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The initial version of this story had incorrect price changes for 2023. It is now updated with information as of the market close on Jan. 31.
Investors staged a January rally, with solid gains for the S&P 500 and an even better showing for technology stocks that led the dismal downward action in 2022.
This…
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Affirmations are phrases that state what energy we would like to embody in the present moment. “I am…” statements are the most common, but they can take other forms like “I will…” or “I believe…”
Simply reciting these affirmations alone will not manifest someone into your life, but by grounding these statements in the present tense, you’re acknowledging that your highest self is already here, within. (Versus if you continue to speak in the future sense, which creates distance between yourself and your manifestations.)
Be sure that affirmations are still realistic, too. As Chan explains, “If your brain actually doesn’t believe [the affirmation], it inherently rejects it as true. It could actually do more damage. So you never want to go with the total opposite of what you believe. Start with something closer to the truth.”
For example, rather than saying a definitive affirmation like, “I am in the best relationship of my life,” try “I attract loving relationships into my life.”
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Kara Ladd
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This is one of the more tricked-out infrared mats on the market, featuring adjustable PEMF and infrared levels, photon LED lights (which may have some benefits for our skin, including managing conditions like psoriasis), and amethyst, tourmaline, and jade stones. If your main focus is sweating out toxins, you’ll like this pick. The mat comes with a padded cotton cover, a waterproof cover, and a sauna foil blanket to trap heat.
It’s also foldable and your purchase includes a carrying case—but the brand notes that the mat is on the firmer side, so it’s not the best choice if you want something that’s easy to use on a chair or to take with you on the go. One big pro of this mat is that, while it’s expensive, the brand offers a 90 day trial and free returns (you do need to cover shipping, though). It also comes with a 5-year extended warranty.
There aren’t a ton of reviews on the brand’s website, but people generally have great things to say about this mat on Amazon and TrustPilot. One Amazon reviewer writes, “The TAJ mat is a true lifesaver. In addition to pain reduction, lying on the mat puts me into a deep state of relaxation. With so many healing modalities integrated into the mat, I am probably receiving more health benefits than I am even aware of.” Some negative reviews say it takes a while to heat up and a few mention that it’s very rigid and tough to fold.
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Jamey Powell
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By KATHERINE ROTH
NEW YORK (AP) — There are those for whom recycling and composting are not nearly enough, who have reduced their annual waste to almost zero, ditched their clothes dryer or given up flying, and are ready to take the next step in exploring the frontiers of sustainable living.
For Manhattanite Josh Spodek, that has meant going without a refrigerator, which he identified as the biggest source of electrical use in his Greenwich Village apartment.
Spodek began by deciding to go packaging-free, and one small step led to another. Now, he is living virtually grid-free in a city that in many ways is the epitome of grids.
“It was a mindset shift followed by continual improvement,” Spodek says. He first unplugged the fridge for three winter months, and then the next year for around six months (from November to early spring, when food generally kept for about two days on his windowsill). Now, he’s been fridge-free for over a year.
Spodek is quick to point out that he’s not against refrigeration in general, but views it as unnecessary for everyone to have running 24/7. In many parts of the world, he notes, refrigerators are a rarity.
“People in Manhattan lived without refrigeration until the mid 20th century,” he says, “so it’s clearly doable.”
Critics are quick to point out that this experiment should not be taken lightly.
“People’s lives can be at risk if certain foods go off. Certain dairy products go off very easily and quickly if you’re not careful,” says Frank Talty, founder and president of the New York-based Refrigeration Institute, which trains students to install and service refrigerators and air conditioners.
When he first unplugged his fridge, Spodek says, “I honestly wasn’t sure I could survive a week without it. I didn’t really have a plan for how I would get by without one. But I figured it wouldn’t kill me, and I could always plug it in again.”
Being a vegan without the need to refrigerate meat or dairy products certainly helps.
Skeptics — and there are many — point out that going without a refrigerator requires near-daily food shopping. For those with large families or who need to drive to get groceries, more frequent shopping trips could cancel out the energy savings. Not to mention, the inconvenience would be untenable for most.
