Shortbelly rockfish an example of fishery management under climate change

Katie Frankowicz, The Daily Astorian, Ore.
Mon, December 6, 2021

Dec. 6—A small, spiny fish no one wants to catch has started to appear in trawl nets off the Oregon Coast.

Shortbelly rockfish are common off California but were rare in Oregon until recently. Boosted by several strong reproductive years, their apparent expansion into new territory triggered a discussion among West Coast fishery regulators and raised concerns for conservation groups.

It has also provided a working example of exactly how tricky it could be to manage fisheries as species and ocean conditions shift under climate change.


Shortbelly rockfish — a relatively shorter-lived type of groundfish that travels in large schools — has little market value. It has been decades since anyone even seemed interested in developing a fishery around them and they are not in danger of being overfished, state biologists say.

When the shortbelly rockfish is caught by accident in other fisheries, its only commercial use is as fishmeal or fish oil, products made from fish byproducts, low-value fish and fishery bycatch that are used as fertilizers and animal feed and in aquaculture.

But shortbelly rockfish is a critical source of food for many seabirds, which face challenging overall population declines, as well as for Chinook salmon and other marine species.

The shortbelly's expansion north puts them in the path of the state's midwater trawl fisheries. The Pacific whiting fishery began to record increased encounters with shortbelly rockfish beginning in 2017.

Most tows that snag shortbelly may only land around 10 pounds of the rockfish, but every once in a while there will be a big tow — a lightning strike — of over 100,000 pounds.

Triggered a review

The rising number of shortbelly landings triggered a review by the Pacific Fishery Management Council.

The council, which recommends fishery management measures in federal waters off California, Oregon and Washington state, took several interim steps in 2019 and 2020 to protect the fish. They raised the annual catch limit and designated the rockfish as an ecosystem component species, a title that recognizes shortbelly's value in the ecosystem as a forage fish but does not come with specific fishery management measures.

Conservation groups argued that more proactive protection was needed.

The Audubon Society and Oceana urged for a prohibition that would prevent the creation of a fishery targeting shortbelly rockfish.

Right now, shortbelly is nearly useless to fishermen. Vessels in the Pacific whiting fishery actively try to avoid them. When a vessel does hit a school of shortbelly, the spiny fish tangle in the net, creating frustrating work for crew and sometimes damaging more valuable fish around them.

But as interest in aquaculture opportunities and demand for fishmeal and fish oil grows, conservation groups worry about what the future could hold.

In November, the council further limited catch of the fish and could consider examining a prohibition on a directed fishery for shortbelly next year.

It's a partial win, said Joe Liebezeit, a scientist and avian conservation manager for Portland Audubon.

Anna Weinstein, the director of marine conservation with the National Audubon Society, agrees. She said the council's action provides some truly meaningful safeguards and breaks.

But in light of climate change, "It's just more important than ever to be proactive about the foundation of the food chain that supports all the species we care about," Weinstein said.

The council does not want to see targeted fishing on shortbelly rockfish either. However, a prohibition takes work and would require extensive analysis of data, some of which is not readily available for shortbelly. There has not been a stock assessment of the fish since 2007.

"It seems like we should just be able to say, 'Thou shalt not go out and target shortbelly rockfish,'" said Maggie Sommer, with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, and a Pacific Fishery Management Council member.

It's not that easy. Fishery managers need to be clear about what they are requiring and what they are enforcing. They need to understand how changing management for one species might impact and impede other fisheries.

It isn't clear yet why shortbelly rockfish are so abundant off the Oregon Coast now — though warmer ocean waters associated with a marine heat wave that began in 2015 are likely a factor. What is obvious is that shortbelly rockfish have experienced several very good reproductive years and expanded north of their historical range.

Caren Braby, the marine program manager with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, has been involved in council discussions about various climate change scenarios for West Coast fisheries.

With shortbelly, she sees parallels to Oregon's emerging market squid fishery.

Landings of market squid surged off Oregon in the past five years after decades of being almost nonexistent. Boats that fish for the squid in the animals' more typical range off the California coast have headed north to take advantage of the boom.

The situation caught regulators off guard. Oregon had no established quota and no set season for market squid. Suddenly, as landings continued to come in strong and the number of participating vessels increased, fishery managers needed to discuss a whole new suite of management details.

As with shortbelly, there are gaps in the data and uncertainty about how new management could impact fisheries or benefit the animals in question.

Dilemma

It is the kind of dilemma council members like Braby expect to see more of under climate change and it further highlights the need to be nimble and flexible, she said. With climate change and shifting ocean conditions, some species will thrive and others will fail. Many are expected to move into new areas.

There is one really easy question, Braby says: "Are we going to see new species emerge in our landings?"

"And the answer," she said, "is, 'Certainly.' This is an example."

"So the question really becomes are we prepared with our management to lose species?" she added. "Are we prepared with our management to gain species? And the answer is, 'Not yet,' but we're thinking really hard about it."

