Scientists gather to study risk from microplastic pollution

By GILLIAN FLACCUSFebruary 23, 2020


PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Tiny bits of broken-down plastic smaller than a fraction of a grain of rice are turning up everywhere in oceans, from the water to the guts of fish and the poop of sea otters and giant killer whales.

Yet little is known about the effects of these “microplastics” — on sea creatures or humans.

“It’s such a huge endeavor to know how bad it is,” said Shawn Larson, curator of conservation research at the Seattle Aquarium. “We’re just starting to get a finger on the pulse.”

This week, a group of five-dozen microplastics researchers from major universities, government agencies, tribes, aquariums, environmental groups and even water sanitation districts across the U.S. West is gathering in Bremerton, Washington, to tackle the issue. The goal is to create a mathematical risk assessment for microplastic pollution in the region similar to predictions used to game out responses to major natural disasters such as earthquakes.


The largest of these plastic bits are 5 millimeters long, roughly the size of a kernel of corn, and many are much smaller and invisible to the naked eye.

They enter the environment in many ways. Some slough off of car tires and wash into streams — and eventually the ocean — during rainstorms. Others detach from fleeces and spandex clothing in washing machines and are mixed in with the soiled water that drains from the machine. Some come from abandoned fishing gear, and still more are the result of the eventual breakdown of the millions of straws, cups, water bottles, plastic bags and other single-use plastics thrown out each day.

Microplastic particles from rubber tires are seen under a microscope. (Oregon State University via AP)

Research into their potential impact on everything from tiny single-celled organisms to larger mammals like sea otters is just getting underway.

“This is an alarm bell that’s going to ring loud and strong,” said Stacey Harper, an associate professor at Oregon State University who helped organize the conference. “We’re first going to prioritize who it is that we’re concerned about protecting: what organisms, what endangered species, what regions. And that will help us hone in ... and determine the data we need to do a risk assessment.”

A study published last year by Portland State University found an average of 11 micro-plastic pieces per oyster and nine per razor clam in the samples taken from the Oregon coast. Nearly all were from microfibers from fleece or other synthetic clothing or from abandoned fishing gear, said Elise Granek, study co-author.


Scientists at the San Francisco Estuary Institute found significant amounts of microplastic washing into the San Francisco Bay from storm runoff over a three-year sampling period that ended last year. Researchers believe the black, rubbery bits no bigger than a grain of sand are likely from car tires, said Rebecca Sutton, senior scientist at the institute. They will present their findings at the conference.

Those studying the phenomenon are worried about the health of creatures living in the ocean — but also, possibly, the health of humans.

Some of the concern stems from an unusual twist unique to plastic pollution. Because plastic is made from fossil fuels and contains hydrocarbons, it attracts and absorbs other pollutants in the water, such as PCBs and pesticides, said Andrew Mason, the Pacific Northwest regional coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s marine debris program.

This Jan. 19 photo shows microplastic and other debris that has washed up at Depoe Bay, Ore. (AP Photo/Andrew Selsky)

“There’s a lot of research that still needs to be done, but these plastics have the ability to mine harmful chemicals that are in the environment. They can accumulate them,” said Mason. “Everything, as it goes up toward the top, it just gets more and more and the umbrella gets wider. And who sits at the top of the food chain? We do. That’s why these researchers are coming together, because this is a growing problem, and we need to understand those effects.”

Researchers say bans on plastic bags, Styrofoam carry-out containers and single-use items like straws and plastic utensils will help when it comes to the tiniest plastic pollution. Some jurisdictions have also recently begun taking a closer look at the smaller plastic bits that have the scientific community so concerned.

California lawmakers in 2018 passed legislation that will ultimately require the state to adopt a method for testing for microplastics in drinking water and to perform that testing for four years, with the results reported to the public. The first key deadline for the law — simply defining what qualifies as a micro-plastic — is July 1.

And federal lawmakers, including Sen. Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, last week introduced bipartisan legislation to establish a pilot research program at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to study how to curb the “crisis” of microplastic pollution.

Larson, the conservationist at the Seattle Aquarium, said a year of studies at her institution found 200 to 300 microfibers in each 100-liter sample of seawater the aquarium sucks in from the Puget Sound for its exhibits. Larson, who is chairing a session at Wednesday’s consortium, said those results are alarming.

“It’s being able to take that information and turn it into policy and say, ‘Hey, 50 years ago we put everything in paper bags and wax and glass bottles. Why can’t we do that again?’” she said.

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Follow Gillian Flaccus on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/gflaccus

Scientist nabbed for Russia spying is Mexico hometown hero

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A Mexican microbiologist accused of spying for Russia in Miami is considered a benefactor in his native state of Oaxaca, the mayor of his hometown said Wednesday, and he holds positions with at least two prominent universities.

Mayor Hazael Matus said scientist Hector Alejandro Cabrera, who teaches in Singapore, has helped set up science projects in his hometown of El Espinal. Cabrera was known for his work on cardiac treatments and was hoping to produce an ointment to help heal wounds in diabetics in his home state.

