Why Are Natural Gas Prices High? Because Fracking Isn’t Really Profitable.

By admin
- October 29, 2021

Pump jacks are seen at dawn in an oil field over the Monterey Shale formation near Lost Hills, California. Shale oil and fracking had not been profitable, even before the pandemic.
David McNew/Getty Images

About the author: Bianca Taylor is founder of Tourmaline Group, an ESG research boutique. She is also a Public Voices fellow with the OpEd Project and the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, and a member of the Bretton Woods Committee.

Natural-gas prices are skyrocketing globally, flummoxing policy makers. As parts of the world emerge from the pandemic, energy demand is up and supply down after the cold winter of 2020, worsening temperature extremes, severe drought in South America, and other shortages caused by geopolitical tensions. Here in the U.S.,natural gas prices are up about 100% from a year ago. In the U.K., they’re up about 500%.

Normally, a spike in prices induces energy companies to increase production, but not this time. Energy prices fell by as much as 70% early in the pandemic. According to a New York Times report, energy executives are not willing to increase production because they are still experiencing the trauma from the crash, and Wall Street is hesitant to fund exploration because of new pressures to meet climate and ESG (environmental, social, governance) goals.

But the truth is actually less complex: even before the pandemic, shale oil and fracking had not been profitable.

According to data from Credit Suisse’s HOLT database, North American energy companies had a return on investment below their cost of capital for 21 out of the last 30 years. In other words, 70% of the time, returns were disappointing.

Over the last 15 years, debt levels doubled as earnings stagnated, causing the probability of default to rise. This debt was underwritten to drill wells that produced less than would have been projected from initial data. Shale oil fields have what industry calls a “high depletion rate,” meaning that the fracking process itself impedes the capturing of the full amount of oil and gas in the fields.

In order to turn a profit, the drilling and extraction needs to be done slowly, but energy executives were being paid to show high revenue growth. As a result, many, including the industry darling Chesapeake Energy, went bankrupt.

North American “energy “has been a wealth destructive business in recent history,” a Credit Suisse analyst wrote in an August 2021 report. As a result, “many firms have shifted focus away from just growth to achieving an acceptable return on their investments.” Management is now being incentivized to focus on returns, the report notes.

This new slow-growth model is why sky-high prices will not induce energy executives to ramp up production. Energy executives’ incentives are now linked to profits, and that cannot be achieved with a sudden increase in drilling. Profits will have to come patiently, over time, by making the most of the wells in place today.

That said, it is possible to increase supply, without more drilling. One way is to plug the methane leaks that are rampant in gas pipelines. According to a study published in Science, the leaks in the largest natural gas producing region of the U.S., the Permian Basin in Texas, amount to 4% of the total natural gas produced in the region.

A 4% increase in supply in one region might not normalize prices, but it is nothing to sneeze at. It might even equate to a bump in executive bonuses. And they would be able to call it an ESG investment because methane emissions top the list of environmental and climate concerns.

Last month, the U.S. joined the Global Methane Pledge, which aims to cut one-third of global methane emissions by 2030. Capturing and marketing methane that would otherwise be lost to the atmosphere requires upfront investments and ongoing attention across a vast array of drill sites and pipelines. That’s why many companies have chosen to ignore the problem.

Natural gas is mostly methane. Methane is an odorless, flammable, toxic gas found in manure, decomposing swamplands and deep below the ground, where frackers try to capture it. Undetected, a methane leak could kill people who are exposed to the gas. There are other health risks, and long-term effects in communities with continual exposure that are not yet fully understood.

This greenhouse gas is also 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide over a 20 year period. About 25% of the global warming we are experiencing is attributable to methane gas released into the atmosphere due to human actions—and over a third of those emissions come from oil and gas. A new report from the International Energy Agency, a respected authority on the global energy market, finds that the world’s climate goals are dependent on eliminating 75% of methane pollution from fossil fuels this decade.

The current spike in gas prices, though, is as much about investors’ concerns about the past as it is the future. After years of minimal or negative returns, U.S. producers are finally heeding the call not to chase growth at the expense of profits. For the past decade, gas has been artificially cheap due to an era of easy capital and minimal attention to its rampant climate pollution.

A methane clean-up is overdue. It is one of the fastest and easiest ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Oil and gas companies would be foolish not to take advantage of the high prices to invest in a clean-up. It would also help foster the slower, patient return on capital that energy investors want by stabilizing the climate, and thereby also the price volatility of energy.

Ancient DNA from Sitting Bull’s scalp lock confirms living great-grandson
Ernie LaPointe petitioned US gov't for permission to relocate his ancestor's remains.

JENNIFER OUELLETTE - 10/27/2021

Enlarge / Hair from Lakota Sioux leader Sitting Bull’s scalp lock, from which DNA was extracted for analysis.
Eske Willerslev

An international team of scientists has confirmed the lineage of a living descendent of the famous Lakota Chief Sitting Bull via a new method of DNA analysis designed to track familial lineage using ancient DNA fragments. According to the authors of a new paper published in the journal Science Advances, this is the first time that such an analysis has been used to confirm a link between deceased and living people—in this case, Sitting Bull and his great-grandson, Ernie LaPointe.

The team's method should be broadly applicable to any historical question involving even the limited genetic data gleaned from ancient DNA. “In principle, you could investigate whoever you want—from outlaws like Jesse James to the Russian tsar’s family, the Romanovs," said co-author Eske Willerslev of the University of Cambridge. "If there is access to old DNA, typically extracted from bones, hair or teeth, they can be examined in the same way."

Sitting Bull (Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake) was a Lakota leader who is best known for his defeat of Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer's 7th Cavalry at the Battle of the Little Big Horn (aka, the Battle of the Greasy Grass) on June 25-26, 1876. Various tribes had been joining Sitting Bull's camp over the preceding months, drawn by his spiritual leadership and seeking safety in numbers against US troops. Their number soon grew to more than 10,000. Custer's men were badly outnumbered when they attacked the camp and were forced to retreat. The Sioux warriors ultimately killed Custer and most of his men in what was later dubbed Custer's Last Stand.

