GM offers 10% wage hike in contract talks that UAW calls 'insulting'

Thu, September 7, 2023 
By David Shepardson

(Reuters) -General Motors on Thursday made a counterproposal to the union representing its U.S. hourly workers in a bid to avoid a costly strike, but United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain called the offer "insulting."

The largest U.S. automaker said it offered workers a 10% wage hike and two additional 3% annual lump sum payments over four years in its offer to the union ahead of the Sept. 14 contract expiration.

Last week, Ford said it had offered a 9% wage increase through 2027 and 6% lump sump payments, much less than the 46% wage hike being sought by the union. The UAW has said 97% of members voted in favor of authorizing a strike if agreement is not reached.

Fain, who represents 146,000 workers at the Detroit Three, said GM's offer was "an insulting proposal that doesn’t come close to an equitable agreement for America’s autoworkers.... The clock is ticking. Stop wasting our members’ time. Tick tock."

GM shares were down 1.3% in mid-day trading.

GM said the wage hike is the largest proposed since 1999. It is also offering a $6,000 one-time inflation-related payment and $5,000 in inflation-protection bonuses over the life of the agreement, along with a $5,500 ratification bonus.

Chrysler-parent Stellantis said Wednesday it planned to make a counteroffer to the UAW this week.

GM said that under its offer, current temporary employees will receive a 20% increase to $20 per hour wage and it would shorten the time it takes to get to the maximum wage rate for permanent employees - mirroring proposals from Ford.

GM President Mark Reuss said in a video posted on Thursday "we need a fair contract that both rewards our employees and protects the long-term health of our business."

A UAW strike that shuts the Detroit Three manufacturers could cost carmakers, suppliers and workers over $5 billion, Michigan-based Anderson Economic Group estimated.

With new car inventories tight, consumer experts have said that could translate into higher car prices - an important component of inflation.

Last week, the UAW filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board against GM and Stellantis saying they refused to bargain in good faith.

The union's demands include a 20% immediate wage increase followed by four 5% annual wage hikes, defined-benefit pensions for all workers, 32-hour work weeks and additional cost of living hikes. GM is proposing to give employees an additional paid holiday.

The UAW also wants all temporary workers at U.S. automakers to be made permanent, seeks enhanced profit sharing and the restoration of retiree health-care benefits and cost-of-living adjustments.

The UAW said Ford's profit-sharing formula change would have cut payouts by 21% over the last two years.

J.P.Morgan on Thursday said supply chain disruptions from a potential UAW strike would cut new vehicle production, drive up used car prices and put pressure on margins in the personal auto insurance business.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; additional reporting by Ben Klayman; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Tomasz Janowski)

Here’s why Biden can’t do much to prevent an auto strike

Chris Isidore, CNN
Thu, September 7, 2023 

President Joe Biden may hope the United Auto Workers union will not strike the nation’s three unionized automakers. But right now about all he can do is hope.

Biden doesn’t have the legal authority he would have if a freight railroad or airline was threatening to strike. In those cases, a different labor law gives the president the authority to order both sides to continue on the job. So the best he can do is apply public pressure.

But despite his reputation as a pro-union president, his influence with the union is fairly limited, especially considering its criticism of the administration’s support of a move away from gas-powered cars to EVs, which the union sees as bad for the jobs of many of its members.

And his ability to pressure the automakers is also limited, given what they see as the need to compete with nonunion automakers such as Tesla and foreign auto brands.

There are 145,000 UAW members spread across General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, the company that makes vehicles for the US market under the Jeep, Ram, Dodge and Chrysler names. The union rank-and-file overwhelmingly approved strikes starting September 15 against any of the companies that doesn’t have a tentative labor deal in place by then.

The administration has so far avoided three potential strikes that could have devastated the nation’s economy — at UPS, the ports up and down the West Coast and the nation’s four major freight railroads.

