SEXUAL ASSAULT

FIFA opens case against Spanish soccer official who kissed a player on the lips at Women's World Cup


Thu, August 24, 2023 



GENEVA (AP) — FIFA opened a disciplinary case Thursday against the Spanish soccer official who kissed a player on the lips while celebrating the team's victory in the Women’s World Cup final.

The governing body's disciplinary committee will weigh if Spanish soccer federation president Luis Rubiales violated its code relating to "the basic rules of decent conduct” and “behaving in a way that brings the sport of football and/or FIFA into disrepute.”

Rubiales kissed player Jenni Hermoso on the lips during the trophy and medal ceremony on Sunday after Spain’s 1-0 victory over England in Sydney, Australia.

Minutes earlier, Rubiales grabbed his crotch as a victory gesture in the exclusive section of seats with Queen Letizia of Spain and 16-year-old Princess Sofía standing nearby.

Hermoso has said she did not like the kiss and the national players’ union representing her — which the 46-year-old Rubiales once led — called Wednesday for his conduct to not go unpunished.

FIFA responded Thursday.

“FIFA reiterates its unwavering commitment to respecting the integrity of all individuals and strongly condemns any behavior to the contrary,” the soccer body said without specifying which acts by Rubiales are under investigation.

Víctor Francos, Spain’s secretary of state for sports, said Wednesday that “the gesture of grabbing his testicles in the tribune is a gesture that no one can defend.”

FIFA gave no timetable for a ruling. The body's disciplinary judges can impose sanctions on individuals ranging from warnings and fines to suspensions from the sport.

The FIFA disciplinary panel is chaired by Colombian lawyer Jorge Palacio, a former labor court judge and member of the state constitutional court.

The case likely will be judged by three of the 16 panel members. Three of the 16 are women, from England, Mexico and Thailand.

Rubiales is a vice president of UEFA, a role which pays 250,000 euros ($270,000) each year plus expenses, and was the European soccer body's most senior representative at the biggest game in women’s soccer.

UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin has yet to comment on the conduct of Rubiales, who is due to host the European soccer body's next annual congress in Madrid in February.

The Spanish soccer federation, which Rubiales has led for five years, has an emergency meeting Friday in Madrid where the agenda allows questions on the controversy.

It is unclear if the meeting will shore up support for Rubiales or respond to widespread pressure from Spanish government and soccer officials to remove him.

Rubiales, who led the Spanish players’ union for eight years before taking over as federation president in 2018, is currently heading the UEFA-backed bid to host the men’s World Cup in 2030. Spain is bidding with neighboring Portugal and Morocco, and also possibly Ukraine.

Francos said Rubiales has damaged the country’s image as it tries to win support for hosting the World Cup.

FIFA delayed launching the 2030 bid contest in June but has targeted late next year for a decision.

The Spain-led bid is currently favored over a four-nation South American plan teaming Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and inaugural 1930 World Cup host Uruguay. Despite speculation about a possible bid from Saudi Arabia, the 2034 edition is seen as a more likely goal for the oil-rich kingdom.

___

AP Women’s World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-womens-world-cup

Graham Dunbar, The Associated Press

MAKE BIG BUCKS CUT JOBS

RBC reports $3.9Bn profit, says ramping up job cuts ahead of economic slowdown

The Canadian Press
Thu, August 24, 2023



TORONTO — Royal Bank of Canada is ramping up job cuts as it works to reduce costs ahead of an expected economic slowdown.

The bank, which reported a rise in third-quarter profits Thursday that beat analyst expectations, said it planned to cut one to two per cent of its full-time equivalent employees next quarter on top of the one per cent it trimmed in the last one.

The cuts come as heightened interest rates put pressure on expected economic activity despite resilient consumer spending.

"Our base case forecasts a softer economic outlook," chief executive Dave McKay told a conference call with investors and financial analysts.

"We expect slowing growth and lower inflation due to the lagging impact of monetary policy combined with a slowdown in China and elevated climate and geopolitical risks."

Given the outlook, the bank has heightened its focus on expense control, said McKay, including slower discretionary spending and moderating hiring.

Early job reductions were done largely through natural attrition, but cuts will ramp up this quarter now that the bank has regulatory approvals in place to move forward, he said.

The cuts come after McKay said last quarter that the bank had over hired by the thousands. The bank added about 6,100 full-time equivalent employees in 2022 over the year before, and 3,000 the first two quarters of this year.

In the third quarter the company reduced its employee base by about 2,400, though some two-thirds of that was the result of a partial sale of its RBC Investor Services, leaving RBC with 93,753 full-time equivalent employees in its most recent quarter.

Despite the cuts, the overall higher employee numbers, along with rising pay, meant costs were up 17 per cent, chief financial officer Nadine Ahn said.

She said the bank has had nearly $70 million in severance costs over the last two quarters with more expected in the next one, before RBC starts to see expense benefits from the cuts next year.

The focus on costs come as the bank reported expenses were up 23 per cent in the quarter from last year, about 10 per cent of which was related to acquisitions and foreign exchange. Leaving that aside, non-interest expenses were up 13 per cent, driven by higher staff-related costs and professional fees.

Despite the higher costs, the bank reported a net income of $3.87 billion or $2.73 per diluted share for the quarter ended July 31, up from $3.58 billion or $2.51 per diluted share in the same quarter last year.

Revenue totalled $14.49 billion, up from $12.13 billion a year earlier.

Provisions for credit losses amounted to $616 million, up from $340 million in the same quarter last year.

On an adjusted basis, RBC says it earned $2.84 per diluted share in its latest quarter, up from $2.55 a year earlier.

The average analyst estimate had been for a profit of $2.71 per share, according to figures compiled by financial markets data firm Refinitiv.

The bank beat expectations based in part thanks to lower-than-expected credit loss provisions, as well as a lower tax rate, Scotiabank analyst Meny Grauman wrote in a note to clients.

He said efforts to cut expenses, including through fewer full-time equivalent employees, should help bank performance.

"Operating leverage remains an issue at this bank, but we certainly are seeing tangible proof that RY is working to address this by lowering FTE.”

The bank also benefited from a slight rise in net interest margins in Canadian banking, as the client flow into term deposits like guaranteed investment certificates slowed.

Banks have seen their margins squeezed as customers move more money into the term products that are more expensive for banks, but RBC has long touted its low-cost deposit base to help offset the trend. The bank said that last quarter its margins also benefited from strong growth in credit card balances.

RBC's net interest margin rise of 0.03 percentage points to 2.68 per cent for Canadian banking surprised to the upside compared to consensus expectations of a 0.02 per dip, said Grauman.

