How does a small island survive without a bank?

Wed, August 3, 2022 

In a story playing out in rural communities across Canada, Grand Manan's only brick-and-mortar bank branch will be closing permanently. (Julia Wright/CBC - image credit)

Grand Manan is home to scenic coastline, an active fishery, pebble beaches — and small businesses ranging from take-outs and coffee shops, to convenience stores and art galleries, serving a year-round population of about 2,400.

But after Aug. 24, there's one key amenity Grand Manan won't be able to offer — a bank.

Scotiabank announced in January its intention to close its Grand Manan branch, the only bank on the island for over 100 years, and shut down the island's only ABM as well.

Roger Cosman/CBC

"I truly thought it was a joke at first," said Selena Leonard, while making a cash deposit at the bank. "I thought it was just one of those things that you see on Facebook that are just not true."

"It became kind of like a nightmare when we found out it was true."

Leonard and her husband live on the island, where they own two restaurants.

Roger Cosman/CBC

So close, yet so far

She says a full day of travel, plus meals, to do routine banking is out of reach for most people on the island, many of whom would have to take a day off work.

In the summer Coastal Transport runs two ferries, with two hours between each trip. The rest of the year, there are four hours between trips and one ferry.

"There are quite a few people that do online banking — but a lot of our population are seniors that don't, and not all of them would have a family that could help them out," Leonard said.

Julia Wright/ CBC

For some, that would mean having to "hire someone to take them away to the mainland. Then they have to feed them, pay for the boat fare, and pay that person to go and deposit, like $100, or their seniors' cheque or whatever."

Tabitha Bainbridge was withdrawing cash at the Grand Manan Scotiabank with her aunt, who is in her late 80s and lives in the island's North Head village.

"This, sadly, I guess, is going to be the last time I visit the bank to withdraw some money. I'm not happy about it all," Bainbridge said.

Roger Cosman/CBC

Her aunt "doesn't do smartphones. Even though we try to convince her, she doesn't have a computer, she doesn't use a bank machine, so she can't go 45 minutes to St. George every time she needs to pay her bills."

"Like many of the seniors here in person, they bring in their bill and they pay it in person. So it's ridiculous that they're talking about leaving this island without a bank," Bainbridge said.

A series of workshops, called Digital Days, have been held at the bank branch for anyone who needs help learning to use the alternatives such as online and telephone banking.

The next session will be on Aug. 11.

Theft, attracting new businesses a concern

Leonard also worries businesses with large quantities of cash on hand could be enticing to certain shady customers.

"I'm scared for our business, and other business owners. Our homes and our businesses will have, kind of, big bullseyes painted on them. 'Oh, come rob me because we have cash.'"

Roger Cosman/CBC

"I'm not looking forward to that. Just a little bit of fear and anxiety about that," she said.

The mayor is also concerned about future prospects for the island, wondering if businesses considering setting up on Grand Manan might not want to do so without a financial institution.

Town halls, protests

Grand Mananers have tried everything to get Scotiabank to reverse the decision.

There have been heated town halls, and peaceful protest. One resident, Gregg Russell, went all the way to Toronto and staged a one-man picket outside Scotiabank headquarters on King Street W.

Submitted by Gregg Russell

John Williamson, the Conservative MP for the area, set up a meeting between Grand Manan Mayor Bonnie Morse and members of the federal finance department, including a policy advisor to Chrystia Freeland.

"They were very well briefed on our issues, but really their scope, or their ability to do anything about the bank closure is pretty limited," Morse said.

WATCH | Why some Grand Manan residents may not be able to switch to online banking:

Mayor Morse says the village council is meeting with local businesses to determine what they need, and its Economic Development Committee is working on finding potential options. But there have been no concrete answers.

The loss of brick-and-mortar banks is a story playing out in rural communities across Canada.

In New Brunswick, Scotiabank also closed its historic branch in the village of Bath, population about 500, in July.

More branches in PEI and in rural Nova Scotia will also close in the coming months.

Julia Wright/ CBC

'What in heaven's name are you thinking?'

The uncertainty is hard for people on Grand Manan who remember a time when banks and other businesses felt more connected to their community and saw customers as more than "just numbers on a page," as Leonard put it.

"This decision has been made as a result of a fulsome business review," the bank said in a statement. "We feel that this relocation will help us provide better service and greater resources to our customers in both the Grand Manan and St. George communities."

Selena Leonard isn't buying that. She has a question for the Scotiabank officials who made the decision to close the bank.

"What in heaven's name are you thinking?"

"It's just a number on a page from an office where they have no idea of the remoteness and the uniqueness of the island — how difficult, and inconvenient, it is for people here to get away," she said.

"We've been faithful to you. It's your turn."

Saskatoon's Askîy Project teaches interns how to grow food in the city and share it with others


Thu, August 4, 2022 

The new garden site (formerly the home of the Riversdale Lawn Bowling Club) is named the ketayak community kistikana, which means Elders Community Garden in the northern Michif language. (Kendall Latimer/CBC - image credit)

A community agriculture program in the heart of Saskatoon is helping youth close the gap between the (urban) farm to the table.

