Yukon Energy signs 40-year agreement to buy hydro power from Indigenous-owned energy corp in B.C.

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Agreement is subject to conditions, including federal 

funding of $150 million for hydro expansion project

CBC News · Posted: Feb 04, 2022 2:59 PM CT | Last Updated: February 4

Yukon Energy entered into an agreement to buy electricity from a proposed expansion of the Atlin hydroelectric project. The deal would add eight megawatts of capacity tot he Yukon grid. (Philippe Morin/CBC)

Yukon Energy has entered into an agreement with Atlin, B.C.'s Tlingit Homeland Energy Limited Partnership to buy renewable energy from its proposed $206-million hydro expansion project for 40 years beginning in late 2024.

"It's a pretty significant deal for us," said Andrew Hall, president and CEO of Yukon Energy. "[It] gives us certainty around the details of how we would purchase the power, what price we pay."

He said Yukon Energy will pay less or the same amount it would otherwise pay for electricity generated using liquefied natural gas and diesel.

The deal is subject to several conditions.

Over the course of the next six months, the Yukon Utilities Board will review the agreement and submit a report to the Yukon government on or before July 19, 2022, saying whether or not it thinks it's a good deal for ratepayers.

At the same time, Yukon Energy and Tlingit Homeland Energy, which is owned by the Taku River Tlingit First Nation, will work together to secure $150 million in federal funding that's required for the proposed hydro electric expansion to take place.

Hall said the Yukon government committed to funding a portion of the project.

He added approvals are still required from the Taku River Tlingit First Nation and Yukon governments, more consultations need to take place — primarily with the Carcross Tagish First Nation — and permits are still required in both B.C. and Yukon for the transmission line that will bring the power from Atlin to the Yukon.

Meeting peak winter demand

If everything goes according to plan, the deal will add eight megawatts of capacity to the Yukon energy grid, allowing it to get rid of four rental diesel units.

Hall said one of the attractive features of Tlingit Homeland Energy's hydro project is that it produces energy in the winter. He explained that it stores water in the summer and generates electricity in the winter months.

Yukon set a new record in energy consumption on Jan. 6 this year, when it reached 116 megawatts.

"We need that capacity, those megawatts to meet the peak demand," said Hall.

Downtown Whitehorse in winter, March 2020. Andrew Hall, president and CEO of Yukon Energy, said the agreement will help it meet the peak demand for energy in winter in the Yukon. (Paul Tukker/CBC)

He added the utility will buy on average 31 gigawatt hours of energy from September to May, every year. The amount is roughly equivalent to what's required to power 2,500 Yukon homes annually.

Peter Kirby, president and CEO of Taku Group of Companies, which owns Tlingit Homeland Energy Limited Partnership, said he was happy to reach an agreement with Yukon Energy on what will be "a generational relationship."

"It is a mutually beneficial project for B.C., for TRT (Taku River Tlingit), for Yukon and for Canada in terms of all of us are working collectively, cooperatively to build infrastructure that reduces greenhouse gas emissions," he said.

Hall said Yukon Energy is required by the territorial government to have an average of 93 per cent of its electricity generated from renewable sources on its grid, and has a goal of increasing that to 97 per cent by 2030.

"Atlin is really important to that future and keeping our electricity green," he said. "And that's really important when you're looking to electrify, whether it's, you know, supporting Yukoners to buy electric vehicles or to heat their homes with electricity."

Hydro-Québec Reaches Agreement With

 Brookfield Renewable To Purchase Output

 From Rivière du Lièvre Generating Stations


MONTRÉAL, Feb. 1, 2022 /CNW Telbec/ - Hydro-Québec and Evolugen, the Canadian operating business of Brookfield Renewable, today announced that they have entered into a 40-year escalating electricity purchase agreement under which Hydro-Québec will purchase the output of the Lièvre hydro-electric portfolio in Québec with 263 MW of capacity. The assets will continue to be operated by Evolugen.

Hydro-Québec (CNW Group/Hydro-Québec)

Given the ongoing energy transition, it is expected that demand for clean, renewable base load electricity generation will increase sharply in the coming years. Hydro-Québec is implementing several strategies to address this demand, in particular by contracting the capacity comprised of four generating stations located along Rivière du Lièvre in Outaouais. The facilities will contribute approximately 1.5 TWh annually, which is equivalent to the energy used by close to 90,000 homes.

The agreement involves integrating Evolugen's Lièvre generating fleet, into Hydro-Québec's generation planning. It also includes priority access rights associated with the US market.

"With this strategic agreement, we are adding capacity and renewable energy to our supply in a context of increasing demand in both Québec and neighboring markets. The opportunity to purchase output from reliable hydroelectric generating stations that are currently in operation and already connected was appealing for many reasons. This agreement is particularly useful for us during winter peaks," noted Pierre Despars, Vice President – Corporate Strategy and Business Development at Hydro-Québec.

"We are pleased to sign a strategic agreement with our long-standing partner, Hydro Québec, to contract our Lièvre assets for the next 40 years. This agreement offers a sustainable and Québec-based solution to meet Hydro-Québec's growing renewable energy demand," said Josée Guibord, CEO of Evolugen, the Canadian operating business of Brookfield Renewable. "Our team works hand-in-hand with customers to provide tailored clean energy solutions, like this one, that fit our customers' objectives and reduce their exposure risk."

Deliveries of output from the facilities began on December 31, 2021.