Also, improvements to fridges over the years mean they typically use less power now than, say, a heating system or water heater.
“While using less energy is always laudable, most households could make more of an impact by switching to more efficient ways of heating and cooling their home, like a heat pump,” says Joe Vukovich, an energy efficiency advocate at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
While refrigerators “used to be massively inefficient in the ’70s and ’80s, their energy efficiency has increased dramatically since then,” and continues to improve, he says. Many stores will also recycle old refrigerators, and some utility companies offer incentives for retiring older models.
Also, just using your fridge differently can make a difference, Vukovich says: Opening the door less frequently, for example, saves energy.
“I don’t want to say there’s no room for improvement, but the story of more environmentally friendly refrigerators is a massive success story,” Vukovich says.
Still, Spodek notes that refrigerators are typically on nonstop: “If everyone could live without a fridge for, say, two weeks over the course of the year, it would save an extraordinary amount of power.”
And they might learn something.
Beyond the energy savings, Spodek — who works as an executive coach, teaches leadership as an adjunct professor at New York University, and blogs and podcasts about his experiences — says that going fridge-free has improved his quality of life. He buys fresh produce at farmers markets, receives boxes of produce from a farm cooperative (CSA, or community-supported agriculture), keeps a stock of dried beans and grains, and has become adept at some fermentation techniques.
He cooks with an electric pressure cooker and, very rarely, a toaster oven, powering them with a portable solar panel and battery pack. Since he lives in a city apartment, that means schlepping the panel and battery pack up (and down) 11 flights of stairs a couple of times a day to the roof of his building.
It’s an exercise he describes as “almost spiritual.” When he’s climbing the stairs, he says, he thinks about people around the world who live without modern amenities. “Through doing this, I’m definitely learning more about their cultures than if I just flew somewhere for a week.”
Without a refrigerator, he also has learned to cook better and use a wider variety of seasonal produce.
“In the winter, it’s just beets and carrots and potatoes and onions, plus dried beans and grains. I realized that that’s how cuisine happens. You take what you have and you make it taste good,” he says. “And now I just have to eat what I buy before it goes bad, or pickle it so it lasts a bit longer.”
Other aspects of his efforts to live more sustainably: Spodek says he has not taken out the trash since 2019 (he hasn’t produced enough non-compostable, non-recyclable waste to fill it yet) and hasn’t flown since 2016 (his parents live nearby).
While it might not change the world if one person consumes a bit less power by unplugging their fridge, Spodek notes that, as with the Zero Waste movement, “What I do does matter.”
“Setting an example for millions of people so that they see that this is even possible? That’s huge.”
——
For more AP Lifestyles stories, go to https://apnews.com/hub/lifestyle.
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Newswise — Distinguished researcher led Argonne’s Joint Center for Energy Storage Research and made pivotal discoveries in high-temperature superconductors.
George Crabtree, widely recognized and admired as a brilliant, passionate materials scientist and champion of superconducting materials and better batteries, died Jan. 23. He was 78.
As the director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR) and a preeminent proponent of decarbonization, Crabtree reached the pinnacle of a career that spanned parts of seven decades at DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory and that advanced a number of different disciplines and inspired colleagues and friends.
“I never could have imagined when I first came to Argonne as an undergraduate student that one day I would be directing a big energy storage hub,” Crabtree said recently. “That was the farthest thing from my mind. Now I consider that to be one of my best experiences.”
“As a scientist and a leader, George worked with true integrity and exemplified Argonne’s mission of engaging with some of the biggest challenges facing humanity,” said Argonne Director Paul Kearns. “His interest in science and genuine concern for others resulted in a leadership style that was empowering and motivating to generations of colleagues. George had the exceptional ability to bring people together to achieve impactful science for our country.”
George Crabtree was born on Nov. 28, 1944, in Little Rock, Arkansas, and moved with his family to Illinois when he was 2.
As a boy, Crabtree was “fascinated by the natural world and sought to understand it in all of its complexity,” said JCESR research integration leader Lynn Trahey, whom Crabtree mentored for the past ten years. “He told me that when he was young, he was just as interested in biology as physics — he was a boundless explorer.”
