Texas Official Admits Beloved Black Principal Was Fired for Being Against Racism

Brooke Leigh Howard
Thu, July 14, 2022 

Facebook/James Whitfield

A member of a school board in Texas has said the quiet part out loud, admitting that a beloved Black high school principal who shared his stance on racism in the wake of George Floyd’s death was pushed out of the job for being a “total activist.”

Dr. James Whitfield, who became Colleyville High School’s first Black principal in 2020, wrote a letter to the school community about police brutality after Floyd’s murder, which led to him being placed on administrative leave in July 2020.

“He is encouraging the disruption and destruction of our district,” former school board candidate Stetson Clark said during a board meeting at the time, the Texas Tribune reported.

In September 2021, the school district voted unanimously to not renew Whitfield’s contract, causing uproar among many parents, students, and teachers. His critics claimed the letter he wrote to the community about “education [being] the key to stomping out ignorance, hate, and systemic racism,” was equivalent to implementing Critical Race Theory in the school.

Tammy Nakamura may be new to the Grapevine-Colleyville school board but that didn’t stop her from weighing in on Whitfield’s controversial departure during a gathering of school board members last month hosted by the Republican National Committee.

On the event’s page, the RNC stated that the group was organizing the June 26 meeting ahead of upcoming local, state, and federal elections to discuss “issues parents have raised, and the success they have had in getting elected and making a difference, and how parents/students can get involved.”

Nakamura was listed as a “distinguished, elected trustee” who would speak at the meeting.

RuPaul Book Pulled From Library Shelves Over One Parent’s Fury

In a video of the event posted to the Colleyville Citizens for Accountability Facebook group on July 8, Nakamura is seen commenting on Whitfield’s departure. After alleging Whitfield brought national attention to the school district because he was married to a white woman, Nakamura said it was the principal’s supposedly woke agenda that led to his ouster.

“I went in last week and read the whole file,” she said during the meeting.

“That’s the straw that broke the camel’s back… that got him fired,” Nakamura said, referring to the letter Whitfield sent to parents about targeting racism and hate, which she claimed showed an activist agenda. “There is absolute proof [of] what he was trying to do,” she said.

Though Nakamura didn’t elaborate on the contents of Whitfield’s letter, she was adamant that she had a list of other educators in the school system with similar motives.

“They have to be stopped now,” she added. “We cannot have teachers such as these in our schools because they’re just poison, and they’re taking our schools down.”

However, members of the Colleyville community pushed back, saying the novice school board member was attempting to fear-monger with “incoherent” and “misguided” claims for the sake of politics.

“First, Tammy Harris Nakamura, your story is incoherent so it’s hard to follow your misguided claims,” posted Amyn Gilani in the Colleyville Citizens for Accountability Facebook group.

“Second, Dr. James Whitfield was targeted because he addressed the murder of George Floyd and he made himself available to support all students who have questions and thoughts about inequality and injustice,” Gilani wrote. “James is an asset to our community, not poison.”

“Sounds like a 15th century attempt to prosecute an old world inquisition,” Karl Meek posted, questioning the board member’s motives in targeting educators with different political views. “What’s next, rounding up the ‘poisonous teachers’, shackling them and then sentencing them to an indeterminate incarceration in the ‘Towers of Colleyville’? What’s old must be new again?”

Another Colleyville resident called Nakamura’s suggestion of a list of “poisoned” teachers “an employment hit list.”

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Others questioned why Nakamura even had access to go through educators’ files and whether it was a breach of privacy.

“Well tami, that is not what was read in open meeting by the HR director,” wrote Grapevine-Colleyville school district substitute teacher David Benedetto. “[By the way] .. why are you revealing confidential personnel matters?”

According to the Star-Telegram, Whitfield is on paid administrative leave until his resignation officially goes into effect in August 2023.

Neither Nakamura nor the Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District immediately returned requests for comment.

Bombshell alcohol study funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation finds only risks, zero benefits for young adults

Chloe Taylor
Fri, July 15, 2022 

People under the age of 40 start risking their health if they consume any more than two teaspoons of wine or two and a half tablespoons of beer per day, a new study suggests.

The analysis—part of the wider Global Burden of Disease study—was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and published in The Lancet medical journal on Thursday.

It found that for young adults between the ages of 15 and 39, there were zero health benefits—only risks—associated with drinking alcohol.

Globally, almost 60% of people who consumed unsafe amounts of alcohol in 2020 fell into this age bracket, according to the findings.

Researchers said that for people aged between 15 and 39, the recommended amount of alcohol that could be consumed before risking their health was “a little more than one-tenth of a standard drink.”

They defined a standard drink as 3.4 fluid ounces of red wine or 12 fluid ounces of beer.

By this definition, the study’s findings suggested that alcohol stops being “safe” to consume for under-40s after around two teaspoons of red wine or two and a half tablespoons of beer.

