More than 1 million barrels of oil removed from deteriorating tanker moored off Yemen, UN says

The Canadian Press
Fri, August 11, 2023



NEW YORK (AP) — The transfer of more than a million barrels of oil from an aging tanker moored off the coast of war-torn Yemen has been completed, avoiding an environmental disaster, the United Nations said Friday.

In a statement, Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said the operation had prevented “monumental environmental and humanitarian catastrophe.”

An international team began siphoning the oil from the dilapidated vessel known as SOF Safer on July 25. All of the oil is now aboard a replacement tanker called MOST Yemen.

Before the transfer, the Safer carried four times as much oil as was spilled in the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster off Alaska, one of the world’s worst ecological catastrophes, according to the U.N.

International organizations and rights groups warned for years of the potential for a spill or an explosion involved the tanker, which has not been maintained and has seawater in its engine compartment and damaged pipes.

It is moored 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) from Yemen’s western Red Sea ports of Hodeida and Ras Issa, a strategic area controlled by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels who are at war with the internationally recognized Yemeni government.

The warring sides blamed each other for blocking a salvage operation to remove the oil until a U.N.-led initiative succeeded in accessing the ship and raising money from international donors.

The transfer marks a major milestone in a plan that needs additional funding to transport the oil away and to move the SOF Safer. The U.N. said a small amount of oil remains inside the Safer's hull and that the salvage team needs to install a secure system for mooring the replacement tanker in deep water.

“As much of the 1.14 million barrels has been extracted as possible,” the U.N. statement said. “However, less than 2% of the original oil cargo remains mixed in with sediment that will be removed during the final cleaning of the Safer.”

David Gressly, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator, said Friday that during the cleaning phase a sea water wash will be applied in a bid “to extract as much liquid oil as possible.” It remains unclear how long this next phase will take.

The United States welcomed the news of the operation's success and called on other countries to contribute to see the job through to the end.

“The U.N. urgently needs the international community and private sector’s financial support to fill the remaining $22 million funding gap needed to finish the job and address all remaining environmental threats,” U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said.

The tanker, a Japanese-made vessel built in the 1970s, was sold to the Yemeni government during the 1980s to store for export up to 3 million barrels pumped from oil fields in eastern Yemen's Marib province. The ship is 360 meters (1,181 feet) long with 34 storage tanks.

Peter Berdowski, CEO of maritime services company Boskalis, said the Safer's former cargo was now inside a “modern double-hulled tanker.” The U.N. contracted a Boskalis subsidiary, SMIT Salvage, to remove the oil.

He congratulated the company's salvage team for "carrying out the work under very challenging conditions in the Red Sea.”

Yemen’s ruinous civil war began in 2014 when the Houthis seized the capital of Sanaa and much of northern Yemen and forced the government into exile. A Saudi-led coalition, including the UAE, intervened the following year to try to restore the internationally recognized government to power.

“In the midst of a conflict zone, remarkable things become possible. Many thought this was an impossible salvage operation,” said Adam Steiner, chief of the U.N. Development Program.

Edith M. Lederer And Jack Jeffery, The Associated Press

Federal government releases new draft regulations on clean electricity


Thu, August 10, 2023

OTTAWA — Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault released draft regulations Thursday that are designed to clean Canada's electricity grid in an affordable way by 2035.

The regulations would drive up the cost of energy slightly, but federal officials say that would be offset by the savings expected to come from moving away from fossil fuels.

The government has set a target of making the electricity grid net-zero by 2035, and the regulationsare meant to help guide the way.


The Environment and Climate Change Department estimates the average household energy bill will increase by $35 to $61 per year by 2040 if the regulations are adopted, but only two per cent of that increase will come as a result of the regulations.

The government plans to cover up to half of the cost of the regulations through tax credits, low-cost financing and other funds, which could mean even less cost is passed on to consumers, Guilbeault said at a press conference in Toronto.

The minister also said he expects increases to be offset as people move away from fossil fuels to heat their homes, cook food or power vehicles.

Overall, Canadians are expected to spend 12 per cent less on energy by 2050, government estimates show.

"Shifting to clean electricity saves households on their energy bills, away from the shocks of yo-yo-ing gas and oil prices," Guilbeault said.

Conservatives are highly critical of the 2035 target and the potential cost it represents to consumers.

"This government has already increased the carbon tax and poured billions of dollars of fuel on the inflationary fire; now, they are going to ratchet up the cost of the electricity that is a necessity for families and businesses across Canada to literally keep the lights on," Conservative environment critic Gérard Deltell said in a written statement Thursday.

Electricity infrastructure expenses are expected to increase significantly over the next several decades. It's estimated infrastructure maintenance and increased demand will cost $400 billion by 2050.