Each summer, the Askîy Project (Askîy means the Earth in Cree) gives a batch of interns the opportunity to learn how to plant, maintain, harvest and sell food using sustainable techniques.

The project has grown during the last seven years, but it took a big step forward after it acquired a new plot of land at the old Riversdale Lawn Bowling Club site last summer.

The additional land meant the interns could now offer food in a new way.

"This year we decided to try a community shared agriculture model (CSA)," said Terri Lynn Paulson, an urban agriculture co-ordinator with CHEP Good Food — the community organization that runs the askîy internship program.

Previously, interns were limited to growing food in containers on a "brownfield site," meaning seeds couldn't be sowed directly into the ground. Now, they can use an expansive, in-ground plot.

"Because we have this in-ground space, we have irrigation and it makes it a lot easier to grow more food and have more predictable yields."

Kendall Latimer/CBC

Through the CSA model, people pay into the program at the beginning of the season, becoming subscribers in exchange for a share of what's harvested.

"Folks sign up at the beginning of the year and become members," Paulson said, noting the model relies on trust. "Our members are saying: 'Yes, we'll support you for the whole season.'"

In turn, Askîy interns supply members with biweekly boxes of seasonal vegetables, fruit, flowers and herbs throughout the summer and fall.

Kendall Latimer/CBC

Paulson said CSAs can build relationships and provide a stronger purpose for the people growing the food, because they have to deliver.

"It makes a connection between the people growing your food and the people eating your food, and that's really important to me, and I think it's been really essential to our interns, as well."

The interns include a newsletter with each CSA box, sharing the joys and challenges of urban gardening with the people receiving the food.

Kendall Latimer/CBC

"It definitely warms the heart, knowing that I could help out the community and just be a part of this," said Matthew Recollet, an intern with the project.

The program aims to create a more sustainable food economy in the city. In addition to the CSA, they sell food Monday through Friday at an outdoor market and also donate to the free community fridge.

"By supporting the local farmers and a project like this, you're supporting local people," Recollet said.

Recollet is studying education at university, and he wants to use the skills learned through this internship as part of land-based teaching for his future students. Knowing where your food comes from and how it's grown is part of that, he says.

Kendall Latimer/CBC

Olaf Olson, another intern, says transforming a mostly empty piece of land into a thriving, full plot with dozens of different plants is inspiring. The cultural teachings, such as understanding how plants typically viewed as weeds can be used as medicine or ingredients, and connections with the land have also been a key experience for Olson.

"It's really important to have that connectedness with the land, and knowing how that food can be grown and how to build sustainability, especially in the middle of the city, right?" he said. "A lot of Indigenous people, like myself — I kind of lose that connection here in the city."

Kendall Latimer/CBC

There are five pillars of the internship program:

Enhancing cultural connections — interns learn growing practices from elders and knowledge keepers.


Building social enterprise.


Learning food growing skills.


Engaging youth.


Promoting environmental sustainability.

Olson is going into his second year of nutrition at the University of Saskatchewan. Like Recollet, he also hopes to carry knowledge from this experience to his future career.

But for now, he and his fellow interns plan to enjoy their final weeks sharing food with the community and tending to the plants.

"It's like a little slice of heaven," Recollet said.

CNN Mulls Changes to Anchor Lineup as News Chiefs Take Big Swings

9/11 REMEMBER THE GOOD OLD NEWS DAYS

Brian Steinberg
Wed, August 3, 2022 


The CNN image for the past few years has been embodied by passionate on-air personalities like Don Lemon or Brianna Keilar. These days, it might best be symbolized by beat reporters like Jamie Gangel or Kaitlan Collins.

Gone in recent weeks (for the most part) are what had become the network’s signature red-versus-blue showdowns between hot-talking contributors or segments that hinge on an anchor scolding an interviewee. This is the kind of stuff that typically gives cable-news a viral boost. In its place, CNN is trying something else: the news.

And it could guide what three people familiar with the network say will be some sort of recalibration of on-air talent that could become more apparent this fall.

“CNN seems to be moving back more toward straight news and away from some of the blatant opinion-mongering by its anchors that characterized its past few years,” says Mark Feldstein, chairman of the broadcast journalism department at University of Maryland, and a former CNN correspondent. Recent “First on CNN” scoops include stories on the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security telling the Secret Service to stop investigating missing texts related to the January 6 insurrection and First Lady Jill Biden’s press secretary leaving the White House.

CNN is just the latest news outlet under new early-stage management to swing out in a different direction. In case you haven’t noticed, it’s all the rage. Several U.S. TV news outlets are being operated by new senior executives who aren’t necessarily tied to history or heritage.

Indeed, CNN appears to be borrowing a page from CBS News, where co-president Neeraj Khemlani has been injecting new blood into the ranks in the form of correspondents like Robert Costa, formerly of The Washington Post, and Scott MacFarlane, who had been with WRC, NBC’s Washington, D.C. station. The mission at CBS News in recent months has been to land big scoops and ‘gets,’ with anchors doing both TV and streaming, and let the viral pass-along take care of itself. These things may not shake up the TV-ratings war in outsize fashion, but in a world where more people get their news via streaming video and social media, they may just get more of the clicks that drive digital ad dollars.

