Michigan pipeline standoff could affect water protection and Indigenous rights across the US

Mike Shriberg, Professor of Practice & Engagement, School for Environment & Sustainability, University of Michigan
Wed, August 16, 2023 

THE CONVERSATION

A ferry arrives at Mackinac Island in the Straits of Mackinac, Michigan's largest tourist draw. AP Photo/Anick Jesdanun

Should states and Indigenous nations be able to influence energy projects they view as harmful or contrary to their laws and values? This question lies at the center of a heated debate over Enbridge Energy’s Line 5 pipeline, which carries oil and natural gas across Wisconsin and Michigan.

Courts, regulatory agencies and political leaders are deciding whether Enbridge should be allowed to keep its pipeline in place for another 99 years, with upgrades. The state of Michigan and the Bad River Tribe in Wisconsin want to close the pipeline down immediately.

My expertise is in Great Lakes water and energy policy, environmental protection and sustainability leadership. I have analyzed and taught these issues as a sustainability scholar, and I have worked on them as the National Wildlife Federation’s Great Lakes regional executive director from 2015 until early 2023.

In my view, the future of Line 5 has become a defining issue for the future of the Great Lakes region. It also could set an important precedent for reconciling energy choices with state regulatory authority and Native American rights.

A Canadian pipeline through the US Midwest

Line 5, built in 1953, runs 643 miles from Superior, Wisconsin, to Sarnia, Ontario. It carries up to 23 million gallons of oil and natural gas liquids daily, produced mainly from Canadian tar sands in Alberta.

Most of this oil and gas goes to refineries in Ontario and Quebec. Some remains in the U.S. for propane production or processing at refineries in Michigan and Ohio.

Controversy over Line 5 centers mainly on two locations: the Bad River Band Reservation in Wisconsin, where the pipeline crosses tribal land, and the Straits of Mackinac (pronounced “Mackinaw”) in Michigan. This channel between Michigan’s upper and lower peninsulas connects Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.

Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline from Superior, Wisconsin, to Sarnia, Ontario, is part of a larger regional pipeline network. Enbridge, CC BY-ND

Line 5 crosses through the open water of the straits in twin pipelines that rest on the lake bottom in some stretches and are suspended above it in others. The route lies within an easement granted by the state of Michigan in 1953.

The Straits of Mackinac are one of the most iconic settings in the Great Lakes. They include hundreds of islands and miles of shorelines rimmed with forests and wetlands. Scenic Mackinac Island in Lake Huron, a popular resort area since the mid-1800s, is Michigan’s top tourist destination.

The straits also have long been spiritually important for Great Lakes tribes. Michigan acknowledges that the Chippewa and Ottawa peoples hold treaty-protected fishing rights that center on the Mackinac region.
The Line 6b spill

In 2010, another Enbridge pipeline, Line 6b, ruptured near the Kalamazoo River in southern Michigan, spilling over 1 million gallons of heavy crude. Line 6b is part of a parallel route to Line 5, and the cleanup continues more than a decade later.

The spill, and Enbridge’s slow, bungled response and lack of transparency, led to scrutiny of other Enbridge pipelines, including Line 5.

In a 2014 analysis, University of Michigan oceanographer David J. Schwab concluded that the Straits of Mackinac were the “worst possible place” for a Great Lakes oil spill because of high-speed currents that were unpredictable and reversed frequently. Within 20 days of a spill, Schwab estimated, oil could be carried up to 50 miles (80 kilometers) from the site into Lakes Michigan and Huron, fouling drinking water intakes, beaches and other critical areas.


This and other research intensified a burgeoning advocacy campaign by pipeline opponents, including regional and national environmental organizations, Indigenous leaders and advocates, and a newly formed network of local and regional businesses.

Pipeline supporters include the American Petroleum Institute and others in the fossil fuel industry, many conservative lawmakers, several key labor unions and the government of Canada. They argue that the current pipeline is safe, violates no federal laws and is a key piece of infrastructure that helps keep energy costs low.
Michigan revokes its easement

After years of scrutiny, including the formation of the Michigan Pipeline Safety Advisory Board and two expert reports commissioned by the state, analyses showed that Enbridge was violating provisions of its easement. Most notably, the section of Line 5 that ran under the straits lacked proper anchors and coating, increasing the threat of a rupture. The state concluded that the easement violated the public trust doctrine – the idea that government should protect certain natural resources, including waterways, for public use.

State reports concluded that the highest risk for rupture was from anchor strikes. Environmental nongovernment organizations found that Line 5 had already leaked more than 1 million gallons of oil and natural gas liquids. On April 1, 2018, a boat anchor struck the pipeline and nearly ruptured it, temporarily shutting it down.

In 2019, Gov. Rick Snyder was succeeded by Gretchen Whitmer, who pledged in her campaign to close Line 5. Seeking to avert a shutdown, Enbridge proposed building a tunnel beneath the lake bed to protect the pipeline.

