A Real “Breaking Bad” Story

Professor Bradley Allen Rowland of Henderson State University in Arkansas was caught in a real-life "Breaking Bad" situation. And he was caught because it seems he was somewhat clumsy.

Joe Schwarcz PhD | 3 Dec 2021
General Science

As a chemistry professor, I find it particularly appalling when a member of the profession goes astray. That is just what Professor Bradley Allen Rowland did at Henderson State University in Arkansas. In a real-life version of the hit TV show "Breaking Bad” Rowland was caught making methamphetamine. And he was caught because it seems he was somewhat clumsy.

The synthesis of methamphetamine, or “crystal meth” is a huge clandestine industry. “Breaking Bad” captivated television audiences with a storyline about Walter White, a high school chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with lung cancer and worries about the financial security of his family after his demise, which appears to be imminent. He knows that producing crystal meth can be very lucrative and uses his chemical knowledge to start “cooking” the stuff. The chemistry in the show is basically accurate and is described in quite some detail.

At first, Walter pursues a synthetic method starting from pseudoephedrine, a substance that can be extracted from some commercial cold remedies. This is a well-known underground method, and as a result, governments have restricted the sales of products containing pseudoephedrine. Walter then is forced to look for other starting materials and a literature search reveals that phenylacetic acid is suitable since it can be converted into phenylacetone which in turn can be transformed into methamphetamine. Phenylacetic acid can be readily found in chemistry labs and Walter’s business mushrooms. The conversion of phenylacetic acid into phenylacetone is not a simple reaction, which is why clandestine chemists would rather get their hands on phenylacetone as a starting material. When governments noted an increased demand for this chemical they took action and restricted sales.

Now we get to Bradley Allen Rowland, a would-be real-life Walter White. As an organic chemist, he knew that phenylacetone can be easily made in the lab from acetone and benzyl chloride. Neither of these is a restricted substance, so Rowland was off and running. Maybe he was literally running because he spilled a bottle of benzyl chloride. This is a potent lachrymator, nasty stuff indeed. The fumes spread through the chemistry building and prompted an investigation that revealed the chemist’s nefarious activities.

Unlike White, Rowland apparently was synthesizing meth for personal use. He pleaded guilty to manufacturing a controlled substance and was sentenced to four months in jail. He also had to enrol in a substance abuse program and pay the University $150,000 as restitution for the cost of cleaning up the benzyl chloride spill. The chemistry building had to be closed for three weeks!

Had Rowland handled the benzyl chloride more carefully, he might still be “cooking” meth in his lab. A colleague, Terry Bateman, who had also been accused of being involved in methamphetamine synthesis, was acquitted. There was no evidence he had engaged in any such lab work, the only evidence seemed to be a number of scientific papers in his office describing methamphetamine synthesis. For this, he had a ready explanation. His students had been asking about the chemistry depicted in Breaking Bad. It is interesting chemistry indeed. “Breaking Bad,” apparently a colloquial expression for “raising hell,” is entertaining and worth watching. And they have left out enough details to ensure that nobody will learn how to cook meth from the show and “raise hell.” Hell is exactly where addiction to meth can lead.

@JoeSchwarcz

 Robot engineers at Cornwall-based Engineered Arts unveil a remarkably human-like android, Ameca.

 

IT'S ALIVE!

Melting Arctic Is a Bonanza for the Ocean’s Natural Born Killers

Audio recordings in Arctic seas show orcas in waters that were once blocked by ice, and the effects are being felt up and down the food chain.


An Orca chased herring in the Reisafjorden fjord in Norwegian waters in the Arctic Circle.

Credit...Olivier Morin/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

By Corinne Purtill
Dec. 2, 2021

Brynn Kimber, a research scientist at the University of Washington who works in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Marine Mammal Laboratory, has spent a lot of time analyzing audio data recorded in the icy waters north of Alaska, Canada and Russia. Typically, Ms. Kimber hears the chatter of bowhead whales, belugas, narwhals and other cetaceans native to that part of the Arctic.

A few years ago, they started hearing a distinctive cry acousticians describe as similar to that of a disgruntled house cat: The piercing call of a killer whale. Ms. Kimber wondered at first if their ears were deceiving them.

“When I started the job my mentor told me, ‘You won’t see killer whales this far north,’” Ms. Kimber said. But as years of data accumulated, along with more orca calls in areas where they’d never been recorded, it appeared that was no longer true.

“Where I would see absolutely none in previous years, in later years I was seeing more and more,” Ms. Kimber said. “That was pretty unusual.”

The orca calls are further evidence of a rapidly changing Arctic. As sea ice has receded, killer whales — which are actually dolphins — are now venturing to parts of the sea that were once inaccessible, and spending more time in places they were once seen only sporadically, according to data Ms. Kimber presented Thursday at the annual meeting of the Acoustical Society of America in Seattle.

As a result, some of nature’s most effective predators have vastly broadened the scope of their hunt. The change has potentially significant consequences for animals up and down the food chain — including humans.

Arctic sea ice has declined significantly in the four decades since satellite monitoring began. Roughly 75 percent of ice volume disappeared in the last 15 years alone, and the remaining ice is thinner and of poorer quality, said Amy Willoughby, a marine mammal biologist with NOAA’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center.


The orcas’ presence in Arctic waters can upend the food chain without taking a bite, for instance forcing Bowhead whales to travel farther to seek ice to hide in when orcas are nearby. 

