Guyana Is Walking A Fine Line With Its Oil Boom

Editor OilPrice.com
Wed, November 24, 2021

Guyana is treading a fine line between its potential for economic growth through new oil developments and the risk of environmental degradation and rising sea levels associated with fossil fuel-driven climate change.

Guyana, the small South American country of just 800,000 people, has become world famous over the last year thanks to the promise of low-cost and high output oil operations in its newly established oilfields. Based on recent discoveries by ExxonMobil, TotalEnergies, and Tullow Oil, Guyana is thought to have 10 billion barrels of crude reserves.

With production starting in 2019, and more and more discoveries being made over the last two years, Guyana’s future in energy looks bright. One of the poorest countries in South America could soon become one of the richest countries in the world per capita if projections about its planned oil production are correct.

However, following the COP26 climate summit earlier this month, much of the world is focused on transitioning away from fossil fuels towards renewable alternatives, not investing in long-term new oil developments. And Guyana is all too familiar with the effects of climate change, experiencing severe floods earlier this year that destroyed crops and homes. Georgetown, the coastal capital of Guyana, is at risk of being submerged within the next decade if sea levels continue to rise. So how will Guyana tread the line between developing its oil riches, and boosting the country’s struggling economy, while ensuring environmental stability?

The challenge faced by Guyana could have a positive effect on the country’s new industry, with a major focus on the development of low-carbon oil production. Both the international and national actors involved in the new exploration and extraction projects are under pressure to meet net-zero international targets. The country could follow the path set out by Saudi Arabia, which is promising to significantly reduce its carbon emissions while increasing its oil production over the coming decades.

Guyana recognizes the challenges it is facing and has asked for assurances from energy firms pumping oil in the region that the country will be protected from the knock-on effects of production. The head of Guyana’s environmental agency has announced that the country will be asking oil operators to guarantee financial assistance in the event of oil spills as well as the removal of disused oil infrastructure.

In talks with a national oil consortium, led by Exxon, Guyana is pushing for an agreement to expand upon the events covered by Exxon’s $5 billion self-insurance policy. If new legislation is adopted, it would ensure that several oil operators in the Stabroek block cover the environmental costs associated with oil spills as well as the decommissioning of oil platforms once a project is complete.

Guyana holds all the cards when it comes to oil production, as the world’s oil majors are moving away from carbon-heavy operations and focusing on new, reliable areas, where they can shape low-carbon production, in Africa and the Caribbean. Just this month, Exxon announced that it’s in discussions with Dutch contractor SBM Offshore NV over the potential for a fourth multibillion-dollar production rig. Although production has already commenced under existing agreement terms, if international oil majors hope to expand operations in the South American country, they will likely have to agree to Guyana’s terms.

In addition to environmental challenges, if Guyana wants its population to support the new oilfield developments, the revenues from the black gold will have to trickle down faster. At present, the Guyanese population is seeing demand for travel and accommodation go up as prices across the country rise with increased demand. However, the average person has not yet seen an increase in their income or other economic benefits in line with the new developments. Sharing the wealth is vital for a country that prior to the recent boom relied largely on fishing and agriculture, industries that are becoming increasingly complicated due to climate change.

Richard Rambarran, Executive Director of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry, suggested that Guyana has the potential to become a high-income country over the next 30 years, and a “leader of the global south for sustainable development” if the revenues are invested back into the country.

As one of the world’s poorest countries, it was inevitable that Guyana would respond to the influx in investment offered by some of the world’s biggest oil companies when they made huge crude discoveries. However, Guyana is severely threatened by climate change, with many people in the country relying on the environment for their basic income. Over the next decade, as Guyana’s oil industry takes shape, it must demand low-carbon production from oil operators, as well as assurances that they will pay for any damage caused by the extraction and production of oil. In addition, oil revenues could support sustainable development and boost per capita income if managed well, making Guyana a sustainable example of an emerging oil nation.

By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com

Exxon lobbyist suggests climate change not 'catastrophic, inevitable' risk in undercover recording



Wed, November 24, 2021

A lobbyist for Exxon expressed doubt that climate change carries "catastrophic, inevitable risk" in remarks made earlier this month, which were obtained by the watchdog group Documented.

