Drilling vs returns. U.S. oil producers' tradeoff as windfall tax threatens


Liz Hampton
Sun, June 12, 2022, 

FILE PHOTO - Pump jacks operate at sunset in Midland

(Reuters) - U.S. oil producers profiting from sky-high prices are doling out billions to shareholders and building cash reserves, a strategy irking lawmakers and voters struggling with record fuel prices while winning over Wall Street.

Soaring fuel prices have boosted inflation to a 40-year record and are expected to drive up U.S. gasoline by more than a dollar to $6 a gallon by August. That prospect has some officials arguing the industry's focus on returns is benefiting a few at the expense of consumers.

The tradeoff between rising payouts for just a single quarter and more spending on production has deprived the market of nearly half a million barrels of new oil daily, based on Reuters' estimates of potential output if half of existing investor payouts flowed to new oil and gas drilling.

Earnings from major U.S. shale, which accounts for two-thirds of U.S. oil output, could hit $90 billion this year, up from $37 billion in 2021, according to consultancy BTU Analytics, a FactSet Company. Its estimate covers only 32 publicly traded oil and gas producers.

Executives are facing calls in Washington for windfall levies, which could cut into energy profits. A group of more than 30 lawmakers recently urged a Congressional vote on a new oil tax.

U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday slammed oil companies, saying they are intentionally holding off drilling more to pump up oil and share prices. [nL1N2XX1VP]

"They're buying back their own stock, which should be taxed, quite frankly," Biden said.

Executives and investors have argued that fuel prices are set by the market and retailers, not producers. Materials and labor shortages have limited how fast they can ramp up output, and to spend a lot more on new drilling would erode capital efficiency and lead investors to exit.

Though analysts and oil executives do not expect a windfall tax to pass here, Britain recently imposed a 25% oil profit tax to offset consumer energy bills, giving hope to some U.S. lawmakers proposing the tax. And resistance to the tax may shrink as fuel prices soar and corporate earnings follow.

"If the conservative government in the U.K. can support a windfall tax, we should be able to pass" a U.S. equivalent, said Representative Ro Khanna, Democrat of California, and a co-sponsor of the tax proposal.

The goal is to raise $45 billion a year with proceeds funding payments to consumers.

But a windfall tax would kill the incentive to drill more, said oil executives, and take away some of the earnings that fund new technology advances that led to the U.S. shale revolution which turned the United States into the world's top producer. It would also lessen oil firms' ability to raise outside financing.

"This is a terrible idea," said Mike Oestmann, chief executive of shale producer Tall City Exploration. "If you want less of something, or some behavior, or some industry, tax it more heavily."

PUMPING UP OUTPUT, NOT PRICES

Motivating windfall tax advocates is the idea that U.S. energy companies are holding off production to maintain high prices and earnings. Companies returned some $9.51 billion to investors in the first quarter, according to energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie.

If oil producers had spent half of the $9.51 billion on new drilling, it would fund some 660 new shale wells, according to Reuters analysis using energy tech firm Enverus' average costs of $7.14 million per shale well last year.

Output varies per basin but on average, a new well can deliver some 672 bpd of oil, according to BTU Analytics. Based on the additional wells and the average new shale-oil output, production could be boosted some 450,000 bpd.

Those extra barrels could lift U.S. production this year beyond the pre-pandemic record of 12.23 million bpd in 2019. The government projects output to rise 720,000 bpd to 11.92 million bpd in 2022.

MAKING ENERGY STOCKS ATTRACTIVE AGAIN

Between 2006 and 2019, the top 50 U.S. oil producers spent $170 billion more in capital expenditures (capex) than they collected from operations, using debt and equity to cover the deficit, estimates independent oil analyst Paul Sankey.

"Effectively, there were no returns" for shareholders, he said.

Investors last decade shunned energy companies for their lack of returns and knocked their weighting in the S&P 500, a measure of shareholder interest, to less than 3% in 2020, from more than 16% in 2008. S&P energy stocks today are 5.1% with burgeoning earnings on high oil and gas prices.

The change in sentiment came as producers shifted to a strategy of investing just a third of their cash flow into drilling and other capital expenses, compared with most of their cash flow two years ago, according to the latest data from Enverus.

Focusing on shareholder returns over new production is not going away with the rise in energy prices. U.S. crude prices are up about 60% so far this year.

"Not one large public (shale producer) increased capex in Q1 for increased activity," said Kaes Van't Hof, finance chief at shale firm Diamondback Energy Inc, in a recent twitter post.

That willingness to hold the line on production and reward investors via dividends and buybacks "is changing the investment aura,” making energy stocks attractive again, said Matthew Stephani, president of Cavanal Hill Investment Management, part of BOK Financial Corp.

The S&P 500 oil and gas sector is up more than 60% year-to-date, outperforming the broad-market index average, which is down for the year.

Will investors accept a return to higher spending and lower shareholder returns? They will not, say portfolio managers and investors.

"As an investor, I think this is a good balance. The companies have shown they can’t be trusted," said Chris Duncan, who tracks shale firms for asset manager Brandes Investment Partners.

(Reporting by Liz Hampton in Denver; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

Inside the secretive world of shipping Russia's tainted oil


Louis Ashworth

THE TELEGRAPH
Sun, June 12, 2022

Yang Li Hu, a 12-year-old Chinese oil tanker with a bright blue and red hull, was laden with oil as it set sail from the port of Kozmino on Russia’s far eastern tip.

The journey, which began on May 17, was headed towards Gwanyang, in South Korea.

Outside Kozmino, however, it was joined by a larger vessel, Yuan Qiu Hu. Floating alongside one another, the pair underwent a ship-to-ship transfer — an operation experts say can be used to obfuscate the seaborne movement of goods.

With the job done, Yuan Qiu Hu sailed off to Lanshan, China, while Yang Li Hu headed back to Kozmino.

It was hardly a subtle move: the transfer was easily picked up by marine analysts, for whom it was straight out of a familiar playbook.

In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, companies handling Moscow’s oil have done their best to stay under the radar, if they haven’t disassociated themselves. Many feared the threat of sanctions — or being seen as inadvertently aiding the Kremlin’s war.

There are a number of methods. One of the most popular is to ‘go dark’, switching off a vessel’s automatic identification system so its position is no longer broadcast. Such ‘dark activity’ has tripled across Russia-affiliated oil tankers since the start of the conflict, according to consultancy Windward.

