POLITICAL ECOLOGY

Exclusive-India makes record U.S. soyoil purchases as drought parches South America


A combine harvester is used to harvest soybeans on a farmland in Chivilcoy, 

on the outskirts of Buenos Aires

Fri, February 18, 2022
By Rajendra Jadhav

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Indian traders have contracted to import a record 100,000 tonnes of soyoil from the United States because of limited supplies from drought-hit South America, at a time when prices of rival palm oil are scaling record highs, three dealers told Reuters.

The higher purchases from the United States are expected to support U.S. soy oil prices, which have climbed nearly 20% this year to close to their highest in a decade, fuelling worries about food inflation.

The world's biggest edible oil importer traditionally buys soyoil from Argentina and Brazil, but lower bean output in these two leading exporters of the commodity forced New Delhi to turn to the United States, they said.

"Indian buyers have bought U.S soyoil vessels. Prices were attractive and supplies were not enough in South America," said the India head of a global trading firm, who sought anonymity because of the company's policy.

"Buying of another two vessels in the short term is possible."

India usually gets two-thirds of its soyoil needs from Argentina, and the rest from Brazil.

But last season's reduced soybean output has tightened soyoil reserves in Argentina, forcing Indian buyers to shop around for alternatives, such as sunoil from the Black Sea region.

"Sunflower oil is cheaper than palm and soyoil, but some buyers are sceptical about deliveries because of geopolitical tension (in Russia)," said Sandeep Bajoria, chief executive of Sunvin Group, a vegetable oil brokerage and consultancy firm.

"They are going with soyoil."

Crude palm oil (CPO) is being offered at about $1,575 a tonne, including cost, insurance and freight (CIF), in India for March shipments, compared with $1,620 for crude soybean oil and $1,515 for crude sunflower oil, traders said.

Soyoil was cheaper than palm and sunflower oil last month, but the sudden jump in soyoil demand has lifted prices by 16% in a month to the highest in 14 years, traders said.

SUPPLY SQUEEZE

India gets nearly two-thirds of its edible oil needs through imports, mainly palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia.

But Indonesia's decision to curb palm oil exports has lifted the price of the tropical oil to a record and created scarcity in the edible oil market, said a Mumbai-based dealer with a global trading firm.

"Edible oil importers were looking for an alternative in the form of soyoil, but massive output reduction is going on for the soybean crop in South America," the dealer said.

This month, Brazilian statistics agency Conab slashed its soy output estimate for the 2021/2022 cycle by about 15 million tonnes, while Paraguay's soybean harvest could fall by as much as half.

Top soyoil exporter Argentina also faces a drop of 5 million tonnes in soybean output for 2021/22.

In addition, lower water levels on Argentina's key Parana river have left it struggling to fully load soybean vessels, so that cargo sizes have been reduced by up to 30%.

On the other hand, the United States faces a potential surplus of soyoil after the Biden administration proposed cutting the biofuel blending mandate, another dealer with a trading firm said.

India could import as much as 160,000 tonnes of soyoil from the United States in 2021/22, up from 36,000 tonnes a year ago, he said.

Indian traders also signed deals to import 30,000 tonnes of soyoil from the Black Sea region, but port congestion is delaying shipments, said the India head of a global trading firm.

(Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

BECAUSE OF COURSE HE DOES

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants workers to be renamed as 'metamates'

Wed, February 16, 

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced changes to further push the company formerly known as Facebook into the metaverse.

Video Transcript

BRIAN SOZZI: Well, let's stay on unusual, Julie, because Mark Zuckerberg, Meta founder, wants his employees to be known as Meta Mates. I guess that makes us, Julie, Yahoo's. But again, Meta Mates just really corporate jargon. That really means absolutely nothing. You mean to tell me if you're in Facebook's headquarters if you happen to be there at all, you're going to go up to a water cooler or the coffee cooler and say, hey, what's up, Meta Mate? Probably not. I think it just shows the clear disconnect between the management team over at Meta and probably a lot of employees inside the company right now.

