AMERIKA

"Already the law:" Federal agency clarifies that abortion leave is covered by workplace protections

Nicole Karlis
Wed, April 17, 2024 

Abortion clinic Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

This week, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) finalized its Pregnant Workers Fairness Act regulations, after being criticized by conservative lawmakers and religious organizations. Part of the update included a clarification that accommodations, like a leave of absence, under the law apply to abortion care.

The EEOC said it received approximately 54,000 comments — “most of which were form or slightly altered form comments from individuals,” the agency said — urging them to exclude abortion from the definition of “pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions.” But abortion-related protections are consistent with Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the EEOC said.

“In the final regulation, the Commission includes abortion in its definition of ‘pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions,’ as proposed in the NPRM and consistent with the Commission’s and courts’ longstanding interpretation of the same phrase in Title VII,” the final rules concluded.

The law applies to all industries and employers with more than 15 employees. While the law passed in December 2022 and went into effect in the summer of 2023, it wasn’t until Monday that the EEOC released its final regulations and made a concentrated effort to clarify abortion care is included.

In the final document, the EEOC further elaborated by stating that the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act is a “workplace anti-discrimination law.” It doesn't mean that taxpayers and funding abortions or require that an employer-sponsored health plan has to cover a procedure. It simply means that, like the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), accommodations — like time off for an abortion procedure or to recover — must be granted, as long as accommodation is reasonable and don't post an undue burden on the employer.

Daphne Delvaux, an employment attorney and founder of The Mamattorney, a platform educating women on their rights at work, told Salon the rule ensures that employees who are pregnant, and might choose to terminate their pregnancy, “are able to continue participating in the workforce," by seeking reasonable accommodations from employers.

Delvaux emphasized that this doesn’t mean it’s “a categorical mandate to provide an abortion leave,” adding that some of the media coverage around the change has been “a bit misleading.”

“The employer has to provide time off for medical needs related to pregnancy and childbirth, of which abortion is one of them,” Delvaux told Salon, adding this was “already the law.”

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In a way, Delvaux said, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act is an extension of the ADA. However, the ADA was “quite restrictive” for pregnant and postpartum workers.

“A lot of the employees wouldn't kind of meet that high bar of what constitutes a disability,”  Delvaux said. “What the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act decided is that pregnancy and postpartum related conditions and limitations fall within accommodation laws.”

For instance, under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, a pregnant worker could have morning sickness and request time off because they feel sick or request the option to work remotely. A pregnant worker can also request time off, or any other reasonable accommodations, for fertility treatments, extreme fatigue, depression, insomnia, pelvic pain and more.

“What's different about the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act is that the law says that if the essential functions of the job can be done later, that they'd have to be temporarily suspended,” she said. “So that in and of itself kind of creates the potential of more leaves of absences. It’s kind of a new revolutionary thing — in the past, employees could ask for accommodations, but only if they could still perform the essential functions of the job.”

Notably, the law provides protections in states where abortion care is nearly banned and in states where people are being forced to travel to access care. For these pregnant workers, Delvaux said she wouldn’t necessarily recommend women explicitly stating they’re getting an abortion to their employers. Instead, she’d recommend saying that the worker experienced infant loss and doesn’t want to discuss it in more detail. This would require revealing the pregnancy in the first place, but that’s how employees can be protected by the law.

“Now, if we want to remove the taboo and stigma on abortion, you can absolutely be bold,” Delvaux said. “It's going to depend on the individual woman and also the workplace setting. And in progressive places, it might even be celebrated.”

Kimberly Inez McGuire, executive director of URGE (Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity), told Salon that time off is one of the biggest barriers people face when trying to access both prenatal and abortion care. The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, McGuire said, is a reminder that “pregnancy care and justice for pregnant people applies both for people who need abortion care and people who are looking to continue their pregnancies.”

“The struggles and the needs of pregnant people, whether they're going to become parents, or whether they need an abortion, are very deeply connected,” McGuire said. “I think it's important to consider legislative solutions and policy solutions that allow people who are pregnant to take time off for a whole range of reasons, whether that's to get an abortion, whether that's to get prenatal care, whether that's because someone has been put on bed rest because they have a high-risk pregnancy.”

Employers must give their workers time off for an abortion or pregnancy care, according to final federal rule

Tami Luhby, CNN
Tue, April 16, 2024 



Most employers must offer “reasonable accommodations” to workers related to pregnancy or childbirth, including providing time off for an abortion, according to a final rule issued Monday by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The rule clarifies the provisions of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which became law last June after Congress passed it as part of a federal government spending package in late 2022. The measures apply to employers with at least 15 workers unless the accommodations would cause “undue hardship” for the employer.

The law provides pregnant and postpartum workers with a variety of protections, including time off for recovery from childbirth, prenatal or postnatal appointments and postpartum depression and accommodations related to seating, light duty, breaks for food, water and restroom needs, breastfeeding and miscarriage. Employers are not required to offer paid time off.

The question of including abortion in the act’s definition of “pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions” sparked a flurry of comments to the commission, with about 54,000 of them urging the commission to exclude abortion and about 40,000 comments asking to include it.

The agency noted in the rule that the law cannot be used to require a job-based health plan to pay for any procedure, including an abortion. It specified that the act is a workplace anti-discrimination law.

“With respect to abortion, the PWFA’s requirements are narrow and will likely concern only a request by a qualified employee for leave from work,” the commission said in a statement.

The final rule clarifies to employers and workers who is covered, what types of limitations and medical conditions are covered and how workers can ask for reasonable accommodations. It also provides many examples of accommodations and encourages employers and workers to communicate early and frequently about the requests.

Advocates have been fighting to improve federal protections for pregnant workers for more than a decade, saying that the Pregnancy Discrimination Act is inadequate and that most pregnancy-related conditions are not considered disabilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The US Chamber of Commerce was among the supporters of the law.

“Today with these final rules, we have achieved a huge step forward for women’s economic security, maternal health, and the economy as a whole,” Dina Bakst, co-president of A Better Balance, a national legal advocacy organization, said in a statement. “The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act is a life-changing protection for pregnant and postpartum workers nationwide, ensuring they aren’t forced off the job or denied the accommodations they need for their health.”

Employers must provide accommodations for abortions, contraception under new rule

Joseph Choi
Tue, April 16, 2024 



The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) implemented a final rule on Monday requiring most employers to provide “reasonable accommodations” for workers experiencing limitations due to pregnancy, childbirth or other related conditions such as choosing to get an abortion.

The final rule implements the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) that was signed into law in 2022 and went into effect last year. It requires covered entities to provide “reasonable accommodations” relating to an employee’s pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions.

The PWFA does not require leave to be paid as part of these accommodations, though an employer can provide paid leave if their policies account for it. These accommodations are required unless providing them causes “undue hardship” on the operation of the business. Employers may cite their religion when seeking an exemption from the rule.

“Under the framework of this final rule, accommodations related to abortion — like all accommodations — remain subject to applicable exceptions and defenses, including both those based on religion and undue hardship,” the final rule states.