The country's grid is already nearly 85 per cent clean, but demand is expected to double by 2050 as things like cars, buses and trains become electric, and homes and buildings switch away from fossil-fuel heating sources.

"Why not make sure that this build-out is clean and affordable?" Guilbeault posited.

The government expects the draft regulations would decrease greenhouse-gas emissions by 342 million tonnes between 2024 and 2050.

Provincial governments in Alberta and Saskatchewan say they can't meet the 2035 goal, preferring to set the target for 2050.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith called the draft regulations unconstitutional and irresponsible.

"They will not be implemented in our province – period," Smith vowed in a statement Thursday.

Alberta Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz said the rules set the stage for an astronomically expensive and ultimately unreliable power supply.

In an interview Thursday afternoon, Guilbeault said he believes the department struck a "good balance" after consulting with provinces, territories, private and public utilities, investors, sector experts and Indigenous groups.

The federal government has been seeking feedback on the regulatory framework for nearly a year and will consult on the draft regulations for 75 days, with a final version expected to be published in January 2025.

They won't come into effect until 2035, but given the long lead time needed to build new electricity infrastructure, Guilbeault said the government wants to give the industry plenty of notice.

"One thing we've heard from investors, from energy companies, is: 'Tell us what the rules are, and we will comply with them,'" he said of the consultations so far.

Guilbeault said the draft regulations are designed to be affordable and achievable with technology that is already being used across the country.

"Clean electricity is already the most cost-effective in Canada, even after accounting for its variability," said Jason Dion, senior research director with the Canadian Climate Institute.

"There are many ways to ensure the grid remains reliable as the share of wind and solar electricity grows, including flexible electricity demand, battery storage and greater provincial interconnection."

The regulations are also intended to show some flexibility, the minister said, and would allow electricity that doesn't meet the new net-zero standard to support the power grid during periods of peak demand.

Electricity Canada has asked for more information about how that will work, among other clarifications.

Schulz dismissed the proposal to allow gas-powered plants to backstop peak energy demand.

"Alberta's natural gas power plants cannot simply be kept in the cupboard and brought out to turn on and off whenever they're needed," Schulz told reporters in Calgary.

She also rejected a proposed regulation to allow power plants operating in 2025 to be exempt from greenhouse gas emissions caps for 20 years, in effect allowing some to go past the 2035 deadline.

"Who’s going to build that plant with a lifespan of 20 years?" she asked.

"It's a bait-and-switch. It's not going to work for Albertans or quite frankly, a number of other provinces across the country."

Guilbeault said the regulations are still a draft, and the consultations will continue.

"If there are things that aren't clear, if there are some clarifications that are needed, we will certainly provide that in the coming months," he said.

The regulations also exempt remote communities that aren't part of the power grid.

Federal and provincial governments are working together on plans and projects to reduce and eliminate the dependence on fossil fuels in remote communities, the minister said.

"We understand we're not there yet, which is why we've decided to ensure that the regulations wouldn't apply to them," he said.

He would not say if they have a timeline in mind to make clean electricity more accessible to those areas.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 10, 2023.

-- With files from Dean Bennett in Edmonton.

Laura Osman, The Canadian Press

Ontario premier refuses to back away from plans to build on protected Greenbelt

The Canadian Press
Fri, August 11, 2023 



MISSISSAUGA, Ont. — Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he will not back away from plans to build on the protected Greenbelt despite a damning auditor general report and experts saying his housing targets can be met by building elsewhere.

Ford says no one received preferential treatment in the process to open the Greenbelt to housing construction, despite Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk concluding the process was biased and favoured certain developers with ties to the housing minister.

Last year, the Ford government opened up 7,400 acres of the Greenbelt to development while adding about 9,400 acres elsewhere as part of its bid to build 1.5 million homes.

Local planners in the three regions where the land was removed along with the province's housing task force say the land is not needed to meet housing construction targets.

The Integrity Commissioner of Ontario is reviewing a request from Ford to look into Housing Minister Steve Clark's chief of staff, Ryan Amato.

Lysyk found that developers who had access to Amato at a housing conference dinner last September wound up with 92 per cent of the land that was removed from the Greenbelt.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 11, 2023.

The Canadian Press

Quebec power utility studies possible reopening of Gentilly-2 nuclear reactor

The Canadian Press
Thu, August 10, 2023 



MONTREAL — Quebec's hydroelectric utility is studying whether to reopen the province's only nuclear power generating station as a response to a growing demand for clean energy.

Hydro-Québec confirmed Thursday that it's looking into restarting the Gentilly-2 reactor in Bécancour, Que., on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River about halfway between Montreal and Quebec City. The plant opened in 1983 and closed in 2012.

