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Tag: Climate and environment

  • Feds give record $27B in loans for utility expansion in Georgia and Alabama

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    ATLANTA — Federal energy officials on Wednesday announced a record $27 billion loan to electric utilities in Georgia and Alabama, saying the loan will save customers money as the companies undertake a huge expansion driven by demand from computer data centers.

    A total of $22.4 billion will go to Georgia Power and $4.1 billion to Alabama Power. Both are subsidiaries of Atlanta-based Southern Company, one of the nation’s largest utilities. The companies plan to use the cash to build new natural-gas fueled power plants, build new transmission lines and upgrade existing power plants.

    Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the loan will result in more than $7 billion in savings over decades from a lower, federally subsidized interest rate.

    “We’re focused on driving down costs,” Wright said. He added that the loan would help ensure Southern customers “have access to affordable, reliable and secure energy for decades to come.”

    Wright and President Donald Trump have frequently made the case for their fossil fuel-friendly policies — including orders over the past nine months to keep some coal-fired plants open past planned retirement dates — as necessary to ensure reliability of the nation’s electric grid.

    Wright says the orders have saved utility customers millions of dollars and helped keep lights on during last month’s winter storm. Critics say the orders are unnecessary and have raised electric bills as utilities keep older, more expensive plants operating.

    “These loans will help lower the cost of investments in our grid that will enhance reliability and resilience for the benefit of our customers,” said Chris Womack, Southern’s chairman, president and CEO.

    The new loan comes amid scrutiny on rising utility bills, with electricity prices increasing faster than inflation in many states. There is also widespread opposition to new data centers for artificial intelligence.

    Trump in his State of the Union Tuesday announced a “ratepayer protection pledge” against higher utility bills tied to AI. He said tech companies will provide their own power as they build data centers. Trump didn’t provide details but claimed prices will go down.

    It is unclear whether any tech companies have signed pledges to build their own power plants, but Wright said on a call with reporters Wednesday that “every name you know that’s developing a data center has been in dialogue with us.”

    He cited “cooperation” from giants such as Microsoft, Google and Meta, but he didn’t specify any written agreements.

    Federal officials have long given utility loans, including $12 billion in loans that the first Trump administration and President Barack Obama’s administration guaranteed for two costly nuclear reactors at Georgia’s Plant Vogtle, partially owned by Georgia Power.

    Trump’s tax and budget bill last year reshaped the loan program to focus on increasing capacity to generate and transmit electricity. Loan guarantees under President Joe Biden focused on green energy goals.

    Gregory Beard, who directs the newly renamed Office of Energy Dominance Financing, said Wednesday that cutting interest rates and discarding Biden’s policy “will get us back on the right track in terms of affordability.”

    The loan office will review individual projects to ensure they’re financially viable, he said. “We’re not going to build this plant or deploy this capital until we are sure that it’s the right thing to do for the local community, for the local ratepayer,” Beard said in an interview.

    Those requirements don’t seem to be laid out in loan agreements that Southern released Wednesday. Jennifer Whitfield, an attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center who represented Georgia Power expansion opponents, said the loans will save money for Georgians, but questioned their wisdom.

    “As a taxpayer, it’s hard to avoid the fact that this is a bailout paid for by every taxpaying citizen of the United States,” she said.

    Any savings for customers must be approved by the elected Public Service Commissions in Alabama and Georgia. Commissioners last July approved a three-year rate freeze requested by Georgia Power, while commissioners in Alabama approved a two-year rate freeze in December. Company officials tout the freezes when utilities nationwide have been seeking record increases. But opponents complain company-friendly regulators locked in high prices and high utility profits.

    Voters booted two Republican incumbents off the Georgia commission in November amid complaints about rising bills.

    Commissioner Peter Hubbard, one of two new Democrats, unsuccessfully tried to roll back approval for Georgia Power’s expansion in recent weeks. He said Wednesday that the declining costs of solar, wind and battery power could make new natural gas plants uneconomic over time.

    “It’s locking us into a costlier option,” he said of the federal loan. ”And so I think it just is not meeting the moment of affordability.”

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    Daly reported from Washington.

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  • Supreme Court agrees to hear from oil, gas companies trying to block climate lawsuits

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    WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court said Monday that it will hear from oil and gas companies trying to block lawsuits seeking to hold the industry liable for billions of dollars in damage linked to climate change.

    The conservative-majority court agreed to take up a case from Boulder, Colorado, among a series of lawsuits alleging the companies deceived the public about how fossil fuels contribute to climate change.

    Governments around the country have sought damages totaling billions of dollars, arguing it’s necessary to help pay for rebuilding after wildfires, rising sea levels and severe storms worsened by climate change. The lawsuits come amid a wave of legal actions in states including California, Hawaii and New Jersey and worldwide seeking to leverage action through the courts.

    Suncor Energy and ExxonMobil appealed to the Supreme Court after Colorado’s highest court let the Boulder case proceed. The companies argue emissions are a national issue that should be heard in federal court, where similar suits have been tossed out.

    “The use of state law to address global climate change represents a serious threat to one of our Nation’s most critical sectors,” attorneys wrote.

    President Donald Trump’s administration weighed in to support the companies and urge the justices to reverse the Colorado Supreme Court decision, saying it would mean “every locality in the country could sue essentially anyone in the world for contributing to global climate change.”

    Trump, a Republican, has criticized the lawsuits in an executive order, and the Justice Department has sought to head some off in court.

    Attorneys for Boulder had agued that the litigation is still in early stages and should stay in state court. “There is no constitutional bar to states addressing in-state harms caused by out-of-state conduct, be it the negligent design of an automobile or sale of asbestos,” they wrote.

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    Follow the AP’s coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court.

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  • How refill stores are changing the way we reduce waste

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    Refilling a bottle instead of throwing it away has become a popular way for people to reduce waste — a small, tangible action in response to larger environmental problems.

    But whether refilling actually makes a difference depends on how these systems are used and what they replace. Scores of refill stores have opened in recent years as retailers and customers seek fresh ways to reduce waste. Some brands are also using specialized recycling programs for tricky packaging.

    At Lufka Refillable Zero Waste store in Tampa, customers bring in reusable containers to fill with soap, shampoo and cleaning supplies instead of buying products in single-use packaging. The idea is to cut down on packaging waste by reusing what people already own.

    Customers’ containers are weighed first, then filled. They’re charged by the amount of product added. Over time, that reuse can add up.

    For customer Julie Hughes, the act of refilling feels rewarding. Hughes discovered Lufka two years ago while looking for skincare products and has returned regularly, drawn by the ability to reuse packaging rather than discard it.

    “When you do something positive, you get a little bit of like a dopamine hit and you feel good,” Hughes said on a recent trip to buy liquid hand soap. “There are so many big problems in the world, but we can’t solve all of the big problems, but we do have control over our choices.”

    Some shoppers have been refilling the same containers for six years, said Lufka founder Kelly Hawaii.

    “Just imagine how much waste they’ve personally stopped consuming because they have that one container for that one product,” Hawaii said.

    Refillable packaging is less a new invention than a return to earlier distribution models. Many industries historically relied on refillable or returnable containers, with familiar examples in the U.S. including soda, beer and dairy in the recent past.

    A 2020 study of reusable packaging explains that a shift to single-use packaging took hold mainly because disposable systems simplified logistics and reduced handling costs for producers and retailers. That transition contributed to a steady increase in packaging production and waste over time as reuse infrastructure declined, according to the study published in Resources, Conservation & Recycling: X.

    In recent years, there has been a renewed interest in reuse as part of a broader move toward a “circular economy” that keeps products and materials in use longer to limit waste. The Public Interest Research Group estimates there are hundreds of refillable stores around the country, part of what it calls a “generation of new businesses” aimed at reducing packaging waste.

    Larger chains and brands are also offering refillable options and other innovations. Lush Cosmetics sells certain products “naked,” without packaging, and offers discounts to customers who return containers from its other products. The reusable packaging platform Loop, available in France, partners with major brands such as Nestle and Coca-Cola to distribute products in durable containers that are collected, cleaned and refilled for reuse.

    Despite this resurgence, refillable packaging makes up a small share of the overall market. The systems face barriers to expansion, including hygiene requirements and the need for systems to collect and process containers, according to the study, which also noted that these additional processing and cleaning costs may make them more expensive.

    Reusing vessels for everyday products has advantages over recycling single-use packages, as long as people follow a thoughtful approach, according to experts.

    Shelie Miller, a University of Michigan professor who studies sustainability, said consumers should think of the phrase “reduce, reuse, recycle” as a priority order, meaning reuse should generally come before recycling.

    Still, reuse doesn’t automatically mean lower environmental impact. Durable reusable containers typically require more energy and materials to produce, so they need to be used long enough to offset the resources that go into them, Miller said. What this means is that the environmental advantage emerges only after repeated use spreads those initial impacts across many uses, which Miller refers to as a “payback period.” How much water and electricity consumers use at home to clean reusable products also factors in.