A 10-day strike against all three automakers would cost the US economy more than $5 billion, according to analysis by Anderson Economic Consulting, a Michigan research firm. Not only would the automakers and union members take an economic hit, but so would suppliers and many other businesses nationwide. The six-week strike at GM alone in 2019 was enough to put Michigan into a recession, even if that didn’t cause a wider nationwide economic downturn

Joe Biden speaks at the United Auto Workers union hall in Warren, Michigan, during the 2020 presidential campaign. - Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

A strike against all three automakers would be the first time in UAW history that the union will have waged a simultaneous strike against the “Big Three.” It would be the nation’s largest strike in 25 years. And UAW President Shawn Fain vows the union is ready to strike all three if there aren’t agreements by the 11:59 pm ET contract expiration on September 14.

Uneasy relations between UAW and Biden

Fain has been critical of Biden at some times, pleased with him at others.

The union is not pleased with administration’s support of industry efforts to convert from traditional internal-combustion-engine powered vehicles, to electric vehicles, which have far fewer moving parts and require roughly 30% less hours of labor to build.

The automakers are getting government loans to build more than 20 EV battery plants nationwide, many in Southern states, to power those vehicles. Those plants are expected to pay a fraction of the wages paid to UAW members at the vehicle assembly, engine and transmissions plants under the current contract, let alone the significantly higher wages they’re demanding in these negotiations
.

President Joe Biden after touring the General Motors' electric vehicle assembly plant in Detroit in November 2021. - Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

“These companies are extremely profitable and will continue to make money hand over fist whether they’re selling combustion engines or EVs. Yet the workers get a smaller and smaller piece of the pie,” said Fain in June when Ford and South Korean battery manufacturing partner SK got a $9.2 billion federal loan to build three battery plants. “Why is Joe Biden’s administration facilitating this corporate greed with taxpayer money?”

But after Biden and Fain met at the White House in July, Fain has played down his criticism of the president, who has come out and echoed some of the UAW talking points in the negotiations, saying that he supported “a fair transition to a clean energy future.”

Biden said automakers should agree that the automakers should “honor the right to organize,” since the new battery plants will not automatically have its employees represented by the UAW. He also said that when engine or transmission plants close due to the transition from ICE to EVs, the automakers should “retool, reboot and rehire in the same factories and communities at comparable wages, while giving existing workers the first shot to fill those jobs.”

Fain, who has repeatedly referred to the need for a “just transition to EVs,” praised Biden’s comments at that time.

“We appreciate President Biden’s support for strong contracts that ensure good paying union jobs now and pave the way for a just transition to an EV future,” he said.

But even if there are signs of a truce between Biden and Fain, there’s a lot antipathy about Biden by rank-and-file union members who are very skeptical about the need for EVs, and the effect they will have on their jobs. Feeding into those doubts are attack on EVs and Biden’s support for them by Donald Trump.

“Joe Biden’s electric vehicle mandate will murder the US auto industry and kill countless union autoworker jobs forever, especially in Michigan and the Midwest,” said a statement from the Trump campaign Thursday. “There is no such thing as a ‘fair transition’ to the destruction of these workers’ livelihoods and the obliteration of this cherished American industry.”

No UAW endorsement of Biden - yet

Monday, when Biden told reporters on the way to a Labor Day event that he didn’t expect an auto strike, Fain, while expressing “shock” at the comment, didn’t criticize it directly, instead saying it was up to the companies, not the president, on whether there would be deals or strikes.

“I appreciate President Biden’s optimism. I also hope that the Big Three get serious and start bargaining in good faith. We are ready to do what is necessary to get our share of economic and social justice for our members,” Fain told CNN Monday afternoon. “We have a long way to go and a short time to get there.”

While the AFL-CIO has already endorsed Biden’s reelection campaign, calling him the most pro-union president of our lifetime, the UAW has thus far declined to endorse him. Fain told CNN that the endorsement would have to be earned.

He did send a warning shot to the White House Wednesday when he said Biden and other Democrats would have to show which side they’re on if there is a strike.

