U.S. House panel turns to oil majors' boards in next climate probe

 A view of the ExxonMobil Baton Rouge Refinery in Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Fri, January 21, 2022
By Valerie Volcovici

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A U.S. congressional committee has invited board members at four oil majors to testify about the industry's role in climate change and spreading "disinformation," turning up the heat after lawmakers grilled CEOs last year.

The hearing of officials from Exxon, Shell, Chevron and BP who were elected to spur change at these companies over environmental issues is scheduled for Feb. 8.

It is the next phase of a House oversight committee investigation into the role of fossil fuel companies in blocking action on climate change and misrepresenting the industry's efforts to address it.

The panel concluded the first of these hearings last year featuring the CEOS of oil majors by issuing subpoenas https://www.reuters.com/business/cop/us-congress-puts-big-oil-hot-seat-climate-deception-probe-2021-10-28 for documents on what company scientists have said about climate change and any funds spent to mislead the public on global warming.

"We’ve only begun our investigation into the fossil fuel industry’s role in causing the climate crisis and spreading disinformation," panel chair U.S. Representative Carolyn Maloney said in a statement on Friday.

By turning its sights on on climate change-focused board members, the committee plans to scrutinize corporate pledges to cut emissions and invest in cleaner energy sources.

"These are board members who ran on changing these institutions from the inside," chair of the oversight panel's environment subcommittee Ro Khanna told Reuters. "They will have to chose between their life convictions or fealty to their CEOs."

Among the board members selected to testify include Alexander Karsner, https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/engine-no-1-win-third-seat-exxon-board-based-preliminary-results-2021-06-02 a strategist at Google owner Alphabet Inc who took one of three seats for activist hedge fund Engine No. 1 on Exxon's board to address growing investor concerns about global warming.

The committee also sent a letter to Susan Avery, an atmospheric scientist and former president of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and brought on to Exxon's board as a climate expert in 2017.

The letters said board members play a key role in holding management accountable to meaningful emissions reductions.

Each of the four companies invited have announced net zero emission targets by 2050 and said their plans are aligned with the goals of the Paris agreement.

The panel will focus on the fact that the companies' net zero plans are mostly focused on their internal operations, not on the emissions released when consumers burn the fuels they produce.

Exxon spokesperson Casey Norton did not comment on the new hearing but said the company has "provided (committee) staff with more than 200,000 pages of documents, including board materials and internal communications."

The board members were not immediately available for comment.

(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell, John Stonestreet and Mark Porter)

Myanmar military arrests more journalists in media crackdown-editor


FILE PHOTO: Soldiers stand next to military vehicles 

as people gather to protest against the military coup, in Yangon

Thu, January 20, 2022, 

(Reuters) - Myanmar's military has arrested three people working for the independent news portal Dawei Watch, an editor at the publication said on Thursday, the latest detentions under a media crackdown that has occurred since last year's coup.

Moe Myint, a 35-year-old journalist and a mother-of-three, was detained on Tuesday in Dawei, a city in southern Myanmar, said the editor, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue.

Another journalist, Ko Zaw, 38, and Thar Gyi, a 21-year-old web designer at the publication, were arrested on Wednesday.

"They are currently being held at a police station in Dawei and the reason for their arrest is still unknown," said the editor, who called for them to be released immediately.

A spokesman for the ruling military junta did not respond to a request for comment.

The junta has previously said it respected the role of the media but would not allow reporting it deemed false or likely to cause public unrest.

The military has rescinded media licences, imposed curbs on internet and satellite broadcasts and arrested dozens of journalists since its Feb. 1 coup.

Myanmar ranked as the world's second-worst jailer of journalists in a report published by the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Reporting ASEAN, a Southeast Asia media advocacy group, said since the coup 115 journalists had been detained and 44 remained in detention and three had died.

Some foreign journalists have also bee detained, includingAmerican journalist Danny Fenster https://www.reuters.com/world/american-journalist-fenster-out-prison-myanmar-employer-says-2021-11-15, who was the managing editor of independent online magazine Frontier Myanmar.

Fenster was sentenced to 11 years in prison last November for incitement and violations of laws on immigration and unlawful assembly, before being released following negotiations between former U.S. diplomat Bill Richardson and the junta.

