Sunday, February 26, 2023

Three Fires At Pemex Facilities In One Day

By Tsvetana Paraskova - Feb 24, 2023, 8:30 AM CST

Mexico's state-owned oil company Pemex saw three fires in one day at three separate facilities that it operates in Mexico and the United States.

Pemex reported on Thursday a fire at the storage facility Tuzandepetl in the state of Veracruz. The fire started in the drilling equipment for reasons that are yet unknown, the Mexican company said. Five workers are unaccounted for after the incident, while three others are being treated for their injuries in hospital, Pemex said, adding that the fire was extinguished.

Later on Thursday, the company said that there was a fire at the Minatitlán refinery in the same state, Veracruz. The fire was contained and later extinguished, but five workers were injured, Pemex said.

The third fire in one day at a Pemex facility occurred in the Pemex-run refinery in Deer Park, Texas. A fire incident was reported at one of the units of the Deer Park refinery on Thursday, according to a community alert quoted by Reuters. The fire incident was being handled within the refinery, and the alert was later updated to all-clear, according to Reuters.

Pemex facilities have often suffered incidents in recent years. Last November, 19 people – including Pemex workers and civil protection personnel – were injured after a leaking pipeline exploded in Veracruz.

Two months prior to this incident, a gas pipeline run by Pemex exploded in the Mexican state of Tabasco in September, causing a fire and leading to the evacuation of all workers at the Paredón Hydrocarbon Separation Station.

In another major explosion involving Pemex's assets, a fire broke out at a Pemex oil platform in the Bay of Campeche in the southern Gulf of Mexico in August 2021. The fire, which occurred during maintenance, killed five workers and injured another six. The outage as a result of the fire reduced Pemex's production by some 444,000 bpd.

The refinery hasn't stopped operations and there hasn't been damage to refinery equipment, according to the company. The cause of this fire is assumed to be the spilling of product on a hot surface, Pemex added.

Tech layoffs: Over 2,700 people lost their jobs per day so far in 2023. When will layoff winter end?3 min read .

Updated: 25 Feb 2023

Pooja Sitaram Jaiswar

Tens of thousands of people have been laid off by tech giants such as Meta, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft in recent times. (Photo: iStock)

According to Trueup.io data, which tracks tech layoffs, so far in 2023, there have been 534 layoffs at tech companies with 153,005 people impacted (2,732 people per day).

The start of 2023 has turned jittery for job seekers. There is a scarcity of new jobs as existing employees by tens of thousands are let go by many companies, especially by tech biggies, unicorns, and startups. So far in 2023, more than 2,700 people have lost their jobs on a daily basis. As of now, cumulatively, over 1.53 lakh people are impacted as per data. And those who have a job thankfully still under their kitty are facing either salary cuts or no hikes. Meanwhile, many are hired but are still struggling due to onboarding delays. The biggest spoilsport for this layoff winter could be macroeconomic risks and recession fears.

It's hard to find a job these days. The industry growth struggles with constraints from high inflation, geopolitical tension, rate hike cycle, multi-year low unemployment rate, the cold war between US and Russia and so much more. The major economies are feared to be at the edge of recession.

Tens of thousands of people have been laid off by tech giants such as Meta, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft in recent times. Meta last year shocked by carrying a massive 11,000 job cut, while Google trimmed its workforce by 6% to 12,000 layoffs, on the other hand, Microsoft let go of 10,000 employees. And to top all of them, e-commerce giant Amazon laid off massive 18,000 employees. Tesla's CEO Elon Musk who took charge of Twitter last year also fired a significant amount of people on the social media platform. Dell Technologies as well carried mass job cuts to the tune of 6,650 employees.

More layoffs are in the offing. Lately, the parent of Facebook is said to be looking for another 11,000 job cut, while telecom giant Ericsson announced a plan to trim 8,500 jobs. Consulting firm McKinsey too is on a similar boat and is planning to let go of 2,000 employees.