The Global Burden of Disease study is massive in scope. It has been ongoing since 1990 and uses data from 204 countries and territories, and is described in the Lancet as "the most comprehensive effort to date to understand the changing health challenges around the world."

But the young-adult side of this isn't the whole story.

'Benefits' of drinking alcohol

While the study warned that drinking only led to health risks for younger generations, the GBD research team found that for people over the age of 40 with no underlying health problems, consuming a small amount of alcohol each day could provide some health benefits.

These benefits included reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke, and diabetes.

An example of “a small amount” of alcohol was between one and two 3.4-ounce glasses of red wine, the study’s authors said.

Globally, men were far more likely to drink harmful amounts of alcohol than women, the study found, with researchers stating that of the individuals who consumed harmful amounts of alcohol in 2020, 77% were male.

“Our message is simple: Young people should not drink, but older people may benefit from drinking small amounts,” Dr. Emmanuela Gakidou, a professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, said in a news release.

She acknowledged, however, that this “may not be realistic,” but added that it is important that people make informed decisions about the impact of alcohol on their health.

The study echoes findings from some earlier studies that have suggested there is no safe level of alcohol consumption.

Last year, an Oxford University study of more than 25,000 people found that there was “no safe dose of alcohol” when it came to brain health.

Meanwhile, an Irish study published in May concluded that alcohol may pose greater risks to the heart than previously thought, with one of the authors urging people to limit their weekly consumption to less than a bottle of wine or three and a half cans of beer.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Why Men as Young as 23 Are Choosing Vasectomies in Post-Roe America

KIND OF EXTREME FOR AVOIDING USING CONDOMS

Sri Taylor
Thu, July 14, 2022 

(Bloomberg) -- Connor Speed never imagined he would be asking for a vasectomy at the age of 23, but after the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, he decided to take the plunge.

He’s frustrated by what he sees as a loss of rights for the women in his life; he also wants to avoid unwanted pregnancies.

“Unfortunately my fiancee and my daughter now don’t have the right to choose what they want to do with their body, and I do, so I made this choice,” said Speed, who scheduled the procedure in his home state of Missouri five days after the ruling. By the time he undergoes the planned procedure in October, he’ll have turned 24.

The high court’s reversal of the 1973 landmark decision protecting the federal right to abortion has sent shock waves through the medical, legal and advocacy communities. Under pressure to respond, the White House said President Joe Biden signed an executive order Friday intended to preserve access to the procedure.

Meanwhile, couples have been forced to reconsider how they’ll safeguard against unwanted pregnancies. Speed is among hundreds of men rushing to book sterilization procedures after the June 24 ruling.

70 Calls

In Ohio, where abortions are now prohibited after six weeks into pregnancy, the Cleveland Clinic went from lining up three or four vasectomies a day to 90 in the week following the Supreme Court decision. Des Moines, Iowa, urologist Esgar Guarín said he typically performs 40 to 50 vasectomies a month; last weekend alone 20 men registered. Koushik Shaw of the Austin Urology Institute in Texas said his office received about 70 calls within the hour of the ruling.

Many men who had been considering a vasectomy say the verdict was the last straw, according to Tampa, Florida, urologist Doug Stein. Weekly requests for the procedure at his practice have nearly tripled to about 150.

“They want to remain pregnancy-free, because now you cannot reverse a pregnancy as easily as you could before,” he said.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America, which provides vasectomies in some of its clinics, said web traffic on a page explaining how to receive a sterilization procedure increased over 2,200% in the days following the judgment. Traffic to an article on how to get a vasectomy spiked more than 1,500%.

“Many people are rightfully concerned about their rights and access to sexual and reproductive health care — including, but not limited to, abortion,” said Diana Contreras, Planned Parenthood’s chief health care officer.

In a vasectomy, doctors sever the tubes that carry sperm, preventing it from mixing with semen. Dependence on it is not uncommon: In a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey published in 2020, 5.6% of women cited vasectomy as their contraceptive approach, compared with 14% using birth control pills.

While vasectomies are often reversible, success rates range from 30% to 90%. Most women’s tubal ligation procedures, another surgical form of pregnancy prevention, can’t be reversed and are far more dangerous than male sterilization.

No Regrets

“Every single year in this country alone, 25 to 30 women die from getting their tubes tied,” said Marc Goldstein, a Weill Cornell Medicine urologist. In contrast, research published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1992 found that, among men who were cancer-free at the start of the study, vasectomy “was associated with reductions in mortality from all causes.”

Goldstein said he’s seen an unusual increase among vasectomies in men who are younger and in childless couples since the ruling. That may also reflect a link between vasectomies and financial dread that’s been noted in periods such as the Great Recession of 2007-2009, when procedures spiked while reversals dropped, he said. US consumer confidence has fallen to its lowest point since July 2020, according to the Ipsos-Forbes Advisor US Consumer Confidence Tracker.

