Hungary vows to fight in EU court to defend anti-LGBT law

Thu, March 9, 2023 

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary's Justice Minister said late on Wednesday that Budapest would fight in the Court of Justice of the EU to defend an education law that Brussels says discriminates against people on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

Justice Minister Judit Varga said in a Facebook post she had submitted a counter claim to the court because the government would stick to its stance that education was a matter for national governments to decide.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban's anti-LGBT campaign escalated in June 2021 when the parliament, dominated by his Fidesz party, passed a law banning the use of materials seen as promoting homosexuality and gender change at schools.

The government has said the law aimed to protect children, not target the LGBT community.

"Just as we have done so far, we will go to the wall if it's about protecting our children," Varga said, adding that uphold the legislation was necessary and further measures would be taken. She did not specify what they would be.

The standoff comes at a time when Brussels has suspended the disbursement of billions of euros of much-needed EU funds to Hungary until Budapest implements reforms to improve judicial independence and tackle corruption.

The European Commission referred Hungary to the Court of Justice of the EU over the anti-LGBT law in mid-2022.

The commission has said it considers that the law violates the EU's internal market rules, the fundamental rights of individuals and EU values.

Orban said in a speech last month, defending the legislation: "Gender propaganda is not just ... rainbow chatter, but the greatest threat stalking our children. We want our children to be left alone .... This kind of thing has no place in Hungary, and especially not in our schools."

(Reporting by Krisztina Than; Editing by Bradley Perrett)

BANNED IN INDIA BUT NOT GOP W.VA
Child marriage ban bill defeated in West Virginia House


JOHN RABY\
Wed, March 8, 2023 

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A bill that would have prohibited minors from getting married in West Virginia was defeated Wednesday night in a legislative committee.

The Republican-dominated Senate Judiciary Committee rejected the bill on a 9-8 vote, a week after it passed the House of Delegates.

The vote came shortly after the bill's main sponsor, Democratic Del. Kayla Young of Kanawha County, testified briefly before the committee. She said that since 2000 there have been more than 3,600 marriages in the state involving one or more children.

Currently, children can marry as young as 16 in West Virginia with parental consent. Anyone younger than that also must get a judge’s waiver.

“For now, there will be no floor for the age of marriage in WV, endangering our kids,” Young wrote on Twitter after the vote.

In a rebuke, Cabell County Democratic Sen. Mike Woelfel reminded the committee after the vote that Wednesday was International Women’s Day.

Some of the bill's opponents have argued that teenage marriages are a part of life in West Virginia.

Kanawha County Republican Sen. Mike Stuart, a former federal prosecutor who sided with the majority, said his vote “wasn’t a vote against women.” He said his mother was married when she was 16, and “six months later, I came along. I’m the luckiest guy in the world.”

The bill would have established that 18 is the age of consent and removed the ability of a minor to obtain consent through their parents, legal guardians, or by court petition. Existing legal marriages, including those done in other states, would have been unaffected.

According to the nonprofit group Unchained At Last, which seeks to end forced and child marriage, seven states have set the minimum age for marriage at 18, all since 2018. Supporters of such legislation say it reduces domestic violence, unwanted pregnancies and improves the lives of teens.

Although recent figures are unavailable, according to the Pew Research Center, West Virginia had the highest rate of child marriages among the states in 2014, when the state's five-year average was 7.1 marriages for every 1,000 children ages 15 to 17.

Russia-based Insight Group acquires Deere & Co leasing arm


The Deere & Co farm equipment plant in Ankeny, Iowa

Wed, March 8, 2023 

(Reuters) - Russia-based private equity firm Insight Investment Group has acquired the Russian leasing arm of farm equipment maker Deere & Co, a state register of corporate entities showed.

Insight Investment Group confirmed the acquisition of John Deere Financial LLC, a subsidiary of the U.S. company, but declined to disclose the price. It said the deal had obtained approval from a Russian government commission on the control of foreign investment.

Russia has tightened rules on asset sales by investors from so-called "unfriendly" countries - those that have imposed sanctions against Moscow over its actions in Ukraine.

Those selling stakes in Russian assets may now have to do so at half price or less, the finance ministry has said, with the Russian budget potentially taking a 10% cut of any transaction.

John Deere last March suspended shipments of machines to Russia and subsequently Belarus, saying it was deeply saddened by the "significant escalation of events in Ukraine".

The company could not immediately be reached for comment on Wednesday.

Insight has issued bonds worth more than 100 billion roubles ($1.32 billion) and said it used some of those funds to buy both John Deere Financial and a leasing arm from engineering company Siemens AG last year.