    A 2021 study by Miller and a colleague examined reusable products including drinking straws, forks and coffee cups and measured their payback periods in separate categories including greenhouse gas emissions, water use and energy demand. The study found that a ceramic coffee mug must be reused between 4 and 32 times before outperforming disposable cups on those measures, which represented faster paybacks than reusable coffee cups made from metal or plastic.

    Convenience also plays a role. If refilling requires a special trip, the added transportation emissions can cancel out the benefits, making refill systems most effective when they fit into existing routines.

    “If you are making dedicated trips just to reduce packaging, it actually can be worse for the environment than if you use the single-use product,” said Miller.

    Large beauty retailers such as Ulta Beauty and Sephora are also partnering with Pact Collective, a nonprofit that collects hard-to-recycle beauty packaging through in-store bins.

    Carly Snider, executive director of Pact Collective, said the program collects packaging made of mixed materials that regular recycling programs can’t process or small pieces measuring less than 2 inches (5 centimeters) — like pumps, droppers and sample-sized containers — that fall through the cracks of machines at recycling facilities.

    “There’s specific things with beauty packaging that makes it really difficult,” said Snider.

    Pact routes those materials through specialized processing, diverting large volumes of material from landfills, said Snider.

    Experts emphasize that refilling and recycling programs aren’t a perfect solution, but when they replace single-use packaging and fit into everyday life, they can help reduce waste.

    “Small things do add up,” Miller said. “And so when you have millions of people who are all doing small things, that really can make a difference, make a change.”

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    The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. 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.

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  • You can give old batteries a new life by safely recycling them

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    NEW YORK — When household batteries die, it’s hard to know what to do with them. So they get shoved into a junk drawer or sheepishly thrown into the trash.

    But dead batteries aren’t quite finished. They can leak heavy metals like cadmium and nickel into soil and water once they reach the landfill. Some of them can also overheat and cause fires in garbage trucks and recycling centers.

    The good news is, safely disposing of your batteries takes just a few steps. They’ll get shipped to recycling centers that break down their contents to make new things.

    Battery recycling processes could use some fine-tuning, but it’s still a simple and responsible way to get rid of them.

    Recycling old batteries “keeps you safe, keeps the waste industry safe, keeps the first responders safe and responsibly sees that battery reach a proper end of life,” said Michael Hoffman, president of the National Waste and Recycling Association.

    Batteries keep things running in our homes, powering everything from alarm clocks and TV remotes to gaming controllers. Millions are bought and used every year in the U.S., according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

    They leave their stamp on the environment at nearly every stage of their life span.

    Many of the materials used to make batteries — elements like lithium and nickel — are mined. Over half the world’s cobalt reserves are in Congo.

    Once mined, those materials are shipped around to be refined, fashioned into a battery and packaged for sale. All the ships, trucks and planes moving them add to batteries’ carbon footprint. Making the batteries can release carbon emissions and pollution into the air and atmosphere, too.

    Though household batteries are far smaller than the big ones that power EVs and electric bicycles, there are a lot more of them and it’s worth figuring out how to get rid of them.

    “One person’s single battery is not necessarily a lot,” said environmental scientist Jennifer Sun with Harvard University. “But everyone uses many batteries.”

    To begin, wrangle your old batteries and figure out what kind they are. Batteries “come in all shapes and sizes, but what’s inside differs,” said materials scientist Matthew Bergschneider of the University of Texas at Dallas.

    Alkaline and zinc-carbon batteries are generally single-use and come in AA, AAA and more. These can be safely thrown in the household trash in most places, but the EPA still recommends recycling them so that their materials can be made into something new.

    Lithium-ion batteries — commonly found in things like power tools and cordless vacuums — are a risk to cause fires and leak toxic gases in garbage trucks and landfills. A lot of rechargeable batteries are lithium-ion, but more single-use batteries are being made this way too.

    Be sure to look up battery disposal laws for your area: Places like New York, Vermont and Washington, D.C. have special rules about throwing away household or rechargeable batteries.

    Once you’ve corralled your batteries, tape their ends or put them in plastic bags to avoid the possibility of sparking. Then, take them to a drop-off location. How easy or hard this is depends on where you live.

    Many hardware and office supplies stores accept old batteries. Look into city and state drop-off programs or search by ZIP code using The Battery Network, a nonprofit geared toward safe battery recycling.

    Have a location in your home to collect the batteries over time and then “at some point, hopefully among all the other things that we all have in our lives, you can find a convenient drop-off location,” said Todd Ellis of The Battery Network.

    If your batteries look swollen, cracked or are leaking, don’t drop them off. You’ll need to get in touch with your local hazardous waste removal agency to figure out how to turn them in.

    Once batteries are dropped off at a collection site, they’re sorted by type and taken to a recycling facility where they’re broken down into their essential components — like cobalt, nickel or aluminum. Some bits can be used to make new batteries or other things. Nickel, for example, can be used to make stainless steel products and alkaline batteries can be turned into sunscreen.

    Safely recycling a battery doesn’t cancel out the environmental cost of making it. But it does give the battery’s components their best chance at becoming something new.

    “You continue to recycle and you don’t have to go back to the Earth to mine,” said public health expert Oladele Ogunseitan, who studies electronic waste at the University of California, Irvine.

    Good battery habits are also good for us. It protects against old or damaged batteries leaking toxic compounds into our cabinets and junk drawers.

    “I think it’s one of the simplest and most controllable actions that we can take to reduce our impact,” said Sun, the Harvard scientist.

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    The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Deadly California avalanche highlights inherent risks in the backcountry

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    The recovery of skiers killed in the deadliest U.S. avalanche in almost 45 years is dragging out because of what experts say is a prime rule for rescuers: Don’t make yourself a victim.

    A storm that continued lashing California’s remote Sierra Nevada wilderness Thursday meant more avalanches were possible in the backcountry area where authorities said eight people died and one was still missing two days after their group was caught in the deadly slide. Six people survived.

    Rescuers faced the same potential perils that killed the backcountry skiers and professional guides, as they pursued a sport with inherent risks that were compounded by several feet of new snow. Recovery efforts were set to resume Friday.

    Backcountry winter travelers from skiers and snowboarders to snowmobilers and mountaineers lean on avalanche forecasts to help them gauge the danger. Yet conditions quickly shift because of turbulent mountain weather.

    To supplement forecasts or if none is available, experienced skiers and guides will dig a pit in the snow to test how stable it is. They can also search out less-hazardous terrain, such as slopes that are not as steep or that are sheltered from known avalanche routes.

    As the snow from the storm system hitting the Sierras this week piled up, the group of 15 skiers caught in Tuesday’s avalanche were on the last day of a multiday trip and heading for the trailhead.

    “It was, quite likely, very necessary for them to leave the backcountry so their hazard wasn’t increased further,” said Anthony Pavlantos of Utah-based Prival USA, who makes avalanche safety equipment and runs mountain safety programs.

    “What’s really hard to say is like ‘why were they moving?’ You can’t ever start placing blame on events like this because we can all be there.”

    It’s not uncommon for people to venture into the backcountry to ski or snowboard during times of heightened danger: A dangerous storm also means lots of fresh snow that many skiers crave.

    And because fatal accidents are rare, the risk takers most often survive, said Dale Atkins, who has been involved in mountain rescues and avalanche forecasting and research in Colorado for five decades.

    “It’s not about not going; it’s about where and when you go,” Atkins said.

    But Atkins added that coming out of the backcountry unscathed can create a false sense of security in a pursuit where luck – or not enough of it – also plays a role.

    “It’s really easy to be fooled by the snow and avalanches,” he said. “We keep going out even in the worst of storms because that’s what we did last time, and then our luck runs out.”

    Typically the best hope for someone to survive burial in an avalanche is to dig themselves out or be rescued by a companion. That is because slides often occur in remote areas.

    It took rescuers six hours to reach the victims of Tuesday’s avalanche after the first report came in. By comparison, the chances of survival for someone buried for an hour is only about one in 10, Atkins said.

    The surviving skiers in California found three of the victims while they awaited rescue. Authorities haven’t given a detailed account about how they located the other victims.

    A debris field from a major avalanche like the fatal one in California will stretch over a huge area, making it difficult to figure out where someone ends up if they are caught and dragged beneath the surface.

    The first thing to look for is clues such as a glove or ski pole that could reveal a victim’s location, said Anthony Stevens, chief adviser for the search and rescue team in Teton County, Wyoming, home to Grand Teton National Park.

    Skiers in guided groups typically carry transceivers, known as avalanche beacons, that send out signals showing where they are. The devices can also receive other signals, displaying the direction and approximate distance to a victim.

    If that doesn’t work, rescuers can line up and use long, slender poles to probe into the snow in hopes of finding someone, said Ethan Greene, director of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.

