a catch. It’s notoriously difficult to design experiments that demonstrate how well the technology actually works (Climatewire, March 16, 2021). Even as researchers work to develop more effective forms of cloud seeding, scientists say it’s hard to tell for sure if it makes a difference.
'The grass does not grow': In Chile's far south, the worst drought in 50 years (Reuters) - In Chile's remote south, the country's gateway to the Antarctic, the worst drought in half a century is hitting cattle ranchers and vegetable farmers, leaving the earth so dry in some areas that grass cannot grow for grazing. The Andean copper producing nation, currently battling deadly fires in the south-central region, is locked in a more than decade-long period of drought that has created a challenge to mining, agriculuture and bees. In the far south city of Punta Arenas, that has led to a water emergency declared last year. "In 2022 Punta Arenas had its driest year in 52 years," said Nicolas Butorovic, a climatologist from the regional University of Magallanes. The Magallanes region, an area of fjords and large expanses of ice that is home to the iconic Torres del Paine national park, usually creaks under cold temperatures and strong winds that have exacerbated the dry conditions. "The wind picks up and dries everything and the grass does not grow, that is the drama we're facing," said Hector Garay, a livestock farmer in the region. Cristian Vivar, owner of a local dairy, said the region was facing a "very difficult winter" ahead due to the lack of water to grow animal feed. "If there is no irrigation water, water from rain, the grass does not grow. We are talking about what is going to be missing, food for our cattle," he said. Bernardita Contreras said her first batch of a rhubarb crop had survived but there was no chance for the second one. "There is no longer any hope of recovering it because there's no water, we don't have any to irrigate," she said. In the popular region for travel, Rodrigo Bustamante, president of the hotels and tourism services association, said the whole area was dry. "This year is much hotter than others, with much more wind, which is also an ingredient that dries the countryside much more and dries the entire territory," he said.
Water crises due to climate change: More severe than previously thought -- Climate change alters the global atmospheric circulation, which in turn alters precipitation and evaporation in large parts of the world and, in consequence, the amount of river water that can be used locally. So far, projections of climate impact on stream flow have usually been calculated on the basis of physical models, e.g., the projections reported by IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). However, new data analyses conducted under the leadership of Prof. Günter Blöschl (TU Wien, Vienna) indicate that previous models systematically underestimate how sensitively water availability reacts to certain changing climate parameters. An analysis of measurement data from over 9,500 hydrological catchments from all over the world shows that climate change can lead to local water crises to an even greater extent than previously expected. The results have now been published in the journal Nature Water. Forecasting models of the effects of climate change on water supply should therefore be fundamentally revised. "Up to now, runoff measurements have usually not been included at all in the models, such as those currently reported by the IPCC," says Günter Blöschl. "With the series of measurements now available, it should now be possible to adjust the physical prediction models accordingly."In any case, the results of the research team around Günter Blöschl show that the danger of climate change on the water supply in many parts of the world may have been underestimated so far. Especially for Africa, Australia and North America, the new data predict a significantly higher risk of water supply crises by 2050 than previously assumed.
Census: Disasters displaced more than 3M Americans in 2022 - More than 3 million adults were forced to evacuate their homes in the past year because of a natural disaster, according to a new Census Bureau tally that marks a rare federal effort to assess the uprooting caused by hurricanes, floods and other events.The Census Bureau estimate far exceeds other counts of U.S. evacuees and reflects the uncertainty about how much disruption disasters and climate change are causing. Census figures show that 3.4 million adults were displaced in 2022, or 1.4 percent of the U.S. adult population.By contrast, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, which tracks people who are displaced within their own country for any reason, estimates that disasters displaced an average of 800,000 U.S. residents a year from 2008 through 2021.The center’s figures include an estimated 1.7 million people displaced in 2017, which saw three of the most destructive storms in U.S. history — hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.“These [census] numbers are unbelievable,” said Hannah Perls, an attorney at Harvard Law School’s Environmental & Energy Law Program. The census figures suggest that “international data and reporting severely underestimate the number of IDPs,” or internally displaced persons, Perls said.Most displacements were short term, according to the Census Bureau, which reports that nearly 40 percent of people returned home within a week of evacuating.But the census figures also show that roughly 16 percent of the displaced adults never returned home and 12 percent were out of their homes for more than six months. Many people who face permanent displacement have disabilities, which lead to hardships after disasters such as isolation and food shortages (Climatewire, Jan. 6).
Americans’ Climate Migration Has Begun - Hurricanes expose the perils of living on the front porch of the climate crisis. In the coming decades, severe storms, floods, fires, heat waves, and drought will force millions of Americans to search for new homes. In The Great Displacement, journalist Jake Bittle delivers powerful stories of seven scarred communities and their people, compelled to cope with loss, unresponsive bureaucracies, and the prospect of future threats. Journeying across the South to the Southwest and into California, he digs deep into the personal experiences of these first climate crisis migrants and delivers a potent appraisal of the myriad forces already uprooting and complicating life for Americans as they scatter across the country. Given the sweep of the continental United States, migration is a portal to some of the most fraught chapters in the country’s history. Bittle, a staff writer for Grist, an online climate and justice magazine, opens with a nod to the early-to-mid-20th-century Great Migration, which propelled some six million terrorized Blacks out of the South. On its surface, by contrast, the climate crisis is an equal-opportunity, slow-motion catastrophe in progress, one that affects everyone regardless of melanin content or whether you are penniless, bank in Bitcoins, or stuff dead presidents in a wallet. Bittle underlines this egalitarian starting point, but proceeds by reporting how it’s overlaid on the nation’s historic and enduring fault lines of race, ethnicity, and class that structure where Americans live today and where they end up in the aftermath of a cataclysm.
Severe storms wreak havoc across southern Brazil, leaving 7 people dead - Heavy rain has wreaked havoc across southern Brazil, particularly in the São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro States, over the past two days. Residents have been dealing with flooding, devastating weather-related incidents caused by lightning, and landslides that have resulted in casualties and destruction. The Operations Centre of Rio de Janeiro declared a red alert due to heavy rainfall that began on February 7, 2023. The Centre reported 30.4 mm (1.19 inches) of rain in 15 minutes and 67.4 mm (2.65 inches) in just one hour at the Jardim Botânico weather station. The severe weather has caused widespread destruction in the region, with over 150 incidents being reported, including 100 flooded roads, damaged buildings, and fallen trees. There have also been over 30 landslides and 20 schools have been closed as a result. Niterói across Guanabara Bay was among the areas badly affected. The Military Fire Brigade of the State of Rio de Janeiro (CBMERJ) played a critical role in the rescue operations, saving around 70 people who were trapped or stranded. Six fatalities were reported across the Rio de Janeiro State, of which two in the Rio de Janeiro Capital City due to landslides, two in São Goncalo Town, one in Niteroi City, and one more in Saquarema City. In the São Paulo State, the media also report one fatality in Osasco City and one person still missing across the São Paulo Capital City.
Series of destructive landslides in Peru claim at least 40 lives, destroy 200 homes - (3 videos) At least 40 people have lost their lives and 200 houses have been swept away by a series of landslides caused by heavy rains in the Peruvian department of Arequipa. The landslides began on Sunday, February 5, 2023, and affected the town of Secocha and other localities in the province of Camaná. The hardest hit area was Nicolas Valcarcel, where four villages have been devastated by the disaster. The governor of Arequipa, Rohel Sanchez, stated that the situation in these towns is “really bad.” It is believed that miners who were working in the nearby hills were among those swept away by the landslide. Some 20 000 people throughout Arequipa have suffered damage to their homes or otherwise been affected by the natural disaster. The Civil Defense Institute of Arequipa is working to provide aid and support to those affected by the landslides. The number of casualties could increase, as search and rescue operations are still ongoing. The central-western Lima department in Peru has also been hit by landslides resulting in 265 displaced people and significant damage. Nearly 200 houses have been affected, with 4 houses, 1 religious center, a community building, 5 km (3.1 miles) of roads, agriculture, and livestock all suffering damage.
Thousands of buildings in Auckland unsafe for living after worst rains in 170 years, New Zealand - Thousands of buildings in New Zealand’s Auckland area are currently unsafe for living after the region was hit by extreme rainfall and severe flooding at the end of January. The amount of rain that fell in a matter of days made January 2023 Auckland’s wettest month in at least the last 170 years. The flooding has put the public’s focus on nature-based alternatives to traditional stormwater systems. The presence of a low level jet, or strong wind in the lower atmosphere, combined with tropical moisture to create persistent heavy rain in the Auckland area on Friday, January 27, 2023, resulting in widespread severe flooding, destruction and 4 fatalities. Auckland officials described it as a devastating rain event, culminating in the declaration of a state of emergency.1 For many locations in Auckland, it was their wettest day on record — receiving approximately an entire summer’s worth of rain in one day. The weather station located at Auckland Airport recorded 245 mm (9.65 inches) of rain, surpassing the previous record of 161.8 mm (6.37 inches) by over 50%. On the same day, Auckland’s Albert Park was drenched with 280 mm (11 inches) of rain in under 24 hours and 211 mm (8.3 inches) in under 6 hours. Other weather stations around the region also reported remarkable rainfall, with many spots noting between 250 – 300 mm (9.84 – 11.81 inches) of rain within the day. Some stations even reported over 80 mm (3.15 inches) of rain in an hour. To put this into context, the highest classification for intense rain at New Zealand’s MetService is ‘torrential’, which is defined as 40 mm (1.57 inches) of rain or more in an hour. Heavy rains continued through the end of January and into February, breaking Auckland’s previous wettest month on record by far. The new monthly record now stands at 539 mm (21.2 inches). The weather records there date back to 1853. The rain across northern New Zealand has resulted in extensive damage due to widespread flooding on January 27, which the country’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) describes as at least a 1-in-200-year event. Four people have lost their lives and many hundreds have been displaced, with dozens of properties destroyed. Flights ground to a halt after Auckland International Airport was flooded and had to close, leaving thousands stranded abroad, some not able to get flights back for weeks. As of February 8, 277 buildings are labeled with red stickers — the building is unsafe and has sustained moderate or heavy damage, 1 615 with yellow stickers — access is restricted due to moderate damage, and 2 566 with white stickers — the building has suffered light damage and can be accessed. Auckland Emergency Management is urging people to check on their neighbors and to watch for potential scammers in the wake of the flooding.3 Emergency controller Rachel Kelleher said today there are still large amounts of flood-damaged items to be collected. “Our teams are working at pace to get these items collected as quickly as possible, and we thank everyone for their patience at this time,” she said. Those who were unable to take waste to a transfer station could leave flood-damaged items at the kerbside to be collected, but items should be secure and placed away from storm water drains. “Any items that have been in contact with floodwaters will be contaminated and can pose serious health risks,” Kelleher said.
Raging wildfires claim 26 lives, destroy more than 100 homes in Chile - (video) At least 13 people were reported dead and more than 100 homes were destroyed as of early Saturday morning (UTC), February 4, 2023, as a result of the more than 150 wildfires burning across Chile. Most of the wildfires are in Biobío and neighboring Ñuble. The Chilean government has declared a state of disaster after a devastating heatwave and strong winds sparked massive forest fires. The declaration allows for coordination with the military and suspension of constitutional rights. As of late Friday (local time), 151 wildfires were recorded throughout the country, 65 of which were declared under control. The fires have blazed through 14 000 hectares (34 595 acres) of land, destroyed more than 100 homes, and claimed the lives of at least 13 people. Most of the affected homes are located in Biobío and neighboring Ñuble regions. The death toll includes a firefighter who lost his life while battling the flames, a pilot and a mechanic who died in a helicopter crash in the southern region of Araucania, and four civilians in the Biobío region. Over 2 300 firefighters and 75 aircraft have been deployed to combat the fires. President Gabriel Boric has suspended his vacation to visit the affected areas and has stated that there is evidence that some of the fires have been started by unauthorized burnings. With high temperatures and strong winds expected to persist, the Interior Minister, Carolina Toha, has warned that the conditions in the coming days will be risky, making it more difficult to control the fires. The wildfires have caused fears of a repeat of the 2017 fires, which burned through 465 400 hectares (1 150 000 acres) of forest and resulted in 11 deaths and the destruction of 1 500 homes. Update, February 6: The death toll rose to at least 26 people with nearly 1 000 others injured.
Powerful M7.8 earthquake hits Turkey - Syria border region, leaving more than 3 400 people dead - (video) A powerful earthquake registered by the USGS as M7.8 hit the highly populated Turkey – Syria border region at 01:17 UTC (04:17 local time) on Monday, February 6, 2023. The agency is reporting a depth of 17.9 km (11.1 miles). EMSC reports M7.8 at a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles). Numerous moderate to very strong aftershocks were registered, including M6.7 at 01:28 UTC. More than 3 400 people have been killed — at least 2 316 in Turkey and 1 136 in Syria, as of 23:00 UTC .This is the strongest earthquake to hit Turkey since 1939 and the second-strongest since the Northern Anatolia M7.8-8.0 earthquake in 1668. The epicenter was located about 26.2 km (16.3 miles) E of Nurdağı (population 12 827), 33.6 km (20.9 miles) WNW of Gaziantep (population 1 065 975), and 46.6 km (29 miles) NNW of Kahramanmaraş (population 376 045). 70 000 people are estimated to have felt violent shaking, 540 000 severe, 4 850 000 very strong 12 252 000 strong and 21 316 000 moderate. The USGS issued a Red alert for shaking-related fatalities and economic losses. High casualties and extensive damage are probable and the disaster is likely widespread. Past red alerts have required a national or international response. Estimated economic losses are 0-2% GDP of Turkey. Overall, the population in this region resides in structures that are extremely vulnerable to earthquake shaking, though some resistant structures exist. The predominant vulnerable building types are unreinforced brick masonry and low-rise nonductile concrete frame with infill construction. Recent earthquakes in this area have caused secondary hazards such as landslides that might have contributed to losses. According to reports received by 07:20 UTC, more than 500 people were killed — 284 in Turkey and 237 in Syria. Thousands of people have been injured. Dozens of people are still trapped under the rubble and the death toll is expected to rise. This is the strongest quake to hit the Turkey – Syria border on record. It is also the strongest earthquake to hit Turkey since the Erzincan M7.8 earthquake on December 27, 1939 (more than 33 000 fatalities and close to 100 000 injured), and the second strongest since the Northern Anatolia M7.8-8.0 earthquake on August 17, 1668 — the most powerful earthquake in Turkey’s recorded history (~8 000 fatalities). Thousands of buildings have been damaged or destroyed and rescue teams have been deployed to search for survivors under huge piles of rubble. During a press conference held on Monday morning, Vice President Fuat Oktay said a total of 1 710 buildings collapsed.
Powerful M7.5 aftershock hits Turkey - Syria border region after M7.8 leaves more than 2 300 people dead - A second powerful aftershock measuring M7.5 (USGS) / M7.7 (EMSC) on the richer scale hit Turkey – Syria border region at 10:24 UTC on February 6, 2023. The quake follows the extremely damaging and deadly M7.8 quake at 01:17 UTC today.Both agencies are reporting a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles). The epicenter was located 4.2 km (2.6 miles) SSE of Ekinözü (population 6 289), 20.3 km (12.6 miles) S of Elbistan (population 80 456), and 54.5 km (33.9 miles) NNE of Kahramanmaraş (population 376 045). USGS PAGER estimated 132 000 people felt severe shaking, 374 000 very strong, 4 132 000 strong, and 16 353 000 moderate. This earthquake took place just 9 hours after the devastating M7.8 quake hit the same region: Aftershocks spread more than 200 km (120 miles) along the fault, suggesting a bilateral rupture from the epicenter.
"Horrible Scenes" - 1900 Dead So Far In Turkey-Syria Quake, 1000s of Buildings Collapsed - A powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake rocked southern Turkey early Monday, killing at least 1,400 people in the country and neighboring Syria. There are reports of another quake, registering 7.5-magnitude in the country's southeast less than 12 hours from the first. The first quake was felt as far away as Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon -- occurred in Kahramanmaras province, north of Gaziantep, near the Syrian border. Most of the damage is in southern Turkey and northern Syria. The first quake was so powerful that buildings hundreds of miles away swayed in Israel. The second quake, a 7.5-magnitude, struck Kahramanmaras province just moments ago. Turkey reports a 7.5-magnitude earthquake in the southeastern province of Kahramanmaras — the second high-magnitude quake to hit the country in less than 12 hours https://t.co/Z8O7KdamMM pic.twitter.com/ycWUJ6icjB— Bloomberg TV (@BloombergTV) February 6, 2023 As the dust settles and daylight emerges, footage of the earthquake's aftermath is shocking. Update (0956ET): A 7.5-magnitude earthquake followed by a powerful 7.8 tremor in Turkey has caused 1,900 deaths so far across southeast Turkey and Syria. About 1,121 deaths were reported in Turkey, while 783 died in Syria.More than 2,830 buildings have been destroyed, Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority said. President Biden has pledged aid for Turkey and Syria: "I have directed my team to continue to closely monitor the situation in coordination with Turkiye and provide any and all needed assistance." — President Biden (@POTUS) February 6, 2023 The United States Geological Survey estimated upwards of 10,000 deaths from the twin quakes.
Earthquake kills more than 3,600 in Turkey, Syria: Live updates - The Washington Post — A 7.8-magnitude earthquake in southern Turkey early Monday killed more than 3,800 people there and in neighboring Syria, officials said, as rescuers searched flattened buildings in frigid weather for survivors. The earthquake — felt as far away as Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and Egypt — occurred in Kahramanmaras province, north of Gaziantep, near the Syrian border. Rescue efforts are ongoing, and the number of people killed, injured and displaced probably will climb. The initial quake was followed by dozens of powerful aftershocks, including one recorded at 7.5 magnitude in the same fault zone of south-central Turkey on Monday afternoon. Most of the damage is in southern Turkey and northern and central Syria. At least 2,379 people were killed and more than 14,400 injured in Turkey, state media said. In Syria, 711 people have been reported killed so far, with more than 1,400 injured, in government-controlled regions, mostly in Latakia, Hama, Aleppo and Tartus, according to state media reported. The death toll in rebel-held northwestern Syria is at least 740, according to a representative of the Syrian Civil Defense, an aid group that works in areas outside government control; more than 2,000 civilians were injured, with hundreds trapped under rubble and dozens of buildings collapsed, the group said. The quake could be the largest recorded in the region, which sits on an earthquake-prone belt known as the Anatolia fault, one seismologist said. The images out of Syria and southern Turkey were heartbreaking as Houssam al-Nahhas monitored the earthquake damage from his home in Maryland. But the devastation really hit home when he finally heard from his parents and in-laws in southern Turkey, all of whom had nowhere to go after the temblor severely damaged their homes. On Monday, Nahhas — who was an emergency trauma physician and aid worker in Syria and Turkey before immigrating to the United States in 2019 — listened helplessly as his mother-in-law described during a short telephone call how she and her husband had been sheltering in their car since the 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck early Monday. This is an excerpt from a full story. Dara Goldberg, a research geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey, said earthquakes release pressure at the heart of the fault slip but also create new pressure in their ripples. She said at a news conference Monday afternoon that more-complex modeling in the coming weeks may improve probability models of future quakes in the area.
A dire situation in northwest Syria: Devastating quake amid civil war - — The earthquake that devastated Turkey and Syria on Monday piled hardship upon despair in parts of rebel-held northwestern Syria that were already suffering under a years-long humanitarian crisis born of conflict and displacement. Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for the latest updates on Russia’s war in Ukraine. The quake left swaths of destruction around its epicenter in Turkey and in neighboring parts of Syria. But in rebel-controlled areas, it compounded conditions that were already unlivable: First responders, mostly volunteers, were already depleted, and millions of displaced people, hungry and huddled in the cold, were living in unfit buildings and shelters, without access to basic services. Videos from Syria’s opposition-held pocket offer only a glimpse of the damage. The death toll in rebel-held northwestern Syria rose over the course of the day to at least 740, with hundreds of people stuck under rubble and more than 2,000 injured, according to the Syrian Civil Defense, known as the White Helmets, an aid group that works in areas outside government control. Those figures are set to rise. In Turkey, the government reported more than 2,000 people killed and more than 14,000 injured. In regions of Syria held by President Bashar al-Assad’s government, at least 711 were killed and more than 1,400 injured, according to state media outlets, mostly in Latakia, Hama, Aleppo and Tartus. After nearly 12 years of conflict, bombardments by government forces have weakened many buildings, a White Helmets representative said, speaking on the condition of anonymity under a policy set by the group. The White Helmets said that rain, snow and roadblocks had impeded their efforts, and called on the international community to pressure the Syrian and Russian governments not to bombard affected areas. In a note sent on WhatsApp on Monday, the Syrian Civil Defense representative begged foreign countries and international organizations for help. White Helmets volunteers and members “are not capable of responding; the size of the disaster is far larger than our abilities,” he said. “Every minute, we lose a life. We are now racing with time. We need heavy equipment. We need heavy machinery dedicated for rescue missions. We need rescue teams. We need fuel. We have been using up backup fuel for the past two months.” “Tens of thousands of civilians are homeless,” he said. “The medical situation is abysmal. Tens of thousands of buildings are now cracked. There’s a snowstorm. There’s predictions of flooding in the area. The humanitarian situation is disastrous, with every meaning of the word.”
Earthquake Death Toll Soars Past 11,000 As US Sanctions On Syria Block Humanitarian Aid -Health authorities working in Turkey announced Wednesday that the death toll from Monday's 7.8-magnitude earthquake and its aftershocks has soared past 11,000 dead - but more casualties are expected given rescue teams still haven't accessed possibly hundreds or thousands more believed buried under the rubble. Additionally, vast swathes of deeply impacted northern Syria still have yet to receive any emergency aid. "Where are the tents, where are food trucks?" one 64-year old woman identified as Melek in Antakya said. She said she'd yet to see any rescue teams in her part of southern Turkey, near Syria. "We survived the earthquake, but we will die here due to hunger or cold here." Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan vowed that no one will "be left in the streets" during a Wednesday visit a "tent city" in Kahramanmaras. He admitted relief efforts have been slow, but still defended his administration's response."The death toll from the huge earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria has risen to nearly 11,500, as rescuers continued to pull survivors from the freezing rubble and the Turkish president rejected growing criticism of the authorities’ response," The Guardian wrote of his visit to the disaster zone.The publication suggested that by week's end the number of dead could surpass 20,000. "Experts have predicted the combined tally will rise further, perhaps to more than double, as hundreds of collapsed buildings in many cities have become tombs for people who were asleep when the first quake hit in the early morning," according to The Guardian.An eyewitness in Hatay told AFP: "They are trapped under the ruins and there is no sign of life. We can’t reach them. We are trying to talk to them, but they are not responding … We are waiting for help. It has been 48 hours now."Meanwhile, inside Syria not only has Idlib been devastated, but buildings collapsed in Latakia and Aleppo as well, and the quakes were felt as far south as Damascus. But amid talk in the West of putting together an urgent humanitarian response, West-sanctioned Syria is apparently being bypassed and largely forgotten about.Washington has at the same time shown no interest in living sanctions on Syria for the sake of humanitarian aid getting in at a faster pace.The New York Times makes it plain: “Syria is not able to receive direct aid from many countries because of sanctions.”According to journalists who earlier in the week approached the State Department: State Department spokesman Ned Price said Monday that the US would work with NGOs in the country but wouldn’t engage with the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. He didn’t give any indication that the US would lift sanctions on Syria.
Earthquake stuns Syria’s Aleppo even after war’s horrors - — For years, the people of Aleppo bore the brunt of bombardment and fighting when their city, once Syria’s largest and most cosmopolitan, was among the civil war’s fiercest battle zones. Even that didn’t prepare them for the new devastation and terror wreaked by this week’s earthquake. The natural disaster piled on many man-made ones, multiplying the suffering in Aleppo and Syria more broadly. Fighting largely halted in Aleppo in 2016, but only a small number of the numerous damaged and destroyed buildings had been rebuilt. The population has also more recently struggled with Syria’s economic downslide, which has sent food prices soaring and residents thrown into poverty. The shock of the quake is all too much. Hovig Shehrian said that during the worst of the war in Aleppo, in 2014, he and his parents fled their home in a front-line area because of the shelling and sniper fire. For years, they moved from neighborhood to neighborhood to avoid the fighting. “It was part of our daily routine. Whenever we heard a sound, we left, we knew who to call and what to do,” the 24-year-old said. “But … we didn’t know what to do with the earthquake. I was worried we were going to die.” Monday’s pre-dawn 7.8-magnitude quake, centered about 70 miles away in Turkey, jolted Aleppans awake and sent them fleeing into the street under a cold winter rain. Dozens of buildings across the city collapsed. More than 360 people were killed in the city and hundreds of others were injured. Workers were still digging three days later through the rubble, looking for the dead and the survivors. Across southern Turkey and northern Syria, more than 11,000 were killed. Even those whose buildings still stood remain afraid to return. Many are now sheltering in schools. A Maronite Christian monastery took in more than 800 people, particularly women, children and the elderly, crammed into every room. “Until now we are not sleeping in our homes. Some people are sleeping in their cars,” said Imad al-Khal, the secretary-general of Christian denominations in Aleppo, who was helping organize shelters. For many, the earthquake was a new sort of terror — a shock even after what they endured during the war.
Turkey, Syria quake is deadliest since 2015 - The catastrophic earthquake that razed thousands of buildings in Turkey and Syria became one of the deadliest quakes worldwide in more than a decade Wednesday and the death toll kept rising, approaching 12,000. A magnitude 7.8 earthquake in Nepal in 2015 killed more than 8,800 people. Turkey’s foreign minister says his country is working to get international aid to earthquake-hit areas inside Syria, but damage was making efforts more difficult. Mevlut Cavusoglu said Wednesday that Turkey is not “neglecting” to get the aid where it’s needed in Syria. He said that’s why Ankara is trying to open Syrian government-controlled border crossings “because it’s a humanitarian situation and not a political one.” Those crossings have remained shut for years because of tensions between Turkey and Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government. Turkey’s top diplomat said Cilvegozu gate is already open, leading into opposition-held Idlib province although roads are damaged. He added that Turkey is opening its airspace to flights hauling international aid to Syrian airports such as the one in Aleppo.Rescue crews braved freezing overnight temperatures in quake-hit areas in both countries in the hope of reaching survivors and pulling more bodies from the rubble.
Hope dims for families in Turkey as rescue turns to recovery | AP News— Precious hours have turned to tense days across earthquake-hit southern Turkey as fewer people are pulled alive from the rubble. While family members watch rescue workers shift to recovery, they also face an awful truth: that it’s unlikely they’ll ever be reunited with their missing loved ones. In Nurdagi, a city of around 40,000 nestled between snowy mountains some 35 miles (56 kilometers) from the epicenter of the quake, throngs of onlookers — mostly family members of people trapped inside — watched on Thursday as heavy machines ripped at one building which had collapsed, its floors pancaked together with little more than a few inches in between. Mehmet Yilmaz, 67, watched from a distance as bulldozers and other demolition equipment began to bring down what remained of the building where six members of his family — including three children and a three-month-old baby — were trapped. The operation there had become one not of rescue, but of demolition. “There’s no hope. We can’t give up our hope in God, but they entered the building with listening devices and dogs and there was nothing,” said Yilmaz. He hasn’t moved from his hopeful perch beside the building for three days. He estimated about 80 people were still trapped within the collapsed structure, but said he didn’t believe any of them would be recovered alive. “The building looks like stacks of paper and cardboard, the fifth floor and the first floor have collided into one,” he said grimly, his eyes full of resignation. Scarcely a building remains in Nurdagi that has not suffered major damage. In those where it was believed there could still be survivors, workers used pick axes, jackhammers and shovels to carefully chip away at the hunks of concrete and twisted knots of rebar in hopes of discovering a sign of life. In other buildings, like the one where Yilmaz’s family was trapped, it became more about recovery.
Hope fades for survivors as Turkey-Syria earthquake toll passes 20,000 (Reuters) - Cold, hunger and despair gripped hundreds of thousands of people left homeless after the earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria three days ago as the death toll passed 20,000 on Thursday. The rescue of a 2-year-old boy after 79 hours trapped in the rubble of a collapsed building in Hatay, Turkey, and several other people raised spirits among weary search crews. But hopes were fading that many more would be found alive in the ruins of towns and cities.The death toll across both countries has now surpassed the more than 17,000 killed in 1999 when a similarly powerful earthquake hit northwest Turkey. A Turkish official said the disaster posed "very serious difficulties" for the holding of an election scheduled for May 14 in which President Tayyip Erdogan has been expected to face his toughest challenge in two decades in power. With anger simmering over delays in the delivery of aid and getting the rescue effort underway, the disaster is likely to play into the vote if it goes ahead. The first U.N. convoy carrying aid to stricken Syrians crossed over the border from Turkey. In Syria's Idlib province, Munira Mohammad, a mother of four who fled Aleppo after the quake, said: "It is all children here, and we need heating and supplies. Last night we couldn't sleep because it was so cold. It is very bad." Hundreds of thousands of people in both countries have been left homeless in the middle of winter. Many have camped out in makeshift shelters in supermarket car parks, mosques, roadsides or amid the ruins, often desperate for food, water and heat.
Syria orphans from quake taken in by overwhelmed relatives | AP News— A Syrian baby girl whose mother gave birth to her while trapped under the rubble of their home during this week’s devastating earthquake now has a name: Aya, Arabic for “a sign from God.” With her parents and all her siblings killed, her great-uncle will take her in. Aya is one of untold numbers of orphans left by Monday’s 7.8-magnitude quake, which killed more than 20,000 people in northern Syria and southeastern Turkey. The pre-dawn quake brought down thousands of apartment buildings on residents as they were roused from sleep, so entire families often perished. In most cases, relatives take in orphaned children, doctors and experts say. But those surviving relatives are also dealing with the wreckage of their own lives and families. In the continued chaos days after the quake, with the dead and a dwindling number of survivors still being found, doctors say it’s impossible to say how many children lost their parents. At one hospital in northwest Syria, a red-haired 7-year-old girl, Jana al-Abdo, asked repeatedly where her parents were after she was brought in, said Dr. Khalil Alsfouk, who was treating her. “We later found out she was the only one who survived among her entire family,” he said Thursday.In the case of the newborn Aya, her father’s uncle, Salah al-Badran, will take her in once she is released from the hospital. But his own house was also destroyed in the northwest Syrian town of Jenderis. He and his family managed to escape the one-story building, but now he and his household of 11 people are living in a tent, he told The Associated Press. “After the earthquake, there’s no one able to live in his house or building. Only 10% of the buildings here are safe to live in and the rest are unlivable,” he said, communicating via voice messages.
Double-peaked M6.3 solar flare erupts from AR 3213 - (video) Active Region 3213 rapidly emerged on the visible disk on February 6 as just a few sunspots but has since grown into a mature, magnetically-complex sunspot group, producing several M-class flares, including a double-peaked flare that began at 22:46 and peaked at 23:07 as M6.3. The first peak was registered as M3.8 at 22:58 UTC. There were no radio emissions associated with this flare that would suggest a coronal mass ejection (CME) was produced. High-frequency communication blackouts were forecast to be most degraded over central Pacific waters. February 7, 2023, marked a day of moderate solar activity, with M-class flare activity and growth observed in active regions 3214 and 3213, the source of the aforementioned M6.3 solar flare. Region 3214 showed growth in its intermediate spots while region 3213 exhibited growth, especially in its trailing spots, and was responsible for 2 other M-class flares — M1.5 at 20:01 UTC and M1.0 at 13:53 UTC. In addition, an M2.0 was detected erupting from the same region at 02:53 UTC on February 8. A coronal mass ejection (CME) was also observed emerging to the north-northeast in LASCO C2 imagery at 15:12 UTC, possibly associated with this active region. This CME may have been associated with lower-level C-class flares that occurred between ~12:30 and 13:30 UTC, but confidence is somewhat low at this time due to the timing of the event and observation. Regardless, analysis and modeling are currently underway. The remaining regions were stable and relatively quiet in comparison.Solar activity is expected to be low with a 55% chance for isolated M-class flares over the next three days. The greater than 2 MeV electron flux reached moderate levels and the greater than 10 MeV proton flux was steady at background levels in 24 hours to 00:30 UTC on February 8. The greater than 2 MeV electron flux is expected to be moderate to high and the greater than 10 MeV proton flux is expected to persist at background levels over the next three days. Solar wind parameters indicated the continued influence of a negative polarity coronal hole high-speed stream (CH HSS) yesterday and this influence is anticipated to persist, although weakening, over the next day. A decline towards a background-like state is expected to begin on February 9 and continue through February 10.