“Whenever we see a downturn in the economy, more people think about having less children,” said Philip Werthman, a urologist at the Center for Male Reproductive Medicine & Vasectomy Reversal in Los Angeles. Whether those trends last remains to be seen.

“My initial response is that part of this is reactionary,” said Stein, the Tampa urologist. Future legislation and court activity will likely play an important role, he said.

While contraception itself is currently unaffected by the court’s June decision, Justice Clarence Thomas suggested the group reconsider that issue, among many other rights-based questions. As those uncertainties mount, Speed said his choice to get a vasectomy has eased a lot of his anxieties about family planning.

“I don’t regret my decision,” he said. “I am eager for it, I’m excited, and hopefully it’s not just a decision made in vain.”

Australian woman who was detained and asked by a US border official if she had an abortion says she's shocked by the response: 'a lot of people who've read this story are most horrified at that and I can see why'
Isabella Zavarise
Sat, July 16, 2022

A US border officer asked Madolline Gourley if she had recently had an abortion.Madolline Gourley

Madolline Gourley was traveling form Australia to Canada when she was detained in Los Angeles.

Gourley planned to house-sit in exchange for accommodations but border officials didn't believe her.

Most of the comments she's received about how she was treated have been positive and empathetic.

After being detained and asked whether she had an abortion by a US border official, Madolline Gourley told Insider she's shocked by the response she's received to her story going viral.

The 32-year-old was traveling from Brisbane, Australia, to Canada where she planned to house- and cat-sit in exchange for accommodations. After landing in Los Angeles, Gourley was detained by American border officials who didn't believe her story and questioned her for three hours.

During that time, a US border officer asked her repeatedly whether she was pregnant, and if she recently had an abortion. Gourley said no, but told Insider she thought about what the response would have been if she had said yes, and whether that would have gotten her deported quicker.

"I think a lot of people who've read this story are most horrified at that and I can see why, because of everything going on over there," she said.

Last month, the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a landmark decision that recognized a person's right to an abortion.

Gourley was eventually deported for breaching the conditions of a visa-waiver program. She said other house-sitters have reached out to her with similar stories of having issues while traveling on this visa. Gourley said The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Australia was supposed to provide her with the proper paperwork to support her trip, but she never received it.

While she said some people think she's lying about being asked about having an abortion, most of the comments she's received have been positive and empathetic.

"People just really feel sorry for the questioning and treatment I got while being held in detention," she told Insider. "I feel it was out of line for the officer to ask the pregnancy question again, and the abortion question."

Gourley said her treatment from the US border official won't deter her from traveling to the US, but said if she had never visited the country before and this was her first experience, she'd be mortified.

"For people that are coming to the United States for a holiday or a vacation, and that's the first person they're interacting with on US soil ... it doesn't make you wanna go to the United States," she said.

Gourley has tried contacting US Customs and Border Protection about the incident but said she hasn't heard back.

US Customs and Border Protection did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Gourley has previously freelanced for Business Insider.

Images from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope remind us, yet again, how improbable it is that we're alone in the universe

Paola Rosa-Aquino,Morgan McFall-Johnsen

Sat, July 16, 2022 

The James Webb Space Telescope's first deep field infrared image, released on July 11, 2022.NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI

• NASA unveiled the deepest, sharpest infrared image of the distant universe ever captured on Tuesday.

• Various estimates suggest Earth-like planets that could harbor life are abundant in the universe.

• The James Webb Space Telescope's instruments capture distant galaxies, stars, and worlds in unprecedented detail.

It's easy to lose yourself in the James Webb Space Telescope's first image. Snail-spiral galaxies, gleaming stars, and minuscule red dots surely represent billions of unknown worlds.

"The deep field image fills me with wonder and hope," Lisa Kaltenegger, professor of astronomy at Cornell University and director of the Carl Sagan Institute, told Insider.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope in the clean room at Northrop Grumman, Redondo Beach, California, in July 2020.NASA/Chris Gunn

Webb's image of the distant universe covers an area of the sky that you can blot out by holding a grain of sand at arm's length. Still, it contains thousands of galaxies, according to Kaltenegger, along with the possibility of billions of Earth-like planets. So far, the hunt for signs of life beyond Earth has turned up empty.

But astronomers say there are likely an abundance of places where life might thrive. Looking at Webb's pictures, it's hard to believe otherwise.

An abundance of distant worlds

An illustration of what it might look like on the surface of TRAPPIST-1f, a rocky planet 39 light-years away from Earth.NASA/JPL-Caltech

There are up to 400 billion stars teeming with planets in the Milky Way alone. We don't know for sure, but scientists have tried to calculate how many Earth-like planets are orbiting all those stars. Their estimates range from 300 million to 10 billion potentially habitable worlds.

