CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

UK

Two drug companies fined £260m for swindling NHS over 'life-saving medicines'

For a decade, the firms overcharged the NHS for steroid tablets, costing the taxpayer hundreds of millions of pounds.


By Ed Clowes, Business reporter
Thursday 15 July 2021 09:37, UK

Auden McKenzie paid off its rivals in a bid to discourage them from bringing out their own versions of the drug, the CMA said

Two pharmaceutical companies have been fined more than £260m by the UK’s competition watchdog after the pair colluded to overcharge the NHS for almost a decade.

Drugmakers Auden McKenzie and Accord UK, formerly called Actavis UK, charged the NHS excessively high prices for hydrocortisone tablets, costing the taxpayer hundreds of millions of pounds, according to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).

Hydrocortisone is used to treat inflammation and irritation, often in people whose bodies do not produce enough cortisol.

The two companies hiked the price of a single pack of tablets from 70p in 2008, to £88 in 2016, increasing the cost of the drug by more than 10,000%.

“These were egregious breaches of the law that artificially inflated the costs facing the NHS, reducing the money available for patient care,” the CMA said.

The regulator added that these were “some of the most serious abuses we have uncovered in recent years”, giving the NHS “no choice but to pay huge sums of taxpayers' money for life-saving medicines”.

Auden McKenzie paid off its rivals in a bid to discourage them from bringing out their own versions of the drug, allowing the company to retain a monopoly on production, the CMA said.

“To protect its position as the sole provider of the tablets, and enable it to continue to increase prices, Auden McKenzie also paid off would-be competitors AMCo (now known as Advanz Pharma) and Waymade to stay out of the market,” the watchdog said.

After Auden McKenzie stopped selling the drug, investigators at the CMA found that Actavis UK continued to pay off AMCo after taking over the sale of the medicine in 2015.

UK

The first baby beaver to be born on Exmoor for 400 years

By Lisa Young @SouthWestFarmer

Content editor

The first baby beaver to be born on Exmoor for 400 years has been spotted on the National Trust’s Holnicote Estate in Somerset.

The young beaver, known as a kit, has been captured on camera just 18 months after the conservation charity undertook its first licensed enclosed release of two Eurasian beavers in its 125-year history.

Footage from a static camera captured the six-week old kit swimming with its mother, back to the family lodge, while she stopped to nibble a branch.

The beaver kit with its mother. Picture: Jeanette Heard

Jack Siviter, one of the rangers on the Holnicote estate said: “We first had an inkling that our pair of beavers had mated successfully when the male started being a lot more active building and dragging wood and vegetation around the site in late spring.

"The female also changed her usual habits, and stayed out of sight, leaving the male to work alone.

"It was then several weeks until we spotted her again, and this is when our suspicions were confirmed that she had given birth, due to having very visible teats.


“We are particularly pleased for our female, nicknamed Grylls due to her survival instincts, as she didn’t have the easiest start to life being orphaned at an early age.

"As a first time mum she seems to be thriving and it’s great to see her with her new kit.

“The family should now stay together for the next two years before the kit will naturally want to go off to create a new territory of its own.”

The beaver kit with its mother. Picture: Jeanette Heard

A keystone species missing from the British countryside since they were hunted to extinction during the sixteenth century, beavers are playing a new and vital role in watercourse and flood management on the estate and creating an environment that is attracting more wildlife and diversity of species.

As nature’s engineers, they are a natural solution to help tackle the biodiversity and climate crisis.

Since their introduction the beavers have been busy creating a dam complex made from trees, mud, stones and vegetation.

This has helped slow the flow of water through the catchment, creating ponds and new channels to hold more water in the landscape as well as storing and filtering water to help clean it before it flows downstream.

By holding water back beavers can play a role in reducing the impact of floods and droughts both of which are expected to become more frequent with climate change.

The felling of some of the trees has allowed more light to flood into the woodland floor where ground flora such as sanicle and marsh marigold is now lush and green, while also helping with natural woodland succession building in resilience and creating different habitats to attract other wildlife.

