B.C. study links policy changes and logging patterns, shows targeting of old growth


VANCOUVER — The worsening effects of climate change are compounding the historical loss of British Columbia’s old-growth forests, says the co-author of a new paper that shows decades of logging on the province’s central coast targeted the highest-value forests first.


B.C. study links policy changes and logging patterns, shows targeting of old growth© Provided by The Canadian Press

"History tells us that we have really depleted these high-value elements of the landscape, and that we can't keep going," said Ken Lertzman, professor emeritus at Simon Fraser University's school of resource and environmental management.

"At the same time, (forests) have never been under greater threat from natural disturbances that are driven by a changing climate."

Some forests have been set aside from logging because of their ecological and cultural value, only to be scorched by increasingly severe wildfires, he added.

That's the reality today's policy-making must reflect when it comes to determining how B.C.'s forests will be valued and used in years to come, Lertzman said.

The paper published Monday in the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of theNational Academy of Sciences examined more than 150 yearsof logging across 8,550 square kilometres of forests around Bella Bella on B.C.'s central coast.

Of nearly 570 square kilometres logged in the area between 1860 and 2016, 87 per cent of that logging took place in old-growth forests starting in 1970, it shows.

The paper demonstrates how the logging industry engaged in "high-grading," or targeting the most profitable and accessible forests first, especially valley-bottom old-growth that played a crucial role in watershed ecosystems, Lertzman said.

Such forests are not only economically valuable, but they also provide a host of social benefits and "ecosystem services," from habitat for key species like salmon and bears, to water regulation, to recreation, to Indigenous cultural uses, he said.

"We have higher expectations from the forest. We don't just want two-by-fours."

The pattern of clear cutting highly productive, valley-bottom forests before moving up the mountain slopes is repeated along B.C.'s coast, Lertzman noted.

"Any kinds of decision-making today really have to be understood and have to act in the context of the reality of this depleted landscape," he said.

"Our research doesn't say, 'You've got to do X,' or give a specific strategy, but it defines a context for thinking about what will be the fate of the remaining old growth."


The B.C. government introduced a deferral process last fall to temporarily set certain old-growth forests aside from logging to allow time for long-term planning.

It appointed a panel of independent ecologists and forestry experts who identified2.6 million hectares of unprotected old-growth forests at risk of permanent biodiversity loss, then asked more than 200 First Nations to decide whether they supported the deferral of logging in those areas for an initial two-year period.

As of last spring, the province had deferred logging across a total of 1.87 million hectares of old-growth, including 1.05 million identified by the expert panel.

The province counts 11.1 million hectares of old-growth across B.C., though several members of the same expert panel had previously released an analysis showing less than three per cent of what remains is highly productive, with large trees.

In response to a request for comment about the paper's analysis, the Forests Ministry provided a statement saying B.C. is shifting to a new approach of forest management that "prioritizes ecosystem health and community resiliency" through amendments to the Forest and Range Practices Act last fall.

Instead of existing plans developed by the forest industry, the ministry said the province will develop new forest landscape plans in collaboration with First Nations, local communities and other stakeholders.

The paper examines how policy changes can lead to "a greater stewardship ethic" in harvesting behaviour by linking shifting logging patterns with changes introduced with B.C.'s Forest Practices Code in 1995.

The code dealt with elements of forest management that had previously received little regulatory attention, the paper says, such as new rules for the size and distribution of cut blocks and increased protection for fish-bearing streams.

"What you can see in our paper, is that since the beginning of the Forest Practices Code, and theGreat Bear (Rainforest) agreements,there is, for instance, an increase in the distance from cut blocks to large streams," Lertzman said.

The "ecosystem-based management" regime implemented in the Great Bear Rainforest through agreements and regulations between 2000 and 2016 saw 85 per cent of the forest protected, including 70 per cent of its old growth over time.

The agreement is also an example of conservation financing, or funding initiatives that spur local economic development while aligning with stewardship goals.

The federal and B.C. governments contributed a combined $60 million in 2007 to establish a fund that continues to support Indigenous-led conservation and economic development initiatives in the Great Bear Rainforest.

Lertzman said the link between such policy changes and shifting logging patterns shows that policymakers have the tools to change how the industry operates.

He also said decades of industrial logging have caused "shifting baseline syndrome," meaning people's perception of the landscape is based on what they see and the depleted state of forests in the province has become "normalized."

"It's a problem, because if we don't really understand what the historical conditions were, we don't really understand to what extent things are depleted."

Downtown Vancouver and much of the Fraser Valley were once old-growth forest, and "southeastern Vancouver Island from Victoria, through Nanaimo, Courtenay, Campbell River was astoundingly spectacular old-growth forest," he said.

"And the little remnant bits ... that we go to and sort of look at and stand in awe, it's what the wildlife ecologists call the guts and feathers. The bits that were left over."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 3, 2022.

Brenna Owen, The Canadian Press

As Alberta campaigns to attract workers, economists say the competition is healthy


OTTAWA — When Zeel Shah’s partner left Toronto for a job in Edmonton in 2018, the young couple had to decide which city offered the future they wanted for themselves.