“That is something that we and the Street have been looking to see for a while as RY’s strong domestic deposit franchise appears to finally be shinning through.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 24, 2023.

Companies in this story: (TSX:RY)

Ian Bickis, The Canadian Press

Alberta's budding energy-storage industry is set to bloom. The renewables pause has cast a chill

Story by Robson Fletcher • CBC

Alberta's renewable-energy moratorium has put a spotlight on the future of wind and solar projects in the province, but there is another, related industry that has also been caught up in the province's sudden and controversial decision.

Energy storage.

The industry is nascent in Alberta — with just five small facilities totalling 90 megawatts of capacity connected to the power grid — but industry watchers believe it could be on the cusp of a major surge.

Companies have submitted dozens of applications to the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) for new projects, potentially representing thousands of megawatts' worth of industrial-scale battery storage that could come online in the next few years.

Many of those projects are in an early stage. Not all will necessarily end up getting built. Others, however, are nearing completion and due to be connected to the grid later this year.

At the heart of the boom in business interest are a few key factors: the declining cost of large-scale batteries, the increasing costs (both financial and environmental) of carbon emissions, and the rapid growth in renewable energy, which goes hand-in-hand with energy storage — both technologically and economically.

Prior to the provincial government's pause on renewables, the energy-storage industry had been working with AESO on modernizing Alberta's power purchasing and distribution rules to better fit with the role that large-scale batteries and other forms of energy storage could play on the grid.

That work continues, and the industry remains optimistic about future growth. But, at the same time, uncertainty surrounding the Alberta government's stance on renewable energy has spilled over into this sector.
What is energy storage, exactly?

Energy storage is a relatively new concept when it comes to Alberta's electricity grid, but it's something we're all familiar in our day-to-day lives.

Whether it's cellphones, laptops, or electric cars, we routinely charge up our devices when we're not using them so the electricity can be deployed when we want, later on. The idea of warehousing electricity so we can access it on demand is a pretty common concept, in that respect. But when it comes to the electric system, itself, this is a relatively new thing.

Right now, Alberta's electric grid includes only a tiny amount battery storage — five relatively small facilities, totalling 90 MW of capacity. (For context, total demand on the grid routinely exceeds 10,000 MW.)

Four of those five facilities belong to Enfinite, a Calgary-based company that has been the largest early entrant into Alberta's energy-storage market.



Enfinite CEO Jason White speaks to CBC News in an interview. (Google Meet/Screenshot)© Provided by cbc.ca

"Energy storage as a whole is becoming increasingly popular," said Jason White, Enfinite's chief executive officer.

"As we think about the intermittence of renewable energy, having some storage on the grid to back up that gap, let's call it, is valuable and I think a lot of companies are seeing that."

The business interest isn't limited to Alberta. There have been major energy-storage undertakings recently in Ontario, the United States and around the world.

So far in this province, Enfinite has limited its projects to a modest scale. If you're out driving on a rural road, you might whiz past one of the company's 20-MW storage facilities and not notice. The nondescript industrial facilities typically take up a small amount of space — just an acre or two — on an underused piece of rural land.

Stationed behind the chain-link fences, however, is some cutting-edge technology. Banks of high-capacity, lithium-ion batteries manufactured by Tesla are connected to a control system that is connected to Alberta's power grid.

In addition to its four 20-MW facilities connected to the grid right now, Enfinite expects five more to be connected by the end of the year, totalling 180 MW of battery-storage capacity.



Enfinite's eReserve3 facility, located in the Hamlet of Clairmont in County of Grande Prairie. (Submitted by Enfinite)© Provided by cbc.ca

Looking a little longer-term, Enfinite has also made applications for a 400-MW battery storage facility near High River and a 500-MW facility near Medicine Hat. Those applications are in Stage 2 (assessment) of AESO's six-stage grid-connection process.

"They're a lot bigger in scale, obviously," White said of the longer-term projects, noting the company wanted to start with smaller-scale operations before taking on the risk of a larger facility.

"We're getting a lot more comfortable with all the opportunities that energy storage can play in the market and I think that we're a lot more comfortable with the overall technology," he said.

"We think now is the right time for those bigger projects."

Enfinite's projects are unlike a lot of other energy-storage operations, however.
Standalone vs. generation-connected

The facilities Enfinite has built in Alberta are standalone batteries with no generation capacity of their own. They simply take power from the grid, store it, and then send it back at a later time.

Other battery-storage projects are attached to a generating station so they can be charged directly and then pass the power along to the grid later.

TransAlta's WindCharger, for instance, stores power from nearby wind turbines in the Pincher Creek area. The 10-MW facility has been in operation since late 2020.

For new energy-storage projects attached to wind or solar generation, however, Alberta's pause on new renewables poses a problem.



Cattle graze in front of a bank of wind turbines near Pincher Creek, Alta., in this file photo. (Robson Fletcher/CBC)© Provided by cbc.ca

"Our understanding is that, where storage is directly connected to a renewable facility, it's paused with the rest of the renewable facility," said Robert Tremblay with Energy Storage Canada, an industry advocacy group.

Standalone-battery facilities aren't affected in the same way, he said, but the pause has nonetheless cast a chill on the sector more broadly.

"I think this has shaken up the confidence of the industry a little bit," Tremblay said. "Just because batteries aren't paused now doesn't mean the industry necessarily feels comfortable."
Proposals and probabilities

While there are dozens of active entries on AESO's list of energy-storage proposals, there are also many projects that have been proposed and either cancelled or put on hold.

The status of projects changes all the time for all sorts of reasons such as financing, business viability, permitting, and so on. Just because a project has been proposed doesn't mean it will actually come to fruition.

The provincial government's pause on renewable energy has also prompted some companies to rethink their plans for energy storage in Alberta, said Jorden Dye, acting director of the Business Renewables Centre, a Calgary-based organization that helps match developers and buyers in the renewable sector.

Companies behind at least four Alberta projects that included both renewable generation and energy storage have hit the brakes on their plans, Dye told CBC News.

He stressed those companies have not cancelled the projects but are taking a "wait and see" approach as the industry seeks more clarity on the direction of the provincial policy.

The map below shows energy-storage proposals that were active with AESO, as of August.

How many of these proposals are likely to become reality?

That depends on whom you ask.

Forecasting the future

Predicting exactly what Alberta's deregulated energy market will look like in the future is an inexact science; it's impossible to say for certain which projects will come to fruition — and when.

The Pembina Institute, a renewable energy think tank, put together some educated guesses in a report that analysts started researching in 2022.