Enlarge / October 1876: General Nelson Miles talking with Chief Sitting Bull after the army's defeat at Little Big Horn. Original Artist: Frederic Remington (1861-1909).
MPI/Getty Images

That victory proved to be short-lived. The US dispatched thousands more soldiers to the region, and over the next year, many tribes chose to surrender. Sitting Bull was not among them, preferring to lead his tribe to Canada's Northwest Territories instead (what is now Saskatchewan AND ALBERTA)

He stayed there for four years, despite offers of a pardon, until it became clear that his people couldn't survive, because the buffalo herds were too small to support their food needs. Sitting Bull and his people returned to the US and surrendered on July 19, 1881, to Major David H. Brotherton at Fort Buford. (The chief purportedly told Brotherton, "I wish it to be remembered that I was the last man of my tribe to surrender my rifle.")

The group (some 186 people in all) was kept at Fort Yates, adjacent to the Standing Rock Agency, apart from a 20-month stint at Fort Randall. Sitting Bull gained a certain amount of celebrity in 1884 when he was allowed to tour the US and Canada with a show called the Sitting Bull Connection. He met Annie Oakley on that tour, in Minnesota, and was so impressed with her firearms skills that he symbolically "adopted" her as his daughter and dubbed her "Little Sure Shot." Oakley used the moniker for most of her career. In 1885, Sitting Bull toured with Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West show for four months, where his "performance" consisted of riding once around the arena each night as the audience gawked.

Meanwhile, tensions continued to increase between Sitting Bull and US Indian Agent James McLaughlin as the US government divided up and sold parts of the Great Sioux Reservation. By 1889, a religious "Ghost Dance" movement—which involved dancing and chanting for the resurrection of deceased relatives and the return of the buffalo herds—was gaining strength, alarming nearby white settlers. Sitting Bull wasn't a participant, but he did allow the dancers on his camping grounds, so McLaughlin ordered the chief's arrest.

Enlarge / Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill Cody, photographed ca. 1880 in Montreal, Canada.
Bettmann/Getty Images

Sitting Bull did not go quietly when 39 police officers knocked on his door at 5:30 in the morning on December 15, 1890. The noise awakened his supporters, who were enraged at this treatment. One Lakota, Catch-a-Bear, shot an officer, who responded by shooting Sitting Bull in the chest. Another officer shot the chief in the head. All told, six officers, Sitting Bull, and seven of his supporters were killed in the skirmish. Sitting Bull was buried at Fort Yates for several decades, until Lakota family members exhumed his body and relocated the remains near his birthplace in Mobridge, South Dakota.

Enter Ernie LaPointe, president and founder of the Sitting Bull Family Foundation and great-grandson of the Lakota Sioux chief. LaPointe and his sisters—Marlene Little Spotted Horse Andersen, Ethel Little Spotted Horse Bates, and Lydia Little Spotted Horse Red Paint—have petitioned the US government for permission to relocate the remains yet again, this time to the Battle of Little Big Horn site, which they believe held more personal meaning for Sitting Bull.

Having DNA analysis to reinforce their familial claims would be enormously helpful in achieving that goal. "Over the years, may people have tried to question the relationship that I and my sisters have to Sitting Bull," said LaPointe. His claim until now had been based upon written historical records, birth and death certificates, and a family tree.

And a DNA source was readily available, with no need to exhume the body yet again. Before Sitting Bull was buried, the post surgeon at Fort Yates, H. Deeble, took a couple of souvenirs—without anyone's permission or authority, the authors note. Deeble kept the Lakota Sioux leader's cloth leggings and the hair lock at the crown of his head (known as a scalp lock) and subsequently loaned them to the Smithsonian Institution in 1896. They remained at the museum until 2007, when LaPointe requested that the items be repatriated. His request was granted, and news of the repatriation soon reached Willerslev.

Enlarge / Ernie LaPointe, now confirmed by DNA analysis to be the great-grandson of Sitting Bull, in November 2016.
Ingo Wagner/Getty Images

“Sitting Bull has always been my hero, ever since I was a boy," said Willerslev. "I admire his courage and his drive. That’s why I almost choked on my coffee when I read in a magazine in 2007 that the Smithsonian Museum had decided to return Sitting Bull’s hair to Ernie LaPointe and his three sisters, in accordance with new US legislation on the repatriation of museum objects."

Willerslev wrote to LaPointe explaining his admiration and his scientific expertise in analyzing ancient DNA. He requested permission to compare the DNA of LaPointe and his sisters with any DNA he was able to extract from the scalp lock, thereby providing strong evidence of their ancestry. LaPointe agreed and provided a small portion of the scalp lock for analysis.

Unfortunately, the task proved to be far more challenging than Willerslev had expected, because the DNA in the sample was so badly degraded. It took 14 years, in fact, for his team to figure out the best method for extracting the DNA and analyzing it. Most approaches to DNA analysis involve hunting for a genetic match between specific DNA passed down through either the paternal or maternal line. But these methods aren't always reliable.

"Since many human mitochondrial and Y-chromosome haplogroups are common, even unrelated individuals can have the same haplogroup just by chance," the authors wrote. "Therefore, these markers can be primarily used to rule out familial relationships. They rarely provide strong evidence supporting that two individuals are related or the determination of a specific familial relationship."


Enlarge / The grave of Sioux Chief Sitting Bull in South Dakota, where his remains were transferred after several decades from the original burial site in North Dakota.
Chris Melzer/picture alliance/Getty Images

Instead, Willerslev et al. employed a technique that searches for so-called "autosomal DNA" in the genetic fragments they were able to extract and sequence from Sitting Bull's hair sample. We inherit half such DNA from our fathers and half from our mothers, so one can check for genetic matches regardless of whether one is descended from the paternal or maternal line.

“Autosomal DNA is our non-gender-specific DNA," said Willerslev. "We managed to locate sufficient amounts of autosomal DNA in Sitting Bull’s hair sample, and compare it to the DNA sample from Ernie LaPointe and other Lakota Sioux—and were delighted to find that it matched."