If that is not enough to send uneasiness among job seekers, then reports have said Amazon may trim the salary of employees by 50% in 2023. Whereas, Google now seems to be asking employees to share desks while working. On the other side, many employees are still awaiting their onboarding after months of being hired by various companies.

According to Trueup.io data, which tracks tech layoffs, so far in 2023, there have been 534 layoffs at tech companies with 153,005 people impacted (2,732 people per day).

The data showed that last year, there were 1,535 layoffs at tech companies with around 241,176 people impacted.

Layoff winter is expected to probably end in the second half of 2023. (trueup.io data)

I'm a Stanford professor who's studied organizational behavior for decades. The widespread layoffs in tech are more because of copycat behavior than necessary cost-cutting.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jeffrey Pfeffer, the Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. It has been edited for length and clarity.

The idea that human behavior is influenced by what others do is really old. If you're a pedestrian and you see a stop signal, but no cars are coming and somebody steps into the street, you'll probably do it too. It's almost automatic behavior.

We should expect this to also be true in business. A lot of companies were hiring during the pandemic, so everybody decided to hire. Now, companies are laying off, and everybody decided to follow each other and lay people off. A lot of this is just imitation.

Companies don't throw out their capital equipment the minute market turns down. Hiring and firing like this is expensive. First you pay severance, then you go back into the market and pay recruiters and head hunters. You may also pay bonuses to get people to come work for you.

And when the economy turns down, you do this all over again. These are all extra expenses that companies wouldn't incur if they had a long-term idea of how many people they needed instead of hiring and firing with every economic fluctuation. If you think about it, companies are essentially buying high and selling low with their employees, which doesn't make sense.

A lot of companies doing layoffs cite the economic downturn, but many of them aren't going to run out of money if they avoid layoffs. This is a choice.

When people no longer have jobs, their purchasing power and purchasing activity goes down. So these layoffs help create the very economic downturn that they're supposedly protecting against.

The companies also try to justify the layoffs by saying there's been a drop in demand, but you could argue that one of the reasons for that is that all this talk about layoffs has scared everybody. That means fewer companies want to advertise, for example, which affects companies like Meta and Google. So it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

There was a time when companies cut employment only in times of severe economic stringency. But now they've become kind of routine, and there's very little consideration of the harm they cause.

Layoffs have a huge behavioral and physical negative effect on people. So while companies are trying to maintain their margins, they're exacting an enormous human tool

Layoffs are stressful, and stress leads t o a bunch of unhealthy behaviors. People's social identity and friends networks are often tied up with their jobs and where they work. Research has shown layoffs can cause a 15% to 20% increase in death rates for affected workers for the following 20 years, and they can drive the odds of suicide up by two times or more. We as a society will pay for the health consequences of these layoffs.

In many instances, layoffs don't increase stock prices or cut costs. Between things like the cost of severance and the loss of productivity, layoffs have pretty nasty and negative consequences for the company. It's not clear they actually increase profits.

The irony is that these same companies were talking a year ago about people as their most important asset, and now they're treating their employees pretty badly, laying them off via email or by abruptly cutting off their access to the company. These layoffs are a decision that reflects the company's values, and these companies have basically given their employees the middle finger.

Droves of pandemic puppies being seized and surrendered, says BC SPCA

With demand dropping, many backyard breeders in B.C. are unable to sell their puppies. This has resulted in more seizures and surrenders, says the animal welfare organization.

Alanna Kelly
Feb 24, 2023

People in B.C. looking to make fast money over the pandemic decided to breed puppies, but once the demand weaned off they were left with a litter they couldn't care for.

That's according to the BC SPCA, which is reporting a huge increase in large-scale animal intakes.

“We've seen that phenomenon,” says Lorie Chortyk, chief communications officer for the animal welfare organization, noting animals have been seized from across the province.

"From northern B.C. to Vancouver Island to the Lower Mainland," she tells Glacier Media.

In just the past two months, there have been six individual breeders who have had to surrender their animals or have had them seized after not being able to sell them or care for them.