    Time is of the essence throughout a rescue, and once someone is found they have to be dug out. The average depth of burial is roughly a meter, or just over 3 feet, Atkins said. And because snow and ice in an avalanche get heavily compacted, digging out someone from that depth requires moving at least a ton of material, he said.

    Rarely will people survive being buried for long. Atkins said he knew of two people who survived being buried 22 and 24 hours respectively following an avalanche in the 1990s in Washington state. A third member of their party did not survive.

    “It’s very unusual for a rescue team to find a buried person alive. But it happens, and that gives us hope,” he said.

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    Associated Press writer Corey Williams in Detroit contributed to this report.

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  • Snow drought helped set the stage for deadly California avalanche, leading to unstable conditions

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    A weekslong “snow drought” in Northern California’s Sierra Nevada helped set the stage for Tuesday’s deadly avalanche, after several feet of new snow fell on an earlier layer that had hardened, making it unstable and easily triggered, experts said.

    The new snow did not have time to bond to the earlier layer before the avalanche near Lake Tahoe killed at least eight backcountry skiers, said Craig Clements, a meteorology professor at San Jose State University, who has conducted avalanche research. Six skiers survived and rescuers were still searching for another one who was still missing on Wednesday.

    The group was on a three-day backcountry trek in the Sierra Nevada on Tuesday morning when they were trapped by the avalanche as a winter storm pummeled the West Coast.

    The dangers generally are highest in the first 24 to 48 hours after a very large snowfall, Clements said, and authorities had issued avalanche warnings.

    Here’s what to know.

    When weather is dry and clear, as it had been in the Sierra Nevada since January, snow crystals change and can become angular or round over time, Clements said.

    If heavy new snow falls on the crystals, the layers often can’t bond and the new snow forms what is called a storm slab over a weaker layer.

    “Because it’s on a mountain, it will slide,” when it’s triggered by any change in the tension above or below, sometimes naturally but also because of people traversing the area, Clements said.

    Authorities have not said what triggered Tuesday’s avalanche.

    If there had been more consistent snowfall throughout the winter, different layers could have bonded more easily, Clements said. But even when a snow slab forms, the danger often only lasts a couple of days until the new snow stabilizes, he said.

    Although climate change can lead to weather extremes that include both drought and heavier precipitation, it’s difficult to say how and whether it will affect avalanches or where they occur, scientists say.

    Clements said this week’s avalanche is fairly typical for California’s Sierra Nevada and he doesn’t believe it can be linked to climate change.

    Avalanches are a mechanism of how much snow falls on weak or stable layers, and this one was “a meteorological phenomenon, not a climate phenomenon,” he said.

    About 3 feet to 6 feet of snow has fallen since Sunday, when the group started its trip. The area was also hit by subfreezing temperatures and gale force winds. The Sierra Avalanche Center said the threat of more avalanches remained Wednesday and left the snowpack unstable and unpredictable.

    Crews found the bodies of eight backcountry skiers near California’s Lake Tahoe and were searching for one more following Tuesday’s avalanche, which authorities say was the nation’s deadliest in nearly half a century.

    Six from the guided tour were rescued six hours after the avalanche.

    Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon said Wednesday that investigators would look into the decision to proceed with the trip despite the storm forecast.

    The skiers traveled Sunday to remote huts at 7,600 feet (3,415 meters) in Tahoe National Forest, carrying their own food and supplies. At 6:49 that morning, the Sierra Avalanche Center issued an avalanche watch for the area, indicating that large slides were likely in the next 24 to 48 hours.

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    The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. 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.

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  • Indonesia tightens control on nickel as the US and China scramble for minerals

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    HANOI, Vietnam — Indonesia is tightening state control over the world’s largest nickel supply after years of betting the metal would anchor a homegrown electric-vehicle industry, and just as global demand begins shifting away from heavy reliance on nickel.

    The move could still ripple through global EV supply chains as the United States and China compete for critical minerals. Indonesia sits at the center of the nickel market: its share of global supply jumped to about 60% in 2024 from 31.5% in 2020, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence, after former President Joko Widodo banned raw ore exports, drawing a surge of Chinese-backed investment into refining.

    Jakarta hoped that control over nickel would underpin a fully domestic EV industry, from mining and batteries to finished cars. Experts say that promise was used to justify forest clearing and mining expansion in the name of the energy transition, even as climate risks deepened.

    In 2025, Indonesia cracked down on what it called illegal exploitation of natural resources, saying many mining and plantation licenses were tainted by bribery or never properly approved. Authorities say they have seized more than 4 million hectares (9.8 million acres) of mines, palm oil plantations and processing sites, levied $1.7 billion in fines, and could seize another 4.5 million hectares this year.

    But analysts warn the crackdown is coming just as nickel’s payoff is starting to fade, with many Chinese EVs shifting to battery chemistries that use far less of the metal, relying instead on iron-based designs.

    “The forests have been exploited to the brim,” said Putra Adhiguna of the Jakarta-based Energy Shift Institute. “But you never got the electric-vehicle value chain.”

    China plays the leading role in Indonesia’s nickel sector, using the metal to underpin its stainless steel and clean-energy industries.

    The world’s largest nickel reserves are concentrated on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, which accounts for more than half of global nickel mine production, according to the U.S.-based Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis or IEEFA.

    China has sourced nickel from Indonesia for decades, but the relationship deepened after Jakarta banned raw ore exports in 2020, drawing a surge of Chinese investment into smelters.

    Nickel shipments to China jumped, with imports of nickel matte — a semiprocessed material used in battery chemicals and alloys — rising nearly 28-fold between 2020 and 2023, more than 90% of it from Indonesia, according to trade data. Over the same period, North and South America’s combined share of global nickel output fell from 16% to 7%, while Europe’s share dropped from 35% to 10%, according to the International Nickel Study Group, a Lisbon-based intergovernmental organization.

    Meanwhile, mining drove the loss of about 370,000 hectares (roughly 914,000 acres) of Indonesian forests between 2001 and 2020 — more than in any other country — according to an analysis by the World Resources Institute. More than a third of that loss was old-growth rainforests which hold vast carbon stocks and are crucial for limiting climate change.

    The heavy use of coal to run Indonesia’s nickel smelters has also slowed the country’s energy transition, adding new fossil-fuel demand even as it tries to cut emissions. A 2024 analysis by the IEEFA found that major nickel producers emitted about 15 million metric tons (16.5 million U.S. tons) of greenhouse gases in 2023, largely because of coal reliance.

    In one of the most public nickel-related seizures last year, Indonesian soldiers accompanied by a local television crew, took control of part of the world’s largest nickel mine.

    Mostly owned by Chinese metals giant Tsingshan Holding Group, the mine has caused deforestation, air and water pollution and increased coal-fired emissions, while displacing communities, harming livelihoods and exposing residents to health risks, according to a 2024 report by the nonprofit group Climate Rights International.

    The move wasn’t aimed at environmental protection or restoring forestry safeguards, said Bhima Yudhistira, with the Jakarta-based Center of Economic and Law Studies or CELIOS.

    “There is no guarantee things will get better,” he said. They could get “even worse.”

    Indonesia’s effort to turn its nickel reserves into the backbone of a domestic EV industry drew early interest from investors in South Korea and China but has fallen short of expectations.

    In July 2024, South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution opened Indonesia’s first EV battery-cell plant, with annual capacity to supply more than 150,000 electric vehicles. But in April 2025, LG Energy Solution withdrew from a larger $8.4 billion battery investment, citing market and investment conditions.

    An EV plant is still being built by Chinese automaker BYD. China’s CATL, the world’s largest EV battery maker is constructing a battery factory with Indonesian state firms.

    Indonesia’s EV market, is growing quickly but remains small.

    The country sold more than 43,000 electric vehicles in 2024, accounting for about 5% of total car sales, according to the Indonesian Business Council. Public charging infrastructure is limited, with around 1,500 stations nationwide in 2024.

    Even if Indonesia produced 1 million EVs a year — equal to total annual auto sales — and favored nickel-rich batteries, that would still consume less than 1% of its national nickel output, according to the Energy Shift Institute.

    EV makers are shifting to lithium iron phosphate, or LFP, batteries, reducing the need for nickel and cobalt. LFP batteries are cheaper, more stable and longer lasting. They’re used in nearly half of all EVs, the International Energy Agency found.

    Analysts say Indonesia’s nationalization drive could loosen Beijing’s grip on parts of the supply chain, potentially giving Jakarta more leverage to court U.S. buyers and investors.

    One potential concession by Indonesia in long drawn-out trade negotiations with the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, expected to wrap up soon, would be to lift the ban on raw nickel exports to the U.S.

    Indonesia already has invited the U.S. to invest in its critical minerals sector as part of ongoing tariff negotiations between the two countries, though it’s caught in a tricky position.

    “How does Indonesia straddle between the two superpowers who both want to gain control of the national resource that Indonesia has?” said Li Shuo, director of the Asia Society Policy Institute’s China Climate Hub.

