Bitcoin’s fossil fuel use criticized. But some Canadian companies hoping to turn it green

Katie Dangerfield 
©

 Photo by LARS HAGBERG/AFP via Getty Images A technician inspects the backside of bitcoin mining at Bitfarms in Saint Hyacinthe, Quebec on March 19, 2018.

Bitcoin has an enormous appetite for energy, and the cryptocurrency's record-breaking surge this year has made it even more hungry.

On Wednesday, Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla, said his company will no longer accept Bitcoin for car purchases, citing environmental concerns, in a swift reversal of its position on the currency after criticism by some investors.

However, there are growing attempts to turn bitcoin green and mitigate the environmental harm of mining -- and this is happening in Canada.

Projects in Canada are looking to wean bitcoin mining away from fossil fuels, such as using hydroelectricity, solar and wind.

Read more: Musk dumps Bitcoin over climate concerns. Is it bad for the environment?

"Green power is getting cheaper and cheaper," said Cale Moodie, CEO of Neptune Digital Assets, a cryptocurrency mining company based in Vancouver, B.C. "But there has to be a push for more renewable energy sources for Bitcoin mining."

Last month, his company teamed up with Link Global Technologies, another Canadian cryptocurrency mining company, to create a project for "clean energy Bitcoin."

The new initiative, called "Pure Digital Power" will be based in Alberta and use solar, wind and some natural gas to mine Bitcoin.

The business is in the early stage, but Moodie said the mining operation will rely on around 90 per cent of solar energy, and the rest on wind and natural gas.

"So you build out your solar around the natural facility, and natural gas acts as your back up ... and then if you put wind turbines as well ... you can pick up some of that downtime associated with solar at night," he explained.

Video: Dogecoin: How the joke cryptocurrency became no laughing matter

The push for green cryptocurrency mining isn't just happening in Canada, but all over the world.

In April, a non-profit coalition launched the Crypto Climate Accord, a global industry-backed initiative urging cryptocurrency enterprises to switch to using renewable energy.

"We want to help the crypto industry decarbonize," Jesse Morris, chief commercial officer of the Energy Web Foundation, told Reuters.

The idea is to get the industry to net-zero carbon emissions -- offsetting any emissions it cannot cut itself -- by 2040.

Other nations have also looked at green mining for the coin.

Iceland, Sweden and Norway have mining locations using geothermal, hydro and wind power.

And in Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, bitcoin miners use cheap, clean energy produced by an EU-funded hydroelectric plan.

Bitcoins are mined by computers in warehouses as big as airport hangars. The process of complex algorithms makes electricity one of the key inputs, consuming as much power as thousands of households.

Video: Harnessing the green power of blockchain (Global News)

And as the price of the coin rises, more people put in orders to purchase and run mining hardware, causing an increase in energy consumption.

Read more: Elon Musk says Tesla will no longer accept Bitcoin, cites environmental concerns

In March 2021, the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Alternative Finance estimated that bitcoin miners use what would amount to more than 130 TWh per year. That’s as much energy as Sweden uses every year.

A 2019 study by the Technical University of Munich estimated that bitcoin causes around 22 megatons in CO2 emissions annually, which is comparable to larger cities like Las Vegas, and even countries such as Jordan and Sri Lanka.

Countries like China, Iran and Kazakhstan are major players in the bitcoin mining market, and mainly use fossil fuels like coal, according to Alex de Vries, a data consultant and creator of the Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index.

"And those three countries alone are hosting 70 to 80 per cent of the entire bitcoin network," he said.

There are mining operations in Nordic nations that use renewable energy, but he said they are not making up a major part of their network.

"There are small areas where miners may have access to some level of renewables, but that's an extremely small part of the network and is not helping in greening the network," de Vries argued. "A large majority of these miners are still running on fossil fuels."

However, there is a large bitcoin mining operation in south China that uses hydropower in the summer months -- which helps green the industry. But the businesses head north for the winter and use coal, as it's less costly during the colder months, he said.

Moodie believes Bitcoin has received a bad reputation due to the coal mining in China, but argued the future for cryptocurrency will be green as renewable energy becomes less costly.

He noted that although Musk said Telsa will not use bitcoin due to climate concerns, the mining of the cryptocurrency depends on where people plugin on the grid (just like electric cars).