Multiple M-class flares and CMEs observed - (video) Our star displayed high levels of activity in 24 hours to 12:30 UTC on February 9, including multiple low-level M-class solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) observed on the southeast and southwest limbs. The largest of these flares was an M3.0 that occurred at 03:10 UTC from AR 3217 located on the SE limb. While the current location of this region doesn’t favor Earth-directed CMEs, this will change in the days ahead as it rotates toward the center of the solar disk. Sunspot region 3213 has shown continued growth in its intermediate spots and retains a beta-gamma configuration. New sunspot groups have rotated onto both the southeast and northeast limbs, while region 3218 was numbered but inactive. The remaining five active regions were stable and quiet. At present, it appears that none of the CMEs observed on the southeast and southwest limbs are directed towards Earth, although further analysis is underway. Solar activity is predicted to remain at moderate to high levels from February 9 to 11, with occasional M-class flares and a slight chance of an isolated X-class flare due to the flare potential of sunspot regions 3213 and 3217. The greater than 2 MeV electron flux reached high levels, peaking at 2 520 pfu at 15:50 UTC on February 8. The greater than 10 MeV proton flux remained steady at background levels. Over the next two days, the greater than 2 MeV electron flux is anticipated to be moderate to high, before returning to normal to moderate levels on February 11. The solar wind parameters indicated the ongoing influence of a negative polarity coronal hole high-speed stream (CH HSS). Total field strength was between 5 and 8 nT, with the Bz component ranging from +/- 7 nT. Solar wind speeds were generally between 500-600 km/s, with a predominantly negative Phi. The negative polarity CH HSS is expected to persist, although weakened, through February 10, with possible enhancements in the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) due to glancing CME effects. An ambient-like environment is expected to prevail on February 11. The geomagnetic field was at unsettled to active levels due to the negative polarity CH HSS effects. Unsettled to active levels are forecast for February 9, with quiet to unsettled levels expected on February 10. On February 11, mostly quiet conditions are anticipated. References:
Illinois county offered payments to back Navigator carbon dioxide pipeline - The company seeking to build a controversial carbon dioxide pipeline through five states is offering to pay as much as $19 million for cooperation from an Illinois county that last fall passed a two-year moratorium on such pipelines, according to a draft agreement posted online by pipeline opponents. A draft agreement that will be discussed at the McDonough County Board Law and Legal Committee meeting on Monday, Feb. 6, appears to be the company’s latest attempt to build the pipeline despite significant opposition from landowners, officials in multiple counties, and the Illinois Farm Bureau. Navigator has not been able to obtain enough leases for the pipeline’s route across Illinois or for a carbon sequestration site in the state, and on January 20 it withdrew its application for eminent domain powers, after state regulators said the application was incomplete.The draft agreement with McDonough County offers the county $20,000 per mile of pipeline per year for up to 30 years, with a $630,000 annual cap. The draft says the payment would be contingent on the county acting “in good faith” to “provide positive assistance” to the company, including obtaining road access and rights of way on county land.Last fall, the county intervened in the eminent domain proceedings before the Illinois Commerce Commission, noting that the pipeline construction could affect emergency responders and farmland. A week later the county passed its pipeline moratorium.“Navigator will clearly stop at nothing to move forward with its project,” said Central Illinois resident Pam Richart, lead organizer with the Coalition to Stop CO2 Pipelines. “I believe that Navigator is hoping they can make deals with local governments like McDonough County in order to buy them off.”The Illinois Times reported in October that Navigator had made a similar pitch to officials in Montgomery County, offering to pay up to $1.5 million a year for up to 30 years. No agreement has been instated there, but the issue has been on monthly board meeting agendas for the past few months.
The IRA is changing what individual action means for climate change - Almost 10 years ago, a solo researcher published a jaw-dropping statistic that changed how many people thought about climate change. Just 90 large companies, he determined, released almost two-thirds of all greenhouse gas emissions between 1751 and 2010. (Big players like Chevron, Exxon and BP made the list, along with state-owned fossil fuel companies and cement producers.)The study transformed the discussion about who, exactly, bears responsibility for climate change. For years, environmental groups had resisted the idea that ordinary individuals — people who drive gas-powered cars or heat their homes with fuel oil — were responsible for the warming planet. (Fossil fuel companies, meanwhile, endorsed — and in some cases advertised — the concept of the personal “carbon footprint.”) The study’s finding underscored a clear dilemma: If 90 companies have caused most of the world’s climate change, why bother eating less meat or switching to an electric car?Now, however, that calculus might be changing. Yes, a large group of giant oil companies are still responsible for most of the emissions to date. But thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act — which includes huge incentives for individuals to buy electric cars and shift their homes away from fossil fuels — ordinary citizens are suddenly in the driver’s seat of America’s energy transition.According to data from Princeton University, roughly 30 percent of the emissions reductions from the bill expected over the next decade will come from consumers switching to electric vehicles and a transformation in home heating and appliances. It’s true that individuals did not cause climate change. But they may be key to stopping it.Part of that is due to the gas-fueled nature of the American home. “Many houses are like mini fossil-fuel power plants,” said Leah Stokes, a professor of political science at the University of California at Santa Barbara. “They have a gas furnace, a gas water heater and a gas stove. And then out front, the power plant has a gas-powered car!”The numbers are staggering. The United States has almost 104 million privately owned cars on the road; of those, only about 1.7 million are electric. Then there are the country’s 56 million gas furnaces, 58 million gas water heaters, 5 million oil furnaces and another 5 million furnaces that run on propane (another form of fossil gas). Not to mention America’s 35 million gas stoves, which have suddenly found themselves as an unexpected front in the culture war.
Watch: Bill Gates Says It's OK For Him To Use Private Jets Because He's "The Solution" To Climate Change - In a cringe inducing interview with a BBC reporter, Bill Gates argued that it’s perfectly fine for him to fly around the world on private jets because he’s doing much more than anyone else to combat climate change. Gates claimed that because he continues to “spend billions of dollars” on climate change activism, his carbon footprint isn’t an issue.“Should I stay at home and not come to Kenya and learn about farming and malaria?” Gates said in the interview with Amol Rajan.“I’m comfortable with the idea that not only am I not part of the problem by paying for the offsets, but also through the billions that my Breakthrough Energy Group is spending, that I’m part of the solution,” Gates added. Watch: Gates, who has declared that the energy crisis is a good thing, owns no fewer than FOUR private jets at a combined cost of $194 million dollars.
'They're not ready': Cities scramble to implement climate law - The landmark climate change law passed last year relies heavily on cities and towns to implement some key provisions, but some aren’t yet ready to take on the challenge. City governments, still battered by the Covid-19 pandemic, struggling to retain staff and being pulled in all directions, could be the difference when it comes to fully realizing the Inflation Reduction Act’s promises in areas like electrification and environmental justice. The place where most of the nitty gritty of implementation for municipalities will take place is in local sustainability offices, which typically deal with encouraging environmentally friendly infrastructure, building standards and low-emission transportation, among other efforts. And a lot of them are unprepared for what’s coming. “As a whole, I think sustainability offices — probably all of us — are not positioned to take this on,” Jenny Hernandez, the sustainability specialist for Las Cruces, N.M., told E&E News. She said lack of staffing in her office will likely mean the city will miss out on applying for an environmental justice grant. “I think for a lot of municipalities, sustainability is not well understood or valued, and is therefore not well equipped. A lot of municipalities haven’t quite grasped how sustainability is interdisciplinary and touches every department.” The Biden administration is trying to help, with outreach and assistance to aid cities in applying for funds and carrying out programs. Outside groups and the private sector are pitching in as well. But municipal leaders and experts say there is a significant risk that many cities could miss out on valuable benefits they could get under the $369 billion climate and energy portions of the law. Christy Goldfuss, chief policy impact officer at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said she’s concerned that cities aren’t staffing up with specialists to prepare for implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act in a way similar to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, sometimes known as the stimulus bill. “There doesn’t seem to be the clear understanding that we have New Deal-level of investments in this country for a transformation that is historic. But in order for that promise to be realized, there needs to be a drastically different approach at the local level to how the money gets there, to how the federal government engages, and right now we just don’t see the capacity to do that,” she said recently.
R.I. climate goals may require ban on new gas hookups -Rhode Island’s top utility regulator says a statewide moratorium on new gas hookups is on the table as the state works to meet its ambitious climate goals.“That doesn’t mean it happens tomorrow,” said Ronald Gerwatowski, chair of the Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission, during a proceeding Thursday. “But it surely begs us all to ask the question: If not tomorrow, then when?”Gerwatowski’s comments came as the commission held its first technical conference in its investigation into the future of natural gas. A wide-ranging discussion followed about the many challenges and conundrums facing the commission in the so-called “Future of Gas” docket. Regulators opened the investigation in response to the passage of the state Act on Climate, which includes a mandate to zero out greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Building emissions, including those that result from the use of natural gas, account for about 35% of the state’s total emissions. The commission regulates the gas distribution system, which is operated by Rhode Island Energy.The purpose of the first proceeding was “to prepare the commission to make big and ambitious decisions,” said commissioner Abigail Anthony.The breadth of the challenge ahead was laid out by Rhode Island Energy executives, who provided a factual representation of the state’s gas distribution system. The company has more than 273,000 residential, commercial and industrial gas customers served by some 3,200 miles of gas distribution main, said Michele Leone, vice president of gas.Through the company’s ongoing pipeline replacement program, 60 to 65 miles of gas main are replaced every year, she said. About half of the mains have been replaced with less leak-prone pipes so far. Whether or not to continue that program is a particularly vexing question for the commission, Gerwatowski said. Replacing leak-prone pipes is both a safety issue and an environmental issue, he said. Right now, those infrastructure investments are factored into the rate base and are depreciated over 40 years, a timeline that is now far too long. “We could depreciate it more quickly, but that has an impact on rates. So what do we do here?” Gerwatowski said. “Do we stop the program on the assumption we’re going to close the system down,” allowing for some continued methane leaks? Or, he said, do they allow the program to continue, and then likely face lawsuits over who should be responsible for the stranded costs once the assets are no longer in use?
L.A. is shutting down its largest gas plant — and replacing it with an unproven hydrogen project - The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to move forward with an $800-million plan to convert the city’s largest gas-fired power plant to green hydrogen — a first-of-its-kind project that was hailed by supporters as an important step to solve the climate crisis but slammed by critics as a greenwashing boondoggle that will harm vulnerable communities.Council President Paul Krekorian described hydrogen as crucial to meeting L.A.'s goal of 100% clean electricity by 2035.“It was widely seen as being an impossible goal. And we’re now on the precipice of achieving that,” he said. The vote authorized the L.A. Department of Water and Power to begin the contracting process for revamping Scattergood Generating Station, which sits along the coast near El Segundo. DWP plans to install turbines capable of burning significant quantities of hydrogen, which has never been done before on such a large scale. The fuel would be produced from water, with renewable electricity — from solar panels or wind turbines, for instance — splitting H2O molecules into hydrogen and oxygen atoms.The city-run utility hopes to ultimately convert its other gas plants to hydrogen as well: Harbor and Haynes farther down the coast, and Valley Generating Station in Sun Valley. Those facilities wouldn’t be fired up often, but they would help Los Angeles keep the lights on during times when there’s not enough solar and wind power to go around, such as hot summer nights. The city’s ultimate goal is burning 100% green hydrogen — but DWP officials have acknowledged the technology might not be ready right away. That means the initial fuel mix at Scattergood might include more planet-warming natural gas than hydrogen.Jason Rondou, DWP’s director of resource planning, told The Times that Scattergood should be able to burn at least 30% green hydrogen on Day One — the same percentage the utility is targeting at its coal-fired Intermountain Power Plant in Utah.“There’s a lot of things that need to be figured out over the coming years,” Rondou said.That uncertainty helps explain why many climate and environmental justice activists opposed Wednesday’s City Council motion.In public comments before the vote, critics from groups including Communities for a Better Environment, Pacoima Beautiful and the Sierra Club noted that although hydrogen doesn’t produce planet-warming carbon emissions when burned, it does generate lung-damaging nitrogen oxide pollution — much more than gas, at least using current technology. That’s especially problematic for low-income communities of color that have already suffered from years of fossil fuel pollution — like those around DWP’s Valley Generating Station, where residents were forced to live with a years-long methane leak.Jasmin Vargas, an organizer with Food and Water Watch, described hydrogen as “fundamentally racist and inequitable.” She also objected to public comments from labor union and business leaders saying hydrogen would create good-paying jobs.
Cheap clean hydrogen? Not so fast, energy giants say. - Billions of dollars in federal subsidies from the Inflation Reduction Act and the bipartisan infrastructure law may not turn “clean” hydrogen into a commercially viable fuel, according to a new report led by former Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and sponsored by some of the nation’s largest energy companies and a group founded by Bill Gates. The analysis being released today by the Energy Futures Initiative (EFI) also is on the radar of the Biden administration, as Ali Zaidi, the White House’s national climate adviser, is scheduled to appear as a keynote speaker at the report’s unveiling. While the findings are nonpartisan, they wade into high-stakes debates that will determine the fate of the fuel, including whether it has low emissions as envisioned. The report throws cold water on the idea that low-carbon hydrogen soon will become a cheap fuel source for a range of polluting industries and argues that the federal government needs to do a lot more to make it a viable product. “We are not done. The problem has not been solved,” said Alex Kizer, EFI’s senior vice president of research and lead author on the report. The group’s research was sponsored by two of the nation’s largest utilities, Duke Energy Corp. and National Grid PLC; automaker Toyota Motor Corp.; oil and gas producers Exxon Mobil Corp. and Tellurian Inc.; Gates’ clean-energy innovation group Breakthrough Energy through its support of the AFL-CIO’s Work for America Foundation ; the philanthropic Hewlett Foundation; and the Arlington, Va.-based nonprofit Center for Energy and Climate Solutions (C2ES). EFI, a nonprofit think tank led by Moniz, maintains that it has editorial independence from its public and private sponsors. The researchers calculated the cost of making hydrogen while keeping life-cycle emissions within limits laid out by the Inflation Reduction Act, which created the first production tax credits for “clean” hydrogen. The climate law defines clean hydrogen as involving no more than 4 kilograms of carbon emissions for every kilogram of hydrogen. The tax credits would help immensely in bringing down the cost of hydrogen — but not enough in most cases to convince power plants, oil refiners and ammonia and steel producers to begin using low-carbon versions of the fuel instead of emissions-intensive ones, the report said.
Chart: Americans bought more heat pumps than gas furnaces last year -Even before Inflation Reduction Act incentives kicked in, Americans bought more heat pumps than ever before last year — well over 4 million.Americans are buying more heat pumps for their homes than ever before. U.S. annual sales rose above 4 million units for the first time in 2022, outpacing sales of gas-powered furnaces. Heat pumps run on electricity instead of fossil gas and are up to three times more efficient than gas furnaces for heating. Plus, they can also act as air conditioners when the weather is warm, serving as a double-duty appliance. So far in the U.S., heat pumps have been most common in the Southeast, where many homes are already all-electric and winters tend to be more mild. But their adoption has been increasing across the country over the past 10 years. That is due partly to falling costs and partly to technology improvements that have significantly boosted heat-pump performance,especially in colder weather.Policy incentives have also bolstered heat-pump adoption. “There are some very successful state and local programs that are driving sales and increasing market adoption in states where they haven’t been traditionally adopted, like Maine, Massachusetts and California,” Noah Goldmann, a policy analyst at pro-electrification nonprofit Rewiring America, told Canary Media. And now there are new federal incentives for heat pumps from the Inflation Reduction Act — tax credits for certain models are available to all households, plus rebates of up to $8,000 for lower-income homeowners.
Biden administration proposes more stringent efficiency standards for refrigerators, clothes washers - The Energy Department on Friday proposed to require new household refrigerators and clothes washers to meet a more stringent sets of energy efficiency standards.It said that the move will save energy and money for consumers. Consumers who use appliances meeting the proposed standards will save about $425 on utility bills over the life of the appliances, the department said in a statement. The two rules would also cut carbon dioxide emissions by 233 million metric tons over 30 years, according to the administration. This is equal to about the total emissions of 29 million homes over the course of a year.The rules would be expected to take effect in 2027. The proposals come amid a broader effort to address what the administration has described as a “vast backlog of outdated energy efficiency standards” and to “remedy the rollbacks and procedural roadblocks left by the prior Administration.”
Republicans move to undo EPA truck emissions rule - Republican senators are looking to roll back EPA’s recently finalized emission standards for heavy-duty trucks, one of the latest attempts to overturn Biden administration rulemaking on environmental issues.Sens. Deb Fischer of Nebraska and John Kennedy of Louisiana introduced a Congressional Review Act resolution Wednesday aimed at an EPA rule set to take effect in March that would cut harmful soot and smog pollution from trucks starting in model year 2027.“The Biden Administration is saddling the trucking industry with an onerous regulation that would jack up vehicle costs and hurt good paying jobs,” said Fischer. “This aggressive EPA rule — which will hit mom-and-pop truck operations the hardest — is also ineffective because it incentivizes operators to keep using older, higher-emitting trucks for longer.”The rule is expected to slash nitrogen oxide emissions from the heavy-duty vehicle sector by 48 percent by 2045. EPA predicts that those emission reductions could annually prevent up to 2,900 premature deaths and result in 1.1 million fewer lost school days for children (Greenwire, Dec. 20, 2022).The CRA allows Congress to overturn recently finalized rules with a simple majority in the House and Senate. Thirty-two GOP senators co-sponsored Wednesday’s resolution.Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), a key swing vote, is not among the co-sponsors. Manchin is supporting another CRA resolution against a Department of Labor rule on environmental, social and governance investing (E&E Daily, Feb. 3).Even though CRA resolutions won’t succeed this Congress, with Biden sure to veto anything lawmakers may pass, they show the GOP’s commitment to going after certain administration initiatives. Republicans have also introduced resolutions against EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers’ Clean Water Act rule and regulations to protect the lesser prairie chicken.
Midwest lawmakers ask Biden to make ethanol-heavy fuel available year round - Dozens of bipartisan lawmakers representing Midwestern states are calling on the Biden administration to permit the sale of more ethanol-heavy fuel year-round. The demand centers around E-15, a fuel blend that contains 15 percent ethanol that has long been subject to restrictions on its sale during summer months. Last year, amid spiraling gas prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Biden administration issued a waiver suspending the federal rule that prevents such sales. Since then, eight Midwestern governors have petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to permanently end the seasonal limitations. In a letter Thursday, 10 senators and 21 House members representing both parties called on EPA Administrator Michael Regan to grant the request. The Clean Air Act allows the EPA to temporarily waive some fuel blending restrictions. The governors first made the request in mid-2022. While the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) began the review process to respond to the request in December, it has not yet made the regulatory package publicly available.
Renewables are on track to satiate the world's appetite for electricity - Renewable energy and nuclear power will meet almost all of the growth in global demand for electricity over the next three years, according to a report released today by the International Energy Agency. The findings are good news for the climate: They suggest that low-emission sources will help satisfy humanity’s growing appetite for electricity to power air conditioners, charge electric vehicles and perform other activities essential to modern life. Electricity has a crucial role to play in the fight against climate change, as countries ditch fossil fuels and embrace electric vehicles, heat pumps and other cleaner appliances. But so far, renewable sources of electricity — as opposed to power plants that burn coal or natural gas — haven’t kept up. That is changing as the global power sector approaches a “tipping point,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said in a statement. “The world’s growing demand for electricity is set to accelerate, adding more than double Japan’s current electricity consumption over the next three years,” Birol said. “The good news is that renewables and nuclear power are growing quickly enough to meet almost all this additional appetite, suggesting we are close to a tipping point for power sector emissions.” While the report’s findings are a big deal, they’re also wonkish and technical. Here’s a quick overview of the report and why it matters, along with a couple of caveats:
Solar to dominate 2023 US additions after supply chain, pandemic disruptions -- Solar-powered generation will account for more than half of the 54.5 GW of new utility-scale electric generating capacity expected this year across the US, the US Energy Information Administration said Feb. 6. Most of the new solar capacity will be in Texas, where 7.7 GW is expected to come online, followed by California with 4.2 GW, the EIA said. Combined, those two states will account for 41% of planned new solar capacity this year. However, "there's some uncertainty about how much of what is planned will be completed this year," said Morris Greenberg, senior manager of North America power analytics with S&P Global Commodity Insights. Solar power will account for 54% of 2023 additions, followed by battery storage at 17%, the EIA said. US utility-scale solar capacity has been rising rapidly since 2010, with the exception of 2022 when solar additions declined by 23% year on year in 2022 due to supply chain disruptions and other pandemic-related challenges, according to the EIA. "We expect that some of those delayed 2022 projects will begin operating in 2023, when developers plan to install 29.1 GW of solar power," the EIA said. "If all of this capacity comes online as planned, 2023 will have the most new utility-scale solar capacity added in a single year, more than doubling the current record (13.4 GW in 2021)." Battery capacity is expected to more than double in 2023, after growing rapidly over the past couple of years. Developers plan to add 9.4 GW of battery storage to the existing 8.8 GW of battery storage capacity, according to the EIA. "Battery storage systems are increasingly installed with wind and solar power projects," the EIA said. Since wind and solar are intermittent sources of generation which can only produce electricity when the wind is blowing or the sun is shining, batteries are being added to those projects since it can store excess electricity from wind and solar generators for later use. In 2023, the EIA expects 71% of the new battery storage capacity will be in California and Texas, which both have significant solar and wind capacity. Texas leads the US in wind capacity at more than 37.4 GW, while California leads the nation in solar capacity with over 16.7 GW, according to the American Clean Power Association's latest quarterly report.
Ohio is seen as a test state for solar farms. An increasing number of counties are banning them — WVXU - More than 40 Ohio townships banned wind or solar, or both, last year after a state law gave municipalities more control over project approval. Ohio led the nation in solar and wind farm rejections in 2022, according to an author and podcaster tracking such data.Robert Bryce says more than 40 Ohio townships banned either wind or solar, or both, in 2022. He says that's a direct result of Senate Bill 52, which gives local governments control. Butler County is one county banning them."Let's make it clear," says Bryce, "wind and solar poll very well. You look at any kind of public opinion polls, the public loves the idea of these. The problem is they just don't want to live near these projects."Late last year the Ohio Siting Board, which approves solar and wind farms, rejected Kingwood Solar's application to build a 175 megawatt solar farm in Green County.Also at the end of 2022, solar power opponents prevailed in Williamsport, Ohio, according to Inside Climate News.This month the Siting Board rejected a Defiance County solar project. And the list goes on."Ohio has become one of the hottest states, without a doubt, when it comes to these land-use conflicts over wind and solar," Bryce says.Cincinnati has the largest municipal solar project in the nation, but not everyone is happy about it as WVXU reported in 2021.Solar analyst with Wood Mackenzie Matthew Sahd says, "cheap land, land availability and corporations like Amazon and the Metas and the Microsofts of the world."“We predict that Ohio is going to be a region that will see very explosive solar growth, even in the midst of recent rejection," says Sahd.He forecasts 4.6 gigawatt of growth from 2022-2025 and 16 GW between 2022-2030. Sahd explains 1 megawatt provides power to 110 homes in Ohio, and that means over 1.7 million homes in Ohio could be powered by new solar by 2030.Sahd is seeing energy companies pivot because of solar farm opposition. "Whether it's downsizing their projects, creating ties much earlier in the process with the community or highlighting the tax values that are going to school districts, I've even seen things like scholarship funds or donations that have been added to the local community."
Meet the man fueling clean energy opposition in the Midwest - Last year, Heather Hodge heard about a proposed clean energy project in her rural Michigan community. Not too long after, things started to get ugly. Hodge found that some of her neighbors were fearful. At a local high school basketball game, someone told her the project could give her cancer. Shortly after that, Hodge saw a Facebook post from a local parent claiming it would dramatically reduce property values. Then, at the first public hearing in December, Hodge read that only five out of the 40 people that spoke about the solar farm were in support. And in addition to fears about property devaluation and cancer, multiple residents said they were worried that the solar farm would contaminate the water supply. One woman argued the panels would engulf birds in flames.Hodge’s neighbors still seemed to be getting even more fearful—and angry. So she attended the next public hearing on January 5.That hearing, she said, was even more heated than the first. The large crowd booed and heckled a local member of Sierra Club Michigan, Mike Buza, who spoke in support of the project. “I was terrified [to go up and speak],” Hodge said. But she managed to go up and express her support.Afterward, Hodge said three men angrily stared at her. “Each one was like, yeah, that's the traitor,” she said. Hodge also saw another man follow Buza out of the room, before accusing him of being a paid actor and saying God would punish him for what he had done. Following the meeting, Hodge reflected on the experience in confusion. Why did so many of her fellow community members believe this solar farm would cause cancer, contaminate their water, and destroy their property values? Why had so many people turned out to these meetings? And why was everyone so angry?Hungry for answers, Hodge went on Facebook, where she discovered multiple groups dedicated to opposing the project. After joining the groups, she found they were full of articles and claims made by the same person: Kevon Martis. Hodge didn’t know it at the time, but she had accidentally discovered the public face of one of the most influential anti-renewable efforts in the country.
Report forecasts clean-energy boost from turning cornfields into solar power fields —Wisconsin could produce 100 times more energy by using farmland for solar instead of growing corn for ethanol, according to a state environmental group’s report.About 1 million acres of Wisconsin farmland produces corn for ethanol fuel, but an environmental group says the land could produce 100 times as much energy if planted with solar farms instead.In addition, it would take less than one-third of the land currently used for ethanol corn to house enough solar generation to eliminate carbon-based energy in the state by 2050, according to Clean Wisconsin. The organization released a report Tuesday comparing the efficiency of using farmland to grow corn for ethanol with using it for solar power.“There is a concern that we’re going to take too much farmland out of production to put on solar panels,” said Paul Mathewson, Clean Wisconsin’s science program director, in the organization’s press announcement. “But we’re already using a lot of land to primarily harvest energy in the form of corn made into ethanol. This analysis demonstrates how, with solar, we can harvest more energy using far less land.”The report calculates not just the energy produced by corn compared with solar arrays on the same amount of land, but also the energy inputs involved: growing, harvesting and processing corn into ethanol, and manufacturing and installing solar panels. “When accounting for inputs, the net energy production of solar is over 100 times that of corn ethanol,” Mathewson said.Raising corn requires the use of pesticides and nitrogen fertilizer, Mathewson said, and nitrogen is a widespread groundwater contaminant. Working the land to raise corn can disrupt soil and lead to erosion, further threatening the health of water bodies and drinking water quality, he added.Ethanol advocates promote its byproducts as a source of animal feed. Mathewson said that even “assuming 100% of it is ultimately used for feed or ethanol—which it is not—solar is still 20 times more efficient” than using the equivalent acreage for ethanol.
Biden energy agenda exposes regulatory gap - Energy companies are racing to build new energy infrastructure that could have a major influence on emissions and the Biden administration’s agenda, but there’s a catch: Regulators can’t keep up. New liquefied natural gas export terminals and hydrogen projects — as well as thousands of miles of carbon dioxide pipelines — could be built before many federal regulations overseeing them are updated or put into place. Some rules are decades old and safety advocates say important questions about safety remain unanswered with these technologies. “We’re looking at completely outdated regulatory infrastructure,” said Tyson Slocum, director of Public Citizen’s energy program. “We are building out significant new types of infrastructure that were not envisioned with the regulation that we have.” For example, LNG, carbon dioxide pipelines and hydrogen are each generally covered by existing regulations administered by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), which is part of the Department of Transportation, but there are no rules specifically on hydrogen pipelines. Current regulations for LNG terminals, meanwhile, were written in 1980 at the end of the Carter administration and don’t account for hazardous chemicals now used for exporting gas. PHMSA also says its standards for CO2 pipelines need updating after a pipeline ruptured in Mississippi three years ago. But delaying new projects while the regulatory process catches up could hinder the Biden administration’s hopes for companies to deploy new technologies and create new jobs while reducing the effects of climate change. It could also cost companies billions and slow progress in cutting emissions. Advancing CO2 pipelines, hydrogen and LNG are a top priority of the Biden White House. According to officials at PHMSA — which is in charge of pipelines and gas transportation — so is regulating them properly. “This is something the White House and PHMSA are prioritizing,” an agency spokesperson said. “We are working across government and with stakeholders to move quickly on these critical issues.”
Consumers Energy submits plans to limit endangered bats that might be killed at wind farm — Michigan Radio - Consumers Energy has proposed a plan for its newest wind farm to limit the number of bats killed by spinning turbine blades. The Crescent Wind Project in Hillsdale County is 60 wind turbines. Consumers Energy plan includes a habitat conservation plan and a draft environmental assessment to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. . The plan outlines how Consumers plans reduce the number of endangered bats that could be killed and its plans for supporting habitat for bats at two sites.Consumers needs the plans approved in order to receive a permit for limited, unintentional bat killings by the spinning turbine blades.“They will have this incidental take permit and the action won’t be illegal. And then in return for that take, they’re doing some mitigation and also some avoidance techniques,” said Georgia Parham, spokesperson for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.The move to renewable energy is resulting in wind turbines and solar farms in rural areas.Over a 30 year period, Consumers would be permitted up to 145 deaths of two endangered bats — 96 Indiana bats and 49 northern long-eared bats. The company said it plans aim to minimize the number of deaths.“They’ll do that by adjusting the operation of their wind turbines to avoid times when bats are most commonly active,” said Parham.The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is taking public comments about the plan until February 27th. To see the plan and assessment and submit comments ,gohere and enter FWS-R3-ES-2022-0147.
Wanted (by Scientists): Dead Birds and Bats, Felled by Renewables —THIS IS ONE OF the least smelly carcasses,” said Todd Katzner, peering over his lab manager’s shoulder as she sliced a bit of flesh from a dead pigeon lying on a steel lab table. The specimens that arrive at this facility in Boise, Idaho, are often long dead, and the bodies smell, he said, like “nothing that you can easily describe, other than yuck.” A wildlife biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, a government agency dedicated to environmental science, Katzner watched as his lab manager rooted around for the pigeon’s liver and then placed a glossy maroon piece of it in a small plastic bag labeled with a biohazard symbol. The pigeon is a demonstration specimen, but samples, including flesh and liver, are ordinarily frozen, catalogued, and stored in freezers. The feathers get tucked in paper envelopes and organized in filing boxes; the rest of the carcass is discarded. When needed for research, the stored samples can be processed and sent to other labs that test for toxicants or conduct genetic analysis. Most of the bird carcasses that arrive at the Boise lab have been shipped from renewable energy facilities, where hundreds of thousands of winged creatures die each year in collisions with turbine blades and other equipment. Clean energy projects are essential for confronting climate change, said Mark Davis, a conservation biologist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. But he also emphasized the importance of mitigating their effects on wildlife. “I’m supportive of renewable energy developments. I’m also supportive of doing our best to conserve biodiversity,” Davis said. “And I think the two things can very much coexist.”To this end, Katzner, Davis, and other biologists are working with the renewable energy industry to create a nationwide repository of dead birds and bats killed at wind and solar facilities. The bodies hold clues about how the animals lived and died, and could help scientists and project operators understand how to reduce the environmental impact of clean energy installations, Davis said.The repository needs sustained funding and support from industry partners to supply the specimens. But the collection’s wider potential is vast, Davis added. He, Katzner, and other stakeholders hope the carcasses will offer a wide array of wildlife biologists access to the animal samples they need for their work, and perhaps even provide insights into future scientific questions that researchers haven’t thought yet to ask.