(Reporting by Reuters Staff; Editing by Ed Davies and Alex Richardson)

When it comes to the current job market, maybe employees are not the problem



Liz Carey
Fri, January 21, 2022, 6:52 AM·4 min read

For several months now, we’ve been hearing from businesses and corporations that no one wants to work.

In fact, I’ve heard some people say: “There are plenty of good jobs out there making more than $15 an hour. If people aren’t taking them, it’s because they can make more at home on government hand-outs.”

I beg to differ. I’m beginning to think it’s not the workers who are at fault here.

I’ve watched over the past few months as my son works to get a better paying entry-level job. It has been eye-opening.

He’s in college part-time, and wants to work full-time so he can get an apartment on his own. He had a job, but it was only part-time and barely covered his bills — car, cell phone, insurance, et al. Before he set out to find another job, he crunched the numbers.

The average cost of a one-bedroom apartment in Lexington is around $650. Adding in utilities, car, insurance, cell phone, internet access, groceries, and other necessities, his monthly budget comes to about $2,000. In order to make ends meet, he needed a job paying $17 an hour.

First he looked for jobs making $18 to $21 an hour. A national delivery firm posted that it was hiring thousands of people for $21 an hour. When he looked into it further, the $21 an hour job was only for third shift, and only after you started working full-time, which could take a year or more to get to. In fact, few of the positions they were filling were full-time and none of them paid the $21 an hour advertised. Currently, the same company has seven positions open in Lexington. All but two are part-time.

For a month, my son put in at least two applications a day for entry-level jobs – 47 applications in all. Of the eight responses he got back, three said the job was part-time and at a lower rate than they advertised. Two companies said he’d be working as an independent contractor. And one said he’d be paid by the job when they had work for him to do, but that it would work out to an hourly rate in the end.

Even highly qualified candidates are saying they’re struggling to find jobs in an economy where businesses are screaming that they can’t get anyone to work for them.

In September, Tim Glaza, an Eagle Scout and college graduate with a degree in operations and supply-chain management told Business Insider that his numerous applications to positions in his field had received no response, despite companies saying they were desperate for employees.

In fact, when hiring platform Indeed polled job seekers last year, it found that 77 percent got no response from any of the companies they applied to.

When my son did get positions through networking, he found he didn’t get what he was promised. In one instance, he was told he would get paid more than the job he was leaving. When he got his paycheck, it was for less than he had previously made. When he approached his boss about it, he was told “We’re barely making it. We can’t afford to pay you more.”

At another position, he was promised $2 more an hour, but then shifted to a different position after he started work, where they paid him less, and at part-time hours.

And it’s not just him. I’ve heard from others who say they were promised one hourly rate and paid another. And I work with one woman who said she was offered positions, but all of them were part-time. In order to manage her child care needs and pay the bills, she opted to start her own business instead.

The economy is not what it was in 2019, I get that. Companies are struggling right now, I get that too. And I understand that the supply chain issues are driving up costs for companies as well.

But at the same time, corporations posted RECORD profits in 2021. According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, profits in the U.S. rose 3.4 percent to a record high of $2.52 trillion in the third quarter of 2021. Analysts attribute the profits to a rebounding economy, and on the government subsidies given to businesses as part of relief efforts.

“No one wants to work”, but companies aren’t talking to people who want jobs.

“We can’t afford to pay you what you want/need to live”, but companies are making record profits.

“The government subsidies are making people not want to work”, but companies are making record profits because of government subsidies.

I’m beginning to think that maybe it’s not the workers who are at fault here.

Liz Carey is an author, freelance reporter and writing instructor living in Lexington, Ky.

NASA's Swift Observatory may have suffered an attitude control failure



Jon Fingas
·Weekend Editor
Thu, January 20, 2022

NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory has run into difficulties after 17 years of largely smooth service. The orbiting explorer has entered safe mode after detecting a "possible failure" in one of the six reaction wheels used to change attitude. While it's not clear exactly what (if anything) went wrong, NASA has halted direction-based scientific observations until it can either give the all-clear or continue operations with five wheels.