This new wet woodland habitat is now a more diverse habitat offering more food and shelter benefiting and attracting a wide range of wildlife including amphibians, bats and insects such as dragonflies, and birds like sparrow hawk, grey wagtail, heron, moorhens and kingfisher. Otters are also now more regular visitors to the site instead of just passing through.

The beavers have also stripped bark from non-native conifers to create deadwood habitats which are good for bats, owls, woodpeckers and invertebrates.

VIDEO First baby beaver is born on Exmoor at Holnicote Estate | South West Farmer

UK
National Food Strategy targets meat to reduce global warming

By Lisa Young @SouthWestFarmer

Content editor


The National Food Strategy says meat consumption needs to be cut by 30 per cent by 2030

People could be encouraged to eat less meat, Henry Dimbleby’s National Food Strategy suggests, write Emily Beament and Lisa Young.

The report warns meat consumption needs to be cut by 30 per cent by 2030 to reduce methane emissions from cattle and sheep that help drive global warming, and to free up land for absorbing carbon and boosting nature.

The report said a tax to drive the shift away from meat was unpopular.

Poorer households would be penalised because it would hike prices more on cheap cuts or mince.


Instead it said the government should invest £50million in supporting the development of alternative proteins such as lab-grown meat or plant-based foods.

It urged the UK to position itself at the front of the new industry of alternative proteins, which it said could easily replace ingredients such as mince or milk powder in lasagne or even the meat in a takeaway sandwich.

Responding to the report, NFU president Minette Batters said: “This food strategy should act as a wake-up call for us all that we need to value the food we eat.


“I agree that we should be supporting everyone to eat more fruit and veg, something our farmers can support by growing more, and there should be more focus on educating our children about valuing and understanding the food they eat and how it has been produced.

“However, it is important that we do not throw meat into one blanket category and that we all make a clear distinction between grass-fed British meat and cheap imports.

“We should be considering British meat in its own category, recognising its sustainability and dense nutritional value.

"After all, scientific and medical communities agree it is a key part of a healthy, balanced diet, chock full of essential vitamins and minerals.

“This strategy says major reform is needed of the food system.

"I would suggest we first look at the actions our government is taking by agreeing to trade deals that welcomes in imported meat in limitless amounts."

The report comes as supermarkets are already increasing and promoting their plant-based options, and meat-free alternatives are becoming more popular.

Government investment in innovation will speed up measures to cut methane emissions, such as adding certain ingredients such as seaweed to feed to reduce the amount of the potent greenhouse gas from meat and dairy, the report said.

However, cutting methane is not enough, as the UK also needs to free up land for absorbing carbon emissions from other hard-to-tackle sectors such as aviation, by restoring forests or peatlands.

The report suggests around 5-8 per cent of the UK’s total farmland would need to be freed from production almost entirely, mainly to plant broadleaf woodland and restore peat bogs, focusing on areas such as uplands which are least productive.

It recommends mapping England’s countryside to see which areas could be chiefly for food production, for carbon storage and nature, or for low intensity wildlife-friendly farming.

This could include reductions in sheep, restoring wild features and introducing hardy cattle – but that requires sufficient long-term government support, the report said, and urged the payments scheme for environmental farming to be guaranteed until 2029 to help farmers plan.

The government should also provide around £500-£700 million a year, around a third of the total scheme, for paying farmers to manage the land to actively store carbon and restore nature, through broadleaf woodland, restored upland peat and species-rich grassland and heath.

, Simon Billing, executive director at Eating Better alliance of groups urging a switch to less and better meat and dairy, said: “As a nation, rebalancing our diets with a lot more veg and less meat, will enable us to eat better meat from the best of British farms with the highest environmental and animal welfare standards.”

Mark Bridgeman, president of the Country Land and Business Association (CLA), said: “The strategy highlights the need to properly reward farmers for environmental improvements above and beyond what they already do.”

He urged the Government to understand the role livestock played in environmental management and not to succumb to the “false narrative” that meat is inherently bad.


“It is right to consider alternative ways of farming and different uses for land. Enhanced tree planting and peatland restoration will play an important role in further boosting landowner’s efforts to mitigate climate change and biodiversity decline.

“But any change in land use, particularly to the extent that the strategy recommends, must be driven by the market and positive incentives rather than compulsion – and not come at the expense of the country’s ability to feed itself,” he said.