Illicit ship-to-ship transfers are another common trick. While cargo transfers are logged at ports, there is no such jurisdiction at sea, meaning it’s easy to hide where a vessel acquired its goods.

Meanwhile, there has been a concerted effort by some Russian operators to get ships off their books – transferring them to alternative owners in a way that may help them avoid future sanctions. Since the invasion started, some 180 vessels have changed from a Russian to non-Russian owner – a far faster rate than in previous years.

It has been a boom time for many European shippers. As international firms such as Shell moved to wipe their hands of Russian oil, a slew of Mediterranean operators stepped in to fill the gap. While Russian export levels are little changed, the make-up of companies handling the oil has.

The volume of fuel collected from Russian ports by vessels owned, managed or flagged in Greece, Cyprus or Malta has tripled since the start of the conflict according to Refinitiv data analysed by Global Witness, a human right NGO.

“If that's not profiteering, I'm not quite sure what is,” says Louis Wilson from Global Witness.

“Right now the fear is pretty low, and the greed is pretty high,” adds Ami Daniel, chief executive at Windward.

But time may be running out. Last week the European Union said it would ban seaborne Russian oil imports, which represent more than two-thirds of all deliveries of Putin’s crude to the bloc, by the end of the year. Greece, Malta and Cyprus pushed back against the move.

It is a difficult step for a Continent so dependent on Russian energy, but one that has seemed increasingly inevitable as the conflict dragged on.

“It's a moral issue,” says Bjarne Schieldrop, a commodities analyst at Swedish bank SEB. “For Europe, it's very hard to swallow that we are giving money to Russia every day, and they can continue to bombard and destroy.”

The decision will prompt a historic shift in the structure of global markets, breaking a relationship that has long underpinned the economies of both sides. Before the invasion of Ukraine, about 60pc of all Europe’s diesel was coming from Russia.

It may have been Britain that added the crucial ingredient to the latest round of sanctions, as it vowed to ban Russia-affiliated vessels from Lloyd’s of London, the insurance market.

Around 90pc of global shipping insurance is provided by the so-called International Group of P&I [protection and indemnity] Clubs, many of which are based in Europe. There’s also a complicated but crucial reinsurance market centred around Lloyd’s.

Analysts in the trading and shipping sector say the ban will drive up costs for companies moving Russian oil, who will be forced into the hands of smaller, less established players and banned from some ports as a result.

There is likely to be stratification as a result, with the emergence of a distinct fleet of vessels whose controllers are either Russian, or have made peace with running fuel for Putin.

“In effect, you’re getting a two tiered market created: those who will do business with Russia and those who won't,” says Daniel.

While shipping Russian oil isn’t currently illegal, that hasn’t stopped traders getting ready for a shift.

Michelle Wiese Bockmann, an analyst at maritime intelligence group Lloyd’s List, says the beginnings of a shadowy fleet that may end up moving Russia crude is becoming apparent.

She has identified a slew of Cameroon-flagged vessels previously tracked moving Iranian or Venezuelan crude, which have recently shifted to conduct operations at Russian ports on the Black Sea or Baltic.

These vessels are part of a black fleet – which also operates under the flags of countries with shipping jurisdiction such as Gabon or Belize – that serves about 2pc of the global seaborne market by moving sanctioned oil on behalf of Caracas, Tehran and Pyongyang. Little is known about how they are insured, and most cannot dock at regular ports.

It’s a tempting model for Russia as its seaborne oil trade prepares for pariah status.

“There's a template there for the Russians to use that has been developed in response to prior sanctions on oil shipping,” says Bockmann.

But it won’t be simple for Moscow. “[Russia is] quite an order of magnitude bigger than Venezuela and Iran,” says Erik Broekhuizen, a consultant at Poten & Partners.

He estimates Russia will need to build a new fleet of more than 70 vessels if it wants to maintain output, adding: “Finding these vessels and arranging insurance for them outside the EU and UK markets could be very challenging.”

Until then, Russia may have little choice but to curb production.

That doesn’t mean the ban will be a clean-cut win for Brussels, however. Planned regulations risk flopping if they overwhelm shipping companies increasingly tangled in a web of international sanctions.

A schism will also have big potential consequences for the global economy.

Analysts at Morgan Stanley say Europe’s move to wean itself off Russian diesel has the potential to leave global markets “tighter-for-longer”. The Wall Street bank says crude oil flows from Russia into north-west Europe are already down around a million barrels a day for pre-invasion levels.

Once contracts wind up and the EU’s embargo on Russian fuel kicks in, Europe will need to find new sources of oil, which won’t be easy given political pressures. Saudi Arabia, the US and Brazil are all likely sources, but Europe is unlikely to find any silver bullet.

“No one region is going to be able to step in and do this,” says Tim Smith, oil and tanker director at Maritime Strategies International.

Meanwhile, Moscow will need to find new buyers or face further pressure to cut capacity.

Widespread qualms over buying oil from the Kremlin have forced its top producers to reduce prices. Urals crude, a benchmark for the country’s oil, has been trading at a discount of around $30 dollars a barrel to Brent crude through most of the war.

This deep discounting hasn’t gone unnoticed by other buyers. India has taken advantage of bargain-price barrels, with its imports soaring to nearly a million barrels a day in recent weeks.

This has gone a long way to offsetting the drop in demand from Europe, meaning total Russia oil exports are fairly unchanged on pre-war levels.

Still, India’s refineries are already at full capacity, and it has long-term contracts with other suppliers including the Saudis, UAE and Iraqis that it may be loath to renege upon.

Chinese companies have also been exploring purchases, although the country’s oil importers haven’t visibly gone on a spending spree as of yet. Warren Patterson, head of commodities strategy at ING, says that may change as China emerges from lockdowns.

Beyond those, Russia’s options may be more limited, but the world is too reliant on Moscow’s oil to leave the country completely in the cold – and as long as there’s a saving to be made, Putin is bound to find buyers.

“If the world stopped consuming [Russian oil], it would blow up,” says SEB’s Schieldrop. “Everyone knows that.”

