It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Saturday, January 22, 2022
GREEN CAPITALI$M Blackstone Makes ESG Splash with Green-Energy Lending Strategy
David Brooke Fri, January 21, 2022
(Bloomberg) -- Blackstone Inc. has launched a new renewable-energy lending strategy as part of the private equity firm’s commitment to invest $100 billion in green projects over the next decade.
The firm has established the Sustainable Resources Credit Platform to focus on lending to companies that are expanding solar usage to the residential sector, providing renewable electricity generation and storage services, as well as other businesses aiding decarbonization, according to a statement Friday.
Blackstone will target investments across investment grade and non-investment grade debt as well as preferred and convertible securities.
The move is part of Blackstone’s push into further funding transition to renewable energy in the U.S. Across all of Blackstone’s platforms, the firm aims to put $100 billion over the next 10 years into projects and companies aiding the green transition. The firm said it has committed $15 billion since 2019 in areas that are aiding the broader energy transition.
Private credit has lagged the financing boom in all things environmental, social, and governance seen in other corners of debt markets. In October, a loan by Barings to Northstar Recycling Co. to fund its acquisition by private equity firm Ridgemont Equity Partners was seen as one of the first sustainability-linked financings in the U.S. direct lending space.
Robert Horn will work as global head of the new Blackstone venture and Simon Hayden will lead activities in Europe, the statement says. Hayden joins the firm from EIG Global Energy Partners. Jean Rogers, recently appointed as Blackstone’s global head of ESG, and Rita Mangalick, head of ESG at Blackstone Credit, will advise on investments and due diligence.
“We believe large scale and flexible capital are essential to funding decarbonization,” said Horn.
How much money #MeToo CEOs should get ZERO, ZILCH, NADA, NOTHING
Two stories caught my eye this week, the first being the University of Michigan firing its president, the second being Microsoft (MSFT) buying Activision Blizzard (ATVI). The common denominator is reckless behavior by a chief executive.
Questions: How much (if any) money should these men be paid going forward, and should any previous payments be clawed back?
The University of Michigan’s Board of Regents canned president Mark Schlissel after he was found to have had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a subordinate, to whom he sent dozens of emails from his university account, which the board publicly posted.
Another irony, according to The Detroit News: Schlissel’s agreement “was originally scheduled to end in June 2024, but the timeline was moved up to 2023. The contract ... could have cost the university as much as $10 million over the next decade and set a new bar for payouts to an outgoing public university president...”
As for Microsoft buying Activision Blizzard, sure MSFT coveted the business, but it also found a willing seller ready to deal. (Microsoft is paying $69 billion or $95 per share for the video game maker behind "Call of Duty." The stock had been trading as high as $104 less than a year ago.) That discount is partly due to the massive quagmire of sexual harassment claims and alleged workplace violations that took place under CEO Bobby Kotick’s watch.
Bobby Kotick, Chief Executive Officer of Activision Blizzard, speaks at the Reuters Global Media Summit in New York November 30, 2010. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid (UNITED STATES - Tags: BUSINESS MEDIA)
It should be noted that allegations extend to Kotick himself. Specifically, Kotick has been accused of being abusive, turning a blind eye to allegations, and dragging his feet in terms of addressing issues at the company. Enter Microsoft.
Now MSFT faces a Kotick conundrum. Initially Microsoft and ATVI made statements to the effect that Kotick was going to be staying on. Then the Wall Street Journal reported that Kotick is expected to leave once the deal closes. So that means Kotick, like Schlissel at Michigan, will be out.
Both men will lose their salaries going forward, but could get some other payouts. And what about the money that was paid to them prior, specifically during the time that these transgressions occurred? Are they entitled (ahem) to keep?
In Schlissel’s case, a Detroit News story suggests that he won’t get much of that $10 million. But Schlissel is still a tenured faculty and the story notes: “It’s likely that the university and Schlissel will negotiate a confidential settlement for him to leave the university rather than go through trying to strip him of tenure, a process that could take years and end up in court...” But what about the emails the university posted that go back to 2019? Should the university seek to recoup anything from the past two years?
In this Jan. 30 2017, file photo, University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel speaks during a ceremony at the university, in Ann Arbor, Mich. Schlissel has been removed as president of the University of Michigan due to the alleged "inappropriate relationship with a University employee," the school said Saturday, Jan. 15, 2022, on its website. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
After all the hurt that has been put on women at Activision Blizzard, and the discomfort imposed upon the other 9,000-plus employees, never mind on the shareholders, this guy gets half a billion dollars?
“Microsoft should probably be considering whether Mr. Kotick is worth his price tag,” says Jennifer Drobac, professor at the Indiana University McKinney School of Law. “If, following their due diligence and their investigation, they demonstrate that he failed to steer Activision in a lawful manner or in one that would at least comply with Activision’s stated company policies, then yes, either they should claw back the money or they should have a termination clause.”