Credit...Olivier Morin/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The loss of ice coupled with warming waters and atmospheric temperatures has affected every level of the Arctic ecosystem. Large mammals like polar bears have struggled to navigate shrinking habitats, while the marine algae at the base of the Arctic food chain blooms sooner and more abundantly than ever before.

In recent years, scientists have noticed similar upheaval in the behavior of the region’s marine mammals. Orca are feasting more often on bowhead whales. Scientists and Indigenous Arctic communities have noted a growing number of bowhead whale carcasses in the northeastern Chukchi and western Beaufort seas with signs of orca attack.

Even if the orca don’t take a single bite, the predators’ mere presence can have far-reaching consequences. Bowhead whales typically retreat into protective patches of dense ice when threatened by orcas, which lack the giant-skulled bowheads’ ability to break through frozen waters for air. An Inuit word, “aarlirijuk,” describes this bowhead fear response evolved specifically to evade killer whales.

But as the ice recedes, these defense mechanisms can prove a liability. Bowheads must spend more time than ever before hiding in thick ice where feeding opportunities are scarce. Calves that aren’t yet strong enough to crack through the ice can suffocate.

Any decline in bowhead numbers could have consequences up the food chain too: The baleen whales are a significant food source for subsistence hunters in Indigenous Arctic communities, Ms. Kimber said.

“Killer whales are really intelligent,” said Cory Matthews, a research scientist with the Arctic region of Fisheries and Oceans Canada. “They consume really fast. If a new area opens up, they can get in there maybe within the next year and exploit a prey population that could be perhaps really slow to respond to those changes.”

It could take years, he added, before scientists fully understand the long-term consequences of how these extremely lethal and newly emboldened hunters are expanding their reach in the Arctic.

Indian villagers clash with army over mistaken   DELIBERATELY CALCULATED killings


An Indian army soldier stands guard on a highway on the outskirts of Kohima, capital of northeastern Nagaland state, India, Sunday, Dec. 5, 2021. Angry villagers burned army vehicles in protest after more than a dozen people were killed by Indian army soldiers who mistakenly believed some of them were militants in Nagaland state, along the border with Myanmar, about 300 kilometers (186 miles) from here. Nagaland state’s top elected official ordered a probe into the killings, which occurred on Saturday. (AP Photo/Yirmiyan Arthur)

WASBIR HUSSAIN
Sat, December 4, 2021, 

GAUHATI, India (AP) — Angry villagers burned army vehicles in protest after more than a dozen people were killed by soldiers who mistakenly believed some of them were militants in India’s remote northeast region along the border with Myanmar, officials said Sunday.

Nagaland state’s top elected official Neiphiu Rio ordered a probe into the killings, which occurred on Saturday. He tweeted, “The unfortunate incident leading to the killing of civilians at Oting is highly condemnable.”

An army officer said the soldiers fired at a truck after receiving intelligence about a movement of insurgents in the area and killed six people. As irate villagers burned two army vehicles, the soldiers fired at them, killing nine more people, the officer said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to talk to reporters.

One soldier was also killed in the clash with protesters, he said.

On Sunday, fresh violence erupted when nearly 200 residents attacked the army camp in Mon district, going on a rampage and setting fire to residential quarters. Army soldiers fired live ammunition at the crowd, killing two more people, police and a local student leader, Yuwong Konyaki, said.

Police rushed reinforcements in the area to stop further violence.

An Indian army statement said it “deeply regretted” the incident and its aftermath, adding that “the cause of the unfortunate loss of lives is being investigated at the highest level and appropriate action will be taken as per the course of law.”

"Security forces have suffered severe injuries in the incident, including one soldier who succumbed to the injuries," it added.

The statement said “credible intelligence” on insurgent movements indicated that a “specific operation was planned” in Mon district in Nagaland.

Insurgents often cross into Myanmar after attacking Indian government forces in the remote area.



Indian army soldiers ride past the main town in a convoy in Kohima, capital of northeastern Nagaland state, India, Sunday, Dec. 5, 2021. Angry villagers burned army vehicles in protest after more than a dozen people were killed by Indian army soldiers who mistakenly believed some of them were militants in Nagaland state, along the border with Myanmar, about 300 kilometers (186 miles) from here. Nagaland state’s top elected official ordered a probe into the killings, which occurred on Saturday. 

Nyamtow Konyak, a local community leader, said those killed were coal miners.

India’s Home Minister Amit Shah expressed anguish over the “unfortunate incident” and said the state government will investigate the killings.

The army officer said the soldiers had laid an ambush for a week following intelligence that insurgents were planning to attack soldiers in the area, 400 kilometers (250 miles) east of Gauhati, the capital of Assam state.

Government forces are battling dozens of ethnic insurgent groups in India’s remote northeast whose demands range from independent homelands to maximum autonomy within India.

Indian villagers burn army vehicles as soldiers kill 15 in Nagaland, fearing rebels

AP
Published December 5, 2021 -

In this file photo, Indian forces are seen patrolling in an area. — Reuters/File

Angry villagers in India burned army vehicles in protest after more than a dozen people were killed by soldiers who mistakenly believed some of them were militants in the country's remote northeast region along the border with Myanmar, officials said on Sunday.

Nagaland state’s top elected official Neiphiu Rio ordered a probe into the killings, which occurred on Saturday, and he tweeted, “The unfortunate incident leading to the killing of civilians at Oting is highly condemnable.”