By 2050, Washington might need to buy energy from other states -- For years, Washington has exported some of the electricity it produced. The state sent more than 18 percent of its generated power out of state in 2021, but in the coming decades that will change – and maybe not for the reason you expect. If Washington reaches its goal of weaning itself from fossil fuels and continues its drive to replace gas-powered cars with electric vehicles, we will need to start importing electricity by 2050, according to calculations by the Washington Department of Commerce. Partly to blame is Gov. Jay Inslee’s mandate that by 2035, all new cars sold must be electric. A lot of extra power will be needed to keep those cars running. In fact, the state’s efforts to replace carbon-emitting fossil fuels translate to an increased demand for electricity, said Glenn Blackmon, manager of the Energy Policy Office for the Washington Department of Commerce “It’s replacing fossil fuels in every sector of our economy,” he said in an interview. Lawmakers are also concerned about future energy needs. “Are we planning for the amount of electricity needed to recharge these [electric] automobiles?” said Sen. Lisa Wellman, D-Mercer Island, at a Jan. 13 briefing before the Senate Environment & Energy Committee. In 2021, Washington generated almost 111 million megawatt-hours of electricity and imported slightly more than 5 million. The state used slightly more than 88 million megawatt-hours and exported just over 25 million. That translates to roughly 20 million megawatt-hours in net exports. Blackmon told the Senate energy committee that the state’s power needs will increase 97 percent by 2050, or almost 230 million megawatt-hours. Therefore Washington will have to import a huge amount of power, Blackmon said. “That’s a big thing to say we will begin importing power instead of exporting it,” said Sen. Shelly Short, R-Addy. The Commerce Department predicts that 36 percent of Washington’s clean energy in 2050 will likely come from wind turbines in Montana and Wyoming. Homegrown clean energy comes mostly from a mix of hydroelectric and wind power, but also from other sources, like solar, wave energy, and biofuels such as technology that turn farm waste into biogas.
Minn. power co-op wants flexibility for peaker plant - Minnesota’s largest electricity cooperative wants the option to burn diesel fuel oil at a central Minnesota peaker plant as a hedge against volatile natural gas prices. Great River Energy is seeking approval from Minnesota regulators to install fuel oil equipment at its 170-megawatt Cambridge peaker plant, which now burns only natural gas. The generation and transmission co-op supplies power to 28 member cooperatives in the Upper Midwest. Several environmental groups are opposing the plan, which would increase air pollution in an area that includes several homes, a planned regional medical center, and an elementary school serving students in special education. “We understand [Great River Energy’s] concerns with resilience and reliability, but we’re concerned that taking this step backward towards fuel oil is not going in the right direction,” said Sarah Mooradian, government relations and policy director for CURE (Clean Up the River Environment). Peaker plants generally run just a few hours at a time on days when high demand is stressing the electric grid and larger power plants are already operating at full capacity. They’re typically less efficient and more expensive to operate, but they can be fired up quickly and provide an important cushion for the grid. Minnesota has around two dozen peaker plants, with many using fuel oil as the only energy source and others combining natural gas and fuel oil. Great River Energy initially asked the Public Utilities Commission last year to approve the fuel oil technology as a “minor alteration” to the Cambridge plant. However, a citizen’s petition organized by environmental organizations led regulators last June to require an environmental assessment. The project had already received state permits from the Department of Natural Resources and Pollution Control Agency, though the DNR has since rescinded its water permit pending the environmental review, which is expected to be made public this year. The co-op argues that adding the fuel oil option would allow it to better manage the volatility of natural gas prices and protect ratepayers against escalating energy costs. The company’s three other large peaker plants already run on a mix of fuel oil and natural gas.
Suspects planned to attack Baltimore power grid, authorities say Federal authorities arrested two individuals for conspiring to attack Baltimore power grids, officials said in a press conference on Monday. Officials said that Brandon Russell and Sarah Clendaniel “took steps” to shoot at numerous Baltimore electrical substations, aiming to “completely destroy this whole city.” Officials said that the two of them were taken into custody last week before they could carry out their plans. “The accused were not just talking but taking steps to fulfill their threats and further their extremist goals. Russell provided instructions and location information. He described attacking the power transformers as the greatest thing somebody can do. In her own words, Clendaniel said she was determined to do this,” the FBI special agent in charge said at the press conference. Russell was conspiring to plan out the attacks on the power grid from June 2022 to the present, and encouraged the attack to be done “’when there is greatest strain on the grid,’ like ‘when everyone is using electricity to either heat or cool their homes,’” according to a Department of Justice press release. The release said that Clendaniel was collaborating with him, and discussed her desire to use a specific rifle to shoot at the electrical substations, saying in conversations that “[i]t would probably permanently completely lay this city to waste if we could do that successfully.” Assistant Attorney General for National Security Matthew Olsen said in the press release that the plan to execute these attacks was “racially motivated.” “Driven by their ideology of racially-motivated hatred, the defendants allegedly schemed to attack local power grid facilities,” Olsen said in the press release. “The Justice Department will not tolerate those who threaten critical infrastructure and imperil communities in the name of domestic violent extremism.” Russell and Clendaniel met while incarcerated, and Russell was released from prison in 2021,according to The Washington Post. Their arrests come months after an individual shot at two electrical substations in Charlotte, N.C., causing roughly 40,000 people in the area to lose power. The FBI is also investigating that attack.
U.S. judge orders waste rock study for Thacker Pass lithium project - (Reuters) - A U.S. judge ordered regulators to reconsider part of the permit approving Lithium Americas Corp's (LAC.TO) Thacker Pass lithium mine project in Nevada, though the mixed ruling allows construction to begin and rejects claims that the project would cause unnecessary harm to the environment or wildlife. The proposed mine would be North America's largest source of lithium for electric vehicle batteries and a key pillar in U.S. President Joe Biden's efforts to wean his country off Chinese supplies of the metal. General Motors signed a $650 million deal last week to help develop the project, an agreement that hinges in part on a positive outcome in the long-running court case. GM declined to comment on the ruling. Chief Judge Miranda Du of the federal court in Reno, Nevada, ordered the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to determine whether Lithium Americas has the right to dump waste rock at the site, just south of Nevada's border with Oregon. Du, however, did not vacate a 2021 decision by then-President Donald Trump to approve the mine. The ruling can be appealed, and environmentalists said they were considering next steps.
Coal Ash Along the Shores of the Great Lakes Threatens Water Quality as Residents Rally for Change - Just four miles up the shore from the public beach in Waukegan, Illinois, sits the Waukegan Generating Station, a formerly coal-powered electricity plant. According to Dulce Ortiz, a Waukegan resident, the coal ash—a byproduct of coal power generation—left behind by the plant is a “ticking bomb” that threatens not only her community’s water supply, but all of Lake Michigan, as well. Ortiz, a founder of the environmental justice nonprofit Clean Power Lake County, has worked for a decade to ensure that the coal ash waste at Waukegan Generating Station gets cleaned up. In June 2022, they completed the first task: closure of the plant’s last two coal-burning units. But coal ash still fills underground impoundments and ponds at the site, where residents are worried that toxic metals like arsenic, lead and mercury, linked to certain cancers and neurological problems, could be leaching into groundwater. According to a 2019 ruling by the Illinois Pollution Control Board, coal ash-derived boron and sulfate exceeding the board’s regulations have been detected in Waukegan’s groundwater. Because of the pollution, Ortiz doesn’t let her children swim in nearby Lake Michigan. The Waukegan Generating Station sites are just one example of the 111 coal ash waste sites within two miles of Great Lakes shores—many of which threaten the health of the environment and nearby communities. While coal ash waste sites are scattered around the country, those nearest to Great Lakes shores are of special concern, as more than 30 million people rely on the lakes for clean drinking water. According to estimates by Earthjustice, an environmental advocacy group, many of the coal ash sites are in violation of a federal rule regulating coal ash pollution, but little has been done by the Environmental Protection Agency to enforce the rule. Earthjustice estimates that there are more than 57 million cubic yards of toxic coal ash waste at plants near the Great Lakes, enough to fill more than 17,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools. “We’ve had a lot of industries that polluted our land, made their profits, and just left us with some huge messes that we as taxpayers have had to clean up,” said Ortiz. “They have not been held accountable.”
DTE must stop toxic coal ash disposal at two Michigan plants — MLive - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will deny DTE’s application to continue dumping coal ash into unlined impoundments at the Monroe plant along the River Raisin and the Belle River power plant in China Township. DTE Energy will dispute the decision.
Chances of coal being phased out? Just 1 in 20 by 2050 - Coal power plants are a major contributor to climate disruption — but current policies give just a 1 in 20 chance of phasing them out by 2050. According to a study published on Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change, growing calls for an end to the use of coal — and even widespread global agreements to stop burning the fuel for electricity — won’t be enough to keep the world from burning coal through midcentury. Instead, doing so will require more hands-on regulation and policies, the scientists found. They noted that such policies might have to include global bans on mining the fuel. Their study showed why exiting coal — an agreed-upon international community goal since the 2021 U.N. climate change conference — is such a heavy lift. “It’s a make-or-break moment,” said Stephen Bi from the Institute for Climate Impact Research at Potsdam University, lead author of the study to be published in Nature Climate Change, in a statement accompanying the release. Missing the midcentury deadline to cut out coal would also leave only a small chance of reaching net-zero emission by 2050 and of “limiting disastrous climate risks,” Bi added. Coal is the battlefront in the global campaign to push the energy system away from fossil fuels. The participants of the U.N. climate change conferences in both 2021 and 2022 agreed to ”phase down” the “unabated” use of the fossil fuel. This language, however, left open two substantial loopholes. First, it allows the possibility that coal power plants are somehow “abated” — perhaps using currently-unproven technologies to capture and store the carbon dioxide emitted when coal is burned. Second, in a subtle but highly significant distinction, the signatories avoided language that would have committed countries to “phase out” coal — committing instead only to reduce its use along an unspecified timeline.
China, UN eye Japan's radioactive water dump - Both China and the United Nations have voiced serious concerns over Japan's plan to dump radioactive wastewater into the Pacific Ocean, amid widespread opposition, criticism and concerns from around the world. Analysts said Japan should not shirk from its international obligations or gloss over the issue when dealing with the contaminated water discharge from Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which was severely damaged during a major earthquake in 2011. In a phone conversation with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi on Thursday, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang said Japan is obliged to deal with the discharge issue by adopting "an open, transparent, scientific and safe approach". Despite protests from scientists, fishery workers, coastal residents and Japan's neighbors, Tokyo announced last month that it would start dumping over a million tons of the radioactive water into the sea "during this spring or summer". Beijing and the international community "hold serious concerns" against Japan's unilateral decision to discharge radioactive wastewater into the sea, Qin said. Japan's discharge plan was also mentioned in a meeting between Qin and visiting President of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly Csaba Korosi on Thursday in Beijing. As the two sides were exchanging views on international issues of common concern, they said they believe that "a responsible attitude should be held" to preserve the only planet that all of humanity cannot live without, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
Japan offers to meet high level Pacific delegation next month over plans to dump treated radioactive nuclear waste water into the Pacific Ocean - A month away from the expected discharge of treated radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean, Japan has offered to meet a high-level delegation from the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) in its attempt to assure that the process is safe for the environment and health of peoples of the Pacific. “I’m pleased to report that the Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has agreed to meet a high-level delegation from the Forum as early as the 07 of February in Japan.” “That for me is an indication that Japan is also, even at this stage, wiling to engage meaningfully with us here in the Pacific,” revealed Henry Puna, the Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum. The offer to meet with Pacific Leaders comes as the PIF Panel of Expert reveals its finding of ‘inadequate, incomplete, inconsistent and biased data’ by the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TELCO), owners of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant. The Panel of Experts is recommending a stop to the release date until Pacific Leaders are provided with verifiable scientific evidence to guide their decision. One of the Experts, Dr Ferenc Dalnoki-Veress revealed that after analysing 4.3 years of data from the TEPCO, the team cannot fully determine what is in the treated water. “We don’t really know what is in the water. There were serious problems with the data both in form and in quality,” Dr Dalnoki-Veress told a public seminar on their findings from data collected from TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi power plant. “The Panel found that some of TEPCO’s samples had been inadequate, incomplete, and at times inconsistent and even biased. “Incomplete meaning that relevant data are missing from the sample – or important information were not included in the analysis. Inadequate refers to the large gaps indicating that not enough information is collected to provide a thorough analysis, inconsistent refers to data discrepancies. He said missing relevant data sample from TEPCO made it difficult for the Experts to measure what’s in the tanks. Secretary General Puna assured the Panel of Experts that TEPCO will meet with them to respond to concerns raised in their findings. “I’ve also indicated to Japan the meeting with our Panel of Experts will not take place unless all the information that has been requested by our Panel of Experts to TEPCO are provided, otherwise the meeting will be meaningless,” said Puna. Japan’s Nuclear Regulatory Agency was given the greenlight to dump contaminated water stored at the Fukushima nuclear power plant following the March 2011 disaster. The agency said the discharge of the water, which has already undergone a decontamination process, does not represent a risk for the marine ecosystem and people’s health, despite the residual presence of tritium isotopes. The water, treated in the Advanced Liquefied Processing System (ALPS), removes almost all the radioactive substances and stores them in thousand tanks that have now reached their maximum capacity.
Brazil sinks rusting old aircraft carrier in the Atlantic - Brazil sank a decommissioned aircraft carrier in the Atlantic Ocean off its northeast coast, the Brazilian Navy said, despite warnings from environmentalists that the rusting 1960s French-built ship would pollute the sea and the marine food chain.The 32,000-tonne carrier had been floating offshore for three months since Turkey refused it entry to be scrapped there because it was an environmental hazard and the ship was towed back to Brazil. The carrier was scuttled in a "planned and controlled sinking" late on Friday, the Navy said in a statement, that would "avoid logistical, operational, environmental and economic losses to the Brazilian state," it said. The hull of the Sao Paulo was sunk in Brazilian jurisdictional waters 350 kilometers (217 miles) off the coast where the sea is 5,000 meters deep, a location chosen to mitigate the impact on fishing and ecosystems, the Navy said. "The sinking of the aircraft carrier Sao Paulo throws tons of asbestos, mercury, lead and other highly toxic substances into the seabed," Greenpeace said in a statement. It accused Brazil's Navy of neglecting the protection of the oceans. The Clemenceau-class aircraft carrier served the French Navy for four decades as the Foch, capable of carrying 40 war planes. Defense expert and former foreign policy congressional staffer Pepe Rezende said the carrier was bought by the Brazilian Navy for just $12 million in 1998 but needed an $80 million refit that was never done. After the carrier was decommissioned, Turkish marine recycling company Sök Denizcilik Tic Sti bought the hull for $10.5 million, but had to tow it back across the Atlantic when Turkey barred entry to its shipyard. Brazil's Navy said it asked the company to repair the carrier at a Brazilian shipyard, but after an inspection showed it to be taking on water and was at risk of sinking, the Navy banned the ship from entering Brazilian ports. It then decided to sink the Sao Paulo at high sea. Greenpeace said the sinking violated the Basel Convention, the London Convention on the prevention of marine pollution, and the Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants. "The Brazilian Navy chose to harm the environment and lose millions of dollars rather than allow public inspection of the ship," Greenpeace said, calling the sinking the "biggest breach of chemical and waste agreements ever committed by a country."
Texts show close consultation between Householder and FirstEnergy execs on utility bailout — Ohio Capital Journal — A series of text messages displayed in federal court last Thursday showed close consultation between executives of an electric utility and a lawmaker after the utility made huge contributions to make him Ohio House speaker. The consultations occurred as the lawmaker and the utility worked furiously to pass a huge bailout favoring the company.The evidence could be key because prosecutors have to show that the lawmaker, Larry Householder, took the contributions in exchange for ramrodding the bailout, which mostly benefited Akron-based FirstEnergy.The text messages also show that Householder and FirstEnergy officials at least expected help from Gov. Mike DeWine in passing the legislation, House Bill 6, through the Ohio Senate. DeWine has denied any wrongdoing in the case, but he signed the bill into law on the same day in 2019 that it passed out of the legislature.HB 6 was titled the “Ohio Clean Air Act,” but federal prosecutors have said it was likely the biggest bribery and money laundering scandal in Ohio history. They allege that $61 million in utility money was plowed into an effort to make Householder, a Republican from Glenford, speaker in exchange for a $1.3 billion bailout that mostly benefited FirstEnergy’s failing nuclear and coal plants.FirstEnergy has fired its top executives and it admitted to much of its conduct in a deferred prosecution agreement. In addition, two of Householder’s co-defendants have pleaded guilty and a third died by suicide.But Householder and another defendant, former Ohio Republican Party Chairman Matt Borges, are fighting the racketeering charges. Householder’s lawyers are arguing that there was nothing untoward about the FirstEnergy contributions and that he wanted to save the generating plants because that meant saving Ohio jobs and funding for public schools.But the evidence introduced Thursday showed meticulous coordination to pass the massive bailout bill in the days after Householder took up the speaker’s gavel.
After HB6, Householder and FirstEnergy planned to rerun the playbook - cleveland.com– After FirstEnergy Corp. spent $94 million on politics, got its preferred candidates elected, and stood poised to reap more than $1 billion from its legislative priority just signed into law, company executives faced a question. What next?
Why attention to detail matters in the HB 6 trial --Last week, prosecutors used hundreds of exhibits in the criminal case against former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and lobbyist and former Ohio Republican Party leader Matthew Borges to show the movement of money and communications among dozens of people relating to the state’s largest corruption case ever. The prosecution also showed political ads claiming that various opponents of “Team Householder” candidates were bending to the whim of special interests — without disclosing that special interests paid for the ads themselves. Along with the dark money organization Generation Now and three other individuals, Householder and Borges were indicted in July 2020 for an alleged racketeering conspiracy involving $60 million funneled through multiple groups in order to pass and preserve a billion-dollar bailout for nuclear power plants previously owned by a FirstEnergy affiliate. Other provisions in House Bill 6 allowed for guaranteed revenues for utilities, gutted Ohio’s clean energy standards, and subsidized two 1950s-era coal plants. The nuclear bailout and guaranteed revenues were nixed nearly a year after the arrests, but Ohioans continue to pay for the two old coal plants and have been left with the nation’s weakest clean energy program. Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Glatfelter’s opening argument painted a picture of co-conspirators using dark money groups to launder roughly $60 million in bribes to pass and protect Ohio’s nuclear bailout law. Householder, she argued, “sold the statehouse” at Ohioans’ expense. The most detailed testimony so far came from FBI agent Blaine Wetzel, who testified for multiple days about evidence obtained through roughly 250 subpoenas. Responding to questions from Glatfelter, he used documents to show the flow of money from FirstEnergy and its affiliates to Partners for Progress, One Ohio United, or other entities, which then made its way directly or through other pass-through entities to Generation Now, Hardworking Ohioans, Hardworking Americans and other groups. From there, the money went out to other entities, primarily for the purpose of supporting “Team Householder” candidates who were most likely to vote to make him speaker and to go along with HB 6. After HB 6 passed, more funding made its way to dark money groups to thwart the voter referendum. Interspersed with the financial documents, Wetzel testified about materials showing communications relating to the alleged scheme. Timing suggested a cause-and-effect relationship between those communications and the transfers of money. The emails and texts also gave Wetzel an opportunity to explain who individuals were in the grand scheme of things. The materials shed light on the relationship between Householder and others, including Longstreth, former FirstEnergy CEO Chuck Jones, former FirstEnergy Vice President Michael Dowling, and more. Communications between Jones and Dowling also reflected their conversations or texts with Householder and others.
Householder trial: New evidence shows depth of long-suspected scheme | Eye on Ohio - Ohio’s largest corruption case continues in federal court in Cincinnati, where former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and lobbyist and former Ohio Republican Party leader Matthew Borges are on trial. The alleged conspiracy deals with the dark money saga surrounding House Bill 6, Ohio’s nuclear and coal bailout law.“The most astonishing aspect of this so far for Ohio Citizen Action has been the brazenness of the corruption and the overall disdain that Ohio elected officials had for voters and ratepayers,” said the group’s political director, Kyle Marcum.Yet, “for anyone that was working really closely on HB 6, it’s been clear how much money was going into it,” said Neil Waggoner, federal deputy director of energy campaigns for the Sierra Club. In many ways, the trial confirms there was a lot of coordination between Householder’s office and FirstEnergy, he said.“There’s no way this money was coming out of the blue. It was very clearly coming from FirstEnergy,” Waggoner said. Here’s a rundown so far on what was known and what’s been learned since the trial began in January.
- Labor unions gave $840,000 to Generation Now. And they got $1.4 million back for ads to thwart a drive to give voters a chance to reject HB 6. The evidence: A Jan. 30 filing indicates Generation Now gave $1.4 million to the Ohio AFL-CIO to pay for ads during the campaign to block a voter referendum on HB 6.
- Moves to block a voter referendum on House Bill 6 sought help from the Ohio Attorney General and Ohio Secretary of State. The evidence: Trial exhibits suggest Borges and Householder wanted Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost to block the referendum. Phone records indicate Yost had phone conversations with both Householder and Borges. Text messages also reveal maneuvering.
- The DeWine administration helped behind the scenes. The evidence: Texts by FirstEnergy executives show they were in touch with Gov. Mike DeWine’s office. Texts also indicate that Lt. Gov. Jon Husted was trying to get the Ohio Senate to extend the time period for subsidizing the nuclear plants. DeWine and Husted dined with former FirstEnergy executives in December 2018, and trial exhibits suggest there were additional meetings as well.DeWine signed HB 6 into law on July 23, 2019, within hours of the final vote in the House. Householder also made plans for a state-owned plane to fly lawmakers back to Columbus for the vote, if necessary. A text by former FirstEnergy Vice President Mike Dowling implies approval came from Laurel Dawson, who was then DeWine’s chief of staff.
- Financial motives drove FirstEnergy’s subsidy-seeking, despite the company’s claims about customers’ interests. The evidence: FirstEnergy Solutions “was just bleeding cash” before the HB 6 bailouts, company treasurer Steven Staub testified last month. The company invested heavily in coal-fired power plants as the natural gas fracking boom took off, and its nuclear plants were even more expensive. HB 6 also paved the way for the company to attract investors when it decided to exit the power generation business.
FirstEnergy exec tried to keep DeWine aide’s name off $10M transaction — In October 2019, as a battle raged over an attempt to repeal a $1.3 billion utility bailout, a FirstEnergy executive worked to keep the name of a senior aide to Gov. Mike DeWine off of a $10 million infusion of corporate cash into the fight. The executive, Vice President Michael Dowling, did so even after an assistant told him it would violate IRS rules to not list the DeWine aide on the transaction, according to text messages presented Tuesday in the federal corruption trial of former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and lobbyist Matthew Borges. The men are accused of racketeering in a scheme to use $61 million from FirstEnergy in exchange for the massive bailout, most of which went to prop up the company’s failing nuclear and coal plants in order to make them attractive to buyers.DeWine has denied involvement in the arrangement even though he met with FirstEnergy executives and visited one of its nuclear plants in 2018 as he was seeking the governorship and FirstEnergy was lavishly funding Householder’s effort to elect sympathetic Republicans who would then vote to make him speaker. For his part, DeWine received $23,000 from the Akron-based utility for his campaign and his inaugural celebration, according to Ohio Citizen Action. He vowed to donate the money to charity following revelations of the scandal.The governor appointed as chairman of the Public Utility Commission of Ohio a former FirstEnergy consultant who was paid $4.3 million by the utility just before taking his seat on the commission. Even though he was supposed to be regulating the utility, the official, Sam Randazzo, played a role in writing the bailout legislation, according to documents released by the Ohio House. In early 2019, DeWine also appointed FirstEnergy lobbyist Dan McCarthy to be his legislative affairs director, meaning McCarthy was in charge of representing DeWine’s interests before the General Assembly.In early 2017, while McCarthy was still working for FirstEnergy, Householder and his son, along with FirstEnergy CEO Chuck Jones and others, flew corporate jets to Washington, D.C. for fancy dinners and Donald Trump’s inaugural. Just after that, McCarthy formed a 501(c)(4) group called Partners for Progress. Also known as a “dark money” group, it received $5 million from FirstEnergy within a few weeks of when McCarthy founded it.
Two groundwater monitoring wells stopped working at Beckjord site, but Clermont County never knew —— Two wells that monitor groundwater for contamination at the former Beckjord coal plant were either missing or damaged for several months in 2022. But Clermont County officials never knew about it.“If you lose some of those wells, then you lose some of the information it’s gathering,” said attorney Scott Doran, who represents the county on environmental issues. “The county is very concerned.”Beckjord owner Commercial Liability Partners sent a letter to the Ohio EPA last September, notifying the agency that one groundwater monitoring well near the Ohio River had washed away during a summer flood, along with the riverbank.A second monitoring well and a piezometer, which measures water depth, also were severely damaged by unauthorized logging equipment.County officials say they did not know about this letter, or the missing and damaged wells, until WCPO contacted them last week. And they did not know if the wells had been replaced.“The county should have been the first told about this by CLP, second by the Ohio EPA for sure,” said environmental attorney Dave Altman. “The Ohio EPA apparently knows about this … and didn’t tell anybody.”A bigger concern to both Doran and Altman, is that flooding caused so much damage to the Beckjord site.That’s because six million cubic yards of leftover coal fly ash are stored in manmade ponds along the Ohio River, which is a drinking water source for more than 5 million people.These unlined ash ponds are in the river’s floodplain and directly upstream from Clermont County’s primary drinking water wellfields, which serve 130,000 people.“If this can happen to a well, how in the world are we going to keep fly ash from getting into the environment, into the river and into the groundwater,” Altman said. “It’s a piece of evidence that the river gets so high and carves so deeply, that it can actually rip out and destroy a monitoring system that has been there for years.”Coal fly ash is a by-product of burning coal, which contains contaminants such as mercury and arsenic, the U.S. EPA states on its website.
TC Energy halts gas flow on Ohio pipeline after train derailment - (Reuters) - TC Energy Corp discontinued gas delivery on its Line 1982, an underground part of Columbia Gas Transmission, in and around East Palestine, Ohio, after a train derailed near the pipeline last week, the company said on Tuesday. TC Energy's Columbia Gas Transmission on Monday declared a force majeure event on Line 1982 near East Palestine, citing an immediate pressure reduction with a total impact to physical flow of 170 Dekatherms per day. A train operated by Norfolk Southern Railroad derailed in a fiery wreck last week near the border of Ohio and Pennsylvania, leaving nearly 2,000 residents of eastern Ohio under evacuation orders as of Monday. The force majeure was declared to "maintain the safety and reliability of the system due to a third-party train derailment near Line 1982," the company said in a statement. TC Energy isolated and purged a segment of the 4-inch Line 1982 as a precaution due to an explosion risk from one of the tank cars of vinyl chloride, a source familiar with operations told Reuters. "This segment has not experienced any damage and remains isolated," the source added. The Columbia Gas Transmission system connects major natural gas basins with major markets in the U.S. Midwest and on the East Coast, according to its website.
Hilcorp Seeks New Well Permits in Columbiana County - – Houston-based Hilcorp Energy Co. is seeking permits to drill new horizontal oil and gas wells in Columbiana County, the most productive region of the northern Utica/Point Pleasant shale formation. According to data from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Hilcorp has placed requests for permits to drill nine new wells at the Fairfield Unkefer pad in Fairfield Township. The permits had not been awarded as of Feb. 8, records show. The permit requests were filed Jan. 27.
Ohio Board Stops County Appeal Of Pipeline Value Settlement - Law360- An Ohio county auditor cannot appeal a settlement agreement between the state tax agency and an energy company over the value of a gas pipeline transmission system, the state Board said.
TC Energy lifts force majeure on gas line near Ohio train derailment -(Reuters) -TC Energy Corp's TRP.TO Columbia Gas Transmission on Friday lifted a force majeure on Line 1982 after halting gas delivery on Feb. 7 following a train derailment near the pipeline last week.The company declared a force majeure event near East Palestine, Ohio, citing immediate pressure reduction with a total impact to physical flow of 170 dekatherms per day.TC Energy isolated and purged a segment of the 4-inch Line 1982 as a precaution against the risk of explosion in one of the tank cars containing vinyl chloride, a source familiar with operations told Reuters. The Columbia Gas Transmission system connects large natural gas basins with major markets in the U.S. Midwest and on the East Coast, its website says.
Ohio train derailment underscores the dangers of the plastics boom -Last week a train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, sending 50 cars carrying toxic chemicals careening off their tracks. The resulting fire burned for days, forcing hundreds of evacuations and blanketing the small village on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border in smoke. Runoff from the site contaminated two streams nearby. Over the next week, as officials worked to avoid a deadly explosion that could launch “deadly shrapnel as far as a mile,” they slowly released vinyl chloride, a colorless gas linked to various cancers, from five of the railcars that were transporting it to its destination.The blaze is now under control, and residents were allowed to return to their homes late Wednesday, five days after the train derailed. Local authorities say the air and water are safe. The Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, has been conducting air monitoring in the area. On Wednesday, the agency reported that its monitors detected volatile organic compounds, a class of toxic chemicals, but that their levels were below thresholds that trigger public health concerns. It also reported detecting particulate matter, the fine soot that makes up smoke and causes respiratory issues, above public health thresholds. The disaster is a reminder of the health and safety risks that accompany reliance on fossil fuels. Vinyl chloride, the chemical released from the railcars, is a petrochemical produced from the hydrocarbon ethylene. Its primary use is in making polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, a type of plastic that is widely used to make pipes, flooring, wire insulation, and a slew of single-use medical devices. Over the last decade, with the rise of fracking and the subsequent boom in U.S. oil and gas production, fossil fuel companies have turned to plastic production as a way to capitalize on cheap (until recently) oil and gas. Researchers at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development projected that global plastics production would roughly quadruple from 407 million tonnes a year to 1,600 million tonnes in 2050.The consequences of the growth are felt most acutely by communities on the front lines of fossil fuel production and refining — such as the Gulf Coast, which has seen a massive buildout of petrochemical facilities — and in towns like East Palestine that reside along pipeline and railroad routes. Plastics are “so pervasive in our economy,” said Judith Enck, a former EPA regional administrator and current president of the environmental group Beyond Plastics. “Wherever a range of plastic products are being made, you will often have to transport vinyl chloride to the facility, and it’s not without its risks, as we’ve seen this past week.” More than 250 trains have derailed in the last decade, according to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, a branch of the federal Department of Transportation. Of them, roughly half involved hazardous waste. Trains that carry hazardous waste face additional federal regulations, but the Norfolk Southern train that derailed in East Palestine was not considered a “high-hazard flammable train,” federal officials told The Lever, an investigative news outlet. Despite the combustibility of vinyl chloride, industry lobbyists have successfully limited many trains carrying the chemical from the most stringent federal regulations.