But wait, you can’t just claw back Schlissel’s salary or take away Kotick’s stock, can you? Actually you can.
The template here is what the board of McDonald’s (MCD) did in the case of its then CEO, Steve Easterbrook. In November 2019 the McDonald’s board terminated Easterbrook for having an inappropriate relationship with an employee. He was fired without cause, which allowed him to receive 26 weeks of severance and benefits.
It turned out the CEO lied. The board was livid and in August 2020 sued Easterbrook. The Wall Street Journal reported: “Easterbrook allegedly engaged in three additional relationships with employees that were sexual in nature ... Investigators found that Easterbrook destroyed evidence about the sexual relationships and lied about his behavior ... McDonald’s found dozens of sexually explicit photographs and videos of women including the employees that had been sent from Mr. Easterbrook’s corporate email account to a personal Hotmail account ... Easterbrook had deleted the photos from his company-issued phone, and they weren’t discovered during the corporate investigation that triggered his firing.” Last month, Easterbrook agreed to return $105 million. Much of the clawback was in stock that was returned to the company, but actual cash was wired back too.
“The board and the board chairman deserve a lot of credit,” says an informed source. “A hell of a lot of boards would not have done anything. They would have made the decision, ‘Let this go away.’”
I asked my source about the implications of the McDonald’s case: “For other boards, if they're facing these kinds of allegations, maybe they won't be so tempted to just dismiss someone,” he said.
“Does cleaning house mean you get rid of someone who’s problematic but don't hold them accountable by following up on allegations and clawing back pay?” asks Jill Fisch, a professor of business law at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School.
Good question.
I know you might be thinking that Easterbrook’s transgressions were worse than Schlissel’s and Kotick’s. Maybe that’s the case. But why should these be binary decisions? If someone is 100% bad, claw back 100%; if they’re 40% bad, claw back 40%. That’s what lawyers are for.
I wonder what the Michigan and Microsoft boards think about that.
This article was featured in a Saturday edition of the Morning Brief on January 22, 2022.
Can Microsoft acquisition cure Activision’s toxic workplace?
Microsoft, which is reviewing its own sexual-harassment policies, could be taking on an even tougher challenge
Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard is raising further concerns about the videogame company’s workplace culture. Last July, Activision employees walked out to denounce the company’s response to a California lawsuit over sexual harassment and discrimination charges. AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
Besides concerns about antitrust scrutiny and a record $68.7 billion price tag, Microsoft Corp.’s planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard Inc. also raises a key question: How will it deal with the videogame company’s notorious workplace culture?
While the videogame industry has long suffered from a culture that “denigrates women,” according to Ann Olivarius, a lawyer who has specialized in women’s rights, she sees Activision ATVI, -0.50% as one of the worst examples of toxic workplaces.
Olivarius said the gaming industry allows for “a culture of violence,” mentioning Gamergate, in which female gamers, developers and journalists were targeted for online and offline harassment, including rape and death threats in 2014. She said that culture will be hard to change, as the industry attracts people who want to play games that contain violence. And though Microsoft MSFT, -1.85% makes the Xbox console and has been steeped in videogames for decades, Olivarius said “they don’t have the culture of violence that Activision has.”
In the past few years, Activision has been targeted for investigation by the Securities Exchange Commission and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and is facing a lawsuit from the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing that alleges gender discrimination against and “constant” sexual harassment of women, retaliation against women for complaining, and includes a mention of a female employee’s suicide during a business trip with her male supervisor. Since the California lawsuit filed in July, dozens of employees have left or been disciplined, the company has confirmed.
The investigations have also uncovered documents that show Activision Chief Executive Bobby Kotick knew about years of allegations of sexual misconduct but did not disclose everything to the company’s board. And the Wall Street Journal reported that Kotick himself has been accused of and settled allegations of sexual harassment.
If the acquisition clears antitrust hurdles and is approved, experts see either a big plus for Activision — publisher of games such as “Call of Duty” — in the form of cleaning up its culture, or a bust for Microsoft if that cleanup fails. Kotick acknowledged in an interview with VentureBeat that the drag on Activision’s stock from the fallout over the sexual harassment scandals was a factor in his company’s decision to agree to a sale to Microsoft.
Kathryn Rudie Harrigan, a professor at Columbia Business School who teaches strategic management courses, said the deal could be good for Activision and could, along with the investigations and other actions, be a step toward improving conditions for its female employees.
“It’s all going to come out into the limelight,” she said. “How backward-thinking Activision Blizzard has been.”