“CBS Evening News” anchor Norah O’Donnell, for example, recently landed an exclusive interview with Dr. Caitlin Bernard, the Indiana doctor who treated a 10-year-old rape victim by providing abortion services. Costa in March worked with The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward to reveal that Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, texted then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and urged him to contest the 2020 presidential election results.

CNN’s new boss knows a thing or two about CBS News. He worked there for several years, to some noticeable effect. Chris Licht boosted CBS’ morning fortunes by getting new attention for its morning-news show, a perennial third place in the ratings. “CBS This Morning” didn’t beat rivals “Today” or “Good Morning America,” but it captured some white space in the battle for aficionados of newsy conversation that Licht has been fighting since he helped launch “Morning Joe” at MSNBC in 2007, and continued when he became showrunner of CBS’ “Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” which became more reliant on newsmakers than promotional appearances by movie stars. If you talk to executives who ran CBS at the time, gains at “CBS This Morning” and Colbert helped the economics of the network.

Now Licht has to make the strategy generate some new ratings. In the second quarter, CNN’s primetime viewership among people between 25 and 54 — the audience most coveted by advertisers in news programs — was off by 31%, compared with 40% for MSNBC and just 2% for Fox News Channel. He is likely to put more of an imprint on the outlet just as new opportunity beckons: The entire news sector is gearing up for the 2022 midterm elections, which will kick off the race for the White House in 2024. Both events tend to generate bigger audiences, and advertiser interest in connecting with them.

Licht didn’t create CNN’s current viewership downturn. He joined CNN officially in May, and cable news in general has suffered since Joe Biden was inaugurated as president in 2021. But he’s in the command chair now and has said the network is mulling a new Sunday block of programming that features Chris Wallace and a new newsmagazine-like program. Changes to CNN’s “New Day” morning show are believed to be in the works as well, potentially with a cadre of “friends” who can add to the A.M. dialogue. There is also speculation that CNN could shuffle its primetime personalities and their time slots, potentially injecting someone new into the mix. Executives may also be considering new combinations of talent for various programs as well as enlisting a group of people who will make semi-regular appearances on them.

While Licht may be taking some inspiration from CBS News and some of his past achievements, it’s NBCUniversal that might absorb some of his focus. When it comes to direct competition, only NBCU has the size and scope of CNN around the world. NBCU certainly appears to be focused on CNN. As CNN set about launching the ill-fated CNN+ streaming service, NBCU launched a large promotional campaign aimed at defusing some of the enthusiasm around the project (which, in hindsight, might just have worked)

Still, there’s no one solution for TV news chiefs, particularly when so many of them are new to the role and eager to shake up what they’ve inherited.

At NBCUniversal, News Group chief Cesar Conde is betting on a broader portfolio of initiatives. NBC News and its mainstay brands — “Today,” “NBC Nightly News,” “Meet The Press” — are trying to maintain linear audiences while creating new digital extensions, like moving the weekday version of “MTP” to streaming; going after audiences of lifestyle journalism with a digital counterpart to “Today”; and dialing up some direct-to-consumer initiatives at CNBC. At one of Conde’s news holdings, MSNBC, president Rashida Jones has overseen a pivot to more opinion and analysis, amid the departure of Brian Williams and a scaled-back on-air presence for Rachel Maddow.

Some news executives aren’t creating new things from whole cloth. At ABC News, president Kim Godwin is presiding over a shift in morning-news ratings. “Good Morning America” has for many recent weeks snatched victory in the 25-to-54 demo from “Today.” Insiders credit the moves to Simone Swink, whom Godwin named top producer of the show last year. And while CNN and NBC have made loud forays into streaming, ABC News has quietly tested the waters, making changes at “20/20” that play to audiences on Hulu, and giving correspondent Rebecca Jarvis room to roam in covering the Theranos debacle in podcast and docuseries form. The Disney unit recently launched ABC News Studios to fuel Disney’s streaming outlets, and one show in the pipeline will have George Stephanopoulos examine the upcoming midterm election along with important races and key issues.

While much of the attention at Fox News is placed on its opinion programming, the Fox Corp. network has created new formats and enlarged audiences for them. The most-watched show on cable-news in recent months has been the 5 p.m. panel show “The Five.” And Fox News has injected a similar concept at 11 p.m., where “Five” co-anchor Greg Gutfeld leads a late-night group.

Can CNN’s facts-first disposition stack up against competitive strategies that have already been at play for many months? Knowledgeable CNN beat correspondents like Manu Raju, Barbara Starr, Kara Scannell and Kylie Atwood will be under pressure to demonstrate it will.

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Western U.S. faces water and power 

shortages due to climate change, 

U.N. warns

Ben Adler

·Senior Editor

Tue, August 2, 2022 at

The two largest reservoirs in the United States are at “dangerously low levels,” threatening the supply of fresh water and electricity in six states and Mexico, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) warned on Tuesday.