Shah, now 28, says she and Deep Cheema compared the lives they could have in Toronto and Edmonton and concluded their home ownership goals were more achievable out West.

“We wanted to eventually settle down,” she said. “As a first house, we didn't want to spend like one million dollars.”

A year after Cheema moved, Shah joined him in the much colder and less-populated city. In 2021, the couple bought their first home — a townhouse — together in Edmonton.

Shah says looking back, moving to Alberta was the right decision for their now family of three.

Alberta is currently vying to attract more young people like Shah and Cheema, and economists say it's a good thing for provinces to compete for workers.

With labour shortages prevalent across the country, the western province is targeting residents of Canada’s most expensive cities in a campaign to attract workers, making an affordability pitch it’s hoping will be too hard to resist.

“What did the Albertan say to the Torontonian? You’re hired,” reads one of Alberta's ads in a downtown Toronto subway station.

“Find things you’d never expect. Like an affordable house,” reads another.

The second phase of the Alberta is Calling campaign is making the case for why Torontonians and Vancouverites might want to relocate to the oil-rich province: cheaper housing, good pay and shorter commutes.

At a campaign launch event in Toronto last month, now former Alberta premier Jason Kenney spoke directly to the city’s young people.

“I want to make a special shout-out to younger folks in the GTA and the greater Vancouver region, because they all have a dream, quite rightly, of home ownership,” said Kenney.

“That dream is alive and well in Alberta.”
      
According to the Canadian Real Estate Association, the average home price in Alberta was about $424,000 in August. In comparison, average home prices in Ontario and British Columbia were $830,000 and $911,000 respectively.

In Toronto and Vancouver, prices are well above the provincial averages.

The pitch comes as Ontario experiences the largest exodus of residents in decades. According to Statistics Canada, nearly 50,000 people left the province in the second quarter of this year.

Meanwhile, Alberta saw an influx of people entering the province, with more than 37,000 new residents.

University of Waterloo economics professor Mikal Skuterud says movement between provinces is good if it means workers are going to where they’re needed the most.

“We need competition,” Skuterud said, adding that employers should be competing for talent across the country, not just in the local communities where they’re based.

“We want workers to realize where jobs are plentiful [and] where wages are rising."

Mike Moffatt, an assistant professor at Western University's Ivey Business School, said with young people increasingly concerned about housing affordability, “it's really smart for Alberta to sort of tout the benefits of living there.”

Moffatt says although Alberta's latest campaign might be more aggressive in its tone, other regions in Ontario have made similar pitches to Toronto residents.

As more Torontonians migrated out of the city over the years and into regions like Kitchener-Waterloo and St. Catharines, prices were driven up in those cities, he said.

“With the increase of work-from-home, there's the potential for that to be turned into a Canadian-wide phenomenon,” Moffatt said.

That phenomenon has already played out in the Maritimes as Ontarians headed out East during the COVID-19 pandemic, opting for bigger homes at cheaper prices.

The influx of Ontarians pushed up home prices dramatically in historically inexpensive New Brunswick. Last year, prices went up by more than 30 per cent in the province.

As Canadians continue the search for affordable housing, Moffatt says local communities will have to be mindful of population growth and make sure they have the housing to accommodate it.

Back in Edmonton, Shah says the move to Alberta won't appeal to everyone. Torontonians have to forgo living in the most populous city in Canada and Vancouverites would bid farewell to mild weather.

“If you like fast life and crowded places, Toronto is better than Alberta, obviously,” she said.

However, Moffatt said if the message lands with even a small fraction of people, it could mean a lot more new workers for Alberta.

"There's probably enough people out there who are like, 'You know what, I can stand an Edmonton winter if it means I can actually own a home.'"

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 12, 2022.

Nojoud Al Mallees, The Canadian Press

THEY OUTSOURCE TO CHINA, RUSSIA
North Korea’s Lazarus Group attacks Japanese crypto firms, police say


Danny Park
Sun, October 16, 2022


North Korea-backed hacker group Lazarus has been sending phishing emails to Japanese crypto exchange employees to infect their computers with malware, causing some companies to have their systems hacked and cryptocurrencies stolen, Japan’s National Police Agency announced last week.

See related article: DPRK hackers sneak US$52 mln in crypto into S.Korean exchanges: Chainalysis
Fast facts

The police also said Lazarus had reached out to employees through social networking sites to persuade them to download the malware.

The police and the Financial Services Agency of Japan asked local crypto businesses to remain vigilant for such attempts and to store their private keys offline in a joint statement.


The authorities, however, did not reveal details on which companies had been targeted or hacked as a result of these phishing attacks.

Although it was unusual for the authorities to publicly name the group before any actual arrest, they have made an exception to prevent future attacks, Yomiuri Shimbun reported.

The Lazarus Group, widely believed to be supported by the North Korean government, has been accused of hacking cryptocurrencies worth US$650 million from Sky Mavis’ Ronin Bridge and US$100 million from Harmony’s Horizon Bridge, among many others.