The EEOC considers related conditions to include lactation, miscarriage, stillbirth, having or choosing not to have an abortion, preeclampsia, gestational diabetes or HELLP (hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes, low platelet count).

The EEOC provided examples of reasonable accommodations like breaks to eat, drink or use the restroom; a stool to sit on while working; time off for health care appointments; temporary reassignments or suspension of some job duties; and time off to recover from childbirth, miscarriage or other conditions.

The law applies to “public and private employers with 15 or more employees, unions, employment agencies, and the Federal Government.” The final rule will be published on April 19 and will be in effect 60 days after this date.

Employees who believe their employer has violated the PWFA can file charges with the EEOC. Remedies for violations can include lost wages, additional compensation for emotional distress as well as having their attorney fees covered.

“The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act is a win for workers, families, and our economy. It gives pregnant workers clear access to reasonable accommodations that will allow them to keep doing their jobs safely and effectively, free from discrimination and retaliation,” EEOC Chair Charlotte A. Burrows said in a statement.

“It encourages employers and employees to communicate early and often, allowing them to identify and resolve issues in a timely manner.”

New rules for Pregnant Workers Fairness Act include divisive accommodations for abortion

CLAIRE SAVAGE and ALEXANDRA OLSON
Updated Mon, April 15, 2024 

FILE - An exam room is seen inside Planned Parenthood on March 10, 2023, in Fairview Heights, Ill. Workers are entitled to workplace accommodations for abortions and some pregnancy-related conditions under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, according to federal regulations published Monday, April 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

NEW YORK (AP) — Workers are entitled to time off and other job accommodations for abortions — along with pregnancy-related medical conditions like miscarriage, stillbirth and lactation — under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, according to finalized federal regulations published Monday.

The regulations provide guidance for employers and workers on how to implement the law, which passed with robust bipartisan Congressional support in December 2022 but sparked controversy last year when the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission included abortions in its draft rules. The language means that workers can ask for time off to obtain an abortion and recover from the procedure.

The EEOC says its decision to keep the abortion provisions in its final rules, despite criticism from some conservatives, is consistent with its own longstanding interpretation of Title VII, as well as court rulings. The federal agency added that the new law does not obligate employers or employer-sponsored health plans to cover abortion-related costs, and that the type of accommodation that most likely will be sought under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act regarding an abortion is time off to attend a medical appointment or for recovery, which does not have to be paid.

The act requires most employers with 15 or more employees to provide "reasonable accommodations" for a worker’s known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions — including fertility and infertility treatments in some cases — unless the accommodation will cause the employer an undue hardship. The EEOC's regulations will go into effect on June 18.

Labor advocates hailed the new law as especially important for women of color who are most likely to work in low-wage, physically demanding jobs but are often denied accommodations for everything from time off for medical appointments to the ability to sit or stand on the job. Major business groups also supported the law, citing the need for clarity about the accommodations that employers are required to give pregnant workers.

“No one should have to risk their job for their health just because they are pregnant, recovering from childbirth, or dealing with a related medical condition,” said EEOC Chair Charlotte A. Burrows on Monday.

But Republican lawmakers and anti-abortion activists denounced the EEOC’s inclusion of abortion after the agency first released its proposed rule in August for a monthslong public commentary period. Abortion rights proponents, meanwhile, applauded the provision as critical at time when abortion rights have been curtailed in many states following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. The EEOC is composed of three Democratic commissioners and two Republican commissioners.

Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, the lead Republican sponsor of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Law, accused the Biden administration on Monday of "shocking and illegal" disregard of the legislative process to promote a political agenda. The Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal organization, said the Biden administration was trying to “smuggle an abortion mandate” into the law.

But in comments submitted to the EEOC, the American Civil Liberties Union applauded the agency for “recognizing that abortion has for decades been approved under the law as a ‘related medical condition’ to pregnancy that entitles workers to reasonable accommodations, including time off to obtain abortion care.”

The EEOC said it had received 54,000 comments urging the commission to exclude abortion from its definition of medical condition related to pregnancy, but it also received 40,000 comments supporting its inclusion. While the commission said it understood that both sides were expressing “sincere, deeply held convictions,” it cited numerous federal cases that it said supported its interpretation that abortion is a pregnancy-related condition deserving of protection.

The new rules include extensive details on the types of accommodations that pregnant workers can request, from temporary exemption from jobs duties like heavy lifting to considerations for morning sickness.

Women's right advocates had campaigned for years for the law, arguing that the 1978 Pregnancy Discrimination Act offered inadequate protection for pregnant workers. The 1978 law, which amended Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, prohibited discrimination on the basis of pregnancy and marked a major shift for gender equality at time when pregnant women were routinely denied or pushed out of jobs.

But in order to receive workplace accommodations, pregnant women had to demonstrate that co-workers had received similar benefits for comparable needs, since the act stated only that pregnant workers must be treated similarly to other employees, not that they deserved special consideration. That put a burden of proof that many women found impossible to meet, forcing them to work in unsafe conditions or quit their jobs, according to A Better Balance, one of the most vocal advocates for the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act.

The new law makes clear that that pregnant workers are entitled to accommodations to keep doing their jobs, mirroring the process for workers with disabilities. It places the burden on employers to prove “undue hardship” if they deny requests for modifications.

The EEOC typically handles between 2,000 and 4,000 pregnancy discrimination charges a year, many involving denial of workplace accommodations. A study conducted by A Better Balance found that in two-thirds of pregnancy discrimination cases that followed the 2015 Supreme Court ruling, courts determined the employers were allowed to deny accommodations under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act.

In a prepared statement, A Better Balance Co-President Dina Bakst applauded the EEOC “for issuing robust final regulations that appropriately recognize the broad scope of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act.”

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The Associated Press’ women in the workforce and state government coverage receives financial support from Pivotal Ventures. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

US employers must accommodate abortions, birth control, agency says

Mon, April 15, 2024 


By Daniel Wiessner

(Reuters) - U.S. employers' obligation to accommodate workers' pregnancies also extends to abortions and the use of contraception, the U.S. agency that enforces workplace discrimination laws said on Monday.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) unveiled a rule to implement the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, a law that Congress passed with bipartisan support and the backing of major business groups in 2022.

The law requires employers to alter job duties or give time off to workers with "limitations related to ... pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions."

The commission's rule, which was proposed last year, has drawn criticism from some Republicans and religious groups who say the law's protections should not extend to workers who choose to have abortions or take birth control, or that if it does, religious employers should be eligible for an exemption.

A group of Republicans in Congress suggested in comments to the EEOC that the lack of a religious exemption could form the basis of a legal challenge to the rule.

Rep. Virginia Foxx, a Republican from North Carolina, said on Monday the EEOC exceeded its authority by adopting the rule.

"The term ‘abortion’ is not once mentioned in the law," Foxx said in a statement. "Instead of following congressional intent, the Biden administration is using the regulatory process to advance radical policy goals."

The EEOC's five members are appointed by the president, but the agency functions independently from the White House.

The rule will be formally published on Friday and will take effect 60 days later.