But after more analysis and another anchor strike that temporarily shut down the pipeline again, Whitmer issued an order in November 2020 revoking Enbridge’s easement and giving the company six months to close Line 5. The state sought a court order to support its decision.
Challenging state and tribal authority

Instead of accepting state orders, Enbridge resisted. The company argued that Michigan lacked authority to tell it how to manage the pipeline; that the project had not required an easement in 1953; and that building the tunnel would mitigate any risks.

Enbridge sued Michigan in federal court, arguing that pipeline safety regulation was a federal issue and that the state had no authority to intervene in what was essentially international commerce.

Enbridge also faced pressure from the Bad River Tribe in Wisconsin, where some 12 miles of the pipeline runs through the Bad River Band reservation and across the Bad River. Enbridge’s easement on parts of the reservation expired in 2013, and in 2017 the tribal council voted to evict Enbridge from their land, calling the pipeline a threat to the river and their culture.

When Enbridge continued operating Line 5, the tribe sued the company in federal court in 2019, charging it with trespass, unjust enrichment and other offenses, and sought to get the pipeline closed.

Today, Michigan’s case against Enbridge is bogged down in jurisdictional battles. But on June 16, 2023, the federal judge overseeing the Bad River case ruled largely in favor of the tribe and ordered Enbridge to stop operating the pipeline on tribal land within three years. Enbridge vowed to appeal the ruling, but is also seeking permits for a 41-mile reroute of Line 5 around the reservation.

Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, shown welcoming U.S. President Joe Biden to Ottawa on March 24, 2023, strongly supports Line 5, which carries Canadian oil and gas. AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

A national precedent

Line 5 is more than a Midwest issue. It has become a focus for national activism and is a major diplomatic issue between Canada and the U.S. President Joe Biden, who has worked to balance his ties with organized labor and his support for a clean energy transition, has avoided taking a side to date.

To continue operating Line 5, Enbridge will have to convince the courts that its interests and legal arguments outweigh those of an Indigenous nation and the state of Michigan. Never before has an active fossil fuel pipeline been closed due to potential environmental and cultural damage.

The outcome could set a precedent for other pipeline and fossil fuel infrastructure battles, from the mid-Atlantic to the Pacific Coast. Ultimately, in my view, Line 5 is an under-the-radar but critical proxy battle for how, when and under what authority the phasing out of fossil fuels will proceed.

This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. 

It was written by: Mike Shriberg, University of Michigan.

Read more:


Restoring the Great Lakes: After 50 years of US-Canada joint efforts, some success and lots of unfinished business


California’s latest offshore oil spill could fuel pressure to end oil production statewide

Mike Shriberg previously served from 2015-2022 as the Great Lakes Regional Executive Director for the National Wildlife Federation, where his position included grant and donor funding to work on issues related to the Line 5 pipeline. He also served as a gubernatorial appointee under former Gov. Rick Snyder to the Michigan Pipeline Safety Advisory Board.

Scientists recreate an iconic Pink Floyd song by scanning listeners' brains

The research looked at how brains interact with music.

Sarah Fielding
Wed, August 16, 2023 

BlackJack3D via Getty Images

You know when a certain song comes on and it encompasses your whole being for a few minutes? Music has a way of causing a unique and engaging stimulation in your brain, one that scientists are working to understand and mimic. Such was the case in a recent study published in PLOS Biology in which researchers successfully implemented technology that recreated Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall, Part 1 solely using brain activity. It utilized a technique known as stimulus reconstruction and built on previous innovations allowing researchers to recreate a song akin to the one a person had heard.

The 29 participants had pharmacoresistant epilepsy and intracranial grids or strips of electrodes which had been surgically implanted to aid in their treatment. Researchers utilized these electrodes to record activity across multiple auditory regions of the individuals’ brains that process aspects of music like lyrics and harmony — while the participants actively listened to Another Brick in the Wall, Part 1. The entirety of the recordings took place at Albany Medical Center, in upstate New York.

Scientists used AI to analyze then create a copy of the words and sounds participants had heard. Though the final product was quite muffled, but the song is clear to anyone listening so you can check it out for yourselfa. The researchers are also confident that they could increase its quality in future attempts.

The listening experience primarily engaged the right side of participants’ brains, mostly in the superior temporal gyrus and especially when absorbing unique music. There was also a small level of stimulation in the left side of the brain. Researchers further found that a point in the brain’s temporal lobe ignited when the 16th notes of the rhythm guitar played while the song played at 99 beats per minute.

This finding could provide more insight into the part that area plays in processing rhythm. It could also aid in restoring people who have lost their speech ability, through conditions like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Instead of creating a monotone, almost robot-like response, better understanding the way a brain processes and responds to music might lead to more fluid prosthetics for speech.

US Jews urged to condemn Israeli occupation amid Netanyahu censure

Chris McGreal in New York
Tue, August 15, 2023 

Photograph: Reuters

Hundreds of Israeli and American public figures have called on US Jewish groups to speak out against the occupation of the Palestinian territories as “the elephant in the room” of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s deeply divisive judicial reforms.

The statement has drawn international attention because of the prominent Israelis who have signed its forthright declaration that “Palestinians live under a regime of apartheid”, including the renowned Israeli historian Benny Morris, and the former speaker of the Israeli parliament, Avraham Burg.