See related article: US$30 mln seized from North Korea hacking group: report

Hurricanes Fiona and Ian gave solar power it's time to shine


Gerald Herbert/AP Photo


Gloria Gonzalez, Kelsey Tamborrino and Catherine Morehouse
Mon, October 17, 2022 a

Solar power withstood the hurricanes that struck Puerto Rico and Florida last month — a fact that could aid the technology’s supporters in lobbying battles around the country.

Hurricanes Fiona and Ian caused catastrophic flooding, knocked out power lines and washed away roads and bridges. But people who could afford solar panels and batteries say those systems kept the lights on during the storms, and even allowed them to share electricity with neighbors left in the dark.

Now, that performance during natural disasters offers ammunition to the solar industry in its lobbying fights with lawmakers, regulators and traditional power companies as renewable energy seeks to accelerate its growing role in the U.S. electricity supply. Such fights have held up solar’s expansion in jurisdictions across the U.S., including in Puerto Rico and Florida.

“I wish we never had to have this proof point,” said Abigail Ross Hopper, CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association. But she said the hurricanes have shown that renewables paired with battery storage are a reliable form of energy.

It “is not just a theory, but it actually is providing power to people in otherwise darkened areas,” Hopper added.

The two storms knocked out power to 2.7 million customers in Florida as well as the entire island of Puerto Rico, which has more than 3 million residents. (Nearly 12,000 power customers in the state and about 9,000 on the island remained without power as of Sunday night.) Still, much of the grid in both places bounced back faster than it had after some past hurricanes, in part because of efforts in Florida to harden power networks by burying power lines and replacing wooden poles with steel or concrete.

But solar power was especially critical for many residents. One reason: Rooftop panels, coupled with batteries, let people keep their lights and appliances humming during and after the storms, without having to worry about downed power lines or finding fuel for generators.

Hector Jimenez, a field manager with BrightPlanet Solar in Puerto Rico, said the system he had installed at his home “has been working like a charm” before and since Fiona hit the island on Sept. 18. His neighbors relied on diesel to run their generators and started to worry when fuel supplies grew tight. But Jimenez was able to help them out by sharing power from his batteries.

Tampa resident Donald Kirk, a client of residential solar provider Tampa Bay Solar, said he had originally invested in solar and storage last spring to be more sustainable. But after the system kept the power on in his home during Ian, he realized the real benefits of a self-reliant home.

“It was our essential thing when the power went down,” he said.

Some independent energy analysts said the storm could boost interest in solar power in states like Florida — and may play a role in legislative fights about economic incentives for the technology.

“We have long observed an uptick in demand for distributed solar and energy storage among customers that have recently experienced long grid outages,” Timothy Fox, vice president and research analyst at ClearView Energy Partners, said via email. “We expect some Florida customers to look to bolster their supply with onsite systems following Hurricane Ian.”

Solar systems in Puerto Rico held up well under the pressure of Fiona, which primarily pummeled the island with rainfall instead of fierce winds. Power providers indicate that the same appears true in Florida, even after Ian came ashore as a Category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph.

Jason Burwen, vice president of energy storage at the American Clean Power Association, said these on-site solar and storage installations have proven “reliable, through and after these disasters.” That’s particularly important, he said, as storms like the ones in Puerto Rico and Florida tend to take down crucial infrastructure such as wires — even as power plants themselves remain online.

Ben Ollis, a power and energy researcher at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, said lessons that Puerto Rico learned from 2017’s catastrophic Hurricane Maria led to improved installation techniques to protect solar systems against high winds. He has been working on a community project in the mountainous town of Adjuntas, which used $1.7 million from two nonprofits to create two microgrids with solar and battery storage.

Chris Rauscher, senior director of market development and policy at the company Sunrun, said solar and storage installations helped families in Puerto Rico fare better through Fiona than they had during Maria. Sunrun says its systems provided Puerto Rican residents with roughly 400,000 hours of aggregated backup power during and after Fiona, with the average duration being 100 hours per household.

Following Maria, it was “impressed upon” residents in Puerto Rico that rooftop solar was a potentially cheaper and more reliable alternative, said Tom Sanzillo, director of financial analysis for the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, which advocates for a sustainable energy transition. He said many have heeded that call.

In Puerto Rico, “we're now seeing 2,000 families per month adding solar power to their own homes, independent of any public support, and in fact, actually, in the face of governmental opposition to this,” Sanzillo said. “We expect that to accelerate.”

One factor driving that trend is economics: Puerto Ricans, who rely mostly on energy from four fossil fuel power plants, pay some of the highest electricity costs in the United States. Soaring fossil fuel expenses for an island that imports much of its energy resources have driven a nearly 84 percent rise in average electric rates since January 2021. This on an island where the median income is $21,000, IEEFA noted.

Customers on the island are “sick and tired of having unreliable electricity” and “living with a grid that could be viewed as third world,” Rauscher said. He said those complaints are leading to a “consumer-driven clean revolution.”