About Hydro-Québec
Hydro-Québec generates, transmits and distributes electricity. It is Canada's largest electricity producer and one of the world's largest hydroelectric power producers. Its sole shareholder is the Québec government. As a leader in hydropower and large transmission systems, Hydro-Québec exports clean, renewable power and commercializes its expertise and innovations on world markets.

About Evolugen
In Canada, Evolugen currently owns and operates 61 renewable power facilities, including 33 hydroelectric generating stations, 4 wind farms and 24 solar farms, for a total installed capacity of 1,912 MW. As a leader in the renewable energy sector, Evolugen offers sustainable solutions focused on accelerating the transition toward Canada's low-carbon future. Evolugen is owned by Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P.

About Brookfield Renewable
Brookfield Renewable operates one of the world's largest publicly traded, pure-play renewable power platforms. Its portfolio consists of hydroelectric, wind, solar and storage facilities in North America, South America, Europe and Asia, and totals approximately 21,000 megawatts of installed capacity and an approximately 56,000-megawatt development pipeline. Investors can access its portfolio either through Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. (NYSE: BEP; TSX: BEP.UN), a Bermuda-based limited partnership, or Brookfield Renewable Corporation (NYSE, TSX: BEPC), a Canadian corporation. Further information is available at http://www.bep.brookfield.com and https://bep.brookfield.com/bepc. Important information may be disseminated exclusively via the website; investors should consult the site to access this information.

Brookfield Renewable is the flagship listed renewable power company of Brookfield Asset Management, a leading global alternative asset manager with approximately $650 billion of assets under management.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-looking Statements
This news release contains forward-looking statements and information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements may include estimates, plans, expectations, opinions, forecasts, projections, guidance or other statements that are not statements of fact. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "will", "expected", "intend", "potential", "can" or variations of such words and phrases. Forward-looking statements in this news release include statements regarding the parties' future expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, financial condition, assumptions or future events or performance, including with respect to the expected increase in demand for renewable generation and annual generation of the Lièvre hydro-electric facilities. Although Brookfield Renewable believes that such forward-looking statements and information are based upon reasonable assumptions and expectations, no assurance is given that such expectations will prove to have been correct. The reader should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and information as such statements and information involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, including the ability of the parties to realize the expected benefits of the Lièvre power purchase agreement, which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Brookfield Renewable to differ materially from anticipated future results, performance or achievement expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and information.

Except as required by law, Brookfield Renewable does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements or information, whether written or oral, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Brookfield Renewable/Evolugen (CNW Group/Hydro-Québec)

SOURCE Hydro-Québec

Cision

View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/February2022/01/c3220.html

Yukon education professionals get 5.35% raise over 3 years in new contract

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Negotiations were 'long and drawn out' because of the uncertainty of the pandemic, says union head

CBC News · Posted: Feb 04, 2022 5:40 PM CT | Last Updated: February 4

Ted Hupé, president of the Yukon Association of Education Professionals, said the new collective agreement ratified by members of his association includes a 5.35 per cent salary increase over three years. (Laura Howells/CBC)

Members of the Yukon Association of Education Professionals ratified a new collective agreement on Jan. 26 that will see their salaries increase by 5.35 per cent over three years.

According to Ted Hupé, president of the association, members will receive a salary increase of 1.75 per cent this year, and 1.8 per cent each of the following two years.

The agreement is retroactive to Aug. 18, 2021 and will be in place until June 30, 2024.

The Yukon Association of Education Professionals (YAEP) represents 1,186 current members including teachers, Yukon First Nations Language Teachers, educational assistants, teachers-on-call (TOCs) and other education professionals throughout the Yukon.

Hupé said there weren't a lot of changes to workplace conditions in the new collective agreement but the association did manage to negotiate an increase in the pay for teachers who sit on health and wellness committees because those meetings take place outside normal working hours.

He said other highlights include negotiating a 7.5 per cent pay increase for TOCs.

"They did not get an increase last time round and they are one of the lowest paid TOCs in the country," Hupé explained.

He added that even with the increase, teachers on call in the Yukon remain among the lowest paid in the country.

Teachers on call will also now receive a regular teacher's pay on the sixth day of an assignment instead of the 11th, as was the case in the previous agreement, Hupé said

Hupé added the association was also able to negotiate an increase in the pay grid for educational assistants, to recognize their post-secondary credentials.

He added that when educational assistants are required to supervise a class because of the shortage of teachers and teachers on call, they will receive acting pay.

Negotiations 'long and drawn out'

Hupé said negotiations between the association and the Yukon government began last May.

"It was long and drawn out," he said.

He said that because we're in a pandemic, everyone was unsure of the future.

"Because of the uncertainty, it wasn't easy," he said. "We all recognized that this is not a flush, prosperous time for anybody."

The Yukon government issued a news release after the collective agreement was ratified.

In it, the minister for the public service commission, John Streicker, said it "benefits Yukon educators while being fair and financially responsible."

"We are glad to have reached an agreement that supports our teachers and school staff in our effort to ensure Yukon learners have the skills and knowledge they need to learn and thrive in schools across the territory," said education minister Jeanie McLean in the news release.

With files from Sissi De Flaviis

Workers at Santa Fe Springs desserts factory continue 3-month-long strike, demanding higher wages

By Anabel Munoz

Friday, February 4, 2022

SANTA FE SPRINGS, Calif. (KABC) -- Elvia Castillo went on strike for the first time back in November 2021.