The open letter, which has gathered more than 1,500 signatories since it was released a week ago, comes amid months of mass demonstrations in Israel against Netanyahu’s legislation to weaken the power of the judiciary, widely seen as a battle for the country’s soul. Israeli protesters have drawn support from several major Jewish groups in the US, which have criticised the legal changes as designed to help Netanyahu evade prosecution for corruption – and for rightwing members of his government to weaken individual rights, particularly for women, Arabs, and secular or religiously liberal Jews.

But the statement said Jewish American leaders have failed to speak out on “the ultimate purpose” of the judicial overhaul to “annex more land, and ethnically cleanse all territories under Israeli rule of their Palestinian population”.

“American Jews have long been at the forefront of social justice causes, from racial equality to abortion rights, but have paid insufficient attention to the elephant in the room: Israel’s longstanding occupation that … has yielded a regime of apartheid,” the statement says.

The open letter urges “leaders of North American Jewry” to support the Israeli protest movement while embracing equality for Palestinians who “lack almost all basic rights, including the right to vote and protest”.

“There cannot be democracy for Jews in Israel as long as Palestinians live under a regime of apartheid, as Israeli legal experts have described it,” it says.

The signatories include Israelis, Palestinians, Jewish American academics, religious leaders, musicians and lawyers.

Related: ‘Apartheid state’: Israel’s fears over image in US are coming to pass

The statement in part reflects a concern among some protesters that if they are successful in blocking the judicial changes, Israel will return to the cycle of governments maintaining occupation without end and expanding annexation by stealth, including settlement expansion.

“The problems did not start with the current radical government: Jewish supremacism has been growing for years and was enshrined in law by the 2018 Nation State Law,” it says.

The statement notes that the controversial judicial reforms are being driven in part by “American Jewish billionaire funders” supporting the Israeli far right. In March, a Labour party member of the Israeli parliament, Rabbi Gilad Kariv, travelled to New York to call on Jewish groups to stand up to “rightwing forces in the Jewish community in America and ultra-right players” who, he said, were driving a political coup in Israel.

The judicial reforms were designed by an ultra-conservative thinktank, the Kohelet Policy Forum. Two American billionaires, Arthur Dantchik and Jeffrey Yass, who made their fortunes in part by investing in TikTok, were major funders. Earlier this month, Dantchik said he would no longer donate to Kohelet because Israel has become “dangerously fragmented”.

The statement calls on American Jewish groups to “support human rights organisations which defend Palestinians” and to back an overhaul of the Israeli education system “to provide a more honest appraisal of Israel’s past and present”.

It says they should also “demand from elected leaders in the United States that they help end the occupation, restrict American military aid from being used in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and end Israeli impunity in the UN and other international organisations”.

The letter echoes calls made by a growing number of politicians and former diplomats, including Democratic senator Chris Van Hollen, who told the Guardian earlier this month that Biden should reassess US assistance to prevent it from being used to facilitate annexation of the West Bank and oppression of the Palestinians.

The open letter adds: “No more silence. The time to act is now.”

Another group of Israelis, including two former military chiefs of staff, an ex-director of military intelligence and a former member of parliament, placed an advertisement in the New York Times on Sunday warning the US-based World Jewish Congress that it is being “misled” by Netanyahu.

Occidental Petroleum to Acquire BC Carbon Capture Technology Supplier for $1.1 Billion

By 

FATIMA ATTARWALA

 

Published August 16, 2023

Jordan Vonderhaar/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Oil and gas producer Occidental Petroleum (OXY) announced on Tuesday its plans to acquire Canadian carbon capture technology supplier Carbon Engineering Ltd. for $1.1 billion.1

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Occidental Petroleum plans to purchase direct air capture technology firm Carbon Engineering Ltd. for $1.1 billion.
• Spurred by the government's direct air capture incentives, Occidental plans to set up about 100 plants that will strip carbon dioxide from the air and bury it in the ground or use it for manufacturing.
• By decreasing costs, the acquisition will boost Occidental's profitability as well as provide new revenue streams through technology licensing and royalties.

Occidental aims to build about 100 direct air capture (DAC) plants that can strip carbon dioxide from the air and use it to manufacture products such as concrete or aviation fuel. The CO2 can also be buried underground.2 The two companies have been working on DAC technologies since 2019. The buyout will enable Occidental to develop multiple carbon-capture sites that can provide climate change solutions.1

Carbon Engineering's equity will be purchased for cash in three roughly equal annual payments, with the first due when the deal is finalized. The transaction is expected to close before the end of the year, subject to court reviews and regulatory approvals in the U.S. and Canada.1

Accelerating the deployment of DAC as a large-scale, cost-effective, global carbon removal system will enhance Occidental's profitability, the company said. Technology licensing and royalties will add new revenue streams as well.1

The efforts come as part of the Biden administration's efforts to use DAC to neutralize greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. To scale up DAC technology, the U.S. Department of Energy announced last week $1 billion in federal grants for projects in Texas and Louisiana that can potentially remove more than 2 million metric tons of carbon emissions annually.3

Some of that money will be funneled toward Occidental's West Texas-based Stratos project.3 Using Carbon Engineering's technology, Stratos is set to be the largest DAC plant in the world by 2025.4

As climate-change catastrophes unfold across the globe, the importance of removing carbon from the atmosphere is increasing. Scientists estimate billions of tons of carbon have to be removed from the environment to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.3

 

B.C.-based Carbon Engineering being bought by Occidental for US$1.1 billion

CALGARY — A Canadian company that is pioneering the use of direct air capture technology to remove carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere has been acquired by U.S. oil company Occidental Petroleum.

