Friday, September 10, 2021

SHOULD HAVE DONE THIS JAN. 21
Federal mandate takes vaccine decision off employers' hands

Thu., September 9, 2021



Larger U.S. businesses now won't have to decide whether to require their employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Doing so is now federal policy.

President Joe Biden announced sweeping new orders Thursday that will require employers with more than 100 workers to mandate immunizations or offer weekly testing. The new rules could affect as many as 100 million Americans, although it's not clear how many of those people are currently unvaccinated.

Large swaths of the private sector have already stepped in to mandate shots for at least some of their employees. But Biden said Thursday that "many of us are frustrated with the nearly 80 million Americans who are not fully vaccinated.”

The U.S. is still struggling to curb the surging delta variant of the coronavirus, which is killing thousands each week and jeopardizing the nation’s economic recovery.

Per Biden's order, the millions who work as employees of the executive branch and contractors who do business with the federal government won't have the option to get tested instead of taking the vaccine. The order also requires large companies to provide paid time off for vaccination.

The Associated Press reached out to a wide range of companies on Thursday. Many didn’t have immediate responses while others noted that they already require vaccinations. Walmart, the nation’s largest private employer, was one of the first major companies to mandate vaccines for some of its workers. Walmart said in late July that it was requiring that all workers at its headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, as well as its managers who travel within the U.S.; be vaccinated against COVID-19 by Oct. 4.

But the vaccine mandate excluded frontline workers such as cashiers, who according to the company have a lower vaccination rate than management.

CVS Health said in late August it will require certain employees who interact with patients to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 by the end of October. That includes nurses, care managers and pharmacists.

Airlines, meanwhile, have tried to reassure customers about the safety of flying during a pandemic, and have pushed steps such as mandatory masking before they were required by the government.

United Airlines announced last month that it would require employees to be vaccinated. The airline said Wednesday that workers who don’t comply will be placed on leave Oct. 2 and will be terminated unless they can demonstrate a medical or religious reason for not getting vaccinated. The airline says more than half its workers who weren’t vaccinated have gotten the shots since the company announced the requirement.

Other airlines have encouraged workers to get the shots but haven’t required it, although Delta Air Lines plans to hit unvaccinated workers on its health plan with a $200 monthly surcharge starting in November. Delta’s chief health officer said the prospect of that fee has led about 20% of the airline’s unvaccinated workers to get shots.

The tech industry has largely been at the forefront of vaccine requirements, making the sector in general a likely supporter of Biden’s policy on the issue. In late July, Google became one of the first major U.S. employers to decide all its workers needed to be vaccinated before returning to the office. Facebook quickly adopted a similar policy a few hours after Google took its hard stand on vaccines.

Google left it an open question whether the minority of employees who will still be allowed to work remotely will be required to get vaccinated to remain on its payroll. The Mountain View, California, company employs more than 130,000 workers worldwide, with a significant number based in the U.S. The heaviest concentrations are in the San Francisco Bay area and New York.

Apple, which employs both tech workers in its offices and tens of thousands of workers in its retail stores throughout the world, has been encouraging people to get vaccinated without announcing a formal mandate. The Cupertino, California, company didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about Biden’s vaccine order.

General Motors stopped short of endorsing Biden’s requirements, but said in a statement that it supports vaccines.

“We are strongly encouraging our employees to get vaccinated given the broad availability of safe and highly efficacious vaccines, which data consistently show is the best way to protect yourself and those around you,” the automaker said.

Half of American workers are in favor of vaccine requirements at their workplaces, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Such mandates have already been gaining traction following the Food and Drug Administration’s full approval of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. Vaccines from Moderna and Johnson & Johnson are available under emergency authorization, but haven't been formally approved.

About 59% of remote workers said they favor vaccine requirements in their own workplaces, compared with 47% of those who are currently working in person. About one-quarter of workers — in person and remote — said they are opposed.

More than 177 million Americans are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, but confirmed cases of the virus have shot up in recent weeks. They've now reached an average of about 140,000 cases per day. On average, about 1,000 Americans dying from the virus daily, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Some businesses and workers are likely to challenge the orders in court, but many more companies will “appreciate having the cover,” said Dorit Reiss, a professor at the University of California Hastings College of the Law who has studied vaccine mandates for nearly a decade.

“It helps them increase vaccine rates and they can blame the government,” she said. “Vaccine mandates work because for most people, even if they have a position against it, it’s not strong enough to sacrifice their jobs.”

Those who don’t work for federal contractors and are afraid of the vaccine can choose weekly testing instead, but Reiss said many people who are simply hesitant are more likely to get immunized.