But solar energy supporters in Puerto Rico still have a fight on their hands in pushing the territory’s leaders and Washington to give renewable power a more prominent role in the rebuilding of the island’s electrical grid from damage suffered during Maria.

The Queremos Sol coalition — whose name means “We Want Solar” — is pushing President Joe Biden to require the Federal Emergency Management Agency to favor rooftop solar systems and other small-scale renewable-energy projects, rather than fossil fuels, when doling out $9.5 billion in federal recovery and reconstruction aid.

“Otherwise most people here won’t be able to afford it, and it will be potentially life-threatening not to have it,” said Ruth Santiago, a community and environmental attorney in Puerto Rico and a member of Queremos Sol. She met with Biden during his visit to Puerto Rico this month and said he appeared “receptive” to the message.

Lawmakers including House Natural Resources Chair Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) also want Congress to make solar energy more affordable in Puerto Rico by using an emergency spending bill to provide $5 billion for rooftop solar and storage solutions for low-income households and people with disabilities. They noted that a new residential solar panel and battery system costs about $25,000, making solar energy unaffordable for many island residents.

“Those without the means to buy or finance them are getting left behind,” the legislators wrote in a letter Tuesday to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Appropriations Chair Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.).

Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi supported the request. “We currently have $800 million in federal funds earmarked for that purpose, but we clearly need more,” he said Wednesday via tweet.

A 2019 law passed by the Puerto Rican government requires the island’s government-owned utility to obtain 100 percent of its electricity from renewable resources by 2050. But it has a ways to go: Solar constituted only 1.4 percent of total generation in the 2021 fiscal year, according to the Energy Information Administration. And Puerto Rico’s energy plan would allow for new or upgraded fossil fuel infrastructure if needed to maintain reliability.

Renewable energy advocates cast a wide net of blame when it comes to the slow expansion of solar in Puerto Rico, including the governor and the financial oversight board that manages the island’s finances.

But Matthias Rieker, a spokesperson for the board, called the government-owned Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority an “impediment” to broader renewable energy deployment. Even with those obstacles, he said, solar rooftop connections have almost doubled to about 50,000 customers in the last 12 months under grid manager LUMA Energy.

“Transferring the grid to a private operator has already significantly increased the number of rooftop solar systems,” Rieker said.

A PREPA spokesperson could not be immediately reached for comment, while a spokesperson for the governor did not respond to a request for comment.

Florida’s largest utility, Florida Power & Light, said the 38 solar systems it operates in Ian’s path experienced little damage, with only 0.3 percent of the company’s nearly 15 million solar panels affected.

Ben Millar, president of Florida’s Solar Energy Industries Association, said he is hearing that “the vast majority” of members' systems held up during Ian, including in the hardest-hit areas.

“They're engineered to meet wind zones and so we see that the systems stay in place and continue performing,” said Millar, who’s also CEO of the solar developer Sun Harvest Energy.

Several other developers reported that their systems held up well against the storm, particularly residential rooftop solar paired with small-battery storage.

Bill Johnson, founder of Florida-based solar company Brilliant Harvest, said all of the 70 to 80 battery-plus-solar systems his business installed around the state performed for customers during the storm.

“It's really making a difference,” Johnson said, adding that the company has clients with medical conditions that require electrically powered equipment to manage. In those cases, the battery-plus-storage systems can be “lifesaving,” he said.

Home-based solar systems don’t need huge capacity to be effective, according to a new analysis from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. It found that a modest solar-plus-storage system can power critical loads in a home for days during a generic power outage, including for refrigeration and night-time lighting.

“A small system does just perfectly fine over a long-duration outage and in powering those loads,” said Galen Barbose, a research scientist in the electricity markets and policy department at the Berkeley Lab. But heating and cooling would require a larger system, he noted.

Even in sunny climates such as those in Florida and Puerto Rico, political challenges have constrained the expansion of solar energy for homes and businesses. Those include the rivalry between big utilities like FPL, which operates its own centralized solar power installations, and providers of rooftop solar systems controlled by individual homeowners.

Florida is one of the nation’s highest-producing solar states, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association, with the sun providing power to more than 1 million homes. It ranks just behind Texas and California.

But Florida politicians have taken steps that would make solar power more expensive for typical homeowners. One bill the legislature passed this year, with support from FPL, would have let utilities impose additional charges on rooftop solar customers to make up for the companies’ lost electricity revenues.

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed the bill, citing inflation concerns, which earned him praise from solar advocates in the state. But he also opposed Biden’s newly signed climate bill, which is poised to send demand for renewables in states like Florida’s — where there is a ton of untapped potential for solar power — skyrocketing.

FPL may try to “revisit” rooftop solar legislation during next year’s legislative session “should interest in rooftop solar grow in the sunshine state,” ClearView’s Fox wrote.

Freeland apologizes over Africa aid comments: ‘I really didn’t mean to offend you’ – National | Globalnews.ca

Evelyn Blackwell

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland says she did not mean to offend anyone after saying last week that Africans must be “prepared to die for their democracy,” and hinted that Canada might boost aid for the continent.