Lake Mead and Lake Powell, which are both man-made reservoirs on the Colorado River, are currently at their lowest levels ever, in part because of an ongoing drought exacerbated by climate change.

“The conditions in the American West which we're seeing around the Colorado River basin have been so dry for more than 20 years that we're no longer speaking of a drought,” said Lis Mullin Bernhardt, an ecosystems expert at UNEP. “We refer to it as ‘aridification’ — a new, very dry normal.”

The river is also struggling thanks to overconsumption due to a growing population and an outdated agreement that guarantees allotments for its neighboring states. The reservoirs provide water for agricultural and residential use in Arizona, California, Colorado, Wyoming, Nevada and New Mexico.

If conditions don’t improve, Lake Mead and Lake Powell are at risk of reaching “dead pool” status, in which the water is so low it stops flowing out of a reservoir. That would disable the hydroelectric dams that help provide power for millions of residents of the western U.S.

“We are talking about a 20-year period of droughtlike conditions, with an ever-increasing demand on water,” Bernhardt said. “These conditions are alarming, and particularly in the Lake Powell and Lake Mead region, it is the perfect storm.”

The Hoover Dam water intake towers at Lake Mead on July 12 near Boulder City, Nev. (George Rose/Getty Images)

The falling water levels have been a concern for U.S. officials for some time. In June, Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that maintaining “critical levels” at Lake Mead and Lake Powell would require significant reductions in water deliveries.

“What has been a slow-motion train wreck for 20 years is accelerating, and the moment of reckoning is near,” John Entsminger, general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, said at the Senate hearing.

Due to the declining water levels in Lake Mead, which is near Las Vegas, three dead bodies long buried under the water have recently been exposed.

Some water use restrictions have already been put in place. The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California instituted emergency water curtailments in June, typically limiting outdoor watering to one or two days per week.

A sunken boat, now high and dry, on Saddle Island on July 28 in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Nev. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

The drought in the West has had a number of effects in recent years, including unusually bad wildfire seasons.

Climate scientists say disruptions to the water cycle, especially drought, will become more common as a result of rising global temperatures.

Clean Energy Incentives and Rebates Americans Will Be Able to Take Advantage of Thanks to Inflation Reduction Act

David Nadelle
Wed, August 3, 2022

Bonnie Cash/UPI/Shutterstock

Despite steady opposition to many pieces of his own party’s legislation during this time of high inflation, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-VA) has had something of a change of heart — bringing a proposed tax, health and climate bill back to life.

Details of the $739 billion Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 were worked out by Manchin and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) last week amid criticism from opponents who question the point of legislation that doesn’t lower inflation until nine years from now. Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi suggested that the best-case result of the legislation (regarding inflation) is a 0.33% reduction of inflation by 2031, according to the New York Post.

Whatever the impact the act will have on inflation years from now, the Inflation Reduction Act promises heavy investment in corporate tax and IRS tax enforcement reform and Medicare drug pricing improvements. The Inflation Reduction Act also features an Affordable Care Act extension and funds a dedicated effort to battle climate change.

According to a related Senate Democrats fact sheet, the largest expenditure, $369 billion, will go toward investing in “Energy Security and Climate Change programs over the next ten years.”
Electric Vehicles and E-Bikes

Per Accounting Today, the new legislation proposes consumer tax credits for both new and used “clean cars” and amends current rules concerning eligible household salaries (as well as caps on eligible types and price points regarding electric vehicle purchase credits).

If you make under $150,000 — or have a combined family income under $300,000 — you can get a $7,500 tax credit for qualifying new electric vehicles. The credit is applied at the time of sale, not as a tax-time filing reduction.

Additionally, whereas existing EV tax credits phased out for a manufacturer’s vehicles when at least 200,000 qualifying vehicles have been sold for use in the United States (Tesla, General Motors and Toyota phased out long ago), the bill does away with that threshold and instead places price limits on electric vehicles.

Larger EVs like SUVs, trucks and vans need to cost less than $80,000 to qualify for the credit, while smaller electric cars need to be priced at $55,000 and below.

For used electric cars, a $4,000 credit is available to anyone buying one for under $25,000 from a dealer — as long as you’re an individual making up to $75,000 a year, or are a couple making less than $150,000 a year who file joint tax returns. As Accounting Today noted, almost three in four cars bought in the U.S. are used, so the impact of the proposed legislation will likely be substantial.

“This is something we’ve always said is a sleeper issue,” said Andres Hoyos, vice president of the Zero Emission Transportation Association. “It’s going to be a game-changer for mass adoption.”

Less enthusiastic are electric bike manufacturers and users. Per Bloomberg, sales of e-bikes continue to flourish since the pandemic boom, partially due to high fuel prices. However, the Inflation Reduction Act doesn’t provide credits or incentives for e-bikes, something that has electric bike proponents irritated.

Quoted in Accounting Today, Noa Banayan — director of federal affairs, People for Bikes — stated: “It just continues to support auto-centricity and doesn’t help with mode shift.”
Home-Efficient Electrification, Heat Pumps and Solar Panels

There are plenty of incentives available to low- and moderate-income homeowners looking to save money while they renovate, or make their homes more energy efficient.