“The testing is sufficiently burdensome that most of them would prefer just to be vaccinated,” she said.

__

Associated Press Writers Anne D'Innocenzio, Michael Liedtke, David Koenig, Tom Krisher, Matt O'Brien, Alex Veiga and Zeke Miller contributed to this story.

Barbara Ortutay, The Associated Press
COVID-19 vaccine mandates: Unions divided over 'complex problem' for organized labor

Max Zahn
·Reporter
Thu., September 9, 2021

In this Jan. 14, 2021, file photo, police officer Jennifer Leeman is receives a COVID-19 vaccine at Englewood Health in Englewood, N.J.. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

President Joe Biden on Thursday announced wide-ranging COVID-19 rules for employers that include a mandate that all businesses with 100 or more employees test unvaccinated workers at least once a week. In all, the rule will affect 80 million private sector workers, the administration says.

The move comes amid a string of deals between major companies and unions over vaccine mandates that shows the labor movement is increasingly willing to support such precautions but also eager to shape their implementation.

In light of the Biden administration's new rules, the relationship between labor advocates and bosses takes on heightened significance as the Delta variant continues to drive a wave of infections and some major companies beckon employees back to in-person work.

Meanwhile, some unions, including a host of labor groups that represent first responders, remain opposed to vaccine mandates, exposing a divide in organized labor over how to balance its bedrock commitment to a safe workplace with the anti-vaccination sentiment felt among a segment of workers.
'One of the most complex problems that unions have faced'

Tensions between workers and their employers over vaccination will likely become a fixture of the U.S. workplace in the coming months. A majority of companies plan to impose a vaccine mandate, according to a survey conducted last month by consulting and insurance firm Willis Towers Watson of 1,000 firms that employ a total of almost 10 million workers.

“​​This is one of the most complex problems that unions have faced possibly in my lifetime,” says Susan Schurman, a professor of labor studies and employment relations at the Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations. “Because there is so much diversity among their members in terms of how they are thinking about this.”

Tyson Foods (TSN) offered about 120,000 employees additional paid time off if they comply with its new COVID-19 vaccine mandate. A coalition of unions representing roughly 43,000 Disney World (DIS) employees agreed to a mandate with the company, though it excludes workers with a relevant medical condition or religious beliefs. And in Washington, a union working on behalf of 47,000 state employees reached a tentative deal on a vaccine mandate that will afford workers an extra personal day.

In each case, the terms of a mandate were set after talks between a company and union representatives.

Employers retain wide latitude in the choice to put a vaccine mandate in place for employees, but unions can bargain over the terms, including potential incentives, penalties, or exemptions, Schurman said.

The labor movement's shift toward acceptance of vaccine mandates has been led by the nation's largest teachers unions — the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), which represent a combined 4.7 million members. Both organizations announced their support for vaccine mandates last month, and have boasted survey results that show up to 90% of educators are already vaccinated.


Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers during a town hall with 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and members of the American Federation of Federation of Teachers, in Philadelphia, PA, on May 13, 2019. (Photo by Bastiaan Slabbers/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

AFT President Randi Weingarten said negotiation of the terms of vaccine mandates falls to the union's 3,500 locals, which work with school districts on issues like how to assess and apply medical exemptions.

"We’re going to work with our employers who do vaccine requirements, including mandates, and make sure they’re implemented fairly," Weingarten told Yahoo Finance. "That’s what virtually everyone who’s had to deal with a vaccine mandate has done."

Similar support for vaccine mandates has come from the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, a building trades union that represents 140,000 members; and Unite Here, a hospitality and service union that advocates for 300,000 workers.

“Today, as vaccine mandates by employers spread to more and more workplaces, Unite Here is supporting these measures to ensure safer workplaces and is working toward ensuring that these policies are enacted fairly," Unite Here President D. Taylor told Yahoo Finance in a statement.

'We have the right to bargain any change to our jobs'

But some unions have opted for outright opposition to vaccine mandates, as wary members face a choice between taking the vaccine or keeping their jobs.

Hospital workers with Service Employee International Union 1199 held a rally in July opposing a mandate imposed by New York-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan. In August, then-Governor Andrew Cuomo set a vaccine mandate for all health care workers in the state.

A statement made by SEIU1199 last month acknowledged that "COVID vaccines are safe, effective and the best way to protect ourselves and our families." But, the union notes, "We have the right to bargain any change to our jobs."

