UH OH

Philippines approves revival of nuclear power to help replace coal


The Bataan Nuclear Power Plant is seen during a media tour

 around the BNPP compound in Morong town, Bataan province, Philippines

Wed, March 2, 2022

MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has signed an executive order to include nuclear power in the country's energy mix, as authorities prepare for the phasing out of coal-fired power plants and after earlier efforts failed due to safety concerns.

The Feb. 28 order, made public on Thursday, could be a major milestone for an economy which suffers seasonal power outages and high electricity prices but will concern opponents of the move.

Signed three months before Duterte ends his single six-year term, the order also directs an inter-agency panel to look into reopening the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP).


"The national government commits to the introduction of nuclear power energy into the state's energy mix," it stated.

Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi has backed nuclear power and said it could help alleviate supply issues and high costs.

Duterte said nuclear power would be tapped as a viable alternative baseload power source as the Philippines seeks to retire coal plants to help meet climate goals.

Previous attempts to pursue nuclear energy in the Philippines were halted over safety concerns, but the new plan is anchored to a proposal to revive BNPP, built in response to an energy crisis during the rule of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Completed in 1984, the plant was mothballed two years later following Marcos' ouster and the deadly Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

Since 2009, BNPP has operated as a tourist attraction, helping defray the cost of maintaining it.

"The Duterte administration is about to leave a tarred legacy and is setting us up for another horror story like Chernobyl and Fukushima," Greenpeace campaigner Khevin Yu said, referring to the world's worst nuclear disasters.

Energy Undersecretary Gerardo Erguiza Jr said a regulatory framework for nuclear power still required legislation and its future also hinged on the agenda of the next administration.

The late dictator's son, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, who is the front-runner in the May presidential election, has said he plans to "revisit" the BNPP project, local media has reported.

(Reporting by Enrico Dela Cruz; Editing by Ed Davies)

Headstone found in Washington yard returns to resting spot — but mystery still remains

Vancouver Police Department

Maddie Capron
Wed, March 2, 2022

A mysterious headstone was discovered out of place in a Washington front yard weeks ago, police said.

The grave marker was found Feb. 8 in Vancouver, police said. For weeks, police have been trying to find where it belonged.

“We are hoping to bring this headstone to its proper resting place,” the Vancouver Police Department said Feb. 28 on Facebook.

For weeks, police contacted local cemeteries searching for one that may be missing a headstone. They also checked online for cemeteries with someone with the name printed on the marker.

After having no luck, the police department hoped social media would be able to help investigators return the headstone. Officials posted pleas for information on Twitter and Facebook, hoping for a lead.

“Since none of that investigation led anywhere, we’re hoping the power of social media will work,” police said on Twitter.

A day later, police said the mystery was solved — somewhat. A cemetery in Woodland, about 20 miles north, confirmed the headstone belonged there, police said.

Officials at the cemetery will return it to “its rightful resting place,” according to the police department. However, the investigation isn’t over yet.

“Mystery not completely solved, since we don’t know who moved this headstone and put it in a Vancouver yard,” police said March 1 on Facebook.

Given their problems, Iowa hog farmers should stay out of California 'bacon law' debate



Reader submissions
Wed, March 2, 2022

Idyllic hog farms? Not quite

The Desert Sun published an opinion by guest columnist Dwight Mogler on Feb. 21.

Mogler describes the idyllic conditions in which his hogs are raised. He is upset about California's Proposition 12 "Bacon Law" and the effect it may have on his farm and the pork industry.

The description of his farm does not address the pollution caused by his and large corporate farms. The Des Moines Register published an article on the same day headlined, "About half of Iowa's waterways listed as impaired in biannual DNR report."

The story links to others that describe the damage to Iowa's waterways, including:

increasing water pollution contaminating the Raccoon River, a main water source for a urban population of 500,000.


the water department in Des Moines digging new wells and investing in expensive filtration systems as river water could not be purified.

Another news article in January told of a farmer charged with neglect after 800 pigs on his farm died. There have been stories of deaths related to manure pits on farms.

I am the son of a third-generation hog farmer and worked on the family farm as a child and young adult. I chose a different direction, going to college and into the medical field.

I would suggest Mogler clean up the manure in his own backyard before he wades into California politics.