After Rittenhouse verdict, advocates demand justice for Chrystul Kizer



Char Adams
Mon, December 6, 2021

Wisconsin’s self-defense law led to Kyle Rittenhouse's acquittal on homicide charges, sparking protests across the state and the country. Now, advocates are calling for justice for a child sex trafficking survivor in the state, holding that if Rittenhouse could successfully claim self-defense, then she can, too.

A group of demonstrators gathered this month at Kenosha’s Civic Center Park to protest the Rittenhouse verdict and highlight the case of Chrystul Kizer, who is awaiting trial on charges of killing her alleged sex trafficker three years ago, when she was 17. She says she shot him in self defense.

Kizer is charged with five felonies, including first-degree intentional homicide, for killing Randall Volar III. Her attorneys say she lashed out after years of abuse, and Kizer has said she was underage when he sexually assaulted her.

“My heart and my concern is with Chrystul Kizer. She is not forgotten,” one protester, Lorna Revere, said Sunday, according to The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “The anger that hits all people, Black people, white people, that are concerned about the racism that this country faces, is like — it just stabs you in the chest time and time and time again.”

A jury this month found Rittenhouse, 18, not guilty of all charges in the fatal shootings of Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and the wounding of Gaige Grosskreutz, 27, during protests last summer in Kenosha over the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, by a white police officer.

Prosecutors said Rittenhouse was an aggressor, traveling from his Illinois home to Kenosha with plans to add to the chaos in the city. But Rittenhouse’s attorneys argued that he went to Kenosha to protect businesses amid the August 2020 protests and was defending himself from attackers. The jury accepted the self-defense claim. According to Wisconsin law, “a person is privileged to threaten or intentionally use force against another for the purpose of preventing or terminating what the person reasonably believes to be an unlawful interference with his or her person by such other person.”

Following the Rittenhouse verdict, demonstrators chanted Kizer’s name along with the names of the men Rittenhouse shot as they marched through the downtown area to protest the acquittal, according to the Journal Sentinel. Social media users have also called for justice for Kizer, comparing her case to Rittenhouse’s.

Kizer was held in jail until June 2020, when several groups raised $400,000 for her bail. Her attorneys are invoking a state law known as “affirmative defense,” which means Kizer’s act was a “direct result” of her having been a victim of sex trafficking. An appellate court ruled that Kizer may be able to use the defense, according to Kenosha News, and the state Supreme Court is now reviewing that decision. This particular self-defense argument has never been used before in a homicide case in Wisconsin, according to NPR.

Julius Kim, an attorney in Wisconsin and a former prosecutor, said the Rittenhouse case used a “more traditional self-defense claim” than Kizer’s because video showed him in “imminent danger.”

“The reason the state balked at this particular use of affirmative defense is, they’re saying they don’t think that affirmative defense should apply to first-degree intentional homicide cases because that sets off a dangerous precedent,” Kim said. “What they’re saying is if someone commits a first-degree intentional homicide but shows some evidence they committed as a direct result of trafficking, that essentially gives people a license to kill their traffickers.”

Kim added: “I understand why supporters of Chrystul Kizer feel like Chrystul Kizer should be allowed to avail herself to the affirmative defense that she wants to … A lot of people are watching this case because they want to see whether it’s going to have implications for other” affirmative defense cases.

The Kenosha County district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Kizer was 17 when she shot Volar in the head and set his home on fire before stealing his car in June 2018. Kizer said she met Volar, then 34, through Backpage — a now-shuttered sex ads website — and he sold her to men for sex. Kizer said Volar had been filming his abuse of her since she was 16 and she acted in self-defense after he pinned her to the floor when she refused to have sex with him. Prosecutors have argued that Kizer simply wanted to steal Volar’s car. But in a 2019 Washington Post interview from jail, Kizer said that she shot Volar in self-defense.

It was later revealed by The Washington Post that both prosecutors and Kenosha police had evidence that Volar, who is white, had abused Kizer and other underage Black girls. Just months before his death, a 15-year-old girl accused him of drugging and threatening to kill her, according to the Post. And police found exploitative videos of Volar abusing girls who appeared as young as 12, the Post reported.

Kizer’s attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Before last summer’s George Floyd protests renewed interest in Kizer’s case, advocacy groups had been working to release her. An online petition to free Kizer has amassed more than 1.4 million signatures and, along with advocates, Tarana Burke, founder of the #MeToo movement, and actor Alyssa Milano voiced their support for Kizer online. Several advocacy groups, including the Chicago Community Bond Fund, Survived & Punished, the Chrystul Kizer Defense Committee, and the Milwaukee Freedom Fund, raised her $400,00 bail, according to WITI.

“It was only because of the outpouring of support following the police murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and so many other Black people in the United States that we were able to post a bond this large,” Sharlyn Grace, former executive director of the Chicago Community Bond Fund, told Wisconsin Public Radio last year.

Kizer is one of many “criminalized survivors,” people imprisoned for killing or injuring their alleged abusers. Cyntoia Brown spent 15 years in prison for killing a man who solicited her for sex when she was 16. Marissa Alexander was convicted of aggravated assault in 2010 for firing a warning shot in her Florida home to scare off her allegedly abusive estranged husband. In New York, advocates are demanding that authorities drop all charges against Tracy McCarter, who faces 25 years to life in prison for killing her estranged husband.

