Why are French workers angry about raising retirement age?

By THOMAS ADAMSON

yesterday

A woman holds a sign reading "France says no" during a demonstration in Marseille, southern France, Thursday, March 16, 2023. With President Emmanuel Macron thousands of miles away in China, French protesters and unions returning to the streets continue to reveal cracks in his domestic political authority. Hundreds of thousands are expected again for the 11th day of nationwide resistance to raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 Thursday, April 6 as the controversial law is being considered by the Constitutional Council. 

(AP Photo/Daniel Cole, File)

PARIS (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of people have filled the streets of France in the 11th day of nationwide resistance to a government proposal to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. The furious public reaction to the plan has left French President Emmanuel Macron cornered and weakened.

France’s highest council on constitutional affairs is examining the bill to see if it’s constitutional. It will issue a ruling next week — and Macron’s opponents hope the council will severely limit his proposal.

IT'S A FIGHT TO KEEP A SOCIAL BENEFIT FOUGHT FOR BY WORKERS

PENSIONS ARE WORKERS CAPITAL AN INVESTMENT DEVICE FOR THE FUTURE

In many countries, raising the retirement age by two years wouldn’t throw the nation into such disarray. But the French public is overwhelmingly against pension reform, and unrelenting demonstrations against it have morphed into wider anger against Macron’s perceived top-down style of leadership.

HOW ANGRY ARE PEOPLE?

Mounds of up to 10,000 tons of trash piled up on the streets of Paris during a weekslong strike by sanitation workers over a plan that would push their retirement age from 57 to 59 — lower than the national age because their jobs are physically harder.

“People are angry,” said Jerome Villier, a 43-year-old doctoral researcher in Paris. “It’s obvious.”

Many governments in the developed world are in similar situations. Population growth is down, people are living longer, medicine is better and benefits cost more. Democracies’ attempts to balance budgets by cutting benefits, particularly in countries with generous plans like France’s, put administrations at risk. Many agree that Macron that has made some fundamental missteps.

THE NUCLEAR OPTION

Fearing he might not get enough votes in parliament to pass the bill, Macron resorted to the “ nuclear option ” by using a special article of the French constitution allowing the government to force the bill through without a vote. That prompted outrage across France that further fueled discontent, diminished his popularity, and galvanized his critics’ image of him as a monarchical leader.

Macron lost his majority in parliament last year and his government survived two no-confidence votes last month — one by only a razor-thin nine votes — after he angered the nation by ramming the reform through parliament.

Experts say the protests show that Macron was re-elected because of antipathy for far-right contender Marine Le Pen more than enthusiasm for him. And even if the protests die down, the French president will still have sustained a political bloody nose and a permanent stain on his authority.

“I’m worried for France. Because people really hate Macron — we hate him — and we’re only at the beginning, we have four more years,” said insurance salesman Mohamed Belmoud, 28. “He continued being top-down. The French need to see more compromise.”

WHAT HAPPENS NOW?

The pensions law needs a green light from the Constitutional Council on April 14. The Paris trash collectors’ union has called for fresh strikes April 13, with other unions pledging to keep resisting until the controversial law is canceled. Some predict the French public’s enthusiasm — and resources — for protests and strikes is dwindling.

“Going on strike is an expensive affair so you can’t do it forever,” said Jean-Daniel Levy, deputy director of Harris Interactive polling. And diminished spending power is a real issue, leaving many unable to afford to strike more, he said.

Others say violence seen in the nationwide protests, with dozens of demonstrators and police hurt, has turned off regular people.

“The demonstrations have become more violent as they’ve gone on. That means many in France are now staying away,” Luc Rouban, research director of the CNRS at Sciences Po.

A demonstrator has a poster mocking French President Emmanuel Macron over his head during a demonstration Tuesday, March 28, 2023 in Paris. With President Emmanuel Macron thousands of miles away in China, French protesters and unions returning to the streets continue to reveal cracks in his domestic political authority. Hundreds of thousands are expected again for the 11th day of nationwide resistance to raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 Thursday, April 6 as the controversial law is being considered by the Constitutional Council. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus, File)

HOW IMPORTANT ARE THESE PROTESTS?