In the Nov. 9 remarks to the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, lobbyist Erik Oswald states, "The way I look at it as a scientist is, all's I need to think about is, is there, is there a risk? Yes, there's risk. Is it catastrophic, inevitable risk? Not in my mind. But there's risk."

"And so if we're going to work on this, you know, as a, as a society, if we're going to work on this risk, then my only ask is, let's do it as efficiently as possible," Oswald continues in the recording.

"Find me the cheapest way to put the most CO2 in the ground," he says in reference to carbon-capture technology. "And that's what I'm willing to engage in a conversation on."

In the recording, first reported by The Washington Post, Oswald says the company thinks of such technology "not as the crusaders who are going to be the climate fix" but rather "looking at markets," comparing the business opportunities of a "green premium" to consumers' willingness to buy sugar-free foods.

"The statements lack appropriate context and are not representative of the company's positions on important issues, including climate change and carbon capture," Casey Norton, a spokesman for ExxonMobil, said in a statement to The Hill. "ExxonMobil has long acknowledged that climate change is real and poses serious risks. In addition to our substantial investments in next generation technologies, ExxonMobil also advocates for responsible climate-related policies."

Exxon leaders have said they acknowledge the reality of climate change and fossil fuels' contribution to it, and that they take the threat seriously. In October testimony before the House Oversight Committee, CEO Darren Woods testified that the energy company "does not ask people to lobby anything different than our publicly supported position."

The testimony came months after the release of another recording, in which Exxon lobbyist Keith McCoy told an undercover Greenpeace activist that the company "[fought] against some of the science" and has only expressed support for carbon pricing as a "talking point." The company has disavowed his comments.

- Updated at 5:35 p.m.

Volcanic eruptions proving to be double-edged sword in Canary Islands

Mary Gilbert
Thu, November 25, 2021

More than two months after eruptions first began, the Cumbre Vieja volcano on La Palma, one of Spain's Canary Islands, continues to create new issues for residents. Since mid-September, residents have had to deal with a slew of hazards including ever-expanding flows of molten lava, homes buried by ash fallout and earthquakes, just to name a few.

Additional risks developed early this week after a third lava flow crashed into the ocean and set off a chemical reaction.

As the hot, molten lava met the relatively cool ocean on Monday, thick clouds of potentially toxic gases were lofted into the atmosphere and forced authorities to order a lockdown for residents of three coastal towns, according to Reuters. Residents of Tazacorte, San Borondon and portions of El Cardon were ordered to remain indoors with doors and windows shut for safety.

Even residents on the opposite side of the island from the most recent lava flow were told to take precautions early this week. In Santa Cruz, the capital city of La Palma, officials recommended that residents wear masks due to high concentrations of particulate matter and sulfur dioxide in the air, Reuters reported.

This was the first time since the Cumbre Vieja volcano began to erupt on Sept. 19 that such a recommendation was made for the capital city, home to 15,000 residents.

Although coastal lockdowns were lifted on Wednesday after the toxic gas began to disperse, masking recommendations remained in place, according to Reuters.

Since the eruption began, more than 7,000 people on the island have been forced to evacuate, according to Diario AS. At least one death has been attributed to the volcano.

Thus far, the eruption has covered about 2,654 acres (1,074 hectares) of land and led to the destruction of more than 2,600 buildings on the western side of the island, according to Copernicus Emergency Management Service, which provides mapping products based on satellite imagery.

In addition to the destruction of buildings, La Palma's banana crop has also suffered significant losses. The island's banana industry has lost an estimated $100 million USD in revenue since September, according to NPR.

Of the lava's 2,654 acres (1,074 hectares) extent, about 106 acres (43 hectares) is actually newly-formed land that was created as a result of lava flowing into the Atlantic Ocean, according to Reuters.

While thousands of buildings have been swallowed by the lava, leaving thousands without a place to live, and some banana crops that are crucial to the island's economy have been destroyed, experts say volcanic activity is actually vital for the survival of the island itself.

"If this didn't happen, the islands would be completely eroded by the sea. We wouldn't have a place to live. So, while it is destructive and traumatic, it is a constructive process. The island is expanding and growing," Carmen Solana told NPR. Solana is a volcanologist at the University of Portsmouth and grew up in the Canary Islands.

