Pipeline debate at center of California carbon capture plans


By MICHAEL PHILLIS and KATHLEEN RONAYNE

Lupe Martinez, an activist and former farmworker, poses for a photo at his home in Delano, Calif., on Sunday, Feb. 5, 2023. California's plan to eliminate its carbon emissions by 2045 relies heavily on capturing carbon and removing it from the air, but legislators' concerns about safely transporting the climate-warming gas through pipelines may slow progress on a plan that's just getting started. Martinez doesn’t believe pipelines are safe and worries what will happen as developers target the region for carbon storage. (AP Photo/Gary Kazanjian)


SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — In its latest ambitious roadmap to tackle climate change, California relies on capturing carbon out of the air and storing it deep underground on a scale that’s not yet been seen in the United States.

The plan — advanced by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration — comes just as the Biden administration has boosted incentives for carbon capture projects in an effort to spur more development nationwide. Ratcheting up 20 years of climate efforts, Newsom last year signed a law requiring California to remove as much carbon from the air as it emits by 2045 — one of the world’s fastest timelines for achieving so-called carbon neutrality. He directed the powerful California Air Resources Board to drastically reduce the use of fossil fuels and build massive amounts of carbon dioxide capture and storage.

To achieve its climate goals, California must rapidly transform an economy that’s larger than most nations, but fierce opposition to carbon capture from environmental groups and concerns about how to safely transport the gas may delay progress — practical and political obstacles the Democratic-led Legislature must now navigate.

Last year, the California state legislature passed a law that says no carbon dioxide may flow through new pipelines until the federal government finishes writing stronger safety regulations, a process that could take years. As a potential backup, the law directed the California Natural Resources Agency to write its own pipeline standards for lawmakers to consider, a report now more than three weeks overdue.

Megan Shumway, a retired nurse, gathers with other climate activists demonstrating outside a hearing of the California Air Resources Board in Sacramento, Calif., June 23, 2022. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

While there are other ways to transport carbon dioxide gas besides pipelines, such as trucks or ships, pipelines are considered key to making carbon capture happen at the level California envisions. Newsom said the state must capture 100 million metric tons of carbon each year by 2045 — about a quarter of what the state now emits annually.

“We do not expect to see (carbon capture and storage) happen at a large scale unless we are able to address that pipeline issue,” said Rajinder Sahota, deputy executive officer for climate change and research at the air board.

State Sen. Anna Caballero, who authored the carbon capture legislation, said the state’s goal will be to create a safety framework that’s even more robust than what the federal government will develop. But she downplayed any urgent need to move forward with pipeline rules, saying smaller projects that don’t require movement over long distances can start in the meantime

“We don’t need pipelines across different properties right now,” she said.

Last year’s Inflation Reduction Act increases federal funding for carbon capture, boosting payouts from $50 to $85 per ton for capturing carbon dioxide from industrial plants and storing it underground. There are also federal grants and state incentives.



Without clarity on the state’s pipeline plans, the state is putting itself at a “competitive disadvantage” when it comes to attracting projects, said Sam Brown, a former attorney at the Environmental Protection Agency and partner at law firm Hunton Andrews Kurth.

If the pipeline moratorium slows projects for three or four years, Brown said, “why would you put your money into those projects in California when you can do it in Texas or Louisiana or somewhere else?”

The geology for storing carbon dioxide gas is rare, but California has it in parts of the Central Valley, a vast expanse of agricultural land running down the center of the state.

Oil and gas company California Resources Corp. is developing a project there to create hydrogen. It plans to capture carbon from that hydrogen facility and the natural gas plant that powers it. The carbon dioxide would then be stored in an old oil field. That doesn’t require special pipeline approval because it’s all happening within the company’s property.

But the company also wants to store emissions from other industries like manufacturing and transportation. Transporting that would rely on pipelines that can’t be built yet.

“These are parts of the economy that have to be decarbonized,” said Chris Gould, the company’s executive vice president and chief sustainability officer. “It makes economic sense to do it.”