Meanwhile, firefighter and police unions in a host of cities from Chicago to Newark have come out in opposition to mandates from city officials. As of May, when the most recent numbers became available, 25% of Chicago police had been vaccinated. In Newark, on Wednesday, dozens of police and firefighters rallied outside city hall to protest the city's vaccine mandate, Patch reported.

AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, who leads the nation’s largest labor coalition representing 56 unions and 12.5 million workers, captured the largely amenable albeit divided approach from labor in remarks at an event held by the Christian Science Monitor in Washington D.C. late last month.

“This is a whole new frontier and we think everyone should be vaccinated,” Shuler said. But she later added: “I’ll be honest with you, our unions are in different places.”

Valerie Braman, a lecturer at the Penn State School of Labor and Employment Relations, says differences of opinion over vaccines within organized labor mirror those that have divided the American public.

"Workers are not a monolith," she says. "The labor movement is not a monolith."

Unions face additional pressure to accept vaccine mandates from President Joe Biden. Widely perceived as a labor ally, Biden emphasized the importance of unions at a meeting with labor leaders at the White House on Wednesday. A day later, he is set to announce stricter vaccine mandates in an effort to push for further action from businesses and public institutions, the New York Times reported.

Despite the divide among labor groups, many unions will be relieved if employers impose vaccine mandates, said Shurman, of Rutgers University.

"Unions will be in a position of saying, 'OK, we’re going to do what we can do,'" she says. "Which is bargain."
Kakao Empire Loses $16 Billion as Korea Steps Up Tech Crackdown

Youkyung Lee
Thu., September 9, 2021,




(Bloomberg) -- Kakao Corp. and its listed subsidiaries have lost more than $16 billion in market value this month as South Korea ramps up its own version of tech crackdowns.

Kakao itself has shed nearly $10 billion as foreign and local institutional investors dumped the stock after prominent lawmakers called the nation’s biggest messaging and social media service a “a symbol of greed.”

Shares of the company -- whose empire also includes online shopping, payments, ride-hailing and other services -- dropped about 17% over the past two sessions before rebounding on Friday. Kakao had surged more than sixfold since a pandemic low in March last year to a record high in June, boosted by the stay-at-home demand and the listing of its subsidiaries.

As in China, where a regulatory crackdown on tech giants has wiped out more than $1 trillion in market value from some of the largest names, one area of focus has been on fintech in Korea. Seoul regulators are making efforts to protect consumers buying financial products online.

Kakao’s recently listed units KakaoBank Corp. and Kakao Games Corp. tumbled this week as well, and investors are concerned over the potential impact on the valuation for the upcoming initial public offering of Kakao Pay Corp. Meanwhile, platform rival Naver Corp. has taken a $4.5 billion hit to its market capitalization so far this month.

Still, sell-side anlaysts remain optimistic on the long-term growth outlook for Korea’s internet stocks. Some say the selloff should be short term while the introduction of new consumer protection measures will benefit the overall industry in the long run.

“Korea is more mature in terms of regulations than China, and the regulatory environment remains incrementally dovish,” Ro Seungjoo, an analyst at CLSA, wrote in a research note, maintaining a buy rating on Kakao. “The selloff leads to classic buying opportunities in our view.”
NOT JUST THE SACKLERS
Endo latest company to settle with New York over opioids


Thu., September 9, 2021, 

NEW YORK (AP) — The state of New York and two large counties agreed Thursday a $50 million deal to end their lawsuits with drugmaker Endo International, in the latest of a progression of settlements of government claims over the opioid addiction and overdose crisis.

Under the deal announced Thursday night, the Dublin-based drugmaker and its subsidiary Par are to pay $22.3 million to the state attorney general's office and $13.85 million to both Suffolk and Nassau counties.

Endo, which also settled claims recently with a group of local and county governments in Tennessee, admits no wrongdoing.

“This agreement ensures funding will be made available for critical abatement programs in a more expedited fashion,” Jayne Conroy, the lead lawyer for Suffolk County and co-lead counsel in a series of lawsuits across the country over opioids.

Conroy said a trial, which has been going on for about two months in New York, will continue against the remaining defendants, which include Teva Pharmaceuticals and Allergan Finance and their affiliates.

The plaintiffs say that companies improperly marketed opioids, downplaying the addiction risks, and that big shipments were not flagged as suspicious.

Johnson & Johnson settled just before the trial began, and the nation's three largest drug distributions companies — AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson — have all since settled.

Those four companies have since announced a tentative $26 billion nationwide settlement deal that would take months to finalize.

Last week, a federal bankruptcy judge gave conditional approval to a plan to allow OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma to settle some 3,000 claims it faces.