Outside that, there are about 100 billion to 200 billion galaxies in the universe, each one home to 100 million stars, on average, and at least that number of planets.

Astronomers have already captured direct evidence of 5,000 planets beyond our solar system, according to NASA's Exoplanet Archive. Hundreds of these worlds sit in the "Goldilocks Zone," the orbital range around a star where the temperature is just right — not too hot and not too cold — for liquid water to exist on the planet.

Observations by NASA's Kepler mission suggest that one out of every five stars has a planet orbiting it within this just-right distance, according to Kaltenegger. "I like our chances of finding other Earth-like planets, and hopefully other Earth-like planets that also host life," Kaltenegger said.

The "Goldilocks Zone" around a star is where a planet is neither too hot, nor too cold, to support liquid water.NASA

The possibilities for life aren't limited to planets. Some ocean moons within our solar system are leading candidates for alien life. There's Jupiter's icy moon Europa, and Saturn's moon Enceladus, which have oceans of liquid water deep beneath their ice crusts. Astronomers think there's a chance life could thrive there. Surely, there are other Europas and Enceladuses in other star systems.

Still, despite the myriad galaxies and worlds already imaged and studied, astronomers are unsure about the odds of life arising elsewhere.

"We don't know how easy or hard it is to make life — that is why the search is so exciting," Kaltenegger said, adding, "Right now, I'd say the chances are between zero and 100%, but I am hopeful it won't be zero."

Looking for life as we know it

An artist's concept illustrates the idea that rocky, terrestrial worlds like the inner planets in our solar system may be plentiful and diverse in the universe.NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (SSC-Caltech)

To understand whether exoplanets, or planets around other stars, have the conditions to host life, researchers measure the chemical makeup of their atmospheres. They do this by looking at how starlight gets filtered by the atmosphere, which dips at very specific wavelengths that correspond to different molecules.

Astronomers typically look for the ingredients that sustain earthly life — liquid water, a continuous source of energy, carbon, and other elements — when hunting for life in distant worlds. For instance, detecting methane in an exoplanet's atmosphere could be an indication of biology. According to Kaltenegger, these building blocks of life appear to be abundant in our solar system and the universe.

What's more, a potential alien astronomer looking for life beyond their planet might pick up on signs of life from Earth in a similar way. In 2021, Kaltenegger co-authored a study that found that more than 2,000 stars, some with their own planets, have a front-row seat to look toward the Earth as it passes around our sun. "That's just within 300 light-years, in our cosmic front yard, in terms of distance," Kaltenegger said.

One limitation in scouring the cosmos for alien life is that scientists' definition of what a life-supporting planet might look like is based on what we know about life on Earth. But by discovering and studying new worlds, astronomers can hone in on what makes a world habitable beyond a sample size of one — Earth.

Leveraging Webb's power to study other worlds

The James Webb Space Telescope drifts away from the rocket's last stage, on December 25, 2021.NASA TV

Since the first world outside our solar system was confirmed in 1995, astronomers have searched for other planets orbiting sun-like stars. Because these worlds are so far away, space-based telescopes like the Hubble Space Telescope have dramatically enhanced their planet-hunting capabilities, and the James Webb Space Telescope makes more such discoveries almost inevitable.

Webb will allow for unprecedented views into these distant planets. "With the James Webb Space Telescope, we can explore the chemical makeup of the atmosphere of other worlds — and if there are signs in it that we can only explain by life," Kaltenegger said.

There are 70 planets scheduled for study in Webb's first year alone. Already, Webb captured the signature of water, along with previously undetected evidence of clouds and haze, in the atmosphere of WASP-96 b — a giant and hot gas planet that orbits a distant star like our sun.

The James Webb Space Telescope observed the spectra of WASP-96 b, revealing its atmosphere has water, clouds, and haze.NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI

"While the Hubble Space Telescope has analyzed numerous exoplanet atmospheres over the past two decades, capturing the first clear detection of water in 2013, Webb's immediate and more detailed observation marks a giant leap forward in the quest to characterize potentially habitable planets beyond Earth," NASA said.

Kaltenegger is part of a team that will dedicate 200 hours of Webb's telescope time in its first year to study faraway places, including worlds circling Trappist-1 — a cool, dim star 40 light-years from Earth.

"It is an amazing time in our exploration of the cosmos," Kaltenegger said, adding, "Are we alone? This amazing space telescope is the first-ever tool that collects enough light for us to start figuring this fundamental question out."

NASA's Voyager spacecraft carry golden records loaded with music and photos, to explain our world to aliens

Paola Rosa-Aquino

Sat, July 16, 2022 

NASA's Voyager spacecraft carry golden records loaded with music and photos, to explain our world to aliens

On board each Voyager probe is a golden record, with sounds and images that show life on Earth.NASA/JPL

• NASA's been slowly shutting down non-essential instruments on the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft to save power.