JULIE HYMAN: Well, apparently, this stems from something that they use over at Instagram, which comes from a Naval phrase, which is ship, shipmates, self. Like, that's--

BRIAN SOZZI: Sure, OK.

JULIE HYMAN: --how you think about it, OK?

BRIAN SOZZI: Yeah.

JULIE HYMAN: But I don't know that that extends to Meta, Meta Mates, me, which is what Zuckerberg talked about. I mean, it's just-- in addition to everything else, I think that the culture of Facebook is relevant because what we so frequently get from the company seems so disconnected from the outside world, in some ways, whether it's the development of the Metaverse itself, whether it's some of their reactions to some of the critiques leveled at the company. And this is just sort of a piece with that, maybe at times, tone deafness or insular nature of the company.

BRIAN SOZZI: If I walked-- if I worked at Facebook or Meta, Julie, and I went up to my colleague and said, hey, what's up, Meta Mate? Good morning. I would expect to be just ostracized from the group and not being talked to. Come on, come on. What, Tesla now is going to rename its employees Musk Mates? Get real here. Ridiculous.

JULIE HYMAN: OK, Yahoo, we'll talk about this later.

BRIAN SOZZI: Yahoo!

RECUPERATING VEGAN ANARCHISM
New car is vegan and made with mushrooms, Mercedes-Benz says
February 4, 2022



The interior of the vehicle will feature mushroom and cacti materials in place of animal leather, the company said. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader, File)

Mercedes-Benz has gone full-throttle with funky sustainable features in its upcoming VISION EQXX electric vehicle.

The car will be made out of avariety of sustainable materials, including mushrooms, cacti and bamboo products, according to Mercedes-Benz’s news release showcasing the car on Jan. 3.

“These (features) show that it is still possible to achieve the utmost in automotive luxury without using animal products, whilst creating an inimitable feeling of premium comfort. This fascinating journey has halved the carbon footprint of the leather alone,” Mercedes-Benz wrote on its website.

The car manufacturer worked with Mylo, the company that says it began the ‘mushroom-leather’ movement. They call their leather alternative “Unleather,” and it’s made from mycelium, the thread-like underground part of fungus that mushrooms grow from.

The vegan leather will be used to detail the seat cushions in the VISION EQXX, according to Mercedes-Benz.

That’s not the only plant-based material that will make an appearance in the car’s interior. They’ll swap more leather out for Deserttex, an automotive-specific material that is made from pulverized cacti fibers, Mercedes-Benz said. The carpets will be made with 100% bamboo fiber, and bio-engineered silk will be used for the door pulls.

According to Mercedes-Benz, the new car will be the most efficient model the company has ever built, focusing on energy and technology efficiency.

The vehicle will be able to travel more than 620 miles on a single charge. For comparison, the 2022 Model S from the popular electric auto brand Tesla averages about 396 miles on a single charge.

The automaker attributes that long driving range to the car’s low drag coefficient. The higher the drag coefficient in a vehicle, the more electric energy it takes to move the car against air resistance, Mercedes-Benz explained in its release. The VISION EQXX has a .17 drag coefficient and has an aerodynamic design meant to mimic the C 111 from the 1970s.

Almost none of the energy the car generates is wasted, either, according to Mercedes-Benz. The energy efficiency of the new vehicle means that 95% of the power in the battery is distributed to the wheels, compared to traditional gasoline-powered engines, which only get up to about 30% energy efficiency, according to Mercedes.

Mercedes-Benz isn’t the first car company to hop on the vegan-interior trend. Ford Mustang’s 2022 electric vehicle Mach-E, as well as certain Toyota and Porsche models will use vegan materials for their interiors.

Several car aficionados reacted to the new vehicle’s debut online, and what it may mean for the electric vehicle market moving forward.