"Concerning Gentilly-2, an assessment of the plant's current condition is underway, in order to evaluate our options and inform our thinking about Quebec's future energy supply," the utility said in a statement.

The Crown corporation expects demand for clean energy to increase "significantly" as efforts to reduce carbon emissions continue.

It would be "irresponsible" to exclude certain energy sources, such as nuclear power, amid this "immense challenge," it said, citing an "open mind" on the part of its new CEO, Michael Sabia.

But Pierre-Olivier Pineau, professor of energy sector management at the HEC Montréal business school, doubts reviving nuclear power would be profitable in Quebec.

In 2012, the provincial government under then-premier Pauline Marois accepted Hydro-Québec's recommendation to close Gentilly-2, in part because of the high cost of refurbishing the plant.

"More than 10 years later, costs can only go up because we've started dismantling the plant," Pineau explained in an interview. An increase in construction costs in the last decade means "the nuclear bill could turn out to be very high," he said.

The professor pointed to alternatives to expand the energy supply, such as increasing energy efficiency in homes, wind, solar and geothermal power. "All this can help us reduce our consumption" at a lower cost, he said. "And it would avoid the debates that are always difficult on technologies like nuclear, where there are risks (and) there is waste management that is never easy."

That doesn't mean nuclear power is inappropriate in all contexts, Pineau suggested.

"There are countries on Earth that need nuclear power because they have so much coal and no access to ... hydroelectricity or wind power," he acknowledged. In those cases, he continued, nuclear energy may be a healthier alternative to coal, which pollutes the atmosphere and whose extraction endangers the health of miners.

The announcement by Hydro-Québec comes at a time when the provincial Energy Department is conducting a consultation on the development of clean energy sources in Quebec. The ministry has pledged to table a bill on the subject this fall.

In its submission as part of the consultation, the Conseil du patronat du Québec, an organization that represents employers in the province, suggested nuclear power should not be excluded from consideration.

"Today, nuclear power generates waste. On the other hand, we know that science and technology are evolving," the organization's president, Karl Blackburn, said in an interview. "If we close the door now, we may be depriving ourselves of opportunities for tomorrow."

Greenpeace Canada spokesperson Patrick Bonin said nuclear power is an unnecessary risk for a province with many other options. "There's no doubt that if the government and Hydro-Québec want to go ahead with nuclear power again in Quebec, there will be an unprecedented outcry," Bonin said in an interview.

Quebec politicians also reacted sharply to Hydro-Québec's statement on Gentilly-2. Provincial Liberal Leader Marc Tangay called on the government to "launch a genuine national discussion on Quebec's energy future," saying in a press release that it's "unacceptable that our nation's energy future be decided behind closed doors."

Haroun Bouazzi, energy critic for left-leaning party Québec solidaire, called Hydro-Québec's position on Gentilly-2 "worrying," given the lack of evidence that nuclear power is "necessary to meet our ecological transition objectives."

Last June, Energy Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon said although he had an "intellectual" interest in nuclear power and the province would have to consider new energy sources, "today, in Quebec, we're not there."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 10, 2023.

-- With files from Stéphane Rolland

Coralie Laplante, The Canadian Press

India plans welfare measures for gig workers ahead of elections

Fri, August 11, 2023 
By Manoj Kumar

NEW DELHI, Aug 11 (Reuters) - India plans to roll out welfare measures for "gig" workers employed through platforms like Amazon, Uber and India's Zomato as Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government prepares for elections, government and trade union officials said.

The plan, part of the Social Security Code enacted in 2020, could include accident, health insurance and retirement benefits, said a senior government official with direct knowledge of the plan.

Ahead of the elections early next year, Modi's party is eager to announce steps after the northern state of Rajasthan, ruled by opposition Congress party, approved setting up a fund through a surcharge on sales at platforms.

"There is an urgency to announce relief measures for gig workers," said a government official, citing meetings with trade unions, gig platforms and state officials.

Gig workers need state protection, given rising exploitation by employers, said Ashwani Mahajan, an economic official at the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh group, which has close ties to Modi's government.

India's gig workers, those outside traditional employer-employee relationships, are rapidly becoming an important part of the world's fifth-biggest economy as the sector surged under COVID-19 restrictions and has been boosted by high unemployment.

BOOMING GIG ECONOMY

The labour ministry declined to comment on the plans. Labour Minister Bhupender Yadav told lawmakers this week any scheme for gig workers might be funded through contributions by federal and state governments, as well as the platforms.

An industry expert with direct knowledge of the discussions said the platforms unanimously agreed with the labour ministry's proposal about social security for gig workers and were ready to contribute to a "transparently" run welfare fund.