For example, if you plug in your electric car or mining computer in British Columbia, you will be using green energy, such as hydropower. But if you plug in the U.S. or China, then you could be using fossil fuels, he said.

"(Fossil fuels) is an obvious problem. So you have the unregulated countries that are really jumping on board with this because they can get cheap fossil fuel-based power," Moodie said. "And I think that sort of given Bitcoin a bad name."

But he believes companies that are more ethically and socially responsible can lead the way in the cryptocurrency mining industry, and in doing so, force others to follow suit.

Bitfarms, one of the largest cryptocurrency mining firms in Canada, operates five of its warehouses in Quebec. Like dozens of other cryptocurrency mining companies in the province, it uses hydroelectricity.

As Bitcoin goes more mainstream, Hydro-Québec has seen a massive surge in cryptocurrency mining over the last two years, according to spokesperson Jonathan Côté.

"There are around 90 companies operating in this sector in Quebec. The blockchain industry has carved out an important place in Quebec in recent years. It now reaches an available power of around 400 megawatts," Côté said.

Cryptocurrency mining consumption for December 2020 was 100 GWh (gigawatt hours), which is the average consumption of about 65,000 Quebec homes for a month, he added.

By comparison, other data centres in Quebec use about 200 megawatts of power per year.

There are benefits for miners using hydroelectricity in the province, Côté said. Not only does it bring in revenue for the province, but it also is a more environmentally-friendly way to mine the coin, rather than using natural gas or coal.

Read more: Bitcoin’s carbon footprint could be offset by blockchain’s green applications, experts say

"So if these companies are going to be mining using renewable energy here instead of mining in China, which uses mostly coal, we can decarbonize part of that industry by having some of it here," he said.

"But we can't just have a limited supply for these mining companies, we have to be responsible."

In order to accommodate a surge of companies looking to mine Bitcoin in Quebec (without having to build more infrastructure), in January the province put through new rules for this industry.

Because Hydro-Québec's peak season for energy is in the winter, the province asked bitcoin miners to lower their energy consumption by 95 per cent in the winter months for up to 300 hours.

"So basically, they have to stop mining for a few hours during those peak demand periods," he explained. "By doing this, we're able to have these companies operating here without having such a big impact on the peak demand in the winter."

-- With files from Reuters

ExxonMobil Wants You to Take Responsibility for Climate Change, Study Says

Justin Worlan

ExxonMobil is one of the world’s largest publicly traded oil and gas companies—and it wants you to take responsibility for climate change.

© Michael Loccisano/Getty Images An Exxon gas station sign shows current gas prices last year in Clark, New Jersey.

A new analysis from researchers at Harvard University released Thursday found that the company’s public-facing messaging on climate change since the mid-2000s consistently emphasizes “consumers,” “energy demand” and individual “needs” as the cause of climate change, as well as the avenue for potentially addressing it. Outwardly focusing on consumers’ personal responsibility is one part of the company’s nuanced messaging to deflect the blame for climate change without denying the science behind it, the researchers say.


At the same time, in internal documents, the company pays personal responsibility little credence, focusing instead on the roots of the issue: “fossil fuel use,” “fossil fuel combustion” and the “source” of emissions.

“Fossil fuel industry discourse has encouraged this dangerous acceleration in individualization of responsibility,” says Geoffrey Supran, a researcher at the department of the history of science at Harvard University. “It grooms us to see ourselves as consumers first and citizens second.”

For decades, Exxon devised strategies to question the science of climate change and in turn slow progress on policy initiatives that sought to reduce carbon emissions and threatened to reduce demand for their core products. A series of in-depth journalistic investigations have documented how in the 1980s and 1990s Exxon, which had not yet merged with Mobil, conducted groundbreaking research on climate change but continued in public to question the scientific basis of the phenomenon. In the mid-2000s, the researchers’ new analysis shows, the company shifted tactics, moving away “from explicit doubt to implicit acknowledgment.”

At the same time, Supran and his co-author Harvard professor Naomi Oreskes found that the company has used several rhetorical strategies to deflect blame from the industry in recent years. The results, published in the journal One Earth, come from an evaluation of more than 200 internal and external ExxonMobil documents that researchers used in a statistical analysis to determine which words and phrases were overrepresented externally and which were overrepresented internally.