Microsoft itself has dealt with similar accusations, though it appears not to be to the same degree. Still, it announced last week that it has hired a law firm to review sexual-harassment and gender-discrimination policies after accusations of sexual harassment and gender discrimination in 2019, including against co-founder Bill Gates. Its review of its own policies was sparked by a shareholder resolution submitted by Arjuna Capital that was supported by 78% of voting Microsoft investors.
Natasha Lamb, managing partner at Arjuna Capital, said Microsoft agreeing to review its policies puts the software giant in a better position to turn around and say it wants to buy Santa Monica, Calif.-based Activision.
“Absent that commitment, they’d be in hot water from their shareholders,” Lamb said, noting that she could understand the financial case for Microsoft buying Activision. But “from a cultural standpoint, it doesn’t seem like a good match.”
Some Microsoft employees agree. They expressed their concerns about introducing an “awful” and “dangerous” culture on an internal message board this week, according to Business Insider.
When reached for comment Thursday, an Activision spokesman referred MarketWatch to Kotick’s letter to employees this week. Kotick said the company is doing work “to set a new standard for a welcoming and inclusive workplace culture,” and that Microsoft will support that “journey.” The company spokesman also pointed to announcements Activision has made in the past several months, including instituting a “zero-tolerance” harassment policy.
Microsoft has not returned a request for comment.
A group of Activision Blizzard workers is unionizing
Kris Holt ·Contributing Writer Fri, January 21, 2022
Call of Duty: Warzone quality assurance workers at Activision Blizzard studio Raven Software have announced plans to unionize with the Communication Workers of America (CWA). They have asked the company to voluntarily recognize their group, which is called the Game Workers Alliance. The 34-person unit had the support of 78 percent of eligible workers, according to Polygon.
“We ask that Activision Blizzard management respect Raven QA workers by voluntarily recognizing CWA’s representation without hesitation,” CWA secretary-treasurer Sara Steffens said in a statement. “A collective bargaining agreement will give Raven QA employees a voice at work, improving the games they produce and making the company stronger. Voluntary recognition is the rational way forward.”
Workers have given Activision Blizzard until January 25th to respond to their request, according to The Washington Post. If the company fails to do so, the group will file for a union election through the National Labor Relations Board and, because the workers have a supermajority of votes, they'd be able to formalize the union without voluntary recognition from Activision Blizzard. Should the group approve the union in an election, the company would need to bargain with workers in good faith.
Sixty Raven workers went on strike in early December after Activision Blizzard laid off 12 QA contractors, despite a request from Raven leadership to keep them employed. The workers demanded the company convert all Raven QA contractors into full-time employees. So far, Activision Blizzard has reportedly been playing hardball and declining to meet with with the striking workers. Warzone players have been grousing about the game's bugs, which QA workers are tasked with finding and addressing.
"Activision Blizzard is carefully reviewing the request for voluntary recognition from the CWA, which seeks to organize around three dozen of the company’s nearly 10,000 employees," the company told Polygon. "While we believe that a direct relationship between the company and its team members delivers the strongest workforce opportunities, we deeply respect the rights of all employees under the law to make their own decisions about whether or not to join a union." It added that it has raised minimum pay for Raven employees by 41 percent over the last few years, extended paid time off and converted over 60 percent of the studio's contractors into employees.
The CWA claims Activision Blizzard has "used surveillance and intimidation tactics, including hiring notorious union busters, to silence workers.” Last July, the company hired WilmerHale, a law firm with a history of cracking down on unionization efforts, to review its HR policies.
The Game Workers Alliance said its principles include solidarity, equity, diversity, transparency and sustainability. "Shortened development timelines sacrifice project quality and damage the mental and physical health of our team," it wrote on Twitter. "'Crunch' is not healthy for any product, worker, or company."
Earlier this week, Microsoft announced an agreement to buy Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion, the biggest deal in video game history. If shareholders and regulators approve the acquisition, which could have enormous ramifications for the industry, the merger should close by June 2023.
In an interview with the Post on Thursday, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer noted that he didn't have much experience with unions personally after working at Microsoft for over three decades. “So I’m not going to try to come across as an expert on this, but I’ll say we’ll be having conversations about what empowers them to do their best work, which as you can imagine in a creative industry, is the most important thing for us," he said.
On Wednesday, Activision Blizzard said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing regarding the planned merger that, "To the knowledge of the company, there are no pending activities or proceedings of any labor union, trade union, works council or any similar labor organization to organize any employees of the company or any of its subsidiaries with regard to their employment with the company or any of its subsidiaries." The week that Raven workers went on strike, Activision Blizzard sent its employees a letter imploring them “to consider the consequences” of signing union cards.