"Just by seeing them on the picket line, it makes you strong," she said of the now months-long strike at a rally Thursday. For 15 years, Castillo has decorated cakes that end up at retailers like Baskin Robbins, Cold Stone Creamery, and Safeway.

Some supply lines finish as many as 36 cakes per minute, said Castillo. "Our line is between 12 and 11 per minute," she added. Roughly 100 workers are on strike, while a few dozen continue to working, according to the union that represents the workers, Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers (BCTGM) International Union Local 37.

In April, Maria Palomo will have worked at the company for 22 years. She said the long, fast-paced work is tough on her hands, and believes they deserve a fair raise given increased demands for production. They're asking for a $1 per hour increase each year for three years. "It's a union contract and some workers have been there for about 19 years and they're still making $17.80 an hour," said Miguel Perez of the current wages.

Several lawmakers including U.S. Senator Alex Padilla and Congresswoman Linda Sánchez are supporting the workers -- predominantly Latina women -- urging the company to reach a fair agreement as soon as possible. Sanchez's letter cited a study that suggested that in Los Angeles, a single adult must make $19.35 an hour to support oneself, and more if they have children.

Rich Products Corporation told Eyewitness News that workers at the Santa Fe springs factory, Jon Donaire Desserts, make on average $18.21 an hour, and that its offer included a $1.60 cent per hour raise over three years, stressing it's a family owned company that provides workers with competitive wages and high-quality benefits.

A statement reads in part:

"Rich's associates, many of whom are multi-generational and average 10 years of tenure at the plant, currently have a platinum health-care plan, up to 38 days of annual paid time off; and a company-paid pension plan. The company recently presented its last and final contract offer that would have retained all that, and also included wage increases for each of the three years of the next contract."

While the company said its offer includes increasing the percentage of pays for employees health insurance, the union -- which does not dispute the company provides good benefits -- said that under one offer that includes the $1 raise, workers would have to pay more out of pocket for health insurance, essentially losing the raise.

The two parties have appealed to the National Labor Relations Board and for now there is no date to continue negotiations.

‘Our raises have been pennies’: US cake-makers strike for fair deal as company makes billions

Workers at the Jon Donaire plant in California are struggling to cope – so why won’t the factory’s owner raise its offer?

Striking workers at the Jon Donnaire Desserts plant in Santa Fe Springs. In the first year of the pandemic, Rich Products, which owns the plant, reported more than $4bn in revenue.

 Photograph: Myung J Chun/Los Angeles Times/Rex/Shutterstock


Michael Sainato

THE GUARDIAN
Sat 5 Feb 2022 

More than 150 workers at the Jon Donaire Desserts plant in Santa Fe Springs, California, have been on strike since early November over wages, healthcare coverage and working conditions.

The dispute centers on food workers, hailed as heroes early in the pandemic, who are struggling to cope with spiraling costs of living as the company that employs them posts billion-dollar revenues.

Amazon chews through the average worker in eight months. They need a union
Steven Greenhouse

Workers at the plant, which makes ice-cream cakes for companies such as Baskin-Robbins, Walmart and Safeway, are asking for a $1 an hour raise every year for three years with no cuts to their healthcare costs.

Rich Products Corporation, the plant’s owner, has made two offers to the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers’ International Union, which represents the workers. One proposed a 50¢ raise over one year and 55¢ raises for the following two years. The other offered an overall wage increase of $4.10 an hour, but included significant increases to the cost of workers’ healthcare.

“Right now, we’re paying around $130 a month for healthcare. They want to increase it to $480 for a single person and $780 for a family plan,” said Miguel Perez, who has worked at the Jon Donaire plant for 12 years.

“The Rich Corporation is not fulfilling its obligation to take care of its employees. They had us working through the whole pandemic. Everybody showed up to work. We all met our quotas as far as production [is concerned], and now that the contract is up they’re trying to nickel-and-dime us into an unacceptable raise.”

Workers have highlighted the company owners’ immense wealth and profits in their pressure to secure the raises they are on strike to receive. The chief executive and owner of Rich Products, Robert Rich Jr, has a net worth of $4.9bn. In the first year of the pandemic, Rich Products reported more than $4bn in revenue.

Perez also described workplace grievances, including being informed of forced overtime with just a few minutes left at the end of a shift, often being denied permissions to take time off from work to go to a doctor’s appointment, and the treatment of a workforce that is roughly 90% women by supervisors who are mostly men.

“Every week we see a woman coming out of the office crying, because she felt like she was disrespected,” added Perez. “We have a lot of that going on. Sometimes the male supervisors are cursing at them, yelling at them, or even making inappropriate gestures.”

Jon Donaire denied these allegations, claiming the union has never addressed these grievances with the company. “There are unfortunately many stories with baseless claims that we’ve had to refute throughout this process – and we will continue to do so,” said a spokesperson.

It also cited long tenures of employees and an internal survey of workers in March last year, where 80% of Santa Fe Springs’ employees said they would recommend Rich’s to others as a “great place to work”.

Cristina Lujan has worked at the Jon Donaire plant for 19 years. Most recently she was on the cake assembly line, decorating cakes at a rate of around 13 a minute.

Throughout her time at the plant Lujan said production demands have gotten higher and higher but her pay has not kept up with the increased demands on her nor with the costs of living in the Los Angeles area.