"In these breeder cases, usually they've been between about 15 and 40 animals coming in at once. It definitely puts a strain on our resources," says Chortyk.

The BC SPCA is currently dealing with six more large seizures from pandemic breeders and there will likely be more.

"I don't see it falling off anytime soon.”

Pandemic breeders focused on popular breeds such as golden retrievers, labrador retrievers and Aussie shepherds.

The animals that have been seized over the last eight weeks have been in dire shape, Chortyk says.

“Where we find the issues is when a breeder is really just doing it only for profit. The money has stopped coming in so they don't provide proper nutrition. They don't provide proper veterinary care. And we're seeing animals coming in in very, very rough shape,” she says.

Due to limited space at its shelters, the BC SPCA often relies on foster homes for the animals, she adds.

If someone does find themselves unable to care for an animal, Chortyk says the BC SPCA wants to "be part of the solution."

“We definitely don't want anyone to feel like they can't reach out to us. We want people to call us if animals are in distress, or if they're feeling overwhelmed,” says Chortyk.

Are breeders regulated in B.C.?

BC SPCA has been pushing for breeding regulations for a while, as there is no legislation in place for people to become breeders or sell animals.

“We actually did create breeding regulations for the government's consideration. So far, there's been no action on it,” says Chortyk, adding there's no way to guarantee if someone is reputable.

"Anyone can say they're a breeder,” she says.

‘Mistake' breeding on the rise

The Langley Animal Protection Society (LAPS) says it has seen a rise in families and individuals who have ended up breeding by mistake.

Executive director Sarah Jones says a lack of access to veterinary care, including spay and neuter services, is one reason for the uptick.

“We're seeing a lot of that, which is a concern,” she says.

LAPS, she adds, has also seen more dog surrenders. Many were not properly socialized during the height of the pandemic, she says.

“Now, they're scared of the world and they're acting out.”

Animal protection advocates worried about euthanization

Jones has spent 30 years in the animal welfare industry and is concerned with the current situation.

"I'm worried, to be totally honest,” she says. "I'm really concerned that if the amount of animals that keep coming in and the amount of adoptions are not increasing, that we are going to go back to the days of euthanizing for space.”

LAPS would never euthanize for space, she adds.

"But not everybody has those same resources across the province,” she says. “It’s a much bigger issue."

More government funding into animal welfare would go a long way, she says.

"I'm really concerned that not enough resources are going into animal welfare, and that's from the public as well," Jones says, acknowledging the difficulty of asking for donations when people can't take care of their own pets.

What to do if you suspect breeder neglect

The BC SPCA is an enforcement agency that can recommend charges to Crown counsel after investigations of animal cruelty.

However, the organization relies on the public to alert staff to issues or concerns, Chortyk says.

“The BC SPCA really depends on people out there being our eyes and ears,” she tells Glacier Media.

If anyone visits a breeder and believes an animal is in distress or something doesn't look right, they’re encouraged to call the BC SPCA animal helpline at 1-855-622-7722.

Native Americans Urge Biden To Halt Offshore Wind Permitting

By Tsvetana Paraskova - Feb 24, 2023, 6:10 AM CST

The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) is calling on the Biden Administration to halt all permitting and scoping for offshore wind projects until a comprehensive procedure to protect tribal interests is in place.

NCAI adopted this week a resolution that “strongly urges the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to halt all scoping and permitting for offshore wind projects until completion of a comprehensive and transparent procedure adequately protecting tribal environmental and sovereign interests is developed and implemented.”

Native Americans also demand that Tribal Nations be included in the management, permitting, and development of power purchase agreements and both consulted and included in determining the terms and conditions of the agreements

This should also include “negotiating fair compensation for the use of their lands and resources, inclusion in any revenues associated with such development of their traditional resources as well as ensuring that the development does not harm their environment or cultural heritage,” NCAI said in its resolution.

Offshore wind is one of the key pillars of the Biden Administration to reach a goal the United States set in 2021—to reach 100 percent carbon pollution-free electricity by 2035.