France’s highest constitutional court is made up of judges called “the wise ones” and presided over by former Socialist Prime Minister Laurent Fabius. If it decides that part or all of the law is out of step with the constitution, or the scope of the law’s intentions, the council can strike it down. The “wise ones” will also rule on whether the law’s critics can move ahead with their attempts to force a nationwide referendum on the pension change.

While the council is meant to rule on purely constitutional grounds, experts say it tends to take public opinion into account.

“Polls still show that an overwhelming majority of the French are against the pension reforms, so one likely scenario is that the council could scrap parts of the bill,” said Dominique Andolfatto, professor of political sciences at the University of Burgundy.

“There’s a certain hatred in the air that we’ve rarely seen against a French leader,” he said. “This is uncharted water.”

 Railway workers hold a banner reading 'Until withdrawal' during a demonstration in Lyon, central France, Wednesday, March 22, 2023.

(AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani, File)

UK criticized for failures in Windrush immigration scandal

By BRIAN MELLEY

yesterday

From left, Windrush campaigners, Auckland Elwaldo Romeo, Glenda Caesar and Patrick Vernon hand in a letter to Downing Street, Thursday April, 6, 2023. The Black Equity Organisation submitted a petition signed by more than 50,000 people that criticized the “painfully slow” response to the scathing 2018 report and the decision by Home Secretary Suella Braverman to scrap several recommendations her predecessor accepted. “We urge your government to stick to the promises made — there is still an opportunity to show that you and your ministers are serious about righting past wrongs," a letter to Sunak said. 

(AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

LONDON (AP) — A civil rights group urged U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Thursday to follow through on promises made to thousands of people of Caribbean descent who were wrongly targeted as illegal migrants in the so-called Windrush scandal that emerged five years ago.

The Black Equity Organisation submitted a petition signed by more than 50,000 people that criticized the “painfully slow” response by the government and the decision by Home Secretary Suella Braverman to scrap several recommendations for immigration agency improvements that her predecessor accepted.

“We urge your government to stick to the promises made — there is still an opportunity to show that you and your ministers are serious about righting past wrongs,” a letter to Sunak said. “To do anything less sends a clear message that the suffering of the Windrush generation was in vain and the hostile environment still exists.”

The group is named for the Empire Windrush, the ship that brought the first 500 Caribbean migrants to British shores in 1948 to help rebuild after World War II. Tens of thousands of migrants from the region who arrived legally in the U.K. until 1973 later found themselves facing a government crackdown on illegal immigrants.

Scores lost jobs, homes and the right to free medical care because they didn’t have the paperwork to prove their status. Some were detained and others deported.

From left, Windrush campaigners Michael Anthony Braithwaite, Janet Mckay-Williams, Auckland Elwaldo Romeo, Glenda Caesar, Patrick Vernon and Dr Wanda Wyporska pose for photograph as they hand in a letter to Downing Street, in London, Thursday April, 6, 2023. The letter signed by survivors and famous faces describes the axing of recommendations of the Windrush Lessons Learned Review in 2020 as a "kick in the teeth to the Windrush generation, to whom our country owes such a huge debt of gratitude". HMT Empire Windrush arrived in Tilbury, Essex, in 1948 with immigrants to help rebuild the post war economy of Britain. 

(AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

After British news media uncovered the scandal in 2018, the government apologized and offered compensation, but the group said payments are inadequate for the harm done and the process is “bureaucratic and overly complicated.”

“It is unconscionable that some Windrush victims who should have been compensated died before their cases were resolved and payments made,” the group said. “Many others are still fighting to receive their payments.”

The Home Office said it remains “committed to righting the wrongs of Windrush” and has paid or offered more than 64 million pounds ($80 million) to people affected.