Ken Wetjen, Cathedral City

It’s Official: Trump’s ‘Impenetrable’ Border Wall Is An Expensive Failure

Ed Mazza
Thu, March 3, 2022

Former President Donald Trump promised his supporters an “impenetrable” border wall between the United States and Mexico. Instead, the $15 billion wall was reportedly breached thousands of times in areas where it was completed, and the smugglers who cut through it were able to do so with cheap power tools available in retail stores.

Unpublished data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection obtained via the Freedom of Information Act showed that Mexican smugglers cut through the wall 3,272 times over three years, according to The Washington Post. In some cases, they replaced the areas they cut with tinted putty, essentially creating secret passages.

“You have to look really closely to see it,” one source told the newspaper.



A new report found that former President Donald Trump's border wall was breached thousands of times with

The incidents cited by the Post referred to cases where the wall had been cut. But it was also breached in other ways. One report last year found some smugglers were building effective ladders with about $5 worth of material. In another famous case from 2020, a stiff wind knocked over a segment.

Trump repeatedly promised to build a “big beautiful wall” across the southern border that Mexico would pay for.

Mexico did not pay for it. U.S. taxpayers did.

President Joe Biden has since suspended wall construction and said he would be returning the $2 billion Trump diverted from the Pentagon budget for the project.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

Governor Lee's partnership with Hillsdale College is ultimately propaganda | Opinion


Bill Lee   Governor of Tennessee

Adrienne Hinds
Thu, March 3, 2022, 5:02 AM·2 min read


Governor Bill Lee wishes to “teach” US civics to Tennessee children as unapologetic exceptionalism.

We hear the word indoctrination incessantly. There appears, however to be a lack of understanding specifically in the context of the classroom. The action of indoctrination is to teach a group of people to accept, uncritically, a set of predetermined beliefs.

And while teaching is the means of indoctrination, the presentation in the classroom of facts, with discussions, activities and presentations to aid in the understanding of United States history and civics is not indoctrination, the criminalization of any discussions, presentations or activities believed counter to the narrative of American exceptionalism, most certainly is.

Governor Lee has turned over the civics education of our children, the future citizens of Tennessee, to an outside supplier, which uses propaganda, to promote their specific point of view. This opinionated perspective will be disseminated to our public schools by Hillsdale College, a Baptist institution, based in Michigan.

I am at a loss of how Lee’s rhetoric surrounding choice, freedom and parental control manifests as our State government mandating the use of a civics curriculum developed by a random Michigan based, Baptist College. There is dissonance.

To be clear, I am proud to be an American, and maybe a little less proud to be a Tennessean over these last few years. Yet after living with and fighting the challenges that do exist, I understand and know that allowing students the freedom to develop and practice the skills to perform their own fact based critique of a system, does not and will not diminish or damage that system, that student, or that child.

I know and understand that critique, assessment and discourse lead to betterment, change and improvement. It is only when a system is perceived as weak or fragile by those in power, that those in power act “to stack the deck,” to eliminate freedom, silence discourse and demand obedience to control a population and ensure the desired outcome.

Exceptionalism does not equate to perfection and it never has. Even the exceptional among us know there is always room for growth and improvement. Ignoring identified flaws as if they do not exists do not make them disappear.

It is time for Governor Lee to set the example and put his trust in the people who put him in office. We are Tennesseans. We are exceptional.

Adrienne Hinds is currently the Program Director for Business and Economics at Columbia State and the former data governance consulting with the TN Department of Education.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Hillsdale College partnership will indoctrinate propaganda in TN schools

Under pressure from lunatics, Kansas Gov. Kelly’s administration pulls PSAs on vaccine


 Republican state Sen. Mark Steffen 

John Hanna/Associated Press file photo

The Kansas City Star Editorial Board
Thu, March 3, 2022, 4:00 AM·4 min read


It is a sad day in Kansas when Gov. Laura Kelly’s administration doesn’t even dare to stand up for lifesaving COVID-19 vaccines.

And as we now know, that day came last month.

That’s when, under pressure from lunatics in the Legislature, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment stopped airing most of its public service announcements encouraging vaccination.

We only know this because during a Wednesday confirmation hearing for acting KDHE Secretary Janet Stanek, Republican state Sen. Mark Steffen asked Stanek how the department had responded to his concerns that the department was promoting messages that — oh no! — portrayed COVID vaccines as safe and effective.

