week ending May 29

 Fed policies spark concerns over dollar’s global role - Questions are beginning to be raised in financial circles about the long-term status of the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency as the Fed continues to pour money into the financial system, effectively financing the growing debt of the US government, while fuelling an asset bubble. On Tuesday, the Financial Times published a major article by long-time financial commentator John Plender entitled “The demise of the dollar? Reserve currencies in the era of ‘going big’.” The Federal Reserve in Washington [Credit: AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File] Plender began with a reference to what he called an “apocalyptic warning” by the billionaire US hedge fund chief Stanley Druckenmiller that the dollar could cease to be the predominant global reserve currency within 15 years. The warning was made in an interview with Druckenmiller on the business channel CBNC on May 11, where he elaborated on an op-ed piece he had written for the Wall Street Journal that day headlined “The Fed is playing with fire.” The central criticism advanced by Druckemiller was that, while he agreed with the Fed’s initial actions, its continuation of the ultra-low interest rate regime and asset purchases, under conditions where the US economy was undergoing a significant recovery, was now creating major risks. “I can’t find any period in history where monetary and fiscal policy were this out of step with the economic circumstances, not one,” he stated in the CNBC interview. Druckemiller said in the long term the Fed’s policies and the rising government debts and deficits they support threatened the dollar’s international standing. “If they want to do all this and risk our reserve currency status, risk an asset bubble blowing up, so be it. But I think we ought to at least have a conversation about it. “If we are going to monetize our debt and we’re going to enable more and more of this spending, that’s why I am worried now, for the first time, that within 15 years we lose our reserve currency status and of course all the unbelievable benefits that have accrued with it,” he said. While not fully endorsing Druckenmiller’s warnings, Plender pointed out that “even before the coronavirus pandemic and the extraordinary economic conditions it has generated, there were signs that the dollar’s dominance was slipping.” Plender noted that in its most recent survey, covering the last quarter of 2020, the International Monetary Fund had found that dollar reserves held by central banks had fallen to 59 percent, their lowest levels in 25 years, and well below the 71 percent when the euro was launched in 1999. Plender drew attention to the extraordinary developments that took place in the market for US Treasury bonds when the pandemic began to make its economic and financial effects felt in March 2020 which raised “important questions about the market’s liquidity.” The usual response to financial turbulence is a rush to purchase Treasury bonds as a “safe haven.” In early March there was a typical and orderly flight to safety in US Treasuries. But from March 9 on “there was a disorderly flight from Treasury paper into cash” resulting from forced selling by hedge funds that had borrowed heavily to try to profit from differences in the yield on Treasuries and the yields in futures markets. The plunge in the market threatened the solvency of highly leveraged funds, forcing them to sell, promoting a feedback loop in which those sales prompted further declines and further sales. “That should not have happened in what is usually termed the world’s deepest, most liquid government bond market,” Plender wrote.

Fed Alert: Reverse Repo Usage Nears Record As Repo Market Set To Blow --Ahead of today's 1:15pm overnight Reverse Repo deadline we asked if today is the day the repo market finallys crack, pushing the amount of reserves parked at the Fed to a new record above $500 billion.We were off, but not by too much: on Monday, the Fed revealed that the amount of overnight reserves parked at the Fed rose by another $26BN to $394.9BN (with 54 counteparties) from $369BN (52 counteparties) on Friday, which was the 5th highest in history, up a whopping $186 billion in one week and the highest non-quarter end reverse repo usage ever! Why does this matter? Three reasons, all of which we explained in extensive detail in "Fed Alert: Overnight Reverse Repo Usage Soars Above Covid Crisis Highs", Repo Crisis Looms: Fed's Reverse Repo Usage Soars To $351BN, Fifth Highest Ever, and Zoltan On The Coming QE Endgame: "Banks Have No More Space For Reserves",

1. The Fed is taking Treasurys out of the market through QE purchases and putting them right back in via the RRP
2. The heavy use of the o/n RRP facility tells us that foreign banks too are now chock-full of reserves.
3. Banks don't have the balance sheet to warehouse any more reserves at current spread levels.

As for the immediate market implications they are even more ominous: either the Fed will have to hike the IOER or rates will soon go negative. Worse, with the Fed still planning to do at least $1 trillion in QE even assuming a December taper, and potentially as much as $2 trillion based on the latest just released Fed "forecast", there is simply no place to park all of these reserves. And while Powell & Co pretend that they can continue business as usual for years to come, the repo market is not only cracking but banks, full to the gills with inert reserves and which increase by $30 billion every week, are on the verge of pulling a Mr Creosote...  ... and balking at even a penny of additional liquidity. How the Fed will continue to monetize debt then, when the repo system is now out of collateral, is anyone's guess.

Half a trillion dollars is sitting at the Fed earning nothing - There’s so much spare cash sloshing around U.S. funding markets that investors are choosing to park almost half a trillion dollars at the central bank — earning absolutely nothing. Usage of the Federal Reserve’s reverse repo facility — a mechanism that’s part of the central bank’s arsenal for helping to steer short-term interest rates — surged on Thursday to an unprecedented $485.3 billion. And with the forces driving the dollar glut still some way from abating, that figure could climb further, adding fuel to an increasingly complex debate about what the Fed should do with its various tools to keep a rein on policy. While the offering rate on the Fed reverse repo facility is 0%, there is a lack of alternative places to safely stash money for very short periods. On top of that, some of those — like Treasury bills and market-based repurchase agreements — have seen their rates fall at times to negative levels, meaning investors are essentially paying for the privilege of putting their money somewhere. Compared to that, 0% doesn’t seem so bad. The RRP facility, as it’s commonly called, is “the only safety valve” for the pressure that’s been building up in money markets, according to Gennadiy Goldberg, a senior rates strategist at TD Securities in New York. “It’s really just holding back the flood of cash coming.” The massive buildup of dollars in the funding market is in part related to the Fed’s huge monthly bond-buying program, and is therefore providing fodder for the debate about just when and how quickly the Federal Reserve ought to begin dialing back its asset purchases. But the connection between the purchases and short-end dislocations is not straightforward. Many observers doubt that this as an issue that will substantially move the Fed’s position on tapering, and it is the prospects of sustained inflation and interest-rate hikes that are seen as the key drivers of that discussion. “I don’t think tapering is going to solve this,” said Subadra Rajappa, a strategist at Societe Generale. “Tapering is only going to add to the confusion. If they taper asset purchases, it’s going to roil global markets.” The enormous amount of fiscal stimulus being pumped into the economy is also playing a role in the glut, as is the need for the Treasury to curtail the amount of money it has on hand so it can meet a looming legal requirement on cash levels that is linked to the reinstatement of the federal debt ceiling. This drawdown in the Treasury general account is not only boosting the amount of cash reserves in the system in search of a home, but the speed at which it’s happening also means there are fewer instruments for short-end investors to buy. That’s because one of the easiest ways to reduce the cash balance is to not issue as many Treasury bills — the government’s shortest-term instruments — when the old ones mature. Simply putting the cash to work in a bank account is also not a ready solution, with regulatory constraints spurring some banks to turn away deposits, which instead flow toward money-market funds and feed the abundance.  Usage of the Fed’s RRP facility has now exceeded levels typically only seen at key dates in the funding calendar — even though the current period is not typically a major crunch point. The previous record volume of $474.6 billion took place on Dec. 31, 2015, while the next biggest day was also on the final day of a year. Month-and quarter-end periods have also been known to show some signs of stress, so it’s a distinct possibility that usage will climb again on Friday, the final trading day of this month, although many observers doubt that it will stop there. Results of the next operation are set to be published around 1:15 p.m. Friday afternoon New York time.

Fed should get real about its role in crypto's volatility - Thomas M. Hoenig - Cryptocurrencies are faith-based — they have no intrinsic value. There is no sovereign authority backing them. They are the “pet rock” of currency, worth only what someone can get you to believe they are worth. These are some of the reasons they are so frequently questioned as a reliable investment. And yet they have been steadily appreciating against major sovereign currencies and compete with gold and silver as an inflation hedge. Mainstream commercial and investment banks increasingly are willing to purchase and hold them in safekeeping for their clients, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has confirmed in writing that national banks can take on this responsibility. Why?Part of the reason is because most major national currencies are also faith-based. Their values depend on the public’s faith in sovereign authority and their central banks’ commitment to preserve their value. However, most major central banks have pursued monetary policies that over time have undermined that goal.In the United States, the Federal Reserve’s embarked on a quantitative easing program in 2008 to significantly increase its liabilities — composed primarily of cash and bank reserves — from less than $1 trillion to nearly $8 trillion. This is a phenomenal increase in money-creating capacity. The growth in the Fed’s balance sheet has done little to spark general price inflation, but it has sparked asset inflation in everything from real estate to stocks and even art objects. Holding money is no longer as profitable as it once was, and so to hedge against that relative depreciation investors are buying almost anything else. Any one of these asset classes potentially could be a bubble, but with the Fed greatly expanding the nation’s monetary base, these trends reflect rational choices.Enter cryptocurrencies. In contrast to national fiat currencies, cryptocurrencies have no government sponsor. But also unlike national fiat currencies, they play by a firm set of rules that more systematically constrains their ability to arbitrarily expand in volume. Though they are not widely used as a medium of exchange today, they could develop the capacity to serve that purpose. So while cryptocurrencies are fiat currency — again, pet rocks — their rules-based supply and potential utility as a form of money have made them a preferred intangible asset among investors and speculators.This rapid — some might say explosive — rise in the value of cryptocurrencies has many of the markings of an asset bubble, doomed to collapse. There appears to be a rush to buy them by investors who poorly understand their origin or their risks, and some investors will even borrow against other assets to fund their purchase, with the expectation that their value will continue to rise. That’s a source of systemic risk that regulators and banks should be aware of.But it’s important for all concerned to understand that the growth of cryptocurrency valuations isn’t happening for no reason. The world’s major central banks have been dramatically expanding the money base for over a decade and appear intent on continuing that pattern. Thus, there is good reason to expect asset inflation to continue — including cryptos.Should circumstances change and should central banks slow or contract their monetary expansion — or should the market fear such actions — asset values would likely fall, and in some cases collapse. Banks could be caught up in this desperate cycle and could experience significant losses. However, if they are prudent, it is unlikely that their involvement with cryptocurrencies would pose any more of a risk to banks or the financial system than any other inflated asset..

Larry Summers Doubles Down On His Inflation Prediction - But somehow becomes vaguer about exactly how this is going to happen and show up, but he wants the Fed to stop it in its track, goshdarnit. This is in a column appearing in the Washington Post, May 25, “The inflation risk is real.”Well, he does start out by saying that the economic recovery from the pandemic is a good thing, as is of course the the receeding of the pandemic itself, with the US doing well compared to “other industrial countries.” . But now we must change course, especially the Fed, which Summers is still ticked off about not being appointed Chair of instead of Janet Yellen back when (both of his parents worked for the Philadelphia Fed, so, obviously he should have been put in charge of it, goshdarnit, quite aside from having Paul Samuelson and Kenneth Arrow as uncles!). It is not just ongoing easy monetary and fiscal policies involved here, but the “pentup demand” now roaring out that supposedly is going to race against supply responses for some long time into the future.Oh, he does have some evidence. Indeed the rate of inflation has risen and to a level, 7.5% annual rate in the first quarter, and can quote various others who agree with him that inflation is in danger of getting seriously out of control, such as Warren Buffett, and can quote Jason Furman that the fiscal stimulus is “too big for the moment.” This all supposedly means that the Fed needs to step forward by “explicitly recognizing that that overheating and, not excessive slack, is the predominant near-term risk for the economy.” Furthermore, “policies toward workers should be aimed at the labor shortage that is our current reality” by ending extra unemployment benefits in September. Oh, while he is worried about too much fiscal stimulus, he nevertheless does recognize that expanding infrastructure would help expand future supply capability, so he does reasonably argue states should not use federal aid to cut taxes.Getting back to the Fed, regarding which Summers thinks “Tightening is likely to be necessary,” it must be noted that the Fed from the beginning of the year, if not earlier (along with Treasury Secretary Yellen) has forecast an increase in the rate of inflation this year. It must be admitted that indeed the most recent price spike exceeds what was forecast, so this is the opening for Summers and those who agree with him to argue that inflation is indeed a real risk that calls for a change of policy, or at least of rhetoric in preparation to change policy. Here is where Summers seems to fall down. The people at the Fed, led as near as I can tell by the astute Jim Bullard, have argued that nearly all price increases we would see are temporary surges associated with pandemic-induced supply chain problems, with the global shipping issue at the top of the list with its now tripling of costs. A sign of this is the most dramatic price increases one hears about, such as for copper, have been overwhelmingly among raw materials and commodities rather than final consumer goods, although there certainly has been some passthrough for many of those. But even with those, some appear to have perhaps stopped rising, notably that headline maker, gasoline prices, which seem to have stopped rising after the freakout following the Colonial Pipeline shutdown that set off people waiting in lines a la 1979 (and getting on Fox News screaming about hyperinflation and blaming it on Biden).

 Chicago Fed: "Index suggests economic growth moderated in April" - "Index suggests economic growth moderated in April." This is the headline for this morning's release of the Chicago Fed's National Activity Index, and here is the opening paragraph from the report: The Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI) declined to +0.24 in April from +1.71 in March. Three of the four broad categories of indicators used to construct the index made positive contributions in April, but three categories deteriorated from March. The index’s three-month moving average, CFNAI-MA3, decreased to +0.07 in April from +0.35 in March. [Download report]  The Chicago Fed's National Activity Index (CFNAI) is a monthly indicator designed to gauge overall economic activity and related inflationary pressure. It is a composite of 85 monthly indicators as explained in this background PDF file on the Chicago Fed's website. The index is constructed so a zero value for the index indicates that the national economy is expanding at its historical trend rate of growth. Negative values indicate below-average growth, and positive values indicate above-average growth.  The first chart below shows the recent behavior of the index since 2007. The red dots show the indicator itself, which is quite noisy, together with the 3-month moving average (CFNAI-MA3), which is more useful as an indicator of the actual trend for coincident economic activity.

Q1 GDP Growth Unchanged at 6.4% Annual Rate -- From the BEA: Gross Domestic Product, 1st Quarter 2021 (Second Estimate); Corporate Profits, 1st Quarter 2021 (Preliminary Estimate) Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 6.4 percent in the first quarter of 2021 , according to the "second" estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the fourth quarter of 2020, real GDP increased 4.3 percent. The GDP estimate released today is based on more complete source data than were available for the "advance" estimate issued last month. In the advance estimate, the increase in real GDP was also 6.4 percent. Upward revisions to consumer spending and nonresidential fixed investment were offset by downward revisions to exports and private inventory investment. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, were revised up  Here is a Comparison of Second and Advance Estimates. PCE growth was revised up from 10.7% to 11.3%. Residential investment was revised up from 10.8% to 12.7%. This was slightly below the consensus forecast.

Q1 Real GDP Per Capita: 6.4% Versus the 6.1% Headline Real GDP -The Second Estimate for Q1 GDP came in at 6.4% (6.40% to two decimals), up from 4.3% (4.33% to two decimals) in Q4 2020. With a per-capita adjustment, the headline number is lower at 6.15% to two decimal points.Here is a chart of real GDP per capita growth since 1960. For this analysis, we've chained in today's dollar for the inflation adjustment. The per-capita calculation is based on quarterly aggregates of mid-month population estimates by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, which date from 1959 (hence our 1960 starting date for this chart, even though quarterly GDP has is available since 1947). The population data is available in the FRED series POPTHM. The logarithmic vertical axis ensures that the highlighted contractions have the same relative scale.The chart includes an exponential regression through the data using the Excel GROWTH function to give us a sense of the historical trend. The regression illustrates the fact that the trend since the Great Recession has a visibly lower slope than the long-term trend. In fact, the current GDP per-capita is 9.8% below the pre-recession trend (2008). The real per-capita series gives us a better understanding of the depth and duration of GDP contractions. As we can see, since our 1960 starting point, the recession that began in December 2007 is associated with a deeper trough than previous contractions, which perhaps justifies its nickname as the Great Recession.The standard measure of GDP in the US is expressed as the compounded annual rate of change from one quarter to the next. The current real GDP is 6.4%. But with a per-capita adjustment, the data series is lower at 6.1%. The 10-year moving average illustrates that US economic growth has slowed dramatically since the last recession and dropped significantly at the start of the COVID-19 recession, only to bounce back soon after.

Seven High Frequency Indicators for the Economy --These indicators are mostly for travel and entertainment.    It will interesting to watch these sectors recover as the vaccine is distributed.    The TSA is providing daily travel numbers.This data shows the seven day average of daily total traveler throughput from the TSA for 2019 (Light Blue), 2020 (Blue) and 2021 (Red). The dashed line is the percent of 2019 for the seven day average. This data is as of May 23rd. The seven day average is down 32.0% from the same day in 2019 (68.0% of 2019).  (Dashed line) The second graph shows the 7 day average of the year-over-year change in diners as tabulated by OpenTable for the US and several selected cities. OpenTable notes: "we’ve updated the data including downloadable dataset from January 1, 2021 onward to compare seated diners from 2021 to 2019, as opposed to year over year."   This data is updated through May 22, 2021. Note that this data is for "only the restaurants that have chosen to reopen in a given market". Since some restaurants have not reopened, the actual year-over-year decline is worse than shown. Dining picked up during the holidays, then slumped with the huge winter surge in cases.  Dining was picking up again.  Florida and Texas are above 2019 levels. This data shows domestic box office for each week and the median for the years 2016 through 2019 (dashed light blue).   The data is from BoxOfficeMojo through May 20th. Movie ticket sales were at $32 million last week,  down about 83% from the median for the week. This graph shows the seasonal pattern for the hotel occupancy rate using the four week average. Occupancy is now slightly above the horrible 2009 levels. This data is through May 15th. Hotel occupancy is currently down 16% compared to same week in 2019). Note: Occupancy was up year-over-year, since occupancy declined sharply at the onset of the pandemic. However, occupancy is still down significantly from normal levels. This graph, based on weekly data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), shows gasoline supplied compared to the same week of 2019. As of May 14th, gasoline supplied was off about 2.2% (about 97.8% of the same week in 2019). Gasoline supplied was up year-over-year, since at one point, gasoline supplied was off almost 50% YoY in 2020. This graph is from Apple mobility. From Apple: "This data is generated by counting the number of requests made to Apple Maps for directions in select countries/regions, sub-regions, and cities." This is just a general guide - people that regularly commute probably don't ask for directions. There is also some great data on mobility from the Dallas Fed Mobility and Engagement Index. This data is through May 22nd for the United States and several selected cities.  The graph is the running 7 day average to remove the impact of weekends.  According to the Apple data directions requests, public transit in the 7 day average for the US is at 78% of the January 2020 level and moving up. Here is some interesting data on New York subway usage.  This graph is from Todd W Schneider. This is weekly data since 2015.   Most weeks are between 30 and 35 million entries, and currently there more than 11 million subway turnstile entries per week - and increasing.  This data is through Friday, May 21st.

Biden Unveils $6 Trillion Spending Plan – WSJ —President Biden’s $6 trillion budget proposal unveiled Friday charts his vision of an expansive federal government role in the economy and the lives of Americans, with big increases in spending on infrastructure, public health and education along with tax hikes on corporations and the wealthy.The Biden administration is seeking $1.52 trillion for the military and domestic programs in fiscal year 2022, which begins Oct. 1, an 8.6% increase from the $1.4 trillion enacted last year, excluding emergency measures to combat the Covid-19 pandemic.The proposal would shift more federal resources from the military, which would see a 1.6% rise in spending next year, to domestic programs such as scientific research and renewable energy, which would get 16.5% more funding under the president’s plan in 2022. The White House detailed costs for its proposals to spend $4.5 trillion over the next decade on infrastructure and social programs, which the administration is hoping to advance through Congress this summer. The plan includes $17 billion next year for improvements such as repairs to roads, bridges and airports, $4.5 billion to replace lead water pipes across the country, and $13 billion to expand high-speed broadband.Plans to provide universal preschool and ensure teachers at those schools earn $15 an hour would cost $3.5 billion in 2022. The budget would also provide $8.8 billion next year on direct spending on families, including $6.7 billion for affordable child care and $750 million for paid leave. Those costs would rise substantially in 2023 and beyond.Mr. Biden’s budget blueprint serves to advance some of his administration’s most ambitious goals: Reducing disparities in incomes and wealth through the tax code, curbing greenhouse gas emissions and putting the U.S. on a stronger footing to compete with China in the global battle for economic and technological supremacy.“It’s a bold, aspirational, progressive budget, but it’s also problematic,” said G. William Hoagland, a senior vice president at the Bipartisan Policy Center and former Senate GOP budget aide, who said he was concerned about the shift away from containing federal deficits. “This really is something that’s equivalent to the Roosevelt years coming out of the Depression.”The president’s ability to enact his agenda will depend on Congress, where Democrats have slim majorities. Lawmakers routinely ignore the White House’s budget requests in favor of their own plans, and some Democratic lawmakers have expressed reservations about Mr. Biden’s proposals to raise taxes on businesses and high-income households.Passing a budget in Congress unlocks reconciliation, a process that allows lawmakers to pass legislation directly related to the budget with a simple Senate majority, instead of the usual 60 votes.Democrats used reconciliation to approve Mr. Biden’s $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief bill earlier this year and are weighing whether to use it again to advance the rest of his economic agenda without Republican support.Democratic lawmakers said the plan would provide money for long overdue investments after years of spending constraints. Republicans assailed it as an unwarranted intrusion of the federal government in the economy that risks stoking inflation and adding to the federal debt.Sen. Jerry Moran (R., Kan.) called it “a budget that will raise taxes, cause prices to skyrocket and saddle future generations with burdensome levels of debt.”

Biden's $6T Budget: Social Spending, Taxes on Business - (AP) — -- President Joe Biden is proposing a $6 trillion budget for next year that’s piled high with new safety net programs for the poor and middle class, but his generosity depends on taxing corporations and the wealthy to keep the nation’s spiking debt from spiraling totally out of control. Biden inherited record pandemic-stoked spending and won a major victory on COVID-19 relief earlier this year. Friday’s rollout adds his recently announced infrastructure and social spending initiatives and fleshes out his earlier plans to sharply increase spending for annual Cabinet budgets. This year's projected deficit would set a new record of $3.7 trillion that would drop to $1.8 trillion next year — still almost double pre-pandemic levels. The national debt will soon breach $30 trillion after more than $5 trillion in already approved COVID-19 relief. As a result, the government must borrow roughly 50 cents of every dollar it spends this year and next. With the deficit largely unchecked, Biden would use proposed tax hikes on businesses and high-earning people to power huge new social programs like universal prekindergarten, large subsidies for child care and guaranteed paid leave. “The best way to grow our economy is not from the top down, but from the bottom up and the middle out,” Biden said in his budget message. “Our prosperity comes from the people who get up every day, work hard, raise their family, pay their taxes, serve their Nation, and volunteer in their communities.” The budget incorporates the administration’s eight-year, $2.3 trillion infrastructure proposal and its $1.8 trillion American Families Plan and adds details on his $1.5 trillion request for annual operating expenditures for the Pentagon and domestic agencies. Acting White House budget chief Shalanda Young said the Biden plan “does exactly what the president told the country he would do. Grow the economy, create jobs and do so responsibly by requiring the wealthiest Americans and big corporations to pay their fair share.” Biden’s budget is sure to give Republicans fresh ammunition for their criticisms of the new Democratic administration as bent on a “tax and spend” agenda that would damage the economy and impose a crushing debt burden on younger Americans. Republicans also say he’s shorting the military.

Money is cheap, let's spend it - White House $6 trillion budget message (Reuters) - The White House on Friday sent Congress a $6 trillion budget plan that would ramp up spending on infrastructure, education and combating climate change, arguing it makes good fiscal sense to invest now, when the cost of borrowing is cheap, and reduce deficits later.The first comprehensive budget  offered by Democratic President Joe Biden faces strong opposition from Republican lawmakers, who want to tamp down U.S. government spending and reject his plans to hike taxes on the rich and big corporations. Biden's plan for fiscal year 2022 calls for $6.01 trillion in spending and $4.17 trillion in revenues, a 36.6% increase from 2019 outlays, before the coronavirus pandemic bumped up spending. It projects a $1.84 trillion deficit, a sharp decrease from the past two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but up from 2019's $984 billion.The blueprint builds on a partial "skinny budget" the White House released last month that mapped out $1.5 trillion in discretionary spending.The plan drew praise from Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and criticism from Republicans - who blasted the proposed higher debt levels - and some progressive groups, who said it should have scaled back military spending.  Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders called Biden's budget "the most significant agenda for working families in the modern history of our country," and said it would create millions of good-paying jobs, while reducing poverty.Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell heaped scorn on the plan, and warned Democrats to "move beyond the socialist daydream and the go-it-alone partisanship.""President Biden’s proposal would drown American families in debt, deficits, and inflation," McConnell said in a tweet. White House officials said Biden's $4 trillion plans to address historic U.S. inequality, climate chance and provide four more years of free public education would be completely paid for in 15 years, with tax increases starting to chip away at deficits after 2030. Cecilia Rouse, the chair of Biden's Council of Economic Advisers, says Biden's plan is front loaded and that the administration was willing to live with budget deficits amid low-interest rates to make significant investments in the nation's economy. She projected a drop in deficits by over $2 trillion in the following years. "That is a sharp departure from unpaid tax cuts under the prior administration that seriously worsened our long-term fiscal problem," she said. "The most important test of our fiscal health is real interest payments on the debt. That’s what tells us whether debt is burdening our economy and crowding out other investments." While rates on U.S. Treasury securities have climbed off record lows seen at the height of the coronavirus crisis last year, the government's borrowing costs are still the lowest they have been in years. Rouse said the economy was seeing short-term inflation spikes, fueled by the sharp growth in the economy, but projected it settling down to an annual rate of around 2% over time. Increased investment would boost U.S. economic growth, with the current conservative White House forecast calling for 2% gross domestic product growth in 2031, compared with the Federal Reserve's estimate of 1.8%. Biden's first full spending outline since taking office in January serves as the fiscal blueprint for his political priorities, and is likely to kick off months of difficult negotiations with Congress, which needs to approve most of the spending.

Takeaways from Biden's budget: record debt, looming fight on taxes – The $6 trillion budget proposed by President Joe Biden on Friday gives a fuller fiscal picture than an April preview, in which he laid out his spending priorities. The plan details taxes and spending for the fiscal year that begins in October. But a 10-year outlook also incorporates the multi-year spending on infrastructure, education, child care and other domestic programs proposed through what Biden has called is American Jobs and American Families plans. It's up to Congress, which is narrowly controlled by Democrats, to decide what gets implemented. The budget projects the federal debt would increase, relative to the size of the economy, to a higher level than during World War II.That will give Republicans more fodder for their attacks on Biden's "tax and spend" agenda.During the World War II era, debt peaked at 106% of gross domestic product in 1946. Under Biden's plan, debt is projected to rise to 117% of the size of the economy by 2031. Without changes, it's expected to grow to 113% of GDP.The administration argues that the level of interest payments, rather than the size of the debt, is the most relevant benchmark for whether debt is burdening the economy. The government’s annual interest payments after adjusting for inflation would remain well below the historic average throughout the next decade, according to the White House.The government would spend $1.8 trillion more than it's projected to take in next year.But by 2031, the deficit would decline, relative to the size of the economy, to a smaller share than it would be without Biden's changes.That's in part because Biden has proposed paying for some of his ambitious agenda through higher taxes on corporations and the wealthiest households.But the president's plan does not address the structural deficit that existed before the pandemic. That imbalance is driven by an aging population, rising health care costs, compounding interest – and the lack of sufficient tax revenues to keep up. Biden's budget assumes that reductions in taxes approved in 2017 under President Donald Trump will still expire in 2025, as is current law. If that happens, however, that would violate Biden's campaign to not raise taxes on Americans making $400,000 or less.Although Biden campaigned on lowering the enrollment age for Medicare and creating a public insurance option, his plan does not include a way to do that. Instead, the proposal only calls on Congress to take action this year to lower prescription drug costs and expand and improve health coverage.The plan notes that the money saved from reducing the amount of money Medicare pays for prescription drugs could be used to pay for coverage expansion. But congressional Democrats are divided over how to address drug prices as well as how to spend the savings.

President Biden’s budget shows what true “fiscal responsibility” means: Pushing the economy closer to full employment, reducing inequality, and measuring the debt burden more accurately - EPI Blog by Josh Bivens - The Biden administration released the President’s budget today—a proposal for tax and spending policies they would like to see become law over the next year. It includes substantial investments in traditional infrastructure, child care and early education, higher education, and elder care. It also calls for recurring cash payments to families with children. It includes money for more generous subsidies through the Affordable Care Act (ACA), substantial increases in Medicare and Medicaid coverage, and calls on Congress to undertake permanent reforms to modernize the nation’s fragmented and inadequate unemployment insurance system. The proposal also calls on Congress to develop comprehensive legislation to strengthen and extend protections against the abusive practice of misclassifying employees as independent contractors and uses federal housing grants to incentivize inclusionary zoning practices to alleviate the nation’s housing shortage. On the tax side, it raises taxes on realized capital gains, on corporate income, and closes loopholes and tightens enforcement in an effort to raise revenue through greater tax complianceAbout 18 months ago, we at EPI released a blueprint for guiding fiscal policymakers. In this blueprint, we identified the main targets of fiscal policy as: ensuring high-pressure labor markets and low unemployment, reducing inequality, and then (and only then) reducing the economic obligations incurred by the public debt. The Biden administration’s budget (particularly given the passage of the American Rescue Plan earlier this year) scores extremely high on these marks. Specifically:

• The mix of spending and progressive tax increases would provide a large expansionary boost to aggregate demand in coming years. This provides a powerful backstop for efforts to push unemployment to very low levels and to generate high-pressure labor markets that boost wages, with the goal of eventually reaching full employment. For example, the budget forecasts an unemployment rate at 4.1% or below as soon as 2022 and persisting for the rest of the 10-year budget window.
• The budget would unambiguously reduce inequality, mostly through its taxes on capital income—income accruing to households simply by virtue of them owning wealth. However, the spending side of the budget also ensures a more equitable distribution of the benefits of economic growth, even if many of them would not show up directly in measures of household income. The care investments included in the budget, for example, may not boost household income directly, but would remove a large cost item from the household budgets of families.
• The budget’s debt targets focus on a much more sensible measure than previous budgets: the inflation-adjusted interest payments on public debt (or, the real debt service ratio). This indicator is a far better metric for measuring the burden of public debt. It should replace the ratio of public debt to gross domestic product (GDP) as the standard measure used in fiscal debates. This real debt service ratio shows historically low burdens from public debt today.
  • This ratio tells us something clear about upcoming fiscal debates: As useful as the tax increases in the Biden budget are, if the legislative process does not allow the full amount of these tax increases to become law, this does not mean that the spending proposals should be scaled back. Instead, they should simply be financed with debt.

Below, we expand a bit on each of these points.

One Thing Missing From the Biden Budget: Booming Growth - For all the administration’s focus on transformational policies, it’s not forecasting an outburst of economic potential. By Neil Irwin President Biden’s budget proposal includes billions of dollars for clean energy, education and child care — ideas being sold for their potential to increase America’s economic potential. One thing it does not include: an outright economic boom. In the assumptions that underpin the administration’s budget, economic growth is strong in 2021 and 2022 — but strong enough only to return the economy to its prepandemic trend line, not to surge above the trajectory it was on throughout the 2010s. In 2023, G.D.P. growth falls to 2 percent in the budget assumptions, then to 1.8 percent a year through the mid-2020s. That is lower than the 2.3 percent average annual growth rate experienced from 2010 to 2019. The administration’s restrained outlook is consistent with projections by other forecasters, including at the Congressional Budget Office and in the private sector. But it means that the Biden White House is not — at least not formally — forecasting the kind of rip-roaring growth that characterized periods like 1983 to 1989 (with an average annual G.D.P. growth of 4.4 percent) and 1994 to 2000 (4 percent). Those surges, among other things, helped propel two presidents to comfortable re-elections. If the new projections were to prove accurate, it would imply two years of strong growth paired with moderate inflation as the nation recovers from the pandemic heading into the 2022 midterm elections, but then comparatively low growth in the run-up to the 2024 election. The sober estimate contrasts with the approach Mr. Biden has taken to selling his agenda publicly. The framing of his signature plans for infrastructure and family support has been that they will enable the economy to become more vibrant and productive….

First Biden Budget Retains Trump-Era Business Tax Break – WSJ Owners of closely held businesses would still get a 20% tax deduction under President Biden’s tax plan, leaving high-income people who run construction companies and manufacturing firms benefiting—for now—from a provision that Republicans created in 2017over Democratic opposition.Although Mr. Biden campaigned on limiting the break, the deduction went untouched in the first $2.4 trillion worth of net tax increases that were detailed by the Biden administration on Friday.Administration officials haven’t said why they haven’t proposed curbing the break at this point, and the White House didn’t comment. Treasury officials said Friday that some campaign proposals need more work and others may appear in future plans.The deduction “just seems to be kind of without redeeming qualities and frankly, I was a little surprised that the Biden administration didn’t propose curtailing it,” said William Gale, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a left-leaning Washington think tank.  Kevin Kuhlman, vice president of government relations at the National Federation of Independent Business, said he had been bracing for the deduction to be removed.“There is a sensitivity to direct tax increases on small businesses and I think that’s one of the reasons it may not have been included,” he said.He and other advocates of the provision say congressional Democrats’ wariness about some Biden tax-increase proposals could lead them to seek to change this break as a potential alternative way to raise money.“That’s where you fear this getting resurrected, particularly when you consider the revenue pressure they’re going to be under,” said Dustin Stamper, tax legislative affairs practice leader at accounting firm Grant Thornton LLP.Sen. Ron Wyden (D., Ore.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, is working on a series of changes to the break that could sharply curb it for the highest-income households while opening it up to upper-middle-class service-business owners.“I’m looking at ways to revamp the deduction to ensure it’s not just a giveaway to the top,” Mr. Wyden said. “The benefit could be made more generous for middle-class small-business owners and still generate revenue for other priorities like child care.”Congress created the tax break—Section 199A of the tax code—in the 2017 tax law that got through Congress without a single Democratic vote. It gives a deduction worth 20% of income—basically a 20% rate cut—to business income that shows up on individual tax returns. That includes income from partnerships, sole proprietorships and S corporations, all of which are known as pass-through businesses because their income passes through to their owners without the separate business-level taxes that typically apply to corporations.

Three Disasters Show Gaps in $1.7 Trillion Infrastructure Plan - Three times this year, major pieces of U.S. infrastructure have failed: first the Texas power grid, then the East Coast’s main gasoline pipeline, then a freeway bridge over the Mississippi River. The crises disrupted businesses and lives, cost billions and left more than 150 Texans dead. President Joe Biden’s $1.7 trillion infrastructure package wouldn’t necessarily have prevented any of those failures. It wouldn’t have stopped the hackers who shut down the Colonial Pipeline for days, closing gas stations across the Southeast. While the hack may push the federal government to enforce pipelines’ cybersecurity, the administration bill is silent on that issue. Tennessee officials could have applied under Biden’s plan for funding to repair Memphis’s Hernando De Soto Bridge, where the discovery of a cracked and almost-severed steel beam last week closed the Mississippi to barge traffic. But inspections failed to register the damage, even though it’s visible in drone footage from 2019. As for Texas, the White House says part of the administration plan could help weatherproof the electrical grid. But it’s unclear whether that funding would extend to power plants and gas pipelines that malfunctioned during February’s brutal cold snap, plunging millions into darkness. The companies that own those plants and pipes had ignored previous warnings to weatherize, deeming the work too costly. The recent failures illustrate just how many ways the patchwork systems can break. Experts say they also illustrate a long-running flaw in the way the U.S. thinks about and pays for infrastructure: The country focuses more on building new things rather than maintaining what it has. Much of the current debate in Washington has hinged on what actually counts as infrastructure in Biden’s plan: Child-care centers? High-speed internet? But the arguments overlook the fact that neither public officials nor the invisible hand of the market has kept our existing steel and concrete intact.

US Seeks To Boost Funds For Hypersonic Weapons By $52Mln To $238Mln - Budget Proposal – - The Biden administration is ai ming to increase funding for hypersonic weapons development by $52 million for a total of $238 million, the Defense Department said in the Fiscal Year 2022 defense budget proposal released on Friday. "Hypersonic weapon development increases by $52 million to fund the Southern Cross Integrated Flight Research Experiment (SCI-FIRE), an air-breathing prototype in partnership with Australia, and the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile prototype while continuing to fund the Air Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) for an early operational capability in 2022. ARRW is funded to $238 million and is on track to be the nation's first operational hypersonic weapon," the budget proposal said.

Biden budget plan calls for record military spending directed against China - On Friday, the Biden administration released its budget proposal for fiscal year 2022, which begins on October 1 of this year. At its center is the call for a record military budget of $753 billion, including a massive allocation of $24.7 billion for nuclear weapons modernization, a major expansion of US air and nuclear-capable naval forces, and the largest ever request for research and development—$112 billion.The budget proposal is openly directed against China, in the first instance, followed by Russia, Iran and North Korea. Coming in the midst of the orchestrated revival of the scientifically baseless Wuhan lab conspiracy theory on the origins of the coronavirus by the Biden administration and the entire political and media establishment, aimed at creating a casus belli for war with China, the Pentagon budget is a stark warning to the American and international working class. US imperialism is seeking to extricate itself from its intractable global and domestic contradictions by preparing for military conflict against what it deems to be its most dangerous rival.Since coming to office four months ago, Biden has stepped up the drumbeat of anti-China propaganda and military provocation against Beijing initiated by the Obama administration and escalated by Trump. He has gone further than any previous president in undermining the “One China” policy and related policy of “strategic ambiguity” toward Taiwan inaugurated under the Carter administration in 1978. He has opened discussions with Taiwan, Japan and South Korea on stationing offensive missiles on their territory directed against the Chinese mainland, a move that China has warned it would consider an act of war. The budget released yesterday allocates $5.4 billion toward the development of these plans, under the rubric of the “Pacific Deterrence Initiative.” The budget announcement released Friday by the Defense Department bristles with anti-Chinese militarism. It begins with a statement by Biden’s secretary of defense, Retired Gen. Lloyd Austin, which declares: The budget provides us the mix of capabilities we need most and stays true to our focus on the pacing challenge from the People’s Republic of China, combating the damaging effects of climate change on our military installations, and modernizing our capabilities to meet the advanced threats of tomorrow.

 Senate clears passage of economic warfare legislation directed at China -The US Senate moved towards passage of the United States Innovation and Competition Act Thursday night, providing more than $200 billion to fund economic warfare directed primarily against China, but also against other US competitors in Japan and Western Europe. The key vote came Thursday afternoon on a motion to close debate and block any filibuster, which passed by a margin of 68–30, easily clearing the 60-vote threshold. While 30 Republicans voted against cloture, it was supported by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and 17 other Republicans, in return for Democratic agreement to bring several amendments up for vote. The bill, co-written by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Republican Senator Todd Young of Indiana, incorporates a half dozen separate pieces of legislation, some introduced in response to the acute shortage of computer chips that has forced the partial shutdown of the US auto industry, others driven by allegations of Chinese “theft” of US intellectual property. Co-sponsors of the legislation include Republicans Lindsey Graham and Mitt Romney, and Democrat Chris Coons of Delaware, the senator with the closest personal ties to President Biden. The various bills reported from six Senate committees carried such titles as the Endless Frontier Act, the Strategic Competition Act and the Meeting the China Challenge Act. In their combined form they run to more than 1,400 pages. The right-wing Heritage Foundation summarized the overall bill as beginning “an overdue debate on how to tackle long-term strategic competition with China.” Among the provisions are a list of ten “key technology focus areas” to be developed by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy. Openly anti-China provisions include sanctions on Chinese entities accused by the US government or US corporations of cyberattacks or intellectual property theft, as well as a review of US export controls to restrict export of technologies to China on a variety of “human rights” and “national security” grounds.

 South Korean president backs US war plans in summit with Biden - South Korean President Moon Jae-in traveled to Washington last week for a summit with US President Joe Biden. The meeting on Friday was Moon’s first trip abroad since the COVID-19 pandemic began, as well as Biden’s second in-person summit with a foreign leader, following Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s visit in April. Biden’s emphasis on US alliances with Japan and South Korea at the beginning of his term is indicative of Washington’s growing war preparations aimed at China.Couched in the empty terms of adherence to “democratic norms, human rights, and the rule of law at home and abroad,” the summit’s purpose was to shore up the military alliance between Washington and Seoul. Under former President Donald Trump, Washington sharply ratcheted up tensions with Beijing over Taiwan by increasingly calling into question the “One China” policy, which the Biden administration has only intensified. The “One China” policy states that Taiwan is a part of China, a fact which Washington recognizes as it has had no formal diplomatic relations with Taipei since 1979. Beijing has stated that any attempt by Taiwan to declare independence will lead to war, particularly as it fears the island will be turned into a launch pad for US attacks against the Chinese mainland.Moon and Biden’s joint statement released following the summit makes clear that Seoul has signed onto these war plans behind the backs of the South Korean people. Seoul attempted to claim afterwards that, as the statement did not directly reference China, there should be no reason for Beijing to be upset and dismissed the latter’s concerns. In fact, the joint statement included a veritable checklist of anti-China phrases.The two leaders, the statement read, “pledge to maintain peace and stability, lawful unimpeded commerce, and respect for international law, including freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea and beyond. President Biden and President Moon emphasize the importance of preserving peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.”Phrases like “freedom of navigation” and “rule of law” are used to demonize Beijing while simultaneously justifying US belligerence in the East and South China Seas.The reference to Taiwan is the first time that a joint statement between Washington and Seoul has mentioned the island. Neither Washington nor Seoul or Tokyo have any concern for “peace and stability” over Taiwan. The naming of the island in the statement calls into question the “One China” policy, which all three countries formally recognize.

US planned nuclear attack on Chinese cities in 1958 Taiwan crisis - Daniel Ellsberg, the US nuclear strategist who leaked the Pentagon papers, has published classified documents making clear that US generals were aggressively pushing for a nuclear attack on Chinese cities in 1958.In order to maintain control over two tiny islets, Quemoy and Matsu, just kilometres off the coast of China, the US Joint Chiefs of Staff were prepared to carry out nuclear attacks against major Chinese cities, including Shanghai, and to accept the consequences of nuclear retaliation by the Soviet Union against Taiwan, Japan and the United States, leading to the deaths of millions.These documents are so explosive that the United States government sought to keep them from public view for six decades. They have been revealed only because Ellsberg—who copied them alongside the Pentagon Papers, which exposed the motives behind the US war in Vietnam—is risking prosecution under the Espionage act to make them known.During the Second Taiwan Straits Crisis of 1958, Pentagon war planners believed that the islets of Quemoy and Matsu, a few kilometres from China’s coast, were indefensible with conventional weapons. “The entire military establishment assumed more and more that nuclear weapons would be used in the event of hostilities,” noted the documents released by Ellsberg.“Atomic weapons would be employed by the United States and probably by the enemy,” Pentagon planners noted, and “authority to attack targets on the Chinese mainland would be granted.”There would be “atomic weapons strikes by both sides” based on the premise that the “use of atomic weapons was inevitable.” The US high command pushed aggressively for the immediate use of nuclear weapons against a Chinese offensive against the islands, while asserting that US war aims would include the “destruction of Chinese Communist war-making capability.”

 Have Democrats Reached a Turning Point on Israel? -- On Thursday, Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire, putting a tentative end to 11 days of fighting that began with protests over the eviction of Palestinian families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem and a subsequent Israeli raid at the Al Aqsa mosque on the last Friday of Ramadan. In a statement praising the agreement Thursday night, President Joe Biden described talks between the United States and Israel over the past week. “In my conversation with [Prime Minister] Netanyahu, I commended him for the decision to bring the current hostilities to a close within less than 11 days,” he said. “I also emphasized what I have said throughout this conflict: The United States fully supports Israel’s right to defend itself against indiscriminate rocket attacks from Hamas and other Gaza-based terrorist groups that have taken the lives of innocent civilians in Israel.”Statements like this have been pro forma for American presidents for years. But this one came after days of protest and criticism that underscored how dramatically the discourse on Israel and Palestine has changed since Biden was last in the White House. Six days after hostilities began, New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called Israel an apartheid state, capping off a week of bold statements from progressives including Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Cori Bush, and Betty McCollum, who reintroduced a bill restricting Israel’s use of military aid in April. House progressives and Senator Bernie Sanders also offered resolutions opposing the sale of $735 million in American weapons to Israel. All of this amounted to the most significant rift yet between the Biden administration and the Democratic left, and an indication of how broader changes within the party and the American political scene might shake up the relative stasis of Israel policy further in the years ahead.“I think what we’re seeing now is a few things combining to create the situation we’re in,” says Beth Miller, senior government affairs manager at Jewish Voice for Peace. “One is all of the hard work that the Palestinian-led Palestinian rights movement in this country has been doing for decades. The other is the broader political moment in the United States right now. We are in a post-Trump era. We’re living in a global pandemic. We’re in a time where Black Lives Matter is a rallying cry for progressives across this entire country, where we’ve seen incredible Black-led organizing has made real, tangible change. And we’re at a time where, more broadly speaking, the progressive left in America is starting to understand in new ways that all of our struggles are interconnected and that everything we work on has to be in solidarity with one another.”

 Sanders push to block arms sale to Israel doomed in Senate -- An effort by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to block a $735 million arms sale to Israel appears doomed in the Senate. Progressives are mounting a late effort to try to stop the sale amid the conflict between Israel and Hamas, which entered a cease-fire phase on Thursday evening. But Sanders’s effort is shaping to be largely symbolic, and short-lived, as he faces multiple headaches that essentially guarantee his resolution won’t pass the Senate. The main problem for Sanders is pretty straightforward: Absent some flip-flopping, he doesn’t have the votes. Typically when lawmakers try to prevent an arms sale — something Congress has never accomplished through a joint resolution — they are able to force a vote, with passage requiring only a simple majority in the Senate by using the Arms Export Control Act to bypass the 60-vote filibuster. That means Sanders would need 51 votes, or 50 votes and Vice President Harris to vote against the administration’s arms sale. But with deep Democratic divisions over what tactics the administration should deploy against Israel, a long-time ally that typically enjoys bipartisan support, Sanders does not appear to have a path to the votes he needs. Among those opposing the resolution is Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. “I wouldn't be supporting it,” Menendez said. Sen. Ben Cardin (Md.), the second-ranking Democrat on the panel, also said he isn’t on board, adding that he doesn’t think there are 50 votes in the Senate to try to block the sale. “I’m not supportive of his resolution,” Cardin said. “I have confidence that the Biden administration is handling it properly.” Other Democrats on the Foreign Relations Committee described themselves as undecided. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) — who has used the same provision of the Arms Export Control Act to try to block arms sales to Saudi Arabia — said he was waiting to get briefed before taking a position on the sale to Israel. “We’re going to have to think about ways to make sure that Israel stays on a path to a Palestinian state. I think that future is much more in jeopardy after the crisis of the last week,” Murphy said. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), a member of the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, declined to take a position on Sanders’s resolution but signaled that he trusted the Biden administration’s approach. “The sale is going to take place a year from now ... I hope they are talking to them about the proposed use of these weapons,” Kaine said.

 AP Journalist fired after right-wing campaign over Palestinian activism --Last week, in a chilling act of political censorship, the Associated Press (AP) fired new staffer Emily Wilder over her pro-Palestinian positions while a student at Stanford University, and for posts on social media critical of the government of Israel. The decision to fire Wilder came after the Stanford chapter of the College Republicans launched an online campaign to discredit the newly hired journalist. The campaign garnered support from a slew of right-wing figures like Ben Shapiro, Robert Spencer, and Senator Tom Cotton, who all called for her removal.  Wilder had started working for the AP on May 3. Just two weeks later, the Stanford College Republicans posted on Facebook and Twitter claiming to have “exposed” a supposed anti-Israel bias on the part of the AP by hiring Wilder. The posts denounced Wilder as an “anti-Israel agitator” for her participation in demonstrations by the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and the Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), a Jewish activist group that is opposed to Zionism. The so-called “exposure” by the College Republicans was merely sharing photos of Wilder’s own social media account where she expressed excitement to start in her position at the AP, images of her at a JVP demonstration, and a handful of social media posts where Wilder, who is Jewish, criticized the “Birthright” Israeli citizenship afforded to people of Jewish descent while Palestinians have been forcibly removed from their homes. In one such post, Wilder explained why she would be attending a protest of a Birthright fundraiser where billionaire Sheldon Adelson, Donald Trump’s largest single donor, was a participant. The post by the College Republicans was subsequently shared by Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, the right-wing editor of The Daily Wire Ben Shapiro, and the anti-Muslim racist Robert Spencer. Senator Cotton went so far as to insinuate that the AP was linked to Hamas. In a post that linked to an article on Wilder’s hire by the far-right Free Beacon, Cotton commented: “Not a surprise from a media organization that shared office space with Hamas.”

Ireland Rejects US Plan For Global Minimum Tax, Will Keep 12.5% Rate - Following reports that an agreement between the G-7 and the White House on a global minimum corporate tax rate is almost ready, Ireland - which isn't a G-7 member, but is a member of the OECD and the EU, and therefore must also assent to these changes - is speaking out against a new minimum level agreed to by the White House. According to Sky News, Ireland has no plans to increase its 12.5% corporate tax rate, which is already one of the lowest in the developed world, and which has been a tremendous boon for its economy. The latest iteration of the agreement as envisioned by the US set the global minimum rate at more than 15%.

 US State Dept Issues "Do Not Travel" Advisory For Japan As Calls To Cancel Olympics Intensify -Much to the chagrin of Japan's political leaders, worsening COVID-19 cases are prompting more critics, including SoftBank Chairman Masayoshi Son (one of the country's most high-profile businessmen), to warn that the Olympics should be canceled as hospitals in the country's second-largest city, Osaka, struggle to treat a huge wave of hospitalized patients as Japan becomes the latest Asian nation to fall victim to a new wave of the virus. The western Japanese region of Osaka is home to 9 million people, and is suffering the brunt of what Reuters described as Japan's "fourth wave of the pandemic."  Only half of the region's medical staff are vaccinated, which "underscores the challenge of hosting a major global sports event in two months time," Reuters added. "Simply put, this is a collapse of the medical system," said Yuji Tohda, the director of Kindai University Hospital in Osaka. Fortunately for the government, the surge is already showing some signs of abating. Tokyo, the site of the upcoming Summer Olympics (which were postponed after the pandemic made the Games a virtual impossibility last year) reported 340 new cases on Monday, down from 535 a day earlier, bringing the seven-day average of new cases in the capital to 638, which is 18.7% lower than the prior week. Osaka meanwhile registered 216 new infections, down from 274 a day ago and the first time in two months that the number of new cases in the western Japan prefecture fell below 300 for two consecutive days. Tokyo, Osaka and seven other prefectures are currently under a state of emergency that has been extended through May 31. Japan has recorded more than 700,000 infections and 12,000 Covid-19 deaths from the virus.Shortly after the warnings from Masa-san and news (below) of Japan's push for a amass vaccination program, the US State Department has cranked up the pressure to '11' by issuing a Level 4 Travel Advisory for visitors to Japan. "Do not travel to Japan due to COVID-19."The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a Level 4 Travel Health Notice for Japan due to COVID-19, indicating a very high level of COVID-19 in the country. There are restrictions in place affecting U.S. citizen entry into Japan. Visit the Embassy's COVID-19 page for more information on COVID-19 in Japan. So the question is - will the US send their athletes?

 Fauci ‘not convinced’ COVID developed naturally, backs investigation --​Dr. Anthony Fauci, a top adviser to President Biden on the coronavirus pandemic, said he’s “not convinced” the deadly virus developed naturally and has called for further investigations into where it emerged.  Fauci was asked during a Poynter event, “United Facts of America: A Festival of Fact-Checking,”earlier this month about whether he was confident that COVID-19 developed naturally.“No actually. I am not convinced about that. I think we should continue to investigate what went on in China until we continue to find out to the best of our ability what happened,” Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, said, according to Fox News.  “Certainly, the people who investigated it say it likely was the emergence from an animal reservoir that then infected individuals, but it could have been something else, and we need to find that out. So, you know, that’s the reason why I said I’m perfectly in favor of any investigation that looks into the origin of the virus,” he added. The coronavirus was first reported in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, and many believe it could have begun in a lab there and escaped.  Fauci was pressed on that theory during a Senate hearing on May 11 and said he would support a further investigation during an exchange with Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kansas). “Do you think it’s possible that COVID-19 arose from a lab accident … in Wuhan, and should it be fully investigated?” Marshall, a doctor, asked Fauci. “That possibility certainly exists, and I am totally in favor of a full investigation of whether that could have happened,” he replied.

Biden orders 90-day review of COVID origins, 'lab leak' theory -President Biden on Tuesday ordered US spy agencies to do a 90-day investigation into whether COVID-19 was released by a Chinese lab — with the White House saying it isn’t ruling out anything, including deliberate release of the virus.Biden made the abrupt pivot after his administration insisted for weeks that it would defer to the World Health Organization for answers on how the pandemic started.Biden said in a statement that two theories predominate current US official thinking. Those theories are that the virus emerged naturally from animals or escaped from a lab in Wuhan, China.“As of today, the U.S. Intelligence Community has ‘coalesced around two likely scenarios’ but has not reached a definitive conclusion on this question,” Biden said.“Here is their current position: ‘while two elements in the [intelligence community] leans toward the former scenario and one leans more toward the latter – each with low or moderate confidence – the majority of elements do not believe there is sufficient information to assess one to be more likely than the other.’” Biden released the statement after his chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci was grilled Wednesday by senators about whether the WHO is beholden to China. A preliminary WHO study controlled by China this year concluded the virus likely emerged naturally. CNN reported on Tuesday that the Biden administration closed down a probe into whether COVID-19 originated at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.  White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at a press briefing that no explanation is being ruled out for the pandemic’s origins.“We haven’t ruled out anything yet,” Jean-Pierre said when asked if the Biden administration had ruled out a “deliberate” release of the virus.

 White House embraces “Wuhan Lab” conspiracy theory -On Wednesday, US President Joe Biden publicly embraced the conspiracy theory that COVID-19 may have been released from China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), ordering the US intelligence agencies to produce a report within 90 days into the potentially man-made origins of the disease. The intelligence agencies tasked with determining whether COVID-19 is a biological weapon played a leading role in one of the greatest crimes of the twenty-first century—the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, based on allegations manufactured by the Central Intelligence Agency that Iraq possessed chemical, biological, and nuclear “weapons of mass destruction.” That lie led to the death of over 1 million people and engulfed the Middle East in war that has lasted to this day. Now, an even greater and more dangerous lie is being perpetrated. The Biden administration, like the Trump administration before it, is attempting to blame China for a disease that led by some estimates to the deaths of at least 1 million people in the US. If, as the Trump administration publicly asserted, COVID-19 is a “weaponized virus” sent by Beijing against the American population, it would constitute grounds for war against the most populous country in the world. As with “weapons of mass destruction,” leaks from anonymous intelligence officials are being presented as evidence in a coordinated media campaign. Within a matter of a few days, the entire US media has embraced this discredited conspiracy theory, summed up by an article by the Washington Post ’s lead fact checker entitled “How the Wuhan lab-leak theory suddenly became credible.” The stage for this sudden reversal was set by an article published in the Wall Street Journal Sunday, claiming that “a previously undisclosed US intelligence report” reveals three staff at the institute became sick and sought hospital care in November 2019. The article implied that these three cases are the real origin of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Journal article, however, includes nothing fundamentally new beyond the contents of a fact sheet published by the Trump State Department on January 15. In other words, the most the CIA, NSA and their counterparts could find, funded with tens of billions of dollars to spy on the entire world, is that a few people who work at the WIV happened to get symptoms that the State Department fact sheet itself admits are “consistent with…common seasonal illnesses” the month before the virus was first detected.

US joins calls for transparent, science-based investigation into Covid origins - The United States and other countries have called for a more in-depth investigation of the pandemic origins, after an international mission to China earlier this year proved inconclusive. Addressing the World Health Organization’s main annual meeting of member states in Geneva, representatives from several countries stressed the continued need to solve the mystery of how Covid-19 first began spreading among humans. “We underscore the importance of a robust comprehensive and expert-led inquiry into the origins of Covid-19,” US representative Jeremy Konyndyk told the meeting on Tuesday. Australia, Japan and Portugal were among other countries to call for more progress on the investigation, while the British representative urged for any probe to be “timely, expert-driven and grounded in robust science”. Determining how the virus that causes Covid-19 began spreading is seen as vital to preventing future outbreaks. But a long-delayed report by the team of international experts sent to Wuhan and their Chinese counterparts drew no firm conclusions as to the origins of the pandemic. Instead, they ranked a number of hypotheses according to how likely they believed they were. The report said the virus jumping from bats to humans via an intermediate animal was the most probable scenario, while it said a theory involving the virus leaking from a laboratory was “extremely unlikely”. After the report was released, however, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus insisted all theories remained on the table.

Chinese embassy in U.S. says politicising COVID-19 origins hampers investigations (Reuters) - Politicizing the origins of COVID-19 would hamper further investigations and undermine global efforts to curb the pandemic, China's U.S. embassy said after President Joe Biden ordered a review of intelligence about where the virus emerged. The embassy in Washington said in a statement on its website on Wednesday evening "some political forces have been fixated on political manipulation and (the) blame game". As the World Health Organization (WHO) prepares to begin a second phase of studies into the origins of COVID-19, China has been under pressure to give investigators more access amid allegations that SARS-CoV-2 leaked from a laboratory specialising in coronavirus research in the city of Wuhan. China has repeatedly denied the lab was responsible, saying the United States and other countries were trying to distract from their own failures to contain the virus. Biden said on Wednesday that U.S. intelligence agencies were divided about whether COVID-19 "emerged from human contact with an infected animal or from a laboratory accident". Yanzhong Huang, senior fellow for global health with the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, said China's lack of openness was a major factor behind the resurgence of the lab leak theory. "There's nothing really new there to prove the hypothesis," he said. "In the investigation of the origins of the pandemic it is really important to have transparency in order to build trust in the investigation results." The Chinese embassy said it supports "a comprehensive study of all early cases of COVID-19 found worldwide and a thorough investigation into some secretive bases and biological laboratories all over the world." The Global Times tabloid, part of the ruling Communist Party's People's Daily newspaper group, said late on Wednesday that if the "lab leak theory" is to be further investigated, the United States should also allow investigators into its own facilities, including the lab at Fort Detrick.

"Fact-Checking" Takes Another Beating: Taibbi -The news business just can’t stop clowning itself. The latest indignity is an international fact-checking debacle originating, of all places, at a “festival of fact-checking.”The Poynter Institute is perhaps the most respected think tank in our business, an organization seeking to “fortify journalism’s role in a free society,” among other things through its sponsorship of the fact-checking outlet PolitiFact. A few weeks back, it held a virtual convention called the “United Facts of America: A Festival of Fact-Checking.”The three-day event featured special guests Christiane Amanpour, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Brian Stelter, and Senator Mark Warner — a lineup of fact “stars” whose ironic energy recalled the USO’s telethon-execution of Terrance and Phillip before the invasion of Canada in South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut. Tickets were $50, but if you wanted a “private virtual happy hour” with Stelter, you needed to pay $100 for the “VIP Experience.”During the confab, PolitiFact’s Katie Sanders asked Fauci, “Are you still confident that [Covid-19] developed naturally?” To which the convivial doctor answered, “No, I’m not convinced of that,” going on to say “we” should continue to investigate all hypotheses about how the pandemic began:Conservatives in particular were quick to point out that Fauci last year said, “Everything about the stepwise evolution over time strongly indicates that [this virus] evolved in nature and then jumped species.” At that time last May, of course, the issue of the pandemic’s origin had already long since been politicized, with Donald Trump’s administration anxious to point a finger at China for causing the disaster. Mike Pompeo went so far as to say there was “enormous evidence” the disease had been created at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Fauci was touted as a hero for pushing back on this and many other things.Fauci’s new quote about not being “convinced” that Covid-19 has natural origins, however, is part of what’s becoming a rather ostentatious change of heart within officialdom about the viability of the so-called “lab origin” hypothesis. Through 2020, officials and mainstream press shut down most every discussion on that score. Reporters were heavily influenced by a group letter signed by 27 eminent virologists in the Lancet last February in which the authors said they “strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin,” and also by a Nature Medicine letter last March saying, “Our analyses clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct.” The consensus was so strong that some well-known voices saw social media accounts suspended or closed for speculating about Covid-19 having a “lab origin.” One of those was University of Hong Kong virologist Dr. Li-Meng Yan, who went on Tucker Carlson’s show last September 15th to say “[Covid-19] is a man-made virus created in the lab.” After that appearance, PolitiFact — Poynter’s PolitiFact — gave the statement its dreaded “Pants on Fire” rating.

Facebook Stops Removing Posts Claiming COVID-19 Man-Made After Lab-Leak Hypothesis Finally Goes Mainstream --After nearly 18 months of punishing anyone who suggested that COVID-19 might have originated in a Wuhan lab, Facebook has decided to stop removing posts which claim the virus was man-made or manufactured, a company spokesperson told Politico on Wednesday. The move comes after the Wall Street Journal reported that three lab workers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology were hospitalized in late 2019 with symptoms consistent with the virus - building on previous reporting by the Washington Post's Josh Rogin. Both articles cast doubt on the mainstream media's unsupported claim that COVID-19 jumped from bats to humans through an intermediary species - as opposed to the far more plausible theory that the virus escaped from a labknown for manipulating bat coronaviruses to better infect humans, in the same town which became ground zero for the pandemic. As we noted last week, there were very obvious clues to anyone able to think for themselves. As the mainstream media parroted CCP talking points throughout 2020 and punished anyone who strayed from the official narrative, Facebook banned Zero Hedge articles and policed COVID 'disinformation' based on the word of so-called "fact checkers" who insisted that the new disease could only have emerged via yet-to-be discovered animal intermediaries.Of course, one of Facebook's "fact checkers" also worked at the Wuhan lab, and was defending her former colleagues in a giant undisclosed conflict of interest.