“The reality is that Chrystul Kizer was not kept safe by police and prosecution and incarceration," Grace said. "And, in fact, after she was forced to defend herself and she chose to survive, she was then further harmed by those systems.”

CORRECTION (Dec. 6, 2021, 10:49 a.m. ET): A previous version of this article misstated when Kyle Rittenhouse had the AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle used in the Kenosha shootings. Rittenhouse acquired the weapon in Wisconsin, it was revealed at his trial; he did not leave his home in Illinois with it.

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Patagonia calls out corporate sector that is ‘full of s***’ on climate crisis: ‘There’s a special place in hell’




Sravasti Dasgupta
Tue, December 7, 2021

Patagonia CEO Ryan Gellert has called out big businesses for their alleged duplicity on the climate crisis as well as their opposition to the Biden administration’s ambitious Build Back Better Act.

“The [corporate] sector has historically been full of s***, and the sector is still full of s***,” Mr Gellert told Fast Company on Monday.

“They all say they’re all in on climate to their customers and to their employees, and the members of those two groups—and I’ve seen the strategy docs, so this isn’t rumor or innuendo—are actively seeking to undermine the current package from the Biden administration, which includes really ambitious climate commitments,” he added.

Mr Gellert, 48, who was named CEO of the California-based outdoor clothing company in September 2020, said that his focus was on the Senate vote on the Build Back Better Act, including how major corporations have reacted to it.

Last month, the House of Representatives voted to approve the $1.75 trillion (£1.3 trillion) bill. The bill includes the largest-ever investment costs for climate change with goals like bringing greenhouse gas emissions at least 50 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, earmarking $70 billion to upgrade the electricity grid, and $7.5 billion to build a network of electric vehicle charging stations.

It will now go to the Senate, where it faces opposition from the Republicans.

Big business like the American Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable have sharpened their attack on the bill recently. They are trying to lobby House Democrats saying the bill needs a closer budget analysis.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk too said on Monday that the bill adds to the Federal budget deficit and would end up with the government incentivising only certain businesses.

But climate experts and industry analysts alike have celebrated the Build Back Better Act—which invests billions in fighting environmental racism, handing out climate block grants, reducing pollution in ports, and funding a Civilian Climate Corps—as an important step in meeting US international commitments to maintaining a habitable climate amid global heating.

Mr Gellert said that he has no patience for corporate giants that have opposed the bill on the basis of corporate taxes. On one hand, these corporations talk about sustainability, but on the other, they undermine it by staying away from large investments to deal with climate crisis, he said. “That is a huge issue.”

“Where I come down on it is, define for me what you mean when you say ‘all in’ [on climate]. Because you’re saying that and then hiding over here, and it’s bulls***. There’s a special place in hell for people doing that. It’s the kind of thing that has to change.”

Patagonia is known for supporting progressive issues. In 2018, founder Yvon Chouinard changed the company’s mission statement to “Patagonia is in the business of saving our home planet.”

In October, the company renewed calls to major corporate firms to boycott social media giant Facebook which, it said, must “prioritise people and planet over profit”. It had first started boycotting the platform in 2020 amid concerns that it “spread hate speech and misinformation about climate change and our democracy”.

The company also announced in April this year that it would no longer put corporate logos on its apparel.

Musician Grimes wants Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant to stay open. ‘This is crisis mode’


Kaytlyn Leslie
Mon, December 6, 2021

Who had “Canadian electro-pop musician rallies to save nuclear power plant” on their 2021 bingo cards?

In a video shared by local clean energy advocates over the weekend, musician Grimes — known for tracks like “Visions” and “Oblivion” — voiced her support for keeping Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant open.

“California is in an energy and climate crisis, and closing Diablo Canyon will make us reliant on fossil fuels,” Grimes said in the quirky video, which also features a person sitting in the background reading a large red book and wearing dark sunglasses who never speaks. “This will push the state backwards instead of forwards in its goal to be 100% reliant on clean energy.”

It’s not as strange as one might think for the musician to weigh in on an environmental issue.

Grimes has previously said she wants “to make climate change fun” and in 2020 released a concept album loosely themed around an “anthropomorphic goddess of climate change.”

In her Diablo Canyon video, Grimes added that pushing the closure back by a decade, as was recommended in a recent Stanford and Massachusetts Institute of Technology study, would “help the state decarbonize faster, and make the transition to clean energy faster and cheaper.”

“This is crisis mode, and we should be using all the tools we have — especially the ones sitting right here in front of us,” she said before making something between a chef’s kiss and a mind blown gesture for the camera.

The video was shared with media outlets by a group of local clean energy advocates who held a rally in downtown San Luis Obispo on Saturday to keep the nuclear power plant open.

A “Save Clean Energy” rally held on Saturday, Dec. 4, 2021, in San Luis Obispo called for keeping Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant open. Group members walked a miniature blimp down Monterey Street.

More than 100 people gathered in front of the SLO County courthouse, under the banner of a “Save Clean Energy” rally.