A government watchdog in 2020 found “institutional ignorance and thoughtlessness” were partly to blame for the scandal and made 30 recommendations to improve the office overseeing immigration.

Braverman said in January that she said she would scrap two recommendations that would increase independent scrutiny of migration policies and a third to hold reconciliation events with Windrush survivors.

The Conservative government has been under fire from human rights groups for its controversial migration bill that would bar asylum claims by anyone who reaches the U.K. by unauthorized means and would deport migrants back home or to a third country.

MACRON EFFECT
Chinese President Xi calls for Ukraine peace talks

MACRON MAKES XI SMILE

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French President Emmanuel Macron, bottom left, chats with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a welcome ceremony held outside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Thursday, April 6, 2023. 

(AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, Pool)

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese leader Xi Jinping called Thursday for peace talks over Ukraine after French President Emmanuel Macron appealed to him to “bring Russia to its senses,” but Xi gave no indication Beijing would use its leverage as Vladimir Putin’s diplomatic partner to press for a settlement.

Xi gave no sign China, which declared it had a “no limits friendship” with Moscow before last year’s invasion, had changed its stance since calling for peace talks in February.

“Peace talks should resume as soon as possible,” Xi said. He called on other governments to avoid doing anything that might “make the crisis deteriorate or even get out of control.”

Beijing, which sees Moscow as a partner in opposing U.S. domination of global affairs, has tried to appear neutral in the conflict but has given Putin diplomatic support and repeated Russian justifications for the February 2022 attack. Xi received an effusive welcome from Putin when he visited Moscow last month, giving the isolated Russian president a political boost.

The Chinese leader said “legitimate security concerns of all parties” should be considered, a reference to Moscow’s argument that it attacked Ukraine because of the eastward expansion of NATO, the U.S.-European military alliance.

During talks earlier, Macron appealed to Xi to “bring Russia to its senses and bring everyone back to the negotiating table.”

Macron pointed to Chinese support for the United Nations Charter, which calls for respect of a country’s territorial integrity. He said Putin’s announcement of plans to deploy nuclear weapons in Belarus violated international agreements and commitments to Xi’s government.

“We need to find a lasting peace,” the French president said. “I believe that this is also an important issue for China.”

Macron was accompanied to Beijing by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in a show of European unity.

Von der Leyen said she encouraged Xi to call Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and the Chinese leader “reiterated his willingness to speak when conditions and time are right.”

“I think this is a positive element,” von der Leyen said.

Fighting in Myanmar sends thousands fleeing to Thailand

By JINTAMAS SAKSORNCHAI

yesterday

Residents from eastern Myanmar are seen after fleeing into Thailand's Tak Province from Myanmar's Myawaddy district, Thursday, April 6, 2023. More than 5,000 people have fled from eastern Myanmar into Thailand in recent days as combat between Myanmar’s army and its allies against armed resistance groups has intensified in the border area, Thai media and officials said Thursday.

 (AP Photo/Chiravuth Rungjamratratsami)

BANGKOK (AP) — More than 5,000 people have fled from eastern Myanmar into Thailand in recent days as fighting between Myanmar’s army and armed resistance groups has intensified in the border area, Thai media and officials said Thursday.

At least 5,428 civilians, including more than 800 children, crossed the border by Wednesday night from Myanmar’s Myawaddy district to seek refuge in Thailand’s Tak province, public broadcaster Thai PBS reported, citing an unidentified security official.

It said they fled as ethnic rebels from the Karen minority, allied with guerrillas of the pro-democracy People’s Defense Force, attacked two Myanmar government outposts near the border. The army’s regular soldiers are assisted by members of the Border Guard Force, composed of militias of ethnic minority groups allied to the military government.

Myanmar’s ethnic minorities have been fighting for greater autonomy for decades, but armed conflict in the country escalated sharply after Myanmar’s army ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021. Widespread opposition to the takeover shifted to armed resistance in many parts of the country as pro-democracy forces joined hands with several armed ethnic minority groups.