Safety concerns increased in 2020 after a pipeline in Mississippi ruptured in a landslide, releasing a heavier-than-air plume of carbon dioxide that displaced oxygen near the ground. Forty-five people were treated at a hospital, and several lost consciousness. There are thousands of miles of carbon dioxide pipelines operating across the country and industry proponents call the event an anomaly. But the Mississippi rupture prompted federal regulators to explore tightening the existing rules for carbon pipelines.

Lupe Martinez, an activist and former farmworker, poses for a photo in Delano, Calif., Sunday, Feb. 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Gary Kazanjian)

Lupe Martinez, who lives in California’s Kern County, worries what will happen as developers target the region for carbon storage.

He used to spray fields with pesticides without protective equipment. On windy days, he’d be soaked in chemicals. Martinez, who watched some of his fellow workers later fight cancer, says he was lied to about safety then and doesn’t believe promises that carbon capture is safe now.

“They treat us like guinea pigs,” said Martinez, a longtime labor activist.

The oil and gas industry’s emissions are a main cause of climate change and in the past the industry undermined sound evidence that greenhouse gases are deeply disturbing the climate. Now carbon capture — unproven as a major climate solution — will help the industry keep polluting in places that are already heavily polluted, environmentalists argue. Instead of shutting down fossil fuel plants, carbon capture will increase their profits and extend their life, said Catherine Garoupa, executive director of the Central Valley Air Quality Coalition.

But advocates of carbon capture say it’s essential for Kern County oil and gas companies to find new ways to make money and keep people employed as California moves away from fossil fuels, an industry that is the “very fabric” of the region’s identity, said Lorelei Oviatt, director of Kern County Planning and Natural Resources.

A worker walks near pumpjacks operating at the Kern River Oil Field in Bakersfield, Calif., Jan. 16, 2015. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Without a new revenue source like carbon capture, “Kern County will be the next Gary, Indiana,” she said, referring to the rust belt’s years-ago collapse.

There are currently no active carbon capture projects in California. To demonstrate the technology is viable and people can get permits for it, it’s essential to build the first projects, said George Peridas, director of carbon management partnerships at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories.

Peridas said one area with potential to store carbon dioxide is the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, a vast estuary on the western edge of the Central Valley that’s a vital source of drinking water and an ecologically sensitive home to hundreds of species.

A levee-ringed island of farmland in the region that’s nearly half the size of Manhattan would be an ideal place for storing carbon dioxide safely, Peridas said.

Tom Zuckerman, who represents the islands’ owners on the project and is an owner himself, recently submitted a federal permit application for a project to capture emissions from an ethanol plant in Stockton, ship it by barge nearly 10 miles down the San Joaquin River and sequester it deep beneath the island. The project doesn’t need a pipeline so it isn’t affected by the ban. He hopes it will be up and running in a few years.

“If we are going to be doing much of significance about reducing greenhouse gases in this country, areas like this are going to be critical,” Zuckerman said.

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Phillis reported from St. Louis.

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The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

Clock is running out for Canada to help secure a global treaty to protect the ocean

Fri, February 24, 2023 

It’s do-or-die time for Canada and the rest of the international community to finally get a deal done to protect the world’s oceans, say global leaders, environmental groups, and celebrity activists.

International delegates are hunkering down in the back rooms at the United Nations in New York until March 3 in a last-ditch attempt to broker a legally binding deal to protect biodiversity on the high seas.

The European Union promised 40 million euros to support ratification of the treaty Wednesday, as did Palestine — which committed US$50,000 and urged developed nations to assume their responsibility to resource the treaty.

On Tuesday, Hervé Berville, France’s secretary of state for the sea, stressed all nations must demonstrate ambition to craft an effective, efficient and universal treaty.

“We need to put the ocean at the core of our diplomatic discussion and political priorities,” Berville said, adding the treaty was one of the most important of the coming decade.

A meaningful financial package to support technology transfer and capacity building in the Global South was key to securing agreement and making the treaty actionable in the short term, he said.

No Canadian political leaders or ministers have participated at the conference or committed funding to date, but it’s still early in the conference, said Susanna Fuller, operations vice-president of Oceans North.