In pitching the VISION EQXX, Mercedes-Benz says this car is meant to look — and feel — organic.

“From mushrooms to vegan silk, nature’s influence continues when we step inside the VISION EQXX. The lightweight luxury feel of the interior comes from extensive use of lightweight, sustainable materials and organic-inspired design detailing,” Mercedes-Benz wrote in its release. ”The basic principle is maximum comfort and style with minimum weight – and absolutely no animal-derived products.”

The car is anticipated to be available for purchase in 2024.



Alison Cutler is a National Real Time Reporter for the Southeast at McClatchy. She graduated from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University and previously worked for The News Leader in Staunton, VA, a branch of USAToday.

Plant? Alien? A newly identified thistle is ‘funkiest of all,’ Colorado botanist says


Denver Botanic Gardens

Alison Cutler
Wed, February 16, 2022

Colorado’s newest identified plant species is funky, to say the least. That’s exactly what botanist Jennifer Ackerfield decided to name it: the funky thistle.

But there’s another meaning behind the quirky name. Ackerfield’s mentor in the profession was Dr. Vicki Funk, and the name is an honor to Funk’s work in the field, Ackerfield said in a study.

“Vicki Funk had a special tune she sang when collecting thistles because of sharp spines - ‘Ooh Eeh Ooh Ah Aah Ting Tang Walla Walla Bing Bang,’” Ackerfield wrote in the study published online Jan. 29. “I can think of no better way to commemorate her memory than by naming the funkiest of all new thistles, Cirsium funkiae, in her honor.”



Ackerfield led an expedition of researchers from Denver Botanic Gardens and the U.S. Forest Service and a student from Colorado State University to the top of Mount Sherman to look for new plants, Denver Botanic Gardens said in a news release. They didn’t come back disappointed.

The plant now known as the funky thistle is, according to Ackerfield, “the funkiest of all new thistles.” It appears to be hairy and grows up to 3 feet tall, according to the study. It has yellow branches with pale yellow or brown flowers and clusters of fuzzy heads that bumblebees sometimes nestle into.

The funky thistle is the first of its kind found to exist primarily above the treeline in central and southern Colorado, according to The Colorado Sun, and it may help answer questions about how plants adapt to warming temperatures.

Unlike other plants in the species’ environment that cower closer to the ground to avoid wind chill, the funky thistle stands tall and uses its thick hairs to protect the flowers from cold conditions, Ackerfield told Denver Botanic Gardens.

“Although the correct common name is technically ‘Funk’s thistle,’ I like to think of this thistle as ‘the funky thistle.’ Cirsium funkiae, with its dense mass of woolly, nodding heads, is funky indeed,” Ackerfield wrote in the study.

The funky thistle is the “first formally described living organism of 2022” in the Rocky Mountain Region, according to the Denver Botanic Gardens, and is a critical piece of the alpine landscape.

“This (description) is significant because effective conservation of a species relies on accurate taxonomy. We can’t protect what we don’t know is out there,” Denver Botanic Gardens wrote in the release.

Researchers acknowledged that the thistle may have been discovered by indigenous communities prior to the recent findingby the botanists.

“As herbaria have grown and connected with each other, we now have billions of snapshots from all over the world, some going back centuries. We can use that to answer all kinds of questions,” Ackerfield told The Colorado Sun.

Pakistan honors Bill Gates for efforts on poverty, disease





In this photo released by Pakistan's Press Information Department, Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates, left, listens to Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan during their meeting in Islamabad, Pakistan, Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022. Gates praised Pakistan on Thursday for its response to COVID-19 despite its limited resources, as fatalities from coronavirus continued a steady decline in the country. 

(Press Information Department via AP)

MUNIR AHMED
Thu, February 17, 2022

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan awarded Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates its second-highest civilian honor on Thursday, in recognition of his work to alleviate poverty and diseases like polio and tuberculosis.