Experts say prolonged eruptions are not unusual for the region, which was formed by volcanic activity millions of years ago. Solana says the kind of prolonged eruptions like the one underway on La Palma can typically last between one and three months.

The lengthy eruption continues to disrupt operations at the La Palma Airport, located on the eastern coast of the island. The airport was shut down last weekend after ash buried the runway, leaving some passengers stranded on the island and forcing others to take a ferry to nearby islands.

The airport resumed operations on Thursday after the ash was cleaned, but officials cautioned the continued presence of the ash cloud in the atmosphere could still disrupt operations of individual airlines.

On Friday, a new fissure opened up on the volcano and ash once again covered the airport, shutting down operations.

La Palma volcano, live updates today: eruption, tsunami warning and latest news | Canary Island

AS USA

Update 26 November 2021

Cumbre Vieja volcano: latest news

Headlines

- New lava flow from fresh fissure has "almost stopped", La Palma local government says

- Canary Islands regional premier promises more homes for those displaced by eruption

- Lockdown lifted in La Palma

- All flights to and from La Palma remain suspended on Friday

- Optimism that La Palma airport will be able to operate on Saturday

- Cumbre Vieja rated at alert level 3

- First V-VI intensity earthquake recorded on La Palma

- Cumbre Vieja eruption has been active for over two months, having started on 19 September

Useful information

- AS speaks to expert in volcanology about the effects of lava reaching the sea

- The lowdown on the active volcanoes on the Canary Islands

- Where are most volcanoes found on Earth

REST IN POWER
Oregon-born gray wolf dies after 'epic' California trek


FILE - This February 2021 released by California Department of Fish and Wildlife, shows a gray wolf OR93, near Yosemite, Calif. An Oregon-born gray wolf that thrilled biologists as it journeyed far south into California was found dead after apparently being struck by a vehicle, authorities said Wednesday, Nov. 24, 2021. No foul play was suspected in the death of the male wolf known as OR93, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said in a press release.

 (California Department of Fish and Wildlife via AP, File)More

Wed, November 24, 2021,


SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — An Oregon-born gray wolf that thrilled biologists as it journeyed far south into California was found dead after apparently being struck by a vehicle, authorities said Wednesday.

No foul play was suspected in the death of the male wolf known as OR93, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said in a news release. Gray wolves are listed as endangered in California, where they were wiped out by the 1920s.

“Before his demise, he was documented traveling the farthest south in California since wolves returned to the state, which is historically wolf habitat. The last documented wolf that far south was captured in San Bernardino County in 1922,” the department said.

A truck driver reported spotting the dead wolf on Nov. 10 near the Kern County town of Lebec, about 75 miles (120 kilometers) northwest of downtown Los Angeles.

The carcass was located along a dirt trail near a frontage road running parallel to Interstate 5, and a warden who responded quickly identified the wolf as OR93 because of a radio tracking collar it wore, the department said.

A necropsy performed at Wildlife Health Laboratory in Rancho Cordova found that the wolf had significant tissue trauma to its left rear leg, a dislocated knee and soft tissue trauma to the abdomen.

OR93 was born to the White River pack in northern Oregon in 2019. He went into California’s Modoc County on Jan. 30, 2021, returned to Oregon briefly, then again entered California on Feb. 4 and headed south.

His last collar transmission was from the central coast’s San Luis Obispo County on April 5. By then he had traveled at least 935 miles (1,505 kilometers) in California, the wildlife department said.

OR93 was among a small number of gray wolves that have begun coming to California from other states.

“I’m devastated to learn of the death of this remarkable wolf, whose epic travels across California inspired the world,” Amaroq Weiss, senior wolf advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement.

“In this annual time of reflection, I thank him for the hope he gave us and for a brief glimpse into what it would be like for wolves to roam wild and free again,” Weiss said.