Crabtree first joined Argonne as an intern in 1964 while a college student at Northwestern University. He was hired full-time in 1969 while pursuing his Ph.D. in condensed matter physics at the University of Illinois Chicago, where he took night classes while working.
In the first part of his career in the last decades of the 20th century, Crabtree’s work focused on the behavior of superconducting materials, in particular their behavior in high magnetic fields. At the time, these materials were mysterious and not well understood, and their mystique held appeal for Crabtree. “For me, it was always a curiosity question,” he told the MRS Bulletin.
Crabtree helped pioneer early research into high-temperature superconductors, which were discovered in 1986. In them, he discovered new phases of superconducting vortex matter. “The properties of vortices are important because they are responsible for all the electromagnetic behavior in high-temperature superconductors that could eventually make them useful for applications,” said Argonne materials scientist Ulrich Welp
“George was a great leader because he had high standards; he elevated everyone around him because he really set an example for everyone else,” said Argonne materials scientist Wai-Kwong Kwok.
“His leadership style was full of kindness and curiosity,” Trahey said. “He wanted to learn and explore and also have a positive impact on society — he was unlimited in what he wanted to learn if it could help him communicate challenges and inspire people.”
Kwok recalled camping trips that Crabtree would organize for the other scientists in Argonne’s materials science division and their families. “He’d be the one up before everyone else making breakfast by the campfire,” he said. “In everything, he was truly an endearing person; he cared about more than just work, and his optimism and his hope would just rub off on you.”
Crabtree’s work on superconductors gained him recognition as a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society and the National Academy of Sciences. At Argonne, he was named a Distinguished Fellow. In 2003, Crabtree won the second ever Kammerlingh Onnes Prize, an international award given to scientists doing work in superconductivity.
“George was always a great listener, he would listen to everyone’s input and come up with a solution everyone could agree upon,” Kwok said. “There would always be something for everyone.”
In 2012, Crabtree switched gears professionally when he was named director of JCESR. “George was educating himself on battery science along with the postdocs and graduate students,” Trahey said. “He was never afraid to ask a question, and he treated 19-year-old students and heads of state with equal respect.”
As director of JCESR, Crabtree oversaw experiments on a wide range of beyond lithium-ion battery chemistries, including redox flow batteries and multivalent batteries. “In the later stage of his career, George was deeply passionate about fighting climate change, and used all his skills to encourage conversations and solutions,” Trahey said.
“George was a leader in many Basic Energy Science (BES) advisory committee studies and BES workshops. He helped to identify priority research directions for basic science from grand challenges for discovery research to foundations for energy technologies. These reports have literally shaped the BES strategic planning and portfolio for the past decade,” said Harriet Kung, deputy director for Science Programs for DOE’s Office of Science. “He was a true renaissance scientist — impacting many disciplines across energy and condensed matter physics. He will be greatly missed by the DOE community.”
In addition to his work in JCESR, Crabtree also served as co-chair of Argonne’s Action Collaborative, a group of researchers and administrators dedicated to eradicating sexual harassment in the workplace. “George cared about making work and life better, more inclusive and more fair for everyone,” Trahey said. “He was someone who believed in you and inspired you to believe in yourself.”
Crabtree is survived by his wife Barbara, a stepson and three grandchildren.
The Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR), a DOE Energy Innovation Hub, is a major partnership that integrates researchers from many disciplines to overcome critical scientific and technical barriers and create new breakthrough energy storage technology. Led by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, partners include national leaders in science and engineering from academia, the private sector, and national laboratories. Their combined expertise spans the full range of the technology-development pipeline from basic research to prototype development to product engineering to market delivery.
Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology. The nation’s first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities, and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific problems, advance America’s scientific leadership and prepare the nation for a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit https://energy.gov/science.
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Argonne National Laboratory
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Newswise — UPTON, NY—On January 24, 2023, U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm honored 44 teams with the Secretary of Energy Achievement Award and five individuals for their work. Among the recipients are Distinguished Professor Esther Takeuchi, a battery researcher with a joint appointment at the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and Stony Brook University; Douglas Paquette, a hydrogeologist in Brookhaven Lab’s Environmental Protection Division; and Robert Gordon, manager of the DOE-Brookhaven Site Office that oversees operations at Brookhaven Lab.