“If anyone did find my comments to be insensitive, then I’m very sorry,” Freeland said Monday.

“If a white western person has offended someone, the first answer is to say, `I really didn’t mean to offend you.”’

• Canada facing ‘final act of the COVID recession,’ Freeland says

In a speech last week in Washington, Freeland urged democracies to grow closer through trade and energy ties, in the face of a perilous new world order where autocracies are trying to usurp democracy.

In a question session afterwards, a man who said he works for African Development Bank asked Freeland about western countries hinting at a drop in aid for the continent, in order to fund Ukraine’s needs.

The unnamed man, whom The Canadian Press could not identify, asked Freeland to respond to concerns that this will only increase Russia’s sway in that continent.

Freeland responded that western countries do need to step up and “prove we’re real partners.”

But she also said it is up to African countries to chose their own paths, and rejected the idea that they can simply fall into Russia’s orbit by accident.

“A democracy can only be defended by people themselves if they’re actually prepared to die for their democracy,” she said last week.

Freeland seeks to strengthen ties as IMF warns of recessio

The comment led to pushback on social media, and raised eyebrows among Africa experts

University of Ottawa professor Rita Abrahamsen said Freeland was correct in saying that it’s up to Africans to determine their destiny, but cautioned that the conflict in Ukraine has become a sensitive issue.

“This a strong sense among many African countries that they are being bullied or patronized, or that one is holding aid hostage to support in the UN (forums), for the war in Ukraine,” she said.

“Canada has to be very, very careful here.”

Abrahamsen, the director of the Centre for International Policy Studies, says Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has put economic pressure on a continent dealing with climate chaos.

Read more:
Russia one of the ‘biggest threats’ to world economy amid recession fears: Freeland

“Emotions are running high around this on the African continent, and it means that words have to be judged very carefully,” she said.

“We’re looking at a continent where a large part of it ? (is) close to famine conditions, acute starvation. We’re looking at immense flooding in large parts of West Africa; we’re looking at a return of military coups.”

Freeland said Monday that the western world needs to recognize that current problems stem from colonization.

“These are challenges that have been imposed from the outside. And I think that means we have a high level of responsibility.”

She hinted that upcoming budgets could include more humanitarian aid for Africa, and noted Canada’s push to reform global financial organizations to better fit the needs of poorer nations.

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“We need today, if anything, to step up our engagement with the global south,” she said, referring to developing nations.

“What is important is to take the lead from our African partners, and to listen to them about what it is specifically that is on their agenda, and what specifically they need.”

&copy 2022 The Canadian Press

Congress investigating Jackson water crisis and Mississippi’s use of $10 billion in federal funds

Cathy Biank

Congress is investigating the crisis that left 150,000 people in Mississippi’s capital city without running water for several days in late summer, according to a letter sent to Gov. Tate Reeves by two Democratic officials.

Reps. Bennie Thompson, of Mississippi, and Carolyn Maloney, of New York, sent the letter Monday requesting information on how Mississippi plans to spend $10 billion from the American Rescue Plan Act and from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and $429 million “specifically allotted to enhance the state’s water infrastructure.”

The letter indicates “the start of a joint investigation” by the House Homeland Security and the Oversight and Reform committees into a crisis that deprived Jackson’s 150,000 residents of running water for several days in late August and early September, Adam Comis, a staffer for the committee, told The Associated Press.

Thompson’s district includes most of Jackson, and he chairs the Homeland Security Committee. Maloney chairs the Oversight and Reform Committee.

Jackson has had water problems for years, and the latest troubles began in late August after heavy rainfall exacerbated problems in the city’s main treatment plant, leaving many customers without running water. Jackson had already been under a boil-water notice since late July because the state health department found cloudy water that could make people ill.

Running water was restored within days, and a boil-water notice was lifted in mid-September, but the letter to Reeves says “water plant infrastructure in the city remains precarious, and risks to Jackson’s residents persist.”

The pair of congressional Democrats requested a breakdown of where the state sent funds from the American Rescue Plan Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, including “the racial demographics and population sizes of each” community that received aid. They also requested information on whether Jackson has faced “burdensome hurdles” to receive additional federal funds. The letter asked Reeves to provide the requested information by Oct. 31.

Mississippi has not yet announced how it will spend American Rescue Plan Act money for water projects. Cities and counties had a Sept. 30 deadline to apply for funding.

According to the letter, Oversight Committee staff learned in a briefing with Jackson officials that the state attempted to limit funding to Jackson for its water system. The state allegedly planned to “bar communities of more than 4,000 people from competing for additional funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law,” the letter says.

In their letter, Thompson and Maloney also referenced reporting by the AP that Reeves had a hand in delaying funds for water system repairs in Jackson and claimed to have blocked funds. Reeves’ office did not immediately respond to AP’s request for comment on the letter.