We Let Monkeypox Spread for Too Long. If It Infects Our Pets, There’s No Getting Rid of It

David Axe

ROLLING STONE
Sun, June 12, 2022

Monkeypox Virus monkeypox-airborne.jpg - 

Credit: Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

There was an undetected monkeypox outbreak already underway in the United States before health officials in Europe and the U.S. sounded the alarm about the dangerous viral disease back in May. That’s a problem. For every day that a virus spreads unmonitored and unchecked, there’s greater risk of it finding a permanent home in a country it was only visiting. In the case of the pox — in our pets.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that there are two strains of the virus circulating in the country, which indicates it’s probably been here much longer than originally thought. It’s not clear when that other outbreak began, but it could have potentially been months ago.

Monkeypox, which causes a rash and fever and is fatal in a very small percentage of cases, isn’t nearly as transmissible as Covid-19. But unlike the novel coronavirus, it spreads easily to and from certain animal populations — rodents in particular.

If the pox currently circulating in the U.S. spreads to rats, hamsters, or gerbils, and becomes endemic in those species, there might be no easy way to contain it. “I do share the other scientists’ concern of containment and the virus becoming endemic in our U.S. rodent population,” sys Stephanie James, the head of a viral testing lab at Regis University in Colorado.

There is some good news. For starters, no one has died yet as a result of either recent pox outbreak. And authorities are better equipped than ever to contain the outbreaks, thanks to large stockpiles of smallpox vaccine (which works against monkeypox, too) and their years of experience with contact-tracing thanks to Covid-19.

More good news: despite some mixed messages from some health experts, the pox is not airborne in its current form. The CDC didn’t respond to a request for comment, but the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control —Europe’s version of the CDC — stressed “there is no evidence of long-range airborne transmission.”

The confusion stems from the scientific definition of “airborne.” Covid matches the definition. Monkeypox does not. The pox can ride a very short distance on spittle, but it doesn’t waft and linger in fine “aerosol” mists from breathing and talking the way airborne Covid does.

The novel coronavirus can travel across a room on aerosols or even hover in the air for hours at a time. The monkeypox in our spit, by contrast, quickly falls to the floor just a couple feet from our mouths. “Respiratory droplets may be able to spread the virus, but it is not what is fueling transmission,” says Amesh Adalja, a public-health expert at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. Instead, the pox spreads through very close contact.

The bad news is we’re playing catch-up. And as that initially undetected earlier outbreak indicates, we’re not even sure how far behind we are. It’s not enough to contain and treat the pox in people. We also need to prevent it spreading to rats and hamsters and other animals.

Monkeypox, which first made the leap from monkeys or rodents to people in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1970, regularly flares up in Africa. But it rarely infects more than a couple thousand people a year — and killed just 33 people during its most prolonged outbreak in the DRC between 1981 and 1986.

When monkeypox spreads in places it’s not already endemic outside Africa, health officials perk up. In 2003, 47 people in the U.S. got sick with the pox after exposure to a shipment of pet rodents from Ghana to Texas. A rapid response by state and federal health officials — and a few doses of smallpox vaccine — prevented anyone dying and temporarily eliminated the virus in the U.S.

The larger of the current outbreaks began in early May, apparently triggered by a U.K. traveler’s exposure to an infected person or animal in Nigeria. Hitching a ride to Europe, the virus spread quickly through close physical contact. David Heymann, who formerly headed the World Health Organization’s emergencies department, said that men attending raves in Spain and Belgium “amplified” the outbreak — apparently through kissing and rubbing skin.

After that, the virus accompanied travelers on planes heading for countries far and wide. By June 2, the WHO had tallied 780 pox cases in 27 countries. The case count since has swelled to around 1,400. Health officials diagnosed the first U.S case on May 27.

As of Friday, 49 Americans in 16 states plus Washington, D.C. had the pox. The CDC suspects some of those cases are the result of an earlier outbreak that officials didn’t even notice until the later outbreak caused them to go back and take a closer look at some patients’ symptoms.

Pox rashes look a lot like symptoms of other diseases, including sexually-transmitted infections, or STIs. That earlier pox outbreak apparently slipped past medical professionals because they didn’t necessarily know what they were looking at. “These monkeypox cases outside of the endemic area have likely been smoldering along for some time, misdiagnosed as traditional STIs,” says Adalja, the public health expert.

That delay in confirming pox cases is worrying experts. Every day that passes in the current outbreaks increases the chance of transmission to pets and pests. If the pox becomes endemic in animal populations, we might never get rid of it. And countries such as the U.S. that once experienced just a few small pox outbreaks every 20 years or so could suffer bigger and more frequent outbreaks, just like countries in Africa already do.

That’s the worst-case scenario, but authorities can’t contain an outbreak they don’t even know is happening. It’s a troubling sign that, in the third year of a devastating pandemic, doctors, health officials and epidemiologists overlooked that earlier pox outbreak, giving the virus a head start in the race toward endemicity in animals. “I think we are dramatically under-testing, under-ascertaining cases and underestimating risk,” says James Lawler, an infectious disease expert at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. “We apparently didn’t learn very much from Covid.”

GREEN GLOWING ENERGY
Purdue, Duke Energy study could provide blueprint for developing future power source


Andy Knight,

 The Herald Bulletin, 

Anderson, Ind.
Sat, June 11, 2022, 

Jun. 11—ANDERSON — With environmental groups continuing to pressure utilities to develop and adopt cleaner and more cost-effective technologies for generating and delivering energy to the nation's power grid, a joint research project based in Indiana may offer a road map for utilizing nuclear energy as part of a "green portfolio."

In late April, Purdue University and Duke Energy announced a plan to jointly explore the feasibility of using nuclear energy to meet long-term energy needs at the university's West Lafayette campus.

The research project focuses on studying power produced through small modular reactors (SMRs), which the International Atomic Energy Agency has indicated are among the most promising technologies when it comes to nuclear power.

"No other option holds as much potential to provide reliable, adequate electric power with zero carbon emissions," Purdue President Mitch Daniels said in a news release.

Although there are no SMRs in commercial production, a design approved last fall by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission could accelerate production, lower costs and improve safety over traditional reactors. Other designs would allow the reactors to be built with the ability to produce between 50 and 300 megawatts of electricity — instead of the nearly 1,000 megawatts generated by traditional nuclear reactors.

"While there are various designs in SMRs, the physics behind the technology is nothing new," said Dr. Seungjin Kim, head of the School of Nuclear Engineering at Purdue and one of the university's lead researchers on the project.