COVID pandemic spawns vaccine billionaires amid global mass death -- Profits reaped from the production of COVID-19 vaccines have spawned nine new billionaires with a combined wealth of $19.3 billion. They have likewise fattened the portfolios of eight existing billionaires with fortunes tied to corporations involved in vaccine production by $32 billion. These staggering figures, exposing an obscene accumulation of private wealth in the midst of global mass death and immiseration, were released in a report produced by an alliance of aid organizations in advance of a G20 Global Health Summit. The report estimates that the newly minted fortunes of Moderna and Pfizer CEOs and investors-turned-billionaires could pay to vaccinate all 780 million people in the so-called “low-income countries” 1.3 times over.The $32 billion raked in by the pre-existing billionaires over the past year would pay for the full vaccination of all 1.4 billion people in India. The country is the new epicenter of the COVID-19 catastrophe, where infections have doubled in the past two months. Recorded daily deaths have risen to 4,000, overwhelming the health care system and overflowing crematoriums and burial grounds with bodies.The new vaccine billionaires include Stéphane Bancel, Moderna’s CEO ($4.3 billion); Ugur Sahin, CEO and co-founder of BioNTech ($4 billion); Timothy Springer, an immunologist and founding investor of Moderna ($2.2 billion), and Noubar Afeyan, Moderna’s chairman ($1.9 billion).The foundation for the immense wealth amassed by these individuals was laid by government-funded research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and university laboratories, along with the outlay of some $10.5 billion in public funding for the development and production of vaccines.

Preliminary data show CEO pay jumped nearly 16% in 2020, while average worker compensation rose 1.8% --EPI Blog -Data from large firms filing information on CEO compensation through the end of April show corporations and a strong stock market shielded CEOs from the financial impact of the pandemic.An examination of the early filings of 281 large firms shows:

• The offer by CEOs to forgo salary increases during the pandemic was largely symbolic. Salaries were stable, but many CEOs pocketed a windfall by cashing in stock options and obtaining vested stock awards, compounding income inequalities laid bare during the past year.
• CEO compensation, including realized stock options and vested stock awards, rose 15.9% from 2019 to 2020 among early reporting firms. Growth in CEO compensation was slightly faster than last year’s strong growth—14.0% between 2018 and 2019—while the annual compensation of the average worker increased just 1.8% in 2020.
• Strong CEO compensation growth and modest growth in worker annual compensation yielded a remarkable growth in the CEO-to-worker compensation ratio, which jumped from 276.2 in 2019 to 307.3 in 2020 among early reporting firms. In firms that retained the same CEO, the CEO-to-worker compensation ratio rose to 341.6 in 2020, up from 278.9 in 2019.

The Institute for Policy Studies also looked at a more limited sample of early reporting firms (the 100 S&P 500 firms with the lowest median worker pay) and found CEO compensation grew by 15%.Given that stock-related components of CEO compensation comprise roughly three-fourths of total CEO compensation (see Table 1 of Mishel and Kandra 2020), this growth in CEO compensation might be expected given the rapid growth of stocks since the end of 2019 (see Figure A, showing 16.3% growth of S&P 500 from December 2019 to December 2020). The growth of CEO compensation was very uneven across firms, as we show below.

 Bank profits strengthen, but lending remains sluggish— Profits soared and allowances for loan-losses fell at U.S. banks in the first quarter even as net interest margins continued to shrink. The banking industry produced net income of $76.8 billion in the quarter, up 29% from the fourth quarter and 315% from a year earlier, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s latest Quarterly Banking Profile. The recent gains were driven by declines in the reserves built up by banks in the earlier months of the pandemic. For the first time, the industry recorded negative provisions for credit losses of $14.5 billion. FDIC Chairman Jelena McWilliams said the banking sector is strong, though challenges remain on the horizon. “The banking industry reported strong earnings in first quarter 2021 as the economic recovery continued,” McWilliams said. “At the same time, the persistent low-interest-rate environment and a decline in loan volume caused further contraction in the average net interest margin, which reached a new record low.” Banks' combined net interest income fell 5.6% to $129.7 billion in the first quarter of 2021. However, the FDIC reported that nearly 65% of banks reported higher net interest income compared with the first quarter of 2020. Overall, the industry’s net interest margin declined 57 basis points year over year to 2.56%, which was “the lowest level on record in the Quarterly Banking Profile,” the agency wrote. The previous record was 2.68% in the third quarter of 2020. Total loan and lease balances fell on an annual basis for the first time since the third quarter of 2011, according to the FDIC. They dropped 1.2% year over year to $10.82 trillion as of March 31 this year. The decline was thanks largely to a 12.8% drop in credit card balances and a 3.7% drop in commercial and industrial lending. “This was the largest percentage reduction in credit card commitments since first quarter 2009,” according to the QBP. Meanwhile, deposit growth stayed brisk. Deposits swelled by $635 billion, or 3.6%, between the fourth quarter of 2020 and the first of 2021, bringing the sector’s total to $18.5 trillion.In the same period, the Deposit Insurance Fund balance grew by $1.5 billion to $119.4 billion. Still, the sector’s deposit growth pushed the reserve ratio down four basis points to 1.25%, placing it 10 basis points below the statutory minimum of 1.35%

 Small banks count on PPP tech advances to speed traditional lending -- When HV Bancorp in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, first went live with the Paycheck Protection Program last April, “we just had bodies in front of keyboards using the Small Business Administration’s E-Tran system and entering applications,” said Hugh Connelly, chief lending officer in the business banking division of Huntingdon Valley Bank. The $595.7 million-asset community bank built a portal with the cloud technology company nCino to process applications faster for a second round of PPP funding last year, and chose Numerated, a digital lending and sales platform for business banking, to assist when Congress authorized another $284 billion in PPP funding in January. This story played out across the country: The urgency of the Paycheck Protection Program propelled community banks to find a speedier way to disburse loans to small businesses than relying on phone and email. Many turned to software to originate loans, automate the underwriting process, collect documents and transmit the information to the SBA's processing system. With the relief program nearing its official end, community banks face a new question: Can they maintain the same efficiency and convenience by digitizing small-business lending activity. As lenders look for ways to persuade the “temporary” customers they hooked during PPP to stay, technology is one way community banks can ride the momentum of PPP — say, by creating self-service online portals or using customer data to make more proactive offers. “The pandemic in general and PPP in particular, especially for small banks, was a vast and successful proof-of-concept project for digitization,” said David O’Connell, senior analyst at the Aite Group. “In community banking, when you’re closing a loan, you’re probably closing it with a lady or gent you went to high school with, maybe on the hood of a Cadillac at a Friday night football game or Sunday after church. Those things are nice, but they don’t scale.” But the path forward is complicated. Many of the cultural barriers to automation have gone away, O’Connell pointed out, as banks learned that employees wouldn’t lose their jobs to technology. Still, “there is much more diversity in small and medium-size business lending than there was in PPP,” he said. While the terms of PPP loans were homogenous, regular small-business loans vary from term loans to revolver loans, some with a borrowing base or with real estate collateral and some without.

 Can fintechs build on strong PPP lending to Black businesses? - Though fintech lenders joined the Paycheck Protection Program later than banks, they had an outsize impact in disbursing emergency loans to Black-owned businesses last year, according to an analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.Twenty-three percent of Black business owners that sought help from the PPP last year applied to fintechs, the New York Fed said. They weren’t far behind small banks, which captured 30% of the applicants from that segment.The big question going forward is can fintechs capitalize on the bonds they built with Black businesses as these online-only lenders try to expand their market share.“I expect to see the fintech lenders that participated in the PPP and are still around will focus on building deeper relationships with new customers that they acquired through the program,” said Alex Johnson, director of fintech research at Cornerstone Advisors. “I’d expect new customers that came in through the PPP to be a priority” for new product offerings like Square’s new business checking accounts.The figures were included in a series of blog posts Thursday from the New York Fed as part of its economic inequality research series. The posts examined the impact of the pandemic on small businesses and how fintechs stacked up next to banks of all sizes when lending to minority business owners.The research found that Black entrepreneurs were far likelier to seek help from fintechs (defined in the reports as nonbank lenders that operate online, such as Kabbage and Square) than small-business owners of other races and ethnicities.Fintechs received 10% of loan applications from Hispanics, 9% of those from Asians and 8% of those from whites.These findings point to the gaps Black business owners face in the banking system as a whole, and the opportunities fintechs have to fill their needs.“PPP highlighted, in stark terms, the larger problem that we’ve been dealing with for a long time — that Black Americans have less access to mainstream financial services,” Johnson said. “When the Paycheck Protection Program was introduced, banks and credit unions prioritized their relationships with existing customers. Fintech lenders prioritized growth, which meant a larger percentage of historically underserved customers.”

 'It's very scary'- Small banks quietly hit by ransomware attacks -- In recent days, two ransomware groups, DarkSide and Ragnar Locker, have posted evidence that they have successfully broken into three small banks’ servers, stolen data and demanded ransom. If the ransom isn’t paid, they say, they will expose more of the banks’ data. The evidence, posted on the hacker groups' dark web sites, includes screenshots of customer databases the hackers say they exfiltrated from the banks. This is typical of ransomware tactics, in which attackers publish some stolen data on their sites to prove they were successful and to induce the company to pay the requested ransom. Two of the alleged victim banks in these cases, which are in California and Florida, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The CEO of the third bank, who asked not to have his bank named, said the bank is investigating the incident and does not have anything to report yet. “It's scary,” he said. “To be honest with you, it's very, very scary. It’s something we can’t control.” The ransomware groups’ postings highlight the fact that banks, even the smallest ones, are popular targets of ransomware attacks, which have become more frequent. According to Verizon’s 2021 Data Breach Incident Report, 10% of all data breaches now involve ransomware.The evidence the hackers posted does not necessarily prove that these community banks suffered data breaches, according to David Pollino, data security consultant and former data security leader at PNC Financial Services Group and at Bank of the West, who reviewed the documents on the Ragnar Locker site. The evidence the hackers provided is “pretty compelling,” but it needs to be verified by the target companies, he said. “Documents can be forged or compromised by a third party.” If the hackers present data that only includes credit card numbers, account numbers, names, and addresses, for instance, it’s possible the criminals combined data sets stolen from previous data breaches with commonly known information, such as routing numbers, and grouped them by institution, Pollino said. This would be a way to monetize old data from earlier breaches.

Credit union's deal for tiny thrift has mutual bank advocates on edge - The case of a one-branch thrift selling itself to Minnesota’s largest credit union has mutual banking advocates lining up in opposition out of fear it's a bad omen for depositor-owned institutions. At issue is the $72.5 million-asset Brainerd Savings & Loan in Minnesota, which agreed to be sold to the $7.2 billion-asset Wings Financial Credit Union in Minneapolis in January. A growing number of mutuals are selling shares to investors and converting to stock ownership through second-step mutual holding company offerings, or through full mutual-to-stock conversions. So far this year, 13 mutual institutions have announced or completed second-step or full-conversion transactions. One other mutual has completed a first-step sale of a minority stake to investors. In 2020, a total of four depositor-owned banks pursued stock sales. Since credit unions lack the authority to buy mutuals directly, Brainerd plans to liquidate, sell its assets to Wings and then distribute proceeds among its depositor-owners. Banking trade groups, including the Independent Community Bankers of America, America’s Mutual Banks and the American Bankers Association, have called on the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Brainerd’s primary regulator, to kill the deal by rejecting the thrift’s application to terminate its charter. “They’re getting around the merger issue by dissolving the [bank] and buying the assets, which is essentially merging” the two institutions, said Chris Cole, executive vice president and senior regulatory counsel at ICBA. “We’re very concerned this will accelerate the decline of mutuality for banks,” Cole said. Mutual banks “already have enough challenges with the pandemic and their net interest margins. This is not helping them.” Banker groups complained further that Brainerd and Wings have declined to release key details of the deal — including the price Wings is paying and any sums Brainerd executives might receive — claiming the unusual structure exempts them from complying with merger-related disclosure rules. “The critical components of who gets what and how this is going to be executed are basically hidden from the public,” said Douglas Faucette, a partner with Locke Lord in Washington. “It’s critical that the OCC, if it determines to approve this, makes public the reasons,” said Faucette, who is a director at America’s Mutual Banks. “You have a comprehensive scheme that subjects almost everything that involves the governance of a mutual to strict regulatory scrutiny. … But, gee, you can [purchase and assume] all the assets of a mutual and pay out the residue to the members. That’s a rubber stamp. It was just routinely approved in the field.” 

 Three Wall Street Mega Banks Have Admitted to a Combined Eight Felony Counts; But Don’t Expect the Word “Felony” to Come Up in Wednesday’s Senate Banking Hearing with their CEOs - Pam Martens --On Wednesday, the Senate Banking Committee will haul each of the CEOs of the largest U.S. banks on Wall Street to a hearing. Three of those banks have been charged with, and admitted to, egregious felonies. But we will be shocked if any Senator dares to inquire about these unprecedented felony counts.Until 2014, no major Wall Street bank that held federally insured deposits had ever been charged with a felony in a century. That all changed on January 7, 2014 when the U.S. Department of Justice charged JPMorgan Chase with two criminal felony counts for its role in the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme. The bank had managed the business account for Madoff for decades and had even written to U.K. regulators that it suspected Madoff of running a fraudulent operation. It failed to share any such concerns with U.S. regulators. JPMorgan Chase admitted to the charges and received a deferred prosecution agreement.Less than one and a half years later, on May 20, 2015, the unthinkable occurred. JPMorgan Chase, the largest federally-insured depository bank in the United States, was charged with another felony count, bringing the new total to three felonies to which it had admitted guilt. This time the charge was being part of a bank cartel that was rigging foreign exchange markets. Another U.S. bank, Citigroup’s Citicorp was also charged with a felony count in the matter. Both JPMorgan Chase and Citicorp pleaded guilty to the charges and received a deferred prosecution agreement.The concept behind deferred prosecution agreements is that the bank pays a large fine, is humiliated in public, faces shareholder wrath, thus forcing the Board of Directors to sack its CEO and thus ending the bank’s life of crime. This has proven to be a quaint concept when it comes to Wall Street’s mega banks. Three felony counts into its life of crime and the Board of Directors of JPMorgan Chase still hadn’t sacked the Chairman and CEO, Jamie Dimon, who had been at the helm of the bank during all three counts. Then, in what can only be described as something out of an Orwellian dystopia, on September 29, 2020, the Justice Department leveled two more felony counts against JPMorgan Chase, to which it once again admitted guilt and received yet another deferred prosecution agreement.The two felony counts in 2020 were for wire fraud for manipulating (spoofing) trading in the precious metals and U.S. Treasury markets. The Justice Department brought only two felony counts despite the fact that its own charging document indicated that JPMorgan traders engaged in “tens of thousands of instances of unlawful trading in gold, silver, platinum, and palladium…as well as thousands of instances of unlawful trading in U.S. Treasury futures contracts and in U.S. Treasury notes and bonds….” This suggests Americans need to reform the U.S. Department of Justice as well as JPMorgan Chase.Typically, these kind of charges by the Justice Department arrive with great fanfare and a major press conference. But the legal team of JPMorgan Chase apparently used their clout and no press conference was held by the Justice Department as JPMorgan Chase racked up its fourth and fifth felony counts in the span of seven years – all under the tenure of Jamie Dimon.

 This Is What Jamie Dimon Will Tell the U.S. Senate Today (With Annotated Text) by Pam Martens -Below are selected remarks from Jamie Dimon’s prepared statement for the Senate Banking Committee hearing today, which will take testimony from a total of six Wall Street bank CEOs. Wall Street On Parade’s annotated remarks appear in brackets and italics. “I appreciate the invitation to appear before you to talk about JPMorgan Chase, the strength and resilience of the U.S. financial system, and the people, businesses and communities we serve.” [The strength of the U.S. financial system would, of course, be a lot safer and sounder if the largest bank in the U.S., at which Dimon serves as Chairman and CEO, had not been charged with five felony counts since 2014, all occurring under his leadership. The bank admitted to all five counts.]“JPMorgan Chase is a global financial services firm with assets of $3.4 trillion and operations worldwide. We are a leader in investment banking, financial services for consumers and small businesses, commercial banking, financial transaction processing, and asset management.”[As for exactly how JPMorgan Chase interacts with consumers, see its rap sheet. JPMorgan Chase also has the distinction of being the riskiest bank in the U.S.]“Banks play an essential role in a community, with the potential of bringing people together, enabling companies and individuals to reach their dreams, and being a source of strength in difficult times.”[Actually, rather than being a source of strength in difficult times, the mega banks on Wall Street required $29 trillion in bailouts from the Fed from 2007 to the middle of 2010 to keep the entire U.S. financial system from collapsing.]“We are living through extraordinary times, for which history will judge the leaders of government and industry by the actions we take to address the health crisis, support the people and businesses suffering from the devastating economic impacts of the pandemic, and address longstanding structural inequities and racial economic inequality.”[On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Jamie Dimon’s compensation to oversee the bank in 2020, which included admitting to two new felony counts on September 29, 2020, was set at $31.5 million by his Board of Directors. One of those 2020 felony counts related to rigging the U.S. Treasury market, the market that makes it possible for the U.S. government to pay its bills and help struggling Americans during a national health crisis.]“We were proud to have participated in various Federal Reserve emergency programs, such as the Paycheck Protection Program, Primary Dealer Credit Facility, Commercial Paper Funding Facility, Money Market Mutual Fund Liquidity Facility and the Secondary Market Corporate Credit Facility, among others.”[The Paycheck Protection Program was created to help main street businesses. The Primary Dealer Credit Facility, the Commercial Paper Funding Facility, and the Money Market Mutual Fund Liquidity Facility were created to bail out the Wall Street banks. The American people still have not received a report on just which Wall Street banks received bailouts under those three programs. In addition, the Fed pumped more than $6 trillion into Wall Street banks in repo loans from September 17, 2019 to January, 2020 – before any pandemic had been declared. The public has yet to see a breakdown of which banks got that bailout money.]

Warren, Quarles spar over Fed role in banks' Archegos losses — The Federal Reserve's top bank supervision official on Tuesday defended the central bank's removal of certain foreign banks from a monitoring program for systemically important institutions, while confirming regulators' interest in setting up an interagency working group on cryptocurrency. Fed Vice Chairman for Supervision Randal Quarles took tough questioning from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., about losses suffered by Credit Suisse and other foreign banks in the Archegos Capital meltdown in March. Credit Suisse, which lost about $5.5 billion after the investment firm failed to meet margin calls, was among foreign banks that the Fed had removed last year from the Large Institution Supervision Coordinating Committee's portfolio. “At the time you justified dropping these banks from increased supervision on the ground that these banks … ‘significantly shrunk their U.S. footprint, and their U.S. operations are much less risky than they used to be,’ ” Warren said at a Senate Banking Committee hearing, quoting Quarles. “Your timing of course, was impeccable on this. Just a few months later, Archegos blew up, and resulted in billions of dollars of losses to Credit Suisse.” Quarles argued that the bulk of losses stemming from the Archegos incident occurred outside of the U.S., and that the Fed does not supervise foreign bank operations that take place overseas. “I said it was more appropriate to supervise them with other foreign banks of the same-size footprint of the United States, which is what we do,” he said. Still, Warren shot back that she was “stunned” by Quarles’s argument, and accused him of rolling back regulations intended to prevent massive failures. “Instead of protecting the system, you spent your time at the Fed cutting holes in the safety net,” she said. “Your term as chair is up in five months, and our financial system will be safer when you are gone.”

 Senator Sherrod Brown Sends a Message to Wall Street Banks: You No Longer Own the Senate Banking Committee - Pam Martens -Senator Sherrod Brown opened yesterday’s Senate Banking Committee hearing with some fiery words about the mega banks on Wall Street, stating:“Like most Americans, I want businesses to make money, and I don’t mind that bankers are rich. Some people are going to be wealthy, and that’s fine. Here’s the problem: under the current system, Wall Street profits no matter what happens to workers, because those profits now come at the expense of workers. And your banks are the ones that largely built that system.“We often hear about the ‘invisible hand.’ But the economy isn’t physics – it’s not governed by scientific laws outside our control. It’s made up of people making choices about our values and the society we want to live in. The ‘invisible hand’ doesn’t lay off workers. The ‘invisible hand’ didn’t invent credit default swaps. The ‘invisible hand’ doesn’t decide to invest in private equity firms that buy up mobile home parks in Iowa and across the country, and jack up the rent.“Your banks – your lobbyists, and your fellow CEOs at some of the other largest companies – you all make those choices that dictate how our economy works. Wall Street built this system, and they didn’t build it for everyone – they built it for themselves.”You can read Senator Brown’s full statement here. Appearing as witnesses at yesterday’s hearing were the CEOs of the six largest banks on Wall Street: JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. Senator Mike Rounds, a Republican from South Dakota who lists the Mortgage Bankers Association, UBS, American Bankers Association and Citigroup among his top 20 largest campaign donors, used seriously twisted logic to urge his Senate colleagues to stop “disparaging” the mega banks on Wall Street. As we reported on Tuesday, the largest U.S. bank, JPMorgan Chase, is a serial felon, racking up five felony counts brought by the U.S. Department of Justice since 2014. Goldman Sachs appears to be attempting to play catch up, notching two felony counts in its belt last October. (One count was against the parent company, Goldman Sachs Group, and one count was against its Malaysian subsidiary.) Citigroup, which received the largest bailout in global banking history from 2007 through the middle of 2010, pleaded guilty to one felony count in 2015 for being part of a banking cartel that rigged foreign exchange markets.But despite sporting rap sheets that spark envy among organized crime groups, Senator Rounds doesn’t want Congress “disparaging” felon banks because, somehow, having criminally-inclined mega banks in the U.S. gives Americans a leg up on China.

Bank CEOs grilled by Senate on pandemic response, 'woke capitalism' - — The CEOs of the six largest banks faced a grilling in the Senate on Wednesday, taking heat from Democrats over how they responded to businesses and consumers hurt by the pandemic, and from Republicans over their stances on hot-button issues like climate change and voting rights. Appearing before the Senate Banking Committee, the six CEOs — Jane Fraser of Citigroup, Brian Moynihan of Bank of America, Charlie Scharf of Wells Fargo, Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase, David Solomon of Goldman Sachs and James Gorman of Morgan Stanley — touted their efforts to address the economic impact of COVID-19 through the Paycheck Protection Program and loan payment flexibility. They also attempted to publicize their work to try to narrow the racial wealth gap through investments in minority communities. “You’ve heard from all the CEOs here that we’re making an enormous effort to try to get credit to marginalized, lower- and middle-income, majority-minorities, Black small businesses, women of color, etc.,” Dimon said. “We’re doing a good job. We could always do more. We acknowledge there’s some problems that need to be fixed. We’re all trying to do it the right way.” But the CEOs' comments on efforts to help the economy weather the pandemic fell on deaf ears with some Democrats, who said small-business lending and relief efforts for struggling consumers were insufficient. And they were criticized by Republicans over the efforts of some banks to scale back lending to fossil fuel companies, and for public statements on political debates that lawmakers said were outside the scope of banking. Here are three takeaways from the CEOs’ Senate visit:

• Democrats are not impressed by the banks' pandemic relief efforts. While the CEOs touted their PPP lending, forbearance offered to consumers and fee waivers arising from the coronavirus pandemic, Democrats on the committee said they weren’t satisfied with banks’ work to help struggling families and consumers.Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., took JPMorgan Chase to task for collecting overdraft fees despite guidance from federal regulators last year encouraging banks to waive certain fees for consumers affected by the pandemic. “Your bank, JPMorgan, collects more than seven times as much money in overdraft fees per account than your competitors. … Nearly $1.5 billion that you collected from your customers,” Warren said to Dimon. “You and your colleagues come in today to talk about how you stepped up and took care of customers during the pandemic and it's a bunch of baloney.”
• Republicans are concerned about ‘woke capitalism’ in the financial sector. Republicans sounded the alarm about potential political motivations behind the financial industry’s decisions to weigh in on issues like voting rights and climate change.“‘Woke capitalism’ seems to be running amok throughout the financial institutions of our country,” said Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., the committee's ranking member, said he was worried that banks face pressure "to embrace ‘wokeism’ and appease the far left’s attacks on capitalism."
• The bankers tried to tout investments in minority communities and diversity efforts.Several CEOs used their opening remarks at the hearing to discuss their recent investments in community development financial institutions and minority depository institutions during the pandemic.“Recognizing that the goal of the PPP was to provide a lifeline to struggling small businesses, we also took the more than $400 million in fees generated by the program in 2020 and are donating them to our ‘Open for Business Fund,’ which is allowing us to engage CFDI’s, not-for-profits and others,” Scharf said.While Goldman Sachs was not a PPP lender, Solomon said that the bank committed funds to CDFIs and MDIs to help mitigate the impact of the pandemic.

Justice Department Opens Probe into Potential Bank Cartel that Financed Archegos - Pam Martens Last evening, Bloomberg News, followed by the Wall Street Journal, reported that the U.S. Department of Justice has opened a probe into the late March collapse of the Archegos family office hedge fund.The Wall Street Journal reported that “Banks that lent to Archegos, including Credit Suisse Group AG, UBS Group AG, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley,” had been contacted for information by the Justice Department.According to media reports, Archegos is believed to have leveraged $20 billion of its own capital into more than $100 billion in stock and derivative exposure through margin loans from the banks named above, as well as others.Among the laundry list of items the Justice Department may be investigating, is whether the banks violated the Federal Reserve’s Regulation T, which would have limited the banks to an initial margin loan of no more than 50 percent of the purchase price of the stock that Archegos was buying.The banks apparently believed they could avoid Regulation T by cooking up a derivatives contract called a swap agreement that purported to magically allow the banks to claim ownership of the stock positions in SEC filings while allocating the gains and losses on the positions to Archegos. During the leadup to the Wall Street crash of 1929, Wall Street banks formed “pools,” which were actually cartels to drive a bull run or a bear raid in a particular stock. There is a striking similarity between the pools of the late 1920s and what was happening at Archegos. For example, while the banks were providing all of that leveraged lending to Archegos, the prices of the handful of stocks it was buying were skyrocketing. But when Archegos collapsed, so did the prices of the stocks held by Archegos. According to reporting in the New York Times, Archegos owned “$20 billion in shares of ViacomCBS,” which made this obscure hedge fund the single largest institutional shareholder of the company. But this information was withheld from the public because the banks were reporting ownership of the shares on their own 13F filings with the SEC.The Times’ report indicates that the $20 billion value held by Archegos in ViacomCBS shares occurred “mid March.” Using an average ViacomCBS price between March 15 and March 19 of $96, that would mean that Archegos owned 208,333,333 shares of ViacomCBS. According to the April 2 proxy filing for ViacomCBS, as of March 26 it had 605,267,057 Class B shares outstanding, meaning that Archegos owned a stunning 34 percent of the outstanding shares of an S&P 500 company without anyone being the wiser. Among the joint book-runners, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and Mizuho have acknowledged being prime brokers (providing financing and other services) to Archegos.

Crypto Crackdown: Only the Beginning? - Yves Smith --It’s taken vastly longer than we ever imagined, but authorities around the world have woken up to the fact that mis-named cryptocurrencies (which we will call “crypto” for sake of convenience) unique selling proposition is to facilitate crime, although it’s also proven to be not bad at sucking rubes into pump and dump schemes. So the question now is how quickly they will act and how bloody-minded they will be in crushing them.We have pointedly avoided posting about Bitcoin and crypto because those articles would inevitably attract touts and true believers in comments. We didn’t like expending the considerable energy it often took to debunk them. We didn’t even like dignifying the concept by giving it attention (not that NC’s view would make any difference; this is a philosophical issue). The dot com bubble went on longer and became far more frenzied than we thought. Even though cyrpto has no legitimate use,¹ there seemed to be little point in objecting to yet another speculative mania. Having said that, Nouriel Roubini, who was early in calling out the housing bubble by starting to issue warnings in 2005, was acute in his timing on Bitcoin and crypto. He wrote a blistering op-ed in the Financial Times in February. That led to follow-up interviews in which Roubini recapped his critique:The key flaw is simple. The cost and time involved in validating Bitcoin transactions makes it unusable in retail transactions. So they will always be foreign currencies, where you have to trade in and out of them into a real world currency. That means foreign exchange risk, as in price volatility, and frictional costs (the transaction cost of swapping in and out of the real world currency, which will be a combination of fees and spread). And in many cases, it will also mean doing the trade into the real world currency with a different counterparty than the one from whom you bought the crypto.And this deficiency is fatal. It means it fails on its premise:  And having a whole bunch of crypto currencies makes matters worse. Fragmentation may further speculation, but it undermines any hope of much real world use.The CNBC host broaches the idea of Bitcoin being limited to billion-dollar trades. Roubini pooh-poohed that as almost certain to be the province of criminals. Even if not, you’d see very few trades at that level, with resulting even more extreme volatility and large bid-asked spreads if any legitimate players were to step in as facilitators.Even if most of this terrain is familiar, please be sure to listen Roubini at 8:55, where he eviscerates the widely-held view that Bitcoin is decentralized and democratic.²The Colonial Pipeline hack appears finally to have focused a few minds. Out of gas signs and lines at gas stations have an oil crisis/stagflationary look to them. Even though Jimmy Carter inherited the 1970s economic malaise, his inability to do much about it was one of the key reasons for Reagan’s election. Similarly, Biden isn’t responsible for IT vendors and buyers for prioritizing convenience and cost over security or for a crypto offering a way to receive large ransoms at virtually no risk.

 BankThink Crypto is the future. More banks, regulators need to embrace it -- Bankers’ mystification about cryptocurrency as a financial category is … well, mystifying in light of the way banks have adapted to and even advocated for other game-changing technologies in the past. When banks adopted mainframe computing and automated their recordkeeping functions in the 1960s and 1970s, no one thought the world would end. When people started accessing their cash by ATM, then by telebanking, and later by mobile apps, the sky did not fall. When stock certificates went digital, the system functioned better, not worse. Yet today the idea of paying a vendor with a stablecoin, or maintaining a payment network by mining Ether tokens, or custodying a customer’s Bitcoin strikes fear into the hearts of bankers. Perhaps it’s the slightly weird crypto language that scares them. And yet, if you get past the jargon, why is custodying Bitcoin any different from a bank perspective than custodying fine wine or art or exotic cars, all of which banks protect on behalf of their customers? At a high level, of course banks should treat crypto assets the same as they treat other financial assets held by their customers. Banks generally provide one or more of the core services of lending, payment processing and deposit-taking, and various crypto assets serve as technology-enabled means of providing those services. Stablecoins are payment instruments much like prepaid debit cards or traveler’s checks. Various decentralized finance tokens provide borrowing and lending options for token holders. And staking tokens have features that resemble savings accounts, complete with interest-like features. As part of their overall mission of promoting customers’ financial well-being, banks must find ways of supporting crypto assets. If they do not, banks risk becoming irrelevant to the tens of millions of Americans who already own crypto and the millions more who might in the future. Our society has a history of innovation and evolution when it comes to money and financial services — from the gold standard to paper money to checks to electronic banking to crypto. Many of us forget that the last two innovations are still fairly new. Cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology are simply another innovation in our society, and they are changing the way people behave and operate. So, if the question is whether banks should involve themselves with cryptocurrencies, the answer is yes.

BankThink As crypto prices swing, fraudsters wait to pounce -Cryptocurrency prices have been very volatile of late with a huge rally followed by a sharp correction and the start of a recovery. As a result, businesses have become more tempting targets for cryptojacking – or the unauthorized use of a computer to mine cryptocurrency, with attempts jumping when crypto prices increase. How can organizations combat these issues before the next bull run? The best way is by avoiding infection from the start with some simple security practices, such as: Implement multi-factor authentication; leverage advanced behavior-based anti-malware services; treat all unsolicited email links and attachments with extreme caution; and keep up to date with web browser and extension security patches. Social media scams also play a major role in cryptojacking. Last year’s Twitter hack is an excellent lesson in how crypto scams soar during significant market moves – a hacker made $120,000 by taking over several high-profile Twitter accounts and promising to double any bitcoin sent to a specific address. These ploys are especially enticing to new investors looking to beef up their portfolios. Businesses can protect against threats by leveraging a few easy security principles: Thoroughly vet all cryptocurrency transactions and requests; verify the authenticity of the person or site in question before making any transactions; and watch for attempts using high-profile Twitter accounts to legitimize scams. These are very alarming and real threats. The good news is that as cryptocurrency adoption grows, so does market monitoring, making it easier to track cryptojacking schemes back to the hackers. The FBI’s recent Internet Crime Report described how its Recovery Asset Team tracked down five fraudulent wire transfers and quickly placed a hold on funds, allowing the victim time for the indemnification process. This kind of due diligence goes a long way in deterring online fraud. While the future of cryptocurrency prices remains uncertain, businesses must stay alert to protect against such threats. Keep these criminal techniques and security tips in mind to avoid falling prey to cyberattacks during future cryptocurrency bull runs.

Why U.S. is getting on board with global standard for payments - Clean data is key to instant payments, real-time settlement, open banking initiatives and blockchain technology — but such details are often lost or garbled when sent between parties. To better preserve this data, the U.S. financial services industry is turning to the ISO 20022 messaging standard.Essentially, ISO 20022 allows banks and corporations to handle cross-border payments that can carry extensive information in standardized data fields, taking much of the mystery out of each transaction and allowing banks to streamline other operations because of this added clarity.  "Any bank that has started using the [Clearing House RTP network], they are also using ISO 20022. And any bank that wants to do instant payments through FedNow in the future is going to have to be on the ISO format."Real-time payments will drive the standard's adoption in the U.S. over the next two years, as FedNow, the Federal Reserve's real-time payment settlement platform, remains on a timeline for full rollout in late 2023.The FedWire service will use ISO 20022 in the near future as well, meaning any bank using that service will have to comply."Some may not like [adopting ISO 20022] and would maybe see a lot of cost without much benefit, but it is a compliance change,"  "I stress how they can now leverage this compliance change because the data is really critical. More data is going to allow better business decisions for themselves and also how to enable that data for clients through different types of products."The use of ISO 20022 became the key element in faster payments around the world. It was discussed early on in Federal Reserve discussions about faster payments, and became a core aspect of The Clearing House RTP network when it was launched in the U.S.ISO 20022 had its beginnings as an international standard a decade ago when the European Union began moving to the Single Euro Payments Area as a way for the continent to handle cross-border payments in the same manner.Its success in Europe led to many global corporations touting ISO 20022 as a standard that rationalized their cross-border payments — and it led to more questions about how banks could make it a global standard.Institutions handling high-value payments were fairly quick to get on board, and in the U.S the conversation became whether the ACH process should move to an ISO format. Initially, there was no business case for it.Nacha, which oversees the Automated Clearing House, had taken a different approach to ISO 20022, reasoning that many businesses weren't interested in waiting on others globally to adopt the standard. Instead, they could utilize it immediately for ACH transactions.Nacha set up a system in which global customers could take an ISO format and map it to a Nacha format, and vice versa, so they could handle the ISO part of an ACH payment. But it came with a caveat that would ensure the standard would have global reach.

"Crypto Is Here To Stay": Carl Icahn Wants Up To $1.5 Billion In Crypto Exposure, Prefers Ethereum -With the likes of JPMorgan and Goldman jumping on the crypto train (favoring Ethereum over Bitcoin), yet another one of the world's most legendary investors has became bullish on the space (adding to Loeb, Dalio and Druckenmiller, while Munger and his Omaha homie never will).On Thursday, Carl Icahn told Bloomberg Markets' Taylor Riggs that while he doesn't own any digital currencies, his firm might get involved in a "relatively big way," adding "Crypto is here to stay in one form or another.""I think a natural manifestation of this inflation," said Dalio, adding "it's not yet there - but you had it in the 70s, and what's gonna happen if you have that is, [people are] going be for looking for other stores of value outside the dollar. We are the resereve currency now, but if you keep printing money, it's not going to be there."When asked if he sees crypto as a store of value or more of a payment system, or the 'underlying blockchain' as is the case with Ethereum, Icahn replied:"With Ethereum it's the underlying block chain. So, Ethereum has two things - you can use it as a payment system, you can use it as a store of value.""So Ethereum and Bitcoin are different. Bitcoin to me is just a store of value." It seems the market is thinking the same way the last few months...

  PayPal, Arkose to address fraud in loyalty redemption - PayPal aims to thwart digital shopping abuse by accessing Arkose Labs' suite of automated crime fighting tools. PayPal is using Arkose technology at Honey, PayPal's shopping and rewards platform. Loyalty fraud is a growing problem for online shopping, with attacks jumping nearly 300% in 2020, according to Sift, which also reported a 60% increase in omnichannel retail fraud attacks. Arkose classifies web traffic based on the users' intent, taking countermeasures that are designed to halt attacks in real time over several types of payment fraud. Its platform targets account registration fraud; account takeover and manipulation of user credentials; web scraping malware; bots that add items to shopping cards to stop legitimate purchases; card testing and the use of stolen payment credentials; and the use of automated scripts to exploit enrollment forms. PayPal paid $4 billion in 2019 to acquire Honey, a firm that at the time was earning about $100 million in yearly revenue, causing some to question the size of the deal. The service, now called Honey by PayPal, is a menu of tools that notify shoppers when prices drop for specific items in an attempt to find the lowest price. The service has saved consumers more than $1 billion over the past year, according to a release from Arkose. Honey, which works with retailers such as Macy's and Sephora and with marketplaces such as eBay, has become integral to PayPal's strategy to improve the chance of its payments app and Venmo to be the top choice of shoppers for payments. Since Honey's service encourages users to regularly engage to search for price reductions on e-commerce sites, there's a "check- in" effect that PayPal wishes to promote among its users.

 What's holding up the confirmation of the next CFPB chief? - Four months after Rohit Chopra was reported to be the Biden administration's choice to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the consumer advocate is still awaiting Senate confirmation. Analysts attribute the delay to worries among some Democrats that moving too fast to confirm Chopra, who now sits on the Federal Trade Commission, would give Republican-appointed FTC members a majority. Many believe Chopra will ultimately squeak through the narrowly divided Senate after a separate nomination is approved for another Biden-backed FTC commissioner. Still, the CFPB directorship is one of several financial regulator spots that the administration has yet to fill. “Somehow they messed up the timing on this,” said Isaac Boltansky, director of policy research at Compass Point Research & Trading. Some observers note that the appointment of acting CFPB Director Dave Uejio made Chopra's confirmation a lower priority, since Uejio has already pursued Democratic-backed initiatives that Chopra would inherit. "The expectation is that Rohit Chopra will be confirmed in about a month," Chopra, a former student loan ombudsman at the CFPB, was first mentioned as the administration's pick to lead the agency before Biden took office. His nomination was sent to the Senate in mid-February. Chopra’s nomination hearing was held on March 2 alongside that of veteran regulator Gary Gensler. Yet Gensler sailed through the confirmation process in just six weeks and has been leading the Securities and Exchange Commission for nearly two months. Chopra currently serves as one of two Democratic commissioners on the five-member FTC board. His nomination to the CFPB is thought to be held up because Democrats first need to confirm Lina Khan, a professor at Columbia Law School, to the FTC, experts said. “I really think the delay is solely because of the FTC nomination,” said Boltansky. While some Republicans would like to stall Chopra’s nomination, the odds are still in favor of him being confirmed. Khan is supposed to be confirmed in the next week or by the middle of June at the latest. Chopra is expected to be confirmed by the August recess. “Democrats want to make sure they do Lina Khan’s nomination first and then try to simultaneously or directly following, they would confirm Chopra,” said a former Senate staffer.

 Despite federal moratorium, eviction rates returning to pre-pandemic levels --Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Idaho, like many states across the country, faced rising housing costs, low home-vacancy rates and increasing efforts by landlords to evict tenants.Thanks to increased unemployment benefits, federal stimulus checks and eviction moratoriums – all part of the government’s pandemic response – renters’ lives improved slightly in 2020. But with those programs decreasing or disappearing, many Idahoans and other Americans who rent their homes will still struggle to pay rent and face imminent risk of being evicted.Our analysis of eviction rates across the state of Idaho finds that numbers were down in 2020 but are poised to return to – or even exceed – pre-pandemic levels in the coming months as economic support for renting families runs out.In 2016, 2,037 or 1.1% of all renting households in Idaho faced an eviction filing – when a landlord formally requests an eviction order from a court. The courts ordered evictions for 1,107 households, or 0.6% of the state’s renting households that year.Eviction filings that do not end in an ordered eviction may be a result of renters reaching a settlement with the landlord before eviction. Even when dismissed or settled, filings affect a tenant’s record, potentially making it challenging to find new housing for years into the future.By 2019, eviction filings increased to affect 2,673 households, 1.4% of the state’s renting households, with 1,611, or 0.8%, ultimately facing a court-ordered eviction. Between 2016 and 2019, housing prices in Idaho increased by 34.7%, while the median income increased by only 17.7%. When housing costs outpace income, affordable housing stock decreases with a likely increase in evictions.In 2020, however, eviction numbers dropped – 1% of Idaho’s renting households, 1,893 families, had an eviction filing and 1,127, or 0.6%, were formally evicted.Unlike other states, Idaho did not have a statewide eviction ban, but there are potential reasons for these decreases.From March 25 through April 30, 2020, state courts were closed, except for essential hearings – which could have included evictions relating to illegal activity. Most other eviction proceedings would have been delayed. In addition, some landlords may have decided to seek resolutions other than eviction, especially as cash aid came in from federal and state governments. However, when the courts reopened in May 2020, eviction filings and formal evictions spiked. And monthly statistics show the rates rising almost back to 2019’s levels. This raises the question of the ability of federal bans alone to decrease eviction rates.

Freddie Mac: Mortgage Serious Delinquency Rate decreased in April - Freddie Mac reported that the Single-Family serious delinquency rate in April was 2.15%, down from 2.34% in March. Freddie's rate is up year-over-year from 0.64% in April 2020.Freddie's serious delinquency rate peaked in February 2010 at 4.20% following the housing bubble, and peaked at 3.17% in August 2020 during the pandemic.These are mortgage loans that are "three monthly payments or more past due or in foreclosure"  Mortgages in forbearance are being counted as delinquent in this monthly report, but they will not be reported to the credit bureaus.This is very different from the increase in delinquencies following the housing bubble.   Lending standards have been fairly solid over the last decade, and most of these homeowners have equity in their homes - and they will be able to restructure their loans once (if) they are employed. Also - for multifamily - delinquencies were at 0.20%, up from 0.17% in March, and up more than double from 0.08% in April 2020.

Fannie Mae: Mortgage Serious Delinquency Rate Decreased in April --Fannie Mae reported that the Single-Family Serious Delinquency decreased to 2.38% in April, from 2.58% in March. The serious delinquency rate is up from 0.70% in April 2020.  These are mortgage loans that are "three monthly payments or more past due or in foreclosure".The Fannie Mae serious delinquency rate peaked in February 2010 at 5.59% following the housing bubble, and peaked at 3.32% in August 2020 during the pandemic. By vintage, for loans made in 2004 or earlier (2% of portfolio), 5.44% are seriously delinquent (down from 5.66% in March). For loans made in 2005 through 2008 (2% of portfolio), 9.33% are seriously delinquent(down from 9.65%), For recent loans, originated in 2009 through 2021 (96% of portfolio), 1.94% are seriously delinquent (down from 2.13%). So Fannie is still working through a few poor performing loans from the bubble years.Mortgages in forbearance are counted as delinquent in this monthly report, but they will not be reported to the credit bureaus.This is very different from the increase in delinquencies following the housing bubble.   Lending standards have been fairly solid over the last decade, and most of these homeowners have equity in their homes - and they will be able to restructure their loans once they are employed.

MBA Survey: "Share of Mortgage Loans in Forbearance Decreases to 4.19%" -Note: This is as of May 16th.  From the MBA: Share of Mortgage Loans in Forbearance Decreases to 4.19% The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) latest Forbearance and Call Volume Survey revealed that the total number of loans now in forbearance decreased by 3 basis points from 4.22% of servicers’ portfolio volume in the prior week to 4.19% as of May 16, 2021. According to MBA’s estimate, 2.1 million homeowners are in forbearance plans.  The share of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans in forbearance decreased 3 basis points to 2.21%. Ginnie Mae loans in forbearance decreased 2 basis points to 5.59%, while the forbearance share for portfolio loans and private-label securities (PLS) remained the same relative to the prior week at 8.26%. The percentage of loans in forbearance for independent mortgage bank (IMB) servicers decreased 4 basis points to 4.38%, and the percentage of loans in forbearance for depository servicers remained the same at 4.35%. “The share of loans in forbearance declined for the 12 th straight week, dropping by 3 basis points. The decline was smaller than the prior week due to a slower pace of forbearance exits,” said Mike Fratantoni, MBA’s Senior Vice President and Chief Economist. “Although the overall share is declining, there was another increase in forbearance re-entries. Currently, 5.3 percent of loans in forbearance are homeowners who had cancelled forbearance but needed assistance again.”   , “The job market is recovering, but the pace of recovery thus far is slower than we had forecasted. Continued job growth is needed to help more struggling homeowners get back on their feet.”This graph shows the percent of portfolio in forbearanceby investor type over time.  Most of the increase was in late March and early April, and has trended down since then.  The MBA notes: "Total weekly forbearance requests as a percent of servicing portfolio volume (#) increased relative to the prior week: from 0.04% to 0.05%. "

Mortgage Applications Decrease in Latest MBA Weekly Survey -Mortgage applications decreased 4.2 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending May 21, 2021.. The Refinance Index decreased 7 percent from the previous week and was 9 percent lower than the same week one year ago. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 2 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index increased 1 percent compared with the previous week and was 4 percent lower than the same week one year ago.“Mortgage applications decreased last week as mortgage rates increased to 3.18 percent. Refinances dropped 7 percent as a result, driven by declines in both conventional and government refinance activity,” said Joel Kan, MBA’s Associate Vice President of Economic and Industry Forecasting. “Purchase applications increased for the second time in three weeks, rebounding after a rather weak April with mostly weekly declines. While purchase activity was around 4 percent lower than a year ago, the comparison is to last spring’s large upswing in activity as pandemic-related lockdowns lifted. Demand is robust throughout the country, but homebuyers continue to be held back by the lack of homes for sale and rapidly increasing home prices.”The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($548,250 or less) increased to 3.18 percent from 3.15 percent, with points decreasing to 0.35 from 0.36 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value ratio (LTV) loans.

FHFA House Price Index: Up 2.5% in March --The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has released its U.S. House Price Index (HPI) for February. Here is the opening of the press release: – U.S. house prices rose 12.6 percent from the first quarter of 2020 to the first quarter of 2021 according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency House Price Index (FHFA HPI^®). House prices were up 3.5 percentcompared to the fourth quarter of 2020. FHFA's seasonally adjusted monthly index for March was up 1.4 percent from February.“House price growth over the prior year clocked in at more than twice the rate of growth observed in the first quarter of 2020, just before the effects of the pandemic were felt in housing markets," said Dr. Lynn Fisher, Deputy Director of FHFA's Division of Research and Statistics. “In March, rates of appreciation continued to climb, exceeding 15 percent over the year in the Pacific, Mountain and New England census divisions."The chart below illustrates the monthly HPI series, which is not adjusted for inflation, along with a real (inflation-adjusted) series using the Consumer Price Index: All Items Less Shelter.

Case-Shiller: National House Price Index increased 13.2% year-over-year in March - S&P/Case-Shiller released the monthly Home Price Indices for March ("March" is a 3 month average of January, February and March prices).This release includes prices for 20 individual cities, two composite indices (for 10 cities and 20 cities) and the monthly National index. From S&P: S&P Corelogic Case-Shiller Index Shows Annual Home Price Gains Climbed to 13.2% in March: The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index, covering all nine U.S. census divisions, reported a 13.2% annual gain in March, up from 12.0% in the previous month. The 10-City Composite annual increase came in at 12.8%, up from 11.7% in the previous month. The 20-City Composite posted a 13.3% year-over-year gain, up from 12.0% in the previous month.Phoenix, San Diego, and Seattle reported the highest year-over-year gains among the 20 cities in March. Phoenix led the way with a 20.0% year-over-year price increase, followed by San Diego with a 19.1% increase and Seattle with a 18.3% increase. All 20 cities reported higher price increases in the year ending March 2021 versus the year ending February 2021. Before seasonal adjustment, the U.S. National Index posted a 2.0% month-over-month increase, while the 10-City and 20-City Composites both posted increases of 2.0% and 2.2% respectively in March.After seasonal adjustment, the U.S. National Index posted a month-over-month increase of 1.5%, and the 10-City and 20-City Composites both posted increases of 1.4% and 1.6% respectively. In March, all 20 cities reported increases before and after seasonal adjustments.. “The National Composite Index marked its tenth consecutive month of accelerating prices with a 13.2% gain from year-ago levels, up from 12.0% in February. This acceleration is also reflected in the 10- and 20-City Composites (up 12.8% and 13.3%, respectively). The market’s strength is broadly-based: all 20 cities rose, and all 20 gained more in the 12 months ended in March than they had gained in the 12 months ended in February. The National Composite’s 13.2% gain was last exceeded more than 15 years ago in December 2005, and lies very comfortably in the top decile of historical performance. The unusual strength is reflected across all 20 cities; March’s price gains in every city are above that city’s median level, and rank in the top quartile of all reports in 19 cities.“These data are consistent with the hypothesis that COVID has encouraged potential buyers to move from urban apartments to suburban homes. This demand may represent buyers who accelerated purchases that would have happened anyway over the next several years. Alternatively, there may have been a secular change in preferences, leading to a permanent shift in the demand curve for housing. More time and data will be required to analyze this questionThe first graph shows the nominal seasonally adjusted Composite 10, Composite 20 and National indices (the Composite 20 was started in January 2000).The Composite 10 index is up 1.4% in March (SA) from February.The Composite 20 index is up 1.6% (SA) in March.The National index is 33% above the bubble peak (SA), and up 1.5% (SA) in March.  The National index is up 80% from the post-bubble low set in December 2011 (SA).

 Home Prices Shattering Records Across U.S. Following Pandemic - Home prices are shattering records — especially in smaller cities. As a result, buyers can barely afford to blink or they risk losing the house they want. Jennifer Steinzer and Garrett Farber wanted their first house to have a backyard for a dog and no stairs. "We got a three story, no backyard and a cat," Farber said. They got their home for $295,000 after being outbid on 10 other homes in Las Vegas. When asked why she was willing to make so many sacrifices, Steinzer said, "Just to get our foot into a house and have a roof over our head." When asked if this was their dream home, Steinzer and Farber said: "No, not at all." Desperate buyers, record-low interest rates, along with low inventory and cash-rich investors are driving prices up — nationally, 19% higher. But cities like Kingston, New York, are up 35%, Boise, Idaho, is up 33%, and Las Vegas is up 15%, according to the National Association of Realtors. One 1,300-square-foot, one bath home in Tiburon, California, went for more than $2 million — 58% above the asking price. tiburon-house-for-sale.jpg A house that sold recently for $2,057,000, 58% above list price, in Tiburon, California. ALAN DEP "If you're putting in asking offers you're automatically a loser," Las Vegas realtor Mike McGrath said. One of McGrath's clients paid $45,000 above the listed price for a home in Henderson, Nevada. "They barely got in the house," McGrath said.

Zillow Case-Shiller House Price Forecast: "Not Slowing Any Time Soon", 14.3% YoY in April --The Case-Shiller house price indexes for March were released today. Zillow forecasts Case-Shiller a month early, and I like to check the Zillow forecasts since they have been pretty close.From Matthew Speakman at Zillow: March 2021 Case-Shiller Results & Forecast: Not Slowing Any Time Soon: While signs are emerging that the consistent decline of for-sale inventory is beginning to slow and could be on the verge of reversing, the pressures that have pushed home prices upward at their fastest pace in years remain in place and prices continue to press higher....Following sharp monthly declines in January and February, March saw a more modest retreat in inventory, suggesting that the historically tight inventory pressures may finally be starting to ease. But that anticipated relief has not yet materialized and the competition for the relatively few homes on the market remains red hot. Nationally, nearly half of all homes that go under contract are doing so in less than a week and nearly a third of homes are selling for above their initial list price – more than twice the share from a year ago. What’s more, mortgage rates have held near all-time lows and the gradual re-opening of the economy has encouraged many would-be buyers to enter the mix. All told, there is little, if any, indication that home prices will slow their appreciation anytime soon.Monthly and annual growth in April as reported by Case-Shiller is expected to accelerate from March and April 2020 in all three main indices. S&P Dow Jones Indices is expected to release data for the April S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices on Tuesday, June 29.The Zillow forecast is for the year-over-year change for the Case-Shiller National index to be at 14.3% in April, up from 13.2% in March.The Zillow forecast is for the 20-City index to be up 14.3% YoY in April from 13.3% in March, and for the 10-City index to increase to be up 13.9% YoY compared to 12.8% YoY in March.

REALTORS® Confidence Index Survey April 2021 - Some interesting information from the REALTORS® Confidence Index Survey April 2021 Several metrics indicates a very strong buyer market with short supply. The REALTORS® Buyer Traffic Index increased from 79 in March 2021 to 80 (very strong conditions) in April 2021while the REALTORS® Seller Traffic Index remains below 50 which is “weak” traffic compared to the level one year ago. On average, a home sold had five offers. On average, REALTORS® expect home prices in the next three months to increase nearly 6% from one year ago and sales in the next three months to increase nearly 3% from last year’s sales level.With little supply in the market, homes typically sold within 17 days (27 days one year ago), as buyer competition heats up. The share of first-time buyers decreased to 31% (32% in the prior month, 36% one year ago).This graph, from the NAR report, shows buyer traffic is strong just about everywhere.

NAR: Pending Home Sales Decreased 4.4% in April From the NAR: Pending Home Sales Drop 4.4% in April:Pending home sales took a step backward in April, according to the National Association of Realtors®. All four U.S. regions recorded year-over-year increases, but only the Midwest witnessed month-over-month gains in terms of pending home sales contract transactions.The Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI), a forward-looking indicator of home sales based on contract signings, fell 4.4% to 106.2 in April. Year-over-year, signings jumped 51.7% as last year's pandemic-related shutdowns slumped sales to an all-time low. An index of 100 is equal to the level of contract activity in 2001....The Northeast PHSI declined 12.9% to 85.3 in April, a 96.5% jump from a year ago. In the Midwest, the index increased 3.5% to 101.1 last month, up 39.4% from April 2020.Pending home sales transactions in the South fell 6.1% to an index of 128.9 in April, up 45.3% from April 2020. The index in the West decreased 2.6% in April to 92.0, up 57.3% from a year prior.This was well below expectations of a 1.2% increase for this index. Note: Contract signings usually lead sales by about 45 to 60 days, so this would usually be for closed sales in May and June.

New Home Sales Decrease to 863,000 Annual Rate in April --The Census Bureau reports New Home Sales in April were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of 863 thousand.  The previous three months were revised down sharply, combined. Sales of new single‐family houses in April 2021 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 863,000, according to estimates released jointly today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is 5.9 percent below the revised March rate of 917,000, but is 48.3 percent above the April 2020 estimate of 582,000.The first graph shows New Home Sales vs. recessions since 1963. The dashed line is the current sales rate. This was the highest sales rate for April since 2007.The second graph shows New Home Months of Supply. The months of supply increased in April to 4.4 months from 4.0 months in March.The all time record high was 12.1 months of supply in January 2009. The all time record low was 3.5 months, most recently in October 2020.This is close to the low end of the normal range (about 4 to 6 months supply is normal)."The seasonally‐adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of April was 316,000. This represents a supply of 4.4 months at the current sales rate."  Starting in 1973 the Census Bureau broke inventory down into three categories: Not Started, Under Construction, and Completed.The third graph shows the three categories of inventory starting in 1973.The inventory of completed homes for sale is just above the record low, and the combined total of completed and under construction is a little lower than normal.The last graph shows sales NSA (monthly sales, not seasonally adjusted annual rate).In April 2021 (red column), 78 thousand new homes were sold (NSA). Last year, 52 thousand homes were sold in April.The all time high for April was 116 thousand in 2005, and the all time low for April was 30 thousand in 2011. This was well below expectations, and sales in the three previous months were revised down sharply, combined.

A few Comments on April New Home Sales – McBride - New home sales for April were reported at 863,000 on a seasonally adjusted annual rate basis (SAAR). Sales for the previous three months were revised down significantly, combined.This was well below consensus expectations for April, but still the highest sales rate for April since 2007. However, sales were in line with home builder about "limiting sales" in April and May mostly due to high material costs.Still, sales have been strong for the last 11 months.  Clearly low mortgages rates, low existing home supply, and favorable demographics have boosted sales.  A surging stock market has probably helped new home sales too. Earlier: New Home Sales Decrease to 863,000 Annual Rate in April. This graph shows new home sales for 2020 and 2021 by month (Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate).The year-over-year comparisons are easy in the first half of 2021 - especially in March and April. However, sales will likely be down year-over-year in August through October - since the selling season was delayed in 2020.And on inventory: note that completed inventory (3rd graph in previous post) is near record lows, but inventory under construction is closer to normal. This graph shows the months of supply by stage of construction.The inventory of completed homes for sale was at 36 thousand in April, just above the record low of 34 thousand in March 2021. That is about 0.5 months of completed supply (just above record low). The inventory of new homes under construction, and not started, is at 3.9 months - close to normal.

New Home Prices ---As part of the new home sales report released yesterday, the Census Bureau reported the number of homes sold by price and the average and median prices.  From the Census Bureau: "The median sales price of new houses sold in April 2021 was $372,400. The average sales price was $435,400."The following graph shows the median and average new home prices.  During the housing bust, the builders had to build smaller and less expensive homes to compete with all the distressed sales.  When housing started to recovery - with limited finished lots in recovering areas - builders moved to higher price points to maximize profits. Then the average and median house prices mostly moved sideways since 2017 due to home builders offering more lower priced homes.  Prices picked up during the pandemic, and really picked up recently.The average price in April 2021 was $435,400, up 21% year-over-year.  The median price was $372,400, up 20% year-over-year.  The second graph shows the percent of new homes sold by price.Very few new homes sold were under $200K in April 2021 (about 2.6% of all homes).  This is down from 56% in 2002.  In general, the under $200K bracket is going away.   The $400K and greater than $500K+ brackets increased significantly over the last decade.  A majority of new homes (about 59% in April) in the U.S., are in the $200K to $400K range.

Lawler: Single-Family Rent Trends - Last week, I posted a brief note from housing economist Tom Lawler: Lawler: Is the “Owners’ Equivalent Rent” Index Set to Accelerate Sharply?.  Here is some more information from Lawler: Two of the largest institutional holders of single-family rental properties recently reported that demand for single-family rentals has rebounded strongly over the past several quarters, and both reported an acceleration in rental increases. Invitation Homes owns about 80,330 single-family homes, while American Homes 4 Rent owns about 51,984 single-family homes. While apartment rents in many large cities fell sharply following the pandemic (though rents have rebounded somewhat recently), the single-family rental market held up much better, as did the apartment rental markets in less-densely-populated (and less expensive) cities. A recent report from CoreLogic also shows this to be the case. CoreLogic’s Single-Family Rent Index (SFRI), based on repeat-rent analysis of the same rental properties, increased by 4.3% YOY in March, compared to a recent YOY low of 1.4% in June. The SFRI for the “high-price” tier showed a 5.0% YOY gain in March, while the “low-price” tier showed just a 3.2% YOY increase. In terms of property type, the SFRI for SF detached properties increased by 6.9% YOY gain in March (a record high), while the SFRI for SF attached properties showed just a 1.3% YOY rise.  Here is a chart from the report, which is available here: U.S. Single-Family Rents Up 4.3% Year Over Year in March.  From CoreLogic: Rent prices for the low-end tier, increased 3.2% year over year in March 2021, down from 3.8% in March 2020. Meanwhile, higher-priced rentals increased 5% in March 2021, up from a gain of 2.8% in March 2020. This was the fastest increase in higher-price rents since August 2006.

Hotels: Occupancy Rate Down 15% Compared to Same Week in 2019 --Note: The year-over-year occupancy comparisons are easy, since occupancy declined sharply at the onset of the pandemic. However, occupancy is still down significantly from normal levels.The occupancy rate is down 15.1% compared to the same week in 2019.From CoStar: STR: Weekly US Hotel Occupancy Reaches 60%, a First Since Start of Pandemic: U.S. weekly hotel occupancy reached the 60% mark for the first time since the start of the pandemic, according to STR‘s latest data through May 22. May 16-22, 2021 (percentage change from comparable week in 2019*):
• Occupancy: 60.3% (-15.1%)
• Average daily rate (ADR): US$115.57 (-13.6%)
• Revenue per available room (RevPAR): US$69.69 (-26.6%)
ADR also reached its highest point of the pandemic but was still US$18 less than the corresponding week in 2019. RevPAR also hit a high point when compared to 2019.
The following graph shows the seasonal pattern for the hotel occupancy rate using the four week average.The red line is for 2021, black is 2020, blue is the median, dashed purple is 2019, and dashed light blue is for 2009 (the worst year on record for hotels prior to 2020). Occupancy is now above the horrible 2009 levels.

Las Vegas Visitor Authority for April: No Convention Attendance, Visitor Traffic Down 27% Compared to 2019 -From the Las Vegas Visitor Authority: April 2021 Las Vegas Visitor Statistics: Visitation continued to ramp up in April as the destination welcomed more than 2.5M visitors, up more than 15% MoM and down roughly ‐27% vs. pre‐COVID levels in Apr 2019.Hotel occupancy increased to 65.6%, up 10.1 pts MoM, with Weekend occupancy improving to 83.5%, up 5.8 pts MoM and within 13 pts of Apr 2019 levels.The first graph shows visitor traffic for 2019 (blue), 2020 (orange) and 2021 (red).Visitor traffic was down 27.3% compared to the same month in 2019.Convention traffic was non-existent again in April, and was down 100% compared to April 2019.  There has been no convention traffic since March 2020. I'll add a graph of convention traffic once conventions start to reopen.Note: A convention is scheduled for early June (HT MS): "Informa Markets, organizers of the World of Concrete, has received approval from the Nevada Department of Business and Industry to move forward with its 2021 in-person edition. The event is scheduled to be held June 8-10, 2021 at the Las Vegas Convention Center."