“What have we done since we saw you last about correcting that lack of a balanced approach to true and informed consent?” he wanted to know.

Stanek answered, “One thing we’ve done is revisited the ads which were brought up by many of you and we have removed the TV ads.”

A spokesman later said that pressure from those who will vote on whether or not to confirm Stanek had nothing to do with this decision, but as one Democratic lawmaker put it: “Seriously, we’re caving to this? But I have wondered, how are we getting anyone through this committee otherwise?”

Turns out, even caving won’t necessarily get her confirmed.

And even if that weren’t the case, Kelly would still have been wrong to give in and give up. If even public service announcements are “tyranny” now, where does this end?

And how can Republicans continue to let the most extreme among them get their way again and again?

State Sen. Mike Thompson, who serves on the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee, suggested at the earlier hearing, in January, that any messages about vaccines should include a disclaimer, just as cigarette packs do, warning about all the deaths linked to vaccines. “What I’m getting at here is that the perception is the vaccines are safe and effective,” he said then. “Most people believe these things are safe and in fact we know people are getting COVID. We know people are actually dying from these shots.”

Only, they aren’t. The state was pitching COVID vaccines as safe and effective because they are safe and effective.

Of more than 553 million doses administered in the U.S., the CDC had as of Feb. 22 confirmed a causal link between nine deaths and any COVID vaccine. All of those were linked to the J&J vaccine, and all had resulted from severe blood clots known as thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome, or TTS. Nearly a million people in the U.S. — 953,000 — have died of COVID-19. And just under 2,000 people are still dying of it every day in our country — 1,933 on March 1, with a seven-day average of 1,915.

But there has been an enormous amount of misinformation and, unfortunately, flat-out disinformation about the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, which compiles unconfirmed reports of any bad reaction following any vaccination. It does not distinguish between reactions that were and were not caused by the vaccination.

An example that VAERS itself gives is that if an elderly nursing home patient died from an unrelated illness months after receiving a COVID vaccine, that would still be reported as a death following vaccination.

The tally of deaths from COVID, on the other hand, only count those for whom COVID was the cause of death.

At Wednesday’s hearing, Stanek was asked what she thought about mandates, and the COVID-related closing of churches, and what she would have done had she been running the department earlier in the pandemic.

It’s not clear that a majority on the public health committee believe in public health measures, or even in the concept of public health.

On Thursday, Thompson argued that the committee should kill Stanek’s chances outright. “I just feel very uncomfortable and very unwilling to just accept someone who blindly accepts CDC guidelines,” he said. Thompson again repeated a bunch of misinformation, including that the vaccines were rushed and that people are dying from them.

He said he’d just gotten an email from someone whose 23-year-old son had died from the vaccine, and knew someone having a heart attack who had died waiting to be let inside a hospital because they had required him to first be tested for COVID. (Note: By all means, Senator, fill us in on the details, because we’d love to break some international news.)

Oh, and the former weatherman said that the person Kansas really needs to hire instead of Stanek is someone like Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, who claims it’s a “lie” that masks have saved lives, and that any doctor who says otherwise is a “zombie.”

In the end, the committee decided to let the Senate as a whole vote on Stanek’s nomination, without making any recommendation one way or the other. It’s still not clear she’ll survive the up-or-down vote.

But it was always guaranteed that caving to lunatics would only lead to more lunacy.

If Kelly really wants to lead Kansas for the next four years, maybe she should start now.

Kansas pulls COVID vaccine ads from TV after lawmakers object to calling them safe and effective

Jason Tidd, Topeka Capital-Journal
Thu, March 3, 2022

The Kansas health agency stopped airing television advertisements promoting the COVID-19 vaccine after some Republican lawmakers took issue with calling the shots safe and effective.

The revelation came during Janet Stanek's confirmation hearing Wednesday before the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee. Stanek is the acting secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.

The same committee pressed Stanek on COVID-19 conspiracy theories at a January meeting. Some members contended the KDHE should be more careful about labeling COVID-19 vaccines as safe and effective.

Sen. Mark Steffen, R-Hutchinson, again raised the issue Wednesday.

"When it comes to the COVID shot ... we talked about the problem that KDHE was basically saying 'safe and effective, safe and effective, safe and effective' when we have a CDC VAERS reporting system that ties 20,000-plus deaths, and more complications, to these shots than all the other vaccines combined," he said. "What have you done since we saw you last in regards to correcting that lack of a balanced approach to obtain true informed consent?"