“It is very strange for this to happen because he is a very altruistic person with a lot of social conscience. He helped people and all this seems strange,” Matus said. “We don’t know what happened, but I bet it is a confusion or an attack for scientific reasons. He may have discovered something that upset some people or some business interests.”

U.S. authorities said Tuesday that Cabrera had been hired by a Russian government official to find the vehicle of a U.S. government informant in the Miami area and inform the Russians of its location. The informant was not identified, but was said to have provided information to the U.S. on Russian intelligence operations.

Officials said in an affidavit that Cabrera has a Mexican wife and simultaneously also has a Russian wife. According to the affidavit, the Russian wife traveled back to her home country last March to arrange some documents, but she was prevented from returning to Germany in what may have been part of an effort by the Russians to pressure Cabrera into working for them.

Cabrera then visited Moscow and his family last May and was approached by the Russian official, the affidavit said. The Russian official, ti said, brought up Cabrera’s family situation in Russia and said, “We can help each other.”

Cabrera told the FBI that the Russian official said they had met previously in professional events and exchanges, the affidavit said.

Cabrera was arrested on charges of acting within the United States on behalf of a foreign government without notifying the U.S. attorney general and conspiracy, according to the Justice Department. A pretrial detention hearing was set for Friday in Miami and arraignment for March 3.

Cabrera is listed as an associate professor at the medical school jointly run by Duke University and the National University of Singapore.

He also was appointed director in 2018 of the FEMSA Biotechnology Center at the Monterrey Institute of Technology in northern Mexico, which said he earned doctorates in molecular microbiology in Russia and molecular cardiology in Germany.

Matus, the mayor, described Cabrera as a hometown boy who made good, going to Russia to study for his graduate degrees.

But he said Cabrera never forgot his hometown of 9,500 inhabitants and helped organize the scientific community to assist in rebuilding houses in El Espinal after a magnitude 8.1 quake hit Sept. 7, 2017, and a 6.1 temblor struck two weeks later. The town has a large Zapotec indigenous community.

Cabrera had been scheduled to attend meetings in Mexico on Monday about a series of research centers that he was helping establish in El Espinal as part of a government project to upgrade rail links between the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico across the narrow Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The $430 million project is one of the infrastructure priorities of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Cabrera was a leading promoter of El Espinal’s role in the project, helping recruit Mexican universities and government agencies to set up research centers on medicine, seismology, logistics and other topics in the town.

According to the Justice Department, a Russian government official recruited Cabrera in 2019. The Russian official later directed him to rent a specific property in Miami-Dade County, but not in his own name, the Justice Department said.

Cabrera traveled twice to Moscow to meet with the official, the Justice Department said, and during the second meeting received a physical description of the U.S. government source’s vehicle. The Russian official allegedly told Cabrera to locate the car, obtain the license plate number and note the location, with the goal of providing that information in April or May.

The Justice Department said Cabrera, having traveled from Mexico City to Miami on Feb. 13, attracted the attention of a security guard where the U.S. government source resided because his rental car entered the premises while tailgating another vehicle.

According to the indictment, Cabrera asked his Mexican wife, who accompanied him, to take a photo of the source’s vehicle and license plate even though the Russian official had told him not to take a photo.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection stopped Fuentes and his wife when they appeared at Miami’s airport Sunday night to return to Mexico City. Cabrera admitted to law enforcement officers that he was directed by a Russian government official to conduct the operation, the Justice Department said.

AP

Report: Work to reduce wildfire risks has economic benefits


FILE - In this June 11, 2018, file photo, flames consume trees during a burnout operation that was performed south of County Road 202 near Durango, Colo. A report by the U.S. Geological Survey shows investments made to reduce the risk of wildfire in forested areas are paying dividends when it comes to creating jobs and infusing money in local economies. The study focused on several counties along the New Mexico-Colorado border that make up the watershed of the Rio Grande. (Jerry McBride/The Durango Herald via AP, File)

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Projects to reduce the risk of wildfires and protect water sources in the U.S. West have created jobs and infused more money in local economies, researchers say, and they were funded by a partnership between governments and businesses that has become a model in other countries.

A team from the U.S. Geological Survey reviewed work being done in several counties along the New Mexico-Colorado border that make up the watershed of one of North America’s longest rivers, the Rio Grande.

The review shows how public-private partnerships could become a critical component for safeguarding the land and benefiting the economy amid the threat of federal funding cuts and worsening wildfires brought on by climate change.

The study focused on 2018, when the partnership, called the Rio Grande Water Fund, doled out $855,000 to contractors in the region. The spending supported an estimated 22 jobs, ranging from forest thinning to research, environmental consulting and fence removal. That translated to more than $1 million in labor income and $1.9 million in benefits for the regional economy.

Spending in the area supported an estimated 15 jobs and more than $1.1 million in economic output for the 13 counties in the Rio Grande’s upper watershed, according to the findings.

In all, The Nature Conservancy, which launched the partnership, estimates the work has had an economic impact of about $18 million within five years.

“We’ve always known the water fund created jobs to get the work done. Now, we know the true economic impact,” said Steve Bassett, head of planning and data analysis for the advocacy group.