David Edwards, director of food strategy at WWF, said: “The way we produce our food is key to the UK reaching its net zero and nature restoration targets, so we must bolster funding of nature-friendly farming and set core environmental standards to stop the import of products which rely on the worst farming practices for nature, are already banned in the UK, and which undermine British farmers’ efforts towards more sustainable agriculture.

“We should not waste this golden opportunity to give the British public the affordable, sustainable and healthy food they want and deserve.”

Scaling the walls: Contact visit with Mumia Abu Jamal

In March, supporters all over the world spoke and showed up for beloved political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal when word spread that he would undergo heart surgery while being shackled to his hospital bed and in infrequent, unpredictable contact with loved ones outside. The calls, the rallies, the noise all of us made helped force PADOC prison staff to take Mumia’s heart condition seriously. Taking action saves lives. Here, MOVE’s Pam Africa speaks out in front of Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner’s office on March 12, demanding he free Mumia! – Photo: Emma Lee, WHY

by Noelle Hanrahan

“I am here because people stood right with me. I love the hell out of all of them.” – Mumia Abu-Jamal, SCI Mahanoy, in the visit room with Noelle Hanrahan, P.I., J.D., on May 5, 2021

Pam Africa told me the other day that we need “to put our eyes” on Mumia. When I walked into the visiting booth, Mumia said: “Well, well, well! Way to scale these walls!” He chuckled. “How the hell did you get in here?” 

I shrugged and asked: “Since when have walls stopped us?” A hand-to-glass exchange of a high five. Then I said: “I just asked the guard to check for the contact visit that was approved by the Superintendent’s office yesterday, since you have cleared quarantine.” Mumia said, “Okay, let’s start talking and when he comes back, we can move.” 

Ten minutes later, the visit continues without the plexiglass barrier when they let Mumia have a contact visit. After an elbow bump and a hug, we sit down at a table in the entirely empty visiting area of SCI Mahanoy.

First, let me say that Mumia looks great. He has energy. He was smiling broadly under his face mask. He was laughing and explaining how he has another chance to live. He sounds just like Tony the Tiger when he roars: “I feel great!” 

“I love you all! Thanks for being in my life! I am buoyed and lifted by your love and strength! To freedom!”

I could imagine that having a working heart after months of congestive heart failure would contribute to his feeling ready to tackle his rehabilitation. Heart disease can be reversed, though getting the proper diet and exercise will be a huge challenge in a prison known for lockdowns – and a COVID lockdown that lasted a year. 

A long thin scar cuts all the way down his breastbone: The result of a double bypass open heart surgery just days ago. He is a trim 207pounds in a 6-foot-1-inch frame and is now on the path to recovery. He expects to be moved to general population very soon.

Mumia wanted everyone to know that he was aware that the movement made it possible for his condition to be taken seriously and finally accurately diagnosed. Mumia knows that if it were not for the world shining a bright hot spotlight on prison conditions and access to medical care, he fears that he would not have survived. 

I always begin the process of leaving the visit with this question for Mumia: “What do you want?” Mumia’s answer: “I want to find a way to win and find a way to get the hell out of here.” 

“I love you all! Thanks for being in my life! I am buoyed and lifted by your love and strength! To freedom! Love, Mumia” – Handwritten note on legal pad May 7, 2021, 2 p.m., in the visiting room of SCI Mahanoy.

Write to show your support for Mumia: Mumia Abu-Jamal, Smart Communications/PADOC, Mumia Abu-Jamal, AM 8335 SCI Mahanoy, PO Box 33028, St Petersburg, FL 33733.

Note: “Florida” is not a misprint. Letters to Mumia – and all Pennsylvania prisoners – are sent to the mail contractor in Florida and then scanned and printed and given to him. He will receive these in the infirmary and in his cell. Every prayer and letter matters. 

Follow these organizations for continuous Mumia updates: https://mobilization4mumia.com, https://jamaljournal-movement.blogspot.com, https://bringmumiahome.com, http://www.freemumia.com, https://letmumiaout.com, http://mumiabujamal.com/v2/category/actualite/, https://www.prisonradio.org/

When We Fight, We Win. 