Qualified electrification projects include heat pump water heaters (up to $1,750 rebate), heat pump HVAC systems (up to $8,000 rebate) and electric load service panels and electric appliances (up to $840 in rebates). Additional rebates are available for upgrading electrical panels (up to $4,000 rebate), insulating and sealing a house (up to $1,600 rebate) and improving wiring (up to $2,500 rebate), per Accounting Today.

The $4.28 billion High-Efficiency Electric Home Rebate Program is providing the rebates and will be administered by each state. The program runs through Sept. 30, 2031, and has a maximum rebate total of $14,000. To qualify for these rebates, a household income must not exceed 150% of the area median income as calculated by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Finally, homeowners who install residential solar panels or solar battery systems (with at least 3 kilowatt-hours of capacity) will qualify for a 30% tax credit for installations until Dec. 31, 2034. However, this credit dips to 26% for installations after Dec. 31, 2032 and before Jan. 1, 2034.

The Senate climate bill may get you cheap energy, clean air, and a job

Catherine Boudreau, Morgan McFall-Johnsen
Wed, August 3, 2022 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Joe Manchin

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Sen. Chuck Schumer and Joe Manchin agreed to a surprise $369 billion climate package on July 27.

The bill could cut energy bills, make EVs affordable, create 1.5 million jobs, and save lives with cleaner air.

If the Inflation Reduction Act passes, its climate plan could help your wallet, health, and security.

Senate Democrats could pass the most significant climate bill in US history this week, paving the way for cheaper energy and a more livable planet.

The surprise deal between Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia would dole out about $369 billion for climate programs as part of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. It aims to expand renewable energy such as solar, wind, and cleaner fuels, while making it less expensive to buy electric vehicles and home appliances.

If Congress approves the bill, it would put the US on track to cut its greenhouse-gas emissions by up to 44% from 2005 levels by the end of the decade, according to multiple assessments. Experts say the bill also promises savings, health boons, and higher quality of living for everyday people across the US.

The sun sets behind power transmission lines in Texas, on July 11, 2022.Nick Wagner/Xinhua via Getty Images

"This isn't about the sky, or the polar bears," Jonathan Foley, executive director of Project Drawdown, a climate nonprofit, told Insider, adding, "This is about you and your pocketbook, your jobs, the air your kids breathe, the town you live in, our national security."

Here are five ways the new climate-change package could make your life better:
Lower energy bills

A woman prepares dinner for her family at her home in Schnecksville, Pennsylvania, on September 22, 2021.Hannah Beier/Reuters

The new climate proposal includes about $30 billion in loans and grants for states and electric utilities to adopt more renewable energy, plus more than $60 billion in tax credits for manufacturers of solar panels, wind turbines, batteries for electric vehicles, energy storage, and other technology, according to a summary from Senate Democrats.

Solar and wind already generated cheaper electricity than fossil fuels, even before oil and gas prices soared this year. Yet they still only account for about 20% of US energy use. The Schumer-Manchin deal could speed up a shift away from fossil fuels and also make it less expensive to hook up your home with electric.

Vesta wind turbines in Palm Springs, California, on July 21, 2022.David Swanson/Reuters

A total of $9 billion in home energy rebates would help Americans insulate their homes and replace stoves, furnaces, water heaters, and other appliances with electric alternatives. Homeowners could deduct up to 30% of installation costs from their taxes. A similar deduction for solar would be guaranteed for homeowners and expanded to residential battery storage.

"This is really about delivering lower energy bills for everyday Americans," Leah Stokes, an environment and energy politics professor at University of California, Santa Barbara, said in a press briefing on Thursday. She noted that high oil and gas prices are a major driver of inflation that ripples across every industry, from transportation to manufacturing to agriculture.

A family eats dinner at their home in Calumet Park, Illinois, on December 8, 2020.Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

"When fossil fuels go up, other goods and services go up," Stokes said.

The average household could save $1,800 on their energy bill each year by installing a modern electric heat pump and rooftop solar and buying an electric vehicle, according to an analysis by Rewiring America, a think tank that promotes electrification.
Cheaper electric vehicles

A Scion IQ electric car is plugged in in a garage in Irvine, California, on January 26, 2015.Lucy Nicholson/Reuters

The bill would extend an existing $7,500 tax credit for new EVs — offered as a discount at the point of sale — and offer up to $4,000 for used EVs and plug-in hybrids.

It would also lift the cap on the number of tax breaks automakers can offer, benefiting companies like Tesla, General Motors, and Toyota that already hit the limit, as long as the vehicle is assembled in the US.

"Once people own an electric car, they're going to laugh every time they drive by a gas station, when they see $5 a gallon," Foley said, adding, "I think this will help us reach a tipping point, where five to 10 years from now you won't see gas cars sold anymore, or very few."

Gas prices over the $6.00 mark are advertised at a Mobil Station in Santa Monica, California, on May 23, 2022.David Swanson/Reuters

There are some caveats, like your income, the vehicle's price tag, and where its parts are made.