The organization and others have been pushing for land managers to consider more landscape-level restoration work as a hedge against climate change. In New Mexico, Colorado and other parts of the American West, officials persistently warn that hotter, drier conditions are ingredients for more intense fires and those types of blazes can cause more harm by damaging the soil and clogging watersheds with ash, sediment and debris.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced last week its plans to build and maintain up to 11,000 miles (17,703 kilometers) of strategically placed fuel breaks across several Western states to control wildfires across nearly 350,000 square miles (906,500 square kilometers).

The work will involve manual, mechanical and chemical treatments, including prescribed fire and targeted grazing. It comes after the agency set a record last year for the number of square miles — 1,322 (3,424 square kilometers) — treated to reduce the risk of wildfire.

The U.S. Forest Service also has been playing catch-up, but that could become more challenging as the Trump administration’s proposed budget for the next fiscal year calls for cutting funding for some research and zeroing out spending for certain forest restoration initiatives.

That could mean partnerships like the Rio Grande Water Fund will become more prevalent. Officials at The Nature Conservancy say it’s serving as a model for other communities in the U.S. West and some in India and South Africa.

The advocacy group started the initiative in 2014 to restore large swaths of land as a way to protect and bolster the region’s dwindling water resources.

More than 80 local, state and tribal partners have signed on since then, bringing in $5 million in private investments and leveraging nearly $50 million in public funding. More than 219 square miles (566 square kilometers) have been treated with thinning, prescribed burns and managed natural fires and an additional 515 square miles (1,335 square kilometers) are in the planning pipeline.

The investors in New Mexico range from municipal water utilities and federal agencies to banks and breweries.

This Aug. 6, 2018, photo shows the Rio Grande flowing south of Taos, New Mexico. A recent report by the U.S. Geological Survey found that investments made to reduce the risk of wildfire and to protect water sources in the West are paying dividends by creating jobs and infusing money into local economies. The study focused on several counties along the New Mexico-Colorado border that make up the watershed of the Rio Grande, one of North America's longest rivers. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)

Brent Racher, owner of Restoration Solutions LLC said his four-man team has gotten consistent work through the projects financed by the Rio Grande Water Fund. His company is based in a small community near the edge of the Cibola National Forest in central New Mexico.

“I’ve been able to invest in more equipment and plan for the future,” he said. “Employee stability trickles down to the social fabric of our community.”

Students push universities to stop investing in fossil fuels

FILE - In this Nov. 23, 2019, file photo, Harvard and Yale students protest during halftime of the NCAA college football game between Harvard and Yale at the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Conn. Students alarmed by climate change are stepping up pressure on universities to stop investing in fossil fuel industries and are gaining wider traction in 2020. (Nic Antaya/The Boston Globe via AP, File)

By MICHAEL MELIA February 19, 2020

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — Students alarmed by climate change are stepping up pressure on universities to pull investments from fossil fuel industries, an effort that is gaining traction at prestigious schools like Georgetown, Harvard and Yale.

The push that is underway at hundreds of schools began nearly a decade ago, and student activists increasingly have learned from one another’s tactics and moved to act amid worsening predictions about the effects of climate change on the planet.

Georgetown University’s board of directors announced this month that it will end private investments in coal, oil and gas companies within the next decade, and some faculty at Harvard have called for a similar shift. There were sit-ins and demonstrations last week at dozens of schools, including Gonzaga University, the University of Wisconsin, University of Pittsburgh and Cornell University.

Several dozen schools have stopped investing at least partially in fossil fuels, but there is debate over how much the move slows the effects of climate change or affects the bottom line of companies like Chevron and Exxon Mobil.

Many schools have defended their investments, citing a duty to preserve and grow the income they receive from donations, while touting efforts to use investments as leverage to engage energy companies, find solutions for climate change through research and make campuses carbon neutral by not causing any net increases in heat-trapping carbon dioxide.

For student activists, it’s about taking a moral and political stand.

At Yale University, which has a $30.3 billion endowment, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Senate on Thursday will discuss the university’s ethical obligations regarding fossil fuel investments. It became a big issue partly due to a widely covered student protest that disrupted a November football game between Harvard and Yale.

“Yale has to take it seriously. We forced them to take it seriously. The faculty discussions are evidence of that,” said Ben Levin, a student leader with the Yale Endowment Justice Coalition. “They’re also evidence of the fact that the faculty are incredibly concerned because they don’t want to be working for a university that’s on the wrong side of the most pressing issue of our time.”

Yale says it has supported shareholder resolutions calling for companies to reveal what they’re doing to address climate change and asked endowment managers not to invest in companies that fail to take steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but student activists want a clean break. 

FILE - In this Nov. 23, 2019, file photo, demonstrators stage a protest on the field at the Yale Bowl disrupting the start of the second half of an NCAA college football game between Harvard and Yale in New Haven, Conn. Students alarmed by climate change are stepping up pressure on universities to stop investing in fossil fuel industries and are gaining wider traction in 2020. (AP Photo/Jimmy Golen, File)

The campus actions are part of a broader push for insurers, pension funds and governments worldwide to end fossil fuel investments.