Noelle Hanrahan is a private investigator, director of Prison Radio and producer and co-writer of the feature length documentary “Mumia: Long Distance Revolutionary” (2013). She can be reached at info@prisonradio.org.

 

No more sacrifices

July 14, 2021

This is the atomic bomb “Little Boy” at the Hunters Point Shipyard being loaded onto the USS Indianapolis on July 15, 1945. That one bomb killed 140,000 people when it was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. Thursday, July 15, 2021, is the 76th anniversary of the loading of the bomb at the Shipyard.

Statement of solidarity by the Pacific Asian Nuclear-Free Peace Alliance with the people of Bayview Hunters Point, San Francisco 

by Tsukuru Fors, Founding Member, Pacific Asian Nuclear-Free Peace Alliance

On July 15, 1945, a canister of approximately 3 feet by 4 feet and a large crate were loaded onto the USS Indianapolis at Hunters Point in southeastern San Francisco. Nuclear ingredients in the canister and a firing device in the crate were later assembled into an A-bomb called “Little Boy,” which exploded over the sky of Hiroshima, Japan, on Aug. 6, 1945, killing as many as 140,000 in a matter of a few months, including 350 students at a high school that I graduated from. 

Both Hiroshima and San Francisco have a special place in my heart. The city of Hiroshima taught me the meaning of belonging in my teenage years, while in my young adulthood San Francisco was the city where I learned to stand firmly in my own conviction. Little did I know that these two cities dear to my soul were somehow tied by an unbreakable bond called the nuclear legacy. 

The connection between the two cities was not a fleeting one. It was not only that the components of the A-bomb passed through the city. Hunters Point has its own toxic legacy of nuclear contamination that has plagued and haunted its residents to this day. 

This is Hiroshima shortly after the bomb was dropped – a major city wiped off the map.

This year I learned that the Hunters Point Shipyard suffered radioactive contamination during the Cold War from ships brought there after atomic-bomb tests. And not only that, but portions of the shipyard were also used by the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory (NRDL), the premier radiation research laboratory of the post-World War II era. Thus, parts of the shipyard have been contaminated by the use, storage, accidental spills and intentional discharges and disposals of radioactive materials. 

In 1994, the Northern California Cancer Center revealed that the SF Bay Area had the highest incidence rates of invasive breast cancer in the world, although the link to the area’s history of radioactive contamination has never been officially substantiated. 

Once victimized, they have been lied to repeatedly, silenced, neglected and abandoned by corporations and governments.

Today some 9,000 Bayview Hunters Point residents are fighting a class action lawsuit to halt multibillion-dollar development at the former shipyard for fear that dust stirred up by construction could be harmful to nearby schools and homes; they are demanding more extensive testing by outside scientists to ensure safety. Another lawsuit is underway against a Navy cleanup contractor Tetra Tech EC for allegedly falsifying radiation tests. 

In 2004, the U.S. EPA, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control and the San Francisco Department of Public Health declared the hilltop portion of the shipyard “safe” for residents, while the 2018 discovery of radioactive objects near the site suggests otherwise. 

Learning all these facts that I did not know before, even though I lived within a half-hour drive of the shipyard for a few years back in the early 1990s, the word that kept echoing in my mind was “sacrifices.” 

This is the plume of radioactivity from the Fukushima nuclear power plant explosion, the largest radiation release into water in history, that has now spread to all the oceans of the world. The 443 nuclear reactors still in use worldwide threaten the health and survival of humankind. Radiation doesn’t dissipate; it has the power to sicken and kill for thousands of years. Everywhere radiation exists, astronomically high rates of cancer and other deadly diseases can be found among the people exposed. – Map: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

Pacific Asian Nuclear-Free Peace Alliance, our small grassroots group in Los Angeles, California, was founded in 2017 as “Fukushima Support Committee,” not only to “support” victims of the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, but also to call attention to and to dismantle the political, societal and economic systems that normalize sacrifices of underrepresented communities for the benefit of a select few. Therefore, when we say, “No More Hiroshima, No More Nagasaki, No More Fukushima,” we are referring not only to nuclear attacks in wartime and nuclear power plant accidents, but also to people and communities that have been and continue to be harmed by all activities within the nuclear chain including uranium mining, nuclear testing and dumping of nuclear waste. 