ExxonMobil did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In addition to shifting the responsibility individuals, one of the firm’s recent key strategies has been to emphasize what researchers call “climate risk” framing. Instead of using the term “climate change” in public communications, the company often refers to “climate risk,” along with related phrases like “potential risks” and “long-term risk.” The risk phrasing suggests there is uncertainty about if and how climate change will play out, without explicitly questioning the science. Researchers found this framing prevalent externally but not internally.

“By shifting the conversation from the semantics of reality to the semantics of risk,” the researchers say in the study, the company injects “uncertainty into the climate narrative, even while superficially appearing not to.”

All of these language choices may seem small, but they can have significant implications for how the public understands the causes of climate change and the potential solutions. Scientists say that tackling emissions and limiting temperature rise will require systemic changes from government and big economic players—including oil companies and other major corporations. Yet the notion that the burden of tackling climate change rests with individuals has become a pervasive belief in the U.S., as some corporations have worked to deflect responsibility for climate change and other social ills. “The word that I would probably use—in addition to subtle—is insidious,” says Supran. “That’s how I would characterize this shifting form of propaganda.”

The new research comes as ExxonMobil and other oil giants are under increased scrutiny for both their emissions and their climate messaging. Activists have taken to the street in protest while cities and states have sued the industry’s largest players with a range of allegations. Just a few weeks ago, New York City sued ExxonMobil, BP and Shell, alleging that the companies “systematically and intentionally misled consumers” into thinking their product is cleaner than it is.

ExxonMobil is far from the only major energy company rethinking the way it talks about climate change. As the science of climate change has become impossible to deny—both in courtrooms and in the court of public opinion—oil giants have cautiously indicated that they accept the science. From there, practices have diverged. Many of the European oil majors, such as Shell and BP, have promised to be part of the solution by spending billions to shift their portfolios toward clean energy. And while analysts agree that the European firms are leagues ahead of their American counterparts in grappling with the realities of climate change, much rides on if and how they follow through on those commitments.

In the U.S., many oil giants, including ExxonMobil and Chevron, have told investors they plan to stay the course with oil and gas even as they nuance their messaging around it. Critics see these U.S. firms’ public embrace of climate science and flexible measures like the Paris Agreement as a strategic shift to avoid stringent regulation, rather than anything that will lead to a significant reduction in emissions. “We have the same story,” says Dylan Tanner, the executive director of InfluenceMap, a think tank that tracks how businesses are engaging on climate. “Just replace substantive climate denial with climate delay

Exxon uses Big Tobacco's playbook to downplay the climate crisis, Harvard study finds

By Matt Egan, CNN Business 7 hrs ago

For decades, ExxonMobil has deployed Big Tobacco-like propaganda to downplay the gravity of the climate crisis, shift blame onto consumers and protect its own interests, according to a Harvard University study published Thursday

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People watch as a cargo ship carrying a furnace travels to the Port of Corpus Christi in Corpus Christi, Texas, U.S., on Sunday, Dec. 27, 2020. The multi-story furnace will be used for a $10 billion petrochemical plant being built by Gulf Coast Growth Ventures, a joint project by ExxonMobil and SABIC. 

Photographer: Eddie Seal/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The peer-reviewed study found that Exxon publicly equates demand for energy to an indefinite need for fossil fuels, casting the company as merely a passive supplier working to meet that demand.

"This is a potentially dangerous technique," Geoffrey Supran, a Harvard research associate and one of the study's authors, told CNN Business. "It narrows our environmental imagination. It makes us see ourselves as consumers first and citizens later -- in a way that protects the status quo, fossil fuels society."

The study used machine learning and algorithms to uncover trends in more than 200 public and internal Exxon documents between 1972 and 2019.

"These patterns mimic the tobacco industry's documented strategy of shifting responsibility away from corporations — which knowingly sold a deadly product while denying its harms — and onto consumers," the study concludes. "ExxonMobil has used language to subtly yet systematically frame public discourse."

The authors say this is the first quantitative, academically peer-reviewed analysis of how Exxon uses language to shape public opinion.

There's an irony in the funding of the study, which comes from Harvard University Faculty Development Funds and the Rockefeller Family Fund. The latter was created by the scions of Standard Oil founder John D. Rockefeller. The company was the precursor of what is now Exxon. In 2016, the Rockefeller Family Fund pledged to divest from fossil fuels, including its stake in Exxon.

Exxon told CNN Business in a statement that "ExxonMobil supports the Paris climate agreement, and is working to reduce company emissions and helping customers reduce their emissions while working on new lower-emission technologies and advocating for effective policies."