Environmentalist and author Bill McKibben, a leader of the movement to stop such investments, said students have played a huge role.

“They’ve kept it up through two generations of undergraduates. Administrators hoped they’d graduate and that would be the end of the pressure, but instead it keeps building,” said McKibben, a scholar in residence at Middlebury College, which announced last year it would divest its $1.1 billion endowment from fossil fuels.

Student government leaders from the Big Ten Conference called last month for their 14 schools to begin divesting from fossil fuels, passing a resolution that cited the conclusion of the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that greenhouse gas emissions are driving climate change.

A challenge for institutions is the prevalence of investments in index funds, which makes it difficult to separate out the roughly 4 percent of energy stocks in such funds, said John Jurewitz, a lecturer in economics at Pomona College. Colleges pulling their investments also wouldn’t likely hurt oil companies, which have their own internal cash flows, he said.

“It’s mainly a political statement about what the university is willing to invest in,” Jurewitz said. “It may be a worthwhile statement if you believe it will help get the ball rolling toward getting some realistic, meaningful policy like a carbon tax or cap and trade, something that will put a price on the carbon in some practical way.”

The Independent Petroleum Association of America has pushed back with its own campaign, arguing divestment would cost university endowments millions a year with little impact on carbon emissions.

At Harvard, which has a $40.9 billion endowment, President Lawrence Bacow said he would take a faculty motion to the Harvard Corporation, the university’s executive board. In the past, administrators have outlined steps Harvard is taking to address climate change while arguing that ending fossil fuel investments wouldn’t have a big effect and that it makes little sense to sever ties with energy companies that heat and light the campus.

Connor Chung, a first-year student and organizer for Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard, said the group hopes the university will reconsider.

“At the end of the day, our goal is environmental justice,” he said. “Divestment is our tactic for getting there, but it’s not going to work unless we have a broader movement around the country and around the world of students demanding that their institutions end their complicity in the climate crisis.”

A group of Harvard students also want to stop investments in prisons and companies that contract with them. They sued Wednesday, arguing the school is violating state law by investing in an industry they describe as “present-day slavery.” Harvard officials didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the lawsuit.

At George Washington University, sophomore Izy Carney said a student campaign has taken inspiration from the activism of students elsewhere, including in the University of California system, which announced a plan to end fossil fuel investments in 2019.

After hearing from student activists, George Washington’s board of trustees announced a task force this month on managing environmental responsibility. But it did not mention divestment as a possibility.

Carney, a member of Sunrise GW, a student group dedicated to fighting climate change, said they would keep up the pressure.

“Right now, it sounds like profits is what our university is after,” Carney said. “We just want to make sure our school is doing everything it can to make sure it is not contributing to the climate crisis.”

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Associated Press writer Alanna Durkin Richer in Boston contributed to this report.

Claws of health? Lobster blood could play role in new drugs

By PATRICK WHITTLE February 19, 2020

In this Friday, Feb. 14, 2020 photo, Dr. Robert Bayer holds a jar of frozen lobster blood in his lab in Orono, Maine. Bayer's company, Lobster Unlimited of Orono, is investigating whether lobster blood can be used as a potential weapon against viruses and cancer, and representatives said results are promising. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued the company a patent in late October related to its work. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Maine lobsters have long delighted tourists as the state’s most beloved seafood. But one company thinks the crustaceans can save human lives by providing their blood for use in new drugs.

The effort, involving a longtime lobster scientist, wouldn’t be the first example of coastal invertebrates being used to aid human health. Horseshoe crabs are harvested because their blood contains a protein used to detect contamination in medical products. A different startup company in Maine announced in 2016 that it would develop a bandage coated with a substance extracted from crushed lobster shells. And the U.S. Army has made use of field bandages treated with a blood clotting compound processed from shrimp shells.


The company working on the lobster blood project, Lobster Unlimited of Orono, is investigating whether lobster blood can be used as a potential weapon against viruses and cancer. Representatives with the company said results are promising — the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued them a patent in late October related to their work.

The blood is easy to come by because it’s a byproduct of lobster processing, company head Robert Bayer said. Lobster blood is likely a long way from playing a role in new drugs, Bayer said, but there’s “no question it has antiviral and anticancer properties” based on research needed to apply for the patent.

“Right now, this blood is literally thrown out on the floor and goes down the drain,” said Bayer, a professor emeritus of Animal and Veterinary Sciences at University of Maine. “We can collect millions of pounds of it, which makes it a viable product worth pursing.”

The company proposes to use compounds derived from hemolymph, which is lobster circulatory fluid, to improve human health and possibly the health of other mammals. Lobster Unlimited’s looking for partners in the pharmaceutical industry to work with on the development of drugs.

Scientists with the company have found that hemocyanin, a protein in the fluid, works as a powerful stimulant for the immune systems, Bayer said. For example, experiments show the substance can reduce the viral load of herpes simplex virus-infected cells, according to documents the company filed with the U.S. patent office.