Janet Stanek, acting secretary of the Kansas Depatment of Health and Environment, answers questions during a confirmation hearing Wednesday morning.

Stanek said health officials were obtaining informed consent for vaccination.

"One thing we've done is revisited the ads, which were brought up by many of you, and we have removed the TV ads," Stanek said. "We are making sure that in reviewing all of our ads that if we do have an advertisement or something that might mention getting the vaccine, that there is a link, and we are encouraging people to follow up with their doctor."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective. The vaccines do carry a risk of such common side effects as muscle pain.

Serious safety problems are rare, according to the CDC. Anaphylaxis, thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome, myocarditis and pericarditis, and Guillain-Barré Syndrome are the four serious adverse events with evidence suggesting a link to vaccines.

"Reports of adverse events to VAERS following vaccination, including deaths, do not necessarily mean that a vaccine caused a health problem," the CDC states.

Sen. Mark Steffen, R-Hutchinson, waits to question KDHE acting secretary Janet Stanek during a confirmation hearing Wednesday morning.

An autopsy found that a Topeka-area woman died last year of "anaphylaxis due to COVID-19 vaccination."

"The decision to stop the vaccine advertising, both digital and television, was made as daily cases were falling and we began to look at transitioning to steady state as it relates to COVID," KDHE spokesperson Matt Lara said in an email. "We stopped the advertising to allow us time to review what our next steps are and what messaging we still need to push out."

The health department continues to promote vaccination clinics statewide.

"Vaccines remain the best tool to protect people from COVID-19, slow transmission, and reduce the likelihood of new variants emerging," the agency said in a Wednesday news release.

Gov. Laura Kelly appointed Stanek to lead the state's health agency in November after ousting Lee Norman. She took over in their early days of the omicron surge.

"We've talked about educating citizens on early treatment of COVID," said Steffen, who has promoted the unproven off-label drugs ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. "You've been in this interim position while cases skyrocketed. Did you do anything to help people understand what their early treatment options were ... any educating, any public service announcements in regards to early treatments?"

"No PSAs," Stanek said. "Only reference to CDC and AMA and other guidance about where they can learn more about those early treatments."

Steffen has taken issue with "federal government agencies making all our decisions for us." He contended that public health puts "the greater good over the individual" rights.

"Are you comfortable with the concept that individuals have to be sacrificed for the well-being of society?" he said. "Like pushing vaccines so hard. You knew people were going to be injured, you knew people were being injured, and yet we didn't hear anything about that."

Stanek said people should talk to their doctors and read CDC publications.

In January, Steffen called the KDHE vaccine ads morally and legally objectionable.

Sen. Mike Thompson, R-Shawnee, said the ads should have disclaimers about risks of adverse reactions.

"There's no effort by your agency to at least put a seed of doubt in people's mind," Thompson said, adding, "The perception is the vaccines are safe and effective," and he has "done a lot of research on this."

Jason Tidd is a statehouse reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached by email at jtidd@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @Jason_Tidd.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: KDHE pulls Kansas TV ads calling COVID vaccines safe and effective

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M NO HONOR ETC...
Leissner Was Key Goldman 1MDB Banker Not Ng, Defense Lawyer Says


Patricia Hurtado and Greg Farrell
Thu, March 3, 2022,

(Bloomberg) -- Roger Ng’s lawyer said Tim Leissner was the Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker who built “critical” relationships in the 1MDB scandal, not his client.

Marc Agnifilo, the lawyer, said Thursday that was why his cross-examination of Leissner frequently touched on the banker’s private life.

“Our premise is that all of the relationships he has, they’re all strategic,” Agnifilo said. “Tim Leissner was instrumental not just in his capacity as an efficient Goldman Sachs employee, but in having personal connections with people.”

Ng is accused of conspiring with Leissner and Malaysian financier Jho Low in a scheme to bribe officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi and loot hundreds of millions of dollars out of 1MDB. Leissner, who pleaded guilty in 2018, is the government’s star witness against Ng, who he described as maintaining Goldman’s relationships with Ng and others.