By the time it was published a year later, they realized their forecasts may already be out of date.

One model in that report was called the "High Storage Scenario," which assumed various incentives to encourage the development of more energy storage in Alberta. But when they looked at the most recent list of energy-storage applications to AESO, they realized even that scenario may have underestimated the amount of storage that may soon come online.

"We just put this report out in June and we were quite surprised to see this," said Jason Wang, a senior electricity analyst with the Pembina Institute.

Under the "High Storage Scenario," the Pembina report expected nearly 1,000 MW of energy-storage capacity by 2030.

But when looking at all the project applications currently at AESO's Stage 3 (regulatory preparation), Wang said the growth could actually come even faster than that, with roughly 900 MW by as early as 2026, if all those projects come through on schedule.

AESO, for its part, takes a more conservative view.

It wouldn't speculate about future energy-storage capacity in response to questions from CBC News, but the Pembina Institute noted that, in some preliminary modelling AESO presented to industry stakeholders earlier this year, it foresaw capacity growing steadily to about 500 MW by 2027 and plateauing from there.

Wang said actual growth in renewable energy has outpaced numerous past forecasts — not just from AESO, but a variety of sources — and he believes energy storage could do the same.

"This is a sector that's growing rapidly and our projections are probably going to be wrong again," he said.

"In the end, we're probably gonna see it grow even faster than we expected."
Beyond batteries

Batteries like those used by Enfinite are a common type of energy storage, but not the only one.

Pumped hydro is another commonly used method to defer the deployment of electricity to more favourable times.

In essence, this technology uses power during low-demand periods to pump water from a lower reservoir to a higher-altitude reservoir. Then, when energy demand is high, the water is released and gravity pulls it back down to the lower reservoir, spinning hydroelectric turbines along the way.

TC Energy is building a facility like this near Hinton, Alta., named the Canyon Creek Pumped Hydro Energy Storage Project, which is set to add 75 MW of "on-demand, flexible, clean energy" to the province's grid.



Animated image showing the proposed flow of water and electricity at the Canyon Creek Pumped Hydro Energy Storage Project during periods of low demand and high demand. (TC Energy)© Provided by cbc.ca

Other countries have built much larger facilities, such as Switzerland's Nant de Drance, which is capable of putting out 900 MW of electricity at any given moment and storing 20,000 MW-hours of energy in total — the equivalent of roughly 400,000 electric-car batteries.

Here in Alberta, hydro power is also being considered in conjunction with traditional batteries.

TransAlta aims to add 180 MW of batteries to its existing Ghost hydroelectric facility near Cochrane in a project dubbed WaterCharger that the company hopes to deploy by 2024.

And one other method of storing energy is also being considered in the province: compressed air.

Calgary-based Federation Engineering has proposed a 320-MW facility near Cold Lake that would store energy by compressing air in underground salt caverns, then release that energy by letting the air decompress through turbines to produce electricity.
Tariff troubles

As we've heard, new storage projects attached to renewable generation may be caught up in Alberta's pause on renewable energy.

But the standalone-battery projects also face a hurdle related to the fees they pay for buying power from the grid.

"Basically, it's tricky to do that just because of the way the electricity tariff applies to storage projects," said Tremblay, with Energy Storage Canada.

In essence, he said, when batteries draw power from the grid, the fees they pay are the same as if they were a load on the system, which the industry believes isn't fair and ultimately makes standalone battery storage less economically viable.

"We're not consuming electricity, in general," Tremblay said. "We're taking it in, saving it for later and then giving it back. So we're more a part of the system than we are a consumer hooked up to the system."

The industry has been working with AESO on adjusting the tariff system to better accommodate standalone batteries.

"If those [tariffs] were to be changed or made to be more favourable for energy storage, I think more projects would get built," said White, the CEO of Enfinite.

Industry watchers say there are other reasons for optimism about the future of energy storage in Alberta.
Economic and technical advantages

Part of the reason electricity prices have been so high in Alberta lately is that a small number of companies control a large chunk of the generation, allowing them to raise their offer prices during periods of high demand.

If a new fee structure is indeed approved, Tremblay said energy storage projects would become more economically viable in the province.

Standalone batteries would then be better positioned to buy and store cheap power during periods of low demand and provide it back to the grid later on, introducing more competition to the market during periods of high demand.

"Bridging that gap between low prices and high prices lowers prices, overall, for consumers," Tremblay said.

Energy storage also offers some technical advantages, especially as more and more renewable energy has come online. One reason the Alberta government cited for its renewable-energy pause was the intermittent nature of wind and solar power, which has created concerns over grid reliability.

In addition to providing raw power to the grid, battery storage is also well positioned to provide ancillary services, which help the transmission system adjust, maintaining the correct voltage and frequency, especially when there are sudden changes in supply or demand.



Jason Wang is a senior electricity analyst with the Pembina Institute. (Google Meet/Screenshot)© Provided by cbc.ca

"The main thing is that batteries are really quick to deploy," said Wang with the Pembina Institute.

"You have to have assets that can react in milliseconds, at times, and batteries are able to do that really well."

Storage can also reduce the cost of transmission infrastructure, Wang added, because it allows for more power to flow from intermittent sources on a given line by spreading out the load.

For White, the advantages of the sector outweigh the challenges and he expects "an influx of energy storage across Canada for the next long while."

"We're really excited about the space and think there's a lot of value," he said.

"There's a lot of ways to deploy it. It can do a lot of things. And I think that it's valuable for all of the stakeholders, whether it be the grid operators or the people that pay the bills. You know: you, me."

UCP CUTTING NOSE TO SPITE FACE

Renewables pause in Alberta affecting 118 projects worth $33 billion, think tank says

The Canadian Press
Thu, August 24, 2023 



EDMONTON — After two decades in the oilpatch, Shawn Hubbard was tired of layoffs and uncertainty about the future.

"I was pretty much done with that after 20 years," he said. "Getting the rug pulled out from under you gets tiresome."

Hubbard, 50, took a short, free course on installing solar panels in 2021 and was working in the field by the next summer.

"I liked it a lot more," he said. "The hours were similar but the pay was better.

"There's plenty of work in renewables."

Plus, as oil and gas continues to shed jobs, renewables seemed like tomorrow.

"Renewables seemed like a natural progression for energy generation," he said. "It always felt like the future for me."

Hubbard now works for the City of Medicine Hat to keep close to his family. But he fears the United Conservative government's six-month pause on renewable energy approvals, announced earlier this month, will stifle an industry that presents a real alternative for workers like him.

"I was angry," he said. "That's a lot of work, a lot of jobs, that are going to be put in limbo.