    Other Southeast Asian countries similarly “sandwiched” between the U.S. and China are watching Indonesia closely, Li said.

    “Make no mistake, it’s going to be very difficult,” he said.

    Indonesia’s land seizures risks further destabilizing its nickel industry, added Yudhistira with CELIOS. Foreign investors monitoring the situation are likely to hesitate before committing new capital to Indonesia-based mining and processing projects, he said.

    “This is making the future of nickel, both mining and downstream processing, unknown,” Yudhistira said. “Uncertainty is very costly for investors.”

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    Delgado reported from Bangkok, Thailand. Associated Press writer Edna Tarigan in Jakarta contributed to this report.

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    The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. The 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.

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  • California walloped by winter storm with high winds and heavy rain and snow

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    California was walloped Monday by a powerful winter storm carrying treacherous thunderstorms, high winds and heavy snow in mountain areas.

    Millions of Los Angeles County residents faced flash flood warnings as rain pounded the region and people in some areas scarred by last year’s devastating wildfires were under an evacuation warning through Tuesday because of the potential for mud and debris flows.

    Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass ordered emergency crews and city departments to be ready to respond to any problems.

    The storm wreaked havoc on roadways spanning from Sonoma County to the Sierra Nevada. Traffic was halted temporarily in both directions on I-80 near the Nevada state line due to spinouts and crashes, the California Department of Transportation reported. In Santa Barbara County, a large tree toppled onto US-101, shutting down southbound lanes.

    Forecasters said the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, northern Shasta County — including portions of Interstate 5 — and parts of the state’s Coast Range could see up to 8 feet (2.4 meters) of snow before the storm moves through late Wednesday. The heavy snow, wind and low visibility could also make travel conditions dangerous to near impossible, forecasters added.

    “It has seemed ‘springlike’ for a large part of 2026, but winter is set to show it’s not quite done yet,” the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office said in a social media post urging residents to stay aware of the storm.

    California’s Office of Emergency Services said it was placing fire and rescue personnel and resources in areas most at risk for flooding, mud and debris flows.

    In Southern California, Six Flags Magic Mountain was closed Monday due to the storm, and Knotts Berry Farm amusement park shut its doors early. But the winter weather was celebrated by local ski resorts that have waited weeks for snow.

    Other states on Monday braced for different threatening weather events. Residents in parts of eastern Colorado received warnings that they could be in fire danger due to a combination of abnormally high temperatures, gusty winds and dry conditions. The risks were expected to continue further into the week as gusts up to 60 mph (96 kph) are likely to hit the Colorado eastern plains on Tuesday. Parts of Texas, New Mexico and Kansas were also under red flag warnings.

    The latest storm comes amid a snow drought across much of the American West, with snow cover and depth measuring at the lowest levels scientists have seen in decades. Most states saw half their average precipitation or less in January, though California fared better others due to heavy rains in December.

    It was the first of several days of stormy weather forecast for California. A coastal flood advisory was in effect for San Francisco until Tuesday afternoon, with cooler showers and a chance of hail on Tuesday, while nearby mountains were expecting snow, the National Weather Service in Monterey reported.

    Kashawna McInerny, a Realtor in the mountain community of Wrightwood, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) northeast of Los Angeles, on Monday said she was still dealing with several tons of rock and debris on her property from Christmas and New Year’s storms that pummeled the community. After the last one, she said she got help trenching part of her side yard to direct stormwater down the street and placed a barrier of metal and wood by a door in hopes of keeping out mud and debris.

    “We’re not panicking yet. At least I’m not,” she said with a laugh.

    ___

    Associated Press writers Amy Taxin from Santa Ana, California, and Dorany Pineda in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

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  • California walloped by winter storm with high winds and heavy rain and snow

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    California was walloped Monday by a powerful winter storm carrying treacherous thunderstorms, high winds and heavy snow in mountain areas.

    Millions of Los Angeles County residents faced flash flood warnings as rain pounded the region and people in some areas scarred by last year’s devastating wildfires were under an evacuation warning through Tuesday because of the potential for mud and debris flows.

    Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass ordered emergency crews and city departments to be ready to respond to any problems.

    The storm wreaked havoc on roadways spanning from Sonoma County to the Sierra Nevada. Traffic was halted temporarily in both directions on I-80 near the Nevada state line due to spinouts and crashes, the California Department of Transportation reported. In Santa Barbara County, a large tree toppled onto US-101, shutting down southbound lanes.

    Forecasters said the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, northern Shasta County — including portions of Interstate 5 — and parts of the state’s Coast Range could see up to 8 feet (2.4 meters) of snow before the storm moves through late Wednesday. The heavy snow, wind and low visibility could also make travel conditions dangerous to near impossible, forecasters added.

    “It has seemed ‘springlike’ for a large part of 2026, but winter is set to show it’s not quite done yet,” the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office said in a social media post urging residents to stay aware of the storm.

    California’s Office of Emergency Services said it was placing fire and rescue personnel and resources in areas most at risk for flooding, mud and debris flows.

    In Southern California, Six Flags Magic Mountain was closed Monday due to the storm, and Knotts Berry Farm amusement park shut its doors early. But the winter weather was celebrated by local ski resorts that have waited weeks for snow.

    Other states on Monday braced for different threatening weather events. Residents in parts of eastern Colorado received warnings that they could be in fire danger due to a combination of abnormally high temperatures, gusty winds and dry conditions. The risks were expected to continue further into the week as gusts up to 60 mph (96 kph) are likely to hit the Colorado eastern plains on Tuesday. Parts of Texas, New Mexico and Kansas were also under red flag warnings.

    The latest storm comes amid a snow drought across much of the American West, with snow cover and depth measuring at the lowest levels scientists have seen in decades. Most states saw half their average precipitation or less in January, though California fared better others due to heavy rains in December.

    It was the first of several days of stormy weather forecast for California. A coastal flood advisory was in effect for San Francisco until Tuesday afternoon, with cooler showers and a chance of hail on Tuesday, while nearby mountains were expecting snow, the National Weather Service in Monterey reported.

    Kashawna McInerny, a Realtor in the mountain community of Wrightwood, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) northeast of Los Angeles, on Monday said she was still dealing with several tons of rock and debris on her property from Christmas and New Year’s storms that pummeled the community. After the last one, she said she got help trenching part of her side yard to direct stormwater down the street and placed a barrier of metal and wood by a door in hopes of keeping out mud and debris.

    “We’re not panicking yet. At least I’m not,” she said with a laugh.

    ___

    Associated Press writers Amy Taxin from Santa Ana, California, and Dorany Pineda in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

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  • Biodegradable Mardi Gras beads help make Carnival season more sustainable

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    NEW ORLEANS — It is Carnival season in New Orleans. That means gazillions of green, gold and purple Mardi Gras beads.

    Once made of glass and cherished by parade spectators who were lucky enough to catch them, today cheap plastic beaded necklaces from overseas are tossed from floats by the handful. Spectators sometimes pile dozens around their necks, but many are trashed or left on the ground. A few years ago after heavy flooding, the city found more than 46 tons of them clogging its storm drains.

    The beads are increasingly viewed as a problem, but a Mardi Gras without beads also seems unfathomable. That is why it was a radical step when the Krewe of Freret made the decision last year to ban plastic beads from their parade.

    “Our riders loved it because the spectators don’t value this anymore,” Freret co-founder Greg Rhoades said. “It’s become so prolific that they dodge out of the way when they see cheap plastic beads coming at them.”

    This year, beads are back, but not the cheap plastic ones. Freret is one of three krewes throwing biodegradable beads developed at Louisiana State University.

    The “PlantMe Beads” are 3D-printed from a starch-based, commercially available material called polylactic acid, or PLA, graduate student Alexis Strain said. The individual beads are large hollow spheres containing okra seeds. That is because the necklaces can actually be planted, and the okra attracts bacteria that help them decompose.

    Kristi Trail, executive director of the Pontchartrain Conservancy, said plastic beads are a twofold problem. First, they clog the storm drains, leading to flooding. Then those that aren’t caught in the drains are washed directly into Lake Pontchartrain, where they can harm marine life. The group is currently preparing to study microplastics in the lake.

    The trend toward a more sustainable Mardi Gras has been growing for years and includes a small but growing variety of more thoughtful throws like food, soaps and sunglasses. Trail said there is no good data right now to say if those efforts are having an impact, but the group recently got a grant that should help them answer the question in the future.

    “Beads are obviously a problem, but we generate about 2.5 million pounds of trash from Mardi Gras,” Trail said.

    Strain works in the lab of Professor Naohiro Kato, an associate professor of biology at LSU. He first got the idea to develop biodegradable beads in 2013 after talking to people concerned about the celebration’s environmental impact. As a plant biologist, Kato knew that bioplastics could be made from plants and got curious about the possibilities.