But Ng argues Leissner, his former boss, led those relationships. Agnifilo on Thursday was arguing to introduce into evidence an email between Leissner and former Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd. Chief Executive Officer Rohana Rozhan, whose boss owned a $650 million stake in 1MDB. Rozhan was also Leissner’s mistress.

“It is relevant in light of Mr. Leissner’s testimony that it was Mr. Ng who had these ‘critical relationships’ to help these deals move forward,” Agnifilo said. Leissner “was putting Roger in all of this when Leissner is the one who’s using connections. Sometimes he uses intimacy,” the lawyer said.

The judge said she would consider whether to allow the evidence in and rule later on Thursday.

Central bank sanctions strike at the foundations of Russia’s economy

March 4, 2022

The writer is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University

Of all the sanctions the west imposed on Russia last week, sanctioning Russia’s central bank is by far the most fateful. “We will cause the collapse of the Russian economy,” said Bruno Le Maire, France’s finance minister. This is not hyperbole. And if managed smartly by the west, these sanctions can also stop the war in Ukraine and beyond.

The possibility stems from an unsung feature of any modern central bank. The Russian central bank is, like others, not only the lender of last resort to commercial banks in its domestic currency, the rouble, but also the lender of last resort in foreign exchange. FX reserves support the exchange rate and the value of the rouble, ensure the stability of the banking system and its deposits, prevent runs on banks, bail out the foreign debt of state and private corporations and manage the sovereign wealth fund.

Western sanctions strike at these foundations of the Russian economy. And this has become possible because of the digitalisation of international finance.

Unlike in times past, most components of FX reserves are not physical certificates of government bonds or piles of cash in dollars, euros, pounds and yen. In the 21st century, they are electronic book entries on the computer ledgers of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the European Central Bank, European national central banks, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan and Swiss commercial banks.

This digitalisation separates ownership and control of FX reserves. Russia owns them but western issuers and computerised holders of these assets control access to them. At the end of February, they collectively closed Russia’s access to these assets, froze them and banned all private transactions with the Russian central bank so that it cannot sell securities and cannot withdraw cash from western banks. From a source of economic strength during peacetime, FX reserves turned into the source of a crash during war.

Within a fateful 24 hours, the Russian central bank and Russians lost access to 60 per cent of FX reserves, $388bn out of a total $643bn. They lost access to entire arrays of assets: securities and deposits in western central banks ($285bn) and in western commercial banks and brokerages ($103bn). The Russian central bank is left with $135bn worth of gold in its vaults, $84bn of Chinese securities denominated in renminbi, a $5bn position in the IMF and a residual $30bn in actual cash, dollars and euros. (These are my calculations from central bank data).

With 60 per cent of FX reserves out of commission, Russia has to rely on the remaining 40 per cent, but there is no freedom to operate there either. The central bank cannot sell gold for dollars and euros because all transactions with it are prohibited and foreign bankers and dealers do not want to invite western wrath. The IMF reserve position is untouchable. Some $84bn in Chinese securities could, hypothetically, have been sold back to China, with a discount, to be paid in dollars, cut to $50bn, but China’s state banks have already refused financial deals with Russia. Which leaves only $30bn in cash — too little to prevent financial and economic ruin.

The rouble is already in freefall and the run on banks in full swing. Russian corporate and individual depositors have $280bn in dollar and euro denominated account balances with Russian commercial banks. Banks cannot have that much foreign cash on hand and the central bank doesn’t have cash to save them. Now people want to withdraw rouble deposits, not because they are afraid that next time the roubles won’t be there but because they expect that next time their bank won’t be there. The Russian people saw bank failures during the default of 1998 and expect no less.

The final implosion will be over supply chains. Businesses will demand dollars for payments. The successful part of the economy, producers of natural resources and high-value goods, will operate in dollars. The rest will have to resort to barter and endure supply interruptions, work stoppages and unemployment. The government may ban foreign currency transactions and demand that businesses trade only in roubles. This is unenforceable. The economy will break and a GDP contraction follow.

These developments will weaken the Russian war effort but, alas, may not be sufficient to stop the war. But something else may. The west can offer the Russian government a deal: cash for peace. This is akin to the IMF practice of conditional loans. The west has frozen $388bn in Russian assets. We can offer to unfreeze assets in tranches, say, $50bn a piece to save their economy in exchange for withdrawing forces from Ukraine, pledging not to ever use nuclear weapons and, generally, starting a return to humanity.