The Harvard study, Exxon added, is "clearly part of a litigation strategy against ExxonMobil and other energy companies." The company clalimed that Naomi Oreskes, one of the main authors of the study, is on retainer with a law firm that is leading lawsuits against Exxon and others in the industry. Exxon called this a "blatant conflict of interest."

Oreskes said she was paid for three and a half hours of work to review the historical accuracy of material for a legal brief by the law firm at issue and is not on retainer. In the past, she has written briefs on climate cases on a pro bono basis.


'More insidious'

The new research builds on a 2017 study by the same authors that alleged Exxon "misled the public" on climate change for nearly 40 years. At the time, Exxon dismissed those claims as "inaccurate and preposterous" and argued the research was "paid for, written and published by activists."

Exxon has "gone from denialism to delayism," said Supran, who is also director of climate accountability communication at the Climate Social Science Network, which researches political conflict over climate change. "The tactics have evolved over time, but the end goal remains the same: inaction and protecting business as usual. This is by nature more subtle and more insidious than the fossil fuel industry's history of outright climate denial."

The research comes as President Joe Biden begins to execute an ambitious climate agenda aimed at slashing carbon emissions and weaning America off its addiction to fossil fuels. John Kerry, the former US senator and secretary of state, who is now the president's special envoy for climate, has warned the leaders of Big Oil to embrace clean energy or get left behind.

"You don't want to be sitting there with a lot of stranded assets. You're gonna wind up on the wrong side of this battle," Kerry said at an energy conference in March.


Carbon taxes and carbon capture

Under increasing societal pressure, the oil industry has taken steps aimed at showing that it is addressing the climate crisis.

In March, the American Petroleum Institute, the industry's most powerful lobbying group, for the first time supported setting a price on carbon — at least under certain circumstances. The API also called for direct regulation of methane and expanded emissions transparency.

"The is broad recognition that obviously the country has to do something on climate change," API CEO Mike Sommers told CNN Business at the time.

The moves appeared designed to shape Washington's climate agenda and help protect the industry from an even tougher response.

Exxon, the world's most valuable public company as recently as 2013, has lost nearly $200 billion in market value from its peak. The company was the longest-ever component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average — its precursor, Standard Oil, was added to the index in 1928 — until being kicked out of the Dow last summer.

Facing pressure from angry shareholders, Exxon recently outlined investments in lower-carbon technologies such as carbon capture, hydrogen and advanced biofuels. The company argues that demand for lower-emission technologies could create multi-trillion dollar markets by 2040.

"We are uniquely placed to help society meet its net zero ambitions," Exxon CEO Darren Woods said in an investor presentation last month.


'Gaslighting the public'

The Harvard study described "propaganda tactics of the fossil fuels industry" aimed at downplaying the climate crisis.

For example, the authors said that after the 1999 merger of Exxon and Mobil, the companies began saying in public documents such as paid "advertorials" that "climate change was a 'risk,' rather than a reality." Prior to the merger, "risk" of climate change was only mentioned once in Exxon's public communications, the study said. From 2000 and beyond, it appeared 46 times, the study found, adding that no other term was more associated with climate change in the company's public statements.

The study notes that "this scientific hedging strategy" was repeatedly used by the tobacco industry in the 1990s.

Moreover, the study found that Exxon has framed the debate around consumer energy "demand" to build a "fossil fuel savior" framework that "downplays the reality and seriousness of climate change, normalizes fossil fuel lock-in and individualizes responsibility."

Supran told CNN Business this strategy is "effectively gaslighting the public into thinking there is no alternative, making the blame pill that Exxon is feeding the public easier to swallow."


Don't we still need fossil fuels?

Of course, the recent shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline, one of America's most important pieces of energy infrastructure, underscores just how much the modern economy still relies on fossil fuels.

The six-day shutdown, which ended Wednesday, was sparked by a ransomware attack that caused panic-buying of gasoline and drove widespread fuel outages in the Southeast. The entire federal government was mobilized to get the 5,500-mile pipeline back in service.

Supran said it's "certainly true" that modern society continues to rely mostly on fossil fuels, but added that Exxon's decades-long "disinformation" campaign is a central reason why it still does.

"We are passively guilty, born into a fossil fuel society," he said. "But companies like Exxon are actively guilty for working to keep society the way it is."