In the case of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, civilians’ lives were sacrificed for the nationalism and militarism of Imperial Japan. In Fukushima, the health and safety of the area residents were and still are jeopardized by corporate greed and political force to protect these corporations. 

Some speculate that Sasebo is becoming a strategic outpost for the US Navy in a possible conflict with China.

People were made to believe that there was no danger or that the perceived risk was worth taking for the promises of good jobs and economic prosperity of the region. However, once victimized, they have been lied to repeatedly, silenced, neglected and abandoned by corporations and governments who should have been accountable for their wellbeing. I see many similarities between Fukushima and Hunters Point. 

On a more personal note, I was born and raised in the US military town of Sasebo, Nagasaki. Sasebo’s main industry has always been shipbuilding and, as such, it has benefitted from the presence of the US Naval base and Japan’s Self Defense Force (JSDF). 

Tsukuru Fors

In 1968, three years before I was born, Sasebo became the site of a violent protest. The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Enterprise docked at Sasebo Harbor and people were angry because many believed the ship was carrying nuclear weapons in violation of a government ban on the manufacture or presence of such weapons on Japanese territory. 

Recently, I was shocked to find that today US nuclear-powered aircraft carriers still dock at Sasebo from time to time, triggering no or little protest. In fact, some speculate that Sasebo is becoming a strategic outpost for the US Navy in a possible conflict with China. This is a frightening thought, but I imagine such concerns are hushed and brushed aside in favor of the promises of good jobs and economic prosperity of the region. 

Across the Pacific Ocean we may be of different races, speak different languages, and prefer different foods; however, we are linked by the nuclear legacy and united by the same pain and suffering. On July 15, the day when the cursed cargo was loaded onto the USS Indianapolis at Hunters Point 76 years ago, I stand in solidarity with people of Bayview-Hunters Point in their fight for the health, safety, equity, and dignity of their community, for we are united in the same fight. No more sacrifices. 

Tsukuru Fors, founding member of the Pacific Asian Nuclear-Free Peace Alliance, can be reached at tsukuru.fors@gmail.com.

 

Long live the Cuban Revolution, a beacon of hope for all humanity

July 14, 2021

Supporters of the Cuban government carry a photograph of Cuba’s late President Fidel Castro during a counterprotest in support of the government in Havana on Sunday. – Photo: Alexandre Meneghini, Reuters

by Gerald A. Perreira

Organization for the Victory of the People (OVP) stands firmly with the revolutionary government of President Diaz-Canel and all the patriotic and anti-imperialist citizens of our Caribbean sister-nation Cuba, as they struggle against this most recent US-backed attempt to provoke counter-revolutionary forces. In the Caribbean and South America, having seen these thinly-veiled US tactics to destabilize progressive and revolutionary governments play out time and time again, most recently in Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia, the scenario is familiar and instantly recognizable. 

The Empire’s relentless attempts to wreck Cuba’s economy and break the resolve of the Cuban people since the triumph of the revolution in 1959 is nothing short of a crime against humanity. Last month, for the 29th year in a row, a total of 184 countries voted in favor of a resolution to demand the end of the US economic blockade on Cuba, with only the two rogue states, the United States and Israel, voting against. UN agencies estimate that this illegal economic blockade, designed to foment unrest, has over six decades cost Cuba well over $100 billion. 

How can the US speak of freedom and democracy while, against the will of the world’s people, it continues to enforce this tortuous and criminal economic blockade against a small nation, simply because it dares to exercise its inalienable right to sovereignty and self-determination? 

The immorality, hypocrisy and tyranny of the US Empire has been further exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Increased sanctions on Cuba at this time, when, like all nations of the world, it is struggling to overcome the economic and health crisis caused by the pandemic, was correctly described as “obscene” by Argentine President Alberto Fernandez. 

The sanctions, described as an “act of genocide,” and like the virus, asphyxiates and kills.