“A contribution signals Canada is serious about making sure this is a global treaty and developing states have the capacity to put it into force,” she said.

Past negotiations to finalize the UN High Seas Biodiversity Treaty to protect life in the ocean and establish a blueprint for the equitable and sustainable use of marine resources floundered in August.

Sticking points included some nations resisting change to fishing rights and the failure of rich nations to provide funding and support to the countries of the Global South.

While most Canadians might not know or care about an international ocean treaty that’s been in the works for decades, they should, Fuller said.

The treaty could lay the ground rules for protecting the largest and most vital ecosystem on the planet to benefit humanity and tackle the dual crises of climate change and biodiversity collapse, she said.

The high seas — marine areas beyond the 200 nautical mile boundaries of coastal nations — make up nearly 64 per cent of the ocean’s surface. The ocean produces half the planet’s oxygen and curbs global warming, she added. Yet little more than one per cent of the ocean is protected.

“The treaty is hugely important,” Fuller said.

“When have we ever had an opportunity to put into place a global framework to protect biodiversity for fully half the planet?”

Coastal nations like Canada, which has the longest coastline in the world, are highly dependent on the health of marine life in the ocean, she said.

“People really depend on different species, many of which spend part of their lives in the high seas, for their culture or for food.”

Global Affairs Canada, headed by Minister Mélanie Joly, is the lead agency negotiating at the conference, Fuller said.

Although global human and ocean health are intertwined, the high seas are still largely uncharted territory, inadequately governed by a loose patchwork of international agreements and agencies, Laura Meller, oceans campaigner for Greenpeace, told Canada's National Observer.

Most existing rules and tools in international governance are solely focused on exploiting the ocean, Meller said.

“This treaty is very much set up to do the opposite,” she said.

“It can really transform the way we approach the global ocean that belongs to all of us.”

A strong ocean treaty is the litmus test for global leaders’ promise to protect 30 per cent of the world’s oceans and lands by 2030, Meller said.

The landmark international pledge was set out at the UN biodiversity conference, COP15, hosted by Canada in Montreal in December.

Failure to secure the ocean treaty would seriously jeopardize the 30x30 target just months after the pledge was signed, Meller said.

There’s an expectation that Canada’s leadership should show up and speak up at the negotiations, Meller added.

In the past couple of years, Canada has built recognition and momentum in the international community on the importance of protecting the ocean, Meller said.

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault helped secure the biodiversity framework at COP15, and Fisheries and Oceans Minister Joyce Murray just finished hosting IMPAC5, a global ocean conservation summit in Vancouver. Both ministers co-chaired the leadership summit at IMPAC5 and cited the high seas biodiversity treaty as the top priority.

Last year, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also committed Canada to the High Ambition Coalition, 50-plus countries working at a high political level to secure the high seas treaty.

“It’s hoped Canada will carry on building on that leadership and doing the footwork to bring this critical international agreement over the line,” Meller said.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) did not respond to Canada’s National Observer questions on the federal government’s role or goals at the treaty conference.

Rochelle Baker / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada’s National Observer

Rochelle Baker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer

Scientists Defy Physics, Basically Pull Energy Out of Thin Air
Story by Tim Newcomb •

Energy teleportation sounds like the stuff of science fiction, but now, research shows that you CAN actually pull energy from nothing.

© dani3315 - Getty Images

A shelved theory appears to have new life in pulling energy from one location to another.

Two experiments have now extracted energy and filled a vacuum.

A fresh world of quantum energy science is opened with the new findings.

Energy teleportation sounds like the stuff of science fiction, but now, research shows that you can actually pull energy from nothing.

Using quantum mechanics, two different physics experiments prove it’s possible to conjure energy from an energy vacuum—essentially pulling energy out of thin air—by teleporting energy across microscopic distances, helping bolster a 2008 theory from Japanese physicist Masahiro Hotta, according to a new report from Quanta Magazine.

“This really does test it,” Seth Lloyd, a quantum physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and not a member of the research teams, tells Quanta. “You are actually teleporting. You are extracting energy.”