"Our goal is to build a leasing holding which will unite leasing companies with different areas of expertise," Insight Group said. "Following this strategy, we have acquired John Deere Financial and do not exclude making other deals in this market."

($1 = 75.9530 roubles)

(Reporting by Alexander Marrow; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

Canadian Solar (CSIQ) Begins Operation of Three Solar Projects


Zacks Equity Research
Wed, March 8, 2023 

Canadian Solar Inc.CSIQ recently announced that its three solar projects in Japan, Oita Kitsuki, Gunma Takasaki and Yamaguchi Hofu, boasting a capacity of 42 Megawatt-peak (MWp) began their operation in the first quarter of 2023.

The 53,000 MWh of energy generated from the three projects would be enough to power over 15,000 households. Meanwhile, Canadian Solar has also inked deals with various grids under Japan's feed-in-tariff program. This ensures the inflow of revenue for the company from the projects.

Canadian Solar’s Strong Footing in Japan

The company already enjoys a strong footing in Japan with nearly 518 MWp of utility-scale projects in operation or under construction and two partnership platforms in the Canadian Solar Infrastructure Fund and Japan Green Infrastructure Fund.

With the addition of the aforementioned solar projects, Canadian Solar aims to solidify its position in the Japanese solar market and capitalize on the growing solar demand in the region. Its capability to produce efficient modules adds to its competitive advantage in the region.

With the largest and strongest development platforms, Canadian Solar may continue to strengthen its footprint in Japan. This, in turn, may continue to bolster its revenue-generation prospects from the region.

Global Solar Market Boom

The global solar market has been rapidly gaining momentum due to increased focus on adopting renewable sources of energy and lowering the cost of panels complementing the growth. Various incentives and rebates by the government to support the development have been fueling the solar market’s growth.

The strong demand from various channels like roof-top-based solar panels for commercial and residential users and large-scale solar projects like utility-scale solar power plants and solar farms further triggers the penetration of the solar market.

Per the report from Mordor Intelligence, the global solar energy market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 12.7% over a period of 2023-2028 period. Such expanding market size entails promising returns for companies like Canadian Solar that are continuously striving to propel their positioning in the solar market.

Other solar players that have carved out a strong position in the global solar market are:

Enphase Energy ENPH enjoys a valuable position in the global solar market by manufacturing fully integrated solar-plus-storage solutions and microinverters. As of Dec 31, 2022, Enphase shipped more than 58 million microinverters. Currently, more than three million Enphase residential and commercial systems have been deployed across 145 countries.

Enphase boasts a long-term (three-five) earnings growth rate of 45.4%. ENPH shares have rallied 27.3% in the past year.

ReneSola SOL continues to benefit from a steady flow of contracts from domestic and international customers. With the successful execution of its downstream strategy, SOL is currently expanding its business in international markets. It is committed to adding an incremental project pipeline to its core markets, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, Poland, France, Germany and Hungary.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2023 sales suggests a growth rate of 9.5% from the prior-year reported figure. The company delivered an earnings surprise of 400% in the last reported quarter.

SolarEdge SEDG optimized inverter solutions address a broad range of solar markets. The company registered record revenues in 14 European countries and may continue to witness strong growth momentum.

SolarEdge’s long-term earnings growth rate is pegged at 31%. SEDG shares have rallied 11% in the past month.
Price Movement

In a year, shares of Canadian Solar have soared 15% compared with the industry’s growth of 23.6%.

Ex-Navajo President Zah, guided by love for people, dies




Former Navajo Chairman Peterson Zah speaks from his office on Nov. 15, 2010 at Arizona State University in Tempe, Ariz. Zah, a monumental Navajo Nation leader who guided the tribe through a politically tumultuous era and worked tirelessly to correct wrongdoings against Native Americans, has died. He died late Tuesday, March 7, 2023, at a hospital in Fort Defiance , Arizona, after a lengthy illness, Navajo President Buu Nygren's office said. He was 85. 

(AP Photo/Matt York, File)

FELICIA FONSECA
Wed, March 8, 2023 

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — Peterson Zah, a monumental Navajo Nation leader who guided the tribe through a politically tumultuous era and worked tirelessly to correct wrongdoings against Native Americans, has died.

Zah died late Tuesday at a hospital in Fort Defiance, Arizona, after a lengthy illness, his family and the tribe announced. He was 85.

Zah was the first president elected on the Navajo Nation — the largest tribal reservation in the U.S. — in 1990 after the government was restructured into three branches to prevent power from being concentrated in the chairman's office. At the time, the tribe was reeling from a deadly riot incited by Zah's political rival, former Chairman Peter MacDonald, a year earlier.