Especially obscene in light of the fact that Cuba sent medical brigades to COVID epicenters around the world in their hour of need. Cuba became the only country in the Global South to develop COVID vaccines, intended for their own citizens and for distribution to countries in South America, the Caribbean and Africa that have been denied access to vaccines by the US and Western Europe. 

The US imperialists, whose wickedness knows no bounds, have even hindered Cuba’s access to syringes and other supplies to assist in the manufacture and distribution of life-saving vaccines. Cuban Foreign Affairs Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla rightfully described the sanctions as an “act of genocide” and said that “like the virus, the blockade asphyxiates and kills; it must stop.”

In fact, there are those in our region who predicted that Cuba’s development of vaccines Soberana, Abdala and Mambisa that are different in type and perhaps safer than the vaccines developed in the West, would prompt the Empire to accelerate its attempts to create chaos in Cuba to upset and discredit Cuba’s phenomenal achievements. 

It is preposterous and incomprehensible that the US continues to promote itself as a champion of human rights, while being the world’s greatest violator of human rights.

It is equally incomprehensible, after what the entire world has witnessed over the past decade, not only in Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan, but also in the very belly of the beast, the US itself, that anyone of us, in Cuba or elsewhere, could still be deceived and fall prey to the false promise that US intervention and capitalism can lead to prosperity, freedom and democracy. It is important at this time to remember the words of the revolutionary and friend of Cuba, Kwame Ture: “Capitalism and Imperialism do not lie sometimes; they lie all the time.”

In unity and struggle,

Gerald A. Perreira

On behalf of the National Directorate, Organization for the Victory of the People (OVP), Guyana, www.ovpguyana.org

Gerald A. Perreira is a writer, educator, theologian and political activist. He is chairperson of the Guyanese organizations Black Consciousness Movement Guyana (BCMG) and Organization for the Victory of the People (OVP). He is an executive member of the Caribbean Chapter of the Network for Defense of Humanity. He lived in Libya for many years, served in the Green March, an international battalion for the defense of the Al Fateh revolution, and was a founding member of the World Mathaba, based in Tripoli, Libya. He can be reached at mojadi94@gmail.com.

UK

Million children of key workers live in poverty, TUC reveals 

Over a million children of key workers are currently living in poverty, the TUC has revealed.

The research, produced by Landman Economics, found that in some regions more than a quarter of children in key worker households are living in poverty.

Key worker families in the North East have the highest rate of child poverty (29%), followed by London (27%), the West Midlands (25%) and Yorkshire and the Humber (25%).

According to the TUC, the main reasons for key worker family poverty are low pay and insecure hours – factors that often coincide in occupations such as care workers, delivery drivers or supermarket staff.

High housing costs, insufficient support through Universal Credit, and the cap on pay rises for key workers in the public sector were also cited as causes for key worker poverty.

‘Every key worker deserves a decent standard of living for their family. But too often their hard work is not paying off like it should. And they struggle to keep up with the basic costs of family life,’ said TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady.

‘The prime minister has promised to ‘build back fairer’. He should start with our key workers. They put themselves in harm’s way to keep the country going through the pandemic. Now, we must be there for them too.

‘This isn’t just about doing right thing by key workers. If we put more money in the pockets of working families, their spending will help our businesses and high streets recover. It’s the fuel in the tank that our economy needs.’

Mark Russell, chief executive of The Children’s Society, described the TUC’s findings as ‘truly shocking’.

‘Our own research has shown that many families in these key worker and zero hours’ contract roles are often migrant families with no recourse to public funds (NRPF) meaning they haven’t been able to access many mainstream benefits during the pandemic when they have experienced job losses or reduced income,’ he said.

‘It’s essential that these families can access the support they need as we recover from COVID to ensure that no children are left behind. This is why it is critical that the NRPF condition is not applied to families with children under 18.’

Mr Russell added: ‘For families that can access support through the social security system, we also urge the Government to scrap the two-child limit and remove the household benefit cap – policies which are currently applied regardless of household need. If these were to be removed it would be a big step forward in helping struggling key worker families as we recover from the pandemic.’

The Local Government Association (LGA) today urged the Government to put children at the heart of the post-pandemic recovery.

