BP: We’re Making Lots of Money on Oil, so Screw the Climate

Molly Taft
Tue, February 7, 2023

Photo: Kirsty Wigglesworth (AP)

BP is raking in a huge amount of cash these days on oil, so it wants you to ignore all those lofty promises it made about the climate just a few years ago.

On Tuesday, the company became the latest oil major to post some truly jaw-dropping returns from its fourth financial quarter. Thanks in part to the global energy crisis kicked off by the conflict in Ukraine, oil producers have been rolling in dough for the past year, with companies like ExxonMobil and Chevron have posting record profits. BP is no exception. On Tuesday, the company said its 2022 profits were about $27.7 billion, more than twice the profit it posted in 2021. Not bad!

And thanks to that big ol’ number, BP says it’s gonna slow down its progress on the whole climate action thing. In 2020—as the industry was experiencing a crisis where oil prices plunged so low that they briefly went negative—BP said it would reduce carbon emissions from its oil and gas production by 35% to 40% by 2030. Hidden in the financial news released Tuesday, however, is a new target: The company has downgraded its goal to between 20% and 30% over the same time period, allowing it to keep churning out more of that sweet, sweet oil that’s so in demand right now after oil prices hit enormous highs this summer.

“At the end of the day, we’re responding to what society wants,” CEO Bernard Looney told reporters about the changes on Tuesday. In a seeming attempt to counterbalance the bad news, Looney emphasized in a LinkedIn post that the company would be investing an additional $8 billion in initiatives “like bioenergy and EV-charging that can help people and businesses go lower carbon sooner.”

BP has long been at the forefront of oil companies trying on green marketing for size. The climate- and renewables-related goals it rolled out in 2020, announced under the title “From International Oil Company to Integrated Energy Company,” are among some of the most aggressive put forward by any oil and gas company. (That isn’t saying much, given how none of the net-zero promises put forward by any oil majors are actually worth a damn when it comes to the science, but at least BP is trying slightly harder than, say, Exxon.)

This isn’t the first time BP has walked back on green promises. In the early 2000s, the company formerly known as British Petroleum decided to rebrand as Beyond Petroleum, overhauling its logo and investing in a slew of solar and wind projects. The company ended up quietly selling off those renewable assets in order to pay for two pricy oil spills, including the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster. Oop!

Tuesday’s announcement emphasizes the danger of allowing the fox to run the henhouse when it comes to the energy transition. In recent years, sensing a sea change in how society views their products, oil majors have been positioning themselves as a core part of the solution, coining a raft of new terminology to greenwash their efforts and investing heavily in technological solutions to carbon emissions. The science is clear, however: In order to avert climate disaster, the world needs to stop using fossil fuels as quickly as possible. As BP’s announcement clearly illustrates, as long as there’s still money to be made in fossil fuels, oil companies can’t be trusted to do what needs to be done.

And while Looney may be falsely attributing BP’s drive to earn money from oil on what “society wants,” the rent may yet come due for companies like his.

“This is a temporary situation,” Nick Butler, who used to be a senior executive at BP and is now a visiting professor at Kings College, told the BBC. “Oil and gas prices are going down and the windfall these companies are making won’t last.”

Gizmodo

BP vowed to help set the oil and gas industry on a greener path. Many who bought in now feel betrayed



Vivienne Walt
Tue, February 7, 2023

When BP appointed Bernard Looney as CEO exactly three years ago, climate activists believed they might finally have an ally within Big Oil, after decades of deep distrust of the energy industry. Looney—Irish, from a poor farming family—broke the mold of Britain’s century-old company in more ways than one: He vowed to turn BP into a green energy giant, by drastically cutting oil and gas production and plowing billions into renewables. “This is the first oil major to walk the walk,” Mark van Baal, founder of the Amsterdam-based shareholder activist organization Follow This, told Fortune at the time. “If one oil major breaks ranks, and shareholders reward them for it, others will follow.”

That optimism shattered on Tuesday, when BP became the latest oil supermajor to report record-high profits for 2022—while announcing, at the same time, a sharp rollback of its climate targets.

Thanks in part to soaring gas and oil prices over the past year, BP’s underlying profits more than doubled in 2022, to $27.7 billion. (Its exit from Russia, where it had a 19.75% stake in Rosneft, cost the company $24 billion, leaving it with a paper loss after taxes of $2.5 billion.)

Dramatic rollback

Despite the bumper year, however, Looney announced BP would dramatically roll back his key climate promise, which he made in 2020. That year, Looney pledged 40% cut in carbon emissions from BP’s oil and gas production by 2030. He argued that those dramatic shifts were urgent. “Without action, it is a rather bleak future for the world,” he told Fortune in 2020, echoing a central point that environmentalists had made for years.

But on Tuesday, he said that BP’s drop in emissions would likely be a more modest 20% to 30%. “We need continuing near-term investment into today’s energy system,” Looney said, adding that the energy transition has to be “an orderly one.” The company also said it would invest about $1 billion a year in oil and gas production—an apparent about-face from Looney’s earlier statement that the company would steadily reduce its involvement in fossil fuels.

To climate activists, that felt like a knife in the back. “BP’s aim to reduce absolute emissions from their own production was one of the few tangible targets in the entire oil industry,” van Baal told Fortune on Tuesday. “They made enormous profits, and they’re back in their comfort zone,” he says. “They want to hang on to their old business model as long as possible, because it is profitable.”

'Back in their comfort zone'

Van Baal says he will push for far-reaching cuts in fossil-fuel production, in resolutions that Follow This will put forward during Big Oil’s annual shareholder meetings this spring. In a meeting in late 2019, Looney persuaded Van Baal to withdraw a similar resolution, saying he wanted to work with him to roll out climate action within BP, according to Van Baal. Activists believe such resolutions have prompted oil companies to set carbon-emission targets for fear of alienating investors, who increasingly regard climate change as a major risk factor.

BP’s earlier commitments suggested that “the pressure climate-conscious investors were putting on the industry was having an impact,” said Kathy Mulvey, of the Union of Concerned Scientists, an environmental group in Cambridge, Mass. Now, she says, she believes “BP’s climate pledges have been cynical, empty, and opportunistic.”
'Energy trilemma'

Looney argues that the Ukraine war and rising inflation showed how important it was to have a steady flow oil and gas supplies. In a LinkedIn post, he said BP would focus its oil and gas investments on low-cost production. “The world wants and needs energy that’s secure and affordable, as well as lower carbon,” he said, calling it “the energy trilemma.”