Speakers at the event included Supervisor Dawn Ortiz-Legg — whose district includes Diablo Canyon. In the wake of the Stanford and MIT report, Ortiz-Legg partnered with fellow legislator Assemblyman Jordan Cunningham to explore ways to keep the plant open.

PG&E announced its plans to shutter the power plant back in 2016, saying it did not plan to renew its nuclear reactor licenses once they expired in 2024 and 2025.

The California Public Utilities Commission approved the joint proposal to close the plant in 2018, and PG&E has since begun preparing for decommissioning.

The company has repeatedly said it does not plan to reverse course on closing the plant, in spite of the recent revival in interest to keep it open, saying that California has been clear on its desire to transition away from nuclear energy across the state.

“As a regulated utility we’re required to follow the energy policies of the state of California. We are committed to California’s clean energy future,” PG&E spokeswoman Suzanne Hosn told The Sacramento Bee on Thursday. “That is our unwavering position.”

American Airlines Makes Additional Commitment to Sustainable Aviation Fuel

Mon, December 6, 2021, 1:41 PM·3 min read

New offtake agreement with Aemetis brings total SAF commitment to more than 120 million gallons

Northampton, MA --News Direct-- American Airlines

FORT WORTH, Texas, December 2, 2021 /3BL Media/ - American Airlines announced that it has finalized a new sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) offtake agreement with Aemetis. The agreement brings the airline’s total SAF commitment to more than 120 million gallons, a signal of the integral role SAF will play in American’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions and achieve its ambitious sustainability goals.

The airline’s agreement with Aemetis is the result of work with the oneworld® alliance, the first global airline alliance to commit to net-zero emissions by 2050 and to publish a pathway for doing so. oneworld is now the first global airline alliance to announce a SAF purchase.

“The American Airlines team is committed to reducing emissions from our operations, and sustainable aviation fuel is the cornerstone of our strategy in this decade,” said Doug Parker, Chairman and CEO of American. “We’re proud to join with our oneworld partners in supporting the growth of SAF through this agreement with Aemetis, and we’re eager to continue collaborating with like-minded partners to meet aviation’s climate challenge.”

American has agreed to take delivery of 16 million gallons of Aemetis SAF annually over a seven-year period beginning in 2024, with fuel delivered to San Francisco International Airport. The SAF will be blended with traditional jet fuel at a 40/60 ratio to align with international standards.

“American Airlines is demonstrating its leadership in the reduction of carbon emissions and improving air quality by using Aemetis Carbon Zero sustainable aviation fuel,” said Eric McAfee, the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Aemetis. “The Aemetis Carbon Zero plant under development at the former Army Ammunitions Plant in Riverbank, California, is designed to utilize zero carbon electricity, carbon negative hydrogen from waste wood and renewable oils along with CO2 sequestration to produce low carbon sustainable aviation fuel.”

American took its first delivery of SAF in mid-2020 and expects to use 9 million gallons by 2023. Additionally, American previously announced plans to purchase up to 10 million gallons of carbon-neutral SAF produced by Prometheus Fuels, which uses a novel process to make net-zero carbon transportation fuels.

American’s goal is to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, and the airline was the first in North America to commit to set a science-based intermediate target for the year 2035. Additionally, American was recently named to the Dow Jones Sustainability North America Index, the only passenger carrier to appear on the 2021 index. The company’s latest ESG Report features an updated analysis of the airline’s path to net-zero, showing a greater role for SAF than its previous analysis.

More information about American’s sustainability strategy is available at aa.com/sustainability.

About American Airlines GroupAmerican’s purpose is to care for people on life’s journey. Shares of American Airlines Group Inc. trade on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol AAL and the company’s stock is included in the S&P 500. Learn more about what’s happening at American by visiting news.aa.com and connect with American on Twitter @AmericanAir and at Facebook.com/AmericanAirlines.

View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from American Airlines on 3blmedia.com

View source version on newsdirect.com: https://newsdirect.com/news/american-airlines-makes-additional-commitment-to-sustainable-aviation-fuel-773399658

Mexican carnival fete mocks Spanish conquistadors with indigenous dance



Mon, December 6, 2021

The Mexican capital hosted a carnival on Saturday (Dec. 4) of indigenous dancers in traditional costumes to mock the excesses by the Spanish invaders during the colonial era.

“We come to participate to have a little bit of joy because it has been a long time we have saved ourselves and it seems that things are already going well,” said Omar Escalona, a participant.

Participants of the carnival, organized by the Ministry of Culture of the capital city, danced their way through the Plaza de Taxcoaque in the center of the capital and marched towards the Zócalo, the main square of the central city.

The dancers of the carnival festivities are traditionally called “chinelos.”

At least 20 groups attended the colorful and noisy procession with revelers dressed in long velvet robes, large palm hats, gloves, and bearded masks that emulate the Spanish rulers of the colony of New Spain, present-day México.

The “chinelos” wear costumes down to their feet. Their masks are topped with tall hats featuring multi-colored adornments and feathers.