He said the reactors generate heat via nuclear fission, and electricity comes from a conventional power conversion cycle, such as a turbine or a generator. Simpler designs — and thus lower overhead and maintenance costs — along with enhanced passive safety features and similar economic benefits as traditional nuclear power plants are among the most promising aspects of the technology behind SMRs.

Officials at Duke Energy see SMRs as a carbon-free and reliable source of power, which makes researching and developing them an important component in the company's effort to reach a 50% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from electricity generation by 2030.

"If you really want to decarbonize and get to net zero, nuclear has to be part of the mix," said Chris Nolan, vice president of nuclear regulatory affairs policy and emergency preparedness for Duke Energy. "The reason is, you can't rely on coal and gas in a net zero environment and really, nuclear is the only dispatchable generation that can provide power at any time."

Nolan noted that solar panels are dependent on sunlight, and windmills are dependent on the wind — "While those sound like redundant statements, they're very profound when you need to provide power to your customers," he said — and the company currently operates 11 nuclear power plants across six sites in North and South Carolina. Those plants generate more than half the electricity used by Duke customers in those states.

The announcement of the Purdue-Duke Energy collaboration came three months after the Indiana Legislature passed a bill that creates a framework for studying SMR technology. Senate Bill 271, signed into law by Gov. Eric Holcomb in March, provides guidelines for state regulators evaluating SMR projects if utilities decide to build them.

With coal still the state's dominant energy source — albeit declining — and renewables like solar and wind still struggling to win support in many counties, nuclear energy is being touted by some as a logical choice to include in the state's "all-of-the-above" approach to charting its energy future.

Per Indiana law, Duke Energy and other utilities submit updated integrated resource plans to the state every three years. The plans are intended as a 20-year road map, detailing how utilities will meet customer needs and comply with relevant government guidelines for producing and distributing electricity.

Duke's most recent IRP, provided in December 2021, does not mention integrating SMRs or other nuclear power production, but company officials stress that doesn't mean examining the technology isn't a priority.

"In the later years of the plan, we acknowledge that we will need new technology, zero-emitting carbon technology," said Angeline Protogere, a communication consultant with Duke Energy. "SMRs, nuclear, is not part of the integrated resource plan that we submitted, but certainly one of the reasons that we're looking at this is we know that in the later years of our plan, we need to look at zero-emitting technology."

The research project with Purdue — which currently purchases about 50% of its campus electricity from Duke — could also reveal new ideas not only for potentially replacing fossil fuel power plants with SMRs, but also for deploying them to meet energy needs in hard-to-reach rural areas.

"As long as there is pre-existing infrastructure for the power grid, there shouldn't be too many technical challenges," Kim said. "That being said, any desired site should be evaluated for its adequacy for SMRs based on the rigorous criteria set by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, just like all other nuclear power plants."

Climate change: Investment in mining 'needs to nearly double' to achieve net zero, BofA says

Grace O'Donnell

·Assistant Editor

Sun, June 12, 2022, 

Current levels of metals needed to decarbonize economies won't be sufficient to reach climate targets, a recent Bank of America (BAC) note cautioned, and investment in mining needs to double by 2050 in order to satisfy the growing demand for low carbon technologies.

"Raw material markets are tight already and will likely get tighter going forward," the analysts wrote. "Based on the current resource endowment and market balances, we don't expect the 1.5°C global warming target to be achieved by 2050: 1.7-1.8°C looks likely. One solution to resolving shortages and constraints, as ever, lies in investment."

A chart showing the shortfall in metal mining investment. (BofA)

The cost of shifting from fossil fuels to low carbon alternatives won't be cheap, the note stated, citing UN estimates that adoption will cost developing countries alone $140-$300 billion per year by 2030.

"To prevent metal shortages and achieve net zero, mining [capital expenditure] needs to nearly double," the analysts stated.

Due to the urgent nature of addressing the climate crisis, returns could be sizable. Using somewhat simplified calculations, the analysts suggested "the return on mining investment could be an impressive +94- 317%."

Metal supply 'putting net zero at risk'

While markets have tended to focus on copper and nickel, the note highlighted 27 different metals — aluminum, molybdenum, chromium, cobalt, manganese, silicon, steel, and more. — needed to be mined for green technologies.

These raw materials make up essential components for applications that range from renewable energy generation and storage to electric vehicles.

Mine workers wait for the mine shaft lift while 6780 ft underground in the Resolution Copper exploratory mine shaft in Superior, Arizona, March 30, 2021. REUTERS/Caitlin O'Hara

Although many of the technologies needed to achieve net-zero targets have been developed, scaling these technologies will require vast amounts of minerals and metals relative to current levels. Between 2020 and 2030, for instance, the analysts contend that nickel demand could grow by 40% while lithium demand could increase by 38%.

In other words, it appears that demand will outstrip supply unless mining capacity increases — and that supply-demand imbalance could impact how rapidly decarbonization occurs.

"Mined raw materials are key to the energy transition but a dearth of many metals important for future technologies (MIFTs) is putting net zero at risk," the analysts wrote. "The world is only slowly waking up to this threat. And China being the biggest producer of many critical resources exacerbates supply risk for the Western world.”

There are other options that could also help alleviate the supply crunch for these metals, the analysts added. These include battery innovation that uses more widely available raw materials, metal recycling, and nuclear power.

Despite whether or not nations and companies are able to innovate their way to greener solutions or whether they double down on extraction in order to facilitate that transition, something will need to be done to blunt rising temperatures. According to the World Meteorological Association, 2015-2021 were the seven warmest years on record.

"As such, decarbonization is not discretionary, but imperative, in our view," the analysts stated. "Beyond the debate on whether current net-zero targets are ambitious enough, we think the critical question to answer is 'What can we actually achieve?' with the current resource endowment."

Air quality worsens as drought forces California growers to burn abandoned crops

farmers continue the practice because it's cheaper and more convenient 

LONG READ 

Sat, June 11, 2022

Eduwiges Aguayo, a clean-air advocate in the San Joaquin Valley community of La Vina, has encountered smoke billowing from burning piles of discarded grapevines. Open burning was supposed to be phased out years ago, but farmers continue the practice because it's cheaper and more convenient. (Tomas Ovalle / For The Times)

Driving to work one gray morning last year, Eduwiges Aguayo stopped suddenly when she saw columns of smoke billowing from burning piles of discarded grapevines.