"We expect the announcement of federal measures in the next few months as players don't want to deal with multiple states."

Amazon, asked for comment on the proposed scheme and its potential costs, referred Reuters to a Thursday media statement that the company had created over 1.3 million jobs in India for delivery agents and sellers, including 140,000 in the past year, while boosting the retail business of small firms.

Uber and Zomato did not immediately respond to requests for comment.


In addition to the big-name companies, hundreds of other online platforms and the people they hire for piecemeal work would be affected, spanning services such as cab-sharing, retail, food, construction and finance.

There are no official figures for the size of India's gig economy, although private estimates put the number employed at 10 million to 15 million people. The Boston Consulting Group forecast in 2021 it had the potential to create 90 million jobs and annual transaction volumes over $250 billion.

By 2030, the government think tank NITI Aayog estimates, the gig economy could employ more than 23.5 million, about 7% of the non-farm workforce.

The government has not calculated the cost of the planned welfare measures as it must get data from the companies, said the sources, who asked not to be named because they were not authorised to speak to the media.

'WE SHOULD BE RECOGNISED'

The government could initially provide gig workers with state-funded medical and accident insurance and a mechanism to address complaints, one official said, while a setting mechanism for employers' contributions to the fund.

The measures propose employers contribute between 1% and 2% of their annual revenues to a security fund, up to 5% of the amount paid to workers, the sources said.

More than 290 million people have registered for an online government portal meant to issue identity cards to gig workers and other unorganised employees, while gathering such details as biometric data and their skills.

The government is worried about rising complaints by gig workers and social media campaign against platforms about cuts in commission and long working hours.

Blinkit, the grocery unit of food delivery platform Zomato, faced disruptions in operations in April when hundreds of workers protested over commission cuts.

"We have no channel to raise our complaints," said Uber driver Sheetal Kashyap, 47, adding women workers like her face safety risks and exploitation due to low bargaining power.

Shaik Salauddin, national general secretary of the Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers representing over 45,000 cab drivers, said they were lobbying political parties for a package before the elections.

"We should be recognised as employees, eligible for all benefits under labour laws, including fixed working hours and decent working conditions."

(Reporting by Manoj Kumar; Additional reporting by Nigam Prusty; Editing by William Mallard)

ChatGPT fever spreads to US workplace, sounding alarm for some

ng alarm for some
FILE PHOTO: Illustration picture of ChatGPT




Fri, August 11, 2023 
By Richa Naidu, Martin Coulter and Jason Lange

LONDON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Many workers across the U.S. are turning to ChatGPT to help with basic tasks, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found, despite fears that have led employers such as Microsoft and Google to curb its use.

Companies worldwide are considering how to best make use of ChatGPT, a chatbot programme that uses generative AI to hold conversations with users and answer myriad prompts. Security firms and companies have raised concerns, however, that it could result in intellectual property and strategy leaks.

Anecdotal examples of people using ChatGPT to help with their day-to-day work include drafting emails, summarising documents and doing preliminary research.


Some 28% of respondents to the online poll on artificial intelligence (AI) between July 11 and 17 said they regularly use ChatGPT at work, while only 22% said their employers explicitly allowed such external tools.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll of 2,625 adults across the United States had a credibility interval, a measure of precision, of about 2 percentage points.

Some 10% of those polled said their bosses explicitly banned external AI tools, while about 25% did not know if their company permitted use of the technology.

ChatGPT became the fastest-growing app in history after its launch in November. It has created both excitement and alarm, bringing its developer OpenAI into conflict with regulators, particularly in Europe, where the company's mass data-collecting has drawn criticism from privacy watchdogs.

Human reviewers from other companies may read any of the generated chats, and researchers found that similar artificial intelligence AI could reproduce data it absorbed during training, creating a potential risk for proprietary information.

"People do not understand how the data is used when they use generative AI services," said Ben King, VP of customer trust at corporate security firm Okta.

"For businesses this is critical, because users don't have a contract with many AIs - because they are a free service - so corporates won't have run the risk through their usual assessment process," King said.

OpenAI declined to comment when asked about the implications of individual employees using ChatGPT, but highlighted a recent company blog post assuring corporate partners that their data would not be used to train the chatbot further, unless they gave explicit permission.

When people use Google's Bard it collects data such as text, location, and other usage information. The company allows users to delete past activity from their accounts and request that content fed into the AI be removed. Alphabet-owned Google declined to comment when asked for further detail.

Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

'HARMLESS TASKS'

A U.S.-based employee of Tinder said workers at the dating app used ChatGPT for "harmless tasks" like writing emails even though the company does not officially allow it.