“The clothing of the chinelo represents a mockery of what Spanish is. They had to cover their faces so as not to be discovered,” Escalona said.

Iván Reyes, leader of one of the carnival troupe, said the tradition was born in the 19th century in Morelos, neighboring México City.

It is a “tradition that identifies us as Mexicans,” Reyes said.

Reyes affirmed that the objective of the parade is “to celebrate our identity as Mexicans, our traditions, and that we have been able to jump after the pandemic.”

The city government organized the carnival as part of the 2021 commemorations of the 500th anniversary of the fall of Tenochtitlán, the Aztec capital, into the hands of the troops led by Hernán Cortés.

Cortés was a Spanish conquistador whose military expedition led to the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of what is now mainland México under the rule of the King of Castile in the early 16th century.

The authorities called the anniversary “500 years of indigenous resistance” to emphasize the history of the original inhabitants of México.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has unsuccessfully asked the Spanish monarchy to apologize for the invasion.

Microplastics found in every tested waterway in Oregon, including Detroit Lake

Tracy Loew, Salem Statesman Journal
Mon, December 6, 2021,

New testing has found microplastic contamination in each of 30 Oregon waterways tested, including in Detroit Lake, which provides Salem’s drinking water.

"The results of this study should set off alarms for all Oregonians who love our state's rivers and lakes," said Celeste Meiffren-Swango, state director with Environment Oregon Research & Policy Center, which released a report on the tests Monday.

Microplastics are plastic pieces less than five millimeters in length, or smaller than a grain of rice. They can harm aquatic life and get into the human food chain.

Research from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has shown that microplastic particles can attract heavy metals and chemical contaminants, which are then consumed by fish, birds and humans.

Oregon acts to reduce truck pollution: Here's what will change

Those contaminants can compromise immune function and may cause cancer, scientists say.

The researchers tested urban waterways, including the Willamette River, and remote and treasured waterways like Crater Lake and Wallowa Lake.

All of the sites contained fibers, which come from clothing like fleece. Six sites contained plastic fragments, which come from the breakdown of harder plastics or plastic feedstock. One site contained films, primarily from flexible plastic packaging.

"The staggering amount of microplastics we found likely means that no river, lake or stream is safe from this increasingly common contaminant," Meiffren-Swango said.

A researcher collects water samples from the John Day River at Cottonwood Canyon State Park

There is no state or federal limit for microplastics in waterways or drinking water, and no requirement to test for them.

The report recommended seven actions to reduce microplastic contamination:

Congress should pass bills like the federal Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act, which includes a strong national ban on single-use plastic bags, polystyrene and other polluting single-use plastic products.


The Oregon Legislature should ban the sale and use of single-use polystyrene takeout containers and cups, packing peanuts, coolers and other product packaging.


The Oregon Legislature and Congress should pass a full Extended Producer Responsibility Law that makes manufacturers responsible for dealing with the waste their products will become.


Communities and legislators should oppose measures that double down on the fossil fuel-to-plastic or plastic-to-fuel pipeline and that incentivize the creation of new plastic.


State and local governments should pass laws preventing overstock clothing from being sent to landfills so that clothing manufacturers and retailers stop producing more clothing than they can sell.


Cities should develop green infrastructure and stormwater programs to help stem the tide of plastics and microplastics being washed into our waterways and greater environment.


Oregon should require filters on all new washing machines to prevent microplastics from ending up in our waterways.


This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Microplastic contamination found in each of 30 Oregon waterways tested

#BDS #BOYCOTTISRAEL

‘I thought I was a free man’: the engineer fighting Texas’s ban on boycotting Israel



Erum Salam
Tue, December 7, 2021, 1:00 AM·6 min read

For more than two decades, Texan civil engineer Rasmy Hassouna was a contractor for the city of Houston. Hassouna has consulted the city on soil volatility in the nearby Gulf of Mexico – a much needed service to evaluate the structural stability of houses and other buildings.

He was gearing up to renew his government contract when a particular legal clause caught his eye: a provision that effectively banned him or his company, A&R Engineering and Testing, Inc, from ever protesting the nation of Israel or its products so long as his company was a partner with the city of Houston.

For Hassouna – a 59-year-old proud Palestinian American – it was a huge shock.

“I came here and thought I was a free man. It’s not anybody’s business what I do or what I say, as long as I’m not harming anybody,” he told the Guardian. “Were you lying all this time? If I don’t want to buy anything at WalMart, who are you to tell me not to shop at WalMart? Why do I have to pledge allegiance to a foreign country?”

But Hassouna’s reaction did not stop at anger. He took action, launching a case that is challenging the Texas law and – by example – similar provisions that have spread all over the US that seek to stop government contractors from boycotting Israel and can be found in more than 25 US states. Along with the Arkansas Times newspaper, A&R Engineering and Testing Inc is now one of only two companies fighting this kind of law in the nation.

Hassouna’s case – which was filed on his behalf by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) – will be heard in federal court on Tuesday and is based on the idea that such laws violate free speech. If ruled unconstitutional, the 2019 ban on boycotting Israel will be illegal in the state of Texas.