Aguayo, who had stopped about a mile from her home in San Joaquin Valley's grape country, called her family to give them a warning: Stay indoors, shut the windows and avoid running the air conditioner since it draws air from outside.

"It looked almost as if it was cloudy, like it was very gray outside," Aguayo recalled of the ashen haze that surrounded her. "But it wasn't cloudy. It was air pollution."

In a region that already suffers from some of the worst particulate pollution in the nation, San Joaquin Valley residents are learning that extreme drought conditions can be as hard on human lungs as they are on local crops.

With periods of extended dryness and water curtailments occurring more frequently due to climate change, growers in California's Central Valley — one of the most productive agricultural regions on the planet — are increasingly looking to fallow fields or uproot orchards and vineyards for lack of irrigation. Once gathered into towering pyres, the vegetation is then set ablaze, sending lung- and heart-aggravating haze across the valley.

San Joaquin Valley air regulators have struggled for nearly 20 years to outlaw the practice of agricultural burning, encouraging farmers instead to grind up forsaken crops in wood chippers and spread them as mulch. But amid a third year of drought, some fear a resurgence in large-scale burning because it's cheaper than grinding, and because so many acres are being abandoned due to drought.

Already, 395,000 acres of farmland have been fallowed across California because of the drought, according to UC Merced research. Industry groups estimate 60,000 acres of almond trees and 15,000 acres of vineyards will be removed statewide this year as well.

“If you’re not able to get water, then you're gonna have a lot of dry stuff that's potentially going to die. And then what's gonna happen with that waste?” asked Catherine Garoupa White, executive director of the Central Valley Air Quality Coalition. “It's easier to just strike a match and light it on fire.”

Home to more than 4 million people, the San Joaquin Valley has earned an unwelcome reputation as a hot spot for air pollution, due in part to its unique geography.

The region is located at the southern end of the Central Valley — which is wedged between the Sierra Nevada and Coast ranges. These ranges help to trap toxins from auto emissions, oil drilling, wildfire smoke and other sources and allow concentrations to build to unhealthful levels. Although agricultural burning also occurs in the Sacramento Valley to the north, it has been less of an air quality problem.

Each year, Fresno residents withstand about 51 days — more than seven weeks — of unhealthful levels of fine particulate in the air. When inhaled, these fine particles, smaller than the width of a human hair, travel deep into the lungs and into the bloodstream, potentially triggering asthma attacks, heart attacks and strokes.

Over the course of his 30-year career as a physician, Anthony Molina witnessed the effects of San Joaquin Valley air pollution firsthand. He is still haunted by the memory of medical personnel rushing a 16-year-old boy into the emergency room of the Clovis Community Medical Center during an asthma attack on a bad air day. All efforts to resuscitate the teen proved unsuccessful.

"He came in, intubated, but ... his lungs were just clamped down," Molina recalled. "And so you just couldn't ventilate him. Trying to pump air into his lungs was like trying to blow up a balloon that would not expand, basically."

The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District uses sampling equipment to monitor air quality in Clovis. (Scott Smith / Associated Press)

Since that episode in the early 1990s, Molina felt conflicted about advising pediatric patients to play outside for exercise, wondering how much the region’s poor air quality was to blame for the highest childhood asthma rates in the state. He wondered how much pollution contributed to premature births that were a regular occurrence at the hospitals he worked in. And when he suffered chest pains and eventually developed heart disease at 49, he wondered how much of a toll pollution had taken on him, too.

While Molina, who retired in 2013, has seen progress in cleaning vehicle emissions, he said agricultural burning remains a major contributor to pollution, despite a law banning it in 2003. At a state Air Resources Board meeting last year, Molina implored the state to end the practice, even if it meant providing more financial assistance to farmers.

Agricultural burning has proved very difficult to stop, however, particularly in times of drought.

In recent years, most of the emissions from agricultural burning have come from vineyards. In 2021, the most recent data available, vineyards accounted for 65% of all agricultural burning.

A pile of grapevines and other agricultural waste await burning in Madera. 

(Tomas Ovalle / For The Times)

Jeff Bitter, president of Allied Grape Growers, said removals and burning have increased due to financial hardship within the grape industry. Recent droughts, Bitter said, have coincided with a seismic shift in consumer preference. A number of California grape products, including varieties of raisins and table grapes, have fallen out of demand.

"What you see in those vineyard numbers was largely due to that shift in the raisin industry," Bitter said. "That same thing can also be said about table grapes, because that was another industry that was very highly dependent on the Thompson seedless variety, which became out of favor in consumers' minds."

In the early 2000s, more than a million tons of agricultural waste was burned in the San Joaquin Valley every year, according to the California Air Resources Board. Hundreds of thousands more were burned at biomass power plants, which were often criticized by environmental groups for emitting pollution and attracting truck traffic.

Officials appealed to farmers to use wood-chipping equipment to convert dead crops to mulch. Many were deterred by the expense, however. It costs about $500 an acre to burn crops, but more than $1,000 an acre to chip and shred them.

In 2003, state Sen. Dean Florez, a Democrat from Shafter, introduced a bill that would phase out agricultural burning by 2010. When Gov. Gray Davis signed it into law, he said he hoped it would curtail air pollution in a region vexed by “air that's easier to see than it is to breathe.”

Initially, the new law appeared to work. By 2011, the amount of agricultural waste burned in fields had dropped roughly 80%.

But, as California entered a historic drought and large swaths of farmland were taken out of production, the trend dramatically reversed. By 2017, the amount of burned agricultural waste had more than tripled, peaking at 900,000 tons. At the same time, biomass power plants were shuttered, perhaps resulting in more field burning.

Due to drought and economic factors, the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District has repeatedly sought permission from the state Air Resources Board to extend the deadline for an end to agricultural burning. Under the state's most recent plan, the air district has laid out a timeline of burning restrictions that it hopes will virtually end the practice by 2025. That now seems unlikely to occur during a worsening drought.

“Increased removal of orchards and vineyards will add strain to already existing difficulties faced in implementing this aggressive open burning phase-out strategy,” said Jaime Holt, spokesperson for the San Joaquin Valley air district. “And of course all of this is happening at the same time the region is experiencing worsening air quality impacts due to increasingly severe wildfires.”

An almond orchard in Madera is shown. It is cheaper for growers to burn uprooted almond trees than to grind them into mulch.