"It's regular emails. Very non-consequential, like making funny calendar invites for team events, farewell emails when someone is leaving ... We also use it for general research," said the employee, who declined to be named because they were not authorized to speak with reporters.

The employee said Tinder has a "no ChatGPT rule" but that employees still use it in a "generic way that doesn't reveal anything about us being at Tinder".

Reuters was not able independently confirm how employees at Tinder were using ChatGPT. Tinder said it provided "regular guidance to employees on best security and data practices".

In May, Samsung Electronics banned staff globally from using ChatGPT and similar AI tools after discovering an employee had uploaded sensitive code to the platform.

"We are reviewing measures to create a secure environment for generative AI usage that enhances employees' productivity and efficiency," Samsung said in a statement on Aug. 3.

"However, until these measures are ready, we are temporarily restricting the use of generative AI through company devices."

Reuters reported in June that Alphabet had cautioned employees about how they use chatbots including Google's Bard, at the same time as it markets the programme globally.

Google said although Bard can make undesired code suggestions, it helps programmers. It also said it aimed to be transparent about the limitations of its technology.

BLANKET BANS

Some companies told Reuters they are embracing ChatGPT and similar platforms, while keeping security in mind.

"We've started testing and learning about how AI can enhance operational effectiveness," said a Coca-Cola spokesperson in Atlanta, Georgia, adding that data stays within its firewall.

"Internally, we recently launched our enterprise version of Coca-Cola ChatGPT for productivity," the spokesperson said, adding that Coca-Cola plans to use AI to improve the effectiveness and productivity of its teams.

Tate & Lyle Chief Financial Officer Dawn Allen, meanwhile, told Reuters that the global ingredients maker was trialing ChatGPT, having "found a way to use it in a safe way".

"We've got different teams deciding how they want to use it through a series of experiments. Should we use it in investor relations? Should we use it in knowledge management? How can we use it to carry out tasks more efficiently?"

Some employees say they cannot access the platform on their company computers at all.

"It's completely banned on the office network, like it doesn't work," said a Procter & Gamble employee, who wished to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak to the press.

P&G declined to comment. Reuters was not able independently to confirm whether employees at P&G were unable to use ChatGPT.

Paul Lewis, chief information security officer at cyber security firm Nominet, said firms were right to be wary.

"Everybody gets the benefit of that increased capability, but the information isn't completely secure and it can be engineered out," he said, citing "malicious prompts" that can be used to get AI chatbots to disclose information.

"A blanket ban isn't warranted yet, but we need to tread carefully," Lewis said.

(Reporting by Richa Naidu, Martin Coulter and Jason Lange; Editing by Alexander Smith)

China salutes WWII American general Joe Stilwell in personal push to improve US ties


Thu, August 10, 2023 

China has rolled out the red carpet for the descendants of a second world war American general, commemorating the late officer as Beijing turns to informal personal contacts to improve ties between the two countries.

Yuan Jiajun, the Communist Party chief of Chongqing, met members of the family of Joseph Stilwell in the southwestern city on Wednesday.

The group included Susan Cole and Nancy Millward, the great-granddaughters of the general who was based in the city during the war and worked closely with Chinese leaders against Japanese forces.

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"[We] hope to take this visit as an opportunity ... to better promote people-to-people exchanges between China and the United States and contribute to the development of China-US relations," Chongqing Daily quoted Yuan as saying.

Members of the family have visited China before but previous commemorations have not attracted such attention.

Yuan is one of the 24 members of the Politburo, the party's inner circle, and his presence this time for the 140th anniversary of Stilwell's birth highlights Beijing's focus on informal contact with the United States.

Despite some resumption of senior-level official communication, relations with Washington remain in the doldrums and Beijing has opted to host a series of prominent American public figures to try to promote ties.

In June, Chinese President Xi Jinping told his "American friend" billionaire Bill Gates that people were the foundation of relations.

"We count on the American people, and hope for lasting friendship between the two peoples," Xi told the Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist, just days before meeting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

In July, Xi met former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger, telling the centenarian that "we never forget our old friends".

Xi said he hoped that Kissinger and "other people of foresight" in the US could continue to play a constructive role in restoring relations between the two countries.

That theme continued on Wednesday when Yuan referred to Stilwell as "an old and good friend of the Chinese people".

"We will always remember his name," he said.

Stilwell's efforts were a key chapter in the history of US-China collaboration and he is the only high-ranking US military figure who has a museum dedicated to his memory in China.

As part of this week's events commemorating his 140th birthday, Cole and Millward planted a friendship tree at the museum in Chongqing on Tuesday together with Liu Ning and Liu Yinna, the great-grandson and great-granddaughter of Zhu De, the founder of the Chinese Red Army, which later became the People's Liberation Army.