An army officer said the soldiers fired at a truck after receiving intelligence about a movement of insurgents in the area and killed six people.

As irate villagers burned two army vehicles, the soldiers fired at them, killing nine more people, the officer said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to talk to reporters. Earlier the officer had said seven protesters were killed.

One soldier was also killed in the clash with protesters, he said.


An Indian army statement said it “deeply regretted” the incident and its aftermath, adding that “the cause of the unfortunate loss of lives is being investigated at the highest level and appropriate action will be taken as per the course of law.”

"Security forces have suffered severe injuries in the incident, including one soldier who succumbed to the injuries," it added.

The statement said “credible intelligence” on insurgent movements indicated that a “specific operation was planned” in Mon district in Nagaland.

Insurgents often cross into Myanmar after attacking Indian government forces in the remote area.

Nyamtow Konyak, a local community leader, said those killed were coal miners.

India’s Home Minister Amit Shah expressed anguish over the “unfortunate incident” and said the state government will investigate the killings.

The army officer said the soldiers had laid an ambush for a week following intelligence that insurgents were planning to attack soldiers in the area, 400 kilometres (250 miles) east of Gauhati, the capital of Assam state.

Government forces are battling dozens of ethnic insurgent groups in India’s remote northeast whose demands range from independent homelands to maximum autonomy within India

13 civilians killed by security forces in India's northeast

Nagaland and other states in northeast India, linked to the rest of the country by a narrow land corridor, has seen decades of unrest among ethnic and separatist groups (AFP/Ye Aung THU)

Sun, December 5, 2021

Indian security forces killed 13 civilians in the northeastern state of Nagaland after firing on a truck and later shooting at a crowd that gathered to protest the attack, police said Sunday.

Troops shot dead six labourers returning to their homes on Saturday afternoon in Mon district, near the Myanmar border, after setting up an ambush for insurgents they believed were operating in the area.

Family members and villagers later went looking for the missing men and confronted the troops after finding the bodies.

"This is where a confrontation happened between the two sides, and the security personnel fired, killing seven more people," Nagaland police officer Sandeep M. Tamgadge told AFP.

Tamgadge said the situation in the district was "very tense right now", with nine other civilians wounded in the second incident now being treated in local hospitals.

The Indian army said in a statement one of its soldiers had died during the confrontation, with an unspecified number of troops wounded.

It added soldiers were acting on "credible intelligence" that insurgents were operating in the area and had laid an ambush to intercept them.

"The cause of the unfortunate loss of lives is being investigated at the highest level and appropriate action will be taken as per the course of law," the statement said.

- 'Appeal for peace' -

Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio appealed for calm and announced an investigation into the event.

"The unfortunate incident leading to killing of civilians at Oting, Mon is highly condemnable," he said on Twitter. "Appeal for peace from all sections."

Mon district is about 220 miles (350 kilometres) from Nagaland's capital Kohima, and is more than a day's drive only along poorly maintained roads.

Senior state, police and army officials had reached the district to investigate, a senior state government official, who asked not to be named, told AFP.

India's Home Minister Amit Shah expressed his regret over the incident and said the state probe would "ensure justice to the bereaved families".

Nagaland and other states in northeast India, linked to the rest of the country by a narrow land corridor, has seen decades of unrest among ethnic and separatist groups.

The region is home to dozens of tribal groups and small guerrilla armies whose demands range from greater autonomy to secession from India.

Over the years insurgency has waned, with many groups striking deals with New Delhi for more powers, but a large Indian garrison remains stationed in the region.

bb/gle/rbu

Reforming how we pay for electricity in a renewables world

Fixed-charged billing makes sense but provision needs to be made for less well off

Fri, Dec 3, 2021,
John FitzGerald

Wind turbines at the Arklow Bank wind park.

In tackling climate change, we plan to rely more than ever on electricity to heat our homes and to power transport. And as part of a plan to decarbonise electricity production, we aim to use renewables to provide the vast bulk of the electricity that we need.

This increased dependence on electricity poses a number of difficulties. Security of supply is one. However, there are other problems – the increasing demand from data centres, scaling up the electricity grid and funding the huge investment needed in electricity generation.

In principle, the electricity market should incentivise the provision of a secure and carbon-free electricity supply at minimum cost. However, as suggested in a recent ESRI paper, the current market structure, while appropriate a decade ago, needs to adapt to deal with these new challenges.

As a former member of the Northern Ireland Authority for Energy Regulation, I was involved in developing the all-island electricity market which began in 2007.

We considered whether to implement a complicated mechanism, with different prices for electricity across the network, to reflect where there were bottlenecks in the electricity grid. In the end, it was decided that a simpler approach was warranted.

However, an alternative mechanism was not implemented to ensure that key consumers, such as data centres, would be built where they could be cheaply serviced. This is now posing problems for the operation of the system.

Security of supply

We’ve all become more conscious of the potential risks to security of supply, whether from prolonged calm weather, from power stations being out of action or even from a cyberattack. The film Die Hard 4, where terrorists took over the electricity system’s control room, highlighted the chaos that could follow when the electricity system is disabled.

The original design of the all-island electricity market had incentives to make generation available when it was needed. However, the model was altered in 2018 to meet European Union requirements, to allow trading with Britain and to reduce the cost of ensuring adequate capacity.