CO2 at Mauna Loa exceeds 420 ppm for the first time in human history

Scott Sutherland 

 The Weather Network

CO2 levels just reached highest in human history

Duration: 00:52 

Carbon dioxide levels measured in one of the most remote places in the world have reached a new peak, setting a record for the highest level measured in human history.

On April 30, 2021, instruments at NOAA's Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawai'i recorded hour-by-hour measurements of carbon dioxide (CO2) in excess of 420 parts per million — the longest stretch of measurements above this threshold to date. At end-of-day, the site tabulated these records and logged an official daily average value for carbon dioxide of 420.29 parts per million (ppm).

© Provided by The Weather Network

The 'monthly ending May 9' graph of the Keeling Curve shows the daily average carbon dioxide value on April 30 exceeded 420 parts per million (ppm). Grey dots indicate hourly records, small black dots are the daily averages computed from those records, and larger black dots are weekly averages. Red line at 420 ppm and text noting April 30 peak added by author. Credit: Scripps Institution of Oceanography/Scott Sutherland

This value is the highest recorded carbon dioxide concentration measured at Mauna Loa this year and the highest seen at the site since it was established in 1958 (when CO2 was at around 315 ppm). Based on extensive research into carbon dioxide levels throughout the planet's geological history, this is also the highest CO2 concentration Earth has seen in millions of years.

According to NOAA, "The atmospheric burden of CO2 is now comparable to where it was during the Mid-Pliocene Warm Period around 3.6 million years ago, when concentrations of carbon dioxide ranged from about 380 to 450 parts per million. During that time sea level was about 78 feet higher [24 m] than today, the average temperature was 7 degrees Fahrenheit [3.8°C] higher than in pre-industrial times, and studies indicate large forests occupied areas of the Arctic that are now tundra."

© Provided by The Weather Network

This two-year plot of carbon dioxide measured at Mauna Loa shows the yearly 'saw tooth' pattern that carbon dioxide levels follow due to seasonal changes. In 2019, CO2 peaked at 415 ppm, in 2020, daily averages reached 418 ppm, and in 2021 so far, 420 ppm is the new record. Credit: Scripps Institution of Oceanography/Scott Sutherland

A total of 420 molecules of carbon dioxide for every million air molecules may not seem like much. However, Earth's climate is extremely sensitive to the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

WHY IS CARBON DIOXIDE SO IMPORTANT?

Carbon dioxide is considered to be the 'global climate thermostat' for planet Earth. That means the abundance of this one gas in the Earth's atmosphere is the primary controller of the planet's surface temperature and thus its climate.

Most of Earth's atmosphere — the 99.9 per cent made up of oxygen, nitrogen, and argon — is 'transparent' to both solar radiation and the infrared radiation emitted by Earth. If these were the only gases in the atmosphere, Earth would be substantially colder due to the heat the surface absorbed during the day radiating directly into space each night. None of that heat would stick around in the atmosphere to keep the planet warm, and we would likely have a 'snowball' Earth.

Carbon dioxide is transparent to incoming sunlight as well, but it absorbs outgoing infrared radiation. With just a trace amount in the atmosphere (around 0.04 per cent), enough of that heat is trapped that the planet stays warm enough for life to take hold and for human civilization to flourish. Adding more CO2 to the air, incidentally, causes more heat to be trapped than normal, which is why we are seeing a fairly steady rise in temperatures since the Industrial Revolution.

Watch below: NASA climate scientist Bill Putman explains the yearly waxing and waning of carbon dioxide throughout a year
Duration 3:10
NASA - A Year in the Life of Earth's CO2

The other major greenhouse gases that contribute to Earth's surface temperature are water vapour, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone. None of these control Earth's climate as effectively as CO2, though. There's one straightforward reason for this: Carbon dioxide is the most abundant temperature-independent greenhouse gas in Earth's atmosphere.

Methane, ozone, and nitrous oxide are more potent greenhouse gases than CO2. However, carbon dioxide is far more abundant in the atmosphere than these gases. Thus it still has a more significant contribution to global warming.

Water vapour is a special case. It is not only a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, it is also more abundant. However, water vapour's presence in the atmosphere and its contribution as a greenhouse gas are entirely dependent on the temperature. Lower the temperature by a certain amount, and water vapour condenses into liquid water, forming clouds and precipitation. Lower the temperature even further, and it freezes solid.

