The people getting abortions at Planned Parenthood aren’t who you, or lawmakers, think | Opinion


Juhi Varshney

MIAMI HERALD
Mon, May 9, 2022

States all over the country have chipped away at abortion access this legislative season and I’ve seen up close how the new restrictions have hurt our patients at Planned Parenthood of South, East, and North Florida. With the recent leak of a U.S. Supreme Court draft opinion suggesting that Roe v. Wade may be overturned this summer, protecting abortion access has become more important than ever before.

There’s not one “type” of person who gets an abortion. We see new mothers, still breastfeeding their infants, whose fertility sneaked up on them. Single moms who light up when they talk about their kids. We see women with demanding jobs and women who are in school pursuing a degree.

Some of our patients wanted to keep their pregnancies but couldn’t afford it. We’ve cared for women who are on birth control pills, who have an IUD in place, whose husbands had vasectomies. We have patients who developed life-threatening blood clots during their last pregnancy, and other patients who needed a stitch in their cervix and four months of bed rest. Some were afraid to tell their families, only to learn that their mother or their cousin or their aunt quietly had an abortion years ago. One in four women will have an abortion in their lifetime, after all.

Despite how tricky it can be to talk about abortion, caring for my patients actually feels so simple. Abortion can be divisive and explosive and controversial in the political arena but when I sit across from someone in an exam room, when I ask if they feel sure and ready, all of that fades away.
The weight of restrictions

In the wake of these new state policies, abortion providers have spent precious time talking through consent forms, conferring with legal experts and re-orienting the clinic workflow.

These restrictions don’t make abortions go away, they just make abortions less safe. They aren’t based on medical evidence. The delays caused by closing clinics and mandatory waiting periods can turn into weeks, and the longer the pregnancy goes, the fewer options we can offer to our patients.

Women who are denied an abortion are more likely to live in poverty or stay tethered to abusive partners, neither of which are safe for the kids they already have, according to a study by Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health at the University of California San Francisco.

Children need access to healthcare, paid parental leave, subsidized childcare and better public education — not laws that force people to give birth. The majority of Americans and Floridians believe that abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

With every new patient we meet, abortion providers create an individualized plan that best fits their medical, social, and emotional needs — unlike state legislatures that dole out one-size-fits-all bills.

Trust the patient

What would it look like to trust women? To trust that our patients are doing the best they can to take care of themselves and their families?

Brene Brown once said, “People are hard to hate up close” — and if you get close to the reality of abortion, you’ll see the gray areas and difficult choices and the love that so many people approach abortion with.

Abortion care opens up space for our patients to pursue new dreams, care for a family that already exists, or build a life for a family yet to come. So many people have shared their abortion stories recently, and it’s powerful, but they don’t owe us an explanation for their choices.

Abortion is still legal, and if you or a loved one has an appointment, you should still go in. We have to call on our representatives in Congress now to codify Roe v. Wade into law. We need to let our state legislators know how Florida’s new restrictions have affected us. A broad coalition of people are rising up to protect abortion access for our patients. And abortion providers aren’t going anywhere.

Juhi Varshney is an emergency medicine resident in Miami. She has rotated at Planned Parenthood of South, East and North Florida.

Varshney

The complications of getting an abortion in Canada if Roe v. Wade is overturned

May 9, 2022

 

Concerns about abortion access if Roe v. Wade overturned

 

Impact of changing U.S. abortion laws could ripple into Canada

 

People in Canada need to be on guard: Abortion activist on Roe v. Wade draft opinion leak

 

Democracy on Trial: The Morgentaler Affair

Paul Cowan's film captures the spirit of the legal battle over abortion waged by Dr. Henry Morgentaler in Quebec and in federal courts between 1970 and 1976. Using a combination of newsreel footage, interviews and re-enactments, this docudrama unravels the complexities of the case that began as a challenge to Canada's abortion laws and turned into a precedent-setting civil rights case. Directed by Paul Cowan - 1984 | 58 min

 #Abortion #RoevWade #Canada 

SCHADENFREUDE

Coinbase Tumbles to Record Lows as Crypto Meltdown Deepens

Yueqi Yang
Wed, May 11, 2022

Coinbase Tumbles to Record Lows as Crypto Meltdown Deepens

(Bloomberg) -- Coinbase Global Inc. shares and bonds plunged to new lows, signaling investor skepticism about the prospects of the crypto exchange in a worsening bear-market.