Zah vowed to rebuild the tribe, and to support family and education, speaking with people in ways that imparted mutual respect, said his longtime friend Eric Eberhard. Zah was as comfortable putting on dress clothes to represent Navajos in Washington, D.C., as he was driving his old pickup truck around the reservation and sitting on the ground, listening to people who were struggling, he said.

“People trusted him, they knew he was honest," Eberhard said Tuesday.

Zah will be buried Saturday morning at a private service. A community reception will follow just outside Window Rock, Arizona. His family expressed thanks for the outpouring of love and support they've received.

“It's heartwarming to hear from the many people who share stories about Peterson, which provide comfort for the family,” they said in a statement late Wednesday.

Aspiring politicians on and off the Navajo Nation sought Zah's advice and endorsement. He rode with Hillary Clinton in the Navajo Nation parade a month before Bill Clinton was elected president. Zah later campaigned for Hillary Clinton in her bid for the presidency.

He recorded countless campaign advertisements over the years in the Navajo language that aired on the radio, mostly siding with Democrats. But he made friends with Republicans, too, including the late Arizona U.S. Sen. John McCain, whom he endorsed in the 2000 presidential election as someone who could work across the aisle.

Zah was born in December 1937 in remote Low Mountain, a section of the reservation embroiled in a decades-long land dispute with the neighboring Hopi Tribe that resulted in the relocation of thousands of Navajos and hundreds of Hopis. He attended boarding school, graduating from the Phoenix Indian School, and rejected notions that he wasn't suited for college, Eberhard said.

Zah attended community college, then Arizona State University on a basketball scholarship, where he earned a degree in education. He went on to teach carpentry on the reservation and other vocational skills. He later co-founded a federally funded legal advocacy organization that served Navajos, Hopis and Apaches that still exists today.

Despite never having held a major elected position, Zah captured the tribal chairman’s post in 1982, campaigning in a white, battered 1950s International pickup that he fixed up himself, drove for decades and which became a symbol of his low-key style, Eberhard said.

Under Zah’s leadership, the tribe established a now multi-billion-dollar Permanent Fund in 1985 after winning a court battle with Kerr McGee that found the tribe had authority to tax companies that extract minerals from the 27,000 square-mile (69,000 square-kilometer) reservation. All coal, pipeline, oil and gas leases were renegotiated, which increased payments to the tribe. A portion of that money is added annually to the Permanent Fund.

Former Hopi Chairman Ivan Sydney, whose tenure overlapped with Zah's as chairman, said the two mended the acrimonious relationship between the neighboring tribes over the land dispute. They agreed to meet in person, without any lawyers, to come up with ways to help their people. Even after their terms ended, they attended tribal inaugurations and other events together.

Zah would say “let's go turn some heads,” Sydney recalled Wednesday after visiting with Zah's family. “We would go together, sit together and get introduced together.”

Zah sometimes was referred to as the Native American Robert Kennedy because of his charisma, ideas and ability to get things done, including lobbying federal officials to ensure Native Americans could use peyote as a religious sacrament, his longtime friend Charles Wilkinson said last year.

Zah also worked to ensure Native Americans were reflected in federal environmental laws like the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act.

Zah told The Associated Press in January 2022 that respecting people's differences was key to maintaining a sense of beauty in life and improving the world for future generations. He struggled to name the thing he was most proud of after receiving a lifetime achievement award from a Flagstaff-based environmental group.

“It’s hard for me to prioritize in that order,” he said. “It’s something I enjoyed doing all my life. People have passion, we’re born with that, plus a purpose in life.”

Zah said he could not have done the work alone and credited team efforts that always included his wife, Rosalind. Throughout his life, he never claimed to be an extraordinary Navajo, just a Navajo with extraordinary experiences.

That resonated with students at Arizona State University, where Zah served as the Native American liaison to the school's president for 15 years, boosting the number of Native students and the number of Native graduates. Zah also pushed colleges and universities to accept Navajo students — regardless of whether they graduated in the Arizona, New Mexico or Utah portion of the reservation — at in-state tuition rates.

“It’s thousands upon thousands of Native students not only from Navajo who he encouraged to stay in school, seek advanced degrees and was available to counsel when they hit the rough spots,” said Eberhard, who worked for Zah while he was chairman. “He completely altered the way Arizona State University works with Native students.”

Current Navajo President Buu Nygren said he first interacted with Zah as a student at ASU, struck by Zah's speech that he described as quiet and structured but powerful and vivid.

“To see him on the ASU campus brought a lot of inspiration to myself,” he said. “I probably wouldn't have gone into construction management if he wasn't so influential at ASU.”

Zah remained active in Navajo politics after he left ASU, as a consultant to other Navajo leaders on topics ranging from education, veterans and housing.