The 2022 law requires U.S. employers with 15 or more employees to provide reasonable accommodations to pregnant workers. Previously, federal law only required those accommodations if employers also gave them to employees with injuries or medical conditions.

The EEOC rule's list of accommodations that workers may seek includes limits on heavy lifting, part-time work schedules, additional breaks to drink water and use restrooms, modified equipment and uniforms, seating, remote work, and paid or unpaid leave.

Workers may also ask to be relieved of certain essential functions of their jobs, as long as they can resume performing them after a pregnancy, the EEOC said.

Business groups and other critics of the rule have said that providing accommodations such as seating and additional breaks sounds simple, but can be impractical for many jobs and workplaces.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other groups told the EEOC last year that whether specific accommodations are appropriate should be considered on a case-by-case basis. And once temporary accommodations are granted to pregnant workers, employers should be permitted to periodically request documentation showing that they are still necessary, the groups said.

Many worker advocacy groups supported the regulations. A Better Balance, which advocates for work-life balance measures, said the broad EEOC rule would remove various obstacles to women staying in the workforce when they are pregnant and after they give birth.

"Today with these final rules, we have achieved a huge step forward for women’s economic security, maternal health, and the economy as a whole," the group's co-president, Dina Bakst, said in a statement.

In February, a Texas federal judge agreed with the Republican-led state that the pregnancy bias law was invalid because it was included in a $1.7 trillion government funding bill that was not properly passed.

The judge blocked the EEOC from enforcing the rule against the state in its role as an employer. The commission in a March filing said it would comply with the ruling and did not indicate whether it would appeal.

(Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Josie Kao)

13-foot crocodile pops out dozens of eggs with shocked onlookers feet away in Florida

Mark Price
Mon, April 15, 2024 
A mama crocodile did something extraordinary when she stopped 10 feet from a group of people at a Florida attraction and started dropping dozens of eggs in the grass, officials say.

It’s rare to see an American crocodile lay eggs, but this was even more unusual because of the lack of a nest, Gatorama staff told McClatchy News.

The 13-foot crocodile scattered her eggs as if it were an Easter Egg hunt, park co-owner Patty Register said.

It’s rare enough for anyone to see a crocodile laying her eggs, but this was even more unusual due to the lack of a nest, according to staff at the Gatorama reptile farm.

It happened around 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, April 13, at the 15-acre park in Palmdale, about a 130-mile drive northwest from Miami.

“Some guests came to the staff and said: ‘We think this (crocodile) is laying eggs.’ Sure enough, she was still doing it when staff got there,” Register said in a phone interview.

“I’m guessing 20 to 30 people were watching something that is extremely rare. We counted 41 eggs, but three were crushed. Thirty-eight were beautiful, and we have them in incubation.”

It remains a mystery why the crocodile, named Ulele, chose not to dig an earthen nest, which is the norm. She has been at Gatorama since 1968, and has produced multiple broods in that time, Register said.

Gatorama staff collected 38 viable eggs, which are now in an incubator. They may hatch in 90 days, officials said.

“So we know it was not due to her being inexperienced,” she said. “This is something that happens occasionally. ... Sometimes a crocodile will abort their eggs and shed them, perhaps because they believe something is wrong with the eggs.”

Park staff beg to differ, however, and believe the 38 surviving eggs are viable and could hatch in 90 days, she said.

The eggs were found on the bank of a 4-acre breeding pond that is home to 16 to 20 crocodiles. Park guests can view the spot from the safety of a bridge, Register said.

American crocodiles were once on the verge of extinction, due mostly to habitat loss, but conservation efforts in Florida helped the population grow from a few hundred to about 2,000 adults, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission reports. Most are found at the southern tip of Florida.

Gatorama “is home to the largest breeding colony of Acutus (American) crocodiles in the country,” the park says. There are about 200 American crocodiles at the site, some more than 16 feet long.

The farm is also a destination for “nuisance” crocodiles that had to be removed due to living too close to humans, Register said.

Britishvolt’s gigafactory site sold off in electric car blow

Chris Price
Mon, Apr 15, 2024, 

The site that had been earmarked for the Britishvolt gigafactory has been bought by Blackstone - Owen Humphreys/PA Wire

US private equity investors have bought the site of what had been hoped would become Britain’s first electric car battery gigafactory in a blow to Britain’s net zero ambitions.

Land in Cambois near Blyth in Northumberland had been expected to become the home of the £3.8bn Britishvolt factory before the company fell into administration last year.

However, Northumberland County Council revealed it has sold the site to Blackstone, which plans to turn the site into a data centre.

Britishvolt, which was backed by mining giant Glencore, collapsed with the loss of more than 200 jobs and had been in line for £100m in funding from the Government via its Automotive Transformation Fund.

An Australian company, Recharge Industries, had promised to buy the site before itself being hit with a winding up petition.

The Blackstone deal, for an undisclosed sum, comes after what receivers at Begbies Traynor Group described as a “complex” sales process for the 235-acre site.

Northumberland County Council leader Cllr Glen Sanderson said Blackstone’s plans would lead to an investment of up to £10bn and support as many as 4,300 jobs.

He said: “Driving growth and jobs is a key priority for this Council. Next week, Cabinet will consider this really unique opportunity for Northumberland which offers a huge boost to the regeneration and renaissance of the local area.”

Biden’s Climate Law Catalyzed Investment, But Projects Still Face Snags

Jennifer A Dlouhy, Will Wade and Josh Saul
Tue, April 16, 2024 

(Bloomberg) -- President Joe Biden’s landmark climate law has mobilized hundreds of billions of dollars in federal and private capital for clean energy. Yet, panelists at BloombergNEF’s summit in New York said money alone won’t supercharge the transition from fossil fuels.

While the US spent $303 billion on the energy transition last year — thanks in part to generous tax credits and incentives in Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act — the country has failed to reach its full decarbonization potential. Attendees pointed to permitting bottlenecks, connection delays and trade issues as hindrances slowing the greening of electric power grids.

“You can throw all the money you want in the world, but if you can’t get the steel in the ground, that’s an issue,” said Pedro Pizarro, chief executive officer of California utility giant Edison International, during a panel discussion Tuesday.

Here’s what attendees said would help speed decarbonization and support US clean tech manufacturing on day one of the annual BNEF Summit.

Permitting reform

Executives at the two-day summit were enthusiastic about carbon-cutting technologies’ growth even as they agreed that the process to permit remains a major bottleneck. Lining up all the paperwork for a big transmission project often takes 12 years, far longer than the three years it typically takes to build it.

There are talks in Washington, DC, to streamline the permitting process. Pizarro suggested that regulators avoid duplicating some reviews and added that agencies need more resources to pore through voluminous stacks of applications.

Realizing solar’s potential

There’s a similar dynamic at play with US solar manufacturing: Economic, policy and other headwinds are limiting the reach of the IRA’s subsidies.

While the law is driving “massive” plans to expand domestic solar making, there’s a gap between new factory announcements and what’s actually being built, said Art Fletcher, the head of domestic content for Invenergy LLC. The firm is a big clean-power developer that just started producing panels in a joint venture with Longi Green Energy Technology Co. in Ohio.