This modified approach clearly did not work as planned. Initially, it jeopardised a key generation station in Dublin as there was no incentive for it to continue to operate.

The ESRI research argues that a new type of electricity market is needed. Compared with the early 2000s, the problem of designing such a market is more difficult today because of the need to dramatically increase the share of renewable electricity. Generators need to be paid for three different services they provide to society: the electricity they produce, for making power available when needed and for helping make the electricity system work as it should.

Making data centres provide their own back-up power when the wind does not blow may protect security of supply in the short term but it is not a suitable long-term answer. Because larger generators are more efficient than smaller ones, this solution is likely to lead to higher carbon emissions than if the electricity system was responsible for providing a secure supply.
Fixed charges

As renewables form an ever-larger share of supply, we are moving from a situation where, when you switch on the light more gas is burned, to one where you use electricity generated by wind. In the first case the more electricity you use, the more fuel has to be paid for. However, for wind energy, once the windmills are built, the electricity comes for free. All the costs arise from building the wind farms.

This means we need to transition from a billing system based on usage to pay for the fuel used in generation to one based on fixed charges to pay for the windmills. In parts of Australia, this is already the case: consumers pay fixed charges, not by level of use.

This approach is closer to the telephone services bundles which we buy, with individual calls and texts coming for “free”. Such a charging structure would be a more efficient way to fund an electricity system largely based on renewable energy.

However, as the ESRI points out, in a fixed charges system, poor households with modest electricity use would pay the same as rich ones with extravagant use, and this would be regressive. In addition, without any individual incentive to economise on electricity use, in aggregate we would use more electricity. In turn that would mean more investment in generating capacity, whose costs would be added to our bills.

Designing the optimal electricity pricing structure that sets the right incentives for producers and consumers, and is fair, is a challenging task.

Opinion: Proper use for energy sector’s excess cash should be cleaning up wells

Article by Jeffrey Jones, The Globe and Mail

DECEMBER 3, 2021

The site of an abandoned well to be closed by the Alberta Orphan Well Association is pictured near High River, Alta., on August 12, 2020.Todd/Korole

The fortunes of the oil patch have turned to levels not seen in more than half a decade as oil and natural gas become hot commodities again. There’s a lot of talk in Alberta about the energy sector getting its mojo back, and Premier Jason Kenney’s UCP government is doing a lot on that.

This is no surprise. As announced this week, a The revenue shock from the industry goes a long way in reducing the government’s deficit forecast for this fiscal year by two-thirds from the initial budget estimate of $18.2 billion.

But bubbling in the background is the familiar discontent among landlords and environmental advocates about the unpredictability of the industry and how it is being directed to dividends and share buybacks rather than the quick cleanup of idle and spent wells that have been a legacy of the past boom. Is. Then taxpayers stepped in last year to provide $1 billion in stimulus money to help them tackle the mess they didn’t create.

Abandoned oil and gas wells put undue burden on landlords, taxpayers: Study

This is a long-standing problem that the UCP has inherited and, to its credit, has taken steps to solve it. This week, the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) finalized a much-needed reassessment of its regulations aimed at reducing multibillion-dollar environmental liabilities and preventing companies that can’t clean up from securing assets.

But the new rules are hit and miss.

Overhauls include new financial checks on companies and their ability to handle future costs of adding and retrieving old sites. It is long overdue.

Based on the regulator’s own estimates, however, a new quota system for industry spending at abandoned sites could take decades to help reduce the backlog that tops 95,000 inactive wells. There will be more sectors That time will stir and, again, put pressure on the industry’s ability to pay bills for cleanup.

These sites dot the province. In fact, there are far more passive wells than active ones. The issue is controversial for industry and Albertans whose properties require cleaning up of old wells. Many wells have been in suspended animation for years.

Controversially, the AER has avoided setting limits on how long wells can remain idle, as do many other jurisdictions. For example, if wells in Texas have been closed for more than a year, operators must apply for extensions that require a security bond. Alberta briefly had a five-year limit in the 1990s, but that ended under industry pressure.

Alberta should ease barriers that discourage businesses from reusing abandoned oil wells: report

AER now has 40 measures to consider when deciding whether a company has the means to cover future cleanup costs, especially if it is also acquiring assets. These include company records with past work and compliance with regulations, as well as financial health and years remaining for cash-generating assets. The regulator may also demand a security deposit to mitigate risk, and is updating that policy.

Earlier, the main criterion was the calculation of assets versus liabilities. The system allowed actions and promises by applicants of future funding instead of meeting that limit. Still, the result was the occasional bankruptcy court and scads of useless wells added to the orphan list.

So what about that backlog? AER has initiated industrywide spending of at least $422 million in 2022 and $443 million next year to be devoted to cleaning up waste wells. The future amount is projected to increase by 5 percent annually until 2026. Every company must meet a mandatory annual target.

These are certainly tougher standards than in the past, but they work quickly if global demand for oil and gas eases in the projected transition to clean energy sources in the coming years, as more wells run out. will not complete.

AER chief executive Laurie Pusher has said it aims to work through the backlog at 4 percent to 5 percent annually. At that rate, just tackling the current list could take two decades or more, says Sarah Hastings-Simon of the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy. Meanwhile, the energy sector is increasing free cash flow and not directing massive amounts of money into capital expenditure, she explains. Here’s A Fair Use For Some Of Them extra coin.