But Hassouna’s decision to sue is not without a price. It could cost him a substantial amount of his yearly revenue, his lawyer said.

“They weren’t counting on Rasmy Hassouna from Gaza, whose family has suffered so greatly. He believes that Americans have the right to boycott whatever entity, foreign or domestic, that they want to. That’s what he’s doing – putting his money where his mouth is,” said Gadeir Abbas, a senior litigation attorney for CAIR who is representing Hassouna.

Hassouna first set foot on American soil in 1988. Like many immigrants, Hassouna’s first experience of the US was New York’s JFK airport. However, his final destination was the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, the university at which he planned to study civil engineering. “Regardless how long it was going to take or how hard I had to work, I was going to keep aiming toward my goal,” he said.

As a Palestinian under Israeli occupation, Hassouna had no claim to citizenship, so he had to get permission from Israeli officials in order to leave his home in Gaza, an area described by humanitarian organizations and politicians as an open-air prison.

“For almost two months every day, I left the house and I took a cab to the center of Gaza city. I gave [Israeli officials] my government application, my ID. I went to the gate and waited from 7 in the morning until 5 in the evening. You’re looking at the month of June and July in the sun, just standing there.”

After two months Hassouna finally secured clearance to travel to the United States for his university studies. Since Palestine is not recognized as a country, he was not issued a passport, but rather an Israeli travel document that stumped customs agents at every step of the journey.

When the time came for Hassouna to leave for the US, his neighborhood in Gaza was placed under a curfew. This meant that he had to escape under the cover of night if he was to make his flight. He recalled walking five miles behind his father, luggage in tow, to his cousin’s house, an area just outside the designated curfew zone. That was the last time he saw his father, who died before they could meet again.

Hassouna’s college experience was not unlike that of most American students. He recalled living with three roommates and surviving off the modest stipend from his teaching assistant position.

After graduating, Hassouna moved to Houston, Texas, in August 1992. Though he had a comprehensive background in his field, Hassouna’s early career was uncertain and tumultuous. He worked odd jobs at a Stop N Go gas station and convenience store before becoming a technician.

“Back then, I would work 11-7 at the convenience store and 8-5 at the company. One of my students [from South Dakota] was my supervisor, making three or four times what I was making. She used to come and ask me for advice.”

Finally, he was hired for an engineering position at another company with a starting pay of $24,000 – what he described as half of what most engineers were making at the time.

Hassouna has come a long way since then. Along the way, he got married and had two now-teenage sons. His mother died a few years after his father, but due to travel and visa restrictions for Gaza, Hassouna was unable to see her or attend the funeral. In 2005, Hassouna became an American citizen. His place of birth listed on his certificate of citizenship read ‘Israel,’ a statement with which he took issue.

“I went to the lady who was giving the certificates away and told her I didn’t want Israel on my certificate. She told me to go to the immigration center and that they would take care of it. I explained to them that my place of birth was not Israel, it was the Gaza Strip in Palestine. They told me ‘Palestine was not in the system.’”

Hassouna handed the certificate back to the immigration official and asked them to return his green card to him, explaining he would rather not be a citizen than be designated as Israeli by birth. After much deliberation, the immigration office conceded and mailed him a new certificate with his place of birth listed as ‘Gaza Strip’.

In 1999, he and his friend Alfred started their own company, A&R (Alfred and Rasmy) Engineering. Together, they secured contract work for the city of Houston. Some 25 years later, Alfred has sold his share in the company to Hassouna, who is now the sole owner.

Now, Hassouna’s loyalty to his homeland is being tested. After reading the most recent city contract, he wrote a letter to the city asking them to remove the Israel boycott ban clause from the contract, arguing that it was his constitutional right to boycott Israel if he so desired. City officials said it was out of their hands.

Now it is in the hands of a judge. If things don’t go Hassouna’s way, he said he is more than prepared to suffer the financial consequences.

“I want to stay working with the city and any other government entity. The thing is, I want to do it with my freedom intact and my dignity intact,” he said.

California Is Addicted To Oil From The Amazon

Editor OilPrice.com
Mon, December 6, 2021

California is by far the most ambitious U.S. state when it comes to things like emission standards, EV sales, and renewable energy. California is shutting down its nuclear power plants to double down on wind and solar.

It is also importing more oil from the Amazon rainforest than any country in the world.

Ecuador accounted for a little over 24 percent of California’s oil imports as of 2020. That equaled 55,219 barrels daily, according to the California Energy Commission. Interestingly, this is a substantial increase from the previous year, when Ecuador accounted for 18.22 percent of California’s oil imports, and from the year before, when Ecuador accounted for 14 percent.

This oil from Ecuador, according to a recent investigation by NBC News, comes from the Amazon rainforest—an area that is the target of massive conservation efforts and yet remains one of the most exploited parts of the world because of its natural resource wealth.

Ecuador is home to the Yasuni National Park, which contains some of the most diverse ecosystems globally, including two uncontacted indigenous tribes. For these tribes, the government even approved a so-called Intangible Zone—a border not to be crossed in order to protect these tribes. But that was before 2019. Two years ago, the government of Ecuador approved a plan to open up Yasuni National Park to oil and gas drilling.