The next step is to find partners in industry to work on the development of new drugs, because the company doesn’t plan to manufacture or sell its own, said Cathy Billings, another member of Lobster Unlimited. New products would also need to stand up to testing and then win approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

In this July 2007 file photo, a lobster scientist holds a 2-pound lobster underwater in a lobster pound on Friendship Long Island, Maine. Lobster Unlimited of Orono, headed by a longtime lobster scientist Robert Bayer, proposes to use compounds derived from lobster blood to improve human health and possibly the health of other mammals. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Interest in developing non-food products from lobsters has grown in recent years as Maine’s haul of the crustaceans has grown. The 2010s saw Maine’s catch of lobsters eclipse any previous decade by many millions of pounds. The remnants from processing them are used in everything from Christmas decorations and gardening soil to cooking stock. Using them in medicine represents a new frontier, Bayer said.

Invertebrate biology is very different from that of mammals, but there are some commonalities that could make it possible to use lobster products in medicine, said Diane Cowan, a Maine-based lobster biologist not involved in the Lobster Unlimited project. Those commonalities make it possible to use animals such as lobsters and horseshoe crabs to aid human health, she said.

Lobsters, like humans, have circulatory fluid, though lobster’s is a kind of bluish gray as opposed to red, Cowan said. “So to have an idea that you can take something from one animal and use it for another is not outrageous,” she said. “The circulatory fluid that runs through all bodies of all living animals is very similar.”

Steve Train, a Long Island, Maine, lobsterman, was a little surprised when he heard about the possibility of lobster blood playing a role in new drugs.

But if it can help people, “I hope it’s true,” he said, adding, “These scientists know more than I do.”

Regulators boost PG&E’s wildfire fine to $2.1 billion

FILE - In this Oct. 9, 2017, file photo, a firefighter monitors a house burning in Santa Rosa, Calif. California power regulators slapped Pacific Gas and Electric with a $2.1 billion fine for igniting a series of deadly wildfires that landed the beleaguered utility in bankruptcy. The record penalty imposed Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020, in a an administrative law judge's decision boosts the punishment that had been agreed upon in a $1.7 billion settlement announced in December. The increased punishment includes a $200 million payment earmarked for the people who lost family and property in catastrophic wildfires caused by PG&E's outdated electrical grid and negligence during 2017 and 2018. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE February 27, 2020

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California power regulators on Thursday slapped Pacific Gas & Electric with a $2.1 billion fine for igniting a series of deadly wildfires that landed the beleaguered utility in bankruptcy.

The record penalty imposed in an administrative law judge’s decision boosts a previously agreed upon $1.7 billion settlement announced in December. Several consumer groups had protested the settlement as too lenient in light of PG&E’s destruction, and the California Public Utilities Commission agreed after further review.

PG&E officials said they were disappointed by the increased fine after “working diligently over many months with multiple parties” to reach the previous deal.


“We recognize our fundamental obligation is to operate our system safely and we share the same objectives as the Commission and other state leaders — namely in reducing the risk of future wildfires in our communities,” PG&E spokesman James Noonan said in a statement.

The harsher punishment includes a $200 million payment to California’s general fund.

The San Francisco company has already set up a $13.5 billion fund to help those who lost family members, homes and businesses in catastrophic wildfires caused by PG&E’s outdated electrical grid and negligence during 2017 and 2018. The fires killed nearly 130 people and destroyed almost 28,000 homes and other buildings.

More than 81,000 claims have been filed in the bankruptcy case.

The decision will also prevent PG&E from attempting to recover $1.82 billion from its customers, forcing its shareholders to bear the cost instead. The settlement previously had prevented PG&E from recovering $1.63 billion.

As part of the previous settlement, PG&E had projected it would realize $469 million in tax savings. Thursday’s ruling could require the San Francisco company to funnel any tax savings to hold down the prices charged to the 16 million people who rely on the nation’s largest utility for electricity.

Thursday’s rebuke is the latest blow to PG&E, which has been trying to climb out of a huge financial hole left by its liabilities from the fires. The company filed for bankruptcy 13 months ago to seek shelter from more than $50 billion in claimed losses. It is seeking to emerge from bankruptcy by June 30 to qualify for a state wildfire insurance fund.

PG&E has settled those claims by reaching settlements totaling $25.5 billion with the wildfire victims, insurers and some government agencies.

But the company still faces some potentially imposing hurdles, with California Gov. Gavin Newsom threatening a government-led takeover bid if the utility doesn’t make significant reforms. PG&E needs state approval of the plan to qualify for the wildfire insurance fund.

FILE - In this Oct. 10, 2019, file photo, a Pacific Gas & Electric sign is shown outside of a PG&E building in San Francisco. California power regulators slapped Pacific Gas and Electric with a $2.1 billion fine for igniting a series of deadly wildfires that landed the beleaguered utility in bankruptcy. The record penalty imposed Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020, in a an administrative law judge's decision boosts the punishment that had been agreed upon in a $1.7 billion settlement announced in December. The increased punishment includes a $200 million payment earmarked for the people who lost family and property in catastrophic wildfires caused by PG&E's outdated electrical grid and negligence during 2017 and 2018. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

NATIONALIZE PG&E UNDER PUBLIC OWNERSHIP OF THE PEOPLE OF CALIFORNIA

UK court blocks Heathrow expansion over climate concerns
By DANICA KIRKA February 27, 2020

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Campaigners protest outside the Royal Courts of Justice where a Court of Appeal ruling is taking place on the Heathrow expansion row, in London, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020. Britain's Court of Appeal is preparing to publish its decision in a case that could stall the 14 billion pound ($18 billion) plan to expand Heathrow Airport amid concerns about climate change, pollution and noise. (Stefan Rousseau/PA via AP)

LONDON (AP) — Heathrow Airport’s plans to increase capacity of Europe’s biggest travel hub by over 50% were stalled Thursday when a British court said the government failed to consider its commitment to combat climate change when it approved the project.