On a daylong visit to the capital, Islamabad, Gates was given the prestigious Hilal-e-Pakistan award by President Arif Alvi in a televised ceremony, after he met with Prime Minister Imran Khan at his office.

“Pakistan’s commitment to ending polio is inspiring,” Gates said in a statement released by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Gates' foundation has helped nearly eradicate the disease.

“Government leaders, health workers, and parents are working tirelessly to ensure this disease never paralyzes a child again. This is the final, and hardest, phase of the eradication effort, but by keeping up the momentum and staying vigilant, Pakistan has an opportunity to make history by ending polio for good,” Gates said.

The statement quoted Khan as thanking Gates and saying that polio eradication is a “top priority” for the government, which is working “at all levels to ensure that every child is protected with the polio vaccine.”

According to a government statement, Khan during his meeting with Gates thanked the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for its continued partnership with Pakistan to eradicate polio.

Later, Gates told reporters in Islamabad that he was impressed by Pakistan's efforts. He said there polio had spread less in Pakistan than anticipated because people were moving around less during the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said the eradication of polio in Pakistan was possible in a few years.

“I think the steps taken in Pakistan during 2022 will probably set us up to finish polio eradication," he said.

“I would say that the polio campaign helped the Covid campaign and now the Covid campaign is helping the polio campaign," Gates said. As for Afghanistan, he said that more polio vaccination was taking place there now compared to recent years.

Earlier, Gates visited the National Command Operations Center (NCOC), the body overseeing Pakistan's coronavirus response since the pandemic began, where he was given a detailed briefing about Pakistan's vaccination drive.

The NCOC said in a statement that Gates recognized Pakistan’s success against COVID-19 despite its limited resources, as fatalities from the coronavirus continue a steady decline in the country.

Pakistan has registered some 3,000 COVID-19 cases and 40 fatalities over the past 24 hours, compared to nearly 8,000 daily cases and about 50 deaths just weeks ago. Since the pandemic began, Pakistan has registered 1,494,293 cases, including 29,917 deaths.

Cabinet Minister Faisal Javed Khan congratulated Gates for the award on Twitter, calling it “a well-deserved honor" for his “valuable, exceptional and extraordinary services fighting poverty, disease, and inequality around the world.”

Last year, the country reported only a single case of polio, in its remote southwestern Baluchistan province. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries in the world where polio remains endemic. The disease can cause partial paralysis in children.

EPA investment in Cancer Alley

Shannon Dosemagen, opinion contributor 
The Hill

Recently, EPA Administrator Michael Regan announced a $600,000 investment in air monitoring in Louisiana's "Cancer Alley," an area with a heavy concentration of petroleum facilities. This is a big step in a direction that residents have been calling on for years - government action.

As I read this news, I thought back to when I was a young organizer with the Louisiana Bucket Brigade. We worked with "fenceline" communities - those directly adjacent to industrial facilities. Residents would share binders filled with years' worth of articles detailing refinery explosions and accidents or demonstrate how touching a residential surface would leave one's finger covered in the black dust of petroleum coke.

In the decade since, I've attempted to answer the question of why it is so hard for people to be involved in environmental decisions affecting their health. And so when I see news of such a significant investment, I can't help but ask what the end result will be. What is the role of more data without strong accountability toward ensuring ongoing community involvement, especially of those who have been ignored for so long?

Fenceline communities are not only aware, but they live the consequences of the industrial era every day: The air doesn't get cleaner as refineries self-report emissions and fly under the radar in our nation's long reliance on, and reluctance to give up, petroleum and other fossil fuels. They've collected articles, tracked noxious smells, used an assortment of air monitors and partnered with researchers to document air quality. They've organized and continue to organize through it all.

This new EPA investment in monitoring infrastructure is a win for Cancer Alley residents, and environmental justice communities more broadly. It feels even more promising during a political moment when justice is being centered in a whole-of-government approach. But we will continue to do a disservice if we overlook what comes after the data is collected and observations have been made.