26 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Jan 30-Feb 5 | Marcellus Drilling News - New shale permits issued for Jan. 30 through Feb. 5 in the Marcellus/Utica were about half the number of the week before, but the week before was a recent record high. There were 26 new permits issued in total last week, including five new permits for Pennsylvania, six new permits for Ohio, and 15 permits issued in West Virginia. Which is a turnaround from previous months. Lately, WV has puttered along with just a few (if any) each week. Last week WV issued eight new permits to Antero Resources and seven new permits to Tug Hill Operating. Antero Resources, Ascent Resources, Belmont County, Bradford County, Doddridge County, Gulfport Energy, Marshall County, Olympus/Huntley & Huntley, Repsol, Tug Hill Operating,Westmoreland County
26 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Jan 30-Feb 5 | Marcellus Drilling News - New shale permits issued for Jan. 30 through Feb. 5 in the Marcellus/Utica were about half the number of the week before, but the week before was a recent record high. There were 26 new permits issued in total last week, including five new permits for Pennsylvania, six new permits for Ohio, and 15 permits issued in West Virginia. Which is a turnaround from previous months. Lately, WV has puttered along with just a few (if any) each week. Last week WV issued eight new permits to Antero Resources and seven new permits to Tug Hill Operating. Antero Resources, Ascent Resources, Belmont County, Bradford County, Doddridge County, Gulfport Energy, Marshall County, Olympus/Huntley & Huntley, Repsol, Tug Hill Operating,Westmoreland County
Orphan Well Cleanup in Pennsylvania Underscores Enormity of Task -Interior Secretary Deb Haaland visited the Pittsburgh area Thursday to announce the plugging of the first 10 abandoned oil and gas wells in the area paid for with funds from the 2021 infrastructure law.But with 27,000 known abandoned oil wells to plug across Pennsylvania and possibly hundreds of thousands more left to discover, the announcement underscored the daunting task ahead for Congress and the federal and state agencies in charge of finding and capping oil and gas wells.Haaland, standing in front of a derelict oil well in Ed and Mary Vojtas’ front yard in Ohio Township, Pa., said the well is leaking gas and will be one of the state’s first to be plugged with federal infrastructure money.“These wells emit methane, they litter the landscape with rusted dangerous equipment posing safety hazards and threats to wildlife,” Haaland said. “Many of these wells have been left behind in backyards.” Pennsylvania, the birthplace of America’s oil industry, has more documented orphaned wells than any other state. Its effort to plug the state’s orphaned wells using federal infrastructure funding starts soon, with 10 wells in the Pittsburgh area, Richard Negrin, acting director of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, said, speaking alongside Haaland.Until now, Pennsylvania was able to plug “only a handful” of abandoned wells annually, but federal funding will allow the state to plug 235 wells in 2023, Negrin said.The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (Pubic Law 117-58) earmarked $4.7 billion for cleaning up derelict oil and gas wells left behind by drillers decades ago before states regulated them.The money will only just begin the decadeslong process of finding and plugging all the nation’s abandoned and orphaned oil and gas wells. There are roughly 131,000 documented orphaned and abandoned oil and gas wells nationwide, with the Interior Department estimating an overall total of about 3.5 million. The infrastructure money for orphaned wells is being distributed to the states by the Interior Department, but it’s up to the states to take the lead on cleaning up the wells to “get the best bang for the buck,” Haaland said.
CNX Announces Proved Reserves of 9.81 Tcfe - CNX Resources Corporation announced today its year-end reserves update as of December 31, 2022.
- Increased proved developed reserves by 5%, or 315 Bcfe, to 6,221 Bcfe
- During 2022, initiated production on 32 wells with estimated ultimate recovery (EURs) averaging 2.65 Bcfe per thousand feet of completed lateral
- Proved developed finding and development costs of $0.36 per Mcfe in 2022
- Increased total proved reserves by 181 Bcfe to 9,807 Bcfe
- Proved undeveloped location EURs estimated to average 2.69 Bcfe per thousand feet of completed lateral
- Future finding and development costs for proved undeveloped reserves of $0.42 per Mcfe
- Total proved, probable and possible reserves (3P reserves) of 11,687 Bcfe from the five-year development plan activity
- 110 Tcfe of recoverable resources beyond the five-year development plan that are economic at strip pricing as of12/30/2022
Tennessee Gas Pipeline gets draft EIS for Cumberland powerplant spur - Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co., a subsidiary of Kinder Morgan Inc., has received a draft environmental impact statement (EIS) from the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for its 245-MMcfd Cumberland project. The 32-mile pipeline would run through Dickson, Houston, and Stewart Counties, Tenn., supplying the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) 1,450-Mw Cumberland natural gas combined-cycle powerplant, currently under development. FERC concluded that—with implementation of Tennessee’s proposed impact avoidance, minimization, and mitigation measures, as well as adherence to Commission staff’s recommendations—project effects would be reduced to less than significant levels, except for climate change impacts that were not characterized in the EIS as significant or insignificant. The draft EIS comment period closes Mar. 27, 2023. TVA earlier this year decided to retire its Cumberland fossil plant and build the combined-cycle plant by 2026. The two-unit Cumberland fossil plant will retire in two stages, one unit by end-2026 and the second by end-2028. TVA says that construction of the combined-cycle natural gas plant—for replacement of one of the retiring Cumberland units—will reduce carbon emissions by as much as 60%.
Weaker Natural Gas, Oil Prices Could Spur Production Cuts - Strong and steady U.S. oil and natural gas production has in 2023 outpaced demand and weighed down prices. Analysts are increasingly joining a chorus of calls for a pullback on output – or even sharper price pressure moving into the spring. West Texas Intermediate crude traded around $75/bbl early this week, far from the highs above $120 last year. New York Mercantile Exchange gas futures recently hovered around $2.500/MMBtu, down from the $6 level late in 2022 and the nearly $10 highs of last summer.The price strength in 2022 spurred production increases, but demand has since tapered substantially. Crude consumption declined in recent months amid weakening economic activity in the United States as well as Europe and parts of Asia. Natural gas demand eased dramatically in January, largely because of seasonally mild weather. Forecasts point to only an average February in terms of heating needs.“Global oil prices have been in a turbulent downtrend since the middle of 2022,” said Bank of America (BofA) strategist Francisco Blanch. “Furthermore, warmer weather has limited heating demand for oil and caused global gas prices to collapse, which may facilitate an unwind of some gas-to-oil switching from 2022. These factors have contributed to oil price weakness.”Demand for U.S. exports of gas also has leveled off – albeit at solid levels — amid benign weather in Europe and following an aggressive push to fill up storage on the continent last year. The Freeport LNG facility in Texas, sidelined because of a fire last June, also has curbed demand for gas. The facility expects to relaunch in coming weeks.The late summer and early fall of 2022 was “a very precarious time” as the European Union (EU), “raced to fill storage to comfortable levels for the winter,” Rystad Energy analyst Ade Allen said. “That phenomenon has since tempered, and fewer cargoes have been heading to Europe in the past few months since EU storage reached 94% capacity in mid-November.”Both Rystad and BofA analysts have cautioned that oil and gas producers could this year respond to loweOn the crude front, the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) latest Weekly Petroleum Status Report showed production for the period ended Jan. 27 at 12.2 million b/d – even with the average for the past month. That also matched the high mark reported by EIA since the onset of coronavirus outbreaks in the spring of 2020.The latest print also topped the year-earlier level of 11.5 million b/d, though production continued to trail the pre-pandemic record of 13.1 million b/d set in early 2020.Globally, OPEC-plus in November launched a program to cut production by up to 2.0 million b/d. It has since signaled it plans to continue generating lighter output.In OPEC’s January oil market r eport, researchers forecast global crude demand would expand by 2.2 million b/d this year. But they also emphasized this was based largely on expectations for increased oil consumption in China, following that country’s recent easing of pandemic-related restrictions.However, researchers at the Saudi Arabia-led cartel also noted the Chinese government’s propensity to halt economic activity during coronavirus outbreaks. With spread of the virus still a threat, OPEC researchers cautioned their outlook is subject to a downgrade.
U.S. natgas futures jump 5% with output slow to return, profit taking (Reuters) - U.S. natural gas futures jumped about 5% to a one-week high on Tuesday as short sellers took profits for a second day after prices last week fell to a 25-month low and as output remains lower than last month following recent extreme cold that froze oil and gas wells in several producing basins. Also supporting prices was a growing belief that Freeport LNG's export plant in Texas would soon start pulling in a lot more gas in coming weeks once it starts producing liquefied natural gas (LNG) for export. Freeport, however, was on track to receive no gas from pipelines on Tuesday after taking in small amounts over the past 12 days, according to Refinitiv data. Gas prices jumped higher despite forecasts for milder weather and lower heating demand over the next two weeks than previously expected. Meteorologists forecast the weather would remain mostly warmer than normal through Feb. 22 except for a few cold days around the Feb. 18-19 weekend. Traders noted that cold on the weekend does not boost gas use as much as during the workweek because usage is lower on weekends when many businesses are shut. Freeport told Texas state regulators last week that it would start sending gas to one of three liquefaction trains at its long-closed export plant. The plant is waiting for permission from federal regulators to start loading LNG to free up space in its storage tanks. The liquefaction trains turn gas into LNG for export. Many analysts have said they do not expect the plant to return to full power until mid March or later. A couple of Freeport's customers - Japan's JERA and Osaka Gas - have said they do not expect to get LNG from the plant until after March. Freeport, the second biggest U.S. LNG export plant, shut after a fire in June 2022. The energy market expects gas prices to rise once the plant starts producing LNG again. When operating at full power, Freeport can turn about 2.1 billion cubic feet of gas into LNG each day. That is about 2% of total U.S. daily gas production. Federal regulators will hold a public meeting on Freeport on Feb. 11 to provide members of the community and other interested parties an opportunity to voice their concerns about Freeport's restart plans and get an update on what's happening at the plant. Front-month gas futures for March delivery rose 12.7 cents, or 5.2%, to settle at $2.584 per million British thermal units, their highest close since Jan. 31. Last week, the contract fell to its lowest close since December 2020. Refinitiv said average gas output in the U.S. Lower 48 states fell to 95.7 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) so far in February, down from 98.3 bcfd in January. That compares with a monthly record of 99.8 bcfd in November 2022. With milder weather coming, Refinitiv forecast U.S. gas demand, including exports, would drop from 124.9 bcfd this week to 119.8 bcfd next week. Those forecasts were lower than Refinitiv's outlook on Monday.
U.S. natgas up 1% on rising LNG exports, big storage withdrawal (Reuters) - U.S. natural gas futures edged up about 1% on Thursday after dropping to a 25-month low in the prior session on rising LNG exports, forecasts for slightly colder weather over the next two weeks than previously expected and a bigger-than-expected weekly storage draw. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said utilities pulled 217 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas from storage during the week ended Feb. 3. That was more than the 195-bcf decrease analysts forecast in a Reuters poll and compares with a decrease of 228 bcf in the same week last year and a five-year (2018-2022) average decline of 171 bcf. Analysts said it was the first time in 2023 that the weekly withdrawal was bigger than the five-year average because colder-than-normal weather last week boosted demand for gas to heat homes and businesses. The price increase also came with a growing belief that Freeport LNG's export plant in Texas would start pulling in more gas to produce LNG for export in coming weeks. Freeport was on track to receive about 69 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) of pipeline gas on Thursday, according to Refinitiv data. Freeport has received an average of 34 mmcfd of feedgas since Jan. 26 when federal regulators approved the company's plan to start cooling parts of the plant. The plant received no gas on Tuesday. Freeport has said it would start sending gas to one of the plant's three liquefaction trains, which turn gas into LNG for export. The plant is waiting for permission from federal regulators to start loading LNG to free up space in its storage tanks. In other LNG news, the amount of gas flowing to U.S. LNG export plants was on track to rise by about 1.0 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) to a preliminary eight-week high of 13.0 bcfd on Thursday, due mostly to an increase in flows to Cheniere Energy Inc's Sabine Pass export plant in Louisiana. Front-month gas futures rose 3.4 cents, or 1.4%, to settle at $2.430 per million British thermal units. On Wednesday, the contract closed at its lowest since December 2020. After dropping by a record 64% over the prior seven weeks through Feb. 3, the front-month was on track to drop by about 63% over the last eight weeks, which would also be a record loss for that period. The drop in gas prices coupled with a 6% increase in crude futures so far this week boosted oil's premium over gas to its highest since January 2020. In recent years that premium has prompted U.S. energy firms to focus drilling activity on finding more oil instead of gas. The oil-to-gas ratio, or level at which oil trades compared with gas, jumped to 33-to-1 on Thursday, its highest since August 2013. Crude's average premium has averaged 25 times over gas so far in 2023, 15 times over in 2022 and 20 times over during the past five years (2018-2022). On an energy equivalent basis, oil should trade only six times over gas.
Natural Gas Futures Firm as Late-February Cold Seen Possible; Northeast Cash Rallies -Natural gas futures ended the week on a high note, boosted by a brief blast of cold air sweeping across the central and eastern United States. The March Nymex contract settled Friday at $2.514/MMBtu, up 8.4 cents from Thursday’s close. April futures climbed 11.5 cents to $2.607.Spot gas prices were mixed, with the only meaningful changes taking place on the East Coast, in the Rockies and on the West Coast. NGI’s Spot GasNational Avg. ultimately finished 5.0 cents lower at $2.720.Despite the temporary bump in demand stemming from the wintry weather systems over parts of the country the next few days, a warmer turn in the pattern ahead may quickly knock prices back down a few notches.NatGasWeather said the Global Forecast System and European models generally aligned in showing “light to very light” demand over the next week or so before strong heating loads arrive Feb. 17-19. However, a quick warmup is expected.There are signs that colder weather may return in the final week of February as frigid air over Western Canada tries to advance into the Lower 48. The primary risk over the weekend break, according to NatGasWeather, is if the weather data trends colder with the setup Feb. 24-28 for a pattern frosty enough to satisfy.The forecaster said so far this winter, a warm ridge over the eastern United States has consistently proven to hold stronger and longer than weather models have expected. That could prove to be the case with the late-February pattern as well, but it’s too early to say with certainty.On the surface, the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) weekly report missed to the bullish side for the third week in a row and suggested some tightening. However, it’s unclear if the tightening reflects some structural changes taking place in the market, or whether it reflects an increase in gas demand during the reference week because of lower wind and solar generation, particularly in Texas. Freeze-offs also took a significant chunk of production offline.The agency said total working gas in storage as of Feb. 3 stood at 2,366 Bcf, which is 233 Bcf higher than a year earlier and 117 Bcf above the five-year average.“Clearly, the balance needs to tighten to prevent ballooning surpluses without sustained cold, which has been elusive much of this winter,” NatGasWeather said.Some of that balancing could come from added feed gas demand to serve Freeport LNG. The liquefied natural gas terminal has taken steps toward a restart, with federal approval granted Thursday to load ships at one of the three docks at the site on Quintana Island, on the upper Texas coast.The plant has not been cleared to restart operations. The approval is one in a series that must occur before LNG production and shipments may resume after an explosion and fire shuttered the facility last June.On Friday, the Kmarin Diamond LNG Tanker was the first vessel to dock at Freeport since the facility went offline. Four additional vessels have declared anticipated arrivals at the Freeport facility through Feb. 12.The vessels could be loaded with volumes still inside the facility’s tanks since before the fire, according to anonymous sources cited by Bloomberg. Freeport LNG didn’t comment about possible loading activities.
Natural gas has first positive week in eight as selling pauses -- The selloff in natural gas paused Friday, with the market posting its first weekly gain in eight, as bears in the market reassessed their positions after taking the heating fuel to 2-½ year lows in the previous session. The front-month March gas contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange’s Henry Hub settled up 6.9 cents, or 2.8%, at $2.5140 per mmBtu, or metric million British thermal units. For the week, however, the benchmark U.S. gas contract rose 4.3%, posting its first weekly gain since the week ended Dec. 9. Gas futures lost a cumulative 63% in seven weeks prior to that. On Thursday, March gas fell to $2.351, plumbing the lowest level for a front-month gas contract on the Henry Hub since Sept. 28, 2020, when the benchmark contract then went down to $2.02. An unusually warm start to the 2022/23 winter season has led to considerably less heating demand in the United States versus the norm, leaving more gas in storage than initially thought. At the close of last week, U.S. gas-in-storage stood at 2.366 tcf, or trillion cubic feet, up 10.9% from the year-ago level of 2.249 tcf, data from the EIA, or Energy Information Administration, showed. Utilities drew a higher-than-forecast 217 bcf, or billion cubic feet, from storage for heating and electricity generation last week, the EIA said. Analysts tracked by Investing.com had expected a draw of 195 bcf for the week ended Feb. 3, above the consumption of 151 bcf seen in the prior week to Jan. 27. “The bullishness of the withdrawal was driven by colder-than-than-normal temperatures, especially at the end of the reflective storage week,” analysts at Houston-based energy markets consultancy Gelber & Associates said. “However, improving imbalances such as this aren’t significantly meaningful when they’re not accompanied by a supportive temperature outlook.” Responding to the warmth and lackluster storage draws, gas prices plunged from a 14-year high of $10 per mmBtu in August, reaching $7 in December and mid-$2 levels this week amid forecasts for bitter cold here and there.
Three Chicago area oil refineries that dumped toxic chemicals into Lake Michigan and other waterways are among worst polluters in US, study shows — Chicago Tribune - Three Chicago-area oil refineries are among U.S. facilities dumping large amounts of toxic chemicals and heavy metals into waterways, according to a new report. Oil refineries are dumping massive amounts of toxic chemicals and heavy metals into the Great Lakes and the nation’s rivers with little, if any, oversight from government regulators, according to a new analysis that found some of the worst polluters are in the Chicago area. During 2021 alone, 81 refineries in the United States that treat waste on-site released 1.6 billion pounds of chlorides, sulfates and other dissolved solids harmful to fish and other aquatic life, the nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project determined in its review of federal data. The refineries also collectively discharged 60,000 pounds of selenium, an element that can mutate fish, and 15.7 million pounds of nitrogen, which contributes to water-fouling algae blooms and dead zones in important fisheries such as the Great Lakes, Chesapeake Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. Most of the refineries are in low-income, predominantly Black and Latino communities that face disproportionate health risks from industrial pollution. Some refinery pollution is legal because federal and state officials have failed to limit it, despite requirements in the 1972 Clean Water Act mandating a review of standards for various chemicals and metals at least every five years based on the latest science and improvements in water treatment technology. “You have refineries that may look like they are complying with the law, but the standards are decades old and really don’t require very much,” Three Chicago-area refineries — BP Whiting in Indiana, ExxonMobil Joliet and Citgo in Lemont — highlight the consequences of lax regulations and weak enforcement, Schaeffer said Thursday during an online news conference. Even when limits are in place, oil companies often pay minimal fines for violating the law. Some aren’t penalized at all. The Joliet refinery, on the Des Plaines River southwest of the city, exceeded its permitted levels of pollution 40 times between 2019 and 2021, federal records show. Neither federal nor state officials have sued ExxonMobil or fined the company for its repeated infractions. Only three other refineries discharged more selenium than BP Whiting, located on the southwest shore of Lake Michigan about 8 miles from one of Chicago’s water intake cribs. Small doses of the element are healthy, but higher levels can cause hair and nail loss, gastrointestinal distress, dizziness and tremors. Citgo Lemont and ExxonMobil Joliet ranked fifth and ninth for selenium pollution, respectively, the analysis showed.
New law forces wind energy behind oil drilling in the Gulf -President Joe Biden’s administration is tapping the brakes on offshore wind energy development in the Gulf of Mexicoto make way for a new fast-tracked effort to open more federal waters to oil and gas drilling. The move, which runs counter to Biden’s ambitious goals for cutting greenhouse gas emissions and speeding the growth of renewable energy, will delay the first-ever auction of wind energy lease areas in the Gulf by at least six months.Wind energy companies had been lining up to bid on a 174,000-acre area south of Lake Charles and a 508,000-acre area near Galveston, Texas in late December. The two lease areas have the potential to generate enough power for almost 3 million homes, according to the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. But Biden’s signing of theInflation Reduction Act put those plans on hold, likely until sometime this summer, federal regulators confirmed this week. The nearly $370 billion spending package has what some critics say are conflicting aims. On one hand, it offers a historic investment in clean energy, mostly through tax credits for solar and wind energy projects. But buried at the end of the 725-page law are special provisions for fossil fuel extraction in the Gulf.The act requires that the government offer new drilling opportunities across a vast area of the Gulf and mandates that wind energy projects take a back seat to oil and gas projects on public lands and waters.The provision was included to secure the support of Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat who often sides with Republicans and receives strong financial backing from the oil and gas industry. Manchin praised the provision, saying increased drilling is “critical to American energy security” and will help “ease the pain Americans are feeling from record inflation and high energy prices.”Environmental groups blasted the Biden administration for hindering progress on its own climate and renewable energy goals.“It’s self-defeating to handcuff renewable energy development to massive new oil and gas extraction,” said Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “It’s a slap in the face to the communities fighting to protect themselves from filthy fossil fuels.” Last year, the Biden administration canceled a pair of oil and gas lease sales, citing conflicting court rulings on proposed lease sales. The Inflation Reduction Act revived both sales as well as a previously nullified lease sale from 2021. BOEM has had to take staff off other projects to meet upcoming leasing deadlines set by the act, a bureau spokesman said. The Biden administration’s goal of generating 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030 will require pushing more than a dozen large wind farms through a new and convoluted regulatory process for offshore wind energy. So far, only two offshore wind farms are operating in U.S. waters. Two projects are under construction near Massachusetts and New York, and several more are planned along the East Coast.
Growing Body of Research Suggests Offshore Oil’s Methane Pollution Is Underestimated – DeSmog - Flying 10,000 feet above the Gulf of Mexico, in a plane outfitted with infrared imaging equipment, researchers could see methane gas bubbling under water, likely from an undetected pipeline leak. Over the course of several flights in 2021, they spotted frequent gas plumes from platforms, storage tanks, and pipelines offshore, leading the team to believe that the 151 platforms near the Louisiana coast had a much higher methane leak rate than what’s been measured for onshore oil and gas production.“I think the bottom line message in this study is there’s a lot of emissions in the shallow waters that are currently unmeasured,” said Riley Duren, the CEO of Carbon Mapper and coauthor of the nonprofit’s 2022 study of offshore methane emissions. New technologies are allowing for actual measurements of oil and gas methane emissions like never before, whether from leaks or intentional flaring and venting. So far, much of that attention and push for accountability has been focused onshore, while operators claim that drilling offshore has much lower emissions. But researchers arestarting to uncover a body of evidence showing why that may not be true.About 15 percent of U.S. oil production and 1 percent of U.S. natural gas production comes from federal leases in the Gulf of Mexico, according to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. Far from land and oversight, it’s a wild west that makes it easy for companies to fudge numbers and avoid accountability from regulators who acknowledge they’ve fallen short, even as questions emerge about how methane emissions may be contributing to helicopter crashes around oil and gas platforms. The rise in natural gas prices has incentivized some onshore companies to try to quantify how much money they’re losing to leaky systems by using infrared cameras capable of detecting methane, the primary ingredient in natural gas and a potent contributor to climate change. Operators in the Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico, where 40 percent of U.S. oil and 15 percent of U.S. gas is produced, have been surprised to find that about 4 percent of the natural gas they pulled from the ground was leaking into the atmosphere. By comparison, Duren and his colleagues have detected natural gas loss rates above 23 percent in the shallow waters of the Gulf, though because offshore production is so much lower, the total volume of lost gas is likely much higher onshore. Still, researchers emphasize that the high rate of methane leakage underscores the major climate impact that reducing those leaks could have.
Carbon Capture Project Is ‘Band-Aid’ to Greenwash $10 Billion LNG Plant, Locals Say via DeSmog - Dina Nuñez called to order a meeting of women grassroots activists in a modest home in the heart of Port Isabel, Texas. Top of her agenda: how to stop a Houston-based oil and gas company from building a $10 billion project to export liquefied natural gas on a nearby stretch of coast.The claim by developer NextDecade to be building the “greenest LNG project in the world” has thrust the women to the forefront of a global struggle. At a time when scientists warn there can be no new fossil fuel developments if the world is going to avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis, oil and gas executives are turning to a technology known as carbon capture and storage, or CCS, to convince investors, politicians, and the public their expansion plans are climate-safe. “This is a poor community, yes. We’re not saying we don’t need jobs,” Nuñez said, shortly before the meeting of volunteers with the Neighbors for the Wellness of the Coastal Community group. “But we don’t need work that affects the environment, and ultimately, the health of the community.”A prime example of the ups and downs of the American liquefied natural gas industry, plans to build Rio Grande LNG faltered in 2020 as demand for energy cratered during the Covid-19 pandemic, and concern over its climate impact grew. But the scheme has been resurrected thanks to a European scramble for LNG triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and a new twist on the original design — the use of CCS to portray the facility as a source of “clean” energy.These claims hinge on a proposal by NextDecade to use CCS to capture more than 5 million tons a year of the carbon dioxide (CO2) produced during the process of supercooling the gas for loading on to specialized tankers for export. The company says it will be one of the biggest CCS systems in North America — and the first LNG terminal to reduce its CO2 emissions by more than 90 percent.“NextDecade is a clean energy company accelerating the path to a net-zero future,” NextDecade chief executive Matthew Schatzman told a conference call to present the CCS plan to financial analysts in March 2021. “Efforts to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions are at the very foundation of our company.”Opponents point out there’s a big catch, however. Only 6-7 percent of the overall emissions associated with such projects are generated during the process of cooling the gas, according to a 2019 study by the Department of Energy. That means that the proposed CCS plant could only ever mitigate a small fraction of Rio Grande LNG’s total climate impact.And that impact could be considerable. The Sierra Club estimates that building Rio Grande LNG could generate up to 163 million tons of CO2 equivalent emissions a year — comparable to 44 coal plants, or more than 35 million cars. That analysis factors in the potential emissions of CO2 and methane, a powerful climate pollutant, associated with the production, transport, and end-use of the natural gas. NextDecade did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
U.S. Oil Production Reaches New Pandemic-Era High, Contributes to Natural Gas Gains - Domestic crude production climbed to the highest level since 2020 as demand for petroleum products pushed ahead last week, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said Wednesday. American producers generated 12.3 million b/d for the week ended Feb. 3, up by 100,000 b/d from the prior week, data from EIA’s latest Weekly Petroleum Status Report showed. The latest print also marked a 100,000 b/d increase from January’s average and from the pandemic-era peak. Additionally, production for the latest EIA period far exceeded the year-earlier level of 11.6 million b/d, and it climbed further toward the record of 13.1 million b/d set in early 2020, prior to coronavirus outbreaks. Total petroleum demand for the Feb. 3 period, meanwhile, advanced 2% week/week. The rising oil output, led by activity in the prolific Permian Basin, also has helped fuel robust increases in associated natural gas production and, by extension, total gas supplies. Natural gas output early this year touched record highs above 102 Bcf/d. Analysts at East Daley Analytics said in a forecast it could approach 105 Bcf/d this year. The upward trend comes amid uneven demand in recent months for both oil and gas. Natural gas consumption proved strong early in the winter amid blasts of frigid cold last December. But January and February to date, on the whole, featured benign weather and light heating demand. This weighed down prices in 2023 – from about $6.00/MMBtu late last year to around $2.50 this week – and galvanized analyst calls for production pullbacks. On the petroleum front, demand proved robust through much of 2022, but it has since leveled off. This developed as economic activity in the United States and Europe slowed, dampening consumption of travel fuels, and as mild weather and weak natural gas prices minimized demand for heating oil. Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 20.1 million b/d, down 8% from the comparable stretch last year, EIA said. Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline demand averaged 8.3 million b/d, down 3%, while distillate fuel consumption averaged 3.8 million b/d, down 16%. Jet fuel product supplied proved the exception, rising 7% to 1.5 million b/d.
Baker Hughes: US rig count up 2 units to 761 - The US drilling rig count increased 2 units to reach 761 rigs working for the week ended Feb. 10, according to Baker Hughes data. The count is up 126 units from the 635 rigs working this time a year ago. The number of rigs drilling on land fell 4 units week-over-week to a total of 741 rigs running. The number of rigs drilling in inland waters remained unchanged at 2 units. The number of rigs drilling offshore remained unchanged at 18 units. US oil-directed rigs increased by 10 from last week to 609 units. A year ago, 516 units were drilling for oil. Gas-directed rigs fell by 8 to reach 150 working, 32 more than were drilling for gas a year ago. Of the major oil and gas-producing states, Louisiana, New Mexico, and California saw increases in rigs week-over-week. With 6 additional rigs, Louisiana’s count stands at 66 for the week. A 4-rig increase brings New Mexico’s rig count to 109. California added a single rig to reach 4 for the week. Seven states remained unchanged this week, North Dakota, 41; Pennsylvania, 22; Colorado, 19; Wyoming, 17; Ohio, 14; Utah, 11; and Alaska, 7. A 7-unit drop left Texas with 370 rigs running for the week. Oklahoma and West Virginia dropped 1 unit each, leaving 63 and 15 rigs running, respectively. Canada’s rig count increased by 1 unit for the week. At 250 rigs, the count is 31 more than the 219 units drilling this week a year ago. A 2-rig gain brought the oil-directed rig count to 161 for the week. Gas-directed rigs in Canada decreased by 1 unit to 89.
‘A Colossal Giveaway’: A Tax Break for Big Polluters Is Also Starving Public Schools in Texas - Gliding through the shallow channel on the north side of Corpus Christi Bay, you will see stubborn remnants of a barrier island estuary that was once home to vast oyster beds, seagrass meadows, teeming fish nurseries and abundant alligators. You will see dolphins, terns, maybe even a roseate spoonbill. In less than a decade, the northern coastline of Corpus Christi Bay, in San Patricio County, Texas, has been developed from a greenspace of wetlands and dunes into a miles-long corridor of petrochemical and industrial facilities, their cracking towers rising hundreds of feet into the air. Dominating that cyborg skyline is the tower flare at the Corpus Christi Liquefaction facility, owned by gas giant Cheniere. The plant’s three operational “trains,” which came online in 2019, produce 16.5 million tons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) per year for export to hungry markets in Europe, Asia, and other international destinations. There are plans to add seven smaller trains at the facility, equivalent to another 11 million tons of capacity. Within sight of Cheniere, there is a hot briquetted iron plant now majority owned by Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal that began operations in 2016; there is the Enbridge Ingleside Energy Center, built in 2018, the largest crude oil export terminal in North America; there are growing chemical plants owned by Chemours, Air Liquide and Occidental; a few miles inland is the world’s largest ethane cracker, a joint project of Exxon and Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), switched on for the first time in 2022.With the exception of the Enbridge terminal, all of these projects — and hundreds more across Texas — have benefitted from Chapter 313, a two-decade-old tax abatement program that critics have described as “free money for big business.” The enabling legislation expired on Dec. 31, but a flurry of last minute proposals approved before the deadline may have irreversible effects for decades into the future. Crafted to lure businesses to Texas, Chapter 313 allowed companies to lock in a minimal property valuation for a proposed industrial project for 10 years in exchange for economic growth commitments and kickbacks to local school districts. Advocates for retaining the tax break liked to point out that renewable energy companies have comprised the majority of Chapter 313 applicants in recent years. In simple dollar terms, however, the petrochemical industry has been the program’s largest beneficiary — receiving abatements worth $7.6 billion in 2020 alone, compared to $2.1 billion for wind farm companies. A study by the nonprofit Central Texas Interfaith reveals that the top 10 beneficiaries of existing Chapter 313 agreements are all linked to the petrochemical industry like the companies expanding along the shore in San Patricio County, receiving annualized tax breaks from school districts worth more than $250 million.
RRC adds requirements for new disposal wells in the Permian Basin - The Railroad Commission has issued a notice to oil and gas operators that it is adding requirements for new disposal well permits in the Permian Basin. The requirements are designed to assist the agency and industry in monitoring and responding to injection and reservoir conditions that may be conducive to induced seismicity.The new permit conditions for monitoring and reporting will require certain new disposal wells to be equipped and operated with a bottomhole pressure monitoring gauge. These permit conditions will apply to:
- All new “deep” disposal wells that inject fluids into strata below the primary producing formations – below the top of the Strawn in the Midland Basin and below the base of the Wolfcamp in the Delaware Basin and
- All new “shallow” disposal wells that generally inject fluids into strata above the base of the primary producing formations – above the top of the Strawn in the Midland Basin and below the base of the Wolfcamp in the Delaware within an area designated as a Seismic Response Area by the commission.
The permit language will require the operator of the well to report daily injection data monthly. This will include:
- • Maximum surface injection pressure
- • Average surface injection pressure
- • Maximum bottomhole injection pressure
- • Average bottomhole injection pressure
- • Injection volume
- • Maximum injection rate
- • Average fluid density
Operators also would be required to measure the initial reservoir pressure prior to beginning injection, to conduct periodic fall-off tests to evaluate the average reservoir pressure, and to report this information to the RRC. On a case-by-case basis RRC staff may determine that these permit conditions are not required for a particular new disposal well application if the reservoir is already adequately monitored in a nearby disposal well.In addition, all other new disposal well permits in the Permian Basin with a permitted maximum daily injection volume of 5,000 barrels per day or more will include a permit condition requiring the operator to report daily injection volume, surface injection pressure and fluid density data.Operators of existing disposal wells with maximum daily injection volumes of 5,000 barrels per day or more are also encouraged and requested to file this information from November 2019 onward.