When Hotta debuted his theory more than a decade ago, it wasn’t met with much fanfare. Pulling energy from the quantum vacuum wasn’t considered a realistic equation. But every vacuum still had some sort of fluctuation in the quantum fields. And pulling energy from nearby into the vacuum, and then using that energy, was something in the realm of reality known as the teleportation concept, since produced twice by scientists from University of Waterloo and Stony Brook University.

Hotta’s 2008 research led him first to negative energy, which he believed wasn’t an independent action. He then researched the quantum vacuum, which he believed—based on calculations—could actually fluctuate within quantum fields, allowing energy to move between two areas.

In a more modern-day experimentation, the team at Waterloo found that when energy was spent in one place, it allowed another—in this case, an energy vacuum—to access energy. “It was very neat to see that with current technology it’s possible to observe the activation of energy,” Nayeli Rodriguez-Briones, now at the University of California, Berkeley, and part of one of the experiments, tells Quanta.

“This is real physics–not science fiction,” Hotta says.

Italy's high court upholds tough prison regime for militant

Fri, February 24, 2023 


ROME (AP) — Italy’s high court on Friday reaffirmed a strict prison regime for an Italian left-wing militant whose cause has been taken up by anarchist groups in several countries that have staged attacks on Italian diplomatic missions.

The Court of Cassation rejected an appeal by lawyers for Alfredo Cospito, who has been on a hunger strike since October to protest the prison regime reserved for terrorists and mafia bosses, according to LaPresse news agency and RAI state television. Cospito, 55, is serving a 10-year sentence for shooting in the leg an energy executive for a state-controlled company and 20 years for a series of dynamite attacks in Italy.

An appeals court in Turin last spring toughened his prison conditions to include solitary confinement except for one hour a day, and a strict limit on family visits. The regime is imposed on prisoners who are considered to pose a danger even from inside prison.

After a tribunal reaffirmed the decision in December, there were more than a dozen attacks on Italian diplomatic interests abroad that have been claimed by or linked to anarchist groups acting in solidarity with Cospito.

On Thursday, anarchists unfurled a banner down the front of Italy’s Altar of the Nation reading “Italy tortures” and similar banners were unfurled outside the Court of Cassation, amid a heavy police presence, as judges considered their verdict during eight hours of consultation Friday.

No injuries have been reported in the attacks, which have included torching of cars and vandalism on diplomatic targets in Argentina, Bolivia, Germany, Greece, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland. Those attacking the consulate in Spain wrote “freedom for Cospito” at the site.

The Interior Ministry has defended the use of the strict prison regime for Cospito, saying the attacks only reinforce the need for such measures.

In late January, Cospito was transferred from his prison in Sardinia to a facility in Milan that has a wing for specialized medical care, given the deterioration of his health from the hunger strike.

The Associated Press

Director of Canada's drug price regulator resigns same week as colleague steps down

Fri, February 24, 2023 

HALIFAX — The executive director of Canada's drug pricing regulator is stepping down — just days after another member resigned because of concerns that the federal government was undermining the independent body's work.

Douglas Clark, with the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board, announced Friday he would be leaving his post after almost a decade with the regulator that oversees the prices of medicines sold in Canada.

A day earlier, Matthew Herder, a professor of health law at Dalhousie University, announced he had resigned from the board, accusing the federal government of failing to implement critically important reforms that would lower the cost of medication.

"The government has fundamentally undermined the board's independence and credibility," Herder said in his resignation letter addressed to federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos. Herder said he no longer believed it was possible to serve the public good in his role, which he had held since 2018.

Herder responded Friday on social media to news of Clark's resignation, calling it an "an immense, irreplaceable loss."

Federal NDP Health Critic Don Davies is calling for an investigation into Duclos’ alleged involvement in delaying drug reforms that would save Canadians money. Davies said in a statement Friday that for a minister to interfere in an independent regulator’s mandate is “highly questionable” and that prioritizing drug industry profits “over the welfare of Canadian patients is completely unacceptable.”

Clark has agreed to remain with the board as a special adviser for an unspecified amount of time, and the board said work to appoint Clark’s successor would be launched soon.