“I think our strike can reaffirm to [Biden] of where the working-class people in this country stand and, you know, it’s time for politicians in this country to pick a side,” he said in a CNBC interview. “Either you stand for a billionaire class where everybody else gets left behind, or you stand for the working class, the working-class people vote.”

Biden has named close adviser Gene Sperling, a Michigan native, as the administration’s point person to monitor the talks. But so far neither side has requested federal mediation in negotiations. And Fain has made clear the union intends to strike on September 15 against any company that doesn’t reach a tentative deal, so it’s unlikely the union would appreciate any government intervention at this late date.

Different role preventing other strikes

The Biden administration played very different roles in the earlier negotiations at UPS, the ports and the railroads.

At UPS, it followed the Teamsters union’s desire that it stay out of negotiations, and a tentative deal was reached a week before a strike deadline which was later overwhelmingly approved by union membership.

At the ports, acting Labor Secretary Julie Su helped mediate the talks after being invited in by both sides. There, the two sides had both continued to work for months under terms of an expired contract without there being a strike.

At the freight railroads, which operate under a separate labor law from most other private sector workers, Biden and Congress imposed a contract on workers to keep them on the job despite the fact that most had voted against it. The president was criticized by unions for that action.

Biden and Democrats in Congress supported a second bill that would have met a key union demand — sick days for members — but despite majority support in both chambers, it failed to get the 60 votes it needed to pass the Senate. However, since then, most of the railroads have reached agreements with most of the unions to grant the workers the sick day provisions they wanted.

Detroit UAW workers strike threat tests Biden's plan to win union votes

Updated Wed, September 6, 2023 

Detroit UAW workers strike threat tests Biden's plan to win union votes

By Nandita Bose and David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden's strategy of backing politically crucial unions while avoiding strikes that cripple the economy has hit a bump in Detroit.

During a summer of labor unrest, Biden has touted his pro-labor policies by speaking out for unions, while his administration behind the scenes tries to smooth the way for deals with employers to avoid costly walkouts, union leaders and administration officials said.

But in a reminder of how hard it is to appease energized workers while tamping down on price hikes that cause inflation, Biden and auto workers union UAW - the only major union not to endorse his 2024 presidential run - are at loggerheads.

Biden's Labor Day prediction that the union would not strike against Detroit's automakers ahead of a Sept. 14 contract deadline was soundly rejected by UAW President Shawn Fain.

"He must know something we don't know," said Fain in response, adding that he was "shocked" by the comment. "Maybe the companies plan on walking in and giving us our demands on the night before. I don't know, but he's on the inside on something I don't know about."

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden's comments about the UAW over Labor Day was him being "an optimistic person."

The president remains "optimistic" about a resolution of negotiations with the UAW, she said on Tuesday, and believes the union is at the "heart of an electric vehicle future that is Made in America with union jobs."

Labor unions like the UAW - which represents 146,000 workers at General Motors, Ford and Stellantis NV's North American unit who are demanding cost of living increases and pay that matches company profits - are key to Biden's game plan for winning reelection in 2024.

He needs their support to win key states like Pennsylvania and Michigan again, which stand to bear the brunt of any major strikes against carmakers.

A UAW strike that shuts Detroit's Big Three manufacturers could cost carmakers, suppliers and workers over $5 billion, a study by the Michigan-based Anderson Economic Group says. With new car inventories slim, consumer experts say that could translate to higher car prices - an important component of inflation.

Biden is "more pro-labor than any other president but he is doing a balancing act when it comes to strikes," said Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of labor education research at Cornell University's School of Industry & Labor Relations (ILR).

Biden created a White House team in 2021 to support new unions, which his administration says are key to fighting U.S. inequality, and has backed collective bargaining and union wage increases since taking office. The White House has tried to play a role in several recent large-scale union contract negotiations involving rail workers and West Coast port workers.