“It’s pretty darn hard to build a factory and to make it competitive with everything that’s going on,” he said.

Read more: Biden Won’t Let Unfair Trade Undercut US Clean Energy, Podesta Says

The IRA has effectively introduced a contradiction to the US solar industry. On the one hand, it has unleashed more investments in the solar supply chain over the last two years than the previous 20, said Scott Moskowitz, senior director of market strategy and industry relations for QCells North America. But on the other, manufacturers are confronting demand challenges, including a shrinking domestic residential market and high interest rates that have slowed projects big and small.

Uncertainty around trade and federal policy can undermine investments in the supply chain by heightening borrowing costs and deterring investment, said Nigel Cockroft, JinkoSolar’s US general manager. Solar as a fuel may be free, “but the plants have to be built with borrowed money” — and “that money has competition.”

A rebound for offshore wind

After a challenging year of inflation and canceled offshore wind projects, there are signs the US sector is adjusting to a new normal.

“This was a black swan event — or possibly multiple black swan events — on top of each other,” Doreen Harris, head of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, said of the previous year.

In an effort to ensure it doesn’t see a repeat of last year’s canceled projects, Orsted has slowed its developments, according to David Hardy, its Americas head. The Danish company is now taking more time before it makes final investment decisions on projects to try and incorporate inflation and supply chain kinks into its planning. Previously, the company had rushed forward and invested heavily because federal and state governments and set ambitious targets for offshore wind.

“Sometimes when you're a bold mover it works out, and sometimes it doesn't,” Hardy said.

Scaling next-gen clean technologies

The IRA has also helped spur interest in technologies such as green hydrogen and carbon capture. Yet these moonshot technologies have yet to prove useful at a meaningful scale.

For startups to thrive, they will need to take stock of product-market fit. They will have to access cheap or waste feedstock as well as strategic locations. And they will need binding offtake agreements, according to Claire Curry, BNEF’s head of technology, industry and innovation.

--With assistance from Michelle Ma.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

‘Unprecedented’ energy record shows future of clean power, expert says

Anthony Cuthbertson
Tue, April 16, 2024 

SOLAR FRYER OF BIRDS AND BATS



California has hit a new renewables record after exceeding 100 per cent of grid demand with clean energy sources for 30 of the past 38 days.

New data from California Independent System Operator (CAISO) shows that supply from geothermal, hydro, solar and wind exceeded demand for between 0.25-6 hours per day for more than three quarters of days since the start of March.

It is the first time that the US state has succeeded in drawing all of its electricity needs from wind-water-solar (WWS) sources for such a sustained period of time.


“This is unprecedented in California’s history,” Mark Z. Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University who first shared the figures, told The Independent.

“In previous years, WWS supply exceeded demand occasionally on one weekend day, but never two days in a row and never during the week, and never to the magnitude that is now, up to 122 per cent of demand.”


Electricity production from renewables was so strong that not even a partial solar eclipse interrupted the run earlier this month.

As the fifth largest economy in the world, California is the largest state to see such success, though it only ranked 12th in the US last year for producing WWS electricity relative to consumption.

Professor Jacobson noted that the trend is not unique to California, with South Dakota, North Dakota, Iowa, Kansas, Mained, Montana, New Mexico, Okleahona, Oregon, Washington State and Wyoming all producing over 56 per cent of their electricity from renewable sources in 2023.

“This is getting so easy, it’s almost boring,” Professor Jacobson said. “Just need offshore wind and more solar and batteries to get to 100 per cent 24/7.”

California plans to add 60 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2035 in order to transition away from polluting energy sources over the next decade.

The plan was approved by state energy regulators in February, who claimed it will reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 25 million metric tons.

“This is a critical component of California’s climate change strategy,” said Alice Reynolds, president of California Public Utilities Commission.

Recently published research from Professor Jacobson shows that five countries are already meeting all of their energy needs from renewable sources – Albania, Bhutan, Nepal and Paraguay – while a further nine produce more than 90 per cent of their energy from renewables.

In the UK, it was reported in March that renewable energy overtook gas for the first time this winter, while a January report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) revealed that the world added 50 per cent more renewable energy in 2023 than 2022.

Seven countries now generate 100% of their electricity from renewable energy

Anthony Cuthbertson
Tue, April 16, 2024 


Nearly 50 countries now generate more than 50 per cent of their electricity from renewable energy sources (The Independent)


Seven countries now generate nearly all of their electricity from renewable energy sources, according to newly compiled figures.

Albania, Bhutan, Nepal, Paraguay, Iceland, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo produced more than 99.7 per cent of the electricity they consumed using geothermal, hydro, solar or wind power.

Data from the International Energy Agency (IEA) and International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) also revealed that a further 40 countries generated at least 50 per cent of the electricity they consumed from renewable energy technologies in 2021 and 2022 – including 11 European countries.

“We don’t need miracle technologies,” said Stanford University Professor Mark Jacobson, who published the data.

“We need to stop emissions by electrifying everything and providing the electricity with Wind, Water and Solar (WWS), which includes onshore wind, solar photovoltaics, concentrated solar power, geothermal electricity, small hydroelectricity, and large hydroelectricity.”

Professor Jacobson also noted that other countries like Germany were also capable of running off 100 per cent renewable-generated electricity for short periods of time.

Figures released by the IEA in January show that the UK generated 41.5 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources in 2022 – up 10.5 per cent from the year before.

In Scotland, renewable energy technologies generated the equivalent of 113 per cent of the country’s overall electricity consumption in 2022.

“These record-breaking figures are a major milestone on Scotland’s journey to net-zero, clearly demonstrating the enormous potential of our world-class renewable energy resources,” Claire Mack, chief executive of Scottish Renewables, said at the time.

While Scotland’s electricity generation was dominated by wind power, researchers predict that solar will come to dominate global electricity supplies over the coming decades.

There has been significant progress in recent years with improving efficiency rates for solar cells, primarily boosted by the so-called ‘miracle material’ perovskite.

Commercial costs have also fallen, which led scientists at the University of Exeter and University College London to claim last year that solar energy has reached an “irreversible tipping point” that will see it become the world’s main source of energy by 2050.

Their 2023 paper, published in the journal Nature Communications, found that technological and economic advances meant the transition to clean energy is not just reachable, but inevitable.

“Due to technological trajectories set in motion by past policy, a global irreversible solar tipping point may have passed where solar energy gradually comes to dominate global electricity markets, without any further climate policies,” the researchers wrote in the study.

“Solar energy is the most widely available energy resource on Earth, and its economic attractiveness is improving fast in a cycle of increasing investments.”

There’s a volcano in Antarctica spewing $6,000 worth of gold dust per day — but you can’t get there

Alex Mitchell
Tue, April 16, 2024 

A volcano at the Earth's southern tip has a special surprise. It ejects pricey gold dust.


That’s so metal.

An active volcanic mountain in the frigid Antarctic is blowing a small fortune’s worth of gold into the atmosphere every day, IFL Science reported — now, all you have to do is get there.