As Bloomberg's Jason Schreier noted, the Game Workers Alliance is the first union within a AAA gaming company in North America. Last month, workers at Vodeo Games formed the first video game union in the US. Management at the indie studio voluntarily recognized Vodeo Workers United. Swedish publisher Paradox Interactive signed a collective bargaining agreement with unions in 2020, while Japanese–Korean publisher Nexon recognized a workers' union in 2018.
Activision Employee Group Forms Union, a First in Video Games Jason Schreier Fri, January 21, 2022
(Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp.’s planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard Inc. will come with an unexpected and perhaps unwelcome addition: a small group of unionized workers.
About three dozen people who work for an Activision-owned studio agreed to form the Game Workers Alliance Union, representatives for the group said Friday. They asked Activision to voluntarily recognize their union status. It would be the first union at a publicly traded video game publisher.
The group is composed of 34 quality assurance testers at Activision’s Raven Software, a team responsible for ensuring new content for Call of Duty games runs smoothly and without errors. It’s part of the Communications Workers of America, the largest union in the media industry.
A spokesman for Activision said the company is reviewing the request for recognition. “While we believe that a direct relationship between the company and its team members delivers the strongest workforce opportunities, we deeply respect the rights of all employees under the law to make their own decisions about whether or not to join a union,” the spokesman said in an emailed statement.
For years, people from across the video game industry have proposed organizing as a solution to unhealthy work environments. Burnout is a prevalent issue in gaming, brought on by a culture of overwork, sexism and little job security. Employers have not embraced workers’ flirtations with unionizing, but last month, employees of a small independent studio called Vodeo Games became the first to organize in North America.
Activision has been mired in scandal since California sued the company last summer for claims of sexual harassment and discrimination. Workers at the company began handing out union cards last month, triggering a warning from management that employees should “take time to consider the consequences of your signature on the binding legal document presented to you.”
Workers at Activision’s Raven Software went on strikes starting Dec. 6 in protest of the company’s intent to dismiss a dozen contract testers. Quality assurance testers are generally paid the least of any game developers and are sometimes treated as disposable. At Raven, testers are frequently asked to work overtime and have talked of going nights and weekends for months straight.
The Activision spokesman said the company has over the past couple of years raised minimum compensation for Raven testers by 41%, extended paid time off and expanded medical benefits access to workers and their spouses.
Microsoft said this week that it will acquire Activision for $68.7 billion. Unionization at big tech companies like Microsoft is rare. When a 38-person group of Microsoft bug testers organized in 2014, the company eventually dismissed them.
Management at Activision hasn’t acknowledged the Raven strike or responded to specific requests from the workers, representatives for the Game Workers Alliance Union said.
“It’s extremely important that workers have a real seat at the table to positively shape the company going forward,” Brent Reel, quality assurance lead at Raven, said in a statement.
Raven Software testers at Activision Blizzard form the first union at a major US gaming company
Amanda Silberling Fri, January 21, 2022
Today, Raven Software's quality assurance (QA) department -- which mostly works on "Call of Duty" as part of Activision Blizzard -- became the first union to form at a major U.S. gaming company. With help from the Communications Workers of America (CWA), Raven Software testers launched the Game Workers Alliance, which plans to focus on "improving the conditions of workers in the video game industry by making it a more sustainable, equitable place where transparency is paramount," even beyond its own company. The 34-worker unit is asking management to recognize their union during a time already marked by change: on Tuesday, Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion in one of the priciest tech acquisitions of all time.
But on the heels of that historic acquisition, Activision Blizzard has been embroiled in controversy amid ongoing SEC investigations and sexual harassment scandals. Internally, employees started laying a grassroots foundation for worker solidarity through groups like the ABK Workers Alliance. When Raven Software laid off 12 contractors in early December, the team at the Wisconsin-based studio staged a walkout, which has continued for five weeks and counting.
Raven Software QA tester Onah Rongstad told TechCrunch that this incident sparked discussions about unionizing.
"On December 3, about a third of my department was informed that their contracts were going to be terminated early. And this was coming off of a five-week stretch of overtime, consistent work," she said. "We realized in that moment that our day-to-day work and our crucial role in the games industry as QA was not being taken into consideration. And at that time, we decided as Raven QA to start a strike to demonstrate that we are not just disposable parts of the industry, and during that time, it became very apparent that we had majority support within our department for a union."
The ABK Workers Alliance used its sizable social media following to crowdfund over $370,000 to assist with wages during the strike. The CWA said that this strike was the third work stoppage at Activision Blizzard after the company was sued in July 2021 over sexual harassment and misconduct claims. Still, about 20 members of the department remain on strike, Rongstad told TechCrunch.
"We are not sure how long [the strike] will continue, because we have not had direct communication with leadership about our demand that the 12 individuals who were let go be reinstated, which is unfortunate," said Rongstad, who has been with Raven Software since September 2020. "We are hoping to be able to go through with our unionization and get voluntary recognition so that we can prevent something like this from happening in the future."