Consumer Confidence Held Steady in May  The headline number of 117.2 was a decrease of 0.3 from the final reading of 117.5 for April. This was below theInvesting.com consensus of 119.2.“After rebounding sharply in recent months, U.S. consumer confidence was essentially unchanged in May,” said Lynn Franco, Senior Director of Economic Indicators at The Conference Board. “Consumers’ assessment of present-day conditions improved, suggesting economic growth remains robust in Q2. However, consumers’ short-term optimism retreated, prompted by expectations of decelerating growth and softening labor market conditions in the months ahead. Consumers were also less upbeat this month about their income prospects—a reflection, perhaps, of both rising inflation expectations and a waning of further government support until expanded Child Tax Credit payments begin reaching parents in July. Overall, consumers remain optimistic, and confidence should remain resilient in the short term, as vaccination rates climb, COVID-19 cases decline further, and the economy fully reopens.” Read more  The chart below is another attempt to evaluate the historical context for this index as a coincident indicator of the economy. Toward this end, we have highlighted recessions and included GDP. The regression through the index data shows the long-term trend and highlights the extreme volatility of this indicator. Statisticians may assign little significance to a regression through this sort of data. But the slope resembles the regression trend for real GDP shown below, and it is a more revealing gauge of relative confidence than the 1985 level of 100 that the Conference Board cites as a point of reference.

Americans Boosted Spending, Adding Fuel to Economic Growth – WSJ -- Americans continue to venture back out into public to buy services they went without for more than a year—a shift that is adding fuel to the economic recovery and stirring higher inflation.Consumer spending, the biggest source of economic demand in the U.S., rose 0.5% last monthafter surging in March, the Commerce Department said Friday.The report offered mostly positive signs about the direction of the economy’s path out of the pandemic-induced downturn. After months of buying goods from the safety of their homes, Americans are increasingly comfortable enough to go out in public and buy things in person, a shift that economists say is crucial to getting the economy running at full speed again. Spending on services, which account for the bulk of all consumer purchases, rose 1.1% last month; spending on goods fell 0.6%. The higher spending is being fueled by rising vaccination rates, falling business restrictionsand ample household savings, much of it from the federal government. States and cities continue to lift restrictions on businesses such as restaurants, gyms and concert venues, and customers are returning.“The U.S. consumer has an itch to spend, the means to do so and fewer health reasons not to indulge,” said Gregory Daco, chief U.S. economist for Oxford Economics. Americans are well-positioned to continue spending despite a drop in income last month. Household income fell 13.1% in April, the biggest drop on record, though the decline followed a surge the prior month due to the effects of stimulus payments that went out earlier this year. Income rose sharply in March as the government sent most households $1,400 checksas part of Covid-19 stimulus efforts.Despite the April drop, household income was 11% higher than in February 2020, the month before the pandemic hit the U.S. Households have saved about $2 trillion more than they would have absent the pandemic and federal relief efforts in response to it, according to Morgan Stanley.The report also contained a potential warning flag—higher inflation. Labor shortages, rising demand and disruptions in shipments are leading companies to raise prices. The Commerce Department’s inflation measure showed consumer prices rose 0.6% in April from a month earlier and 3.6% from a year earlier. Core prices, which exclude energy and food, rose 0.7% over the month and 3.1% over the year. The Federal Reserve, which aims for 2% annual inflation to keep the economy growing at a healthy pace, believes that the higher inflation is due largely to temporary factors, such as supply disruptions, and will eventually subside. The latest annual inflation figures are also skewed because of the severe recession caused by the onset of the pandemic in spring of 2020, which caused prices to drop sharply a year ago.  After adjusting for annual inflation, both household spending and incomes fell in April.

Real Personal Income less Transfer Payments Above Previous Peak - Government transfer payments decreased sharply in April compared to March, but were still almost $1.4 trillion (on SAAR basis) above the February 2020 level (pre-pandemic).  Most of the increase in transfer payments - compared to the levels prior to the crisis - is from unemployment insurance and "other" (includes direct payments).   This table shows the amount of unemployment insurance and "Other" transfer payments since February 2020 (pre-crisis level).  The increase in "Other" was mostly due to parts of the relief acts including direct payments. There was a large increase in "Other" in March due to the American Rescue Plan Act.Note: Not in the table below, but Social Security payments haven't increased significantly since the pre-recession levels (from $1,065 billion SAAR in Jan 2020 to $1,108 billion SAAR in Apr 2021).A key measure of the health of the economy (Used by NBER in recession dating) is Real Personal Income less Transfer payments.  This graph shows real personal income less transfer payments since 1990.  This measure of economic activity increased 0.5% in April, compared to March, and was up 0.3% compared to February 2020 (previous peak). Another way to look at this data is as a percent of the previous peak.  Real personal income less transfer payments was off 8.1% in April 2020. That was a larger decline than the worst of the great recession.  Currently personal income less transfer payments are at a new peak.  This is the first of the key NBER measures - GDP, Employment, Industrial Production, Real Personal Income less Transfer Payments - that is above pre-recession levels. GDP will be above pre-recession levels in Q2.

Memorial Day gas prices are the highest in seven years and could stay high all summer - Gasoline prices are expected to be the highest for a Memorial Day weekend in seven years, and prices could stay elevated all summer, as Americans take to the road in a post-coronavirus pandemic driving spree. The current average price for a gallon of unleaded gasoline of $3.04 per gallon, 16 cents more than a month ago and $1.08 per gallon higher than last year, according to AAA. The motor club federation expects 37 million Americans to travel this weekend, a 60% increase over last year when the economy was still shut down. Gas prices jumped earlier this month, particularly in the Southeast, after the Colonial Pipeline went off line for six days after a ransomware attack. In some Southern states, gasoline jumped more than 20 cents per gallon as panicked drivers filled their tanks and shortages shut down stations. Gasoline demand last week reached 9.5 million barrels a day, the highest since March 13, 2020, which was just when the economy began to shut down, according to the latest Energy Information Administration data. "There's part of me that feels like the market has a potential to overheat this summer, just because people are stuck here," said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. De Haan expects more driving vacations since international travel is still difficult. "Everyone wants to get out. If there's any hiccup in the system this summer, it's going to be hard to fuel up." De Haan said more of a concern is that prices will jump this summer if there are any refinery outages or hurricanes disrupting the flow of crude or refined product. "Usually when prices go up 50 cents, people say they'll just stay home, but not this year, with the pent-up demand. If there's any kinks in the system, it could get ugly," he said. AAA warned that some stations in the Southeast could continue to experience supply strains during the three-day Memorial Day holiday weekend, but drivers should still be able to fill up. Stations in popular travel areas, like beaches, mountains or national parks could face low supplies. De Haan said a GasBuddy survey showed that 53% of Americans said gas prices are irrelevant to them, and 57% expect to take at least one road trip, up from 31%. "I think it's possible that we will have some blockbuster weekends that break records. It's just because Americans have been stuck at home," he said.

DOT: Vehicle Miles Driven Increased Sharply year-over-year in March -This will be something to watch as the economy recovers. The Department of Transportation (DOT) reported:m Travel on all roads and streets changed by 19.0% (42.0 billion vehicle miles) for March 2021 as compared with March 2020. Travel for the month is estimated to be 263.0 billion vehicle miles.The seasonally adjusted vehicle miles traveled for March 2021 is 261.1 billion miles, an 18.5% (40.7 billion vehicle miles) increase over March 2020. It also represents a 6.2% increase (15.2 billion vehicle miles) compared with February 2021.Cumulative Travel for 2021 changed by -2.1% (-14.9 billion vehicle miles). The cumulative estimate for the year is 691.5 billion vehicle miles of travel.This graph shows the monthly total vehicle miles driven, seasonally adjusted.Miles driven declined sharply in March 2020, and really collapsed in April.  After partially recovering fairly quickly, miles driven was mostly flat for 6+ months - but really picked up in March 2021.

 May Vehicle Sales Forecast: Supply Issues Pull Down Sales From WardsAuto: U.S. Light Vehicle Sales & Inventory Forecast, May 2021 (pay content)  This graph shows actual sales from the BEA (Blue), and Wards forecast for May (Red). The Wards forecast of 16.5 million SAAR, would be down 11% from last month, and up 36% from a year ago (sales collapsed at beginning of pandemic).

Headline Durable Goods Orders Down 1.3% in April After 11 Months of Increases - The Advance Report on Manufacturers’ Shipments, Inventories, and Orders released today gives us a first look at the latest durable goods numbers. Here is the Bureau's summary on new orders:New orders for manufactured durable goods in April decreased $3.2 billion or 1.3 percent to $246.2 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau announced today. This decrease, down following eleven consecutive monthly increases, followed a 1.3 percent March increase. Excluding transportation, new orders increased 1.0 percent. Excluding defense, new orders were virtually unchanged. Transportation equipment, down two consecutive months, drove the decrease, $4.9 billion or 6.7 percent to $68.9 billion. Download full PDFThe latest new orders number at -1.3% month-over-month (MoM) was worse than the Investing.com 0.7% estimate. The series is up 52.1% year-over-year (YoY). If we exclude transportation, "core" durable goods was up 1.0% MoM, which was above the Investing.com consensus of 0.8%. The core measure is up 28.6% YoY.Core Capital Goods New Orders (nondefense capital goods used in the production of goods or services, excluding aircraft) is an important gauge of business spending, often referred to as Core Capex. It is up 2.3% MoM and up 25.3% YoY. For a look at the big picture and an understanding of the relative size of the major components, here is an area chart of Durable Goods New Orders minus Transportation and Defense with those two components stacked on top. We've also included a dotted line to show the relative size of Core Capex.

 Richmond Fed Manufacturing: Strength in May - Fifth District manufacturing activity showed continued growth in May, according to the most recent survey from the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. The composite index rose to 18 from 17 in April and indicates expansion.The complete data series behind today's Richmond Fed manufacturing report, which dates from November 1993, is available here.Here is a snapshot of the complete Richmond Fed Manufacturing Composite series. Here is an excerpt from the latest Richmond Fed manufacturing overview:Fifth District manufacturing activity strengthened in May, according to the most recent survey from the Richmond Fed. The composite index inched up from 17 in April to 18 in May, as all three component indexes—shipments, new orders, and employment—reflected growth. A majority of firms reported lengthening vendor lead times, as this index reached a record high, along with the backlog of orders index. Meanwhile, the index for raw materials inventories reached a record low. Overall, manufacturers reported improved business conditions. Link to Report Here is a somewhat closer look at the index since the turn of the century.

 Kansas City Fed Survey: Continued Expansion in May - The latest index came in at 26, down 5 from last month's 31, but still indicating expansion in May. The future outlook inched down to 33 this month from 34. Here is a snapshot of the complete Kansas City Fed Manufacturing Survey.Quarterly data for this indicator dates back to 1995, but monthly data is only available from 2001.Here is an excerpt from the latest report:Tenth District manufacturing activity continued to expand at a strong pace, and expectations for future activity remained solid (Chart 1, Tables 1 & 2). The index of prices paid for raw materials compared to a month ago posted a new survey record high for the second straight month, and prices received for finished goods also surpassed historical levels. Price indexes vs. a year ago also posted record highs, with 98% of firms reporting higher materials prices compared to a year ago. Moving forward, district firms expected materials prices and finished goods prices to continue to increase over the next six months. [Full report here]  Here is a snapshot of the complete Kansas City Fed Manufacturing Survey.

Weekly Initial Unemployment Claims decrease to 406,000 ---The DOL reported: In the week ending May 22, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 406,000, a decrease of 38,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 444,000. This is the lowest level for initial claims since March 14, 2020 when it was 256,000. The 4-week moving average was 458,750, a decrease of 46,000 from the previous week's unrevised average of 504,750. This is the lowest level for this average since March 14, 2020 when it was 225,500. This does not include the 93,546 initial claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) that was down from 95,142 the previous week.The following graph shows the 4-week moving average of weekly claims since 1971.The dashed line on the graph is the current 4-week average. The four-week average of weekly unemployment claims decreased to 458,750.The previous week was unrevised.Regular state continued claims decreased to 3,642,000 (SA) from 3,738,000 (SA) the previous week.Note: There are an additional 6,515,657 receiving Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) that decreased from 6,606,198 the previous week (there are questions about these numbers). This is a special program for business owners, self-employed, independent contractors or gig workers not receiving other unemployment insurance.  And an additional 5,191,642 receiving Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) up from 5,142,370. Weekly claims were lower than the consensus forecast..

There is no justification for cutting federal unemployment benefits: The latest state jobs data show the economy has not fully recovered --EPI Blog --Republican governors in 24 states—including Florida and Nebraska just this week—have indicated they will pull out from the federal unemployment insurance (UI) programs created at the start of the pandemic. Some states are ending participation in all federal pandemic UI programs, others only some of the federal supports. These actions are dangerously shortsighted.UI provides a lifeline to workers unable to find suitable jobs, giving them time to find work that matches their skills and pays a decent wage. Moreover, the money provided through these entirely federally fundedprograms bolsters consumer demand and business activity in local economies, helping to speed the recovery. In many states, these federal UI programs are providing the bulk of all unemployment benefits to jobless workers. By cutting off these programs—which currently provide an extra $300 in weekly benefits, allow workers who have exhausted traditional UI to continue receiving benefits, and expand eligibility to workers typically not included in existing UI programs—governors are weakening their states’ potential economic growth.Further, the most recent national jobs and unemployment data show that the country has not yet recovered from the COVID-19 recession. In April, the country was still down 8.2 million jobs from before the pandemic, and down between 9 and 11 million jobs since then if you factor in the jobs the economy should have added to keep up with growth in the working-age population over the past year.With an official unemployment rate of 6.1%, there are nearly 10 million people actively looking for work and unable to find it. These estimates understate the true level of weakness in the labor market as many people have exited the labor force since the COVID-19 shock began, but would likely rejoin if jobs were available, and others are still awaiting recall from “temporary” layoffs. The country is simply not at a place yet where states should be cutting off supports to unemployed workers.April state jobs and unemployment data released last Friday show that in many of the states that are cutting unemployment programs, labor market conditions are not much stronger than the national picture. Figure Ashows the states that have indicated they will be cutting support for jobless workers. In four of these states, the unemployment rate in April was higher than the national average: Arizona (6.7%), Alaska (6.7%), Texas (6.7%), and Mississippi (6.2%). In another four states, the official unemployment rate was still 5% or above: West Virginia (5.8%), Wyoming (5.4%), South Carolina (5.0%), and Tennessee (5.0%).However, these estimates likely understate the true weakness in these states’ labor markets. In seven of the eight states mentioned above, and in 20 of the 24 states cutting UI, labor force participation has fallen since before the pandemic—in some cases, dramatically. The labor force participation rate has fallen by an average of 1.1 percentage points among the states cutting UI, with declines as large as 3.8% in Iowa, 2.1% in Montana, 2.0% in Florida, 1.9% in Nebraska, and 1.8% in Texas. Some of these declines may be the result of jobless workers opting for early retirement, but it is likely that most have given up looking for work in the face of few suitable options, valid concerns about health risks, or a need to provide care to a child or family member.

Employers Can Require Covid-19 Vaccine Under Federal Law, New Guidance States – WSJ - U.S. employers could require all workers physically entering a workplace to be vaccinated against Covid-19, the federal government said Friday.The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued updated guidance stating that federal laws don’t prevent an employer from requiring workers to be vaccinated.However, in some circumstances, federal laws may require the employer to provide reasonable accommodations for employees who, because of a disability or a religious belief, aren’t vaccinated. For example, the EEOC said as a reasonable accommodation, an unvaccinated employee entering the workplace might wear a face mask, work at a social distance or be given the opportunity to telework.The new guidelines also say that federal laws don’t prevent or limit incentives that can be offered to workers to voluntarily take the vaccine. And employers that are administering vaccines to their employees may also offer incentives, as long as the incentives aren’t coercive.The updated guidance is intended to answer frequently asked questions, EEOC Chairwoman Charlotte Burrows said in a statement. She said the agency will continue to update and clarify its assistance for employers.The commission is an independent, bipartisan agency that enforces workplace civil-rights laws. The five-person body is led by Ms. Burrows, a Democrat whom President Biden elevated to the top position. It also includes three Republican members nominated by former President Donald Trump.Some employers have offered bonuses to workers who take the shot. For example, retailerDollar General Corp. is offering four hours of pay to those who take the shot, and Bolthouse Farms, a maker of juices and salad dressings, said it would pay $500 to full-time hourly workers who get Covid-19 vaccine. Retailer Trader Joe’s, delivery service Instacart Inc. and meat producers Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. and JBS USA Holdings Inc. said they would give vaccine incentives.

 Amazon to acquire MGM Studios for $8.45 billion - Amazon announced on Wednesday that it had reached a deal to acquire the media and entertainment giant Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM) for $8.45 billion.In a joint press release, the two publicly traded corporations—MGM’s Wall Street market capitalization is $21 billion and Amazon’s is $1.65 trillion—said they entered “a definitive merger agreement” and emphasized how MGM’s “nearly a century of filmmaking history” is complimentary to “the work of Amazon Studios, which has primarily focused on producing TV show programming.”The press statement also said that Amazon would “help preserve MGM’s heritage and catalog of films” and “empower MGM to continue to do what they do best: great storytelling.”  MGM is one of the world’s oldest film studios—itself the product of entertainment industry consolidation in the 1920s—and has a catalog of 4,000 films and 17,000 TV shows. Considered among the most valuable in its collection are the James Bond series of movies, Twelve Angry Men (1957),Rocky (1977), Raging Bull (1980), Moonstruck (1987), Thelma & Louise (1991) and Silence of the Lambs (1991). MGM had previously relinquished ownership of Gone with The Wind (1939), The Wizard of Oz (1939) , Singin’ in the Rain(1952) and 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) among others in a series of deals involving Sony and Warner Brothers.Senior Vice President of Prime Video and Amazon Studios Mike Hopkins bluntly explained the interests motivating the deal, “The real financial value behind this deal is the treasure trove of IP in the deep catalog that we plan to reimagine and develop together with MGM’s talented team.” IP is corporate-speak for intellectual property.

New York City Is Back: At Least 30 People Shot Over The Weekend - New York City is officially back: almost 30 people were shot in New York City this past weekend - and that number was only up until about 2PM on Sunday. 29 victims in total had been struck by gunfire by early evening Sunday, according to the New York Post, with one reported fatality. “These kids are having running gun battles and innocents are getting shot,” one veteran NYPD officer told the Post. “Nobody is interested in hearing how many shots are fired but if people knew how many shootings occurred where there are no victims — it’s by the grace of God."Among those struck by gunfire over the weekend were a Manhattan federal prosecutor, Mollie Bracewell, who was dining outside in Brooklyn’s Prospect Heights, and Benjamin Bustamante, an innocent bystander walking nearby. The weekend hadn't even ended before one officer said "there were just two more right now", referring to additional shootings late Sunday. Shootings took place at Beach 30th Street and Seagirt Boulevard in Far Rockaway, Queens, among other locations throughout the city.Two people were shot in that area after a "gang dispute" spilled out of a nearby park, the report says. And if "diversity" in your violent crimes is a major concern, as we know it probably is for Mayor De Blasio, it should be noted that in addition to the shootings, there was a fatal stabbing in Northern Brooklyn and a man who was beaten to death in the Northeast Bronx over the weekend as well.

12 Mass Shootings Over Weekend As America Descends Into Chaotic Summer  - There's a lot of noise from the Biden administration, who claim to be addressing gun violence as an epidemic, but their efforts have only been for optics, as very little action has been taken so far. This past weekend, a dozen mass shootings were recorded across the country, according to CNN. Nonprofit research group Gun Violence Archive (GVA) reported that at least 12 mass shootings were observed in eight states, including Illinois, New Jersey, Ohio, Indiana, South Carolina, Virginia, Texas, and Minnesota.On Sunday afternoon, Chicago Police investigated a shooting that left four men (ages between 20-41) critically wounded on the city's Westside. Detectives are investigating the incident, and there are no suspects. Besides the mass shooting in Chicago, which is characterized as four or more people killed or wounded by gunfire, 48 people were shot, 11 fatally across the city over the weekend. Statistical website HeyJackass! shows violent crime ticked up across the metro area as the weather becomes warmer and the city is reopening the economy. About 35 miles south of Chicago, another mass shooting occurred on early Sunday morning. Police responded to a private event in Park Forest, Illinois, where four people were injured. Police believe there were multiple firearms discharged during the late-night party that spilled into early Sunday. Elsewhere, the Youngstown Police Department in Ohio was called to the Torch Club Bar & Grille, where a shooting rampage left three dead and three injured. In Indiana, gunfire erupted early Sunday morning at an apartment complex in Fort Wayne. Officers found three people with life-threatening injuries and one with non-life-threatening injuries. One of the shooting victims was later pronounced dead at the hospital. Over to Norfolk, Virginia, four adults were shot and taken to a local hospital after sustaining non-life-threatening. Local police do not have a suspect and have asked the public for help. Moving up to Paterson, New Jersey, five people were shot at a party early Sunday morning. Paterson Police have yet to identify a suspect. In Cumberland County, New Jersey, two people were killed and 12 injured at a private house party when gunfire erupted. The incident occurred on Saturday night. Back to Ohio, where a 16-year-old girl was killed, and five others were shot at Bicentennial Park in Columbus on Saturday night. The five others are expected to survive. Down to North Charleston, South Carolina, one person died, and 13 others were injured at an unauthorized concert event. Charleston Police Deputy Chief Scott Deckard said a fight broke out before the shooting.  Over to a Texas sports complex in San Angelo, four people were shot on Saturday evening. 

America's youngest Mensa member is a 2-year-old with a 146 IQ --Who needs preschool?The youngest American member of the high IQ society Mensa is a 2-year-old whiz kid with a genius-level score of 146, according to a report.Kashe Quest, of Los Angeles, Calif, began learning to read at 1.5 years old, speaks Spanish and can identify all 50 states on a map, her mom, Sukhjit Athwal, told KTTV in a segment that aired Tuesday.“We started to notice her memory was really great. She just picked up things really fast and she was really interested in learning. At about 17, 18 months, she had recognized all the alphabet, numbers, colors, and shapes,” said Athwal, who has a background in education.The pint-sized prodigy can also count to 100, knows sign language and can identify elements on the periodic table by their symbols, she said.Quest showcased her skills by correctly identifying the compound Phosphorus and the state Mississippi on flash cards, according to footage that aired on Good Day LA.

 NYC Schools To Reopen Fully With No Remote Learning This Fall : NPR --New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is promising a full reopening of the nation's largest public school system in September. That means in person, five days a week, with no remote option for students to attend school exclusively online. The mayor made the announcement Monday on MSNBC's Morning Joe.  "You can't have a full recovery without full-strength schools," de Blasio said in the segment.Almost 70% of the nation's students attend schools that are currently offering full-time, in-person learning, according to the organization Burbio. De Blasio's announcement comes a week after New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced there would be no remote option for that state's public school students come September.But questions remain about how New York City will be able to accommodate 100% of its public school students in person. Some administrators worry there won't be enough space to fit all students in classrooms under current social distancing requirements. At a City Council hearing last week, officials testified that all but 10% of the city's public schools could fit their students into classrooms 3 or more feet apart. At a press conference Monday, the mayor said he believes schools could make 3-feet social distancing work, but that he expects the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to relax the requirements more by August.Meanwhile, many New York City parents have expressed reluctance around in-person schooling. Data from the U.S. Education Department shows students of color are less likely than white students to be learning in person, as of March. Communities of color in the U.S. have beendisproportionately affected by the pandemic. In New York, Asian and Black families in particular have been more likely to keep their children home, according to demographic data released by the city. Parents there have cited virus safety concerns, a lack of trust in the school system and fear of discrimination in or on the way to school as reasons for keeping their children home. Some parents have said they won't feel comfortable until their children are vaccinated, while others have said they prefer remote learning, because it works better for their children academically or socially. De Blasio said parents will be welcomed back to schools starting in June to ask questions and get answers from educators as well as to see how schools are keeping students and staff safe. And remote learning isn't completely going away in New York City. Earlier this month,officials said public school students will learn remotely on Election Day, instead of having the usual day off from school, and class will no longer be suspended on "snow days."

 Vaccines’ success could undercut Biden’s multibillion-dollar school testing plans - President Joe Biden took office pledging to help curb the pandemic by supporting regular Covid-19 testing in schools and other group settings like homeless shelters and workplaces — but the future of those multibillion-dollar plans is murky amid dramatic drops in infection rates nationwide. The administration has struggled to launch a $650 million program it announced in February to set up regional Covid-19 testing hubs for schools and facilities like homeless shelters. Federal officials had hoped to have the first hub open and coordinating 150,000 tests per week by late April, but have not yet awarded any contracts. And while the White House announced in March that it would spend $10 billion in stimulus money to support testing programs in schools across the country, planning has been left largely to states, cities and local school districts. The CDC began distributing the money to state and local health departments in early April, but it is not clear how much schools have spent in the waning months of the 2020-2021 school year. Now, with vaccination slowing the virus’s spread, some schools are reopening without the kind of widespread Covid-19 screening that Biden once envisioned as crucial. Administration officials, many education leaders and some public health experts argue that testing will still be important for stemming outbreaks in schools into the next academic year, because Covid-19 shots are not yet available for kids under 12. But with new infections steadily dropping as the summer looms, a debate is brewing about what role widespread screening programs will play in a world where an increasing number of Americans are vaccinated. “Testing really is important for surveillance when you don't have a majority of the people vaccinated,” the president’s chief medical adviser, Anthony Fauci, recently told POLITICO. “Once you get most people vaccinated, you're not going to need to do that type of surveillance testing.”

CDC Recommends Masking for School Staff, Accepts Aerosol Transmission (Without Using the Word) -- Lambert Strether -- May 21’s “Mask Use and Ventilation Improvements to Reduce COVID-19 Incidence in Elementary Schools — Georgia, November 16–December 11, 2020” really does seem to be different. This time. I apologize, but every time CDC drags its sluggish body toward the light, and not the darkness does the right thing, we should take notice and applaud. Readers will recall that the first CDC guidance on school re-opening, released on February 12 of this year, was appallingly bad. As I wrote back on February 18[1], when the guidance was released: You will notice immediately that aerosol transmission is omitted; the message ofStrategy is that aerosol transmission can be ignored because it is not an “essential” element. This message is getting through; from an acute summary of Strategy in WaPo, “The CDC’s plan to reopen schools seems to prioritize expediency over teachers’ health“: Again, the CDC’s “mitigation strategies” omit discussion of aerosols entirely (even to ventilation). Frankly, I was gobsmacked. I hate to deploy terms like “criminal malpractice,” so I won’t, but such was my level of gobsmacked-ness. Further, if you accept, as I do, the SARS-COV-2 can be transmitted by aerosols, the CDC Transmissiondocument — “the science” backing up the recommendations — rests on a very modest epidemiological base. Let’s consider first the CDC’s suppression of aerosol transmission. So that is my reading of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report’s new study on mask use and ventilation in schools. I’m pleased to see that CDC’s scientists are coming to their senses at long last following where the epidemiology leads. If in fact, which Heaven forfend, there is a Covid uptick when the schools re-open in the Fall, we will welcome having these particular “multiple prevention strategies” in place. I know I do harp on whether the word “aerosol” is used. However, it’s important that we use the right names for things. We need to name the theory of transmission — “aerosol transmision” — or else we’re robots simply following the rules, unable to adjust to new situations. (For example, “open the windows” is a rule, and a good one. It doesn’t tell you to think about what to do in new situations. Only a theory of transmission can do that.) More importantly — hold onto your hats, here, folks — elites never, ever, ever hold themselves accountable. See especially the Iraq War, where everybody who was wrong is still respected and in power, and everybody who was right was and is marginalized. If we say “aerosol transmission,” those who got it right are more likely to be rewarded and empowered, which is how science should work after a paradigm shift. So now, we wait to see the science translated into guidance.

What Do I Do Next?’: Orphaned by Covid, Two Teens Find Their Way – NYTimes -- Their mother went into cardiac arrest just before midnight. She was resuscitated, but the doctor had a question: What did the family want to do if Magalie Salomon’s heart stopped beating again? The decision was left to Ms. Salomon’s son, Xavier. He was 18 years old. It was an alarming position to be in, particularly for Xavier, who had never felt much responsibility for the household. His father had died nine years earlier, and his mother worked overnight shifts as a home attendant, which meant he was often home alone with his 16-year-old sister, Adriana. Still, Xavier felt no obligation to take on a big brother role, preferring to dodge chores and duties. He gave little thought to blowing his Burger King paychecks on Yeezy sneakers or gifts for his girlfriend and tended to hole up in his room on his phone. But when the hospital called, it was Xavier who was asked for answers. He panicked. Do whatever it takes, he pleaded. A heaviness descended on the apartment in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Xavier lay on his bed in the dark, waiting for another call. When it came a couple hours later, there was the same news, the same question. Xavier repeated his plea. Yes, resuscitate. Save her. Finally, just before dawn, Xavier received word: Ms. Salomon, 44, died of Covid-19 about 6 a.m. on April 3, 2020, at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center. It had been less than three days since she left their home. This time, before Xavier hung up, he had his own question to ask: “What do I do next?” The nation has begun to emerge from the pandemic, but any real return to normalcy must include an acknowledgment of what has been lost. More than half a million have died of Covid-19 across the United States. Nearly 34,000 of those deaths were in New York City, an early epicenter where the virus tore through the crowded landscape.The collective numbers speak to the scope of the devastation, but each death was an event of its own, a fissure in some intimate world where only the bereft know just how much was broken. The stories are detailed and personal, a different ache to fill in every home.But woven within that grief are tales of hope and hardiness — of small but brilliant transformations as the city reopens.In the 14 months since their mother’s death, Xavier and Adriana Salomon have managed to reshape their lives, unearthing courage where there was sorrow. Two teenagers on their own, they have made unsteady but brave steps into the shadows of their parents.

Ontario’s Laurentian University declares insolvency, slashes hundreds of jobs, dozens of programs - Management at Laurentian University, which serves Northern Ontario as a postsecondary hub, filed for creditor protection in February and has spent the past three months imposing savage cuts on the institution’s faculty and staff. The use of insolvency proceedings for the first time at a Canadian postsecondary educational institution was greenlighted by Ontario’s hard-right Conservative government and broad sections of the ruling elite. They view it as setting a precedent for a broader assault on education workers and drive to reorganize the postsecondary sector to more fully meet the needs of big business.A quarter of the tenured faculty—about 110 professors—were unceremoniously laid off last month, with no prior notice during a Zoom call with school administration. Scores of contract positions have also been axed, above all, through Laurentian’s ending of the federated status of three smaller regional universities: the Huntington University, Thorneloe University and the University of Sudbury.The cuts are especially devastating in a region that has no other major postsecondary institution. Moreover, Laurentian was one of the few institutions in predominantly English-speaking Ontario that allowed students to study in French, an option that has now been severely curtailed with the elimination of key programs like French language and cultural studies.Fifty-eight undergraduate and 11 graduate programs were eliminated entirely, accounting for about a third of the northern university’s course offerings. Programs that were cut include undergraduate degrees in anthropology, environmental science, geography, Italian, mathematics, modern languages, music, philosophy, physics, political science and Spanish.It also appears likely that Laurentian’s Indigenous Studies program, one of the oldest in Canada, will cease to exist.

Campus Cancel Culture Freakouts Obscure the Power of University Boards -Do American universities lack ideological diversity? Are they bastions of left-wing thought and hostile to conservatives? In early April, the Crimson, the student newspaper of Harvard University, published an article asserting that the university’s conservative faculty are “an endangered species,” which quickly animated establishment concernsabout the alleged lack of ideological diversity on American college campuses. But the right is not underrepresented in higher education; in fact, the opposite is true: The modern American university is a right-wing institution. The right’s dominance of academia and its reign over universities is destroying higher education, and the only way to save the American university is for students and professors to take back control of campuses. Conservatives continually cite statistics suggesting that college professors lean to the left. But those who believe a university's ideological character can be discerned by surveying the political leanings of its faculty betray a fundamental misunderstanding of how universities work. Partisan political preferences have little to do with the production of academic knowledge or the day-to-day workings of the university — including what happens in classrooms. There is no “Democrat” way to teach calculus, nor is there a “Republican” approach to teaching medieval English literature; anyone who has spent time teaching or studying in a university knows that the majority of instruction and scholarship within cannot fit into narrow partisan categories. Moreover, gauging political preferences of employees is an impoverished way of understanding the ideology of an institution. To actually do so, you must look at who runs it — and in the case of the American university, that is no longer the professoriate. As the historian Larry Gerber writes, shared governance was supplanted as the dominant model of university administration as boards of trustees and their allies in the offices of provosts and deans took advantage of public funding cuts to higher education and asserted increasing control over the hiring of the professoriate. They imported business models from the for-profit corporate world that shifted the labor model for teaching and research from tenured and tenure-track faculty to part-time faculty on short-term contracts, who were paid less and excluded from the benefits of the tenure system, particularly the academic freedom that tenure secured by mandating that professors could only be fired for extraordinary circumstances. At the same time, Gerber details, the makeup of university boards of trustees became stacked with members from corporate backgrounds who made opposition to academic labor organizing part of the contemporary university's governance model. These boards exercise enormous power: controlling senior administrative appointments, approving faculty hiring, dictating labor policies, and, most importantly, controlling the university’s annual budget and setting tuition and fees.

Ex-Penn State prez sentenced to jail in connection with Sandusky abuse - A judge ordered the former president of Penn State behind bars, after upholding a conviction against him in connection with ignoring a complaint against prolific child abuser Jerry Sandusky.Graham Spanier was instructed to report to jail on July 9 to serve at least two months for his 2017 conviction of endangering the welfare of children. The decision was reversed by a federal judge over a legal technicality in 2019, and that reversal was overturned by an appeals court.Spanier, who was forced out of his role amid Sandusky’s dozens of child abuse charges, will also be required to serve two months of house arrest when he is released from the Centre County Correctional Facility.He was charged of not acting on a complaint from another coach who was disturbed by seeing Sandusky molest a young boy in the shower in 2012.Spanier said the abuse of the boy was described to him as horseplay, and he did not call the cops.In an email to other administrators at the time, he wrote: “the only downside for us is if the message isn’t ‘heard’ and acted upon, and we then become vulnerable for not having reported it.”

'Devout Catholic' Biden Bails On Notre Dame Commencement After 1000s Sign Petition Demanding No Invite --President Biden, a self-described 'devout Catholic,' will become the first US official in two decades not to attend Notre Dame's commencement ceremony, citing a 'scheduling conflict' according to the Catholic News Agency.The news comes after 4,600 "members of the Notre Dame community" signed a petition urging college president Fr. John Jenkins not to invite Biden - the second Roman Catholic president, over his stance on abortion, according to Fox News. Of note, Biden was told in February by US Archbishop Joseph Naumann to stop calling himself a 'devout catholic'over his pro-abortion views.Biden during the week delivered a commencement address at the Coast Guard Academy and spoke virtually at the commencement for Syracuse University, his law school alma mater. For the last three presidencies, either the president or vice president has attended the Notre Dame commencement their first year in office. President George W. Bush gave the commencement address in 2001, President Barack Obama gave the address in 2009 and Vice President Mike Pence spoke at the ceremony in 2017. Obama’s attendance drew backlash for similar reasons. -Fox NewsAccording to the petition, Biden should neither speak at the commencement, nor be given an honorary degree. The signatories say they are "dismayed by the pro-abortion and anti-religious liberty agenda of President Joe Biden," adding "He rejects Church teachings on abortion, marriage, sex and gender and is hostile to religious liberty. He embraces the most pro-abortion and anti-religious liberty public policy program in history. The case against honoring him is immeasurably stronger than it was against honoring President Obama."

 Michael Hudson: Why Biden Won’t Cancel Student Debt -- (video & transcript) Podcast: Play in new window | Download (66.8MB) Subscribe: Google Podcasts | Spotify | iHeartRadio | Email | Deezer | RSS | More   Paul Jay:: Hi, I’m Paul Jay. Welcome to theAnalysis.news. Thank you to everybody who has clicked the donate button and if you haven’t, maybe you might do it this time. If you’re watching on YouTube or our website, click the share button and subscribe and we’ll be back in a second with Michael Hudson.U.S. household debt climbed to a record high of $14.6 trillion at the end of 2020 as mortgage debt surpassed $10 trillion for the first time. Now, the GDP of the United States is only around $21 trillion. Americans owe over $1.71 trillion dollars in student loan debt spread out among 44.7 million borrowers. That’s about $739 billion more than the total U.S. credit card debt. While defaults and payments have been halted due to the pandemic, I’m talking now again about student debt, there’s no plan yet for forgiving such debt in spite of promises from Biden and many others in the Democratic Party. Biden said during a CNN town hall that he would not forgive $50,000 through executive action, as urged by Senator Schumer and Warren, Biden said, I’m prepared to write off the ten thousand dollars debt, but not the fifty thousand because I don’t think I have the authority to do it. Well, a group of 17 state attorneys general called on Biden to forgive $50,000 in student debt loans per borrower through executive action, asserting he does have the authority to do so under the Higher Education Act.On the other hand, beginning in mid-March 2020, the Federal Reserve initiated an aggressive policy of quantitative easing, which included the purchase of corporate bonds. Billions of dollars of corporate debt has been purchased by the Fed, mostly from major companies including Apple, AT&T, General Electric, Ford, Comcast, Microsoft and around 90 others, companies that probably didn’t even need their debt purchased. So the role of the state in forgiving debt is quite OK as long as it’s a major corporation and not a student. OK, I’ll admit the Fed policy is a little more complicated than I outlined, but the principle is clear. It’s not considered a systemic risk for corporations and banks to rely on the government to bail them out of debt, but it is a danger to the system for government to forgive family and student debt. Of course, it goes further than that. The system requires high levels of debt among the population for corporations and banks to continue to rake in massive profits and engorge the fortunes of the billionaire class.

Amazon indigenous group's lifestyle may hold a key to slowing down aging - A team of international researchers has found that the Tsimane indigenous people of the Bolivian Amazon experience less brain atrophy than their American and European peers. The decrease in their brain volumes with age is 70% slower than in Western populations. Accelerated brain volume loss can be a sign of dementia.Although people in industrialized nations have access to modern medical care, they are more sedentary and eat a diet high in saturated fats. In contrast, the Tsimane have little or no access to health care but are extremely physically active and consume a high-fiber diet that includes vegetables, fish and lean meat.The researchers note that the Tsimane have high levels of inflammation, which is typically associated with brain atrophy in Westerners. But their study suggests that high inflammation does not have a pronounced effect upon Tsimane brains.According to the study authors, the Tsimane's low cardiovascular risks may outweigh their infection-driven inflammatory risk, raising new questions about the causes of dementia. One possible reason is that, in Westerners, inflammation is associated with obesity and metabolic causes whereas, in the Tsimane, it is driven by respiratory, gastrointestinal, and parasitic infections. Infectious diseases are the most prominent cause of death among the Tsimane. "Our sedentary lifestyle and diet rich in sugars and fats may be accelerating the loss of brain tissue with age and making us more vulnerable to diseases such as Alzheimer's," said study author Hillard Kaplan, a professor of health economics and anthropology at Chapman University who has studied the Tsimane for nearly two decades. "The Tsimane can serve as a baseline for healthy brain aging."The indigenous Tsimane people captured scientists' -- and the world's -- attention when an earlier study found them to have extraordinarily healthy hearts in older age. That prior study, published by the Lancet in 2017, showed that Tsimane have the lowest prevalence of coronary atherosclerosis of any population known to science and that they have few cardiovascular disease risk factors. The very low rate of heart disease among the roughly 16,000 Tsimane is very likely related to their pre-industrial subsistence lifestyle of hunting, gathering, fishing, and farming.

117 employees sue Houston Methodist hospital for requiring COVID-19 vaccine - Over 100 employees have joined a lawsuit against Houston Methodist hospital in Texas for requiring all employees to get the COVID-19 vaccine.The network, which oversees eight hospitals and has more than 26,000 employees, gave workers a deadline of June 7 to get the vaccine. If not, staffers risk suspension and termination, according to the lawsuit.As a result, 117 employees have joined a lawsuit filed Friday in Montgomery County that alleges the hospital is "illegally requiring its employees to be injected with an experimental vaccine as a condition of employment."An American flag flies outside the Houston Methodist Hospital at the Texas Medical Center campus...Read MoreThe lawsuit cited that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued its first emergency use authorization for COVID-19 in December 2020, but thevaccines are awaiting full FDA approval and licensing, which will likelytake months for the agency to review additional data.The complaint cited that forcing employees to get the vaccine violates Nuremberg Code, a medical ethics code which bans forced medical experiments and mandates voluntary consent.Hospital CEO Dr. Marc Boom sent out a letter in April to staffers announcing that employees have to be vaccinated by June 7. "Please see the HR policy that outlines the consequences of not being compliant by June 7, which include suspension and eventually termination," the letter, which was included in the lawsuit, stated.Attorney Jared Woodfill, who filed the lawsuit, told ABC News that Houston Methodist is forcing employees to get the shot to boost the hospital's profits.

 Pandemic has fueled eating disorder surge in teens, adults - Many hospital beds are full. Waiting lists for outpatient treatment are bulging. And teens and adults seeking help for eating disorders are often finding it takes months to get an appointment. The pandemic created treacherous conditions for eating disorders, leading to a surge of new cases and relapses that is not abating as restrictions are loosened and COVID-19 cases subside in many places, doctors and other specialists say. “We are absolutely seeing massive increases,” said Jennifer Wildes, an associate psychiatry professor and director of an outpatient eating disorders program at the University of Chicago Medicine. Some patients are waiting four to five months to get treatment such as psychotherapy and sometimes medication. Waits usually lasted only a few weeks pre-pandemic, Wildes said. Her program is treating about 100 patients, a near doubling since before the pandemic, she said. The Emily Program, a University of Minnesota-affiliated eating disorders treatment program, is experiencing the same thing. Daily calls from people seeking treatment have doubled, from roughly 60 in 2019 to up to 130 since the pandemic began, said dietitian Jillian Lampert, the program’s chief strategy officer. ’’We know that anxiety and isolation are typically very significant components of eating disorders,” she said. Some patients say ’’my life feels out of control” because of the pandemic and they resort to binge eating as a coping mechanism, Lampert said. Others have taken the message ‘’don’t gain the pandemic 15’’ to the extreme, restricting their diets to the point of anorexia.

COVID testing’s value shrinks as vaccines beat back virus (AP) — Federal health officials’ new, more relaxed recommendations on masks have all but eclipsed another major change in guidance from the government: Fully vaccinated Americans can largely skip getting tested for the coronavirus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last week that most people who have received the full course of shots and have no COVID-19 symptoms don’t need to be screened for the virus, even if exposed to someone infected. The change represents a new phase in the epidemic after nearly a year in which testing was the primary weapon against the virus. Vaccines are now central to the response and have driven down hospitalizations and deaths dramatically. Experts say the CDC guidance reflects a new reality in which nearly half of Americans have received at least one shot and close to 40% are fully vaccinated. “At this point we really should be asking ourselves whether the benefits of testing outweigh the costs — which are lots of disruptions, lots of confusion and very little clinical or public health benefit,” said Dr. A. David Paltiel of Yale’s School of Public Health, who championed widespread testing at colleges last year.While vaccinated people can still catch the virus, they face little risk of serious illness from it. And positive test results can lead to what many experts now say are unnecessary worry and interruptions at work, home and school, such as quarantines and shutdowns. Other health specialists say the CDC’s abrupt changes on the need for masks and testing have sent the message that COVID-19 is no longer a major threat, even as the U.S. reports daily case counts of nearly 30,000. “The average Joe Public is interpreting what the CDC is saying as ‘This is done. It’s over,’”

Covid: Sniffer dogs could bolster screening at airports - Sniffer dogs could contribute to efforts to prevent the spread of Covid as society reopens, according to scientists. As part of a trial, dogs were trained to recognise a distinctive odour produced by people with the virus, but undetectable to the human nose. This could come in useful for screening at airports or mass events. But the dogs' findings would have to be confirmed by lab testing, the researchers said. Although the dogs correctly picked up 88% of coronavirus cases, they also incorrectly flagged 16% of people who didn't have Covid as having the virus. Dogs can have up to 100,000 times the smelling ability of humans and have long been used to sniff out drugs and explosives. Recent research has shown dogs - particularly breeds like spaniels and retrievers - can detect the unique scents of diseases including cancer, Parkinson's and malaria.As part of the current canine screening trial, six  dogs were trained to recognise the smell produced by people with Covid-19 using worn socks, face masks and t-shirts of various materials. They were rewarded with treats when they correctly identified whether the sample was from an individual who had tested positive or negative. Some of the people in the negative group had common cold viruses, to make sure the dogs were able to distinguish Covid from other respiratory infections. The dogs were able to sniff out the disease even when it was caused by different variants, and when the person had no symptoms or only had very low levels of the virus in their system.

Controversial ivermectin added to University of Minnesota COVID-19 drug trial -  The University of Minnesota is conducting the nation's first randomized trial of a controversial anti-parasite drug that has a fervent U.S. following and is being used on the black market against COVID-19 across the globe. Ivermectin is being added to an ongoing trial in which U researchers hope to find a rare outpatient therapy that can prevent infection with the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 from resulting in hospitalization, long-term complications or death. The research comes amid declining pandemic activity in Minnesota, where vaccinations have helped to cut the daily number of infections by half over the past two weeks and dropped the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations below 400 for the first time since late March. However, U researchers said treatments are needed in parts of the world where vaccine access is lacking and in pockets of the U.S. and Minnesota where refusal to get shots could result in localized outbreaks. "Not everybody has access to the vaccine, whereas these medications are existing generics, already FDA-approved, that are available in most pharmacies around the world," said Dr. Carolyn Bramante, a U internal medicine specialist leading the national trial. "If we find evidence of benefit, [the drugs] could be used immediately anywhere." U research already has shown possible benefits of metformin, usually used to manage diabetes, in reducing COVID-19 illness and death in women. But now researchers will compare its effectiveness against ivermectin as well as fluvoxamine, an antidepressant. The U started recruiting up to 1,100 patients 30 or older last week to receive one of the drugs, alone or in combination with metformin, or a non-medicating placebo for comparison. Effectiveness will primarily be measured by whether patients suffer hypoxia — severe oxygen deficiency. Proven medications against COVID-19 have been lacking, especially those that could be used on an outpatient basis to prevent severe illness. The U was among the first to test hydroxychloroquine — an antiviral championed last year by former President Donald Trump and his supporters — only to conclude that it didn't substantially prevent infection or symptom onset. Ivermectin has been advocated by a handful of U.S. medical groups and believers, and by some in India, South Africa and other countries in the absence of vaccine. No large clinical trials have proved effectiveness, though, and manufacturer Merck issued a statement in February discouraging its clinical use against COVID-19. The FDA also discourages use of the drug outside of a study.

U.S. CDC looking into heart inflammation in some young vaccine recipients - Some teenagers and young adults who received Covid vaccines experienced heart inflammation, a US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention advisory group said, recommending further study of the rare condition. The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunisation Practices in a statement dated May 17 said it had looked into reports that a few young vaccine recipients - predominantly male, adolescents and young adults - developed myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle. The condition often goes away without complications and can be caused by a variety of viruses, the CDC group said. CDC monitoring systems had not found more cases than would be expected in the population, but members of the committee on vaccinations felt that healthcare providers should be made aware of the reports of the "potential adverse event", the committee said. It did not say how many people had been affected and recommended further investigation. Dr Amesh Adalja, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Centre for Health Security, said vaccines are known to cause myocarditis and it would be important to monitor to see if it is causally related to the vaccine. It is important to look at the risk-benefit ratio, he said: "Vaccines are going to unequivocally be much more beneficial outweighing this very low, if conclusively established, risk." The CDC said the cases typically occurred within four days after receiving the mRNA vaccines. It did not specify which vaccines. The United States has given emergency authorisation to two mRNA vaccines, from Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech. Israel's Health Ministry in April said it was examining a small number of cases of heart inflammation in people who had received Pfizer's vaccine, although it had not yet drawn any conclusions. Most of the cases in Israel were reported among people up to age 30. Pfizer at the time said it had not observed a higher rate of the condition than would normally be the case in the general population and that a causal link to the vaccine had not been established. Pfizer and Moderna did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Saturday.

COVID-19 increases rate of heart attacks in people at genetic risk for heart disease - Individuals with genetic high cholesterol, heart disease or both, who were infected with COVID-19 had more heart attacks according to new research by the FH Foundation. While previous studies have speculated about poorer outcomes if a person with genetic high cholesterol - called familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) contracts COVID-19, this study from the FH Foundation's national healthcare database is the first to demonstrate higher heart attack rates in the real world. Published online in the American Journal of Preventive Cardiology, the study also importantly confirms that COVID-19 increases heart attack rates in individuals with established atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD). The FH Foundation performed an analysis of 55,412,462 individuals, separating groups into six matched cohorts including diagnosed FH, probable FH, and ASCVD, with and without COVID-19 infection (as identified by the U07.1 ICD-10 code). The researchers found that rates of heart attacks were highest in those with a COVID-19 diagnosis and the presence of diagnosed FH or probable FH with known ASCVD. "These results are significant because these data underscore the importance of understanding if individuals have underlying cardiovascular disease or genetic high cholesterol when treating for COVID-19 infection or considering vaccination," said Kelly Myers, study author and chief technology officer of the FH Foundation. Familial hypercholesterolemia is a common genetic condition that increases an individual's risk for cardiovascular disease by up to 20-fold due to lifelong elevated low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels. Today, only 10% of the 1.3 million Americans with FH are diagnosed, due to lack of awareness in the medical community and public."Probable FH" individuals with pre-existing ASCVD who contracted COVID had heart attacks at a seven-times greater annual rate than their counterparts who did not contract the virus (AIDR 15.4% vs 2.1% p-value <0.002)." "The highest heart attack rates occurred in individuals infected with COVID-19 who had preexisting cardiovascular disease and were flagged by the FIND FH model as probable FH. We speculate that because these individuals have yet to receive an FH diagnosis, they may not be receiving appropriate lipid lowering treatment placing them at significantly higher risk,"

Caught Red-Handed: CDC Changes Test Thresholds To Virtually Eliminate New COVID Cases Among Vaxx'd -The US Center for Disease Control (CDC) is altering its practices of data logging and testing for “Covid19” in order to make it seem the experimental gene-therapy “vaccines” are effective at preventing the alleged disease.They made no secret of this, announcing the policy changes on their website in late April/early May, (though naturally without admitting the fairly obvious motivation behind the change).The trick is in their reporting of what they call “breakthrough infections” – that is people who are fully “vaccinated” against Sars-Cov-2 infection, but get infected anyway.Firstly, they are lowering their CT value when testing samples from suspected “breakthrough infections”.From the CDC’s instructions for state health authorities on handling “possible breakthrough infections” (uploaded to their website in late April):For cases with a known RT-PCR cycle threshold (Ct) value, submit only specimens with Ct value ≤28 to CDC for sequencing. (Sequencing is not feasible with higher Ct values.)Throughout the pandemic, CT values in excess of 35 have been the norm, with labs around the world going into the 40s.Essentially labs were running as many cycles as necessary to achieve a positive result, despite experts warning that this was pointless (even Fauci himself said anything over 35 cycles is meaningless).But NOW, and only for fully vaccinated people, the CDC will only accept samples achieved from 28 cycles or fewer. That can only be a deliberate decision in order to decrease the number of “breakthrough infections” being officially recorded.Secondly, asymptomatic or mild infections will no longer be recorded as “covid cases”. That’s right. Even if a sample collected at the low CT value of 28 can be sequenced into the virus alleged to cause Covid19, the CDC will no longer be keeping records of breakthrough infections that don’t result in hospitalisation or death.

Abandonment of health measures threatens US COVID-19 resurgence - On May 13, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reversed its guidance on mask-wearing, urging vaccinated people to stop wearing masks and socially distancing in crowded areas. The World Socialist Web Site, in line with the statements of leading epidemiologists, warned that these guidelines would trigger businesses, states and municipalities to remove all masking and social distancing requirements for vaccinated and unvaccinated people alike. These warnings have been confirmed. Nearly every major retailer in the United States, including Walmart, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods and Walgreens, abandoned nationwide masking requirements within days of the CDC’s ruling, with no mechanism to verify whether those walking into their facilities are vaccinated or not. National Guard members assisting with processing COVID-19 deaths and placing them into temporary storage at LA County Medical Examiner-Coroner Office in Los Angeles, Jan. 12, 2021. (LA County Dept. of Medical Examiner-Coroner via AP) Epidemiologists and workplace safety experts have vocally condemned the CDC’s action. “It’s such a mess! So many of us are really upset. It is incredibly frustrating!” Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding, Senior Fellow at the Federation of American Scientists, told the World Socialist Web Site last week. “Inevitably, now state after state and business after business is saying you don’t need to wear your masks if you are vaccinated.” From the beginning of the pandemic, workplaces have been a central source of transmission and broader outbreaks. The removal of any restrictions, under conditions in which nearly two-thirds of the population is not fully vaccinated, will lead to an increase in cases and deaths. Over 500 people continue to die every single day from the disease in the United States. This translates to a death rate of 15,000 every month, or 182,500 every year. The fact that hundreds of people are dying every single day from a disease that could be stopped through aggressive public health measures is treated as a non-event in the media. When the official US death toll crossed 600,000, the media simply ignored the milestone, just like it downplayed last week’s report by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation that the real death toll in the country is actually closer to one million.

 Immunity to the Coronavirus May Persist for Years, Scientists Find - Important immune cells survive in the bone marrow of people who were infected with the virus or were inoculated against it, new research suggests. Immunity to the coronavirus lasts at least a year, possibly a lifetime, improving over time especially after vaccination, according to two new studies. The findings may help put to rest lingering fears that protection against the virus will be short-lived. Together, the studies suggest that most people who have recovered from Covid-19 and who were later immunized will not need boosters. Vaccinated people who were never infected most likely will need the shots, however, as will a minority who were infected but did not produce a robust immune response. Both reports looked at people who had been exposed to the coronavirus about a year earlier. Cells that retain a memory of the virus persist in the bone marrow and may churn out antibodies whenever needed, according to one of the studies, published on Monday in the journal Nature. The other study, posted online at BioRxiv, a site for biology research, found that these so-called memory B cells continue to mature and strengthen for at least 12 months after the initial infection. “The papers are consistent with the growing body of literature that suggests that immunity elicited by infection and vaccination for SARS-CoV-2 appears to be long-lived,” said Scott Hensley, an immunologist at the University of Pennsylvania who was not involved in the research. The studies may soothe fears that immunity to the virus is transient, as is the case with coronaviruses that cause common colds. But those viruses change significantly every few years, Dr. Hensley said. “The reason we get infected with common coronaviruses repetitively throughout life might have much more to do with variation of these viruses rather than immunity,” he said. In fact, memory B cells produced in response to infection with SARS-CoV-2 and enhanced with vaccination are so potent that they thwart even variants of the virus, negating the need for boosters, according to Michel Nussenzweig, an immunologist at Rockefeller University in New York who led the study on memory maturation. “People who were infected and get vaccinated really have a terrific response, a terrific set of antibodies, because they continue to evolve their antibodies,” Dr. Nussenzweig said. “I expect that they will last for a long time.” The result may not apply to protection derived from vaccines alone, because immune memory is likely to be organized differently after immunization, compared with that following natural infection. That means people who have not had Covid-19 and have been immunized may eventually need a booster shot, Dr. Nussenzweig said. “That’s the kind of thing that we will know very, very soon,” he said.

Johns Hopkins Prof: Half Of Americans Have Natural Immunity; Dismissing It Is "Biggest Failure Of Medical Leadership" - A professor with the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine has said that there is a general dismissal of the fact that more than half of all Americans have developed natural immunity to the coronavirus and that it constitutes “one of the biggest failures of our current medical leadership.”Dr. Marty Makary made the comments during a recent interview, noting that “natural immunity works” and it is wrong to vilify those who don’t want the vaccine because they have already recovered from the virus.Makary criticised “the most slow, reactionary, political CDC in American history” for not clearly communicating the scientific facts about natural immunity compared to the kind of immunity developed through vaccines.“There is more data on natural immunity than there is on vaccinated immunity, because natural immunity has been around longer,” Makary emphasised.“We are not seeing reinfections, and when they do happen, they’re rare. Their symptoms are mild or are asymptomatic,” the professor added.“Please, ignore the CDC guidance,” he urged, adding “Live a normal life, unless you are unvaccinated and did not have the infection, in which case you need to be careful.”“We’ve got to start respecting people who choose not to get the vaccine instead of demonizing them,” Makary further asserted.

Moderna Warns New Waves of Covid-19 Are Coming | Barron's - Moderna scientists and executives laid out their plans to combat new strains of the virus that causes Covid-19 at a virtual investor event on Thursday, saying that new waves of the epidemic are on their way.“As the virus spreads, it is rapidly mutating,” the company’s chief scientific officer, Melissa Moore, said on the call. “Some of these new viral strains appear to be even more transmissible than the original strain… We already know that some of these new strains are less susceptible to neutralization by our current vaccine.”

US Daily COVID Cases Dip To Lowest Level In Over A Year -- The United States reported the lowest number of daily coronavirus cases in more than a year on Sunday. With 13541 new infections reporting in the last 24 hours, the total number of cases in the country has risen to 33,896,660, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University. Such lower daily figures were reported at the beginning stages of the pandemic in the U.S. Likewise, 228 COVID-related deaths reported in the same period was the lowest in a year. It took the national total to 604,087. As usual, the lower COVID metrics at the weekend are attributed to lag in reporting from states. A total of 27,502,255 people have so far recovered from coronavirus infection in the country. These encouraging signs of COVID-19 metrics are directly related to the impact of vaccines, top health officials say. "Across the country, cases of Covid-19, serious illness and loss of life are all down dramatically," White House senior Covid-19 adviser Andy Slavitt said during a briefing. He stressed the need of keeping up the pace of vaccinations to bring down the numbers even further and to mitigate the risk of a future pandemic wave. 

COVID Cases, Deaths In US Comparatively Lower - The United States reported comparatively lower number of daily coronaviruscases and deaths on Monday.With 19866 new infections reporting in the last 24 hours, the total number of cases in the country has risen to 33,922,937, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University.Such lower daily figures were reported at the beginning stages of the pandemic in the U.S.325 COVID-related deaths reported in the same period took the national total to 604,416.A total of 27,563,930 people have so far recovered from coronavirus infection in the country. Providing an update on the Biden administration's wartime COVID-19 response, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that the United States is averaging about 24,000 coronavirus cases per day, down from nearly 184,000 cases per day when President Joe Biden took office. And daily death rate has dropped nearly 85 percent since January 20.

Patterns from a Year of Covid Data - The Incidental Economist (video with Dr Aaron Carroll)  Now that we’ve been dealing with Covid-19 for over a year, we have a lot of information to help us understand the kinds of patterns that have emerged.

May 24th COVID-19 New Cases, Vaccinations; Hospitalizations Finally Below Post-Summer Surge Low -According to the CDC, on Vaccinations. Total administered: 286,890,900, as of yesterday 285,720,586. Day: 1.17 million.  (U.S. Capacity is around 4 million per day)
1) 61.5% of the population over 18 has had at least one dose (70% is the goal by July 4th).
2) 130.6 million Americans are fully vaccinated (160 million goal by July 4th)
And check out COVID Act Now to see how each state is doing.  Over 12,000 US deaths were reported so far in May due to COVID.This graph shows the daily (columns) 7 day average (line) of positive tests reported.This data is from the CDC. The 7-day average is 22,877, down from 23,834 yesterday, and down sharply from the recent peak of 69,881 on April 13, 2021. This is the lowest since June 14, 2020.The second graph shows the number of people hospitalized.This data is also from the CDC.The CDC cautions that due to reporting delays, the area in grey will probably increase. The current 7-day average is 22,744, down from 23,917 reported yesterday, and finally below the post-summer surge low of 23,000.

Less Than One Million Vaccinations Reported In Most Recent 24-Hour Period -- May 25, 2021 --CDC data here.  (see table) Column 6: number of vaccinations given in previous 24 hours, CDC data. Column 6 is derived from delta, column 3.  Most recent 24-hour period, report dated Tuesday, May 25, 2021: only 897,972 doses administered. 

Shuttered hospitals, soaring Covid-19 deaths: Rural Black communities lose a lifeline in the century’s worst health crisis -Latasha Taylor’s mom, 62, was the third member of her family to die of Covid-19; the virus also took her aunt and uncle. Friends tell Taylor she’s strong, but she doesn’t feel that way. “If you had to, you would do what I did,” she said. “Bury your whole family.”This tragedy was only made worse by institutional failings: All three relatives ended up in different, far-off hospitals across southwest Georgia. Early in the pandemic, the hospital nearest Taylor’s house stopped accepting Covid-19 patients, and then, in the middle of the worst public health crisis this century, it shut for good.A larger hospital managed by the same group, Phoebe Putney Health System,received $89.7 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services provider relief fund during the pandemic. But the company said it was unable to develop a financial plan for its more rural location, which needed $10 million to upgrade and renovate the facility.Without a nearby hospital, several residents said their loved ones delayed getting care when they fell ill with what they thought might be Covid. They lacked an easy place to go for rapid tests, missing out on crucial early diagnoses. And, with the next closest hospital overwhelmed, many were forced to drive more than an hour to seek treatment. Taylor’s mother stayed at home for several days, questioning if her symptoms were bad enough to warrant a trip to the hospital. If there was good care nearby, said Taylor, she would have gone in sooner.While it’s not possible to draw a direct line from the closing of the hospital in Cuthbert to the Taylor family’s losses, this much is clear: In the two counties, Randolph and Terrell, that depended on the hospital, 1 in every 200 people has died from Covid-19, a death rate 2.8 times higher than in Georgia as a whole.The abrupt withdrawal of care that affected this rural corner of Georgia has played out across the United States. A record 19 rural hospitals closed in 2020, according to research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill — more than in any other year. Communities close to these shuttered hospitals similarly experienced disproportionate fatalities, according to a STAT analysis: Covid-19 death rates in counties where hospitals closed were 37% higher than in their states overall.Looking at the most rural counties — those with fewer than 50,000 residents and at least 50 miles from a major city — the death rates were 66% higher than in their states. Seven of the eight hospital closures in counties where the fatality rate was at least 80% higher than their state’s were in such rural counties.