The Environmental Protection Agency issued a notice in January that Jackson’s water system violates the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. In September, federal attorneys threatened legal action against the city if it did not agree to negotiations related to its water system. Lumumba said the city was working with the federal government on a plan to fix the water system.

Failure by city and state officials to provide Jackson residents with a reliable water system reflects decades of government dysfunction, population change and decaying infrastructure. It has also fueled a political battle between GOP state lawmakers and Democratic city officials.

That acrimony continued after the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency announced Friday that it is seeking a private contractor to run the Jackson water system for one year. The agreement would be funded by the city of Jackson, according to the proposal released by MEMA.

In a news release Monday, Reeves said his office was told by city officials that Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba is planning to “functionally end the city’s cooperation” by “refusing to participate in the process of selecting a water operator.”

“Although politics is clearly his priority, we are simply trying to ensure that Jackson water does not fail again,” Reeves said. “Ultimately, it may fall to the city council to rein in this radical gambit.”

The rancor ensued even though MEMA wrote that it requested a private contractor “in unified command with the City of Jackson.”

Reeves threatened to pull state assistance if the city didn’t change course. City officials were communicating they “no longer desire state assistance and insist on going it alone,” Reeves said.

In a statement, Lumumba retorted that the city had been “‘going it alone’ after years of asking for state support” and that Jackson “has made no mention of ending the City’s cooperation” with state and federal officials. The mayor said the city would not agree to the request for a private contractor until it had an opportunity to revise the language in the proposal.

“The City, with support from those who truly are invested in the repair and maintenance of the water treatment facilities, will have the final say,” Lumumba said. “We look forward to productive conversations that lead to an actual agreement instead of a headline.”

Japan’s biggest refiner Eneos on acquisition trail despite yen fall

Madeleine Bruder

 

Eneos is on the hunt for acquisitions in renewable energy despite the yen’s plunge as Japan’s largest oil group pledged that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the global energy crisis would not reverse its costly shift away from fossil fuels.

Eneos president Takeshi Saito said in an interview with the Financial Times that Europe’s U-turn in coal policy following the cut-off of Russian gas underscored the need for a more practical approach to the green transition.

“Europe had said no to coal [before the Ukraine war] but now Germany is burning it so they’re basically being opportunistic,” said Saito, acknowledging the need for countries to prioritise energy security.

“We believe there will be no change in the decarbonisation shift, but it’s a matter of whether a realistic approach will be taken or a dramatic transition is made. As things stand now, Europe is starting to think that it may be problematic to push ahead too rapidly,” he added.

In order for Japan to take a bigger role in the path to net zero, Saito said companies had to develop advanced technology for hydrogen and carbon capture and storage. “I’m concerned if Japan has that technology edge,” he added.

Eneos, which is worth $10.6bn, has spent the past 130 years selling fossil fuels. But since taking over as president in April, Saito has called for “the second founding of the company” by accelerating a shift towards cleaner sources of energy. Part of that transition also involves the group’s decision in March to stop purchasing crude oil from Russia.

The strategic shift by Eneos echoes ambitious strategies laid out by its European rivals such as BP and Shell, and to a lesser extent Chevron and Exxon in the US, to become green businesses but critics have said the world’s largest oil and gas companies are still spending only a fraction of their capital on renewable energy.

The yen’s fall to a 32-year low has made overseas acquisitions expensive for Japanese companies, but Saito said Eneos was still searching for deals to create new businesses that can serve as “a bridge” until it achieved carbon neutrality.

“With the weaker yen, we need to pay 50 per cent more than usual so it’s not an environment for merger and acquisitions. But we want to become Asia’s number one energy company . . . so we will push ahead as long as we have financial strength,” Saito said.

He pointed to potential areas such as Australia, south-east Asia and the Middle East to manufacture solar and other renewables, as well as hydrogen.

In Japan, Eneos has aggressively expanded the number of solar power plants and hydrogen stations, while announcing a plan to shut down one of its refineries in western Japan and offloading all of its British oil assets in anticipation of a declining demand for petrol.

The group has already spent about half of its ¥400bn ($2.8bn) M&A war chest for green transition to buy renewable energy start-up Japan Renewable Energy from Goldman Sachs in January.

But analysts had questioned the high acquisition price given that JRE only has ¥22bn of annual sales.

Oil Industry Execs Lash Out At Botched Energy Transition

Editor OilPrice.com
Sun, October 16, 2022 

Until recently, the idea of a Fortune 500 company boss criticizing the energy transition would have been considered eccentric, to put it mildly. Now, two Fortune 500 bosses have slammed the transition inside a single week.

JP Morgan’s Jamie Dimon was first. On Monday, he told CNBC in an interview that the Biden administration had basically messed up the country’s—and the world’s—energy security by doubling down on the energy transition instead of motivating growth in oil production.

Calling the current energy crunch “predictable,” Dimon said that “In my view, America should have been pumping more oil and gas, and it should have been supported.”

He then went on to add that the United States had to step up and become a leader in dealing with the crisis because “America is the swing producer, not Saudi Arabia. We should have gotten that right starting in March.”