Environmentalists said Looney was sugar-coating his rollback of climate commitments. “I’m sorry to say this is a huge disappointment,” Helena Farstad, cofounder and director of London-based climate branding company This is Agency, said in a response on LinkedIn. “BP has demonstrated its lack of leadership.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Biden continues to push U.S. natural gas exports, angering climate change activists

Competing priorities have resulted in debate over whether federal regulators should allow more exports of natural gas, and whether to approve the construction of terminals for that purpose.

Ben Adler
·Senior Editor
Tue, February 7, 2023 

Since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February of last year and disrupted energy markets, the Biden administration has been eager to ramp up U.S. exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG), in an effort to free Europe from its dependence on Russian gas.

But that undercuts the president’s commitment to reduce the pollution causing climate change and to keep energy prices low for American consumers, according to consumer advocates at organizations such as Public Citizen and leading environmental organizations such as the Sierra Club and Natural Resources Defense Council.

Those competing priorities have resulted in debate over whether federal regulators should allow more exports of natural gas, and whether to approve the construction of terminals for that purpose. Last year, congressional Republicans including Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott of Florida introduced legislation to expedite approval of LNG export terminals.

Environmental and consumer advocacy groups, meanwhile, are asking the Department of Energy (DOE) to do the opposite, and to adopt a more rigorous process for reviewing gas export permit applications. In October, a coalition of consumer watchdogs led by Public Citizen sent a petition to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm arguing that U.S. gas consumers are being subjected to price shocks due to global supply disruptions, such as skyrocketing prices after Russia invaded Ukraine.

President Biden addresses the COP27 climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on Nov. 11, 2022. (Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters)

“If we had zero LNG exports, we would not see variability in gas prices,” Tyson Slocum, director of Public Citizen's energy program, recently told Yahoo News. “But LNG exports introduce global volatility into domestic markets.”

“The Department gives short shrift to climate,” a collection of environmental organizations led by the Sierra Club complained in a companion petition, arguing that increasing gas exports will increase the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming.

So far, the administration is coming down squarely on the side of encouraging exports.

“With respect to LNG, we know that our liquefied natural gas exports have been a significant help to our allies,” Granholm said, in response to a question from Yahoo News during a Jan. 23 press conference. “We are fortunate that we have an abundance, obviously, of natural gas in this country. Our prices are low. But during times of challenge, we want to help our allies as well.”

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm at the daily briefing at the White House on Jan. 23. (Susan Walsh/AP)

When burned, gas creates roughly half of the carbon dioxide emissions that coal does. But there are no gas pipelines across the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans, so selling gas to Asia or Europe requires freezing it into a liquid, shipping it across the water, and heating it up to regasify it at its destination. That energy-intensive process is “effectively doubling the climate impact of each unit of energy created from gas transported overseas,” according to a December 2020 study from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Add in the leakage of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, at U.S. gas wells and pipelines — which recent studies have shown is widespread and worse than the federal government assumes — and LNG creates almost as much climate pollution as coal, the NRDC found.

Climate activists also warn that spending billions of dollars on fossil fuel infrastructure with a projected multi-decade lifespan locks in dependence on fossil fuels, when Europe and Asia should be focusing on switching to renewable energy. (In the wake of Russia’s invasion, the European Union launched an ambitious effort to increase renewable development.)

“If the LNG export industry expands as projected, it is likely to make it nearly impossible to keep global temperatures from increasing above the 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold for catastrophic climate impacts,” the NRDC concluded in its report.

Spurred by the bounty of domestic production unleashed by hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking, exports of gas skyrocketed from 1.14 trillion cubic feet in 2010 to 6.65 trillion cubic feet in 2021, when they accounted for 10% of U.S. gas production, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. In the first nine months of 2022, more than 15% of U.S. gas was exported. The U.S. Energy Information Administration projects that LNG exports will increase by 13% this year.

“We want to make sure it’s the cleanest natural gas,” Granholm said at the recent press conference, going on to note the Biden administration’s support for carbon capture and storage, or CCS, which takes carbon dioxide emissions from the smokestack and compresses them underground, as well as its initiatives to reduce methane leakage.

"We are committed to a managed and equitable transition to clean power," a DOE spokesperson wrote in an emailed statement to Yahoo News. "Fossil fuels will be in the energy mix during this transition, which is why DOE is investing in advanced technologies" like CCS.

Climate-conscious Republicans echo that message. “The more you control methane, the more viable the argument is that we should be exporting natural gas,” Rep. John Curtis, R-Utah, who founded the Conservative Climate Caucus, told Yahoo News in a phone interview in November.

A liquefied natural gas tanker makes its way into Cameron Pass near the site of Venture Global's LNG facility near Cameron, La., in April 2022. (The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Historically, most U.S. gas exports went to Asian countries such as China, South Korea and Japan, but last year, chasing sky-high prices in Europe, the amount going to Europe doubled. The DOE is currently considering a few dozen applications to export gas. While Granholm argues that this will help U.S. allies in Europe stand up to Russia, there is no requirement that the gas go there, as opposed to merely the highest bidder. Following a review process created in 1984, the department has approved every application it has ever received, according to Slocum.

Natural gas prices in the United States doubled between January and June of last year, due to increased demand from abroad and a supply crunch caused by the Russia-Ukraine war, though they have since dropped to below their prewar level because Europe reduced its demand through conservation measures, and stored up a large reserve of gas, after unusually warm winter weather limited the need for home heating fuel.

The gas industry disputes the climate movement’s contention that LNG isn’t better for the environment than the alternatives in Europe. The American Petroleum Institute, which represents oil and gas companies, performed an analysis in 2020 that found that if power plants in China, India or Germany switched from burning coal to LNG from the U.S., carbon emissions would be cut in half. (The methodological dispute stems from different assumptions about the carbon footprint of turning gas into LNG, the rate of leakage in Russian gas infrastructure and so on.) Gas also creates less conventional air pollution, like soot and smog, than coal does.