Woman Protests COVID-19 Vaccine By Speeding Car Through Vaccination Site - An east Tennessee woman has been charged with seven counts of felony reckless endangerment after allegedly driving her car through a COVID-19 vaccination site as an apparent protest against the vaccine.Members of the Blount County Sheriff’s Office arrested Virginia C. Brown on Monday morning after deputies working at the site saw her drive an SUV through a closed cone course and into an enclosed tent where several health department and national guard personnel were working, according to WSMV TV.Workers at the tent told officers that Brown’s vehicle almost hit seven people in the tent, according to the Blount County Daily Times.Witnesses said Brown yelled “no vaccine” during her ride, and several witnesses told deputies they thought that the driver was going to kill them, according to a sheriff’s report.A deputy who witnessed the incident eventually performed a traffic stop on Brown, WVLT TV reported. He arrested her and drove her to the Blount County Detention Facility. She continued making anti-vaccine statements on the way to the facility.Brown  claimed she was only going five miles an hour. The sheriff’s office said she drove her car through the tent at a “high speed.”

 Covid-19 Update -- May 27, 2021 --- CDC data here.Lowest number of vaccinations administered for a Thursday report, going back to February 18, 2021 (last column / column 6).It was reported that only 1.5 million vaccinations were give in the most recent Thursday, 24-hour report. That is the lowest since February 18, 2021.  The highest for a Thursday was April 15, 3.5 million vaccinations given. After that, continued decrease. Note: the "JNJ pause" was announced April 13, 2021.

 May 29 data: Four more Utahns killed by COVID-19 (KUTV) — Utah counted four more people killed by COVID-19 as three women and a man — none hospitalized — added to the state's total of 2,301 fatalities from the coronavirus.One of those killed is a woman between 25 and 44 in Iron County, an age category that has the highest infection rate but suffered a .6 mortality rate per 1,000 cases. Utah reports 144,182 cases in the 25 to 44 age range and 87 deaths. Those in this age range often passed the virus to higher-risk patients, according to Utah health officials.Another woman was killed from the same Iron County, a resident taken by the disease who was between 64 and 84 who was a resident in a long-term care facility.Another woman of the same age group, 64 to 84 died in Utah County and a man between 45 and 54 was killed in Salt Lake County. Two of those killed died before May 1 but were not reported to be from COVID-19 while their deaths were investigated. The Utah Department of Health investigates deaths in the state, COVID-19 and otherwise.The state's infection rates numbers have fallen but hospitalizations has remained relatively stable. A lagging statistic, hospitalizations and deaths follow infections by several weeks or even months. A full account of the day's COVID-19 data is below in this story.Just in time for Memorial Day weekend, more U.S. cities and states are shrugging off lingering COVID-19 restrictions as vaccination rates rise and the number of infections falls. Europe is also seeing a drastic drop in infections, just in time for summer travel.In Utah's fully vaccinated population, there has been one death from COVID- 19. At press time Utah counts 1,481,372 people with at least one COVID-19 vaccination with 2,582,400 administered.

Ohio coronavirus numbers: 585 new cases, 51 hospitalizations reported (WJW) — The Ohio Department of Health released the state’s latest coronavirusnumbers Saturday afternoon. There have been 1,101,557 total confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 in the state since the pandemic began, which includes an addition of 585 cases reported Saturday, along with a total of 19,861 deaths (including zero additional fatalities reported Saturday).Death statistics are no longer being reported daily for accuracy purposes, ODH said. The total number of hospitalizations because of the virus since the pandemic began is now 59,144 people. There were 51 hospitalizations reported in the last 24 hours, and 4 people were reported admitted to the ICU during that time.About 1,062,897 people are presumed to have recovered from the illness in the state.Here are the Ohio counties with the most coronavirus cases:

• Franklin: 127,818
• Cuyahoga: 114,852
• Hamilton: 80,915
• Montgomery: 52,227
• Summit: 48,087

The number of people vaccinated in the state so far is 5,228,812 or about 45.25% of the population. That number includes people who have gotten one or two shots so far. In the last 24 hours, 21,420 people received a shot in the state. The first Vax-a-Million winners were announced Wednesday and the next winners will be announced June 2. You have until Sunday, May 30 at 11:59 p.m. to enter, if you haven’t yet done so.

Singapore Approves Covid Breath Test That Gives Immediate Result  -A breath test designed to detect Covid-19 and give accurate results within one minute has been approved for use in Singapore, the National University of Singapore said in a statement. The test, developed by NUS spin-off startup Breathonix, works much like a standard breathalyzer test that police might use to see if an erratic driver is drunk. A person blows into a one-way valve mouthpiece, and compounds in the person’s breath -- think of it as a breath signature -- are compared by machine-learning software to the sort of breath signature expected from someone who’s Covid-positive.Accurate tests at that speed could be key to unlocking a travel sector that’s crucial for Singapore’s economy but has slowed to a crawl during the pandemic. Even as the U.S. and parts of Europe begin to reopen with higher viral caseloads, Singapore and other “Covid-Zero” countries in Asia have been hesitant to open borders and have cracked down harshly on any sign of flare-ups.

 More than 30 countries could face oxygen crises similar to India amid COVID-19 surges -As COVID-19 cases surge in many countries, several could face oxygen shortages similar to India's.The "key indicator" of a looming crisis is often not how much oxygen is needed at the moment, but how swiftly demand is rising, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism reports. The Bureau looked at Laos as an example. The southeast Asian nation's current oxygen need is modest at 2,124 cubic meters per day, but that's a "nearly 200-fold increase from mid-March."All told, data collected by the Bureau shows that more than 30 countries, including Fiji, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Mongolia, Angola, and Kyrgyzstan, now need at least twice as much oxygen — one of the most crucial treatments for severe COVID-19 infections — as they did two months ago. Activists told the Bureau the trend could lead to the "total collapse of health systems" in lower- to middle-income countries. Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar could be particularly vulnerable because they rely on Indian-made oxygen and equipment. "You'd imagine if they start to see peaks [in infections] of the same degree [as India], then it could be even worse, because India needs all the [oxygen] supply," said Zachary Katz, the vice president of essential medicines at the Clinton Health Access Initiative. Read more at The Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

  “We’re cannon fodder, that’s all”—Indian health care workers cry out for basic PPE as official deaths skyrocket past 300,000 - A nightmare scenario continues to unfold in India where, according to the official count, more than two people are dying from COVID-19 every minute. On Sunday, the world’s second most populous country hit the grim milestone of 300,000 official deaths, joining the United States and Brazil as the only countries to surpass this figure. Last week, on May 19, India reached another somber milestone, when it officially recorded 4,529 COVID-19 deaths, surpassing the 4,475 deaths reported in the US on January 12 and setting a new one-day global record. However, India’s actual death toll from the country’s devastating second wave, which has seen total cases rise by more than 14 million to 26.8 million since April 1, is estimated to be five to ten times higher than the official tally, meaning COVID-19 is currently killing tens of thousands of Indians each day. Family members return after performing last rites of a person who died of COVID-19 at a crematorium that uses compressed natural gas (CNG) in New Delhi, India, Monday, May 24, 2021. (AP Photo/Ishant Chauhan) As hospitals fill up, hundreds of thousands of very ill people have no access to beds, antiviral drugs, and medical oxygen. Overwhelmed and understaffed hospitals have allowed relatives of patients to fill in for nurses, where they try to find oxygen, and when conditions become worse, another hospital with an ICU bed or a ventilator. The cramped conditions this entails have made even the best hospitals in India vectors for the transmission of the virus. Doctors and junior trainee doctors are routinely faced with the grim task of determining which patients get access to IVS beds, oxygen, ventilators and life-saving drugs—determining, in effect, who gets a chance to live and who dies. Rohan Aggarwal, a 26 year-old unvaccinated junior doctor who has been drafted to treat patients at the Holy Family Hospital, New Delhi, described the harrowing ordeal faced by doctors: “We are not made for that—we are just humans. But at this point in time, we are being made to do this.” Health care workers are working in extremely crowded hospitals, where there may be two patients to a single bed, and the patients who are refused entry die outside in trolleys. Doctors and nurses have been crying out for personal protective equipment (PPE), an urgent necessity to prevent infection and death for both patients and themselves. Calls for basic, minimal protection for health care workers have gone unheeded by India’s far-right Narendra Modi-led government. Following an angry Twitter post declaring “raincoats are not adequate,” after his hospital provided raincoats instead of medical grade PPE, Dr. Indranil Khan, an oncologist in Kolkata was detained by authorities for more than a day, and only released after recanting his criticism.

Indian Covid-19 variant has spread to at least 53 territories worldwide, says WHO -- The coronavirus variant first detected in India has now been officially recorded in 53 territories, a World Health Organization report showed Wednesday.Additionally, the WHO has received information from unofficial sources that the B.1.617 variant has been found in seven other territories, figures in the UN health agency's weekly epidemiological update showed, taking the total to 60.The report said B.1.617 had shown increased transmissibility, while disease severity and risk of infection were under investigation.Globally over the past week, the number of new cases and deaths continued to decrease, with around 4.1 million new cases and 84,000 new deaths reported -- a 14 percent and two percent decrease respectively compared to the previous week.The WHO's European region reported the largest decline in new cases and deaths in the past seven days, followed by the southeast Asia region.The numbers of cases reported by the Americas, Eastern Mediterranean, Africa, and the Western Pacific region were similar to those reported in the previous week."Despite a declining global trend over the past four weeks, incidence of Covid-19 cases and deaths remain high, and substantial increases have been observed in many countries throughout the world," the document said.The highest numbers of new cases in the past seven days were reported from India (1,846,055 -- down 23 percent); Brazil (451,424 -- up three percent); Argentina (213,046 -- up 41 percent), the United States (188,410 -- down 20 percent), and Colombia (107,590 -- down seven percent).The update gave information on the four mutations classed as variants of concern: those first reported in Britain (B.1.1.7), South Africa (B.1.351), Brazil (P.1) and India (B.1.617).When counting up the total number of territories reporting each variant, the WHO added together those from which it had official and unofficial information.B.1.1.7 has now been reported in 149 territories; B.1.351 in 102 territories and P.1 in 59 territories.The WHO split up figures for the B.1.617 variant into three lineages (B.1.617.1, B.1.617.2 and B.1.617.3).The first has been reported in a total of 41 territories, the second in 54 and the third in six: Britain, Canada, Germany, India, Russia and the United States.Together, lineages of the B.1.617 variant were officially recorded in 53 territories and unofficially in another seven.The update also listed six variants of interest that are being monitored.

 HCQ to Ivermectin: Why India has got it wrong in Covid-19 treatment --On May 8, The Lancet, one of the world’s most respected medical journals, wrote a scathing editorial that tore into India’s vaccination strategy and the government for ignoring warnings of the second wave. It called for the implementation of a “public health response that has science at its heart”. The very same day, India’s regulator, the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), green-lighted an emergency use authorisation for 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG), a drug developed by the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) in collaboration with Hyderabad-based pharma company Dr Reddy’s Laboratories.The drug “helps in faster recovery of hospitalised patients and reduces supplemental oxygen dependence,” said a statement by the Ministry of Defence, adding that 2-DG will be of “immense benefit” to people suffering from Covid-19. The drug was then jointly launched on May 17 by Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, who called the drug a potential game changer.Two days later on May 19, however, the drug was left out of the revised national treatment protocol for Covid-19 that was released by the health ministry and prepared by experts at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). The guidelines are divided into three parts based on the severity of the Covid-19 disease. 2-DG also did not feature in the clinical management protocols updated by the health ministry on May 24. Samiran Panda, head of epidemiology and communicable diseases at ICMR, told Forbes India that experts are still studying data and evidence for the drug and that “regulatory approval is different from practice”.By this time, however, there are several social media posts by patients requesting help to procure the drug as their doctors had prescribed it to them as part of their Covid-19 treatment. “Nobody knows why 2-DG was authorised,” says Dr Satyanarayana Mysore, HOD and consultant—pulmonology, lung transplant physician at Manipal Hospitals. “There are videos floating around on social media where the patient was administered 2-DG and recovered from Covid, which is an unbelievable claim and should be curbed.” Instead of this, he explains, what is needed is public scientific and peer-reviewed articles, or even preliminary studies, that provide evidence of the safety and efficacy of the drug.

Vietnam detects hybrid of Indian and UK COVID-19 variants  (Reuters) -Authorities in Vietnam have detected a new coronavirus variant that is a combination of the Indian and UK COVID-19 variants and spreads quickly by air, the health minister said on Saturday. After successfully containing the virus for most of last year, Vietnam is grappling with a rise in infections since late April that accounts for more than half of the total 6,856 registered cases. So far, there have been 47 deaths. "Vietnam has uncovered a new COVID-19 variant combining characteristics of the two existing variants first found in India and the UK," Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long said, describing it as a hybrid of the two known variants. "That the new one is an Indian variant with mutations that originally belong to the UK variant is very dangerous," he told a government meeting, a recording of which was obtained by Reuters. The Southeast Asian country had previously detected seven virus variants: B.1.222, B.1.619, D614G, B.1.1.7 - known as the UK variant, B.1.351, A.23.1 and B.1.617.2 - the "Indian variant". Long said Vietnam would soon publish genome data of the newly identified variant, which he said was more transmissible than the previously known types. The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified four variants of SARS-CoV-2 of global concern. These include variants that emerged first in India, Britain, South Africa and Brazil. "At the present time, we have not yet made an assessment of the virus variant reported in Vietnam," Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO Technical Lead for COVID-19, said in an emailed statement. "Our country office is working with the Ministry of Health in Vietnam and we expect more information soon." From the WHO's current understanding, the variant detected in Vietnam was the B.1.617.2 variant, more commonly known as the Indian variant, possibly with an additional mutation, she said. "However we will provide more information as soon as we receive it," Van Kerkhove added.

‘Lions led by donkeys’: Johnson damned over COVID as unfit for office - Up to 8,700 patients died after catching Covid-19 while in hospital being treated for another medical problem, according to official NHS data obtained by the Guardian. The figures, which were provided by the hospitals themselves, were described as “horrifying” by relatives of those who died. Jeremy Hunt, the former health secretary, said that hospital-acquired Covid “remains one of the silent scandals of this pandemic, causing many thousands of avoidable deaths”. NHS leaders and senior doctors have long claimed hospitals have struggled to stop Covid spreading because of shortages of single rooms, a lack of personal protective equipment and an inability to test staff and patients early in the pandemic. Now, official figures supplied by NHS trusts in England show that 32,307 people have probably or definitely contracted the disease while in hospital since March 2020 – and 8,747 of them died. That means that almost three in 10 (27.1%) of those infected that way lost their lives within 28 days. “The NHS has done us all proud over the past year, but these new figures are devastating and pose challenging questions on whether the right hospital infection controls were in place”, said Hunt, who chairs the Commons health and social care select committee.  The responses show that every trust had to grapple with what doctors callnosocomial or hospital-acquired infection. Many hospitals were unable to keep Covid-positive patients separate from those without the disease, which led to its lethal transmission. According to the FoI responses, University Hospitals Birmingham trust had the highest number of deaths (408), followed by Nottingham University Hospitals (279) and Frimley Health (259). Nine trusts had 200 or more deaths.

Up to 8,700 patients died after catching Covid in English hospitals -Tens of thousands of people died because of incompetence, indecision and neglect by Boris Johnson and his government, the Prime Minister’s former chief adviser has declared during evidence about Britain’s chaotic handling of the pandemic.Dominic Cummings – a key force behind Brexit and Johnson’s thumping 2019 election win – savaged his ex-boss during seven hours of damning testimony on Wednesday which sent Downing Street into damage control.“When the public needed us most, the government failed,” Cummings said. “Tens of thousands of people died who didn’t need to die.”Cummings confirmed a frustrated Johnson once said he would rather see “bodies pile high in their thousands” than order a second lockdown over winter - a remark the Prime Minister has repeatedly denied making.However, Johnson did not deny on Wednesday that he quipped COVID-19 was “only killing over 80s”.   UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s former chief aide Dominic Cummings says the government “failed” the British people in its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.Appearing before a parliamentary inquiry into what went wrong during the initial outbreak in early 2020 and the second deadly wave over Christmas, Cummings also claimed:

• Johnson once thought coronavirus was like swine flu and suggested that he be injected live on television to prove COVID-19 wasn’t dangerous;
• as the pandemic took hold in Italy, the Prime Minister was distracted by negotiations over his divorce and plans by girlfriend Carrie Symonds to announce her pregnancy;
• the UK’s most senior civil servant urged the government to liken COVID-19 to chicken pox and floated the idea of mass infection parties to help build herd immunity; and
• Johnson expressed regret about ordering the first lockdown and told colleagues he wished he had instead behaved like the mayor in the filmJaws, who insisted the beaches remain open.

Nearly 130,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the United Kingdom.

Saudi Arabia lifts quarantine requirement for COVID vaccinated foreign visitors (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia announced on Sunday that foreign visitors arriving by air from most countries will no longer need to quarantine if they have been vaccinated against COVID-19. Visitors from 20 other countries - including the United States, India, Britain, Germany, France and the United Arab Emirates - remain banned from entering the kingdom, however, under measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The civil aviation authority (GACA) said that from May 20 non-Saudi visitors arriving in the kingdom from eligible countries by air who are fully vaccinated, or have had COVID-19 and recovered, will no longer have to spend seven days in government-approved hotels as long as they provide an official vaccination certificate upon arrival. Currently, all travellers coming into the kingdom need to quarantine for a period of seven to 14 days depending on the countries where they are coming from, and provide negative PCR tests. Under the new rules, anyone over the age of eight years old who is not vaccinated must quarantine on arrival in Saudi Arabia for seven days at their own expense as of May 20 and provide a negative PCR test on the sixth day of their arrival, GACA said. They must also provide a valid health insurance policy to cover potential risks from COVID-19. They will also need to provide a negative PCR test taken no later than 72 hours before boarding their flight to the kingdom. Separately, the Saudi ministry of interior announced that Saudi citizens are still banned from travelling to 13 countries through direct or indirect flights without prior permission form authorities due to COVID-19 risks. The countries are: Libya, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Iran, Turkey, Armenia, Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, Belarus, and India.

Wuhan lab staff sought hospital care before COVID-19 outbreak disclosed – WSJ  (Reuters) - Three researchers from China's Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) sought hospital care in November 2019, a month before China reported the first cases of COVID-19, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing a U.S. intelligence report. The newspaper said the previously undisclosed report - which provides fresh details on the number of researchers affected, the timing of their illnesses, and their hospital visits - may add weight to calls for a broader investigation into whether the COVID-19 virus could have escaped from the laboratory. The Journal said current and former officials familiar with the intelligence expressed a range of views about the strength of the report's supporting evidence, with one unnamed person saying it needed "further investigation and additional corroboration." The first cases of what would eventually be known as COVID-19 were reported at the end of December 2019 in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the advanced laboratory specialising in coronavirus research is located. Chinese scientists and officials have consistently rejected the lab leak hypothesis, saying SARS-CoV-2 could have been circulating in other regions before it hit Wuhan, and might have even entered China from another country via imported frozen food shipments or wildlife trading. China's foreign ministry spokesman, Zhao Lijian, said on Monday that it was "completely untrue" that three members of staff at WIV had fallen ill. "The United States continues to hype up the lab leak theory," he said. "Does it care about traceability or is it just trying to distract attention?" The Journal report came on the eve of a meeting of the World Health Organization's decision-making body, which is expected to discuss the next phase of an investigation into the origins of COVID-19. Asked about the report, WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said via email that the organisation's technical teams were now deciding on the next steps. He said further study was needed into the role of animal markets as well as the lab leak hypothesis. A U.S. National Security Council spokeswoman had no comment on the report but said the Biden administration continued to have "serious questions about the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic, including its origins within the Peoples Republic of China."

Explosive study claims to prove Chinese scientists created COVID --A bombshell new study claims to have proof that Chinese scientists created COVID-19in a lab and then tried to reverse-engineer versions of the virus to make it look like it evolved naturally from bats.British Professor Angus Dalgleish and Norwegian scientist Dr. Birger Sørensen wrote they’ve had primary evidence "of retro-engineering in China" since last year, but were ignored by academics and major medical journals, The Daily Mail reported Saturday, citing the soon-to-be-published study.The study concludes: "the likelihood of it being the result of natural processes is very small." The virus is still killing 12,000 people a day around the world.Dalgleish is a London oncology professor known for breakthrough work on a vaccine for HIV. Sørensen is a virologist and chair of the pharmaceutical company Immunor, which developed a coronavirus vaccine candidate called Biovacc-19. Dalgleish also has a financial stake in that company.It was during their COVID-19 vaccine research that the pair came across "unique fingerprints" indicating the virus didn’t come from nature, they said.  The telltale clue: a rare finding in the COVID-carrying virus of a row of four amino acids, which give off a positive charge and bond to negative human cells."The laws of physics mean that you cannot have four positively charged amino acids in a row," Dalgleish told the Daily Mail. "The only way you can get this is if you artificially manufacture it."They also tracked published Chinese research, some done working with American universities, to show how the tools to create the virus were allegedly built. A good part of the work reviewed involved "gain of function" research, which involves manipulating natural viruses in a lab to make them more infectious, allowing scientists to study their potential effect on humans. The U.S. put a moratorium on such research in 2014. But it’s impossible to know if $600,000 funding for medical research in China was used for gain of function research, Dr. Anthony Fauci told Congress last week.

New Coronavirus Threat to Humans Identified: Virus Appears to Have Jumped From Dogs to Humans - Researchers have discovered a new coronavirus, found in a child with pneumonia in Malaysia in 2018, that appears to have jumped from dog to human. If confirmed as a pathogen, the novel canine-like coronavirus could represent the eighth unique coronavirus known to cause disease in humans. The discovery also suggests coronaviruses are being transmitted from animals to humans more commonly than was previously thought. “We are missing them because most hospital diagnostic tests only pick up known human coronaviruses.” Working with visiting scholar Leshan Xiu, a Ph.D. student, Gray was on a team that in 2020 developed a molecular diagnostic tool to detect most coronaviruses from the Coronaviridae family that includes SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19. The team used that tool to examine 301 archived pneumonia cases and picked up signals for canine coronaviruses from eight people hospitalized with pneumonia in Sarawak, a state in East Malaysia. Researchers at Ohio State, led by Anastasia N. Vlasova, grew a virus from one of the clinical specimens, and through a painstaking process of genome reconstruction, were able to identify it as a novel canine coronavirus. “There are probably multiple canine coronaviruses circulating and spilling over into humans that we don’t know about,” Gray said. Sarawak could be a rich place to detect them, he said, since it’s an equatorial area with rich biodiversity. “Many of those spillovers are dead ends, they don’t ever leave that first human host,” Gray said. “But if we really want to mitigate the threat, we need better surveillance where humans and animals intersect, and among people who are sick enough to get hospitalized for novel viruses.”

Global Spread of the Highly Pathogenic H5N8 Avian Influenza Virus Is a Serious Public Health Concern - The emergence and global spread of the highly pathogenic H5N8 avian influenza virus (AIV), a pathogen that has caused continuous and ongoing outbreaks with massive mortality in both wild and farmed birds across Eurasia and Africa throughout 2020, represents a considerable public health concern — particularly considering the first human cases of H5N8 infection were first reported last December. In a Perspective, Weifeng Shi and George Gao discuss the emergence and zoonotic potential of the H5 AIV lineages. Shi and Gao argue that vigilant surveillance and rigorous infection control measures for these emerging viruses are critical to avoid further human spillovers that could result in new and devastating pandemics.Perhaps overshadowed by the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic, over the past year, H5N8 infections in both wildfowl and poultry have been identified in at least 46 countries across Europe, Asia, and Africa. While these outbreaks have led to the death or slaughter of many millions of birds worldwide, they’ve also notably resulted in at least one spillover event in Russia, where seven poultry farm workers tested positive for H5N8 virus. According to the authors, the rapid global spread of this AIV and its demonstrated ability to cross the species barrier, transmitting to humans, makes it a major concern to not only farming and wildlife security, but also global public health. Shi and Gao suggest that the surveillance of highly pathogenic AIVs in poultry farms, live markets, and wild birds must become a global priority.

 Lead levels in urban soil are declining but hotspots persist - - Decades after federal bans ended widespread use of lead in paint and gasoline, some urban soils still contain levels of the highly toxic metal that exceed federal safety guidelines for children, a Duke University study finds. To conduct their study, the researchers analyzed and mapped soil lead concentrations along 25 miles of streets in Durham, N.C., a city of about 270,000 people. They found that while soil lead levels have generally decreased since the 1970s, they have decreased much less near residential foundations than along streets. The researchers collected soil samples near foundations of houses built before 1978. Samples within a meter of the older homes averaged 649 milligrams (mg) of lead per kilogram (kg) of soil, more than three times the average level detected near streets, which was 150 mg/kg. EPA guidelines say exposure to soil lead concentrations above 400 mg/kg is associated with potential long-term health risks to children, including possible damage to the brain and nervous system, slowed growth and development, learning and behavior problems and hearing and speech problems. "Urban soil processes are driving lead concentrations down over time, but it's alarming that lead levels in some locations -- typically older, poorer neighborhoods -- still far exceed safe levels decades after leaded gasoline and lead paint were phased out," said lead author Anna Wade, a postdoctoral researcher at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and a 2020 Ph.D. graduate of Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment. The Duke team shared its findings with Durham public health groups and plans to conduct similar mapping studies in five or six other cities nationwide.

Trump EPA Officials Hid Threats of Toxic Dicamba Herbicide, IG Report Shows ---A new report released Monday by a federal oversight agency revealed that before former President Donald Trump's Environmental Protection Agency reapproved use of dicamba in 2018, high-ranking officials in the administration intentionally excluded scientific evidence of certain hazards related to the herbicide, including the risk of widespread drift damage.The Office of the Inspector General found that the 2018 decision by the EPA's Office of Pesticide Programs to extend registrations for three dicamba products "varied from typical operating procedures."Specifically, according to the IG report, "the EPA did not conduct the required internal peer reviews of scientific documents," which paved the way for "senior-level changes to or omissions" of research detailing the drift risks of the weed-killer.While "division-level management review" of pesticide safety documents is typical, staff scientists at the EPA told the IG that senior leaders were "more involved in the 2018 dicamba decision than in other pesticide registration decisions." In addition, "staff felt constrained or muted in sharing their concerns," the government watchdog's report noted."Now that the EPA's highly politicized, anti-science approach to fast-tracking use of this harmful pesticide has been fully exposed, the agency should cancel dicamba's recent approval, not try to defend it in court," Stephanie Parent, a senior environmental health attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in response to the new report."The EPA knows that anything less is likely to result in yet another summer of damaged fields and lost profits for farmers choosing not to use dicamba," Parent added.Over the past four years, dicamba products sprayed "over the top" of soybean and cotton crops genetically engineered to resist the herbicide have "caused drift damage to five million acres of soybeans as well as orchards, gardens, trees, and other plants on a scale unprecedented in the history of U.S. agriculture,"according to the Center for Food Safety and the Center for Biological Diversity.Recent research also indicates that dicamba endangers human health. Last year, a team of epidemiologistsfound that use of the weed-killer can increase the risk of developing numerous cancers.

 Federal Judge Nixes Proposed Monsanto Glysophate Settlement, Deepening Black Hole for Bayer --Today we are providing an update on an effort to settle a large group of pending and potential cases. The short version is that this effort, like an earlier attempt, was rejected by a Federal judge in the Northern District of California. We’ve embedded his order at the end of this post..To catch you up on this sorry story,...[...]...  Now to Jerri’s background on this round of settlement talks:In June 2020, Bayer agreed to a $10.9 billion settlement (see my earlier post, Bayer Agrees to $10.9 Billion Glyphosate Settlement). Bayer faced liability for about 125,000 lawsuits throughout the United States. The settlement included between $8.8 billion and $9.6 billion set aside to settle claims brought by lawyers representing some 95,000 plaintiffs. For the remaining 30,000 potential glyphosate plaintiffs who had yet to file lawsuits, the original settlement included $1.25 billion to cover their claims, and a controversial provision to allow a specially-created scientific panel to decide whether glyphosate causes cancer and at what levels, thus taking that decision away from future juries. Bayer and other litigants would nonetheless be bound by the panel’s determination in future proceedings. In July the presiding federal district court judge, Vince Chhabria, disallowed the controversial provision of the settlement, and Bayer withdrew the part of its original settlement proposal that focused on future lawsuits.  Bayer has since sweetened its settlement offer, setting aside $2 billion for these claims. The plaintiffs agreed to these settlement terms and this proposal is now pending before Judge Chhabria for preliminary approval (see Reply Brief Filed in Support of Motion for Preliminary Approval of Proposed Class Settlement). A hearing on this proposal is scheduled for May 19, according to Agri-Pulse, Roundup verdict of $25M upheld by federal appeals court.As you can see from the order below, the judge nixed the new and improved proposed settlement. Childrens Healh Defense provided a decent high level summary: The federal judge overseeing nationwide Roundup litigation today denied Bayer’s latest attempt to limit its legal liability from future cancer claims associated with its glyphosate-based herbicides, citing numerous “glaring flaws” in a settlement proposed to apply to Roundup users who develop cancer in the future.  Saying parts of the plan were “clearly unreasonable” and unfair to cancer sufferers who would be part of the class settlement, U.S. Judge Vince Chhabria castigated Bayer and the small group of lawyers who put the plan together in conjunction with Bayer. He pointed out that the company has been “losing trials left and right” in claims brought by people suffering from non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) who alleged exposure to Monsanto’s Roundup and other glyphosate-based herbicides were the cause. The “reason Monsanto wants a science panel so badly is that the company has lost the ‘battle of the experts’ in three trials, the judge wrote in his order.  “At present, the playing field on the issue of expert testimony related to causation is slanted heavily in favor of plaintiffs.”

Honeybees are accumulating airborne microplastics on their bodies As honeybees make their way through the world, they are ideally suited to pick up bits and pieces of it along the way. Bees are covered with hairs that have evolved to hold tiny particles that the bee collects intentionally or simply encounters in its daily travels. These hairs become electrostatically charged in flight, which helps attract the particles. Pollen is the most obvious  substance that gets caught up in these hairs, but so do plant debris, wax, and even bits of other bees.  Now, another material has been added to that list: plastics. Specifically, 13 different synthetic polymers, according to a study of honeybees and microplastics in Denmark. The study was published earlier this year inScience of the Total Environment. The question of how exposure to plastics is affecting bees is still open.  it  ultimately may prove harmful. In a study published earlier this year in the Journal of Hazardous Materials, scientists in China sought to assess the potential risks that microplastics pose to honeybees. They fed honeybees polystyrene microplastics for two weeks and found it did not change their mortality rate. It did however alter the bees’ microbiome—the assemblage of gut bacteria essential to basic biological functions—in a way that the Chinese team  concluded might present “substantial health risks.” In particular, the team found that the bees’ death rate shot up from less than 20 percent to around 55 percent when the bees consumed a combination of polystyrene and tetracycline, a common antibiotic used in beekeeping to prevent a larval disease. “In isolation, microplastics might not be the most toxic contaminant, but the existence of other chemicals might increase their toxicity,” the Chinese researchers concluded. Illaria Negri, a researcher at the Università Cattolica del Sacuro Cuore in Italy, who was not involved with either the Denmark or China studies, expressed similar concerns. The toxic effects of microplastics “could be magnified when they occur in combination with other pollutants, such as pesticides, veterinary drugs, plastic additives,'' she said in an email. Certain pesticides can be absorbed by plastic debris, Negri said, and could have “devastating effects” on the health of bees and other wildlife and insects if ingested.

Plastic Pollution Raises Beach Temperatures, Threatening Marine Life, Study Finds -- Plastic pollution threatens marine life in many ways, from entangling fish and seabirds to wreaking havoc on their digestive tracts when they mistake it for food. Now, a new study has revealed another danger plastics pose to coastal animals: It can actually heat the beaches they call home. "When you have plastic piling up and piling up, it creates this insulation layer – it rapidly raises the temperature to a point where it is likely unsuitable for most animals," Dr. Jennifer Lavers from the University of Tasmania's Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), who led the new study, told The Guardian.  The research, published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials last week, looked at the extent and impact of plastic pollution on the beaches of two remote islands: Henderson Island in the Pacific and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands in the Indian Ocean. The researchers found a lot of plastic on the islands — up to three kilograms per square meter — even on beaches that were uninhabited. Further, they found that the plastic was having a measurable impact. They took daily temperature readings of beach sediment in six locations on the islands and found that the plastic had increased daily maximum temperatures by 2.45 degrees Celsius and decreased daily minimum temperature by 1.5 degrees Celsius. "Sandy beaches have not been a focus previously, so this is the first time real-world in situ data on circadian thermal fluctuations of beach sediment has been collected – and it reveals that accumulated plastics increase daily temperature extremes," Lavers said in an IMAS press release. This increase in temperature could have serious impacts on marine life, Lavers explained, especially on animals known as ectotherms. These are animals that rely on outside temperatures to regulate their body heat, and many have adapted to very specific temperature ranges. Beach-dwelling ectotherms include crabs and sea turtles. For sea turtles, warmer temperatures have been linked to an increase in female offspring. While this has previously been blamed on the climate crisis, Lavers told The Guardian that plastic pollution could be a contributing factor in some locations. The hotter beaches could also harm meiofauna, small animals that live in beach sediment and are an important part of coastal ecosystems, as well as an important food source for migratory birds.

Effects of nanoplastics on Canadian and Guadeloupean oysters  Oysters' exposure to plastics is concerning, particularly because these materials can accumulate and release metals which are then absorbed by the molluscs. According to a recent study published in the journal Chemosphere, the combined presence of nanoplastics and arsenic affects the biological functions of oysters. This study was conducted by the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) in Québec City and the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) at the University of Bordeaux in France. The international research team chose to study arsenic, since it is one of the most common metals absorbed by the plastic debris collected from the beaches of Guadeloupe. "Oysters easily accumulate metals from the environment into their tissues. We therefore wanted to test whether the combined exposure to nanoplastics and arsenic would increase the bioaccumulation of this contaminant," reported Marc Lebordais, the Master's student in charge of the research. The scientists proved that the bioaccumulation of arsenic does not increase when nanoplastics are also present. However, it remained higher in the gills of the Canadian Crassostrea virginica oyster than in the Isognomon alatus oyster, found in Guadeloupe. These results are the first to highlight the diverging sensitivity of different species. In addition to bioaccumulation, the team also observed an overexpression of genes responsible for cell death and the number of mitochondria--a cell's energy centres--in C. virginica. In I. alatus, the expression of these same genes was less significant. "Evaluating the expression of genes involved in important functions, such as cell death and detoxification, gives us information on the toxicity of nanoplastics and arsenic on a cellular level,"

95% of Bull Kelp Forests Have Vanished From 200-Mile Stretch of California Coast Until recently, giant seaweed called bull kelp formed lush underwater forests in northern California's coastal waters. These kelp forests have long provided critical habitat for many species like salmon, crabs, and jellyfish. But now just a few patches of bull kelp remain."It's very desolate looking," says Meredith McPherson of UC Santa Cruz.She was part of a team that studied satellite images of about 200 miles of California coastline. They foundthat starting in 2014, the area covered by kelp dropped by more than 95%.She says the die-off was driven in part by an underwater heat wave, which depleted nutrients in the water and made it harder for the kelp to grow.Compounding the problem, populations of purple sea urchins, which eat kelp, have exploded in the region.In coming decades, more marine heat waves are expected."We know that these types of events – these warm water events and stronger El Niños – are going to become more common and frequent with climate change," McPherson says.So she says warming waters and hungry urchins will make it harder for these kelp forests to survive.

There’s No Compromising on Science When It Comes to Protecting Water Quality in the Nation’s Rivers and Streams - With its "Waters of the United States" rule, President Obama's administration enacted unprecedented protections of rivers and streams. The Trump administration, ignoring science and the importance of wetlands, tried to return many of those waterways back to polluters by rolling back the Waters of the US rule. Now Michael Regan, President Biden's EPA administrator, says he wants to forge a compromise."We don't have any intention of going back to the original Obama 'Waters of the U.S.' [rule] verbatim and we don't necessarily agree with everything that was in the Trump administration's version as well," Regan told a House Appropriations Committee last month. "We've learned lessons from both, we've seen complexities in both, and we've determined that both rules did not necessarily listen to the will of the people." The attempt at middle ground is understandable as Regan is in the first months of a new administration dealing with the highly organized powers of manufacturing and factory agriculture. But this sounds dangerously close to a false equivalency when it throws some of Obama's efforts under the bus while suggesting that the previous administration's reversal of the rules was anything more complex than a hatchet job by industry hacks, most notably former EPA Administrator and ex-coal-industry lobbyist Andrew Wheeler. Before Administrator Regan tries to form one edible fruit out of an apple and an orange in the EPA's new rules, he must remember one thing: Obama's regulations for aquatic preservation were based on science. When the Obama administration issued its Clean Water Rule in 2015, it expansively redefined waters eligible for federal protection as Waters of the United States (WOTUS). At that time, nearly half of the nation's rivers and streams and a third of our wetlands were in "poor biological condition," according to the EPA's water quality report to Congress. So the administration sought to protect about 60 percent of water in the nation, including many intermittent and ephemeral streams that experience natural dry periods but flow during rainy periods. Most people don't realize it but 59 percent of streams in the United States — and 81 percent of the streams in arid Southwestern states — are of this nature.  Unfortunately, industry and its political enablers went on a rampage to exempt as much water as possible from federal protection. The US Chamber of Commerce, the American Petroleum Institute, the American Farm Bureau Federation, the National Mining Association, the National Association of Home Builders, and theNational Association of Manufacturers all opposed the rule, often propping up "small farmers" as poster children who would be burdened by having to worry that every "ditch" would be considered federally protected water. Playing on these trumped-up fears, the last administration, led by Wheeler, rewrote the rules to say, essentially, that if you cannot visibly see the connection of small creeks to large rivers and lakes on the surface, then there is no connection deserving of federal protection. The reversal removed half of wetlandsand a fifth of streams and tributaries from protection. This change came despite the strenuous objection of a host of scientists, including Wheeler's own scientific advisory board.

Not just another drought: The American West moves from dry to bone dry -- The American West is having a drought. So, what else is new? And, that's just the point. The American West has been in an extended drought since 2000, so far the second worst in the last 1200 years. Here is the key quote from the National Geographic article cited above: In the face of continued climate change, some scientists and others have suggested that using the word "drought" for what’s happening now might no longer be appropriate, because it implies that the water shortages may end. Instead, we might be seeing a fundamental, long-term shift in water availability all over the West. That is what climate scientists have been warning about all along. The problems we are now experiencing are not just cycles or fluctuations—although those continue to be important—but rather, permanent changes in the climate (that is, on any timeline that matters to humans). I wrote about this drought when it was only 10 years old. (For a sense of how bad it is now, see the U.S. Drought Monitor.) Back then it did not seem that residents and businesses were taking it seriously, even if some water officials were.   There is a reason that most major cities are located near water and not in arid regions. Water is heavy, fluid and not easily transported—though vast and expensive water projects do just that. Water cannot be easily created from its constituents elements, oxygen and hydrogen.  That leaves society with two paths: Bring ever greater amounts of water to arid regions which continue to grow in population and water-intensive activities such as farming OR conserve dramatically in order to live within the available water supply. The second choice appears imminent as water authorities across several states are preparing to activate a drought response plan this summer when Lake Mead (the lake behind Hoover Dam) is expected to reach a level that triggers the plan. All those receiving water from the Colorado River and its tributaries are likely to be affected. Again, a look at the U.S. Drought Monitor demonstrates that the drought extends far beyond the Colorado River basin, west to much of California, east into New Mexico and West Texas and north into parts of Oregon. There is a third path which I haven't mentioned because in polite company and official circles it is unmentionable: People could leave. And, they may do so as the costs and consequences of living with less water mount—especially for those in water-intensive pursuits such as agriculture. Those in the cities may leave, too, as the cost of provisioning water for urban areas rises and supplies are curtailed. That would, of course, hit water-intensive businesses and their employees the hardest.  That does not bode well for a people and a culture used to getting its way with nature—something, it turns out, that was really just luck, the luck of having populated and reconfigured the West in a period that was particularly wet in relation to the millennium that preceded it.

Epic drought tests Hoover Dam as water levels in Lake Mead plummet -- Hoover Dam towers more than 700 feet above Black Canyon on the Arizona-Nevada state line, holding back the waters of the Colorado River. Eighty-six years after its completion in 1935, the infrastructure at Hoover Dam continues doing what it was designed to do: holding water and sending it coursing through intake tunnels, spinning turbines and generating electricity. But the rules for managing the river and dividing up its water — which were laid down nearly a century ago starting with the 1922 Colorado River Compact and which have repeatedly been tweaked — are now facing the greatest strains since the dam was built. The effects of years of severe drought and temperatures pushed higher by climate changeare strikingly visible along Lake Mead’s retreating shorelines near Las Vegas, where the growing “bathtub ring” of whitish minerals coats the rocky desert slopes.Since 2000, the water level in the reservoir, which is the largest in the country, has dropped about 140 feet. Lake Mead is now just 37% full, headed for a first-ever official shortage and sinking toward its lowest levels since it was filled.  One of the driest 22-year periods in centuries is colliding with the river's chronic overuse. As the reservoir falls toward record lows, its decline threatens the water supplies of cities and farmlands, and reveals how the system of managing water in the desert Southwest faces growing risks.  On top of the dam, where sidewalks run along the curving parapet, the views are dominated by four intake towers that protrude from the water. Each of the dam's two giant spillways, where water last ran in 1983, sits dry and empty, leading to a gaping 50-foot-wide tunnel.   Mike Bernardo of the federal Bureau of Reclamation begins leads a team of engineers and hydrologists who plan water releases from Hoover Dam, as well as Davis and Parker dams downstream, sending flows that travel through pipelines and canals to Phoenix, Los Angeles and farmlands in the U.S. and Mexico that produce crops such as hay, cotton, grapes and lettuce.Bernardo’s team also sets power generation goals and produces a monthly report with the latest projections of how reservoir levels will likely change over the next 24 months. Lately, each month’s report has brought worsening numbers. Predicted water-level declines have grown as estimates of inflows into Lake Powell, the upstream reservoir, have shrunk due to extremely parched conditions across the upper watershed in the Rocky Mountains, where much of the river’s flow originates as melting snow. “Unfortunately, due to how dry things have been,” Bernardo says, “what we're seeing is Lake Powell's elevations are dropping.” And that will mean less water flowing into Lake Mead for the rest of the year. The past 12 months have been among the driest on record across the Colorado River Basin. Inflows into Lake Powell from April through July are estimated to be just 26% of the long-term average, and that’s leading to rapid declines in both Powell and Mead, the two largest pieces of the river's water-storage system.

Water crisis 'couldn't be worse' on Oregon-California border (AP) — The water crisis along the California-Oregon border went from dire to catastrophic this week as federal regulators shut off irrigation water to farmers from a critical reservoir and said they would not send extra water to dying salmon downstream or to a half-dozen wildlife refuges that harbor millions of migrating birds each year. In what is shaping up to be the worst water crisis in generations, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said it will not release water this season into the main canal that feeds the bulk of the massive Klamath Reclamation Project, marking a first for the 114-year-old irrigation system. The agency announced last month that hundreds of irrigators would get dramatically less water than usual, but a worsening drought picture means water will be completely shut off instead. The entire region is in extreme or exceptional drought, according to federal monitoring reports, and Oregon’s Klamath County is experiencing its driest year in 127 years. “This year’s drought conditions are bringing unprecedented hardship to the communities of the Klamath Basin,” said Reclamation Deputy Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton, calling the decision one of “historic consequence.” “Reclamation is dedicated to working with our water users, tribes and partners to get through this difficult year and developing long-term solutions for the basin.” The canal, a major component of the federally operated Klamath Reclamation Project, funnels Klamath River water from the Upper Klamath Lake just north of the Oregon-California border to more than 130,000 acres (52,600 hectares), where generations of ranchers and farmers have grown hay, alfalfa and potatoes and grazed cattle. Only one irrigation district within the 200,000-acre (80,940-hectare) project will receive any water from the Klamath River system this growing season, and it will have a severely limited supply, the Klamath Water Users Association said in a statement. Some other farmers rely on water from a different river, and they will also have a limited supply. “This just couldn’t be worse,” said Klamath Irrigation District president Ty Kliewer. “The impacts to our family farms and these rural communities will be off the scale.”

Climate-Fueled Drought Puts American West in Peril Ahead of Wildfire Season - At the opening of the 2020 wildfire season, 3% of California was in extreme or exceptional drought and more than 4% burned. This year, more than 73% of the state faces similar drought conditions.In other parts of the Southwest, juniper trees are dying off at increased rates because of the intensification of a megadrought and turning forests, with trees covered in dead needles, into 30-foot-tall tinder boxes."It's like having gasoline out there," Brian Steinhardt, a national forest fire zone manager in Arizona, told the AP. Soil in the western U.S. is drier than at any time since 1895 (the year Frederick Douglass died and Babe Ruth was born), which means "the dice are loaded toward a lot of forest fire this year," UCLA climate and fire scientist Park Williams told the AP. New research also shows wildfires are burning at higher elevations as climate change dries out forests previously too wet to support large burns.All this adds up, Steinhardt, a veteran of 32 fire seasons, told the AP, to "probably one of the driest and potentially most challenging situations I've been in." California, on the verge of its first ever official water shortage declaration, is increasing its wildfire prevention spending 16-fold, but states across the West, from Oregon to New Mexico, are staring down the barrel of a brutally dry and dangerous fire season. Water shortages that "just couldn't be any worse," according to Klamath Irrigation District president Ty Kliewer, threaten massive die-offs of the salmon central to the diet and culture of the Yurok Tribe. One silver lining for the 2021 fire season is that 2020's record-shattering burns were fueled by a highly unusual concurrence of record-breaking heatwaves and intense, widespread lightning strikes, UCLA meteorologist Daniel Swain told the AP. But, he added, "I'm really grasping at straws here. All we have going for us is dumb luck."

PG&E to ante up $150M for botched outages, recent wildfires  (AP) — Pacific Gas & Electric is getting hit with a nearly $150 million bill for neglect that caused Northern California wildfires during the past two years and mismanagement of blackouts designed to prevent the utility’s crumbling power grid from causing more damage.The one-two punch was delivered Wednesday. California power regulators are fining PG&E $106 million for its mishandling of power outages in 2019. The utility also reached $43.4 million in settlements with government agencies in three counties ravaged by wildfires ignited by its equipment during 2019 and last year.That is just the latest financial fallout from years of perilous behavior affecting some of the 16 million people who rely on PG&E in a sprawling service territory. When the utility’s fraying equipment or inability to properly trim trees around its power lines hasn’t been wreaking havoc in the form of wildfires, PG&E has been exasperating customers with botched blackouts that have at times lasted several days during hot and windy conditions. A series of power outages imposed during the autumn 2019 went so awry that California’s Public Utilities Commission quickly opened an investigation into PG&E’s conduct. An Associated Press investigation later determined t hat only a handful of PG&E’s emergency personnel had received training in the disaster response playbook that California has used for a generation before those 2019 blackouts.In an 89-page decision outlining the reasons for its fine, regulators blasted PG&E for a overwhelmed website that couldn’t handle incoming traffic from customers wondering whether they would have power, as well its failure to give adequate advance warning of the blackouts to about 50,000 customers.Although PG&E is being fined $106 million, the utility won’t be paying that much now. That’s because it is being credited for $86 million that it had already been ordered to refund to customers affected during the lengthy 2019 outages.

Global Cactus Traffickers Are Cleaning Out the Deserts --Andrea Cattabriga has seen a lot of cactuses where they didn’t belong. But he’d never seen anything like Operation Atacama, a bust carried out last year in Italy. A cactus expert and president of the Association for Biodiversity and Conservation, Mr. Cattabriga often helps the police identify the odd specimen seized from tourists or intercepted in the post.This time, however, Mr. Cattabriga was confronted by a stunning display: more than 1,000 of some of the world’s rarest cactuses, valued at over $1.2 million on the black market. Almost all of the protected plants had come from Chile, which does not legally export them, and some were well over a century old. The operation — which occurred in February 2020, but is being made public now because of the cactuses’ recent return to Chile — was most likely the biggest international cactus seizure in nearly three decades. It also highlights how much money traffickers may be earning from the trade. Seeing the collected cactuses brought a profound sadness to Mr. Cattabriga. “Here is an organism that has evolved over millions of years to be able to survive in the harshest conditions you can find on the planet, but that finishes its life in this way — just as an object to be sold,” he said. As with the market for tiger bones, ivory, pangolin scales and rhino horn, a flourishing illegal global trade exists for plants. “Just about every plant you can probably think of is trafficked in some way,” said Eric Jumper, a special agent with the Fish and Wildlife Service. Cactuses and other succulents are among the most sought after, along with orchids and, increasingly, carnivorous species. Trafficking can take a serious toll. Over 30 percent of the world’s nearly 1,500 cactus species are threatened with extinction. Unscrupulous collection is the primary driver of that decline, affecting almost half of imperiled species. Yet this realm of illegal trade is typically overlooked, a prime example of “plant blindness,”or the human tendency to broadly ignore this important branch on the tree of life.

Humans Are Forcing Plants to Adapt at the Fastest Rate Since the Last Ice Age, Study Finds -  New research published May 20, 2021 in Science found that humans have stressed plant ecosystems more severely, and for longer, than previously thought.The last time plants were forced to change at this pace was between 16,000 and 8,000 years ago, when mosses, sedges, shrubs and lichens had to quickly adapt to a planet that had warmed by 10 degrees Fahrenheit, National Geographic reports. However, plant populations stabilized after the ice age thawed. It wasn't until about 4,000 years ago that they began mass adaptations once again, reacting not to retreating ice sheets, but to the changes humans were making to Earth's landscape."This work suggests that 3,000 to 4,000 years ago, humans were already having an enormous impact on the world (and) that continues today," Jack Williams, professor of geography at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and one of the study authors, said in a press release.The researchers analyzed nearly 1,200 samples of ancient fossilized pollen collected from every continent, except Antarctica, which stored data about the mass adaptations Earth's flora have taken on over millennia. The fossils revealed that the rate of change ecosystems are experiencing today is at least equal to what it was at its peak, just after the ice age, when plants adapted to cover previously frozen ground. Williams and his team expect these rates of change to continue to accelerate in the near future, as climate change exacerbates the need for ecosystems to adapt.The new study also adds to the growing body of data showing that climate change has accelerated changes in global biodiversity, particularly over the last century, ScienceDaily explained. One 2019 study also found that human activity around 3,000 years ago, which included burning land to clear it for agriculture, planting crops and deforestation, had huge implications for ecosystems that continue today.

Bill Gates is the biggest private owner of farmland in the United States. Why? Gates has been buying land like it’s going out of style. He now owns more farmland than my entire Native American nation.  Bill Gates has never been a farmer. So why did the Land Report dubhim “Farmer Bill” this year? The third richest man on the planet doesn’t have a green thumb. Nor does he put in the back-breaking labor humble people do to grow our food and who get far less praise for it. That kind of hard work isn’t what made him rich. Gates’ achievement, according to the report, is that he’s largest private owner of farmland in the US. A 2018 purchase of 14,500 acres of prime eastern Washington farmland – which is traditional Yakama territory – for $171m helped him get that title.In total, Gates owns approximately 242,000 acres of farmland with assets totaling more than $690m. To put that into perspective, that’s nearly the size of Hong Kong and twice the acreage of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, where I’m an enrolled member. A white man owns more farmland than my entire Native nation! The United States is defined by the excesses of its ruling class. But why do a handful of people own so much land?

Severe flooding affects more than 450 000 people in northern Brazil - (videos) Weeks of severe flooding have affected more than 450 000 people across 52 municipalities in northern Brazil, the Civil Defense reported on Tuesday, May 25, 2021. More than 7 700 people have been displaced as rivers continue to rise.Heavy rain has been affecting northwestern Brazil, particularly the Amazonas state, since early May. As a result, rivers Amazon, Solimoes, and Negro overflowed, flooding nearby areas and damaging many properties.As of Tuesday, the Amazonas State Civil Defense reported that more than 7 700 people have been displaced and over 455 500 affected across 52 municipalities throughout the state.The worst-hit municipalities are Parintins with 47 035 affected people, Manacapuru with 40 052, Carreiro da Varzea with 24 087, and Manaus with 23 960. According to figures from the Geological Survey of Brazil (CPRM), levels of the Solimoes, Negro, and Amazon rivers have surpassed the highest alert level, referred to as Severe Flood Level.In April, the CPRM warned that this year's flooding in Manaus is likely to be among the highest in previous years and may exceed the highest on record seen in 2012 when the reiver hit 29.97 m (98 feet). As of May 5, the Negro River stood at 29.19 m (95.76 feet).Local media reported five injured people after flooding from May 3 swept through a camp for refugees in Venezuela. As of May 6, Manaus has declared a state of emergency.The State Government of Amazonas is conducting an aid program called Operation Flood 2021, which involves repairing damage, distributing food items, offering credit, and suspending water charges.

At least 9 dead, more than 40 000 people displaced by ongoing floods in Kenya -   (video)- More than 40 000 people have been displaced while at least nine lost their lives due to the ongoing flood situation in Kenya, the International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC) reported as of Monday, May 24, 2021. Over 40 000 people from 6 580 families have been displaced across 16 counties since the start of the "long rain" season in Kenya. Among the worst-hit areas are in the counties of Tana River with 3 864 displaced, Homa Bay with 2 046, Kisumu with 7 704, Busia with 4 056, and mIgori with 5 022.IFRC added that some of those evacuated are staying in temporary camps in Ombaka, Nyatike, Osodo, and Bunyala, while others are taking refuge in the homes of relatives, friends, and neighbors.The recent flooding has resulted in at least nine fatalities, including three in Narok, two in Siaya, and some in Nairobi, Garissa, and Elgeyo-Marakwet.The Kenya Red Cross has sent assessment teams to counties Busia, Tana River, Nairobi, Taita Taveta, Migori, Isiolo, and Kisumu to determine the priority needs of affected communities.

Widespread flooding affects 60 000 people in West Java, Indonesia - (videos)  Widespread flooding has affected nearly 60 000 residents of Bandung Regency in West Java Indonesia. Figures from the meteorological agency show that the city registered 76.8 mm (3 inches) of rain in a 24-hour period to Tuesday, May 25, 2021, which is nearly half the average May rainfall of 187 mm (7 inches).Light to heavy rainfall from Monday, May 24, caused the Citarum River and its tributaries to burst their banks, flooding areas of Dayeuhkolot, Baleendah, Bojongsoang, and Margarahayu sub-districts of Bandung Regency.Floodwaters reached up to 2.5 m (8 feet) deep, inundating thousands of homes.According to the regional disaster management agency, as many as 8 812 houses, 18 schools, and 28 places of worship have been submerged.Some of the areas affected by the recent flooding were previously hit by the same natural disaster in January and again in March this year.On May 25, Bandung registered 76.8 mm (3 inches) of rain in 24 hours, which is almost half the average rain for this month of 187 mm (7 inches).Initial assessments showed 59 819 people from 16 887 families have been affected, of which 5 761 households were in Dayeuhkolot, 8 624 in Baleendah, 2 482 in Bojongsoang, and 20 in Margarahayu.

97 rivers across China exceed warning levels as country prepares for another heavy flood season -  Rainy season came early to China this year and 97 rivers across the country are already exceeding warning levels as of Thursday, May 27, 2021. This represents a rise of about 10% compared to 2020, a record-breaking year when it comes to rainfall and floods. With rivers in parts of southern China already experiencing record highs and precipitation expected to rise further in the weeks ahead, authorities are fortifying flood defenses ahead of what looks to be yet another heavy flood season.47 reservoirs along the Yangtze River basin have been prepared to relieve floods, said Wang Wei, an official with the flood and drought disaster prevention office of the Ministry of Water Resources, adding that most of them have been fully discharged.The Three Gorges Reservoir was at 150.83 m (494.8 feet) as of Wednesday, May 26 and it is expected to fall under the flood limit before June 10, Wang said. The Yangtze River Water Resources Commission urged local authorities to be on 24-hour alert and set up a reporting system to cope with severe flood concerns.Rivers in parts of southern China are already experiencing record highs and precipitation is expected to rise further in the coming weeks.The Ministry of Water Resources said that China is likely to see floods in seven major river basins.Cheng Xiaotao, the former head of the Institute of Flood Control and Disaster Reduction, reassured the public to have confidence in China's flood control capabilities.The heaviest rainfall over the next 2 weeks is expected in southern China:  While no one has been left untouched, some communities and groups bore a larger brunt of the impact.China has already seen a fair share of extreme weather events over the past 30 days, including destructive tornadoes and rapid temperature swings:

• Extreme weather hits China's Gansu Province, killing 21 ultra-marathon runners
• More than 100 000 affected as severe storms hit Yueyang, China's Hunan Province
• Tornado rips through Shengze, Jiangsu, killing at least 4 people and injuring 149, China
• Destructive tornado rips through Wuhan, killing 8 people and injuring 280, China
• Severe thunderstorm hits Wuhan, turning day into night, China

Tornado Trail of Damage Selden Kansas  - A large and extremely dangerous tornado tracked near Selden, Kansas, on Monday evening, injuring one person and leaving a trail of damage. The twister struck around 6:30 p.m. CDT, the Sheridan County Emergency Management confirmed. It damaged buildings, homes, a silo, trees, and overturned a semi truck and a train.On Tuesday, the National Weather Service gave the tornado a rating of EF1, with estimated peak winds of 110 mph.The dangerous weather was spawned by a severe storm that had a history of spinning up tornadoes along its path as it charged across northwestern Kansas.The thunderstorm first developed southwest of Goodland, Kansas, around 3 p.m. CDT, according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Dave Bowers. It then tracked northeastward ahead of a frontal boundary, where over the next few hours, it repeatedly dropped tornadoes that touched down for a few minutes at a time."There were nearly a dozen tornado reports from this one supercell. The last report coming at 6:26 p.m. CDT at Selden with tree and power line damage along with one injury,” Bowers said.Storm chaser Scott Peake got an up-close view of the tornado touching down near Selden, Kansas. He captured footage of the tornado growing and spinning as Peake approached in a vehicle. The twister can be seen sending a massive sheet of metal flying across a roadway right in front of him. Another group of chasers that collects data from inside and near tornadoes, called CONVEX, captured footage from farther away after an intercept probe was dropped in the path of the storm. People from the team can be heard yelling, “Oh, no! Oh my God!” and “It’s hitting the town!” as the video rolls on, before they scramble to move farther away. According to KSNW, the local NBC station, there were no serious injuries reported, but plenty of damage to property. KSNW reported that the local sheriff said 38 properties sustained significant damage and 84 other properties suffered minor damage.

Lost Italian Village Resurfaces Lake Resia Curon --After more than 70 years underwater, one of Italy's submerged cities has resurfaced. The lost Italian village of Curon, in northern Italy near the borders with Switzerland and Liechtenstein, recently emerged from under Lake Resia.A lone church tower rising from the middle of a lake was the only indication that a small city, once home to 900 people who lived in 160 homes, ever existed. The historic steeple inspired a novel titled I'm Staying Here and a Netflix show calledCuron.The 14th-century church has also piqued interest among countless tourists who posted images of the unique sight to social media.The village was flooded for a hydroelectric plant and part of the merger of two nearby lakes, Resia and Curon—two of three natural basins in the Resia Pass area of the southern Alps— back in 1950, according to the BBC. Curon had been part of Austria until 1919, therefore many of the residents were unable to speak Italian and were ill-equipped to fight the plan to unite the lakes. Their homes were eventually submerged for the sake of producing hydroelectric energy.

Powerful cyclone Yaas batters eastern India, forcing more than 1 million to evacuate — A powerful cyclone destroyed tens of thousands of mud houses in eastern India on Wednesday, forcing the closure of the busiest regional airport in Kolkata, as it brought storm surges to coastal areas, the second such event within a week.Cyclone Yaas was packing gusts of up to 87 miles per hour as it hit land, authorities said, days after Tauktae tore up the western coast, triggering mass evacuations and piling pressure on authorities battling a deadly second wave of the coronavirus.Authorities said more than a million people had been moved out of the storm's path, while television broadcast images of rough seas, strong winds and rains lashing the state of Odisha, just south of Kolkata, with shops and homes boarded up.By noon, the "very severe cyclone" would cross Odisha and its neighbor, West Bengal, weather officials said.West Bengal's chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, told reporters that about 20,000 mud houses and temporary shelters had been damaged in the state."I have not seen anything like this before," said another state minister, Bankim Hazra, after seawater gushed into the low-lying areas of Sagar island in the Bay of Bengal and the tourist town of Digha, where a police station was flooded."Successive high tides battered the coastline," he added. "It is inundation all around and villages are cut off."The state's Kolkata airport was closed to flights until Wednesday evening. Cyclones in the Bay of Bengal are common at this time of year, and often roar ashore, bringing death and destruction to the coastal areas of both India and neighboring Bangladesh.

At Least Six Dead as Tropical Cyclone Yaas Inundates Parts of Northeast India, Bangladesh  - At least six people have been killed and thousands of homes were damaged Wednesday as Tropical Cyclone Yaas slammed into India and Bangladesh.The cyclone, the second to hit India in a little more than a week, came ashore in the state of Odisha about 10:30 a.m. local time (1 a.m. EDT), according to the India Meteorological Department.About 20,000 mud houses and temporary shelters had been damaged in the northeast Indian state of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, the state's chief minister, said, according to Reuters. He said at least 10 million people had been affected by the cylone.In the West Bengal resort town of Digha, several roads were inundated and people were seen wading in chest-deep water, the Times of India reported. Boats and shops were damaged in Udaipur, another beach town on the border of West Bengal and Odisha. A pair of reporting stations near the northern Odisha coast reported more than 20 inches of rain since Monday.Airports in Kolkata and Bhubaneshwar shut down and train service was canceled, the Associated Press reported.At least six people have been reported dead, according to AP.A 50-year-old man was killed in Odisha when a tree branch fell on him Wednesday morning, the Times of India reported. The Press Trust of India news agency said he was one of two people killed by falling trees in Odisha, where a third person died when their house collapsed.Another person died in a house collapse in West Bengal, Banerjee said. Two people died Tuesday in West Bengal when they were electrocuted by fallen power lines, AP reported.In Bangladesh, the tidal surge inundated 200 villages and marooned thousands of people, AP reported. More than 20 villages in Rangabali in southern Patuakhali district flooded after river embankments washed away, said Mashfaqur Rahman, the area’s top administrator. At least 15,000 people moved into cyclone shelters.