This is the first potential reaction wheel problem since the Swift Observatory began operations in February 2005, NASA said. The rest of the vehicle is otherwise working properly.

The Swift Observatory has played an important role in astronomy over the past two decades. It was primarily built to detect gamma-ray bursts and detects roughly 70 per day. However, it has increasingly been used as a catch-all observer across multiple wavelengths, spotting solar flares and hard-to-find stars. NASA won't necessarily run into serious trouble if Swift has a lasting problem, but it would clearly benefit from keeping the spacecraft running as smoothly as possible.

  

James Webb Space Telescope team announces deployment of all mirrors

Julia Musto
Thu, January 20, 2022

The James Webb Space Telescope hit another milestone this week; NASA announced that the $10 billion observatory's 18 hexagonal mirror segments and its secondary mirror have been fully deployed.

"Just in from the @NASAWebb team: All 18 primary mirror segments and the secondary mirror are now fully deployed!" NASA Administrator Bill Nelson wrote in a Wednesday tweet. "Congratulations to the teams that have been working tirelessly since launch to get to this point. Soon, Webb will arrive at its new home, L2!"

JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE IS FULLY DEPLOYED

The process began last week, with the team moving the segments individually from their launch positions.

In a blog update, Erin Wolf – the Webb program manager at Ball Aerospace – wrote that the motors had made over a million resolutions this week, controlled through 20 cryogenic electronics boxes on the telescope.

"The mirror deployment team incrementally moved all 132 actuators located on the back of the primary mirror segments and secondary mirror," she said. "The primary mirror segments were driven 12.5 millimeters away from the telescope structure. Using six motors that deploy each segment approximately half the length of a paper clip, these actuators clear the mirrors from their launch restraints and give each segment enough space to later be adjusted in other directions to the optical starting position for the upcoming wavefront alignment process."

CITIZEN SCIENTISTS FIND 'JUPITER-LIKE' PLANET, NASA SAYS

The 18 radius of curvature (ROC) actuators were also moved from their launch position.

"Even against beryllium’s strength, which is six times greater than that of steel, these ROC actuators individually shape the curvature of each mirror segment to set the initial parabolic shape of the primary mirror," she noted.

Next, Wolf said the team would be moving mirrors in the micron and nanometer ranges to reach the final optical positions for an aligned telescope.

The process of alignment will take approximately three months.

The telescope, which has been in space for nearly a full month and is a joint venture with the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency, also has to complete a trajectory burn that will send the observatory into orbit around a spot called the Earth-sun Lagrange point 2, or L2.

The agency's timeline has this set for Jan. 23.

‘Fatwa’ Issued Against Bitcoin As Crypto gets Declared Haram in Indonesia


Aaryamann Shrivastava
Thu, January 20, 2022, 8:47 AM·2 min read

The most recent announcement from the country has brought a lot of questions to mind pertaining to the acceptance of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. If not legally can this become a method of obstruction now?

Indonesia Against Bitcoin?

Tajdid Central Leadership (PP) Muhammadiyah along with the Tarjih Assembly today issued a fatwa against cryptocurrencies. According to the fatwa, the use of Bitcoin and other such coins for investment and payment is considered haram.

The Muhammadiyah Tarjih Assembly stated that “The Tarjih Fatwa stipulates that the legal cryptocurrency is haram both as an investment tool and as a medium of exchange”

The reasons revealed behind the fatwa fall back to the same reasons why regulations on cryptocurrencies are being considered. Albeit these reasons are more religiously motivated than legally.

As per the Islamic Sharia cryptocurrencies’ speculative nature is a huge shortcoming. The volatility of currencies such as Bitcoin and such makes it haram.

Secondly using such volatile assets is obscure according to the fatwa. Since cryptocurrencies are not backed by any physical asset, it becomes gharar.

Majelis Tarjih and Tajdid PP Muhammadiyah further added that,

“This speculative and gharar nature is forbidden by sharia as the Word of Allah and the Hadith of the Prophet (peace be upon him) and does not meet the values and benchmarks of Business Ethics according to Muhammadiyah, especially these two points, namely: there should be no gharar (HR). Muslim) and there should be no maisir (QS. Al Maidah: 90)”

This is the first time that the objections are arising out of religious stipulations. And although this isn’t an established pattern, many Islam-dominated countries such as Algeria, Bangladesh, Egypt, Iraq, Morocco, Nepal, Qatar, and Tunisia previously absolutely banned cryptocurrency.