When Stilwell died in 1946, Zhu said that not only had the US lost a great general but the Chinese people had lost a great friend.

The commemorative events also included a seminar on Tuesday, attended by more than 150 people, including representatives from the Chinese foreign ministry and the US embassy in Beijing.

China has previously saluted the legacy of the Chinese-American wartime friendship to foster relations.

In April last year, Qin Gang, then China's envoy to Washington, attended the 80th anniversary of the Flying Tigers, a group of American pilots who fought for China against Japanese forces during the second world war.

Qin addressed the event while wearing a Flying Tigers jacket sent by two US veterans.

During a trip to Chongqing in May, US ambassador to China Nicholas Burns visited the Stilwell museum and one dedicated to the Flying Tigers.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2023 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2023. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Experts fear US carbon capture plan is ‘fig leaf’ to protect fossil fuel industry

Staff and agencies
Fri, August 11, 2023 

Photograph: Reuters

The US energy department has announced it is awarding up to $1.2bn to two projects to directly remove carbon dioxide from the air, a fledgling technology that some climate experts worry will distract and undermine efforts to phase out fossil fuels.

The process, known as direct air capture, does not yet exist on a meaningful scale, and the move was being seen as the US government taking a big bet coming after July was confirmed as the hottest month ever recorded on its surface.

Countries are currently not cutting planet-heating emissions enough to avoid disastrous global warming of 2C, or more, above pre-industrial times. This shortfall means that planting forests and developing machines that can suck carbon directly from the air will be required to remove billions of tons of greenhouse gases, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Related: Why carbon capture and storage will not solve the climate crisis any time soon

But Hoesung Lee, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, recently warned that carbon capture was “no free lunch” and that countries should be wary. The most recent IPCC report was published in March and warned it was “now or never” to take action on emissions with the world on the brink of irrevocable damage.

Reacting to the news of the US investments by the Biden administration on Friday, some experts were worried the technology was being used as a “fig leaf” by the fossil fuel industry.

The projects selected for energy department backing are Project Cypress, which will be built in Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana, and the South Texas DAC Hub, which is planned for Kleberg County, Texas.

Jennifer Granholm, the energy secretary, talked up the potential of the technology in a press conference call. “If we deploy this at scale, this technology can help us make serious headway toward our net zero emissions goals while we are still focused on deploying more clean energy at the same time,” she said.

Shannon Boettcher, professor of chemistry at the University of Oregon, said direct air capture technologies are not yet cost effective, but are worth some investment in research and development.

Claire Nelson, a postdoctoral research scientist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory said moving away from fossil fuels and producing the things we need without emissions are the most important ways to address climate change.

But the scale of change needed makes direct air capture necessary as another tool. “In order to have direct air capture ready at the scale we need it by 2050, we need to invest in it today,” she said.

However other experts said the investments were a mistake.

“This money could be so much better spent on actual climate solutions that would be cutting emissions from the get go,” said Jonathan Foley, executive director of Project Drawdown, a group that publicizes climate solutions. He cited energy efficiency and lowering emissions from agriculture, transportation, electricity generation as better approaches.

“What worries me and a lot of other climate scientists is that it potentially creates a fig leaf for the fossil fuel industry … the idea that we can keep burning stuff and remove it later,” Foley added.

The Biden administration delivered a historic climate bill last August though the president’s record on the climate has been undercut by his aggressive giveaway of oil and gas drilling leases on public land, including the controversial Willow oil project in Alaska.

SCI-FI-TEK

U.S. Energy Department announces $1.2 billion to build two carbon dioxide removal sites in Texas, Louisiana

A.L. Lee
Fri, August 11, 2023 

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm announced funding to build two direct air capture facilities in Texas and Louisiana to help mitigate the global climate crisis. File Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI

Aug. 11 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Energy will announce $1.2 billion in climate funding Friday to build two commercial-scale direct air capture facilities in Texas and Louisiana that will help reduce the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

The initiative is being funded through President Joe Biden's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and is part of the Regional Direct Air Capture Hubs program, which aims to build a national network of carbon removal sites to mitigate the escalating climate crisis.

The funding for the project stands to become the world's largest-ever investment in engineered carbon removal, with each new hub capable of clearing more than 250 times more carbon dioxide from the air than the largest capture facility in operation today, the Energy Department said in a statement.

The goal of direct air capture is twofold -- to remove perpetual carbon dioxide pollution from the atmosphere and extract the everyday emissions from human activities like transportation, industry, manufacturing and waste management, as well as the CO2 produced by wildfires.