Rongstad added that the news of Microsoft's planned acquisition does not change the union's plans to seek recognition.
"At the end of the day, we want to be able to work with leadership to create the most positive and beneficial work environment for all of the workers at ABK, and we are happy to work with leadership, whether that is the current leadership or Microsoft leadership in the future," they told TechCrunch.
This level of organizing among workers has little precedent in gaming, despite the industry being notorious for over-working employees or deploying mass layoffs due to closing studios. But only a month ago did the first voluntarily recognized gaming union form in North America at the small indie studio Vodeo Games, which produces "Beast Breaker." Vodeo's union also works with the CWA.
In an emailed statement to TechCrunch, Activision Blizzard responded to the Game Workers Alliance's announcement:
Activision Blizzard is carefully reviewing the request for voluntary recognition from the CWA, which seeks to organize around three dozen of the company’s nearly 10,000 employees. While we believe that a direct relationship between the company and its team members delivers the strongest workforce opportunities, we deeply respect the rights of all employees under the law to make their own decisions about whether or not to join a union.
Across Activision Blizzard, we remain focused on listening closely to our employees and providing the improved pay, benefits and professional opportunities needed to attract and retain the world’s best talent. Over the past couple of years, this has included raising minimum compensation for Raven QA employees by 41%, extending paid time off, expanding access to medical benefits for employees and significant others, and transitioning more than 60% of temporary Raven QA staff into full-time employees.
It's yet to be seen whether or not Activision Blizzard will voluntarily recognize the Game Workers Alliance. If Activision Blizzard chooses to recognize the union, then they don't need to have a union election and can begin collective bargaining. If the company opts not to recognize them, then the union can conduct an election through the National Labor Relations Board.
"We do have supermajority, and that's why we were able to ask for voluntary recognition. We're confident that if it went to a vote, we would win," said Rongstad. "We are hoping that they will voluntarily recognize the union and just show their support for workers rights."
The Game Workers Alliance is giving Activision Blizzard until January 25 to respond to their request for voluntary recognition. Read their letter below:
Workers at Activision Blizzard-owned game studio Raven Software vote to unionize
Jaimie Ding Fri, January 21, 2022 Workers at Raven Software, maker of "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3" and other video games, have voted to unionize. (Associated Press)
After weeks of striking, quality assurance workers at Activision Blizzard-owned game studio Raven Software have voted to form a new union, adding a wrinkle to Microsoft's $69-billion acquisition of the video game giant.
Workers at the Wisconsin-based studio that leads development of the popular game “Call of Duty” are launching the Game Workers Alliance with Communications Workers of America. The quality assurance unit consists of 34 workers, 27 of whom voted to publicly support the union.
“In the video game industry, specifically Raven QA, people are passionate about their jobs and the content they are creating,” Becka Aigner, a Raven QA functional tester, said in a press release. “We want to make sure that the passion from these workers is accurately reflected in our workplace and the content we make.”
More than 60 workers walked off the job at Raven Software and across the 10,000-employee company headquartered in Santa Monica in early December to protest the dismissal of several members of the quality assurance department at the end of their contracts. The strike has been running for five weeks.
Jessica Gonzalez, a former Activision employee and organizer with worker group A Better ABK, called the news a “huge step” for labor organizing in the games industry.
“The first-ever blockbuster studio to unionize, it’s a big deal,” Gonzalez said.
Worker unrest has been stirring at Activision Blizzard for months. California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed a lawsuit against the firm last summer, alleging that senior leaders allowed sexual harassment and pay discrimination to continue unchecked throughout the company for years.
In the wake of the lawsuit, workers at the company formed A Better ABK to press for better conditions and worker representation at Activision Blizzard and its King unit, maker of popular mobile games such as "Candy Crush."
A Wall Street Journal investigation in November showed that Activision Blizzard Chief Executive Bobby Kotick knew about sexual harassment allegations for years. Nearly a fifth of the firm’s staffers signed a petition and a walkout was organized to call for Kotick’s resignation.
Workers across the video game industry have increasingly been pushing back against work conditions that include temporary contracts with minimal job security and brutal weeks-long pushes to meet game deadlines. In December, about a dozen workers at the independent game developer Vodeo Games formed the first video game studio union in North America.
Friday’s news comes on the heels of Tuesday's announcement that Microsoft would be purchasing Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion, the largest acquisition in the software company’s history. Some employees expressed unhappiness that the deal could represent a soft exit for Kotick, who stands to walk away with hundreds of millions of dollars.