“He was a good and honest man, a man with heart,” former Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr. said late Tuesday. “And his heart was with his family, with the people, with the youth and, certainly, with our nation, our culture and our way of life.”

How The Inflation Reduction Act Will Benefit The Oil Industry


Editor OilPrice.com
Wed, March 8, 2023 

A few years ago, carbon capture was an eccentric, massively expensive way of reducing emissions, or so the talking point went. By 2022, carbon capture had in fact become one of the few ways in which oil companies could defend themselves against the onslaught of accusations of being the sole perpetrators of climate change. And then the Biden administration decided to support that.

For many environmentalists, the participation of the oil and gas industry in the transition is not simply impossible because of the very nature of the business but also very much unwanted. The only way oil and gas can take part in the transition, according to these activists who block traffic and vandalize works of art across Europe, is if the industry ceases to exist. Apparently, the Biden administration's opinion differs.

The Inflation Reduction Act is a piece of legislation that quickly became the target of as much praise as criticism for its generosity in funding low-carbon technologies and infrastructure. It is the biggest piece of legislation aimed at addressing climate change, stipulating spending of $369 billion in total.

Some of that money will likely go to oil companies to develop more carbon capture capacity, retrofit refineries to produce biofuels, and pursue the dream of cheap and clean hydrogen.

This week at CERAWeek, Chevron and Talos Energy said they were going to make their planned carbon capture and storage hub in Texas three times as large as originally intended.

"The market is huge," Chevron's vice president for carbon capture, utilization, and storage, Chris Powers, told media, as quoted by Reuters. "In order to meet the ambitions of the Paris Agreement, we are going to do CCUS at massive scale, with multiple hubs like this."

Exxon's Darren Woods echoed the sentiment last month. Speaking to investors, the chief executive of Exxon said, "There's a lot of activity in this space [carbon capture], a lot of interest, particularly with the IRA. I think we're very well positioned there," he said.

"This is not a game for start-ups. These are large, world-scale projects that require the kind of project expertise that we have, require the kind of size and balance sheet capacity that we have," Woods also noted.

Indeed, carbon capture and storage—or utilization—projects are large-scale undertakings that cost a lot of money, even though they are not as massively expensive as their opponents allege them to be. If the federal government wants to share some of that burden, the companies already active in this space would only be too happy to get the help.

According to the International Energy Agency, the transition to net zero would be impossible without carbon capture and related activities, be they reuse or storage. And it would need to be deployed on a huge scale, globally.

"The scale of the climate challenge means we need to act across a wide range of energy technologies. Carbon capture is critical for ensuring our transitions to clean energy are secure and sustainable," the IEA's Fatih Birol said at the release of the report three years ago.

This is why the IRA subsidy stipulations include carbon capture—because it appears to be critical for the transition. Yet opposition against it remains loud. More than a hundred groups earlier this month urged Congress to drop plans to provide further, targeted support to carbon utilization projects in the form of tax credits.

"This bill does not advance climate solutions, but is rather a giveaway to fossil fuel companies and other corporate polluters under the guise of climate action," the group wrote in a letter to the sponsors of the legislation, as quoted by Common Dreams.

"Promoting the utilization of captured CO2 in petrochemicals, plastics, and fuels, as your legislation would encourage, will perpetuate environmental justice harms and subsidize the oil and gas industry to do it."

According to the chief sponsor of the bill, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, the bill would simply expand eligibility for tax credits to cover not only those active in sequestration but in the utilization of carbon dioxide.

"Our bipartisan Carbon Capture and Utilization Parity Act would bring the value of the tax credits for carbon utilization in line with the incentives for sequestration, while supporting continued investment in carbon-neutral products," he said on his webpage.

There are plenty of uses for carbon dioxide—from making soft drinks and beer fizzy to producing synthetic, low-carbon fuels. One could go as far as to say carbon dioxide is an indispensable commodity for a range of industries just as it is indispensable for plant life—and, consequently, all life—on Earth.

Of course, carbon dioxide can - and routinely is - injected back into oil wells to stimulate production, and this appears to be the focus of the opposition against CCUS technology as a whole, because it is used to produce even more oil and gas when we should be producing less.

Yet the tide is changing in the oil and gas rhetoric. Big Oil executives have recently made statements they would hardly have dared make just two years ago. BP's and Shell's chief executives said on separate but recent occasions that oil and gas production remains necessary and will likely remain so over the long term, despite the transition to net zero.