On Wednesday, Biden reiterated that "collective bargaining means everyone wins," and said the successful negotiations to resolve a labor dispute at West Coast ports will have a direct impact on lowering inflation. Workers there ratified a new six-year contract last month that includes a 32% pay raise.

While other major labor unions have endorsed Biden's 2024 run, the UAW, which backed Biden in 2020, has held out, citing his electric vehicle policies. Biden's Republican rival, Donald Trump, stepped up his attacks on the Democrat's EV policies over the Labor Day weekend, urging auto workers to support him. Trump won Michigan in 2016, helping propel him to the White House; Biden beat him by 154,000 votes in Michigan in 2020.

The UAW failing to endorse Biden is "a bit of a danger signal," given Michigan's importance in 2024, said Harley Shaiken, labor professor at the University of California, Berkeley. The hesitancy to endorse Biden, Shaiken said, "could convince many UAW members, 'Well, if the leadership doesn't think they're so great, why not Trump?'"

SEASON OF STRIKES

The labor tensions in Detroit come as unionized workers across a wide range of industries are striking, or threatening to strike, to win back concessions made during the pandemic.

In 2022, there were 23 large strikes in the U.S. involving 1,000 workers or more, affecting over 120,000 workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 2023, the data through August shows 34 similar work stoppages affecting over 142,000 workers. Around half a million more threatened strikes in the first half of 2023, estimates from national labor unions show.

Biden, 80, is tying his 2024 re-election bid to the health of the economy, highlighting job growth, rising wages and fading recession fears. At the same time, the Biden campaign is seeking donations from corporations and executives, and endorsement from business for its economic policies.

Accelerating Detroit's shift to electric vehicles is a central element of Biden's climate policy, and the administration is offering billions of dollars in federal subsidies to spur domestic EV and battery production.

UAW members in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and other Midwestern states, however, mainly build combustion trucks and SUVs.

WHITE HOUSE'S ROLE

The president has directed his staff to engage in "prudent policymaking," over labor issues, two senior White House officials said in late July, indicating that the White House will not jump into every high-profile negotiation. They said they are in constant touch with unions and employers, monitoring the progress in talks.

"We don't view our role as waiting for more opportunities to jump in and facilitate," one of the officials said.

The White House last week announced $12 billion in Energy Department grants and loans that automakers could use to retool factories to build electric vehicles, a nod to the UAW's push to stop Stellantis from closing a Jeep assembly plant in Belvidere, Illinois. The company blamed the decision to idle the plant on the high cost of converting to electric vehicles.

That is a contrast from direct mediation by administration officials last year in an agreement to prevent a national rail strike that could have devastated the American economy.

Biden's intervention provoked criticism from some workers and labor allies, who blamed the administration for undercutting their negotiating position.

That dynamic is why the Teamsters, representing UPS workers, urged the White House to stay out of its talks at a critical phase in July - as it ultimately did, labor experts said.

(Reporting by Nandita Bose and David Shepardson in Washington, Additional reporting by Joseph White in Detroit, Editing by Heather Timmons and Deepa Babington)

West Virginia University faculty express symbolic no confidence in President E. Gordon Gee
JOHN RABY
Updated Wed, September 6, 2023 

University Cuts West Virginia

West Virginia University President E. Gordon Gee (right) speaks prior to a vote at university faculty meeting Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2023, in Morgantown, W.Va. Faculty members approved a symbolic no confidence vote in Gee and asked university leaders to halt a process involving planned cuts of academic programs and faculty 

(David Beard/The Dominion Post via AP)

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia University faculty approved a symbolic motion on Wednesday expressing no confidence in President E. Gordon Gee as the university addresses a $45 million budget shortfall.

The university is struggling with the financial toll of dwindling enrollment, revenue lost during the COVID-19 pandemic and an increasing debt load for new building projects. The budget shortfall is projected to grow as high as $75 million in five years.

The faculty resolution on Gee said what it called his administration's poor planning, faulty decision making and financial mismanagement has significantly contributed to the crisis. It called into question Gee’s “ability to responsibly, honestly and effectively lead, facilitate and participate in decision making.”