The US$1.1-billion deal will see Squamish, B.C.-based Carbon Engineering Ltd. become a wholly owned subsidiary of Oxy Low Carbon Ventures, an Occidental company that is investing in a range of new emissions-reduction technologies.

Carbon Engineering — which was founded in Calgary by Harvard professor David Keith and currently has 150 employees— has already been working for years with Oxy subsidiary 1PointFive, which is aiming to commercialize the large-scale deployment of carbon capture, utilization and sequestration technology. 

1PointFive is currently using Carbon Engineering’s technology to construct what it says will be the largest direct air capture project in the world, in Ector County, Texas.

The plant under construction is expected to capture up to 500,000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide per year with the capacity to scale up to 1 million metric tonnes per year. 

Unlike the more common form of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology — which captures emissions from industrial flue stacks and sequesters them safely deep underground — direct air capture technology removes harmful C02 emissions directly from the air for safe storage underground.

Advocates say direct air capture technology has the potential to not only reduce current greenhouse gas emissions, but also to begin removing the large quantities of CO2 emitted in the past that remain trapped in the earth’s atmosphere.

While the technology is very expensive, increasingly aggressive climate policies by governments around the world are making its deployment more feasible. The U.S. Inflation Reduction Act contains generous subsidies for direct air capture projects, and in Canada, the federal government is currently hammering out details of its promised tax credit for carbon and direct air capture deployment.

1PointFive has stated it believes it can deploy 70 direct air capture facilities worldwide by 2035, under current compliance and market scenarios.

In a statement, Carbon Engineering CEO Daniel Friedmann said the deal with Occidental will dramatically enhance the Canadian company’s ability to continue developing its technology through widespread commercialization.

“It will enable us to accelerate our mission to lead the world in the large-scale removal of carbon dioxide from the air and help advance our shift to a sustainable, net zero society,” Friedmann said.

“We have always believed that global partnerships and cross-industry collaboration would be required to deploy Direct Air Capture infrastructure at scale.”

Friedmann said Carbon Engineering’s headquarters and its employees will remain based at the company’s Innovation Centre in Squamish.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 16, 2023.

Amanda Stephenson, The Canadian Press

Occidental to Buy DAC Innovator Carbon Engineering for $1.1B

Occidental Petroleum revealed plans to acquire Canadian Direct Air Capture supplier Carbon Engineering through its subsidiary Oxy for $1.1 billion.

The oil major’s Oxy Low Carbon Ventures subsidiary advances technologies and solutions that economically grow the company while reducing emissions.

Carbon Engineering (CE) provides climate solutions focusing on deploying large-scale direct air capture (DAC) technology. It captures carbon directly from the atmosphere and stores it in geologic formations or uses it to make valuable products.
Accelerating DAC Deployment and Technology Breakthroughs

Occidental and CE have been working on DAC technologies for almost five years now. The buyout will allow Occidental to establish multiple direct air capture sites to deliver climate change solutions.

DAC is Occidental’s low-carbon strategy toward its net zero goal. Last year, it signed a net zero oil deal with South Korean refiner SK Trading.

Occidental plans to build about 100 DAC plants to rapidly advance the technology breakthroughs and ramp up deployment. That way the energy giant can help make DAC a cost-effective global carbon removal solution.

Buying out Carbon Engineering is a good opportunity to make that happen while aligning with Occidental’s net-zero strategies. CE’s DAC technology applies standardized and proven processes.

The image shows how CE’s DAC technology works. It uses giant fans powered by solar energy to suck in CO2. The liquid sorbents draw in carbon that will be heated to get pure CO2, which would be injected underground or used in making valuable products.
Carbon Engineering DAC Process

 

Highlighting the importance of their agreement in scaling up DAC, Occidental President and CEO Vicki Hollub said:

“Together, Occidental and Carbon Engineering can accelerate plans to globally deploy DAC technology at a climate-relevant scale and make DAC the preferred solution for businesses seeking to remove their hard-to-abate emissions.”

Hollub added that it will bring new revenue streams for Occidental, adding to its profitability.

Occidental will buy CE’s equity for cash in 3 annual payments, with the first due when their agreement turns official.

Their deal will close before this year closes, subject to regulatory approvals in both the United States and Canada. After this Carbon Engineering would be a wholly owned subsidiary of Oxy Low Carbon Ventures. Its R&D activities and Innovation Center will remain as is in BC, Canada.

The DAC company’s personnel will also continue their usual DAC tech development efforts while working closely with Occidental and 1PointFive to provide DAC solutions.