© Provided by The Weather Network

NOAA's Mauna Loa Observatory, high atop the volcano in Hawai'i, is a remote enough location from sources to give us an excellent idea of the carbon dioxide concentrations in the northern hemisphere of Earth. Credit: NOAA

Carbon dioxide, on the other hand, is temperature-independent. No matter how you vary the temperature on the planet, CO2 remains in gaseous form and retains its full potency as a greenhouse gas.

The very reason we have large quantities of water vapour in Earth's atmosphere in the first place is due to the temperature-independence of carbon dioxide. If the amount of CO2 in the air decreases, the planet cools, which causes more water vapour to condense and eventually freeze. This is how most glacial periods in Earth's history started, as CO2 was absorbed from the air by various forms of life and became locked up or buried away in large quantities. When carbon dioxide levels rose again due to extreme volcanic events or mass die-offs, temperatures increased, and the amount of water vapour in the atmosphere also increased.

© Provided by The Weather Network

By measuring gases trapped in ice cores, scientists have shown what carbon dioxide levels were like in the atmosphere, going back 10,000 years. Credit: Scripps Institution of Oceanography

In the roughly 10,000 years before the industrial revolution, when CO2 levels were reasonably uniform at around 265 ppm, Earth's climate remained relatively stable. The greenhouse gases in the air absorbed just enough of the heat Earth radiated out towards space to keep the planet's average temperature reasonably steady.

As shown in the graph below, due to carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel burning, the global average temperature has risen by roughly 1.5°C since the early 1900s.

© Provided by The Weather Network

Credit: NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Sciences

Seeing this kind of temperature increase in a small region, over a short period of time, such as in the local forecast for your city over a few days, is not much of a concern. It represents only a small amount of energy, and the temperature will eventually go down by that much, as well.

The entire planet warming up by over one degree, however, and in such a way that the temperature will not go down again by that amount for the foreseeable future, represents an immense amount of energy being invested into our weather and climate systems.

This is of great concern to us when it comes to extreme weather events and their potential impact on human civilization. It is going to be even worse, going forward, as greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, and the temperature continues to rise along with them.

DROUGHT

Soil conditions worsen across Saskatchewan as spring seeding continues

Duration: 01:32 

As spring seeding continues across Saskatchewan, dry conditions across the province continue to be a growing concern. This week's crop report shows over half of the province's cropland has less than adequate topsoil moisture.

Global News

Video: Severe drought conditions in Morden, Man. (cbc.ca)

MANITOBA

First Nations oppose permanent Hydro river flow permit

Representatives for two northern First Nations are asking the provincial government to deny approval for a permanent Manitoba Hydro permit that allows the utility considerable flexibility in manipulating two rivers.

In the 1970s, Hydro diverted water from the Churchill River into the Nelson River at Southern Indian Lake, in order to increase its generating capacity along the Nelson. The diversion caused devastating and ongoing impacts to the environment along both river basins, and ripple effects in the First Nations communities throughout the region.

Operation of the diversion began in 1976, on an interim licence issued under the Water Power Act. The move caused the water level of Southern Indian Lake to rise by approximately three metres.

In 1986, Manitoba Hydro was given permission to increase the amount of water the utility diverted from the Churchill River by 15 per cent. What has become known as the augmented flow program now allows the Crown corporation to raise and lower the water level of Southern Indian Lake by as much as three to 4.5 feet.

Temporary approval permits have been repeatedly reapproved on an annual basis for three-and-a-half decades.

“They want the terms of the augmented flow program, in essence, to carry on permanently through a final licence into the future. To us, that’s a death sentence,” said Les Dysart, community lead on hydro issues for O-Pipon-Na-Piwin Cree Nation, approximately 130 kilometres northwest of Thompson, on the shores of Southern Indian Lake.

The impacts on fish populations and high levels of mercury in the traditional food source are of principal concern in the region.

For O-Pipon-Na-Piwin, whitefish is a critical species; for Tataskweyak Cree Nation (about 150 km northeast of Thompson), sturgeon is a particularly important species that has been impacted by ongoing river alterations.

“The government has allowed Hydro to take the sturgeon on the Churchill River to the brink of extinction. We need (Conservation and Climate) Minister (Sarah) Guillemard to stop the augmented flow program and operate (the diversion) in a way that ensures the full protection and survival of the endangered Churchill River sturgeon,” said Tataskweyak band councillor Robert Spence.

