Monday, August 23, 2021

It’s Not Just Manchin: Top House Energy Democrat Also Has Fossil Fuel Conflicts
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone listens in the White House Visitors Center at the U.S. Capitol on November 6, 2020, in Washington, D.C.
AL DRAGO/GETTY IMAGES
PUBLISHED August 22, 2021
This article was produced by Sludge, an independent, ad-free investigative news site covering money in politics. Click here to support Sludge.

Amid the mounting climate emergency, the House Democrat who chairs the committee overseeing energy policy benefits from investments in large U.S. greenhouse gas polluters. Environmental activists nationally and in his home state have pressured him to back stronger regulations on emissions.

Fourteen-term Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey, who became chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee in 2019, will serve a crucial role in shaping legislation to achieve cuts in greenhouse gas emissions sought by the Biden administration and House Democrats. His committee’s jurisdiction includes “environmental protection” and “clean air and climate change.” In shepherding legislation on climate policies, it serves as the counterpart to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, headed up by fossil fuel-friendly Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who has made millions in outside income from a family coal business while working to slow limits on emissions. Pallone’s committee will decide which climate measures advance to a full House vote in this Congress.

Last week was the deadline for Pallone’s office to release his annual financial disclosure for 2020, and the report shows that his spouse continues to hold stock in companies that play an active role in lobbying against strong climate policy: up to $15,000 worth in Chevron; up to $15,000 worth in electric utility Dominion Energy; and up to $30,000 worth in General Electric, the conglomerate that owns subsidiaries in the oil industry. Pallone’s spouse, Sarah Hospodor, first acquired the Chevron and Dominion stocks in 2012 and has pocketed capital gains of up to $1,000 each year since from each of the companies. She has held the GE stock since at least 2007, the first year for which Pallone’s financial disclosures are available. Hospodor occasionally sells portions of her GE stock holdings.

After Democrats won the 2018 midterms, as he was set to ascend to his perch on the Energy Committee, Pallone rejected the calls of Sunrise Movement activists to sign the No Fossil Fuel Money pledge eschewing campaign contributions over $200 from companies, lobbyists, and executives in the fossil fuel industry, telling them “no” repeatedly to their faces, according to Sunrise Movement co-founder Varshini Prakash. Last cycle, Pallone brought in nearly $300,000 from energy company PACs, a haul that has been steadily rising since he became the ranking member in 2014 of the House committee that handles legislation on climate issues. His 2020 PAC donors include those associated with Chevron, TransCanada, Duke Energy, and dozens more heavily polluting companies. Last cycle, Pallone received the second-highest amount of all House Democrats in donations from the Energy and Natural Resources sector, according to OpenSecrets.

A recent International Energy Agency report found that in order for the world to be on track to reach net zero emissions by 2050 no new fossil fuel infrastructure can be permitted, while the sale of new gasoline-powered vehicles must be halted by 2035. Emissions from power plants must be zeroed out by 2035 as well, with renewables providing the majority of their power generation and any carbon emissions captured. As part of the report’s call for a huge contraction in fossil fuel use in the energy sector, coal and gas-powered plants must be shut down as soon as 2040 in favor of renewable sources. Contrary to the latest reports from the IEA and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the Biden administration has approved 2,000 drilling and fracking permits on federal lands and recently called for expanded oil production.

Counting Fossil Gas as “Clean Energy”

In the previous Congress, Pallone made clear he does not support the Green New Deal framework, which calls for a 10-year national mobilization to achieve converting 100% of U.S. power demand to renewable, zero-emissions sources, among other investments in clean energy and frontline communities.

In March, Pallone and Energy Subcommittee chairs introduced their version of a major climate plan, the CLEAN Future Act, which proposes a Clean Electricity Standard (CES) that rises to 80% of consumer electricity by 2030 and 100% by 2035, toward net zero U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The bill would provide credits for clean power sources, which it defines as those producing 0.82 tons of carbon dioxide or less per megawatt-hour of power, meaning that nearly any type of natural gas plant, which average 0.6 metric tons according to the nonpartisan think tank Niskanen Center, would at least initially be eligible for credits. According to the bill summary, after 2035, electricity suppliers that exceed the rising emissions limits could buy credits under a trading program to reach compliance.

Chevron is a member of the powerhouse lobbying group American Petroleum Institute (API), which spent decades fighting environmental initiatives and stalling climate regulations behind the scenes. API’s response to the IEA report in May simply insisted on the continued use of oil and fossil gas. In partial disclosures earlier this year prompted by climate activists, Chevron disclosed membership in the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), which claimed not to have a position on the climate goals of the Paris Agreement of Dec. 2015, as well as the California Independent Petroleum Association (CIPA) and other groups that lobby against enforcement of climate measures.

Dominion Energy is a member of the trade group Edison Electric Institute, which has been pushing to keep a role for natural gas in Democrats’ energy plans. In May 2019, over a dozen large environmental groups including Oil Change International and 350.org put out findings that the continued use of gas would tip global emissions over levels set in the Paris Accord. Last year, as the CLEAN Future Act was being previewed, the groups Friends of the Earth and Food & Water Action called for Pallone’s bill to commit to a ban on fracking, as well as on exports and imports of fossil fuels. Dominion is the tenth biggest greenhouse gas polluter in the U.S., according to a 2020 study by the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at UMass Amherst.