"What are they doing?"

Hubbard's fears were underscored in a report released Thursday by the Pembina Institute, a clean-energy think tank, about the scale of solar, wind and geothermal projects affected by the renewables moratorium.

The report said the pause affects 118 projects worth $33 billion. It said those projects would create enough jobs to keep 24,000 people working for a year and represent what could be $263 million in local taxes and leases for landowners in 27 municipalities.

Those figures come from the Alberta Electrical System Operator and Natural Resources Canada, said report author Jason Wang. They represent projects in various stages of development, from formal proposals to initial construction.

"Probably not all these projects will be built," Wang said.

"But all these projects have investors talking about (building). We do see tremendous interest in Alberta."

Several companies have already said they're considering taking their money elsewhere.

The commission has said it would keep accepting applications and move them through the regulatory process, which Wang called the "least bad" approach. But it won't issue any approvals until after it completes an inquiry into issues of land use and reclamation for renewables.

In an emailed statement, Minister of Affordability and Utilities Nathan Neudorf said no projects are being cancelled and only 13 projects before the Alberta Utilities Commission are directly affected by the pause.

"There are 105 projects inaccurately listed by interest groups that are months, maybe years, away from even getting before the (commission)," Neudorf wrote. "The next construction season will be available for approved projects."

But Wang said the vast majority of projects in the queue had planned to hook up to the grid by 2025, meaning the delay and uncertainty stemming from the inquiry will directly affect them.

New Democrat Opposition energy critic Nagwan Al-Guneid, who worked for years in both fossil fuels and renewables, said there are already reclamation provisions in existing legislation. Consultations on land use were already ongoing, she said.

"You can still be open for business while going ahead with these consultations," she said. "A moratorium is not a solution."

Al-Guneid pointed out the International Energy Agency says investment in renewable energy this year is projected to reach $2.3 trillion worldwide, with solar investment outpacing fossil fuels for the first time.

Having to wait until February for a report that might contain unknown new costs and regulations is not attracting any of that money to Alberta, she said.

"The reality is that there is a global transformation," Al-Guneid said. "A responsible government needs to plan for all scenarios."

Meanwhile, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith was in Banff, Alta., on Thursday speaking to the Canadian Energy Executive Association.

She said Alberta producers are reducing the amount of greenhouse gases they emit during production, although she didn't mention that production only represents about 20 per cent of the carbon released by a barrel of oil.

"We don't need a just transition in Alberta because we don't intend to transition away from oil and gas," Smith said.

That's exactly what Shawn Hubbard, the renewables worker, is afraid of.

"In the world, everybody's moving forward.

"(Smith) is not taking our province into the future. Or even into the present."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 24, 2003.

Bob Weber, The Canadian Press

$33 billion in renewable energy investments stalled as Smith champions oil and gas


Local Journalism Initiative
Thu, August 24, 2023 at 3:28 p.m. MDT·6 min read

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith doubled down on her support for the oil and gas industry, just as a report showing her government’s pause on renewable energy development could jeopardize investments worth billions.

“We don’t need a just transition because we don’t intend to transition away from oil and natural gas,” Smith said this week at the Canadian Energy Executive Association conference in Banff. The industry is working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but will not transition “away from production,” she noted.

On Aug. 3, Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party government kneecapped Alberta’s clean energy industry with a surprise announcement on approvals of all new renewable energy projects over one megawatt.

A report released Thursday shows Alberta's seven-month moratorium on renewable energy development has stalled 118 projects representing $33 billion in investments.

Pembina Institute combed through public data to figure out how many projects are affected by the seven-month moratorium and what this means for investments, revenues and jobs in Alberta.

The 118 projects identified are comprised of 5.3 GW of wind, 12.7 GW of solar and 1.5 GW of battery energy storage for solar projects.

The total investments supporting these projects are estimated at a little over $33 billion from projects proposed by 64 companies or partnerships. Pembina Institute also calculated another $263 million per year in revenue from municipal taxes and land leases spanning 27 different municipalities that won’t be realized until the projects move forward. According to the analysis, the planning, development and construction phase would create, over the span of several years, the equivalent of one year of 24,000 full-time jobs.

The province is well-positioned to become Canada’s “renewable energy capital,” the new analysis points out. Last year, Alberta led Canada for renewable energy growth, accounting for 77 per cent of the 1.8 gigawatts of solar and wind generation capacity that came online that year, according to data from the Canadian Renewable Energy Association.

When he announced the pause, Nathan Neudorf, Alberta’s Minister of Affordability and Utilities, said the move was a direct response to concerns raised by rural municipalities about land use considerations and end of life plans for renewable projects. Abandoned industrial projects are a pain point because many municipalities have been left with the mess from defunct oil and gas wells and are still owed millions in taxes by oil and gas companies: the Rural Municipalities of Alberta says its members are collectively owed $268 million in unpaid property taxes by oil and gas companies, and that number continues to grow.

During the renewables pause, the Alberta Utilities Commission will review policies and procedures for the development of renewable electricity generation, according to the province.

Rural Municipalities of Alberta president Paul McLauchlin said they did not ask the government to pause project approvals, only raised concerns, but he applauded the decision nonetheless.

Aside from end of life plans, another one of Rural Municipalities of Alberta members’ main concerns is that highly productive farmland will be sacrificed to accommodate large renewable projects. “We want to make sure that projects that are industrial at that scale are compatible with adjacent land uses, or at least those questions are being asked in the decision-making process,” McLauchlin told Canada’s National Observer the same day the moratorium was announced.

McLauchlin emphasized that municipalities are not against renewable energy development — they just want to see it done right.

The revenues being brought in by these projects are “life-changing” for municipalities, said McLauchlin, pointing in particular to Vulcan County, home to Canada's largest solar project and one of the largest wind farms.

Several large renewable energy projects have injected the county with much-needed revenues after years of being stiffed by oil and gas companies.

About a decade ago, the decline of oil and gas decimated Vulcan County’s budget by almost 50 per cent, Jason Schneider, the elected reeve of Vulcan County, told Canada’s National Observer in an interview earlier this month

“We're out about $13 million of unpaid oil and gas taxes,” said Schneider. That's from companies who either just decided not to pay their taxes or companies that disappeared in the middle of the night or went bankrupt, he said.

“Unfortunately, the way the whole industry, the way it was all set up is, you know, these companies were able to walk away and we really had no recourse,” said Schneider.

“$13 million to a small municipality like ours is a big chunk … If you wanted to extrapolate that and compare it to a city … I mean, any city, if you have to cut your budget by 30 per cent, I don't think many municipalities could do it.”