“These awards are among the highest forms of internal, non-monetary recognition DOE Federal and contractor employees can receive,” Secretary Granholm said in a statement. “They are bestowed on individuals and teams in recognition of service which goes above and beyond, and for contributions having lasting impacts on both DOE and on our great Nation. Along with the entire DOE leadership team, I am so proud of the accomplishments of our award recipients. Their commitment to achieving DOE’s mission is an inspiration.”
Takeuchi was honored for her role on an 80-member team of scientists and support staff from across the DOE National Laboratory complex who facilitated eight virtual panel discussions as part of a Congressional briefing series entitled “Driving U.S. Competitiveness & Innovation: A New Era of Science for Transformative Industry.” The team created a platform for American industry leaders and National Laboratory scientists to speak directly with Congressional staffers. Their goal was to discuss the productivity of public-private collaborations to accelerate emergent technologies and American leadership in artificial intelligence, microelectronics, quantum information sciences, the bioeconomy, and materials and chemistry for clean energy.
This effort highlighted how capabilities at DOE National Laboratories and their User Facilities (including the National Synchrotron Light Source II and Center for Functional Nanomaterials at Brookhaven Lab) have been used to advance cutting-edge industries and American technical leadership. The discussions also emphasized how partnerships between DOE-supported researchers and American companies can accelerate the Nation’s competitiveness and innovation and address workforce development challenges to prepare for these emergent industries in ways that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion.
“I was delighted to participate in the topic of ‘Materials and Chemistry for Clean Energy,’” Takeuchi said. “This forum provided a venue to discuss the opportunity for impact of federally funded research and the national labs in strengthening U.S. industrial competitiveness. My discussions featured energy storage as critical to the clean energy transformation including electrifying transportation and adoption of clean energy generation.”
Paquette and Gordon both served on a team honored for helping DOE formulate a strategy for addressing the impacts of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). PFAS are a class of widely manufactured chemicals that in recent years have been identified as emerging contaminants of concern in many communities across the United States. Historically, they have been widely used in products such as nonstick pans, water-repellent clothing, and firefighting foams.
National focus on PFAS has led to a wide array of Federal and state-level regulatory approaches and policy initiatives. The PFAS Policy Development Team, made up of representatives from multiple DOE offices, coordinated efforts within the DOE and with external stakeholders to better understand and manage the regulations, risks, and liabilities associated with these substances.
This work enabled DOE to gather information about current and past uses of PFAS; develop policies, guidance documents, and educational materials to support more effective efforts to manage PFAS-related liabilities and constructively engage with internal and external stakeholders; and identify research needs and opportunities to support DOE efforts to develop solutions to PFAS challenges. The coordinated efforts of this team have positioned DOE to engage constructively on an issue of high-level national concern in an informed, proactive, and effective manner.
“I am honored to be part of the team that was recognized by the Secretary of Energy,” Paquette said. “Over the past four years, the DOE has been proactive in trying to understand the extent of PFAS contamination resulting from past operations and to prevent any new impacts to the environment.”
The PFAS team recently produced three noteworthy documents including the DOE PFAS Roadmap, the DOE Initial site-by-site PFAS survey, and the DOE Initial PFAS Research and Development Plan. These documents can be found on DOE’s PFAS website at Energy.gov/pfas.
“Each of these documents highlights Brookhaven Lab’s contributions to PFAS R&D solutions, novel approaches to PFAS remediation, and transparency with the community and regulators,” said Gordon. “It’s not a coincidence that Brookhaven Lab is prominent in DOE’s key PFAS documents; it is because of Brookhaven’s recognized expertise, experience, and willingness to serve as a resource across the DOE enterprise.”
Brookhaven National Laboratory is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit science.energy.gov.
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Shares of Chevron Corp.