According to the UK research group InfluenceMap, General Electric’s “Future of Energy” white paper from 2020 promoted continued use of fossil gas in the energy mix without mentioning adequate regulations to reduce its methane emissions. The company owns Baker Hughes, one of the biggest oil field services companies in the world, as well as GE Gas Power, which makes turbines for industries including oil and gas, cement, and data centers. It was the seventh largest toxic air polluter in PERI’s 2020 study.

Last month, Pallone was called out by New Jersey activists in rallies outside his district offices. “In light of the revelation of how Exxon lobbies Congress to ensure that no legislation will adequately address climate change, we now see why Frank Pallone’s CLEAN Future Act does nothing to ban fracking or new fossil fuel infrastructure,” said Joan Farkas, chair of Our Revolution Monmouth County.

Comparing the timelines in his CLEAN Future Act, which has 20 House cosponsors, and the Green New Deal, which has 102 House cosponsors, Pallone told NJ.com in February, “If I can move it up to 2030 and get the votes to do it, obviously I would. It’s an issue of what we can do.”

In the 2020 cycle, Pallone received the fifth-highest amount of PAC contributions among House Democrats, according to OpenSecrets. Chairs of congressional committees frequently put corporate PAC contributions toward paying party dues for powerful leadership positions.

Sludge inquired with Pallone’s House office if the congressman saw any potential conflicts in his household holding fossil fuel stock while playing a major role in setting emissions deadlines, and did not receive a response. Sludge also inquired on Pallone’s position on two bipartisan bills that would ban individual stock ownership and transactions by members of Congress — Rep. Krishnamoorthi’s H.R. 1579, the Ban Conflicted Trading Act, with 20 cosponsors, and Rep. Spanberger’s H.R. 336, the TRUST in Congress Act, with 15 cosponsors — and did not receive a response.

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David Moore
David Moore is a co-founder of Sludge. David previously worked as director of the nonprofit Participatory Politics Foundation, creating free and open-source technology for civic engagement. The Foundation’s flagship website, the congressional transparency resource OpenCongress, received 70 million page views between 2007-2013, with hundreds of thousands of users tracking bills, campaign contributions and votes to follow the money.

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Methane Is Flaring Out of Control. Biden Administration, Congress Must Step In.
A flare burns at an Apache facility near Balmorhea, Texas, on April 2, 2017.
COURTESY EARTHWORKS
PUBLISHEDAugust 21, 2021

This summer, methane got a nickname that stuck. Climate scientists and policy analysts have been calling the greenhouse gas a “low-hanging fruit” for years, but the term seems to have caught on more broadly among world leaders, journalists and organizers, due in part to a major United Nations report on methane and the most dire Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment issued yet.

Methane is the second greatest contributor to the climate emergency after carbon dioxide, but unlike CO2, it only sticks around the atmosphere for about a decade. So cutting methane emissions drastically and immediately can have a sizable impact on keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius and thereby averting the most catastrophic impacts of climate change, such as global food shortage.

In total, the oil and gas industry is responsible for over one-third of methane emissions, some of which occur through flaring and venting: the practice of burning off, or releasing unwanted methane gas in the process of drilling, pumping, transporting and refining fossil fuels.

An August 19 report by Earthworks reveals that among the lowest of low-hanging fruits may be found in the Permian Basin, in West Texas, where up to 84 percent of producers are flaring without permits. Since fracking was commercialized a decade ago, the Permian Basin has exploded as the top oil-producing region in the U.S.

The report outlines how state regulators charged with keeping tabs on flaring, including the Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC), which issues flaring permits, and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), which oversees air quality, are doing nothing to stop producers observed to be dumping gas into the atmosphere. In other words, the Permian Basin is even more of a climate bomb — and a potential site of climate intervention — than environmentalists may have originally thought.

Texas is the top flarer of all U.S. states, according to federal data from 2019. But the practice is a problem far beyond the Lone Star State. A July study in Environmental Research Letters found that across the U.S., over half a million people live within three miles of a flare. Living near a flare is associated with 50 percent higher odds of premature birth. In addition to being a climate pollutant, methane, which seeps out of leaky flares, is also the primary precursor to the asthma-causing pollutant ground-level ozone.

Methane emissions have slid under the rug for years — in part because the gas is invisible to the human eye, but also because systems for monitoring emissions are less comprehensive and therefore more uncertain than for CO2. Sometimes, incomplete flaring leads to black smoke that is visible, also known as black carbon. But in recordings at oil and gas production sites without a special camera, you can also see a lot of sky.

The increased use of optical gas imaging (OGI) cameras in recent years has made it possible to watch dark plumes of otherwise unseen pollutants escape from inactive-looking infrastructure, like steel storage tanks and thin metal chimneys.

Sharon Wilson, a senior field advocate for Earthworks and co-author of the report on unpermitted flaring, is a certified optical gas imaging thermographer and has been busy capturing footage of oil and gas production sites around the U.S. since 2014.