 Rapid heating of Indian Ocean worsening cyclones, say scientists - India’s cyclone season is being made more intense by the rapidly heating Indian Ocean, scientists have warned.Last week India was battered by Cyclone Tauktae, an unusually strong cyclone in the Arabian Sea, resulting in widespread disruption. This week, another severe storm, Cyclone Yaas, formed in the Bay of Bengal, leading to more than a million people being evacuated into safe shelters.The Indian subcontinent has been facing the brunt of costly and deadly tropical cyclones for decades. But scientists say global heating is accelerating the rate of ocean warming, leading to an increased number of cyclones and rapid intensification of weak storms, with severe repercussions for the country.Cyclones are much more likely to gather intensity over warmer waters. The Arabian Sea, part of the west Indian Ocean, generally has a sea surface temperature of below 28C (82F), and recorded just 93 cyclones between 1891 and 2000. By comparison, the warmer Bay of Bengal in the east Indian Ocean, where temperatures are permanently above 28C, recorded 350 cyclones over the same period.Between 2001 and 2021, 28 cyclones formed in the Arabian Sea, along with a marked increase in storm intensity, fuelled by rising sea surface temperatures which reached as high as 31C (88F). A 2016 Nature study found anthropogenic global heating had contributed to the increased frequency of extremely severe cyclonic storms over the Arabian Sea.Roxy Mathew Koll, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, said: “The entire Indian Ocean is warming at a faster rate compared to the Atlantic or Pacific. And within the Indian Ocean, the western parts of the Indian Ocean are warming much more. We see that it [sea surface temperature rise] is connecting well with the changes in the intensity and frequency of cyclones especially in the Arabian Sea and also the rapid intensification.”

Fast-flowing lava from Nyiragongo engulfs hundreds of homes, ash rising up to 13.7 km (45 000 feet) a.s.l., DR Congo –(videos) A new flank eruption started at Nyiragongo volcano around 17:15 UTC on Saturday, May 22, 2021, producing fast-flowing lava flows that reached inhabited areas. Hundreds of homes and other structures were destroyed. According to the Toulouse VAAC, volcanic ash cloud rose to an estimated height of 13.7 km (45 000 feet) above sea level by 21:00 UTC. The government held an emergency meeting late Saturday and activated an evacuation plan.While initial assessment of the eruption showed lava was not flowing toward the city of Goma (population 670 000), new fissures opened on the eastern flank of the volcano several hours after the eruption started, producing fast-flowing lava toward the city.Lava reached the city's airport late Saturday (LT), May 22, and engulfed an unknown number of homes and other structures in nearby villages. Judging by aerial imagery made by Virunga Alliance early Sunday morning, hundreds of homes were destroyed: (video) The power is reportedly out across much of the city."Goma is now the target," Tedesco told Reuters late Saturday. "It's similar to 2020. I think that lava is going toward the city center," he said.It's difficult to forecast. It might stop before or go on, Tedesco added.The government activated an evacuation plan for Goma during an emergency meeting in the capital, Kinshasa."We hope that the measures that have been taken this evening will allow the population to reach the points that were indicated to them in this plan," government spokesman Patrick Muyaya said.Panic spread quickly through the city after a huge glow produced by the eruption. “We are panicked because we have just seen the entire city covered by a light that is not electricity or lamps," John Kilosho told Reuters. "We don't know what to do. We don't even know how to behave. There is no information."A Reuters reporter who is at the scene said early Sunday that the smoking trail of lava appeared to have halted a few hundred meters from the edge of the city.Lava had stopped short of Goma's airport and the city limits but surrounding villages were hit, he said, adding that lava crossed the main road out of Goma, cutting it off from cities to the north and causing traffic chaos.According to Rwanda's Ministry in Charge of Emergency Management, more than 3 500 people have crossed into the country. They are reportedly in schools and places of worship.According to the Toulouse VAAC, volcanic ash cloud rose to an estimated height of 13.7 km (45 000 feet) above sea level by 21:00 UTC. The center raised the Aviation Color Code to Red at 21:02 UTC on May 22. Ash cloud was estimated under 9.1 km (30 000 feet) at 03:00 UTC on May 23. Nyiragongo is known to produce the fastest lava flows on the planet, with speeds exceeding 100 km/h (62 mph).

Congo's Mount Nyiragongo Volcano Destroys Hundreds of Homes; At Least 15 Dead  -  --A river of lava a half-mile wide gushing from Congo's Mount Nyiragongo engulfed hundreds of homes and set fires before coming to rest at the edge of the city of Goma. Tens of thousands of people fled late Saturday as the volcano unleashed the lava flow that cast a scarlet glow in the night sky. It was the first time Mount Nyiragongo has erupted in nearly 20 years. "The sky has turned red," Carine Mbala, a resident of Goma, told AFP by telephone. "There is a smell of sulphur. In the distance you can see giant flames coming out of the mountain."  At least 15 people died, most in car crashes in the chaotic evacuation, the Associated Press reported. UNICEF, the U.N. children's agency, said more than 170 children were still feared missing.When the volcano began erupting, some people boarded boats on Lake Kivu, which lies on the border between Congo and Rwanda in central Africa. About 5,000 people crossed the border into Rwanda. Another 25,000 went northwest toward the town of Sake, according to UNICEF.Altogether, 17 villages were affected by the lava, government spokesman Patrick Muyaya said in a statement, according to Reuters. Three health centers, a primary school and a water pipeline were destroyed, he said.The lava has blocked a main aid and supply route running north from Goma, Reuters reported. It also cut the main electricity supply line to the city of 2 million people.On Sunday, Buhene, a neighborhood at the edge of the city, was covered in smoldering heaps of cooling lava. The hardening stone engulfed an area the size of several city blocks, the New York Times reported.Ernestine Kabuo, 68, said her husband was too sick to leave their house as the lava approached and she could not carry him. "I said to myself, I can't go alone, we've been married for the best and for the worst," Kabuo told Reuters. "I went back to at least try to get him out but couldn't. I ran away and he got burned inside. I don't know what to do. I curse this day."Aline Bichikwebo told AP she tried to save her father but she wasn't strong enough to move him before their home was ignited by lava. Bichikwebo's mother also died.“I am asking for help because everything we had is gone,” said Bichikwebo, who managed to escape with her baby. “We don’t even have a pot. We are now orphans and we have nothing.” The lava appeared to have stopped flowing about 3 a.m. Sunday, seven hours after the eruption began, the New York Times reported.

Death toll expected to rise considerably, more than 500 homes destroyed after eruption at Mount Nyiragongo, DR Congo  - More scary details are coming to light two days after the eruption of Mount Nyiragongo in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Saturday, May 22, 2021.

• While the main lava flow appears to have stopped in the district of Buhene, it affected 17 villages, destroyed more than 500 homes, left 15 confirmed fatalities and many missing. 
• The flow was about 9 m (30 feet) high in some places and about 800 m (2 600 feet) wide.
• Authorities warn that the danger is not over as seismic activity in the area continues, rising the probability of new lava flows.

According to figures released on May 23, at least 15 people have been killed, including 9 in traffic accidents as panicked residents tried to evacuate the city of Goma and its suburbs. The total population in this area exceeds 2 million as more than 1.5 million people moved near the volcano over the past 20 years.On May 24, 7 more people died from inhaling toxic gas while walking across a wide expanse of the cooling lava, bringing the number of casualties to 22. The number of casualties rose to 32 on May 25.Other casualties were four people who tried to escape Munzenze prison and two who were burned to death, government spokesman Patrick Muyaya said in a statement.Unfortunately, the death toll is expected to rise considerably as many people are still missing, including 170 children. 150 people have reportedly lost contact with their families, according to UNICEF.At this time, the main lava flow has stopped in the district of Buhene, a few hundred meters away from the city limit, where more than 500 homes and large buildings were buried. A separate lava flow that headed east over unpopulated terrain towards Rwanda also appeared to have stopped. - In total, lava flows affected 17 villages, three health centers, and a primary school, a government spokesperson said. In addition, a water pipeline and Goma's main electricity supply line were destroyed. Nyiragongo is monitored by Goma Volcano Observatory (OVG) who's head warned last year that the volcano's lava lake is filling up quickly. Unfortunately, the World Bank has cut funding to the observatory in 2020 amid accusations of corruption. In April 2020, Congo's Office for Good Governance and the Fight against Corruption (OBLC) opened an investigation, seizing bank records and invoices from OVG.However, authorities suspended the investigation two weeks later and it remains incomplete, sources at OBLC told Reuters in March 2021.With this, OVG was left struggling to pay even basic checks like the Internet to run remote sensors and fuel for field trips to manually download the data on memory cards.All this was happening during activity that resembled those before catastrophic eruptions of 1977 and 2002.

Seismicity and soil deformation indicate the presence of magma under Goma and Lake Kivu - Nyiragongo, DR Congo - Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo have ordered a precautionary evacuation of part of the city of Goma on Thursday, May 27, 2021, in response to frequent earthquakes in the region after the eruption of Mount Nyiragongo on May 22.Local military governor General Constant Ndima told the media they can't rule out a new eruption over land or under Lake Kivu."Current data of seismicity and soil deformation indicate the presence of magma under the urban area of Goma with an extension under Lake Kivu," Ndima said. "The situation can change rapidly, and is being constantly monitored." The eruption might occur with very little or no warning signs, Ndima said, adding that several inhabited areas exposed to the risk of destruction will be evacuated."Goma is still under persistent threat of repeated eruptions and earthquakes. This requires the government to activate as a precautionary measure a gradual evacuation plan for residents as soon as possible before the threat is completely eliminated," the Ministry of Communication and Media said Thursday.Ndima said evacuation is necessary and should be done calmly and without rushing.The government has arranged transport toward Sake, some 20 km (12.4 miles) west of Goma. “People should take the bare minimum with them, to make sure everyone has a chance to get on," he added. Initial reports indicate that about 32 people had died, about 12 from lava and gas asphyxiation while crossing lava flows, and most of the rest from accidents while fleeing. Several people, including many children, remained missing, though families were continuing to be reunited. Seismic data during May 22 - 24 showed events seemingly propagating from the summit area to the south into Lake Kivu, GVP reports. Several strong earthquakes shook buildings in Goma, causing some to collapse and injure people. Local media reported that tremor was felt about every 30 minutes beginning around 12:00 LT on May 23. Both airports in Goma closed for security reasons. Hundreds of buildings in neighboring Rwanda were damaged.Cracks a few 10s of cm wide opened in different parts of the city on May 25. The cracks stretched for several hundred meters from the northern city limit down to the lake, and were nearly 100 m (330 feet) long near the airport. Some of them were hot and emitting gasses, and some were flaming.

Lava overtakes artificial dam near the Fagradalsfjall eruption site, Iceland –(videos) Lava has overtaken the artificial dam built near the Fagradalsfjall eruption site in Iceland as of Sunday, May 23, 2021. The lava has entered the valley, leading towards the southern ring road. Lava has overflowed from the artificial dam that had been immediately built near Fagradalsfjall volcano in an attempt to prevent lava from entering the Natthagi Valley.As of Sunday, lava has reached the valley, leading towards the southern ring road. As it descended the northern headwall of the valley, it produced a beautiful lava fall and formed a new flow along the bottom of the valley.The lava is now following and covering the hiking path leading from the parking at the ring road northwards to the eruption site. Its front is now nearing the road at 2 km (1.2 miles) away and may actually reach it if the eruption continues at its steady and gradually increasing rate.

Increase in explosive activity, lava fountain night at Etna volcano, Italy - Three episodes of strong lava fountaining took place at Etna volcano since 20:20 UTC on May 25, 2021, generating an eruptive column up to 7.6 km (25 000 feet) above sea level. The Aviation Color Code was raised to Red on 7 occasions since UTC midnight on May 25, with the last one at 10:50 UTC today.The first paroxysm started at 22:20 UTC on May 25 and lasted nearly 60 minutes. It was followed by another at around 08:18 UTC and another at 10:32 UTC, still ongoing at the time of press -- the 5^th paroxysmal eruptive episode at Etna since May 20 and the 23^rd since February 16.According to the forecast model, the eruptive cloud produced by this activity scattered to the E and SW, rising up to 7.6 km (25 00 feet) above sea level.

Explosive eruption at Great Sitkin, Aviation Color Code raised to Red, Alaska -  A short-lived explosive eruption began at Great Sitkin volcano, Alaska at 05:04 UTC on May 26, 2021, and lasted for about 1 to 2 minutes. The Aviation Color Code was raised to Red at 05:30 UTC.The resulting ash cloud rose up to 4.5 km (15 000 feet) above sea level and drifted east."Since that explosion, seismicity has decreased and satellite images show that the ash cloud has detached from the vent and is moving towards the east," the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) said at 06:03 UTC.Additional explosions are possible and the Aviation Color Code remains at RED and the Volcano Alert Level at WARNING.Tyler Ellis of Discovery Drilling, who captured the image below from Adak, said it was a very loud explosion:AVO started detecting an increase in local earthquake activity on May 24, indicating an increased potential for eruptive activity, and prompting the observatory to raise the Aviation Color Code to Orange and the Volcano Alert Level to Watch.Last week, elevated surface temperatures and sulfur dioxide emissions were observed in satellite data, and robust steaming was observed by AVO field crews on Adak Island.Elevated surface temperatures have been observed in satellite images beginning in January 2021 and detections have increased over the past two months.Satellite detections of increased volcanic gas emissions have been observed beginning on May 10.

 Greenland’s Melting Glaciers Are Polluting Coasts With Shocking Amounts of Mercury  - Greenland's melting ice sheet is unleashing an astonishing amount of mercury into the nation's rivers and fjords.Downstream of three glaciers in the southwest, researchers have found coastal ecosystems are swimming in high concentrations of the heavy metal, which can build up in the food web to toxic levels.The quantity of mercury observed in three glacial rivers and three fjords in Greenland was among the worst in recorded history. In fact, researchers say the concentrations here are only matched by the polluted waterways of Industrial China, which overall produces about one-third of the world's mercury pollution.As Greenland's glaciers continue to melt in line with our worst-case scenarios, experts are worried even more trapped mercury (Hg) could one day be released into the environment. "This large, unaccounted for and climatically sensitive Hg source has not been considered in current global Hg budgets and Hg management strategies, but it should be assessed urgently given the human and economic implications of elevated Hg exposure," the authors of the new study warn. Mercury is a natural and widespread element, released by wildfires, volcanic eruptions, and erosion. Yet in the past 150 years, industrial activity has been actively pumping even more of this pollutant into the atmosphere. As the metal gradually drifts down from above, the element is passed from one organism to another, gradually concentrating in the food chain. People and animals in the Arctic are more likely to ingest toxic levels of mercuryfrom their food and water, possibly because global circulation carries these heavy metals to the north.

Climate change: Earth's temperature could pass Paris agreement limit --The odds of the planet continuing to warm over the next several years have increased, top meteorologists said Thursday in a new report. In fact, within the next five years, there's now a 40% chance that Earth's annual average temperature will temporarily edge above a limit set by the Paris climate agreement. The report was prepared by scientists from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), an agency of the United Nations. “These are more than just statistics,” WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said in a statement. “Increasing temperatures mean more melting ice, higher sea levels, more heat waves and other extreme weather, and greater impacts on food security, health, the environment and sustainable development.” The landmark 2015 Paris climate agreement set a target of keeping warming to a few tenths of a degree warmer than now. Thursday's report said there is a 40% chance that at least one of the next five years will be 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than pre-industrial times – the more stringent of two Paris goals. The chance of temporarily reaching 1.5 degrees has roughly doubled compared with last year’s predictions, the WMO said. “This study shows – with a high level of scientific skill – that we are getting measurably and inexorably closer to the lower target of the Paris agreement on climate change," Taalas said. "It is yet another wake-up call that the world needs to fast-track commitments to slash greenhouse gas emissions and achieve carbon neutrality.” The Paris agreement seeks to keep the rise in global temperature well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius. National commitments to cut emissions, known as nationally determined contributions, fall far short of what is needed to achieve this target.

The IEA Is Delusional -The IEA is out with its latest “road map” for zero emissions by 2050. Is there a word more expressive than “delusional” in the English language? We have never read such self serving drivel in our lives. It is as “bizarre” as the valuation of Tesla’s stock price.In fact, it seems impossible to us that grown adults can put forth such obvious nonsense and still be taken seriously. I read it and immediately needed a Nurofen, which I didn’t have, so instead I went out and chainsawed a tree down that was pissing me off. Pah, take that!We urge you to have a read of the report and ask yourself: but how is all this going to be achieved? What resources will it take, and at what cost? Are there enough resources in the first place? Will required investments occur if the cost of capital rises (which it will) and can developed countries tell emerging countries how to live their lives (more on this in the next section)? Well, those are just a few macro questions that pop to mind. You may think of others. As an appetiser to the report we have pulled out a few juicy charts. We think the following two sum up the delusion.We are told that replacement is going to be by wind and solar at least from an electricity generation perspective. Wind and solar electricity output goes up about 12x. Not double, not triple, not quadruple. Twelve times!Coal and natural gas are gone. Woosh, like the foreskin on a jewish baby. And nuclear stays unchanged. Where the materials are going to come from to produce all those wind turbines, solar panels, associated infrastructure is an interesting question which goes completely unanswered. And what about the land required for all those “energy farms”?Then, while reading through this piece of fiction, we immediately had to ask ourselves what will be the cost of a megawatt of electricity generated by wind and solar given the massive uptake and the demands on materials used to construct the wind turbines and solar panels?And one final thing, 2020 has some 85% of electricity being generated by baseload technology. But by 2030 according to these dolts 50% will be base load. And as if that wasn’t loopy enough, by 2050 they say it’ll be 35%.So what happens when that wind don’t blow and the sun don’t shine? Now, as you know I’m no engineer, but I do know that to achieve anything that is even a fraction of this delusion there must be energy storage technology which as of today doesn’t exist. Current technology for batteries won’t do it. We already know that.

IEA's urgent fossil fuel warning earns mixed reception from producers - (Reuters) - A stark appeal by the world’s top energy body to stop investment in new fossil fuel projects by next year has met a mixed reception from the world’s top producers - from guarded praise and pledges to cut back on coal to outright defiance. The International Energy Agency said in its “Net Zero by 2050” report last week that investors should not fund new oil, gas and coal supply projects beyond this year if the world wants to reach net zero emissions by mid-century and meet the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change. Its findings aim to encourage ambitious climate targets from countries attending the United Nations' Climate Change Conference (COP26) in November in Glasgow, Scotland but has yet to garner a full commitment from any country. (Graphic: IEA Net Zero, ) The world’s seven largest advanced economies agreed on Friday to stop international financing of coal projects that emit carbon by the end of this year and phase out such support for all fossil fuels. The United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, plus the European Union, said in a joint statement: “international investments in unabated coal must stop now”. Alok Sharma, the UK minister presiding over the global climate talks in Scotland who requested the IEA publish its Net Zero report, stopped short of committing to the fossil fuel ban. “I welcome this @IEA report, which sets a roadmap to #NetZero and shares many of the priorities of the UK”, Sharma tweeted, adding that the UK wanted to “consign coal power to history”. Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg described the IEA’s roadmap as simply one of “many reports”, telling the NTB news agency it would not change the petroleum policy of Western Europe’s biggest oil producing country. White House National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy said the IEA advice deserved close scrutiny but that change would be gradual and fossil fuel projects remained in the pipeline. “I think that’s one of the things that we have to think about and struggle with ... I’m not suggesting this transformation is going to be quick”, she said, noting that hundreds of new U.S. natural gas units were planned.

Biden adviser calls it "ridiculous" to push climate sacrifice now -  On "Axios on HBO," White House national climate adviser Gina McCarthy called for a practical rather than idealistic approach to getting Americans to change their routines to save the planet. McCarthy told me that with all the lost jobs, "Now is not the time to sit them down and say: 'Let's talk about climate. How can you sacrifice?' ... [I]t's never going to be a winning strategy. Right now, it's ridiculous."  Electric vehicles have had a luxury image. But McCarthy took me for a spin in an electric Chevrolet Bolt before the interview, as part of an effort to show electric vehicles can be an economical part of the average American's future. McCarthy — the head of the EPA under President Obama, and now in a new job created by President Biden — noted that change is hard, because people love their routines. McCarthy said that with all the new technology, "the whole job is to get people excited about what's available, get that deployed to its maximum." "They don't want to have to do research on things like cars," she added. "They just want 'em to be what they used to be. And if you want to make the kind of shift that we need for climate, you've got to be optimistic about the future." 

BUDGET: Conservation, the grid, EVs: What to watch in Biden pitch -- Thursday, May 27, 2021 -- Earlier this spring, President Biden outlined a $1.52 trillion discretionary spending plan for fiscal 2022, which would be a $118 billion — 8.8% — increase over current funding.But that preliminary text offered mainly top-line proposals for agencies, with this week's blueprint set to contain the traditional breakdowns of program and project spending as well as tax proposals.Here are five areas to watch as Biden details his budget plan:

• Pushing the innovation agenda:The White House will spell out where it intends to target $8 billion in clean energy research and development dollars, a 27% increase over current spending that has support from both parties."Climate goals are really dependent on getting these technologies developed and then deployed," said Dan Byers, vice president for climate and technology at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Global Energy Institute.
• Conservation push. Expect the White House to highlight several new and expanded conservation efforts.Fiscal 2022 marks the first year Congress will be required to spend $900 million annually on the Land and Water Conservation Fund, under the Great American Outdoors Act that Congress passed last year.Those dollars will automatically be included in the mandatory budget. Biden already has jettisoned controversial Trump administration policies that would have handed state and local officials some veto power over LWCF land acquisitions. Lawmakers are eager to begin shaping how the LWCF dollars are spent.
• Infrastructure ideas. Lawmakers continue to hash out a multitrillion-dollar infrastructure bill on Capitol Hill. But expect the budget to highlight where the White House would like some of those dollars to go.Senate Environment and Public Works Chair Tom Carper (D-Del.), whose committee advanced a $350 billion surface transportation bill yesterday that will be part of any broader infrastructure deal, said he expects the fiscal 2022 budget to make some initial investments aimed at electric vehicles (Greenwire, May 26).
• Taxing details. The White House's budget will offer the clearest picture yet for how it will pay for infrastructure and other priorities.Biden seems likely to align himself with Senate Finance Democrats who yesterday passed a revenue bill that would restore an Obama-era clean energy tax break, known as 48C advanced energy manufacturing credit (see related story). It would do so by eliminating or consolidating dozens of energy tax breaks, including repealing fossil fuel breaks.
• Environmental justice. Greens are thrilled that Biden is proposing billions of dollars in new spending on climate initiatives for fiscal 2022, but they want to be sure that money goes toward environmental justice, or EJ, efforts in hard-hit communities."What we are particularly looking at is that the money is funded around communities of color and those disproportionately impacted by the cumulative impacts of climate change and environmental pollution," said Kirin Kennedy, deputy legislative director for the Sierra Club.

 Real American Men and the Liberal War on Meat --On 24 April, Fox News broke out in a panic over “plant-based beer” and “grilled brussels sprouts” for a “Green 4th of July.” The tone and tenor suggested environmentalism was a deadly threat to the US, and especially American manhood.Radical Right congressperson, gun enthusiast and Q-Anon supporter Lauren Boebert tweeted that US president Joe Biden’s climate plan would cut 90% of American’s red meat consumption by 2030 and that Biden should “stay out of her kitchen”. The image of Biden in the kitchen evoked fears about the administration’s totalitarian overreach, and suggested an inversion of gender roles – Biden, and all vegetarians, were not real American men. Boebert and others repeated talking points by Larry Kudlow, the Fox Business host and former Trump adviser, who argued the Green New Deal would be the end of grilling and traditional 4 July celebrations, stoking a panic about the end of the most masculine form of cooking and the most American of holidays with casual racism.Those covering the story used Mock Black speech or words or grammar associated by white speakers with Black language – such as “Up in your grill” – to evoke racial stereotypes. This links Biden to imagined urban Blackness and tells the audience that they know the “real American men” are white and suburban. Meanwhile, in order to let everyone know they didn’t support Biden or brussels sprouts, right-wing men flooded Twitter with pictures of their meat. They retweeted several pounds of unseasoned grey T-bones, raw steaks, prime ribs – often accompanied by an American beer. One popularmeme echoed the National Rifle Association, saying we could take their steak from their cold dead hands. Liberal Twitter responded by mocking the Right with #meatbeer; laughing that they didn’t know that beer is always plant-based (except Coors) or that you should order steak medium-rare. Almost nobody mentioned that we should, in fact, eat less meat.This was just the latest in a series of Republican attacks on ‘vegetarian totalitarians’ and the welfare state, from the “broccoli horrible” argument against the Affordable Care Act to stoking fears that the Green New Deal will ban hamburgers. On 13 April 2021 Iowa Republican Senator Joni Ernst proposed the TASTEE Act (Telling Agencies to Stop Tweaking What Employees Eat), which would ban “Meatless Mondays” in federal cafeterias, warning us of a “war on meat” which sounds a lot like the “war on Christmas” or “the war on men”.

The fight for the soul – and the future – of ExxonMobil - A group of insurgent investors backed by the three largest pension funds in America is trying to force ExxonMobil to take climate change much more seriously — not just for the sake of the company’s viability but also for the sake of the planet.The revolt is being led by a hedge fund, called Engine No. 1, which has charged the company not only with poor financial governance but with failing to come up with a viable strategy for dealing with the existential threat of climate change. Their campaign has built momentum by winning widespread backing from pension funds and shareholder advisory services for its proposal to install four new independent directors at ExxonMobil’s annual meeting next week over the objections of the oil giant’s management. Engine No. 1 wants ExxonMobil to pledge to reduce its emissions to net zero by 2050, warning that this was “not just a climate issue but a fundamental investor issue — no different than capital allocation or management compensation — given the immense risk to ExxonMobil’s current business model in a rapidly changing world.”The battle at the iconic ExxonMobil — a descendant of the powerful Standard Oil Co. monopoly that was broken up in 1911 — reflects a broader awakening among shareholders about the need for major corporations to take climate change into account. Shareholders have also filed resolutions at other major firms.“What these campaigns suggest is we’re at a point in time where climate change is so fully part of the mainstream that you can’t separate financial performance from climate strategy,” Andrew Logan, senior director for oil and gas at Ceres, a nonprofit merging climate and financial activism, said. “They’re one and the same. A company not managing its climate risk properly is not managing its financial risk properly.”

 Exxon Mobil Faces Off Against Activist Investors on Climate Change - The New York Times — Exxon Mobil’s management will face a big challenge over its climate change policies at an annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday as activists contest the election of one-third of the company’s board. Analysts who follow the company said they could not recall an election in which board candidates nominated by Exxon had lost. A defeat for even one of its nominees would be a rebuke to Darren W. Woods, Exxon’s chairman and chief executive.Led by Engine No. 1, an activist hedge fund, a coalition of investors concerned about the environment has argued that Exxon has not invested enough in cleaner energy, which will hurt its profits in the future. These investors argue that the company should follow European oil companies like BP and Total that have begun investing heavily in renewables like wind and solar energy.Much depends on whether much larger Exxon shareholders back Engine No. 1’s campaign. All eyes are on BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, which has cast itself as a leader in efforts topress companies to do more to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases that cause global warming.Engine No. 1 is seeking to defeat the election of four of the company’s 12 director candidates with four of its own. Some big pension funds, including the New York State Common Retirement Fund and the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, have joined Engine No. 1, which was started last year.“We listen, and we hear,” Mr. Woods said in an interview in which he tried to take a conciliatory tone. “We don’t always agree, but we always understand there is an opportunity to improve.”Exxon has argued that it is addressing climate change via its investments in technology that captures carbon at factories, before it is released in the atmosphere, and stores it. This technology includes a proposal involving emissions from industrial plants along the Houston Ship Channel. On Monday, it announced that later this year it would add two new directors to the board, including a climate expert, but it has not committed to investing in renewable energy. Engine No. 1 dismissed Exxon’s Monday announcement. “What the board needs are directors with experience in successful and profitable energy industry transformations,” the hedge fund said in a statement. “This vote is too important to be influenced by this type of cynical, last-minute maneuvering.” Much depends on whether shareholders with large stakes in Exxon vote with Engine No. 1.  Reuters reported on Tuesday that BlackRock, which has a 6.7 percent stake in Exxon, had backed Engine No. 1’s campaign by voting for three of the hedge fund’s candidates. A BlackRock representative declined to comment on the report or its Exxon votes.

Engine No. 1 wins at least 2 Exxon board seats as activist pushes for climate strategy change - Activist firm Engine No. 1 won at least two board seats at Exxon following a historic battle over the oil giant's board of directors, signaling investors' support for greater disclosure from the company as the world shifts away from fossil fuels. The vote over a third candidate proposed by Engine No. 1 was too close to call as of 3 p.m. on Wall Street. "We're looking forward to welcoming the new directors," Exxon CEO Darren Woods said Wednesday on CNBC's "Closing Bell." "I look forward to helping them understand our plans and then hear their insights and perspectives." Engine No. 1, which has a 0.02% stake in Exxon, has been targeting the company since December, pushing the it to reconsider its role in a zero-carbon world. Wednesday's vote came during Exxon's annual shareholder meeting, where Woods fielded questions from shareholders ranging from the company's dividend to its investments in carbon capture technology. The meeting took place in two parts, with a roughly one-hour recess between the two due to a number of votes still being cast. The vote follows months of back-and-forth between Engine No. 1 and Exxon. The activist firm nominated four independent director candidates and won support from large pension funds, including CalPERS, calSTRS and the New York State Common Retirement Fund. On Monday, Exxon said in a filing that over the next 12 months it will seek to add two new directors, "one with energy industry experience and one with climate experience." But Engine No. 1 said the changes didn't go far enough. "What the Board needs are directors with experience in successful and profitable energy industry transformations who can help turn aspirations of addressing the risks of climate change into a long-term business plan, not talking points," the firm said in a statement Monday. For its part, Exxon's management has emphasized the steps it is taking toward solidifying its role in a lower-carbon future, including allocating $3 billion for research around carbon capture and other emissions-cutting technologies.

Climate Change Activists Notch Victory in Exxon Mobil Board Elections - NYTimes --Shareholders elected at least two of the four directors nominated by a coalition of investors that said the oil giant was not investing enough in cleaner energy. — Big Oil was dealt a stunning defeat on Wednesday when shareholders of Exxon Mobil elected at least two board candidates nominated by activist investors who pledged to steer the company toward cleaner energy and away from oil and gas.The success of the campaign, led by a tiny hedge fund against the nation’s largest oil company, could force the energy industry to confront climate change and embolden Wall Street investment firms that are prioritizing the issue. Analysts could not recall another time that Exxon management had lost a vote against company-picked directors.“This is a landmark moment for Exxon and for the industry,” said Andrew Logan, a senior director at Ceres, a nonprofit investor network that pushes corporations to take climate change seriously. “How the industry chooses to respond to this clear signal will determine which companies thrive through the coming transition and which wither.”The vote reveals the growing power of giant Wall Street firms that manage the 401(k)s and other investments of individuals and businesses to press C.E.O.s to pursue environmental and social goals. Some of these firms are run by executives who say they see climate change as a major threat to the economy and the planet.Exxon’s top five shareholders include Vanguard, BlackRock and Fidelity, large mutual fund companies. BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, and Exxon’s second-largest shareholder with a 6.7 percent stake, has cast itself as a leader in efforts to reduce companies’ carbon dioxide emissions. This year, BlackRock’s chief executive, Laurence D. Fink, said that the coronavirus pandemic had “driven us to confront the global threat of climate change more forcefully.”BlackRock backed three of four candidates nominated by the activists. The vote was not fully tabulated at the end of Wednesday, and there were still two seats undecided on the 12-person board. Eight of the people Exxon’s management nominated won seats. The victory of the hedge fund leading this campaign, Engine No. 1, was a sharp rebuke to Darren W. Woods, Exxon’s chairman and chief executive. It is the culmination of years of efforts by activists to force the oil giant to change its environmental policies and approach. Some big pension funds, including the New York State Common Retirement Fund and the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, had joined Engine No. 1, which was started just last year.Engine No. 1, which owns less than 1 percent of Exxon’s stock, began its campaign last December. But its victory has long been in the making. Over the last decade, European oil companies have increasingly invested in wind, solar and other new energy sources like hydrogen fuel cells, which produce water vapor instead of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

Chevron shareholders back emissions cut proposal - Chevron shareholders on Wednesday backed a proposal for the company to cut its emissions. A spokesperson for the company confirmed to The Hill that a preliminary total for the measure calling for cuts to the company’s “Scope 3” emissions showed 61 percent support. Scope 3 emissions are those that aren’t directly tied to the company’s fuel production, but rather those that come from activities like consumer use of such fuel. The support for such a measure shows that shareholders see climate change as a growing concern. In a statement on the company’s annual meeting, chairman and CEO Michael Wirth also mentioned emissions reductions. “We're optimistic about the future as we work to deliver higher returns and lower carbon,” he said. It’s not the only major oil company to face shareholder pushback on climate on Wednesday.At ExxonMobil, at least two climate advocate candidates were elected to the company’s board. They were tied to a firm called  Engine No. 1 which called for Exxon to make more significant investments in clean energy, using stricter approval criteria for new expenditures and an “overhaul” of management compensation. Meanwhile, a Dutch court required Shell to cut its emissions by 45 percent compared to 2019 levels by 2030, though the ruling is onlyenforceable in the Netherlands.

Industry presses House committee on facilitating new transmission critical to Biden climate goals - How the United States plans, permits and pays for new electric transmission investments will be key to achieving decarbonization goals and growing the use of renewable energy, industry panelists told the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis on Thursday. Transmission projects can take more than a decade to complete and along the way many are abandoned due to time and costs, Emily Fisher, general counsel for the Energy Edison Electric Institute, told lawmakers on the committee. Current regional planning processes "are hindering, not helping, stakeholders identify necessary projects and get them built," she said. Committee Chair Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., said there appears to be "common ground" among lawmakers to improve the transmission development process. Republicans, however, question the scope of President Biden's infrastructure and jobs plan, and its focus on making the economy carbon-neutral by 2050. House Democrats considering the CLEAN Future Act and the LIFT America Act as means to implement Biden's infrastructure and jobs plan, said Castor. "It's clear we have a consensus here. Investments in transmission would benefit consumers across the country," said Castor. "That's why renewing and modernizing the grid is the centerpiece of President Biden's American jobs plan." The CLEAN Future Act would require retail electric providers to generate 100% of their power from zero-emissions resources by 2035, and 80% by 2030. The legislation would also require federal regulators to update U.S. transmission policy to better integrate renewables and provide tax credits for transmission expansions. The LIFT America Act includes billions for energy efficiency, grid upgrades and electric vehicle investment. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has targeted July 4 for bringing an infrastructure bill to the House floor. "This piece of an infrastructure plan, focused on electric transmission, is just going to be critical and I think there is common ground here," Castor said. She asked panelists what they needed in order to push ahead with a clean energy agenda.

Connecticut looks to join seven other US states in setting energy storage target - Connecticut’s Senate has passed a bill targeting the deployment of 1,000MW of energy storage by the end of 2030, which when signed into law by the state’s governor will make it the eighth state jurisdiction in the US so far to introduce either a target or mandate for energy storage. Senate Bill (SB) 952, ‘An act concerning energy storage,’ was passed by the upper house of Connecticut lawmakers on 20 May. The bill establishes goals, programme requirements and authority to procure energy storage and requires the state’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to report back to the legislative General Assembly’s Energy and Technology Committee each year, beginning 1 January 2023, on progress towards achieving those goals. The targets are set for 1,000MW by 31 December 2030, with interim targets of 300MW by 31 December 2024 and 650MW by 31 December 2027. The state regulator, the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA), must initiate a proceeding by 1 January 2022 to develop and implement programmes and funding mechanisms for storage connected to the state’s electric distribution grid and then report back to the Energy and Technology Committee on progress. The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) will be able to issue requests for proposals (RFPs) for transmission and distribution grid-connected energy storage that would count towards those deployment targets. DEEP can then assess the cost-effectiveness of proposals received. Programmes developed and implemented by PURA must include provisions for energy storage at residential, commercial and industrial (C&I) and front-of-meter electric storage, while the regulator must consult with a number of state agencies and authorities on programme design, including the Connecticut Green Bank and DEEP.

Carbon storage offers hope for climate, cash for farmers — The rye and rapeseed that Rick Clifton cultivated in central Ohio were coming along nicely — until his tractor rumbled over the flat, fertile landscape, spraying it with herbicides.These crops weren’t meant to be eaten, but to occupy the ground between Clifton’s soybean harvest last fall and this spring’s planting. Yet thanks to their environmental value, he’ll still make money from them.Farmers increasingly have been growing offseason cereals and grasses to prevent erosion and improve soil. Now, they’re gaining currency as weapons against climate change.Experts believe keeping ground covered year-round rather than bare in winter is among practices that could reduce emissions of planet-warming gases while boosting the agricultural economy, if used far more widely.“For too long, we’ve failed to use the most important word when it comes to meeting the climate crisis: jobs, jobs, jobs,” President Joe Biden said in his April address to Congress. One example, he added: “Farmers planting cover crops so they can reduce the carbon dioxide in the air and get paid for doing it.”Clifton, 66, started growing cover crops several years ago to improve corn, soybean and wheat yields. Then he read about Indigo Agriculture, a company that helps businesses and organizations buy credits for carbon bottled up in farm fields. He signed a contract that could pay about $175,000 over five years for storing greenhouse gases across his 3,000 acres.“If you can get something green on the ground year-round, you’re feeding the microbes in the soil and it’s a lot healthier,” he said, touring a barn loaded with cultivating and harvesting equipment. “And if somebody wants to pay you to do that, it looks to me like you’re foolish not to do it.”

The only way to hit net zero by 2050 is to stop flying - The UK aviation industry this week promised to bring its net carbon emissionsdown to zero by 2050 while growing by 70 per cent, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson boldly predicted that “viable electric planes” would be available in just a few years.But past experience with innovation in aviation suggests that such ambitious targets are unrealistic and distracting. The only way the UK can get to net zero emission aviation by 2050 is by having a substantial period of no aviation at all. Let’s stop placing impossible hopes on breakthrough technologies, and try to hit emissions targets with today’s technologies. Our recent report “Absolute Zero” draws on work at six British universities to explain how.There are three ways to deliver net-zero aviation: invent new electric aircraft, change the fuels of existing aircraft or take the emissions out of the atmosphere.Electric planes already fly. Solar Impulse 2, powered by solar cells flew one person round the world in 2016, but slow progress in photovoltaics mean this is unlikely to scale up. Demonstrations of short battery-powered flights with a few passengers will soon begin. However, the technology is in its infancy and aerospace is, rightly, a highly regulated industry. Commercial long-haul electric flights will not be operating at any significant scale by 2050.Alternative fuels, such as hydrogen or synthetic kerosene, only deliver zero emissions flight if their production is powered by renewable electricity. Right now, green sources supply about 15 per cent of the world’s primary energy consumption. Over the next 30 years, while road vehicles, heating and industry are being electrified, there is unlikely to be spare clean power to make aviation fuel.Finally, there are currently no meaningful negative emissions technologies. It requires more energy to recapture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than was generated when it was released. Using renewable electricity to power carbon capture rather than to displace fossil fuels does not create a net reduction. And tree planting only goes so far: we must increase the total area of forest in perpetuity to produce a one-off reduction in atmospheric carbon dioxide.So the commitment to net zero aviation by 2050 is really a commitment to zero aviation. Rather than hope new technology will magically rescue us, we should stop planning to increase fossil-fuel flights and commit to halving them within 10 years with an eye toward phasing them out entirely by 2050.Taxing aircraft fuel at the level of the UK’s current road fuel tax would be a useful first step: I estimate that it would make flights up to four times more expensive.Climate policy announcements so far have failed to account for the limited rate at which new technologies can reach significant scale. Fifty years after the Danes began developing wind turbines, they contribute just 2 per cent of world primary energy. Regardless of prices or incentives, new energy generation, transport and industrial processes require public consultation on regulations, land use, funding, environmental impacts and more. This all slows down their adoption.

Airships for city hops could cut flying’s CO2 emissions by 90%   - For those fancying a trip from Liverpool to Belfast or Barcelona to the Balearic Islands but concerned about the carbon footprint of aeroplane travel, a small Bedford-based company is promising a surprising solution: commercial airships.Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV), which has developed a new environmentally friendly airship 84 years after the Hindenburg disaster, on Wednesday named a string of routes it hoped to serve from 2025.The routes for the 100-passenger Airlander 10 airship include Barcelona to Palma de Mallorca in four and a half hours. The company said the journey by airship would take roughly the same time as aeroplane travel once getting to and from the airport was taken into account, but would generate a much smaller carbon footprint. HAV said the CO2 footprint per passenger on its airship would be about 4.5kg, compared with about 53kg via jet plane. “This isn’t a luxury product it’s a practical solution to challenges posed by the climate crisis.” He said that 47% of regional aeroplane flights connect cities that are less than 230 miles (370km) apart, and emit a huge about of carbon dioxide doing so. “We’ve got aircraft designed to travel very long distances going very short distances, when there is actually a better solution,” Grundy said. “How much longer will we expect to have the luxury of travelling these short distances with such a big carbon footprint?” Grundy said the hybrid-electric Airlander 10 could make the same connections with 10% of the carbon footprint from 2025, and with even smaller emissions in the future when the airships were expected to be all-electric powered. “It’s an early and quick win for the climate,” he said. “Especially when you use this to get over an obstacle like water or hills.” HAV said it was in discussions with a number of airlines to operate the routes, and expected to announce partnerships and airline customers in the next few months. The company has already signed a deal to deliver an airship to luxury Swedish travel firm OceanSky Cruises, which has said it intends to use the craft to offer “experiential travel” over the North Pole with Arctic explorer Robert Swan.

Ford ups EV investments, targets 40% electric car sales by 2030 --Ford Motor said Wednesday it expects electric vehicles to make up almost half of its global sales by 2030 under the company's latest turnaround plan. Its plan includes increasing its investment in EVs to more than $30 billion through 2025. Ford announced the plans during its first investor day under CEO Jim Farley, who took over the helm of the automaker on Oct. 1. The highly anticipated event focused on Farley's new "Ford+" plan to turn around its operations and expand into emerging markets such as connected vehicles and subscription services. "This is our biggest opportunity for growth and value creation since Henry Ford started to scale the Model T, and we're grabbing it with both hands," Farley said. Shares of Ford reached a new 52-week high during intraday trading Wednesday morning. The stock was up by as much as 8.9% to $13.95 a share during the event. It was trading slightly below that afterward. Its market cap is about $54 billion.

Electric vehicles are the future but not reasonably priced right now | Local Columnists  My wife and I have aged vehicles — mine a 1999 Subaru and hers a 2012 Prius. So, we were in the market for at least one new automobile. Since we are both rather rabid environmentalists, our minds were pointing the same direction — on an all-electric vehicle. The recent roll-out of the all-electric Ford F-150 pickup got lots of publicity, including a video that featured President Joe Biden behind the wheel and extolling the fast speeds of which the F-150 was capable. Triggered by this publicity, I set out to search for electric cars. On that search, what I found is that electric vehicles are not quite ready for prime time. While the prices are likely to come down because of competition, right now electric vehicles are priced well above what we — and most people — can afford. All of the electric vehicles on the market require a substantial down payment amounting to thousands of dollars. The second thing I found was how long it takes to charge one of these. On household current (120 volts), it takes all night. Even at an electric vehicle charging station, it apparently takes about 30 minutes, plenty of time for visiting the bathroom, lolling about and eating snacks — but a half-hour is a long time, especially if that time is required every 300 miles or so. Then there is the problem of finding a charging station. No problem in St. Louis or Kansas City, but outside of Columbia and Springfield, there’s not much. However, that will likely change as more and more electric vehicles are on the road. Since we go to such far-flung places as Fort Collins, Colorado, and Charleston, South Carolina, I noted that getting there in an electric vehicle would mean that we would likely be discharged somewhere in Kansas or Tennessee. At present there is a woeful lack of EV charging stations nationwide. Speaking of charging stations, most of the electric vehicles have a range of 300 miles or so, some less, a few more. Only Tesla offers a vehicle with a range of a bit more than 400 miles, but to offset that, Tesla is also the priciest. But right now, if driving an electric vehicle, a person might run out of charge before finding a charging station. The electricity used for charging is generated by coal-fired power plants. That is changing as more power plants use fewer polluting sources of energy, such as natural gas. But currently, the vast majority of power plants use highly polluting coal. All in all, I found that as Bob Dylan had it, times are indeed changing, but an electric vehicle is in our future. Not now.

Exclusive: Biden looks abroad for electric vehicle metals, in blow to U.S. miners (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden will rely on ally countries to supply the bulk of the metals needed to build electric vehicles and focus on processing them domestically into battery parts, part of a strategy designed to placate environmentalists, two administration officials with direct knowledge told Reuters. The plans will be a blow to U.S. miners who had hoped Biden would rely primarily on domestically sourced metals, as his campaign had signaled last autumn, to help fulfill his ambitions for a less carbon-intensive economy. Rather than focus on permitting more U.S. mines, Biden's team is more focused on creating jobs that process minerals domestically into electric vehicle (EV) battery parts, according to the people. Such a plan would help cut U.S. reliance on industry leader China for EV materials while also enticing unions with manufacturing work and, in theory, reduce pandemic-fueled unemployment. The U.S. Commerce Department is organizing a June conference to attract more EV manufacturing to the country. Biden's proposed $1.7 trillion infrastructure plan earmarks $174 billion to boost the domestic EV market with tax credits and grants for battery manufacturers, among other incentives. The department declined to comment. "It's not that hard to dig a hole. What's hard is getting that stuff out and getting it to processing facilities. That's what the U.S. government is focused on," said one of the sources. The approach would see the United States rely on Canada, Australia, and Brazil - among others - to produce most of the critical raw materials needed, while it competes for higher-value jobs turning those minerals into computer chips and batteries, according to the two sources. Securing the full supply chain from metals to batteries does not require the United States to be the primary producer of the raw materials, said one of the sources. A full strategy will be finalized after a year-long supply chain review involving national security and economic development officials. Biden officials want to ensure the administration's EV aspirations are not imperiled as domestic mines face roadblocks, the sources said, both from environmentalists and even some Democrats. "It rings hollow when I hear everyone use this as a national defense argument, that we have to build new mines to have a greener economy," said U.S. Representative Betty McCollum, a Democrat who has introduced legislation that would permanently block Antofagasta Plc's proposed Twin Metals copper mine in Minnesota. Ali Zaidi, deputy White House national climate advisor, said the administration was focused on a strategy that "leverages our domestic resources in a way that's responsible", noting that included recycling in the supply chain. The U.S. government in April became the largest shareholder in mining investment firm TechMet, which controls a Brazilian nickel project, a Rwandan tungsten mine and is a major investor in a Canadian battery recycler.Washington also funds research into Canadian cobalt projects and rare earths projects in Malawi, among other international investments. The State Department's Energy Resource Governance Initiative (ERGI) is one of the main programs Washington plans to use to help allies discover and develop lithium, cobalt and other EV metals.

Dominion's exit from regional capacity market raises some eyebrows — and questions - Citing a controversial federal order that made it difficult for renewables to compete against traditional fossil fuel power plants in regional electricity markets, Dominion Energy this spring withdrew all its Virginia resources from the regional capacity market run by PJM, which coordinates the electric grid in all or part of 13 states and Washington, D.C. Withdrawal “provides a lower cost option for our customers as we add more renewable resources to the system to serve them,” said Dominion spokesperson Rayhan Daudani. The decision, which wasn’t made public until April and was first reported by RTO Insider on May 6, caught many energy industry insiders off guard.  “Nobody knew until three weeks ago about it, which was a bit of a head-scratcher,” said Casey Roberts, a senior attorney with the Sierra Club’s Environmental Law Program.  The capacity market that has been run by PJM since 2006 is designed to ensure that electric generation in a region can meet demand in the long term. During an annual auction, owners of capacity (which usually refers to power generators, whether reliant on fossil fuels or renewables) offer to make that capacity available three years in the future at a specific price. PJM then tallies up those offers from lowest to highest, accepting the cheapest bid and then successively higher ones until it has ensured enough generation is committed three years ahead. The highest of the accepted offers becomes the “clearing price” that all accepted, lower offers are paid. Any bids above that price are rejected and are described as not clearing the auction, meaning their owners get no payment. In December 2019, however, the system was thrown into turmoil by a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission directive known as the “minimum offer price rule,” or MOPR — pronounced the way you’d describe someone who mopes around. In a nutshell, MOPR sets a lower limit on prices in the capacity market. Originally designed to keep players who both buy and sell capacity in the market from artificially driving down prices, MOPR had historically been applied to natural gas resources within PJM’s capacity market. But in 2019, FERC extended that price floor to any resource that received a “state subsidy,” a term regulators interpreted broadly to include virtually all new power sources that were incentivized by state policy.

Historic Black town in Maryland seeks justice for stormwater discharge --A Maryland power plant has been releasing stormwater for years into a small Patuxent River town founded in the late 1920s as a vacation resort for Black professionals. The outflow has intensified floods and damaged the stream that the community relies on to drain heavy rains, town officials say. A resident of the town, Eagle Harbor, spotted a culvert in a wooded area earlier this year that appears to feed stormwater from a Pepco-controlled portion of the Chalk Point generating station into the town’s drainage system. An official with the Maryland Department of the Environment confirmed in a follow-up investigation that the previously undocumented culvert is “likely contributing” to flooding in the town and “has created an adverse impact” on the stream it flows into. The MDE inspector, Renato Cuizon, declined to cite Pepco with a violation, however. The water flows off the company’s 140-acre switchyard, which, as a type of industrial activity, is not required to get a stormwater permit, said MDE spokesman Jay Apperson. But in his four-page inspection report, Cuizon urged both Pepco and GenOn Holdings, which owns other portions of the Chalk Point facility, to make amends for the situation. Among other steps, he told the companies to stop the discharge into Eagle Harbor and work with the town to fix the damage it had caused. James Crudup, Eagle Harbor’s mayor, said that the discovery of the 36-inch culvert helps explain why flooding has worsened in the community in recent years. A powerful storm last fall left parts of the town covered in sand, silt and other debris. Crudup said it was the worst flooding he had seen in his 50 years in Eagle Harbor. To him the affair looks like a classic case of environmental injustice. “Until we get to the bottom of it, I’m pissed,” Crudup said. “They just thought, ‘Well, here’s a small, Black, dumb township. We’ll just stick the pipe in, and they won’t do anything about it.’”

Program spins out new tech to monitor marine life near offshore wind farms - Three companies are preparing to market new ways to protect marine animals near offshore wind installations, thanks to support from the country’s first large-scale offshore wind farm and a Massachusetts-based climate technology incubator. Companies building night-vision cameras, autonomous watercraft, and weather-resistant aerial drones all participated in the Offshore Wind Challenge. The six-month accelerator program provided an intensive education in offshore wind, technology mentorship, and access to building and testing facilities. The participants also received $35,000 to fund their work from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center. The result was three new products that industry insiders say offer promising solutions to protect whales and other marine mammals during offshore turbine construction and operations. The challenge was a partnership between Greentown Labs, a startup incubator based in Somerville, Massachusetts, and Vineyard Wind, which recently received federal approval for its 62-turbine installation. The goal was to address obstacles faced by the United States’ nascent offshore wind sector, which faces different circumstances than the more mature European industry, said Greentown Labs’ CEO Emily Reichert. “There’s obviously a different set of ocean conditions, a different set of marine life, and different weather conditions that might pose unique challenges that have not been addressed before,” she said. “In particular, there are marine mammals that are very much sharing the same waters as our future wind farms, so we have to think about, ‘How do these things exist in harmony with each other?’”

Ohio bills would let townships block wind and solar -An Ohio Senate committee is set to take up a proposal Tuesday that would give townships unprecedented control over wind and solar siting decisions.The latest version of Senate Bill 52 would prevent wind or solar companies from applying to build projects unless townships first set up an “energy development district.” As few as 50 people in the smallest townships could force a referendum on the districts, and local boards would be able to veto projects even after they are approved by the Ohio Power Siting Board.Fossil fuel, nuclear, and other energy projects would not be affected by the legislation, which has a companion version in the state House.Clean energy advocates, who were already alarmed about the bill before the most recent changes, say the uncertainty and added requirements would create a de facto ban on utility-scale wind and solar across most of the state.“There is just no reason why you would invest in Ohio if this bill passes,” said Jane Harf, executive director of Green Energy Ohio.The legislation, which has received multiple hearings in both chambers, would also expand property line setbacks for wind and solar projects. Ohio’s wind setbacks are already among the strictest in the country.Under the proposals, developers would not be allowed to file applications with the Ohio Power Siting Board until after a township has created a special district in which it will allow wind and solar projects.After that, 8% of voters could compel a referendum on the decision, building in more uncertainty and months of added delay.“It’s essentially a popularity contest,” said Rebecca Campbell, manager of market development for First Solar, headquartered in Ohio. “There’s no other state in the country that allows renewable energy to be halted through that process.”A township board of trustees could decide that any particular project was not in the public interest at any point before the state has issued a final certificate. The local township finding then would be binding on the Ohio Power Siting Board. “So trustees can effectively end a project at any time up until a certificate is issued,” said Jason Rafeld, executive director of the Utility Scale Solar Energy Coalition, based in Columbus. Along the way, companies will have spent millions of dollars, Campbell said. The substitute bill language could apply to projects that already have spent huge amounts to file pending applications. Provisions might also be triggered if certain changes were necessary during construction, she noted.

Headwinds: Offshore wind will take time to carry factory jobs to U.S. -(Reuters) - When U.S. President Joe Biden's administration approved the country’s first major offshore wind farm this month, it billed the move as the start of a new clean energy industry that by the end of the decade will create over 75,000 U.S. jobs. Industry executives and analysts do not contest that claim, but they make a clarification: For the first several years at least, most of the manufacturing jobs stemming from the U.S. offshore wind industry will be in Europe. Offshore wind project developers plan to ship massive blades, towers and other components for at least the initial wave of U.S. projects from factories in France, Spain and elsewhere before potentially opening up manufacturing plants on U.S. shores, according to Reuters interviews with executives from three of the world’s leading wind turbine makers. That is because suppliers need to see a deep pipeline of approved U.S. projects, along with a clear set of regulatory incentives like federal and state tax breaks, before committing to siting and building new American factories, they say – a process that could take years. "For the first projects, it's probably necessary" to ship across the Atlantic, said Martin Gerhardt, head of offshore wind product management at Siemens Gamesa, the global offshore wind market leader in a comment typical of the group. That underscores an uncomfortable truth for the Biden administration as it seeks to show political opponents that a transition away from fossil fuels to fight climate change can be good for the economy: many of the clean energy jobs he aims to create to offset losses in drilling and mining may not materialize until well after his time in the White House ends.

Australia power station explosion leaves thousands without electricity - BBC - Hundreds of thousands of people across the Australian state of Queensland were left without electricity after an explosion at a power station. Energy companies are now scrambling to restore power while local officials have warned of traffic chaos. CS Energy said the fire broke out in the station near the town of Biloela around 13:45 local time (03:45 GMT). About 250,000 customers have since had their electricity restored, according to energy providers. But many are still left without power, with around 375,000 customers initially affected by the outage, according to an earlier statement by power company Energex. Queensland Energy Minister Mick de Brenni asked people living in the area to reduce electricity usage where possible for four hours on Tuesday evening to reduce the burden on the system. The outage hit schools, homes and businesses across a wide swathe of the state. It also briefly affected the airport and traffic lights in the city of Brisbane, with officials warning drivers to take care on the roads, reported the Australia Broadcasting Corporation. Queensland emergency services said they were putting out a "generator turbine fire" and that they expected it to be a "prolonged event".

Texas’s Winter Storm Killed Hundreds More Than Reported --The true number of people killed by the disastrous winter storm and power outages that devastated Texas in February is likely four or five times what the state has acknowledged so far. A BuzzFeed News data analysis reveals the hidden scale of a catastrophe that trapped millions of people in freezing darkness, cut off access to running water, and overwhelmed emergency services for days. The state’s tally currently stands at 151 deaths. But by looking at how many more people died during and immediately after the storm than would have been expected — an established method that has been used to count the full toll of other disasters — we estimate that 700 people were killed by the storm during the week with the worst power outages. This astonishing toll exposes the full consequence of officials’ neglect in preventing the power grid’s collapse despite repeated warnings of its vulnerability to cold weather, as well as the state’s failure to reckon with the magnitude of the crisis that followed. Many of the uncounted victims of the storm and power outages were already medically vulnerable — with chronic conditions including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and kidney problems. But without the intense cold and stress they experienced during the crisis, many of these people could still be alive today. This was the case for 80-year-old Julius Gonzales, his family believes. As dawn broke on February 15, he made his way to one of his regular dialysis appointments, only to find that the clinic had lost power and was closed. So the retired maintenance worker turned his Dodge Ram around and headed back to the mobile home he’d shared with his wife, Mary, in the small town of Arcola, Texas, for nearly 20 years. Inside the Gonzales home, the lights were out. As temperatures sank into the low 20s, they couldn’t get warm, no matter how many sweaters and blankets they piled on. At around 5 a.m. on February 16, dressed in two sweaters and jeans and socks, Gonzales made a loud noise in bed and didn’t respond to his wife’s pleas. A 911 call later, the paramedics arrived and pronounced him dead. On paper, Gonzales’s death has nothing to do with the storm. When his wife finally received a death certificate months later, it said Julius died from cardiovascular disease, caused by high blood pressure and narrowed arteries associated with diabetes. It also listed his overactive thyroid gland as contributing to his death.

Texas plans billions in financing to pay for winter storm costs --Justin Aguilar’s bingo halls in Corpus Christi lost a week of business and thousands of dollars during February’s deadly winter storm. . And there’s a $120,000 electricity bill waiting to be paid. Since the bookkeeper for Bingoland, Margaret Baldwin, got the eye-popping bill — nearly 50 times more than an average month for the two buildings — she’s just held on to it. . But instead of passing on the obscene costs, Baldwin is hoping for help from Austin.  Exorbitant power bills now loom over thousands of Texas businesses like an overfilled dam, waiting. Baldwin and others are waiting for a desperately needed bailout from the Texas Legislature. The February winter storm was one of the most devastating disasters in the state’s history, killing at least 100 people. It was also one of the most expensive because of spikes in wholesale power prices and natural gas prices. Electricity regulators set power prices at the maximum rate — $9,000 per megawatt-hour — for several days in hopes that market dynamics would encourage more electricity to be supplied. Because the freeze knocked out many of the state’s power generators, electricity companies had to buy what little power was available at that exorbitant rate (the average price for power in 2020 was $22 per megawatt-hour). Natural gas fuel prices also spiked more than 700% during the storm. But a package of bills to provide several billions of dollars in financial relief to the state’s electricity and gas market could leave retail electric providers and their customers — mostly commercial real estate companies and small businesses like Bingoland — out of the bailout. “I see no relief at all for the customers, who did absolutely nothing wrong,” Marcie Zlotnick, a co-founder of two small retail electric businesses, said during a Senate committee hearing on Thursday. She estimated that allowing retail electric providers to issue bonds to cover their storm-related costs would cost less than $1 per month for customers, and warned that the cost of not doing so could result in more retail electric provider bankruptcies and huge bills to their customers, which ultimately could mean less competition in the market.

OSHA proposes $194K in fines for Adams County power plant collapse— The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has proposed new fines totaling $192,510 against two contractors involved in the Dec. 9 collapse that killed two men at the Killen power plant in Adams County.Detroit-based Adamo Demolition Co. faces three new violationsalleging the company failed to properly monitor the explosive demolition process, leading to the deaths of Jamie Fitzgerald and Doug Gray. OSHA proposed fines totaling $180,222 for those violations in addition to a $1,502 fine proposed in February for a paperwork violation. East China, Michigan-based SCM Engineer Demolition Inc. also facesthree new violations related to the Dec. 9 collapse. OSHA proposed fines totaling $12,288 against SCM, Adamo’s explosive demolition subcontractor on the Killen project.“Some of the most dangerous construction projects are those that involve demolishing buildings,” said Kenneth Montgomery, a Cincinnati-based OSHA area director, in a press release. “This tragedy could have been prevented if the employer protected their workers with proper planning, training and appropriate personal protective equipment and by complying with OSHA standards.”OSHA's press release said the companies failed to monitor the site for potential hazards and failed to remove workers from hazardous areas.Adamo released a statement about the OSHA announcement:"Adamo does not agree with the citations and has contested that there was a violation and will be communicating with OSHA regarding an informal resolution of the citations. We do not believe it is appropriate for anyone to discuss the citations while that process is proceeding."

Appalachian Coal Mines Are Major Sources Of Methane, A Potent Greenhouse Gas - Appalachian coal mines emit more than a million tons of methane a year, and overall the region is the largest U.S. source of the potent greenhouse gas, according to new research.The region was the source of 3 million tons of methane in 2019, 1.1 million tons of it from coal mining, according to European satellite data analyzed by Kayrros, a company focused on climate risk.  In 2020, the region’s methane emissions declined to 2.4 million tons as the coronavirus pandemic lowered energy demand, but coal’s share of total emissions held to 1 million tons.The balance of methane emissions in Appalachia comes from the production of natural gas through hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Methane is the main component of natural gas, and many previous measures of methane emissions focused on oil and gas drilling operations and gas distribution systems. Kayrros said its study is the first comprehensive attempt to measure methane emissions from coal production. Antoine Halff, Kayrros chief analyst and co-founder, said the results were a surprise. “Yeah, we’re surprised because in the coal industry, when people talk about coal, it’s always carbon dioxide,” he said. “It turns out methane is actually significant.”Mining releases the gas from coal and the rock that surrounds it. In 2018, 72% of methane from coal mining was emitted through ventilation from underground mines, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Surface mining and coal storage and transportation can also emit methane. So can abandoned mines. \Methane is estimated to have 84 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide in the near term. The United Nations in early May called for a 45% reduction in methane emissions by 2030, with the goal of holding the global temperature increase to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius this century. Methane accounts for 30% of warming since the pre-industrial era, according to the UN.The combination of coal and natural gas production make Appalachia a larger source of methane than the Permian Basin in West Texas. That region is the source of 40% of the nation’s oil and 15% of its natural gas.Together, the annual methane emissions from fossil fuel production in Appalachia is equivalent to the emissions of 30 million cars, according to Kayrros.