Their counterparts in the United States, normally bolder when it comes to the essential nature of their products, have remained bold, especially amid calls from the federal government for more oil and gas production. And now both American and European supermajors plan to take advantage of the IRA billions, just like wind and solar developers and EV makers.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

US Energy Regains Its Swagger While Rest of World Gets IRA Envy


Jennifer Granholm

Kevin Crowley and Jennifer A. Dlouhy
Wed, March 8, 2023

(Bloomberg) -- Energy executives and Biden administration officials in Houston had a simple message for Europe and other regions griping that US climate spending will starve them of investment: Stop complaining and put up the cash to enact measures of your own

In a standing-room-only luncheon address at the CERAWeek by S&P Global conference, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm boasted the newly enacted infrastructure law and Inflation Reduction Act have made the US “irresistible” for clean energy investments. The more than $360 billion in support for clean energy and advanced manufacturing — as well as preferences for domestic content — have provoked tensions with allies including the European Union

There’s nothing wrong with “a little friendly competition,” she said. “As we keep saying, have at it. You should do the same thing. You should incentivize the production of clean energy in your country as well.”

Democratic President Joe Biden’s signature climate and infrastructure laws received almost universal praise from the world’s top fossil fuel executives at the conference, as they struck a more confident tone than in years gone by.

A year of energy shortages, volatile prices and recalibrating the global supply chain following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has underscored the enduring importance of oil and gas, even as the world attempts to transition to cleaner fuels.

The billions of dollars of fiscal incentives baked into the IRA mean the world’s biggest energy and industrial companies now view the US as the most attractive place to build renewable, carbon capture, and hydrogen facilities. That’s a problem for allies in Europe, Canada and elsewhere who are now playing catch-up to attract the capital for large-scale clean-energy projects.

“My speech to European leaders is: Don’t complain, do the same,” said Patrick Pouyanne, Chief Executive Officer of Paris-based TotalEnergies SE. The IRA is “exactly what we need to do” to accelerate the energy transition. “We say to European governments, since you want us to invest in Europe, you have to put the same incentive schemes as the US, or even more.”

Exxon Mobil Corp. CEO Darren Woods said the EU first needs to scrap a “punishing” windfall profits tax on oil companies that will wipe out years of profits from recent investments in its European refineries. As a result, the Texas oil giant has “stepped back and reevaluated” in Europe and is investing more in the US, he said.

EU leaders appear concerned. The war in Ukraine and the withdrawal of Russian gas have supercharged the continent’s push toward clean energy but the long-term strategy could be under threat with companies like Tesla Inc. and Volkswagen AG now prioritizing investment in the US. “Europe’s competitiveness and resilience is in danger,” the EU’s internal market authority said in an initial assessment seen by Bloomberg.

A clean energy arms race would be welcome, said Meghan Nutting, executive vice president of government and regulatory affairs at Sunnova Energy International Inc.

“For years, Europe was asking us to do something to meet the Paris climate agreement requirements, and we finally did, and now they’re worried we’re doing that,” she said on a panel Monday.

It’s not just the sheer size of the IRA that has won the backing of energy leaders, but also its simplicity. Big and small companies alike can access funds, and projects don’t have to wait years to redeem tax credits. Crucially, the legislation comes with few punitive measures that affect the industry’s cash cow, oil and gas.

The IRA is “all carrots, no sticks,” Alex Pourbaix, CEO of Cenovus Energy, said in an interview, picking up a metaphor that’s become ubiquitous at the conference. Pourbaix called on Canada to adopt similar legislation, which he says would accelerate the decarbonization of the country’s oil sands. Australian and Japanese executives also expressed admiration for the IRA.

“If we don’t we’re just going to see that capital flee the country and go to the US,” Pourbaix said.

The full-throated praise for the IRA marked a sharp contrast with recent sniping between oil executives and Biden, who has criticized them for not investing more in production and instead funneling profits into share buybacks.

In Houston, both sides seemed content to accentuate the positive. White House climate adviser John Podesta, a vocal climate hawk, used an appearance at the event to announce new plans to reduce permitting time on major projects, a major concern for energy producers.

Granholm’s rousing address also was well-received, a sharp contrast to her speech last year at the event, when she implored the gathered executives to do more to step up production in the face of energy shortages stemming from Russia’s war with Ukraine.

This time, Granholm stressed that the oil industry can bring its know-how to US investments in clean energy development that will yield worldwide benefits — including lower costs — far beyond American borders.

“We make no apologies for the level of investments that are happening,” Granholm said. “We don’t want to stoke trade wars or anything like that, but we are serious about bringing back supply chains into this country.”

Factbox-Biden budget to target U.S. fossil fuel subsidies


U.S. President Joe Biden speaks to media in Washington

Wed, March 8, 2023

U.S. President Joe Biden will propose a budget that would scrap oil and gas industry subsidies, according to a document seen by Reuters, reviving a perennial debate about whether fossil fuel companies should be receiving lucrative tax breaks.