Shares plunged as much as 31% to $50.15 on Wednesday, a far cry from its first-day closing price of $328.28 when it went public last April. Its bonds also plunged, trading in line with some of the highest-risk junk-rated notes.

Coinbase is “unlikely to return to recent levels of profitability in the near term absent a significant increase in crypto prices or volatility,” Will Nance, an analyst at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. wrote in a note. “We believe COIN’s stock will struggle to outperform in the near term.”

Adding to the concern, cryptocurrencies underpinning some of the most popular decentralized finance protocols tumbled Wednesday as the collapse of the TerraUSD stablecoin triggered a stampede out of many of the digital-asset market’s most popular tokens.

The company reported lower-than-expected revenues yesterday, and warned trading volume and monthly transacting users in the second quarter is expected to be lower than in the first. A new risk disclosure in its filing triggered concerns among some users about the safety of their crypto assets held in custody by the company in the event of a bankruptcy.

Brian Armstrong, Coinbase’s chief executive officer, took to Twitter to clarify that there is “no risk of bankruptcy” and users’ funds are safe, while apologizing for not communicating proactively about the disclosure.

Bitcoin fell below $30,000 and touched its lowest level since June, while the TerraUSD stablecoin continued its downward spiral. Coinbase Chief Financial Officer Alesia Haas said yesterday that the company sees “bear-market conditions” but can still afford to make 2022 “an investment year.”

Ottawa approves new $10B loan guarantee for the Trans Mountain pipeline project


Wed, May 11, 2022



CALGARY — The federal government has approved a new, approximately $10-billion loan guarantee for the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, a move it says is common practice and does not reflect any additional public funding for the high-profile, over-budget oil pipeline.

The Trans Mountain pipeline is Canada's only oil pipeline system from Alberta to the West Coast. It was bought by the federal government in 2018 for $4.5 billion after previous owner Kinder Morgan Canada Inc. threatened to scrap the pipeline's planned expansion project in the face of environmentalist opposition.

The construction project — which will essentially twin the existing pipeline, raising daily output to 890,000 barrels — is now 50 per cent complete. However, in February, Trans Mountain Corp. revealed that the project's price tag has ballooned to $21.4 billion, up from an earlier estimate of $12.6 billion.

At that time, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said that there would be no additional public funding for the pipeline. She said Trans Mountain, a Crown corporation, would need to secure third-party funding to complete the project, either through banks or public debt markets.

News of the $10-billion loan guarantee, which was approved by cabinet on April 29 through the Canada Account at Crown corporation Export Development Canada, has been criticized by environmental groups and opposition politicians who see it as Freeland going back on her word.

"This is a huge new subsidy from a government that promised voters last fall that it would eliminate fossil fuel subsidies," said Julia Levin of Environmental Defence, adding critics have suggested that Trans Mountain's skyrocketing price tag means the project is no longer economical. "It also comes just a few months after Minister Freeland told Canadians that there would be no more public spending on TMX."

"It was clear from the get-go they're going to pay whatever it costs to get TMX through," said NDP Charlie Angus.

But on Wednesday, the Department of Finance issued a statement saying that the federal government has not spent any money to put the new loan guarantee in place.

The statement said Trans Mountain has secured up to $10 billion in third-party financing for construction costs from a group of Canadian financial institutions, and the government is providing a loan guarantee on behalf of the corporation as part of that process.

"This is a common practice which puts in place an insurance policy for the institutions that have invested in the project — it does not reflect any new public spending," the statement said.

The government said there have been no changes to the cost estimate outlined in February and the estimated 2023 completion date for the pipeline project remains in place.

- With files from Mia Rabson in Ottawa

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 11, 2022.

Amanda Stephenson, The Canadian Press

CNN Reporter Defies Media Ban at GOP Rally by Renting Adjacent Hotel Room

Josh Dickey
Tue, May 10, 2022,

CNN Senior National Correspondent Kyung Lah and her cameraman Ronnie McCray, Jr. are more clever than Pennsylvania GOP rally organizers took them for.

Told “no press allowed” at the weekend rally for Republican gubernatorial primary candidate Doug Matriano at a Uniontown, Pennsylvania hotel pool, the defiant duo went to higher ground. Rather than pack up and call it a day, they checked into a balcony suite for $85 and got the job done with a bird’s-eye-view.