Opioids, including prescription painkillers and illicit drugs such as heroin and illegally produced fentanyl, have been linked to more than 500,000 deaths in the U.S. over the last two decades.

As settlements are reached, it means companies are starting to fund drug treatment and education programs.

Other trials are queued up across the U.S., including a federal trial next month over claims against pharmacies.

The Associated Press
CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
DOJ: San Francisco trash company to pay $36M for bribery

Thu., September 9, 2021

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The trash disposal companies that serve San Francisco have agreed to pay a $36 million criminal penalty for their role in a wide-ranging federal public corruption probe involving the city's former public works director.

The three subsidiaries of Recology Inc. admitted to conspiring to bribe the former director and agreed to cooperate in investigations for three years in exchange for the government deferring prosecution, acting U.S. Attorney Stephanie M. Hinds announced Thursday. A judge must sign off on the agreement.

Prosecutors say the companies, which have a monopoly in San Francisco, conspired to bribe Mohammed Nuru from 2014 through January 2020, when the then-director of the Department of Public Works was arrested and charged with fraud.

Recology funneled more than $900,000 to Nuru, including money to a non-profit controlled by Nuru and $60,000 a year for an annual and lavish public works holiday party, prosecutors said. As director and waste regulator, Nuru could influence contract rates favorable to Recology.

Separately, Recology earlier this year agreed refund customers $100 million after the city attorney's office found the company had improperly raised trash disposal prices over four years. By law, the company will continue to have the exclusive right to dispose of waste in San Francisco.

The federal investigation has ensnared several City Hall officials and insiders, including the former head of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.

The Associated Press
Harvard’s $42 Billion Fund to Stop Investing in Fossil Fuels

Kevin Crowley and Stephen Stapczynski
Thu., September 9, 2021


(Bloomberg) -- Harvard University will stop investing in fossil fuels and instead use its giant $42 billion endowment to support the green economy, joining a growing wave of investors moving away from pollutive industries.

Harvard Management Co., which runs the endowment, has no investments in companies that explore for or develop fossil fuels and “does not intend to make such investments in the future,” President Larry Bacow said Thursday in a letter posted on the university’s website.

The move comes after years of sustained activism from students calling for fossil-fuel divestment, and amid increasingly urgent demands from investors that financial institutions withdraw their support of businesses that are contributing to man-made climate change.

The Ivy League college, the richest in the U.S., will be following in the footsteps of peers such as the University of California and the U.K.’s Cambridge University, which have committed to divesting their endowments from the fossil fuel industry.

Harvard vowed last year to work with its investment managers to create a path to “net zero” greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. However that wasn’t fast enough for a students group, which filed a complaint in March with the Massachusetts attorney general in an attempt to force the university to sell its estimated $838 million fossil fuel holdings, according to the Harvard Crimson.

“Given the need to decarbonize the economy and our responsibility as fiduciaries to make long-term investment decisions that support our teaching and research mission, we do not believe such investments are prudent,” Bacow said Thursday. Harvard has legacy investments in private equity funds with fossil fuel exposure but these are less than 2% of the endowment and “are in runoff mode,” he said.

The university will also be joining a growing group of institutional investors and governments that are responding to pressure to accelerate decarbonization efforts. China, Japan and South Korea all committed to net-zero goals last year. Beijing didn’t finance any coal projects via its Belt and Road Initiative in the first half, the first time that’s happened since it was launched in 2013, the International Institute of Green Finance said in a report.

The asset management industry is increasingly looking for ways to speed moves toward carbon neutrality. Pacific Investment Management Co. and Fidelity International are among funds devising standards for so-called net-zero investing. BlackRock Inc. Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink said last year that his firm will take steps to tackle climate change across the thousands of companies it invests in.

Despite the growing importance of climate change in investment decisions, the 10 largest U.S. public pension funds still have a lot of money invested in the biggest corporate polluters, however. Analysts at Bloomberg Intelligence recently put the figure at about $40 billion, meaning 9% of the funds’ combined equity holdings are devoted to 20 high-carbon emitting companies.

Harvard Management said in 2017 it would it take into consideration the environmental impact of some its investments, but that move wasn’t seen as enough by the students. Harvard’s endowment was valued at $41.9 billion as of June 2020, making it one of the largest among private U.S. universities.
Oil Drilling Bans Advance in House With Climate Change Assault

Jennifer A. Dlouhy
Thu., September 9, 2021



(Bloomberg) -- A House committee on Thursday advanced sweeping legislation to combat climate change, with plans to block oil drilling in most U.S. offshore waters, thwart potential mining in the western part of the country and invest billions of dollars in conservation.