If you earn $150,000 or more a year, or $300,000 in joint family income, you won't qualify for the new car tax credit. There's a limit on the price of the car, too. Bigger vehicles, such as SUVs and pickup trucks, must cost less than $80,000, and smaller cars less than $55,000, to qualify for the credit.

For used cars, the income limit is $75,000 for single tax filers and $150,000 for joint filers. The sticker price must be $25,000 or below.

The bill also requires vehicle batteries to be made with 40% of minerals extracted or processed in countries the US has a free trade agreement with, or recycled in North America. But supply chains for those minerals don't exist yet, E&E News reported. The majority of lithium, cobalt, nickel, and other minerals used in EV batteries come from China, Russia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, although analysts told E&E News they hope the mandate spurs a made-in-America market.
Cleaner air to breathe

A man rides his skateboard at sunset while doing a trick in the Venice Beach area of Los Angeles, California, on November 12, 2019.Carlo Allegri/Reuters

With fewer gas-guzzling cars on the road, and fewer industrial sites powered by fossil fuels, air would be cleaner and safer to breathe.

"These sorts of climate measures could also reduce particulate matter or ozone smog, as kind of a side benefit that would directly, immediately improve health," Scot Miller, an assistant professor of environmental health and engineering at Johns Hopkins, told Insider.

That drop in air pollution could prevent up to 3,900 premature deaths and 100,000 asthma attacks by 2030, according to an analysis by the policy-research firm Energy Innovation LLC.

A layer of air pollution hangs over Denver, Colorado, on January 21, 2020.Jim Urquhart/Reuters

The American Lung Association pointed to those clean air and health gains in a statement Thursday, urging Congress to "move swiftly" and "without delay" to pass the new bill into law.

The bill also includes provisions to fund cleanup of dangerous pollution sites, which are disproportionately concentrated in low-income communities of color.

The investment is "probably not enough, but it's more than we've ever spent before," Foley said.
Jobs, jobs, jobs

Ford Assembly workers install a battery onto the chassis of a Ford Focus Electric vehicle at the Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, Michigan, on November 7, 2012.Rebecca Cook/Reuters

By investing about $60 billion in manufacturing — everything from heat pumps to wind turbines — this climate plan would help keep clean-energy companies in the US, securing "good paying, and hopefully union, jobs," Stokes said.

It's not just manufacturing. Renewable-energy infrastructure needs to be installed and maintained. The bill would fund new electricity-transmission lines, offshore wind projects, housing retrofits, renewable-energy projects in rural areas, and repurposing or replacing defunct energy infrastructure.

A worker sits at the base of a wind turbine blade at TPI Composites in Newton, Iowa, on December 22, 2011.Joshua Lott/Reuters

All that work requires workers. The bill would create up to 1.5 million jobs by 2030, according to the Energy Innovation analysis.

The bill also focuses on communities historically associated with oil, gas, and coal extraction, by providing a tax incentive for companies that create renewable-energy jobs in those places.
Protection from extreme weather

Daniel Bosquez shades the face of Timothy Jalomo, 10 months, from the afternoon sun as he fills a plastic pool with water, as San Antonio, Texas is placed under an excessive heat warning, on July 11, 2022.Lisa Krantz/Reuters

Climate change is making droughts, floods, wildfires, and heat waves more severe and more frequent. These weather events cause serious damage to human property and infrastructure and cost lives.

The bill would provide funding for communities to mitigate the health effects of extreme heat, to prevent and respond to wildfires, and to prepare for coastal climate impacts like severe hurricanes and flooding from sea-level rise. It also gives the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) a funding boost for forecasting and research.

A house is fully engulfed by flames during the Dixie Fire, a wildfire near the town of Greenville, California, August 5, 2021.Fred Greaves/Reuters

While the new funds would help communities adapt to extreme events, the bill could also help prevent weather from getting even more extreme. If the world cuts emissions enough to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius, that could prevent a significant acceleration in the severity and coverage area of extreme weather.

"I think everyone I work with in the emissions community is sort of holding their breath and hoping that this [bill] goes through," Miller said.

The Democrats' new deal could help save planet Earth – and struggling West Virginia

Jill Lawrence, USA TODAY
Wed, August 3, 2022 

Donald Trump won West Virginia by nearly 42 points in 2016 after promising to stop President Barack Obama’s alleged “war on coal” and bring back the declining coal industry after “a lot of years of horrible abuse.”

To the shock of almost no one, Trump was unable turn back time, reverse climate change or manufacture demand. The real shock is that because of a deal coalescing in Congress, West Virginia – its identity tied so tightly and sometimes so tragically to coal mining – now could be on the verge of a post-coal energy future.

“I really do think this is a watershed. I see this as a chance for us to stay an energy state,” said Coalfield Development founder and CEO Brandon Dennison, whose group in Huntington, West Virginia, creates businesses in green sectors and uses them to put people to work.