“Mastriano’s campaign threatened to kick us out, saying they controlled all the space in the hotel,” Lah tweeted in a thread from the rally. “Not so. They were unhappy we stayed. Why do this? Bc independent press needs to see what your future government reps want to do.”

Their presence did not go unnoticed.


In this case, Lah was the pool reporter, and also the pool reporter.

It’s a great lesson for young journalists everywhere: There is no failure, only giving up.

Wait until students figure out that DeSantis’ Florida and communism are bedfellows! | Opinion


Fabiola Santiago

MIAMI HERALD
Tue, May 10, 2022, 

What do Cuba and Florida have in common?

Book-banning, censorship — and, added into the mix this week, state-mandated school indoctrination for political purposes.

They’re hallmark practices of the Communist Party-led regime in Cuba, tools used for six decades to keep Cubans isolated and in the dark about information that falls outside of what the ruling party’s ideology commands people to believe.

Ironically, after this year’s GOP-dominated legislative session, the same manipulative tactics are now pillars of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ public education system.

Math textbooks and literary books are being banned because some comité a la Cuba — aka “Moms for Liberty,” made up of citizens jazzed and empowered by Republicans into a state of hysteria — deemed them inappropriate and sounded the alarm.

Educators are being censored and handed guidelines, embedded into law, about what they’re allowed to say and not say to students on race or gender identity. Nothing that makes whites uncomfortable. Nothing about being gay or trans in kindergarten to third grade when kids are full of questions about fellow classmates or themselves.

It all reminds me of the atmosphere of repression during my elementary school education in Cuba.

But self-awareness isn’t a Florida Republican attribute.
Mandated communism lesson

And so, DeSantis and the Florida Legislature have mandated, starting with the 2023 school year, that Florida’s middle-school students get an earful about the horrors of communism every Nov. 7, declared “Victims of Communism Day.”

Public school teachers in Florida will be required to dedicate at least 45 minutes of instruction that day to Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong and Fidel Castro. As well as to the “poverty, starvation, migration, systemic lethal violence and suppression of speech” that people endured under their regimes.

Yet, these same students can’t be taught about the “poverty, starvation, migration, systemic lethal violence and suppression of speech” to which Blacks have been — and still are — subjected to in this country.

But irony isn’t a concept Florida Republicans understand.

The “horrors of prejudice” lesson would fall under the banned “critical race theory.” A no-no to mothers like the one who got a book banned because it said that the United States has not eradicated poverty or racism.

Incredibly so, Cuba does exactly that, too.

The only allowed point of view is that the Cuban Revolution eradicated racism and that poverty is the fault of the U.S. embargo, not the failed economic system.

READ MORE: DeSantis signs bill mandating communism lessons in class, as GOP leans on education
Cuban Americans and DeSantis

You would think that Cuban Americans, Venezuelans and Nicaraguans would run as fast as they could from authoritarian DeSantis and oppose practices that should remind them of the repressive regimes they or their parents fled.

But no, the increasingly conservative Hispanics in the state have their blinders on because the right is their preferred side of the political spectrum. Hence, it’s okay for fascists to ban, censor and indoctrinate.

That these practices conspire against democratic principles is of no importance.

That they’re hypocritical, who cares?

The cancel culture Republicans were so dead-set against during the national reckoning with racial history after George Floyd’s murder has now become their prized turf — with Florida a leading stage for culture wars of the right.

Sadly so, Miami’s first-generation Cuban Americans in state office are the perfect fools in the endeavor to obfuscate.

It should worry Hispanics that DeSantis and the retrograde Republican Legislature are banning books, censoring schools and cracking down on businesses that don’t share their political opinion, plus demonizing only one ideology for crass political purposes.

If it crushing evil was the goal, they would also dedicate lessons to Nazism and the rise of right-wing paramilitary and hate groups in the nation, and specifically, Florida. But that’s too close to the base for comfort, isn’t it?

The right isn’t happy with sending their children to segregated, religious private schools and publicly-funded charters. They want to shape the rainbow of children enrolled in public schools in their 1950s image.

Just like Fidel Castro famously tried to build, from the cradle to the grave and using the education system and his propaganda apparatus, a new generation of suckers.