There were some complications along the way. Since it's not possible to get sufficiently clear data just by looking at the DNA, Willerslev et al.'s argument is essentially based on statistics. "The new approach requires data from at least a few individuals from the same population as the individuals of interest," the authors wrote. "It also requires that none of the individuals included in the analysis are admixed or inbred, since it relies on having representative allele frequencies."Advertisement


Willerslev's team collected spit samples from LaPointe and 13 unrelated Lakota Sioux individuals and sequenced that genetic data for comparison to the Sitting Bull sample. But data from the latter was too limited to make a definitive call on LaPointe's lineage, and only five of the individuals (including LaPointe) met the requirement of no admixing; the others showed evidence of some European ancestry. So the team developed its own probabilistic method that could process both limited sequencing data from a historical figure and SNP chip data—DNA microarrays that test genetic variation at many hundreds of thousands of specific locations across the genome—from a living individual. They also conducted several simulations to verify the certainty of the results.

In the end, the team was able to determine that LaPointe is, indeed, Sitting Bull's great-grandson, thereby providing genetic evidence that "he and his sisters are the rightful recipients of the repatriated items from the Smithsonian Institution," the authors concluded. The next step is to analyze the remains buried at the Mobridge site to confirm that they are a genetic match to Sitting Bull.

DOI: Science Advances, 2021. 10.1126/sciadv.abh2013 (About DOIs).

Dems compare oil companies' climate change response to tobacco-cancer denial

Exxon, Chevron and other energy executives, as well as Republicans, say industry's pace toward renewables is spot on; AOC pushes on Hill influence

Provided by Dow Jones
Oct 28, 2021
Rachel Koning Beals

Democrats grilled the executives of oil majors ExxonMobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and others for campaigns the lawmakers charged have misled the public on the dangerous effects of climate change in ways that mimic historic efforts by cigarette makers to disguise health concerns.

Republicans at the same committee meeting Tuesday stressed their view that withholding U.S.-generated energy sources, including natural gas NG00, will only cut U.S. jobs, risk U.S. security because of tenuous relationships with gas-giant Russia and certain Middle East governments, and drive up gasoline and home-heating costs at a time when global markets are experiencing a crisis of energy supply -- all while demand is increasing. The GOP members also used the hearing to repeat calls for tougher emissions expectations for China and India, which along with the U.S., round out the top three global polluters.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney, Democrat of New York, the Chairwoman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, and Rep. Ro Khanna, Democrat of California, the Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Environment, told the oil executives that while the companies now acknowledge that the burning of fossil fuels drives climate change, have made emissions-reduction pledges and diversified their products to include renewables, such actions stand in contrast to their high lobbying expenses for efforts to push for new drilling and more. And, the Democrats charged, energy companies aren't as open with the public as they should be.

"Rather than admitting the truth about their product, the [tobacco] executives lied. This was a watershed moment in the public's understanding of Big Tobacco," said Mahoney. "I hope that today's hearing represents a turning point for Big Oil. I hope that today the witnesses will finally own up to the industry's central role in this crisis and become part of the change we need."

The committee's majority drew on decades-old reports containing red flags on global warming from scientists inside the oil companies. They pointed to old advertisements from the oil industry questioning the impact of climate change, as well as early 2000s statements undermining the science from one former Exxon (XOM) executive, and they tapped into a recent incident from earlier this year, in which an Exxon lobbyist was unknowingly taped saying that the company only used "talking points" on greener efforts to pacify lawmakers and the public. Exxon has disavowed the lobbyist's remarks.

Public policy and environmental groups noted the significance of bringing the oil leaders, as well as the American Petroleum Institute and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, under oath about charges of misleading the public as President Biden and other global leaders ready to converge on Glasgow for an ambitious climate summit and as Biden on Thursday reframed his Build Back Better initiative to include $555 billion for climate programs that include renewable tax incentives, a reduced amount from initial efforts.

During a question-and-answer period, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democrat from New York, prompted ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods to say he personally participated in calls with lawmakers on the Democrats' spending plan.

"I have," Woods replied. But he said political donations were not discussed during his calls.

History repeating?

"Twenty-seven years ago, similar hearings featuring tobacco industry executives led to litigation by 52 U.S. states and territories and industry restitution to the public. The stakes this time are at least as high: trillions of dollars in predicted loss and destruction from climate change. Big Oil is due its Big Tobacco moment," Patti Lynn, the executive director of nonprofit Corporate Accountability and Geoffrey Supran, a research fellow in the Department of the History of Science at Harvard University and director of climate accountability communication for the Climate Social Science Network, wrote in an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times.

Read: Cigarette sales increased in 2020 for the first time in 20 years

In addition to Exxon and Chevron Corp.CVX, witnesses included the U.S. heads of European energy concerns BP PlcUK:BPBP and Royal Dutch ShellRDS.ARDS.B.

Mahoney said in a statement that the fossil fuel industry has had scientific evidence about the dangers of climate change since at least 1977. "Yet for decades, the industry spread denial and doubt about the harm of its products--undermining the science and preventing meaningful action on climate change even as the global climate crisis became increasingly dire, and its deadly impact on Americans increased," she said.

At least one historian has stressed that earlier action could have reduced the scramble to slow climate change now.

"Back in 1979, Exxon had privately studied options for avoiding global warming. It found that with immediate action, if the industry moved away from fossil fuels and instead focused on renewable energy, fossil fuel pollution could start to decline in the 1990s and a major climate crisis could be avoided," said Benjamin Franta, a history Ph. D student at Stanford University, in a paper on The Conversation.

"But the industry didn't pursue that path. Instead, colleagues and I recently found that in the late 1980s, Exxon and other oil companies coordinated a global effort to dispute climate science, block fossil fuel controls and keep their products flowing," he said.

'Views have developed over time...'