 (Tomas Ovalle / For The Times)

In August 2021, the San Joaquin Valley air district accepted $178 million in new state funding to incentivize alternative methods of managing ag waste, including grants to repurpose dead or abandoned crops into mulch. However, some say more needs to be done if the valley is to end burning in the next three years.

"The rate that permits are decreasing — it's definitely not going to reach zero by 2025," said Myla Kahn, a UC Berkeley environmental engineering student who has conducted research on the problem. "Big changes will be needed to meet that deadline."

Christine Gemperle, a second-generation almond farmer, was a recent recipient of a mulching grant. She and her brother have operated two orchards since 1998 and were forced to make tough choices during the current drought.

"We had to let go and let die," she said.

With too little water to irrigate the almond orchard in Gustine, they faced the choice of either buying water "at a stupid price" and losing money, or uprooting an older orchard a year ahead of schedule.

She hired a crew to excavate the trees, let them dry out for several weeks and eventually run them through a tub grinder that converts the orchard into large mounds of wood chips that are reincorporated as mulch on her property. The process definitely has benefits, she said.

"We have a lot of really sandy soils in the valley, so water goes through them very quickly," Gemperle said. "But when you recycle your orchard, you can change your soil. It increases your water holding capacity by up to 20%, and that's a really big deal. Your trees may go through times where you don't have water. But they're more resilient once you've done the whole orchard recycling."

But she said there are still some instances in which she thinks farmers have no choice but to burn. During the course of a year, fallen tree limbs or downed trees accumulate on farms. However, there aren't smaller-scale and more affordable wood-chipping programs.

Uprooting a vineyard and disposing of the vines can be particularly challenging. Vineyards are an assembly of wooden stakes and metal guy wires that grapevines cling to. When grape growers decide to remove acreage, they must disassemble the trellis and manually cut a tangle of vines from the wiring.

"It's very challenging because there's no easy way to dismantle a vineyard," Bitter said. "You have to do it by hand. You have to hire people and have them take it apart and you have to bring in these big million-dollar machines to process the waste, and that's why people have burned vineyards for so long at the end of their useful life. Because it's just the most practical way to deal with the agricultural waste — the most economic way."

While the challenges for farmers are largely financial, residents who live within these communities say it's also a matter of public health.

"We've actually had community members describe smoke getting into their house and being so thick they called the fire department, because they didn't know if there was a fire near them or what was generating so much smoke," said Garoupa White, of the valley air coalition. "As you can imagine, people get stinging eyes, coughing, burning lungs and throat."

What's more, these fires often occur without warning, leaving communities with little preparation when they are overwhelmed with smoky air and falling ash.

Environmental groups have also called on the air district to publish online when agricultural burns are scheduled so that communities can protect themselves. It's a request that has been repeatedly turned down.

The air district has said its policy on agricultural burns is the strictest in the nation. Most burning happens after the harvest, between late fall and spring. And to lessen the impact on public health, the air district only allows agricultural burns on good air quality days.

Nayamin Martinez, director of the Central California Environmental Justice Network, said the logic behind that rule is counterintuitive.

“Imagine what happens when you have a good air quality day and then they start giving all these permits to these farmers," Martinez said. "Do you think we will still continue to have good air quality days?”

Altali Martinez sells coconuts and other fruit at Avenue 7 and Road 22 in Madera. Worsening drought conditions have raised new concerns that the burning of agricultural waste will not be phased out by 2025. (Tomas Ovalle / For The Times)

Aguayo, the La Vina resident, has called on the air district and other government agencies to establish buffer zones between farmland and sensitive areas, such as homes or schools. They hoped this might put some distance between where people are and areas where agricultural waste is being burned and pesticides are applied.

At the very least, she said, the air district could require growers near these sites to grind up their grapevines or orchards.

Recently, as Aguayo drove to Madera, she saw flames in an irrigation canal filled with dry weeds.

“It just sends the message that they're not thinking about us as community members," she said. "They're just burning.”

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

'We beg God for water': Chilean lake turns to desert, sounding climate change alarm
 

Mon, June 13, 2022,
By Alexander Villegas and Rodrigo Gutierrez

PENUELAS, Chile (Reuters) - The Penuelas reservoir in central Chile was until twenty years ago the main source of water for the city of Valparaiso, holding enough water for 38,000 Olympic-size swimming pools. Water for only two pools now remains.

A huge expanse of dried and cracked earth that was once the lake bed is littered with fish skeletons and desperate animals searching for water.

Amid an historic 13-year drought, rainfall levels have slumped in this South American nation that hugs the continent's Pacific coast. Higher air temperatures have meant snow in the Andes, once a key store of meltwater for spring and summer, is not compacting, melts faster, or turns straight to vapor.

The drought has hit mine output in the world's largest copper producer, stoked tensions over water use for lithium and farming, and led capital Santiago to make unprecedented plans for potential water rationing.

"We have to beg God to send us water," said Amanda Carrasco, a 54-year-old who lives near the Penuelas reservoir and recalls line fishing in the waters for local pejerrey fish. "I've never seen it like this. There's been less water before, but not like now."

The reservoir needs rainfall - once reliable in winter but now at historic lows, said Jose Luis Murillo, general manager of ESVAL, the company that supplies Valparaiso with water.

"Basically what we have is just a puddle," he said, adding that the city now relied on rivers. "This is especially significant if you think that several decades ago the Penuelas reservoir was the only source of water for all greater Valparaiso."

Behind the issue, academic studies have found, is a global shift in climate patterns sharpening natural weather cycles.

Normally, low-pressure storms from the Pacific unload precipitation over Chile in winter, recharging aquifers and packing the Andes mountains with snow.

But naturally occurring warming of the sea off Chile's coast, which blocks storms from arriving, has been intensified by rising global sea temperature, according to a global study https://academiccommons.columbia.edu/doi/10.7916/D8V12DD7 on sea temperature and rainfall deficits. Ozone depletion and greenhouse gasses in the Antarctic, meanwhile, exacerbate weather patterns that draw storms away from Chile, according to a study https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/clim/19/12/jcli3774.1.xml 

on variables affecting Antarctic weather.

'WATER TOWERS'

Analysis of tree rings going back 400 years shows how rare the current drought is, said Duncan Christie, a researcher at the Center for Climate and Resilience in Chile. It is totally unrivalled for duration or intensity.