Mount Erebus, which joins Deception Island as the only two of 138 active volcanoes in Antarctica, is known for expelling pockets of gas containing roughly 80 grams of crystallized gold daily, worth about $6,000, according to experts.

Mount Erebus is known for shooting out steamy gold particles. Planet Observer/UIG/Shutterstock


The presence of the pricey dust has been recorded as far as 621 miles away from the planet’s southernmost lava-spewer, which tops out at 12,448 feet.

But, the precious metal is just one of many things spewing out of Erebus, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Earth Observatory.

“It regularly emits plumes of gas and steam, and occasionally spits out rock (bombs),” according to NASA.

The gaseous and solid contents are projected through strombolian eruptions — a moderate rate of spewing intensity that sadly has zero to do with a certain doughy Italian food.

“Erebus…has been continuously erupting since at least 1972,” Conor Bacon of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University in New York, told Live Science.

Mount Erebus has been active for over 50 years.

He added that Erebus is also known for containing a “lava lake” at one of its summit craters — brought on by molten material at its surface level.

“These are actually quite rare, as it requires some very specific conditions to be met to ensure the surface never freezes over.”

However, there is still much to be understood about the volcanic format in Antarctica — and what event, cataclysmic or otherwise, might activate the other hundred-plus volcanoes sitting chilly.

Mount Erebus is one of two active Antarctic volcanoes. NASA Earth/ZUMA Press Wire

Geographic isolation is a key factor in a lack of consistent research.

Both Erebus and Deception Island only “have a small number of permanent monitoring instruments” that “primarily consist of seismometers to detect seismic activity associated with volcanic unrest,” per Bacon.

“From time to time, researchers will deploy more extensive networks of instruments to conduct specific studies, but this naturally comes with a huge number of logistical challenges when compared to the many, far more accessible, volcanoes elsewhere in the world.”

Gold is sniffing out monetary and geopolitical dystopia

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Tue, Apr 16, 2024,

china gold markets

A powerful force is stalking the world’s gold market. It is operating in the shadows.

None of the normal footprints are visible on the London bullion market or the Chicago Mercantile. Retail goldbugs have not been buyers: ETF gold funds have been shrinking since December. The crowd is piling into the Bitcoin scam instead.

Yet gold has smashed through a four-year barrier around $2,000 an ounce, rising in parabolic fashion since mid-February, and hitting an all-time high of $2,431 on April 11. Is somebody preparing for an escalation of the shadow Third World War?


“It is not a Western institution behind this. It is a massive player with very deep pockets. I have never seen this kind of buying before,” said Ross Norman, a veteran gold trader and now chief executive of Metals Daily.

Gold has been ratcheting up fresh records against the headwinds of a strong dollar, a 70 point jump in 10-year US Treasury yields, and hawkish talk from the Federal Reserve. This mix would normally spell trouble for gold.

Whoever it is – or they are – seems insensitive to cost. Central banks do not behave like this. “They buy on the London benchmark and they don’t chase the price,” said Mr Norman. This rally is happening off books in the OTC market.

Yes, China’s central bank has been adding to its declared gold reserves for 17 consecutive months, part of the gradual portfolio shift away from US Treasuries and European bonds by the Global South.

Dollar weaponisation since the war in Ukraine has unnerved every country aligned with the authoritarian axis of China and Russia. None can feel safe parking money in Western securities after Russia’s foreign reserves were frozen.

Yet the scale is modest. The World Gold Council said central banks bought a net 18 tonnes in February: 12 in China, six in Kazakhstan and India, four in Turkey, partly offset by Russian sales. This hardly moves the needle.

The Chinese people certainly have been buying gold, creating traffic jams at the Shuibei jewellery hub. Precious metal is the only refuge from the property crash and the slump on the Shanghai bourse. Tightening capital controls make it hard to smuggle serious sums abroad.

But this alone cannot account for the price surge, either. Mr Norman says the gold flow to Asia has been within normal bounds.

So let me take two stabs at this mystery, one geopolitical and one financial. It has been clear for three years that Russia, China and Iran are operating in collusion, each feeding opportunistically on each other. All three have fostered belligerent hyper-nationalism as a means of regime survival, and all aim to press their advantage against a fatally complacent West before the window of opportunity closes.

This menace on three fronts has reached a dangerous juncture. None of the major democracies have put their economies on a war-time footing despite the obvious threat.

The West has dropped the ball on Ukraine – or worse, it is preventing Ukraine from hitting Russian oil facilities – and has therefore left the door wide open for a knock-out blow by the Kremlin this summer.

Iran has been emboldened by Putin’s military comeback. It is also flush with money. Joe Biden is so worried about rising petrol prices that he has turned a blind eye to sanctions busting, letting Iran sell as much crude as it wants. This has enabled Tehran to advance its pawns in the Middle East, and now to risk a direct missile strike against Israel.

The third shoe has yet to drop but China knows that the West has run down its stock of military kit trying to contain these other two crises. Xi Jinping may never have a better moment to tighten the noose on Taiwan with a naval and air blockade, gaining a stranglehold over the West’s supply of advanced semiconductors that can then be used as a bargaining chip. How would the democracies respond to this?

There is a strong suspicion among gold experts that China is behind the surge in buying, building up a war-fighting bullion chest through state-controlled banks and proxies. But others, too, can see that we are living through a fundamental convulsion of the global order, and that the dollarised financial system will not be the same at the end of it. Gold is the hedge against dystopia.

However, there is a parallel explanation. Covid finally broke our spendthrift governments. The talk in hedge fund land is that some big beasts are taking bets against “fiscal dominance” across the West.

It is a collective judgment that too many countries have pushed public debt beyond 100pc of GDP and beyond the point of no return under prevailing economic ideologies and political regimes. Budget deficits have broken out of historical ranges and are running at structurally untenable levels for this stage of the cycle.

Central banks will bottle it – under this scenario – in order to mop up issuance of treasury bonds. They will let inflation run hot to help states whittle down debts by stealth default. You might argue that this is what they already did by letting rip with extreme money creation during the pandemic.

The Bank of Japan is refusing to raise rates above zero or halt bond purchases even though core inflation is 2.8pc and the Rengo wage round is running at 5.2pc. This is what a debt trap looks like. With a debt-to-GDP ratio above 260pc, Japan cannot return to sound money without risking a fiscal crisis.

Olivier Blanchard, global debt guru and former IMF chief economist, once told me how this would unfold by the mid-2020s. “One day the BoJ may get a call from the finance ministry saying please think about us – it is a life or death question – and keep rates at zero for a bit longer,” he said.

The European Central Bank is also in a debt trap. It continued to buy buckets of Club Med bonds even when inflation was over 10pc. This was patently a fiscal rescue for semi-solvent states. The ECB has backed off for now but will be forced to shield Italy again with fiscal transfers disguised as QE in the next downturn.