“El nuevo hombre,” Castro called the generation of Communists being shaped.

What will we in Florida call the generation that DeSantis and his Cuban American Education Commissioner, former Sen. Manny Diaz Jr., are trying to indoctrinate?

Send suggestions, please.

State Sen. Manny Diaz Jr., speaks during the Honoring the Victims of Communism press conference at the Freedom Tower in Miami on Monday, May 9, 2022.

There’s not a thing DeSantis can teach me about communism or any other kind of authoritarianism, including his. I know Cuba’s brand first-hand.

Unlike the ignorant, party-compliant 40-something, Miami-born, Cuban American legislators and lieutenant governor enabling DeSantis, I went to school in Cuba until the sixth grade. That, and 42 years of writing about Cuba and Cuban Americans, is why I easily recognize political chicanery.

My teacher mother refused to indoctrinate children and had to resign. It would be really something if the young teachers in my family had to do the same here because of the repressive atmosphere the GOP has brought to Florida classrooms.

But maybe there’s hope.

One fine day, a smart, fearless kid will raise her hand in the middle of the communism lesson and ask: “Isn’t that what Republicans do in Florida?”

THE WORLD ANTI BOLSHEVIK LEAGUE REBRANDED

DeSantis signs bill mandating communism lessons in class, as GOP leans on education


Bianca Padró Ocasio

MIAMI HERALD
Mon, May 9, 2022 

Public school teachers in Florida will soon be required to dedicate at least 45 minutes of instruction on “Victims of Communism Day” to teach students about communist leaders around the world and how people suffered under those regimes.

Speaking at Miami’s Freedom Tower before a crowd of local lawmakers and supporters, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed House Bill 395, which designates Nov. 7 as the state’s official “Victims of Communism Day,” making Florida one of a handful of states to adopt the designation.

It is, however, the first state to mandate school instruction on that day, as Florida Republicans continue to seize on education policy while placing school curriculum at the forefront of their political priorities ahead of the 2022 midterms.

The bill, which DeSantis signed along with two street designations in honor of Cuban exiles, would require the instruction to begin in the 2023-2024 school year. It would require teaching of Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong and Fidel Castro, as well as “poverty, starvation, migration, systemic lethal violence, and suppression of speech” endured under those regimes.

“That body count of Mao is something that everybody needs to understand because it is a direct result of this communist ideology,” DeSantis said, noting that tens of millions of people died in China under his rule. “I know we don’t need legislation here to do this but I think it’s our responsibility to make sure people know about the atrocities committed by people like Fidel Castro and even more recently people like Nicolas Maduro.”

The second bill, Senate Bill 160, designates street names in honor of Arturo Diaz Artiles, Maximino and Coralia Capdevila, and Oswaldo Paya.

Rosa Maria Paya speaks about her father while Governor Ron DeSantis watches during a Honoring the Victims of Communism press conference at the Freedom Tower in Miami on Monday, May 9, 2022. Paya’s late father, Oswaldo, will have a plaza named after him. DeSantis later sign Senate bill 160 to make this designation.

“There are so many people in our community who have suffered and our own family members have suffered and to us it’s so gratifying to honor them,” said Armando Ibarra, president of Miami Young Republicans and founder of the Florida Commission of Victims of Communism.

Ibarra’s group works closely with Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, an international organization that commemorates the victims of communism and promotes education on the evils of communist regimes. The organization has developed its own curriculum, one of the materials on which the State Board of Education would model its own lessons, said Miami Sen. Manny Diaz, who was appointed last week as the state’s new Education Commissioner.

“We haven’t reviewed it, but the things set forth in the bill have to be taught,” said Diaz.

---

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Bolshevik_Bloc_of_Nations

The World Anti-Communist League was founded in 1966. Its chief organizers were the Taiwanese and South Korean governments and an organization called the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations. It has since grown to more than 90 chapters on six continents, and includes ex-Nazis, right-wing terrorists, and other unsavory characters.