"People may come and go but the commitment of staff at the (regulator) to the very highest ideals of public service is unwavering and will endure," Clark said in a statement.

The Patented Medicine Prices Review Board declined to comment, and Health Canada did not immediately respond to questions.

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

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This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta and Canadian Press News Fellowship.

Lyndsay Armstrong, The Canadian Press

Lebanese banks suspend open-ended strike at PM's request

Fri, February 24, 2023



BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s struggling banks on Friday decided to suspend their strike, which started earlier this month, for one week, at the request of caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati.

The Association of Banks in Lebanon did not give further details about the suspension. The strike began on Feb. 7 in protest of a recent court ruling that forced one of the country’s largest banks to pay out two of its depositors their trapped savings in cash.

The decision comes as many Lebanese, including civil servants, are expecting to get their monthly pay. Salaries are typically paid out toward the end of the month, through bank accounts.

Lebanon’s banks have been hard hit by the country’s historic economic meltdown that began in October 2019 and have since imposed informal capital controls under which depositors have been able to withdraw only small amounts of their savings at an exchange rate far lower than the one used on the market.

The economic crisis — rooted in decades of corruption and mismanagement by the country’s political class — has left more than three quarters of Lebanon’s population of 6 million in poverty. The Lebanese pound has lost 97% of its value against the dollar.

The informal capital controls have prompted some overseas depositors, locked out of their savings, to launch lawsuits overseas and in Lebnanon to pressure banks to release their savings in full. In Lebanon, some depositors opted to break into banks, armed, and forced cashiers to hand over their money. Several such armed actions last year prompted the banks to go on strike in September 2022 and close down amid security fears for a week.

Earlier this month, Lebanon’s Court of Cassation overturned a 2022 verdict in favor of Fransabank, sued by two depositors demanding their money in cash. The ruling threw out the previous verdict, which allowed the bank to pay them with a check. That would not have allowed them to retrieve their money in full since they would have had to deposit the check in a bank account, where the money would get stuck all over again.

In mid-February, angry Lebanese smashed windows and set tires on fire outside two of the country’s biggest banks in the capital, Beirut, as the value of the Lebanese pound hit a new low.

Despite the economic meltdown, Lebanese authorities have not implemented reforms demanded by the international community in order to release billions of dollars in loans and grants. The International Monetary Fund has criticized Lebanon for its sluggish progress on the reforms since talks between the government and the IMF began in May 2020.

At the same time, banks have refused attempts to make their shareholders assume responsibility for the crisis — as envisaged under a proposed economic recovery plan — and have insisted that the government and their own depositors share the biggest burden for the losses.

Bassem Mroue, The Associated Press

EU: Freeing ex-senator can help Manila keep trade incentives

Fri, February 24, 2023 



MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippines’ chances of retaining special trading incentives, including slashed tariffs for a wide array of products, would be boosted if it decides to free a long-detained opposition leader and rejoin the International Criminal Court, a group of European parliamentarians said Friday.

The European Union trade incentives under the so-called Generalized Scheme of Preferences, or GSP Plus, for the Philippines and seven other developing countries are anchored on their adherence to more than two dozen international conventions on human and labor rights, environmental protection and good governance.

The trading incentives, which the Philippines started to enjoy in 2014, would end in December and the government could reapply within a two-year period to retain them, the European lawmakers said.

But the Philippines came under intense EU criticism during former President Rodrigo Duterte’s six-year term, which ended last year, mainly because of the bloody anti-drugs crackdown he oversaw that left more than 6,000 mostly petty suspects dead.

The killings sparked an International Criminal Court investigation as a possible crime against humanity. Duterte withdrew the Philippines from the ICC in 2018 but its prosecutor has proceeded to investigate the widespread deaths that occurred in the years when the country was still part of the court based in The Hague.

European parliamentarians have also repeatedly demanded the release of opposition leader and former senator Leila de Lima, Duterte’s most vocal critic who was arrested and detained in 2017 on drug charges she said were fabricated by Duterte and his officials to stop her from investigating the killings.