It’s only when putting an OGI camera up to one’s face, Wilson told Truthout, that dark plumes of pollutants become visible, turning landscapes into what look like war zones. “If people could see with their naked eye what I see with my lens, there would never have been a fracking boom.”

According to the report, many flares are left unlit, which means they are seeping methane straight into the atmosphere, rather than burning it, which makes the release visible and at least converts the gas into less-potent carbon dioxide.

To assess flaring operations in the Permian, Wilson and co-author Jack McDonald pulled from two data sets. One was generated from Environmental Defense Fund helicopter flyovers using OGI cameras from the sky to capture flares in January, March and June of 2020. After ensuring the data was focused specifically on the area of the Permian Basin in Texas, rather than in New Mexico, the authors cross-referenced that data with permits logged in the RRC’s database.

If there was any overlap between a flare observed during flyovers and one for which a permit could be identified in the database, over any period, the authors gave the producer and regulators the benefit of the doubt, and counted that site as permitted. But ultimately, of the total 227 flares they ended up counting, a mere 35 sites had permits to flare every time they were observed to be doing so. Many companies were found to be flaring without ever obtaining a permit, including Diamondback Energy, Conoco and Shell.

In Texas, flaring permits are governed by a state administrative law known as Rule 32. Under the rule, flaring is only legal for the first 10 days of a new oil and gas operation. After that, the practice is illegal without a permit, except for during 24-hour emergency periods. But the law does not clearly define what conditions oil and gas companies need to justify a permit or emergency exemption.

As such, the operations that have received permits have essentially been rubber-stamped, the report suggests. Operators have applied for and received permits to flare for a host of nebulous reasons such as “inconsistent curtailments” or “economic conditions.” Still, the vast majority are unpermitted, the report suggests.

Earthworks visited one site known as the “Seattle Slew” 14 times with an optical gas camera, as is described in the report, and detected pollution every time — nine of which involved flaring specifically. The owner of the site, MDC, has never been issued a permit from the RRC, according to the analysis. Earthworks reported as much to the TCEQ.

According to correspondence Earthworks obtained via a public records request, the state agency did reach out to the company about the findings. “There is no way to estimate how much gas was vented, as we don’t measure our tank gas … since it isn’t sold to gas sales but instead sent to the combustor for incineration,” MDC replied. “Also, we don’t know for how long this gas was vented to the atmosphere.”

In spite of this response, the state agency did not issue any violations, Earthworks found. A TCEQ representative told Truthout that “compliance determinations were made based on a review of the completed questionnaires and other relevant data such as reported emission events and applicable permits or authorizations,” noting that the facility did have a permit covering other emissions, including volatile organic compounds, nitrous oxide and carbon.

Wilson says she’s documented numerous similar instances in which she’s reported emissions violations on the ground, such as at Diamondback’s Waler State Battery site, which regulators have all but shrugged off.

In response to the report, RRC Spokesperson Andrew Keese told Reuters, “A short-term observation of a flare from a flyover and absence of an explicit exception does not necessarily mean the observed flaring is illegal.”

In July, the RRC published data suggesting that the practice of flaring was declining across the state, dropping from 2.29 percent of all natural gas produced in June 2019, to 0.65 percent in May 2021. “Texas is seeing significantly reduced flaring rates as a result of improved technologies, infrastructure and regulatory processes,” RRC Chair Christi Craddick said in a statement.

McDonald, however, said that dealings with the two state agencies do not offer much assurance. “From what we can tell, this seems to be an issue broadly across Texas, with just this kind of systemic lack of will to go and get these permits.”

Without closely monitoring releases, or following up on violations, the agency’s data is a moot point. “Even if they are right that exempt flaring is exclusively the cause of the flaring, the RRC does not know how much flaring is happening,” McDonald said. “That means they are dramatically underestimating the amount of flaring that’s actually happening in the state because they aren’t able to account for all those exempt flares.”

As Clean Energy Wire has reported, oil and gas production in places like the Permian has expanded faster than infrastructure to transport it. Oil is still profitable, but gas prices are so low that it’s cheaper to burn it on the spot, or release it directly, than to pay to send it to markets.

The report concludes with a handful of actions state lawmakers and regulators could take to bring protocols in line with the regulatory agencies’ purported missions, including making all permitting data and enforcement actions publicly available online; updating Rule 32 such that it clearly identifies what justifications warrant a flaring permit or an emergency exemption; and creating an impartial panel free of oil and gas interests within the RRC to review all flaring permits.

But Wilson says real reform will also require action beyond state lines. “After over a decade, it’s pretty clear that Texas has no intention of enforcing any rules,” Wilson said, noting lawmakers’ and regulators’ conflicts of interest. The RRC’s Craddick, for instance, owns land with her father — a state congressman — that generated over $100,000 from natural gas production in 2019, according to The Texas Tribune.

The Biden administration is likely to unveil a new methane rule in September. In anticipation, the RRC and TCEQ penned a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in July requesting minimal changes. “The TCEQ has a robust air permitting program. Air permits typically include fugitive monitoring programs and control of volatile organic compound emissions, which could include methane emissions since methane is not separated from [volatile organic compounds] prior to atmospheric release,” agency directors wrote. “Additional requirements to control and monitor methane specifically are burdensome to the regulated community, duplicative and are therefore unnecessary.”