Alongside the additional monitoring capacity and attention of regulators, EPA needs to ensure adequate places for feedback loops with communities in the process of accountability, and create mechanisms to begin repairing long-broken trust between communities and government. When people's actual experiences have been denied, we must integrate processes from the outset that allow for participation in environmental governance. We need clear places of input for communities to not just understand, but use the information that will drive decisions, because we simply won't find justice in the data alone.

Part of the announcement also cited Regan's symbolic letter to DuPont and Denka, requesting them to consider community input and how they can repair the harm they have caused. Framed as a request, this does not yet go far enough in addressing industrial facilities that have long controlled the cards. These requests must be accompanied with stronger provisions (though Justice Department involvement is noted, there is no additional information available) - for instance, through the incorporation of models such as citizen advisory boards, or the required establishment of health centers to ensure there are ways for people to remediate conditions resulting from poor environmental quality.

The EPA is admirably doubling down on air monitoring, conducting surprise inspections at facilities and addressing the cozy relationships between industry and enforcement. A great start but not quite enough. They also have to self-examine how politics and behaviors allowed for this malfeasance to occur in the first place.

Shiny, metallic monitoring objects - and the data they collect - are not silver bullets of justice.

We must couple more data and tech with addressing the other shortfalls in agency inaction. The problematic reporting and monitoring workflows that have detracted from the mission of agencies like EPA need transformation. This must include actively identifying how residents, who have been calling foul on these facilities for decades, will play a critical role in ensuring EPA follow-through on justice for their communities.

I'm excited about a whole-of-government approach to justice, and specifically to environmental justice for communities who have doggedly worked toward it. That is why, while we engage the tools of data and tech, I implore us - data collectors, residents, EPA itself - to look more deeply and ensure that first, there is room for ongoing community involvement, second, that "requests" to facilities are given the backbone needed to ensure results, and finally, that EPA is willing to internally assess their own practices and behaviors. This is how we will truly see justice for communities who have so pointedly been required to work within these broken systems.

Shannon Dosemagen is a Shuttleworth Foundation fellow directing the Open Environmental Data Project in New Orleans. Dosemagen was a member of the, now defunct, National Advisory Council on Environmental Policy and Technology (NACEPT) when it drafted reports to EPA in 2016 and 2018 on community monitoring.

El Salvador's Bukele tells bitcoin-wary U.S. senators to stay out of internal affairs

"Ok boomers… You have 0 jurisdiction on a sovereign and independent nation," 


El Salvador President Nayib Bukele inaugurates the expansion of

 the San Oscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdamez International Airport, in San Luis Talpa

Wed, February 16, 2022
By Nelson Renteria

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - President Nayib Bukele on Wednesday asked U.S. senators to stay out of El Salvador's "internal affairs" after they called for an investigation into the economic risks the United States faces due to the Central American country's adoption of bitcoin as legal tender.

Senators Jim Risch, Bill Cassidy and Bob Mendez asked the State Department to submit a report on the implementation of bitcoin in El Salvador with the purpose of assessing the risks it poses to the U.S. economy.

"Ok boomers… You have 0 jurisdiction on a sovereign and independent nation," Bukele, 40, said in a tweet, referring to the older generation of "baby boomers". "We are not your colony, your back yard or your front yard. Stay out of our internal affairs. Don’t try to control something you can’t control."

El Salvador was the first country in the world to adopt cryptocurrency for official use, in parallel to the U.S. dollar, a decision that has drawn it harsh criticism from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The U.S. senators also expressed fear over the fact that adopting bitcoin could weaken the U.S. government's sanctions policy and increase the activity of criminal organizations.

"This new policy has the potential to weaken U.S. sanctions policy, empowering malign actors like China and organized criminal organizations. Our bipartisan legislation seeks greater clarity on El Salvador’s policy," said the senators in a statement.

The Salvadoran government, which has acquired some 1,801 bitcoins since September, has been questioned by economists and the opposition for its refusal to be accountable in the process of buying and managing the funds.