Flight PS752 tragedy: Passengers on doomed plane used as 'human shield', Iran tampered with electronic devices, new report says

MANY WERE CANADIAN IRANIANS


KIEV, UKRAINE - 2021/01/08: Relatives and colleagues seen during the ceremony at the site of the future monument. In memory of the victims of the flight PS752 on the first anniversary of the plane crash. Boeing 737-800 passenger plane flight PS752 of Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) crashed near the International Airport of Imam Khomeini in Tehran, Iran, shortly after taking off on January 8, 2020. All 176 people on board the airliner died. Among them 11 Ukrainians - two passengers and nine crew members. Passengers of the airliner were citizens of Iran, Canada, Sweden, Afghanistan, Germany, and Great Britain. (Photo by Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)More

Elisabetta Bianchini
Thu, November 25, 2021,

A newly released report from the Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims claims the Iranian government deliberately did not close the airspace to civilian flights, using passenger flights to "shield against possible American attacks."

At the highest levels of military alertness, the government of Iran used passenger flights as human shield against possible American attacks, by deliberately not closing the airspace to civilian flights.Report by Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims

On Jan. 8, 2020, 176 people on board the Ukrainian Airlines flight, including 55 Canadians and 30 permanent residents, were killed when the plane was shot down by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard after taking off from the Tehran airport.

KIEV, UKRAINE - 2021/01/08: Portraits of dead passengers and pilots displayed on a large screen during the ceremony at the site of the future monument. In memory of the victims of the flight PS752 on the first anniversary of the plane crash. Boeing 737-800 passenger plane flight PS752 of Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) crashed near the International Airport of Imam Khomeini in Tehran, Iran, shortly after taking off on January 8, 2020. All 176 people on board the airliner died. Among them 11 Ukrainians - two passengers and nine crew members. Passengers of the airliner were citizens of Iran, Canada, Sweden, Afghanistan, Germany, and Great Britain.

 (Photo by Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Claims of tampering with electronic devices

The new report claims that electronics were deliberately tampered with, including missing memory cards.

"The bent electronics have raised questions and concerns among several families," the report states. "One likely explanation is that these electronics may have been bulldozed over in an attempt to destroy any potential evidence that victims recorded in the last minutes of their lives."

"Bulldozing the crash site and not delivering many electronic devices of passengers and flight crew clearly demonstrate the government of Iran’s attempts to systematically conceal the downing of flight PS752."

Examination of four devices showed damages that were "inconsistent with damages caused by a sudden and hard impact."

"The fact that these memory/data components are missing is not consistent with damage caused by a sudden and hard impact," the findings from former Toronto police homicide detective, Mark Mendelson, whose consulting firm examined electronic devices, reads.

"Moreover, the fact that screws were removed and covers pried open strongly suggests that concerted efforts were made to extract these components, rendering a review of data impossible."

The report goes on to claim that DNA testing on some victims' bodies did not align with the stated identification by Iranian authorities.

"This neglectfulness on the part of the government of Iran has had serious psychological consequences for families, some of whom did not receive the whole bodies of their loved ones and were given the remains of other victims instead," the report reads.

The report highlights that Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corp operator of the missile system that shot down the plane had "vast experience" with these systems and it is "difficult to imagine that the operator could not distinguish between an alleged cruise missile and PS752."

It also states that it is "highly unlikely" that the missile system operator "could not distinguish the aircraft from a cruise missile, as claimed by Iran."

"It is implausible that the missile system operator simply confused a much larger civilian aircraft, moving in more gradual patterns and at a slower speed, for a cruise missile," the report reads.

'We need urgent actionable support'

The Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims has been calling for domestic and international investigations, and continues to urge the Canadian government to facilitate a clarification of what happened on Jan. 8, 2020 with the necessary legal and political actions.

“The findings of our report reinforce why we need urgent actionable support and help from governments to facilitate the clarification and truth about what happened that led to the downing of Flight PS752,” a statement from Hamed Esmaeilion, president and spokesperson of the association, reads.

“It’s clear that this tragedy cannot be referred to as just a horrific combination of coincidences. Among logistical findings, the systematic concealment of the root cause of the crash, the destruction of evidence at the crash site, and Iran's vague and misleading reports, all indicate that the downing of Flight PS752 was deliberate.”

In collaboration with the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights (RWCHR), a joint submission has been filed with the UN to appoint an impartial fact-finding mission into the downing of Flight PS752.

“As we approach the two-year anniversary of the downing of Flight PS752, Iran continues to conceal evidence and do everything in their power to silence the victims and shield officials from accountability,” a statement from Honourable Irwin Cotler, RWCHR Chair and former Justice Minister of Canada.