The Fed has largely monetised the Trump-Biden jumbo deficits. It now faces an invidious choice: either it stays the course against inflation, at the risk of a US funding crisis, a commercial property/banking crisis, and recession, all ending in a return to QE and fiscal dominance; or it cuts rates hard and fast before inflation is under control, also ending in fiscal dominance. Is gold sniffing this out?

Of course, the gold spike may be nothing more than wolf pack speculation by funds orchestrating a squeeze on bullion shorts through the options market, knowing that this sets off a self-fueling feedback loop. If so, the rally will short-circuit soon enough.

My bet is that a big animal with a Chinese accent is bracing for geopolitical or monetary disorder on a traumatic scale.

UN appeals for $2.8 billion to help 3 million Palestinians in desperate need of food and other aid

EDITH M. LEDERER
Tue, April 16, 2024 

FILE - Palestinians line up for a meal in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Dec. 21, 2023. The United Nations appealed for $2.8 billion on Tuesday, April 17, 2024, to provide desperately needed aid to 3 million Palestinians, stressing that tackling looming famine in war-torn Gaza requires not only food but sanitation, water and health facilities.

 (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair, File)


UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations appealed for $2.8 billion on Tuesday to provide desperately needed aid to 3 million Palestinians, stressing that tackling looming famine in war-torn Gaza requires not only food but sanitation, water and health facilities.

Andrea De Domenico, the head of the U.N. humanitarian office for Gaza and the West Bank, told reporters that “massive operations” are required to restore those services and meet minimum standards — and this can’t be done during military operations.

He pointed to the destruction of hospitals, water and sanitation facilities, homes, roads and schools, adding that “there is not a single university that is standing in Gaza.”


De Domenico said Israel's recently-ended second major military operation at Shifa Hospital, Gaza's largest medical facility, was so destructive the facility has been forced to shut down. As an example, he questioned what the military objective was in shooting an MRI scanner that examines parts of the body and can detect cancers.

He said his team has been dealing with “a scene of terror” at the hospital, with U.N. and Palestinian colleagues helping people try to recognize family members from shoes or clothes on “the remnants of corpses.”

Israel promised to open more border crossings into Gaza and increase the flow of aid into Gaza after its drone strikes killed seven aid workers from the World Central Kitchen who were delivering food into the territory on April 1.

The killings were condemned by Israel’s closest allies and heightened criticism of Israel’s conduct in the 6-month-old war with Hamas, sparked by the extremist group's surprise attack in southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people and led some 250 others to be taken hostage. The Israeli offensive in Gaza aimed at destroying Hamas has caused widespread devastation and killed over 33,800 people, according to local health officials.

De Domenico said there are signs of Israel’s “good intention” to get more humanitarian assistance into Gaza, citing the opening of a crossing to the north, which faces the most serious threat of famine, and the opening of bakeries there.

But the U.N. keeps pushing Israel to do more, he said.

De Domenico pointed to Israeli denials and delays on U.N. requests for aid convoys to enter Gaza.

He said 41% of U.N. requests that required going through Israeli checkpoints were denied during the week from April 6-12, and last week a convoy from the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF and the U.N. World Food Program was caught in crossfire in an area that was supposed to be safe.

De Domenico said convoys often spend hours at checkpoints and are only cleared in the afternoon, too late to make deliveries and return safely in daylight hours. He said the Israelis know this is how the U.N. operates, and delays allow them to say “we’re not blindly denying you” while controlling what happens.

“We continue to engage with them and our objective is really to solve the issue and deliver aid,” he said.

According to the international community’s authority on determining the severity of hunger crises, famine is imminent in northern Gaza where 70% of people are experiencing catastrophic hunger. And its recent report warned that escalating the war could push half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people to the brink of starvation.

De Domenico said the U.N. appeal was scaled back from $4 billion because of difficulties in getting aid into Gaza — and most importantly getting it to the people who need it most.

He said 90% of the $2.8 billion being sought for the rest of the year is for Gaza and 10% is for the West Bank, which has seen an upsurge in violence and settler attacks.

UN says it still faces obstacles in bid to fend off famine in Gaza

Michelle Nichols
Tue, April 16, 2024 

FILE PHOTO: Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, shelter in a tent camp, in Rafah


By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations is still struggling to prevent famine in the Gaza Strip and while there had been some improvement in coordination with Israel, aid deliveries in the enclave still faced difficulties, a senior U.N. aid official said on Tuesday.

Andrea De Domenico, head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said aid deliveries within Gaza were facing significant checkpoint delays and that last week 41% of U.N. requests to deliver aid to northern Gaza were denied.

"We're dealing with this dance where we do one step forward, two steps backward, or two steps forward, one step backward, which leaves us basically always at the same point," De Domenico told reporters.

"For every new opportunity that we've been given, we will find yet another challenge to deal with," he said. "So it's really, really difficult for us to scale up to where we would like to be."

The U.N. has long complained of obstacles to getting aid in and distributing it throughout Gaza. But global outrage at the humanitarian crisis in the enclave of 2.3 million people escalated after Israeli airstrikes on April 1 killed World Central Kitchen aid workers.

Israel has since approved reopening the Erez crossing into northern Gaza and temporary use of Ashdod port in southern Israel after U.S. President Joe Biden demanded steps to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, saying conditions could be placed on U.S. support for Israel if it did not act.

"There has been a steady increase of the number of trucks that have entered," said De Domenico, adding that the U.N. did not know how many private aid deliveries Israel had allowed into northern Gaza. But he said the focus also needed to be on improving aid access within Gaza.

"The problem is it's not just about food. The problem is that famine is much more complex ... it's much bigger than simply bringing in flour," he said. "Water, sanitation and health are fundamental to curb famine."

U.S. officials have noted steady progress in the amount of aid that goes into Gaza, the U.S. State Department said on Tuesday, but it was still not at the desired level and Washington was working to improve that.

Israel is retaliating against Hamas in Gaza over a deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant group, saying they killed some 1,200 people and took more than 250 people hostage. Gaza health authorities say Israel has killed more than 33,000 people since.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols at United Nations; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

BAD BAD BAYER

Weedkiller manufacturer seeks lawmakers' help to squelch claims it failed to warn about cancer

A soybean field is sprayed in Iowa, July 11, 2013. The maker of a popular weedkiller is turning to lawmakers in key states to try to squelch legal claims that it failed to warn about cancer risks

. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)

HANNAH FINGERHUT and DAVID A. LIEB
Updated Tue, Apr 16, 2024

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Stung by paying billions of dollars for settlements and trials, chemical giant Bayer has been lobbying lawmakers in three states to pass bills providing it a legal shield from lawsuits that claim its popular weedkiller Roundup causes cancer.

Nearly identical bills introduced in Iowa, Missouri and Idaho this year — with wording supplied by Bayer — would protect pesticide companies from claims they failed to warn that their product causes cancer, if their labels otherwise complied with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s regulations.


But legal experts warn the legislation could have broader consequences — extending to any product liability claim or, in Iowa’s case, providing immunity from lawsuits of any kind. Critics say it could spread nationwide.