• Aboard each spacecraft is a golden record, with images, sounds, greetings, and music from Earth.

• The twin probes launched in 1977, on a grand tour of the solar system and interstellar space.

Over the past few decades — and more aggressively in recent years — NASA's been slowly shutting down non-essential instruments on its Voyager spacecraft, to save power. If all goes well, it could stay energized until about 2030. But after that, the spacecraft will likely be on their own, which scientists planned for.

"When the spacecraft don't have enough power to transmit a signal back to us on Earth, they'll continue in the direction they're going, which over hundreds of thousands of years is around the center of the Milky Way Galaxy," Suzanne Dodd, project manager for the Voyager mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told Insider.

"It's a little piece of the Earth that's traveling out away from us and through our galaxy."

When Voyager 1 and 2 launched into space in 1977, each carried on board a golden record — an interstellar collection of human sounds and images meant to represent life on Earth for any alien civilization that might come across it.

Over the decades, the twin probes hurtled through space at a rate of 35,000 miles per hour, sending back detailed views of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and their moons. After completing grand tours of our solar system, Voyager 1 and 2 entered interstellar space in 2012 and 2018, respectively. That makes them the most distant human-made objects from Earth.

This image of astronaut Ed White during a spacewalk is part of the collection included on the golden record.NASA

Mounted on the outside of each spacecraft is an identical gold-plated copper record protected by an aluminum case that, if discovered by aliens, represents humanity. As NASA puts it, the records "communicate a story of our world to extraterrestrials."

Humanity's time capsule

In order to illustrate life on Earth to any aliens that come across it, the golden records contain instructions — using the universal language of math and science we would expect extraterrestrials to have in common with us — on how to extract a trove of sounds, music, images, and diagrams showing human anatomy and humanity's location in the galaxy.

An image from the golden record depicts humans drinking, licking ice cream, and eating.National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center (NAIC)

The 115 analog photographs — encoded as audio signals — include a snapshot of a woman licking an ice-cream cone, a man taking a bite out of a sandwich, and a man drinking water, to show how humans eat. The record also includes photos of the Great Barrier Reef, the Taj Mahal, Ansel Adams landscapes, and more.

It contains greetings to prospective otherworldly beings in more than 55 languages and a 12-minute compilation of sounds from Earth, including thunder, the calls of a humpback whale, brainwaves, and a kiss. The cosmic mixtape also has nearly 90 minutes worth of music from around the world, ranging from Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode" to a Navajo chant.

A photo of a musical score with a violin was included on the record.National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center (NAIC)/Cornell University

The record includes a copy of a letter penned by Jimmy Carter, who was president when the twin probes launched:

"This is a present from a small distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts and our feelings. We are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours," Carter wrote, adding, "We hope someday, having solved the problems we face, to join a community of galactic civilizations. This record represents our hope and our determination, and our good will in a vast and awesome universe."

This image of woman looking at an X-ray photo of what seems to be her own hand, was included on the golden record.National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center (NAIC)

Making a cosmic mixtape

Astronomer Carl Sagan, who helped design similar physical messages to send to space aboard the Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft, was tapped by NASA to head the creation of Voyager's records. He asked for help curating its contents from science writers Timothy Ferris and Ann Druyan, who recorded her own heartbeat and brainwaves for the record.

"The spacecraft will be encountered and the record played only if there are advanced space-faring civilizations in interstellar space," Sagan wrote, according to NASA. "But the launching of this 'bottle' into the cosmic 'ocean' says something very hopeful about life on this planet."

Biden vowing 'strong' climate action despite dual setbacks

Sat, July 16, 2022 


WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is promising “strong executive action” to combat climate change, despite dual setbacks in recent weeks that have restricted his ability to regulate carbon emissions and boost clean energy such as wind and solar power.

The Supreme Court last month limited how the nation’s main anti-air pollution law can be used to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. Then late Thursday, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said he wants to delay sweeping environmental legislation that Democrats have pushed as central to achieving Biden's ambitious climate goals.

Biden, who has pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, compared with 2005 levels, said Friday that "action on climate change and clean energy remains more urgent than ever.''

If the Senate will not act to address climate change and boost clean energy, “I will take strong executive action to meet this moment,'' Biden said in a statement from Saudi Arabia, where he met Friday with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Biden did not specify what actions he will take on climate, but said they will create jobs, improve energy security, bolster domestic manufacturing and protect consumers from oil and gas price increases. “I will not back down,'' he promised.

Some advocates urged Biden to use the moment to declare a national climate emergency and reinstate a ban on crude oil exports, among other steps.

Declaring a climate emergency would allow Biden to redirect spending to accelerate renewable energy such as wind and solar and speed the nation’s transition away from fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas.