“The report’s comprehensive body of evidence provides the necessary grounds to open domestic and international criminal investigations to bring the high-level perpetrators to justice.”

DRC
Flood damage exposes Kinshasa's unbridled urbanisation




Unplanned urbanisation and a lack of maintenance have caused roads

 to collapse in Kinshasa during the rainy season (AFP/ALEXIS HUGUET)

Marthe BOSUANDOLE
Fri, November 26, 2021, 7:05 AM·3 min read

The water transformed a main road into a ravine. It gutted homes, exposing their innards to the world. It left a school playground teetering on the edge of a precipice.

These images come from Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where a population influx combined with scant urban planning has exposed many poor people to the impacts of extreme weather.

Millions of people have moved into the city in recent years, although the exact numbers are unknown as no census has been conducted for more than 30 years.

According to some estimates, the city is home to at least 12 million people, a doubling in two decades, out of a national population of some 90 million.

Many have built homes in areas where there has been little planning oversight, especially on hillsides where drains and channels are needed to cope with runoff during the rainy season.

In November 2019, forty Kinshasans died after heavy rains caused flooding and landslides -- but two years later, the problems posed by extreme rainfall remain.

A woman and a boy look through the collapsed wall of a house after a landslide in Kinshasa (AFP/ALEXIS HUGUET)

- Abyss -

At the top of a cliff in Kinshasa's southern district of Mont-Ngafula, disused water pipes hang in a void and residents must battle through a gully of shifting sand to reach the neighbouring district.

Floodwater dug out an asphalt avenue, replacing it with an abyss at least 15 metres (50 feet) deep, separating the University of Kinshasa from a Jesuit-run library, one of the biggest in Africa.

Widowed mother-of-seven Esperance Tsimba, 57, saw the earth swallow her shop and livelihood as the rains fell.

"I lost my business. Since then, it has been hard to send my children to school", she said.

Local residents are building dykes to protect their homes, piling up sandbags in the hope of slowing the landslide and diverting rainwater flows.

They staged a protest to demand action from the authorities, blocking Highway 1, which crosses the town, said resident Magloire Kangondi.

The authorities sent in a Chinese-owned construction vehicle, which has started to smooth out the sand on the road downstream.

But locals are worried that work will stop at a temporary fix, and not address the underlying problem.

"This isn't the first time that they've repaired the road -- it's been done several times without success," said Sylvain Nsumbu, headmaster of a primary school whose wall had fallen into the abyss.

Nsumbu said children as young as four had to cross the ravine to attend a kindergarten and that some parents even preferred not to send their offspring to school.

Christel Bulembi, an environment management specialist and community leader in the neighbourhood of Ngansele, said the solution was for the authorities to dig at least one rainwater retention pit to minimise the damage caused by runoff onto the road.

The state "must accept its responsibilities" by having allowed the neighbourhood to urbanise, and would win the local population's support by doing so, Bulembi suggested.

mbb/bmb/at/imm/ri

IMAGINE THIS IN ALBERTA

Oil gushing from Nigerian wellhead blasts hopes of those living nearby

#ECOCIDE

A view of an oil spill from a well head is pictured at Santa Barbara, in Nembe, Bayelsa

Fri, November 26, 2021,
By Tife Owolabi

NEMBE, Nigeria (Reuters) - Three weeks after the Santa Barbara wellhead failed, it is still blasting water, gas and oil across Nembe in Nigeria's Delta, littering the shoreline and water with yellow-brown clumps of waste as cleanup crews and booms struggle to contain it.

Santa Barbara wellhead owner Aiteo Eastern E&P, the petroleum minister and Nigeria's president have all promised that specialist workers would quickly stop the spill.

But experts say the difficulties containing it are a reminder of how the once-fertile, fish-filled creeks, mangrove swamps and waterways that crisscross Nigeria's Delta became some of the most polluted areas on the planet amid decades of energy exploration.

"The crayfish that I sell for a living, now they are all dead," said Afieyegha Seiyefa, showing her oil-covered hands after reaching into the water where just a few weeks ago she could fish for a living. "We cannot get anything."

Aiteo has said the high pressure of the leak made access to the wellhead difficult. In a statement on Friday, it said Halliburton subsidiary Boots and Coots would contain the leak within days and was mopping up oil with booms and barges.