The reason for his optimism, Dennison told me, is the Democratic energy, tax and health care agreement that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate energy committee chair Joe Manchin suddenly announced last week. If it passes both chambers, and that’s always an if until it happens, it could be a turning point not just for West Virginia but also for America and the world.
Now is the time for a climate change deal

The deal would make what Senate Democrats call “the single biggest climate investment in U.S. history,” an assessment shared by other analysts. Roughly $370 billion would be invested in “energy security and climate change” over 10 years. The climate provisions could produce by 2030 a 40% reduction in U.S. carbon emissions, a major contributor to climate change, and spur global action. Some of the money would support fossil fuels during the transition to clean energy.

How to save the planet: These five steps will help us kick our fossil fuel addiction

There are many reasons this is happening now:

►It starts with Manchin, a former governor who’s known and trusted at home after holding public office for most of the past 40 years. He has walked a narrow line – so far successfully – as “the Last Democrat in Trump Country,” as GQ called him in 2018.

Then-Gov. Joe Manchin gives a state certificate to the family of Josh Napper, one of 25 coal miners killed in an explosion, at a candlelight vigil in Cabin Creek, W.Va., in 2010.

►The dire need, underscored recently by President Joe Biden’s awkward fist bump with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, for more oil production due to rising post-pandemic demand and boycotts of Russia's oil and gas since it invaded Ukraine.

►Urgency to stem climate change, increasingly apparent in heat waves, wildfires, droughts, rising tides and extreme weather. In fact, the day after the Schumer-Manchin announcement, massive floods destroyed communities and left dozens dead or missing in Kentucky.

►Political deadlines closing in: Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year and the last day for Democrats to use a special budget procedure requiring only 51 votes, which they can theoretically muster. And Nov. 8, when midterm elections could end Democratic control of Congress and/or Manchin’s pivotal role in a 50-50 Senate.

Manchin’s oversized influence on the new deal can be seen in expanded oil and gas drilling over the next decade; a requirement that coal companies pay into a trust fund for miners with black lung disease; and Schumer’s written commitment to pass a permitting reform bill to speed up energy projects, including the Mountain Valley Pipeline in West Virginia (a nonrevenue item that can’t be part of the tax-and-spending package).

Donald Trump wears a coal miner's hat at a rally in Charleston, West Virginia, on May 5, 2016.

At the same time, Manchin has helped open up a clean energy future for his own state and others like it – an economy that attracts companies interested in solar, nuclear and hydrogen power; in manufacturing products like battery energy storage systems; and in turning mountaintop removal sites into utility scale solar power plants.

"It was just too raw” to contemplate a future without coal six years ago, Dennison told me. Since Trump tried and failed to revive the industry, he said, “conditions are more ripe for new sectors to take hold” and for his group to help people get the training and support they need to join the green workforce.
Generations of exploitation could end

To me this is personal. I started my career in West Virginia, where corporate exploitation is a dominant theme through state history.

One of my first assignments was writing about the fifth anniversary of the Buffalo Creek Flood – a coal waste dam collapse that unleashed 132 million gallons of water and sludge, wiped out 17 communities, killed 125 people and left thousands homeless in 1972. The coal companies in charge had ignored or suppressed many warnings and recommendations. Investigators later said that the dam was not built properly, and that the Pittston Coal Co. had shown “flagrant disregard” for safety.

SCOTUS Clean Air Act decision: I grew up near a coal power plant. This EPA decision will worsen public health injustices.

I also reported on floods in southwestern West Virginia and the people displaced by them. Why did they keep rebuilding on flood plains? Because corporations owned most of the other land. Bob Wise, the former West Virginia governor, congressman and state senator, was a lawyer and tax activist when I met him, a founder of West Virginians for Fair and Equitable Assessment of Taxes. The group was trying to force higher property tax assessments on historically undervalued coal, oil and natural gas reserves below the surface.

It was an old problem. The West Virginia tax commission wrote in 1902 that coal “is being mined from and transported beyond the State, and continuously subtracted from the State’s property values without paying to the State one cent of tribute.” The authors warned that the corporations would leave behind “a comparatively worthless shell” once they exhausted all the state’s coal, oil and gas.

West Virginia has been exploited, trampled and endangered for two centuries. It is No. 1 in U.S. opioid overdoses and No. 50 in a WalletHub study of most and least educated states. But new investment and new hope might finally change the trajectory of a state that deserves much better after generations of callous snatch-and-grab capitalism.

Jill Lawrence is a columnist for USA TODAY and author of "The Art of the Political Deal: How Congress Beat the Odds and Broke Through Gridlock." Follow her on Twitter: @JillDLawrence

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Joe Manchin, climate hero? New deal helps coal, gas and maybe Earth

MIDTERM REPEAT 2018

A losing anti-abortion referendum in Kansas cranked up voter turnout by a staggering amount, flagging a massive new problem for Republicans

Grace Panetta
Tue, August 2, 2022 

Anne Melia discusses her opposition to a proposed amendment to the Kansas Constitution that would allow legislators to further restrict or ban abortion on July 14, 2022, before she goes door-to-door to talk to prospective voters in Merriam, Kansas

John Hanna/AP

Kansas voters turned out in huge numbers to defeat an anti-abortion amendment.


Kansas rejected the amendment by a margin of over 20 points, a blowout loss.


The exceptionally high turnout is a major loss for anti-abortion groups and a warning sign for the GOP.