Activists say US should adopt New Mexico’s natural gas rules - — Activists are pushing for federal rules on curbing wasted natural gas to look more like New Mexico’s recently passed rules, as they wait for data to reflect that they work. The Environmental Defense Fund, an environmental advocacy group, and Taxpayers for Common Sense, a budget watchdog organization, released a study last week showing that oil and gas companies that operate on U.S. public and tribal lands wasted over $500 million worth of gas in 2019, which was the most recent year with data available. New Mexico topped the list of states in wasted gas, but EDF Senior Director of Regulatory and Legislative Affairs Jon Goldstein also called it a leader in cutting back. “What we’d like to see (the Bureau of Land Management) do is build from the example that New Mexico has set in terms of putting an end, essentially, to routine venting and flaring,” he said. Pipeline leaks are the most common cause of wasted natural gas, but some is also lost through flaring and venting, which are both methods for getting rid of natural gas that comes as a byproduct of oil drilling. Methane emissions, including those from wasted natural gas, drive at least a quarter of human-caused global warming, according to the EDF. Goldstein said it also puts company profits before taxpayers who would benefit from the sale of the natural gas. “Rather than invest in infrastructure to get that associated gas to market, the company will just flare it. They’ll burn it off at the well site and treat it like a nuisance,” Goldstein said. But he pointed to new rules in New Mexico that were passed after the data was collected as an example of what he’d like to see the federal and state government do to change that. New Mexico’s Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department, or EMNRD, is pushing oil and gas operators to capture 98% of their natural gas waste by the end of 2026. The rules went into effect in 2021 and require operators to report natural gas loss extensively, while prohibiting routine venting and flaring. It also allows the Oil Conservation Division to deny drilling permits if capture targets aren’t met. A spokesperson for EMNRD said via email that it is on track to meet its target by the end of 2026 and is already seeing a difference in its reporting. In the first 11 months of the new rules, there was a 36% reduction in gas lost.
$84 million more a year from oil and gas? Learn more about SB 164 - Oil and gas extraction provides large portions of the state’s budget every year, largely credited with a $3.5 billion in surplus funds in 2023, and some lawmakers are hoping to maximize the returns to taxpayers for drilling on public land.Targeting the State Land Office, Senate Bill 164 would raise the maximum royalty rate, a percentage paid by operators to the state on the value of oil and gas produced on State Trust land.Present rules require producers pay a 20 percent royalty fee to the State Land Office on the value of the fossil fuel produced on State land, and SB 164 would raise that to 25 percent.That would mean a fee equal to a quarter of the value would be paid to the government, compared to the present rate of one-fifth.The bill would also add a section to a new lease form to require royalty payments on natural gas that is released via venting, flaring or spills.These rules would go into effect July 1 if the bill is passed.SB 164 was introduced by Sen. Bill Tallman (D-18) and cosponsored by Rep. Debra Sarinana (D-21) and Sen. Harold Pope (D-23).It was granted a “do pass” recommendation Feb. 7 by the Senate Conservation Committee on a 6-2 vote and advanced to the Senate Tax, Business and Transportation Committee where it was awaiting a hearing.The higher rates would mean higher revenue for the State Land Office which provides funding to New Mexico public schools, hospitals and universities. That would mean up to $84 million a year in added revenue to the Office's beneficiaries in Fiscal Years 2025 and 2026, according to an analysis by the Legislative Finance Committee, based on the number of wells completed in the last 10 years and the average price of oil and gas. Because of recent state regulations looking to increase gas capture, the report said it was difficult to estimate how much revenue gas releases would generate if the bill was passed.
Bill to shift New Mexico away from oil and gas passes first committee - A new state agency to shift New Mexico away from its dependence on oil and gas would be created should a bill advancing through the legislature pass into law. House Bill 188 would create an Economic Transition Division within the State’s Economic Development Department (EDD) and appropriate a total of about $13.4 million to fund the division and provide support for local communities during economic transition. A transition away from economic dependence on fossil fuels could directly impact communities like Carlsbad and Hobbs in the southeast Permian Basin region where most of New Mexico’s oil and gas is produced. More:Bill that could block nuclear waste storage in southeast New Mexico headed to Senate Floor That industry was credited with typically providing a third of the state’s budget, and a recent $3.5 billion revenue surplus at the State was attributed to recent growth in oil production. New Mexico is second in the nation in oil, following only Texas with which it shares the Permian, and usually in the top 10 states for natural gas. When the market for oil and gas is strong, New Mexico reaps windfalls of revenue that can fund public services like schools and roads, but when the market trends downward some lawmakers worried it exposes the state to economic depression.
Court: US needs to consider effects of drilling near Chaco (AP) — A federal appeals court has sided with environmentalists, ruling that the U.S. government failed to consider the cumulative effects of greenhouse gas emissions that would result from the approval of nearly 200 drilling permits in an area surrounding Chaco Culture National Historical Park. Home to numerous sites significant to Native American tribes, the region has been a focal point of conflict over energy development that has spanned multiple presidential administrations. Now, environmentalists and some tribal leaders have accused the Biden administration of “rubber-stamping” more drilling. In a ruling issued Wednesday, a three-judge panel for the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that federal land managers violated the law by not accounting for the direct, indirect and cumulative effects of air pollution from oil and gas drilling. The court also put on hold the approval of additional drilling permits pending a decision from a lower court. Kyle Tisdel, a senior attorney with the Western Environmental Law Center, accused the Bureau of Land Management of prioritizing oil and gas extraction at the expense of those who live in northwestern New Mexico, including many Navajo communities. “Frontline Diné communities and their allies were vindicated today in a step toward environmental justice. We will continue to demand justice, and that their water, health and the climate stop being sacrificed to big oil profits,” Tisdel said in a statement. Environmentalists have long complained about pollution from increased drilling, but the fight took on new urgency when Native American tribes began raising concerns that a spider web of drill pads, roads, processing stations and other infrastructure was compromising culturally significant sites beyond Chaco park’s boundaries. The Bureau of Land Management had an informal process of not leasing land within 10 miles (16 kilometers) of Chaco park to address those concerns.
Lower 48 Hits ‘Near-Term Ceiling’ as International, Offshore E&P Ramping Up, Says NOV CEO --Onshore exploration and production (E&P) in the Lower 48 has plateaued for the moment amid multiple constraints, while the international and offshore segments are gathering steam, according to NOV Inc. CEO Clay Williams. Williams hosted a conference call on Tuesday (Feb. 7) to discuss the Houston-based oilfield services company’s fourth-quarter and full-year 2022 earnings. “After rising sharply in the first part of the year, the U.S. rig count [has] now found a near-term ceiling, a touch below 800 rigs, constrained by – among other things – the availability of labor,” Williams said. “North American E&Ps are citing service availability as the biggest risk to achievement of their production targets, but our oilfield service customers tell us that crew availability is the real cause.” [2023 Natural Gas Price Outlook: How will the energy industry continue to evolve in 2023? NGI’s special report “Reshuffling the Deck: High Stakes for Natural Gas & The World is All-In” offers trusted insight and data-backed forecasts on U.S. natural gas and the global LNG markets. Download now.] Williams cited that “U.S. oilfield wages in West Texas and North Dakota are up 20% to 50%,” along with higher per diems, bonuses and overtime. “Chronically shorthanded” crews are working extra hours to cover unfilled positions, he said. “The new hires are hard to find and the crews that are successful in hiring new green hands are less safe and demonstrably less efficient.” The surging cost of casing represents “another constraint and it’s contributing to 40% higher cost per foot for E&Ps,” Williams said. In addition, “Dwindling Tier 1 drilling location inventory and reversal of double-digit well productivity gains…that fueled the rapid run-up in U.S. shale production several years ago are also emerging as constraints to production growth,” Williams said. He added that, “Like in the international markets, capital is scarce and expensive, even though rising equipment utilization across North America in 2022 brought mercifully higher pricing, enabling land drilling contractors and pressure pumpers to begin earning much improved returns on capital.” Williams also highlighted “the emerging North American gas oversupply caused by constrained LNG export capacity out of the U.S. and rising gas-oil ratios in shale basins as they mature and we foresee additional pressure on E&P economics and diminishing urgency to drill in North America.” Despite these constraints, “Higher pricing across the board will likely still lead to an overall increase in year-over-year E&P spending,” Williams said. “But our outlook for 2023 North American land remains a little cautious in contrast to offshore and international land markets, where investment, urgency, utilization and pricing are rising.”
U.S. Natural Gas Activity Steady and Completions Market Tight, Says Liberty CEO - A softening outlook for natural gas activity and an elevated recession risk may lead to some hiccups this year, but the overall forecast for North American hydrocarbons is the healthiest in years, according to Liberty Energy Inc. CEO Chris Wright. The Denver-based hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and completions expert recently issued its fourth quarter and year-end results. Wright led a conference call with investors. Natural gas prices may be down, he said, but “to date, there has not been any significant reduction in activity in the natural gas regions. “We do expect to see some industry pullback in response to gas prices…If necessary, Liberty would move any spare capacity to oilier areas, where demand for our services significantly outstrips our current supply.” The markets, Wright said, “are preparing for the most widely anticipated recession in nearly 50 years.” However, “tumult in global oil supply, coupled with today’s rather low spare global production capacity, imply a strong need for North American barrels in the coming years.” The reopening of China and more global travel should drive incremental oil demand, “even if balanced against slowing economic activity,” he said. In addition, the “fundamental outlook for North American hydrocarbons is the healthiest Liberty has seen in our 12-year history. Against this strong backdrop, we expect many possible bumps in the road, like softening natural gas activity and an elevated recession risk.” Still, the outlook for North American activity for the next few years “is robust. Currently our customers and competitors are investing with discipline, keeping capacity flat to only very modest growth.” Liberty’s exploration and production (E&P) customers are receiving “attractive drilling returns, particularly in oil, even as breakeven prices have increased from the pandemic lows. The majors are redirecting capital spending to North America.” The U.S. E&Ps are looking for returns, which “infer a continuation of resource development to at least offset natural production declines,” Wright said. “As North American oil and gas production reaches new heights, there is a rising level of frac activity required to simply keep our customers’ production flat.” Today’s existing frack market is fully utilized, the CEO said. There also is “strong demand for gas-powered fleets that significantly reduce fuel costs. Natural gas is much cheaper than diesel, while driving down frack fleet emissions.” Still, the transition to gas-powered fleets is coming at a “measured pace,” Wright said, “roughly aligned with the attrition of the industry’s older generation diesel frack capacity.”
How a pipeline company paid Minnesota millions to police protests - The morning of June 7, 2021, Sheriff’s Deputy Chuck Nelson of Beltrami County, Minnesota, drove 30 minutes to Hubbard County, where he and officers from 14 different police and sheriff’s departments confronted around 500 protesters, known as water protectors, occupying a pipeline pump station. The deputy spent his day detaching people who had locked themselves to equipment as fire departments and ambulances stood by. A U.S. Customs and Border Protection helicopter swooped low, kicking dust over the demonstrators, and officers deployed a sound cannon known as a Long Range Acoustic Device in attempts to disperse the crowd.By the end of the day, 186 people had been detained in the largest mass-arrest of the opposition movement. Some officers stuck around to process arrests, while others stopped for snacks at a gas station or ordered Chinese takeout before crashing at a nearby motel.These latter details might be considered irrelevant, except for the fact that the police and emergency workers’ takeout, motel rooms, riot gear, gas, wages, and trainings were paid for by one side of the dispute — the fossil fuel company building the pipeline, which spent more than $79,000 on policing that day alone. When the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission gave Enbridge permission in 2020 to replace its corroded Line 3 pipeline and double its capacity, it included an unusual condition in the permit: Enbridge would pay the police as they responded to the acts of civil disobedience that the project would surely spark. The pipeline company’s money would be funneled to law enforcementand other government agencies via a Public Safety Escrow Account managed by the state.By the time construction finished in fall 2021, prosecutors had filed 967 criminal cases related to pipeline protests, and police had submitted hundreds of receipts and invoices to the Enbridge-funded escrow account, seeking reimbursement. Through a public records request, Grist and the Center for Media and Democracy have obtained and reviewed every one of those invoices, providing the most complete picture yet of the ways the pipeline company paid for the arrests of its opponents — and much more.
Newsom calls for federal probe into soaring natural gas prices - California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) called for an investigation into his state’s soaring natural gas prices in a letter sent on Monday to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). “Wholesale natural gas prices throughout the West have risen to alarming levels that greatly exceed prices in the rest of the country,” Newsom wrote in the letter. The governor requested that the agency “immediately focus its investigatory resources on assessing whether market manipulation, anticompetitive behavior, or other anomalous activities are driving these ongoing elevated prices in the western gas markets.” While natural gas prices have been falling around the world, spot prices in Southern California early last month averaged about $19.40 per million British thermal units, The Wall Street Journal reported. This was about five times greater than the U.S. benchmark, which had been trading at about $3.75 at the time, according to the Journal. While Newsom acknowledged that cold weather events initially raised prices, he stressed that “those known factors cannot explain the extent and longevity of the price spike.” To provide Californians with some relief, Newsom said that millions of residents will receive credits of $90 to $120 in their utility bills next month. Last week, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) voted to accelerate the California Climate Credit program — a measure aimed at helping families cope with high gas bills, the governor’s office explained.
Kinder Morgan shuts piping lines at Watson Station after spill - (Reuters) - Kinder Morgan Energy Partners on Thursday disclosed a gasoline spill from a piping station in Long Beach, California, and has shut down all lines pumping in and out of the area. The company has secured the spill and isolated all the lines in the area, it said in a filing. The incident took place at the unit of U.S. pipeline operator Kinder Morgan's Watson Station, a gathering system for oil and refined petroleum product pipelines.
Fuel lines from Los Angeles to Vegas, Phoenix shut by leak - (AP) — A leak in a fuel pipeline facility in California forced a shutdown of deliveries of gasoline and diesel from the Los Angeles area east to areas including Las Vegas and Phoenix, but officials said Friday they believed supplies would not immediately be affected. Pipeline operator Kinder Morgan told The Associated Press the leak was discovered Thursday afternoon at a company station near Los Angeles and that its CALNEV and SFPP West pipelines were shut down while the Houston-based pipeline operator worked to resolve the issue. “There are no injuries or fire reported as a result of this incident,” said a company statement, provided by Katherine Hill, communications manager for the publicly traded company. It did not say how much fuel leaked or when service would be restored. “The appropriate regulatory agencies have been notified, and an investigation into the cause and quantity of the release will be conducted,” the statement said. “We are working closely with our customers on potential impacts.” In Las Vegas, officials were “monitoring the situation, believe we have adequate supply, and do not anticipate an immediate impact on gas availability,” according to a statement from Clark County spokesperson Erik Pappa. The county said the pipeline provides fuel storage facilities in Southern Nevada with unleaded and diesel fuel. Another pipeline operated by UNEV Pipeline LLC serves the Las Vegas area from northern Utah. The Kinder Morgan website says its 566-mile (911-kilometer) CALNEV pipeline transports gasoline, diesel and jet fuel from Los Angeles refineries and marine terminals through parallel 14-inch (35.5-centimeter) and 8-inch (20-centimeter) diameter pipelines to Barstow, California, and the Las Vegas area. Hill said later that only the larger, 14-inch (35.5-centimeter) pipeline to Las Vegas had been shut down. Airports it serves include Nellis Air Force Base and Harry Reid International in Las Vegas and Edwards Air Force Base in California's Mojave Desert, the company said. Kinder Morgan's SFPP West pipeline runs approximately 515 miles (829 kilometers) to transport petroleum products from the Los Angeles area to Colton and Imperial, California, and east to Phoenix.
Shipping companies agree to pay $45 million in O.C. oil spill lawsuits - Companies linked to two cargo ships accused of damaging a pipeline months before it ruptured, sending crude oil gushing into the waters off Orange County, have agreed to pay $45 million to settle lawsuits brought by business owners and residents, attorneys said Thursday. If approved by a judge, the settlement would end the legal wrangling by those whose livelihoods were affected after 25,000 gallons of crude oil gushed into the waters off Orange County in October 2021. Attorneys representing the plaintiffs in the class action lawsuits said Thursday that they are also finalizing non-financial terms with the companies that owned and operated the MSC Danit and Cosco Beijing container ships to prevent “similar events from occurring in the future.” The full settlement details have not been disclosed. Capetanissa Maritime Corp., Dordellas Finance Corp. and their subsidiaries have been accused of allowing their ships to drag their anchors across the sea floor during a storm in January 2021, about nine months before the oil spill. The shipping companies have denied any wrongdoing. Attorneys representing the shipping companies could not immediately be reached for comment.
‘Monster profits’ for energy giants reveal a self-destructive fossil fuel resurgence -While 2022 inflicted hardship upon many people around the world due to soaring inflation, climate-driven disasters and war, the year was lucrative on an unprecedented scale for the fossil fuel industry, with the five largest western oil and gas companies alone making a combined $200bn in profits.In a parade of annual results released over the past week the “big five” – Exxon,Chevron, Shell, BP and TotalEnergies – all revealed that last year was the most profitable in their respective histories, as the rising cost of oil and gas, driven in part by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, helped turbocharge revenues.Exxon, the Texas-based oil giant, led the way with a record $55.7bn in annual profit, taking home about $6.3m every hour last year. California’s Chevron had a record $36.5bn profit, while Shell announced the best results of its 115-year history, a $39.9bn surplus, and BP, another London-based firm, notched a $27.7bn profit. The French company TotalEnergies also had a record, at $36.2bn.When the 2022 results for all publicly traded oil and gas companies are tallied the total profits are expected to exceed $400bn, “a number we’ve never seen before, and one that was built off the backs of working families who were victimized by oil and gas executives’ greed”, according to Claire Moser, deputy executive director of the US activist group Climate Power.The stratospheric profits were criticized as “outrageous” by Joe Biden during his State of the Union address on Tuesday. Biden said that “we’re still going to need oil and gas for a while” but the US president attacked companies for enriching shareholders through share buybacks rather than helping alleviate rising gasoline costs for drivers.The big five oil and gas companies have already confirmed that most of the bumper profits will be going to stock buybacks and dividends. The $200bn in combined profits equates to about five times the US’s annual foreign aid budget, or about double what the world gave to Ukraine last year in military and humanitarian assistance. If the oil executives had decided to use this money to go to space, they could have left the Earth’s atmosphere 3,225 times on Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket, at $62m a trip.António Guterres, the secretary-general of the UN, was scornful of the industry in a speech on Monday, in which he expressed incredulity at the “monster profits” of fossil fuel companies at a time when the world needs to be rapidly slashing its planet-heating emissions to avoid climate breakdown. “If you cannot set a credible course for net-zero [emissions], with 2025 and 2030 targets covering all your operations, you should not be in business,” Guterres said. “Your core product is our core problem. We need a renewables revolution, not a self-destructive fossil fuel resurgence.”
Insurance giant Marsh in firing line over controversial East Africa pipeline - Non-governmental groups submitted a complaint to the US government today, alleging that New York-based insurer Marsh, a member of the Marsh McLennan group, has violated international guidelines for responsible business conduct by acting as insurance broker for the controversial East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP). EACOP will transport 200,000 barrels per day of oil from TotalEnergies’ Tilenga field in Uganda to Tanga port in Tanzania, more than 1440 kilometres to the east.For years, the pipeline has been a target for anti-fossil fuel campaigners due to a litany of concerns including carbon emissions, the displacement of people from land, and the risks posed to environmentally sensitive areas and critical freshwater resources.
88 Energy to drill North Slope well - 88 Energy Ltd. has been granted a drilling permit by the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (AOGCC) to drill (PTD) in Project Phoenix (formerly Icewine East) on the North Slope of Alaska. The Hickory-1 well is designed to appraise up to six conventional reservoir targets within the SMD, SFS, BFF, and KUP reservoirs and 647 million bbl oil. The well is permitted to a total depth of 12,500 ft. A drilling location has been selected adjacent to the Dalton Highway directly adjacent to the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) utilizing data including interpretation of the Icewine-1 well logs, mapping and AVO analysis of the modern Franklin Bluffs 3D seismic data (FB3D), and publicly available information from recent drilling and flow tests carried out on adjacent acreage by Pantheon Resources PLC. Construction of the Hickory-1 ice-pad is set to begin soon. Mobilization of the Nordic Calista Rig-2 is scheduled to begin mid-February from the Pantheon Resources Co. Alkaid-2 well location. Planning and permitting is largely complete, and the company expects to spud the well early March. Hickory-1 project manager Fairweather LLC has completed the tendering and contracting program for drilling operations. Well cost is estimated at about $13.5 million gross (about $10 million net to 88 Energy). Flow testing is planned for the 2023-2024 winter season. Project Phoenix encompasses about 82,846 gross acres. It lies on-trend to recent discoveries by Pantheon Resources in multiple play types across top, slope, and bottom-set sands of the Mid Schrader Bluff, Canning, and Seabee formations. It holds an estimated unrisked conventional prospective oil resource of 647 million bbl.
U.S. Space Force official discuss plans to clean 700 gallon oil spill - The United Space Force on Maui held a conference on a chilly Monday morning to discuss the Air Force's plan to clean up an oil leak late last month. Brigadier General Anthony Mastalir told KITV4 they suspect a power surge from severe weather likely damaged a part of a back up generator. The damaged piece is called a floater; t monitors fuel levels and notifies a transfer pump when to fill the generator up with more fuel. Because the floater was damaged, the fuel overflowed. No more than 700 gallons leaked. Facility commander Brigadier General Anthony Mastalir adds this floater is designed to fail safely — but in this instance the device failed “catastrophically.” That is still being investigated. It is also unclear how deep the fuel seeped into the soil. Mastalir said experts have been working tirelessly over the past week looking into this incident and they are considering vendors to help with the remediation effort. Dozens of activists who are critical of the military’s presence on Haleakala- visited the site Sunday and met with Mastalir. Those demonstrators consider Haleakala sacred and Mastalir says he plans to include them in the clean up process and promised to communicate with them regularly. Moving forward Mastalir also pledged to be transparent with the public about this spill. Officials with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Health told KITV4 they will come to inspect the affected area.
Preliminary investigation underway on oil spill - The Maritime Safety Authority of Fiji with Fiji Ports Corporation Limited has confirmed that they have received reports of an oil spill within the parameters of the Suva Harbor, particularly at Narain Jetty. The pollution officers from the two organizations were able to contain the Tier one spill. According to a statement as of yesterday afternoon, oil spill booms were deployed and has been effective in containing the spill from spreading to other areas of the jetty. Preliminary investigations are currently underway to determine the cause of the spill, and necessary actions will be taken against the responsible individual or company. The Department of Environment and Water Police have been informed in regards to the incident and are assisting MSAF and FPCL with the investigation.
Equinor gets Canada regulator’s licence for offshore oil discovery A Canadian offshore oil regulator has issued a licence to Equinor’s Cappahayden K-67 discovery in the Flemish Pass Basin offshore Newfoundland, Canada.The Significant Discovery Licence 1059 has been issued by the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board.Based on the interpretation of well and seismic data associated with the discovery, C-NLOPB estimates that the Cappahayden K-67 discovery holds approximately 385 million barrels of recoverable oil.The nearby Bay du Nord field is estimated to hold 500 million barrels of recoverable oil,reported Reuters.In a press statement, C-NLOPB said: “The Petroleum Resources Management System adopted by the C-NLOPB defines Contingent Resources as ‘volumes of hydrocarbons, expressed at 50% probability, assessed to be technically recoverable, that have not been delineated and have unknown economic viability’.“This includes oil in fields/pools that are not approved for development.”Equinor holds a 60% stake in the discovery, which was made in 2020. The remaining 40% stake is held by BP.
Offshore Exploration Heats Up in Mexico - Shell is pushing forward with a four-well deepwater drilling program off Mexico's coast, headlining what looks to be a busy year for exploration by international oil companies. Drilling is set to kick off in the coming months for about a dozen offshore wells, largely deepwater, data from Mexican upstream regulator CNH shows. Shell has already finished drilling at one new well, Aluk, for which results are not available yet, and kicked off work at another, Jokol, in the Salina Basin in the southeastern part of the country, a spokeswoman said. Next up are the Itzcali and Luwa wells in the northern Perdido area. Shell has the Noble Voyager drillship under contract through October 2023. It is partnered with QatarEnergy in the Perdido blocks and with Chevron on the Aluk well. Shell will be hoping for better results than it realized with its initial five-well push in the region, which kicked off in 2020 but failed to yield a commercial discovery. The supermajor moved aggressively to capture large swathes of acreage in Mexico’s second deepwater bid round in 2018, with work commitments amounting to 13 wells. Shell is pushing ahead despite the nationalist energy policy of Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, which has soured the environment for external investment. Other companies are also seeing through their planned programs, albeit with mixed results. Drilling activity in Mexico's waters declined in 2022, but records show that another ramp-up is imminent amid the larger global call for more supply in the fallout of the Ukraine crisis. Oil and gas firms are also loosening their purse-strings a bit for selective exploration activity. Italy's Eni is one company that has found success in Mexico's offshore, both with exploration and from revamping and producing from a discovery that state oil firm Pemex never developed. A new floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel was installed last year in the shallow-water Area 1 field in the Salina Basin, which includes the Amoca, Mizton and Tecoalli fields. The CNH reported that output from the field averaged more than 20,000 barrels per day in December. The Italian major is rolling the dice again in the Salina Basin with the Yatzil-1EXP and Nabte-1EXP wells, located in shallow and deep waters, respectively. Eni has hired the Valaris DPS-5 drilling rig, with operations to kick off as soon as January. Malaysian state oil company Petronas is looking to drill a pair of deepwater wells in the Salina Basin as well, Coatlicue-1EXP and Naajal-1EXP. The company has contracted the Noble Globetrotter 1 drillship through March.
Colombia oil output down by 49,500 bpd on roadblock, companies say - Energy companies operating in Colombia, including majority state-owned oil company Ecopetrol, on Monday raised concerns about a roadblock in the country’s Meta province, which led to prodcution cuts of more than 49,500 barrels of oil per day. The roadblock is impeding movement on the road between Puerto Gaitan and Rubiales, preventing fuel from reaching oil operations, companies said in a joint statement sent to journalists by Ecopetrol and private operators’ group the Colombian Petroleum Association (ACP). More than 5,332 oil workers and their families have been negatively impacted by the protest, which has continued for seven days, the statement said. “The social and economic impacts are enormous,” the statement said, citing the impact on oil production as well as delays moving food and other good. Signatories included Ecopetrol’s subsidiary Hocol, as well as Spanish oil company Cepsa CPF.GQ and Canadian producer Frontera Energy. The protests are also impacting operations at refineries in the cities of Cartagena and Barrancabermeja, the companies said, putting Colombia’s fuel supplies at risk. The energy ministry and the national police did not immediately respond to requests for comment. In late January Ecopetrol said it would reduce output at its Barrancabermeja refinery to 210,000 bpd, from 230,000 bpd, because of farmer protests in Magdalena Medio.
Fracking firm Cuadrilla in bid to extend Preston site permission by two years - - Fracking firm Cuadrilla has asked for permission to keep its Preston New Road site for another two years.The firm is currently not allowed to use its boreholes to explore for shale formations from which to extract gas, but remains hopeful that a resumption will eventually be allowed. Its permission to use the land is currently due to expire later this year, but Cuadrilla has asked Lancashire County Council for a two-year extension running until April 2025.A moratorium was imposed on fracking, which uses high-pressure liquid to release gas from shale formations, after a series of earthquakes at the site in 2019. Liz Truss had indicated plans to lift that effective ban during her brief tenure as Prime Minister, but her replacement Rishi Sunak has kept it in place.Reacting to that decision in October 2022, Cuadrilla chief executive Francis Egan said it "beggared belief" and pointed to Mr Sunak's conflicting remarks during the leadership election. Mr Egan said: “In the middle of an energy and cost of living crisis, when the UK and Europe is increasingly reliant on shale gas shipped across the Atlantic and liquified gas from Qatar to keep the lights on, it beggars belief that our Government should reintroduce a moratorium on exploring for and producing our own shale gas. “This new Government is turning its back on an industry that has the potential to create tens of thousands of jobs across the North of England, generate billions in private sector investment, and provide local councils with much-needed tax revenue. The industry has recently unveiled a community dividend package worth hundreds of millions of pounds per producing shale gas sites. This is money which would go directly towards helping local households and families, yet this announcement will prevent red wall communities benefitting from their own natural resources.” Opponents of the practice have consistently challenged those arguments and say that not only does the UK have the "wrong type of shale" but also that the practice would not lead to lower bills for those living nearby or across the country. They also say that the environmental concerns cannot be ignored.
Calls to brand fracking in North Yorkshire ‘inappropriate’ rejected - The leadership of a Conservative-led council which sparked an outcry by approving a proposal to frack has rejected calls to label the gas extraction method as “inappropriate”.North Yorkshire County Council’s executive said it would not support Liberal Democrat and Green motions to declare hydraulic fracturing as inappropriate in the county, despite the council having declared a climate emergency and pushing forward plans to reduce carbon.While the council’s leaders have pointed towards Rishi Sunak reimposing the government’s ban on fracking which was last year lifted by Liz Truss, opposition councillors have claimed the moratorium could be ended again.The recommendation to a full meeting of the authority later this month comes three years after Third Energy announced it would not use planning consent for the hydraulic fracturing of rock to extract gas in Ryedale which the council’s planning committee granted it, triggering a huge and sustained outcry.The planning decision in 2016 lead to hundreds of thousands of pounds of North Yorkshire taxpayers money being spent on policing protests outside the Kirby Misperton site.A meeting of the executive heard opposition members implore the authority to show leadership over climate change policies and agree that fracking, which was “the most polluting fossil fuel extraction” was incompatible with its ambition to be part of the country’s first carbon negative region.Green councillor Arnold Warneken said the motions simply looked to reinforce the council’s policies over fracking.He said: “In this case we are not discussing the rights and wrongs of what we allow in our county, we are talking about saving our very existence.“If we are going to ask all those third parties who are the major contributors to carbon emissions in this county to take us seriously, we can send strong messages out to tell them that we believe fracking is inappropriate.”
Attitudes toward green energy could be negatively affected by fracking debate --Public attitudes towards some new low-carbon technologies could be negatively influenced by the fracking debate, new research from Cardiff University suggests.A team from the University's School of Psychology found that acceptance of deep geothermal energy—technology to harness the heat beneath the Earth's crust—was affected by the backdrop of controversy and opposition towards fracking for oil and gas.Green hydrogen, on the other hand—which is produced by using green energy to power the electrolysis of water—was found to have been less impacted by concerns around fracking because of its perceived difference.The effect, known as "perception spillover," means that people's existing beliefs about one area influence another related area.Dr. Emily Cox said, "Our research shows that some people make spontaneous connections between fracking and deep geothermal energy."Some participants in our study brought up fracking within the first few minutes of discussion about deep geothermal energy. When others were prompted to think about fracking, triggering underlying associations, we saw the proportion of negative spillover increase to nearly half the survey sample."As green hydrogen was seen as different to fracking, the spillover effects were less strong. But, when prompted to consider fracking, 14% of our survey respondentsexpressed more positive perceptions of green hydrogen because of the perceived dissimilarity to fracking."The researchers conducted a nationally representative U.K. survey (927 participants) and two focus groups to explore whether the strong public response to fracking might impact public perceptions of other technologies, affecting their chances of successful deployment.Focusing on two of those technologies—deep geothermal energy and green hydrogen—the results suggest that techniques perceived to be similar to fracking, especially those with an underground drilling or injection component, are likely to be most vulnerable to perception spillover effects from fracking.