In fact, most recently, Pakistan’s central bank too proposed a ban on all forms of cryptocurrency citing risks surrounding volatility.

As it is, regulations are already becoming a huge roadblock when it comes to crypto adoption. And the use of crypto might further reduce if such objections come from religious provenance as people are more obedient to religious laws.
Bitcoin’s ‘Volatile’ Nature

Ironically, over the past 2 weeks, Bitcoin hasn’t been volatile at all. The king coin has kept its movement sideways bound and continues to head in that direction. Although at the time of this report it is maintaining a strong green presence having risen by 3.72%, it might remain consolidated for a while.

This article was originally posted on FX Empire

Weird chemistry is making the Earth's interior cool faster than thought


Phil Plait
Thu, January 20, 2022,


Long ago — 4.5 billion years ago, right after the Earth formed — our planet was hot. It formed by essentially getting slammed billions of times by asteroids, and all that energy of impact was enough to keep the Earth broiling.

Eventually heavy elements like iron and nickel sank to the core, and lighter ones rose to the surface. This differentiation created the Earth we see today: An inner, solid nickel/iron core that's nearly as hot as the surface of the Sun; an outer, liquid iron core; the solid, rocky mantle; and the thin crust topping it off.

Over billions of years the Earth has cooled. Though some heat is generated through various processes like radioactivity, that heat in the core leaks out. It warms up the bottom of the mantle, which then transports that energy extremely slowly up to the Earth's surface where it radiates away into space.

Phil Plait Bad Astronomy Garlick Young Earth Moon Press


Artwork showing the last stages of the Earth and Moon’s formation, called the Late Heavy Bombardment. Photo: Getty Images/ Mark Garlick Science Photo Library

That heat transport drives the tectonic activity we see on the surface today: continental drift, seismic activity, volcanoes, and more.

So how rapidly that heat is transported is important. A team of Earth scientists just investigated a key property of that transport, and was shocked to discover that it's far more efficient than previously thought. If they are correct (link to paper), that means that heat is working its way out of the core more rapidly than thought, which in turn means the Earth is cooling significantly faster than previously thought.

Don't panic! This doesn't mean we're about to be living on the shell of a frozen planet. But if true it does mean that models of how the Earth works will need to be rethought.

The key here is the boundary between the outer core and the lower mantle. This region is about 2,900 kilometers down beneath Earth's surface — or about 3,500 kilometers up from the planet's center. Below this boundary the core is incredibly hot, over 4,200° C (about 7,600°F), but just above it the temperature drops rapidly, by over 400C. This is the largest thermal boundary in the planet, and the steepest change in temperature with distance from center (what's called the thermal gradient).

The temperature is high, but so is the pressure. All that rock above pushes down on the boundary layer with a pressure of over a million times air pressure at sea level. This changes the way elements bind together, so the chemistry down there is weird. One of the most common minerals on Earth's surface is olivine, which is magnesium and iron bound up with silicon tetroxide — (Mg,Fe)SiO4. But under Earth's surface where it gets hot and heavy, the structure of olivine changes, and it becomes minerals like ringwoodite, wadsleyite, and bridgmanite.

The Earth’s major layers consist of the thin rocky crust, the mantle (very hot but solid rock), the outer core (liquid iron), and the inner core (solid iron). Credit: Getty Images / anuwat meereewee

The Earth’s major layers consist of the thin rocky crust, the mantle (very hot but solid rock), the outer core (liquid iron), and the inner core (solid iron). Credit: Getty Images / anuwat meereewee

That last one, bridgmanite, is so pervasive in the deep mantle that it's actually the most common mineral in the planet. And it's one of two minerals, the other being ferropericlase, that dominates the Earth's mantle at the core/mantle boundary. This means that how rapidly the core can cool depends on how efficiently those minerals can transport the heat away.

These minerals can be created in the lab, but it's very difficult, and it's even harder to heat them and subject them to the pressure necessary to measure their ability to transport heat away from the core.