Kansas voters turned out in droves to summarily reject the first anti-abortion ballot measure in the post-Roe v. Wade era — and dealt a major warning sign to Republicans hoping the drastic curtailing of abortion rights nationwide won't dent their prospects in the 2022 midterms.

Amendment 2 was pushed by anti-abortion activists and would have established no right to abortion and no right for government funding for abortion under the Kansas constitution.

With over 830,000 votes counted and 99% of the vote reporting as of 12:30 a.m. ET on Tuesday, "no" was trouncing "yes" by 60% to 40%, a gaping 20-point margin.

The number of total votes cast on the amendment makes up nearly three-quarters of the votes cast in the general election in 2018, a midterm that saw a Democratic "blue wave," according to the US Elections Project. That number also comes close to matching the roughly 887,00 votes cast in the general election in 2014 and the 858,000 cast in 2010 — both midterm years where the political climate also largely favored Republicans.

With over 800,000 voters turning out to vote for the amendment — compared to 470,000 who voted in the 2018 Kansas gubernatorial primaries — the referendum demonstrated a potent motivator for abortion rights supporters. With the 2022 election ahead, abortion access being directly on the ballot could pose a serious problem for the GOP that they hadn't had to face in a world without Roe v. Wade's protections.

A "yes" vote on the measure would have eliminated the right to abortion under the state constitution, while the "no" vote left the constitutional protections to abortion in Kansas unchanged, preserving the status quo.

Lower turnout levels typically associated with primaries, especially in midterm elections, and a political environment favoring the Republican Party were initially anticipated to favor proponents of the amendment.

But before polls even closed, Kansas' chief election official, Secretary of State Scott Schwab, predicted that turnout in the August primary was on track to surpass the offices' projected 36% of the electorate and could go as high as 50%, a notably high rate for a midterm-year primary.



With over 99% of the results reporting, the "no" vote on the measure significantly outperformed President Joe Biden's vote share in several blue counties he won in the 2020 election.

Meanwhile, the "yes" vote underperformed and failed to crack 60% of the vote in several counties former President Donald Trump won handily in 2020.

In this photo from Friday, July 8, 2022, a sign in a yard in Olathe, Kansas, promotes a proposed amendment to the Kansas Constitution to allow legislators to further restrict or ban abortion

John Hanna/AP

Americans' views on abortion can, in many cases, be murky and hard to parse, but most opposed overturning Roe v. Wade, and as the result of the Kansas amendment shows, strict abortion bans or "trigger laws" are often overwhelmingly unpopular among voters of both major political parties.

And, when given the chance to shape abortion policy directly, Kansas voters displayed no appetite for enabling strict abortion bans after nearly six weeks of being faced with the real-world consequences playing out across the country.

The voters' decision upholds a 2019 ruling by the Kansas Supreme Court establishing a right to abortion under the Kansas Bill of Rights, preserving a potential legal guardrail against the kind of abortion restrictions that could be passed into law if a Republican wins the governor's race in November.

It also — for now — maintains Kansas' status as a crucial access point for abortion care in the Midwest and Southwest.

Still, Amendment 2 supercharging turnout and getting swiftly trounced at the polls doesn't spell complete doom for Republicans, who are still favored by election analysts and forecasters to win back the House of Representatives.

But it offers a warning sign ahead for the fate of future anti-abortion ballot measures, two of which are up in November in Kentucky and Montana, Republicans' hopes for muted Democratic enthusiasm and turnout for November, and — possibly — the state-level elected officials who champion harsh abortion bans and restrictions.

Google's CEO said there are 'real concerns' over productivity at the company amid a 'challenging macro environment,' reports say

Beatrice Nolan

Mon, August 1, 2022 

• Google's CEO Sundar Pichai has raised concerns about the company's productivity, CNBC reported.

• Pichai told staff that Google's productivity and focus isn't where it needs to be, per CNBC.

• He made the comments in an all-hands meeting.

Productivity and focus need to improve at Google, its CEO, Sundar Pichai, told employees in an all-hands meeting.

CNBC reported the news.

Employees at the meeting expressed concern about the wave of layoffs that have been sweeping the tech industry in recent months, employees in the meeting told CNBC.

Representatives for Google did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Google's CEO reportedly told employees at the meeting on Wednesday: "There are real concerns that our productivity as a whole is not where it needs to be for the headcount we have."

"I wanted to give some additional context following our earnings results, and ask for your help as well," Pichai reportedly said during the all-hands.

"It's clear we are facing a challenging macro environment with more uncertainty ahead," he added.

Google's HR chief Fiona Cicconi, also addressed concerns over layoffs, saying the company was "not currently looking to reduce Google's overall workforce."

In May, Insider's Hugh Langley reported that the company was slowing hiring across some of its divisions for the third quarter of 2022.

Google is launching a new program called "Simplicity Sprint"  in an effort to combat the concern over productivity and employee focus, according to related internal documentation seen by CNBC.

The initiative asks Google's workforce of more than 170,0000 employees to share ideas through an internal survey on where to improve efficiency, per CNBC