“When I started, I was well above minimum wage,” said Lujan. “Now, 19 years later, I’m barely above minimum wage. Our raises have been pennies every contract.”

Workers at the plant make on average less than $17 an hour, compared to workers at a Rich Products’ facility in Tennessee, who are paid on average $6 an hour more.

“I think he [Robert Rich Jr] can afford to pay us the $1 more that we’re asking for,” said Lujan. “Everything is going up, gas, food, rent and we’re living paycheck to paycheck. Everybody’s tired of feeling that frustration and stress daily. Their big company model is based on family first, but the way they treat us, I don’t think that’s the way you treat family.”

On 17 December, workers rejected the company’s contract offer, continuing the strike. Rich Products responded by declaring an impasse in new union contract negotiations and enacting the wage increases they proposed to workers who crossed the picket line, which the company said amounts to almost 60 workers. The company also paid workers who crossed picket lines back pay and a gain sharing bonus.

The union has filed unfair labor practice charges against the company for imposing a contract on the unionized workforce that was voted down by workers, which is currently under review at the National Labor Relations Board. Several elected officials, including the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, 25 congressional representatives and seven US senators, have called on the Rich Corporation to bargain in good faith with the union and reach a fair contract.

“Rich’s is especially concerned about what the strike has meant for striking associates who have now gone weeks without a paycheck, are not eligible for state unemployment benefits, and will soon forfeit the high-quality healthcare they told the company they wanted to retain,” said a spokesperson for Rich Products.

“We are pleased many of our associates have continued to come to work since the strike began and plant production has continued. They deserve the wage increase we proposed and to retain their uninterrupted high-quality healthcare.

“We welcome back all striking workers with open arms and will provide the same considerations to them.”

Guelph CAA workers part of longest CAA union strike

CAA workers strike along Paisley Road in Guelph. Daniel Caudle/GuelphToday

Guelph CAA workers have been on strike since Oct. 29

Daniel Caudle

Striking employees from the Canadian Automobile Association's (CAA) South Central Ontario (SCO) offices have been on the picket line since Oct. 29 – setting a record for the longest union strike according to union stewards on the picket line.

“This is the longest that any union within CAA has been on strike,” said Carolyn Bain, 879 union steward and member services consultant at CAA South Central Ontario, on the picket line Friday in Guelph.

Fighting for livable wages, the unfreezing of wages and the hiring of more staff to reduce the overload,  the strike action by Teamsters Local 879 has closed the CAA Stores in Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge, Guelph, and London.

With negotiations at a standstill, a deal that was under negotiation was pulled from the table and communication between the parties ceased until January.

A meeting to come back to the table is set for Feb. 16, just one week before all CAA stores across the province are planned to reopen on Feb. 21.

“I think it will be the same, minus what we did have negotiated in there, I definitely don't think it will be better,” said Cambridge CAA travel agent and 879 union steward Brenda Wheeler. 

“There’s no communication until January, and then they took the deal we had kind of negotiated off the table, so now we don't know what they’re going to present but we have a meeting with them to come back to the table on Feb. 16,” said Wheeler. “But who knows, it could be the original offer or it could be nothing.”

“We also took on other travel agents that have left the company or went to a different position within the company, we are taking on their files, the member services are doing extra work, short-staffed, they’re just bringing things up of them do to that have nothing to do with their job,” said Wheeler.

Wheeler said the employees at the London location are not currently travelling, however, the Guelph, Kitchener, Cambridge and Waterloo employees are banding together to travel to picket lines.

With the Waterloo location closed, the group has omitted the location, rotating between the three locations. 

The strike action has seen employees on the picket line every weekday, including during the recent snowstorms and temperatures dipping to -20 C.

Tony Tsai, CAA vice-president of corporate communications and services said out of respect for all parties at the bargaining table, CAA will not share or discuss any details in regards to the negotiations.

He added that he had no other update regarding the strike action.

New Study: Gas and Oil Drilling Doesn’t Create Very Many Jobs

Fossil fuel industry groups always emphasize how many jobs rely on oil and gas drilling. A new study shows they’re lying.

Natural gas drilling equipment on the Pinedale Anticline, Wyoming, on June 17, 2008. (Richard Waite / World Resources Institute via Flickr)

BYJULIA ROCK

JACOBIN
02.04.2022

The oil and gas industry routinely claims that it employs millions of Americans as a way to perpetually delay action on climate change. New research shows it’s a total lie.

In 2020, the American Petroleum Institute (API), Washington’s top oil and gas lobby, published a study asserting that a national ban on fracking and federal oil and gas leasing could cost a whopping 7.5 million US jobs. Another API report in 2021 claimed that the oil and gas industry directly employs 2.5 million people.

According to a new analysis by the corporate watchdog Food and Water Watch, the actual number of people directly employed by the fossil fuel industry is only about half a million. Moreover, the Food and Water Watch report shows that the fossil fuel industry has been shedding jobs for years, even with oil and gas output at record levels.

The new report is the latest and most extreme example of how the fossil fuel industry has regularly inflated jobs numbers to falsely suggest that taking much-needed climate action amounts to a war on workers.

In reality, oil and gas companies have gotten ever better at doing their jobs — burning fossil fuels — with fewer and fewer employees. Oil and gas production increased in the United States by a third between 2014 and 2020. In that same time period, employment in those sectors has fallen by a third, too.