Republican members largely embraced opening comments from the energy executives that the companies themselves are doing plenty to fold in renewable energy with traditional fossil fuels, exploring hydrogen and nuclear sources, and spending on the technology that eventually will make carbon capture scalable. Critics of carbon capture and storage, say it does little to dissuade the pumping from new fossil fuel sources. The executives also largely support carbon markets, or the swapping of emissions permits, and electric-vehicle infrastructure, they stressed at the hearing.

At least two Republican members noted a group of Democratic lawmakers and President Biden have urged OPEC to keep the spigot open to hold down costs, a position these committee members said was in marked contrast to the committee leadership insisting that U.S. sources of oil and gas be shut off to meet U.S. emissions targets. Biden said last week that he predicts high gasoline prices into at least 2022.

"What does the gentleman want, $8 gasoline, $10 gasoline?" Rep. Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, said of a Democrat's comment.

Gasoline futures are up 66% in the year to date. West Texas Intermediate crude futures are up some 70% in the year to date, while natural gas futures are up 132% over the same span.

Khanna, the Democrat, meanwhile, pointed out the divide in the companies' pro-EV stance while supporting 600-member trade group the American Petroleum Institute, which has worked to limit EV expansion and has advertised against a methane-leak fee on industry on Facebook and elsewhere.

"Ms. Watkins, Mr. [Mike] Summers of API is on the panel with us. Will you take the opportunity today to tell him that his opposition to electric vehicles is wrong," Khanna asked Gretchen Watkins, president of Shell, who earlier confirmed the company backed EV growth.

"We are a member of API for a number of reasons... We have a number of conversations of course ongoing," Watkins said.

Michael Worth, chair and CEO of Chevron, refuted the idea that Chevron is misleading its shareholders and the public on climate change.

"While our view on climate change have developed over time, any suggestion that Chevron has engaged in an effort to spread disinformation and mislead the public on these complex issues is wrong," he said.

Exxon's Woods said his firm fully accepts that the combustion of fossil fuels is behind climate change, but that the energy market does not currently have adequate alternative sources to keep up with demand. He defended most past actions of his company as being in line with views on climate change at the time.

Exxon, he said, is pushing for carbon capture as one of the "biggest opportunities for innovation to address emissions."

Suzanne Clark, president of U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said lawmakers should not dwell on climate-change history but make way for market-based policies, including carbon markets, that are "practical, predictable and durable" enough to survive election changes.

David Lawler, head of BP America, told lawmakers that BP started a transition to include more renewables as far back as 2005.

"Our progress hasn't always been a straight line... but we view the path we're on as a business imperative," he said.

-Rachel Koning Beals


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

10-28-21 1649ET

StanChart sets new interim goals to reducing funding to CO2-emitting sectors


A man walks past a Standard Chartered bank in London

Lawrence White and Simon Jessop
Thu, October 28, 2021, 

LONDON (Reuters) -Standard Chartered set new targets for reducing its funding to carbon intensive sectors by 2030, as part of a broader goal to reach net zero emissions for itself and its clients by 2050.

The Asia, Africa and Middle East-focused bank on Thursday said it would stop funding companies that are expanding in thermal coal, and by 2030 only provide financial services to clients less than 5% dependent on the fuel for revenue.

The bank said it would also reduce its financing to the power, steel and mining, oil and gas sectors, as well as expecting clients in those sectors to have their own transition strategies in line with the goals of the Paris climate agreement.

The announcement from StanChart comes ahead of a gathering of world leaders in Glasgow next week aimed at saving the planet from the devastation wreaked by rising temperatures.

StanChart, in common with other global banks, has in recent years bowed to activist and investor pressure to reduce its financing to fossil fuel-related clients.

The lender left some loopholes in its fresh commitments announced on Thursday, such as saying that its cutting of financing to thermal coal applied only at an individual corporate entity, or subsidiary, level.

Group-level client firms that StanChart provides financial services to will instead be "subjected to enhanced due diligence", it said.

"We’re confident that we’re on a science-based trajectory toward net-zero financed emissions by 2050 that is consistent with the Paris Agreement," Chief Executive Bill Winters said.

In response, Lucie Pinson, executive director of Reclaim Finance, said StanChart was "finally acknowledging the need to stop supporting expansion in the coal sector", but that its new policy had a "gaping loophole".

"Having channelled $10 bln to the coal sector between October 2018 and October 2020, the bank has given itself enough wriggle room to protect its interests in giant coal companies like Glencore, which is currently developing new coal mines in Australia and South Africa," she said in a statement.

After the International Energy Agency (IEA) earlier this year said the world needed no new fossil fuel projects if it wanted to hit its climate goals by mid-century, StanChart said oil and gas companies would need a Paris-aligned strategy by 2022.

Pinson, however, said it was unclear what this meant.

"If Standard Chartered is genuinely intent on requiring Paris-aligned strategies, then it should clarify that this means a clear stop to new oil and gas fields, in line with the IEA’s position."

(Reporting by Lawrence White; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Mark Potter)

UNION BUSTING 101

Exxon tells locked-out Texas refinery workers non-union employees get higher pay

ONLY BECAUSE UNIONS HAVE SET PAY RATES, NON UNION MUST COMPETE AGAINST.


FILE PHOTO: An Exxon gas station is seen in Houston

Erwin Seba
Thu, October 28, 2021, 7:20 PM·2 min read

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp on Thursday sent a message to hundreds of union workers locked out of their jobs at its Beaumont, Texas, refinery saying that pay is greater at non-union sites.

"We are not allowed to make promises, and we will not do so. We can report that non-represented employees at comparable sites are paid 5% to 7% more and have similar benefits," Exxon said in the message called a "decertification update."

The message comes about two weeks before the 585 locked-out workers begin voting on removing United Steelworkers (USW) union Local 13-243 from the 369,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery and adjoining lubricant oil plant.

An official with the United Steelworkers union 13-243 had no immediate comment about the company message.

The workers are scheduled to vote by mail between Nov. 12 and Dec. 22 in a decertification election overseen by the U.S. National Labor Relations Board that, if successful, will remove the USW.