“I must say that if I had done all of those things, I’d probably vote no confidence myself,” Gee told the faculty prior to the vote.

He later said that “we will proceed forward with what we are doing right now. And I think that we’ll strengthen our institution.”

The university’s faculty assembly later passed a second motion calling for WVU to freeze ongoing academic program and faculty cuts.

The votes, which serve as a symbolic gesture to express the faculty's collective thoughts, were held a month after the university Board of Governors gave Gee a one-year contract extension. Gee announced a week later that he plans to step down after his contract expires in June 2025.

In 2021, a no confidence vote by faculty against Gee and Provost Maryanne Reed failed.

In a statement after the votes, the university Board of Governors said it “unequivocally supports the leadership of President Gee and the strategic repositioning of WVU and rejects the multiple examples of misinformation that informed these resolutions.

“The University is transforming to better reflect the needs of today, and we must continue to act boldly,” it continued. "President Gee has shown time and again he is not afraid to do the difficult work required.”

The university is proposing cutting dozens of programs offered on its Morgantown campus — including its entire department of world languages, literatures and linguistics, along with graduate and doctoral degrees in math, music, English and more. The Board of Governors will conduct a final vote on the cuts next week.

While the university recommended eliminating 7% of the total faculty in Morgantown, critics said that estimate approached 16%.

Hundreds of students held a protest last month while the American Federation of Teachers called the cuts “draconian and catastrophic.”

Gee has served two stints as WVU’s president. After taking over in 2014, his promise to increase enrollment to 40,000 students by 2020 never materialized. Instead, the student population has dropped 10% since 2015, while on-campus expansion continued.

WVU has spent millions of dollars on construction projects in recent years, including a $100 million new home for the university’s business school, a $35 million renovation of a 70-year-old classroom building and $41 million for two phases of upgrades to the football team’s building.

“President Gee’s tenure has been marred by a series of questionable decisions that have eroded trust and confidence within our university community,” social work instructor Tina Faber told the faculty meeting in Morgantown prior to the no confidence vote. “The success of any academic institution relies heavily on open dialogue and collaboration, which seemed to have been neglected under President Gee’s leadership.

“Through the protests, petitions and this assembly, we send a clear message: We demand transparency, accountability and a renewed commitment to the values that make our institution great.

TOOTHLESS BARKING

Ahead of Biden visit, US watchdog says Vietnam backsliding on religious freedoms

Reuters
Tue, September 5, 2023

FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Joe Biden arrives at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Washington


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Days before a visit by President Joe Biden to Vietnam in which he aims to upgrade diplomatic ties, a U.S. government commission accused the country of backsliding on commitments to ensure religious freedoms.

In a report on Tuesday, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) said that since Washington dropped Vietnam from a list of "countries of particular concern" (CPC) over religious freedom in 2006, the Hanoi government had created "more space in some areas" for expressions of belief.

However, a "recent crackdown on civil society, increased pressure on independent religious communities, alarming reports of forced renunciations of faith, and other growing religious freedom violations add up to a clear reversal in that once-positive trajectory," it said.

The report said a May visit to Vietnam by USCIRF Vice Chair Frederick Davie and Commissioner Eric Ueland found that while religious groups experienced relatively greater freedom in urban areas, "serious challenges are pervasive in many rural areas."

Vietnam's requirement for religious groups to register contrasted with Hanoi's obligation to provide religious freedom to all its people, it said.

"Government authorities continue to closely monitor all religious activity, often harassing, detaining, or otherwise preventing unregistered faith communities from exercising their fundamental right to religious freedom," the report said.

Vietnam was on a "similar trajectory to China in terms of its regulation and control of religion," the report said.

Washington sees Vietnam as an important partner in the face of China's growing power in the Indo-Pacific region. It is looking to elevate its diplomatic relations with Hanoi to the top level when Biden is in Hanoi on Sept. 10, but analysts say human rights concerns could be an obstacle to certain cooperation.