While the proposal has little chance of making it through a divided Congress, it represents a political signal from the White House, which has repeatedly criticized Big Oil for raking in record profits at a time of high consumer energy costs since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Here are some details about U.S. fossil fuel subsidies:

HOW MUCH ARE THEY WORTH?

Calculating the cost of U.S. subsidies for the fossil fuel industry is complex because the incentives stretch across the U.S. tax code, but estimates range from $10 to $50 billion per year.

Taxpayer advocates and environmental groups argue the subsidies are inappropriate at a time when the federal government is trying to shift the economy to cleaner forms of energy to fight climate change.

The oil industry counters that the support is needed to ensure ongoing investment and reliable supply.

WHAT DO THE SUBSIDIES INCLUDE?

U.S. oil and gas subsidies include provisions ranging from incentives for domestic production, write-offs and deductions tied to foreign production and income, and approved accounting methods that can reduce the stated taxable value of assets.

One specific U.S. tax break on domestic production, for example, called intangible drilling costs, allows producers to deduct a majority of their costs from drilling new wells. The Joint Committee on Taxation, a nonpartisan panel of Congress, has estimated that eliminating it could generate $13 billion for the public coffers over 10 years.

Another, the percentage depletion tax break, which allows independent producers to recover development costs of declining oil gas and coal reserves, could generate about $12.9 billion in revenue over 10 years, according to the panel.

WHAT HAS BIDEN SAID?

Before taking office, Biden promised to get rid of fossil fuel subsidies as part of a multi-pronged effort to fight climate change that also included ending new drilling on public lands.

These promises have been impossible to keep. For one, they require an act of Congress, and Republicans and some Democrats oppose the removal of fossil fuel subsidies. Secondly, soaring energy prices since the Russian invasion of Ukraine have led Biden to call for more oil and gas, not less.

Ending subsidies for oil and gas is not a new idea, but it has always been difficult: former President Barack Obama also wanted to ditch tax breaks for fossil fuels to show the world that the United States was serious about speeding a transition to clean energy to tackle climate change.

But even with a commanding Democratic majority in the Senate in Obama's first six years in office, he was unable to kill the subsidies.

WHAT ARE OTHER COUNTRIES DOING?

For many governments, keeping consumer energy prices affordable is the top priority. That's why numerous countries, ranging from Japan to Brazil, last year imposed or increased subsidies to cushion consumers from skyrocketing prices.

The International Energy Agency estimated that so-called consumption subsidies for fossil fuels doubled in 2022 to $1 trillion globally.

(Reporting by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Simon Webb and Sonali Paul)

What's next for marijuana legalization after Oklahoma vote?

GEOFF MULVIHILL
Wed, March 8, 2023

In just over a decade since voters approved state constitutional amendments to make recreational marijuana legal in Colorado and Washington, 19 other states have followed suit.

But voters in Oklahoma, where faith leaders, law enforcement and most of the state's GOP leaders campaigned against legalization, on Tuesday rejected a ballot measure that would have legalized it.

Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada and Oregon also saw legalization ballot measures fail before being adopted in later votes.

Here's a look at what happened in Oklahoma this week, and where marijuana legalization stands across the U.S.

WHAT HAPPENED IN OKLAHOMA?

Anti-legalization groups were outspent by a 20-to-1 margin but their message still carried the day when recreational marijuana for people 21 and over was the only item on the statewide ballot.

Gov. Kevin Stitt and much of the state's Republican leadership joined the effort to defeat State Question 820, which was added to the ballot following a signature drive last year by Oklahomans for Sensible Marijuana Laws. The question was moved from the November ballot to March because of legal challenges and a delay in counting signatures.

Supporters spent nearly $5 million, according to campaign finance reports.

Prospective sellers were bullish in part because Oklahoma's neighbor Texas has a huge population and no legal marijuana. The Dallas-Fort Worth area is a little more than an hour from the border. The state would have reaped a 15% excise tax on sales on top of the standard sales tax. Portions of the extra revenue would have been used to boost local governments, the court system, public schools and substance abuse treatment.

THE MARIJUANA THAT IS LEGAL IN OKLAHOMA

The state kicked off a medical marijuana program after voters approved one in 2018 over objections from law-enforcement and religious leaders.

The program is one of the nation's most liberal.

There are more than 2,800 licensed dispensaries and nearly 10% of the state's 4 million residents have medical licenses to buy and consume cannabis.

WHERE DOES MARIJUANA STAND ACROSS THE U.S.?

Twenty-one states, mostly in the West and Northeast, have legalized marijuana for recreational use by adults.

They are: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.