Last week, Exxon laid down two conditions for ending the lockout: Adoption of its proposed contract, or decertification of USW 13-243.

A majority of union members rejected the contract proposal in a secret-ballot vote on Oct. 19.

Exxon locked out the workers on May 1 after the union did not accept a proposal during four months of talks that eliminates job seniority, which gives employees a say over job assignments, assuring the most experienced workers operate refinery units, the USW has said.
INEXPERIENCED WORKERS ARE LOWER PAID
Exxon has said ending job seniority and other changes are needed to ensure the refinery can be competitive in even low-margin environments.

Exxon continues to operate the refinery at about 60% of its capacity with managers and supervisors as well as temporary operators. SCABS

(Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)

‘You can’t pay bills on $12 an hour’: Walmart employees left out of raises

Michael Sainato
Thu, October 28, 2021

Photograph: Shawn Thew/EPA

Mendy Hughes, 46, has worked as a cashier for Walmart in Malvern, Arkansas, for 11 years.

Her hourly wage, after a recent increase, is $12.85 an hour, a mere 85 cents more than the hourly starting wage for new hires despite her 11 years with the company.

Related: ‘People are fed up’: Dollar General workers push to unionize amid hostility from above

“You can’t pay your bills, rent and buy groceries on $12 an hour. I don’t think anywhere in the United States, you can do that. No way,” said Hughes, who is a member of the campaign group United for Respect. “I don’t understand how they think $12 an hour is enough to live on, because it’s not at all.”

As the largest employer in the US with nearly 1.6 million workers, Walmart has faced criticism for years over low wages, working conditions, a reliance on keeping workers on part-time schedules and wage theft.

Walmart announced in September the company would raise the minimum wage at Sam’s Club locations from $11 to $15 an hour, but Walmart employees were left out as the parent company raised the minimum wage from $11 to just $12 an hour for Walmart workers. Earlier this year, Walmart announced it would raise wages for 425,000 employees to $13 an hour, emphasizing it would increase the company’s average hourly wage to more than $15 an hour.

But thousands of Walmart employees are still struggling to make ends meet with low pay and many are now speaking up to agitate and campaign for a wage increase. Walmart workers who are members of United for Respect for Walmart are pushing for a $15 minimum wage at the company.

A diabetic with four children, Hughes continued working throughout the pandemic.She said working conditions had worsened due to lack of Covid protections and customers who took out their frustrations on staff around missing products, understaffing, and Covid protocols.

“We never have enough people,” Hughes said. “We have long lines, people are backed up all the way to the clothes and sometimes wrapped around, because there are maybe two or three, sometimes only one cashier, and the self-checkouts are card only so people who can’t use those are mad and it’s hard to deal with people now.”

In recent years, Walmart’s competitors have raised their hourly minimum wage to $15 an hour, including Target in 2020, Amazon in 2018 and Costco to $17 an hour in 2021.

In the 2021 fiscal year, Walmart reported a profit of more than $13.5bn. In February, Walmart’s board of directors approved another $20bn stock buyback program. From November 2020 to the end of January 2021, Walmart repurchased more than 10m shares in the company at over $140 a share, spending more than $1.4bn.

Walmart is owned by the Walton family, the wealthiest family in the world, with an estimated net worth of about $238bn. During the pandemic, Alice, Jim and Rob Walton saw their net worths climb by over $10bn each.

Anna Turner worked at Walmart in Stockton, California, for more than eight years as a door greeter and customer service associate before she was fired in January, after she had spent months complaining to Walmart corporate, her store management and California Osha about Walmart’s poor Covid responses.

Through her time working at Walmart, Turner noted she made less than $15 an hour and she was never hired for full-time hours, though she said her department was chronically understaffed.

“After eight and a half years working the most difficult area of my store I was making just under $15 an hour at part-time. They would always cut our hours so we couldn’t get full-time and health benefits,” said Turner, who relied on Medi-Cal for health insurance through her employment at Walmart.

“I was fired for not lying on my Covid-19 health and temperature assessments. It was the last thing I said to management the day things started and eventually led to me being fired,” said Turner, who said she was terminated after an incident where she had to take a break after experiencing an anxiety attack when a customer threatened to assault her over trying to return an item. “That place gave me such bad panic attacks and I was mistreated on a regular basis because of the situation Walmart created by not staffing that department.”

In the first nine months of the pandemic, Walmart provided only a fraction of their Covid profits to workers in the form of hazard pay and additional compensation, according to an analysis by the Brookings Institution. The Waltons’ net worth increased 26 times more than the cost of Covid compensation for Walmart workers, estimated at 71 cents an hour in additional wages for workers, compared with a $6.2m-an-hour wealth increase for the Waltons.

A research brief by Human Impact Partners published in October found a $5-an-hour minimum wage increase for Walmart workers would improve mental and physical health for workers, including an increased lifespan of nearly two years.

“Walmart is the largest private employer in the country, they employ more women and people of color than any other employer in the country. So they have a large stake in terms of setting the tone for racial equity in our country and financial security as well,” said Sukhdip Purewal Boparai, research project director at Human Impact Partners and author of the brief. “Walmart really can set the stage and in shifting into transforming the lives of the people that work for them, especially during the pandemic, as they’re putting their lives at risk.”

Peter Naughton, a cashier and self-checkout host at Walmart in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for two years, recently saw his hourly wage increase from $11.55 an hour to $12.55 an hour with the new company-wide wage increases. But Naughton said the increase did not go far enough, and he criticized Walmart for eliminating quarterly MyShare bonuses for all employees, which often provided workers with an extra few hundred dollars every three months.

“A $1-an-hour increase does not help. We have less money now with a $1 raise than we did before,” said Naughton. “Walmart could raise our wages to $15, $18, even $20 an hour, but they don’t want to, out of greed. Walmart is the most subsidized company in America by the government.”

He said many of his co-workers have additional jobs and rely on Snap, rental subsidies and other government relief programs in order to make ends meet. In many states, Walmart is the top employer of Medicaid and Snap beneficiaries.