Earlier this week, the White House said that the Administration will propose the first-ever Gulf of Mexico offshore wind lease sale as part of additional steps to boost the sector. The proposed sale includes a 102,480-acre area offshore Lake Charles, Louisiana, and two areas offshore Galveston, Texas, one comprising 102,480 acres and the other comprising 96,786 acres, the Department of the Interior said on Wednesday.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is now seeking public comments on which, if any, of the two lease areas offshore Galveston should be offered in the Final Sale Notice. These areas have the potential to power almost 1.3 million homes with clean energy, the Department of the Interior said.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

CANCO STRIKE
Highbury Canco worker refutes claims made by company CEO

Workers emptying tomato wagons at Highbury Canco. October 16, 2015

(Photo by Kevin Black)

By Rebecca Chouinard

February 24, 2023

In light of the ongoing strike at Highbury Canco in Leamington, the company’s CEO has denied accusations of union busting, but workers say the facts and figures he is touting aren’t exactly accurate.

On February 13, about 400 members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 175 who work at the food manufacturing plant went on strike after failing to agree with the employer’s final contract offer.

The main point of contention between the two parties is employee wages.

Now, Highbury Canco workers have been on strike for 11 days and are itching to get back to the bargaining table.

“We’re working hard out there, everybody is trying to keep their spirits up. Nobody wants to be on strike, obviously, but we’ve got a good group out there,” said Scott Jackson, the chief steward at Highbury Canco for UFCW Local 175.

While employees on the picket line are doing their best to stay positive, Jackson says the group is disheartened every morning and afternoon as they watch bus loads of “offshore workers” being transported to the facility.

At the Ontario legislature on Wednesday, Windsor West MPP Lisa Gretzky commented on the situation, claiming Highbury Canco is busing in replacement workers, paying them more than the permanent employees, and offering benefits. She calls the tactics “union busting.”

In response, Highbury Canco CEO Sam Diab admitted that his company had hired new workers, but the process began well before any labour disputes. He also said his company already offers “competitive” compensation, with starting wages at $19.14 an hour, and $20.48 for lift truck drivers and other machine operators.

Now, Jackson is stepping forward saying Diab’s claims aren’t exactly accurate.

The pay scale Diab outlined differs from what Jackson has observed during his time with the company. According to Jackson, employees’ starting wage is $17.60 hourly, and the second tier of pay is $18.60. Lead personnel can earn an hourly $19.60.

“The point is 70% of the workforce is under $19 an hour presently,” Jackson said. “So, we have a little bit of issues with the comments he was making and the rates he says he’s paying. Not sure where those numbers are coming from to be honest with you.”

Diab says pay at Highbury Canco is “competitive,” but according to Jackson, the company is not measuring up to facilities with similar operations in the region.

“In our area when we look at the competitors, we have a very, very high greenhouse workforce of migrant workers. When we compare that, it’s very competitive,” Jackson explained. “To me, what he should be comparing is to ElringKlinger and Sun Brite, other factories, other companies doing similar work. Not just… other companies that are greenhouses. It’s not really a fair comparison.”

At Sun Brite, starting pay is $20 an hour and up, Jackson says. Their lift truck drivers make $24 – $28 hourly, while Highbury Canco’s make $18.60.

“When we really compare apples to apples, we’re not competitive in my opinion,” Jackson added.

There is still no end in sight for the strike at Highbury Canco. Jackson says that, since workers did not accept the final offer, he believes the agreement will need to go through the Labour Board.

“If I had a message for Sam it’d be ‘let’s get back to the table,’ ‘let’s get this settled,’ Jackson said. “It’s not good for them and it’s not good for us. I know they’re losing a lot of productivity and we don’t want to lose customers. We just feel that we have created a skilled workforce that has basically made them one of the number one cofactorsin North America.”