A delegation from the European Parliament’s sub-committee on human rights visited the Philippines from Wednesday to Friday and held talks with the justice secretary and other officials, senators, and human rights and labor activists to discuss rights issues under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who took office in June.

They visited de Lima on Thursday on the eve of her sixth year in detention and expressed hopes she would at least be released on bail. “I expressed to them my hope and optimism on the prospects of freedom and vindication,” de Lima said in a statement after the visit.

In a news conference in Manila, Hannah Neumann, who led the European delegation, said rights conditions were “better than it was under Pres. Duterte” in reply to a question. “There are a lot of announcements that could indeed improve things if they’re implemented.”

The delegates welcomed in a joint statement Marcos’ “commitment to change the focus of the ‘war on drugs’ away from a punitive approach towards prevention and rehabilitation.”

But they said extrajudicial killings have reportedly persisted and underscored the need for all the killings to be investigated and the perpetrators held to account to fight impunity.

Asked if a decision to release de Lima and rejoin the ICC would boost the Philippines’ chances of continuing to enjoy the EU trading incentives, Neumann said that would be “a strong sign in which direction the country wants to move.”

“The European Parliament has been quite clear that whoever wants to have preferential access to the European market needs to uphold social standards, human rights standards, environmental standards,” she said. “This is not going to go away.”

Out of the more than 6,000 police-reported killings under Duterte’s drug crackdown, she said, only 25 cases have been filed and three law enforcers had been convicted nearly nine months into Marcos’ presidency.

Marcos has also vehemently opposed any future ICC investigations in the Philippines.

“If you look at the trajectory, this will take physically forever,” Neumann said, adding that “asking the ICC to come in is the perfect way to do it.”

European officials wanted to know how they can support such a massive investigation and “how we can make, especially witnesses and families of victims, gain confidence that this is done in a proper way that doesn’t lead to more harassments and intimidation by the very same people that have killed their relatives,” Neumann said.

More than 6,200 products exported by the Philippines are covered by the tax and tariff reduction under the GSP Plus, including crude coconut oil, preserved tuna and pineapple and vacuum cleaners, and more Filipino exporters have sought Europe’s trading incentives in recent years, Philippine trade officials said.

Jim Gomez, The Associated Press

ANCIENT GRAIN

Millet a sustainable, nutritious alternative grain

Fri, February 24, 2023 

Millet, a sustainably grown, nutritiously dense grain with the potential to curb hunger around the world, is stepping into the agricultural spotlight.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations recently named 2023 as the International Year of the Millets. The declaration means to promote the global challenges millet can solve through increased production, such as climate issues, affordability and nutrition.

Raju Soolanayakanahally, a senior researcher with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Saskatchewan, has partnered with researchers from his native India to study how the benefits of millet can be maximized.

Millet is commonly prepared in Indian cuisine, and Soolanayakanahally was surprised it wasn’t nearly as popular in Canada, where it would not only make for a nutritious part of a balanced diet, but would be an ideal crop for Prairie producers.

“I thought, why not millets in the Prairie regions?” he said.

Widely produced and consumed for more than 7,000 years in regions such as sub-Saharan Africa to Asia, the cereal crop grows best in arid and semiarid climates where other grains may not do well without irrigation water.

To produce one gram of wheat requires 500 grams of water, whereas millet only requires half of that. Millet also requires less fertilizer input and is very climate resilient. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the United Nations in December that millet can help the world recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, which has impacted grain production.

“At such a time, a global movement related to millets is an important step, since they are easy to grow, climate resilient and drought resistant,” he said.

The reason millet is so nutritious is thanks to its micronutrients, such as iron and zinc, as well as dietary fibre and antioxidants. The magnesium and potassium found in millet can reduce blood pressure, therefore minimizing the risk of a heart attack and stroke, while its low glycemic index makes it an ideal food for diabetics. The high levels of fibre found in the cereal also makes it ideal for lowering cholesterol, according to a review by Frontiers in Plant Science.

“When we look at rice or wheat … they don’t have a similar nutritional quality,” Soolanayakanahally said. Millet can be especially helpful for infants and babies that suffer from anemia.