“Last year, 2022, global coal consumption was at an all-time record, so there’s clearly an opportunity to displace more coal with U.S. natural gas and derive substantial environmental and greenhouse gas benefit from that use,” Richard Meyer, vice president of energy markets, analysis, and standards for the American Gas Association, told Yahoo News. “If you take a look at the comparison of greenhouse gas emissions from U.S. LNG, there are benefits [compared] to Russian pipeline gas.”

A small vehicle drives past a network of piping that makes up pieces of a "train" at Cameron LNG export facility in Hackberry, La., in March 2022. (Martha Irvine/AP)

Ground zero for the fight over LNG exports might be the port of Brownsville, Texas, where the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved applications to build two LNG export terminals in 2020. Environmental activists sued, arguing that the agency didn’t properly consider the climate change and environmental justice implications of the terminals. In 2021, they won a federal court ruling ordering FERC to review the applications again. That review is ongoing, and a spokesperson for FERC told Yahoo News that the agency could not comment on applications that “are currently pending.”

Local environmental and Indigenous activists have been campaigning against the terminals’ approval for years, and several local legislative bodies in the area, including the Laguna Vista Town Council and the South Padre Island City Council, have unanimously passed resolutions expressing their opposition.

“We want to see Europe get support for clean energy,” Rebekah Hinojosa, a Gulf Coast campaign representative at the Sierra Club, who is based in Brownsville, said. “The amount of time it takes for a LNG facility to be built is years and years. That’s time and resources that could be spent on cleaner alternatives. We want to see Europe be less dependent on fracked gas.”

The effects of fracking on surrounding communities, which can include air and water contamination, are another reason not to increase U.S. gas production, Hinojosa contended. Germany, France, Spain and the United Kingdom have banned fracking, as has New York state.

Storage tanks at the Golden Pass LNG Terminal in Sabine Pass, Texas, in April 2022. (The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Texas LNG, one of the export terminals proposed in Brownsville, told Yahoo News that it reduces carbon emissions by using renewable power to turn gas into LNG.

“We are also focused on using responsibly sourced associated natural gas for liquefaction limiting upstream impact and providing a cleaner alternative to coal and dirtier fuels,” a spokesperson from Glenfarne Energy Transition, the project’s parent company, said in an email. “These steps are taken specifically to protect the public health and environment of our local communities, while providing training and high-paying jobs to a historically disadvantaged area.”

NextDecade, the company that proposed the Rio Grande LNG export terminal in Brownsville, did not respond to a request for comment. On its website, NextDecade boasts that it will capture and store underground more than 5 million tons per year of the carbon dioxide produced by the gas liquefaction process. But less than 7% of the project’s total emissions will be captured. The Sierra Club estimates that Rio Grande LNG could generate as much annual emissions as 44 coal plants or 35 million automobiles.

“It’s kind of like a Band-Aid over a bullet hole,” Emma Guevara, the Sierra Club's Brownsville organizer, told Yahoo News.

While the emerging CCS technology is frequently touted by the fossil fuel industry as a solution for climate pollution, environmentalists worry that it could have unforeseen drawbacks.

“We’re concerned about groundwater pollution, especially with how untested carbon capture and storage is,” Guevara said.

Without a shift from the Biden administration, however, the LNG terminals are likely to be approved, and CCS won’t be untested for much longer.

Erdogan faces crescendo of criticism over quake response


Aftermath of the deadly earthquake in Kahramanmaras

Wed, February 8, 2023 
By Birsen Altayli, Daren Butler and Orhan Coskun

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Criticism of Turkey's earthquake response mounted on Wednesday, with the political opposition and people in the disaster zone accusing the government of a tardy and inadequate relief effort.

The anger grew louder as President Tayyip Erdogan, facing a tight election in three months time, visited the afflicted area for the first time and acknowledged some problems with the initial response.

Monday's quakes have killed more than 11,000 people across southern Turkey and northwest Syria. They cracked infrastructure and flattened thousands of buildings, causing hardship for millions and leaving many homeless in bitterly cold weather.

"Where is the state? Where have they been for two days? We are begging them. Let us do it, we can get them out," said Sabiha Alinak, near a snow covered collapsed building where her young relatives were trapped in the city of Malatya.

From the outset, Turks have complained of a lack of equipment and support as they waited helplessly next to rubble, lacking the necessary expertise or tools to rescue those trapped - sometimes even as they could hear cries for help.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the main opposition party, had earlier in the week said the disaster was a time for unity, not criticism. But on Wednesday he accused the government of failing to cooperate with local authorities and weakening non-governmental organisations that could help.

"I refuse to look at what is happening as above politics and align with the ruling party. This collapse is exactly the result of systematic profiteering politics," he said.

"If there is anyone responsible for this process, it is Erdogan. It is this ruling party that has not prepared the country for an earthquake for 20 years."

Rescue workers have struggled to reach some of the worst-hit areas, held back by destroyed roads, poor weather and lack of resources and heavy equipment, while some areas are without fuel or electricity.

MILITARY RESPONSE

Nasuh Mahruki, founder of a search and rescue group active in response to the 1999 earthquake that killed 17,000, said the army did not act soon enough because Erdogan's government annulled a protocol enabling it to respond without instruction.

"When this was cancelled (their) duties and responsibilities in combating disasters were taken away," he told Reuters.

"In the first seconds (after the 1999 quake), the Turkish Armed Forces started to work and were on the scene with the people within hours," he said, contrasting this with the current situation where the military had to wait for instructions.

"Now it seems the responsibility is with AFAD (Disaster and Emergency Management Authority), but it is not prepared for such a colossal problem," Mahruki added.

Speaking in Kahramanmaras, near the epicentre of the earthquake, Erdogan said: "We had some problems in airports and roads but we are better today".

"I would like to ask you not to give a chance to provocateurs, other than the statements especially from AFAD... Because today is the time for unity," he said.

He did not appear to have had a direct confrontaton with any local people.

A government official, who requested anonymity, said the efforts were hampered by damaged roads, bad weather and being unable to use airports due to damage.

"It seems that we should have been more prepared," the person said.