BP dives into Canada’s offshore eyeing up billions of barrels of oil

By John Woodside | News, Energy, Politics | January 19th 2023
#6 of 7 articles from the Special Report: Off the deep end

Fossil fuel giant BP is set to explore a region on Canada's East Coast it hopes holds billions of barrels worth of oil. Photo by Simon Cheung/Unsplash

Last year, fossil fuel giant BP left the oilsands to dive into Canada’s offshore market, and is now set to explore a new region on the East Coast it hopes holds up to five billion barrels of oil.

About 400 kilometres off Newfoundland’s coast, BP is planning to drill its first exploration well at a site called the Cape Freels prospect this summer. Industry publication Oilprice.com recently ranked Cape Freels fourth in its top five projects around the world to “shake up the market” this year. According to documents filed with the federal-provincial regulator, BP wants to launch a full exploration drilling program, testing several sites across three exploration licences.

The area BP wants to explore overlaps with a protected zone spanning more than 55,000 square kilometres. It is known as the Northeast Newfoundland Slope Closure, which Fisheries and Oceans Canada notes has “high concentrations” of corals and sponges that provide important habitats for other species. All bottom-contact fishing is banned in the region to protect biodiversity. BP says it will study the site to reduce “potential adverse environmental effects on corals and sponges” but can’t eliminate those risks.

Beyond coral and sponges, there are many species that are either endangered, threatened or otherwise at risk in the region, including North Atlantic right whales, blue whales, sea turtles, white sharks, marine birds like the ivory gull and dozens of fish species.

“Exploratory drilling in deepwater 400 (kilometres) from shore is dangerous to ocean life and the fact that this project is even conceivable given the climate emergency is beyond reckless,” Sierra Club Canada national programs director Gretchen Fitzgerald said in a statement. “We call for an immediate rejection of the project and investment in the new economic opportunities in renewables and energy efficiency.”

Exploring for oil comes with significant harm to marine life. Finding where the oil physically is involves a process called seismic testing where airguns are towed behind a ship blasting airwaves into the seabed to help reveal where oil and gas deposits are. Once promising locations are identified, exploratory drilling begins to confirm the deposit’s size and quality.

The largest oil spill in U.S. history came from BP’s Deepwater Horizon project, which was an exploration well. According to the Center for Biological Diversity, the 2010 spill, which killed 11 people, "likely harmed or killed about 82,000 birds of 102 species; about 6,165 sea turtles; as many as 25,900 marine mammals; and a vast (but unknown) number of fish — from the great bluefin tuna to our nation's smallest seahorse — plus oysters, crabs, corals and other creatures."
What people are reading

Gasoline versus electric cars
By Barry Saxifrage | Analysis, Climate Solutions Reporting | February 24th 2023Race to a Safer World

As previously mapped by Canada’s National Observer, there is a tsunami of offshore oil exploration plans swirling around Newfoundland and Labrador. The province has a plan to double offshore oil production by 2030 and is incentivizing companies to explore for new projects to make that goal happen.

BP owns a 50 per cent stake in the three licences it is planning to explore, while Hess Canada Oil and Gas and Noble Energy Canada (the Canadian arms of New York-headquartered Hess Corporation and North Carolina-based Noble Energy) each own a 25 per cent stake. Collectively, those companies bid $413 million for those three licences in 2017.

Last year, BP sold its stake in the oilsands to Cenovus Energy and took over Cenovus’s 35 per cent stake in the Bay du Nord project led by Equinor. Bay du Nord was greenlit by the federal government in April 2022, and if built, will become Canada’s first deepwater oil site, emitting 30 million tonnes of carbon dioxide pollution annually.

Last year, fossil fuel giant BP left the oilsands to dive into Canada’s offshore market, and is now set to explore a new region on the East Coast it hopes holds up to five billion barrels of oil. #cdnpoli #nlpoli

BP did not return a request for comment by deadline.

John Woodside / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada's National Observer

Scientists find meteorite in Texas from fireball that exploded with the force of 8 tons of TNT

(Image credit: Robert Ward/American Meteor Society)

Scientists have found a meteorite from a 1,000-pound space rock that exploded over Texas with the force of 8 tons of TNT this month.