Low levels of iron, zinc and other nutrients contribute to “hidden hunger,” something that Soolanayakanahally is currently researching alongside his partners at the University of Agricultural Sciences in Bangalore. Together, they have created a roadmap for future study of millet using genetic resources, resulting in a genetic atlas of the different stages in the plant’s life cycle to identify its super-food properties.

India has one of the world’s highest rates of children suffering from various types of malnutrition, a study Soolanayakanahally shared with the Sun, says. A total of 44 per cent of children under the age of five are underweight, while 72 per cent of infants have anemia. The rate of undernutrition from lack of micronutrients, especially iron, is also quite high in India, where more than half the women have iron deficiency.

To combat these nutritional deficiencies, Indian schools started providing midday meals to students where millet played a starring role, replacing rice and wheat-based meals. As a result, health rates are beginning to improve, Soolanayakanahally said.

The atlas is also an important step toward uncovering the genetic networks that give millet its unique nutritional and stress tolerate features. The data Soolanayakanahally and the scientists in Bangalore are uncovering could be used to breed new, improved varieties of millet with enhanced uptake of iron and zinc, which will support the fight of hidden hunger around the world.

“These micronutrient-rich crops or cereals [like millet] can be used around the world for solving malnutrition problem or hidden hunger,” Soolanayakanahally said.

Farmers should also take a keen interest in millet, since it’s an environmentally friendly crop to grow. With Ottawa’s 2023 Emissions Reduction Plan aiming for Canada to reach its emissions target of 40 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2050, turning to crops like millet just makes sense, he added.

“Since millet requires low input of fertilizers, low input of water, and they sequester more carbon in the root, that also increases soil carbon as well.”

Millet also has the potential to teach researchers and scientists more about climate resiliency in other crops, too, including canola, wheat and barley, all of which grow in the Prairies.

“[Millet] has already figured out how to grow on marginal soils, how to grow with less water, less fertilizer inputs … and pest and disease resistance are very high,” Soolanayakanahally said. “This will be a great way for us to learn how to build climate resilient crops.”

Soolanayakanahally is planning to submit a proposal in April for more funding to Saskatchewan government’s Agriculture Development Fund to continue his research on growing millet in the Prairies.

Miranda Leybourne, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Brandon Sun

US Navy applies lessons from costly shipbuilding mistakes


Fri, February 24, 2023 



BATH, Maine (AP) — The U.S. Navy appears to have learned from its costly lessons after cramming too much new technology onto warships and speeding them into production as it embarks on building new destroyers that are the backbone of the fleet.

Military officials say they’re slowing down the design and purchase of its next-generation destroyers to ensure new technology like powerful lasers and hypersonic missiles are mature before pressing ahead on construction.

The Navy has learned “sometimes the hard way, when we move too fast we make big mistakes,” said Adm. Michael Gilday, chief of naval operations.

“Let’s be deliberate. Let’s not have our eyes become bigger than our stomach and get too far ahead of ourselves,” Gilday said last week at an event for defense industry officials in San Diego.

The Navy wants to turn the page on recent shipbuilding blunders.

Several newer combat ships designed for speed are being retired early after being beset by problems. A $13.3 billion aircraft carrier experienced added costs from new catapults that launch airplanes. Workers completed construction of a stealth destroyer before its advanced gun system, already installed, was scrapped.

For the new ship, the Navy is reducing risk by conducting more land tests and borrowing the radar and targeting system from the latest destroyers that'll soon join the fleet, said Lt. Cmdr. Javan Rasnake, spokesman for the assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition.

It’s also working with shipbuilders and designers to refine the ship’s blueprint, cost estimates, and workforce and supply forecasts, Rasnake said.

The Navy still plans to field some new technologies on the destroyer.

Last week, it awarded Lockheed Martin a $1.2 billion contract for hypersonic missiles that travel at five times the speed of sound, and can be fired from destroyers. Last summer, it awarded the first design contract for the new ship outfitted with those missiles and lasers powerful enough to shoot down aircraft.

Matt Caris, a defense analyst with Avascent, said it’s important that the Navy gets it right by balancing the best technology that’s reliable, affordable and attainable.