Author: Scott Anderson, Jon Lee Anderson

Publish Year: 1986

Inside the League: The Shocking Expose of How Terrorists, Nazis, …

www.amazon.com/Inside-League-Terrorists-Infiltrated-Anti-Communist/dp/0396…

Police and protesters clash in Philippines capital after presidential elections

 

Police and protesters clash after presidential elections

 

Philippines: protests erupt as son of late dictator wins presidency

 

Hundreds protest Marcos' election win in Manila

 

#Philippines #Manila #Protest

New generation of Marcos, Duterte set to lead Philippines

Tue, May 10, 2022, 7:02 p.m.·2 min read

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The powerful alliance between the son of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos and the daughter of outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte is set to usher in six years of governance in the Philippines that are concerning to human rights activists.

A look at the pair set to take office June 30 after their apparent landslide election victories in Monday's elections:

FERDINAND MARCOS JR.

A former provincial governor, congressman and senator, the 64-year-old son who goes by his childhood nickname “Bongbong” would return his family to the presidency 36 years after the “People Power” revolt ousted his father and sent him into exile for filching billions and mass human rights abuses.

His mother, Imelda Marcos, twice unsuccessfully attempted to retake the seat of power after returning with her children to the Philippines from exile in the United States, where her husband died in 1989.

Marcos Jr. has defended his father’s legacy and steadfastly refuses to apologize for or acknowledge the atrocities and plunder during the dictatorship. Married to a lawyer, with whom he has three sons, he has stayed away from controversies, including a past tax conviction and the Marcos family’s refusal to pay a huge estate tax. Throughout his campaign, he tenaciously stuck to a battle cry of national unity. He denies accusations that he financed a yearslong social media campaign that harnessed online trolls to smear opponents and whitewash the Marcos family’s checkered history, daring critics to “show me one.”

SARA DUTERTE

Sara Duterte, 43, is the outgoing mayor of Davao City, which was her father's constituency before he was elected president in 2016.

A lawyer and reserve officer in the Philippine army, Duterte has carved out her own political career and, although at times supportive of her father, is considered more levelheaded and pragmatic.

Duterte's party originally wanted her to succeed him, but she chose instead to run for vice president.

A mother of three, she has been the longtime mayor of Davao, an economically vibrant city where the elder Duterte first carved a political name with his populist rhetoric and often bloody approach against criminality, especially trafficking and use of illegal drugs, before he rose to the presidency in 2016.

The Associated Press

California lays out plan to drastically cut fossil fuel use

KATHLEEN RONAYNE
Tue, May 10, 2022



Work is done on a house under construction in Sacramento, Calif., on Feb. 11, 2021. A plan released by the California Air Resources Board on Tuesday, May 10, 2022, suggests California require all new homes built starting 2026 to have electric appliances including heaters and stoves.

 (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)More


SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — New homes built in California starting in 2026 need to be powered by all-electric furnaces, stoves and other appliances if California is to meet its ambitious climate change goals over the next two decades, according to a state pollution-reduction plan released Tuesday.

The roadmap by the California Air Resources Board sets the state on a path to achieve “carbon neutrality” by 2045, meaning as much carbon is removed from the air as is emitted. The state’s timeline is among the most ambitious in the nation; Hawaii has a similar goal and some other states have a 2050 deadline.

California could reach its goals through a drastic transition away from fossil fuels that power cars, trucks, planes, ships, homes, businesses and other sectors of the economy. The board staff recommends the state cut the use of oil and gas by 91% by 2045 and use technology to capture and store carbon emissions from remaining sources.

The plan was put together by air board staff and it is not final; a public comment process will begin and the political appointees who make up the air board will ultimately decide whether to make any changes. The Legislature or other regulatory bodies would have to agree to put the various policies in place. The California Energy Commission, for example, sets building codes.

Still, state officials said the document represents an important step for California and the rest of the nation. California is the nation's most populous state and has the world's fifth largest economy compared to other nations. That economic power means the state's policy choices can drive major business changes, and other states often follow California's lead on climate policy.

“When final, this plan will serve as a model for other industrial economies around the world,” said Jared Blumenfeld, secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency.

But neither environmental justice advocates nor the oil industry were happy. Environmental groups blasted the plan for its reliance on carbon capture technologies, which they say allows oil refineries, cement plants and other industries to continue polluting in disadvantaged neighborhoods. They also pointed to a little-noted element of the plan that calls for the expansion of natural gas capacity as a failure by the air board.