In the southern city of Antakya, one of the hardest hit, Melek, 64, said she had not seen rescue teams as of late Tuesday. "We haven't seen any food distribution here unlike previous disasters in our country. We survived the earthquake, but we will die here due to hunger or cold."

Selim Temurci, spokesman for the opposition Future Party, said AFAD's efforts were insufficient due to personnel shortages and the vast expanse of destruction.

"They did not have the capacity to conduct search and rescue at all the buildings at once but they only got to certain places in 30 hours," he said, adding those rescued still lacked food and water.

(Additional reporting by Ali Kucukgocmen; Editing by Jonathan Spicer)

Turkey is reportedly blocking access to Twitter following devastating earthquakes

Almost 12,000 people have died in Turkey and Syria since the quakes struck on Monday.

Umit Bektas / reuters

Kris Holt
·Contributing Reporter
Wed, February 8, 2023 

Turkey may be blocking access to Twitter, two days after a pair of catastrophic earthquakes struck the area. Thousands of people are still trapped in buildings in Turkey and Syria, where the death toll is approaching 12,000.

According to Bloomberg, people in Turkey started having trouble accessing Twitter on Wednesday afternoon. Some have resorted to VPNs to use the service. Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of Turkey's main opposition party, has accused the government of blocking Twitter.

It's not clear why the Turkish government might want to prevent access to Twitter amid such devastation. The social media service is still a valuable disaster response tool and users have also been sharing images of the destruction caused by the earthquakes.

Twitter does not have a communications team that can be reached for comment, but on Wenesday afternoon Elon Musk did note through a tweet that Twitter access in Turkey should be "reenabled shortly."



This would not be the first time that Turkey has stopped residents from accessing social media services. It has also done so during cross-border military operations and terror attacks. In 2014, Turkey temporarily banned Twitter. Users were sharing voice recordings and documents that purportedly showed corruption within then-prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's sphere of influence. Erdoğan became Turkey's president later that year and he remains in power. His government has faced criticism for its response to this week's disaster.
Anger over Turkey's temporary Twitter block during quake rescue


Aftermath of the deadly earthquake in Kahramanmaras

Daren Butler and Orhan Coskun
Thu, February 9, 2023 
By Daren Butler and Orhan Coskun

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey's decision to block access to Twitter for about 12 hours from Wednesday afternoon to early Thursday as people scrambled to find loved ones after devastating earthquakes has compounded public frustration at the pace of relief efforts.

Opposition leaders and social media users criticised the throttling of the platform, which has helped people share information on arriving aid and the location of those still trapped in rubble after the initial tremor on Monday.

President Tayyip Erdogan's government has blocked social media in the past and focused in recent months on fighting what it calls "disinformation", which it said prompted the block on Wednesday.


It restored full access to Twitter early on Thursday as the quake's death toll in Turkey and neighbouring Syria shot past 17,000.

President Tayyip Erdogan's government "lost its mind and... the result is cries for help being heard less. We know everything you're trying to hide," main opposition CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu said after the block was imposed on Wednesday afternoon.

A government official who requested anonymity said the move had temporarily interrupted real calls for help, but that action was taken quickly and the service returned to normal.

"This had to be done because in some accounts there were untrue claims, slander, insults and posts with fraudulent purposes," the official told Reuters, citing efforts to steal money under the pretense of collecting aid.

Turkish officials held talks with Twitter on Wednesday and said they expected cooperation in fighting disinformation during relief work, Deputy Transport Minister Omer Fatih Sayan said.

Erdogan's communications director, Fahrettin Altun, said Twitter cooperated in the meeting and pledged to support Turkey's efforts, and officials look forward to working with it "over the next few days and weeks".

"Disinformation is humanity's common enemy and a grave threat to democracy, social peace, and national security," he said on Twitter on Thursday.

Last October, Turkey's parliament adopted a law under which journalists and social media users could be jailed for up to three years for spreading "disinformation", raising concerns among rights groups and European countries about free speech.

Erdogan's ruling party had said a law was needed to tackle false accusations on social media, and it would not silence opposition. The issue is of growing significance with elections scheduled to be held by the middle of this year.

A Reuters investigation last summer showed how the mainstream media has become a tight chain of command of government-approved headlines, while the smaller independent and opposition media face the brunt of regulatory penalties.

The Twitter block also drew an angry response from opposition DEVA party leader Ali Babacan, a former economy minister and Erdogan ally.

"How can Twitter be blocked on a day when communication is saving lives? What sort of ignorance this," Babacan said late on Wednesday.

The pro-Kurdish HDP party said Twitter had played a crucial role in organizing aid for those affected by the quakes and that blocking social media would only cause more death.

(Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Jonathan Spicer, Alexandra Hudson)

Several universities to experiment with micro nuclear power

Last Energy's demonstration unit that contains a prototype reactor, is shown Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2023, in Brookshire, Texas. For the company's CEO, Bret Kugelmass, the urgency of the climate crisis means zero-carbon nuclear energy must be scaled up soon. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

JENNIFER McDERMOTT
Thu, February 9, 2023 at 6:02 AM MST·6 min read

If your image of nuclear power is giant, cylindrical concrete cooling towers pouring out steam on a site that takes up hundreds of acres of land, soon there will be an alternative: tiny nuclear reactors that produce only one-hundredth the electricity and can even be delivered on a truck.

Small but meaningful amounts of electricity — nearly enough to run a small campus, a hospital or a military complex, for example — will pulse from a new generation of micronuclear reactors. Now, some universities are taking interest.

“What we see is these advanced reactor technologies having a real future in decarbonizing the energy landscape in the U.S. and around the world,” said Caleb Brooks, a nuclear engineering professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The tiny reactors carry some of the same challenges as large-scale nuclear, such as how to dispose of radioactive waste and how to make sure they are secure. Supporters say those issues can be managed and the benefits outweigh any risks.


Universities are interested in the technology not just to power their buildings but to see how far it can go in replacing the coal and gas-fired energy that causes climate change. The University of Illinois hopes to advance the technology as part of a clean energy future, Brooks said. The school plans to apply for a construction permit for a high-temperature, gas-cooled reactor developed by the Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation, and aims to start operating it by early 2028. Brooks is the project lead.