He said that meant the Andes - which he called the country's "water towers" - were not getting a chance to replenish, which in turn meant that as snow melted in spring there was far less water to fill rivers, reservoirs and aquifers.

Miguel Lagos, a civil engineer and water specialist, traveled to measure snow cover near the Laguna Negra station in central Chile some 50 kilometers (31 miles) east of Santiago - part of a process to estimate summer water supply.

"There was just nothing," he told Reuters. "There were so few precipitation events and such warm conditions that the snow melted that same winter."

As snow compacts, creating new layers, this helps keep it colder for longer. But with warmer weather and less snowfall, Lagos said, top layers of snow were melting faster or turning straight to vapor, a process called sublimation.

A 2019 study http://dgf.uchile.cl/rene/PUBS/MD_dynamics.pdf in the International Journal of Climatology that analyzed Chile's drought from 2010 to 2018 said shifting weather events could ease the drought in future, but much would depend on the trajectory of human emissions impacting climate.

Segundo Aballay, an animal breeder in the Chilean village of Montenegro, is praying change comes soon.

"If it doesn't rain this year we will be left with nothing to do," he said. "The animals are getting weaker and dying day by day."

Unfortunately for agriculture workers like Aballay, researchers at the University of Chile predict the country will have 30% less water over the next 30 years, based on mathematical models and historic data.

"What we call a drought today will become normal," Lagos said.

In the Laguna de Aculeo, another dried up lake south of Santiago, local campsite manager Francisco Martinez recalled hundreds of people coming to the area to take out kayaks or swim in the waters.

Now rusting piers and old boats sit in the barren landscape. An eerie island in the middle of what was once water rises up above the dust.

"Now there is no water, it is a desert here," Martinez told Reuters. "The animals are dying and there is nothing to do here in the lagoon any more."

(Reporting by Alexander Villegas; Additional reporting by Rodrigo Gutierrez; Editing by Adam Jourdan and Rosalba O'Brien)

 

Iraq's 'pearl of the south' Lake Sawa dry amid water crisis




eA general view of the dried up Lake Sawa Iraq, is seen Saturday, June 4, 2022. This year, for the first time in its centuries-long history, Sawa Lake dried up completely. A combination of mismanagement by local investors, government neglect and climate change has ground down its azure shores to chunks of salt. 

(AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)More

SAMYA KULLAB
Mon, June 13, 2022, 

LAKE SAWA, Iraq (AP) — Hussam al-Aqouli remembers the exact spot along southern Iraq’s Lake Sawa where his two daughters once dipped their feet into clear waters. Now he stands there two years on and the barren earth cracks beneath him.

This year, for the first time in its centuries-long history, the lake dried up. A combination of mismanagement by local investors, government neglect and climate change has ground down its azure shores to chunks of salt.

Lake Sawa is only the latest casualty in this broad country-wide struggle with water shortages that experts say is induced by climate change, including record low rainfall and back-to-back drought. The stress on water resources is driving up competition for the precious resource among businessmen, farmers and herders, with the poorest Iraqis counting among the worst hit amid the disaster.

“This lake was known as the pearl of the south,” said al-Aqouli, 35, a native of the nearby city of Samawa, looking out onto the dry cavernous emptiness. “Now it is our tragedy.”

Between the capital Baghdad and the oil-rich heartland of Basra, Muthanna is among Iraq’s poorest provinces. The number of those living under the poverty line in the province is almost three times the national average.

Desert expanses dominate the landscape with a narrow ribbon of farmland along the Euphrates River in the north. Economic development was hindered by the country’s turbulent history, neglect by the Baath party regime since the 1980s, then later by wars and sanctions.


Locals call the area surrounding Lake Sawa “atshan” — or simply “thirsty” in Arabic.

Formed over limestone rock and studded with gypsum formations, the lake has no inlet or outlet and the source of its waters had mystified experts for centuries, fueling fantastical folklore and religious tales that locals recite as historical fact.

Al-Aqouli spent his childhood frequenting the lake with his family. He hoped he could do the same when he started a family, he said. Instead he spends his days on social media writing long blog posts and urging Iraqis to take action. Often, he feels hopeless.

The lake rises 5 meters (16 feet) above sea level and is about 4.5 kilometers (3 miles) long and 1.8 kilometers (1 mile) wide.

Lake Sawa appears in some old Islamic texts. It is said the lake miraculously formed on the day the Prophet Muhammad was born in 570 A.D. Thousands of religious tourists visited the site annually to submerge themselves in its holy waters, which they believe are blessed by God.

The lake’s rich mineral deposits are also considered a cure by some for skin diseases prevalent in historically neglected Muthanna.

Locals say the drying up of the waters of Lake Sawa presages the return of the Imam al-Mahdi, a revered figure in Shiite Islam and a descendent of the prophet.

“It means the end of days is near,” said al-Aqouli, in jest.

For environmentalists, the doomsday predictions may not be far off.

Studies have shown the lake is fed by underground water sources through a system of cracks and fissures. It can also receive rainwater from surrounding valleys and heavy rainfall in past years has caused flash floods.

“The degradation of the water began over 10 years ago, but this summer was the first time we lost the entire wetland,” said Laith Ali al-Obeidi, an environmental activist in southern Iraq.

Experts said the lake has not dried up for good but its disappearance this year is a concerning consequence of the thousands of illegal wells dug by businessmen in nearby cement factories and manufacturing zones, a result of drought and decreasing waters along the nearby Euphrates.

By early June, some water began to reappear because farmers, done with the harvest season, stopped diverting underground water.

Mounds of salt line the road to the river in Muthanna province and are overseen by enterprising locals who extract it by diverting groundwater and digging wells. The salt is used as a raw material in various industries in the area.

Mortadha Ali, 45, is involved in the salt business in Muthanna. He blames years of government neglect in the province for the disappearance of Lake Sawa. “They should provide people with jobs, so they aren’t obliged to dig wells to make a living,” he said.

Enforcing the closure of illegal wells and additional protective measures would have reversed Lake Sawa's decline, said Aoun Diab, an adviser to the Water Resources Ministry. But these would have directly affected the economic interests of provincial officials.

This has disrupted a delicate and interdependent ecosystem sustained by the rare desert oasis.

Species of fish, unfit for human consumption, were food for various vulnerable migratory birds that sojourned along its banks. With the fish gone, the birds too will have to reroute their seasonal passage or perish, said al-Obeidi.