Shell directors sued by investor charity - In a “world-first” lawsuit, backed by institutional investors, Shell is sued by shareholder ClientEarth with claims that Shell’s energy transition strategy is insufficient. Environmental law charity ClientEarth has filed a lawsuit against the individual directors of oil giant Shell in a world-first lawsuit.The charity alleges that the 11 directors have breached their legal duties, under the UK’s Companies Act, by failing to adopt an energy transition strategy that aligns with the Paris Agreement.The claim, filed in the high court of England and Wales on Wednesday, received support from institutional investors holding more than 12 million of Shell’s 7 billion total shares. These equate to more than half a trillion US dollars in total assets under management and include pension funds in the UK, France, Belgium, Denmark, and Sweden.Mark Fawcett, chief investment officer of UK pension fund Nest said “Investors want to see action in line with the risk climate change presents and will challenge those who aren’t doing enough to transition their business. We hope the whole energy industry sits up and take notice.”ClientEarth said that this is the first lawsuit, filed by shareholders, that alleges that a company is failing to adequately move away from fossil fuels. The charity has a small shareholding in Shell, allowing it to file a lawsuit against them under the Companies Act.ClientEarth senior lawyer Paul Benson said of the lawsuit: “the board [of Shell] is persisting with a transition strategy that is fundamentally flawed, leaving the company seriously exposed to the risks that climate change poses to Shell’s future success – despite the board’s legal duty to manage those risks.”In a response to Offshore Technology, Shell rejected ClientEarth’s allegations, stating that the company “believes our climate targets are aligned with the […] Paris Agreement”. The statement continued to say that Shell “will oppose [ClientEarth’s] application to obtain the court’s permission to pursue this claim” and that “the group of institutional investors collectively holding more than 12 million shares […] represent less than 0.2% of Shell’s total shareholder base.”The lawsuit comes a week after Shell’s record annual profits sparked criticism in the UK.
Nord Stream Sabotage Was CIA, US Navy Covert Op: Seymour Hersh Bombshell Prompts White House Response - Famed journalist and Pulitzer prize winner Seymour Hersh, who for decades was a star reporter writing for The New York Times and New Yorker, on Wednesday published a new bombshell as his first Substack post, prompting a quick White House response. After conducting his own investigation into who sabotaged the Nord Stream pipelines via a series of underwater blasts on Sept. 26, Hersh has concluded the United States blew up the Russia-to-Germany natural gas pipeline as part of a covert operation under the guise of the BALTOPS 22 NATO exercise. Hersh, relying on unnamed national security sources, describes months of discussions and back-and-forth involving the Biden White House, CIA, and Pentagon. The report says planning was in the works all the way back to December 2021, with a special task force formed under the aegis of US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan."The Navy proposed using a newly commissioned submarine to assault the pipeline directly. The Air Force discussed dropping bombs with delayed fuses that could be set off remotely. The CIA argued that whatever was done, it would have to be covert. Everyone involved understood the stakes," the report, entitled How America Took Out The Nord Stream Pipeline reads. "The Biden Administration was doing everything possible to avoid leaks as the planning took place late in 2021 and into the first months of 2022," it continues. As momentum gained to proceed with a covert sabotage attack, "Over the next few weeks, members of the CIA’s working group began to craft a plan for a covert operation that would use deep-sea divers to trigger an explosion along the pipeline," Hersh writes. But there was significant push back within the intelligence community, but any reservations were overcome in the lead-up and aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. According to the investigative report: Throughout “all of this scheming,” the source said, “some working guys in the CIA and the State Department were saying, ‘Don’t do this. It’s stupid and will be a political nightmare if it comes out.’”Nevertheless, in early 2022, the CIA working group reported back to Sullivan’s interagency group: “We have a way to blow up the pipelines.”What came next was stunning. On February 7, less than three weeks before the seemingly inevitable Russian invasion of Ukraine, Biden met in his White House office with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who, after some wobbling, was now firmly on the American team. At the press briefing that followed, Biden defiantly said, “If Russia invades . . . there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it.”Twenty days earlier, Undersecretary Nuland had delivered essentially the same message at a State Department briefing, with little press coverage. “I want to be very clear to you today,” she said in response to a question. “If Russia invades Ukraine, one way or another Nord Stream 2 will not move forward.”As for Washington motives in such a risky covert sabotage mission, Hersh writes, "As long as Europe remained dependent on the pipelines for cheap natural gas, Washington was afraid that countries like Germany would be reluctant to supply Ukraine with the money and weapons it needed to defeat Russia."
Kremlin says those behind Nord Stream blasts must be punished (Reuters) -The Kremlin said on Thursday the world should know the truth about who sabotaged the Nord Stream gas pipelines and that those responsible should be punished after an investigative journalist said U.S. divers blew them up at the behest of the White House. A sharp drop in pressure on both pipelines was registered on Sept. 26 and seismologists detected explosions, triggering a wave of speculation about sabotage to one of Russia's most important energy corridors. In a blog post, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh cited an unidentified source as saying that U.S. navy divers had destroyed the pipelines with explosives on the orders of President Joe Biden. Reuters was unable to corroborate the allegations. The White House dismissed them as "utterly false and complete fiction". Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Hersh's blog post deserved more attention and that he was surprised it had not been covered more fully by Western media. "The world must find out the truth about who carried out this act of sabotage," Peskov told reporters. "This is a very dangerous precedent: if someone did it once, they can do it again anywhere in the world." He called for "an open international investigation of this unprecedented attack on international critical infrastructure", adding: "It is impossible to leave this without uncovering those responsible and punishing them." Russia, without providing evidence, has repeatedly said the West was behind the blasts affecting the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines last September - multibillion-dollar infrastructure projects that carried Russian gas to Germany. President Vladimir Putin has accused "Anglo-Saxon" powers of blowing up the pipelines, a Kremlin-designed project to circumvent Ukraine in exporting its gas under the Baltic Sea directly to western Europe. Investigators from Sweden and Denmark - in whose exclusive economic zones the explosions occurred - have said the ruptures were a result of sabotage, but have not said who they believe was responsible. In his blog post, entitled "How America Took Out The Nord Stream Pipeline", Hersh said a plan was hatched in 2021 at the highest levels in the United States to destroy the pipelines. The report said a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) working group came up with a covert operation plan to put explosives on the pipelines. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier this month that Washington was directly involved in the sabotage of the pipelines.
Still strong: European demand for Russian LNG not fading, says Novatek - European customers are as interested as ever in buying cargoes of liquefied natural gas from Russian projects — despite the fallout from the Ukraine conflict — according to Leonid Mikhelson, executive chairman of Russian independent producer Novatek. Speaking at the India Energy Week event in Bangalore, India, Mikhelson told reporters that satisfying European demand for gas presents attractive opportunities for Novatek as LNG was not included in EU sanctions imposed last year. Overall European demand for LNG has soared in direct proportion to the reduction in Russian gas pipeline supplies to the continent that predated Moscow’s decision to invade Ukraine, but intensified afterwards. The continent lost an equivalent of 43 million tonnes of LNG of Russian gas pipeline deliveries in 2022, Mikhelson has estimated. Mikhelson expects Europe to source between 40 million and 50 million tonnes of LNG to replace Russian gas pipeline supplies this year in order to pass another winter. But he warned that that volume could “easily grow” to between 60 million and 70 million tonnes if China and India start lifting more LNG under their long term contracts instead of permitting Novatek-led Yamal LNG and suppliers from other countries to divert contracted volumes to Europe for spot sales. The Mikhelson's assertion is in line with a last week's pronouncement from Shell chief executive officer Wael Sawan who talked about 50% of LNG, destined to be shipped to China under long-term deals, being sent instead to Europe because of record high gas prices on the continent during the last year.Novatek also pointed out that the withdrawal of Western contractors and suppliers from the operator’s Arctic LNG 2 project has not disrupted the project as much as Western nations may have expected.Novatek expects to start towing out of the first LNG train from a yard near the Russian port of Murmansk in August, with the facility planned to produce first LNG before end of this year. Mikhelson said sanctions had prompted the company to conduct most of its commissioning works while the train remains in the yard rather than after installation offshore from West Siberia’s Gydan Peninsula, as planned earlier.
Equinor annual operating profit surges to nearly $75bn - Norwegian energy major Equinor has reported an adjusted operating profit of $74.9bn for 2022, compared with $33.5bn a year ago. The earnings were boosted by a surge in oil and gas prices in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Norwegian firm’s adjusted earnings after tax for 2022 were $22.7bn, against $10bn in the same period a year ago. For the period under review, the firm’s net operating income rose to $78.8bn from $33.66bn a year ago. The company’s net income for the year stood at $28.7bn while free cash flow was $23.4bn. Total revenues and other income increased to $150.80bn, from $90.92bn a year earlier. Equinor president and CEO Anders Opedal said: “Equinor is uniquely positioned to provide energy and contribute to decarbonisation while delivering strong returns. “Strong earnings and cash flow will enable continued competitive capital distribution and investments in high-value, resilient projects within oil and gas, renewables, and low carbon solutions.” “On the back of strong earnings, outlook, and balance sheet, we step up capital distribution to an expected $17bn in 2023.” Equinor announced a cash dividend of $0.30 per share and will also make an additional, extraordinary payment of $0.60 per share for Q4 2022. Furthermore, the company’s board has decided to increase the share buy-back programme from $1.2bn to $6bn in 2023.
Norway Steps Up as EU Supplier -- Norway’s role as a critical supplier of hydrocarbons to Europe came into sharp focus during 2022 after Russia’s war in Ukraine left the continent short of oil and gas. Oslo’s relatively stable fiscal terms have enabled companies to position themselves for the future and maintain high production levels offshore Norway to 2030. But non-EU member Norway is seeking greater clarity and commitment from the bloc around its future appetite for gas. Norwegian operators have stepped up to relieve Europe’s energy supply security concerns, with a record 24 upstream projects approved last year alone. That’s out of a total 35 projects sanctioned since 2020 under Oslo’s temporary tax regime, amounting to almost $43 billion of greenfield investment, according to consultancy Rystad Energy. Aker BP operates 17 of the 35 projects on the list, including the Yggdrasil hub (start-up 2027), currently Norway's biggest future oil and gas scheme. Equinor operates 11 projects, with Breidablikk (start up 2025) seen as a key contributor to oil output while Irpa (start-up 2026) and Shell’s Ormen Lange phase 3 (start-up 2025) will help maintain a high flow of gas to Europe. Norway’s fiscal terms have been an important factor in bolstering supplies to Europe at a critical time. The 35 projects sanctioned under the temporary tax regime will tap almost 2.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent of recoverable resources, keeping investment steady until the late 2020s and tax revenues flowing to government coffers. Rystad forecasts a steep production ramp-up from 2025, peaking at almost 4.49 million barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2027-28, with liquids output reaching 2.49 million boe/d. However, spending is projected to fall sharply to around 170 billion kroner ($16.8 billion) in 2027 by when most projects will be online. It reckons Norway will supply close to 30% of all European gas by 2028, up from around 24% now. The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate’s (NPD) more modest forecast sees output peaking earlier, reaching 4.3 million boe/d in 2025, up from 4.12 million boe/d in 2022. Norway exported 122 billion cubic meters of pipeline gas to Europe last year, up 8% from 2021 and the highest level recorded by the NPD. The upstream regulator sees gas exports peaking at 122.46 Bcm in 2025. Liquids production in 2022 was almost 7% lower than the previous year at 1.89 million barrels per day. Across the North Sea, the UK government’s extension of a national levy on companies’ windfall profits has had some unintended consequences. Operators there have been assessing what the latest fiscal intervention means for their investments and strategic goals. Harbour Energy — the UK’s biggest oil and gas producer — will continue to invest in existing opportunities in its portfolio. But it will scale back investment in other areas like exploration, cut jobs, and diversify away from the UK. TotalEnergies is cutting investment in the UK by 25% this year due to the levy, and other companies have warned that it could affect their investment decisions. North Sea drillers from the International Association of Drilling Contractors this week flagged the ongoing “migration” of rigs and equipment from the UK offshore due to the lack of opportunities and better prospects overseas. At the same time, Norway is seeking greater clarity and commitment from Brussels over its future gas needs and net-zero policy objectives to justify longer-term investment in projects and export infrastructure. The European Commission’s climate-related policy goal to ban Arctic hydrocarbon development and stop importing such hydrocarbons have added to the uncertainty. Indeed, wrangling over the EU's Arctic oil and gas policy has led to an impasse in negotiations with Norway over a “green industrial alliance.” According to Norwegian non-governmental organization Bellona, Oslo wants the draft agreement text to support activity in the Arctic region after 2030, which the EU rejects. Norway sees the Arctic Barents Sea as a significant source of untapped gas resources. And Bellona founder Frederic Hauge tells Energy Intelligence that gas lobbyists are pushing the EU hard for support for continued exploration to justify further investment, continuation and even potentially expansion of fossil activities. Still, he says, failure to forge closer ties on industrialized clean technologies with the EU, its most important trading partner, would be to the detriment of future-oriented industries in Norway and the development of markets for batteries, carbon capture and storage technology, and hydrogen.
EU Looks to Extend Mandatory Cuts in Gas Demand EU member states are expected to hold talks later this month about extending mandatory cuts in gas consumption, which are set to expire at the end of March.
Fracking is Extremely Polluting, Climate Website Warns -Hungary Today - The extraction of shale gas – fracking – is several times more polluting than conventional natural gas, writes Greendex, a Hungarian news site focused on environmental and climate issues.“Shale gas and natural gas are practically the same substance. The difference between them comes from where and how they are located deep in the earth. In simple terms, conventional natural gas, like artesian water, seeps through layers and collects there when it reaches a geological seal. In contrast, shale gas does not accumulate but is trapped in very small, sometimes microscopic, cavities, channels and capillaries of shale formations, which are also low permeability, deep in the earth,” the article explains. According to Greendex, European shale gas reserves are estimated to be around 89,000 billion cubic metres, which, assuming EU consumption of around 400 billion cubic metres in 2021, could cover EU consumption for more than 200 years. Of this, Hungary has a share of 813 billion cubic metres, which would be sufficient to meet domestic gas demand of close to 10 billion cubic metres per year until the end of the 21st century. Related article: Hungary Could Have Shale Gas Lasting a Century – - Fracking is becoming an important resource in times of energy crisis, but it comes with inevitable environmental costs.Continue reading In the US, production could in principle be ramped up in a relatively short time of a few years under optimal conditions, but the situation in Europe is very different from overseas, and for a number of reasons, a similarly rapid and large result cannot be expected here, the portal points out.European regulation is stricter, with many countries outright banning hydraulic fracking. It is a huge source of pollution and carries unforeseeable environmental risks. Any LNG is much more damaging to the climate than natural gas, especially if it comes by pipeline, the article concludes.
Bulgaria starts building natural gas interconnector with Serbia -Interconnector Bulgaria-Serbia (IBS) has begun building the 62-km, 28-in. OD Bulgarian section of the 1.8-billion cu m/year (174-MMcfd) natural gas pipeline, running from the border between the two countries to Novi Iksar, Bulgaria. Total length of the reverse-flow capable pipeline is 170 km. The project will also include automated gas-regulating stations at Slivnitsa and Dragoman, Bulgaria, and a gas-metering station at Kalotina. In a video message, European Union (EU) commissioner for energy, Kadri Simson, said: “The beginning of the works on IBS marks another critical milestone in the region's pathway toward diversification of sources and routes. It is now crucial that both governments and operators closely cooperate to ensure that the pipeline is ready and operational in the second half of 2023.” IBS is recognized as an EU project of common interest and was described by the Union as “part of a broader process of diversification of gas supplies and a steppingstone for further enhancement of energy security in the region.” The project is necessary to reduce import dependence on Russian gas and provide alternative supply routes in southeast Europe, the EU said. The EU co-funded the Bulgarian section of the €76.7-million pipeline segment with €27.6 million under the Connecting Europe Facility Energy program and €6 million from structural funds. Bulgartransgaz EAD is heading the project in Bulgaria. The EU also funded the Serbian section of the pipeline with a grant of €49.6 million through the Instrument of Pre-Accession scheme.
Russia, China Sign Intergovernmental Gas Deal | Energy Intelligence - Russia and China have signed an intergovernmental agreement on pipeline gas supplies via the "Far Eastern Route," according to a related document prepared by the Russian Energy Ministry.The document mentions that the intergovernmental agreement was signed by both countries on Jan. 31.The agreement defines key parameters of a 10 billion cubic meter per year gas supply contract signed by Russia's Gazprom and China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) in February 2022.It gives state-controlled gas giant Gazprom the exclusive right to supply gas to China via the cross-border section of the Far Eastern Route.The cross-border section will stretch from the Sakhalin-Khabarovsk-Vladivostok pipeline and run across the Ussuri River near the Russian border town of Dalnerechensk, which lies north of Vladivostok.It also notes that Russia and China are committed to supporting the use of their national currencies for payments under the contract.The Far Eastern Route contract is the second gas supply deal between Russia and China, following the 38 Bcm/yr Power of Siberia contract signed in 2014.Supplies via Power of Siberia started in late 2019, but it is not yet clear when supplies via the Far Eastern Route will start.The contract is part of Russia's plans to expand its gas exports to Asia — plans which have become increasingly important for Moscow after its invasion of Ukraine almost a year ago.The war led to a series of international sanctions against Moscow and the loss of most of its traditional pipeline gas exports to Europe.China remains central to Gazprom's diversification efforts. Russia is also talking to Beijing about a 50 Bcm/yr contract with CNPC to export gas via the proposed Power of Siberia 2 pipeline and a transit section in Mongolia dubbed Soyuz Vostok.Apart from monetizing new gas resources in East Siberia, Power of Siberia 2 would also take gas from West Siberian fields, which have traditionally supplied Europe and Russia's domestic market.Gazprom is also looking for opportunities to increase domestic gas consumption and find new markets in Asia, including Central Asia.It is also keen to keep exporting pipeline gas to Europe via a proposed gas hub in Turkey.Turkey had been planning to hold a summit in Istanbul on Feb. 14-15 to discuss the hub with potential gas suppliers and buyers. However, sources tell Energy Intelligence that the summit has been postponed until the second half of March because of the deadly earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria earlier this week.
India Predicts 500% Increase In Domestic Natural Gas Demand - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday projected that the country’s gas demand would rise 500% due to the rapid pace of development, while its share of global oil demand would more than double. While the Indian prime minister did not offer a specific time frame for this major boost in demand, he said that the country’s energy demand would be highest in the present decade. Modi’s statement, delivered during the opening ceremony of India Energy Week 2023, coincides with a recent OPEC report that expects India to be the largest contributor to incremental demand, with the country expected to add some 6.3 million bpd until 2045. Overall, OPEC said it saw demand increasing to 110 million bpd in 2045, up from 97 million bpd in 2021. Modi predicts India’s share in global oil demand will increase from 5% to 11%. The Indian prime minister used the occasion to highlight the country’s plans to boost exploration and production, which he said would provide opportunities for investors. Right now, India relies on imports for some 85% of its energy needs, with India and China being the largest importers of oil and gas in the world. With this in mind, India will remove significant restrictions on exploration, reducing “no-go” areas for E&P companies. India also plans to expand its refining capacity, along with its LNG import capacity by 2030. Asia is now the biggest buyer of Russian crude since the imposition of Western sanctions following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Some 70% of Russian Urals January loading cargoes were bound for India, according to Reuters data. India’s oil minister, Hardeep Singh Puri, also said on Monday that regardless of Western sanctions, the country would not shun Russian oil, which it receives at a discount to Brent crude.
Five dead after gas explosion in Russia's Novosibirsk (Reuters) - Five people including a two-year-old child were killed on Thursday in a gas explosion in a housing block in the city of Novosibirsk in Siberia, Russian media reported. Video published by Russia's emergencies ministry showed a section of a multi-story residential building largely destroyed, with the building's facade missing. Regional authorities said that 11 people had been hurt in the explosion. Russia's Investigative Committee, which is responsible for major crimes, said it had opened an investigation.
EU Agrees To $100 Russian Diesel Price Cap --EU members have agreed to support a price cap level of $100 per barrel on Russian diesel sales to third-party countries, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg on Friday afternoon. The EU’s ban on Russian seaborne crude oil products imports, including diesel and naphtha, is scheduled to go into effect on February 5. The EU’s proposal, submitted last week, called for capping the price of Russian diesel sold to third countries at $100 per barrel for products that trade at a premium and $45 for those that sell at a discount. Similarly to the price cap on Russian crude, buyers outside the EU would continue to have access to Western insurance and financing for cargoes if they comply with the price cap.The proposal also included setting a price cap of $45 per barrel for discounted products such as fuel oil, which sources suggest has also been approved. The goal of the price caps is to limit Russia’s revenues derived from crude oil and its refined products, while keeping the market supplied with Russian energy.Despite the ban and price cap mechanism that are set to go into effect on Sunday, Russia’s energy minister said he saw no reason to reduce the country’s output on petroleum products, nor was it considering a reschedule for its refinery maintenance to make use of possible reduction in Russian demand.Although the price cap goes into effect on Sunday, there is a grace period for cargoes loaded before the cap was agreed to that runs until April. Russian diesel prices were about $90 earlier this week, below the cap. Wood MacKenzie said earlier this week that a $100 cap would not have a significant effect on Russian refiners, but could bring its diesel exports down about 200,000 bpd.
EU Embargo On Russian Oil Products Enters Into Effect --As of Sunday, no Russian oil products can be imported into the European Union, per the latest sanction hit of Brussels against Moscow.The embargo has been combined with a price cap, agreed upon with the G7 in the same way that the EU and the G7 coordinated the price cap on Russian crude last year.The price caps were agreed at $100 per barrel of diesel, which trades at a premium to crude oil, and $45 per barrel of fuel oil and other oil products that trade at a discount to crude oil. The price cap applies to Russian fuel cargoes shipped on vessels owned by companies based in the EU or G7.There is some concern among analysts that the end of Russian fuel deliveries will push prices in the EU higher, but the EU is hoping to avoid such a development by switching to new suppliers, mostly from the Middle East.Some have warned that the fuel embargo will have a more disruptive effect on energy markets than the crude oil embargo that went into effect on December 5 last year.Russia, in the meantime, is on track to export more refined products this month than it exported in January, according to traders and cargo data, reported by Reuters.Exports of low-sulfur diesel and gasoil from Russian ports on the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea are set for monthly growth of between 5 percent and 10 percent to a combined 4.3 million tons, the data showed. Yet Russian fuel exporters are facing challenges, such as a shortage of tankers to carry their products and the risk of port closures due to stormy weather. The price caps, on the other hand, could affect refiners’ margins and prompt them to reduce production.
Oil Industry Adapts to G7 Price Cap - It is early days but signs are emerging that the oil industry is learning to adapt to the G7 price cap on Russian crude just as a second cap on Russian oil products came into effect on Feb. 5. The G7 rationale behind the cap was to target Russian oil revenues while keeping the oil flowing to prevent global oil price spikes, but it is still hard to judge how effective the mechanism will be. So far, EU and UK-based tankers have mainly avoided transporting Russian barrels, with one estimate that only around one in 10 Russian crude fixtures is now being lifted by a tanker under G7 rules. Meanwhile, Moscow has said it will not cooperate with the price cap and Russian law prohibits sales of Russian crude and products to foreign companies that comply with the G7 caps. Instead, a large “shadow fleet” — estimated at some 650 tankers — has emerged to transport both Russian crude and products, with India and China the principal buyers. Shipping and trading sources have confirmed more than a dozen European-owned tankers loaded Russian crude oil in January on which the $60 per barrel price cap would have been applied. The dozen-plus tankers identified in January loaded cargoes at various Russian ports for different destinations, including India, China, Turkey and Bulgaria, data from BRS Shipbrokers show. Most of the oil was Russian Urals — excluding Kebco crude from Kazakhstan that is sold as Urals but not subject to any restrictions. There was also at least one shipment of East Siberia-Pacific Ocean (Espo) blend shipped from the Kozmino terminal in Russia’s Far East. Some of the vessels are managed by Greek firms such as Kyklades Maritime, TMS Tankers, Dynacom and Avin International, with some smaller Western operators also featuring.
Narendra Modi: India poised for five-fold rise in gas consumption - India’s gas consumption is set to jump by up to 500% in the coming years, along with a sizeable increase in gas infrastructure and liquefied natural gas import capacity, according to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Speaking at the India Energy Week (IEW) conference in Bengaluru on Monday, Modi said the country is working on a “mission mode” to scale up consumption of natural gas, increasing its share of the country’s energy mix to up to 15% by 2030, up from the existing 6%. Modi did not elaborate on the timeframe for boosting India’s gas production five-fold, but industry sources told Upstream that the Indian government aims to achieve the target as early as end of this decade. “Domestic exploration and production will be increased as a part of India’s plans to boost gas consumption,” Modi noted. India’s gas consumption stood at close to 174 million cubic metres per day by end of 2022 and, along with a 500% boost, could reach as high as 870 MMcmd in the coming years, Upstream understands. India’s growing gas consumption is likely to come from increased domestic gas production along with a higher share of LNG imports. Domestic private sector company Reliance Industries recently said it is poised for a huge boost in gas production from its KG-D6 asset in the Krishna Godavari basin offshore India’s eastern coast. Managing director Mukesh Ambani said a joint venture with UK supermajor BP on KG-D6 is on track to reach 30 MMcmd of gas production in the 2023-2024 financial year after commissioning of the MJ field. State-owned Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is also expected to scale up its domestic gas production in the coming years, on the back of multiple gas-based developments across the country’s east and west coasts. Modi stated that India’s regasification capacity, which stood at 21 million tonnes per annum in 2014, has doubled by 2022 and is now expected to significantly go up in the coming years. India is the world’s fourth-largest impprter of LNG importer. It currently has six LNG import terminals with a combined nameplate capacity of up to 42.5 million tpa, which is expected to increase up to 70 million tpa by 2030. The share of LNG in India’s gas consumption is also expected to rise to 70% from the current 50% over a 10-year period, sources have told Upstream. Modi said that India has also been expanding its gas pipeline infrastructure, with the nation’s gas pipeline network poised to increase to 35,000 kilometres in the next five years, up from the existing 22,000 kilometres. Modi said that, as a key initiative to boost domestic exploration and domestic sector, the nation has freed up to 1 million square kilometres of “no go” region, which was earlier inaccessible for exploration purposes. “Up to 98% reduction in no-go areas has been achieved by the government,” Modi stated.
Russia accounts for 28% of India’s oil imports in January - The share of Russian crude rose to a record 28% of India’s oil imports in January, remaining the top supplier for the fourth month in a row on heavy bargain hunting by refiners, data from ship tracking showed.Russian crude accounted for 0.2% of India’s oil imports due to uneconomical transport logistics before Moscow sent troops into Ukraine on February 24 last year.As the the West responded with sanctions followed by a price cap and a ban on importing Russian crude, Indian refiners started lapping up the shunned barrels at discounts.The share of Iraq, which was relegated to the second spot in October 2022, stood at 20%, while Saudi Arabia stood third with a 17% share. Shipments from the US improved to 9% from 7% in December.At the India Energy Week 2023, oil ministry officials pointed to foreign minister S Jaishankar and oil minister Hardeep Singh Puri making India’s stand clear at various global forums broadly saying India will buy oil from anywhere in the world, including Russia, to fuel economic growth and lift millions out of poverty.Seaborne Russian oil continues to flow to India as refiners are buying on FOB (free on board) basis where the supplier arranges shipping and insurance, which have become difficult in view of the sanctions. The discounts to benchmark Brent keeps the price below the $60 per barrel cap.For Russia to keep oil sales going, it and its buyers need to use ships, insurance and financing outside the jurisdiction of the G-7. The US is comfortable with Russia selling its oil outside of the cap but using non-Western shipping, insurance and banking services would likely be more costly.
India's share in global oil demand expected to rise to 11%, gas to 500%: PM Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said that India's share in the global oil demand is expected to increase to 11 per cent, while the gas demand is expected to rise up to 500 per cent. He underlined that new opportunities for investment and collaboration are being created by the expanding energy sector of India. He said this in his address while inaugurating the India Energy Week. Quoting the International Energy Association, the prime minister remarked that India's energy demands will be highest in the present decade which presents an opportunity for the investors and stakeholders of the energy sector. Later in the day, he also launched E20 fuel at 84 retail outlets of oil marketing companies in 11 states along the lines of the ethanol blending roadmap. E20 indicates a 20 per cent ethanol and 80 per cent petrol blend. The number 20 in the designation E20 refers to the proportion of ethanol in the petrol blend. In other words, the higher the number, the higher the proportion of Ethanol in the petrol. India's current ethanol mix with petrol is 10 per cent, which is higher than it has ever been.
Russia equipped to meet India’s rising crude oil demand: Rosneft CEO - Russia is prepared to meet India’s rising demand for crude oil, Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin told Oil Minister HS Puri on Monday. Puri met with Sechin on the sidelines of the India Energy Week (IEW) in the IT city. “During this short meeting, Sechin told the Minister that whatever is India’s requirement, they [Russia] are ready to supply it,” said a source. Russia has emerged as India’s largest crude oil supplier after Iraq. In December 2022, Russia supplied an average of 1.4 million barrels per day (MPD) against 1 MPS from Iraq, according to data from Kpler. During January this year, Russian crude imports stood at around 1.2 MPD, while Saudi Arabia supplied 670,000 barrels per day and Iraq 660,000 barrels per day. The development assumes importance as India’s crude oil demand is rising on the back of growing industrial activity, as well as rising domestic consumption in the households and transport & logistics sector. This was also highlighted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his inaugural address at the IEW on Monday. “Energy is a big factor in meeting the aspirations of the people of India. From industries to factories to offices to households, India’s energy demand is rising,” the PM said. In a session with Puri at the IEW, Sechin noted that India is emerging as a leader in the global economy, and has a young and ambitious population. In the same session, Puri stressed that energy security today means “availability, supply, predictability and affordability”. On India continuing to import higher quantities of crude oil from Russia, Kpler’s Lead Analyst (Dirty Products and Refining), Andon Pavlov, had earlier told the businessline “Mostly yes, the US has already more or less approved the India-Russia crude cooperation and so even considering that the delivered price for Indian refiners is not as low as international benchmarks will suggest (Urals trading at a sizeable discount to Brent), the price of Russian crude still remains consistently below other alternatives, so it makes sense for India’s refiners to continue buying a lot of Russian crude.”
Russian’s Lukoil breaks new ground with Kazakhstan state oil company - Russian privately held oil producer Lukoil has become the first foreign investor to agree to new operating terms approved by authorities in Kazakhstan in January. Luckoil has authorised its partner, Kazakh state oil and holding KazMunayGaz, to agree what is described as a standardised exploration and development contract for a large offshore block in the country’s sector of the Caspian Sea. Under the deal signed in Astana on Monday, KazMunayGaz and Lukoil take on a project to explore and develop the Kalamkas-more block. Besides an already discovered oilfield of the same name, the licensed shallow-water acreage also includes two more deposits — Khazar and Auezov, with estimated total recoverable reserves of 510 million barrels of oil and some 9 billion cubic metres of natural gas. According to a statement from the Kazakh Energy Ministry, KazMunayGaz and Lukoil have agreed to pay $32 million as a signature bonus, and have also committed to invest up to $6 billion into the project. Kazakh authorities expect the two partners to proceed to preparations for the development of the fields as soon as possible, as first oil production is hoped to be seen as early as 2028. Kalamkas-more and Khazar were part of a larger Kashagan development block until 2019 when the international operating consortium developing Kashagan opted to return the deposits to the government after being unable to agree upon suitable development options for the assets, expected to be capable of delivering a profit. The two deposits, which are located about 30 kilometres apart, are in water depths of just seven to nine metres in the Caspian Sea. However, installation of any structures in this sea area is challenged by strong ice movements during winter months. Earlier exploration drilling at the Kalamkas field was conducted by creating subsea stone mounds to enable installation of a drilling barge on top to hold it securely at the drill site. The Energy Ministry said the government acknowledges the licensed block is a “challenging offshore asset”, hence Lukoil will be provided with a “temporary package of regulatory and fiscal priviledges”. The ministry said that terms of the standardised contract Lukoil agreed to use will be applicable to other oil and gas projects in the country, with its general terms being open for perusal by potential investors into the country’s energy sector.According to these terms, the operator of the licensed block will receive temporary relief from paying a crude-oil export tax when shipping its production to international markets.