“While oil and gas production has overall increased, jobs have not increased in tandem,” explained Oakley Shelton-Thomas, a senior researcher at Food and Water Watch who worked on the report. “So, we’re presented with the idea that there’s a choice between, we have pollution and we also get jobs, but in reality we’re getting more pollution and fewer jobs.”

The Food and Water Watch report presents a very different picture of employment in the fossil fuel industry than the one industry groups like the API have provided to further their political aims.


In February 2020, as Democratic presidential candidates were debating a fracking ban, API released a study finding that banning federal leasing and fracking could cost 7.5 million jobs.

The report, entitled “America’s Progress at Risk,” warned that nearly 5 percent of America’s workforce could lose their jobs by 2022 if these policies were implemented. In truth, only about 0.5 percent of the American workforce is involved in oil and gas. The inflated numbers, according to the Food and Water Watch report, may come from “what appear to be basic arithmetic errors such as double counting and the inclusion of entirely unrelated jobs in their estimates.”

For example, people employed at gas stations — including those who work in the convenience stores attached to gas stations — constituted about half of the jobs that the API said were “directly” tied to the oil and gas industries.

“With regards to the impact of a federal leasing and drilling ban, the 7.5 million number reflects the economy-wide employment impact, not just jobs lost directly in the natural gas and oil industry but across the supply chain as well as jobs lost in other sectors due to higher energy costs,” an API spokesperson told us.

But experts suggest curbing fossil fuels won’t necessarily lead to the end of gas stations. Electric vehicles will need to be charged, and the vast majority of gas station jobs are in food and retail.

That’s true of other jobs API has claimed are dependent on oil and gas drilling, such as organic chemical and fertilizer manufacturing. Fossil fuels are used in the manufacturing process, but aren’t intrinsic to the production of certain chemicals or fertilizers.

“The broad trend is that these industries use oil and gas products as inputs in their industrial processes. But it’s not necessary to use hydrocarbons as inputs,” said Shelton-Thomas. “A bunch of the manufacturing jobs they include are far afield from oil and gas production.”

Meanwhile, “indirect” jobs, and “induced jobs,” or jobs within the oil and gas supply chain or whose wages are supported by oil and gas, account for nearly three-quarters of the jobs that oil and gas companies are claiming their industry provides.

The fossil fuel industry has weaponized these inflated job numbers to delay a transition to renewable energy.

“The oil and gas industry uses promises of employment to gain political leverage, which has impeded the necessary transition to clean, renewable energy,” said Shelton-Thomas.

These promises have informed media narratives and political discussions around climate policy.

During the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, corporate media spent months railing against Democratic presidential candidates who promised to ban fracking, arguing that such a job-killing position would amount to “political suicide,” especially in Pennsylvania.

One such New York Times article cited an API-provided statistic that fracking “supports more than 350,000 related jobs” in Pennsylvania. But according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only about 25,000 people were employed in the fossil fuel industry in Pennsylvania in 2020. And oil and gas jobs in Pennsylvania declined by more than 20 percent in 2020, even while the state produced record amounts of natural gas, according to the Food and Water Watch report.

This is all part of a national trend. Not only have oil and gas companies overstated how many jobs they create, but their job numbers have presented a dishonest narrative of how the boom in domestic fracking has actually impacted the American economy.

Part of the reason for those job losses is automation in the fossil fuel industry, including through collaborations with tech companies to make humans obsolete on drilling rigs. Over the next decade, the number of workers required to operate a drilling rig could fall by as much as 20 to 30 percent due to automation, Kate Aronoff has reported in the New Republic.

During the COVID pandemic, even as fossil fuel companies were raking in federal aid, fossil fuel companies continued to conduct mass layoffs.

There’s another way forward that could be better for workers and the future of the planet. Mounting research has found that, dollar-for-dollar, investments in renewable energy create far more jobs in the near term than fossil fuel investments.

You can subscribe to David Sirota’s investigative journalism project, the Daily Poster, 

Julia Rock is a reporter for the Daily Poster.

Targeting methane “ultra-emitters” could cheaply slow climate change

THE ECONOMIST
by Medium Publishers
February 3, 2022

Feb fifth 2022

ON FEBRUARY 15TH 2018 a fuel properly blew up in Ohio’s Belmont county. Flying overhead shortly earlier than 1pm, a state highway-patrol helicopter captured photographs of a column of flames and a billowing plume of soot and gases rising excessive into the sky from the rolling hills. Although the flames have been quickly put out, the bust wellhead was not patched up for 20 days. A subsequent research utilizing satellite tv for pc knowledge calculated that in that point, some 58,000 tonnes of methane was launched, equal to one-quarter of what Ohio’s total oil-and-gas infrastructure reportedly produces yearly and greater than the annual methane emissions of comparable fossil-fuel infrastructure in most European nations.

Methane is a colourless, odourless greenhouse fuel that makes up the majority of the pure fuel burned to warmth properties, cook dinner meals and generate electrical energy. It can also be the second largest driver of world warming after carbon dioxide, answerable for a minimum of one-quarter of the rise in world common temperatures because the Industrial Revolution. Once emitted, methane molecules degrade in round a decade so they don’t pile up within the environment in the identical manner as carbon dioxide, which might persist for lots of of years.

Slashing methane emissions, due to this fact, could assist cut back the general atmospheric quantity of greenhouse gases and slow the tempo of world warming within the close to time period. Patching up leaky oil-and-gas infrastructure, answerable for 22% of all man-made methane emissions, would assist meet these targets. This has led to efforts to quantify methane leaks.