Diplomatic relations between El Salvador and the United States have deteriorated after the White House denounced publicly cases of corruption in Bukele's government and an escalation of measures to accumulate power.

(Reporting by Nelson Renteria; Writing by Valentine Hilaire; Editing by Drazen Jorgic and Lincoln Feast.)

Newsom Rips Into Fox News, OAN, Newsmax, Calling Them “Propaganda Networks”; Announces New State Unit To Combat Misinformation


Tom Tapp
Thu, February 17, 2022


California Governor Gavin Newsom lashed out today at what he called “Perhaps one of the great disinformation networks in America…One America News” for spreading “a lot of misinformation” about Covid. He did not stop there.

“I’m not just referring to Newsmax or the primetime propaganda lineup at Fox News and all of their pundits that safely have been boosted, fully vaxxed that continue to promote a lot of misinformation. Forgive me for being so pointed and candid. People are quite literally losing their lives.”

The governor went on to offer an example.

“There was a tragic example of that….A state trooper in Washington state quit, and quit because he just couldn’t take it anymore and lost his life because of those propaganda networks, because of what was being stated and spread.”

Newsom was referring to Former State Trooper Robert LaMay, who quit after decades of service rather than being vaccinated and in his final radio signoff told WA Gov. Jay Inslee to “kiss my a**.” LaMay’s video signoff got millions of views online. He was later told by Fox News host Laura Ingraham that he had awakened “a sleeping giant” of vaccine resistance in the U.S. The unvaxxed LaMay died last month of Covid.

The post-pandemic “S.M.A.R.T.E.R” Plan that Newsom put forth today to combat Covid seeks to combat misinformation “through the newly proposed Office of Community Partnerships and Strategic Communications,” funding for which the governor indicated is included in his proposed 2022-23 budget.

“So we have a team here that are in the trenches…that go out and are battling [misinformation],” he said. It will “go out on social media…trying to push back.”

The Office of Community Partnerships and Strategic Communications will be “a brand new unit in the state government. It’s a strategic partnership unit and a communications unit,” according to Newsom, that will also “support and amplify local and community-based partnerships” and work with trusted community voices to get the message out.

“We put out this week a partnership with 250 media outlets,” said the governor today of a new, related initiative, “these Mythbuster videos in a culturally-competent way to go after this misinformation.”

The governor added, “And we continue to ask these outlets promoting misinformation to stop. People, quite literally, have lost their lives because of that promotion.”

Deadline reached out to Fox News for comment, but did not hear back.

Hillary Clinton On Fox News' Amplification Of "Spying" Claims: "They're Getting Awfully Close To Actual Malice In Their Attacks"

‘Irreversible’: No easy fix for water fouled by gas driller









2 / 9
Ray Kemble talks about his water issues in his home in Dimock, Pa., Feb. 14, 2022. Kemble recently met with officials in the Pennsylvania attorney general's office regarding the criminal case against a gas driller charged with polluting Dimock's groundwater with methane. Faulty gas wells drilled by Cabot Oil & Gas were blamed for leaking methane into the groundwater in Dimock, in one of the best-known pollution cases ever to emerge from the U.S. drilling and fracking boom. 

(AP Photo/Mike Rubinkam)

MICHAEL RUBINKAM
Fri, February 18, 2022

DIMOCK, Pa. (AP) — Meeting with a man whose well water has been polluted for years, officials in the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office asked him whether he’d consider accepting a treatment system from the gas driller charged with fouling his aquifer.

Not a chance, Ray Kemble told them.

“Are you going to drink and bathe in it?” Kemble asked the prosecutor and her colleague, a special agent, according to a recording of the conversation obtained by The Associated Press. “Are you two going to come here and live in this house on that system for a month and use that water?”

The officials demurred.