WV's coal mine cleanup process is an underfunded 'house of cards.' - Betsy Lawson remembers being told that the coal companies would be required to clean up the land after they were done mining it, leaving it in better condition than before. That didn’t happen. . Today, Lawson looks out her window at an enormous mountain of excavated rocks and dirt. There are cracks in her floors from the frequent explosions companies used to blast their way down into the earth. She and her husband no longer eat local fish and deer — the streams and rivers have taken on a bright orange color from the heavy metals that drain out of the mine.  “That’s what we’re left with,” said Lawson, who is now 67 years old. “What used to be a really attractive, traditional farming community now looks more like an industrial wasteland.” It’s possible to clean up, or reclaim, abandoned mines like the ones around Lawson’s home, but the costs can be mind-bogglingly high, sometimes totaling tens of millions of dollars for a single mine. In West Virginia, the question of who foots that bill has gotten messy, with bankrupt coal companies, insurers, and the state government lacking the capital to pay for full-mine reclamation. The state’s reclamation funding system is broken and needs to be improved immediately — at least that’s the argument laid out in a lawsuit filed last week by the Sierra Club and West Virginian environmental groups against the U.S. Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation, and Enforcement, or OSMRE.“All of the backstops that are supposed to be in place to make sure that at the end of the day nobody has to live next to an abandoned coal mine — all of those backstops are now threatened,” said Peter Morgan, a senior attorney for the Sierra Club.In their complaint, filed in the Southern District of West Virginia, the Sierra Club, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, and West Virginia Highlands Conservancy accused OSMRE of failing to require the state to improve its dangerously underfunded coal mine reclamation program. Under the 1977 Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act, or SMCRA, states are encouraged to develop their own programs to reclaim abandoned mines, but the federal government oversees the programs and is obligated to require amendments when necessary.

House committee approves bills funding abandoned mine land reclamation -Lawmakers have pushed two bills designed to help coal communities in West Virginia and throughout the country address abandoned mine lands a step closer to passage.The U.S. House Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday advanced two pieces of legislation to the full House of Representatives sponsored by Rep. Matt Cartwright, D-Pa., that would provide funding for mine reclamation.First, the Democratic-majority committee approved the RECLAIM (Revitalizing the Economy of Coal Communities by Leveraging Local Activities and Investing More) Act, H.R. 1733, which would release $1 billion from the remaining, unappropriated balance in the federal fund for abandoned mine lands to states to be spent on reclamation projects in communities affected by abandoned mines and the downturn in coal mining.“With this money, we can support a cleaner environment, new jobs, a stronger economy, and clean up a legacy,” committee Chairman Raúl M. Grijalva, D-Ariz., said during the committee’s session Wednesday.The RECLAIM Act would make about $200 million available from fiscal years 2022 to 2026, with funding required to create favorable conditions in economically distressed mining communities.The committee subsequently approved the Abandoned Mine Land Fee Extension Act. The bill, H.R. 1734, would enact a 15-year extension of the fee levied on coal companies that funds the reclamation program for abandoned mine lands, which is set to expire at the end of September.Federal regulators say it would take more than $10 billion of work to reclaim eligible abandoned mine land sites. The fee helps provide funding for eligible states like West Virginia to address hazardous conditions and pollution left behind by past coal mining.

Marshall County lawmaker fears stakes too high to close Mitchell Power Station - — A state lawmaker from Marshall County believes his constituents need to know the stakes if a major coal fired power plant in northern West Virginia closes down. For now, the American Electric Power Mitchell Power Station is due to close in 2028, but they have requested permission from the Public Service Commission to make upgrades which could keep the plant operating as far out as 2040. Those upgrades would require a rate increase, which would have to be agreed upon by the PSC. “Just to keep it open will cost us pennies on our electric bill. I would rather pay the pennies, keep it open, and keep the people working,” said Del. Charlie Reynolds, R-Marshall County. He’ll host a town hall meeting at the Moundsville Fire Hall Tuesday night to talk about the possibilities. “The Mitchell Plant is an enormous economic engine here in Marshall County. We can’t afford to lose the income,” he said. The plant generates millions of dollars in the local tax base, creates $35 million in wages, and provides close to 180 full time jobs according to WVU researchers. Reynolds worried the closure could create a cascading effect throughout the economy and spread from one employer to the next, ultimately impacting teachers, and other county employees as the property tax base is depleted. Reynolds, speaking on MetroNews “Talkline,” said he wasn’t opposed to alternative forms of power or green energy sources, but said our region is not at the point where it’s a dependable option. He said the plant is too valuable to the local economy and community. He worried about the blackouts experienced in Texas earlier this year where dependence on green energy sources was partly blamed for widespread outages. “It’s going to hurt big time, and we would have to bring power in from other sources, form outside entities. We’d have to raise revenue and raise rates, so you’re just going to have to do it if you want to save the jobs.. If not, you’re going to have foreign countries involved,” he said.

Justices: Lawsuit over Liberty area landfill comes down to coal ash -- Several South Carolina Supreme Court justices on Tuesday questioned whether a landfill operator in Pickens County sought to install a liner on a new landfill to ultimately accept coal ash. The long-lasting legal battle over the unused site of more than 400 acres along State 93 and Cartee Road near Liberty could determine the fate of the would-be landfill, which Raleigh, N.C.-based MMR Pickens LLC has previously said could generate $25 million over its lifetime. The five justices heard from lawyers for about an hour Tuesday and did not announce any decisions during the hearing. Justices George James, John Few and John Kittredge each questioned why the landfill would add a liner, a costly step for that type of landfill, unless the landfill operators intended to take additional types of waste, such as coal ash, which require a liner. The legal case is on technical grounds, largely about whether adding a liner to the landfill design was most properly classified as a major or minor change and about whether Pickens County and nearby landowners were required to be formally notified of the potential changes.But, as several justices said repeatedly, the case is really about whether the site will take coal ash and whether county staff and residents are able to be heard if the landfill operators seek to take coal ash in the future. Landfill couldn't accept coal ash without public input Coal ash is typically generated by coal power plants and can contain toxic heavy metals such as mercury, lead and arsenic which can contaminate ground and surface water. It is classified as "special waste" in South Carolina, and according to a previous court decision, coal ash is generally unsuitable for most landfills.

State to retake coal mining regulation with industry at rock bottom – Tennessee Lookout - “Mister Peabody’s Coal train” doesn’t run much through upper East Tennessee these days. The trains John Prine sang about in his famous song, “Paradise,” are practically non-existent. Compared to the 1950s and ’60s when Claiborne, Campbell and Scott counties were considered coal-mining country, the industry has nearly vanished, according to those who monitor it. Yet the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation is set to resume regulation and permitting of Tennessee’s coal mining, taking over from the federal Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement after 37 years. This includes overseeing mountaintop removal and mining in which the Earth’s surface is removed and equipment digs into the ground to mine coal. Sponsors of the legislation say it will give the Tennessee “primacy” over coal mining – whereas it was the only coal-mining state without that authority – potentially opening investments in blue gem coal, a low-sulfur coal that isn’t used for burning but for making steel and instruments such as solar panels and manufacturing batteries. Critics contend eliminating requirements that the coal industry be self-sufficient will force taxpayers to spend about $1 million annually to subsidize a “collapsing” industry. Jellico resident Tonia Brookman, director of the Woodland Community Land Trust, says few people in the area even know the Legislature passed the Primacy and Reclamation Act this session. “I really do believe it’s going to cost taxpayers more for them to take over this program … because the federal government was paying for it. I don’t know why the state feels that need to take on one more issue,” Brookman says. “I think down the road, it’s just going to come back and cost us more in the long run.” Brookman doesn’t see the resumption of state authority as an economic boon, either. For one thing, the state’s regulations are supposed to be as strict as the federal rules. Secondly, coal mining is at such a low ebb, she sees little chance for a return.

States warn banks — Drop coal, and we drop you - More than a dozen Republican state treasurers are threatening to pull assets from large financial institutions if they agree to decarbonize their lending and investment portfolios, Axios has learned.The Biden administration — led by special presidential climate envoy John Kerry — has leaned on the banks to help reduce U.S. carbon emissions. That's prompted GOP lawmakers to criticize efforts to "de-bank" fossil fuel firms. The treasurers collectively control hundreds of billions worth of assets.Fifteen of them, led by coal-heavy West Virginia, say they're prepared to use this financial muscle to push back.  The effort includes treasurers from other states with large energy industry presences such as North Dakota, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Oklahoma. The state officials sent a letter on Tuesday to Kerry, who's leading the administration's efforts to enlist banks in its climate policy fight."We intend to put banks and financial institutions on notice of our position, as we urge them not to give in to pressure from the Biden administration to refuse to lend to or invest in coal, oil and natural gas companies," the officials wrote. In an interview with Axios, West Virginia state Treasurer Riley Moore said he was prepared to terminate contracts with banks that pull back their fossil fuel industry lending in response to administration pressure. "Frankly, it is not fair for the people of West Virginia to allow a bank to handle our money when they're diametrically opposed to our way of life," Moore said. Moore called the issue "a matter of life and death for my people." He said coal and gas operators in his state have reported difficulties obtaining financing from banks blaming pressure from the Biden administration to try to "green" their portfolios.  "If you just cut these guys off at the knees — gas and coal in a state like West Virginia — and they can no longer conduct their business ... it is going to destroy us," Moore said. He cited the industries' heavy jobs footprint and contributions to the state's tax base.   The state officials signing the letter collectively manage more than $600 billion in assets in state treasuries, pension funds and other government accounts, according to publicly available financials and information provided by the state treasurer offices.Those states work with large financial institutions to invest and grow those funds, to support state spending and retirement payments to former workers.  Even for sizable investment banks, such funds can be some of their largest accounts.

Activists want teachers' fund to divest from coal — A fossil fuel divestment group took aim at the teachers retirement system on Tuesday, urging the organization to divest of the coal stocks they say continue to make up a substantial part of their portfolio. It may be easier said then done, however. “NYSTRS is increasing its exposure to the coal industry,” said Liam Smith, of New Youth Climate Leaders and Divest NY which have been urging public sector pension funds to divest from coal and other fossil fuel industries they say are adding to greenhouse gases. NYSTRS is the New York State Teachers Retirement System. At $120 billion it is the state’s second largest pension system behind the $247.7 billion Common Retirement Fund for public sector workers other than teachers. While the Common Retirement Fund has made some modest moves toward divesting the dirtiest, or most carbon-intensive, oil producers, activists on Wednesday said the value of NYSTRS coal holdings has grown recently. NYSTRS, Divest NY said, has more than $300 million invested in companies with substantial coal reserves and it owns shares of 36 companies heavily invested in coal. It has purchased 6.2 million shares in 24 of those firms as of the end of 2020. Many are in China and India, where coal continues to serve as a major energy source. One of those firms, Shaanxi Coal Industry Co. has the world’s second largest reserves of coal.

DEP approves Raleigh County surface mine permit renewal despite health and environmental concerns -West Virginia environmental regulators have approved renewal of a permit for surface mining in Raleigh County despite concerns over the environmental and health affects of surface mining operations there. Republic Energy LLC had asked the state Department of Environmental Protection to renew a permit for a steep-slope mining operation south of Clear Creek, in the Clear Fork district of Raleigh County, that opponents say would continue damaging the health of nearby residents and the mountains around them. Department of Environmental Protection environmental resources program manager Laura Claypool said Monday the department approved the application Friday after finding it met state mining and reclamation requirements. Republic Energy, a subsidiary of Tennessee-based Alpha Metallurgical Resources, has mostly completed mining operations on the site and primarily moved on to reclamation operations there, Department of Environmental Protection officials noted during an informal conference held last month to allow public comment on the permit renewal application under the department’s consideration. But Coal River Mountain Watch, a group that opposes mountaintop removal and other mining practices the group says have harmed the health of area residents, condemned the permit renewal Monday, objecting that the permit renewal for the site would aid coal transport for active mining operations adjacent to it. The group has argued that blasts from Republic Energy surface mining operations in the area have dispersed carcinogenic silica dust into the air that neighbors breathe a minimum of 2 miles downwind, fearing further blasting if the permit was renewed. Dust from mining has been known to cause cancer.

Lithium, Cobalt, & Rare Earths: The Post-Petroleum Resource Race - With other nations moving in a similar direction, it’s tempting to conclude that the days when competition over finite supplies of energy was a recurring source of conflict will soon draw to a close. Unfortunately, think again: while the sun and wind are indeed infinitely renewable, the materials needed to convert those resources into electricity - minerals like cobalt, copper, lithium, nickel, and the rare-earth elements, or REEs — are anything but. Some of them, in fact, are far scarcer than petroleum, suggesting that global strife over vital resources may not, in fact, disappear in the Age of Renewables.To appreciate his unexpected paradox, it’s necessary to explore how wind and solar power are converted into usable forms of electricity and propulsion. Solar power is largely collected by photovoltaic cells, often deployed in vast arrays, while the wind is harvested by giant turbines, typically deployed in extensive wind farms. To use electricity in transportation, cars and trucks must be equipped with advanced batteries capable of holding a charge over long distances. Each one of these devices uses substantial amounts of copper for electrical transmission, as well as a variety of other non-renewable minerals. Those wind turbines, for instance, require manganese, molybdenum, nickel, zinc, and rare-earth elements for their electrical generators, while electric vehicles (EVs) need cobalt, graphite, lithium, manganese, and rare earths for their engines and batteries.At present, with wind and solar power accounting for only about 7% of global electricity generation and electric vehicles making up less than 1% of the cars on the road, the production of those minerals is roughly adequate to meet global demand. If, however, the U.S. and other countries really do move toward a green-energy future of the kind envisioned by President Biden, the demand for them will skyrocket and global output will fall far short of anticipated needs.According to a recent study by the International Energy Agency (IEA), “The Role of Critical Minerals in Clean Energy Transitions,” the demand for lithium in 2040 could be 50 times greater than today and for cobalt and graphite 30 times greater if the world moves swiftly to replace oil-driven vehicles with EVs. Such rising demand will, of course, incentivize industry to develop new supplies of such minerals, but potential sources of them are limited and the process of bringing them online will be costly and complicated. In other words, the world could face significant shortages of critical materials. (“As clean energy transitions accelerate globally,” the IEA report noted ominously, “and solar panels, wind turbines, and electric cars are deployed on a growing scale, these rapidly growing markets for key minerals could be subject to price volatility, geopolitical influence, and even disruptions to supply.”)

The plan to turn coal country into a rare earth powerhouse -At an abandoned coal mine just outside the city of Gillette, Wyoming, construction crews are getting ready to break ground on a 10,000-square-foot building that will house state-of-the-art laboratories and manufacturing plants. Among the projects at the facility, known as the Wyoming Innovation Center, will be a pilot plant that aims to takes coal ash — the sooty, toxic waste left behind after coal is burned for energy — and use it to extract rare earths, elements that play an essential role in everything from cell phones and LED screens to wind turbines and electric cars. The pilot plant in Wyoming is a critical pillar of an emerging effort led by the Department of Energy, or DOE, to convert the toxic legacy of coal mining in the United States into something of value. Similar pilot plants and research projects are also underway in states including West Virginia, North Dakota, Utah, and Kentucky. If these projects are successful, the Biden administration hopes that places like Gillette will go from being the powerhouses of the fossil fuel era to the foundation of a new domestic supply chain that will build tomorrow’s energy systems.In an April report on revitalizing fossil fuel communities, administration officials wrote that coal country is “well-positioned” to become a leader in harvesting critical materials from the waste left behind by coal mining and coal power generation. Several days later, the DOE awarded a total of $19 million to 13 different research groups that plan to assess exactly how much rare earth material is contained in coal and coal waste, as well as explore ways to extract it. “We have these resources that are otherwise a problem,” saidSarma Pisupati, the director of the Center for Critical Minerals at Penn State University and one of the grant recipients. “We can use those resources to extract valuable minerals for our independence.”Those minerals would come at a critical moment. The rare earth elements neodymium and dysprosium, in particular, are essential to the powerful magnets used in offshore wind turbines and electric vehicle motors. A recent report by the International Energy Agency projected that by 2040, the clean energy sector’s demand for these minerals could be three to seven times greater than it is today.

Major bitcoin mining region in China sets tough penalties for cryptocurrency activities — China's Inner Mongolia region has proposed punishments for companies and individuals involved in digital currency mining as it looks to further crack down on the practice. The move comes after Chinese Vice Premier Liu He said last week in a statement that it ithat it is necessary to "crack down on Bitcoin mining and trading behavior" to prevent the "transmission of individual risks to the social field." Those comments were seen as Beijing's intentions to continue a four-year crackdown on bitcoin trading and other cryptocurrency-related activities. Inner Mongolia's latest draft proposals aim to target companies such as telecommunications and internet firms engaging in virtual currency mining. The Inner Mongolia Development and Reform Commission said such companies could have their business licenses revoked if they are found to be involved in mining. Cloud computing or data centers could have preferential government support policies they currently enjoy revoked. There are also harsh punishments for individuals involved in money laundering of fundraising via digital currencies. Inner Mongolia's tough stance on mining began in March after it announced plans to ban new cryptocurrency mining projects and shut down existing activity to cut down on energy consumption.. The northern Chinese region failed to meet Beijing's energy use targets in 2019 and subsequently laid out plans to reduce power consumption. China's tough stance on cryptocurrencies is not new. China shut down local cryptocurrency exchanges in 2017 and that same year, banned so-called initial coin offerings (ICOs). But traders have continued to operate on the Chinese mainland though exchanges have moved offshore.

Iran Bans Crypto Mining As Blackouts Grow Into Summer: "85% Of Mining Farms Are Unlicensed" -- On Wednesday Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced efforts to combat the growing trend of rampant and unpredictable blackouts experienced across parts of the country of over 80 million people at the start of a hot summer, particularly in already strained major cities. By many accounts what was somewhat already a "norm" under American sanctions has come early this year - namely the sporadic blackouts, increasingly angering the population just ahead of a key presidential election in June."The ban on the mining of cryptocurrencies is effective immediately until September 22... Some 85 percent of the current mining in Iran is unlicensed," Rouhani said in a cabinet address aired by state TV. There are an estimated 50 officially licensed mining farms sucking up a total of at least 200 megawatts of power,according to the most recent analysis. Iran's state-controlled power generation company recently made public its data showing colossal increases in energy consumption far beyond this - mostly due to miners, leading to a nationwide strain that includes periodic blackouts, indeed confirming mining operations that far exceed the aforementioned 50 legal large-scale operations. "Rouhani said legal crypto mining operations in Iran consume about 300MW of electricity, which is very insignificant. But illegal operations consume up to 2,000MW," Al Jazeera noted of the speech announcing legislation enacting the four month ban.Rouhani did, however, appear to make a passing acknowledgement of the benefit to the country that crypto mining represents (which reportedly netted the country over $1 billion a year in recent years amid its isolation), saying "Now everybody has a few miners laying around and are producing Bitcoins" - which reportedly got some laughs out of top officials, but at the same time slammed illegal mining as coming at the cost of the citizenry's well-being. As we previously detailed, both private and public crypto mining has exploded in Iran over the past few years, putting itaccording to one recent study among the top ten bitcoin mining countries in the world - accounting for 4.5% of all bitcoin globally - primarily as a means of paying for imported goods and as an easily available way to soften the impact of sanctions amid a hard cash shortage - also given foreign currencies are hard to come by as a result of the prior US-led economic war against the Islamic Republic.

A company wants to build a massive solar project in Montana — of course it’s for crypto -  A company looking to build a massive solar project in Butte, Montana claims it would provide 300MW of renewable power and cost $250 million, Gizmodo reported. That’s according to Madison River Equity LLC, whose parent company also manages cryptomining outfit Atlas Power. As Gizmodo reports, Madison would build the solar array, then sell it to Atlas, which hopes to use it to power its cryptocurrency mining operations. If the solar farm, dubbed the Basin Creek Solar Project, is actually built, it could be one of the largest in the US, but it raises questions about the impact of such projects, and about crypto’s impact on energy. While the project would theoretically allow Atlas’ mining and other data center operations to run on renewable power, there are arguments that green energy doesn’t actually make crypto itself green. There’s still the problem of e-waste that’s generated when hardware is no longer profitable, and the question of what will happen if there isn’t enough solar power available to fuel the mining operation. And while the massive solar project does seem to be in line with the goals of some (including Elon Musk) in the crypto community who are trying to move away from fossil-fuel powered mining operations, it also shows the problems that can crop up when trying to create a green energy project, especially one that will be run by a company focusing on crypto.According to the Montana Standard, the Butte-Silver Bow zoning board recently turned down another energy project that was also looking to use residential land, citing nearby residents’ aesthetic concerns. The Standard’s report also includes similar concerns from Butte residents about ruined views regarding the Basin Creek Solar Project.There are also some community members concerned about whether the extra electricity generated will actually benefit Butte, or if it will be sold elsewhere. Add to that the allegedly colorful past of Atlas Power’s owners — the company used to be called CryptoWatt — and it’s understandable why residents would be wary.

Bitcoin Miners Are Giving New Life to Old Fossil-Fuel Power Plants – WSJ --Across America, older fossil-fuel power plants are shutting down in favor of renewable energy. But some are getting a new lease on life—to mine bitcoin. In upstate New York, an idled coal plant has been restarted, fueled by natural gas, to mine cryptocurrency. A once-struggling Montana coal plant is now scaling up to do the same.The lofty price of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has investors pouring money into power generation—and risking a backlash. Elon Musk tweeted last week that Tesla Inc. would no longer accept bitcoin as payment for vehicles over concerns about fossil-fuel use in bitcoin mining. That rocked the market; bitcoin prices are now down around 25% since last week.The drive for power has its roots in bitcoin’s intractable mathematics: To operate securely, the cryptocurrency’s network relies on computers solving puzzles; in return the solvers get fresh bitcoin. The higher the bitcoin price, the more of these miners compete to solve the puzzles—a process that chews up electricity. The more competition, the harder the puzzles get and the more electricity is used.A University of Cambridge index pegs the annual power consumption of bitcoin mining at around 130 terawatt-hours, more than three times higher than at the beginning of 2019. That would be more than the power consumption of Argentina.The coal-fired Hardin Generating Station in Montana had been struggling for years. Late last year, a Nasdaq-listed miner called Marathon Digital Holdings Inc. MARA +7.16% partnered with Hardin’s owner to transform the power plant into a hub for mining bitcoin.“It was an idle asset,” Fred Thiel, Marathon Digital’s chief executive, said in an interview. “We were able to get access to a large amount of power at a very attractive price.”The project is in the process of scaling up, with more than 100 megawatts of power capacity planned. Marathon Digital, whose investors include BlackRock Inc. and the hedge fund Renaissance Technologies LLC, said that by tapping the Montana coal plant, its break-even costs to produce a bitcoin will fall to $4,600, 38% less than previously. The company is aiming to produce at least 55 bitcoins daily by the first quarter of next year, up from an average of two a day in 2020.Besides mining bitcoin, Marathon Digital said that as of March it had nearly $300 million worth of bitcoin on its balance sheet, in an effort to signal its confidence in bitcoin’s future and attract institutional investors to the stock who might want exposure to the cryptocurrency but were unable to or unwilling to invest in it directly.BlackRock and Renaissance declined to comment.

Washington County commissioners hear concerns about bitcoin mining -Residents in the Limestone area told Washington County commissioners Monday that a bitcoin mining operation is damaging both the property values and the serenity of their rural community.Craig Ponder, pastor of New Salem Baptist Church, said his congregation and neighbors of the community were being disturbed by the constant noise from the computers and cooling fans used by Red Dog Technologies in its cyber mining operation.He said residents in the area “feel invaded by an army we have no say in.”Bitcoin mining is a process that produces cryptocurrency by using computers to solve very complex math problems.“Our quality of life is being impacted,” Ponder told commissioners.While there was no item on the commission’s regular agenda dealing with bitcoin mining, residents in the Limestone community used the public comment period to address the issue and to warn commissioners that they fear a second bitcoin facility may be in the works at a location near Tenn. Highway 81.

Elected officials weigh in on noise at Tennessee Bitcoin 'mine'  – A state legislator and a county commissioner, both representing Washington County’s rural New Salem community, said Monday they’re determined to get some sort of relief for citizens complaining about noise from a Bitcoin mining operation in their pastoral neighborhood. The Red Dog Technologies’ “mine” has been disturbing their peace and is loudest at night, residents told News Channel 11 last week. Monday, State Rep. Rebecca Alexander (R-Jonesoborough) and County Commissioner Kent Harris, who represents the neighborhood, said they’ll continue to press for noise mitigation at the site adjacent to a Brightridge substation off Bailey Bridge Road. “It’s heartbreaking when all you can hear is this drone sound constantly,” said Alexander, who visited several homeowners Saturday night and hear the noise herself. “Apparently it’s worst around 4 in the morning.” She said she would attend Monday’s Washington County Commission meeting, where New Salem residents are hoping to bring their complaints before commissioners — as are people from Lamar community, where another substation had been under consideration for a possible Bitcoin mine. Brightridge released a statement Monday afternoon saying any second sites wouldn’t be considered prior to satisfactory mitigation of noise at the New Salem mine. The New Salem property was rezoned to allow for the usage last year, but Harris — who voted to approve it — said he doesn’t think the property’s use was explained to commissioners or area residents in sufficient detail. “We did change the zoning but we were never informed that this was going to be this type of facility,” Harris said. “I was under the impression it was going to be a solar farm.”

China's coal output rises in first four months - (Xinhua) -- China's raw coal output rose 11.1 percent year on year to 1.29 billion tonnes in the first four months of 2021, official data showed.The Jan.-April volume increased by 12.5 percent from the level in the same period of 2019, putting the annual average growth of the past two years at 6.1 percent, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).The country imported 90.13 million tonnes of coal from January to April, down 28.8 percent year on year.In April alone, China's coal output dipped 1.8 percent from a year earlier to 320 million tonnes, NBS data showed.

Ex-Westinghouse official to plead guilty in South Carolina's VC Summer investigation -- A top former Westinghouse official who helped oversee the construction of a now-abandoned multibillion dollar nuclear plant in Fairfield County was charged Monday with the felony offense of lying to an FBI agent.Carl Churchman, 70, will plead guilty to the offense, which carries a maximum five-year prison sentence, according to records filed in federal court on Monday. No hearing date has been set for the in-person guilty plea, which will take place before a federal judge.A one-page charging document said that Churchman falsely told an FBI agent that he was not involved in communicating how the project was going to SCANA officials. SCANA, the now defunct Cayce-based power company that embarked on the nuclear expansion, had hired Westinghouse to oversee the project.In fact, Churchman — who was managing the project for Westinghouse — was communicating “with colleagues from the Westinghouse Electric Corporation through multiple emails in which they discussed the viability and accuracy of (completion dates) and thereafter, he reported those dates to executives of SCANA and Santee Cooper during a meeting held on Feb. 14, 2017,” the charging document said.The charge against Churchman is the first indication by federal law officials that they have extended their investigation beyond SCANA. Two of SCANA’s top officials have been charged with fraud and pleaded guilty in connection with the nuclear debacle.There may be more ex-Westinghouse officials or others to be charged.

U.S. senators introduce nuclear power credit to help curb emissions - Three Democratic U.S. senators introduced a measure on Wednesday to boost existing nuclear plants to a wide energy tax reform bill, after the Biden administration pushed for such a measure to help curb carbon emissions. Senator Ben Cardin introduced the amendment on the tax production credit with fellow Democrats, Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Bob Casey. "We're in danger of seeing the premature closing of the nuclear reactors in this country," Cardin said before introducing the amendment at a hearing considering the wider bill, the Clean Energy for America Act. Cardin did not ask for a vote on the measure, a move to allow time to refine it as legislation advances. Nuclear reactors are virtually emissions-free, but have been struggling to compete with power generation fueled by natural gas, and wind and solar power. There are 93 reactors in the United States, down from 104 in 2012, as rising security and safety costs put additional pressures on the business. While some environmental groups oppose nuclear power, the Biden administration has signaled support for the credit for nuclear power plants as it seeks to put the country on a path to decarbonize the carbon grid by 2035. Two Republican senators on the Senate Finance Committee also spoke favorably about the amendment, increasing the odds it could eventually pass.

Kevin Kelley subpoenas records connected to HB6 bribery scheme | wkyc.com In July of last year, several people were arrested for a 'pay to play' bribery scheme connected to failing power and coal plants. Cleveland City Council President Kevin Kelley signed three subpoenas on Monday, asking for the new statutory agent of Generation Now Ohio Inc., as well as the “Records Custodian” at Fifth Third and Huntington banks, to testify with the Cleveland City Council. The subpoenas are connected to the ongoing investigation into former Ohio Speaker of the House, Larry Householder, and the 'pay to play' bribery scheme to bail out several failing power and coal plants formerly operated by FirstEnergy's subsidiary, FirstEnergy Solutions, until the latter was spun off as its own independent company now known as Energy Harbor following bankruptcy proceedings.“We know that Generation Now seemed to be the first stop for a huge amount of money that was then passed out. We want to know where it went and if it was used against the city of Cleveland and CPP," said Kelley in a statement provided to 3News. The subpoenas request “any and all financial records including banking account numbers and account transaction records of Consumers Against Deceptive Fees.”  FirstEnergy is believed to have paid Householder and several others a sum of $60 million to pass House Bill 6 and defeat a ballot initiative to overturn the legislation. Householder and four others were arrested in July 2020 in connection to the scheme.That same month, Kevin Kelley co-sponsored legislation to repeal HB6, saying that many Cleveland residents who are FirstEnergy customers will be forced to pay for the bailout once the bill kicks in.

Ohio lawmakers move to expel former House Speaker Larry Householder - For months one House Republican and one House Democrat have been trying to hammer out a deal on when to introduce a resolution to expel former Speaker Larry Householder, who was arrested last year on federal bribery and racketeering charges. Those negotiations came to an end Tuesday afternoon when three Democrats announced their own plans to introduce a resolution on Wednesday."We realized this wasn't going to start unless Democrats took the lead," Rep. Jeff Crossman, D-Parma, said. "They were going to file something weeks ago and then it never happened." A few hours later, two House Republicans filed a resolution to remove Householder from office. "We have always believed that this is a resolution that should be originating from our caucus," Rep. Brian Stewart, R-Ashville, said in an interview.Stewart couldn't say what happened to the bipartisan plan. Those conversations were between Crossman and Newark Rep. Mark Fraizer, who didn't return a request for comment. "My understanding from Mark is the Democratic members broke off from that and said they were going to do their own thing," Stewart said. "I haven't seen their resolution."Federal agents arrested Householder at his Perry County home back in July 2020.Prosecutors accused him and four other men of illegally conspiring together to pass a state bailout of two nuclear power plants. The indictment alleged the men got $61 million in donations from First Energy Corp. and affiliated companies to elect supportive Republicans to office, pass the bailout and then stop opponents from putting the law on the ballot for a vote by all Ohioans. Householder maintains his innocence. But two of the men arrested with Householder have pleaded guilty and so has Generation Now, the nonprofit prosecutors accused of moving money for the massive bribery scheme. The Ohio House removed Householder from his position as speaker a few weeks after his arrest, but lawmakers stalled on whether to remove him from office. Some, like Rep. Bill Seitz, R-Green Township, have maintained an innocent until proven guilty stance. Others like Republican House Speaker Bob Cupp, R-Lima, initially said they were waiting until the new term started in January. The former Ohio Supreme Court justice didn't think an official could be legally expelled twice for the same thing.Householder faced a handful of write-in challengers in 2020. He won a third term with more than 70% of the vote. Cupp has been tight-lipped about where his caucus stands on expelling Householder since January, telling reporters each week that he has no news on the issue. Though he reiterates his wish that Householder would "do the right thing" and resign.

Akron's FirstEnergy announces another top executive 'separated' --FirstEnergy Corp. has fired another top executive as part of an investigation into the $61 million Larry Householder scandal. The Akron utility late Thursday afternoon in a short regulatory filing said that Eileen M. Mikkelsen, vice president, rates and regulatory affairs, and acting vice president of external affairs, "was separated from the company effective as of May 27, 2021." The separate was disclosed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission and is related to a previously disclosed $4.3 million consulting payment tied to a now-former Ohio regulatory official. The official is believed to be Sam Randazzo, who has since resigned as head of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. The consulting payment, made in January 2019, is a top reason why FirstEnergy said it fired its former chief executive officer last fall. Mikkelsen was a long-time FirstEnergy employee. The company said it would not have a statement beyond what was in the regulatory filing. "The separation of Ms. Mikkelsen was related to her inaction regarding the amendment in 2015 of a previously disclosed purported consulting agreement with an entity associated with an individual who in 2019 was appointed to a full-time role as an Ohio government official directly involved in regulating FirstEnergy’s Ohio electric utility subsidiaries, Ohio Edison Company, The Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company, and The Toledo Edison Company, including with respect to distribution rates," FirstEnergy said in the SEC filing. "The consulting agreement had been in place since 2013 and, as previously disclosed, was terminated in 2019 with a payment of approximately $4 million," according to the filing. "FirstEnergy continues to believe that payments under the consulting agreement may have been for purposes other than those represented within the consulting agreement." The company said it is reviewing interim organization changes as a result of Mikkelsen's departure. This is the latest FirstEnergy senior executive departure tied to the ongoing federal and state investigation into an alleged $61 million bribery scheme and former Ohio House Speaker Householder. The investigation involves what was called House Bill 6, which helped prop up two Ohio nuclear power plants formerly owned by FirstEnergy.

Exposing the utility playbook: Ratepayers are stuck paying the bill for utility corruption - In 2020, Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder was arrested and subsequently resigned his speakership after an FBI investigation found that the influential lawmaker accepted $61 million dollars from electric utility FirstEnergy in exchange for passage of a nuclear bailout bill. The legislation sought to subsidize two of the company's failing nuclear plants by charging Ohioans a monthly fee. Another recent scandal in Illinois saw Michael Madigan, the longest serving state Speaker of the House in U.S. history, lose his position when the state's largest utility, ComEd, confessed to giving jobs and contracts to Madigan associates for nearly a decade in an effort to sway legislation at the state capitol. Sadly, stories like these are nothing new — and they aren't surprising. We've long known that unregulated monopolies necessarily lead to higher costs, less efficiency and limited innovation. The very nature of our monopoly electric utility model leads to companies who are beholden to their shareholders — not their customers. To compound this issue, bad actors among monopoly companies expend unlimited time, money and resources on achieving regulatory capture. Regulatory capture occurs when the lawmakers and officials who are supposed to protect public interests and regulate these monopolies instead begin working to benefit those very same companies. Ever since Edison fired up the first commercial power plant on Pearl Street in NYC in 1882, many have believed that building, operating and maintaining the electric grid and delivering power to families and businesses should be a vertically integrated industry under monopoly control. For over a century that sentiment was arguably true. After all, who needs dozens of companies running redundant power lines and infrastructure across the country from house to house in every town and city. The historic cost associated with these investments and the local impacts warranted assigning this job to a single regulated actor. However, advances in technology today have led to a reimagining of the traditional utility industry and have made it possible for alternative models centered around competition and free markets to emerge — and most importantly, find success. This threat of competition is understandably scary to many utilities who, for too long, have enjoyed their position as the only show in town. In many ways, they have never had to worry about innovation, efficiency, competition, customer service, etc. The thought of moving to a market structure where they must compete to earn and keep business has driven them to fight back and fight back hard. Stories like those in Illinois and Ohio are just the most recent public examples of utility corruption. Sadly, there is a widespread and long-standing pattern of manipulation, influence and illegal activity among utilities.

Road deicer or radioactive wastewater? Ohio groups face-off over selling AquaSalina to public - The Columbus Dispatch - Drive through Ohio in winter and chances are you'll see an Ohio Department of Transportation truck spraying the roads with some kind of deicer.  Most of the time, it's a mixture of rock salt and water. But when temperatures dip below 20 degrees Fahrenheit, ODOadds other chemicals to keep the brine from freezing.   One of those additives is AquaSalina. It's made in Brecksville in northeast Ohio by Nature’s Own Source LLC, and owner Dave Mansbery has been singing its praises for years.  It's ancient seawater. It works up to -15 degrees Fahrenheit. It's 70% less corrosive than traditional deicers and more effective per lane mile, Mansbery told an Ohio House Committee.  He wants to take the next step: Selling AquaSalina to all Ohioans for their sidewalks, driveways and porches. But Mansbery can't do that without removing some existing Ohio laws. That's where Rep. Bob Young, R-Canton, comes in. He introducedHouse Bill 282, which would end a requirement that AquaSalina users pay a $50 registration fee to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and report where every gallon gets spread. The Buckeye Environmental Network wants to stop that from happening.Why? Director Teresa Mills said she has three simple reasons: "It's radioactive. It's radioactive. It's radioactive." AquaSalina is made by refining the salty mixture of water and other chemicals that comes up the pipelines from conventional oil and gas wells.  Mansbery claims the radiation emitted by AquaSalina is safe. Bananas emit radioactive particles called potassium-40, and Mansbery, who didn't respond to a request for comment, says a jug of AquaSalina gives off less radiation."In principle that is correct," said Dr. John Stolz, a professor who runs the Center for Environmental Research and Education at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. He studied AquaSalina in his lab and told the USA TODAY Network Ohio bureau there are critical differences between a banana and this particular deicer. Bananas are beta emitters, which is a kind of radiation that can be blocked by clothing. Radium emits both alpha and gamma radiation."Gamma has no mass and can go right through your body," Stolz said. Radium also gets "hotter" as it decays whereas bananas do not.

Oberlin, OH Still Fighting to Shut Down Long-Running NEXUS Pipe --Radical environmentalists continue to use the City of Oberlin, Ohio to try and advance their agenda of ending the use of natural gas pipelines. And Oberlin willingly lets them do it. We’re referring to the latest court filing by Oberlin (actually by Big Green lobbyists using Oberlin) contesting the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) decision to approve the NEXUS pipeline, a pipeline from the Utica Shale into Michigan that’s been flowing for years connecting to a pipeline that exports some of the gas into Canada. Oberlin says FERC’s approval of NEXUS is faulty because some gas gets exported and is not “in the public interest.”The case sits before the lefties of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (DC Circuit). When an interstate pipeline like NEXUS gets built, it has the right under federal law to use eminent domain to “condemn” property owned by landowners who refuse to negotiate and allow it to cross their land, like a tiny strip of land owned by Oberlin. It’s in the law, called “in the public interest.” But the Oberlin lawsuit argues if *some* of the gas flowing through the pipe gets exported, as is the case with *some* (not all) of the gas in NEXUS (flowing to Canada), such a situation is not “in the public interest” because U.S. citizens are not using/benefiting from 100% of the gas.Unfortunately, the judges of the D.C. Circuit left the door open for antis to try and manipulate our laws via the back door of the courts (see DC Circuit Court/Antis Continue to Hassle Long-Done NEXUS Pipe). The court asked FERC to respond to the cockamamie claims in the lawsuit. FERC responded to the court’s demand justifying its decision to approve NEXUS. FERC says in their response that under U.S. law (called the Natual Gas Act) if natural gas is exported by a pipeline to a country that is a free trade partner, as is Canada, such a project IS considered “in the public interest” (see FERC Says NEXUS Approval in Public Interest re Exports to Canada). It’s right there–in the law! (Maybe antis don’t read?)Even if you take all of the gas out of NEXUS that goes to Canada, FERC says enough gas stays right here and is used in the U.S. to justify the NEXUS project anyway, without the exports.Yet the radicals keep pushing:An Ohio city told the D.C. Circuit that gas intended for foreign markets should not be used by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission as a reason to grant the developer of a $2.1 billion gas pipeline eminent domain authority for its construction under the Natural Gas Act.The D.C. Circuit told FERC in September 2019 that it needed to address questions raised by Oberlin, Ohio, about why shipments to Canada meant the since-completed Nexus pipeline was necessary and worth giving Nexus Gas Transmission LLC power to exercise eminent domain to build it. The commission explained itself in September 2020.*When are the taxpayers in Oberlin going to wise up and stop this nonsense from happening in their name?

Gateway Royalty Sounds Alarm on Ohio's HB No. 152 -- Gateway Royalty, which invests in oil and gas production by buying a portion of the mineral owner's royalty interest, is sounding the alarm about an industry backed bill that would require unleased mineral owners to accept net proceeds royalties from the well operator. Ohio's H.B. No. 152 seeks to amend R.C. section 1509.28, which provides for the mandatory pooling of unleased mineral owners in drilling units approved by the Chief of the Ohio Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management. Under the existing statute, an unleased mineral owner can choose to (1) participate in unit operations under lease terms negotiated with the unit operator, (2) participate under the terms of the unit order, or (3) elect to not participate and pay a nonconsenting penalty charge in an amount determined by Chief. H.B. No. 152, if enacted, "would fundamentally alter an unleased mineral owner's options in ways that would greatly benefit the Unit Operator to the detriment of the mineral owner," says Chris Oldham, Gateway Royalty's president. The mineral owner's first option (which is the default option if the mineral owner declines the other two) requires the mineral owner to accept a royalty of 1/8th of the net proceeds received by the operator. "Net proceeds" is defined in the bill as "proceeds on the sale of production less any and all taxes and fees levied on or as a result of production and less all post production costs incurred between the wellhead and the point of sale." Based on some of the current operators' cost deductions, a 12.5% royalty under a net lease is the equivalent of a 6.25% royalty interest or less. According to Oldham, an unleased mineral owner should be permitted to negotiate for a "gross proceeds/no deduct" royalty, as well as for a royalty percentage greater than 12.5%. Oldham says that many oil and gas leases are gross proceeds leases in which the royalty is a negotiated percentage of the gross sale price. Oldham says that this percentage was traditionally 12.5% (1/8th), but with the Utica shale boom the percentage is now "more often between 16 and 20 percent." H.B. No. 152, Oldham says, "removes the ability of an unleased mineral owner to negotiate for a gross proceeds royalty and for a royalty percentage above 12.5%."

Ohio HB 152 Forced Pooling Bill Disadvantages Unleased Landowners - Gateway Royalty is sounding the alarm over a new bill that’s quickly advancing in the Ohio legislature. Ohio’s House Bill (HB) 152 allows drillers to force-pool landowners if 65% of a drilling unit is signed to a lease–a pretty low bar if you ask us. But that’s not even the worst part. The reluctant landowner would receive a standard 12.5% royalty, no matter what the royalty is for the rest of the leases in the unit, AND post-production deductions would be taken out. Landowners could realistically see a 6.25% royalty…or less! It’s time to burn up the phone lines to either get this bill changed, or defeated.Gateway Royalty is a royalty owner itself–a company that buys future royalty payments for a one-lump payment now. Some landowners find the arrangement beneficial. Gateway is for all intents a “landowner” in this case. Think of them as a super landowner, with their ear to the ground for issues that affect royalties. Gateway outlines the problems with HB 152 in the press release below: H.B. No. 152, if enacted, “would fundamentally alter an unleased mineral owner’s options in ways that would greatly benefit the Unit Operator to the detriment of the mineral owner,” says Chris Oldham, Gateway Royalty’s president. The mineral owner’s first option (which is the default option if the mineral owner declines the other two) requires the mineral owner to accept a royalty of 1/8^th of the net proceeds received by the operator. “Net proceeds” is defined in the bill as “proceeds on the sale of production less any and all taxes and fees levied on or as a result of production and less all post production costs incurred between the wellhead and the point of sale.” Based on some of the current operators’ cost deductions, a 12.5% royalty under a net lease is the equivalent of a 6.25% royalty interest or less. According to Oldham, an unleased mineral owner should be permitted to negotiate for a “gross proceeds/no deduct” royalty, as well as for a royalty percentage greater than 12.5%. Oldham says that many oil and gas leases are gross proceeds leases in which the royalty is a negotiated percentage of the gross sale price. Oldham says that this percentage was traditionally 12.5% (1/8^th), but with the Utica shale boom the percentage is now “more often between 16 and 20 percent.” H.B. No. 152, Oldham says, “removes the ability of an unleased mineral owner to negotiate for a gross proceeds royalty and for a royalty percentage above 12.5%.”The mineral owner’s first option (which is the default option under the Bill) requires the operator to pay the unleased mineral owner a bonus of 75% of the current market rate for a bonus payment per acre. This provision is also unacceptable because it does not represent fair market value, according to Oldham.  The second option to unleased mineral owners under the Bill is to participate in the unit operations as a consenting party under the terms of the joint operating agreement (“JOA”) attached to the unit operation application. Oldham says this is not a viable option because very few mineral owners, if any, can take the risk and liability of a working interest owner, let alone have the financial ability to join in the drilling, completion and production operations of these Utica horizontal wells, which cost a minimum of $6.0 million to $8.0 million per well. The third option is to participate in the unit operations as a nonconsenting party under the terms of the JOA along with a 300% non-participation charge payable from the nonconsenting owner’s share of production. Oldham says the third option is not viable either because there is a high probability that the mineral owners’ interest will never pay out. Oldham says since neither the second nor third option is viable, the unleased mineral owners “will be stuck with the first option.”

Pennsylvania gas production continues to climb  - Pennsylvania gas companies produced a total of 1863 Bcf in Q1 2021, up 5.4% from the same period one year earlier. Not only has gas production climbed, but the rate of growth has accelerated from the previous four quarters, according to recent statistics from the state’s Department of Environmental Protection. Gas producers have consistently put out growing amounts of gas over the last four years, but that rate of growth has fluctuated over time. The growth rate of Pennsylvania’s gas production reached a peak of 18.6% in Q3 2018 and gradually fell from then through 2020. Last year, growth was around 3% for most of the year, but began to climb again at the start of 2021. The state reported the industry spud 133 new horizontal wells in the first quarter of 2021, a decline of 20 wells, or 13.1% from the same period one year earlier. Despite the year-on-year decline in new wells, the trend was up 34 wells from the previous quarter and the first quarterly increase since the first quarter of 2020. New wells slowed dramatically last year because of the decline in prices and weak demand for gas. At the end of March, the state reported a total of 10,438 producing wells. Horizontal wells account for 99% of the production in the state. That total was up 4.9% from the previous year, the smallest year-over-year growth rate on record. The growth rate in producing wells has slowed as producers drill fewer wells and shut in or plug existing wells, the state reported. Without a significant uptick in new wells, new gas production will likely slow or even stagnate, the state reported. Gas wells in Susquehanna, Washington, Green, Bradford counties account for nearly 69% of the state’s production, with Bradford county showing the largest growth in production. Pennsylvania’s total annual production was 7290 Bcf in 2020, second only to Texas, which produced 10,291 Bcf in 2020. The average price for Pennsylvania gas was $2.53/MMBtu in Q1, 2021, a significant discount to the price of gas at Henry Hub, which was $3.44/MMBtu. That average price was the strongest in more than five quarters, and the growth rate was steeper than the growth rate of prices at Henry Hub, the state reported.

Call For Fracking Transparency — Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro and other Democratic members of the Senate held a virtual press conference Tuesday to discuss legislation to increase transparency and oversight of management of gas drilling in the fracking industry. Eight recommendations were made based on the report of a two-year investigation that included testimony from homeowners that live within proximity of drilling sites and current and former state employees, according to a news release from PA Senate Democrats. Findings of the report include: numerous families, close to wells or other industrial sites, described unexplained rashes, sudden nosebleeds, and respiratory issues.Senate Democrats aim to usher in reforms through bills that were specifically recommended by the Grand Jury report.  The eight reforms detailed in the release include:

1. Expanding no-drill zones in Pennsylvania from the required 500 feet to 2,500 feet;
2. Requiring fracking companies to publicly disclose all chemicals used in drilling and hydraulic fracturing before they are used on-site;
3. Requiring the regulation of gathering lines, used to transport unconventional gas hundreds of miles;
4. Adding up all sources of air pollution in a given area to accurately assess air quality;
5. Requiring safer transport of the contaminated waste created from fracking sites;
6. Conducting a comprehensive health response to the effects of living near unconventional drilling sites;
7. Limiting the ability of Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection employees to be employed in the private sector immediately after leaving the Department;
8. Allowing the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General original criminal jurisdiction over unconventional oil and gas companies.

“Under this package of bills, citizens and others could report potential environmental crimes directly to the Attorney General’s office for investigation without having to go through other agencies first,” said Sen. Santarsiero. “This would speed up the process for investigations and convictions for environmental crimes and make it clear to potential polluters that damaging our land and water will be met with real consequences.”

Ethane analysis points to severe underestimation of methane emissions in oil and gas production -- A new analysis of emissions from ethane, which are tied to methane emissions and largely attributable to oil and gas companies, shows that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is underestimating methane generated by the industry by 46% to 76%. Researchers have long suggested that the EPA underestimates the level of methane emissions in the U.S., but pinpointing the sources of these emissions is difficult, given that methane comes from a variety of sources, including agriculture and wetlands. The new study, published May 5 in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, details a method of analyzing ethane emissions that links a previously underestimated share of methane emissions to the oil and gas industry, providing new information that could inform future climate change efforts. "As far as I'm aware, this is the only paper that's figured out that oil and gas methane emissions [estimates] are too low without actually measuring methane emissions," said lead author Zachary Barkley, an atmospheric scientist at Pennsylvania State University. "There is clearly an ethane/methane source here — oil and gas wells — which are being underestimated, and it needs to be accounted for."Methane is an important greenhouse gas that traps heat 28 times more effectively than carbon dioxide over a 100-year span. According to the study, methane emissions stabilized in the early 2000s but have been increasing since 2007. Oil and gas infrastructure is prone to methane leaks through valves and other equipment during production and extraction. Gas flares, a common industry practice, are also common sources of methane emissions. The EPA keeps an inventory of these emissions, but the agency's calculations tend to be based on old measurements, according to Barkley."We know CO2 a lot better than we know methane, and so that's raised a lot of alarm in part because a lot of the climate projections did not account for this methane increase," Barkley said in an interview with The Academic Times. "We're doing so much to try and offset CO2, and now we can barely offset the changes we're seeing to the methane, so there's this big rush to try and figure out what's causing it, and one of the big sectors that's been looked at is oil and gas."The EPA classifies methane and ethane as "negligibly reactive" volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, which are any organic compounds that react with light in the atmosphere. As a result, the agency exempts methane and ethane from emissions limitations. In April, environmental groups including the Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the EPA to remove methane and ethane from its "negligibly reactive" list. "What happens when you do these studies with methane is you end up reporting your results, and then the oil and gas company will come after you and say, 'Well, how do you know it wasn't a cow? How do you know it wasn't a landfill?'" Barkley said. "When you only use ethane, no methane, and you come up with the same result as all these other papers that show that the EPA inventory is off, it just completely kills that argument, because there's nothing else it can be coming from."

Sen. Bob Menendez introduces bill to ban offshore drilling in Atlantic Ocean | Video  - U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez announced he would introduce the COAST Act (or Clean Ocean and Safe Tourism Anti-Drilling Act) to keep oil rigs away from the Atlantic Ocean, including the Jersey Shore. The bill would prevent the U.S. Department of the Interior from issuing leases for exploration, development or production of oil or gas in the Atlantic Ocean and the Straits of Florida. In January, President Biden paused drilling in those areas as part of his administration’s effort to combat climate change, blocking a move by the former Trump administration to open most of the coast to drilling.

Bill inspired by South Portland fuel tank emissions earns committee’s endorsement - Petroleum tank farms in Maine would have to continuously monitor emissions and take other steps to reduce off-gassing from aboveground tanks under a bill that received a committee endorsement on Monday. The bill is a response to concerns in South Portland about noxious odors and air pollution emanating from massive tanks located along the city’s waterfront in close proximity to schools, residential neighborhoods and businesses. Although those concerns date back decades, momentum has built since 2019 to tighten monitoring and reporting of emissions from petroleum tanks amid a high-profile dispute between state and federal regulators over emissions levels. The proposal, which faces additional votes in the full Legislature, would direct Maine’s Board of Environmental Protection to develop rules requiring the installation of “fenceline” monitoring stations around facilities with aboveground tanks. The low-cost monitors would then track levels of potentially hazardous emissions drifting into local neighborhoods. The bill also would require use of “floating roofs” – which reduce the accumulation of gases by sitting on the surface of the petroleum – in tanks larger than 39,000 gallons, and insulation in heated, fixed-roof storage tanks to reduce temperature changes that can create additional gases. The bill also would direct the BEP to mandate the collection of emissions created when loading fuels into empty tanker trucks, and the installation of technology capable of monitoring at least monthly for leaks from storage tanks, piping and fittings.

Oil Refineries' Benzene Pollution a Concern in Eastern KY  -- A Marathon oil refinery in eastern Kentucky is emitting benzene into the air at levels higher than what the federal Environmental Protection Agency says require action to curb. Benzene is a well-known carcinogen that can cause leukemia. According to a report from the Environmental Integrity Project, benzene readings at the Boyd County refinery jumped 233% between 2019 and 2020. Ilan Levin, associate director at the group, said last year's levels were 11% above the EPA action level. "These are not necessarily Clean Air Act violations," said Levin. "But the data indicates clearly that we've got a problem at many of these U.S. refineries." Levin added in 2015, the EPA required all refineries in the U.S. to install benzene pollution monitors. Nationwide, more than 530,000 people live within three miles of a refinery. The EPA estimates 57% are people of color and 43% live at incomes below the poverty line. Levin said he believes lax regulation and oversight of oil refineries threaten public health, and said the EPA should respond more rapidly to short-term spikes in benzene emissions. "Actions often include investigations, requests for information from these refineries," said Levin. "That's what EPA needs to do for a handful of these refineries, especially those that are getting worse." Levin explained benzene often wafts into communities at levels higher than what's being reported, because refineries can point to other nearby sources and claim the emissions aren't theirs. He said the data adds to a growing body of evidence about who's most likely to suffer the consequences of air pollution. "That points to the fact that people of color, and lower-income folks, are disproportionately hit by industrial pollution," said Levin. He notes the same communities were hit especially hard by COVID-19, where residents lack affordable health care and have higher rates of chronic illness that make them especially vulnerable to air pollution.

 More US E&Ps, Utilities and Midstreamers Join Coalition to Reduce Natural Gas Emissions - Since early March, nine oil and natural gas producers, utilities and pipeline and storage operators have joined a coalition that pledges to reduce collective methane emissions to 1% or lower. Our Nation’s Energy Future (ONE Future), with members in the upstream, midstream and downstream sectors, now numbers 45. As members, each company would report methane emissions and hold a seat on the ONE Future board. Privately owned exploration and production (E&P) companies BKV Corp., THQ Appalachia I LLC (THQA) and Jonah Energy LLC, joined in April. Denver-based BKV holds assets in the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania, as well as the Barnett Shale in North Texas. According to ONE Future executive director Richard Hyde, BKV “has grown rapidly to become a Top-20 natural gas producer in the United States.” Supported by Tug Hill Operating LLC, THQA also targets the Marcellus, as well as Utica Shale and the Upper Devonian formation in northern West Virginia. “Through the utilization of technology, we strive to improve the efficiency of our operations, minimize our environmental impact, and create lasting partnerships within the communities where we live and work,” said THQA COO Sean Willis. Jonah Energy, based in Sublette County, Wyoming, holds assets within the Jonah Field. The independent produces 550 MMcf/d. Two new utility members, Black Hills Corp. and DTE Energy, plan to report methane intensity associated with distribution operations. Through subsidiaries, Black Hills provides natural gas to customers across Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming. Detroit-based subsidiary DTE Gas delivers gas to 1.3 million customers in Michigan. More midstream companies have also joined ONE Future’s efforts to reduce methane emissions while promoting natural gas. Each company pledged to report results from their gathering, processing, transmission, or storage sectors.Western Midstream Partners LP (WES) joined in March. WES owns properties across Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. Blue Racer Midstream LLC, which joined in April, operates processing facilities in the Utica and Marcellus shales. Most recently, Targa Resources Corp. joined in early May. The midstream company operates natural gas pipelines in the Permian Basin and in Oklahoma.

State lawmakers consider bill to preempt local natural gas restrictions -- Michigan lawmakers have joined nearly two dozen other states looking to stop local climate change efforts that involve electrifying various building and transportation components to reduce carbon emissions.House lawmakers today debated House Bill 4575 — sponsored by state Rep. Michele Hoitenga, R-Manton — in the House Committee on Regulatory Reform.  The co-owner of an oil and gas drilling consulting business with her husband Philip, Hoitenga introduced the largely preemptive bill as an effort to stop local governments from adopting, maintaining or enforcing an ordinance that “prohibits the use of an appliance that uses gas in a new or existing residential building or structure.” The bill, introduced in late March, would amend the Stille-DeRossett-Hale Single State Construction Code Act of 1972. It’s cosponsored by seven other Republicans.Hointenga said during the committee, which she co-chairs, that the bill is meant to “protect consumers from unintended consequences.”“Gas plays a significant role in sustaining a clean energy future,” she said, referring to the broader transition away from coal. “We must be realistic … when undergoing such profound energy usage changes.”Representatives from the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, the Home Builders Association of Michigan, DTE Energy and the Utility Workers Union of America testified in support of the bill. Multiple oil and gas trade groups, Michigan Realtors, the Michigan Restaurant and Lodging Association and the Michigan Licensed Beverage Association also support H.B. 4575.Citing a potential “patchwork” of local ordinances, DTE Gas Director of Sales and Marketing H.J. Decker said the gas utility “supports policies and regulations that expand the use of natural gas.” DTE Gas’ parent company, DTE Energy, has also publicly announced a net zero carbon emissions target by 2050.According to a House Fiscal Agency analysis, more than 20 states have either adopted or introduced bills that would “prohibit local governments from making building code changes that would ban the use of gas appliances in new construction.” The legislation is opposed by the city of Ann Arbor, where officials have adopted the A2Zero Plan that includes strategies to electrify homes and businesses. The plan more broadly calls for the city to reach net zero emissions by 2030 through renewable energy generation and purchases, energy efficiency, weatherization measures and electrifying transportation.

Gas Pipelines: Harming Clean Water, People, and the Planet --Oil and gas pipelines crisscross the United States, and new ones are still being built. It would take volumes to document all the dangers they pose to people, nature, and the planet, but here’s a start: greenhouse gas emissions, violations of indigenous treaty rights and sovereignty, destruction of endangered species habitat, taking of private property without public benefit, contamination of drinking water sources and streams and rivers, ruination of farms and landscapes, deaths and injuries from explosions, damage to wild ecosystems, and environmental injustice.The International Energy Agency has called for an immediate end to new investments in fossil fuel pipelines. With all the cleaner alternatives available, the only benefit of new pipelines is to increase the corporate profits of pipeline owners. Yet while the potential for harm is well known, government agencies keep rubber-stamping permits.FERC has approved dozens of new interstate gas pipelines over the past five years. Here are examples of the worst offenses associated with some of them (stay tuned for more on oil):

• Mariner East 2 pipeline travels 350 miles from Ohio and West Virginia through Pennsylvania. A gas liquids pipeline developed by Energy Transfer Partners (ETP), its construction led to contamination of drinking water sources for dozens of families and farms along the pipeline route. It’s also responsible for 320 spills between 2017 and 2020, reportedly releasing into the environment up to 405,990 gallons of drilling fluid, with more than 260,000 gallons spilled illegally into Pennsylvania waterways. One spill last August released more than 8,000 gallons of drilling fluids into a wetland and stream system that drains into Marsh Creek Lake, a drinking water reservoir near Philadelphia. Building the pipeline has also caused dozens of sinkholes, reportedly endangering some homes and damaging others.
• Also an ETP project, Rover is a 713-mile gas pipeline that travels from West Virginia, through Pennsylvania and Ohio, to Michigan. It’s reported that the company “racked up more than 800 state and federal permit violations while racing to build two of the nation's largest natural gas pipelines.” One spill alone was more than 2 million gallons. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) denied Rover a so-called “blanket certificate”—the authority to conduct routine construction activities without first seeking permission from FERC—precisely because it concluded Rover “could not be relied upon to comply with the environmental regulations required for all blanket certificate projects.” The full life cycle greenhouse gas emissions generated by the project are estimated to be 145 million metric tons. And FERC recently proposed a $20 million fine for Rover because it allegedly destroyed a historic Ohio property without notifying authorities or obtaining permission.
• Another one of ETP’s greatest hits, the Revolution Pipeline in Pennsylvania is only 40 miles long but in that short distance has caused significant damage. A 2018 explosion on this pipeline destroyed a home and resulted in a civil penalty of $30.6 million. Fortunately, no people were hurt. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection also determined that Revolution pipeline destroyed at least 23 streams and 17 wetlands and damaged another 120 streams 70 wetlands. There arehundreds of additional allegations related to this project.
• Still under construction, Mountain Valley Pipeline would stretch from West Virginia across the Appalachian Mountains to Virginia. It’s a joint venture of EQM Midstream Partners, NextEra Energy, Con Edison Transmission, AltaGas Ltd., and RGC Midstream. With hundreds of planned water crossings, MVP has already agreed to pay more than $2 million in penalties for more than 350 water quality violations cited by Virginia and West Virginia, and it’s not even close to being completed. No other large pipeline has ever been approved across this many miles of steep slopes and high landslide risk areas—more than 200 miles of “high landslide susceptibility.” Steeper slopes typically mean greater threats to clean rivers and streams as well as increased risks of explosions. The full life cycle greenhouse gas emissions that the project would generate if fully utilized are estimated at almost 90 million metric tons a year—the equivalent of 23 average U.S. coal plants or over 19 million passenger vehicles. MVP faces numerous lawsuits alleging violations of our bedrock environmental laws, including the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act.

Comment period for key Mountain Valley Pipeline water permits is here - The long-delayed Mountain Valley Pipeline needs water crossing permit approval if it is to ever be completed.The time is now to weigh in on whether the project should get it.Public comments are due Friday to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC’s proposal to discharge dredged and/or fill material into wetlands and other waters, while West Virginia environmental regulators are taking comments ahead of a virtual public hearing set for June 22 on whether they should approve a water permit for the project.Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC, the joint venture that owns the pipeline, still has applications pending with West Virginia and Virginia state environmental regulators for about 300 water crossings while it seeks approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to tunnel under 120 additional waterbodies.The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection last month asked for an additional 90 days beyond the 120 days the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers gave the agency to review Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC’s water permit request. The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality in March requested an additional year to review the pipeline permit application.Both departments said Monday that they haven’t heard back from the Corps. The Corps could not be reached for comment.The Mountain Valley Pipeline is designed to be a 303-mile natural gas pipeline system traveling from Northwestern West Virginia to Southern Virginia crossing Wetzel, Harrison, Doddridge, Lewis, Braxton, Webster, Nicholas, Greenbrier, Fayette, Summers and Monroe counties in the Mountain State. It is projected to provide up to 2 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas from the Marcellus and Utica shale formations to markets in the mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the U.S. Pipeline developers have proposed a 125-foot-wide temporary right-of-way to construct the pipeline and a 50-feet-wide permanent right-of-way to maintain and operate the pipeline once in service. Mountain Valley anticipates that the project will have temporary impacts to more than 21,000 linear feet of streams and 10 acres of wetlands in West Virginia during the construction phase.