Given that the EPA delegates how states must implement Clean Air Act regulations, Wilson says the moment warrants the strongest possible rule, such as one that would lead to slashing oil and gas methane emissions 65 percent by 2025. “If Biden is serious about taking action on the climate, the federal government will need to step in,” she said. “What they give, they can take away.”
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Tech “Solutions” Are Pushed by Fossil Fuel Industry to Delay Real Climate Action
A scientist holds a pressure monitor beside a new carbon capture test unit at the coal-fired Longanet power station on May 29, 2009, in Longanet, Scotland. The technology uses chemicals to remove carbon dioxide and turns it into a liquid stored underground
.JEFF J MITCHELL/GETTY IMAGES
PUBLISHED August 22, 2021

This month, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the world authority on the state of Earth’s climate, released the first installment of its Sixth Assessment Report on global warming. It was signed off by 195 member governments. It spells out, in no uncertain terms, the stakes we are up against — and why we have no time to waste in taking dramatic steps to build a green economy.

The IPCC has been publishing reports on the state of the climate and projections for climate change since 1990. The first IPCC report surmised that human activities were behind global warming, but that further scientific evidence was needed. By the time the Fourth Assessment Report came out in 2007, the evidence for human-caused global warming was described as “unequivocal,” with at least a 9 out of 10 chance of being correct. The report confirmed that the warming of the Earth’s surface to record levels was due to the extra heat being trapped by greenhouse gases and called for immediate action to combat the challenge of global warming.

The Sixth Assessment Report finally states in absolute terms that anthropogenic emissions are responsible for the rising temperatures in the atmosphere, lands and the oceans. In other words, the fossil fuel industry is destroying the planet. And, in a similar tone to some of its previous reports, the IPCC warns that time is running out to combat global warming and avoid its worse effects. Without sharp reduction in emissions, we could easily exceed the 2 degrees Celsius (2°C) temperature threshold by the middle of the century.

Of course, we are already in a climate crisis. Heat waves have broken records this summer in many parts of the world, including the Pacific Northwest of the United States and western Canada; wildfires have ravaged huge areas in southern Europe, causing “disaster without precedent” in Greece, Spain and the Italian island of Sardinia; and deadly floods have upended life in China and Germany. Global average temperatures stand now at 1.1°C above pre-industrial levels. A global warming increase of 1.5°C would have a much greater effect on the probability of extreme weather effects like heat waves, floods, droughts and storms, and at 2°C, things get a lot nastier — and for a much larger percentage of the world’s population.

At current trends, it’s most unlikely that global warming can be held at 1.5°C. We have already emitted enough greenhouse gases into the atmosphere to cause 2°C of warming, according to a group of international scientists who published their findings in Nature Climate Change. Even a 3°C increase or more is plausible. In fact, the Network for Greening the Financial System (a group of central banks and supervisors) is already considering climate scenarios with over 3°C of warming, labeling it the “Hot House World.”

Yet, in spite of all the dire climate warnings by IPCC and scores of other scientific studies, the world’s political and corporate leaders continue with their “business-as-usual” approach when it comes to tackling the climate crisis.

Almost immediately after the release of the new IPCC report, the Biden administration urged the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to increase oil production because higher prices threaten global economic recovery. In fact, Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, actually criticized the world’s major oil producers for not producing enough oil. Naturally, Republicans responded by demanding that the Biden administration should encourage U.S. oil producers to boost production instead of turning to OPEC.

Preposterously, the Biden administration seems to think that the best way to tackle global warming caused by anthropogenic emissions is through increasing levels of combustion of fossil fuels.

This must also be the thinking behind China’s affinity for coal, as the world’s biggest carbon polluter is actually financing more than 70 percent of coal plants built globally.The Network for Greening the Financial System (a group of central banks and supervisors) is already considering climate scenarios with over 3°C of warming, labeling it the “Hot House World.”

Or perhaps this is all part of a framework that assumes, “We are doomed, so let’s get it over with quickly.”

In either case, one suspects that political inaction and the prospect of losing the battle against the climate emergency may be the reason why the new IPCC climate report has fully embraced the idea of carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere with the aid of technology as a necessary strategy to contain global warming.

The need for carbon removal was also addressed in the IPCC’s 2018 special report on the 1.5°C temperature limit, both through natural and technological carbon dioxide removal strategies. And an IPCC special report on carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) dates all the way back to 2005. But it seems that IPCC is now placing greater emphasis than before on innovation and carbon-removal technologies, especially through the process known as direct air carbon capture and storage (DACCS).

The actual rationale for the emphasis on a technological fix (geoengineering, by the way, which involves large-scale intervention in and manipulation of the Earth’s natural system, is not included in the IPCC’s latest report) lies in the belief that we can no longer hope to limit global warming to 1.5°C without carbon dioxide removal of greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere, which will then be stored into underground geologic structures or deep under the sea.

Unfortunately, there is a long history of technological promises to address the climate crisis, and the main result is delaying action towards decarbonization and a shift to clean energy, as researchers from Lancaster University have so convincingly argued in a published article in Nature Climate Change.