The companies were under pressure to continue cleaning up during the years of industry turmoil. It makes sense, then, that he should now make a bigger contribution to solving a problem that should have been dealt with earlier as part of his acceptance to drill

Quebec killed Utica Resource's business plan — now the company wants billions of dollars in compensation

Martin Patriquin: Burning fossil fuels has a cost. Keeping them in the ground also has a price

Author of the article:

The Logic
Martin Patriquin
Publishing date:Nov 29, 2021 •

A handout photo of Utica Shale near town of Donnaconna, Quebec. 

PHOTO BY HANDOUT


MONTREAL — Mario Lévesque wants the Quebec government to pay him to not drill for oil and gas.

Lévesque’s company, Utica Resources, holds 33 exploration licences covering over 5,000 square kilometres of Quebec heartland. Were it up to him, he would be drilling roughly 1,500 metres into the ground to obtain his piece of the estimated 31 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas in Quebec’s portion of the Utica Shale, the same formation from which Pennsylvania and Ohio have wrung riches over the last decade.

But it isn’t up to him. Last month, Quebec Premier François Legault announced that the government was effectively banning hydrocarbon extraction in the province. The decision, which Legault said was part of the government’s plan to hit its emissions-reduction targets, effectively killed Utica Resources’ raison d’être .

So Lévesque wants compensation for Utica and the other nine licence-holding companies in the province. The starting bid: “significantly more” than the $3 billion to $5 billion floated by the province’s energy association, Lévesque told me the other day.

It’s an often-overlooked expense in the push to decarbonize the economy. As countries around the world make it more difficult to find, extract and transport hydrocarbons, the companies that make it their business to do so are demanding billions in compensation.

These cases almost invariably end up in court or in trade arbitration, and are potentially very expensive. Consider Calgary-based TC Energy’s Keystone XL Pipeline extension, the proposed conduit for 830,000 daily barrels of oil from Alberta to Nebraska. Presented in 2008, the pipeline extension was rejected in 2015 by the Obama administration, only to have Trump sign it back to life in 2017. Revoking the Keystone permit was among Joe Biden’s first presidential acts.

That penstroke, which delighted environmentalists on both sides of the border, could be costly. TC Energy filed a formal request for arbitration last week, seeking over US$15 billion in damages as a result of what it says is a U.S. government breach of North American trade regulations.

Meanwhile, four companies are suing European governments under the Energy Charter Treaty, an international agreement governing energy security among its 53 signatories. All told, the four companies are seeking just over US$3.1 billion for instituting laws that protect the environment but damage their bottom lines.

The various complaints and lawsuits underscore the fossil fuel industry’s more muscular approach to selling its wares. After decades of trying to be as green as possible—and weathering the resulting accusations of greenwashing—many in the industry are pushing back. Earlier this month, Scott Sheffield, CEO of Texas-based Pioneer Natural Resources, publicly rebuked the Biden administration for its legislative attempts to wean the U.S. off fossil fuels.

The governments of some oil-producing U.S. states have vowed “collective action” against those banks that, in practicing “Woke Capitalism,” refuse to finance coal, oil and natural-gas industries. There is an almost drunken absurdity to the notion that a bank could be the corporate incarnation of Colin Kaepernick. But Big Oil has a point. For all the talk of a carbon-free future, for now we are utterly addicted to the stuff—by some measures, more so than ever before. “Currently, the trade regime and the climate regime don’t align,” Temitope Onifade, affiliated research scholar at the Canada Climate Law Initiative, told me last week.

Quebec is well placed to cash in on this addiction. The value of its shale deposits is quite frankly bonkers—as much as $130 billion, according to a 2013 provincial government report.

Quebec Premier Francois Legault.

“One of the biggest natural-gas discoveries in North America,” as Michael Binnion, CEO of fellow permit holder Questerre puts it. It’s why, though he is cagey about how much Utica is worth, Lévesque says it’s much more than $5 billion. “If this were an open market, Utica Resources would be worth $20 billion to $25 billion,” he told me. (The province’s natural-resources ministry didn’t respond to my questions before deadline).

The province is decidedly not an open market, however. Previous Liberal governments put a moratorium on fracking in 2011, and outright banned the practice in 2018. The province is known as the place where pipeline projects go to die. Lévesque was hopeful when Legault was elected in 2018—while in opposition, the premier once wrote that Quebec should exploit its oil and gas resources “on a large scale”—but has since mostly resigned himself to leaving the shale gas where it is. “It’s too bad, but now we’re in an expropriation situation, and with expropriation comes compensation.”

Lévesque recently had one small victory. In November, a judge ruled the Quebec government was wrong in denying Utica an exploration permit for its subsidiary Gaspé Énergie, which pumps oil from four jacks in the Gaspé. But these, too, will be forced to shut down if the Quebec government implements a blanket ban on hydrocarbon production, as promised.

How other oil companies will fare in court is an open question. TC Energy faces long odds, if only because the U.S. government has a near-perfect record when it comes to North American trade disputes. And a recent European court decision suggests those companies going after the likes of Germany and Italy can’t base their claims on the Energy Charter Treaty.

In a way, though, the outcomes don’t matter much, because the court of public opinion is more politically compelling. The Keystone XL project will remain shuttered for good, even in the unlikely case that the Biden administration loses at the trade tribunal. Similarly, coal will still be on the legislative outs in Europe and beyond even if German energy company RWE is successful in its US$1.6-billion suit against the Dutch government, which said it would shut down coal-fired plants by 2030. There is political capital to be harvested in taking on the oil and gas industry. Premier Legault has certainly figured this out.