According to a brand new research printed this week within the journal Science, prolonged blow-ups on pipelines and at wellheads—as occurred within the Belmont county explosion—are behind the discharge of roughly 8m tonnes of methane yearly. That is equal to between 8% and 12% of the estimated whole launched from the worldwide oil-and-gas infrastructure annually. By figuring out and mapping the leaks in such element, the research gives a chance: concentrate on tackling these massive leaks and a big chunk of the world’s greenhouse-gas emissions could be eliminated.

Thomas Lauvaux, an atmospheric scientist on the University of Saclay in France, and his colleagues used imagery and knowledge collected in 2019 and 2020 by the Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) which is flying aboard an Earth-monitoring satellite tv for pc launched by the European Space Agency. The researchers discovered greater than 1,800 single “ultra-emitting” occasions, outlined as producing 25 tonnes or extra of methane every hour. Some occasions launched a number of hundred tonnes of the greenhouse fuel per hour, producing plumes that spanned lots of of kilometres.


Two-thirds of the ultra-emitting occasions have been co-located with oil and fuel manufacturing websites and pipelines; the remainder got here from coal manufacturing, agricultural or waste-management services. Accounting for 1.3m tonnes of methane per 12 months, Turkmenistan was house to among the largest sources. Dr Lauvaux and his colleagues famous that the occasions they documented weren’t included in nationwide emissions inventories and recommend that official numbers could underestimate whole emissions by half. After Turkmenistan, the most important emissions have been discovered over Russia, America, Iran, Kazakhstan and Algeria.

The 8m tonnes of methane picked up within the newest research have the identical warming impact because the carbon footprint of 18m Americans. Eliminating all these emissions would keep away from between 0.003°C to 0.007°C of warming over the following one to 3 many years, in keeping with Dr Lauvaux.

Improving monitoring and patching up leaky infrastructure would even be within the pursuits of fossil-fuel producers in locations together with Algeria, America, Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan. The researchers calculated that firms forgo income of between $100 and $400 per tonne of methane that leaks out.

At the United Nations COP26 climate negotiations, held final November in Glasgow, leaders of greater than 100 nations made a pact to scale back world emissions of methane by 30% by 2030. The least expensive, most cost-effective manner of doing this can be to patch up oil-and-gas infrastructure, beginning with the ultra-emitters recognized by Dr Lauvaux. Inventories like his, and additional knowledge from a brand new technology of satellites able to detecting level sources of methane, are essential steps in assembly these world ambitions. ■

This article appeared within the Science & know-how part of the print version underneath the headline “Methane mission”

‘Carbon footprint gap’ between rich and poor expanding, study finds


Researchers say cutting carbon footprint of world’s wealthiest may be fastest way to reach net zero

EXPROPRIATE THEM!

The least wealthy half of the UK’s population accounts for less than 20% of final energy demand. 

Photograph: Stéphane Mahé/Reuters


Helena Horton

THE GUARDIAN
Fri 4 Feb 2022 

Wealthy people have disproportionately large carbon footprints and the percentage of the world’s emissions they are responsible for is growing, a study has found.

In 2010, the most affluent 10% of households emitted 34% of global CO2, while the 50% of the global population in lower income brackets accounted for just 15%. By 2015, the richest 10% were responsible for 49% of emissions against 7% produced by the poorest half of the world’s population.

Aimee Ambrose, a professor of energy policy at Sheffield Hallam University and author of the study published in the journal Science Direct, says cutting the carbon footprint of the wealthiest might be the fastest way to reach net zero.

In terms of energy demand in the UK, the least wealthy half of the population accounts for less than 20% of final demand, less than the top 5% consumes. While their homes may be more energy-efficient, high consumers are likely to have more space to heat. They also own and use more luxury items and gadgets.

Ambrose said the cost of living crisis was likely to make those on middle to low incomes reduce their carbon consumption by holidaying in the UK, if at all, and by using less fuel. However, those who consume the most are unlikely to have to make such changes.

“It is much easier for richer consumers to absorb these increases in costs without changing their behaviour,” said Ambrose. “Unlike the less wealthy, the thermostat won’t be turned down and the idea of not jetting off on a long-haul flight to find some sun is out of the question.

In most countries, before Covid-19, less than half of people reported flying at least once a year while more than half of emissions from passenger aviation were linked to the 1% of people who fly most often.



On the frontline of the cost of living crisis

“In many ways, the rich are being largely insulated from the spike in energy costs,” said Ambrose. “But addressing excessive personal consumption is something that isn’t on the agenda for the government and policymakers. This is bad news for the planet and our prospects of reaching net zero.”

She said the resulting policy neglect of high consumers was a “missed opportunity” to address inequality and opportunities for carbon reduction.

“Price mechanisms may force low-income households to cut back consumption to dangerous levels,” Ambrose added. “Moreover, high consumption and large carbon footprints are spatially concentrated in high-income cities and suburbs – while their negative effects, such as air pollution, typically spill over into less affluent areas.”

Antarctic fuel-eating microbes may help in plastic clean-up

By Lucila Sigal

 Reuters/NICOLAS CHIARADA Antarctic fuel-eating microbes may help in plastic clean-up

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - A team of Argentine scientists is using microorganisms native to Antarctica to clean up pollution from fuels and potentially plastics in the pristine expanses of the white continent.