"Cutting back on our carbon emissions alone won't reverse the growing impacts of climate change; we also need to remove the CO2 that we've already put in the atmosphere -- which nearly every climate model makes clear is essential to achieving a net-zero global economy by 2050," said Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.

In total, the new facilities are expected to rid the air of more than 2 million metric tons of CO2 emissions each year -- which is equal to the amount of contaminants put out by 445,00 gas-powered vehicles, the agency said.

Biden's net-zero emissions plan, however, is far more ambitious -- calling for between 400 million and 1.8 billion metric tons of CO2 to be removed from the atmosphere and captured from emissions sources annually by 2050.

The rising hubs in Calcasieu Parish, La., and Kleberg County, Texas, will kickstart the effort while fostering labor and community growth as the administration seeks increased solutions to extreme weather events that continue to rack the country each year due to climate change.

"Their development will help inform future public and private sector investments and jumpstart a new industry critical to addressing the climate crisis on a global scale," the Energy Department stated. "DOE is dedicated to ensuring that the selected Regional DAC Hubs projects deliver community benefits and avoid harm in those communities while also advancing the development of carbon capture, transport, and storage systems."

The direct air capture process separates carbon from oxygen, and thus reduces CO2 in the atmosphere. The trapped CO2 can then be safely stored underground or converted into useful carbon products like concrete, which would prevent its release back into the air.

Carbon dioxide removal technology is critical to curtailing climate change and could help the United States become more competitive in the global economy of the future, the agency said.

The construction and ongoing maintenance of the facilities will create nearly 5,000 new jobs in Texas and Louisiana, the agency said.

A recent report from the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change blamed carbon dioxide pollution for warming the planet and its oceans continuously for more than half a century while damaging public health and ecosystems worldwide.

Energy Department announces largest-ever investment in 'carbon removal'

Emissions rise from the smokestacks at the Jeffrey Energy Center coal power plant as the suns sets, near Emmett, Kan.

 (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)

ISABELLA O'MALLEY

Updated Fri, August 11, 2023 

The Energy Department announced Friday it is awarding up to $1.2 billion to two projects to directly remove carbon dioxide from the air in what officials are calling the largest investment in “engineered carbon removal” in history.

The process, known as direct air capture, does not yet exist on a meaningful scale and could be a game changer if it did and were economical.

“If we deploy this at scale, this technology can help us make serious headway toward our net zero emissions goals while we are still focused on deploying more clean energy at the same time,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in a press conference call.

Project Cypress will be built in Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana. South Texas DAC is planned for Kleberg County, Texas. Each claims it will capture up to one million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year initially. A representative of the Texas project said it will scale up to remove 30 million metric tons per year once fully operational. No date was given.

Officials said the projects will create 5,000 jobs for local workers and people formerly employed in the fossil fuel industry.

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards, who was also on the conference call, said his state, with its experience in petrochemical manufacturing, density of pipelines and geology, is best suited for projects that tackle carbon.

The announcement shows the big bets the Biden administration is making on technologies that capture carbon dioxide from the air and store it underground to address climate change. It's this gas more than any other that is heating the planet.

Several scientists agreed with making some investment in direct air capture.

Claire Nelson, a postdoctoral research scientist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory said moving away from fossil fuels and producing the things we need without emissions are the most important ways to address climate change. But the scale of change needed makes direct air capture necessary as another tool. “In order to have direct air capture ready at the scale we need it by 2050, we need to invest in it today,” she said.

Tim Lieuwen, executive director of the Strategic Energy Institute at the Georgia Institute of Technology agreed that the pollution from some kinds of heavy industry will need to be addressed through technologies like direct air capture.

“We need to look at reducing emissions as quickly as practically possible,” said Melissa Lott, director of research for the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University.

“This means more efficiency, more clean energy, and the use of other technologies including carbon management,” she said.

Shannon Boettcher, professor of chemistry at the University of Oregon, said direct air capture technologies are not yet cost effective, and are worth some investment in research and development.

But some others say the technology for sucking carbon dioxide out of the air is still in its infancy, funding it is misguided, and the focus should be on eliminating emissions.

“This money could be so much better spent on actual climate solutions that would be cutting emissions from the get go,” said Jonathan Foley, executive director of Project Drawdown, a group that publicizes climate solutions. He cited energy efficiency and lowering emissions from agriculture, transportation, electricity generation as better approaches.

“What worries me and a lot of other climate scientists is that it potentially creates a fig leaf for the fossil fuel industry ... the idea that we can keep burning stuff and remove it later,” Foley added.

It's still unclear what role direct air capture will play in lowering emissions. Established technologies like solar, wind, and batteries continue to grow fast.