Ecuador is a frequent reference in oil news, but the South American country has proven crude reserves estimated at 8.3 billion barrels, which makes it the third-largest oil country in Latin America, after Venezuela and Brazil. Yet, it doesn’t produce anywhere close to what Brazil pumps and what Venezuela did before the U.S. sanctions. Its average for 2020 was 483,000 bpd, according to the Energy Information Administration. But this is changing.

The president of the tiny South American nation, who took office this May, pledged to double the country’s oil production and is working on this through some major reforms aimed at facilitating the participation of private companies in Ecuador’s oil industry. According to Argus Media, the rush aims to monetize the country’s oil assets before the energy transition kills demand for the fossil fuel. Yet judging from California’s appetite for Ecuadorian oil, this killing might take a while.

According to the NBC investigation, which was based on a report by Stand.earth and Amazon Watch, 66 percent of the oil produced in Ecuador is exported to the United States, and most of that ends up in California. As the two environmentalist groups put it, 1 in 7 tanks of gasoline, diesel, or jet fuel sold in California came from the Amazon rainforest. And that’s not all.

Some of the biggest corporate users of Amazon oil in California are PepsiCo, Costco, and Amazon. All three have made emission-related pledges, with PepsiCo vowing to reduce absolute greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent from 2015 levels by 2030 and net-zero status by 2040 and Amazon promising billions in investment to become a net-zero emitter by the same year.

“This is no longer one of those things where we’re supposed to have sympathy for a crisis that’s happening somewhere else,” Angeline Robertson, a senior researcher at Stand.earth and the lead author of the report, told NBC. “It’s occurring in California, and it’s linked to Amazon destruction.”

It is also the latest proof that moving away from oil and gas is a lot easier said than done. For all of its anti-oil rhetoric, California is a major importer of the commodity. Before Ecuador became its top source of the commodity, it was importing most of its oil from Saudi Arabia and Iraq and smaller amounts from Colombia, Mexico, Nigeria, and Angola. California, therefore, is very much like any other oil importer in the world with one difference: while other importers simply do not have the domestic production to use, California is purposefully squeezing its oil industry.

There are plans in place to ban fracking by 2024, with Governor Newsom saying in May that “As we move to swiftly decarbonize our transportation sector and create a healthier future for our children, I’ve made it clear I don’t see a role for fracking in that future and, similarly, believe that California needs to move beyond oil.”

This move would necessitate weaning the state off the more than 200,000 bpd of foreign oil it imports on top of more than 460,000 bpd in local production. It’s going to be difficult. There is also a proposal to ban offshore drilling after an oil spill in October added fuel to arguments about whether oil had a future in California or not.

In Ecuador and in the Yasuni National Park, oil definitely has a future, unlike an attempt by a previous government to save its unique ecosystems by calling on the international community to provide $3.5 billion for conservation efforts. NBC recalls the government of Rafael Correa abandoned its plan to protect its share of the Amazon six years with international donations after it only managed to raise a tenth of what was needed. And then it lifted the drilling moratorium for Yasuni, with President Correa saying, “The world has failed us.”

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

‘Your generation got us in this mess’: children of big oil employees discuss the climate crisis with their parents


Emma Pattee
Tue, December 7, 2021, 

What do you do when your family has deep ties to the oil and gas industry, yet all agree that burning fossil fuels is accelerating the climate crisis?

For one family, the fossil fuel industry’s role in stoking the climate emergency is more than just a dinner table debate. It’s their legacy. Andy and Wendy met in the 70s while working as engineers for Exxon. They spent decades working in oil and gas while raising their children.

Now retired, Andy and Wendy drove from their home in Washington state to spend the holidays with their son, James, and their daughter, Liz, who has two young sons with her husband, Dara. The family sat down with the Guardian the day before Thanksgiving to discuss how the three generations view the climate crisis and how the family reckons with their fossil fuel connection.


Participants include:


Andy, 65, retired engineer,


Wendy, 62, retired engineer


Liz, 33, environmental safety manager


Dara, 35, Liz’s husband and engineer


James, 31, IT consultant

Andy and Wendy, you met while working at Mobile?

Andy: In those days, we were doing synthetic fuels. We were trying to address the energy crisis by making new kinds of fuels. And Wendy and I met in that group. After the merger with Exxon, they moved us from New Jersey down to Texas, there was a big group of us that made that move. That forms certain bonds.

In that group, was global warming even part of the conversation?

Wendy: We talked more about air quality and what was happening from burning fossil fuels. There’s so much pollution in Houston that sometimes the kids’ sports were canceled because of air quality. So we talked more about the downside of fossil fuels around air quality than global warming.

We bought a Prius in 2004, right when Priuses came out, and drove it to Exxon every day. There was this whole conversation with all of our co-workers about driving a Prius.

Andy: Colleagues were giving me the eyeball. They just didn’t understand why anyone would ever do such a thing.

Liz and James, do you remember when you first became aware of what your parents did for work?