Source: Financial Times

European Deals Worth $300 Billion Left Exposed by War in Ukraine

Dinesh Nair and Ruth David
Thu, March 3, 2022


(Bloomberg) -- Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has left dealmakers in Europe unsure about if and when roughly $300 billion of mergers, acquisitions and listings will go ahead.

Fresh volatility in the market, rising energy prices and worries about a drawn-out war are pushing corporate boards and previously free-spending private equity firms into wait-and-watch mode. That’s raising questions about an M&A pipeline with some high-value transactions in the works.

They include Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc.’s sale of its international Boots drugstore unit, Novartis AG’s potential disposal of its Sandoz generics arm and National Grid Plc’s efforts to offload a stake in its gas transmission business.

These alone represent about $45 billion of deal value, according to Bloomberg News reports, and have the potential to boost a slowing market for M&A in Europe.

Even before the invasion, the deals boom had started to show signs of fatigue in the region as gloomy economic and geopolitical forecasts soured sentiment. European deal values were down 22% year-on-year through Wednesday, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Another roughly $50 billion of possible deals could come from German national railway operator Deutsche Bahn AG selling or listing its logistics arm, KKR & Co.’s pursuit of Telecom Italia SpA, and any sale by Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc of its infant nutrition unit. And then there’s the potential for a blockbuster sale or spinoff of GlaxoSmithKline Plc’s 50 billion-pound ($67 billion) consumer health unit.

Elsewhere, Russia’s military attack on Ukraine has effectively shut the market for initial public offerings in Europe.

Among the big IPOs set to kick off in the coming months in Europe are Thyssenkrupp AG’s electrolysis plant business Nucera, Eni SpA’s renewables division Plenitude, Olam International Ltd.’s food ingredients and EQT AB’s skincare business Galderma. These IPOs have the potential to create listed companies with a combined value of about $50 billion.

Volkswagen AG, meanwhile, continues to explore a blockbuster IPO of Porsche that could value the sportscar brand at more than $95 billion.

It’s unlikely big offerings will go ahead in the next few weeks. Volatility in the short to medium term could also hurt the IPO ambitions of private equity firms including CVC Capital Partners and Ardian SAS.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

Russia's financial "fortress" falters under the West's sanctions


Kate Marino
Thu, March 3, 2022


Re-created from the Atlantic Council's GeoEconomics Center; Chart: Axios Visuals; Does not include gold held domestically. *This value also encompasses smaller financial institutions. The status of these reserves is unclear.

Russia spent seven years building a financial “fortress” that could help it withstand the impact of sanctions imposed by the West — and the keystone was $630 billion in central bank foreign exchange reserves.

Driving the news: Presumably, Russia didn’t expect the G7 nations to go so far as to freeze those reserves, which they did this week — a move nearly unprecedented in scope.

Why it matters: That fortress isn’t so strong after all if Russia can't use its billions to support its war efforts and fund domestic spending.

The G7 has locked up nearly $400 billion of that money, according to estimates by the Atlantic Council's GeoEconomics Center.

Backstory: Since March 2014, Russia has cut its foreign assets held in the U.S. and Europe, while increasing those in China and Japan, as well as its domestic gold holdings, the FT reports.

The big question: How will China handle Russia's yuan assets? China's not expected to freeze them — but faces a dilemma in how to aid its strategic partner, Russia, without running afoul of Western sanctions, Bloomberg writes.

As world scrambles for oil, Canadian producers reluctant to spend on growth

STOCK BUY BACKS, DIVIDENDS & DEAD CAPITAL

Nia Williams
Thu, March 3, 2022

Canadian Natural Resources Limited's Primrose Lake oil sands project 

is seen near Cold Lake, Alberta

By Nia Williams

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - The world is scrambling for oil after Russia's invasion of Ukraine sent prices rocketing and upended global supply but producers in Canada, home to the world's third-largest reserves, have no plans to significantly boost output.

Despite the surge in oil prices to 11-year highs, Canadian companies are wary of spending aggressively to grow oil production after the pain of 2020's pandemic-induced oil price collapse. Investors are demanding strict capital discipline, while environmental opposition to new fossil fuel projects and the Canadian government's plans to cap carbon emissions are also deterring growth.