    The first iteration of the lab’s biodegradable beads came in 2018, when they produced beads made from a bioplastic derived from microalgae. However, production costs were too high for the algae-based beads to offer a practical alternative to petroleum-based beads. Then Strain started experimenting with 3D printing, and the PlantMe Bead was born.

    For the 2026 Carnival season, LSU students have produced 3,000 PlantMe Bead necklaces that they are giving to three krewes in exchange for feedback on the design and on how well they are received by spectators.

    One funny thing, Kato said, is that people have told him they love how unique the PlantMe Beads are and want to keep them.

    “So wait a minute, if you want to keep it, the petroleum-plastic Mardi Gras bead is the best, because this won’t last,” he said.

    The lab is still working on ideas for a more sustainable Mardi Gras. Strain is experimenting with a different 3D printer material that biodegrades quickly without needing to be planted. Kato is talking with local schools about turning Mardi Gras bead-making into a community project. He envisions students 3D printing necklaces while learning about bioplastics and plant biology. And he is still exploring ways to make algae-based bioplastic commercially viable.

    Ultimately, however, Kato said, the goal should not be to replace one plastic bead with a less harmful one. He hopes Mardi Gras embraces the idea of less waste.

    Rhoades said Freret is moving in the same direction.

    “In 2025, we were the first krewe — major parading organization — to say, ‘No more. No more cheap beads. Let’s throw things that people value, that people appreciate, that can be used year-round,’ ” Rhoades said.

    One of the most coveted items they throw is baseball hats with the Freret logo. He sees people wearing the hats around the city, and he says other krewes have noticed.

    “I really believe that we, and other krewes, are able to inspire your larger krewes,” he said. “They want people to like their stuff. They want people take their stuff home, and use it, and talk about it, and post it on social media, and say, ‘Look what I just caught!’ ”

    ___

    Loller reported from Nashville, Tennessee.

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  • Biodegradable Mardi Gras beads help make Carnival season more sustainable

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    NEW ORLEANS — It is Carnival season in New Orleans. That means gazillions of green, gold and purple Mardi Gras beads.

    Once made of glass and cherished by parade spectators who were lucky enough to catch them, today cheap plastic beaded necklaces from overseas are tossed from floats by the handful. Spectators sometimes pile dozens around their necks, but many are trashed or left on the ground. A few years ago after heavy flooding, the city found more than 46 tons of them clogging its storm drains.

    The beads are increasingly viewed as a problem, but a Mardi Gras without beads also seems unfathomable. That is why it was a radical step when the Krewe of Freret made the decision last year to ban plastic beads from their parade.

    “Our riders loved it because the spectators don’t value this anymore,” Freret co-founder Greg Rhoades said. “It’s become so prolific that they dodge out of the way when they see cheap plastic beads coming at them.”

    This year, beads are back, but not the cheap plastic ones. Freret is one of three krewes throwing biodegradable beads developed at Louisiana State University.

    The “PlantMe Beads” are 3D-printed from a starch-based, commercially available material called polylactic acid, or PLA, graduate student Alexis Strain said. The individual beads are large hollow spheres containing okra seeds. That is because the necklaces can actually be planted, and the okra attracts bacteria that help them decompose.

    Kristi Trail, executive director of the Pontchartrain Conservancy, said plastic beads are a twofold problem. First, they clog the storm drains, leading to flooding. Then those that aren’t caught in the drains are washed directly into Lake Pontchartrain, where they can harm marine life. The group is currently preparing to study microplastics in the lake.

    The trend toward a more sustainable Mardi Gras has been growing for years and includes a small but growing variety of more thoughtful throws like food, soaps and sunglasses. Trail said there is no good data right now to say if those efforts are having an impact, but the group recently got a grant that should help them answer the question in the future.

    “Beads are obviously a problem, but we generate about 2.5 million pounds of trash from Mardi Gras,” Trail said.

    Strain works in the lab of Professor Naohiro Kato, an associate professor of biology at LSU. He first got the idea to develop biodegradable beads in 2013 after talking to people concerned about the celebration’s environmental impact. As a plant biologist, Kato knew that bioplastics could be made from plants and got curious about the possibilities.

    The first iteration of the lab’s biodegradable beads came in 2018, when they produced beads made from a bioplastic derived from microalgae. However, production costs were too high for the algae-based beads to offer a practical alternative to petroleum-based beads. Then Strain started experimenting with 3D printing, and the PlantMe Bead was born.

    For the 2026 Carnival season, LSU students have produced 3,000 PlantMe Bead necklaces that they are giving to three krewes in exchange for feedback on the design and on how well they are received by spectators.

    One funny thing, Kato said, is that people have told him they love how unique the PlantMe Beads are and want to keep them.

    “So wait a minute, if you want to keep it, the petroleum-plastic Mardi Gras bead is the best, because this won’t last,” he said.

    The lab is still working on ideas for a more sustainable Mardi Gras. Strain is experimenting with a different 3D printer material that biodegrades quickly without needing to be planted. Kato is talking with local schools about turning Mardi Gras bead-making into a community project. He envisions students 3D printing necklaces while learning about bioplastics and plant biology. And he is still exploring ways to make algae-based bioplastic commercially viable.

    Ultimately, however, Kato said, the goal should not be to replace one plastic bead with a less harmful one. He hopes Mardi Gras embraces the idea of less waste.

    Rhoades said Freret is moving in the same direction.

    “In 2025, we were the first krewe — major parading organization — to say, ‘No more. No more cheap beads. Let’s throw things that people value, that people appreciate, that can be used year-round,’ ” Rhoades said.

    One of the most coveted items they throw is baseball hats with the Freret logo. He sees people wearing the hats around the city, and he says other krewes have noticed.

    “I really believe that we, and other krewes, are able to inspire your larger krewes,” he said. “They want people to like their stuff. They want people take their stuff home, and use it, and talk about it, and post it on social media, and say, ‘Look what I just caught!’ ”

    ___

    Loller reported from Nashville, Tennessee.

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  • US ocean regulator faces criticism over changes to right whale protection rule

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    PORTLAND, Maine — The U.S.’s ocean regulator plans to make industry-friendly changes to a longstanding rule designed to protect vanishing whales, prompting criticism from environmental groups who cite the recent death of an endangered whale.

    The rules protect the North Atlantic right whale, which numbers less than 400 and lives off the East Coast. The giant animals are protected by a vessel speed rule that requires large ships to slow down at certain times to avoid collisions, which is a leading cause of death for the whales.

    The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in a Thursday statement to The Associated Press that it plans to soon announce proposed new rules designed to “modernize” the whale protections. The proposal will be a “deregulatory-focused action” that will seek to “reduce unnecessary regulatory and economic burdens while ensuring responsible conservation practices for endangered North Atlantic right whales,” the statement said.

    A notice of rulemaking about the right whale rules is listed on the U.S. Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs website, but it does not include any details about the proposal. NOAA said in its statement that more information about the rules was forthcoming and that the agency was focused on “implementing new technologies, engineering approaches, and other advanced tools” to protect the whales.

    Several environmental groups criticized the move away from vessel speed rules. Some cited the Feb. 10 confirmation of the death of a 3-year-old female whale off Virginia. The cause of the animal’s death was not yet determined, but it died at a far younger age than typical.

    “Another female right whale — the future of this species — has lost her life. We urgently need more right whale protections, not fewer. The Trump administration’s apparent determination to weaken the vessel speed rule could not come at a worse time,” said Jane Davenport, senior attorney at conservation group Defenders of Wildlife.

    Right whales migrate every year from calving grounds off Florida and Georgia to feeding grounds off New England and Canada. Along the way, they are vulnerable to collisions with ships and entanglement in commercial fishing gear. They were once numerous off the East Coast but were decimated during the commercial whaling era and have been federally protected for decades.

    The Biden administration planned to expand slow zones off the East Coast to protect the whales. It also planned to expand the classes of boats required to slow down. However, the federal government withdrew the proposal in the final days of the administration, with officials saying it didn’t have time to finalize the regulations due to the scope and volume of public comments.

    Some shipping businesses and other marine industries have long pushed back at vessel speed rules. The National Marine Manufacturers Association has described speed restrictions as “archaic” and advocated for solutions that rely on technology.

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  • Falling cocoa prices won’t necessarily mean cheaper Valentine’s Day chocolates

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    Cocoa prices have fallen nearly 70% since last Valentine’s Day, but that won’t make heart-shaped boxes of chocolate or even chocolate Easter bunnies more affordable this year.

    Chocolate prices at U.S. retail stores rose 14% between Jan. 1 and the first week of February compared to the same period last year, according to market research company Datasembly. That’s on top of a 7.8% increase for the same period in 2025.

    Europe has seen even steeper price increases. In Germany, chocolate prices rose 18.9% in 2025, according to government figures.

    Here’s what caused the price of cocoa futures to rise and then fall — and why that may not be reflected in the prices customers are paying.