Assumptions for bridgmanite based on lab work have been used in models of the Earth's interior, but until now the actual thermal conductivity — how well heat moves through it — has never been measured at core/mantle conditions.

And that's what the Earth scientist team did. They created bridgmanite in their lab, then squeezed it with a tiny diamond anvil to an incredible 800,000 times atmospheric pressure at sea level, about the pressure at the core/mantle boundary, and then zapped it with a powerful laser to heat it to over 2,300°C, close to the temperature at the boundary as well. This allowed them to measure how well heat flowed through it, and then extrapolate that to the higher temperature at the core/mantle boundary more accurately than has ever been done before.

This was then added to other heat transport methods already known to see how well the core cooled. Comparing the new numbers to previous ones used in models of the Earth's interior, they found the core is cooling 1.5 times faster than previously thought.

Yikes.

Mind you, this doesn't mean the Earth is actually cooling faster than it was before — and yes, this still means global warming is still a thing — but it's more that older models underestimated that rate. That's important.

The Earth’s magnetic field acts like a shield, protecting us from subatomic particles from the Sun. Credit: ESA

It means, for example, the mantle is convecting more vigorously than thought. It's a misconception that the mantle is a liquid; it's actually solid, but it can flow, in a way. Heat from below forces material to fill in cracks and voids in the crystal structure of the minerals above — this is called dislocation creep, a term I love — so in essence hotter material rises and cooler material sinks: convection. This flow is incredibly slow, taking a year on average just to move two centimeters, less than the length of the tip of a finger!

That rate depends on how well heat flows from the core, and now we see heat flows faster, which means convection in the mantle is faster than thought as well. The mantle flow is what drives movement in Earth crust, including plate tectonics, earthquakes and volcanoes, which shape the planet's surface.

All of this depends on the heat balance of the planet: How hot the core is, how much heat is still being generated, how well that heat leaks out, and how well it radiates away into space from the surface. These new measurements mean the old models have to be adjusted — perhaps radioactivity is providing more heat than thought, to accommodate the higher transfer out of the core — and then the equations worked out again to see what this means for the mantle deep beneath our feet.

But the effects are very much felt where we stand. From seismic action to the generation of Earth's magnetic field, it all depends on what's going on deep below. So, deep, in fact, that we can't hope at the moment to test things in situ. Our understanding has to come from models based on the physics, and the numbers have to come from the lab. When a number gets changed, so do the values of the equations.

Humans may never visit this region of the planet nearly halfway down to the center except in science-fiction movies, but we can still get an understanding of what's occurring down there. Experiments like this one will help us get there, at least in our physics.

Trump Solicited Hedge Funds, Family Offices for $1 Billion PIPE



Gillian Tan, Layan Odeh and Hema Parmar
Thu, January 20, 2022

(Bloomberg) -- When former President Donald Trump said in December that his nascent media company was raising $1 billion from a diverse group of institutional investors, the announcement was highly unusual in that it omitted the participants’ names.

A month later, no firm has announced it made the investment, but people familiar with the fundraising say it came from hedge funds, Canadian money managers and family offices that manage fortunes for ultra-wealthy clans.

Some of these investors include Chicago-based Pentwater Capital Management and MMCAP, a fund advised by MM Asset Management and overseen by Toronto-based Spartan Fund Management, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

They were among 36 investors that committed to the so-called private investment in public equity, or PIPE, that Digital World Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company, raised as part of its merger with Trump Media & Technology Group.

Representatives for TMTG, Digital World, the SPAC’s underwriter, EF Hutton, as well as Pentwater, Spartan and MMCAP didn’t reply to requests for comment.

Wall Street has largely sought to distance itself from Trump after he incited an insurrection in the U.S. Capitol and was banished from social media platforms.

Those approached to invest in the PIPE who declined to participate, include Millennium Management, Balyasny Asset Management, Apollo Global Management Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Highbridge Capital Management, the New York Times reported earlier Thursday.

When Digital World, led by Chief Executive Officer Patrick Orlando, revealed in October it was investing in Trump Media, several hedge funds that backed the SPAC, such as Lighthouse Investment Partners, Saba Capital Management and D.E. Shaw, sold their shares, even as the stock was soaring on the news.