© The Logic

Quebec to Pay “Significantly More” than $5B to Jilted Utica Drillers

December 2, 2021

In October the province of Quebec, Canada announced it will expropriate all of the rights for all oil and gas companies in the province to drill and extract oil and natural gas (see Lights Out for All O&G Production in Quebec, Including Utica Shale). It’s all being shut down–including actively producing wells. Shutting down existing businesses in the province is something you might expect in Communist China, or Soviet Russia, or tin-horn dictatorships in South America. It’s not something you expect to see in Western democracies. Yet it’s happening in Quebec, home to a large deposit of the Utica Shale. Now Quebec drillers, those who had planned to tap their vast Utica Shale assets, are demanding Quebec pay up, and the price will be “significantly more” than the $3 billion to $5 billion floated by the province’s energy association.

Yes, the Utica Shale underlies large portions of Quebec. We often get this question when writing about the Canadian Utica because our U.S-centric maps don’t show the Utica reaching up into Canada. But it does:

click for larger version

Canadian producer Utica Resources owns 33 exploration licenses covering over 5,000 square kilometers of Quebec Utica Shale. Mario Lévesque, president and CEO of Utica Resources, wants compensation for his company and the other nine license-holding companies in the province. The only other company with Utica assets we’re familiar with, having written about it over the years, is Questerre Energy (see our Questerre stories here).

Mario Lévesque wants the Quebec government to pay him to not drill for oil and gas.

Lévesque’s company, Utica Resources, holds 33 exploration licences covering over 5,000 square kilometres of Quebec heartland. Were it up to him, he would be drilling roughly 1,500 metres into the ground to obtain his piece of the estimated 31 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas in Quebec’s portion of the Utica Shale, the same formation from which Pennsylvania and Ohio have wrung riches over the last decade.

But it isn’t up to him. Last month, Quebec Premier François Legault announced that the government was effectively banning hydrocarbon extraction in the province. The decision, which Legault said was part of the government’s plan to hit its emissions-reduction targets, effectively killed Utica Resources’ raison d’être .

So Lévesque wants compensation for Utica and the other nine licence-holding companies in the province. The starting bid: “significantly more” than the $3 billion to $5 billion floated by the province’s energy association, Lévesque told me the other day.

It’s an often-overlooked expense in the push to decarbonize the economy. As countries around the world make it more difficult to find, extract and transport hydrocarbons, the companies that make it their business to do so are demanding billions in compensation.

These cases almost invariably end up in court or in trade arbitration, and are potentially very expensive. Consider Calgary-based TC Energy’s Keystone XL Pipeline extension, the proposed conduit for 830,000 daily barrels of oil from Alberta to Nebraska. Presented in 2008, the pipeline extension was rejected in 2015 by the Obama administration, only to have Trump sign it back to life in 2017. Revoking the Keystone permit was among Joe Biden’s first presidential acts.

That penstroke, which delighted environmentalists on both sides of the border, could be costly. TC Energy filed a formal request for arbitration last week, seeking over US$15 billion in damages as a result of what it says is a U.S. government breach of North American trade regulations.

Meanwhile, four companies are suing European governments under the Energy Charter Treaty, an international agreement governing energy security among its 53 signatories. All told, the four companies are seeking just over US$3.1 billion for instituting laws that protect the environment but damage their bottom lines.

The various complaints and lawsuits underscore the fossil fuel industry’s more muscular approach to selling its wares. After decades of trying to be as green as possible—and weathering the resulting accusations of greenwashing—many in the industry are pushing back. Earlier this month, Scott Sheffield, CEO of Texas-based Pioneer Natural Resources, publicly rebuked the Biden administration for its legislative attempts to wean the U.S. off fossil fuels.

The governments of some oil-producing U.S. states have vowed “collective action” against those banks that, in practicing “Woke Capitalism,” refuse to finance coal, oil and natural-gas industries. There is an almost drunken absurdity to the notion that a bank could be the corporate incarnation of Colin Kaepernick. But Big Oil has a point. For all the talk of a carbon-free future, for now we are utterly addicted to the stuff—by some measures, more so than ever before. “Currently, the trade regime and the climate regime don’t align,” Temitope Onifade, affiliated research scholar at the Canada Climate Law Initiative, told me last week.

Quebec is well placed to cash in on this addiction. The value of its shale deposits is quite frankly bonkers—as much as $130 billion, according to a 2013 provincial government report.

“One of the biggest natural-gas discoveries in North America,” as Michael Binnion, CEO of fellow permit holder Questerre puts it. It’s why, though he is cagey about how much Utica is worth, Lévesque says it’s much more than $5 billion. “If this were an open market, Utica Resources would be worth $20 billion to $25 billion,” he told me. (The province’s natural-resources ministry didn’t respond to my questions before deadline).

The province is decidedly not an open market, however. Previous Liberal governments put a moratorium on fracking in 2011, and outright banned the practice in 2018. The province is known as the place where pipeline projects go to die. Lévesque was hopeful when Legault was elected in 2018—while in opposition, the premier once wrote that Quebec should exploit its oil and gas resources “on a large scale”—but has since mostly resigned himself to leaving the shale gas where it is. “It’s too bad, but now we’re in an expropriation situation, and with expropriation comes compensation.”