And the future is poised to bring more hardship, with alarming predictions of more water stress. The Water Resources Ministry has said water levels decreased by 60% compared to last year in 2022.

Lake Sawa is “a case study for climate change in Iraq,” al-Obeidi said. “This is the future.”

But the lake is also a ghost of its former illustrious past.

The only body of water near to the city of Samawah, the area boasted thousands of tourists a year. Their waste — water bottles, soda cans and abandoned flip flops — remain along the dried up shores as an ode to what the impoverished area has lost.

Holiday installations built decades ago stand half-finished. Most were looted after the Gulf War in the 1990s and then after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.

In 2014, Lake Sawa was named a Ramsar site, an international designation for important wetlands, gaining recognition as a rare area in need of protection. A large billboard marking the occasion overlooks the site. Local authorities hoped this would boost tourism and government resources to resume development of the area. Plans were drafted to pave roads and walkways around the lake, as well as electricity lines and water projects.

Ultimately, these failed to transpire.

The hot air was heavy as al-Aqouli took one last look of the lake before leaving.

“Believe me, it was beautiful,” he said.

Yellowstone mountain’s ‘derogatory’ name changed



Addy Bink, Nexstar Media Wire
Sun, June 12, 2022

(NEXSTAR) – Mount Doane, a mountain within Yellowstone National Park, has a new name as part of the Department of Interior’s process to remove derogatory terms from the names of federal lands.

In a November order, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, in addition to declaring “squaw” a derogatory term, kickstarted the process to review and replace derogatory names of the nation’s geographic features.

Following a 15-0 vote by the U.S. Board of Geographic Names – the federal body responsible for “maintaining uniform geographic name usage throughout the federal government” – Mount Doane becomes the latest feature to be renamed. It is now named First Peoples Mountain, the National Park Service announced.

The 10,551-foot peak found east of Yellowstone Lake in Wyoming was previously named after U.S. Army Lt. Gustavus Doane.

Who is Gustavus Doane?

Doane was born in Illinois in 1840 but grew up in California, according to Montana State University. After graduating from the University of the Pacific at Santa Clara, he enlisted in a volunteer unit known as the California Hundred. The unit was later absorbed by the Second Massachusetts Volunteer Cavalry.

In 1867, Doane became mayor of Yazoo, City, Mississippi, before becoming a second lieutenant in the Second U.S. Cavalry. For the next 24 years, Doane served with this unit and was stationed throughout Montana, California, and Arizona. Doane was part of the Washburn-Langford-Doane expedition in 1870, where he and others explored present-day Yellowstone National Park.

Nearly 600 miles have been added to the National Trails System: Here’s where

After a white fur trader was allegedly murdered, Doane led an attack on a band of Piegan Blackfeet, research has found. The Marias Massacre of 1870 left at least 173 American Indians dead, including women, children suffering from smallpox, and elderly Tribal members.

“Doane wrote fondly about this attack and bragged about it for the rest of his life,” NPS explained.

Doane also tried – and failed – to become superintendent of the park toward the end of his life, Montana State University reports.

Renaming Mount Doane

Following suggestions from the Rocky Mountain Tribal Council, votes within the Wyoming Board of Geographic Names, and support from NPS, the vote to rename Mount Doane was held earlier this month.

In the months leading up to the vote, Yellowstone officials spoke with 27 associated Tribes and said there was no opposition to the name First Peoples Mountain. The park may have additional features renamed to remove derogatory or inappropriate names.

Piikani Nation Chief Stan Grier calls the name change “long overdue.”

See the top 5 most-searched summer travel destinations in the US

According to the Board of Geographic Names, there are 17 other geographic features with ‘Doane’ in their name, including Doane Peak in Grand Teton National Park. Not all of the sites are named after Gustavus Doane, though, like Sam Doane Mountain in North Carolina.

“Words matter, particularly in our work to make our nation’s public lands and waters accessible and welcoming to people of all backgrounds. Consideration of these replacements is a big step forward in our efforts to remove derogatory terms whose expiration dates are long overdue,” Haaland said earlier this year.

Both the Secretary of the Interior and the Board on Geographic Names have previously nixed other derogatory terms. In the 1960s and 70s, derogatory terms related to Black and Japanese people were eliminated.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Indian Muslim groups urge followers to shun protests over anti-Islam comments


Protest against comments on Prophet Mohammed in Prayagraj

Rupam Jain
Mon, June 13, 2022
By Rupam Jain

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Leaders of prominent Islamic groups and mosques in India appealed to fellow Muslims on Monday to suspend plans for protests against derogatory remarks about the Prophet Mohammad made by two members of the ruling Hindu-nationalist party.

The message to avoid big gatherings was circulated after demonstrations took a violent turn last week, leading to the death of two Muslim teenagers and the wounding of more than 30 people, including police.

"It is the duty of every Muslim to stand together when anyone belittles Islam but at the same time it is critical to maintain peace," said Malik Aslam, a senior member of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, a Muslim organisation that operates in several Indian states.

Early this month, two senior members of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) made remarks that offended Muslims. A party spokeswoman made the offending comment in a television debate and a party spokesman on social media.

The party suspended both of them and said its denounced any insult towards any religion, and police have also filed cases against the two, but that did not stop enraged Muslims taking to the streets in protest.

Police arrested at least 400 suspected rioters during unrest in several states and curfews were imposed and internet services were suspended in some places.

Many Muslims in India have been questioning their place in society since Modi came to power in 2014, playing down his roots in a powerful Hindu-nationalist group to which his party is affiliated.

Critics say his BJP has pursued a confrontational line, promoting the idea that India is a Hindu nation and rounded on "anti-national" opponents, which many Muslims see as an attempt to marginalise them, a community that makes up 13% of India's billion plus population.

Authorities in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh on Sunday demolished the home of a Muslim man linked to the riots, drawing condemnation of the state government, led by the BJP, from constitutional experts and rights groups.

Muslims and rights groups interpreted the destruction of the house as punishment for the riots but state authorities said it was because it was illegally built on public land.

"We are not demolishing houses to stop Muslims from protesting as they have all the right to take to the streets," an aide to the state's hardline Hindu leader told Reuters.

Modi has not commented on the anti-Islam remarks that sparked the protests even as condemnation grew abroad.

Countries including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman and Iran, important trade partners for India, have lodged diplomatic protests.