In April 2021, Naughton had to vacate his apartment and move in with his parents because he couldn’t afford the rent and other bills on his salary at Walmart.

“I couldn’t afford the rent, the utilities. I couldn’t afford food or to pay my car note and insurance at the same time,” added Naughton. “If they would raise our wages to even $15 an hour, that would help us have more money to spend. They could actually afford to do that. But they don’t want to do that. It’s really all about the money.”

A Walmart spokesperson said in an email: “While we are not going to provide details about individual personnel matters, the claims being made are simply not accurate. We are proud of the industry leading health screening protocols and emergency leave policies we’ve developed and maintained throughout this pandemic.”

They added the MyShare bonuses were eliminated and rolled into workers’ wages and claimed thousands of people are not on public assistance programs because they work or are insured through Walmart. They characterized the Human Impact Partners’ study developed with United for Respect as “misleading” and “flawed”.

A software engineer spent 8 hours daily applying to entry-level coding jobs for 6 months. 

She was rejected 357 times before receiving an offer.


Hannah Towey
Thu, October 28, 2021

A woman codes in Python (not Sophia Cheong). 5432action/Getty Images


After working in the restaurant industry for six years, Sophia Cheong decided to learn how to code.

She applied to entry-level software engineering jobs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. for six months straight.

357 rejections, 40 interviews, and 2 offers later, she's making more than double her old salary.

Sophia Cheong's career started at a Korean barbecue restaurant in California, where she worked as a host while completing her bachelor's degree in business administration.

After graduating from Fullerton College, she was promoted to assistant general manager and, later, the director of operations. Then a coworker started teaching her how to code.

"I fell in love," Cheong told Insider. "I know it's cliche, but I felt like it was my true passion. ... I was getting up every morning really excited to learn."

Like the millions of Americans who quit their jobs during the "Great Resignation," Cheong had an opportunity during the pandemic to exit the restaurant industry and switch career paths, something she had been wanting to do for some time. With restaurant closures forcing layoffs, she volunteered to be among those let go.

Cheong immediately used the money she had saved from restaurant paychecks to enroll in a 13-week software-engineering boot camp called Hack Reactor, where she completed over 1,000 hours of full-stack coding.

One week after graduation, she set out on the job hunt.

Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Cheong applied to every entry-level software-engineering job or internship she could find, spanning 18 countries, she said. On top of submitting applications, she reached out to tech recruiters every day and created an online portfolio.

"I was pretty naive. I thought I'd have a job after a month because Hack Reactor has such a good reputation," she said. "But then one month turned to two months and then three and four, and I started thinking, 'Oh my God, why am I not getting a job? What's wrong with me?'"

A screenshot of Sophia Cheong's 359 applications around the world. Courtesy of Sophia Cheong

Constantly hearing about the national labor shortage and the ever-growing demand for tech talent didn't help her morale. According to US labor statistics, the shortage of engineers in the US will exceed 1.2 million by 2026.

Six months later, Cheong had interviewed with 40 employers and been rejected 357 times by companies big and small. She told Insider that most interviewers asked why she had switched careers and how her experience in the service industry would help her succeed in tech.

"Every time I would ask them why they didn't continue with me, they'd say, 'The other candidate is more senior than you,'" Cheong said, adding that recruiters would suggest reaching out in a year after she had more experience.

The same week Cheong was supposed to head back to working at the restaurant, she received two job offers. One, a junior software-engineer position at Homee, would pay 120% more than her previous salary, she said.

"We're all about taking chances with the newcomers," Cheong said the company's Chief Technology Officer Mitch Pirtle told her during the interviewing process. "We know how hard it is to get your foot in that door."

As she accepted her new position, Cheong posted about the strenuous job hunt on LinkedIn. Hundreds of job applicants struggling to find work flooded the comment section, asking for advice and sharing similar stories of constant rejections.

"I know there are shortages just about everywhere," Cheong told Insider. "But I also feel like there are so many people looking for jobs at the same time. I just don't know why it hasn't balanced out yet."

12 dock workers reveal the 'never-ending' chaos at shipping ports: 'We can't keep this pace up forever'

Grace Kay
Thu, October 28, 2021,

Container ships wait off the coast of the congested ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, in Long Beach, California, U.S., September 29, 2021. Mike Blake/REUTERS

Ports in Southern California have broken numerous records this year as over 100 ships wait to dock.

12 Longshoremen described what it's like keeping the supply chain moving despite historic backlogs.

The workers told Insider ports are running at a break-neck pace, but the situation is getting worse.

Dock workers have long been working day and night to keep the supply chain running. But, since the pandemic started, COVID-19 shutdowns and surging demand have cast the ports into chaos - and workers say there's no end in sight.

Insider spoke with 12 dock workers from across the US, including seven that work at ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach - locations responsible for over 40% of the nation's imports. The workers asked to remain anonymous to speak freely about their jobs, but their identities have been verified by Insider.

Four longshoremen with more than 20 years of experience at the major California ports said they've never seen anything like the near-record backlogs. The issues are spilling over to ports in cities like Seattle and Houston, as well, workers said.

"It's just been one thing after another," a clerk at the Port of Los Angeles told Insider. "Half of my shift is just trying to make sense of all the containers. It's a never-ending situation where I'm just constantly putting out fires. It's nearly impossible to get anything else done."
'There's barely enough room to unload the ships'

The clerk, who manages incoming and outgoing shipments, said the high volume of containers is leading to chronic disorganization and mix-ups of long-distance and local deliveries. As a result, workers are frequently forced to stop unloading ships and stocking trucks - jobs that keep the flow of goods moving - to reorganize the containers.

The backlog of goods has also made it more difficult to unload ships. The number of cranes used to discharge ships has nearly halved due to a lack of space in the ports, as well as equipment shortages, 8 workers told Insider.