Rosneft CEO: The Price Of Russia’s Flagship Oil Will Now Be Set By Asia - The price of Russia’s flagship Urals oil blend is no longer set by Europe but by Asia, which has become the largest market for the commodity, Rosneft’s chief executive Igor Sechin said at the India Energy Week. "If Russian oil does not enter the European market, then there is no reference price. Reference prices will be formed where oil volumes actually go," Sechin said, as quoted by Reuters. "As it's scripted in Ecclesiastes: what is crooked cannot be straightened; what is lacking cannot be counted," he added. The European Union imposed an embargo on most seaborne Russian crude oil imports in December as part of its sanction push against Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine. The EU also set, together with the G7, a price cap for Russian crude oil shipments to other countries in a bid to stymie the Kremlin’s oil revenues further. The embargo and the price cap have widened the discount of Urals to Brent crude, making it attractive for buyers from China and India. In a matter of months, even before the December embargo went into effect, most of the Russian oil that used to go to Europe, had been redirected to the two Asian powerhouses. According to Reuters calculations, some 70 percent of the Urals cargoes loaded last month went to India. Russia has become India’s largest supplier of crude oil. Yet the two Asian majors are not just buying Urals. The prices of two other popular Russian blends—ESPO and Sokol—have been trading at above $70 per barrel recently. At the time of writing, ESPO had slipped below $70 but Sokol was above the threshold which is $10 per barrel above the EU/G7 price cap. Urals, at the same time, averaged $49.48 per barrel in January, according to Finance Ministry data cited by Reuters. This was 42 percent cheaper than its price for January 2022.
Russia's Oil And Gas Revenues Slump 46% Year-Over-Year - Russia’s budget revenues from oil and gas plunged in January by 46% compared to the same month last year due to the sanctions on Russian oil exports, which led to a slump in the price of Russia’s flagship crude grade. Russian budget revenues from energy sales – including taxes and customs revenues – plummeted last month to the lowest level since August 2020, according to data from its finance ministry compiled by Reuters.In January 2023, the price of Russia’s flagship Urals grade averaged 42% lower than in the same month of 2022, as its discount to Brent Crude grew wider following the EU embargo and the G7 price cap, which came into effect on December 5.The average price of Urals in January, at $49.48 per barrel, was over 30% lower than in January 2022, when it averaged $85.64 per barrel, Russia’s Finance Ministry said earlier this week. Russia calculates the export duty due to the budget based on the price of Urals. This has been reducing its revenues due to the wide discount of Urals to Brent, which has swelled to nearly $40 per barrel at times.Brent Crude was trading at around $82 a barrel early on Friday, while Urals, per Reuters estimates, was at around $53.60 per barrel. Russia is considering taxing its oil firms based on the price of Brent – instead of Urals – to limit the fallout on the Russian budget revenues due to the widening discount of Urals to Brent, Russian daily Kommersant reported on Friday, quoting sources. Russia is looking at ways to reduce the steep discount on Urals and to stabilize its oil revenues. At the end of January, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the government to submit within a month proposals to change the methodology for calculating the taxes from oil, Kommersant’s sources said. The EU oil ban and price cap are costing Russia an estimated $174 million (160 million euros) per day due to the fall in shipment volumes and prices for Russian oil, Finland-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) said in a report last month. The revenue losses are expected to rise to $304 million (280 million euros) per day with additional measures that are being implemented as of February 5, according to CREA.
Russia’s Oil Income Takes a Hit -- Russian oil export revenues will take a major hit this year, according to a new Energy Intelligence forecast. But heavy price discounting could see production fall less than expected.
Oil To Face "Serious" Supply Problem In 2024 As Production Capacity Runs Out, Goldman Warns --Heading into 2023, Goldman was bearish on most asset classes, except commodities where the bank forecast a 43% gain as "supply shortages bite." Since then the commodity picture has ebbed and flowed, and after commodities experienced a modest bounce following China's unexpected reopening, they have resumed sinking with oil trading just above the Biden admin's (supposed) SPR refill floor of $72, despite a near consensus that Chinese oil demand will hit record highs in 2023.So has the recent setback dented Goldman's optimism? Not at all: in fact, according to Goldman chief commodity strategist, not only will oil rise back above $100 a barrel this year, it will rise much more in 2024 when it will face a serious supply problem as spare production capacity runs out.Speaking on the sidelines of a conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Sunday, Goldman chief commodity strategist Jeff Currie said that with sanctions likely to cause Russian oil exports to drop and Chinese demand expected to recover as the country ends its Covid Zero policy, prices will rise above $100 from their current level of around $80. Meanwhile, doubling down on his key long-term thesis, Currie said that a lack of spending in the industry on production needed to meet demand will also be a driver of higher prices, and this lack of capacity may become a big issue by 2024."The commodity super cycle is a sequence of price spikes with each high higher and each low higher,” said Currie, who predicted that by May, oil markets should flip to a deficit of supply compared to demand. That could use up much of the unused capacity global producers have, which will send prices higher.Currie reiterated Goldman’s view that OPEC+ will unwind production limits and look to raise output later this year. An OPEC+ market monitoring committee this month recommended that the group keep oil output unchanged.
Turkey Halts Operations At Ceyhan Oil Terminal After Huge Earthquake – A powerful earthquake of 7.8 magnitude on the Richter scale hit Turkey and Syria in the early hours of Monday local time, killing hundreds of people and injuring thousands more. Early estimates point to at least 600 people killed in the quake, whose epicenter was in the Pazarcik district of Kahramanmaras province in Turkey.The Ceyhan oil terminal is around 155 kilometers, or 96 miles, from the epicenter of the earthquake. As a whole, the ports in southern Turkey are affected by the earthquake, and there are delays to operations, according to a notice by Tribeca Shipping Agency carried by Reuters.Natural gas supply to the Turkish provinces of Gaziantep, Hatay, and Kahramanmaras was halted after a gas transmission line was damaged as a result of the earthquake, Turkish state pipeline operator BOTAS said today.But the key oil pipelines in Turkey have not been damaged as a result of the quake, an energy official in the country told Reuters.Those pipelines are the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline and the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. Despite the fact that the oil pipelines are intact, there could be delays to operations at the Ceyhan oil terminal, the endpoint of the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline, a major export line from Kirkuk in Iraq.The Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, for its part, is a 1,768 kilometers (1,100 miles) long crude oil pipeline from the Azeri-Chirag-Deepwater Gunashli (ACG) oil field in the Caspian Sea in Azerbaijan to the Mediterranean Sea. Kazakhstan, which looks to diversify its oil export routes to reduce dependence on the Russian oil terminal at Novorossiysk, on the Russian Black Sea coast, plans to move more crude to the Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan pipeline this year.In 2023, Kazakhstan hopes to deliver up to 1.5 million tons of oil through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, as part of growing efforts to find export routes bypassing Russia.
Operations Halted At Ceyhan Oil Terminal After Huge Earthquake The Ceyhan oil terminal in southern Turkey has halted operations after the devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria early on Monday, Tribeca Shipping Agency said, as carried by Reuters.A powerful earthquake of 7.8 magnitude on the Richter scale hit Turkey and Syria in the early hours of Monday local time, killing hundreds of people and injuring thousands more. Early estimates point to at least 600 people killed in the quake, whose epicenter was in the Pazarcik district of Kahramanmaras province in Turkey. The Ceyhan oil terminal is around 155 kilometers, or 96 miles, from the epicenter of the earthquake. As a whole, the ports in southern Turkey are affected by the earthquake, and there are delays to operations, according to a notice by Tribeca Shipping Agency carried by Reuters.Natural gas supply to the Turkish provinces of Gaziantep, Hatay, and Kahramanmaras was halted after a gas transmission line was damaged as a result of the earthquake, Turkish state pipeline operator BOTAS said today.But the key oil pipelines in Turkey have not been damaged as a result of the quake, an energy official in the country told Reuters.Those pipelines are the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline and the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. Despite the fact that the oil pipelines are intact, there could be delays to operations at the Ceyhan oil terminal, the endpoint of the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline, a major export line from Kirkuk in Iraq.The Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, for its part, is a 1,768 kilometers (1,100 miles) long crude oil pipeline from the Azeri-Chirag-Deepwater Gunashli (ACG) oil field in the Caspian Sea in Azerbaijan to the Mediterranean Sea. Kazakhstan, which looks to diversify its oil export routes to reduce dependence on the Russian oil terminal at Novorossiysk, on the Russian Black Sea coast, plans to move more crude to the Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan pipeline this year.
Turkey halts oil exports after earthquakes: Update - The Turkish government has declared a state of emergency after two huge earthquakes hit the southeast of the country near the border with Syria, leaving hundreds dead and disrupting oil exports from the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. A 7.8 magnitude quake struck near the Turkish city of Gaziantep in the early hours of today, 6 February, and was felt as far away as Lebanon and Cyprus. A second earthquake measuring 7.5 hit the same region a few hours later, according to the US Geological Society. The latest death toll is almost 1,300. Turkish president Recep Erdogan said at least 912 people have been killed in Turkey and Syria's state news agency Sana said 371 people are dead in Syria. Operations at Ceyhan, a major oil export terminal on Turkey's Mediterranean coast, have been suspended as a precaution. Ceyhan receives crude from two major cross-border pipelines — the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline carries oil from fields offshore Azerbaijan across Georgia to Turkey's Mediterranean coast, while the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline transports oil from northern Iraq. A spokesman for northern Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government said operations at Ceyhan will resume once an inspection has been finalised. Turkish pipeline operator Botas said neither pipeline has been damaged. The Ceyhan terminal exported just over 1mn b/d of crude in January, according to Vortexa. This included around 665,000 b/d of Azeri crude through the BTC pipeline and 395,000 b/d of Iraq's Kirkuk blend through the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline. Operations at the port of Dortyol — which sits across the Bay of Iskenderun from Ceyhan — are also suspended until further notice, according to shipping sources. Around 1.9mn t of oil products, LPG and biofuels were exported from the port last year, while almost 3mn t were imported, according to Vortexa. Fuel oil made up 41pc of the exports, while LPG accounted for 57pc of the imports. Diesel and gasoil took a 29pc share of exports and 27pc of imports. Dortyol is a bunkering hub, servicing vessel traffic calling at nearby ports for crude and dry bulk voyages. It also has storage and blending facilities.
Victims of oil spill in Nigeria demand justice, compensation - Bille and Ogale, two oil-producing communities in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region have been living for decades with the devastating effects of oil spills caused by Shell, the global fossil fuel giant. Now, over 13,000 residents of two communities have filed a lawsuit against Shell for oil spills which they say have affected their livelihoods, health and way of life.On Jan. 27, the residents filed individual claims at the High Court in London against Shell, demanding justice and compensation for environmental degradation caused by the energy giant in the region. Ogale has a total population of 40,000 people while Billie’s population is 15,000. The two communities are asking for a clean-up of their land and compensation for their loss of livelihoods as their ability to farm and fish has been largely affected, according to Leigh Day, the U.K. law firm representing the communities. The law firm said in addition to the individual claims, there are also two representative actions, one for each community, which seek compensation for damage to communally owned property. “This remedy would benefit all members of the communities living with the chronic pollution, even where they have not sustained individual losses,” it said. “This case raises important questions about the responsibilities of oil and gas companies,” said Daniel Leader, partner at Leigh Day. “It appears that Shell is seeking to leave the Niger Delta free of any legal obligation to address the environmental devastation caused by oil spills from its infrastructure over many decades.” Leader said at a time when the world is focused on the just transition, “this raises profound questions about the responsibility of fossil fuel companies for legacy and ongoing environmental pollution.”
Oil spills in Malir River due to leakage in supply line - Oil spill was reported in Malir River after a leakage in the main crude oil supply of a refinery, ARY News reported. As per the details, the oil spilled in the Malir River after a leakage in the main supply line of the refinery, reportedly caused by the accused to steal oil. After getting the information about the leakage, the staff of the refinery reached the spot and started repair work on the leaked oil supply line. Earlier, a Karachi man was caught and sent behind bars for ‘stealing’ oil from a main supply line in Bin Qasim. According to police, a man named Ashraf was arrested in injured condition after a shootout with the cops when he was stealing oil from Parco’s line in Bin Qasim’s Wali Town. The police said the arrested is a mastermind of a gang involved in stealing oil from the company’s oil supply line several times.
Jadestone plans February production restart at Montara - Jadestone Energy, Singapore, expects to restart oil production from its 100%-owned Montara oil field in the Timor Sea by the end of this month following completion of remedial work ordered by the Australian National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA) in September 2022. NOPSEMA’s review of the remedial plans and operational readiness of the Montara Venture FPSO is complete, and the general direction issued by the authority has been closed, said Jadestone president and chief executive officer Paul Blakeley. Hull and tank repairs and the scheduled four-yearly plans for topside maintenance activities are progressing well, with operational readiness and production restart targeted for late February, he said. “We have elected to carry out most of this year’s planned annual shutdown work in parallel with the tank work to maximize efficiency during this period,” he added. Jadestone shut Montara field in 2022 following oil leakage from a storage tank and the subsequent discovery of a defect in a water ballast tank on the FPSO. Montara operations involve oil production from platform production wells for Montara field and subsea wells for nearby Swift, Skua, and Swallow fields. Oil from the subsea wells is piped via subsea flowlines to an unmanned wellhead platform and then to the Montara Venture FPSO.
Northern Territory faces legal challenge over approval of Tamboran drilling and fracking in Beetaloo basin | Northern Territory - Activists have launched a legal challenge to the Northern Territory government’s decision to approve drilling and fracking by resources company Tamboran in the Beetaloo basin.The Central Australian Frack Free Alliance (Caffa) is asking the NT supreme court to review the process that led to the approval of Tamboran’s environmental management plan, arguing the environment minister, Lauren Moss, failed to properly consider the environmental impacts of the project.In particular, Caffa will argue the minister failed to fully consider the climate consequences of the project, including the climate effects of future production in the Beetaloo that the exploration may facilitate.The approval allows Tamboran to drill and frack 12 exploratory wells 600km south of Darwin.Caffa’s case is a test of the NT’s petroleum regulations which were reformed in 2016. The group, represented by the Environmental Defenders Office, will argue those reforms provided for a wider assessment of the risks associated with gas or fracking activity.“By approving this exploration application, the minister is laying the grounds for potentially thousands of fracking wells to be drilled in the NT,” Caffa’s spokesperson, Hannah Ekin, said.“Tamboran’s project would help facilitate the drilling of vast new gas fields across the heart of the territory. This would have a catastrophic impact on runaway climate change and affect the lives of everyone who resides here in the territory.”
CSIRO research assesses mitigation and offset options for onshore gas in the Northern Territory - A report published today by Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, provides an assessment of options to mitigate and offset greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with potential production and Australian consumption of gas extracted from the Northern Territory’s Beetaloo Sub-basin.The research addresses a recommendation of the 2018 Scientific Inquiry into Hydraulic Fracturing in the Northern Territory, chaired by the Honorable Justice Pepper. Recommendation 9.8 was seeking to understand potential greenhouse gas emissions as a result from any onshore gas produced in the NT in order “That the NT and Australian governments seek to ensure that there is no net increase in the life cycle GHG emissions emitted in Australia from any onshore shale gas produced in the NT”.The research was undertaken by CSIRO as part of GISERA, an alliance led by CSIRO which is a collaboration between CSIRO, commonwealth, state and territory governments and industry.GISERA’s purpose is to work with the community to undertake research about the potential or actual impacts of gas development, across major environmental and socio-economic topics. The type of research projects GISERA delivers is decided by committees in each geographical region, with the community voice in each committee always carrying the greatest weight. All research is publicly reported and peer reviewed.The Beetaloo Sub-basin is situated southeast of Katherine in the Northern Territory and spans approximately 30,000 square kilometres. It has been identified as a potential area for gas production, with estimated resources of similar size to other major gas producing basins in Australia, such as the Surat Basin in Queensland and the Bonaparte/Browse basins in Western Australia. As there is currently no gas production in the Beetaloo Sub-basin, CSIRO researchers used a set of production scenarios spanning 2025-2050 to calculate the estimated annual and lifetime emissions. Researchers then assessed options for mitigating or offsetting the emissions estimated in these scenarios. The report was directed to provide technical analysis to estimate emissions and assess mitigation options only, and does not consider other social, environmental and policy factors.Four scenarios considered production of 365 PJ/year and one scenario of 1,130 PJ/year, with a variety of end use cases for the shale gas. The estimated annual emissions associated with these scenarios range from 6.6 million tonnes (Mt) to 33 Mt CO2e/year. For comparison, Australia’s actual GHG emissions in the 12 months to March 2022 were 487.1 Mt CO2e.
OPEC’s oil production decreased in January – -The oil production of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries fell in January by around 60,000 barrels per day (bpd) due to cuts by top producer Saudi Arabia which may have been steeper than the Kingdom’s quota, a survey by Bloomberg reported last week. According to the report, OPEC-13 member countries’ crude oil production decreased to 29.12 million bpd due to lower output from Saudi Arabia and Libya, partly offset by slight gains among some other members. Bloomberg’s survey showed that Saudi Arabia’s crude oil production is estimated to have dropped by 100,000 bpd to 10.38 million bpd, which is around 100,000 bpd lower than the Kingdom’s quota of 10.478 million bpd, set out at the October meeting and valid from November 2022 through December 2023, or until OPEC+ decides otherwise. The report stated that still, OPEC and the OPEC+ group, which includes Russia and a other non-OPEC producers, are pumping crude oil at levels well below the collective target the OPEC+ alliance set as of November 2022. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed OPEC + cooperation on a phone call, according to various sources, with the focus on maintaining the stability of oil prices ahead of the virtual OPEC+ panel meeting. Russian oil production has held up in spite of new Western sanctions and price caps, and three OPEC+ delegates have told Reuters that the Wednesday meeting was likely to conclude without any output policy changes. Given the uncertainties about Chinese demand and Russian supply in February and March, OPEC+ was widely expected to keep the current production levels, which reduced target output by 2 million bpd from November onwards. Yet, the actual cut is estimated to have been around 1 million bpd.
Libya's Oil Minister confirms gas and oil output will increase by end of 2023 | The Libya Observer - The Libyan Minister of Oil and Gas Mohammed Oun confirmed in a meeting with the Dutch ambassador to Libya on Sunday that the oil and gas production rates will be increased by the end of this year on the condition that three factors are available for oil production to reach two million barrels. Oun discussed in the meeting several matters, including the efforts to increase oil and gas production in cooperation with specialized international companies, underscoring the role of the Dutch oil and gas company, Shell, and the history of its work in the Libyan energy sector. The Oil and Gas Ministry said on its Facebook page that Oun had assured the Dutch ambassador of the possibility of achieving the targets of increasing production in the coming years to two million barrels following needed efforts and work with high efficiency and in cooperation with international companies, adding that in the short term, production will be raised by the end of 2023. It also said that the Dutch ambassador confirmed his country's interest in the Libyan market and that it would work to encourage Dutch companies to return. He reiterated their willingness to participate and cooperate in developing the oil field through advanced training programs, especially in the field of natural gas and renewable energies.
World needs $12 trillion investment in Oil Exploration & Production by 2045: OPEC Secy General - The Secretary General of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Haitham Al Ghais, has said the global Oil Exploration & Production (E&P) sector requires about 12 trillion-dollar investment by 2045. "At OPEC, we strongly believe that this investment is required to ensure energy security for all," he said, speaking at the session "Prices & Supply volatility addressing global energy security need" as part of the India Energy Week event in Bengaluru, India. Al Ghais also said the sector has suffered "chronic under-investment" in the last few years and its production has fallen by about 6 percent, forgetting about growth to meet increasing global demand. He said the OPEC is in favour of transition and cleaner energy switching but said the issue here is not about the source but it is about emission. “We all need to work together to reduce the emission so that there is energy security for all,” he said. Al Ghais also said that 2022 has been a turbulent year for all of us in all respects as the fear of recession globally and lockdown in China and elsewhere reduced the oil demand by about 30 percent. "However, with the markets now opening, we at OPEC Plus are taking a cautious approach as we are dealing with the unknown (Covid virus)," he said.
Saudi Arabia Surprises Markets By Increasing Oil Prices To Asia -On Monday, Saudi Arabia raised the official selling price of its flagship crude going to Asia in March. The hike, which was the first in six months, was due to expectations of a rebound in Chinese demand.Saudi oil giant Aramco lifted the price of its flagship Arab Light grade to Asia for March loadings by $0.20 per barrel to a premium of $2.00 a barrel over the Dubai/Oman average, despite the fact that oil prices have fallen so far this year. That’s the first increase in the official selling prices (OSPs) for Asia since September, likely reflecting Saudi expectations that demand in Asia will be rising from the second quarter onwards.Last month, Saudi Arabia slashed the Arab Light price by $1.45 per barrel, setting the price for February loadings at $1.80 a barrel above the Dubai/Oman benchmark. The premium to the Dubai/Oman average for February is the lowest since November 2021, but it was generally in line with expectations.For March, however, the increase in Saudi prices came as a surprise to the market.“The OSP is quite unexpected. I think it indicates that Saudi is bullish on oil demand,” a Singapore-based oil trader told Reuters.The move was contrary to expectations in a Reuters survey of four refining sources from last week, in which participants said they expected the price of Arab Light to be cut by around $0.30 for March loadings. It’s also against the Bloomberg poll, in which traders and refiners expected a $0.20 cut from Aramco for next month.For other grades, Aramco cut the price for Arab Extra Light by $1.30 to $2.25 a barrel over the Oman/Dubai benchmark, but raised the OSPs for Arab Medium and Arab Heavy by $0.50.
Crude oil prices edge higher as IEA’s Birol talks up China demand outlook Oil prices inched up in early trade on Monday after falling around 8% last week to more than three-week lows as jitters over major economies outweighed signs of a demand recovery in China, the world’s top oil importer. Brent crude futures crawled up 16 cents, or 0.2%, to $80.10 a barrel at 0022 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 15 cents, also 0.2% higher, to $73.54 a barrel. Last Friday, WTI and Brent slid 3% after strong U.S. jobs data raised concerns that the Federal Reserve would keep raising interest rates, which in turn boosted the dollar. While recession fears dominated the market last week, on Sunday International Energy Agency (IEA) Executive Director Fatih Birol highlighted that China’s recovery remains a key driver for oil prices. The IEA expects half of global oil demand growth this year will come from China, where Birol said jet fuel demand was surging. He said depending on how strong that recovery is, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies, together called OPEC+, may have to reassess their decision to cut output by 2 million barrels per day through 2023. “If demand goes up very strongly, if the Chinese economy rebounds, then there will be a need, in my view, for the OPEC+ countries to look at their (output) policies,” Birol told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference in India.Price caps on Russian products took effect on Sunday, with the Group of Seven (G7), the European Union and Australia agreeing on caps of $100 per barrel on diesel and other products that trade at a premium to crude, and $45 per barrel for products that trade at a discount, such as fuel oil. “For the moment, the market expects non-EU countries will increase imports of refined Russian crude, thus creating little disruption to overall supplies,” ANZ analysts said in a client note. “Nevertheless, OPEC’s continued constraint on supply should keep the market tight,” they said.
ICE Brent Tops $81 After Saudi Hikes OSPs on China Outlook -- Oil futures settled Monday's session mostly higher after Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil company Aramco raised benchmark prices in all major markets for next month, signaling a stronger demand recovery as China reopens from COVID shutdowns and macroeconomic indicators from the United States and European Union indicate their economies picked up momentum. Saudi Aramco -- the world's top exporter -- lifted prices for its benchmark crude it sells to Asian buyers for the first time in six months, adding $0.20 bbl to March sales. The change means Saudi Light crude grade will carry a $2 bbl premium over the average of the Oman and Dubai benchmarks. OPEC's top official this morning said they expect strong demand growth in Asia this year, citing a sharp recovery in China's mobility. "There is a pent-up demand that accumulated over the pandemic," Sheikh Nawaf Al-Sabah, chief executive officer of Kuwait Petroleum, told Bloomberg TV on Monday, adding that "Now, with the opening up, we're seeing an increase in demand that is sustainable. This is not a dead-cat bounce." Aramco also raised prices of its Arab Light crude for customers in northern and southern Europe by $2 bbl, widening the premium over the Brent crude benchmark to $0.50 bbl. For U.S. buyers, Aramco lifted OSP prices by $0.30 bbl in March to a $6.65 bbl premium against the Argus Sour Crude index. Saudi Arabia emerged as a major supplier of crude oil and oil products into the European Union after EU banned all seaborne imports of Russian crude oil late last year. On Sunday (2/5), EU embargoed all purchases of Russian oil products, including gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, naphtha, and fuel oil. The trade restriction is complimented with a price cap agreed to by the Group of Seven nations -- the U.S., United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, and Canada. The cap prohibits shipping and insurance firms from trading Russian refined products unless they are below a cap of $100 bbl for gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel, and $45 bbl for naphtha and fuel oil. The cap on products follows a $60 bbl price cap on Russian crude oil exports that took effect in early December. The embargo and price caps are aimed at reducing the revenue Moscow receives from oil and product sales that can be used for its war in Ukraine while keeping Russian oil on the market. In the immediate term, the price caps are not seen having much effect considering Russian petroleum is trading within the set price ranges. Longer term, they may prove more effective at slowing Russian revenue inflows as the G7 and EU continue to diversify away from Russian energy. Earlier in the session, the oil complex got a leg up from reports suggesting Turkey shut down a key export port of Ceyhan on the Mediterranean Coast after a 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck the Kahramanmaras region, killing hundreds in Turkey and Syria. Ceyhan is the key hub for oil sales from northern Iraq, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan into the EU. The port exported over 1 million bpd in January, according to vessel tracking and Bloomberg data. So far, no leaks have been detected along the pipelines feeding oil to the port but damage assessment is still in the early stages. The Kerkuk-Ceyhan pipeline carrying oil from Iraq to Turkey and the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline that connects oil fields in Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan, with Turkish export ports are expected to restart on Monday. At settlement, West Texas Intermediate futures for March delivery advanced $0.72 to $74.11 bbl, and the international crude benchmark Brent contract rallied to $80.99 bbl, up $1.05 bbl. NYMEX RBOB March contract added $0.0524 to $2.3734 gallon, and March ULSD futures settled down modestly at $2.7687 gallon after trading at a $2.6653 one-year low on the spot continuous chart.
WTI Spikes as USD Eases on Powell's Inflation Comments -- New York Mercantile Exchange oil futures and Brent crude traded on the Intercontinental Exchange settled Tuesday's session sharply higher propelled by comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who signaled the central bank still expects inflation to come down significantly this year without tilting the labor market into recession, spurring an afternoon selloff in U.S. bonds and the dollar index. U.S. equities rallied, the dollar nosedived against foreign currencies, and Treasury yields retreated as investors digested the latest comments from Powell that once again were received as dovish by the market. When addressing Friday's strong employment report, Powell said, "It's a good thing that inflation has started to come down not at the expense of a strong labor market. But it shows you why the Fed thinks that bringing down inflation would be a process that takes significant time." "The disinflationary process, the process of getting inflation down, has begun and it's begun in the goods sector," Powell repeated. "But it has a long way to go. These are the very early stages of disinflation." In the aftermath of Powell's remarks, U.S. Fed Funds futures indicate the majority of the investors still expect the Fed to lift rates by 25-basis points in March followed by yet another rate hike of a similar size in May after which the central bank will keep the federal funds rate in a 5% to 5.25% range before cutting rates for the first time in December. On the session, the U.S. dollar shed 0.26% against a basket of foreign currencies to 103.298, spurring gains for front-month West Texas Intermediate futures that spiked to $77.14 bbl, up $3.03 on the session. The international crude benchmark Brent contract on ICE advanced to $83.69 bbl, up $2.70 bbl. NYMEX RBOB March contract rallied $0.0834 to $2.4568 gallon, and March ULSD futures climbed to $2.9044 gallon after trading at a $2.6653 one-year low on the spot continuous chart. Gasoline stockpiles are expected to have increased by 1.4 million bbl and stocks of distillates are seen to have edged up by 200,000 bbl. Refinery use likely increased by 0.5% to 86.2% of capacity after refiners unexpectedly cut run rates in the final week of January.
Oil up as much 4% on Turkey terminal outage, awaits U.S. inventory report - The outage of an oil export terminal after the earthquake in Turkey gave those long on crude the chance to push prices up sharply for a second day in a row on Tuesday, in a bid to close the gap on last week’s torrid selloff. New York-traded West Texas Intermediate, or WTI, crude for March settled up $3.03, or 4.1%, at $77.14 per barrel. The U.S. crude benchmark settled up 1% on Monday after plunging 7.5% last week, to a three-week low of $73.11, on recession fears and the uncertainty about the direction for U.S. interest rates after huge employment gains among Americans in January threatened to bump up inflation again. London-traded Brent crude for March delivery rose $2.70, or 3.3%, to finish Tuesday’s regular session at $83.69, extending Monday’s 1.3% gain.Like WTI, Brent, the global crude benchmark, tumbled 7.5% last week, touching a three-week low of $79.62. Operations at Turkey's 1 million barrel-per-day oil export terminal in Ceyhan were halted after a major earthquake hit the region, Reuters reported, adding that the facility, which exports Azeri crude oil to international markets, will be closed Feb. 6-8. Also supporting crude prices were continued bets on ramped-up Chinese consumption as the world’s largest crude importer returns from a long Lunar New Year break, into an environment free of COVID-19 restrictions. Adding to oil’s upside was a bold attempt by Saudi Arabia to raise for the first time in six months prices for its Asian-bound crude, also on bets over Chinese demand. The kingdom had previously ratcheted down the so-called OSP, or Official Selling Price, for its Arab Light crude to be competitive against Russia’s Urals crude, which had seen heavy discounting over the past year from Ukraine-war sanctions imposed by the West. Another positive factor for oil was the remark by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell that the central bank was willing to be patient to let disinflation, which has just begun in the United States, do its work rather than embarking on stronger rate hikes. Aside from these, oil market participants were on the lookout for weekly U.S. oil inventory data, due after market settlement from API, or the American Petroleum Institute. The API will release at approximately 16:30 ET (21:30 GMT) a snapshot of closing balances on U.S. crude, gasoline and distillates for the week ended Feb. 1. The numbers serve as a precursor to official inventory data on the same due from the U.S. Energy Information Administration on Wednesday. For last week, analysts tracked by Investing.com expect the EIA to report a a smaller crude stockpile build of 2.457 million barrels, versus the 4.14M barrel rise reported during the week to Jan. 27.