Microsoft, like most of the tech industry, is not unionized, though temporary employees at the contractor Lionbridge Technologies signed a union contract with the company in 2016. Some Microsoft workers in South Korea and Britain are also part of unions.
Microsoft Gaming Chief Executive Phil Spencer told the Washington Post on Thursday that he doesn't "have a lot of personal experience with unions."
"I’ve been at Microsoft for 33 years," Spencer said. "So I’m not going to try to come across as an expert on this, but I’ll say we’ll be having conversations about what empowers them to do their best work, which as you can imagine in a creative industry, is the most important thing for us.”
The newly formed Game Workers Alliance requested voluntary recognition from Activision Blizzard but will move forward with a balloted election through the National Labor Relations Board if they do not receive a response by Tuesday.
“A collective bargaining agreement will give Raven QA employees a voice at work, improving the games they produce and making the company stronger," CWA Secretary-Treasurer Sara Steffens said in the press release. "Voluntary recognition is the rational way forward.”
The Game Workers Alliance also accused the company of "surveillance and intimidation tactics," including hiring union busters to silence workers.
An Activision Blizzard spokesperson said the company is “carefully reviewing” the request for voluntary recognition from CWA.
“While we believe that a direct relationship between the company and its team members delivers the strongest workforce opportunities, we deeply respect the rights of all employees under the law to make their own decisions about whether or not to join a union,” the spokesperson said.
The company said it has raised minimum compensation for Raven QA employees by 41%, extended paid time off, expanded access to medical benefits and transitioned more than 60% of temporary QA staff into full-time employees.
Global Inflation Ends Era of Ever-Cheaper Clean Energy Will Wade, David R Baker and Josh Saul Thu, January 20, 2022
(Bloomberg) -- The era of ever-cheaper clean power is over, giving a fresh jolt of uncertainty to global energy markets battered by one supply crisis after another.
Relentless price declines over the past decade made renewables the cheapest sources of electricity in much of the world. In the past year, though, prices for solar panels have surged more than 50%. Wind turbines are up 13%, and battery prices are rising for the first time ever.
As pandemic-induced supply delays ensnare everything from cars to salads, green energy’s price hikes may not come as a surprise. But shipping backlogs and commodities shortages are coming at a particularly vulnerable moment for wind and solar. After years of rapid-fire advances in technology and manufacturing, there are fewer opportunities left to cut costs without sacrificing profits. Instead of perpetually falling, prices will now ebb and flow based on the cost of raw materials and other market forces.
For energy markets grappling with blackouts and extreme price volatility in the green transition, clean-power inflation is another wild card. Policy makers, accused of adding wind and solar so rapidly that electric grids have become unstable, are under pressure to ensure the entire system is more reliable — by pairing solar with batteries, for example, or keeping aging nuclear plants running for longer.
“From now on, what’s going to make the difference around the expansion of solar and wind is not going to be costs — how low can you go? — but value,” said Edurne Zoco, executive director of clean technology and renewables at research firm IHS Markit Ltd.
Higher interest rates are also threatening to increase costs for wind and solar projects as central banks weigh tighter monetary policy to curb inflation, said Julien Dumoulin-Smith, an analyst with Bank of America Corp.“One of the single most important inputs that go into these highly levered projects are rates,” he said. “Interest rates have only gone down for a straight decade.”
Climate hawks need not fear renewable-energy inflation, however. Even with the recent rise in costs, wind and solar have evolved from expensive, niche sources of electricity to become competitive with fossil fuels. Renewables remain cheaper on a relative basis than fossil fuels in much of the world, and prices for oil and natural gas have surged over the past year. Over the long term, prices for wind and solar will continue to decline, albeit at a slower pace. That means clean-energy installations are expected to keep growing rapidly in the coming years.
Still, the industry is wrestling with the immediate effects of supply-chain snarls. Burlington, Vermont-based solar developer Encore Renewable Energy LLC is paying about 35 cents a watt for panels, up from 30 cents in mid-2020, according to Chief Executive Officer Chad Farrell.
Raw materials now account for 70% of the cost of finished modules, leaving suppliers with almost no room to trim expenses, said David Dixon, a senior analyst with research firm Rystad Energy. A shortage of polysilicon, one of the key materials for the photovoltaic cells that make up solar panels, increased expenses last year, and shipping costs also rose.
Invenergy, a U.S. developer of wind and solar projects, has been forced to delay some projects because it can’t get panels, said Art Fletcher, the company’s executive vice president of construction. Though shipping expenses are beginning to decline after jumping last year, the renewables industry as a whole is undergoing a transformation, he said.
“I don’t believe we’re ever going back to where we were two years ago,” Fletcher said.