Associated Press

"Companies are packing their goods into massive ships that would require seven or eight cranes to unload them at full capacity, but no terminal can handle that many cranes on the dock," a crane operator at Port of Los Angeles told Insider. "Our job is so much more difficult when the ports are congested. Most days, I'm running with only one to two crane gangs at a time."

Even when the ships have been discharged and reloaded - a process that averaged 3.6 days in pre-pandemic times, but has since nearly doubled - it can be difficult to coordinate with truckers and make sure the right container is accessible to the cranes. Two crane operators said they've recently brought a container to be loaded onto a truck and nobody was there to pick it up.

The workers have been operating at record speed for the last year, but ports built to handle 30 to 40 ships cannot suddenly accommodate over 160 vessels.

"We can't keep this pace up forever," a union member from the Port of Long Beach told Insider. "They're never going to do it, but what needs to happen is a full shut down to only essential cargo."
'It's out of our control'

The ports are facing 30% more traffic with about 28% less workers. All 12 workers told Insider the private shipping companies that run the terminals have been reluctant to hire and train more longshoremen or utilize the International Longshore and Warehouse Union's capacity to work 24/7.

"We want to work as much as possible, but the employers don't want to pay the overtime to get these problems fixed," a part-time worker at Long Beach told Insider. "It's a balancing act, they want to scrape by with just enough workers, but the more ships that come in, the worse it gets."

Marine Exchange of Southern California

Workers say that leads to a chain reaction: Ports are wary of turning ships away because they earn money from docking fees and unloading containers. Overbooked warehouses won't stop shipping goods as long as companies continue paying for the deliveries. And once the goods arrive at the ports, some importers may not be incentivized to move them quickly onto trucks because warehouse space is running out, multiple workers said.

On Monday, the Southern California ports said they would begin charging a $100 per day fee for containers left in the yards for over 9 days.

"It's a fine orchestra," a crane operator, who worked at the Port of Los Angeles for over 40 years, told Insider. "From the cranes you can see how everything has to move perfectly for things to get done. There's no room for human error, a malfunctioning machine, or a scheduling error. If just one person isn't where they're supposed to be, it wreaks havoc on the entire area."

Biden's 24/7 port operations aren't working because truckers aren't showing up to collect cargo, data suggests

Mary Hanbury
Wed, October 27, 2021

California ports are running 24/7. -/AFP via Getty Images

President Biden moved the ports of Southern California to a 24/7 schedule this month.


But data shows that the crisis isn't getting better and truckers aren't turning up to collect cargo.


Experts say this is because of driver shortages, clogged warehouses, and a lack of available chassis.

President Joe Biden has ordered California ports to stay open all night to ease supply chain jams - but data shows that truckers aren't showing up to collect the cargo.

According to shipping giant Maersk, around half of its 2,000 available appointments for truckers at its giant terminal on the Port of Long Beach went unused on Friday, The Washington Post reported.

Truckers aren't showing up because they either don't have the chassis available to hold the cargo or because warehouses are full, experts say.


Plus, the industry is also grappling with a record shortage of drivers.

The number of boats at anchor, waiting to dock and unload at the crowded Southern California ports, reached record highs over the weekend, indicating that things haven't improved since Biden's 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week schedule came into force.

The White House announced this new schedule earlier this month to help ease port jams. The ports of LA and Long Beach have remained clogged for months because of the global supply chain crisis. After a fall in shipping demand during the early days of the pandemic in 2020, a surge at the end of that year has led to delays and blockages across the world.

Insiders say that Biden's all-hours schedule won't resolve the supply chain jams on its own because it doesn't address the entire supply chain.

"This level of operations is not an overnight, simple solution to implement - and does not solve the broader supply chain capacity challenges and shortage of workers in trucking, warehouse, and supply chain jobs," Narin Phol, regional managing director of Maersk North America, said at an industry conference in South Carolina on Monday, The Post reported.

Truckers are also struggling to make space for new containers because they're having to store empty containers that should be back at the ports, but aren't, because of restrictions on returns, Matt Schrap, CEO of Harbor Trucking Association, a coalition of carriers that serves the ports of California, recently told Bloomberg.

"We are running out of space," he said. "These containers are just being stacked on top of each other."

The US is also currently short of 80,000 truck drivers, which means there aren't always enough people to collect the cargo that's clogging up the docks.

On Monday, the California ports announced that they would impose new fines on containers that are left on the docks for several days.

Industry insiders question whether the fees will simply end up being passed onto retailers who are already paying sky-high shipping rates.

"Key issues such as chassis availability and empty container returns still need to be addressed," the National Retail Federation said, according to The Post.

It continued: "We encourage ocean carriers to continue to work with importers and truckers to move cargo as quickly as possible and not just pass along the cost of the fee, which will further exacerbate the problems."

Afghan girls learn, code 'underground' to bypass Taliban curbs

Annie Banerji, Emma Batha and Shadi Khan Saif
Wed, October 27, 2021

NEW DELHI/LONDON/ISLAMABAD (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Cooped up at home in Herat, Afghanistan, Zainab Muhammadi reminisces about hanging out with her friends in the cafeteria after coding class. Now she logs on every day to secret online lessons.

Her school shut down after the Taliban took control of the country in August. But that did not stop Muhammadi from learning.

"There are threats and dangers to girls like me. If the Taliban get to know ... they might punish me severely. They might even stone me to death," said Muhammadi, who requested to use a pseudonym to protect her identity.

"But I have not lost hope or my aspirations. I'm determined to continue studying," the 25-year-old told the Thomson Reuters Foundation on a video call.

She is one of an estimated hundreds of Afghan girls and women who are continuing to learn - some online and others in hidden makeshift classrooms - despite the Taliban's closure of their schools.

Fereshteh Forough, the CEO and founder of Code to Inspire (CTI) - Afghanistan's first all-female coding academy - created encrypted virtual classrooms, uploaded course content online, and gave laptops and internet packages to about 100 of her students, including Muhammadi.

"You can be locked at home (and) explore the virtual world without any hesitation, without worrying about geographical boundaries. That's the beauty of technology," she said.