Vietnam's constitution allows for freedom of religion and government media have rejected criticisms from groups such as USCIRF.

In its 2023 annual report, the USCIRF recommended the redesignation of Vietnam as a CPC, accusing it of "systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom."

Last year, the U.S. State Department added Vietnam to its Special Watch List for violations of religious freedom under the 1998 U.S. Religious Freedom Act, a lesser designation than that of a CPC, but its first since 2006.

The act provides for a range of policy responses, including sanctions or waivers, but they are not automatic.

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Editing by Leslie Adler)
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As Africa Climate Summit promotes solar, off-grid power ramps up below the Sahara

TAIWO ADEBAYO, EVELYNE MUSAMBI and MOGOMOTSI MAGOME
Wed, September 6, 2023 




1Mark Munyua, CP solar's technician, examines solar panels on the roof of a company in Nairobi, Kenya, Friday, Sept. 1, 2023. Access to electricity remains a major challenge for over half a billion people in sub-Saharan Africa, and power outages are common. In South Africa and Kenya, solar is being used to power major businesses. 

(AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

NAIROBI (AP) — A walk through the busy business district of Mombasa Road in Nairobi, or even a rural community in Kisii County, Kenya, highlights something that's getting attention at the African Climate Summit in Nairobi this week — solar power that is not connected to the grid.

With or without the encouragement of government policy, families and businesses are choosing off-grid solar in the face of an unreliable grid. According to the World Bank, the number of so-called minigrids, meaning solar systems that support a cluster of homes or businesses, has grown from 500 in Africa in 2000 to 3,000 today.

In Kenya, the price of electricity has risen due to higher fuel costs, driving some to form their own local grids.

It's not just individual homes in Kenya: Solar energy’s reliability and lower cost, despite initial high installation capital, has attracted steel manufacturers and cooking oil factories, who form some of the biggest clients for one Nairobi-based company.

CP Solar’s managing director, Rashmi Shah, said his company has installed 25 megawatts of solar systems in the past six years. “It is a very clean source of energy,” he said and clients are able to recover their initial costs through savings within the first four years.

“We are not polluting the air at all; we are not raising the temperatures; we are not affecting the climate of the Earth. So that is why more and more emphasis is coming to cleaner energy,” he told The Associated Press.

Over half a billion people in sub-Saharan Africa don't have reliable access to electricity. Power outages are common. Renewable energy is more reliable but its promise for the region still remains largely unmet. The African nations below the Sahara have 60% of the world’s solar potential.

“The nearly year-round sunshine in Africa makes us unique,” Kenyan President William Ruto told a ministerial session at the climate summit on Monday.

In Nigeria, as in Kenya, things are changing. Most households have depended on gasoline generators for power, but recently the government removed a gasoline subsidy, prompting increased interest in solar power, according to dealers. Only about half of Nigerians are connected to the grid, and even for them, power cuts are common.

The Nigerian government has not announced incentives to promote solar energy, such as reducing import taxes on solar equipment as demanded by dealers.

But where the government has been unhelpful, the private sector has taken the lead in promoting it by offering households and small businesses the option of paying for their solar installations over time.

“The problem was affordability, but now customers can pay installments over a period of 18 months,” said Tunde Oladipupo, an agent for Sun King, a solar power company. Oladipupo, who is based in Oyo, southwestern Nigeria, said his company also serves energy-hungry small businesses like those that use freezers or pump water from boreholes.

After addressing the issue of high upfront costs, the model has proved to be a solution for the social problems drawn out by Nigeria’s energy crisis in poorly served and low-income households. For Monsurat Qadri, the challenge was helping her young daughter with homework in the evenings when there was no light. Grid electricity was unavailable and the other option, a generator, had become too expensive.

But now, “I’m done with worrying about lighting,” Qadri said. She has installed a small solar system that powers five bulbs and a fan, and paying the installments every month is easy for her.