One of the best-known pollution cases ever to emerge from the U.S. drilling and fracking boom has entered a difficult new phase as prosecutors pursue criminal charges against the state’s most prolific gas driller — and push for a settlement they say could yield more significant benefits for homeowners than a conviction.

But the option prosecutors recently discussed has put them at odds with some residents who reject individual water treatment systems as inadequate and unworkable. These residents want to be hooked up to public water — itself a controversial idea in their rural community, one that state environmental officials talked up more than a decade ago but ultimately abandoned under legal threat from the driller and local officials.

The residents’ opposition to treatment systems illustrates the delicacy of the attorney general’s task in Dimock, a place synonymous with the fracking debate, where acrimony and distrust are the default after nearly 14 years of bad water and broken promises to fix it.

It was an exploding water well that first aroused public attention in the previously anonymous patchwork of homes and farms about 150 miles (240 kilometers) north of Philadelphia. Around that time, residents began reporting their well water was making them sick with symptoms including vomiting, dizziness and rashes.

Anti-drilling celebrities and documentary filmmakers descended, holding Dimock up as an example of natural gas industry malfeasance in the nation’s No. 2 gas-producing state. Industry backers, meanwhile, touted the economic benefits of cheap gas and accused green groups of greatly exaggerating the threat, even as state regulators concluded that Texas-based Cabot Oil & Gas had fouled Dimock’s groundwater.

The hoopla eventually died down, but Dimock’s water remained polluted. Fresh contamination cases have been reported as recently as December.

The state’s criminal case against the driller dates to 2020, when Attorney General Josh Shapiro — a Democrat now running for governor — charged Cabot with violating the law by allowing methane from the company’s faulty gas wells to escape into drinking-water aquifers in Dimock and nearby communities.

Shapiro’s spokesperson, Jacklin Rhoads, declined to answer questions about the “existence or substance of any discussions” with the company regarding a settlement.

But she said the state’s criminal environmental laws offer “limited tools” for holding polluters accountable. The penalty for a conviction under the state’s Clean Streams Law is a maximum $50,000 fine for each violation.

“While a settlement has the potential to deliver more for victims than the penalties of a guilty verdict, our goal is to resolve the case — through trial or through settlement — in a way that maximizes the restoration and protection of clean water for residents,” Rhoads said.

A company spokesperson declined to comment, citing the “active legal matter.” The company has long defended its record and denied responsibility for the contamination of Dimock’s groundwater.

It’s not clear if treatment systems remain under consideration, given the pushback from residents, but Kemble has his reasons for being skeptical.

In 2010, after discarding their plan to connect residents to public water, state environmental officials entered into a settlement with the company. Cabot offered to install individual water filtration systems, as well as a monetary award equal to twice the tax value of each resident’s home.

The agreement, struck without residents’ input or consent, infuriated those who had made it clear they did not trust Cabot with their water. But many residents took the money — and the treatment systems.

Some worked well, others were prone to breaking down, and all required costly upkeep, according to Joe Nally, who installed and maintained dozens of the systems for Cabot and other drilling companies.

“It was absolutely a maintenance issue with them,” said Nally, who left the industry years ago.

- Ray Kemble of Dimock, Pa., protests hydraulic fracturing outside a Marcellus Shale industry conference as he holds a jug of what he says is his well water, Sept. 20, 2012, in Philadelphia. Faulty gas wells drilled by Cabot Oil & Gas were blamed for leaking methane into the groundwater in Dimock, in one of the best-known pollution cases ever to emerge from the U.S. drilling and fracking boom. It has now entered a difficult new phase as prosecutors pursue criminal charges against Pennsylvania's most prolific gas driller — and push for a settlement they say could yield more significant benefits for affected homeowners than a conviction. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

The system Cabot installed at Tim and Deb Maye’s house now sits, disused, in a shed outside their home.

Handwritten logs show hundreds of visits by contractors over the years as the elaborate setup of tanks, filters and control panels broke down, leaked and failed to remove bacteria.