“Many investors are grappling with hard questions about how to incorporate their values into their work,” Saba’s Boaz Weinstein said at the time. “For us, this was not a close call.”

A PIPE is an important part of a SPAC transaction and relies on institutional investors who can help it go through if early backers redeem their shares. The firms involved typically want to disclose the names of the investors because it gives the deal more credibility.

That didn’t happen with the Trump PIPE, though the terms are likely to be lucrative, with minimal risk.

While Digital World shares traded for $84.06 at noon Thursday in New York, the initial conversion price for the PIPE investors is $33.60, meaning those participating are poised to more than double their money if the merger is completed and the stock continues trading at that level.

The deal isn’t without controversy. The Securities and Exchange Commission has sought records tied to meetings involving Digital World’s board, procedures related to trading and the identities of certain investors.

If the transaction goes ahead, the PIPE will provide Trump’s media company with significant funds to build out operations. It has already added former U.S. Representative Devin Nunes, a fervent Trump supporter, as CEO and plans to start a rival platform called Truth Social.

“As our balance sheet expands, TMTG will be in a stronger position to fight back against the tyranny of Big Tech,” Trump said in a statement last month.

California's battle to cut emissions with biofuels burns in new truck engines




California's battle to cut emissions with biofuels burns in new truck enginesFILE PHOTO: Pump at an alternative fueling station that provides fuel other than gasoline is shown in San Diego, California

Laura Sanicola
Thu, January 20, 2022

(This January 20 story corrects to reflect changes to LCFS would align with carbon neutrality goals; adds line regarding statistical significance of NOx increase in study)

(Reuters) - Renewable diesel is touted as a cleaner-burning fuel, but a recent study has shown the fuel falls short on one measure of reducing pollution from new truck engines - giving pause to California regulators who support increased production.

The state, the largest vehicle market in the country, has aggressively moved to curtail fossil fuel emissions from all vehicles while also encouraging production of renewable diesel - seen as key for reducing emissions in hard-to-electrify sources like trucking.

The efforts are part of California's Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS), a rule designed to decrease the carbon intensity of the state's transportation fuel.

Renewable diesel lowers greenhouse gas emissions compared with petroleum-based diesel. The fuel has also been promoted as a way to cut emissions of oxides of nitrogen (NOx), a harmful pollutant that contributes to ozone deterioration and causes respiratory problems.

However, engines made more recently emit more NOx when running on renewable diesel when blended with 35% biodiesel or more, compared with conventional diesel, according to a study released by California Air Resources Board (CARB) in November.

CARB found in these new technology diesel engines, or NTDEs, running on 100% renewable diesel, NOx emissions increases were not statistically significant compared with CARB diesel,

That could affect the way regulators revise the LCFS, which spurred investment in renewable diesel, made from fats and vegetable oils.

State regulators are considering changes to the LCFS that align with a 2022 update on how to bring the state to carbon neutrality by 2045. The study means regulators could have to consider whether renewable diesel increases emissions in areas with worse air quality.

CARB said it has "identified several questions about the study results" that require further evaluation, and will be accepting public comment on the study until the end of January.

Regulators did not respond to a request for comment.

Heavy-duty vehicles are one of the largest contributors to NOx emissions - a precursor of ozone and particulate matter formation. Improved emissions control technology has helped NOx emissions fall by 60% between 1990 and 2019 nationwide, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Companies and regulators had previously purported that renewable diesel reduced NOx emissions by 10%, citing the results of earlier studies that examined the fuel's performance in older engines.

But trucks with newer engines that ran renewable diesel did not meaningfully lower NOx emissions, according to the study. While these NTDEs are present in only 43% of the state’s commercial vehicle registrations, they account for more than 75% of the miles traveled among the state's heavy-duty fleet.

“CARB threw caution to the wind and opened the door to renewable diesel's unlimited use without having properly studied NOx emissions impact in NTDEs,” said Pat McDuff, chief executive officer at Glendale-based California Fueling, in a public comment submitted in January.