Lévesque recently had one small victory. In November, a judge ruled the Quebec government was wrong in denying Utica an exploration permit for its subsidiary Gaspé Énergie, which pumps oil from four jacks in the Gaspé. But these, too, will be forced to shut down if the Quebec government implements a blanket ban on hydrocarbon production, as promised.

How other oil companies will fare in court is an open question. TC Energy faces long odds, if only because the U.S. government has a near-perfect record when it comes to North American trade disputes. And a recent European court decision suggests those companies going after the likes of Germany and Italy can’t base their claims on the Energy Charter Treaty.

In a way, though, the outcomes don’t matter much, because the court of public opinion is more politically compelling. The Keystone XL project will remain shuttered for good, even in the unlikely case that the Biden administration loses at the trade tribunal. Similarly, coal will still be on the legislative outs in Europe and beyond even if German energy company RWE is successful in its US$1.6-billion suit against the Dutch government, which said it would shut down coal-fired plants by 2030. There is political capital to be harvested in taking on the oil and gas industry. Premier Legault has certainly figured this out.*

It’s time for Quebec to pay up. We hope the citizens of the province enjoy their indentured servitude to the left, because they’re going to pay big for it.

*Toronto (ON) Financial Post (Nov 29, 2021) – Quebec killed Utica Resource’s business plan — now the company wants billions of dollars in compensation

U.S. Bill Puts Mexico Electric Car Investments at Risk: Minister

Nacha Cattan and Maya Averbuch
Fri., December 3, 2021


(Bloomberg) -- Investments in Mexico are being put at risk by a U.S. bill offering tax credits for electric vehicles built with domestic labor, Economy Minister Tatiana Clouthier said in an interview.

At least two EV investments may not close in Mexico and eight states could lose out on automaker expansions because of the legislation, Clouthier said via Zoom. She said she’s talking to many U.S. senators to try and change their minds and described the U.S.’s actions as contradictory at a time of close work with Mexico to improve supply-chain bottlenecks and amicable negotiations on issues such as immigration.

“How can it be that we are working so harmoniously in one area with the U.S. and at the same time the senators are doing this,” Clouthier said. “There are impacts in terms of investments for electric cars that are being paused in some states.”

Both Mexico and Canada have accused the U.S. of potential violations of the updated North America free trade accord known as USMCA. They argue that the bill -- which would give an extra tax credit to consumers who buy electric vehicles made by unionized U.S. workers -- would disadvantage automakers in the rest of North America.

Clouthier said earlier this week that her country was willing to go ahead with “all kinds of retaliation” including slapping trade tariffs on U.S. goods. Canada’s Trade Minister Mary Ng said that the proposed legislation puts hundreds of thousands of jobs at risk.

The dispute over the EV credit has built upon already simmering tensions over which cars can be sold duty-free based on the percentage of their parts that are regionally made. Mexico requested formal talks on the issue in August and Canada joined as an interested third party.

In her interview, Clouthier said that the U.S. can expect a “Christmas present” or a gift during the Three Kings holiday in early January, meaning that is when Mexico is planning to go formally to an arbitration panel. She said Canada may either join Mexico or act as a third party in the disagreement.

Clouthier said, without providing details, that President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador will announce a substantial private investment in Mexico on Monday.

She also said that Mexico is about to announce a few other major investments in border states as companies seek to transfer operations from Asia to North America to prevent supply shortages and to comply with USMCA local content rules. Companies are buying up real-estate in northern states as they prepare to shift operations to Mexico in the process called nearshoring, she said.

Chapman's anti-vax boycott officially a failure as people buy freezer loads of ice cream


A boycott of Chapman's Ice Cream totally backfired on anti-vaxxers and the company is now feeling the love from all across Canada.

In November, Chapman's, an Ontario ice cream company based in Markdale, announced they'd be giving a $1 raise to all employees who were fully vaccinated and asked all unvaccinated employees to take a rapid test, on the company dime.

The $1 raise was meant to balance out the costs of doing the rapid tests. In response, a small group of people decided to start a boycott.

The company was flooded with hateful emails, phone calls and even regular mail. But then a counter-movement started with people buying Chapman's Ice Cream just to anger those who started the boycott.

And people have been buying freezers full of ice cream, Ashley Chapman, vice-president of Chapman's Ice Cream tells blogTO.

"We've been getting pictures from people who are going out and they're clearing out the freezers at their local stores, and they're taking pictures and sending it to us," Chapman says.

One group of older ladies got together and decided to buy all the ice cream in their local supermarket.

"They all got together and headed up to the store and cleaned out the entire section in their Loblaws," he says.

Typically November can be a slow month for ice cream sales but this month sales are up. There were promotions this time last year but not this year and the company was expecting a dip in sales.

"We figured that this November, we would be down and we were up a little bit," he says.

The negative messages are still coming in.

"There's still some very, very hateful people out there saying some really horrible stuff," he adds. "Just a few days ago, we had someone actually write in to say, they hope my children get cancer and die."

But the messages have been slowing down and Chapmans is not wavering on their policy.

"We are not we are not backing down ever since the first day of the pandemic our number one focus was to keep our employees safe and our community safe," he says.

The majority of Chapman's 850 employees are vaccinated or nearly fully vaccinated, and in the end only two people left on unpaid leave. He adds that he has received nice comments from unvaccinated people who appreciate the company providing an opition for rapid testing.

The boycott attempt has been a total failure.