“At a time when we need to be planning for a phaseout of fossil fuels, our top air regulators are instead planning for a massive expansion of dirty gas-fired power plants,” Ari Eisenstadt, campaign manager for Regenerate California, said in a statement. The group is a partnership between the California Environmental Justice Alliance and the Sierra Club that advocates for clean energy.

The Western States Petroleum Association, meanwhile, decried the plan would mean more “bans, mandates and expensive regulations."

“Forcing people to pick certain jobs, certain cars, certain homes, and certain times to use energy is out of touch with how ordinary people live," WSPA President Catherine Reheis-Boyd said in a statement.

Changing how buildings and means of transportation are powered is at the center of the air board's plan. It suggests the state require all new homes to have electric appliances starting in 2026 and new businesses by 2029. For existing homes, 80% of appliance sales should be electric by 2030 and 100% by 2035. That would help ensure older homes transition to electric-powered appliances when owners need to upgrade.

Transportation, meanwhile, is the state's largest single source of greenhouse gas emissions. The state is already on track to require all new passenger cars sold to be zero-emission by 2035. The plan also recommends: All truck sales to be zero-emission by 2040, 10% of airplane fuel demands to be met with hydrogen or batteries by 2045, 100% of drayage trucks to be zero-emission by 2035, and 100% of passenger train sales to be zero-emission by 2030.

The plan would put significant new demand on the electric grid, requiring the state to rapidly scale up solar power and storage options, as well as hydrogen infrastructure including pipelines.

California's 2045 carbon neutrality goal stems from an executive order then-Gov. Jerry Brown signed in 2018. But the air board has been required to release a roadmap for achieving the state's climate goals every five years since 2008.

The last version of the plan explored how California will meet a state law requiring a 40% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels by 2030. Some observers of the process had called for a robust analysis of the state's progress toward the 2030 goal, including the role California's signature cap-and-trade program was expected to play.

But the 200-plus page document released Tuesday includes just a small section on the state's progress toward 2030 and does not directly lay out what level of emissions reductions are expected from the various programs the state already has in place. It says the role of cap and trade in achieving the state's goals will likely diminish. The program requires businesses to buy credits equal to how much carbon they want to emit, with the goal of spurring reductions overtime as the price of credits increase.

The air board won't assess whether changes are needed to reach the 2030 goal until after the scoping plan is finished, the plan said.

California could lead the nation in natural carbon removal. This bill would do just that

Cristina Garcia , Ellie Cohen
Tue, May 10, 2022,

California has long been a leader in climate solutions and environmental justice, but we’ve fallen behind. For the last several years, oil and gas lobbyists have stalled meaningful climate legislation in our state. This must be the year we summon the political will to put bold ideas into action.

The task ahead of us is clear: Scientists have repeatedly found that the only path to a stable climate is to rapidly phase out fossil fuels and begin removing up to a trillion tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The latest United Nations report again warned that the U.S. and other wealthy nations must pick up the pace in order to avoid even more devastating drought, heatwaves and wildfires worldwide.

Opinion

California can be a model for the world by ending the era of oil and gas, rapidly transitioning to a clean energy economy, and demonstrating cost-effective solutions that draw carbon out of the atmosphere. We must do so in ways that improve the health and well-being of the communities affected most.

The Natural Carbon Sequestration and Resilience Act of 2022 (Assembly Bill 2649) would make California the first state in the nation to set a statutory target for drawing down and sequestering carbon through proven methods like urban tree-planting, composting food waste, and applying it to soils and habitat restoration.

There is a lot of discussion about carbon removal in Sacramento right now, so let’s be perfectly clear: Carbon capture and storage at smokestacks — the fossil fuel industry’s favorite new climate “solution” — has proven time and again to be ineffective, expensive and polluting.

Unlike natural carbon removal, carbon capture doesn’t remove previously-emitted climate pollution from the atmosphere, which science says is necessary for a livable future. Continuing to dig up and burn fossil fuels will perpetuate harmful pollution in communities living near drilling sites, disproportionately impacting working-class families of color. Another technological approach, direct air capture, is still in its infancy — energy-intensive, expensive, and not yet feasible.

California lawmakers shouldn’t be fooled. Only natural carbon removal, as outlined in AB 2649, can safely and cost-effectively draw down past emissions this decade while also improving community health.