He urged California regulators to reverse regulatory changes that prohibit his company from selling fuel additives meant to decrease NOx emissions in biodiesel.

The state is trying to bring 19 regions into compliance with air quality standards enacted in 2015. In two regions - the south coast and the San Joaquin Valley Air Basin - CARB has targeted lowering NOx emissions as one way of improving air quality. In 2020 regulators adopted a new regulation to reduce NOx emissions 90% by 2027.

Renewable diesel generally cuts greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants, said Tristan Brown, associate professor of energy resource economics at SUNY and advisor on New York's Climate Action Council.

Brown noted most biodiesel blending in the United States is 20% or less. "The real question is what amount of NOx is emitted by NTDE engines at volumes of 10% and 20% biodiesel blend levels, and that is not reported by the study," Brown said.

(Reporting by Laura Sanicola; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Daniel Wallis)

One chart shows how well 

vaccines and boosters protect 

against severe Omicron

compared to Delta

Aria Bendix

Fri, January 21, 2022

Jolanta Gawlik, left, gives Juliana Cepeda the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in New York.Mark Lennihan/AP Photo

• Booster shots appear to be at least 90% effective against hospitalization for Delta and Omicron.

• But Omicron poses a greater challenge to vaccine protection, according to three new CDC studies.

• Omicron increased the odds that vaccinated or boosted people would get infected relative to Delta.

COVID-19 booster shots were effective at preventing hospitalization and death before Omicron started spreading in the US. But protection from a third dose is essential now that Omicron cases are predominate, according to three new studies from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The first CDC study looked at severe cases of COVID-19 among adults in 10 states from August to mid-December 2021, when the Delta variant was dominant, and from mid-December 2021 to January 2022, when Omicron started to take over. During that time, the CDC's Vision Network recorded around 88,000 hospitalizations for COVID-19.

Adults who received an mRNA booster saw the highest protection during both the Delta and Omicron periods: Boosters reduced the risk of hospitalization by at least 90%. But two mRNA doses were far less effective at preventing severe Omicron cases than severe Delta ones, the study found.

The chart below shows how well vaccines protected against hospitalization during the Omicron and Delta periods.

During the Delta period, the effectiveness of a second dose waned slightly after about 26 weeks — from 90% to 81%. A third dose brought that protection back up to 94%.

But protection significantly declined during the Omicron period: A second dose was 81% effective against hospitalization after 2-26 weeks, but just 57% effective after 26 weeks. Booster shots increased that protection to 90%.

Separately, the study also examined nearly 223,000 COVID-19-related visits to emergency departments or urgent care clinics from August 2021 to January 2022. Overall, booster shots reduced the risk of someone winding up in these settings, but protection was higher before mid-December.

During the Delta period, booster shots reduced the risk of a COVID-19-related visit to the emergency department or urgent care clinic by 94% two weeks after they were administered. During the Omicron period, boosters reduced the risk of those visits by 82%.

The findings nevertheless "underscore the importance of receiving a third dose" to prevent moderate and severe COVID-19, the researchers wrote.

Boosters protect against Omicron infections and symptoms, two more studies found

Dr. Carlos Ramirez conducts an examination on Juan Perez, 50, in Oakland, California on May 12, 2020.Jessica Christian/The San Francisco Chronicle/Getty Images

New research also suggests that boosters protect against Omicron infections and symptoms.

A second CDC study found that vaccinated people who received an mRNA booster had more protection against a coronavirus infection in December 2021, when Omicron was spreading in the US, than people who had received two doses or none at all.

However, Omicron's arrival increased the odds that a vaccinated or boosted person would get infected relative to when Delta was dominant.

In October and November, unvaccinated people had around 14 times the risk of getting infected compared with people who had received booster doses. By the time Omicron emerged in December, unvaccinated people had just five times the risk of infection relative to people who had been boosted.

Like other vaccine doses, boosters didn't offer the same protection for every age group: The shots were more effective at preventing infections and deaths among people ages 50 and up than younger adults, the researchers found.

A third CDC study, released Friday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, also found that three mRNA shots were better than two doses at protecting against symptomatic Omicron — though boosters did a better job of warding off Delta symptoms.