Climate advocates, including some of Manchin's Democratic colleagues in the Senate, said Manchin's announcement that he cannot back the climate provisions in the Senate bill — at least for now — frees Biden of the obligation to cater to a powerful, coal-state senator eager to protect his energy-producing home state. Manchin's vote is decisive in the evenly divided Senate, where Republicans unanimously oppose climate action.

"Free at last. Let’s roll. Do it all and start it now,'' tweeted Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I. who has long pushed stronger action on climate. “With legislative climate options now closed, it’s now time for executive Beast Mode,'' Whitehouse wrote.

Whitehouse suggested a series of actions Biden could take, including “a robust social cost of carbon rule″ that would force energy producers to account for greenhouse gas emissions as a cost of doing business. The senator also urged Biden to require major polluters to use technology to capture carbon dioxide emissions and impose stronger pollution controls on cars, light trucks and heavy-duty vehicles.

Advocates also urged Biden to reject all onshore and offshore drilling on federal lands and in federal waters — a step he promised during the 2020 campaign but has not enacted — and restrict approval of natural gas pipelines and other fossil fuel projects.

“For too long, we’ve been waiting on a single legislative package to save us and a single legislator to determine our fate,'' said Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore. “Now that it’s clear legislation to address our climate crisis is dead, President Biden needs to put us on an emergency footing to address this disaster.''

Citing Biden's campaign promise to end new drilling on federal lands and waters, Merkley said, "Now is the time to show the American people he’s serious by saying ‘no’ to expanding our addiction to fossil fuels.''

Even before Manchin's apparent rejection of the climate measures, Democrats had slimmed their down their plan from about $555 billion in climate spending to just over $300 billion in a bid to secure his support. Proposed tax credits for wind, solar and nuclear energy, along with still-unproven carbon-capture technology, could reduce emissions by up to 40% by 2030, advocates said.

Manchin had already forced Democrats to drop two tax provisions he opposes: direct payments of clean energy credits and tax credits for drivers who purchase electric vehicles. Manchin forced other concessions last year, including killing a proposal that would have paid utilities that increase clean energy while penalizing those that do not.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said he still hopes to salvage the clean energy tax provisions and said failure “really is not an option here.”

Manchin's request to postpone action on the climate measure follows a June 30 ruling by the Supreme Court, which said in a 6-3 vote that the Clean Air Act does not give the Environmental Protection Agency broad authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.

The ruling by the court's conservative majority likely complicates the Biden administration’s plan to manage power plant pollution, but does not eliminate its authority to regulate greenhouse gases. EPA Administrator Michael Regan has said the agency is moving forward with proposed rules for power plants in the coming months.

Ann Clancy, associate climate policy director for Indivisible, a progressive advocacy group, said it was time for Biden to "stop waiting for corporate-backed Democrats and their bad faith negotiations and deliver real wins for the American people on climate.''

"We don’t have any more time to waste,'' Clancy said.

Manchin, in a radio interview Friday, said climate activists want an immediate end to U.S. use of oil, coal and gas. "That's crazy,'' he told West Virginia talk show host Hoppy Kercheval. “I’m not throwing caution to the wind. I think we need an energy policy that works for our country.”

Matthew Daly, The Associated Press

Biden pivots to boosting oil supply to combat high gas prices

Ben Adler
·Senior Editor
Fri, July 15, 2022 

President Biden traveled to Saudi Arabia on Friday to meet with officials from the desert kingdom — which holds the world’s largest oil reserves — and is expected to meet with leaders from five other oil-producing Persian Gulf nations on Saturday, in what will be the latest in a series of moves by the Biden administration to boost oil supplies to reduce high gasoline prices.

This approach represents a significant shift for the president, who campaigned on promises to restrict domestic fossil fuel development as part of his effort to combat climate change.

Earlier this month, Biden threatened to break a campaign pledge to stop selling leases for oil and gas production offshore and on federal land when the Department of the Interior (DOI) released a proposed five-year plan for offshore oil and gas drilling that could allow new lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and in Cook Inlet in Alaska.

President Biden is welcomed at the King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Friday. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

And last Friday, the administration moved toward approving a giant oil drilling project in Alaska that is opposed by climate change activists. The project, owned by ConocoPhillips and known as Willow, was previously blocked by a federal judge who ruled its environmental review did not adequately consider the effects on climate change. DOI issued a new environmental impact analysis that reviewed several options and caused opponents to fear that the administration was signaling support for the project.

“Giving the Willow Project a stamp of approval after this rushed and incomplete review process could be the kiss of death for any chance at meeting President Biden’s climate commitments,” said Lena Moffitt, chief of staff at Evergreen Action, in a statement responding to the new analysis.

Given the longtime lag between the new fossil fuel leasing and any effect on prices, experts say that none of these measures are likely to lower prices in the foreseeable future.