“In the last 10 years, wind and solar has surpassed oil and gas at its peak in Vulcan County,” said Schneider, adding “we're we're able to do things that we weren't able to do 10 years ago, even five years ago,” namely infrastructure investments “thanks to the additional revenues the projects have brought online.”

He doesn’t want this issue to repeat with the rapidly expanding renewables industry. Renewable energy companies make deals with individual landowners, so it's up to landowners to ensure the contract includes a plan to decommission and remediate the site when its operating life is over. Municipalities are left in the dark because the deals are typically confidential.

During the application process, the Alberta Utilities Commission requires companies to show how they will ensure there is enough money to cover the costs of decommissioning the project and restoring the land to its former state.

Pembina Institute’s analysis found that, on average, a 100 megawatt renewable energy project generates between $125 and $175 million in project development and construction investments, about 300 full-time jobs during construction and $1.5 million in long-term, annual municipal revenues.

For example, multiple projects proposed in the Medicine Hat area would generate up to $44 million in annual tax and land lease revenues, according to the analysis. There is just one project — a 160 megawatt wind project — proposed in the Municipal District of Smoky River, in northwestern Alberta. That one project would result in an estimated $1.9 million in tax and land lease revenues per year.

The authors of the analysis point to the Alberta Utilities Commission’s existing requirements for decommissioning and reclamation plans, writing that while improvements can be made to those current measures, the moratorium is unnecessary and hampers stakeholders eager to invest in projects.

This article was updated at 2:46 p.m. on Aug. 24 to include comments made by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, and to provide additional clarity on job creation numbers

Natasha Bulowski, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer

Protesters hoped to 'overwhelm' RCMP wildfire blockade in B.C. Shuswap region: police

The Canadian Press
Thu, August 24, 2023 



RCMP say protesters hoped to "overwhelm" a wildfire blockade on the Trans-Canada Highway in British Columbia's Shuswap region, confronting officers late Wednesday amid some residents' refusal to obey evacuation orders.

The tensions over the evacuation orders that cover thousands of people in the region come as the directives elsewhere in B.C.'s Interior are expected to ease, with firefighters reporting good progress thanks to rain and other favourable weather.

Kelowna Fire Chief Travis Whiting told a briefing the goal was for all evacuation orders in that city to be lifted Thursday, although they're set to remain in place in West Kelowna and other communities on the other side of Lake Okanagan.

In the Shuswap, to the north of Kelowna, police say in a statement that protesters challenged officers Wednesday evening, while "threats of violence" against emergency workers had prompted the Mounties to increase their presence there.

Videos posted to social media show about 20 protesters at a blockade of police cars in an evacuation zone near the lakeside community of Sorrento.

The protesters tell officers they do not believe politicians have the right to prevent them from using the road, and that it is illegal for the RCMP to block it.

The group, which organized itself on Facebook, had hoped to rally enough support to push through the blockade to enter the evacuation zone, saying they planned to support those who have chosen to remain inside to protect their property.

"This is a warning to all you Canadians out there, this is what's coming," one man says after confronting police in a video of the incident, referring to the RCMP blockade at the intersection of Blind Bay Road.

The group dispersed after about an hour. The RCMP statement says officers de-escalated the situation safely, without incident, adding no one was arrested and no charges are expected to stem from the confrontation.

The Mounties have stepped up their presence "in response to ongoing efforts by some individuals who have undermined BC Wildfire Service fire suppression work through the movement of vital equipment, and have (compromised) emergency personnel safety through threats of violence," the police statement says.

The area under evacuation order is not safe due to active wildfire, as well as damage to power lines and unstable trees and structures, it says.

“While we understand and sympathize with the residents of the North Shuswap, there is a process in place through the local emergency operations centre that needs to be followed," spokesperson Cpl. James Grandy says in the statement.

“When the (centre) deems it safe to do so, they can issue passes into the area to support a resupply."

Tensions have been mounting in the Shuswap, which is one of the hardest-hit areas in the province's wildfire fight. BC Wildfire Service crews are fighting the 410-square-kilometre Bush Creek East fire that has destroyed an unknown number of properties and triggered evacuation orders covering about 11,000 people.

About 370 fires were burning across B.C. Thursday, including 14 "wildfires of note" that are highly visible or pose a threat to people or property. South of the Shuswap, fires around Lake Okanagan have destroyed or damaged about 200 homes.

Wildfire service information officer Forrest Tower said Wednesday anyone who chooses to remain behind must stay on private property, and he asked those who remain in evacuation zones to communicate with emergency authorities.

There are ways they can potentially "work together," he said, such as hiring residents as emergency firefighters if they have a "base level" of training and safety certifications.

"We have gone as far as that, and it works very well," Tower told a news conference.

"There's the option to just be more involved in our operational activities. It just comes back to communication and the willingness at some level to take direction from someone in BC Wildfire."

Tower said the Bush Creek East fire in the Shuswap region remains the province's top-priority blaze, and up to 150 more firefighters were scheduled to arrive on site Wednesday and today to further contain it.

B.C. Emergency Management Minister Bowinn Ma said Wednesday the BC Wildfire Service had "opened a dialogue" to understand why some are defying the orders, but the directives carry legal weight and defiance of them must end.

She said some local residents with skills to help battle fires are being recruited now to join the wildfire fight, but others must leave.

Firefighting efforts in the region have been aided by ample rain that fell Tuesday and Wednesday over the Okanagan and Shuswap regions.

Brad Litke, a BC Wildfire Service senior operations officer, said Thursday there had been "significant progress" in the battle against the complex fires that have been threatening communities around Lake Okanagan.

Up to seven millimetres of rainfall Wednesday had helped firefighters, he said.

Whiting said a list of Kelowna neighbourhoods where evacuation orders are to be lifted would be posted on the Central Okanagan Regional District's emergency website Thursday.

"We couldn't be more excited to see this happen," he told a briefing.

— With files from CHNL

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 24, 2023.

Brieanna Charlebois, Darryl Greer and Ashley Joannou, The Canadian Press

Evacuation defiance threatens B.C. wildfire fight, minister says, as rain raises hope

Story by The Canadian Press •22h

British Columbia's emergency management minister is calling for unity in the fight against the province's wildfires, as she decried people defying evacuation orders to try to defend their properties.

Doing so puts at risk the "unified strategy" for battling the worst wildfire season in the province's history, Bowinn Ma said Wednesday.

"I know that some people want to stay and fight," she said at a news conference. "I understand that, but it is also my duty to be clear about the risks to people and emergency crews. Let me be clear, our collective fight is with the wildfire. But in order to do this, our efforts need to be united."