In Maryland, legal sales have not yet begun and in Missouri, they launched in February. Voters in both states approved legalization measures last year.

Most other states have either medical cannabis programs or laws allowing for sales and use of CBD, one of the chemical compounds in the plant.

Only Idaho, Kansas and Nebraska have no legal use of any component of marijuana.

The drug also remains illegal under federal law, though President Joe Biden is pardoning thousands of people for federal marijuana possession convictions and has directed officials to review how marijuana is categorized under federal law. It's currently listed as Schedule I, alongside heroin and LSD, and more serious than methamphetamine and fentanyl.

THE NEXT BATTLES

There are already pushes to put legalization on the ballot this year in Ohio and in 2024 in Florida and Nebraska, where past measures have not made the ballot because of constitutional concerns or a failure to get enough signatures.

There are also pushes to legalize recreational marijuana without needing to go to voters, an approach that has succeeded in other states.

This week, Hawaii's state Senate passed a bill, though it's not certain it will have a vote in the House.

The Delaware House passed a legalization measure Tuesday and is considering one to allow sales and regulate them. The Senate would still have to weight in.

The New Hampshire House last month passed a legalization bill.

A bill has also been working through the Legislature in Minnesota, where Gov. Tim Walz has pledged to a sign a legalization measure if lawmakers pass it.

Swarm of quakes at Alaska volcano could mean eruption coming


In this photo provided by the Alaska Volcano Observatory/U.S. Geological Survey is the Tanaga Volcano near Adak, Alaska, on May 23, 2021. A swarm of earthquakes occurring over the past few weeks has intensified at a remote Alaska volcano dormant for over a century, a possible indication of an impending eruption. The Alaska Volcano Observatory raised the alert level to advisory status for Tanaga Volcano late Tuesday, March 7, 2023, after the quakes became very vigorous.

 (Matt Loewen/Alaska Volcano Observatory/U.S. Geological Survey via AP)

MARK THIESSEN
Wed, March 8, 2023 

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A swarm of earthquakes occurring over the past few weeks has intensified at a remote Alaska volcano dormant for over a century, a possible indication of an impending eruption.

The Alaska Volcano Observatory raised the alert level to advisory status for Tanaga Volcano late Tuesday after the quakes became very vigorous.

“We started seeing a whole lot of earthquakes occurring, one after the other, several per minute,” said John Power, a research geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey stationed in Anchorage at the Alaska Volcano Observatory.

There have been hundreds of small earthquakes, none larger than magnitude 2.75, but they are concentrated beneath the summit of the volcano, he said.

“That indicates that we’re seeing significant unrest at the volcano,” Power said.

“Whether or not this will lead to an eruption is something we can’t say at this point in time,” he said. “But we are concerned about it enough that we have gone and elevated the warning level.”

While the increase causes concern, he said many times earthquake activity will drop off with no eruption.

“It’s anybody’s guess as to where this particular round of earthquake activity may end up,” he said.

The volcano is on an uninhabited island in the western Aleutians, about 1,250 miles (2,012 kilometers) southwest of Anchorage. There are no communities or structures there, but Adak, a city of about 170 residents on another island, is about 65 miles (105 kilometers) away and could see ashfall.

If the volcano were to erupt, the biggest threat would be to aircraft. The Aleutians are below the routes that jets fly between North America and Asia. Volcanic ash is angular and sharp and can cause an airplane engine to shut down. Previous eruptions had both ash clouds and viscous lava that moves very slowly away from the mountain, much like what happened at Mount St. Helens in Washington state in 1980.

“It’s very different than what you would see, for example, in Hawaii, Kilauea or Mauna Loa, where you see these beautiful red rivers of lava flowing down the side of the volcano," Power said.

Tanaga is actually part of a three-volcano complex on the island. It’s the tallest of the three at 5,925 feet (1,806 meters). It sits in the middle, with Sajaka, a 4,443-foot volcano to its west. Sajaka had an older cone that collapsed into the North Pacific Ocean with a new cone that has emerged.

To the east of Tanaga is Takawangha, a 4,75-foot (1,449-meter) volcano that is mostly ice-covered except for four craters, the Alaska Volcano Observatory says.

The last known eruption for Tanaga was in 1914. It erupted twice in the late 1700s and again in 1829.

The observatory in a release said there are no known eruptions of Takawangha or Sajaka. However, field work has indicated that eruptions may have occurred from those volcanos and were attributed to Tanaga.

Eruption at Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano stops after 61 days


This photo provided by the U.S. Geological Survey shows the inside of the summit crater of the Kilauea Volcano on Jan. 6, 2023. The latest eruption at Kilauea's summit on Hawaii's Big Island has paused after 61 days of volcanic activity. Hawaii News Now reports U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory scientists said Tuesday, March 7, 2023, that lava was no longer flowing on the crater floor of Halemaumau, where all recent volcanic activity had been confined. 