Oil gushing from Nigerian wellhead blasts hopes of those living nearbyOil slick is seen on Santa Barbara creek, following an oil spill in Nembe Bayelsa

Environment minister Sharon Ikeazor told journalists this week that the government was considering tougher penalties for firms involved in spills.

Aiteo bought the Santa Barbara well from oil major Royal Dutch Shell in 2015.

Some locals and environmental activists had hoped domestic companies, with closer ties to the region, would be more effective in preventing spills. But local ownership is little comfort to Benson Daniel, the community development chairman of the Sandsand Fishing Settlement.

"We can't even cook in our house because we are scared we may start a fire," he said of the gas smell that permeates the air.

People living in the creeks around the Santa Barbara well say tougher regulatory action cannot come soon enough.

"People that are suffering in the area… they cannot do anything," Kelcy Agbenido, a youth leader for the Nembe-Bassambiri community, told Reuters.

(Reporting By Tife Owolabi, additional reporting by Temilade Adelaja; Writing by Libby George. Editing by Gerry Doyle)

Members of Nembe community paddle a canoe across Santa Barbara, following an oil spill in Santa Barbara, Nembe Bayelsa

Tesla’s Texas Battery Bet Costs Carmaker $1.3 Billion German Aid



Stefan Nicola and Arne Delfs
Fri, November 26, 2021

(Bloomberg) --

Tesla Inc. will forgo 1.14 billion euros ($1.3 billion) of state aid for the factory it’s building in Germany because it has decided to try to produce a new type of battery cell at scale in Texas first, a person familiar with the matter said.

The U.S. automaker has been working on so-called 4680 battery cells at a site near its car plant in Fremont, California. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said last year that after the company proved it could make them on a pilot assembly line there, it would manufacture them at scale at the factory it’s been constructing outside Berlin.

This made Tesla eligible to receive public funds from Germany as part of the European Union’s Important Project of Common European Interest initiative, which backs first industrial deployments of battery projects in member states. Now that Tesla has shifted gears and is further along producing 4680 cells at its factory under construction in Austin, Texas, it is no longer eligible for the money, according to the person, who asked not to be identified discussing private information.

Tesla informed German authorities it won’t tap the support package, Beate Baron, a spokesperson for the country’s Economy Ministry, said earlier Friday. She didn’t discuss the reason for the decision.

“It has always been Tesla’s view that all subsidies should be eliminated, but that must include the massive subsidies for oil & gas,” Musk tweeted after the ministry’s announcement. “For some reason, governments don’t want to do that …”

Musk, who also runs rocket maker Space Exploration Technologies Corp., has bristled for years at detractors faulting him for taking advantage of government support. Examples of this include the U.S. loan that helped Tesla get the Model S sedan into production, which the company paid back early. SpaceX is a major contractor for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and U.S. Defense Department.

After his initial post, Musk revisited a three-and-a-half-year-old exchange with another Twitter user who criticized Tesla and SpaceX’s use of subsidies.

“Combined Tesla+SpaceX market cap is now over $1.2T,” wrote Musk, who then took issue again with a figure mentioned in a May 2018 Twitter thread. Tesla shares fell 3.1% on Friday.

Tesla has almost completed construction of an EV factory in the small town of Gruenheide, southeast of the German capital, and also plans to manufacture battery cells at the site.

While Musk wants to start assembling Tesla Model Ys in Gruenheide before the end of the year, local authorities still haven’t granted final approval for the project.

Germany’s Economy Ministry estimates that Tesla is investing around 5 billion euros in Gruenheide. Der Tagesspiegel newspaper reported Tesla’s decision earlier on Friday.

Musk, 50, is the world’s richest person with a $304.4 billion fortune, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He’s added $134.7 billion to his net worth this year, more than double the next-biggest gain in the index.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

Most plastic recycling produces low-value materials – but we've found a way to turn a common plastic into high-value molecules


Susannah Scott, Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, University of California Santa Barbara
Fri, November 26, 2021, 

Bales of plastic waste destined for recycling. Koron/Getty Images

If you thought those flimsy disposable plastic grocery bags represented most of our plastic waste problem, think again. The volume of plastic the world throws away every year could rebuild the Ming Dynasty’s Great Wall of China – about 3,700 miles long.