“There are few options in the U.S. presidential toolkit to lower fuel prices in the short term. Biden has been using the ones he has, from the wise move of selling oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to the more economically questionable proposal of a federal gas tax holiday,” noted Samantha Gross, director of the Energy Security and Climate Initiative at the Brookings Institution, in a blog post published Thursday on the think tank’s website.

A sign at a gas station in Williams, Ariz., on July 6. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images)

“The Biden administration’s decision to sell off more public lands for drilling might be good for Big Oil, but it won’t lower gasoline prices and it certainly will worsen climate chaos,” Alan Zibel, research director for Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group, told Yahoo News. “That’s because any oil extracted from leases issued now will have no conceivable effect on today’s gasoline prices.”

Oil extraction — which requires multiple steps such as seismic testing, obtaining permits and laying out infrastructure to transport equipment and oil before the drilling can even begin — is a slow process. Offshore, to go from a lease sale to oil production takes four to 10 years, depending on factors such as water depth, the drilling depth of the reservoir below the ocean floor, the distance from shore and so on.

“The outlook for the economy is a far bigger driver of oil prices than anything the Biden administration is doing on supply,” Zibel observed, noting that fears of a recession have caused crude oil prices to recently drop below $100 per barrel, bringing average U.S. gasoline prices down by 38 cents per gallon over the last month, to $4.63.

Even Biden’s Saudi swing is unlikely to yield an increase in immediate oil production. Rather, it may be a reciprocation for OPEC’s larger-than-expected increase in oil production announced in June.

“If Biden asks for increased oil production during his trip to Saudi Arabia, he is unlikely to be successful,” wrote Gross in her post for Brookings. “Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are the only countries with spare capacity today. However, that capacity is believed to be limited and they have no motivation to increase production. Both countries are enjoying today’s high oil prices, particularly in light of a coming energy transition that will eventually erode demand.”

Processing facilities in the Khurais oil field in Khurais, Saudi Arabia, in 2021. (Maya Siddiqui/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Despite disappointing environmentalists, Biden’s moves also have angered the oil and gas industry, which argues that the areas potentially opened to new drilling are too limited. The offshore drilling plan, for instance, would not include any new lease sales in the Atlantic, Pacific or Arctic oceans.

Fossil fuel companies also are irritated that DOI waited until the day after the previous five-year plan expired on June 30 before proposing a new one, which won’t take effect until the fall at the soonest. And they are especially concerned about the possibility that none of the areas being considered for future fossil fuel leasing will actually be opened when the final rule is issued.

“At a time when Americans are facing record high energy costs and the world is seeking American energy leadership, tonight’s announcement [on July 1] leaves open the possibility of no new offshore lease sales, the continuation of a policy that has gone on for far too long,” said Frank Macchiarola, senior vice president of policy, economics and regulatory affairs at the American Petroleum Institute (API). “Because of their failure to act, the U.S. is now in the unprecedented position of having a substantial gap between programs for the first time.”

API also would like to see oil production increased domestically rather than in the Middle East. “President Biden, on behalf of the men and women fueling America’s economic recovery, I invite you to visit America’s vast energy fields and infrastructure,” API president and CEO Mike Sommers said in a video released Thursday. “Instead of meeting with foreign governments to ask them to increase energy production, look to reliable U.S. energy sources here at home.”

Then-White House press secretary Jen Psaki at the daily press briefing on March 3. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

The animosity is mutual, as the Biden administration has blamed oil companies for holding back on increasing supply. In March, Biden’s then press secretary Jen Psaki pointed out that “there are 9,000 approved oil leases that the oil companies are not tapping into currently” and the White House released a plan for lowering gasoline prices that asked Congress “to make companies pay fees on wells from their leases that they haven’t used in years and on acres of public lands that they are hoarding without producing.”

Oil companies are booking record profits, but one Wall Street Journal analysis found that in the first quarter of this year, the nine largest U.S. oil producers spent 54% more on paying dividends and buying back shares of their companies than they invested in new oil development. On June 15, Biden sent a letter to the major oil refiners, including Marathon Petroleum, Valero Energy, ExxonMobil, Phillips 66, Chevron, BP and Shell, asking for an increase in production.

“At a time of war — historically high refinery profit margins being passed directly onto American families are not acceptable,” Biden wrote. “Your companies need to work with my Administration to bring forward concrete, near-term solutions that address the crisis.”

The oil companies were unmoved, however, noting that refinery utilization rates are already at 94.2%, the highest rate since 2019, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration data, and that expanding refining capacity would take time. They also argued that the administration’s reluctance to embrace additional federal fossil fuel leasing discourages them from investing in capacity expansion.

A crude oil collection pipeline in an oil field in Utah. (Jon G. Fuller/VWPics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

“Unfortunately, what we have seen since January 2021 are policies that send a message that the Administration aims to impose obstacles to our industry delivering energy resources the world needs,” wrote Chevron in a response to Biden.