    Cocoa prices more than doubled in 2024 due to insufficient rainfall and crop diseases in West Africa, which supplies more than 70% of the world’s cocoa. Cocoa, which is made from the dried beans of the cacao tree, is the main ingredient in both dark and white chocolate.

    Weather conditions have improved since then in Ivory Coast and Ghana, and cocoa production is increasing in Ecuador and other countries, according to an analysis by J.P. Morgan. The resulting supply increase is one reason cocoa prices are coming down.

    But they’re also dropping because of lower global demand. Chocolate getting more expensive has turned off consumers, so manufacturers have cut the amount of chocolate they use or shifted to other products like gummy candies to keep prices in check, said Chris Costagli, a food thought leader at the market research company NIQ.

    In the U.S., annual retail sales of chocolate rose 6.7% in 2025 compared to the prior year, largely because of price increases, according to NIQ data. But the number of individual products sold was down 1.3%, as consumers bought less chocolate overall.

    The Trump administration’s tariffs were another reason U.S. chocolate prices increased last year.

    The administration put a tariff averaging 15% on cocoa-producing countries last February, which raised the price of U.S. cocoa imports, according to the U.S. Federal Reserve.

    In November, the administration removed tariffs on cocoa and other commodities that can’t be grown in the U.S., including coffee, spices and tropical fruit.

    But tariffs of 15% or more on products from the European Union, including chocolates, remain in place.

    So far, declining cocoa prices haven’t necessarily let chocolate lovers pay less.

    Costagli compares the situation to gas prices. Even when the cost of oil goes down, prices at the pump don’t immediately follow because companies need to use up the oil they bought at a higher price.

    Chocolate makers like The Hershey Co. have long-term contracts that may require them to pay more than current cocoa prices. The market also is volatile; companies know that another bout of poor weather or a surge in demand could make cocoa prices surge again.

    But Costagli said companies also watch shoppers’ reaction to prices.

    “If the customer is still willing to pay that higher price point, do we really take the price down?” he said.

    Mondelez International, which owns chocolate brands like Oreo, Cadbury and Toblerone, raised its prices by 8% globally in 2025 to counter higher cocoa costs.

    In Europe, the company hiked prices by even more and saw a significant decrease in the amount of its products sold. As a result, Mondelez lowered prices this year in some markets, including the United Kingdom and Germany.

    “We have learned that certain price points are very important, and so we have adjusted already to put our products at the right price point,” Mondelez Chairman and CEO Dirk Van de Put said during a February conference call with investors.

    Van de Put said Mondelez didn’t plan immediate price cuts in North America, where both its price increases and its sales volume losses were more moderate.

    Two segments of the chocolate market grew in the U.S. last year: value brands and super-premium brands, Costagli said.

    The expanded interest in higher-end chocolate may seem surprising if consumers balked at paying more for a Snickers bar or a pack of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. But the companies behind super-premium lines like Ferrero Rocher, Justin’s and Lindt Excellence were less aggressive about instituting cocoa-related price increases since their products already were more expensive, Costagli said.

    As mainstream chocolate makers like Hershey and Mars raised prices, some customers decided they’d just spend a little more, he said.

    “It’s given the aspirational shopper that little push they need to trade up. If they wanted a better product, if they wanted better experience, better product characteristics, organic, fair trade, whatever it might be,” Costagli said.

    On the flip side, value brands — think Whitman’s or some store-brand chocolates — also sold more products in the U.S. last year as price-conscious shoppers traded down from mainstream brands.

    “The savings you get by trading down is actually greater than it used to be,” Costagli said. “So from an aspirational perspective, it’s easier to trade up, and from a financially insecure perspective, it saves you more to trade down.”

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  • Thailand uses a birth control vaccine to curb its elephant population

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    BANGKOK — BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand has begun using a birth control vaccine on elephants in the wild to try and curb a growing problem where human and animal populations encroach on each other — an issue in areas where farms spread into forests and elephants are squeezed out of their natural habitat.

    The initiative is part of efforts to address confrontations that can turn deadly. As farmers cut down forests to make more farmland, elephants are forced to venture out of their shrinking habitats in search of food.

    Last year, wild elephants killed 30 people and injured 29 in Thailand, according to official figures, which also noted more than 2,000 incidents of elephants damaging crops.

    Sukhee Boonsang, director of the Wildlife Conservation Office, recently told The Associated Press that controlling the wild elephant population has become necessary as numbers of elephants living near residential areas rises sharply, increasing the risk of confrontations.

    The office obtained 25 doses of a U.S.-made vaccine and conducted a two-year trial on seven domesticated elephants — using up seven doses of the vaccine — which yielded promising results, he said. He explained the vaccine doesn’t stop female elephants from ovulating but prevents eggs from being fertilized.

    Then, in late January, the vaccine was administered to three wild elephants in eastern Trat province, he said, adding that authorities are now determining which areas to target next as they prepare to use up the remaining 15 doses.

    The vaccine can prevent pregnancy for seven years and the elephants will be able to reproduce again if they don’t receive a booster after that time expires. Experts will closely monitor the vaccinated elephants throughout the seven-year period.

    The vaccination drive has drawn criticism that it might undermine conservation efforts. Thailand has a centuries-old tradition of using domesticated elephants in farming and transportation. Elephants are also a big part of Thailand’s national identity — and have been officially proclaimed a symbol of the nation.

    Sukhee said the program targets only wild elephants in areas with the highest rates of violent human-elephant conflict. Official statistics show a birth rate of wild elephants in these regions at approximately 8.2% per year, more than double the national average of around 3.5%.

    About 800 out of the nation’s approximately 4,400 wild elephants live in these conflict-prone areas, Sukhee said.

    “If we don’t take action, the impact on people living in these areas will continue to grow until it becomes unmanageable,” he said.

    In addition to the contraception vaccine, authorities have implemented other measures to reduce conflict, Sukhee said, such as creating additional water and food sources within the forests where elephants live, constructing protective fencing, and deploying rangers to guide elephants that stray into residential areas back into the wild.

    A court-ordered operation earlier this month to remove wild elephants that have repeatedly clashed with locals in northeastern Khon Kaen province sparked a public outcry after one elephant died during the relocation process.

    An initial autopsy revealed that the elephant died from choking after anesthesia was administered ahead of the move, officials said.

    The Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation carried out the relocation effort, and its director general, Athapol Charoenshunsa, expressed regret over the incident while insisting that protocol was followed properly. He said an investigation was underway to prevent such incidents from happening again.

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  • A California photographer is on a quest to photograph hundreds of native bees

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    LOS ANGELES — In the arid, cracked desert ground in Southern California, a tiny bee pokes its head out of a hole no larger than the tip of a crayon.

    Krystle Hickman crouches over with her specialized camera fitted to capture the minute details of the bee’s antennae and fuzzy behind.

    “Oh my gosh, you are so cute,” Hickman murmurs before the female sweat bee flies away.

    Hickman is on a quest to document hundreds of species of native bees, which are under threat by climate change and habitat loss, some of it caused by the more recognizable and agriculturally valued honey bee — an invasive species. Of the roughly 4,000 types of bees native to North America, Hickman has photographed over 300. For about 20 of them, she’s the first to ever photograph them alive.

    Through photography, she wants to raise awareness about the importance of native bees to the survival of the flora and fauna around them.

    “Saving the bees means saving their entire ecosystems,” Hickman said.

    On a Saturday in January, Hickman walked among the early wildflower bloom at Anza Borrego Desert State Park a few hundred miles east of Los Angeles, where clumps of purple verbena and patches of white primrose were blooming unusually early due to a wet winter.

    Where there are flowers, there are bees.

    Hickman has no formal science education and dropped out of a business program that she hated. But her passion for bees and keen observation skills made her a good community scientist, she said. In October, she published a book documenting California’s native bees, partly supported by National Geographic. She’s conducted research supported by the University of California, Irvine, and hopes to publish research notes this year on some of her discoveries.

    “We’re filling in a lot of gaps,” she said of the role community scientists play in contributing knowledge alongside academics.

    On a given day, she might spend 16 hours waiting beside a plant, watching as bees wake up and go about their business. They pay her no attention.

    Originally from Nebraska, Hickman moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting. She began photographing honey bees in 2018, but soon realized native bees were in greater danger.

    Now, she’s a bee scientist full time.

    “I really think anyone could do this,” Hickman said.

    Melittologists, or people who study bees, have traditionally used pan trapping to collect and examine dead bee specimens. To officially log a new species, scientists usually must submit several bees to labs, Hickman said.

    There can be small anatomical differences between species that can’t be photographed, such as the underside of a bee, Hickman said.

    But Hickman is vehemently against capturing bees. She worries about harming already threatened species. Unofficially, she thinks she’s photographed at least four previously undescribed species.

    Hickman said she’s angered “a few melittologists before because I won’t tell them where things are.”

    Her approach has helped her forge a path as a bee behavior expert.