The dispute around the handling of the fires in the Shuswap came amid progress on other fronts of B.C.'s fire fight that has forced the evacuation of more than 25,000 people.

Fire chiefs in the embattled Okanagan said Wednesday that overnight rain helped soak wildfires in West Kelowna, Kelowna and the Lake Country, raising optimism even as a clearer picture emerged of the destruction over recent days. Drenching rain was also forecast for other hard-hit areas, with up to 80 millimetres expected in some places.


But the divisions to the north in the Columbia Shuswap Regional District in the B.C. Interior were weighing on officials Wednesday.

Some residents there have been refusing to leave their properties in the face of the 410-square-kilometre Bush Creek East wildfire, which has ravaged the Shuswap, destroying buildings including the firehall at Scotch Creek.

The BC Wildfire Service said 120 wildland firefighters and 105 structural firefighters are deployed to the blaze, with helicopters flying throughout the area.

Some 11,000 people are under evacuation order in the Shuswap, including North Shuswap resident Kyle Boppre.

But Boppre said he wasn't going anywhere. He said he and others in his community have defied an evacuation order because they believed provincial wildfire crews weren’t coming to save them.

He said he used scuba diving equipment he usually uses in Shuswap Lake to help him survive as he drove near his home.

“Both sides of the road were burning and the smoke was so bad,” said Boppre. “Don't get me wrong, it was scary as hell.”

He said waiting for firefighters wasn’t an option with his home and marine business at stake, so banding together with others who stayed to fight the fires was the only option.

“It was basically, I guess what they call a firestorm," Boppre said. "We had like a fire tornado roll through our little area there on Garland Road."

Ma said the BC Wildfire Service had "opened a dialogue" to understand why some are defying the orders, but the directives carry legal weight and defiance of them must end.

She said some local residents with skills to help battle fires are being recruited now to join the wildfire fight, but others must leave.

"We have to be working together on this," said Ma. "People can't be doing their own thing. Areas under evacuation order are not safe places and when you are asked to leave you must leave immediately."

BC Wildfire Service officials, Premier David Eby and Ma have said firefighting equipment, including sprinklers and hoses, have been moved or tampered with.

Related video: Video Shows Kelowna Wildfires Burning In British Columbia (Newsweek)  Duration 0:21   View on Watch

COVER News India  Firefighters In Canada Make Progress Against Wildfires Amid Cooler Weather

1:30

The Weather Network  Rain expected to bring relief from smoke in B.C.

1:26

Reuters Vancouver skies blanketed by wildfire smoke

0:31

Ma said that much of southern B.C. had been "lucky to receive some rain," but "we are still in a hazardous situation for wildfires throughout B.C."

"I'm happy to report in the north we've received rain, and a lot of it," said Chief Ross Kotscherofski of the North Westside fire rescue department at a different briefing on Wednesday. "This, with lower temperatures, is going to really help with mopping up this fire."

Brad Litke, a BC Wildfire Service senior operations officer, said the rain was a boon to the more than 500 firefighters battling the blazes around Lake Okanagan.

"The rain is clearly helpful," he said. "What that tends to do is help extinguish some minor spot fires. It really makes an impact on the fine fuels, that's the surface litter. That's the primary driver for spot fires."

Wednesday's forecast for the Interior included warnings of potential localized flooding and "debris flows" as rains hit the scorched landscape.

Environment Canada issued a severe thunderstorm watch late Tuesday for the Shuswap and there was heavy rain in the region Tuesday night, with Salmon Arm recording 12 millimetres of rain yesterday -- the biggest single-day total all year in the drought-parched area.

Rainfall warnings have gone into effect for the South Peace River and Upper Fraser regions, with the forests ministry saying in a high streamflow advisory that rivers are expected to "respond rapidly" and rise quickly.

It said wildfire activity "may exacerbate localized run-off" and increase the risk of debris flows in areas burned by fires, although widespread flooding isn't expected.

West Kelowna Fire Chief Jason Brolund said Wednesday that a total of 84 properties were partially or totally damaged in West Kelowna and the Westbank First Nation.

Kotscherofski said 90 properties in his firefighting region were damaged or destroyed, although some, including the Lake Okanagan Resort, consist of multiple structures.

The total of 174 is in the ballpark of Tuesday's estimate of up to 200 properties. Wednesday's tally did not include the handful of homes thought to have been damaged or destroyed in Kelowna.

"I'm feeling some optimism based on the weather," said Brolund. "My priority now becomes returning people to their homes. I ask for your continued patience."

He said that with the clearing of smoke over Lake Okanagan, a clearer picture of the destruction in West Kelowna has become visible.

"It does look pretty shocking,” he said.

He said overnight firefighting was "sporadic and spotty" and no more properties were damaged.

A website was due to be launched Wednesday to let homeowners in West Kelowna, Westbank First Nation and the Central Okanagan Regional District learn if their properties have been damaged or destroyed, municipal officials said at the briefing.

"In a perfect world our preference, without question, would be to personally call every single homeowner and be with them when they receive what is probably the worst news they have ever received," said Sally Ginter, Central Okanagan Regional District chief administrative officer.

"But today we live in a day of social media and photos and information that is flying around faster than we can ever begin to think we can manage," she said.

The Columbia Shuswap Regional District has meanwhile been warning of misinformation being spread online.

It said Tuesday it had been made aware of emails and social media posts that said people do not need a permit to go into evacuation order areas, but clarified that this information is "completely false" and a permit is required.

This comes after federal and provincial officials publicly urged social media company Meta to reinstate access to Canadian news on its platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, so residents have easy access to accurate and up-to-date information amid the province's ongoing wildfire crisis.

The BC Wildfire Service website said there are 379 fires burning across the province, including 155 that are out of control and 14 "wildfires of note" that are highly visible or pose a threat to people or property. It says seven new fires were detected in the past 24 hours.

Ma said there are now 25,000 people under evacuation order in B.C. and 37,000 people on evacuation alert.

— with files from Darryl Greer

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 23, 2023.

Dirk Meissner, The Canadian Press

Top science publisher withdraws flawed climate study

Roland LLOYD PARRY
Thu, August 24, 2023 

Experts point to widespread concerns about peer-review standards in the lucrative academic publishing industry. (NASA)

Top science publisher Springer Nature said it has withdrawn a study that presented misleading conclusions on climate change impacts after an investigation prompted by an AFP inquiry.

AFP reported in September 2022 on concerns over the peer-reviewed study by four Italian scientists that appeared earlier that year in the European Physical Journal Plus, published by Springer Nature.