In the six decades that plastic has been manufactured for commercial uses, more than 8.3 billion metric tons have been produced. Plastics are light, versatile, cheap and nearly indestructible (as long as they don’t get too hot). These properties make them incredibly useful in an enormous range of applications that includes sterile food packaging, energy-efficient transportation, textiles and medical protective gear. But their indestructible nature comes at a cost. Most of them decompose extremely slowly in the environment – on the order of several hundred years – where they are creating a global epidemic of plastic trash. Its consequences for human and ecosystem health are still incompletely known, but are potentially momentous.

I am a chemist with experience in designing processes for making plastics, and I became interested in using plastic as a large, untapped resource for energy and materials. I wondered if we could turn plastic waste into something more valuable to keep it out of landfills and the natural environment.

A new way to use plastic waste

Plastics are made by stringing together a large number of small, carbon-based molecules in an almost infinite variety of ways to create polymer chains.

To reuse these polymers, recycling facilities could, in principle, melt and reshape them, but plastics’ properties tend to deteriorate. The resulting materials are almost never suitable for their original use, although they can be used to make lower-value stuff like plastic lumber. The result is a very low effective rate of recycling.

A new approach involves breaking the long chains down into small molecules again. The challenge is how to do this in a precise way.

Since the process of making the chains in the first place releases a lot of energy, reversing it requires adding a large amount of energy back in. Generally this means heating up the material to a high temperature – but heating up plastic causes the stuff to turn into a nasty mess. It also wastes a lot of energy, meaning more greenhouse gas emissions.

My team at UC Santa Barbara, working with colleagues at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Cornell, discovered a clean way to turn polyethylene into useful smaller molecules.

Polyethylene is one of the world’s most useful and most used plastic types. It is also one of the largest contributors to plastic waste. It represents a third of the nearly 400 million metric tons of plastic the world makes every year, for purposes ranging from sterile food and medical packaging, waterproof films and coatings, cable and wire insulation, construction materials and water pipes, to wear-resistant hip and knee replacements and even bulletproof vests.
How the new process works


The process we have developed does not require high temperatures, but instead depends on tiny amounts of a catalyst containing a metal that removes a little hydrogen from the polymer chain. The catalyst then uses this hydrogen to cut the bonds that hold the carbon chain together, making smaller pieces.

The key is using the hydrogen as soon as it forms so that the chain-cutting provides the energy for making more hydrogen. This process is repeated many times for each chain, turning the solid polymer into a liquid.

The chopping slows down naturally when the molecules reach a certain size, so it’s easy to prevent the molecules from becoming too small. We’re able to recover the valuable liquid before it turns into less useful gases.

A majority of the molecules in the recovered liquid are alkylbenzenes, which are useful as solvents and can easily be turned into detergents. The global market for this type of molecule is about US billion annually.

Turning waste plastic into valuable molecules is called upcycling. Although our study represented a small-scale demonstration, a preliminary economic analysis suggests that it could easily be adapted to become a much larger-scale process in the next few years. Keeping plastic out of the environment by reusing it in a way that makes good economic sense is a win-win.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Susannah Scott, University of California Santa Barbara.

Read more:

If you recycled all the plastic garbage in the world, you could buy the NFL, Apple and Microsoft

The world’s plastic problem is bigger than the ocean

COVID-19 has resurrected single-use plastics – are they back to stay?

Susannah Scott receives funding from the US Department of Energy, Mitsubishi Chemical, and Dow Chemical, for her work in polymer upcycling. She is a coinventor on a US patent application related to this discovery, filed by the University of California.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
‘Their goal is to bleed owners dry.’ $34 million victory in Florida HOA lawsuit is rare, experts say

Trevor Fraser, Orlando Sentinel
Wed, November 24, 2021

When Martin Kessler moved to the Solivita development in Poinciana, Florida in 2008, he says he quickly realized it was a big mistake. This was the first place the 97-year-old had ever lived with a homeowners association.

“Living in an HOA is not really a pleasant thing for a resident,” Kessler said. A retired economist, he said the fee he was required to pay was “a capitalist’s perfect dream of a business. People must join whether they like it or not, and they pay all the expenses of the business.”