    During her trip to Anza Borrego, Hickman noted that the bees won’t emerge from their hideouts until around 10 a.m., when the desert begins to heat up. They generally spend 20 minutes foraging and 10 minutes back in their burrows to offload pollen, she said.

    “It’s really shockingly easy to make new behavioral discoveries just because no one’s looking at insects alive,” she said.

    Hickman still works closely with other melittologists, often sending them photos for identification and discussing research ideas.

    Christine Wilkinson, assistant curator of community science at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles, said Hickman was a perfect example of why it’s important to incorporate different perspectives in the pursuit of scientific knowledge.

    “There are so many different ways of knowing and relating to the world,” Wilkinson said. “Getting engaged as a community scientist can also get people interested in and passionate about really making change.”

    There’s a critically endangered bee that Hickman is particularly determined to find – Bombus franklini, or Franklin’s bumblebee, last seen in 2006.

    Since 2021, she’s traveled annually to the Oregon-California border to look for it.

    “There’s quite a few people who think it’s extinct, but I’m being really optimistic about it,” she said.

    Habitat loss, as well as competition from honey bees, have made it harder for native bees to survive. Many native bees will only drink the nectar or eat the pollen of a specific plant.

    Because of her success in tracking down bees, she’s now working with various universities and community groups to help find lost species, which are bees that haven’t been documented in the wild for at least a decade.

    Hickman often finds herself explaining to audiences why native bees are important. They don’t make honey, and the disappearance of a few bees might not have an apparent impact on humans.

    “But things that live here, they deserve to live here. And that should be a good enough reason to protect them,” she said.

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  • Scientific studies calculate climate change as health danger

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    The Trump administration on Thursday revoked a scientific finding that climate change is a danger to public health, an idea that President Donald Trump called “a scam.” But repeated scientific studies say it’s a documented and quantifiable harm.

    Again and again, research has found increasing disease and deaths — thousands every year — in a warming world.

    The Environmental Protection Agency finding in 2009, under the Obama administration, has been the legal underpinning of nearly all regulations fighting global warming.

    “It boggles the mind that the administration is rescinding the endangerment finding; it’s akin to insisting that the world is flat or denying that gravity is a thing,” said Dr. Howard Frumkin, a physician and professor emeritus of public health at the University of Washington.

    Thousands of scientific studies have looked at climate change and its effects on human health in the past five years and they predominantly show climate change is increasingly dangerous to people.

    Many conclude that in the United States, thousands of people have died and even more were sickened because of climate change in the past few decades.

    For example, a study on “Trends in heat-related deaths in the U.S., 1999-2023 ” in the prestigious JAMA journal shows the yearly heat-related death count and rate have more than doubled in the past quarter century from 1,069 in 1999 to a record high 2,325 in 2023.

    A 2021 study in Nature Climate Change looked at 732 locations in 43 countries — including 210 in the United States — and determined that more than a third of heat deaths are due to human-caused climate change. That means more than 9,700 global deaths a year attributed to warming from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas.

    A new study published this week found that 2.2% of summer deaths in Texas from 2010 to 2023 were heat related “as climate change brings more frequent and intense heat to Texas.”

    In the more than 15 years, since the government first determined climate change to be a public health danger, there have been more than 29,000 peer-reviewed studies that looked at the intersection of climate and health, with more than 5,000 looking specifically at the United States, according to the National Library of Medicine’s PubMed research database.

    More than 60% of those studies have been published in the past five years.

    “Study after study documents that climate change endangers health, for one simple reason: It’s true,” said Frumkin, a former director of the National Center for Environmental Health appointed by President George W. Bush.

    In a Thursday event at the White House, Trump disagreed, saying: “It has nothing to do with public health. This is all a scam, a giant scam.”

    Experts strongly disagree.

    “Health risks are increasing because human-cause climate change is already upon us. Take the 2021 heat dome for example, that killed (more than) 600 people in the Northwest,” said Dr. Jonathan Patz, a physician who directs the Center for Health, Energy and Environmental Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “The new climate attribution studies show that event was made 150-fold more likely due to climate change.”

    Patz and Frumkin both said the “vast majority” of peer-reviewed studies show health harms from climate change. Peer-reviewed studies are considered the gold standard of science because other experts pore over the data, evidence and methods, requiring changes, questioning techniques and conclusions.

    The various studies look at different parts of health. Some looked at deaths that wouldn’t have happened without climate change. Others looked at illnesses and injuries that didn’t kill people. Because researchers used different time periods, calculation methods and specific aspects of health, the final numbers of their conclusions don’t completely match.

    Studies also examined disparities among different peoples and locations. A growing field in the research are attribution studies that calculate what proportion of deaths or illness can be blamed on human-caused climate change by comparing real-world mortality and illness to what computer simulations show would happen in a world without a spike in greenhouse gases.

    Last year an international team of researchers looked at past studies to try to come up with a yearly health cost of climate change.

    While many studies just look at heat deaths, this team tried to bring in a variety of types of climate change deaths — heat waves, extreme weather disasters such as 2017’s Hurricane Harvey, wildfires, air pollution, diseases spread by mosquitos such as malaria — and found hundreds of thousands of climate change deaths globally.

    They then used the EPA’s own statistic that puts a dollar value on human life — $11.5 million in 2014 dollars — and calculated a global annual cost “on the order of at least $10 billion.”

    Studies also connect climate change to waterborne infections that cause diarrhea, mental health issues and even nutrition problems, Frumkin said.

    “Public health is not only about prevention of diseases, death and disability but also well-being. We are increasingly seeing people displaced by rising seas, intensifying storms and fires,” said Dr. Lynn Goldman, a physician and dean emeritus at the George Washington University School of Public Health.

    “We have only begun to understand the full consequences of a changing climate in terms of health.”

    The issue gets complicated when cold-related deaths are factored in. Those deaths are decreasing, yet in the United States there are still 13 times more deaths from cold exposure than heat exposure, studies show.

    Another study concludes that until the world warms another 2.7 degrees (1.5 degrees Celsius) from now, the number of temperature-related deaths won’t change much “due to offsetting decreases in cold-related mortality and increases in heat-related deaths.”

    But that study said that after temperatures rise beyond that threshold, and if society doesn’t adapt to the increased heat, “total mortality rises rapidly.”

    ___

    The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. 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.

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  • California announces investigation into delayed evacuation orders during LA-area wildfire

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    LOS ANGELES — California’s top prosecutor announced a civil rights investigation Thursday into how delayed evacuations impacted a historically Black community ravaged by one of last year’s deadly wildfires near Los Angeles.

    Attorney General Rob Bonta said the investigation was spurred by months of conversation with community members and fire survivors concerned about the disparate impact of the fire on the west side of Altadena, an unincorporated town in LA County. The Eaton Fire was one of two blazes that broke out on Jan. 7, 2025. It killed 19 people and destroyed more than 9,400 structures.

    The overarching question is whether “unlawful race, disability, or age-based discrimination in the emergency response result in a delayed evacuation notification that disproportionately impacted west Altadena,” Bonta said.

    All but one of the deaths occurred in west Altadena, which received evacuation orders hours after the east side of town and well after homes were already burning, the Los Angeles Times first reported.

    By midnight, roughly six hours after the fire sparked, none of the neighborhoods west of Altadena’s North Lake Avenue had been issued an evacuation warning, The Associated Press found. Orders expanded significantly after 3 a.m. One West Altadena resident told AP she didn’t receive alerts to leave until hours after she’d already packed up and fled.

    Bonta said most of the investigation’s attention will be focused on the LA County Fire Department, looking at whether the existing systems contributed to the delayed evacuation notices and possible disparities in emergency response. He expects officials to voluntarily comply in sharing information with investigators.

    “The families forever changed because of the Eaton Fire deserve nothing less than our full commitment,” he said.

    The LA County Fire Department did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

    Altadena for Accountability, a group of fire survivors that campaigned for an investigation into the county’s fire response over the past year, called Bonta’s announcement a “trailblazing move” in a press release.

    “Losing my home and seeing my parents lose theirs was devastating. I’m heartened today knowing that we have a real pathway to answers and accountability for what went wrong,” fire survivor Gina Clayton-Johnson said in a statement. “This is a big day for all fire survivors today and victims of climate change disasters in the future.”

    A confusing patchwork of alert systems and delays in people getting critical information has been an issue after other major fires including the 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise, California, the 2023 Lahaina Fire in Hawaii and the 2021 Marshall Fire that destroyed more than 1,000 homes outside of Denver. Experts have pointed out inherent flaws in such systems that rely on cellphones and other technology to alert people, particularly older residents and those with disabilities.

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  • Genetic analysis could speed up restoration of iconic American chestnut: Scientists

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    WASHINGTON — Billions of American chestnut trees once covered the eastern United States. They soared in height, producing so many nuts that sellers moved them by train car. Every Christmas, they’re called to mind by the holiday lyric “chestnuts roasting on an open fire.”