Clashes and air strikes along the border have triggered a sporadic exodus of Myanmar villagers into Thailand’s border provinces, where they are often offered temporary refuge before being sent back home. India has also seen streams of refugees from western Myanmar.

An official from the Thai border district of Mae Sot told The Associated Press that clashes on Myanmar’s side of the border were continuing Thursday and gunfire could be heard from the Thai side. The official, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to release information, estimated the number of refugees currently under the care of Thai authorities to be at least 5,000.

“We are providing shelter, food and water to them on humanitarian grounds,” he said. “We will wait until the situation cools down. When the clashes stop, we will send them back.”

The Bangkok Post newspaper said more than 1,000 people fled across the border into Thailand at two locations on Thursday.

A statement issued a day earlier by Thailand’s Thai-Myanmar Border Command Center said the authorities in Tak province had provided 10 temporary shelters to host refugees in two border districts, including Mae Sot, a major crossing point.

Tak province’s Public Relations Department said on Facebook that the clashes occurred at two sites inside Myawaddy province about 6 kilometers (4 miles) from the border, causing “several injuries and deaths for soldiers on both sides.”

The website of Myanmar’s Eleven Media Group reported that according to sources on the Thai side, more than 3,000 people had fled across the Moei River — which marks the border — to escape fighting on Wednesday.

It said they were trying to escape fighting in Myanmar’s Shwe Kokko region, which houses a semi-autonomous economic zone hosting a casino and alleged criminal operations where people who have been tricked into working are employed in large-scale internet scams.

Its report said the current round of fighting in the area started on March 25.

Paying for paradise? Hawaii mulls fees for ecotourism crush

By AUDREY McAVOY

April 5, 2023

- People spend time on the black sand beach at Waianapanapa State Park in Hana, Hawaii

Taking care of Hawaii's unique natural environment costs money and now the state wants tourists to help pay for it, especially because growing numbers are traveling to the islands to enjoy the beauty of its outdoors — including some lured by dramatic vistas they've seen on social media. 

(AP Photo/Marco Garcia, File)

HONOLULU (AP) — Repairing coral reefs after boats run aground. Shielding native forest trees from a killer fungus outbreak. Patrolling waters for swimmers harassing dolphins and turtles.

Taking care of Hawaii’s unique natural environment takes time, people and money. Now Hawaii wants tourists to help pay for it, especially because growing numbers are traveling to the islands to enjoy the beauty of its outdoors — including some lured by dramatic vistas they have seen on social media.

 In this photo provided by the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources, federal and state law enforcement officers speak to swimmers in Honaunau, Hawaii, after the swimmers allegedly harassed a pod of wild spinner dolphins on March 26, 2023. 

– Hawaii authorities say 33 swimmers were harassing dolphins

“All I want to do, honestly, is to make travelers accountable and have the capacity to help pay for the impact that they have,” Democratic Gov. Josh Green said earlier this year. “We get between nine and 10 million visitors a year, (but) we only have 1.4 million people living here. Those 10 million travelers should be helping us sustain our environment.”

Hawaii lawmakers are considering legislation that would require tourists to pay for a yearlong license or pass to visit state parks and trails. They are still debating how much they would charge.

The governor campaigned last year on a platform of having all tourists pay a $50 fee to enter the state. Legislators think this would violate U.S. constitutional protections for free travel and have promoted their parks and trails approach instead. Either policy would be a first of its kind for any U.S. state.

Hawaii’s leaders are following the example of other tourism hotspots that have imposed similar fees or taxes like Venice, Italy, and Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands. The Pacific island nation of Palau, for example, charges arriving international passengers $100 to help it manage a sprawling marine sanctuary and promote ecotourism.