Canadian Solar Inc., one of the world’s largest panel makers, said it no longer makes sense for the industry to constantly slash prices. “There will be an end for this price drop,” the company’s chairman, Shawn Qu, told a virtual BloombergNEF event on Nov. 30. “There’s a cost for going green and carbon neutrality.”
The Solar Energy Industries Association and Wood Mackenzie Ltd. forecast last month that U.S. installations will drop 15% in 2022, about 25% below the trade group’s September forecast.
Supply-chain kinks may ease this year as China spends billions on new factories to produce polysilicon. That may cut prices in the short term, but it's less likely to lead to sustained reductions.
“We’re getting to the tail end of price declines,” said Dixon. “Commodity prices will be the sole determinant of module prices.”
The wind industry is going through a similar transition. Prices plunged 48% in the decade through 2020, but are now leveling off and are expected to slide 14% through 2030, according to BloombergNEF.
“That’s a sign of the industry maturing,” said BNEF wind analyst Oliver Metcalfe.
Manufacturers will continue to reduce per-megawatt costs with larger installations. However, these massive turbines — almost as tall as the Eiffel Tower — require more materials, especially steel, which surged in 2021 and will likely remain costly for the next several years. Supply-chain issues boosted prices for onshore wind turbines 9% in the second half of 2021.
In some regions, developers have already installed turbines in the best locations and now are looking at less breezy areas or smaller sites. That means they may be using turbines designed for slower windspeeds or placing smaller orders, both of which lead to higher per-megawatt prices.
The world’s largest wind turbine maker, Denmark’s Vestas Wind Systems A/S, had to cut its profit forecast last year as it faced rising costs from key commodities and persistent supply-chain disruptions. Something will need to change for the industry to be able to deliver enough wind power capacity to hit the world's climate goals, the company said.
“We have to put up a warning flag here,” said Morten Dyrholm, senior vice president at Vestas. “We need to focus on profitability across the sector.” Battery Costs
Batteries have also been hit by inflation. BNEF said late last year that it expected prices for battery packs to climb this year for the first time in data going back to 2010. The 2.3% increase can be blamed on soaring prices for the metals batteries contain, booming demand worldwide and strained supply chains.
But compared with wind and solar, batteries are a much newer part of the clean-energy landscape. Suppliers are still experimenting with new chemistries and ramping up production capacity, which means there’s still room for more significant price cuts.
Fluence Energy Inc., a grid-scale storage developer, has seen delays and increased costs to ship batteries from its contract manufacturing facility in Vietnam, but the company doesn’t expect that to last.
“This backlog that has been created is really being worked through,” said Chief Financial Officer Dennis Fehr.
While some of the supply-chain issues bedeviling renewables developers are easing, George Bilicic, head of global power, energy and infrastructure for Lazard Ltd., said the industry is undergoing permanent changes. Without any new technological breakthroughs or major consolidation, prices are stabilizing.“The story about big cost declines is that large cost declines won't be the story anymore," Bilicic said.
Study: Drug-resistant bacteria kill 1.2 million globally
This scanning electron microscope image made available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows rod-shaped Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria. According to a report published Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022, in the medical journal Lancet, antibiotic-resistant germs caused more than 1.2 million deaths globally in one year, according to new research that suggests that so-called “superbugs” have joined the ranks of the world’s leading infectious disease killers.
(Janice Haney Carr/CDC via AP) MIKE STOBBE Thu, January 20, 2022
NEW YORK (AP) — Antibiotic-resistant germs caused more than 1.2 million deaths globally in one year, according to new research that suggests that these “superbugs" have joined the ranks of the world's leading infectious disease killers.
The new estimate, published Thursday in the medical journal Lancet, is not a complete count of such deaths, but rather an attempt to fill in gaps from countries that report little or no data on the germs' toll.
The World Health Organization has been citing a global estimate — several years old — that suggested at least 700,000 people die each year due to antimicrobial-resistant germs. But health officials have long acknowledged that there's been very little information from many countries.
Antimicrobial resistance happens when germs like bacteria and fungi gain the power to fight off the drugs that were designed to kill them. The problem is not new, but attention to it has grown amid worries about a lack of new drugs to fight the germs.
WHO officials said in a statement that the new study “clearly demonstrates the existential threat” that drug-resistant germs pose.
In the last few decades, health officials have tried to step up efforts to find funding and solutions. That includes trying to get a better handle on the toll. In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control in 2019 estimated that more than 35,000 Americans die each year from antibiotic-resistant infections — or about 1% of the people who develop such infections.
In the new paper, the researchers estimated deaths linked to 23 germs in 204 countries and territories in 2019. They used data from hospitals, surveillance systems, other studies and other sources to produces death estimates in all parts of the world.
They concluded that more than 1.2 million people died in 2019 from antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections, which are a large subset of a resistance problem also seen in drugs that target fungi and viruses.