A recent report from The Climate Center found that California’s agricultural and urban lands have the potential to capture up to 103 million metric tons of past climate pollution from the atmosphere per year. The bill sets a goal of sequestering an additional 60 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year by 2030 — equal to the annual greenhouse gas pollution from roughly 13 million cars.

AB 2649 helps us return to a stable climate and will have immediate benefits for the communities bearing the brunt of the climate crisis. Healthier soils hold more water when it rains, improving water and food security. Natural carbon removal solutions can slow the spread of wildfires and help replace chemically-intensive agriculture practices that endanger farm workers.

In cities from Sacramento to Los Angeles — where Black and brown communities are exposed to deadly heatwaves and some of the most polluted air in the nation — urban tree-planting can save lives by reducing extreme heat impacts and cleaning the air.

There’s no single solution to the climate crisis, but natural carbon removal is critical. Investing in these solutions today will pave the way toward a climate-safe future for all while improving public health and environmental justice at home.

Assemblymember Cristina Garcia represents California’s 58th Assembly District. 

Ellie Cohen is the CEO of The Climate Center, a climate and energy policy nonprofit.

Q&A: California lawmakers push for carbon capture to reduce greenhouse gases

One proposal focuses on more trees and wetlands as part of a natural carbon-capture program.

Proposed state legislation calls for a variety of natural carbon-capture efforts, including wetlands restoration. Above, Los Cerritos Wetlands in southeast Long Beach, shown on Monday, Oct. 12, 2020, has plans for restoration. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)

By MARTIN WISCKOL | Southern California News Group
PUBLISHED: March 17, 2022 

California could embrace a groundbreaking program to capture greenhouse gases by planting more trees, restoring wetlands and promoting more carbon-absorbent farming, thanks to proposed legislation that would set a goal of removing 60 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from the air each year.

That goal, if achieved, would be the equivalent of taking more than 13 million gasoline vehicles off the road annually.

While much of the discussion of global-warming solutions focuses on reducing emissions, the process of extracting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere increasingly is seen as the other indispensable component.

“This practice is now viewed by the scientific community as an essential part of solving climate change,” according to a UC Davis fact sheet on carbon sequestration.

There are two basic approaches to carbon capture.

One is technological sequestration, in which greenhouse gas emissions are captured before they leave plant smokestacks, or in which carbon is extracted directly from the atmosphere. Expense is a key issue in both cases, although there is federal funding and proposed state legislation to promote that approach. Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris, D-Irvine, is an author of two such bills

The second is approach is to push for more natural sequestration, as proposed in a draft bill by Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia, D-Downey.

Here is a look at how these approaches work — or could work.

Isn’t the Earth already absorbing huge amounts of carbon dioxide?

Yes. Forests, grasslands and rangelands absorb about 25% of man-made carbon emissions while the ocean absorbs 25% to 30%, according to UC Davis. But plant-rich landscapes are disappearing, thanks to wildfires and deforestation, and a growing amount of carbon absorbed by the ocean is hurting marine life — including coral — through acidification.

The Amazon rainforest, one of the Earth’s most important “carbon sinks,” is a particular area of concern. A study published March 7 in the journal Nature Climate Change said the Amazon ecosystem is approaching a tipping point toward irreversible die-off, and that in coming decades more than half the rainforest could turn into a savanna.

Projections show the Earth on a path to the potentially devastating temperature increase of 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit (3 degrees Celsius) by 2100, with the 2015 Paris Agreement setting a goal of half that amount. Meeting that target would require cutting 2010 greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 and, additionally, removing 1 trillion metric tons of the gases from the atmosphere by 2050, according to United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
How can California promote more natural carbon removal?

Garcia’s draft bill, AB 2649, sets a goal of 60 million metric tons of natural carbon dioxide capture by 2031 and 75 million metric tons by 2036. It would require the Natural Resources Agency to develop programs to meet those goals. While the bill currently has only skeleton language, the full draft is expected to be formally introduced next week.

“The programs should facilitate practices such as compost application, riparian restoration, cover crops, hedgerows, and planned grazing, among other relevant practices,” according to the draft bill, which is being sponsored by The Climate Center.
Trees aren’t mentioned in the bill?

No, but forests are.

“Forests have more potential than any other sector,” said Laurie Wayburn, president of the Pacific Forest Trust, at a Wednesday, March 16, online briefing on natural carbon capture. One key to that is better forest management, including reducing the amount of wildfires, she said.