Microreactors will be “transformative” because they can be built in factories and hooked up on site in a plug-and-play way, said Jacopo Buongiorno, professor of nuclear science and engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Buongiorno studies the role of nuclear energy in a clean energy world.

“That’s what we want to see, nuclear energy on demand as a product, not as a big mega project,” he said.

Both Buongiorno and Marc Nichol, senior director for new reactors at the Nuclear Energy Institute, view the interest by schools as the start of a trend.

Last year, Penn State University signed a memorandum of understanding with Westinghouse to collaborate on microreactor technology. Mike Shaqqo, the company’s senior vice president for advanced reactor programs, said universities are going to be “one of our key early adopters for this technology.”

Penn State wants to prove the technology so that Appalachian industries, such as steel and cement manufacturers, may be able to use it, said Professor Jean Paul Allain, head of the nuclear engineering department. Those two industries tend to burn dirty fuels and have very high emissions. Using a microreactor also could be one of several options to help the university use less natural gas and achieve its long-term carbon emissions goals, he said.

“I do feel that microreactors can be a game-changer and revolutionize the way we think about energy,” Allain said.

For Allain, microreactors can complement renewable energy by providing a large amount of power without taking up much land. A 10-megawatt microreactor could go on less than an acre, whereas windmills or a solar farm would need far more space to produce 10 megawatts, he added. The goal is to have one at Penn State by the end of the decade.

Purdue University in Indiana is working with Duke Energy on the feasibility of using advanced nuclear energy to meet its long-term energy needs.

Nuclear reactors that are used for research are nothing new on campus. About two dozen U.S. universities have them. But using them as an energy source is new.

Back at the University of Illinois, Brooks explains the microreactor would generate heat to make steam. While the excess heat from burning coal and gas to make electricity is often wasted, Brooks sees the steam production from the nuclear microreactor as a plus, because it's a carbon-free way to deliver steam through the campus district heating system to radiators in buildings, a common heating method for large facilities in the Midwest and Northeast. The campus has hundreds of buildings.

The 10-megawatt microreactor wouldn't meet all of the demand, but it would serve to demonstrate the technology, as other communities and campuses look to transition away from fossil fuels, Brooks said.

One company that is building microreactors that the public can get a look at today is Last Energy, based in Washington, D.C. It built a model reactor in Brookshire, Texas that's housed in an edgy cube covered in reflective metal.

Now it's taking that apart to test how to transport the unit. A caravan of trucks is taking it to Austin, where company founder Bret Kugelmass is scheduled to speak at the South by Southwest conference and festival.

Kugelmass, a technology entrepreneur and mechanical engineer, is talking with some universities, but his primary focus is on industrial customers. He's working with licensing authorities in the United Kingdom, Poland and Romania to try to get his first reactor running in Europe in 2025.

The urgency of the climate crisis means zero-carbon nuclear energy must be scaled up soon, he said.

“It has to be a small, manufactured product as opposed to a large, bespoke construction project,” he said.

Traditional nuclear power costs billions of dollars. An example is two additional reactors at a plant in Georgia that will end up costing more than $30 billion.

The total cost of Last Energy’s microreactor, including module fabrication, assembly and site prep work, is under $100 million, the company says.

Westinghouse, which has been a mainstay of the nuclear industry for over 70 years, is developing its “eVinci” microreactor, Shaqqo said, and is aiming to get the technology licensed by 2027.

The Department of Defense is working on a microreactor too. Project Pele is a DOD prototype mobile nuclear reactor under design at the Idaho National Laboratory.

Abilene Christian University in Texas is leading a group of three other universities with the company Natura Resources to design and build a research microreactor cooled by molten salt to allow for high temperature operations at low pressure, in part to help train the next generation nuclear workforce.

But not everyone shares the enthusiasm. Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists, called it “completely unjustified.”

Microreactors in general will require much more uranium to be mined and enriched per unit of electricity generated than conventional reactors do, he said. He said he also expects fuel costs to be substantially higher and that more depleted uranium waste could be generated compared to conventional reactors.

“I think those who are hoping that microreactors are going to be the silver bullet for solving the climate change crisis are simply betting on the wrong horse,” he said.

Lyman also said he fears microreactors could be targeted for a terrorist attack, and some designs would use fuels that could be attractive to terrorists seeking to build crude nuclear weapons. The UCS does not oppose using nuclear power, but wants to make sure it’s safe.

The United States does not have a national storage facility for storing spent nuclear fuel and it’s piling up. Microreactors would only compound the problem and spread the radioactive waste around, Lyman said.

A 2022 Stanford-led study found that smaller modular reactors — the next size up from micro — will generate more waste than conventional reactors. Lead author Lindsay Krall said this week that the design of microreactors would make them subject to the same issue.

Kugelmass sees only promise. Nuclear, he said, has been “totally misunderstood and under leveraged.” It will be “the key pillar of our energy transformation moving forward.”

 

SOCIALISM FOR THE RICH  

Des Moines Public Schools may close buildings, cut staff to balance future budgets


Samantha Hernandez, Des Moines Register
Wed, February 8, 2023

Des Moines Public Schools officials could close buildings as part of balancing next year's budget. They're also exploring the potential for staff cuts.

That's what officials said Tuesday night during a Des Moines School Board discussion on the 2023-24 school year budget. They are beginning their planning on a budget amid new legislation that uses taxpayer money to help send students to private schools and a 3% state funding increase that lags behind the 6.5% annual inflation rate at the end of 2022.

Closing yet-to-be-identified buildings and moving expenses to nongeneral fund accounts, as well as making other cuts, could save an estimated $1 million, Interim Superintendent Matt Smith and Chief Financial Officer Shashank Aurora told board members.

More:What does Iowa's $107M funding increase really mean for its public schools? What we found:

“We're looking on both for FY '24 and, of course, beyond, the elimination of some facilities and the consolidation of other facilities," Smith said during the meeting. "And, so, there's more to come on that and our budget season, but there is some consolidation that will be taking place."

Officials are considering closing some athletic and/or extracurricular facilities around the district, Aurora told the Des Moines Register Wednesday. A final decision on which facilities might close has not been made.

An outside company is conducting a district-wide demographic study the board will use to decide if district boundaries need to be redrawn or if buildings will be closed, he said.