State Rep. Sean Quinlan, a Democrat who chairs the House Tourism Committee, said changing traveler patterns are one reason behind Hawaii’s push. He said golf rounds per visitor per day have declined 30% over the past decade while hiking has increased 50%. People are also seeking out once-obscure sites that they have seen someone post on social media. The state doesn’t have the money to manage all these places, he said.

“It’s not like it was 20 years ago when you bring your family and you hit maybe one or two famous beaches and you go see Pearl Harbor. And that’s the extent of it,” Quinlan said. “These days it’s like, well, you know, ‘I saw this post on Instagram and there’s this beautiful rope swing, a coconut tree.’”

“All these places that didn’t have visitors now have visitors,” he said.

Most state parks and trails are currently free. Some of the most popular ones already charge, like Diamond Head State Monument, which features a trail leading from the floor of a 300,000-year-old volcanic crater up to its summit. It gets 1 million visitors each year and costs $5 for each traveler

West Virginia atheist inmate sues over Christian programming

By LEAH WILLINGHAM

yesterday

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — An atheist and secular humanist is suing multiple officials in charge of the agency that runs West Virginia’s jails and prisons, accusing the state of violating his constitutional rights by requiring Christian-affiliated programming as a condition of release.

Andrew Miller, who is currently incarcerated at Saint Marys Correctional Center and Jail, filed a lawsuit in a federal district court Tuesday alleging the state is forcing Christianity on incarcerated people and has failed to accommodate repeated requests to honor his lack of belief in God.

The suit claims Miller encountered “religious coercion” in June 2021 when he entered the Pleasants County correctional facility. Miller is serving a one- to 10-year, nondeterminative sentence for breaking and entering.

Miller alleges the federally-funded substance abuse treatment program he is participating in — which is a requirement for his parole consideration — is “infused with Christian practices,” including Christian reading materials and mandated Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous meetings, where the Serenity and Lord’s Prayer are recited.

Miller’s attorneys with the American Atheists are requesting the court require the state to immediately make secular alternatives for all religious elements in the program. Attorneys also want the program removed as a requirement of Miller’s reentry plan.

Several West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation officials, including Commissioner William K. Marshall, are named in the suit. A corrections spokesperson said Wednesday the division’s policy is not to comment on pending litigation.

American Atheists is an organization that fights for atheists’ civil liberties and advocates the separation of church and state in the U.S. The nonprofit legal services organization Mountain State Justice will serve as local counsel in Miller’s case.

Nick Fish, president of American Atheists, called the case an important lawsuit for “religious freedom and equality,” adding that a non-Christian’s rights “do not get set aside simply because a person is incarcerated.”

“If anything, these circumstances are when we must most zealously guard against government infringement on our right to live by our consciences,” Fish said.

Multiple courts have determined that step-based programs like Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous are religious-based programs because they are predicated on the existence of a higher power or a God. Steps ask participants to turn their “lives over to the care of God” and encourage prayer to improve “conscious contact with God.”

In the “Big Book,” the foundational document of these programs, “Chapter 4: We Agnostics” tells atheists and agnostics that they are “doomed to alcoholic death” unless they “seek Him.” The chapter characterizes non-believers as “handicapped by obstinacy, sensitiveness, and unreasoning prejudice.”

American Atheists has supported legislation to require that the criminal justice system inform defendants of their right to a secular recovery option, such as SMART Recovery or LifeRing. One such bill passed in New York, but it was vetoed by Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul in December 2022.

IRONICALLY AA IS NOT THE A.A. BUT IT IS BASED ON MR. CROWLEY'S 

DIARY OF A DRUG FIEND WHICH HAS NO HIGHER POWER THAN

 DO WHAT THOU WILT

https://www.amazon.com/Star-Spangled-Plagiarism-Alcoholics-Aleister/dp/B09YQ4W9P9

‘How to Blow Up a Pipeline’ explores vigilante eco-sabotage

By KRYSTA FAURIA

April 5, 2023

This image released by Neon shows Forrest Goodluck in a scene from "How to Blow Up a Pipeline." (Neon via AP)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — When the creators of “How to Blow Up a Pipeline” initially set out to adapt the book of the same name, which critiques the docility of climate activism, director Daniel Goldhaber had in mind a very different movie than what they eventually made.