In Nigeria, unlike Kenya, the use of solar power for industry is rare. “Not a single one as far as I know,” Mohammed Ettu, who runs Makhade Power Solutions in Lagos, said of big industrial productions in Nigeria that use solar power.

In the third powerhouse economy of sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa, the government announced a new policy in 2021 that allows mining companies and large industrial operations to generate up to 100 megawatts of their own electricity, up from just one megawatt, reducing their reliance on the national grid and promoting renewable energy sources. As a result, several companies, including Sibanye Stillwater, Anglo American Platinum, and Gold Fields, have announced plans to generate significant amounts of renewable power in the short term.

Another example of this shift is the Ford vehicle assembly plant in Silverton, Pretoria, which currently sources over 35% of its electricity from solar power.

South Africa is also taking steps to reduce its dependence on coal-fired power. The Komati power station in Mpumalanga was decommissioned in 2022 and will be converted to clean generation with more than 150 megawatts of solar, 70 megawatts of wind, and 150 megawatts of storage batteries.

Amid the ongoing electricity crisis this year, the South African government offered tax incentives for households and businesses that purchase renewable energy sources and for households that install solar panels on their rooftops.

Businesses installing renewable energy can reduce their taxable income by 125% of the cost of the investment. Households that install rooftop solar will be able to claim a rebate of 25% of the cost of the panels, up to a maximum of R15,000 (US $779).

Back in Kenya, despite CP Solar's focus on industries, it is also doing some home installations. One is at the home of its director, Shah. It has enabled him to be completely off the grid, saving him from a recent national blackout where others relying on Kenya Power and Lighting Company, including the country’s main airport, were in the dark for hours.

“I was happy at home watching Supersport on that day. I think there was a football match coming,” Shah said.

The high cost of electricity in the country, ranging from 20 to 30 Kenyan shillings per kilowatt-hour (US $0.14 to US $0.20) has also encouraged the shift, Shah said.

The abundance of sunlight in Kenya — and Africa — favors solar energy generation, something Shah described as a “very fortunate” opportunity to have “free power.”

___

Adebayo reported from Abuja, Nigeria. Magome reported from Johannesburg, South Africa.

___

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.

FOX's Greg Gutfeld's Sunny Take On Climate Change Deserves A Storm Of Pushback

Ron Dicker

HUFFPOST
Thu, September 7, 2023 

Greg Gutfeld of Fox News spouted some dubious “logic” about climate change on Wednesday. (Watch the video below.)

Gutfled, a co-host of “The Five,” appeared to acknowledge that global warming is actually happening: “No one is saying that climate isn’t changing,” he said. (A lot of people are saying that, actually, but they’re wrong.)

However, Gutfeld veered off track when he suggested the gradual cooking of the planet is a good thing.

“More people die from cold weather than warm weather,” he said. “So if you’re going to just use the ultimate variable, which is life span, you would be happy if the planet gets slightly warmer, because that makes areas more livable for people. People don’t live in frozen areas. They live in warm areas.”

And getting warmer. September is capping a record-breaking summer in the Northern Hemisphere. This year is on course to be the second hottest on record.

“Scientists blame ever warming human-caused climate change from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas with an extra push from a natural El Nino,” an Associated Press article noted this week.

In short, humanity’s runaway use of fossil fuels is adding too much heat-trapping carbon dioxide to the Earth’s atmosphere (the so-called greenhouse effect), making the planet warmer than it should be and contributing to all manner of deadly extreme weather and destructive environmental loss.

Gutfeld also falsely asserted that scientists who talk about the realities of climate change “never tell you” the ice measurements “around the globe.”

According to a NASA report on two-thirds of the world’s fresh water stored by ice sheets, Antarctica is losing about 150 billion tons of ice mass per year, and Greenland is losing 270 billion tons annually.

Some people on X, formerly known as Twitter, aired their rebuttals to Gutfeld’s claims as well.

Related...