The $31.7 billion measure, approved 24-13 by the House Natural Resources Committee, would also slap new fees on oil and mining companies while funding drought relief, conservation and other programs. It is now set to be folded into a broader multi-trillion-dollar social reform and climate change bill taking shape in the House.

The approval comes amid “a once-in-a-generation opportunity to advance a bold, ambitious investment in the people of the United States,” said committee Chairman Raul Grijalva, a Democrat from Arizona. The legislation “will confront the damage being done by climate change, put our country on a more sustainable and equitable economic and environmental path, and create millions of jobs.”

Republicans made clear they didn’t share that view. Over the course of two days -- and more than 17 hours -- of panel debate and votes on the measure, they took turns lambasting it as a “delusional” package of Democratic “pet projects” and “green pork.”

The Democrats’ package is “partisan government overreach” that will “hamstring the economy, cripple domestic energy production and make the U.S. dependent on foreign adversaries,”said Bruce Westerman of Arkansas, the panel’s top Republican.

Democrats turned back more than two dozen amendments from Republicans seeking to eliminate proposed limitations on drilling and mining, with sometimes heated exchanges that presaged further clashes when the plan is debated by the full House and moves to the evenly divided Senate.

Provisions that drew GOP scorn included the measure’s ban on the sale of new drilling rights in Pacific and Atlantic waters as well as the eastern Gulf of Mexico. Central and western Gulf tracts could still be leased.

The bill also would reverse a mandate to sell drilling rights in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s coastal plain and void nine leases issued in that northeast Alaska region earlier this year. Congress previously required two auctions of refuge leases by Dec. 22, 2024 to help pay for the 2017 tax cuts.

Congressional leaders need unanimous support from Senate Democrats to pass the bill, but the oil leasing provisions could draw opposition from some of them, including Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who has highlighted past support for Arctic refuge oil development as evidence of his bipartisan bona fides.

Some of the planned spending has drawn broader support. The bill’s proposed funding for environmental analysis and conservation would benefit existing government programs “that need to be funded, bolstered and prioritized in this fight against climate change,” said Athan Manuel, director of the Sierra Club’s Lands Protection Program.

The bill also would:

repeal a 2014 measure that authorized the transfer of roughly 2,400 acres of land for the Resolution Copper mining project in Arizona involving Rio Tinto Plc and BHP Group Ltd.rule out new uranium mining claims on more than 1 million acres around the Grand Canyonimpose fees on mining on federal land, including royalties of as much as 8% and a new seven-cent-per-ton fee on displaced materialincrease rental rates for onshore oil and gas leases, shorten the duration of them, impose a new $4-per-acre “conservation of resources fee” on the tracts, require companies to pay a royalty on vented or flared methane and boost overall royalty rates from 12.5% to 20%create annual fees of as much as $10,000 per mile on offshore pipelines -- including the Gulf of Mexico’s existing 8,600-mile network of themspend $25 million each to conserve endangered and threatened butterflies, desert fish and freshwater musselsdedicate at least $1.7 billion to establish a Civilian Climate Corps that would put Americans to work building clean energy infrastructure, capping inactive wells and conserving land.
Asian Buyers of U.S. Gulf Crude Are Shopping Elsewhere After Ida

Sheela Tobben
Thu., September 9, 2021


(Bloomberg) -- Asian buyers of crude from the U.S. Gulf of Mexico platforms that where shut by Hurricane Ida are now shopping for alternatives from Russia and the Middle East, sending prices tumbling.

American heavy crudes pumped off Louisiana’s coast, such as Mars and Poseidon, fell by more than $1 a barrel against New York oil futures Thursday. It’s a sudden shift from a rally in previous days as the impact of the devastating storm may not matter so much for China.

Buyers in the Asian powerhouse and other nations such as South Korea are looking at sour crude from the Middle East, where Saudi Arabia has slashed prices for oil destined to the Far East, traders said. For U.S. refiners, Russian Urals crude are being touted as an alternative.

Over 1 million barrels a day of output from the Gulf of Mexico is still offline more than a week after Ida hit, causing weekly U.S. production to sink by the most on record. But Chinese demand for U.S. sour crudes produced offshore has taken a sharp plunge this year, so the outage may not hurt Chinese refiners, Emmanuel Belostrino, an analyst at Kpler, said.