“There's also the consolidation of some underutilized facilities,” Smith said Tuesday. “… And so, we're looking on both for FY '24 and, of course, beyond the elimination of some facilities and the consolidation of other facilities.”

Closures could be considered for the 2024-25 school year budget as well, Smith said.

The district must cut about $9.8 million from next year's budget, Aurora said. The total of the proposed 2023-24 budget will not be available until mid-March.

This is not the first time officials have discussed closing buildings as a cost-saving measure. During 2022-23 budget discussions, Aurora told the board the district might have to consider closing buildings.

Staffing and health care cuts also possible

Additional proposed cuts include changes to the employee health care plan and staffing.

The health care plan change would save the district an estimated $750,000, the administration said. Under the proposal, employees no longer would have a $100 copay on specialty medicines like cancer medication or EpiPens, the administration said.

Proposed staffing reductions could save an estimated $9 million and include cuts to 2% of the teaching staff because of declining enrollment, 5% of support staff and 5% of central office staff, they say.

"One of the top priorities for (Des Moines Education Association) is to keep cuts as far away from classroom individuals directly engaged with students as possible," said Josh Brown, the teachers union president, in an interview Wednesday. "We are surveying our members currently to get their priorities in the budget to be able to amplify and lift up their voices in the process."

Heading into the current 2022-23 school year, district officials made $9.4 million in cuts because of declining enrollment. Those reductions included eliminating 12 full-time positions, canceling a conference and using money earmarked for other costs to cover general spending.

The effects of the new 'school choice' law

The newly passed "school choice" law will eventually put $7,635 into an account for every student who wants to attend private school. The law was a top priority for Gov. Kim Reynolds over the last three legislative sessions.

Central Campus is seen on April 29, 2021 in Des Moines.

The new law also gives public school districts about $1,205 in additional money for each private school student who lives within district boundaries. But those districts would also lose about $7,600 per student for those who choose to leave for a private school through an education savings account.

Districts will only get the supplemental funds for students who apply for and receive an ESA, Aurora said.

Des Moines Public Schools, which has an enrollment of about 31,000, has lost 2,500 students over the last three years for reasons including open enrollment and families relocating, Smith said.

"This actually started prior to the pandemic," he said. "The pandemic exacerbated and amplified that loss of enrollment."

Related:How far will Iowa's $7,600 education savings accounts go for covering private school costs?

The district lost 500 students last school year following the passage of several new laws, including the end of the open enrollment deadline, Aurora said in the same interview. This school year, the district has lost 250 students.

The budget will likely not be approved until April. District officials plan to hold community budget information meetings in late February and early March.

Samantha Hernandez covers education for the Register. Reach her at (515) 851-0982 or svhernandez@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @svhernandez or Facebook at facebook.com/svhernandezreporter.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Des Moines Public Schools may close buildings to balance future budgets

Israeli minister says no pause on ILLEGAL settlements after US asked Israel to halt expansion


Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich speaks to the media in Jerusalem

Tue, February 7, 2023 

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - One of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hard-right allies said on Tuesday Israel would not freeze Jewish settlement building in the occupied West Bank, a week after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken pressed Israel to halt construction.

"There will be no construction freeze in Judea and Samaria period," a statement from Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich's Religious Zionism party said on Tuesday, using a term common in Israel for the West Bank.

Senior members of Netanyahu's far-right coalition have sought to further expand Jewish settlement in the West Bank, which was captured by Israel in a 1967 war and where Palestinians have long aimed to establish a state. Most world powers consider Israel's settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as illegal.

On a visit to Israel and the Palestinian Territories last week, Blinken repeated U.S. calls for a two-state solution to the decades-long conflict between Israel and the Palestinians and called publicly for an end to settlement expansion.

In private talks with Netanyahu, Blinken also asked Israel to stop Jewish settlement construction in the West Bank and halt the demolition of Palestinian houses, three U.S. and Arab sources confirmed to Reuters, stressing that the request was not expressed as a formal demand.

Smotrich also oversees defence ministry organizations that are responsible for enforcing some regulations in the West Bank, giving him significant powers over the area.

Hopes of achieving a two-state solution, with a Palestinian state based largely in the West Bank, have all but disappeared since the last round of U.S.-sponsored talks stalled in 2014.

(Reporting by Emily Rose, Steve Holland, Editing by William Maclean)

'Operation Exodus': Brazil miners flee Yanomami land

Alan CHAVES
Wed, February 8, 2023


Wearing broken flip-flops held together by a frayed cord, Joao Batista, an illegal gold miner in the Brazilian Amazon, has been walking for days to escape the jungle, fleeing a looming security-force crackdown.

The wiry 61-year-old with deep creases in his leathery skin is one of thousands of mine workers rushing to leave the Yanomami Indigenous reservation, as Brazil sends in the police and army to wrest back control of the remote territory from invaders accused of sparking a humanitarian crisis.

Indigenous leaders say illegal miners have poisoned the water with mercury, destroyed the rainforest, raped and killed inhabitants, and triggered a food emergency that is devastating the reservation's 30,000 Yanomami.

Batista, who spent the last seven months working at an illegal mine, does not see himself as a criminal. But he says life left him few options other than "garimpo" -- wildcat mining.

"Look, I never went to school. At my age, what else am I going to do to survive?" he told AFP as he walked down a dirt road outside the town of Alto Alegre, in the northern state of Roraima.

He still had around 85 kilometers (53 miles) to go before returning to his home in the state capital, Boa Vista.

Up the road, a family fleeing a mine camp was trying to hitch a ride to the capital -- a 23-year-old mother, 15-year-old father and their three small children.

They caught malaria in the rainforest, and were too sick to walk, they said.

"Our kids are sick, too. I need to get to Boa Vista," said the young father.

- Reverse gold rush -

There has been an exodus of mine workers from the Yanomami reservation since President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva ordered Brazil's military to establish a no-fly zone there last week, cracking down on the bush planes the mines rely on for food and supplies.

Some are making the gruelling trek out on foot. Others are fleeing down the Uraricoera river, crowding more than 30 people onto long, narrow boats.

Justice Minister Flavio Dino said Monday the government had begun deploying more than 500 police and soldiers for an operation to evict the miners, along with the mine-camp cooks, prostitutes and others drawn to the rainforest gold rush.