    But by the 1950s, this venerable tree went functionally extinct, culled by a deadly airborne fungal blight and lethal root rot. A new study out Thursday in the journal Science provides hope for its revitalization, finding that the genetic testing of individual trees can reveal which are most likely to resist disease and grow tall, thus shortening how long it takes to plant the next, more robust, generation.

    A smaller gap between generations means a faster path to lots of disease-resistant trees that will once again be able to compete for space in Eastern forests. The authors hope that can occur in the coming decades.

    “What’s new here is the engine that we’re creating for restoration,” said Jared Westbrook, lead author and director of science at The American Chestnut Foundation, which wants to return the tree to its native range that once stretched from Maine to Mississippi.

    The American chestnut, sometimes called the “redwood of the East,” can grow quickly and reach more than 100 feet (30 meters), produce prodigious amounts of nutritious chestnuts and supply lumber favored for its straight grain and durability.

    But it had little defense against foreign-introduced blight and root rot. Another type of chestnut, however, had evolved alongside those diseases. The Chinese chestnut had been introduced for its valuable nuts and it could resist diseases. But it isn’t as tall or competitive in U.S. forests, nor has it served the same critical role supporting other species.

    So, the authors want a tree with the characteristics of the American chestnut and the disease resistance of the Chinese chestnut.

    That goal is not new — scientists have been reaching for it for decades and made some progress.

    But it has been difficult because the American chestnut’s desirable traits are scattered across multiple spots along its genome, the DNA string that tells the tree how to develop and function.

    “It’s a very complex trait, and in that case, you can’t just select on one thing because you’ll select on linked things that are negative,” said John Lovell, senior author and researcher at the HudsonAlpha Genome Sequencing Center.

    Breed for disease resistance alone and the trees get shorter, less competitive.

    To deal with this, the authors sequenced the genome of multiple types of chestnuts and found the many places that correlated with the desired traits. They can then use that information to breed trees that are more likely to have desirable traits while maintaining high amounts of American chestnut DNA — roughly 70% to 85%.

    And genetic testing allows the process to move faster, revealing the best offspring years before their traits would be demonstrated by natural growth and encountering disease. The closer the gap between generations, the faster gains accumulate.

    Steven Strauss, a professor of forest biotechnology at Oregon State University who wasn’t involved in the study, said the paper identified some promising genes. He wants scientists to be able to edit the genes themselves, a possibly faster, more precise path to a better tree. In an accompanying commentary piece in Science, he says regulations can bog down these ideas for years.

    “People just won’t consider biotech because it is on the other side of this social, legal barrier” and that’s shortsighted, he said.

    For people who have closely studied the American chestnut, the work begs an almost existential question: How much can the American chestnut be changed and still be an American chestnut?

    “The American chestnut has a unique evolutionary history, it has a specific place in the North American ecosystem,” said Donald Edward Davis, author of the American chestnut, an environmental history. “Having that tree and no other trees would be sort of the gold standard.”

    He said the tree was a keystone species, useful to humans and vital to bigger populations of squirrels, chipmunks and black bears — hybrids might not be as majestic or effective. He was pleased that the authors included some surviving American chestnuts in their proposal, but favored an approach that relied on them more heavily.

    “Not that the hybrid approach is itself bad, it is just that why not try to get the wild American trees back in the forest, back in the ecosystem, and exhaust all possibilities from doing that before we move on to some of these other methods?” he said.

    Lovells said resurrecting the species requires introducing genetic diversity from outside the traditional pool of American chestnut trees. The study authors’ goal is tall, resilient trees and they are optimistic.

    “I think if we only select American chestnut (tree genes), period, there’s going to be too small of a pool and we’re going to end up with a genetic bottleneck that will lead to extinction in the future,” said Lovell.

    ___

    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

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  • Italian police fire tear gas as protesters clash near Winter Olympics hockey venue

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    MILAN — Italian police fired tear gas and a water cannon at dozens of protesters who threw firecrackers and tried to access a highway near a Winter Olympics venue on Saturday.

    The brief confrontation came at the end of a peaceful march by thousands against the environmental impact of the Games and the presence of U.S. agents in Italy.

    Police held off the violent demonstrators, who appeared to be trying to reach the Santagiulia Olympic ice hockey rink, after the skirmish. By then, the larger peaceful protest, including families with small children and students, had dispersed.

    Earlier, a group of masked protesters had set off smoke bombs and firecrackers on a bridge overlooking a construction site about 800 meters (a half-mile) from the Olympic Village that’s housing around 1,500 athletes.

    Police vans behind a temporary metal fence secured the road to the athletes’ village, but the protest veered away, continuing on a trajectory toward the Santagiulia venue. A heavy police presence guarded the entire route.

    There was no indication that the protest and resulting road closure interfered with athletes’ transfers to their events, all on the outskirts of Milan.

    The demonstration coincided with U.S. Vice President JD Vance’s visit to Milan as head of the American delegation that attended the opening ceremony on Friday.

    He and his family visited Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” closer to the city center, far from the protest, which also was against the deployment of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to provide security to the U.S. delegation.

    U.S. Homeland Security Investigations, an ICE unit that focuses on cross-border crimes, frequently sends its officers to overseas events like the Olympics to assist with security. The ICE arm at the forefront of the immigration crackdown in the U.S. is known as Enforcement and Removal Operations, and there is no indication its officers are being sent to Italy.

    At the larger, peaceful demonstration, which police said numbered 10,000, people carried cardboard cutouts to represent trees felled to build the new bobsled run in Cortina. A group of dancers performed to beating drums. Music blasted from a truck leading the march, one a profanity-laced anti-ICE anthem.

    “Let’s take back the cities and free the mountains,” read a banner by a group calling itself the Unsustainable Olympic Committee. Another group called the Association of Proletariat Excursionists organized the cutout trees.

    “They bypassed the laws that usually are needed for major infrastructure project, citing urgency for the Games,” said protester Guido Maffioli, who expressed concern that the private entity organizing the Games would eventually pass on debt to Italian taxpayers.

    Homemade signs read “Get out of the Games: Genocide States, Fascist Police and Polluting Sponsors,” the final one a reference to fossil fuel companies that are sponsors of the Games. One woman carried an artificial tree on her back decorated with the sign: “Infernal Olympics.”

    The demonstration followed another last week when hundreds protested the deployment of ICE agents.

    Like last week, demonstrators Saturday said they were opposed to ICE agents’ presence, despite official statements that a small number of agents from an investigative arm would be present in U.S. diplomatic territory, and not operational on the streets.

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  • Mississippians near two weeks without power after winter storm

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    OXFORD, Miss. — Nearly two weeks after an ice storm knocked out power to her home, Barbara Bishop still finds herself trying to flip the lights on and looking in her fridge for food that has since spoiled.

    Bishop, 79, and her 85-year-old husband, George Bishop, live in a rural area near Oxford, Mississippi, where ice-coated trees snapped in half, bringing down power lines and making roads nearly impassable.

    After the storm hit, the Bishops took in their son, granddaughter and two children, whose homes lost both power and water.

    The family endured days of bitter cold with nothing but a gas heater to keep them warm. For a few days, they lost water.

    “It’s just been one of those times you just have to grit, grit your teeth and bare it,” Bishop said.

    Nearly 20,000 customers remained without power in northern Mississippi on Friday, according to PowerOutage.us, which tracks outages nationwide. That is down from about 180,000 homes and businesses without power in Mississippi shortly after the storm struck late last month.

    Lafayette County, where Oxford is located, had the most remaining outages of any county on Friday, with about 4,200 customers without power, followed by Tippah County with about 3,500. Panola, Yalobusha and Tishomingo counties all had more than 2,000 customers without power.

    After days of bitter cold, temperatures in Oxford reached 70 degrees on Friday, but the chunks of ice still littered the ground in shaded areas.

    Downed trees had been gathered into large piles on the sides of roads, some burned and still smoldering. While much of the worst damage had been cleared, in some places, power lines still hung low over roads and laid strewn about in parking lots. Everywhere, tree limbs dangled precariously.

    Across the street from the Bishops, Russ Jones and his wife have no electricity or water. For days, they used five-gallon buckets filled with water to flush toilets, cooked on their gas stove and stayed warm by their fireplace.

    “It’s been a shock to the system,” Jones said, adding that he and his wife began staying with friends who have power a few days ago.

    On Friday, Jones’ yard was teaming with volunteers from Eight Days of Hope, a nonprofit that responds to natural disasters. The volunteers cleared snapped tree limbs and hauled away a large tree that had fallen in Jones’ backyard.

    The organization arrived days after the storm and has helped dozens of homeowners clean up their yards and patch damaged roofs. It has also served more than 16,000 free meals.

    Jones said it was a relief to know he had one less thing on his plate. When a volunteer handed him a free T-shirt and a blanket for his wife, he held back tears.

    “It’s just beyond anything I could ever imagine,” he said.

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