In fairness, the Biden administration did try appealing to the U.S. oil industry to increase production, but the industry did not respond to the calls for a variety of reasons ranging from understandable disgruntlement with federal energy policies to materials and equipment inflation and labor shortages.

The situation seems to have inspired certain bluntness among executives—earlier this year, several oil independents said they would not increase oil production regardless of where prices were. Now, Chevron’s Michael Wirth has openly accused Western governments of causing the energy crunch because of their preoccupation with the transition to renewables.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Wirth said this week that “The conversation [about energy] in the developed world for sure has skewed towards climate, taking affordability and security for granted,” adding that “The reality is, [fossil fuel] is what runs the world today. It’s going to run the world tomorrow and five years from now, 10 years from now, 20 years from now.”

It is difficult to argue with these remarks, especially when one looks at Europe and the European Union, which has turned into a textbook example of how not to do the transition. The EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell again this week said in an unusually candid speech that the bloc’s prosperity was built on cheap Russian gas and with that gas gone, so was prosperity.

It’s worth noting that after making that remark, Borrell went on to argue that the best energy was the energy one produced at home, possibly suggesting more wind and solar generation, but the fact he did not specifically mention these types of energy says a lot. And it says we may have seen the beginning of a potential reconsideration of transition plans.

Such a reconsideration would be, if not exactly timely, then better coming late than never. As Chevron’s Wirth noted in his interview, the world still gets 80 percent of its energy from fossil fuels, despite the massive investments made in renewable energy over the past two decades.

Indeed, according to BP’s Statistical Review of World Energy for 2021, fossil fuels actually accounted for 82 percent of the world’s energy mix. This was down by one percentage point from 2019 and by three percentage points from 2016. Not only that, but the use of coal rose in 2021 from the previous year as economies roared back into growth after the first and biggest wave of pandemic lockdowns.

Speaking of coal, JP Morgan’s Dimon had something critical to say about that, too. He said in his interview with CNBC that if the world produced more oil and gas, we wouldn’t have to use so much coal and produce so many emissions.

The problem with coal consumption, he said, was critical, and “this should be treated almost as a matter of war at this point, nothing short of that.”

Indeed, it is worth noting that both Dimon and Wirth did not directly attack the transition as such. Instead, they targeted the approach to this transition primarily. While Dimon focused on removing coal from the global energy mix, Wirth made sure to note Chevron has a generous low-carbon energy investment program for the medium term and a net-zero plan for the period to 2050.

“We have a longer-term problem now, which is the world is not producing enough oil and gas to reduce coal, make the transition [to green energy], produce security for people,” Dimon told CNBC.

This chimes in with Wirth’s prediction that oil and gas will still be powering the world in 20 years, although he also noted that investment in alternatives to oil and gas was “woefully short.” And that’s despite the trillions already poured into those alternatives.

Both interviews will probably draw fire from the environmentalist camp, which as a rule, does not distinguish between different fossil fuels and wants them all gone. Yet the fact that business executives are beginning to speak openly about the shortcomings of the transition as it is being pursued by decision-makers in the West is a positive sign.

It is a sign that we might begin to have a more honest conversation about how energy actually works and which alternatives to oil and gas are, in fact, viable over the long term with regard to energy security. That would be a good start to a smarter, less risky transition.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

Is Wind Energy Becoming Too Expensive?

Editor OilPrice.com
Sun, October 16, 2022 

General Electric (GE) plans to make major job cuts in its U.S. wind operations and will consider its other markets too as windfarms are proving to be a major expense in the wake of Covid and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Continued supply chain disruption and the high cost of wind turbines are deterring companies from investing in wind energy, as they look for cheaper alternatives.

It’s a question that has been being asked for years - are wind and solar power more expensive and less reliable? The two renewable energy sources have been repeatedly criticised for their intermittent power provision. Meanwhile, as the prices of steel and other materials continue to rise, solar and wind farms are proving to be more expensive to construct than previously hoped.

The prices of solar and wind power had been decreasing as technological innovations were made, thanks to huge amounts of investment worldwide in research and development. But in the wake of a pandemic that has wreaked havoc on global supply chains, the price of components has risen again and again. So, can the improved efficiency of wind turbine technology balance with rising material prices?

This month, reports suggested that GE would be laying off around 20 percent of its onshore wind workforce in the U.S., with employees in North America, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa being notified of changes to the company. An assessment of its Europe and Asia wind markets is expected to follow. Last week, GE employees received a letter stating, “We are taking steps to streamline and size our onshore wind business for market realities to position us for future success. These are difficult decisions, which do not reflect on our employees’ dedication and hard work but are needed to ensure the business can compete and improve profitability over time.”

According to several sources, GE is planning to restructure and resize the business, citing weak demand, rising costs, and supply-chain delays as the primary challenges. GE confirmed it was “streamlining” its onshore wind operations, although has the firm has not commented on job cuts. A GE Renewables spokesperson stated: “These are difficult decisions, which do not reflect on our employees' dedication and hard work but are needed to ensure the business can compete and improve profitability over time.”