"It’s just not good government to give a company immunity for things that they’re not telling their consumers,” said Matt Clement, a Jefferson City, Missouri, attorney who represents people suing Bayer. “If they’re successful in getting this passed in Missouri, I think they’ll be trying to do this all over the country.”

Bayer described the legislation as one strategy to address the “headwinds” it faces. About 167,000 legal claims against Bayer assert Roundup causes a cancer called non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which Bayer disputes. The company has won some cases, settled many others but also has suffered several losses in which juries awarded huge initial judgments. It has paid about $10 billion while thousands of claims linger in court.

Though some studies associate Roundup's key ingredient with cancer, the EPA has regularly concluded it is not likely to be carcinogenic to humans when used as directed.

The costs of “defending a safe, approved product” are unsustainable, said Jess Christiansen, head of communications for Bayer's crop science division.

The legislation was introduced in targeted states pivotal to Bayer's Roundup operations and is at a different stage in each. It passed the Iowa Senate, is awaiting debate in the Missouri House and was defeated in Idaho, where this year's legislative session ended.

Farmers overwhelmingly rely on Roundup, which was introduced 50 years ago as a more efficient way to control weeds and reduce tilling and soil erosion. For crops like corn, soybeans and cotton, it’s designed to work with genetically modified seeds that resist Roundup’s deadly effect.

Missouri state Rep. Dane Diehl, a farmer who worked with Bayer to sponsor the legislation, cited concerns that costly lawsuits could force Bayer to pull Roundup from the U.S. market, leaving farmers to depend on alternative chemicals from China.

“This product, ultimately, is a tool that we need," said Diehl, a Republican.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, said in an email the legislation maintains the integrity of the regulatory process and, without it, “Iowa risks losing hundreds of jobs” in Muscatine, an eastern Iowa city where Roundup is mostly produced.

The Associated Press is seeking public records on Bayer’s communications with governor's offices in Iowa, Missouri and Idaho.

Bayer, like other companies, hires lobbyists in states to advocate for its interests. The company backs this legislation in the states where “we have a big, direct economic impact,” Christiansen said.

Roundup’s key ingredient, glyphosate, is derived from phosphate mined in Idaho. And St. Louis is the headquarters of its North America crop science division, acquired in its 2018 purchase of Monsanto. Because of that, many of the lawsuits are filed in Missouri.

The five lobbyists registered for Bayer in Iowa and three in Idaho is largely consistent with recent years, but the number working in Missouri this year ballooned from four to nine. Lobbyist expenditures exceeded $8,000 in Idaho this year; similar information was not available in Iowa or Missouri.

Led by Bayer, a coalition of agricultural organizations called Modern Ag Alliance also is spending tens of thousands of dollars on radio and print advertisements claiming that trial lawyers and litigation threaten the availability of glyphosate.

On its website, the group asserts that at risk are 500 jobs connected to glyphosate production in Iowa, and 800 jobs in Idaho.

Bayer stopped short of threatening closures. The Iowa facilities, including in Muscatine, “are very critical facilities to our business, so we'll remain at some sort of support level,” Christiansen said.

At issue in the lawsuits and legislation is how Bayer – and any other pesticide company — communicates with consumers about the safety of its products.

Companies are required to register products with the EPA, which evaluates — and then reevaluates every 15 years — a pesticide and its label. The EPA reiterated in 2020 that glyphosate used as directed posed no health risks to humans. But a federal appeals court panel in 2022 ruled that decision “was not supported by substantial evidence” and ordered the EPA to review further.

The debate over glyphosate escalated when a 2015 report by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organization, said it's “probably carcinogenic to humans" based on “limited” evidence of cancer in people and “sufficient” evidence in study animals.

Based on that international report, California sought to add a cancer warning label to products containing glyphosate. But a federal appeals court ruled against California last November, concluding such a warning wasn't factual.

Christiansen emphasized that many regulatory agencies worldwide agree with the EPA and insisted Bayer has to stick to EPA labeling to ensure it isn't providing false or misleading information. She added that the company is transparent in the information it does provide.

Critics of the legislation aren't convinced, citing examples such as opioids and asbestos that had been deemed safe for use as directed — until they weren't.

There also are concerns that the legislation could stifle any product liability claim since most rely on the argument that a company failed to warn, said Andrew Mertens, executive director of the Iowa Association for Justice, an organization for trial lawyers.

Jonathan Cardi, a product liability and torts expert at Wake Forest University School of Law, also said a strict reading of the Iowa legislation extends beyond liability claims, and “the way it’s drafted makes it interpretable to mean nobody could bring any suit.”

In lobbying lawmakers and in speaking with the AP, Bayer representatives disputed that the legislation would cut off other legal actions. Several legal experts said the legislation is unlikely to affect the 18,000 lawsuits already pending in Missouri’s capital of Jefferson City, and wouldn’t prevent claims in states that don’t adopt similar legislation.

In Idaho, the Republican-led Senate narrowly defeated the bill amid concerns about relying on federal agencies' safety standards and limiting the ability of harmed individuals to sue.

John Gilbert, who farms in Iowa Falls, Iowa, with limited use of Roundup, called Republicans hypocritical for attempting to protect corporate interests after campaigning on standing up for Iowans.

The bill “invites a lot of reckless disregard," said Gilbert, who is on the board for the Iowa Farmers Union. “No amount of perfume’s gonna make it anything but a skunk."

___

Lieb reported from Jefferson City, Missouri.

 

\

Florida joins Texas in banning local heat protections for outdoor workers

Samantha Neely and Anthony Robledo, 

USA TODAY NETWORK
Mon, April 15, 2024

Florida will become the second state to stop local governments from requiring heat protection for outdoor workers after Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed House Bill 433.

The law, which DeSantis signed last week, goes into effect on July 1 and establishes multiple restrictions for city and county governments, including the ability to set heat exposure requirements not already required under state or federal law.

Republican Rep. Tiffany Esposito of Fort Myers, who sponsored the House version of the bill, told reporters that her husband has worked in South Florida’s construction sector for two decades and that she knows the industry takes worker safety seriously.


"This is very much a people-centric bill,” Esposito said. “If we want to talk about Floridians thriving, they do that by having good job opportunities. And if you want to talk about health and wellness, and you want to talk about how we can make sure that all Floridians are healthy, you do that by making sure that they have a good job. And in order to provide good jobs, we need to not put businesses out of business."

Around two million people in Florida work in outdoor jobs, from construction to agriculture, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists. On average, the state's summer can reach up to 95 degrees, with the humidity and blazing sun making it feel well over 100 at times.
What is HB 433?

House Bill 433, referred to as the Employment Regulations Bill, says it seeks to "prohibit political subdivisions (city and county governments) from maintaining a minimum wage other than a state or federal minimum wage; prohibit political subdivisions from controlling, affecting, or awarding preferences based on the wages or employment benefits of entities doing business with the political subdivision; revise and provide applicability."

Regarding heat exposure protections, the bill's summary details it will prohibit political subdivisions from:

Requiring an employer, including an employer contracting with the political subdivision, to meet or provide heat exposure requirements not otherwise required under state or federal law.