“The Navy is trying to thread the needle with some potentially revolutionary capabilities in as low risk and evolutionary process as possible. This was a lesson learned by the Navy’s laundry list of shameful acquisition programs,” he said.

Some worry about history repeating itself.

There are new Navy leaders overseeing many programs and “it’s easy to imagine them making similar mistakes again with a new cast of characters,” said Loren Thompson from the Lexington Institute, a security think tank.

The Navy is in the midst of juggling its priorities as it seeks not just a new destroyer but also a new attack submarine and a replacement for the F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet.

The Navy is in a difficult spot because the Biden administration is not interested in dramatically increasing the military budget, said Bryan Clark, a defense analyst at the Hudson Institute. Research and development alone would cost an extra $10 billion to $20 billion for the destroyer, submarine and jet, he said, representing a big chunk of the $220 billion Navy budget.

A series of speedy, coast-hugging warships embodied shipbuilding mistakes that the Navy is trying to avoid. Critics said early versions were too lightly armored to survive combat. One version of the craft, known as a littoral combat ship, had propulsion problems. Some of the ships broke down and had to be towed. Plans for a submarine detection system were scrapped.

Combined, the costs of the first ships in that program, the stealthy Zumwalt destroyer and Ford-class aircraft carrier grew by $6.8 billion in today's dollars, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

“They’ve digested that lesson,” Clark said. “Part of what you’re seeing is a recognition that the underlying technologies are not ready yet. They don’t want to drive the program where the ship starts production before the technology is ready.”

Gilday, who is the Navy's top officer, said the transition to the new destroyers will likely start in the “2032 time frame." For now, top Navy leadership want to keep current production lines of destroyers humming until designs are ready.

That means shipyards in Maine and Mississippi will continue making existing Arleigh Burke-class destroyers. They hold the Navy’s record for longest production run for large surface warships.

At Maine’s Bath Iron Works, where the first Arleigh Burke was built in 1998, shipbuilders are happy to continue building the existing ships while new designs are tested out.

Charles Krugh, shipyard president, said shipbuilders prefer the approach of taking extra time to make sure the technology and design are right.

“If we get a fully designed ship, it’s obviously going to make us a whole lot more productive and efficient,” Krugh said.

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Follow David Sharp on Twitter @David_Sharp_AP

David Sharp, The Associated Press

Peabody heading to Canadian Nuclear Association conference

Fri, February 24, 2023

BROCKTON – Although things have started slowing down a bit after what Mayor Chris Peabody called the “torrid” start to the year, that doesn’t mean nothing is happening.

While the passing of both the Brockton and Bruce County 2023 budgets offers a bit of breathing space, Peabody is still striving to effectively represent the county and municipality.

He’ll be attending the annual conference of the Canadian Nuclear Association in Ottawa, Feb. 22-24.

He said that last year, his focus at the conference was attracting nuclear suppliers to the area through Brockton’s availability of land. He said that won’t be the focus this year, with most suppliers having already “picked their places.” But he’ll be paying attention to any opportunities that arise to promote the area.

According to the CNA website, the conference is aimed at “maintaining… momentum and ensuring Canada remains competitive… At CNA2023, we will highlight the significant opportunities available for the Canadian nuclear industry, both domestic and international.”

In less than a month, Peabody will be representing Bruce County at the world’s largest real estate exhibition, conference and networking event in the world, the four-day MIPIM event in Cannes, France, March 14-17.

The county’s economic development team won a national award through the Economic Developers Association of Canada, with the prize being the opportunity to attend the MIPIM event. The prize includes a booth in the Canadian section of the event, four registrations for delegates, inclusion in the scheduled part of the conference to provide a speech related to opportunities in Bruce County, an article in the MIPIM news section, and inclusion in Canadian-focused networking opportunities. Peabody has been invited as a special delegate.

On the local level, Peabody participated in the ceremonial puck-drop at the Family Day “Battle of the Badges” hockey game at the Walkerton arena, when the OPP and Brockton Firefighters participated in a charity match. The OPP won 3-2 in a shootout.

Pauline Kerr, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Walkerton Herald Times