The tiny microbes munch through the waste, creating a naturally occurring cleaning system for pollution caused by diesel that is used as a source of electricity and heat for research bases in the frozen Antarctic.

The continent is protected by a 1961 Madrid Protocol that stipulates it must be kept in a pristine state.

The research on how the microbes could help with plastic waste could have potential for wider environmental issues.

"This work uses the potential of native microorganisms - bacteria and fungi that inhabit the Antarctic soil, even when it is contaminated - and make these microorganisms eat the hydrocarbons," said Dr. Lucas Ruberto, a biochemist.

 Reuters/FLORENCIA BRUNETTI Antarctic fuel-eating microbes may help in plastic clean-up

"What for us is a contaminant, for them can be food."

Ruberto traveled in December with other researchers to Carlini, one of the six permanent Argentine bases in Antarctica, going through a quarantine to help avoid bringing COVID-19 to the continent, where there have been isolated virus break-outs.

The team carried out bioremediation tasks, which involve cleaning soil affected by diesel, using indigenous microorganisms and plants, a process that can be used in the austral summer and removes some 60-80% of contaminants

. 

Reuters/NICOLAS CHIARADA Antarctic fuel-eating microbes may help in plastic clean-up

Ruberto said that the team helped the microbes with nitrogen, humidity and aeration to optimize their conditions.

"Basically with that we get the microorganisms to biologically reduce, with a very low environmental impact, the level of contaminants," he told Reuters by Zoom.

The team has now started to research how the microbes could help clean up plastic waste elsewhere. Both fuels and plastics are polymers, molecules made up of long chains of mainly carbon and hydrogen.

"This year we incorporated as one of the group's projects the search for indigenous microorganisms that are capable of degrading plastic," said Nathalie Bernard, a biochemist and specialist in plastic biodegradation.

The researchers collect samples of plastic from the Antarctic seas and study to see if the microorganisms are eating the plastics or simply using them as rafts.

"If we find that it is indeed degrading plastic, the next step would be to understand how it does that, so that in the long-term we could find a way to put together a biotechnology process for low-temperature polymer degradation," Bernard added.

Ruberto said doing their work within the awe-inspiring surrounds of the Antarctic helped motivate the research.

"Being able to investigate in Antarctica is a dream come true," he said. "It is a unique, protected place, with very special ecosystems."

(Reporting by Lucila Sigal; Editing by Adam Jourdan and Diane Craft)

VIDEO Antarctic fuel-eating microbes may help in plastic clean-up | Reuters

Ocean eddies could explain Antarctic sea-ice paradox

by Alfred Wegener Institute

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Despite global warming and the sea-ice loss in the Arctic, the Antarctic sea-ice extent has remained largely unchanged since 1979. However, existing climate model-based simulations indicate significant sea-ice loss, contrary to actual observations. As experts from the Alfred Wegener Institute have now shown, the ocean may weaken warming around Antarctica and delay sea-ice retreat. Given that many models are not capable of accurately reflecting this factor and the role of ocean eddies, the study, which was just published in the journal Nature Communications, provides the basis for improved simulations and forecasts of the future development of the Antarctic.

Global warming is progressing rapidly, producing effects that can be felt around the world. The impacts of climate change are especially dramatic in the Arctic: since the beginning of satellite observation in 1979, the sea ice has declined massively in the face of rising global temperatures. According to the latest simulations, the Arctic could be consistently ice-free in summer before 2050, and in some years even before 2030.

Yet on the other side of the planet, in Antarctica, the sea ice seems to have evaded the global warming trend. Since 2010, there have been more interannual fluctuations than in the previous period. However, apart from a significant negative excursion in the years 2016 to 2019, the long-term mean sea-ice cover around the Antarctic continent has remained stable since 1979. As such, the observable reality does not match the majority of scientific simulations, which show a significant sea-ice loss over the same timeframe.

"This so-called Antarctic sea-ice paradox has preoccupied the scientific community for some time now," says first author Thomas Rackow from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI). "The current models cannot yet correctly describe the behavior of the Antarctic sea ice; some key element seems to be missing. This also explains why the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, concludes that the confidence level for model-based projections of future Antarctic sea ice is low." In contrast, the models are already so reliable in the Arctic that the IPCC ascribes a high confidence level to their projections. "With our study, we now provide a basis that could make future projections for Antarctica much more reliable."

In the course of the study, the team applied the AWI Climate Model (AWI-CM). Unlike other climate models, the AWI-CM allows certain key regions like the Southern Ocean to be simulated in far more detail—or in other words, in high resolution. As a result, mixing processes in the ocean, caused by smaller ocean eddies with diameters of 10 to 20 kilometers, can also be directly included.

"We used a broad range of configurations for our simulations. In the process, it became clear that only those simulations with a high-resolution description of the Southern Ocean encircling the Antarctic produced delayed sea-ice loss similar to what we are seeing in reality," says Rackow. "When we then extended the model into the future, even under a highly unfavorable greenhouse-gas scenario the Antarctic sea-ice cover remains largely stable until mid-century. After that point the sea ice retreats rather rapidly, just as the Arctic sea ice has been doing for decades."