In September, the government said older boys could resume school, along with all primary-age children, but told older girls roughly aged 12 to 18 to stay home until conditions permitted their return.

The Taliban, who barred girls from education during their last rule about 20 years ago, has promised it will allow them to go to school as it seeks to show the world it has changed.

A senior U.N. official who met the Taliban earlier this month said the government was working on a framework, which would be published by the end of the year.

"The education gains of the past two decades must be strengthened, not rolled back," said Omar Abdi, deputy executive director of the U.N.'s children's agency UNICEF.

MISSED OPPORTUNITIES

After the Taliban were ousted in 2001, school attendance rose rapidly, with more than 3.6 million girls enrolled by 2018, according to UNICEF.

The number going to university, now in the tens of thousands, also jumped. Nearly 6% of women were accessing tertiary education in 2020, up from 1.8% in 2011.

Nonetheless, the country has one of the world's biggest education gender gaps, with UNICEF saying girls account for 60% of the 3.7 million Afghan children out of school.

Failing to let girls finish their education bears a huge cost, including poverty, child marriage, early childbearing, and a lack of understanding of their rights and ability to access basic services, campaigners say.

"Education allows them to take care of their health, have a stronger voice in their family, prevent domestic violence and become breadwinners," said Forough, whose school teaches everything from English to graphic design and mobile application development.

"We didn't want to wait. We wanted to continue our mission."

SCARED TO STUDY

The Taliban have also suggested that they may turn to technology to help some women continue to study.

The education minister, Abdul Baqi Haqqani, said at a news conference last month that women would be allowed to study in universities, but gender-segregated classrooms would be mandatory and female students should be taught by women.

Where this was not possible, he indicated teaching could be done through streaming or closed circuit television.

While some private universities have reopened, public universities remain closed.

Psychology student Aisa had hoped to use her degree to help the mental health of young Afghans - which she says is a major, but poorly understood issue in the country.

But her dreams evaporated as the Taliban swept to power and she is now in hiding following threats to her family.

Aisa is about to start a health science degree with the University of the People, a U.S.-based organisation providing online courses to students worldwide who face barriers to higher education.

The university is offering 1,000 scholarships to Afghan women who can no longer study.

"Without this scholarship I have no opportunities, and my future is broken. This is my last chance to get a degree," said Aisa, whose name has been changed to protect her identity. "It's safer for women like me to study underground."

All her girlfriends back in Afghanistan had been forced to give up their studies, she added. Even if the Taliban eventually allow women to return to university, she said many would be too scared to do so.

The University of the People said students only required a smartphone or tablet to take one of its four degree courses - business, education, computer science or health science.

"These women don't have any alternatives except for online education. Most cannot get out of the country. We are trying to give them some hope," said university president Shai Reshef.

SURVEILLANCE

Digital experts fear that the cash-strapped Taliban will not be able to maintain energy supplies, communication networks and tech infrastructure.

Not only could satellite companies and fibre providers from neighbouring countries such as Iran snap services, but the Taliban may start snooping on and censoring communications, said Mustafa Soltany, a Kabul-based IT consultant.

"The Taliban are very likely to put in place strict restrictions, monitoring and even spying in the digital arena where they can hunt dissidents, critics," said Soltany, who has seen Taliban soldiers snatching and searching people's mobile phones at checkpoints.

But this does not worry Pashtana Zalmai Khan Durrani, founder of non-profit LEARN that has enrolled about 100 girls in an underground school where they are learning science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) on tablets.

She is working with U.S. finance and tech firms to launch satellite internet to circumvent any Taliban curbs.

"I have my bases covered. They can't do anything even if they try to cut internet access. We will be doing our own thing," said the 23-year-old, who is hiding at an undisclosed location from the Taliban.

Like some of the students at LEARN, Muhammadi and her CTI classmates have been working remotely with global tech firms on app development and graphic design.

This allows them to earn up to $500 a month - mostly paid in cash or money transfers - and provide for their families, an unthinkable feat during the Taliban's previous rule.

But Muhammadi does not want to stop there.

"It is always said that Afghan women are weak and can do nothing ... but I want to prove that we are strong," she said.

"I want to continue to study and inspire more students ... and be known as one of the best coders in the world."

(Writing by Annie Banerji @anniebanerji, Editing by Zoe Tabary. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly. Visit http://news.trust.org)

Solar wing jammed on NASA spacecraft chasing asteroids


This image provided by the Southwest Research Institute depicts the Lucy spacecraft approaching an asteroid. It will be first space mission to explore a diverse population of small bodies known as the Jupiter Trojan asteroids. NASA reported Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2021, that one of the craft's two giant, circular solar panels is only between 75% and 95% extended. A lanyard is holding it in place.

 (SwRI via AP)

MARCIA DUNN
Thu, October 28, 2021, 

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA is debating whether to try to fix a jammed solar panel on its newly launched Lucy spacecraft, en route to explore an unprecedented number of asteroids.

The problem cropped up shortly after the spacecraft's Oct. 16 liftoff on a 12-year journey.

After measuring the electric current this week, NASA reported Wednesday that one of Lucy’s two giant, circular solar panels is only between 75% and 95% extended. A lanyard is holding it in place.

Any attempt at reopening the wing — which is 24 feet in diameter (7 meters) — would not occur before mid-November.

So far, the problem has not affected Lucy's outbound flight, so there's no rush to figure out the next step, officials said. Everything else on the spacecraft — already 3.7 million miles (6 million kilometers) away — is working properly.

The mission's lead scientist, Hal Levison of Southwest Research Institute, said the team is encouraged that the combined power from both solar panels "is keeping the spacecraft healthy and functioning."

“It's too early to determine longer range implications to the entire mission,” Levison said in an email Thursday. While the problem is concerning, “our team is working this very diligently and carefully to find a workable solution.”

The nearly $1 billion mission seeks to explore seven so-called Trojan asteroids that share Jupiter's orbit around the sun and another space rock closer to home. Lucy should swoop within 600 miles (965 kilometers) of each target.

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