As things stand, technological solutions to global warming are largely procrastination methods favored by the fossil fuel industry and its political allies. The carbon removal industry is still in its infancy, costs are extremely high, and the methods are unreliable. Nonetheless, both governments and the private sector are investing billions of dollars in the industry and attempts are being made to sell the idea to the public as a necessary step in avoiding a climate catastrophe. A Swiss company called Climeworks is just finishing the completion of a new large-scale direct air capture plant in Iceland, and a similar project is in the works in Norway with hopes that it would actually lead to the creation of “a full-scale carbon capture chain, capable of storing Europe’s emissions permanently under the North Sea.” South Korea is also working on a carbon capture and storage project that may become the biggest in the world.

In the U.S., Republican lawmakers have also been very aggressive in touting carbon capture and storage technologies since the introduction of the Green New Deal legislation by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Edward Markey in 2019.

It all adds up. Relying on technology to attempt to meet climate targets at this stage of the game is meant to obstruct the world from moving away from the use of fossil fuels. If we emphasize those false “fixes,” we are simply quickening the pace of a complete climate collapse with utterly catastrophic consequences for all life on planet Earth.

Our only hope to tackle effectively the climate crisis and save the planet rests not with technological solutions but, instead, with a Green International Economic Order. We need a Global Green New Deal (GGND) to reach net zero emissions by 2050. And this means a world economy without fossil fuels and the industry behind them that is destroying life on the planet.

Decarbonizing the global economy and shifting to clean energy is not an easy task, but it is surely feasible both from a financial and technical standpoint, as numerous studies have shown. According to leading progressive UMass-Amherst economist Robert Pollin, we need to invest between 2.5 to 3 percent of global GDP per year in order to attain a clean energy transformation. Moreover, while 250 years of growth based on the use of fossil fuels have delivered (unequal) economic benefits to the world, a world economy run on clean energy will bring environmental, social and economic benefits. One major study released out of Stanford University shows that a GGND would create nearly 30 million more long-term, full-time jobs than if we remained stuck with what it calls “business-as-usual energy.”

The latest IPCC report, just like previous ones released by the organization, predicts disaster if we do not radically — and immediately — curb carbon dioxide emissions. But we know by now that we cannot rely on our political leaders to do what must be done to save the planet. Nor can we expect technology to solve the climate emergency. Carbon removal and carbon capture technologies won’t solve global warming in time, if ever. Only a roadmap calling for a complete transition away from fossil fuels will save planet Earth.

Pressures from below — led by those on the front lines, labor unions, environmental groups, civil rights movements and students — are our only hope for the necessary changes in the way we produce, deliver and consume energy.

And change is happening. We are moving forward.

Think of how a climate awareness protest by a Swedish teenager turned into a global movement. Or the impact that the Sunrise Movement has had on U.S. politics on account of its activism on the climate crisis within only a few years after it was founded. Or the fact that we have 20 labor unions in California (including two representing thousands of oil workers) endorsing a clean energy transition report produced by a group of progressive economists at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Or of the great work that the Labor Network for Sustainability is doing in engaging workers and communities in the mission of “building a transition to a society that is ecologically sustainable and economically just.”

The future belongs to the green economy. It can happen. It will happen.


C.J. Polychroniou
C.J. Polychroniou is a political scientist/political economist, author, and journalist who has taught and worked in numerous universities and research centers in Europe and the United States. Currently, his main research interests are in U.S. politics and the political economy of the United States, European economic integration, globalization, climate change and environmental economics, and the deconstruction of neoliberalism’s politico-economic project. He is a regular contributor to Truthout as well as a member of Truthout’s Public Intellectual Project. He has published scores of books and over 1,000 articles which have appeared in a variety of journals, magazines, newspapers and popular news websites. Many of his publications have been translated into a multitude of different languages, including Arabic, Chinese, Croatian, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Turkish. His latest books are Optimism Over Despair: Noam Chomsky On Capitalism, Empire, and Social Change (2017); Climate Crisis and the Global Green New Deal: The Political Economy of Saving the Planet (with Noam Chomsky and Robert Pollin as primary authors, 2020); The Precipice: Neoliberalism, the Pandemic, and the Urgent Need for Radical Change (an anthology of interviews with Noam Chomsky, 2021); and Economics and the Left: Interviews with Progressive Economists (2021).


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Nanaimo woman searching for lost fossil dating back 445M years

Andrew Garland
CTV News Vancouver Island Staff
Published Tuesday, August 10, 2021

The Nanaimo RCMP have been notified of the missing fossil and say there was no signs of forced entry into Mary-Lou Swanek’s home. (CTV News)


NANAIMO -- A Nanaimo woman who discovered a fossil that dates back 445 million years is desperately trying to find it after she noticed it had gone missing from her home.

Mary-Lou Swanek had company over at her apartment on Stewart Avenue in downtown Nanaimo last month and wanted to show off her fossil.

“I went to get it and it wasn’t there,” says Swanek. “And that’s when I tore my home apart.”


Since then, she has checked local pawnshops and posted on social media but has had no luck.

Swanek kept the fossil she describes as “priceless” in a hidden spot inside her home.