“I was very much in a place of anger and feeling very powerless and I was like, ‘Let’s make a big old propaganda piece,’” he said.

Goldhaber recalled his writing partners Ariela Barer, who also stars in the film, and Jordan Sjol talking him out of that place and convincing him that idea would ultimately “make for a very boring movie.”

They decided instead on a kind of heist thriller, which opens in theaters Friday, that follows a group of young activists who plot to take down an oil pipeline in West Texas. While the group is composed of people with starkly different backgrounds and reasons for being there, many of its members are personally affected by climate change and are united in their desperation to fight it — not unlike the young creative team themselves.

Neon’s “How to Blow Up a Pipeline” is decidedly less prescriptive than Andreas Malm’s 2021 book, which argues that climate activists ought to look to past movements, such as the abolitionists and suffragettes, to see that substantial reforms in modern history have rarely been propagated by pacifism.

OFFICAL TRAILER

Goldhaber said he took into account critiques of the book and hopes the film is seen as a nuanced adaptation.

“If there’s a political viewpoint of the film, it’s not, ‘Go out and blow up a pipeline,’” he said.

This image released by Neon shows a scene from "How to Blow Up a Pipeline."

 (Neon via AP)

But the movie does rely heavily on arguments that Malm puts forward, an idea which came from Sjol’s musings about “adapting a work of academic theory into a movie,” Goldhaber explained.

Malm is a scholar of human ecology, an interdisciplinary field of research that focuses on human relationships to their environments across cultures. In his work on the climate movement, Malm has been an outspoken critic of nonviolence and a proponent of property destruction, calling it the only viable response to the enduring power of the fossil fuel industry.

“How to Blow Up a Pipeline” joins a growing list of films exploring the issue of climate change and how best to fight it, from dark dramas like Paul Schrader’s “First Reformed,” to allegorical satires, such as Adam McKay’s “Don’t Look Up.”

How to Blow Up a Pipeline is an eco-activism Ocean's Eleven | TIFF '22
 

MOVIE REVIEW

  

Challenge to Biden ‘Cost of Carbon’ policy dismissed

By KEVIN McGILL and MATTHEW BROWN

April 5, 2023

 A flare burns natural gas at an oil well, Aug. 26, 2021, in Watford City, N.D. A lawsuit that Louisiana and other Republican-leaning states filed challenging figures the Biden administration uses to calculate damages from greenhouse gasses was dismissed Wednesday, April 5, 2023, by a federal appeals court. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown, File)

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A lawsuit that Louisiana and other Republican-leaning states filed challenging figures the Biden administration uses to calculate damages from greenhouse gasses was dismissed Wednesday by a federal appeals court.

The unanimous decision by three judges on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans was the latest defeat for states challenging the Biden “cost of carbon” policy. It leaves the administration to continue using a damage cost estimate of about $51 per ton of carbon dioxide emissions as it develops environmental regulations. That estimate is under review by the administration and could increase.

The Biden cost estimate had been used during former President Barack Obama’s administration. President Joe Biden restored it on his first day in office after the administration of former President Donald Trump had reduced the figure to about $7 or less per ton.

A federal judge in Louisiana had ordered a halt to the administration’s approach early last year after the states filed a lawsuit. The states said the policy threatened to drive up energy costs while decreasing state revenues from energy production.


The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans blocked the judge’s order and the Supreme Court declined to intervene.

On Thursday the appeals court dismissed the case, saying the challenging states had no standing to sue because they had not shown that the regulations caused the economic harms their lawsuit cited.

“Plaintiffs contemplate harms that are several steps removed from — and are not guaranteed by — the challenged Executive Order,” wrote Judge Jacques Wiener, appointed to the court by former President George H.W. Bush, on behalf of a panel that also included Obama appointee Stephen Higginson and Trump appointee Cory Wilson.