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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

CLASS WAR AMERIKA
These parents are on strike from their jobs. Here's what it means for their families.

As various workers hit the picket line, parents who are striking share what it's like, and how they talk about it with their kids.

Elena Sheppard
Tue, August 8, 2023 

Parents share why they're striking, and how it affects their family. (Image: Getty; Victoria Ellis for Yahoo News) ((Photo: Getty Images/Victoria Ellis for Yahoo News))


The past few years have been transformative for American workers. With the effects of the pandemic, the Great Resignation and general upheaval in myriad industries, workers are demanding more and fighting to get it. A government report from February 2023 indicates that due to the strength of the labor market and rise in popularity of unions, strikes increased by over 50% in 2022 — and that was well before the high-profile and ongoing Screen Actor’s Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) strikes began in recent months. While strikes have obvious implications for businesses and industries, there are also the less obvious personal impacts that they have on individuals — and if those individuals are parents, then also on their children.

In conversations with parents on strike in different industries, a commonality is clear: They will keep fighting to improve their children’s lives and to set examples for their futures.

“I think a general misconception of strikes is that the workers that are on strike are lazy. But striking is so much more exhausting than working. It’s physical, and emotional, and mental,” shares Jacklyn Gabel, a mom, Starbucks shift manager and a leader in the Starbucks Workers Union campaign which organizes workers at Starbucks across the country. Her Starbucks location, in Santa Cruz, Calif., has been on strike five times and unionized in 2022.

“We’re fighting for medical insurance, our salaries, the amount of work, because now everything is so expensive in this city and this country,” adds Graciela Gomez, a room attendant at the Four Points Sheraton near Los Angeles International Airport for the last 23 years. Gomez, a mother of four adult children, is on strike with UNITE HERE Local 11. Dozens of hotels in Los Angeles currently have workers on strike, citing a central reason as their inability to live near their jobs on their current pay checks. Gomez notes that as one of her reasons for striking, but adds that taking care of her children is another. “One of my children has schizophrenia and so for me the most important thing is insurance,” she says. “He cannot work and I am the head of our household.”


Across the country in New York, Nick Blaemire and Ana Nogueira, parents to a 10-month-old daughter, are on strike for both SAG-AFTRA and WGA. While their jobs are not in the service industry, the universal desire to be fairly compensated and make a wage that allows them to care for their families is at the heart of everyone’s fight. “Everyone who gets into this industry knows that it's a gamble. But when we were first coming up, there was a real promise of a way to make a living, a good middle-class living, working only in entertainment,” says Noguiera, noting that doesn’t seem possible within the current systems.

“We are striking in pursuit of more economic certainty (or as much as you can get in this industry) for ourselves and for our daughter. Our hope is that this is a short-term sacrifice for a long-term gain,” says Noguiera

“In terms of work, it feels like a second pandemic,” adds Blaemire. “We used to be busy and now we're not. The upside is, we've had an extended parental leave. So that's the silver lining we're focusing on.”

Elsewhere in New York, Gia Crovatin and her husband are also a dual household on strike from SAG and WGA. With a 3-and-a-half-year-old, Crovatin says she finds herself trying to explain the fight in the simplest terms possible. “We’re not getting into too many details about capitalism but I tell her Mommy has to go into the city to do her work. And my work today is I’m going to go stand in line with people and make it be known that there are things that are wrong that we’re fighting to make right,” Crovatin shares. “I say things to her like, ‘Sometimes we have to stand up for everybody.’”

Crovatin notes that since the pandemic, their family finances have been tight. “We’ve never recovered from that time,” she says. “I’ve seen a massive decrease in residuals just in the past year,” she adds, mentioning that receiving 22-cent checks has become part of the norm. “My husband and I are prepared to stay the course of the fight,” she says. “But the logistics of that are going to be tough.”

For many striking workers, like Gabel and Gomez, strike funds help to keep them financially afloat while they are not receiving paychecks, but Gabel notes that retaliation from her employer is often waiting on the other side. “I’ve been here for a lot of hard shifts and every day feels like the hardest so far. But it’s intended that way to wear us down so that we leave and we never stick around long enough to fight back,” she shares. Yet she stays. “I love my job,” she adds. “I came to the company super-proud to work for Starbucks. I came for the progressive values, I love making coffee, I love connecting with folks. That’s why I stay.”

Gabel adds that her 10-year-old daughter is learning about workers' rights by watching her mother’s fight. “I lead by example, just like with anything else,” Gabel tells Yahoo Life. “My daughter is already so much more aware of the difference of right and wrong than I was her at age.”

“The work of people for the collective good is just so vital,” shares Crovatin. “That's honestly how I want to live my life, and how I want my daughter to learn how to live her life too.”