As such, the AWI study offers a potential explanation for why the behavior of the Antarctic sea ice does not follow the global warming trend. "There could be a number of reasons for the paradoxical stability of the sea-ice cover. The theory that additional melt water from the Antarctic stabilizes the water column and thus also the ice by shielding the cool surface waters from the warmer deep waters is being discussed. According to another theory, the prime suspects are the westerlies blowing around the Antarctic, which have been strengthening under climate change. These winds could essentially spread out the ice like a thin pizza dough, so that it covers a greater area. In this scenario, the ice volume could already be declining, while the ice-covered areas would give the illusion of stability," Rackow explains.

AWI's research efforts now bring ocean eddies into the focus. These could play a decisive part in dampening and thus delaying the effects of climate change in the Southern Ocean, allowing the ocean to transport additional heat taken up from the atmosphere north, toward the Equator. This northward heat transport is closely linked to the underlying overturning circulation in the upper about 1,000 meters of the ocean, which in the Southern Ocean is driven by the wind on the one hand but is also influenced by eddies. While the northward component of the circulation is growing due to stronger westerlies, the simplified eddies in low-resolution climate models often seem to overcompensate for this factor by a southward component toward Antarctica; the explicitly simulated eddies in the high-resolution model display a more neutral behavior. Taken together, a more pronounced northerly change in heat transport can be seen in the high-resolution model. As a result, the ocean surrounding the Antarctic warms more slowly and the ice cover remains stable for longer.

"Our study supports the hypothesis that climate models and projections of the Antarctic sea ice will be far more reliable as soon as they are capable of realistically simulating a high-resolution ocean, complete with eddies," says Rackow. "Thanks to the ever-increasing performance of parallel supercomputers and new, more efficient models, next-generation climate models should make this a routine task."Current climate model simulations overestimate future sea-level rise

More information: Rackow et al, Delayed Antarctic sea-ice decline in high-resolution climate change simulations, Nature Communications (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-28259-y

Journal information: Nature Communications 

Provided by Alfred Wegener Institute 

SHIT FOR BRAINS.....LITERALLY

Why Did a Fish Have Fossilized Feces Where Its Brain Once Was?

It’s the first time a vertebrate’s braincase has ever been found full of coprolites, scientists say.

A ventral view of the fossilized skull of the extinct stargazer fish, Astroscopus countermani, with pieces of the brain case broken away to reveal fecal pellets.

Credit...Calvert Marine Museum

By Jeanne Timmons

NEW YORK TIMES
Feb. 4, 2022

It’s a dubious distinction in the fossil record: For the first time, a vertebrate has been found with fecal pellets where its brain once was.

The fossilized animal was Astroscopus countermani, an extinct fish first described as a separate species in 2011 in Maryland. Also known as a stargazer because its eyes were on top of its head, it was the earliest known member of its family and its genus, which still hunts prey on seafloors all over the world. But approximately 7.5 million to 10.5 million years ago in the Miocene era, scientists suspect this stargazer specimen, which may have been the size of today’s trout, died and its braincase might have been infiltrated by polychaetes or another kind of annelid worm. The creatures may have scavenged the dead fish’s brain, leaving a profuse amount of excrement in their wake.

“This,” said Stephen J. Godfrey, curator of paleontology at the Calvert Marine Museum in Maryland and an author of the study, “was an overachieving worm or worms that burrowed into this little fish!”

Although the stargazer fossil was not a new find, the authors more recently were able to use improved technology to peer inside both the braincase and the fossilized pellets without destroying either. In a paper published in January in the journal ​​Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia, the scientists describe using a spectroscopic device to confirm the calcium and phosphate signatures of coprolites — fossilized feces — in the fish’s braincase.

It’s remarkable, Dr. Godfrey says, that a fish so small survived fossilization. But it’s equally remarkable that the tightly-packed coprolites within its braincase were also preserved. It means that no other ancient scavenger for whom fecal pellets would have meant lunch followed behind those worms.

A present-day example of a stargazer fish, Astroscopus guttatus, or northern stargazer.Credit...Andrew J. Martinez/Science Source

A dorsal view of the skull of Astroscopus countermani, first described in 2011.Credit...Calvert Marine Museum


The Calvert Cliffs where the fossil was found stretch 35 miles along the coast of Maryland. Well-known for its voluminous and diverse fossil content, the site has so far produced fossils of 650 different ancient organisms. They include evidence of creatures burrowing into fossilized remains, shark fossils with shark bite marks on them, shark-bitten coprolites, and whale fossils that indicate they were scavenged. John Nance, a co-author and paleontology collections manager at the Calvert Marine Museum, has found numerous trace fossils at the beaches beside these cliffs, many of which were discussed in the recent paper.

But the micro-coprolites described in this paper have proved particularly enticing for study. Dr. Godfrey and his co-authors noted their uniform shape and size. Similar fecal pellets have been found much deeper in the fossil record, including the heads of trilobites more than 450 million year old.

“We do not know the identity of the producers of these pellets,” said Alberto Collareta, a co-author and paleontologist at the University of Pisa, “but we know that their behavior has proved quite successful.” In other words, the same type and shape of micro-coprolites have been found in similar tight spaces for hundreds of millions of years.

Although large fossils get considerable attention in paleontology, “fossils of tiny organisms, however, often have much more to say,” said Aline Ghilardi, a paleontology professor at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte in Brazil who was not involved in the research.

She says that smaller creatures and what they leave behind — burrows or bodily waste — can provide detailed stories about environmental changes over time.

“Each type of fossil has a different story to tell, and these stories complement each other, helping us to reconstruct a more accurate picture of the past,” she said. “Paleontologists need all these pieces to reconstruct the history of life.”