The $51 per ton estimate was established in 2016 and used to justify major rules such as the Clean Power Plan — former President Barack Obama’s signature effort to address climate change by tightening emissions standards from coal-fired power plants — and separate rules imposing tougher vehicle emission standards. However, the Clean Power Plan never took effect after being blocked by federal courts.

Now, the administration is reviewing the $51 per ton estimate. The Environmental Protection Agency in September proposed a cost roughly four times higher than the Obama figure.

Researchers have said for years that the damage done by every ton of carbon dioxide that comes out of a smokestack or tailpipe far exceeds $51. A study last year in the journal Nature concluded the price should be $185 per ton — 3.6 times higher than the U.S. standard.

A 2017 report from the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine said current carbon pricing calculations were inadequate. Researchers began calculating damages from carbon emissions in the 1980s and before 2017, the last updates to the modelling were in the early to mid 1990s.

The other states whose officials sued are Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Dakota, Texas, West Virginia and Wyoming.

___

Brown reported from Billings, Montana. Associated Press reporter Matthew Daly, in Washington, contributed to this report.

Panel affirms fines against coal mines owned by WVa governor

By JOHN RABY

yesterday

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A federal appeals panel has affirmed $2.5 million in penalties against Appalachian coal mines owned by West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice over claims they violated a settlement meant to prevent pollution.

A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, made the ruling Tuesday in an appeal by Southern Coal Corp. and Premium Coal Co. Inc. of a lower court’s decision. The ruling also requires remediation work to be completed at mine sites.

The U.S. and several states settled and signed a consent decree with the companies in late 2016 to resolve allegations of Clean Water Act violations from Justice-owned mines in Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. The Environmental Protection Agency had said Southern Coal didn’t submit complete and timely discharge monitoring reports, made unauthorized discharges and wouldn’t respond to the EPA’s requests for information.

The Justice Department said in a later filing that the defendants have “a long history” of Clean Water Act violations and noncompliance with the requirements of the 2016 agreement.

The companies had paid $2.9 million in penalties by 2021, but not the separate fines levied in September 2020 over the failure to submit timely permit applications that led to unpermitted discharges at mine sites in Tennessee and Alabama.

The appeals panel wrote that the lower court “properly recognized the absurdity of Southern Coal’s position that it could simply allow its permits to lapse to avoid obligations” under the consent decree. It said the decree had “plain language to mandate compliance with the Clean Water Act and derivative permitting obligations.”

Upon taking office in 2017, Justice said his children would run his business empire, but he stopped short of forming a blind trust, saying it was too complicated. The Republican governor has enterprises in hospitality, coal mining and agriculture, many of which have become mired in lawsuits.

EPA tightens mercury emissions limits at coal power plants

By MATTHEW DALY

April 5, 2023

 Environmental Protection Agency administrator Michael Regan testifies before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing to examine President Joe Biden's proposed budget request for fiscal year 2024 for the Environmental Protection Agency, on Capitol Hill, March 22, 2023, in Washington. The Environmental Protection Agency is tightening rules that limit emissions of mercury and other harmful pollutants from coal-fired power plants, updating standards imposed more than a decade ago.

 (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana. File)


WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency is tightening rules that limit emissions of mercury and other harmful pollutants from coal-fired power plants, updating standards imposed more than a decade ago.

The rules proposed Wednesday would lower emissions of mercury and other toxic pollutants that can harm brain development of young children and contribute to heart attacks and other health problems in adults.

The move follows a legal finding by EPA in February that regulating toxic emissions under the Clean Air Act is “appropriate and necessary” to protect the public health. The Feb. 17 finding reversed a move by former President Donald Trump’s administration to weaken the legal basis for limiting mercury emissions.