The ruling throws in doubt the future of the 14 billion-pound ($18 billion) plan to build a third runway at Heathrow, the west London hub that already handles more than 1,300 flights a day.

While Heathrow officials said they planned to appeal, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government indicated it wouldn’t challenge the ruling by the Court of Appeal.

“We won!″ said London Mayor Sadiq Khan, a long-time opponent of the project who joined other local officials and environmental groups in challenging the national government’s approval of Heathrow’s expansion plans.

At stake is a project that business groups and Heathrow officials argue is crucial for the British economy as the U.K. looks to increase links with countries from China to the United States after leaving the European Union. Heathrow has already reached the capacity of its current facilities, and a third runway is needed to serve the growing demands of travelers and international trade, they say.

Campaigners cheer outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, Thursday Feb. 27, 2020. Campaigners have won a court ruling to block the plans for a third runway at Heathrow Airport on environmental grounds. The case before Britain's Court of Appeal could stall the 14 billion-pound ($18 billion) plan to expand Heathrow Airport. (Stefan Rousseau/PA via AP)

Environmental campaigners, however, challenged the project because of concerns that a third runway would encourage increased air travel and the carbon emissions blamed for global warming. The British government has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions as a signatory to the 2016 Paris Agreement, which seeks to limit temperature increases to 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels.

The court upheld the appeal, saying the government had failed to consider its commitments under the Paris Agreement when it approved a national policy on airport capacity in southeastern England that paved the way for a third runway at Heathrow. That policy statement backed the Heathrow project over a competing plan from Gatwick Airport, 30 miles (50 kilometers) south of central London, and a proposal to build a new airport in the Thames estuary east of London.

In a narrowly written opinion, the three-judge panel stressed that it wasn’t ruling on the merits of the Heathrow project. Instead, the court said the national policy statement would be suspended until the government has reviewed the findings in accordance with Britain’s obligations under the Paris Agreement.

“We have not found that a national policy statement supporting this project is necessarily incompatible with the United Kingdom’s commitment to reducing carbon emissions and mitigating climate change under the Paris Agreement, or with any other policy the Government may adopt or international obligation it may undertake,″ the court said.

“The consequence of our decision is that the Government will now have the opportunity to reconsider the (national policy statement) in accordance with the clear statutory requirements that Parliament has imposed.”

The Department for Transport said the government wouldn’t challenge the ruling.

“We take seriously our commitments on the environment, clean air and reducing carbon emissions,″ the department said in a statement. ”We will carefully consider this complex judgment and set out our next steps in due course.″

Heathrow said the issue raised by court’s ruling is “eminently fixable,″ and it will work with the government to resolve the problem. The airport also said it planned to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.

“Expanding Heathrow, Britain’s biggest port and only hub, is essential to achieving the Prime Minister’s vision of global Britain,″ the airport said in a statement. “We will get it done the right way, without jeopardising the planet’s future.″

Thursday’s ruling is just the latest twist in a 13-year battle over increasing airport capacity in and around London.

Choosing a project pits the economic benefits of expansion against the pollution, noise and congestion that it will produce. The issue is so toxic that politicians created an independent commission to weigh the options.

Amid furious public relations battles, the Airports Commission in 2015 backed a third runway at Heathrow. Parliament finally approved the airport policy statement in June 2018.

But things have changed since then. Most notably, perhaps, is Boris Johnson’s election as prime minister last year. Johnson, a long-time opponent of Heathrow expansion, once promised to lie down in front of the bulldozers to prevent construction of the third runway.

Tony Travers, an expert on London issues at the London School of Economics, pointed out that the debate over Heathrow has been going on intermittently since the 1960s and choosing another option to expand airport capacity would take years.

Meanwhile, the government has staked its future on increasing trade with nations outside the EU, and in this context it makes little sense to ignore the Heathrow project.

“Brexit means trade with countries further away than you can get on a train,″ Travers said.

The Department for Transportation argued that the Heathrow project would permit an additional 260,000 flights a year and give a 74 billion-pound ($99 billion) boost to the British economy over 60 years.


Tim Alderslade, chief executive of Airlines U.K., an industry body representing U.K.-registered airlines, described Thursday’s decision as “extremely disappointing.″

“The economic prize is enormous if expansion is done right, with airlines ready to respond to the unlocking of new capacity by creating new routes and helping to connect the U.K. to new markets and destinations,″ he said.

The court dismissed appeals that dealt with issues such as noise and air pollution raised by Heathrow’s neighbors.