HOISTED BY ONES OWN PETARD

Pigs Here, Feed There: Truck Cargoes Stuck on U.S.-Canada Border


Jen Skerritt and Michael Hirtzer
Thu, January 20, 2022

(Bloomberg) -- Pigs bound for slaughter in the U.S. are getting stuck in Canada while their feed is stranded in the U.S. as new trucker vaccine rules exacerbate a shortage of drivers.

A significant number of hog producers are unable to ship their weanlings to Iowa, Minnesota and the Dakotas as trucks have been canceled this week due to a lack of drivers, said Cam Dahl, general manager of Manitoba Pork. 

Compounding the problem, some truck shipments of soybean meal from the U.S. to Manitoba are also being scrapped at a time when producers are relying on the imports to feed their animals after drought withered Prairie supplies, he said. 

“If cancelations continue I’m not sure exactly where there’s going to be a home for all the weanlings,” Dahl said Thursday by phone. New rules that came into effect Jan. 15 require that American truck drivers crossing into Canada be fully vaccinated, though only about half of U.S. drivers have gotten their shots. 

The U.S. is poised to introduce its own mandate on foreign travelers on Jan. 22, which will apply to truckers. The health orders are adding to the North American supply-chain turmoil that was already strained from labor shortages and pandemic-related disruptions. 

Canadian produce importers have said that in less than a week, the new rules have boosted the cost of freight and added to difficulties stocking shelves with fruit and vegetables.

Pork packers in the U.S. already were paying higher prices for hogs after farmers reduced herds, in part because feed prices have soared. Fewer animals moving through the system should keep meat prices high, contributing to further food inflation.

Hog futures in Chicago climbed as much as 2.5% on Thursday to the highest since July.

The hog industry relies on “just in time” manufacturing, and Manitoba doesn’t have the capacity to feed and process a surge of hogs domestically, Dahl said.

 Last year, Manitoba shipped about 3 million weanlings to the U.S. to be finished, according to Manitoba Pork.

“Up until this point, we’ve recognized the need to keep product moving across our borders going both ways,” Dahl said. “We’ve recognized the need to move essential goods and we need to find a way to keep that happening.”

Hungry, Cold Cows in Canada Fuel Rare Buying-Spree of U.S. Corn


Jen Skerritt and Michael Hirtzer
Thu, January 20, 2022, 

(Bloomberg) -- Canada is now one of the top buyers of U.S. corn as cattle ranchers scour for grain to feed their animals.

Dry conditions zapped as much as 40% of western Canada’s grain output last year, sending prices for barley and other crops to all-time highs and leaving a dearth of feed for the nation’s cattle industry. 

The squeeze has prompted Canada to make a rare commitment to bring in about 3.2 million metric of tons of corn from its southern neighbor, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data.

That’s the most in roughly two decades and compares to only 457,000 tons a year ago. Canada’s now one of the biggest purchasers alongside China, Mexico and Japan, and its buying binge is reducing already tight stockpiles of feed grains.

“If you can’t get a car tire, that’s an inconvenience. If a cow can’t get something to eat, that’s a major problem,’’ said Bob Lowe, president of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association.

Chicago corn futures climbed as much as 0.6% to $6.1425 a bushel Thursday, the highest level for this time of year since 2013.

Lowe is using about 40 tons of American corn a day to feed his 5,000 cattle in Nanton, Alberta. The recent cold snap prompted him to buy about 15% more corn than he usually needs to sustain his animals this winter. Widespread drought means there are no local alternatives available, and omicron-related disruptions at Alberta’s biggest beef processing plants have left some producers feeding animals for longer, he said.

“Keeping cattle alive becomes the number one criteria and economics becomes a distant second,’’ Lowe said.

Earlier this week, Canada also made a rare purchase of European barley as there are limited supplies available in the Prairies, and European malt barley is cheaper and better quality than what is available. The northern nation hasn’t imported significant volumes from the European Union since the 2015-16 season, trade data show.

The extra corn exports are bolstering prices for U.S. farmers, but the demand could slow if Canadian farmers recover from last year's drought and boost yields this year.

“This will probably be a one-off,'' Angie Setzer, cofounder and partner of farm advisory ConsusROI, said by phone.