Related: The Most Consumed Energy Sources In Every Country Of Europe

This example highlights the broader challenge, as companies have been battling with the rising cost of wind power as they pump bigger investments into renewables in a bid to decarbonise operations. And wind turbine manufacturers that have seen demand soar in recent years are still struggling to turn a profit.

Even wind energy majors, such as Vestas Wind Systems, General Electric Co., and Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, are feeling the stress of high raw material and logistics costs as they race to build the tallest turbines. Ben Backwell, CEO of the trade group Global Wind Energy Council, explained “What I’m seeing is a colossal market failure.” He added, “The risk is we’re not on track for net zero [emissions] -- and the other risk is the supply chain contracts, instead of expanding.”

The potential move away from wind power could have major consequences, as the leading non-hydro renewable energy source globally. Wind power is expected to strongly support the worldwide transition away from fossil fuels to renewable alternatives. In addition, the geopolitical landscape could change if North American and European energy companies reign in their wind power funding while Asian powers, such as China, increase their investments in wind.

Earlier this year, several Western turbine manufacturers said they were competing for fewer projects in fewer markets, with plans to raise prices, streamline their product lineups, and cut manufacturing costs to strive for profits. This comes at a time of great potential for renewable energy projects, as the world faces fossil fuel scarcity and rising energy costs. But wind turbine makers have experienced losses in 2022, with rising material costs and stiff competition in the market.

Vestas and Siemens Gamesa, which together control around 70 percent of the market outside China, reported losses for the first quarter of 2022. The CEO of Siemens Gamesa, Jochen Eickholt, said: “The competition is rather fierce and, in the past, there was an element where people wanted to gain market share at the expense of profitability too often.” The two firms have increased their prices by a double-digit percentage over the last year and have both turned down low-paying projects, taking the business in another direction. Eickholt backed the bold change in strategy, but Siemen’s order intake between January and March fell 69 percent below estimates.

For the last decade, and particularly following COP26, the future of wind power appeared to be a given. Energy companies, governments, and environmentalists had high hopes for wind power, as it continued to become bigger and better than ever. But the spillover effects of the pandemic and the invasion of Ukraine have made this outlook less certain, as companies battle with the realities of rising costs and lower profits.

By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com

Carbon Capture Projects Hit Record, But Would Mitigate Less Than 1% of Emissions

WOULD USE THEM TO FRACK OLD WELLS


James Fernyhough
Sun, October 16, 2022 

(Bloomberg) -- The number of carbon capture and storage projects in development grew to record levels this year on the back of rising carbon prices and government incentives, but would still only mitigate less than 1% of annual emissions, a new report finds.

There are now 153 CCS projects in the planning phase, 61 more than this time last year and more than at any time in history, the Melbourne-based Global CCS Institute found in its annual survey of the sector, released today. They would add to the 30 projects currently operating and a further 11 under construction.

The US leads the way with 34 new proposed CCS projects, followed by Canada, the UK, Norway, Australia, the Netherlands and Iceland. Favorable policies stimulated investment in these countries, including higher carbon prices, tax credits and direct grants, the report found.

Despite the jump in new capacity, all existing and proposed projects would be able to store just 244 million tons of CO₂ a year, less than 1% of the 36 billion tons of carbon dioxide the International Energy Agency estimates was added to the atmosphere last year.

Carbon capture and storage technology, which captures carbon dioxide from a range of sources and stores it underground, usually in depleted oil or gas reservoirs, has proved a controversial technology. Supporters say it has a vital role in the push to keep global warming to within the Paris Agreement’s stated target of 1.5 degrees celsius, with around 1.3 billion tons of storage capacity needed by 2030 to meet that target, according to the IEA. But critics argue CCS is an expensive, ineffective technology that serves to prolong the life of fossil fuels.

Early examples focused on capturing emissions from coal-fired power plants, while on the storage side, CO₂ was often injected into petroleum reservoirs to extract oil, a technique known as “enhanced oil recovery”. Both applications supported continued fossil fuel use, which is still the main area for CCS projects.

Natural gas processing is the most common application in existing CCS projects, while ethanol production, power generation, manufacture of hydrogen with natural gas (known as “blue hydrogen”) are the most common for those in development.

But attention has increasingly widened to technology such as “direct air carbon capture and storage” (DACCS) -- which removes CO₂ directly out of the atmosphere and stores it -- and capturing the emissions from hard to abate industries like cement and steel. These applications were advocated by international authorities and were found growing.

“CCS is the Swiss Army knife of climate mitigation -- it will continue to play multiple, unique roles in decarbonising the global economy,” said Jarad Daniels, Chief Executive Officer of the Global CCS Institute. “Many essential industries like cement and chemical production have no other viable path for deep decarbonisation other than CCS.”

The report did not say how much the planned projects would cost, but the Global CCS Institute last year estimated between $655 billion and $1.28 trillion of investment in carbon-capture technologies could reduce emissions by 15% by 2050 -- which it argued was “well within the capacity of the private sector”.