But local campaingers, some of whom have been fighting expansion for decades, popped champagne corks and cheered when they heard the ruling. Many saw it as decisive.

“It surely must be the final nail in the coffin for Heathrow’s attempts to steamroll over local and national opposition to their disastrous third runway plans,″ said Gareth Roberts, the leader of Richmond Council, the local government body for a community in the flight path of the proposed runway. “The expansion of Heathrow would be a catastrophe for our climate and environment and for the thousands of Londoners who would be forced to live with the huge disruption it will cause.″

Campaigners cheer outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, Thursday Feb. 27, 2020. Campaigners have won a court ruling to block the plans for a third runway at Heathrow Airport on environmental grounds. The case before Britain's Court of Appeal could stall the 14 billion-pound ($18 billion) plan to expand Heathrow Airport. (Stefan Rousseau/PA via AP)

Trump seeks high court approval to speed deportations
By MARK SHERMAN

FILE - In this Oct. 10, 2017, file photo, the Supreme Court in Washington, at sunset. The Supreme Court is hearing arguments March 2, 2020, to decide whether Vijayakumar Thuraissigiam can be deported without getting to make his asylum case to a federal judge. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The man slipped into the U.S from Tijuana, Mexico, and made it just 25 yards from the border before he was arrested.

A seven-month journey from Sri Lanka was over for Vijayakumar Thuraissigiam. Now he would be able to tell an American official why he had fled the place he had lived virtually his entire life: As a member of Sri Lanka’s Tamil minority, he had been beaten and threatened. He would seek asylum to remain in the United States.

His timing couldn’t have been worse.

His arrival coincided with the start of the Trump administration and its sustained effort to crack down on asylum-seekers. Officials rejected his claim in an initial screening and he was designated for rapid deportation, or expedited removal as federal law calls it.

Now the Supreme Court will decide whether Thuraissigiam and others like him can be deported without ever getting to make their case to a federal judge. Arguments will take place Monday.

The administration is seeking a sweeping ruling that it could potentially use to deport millions of people, even those arrested far from the border and who have been in the country for years, experts on the issue said.

“The Supreme Court has held for more than a century that anyone in the United States, even those illegally, are entitled to due process. If successful, the government’s argument in this case would reverse this basic principle of constitutional law and theoretically deny due process rights to millions of undocumented immigrants,” said Stephen Yale-Loehr, an immigration specialist at Cornell University Law School. Yale-Loehr signed onto a court brief siding with the asylum-seeker.

The Justice Department counters in its Supreme Court filings that immigrants have no constitutional rights regarding their application to enter the United States under high court rulings. The limited review that Congress provided for when it created expedited removal proceedings is sufficient, the administration said.

But the federal appeals court in San Francisco relied on the Supreme Court’s 2008 decision in favor of court access to detainees at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to rule that the practice of denying federal court review violates the Constitution. The Supreme Court agreed to hear the administration’s appeal. Thuraissigiam is living in the New York area at the moment.

Since 2004, immigration officials have targeted for quick deportation undocumented immigrants who are picked up within 100 miles of the U.S. border and within 14 days of entering the country. The Trump administration is seeking to expand that authority so that people detained anywhere in the U.S. and up to two years after they got here could be quickly deported.

A federal judge has put that policy on hold and the administration’s appeal will be heard Friday by the federal appeals court in Washington.

The administration has imposed other restrictions on those who say they need refuge in the U.S. because they would be harmed if they had to return home. People crossing through Mexico before arriving at the southern border can no longer seek asylum in the U.S. unless they first have been denied asylum elsewhere. The Supreme Court allowed the policy to take effect while a legal fight over it plays out in the courts.

A separate “remain in Mexico” policy that requires asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico until their cases are considered by American officials was temporarily halted this past Friday by a federal appeals court.

People who come to the United States to ask for asylum must persuade immigration officials that they have a “credible fear” of persecution in their home country. Asylum-seekers who pass that screening generally are allowed into the country as their cases progress. But the bar to grant asylum is narrow; a person must face persecution for race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a social group.

After Thuraissigiam’s arrest in February 2017, he told anyone who asked that because of his support for a Tamil political candidate, he was arrested, put in a van and beaten so severely that he spent 11 days in a hospital. Immigration officials found the account credible, but they determined he did not have a real fear of persecution if he returned home.

Having failed this initial screening, known as a “credible fear” screening, he was eligible for quick deportation.

Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union who represent him said the official who first interviewed Thuraissigiam was unable to elicit and synthesize critical information, including that the episode likely was a widely known “white van” abduction by Sri Lankan security forces. The translation via telephone also didn’t help, the lawyers said.

More critically, the administration doesn’t want to allow Thuraissigiam to make his case in front of a federal judge, said Lee Gelernt, the ACLU lawyer who will argue the case. If his client loses at the Supreme Court, Gelernt said, “it will be the first time in U.S. history that an individual was deprived of their liberty, citizen or noncitizen, without the opportunity for a federal court to review the case.”