1PointFive is a Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Sequestration (CCUS) platform aimed at curbing global warming by deploying climate solutions. And this particularly includes CE’s DAC solution.
A Growing Support for DAC

Carbon Engineering CEO Daniel Friedmann expressed their appreciation of the acquisition as the next chapter in their journey. The deal shows their commitment to “accelerate implementation of DAC-based climate solutions in the U.S. and around the world.”

The deal comes as part of the US government’s intent to employ DAC, alongside other carbon removal technologies, to reach net zero emissions by 2050.

Just last week, the US Department of Energy made a huge bet on DAC technology by planning to spend over $1.2 billion on two DAC projects in Texas and Louisiana. Together, these facilities can potentially remove over 2 million metric tons of carbon emissions each year.
Some of the dollars will be under Oxy’s hands as it manages the West Texas-based DAC project called Stratos.

1PointFive is building Stratos in Ector County, Texas. Occidental and CE are adapting the project’s front-end engineering and design study for a planned DAC facility at Kleberg County. This new plant will be part of the DAC Hub that won DOE’s federal grant.

Employing Carbon Engineering’s DAC technology, Stratos would be the largest DAC plant worldwide in 2025. The other recipient of the grant is Climeworks-led Project Cypress in Louisiana. Climeworks said its DAC hub construction will start as soon as possible, targeting 2025 or 2026.

Right now, the US government is pioneering massive support programs for advancing DAC and scaling it up. But other countries like the UK and EU are keeping pace with their recent announcements of DAC funding programs.

The world needs to remove 1 billion tons or 1 gigatonne of CO2 annually by 2030 to prevent catastrophic disasters. Though it can’t deliver such a big amount of carbon removal, DAC is one option entities have at their disposal.

As governments and industries prioritize DAC, Occidental’s vision aligns with the growing support for innovative carbon capture solutions worldwide.

Offshore drilling rig arrives in Lebanese waters ahead of work near the border with Israel

BASSEM MROUE
Updated Wed, August 16, 2023 



Undated picture released by TotalEnergies shows the drilling rig, Transocean Barents, which arrived at its location in the Mediterranean Sea on Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2023. The rig is expected to begin drilling in September in Lebanese waters near the border with Israel after the two countries reached a deal last year on their maritime border. Lebanon and Israel have formally been at war since Israel's creation in 1948. (TotalEnergies via AP)

BEIRUT (AP) — An offshore drilling rig arrived at its destination in the Mediterranean Sea off Lebanon’s coast and will start operations in the coming weeks to search for gas, cabinet ministers said Wednesday.

The rig is expected to begin drilling this month in Lebanese waters near the border with Israel after the two countries reached a deal last year on their maritime border. Lebanon and Israel have formally been at war since Israel’s creation in 1948.

Cash-strapped Lebanon hopes that future gas discoveries will help the small Mideast nation pull itself out of the worst economic and financial crisis in its modern history.

Caretaker Minister of Transport Ali Hamie wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that the rig arrived Wednesday morning at the location where it is scheduled to begin work. The rig faces the southern port city of Tyre.

“We hope that Lebanon will become an oil state,” Lebanon’s Energy Minister Walid Fayyad told reporters in Beirut, adding that the results of the drilling are expected in two or three months.

TotalEnergies said in a statement that the rig, Transocean Barents, is now at around 120 kilometers (75 miles) off the coast of Beirut, and the first helicopter that will transport teams to and from the rig is at Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport.

“The arrival of the equipment marks an important step in the preparation of the drilling of the exploration well" this month, TotalEnergies said.

In 2017, Lebanon approved licenses for an international consortium including France’s TotalEnergies, Italy’s ENI and Russia’s Novatek to move forward with offshore oil and gas development for two of 10 blocks in the Mediterranean. The borders of one of the two blocks were disputed by neighboring Israel until the maritime border deal was reached last year.

In January, Lebanon, ENI, TotalEnergies and state-owned oil and gas company Qatar Energy signed an agreement in which the Qatari firm replaced Novatek. Under the deal, Qatar Energy will take Novatek's 20% stake in addition to 5% each from ENI and TotalEnergies, leaving the Arab company with a total stake of 30%. Total and ENI will each have 35% stakes.

Under the U.S.-mediated deal between Lebanon and Israel that was signed in October, the disputed waters would be divided along a line straddling the “Qana” natural gas field in the Mediterranean. Gas production would be based on the Lebanese side, but Israel would be compensated for gas extracted from its side of the line under a separately signed deal between TotalEnergies and Israel.

Mexico's Sheinbaum grows lead for ruling party presidential ticket -poll

Reuters
Wed, August 16, 2023 

FILE PHOTO: Former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum holds a rally in Mexico City

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum has grown her lead to a 13-point advantage in the contest to be the ruling party's candidate in Mexico's 2024 presidential election, a poll published on Wednesday in newspaper El Universal showed.

With less than a month until the candidate is announced, the survey showed Sheinbaum with 35% support to be the nominee of the leftist National Regeneration Movement (MORENA), followed by former Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard at 22%.

The survey of 1,000 adults by polling firm Buendia & Marquez also showed Sheinbaum was slightly more popular with respondents who identified with the opposition.