“Chinese demand for Mars crude has been eased substantially this year as U.S. crudes have been relatively expensive compared with other grades,” he said. “Also, China continues to take large quantities of Iranian crude oil despite sanctions, and that supply can replace sour grades normally purchased in the U.S.”

Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s decision to declare force majeure on “numerous” supply contracts as it assesses damages caused by Ida to its Gulf of Mexico platforms is also pushing buyers to other markets.

Shell’s offshore outages have caused “Chinese majors to scramble for alternatives for as many of the 10–12 million barrels of Mars cargoes bought for September and October loadings have been canceled,” Yuntao Liu, an analyst with London-based Energy Aspects, said in a note to clients.

Some of these Chinese buyers could well cover their needs from the release of oil from the country’s petroleum reserves announced Thursday

U.S. oil losses from Hurricane Ida rank among worst in 16 years

Summary
  • Ida could cut annual U.S. oil output by up to 30 million barrels
  • Gulf of Mexico thunderstorms may lead to a cyclone by Thursday

HOUSTON, Sept 7 (Reuters) – Hurricane Ida’s damage to U.S. offshore energy production makes it one of the most costly since back-to-back storms in 2005 cut output for months, according to the latest data and historical records.

Ida’s 150 mile-per-hour (240 kph) winds cut most offshore oil and gas production for more than a week and damaged platforms and onshore support facilities. About 79% of the region’s offshore oil production remains shut and 79 production platforms are unoccupied after the storm made landfall on Aug. 29.

Some 17.5 million barrels of oil have been lost to the market to date, with shutdowns expected to continue for weeks. Ida could reduce total U.S. production by as much as 30 million barrels this year, according to energy analysts.

Offshore U.S. Gulf of Mexico wells produce about 1.8 million barrels of oil per day, 16% of the daily U.S. total.

“There could be volumes that are offline for a considerable amount of time,” said Facts Global Energy (FGE) consultant Krista Kuhl. “It’s just too early to tell.”

The losses are reducing U.S. exports at a time when oil prices are trading at about $70 a barrel because of continued curbs by producing-nations group OPEC and market expectations for demand.

At least 78% of Gulf of Mexico oil and natural gas were offline on Tuesday, nine days after Ida hit the Gulf Coast, causing wind and water damages to platforms and refineries, government data showed.

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 remain the worst hit to Gulf Coast energy facilities. The back-to-back storms caused production losses that continued for months, removing about 162 million barrels of oil over three months, FGE said.

Production in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico that year dropped 12.6%, to 1.28 million barrels per day (bpd), from the prior year, according to data for the Energy Information Administration (EIA). Total U.S. oil production fell 4.7%, EIA data showed.

Restoring output after Ida will hinge on the time needed to repair a key offshore oil and gas transfer facility. Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) on Monday said it continued to assess damage to its West Delta-143 offshore platform, which transfers about 200,000 barrels of oil and gas per day from three offshore oil fields.

A group of thunderstorms in the south-central Gulf of Mexico was expected to move northeast. The storms have a 30% chance of developing into a tropical cyclone in the next two days, the National Hurricane Center said on Tuesday.

U.S. offshore oil industry assesses Hurricane Ida storm impact

By JOSYANA JOSHUA on 8/31/2021

(Bloomberg) - Oil and gas producers, and refineries that fuel the U.S., are assessing the impact on operations after the passage of Hurricane Ida.

At least 2 million barrels a day of oil refining capacity was affected by the weather pattern, which cut power across Louisiana and left at least one facility in standing water. About 95% of oil production, and 94% of gas output had been shut-in as of Monday, according to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. 

Here is a list of major oil and gas production sites that were shut and their capacity in barrels per day, or barrels of oil equivalent a day.

  • BP Plc
    • Atlantis, 200,000 b/d
    • Mad Dog, 100,000 b/d
    • Na Kika, 130,000 b/d
    • Thunder Horse, 250,000 b/d
  • Royal Dutch Shell Plc
    • Turritella (including Stones field) 50,000 boe/d (at peak), Stones field working to resume partial production
    • Mars, 60,000 boe/d
    • Olympus, 100,000 boe/d
    • Appomattox, 175,000 boe/d
    • Ursa, 150,000 boe/d
    • Auger, 130,000 boe/d
    • Enchilada/Salsa, capacity not specified
  • Equinor SA
    • Titan, 2,000 boe/d (producing rate in 2Q)
  • BHP Group
    • Shenzi, 100,000 b/d and 50 mmcf/d gas
  • Murphy Oil Corp.
    • Shut in production, up to 4,100 boe/d
  • Chevron Corp.
    • Shut all oil and natural gas platforms; volume not specified
    • Average net daily production in 2018 was 186k bbl of crude, 105 million cubic feet of natural gas and 13k bbl of NGLs
  • Exxon Mobil Corp. evacuated personnel from its Hoover platform; minimal impact on production