Supporting the administration, the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation in Sacramento, California, said in its court filing that Thuraissigiam is “a would-be immigrant whose only connection to this country is stepping illegally a few yards inside the border.” He has no constitutional right to a full-blown court hearing, the foundation wrote.

A decision in Department of Homeland Security v. Thuraissigiam, 19-161, is expected before summer.

AP FACT CHECK:

 Trump revives false claim on wall at CPAC
President Donald Trump at Conservative Political Action Conference, 

CPAC 2020, at the National Harbor, in Oxon Hill, Md., 

Saturday, Feb. 29, 2020. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
By CALVIN WOODWARD
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump asserted anew on Saturday that Mexico is paying for his border wall, even as his administration shifts billions from the Pentagon to cover some construction costs and Mexico pitches in nothing.

A look at some of his claims from his speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference:

TRUMP, on Mexico and his border wall: “Yes they are. They’re paying for it. And they’re OK with it. Mexico’s paying for it.”

THE FACTS: That’s false. Mexico is not paying for the wall. And far from being “OK with it,” Mexican leaders flatly rejected the idea when Trump pressed them early on.

“NO,” Enrique Peña Nieto, then Mexico’s president, tweeted in May 2018. “Mexico will NEVER pay for a wall. Not now, not ever. Sincerely, Mexico (all of us).”

The money is coming from today’s U.S. taxpayers and the future ones who will inherit the federal debt. In February, the Pentagon announced that it was slashing billions of dollars for Navy and Air Force aircraft and other military programs to divert money to the construction of the wall. More such military cuts are coming, officials said.

The president has come up with several creative formulations to argue that Mexico is in some way paying.

Among them: He has projected that his updated trade agreement with Mexico and Canada will stimulate enough extra growth over the years to cover the cost. Even if that happens, which analysts widely doubt, the wall will have cost the U.S. money that it could have used for something else. It’s not a payment from Mexico. He’s talked about taxing or blocking money that immigrants in the U.S. send to their countries of origin, often to family members. But that is not happening.

Trump has also credited Mexico with stepped-up enforcement against migrants and asylum seekers who come from other countries and try to get to the U.S. from Mexican soil
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TRUMP: “America has declared energy independence. I declared it.”

THE FACTS: He may have declared it but he hasn’t earned it.

The U.S. still needs plenty of oil from around the world. It imported a daily average of roughly 6.5 million barrels of crude oil last year, according to the Census Bureau. That is down from the 2018 average, though it does not mean independence.

Technological advances like fracking and horizontal drilling have allowed the U.S. to greatly increase production, but the country still imports millions of barrels of oil from Saudi Arabia, Canada, Iraq and other countries. Moreover, much of what the U.S. produces is hard for domestic refiners to convert to practical use. So the U.S. exports that production and imports oil that is more suitable for American refineries to handle.


On energy more broadly, the U.S. is indeed close to parity on how much energy it produces and how much it consumes. In some months, it produces more than it consumes. But it has not achieved self-sufficiency. In the first nine months of last year, it imported about as much energy as it exported.

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TRUMP, on the situation before he became president: “American energy was under siege.”

THE FACTS: That’s a stretch, given how energy production was unleashed in past administrations, particularly Barack Obama’s.

As he has repeatedly, Trump took credit for a U.S. oil and gas production boom that he inherited and has continued under his watch. The U.S. Energy Information Administration says the U.S. has been the world’s top natural gas producer since 2009, top petroleum hydrocarbon producer since 2013, and top crude oil producer since 2018.

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Associated Press writers Colleen Long and Josh Boak contributed to this report.

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EDITOR’S NOTE — A look at the veracity of claims by political figures.

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Find AP Fact Checks at http://apne.ws/2kbx8bd

Follow @APFactCheck on Twitter: https://twitter.com/APFactCheck

Iranian director wins prize at Berlin festival in abstenia 

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Cast and crew of the film 'Sheytan vojud nadarad' (There Is No Evil), hold The Golden Bear for Best Film in place of director Mohammad Rasoulof, who did not attend, during the award ceremony at the 70th International Berlinale Film Festival in Berlin, Germany. Saturday, Feb. 29, 2020. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof’s “There Is No Evil” won the Golden Bear prize Saturday for best picture at the Berlin Film Festival. Rasoulof wasn’t there to accept the award due to a travel ban imposed on him by Iranian authorities.

“There Is No Evil” tells four stories loosely connected to the use of the death penalty in Iran and dealing with personal freedom under tyranny.

The Berlin festival jury led by actor Jeremy Irons chose the film over 17 others competing for the prize, including Sally Potter’s “The Road Not Taken,” a remake of “Berlin Alexanderplatz,” and “Siberia,” starring Willem Dafoe and Dounia Sichov.

Organizers left an empty chair and name sign for Rasoulof at the news conference for his entry. Germany’s dpa news agency reported that Rasoulof’s daughter, Baran, accepted the Golden Bear award on his behalf.

The Silver Bear for best actress went to Paul Beer for her performance in “Undine” and the Silver Bear for best actor to Elio Germano for his role in “Hidden Away.” Best screenplay went to the D’Innocenzo brothers, Damiano and Fabio, for “Bad Tales.”