Buffett’s company abandons $1.3B natural gas pipeline deal



FILE - In this May 5, 2019, file photo Warren Buffett, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, smiles as he plays bridge following the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting in Omaha, Neb. Buffett’s company is abandoning its purchase of a natural gas pipeline from Dominion Energy because of uncertainty about whether the deal could get regulatory approval. Berkshire Hathaway Inc. will receive a $1.3 billion refund on the proposed purchase of Questar Pipelines that was also supposed to include $430 million of Dominion’s debt when it was announced a year ago. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File)


OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Warren Buffett’s company is abandoning its purchase of a natural gas pipeline from Dominion Energy because of uncertainty about whether the deal could get regulatory approval.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. will receive a $1.3 billion refund on the proposed purchase of Questar Pipelines that was also supposed to include $430 million of Dominion’s debt when it was announced a year ago. The Richmond, Virginia-based energy company said it still plans to sell Questar and will work to find another buyer by the end of the year. Dominion also said the decision won’t affect its financial outlook.

Separate from the Questar pipeline deal, Berkshire did buy $2.7 billion worth of Dominion’s natural gas transmission and storage assets last year, which included more than 5,500 miles of natural gas transmission pipelines and about 775 billion cubic feed of gas storage facilities. Berkshire also took on $5.3 billion of Dominion debt as part of that transaction.

The decision to forego the Questar pipeline purchase reduces the value of one of Berkshire’s biggest deals from last year. In recent years, Berkshire has struggled to find sizeable acquisitions to make use of its growing $145.4 billion cash pile, so it has invested roughly $38 billion in its own stock since the start of 2020.

The Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire conglomerate owns more than 90 companies including several major utilities, BNSF railroad, large insurance companies including Geico and an assortment of retail and manufacturing companies. Berkshire also holds sizeable stock investments in Apple, Bank of America, Coca-Cola and other companies.

DEMOCRATIC Maine governor vetoes consumer-owned electric utility

By DAVID SHARP July 13, 2021

Maine Gov. Janet Mills speaks to reporters in her cabinet room, Tuesday, July 13, 2021, in Augusta, Maine, after announcing she has vetoed a bill to replace the state's privately owned electric utilities with a consumer-owned utility. (AP Photo/David Sharp)

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — A bill that that aimed to eliminate Maine’s privately owned electric utilities by buying them out and replacing them with a consumer-owned utility was vetoed Tuesday by Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, likely spelling the end of the proposal this legislative session.

Mills acknowledged that performance of Central Maine Power and Versant Power has been “abysmal” but said the proposal to send them packing — with voters getting the final say — was “deeply flawed” and “hastily drafted and hastily amended.”

“I certainly agree that change is necessary. No question about that. And I remain open to considering alternative proposals,” she said.

The bill’s chief sponsor, Rep. Seth Berry, D-Bowdoinham, disputed the governor’s characterization of the proposal, arguing that it was thoroughly vetted over the past three years.

And it isn’t going away. A coalition will be launching a referendum drive to put the proposal before voters anyway next year, instead of this fall.

Supporters said it’s time to replace Central Maine Power and Versant Power, which are owned by corporations in Spain and Canada, with an entity that works in the interest of Mainers instead of shareholders.

The new entity, Pine Tree Power, would keep rates low, respond faster to outages and support clean energy projects, they said.

Critics accused the bill’s supporters of underestimating the cost of buying the utility companies and said ratepayers would be saddled with billions of dollars of debt from the purchase and litigation.

The bill came at a time of frustration with CMP, the state’s largest electric utility, over a botched rollout of a billing system, slow response to storm damage and power outages, and a controversial utility corridor that would serve as a conduit for Canadian hydropower.

The bill won bipartisan support in the Maine Legislature, but Berry acknowledged there’s little hope of reaching a two-thirds majority necessary to override the governor’s veto.

The veto came a day after an independent audit conducted for the Maine Public Utilities Commission found that CMP is making improvements and isn’t “irredeemably flawed.”

But the report also said “it remains prudent to question the sustainability of the positive changes that have occurred.”

Berry said “modest improvements” cited in the report were in response to the bill that aimed to replace the utilities, and that those improvements will “go away as soon as this bill goes away.”