Dino said the government expected at least 80 percent of the estimated 15,000 people who have invaded the Yanomami reservation would leave on their own before authorities began "coercive" measures, which he said would come this week.

As a first step, environmental agency IBAMA said Wednesday it had started destroying heavy equipment seized at the mines, including a helicopter, plane and bulldozer.

The Yanomami territory, Brazil's biggest Indigenous reservation, is one of several to suffer a massive influx of illegal miners under far-right ex-president Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022), whom activists accuse of encouraging the incursions.

- 'Real criminals' -

The crackdown is stoking tension in the region, where an entire economy has developed around the illegal gold industry.

Gold sells for 280 reais (around $55) a gram on the black market in Roraima. AFP met miners carrying up to 30 grams.

But the money risks running out fast.

At a local truck stop, an illegal bush pilot flashed a handful of gold -- his payment for a recent flight. He said he worried it would be his last: he has had to stop working because of the no-fly zone.

Locals fear the impact of a massive influx of newly jobless workers.

Military police in Roraima launched what they called "Operation Exodus" to "intensify" their presence in the region and "preempt disturbances."

Authorities have encouraged the miners to leave the reservation voluntarily -- though Dino vowed to prosecute "all those who committed crimes such as genocide, environmental crimes, financing illegal gold mining and money laundering."

One 58-year-old miner, who asked to be identified only as "Parmalat," his nickname, said he resented being treated like a criminal, when crimes like corruption often go unpunished.

"We're treated like we're worthless," he said.

"All we want to do is work, and we're called criminals. The real criminals aren't treated that way."

Converting U.S. coal plants to renewable projects is cheaper than running them




Isabella O'Malley, M.Env.Sc
Wed, February 8, 2023 

Rapidly falling renewable energy prices coupled with sustainable incentives from the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) are making coal an increasingly undesirable energy source.

This trend was confirmed in a recent report by Energy Innovation, a think-tank based in San Francisco, which claims that it costs more money to continue operating over 99 per cent of all coal-fired plants in the U.S. than to replace them with wind or solar energy projects.

Of the 210 coal plants that were reviewed in the report, it was found that solar replacement for 199 of the plants would be more economic than coal, solely based on the costs of energy generation. Wind was also found to be a cost-effective option for 104 plants and was even the cheapest option for 13 plants.

“Wind and solar energy are unequivocally cheaper than coal-fired generation across the country,” the report stated. “Replacing coal generation with local solar resources could drive up to $589 billion USD in clean energy investment in energy communities across the U.S.”

Train wagons loaded with coal in Norfolk, Virginia. 

(Kim Steele/ The Image Bank/ Getty Images)

Coal is the most carbon-intensive fossil fuel and releases many other pollutants such as sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides that contaminate ecosystems and are hazardous to human health.

According to a report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) released in December 2022, coal use potentially peaked in 2022 or could peak in 2023 before a plateau occurs. Global carbon emissions from coal-fired generation reached an all-time high in 2021 and exceeded 36 per cent of the world’s total electricity generation that year.

According to Energy Innovation, coal generation has declined by 52 per cent in the U.S. since 2010 and renewable power generation exceeded coal for the first time in 2020. Additional factors that are contributing to coal’s falling usage include clean energy policies, costly retrofits, the falling cost of natural gas, and improved energy efficiency in buildings.

Watch below: Solar panels in space can beam energy back to Earth

Click here to view the video

In addition to significant savings, the report notes that economic diversification, new jobs, tax revenue, and power reliability are benefits for local economies that replace coal plants with renewable projects.

The report noted that there are several barriers to replacing coal plants with wind or solar energy and suggested the following policies that can support the transition: utilities taking full advantage of IRA financing programs, requiring re-assessments of any utility investment plan that was completed prior to the IRA since costs are now outdated, and planning and funding from state legislatures and energy offices to support a coal community-centred economic transition.

Thumbnail image: John Ames Power Plant. It is a coal utility company located on the Kanoa River in West Virginia. (VisionsofAmerica/ Joe Sohm/ Digital Vision/ Getty Images)

‘Drop-dead gorgeous’ new snake in South America named after Leonardo DiCaprio’s mom


Aspen Pflughoeft
Wed, February 8, 2023 

Munching on snails and slithering along the jungle canopies of South America, several bright-eyed species of snakes went undetected — until now.

Scientists were surveying snakes in Colombia, Ecuador and Panama when they found several species they didn’t recognize, the researchers said in a study published Jan. 25. Further analysis confirmed their discovery of five new species of snail-eating, tree-dwelling snakes.

The new species — all of which have distinctive eye colors — are “drop-dead-gorgeous,” according to a Jan. 27 news release from EurekAlert.

One of the newly discovered species, Sibon irmelindicaprioae, or DiCaprio’s snail-eating snake, was named after actor and film producer Leonardo DiCaprio’s mother, Irmelin DiCaprio, the study said. DiCaprio’s publicist and producer did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment.

The study said Leonardo DiCaprio is a “long-time advocate and supporter of biodiversity conservation around the world.” He and other conservationists chose the names for some of the snakes in honor of their loved ones, according to EurekAlert.

The 2-foot-long snake has bright orange eyes and bands of reddish-orange, white and brown, photos show. DiCaprio’s snail-eating snakes are “docile and never attempt to bite,” the study said. Instead, the snake defends itself by coiling its body around its head and emitting a “musky and distasteful odor.” The species was found in the jungles of Panama and Colombia.

Scientists also discovered a species named Sibon canopy, or the canopy snail-eating snake, per the study. This species had vibrant blood-red eyes and a matching scale pattern of deep red, white and green patches, photos show. The species has only been found in Panama.

The Sibon canopy snake also known as canopy snail-eating snake.

Another of the newfound species was named Sibon marleyae, or Marley’s snail-eating snake, researchers said. The snake was named after Marley Sheth, the daughter of “long-time supporters of biodiversity conservation,” per the study.

Marley’s snail-eating snakes have burnt-orange eyes, a charcoal-colored tongue and a speckled scale pattern of maroon, orange, yellow and white, photos show. The species has been found in Ecuador and Colombia. Similarly to DiCaprio’s snail-eating snakes, this species is also docile and emits a foul odor when threatened.