Hurst: Mountain Valley Pipeline is not the future Virginia needs | Columnists --There is no need for the MVP and it should be cancelled. Over the past two years, MVP’s construction has polluted creeks and streams in Virginia and West Virginia, dried wells and ponds, and ruined farms. The company proved it could not prevent massive amounts of sediment from choking our streams, with state officials eventually ordering a fine of over $2 million for over 300 violations of the project permit. This destructive process — conducted on private land, seized for corporate greed — has resulted in the loss of livelihoods for many in the communities I represent. That is why I introduced HB 646 in 2020 which increased penalties for violations. The bill passed and was signed by the governor. The pipeline is now projected to cost $6.2 billion, twice as much as originally estimated, and it is 3-½ years behind its original schedule. If completed, the pipeline could generate greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 26 coal plants —the last thing we need during this critical time. Unfortunately, Mountain Valley Pipeline and its proposed North Carolina extension, “Southgate,” are not intended to serve the communities they disrupt. Instead, they would link to a national pipeline network that some argue is already overbuilt, at a time when demand for natural gas is in decline. While construction inches forward, the environmental and legal risks continue to mount. As MVP tries to link an incomplete mainline project with the Southgate extension, courts have overturned various permits allowing the pipeline to cross waters, national forests, and the habitats of protected species. The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality recently rejected, for the second time, a request for a water permit required for construction in the state. MVP also needs new water permits from Virginia, West Virginia, and a federal agency in the wake of litigation. Given all of the observed harms and uncertain future, this project must be cancelled.

U.S. natgas futures fall to near 4-week low on milder weather (Reuters) - U.S. natural gas futures slid to a near four-week low on Monday as production increased and on forecasts for milder weather and less demand over the next two weeks than previously expected. Traders noted cooler weather would cut the amount of gas power generators burn to keep air conditioners humming. Front-month gas futures NGc1 fell 2.0 cents, or 0.7%, to settle at $2.886 per million British thermal units, their lowest close since April 27. That also put the front-month down for a fifth day in a row for the first time since early March. Data provider Refinitiv said gas output in the Lower 48 U.S. states averaged 90.9 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) so far in May, up from 90.6 bcfd in April. That is still well below November 2019's monthly record of 95.4 bcfd. With the milder weather on the horizon, Refinitiv projected average gas demand, including exports, would ease from 85.0 bcfd this week to 84.6 bcfd next week. The forecast for next week was lower than Refinitiv forecasts on Friday. The amount of gas flowing to U.S. LNG export plants averaged 10.9 bcfd so far in May, down from April's monthly record of 11.5 bcfd. The decline was due to short-term issues and normal spring maintenance at a few Gulf Coast plants and the gas pipelines that supply them. U.S. pipeline exports to Mexico, meanwhile, averaged 6.0 bcfd so far in May, just off April's monthly record of 6.1 bcfd, Refinitiv data showed. 

U.S. natgas edges up as rising global prices seen boosting exports -  (Reuters) - U.S. natural gas futures edged up on Tuesday on expectations a rise in global prices will boost U.S. exports back to record highs in the coming weeks. That U.S. price gain came despite forecasts for milder weather, lower demand and a steady increase in output. On their second to last day as the front-month, gas futures NGc1 for June delivery rose 2.7 cents, or 0.9%, to settle at $2.913 per million British thermal units. On Monday, the contract closed at its lowest since April 27 after declining for five days in a row. The July NGN21 contract, which will soon be the front-month, gained about 2 cents to $2.98 per mmBtu. Data provider Refinitiv said gas output in the Lower 48 U.S. states averaged 90.9 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) so far in May, up from 90.6 bcfd in April. That is still well below November 2019's monthly record of 95.4 bcfd. The amount of gas flowing to U.S. LNG export plants averaged 10.9 bcfd so far in May, down from April's monthly record of 11.5 bcfd. The decline was due to short-term issues and normal spring maintenance at a few Gulf Coast plants and the gas pipelines that supply them. But with European TRNLTTFMc1 gas prices near their highest since September 2018 and Asian JKMc1 prices over $10 per mmBtu, analysts said they expect buyers around the world to keep purchasing near-record amounts of U.S. gas.

June Natural Gas Futures Contract Rolls Off Board Following Robust Gain -- Natural gas futures on Wednesday built on the gains of a day earlier as a favorable shift in the weather-demand outlook offset expectations for a triple-digit storage injection with the federal government’s pending inventory report Thursday. eia storage may 21 The June Nymex contract gained 7.1 cents day/day and rolled off the board after settling at $2.984/MMBtu on Wednesday. It had gained 2.7 cents on Tuesday. The June contract hovered near the $3.00 level over much of its span at the front of the curve, but it fell short of breaking through and staying above that threshold. July, which takes over as the prompt month Thursday, gained 5.3 cents to $3.027. NGI’s Spot Gas National Avg. rose a half-cent to $2.700. In terms of demand for natural gas to cool homes and businesses, forecasts on Wednesday improved from earlier in the week, with more intense heat likely next week in the Midwest and East, Bespoke Weather Services said. Both are key regions for natural gas consumption. “The forecast has stepped warmer overall,” Bespoke said Wednesday. While cooler air is still expected in the nation’s midsection and in the Northeast over the looming Memorial Day weekend, any chills “look quite brief before upper level ridging sets up shop once again in the eastern U.S. This keeps total demand over the next 15 days as a whole above normal, even with the cooler period in play.

Larger-than-expected US gas storage build prompts Henry Hub price drop - US natural gas storage fields injected 115 Bcf for the week ended May 21 -- much more than expected -- prompting Henry Hub futures to decline across the board May 27. Storage inventories increased to 2.215 Tcf over the latest reporting week, US Energy Information Administration data showed. The build proved greater than the 107 Bcf addition expected by an S&P Global Platts' survey of analysts. It was outside the range of expectations as responses to the survey ranged from a 94 to 112 Bcf injection. It was also above the five-year average of 91 Bcf, according to EIA data. It marked the first time in a month the injection was more than the average. Strong export demand and tepid production levels had resulted in an underwhelming injection season thus far. US supply and demand fundamentals showed significant slackening during the reference week, as the last gasp of heating demand the week earlier finally dissipated, sending demand from the residential-commercial and industrial sectors nearly 6.5 Bcf/d lower, according to S&P Global Platts Analytics. A bump in power burn demand, which rose by 1.7 Bcf/d on the week, was diminished by a 600 MMcf/d drop in LNG feedgas deliveries, leaving total demand 5.2 Bcf/d lower week on week for an average 81.8 Bcf/d. Upstream, supplies were essentially flat. The injection might be the sole triple-digit increase for the entire 2021 injection season, as forecasts for the week in progress and the week ahead point to a tighter market as hotter weather is expected to boost power burn demand, leaving less gas available to inject into storage. Storage volumes now stand 381 Bcf, or 15%, less than the year-ago level of 2.596 Tcf and 63 Bcf, or 3%, less than the five-year average of 2.278 Tcf. On May 27, in its first day holding the prompt-month position, the July NYMEX Henry Hub contract dropped 7 cents/MMBtu, with the balance of summer through October following it lower. The winter contract strip from November-March was less prone, but not by much, as prices tumbled more than 6 cents/MMBtu. This pushed the balance of summer below the $3/MMBtu support level, now trading closer to $2.95/MMBtu, while the winter strip remains firmly above at $3.13/MMBtu, though selling pressure appears to be rising. Platts Analytics' supply and demand model currently forecasts an 80 Bcf injection for the week ending May 28. This would once again grow the deficit to the five-year average as power burn demand begins to heat up. Total demand is up 1.7 Bcf/d week over week as a decline in residential-commercial and industrial demand pared down the effects of a roughly 3.4 Bcf/d increase in power burn demand.

 July Natural Gas Futures, Cash Prices Sink After Bearish Inventory Report - Dragged lower after a bearish government inventory report, natural gas futures plunged on Thursday after rallying more than 7.0 cents into the expiration of the June contract a day earlier. The July Nymex contract, in its debut as the front month, dropped 6.9 cents day/day and settled at $2.958/MMBtu. It had closed above $3.00 on Wednesday. August also lost substantial ground, falling 6.7 cents on Thursday to $2.978. NGI’s Spot Gas National Avg. shed 6.0 cents to $2.640 as temperatures cooled in the Upper Midwest and forecasts called for light demand this coming weekend. Trading on Thursday was for gas delivered Friday through Monday, May 31. Natural gas trading on Friday will be for June gas delivery on Tuesday June 1. Futures traders pulled back after a disappointing U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) storage result that eclipsed the high end of analysts’ projections and signaled weaker demand than most had in their models. EIA reported an injection of 115 Bcf natural gas into stockpiles for the week ended May 21. Temperatures during the storage report week were cooler than normal over the southern United States and along the Mid-Atlantic Coast but warmer than normal – and generally comfortable — over the Mountain West and northern portions of the country. The weather minimized demand in key regions, according to NatGasWeather. Still, cooling demand had emerged in the West, and analysts anticipated a lighter build than what EIA delivered. Prior to the report, a Bloomberg poll showed a median estimate of 106 Bcf while a Reuters survey landed at a median build of 106 Bcf. A Wall Street Journal survey found an average build expectation of 101 Bcf. NGI’s model called for a 107 Bcf injection. The estimates compare with a 105 Bcf increase in storage a year earlier and a five-year average injection of 91 Bcf. The build for the May 21 week lifted inventories to 2,215 Bcf. That compared with the year-earlier level of 2,596 Bcf and the five-year average of 2,278 Bcf. But the increase for last week nevertheless signaled some easing in demand. In addition to weather, liquefied natural gas (LNG) export levels last week retreated from recent highs above 11 Bcf. That downward trend, while thought to reflect maintenance interruptions, extended into this week and curbed the influence of a major catalyst for natural gas prices this spring. LNG feed gas volumes hovered just below 10 Bcf on Thursday, NGI data showed.

U.S. natgas futures rise to one-week high on surging global prices (Reuters) - U.S. natural gas futures rose on Friday to their highest in more than a week, buoyed by forecasts for warmer weather in two weeks and a projected increase in liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports. Higher temperatures in two weeks were expected to boost demand for fuel to power generators and keep air conditioners humming. Still, traders said demand next week was likely be similar to this week, kept in check by mild weather and the Memorial Day holiday on Monday. Front-month gas futures NGc1 rose 2.8 cents, or 0.9%, to settle at $2.986 per million British thermal units, their highest close since May 18. For the week, the contract was up about 3% after falling about 2% last week. For the month, the contract was up about 2% after gaining about 12% last month. Data provider Refinitiv said gas output in the Lower 48 U.S. states has averaged 91 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) in May, up from 90.6 bcfd in April. That, however, was still well below November 2019's monthly record of 95.4 bcfd. With warmer weather coming after the U.S. Memorial Day holiday week, Refinitiv projected average gas demand, including exports, would rise from 83.6 bcfd this week to 84.1 bcfd next week with a projected increase in LNG exports and 90.1 bcfd in two weeks as warmer weather boosts air conditioning use. The forecast for next week was slightly higher than Refinitiv predicted on Thursday. The amount of gas flowing to U.S. LNG export plants has averaged 10.8 bcfd so far in May, down from April's monthly record of 11.5 bcfd. The decline was attributable to short-term issues and normal spring maintenance at a few Gulf Coast plants and the gas pipelines that supply them. But with European gas prices near their highest since September 2018 and Asian prices above $10 per mmBtu, analysts said they expect buyers around the world to keep purchasing all the LNG the United States can provide. U.S. pipeline exports to Mexico, meanwhile, have averaged 6.0 bcfd so far in May, just off April's monthly record of 6.1 bcfd, Refinitiv data showed.

 Council approves one-year extension for $542 million liquefied natural gas facility -- The Jacksonville City Council approved Houston-based Eagle LNG Partners LLC’s request for another year to start construction on its estimated $542 million liquefied natural gas export facility in North Jacksonville. The Council voted 17-0 to extend Eagle LNG’s deadline to begin construction from May 31 this year to May 31, 2022. The deal is tied to a city incentive of $23 million. Council approved Ordinance 2021-0241, which authorizes the extension, as part of its May 25 consent agenda. An Eagle executive said April 22 that coronavirus-related border closures in some Caribbean and Central American countries over the past year and quarantine orders kept the company from completing customer contracts with the government-owned and private utility companies that would receive the LNG shipping from Jacksonville. “We did lose a year. There’s no question,” said Linda Berndt, Eagle LNG vice president of government and public relations. “We asked for the year extension because of how slow some of these islands will be in recovery but we want to go sooner than a year.” Eagle LNG will have until Dec. 31, 2025, to complete the facility on 200 acres at 1632 Zoo Parkway along the St. Johns River with 12 new full-time jobs in place. Council voted in December 2019 to award Eagle LNG a Recapture Enhanced Value Grant up to $23 million, based on 50% of the incremental increase in ad valorem taxes, according to a legislative summary filed with the bill. Eagle’s investment outside the U.S. could be nearly double what it plans in Jacksonville. Company President Sean Lalani said in November 2019 that Eagle is prepared to spend up to $1 billion for receiving infrastructure in unidentified Central American and Caribbean Island nations. Eagle’s North Jacksonville facility will use lower volume LNG carrier ships to target small, relatively underserved markets that need less supply to operate than utilities in Asian, North American and European counties, according to company executives.

Exports, global demand lift top US producers’ NGL prices, revenues in Q1 - Robust international demand for liquefied petroleum gas drove a sharp spike in realized prices during the first quarter, boosting the NGL revenues of some U.S. shale producers more than 100% above the prior-year period.The 10 largest shale producers covered by S&P Global Market Intelligence recorded year-over-year gains in realized NGL prices of 77% to as much as 180% during the quarter. Both oil and NGL prices improved from the same period a year earlier and even from fourth-quarter 2020 levels. The average Brent crude oil futures prompt month contract gained 22% from the year-ago period, while the average Mont Belvieu NGL spot price grew more than 130%.Executives at Appalachian NGL producer Southwestern Energy Co., which posted the highest year-over-year increases in both NGL prices and revenues, said they expect NGL and oil prices to remain strong.“The 2021 [West Texas Intermediate] strip price has improved over $8 per barrel since we set our guidance in February, with transportation demand improving and OPEC+ compliance shaping supply increases to better match demand recovery,” Southwestern Energy President and CEO William Way said during the company’s quarterly earnings call. “The NGL landscape also remains promising, with low propane storage levels and increased global demand for both ethane and propane.” Antero Resources Corp., the country’s third-largest natural gas producer and Appalachia’s biggest NGL producer, also discussed the “welcomed, but not at all surprising” improved NGL prices on its earnings call. Antero said a major driver of first-quarter free cash flow was increasing commodity prices — particularly C3+ NGL prices, which averaged more than $40/b during the quarter. Analysts from Northland Capital Markets said in a May 12 note that they anticipate Antero’s net realizations will generate $300 million to $400 million of free cash flow through year-end, as Asian and European LPG prices stay high. “Summer exports, fall harvest season and winter weather are all on deck to sustain propane prices above the forward curve,” the analysts said.The second-largest NGL producer in Appalachia, Range Resources Corp., attributed the quarter’s improved NGL and condensate prices to “strong demand in a market that saw decreased supply.” Range posted a pre-hedge NGL price realization of $26.35/b, its highest since late 2018, and an NGL premium of $1.52/b to Mont Belvieu.“Preliminary results for U.S. propane and butane, or LPG, revealed that Q1 2021 domestic demand was 13% higher year on year, while supply decreased by 4%,” Range Senior Vice President and COO Dennis Degner said during an earnings call. “Looking forward, we see propane and butane market prices, as storage balances of these NGLs are much tighter relative to last year.”

Massive LNG export projects along the Louisiana coast could capture 1 million tons of carbon - A company proposing four liquefied natural gas export terminals in south Louisiana plans to capture climate-changing greenhouse gases from at least two of its projects for storage deep underground to prevent carbon from entering the atmosphere. Arlington, Virginia-based Venture Global LNG expects to use advanced technology to capture carbon from the liquefaction process, compress the CO2, then inject it into saline aquifers for permanent storage. The company did not say what percentage of total carbon produced would be captured for storage, and not enough is known from permit documents about its plant emissions to determine how significant the reduction is. The company said it could extend the carbon capture effort beyond the two projects to all four of its proposed terminals in Louisiana. One already is under construction in coastal Cameron Parish, where another project is proposed. Two others are proposed south of New Orleans. "Our location in Louisiana uniquely positions us to pioneer the deployment of this technology due to geology that can support industrial-scale injection and storage of CO2," Mike Sabel, chief executive officer of Venture Global, said in a news release. "Through this historic carbon capture and sequestration project, we will build upon our existing state-of-the-art technology to develop even cleaner LNG at our facilities to displace coal around the world." Demand for a cleaner version of LNG is high among countries that have plans to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Carbon is a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change by entering the atmosphere and causing the Earth's protective ozone layer to deteriorate. The company said the 1 million tons of carbon captured each year would equal the emissions of 200,000 cars no longer driving on the road for 20 years. Venture Global LNG said it already has completed "comprehensive engineering and geotechnical analysis" for the carbon sequestration plan for two projects — its Calcasieu Pass site south of Lake Charles and Plaquemines LNG south of New Orleans — and is awaiting regulatory approvals. Between the two export terminals, the company expects to sequester 500,000 tons of carbon each year.

 Crews continue to work on cleaning up oil spill along Norfolk creek — The U.S. Coast says it is continuing to respond to an oil spill in Norfolk. Officials say a waste oil tank that was on shore overflowed into Steamboat Creek on Tuesday afternoon. We don't know how much oil got into the water, but the Coast Guard says the source is secured. About 300 feet of shoreline is said to be affected. The Coast Guard said the "responsible party has been identified and is fully cooperating and participating in all response efforts." As of Thursday, the Coast Guard said oil spill response teams have collected about 200 gallons of waste oil and water mix, along with 185 bags of oiled debris since cleanup efforts began. The Virginia Department of Health says cleanup is expected to take several weeks and urges people to avoid the area. People should not enter Steamboat Creek to fish or swim. The VDH said nearby residents may smell oil as cleanup continues. A Coast Guard Sector Virginia pollution investigation team, Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, Virginia Department of Emergency Management, and the Norfolk Fire Marshal’s Office are working with local agencies to coordinate cleanup operations and assess any environmental impacts.

 Cleanup of oil spill continues off Elizabeth river - A huge operation is underway in Norfolk to stop the damage from an oil spill in Steamboat Creek. The U.S. Coast Guard, several Virginia state agencies, and the city of Norfolk are working to clean up the oil and assess the damage. Discovered Tuesday afternoon, the spill reportedly came from a “waste oil tank overflow incident” on shore. About 300 feet of shoreline was impacted, but the Coast Guard still don’t know just how much oil was discharged into the water. The agency says the source is now secured. Coast Guard Sector Virginia, Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, Virginia Department of Emergency Management, and City of Norfolk Fire-Rescue teams are working with other agencies to get the spill under control. Oil spill response teams deployed one mile of boom and have collected at least 200 gallons of waste oil mixed with water. They’ve cleaned up 130 bags of oiled debris in the first 24 hours since they first responded to the spill. “Our focus is the unity of effort amongst our partner agencies in this ongoing clean up,” says Lt. Savannah Kuntz, the Coast Guard Federal On Scene Coordinator Representative. “Our goal is to minimize impacts to environmentally sensitive areas and species present, and we are so thankful to have state and local partners that are pivotal in our efforts.”

Colonial Pipeline says temporary network disruption resolved  (Reuters) -Colonial Pipeline, the largest fuel pipeline in the United States, on Friday said it had resolved a temporary network disruption, just weeks after a ransomware attack crippled fuel delivery for several days in the southeast region. Colonial earlier on Friday experienced a network issue, the company said, but restored service to its network. The issue was not associated with malware, the company said. The company had earlier said shippers were having problems entering and updating nominations for deliveries. The "system functionality has returned to normal," the company said. The reason for the network issues was not immediately clear. Colonial's shipping nomination system is operated by a third party, privately-held Transport4, or T4, which handles similar logistics for other pipeline companies. T4 on Friday said its application was working for all customers and carriers. It did not comment on Colonial's current network issue and said that data between T4 and Colonial was transacting normally. Friday's network problems are the second occurrence of such issues since the attack earlier in the month. Colonial is the largest fuel system in the United States, accounting for millions of barrels of daily deliveries to the U.S. East Coast and Southeast. Shortly after Colonial restored operations from the hack, it suffered a brief network outage that prevented customers from planning upcoming shipments on the line. At the time, Colonial said the disruption was caused by efforts by the company to harden its system, and was not the result of a reinfection of its network. The southeast United States is still recovering from the six-day line outage from earlier this month and the supply issues it caused in the region. Around 6,000 gas stations were still without fuel this week, according to tracking firm GasBuddy, down from a peak of more than 16,000. Almost 40% of gas stations in the capital, Washington, were without supplies on Thursday, GasBuddy said. More than 20% of stations in North Carolina, Georgia and South Carolina were also empty. The hack also boosted gasoline prices earlier than expected this year. Heading into Memorial Day weekend, the traditional start of the summer driving season, U.S. motorists are seeing the highest gasoline prices in seven years.

Colonial ransomware hack spurs first-ever cybersecurity regulations for pipeline industry - The Department of Homeland Security is moving to regulate cybersecurity in the pipeline industry for the first time in an effort to prevent a repeat of a major computer attack that crippled nearly half the East Coast’s fuel supply this month — an incident that highlighted the vulnerability of critical infrastructure to online attacks.The Transportation Security Administration, a DHS unit, will issue a security directive this week requiring pipeline companies to report cyber incidents to federal authorities, senior DHS officials said. It will follow up in coming weeks with a more robust set of mandatory rules for how pipeline companies must safeguard their systems against cyberattacks and the steps they should take if they are hacked, the officials said. The agency has offered only voluntary guidelines in the past.The ransomware attack that led Colonial Pipeline to shutter its pipeline for 11 days this month prompted gasoline shortages and panic buying in the southeastern United States, including in the nation’s capital. Had it gone on much longer, it could have affected airlines, mass transit and chemical refineries that rely on diesel fuel. Colonial’s chief executive has said the company paid $4.4 million to foreign hackers to release its systems.The cyberattack spurred DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and other top officials to consider how they could use existing TSA powers to bring change to the industry, said the officials.Gas stations in the Southeastern U.S. saw long lines on May 10, as Colonial Pipeline tries to restore operations following a ransomware attack. (The Washington Post)“The Biden administration is taking further action to better secure our nation’s critical infrastructure,” DHS spokeswoman Sarah Peck said in a statement. “TSA, in close collaboration with [the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency], is coordinating with companies in the pipeline sector to ensure they are taking all necessary steps to increase their resilience to cyber threats and secure their systems.”

US pipeline operator reporting hacks to federal government — US pipeline operators need to carry out cybersecurity assessments under the Biden administration’s directives. Ransomware hacking disrupted gas supply in some states this month. The Transportation Security Administration directive issued Thursday will also allow owners and operators of national pipelines to report cyber incidents to the federal government and cyber security coordinators to work with authorities in the event of such attacks. Mandatory to be available at all times Shut down Colonial Pipeline.. Pipeline companies that previously operated on voluntary guidelines followed security directives that reflected the government’s focus on cybersecurity prior to the May attack on Colonial, a senior department of Homeland Security. If you don’t, you may face fines starting at $ 7,000 per day. Officials said. “The progress of ransomware attacks in the last 12-18 months poses national security risks and is concerned about the impact on key functions of the state,” said one official. It was. Anonymity to discuss regulatory details prior to official release. Crime organizations, often based in Russia or elsewhere in Eastern Europe, used encryption to scramble target data and unleash a wave of ransomware attacks demanding ransom. Victims include state governments, local governments, hospitals, medical researchers, and businesses of all sizes, and some victims are unable to even carry out their daily work.

Gas Shortage 2021: Why is Georgia dependent on just one gasoline pipeline? - The six-day shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline, which depleted the fuel supplies of more than two-thirds of metro Atlanta service stations, showed just how vulnerable Georgia is to interruptions to its energy supply. The cyberattack earlier this month made it painfully clear that, in a pinch, there are few practical alternatives to replace the pipeline’s massive capacity. The state is far from alone. The 5,500-mile-long pipeline supplies about 45% of the East Coast’s gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. The Southeast is even more reliant. Colonial delivers more than 70% of transportation fuels to Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia, according to the federal Energy Information Administration, including to crucial arteries such as Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. Why Georgia’s fuel supply isn’t more diversified is shaped by a confluence of factors — and there are no easy fixes. Unlike many states in the Gulf, Midwest and the Rockies, Georgia doesn’t produce or refine any oil, so all petroleum products must be transported here. Pipelines, which pump fuel from refineries across long distances to customers, are often the most cost-effective option but face increasing opposition from elected officials, property owners and the public. Alternatives are expensive or still years away from widespread adoption. Multiple government reports in recent years warned about the state’s dependency on pipelines. Gulf Coast storms, including hurricanes Katrina and Harvey, and a 2016 pipeline leak in Alabama previewed the havoc that could be wreaked if such systems are impeded. “Georgia is extremely vulnerable to supply interruptions from weather and human interference,” a 2019 report from the state-run Georgia Environmental Finance Authority concluded.While there are alternatives for transporting fuels, none of them comes cheap. Trucking petroleum from the Gulf Coast is inefficient, since the vehicles are limited by how much they can carry. And transportation by rail can be pricey. Meanwhile, the century-old Jones Act requires that all goods transported domestically via ships must be carried on U.S.-built vessels that are owned and operated by Americans. Such tankers can be expensive to build and operate, and it’s sometimes cheaper to import foreign oil. Because of that, Georgia has relied on pipelines for transporting its oil — Colonial, built in the 1960s, and the smaller Products (SE) Pipe Line, built in the 1940s and known, until recently, as the Plantation Pipeline. The latter carries about 720,000 barrels per day compared to its competitor’s 3 million barrels. Both have headquarters in Alpharetta.

Salvors remove diesel fuel from capsized liftboat Seacor Power --Salvage crews have removed all diesel fuel from the tanks of capsized liftboat Seacor Power in the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. Coast Guard said on Wednesday.Salvors removed approximately 20,363 gallons of diesel fuel from the overturned vessel using the hot tapping method, which involves drilling into the fuel tanks, making a hose connection, and transferring the fuel to portable tanks, the Coast Guard said.Approximately 4,500 gallons of hydraulic fluid still on board will need to be removed after the vessel is raised as the tanks are currently inaccessible, the agency said, adding the tanks have not been compromised.Now that diesel fuel has been removed, salvors will shift their focus toward removing debris and refloating the vessel. The Coast Guard said it expects the vessel will not be raised before June, as the timeline depends on many factors, including primarily the safety of salvage crews, weather conditions and any new structural changes that may occur.The Coast Guard said it continues to monitor for any oil discharges, and the liftboat's owner Seacor Marine has an oil spill response organization (OSRO) standing by.There were 19 people on board when the U.S.-flagged Seacor Power overturned in extreme weather conditions in the Gulf of Mexico last month. Six people were rescued by the Coast Guard and Good Samaritan vessels, six people died in the accident andseven remain missing. The incident is under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the Coast Guard.

Gas well explodes in St. Mary Parish, burning four people, state says -- A natural gas well exploded in St. Mary Parish on Tuesday afternoon following an oil well blowout, causing at least four injuries.The Texas Petroleum Investment Company was in the process of sealing a natural gas well on Little Wax Bayou in Belle Isle on Sunday afternoon when the well blew out for unknown reasons, according to the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources. Wild Well Control, a Houston well control company, responded to the blowout Monday afternoon.However, while working on the uncontrolled spill, the exposed gasoline became ignited and caused an explosion Tuesday. It is unclear what caused the ignition. At least four people — all Wild Well employees — had burns on their hands and faces, according to Wild Well Control. At least one of those injured has been transported by air to Our Lady of Lourdes Regional Medical Center in Lafayette, according to their spokesperson, Elisabeth Arnold.

Four people injured after gas well explosion in Louisiana bayou - Officials confirm four people were wounded in an explosion at a natural gas well in the inland waters of St. Mary Parish on Tuesday. Workers from Wild Well Control, an oil spill response company, were trying to get a blowout under control at a well owned by Texas Petroleum Investment Co. when a spark ignited the natural gas coming from the well, according to Patrick Courreges of the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources. The Wild Well personnel sustained burns to their hands and face, Courreges said. The well is located in the marsh along Big Wax Bayou, west of Belle Isle near the Atchafalaya River delta. A review of state oil and gas data shows the well was first drilled in 1965. TPIC received a permit to plug and abandon the well in March and had been working on that when the blowout began Sunday. "Contractors working to cap a well in the Belle Isle Field were injured when a spark ignited natural gas," TPIC spokesman David Margulies said in a written statement Wednesday. "The incident began on Sunday while workers were attempting to plug the abandoned well. The gas flow at the well has stopped and the fire is out. The workers are receiving medical treatment and crews are on the scene to protect the environment and bring the well under control." Margulies updated his statement Wednesday afternoon to add that Tuesday's fire "was extinguished within two hours and gas flow has been minimized." The company had called in crews from Houston-based Wild Well Control, which says on its website that it's the world's leading provider of emergency well control response services. I TPIC says on its LinkedIn profile that its a Houston-based privately owned company that operates more than 2,000 producing wells along the Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama coast. The Louisiana State Police Emergency Response Unit was on the scene Tuesday afternoon around 5:00 p.m. with HAZMAT equipment, Trooper Thomas Gossen said. Randall Mann of Acadian Ambulance said four helicopters and five ground units responded to take four patients to area hospitals. One went to New Orleans by helicopter, two by ambulance and another was taken to a Lafayette hospital by helicopter. Authorities say crews had been working to stop the well blowout since Sunday and the emission of gas seemed to be under control when it ignited. The fire stopped burning after Tuesday's accident, but Courreges said Wednesday that crews were still working to make sure the well is secure.

$1 billion refinery bid rebuffed by Shell for shuttered Convent site in Louisiana, group says -A group that says it was rebuffed in an effort to buy Royal Dutch Shell's Convent oil refinery for $1 billion says it is determined to buy and also build a new refinery to process lighter oil piped in from the Bakken shale play in the North Dakota area."We were trying to take advantage of existing infrastructure at the Convent refinery that was earlier indicated to be for sale," said Coleman Ferguson, who represents proposed buyer American Clean Energy Refining LLC and had worked at Texaco for more than three decades and is familiar with the Convent refinery. "If they (Shell) don't want to sell the refinery for some reason we're still interested in the docks, tanks and infrastructure. We are going to build a refinery we've just got to find a site," he said.The startup company looks to build a second stand-alone refinery for $2 billion, which was planned to be on the Shell site, with capacity of 300,000 barrels of "frack oil" each day, he said.Shell did not directly comment on the group's effort to buy the Convent refinery."Despite an extensive marketing process, a viable buyer was not identified," said Curtis Smith, spokesperson for Shell in an email."In the marketing process of the Convent Refinery and all other assets globally, we consider a wide range of qualifications and factors, including a prospective buyer’s ability and experience to safely operate a complex manufacturing site."The company had begun marketing its refinery in July 2020, but moved into shutdown mode several months later, laying off hundreds of workers and hundreds more contractors. Shell said it has found positions within the company for about 60% of the Convent workers.Now the refinery is in the "final steps of the preservation process and will soon be a fully idled and preserved asset," according to Shell. The company continues to "actively evaluate" its options, including "potential future marketing efforts."

Valero goes 'all-in' on renewable diesel, carbon capture - San Antonio-based Valero Energy Corp. is staking its future on the belief that not all cars and trucks will be powered by electricity in the years to come and the world will still need liquid fuels. The independent refiner is going all in on carbon capture projects and renewable diesel, a fuel produced from animal fats and waste products, such as used cooking oils. Other U.S. firms are doing the same. Houston refiner Phillips 66 said it plans to produce 800 million gallons of renewable diesel annually by 2024, and Ohio-based Marathon Petroleum said in March it would convert a California refinery to produce the fuel. For their part, European oil and gas majors — BP, Shell and Total, all three of which produce and refine oil — are aggressively positioning themselves for a future significantly less dependent on fossil fuels. They’re pouring billions into solar, wind and even hydrogen projects. Once it’s refined, renewable diesel can power any diesel vehicle on the road today. Valero, ranked 32nd on the list of Fortune 500 companies, estimates the fuel reduces emissions by 80 percent compared with regular diesel. Since 2018, Valero has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to expand its renewable diesel business. The company boosted production at its diesel refinery in St. Charles, La., and is building a new production facility at its Port Arthur refinery that will be completed in 2023.

They Wanted to Keep Working. ExxonMobil Locked Them Out. - The lockout began May 1, known in most parts of the world as International Workers’ Day. In a matter of hours, the ExxonMobil Corporation escorted 650 oil refiners in Beaumont, Texas, off the job, replacing experienced members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 13 – 243 with temporary workers — and hoping to force a vote on Exxon’s latest contract proposal. USW maintains the proposal violates basic principles of seniority, and more than three weeks after the union members were marched out of their facility, they remain locked out. “We would have rather kept everyone working until we reached an agreement,” Bryan Gross, a staff representative for USW, tells In These Times. ​“That was our goal.” Because strikes and lockouts are often measures taken under more dire circumstances, either when bargaining has completely stalled or is being conducted in bad faith, USW proposed a one-year contract extension. But Exxon rejected the offer, holding out for huge changes to contractual language regarding seniority, safety and layoffs. ​“It’s a control issue,” Gross adds. ​“Exxon wants control.” As the oil industry attempts to deskill (and ultimately deunionize) its labor force, refinery workers like those in Beaumont find themselves under siege. Not only is their industry buckling beneath the weight of a global health crisis, but climate change has come to threaten their very livelihoods. Many workers remain skeptical of existing plans for a just transition. Since the coronavirus pandemic began in March 2020, refiners have taken drastic measures to offset steep drops in the price of oil by reducing production, selling assets and even closing some facilities. While the unionization rate in the oil and gas industry is currently higher than the rest of the U.S. workforce (15% compared with nearly 11%, per Reuters), BP, Marathon Petroleum Corporation and Cenovus Energy have cut labor costs by either downsizing or subcontracting to non-union workers. Exxon appears to be following along. Local 13 – 243 member J.T. Coleman, who has worked at the Beaumont refinery for a decade now, fears that hiring so many of these non-union workers to operate the facility could get somebody hurt. ​“We’re familiar with the equipment,” he says. ​“They’re not trained like we are.” USW has filed complaints with the National Labor Relations Board accusing Exxon of refusing to bargain, modifying their agreement with the union and coercion. Exxon did not immediately respond to a request for comment from In These Times. The complaints come at a time when the future of oil, in Texas and beyond, has never been more uncertain. In February, three severe winter storms walloped the state, killing 100 people and leaving millions without power. Similar storms hit Texas in both 1989 and 2011, but state lawmakers failed to heed calls from experts to upgrade the power grid at the time. When temperatures plunged below freezing this February, many sources of power in the state failed, including those generated from natural gas.

Bechtel Tapped to Design Natural Gas-to-Gasoline Plant in Texas  --Energy developer Nacero Inc. has tapped global engineering and construction contractor Bechtel to design a $6.5 billion to $7 billion plant the firm plans to build in the Permian Basin — a facility Nacero says would be the nation’s first natural-gas-to-gasoline manufacturing facility. Nacero on May 25 awarded a front-end engineering and design (FEED) contract to Bechtel for the 115,000-barrel-per-day facility, which project officials say will incorporate carbon capture, sequestration and 100% renewable power. The Odessa Development Corp. and Houston-based Nacero on April 22 announced plans to build the plant in Penwell, Texas, just outside of Odessa. “This project is truly a game changer,” said Bechtel Energy president Paul Marsden in a release. "Decarbonization is a key to our energy transition here in the U.S. and around the world,” Bechtel Energy president Paul Marsden said in a statement to ENR. "Nacero and their pioneering approach to lower-carbon gasoline are a great fit for these ambitions. Efforts like this also empower everyday people to contribute to the energy transition towards net zero. It is really powerful.” Once Bechtel completes the FEED contract, it will deliver a lump-sum price proposal for engineering, procurement and construction. Project officials say Bechtel will employ sustainable design practices and work toward reducing the project’s carbon footprint, both in the supply chain and during construction. “For America to achieve its domestic energy and climate change mitigation goals, we need big vision and laser-focused execution. Bechtel is center stage in helping us get there,” Nacero president and CEO Jay McKenna said in a release. At its peak, construction of the four-year first phase is expected to employ 3,500 skilled construction workers on site and would produce 70,000 barrels-per-day of gasoline component, ready for blending. The second phase is expected to take two more years and will increase capacity to 100,000 barrels per day. When fully operational, the plant will employ 350 full-time operators and maintenance personnel.

Interior OKs Trump-era drilling leases despite Biden freeze -- Monday, May 24, 2021 -- The Interior Department has issued dozens of oil leases sold in the final weeks of the Trump administration — and could issue over 200 more — drawing the ire of an environmental group that argues the move is a violation of the Biden administration's leasing freeze.President Biden ordered a moratorium on new oil and gas leasing shortly after taking office. That pause — which bars the regular auction of drilling rights in federal lands and waters — is in place while the administration conducts a comprehensive review of the federal oil and gas program that considers both the climate impacts and economic benefits of developing the country's vast stores of fossil fuels.Interior has issued roughly three dozen oil and gas leases since that order. Most are from a Trump administration sale in January in New Mexico, the largest federal oil-producing state, where Biden's oil lease moratorium has met with mixed reviews from Democratic leadership.Jeremy Nichols, climate campaign director for WildEarth Guardians, said those leases shouldn't have been finalized. Nichols, whose organization noticed with surprise the issuance of the New Mexico leases this month, said a lawsuit is "definitely on the table.""It's just unfortunate," he said in an email. "With [Interior Secretary] Deb Haaland acknowledging that leasing under Trump flouted science, public and Tribal input, and integrity, it's a shame that there may be a need to litigate more."The New Mexico leases aren't the only ones that were auctioned off in the waning days of the Trump administration, conveying 10-year rights to develop minerals in those areas. More than 200 other oil and gas leases were sold about six months ago by the Interior Department.Alyse Sharpe, a Bureau of Land Management spokesperson, said that "the Bureau is actively reviewing the leases from the December 2020 lease sales to ensure they comply with applicable federal laws and regulations and in light of various pending lawsuits."

Line 5 causing division and cross-border tensions - As both Canada and the U.S. await the heavily anticipated court decision of the Line 5 pipeline, people are holding their breath and hopeful for good news. Michigan and its Governor Gretchen Whitmer has ordered Canadian-owned Enbridge to close its 67-year-old pipeline over concerns about its environmental safety, which delivers a massive amount of oil and energy requirements (540,000 barrels a day) to Ontario, Quebec, and midwestern states, as well as more than half the propane consumed in Michigan. Concerns about the pipeline’s aging condition and potential environmental dangers are years in the making. Late in 2020, Whitmer brought a salvo to the dispute, giving Enbridge until May 12, 2021 to cease operations of the pipeline, with Enbridge not complying. The two sides are to meet again in mid-May. While Whitmer and the state are ordering the pipeline to close, business leaders in Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin are urging the court to keep Line 5 in operation. In the article, Christopher Guith, senior vice president, policy, at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Energy Institute said, “unfortunately, millions of Americans and Canadians are likely to pay the price [of this political theatre].” After seeing events unfold at gas stations in the U.S. after the Colonial pipeline hack, shutting down Line 5 could have massive negative ramifications from an economic standpoint – higher prices, lost jobs, as well as a disruption of daily lives of individuals and companies. Recently former Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall says he finds it upsetting that it took a potential shutdown for the federal government to finally take a stance and defend Canadian oil. Speaking to CJME in Saskatchewan, Wall said, “It took the threat of the shutdown significantly impacting our central Canadian fellow citizens to get the federal government to find interest in pipelines,” he said. “Maybe even the spectre of a shutdown will help convince voters in central Canada to demand something different from federal parties in terms of their energy policy.29dk2902l “Any protracted shutdown is not good for the industry and the timing is not great.”

Part Of The Plan - Crude Oil Industry Prepares As Capline Pipeline Closes In On 'Flip Day' - Over the next few months, a variety of market players — crude oil producers, midstreamers, refiners, and exporters — will be making preparations for one of the most anticipated infrastructure additions in recent years. Actually, it’s not technically new; it’s the long-planned reversal of the 632-mile, 40-inch-diameter Capline, which for a half-century transported crude north from St. James, LA, to Patoka, IL. Line-filling will begin this fall and Capline will start flowing south from Patoka in January 2022, providing Western Canadian and other producers with new pipeline access to Gulf Coast markets. Upstream of Patoka, the impending reversal has been spurring the development of new pipeline capacity to supply the soon-to-be-southbound Capline, and in Louisiana, refiners and exporters have been making plans for the crude that will be flowing their way into St. James. Today, we discuss the broad impacts of the “new” Patoka-to-St.-James pipeline. Big enough for a full-grown Great Dane to walk through without scraping his ears, Capline is the biggest-bore crude oil pipeline ever built in the Lower 48. Originally called the Cajun Pipeline (and subsequently shortened to Capline), the project was a genuine gamechanger in that it enabled large volumes of imported oil and offshore Gulf of Mexico production to be transported north to a slew of refineries in the Midwest, with the Patoka hub serving as a key distribution point at Capline’s northern terminus.  As shown by the time-faded 1988 map in Figure 1, a number of new pumping stations were added along the pipeline’s route through the 1970s and early ‘80s, gradually increasing Capline’s throughput to a staggering 1.2 MMb/d.Throughout the 2010s, there was talk that Capline’s flow direction might be reversed, thereby providing another way for crude oil from Western Canada, the Bakken, and even the Niobrara and SCOOP/STACK to reach export docks and refineries in Louisiana. Finally, in August 2019, Capline’s current owners — Plains All American (with a ~54% ownership interest), Marathon Petroleum Corp. (MPC; ~33%) and BP (~13%) — announced that they had sanctioned the Capline reversal project, with plans to feed crude into the pipeline at two primary points: at the Patoka hub and in northern Mississippi, the latter at a proposed interconnection between Capline and an extension of the Diamond Pipeline. (More on that in a moment.)

More Canadian heavy crude US-bound -- Heavy Canadian crude shipments to the US are set to rise as more pipeline expansions come on stream and oil sands output climbs above pre-Covid levels. Pipeline capacity to ship heavy crude from Canada to the US is scheduled to rise by at least 420,000 b/d this year. The expansions are expected to increase Canadian heavy crude's market share in the US Gulf coast refining hub and could lead to higher heavy sour crude exports. Canadian crude accounted for close to 56pc of all US imports in March. And oil sands output has rebounded. Heavy crude production from oil sands projects involving steam extraction rose to a record 1.7mn b/d in March, 160,000 b/d higher than in the same month last year, according to the Alberta Energy Regulator. Alberta's oil production rose to 3.6mn b/d in March, about 50,000 b/d higher than February and 40,000 b/d up on March last year. Oil sands production made up the bulk of the increase, averaging 3.1mn b/d (see graph). The largest boost to export capacity will come from Enbridge's Line 3 replacement project, which will increase capacity from western Canada to the US midcontinent by 370,000 b/d. Enbridge has completed about 60pc of the work in Minnesota and the line is on track to start up in the fourth quarter, chief executive Al Monaco says. The project will expand Line 3 capacity from Alberta to Wisconsin to 760,000 b/d from 390,000 b/d and will enable Enbridge to capitalise on growing heavy crude demand amid a declining global heavy supply outlook, Monaco says. The nearly 700km Minnesota segment is the last section needed to complete the project, but regulatory and legal issues have delayed progress. Opponents are suing to stop the expansion and the Minnesota Court of Appeals heard arguments in March on a challenge to the state's approval. Producers expect the expansion to provide substantial relief to pipeline congestion. Enbridge needed to reject 52pc of requests for space on its two largest heavy crude lines for June, representing just over half of its near 3mn b/d Mainline system. Enbridge has had to reject on average 47pc of all nominations for capacity on the lines in the first six months of this year. The rejections should drop to 10pc once Line 3 comes into service, Canadian producer MEG Energy says. Congestion has led MEG to revise down its expected Canadian crude sales to the US Gulf coast for 2021. Volumes on the BP 2 crude pipeline in Indiana should increase by 10pc towards the end of 2021 when the Line 3 expansion goes into service, BP Midstream says. The BP 2 line moves crude from the Griffith terminal in Indiana to BP's 430,000 b/d Whiting refinery. Enbridge is also boosting capacity on its 280,000 b/d Express crude pipeline from Hardisty, Alberta, to Casper, Wyoming. The firm plans to complete the second phase of the 50,000 b/d expansion in the second quarter. The line connects to the Platte system, which moves crude from Casper to Wood River, Illinois. Enbridge boosted capacity on the Mainline system by 100,000 b/d in 2019 and is considering further increases. The company told investors in December that it has the option to increase Mainline capacity by another 200,000 b/d and to expand other lines including Flanagan South, from Flanagan, Illinois, to Cushing, Oklahoma, the Southern Access extension from Flanagan to Patoka in Illinois, and the Seaway pipeline from Cushing to the Houston area. Enbridge is also weighing a plan to reverse its 180,000 b/d Southern Lights pipeline from Illinois to Alberta to add more southbound capacity. Midstream firm TC Energy was planning a 50,000 b/d expansion of its Keystone pipeline system from Hardisty to Patoka, but says it does "not have a timeline to share" on any increase in capacity.

Line 3 construction will resume in June  -- Heavy construction activity will resume in June on Enbridge's Line 3 replacement pipeline. Environmental activists and some Indigenous communities still oppose it. — The relative calm of the spring thaw in northern Minnesota will soon give way to the sounds of heavy machinery putting huge segments of pipe into the ground. Enbridge Energy will resume major construction activity next week on its $4 billion Line 3 pipeline. The project, when completed, will carry Canadian oil across the top of the state to a terminal in Superior, Wisconsin. It's replacing the original Line 3 which was built in 1968. "We're replacing it with a pipe where the pipe wall is almost twice the thickness, and the actual alloy is actually stronger, so it would be stronger even if it were the same thickness as before," Mike Fernandez, a senior vice president at Enbridge, told KARE. "And the stations that have been set up operationally are more sophisticated from a technologically standpoint." The planning and permitting process began in 2014, after the Canadian company determined the original pipeline was aging in too many places. "We were doing more and more integrity digs and we were finding pipes that were rusting," Fernandez explained. "And so, we came to the conclusion, along with the Obama Administration, that we needed to look at replacement rather than continuing to do more and more integrity digs." The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission approved the Line 3 project in 2018, and again the following year after their original decision was nullified by a court ruling. By then work was well underway on the segments in Wisconsin and Canada. Work on the Minnesota portion began in December of 2020 after all the state and federal permits had been approved. Worked paused for the spring thaw and now labor contracts are in place to shift back into high gear, with a combined work force of more than 5,000. Many environmental organizations and some Native American Minnesota communities remain opposed. Three lawsuits aimed at stopping the project and blocking it from being used after it is built are still being debated in federal and state court. Others are planning to stop or delay construction through acts of civil disobedience.

 US oil, gas rig count climbs 4 to 547 as Permian drilling hits 13-month high- The US oil and gas rig count climbed four to 547 in the week ended May 26, rig data provider Enverus said May 27, as Permian basin drilling activity pushed to a 13-month high. The number of active oil-focused rigs climbed one to 424 while the number of rigs chasing mostly gas was up three at 123. But the modest nationwide increase belies a steep increase in the Permian basin rig count, which climbed seven to 244 - the highest since the week ended April 22, 2020. It was the biggest one-week jump in Permian rigs since the week ended March 24. Rig counts were mixed across the other major oil-focused plays. SCOOP-STACK rig count was up two at 24, the highest since April 2020, while Bakken operators added a single rig for a total 18, putting the rig count there at the highest since May 2020. But the Eagle Ford rig count was steady at 41, and operators in the Denver-Julesburg play dropped a single rig leaving a total 13 active in the basin. Rig counts were mostly higher across the major gas-focused basins. Haynesville operators added two rigs for a total 52 active in the play, while the Marcellus basin rig count was up one at 34. Notably the dry portion of the Marcellus saw a gain of two rigs for a total of 22, while in the wet portion rig counts fell one to 12. The Utica basin rig count was steady at 11. Despite pushing to a one-year high last week, Bakken rig counts are still only around one-third of their prepandemic level seen in early 2020. Platts Analytics expected production to decline in line with the sharp decline in rig counts seen last year. Instead, operators have relied on the basin's large number of drilled-but-uncompleted wells and reduced flaring rates to not only uphold, but grow production, in recent months. But these forces are unlikely to maintain growth going forward as the number of DUCs dwindles and infrastructure constraints reduce anti-flaring efforts, according to a forecast by S&P Global Platts Analytics. From May 2020 through April 2021, the number of Bakken DUCs dropped from 877 to 647, according to data by the US Energy Information Administration. Flaring rates in the Bakken also fell from 13% in March 2020 to 8% in February 2021, providing additional gas that previously would have been flared, according to the North Dakota Industrial Commission. Platts Analytics therefore expects production to slide from 2.1 Bcf/d at the start of summer to 1.7 Bcf/d by October. The EIA expects Bakken production to decline 55 MMcf/d month over month in June.

U.S. crude output soars 14.3% in March -EIA - (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil output jumped 14.3% to 11.2 million barrels per day (bpd) in March from 9.8 million bpd in February, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in its monthly 914 production report on Friday. Output sank 1.3 million bpd in February when extreme weather froze natural gas and oil wells and cut power supplies to million of customers in Texas and other South Central U.S. states. That 1.4 million bpd increase in March was the biggest monthly gain on record, according to EIA data going back to 2005. Most of the increases were in the biggest producing states with Texas up 26.4% to an 11-month high of 4.7 million bpd and New Mexico up 17.6% to a record 1.2 million bpd. In North Dakota, meanwhile, output gained just 1.4% to 1.0 million bpd. Meanwhile, monthly gross natural gas production in the U.S. Lower 48 states jumped by a record 7.8 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) in March to an 11-month high of 102.6 bcfd after falling by a record 8.1 bcfd in February to a 31-month low of 94.8 bcfd, EIA said. Gross natural gas output peaked at 107.1 bcfd in December 2019. In top gas producing states, output rose 18.5% in Texas to 27.8 bcfd in March and held steady in Pennsylvania near a record high of 21.2 bcfd. 

Unlike IEA, Rystad Energy sees need for hundreds of new oilfields  - Thousands of new oil wells and hundreds of new oilfields will be needed to meet global demand even if it falls sharply towards the middle of the century, Oslo-based consultancy Rystad Energy said on Friday. Its analysis stands in sharp contrast to the conclusions of the International Energy Agency (IEA), which said last week that investors should not fund new oil, gas and coal projects if the world wants to reach net-zero emissions by mid-century. The IEA's scenario sees oil demand declining to 24 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2050, while Rystad sees oil demand falling to 36 million bpd by the same time. "Given that output from oil wells declines by an average of more than 20% per year, the international oil industry will still need to drill thousands of new wells in existing fields, as well as developing around 900 new oilfields with collective resources of about 150 billion barrels of oil," the consultancy said in a note. Most of these projects were expected to be redevelopment, extensions or tie-backs to existing platforms, meaning the required investments will be moderate as existing infrastructure is reused, it added. Rystad said developments were needed to deliver about 10 million bpd in 2030s, as it saw a slower fall in demand than the IEA, which the consultancy said was overestimating the impact of biofuel growth and behavioural changes. Even if oil demand remains at 36 million bpd in 2050, it should be possible to reach the target of limiting the temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial times, it added. Rystad's analysis is likely to be welcomed by oil companies and oil producing countries, such as Norway, which have questioned the IEA's analysis as it undermines the case for the industry to carry on producing oil in the medium term. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has said a lack of investments in new projects could lead to more volatile prices.

Biden budget aims to raise $35B from cutting fossil fuel tax benefits  -President Biden’s budget proposal released Friday takes aim at specific tax provisions that benefit the fossil fuel industry and projects that eliminating these measures will generate $35 billion over the course of a decade. The new $6 trillion budget proposal is a more detailed proposal than the “skinny” version released last month, which had called for spending an additional $14 billion on tackling climate change and proposed funding increases for the Energy Department, Interior Department and Environmental Protection Agency. The White House has also previously, in its infrastructure plan, said that it wanted to “eliminate tax preferences for fossil fuels,” but the new proposal gets much more specific. “These oil, gas, and coal tax preferences distort markets by encouraging more investment in the fossil fuel sector than would occur under a more neutral tax system,”a Treasury Department document states, outlining the administration’s tax proposals. Among the benefits Biden hopes to cut are those received by the fossil fuel industry for enhanced oil recovery, a method of extraction that allows companies to get to fuel they wouldn’t be able to otherwise reach, and another for “intangible” costs like wages, repairs, supplies and other expenses that are needed for oil and gas drilling. Biden is also targeting a provision that allows oil and gas companies to deduct as much as 15 percent of the revenue they get from a well. Biden's budget is a proposal and Congress will enact its own spending plans, but the budget is reflective of an administration's policy priorities and goals. Industry criticized the parts of the budget that would eliminate these benefits, arguing that it would push production overseas. “Increased taxes on American energy will only undermine economic recovery and job creation, push natural gas and oil investments overseas and lead to less government revenue, not more,” American Petroleum Institute President and CEO Mike Sommers said in a statement to The Hill.

Biden administration lists lesser prairie chicken under Endangered Species Act, setting up clash with oil and gas industry - The Biden administration called for new protections under the Endangered Species Act for an iconic birdof the Great Plains on Wednesday, a move with major consequences for the oil and gas industry.U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials proposed listing as endangered a portion of the lesser prairie chicken’s population living in Texas and New Mexico, whose range overlaps with the oil- and gas-rich Permian Basin. The agency stopped short of awarding the same protections to the birds’ northern population, in Oklahoma and Kansas, on the grounds that their numbers had declined less drastically. The decision, one of nearly two dozen new conservation measures the administration has adopted in the past four months, underscores President Biden’s push to unravel his predecessor’s environmental policies. In a separate move Wednesday, the Environmental Protection Agency abolished a rulerestricting what sort of studies the agency can use in crafting public health rules. Biden has targeted Trump’s energy and environmental policies or proposed one of his own at the rate of about one a day, according to a Washington Post analysis.Although administration officials have emphasized the need to heed scientific findings on climate change and other pressing environmental threats, Wednesday’s actions highlight the difficult terrain they must navigate.For a small bird, the lesser prairie chicken has had an outsize impact on national politics. It has roamed millions of acres over several states in the Great Plains, grasslands that have been carved up over the years to make way for corn and soybean fields, sprawling cities, and the Midwestern drilling rigs used to suck oil and gas out of the ground. The chickens have lost about 90 percent of their historic population, Fish and Wildlife Service officials said.

North Dakota, Using Taxpayer Funds, Bailed Out Oil and Gas Companies by Plugging Abandoned Wells -  When North Dakota directed more than $66 million in federal pandemic relief funds to clean up old oil and gas wells last year, it seemed like the type of program everyone could get behind. The money would plug hundreds of abandoned wells and restore the often-polluted land surrounding them, and in the process would employ oilfield workers who had been furloughed after prices crashed.The program largely accomplished those goals. But some environmental advocates say it achieved another they didn’t expect: It bailed out dozens of small to mid-sized oil companies, relieving them of their responsibility to pay for cleaning up their own wells by using taxpayer money instead.Oil drillers are generally required to plug their wells after they’re done producing crude. But in practice, companies are often able to defer that responsibility for years or decades. Larger companies often sell older wells to smaller ones, which sometimes go bankrupt, leaving the wells with no owner.These “orphaned wells” become the responsibility of the federal or state governments, depending on where they were drilled. While oil companies are required to post bonds or other financial assurance to pay for plugging them, in reality those bonds cover only a tiny fraction of the costs, leaving taxpayers on the hook. One estimate, by the Carbon Tracker Initiative, a financial think tank, found that those bonds cover only a tiny fraction of the expected costs of cleaning up the nation’s oil and gas wells.But in North Dakota, it turned out that most of the wells the state plugged were not truly orphaned, but had solvent owners. After the industry warned last year that the pandemic-driven oil-crash was threatening its finances, state regulators stepped in, assumed ownership of more than 300 wells, and used CARES Act funds to plug them, meaning the companies avoided paying anything themselves.“What happened was a bunch of people got a free ride,” said Scott Skokos, executive director of the Dakota Resource Council, a grassroots environmental group in the state. Skokos said it only deepened his sense that the state had bailed out the industry. In October, regulators were granted permission from state lawmakers tosend about $16 million of the CARES Act funds as grants to oil companies to help them buy water to hydraulically fracture new wells, a step the regulators said was necessary to expend the funds by the end of the year. Nine companies took advantage of the program. In one case, a single company, Continental Resources, received $5.4 million, according to state records.Wyoming also sent about $30 million in Covid relief funds to oil companies as grants to either frack new wells or revive or plug old ones.

Judge will not let North Dakota intervene in Dakota Access dispute -A federal judge will not allow the state of North Dakota to intervene in the lawsuit over the Dakota Access Pipeline. The decision came in Friday’s order from U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who also declined to grant the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s request to shut down the pipeline during an ongoing environmental review. He denied North Dakota’s request “without prejudice,” which means the state could try to intervene again down the road. The attorney general’s office will watch how the case proceeds, said Troy Seibel, chief deputy attorney general for North Dakota. Boasberg "didn’t feel as though he needed us to be in the case right now, but he left the door open for us to get into the case in the future," Seibel said. The attorney general’s office had asked the judge to allow North Dakota to become a formal party in the tribal lawsuit, to defend the pipeline. State officials did not want Boasberg to side with Standing Rock and grant an injunction forcing the line to shut down. Boasberg’s ruling allowing Dakota Access to continue operating came as a relief to North Dakota’s oil industry, as the line has the capacity to carry about half of the state’s daily oil output to market. State officials were thrilled with that part of the ruling. They feared a shutdown would have led to job losses in the Bakken oil patch and a hit to tax revenue collected from oil production.

 Judge Allows DAPL to Keep Pumping Oil Despite Lack of Permit - A federal judge ruled Friday the Dakota Access Pipeline may continue pumping oil despite lacking a key federal permit while the Army Corps of Engineers conducts an extensive environmental review. The Standing Rock Sioux and other tribes challenging the pipeline, which they say is operating illegally beneath a reservoir near their reservation, failed to "demonstrate a likelihood of irreparable injury," according to James Boasberg of the D.C. District Court, who criticized the Biden administration repeatedly in his ruling and noted the tribes' burden of evidence was far higher than the government's. It also highlights how Supreme Court precedent has made NEPA "virtually impossible to enforce," according to Eric Glitzenstein, the Center for Biological Diversity director of litigation. "Here, an environmentally devastating pipeline was constructed in flagrant violation of the law, and yet there is no remedy because of recent Supreme Court rulings that severely undercut lower courts' ability to halt a project before NEPA review can even take place," he told E&E. "We have the Roberts court to thank for that absurd outcome."

PIPELINES: All eyes on Army Corps after Dakota Access dodges shutdown -- Monday, May 24, 2021 -- Tribes challenging the Dakota Access pipeline said they will be closely monitoring a crucial environmental review of the project after a federal judge on Friday declined to halt operation of the conduit.

Dakota Access Pipeline gains win-win with court ruling and Biden inaction | S&P Global Platts --The future of the 570,000 b/d Dakota Access Pipeline is still at risk, but the primary crude artery out of the Bakken Shale is in a much stronger position after a federal court ruling kept the oil flowing and the Biden administration opted against intervening on an existing pipeline system. The May 21 court ruling essentially decided there is a minimal threat of oil spills from the four-year-old pipeline and the risk fails to rise to the necessary "irreparable harm" level needed to shutter the 1,200-mile pipeline, even though DAPL is basically being allowed to operate illegally without the necessary federal permitting that was previously yanked. The US Army Corps of Engineers -- now under President Joe Biden -- could have decided to close the pipeline for now while a court-ordered environmental review is conducted that could put DAPL back in good legal standing after it is completed in March 2022. But the Army Corps punted the decision to US District Judge James Boasberg of the District of Columbia, who instead criticized the Army Corps for inaction. "That was essentially Biden's chance to exert some influence and he didn't take it," Ajay Bakshani, analyst for East Daley Capital. told S&P Global Platts May 24. "It's definitely positive for the Bakken." The end result is DAPL will keep operating -- with plans to expand capacity by the end of the year -- although a negative Environmental Impact Statement from the Army Corps next year could again threaten DAPL's viability. The DAPL case was closely watched by industry and environmental observers alike because it could potentially set a standard for attempting to close existing pipelines and other fossil fuel infrastructure. Now, drilling activity should ramp again with the removal of much of the legal uncertainty, according to S&P Global Platts Analytics. Platts Analytics expects Bakken crude and condensate production to rise from 1.1 million b/d in May to 1.34 million b/d by the end of 2022. Impacts on other pipelines While Biden has opposed some proposed projects, most notably the Keystone XL Pipeline, he has not taken stances in legal fights against other pipelines, including DAPL, the Line 5 shutdown fight in Michigan, Enbridge's Line 3 Replacement project, and the planned Byhalia Connection near Memphis that is part of the Diamond Pipeline extension project. The White House clearly wants to support environmental concerns and tribal rights, but there also remains the need to ensure energy security, and closing existing pipelines can cause major disruptions, said James Coleman, an energy law professor at Southern Methodist University said May 24 in an interview. Coleman pointed out the recent, regional fuel shortage issues from the one-week closure of the Colonial Pipeline from a cyberattack. "It's still a little bit of a black box, but their actions on Dakota Access certainly are good news for other existing pipelines, such as Line 5," he said. Any additional legal appeals are a long-shot at best, Coleman said, so the future of DAPL largely remains in the Army Corps' court. "It puts the Biden administration in a tough position," he said. "This isn't the end of the road for the plaintiffs because the Biden administration could change its mind at any time."