The veto was not a surprise. Mills previously called the proposal “a rosy solution to a very complicated series of problems.”

On Tuesday, she reiterated her concerns about the bill, calling it “a patchwork of political promises rather than a methodical reformation of Maine’s complicated electrical transmission and distribution system.”

She said she had a number of concerns including who’d operate the grid, the potential loss of property taxes for several communities, and the bill’s language that could affect the tax-exempt status of bonds.

She said she wasn’t closing the door on a takeover of the utilities but said she wants more time and effort to go into the vetting.

In the meantime, she said the state should step up its regulatory efforts through the Public Utilities Commission, look at performance-based incentives like those used in Hawaii and consider beefing up the state’s divestiture law.

William Dunn from Our Power, which will lead the referendum drive to put the proposal before voters next year, dismissed the idea that regulators can solve the utilities’ problems.

“Maine regulators cannot fix this problem any more than a mouse can tame a cat,” Dunn said.

Lawsuit says Alabama blocking solar power with unfair fees
By KIM CHANDLER

In this Thursday, Nov. 14, 2019 file photo, Teresa Thorne walks out of her solar power-equipped home near Springville, Ala. The fees imposed by the Alabama Power company on customers who generate their own electricity with rooftop or on-site solar panels are now the subject of a federal lawsuit against the state's regulators. Environmental groups argue that punishing fees are purposely discouraging the adoption of solar power in the sun-rich state. (AP Photo/Jay Reeves, File)

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The fees imposed by the Alabama Power company on customers who generate their own electricity with rooftop or on-site solar panels are now the subject of a federal lawsuit against the state’s regulators.

Environmental groups argue that punishing fees are purposely discouraging the adoption of solar power in the sun-rich state.

Alabama Power maintains that the fees are needed to maintain the infrastructure that provides backup power to customers when their solar panels don’t provide enough energy.

The Southern Environmental Law Center and Ragsdale LLC filed the lawsuit on Monday against the Alabama Public Service Commission on behalf of four Alabama Power customers who installed solar panels on their properties and the Greater-Birmingham Alliance to Stop Pollution, or GASP.

“We’re asking the court to require the Commission to follow the law so that Alabama Power will stop unfairly taxing private solar investments,” said Keith Johnston, director of SELC’s Alabama office.

“Alabama is being left behind by other Southern states when it comes to solar generation, and the jobs, bill savings and other benefits that come with it,” SELC’s statement said. “These charges are a significant roadblock to our state’s success.”

A spokesperson for the Public Service Commission wrote in an email that, “it would not be appropriate for the Alabama Public Service Commission to comment on pending litigation.”

Alabama Power charges a $5.41-per-kilowatt fee, based on the capacity of the home system, on people who use solar panels or other means to generate part of their own electricity. That amounts to a $27 monthly fee on a typical 5-kilowatt system. The average solar panel setup for a home costs about $10,000, according to the law center, and the fees add another $9,000 or so over a system’s 30-year lifespan, dramatically increasing costs and reducing any financial benefit for the homeowner.

Alabama Power maintains that the fees are needed to maintain the infrastructure that provides backup power. A spokesperson for Alabama Power said, “we believe Alabama law and sound ratemaking principles were followed in reaching a fair determination of the cost for this service.”

“It is important to us that all of our 1.5 million customers are treated fairly. There is nothing about the lawsuit that changes our position – we believe the lawsuit is without merit. Customers who want to rely on the company to back up their own generation should pay their share of associated costs,” Alabama Power spokesperson Alyson Tucker wrote in an email.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rejected the environmental groups’ request to take enforcement action last month against the Public Service Commission.

However, two members of the five-member panel issued a separate statement expressing concern that Alabama regulators may be violating federal policies designed to encourage the development of cogeneration and small power production facilities and to reduce the demand for fossil fuels.

While the lawsuit deals with home and business solar energy systems, Alabama Power on Tuesday won approval for its own large solar project.

The Alabama Public Service Commission approved Alabama Power’s proposal for an 80-megawatt HEP Greenville solar project to be located in Butler County. Annual output generated from the HEP Greenville solar project is equivalent to the amount of energy used in nearly 15,000 homes, the company said.