The estimate — which includes drug-resistant tuberculosis deaths — suggests the annual toll of such germs is higher than such global scourges as HIV and malaria.
"Previous estimates had predicted 10 million annual deaths from antimicrobial resistance by 2050, but we now know for certain that we are already far closer to that figure than we thought," said study co-author Christopher Murray, of the University of Washington, in a statement.
Christine Petersen, a University of Iowa epidemiologist, described the new paper's methodology as “state of the art.” But she noted the authors were nevertheless forced to make large assumptions about what's happening in places where data is scarce, such as sub-Saharan Africa.
“They really have no idea in those areas,” Petersen said.
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The Associated Press Health & Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Fly-tipping: Government plans to tackle 'new narcotics' of waste crime
Jonah Fisher - Environment correspondent Fri, January 21, 2022 Waste dumped in a car park
The government has announced plans to tackle what the head of the Environment Agency has called the "new narcotics" of fly-tipping and waste crime.
The proposals would see checks on who is able to handle and dispose of waste, as well as a digital tracking system.
Fly-tipping is the illegal dumping of rubbish, like mattresses and bags of waste, in parks, or on pavements.
There were 1.13 million fly-tipping incidents in England in 2020-21, a rise of 16% on the previous 12 months.
The government says its reforms will address flaws in part of England's waste disposal system, the Environment Agency's Carrier, Broker and Dealer registration scheme (CBD).
The consultation on reforms covers England only, but the mandatory digital waste tracking will be UK-wide. 'I registered my dead dog'
If you want someone to come to your house and pick up an old sofa or rubbish, they are supposed to be registered on the CBD database, and you should be able to go online to check they are legal.
The problem with the CBD system is that there appear to be almost no checks made on who can register, as Mike Brown, who runs an environmental consultancy company, discovered. Back in 2017 he successfully registered his dead dog to highlight the many flaws in the system.
"Oscar, our beloved highland terrier, died in 2006. Frankly we were very surprised at just how easy it was to register him as a waste carrier in just 15 minutes for £154," he explained. To expose flaw in the system, Mike Brown registered his dead dog Oscar as a waste collector
"The reason the system is broken is that, over the last decade, the funding for the waste regulator has reduced at exactly the time that these inadequate rules are being tested by criminals, whose proceeds from crime have increased."
The system hasn't changed since then. If you've got the money to spare, you can register yourself or your pets to take away rubbish. A Guardian columnist even registered his goldfish.
It's helped created what Environment Agency head Sir James Bevan has called the "new narcotics" of waste crime.
Disposing of waste legally costs money, whether in landfill tax or the fees paid for it to be processed or recycled. So fly-tipping criminals make money by undercutting the prices of legal operators, and then simply dumping the load without paying any of the fees.
"Organised crime has emerged in this sector because it is in essence low-risk and high-reward," Sam Corp, head of regulation at the Environmental Services Association, told BBC News.
To count as fly-tipping, waste must be larger than a black bin's worth. If less, it's considered a littering offence
If caught fly-tipping a person can receive a penalty fine or even go to prison
On-the-spot fines start at £400 and have been known to increase to £50,000
Households can also be fined indirectly if they pass their waste on to an unlicensed party who then dumps it
On public land it is the responsibility of the local council to clear it up and prosecute. Last year, nearly half a million investigations and prosecutions were carried out
Martin Montague is what can best be described as an anti-fly tipping vigilante. Fed up with the regular dumping of waste outside his home in Hampshire, he set up the Clearwaste website and app where people can report fly-tipping.
"We get something new every few minutes," he says, as he scrolls through pictures of asbestos, sofas, broken wood and bursting bin bags that have been abandoned across the UK. Martin Montague set up a website where people can report fly-tipping
Mr Montague passes on his information to local councils, but has also developed the appetite for trying to gather evidence to try to catch those responsible.
"I'd probably put some cameras in here," he tells me, as he walks alongside a shallow stream near Romsey. It's full of rubbish, both bin bags and sheets of asbestos, some of it with yellow tape marked "dangerous" on it.
"It's lucrative because the penalties are so little. Are you going to deal drugs and risk doing hard time, or fly-tip on a large-scale basis? It's a good cash generator."
The government consultation on waste crime is looking at two key areas. Firstly it proposes to introduce background checks into the CBD registration system, with those given permits having to demonstrate they were competent.
Secondly it would introduce digital waste tracking - which would means those handling waste would have to record information from the point waste is produced to the stage it is disposed of, or recycled and reused.
Waste and resources minister Jo Churchill told the BBC the reforms were aimed at cracking down on those responsible for waste crimes.
"People need to be able to see that [they are using] an authorised carrier, and that they have surety that their waste is going to be disposed of properly," she said.