Both candidates have long been favorites for the MORENA ticket and ranked far ahead of the poll's next-best placed candidates, including former Interior Minister Adan Augusto Lopez, who had 7% support.

MORENA, lifted by the strong personal approval ratings of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, is heavily favored to win the June 2024 election. That has prompted many analysts to view the MORENA contest as an almost de facto presidential race.

The poll showed that Ebrard was the best-known candidate, being recognized by 70% of respondents, while Sheinbaum followed closely at 69%.

Both resigned from their positions this year to compete in MORENA's internal contest, which formally kicked off on June 19. A winner is due to be announced on Sept. 6, and is expected to be based on voters' preferences.

The face-to-face voter survey was carried out from Aug. 10 to Aug. 14 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.53 percentage points, Buendia & Marquez said.

A survey published in June by Buendia & Marquez showed Sheinbaum polling with a 12-point lead with 34% support and Ebrard with 22% on the question of who should be MORENA's presidential candidate.

If Sheinbaum wins the nomination, Mexico could see women at the head of the presidential election's two top tickets.

Several polls have shown Senator Xochitl Galvez is well positioned to win the nomination for an alliance of leading opposition parties.

(Writing by Isabel Woodford; Editing by Jamie Freed)

ROFLMAO

Montana GOP Slams Youth Constituents As 'Pawns' In A 'Climate Cult' After Historic Ruling

Chris D'Angelo
Tue, August 15, 2023 

Montana Republicans responded to Monday’s ruling in a landmark climate case with statements painting the judge as an environmental “activist” and dismissing the 16 youth plaintiffs — their own constituents — as “pawns” and members of a “climate cult.”

It was a rather stunning reaction given that the case centered on a unique provision in Montana’s Constitution guaranteeing citizens the right to a “clean and healthful environment.” The plaintiffs, ages 5 to 22, argued during a seven-day trial in June that state agencies had violated this constitutional right by approving fossil fuel projects without considering climate impacts.

District Court Judge Kathy Seeley ultimately agreed. In her 103-page ruling, Seeley wrote that the plaintiffs “have proven that as children and youth, they are disproportionately harmed by fossil fuel pollution and climate impacts,” and that their “injuries will grow increasingly severe and irreversible without science-based actions to address climate change.”

One might expect Republicans to be outraged that the state’s government was found to have violated their constituents’ constitutional protections. Instead, they attacked both the young plaintiffs and the judge, and defended Montana’s polluting industries.

“Activist judges, even here in MT, are helping far-Left environmentalists push their green hallucination down the throats of Americans,” Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), who has received more than $1.2 million in oil and gas industry donations over his career, wrote on social media. “Shutting down energy projects that support an all-of-the-above energy portfolio is setting America on a dangerous path. We must reverse course.”

Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.) called the plaintiffs “pawns.”

“This is not a school project. It’s a courtroom,” he wrote. “Judge Seeley did a huge disservice to the courts and to these youths by allowing them to be used as pawns in the Left’s poorly thought-out plan to ruin our power grid and compromise our national security in the name of their Green New Fantasy.”

Emily Flower, a spokesperson for Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen (R), slammed the ruling as “absurd” and called the trial a “taxpayer-funded publicity stunt.”

“Montanans can’t be blamed for changing the climate,” Flower said in a statement. “Their same legal theory has been thrown out of federal court and courts in more than a dozen states. It should have been here as well, but they found an ideological judge who bent over backward to allow the case to move forward and earn herself a spot in their next documentary.”

Tim Sheehy, a Montana businessman who was recruited by Republicans to take on Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) in 2024, extended his streak of toeing the party line.

“The latest example of a liberal activist judge trying to legislate radical Green New Deal disastrous policies from the bench,” Sheehy wrote on social media. “We must fight back and take a strong stand against the climate cult and their job-killing agenda.”

Sheehy is the founder of Bridger Aerospace, a Bozeman-based aerial firefighting business. Prior to launching his Senate bid, Sheehy’s company notably scrubbed language about “fighting on the front lines of climate change” from its website, as ABC News reported last month.

The Republican response to Monday’s ruling is the latest example of the party burying its head in the sand about the mounting impacts of climate change — extreme heat, wildfire, flooding and mass coral bleaching, to name a few — while working to increase production of planet-warming fossil fuels.

During the June trial, several youth plaintiffs testified about the many ways that fossil fuel-driven climate change has affected their lives and health, both physical and mental.

“Today’s ruling in Montana is a game-changer that marks a turning point in this generation’s efforts to save the planet from the devastating effects of human-caused climate chaos,” said Julia Olson, chief legal counsel and executive director of Our Children’s Trust, one of the legal organizations that represented plaintiffs in the case. “This is a huge win for Montana, for youth, for democracy and for our climate.”

The Montana attorney general’s office has promised to appeal the ruling.
Related...

Montana Violated Youth’s Right To A ‘Clean And Healthful Environment,’ Judge Rules In Historic Case


Under Apocalyptic Skies, Republicans Blow Smoke On Climate Change


GOP Pushes Disastrous Environmental Plan As The Planet Bakes

ABOLISH BLASPHEMY LAWS
Pakistan crowd vandalises churches, torches homes after two accused of blasphemy

Mubasher Bukhari and Asif Shahzad
Updated Wed, August 16, 2023 






By Mubasher Bukhari and Asif Shahzad

LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) - A Muslim crowd attacked a Christian community in eastern Pakistan on Wednesday, vandalising several churches and setting scores of houses on fire after accusing two of its members of desecrating the Koran, police and community leaders said.