Oil spill reported on Crow Indian Reservation -An oil spill of unknown size and duration has been reported on the Crow Indian Reservation.Richard Mylott, a spokesperson for Region 8 of the Environmental Protection Agency, said his understanding is that the spill is coming from a gathering line, a pipeline used to transport crude oil from a wellhead to a central collection point. Gathering lines generally transport a lower volume of oil than transmission lines. He said there are currently no known impacts or threats to surface waters.  “EPA will continue to monitor reports and will respond to any requests or needs for assistance,” he said.  According to DrillingEdge, which compiles information about oil and gas wells,Soap Creek Associates, Inc., has 31 operational wells in the area of the reported spill. Those wells produced 3,100 barrels of oil this past January.Montana Free Press first learned of the spill through communication with Richard White Clay, who has been active with the Crow Allottee Association, an organization that advocates for the interests of landowners on the Crow reservation. He said another association member with an allotment near Soap Creek reported the spill to him. “They found an oil spill in their creek and they sent some photos over,” he said.  The National Pipeline Mapping System lists an incident involving a hazardous liquid material on the Crow Reservation between Fort Smith and Lodge Grass. Credit: National Pipeline Mapping SystemThe National Pipeline Mapping System shows there has been an incident involving a pipeline transporting a hazardous liquid between Lodge Grass and Fort Smith. According to NPMS, there are four pipeline operators with oversight of pipelines in Big Horn County: Cenex Pipeline, LLC; WBI Energy Transmission, Inc.; Northwestern Corporation; and Phillips 66 Pipeline, LLC. It’s unknown if any of those companies operate the gathering line that’s believed to be the source of the spill. In a Tuesday morning email to MTFP, Clifford Serawop, Superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Crow Agency office, said BIA’s Land Service staff would be responding to the incident.  “Even though it’s allotted land, it’s still land that’s held in trust, so we want to make sure we take care of it,” Serawop said.Allotted land conveys ownership to a landowner with restrictions on its transfer and use. The land is held in trust for tribal members by the federal government.Montana Department of Environmental Quality spokesperson Moira Davin said DEQ is aware of the spill, but is not acting as the lead on a response. “It sounds like EPA and reservation staff will be the main leads,” she said.

Biden Backs Massive Alaska Drilling Project Approved Under Trump -The Biden administration is facing backlash from climate activists and scientists after filing a court briefWednesday in defense of a major Trump-era Alaska drilling project that's expected to produce up to 160,000 barrels of oil a day over a 30-year period — a plan that runs directly counter to the White House's stated goalof slashing U.S. carbon emissions."This is a complete denial of reality," said Jean Flemma, director of the Ocean Defense Initiative and former senior policy adviser for the House Natural Resources Committee. "The project is expected to produce about 590 million barrels of oil. Burning that oil would create nearly 260 million metric tons of CO2 emissions — about the equivalent of what is produced by 66 coal-fired power plants."Approved by the Trump administration in October of last year, fossil fuel giant ConocoPhillips' multi-billion-dollar Willow Master Development Plan aims to establish several new oil drilling sites in part of Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve and construct hundreds of miles of pipeline.Environmental groups promptly sued the Trump Bureau of Land Management and Interior Department over the move, charging that the agencies signed off on Willow "despite its harms to Arctic communities, public health, and wildlife, and without a plan to effectively mitigate those harms."But in a briefing submitted in the U.S. District Court for Alaska on Wednesday, Biden administration lawyers defended the Trump agencies' decision to greenlight Willow against the environmental coalition's legal challenge."The agencies took a hard look at the Willow Project's impacts, including impacts from the alternative proposed water crossings and impacts from building gravel roads and other infrastructure," the filing reads. "The analysis did not suffer for lack of specific project information." The Biden administration's filing does not explain how support for the massive drilling project — a top priority of Alaska's Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan — comports with the White House's pledgejust last month to cut U.S. carbon emissions in half by 2030.

Biden administration backs Alaska oil project approved under Trump - The Biden administration defended a proposed ConocoPhillips oil development in Alaska on Wednesday, backing the project pushed by Alaskan Sen. Lisa Murkowski, the centrist lawmaker the administration has wooed as a potential swing vote.The decision by the Interior Department to defend in court the Trump administration’s October 2020 decision and allow the Willow project in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska to proceed comes despite Interior Secretary Deb Haaland's opposition to the project last year when she was a member of Congress.The NPR-A region on Alaska's North Slope has been producing oil for decades and is separate from the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge. President Joe Biden issued a moratorium blocking drilling in ANWR on his first day in office, freezing the Trump administration's plans to allow oil exploration there.The Willow project, consisting of five wells that collectively could produce up to 160,000 barrels of oil a day, would be one of the first major new oil projects in Alaska in years. The development would include a new gravel mine, airstrip, more than 570 miles of ice roads and nearly 320 miles of pipeline to the Alaskan landscape. The Justice Department, in a court filing with the U.S. District Court of Alaska, defended the Trump-era decision to allow the project against environmental advocacy groups' allegations that Interior had failed to adequately assess the project's environmental impacts.Both Alaska Republican Sens. Dan Sullivan and Murkowski discussed the project during an Oval Office meeting with Biden on Monday. Sullivan said he left behind information on the project and Biden promised to get back to him shortly.“I talked extensively with the president on the Willow project,” Sullivan told POLITICO on Wednesday. “I told him ‘It hasn’t been controversial until you guys put a pause on it.’”  Biden was receptive to the project, Murkowski said, and she said she told him the Alaska lawmakers had briefed "just about everyone in your Cabinet and any senior adviser who would listen."

Biden Admin Sides with Trump Admin on ConocoPhillips Project  - -- The Justice Department is defending the Trump administration’s approval of a massive ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc. project in federal court, over the objections of environmentalists who say the government didn’t adequately consider the venture’s effect on polar bears and the climate. In a filing with the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska, the Biden administration said Wednesday that Conoco’s Willow project in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska was approved only after years of analysis, consultation and public input. “Plaintiffs seek to stop the extraction of resources from the petroleum reserve by cherry-picking the records” of the Bureau of Land Management, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Army Corps of Engineers, the administration told the court. President Joe Biden previously directed the Interior Department to review its 2020 approval of the Willow project, which has the potential to produce 150,000 barrels of oil per day. The project could include as many as five drilling sites, hundreds of miles of ice roads, an airstrip and a gravel mine site, among other infrastructure. Conservation and indigenous groups have argued the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management failed to sufficiently analyze the environmental and climate impact of the project. Environmentalists also have argued that planned gravel mining activities imperil a potential denning habitat for polar bears. In February, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an emergency order blocking ConocoPhillips from opening a gravel mine site and building roads. The three Republican members of Alaska’s congressional delegation -- Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan as well as Representative Don Young -- pressed the issue with Biden in the Oval Office on Monday after he signed into law a measure that allows cruise ships to resume visits to the state, according to a person familiar with the matter. Sullivan even handed the president and White House staff a full-color one-page briefing on the project to help make his case. In its filing with the court, the Biden administration argued the federal government followed applicable clean water, animal protection and environmental laws in approving the project. And, the administration noted, the Willow venture is set to take place on “valid leases” within the petroleum reserve, where Congress has specifically mandated oil development. Environmentalists blasted the administration’s move Wednesday. “It’s incredibly disappointing to see the Biden administration defending this environmentally disastrous project,” Kristen Monsell, a lawyer at the Center for Biological Diversity said in a news release. “President Biden promised climate action and our climate can’t afford more huge new oil-drilling projects.”

Biden officials condemned for backing Trump-era Alaska drilling project -- Joe Biden’s administration is facing an onslaught of criticism from environmentalists after opting to defend the approval of a massive oil and gas drilling project in the frigid northern reaches of Alaska.In a briefing filed in federal court on Wednesday, the US Department of Justice said the Trump-era decision to allow the project in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska’s north slope was “reasonable and consistent” with the law and should be allowed to go ahead.This stance means the Biden administration is contesting a lawsuit brought by environmental groups aimed at halting the drilling due to concerns over the impact upon wildlife and planet-heating emissions. The US president has paused all new drilling leases on public land but is allowing this Alaska lease, approved under Trump, to go ahead.The project, known as Willow, is being overseen by the oil company ConocoPhillips and is designed to extract more than 100,000 barrels of oil a day for the next 30 years. Environmentalists say allowing the project is at odds with Biden’s vow to combat the climate crisis and drastically reduce US emissions.“It’s incredibly disappointing to see the Biden administration defending this environmentally disastrous project,” said Kristen Monsell, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the groups that have sued to stop the drilling. “President Biden promised climate action and our climate can’t afford more huge new oil-drilling projects.”The Arctic is heating up at three times the rate of the rest of the planet and ConocoPhillips will have to resort to Kafkaesque interventions to be able to drill for oil in an environment being destroyed by the burning of that fuel. The company plans to install “chillers’ into the Alaskan permafrost, which is rapidly melting due to global heating, to ensure it is stable enough to host drilling equipment. Monsell said the attempts to refreeze the thawing permafrost in order to extract more fossil fuel “highlights the ridiculousness of drilling in the Arctic”. Kirsten Miller, acting executive director of the Alaska Wilderness League, said Willow “is the poster child for the type of massive fossil fuel development that must be avoided today if we’re to avoid the worst climate impacts down the road”.

Cosco bulker spills oil off Sakhalin after fuel tank breach - (video) A bulk carrier, identified as Cosco’s Kang Shun, had its hull breached during entry into Boshnyakovo Anchorage, western Sakhalin Island coast, causing it to spill oil into the sea.A collision with a bunker barge caused a breach in one of the ship’s fuel tanks and close to one tonne of fuel oil leaked into the sea, according to the statement by the regional branch of the Russian Ministry of Emergencies (EMERCOM).A response team was deployed to treat the oil spill and no injuries were reported on the 55,600 dwt supramax, which at the time of the accident had some 12,000 tons of coal on board. The incident took place on May 21. As of this afternoon local time, the ship has yet to depart.

Sakhalin ship collision results in oil spill: report - A collision between a bulk carrier and a smaller ship resulted in a bunker fuel spill off the coast of Sakhalin. According to marine news provider Maritime Bulletin, the lighter struck the larger ship in the fuel tank area, an action that resulted in the spill a few days ago. Oil booms were deployed and a clean up operation is underway although the amount of bunker fuel spilt was not reported. While major spills from ships have fallen significantly since the Exxon Valdez incident and subsequent Oil Pollution Act (1990), enacted under President Geoge Bush's administration, smaller spills, some involving bunkering operations, are more common. According to the International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation, there were no spills from ships over 700 metric tonnes last year and three incidents where betwen 7 and 700 mt of oil were spilt. The total volume of oil lost to the environment from tanker spills in 2020 was approximately 1,000 mt, according to ITOPF.

 Russian Watchdog Says No Significant Contamination Detected In Oil Spill Area In Norilsk - Specialists from Russia's environmental watchdog, Rosprirodnadzor, have not found any signs of significant pollution in the country's northern city of Norilsk near the area of a major diesel spill at a power station last May, the agency's head, Svetlana Radionova, said on Monday. "Rosprirodnadzor is controlling the situation. There is no significant contamination and what we can see now [was] expected. The main thing is that there are forces and means, and the work is under control. It [the Nornickel mining giant] has an understanding that it will clean everything until the territory is completely cleaned of even minor contaminants," Radionova wrote on Instagram. The official noted that during a regular check-up of the site, oily film was detected on the surface of the stream, formed due to melting snow and flowing from under the road mound, adding that the soil is treated with sorbents. Late last May, some 21,000 tonnes of diesel fuel leaked from a thermal power plant of the Norilsk-Taimyr Energy Company, which is affiliated with Nornickel, and contaminated two rivers and surrounding soil. It was initially believed that the spill had been caused by the melting of permafrost that supports the faulty power plant's fuel tank in motion. A criminal case was launched into the incident. Russia's environmental watchdog, in turn, opened a probe and estimated the damage at 148 billion rubles ($2 million). Nornickel disagreed with the amount and conducted its own probe which estimated the damage at seven times less than that. Norilsk-Taimyr Energy Company eventually made the 146.2 billion ruble payments to compensate for the damage.

 New report helps UK MCA prepare for offshore oil spill challenges -- The UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency's (MCA) future oil spill response plan will be informed by a new report that maps out possible threats to the UK's coastal areas, marine life, and traffic as a result of hydrocarbon releases from energy industry operation and shipping. The report on the review of the hydrocarbon release risk on the UKCS over the next decade was delivered for the MCA, by Xodus Group, in association with London Marine Consultants. The review evaluated the risk of a serious mineral oil release occurring in UK waters from vessels of more than 1,000 gross tonnage (GT), including oils carried as cargo, bunker fuel, and from offshore installations. It includes the nature of risk and the likelihood of a serious hydrocarbon release in UK waters considering developments in ship and rig design and operations, and analysis of historical releases and near misses. The report also provides a look-ahead during the 2020s, to anticipate how changes in the industry, aging infrastructure, and/or decommissioning will affect the level of risk. The review will inform the MCA’s oil spill preparedness planning and associated activities for the next decade and consists of five reports: Oil cargo and bunkers; Qualitative review of the spill risk from ships; The offshore risk, overall assessment of the risk and a summary report for the project.

Dutch court rules oil giant Shell must cut carbon emissions by 45% by 2030 in landmark case — A Dutch court on Wednesday ruled oil giant Royal Dutch Shell must reduce its carbon emissions by 45% by 2030 from 2019 levels. That's a much higher reduction than the company's current aim of lowering its emissions by 20% by 2030. The landmark ruling comes at a time when the world's largest corporate emitters are under immense pressure to set short, medium and long-term emissions targets that are consistent with the Paris Agreement. The climate accord is widely recognized as critically important to avoid an irreversible climate crisis. Shell's current climate strategy states that the company is aiming to become a net-zero emissions business by 2050, with the company setting a target of cutting its CO2 emissions by 45% by 2035. A spokesperson for Shell said the company "fully expect to appeal today's disappointing court decision." "We are investing billions of dollars in low-carbon energy, including electric vehicle charging, hydrogen, renewables and biofuels," the spokesperson said via email. "We want to grow demand for these products and scale up our new energy businesses even more quickly." Shares of Shell were trading 0.2% higher in London. The stock price is up almost 10% year-to-date, having tumbled nearly 40% in 2020. The lawsuit was filed in April 2019 by seven activist groups — including Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace — on behalf of 17,200 Dutch citizens. Court summons claimed Shell's business model "is endangering human rights and lives" by posing a threat to the goals laid out in the Paris Agreement. Under the Paris Agreement — a deal adopted in 2015 and signed by 195 countries — nations agreed to a framework to prevent global temperatures from rising by any more than 2 degrees Celsius, although the accord aims to prevent global temperature rises exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius.Roger Cox, a lawyer for environmental activists in the case, said in a statement that the ruling marked "a turning point in history" and could have major consequences for other big polluters. Meanwhile, Sara Shaw, Friends of the Earth's international program coordinator for climate justice and energy, said the organization hoped the verdict would "trigger a wave of climate litigation against big polluters to force them to stop extracting and burning fossil fuels."

US blacklists 13 ships working on Nord Stream 2 pipeline project - The US has imposed sanctions on thirteen vessels involved in the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany, shortly after exempting the pipeline’s Russian operator and CEO. The US Treasury Department added two Russian-flagged AHTS vessels Vladislav Strizhov and the Yury Topchev to a sanctions list on Friday and prohibited their dealings with US banks and companies. Another eleven vessels from Russia’s Marine Rescue Service, including the pipe layer Akademik Cherskiy and offshore support vessel Artemis Offshore, were placed on a less restrictive sanctions list, prohibiting US firms provision of goods and services. Russia’s Marine Rescue Service and Samara Heat and Energy property fund were likewise placed on that less restrictive sanctions list. Last week, the US said it won’t sanction the pipeline’s Russian-owned operator, Nord Stream 2 AG, nor its CEO, Matthias Warnig. The sanctions against the vessels are seen as a symbolic move as the vessels are Russian-owned and flagged and are expected to continue pipe laying operations. Another Russian pipe layer on the US sanctions list, Fortuna, has already started operations on the Nord Stream 2 in German waters. Nord Stream 2, which crosses the Baltic Sea, bypassing Ukraine, has been opposed by the US, which claims it will increase German reliance on Russian gas and make Berlin more susceptible to Russian politics.

Russia’s Northwest Komi Republic hit by 100-ton oil spill -  A ruptured pipeline in Russia’s northwestern region of Komi has leaked 100 tons of oil last week, including nine tons that flowed into a local river, posing a threat the area’s ecosystems and populated areas, the state environment watchdog Rosprirodnadzor said on Monday. The pipeline is operated by Russian oil producer Lukoil, officials have determined. It comes nearly a year after a leak from a fuel storage facility operated by Russian mining giant Norilsk Nickel led to the worst Arctic oil spill in history.Local media report that the leak came from a pipeline that connects the Oshskoye oil field in the neighboring Nenets autonomous district to a nearby Lukoil storage facility. The oil has reached the Kolva river and traveled downstream to Usinsk, a town of 45,000 people located 2,000 kilometers northeast of Moscow.Environmentalists and officials fear the slick could travel via tributary rivers and eventually reach the Barents Sea.Lukoil said in a release that it has dispatched 150 workers to staunch the spill, though the Meduza independent Russian news site reports that as many as 230 liquidators have arrived to eliminate the slick. Initial estimates said that the spill involved six to seven tons of fuel. But on Sunday, Lukoil’s subsidiary, Lukoil-Komi,  admitted that 90 tons of oil had spread into local soil and waterways.  “The leak occurred at a distance of about 300 meters from the coastline of the Kolva River,” the city administration of Usinsk, which declared an emergency last Wednesday,  said on its social media account. “Therefore, the bulk of the oil-derived liquid […] spread into the soil, mainly occupying a natural lowland close to the leak.” While oil booms are usually used to contain oil spills on water, there is too much moving ice on the Kolva at this time of year to use that technique, officials said.“The work to eliminate the consequences of the oil spill will be extremely difficult because of the ice drift in the river,” Komi Republic head Vladimir Uyba told the Independent Barents Observer. Activists have feared that Lukoil is hiding the real magnitude of yet another disastrous oil spill in Russia’s Arctic. Locals had reportedly noticed dead fish in the river on May 10, before the accident was officially confirmed, according to a report in The Moscow Times.

Lukoil oil spill headed towards the Barents Sea - An oil spill in the Komi Peninsula is four to five-times bigger than initially thought, and may flood into the Barents Sea on Russia’s north-eastern coast if unchecked, environmentalists warned on May 17.Komi officials declared an emergency last week after oil spilled out of the Oshskoye field, operated by Russian oil major Lukoil. The oil spread into the soil and local waterways, but was thought to have been contained on land. Initially Lukoil said 20 tonnes of oil product had spilled, but now it is reported that closer to 90-100 tonnes have leaked, nine tonnes of which have already got into the local Kolva river that empties into the Arctic region’s Barents Sea, officials in the town of Usinsk 1,500 km north-east of Moscow said as cited by the Moscow Times. If the 100 tonnes figure is confirmed that would make the spill five times larger than last year’s spill by mining giant Norilsk Nickel, then dubbed the Exxon Valdez of Russia.The energy-rich Komi region witnessed one of the worst oil spills in Russian history in August 1994, when its ageing pipeline network sprang a leak that was officially said to have totalled 79,000 tonnes, or 585,000 barrels. Independent estimates put the figure at up to 2mn barrels, reports Reuters.Russia already suffered its worst post-Soviet environmental disaster last year after a power unit belonging to Norilsk Nickel spilled over 20,000 tonnes of oil into rivers in the Pyasino region flowing to the Kara Sea in June 2020, making it one of the worst ecological catastrophes in the history of the Arctic region. Comparable to the 37,000-tonne spill of the Exxon Valdez tanker, the spill was declared a federal emergency by the Kremlin and Norilsk was fined $2bn for the accident.The Lukoil spill is the first environmental disaster this year, but the polluted water has been swiftly carried downstream from the Kolva into the connecting Pechora and Usa rivers and is now advancing toward the Barents Sea, environmentalists say. The local authorities said around 230 people were working to contain the spill, but environmentalist fear that the size of the spill is too big to prevent it flowing into the sea and causing yet another environmental catastrophe. The oil slick already in the water will take many days to clear up, Komi Environment Minister Alexei Kuznetsov told the state-run TASS news agency on May 17.

Komi oil spill may cost 1 billion rubles in damage  – Izvestia - A recent oil spill in the Russian Arctic may cost as much as 1 billion rubles ($13 million) in damage, experts told the Izvestia newspaper.Authorities in the republic of Komi declared an emergency on May 14 after the spill at the Oshskoye field, operated by a subsidiary of oil giant Lukoil, in the neighboring Nenets autonomous district spread into local soil and waterways. At first, Lukoil reported that 20 tons of oil had spilled into local soil and waterways, but a few days later authorities said that number was closer to 90 tons. The spill on land has been largely contained, but nine tons of crude oil reached the Kolva river, Lukoil estimated.If nine tons of oil reached the river, the government is likely to assess damage at around 700 million rubles, Andrei Loboda from the Humanity social project told Izvestia. However, that figure could rise to 1 billion rubles if the pollution has spread from the Kolva to the Usa and Pechora rivers. Russia’s environmental protection watchdog Rosprirodnadzor told Izvestia that it is waiting for results of analyses of water and soil samples from the affected area before it estimates the cost of the damage.

Total to supply LNG to India’s steel industry - Steel giant ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel (AMNS) has signed with France’s Total for the supply of up to 500,000 tons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) per year to run its steel and power plants located in Hazira, Gujarat state. The LNG will be sourced from Total’s global portfolio and offloaded either in Dahej or Hazira LNG Terminal, on the west coast of India until 2026. Total said it sees the deal as a contribution to the decarbonisation of India’s steel industry, which still rely heavily on coal. “The supply of LNG will contribute to the reduction of AMNS’s carbon emissions, in line with Total’s ambition to offer its customers energy products that emit less CO2 and to support them in their own low-carbon strategies,” said Thomas Maurisse, senior VP LNG at Total. The French supermajor is the world’s second largest privately owned LNG player, with a global portfolio of nearly 50 mt/y by 2025 and a global market share of around 10%.

Fears of oil leak after vessel sinks off Coromandel coast {rnz.co.nz} Maritime officials are monitoring a launch that sank on the Coromandel Peninsula last night, to make sure no oil is leaking. The vessel was carrying 200 litres of marine diesel oil when it apparently hit rocks in Humbug Bay near Whitianga, Waikato Regional Council said in a statement.Swells of between three and four metres are expected this afternoon, which could push the launch onto the rocks.Salvors are preparing to recover the vessel, depending on weather conditions.

 Sri Lanka braces for major oil spill as cargo vessel expected to sink - A Singapore-flagged cargo vessel, which caught fire near the Colombo beach last week, may sink, raising severe environmental concerns in the island nation, according to media reports on Wednesday. Desperate attempts to extinguish the fire seemed to fail as authorities prepared for a major oil spill. The Colombo Gazette newspaper reported that the MV 'X-PRESS PEARL' was "unstable" and "expected to sink". Apart from the 325 metric tonnes of fuel in its tanks, X-Press Pearl was loaded with 1,486 containers carrying about 25 tonnes of hazardous nitric acid. The Marine Environment Protection Authority has warned that any oil spillage will move towards the sensitive Negombo lagoon, which is a major tourist attraction, the report said. The authorities had earlier asked local people to avoid coming in contact with the debris and slush from the ship. The cargo vessel was carrying a consignment of chemicals and raw materials for cosmetics from Hazira in Gujarat to Colombo Port. It caught fire 9.5 nautical miles from the coast in Colombo, where it was anchored outside the Port of Colombo on May 20. A major operation was launched to extinguish the flames of the ship. A special team of the Sri Lankan Navy, Sri Lanka Ports Authority and Marine Environment Protection Authority reached the fire-hit container ship on May 21. Following a call for help, the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) on Tuesday sent two ships — ICG's Vaibhav and patrol vessel Vajra — and an ICG aircraft to firefight and augment pollution control measures. Due to rough seas and bad weather, the cargo ship is now tilted to the right, as a result, some of the containers on board have tumbled into the sea and some of them have sunk, officials said. News channels on Wednesday showed catastrophic images of the south-west coast from Colombo to Negombo covered with black slush, debris and industrial-sized containers bent out of shape.

Sri Lanka monitors oil spill from burning vessel - Pieces of items from the burning foreign ship X-Press Pearl are seen washed to the shore of Kapungoda, outskirts of Colombo, Sri Lanka, May 26, 2021. Sri Lankan authorities said on Wednesday it is monitoring an oil spill from a burning foreign vessel near the Port of Colombo, warning that the oil spill may waft towards the Negombo lagoon in the west coast of the country. Till Wednesday noon, rescue teams from the Sri Lanka Navy and the Indian Navy were involved in joint efforts to douse the flames onboard the container ship “X-PRESS PEARL” registered under the flag of Singapore, which was carrying 1,486 containers with 25 tons of Nitric Acid and several other chemicals and cosmetics from the port of Hazira, India on May 15.

Oil Inches Up Amid Resume of Iran Nuclear Deal Talks| Al Bawaba - Oil was up Monday morning in Asia, with investor sentiment boosted by signs of the U.S.’ continuing economic recovery from COVID-19 and the improved outlook for fuel demand. Investors are also monitoring the progress of talks to revive a 2015 Iranian nuclear deal that is likely to increase global crude supply. Brent oil futures gained 0.63% to $66.77 by 1:13 AM ET (5:13 AM GMT), with the contract rolling over to the Aug. 21 contract on May 23. WTI futures were up 0.63% to $63.98. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said during the previous week that the U.S. was “ready” to lift sanctions on the country's oil, banking and shipping sectors, causing oil prices to fall. "Iran's oil production has been rising in recent months, likely in anticipation of a lifting of the sanctions," ANZ analysts said in a note. However, Iranian speaker of parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on Sunday that the expiry of the three-month monitoring deal between Iran and the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency would cease the latter’s access to images from inside some Iranian nuclear sites. Talks between the two sides continue in Vienna throughout the week. On the weather front, investors are monitoring a low-pressure system located over the western Gulf of Mexico, which has a 60% chance of becoming a cyclone in the next 48 hours according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center. Elsewhere in the U.S., the spread of COVID-19 continues to slow down, with the country ending its first week since June 2020 with no days of infections exceeding 30,000. Death rates continue to fall in France and Italy, furthering improving the fuel demand outlook. In Asia, however, several countries continue to deal with COVID-19 outbreaks. The total number of COVID-19 deaths in India stood at 303,720 as of May 24, according to Johns Hopkins University data. Meanwhile, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies (OPEC+) has reportedly pushed back its Joint Technical Committee meeting, initially due to have taken place on May 25, has reportedly been postponed to May 31. However, the cartel’s ministerial meeting will still take place as scheduled on Jun. 1.#160;

Oil prices up sharply as U.S. official raises doubt that Iran will comply with nuclear commitments -  Oil futures climbed Monday, finding support as a U.S. official said there aren’t yet any signs that Iran will comply with the nuclear commitments required to lift sanctions on the country, casting doubts that Tehran would soon be able to resume crude exports. A lack of cooperation by Iran, as well as “skeptical comments about Iranian compliance” by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, both “lower the odds that a new agreement is reached and therefore, suggest sanctions are not likely to be lifted in the near to medium term,” Tyler Richey, co-editor at Sevens Report Research, told MarketWatch.  On ABC’s “This Week” with George Stephanopoulos, Blinken said the U.S. hasn’t yet seen whether Iran is “ready and willing to make a decision to do what it has to do” to have sanctions removed. Talks between Iran and world powers have been continuing, with reports of some progress. Oil prices had posted declines for last week amid increasing expectations that a new nuclear deal would be reached, said Richey. On Monday, West Texas Intermediate crude for July delivery rose $2.47, or 3.9%, to settle at $66.05 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That was the highest front-month contract finish since May 17, according to Dow Jones Market Data. July Brent crude, the global benchmark, added $2.02, or 3%, at $68.46 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe.

Oil Prices Decline As Tension Arises in Iran, US Nuclear Talks | Al Bawaba - Oil prices declined on Tuesday as the ongoing tension between Iran and the US in negotiations to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement and lift Iranian oil export sanctions raised investor caution. International benchmark Brent crude was trading at $68.12 per barrel at 0744 GMT for a 0.36% drop after closing Friday at $68.37 a barrel. American benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was at $65.78 per barrel at the same time for a 0.40% fall after ending the previous session at $66.05 a barrel. The downward oil price movement was driven by the toing and froing between Iran and the US in negotiations on potentially lifting the current US sanctions on Iranian oil exports and the US’s return to the 2015 nuclear deal, leading investors to take a “wait and see” stance. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Monday the US has no other option than to lift all sanctions on Iran, which violates the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif urged the US administration on Monday to lift current sanctions against Iran, which were imposed under former US President Donald Trump. In response to a recent statement by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken regarding US sanctions on Iran, Zarif said on Twitter: “Lifting Trump's sanctions, is a legal and moral obligation. NOT negotiating leverage.” “Didn’t work for Trump - won't work for you”, Zarif said. Zarif called on authorities to release Iran’s billions of dollars taken hostage abroad because of Washington’s “bullying.”Speaking on ABC News' This Week With George Stephanopoulos, Blinken said on Sunday that the lifting of US sanctions on Iran depends on Tehran's compliance with its nuclear commitments toward Washington. "Iran, I think, knows what it needs to do to come back into compliance on the nuclear side, and what we haven't yet seen is whether Iran is ready and willing to make a decision to do what it has to do. That's the test and we don't yet have an answer," Blinken said. 

Oil edges up as rising demand faces Iran supply worries (Reuters) -Oil prices moved a shade higher on Tuesday as rising demand from the approach of the Northern Hemisphere’s summer driving season and lifting of coronavirus restrictions mixed with worries that Iran’s possible return to the market will cause a supply glut. After gaining over 5% in the prior two sessions, Brent futures rose 19 cents, or 0.3%, to settle at $68.65 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose 2 cents to settle at $66.07. That was the highest close for both benchmarks in a week. In post-settlement trade, Brent crude pared gains slightly and U.S. crude fell to $65.99 after trade group the American Petroleum Institute released weekly inventory estimates. U.S. crude oil and fuel inventories fell last week, according to two market sources, citing American Petroleum Institute figures on Tuesday. Crude stocks fell by 439,000 barrels in the week ended May 21, the data showed, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity. API did not respond to a request for comment. During the session, crude prices were supported by the decline in the U.S. dollar to a 19-week low versus a basket of currencies as inflation worries recede. A weaker dollar makes it less expensive for holders of other currencies to buy commodities priced in dollars, like oil. The small price moves in oil came as the market waited for direction from weekly U.S. oil inventory reports that are expected to show U.S. crude inventories declined by 1.1 million barrels last week. “Oil prices … remain at high levels as the high season for oil demand is approaching and as restrictions are lifted in much of Europe and the United States,” said Louise Dickson, oil markets analyst at Rystad Energy. Parts of Europe and the United States are recording fewer COVID-19 infections and deaths, prompting governments to ease restrictions. However, in areas such as India – the world’s third-biggest oil importer – infection rates remain high. Indirect negotiations between the United States and Iran are due to resume in Vienna this week. Talks were resurrected after Tehran and the U.N. nuclear agency extended a monitoring agreement on the Middle Eastern country’s atomic program. Analysts have said Iran could provide about 1 million to 2 million barrels per day (bpd) in additional oil supply if a deal is struck and sanctions lifted.

WTI Rebounds After Inventory Draws Across Crude & Products - WTI slipped back below $66 this morning as investors weighed signs of an improving demand outlook in some regions against the prospect of more crude supply flowing from Iran. “The potential for a return of Iranian oil supply into the market has been keeping oil prices from gaining further,"  The swings in crude and product stocks in the last couple of weeks have been noisy thanks to the Colonial Pipeline shutdown. This week we should start to put that behind us, although product stocks may still be impacted.  API

• Crude -439k (-1mm exp)
• Cushing -1.153mm
• Gasoline -1.986mm (-1.1mm exp)
• Distillates -5.137mm (-2mm exp)

DOE

• Crude -1.66mm (-1mm exp)
• Cushing -1.008mm
• Gasoline -1.745mm (-1.1mm exp)
• Distillates -3.013mm (-2mm exp)

Analysts expected inventory draws across the entire complex and last night's API data confirmed that and the official data just confirmed that further with significant drawdowns in stocks across crude, gasoline, and distillates (7th week in a row).. It is also worth noting, as Bloomberg points out that Midwest gasoline stockpiles are of great interest with a big travel weekend ahead starting at the end of the work week. This means more folks getting out of Chicago and Detroit to breathe in the forest air in places like Wisconsin and Upper Michigan for Memorial Day.

Oil settles higher on stronger demand outlook as U.S inventories fall - Oil prices settled higher on Wednesday as a drop in U.S. crude stockpiles reinforced expectations of improving demand ahead of the peak summer driving season, offsetting worries that a possible return of Iranian supply would cause a glut. Brent settled up 16 cents, or 0.3%, to $68.87 a barrel and U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude settled up 14 cents, or 0.2%, at $66.21 a barrel. Both benchmarks pared losses after government data showed U.S. crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, storage hub fell last week to the lowest since March 2020. Refiners ramped up utilization rates to pre-pandemic levels. Gasoline product supplied rose to 9.5 million barrels per day, a proxy for demand, while distillate demand was also higher. Gasoline consumption generally rises beginning around U.S. Memorial Day, which is May 31 this year, when people take to the roads. Prices found some support from lifting of coronavirus curbs. "An urge to 'hit the roads' in heading out on vacations that were precluded by the pandemic last year will be supporting the gasoline market," But market players were also closely watching developments in Iranian-U.S. nuclear talks which could lead to lifting sanctions on Iran's energy industry and releasing Iranian oil on the market. "Prices should remain supported over the summer with the only thing keeping oil from price increases being the potential return of Iranian oil," Iran's government spokesman Ali Rabiei said he was optimistic Tehran would reach an agreement soon, although Iran's top negotiator said serious issues remained. Analysts have said Iran could provide additional supply of about 1 million to 2 million bpd if a deal is struck. Iran and global powers have held talks in Vienna since April to work out steps Tehran must take on nuclear activities and Washington should take on sanctions to return to full compliance with the pact Iran reached with world powers in 2015. Russia said the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, a group known as OPEC+, should consider a possible increase in Iranian output when assessing further steps. OPEC+ is bringing back 2.1 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil production through July, easing cuts to 5.8 million bpd.

Oil prices edge higher, boosted by U.S. economic data - (Reuters) -Oil prices rose 1% on Thursday, bolstered by strong U.S. economic data that offset investors' concerns about the potential for a rise in Iranian supplies. Brent rose 59 cents, 0.9%, to settle at $69.46 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose 64 cents, or 1%, to settle at $66.85 a barrel. The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits dropped more than expected last week, according to data from the U.S. Labor Department. The U.S. economy, which in the first quarter notched its second-fastest growth pace since the third quarter of 2003, is gathering momentum, with other data on Thursday showing business spending on equipment accelerated in April. "That's given us more of a risk-on attitude about the markets," said Phil Flynn, senior analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago. "We're back to focusing on supply and demand." The prospect of Iranian supplies re-entering the market has pressured prices. Iran and global powers have been negotiating since April about Washington lifting sanctions on Iran, including its energy sector, in return for Iranian compliance with restrictions on its nuclear work. Those talks will be a major issue for a June 1 meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, a group known as OPEC+. The group is likely to continue gradually easing oil supply curbs at a meeting on Tuesday, OPEC sources said, as producers balance expectations of a recovery in demand against a possible increase in Iranian supply. Analysts said any increase in supply from Iran would be gradual, with JP Morgan estimating Iran could add 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) by the end of this year and a further 500,000 bpd by August 2022. Concerns also remain about demand in India, the world's third-largest oil consumer. India has been hard-hit by the coronavirus, and only about 3% of its population has been fully vaccinated, according to the Reuters vaccine tracker https://graphics.reuters.com/world-coronavirus-tracker-and-maps/vaccination-rollout-and-access.

Oil futures end mixed, score gains for week and month - Oil futures saw choppy trading on Friday, with U.S. prices ending the session lower following five consecutive session gains, but prices tallied a rise for the week, as well as the month of May. The moves for oil come just a day after prices for U.S. benchmark crude marked their highest settlement since 2018. “The growth in the U.S. is expected to overwhelm the drag of weakness in India and Southeast Asia.” On Friday, West Texas Intermediate crude for July delivery  fell 53 cents, or 0.8%, to settle at $66.32 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange following five consecutive gains. Prices based on the front-month contract on Thursday rose 1% to mark the highest settlement since Oct. 29, 2018. The front-month July Brent crude, which expired at the end of the session, climbed 17 cents, or 0.2%, to end at $69.63 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe, with prices marking their highest finish since March 11 of this year, according to Dow Jones Market Data. August Brent contract,, which is now the front month, fell 48 cents, or 0.7%, to settle at $68.72 a barrel. Based on the front-month contracts, WTI crude rose 4.3% for the week, as well as the month. Brent saw a weekly advance of 4.8% and monthly climb of 3.5%. Traders also awaited the outcome of a meeting on Tuesday of OPEC+, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies, who will assess the latest oil-market conditions and decide on production levels. A current OPEC+ agreement calls for a gradual increase in production, which began in May and will run through July. Some commodity experts expect that OPEC+ may adjust its plans to ease output limits based on expected Iranian production, with negotiations between Washington and Tehran under way since April.  However, he said that “no change to current policy is expected.” Meanwhile, the recovery in the U.S. from COVID is giving way to rising demand for crude and its byproducts, analysts say. Data from the Energy Information Administration released Wednesday showed weekly declines for domestic crude, gasoline and distillate supplies. Still, Baker Hughes on Friday reported that the number of active U.S. drilling rigs for oil was up a fourth straight week, up three at 359 this week, implying that an increase in oil production may be on tap. On Friday, June gasoline fell 0.5% to $2.14 a gallon, with prices up nearly 3.5% for the week and up 3.4% for the month. Read U.S. gasoline demand may hit a record this summer: GasBuddy June heating oil added 0.6% to about $2.04 a gallon, settling 2.8% higher for the week, with a monthly rise of 6.4%. The June contracts expired at the end of the trading session. July natural gas tacked on almost 1% to settle at $2.99 per million British thermal units. Prices based on the front-month contracts ended 0.3% higher for the week and were up nearly 1.9% for the month.

Light Crude Up 4.3% for the Week  | Rigzone  Oil posted its biggest weekly gain since the middle of April ahead of the U.S. Memorial Day weekend that kicks off the country’s summer driving season. West Texas Intermediate rose 4.3% this week. A spate of positive U.S. economic data this week continued to highlight the recovery taking shape in the world’s largest oil-consuming country, while Americans are expected to unleash demand built up during the pandemic from this weekend onward. With more drivers taking to the road and with some of the lowest gasoline stockpiles in almost 30 years, some see the U.S. facing a supply squeeze on par with those seen when a hurricane knocks out oil refineries in Texas and Louisiana. “The demand outlook appears very robust, especially in the U.S., and it’s really improving in Europe as well,” said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda Corp. “There’s optimism that the advanced economies are going to have Covid in the reaview mirror by the end of the summer.” Still, futures declined on Friday, snapping a five-day winning streak, as prices have remained stuck in a $10 range since March. Supply concerns remain over international talks to revive the Iran nuclear accord, which could pave the way for more oil flowing from the country. At the same time, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies meet next week, with delegates saying the alliance looks set to rubberstamp oil-output increases. “The most immediate risk to the upside would be an agreement at the nuclear talks between world powers and Iran in Vienna,” Bob Yawger, head of the futures division at Mizuho Securities, said in a note. “Nobody wants to get caught long over the weekend and see an agreement get done.” WTI for July delivery declined 53 cents to settle at $66.32 a barrel. Brent for July settlement, which expires Friday, was up 17 cents at $69.63 a barrel. The more active August contract lost 48 cents to $68.72 a barrel. Ministers from the OPEC+ alliance are set to meet on June 1 to assess the global market and their production policy. All but four of 24 analysts and traders surveyed by Bloomberg predict they’ll ratify an 840,000-barrel-a-day increase scheduled for July, completing a three-part process to revive just over 2 million barrels this summer.

Opec+ set to proceed with plans to boost July oil production -- The OPEC+ group is expected to confirm next week its May-July plan to ease the oil production cuts by the planned 840,000 barrels per day (bpd) in July, OPEC+ delegates and two dozen analysts told Bloomberg News on Thursday. The ministers of the OPEC+ group are meeting on Tuesday, June 1, and at present, no surprises are expected, despite this year’s track record of decisions surprising the market to both the bullish and bearish sides. The collective OPEC+ oil production is set to rise by 350,000 bpd in both May and June and by more than 400,000 bpd in July. Additionally, Saudi Arabia is also gradually easing its extra unilateral cut of 1 million bpd over the course of the next few months, beginning with monthly production increases of 250,000 bpd in both May and June. Overall, OPEC+ is expected to return to the market as much as 2.1 million bpd by July. The decision from early April signaled the confidence of the leaders of the OPEC+ alliance that the market would be able to absorb that much supply as vaccination programs are accelerating and people start traveling more. OPEC+ and all analysts expect global oil demand to rebound strongly in the second half of 2021 and nearly reach pre-crisis levels by the end of the fourth quarter this year. Despite the resurgence of COVID in major oil-importing markets in Asia such as India and Japan, OPEC and its allies, as well as forecasters and analysts, expect the market to absorb the additional barrels, even in case Iran returns legitimately among the oil exporters at some point in the second half of this year. Russia estimates that the global oil market is currently in a deficit of around 1 million bpd, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Wednesday. Earlier this week, Goldman Sachs kept its outlook for oil prices to rise to $80 per barrel by the end of the year despite the possibility of Iran’s oil returning to the market. 

US Imported Oil Twice From Iran In Last Two Quarters Despite Sanctions - EIA Data - The United States imported crude oil and petroleum products from Iran twice between the last two quarters despite Washington's sanctions against Tehran, Energy Information Administration (EIA) data revealed on Friday. The estimated import of 36,000 barrels per day in October 2020 and 33,000 barrels daily in March this year appear to be the first such purchases made by the United States from Iran since 1993 at least, the EIA data showed. The EIA did not explain how the Iranian imports showed up on its log, despite current US sanctions prohibiting any country from importing Iranian oil. The United States has a long history of sanctions against Iran, dating back to 1984, when it prohibited weapon sales and all US assistance to Iran. President Barack Obama in 2012 issued sanctions targeting Iranian financial institutions designed to effectively choke off the sale of Iranian oil. Obama also lifted those sanctions in 2016 after Iran signed a nuclear deal with the United States and other world powers, pledging not to make atomic weapons. Obama's successor Donald Trump, however, canceled that nuclear deal in 2018 and put new, intensified sanctions on Iran. President Joe Biden, after entering office in January this year, had allowed negotiations to begin on a fresh nuclear deal with Iran. The Biden administration is also not enforcing sanctions against Iran as strenuously as the Trump administration. It is between the handover from Trump to Biden and the first couple of months of the current administration that the US imports from Iran occurred, EIA data shows.

Israel-Gaza Clash: Conflict of Narratives, Victory of Remote Warfare - As the 11 days of clashes between Gaza and Israel ends in a ceasefire, the military analysis truly begins. The Israeli army will painstakingly review all of its operations, especially the new weapons and tactics, to judge how successful they were and what improvements are needed.Hezbollah in Lebanon has far more rockets than Hamas in Gaza, so one of the Israeli army worries will be how Hamas and other factions were able to carry on firing from such a small area right to the end, night after night.The fact that Israel’s Iron Dome defences intercepted most of the rockets from Gaza and even shot down a Hamas drone will be counted as a success – especially for the arms companies seeking to promote Israeli expertise to new markets.Hamas, meanwhile, will conduct its own analysis and will try to increase its stockpile and hide its missiles more effectively. It will want to improve its ability to fire multiple barrages – all the better to overwhelm Israel’s missile defences – and will seek to develop guidance systems. For now, there are celebrations in Gaza that the bombardment is over. For Hamas, its narrative is simple: “We stood firm, the Israelis didn’t dare invade us and we kept firing to the end.”During the last 11 days, a total of 232 people were killed in Gaza, including 65 children, against 12 killed in Israel. These tragic statistics are still far lower than the 2014 conflict, when 2,250 Palestinians were killed in Gaza, while five Israeli civilians and 67 soldiers were killed.The difference between the two conflicts is that in 2014, Israel sent troops into Gaza and by doing so, lost soldiers, including many from its elite Golani brigade. As the post-conflict ‘war of narratives’ runs its course, Israel’s premier, Benjamin Netanyahu, will certainly claim victory. With Israel’s surveillance and intelligence capabilities, including drones, satellites, communications interception and many other complex systems, the Israeli army claims to have been very effective. However, the ability of Hamas to deploy ten-round multiple rocket launchers, and hide them underground prior to launch, will be a major focus point for the Israeli army’s improvement, not least with an eye to Hezbollah. According to an article in the 19 May print edition of Jane’s Defence Weekly, one of the barrages aimed at the coastal Israeli cities of Ashdod and Ashkelon involved firing 137 rockets in five minutes. The Israeli army will also want to work on its abilities to prevent Hamas smuggling more rockets into Gaza, especially its system of speedboats operating out of Lebanon and Egypt.

Israeli provocations continue as scale of Gaza damage emerges - A fragile ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad held for a third day on Sunday despite inflammatory threats by the Israeli government and police-backed fascistic attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians on the occupied West Bank. The Israeli provocations intensified as more residents in Gaza emerged from their homes on the weekend to survey the massive damage caused by the 11-day Israeli bombardment. The full extent of the destruction became clearer, even as Israeli drones buzzed incessantly overhead. The United Nations said nearly 450 buildings had been damaged, including six hospitals, 53 schools and 11 primary healthcare centres. More than 1,000 housing units in 258 buildings had been destroyed, and another 14,500 homes suffered damage. More than 100,000 people had been internally displaced, and about 10 times that number—half the population of the tiny Gaza Strip—had little access to piped water because of the destruction of three major desalination plants, as well as power lines and sewage works. At least 248 Palestinians were killed, including 66 children and 39 women, and 1,948 others injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Health authorities in the West Bank separately confirmed 31 killed in that region, totalling 279 across all Palestinian territories, compared to 12 deaths in Israel. Under these conditions, dozens of Jewish settlers, flanked by heavily-armed Israeli special forces, entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem yesterday, further raising tensions hours after Palestinian worshippers were beaten and assaulted by the Israeli police. Citing witnesses, Palestinian news agency WAFA said Israeli police had earlier on Sunday assaulted Palestinians who were performing dawn prayers at the mosque and “excessively beat” them in order to make way for Israeli Jewish settlers to storm the compound—Islam’s third-holiest site. It was the violent police storming of the mosque two weeks ago, combined with moves to evict more Palestinians from their homes in the Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah, that triggered the 11-day conflict.

‘This Is the Price of War’: Israeli Newspaper Publishes Photos of All 67 Palestinian Children Killed in Gaza Onslaught -  Human rights advocates and journalists applauded the Israeli newspaper Haaretzfor its “unprecedented” cover story Thursday—one featuring the photos and stories of 67 Palestinian children killed in the latest bombardment campaign by the Israel Defense Forces.“This is the price of war,” the headline read.The article came a day after the New York Times published its own extensive account of the youngest victims of Israel’s most recent 11-day offensive, in which the IDF frequently targeted residential areas of Gaza, known as the world’s largest open-air prison.Haaretz‘s focus on the children killed in Gaza was especially noteworthy, said author and Brooklyn College professor Louis Fishman, considering the newspaper’s “readers also send their children to fight in Israel’s wars.”“This is unprecedented,” Fishman tweeted. While Haaretz leans to the center-left editorially, Israeli’s mainstream media has traditionally not covered the Palestinian casualties of the IDF’s military campaigns and the Israeli government’s violent policies, said journalist Khaled Diab.As Diab tweeted, previous attempts by organizations in Israel to publicize the human cost of the IDF’s assaults have been repressed.Haaretz‘s front page represented “a bold move,” tweeted journalist Saima Mohsin, adding, “Will it make a difference?”Others on social media took note of the unprecedented cover story. “Conversations around Israel/Palestine are changing in Jewish communities across the globe,”tweeted rabbi and author Abby Stein. “It’s about time.” As Jewish Currents editor-in-chief Arielle Angell wrote last week in The Guardian, since Israel’s 2014 50-day assault on Gaza, which killed more than 2,100 Palestinians, rights advocates have “seen the growth of a small but committed Jewish anti-occupation movement [and] the last week and a half have brought an even larger circle of the community to a place of reckoning.”In Israel the Haaretz front page appeared to touch a nerve, garnering at least one outraged response from Oded Revivi, head of the Efrat Regional Council in an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, who said Haaretz‘s article was evidence that “people pity the wrong mothers.”On social media, Mairav Zonszein of the International Crisis Group said rather than the “price of war,” the Haaretz front page specifically shows the price of “Israel’s “continued military rule, dispossession, discrimination, and violence.”

 Massive War Study Shows 91% Of All Global Casualties From Explosives Were Civilians --  On the heels of Israel's recent bombardment of the Gaza Strip, a London-based charity revealed Tuesday that civilians accounted for 91% of people killed or injured when explosive weapons were used in populated areas worldwide from 2011 to 2020. The new Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) report (pdf) is based on data collected as part of the group's Explosive Violence Monitoring Project. It emphasizes that the data, taken from English-language media reporting, "is not an attempt to capture every single casualty of every incident around the world." However, the report provides insight on the devastating impact of using explosive weapons—including air-dropped bombs, artillery shells, improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and mortars—in densely populated areas and demands global commitments to end such violence."Since the monitor began, AOAV has recorded the appalling suffering caused across the globe by both manufactured and improvised weapons," the report says. "We call on states and other users to commit politically to stop using explosive weapons with wide area effects in populated areas. The harm recorded over the last 10 years and reflected in this report illustrates the stark urgency needed for a political declaration detailing such a commitment."AOAV tallied 357,370 deaths or injuries in 28,879 incidents across 123 countries and territories—and at least 262,413 of those casualties or 73% were civilians. Overall, explosive weapons killed 155,118 people—of which 92,588 or 60% were civilians—and injured 202,252 people, of which 169,825 or 84% were civilians.

Global Chip Hub Taiwan Hammered By Triple Blow Of Drought, Blackouts And COVID Surge -The calm of a sunny May afternoon in Taiwan was broken by what the Nikkei describes as a crescendo of smartphones buzzing due to a national emergency alert: electricity blackouts were coming due to a malfunction at a power plant in the south of the island. People had no time to prepare. There were more than 30 reports of people being trapped in elevators half an hour after the warning in the capital city."I was talking to my clients... but our building suddenly blacked out. The air conditioning as well as WiFi crashed completely, so I went home early," a manager with the surname of Lin working in the Neihu Science Park in Taipei, where many top tech companies have offices, told Nikkei Asia. "Many traffic lights on my way home were out and my home was dark too." More than four million households on the island, which has a population of 24 million, were affected by six rounds of rolling one-hour power suspensions on May 13 before power was fully restored around 8 pm. Taipower, the state-owned electricity operator, said human error at Hsinta Power Plant in the southern city of Kaohsiung caused a malfunction in the power grid, tripping four generators and cutting about 13 megawatts of electricity supply. This dragged Taiwan's total power supply below a critical security level and triggered the outages. The nation's phones buzzed again just four days later with another blackout warning. That evening, up to 659,000 households had their power cut. Taipower said that, with temperatures warmer than usual, there was a shortage of electricity supply because they had not anticipated demand for electricity to be so high.The two blackouts did not affect Taiwan's crown jewel semiconductor industry. But they still put production continuity at risk because chipmakers like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and United Microelectronics Corp said they experienced a sudden voltage dip, which could have a small impact on semiconductor production, industry sources said.After the two massive power outages, Taiwan endured another small-scale power suspension in Taipei City on Friday and experienced temporary power generator malfunctions at two separate coal-fired power plants on S unday and Monday respectively.Maintaining production is crucial at a time of global chip shortage, with political tensions and pandemic-induced lockdowns affecting supply chains and remote working increasing demand for electronic devices.

India reportedly orders social media platforms to remove references to “Indian variant” of COVID-19 -  India’s government has sent notices to social media platforms ordering them to take down content that refers to an “Indian variant” of the COVID-19 virus, Reuters reported. The letter from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology sent Friday was not made public, but was viewed by several news outlets.It was not clear which social media outlets received the letter, but India’s government has recently ordered Twitter to remove tweets and Facebook and Instagram to take down poststhat were critical of its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.“There is no such variant of COVID-19 scientifically cited as such by the World Health Organisation (WHO). WHO has not associated the term ‘Indian Variant’ with the B.1.617 variant of the coronavirus in any of its reports,” the letter states, adding that the phrase is “completely FALSE.”A variant of the coronavirus first detected in India last year, B.1.617 is believed responsible for the latest wave of COVID-19 cases in south Asia. The World Health Organization has classified it as a variant of global concern, with some evidence that it is more contagious than other strains of the virus.But while India’s approach to censoring information about the coronavirus and variants is extreme, WHO and other health organizations and scientists are critical of the practice of referring to viruses and variants with geographic nicknames, since it can be stigmatizing and inaccurate. The WHO’s 2015 guidance for naming infectious diseases discourages using place names, human names, or animal species names.However, as National Geographic notes in its very good explainer about how virus variants get their names, the current naming conventions are cumbersome and confusing, making them difficult for non-scientists to grasp or remember. National Geographic reports that WHO is working with virologists to create a new way of naming viruses.

Sri Lankan government imposes censorship as experts warn of coronavirus surge  - The Sri Lankan government on Monday announced “travel restrictions” for the next two weeks, until June 7, in response to surging coronavirus infections. It followed calls by medical experts for a “strict lockdown” of the island. President Gotabhaya Rajapakse, however, has warned state officials not to make any unauthorised media statements, claiming it could intensify popular concern about COVID-19. The official total number of coronavirus infections in Sri Lanka has climbed to over 167,170 with more than 1,240 deaths. In the last five days, the daily average of new infections spiked to over 3,300 with an increase of 65,000 cases, or a 70 percent rise, in the past month. State Minister of Health Sudarshini Fernandopulle has admitted that there were “about three times as many patients in society as reported.” Her statement was in response to repeated statements by medical experts that the real number of coronavirus infections and deaths was much higher than officially reported. The number of COVID-19 infections is also inaccurate because the government has directed health authorities to use the limited PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test. Last week, the Colombo office of the World Health Organization (WHO) held what it called a “brainstorming session” about Sri Lanka’s COVID-19 situation. More than a dozen epidemiologists and other medical experts participated, including Dr. Olivia Nieveras and Dr. Palitha Abeykoon from the WHO Colombo office, and Professors Malik Peiris, Nilika Malavige and Dr. Padma Gunaratne. These highly-qualified experts called on the government to introduce “strict restrictions on non-essential human mobility” with a two- or three-week lockdown in high transmission areas, and an expansion of medical facilities with intensive care units. “The decisions we take now will affect the lives of millions of Sri Lankans,” they warned. “The public sector health system is stretched to the limit, making it difficult to manage COVID-19 cases as well as other essential services. More health professionals and preventive staff (e.g., public health inspectors) are getting infected and HR [human resources] policies need to be geared to meet the urgency. There is a ‘tipping point’ beyond which the system can rapidly go out of control,” the experts stated. This tipping point, in fact, is rapidly being reached. According to reports, thousands of infected patients are being told to stay at home due to the lack of hospital beds. Health workers are increasingly unable to deal with the worsening situation.

Bolsonaro prepares electoral coup amid Brazilian Congress probe of COVID-19 response - Over the past two weeks, Brazil’s fascistic President Jair Bolsonaro has stepped up his preparations for an electoral coup, pressing Congress to pass a so-called “print ballot amendment” to the Brazilian Constitution. He has claimed that this is the only guarantee against what he describes as massive and recurrent electoral fraud preventing his reelection next year.Bolsonaro’s approval rating has sunk to an all-time low of 24 percent, and a plurality of 49 percent of Brazilians support his impeachment for the first time, with public attention drawn to the ongoing proceedings of a Senate commission of inquiry (CPI) into his murderous handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.With the help of his close ally, House Speaker Arthur Lira, Bolsonaro has succeeded in creating and stuffing with far-right loyalists a special panel to discuss, and bring to the center of the national debate, his longstanding and baseless allegations against the Brazilian electronic voting system, in place for almost 20 years. He claims it was rigged to stop him from winning the first round of the 2018 elections, in which he beat the Workers Party (PT) candidate Fernando Haddad in a run-off. The panel will analyze and vote on a constitutional amendment to attach to every electronic ballot a backup paper ballot. Bolsonaro alleges the current system doesn’t allow recounts and is prone to vote rigging, an accusation debunked by Army-promoted hacking competitions to find loopholes in the system, and by the very fact that the 2014 presidential elections saw a recount at the behest of runner-up Aécio Neves. Bolsonaro is following a carefully calculated strategy. After supporting until the eleventh hour Donald Trump’s claims that the 2020 US elections were stolen by the Democrats, Bolsonaro endorsed the January 6 putsch at the US Capitol, declaring Brazil would see “much worse” if his backup print ballot amendment was not adopted. In an undeniable indication of preparations for such an electoral coup in Brazil, Bolsonaro’s son Eduardo, a House member and former head of the Foreign Relations Committee, was present in Washington for a pre-coup meeting held at the Trump International Hotel on January 5.

Russia Gives Google One Day To Delete Banned Content -- Russia's communications watchdog, Roskomnadzor, has given Google 24 hours to delete what it said was prohibited content as it faces the possibility of a punitive slowdown measure on it. Google faces a fine of up to 4 million rubles ($54,300) if the company does not respond to Roskomnadzor's May 24 notifications about the removal of prohibited information within 24 hours, the watchdog was quoted as saying by TASS. Roskomnadzor said that YouTube, which is owned by Google, did not remove about 5,000 "prohibited" videos, out of which some 3,500 incite "extremism." "To date, about 5,000 banned materials have not been removed from YouTube. Most of all -- 3,500 -- with calls for extremism. More than 900 materials recognized as banned by the court," the watchdog said. "Roskomnadzor sent more than 26,000 notifications to the management of Google about the need to delete illegal information. If, after receiving the Roskomnadzor notification, the Internet platform does not restrict access to prohibited information within 24 hours, it will be fined 800,000 to 4 million rubles," TASS quoted the watchdog as saying. "In case of a repeated offense, the amount of the fine will be increased to one-10th of the total amount of the company's annual revenue."

How Hacking Became a Professional Service in Russia - DarkSide’s most high-profile hacking operation may prove to be its last: in early May, the group launched a ransomware attack against the Colonial Pipeline Company, which provides as much as half the fuel supply for the East Coast of the United States. As the effects of the hack mounted, the company shut down the pipeline, and that led to a spike in the price of gasoline, as well as days of widespread fuel shortages. President Joe Biden declared a state of emergency. DarkSide reportedly walked away with a five-million-dollar ransom, but receiving the payout appears to have come at a cost. On May 14th, DarkSide’s site went down, and the group said that it has lost access to many of its communication and payment tools—as a result of either retaliation from the U.S. or a decision by the members who fund the organization to pull the plug themselves.  DarkSide is a so-called ransomware-as-a-service enterprise, meaning that it does not actually perform the labor of carrying out cyberattacks. Instead, it provides affiliated hackers with a range of services, from handling negotiations to processing payments. It had a blog and a user-friendly interface for hackers to upload and publish stolen information. When DarkSide débuted on Russian-language cybercrime forums, last August, its launch announcement sounded like a tech entrepreneur’s pitch deck. “We created DarkSide because we didn’t find the perfect product for us,” it read. “Now we have it.” It set out a sliding fee scale, ranging from twenty-five per cent of ransoms worth less than half a million dollars to ten per cent of those worth five million or more. Ransomware as a service, like the modern tech economy as a whole, has evolved to account for a high degree of specialization, with each participant in the marketplace providing discrete skills. An operation such as DarkSide’s attack against Colonial Pipeline begins with an individual or team of hackers known as “individual access brokers,” who penetrate a target company’s network. From that point, another hacker moves laterally to the domain controller, the server in charge of security and user access, and installs the ransomware code there. (DarkSide, among its many services, has offered its own brand of malware for locking and extracting data.) Once a victim’s servers have been breached and its computer systems frozen, the hackers hand things over to the operators of a ransomware-as-a-service outfit, who manage everything else, including determining a ransom value, communicating with victim organizations, and arranging the particulars of payment. “That’s the stuff you, as a hacker, don’t want to deal with,” Mark Arena, the C.E.O. of Intel 471, a private cyberintelligence firm, said. “You don’t have the patience or the social skills.”

 UK government relaxes mask wearing in schools as it lifts safety restrictions amid spread of new Covid variant - UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government, backed by the Labour opposition and trade unions, is proceeding recklessly with its roadmap for reopening the economy. This began almost fully on May 17 and aims to reopen completely on June 21. This takes place under conditions where infections from the more transmissible B.1.617.2 variant from India is growing exponentially and is expected to soon become the dominant strain. Among the safety restrictions being lifted, the government announced that teachers and pupils in secondary schools were no longer required to wear face coverings in classrooms. In primary schools, pupils were always exempt. Masks are only recommended in communal areas, excluding classrooms with poor ventilation housing up to 30 children or more. The government took this decision despite prior knowledge of the spread of the variant in schools, which it attempted to conceal. According to documents leaked to the Observer, a Public Health England (PHE) report May 13 omitted vital data linking 164 cases to schools. Mask wearing was the main, albeit limited, protection afforded to educators and pupils when schools reopened early March. The virus is now spreading in schools and communities in all parts of the UK. Universities returned to face-to-face teaching May 17, exacerbating transmission after tens of thousands travelled across the country from home to campus. The Wilsthorpe Academy School in Long Eaton, with 950 pupils, closed May 4 after confirming 100 Covid cases. Cases in the surrounding area of Erewash soared following the outbreak—the infection rate rose to 185.5 per 100,000 in seven days to May 6, indicating how quickly the disease can take hold. More than 150 cases were linked to the school. Seventeen cases were found in nearby schools. Bolton’s Assistant Director of Public Health, Lynn Donkin, said, 'Initially we did see some cases linked to international travel, but we've now got a picture of widespread community transmission...' Several schools in Bolton were forced to send classes home. Positive cases were confirmed at St Joseph’s RC High school and Lostock Primary School. Tonge Moor Primary Academy sent its Year One class home after finding a positive case. On Friday, each pupil at Bishop Bridgeman CE Primary School went home with a PCR test kit for all the family. Bolton has introduced voluntary surge testing and the use of facemasks will continue in the town and in nearby Bury schools.