But if selling more leases or imploring Saudi Arabia won’t bring down gasoline prices in the short term, what would? Some climate change activists and consumer advocates are calling for a tax on the windfall profits being enjoyed by oil companies; the federal government could then pass that money along to taxpayers.

“Last year, four fossil fuel multinational giants — ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron, and BP — earned more than $75 billion in a single year in profits,” noted the Center for American Progress in a brief arguing for a windfall profits tax.

In March, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., introduced the Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act, which would tax excess corporate revenue from barrels sold over the average Brent crude price between 2015 to 2019, roughly $66 a barrel. That could raise an estimated $35 billion to $40 billion per year that would be sent to consumers as relief checks.

The proposal is not as radical as it may seem. In May, Britain’s Conservative government unveiled a 25% tax on the profits of oil and gas firms that will pay for $19 billion in subsidies to low-income households struggling with the increased cost of living.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse. (Sarah Silbiger/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Another possibility is using laws against price gouging to restrict price increases. A bill passed by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives in May would give the president power to declare an energy emergency that would outlaw “excessive” increases in gasoline prices, but it has gone nowhere in the closely divided Senate due to Republican opposition.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment on what it hopes to achieve on oil supply, but expert observers see the recent moves as an effort to at least give the appearance of combating high prices.

“They’re clearly terrified of what high prices at the pump mean for Biden’s approval rating and the midterms in November,” Zibel said. “Any president in this situation would do whatever they can to either lower gasoline prices or be seen as lowering gasoline prices. These prices are not his fault, but he still has a political imperative to do anything he can to try to bring them down.”

Joe Biden Urges Democrats To Take Manchin's Offer, Punt On Climate Spending

Igor Bobic

Fri, July 15, 2022 

President Joe Biden on Friday urged his party to quickly pass legislation lowering the cost of prescription drugs and health care insurance ― and to set aside the rest of his economic and climate agenda in Congress for now.

It’s a bitter blow for Democrats who had hoped to take robust action to fight climate change and expand the social safety net. But it’s one made of political necessity.

With Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-W.Va.) opposition to new spending aimed at combatting climate change ― something he argues would contribute to record inflation ― and looming health insurance premium hikes this fall, Biden was forced to accept reality and swallow a slimmed-down bill that would give Democrats a big legislative victory ahead of November’s midterm elections.

The president urged passage of the legislation this month and pledged to take “strong executive action” to address the climate crisis.

“After decades of fierce opposition from powerful special interests, Democrats have come together, beaten back the pharmaceutical industry and are prepared to give Medicare the power to negotiate lower drug prices and to prevent an increase in health insurance premiums for millions of families with coverage under the Affordable Care Act,” Biden said in a statement issued by the White House.

“Families all over the nation will sleep easier if Congress takes this action. The Senate should move forward, pass it before the August recess, and get it to my desk so I can sign it,” he added.

The drug pricing reforms would be the biggest step in decades to address health care costs. The proposal would require Medicare to negotiate prices of some drugs directly with manufacturers, leveraging the social insurance program’s massive buying power to wring savings from drugmakers.

The new proposal would also cap a Medicare patient’s out-of-pocket expenses at $2,000 per year.

In addition to the prescription drug plan, Manchin also agreed to support a temporary, two-year extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies to help keep health insurance costs from increasing this year. Democrats worried that voters would get hit by insurance premium hikes before the election if they failed to take action.

“It’s not prudent to do the other right now,” Manchin said Friday, referring to climate provisions sought by Democrats.

Democrats reacted with shock and anger to the news that Manchin had balked on several provisions they said he had already agreed to ― at least before a historically bad consumer price spending report that was released this week.

“It’s infuriating and nothing short of tragic that Senator Manchin is walking away, again, from taking essential action on climate. The world is literally burning up while he joins every single Republican to stop strong action to cut emissions,” Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) said in a statement.

Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Colo.) suggested Manchin wasn’t acting in good faith during the course of a year-long negotiation with Democrats.

“We have made concession upon concession. In response to his request, we’ve taken him at his word even as he continued to break his word. And I think now we’re at a point where we have to stop empowering this puppet of the coal industry to be his own branch of government,” Huffman said Friday, referring to Manchin’s cozy ties to the oil and gas industry.

Democrats and climate activists are calling on Biden to take a number of executive actions to tackle climate change, including by declaring a national emergency over climate. It’s unclear how much of it would survive the conservative 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court, which recently kneecapped the Environmental Protection Agency’s power to regulate greenhouse gases.

Still, executive actions could signal to voters ― especially younger ones who already hold skeptical views of Biden ― that he is committed to addressing the climate crisis.

Getting the scaled-back health care bill to Biden’s desk is no sure thing yet, either. Democrats hold a very slim majority in the House, so it only takes a few members to derail legislation. If progressives decide to reject Manchin’s offer, the party may not get anything passed before November.

Jonathan Nicholson contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.