Giving preference, or considering or seeking information, in a competitive solicitation to an employer based on the employer's heat exposure requirements.

The bill's analysis dives deeper into the decision to regulate heat exposure protections, saying the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has developed the best practices over the years. It adds that recognizing that preventing heat-related illnesses "requires education and close collaboration between employers and employees."

"Whereas local governments have started to adopt their own workplace heat exposure requirements, some of which apply only to specific industries, which ignore the individual responsibility of an employee to follow relevant guidelines and to protect himself or herself from heat-related illnesses, and rely on fines and penalties assessed on employers to fund the enforcement of such requirements," according to the bill.

Baltimore bridge collapse: Authorities recover fourth body from Key Bridge wreckage

What are Florida's statewide heat exposure protections?

Construction workers work in the heat of the midday sun in Daytona Beach, Florida, on Sept 14, 2021.

Despite outlining in its summary that counties and cities would have to adopt the state's stances on heat exposure protection, Florida does not have any statewide standard. However, the bill's text heavily supports OSHA's guidelines regarding the subject.

Florida is under federal OSHA jurisdiction, which covers most private-sector workers within the state. State and local government workers are not covered by federal OSHA.

OSHA has a “general duty clause" that requires employers to provide workplaces “free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm.” That includes heat-related hazards that are likely to cause death or serious bodily harm.

What does HB 433 mean for workers in Florida cities and counties?

Overall, the legislation would make any local heat protection measures "void and prohibited," within all 67 Florida counties.

In Miami-Dade County, this legislation would kill the county's proposal to require 10-minute breaks in the shade every two hours for any outdoor construction or farm workers. After negotiating for years, county commissioners had the item on their agenda up until the law was signed.

In a Friday press conference, DeSantis addressed the bill, saying "there was a lot of concern out of one county, Miami-Dade.

"And I don't think it was an issue in any other part of the state," he said. "I think they were pursuing something that was going to cause a lot of problems down there."

Luigi Guadarrama, political director of the Sierra Club Florida, said in a statement that the new law is the latest example of DeSantis failing the state’s environment, economy and workers.

“Instead of addressing the skyrocketing crisis of protecting our workforce, the governor chose to abandon millions of hard-working Floridians and leave our state more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change,” Guadarrama said. “He has consistently ignored the real issues affecting Florida's families to appease his donors and large corporations.”

How many heat-related deaths does Florida have a year?

Prince Ferguson cools off in the shade and drinks water after batting practice at Pompey Park on Wednesday, June 28, 2023, in Delray Beach, Florida.

From 2010 to 2020, the University of Florida recorded 215 heat-related deaths occurred in Florida, with the number of yearly deaths varying between 10 and 28.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, average annual heat-related deaths have risen 95% from 2010 to 2022, with about 1,200 people in the U.S. dying every year from them.

Florida is projected to experience more days of extreme heat this summer (when temperatures are at least 95 degrees), compared to averages over the last 30 years, according to the Florida Climate Center at Florida State University.
What other state ended local heat protection ordinances?

Texas halted the ability of city and county governments to mandate protections for outside workers last year with House Bill 2127.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed the bill on June 13 and it went into effect on Sept. 1. The law ended safeguards like the city of Austin's 2010 ordinance mandating construction sites offer rest and water breaks for at least 10 minutes every four hours and the city of Dallas' similar ordinance in 2015.

San Antonio was considering a similar measure ahead of HB 2127's approval.

What states have heat protections in place?

Cleverson Gomez sweats through his shirt as he shovels dirt in Surprise, Arizona on July 26, 2023, when temperatures for the day hit 116 degrees. Arizona is among the states that experience extreme heat but do not have statewide heat protections for its outdoor workers.

Only five states offer statewide heat protections, with California being the first after four farm workers died of heat stroke in 2005.

The following states require employers to provide shade and water amidst soaring temperatures:

California


Colorado


Minnesota


Oregon


Washington

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Heat protections for outdoor workers banned in Florida with new law

DeSantis Signs Florida Bill Blocking Local Heat Safety Rules For Workers

Dave Jamieson, Alexander C. Kaufman
Mon, April 15, 2024 


Failed presidential candidate Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed a bill late last week barring Florida localities from requiring employers to provide outdoor workers with access to water, rest and shade, outraging workplace safety advocates who say the new law will kill people.

Backed by the agricultural and construction industries, the controversial legislation is what’s known as a “preemption” law: It forbids cities and counties from pursuing their own ordinances on a particular subject, in this case protections from extreme heat.

The law effectively nullifies a proposal in Miami-Dade County that would require some employers to maintain a heat safety program and provide employees with water and shade on hot days. The county commission recently withdrew the proposal after the state legislation put its legality in doubt.

The preemption bill recently passed the Republican-controlled state House and Senate, along with a similar measure that prevents jurisdictions from requiring employers to pay livable wages on government-funded projects.

Unions and other progressive groups said blocking heat regulations would endanger farm and construction workers and anyone else who labors in one of the hottest states in the country.

“Someone is going to die as a result of this legislation,” Kim Smith, a telecommunications technician, told HuffPost last month.

Last year, Texas Republicans passed a similar preemption bill that blocked localities from implementing heat protections as well as other ordinances related to housing and labor. The legislation, known as Texas’ “death star bill,” appeared designed to thwart local laws in Austin and Dallas that guaranteed water breaks for workers.

The bill Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) just signed blocks jurisdictions like Miami-Dade County from implementing their own heat safety standards. SOPA Images via Getty Images

Florida Republicans pushing for the preemption law said they wanted to avoid a “patchwork” of local regulations around the state related to heat safety, arguing the matter was better left to the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

But OSHA does not yet have a heat-specific safety rule, and proposals to create a uniform, statewide standard in Florida have gone nowhere over the years because of a lack of Republican support.

More than 430 workers have died due to environmental heat exposure since 2011, according to OSHA. But relatively few jurisdictions have laws in place that require employers to provide water, shade and heat safety training. Just three — California, Oregon and Washington — mandate heat breaks for outdoor workers. Minnesota has heat standards for indoor workers, while Colorado does for farmworkers.

“Overheating is one of the most common and most serious dangers in the workplace,” Rep. Alma Adams (D-N.C.), who recently co-authored a federal bill ordering OSHA to regulate heat exposure, told HuffPost. “Is requiring a glass of water and some shade too much to ask?”

Climate change is making heat waves both more intense and more frequent, raising fears that a growing number of workers could die if governments don’t implement safety measures.

A farmworker in Miami-Dade County died last July during what would become the hottest month ever recorded. The man’s family told NBC South Florida that he’d recently suffered symptoms consistent with heat stress. A farmworker in the county told HuffPost last month that the foreman at the plant nursery where he works prohibited even 30-second breaks in the blazing sun since this is the busiest growing season for exotic flora.

The Biden administration is currently crafting a federal heat safety standard through OSHA, but federal rules take years to develop, often face litigation and can be undermined by subsequent administrations. Former President Donald Trump could simply drop pursuit of the rule if he defeats Biden in their expected rematch in November.