Eventually, the DEP allowed Cabot to hand financial responsibility for repairs and maintenance to the Mayes. The couple said they never agreed to that. The system never worked right, they said.

The Mayes now use their untreated well water for bathing and flushing toilets, and bottled water for everything else.

“This was supposed to be our forever home,” said Deb Maye, who had moved with her family to Dimock to escape the bustle of the Philadelphia suburbs. “And the DEP and the gas company ruined it.”

Until Feb. 11, when he left state employment, Scott Perry was a DEP deputy secretary and longtime head of the agency’s oil and gas division. He acknowledged in a late January interview that treatment systems “did not work perfectly right out of the gate.” But he said they “absolutely do work,” adding some residents are satisfied.

“All of the homeowners were provided with two times the value of their home so that they could attend to their drinking water needs in the matter they best see fit. And several of them have chosen to not maintain their systems, and that’s unfortunate,” Perry said.

He said the water line his agency once touted as a permanent fix couldn’t have been built, given the political, logistical and legal realities of the day, and asserted that Dimock’s aquifer is healing even as Coterra remains banned from drilling in a part of the township.

“We will not allow the oil and gas industry to leave a legacy of polluted groundwater,” he said.

SHARE THE WEALTH THE COMMONWEALTH 

Tim Cook got a 500% pay raise last year. Now Apple store employees are considering unionization


Amy Sussman/Getty Images

Chris Morris
Fri, February 18, 2022

Apple Store employees at several locations around the country are taking steps to unionize as the divide between hourly workers and executives at the tech giant grows wider.

The Washington Post reports at least two stores are preparing to file paperwork with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in the near future, with an additional half-dozen in earlier stages of labor organization talks.

The impetus to unionize comes as retail workers grow unsatisfied with their compensation as inflation soars in the U.S. It also follows word that Apple CEO Tim Cook’s 2021 compensation increased 569% last year, hitting $98.7 million—$3 million in annual salary, $82.3 million in stock awards, and a $12 million cash bonus. That works out to 1,400 times what the average Apple employee earned.

The potential for unionization at Apple Stores comes on the heels of Starbucks workers in many locations successfully launching the first union in the company’s history, something Starbucks has actively fought for years. Amazon, too, is not finished with a bitter union battle, as workers in Alabama will have the opportunity to vote again after a judge ruled the company “gave a strong impression that it controlled the process” by arranging the installation of a mail collection box at the warehouse.

Apple has 270 Apple Store locations in the U.S. and over 500 globally. Last year, the company reported revenues of $378 billion, and in January, it saw its market capitalization top $3 trillion—the first company to ever do so.

U.S. Apple store workers working to unionize - Washington Post


FILE PHOTO - People shop for smartphones in an Apple Store in Manhattan, New York City

Fri, February 18, 2022, 6:27 AM·1 min read

(Reuters) - Employees at many Apple Inc stores in the United States are working to unionize, the Washington Post reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the efforts.

The move comes against the backdrop of unionization efforts gaining momentum at large U.S. corporations, including Amazon.com Inc and Starbucks Corp.

The report said employee groups at at least two Apple retail stores are backed by major national unions and are preparing to file paperwork with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in the near future.

At least six more locations are at less advanced stages in the unionization process, the report said, adding that Apple employees more than 65,000 retail workers.

Apple and the NLRB did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

Apple has 270 stores in the country and made 36% of its total $365.82 billion net sales in fiscal 2021 through its retail stores and website, according to a regulatory filing.

Its boss Tim Cook's pay last year was 1,447 times that of the average employee at the tech giant, fueled by stock awards that helped him earn a total of nearly $100 million.

The company had decided to temporarily shutter several outlets across the United States during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last year, it planned to give store workers one-time bonus of as much as $1,000, Bloomberg News had reported in September, amid tight labor market conditions and unrest among employees.

(Reporting by Chavi Mehta in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva and Arun Koyyur)