The last time she recalls having it out was back in June 2020 when she posted the fossil on a Facebook page called Fossil Hunters.

During the lockdown of the pandemic, Swanek says she didn’t have anyone in her home and only recently started having company over since restrictions loosened.



The Nanaimo RCMP have been notified of the missing fossil and say there was no signs of forced entry into Swanek’s home.

Swanek found the fossil in 2002 while out boating on Georgian Bay in Ontario.

She contacted the Royal Ontario Museum shortly after finding it. The museum had it in their possession for about year.

Dave Rudkin of the Royal Ontario Museum wrote in an article at the time that the fossil is “a superb example of a ‘trace fossil’ known by the impressive formal name Rusophycus polonicus.”

The article goes on to state the fossil is about 445 million years old.

The fossil was kept wrapped in plastic in a white box with a Royal Ontario Museum sticker on it. The box also contained the article that was published and photos of the fossil.

RELATED IMAGES



Dave Rudkin of the Royal Ontario Museum wrote in an article at the time that the fossil is “a superb example of a ‘trace fossil’ known by the impressive formal name Rusophycus polonicus.”
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Yukon miners unearth trove of prehistoric fossils

Miners dig up what they believe are 2 nearly-complete mammoth skeletons near Dawson City

CBC News · 
Miner Trey Charlie stands with a massive fossil he and his crew found near Dawson City, Yukon, a couple of weeks ago. The crew figures they dug up two almost-complete mammoth skeletons. (Submitted by Trey Charlie)

A crew of miners working outside Dawson City, Yukon, has unearthed a pile of fossils that appear to be the nearly-complete skeletons of two woolly mammoths. 

"Throughout the day I was picking bones. Ribs, teeth, all kinds of things," said Trey Charlie, a placer miner at the Little Flake Mine on the Indian River.

"It's probably one of the best days I've had working. It's so much fun to discover these things."

Charlie and a co-worker were working with excavators about two weeks ago, moving mud at the mine site when they found a tusk. 

"We were amazed by the size of it and how heavy it was, so we brought it back to the yard," he said.  

A fossil found at the Little Flake Mine near Dawson City, Yukon, appears to be a mammoth tusk. (Submitted by Trey Charlie)

Another scoop with the excavator had "bones falling out of the bucket," Charlie said. That's when the crew stopped work to search for more.

Placer miners in central Yukon have been digging up ice age mammal skulls, bones, tusks and fossils for more than a century — essentially, since the Klondike Gold Rush.

Mammoth bones are relatively common. The large, furry elephants roamed Alaska and Yukon until about 12,000 years ago. 

Woolly mammoths roamed the steppes of Alaska and Yukon until about 12,000 years ago.  (Beth Zaiken/Centre for Palaeogenetics via REUTERS)

Charlie said the bones his crew found last month appear to add up to two almost-complete skeletons with teeth, ribs, legs and more.

The Yukon government has now taken possession of the bones for further study after the mine called them to report the discovery. Miners are legally required to report such finds to the territorial government. 

The collection of fossils has been turned over to the Yukon government, as required by law in the territory. (Submitted by Trey Charlie)

A Yukon government spokesperson said paleontologists are now studying the bones. Nobody was available for an interview.

The Little Flake Mine has a crew of about 25 people and it's where the Discovery Channel's reality TV show Gold Rush is filmed. However, film crews from the show weren't there when the bones were found.

With files from Chris MacIntyre and Philippe Morin

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Maritime teens credited with discovering new species of dragonfly from 300 million years ago


Laura Lyall
CTV News Atlantic Videographer
Published Wednesday, July 28, 2021 


Two Maritime teens have found rare and scientifically significant fossil finds – including a more than 300-million-year-old dragonfly wing.

GRAND LAKE, N.B. -- For 17-year-old best friends Luke Allen and Rowan Norrad of Halifax, summer means going to Grand Lake, N.B., and searching the rocky shorelines for signs of life from long ago – and the two have been making a name for themselves with their significant fossil finds.

"My dad was the one who introduced me to the fossils here," says Norrad.

"He showed me a few plant fossils they'd found before and I was hooked. I brought Luke down – he's my best friend so I brought him down to stay with us at the cottage and I showed him – he's been coming here to do it again ever since."

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'It's super cool': Rare dragonfly fossil dating back over 300 million years discovered in N.B.

The two head out on fossil-finding missions in Grand Lake most days they're in the area, spending hours at a time scouring the rocks and recording their research – a passion for palaeontology that's only further fuelled by their finds.

"Basically we just walk up and down the beach flipping over all the rocks that we think might have fossils," says Allen.

"We've become pretty familiar with this area over the 10 years we've been looking here – so we kind of know generally what areas to look in. But a lot of it comes down to luck, so I guess we've been pretty lucky in these past few years."

You could chalk it up to a combination of both luck and skill that have led these high school students to make several very scientifically significant discoveries.

"In addition to hundreds of fossilized footprints of amphibians and reptiles, some of which might be new to the scientific fossil records, (Luke and Rowan) have also made many discoveries of invertebrates," says Matt Stimson, assistant curator of paleontology at the New Brunswick Museum.