Ports:

  • Coast Guard set condition Zulu for New Orleans
  • LOOP paused deliveries until after storm

Refineries: 

  • Phillips 66’s 255k b/d Alliance began idling units Friday; plant had standing water after Ida
  • PBF was reducing rates at 190k b/d Chalmette; no power since Sunday, co. said Monday
  • Shell was shutting 230k b/d Norco
  • Marathon shut production at 578k b/d Garyville; co. evaluating restart timeline as of Monday, didn’t comment on whether facility had power loss
  • Valero halted 340k b/d St. Charles and 125k b/d Meraux
  • ExxonMobil’s 520k b/d Baton Rouge ran at about 50% capacity before Ida; refinery halted units Sunday but didn’t sustain damage and will begin restart process once Exxon confirms that it has access to necessary feedstocks and third-party utilities to stabilize systems

ECOCIDE
Oil-soaked birds found near oil spill at refinery after Ida

Thu., September 9, 2021

© AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — Louisiana wildlife officials say they have documented more than 100 oil-soaked birds after crude oil spilled from a refinery flooded during Hurricane Ida.

The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries said Thursday that a growing number of oiled birds had been observed within heavy pockets of oil throughout the Phillips 66 Alliance Refinery in Belle Chasse, Louisiana, as well as nearby flooded fields and retention ponds along the Mississippi River.

Jon Wiebe, a biologist running the state restoration program, said 10 oiled birds have been captured and transported to a rehabilitation location for cleaning. Five additional dead birds were recovered and bagged as evidence, he said.

Wiebe said efforts to capture and save more birds are ongoing. The affected species include black-bellied whistling ducks, blue-winged teal and a variety of egrets. Other animals were also seen covered in oil, include alligators, nutria and river otters.

A summary issued Thursday by the Environmental Protection Agency said it had received 43 notifications of significant inland oil spills and chemical releases in its jurisdiction after Ida. The agency's compliance arm has issued 10 requests to facility operators seeking information to determine whether federal environmental laws were violated during the storm, potentially triggering penalties and fines.

That is a small fraction of the 1,539 reports of pollution a U.S. Coast Guard hotline has received since the Category 4 storm made landfall made landfall Aug. 29 at Port Fourchon, the primary port for the offshore oil and gas industry. The Coast Guard said Thursday it was actively supervising the cleanup and mitigation efforts at 564 sites. Another 197 reports were listed as unverified because there was no remaining evidence of pollution.


The Associated Press first reported the spill at the Alliance Refinery on Sept. 1 after reviewing aerial images captured by a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration aircraft. In the days after the hurricane, Phillips 66 repeatedly sought to downplay reports of damage at the company's sprawling refinery.

Asked about reports of levee failures near the refinery the day after Ida hit, Phillips 66 spokesman Bernardo Fallas told AP there was “some water” in the facility and stressed that operations were shut down in advance of the storm.

Asked two days after the storm about potential environmental hazards emanating from the facility, Fallas referred a reporter to a statement on the company’s website saying its response is focused “on ensuring the safety and well-being of our employees and our surrounding communities.”

On Day Three, after the AP sent Phillips 66 aerial photos showing extensive flooding at the refinery and what appeared to be petroleum in the water, Fallas conceded the company could had “discovered a sheen of unknown origin in some flooded areas" of the refinery and that all pollution had been “secured and contained within refinery grounds” at that time.

A Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality assessment team sent to the refinery last week reported a sizable spill of heavy crude oil at the site was being addressed with booms and absorbent pads. A levee meant to protect the plant had breached, allowing floodwaters to flow in during the storm and then back out as the surge receded.

Despite the gap in the levee remaining open for days after the storm, Fallas once again asserted Thursday no oil spilled beyond the land owned by Phillips 66.

“The breach has been secured,” Fallas said Thursday. “Clean-up crews continue to remove oil and sheen contained within some flooded areas of the refinery. There has been no offsite impact. We continue to work with all appropriate regulatory agencies.”

No estimate for how much oil might have spilled from the refinery has yet been made public by state or federal regulators. When fully operational, the Alliance Refinery can process more than 255,000 barrels of crude oil per day into gasoline and other petroleum products.


The company listed the aging refinery for sale last month, before the storm hit, citing poor market conditions. The facility remained shut down Thursday, with no timetable to reopen.