"We would just like the bad comments to stop…[but] the more that we get, the better our sales are and the better our company is. So it is really kind of blowing up in the face of these people trying to put us out of business."

Right now, the support and love for the company is outweighing the negativity.

"The outpouring of support from coast to coast, every corner of this country has been overwhelming," says Chapman. "The anti-vaxxers have been a pithy dribble. And the people who love us and what we do and what we try to do have been, it's really been overwhelming."

Sweet vindication for Chapman’s Ice Cream

By Record Editorial

Waterloo Region Record
Thu., Dec. 2, 2021

If you have the good fortune to visit Markdale, Ont., you will appreciate just how different Grey County is when compared to Ontario’s hectic urban environment overall. It’s a slower, gentle, more tranquil pace and place.

How odd, then, that the community — home to the admirably benevolent Chapman’s Ice Cream, purveyor of soothing frozen treats since 1973 — has emerged as an unlikely, though certainly flavourful, flashpoint of the COVID-19 civil war.

The family-run Chapman’s, one of Canada’s largest ice-cream producers, an employer of about 850 people, recently took the praiseworthy step of rewarding its vaccinated workers with a $1-an-hour pay raise.

This was not the first time the company had supported the local community in the battle against COVID-19.

At the end of 2020, when it became known that the first vaccines developed against coronavirus required sub-zero storage, Chapman’s was quick to offer up two medical-grade deep freezers.

It turns out the Markdale mainstay — which has donated millions of dollars to local hospitals, schools and sports facilities — had been approached decades earlier about emergency use of its cold-storage facilities in case of a public-health emergency and it was more than ready when the call came.

And grit? You want to see grit?

In 2009, the company’s century-old wooden creamery building was destroyed after a spark from welding work caught in the rafters.

Where some might have called it quits, Chapman’s built back, recovered and expanded to employ about twice the workers it once did.

This is not an age, however, in which decades of reputation, generosity, local history or context won’t be incinerated in a firestorm of toxic online recrimination.

After the raise became public, when a photo of the bulletin announcing it was posted online, Chapman’s became the target of chronically aggrieved anti-vaccine groups who were outraged at the very thought.

Local divisions of the small and tattered anti-vax army were inflamed at this outrageous assault by Chapman’s on their right to be fools and mounted an online campaign to boycott the company’s products.

The company said it received 1,000 or more emails and attacks on its Facebook group. Much of it was despicable. Inevitably, absurd analogies to Naziism were tossed about.

But, in addition to being rather stoutly anti-science, it appears the anti-vaxxers have no particular flair for numeracy or imagination.

A quick glance at public-opinion surveys or published vaccination rates should have made clear that in the boycott battle they would be hugely outnumbered and were charging off to near-certain defeat.

At Chapman’s itself, fewer than a dozen employees had chosen to remain unvaccinated and been required to go on unpaid leave.

Well, the entirely predictable result soon came to pass.

Voices of reason pushed back, lavishly praising and thanking the company, which saw sales jump and inquiries arrive from far and wide as to where its ice cream could be purchased.

The hashtag #IStandWithChapmans became the call to arms, and seldom was such a thing so delicious.

On its website, Chapman’s is now promoting its “Holiday Moments Collection,” urging the sweet-toothed to “Enjoy a taste of the holiday in each and every bite.”

So, let’s add a tip of the old double-scoop ice-cream cone — waffle, if you please — to Chapman’s for its good corporate citizenship, community-minded initiatives and delightful products.

Long may you prosper.

For a failed presidential candidate, Bob Dole left a memorable pop culture impact

Dole will at least be remembered for the times Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons made fun of him

By Sam Barsanti

Bob DolePhoto: JOYCE NALTCHAYAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Bob Dole, who spent decades as a Republican Senator and ran for president against Bill Clinton in the ‘90s, died today. He was 98 and had been diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer earlier this year. You can go elsewhere, like The New York Times, for an obituary that highlights his status as an “old soldier and stalwart of the Senate,” but here at The A.V. Club we believe it’s more appropriate to highlight the surprising impression that Dole left on popular culture—though it’s not surprising because it’s massive, it’s mostly surprising because it exists at all.

Dole wasn’t exactly a charismatic or easily likable figure (and he was a dedicated Trumper long before the Republican establishment embraced that horrific ideology), making him more like a John McCain type without the “I’m a maverick!”-streak that he liked to play up. Still, that made it easy for shows like Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons to poke fun at him.

Norm Macdonald’s impression on SNL was popular enough that Dole actually stopped by for a self-aware cameo in which Macdonald broke character and talked to him about potentially running for president again just so they could keep doing sketches about him falling down. Dole (or whoever ran his social media account) even marked Macdonald’s death earlier this year with a reference to the SNL impression.

Over on The Simpsons, Harry Shearer played Bob Dole opposite Phil Hartman’s Bill Clinton in the now-iconic “Citizen Kang” segment of Treehouse Of Horror VII. A before-it-was-cool satire of the kind of both-sides-ism we deal with a lot these days, the segment involved Clinton and Dole being replaced by aliens and then forcing the American people to still choose between two presidential candidates who will both… take over the world when elected.

Shearer’s Dole gets a couple of standout lines (“What the hell is this, some kind of tube?”), but the former presidential candidate’s greatest contribution to American culture will probably end up being Homer’s reaction to the election: “Don’t blame me, I voted for Kodos.”