Kessler is among more than 5,000 members of the 55-plus community locked in a class action lawsuit since 2017 against Solivita developer Avatar Properties, which they allege improperly collected HOA fees. On Nov. 2, Polk County, Florida, Circuit Judge Wayne Durden awarded the residents $34.8 million.

“That’s the biggest award I’ve ever heard of,” said Harvella Jones, president of the National Homeowners Advocate Group. Based in Texas, Jones’ organization specializes in helping people fight HOAs and lobbies for homeowner protections. “We get calls from all over the country, but no one has ever reported to us a win as large as (Solivita).”

Experts agree that fighting HOAs is hard for residents and big wins are even rarer. In Florida, HOAs govern more than 44% of the population, according to research by analysts at iProperty Management.

With fees that can reach into the thousands of dollars from an estimated 3.5 million homes in the state, HOAs can make lawsuits long and costly for residents.

“Their goal is to bleed owners dry,” said Jan Bergemann, president of Cyber Citizens for Justice, a homeowner’s advocacy group based in DeLand. “They will hit you with motion after motion, tie it up for years.”

HOAs are infamous for limiting what signs can go up yards, raising free speech issues. They sometimes even ban basketball goals or other sports equipment from yards or tell residents how many cars they can have. A Florida HOA was accused this month of threatening a family with a $100 a day fine for putting up Christmas lights too early.

Avatar, which was purchased by homebuilder Taylor Morrison in 2018, developed Solivita and other communities in Poinciana in the early 2000s. Avatar also built amenities such as pools and clubhouses. When the time came to turn management of the community over to the Poinciana Community Development District, Avatar wanted to sell them to the community for $73 million.

But there was a problem. A certified appraiser said the amenities were only worth about a quarter of that.

“I was immediately against it. It was the most stupid thing in the world,” Kessler said.

Avatar based its number on the future value of a roughly $86 a month club fee they were charging, said attorney Carter Andersen of Bush Ross in Tampa, who represented the residents. That fee, the lawsuit alleged, was illegal. Residents couldn’t opt out of it and could even have their homes foreclosed upon for nonpayment.

Taylor Morrison, who has handled the defense in this case since acquiring Avatar, did not return requests for comment for this story.

Andersen said the $34 million figure is only the beginning. He estimates another $27 million in pre-judgment interest, and at least $4 million in fees collected this year that were not added to the ruling.

There will also be, Andersen estimates, $5 million to $10 million in attorneys’ fees for the two firms that represented the residents. The case was taken on a contingency with no retainer from the residents, which means it was a gamble for the lawyers who fought for it.

Bergemann says it’s rare to find attorneys who will take such a complicated case without some assurance of payment. “Unfortunately, wins [such as Solivita] would be very common if the owners had the money,” he said.

Bergemann says he’s spoken to attorneys who want thousands of dollars just to get building documents residents should be able to see anyway. “And who just has that?” he said.

Jones said another problem residents face is harassment for speaking up, which she says happens when residents don’t act together. “You can’t have one or two people taking the brunt of everything,” she said.

For Jones, much of the problem is a lack of government oversight. She says many HOA board members cling to their power.

“Even when we have rules about elections, they still won’t hold [to] them,” she said. “If you can’t get rid of them, that’s the main problem.”

Jones got started fighting a homeowners association in the 1990s when she lost her Texas home for nonpayment of HOA fees. “They take advantage of foreclosures, which is why they should be regulated,” she said.

Although Andersen says the Solivita case is likely to be appealed by the developer, Bergemann said wins such as Solivita’s are important because they can create a domino effect leading to more victories for homeowners around the state.

“Homeowners have rights but they often aren’t being enforced,” he said. “[HOAs] don’t want decisions coming down for homeowners.”

The win gives hope to people such as Slade Chelbian, a resident of the Bellalago community in Poinciana, also built by Avatar.

Chelbian has been a plaintiff in a class-action suit for the same activity that led to the Solivita suit since 2019.

“This was great news in the fight to stop this sort of action,” Chelbian wrote in an email. “This makes me believe we can win this action in court.”

For Chelbian, winning would mean an end to the fee he’s been challenging.

“Defeat is the status quo,” which he said is, “paying the developer a mandatory ‘for profit’ fee forever. That is not fair.”