"Things like little land snails and several plant fossils and most recently, a dragonfly."



The new species is called Brunellopteron Norradi, which is named partly after Paul Brunelle of the New Brunswick Museum who passed away last year – and partly after the Norrad family.

The fossil of a dragonfly wing discovered in the Grand Lake area was sent off to the Natural Museum of History in Paris to be studied – and recently published findings show that it's a new genus and a new species.

"It's amazing to be involved in something that important," says Allen.

The new species is called Brunellopteron Norradi, which is named partly after Paul Brunelle of the New Brunswick Museum who passed away last year – and partly after the Norrad family.

"Back then, we knew it was a dragonfly wing, but we didn't know what kind of dragonfly wing," says Stimson.

"The reason for that, is that it's something brand new."

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For 17-year-old best friends Luke Allen and Rowan Norrad of Halifax, summer means going to Grand Lake, N.B., and searching the rocky shorelines for signs of life from long ago – and the two have been making a name for themselves with their significant fossil finds.
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A Dalhousie University instructor's rare and significant fossil find

'I didn't know what it was, but I knew it was something important,' said Jennifer Frail-Gauthier
 By: Meghan Groff
Jennifer Frail-Gauthier found this 350 million-year-old fossilized tetrapod skull at Blue Beach earlier this monthPhoto supplied

Jennifer Frail-Gauthier says there was excitement in the air as she led a group of students on a fossil hunt at Blue Beach near Hantsport nearly two weeks ago.

"It was the first in-person course that students had had in almost a year and a half," said the Dalhousie University biology instructor.

But none of them could have imagined just how successful the trip would be.

Of the thousands of rocks on the beach, Frail-Gauthier stumbled upon a significant find; a 350 million-year-old fossilized tetrapod skull.

"I looked down and I knew from years of going to Blue Beach and hunting for tetrapod fossils that we wanted to look for something that was black," she told NEWS 95.7's talk show. "Black means bone in the rock."

"So when I looked down on this little tiny rock, I saw this round oval and I thought for sure that was one of the big fish scales of the fish that lived at that place at that time. But when I picked it up, the fossil was completely the same on the other side. There was another indentation with another black oval ... I didn't know what it was, but I knew it was something important."

Frail-Gauthier brought the find to Chris Mansky at the Blue Beach Fossil Museum near the Minas Basin beach.

"He was speechless," she said. "He knew right away what it was because they had found one about five years ago."

Frail-Gauthier explained the discovery is extremely valuable to the evolutionary record as there is a fossil gap for tetrapods in this time period, thought to be when these four-limbed animals with fingers and toes moved from water to land.

"Important fossils from before Blue Beach are around 360 million years old, and they are tetrapods that still lived in the water ... and then the first fossils after that time period are 340 million years old and they are full on amphibian-like tetrapods," she said.

"That's why this fossil is so important, because it could represent that transitional time from the tetrapods living in water, to the tetrapods living on land."

Frail-Gauthier believes she had a one in a million chance of stumbling on this fossil.

"Every day the tide exposes new fossils, but what's crazy is the tide can just take them away the next day," she said.

She calls Nova Scotia one of the most geologically rich places in the world.

"There was intense sedimentation coming down into the Fundy basin 350 million years ago. It was warm, shallow seas, so it was the perfect breeding ground for animals and plants," she explained.

"Joggins is about 40 million years later than Blue Beach, it's about 310 million years ago, but it was all part of the geological time period called the Carboniferous period."

If the fossil find has inspired you to head out and do your own search, you should know that all palaeontology and archaeology sites, including Joggins and Blue Beach, fall under the Special Places Protection Act, so you won't be able to keep your discoveries.

"So it's really important to not just go, find fossils and take them away," said Frail-Gauthier. "They could actually have a lot of significance."

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CTHULHU STUDIES
N.L. fossil discovery could be oldest known octopus ancestors, scientists say


Ben Cousins
CTVNews.ca Writer
Published Tuesday, March 30, 2021 



Earth scientists from Heidelberg University in Germany recently discovered several cone-shaped fossilized shells at Bacon Cove on the southwestern side of Conception Bay in N.L. (Communications Biology)


TORONTO -- Researchers have discovered in Newfoundland and Labrador what they believe could be the oldest-known ancestors of octopuses and squids.

Earth scientists from Heidelberg University in Germany recently discovered several cone-shaped fossilized shells at Bacon Cove on the southwestern side of Conception Bay in N.L.

The research, published last week in Communications Biology, notes the fossils date back 522 million years, which would make them 30 million years older than the oldest known cephalopods, the class of fish that includes squids, octopuses and cuttlefish.

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Read the full study here

“This find is extraordinary,” Gregor Austermann from Heidelberg University’s Department of Geosciences and co-head of the research project, said in a news release. “In scientific circles it was long suspected that the evolution of these highly developed organisms had begun much earlier than hitherto assumed, but there was a lack of fossil evidence to back up this theory.”

The scientists believe that because the shells resemble other early discoveries, but also have distinct differences, there could be a link between the discovery in Newfoundland and current cephalopods, meaning these fossils would be ancestors to the modern cephalopods.