(U.S. Geological Survey via AP, File) 

Tue, March 7, 2023

HONOLULU (AP) — The latest eruption at Kilauea’s summit on Hawaii's has paused after 61 days of volcanic activity.

U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory scientists said Tuesday lava was no longer flowing on the crater floor of Halemaumau, where all recent volcanic activity had been confined, Hawaii News Now reported.

No significant changes have been observed along the volcano’s rift zones. Scientists on Monday observed small “ooze-outs” of lava flowing sluggishly in the lava lake.

Officials said activity diminished in the afternoon, and by Tuesday, there was no active lava in the crater.

USGS said the reduction in activity was related to the “larger deflationary tilt drop” that began Feb. 17, a common process at Kilauea in which the ground deflates for hours or days. The drop in pressure can then cause eruptions to diminish.

Kilauea began erupting again Jan. 5 after scientists detected a glow within Halemaumau Crater. The latest eruption started after a nearly monthlong pause in activity.

Kilauea is one of the world’s most active volcanoes. A 2018 Kilauea eruption destroyed more than 700 homes.

Before the major 2018 eruption, Kilauea had been erupting since 1983, and streams of lava occasionally covered farms and homes. During that time, the lava sometimes reached the ocean, causing dramatic interactions with the water.

US Federal protection granted for imperiled freshwater mussels


In this undated photo provided by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is a longsolid mussel. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Wednesday, March, 8, 2023, it will designate the longsolid and round hickorynut mussels as threatened. This means they're likely to become in danger of extinction.

 (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via AP)

JOHN FLESHER
Wed, March 8, 2023

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Federal regulators designated two U.S. freshwater mussels as threatened on Wednesday, a further sign of trouble for native mollusks that help cleanse waters by filtering out pollutants as they feed.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it was granting protection to longsolid and round hickorynut mussels, which have declined in many Eastern and Midwestern streams.

The primary cause is habitat damage from urban sprawl, farming, oil and gas development, pipelines and mining. Other factors include competition from nonnative mussels and rising stream temperatures linked to climate change.

“Both of these mussels have suffered proverbial deaths from a thousand cuts,” said Gary Peeples, deputy supervisor of the agency's field office in Asheville, North Carolina. “A lot of little things have added up.”

Flourishing mussel populations signal healthy streams, he said. North America is a historical showcase of mussel diversity, hosting about 300 of the world's roughly 900 types. But about two-thirds of the continent's freshwater mussels are imperiled.

The newly designated threatened species have much wider ranges than many struggling mussels, Peeples said. Both favor stream bottoms with mixtures of sand, gravel and cobble.

The longsolid can reach five inches (12.7 centimeters) in length and live up to 50 years. It's found in Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.

Of 60 known populations, 48 are in a limited area with no indication that young mussels are reaching adulthood, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Previously, there were 160 known populations. The mussel has disappeared from Georgia and Illinois.

The round hickorynut grows as long as three inches (7.6 centimeters) and is found in Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and West Virginia.

Only 69 populations are believed to remain, down from a historical high of 301. Of the survivors, 49 are in a narrow area and show no signs of young mussel maturity. They are no longer found in Georgia, Illinois or New York.

Threatened species are considered likely to become in danger of extinction within much or all of their range.

Protection under the Endangered Species Act will help the mussels "by raising awareness, inspiring conservation partnerships and making funding available for their recovery,” said Mike Oetker, regional director of the Fish and Wildlife Service.

The agency will designate critical habitat and work with state wildlife biologists to promote recovery, he said. For the longsolid, protected areas include 12 units along 1,115 river miles (1,794 river kilometers), while the round hickorynut's critical habitat has 14 units along 921 river miles (1,482 river kilometers).

Both species are largely in the same areas as other federally protected mussels. Federal agencies will be required to consult the service before allowing potentially harmful activities.

Under the law, the service can authorize actions that would cause “a minimal level of disturbance” to the mussels, Peeples said. That includes logging with best-management practices such as maintaining buffer zones along streams to prevent erosion.

The Center for Biological Diversity, an advocacy group that filed a lawsuit seeking protection for the mussels, applauded the threatened designation, which takes effect April 10.

But opening the door to commercial tree harvesting in critical habitat is a mistake, staff attorney Perrin de Jong said.

“Logging practices vary widely from state to state and the service hasn’t defined who’s responsible for ensuring that loggers actually follow these rules when they log mussel habitat,” de Jong said. ”These critters need real protection, not just words on a page.”