USUALLY YOU GET A COURT MARTIAL

Vietnam pilot who disregarded direct order gets Medal of Honor

Nadine Yousif - BBC News
Wed, September 6, 2023 

U.S. President Joe Biden awards the Medal of Honor to retired Army Captain Larry Taylor for conspicuous gallantry during the Vietnam War, during a ceremony in the East Room at the White House in Washington, U.S., September 5, 2023.

US President Joe Biden has awarded the nation's highest military medal to a Vietnam War helicopter pilot who disregarded a direct order.

Retired Army Capt Larry Taylor, now 81, flew his Cobra helicopter into a firefight to rescue four US troops from near certain death in 1968.

He had been ordered to return to base, but refused when he learned there was no other rescue helicopter being sent.

A Cobra had never before been used for such a mission before, the Army says.

He received the Medal of Honor at the White House.

On the night of 18 June 1968, the long range reconnaissance patrol team that then-1st Lt Taylor saved came under heavy fire and was surrounded by enemy troops outside Ho Chi Minh City.

Running low on fuel and ammunition, he made low-level attack runs as the enemy returned intense ground fire for about half an hour.

Upon realising that the team's escape route was a death trap, he radioed with a new extraction point.

When the men arrived at the location, 1st Lt Taylor landed the helicopter "with complete disregard for his personal safety" to pick up the four troops, the White House said.

The men had to cling to the outside of the two-person aircraft as there wasn't room inside.

President Biden said at Tuesday's medal ceremony: "The rescue helicopter was not coming.

"Instead, Lieutenant Taylor received a direct order: Return to base. His response was just as direct: 'I'm getting my men out. I'm getting my men out.'

"Lieutenant Taylor would perform the extraction himself, a move never before accomplished in a Cobra."

The Tennessee native's aircraft was hit multiple times amid the rescue mission.

"He refused to give up. He refused to leave a fellow American behind," Mr Biden said. "When duty called, Larry did everything to answer. He rewrote the fate of four families for generations to come."

Only 3,515 US military personnel have received the Medal of Honor, out of 40 million who have served since the Civil War.

GM announces new EV feature that will help drivers power their homes during storms and outages: ‘It makes so much sense’

Jeremiah Budin
Thu, September 7, 2023 

Extreme weather events are growing more frequent, as is the adoption of electric cars over traditional gas-powered vehicles.

In an effort that addresses both of those trends, General Motors recently announced that it’s going to equip all of its EVs with the ability to act as backup generators during power outages, as The New York Times reported.

Now, not only are EVs helping to decrease our reliance on dirty energy sources like gas and oil, but they are also helping people deal with the consequences of them.

GM said it will begin rolling out the feature this year. The company plans to have all of its EVs equipped with “vehicle-to-home technology” by the 2026 model year.

That includes everything from its electric pickup trucks to the Chevy Bolt, which was recently discontinued and then abruptly brought back after an outcry from consumers.

GM joins Ford in offering the backup power feature (although Ford currently offers it only in its F-150 Lightning pickup truck). However, as the technology is fairly new and just being rolled out, it’s not as simple as just plugging your car into the wall. In order to use it, customers will often need to shell out extra for integration hardware, as The New York Times noted.

On Reddit, some customers saw this added cost as a reason to criticize car companies.

“[My] brother bought a Ford Lightning only to be told it would cost him an extra 25k to have his house upgraded to charge and be able to power his house from the truck,” wrote one commenter in a Reddit thread about the new technology.

So far, GM and Ford have not yet set a standardized price for installing necessary integration systems, although the average price is likely much less than $25,000.

For example, Tesla sells backup power technology through its Powerwall systems, which start at $8,700, per The New York Times (though prices vary). But the Powerwalls are charged via solar panels (also sold separately by Tesla) or the grid. They can charge Tesla’s EVs but can’t yet be charged by them.

“It makes so much sense, instead of buying those stupid large portable batteries for thousands, you should be able to use the gigantic battery in your car,” another commenter wrote in the Reddit thread.