A report by The Climate Center also calls for more trees to be integrated with farming operations and for more plants along roadways. It also specifies significant opportunities for diverting landfill bound organic waste to grazing fields and farmlands, where it can promote better growth of plants which in turn capture carbon.
What about capturing carbon dioxide before the emissions leave the factory? Or extracting it directly from the atmosphere?

Last November’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law included $15 billion to promote such projects nationwide. Petrie-Norris’ AB 2944 would streamline the permitting process while AB 1676, which she authored with two Assembly colleagues, would help establish such carbon capture as a priority. On the Senate side, SB 905 would establish demonstration projects for reducing carbon emissions at cement factories, which are a particularly troublesome source of greenhouse gases.

According to AB 1676, such carbon capture could eliminate 60 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in the state annually. That would be in addition to the 60 million metric ton goal for natural carbon removal.
Why are many environmentalists wary of technological carbon capture?

Capturing emissions at factories has been happening since the 1970s, but in limited amounts because of the costs involved. Currently, there are just 26 such operations worldwide, according to Ellie Cohen, CEO of The Climate Center. She cited a study that found 81% of the carbon captured was then used to enhance oil recovery, meaning it was used for a product that increased greenhouse gases.

“So the net benefit is negative (environmentally),” Cohen said.

Removing carbon directly from the air is a less developed technology and costs as much as $600 per ton of carbon, according to an online Q&A with UC Riverside experts. Engineering professor Mihri Ozkan said in order for that process to be viable, the cost would have to be reduced to $100 per ton.

Environmentalists describe both technological approaches as costly and still in development stages, while natural carbon capture can be affordably implemented immediately.
What happens to carbon once it’s captured?

With natural carbon capture, the carbon is absorbed by the plant and then into the soil, where it can remain for decades or centuries.

With technological carbon capture, it can be injected into porous, subterranean rock formations, although environmentalists warn of the possibility of leaks and the vulnerability to earthquakes.

Researchers are also exploring using the captured carbon dioxide to create other products, such as urea, which is used in fertilizer and in the manufacture of plastics, and graphene, which is used to create screens for smart phones.

‘We’re very excited’: Canada’s clean energy firms eye soaring EU electricity prices

Jeff Lagerquist
Wed, May 11, 2022

The European Union is reportedly preparing fast-track permits for clean energy projects to help replace Russian fossil fuels. REUTERS/Andreas Mortensen

Canadian clean energy producers say they’re benefiting from European electricity rates that prompted some governments to roll out measures to shield consumers and businesses from rising prices.

Kingsey Falls, Que.-based Boralex (BLX.TO) and Toronto-based Northland Power (NPI.TO) reported first-quarter financial results on Wednesday. In both cases, management noted the dual impacts of high electricity rates in Europe, as well as the push among nations on the continent to sever energy ties to Russia.

“We’re very excited about the new opportunities that are arising as a result of rising electricity prices, and the European push for energy security,” Northland CEO Mike Crawley told analysts on a post-earnings conference call on Wednesday. He said “higher market prices” from its Gemini wind farm off the coast of the Netherlands helped the company top analyst expectations in its latest quarter.
Boralex Inc. (BLX.TO)

Boralex CEO Patrick Decostre pointed to a “sharp rise in energy prices” in France, mainly attributed to extended outages at many of the country’s nuclear reactors. The company is France’s largest independent producer of onshore wind power with more than 60 farms in operation scattered across the country, according to company’s website.

“The other good news is that the price in the UK has also increased a lot. So the demand for electricity is even higher,” Decostre said on a call with analysts. Boralex has plans for a 90 megawatt wind project in the highlands of Scotland.

EU nations including Germany, France, Italy and Spain have announced plans to cut taxes or issue rebates in a bid to soften the blow of higher energy prices. At the same time, the 27-member bloc is reportedly preparing fast-track permits for renewable projects to help replace Russian fossil fuels.

“Countries such as Germany, the UK, and the Netherlands have specifically higher targets for off-shore wind,” Crawley said. “Northland is well-positioned, we believe, to achieve these objectives.”

Toronto-listed Northland shares climbed 1.81 per cent to $38.34 at 1:45 p.m. ET on Wednesday. Boralex added 1.66 per cent to $38.04.