The fourth species scientists discovered is Sibon vieirai, or Vieira’s snail-eating snake, the study said. Just over 2 feet long, these snakes have brown eyes and a matching scale pattern of deep browns, speckled with white and green, photos show.

Vieira’s snail-eating snakes are more active at night and during rainfall, the study said. The species is found in Ecuador and Colombia.

The Sibon vieirai snake, also known as Vieira’s snail-eating snake.

Researchers also discovered Dipsas welborni, or Welborn’s snail-eating snake, per the study. Also about 2 feet long, the snakes have tannish brown eyes and striped scale patterns of white and various shades of brown and copper, photos show.

When threatened, the species flattens itself, attempts to form a triangular shape with its head and emits a foul smell, scientists said.

The Dipsas welborni snake, also known as the Welborn’s snail-eating snake.

All five snake species are threatened by legal and illegal mineral mining, researchers said in the EurekAlert news release. Open-pit mining operations destroy vegetation that these tree-dwelling species rely on to live and forage.

“These new species of snake are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of new species discoveries in this region,” Alejandro Arteaga, a biologist who conducted the research said in the release. “But if illegal mining continues at this rate, there may not be an opportunity to make any future discoveries.”

Facial recognition bias frustrates Black asylum applicants to US, advocates say

Melissa del Bosque in Tucson
Wed, February 8, 2023 

Photograph: José Luis González/Reuters

The US government’s new mobile app for migrants to apply for asylum at the US-Mexico border is blocking many Black people from being able to file their claims because of facial recognition bias in the tech, immigration advocates say.

Non-profits that assist Black asylum seekers are finding that the app, CBP One, is failing to register many people with darker skin tones, effectively barring them from their right to request entry into the US.

People who have made their way to the south-west border from Haiti and African countries, in particular, are falling victim to apparent algorithm bias in the technology that the app relies on.

Related: Trump v Biden: how different are their policies on the US-Mexico border?

Often disparaged within the already-marginalized population of people trying to migrate into the US, Black people within that group are now confronted with yet another hurdle.

Advocates are protesting that since the app’s rollout by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) last month, the algorithm problems are sharply reducing the number of Black asylum seekers who can fill out their applications.

The app is working for some migrants but blocking others, especially those who are most vulnerable, said Felicia Rangel-Samponaro, co-director of the non-profit Sidewalk School, which provides educational programs for asylum seekers in the Mexican cities of Reynosa and Matamoros, near the eastern end of the Texas border, where many Haitians are living in makeshift camps. It also runs a shelter in Reynosa with the church group Kaleo International.

“There are about 4,000 Black asylum seekers waiting in Reynosa and at least another 1,000 Haitians in Matamoros. Hardly anyone is getting an asylum appointment. Neither population is being represented as it should,” she said.

Related: Biden’s ‘carrot and stick’ approach to deter migrants met with anger

With the public health law Title 42 still in place as a result of the latest court ruling, and expanded last month to add Haitians, Nicaraguans and Cubans alongside Venezuelans as restricted nationalities, in yet another controversial turn in the Biden administration’s immigration policy, options for seeking asylum at the border have narrowed further.

The government announced in early January that the new CBP One mobile app would be the only way migrants arriving at the border can apply for asylum and exemption from Title 42 restrictions, saying it would “reduce wait times and help ensure safe, orderly and streamlined processing”.

In the Mexican city of Tijuana, at the opposite end the US-Mexico border, near San Diego, another large community of Haitian asylum seekers is waiting and experiencing the same problems with the app, according to non-profits that are assisting them, as are people from African countries and other Black migrants trying to enter.

Migrants seeking asylum in the US use their phones to request an appointment through the CBP One application. Photograph: José Luis González/Reuters

“The facial recognition is not picking up [images] if people have darker skin tones,” said Erika Pinheiro, executive director at Al Otro Lado, a binational legal and humanitarian aid organization.

Pinheiro’s organization held a workshop for Haitians in Tijuana on how to use the app a day after it went live on 12 January. But with the app unable to map the features of many darker-skinned asylum seekers, they cannot upload their photos in order to receive an asylum appointment with the US immigration authorities, Pinheiro said.

“The Haitians at the workshop were getting error after error message on the app,” she said.

Rangel-Samponaro noted that others are being blocked, too. “We’ve also seen it affect Venezuelans who are darker-skinned,” she said.

Racial bias in face recognition technology has long been a problem. Increasingly used by law enforcement and government agencies to fill databases with biometric information including fingerprints and iris scans, a 2020 report by Harvard University called it the “least accurate” identifier, especially among darker-skinned women with whom the error rate is higher than 30%.

Emmanuella Camille, a staff attorney with the Haitian Bridge Alliance, a non-profit that aids Haitian and African asylum seekers, said the CBP One app has helped “lighter-skin toned people from other nations” obtain their asylum appointments “but not Haitians” and other Black applicants.

Besides the face recognition technology not registering them, there are other barriers, too. Many asylum seekers have outdated cellphones – if they have cellphones at all – that don’t support the CBP One app and often have limited or no access to the internet.

All three of the non-profits told the Guardian they have been in daily contact with US CBP about issues with the app. Last week, CBP introduced a Haitian Creole version of the app, Camille said. Before that it was only offered in Spanish and English.

Camille said migrants are “being told by CBP that the only way they can cross the border is by using this app … [It’s] the only source of hope for them right now.”Rangel-Samponaro said advocates were experimenting with ways to get the technology to work for darker-skinned asylum seekers. One fix they’ve come up with is installing bright construction lights at the shelter in Reynosa, which Haitians and others shine on their faces as they take the photo to upload to the app.

“So far it seems to be working, so the adults can get past that,” she said. “But it’s still not working for children under the age of six.”

This prevents families from applying for asylum.

“I’ve yet to speak with a white asylum seeker who has had the same issue,” she said. “And we help everybody in both cities.”

Another solution is that Black asylum seekers buy brand new cellphones. “If you can afford to spend $1,000 on a new cellphone, then you can upload the image no problem. But who can afford that?” Rangel-Samponaro said. “Not anyone living in a migrant camp.”

CBP did not reply with comments before publication, after being approached with questions by the Guardia