The study had drawn positive attention from climate-sceptic media.

The paper, titled "A critical assessment of extreme events trends in times of global warming", purported to review data on possible changes in the frequency or intensity of rainfall, cyclones, tornadoes, droughts and other extreme weather events.

Several climate scientists contacted by AFP said the study manipulated data, cherry picked facts and ignored others that would contradict their assertions, prompting the publisher to launch an internal review.

"The Editors and publishers concluded that they no longer had confidence in the results and conclusions of the article," Springer Nature told AFP in an email late Wednesday.

The journal's editors published an online note stating that the paper was retracted due to concerns over "the selection of the data, the analysis and the resulting conclusions".

- Peer-review standards -

It said the paper had been freshly reviewed by experts and the authors invited to submit an addendum in response to the criticisms.

But a review found this "not suitable for publication and that the conclusions of the article were not supported by available evidence or data provided by the authors".

Springer Nature said in its email that the investigation was conducted by its Research Integrity Group in line with guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

The paper's authors were identified in order as Gianluca Alimonti, a physicist at a nuclear physics institute; Luigi Mariani, an agricultural meteorologist, and physicists Franco Prodi and Renato Angelo Ricci.

The latter two were named as signatories of the World Climate Declaration, a text that repeated various debunked claims about climate change, an AFP fact check article found.

Their study was "not published in a climate journal," Stefan Rahmstorf, Head of Earth Systems at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, told AFP at the time.

"This is a common avenue taken by 'climate sceptics' in order to avoid peer review by real experts in the field."

Recent studies have indicated that climate misinformation has flourished online as governments push reforms to curb use of the fossil fuels that cause planet-warming carbon emissions.

A further investigation published by AFP in April 2023 showed that sceptics opposed to the scientific consensus on human-caused climate change had got other misleading studies published in peer-reviewed journals.

Experts pointed to widespread concerns about peer-review standards in the lucrative academic publishing industry.

Retraction Watch, a blog that tracks withdrawals of academic papers, counted 5,000 such cases in 2022 -- about a tenth of a percent of the total number of studies published, its co-founder Ivan Oransky told AFP.

rlp/mh/ach

NASA's TEMPO sends first North American pollution data maps

Doug Cunningham
Thu, August 24, 2023 at 2:00 PM MDT·2 min read


NASA released the first pollution data maps from its TEMPO instrument orbiting 22,000 miles over the equator. This combined pair of images shows nitrogen dioxide levels over the Washington, D.C./Philadelphia/New York region at 12:14 and 4:24 p.m. on August 2, as measured by TEMPO.

 Photo by Kel Elkins, Trent Schindler, and Cindy Starr/NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio


Aug. 24 (UPI) -- The first data maps from a NASA pollution-monitoring instrument were released Thursday. NASA's TEMPO device creates visual representations of pollution and air quality over North America from 22,000 miles above the equator.

"Neighborhoods and communities across the country will benefit from TEMPO's game-changing data for decades to come," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement. "This summer, millions of Americans felt firsthand the effect of smoke from forest fires on our health. NASA and the Biden-Harris Administration are committed to making it easier for everyday Americans and decision makers to access and use TEMPO data to monitor and improve the quality of the air we breathe, benefitting life here on Earth."

According to NASA, the TEMPO instrument will greatly improve studies of pollution caused by rush-hour traffic, the movement of smoke and ash from forest fires and volcanoes and even the effect of fertilizer application on farmlands.

TEMPO stands for Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution.

NASA said it will help scientists evaluate health impacts of pollutants and help with creating air pollution maps at the neighborhood scale.

This pair of images shows nitrogen dioxide levels over Southern California at 12:14 and 4:24 p.m. on August 2, as measured by TEMPO. 

Photo by Kel Elkins, Trent Schindler, and Cindy Starr/NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

TEMPO was launched April 6 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and it makes hourly daytime scans of the lower atmosphere over North America from coast to coast and from roughly Mexico City to Canada.

It measures ozone, nitrogen dioxide, formaldehyde, aerosols, water vapor and several trace gases.

"We are excited to see the initial data from the TEMPO instrument and that the performance is as good as we could have imagined now that it is operating in space," said NASA TEMPO project manager Kevin Daugherty in a statement. "We look forward to completing commissioning of the instrument and then starting science research."

US Corn Harvest Is in Trouble

Tarso Veloso, Millie Munshi and Michael Hirtzer
Thu, August 24, 2023



(Bloomberg) -- Sagging ears just short of maturity, cobs half bare of kernels as if nibbled, earth so dry that deep cracks criss-cross the fields: The US corn harvest is in trouble.

The signs were already there in South Dakota. Scouts surveying fields there this week found what farmers call tip back, when corn kernels aren’t filled all the way to the top of the cob as a result of dryness and poor pollination. It leaves them looking half eaten.

As participants on the crop tour moved deeper into the growing belt, things got worse. In Ohio, scouts found immature ears of grain, indicating that the crop still has weeks left in the growing season. That leaves plants vulnerable to this week’s heat wave.

Temperatures topping 100F (38C) are descending on the Midwest. Conditions are changing so fast that even some results from the tour — seen as more timely and less conservative than government estimates — are already out of date.

“Things are changing right in front of our eyes,” said Thayne Larson, who has grown alfalfa, hay, corn in Kansas for 50 years. “It’s so disappointing when you have what you thought could be a healthy crop, and then the conditions just become extremely, extremely challenging.”

Crops Go ‘Backwards’

With food security already under threat from Europe to Asia, the world has been counting on a big corn harvest to help keep food inflation at bay. A disappointing US harvest could have ripple effects on markets across the globe.

Much will come down to Iowa, the No. 1 US corn grower and where sixth-generation farmer Ben Riensche is for the first-time ever watching his crop go “backwards” because of the heat.

His corn stalks went from bright and green to slightly gray. Instead of sitting tight against the plant, the corn ears are flopping down, the husk has turned brown and the bottom of the stalk — where the plants connects to the roots that go deep underground — looks like it’s been burned. It means that the plant is dead.

“We’re at the point of no return in Iowa,” Riensche, who farms 15,000 acres in the state, said while he was tending to livestock, making sure they had enough water, food and shade to survive the heat. It was 101F as he spoke late Wednesday afternoon. “I’ve never seen a crop go backwards like this — literally get killed by the hot, dry weather.”


Tour Results

Early results from the Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour are raising concerns that the crop will fall short of the US Department of Agriculture’s production outlook. Data collected in the first three days of the tour — which don’t fully capture real-time heat damages — show yields are trailing USDA estimates in Ohio, Nebraska, Indiana and Illinois. Only South Dakota looked better-than-forecast.