“We share the same fate as the sturgeon.”

Tataskweyak is currently pursuing a research project to establish sturgeon numbers are continuing to fall, decades after the first disturbance of the river. The partial goal is to have the species recognized as locally endangered.

A spokesperson for Manitoba Hydro referred all questions on the topic to the provincial government, but said the Crown corporation applied in 2009 for the final permit that would allow status quo operations to continue.

Via email, a spokesperson for Guillemard said: “The minister is reviewing the consultation summary materials and will make a licensing decision very soon, with a commitment to ongoing engagement with Indigenous communities.”

However, the representatives from both First Nations objected to meaningful consultation having been pursued ahead of the decision.

“I was active in assisting the First Nation in 2010, and that was the first formal communication we received from the province. And for the last 11 years, there’s just been a series of meetings to try and start consultation... Manitoba seems to imply all the time that this is somehow meaningful,” said Dysart.

Sarah Lawrynuik, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Winnipeg Free Press

US Federal judge delivers new blow to foes of Twin Metals mine

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday rejected a second attempt by opponents of the proposed Twin Metals copper-nickel mine in northeastern Minnesota to invalidate the mineral rights leases needed for the project.

 Provided by The Canadian Press

U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden said new arguments and evidence raised by the opponents in the 2020 lawsuit would not have changed the outcome of the case, which challenged the Interior Department's 2019 decision to renew the decades-old leases for the site near Ely.

The plaintiffs included the Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters, Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness, several businesses in the Ely area, and other groups that said the Interior Department failed to conduct a sufficiently extensive environmental review, and therefore unlawfully renewed the leases.

“Plaintiffs have moved the needle from ‘no evidence’ to ‘some evidence.’ But they are still far from submitting the ‘clear evidence’ needed to surmount the presumption that Interior faithfully discharged its duties," McFadden wrote.

The Obama administration in its final weeks refused to renew the leases, citing the potential threat to the nearby Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. But the Trump administration reversed that decision and reinstated the leases. In his previous ruling, the judge framed the agency's decision as correcting its own error.

When Twin Metals, which is owned by the Chilean mining giant Antofagasta PLC, submitted its formal mine plan to federal and state regulators in 2019, the company said its design would prevent any acid mine drainage. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is still reviewing that plan.

The Associated Press

CRIMINAL MONOPOLY CAPITALI$M
Anti-monopoly fine pushes Alibaba to first operating loss as public company

 Reuters/Thomas Peter FILE PHOTO: The logo of Alibaba Group is seen at its office in Beijing

(Reuters) -China's top e-commerce platform Alibaba Group Holding Ltd on Thursday posted its first quarterly operating loss since going public in 2014 due to a record anti-monopoly fine by the country's market regulator.
Its U.S.-listed shares fell nearly 3% in choppy trading, even as the company forecast strong 2022 revenue, betting that the pandemic-driven shift to online shopping will remain resilient.

The outlook, however, was overshadowed by a regulatory crackdown in China that led to the suspension of a $37 billion IPO of its affiliate Ant Group and a $2.8 billion fine in April for anti-competitive business practices.

The fine led to a 7.66 billion yuan ($1.19 billion)operating loss in the fourth quarter ended March 31.

"The Penalty Decision motivated us to reflect on the relationship between a platform economy and society, as well as our social responsibilities and commitments," Chief Executive Daniel Zhang said in an earnings call.

Alibaba forecast annual revenue of 930 billion yuan ($144.12 billion) for the year ending March 2022, above expectation of 928.25 billion yuan.

Core commerce revenue rose 72% to 161.37 billion yuan in the fourth quarter. But growth at its cloud computing unit slowed to 37% to 16.8 billion yuan from 58% a year earlier, its weakest since at least 2016.

Alibaba said it was due to a top customer with a "sizeable presence outside of China" ending its business for "non-product related reasons."

Overall revenue rose to 187.4 billion yuan in the fourth quarter, topping a Refinitiv forecast of 180.41 billion yuan.

Alibaba's U.S. listed shares have fallen more than 30% since hitting a record high in late October when its founder Jack Ma delivered a speech in Shanghai criticizing China's financial regulators.

The sinking share price reflects investor anxiety over regulation, said Brock Silvers, chief investment officer at Hong Kong-based Adamas Asset Management.