The attack took place in Jaranwala in the industrial district of Faisalabad, police spokesman Naveed Ahmad said. The two Christians were accused of blasphemy, he said, adding they and family members had fled their homes.

Resident Shakil Masih said he heard announcements inciting the mob and then saw crowds heading towards his Christian area.

"I left my home immediately with my family. Several other families did the same," he told Reuters.

The area has been cordoned off as police negotiated with the crowd, provincial police chief Usman Anwar told English Dawn.com online publication.

The police case against the two Christians is that they found pages of the Koran with some derogatory remarks written in red.

Blasphemy is punishable by death in Pakistan and though no one has ever been executed for it, numerous accused people have been lynched by outraged crowds.

A former provincial governor and a minister for minorities have also been shot dead because of blasphemy accusations.

Rights groups say accusations of blasphemy are also misused to settle scores. Hundreds of people are languishing in prison after being accused as judges often put off trials, fearing retribution if they are seen as being too lenient, they say.

Caretaker Prime Minister Anwar ul Haq Kakar called for stern action against those responsible for Wednesday's violence. "I am gutted by the visuals coming out," he said.

Hundreds of people blocked a nearby highway to protest against the alleged desecration of the Koran.

A Christian leader, Akmal Bhatti, said the crowd had "torched" at least five churches and looted valuables from houses that had been abandoned by their owners.

Several social media posts showed some churches, houses and belongings on fire as police stood by.

The mob was made up of thousands of people led by local clerics, mainly from an Islamist political party called Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP), a government source said.

The TLP, however, denied inciting the violence and said it had worked with police to try to calm things down.

(Writing and additional reporting by Asif Shahzad in Islamabad; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Nick Macfie)

Mob burns Pakistani churches, vandalises cemetery over alleged blasphemy
AFP
Wed, August 16, 2023 

View of a burnt church on the outskirts of Faisalabad, Pakistan, on August 16, 2023, following an attack by Muslim men after Christians were accused of blasphemy (Ghazanfar MAJID)

Hundreds of Muslim men set fire to churches and vandalised Christian homes during a rampage in eastern Pakistan on Wednesday, officials said, after Christians were accused of blasphemy.

The mob made its way through a predominantly Christian area on the outskirts of the industrial city of Faisalabad after allegations spread that the Koran had been desecrated.

"The crowd inflicted heavy damage on the area including to homes of Christians, and many churches," Ahad Noor, a district government official, told AFP.

Police and rescue officials said at least four churches had been set on fire, while residents said as many as a dozen buildings with church status had been damaged.

Several thousand police have been sent to secure the area and dozens of people detained, Amir Mir, the information minister for Punjab province, said in a statement that also condemned the alleged blasphemy.

Yasir Bhatti, a 31-year-old Christian, fled his home in a narrow alley next to one of the churches that was ransacked by the mob.

"They broke the windows, doors and took out fridges, sofas, chairs and other household items to pile them up in front of the Church to be burnt. They also burnt and desecrated Bibles, they were ruthless," he told AFP by phone.

Blasphemy is a sensitive issue in Muslim-majority Pakistan, where anyone deemed to have insulted Islam or Islamic figures can face the death penalty.

Pakistani bishop Azad Marshall, in the neighbouring city of Lahore, said the Christian community was "deeply pained and distressed" by the events.

"We cry out for justice and action from law enforcement and those who dispense justice and the safety of all citizens to intervene immediately and assure us that our lives are valuable in our own homeland," he posted on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

- 'Failure to protect minorities' -

Images on social media showed crowds of people armed with sticks and rocks storming through the streets, with smoke rising from church buildings.

In one video, crowds cheer and demand punishment for the accused blasphemers as a cross is torn from the top of a church.

The boundary walls of a Christian cemetery were vandalised, as well as the local government office, as crowds demanded action from the authorities, police said.

Local Muslim leaders used mosque loudspeakers to urge their followers to demonstrate, according to videos posted on social media.

"Christians have desecrated the Holy Koran. All the clerics, all the Muslims should unite and gather in front of the mosque. Better to die if you don't care about Islam," one cleric is heard saying.

A police report said charges would be filed against two Christian men who have fled the area.

Christians, who make up around two percent of the population, occupy one of the lowest rungs in Pakistani society and are frequently targeted with spurious and unfounded blasphemy allegations that can be used to settle personal vendettas.

Islamist right-wing leaders and political parties across Pakistan frequently rally around the issue, while politicians have been assassinated, European countries threatened with nuclear annihilation and students lynched over accusations of blasphemy.

"The frequency and scale of such attacks -- which are systematic, violent and often uncontainable -- appear to have increased in recent years," The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said on Wednesday.

"Not only has the state failed to protect its religious minorities, but it has also allowed the far right to permeate and fester within society and politics."