Following inquires from AP, Fallas also confirmed Thursday that a Phillips 66 pipeline in an uninhabited area outside Paradis, Lousiana, leaked during Ida. Records show the company reported to the Coast Guard on Aug. 31 that 2,700 barrels of isobutane, a liquified flammable gas often used to fuel camping stoves, had spilled.

“The site was isolated and brought under control last week,” Fallas said Thursday. “The product vaporized to the atmosphere when it was released; there was no impact to soil or water. The pipeline remains shut down while repairs are underway.”

___

Follow AP Investigative Reporter Michael Biesecker at http://twitter.com/mbieseck

___

Contact AP’s global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org.

Michael Biesecker, The Associated Press




This image provided by NOAA shows a long black slick floating in the Gulf of Mexico. 
The U.S. Coast Guard said it is investigating reports of possible oil spills resulting from Hurricane Ida after the publication of aerial photos by The Associated Press.
NOAA VIA AP

Photos captured by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration aircraft Tuesday, August 31, 2021, and reviewed by The Associated Press show a miles long black slick floating in the Gulf of Mexico near a large rig marked with the name Enterprise Offshore Drilling.NOAA VIA AP

 British Columbia

Fairy Creek protest now considered largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history

882 arrests made so far at the old-growth logging protest on Vancouver Island surpasses Clayoquot Sound

Police prepare to arrest activists who chained themselves together to block a road into the headwaters of the Fairy Creek watershed on Saturday May 21, 2021. (Brad MacLeod)

With 882 arrests so far, the old-growth logging protest at Fairy Creek has now surpassed Clayoquot Sound as the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history, according to B.C. Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau.

"The civil disobedience occurring at Fairy Creek is the public taking recourse against a government that refuses to act," said Furstenau in a statement calling on the provincial government to do more to protect old-growth ecosystems.

In 1993, 856 arrests were made during months of logging protests at Clayoquot Sound, which became known as the "war in the woods." 

In its latest update, RCMP say 16 individuals were arrested at Fairy Creek on Tuesday as police removed obstructions and people locked inside trenches and on tripods along a forest service road.

The RCMP said it is also investigating a helicopter which may have had its identification markings illegally obscured, after intercepting a supply drop that included cement and materials to make locking devices.

Police arrest an activist at a blockade at Clayoquot Sound in 1993. (CBC)

"Anyone found to be aiding or abetting those breaching the B.C. Supreme Court injunction can also be charged," said the RCMP.

A spokesman for activist group Rainforest Flying Squad said loggers are preparing to cut old-growth adjacent to an area that was granted a two-year logging deferral in June. 

"We're now at the point where River Camp, which has been occupied for the better part of seven months ... has now been aggressively cleared out and there is machinery waiting at the bottom of the hill to cut down thousand-year-old trees," said Luke Wallace.

"This whole story about the deferrals and the media storm that the government received, the positive media light ... is seemingly not meaning much because these forests are literally on the opposite bank of Fairy Creek — we're talking about contiguous forest that has been left unprotected and will be logged in the coming days."

A barrier set up by activists in the Fairy Creek watershed on Sunday May 30, 2021, to prevent Surrey-based Teal-Jones Group from logging in the area. (Kieran Oudshoorn/CBC)

Protest actions have been taking place in the Fairy Creek watershed since August 2020 to protect what is the last stand of old-growth not located in a park on southern Vancouver Island.

On April 1, 2021, the company that owns the logging rights in the contested area, Teal-Jones Group, was granted an injunction in B.C. Supreme Court prohibiting protesters from blocking access to roads and company activity.

RCMP began enforcing the injunction and arresting people in May, with tensions escalating through the summer and protesters levelling accusations police were using excessive force and obstructing media.

Application to extend injunction

Teal Cedar, a subsidiary of Teal-Jones, has applied to have the injunction extended beyond its Sept. 26 expiration date. The application is set to be heard over four days in Nanaimo next week.

"Our lawyers will be arguing the case that every day that the police have operated in the enforcement of this injunction, they've been there in direct violation of the law laid out in that injunction," said Wallace.

Furstenau says the provincial government is not meeting its commitment to protect old-growth. 

"We need to see permanent protection for these rare ecosystems, backed by economic support for affected communities and workers," she said.

The Clayoquot Sound action ended in 1994 with the promise of a provincial government review, which wound up reducing the annual allowable cut and clearcuts in the area to a maximum of four hectares. 

As of 2007, logging controlled by aboriginal-owned logging companies of some 10,000 hectares of forest is now allowed.