Oil up 3rd day in row as bulls defy U.S. crude build -- Oil prices rose for a third day in a row as bulls in the space were defiant on Wednesday to data showing a seventh straight build in weekly crude stockpiles amid rising production and falling exports. Generous builds were also noted in inventories of gasoline and distillates in the Weekly Petroleum Status Report issued by the EIA, or Energy Information Administration, for the week ended Feb. 1. The rise in gasoline stockpiles raised questions about demand for the automotive fuel as warmer-than-usual winter weather should have, theoretically, seen more people get behind the wheel at this time of the year versus seasonal norms. The build in distillates is also bucking trends as demand for heating oil would be stronger now, if not for the unusually warm winter. Notwithstanding these, oil prices rose more than 1% Wednesday as those long the trade tried to stay focused on impending demand from China, the world’s largest crude importer which has been off COVID-related restrictions since the start of the year — a development that should lead to more energy usage. Oil bulls also ignored news that Turkey resumed crude-oil flows to the Mediterranean export terminal of Ceyhan late on Tuesday following two devastating earthquakes in the region. Operations at the 1 million barrel-per-day export terminal, which provides Azeri crude oil to international markets, were halted on Monday and were supposed to have remained shut until the end of Wednesday at least. The only thing materially bullish for oil and other commodities on Wednesday was a weakening of the dollar, which experienced a modest drop. The dollar has been trying to find its footing since Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Tuesday that the Fed wished to give disinflation, which has just begun, a chance to work instead just resorting to higher interest rates to bring inflation hovering at 6.5% per annum to the central bank’s target of 2%. The dollar, however, got a morale boost on Wednesday when New York Fed President John Williams said U.S. interest rates need to stay high for ‘a few years’ to bring inflation down meaningfully. New York-traded West Texas Intermediate, or WTI, crude for March settled up $1.33, or 1.7%, at $78.47 per barrel. The U.S. crude benchmark had risen more than 5% in the prior two sessions after plunging 7.5% last week, to a three-week low of $73.11, on recession fears and the uncertainty about the direction for U.S. interest rates after huge employment gains among Americans in January threatened to bump up inflation again. London-traded Brent crude for March delivery settled up $1.40, or 1.7%, at $85.09. The global crude benchmark rose just under 5% over the past two sessions, after tumbling 7.5% last week, to a three-week low of $79.62. ” Chinese crude imports were assessed at 10.98M bpd, or barrels per day, in January, down from December's 11.37M bpd and November's 11.42M bpd, a recent Reuters report said. Part of the decline in Chinese imports was likely due to the week-long Lunar New Year holiday, which fell on January 22 this year, the report said. Analysts at ANZ, meanwhile, note the sharp jump in traffic in China’s 15 largest cities following the Lunar New Year holiday but also acknowledged that Chinese oil traders had been “relatively absent” from the market to aid in futures volumes. In the Weekly Petroleum Status Report, the EIA said U.S. crude oil stockpiles had risen seven weeks in a row to 20-month highs as plant outages and weaker demand for fuels led to lower-than-usual refining activity at this time of the year. Crude inventories rose by 2.423M barrels during the week ended February 1, the Energy Information Administration, or EIA, said in its Weekly Petroleum Status Report. The EIA has reported a total crude build of almost 37M barrels over the past seven weeks. That had led to crude stockpiles reaching their highest since June 2021, said the EIA, which serves as the statistical arm of the U.S. Energy Department. Crude output itself rose by 100,000 barrels per day, or bpd, to reach 12.3M bpd. That was the highest output since April 2020, when the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic then left production sky-high and demand rock-bottom. Crude exports, meanwhile, tumbled 17% on the week, to 2.9M bpd from 3.492M bpd the prior week. On the gasoline inventory side, the EIA reported a build of 5M barrels, versus the forecast for a 1.271M-barrel rise and the previous week’s growth of 2.576M barrels. Gasoline inventories have picked up by almost 16M barrels since 2023 began. Automotive fuel gasoline is America’s No. 1 fuel product. Distillate stockpiles, meanwhile, rose by 2.932M barrels versus the expected build of 0.097M. In the previous week, there was a distillate build of 2.32M. Until recently, distillates, which are refined into heating oil, diesel for trucks, buses, trains, and ships, and fuel for jets, were the strongest component of the U.S. petroleum complex in terms of demand. Prior to the build two weeks ago, distillate stockpiles had fallen by around 5M barrels over four weeks. Oil up 3rd day in row as bulls defy U.S. crude build 3 Comments (3)
WTI Slides After Across-The-Board Inventory Builds, Crude Production Hike --Oil prices extended gains overnight after API reported a surprise crude draw which was supported by growing confidence in demand from China's reopening (as Aramco increased its selling prices for shipments to Asia). “In the grand scheme, essentially you have contrasting forces of rising inventories and a bullish outlook on demand,” Additionally, Iran’s liaison to OPEC said on the sidelines of the India Energy Week conference in Bengaluru this morning that oil prices may rise to $100 a barrel in the second half of the year as China’s economy emerges from anti-virus lockdowns. “We have some constraints in the market that could put pressure on prices,” “I think oil prices could go to $100 per barrel.” So with all eyes on inventories, it appears (given the API prints) that the effects of the nationwide deep freeze have finally rolled out of the data.
API
- Crude -2.184mm (+2.1mm exp)
- Cushing +178k
- Gasoline +5.261mm (+1.6mm exp) - biggest build since July 2022
- Distillates +1.109mm (+100k exp)
DOE
- Crude +2.423mm (+2.1mm exp)
- Cushing +1.034mm
- Gasoline +5.008mm (+1.6mm exp)
- Distillates +2.932mm (+100k exp)
Unlike API, the official EIA data showed a bigger than expected crude inventory build (the 7th weekly build in a row) and in fact saw builds across the board (with gasoline stopcks soaring)Source: Bloomberg Bloomberg's Lucia Kassia reports that we are entering the thick of the refinery turnaround season in the US. In the past decade, refineries reduced runs to an average of 87.6% of utilization countrywide on a seasonal basis. Two of the biggest fuelmakers, Marathon and Phillips 66, expect to run their refineries at the high-80% and mid-80%, respectively, during the first quarter due to planned maintenance. That points to overall lower utilization rates in the country.
ICE Brent Spikes After Turkey Reports Ceyhan Pipeline Damage -- Reversing earlier losses triggered by a bearish U.S. oil inventory report, oil futures settled higher Wednesday after Turkish officials acknowledged damages to the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline carrying oil from Iraq to Mediterranean ports as the key export facility in Ceyhan remains shutdown a third straight day. Turkey's oil terminal at Ceyhan, with export capacity of 1 million bpd or 1% of the global oil supply, has been shut down temporarily after the deadly earthquake Monday disrupted oil flows on Kerkuk-Ceyhan pipeline and Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. Both pipelines have remained shut down since Monday morning. On Wednesday afternoon, Turkish officials admitted that one of the pipelines carrying oil from Iraq has indeed sustained "some damages" but refused to give details on the extent. The pipeline runs from the Iraq border in eastern Turkey to Ceyhan, passing through the region north of south-central Turkey's Gaziantep where a magnitude 7.8 quake struck early Feb. 6 causing thousands of deaths and extensive damage. During 2022, Iraqi flows through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline to Ceyhan averaged 477,000 bpd, down 6.8% from 2021 and down 10.3% from 2019. Kurdistan exported 376,000 bpd through the pipeline in January, down from 417,000 bpd in December, figures show. Oil traders will continue to closely monitor the situation around the pipeline's restart. Limiting gains for the oil complex is yet another bearish inventory report released this morning by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, showing total crude and petroleum products supplies spiked more than 10 million bbl last week as domestic producers raised output to the highest level since April 2020. U.S. commercial crude oil inventories increased for an eighth consecutive week through Feb. 3, building by a massive 34.4 million bbl since the start of the year. At 455.1 million bbl, nationwide crude-oil inventories currently stand 4% above the five-year average. A larger-than-expected build occurred even as exports softened to 2.940 million bpd, down 592,000 bpd from the previous week, and producers boosted output to 12.3 million bpd -- the highest output rate since the coronavirus pandemic erased a chunk of domestic oil production. That more than offset a larger-than-expected increase in refinery crude throughput to 15.4 million bpd. On the week, refiners raised run rates by 2.2% to 87.9% of capacity compared with expectation for a 0.5% bump. Oil stored at the Cushing, Oklahoma hub, the delivery point for West Texas Intermediate, jumped 1.1 million bbl from the previous week to 39.1 million bbl. In the gasoline complex, commercial stockpiles built by 5 million bbl in the reviewed week to 239.6 million bbl compared with expectations of a 1.4 bbl increase. Demand for motor fuel remained anemic at 8.428 million bpd, down by 62,000 bpd. Distillate demand, however, increased by 70,000 bpd to 3.762 million bpd. Domestic distillate stocks increased by 2.9 million bbl to 120.5 million bbl. At settlement, West Texas Intermediate futures for March delivery rallied to $78.47 bbl, up $1.33 on the session. The international crude benchmark Brent contract on ICE advanced to $85.09 bbl, up $1.40 bbl. NYMEX RBOB March contract rose 0.60cts to $2.4628 gallon, and March ULSD futures declined 1.11cts to $2.8933 gallon.
Builds in Oil Inventories Reported by the EIA on Wednesday Helped Limit the Market's Gains --The crude market posted an outside trading session as the market was initially buoyed by hopes of increased Chinese demand while the builds in oil inventories reported by the EIA on Wednesday helped limit the market’s gains. The market was also pressured as U.S. Federal Reserve officials said more interest rate hikes are on the cards as the bank continues with its efforts to lower inflation. The oil market breached its resistance at its previous high and 62% retracement level at $78.57 and posted a high of $78.84 early in the morning. However, the market erased its gains and extended its losses to $1.95 as it posted a low of $76.52. The crude market later bounced off its low and retraced some of its losses ahead of the close. The March WTI contract settled down 41 cents at $78.06, halting a three day streak of gains and bringing prices back towards the middle of its recent trading range from $72 to $82. Meanwhile, the April Brent contract settled down 59 cents at $84.50. The product markets also ended the session lower, with the heating oil market settling down 7.79 cents at $2.8154 and the RB market settling down 1.53 cents at $2.4475. Genscape reported that crude oil stocks held in Cushing, Oklahoma in the week ending Tuesday, February 7th totaled 41,782,289 barrels, down 234,906 barrels on the week but up 18,076 barrels from Friday, February 3rd. BP Azerbaijan said Azeri crude oil exports from Turkey’s Ceyhan port remain halted after sustaining earthquake damage, while Azeri crude oil continued flowing to Ceyhan via a pipeline. The company did not specify how many more days it could continue pumping before storage was filled. Sources previously told Reuters that there were 4 days’ worth of storage capacity at the Sangachal terminal in Azerbaijan once Ceyhan hits its maximum. According to a source, exports of Azerbaijan’s oil from Turkey are unlikely to resume this week because a control room at the port of Ceyhan suffered earthquake damage. Another source said loadings are unlikely until late next week.Plains All American Pipeline LP expects crude oil production in the Permian Basin to increase by as much as 500,000 bpd in 2023, with horizontal oil rig counts consistent with current levels.Oil and oil product exports from Russian Black Sea ports of Tuapse and Novorossiisk and from a terminal of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium are suspended due to a storm.Euroilstock reported that European refiners’ crude intake in January increased by 6.3% on the year and by 0.7% on the month to 9.75 million bpd, as they increased runs ahead of an EU ban on Russian oil product imports. European refiners’ crude and oil product stocks stood at 1.004 billion barrels in January, up 1.3% on the year and by 1% on the month. According to Energy Aspects, China’s state-owned oil majors have increased Russian imports in a sign that China is ready to approve more purchases of the country’s crude. PetroChina Co and CNOOC Ltd recently resumed imports of waterborne Russian oil, with at least three supertankers of Urals grade crude signaling China as a destination.
Oil Futures Fall While Traders Assess Ceyhan Port Damages - - Oil futures nearest delivery declined on Thursday as investors sought clarity on the potential restart of Turkey's Ceyhan export hub after Azerbaijan declared force majeure on crude loading along the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which carries around 1.2 million bpd of oil from Caspian fields to the Turkish port. Wire services on Thursday reported that there are signs of extensive damage at one or two of the storage tanks at the Ceyhan port, with combined throughput capacity of 1 million bpd or 1% of global oil supply. Ceyhan port has now been shut for a fourth day following a 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck the northeastern part of Turkey and Syria, killing more than 20,000 people. Loading operations from the BTC terminal have been temporarily interrupted, according to a force majeure notice released by BP Azerbaijan, as further assessments are carried out on pipeline operations. Bloomberg News further reported that Azeri crude loadings at the Turkish port of Ceyhan are not expected to be restored until late next week. Wednesday afternoon, Turkish officials admitted that one of the pipelines carrying oil from Iraq has indeed sustained "some damages" but refused to give details on their extent. The pipeline runs from the Iraqi border in eastern Turkey to Ceyhan, passing through the region north of south-central Turkey. During 2022, Iraqi flows through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline to Ceyhan averaged 477,000 bpd, down 6.8% from 2021 and down 10.3% from 2019. Kurdistan exported 376,000 bpd through the pipeline in January, down from 417,000 bpd in December, figures showed. Oil traders will continue to closely monitor the situation around the port's restart. Another bearish inventory report released Wednesday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration weighed on the oil complex, showing total crude and petroleum products supplies spiked more than 10 million bbl last week as domestic producers raised output to the highest level since April 2020. Commercial crude inventories increased for an eighth consecutive week through Feb. 3, building by a massive 34.4 million bbl since the start of the year. At 455.1 million bbl, nationwide crude oil inventories currently stand 4% above the five-year average. A larger-than-expected build occurred as exports softened to 2.940 million bpd, down 592,000 bpd from the previous week, and producers boosted output to 12.3 million bpd -- the highest output rate since the coronavirus pandemic erased a chunk of domestic oil production. That more than offset a larger-than-expected increase in refinery crude throughput to 15.4 million bpd. On the week, refiners raised run rates by 2.2% to 87.9% of capacity compared with expectations for a 0.5% bump. Oil stored at Cushing, Oklahoma hub, the delivery point for West Texas Intermediate, jumped 1.1 bbl from the previous week to 39.1 million bbl. In the gasoline complex, commercial stockpiles built by 5 million bbl in the reviewed week to 239.6 million bbl compared with expectations of a 1.4 bbl increase. Demand for motor fuel remained anemic at 8.428 million bpd, up by a modest 70,000 bpd. Distillate demand, however, increased by 70,000 bpd to 3.762 million bpd. Domestic distillate stocks increased by 2.9 million bbl to 120.5 million bbl. At settlement, WTI futures for March delivery declined to $78.06 bbl, down $0.41 on the session. The international crude benchmark Brent contract on ICE fell below $85 bbl to $84.50 bbl, down $0.59 bbl. NYMEX RBOB March contract dropped $0.0153 to $2.4475 gallon, and March ULSD futures declined a steep $0.0779 to $2.8154 gallon.
WTI Near $80 After Russia Announces Output Cut for March - West Texas Intermediate futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange and Brent crude traded on the Intercontinental Exchange advanced more than 2% Friday after Russia announced a unilateral 500,000-barrels-per-day (bpd) production cut for March in retaliation for Western sanctions on its oil and product exports as OPEC+ producers are not expected to raise crude output to offset Russian losses, according to the delegates. Russia's Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Friday morning Moscow would decrease oil production next month, catching markets and colleagues from OPEC+ coalition by surprise. "Russia has not held any consultations on oil curbs. Moscow believes that the mechanism of price caps on Russian oil and petroleum products is an intervention in the market and an extension of destructive energy policies of the collective West." said Novak. The fact that Russia chose to act unilaterally without a forward guidance to the markets or OPEC+ members could be a canary in the coal mine for further price volatility. So far, Russian oil production has been surprisingly resilient in the face of Western sanctions, rebounding to 10.9 million bpd from post-invasion low of 10.5 million bpd in April. Major forecasting agencies this week revised higher their estimates for Russian oil production this year and in 2024. The announced cut would depress Russian oil output to 10.3 million to 10.4 million bpd. Additionally, Moscow's move would deepen the 2-million-bpd supply curb announced late last year by OPEC+, which Russia leads along with Saudi Arabia. At a committee meeting earlier this month, ministers from the coalition saw no need to change their production limit, which lasts until the end of 2023. As of this morning, OPEC+ delegates said Moscow's decision to unilaterally reduce production would not change forward policy. The situation remains fluid. Elsewhere, Turkey's export port of Ceyhan on the Mediterranean coast remained closed on Friday after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck the region, disrupting infrastructure and killing over 25,000 people. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan estimated that some areas affected by the disaster will be "uninhabitable for years." Ceyhan is a key export hub for Azeri, Kazakh and Iraqi oil exports, processing around 1 million barrels daily. That accounts for roughly 1% of global oil supply. On Thursday, BP Azerbaijan declared force major on crude loadings along the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline as further assessments are carried out on pipeline operations. Bloomberg News further reported that Azeri crude loadings toward the Turkish port are unlikely to restart until late next week. Making matter worse, wire services reported that one or two storage tanks at the Ceyhan port might have sustained damages despite earlier assurances from Turkish officials that the port has been unscathed by the earthquake. In absence of clear information, the disruption at the Ceyhan port will continue to support oil prices into next week, adding to concerns over available oil supplies on the global market. Near 7:45 a.m. EST, WTI futures for March delivery climbed to $79.63 bbl, up by $1.58 in overnight trading. The international crude benchmark Brent contract on ICE spiked to $86.28 bbl, up $1.81 bbl. NYMEX RBOB March contract rallied $0.0528 to $2.5003 gallon, and March ULSD futures added $0.0555 to $2.8709 gallon.
Oil jumps as Russia retaliates on caps; G7 warns about Moscow stunt -- Oil markets jumped 2% on Friday as Russia hit back at the G7’s price caps by announcing production cuts and its own minimum price structure, while the global coalition behind the penalties warned the market against believing Moscow’s stunts. Russia will cut oil production by 500,000 bpd, or barrels per day, accounting for 5% of its output, in March, Deputy Prime Minister and de facto energy minister Alexander Novak said. OPEC+, the alliance of 23 oil producers that Saudi Arabia leads with Russia’s assistance, wasn’t involved in the decision, Novak said. The United States singled out the Saudis for criticism last year when OPEC+ announced a 2-million-bpd cut in October. Separately, the Kremlin plans to set a fixed $20 per barrel differential for its Urals crude to dated contracts of global benchmark Brent for “tax purposes”, energy industry officials in Moscow were quoted as saying by Reuters. Russia currently uses Urals price assessments in Europe's Rotterdam and Augusta ports, provided by commodity price reporting agency Argus, to determine its mineral extraction tax, additional income tax, oil export duty and reverse excise on oil. According to Russia's Finance Ministry, the average price of its Urals in January was $49.48 a barrel, down 42% from January 2022. The G7+ responded swiftly to the Russian announcements, cautioning about the possibility of Moscow trying to pull off a stunt. “It is critical not to take Russian statements about oil production cuts at face value,” a so-called G7 Price Cap Coalition official was quoted saying by Reuters. “Global energy markets remain stable, with benchmarks largely unchanged since the implementation of the crude cap in December,” the G7 official said. “According to public reporting, a large volume of Russian seaborne oil was delivered via price cap-compliant tankers.” The official added that the price cap — of $60 per barrel on Russian crude and at $100 on diesel and $45 on fuel oil and naphtha — “continues to meet its dual objectives.” The U.S. Treasury Department has repeatedly said that it wants to limit what the Kremlin can earn per barrel in order to squeeze Moscow’s funding for the war in Ukraine, while ensuring Russian oil supplies reach markets that need them. On that score, the G7 official said “any Russian production cuts will disproportionately hurt developing countries.” New York-traded West Texas Intermediate, or WTI, crude for March was up $1.66, or 2.1%, at $79.72 per barrel. The session high was $80.33, its loftiest since Jan. 30. For the week, the U.S. crude benchmark was up almost 9%, overwriting last week’s 7.5% plunge. London-traded Brent crude for March delivery finished the regular session up $1.89, or 2.2%, at $86.39, after a session peak at $86.89. Brent was up 8% on the week, erasing last week’s 7.5% decline. Running counter to the bullish sentiment were large builds across the board in crude, gasoline and distillates in the Weekly Petroleum Status Report released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration on Wednesday.
Oil prices posts gains after Russia says it will cut output by 500,000 barrels a day -Russia will cut oil output by 500,000 barrels per day in March, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Friday, following Western bans on Moscow's crude and oil products implemented in the past few months. The announced production decline amounts to roughly 5% of Russia's latest crude oil output, which Paris-based watchdog the International Energy Agency estimated was down at 9.77 million barrels per day in December. The Brent contract for April delivery rose 2.24% to settle at $86.39 a barrel, having risen more than 8% for the week. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 2.13% to settle $79.72 a barrel, and rose 8.63% for the week for to notch the best week since October. Novak said that the reduction will "help restore market relations," according to a Google translation of comments reported by state news agency Tass. He noted that the cut does not apply to gas condensate and will be calculated from actual output levels, not from Russia's quota under the OPEC+ output agreement. The decision was not made in consultation with the OPEC+ coalition, which Moscow co-chairs. OPEC+ producers must typically agree consensus on output policy, with members bound to their targets. But the group has previously allowed voluntary gestures that honor the spirit of existing output agreements — in this case, the Russian decline would build on a previous OPEC+ decision to lower production by a combined 2 million barrels per day, agreed in October last year. Other OPEC producers facing sanctions, such as Venezuela and Iran, have requested and received exemptions from their production quotas. Several OPEC+ delegates previously told CNBC that Russia had so far signaled no intention to ask for similar accommodations. The EU implemented bans on seaborne imports of crude oil on Dec. 5 and of oil products this week. Under a program passed by the G-7 wealthiest nations, Western providers may continue to supply key financial and shipping services to transport Russian volumes to non-G7 destinations, provided these fuels are purchased beneath specific price caps. "As previously stated, we will not sell oil to those who directly or indirectly adhere to the principles of the 'price ceiling'," Novak reiterated on Friday, adding that the price cap program could lead to oil and oil products shortages. "Lower Russian production together with China's reopening should tighten the oil market further over the coming quarters," UBS Strategist Giovanni Staunovo said in a Friday note to clients.
Iraq Daily Roundup: Six Killed --At least six people were killed, and four more were wounded in recent violence:In Baghdad, a body was found. A civilian was gunned down in a drive-by shooting. A woman’s body was found bearing gunshot wounds.A decapitated body was found in Karbala.A dumped body was found in Qayara.In Sadr City, two people were wounded when gunmen shot them. Separately, a dumped body was found. A bomb in Mosul, wounded two people.
How the Media Ignores Yemen - Since 2014, the tiny country of Yemen has been devastated by the ongoing civil war following the Houthi takeover of the government. It only got worse as in March 2015; President Barack Obama began to aid the Saudi Arabians in the war effort. As of February 2022, over 370,000 people have lost their lives thanks to the war thanks to lack of food, medical necessities, and bombings. Despite the severity of the war, the press has covered extraordinarily little of the war. Between 2015 and 2019, the media only covered about ninety-two minutes of the ongoing war. Based on the atrocities, this is shockingly low. It is especially low when the media chose to cover the false Russian election meddling. MSNBC even went an entire year without mentioning the conflict.With this in hand, you might be asking yourself, why isn’t the media covering this? The reasoning for this is because the United States would be seen as bad guys.Ever since our involvement in the war, the United States has done nothing but harm to the region. Not even a year into United States involvement, and the United States was already being accused of war crimes by the HumanRights Watch. They reported 10 unlawful airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition led to over 300 civilians dying and 400 more wounded in 2015.In October 2016, a Saudi Arabian bomb was dropped on funeral ceremony in Sanaa, Yemen’s capitol. Over 100 people died and 500 wounded; many of whom were children in an apparent war crime. Footage shows charred and mutilated bodies strewn in and outside of the funeral hall.Another horrible incident occurred in September 2018, when a bomb was dropped on a school bus on a field trip. Many of the children on board were under the age of 15; all 40 of the children would die in another war crime.To make things worse for the United States (who is on the side of Saudi Arabia), these bombs were manufactured by an American company calledLockheed Martin.The Saudi-led coalition continued to do harm towards the people of Yemen. They would begin to target grain silos, livestock, horses, irrigation systems, trucks, and other aspects of food distribution.The United States has continued to make the humanitarian crisis even worse by installing a naval blockade on the country that had become 90% dependent thanks to the government destroying domestic food distribution.
Macron hosts Netanyahu in Paris to plan Israeli arms deliveries to Ukraine - Last Thursday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris. This was Netanyahu’s first official foreign visit since he once again became Prime Minister on December 29 last year. While no official remarks or transcript were published after Macron and Netanyahu’s meeting, the details of the conversation given to the major newspapers by government officials make clear that the purpose of the meeting was to plan the escalation of NATO’s war in Ukraine and Israel’s provocations against Iran. The meeting took place amid the efforts of imperialist powers to drastically escalate the war in Ukraine. In the first week of January, Macron became the first NATO leader to announce the delivery of tanks to Ukraine, which has now led to the delivery of 120 advanced battle tanks and even more advanced missile systems to the front lines by EU powers and the United States. It is now widely expected that, in a further escalation, NATO countries will soon deliver fighter jets to Ukraine. In this context, Netanyahu used the meeting to play his “Ukraine card,” agreeing to send Israeli armaments to Ukrainian forces at his meeting with Macron. In exchange, he sought assurances from France and her European allies that the 2015 Iranian Nuclear treaty will not be revived, and that European powers will continue to turn a blind eye to Israeli bombing raids against Iran, the far-right character of Netanyahu’s government, and its repressive measures at home. According to a source quoted in Le Monde who had knowledge of the meeting, Netanyahu promised the French president that Israel would deliver “military things” to Ukraine. Israeli foreign minister Eli Cohen is due to travel to Kyiv next week to finalize the delivery of Israeli arms to the Ukrainian army. In return, “Macron expressed his readiness to weigh sanctions on the IRGC (Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.)” In Friday’s press conference after Thursday’s meeting, Netanyahu stated that, “France and Israel are drawing much closer in the way they see the Iran threat.”
UK to train Ukrainian pilots as ‘first step’ toward sending fighter jets — Ukrainian fighter pilots will soon be trained in Britain — but Kyiv will have to wait a little longer for the modern combat jets it craves. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy left the U.K. Wednesday with a firm British commitment to train fighter jet pilots on NATO-standard aircraft, along with an offer of longer-range missiles.U.K. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace has now been tasked with investigating which jets the U.K. might be able to supply to Ukraine, Downing Street announced — but Prime Minister Rishi Sunak fell short of making actual promises on their supply, which his spokesman said would only ever be a “long-term” option.Speaking at a joint press conference at the Lulworth military camp in Wareham, southern England, Sunak said the priority must be to “arm Ukraine in the short-term” to ensure the country is not vulnerable to a fresh wave of Russian attacks this spring.Standing alongside Zelenskyy in front of a British-made Challenger 2 tank, Sunak restated that “nothing is off the table” when it comes to provision of military assistance to Ukraine, and said fourth-generation fighter jets were part of his conversation with the Ukrainian president “today, and have been previously.”These talks also covered the supply chains required to support such sophisticated aircraft, Sunak said.But he cautioned a decision to deliver jets would only be taken in coalition with allies, and said training pilots must come first and could take “some time.”“That’s why we have announced today that we will be training Ukrainian air force on NATO-standard platforms, because the first step in being able to provide advanced aircrafts is to have soldiers or aviators who are capable of using them,” Sunak said. “We need to make sure they are able to operate the aircraft they might eventually be using.”The first Challenger 2 tanks pledged by Britain will arrive in Ukraine by next month, Sunak added
Russia Warns Of "Consequences For Entire World" If UK Sends Jets To Ukraine - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky showed up in the United Kingdom on Wednesday, making a surprise visit to the leadership of a country which has been one of Ukraine's biggest backers since the start of the Russian invasion. It is only Zelensky's second known trip out of Ukraine since the war began, the first being his appearance before US Congress in December. He met with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at 10 Downing St., just before Sunak announced that Britain will train more Ukrainian troops. Zelensky in a special address to parliament made it no secret what he was there to push for...During his speech at the UK Parliament President Zelensky gave its speaker a helmet of a war pilot with an inscription: "We have freedom, give us wings to protect it."...and then left thanking the MPs "in advance for powerful English planes." Update (1410ET): Given the UK government clearly said it is "exploring" the possibility of sending fighter aircraft to Ukraine, namely its Typhoon jets, upon a visit by Ukraine's Zelensky to London, Russia has responded fiercely. Prime Minister Sunak earlier explained: “The first step in being able to provide advanced aircrafts is to have soldiers or aviators that are capable of using them. That is a process that takes some time. We’ve started that process today,” Sunak said at a news conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, after announcing Britain would train Ukrainian pilots.“Nothing is off the table and our leadership on this issue is something that we all collectively should be very proud of.”Russia’s embassy to UK quickly warned of “military and political consequences for the European continent and the entire world” in response.As for the US, the Pentagon on the same day said it still has "nothing to announce" regarding potential deliveries of fighter jets to Ukraine. Of course, this is all something we heard before regarding tanks, which recently has been approved. UK to explore possibility of sending fighter jets to #Ukraine, PM Rishi Sunak's Downing Street office said on Wednesday, adding it would only be a "long-term" solution. But #Russia pledged a "response" should that happen. #UkraineRussiaWar️ pic.twitter.com/W0xjm5j13L
Iranian-Designed Drone Production Site To Be Built Inside Russia - Russia and Iran plan to establish a joint drone manufacturing facility inside Russia, according to a weekend Wall Street Journal report, which comes following US and European efforts to target Iranian-made drones going to Russia with sanctions.The Iranian kamikaze drones which have for many months now been pummeling Ukraine's energy infrastructure, such as the Shahed-136 drones, cost as little as $20,000 to make. According the WSJ a plant established on Russian soil to ramp up Iranian-designed drone production would result in an additional 6,000 of them rolling of the line, for deployment by Russian forces in Ukraine.Reportedly the agreement to establish manufacturing operations in Russia was inked with Iran back in November, when the Iranian drones and their devastating attacks in Ukraine were focus of international media attention and condemnation.But the new plans for a drone factory could result in new, more effective UAVs, reports WSJ further. "As part of their emerging military alliance, the officials said, a high-level Iranian delegation flew to Russia in early January to visit the planned site for the factory and hammer out details to get the project up-and-running," according to the report."The two countries are aiming to build a faster drone that could pose new challenges for Ukrainian air defenses, the officials said."It's also an effort to sidestep what the US administration called its plans to "choke off Iran’s ability to manufacture the drones" as US forces help "Ukraine’s military to target the sites where the drones are being prepared for launch," according to prior statements from officials in The New York Times.
World's Largest Container Shipper Warns Of Demand Slowdown Amid "Significant Inventory Adjustment" The world has just a few major shipping companies, and one of the ones we track is A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S, which expects global containerized shipping volumes to slide by as much as 2.5% this year amid "muted" economic growth worldwide. Global shipping markets are normalizing after two years of surging demand that catapulted freight rates to the stratosphere because of supply chain snarls. Some spot rates for containers on major shipping routes across the Pacific and from Asia to Europe are down as much as 90%. "We've been seeing demand falling from both the US and Europe, and it's a pretty sharp correction," Maersk Chief Executive Vincent Clerc told Bloomberg in an interview. Earlier this week, the National Retail Federation published a report that forecasts US container imports would fall by 30% in February from a year earlier. This would be the weakest month since May 2020. NRF expects containerized volumes to remain weak through May. Maersk, which handles about one-sixth of all the world's containers, has provided an ominous outlook for the global economy. The World Bank and IMF have all recently warned about recession threats. Last month, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva warned the US might avoid a recession, but the situation looks bleaker in Europe, which has been hit hard by the war in Ukraine, she said. "Half of the European Union will be in recession," she warned. And even the world's largest investment manager, BlackRock, recently said a global recession is right around the corner. It added:"Recession is foretold as central banks race to try to tame inflation. It's the opposite of past recessions," the BlackRock team wrote In their 2023 Global Outlook.
New report gives young people a voice in online safety education - Researchers from Western Sydney University's Young and Resilient Research Center have released a new report providing critical insight into youths' aspirations for online safety education.Published on international Safer Internet Day, the report, delivered in partnership with PROJECT ROCKIT, highlights the voices of young people who have been largely absent in conversations about what and how to educate young people about online safety.The researchers surveyed 104 young people aged 13–17 from across the nation, and held online workshops led by youth facilitators with 31 young people aged 12–17 from four states and territories, as part of the study.Professor Amanda Third, lead researcher and Co-director of the Young and Resilient Research Center, said the report lays out an innovative framework of online safetyeducation designed by and for young people."Young people are rarely consulted in the development of programs or initiatives that aim to keep them safe online, and so our aim in conducting this study was to co-design a youth-centered model that centers young people's key concerns, and speaks to their needs and preferences," said Professor Third."The findings of the report emphasize that there is a need to shift away from dominant risk-based narratives about online safety, and embed a greater focus on social and emotional capabilities that are relevant across both online and offline settings into online safety education."The report found while existing education has been somewhat successful in raising young people's awareness about online harms, young Australians report gaps in their online safety skills and knowledge, including when it comes to managing difficult experiences online and supporting others through negative experiences. The findings of the study indicate that young people highly value a youth-centered, inclusive, interactive, and open and collaborative approach to online safety education.
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