Benchmark U.S. crude shot as high as $116 a barrel on Thursday on expectations that the market will be short of crude for months following sanctions on Moscow and major companies divesting Russian oil assets following the invasion of Ukraine. [O/R]

Producers of Canadian heavy oil, which trades at a discount to U.S. crude, are raking in more than $100 a barrel, adding billions of dollars in revenues.

But companies are reluctant to boost capital budgets even as they reap the benefits of higher cash flow.

"They can sit with their feet up right now, with money flowing into their pockets, while hardly working," said Rafi Tahmazian, portfolio manager at Canoe Financial in Calgary, which owns shares in oil sands producers.

"Why would they want to be a growth business again?"

Most of Canada's reserves are held in northern Alberta's vast oil sands, which account for roughly two-thirds of the country's 4.9 million barrels per day of production.

The huge mining and thermal projects required to extract oil sands bitumen takes years to build and cost billions of dollars, and many international oil majors turned away from Canada during a prolonged downturn following the 2014 oil price crash.

The remaining top domestic producers, including Canadian Natural Resources Ltd, Suncor Energy, are focused on producing existing assets as efficiently as possible to drive down costs.

"The price spike for oil we are currently experiencing due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine is unlikely to entice producers into changing their investment plans in the near term," said Ben Brunnen, vice president of oil sands at the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.

Producers would need a clear signal from the Canadian government that it supports large energy infrastructure investments to grow gas and oil production and export capacity, Brunnen added.

'VERY VOLATILE' CYCLES

Instead Justin Trudeau's Liberal government has promised a cap on oil and gas emissions, which could limit the industry's growth.

The focus on cutting global carbon emissions has made financing massive oil sands projects more expensive, analysts say, and long-term demand forecasts suggest the world will need less oil, not more, by 2050.

Canadian Natural, the country's biggest producer, plans to bump up oil and gas output by 5% this year, while Cenovus , Canada's second-largest oil and gas producer, said its 2022 production guidance published in December remains unchanged.

"These geopolitical situations, as fast as (price) goes up, as fast it can go down," said Canadian Natural President Tim McKay in an interview. "It's very volatile, so you have to manage to those cycles."

Outside the oil sands, conventional oil and gas producers are also cautious about expanding drilling programs. Instead they are prioritizing paying down debt incurred during the pandemic and returning value to shareholders, who have been clear in demanding companies keep a tight rein on spending.

"There's now a strong price signal for growth...but we're still in a place where sentiment has not fully changed, where we would have full investor and political support," said Jonathan Wright, chief executive of NuVista Energy, which produces 52,000 barrels of oil equivalent of gas and liquids.

($1 = 1.2659 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by Nia Williams; additional reporting by Rod Nickel; Editing by Aurora Ellis)

Oil-Rich Canada Lays Out Ground Rules for Inaugural Green Bond

Esteban Duarte and Brian Platt
Thu, March 3, 2022



(Bloomberg) -- Canada, the world’s fourth largest oil producer, is a step closer to issuing its first green bonds after releasing the rules that govern the notes.

Green bonds are part of Canada’s larger plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions 40% to 45% below 2005 levels by 2030. The nation intends to issue C$5 billion ($3.9 billion) in sustainable debt to fund everything from planting trees to building carbon capture facilities, according to documents released Thursday by the finance department.

While the green-bond program will help the government to finance projects that reduce pollution, it excludes the oil and gas sector -- the biggest contributor to GHG emissions in Canada.

“This is part of a growing trend of sustainable finance and it’s going to help us gain some experience and understanding of it,” Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said in an interview. “We’re really looking at best practices in the sector in terms of what can and can’t be financed with this money.”

As Canada gets closer to taking orders for the deal, companies and governments are rushing to the green bond market to finance environmentally-friendly initiatives. Global sales of green bonds hit a record $513 billion last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Canada’s government has been progressively adding mechanisms to deliver on its 2030 emissions reduction target, including imposing a national carbon tax. The country is already positioned to cut emissions by about 36% below 2005 levels by 2030, and is working on additional measures to achieve its targets.

Last year, the government named Kathy Bardswick, a former chief executive officer of The Co-operators Group Ltd, as the inaugural chair of Canada’s Sustainable Finance Action Council, which aims to support the development of a domestic sustainable finance market. Also in 2021, the government picked HSBC Holdings Plc and Toronto-Dominion Bank to arrange the transaction, as well as advise on the design of Canada’s green bond framework.