Liz: In the 90s there were a lot of Bring Your Kids to Work days. And so I used to go with my dad into work when he worked at Mobile. But it wasn’t until high school that I really understood what the oil and gas industry is and how it impacts people.

James: For me, it was a byproduct of us moving around. Because of the merger with Exxon Mobil, we relocated a couple times so people would ask me, oh, are your parents in the military? And I had to say, no, they’re oil and gas.

Did you guys feel uncomfortable when you were younger telling people your parents worked in fossil fuels?

Liz: I don’t remember feeling a sense of shame then. But I felt a very strong pull when I was in college to go into a career where I could reverse the effects of climate change. I studied environmental science at the University of Washington. And it was also in college that I learned about how long Exxon had known about climate change and had covered it up. I felt strongly that I don’t want to purchase Exxon gas.

James: I was in high school at the time of the BP spill, the Deepwater Horizon, and so being in Bellingham, which is such a liberal area, obviously a lot of my peers were very upset about it. I was upset about it. But at the same time, my mom was working for BP.

[To Wendy] You were wanting to defend your company. And so there were a lot of words said: this could have happened to anyone, there was a significant amount of risk getting taken in the Gulf at the time, a lot of companies were cutting corners. But, you know, you still have to hold people responsible for the choices that they make.

Eleven people died after BP’s offshore oil rig Deepwater Horizon exploded on 21 April 2010. Photograph: US Coast Guard/Getty Images

Liz: I was deeply disturbed by the incident, more so than maybe anyone else in the family. What really aggrieved me was the fact that people are still continuing to fill up their cars with gas every day. And maybe they’re boycotting BP gas, but by continuing to consume, people are contributing to the problem. And so there’s this awful hypocrisy in that after each of these incidents. We can all play the blame game and yet there hasn’t been any shift away from consuming gasoline and diesel.

Andy: I wouldn’t say there’s not been any shift.

Liz: Maybe. Slow and gradual.

Andy: Right, right not fast enough for where we want.

Wendy, you worked for BP when that spill happened. Can you speak a little bit about that?

Wendy: It really affected me. The environmental part, of course, but the safety part in terms of the loss of life of colleagues. I mean, I started tearing up hearing the kids talking about it right now.

It was a total moral reckoning. It became apparent that the fossil fuel industry is wrong on so many levels. I realized I lost my way. I started in synthetic fuels and the path led to conventional oil and gas.

But at that point, I was so far along in the industry. I had two kids in college, so I asked myself ‘what can I do within this industry to do something impactful and valuable?’ That’s why I accepted a safety project in Alaska.

What are the family conversations about fossil fuels like at the dinner table?

Dara: What I like about the conversations that we have with Andy and Wendy: I think we hold them accountable. Your generation, you guys got us in this mess and they admit that. I mean, I don’t think you guys disagree.



We can all play the blame game, yet there hasn’t been any shift away from consuming gasoline and diesel

Liz: I remember the first time that I picked my own electricity provider and there was a 100% renewable option and I was so excited about it. The first thing I did was call my dad and say, Dad, tell me you’re purchasing 100% renewable power. Then a year later, we started with a garden and I bought a big composting bin for the back yard. And calling Dad, hey Dad, you guys are composting, right?

Liz, it’s hard to imagine you came to this career in environmental protection accidentally, that it’s unconnected from your parents’ career choices.

Going into college, I just knew I wanted to do the opposite [of my parents]. I wanted to do everything that I could to deter climate change. And I spent the first 11 years of my career working in the oil and gas industry and in the environment, health and safety field, and there’s a lot of opportunities to talk about sustainability within that framework.

But my personal experience is, you can be as loud as you want but unless you have buy-in from the top, it’s not going to happen. There are plenty of energy companies out there who see environmental social governance reporting as the latest way to pacify shareholders without driving real change.

Andy and Wendy, what comes up hearing Liz say that she wanted to do the opposite of what you had done, career-wise?

Andy: Liz, we can feel her passion and she does push us. And that’s a positive influence. We’re feeling the push. That’s our way of saying we’re not stuck in the blame game. That’s very complicated. But no matter what, that’s all in the past.

Liz and Dara, your kids are three and five. How has the arrival of this newest generation changed things?

Wendy: When we sit down to Thanksgiving dinner, we’re having stuffed acorn squash, the vegan version. The climate for us is a big part of our plant-based eating. So, you know, we’ll have that conversation with the boys around why there’s not a turkey on the table.

Liz: The previous generation, the way people talked about race was in coded and polite ways. And now we talk openly about racism and Black Lives Matter. It’s the same thing to me with climate change. We’re not beating around the bush. We have books for our kids about climate change. And when we tell them bedtime stories, it’s about climate change. We want them to understand it and name it and talk to their friends about it.

Dara: I think Liz and I disagree a little bit. When I do night-time stories about climate change with the five-year-old, it opens up a can of worms of questions on why did this happen? Who did it? I don’t know if it’s necessarily healthy for him to know all of that information. And sometimes I don’t even have the answers.

This story is published as part of Covering Climate Now, a global collaboration of news outlets strengthening coverage of the climate story