At any given moment, the Earth is being bombarded by pieces of organic space debris known as meteoroids. Fortunately, most meteoroids are tiny, with a typical size ranging from a grain of sand and a pebble, and they don't typically pose a threat to the planet or the life on it.

But on Feb. 15, a much larger meteoroid slammed into Earth's atmosphere, and fragments of it rained down across Texas. NASA's Johnson Space Center confirmed the event in a statement(opens in new tab), which noted that the meteoroid likely measured about 2 feet (0.6 meters) across and weighed about 1,000 pounds (454 kilograms) when it entered the atmosphere.

Related: What Are Meteorites?

The event took place in the skies above McAllen, Texas, a town about 60 miles [96] west of Brownsville along the Mexico border. Around 5:30 p.m. CST (2330 GMT) on Feb. 15, local law enforcement agencies received reports of a loud boom, and Houston Air Traffic Control received meteor reports from two aircraft, per Hidalgo County Sheriff Eddie Guerra(opens in new tab).

A map showing the location in southern Texas where a meteorite was found on Feb. 18, 2023. (Image credit: American Meteor Society)

The following day, NASA issued its statement confirming the event, with NASA Meteor Watch sharing additional details in a Facebook post. The meteoroid was traveling about 27,000 mph (43,452 kph) and exploded with the force of 8 tons of TNT at an altitude of about 21 miles (34 km). (For comparison, the largest non-nuclear warhead ever detonated by the U.S. military, the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast(opens in new tab), exploded with the force of 11 tons of TNT.)

While most meteors burn up before their fragments reach the surface, the Feb. 15 meteor produced several meteorites (fragments of space rock that reach the ground), according to NASA. The American Meteor Society confirmed(opens in new tab) that planetary science researcher and meteorite hunter Robert Ward discovered the first meteorite from the event near El Sauz, Texas.

Robert Ward of Prescott Arizona with First Meteorite Found in Texas on Feb 18th, 2023 (Image credit: AMS/Robert Ward)

Fragment of 1,000-pound meteor that exploded over Texas could reveal new insights about our solar system

A hefty meteor weighing around the same as a grand piano recently exploded in the skies above Texas, potentially showering the surrounding area with smaller fragments. One of these meteorite chunks has already been recovered and could help reveal more about our cosmic neighborhood, experts say.

The meteor, which was likely a small asteroid, entered Earth's atmosphere on Feb. 15 at around 5 p.m. CST and broke apart in a burst of flames about 21 miles (33.8 kilometers) above the city of McAllen. This type of space rock is known as a fireball meteor because of the bright flash given off as it breaks apart, due to friction between the fast-moving object and the air in the atmosphere.

"Based on analysis of preliminary information from several sources, NASA experts believe the object was a meteoroid about two feet [0.6 meters] in diameter weighing about 1,000 pounds [454 kilograms]," representatives from NASA's Meteor Watch wrote on Facebook(opens in new tab). The meteor was traveling at around 27,000 mph (43,450 km/h) when it exploded and released the equivalent energy of around 8 tons (7.3 metric tons) of TNT, they added.

The meteor’s size and speed suggested that fragments had likely reached the ground without burning up completely, NASA representatives wrote.

On Feb. 18, Robert Ward(opens in new tab), a meteorite hunter based in Arizona, recovered a fragment of the meteorite near El Sauz, Texas, after tracing the debris' trajectory using data from a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather radar, according to the American Meteor Society(opens in new tab) (AMS).

"When samples such as the remnants of this event are collected and studied, they enhance our understanding of the origin and evolution of our solar system," NASA representatives wrote.

There are likely more fragments scattered in the same area as Ward's fragment. If someone finds one on land they own then that person owns the fragment, but if you find it on public land you should contact the Smithsonian Institute, which manages the National Meteorite Collection, NASA representatives wrote.

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