"The company has faced rogue waves of regulatory risk, which now threaten the entire tech sector."

($1 = 6.4545 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Chavi Mehta in Bengaluru and Josh Horwitz in Shanghai; Additional reporting by Subrat Patnaik; Editing by Arun Koyyur)

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

State Street Corporation to pay $115M criminal penalty


BOSTON (AP) — State Street Corporation has agreed to pay a $115 million criminal penalty to resolve charges that it schemed to defraud clients by secretly overcharging some of its customers for as long as 17 years, federal investigators said Thursday.

All told, the Massachusetts-based global financial services company defrauded its customers to the tune of more than $290 million, investigators said. The company has agreed to fully reimburse victims of the misconduct for amounts they were overcharged.

“State Street defrauded its own clients of hundreds of millions of dollars over decades in a most pedestrian way: they tacked on hidden markups to routine charges for out-of-pocket expenses,” Acting U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Nathaniel Mendell said in a written statement.

Investigators said that according to State Street’s admissions, between 1998 and 2015, bank executives conspired to add secret markups to “out-of-pocket” expenses charged to the bank’s clients while letting clients believe that State Street was billing expenses as pass-through charges on which the bank was not earning a profit.

The markups were charged on top of fees that the clients had agreed to pay the bank, and despite written agreements that caused clients to believe the expenses would be passed through to them without a markup, investigators said.

State Street executives also took steps to conceal the markups from clients, prosecutors said.

A spokesperson for State Street said the company entered into the prosecution agreement to resolve its previously disclosed inquiry into the overcharges of some customers for items billed as out-of-pocket expenses, which the bank said it disclosed in 2015.

“We regret these overcharges, which have also been the basis of prior settlements with regulators including the Securities and Exchange Commission,” the company said. “We have also invested, and continue to invest, significant resources to improve and strengthen our invoicing processes, controls and governance.”

State Street has entered into a deferred prosecution agreement after being charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and agreed to pay the $115 million penalty. The company also agreed to continue to cooperate with the U.S. attorney’s office in any ongoing investigations.

Prosecutors said the resolution is based on a number of factors, including that State Street voluntarily disclosed the misconduct and fully cooperated with the investigation.

The company also said the amounts to be paid in connection with the agreement are included in a previously established reserve.

Steve Leblanc, The Associated Press

COMPASSIONATE CAPITALI$M
Vaccine waiver talks can make drug firms the heroes, U.S. trade chief says

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said on Wednesday she is pushing for a waiver of COVID-19 vaccine intellectual property rights because the United States and drug makers have "an obligation to help save the world right now."

© Reuters/POOL Katherine C. Tai testifies before Senate Finance Committee in Washington

Tai, speaking at a U.S. Senate Finance Committee hearing, said she views the World Trade Organization talks as a way to remove the intellectual property issue as an obstacle to vaccine production. She backed the WTO negotiations last week.

She praised the work of U.S. companies in quickly developing and producing safe and effective vaccines, adding that on intellectual property, "The message that I want to give to them is, 'You can be a hero here.'"

Several Republican senators criticized Tai for "giving away" U.S. innovations to foreign competitors by supporting the WTO negotiations.

Tai said she views the talks to be less about preventing other countries from "stealing" U.S. technology and more about finding a way to have a positive impact on people's lives by ending the coronavirus pandemic.

"What we are trying to accomplish is the saving of lives," she said, adding that ending the pandemic is a necessary first step in any trade policy going forward.

"Unless we are able to bring the rest of the world's economies back online, there's not going to be a lot of upside for us in what we're going to be doing" on trade, Tai said.

India is experiencing a pandemic tragedy of "unimaginable scale" and South Africa, the other main proponent of vaccine waivers, has no facilities to produce vaccines and would need them to end the pandemic on the African continent, Tai said.

Negotiations at the WTO will take time, with a process for negotiations just starting now, Tai added.

She added that she did not see waiver talks as leading to a "slippery slope" of a broader erosion of intellectual property rights, as the current crisis is unique and threatening millions of lives. Such waivers on clean energy technologies would not be necessary to fight the crisis of climate change, Tai said.

Asked by Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren whether USTR would support a broader WTO intellectual property waiver on COVID-19 treatments, therapeutics, protective equipment and other medical products, Tai said she is currently only focused on increasing vaccine access and equity.

(Reporting by David Lawder and Daniel Burns; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Paul Simao)