The proposed rule will support and strengthen EPA’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, which have delivered a 90% reduction in mercury emissions from power plants since they were adopted in 2012 under former President Barack Obama, EPA Administrator Michael Regan said.

“By leveraging proven, emissions-reduction measures available at reasonable costs and encouraging new, advanced control technologies, we can reduce hazardous pollution from coal-fired power plants — protecting our planet and improving public health for all,” Regan said in a statement.

The proposed rule is expected to become final next year, “ensuring historic protections for communities across the nation, especially for our children and our vulnerable populations,” Regan said.

The new rule aims to eliminate up to 70% of mercury emissions and other toxic pollutants such as lead, nickel and arsenic, while also reducing fine dust from coal plant emissions.

The mercury rule is among several EPA regulations aimed at coal plants, including proposals to restrict smokestack emissions that burden downwindareas with smog, tighten limits on wastewater pollution and toughen standards for fine particle pollution, more commonly known as soot.

Biden has pledged to make the U.S. electricity sector carbon neutral by 2035, and stricter pollution standards have pushed electric plants to replace coal and oil with natural gas, wind and solar power.

The EPA said the mercury rule would result in the likely retirement of 500 megawatts of power by 2028 — an amount produced by a single large plant — but a spokesman for the National Mining Association called that number “grossly underestimated.″

The mercury rule “is one piece of a larger agenda to force retirements of well-operating coal plants,″ said Conor Bernstein, a spokesman for the mining group. “The cumulative effect of EPA’s agenda is a less reliable and increasingly expensive supply of electricity as the nation continues to struggle with energy-driven inflation.″

Regan did not attend a news briefing Wednesday, but he said last year that industry should “take a look at this suite of rules all at once and say, ‘Is it worth doubling down on investments in this current facility? Or should we look at the cost and say no, it’s time to pivot and invest in a clean energy future?’ ”

If some plants decide that investments in new technologies are not worth the cost ” and you get an expedited retirement, that’s the best tool for reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” Regan said at a March 2022 energy industry conference.

Coal-fired power plants are the largest single man-made source of mercury pollutants, which enter the food chain through fish and other items that people consume. Mercury can affect the nervous system and kidneys; the World Health Organization says fetuses are especially vulnerable to birth defects via exposure in a mother’s womb.

Environmental and public health groups praised the EPA proposal, saying it protects Americans, especially children, from some of the most dangerous forms of air pollution.

“There is no safe level of mercury exposure, and while we have made significant progress advancing clean energy, coal-fired power plants remain one of the largest sources of mercury pollution,″ said Holly Bender, senior director of energy campaigns for the Sierra Club.

“It’s alarming to think that toxic pollutants from coal plants can build up in places like Lake Michigan,″ where many Americans camp and swim during the summer, “and where people fish to feed their families,″ Bender said. “Our kids deserve to live and play in a healthy, safe environment.″

The Edison Electric Institute, which represents investor-owned electric companies, said it was reviewing details of the EPA proposal, but added that its members “have fully and successfully implemented the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards” for 11 years, “resulting in dramatically reduced mercury and related emissions” from U.S. power plants.

“We look forward to continuing to work with” EPA to ensure the final standard “is consistent with our industry’s ongoing clean energy transformation,” said Emily Fisher, the group’s executive vice president of clean energy,

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., took a more combative approach, saying Biden’s administration “continues to wage war on coal and affordable, reliable energy by issuing unnecessary regulations intended to drive down electricity production from our nation’s baseload power resources.″

Capito, the top Republican on the Senate Environment Committee and a fierce champion of coal produced by her home state, said Biden “has again put politics over sound policy. With one job-killing regulation after another, the EPA continues to threaten the livelihoods of those in West Virginia and other energy-producing communities across the country.″

Mindful of such criticism, the White House said this week it is making $450 million available for solar farms and other clean energy projects at the site of current or former coal mines, part of Biden’s efforts to combat climate change. Up to five projects nationwide will be funded through the 2021 infrastructure law, the White House said Tuesday.