Christian woman Asia Bibi was at the centre of a decade-long blasphemy row in Pakistan, which eventually saw her death sentence overturned and she was later allowed to leave the country.

Her case sparked violent demonstrations and high-profile assassinations while spotlighting religious extremism across wide sections of Pakistani society.

Pakistan's newly appointed caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar said on X that he was "gutted" by what was happening: "Stern action would be taken against those who violate law and target minorities."

kf-ak/ecl/qan

Pipeline Company Energy Transfer to Buy Crestwood in $7.1 Billion Deal

Christine Buurma and Ruth Liao
Wed, August 16, 2023 



(Bloomberg) -- Billionaire Kelcy Warren’s Energy Transfer LP will buy Crestwood Equity Partners LP in a $7.1 billion all-equity deal that will create a major expansion of its pipeline networks across the US.

The deal will extend Energy Transfer’s position in the Williston basin of Montana and North Dakota and the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico, while providing entry into Wyoming’s Powder River Basin, according to a statement Wednesday. Crestwood’s system includes about 2 billion cubic feet a day of gas gathering capacity and 340,000 barrels a day of crude oil gathering capacity.

Shares of Energy Transfer were about 2% higher as of 10:19 a.m. in New York, and and Crestwood was up about 5%.

The US energy sector has seen dealmaking heat up after booming profits in recent years left producers flush with cash. Pipeline operators have been part of the activity as the transition to renewable energy makes it unlikely that major new infrastructure will be built even as demand for offtake remains robust as shale producers seek to preserve top-quality drilling locations. In May, Oneok Inc. agreed to buy Magellan Midstream Partners LP in an $18.8 billion cash-and-stock transaction that’s awaiting shareholder approval.

Read More: Oil Patch Is Poised for Buyout Wave as US Drillers Seek New Land

Warren, 67, has been on a buying spree for more than three years. Even before Wednesday’s announcement, he’d committed more than $11 billion to snap up pipelines and ancillary assets in the Permian region, the Gulf Coast and Great Plains. The value of pipeline networks has continued to increase amid the need to connect remote wells to population centers and export facilities.

The Crestwood deal includes the assumption of $3.3 billion of debt, according to the statement. Under the terms of the deal, which is expected to close in the fourth quarter, Crestwood common unitholders will receive 2.07 Energy Transfer common units for each Crestwood common unit. After closing, Crestwood common unitholders are expected to own about 6.5% of Energy Transfer’s outstanding common units.

“We view the deal as neutral for ET,” Elvira Scotto, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, said in a report. “ET units are likely to underperform given the all-equity deal.”


BofA Securities acted as sole financial adviser to Energy Transfer and Kirkland & Ellis LLP was legal counsel. Intrepid Partners LLC and Evercore acted as financial advisers to Crestwood and Vinson & Elkins LLP was legal counsel.

(Adds analyst comment in seventh paragraph)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

Canada wildfire: Car 'began melting' as family evacuated north


BBC
Published
4 hours ago

Some residents have chosen to leave Yellowknife following the declaration of a state of emergency

By Nadine Yousif
BBC News, Toronto

Wildfire is bearing down on the capital city of Canada's Northwest Territories, with thousands of people under evacuation orders.

The conflagration - which has already razed one remote community - could reach the city of Yellowknife by the weekend, say officials.

Another fire is threatening the community of Hay River.

One evacuee told the CBC her car began melting as they drove through embers while fleeing the town on Sunday.


The Northwest Territories declared a state of emergency late on Tuesday as it battles more than 200 wildfires.


Hay River Mayor Kandis Jameson estimated that about 500 people were still in the community of some 3,500 people as of Tuesday despite an evacuation notice issued for the town over the weekend.


Media caption,


Watch: A dramatic helicopter rescue for three hikers trapped by wildfire in Canada


The fire moved 30km in a few hours because of strong winds earlier this week, closing the only two highways out of the town.


The road out of Hay River is "treacherous", the mayor said, and food and petrol supplies are getting low in the town.


Phone and internet services have also been down in the remote region.


Canada's military has been co-ordinating airlift operations out of several communities in Northwest Territories' South Slave Region that have been threatened by wildfires in recent days.


It is the largest airlift evacuation effort in the territory's history.


Most evacuees have been brought south to the neighbouring province of Alberta, with no indication as to when they will be able to return home.



Yellowknife, a city of 20,000 south of the Arctic Circle, declared a state of emergency on Monday.


Officials hope Yellowknife could be spared the wildfires if it rains as forecast in the next few days. The blaze was about 17km (10 miles) north-west of the city as of Wednesday afternoon.


Fort Smith, K'atl'odeeche First Nation, Hay River, Enterprise and Jean Marie River are all under evacuation orders.


Enterprise, home to 120 people, is "90% gone" after a wildfire swept through this week, the community's mayor told the CBC on Tuesday.


Canada is having its worst wildfire season on record, with nearly 1,100 active fires burning across the country as of Wednesday.


Experts have pointed to a warmer and drier spring than normal as the reason.



Scientists say climate change increases the risk of the hot, dry weather that is likely to fuel wildfires.

Related Topics