On Thursday evening, the final tour results will be released.

The heat is hurting soybeans even more as the crop is earlier in its growing season than corn. Pods were falling off plants as the scouts counted them, said Brent Judisch, who’s part of this week’s crop tour.

“This heat is doing more stress than we thought, because it is 100F outside, but as you walk into the fields you feel the temperature rising,” Judisch said. “This is my 11th crop tour, and I don’t remember a heat like this. We have never experienced this in Iowa.”

For many regions of the US crop belt, this season has been marked by turbulence. High temperatures are hitting Midwest fields just when rains in July seemed to have undone the damages of a hot, dry June.

‘Absolutely Devastated’

This season is the “most stressful” Larson of Kansas has ever had when it comes to challenges from Mother Nature. Drought, strong winds, storms and hail have all hit crops this summer. But it’s this week’s bout of extreme heat that’s really sealed the fate for his yields. The plants on his fields are shrinking. They going into “protection mode,” he said.

“You look at what’s going on in Kansas right now, we had a beautiful crop that in a week has been absolutely devastated,” said Gregg Doud, chief economist at Aimpoint Research and former chief agriculture negotiator under the Trump administration.

To be sure, the variability of this year’s crop — largely a result of spotty rainfall — suggests that there are bountiful areas that can help to make up for losses in others.

Early measurements in Iowa on Wednesday showed that corn yields can vary from almost 200 bushels an acre at the higher end, to the worst fields in some counties that have yields below 100.

“We were really surprised with the high yield variation that we are seeing,” said Brian Grete, leader of the eastern leg of the crop tour and editor of the Pro Farmer newsletter.

For Riensche in Iowa, the damage from the current high temperatures “is unprecedented,” he said.

“Our crop is literally dying right now,” Riensche said. “Corn was not meant to be grown in the desert.”

--With assistance from Isis Almeida and Gerson Freitas Jr..

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

Mystery of octopus garden in ocean’s midnight zone solved by scientists

Katie Hunt, CNN
Thu, August 24, 2023 

Deep-sea octopuses are typically solitary creatures that inhabit frigid waters in one of Earth’s most challenging environments.

The 2018 discovery of thousands of the eight-legged cephalopods about 2 miles below the ocean’s surface flummoxed and fascinated marine scientists in equal measure. The consortium of octopuses clustered around a hydrothermal vent — an opening in the seafloor where warm, chemical-rich fluids flow out — about 10,500 feet (3,200 meters) down in what’s known as the midnight zone, a place of perpetual darkness.

The octopus garden — found on a small hill near the base of Davidson Seamount, an extinct underwater volcano 80 miles (128.7 kilometers) southwest of Monterey, California — was full of a species called Muusoctopus robustus, nicknamed the pearl octopus by the research team because of the way they look while upside down protecting their eggs.

The find is the largest known aggregation of octopuses on the planet — researchers counted more than 6,000 octopuses in just one segment of the site.

“We think there may be 20,000 octopus there. And the question is, well, why are they there? And why are they aggregating? It looks like the warm waters that are emanating from these springs is a key to why these animals are breeding there,” said Jim Barry, a senior scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.

Researchers believe the octopuses migrate to the deep-sea thermal springs in such numbers to mate and nest, according to a new study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances. After laying eggs, expectant octopus moms keep the eggs clean and guard them from predators. The warmer temperatures speed up the creatures’ embryonic development.

“Very long brooding periods increase the likelihood that a mother’s eggs won’t survive. By nesting at hydrothermal springs, octopus moms give their offspring a leg up,” explained Barry, who was the lead author of the study.

The ambient water temperature at 10,500 feet is 35 degrees Fahrenheit (1.6 degrees Celsius). However, the water temperature in cracks and crevices at the octopus garden reaches about 51 degrees Fahrenheit (11 degrees Celsius).

State-of-the-art underwater technology allowed researchers to understand the octopus garden. - MBARI

Underwater technology

The researchers at Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute and their colleagues at other institutions used state-of-the-art underwater technology to understand the octopus garden.

The institute’s ROV Don Ricketts went on 14 day-long follow-up dives to the site between 2019 and 2022, taking high-definition video of the octopuses and mapping the octopus garden at a meter-scale resolution.

The remotely operated submersible also left a time-lapse camera and sensors to measure temperature and oxygen levels for long-term observations of the octopuses’ behavior. The camera recorded an image every 20 minutes, taking about 12,200 images from March 2022 to August 2022.

Researchers found that the octopuses' eggs hatched in less than two years — much more quickly than the team had expected. - MBARI

Faster brood times in the octopus garden

With this information, scientists pieced together why the octopus are attracted to the site. Scars and other distinguishing features allowed the scientists to monitor individual octopuses and the development of their broods.

The presence of adult male and female octopuses, developing eggs and octopus hatchlings indicated that the site is used exclusively as a breeding ground and nursery. The team did not observe any intermediate-size individuals or any evidence of feeding.

“We see hatchlings swimming away. We’ve never seen any small animals that suggests that they live right here. So they swim off somewhere and they start their life,” Barry said.

The study found that the eggs hatched in less than two years — much more quickly than the team had expected. One deep-sea octopus species broods its eggs for four and a half years. Away from the hydrothermal vents in the near-freezing temperatures of the deep sea, egg-brooding periods are thought to last for several years.

“Although it’s risky to brood in this warm water — you may be cooking your eggs, you may have abnormalities — the shorter brood period is where the advantage comes in and that seems to play out perfectly for them because we see what looks to be fairly high hatch rates,” he said.

Scientists believe the site off the coast of Monterey, California, is used exclusively as a breeding ground and nursery. - MBARI

Unraveling mysteries of the octopus life cycle

The researchers believe warmth from thermal springs increased the metabolism of female octopuses and their eggs, reducing the time required for incubation and making it less likely that the eggs are eaten by predators. However, it’s not clear whether this warmth is absolutely necessary for this species to reproduce and nest or something they simply like to seek out.

The researchers will continue to study the site at Davidson Mount and want to look for places with similar geology that could host other octopus gardens, although deep-sea exploration is very expensive, Barry said.

Octopuses are famously self-sacrificial parents — after laying a clutch of eggs, they quit eating and waste away, typically dying by the time the eggs hatch. Dead octopus and vulnerable hatchlings provide a feast for invertebrates such as sea anemones and sea stars that live side by side with the brooding octopuses.

Researchers have documented a total of four deep-sea octopus gardens to date — two off the coast of Central California on the Davidson Mount and two off the coast of Costa Rica.