“If they should actually be cephalopods, we would have to backdate the origin of cephalopods into the early Cambrian period,” said Anne Hildenbrand from Heidelberg University’s Institute of Earth Sciences and co-head of the research projects. “That would mean that cephalopods emerged at the very beginning of the evolution of multicellular organisms during the Cambrian explosion.”

The researchers add that more study needs to be conducted in the area, which will hopefully yield better-preserved fossils that could confirm their discovery.

“We are aware that an unequivocal cephalopod assignment of the specimens described and discussed here must await future findings of better-preserved material less affected by diagenesis,” the researchers wrote in the study.
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 Saskatchewan

North Dakota farmer hopes his hardships can benefit his peers in Sask.

Gabe Brown says after four years of lost crops he learned to work with the soil he had


Bryan Eneas · CBC News · 
While it may be raining in parts of the province on Sunday, much of Saskatchewan and the rest of the prairies has endured a brutal drought this summer. As that could become the norm, a farmer from North Dakota says the methods he's embraced have helped him this year in particular. (Richard Agecoutay/CBC News)

Learning to work with the soil rather than fighting so-called pests helped one North Dakota farmer, and he hopes his knowledge will help his peers north of the border, given this year's brutal drought. 

Gabe Brown bought a farm in North Dakota in the early 1990s. 

In 1995 and 1996, he said he lost 100 per cent of his crops to hail. In 1997 Brown wasn't able to harvest his crops due to drought. In 1998 he lost 80 per cent of his crop to hail. 

Brown told CBC Radio's Saskatchewan Weekend those four years were something he wouldn't wish on anyone. But he said those challenges were the best thing that could ever have happened to his family.

"It forced us to look at the way we were farming and ranching and to realize that if we're going to survive and be resilient, we needed to focus on the soil," Brown said. 

"We needed to focus on how do we make the soils not only more productive, but more resilient to these wide swings in temperature and moisture?"

Over years that have passed, Brown, who has since written a book on his methods, was able to learn a number of ecological principles he said were constant anywhere on earth. 

Acting with nature's context

Brown said nature always acts in context and, as an example, pointed to bananas, which obviously don't grow in North Dakota given the climate or environment, and grow where they're best suited to do so. 

But his farming and ranching peers, he said, are often acting out of nature's context. 

As an example, he said in his early years he said he was calving his cattle herd in January and February, but he realized given the harsh climates of North Dakota it made more sense to push his calving schedule to May and into early June, where it currently sits.

Brown said another principle of nature he learned was that the soil needs the least amount of chemical and mechanical disturbance as possible to thrive, which runs contrary to contemporary agricultural practices that use pesticides, fungicides and herbicides.

"I'm not saying that we totally eliminate those, but realize that too much of those actually harms the ecosystem," he said. 

Feeding the soil

Brown said he learned nature takes every effort possible to cover soil from damage. 

From forests to native prairie, things like residues or other plants are shielding the soil from wind erosion, water erosion or evaporation while also feeding the soil with nutrients. 

Those residues or plants also contribute to the diversity of nature, he said, something he sees as severely lacking in the production agriculture industry, which plants only a few profitable crop species.

He said another principle he learned was to leave roots in soil as long as possible. The production agriculture world, he said, often grows a cash crop but leaves fields empty for a sizeable portion of the year. 

"Now, yes, of course, in northern environments, we're not going to have growing plants during the winter," he said. 

Gabe Brown on his ranch in North Dakota, where he's embraced lessons he's learned from nature that he says have benefited him, even in a time of drought. (Submitted by Brown's Ranch)

"But there's a window of time early in the spring or after a harvest where we certainly need to have living plants to take solar energy out of the atmosphere through photosynthesis."

Plants then use the energy they've captured to provide nutrients back to the soil to keep it productive for the following year.

The final principle Brown said he learned was to keep animals and insects involved in the ecosystem around crops. 

Removing the animals and insects from the ecosystems wasn't helpful to the soil or the landscapes where they thrive, he said.

Brown now helps hundreds of his farming peers, both domestic and abroad, learn those same values he learned over the years. 

Often he said people think they're not capable of implementing the values he learned, but once they start trying different methods — and see how profitable it can become — they come around to his ways, he said. 

He said his farm in North Dakota was hit hard by this year's drought, but it was still out-performing his neighbours and others around him due to his soil quality.

Brown's message to farmers and ranchers in Saskatchewan who may be unhappy with how their businesses have been functioning during this drought ridden year was to consider their options going forward. 

Brown said when he started on his journey, his soil wasn't near the quality it was today, but once he had committed to working to better his soil quality the improvement was gradual enough to be worth it. 

"We're going to get more droughts. We're going to have years of excessive moisture, years of these temperature extremes; we need to do what we can as a farmer or rancher to build resiliency," Brown said. 

LISTEN | Gabe Brown shares his hardships, lessons: 

Saskatchewan Weekend14:11Lessons from a pioneer in regenerative farming
Gabe Brown had four years of devastation when he first bought a farm and ranch operation in North Dakota. Those years of drought and hail taught him important lessons about working with the land and building good soil. In the years since then he's helped hundreds of other farmers and ranchers build back their soil. He shares some of his story with host Shauna Powers. 14:11
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