CVX,
fell 0.7% in premarket trading Friday after the oil and gas giant missed fourth-quarter profit expectations, while revenue rose above forecasts. Net income rose to $6.35 billion, or $3.33 a share, from $5.06 billion, or $2.63 a share, in the year-ago period. Excluding nonrecurring items, adjusted earnings per share of $4.09 was below the FactSet consensus of $4.33. Sales grew 17.3% to $56.47 billion, beating the FactSet consensus of $52.68 billion. Net oil-equivalent production fell 3% to 3.01 million barrels per day, as U.S. production rose 4% but international production dropped 7% due primarily to the end of concessions in Thailand and Indonesia. For Chevron’s upstream business, which includes exploration and production, U.S. earnings declined 11.9% to $2.62 billion while international earnings jumped 31.2% to $2.87 billion. “We delivered record earnings and cash flow in 2022, while increasing investments and growing U.S. production to a company record,” said Chief Executive Mike Wirth. The stock has gained 5.6% over the past three months through Thursday, while the Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF
XLE,
has tacked on 4.7% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
advanced 6.0%.
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Newswise — KIMM has announced the development of the design and process technology for the world’s first battery electrode that significantly improves the performance and stability of batteries used in electronic devices such as smartphones, laptops, and electric vehicles.
A joint research team led by principal researcher Seungmin Hyun of the Department of Nano-Mechanics at the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (President Sang-jin Park, hereinafter referred to as KIMM), an institution under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Science and ICT, and Professor Hoo-jeong Lee of Sungkyunkwan University (President Ji-beom Yoo, hereinafter referred to as SKKU) have developed a new battery technology that uses an electrode (Anode) structure that enhances the reliability and performance of traditional lithium-ion batteries. The results of their research achievement were published in the leading journal Advanced Functional Materials (IF: 19.924)*.
*Publication title: Design Strategies toward High-Performance Hybrid Carbon Bilayer Anode for Improved Ion Transport and Reaction Stability (Publication date: 2022.11.10)
In order to develop a design and process technology that maintains high performance and reliability even when the electrode of the lithium-ion battery is thick, the KIMM-SKKU joint research team formed a bilayered anode. Additionally, the anode is designed with grooves allowing small materials with improved ion conductivity and electrical conductivity to be placed between high-capacity materials
In general, lithium-ion battery electrodes are manufactured by coating and drying a slurry* so that it can be evenly distributed over the entire electrode. As such, it is the uniformity of the slurry that determines the performance of battery. The thicker the electrode, the lower the energy density and uniformity, making it difficult to maintain performance in a high-power environment.
*Slurry: A mixture of solids and liquids. Specifically, this refers to a mixture of active materials that chemically react to generate electrical energy when a battery is discharged, binders that are added for the structural stabilization of electrodes, and conductive materials that are added to improve electric conductivity.
However, with the anode structure of this newly developed battery. Uniform reaction stability can be achieved while maintaining high energy density throughout the electrode, even if the electrode is thick. This is particularly helpful in improving the performance and lifespan of batteries.
Principal researcher Seungmin Hyun stated that this achievement is an efficient method to improve the performance and lifespan of batteries by applying a new design to traditional lithium-ion battery materials and processes. He added that the team will continue to make efforts to apply this new technology to electric vehicles and soft robots that require high energy density in high-power environments, as well as to electronic devices such as commercial smartphones and laptops.
This research study was carried out with the support of the Nano and Material Technology Development Project (No. 2021M3H4A1A02099352) from the Ministry of Science and ICT, and with the support of the Nano-based Omni-TEX Manufacturing Technology Development Project from KIMM.
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The Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM) is a non-profit government-funded research institute under the Ministry of Science and ICT. Since its foundation in 1976, KIMM is contributing to economic growth of the nation by performing R&D on key technologies in machinery and materials, conducting reliability test evaluation, and commercializing the developed products and technologies.
This research study was carried out with the support of the Nano and Material Technology Development Project (No. 2021M3H4A1A02099352) from the Ministry of Science and ICT, and with the support of the Nano-based Omni-TEX Manufacturing Technology Development Project from KIMM.
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U.S. stocks opened higher on Thursday as optimism over Tesla’s earnings results and a stronger-than-expected GDP report left investors in a better mood following Wednesday’s intraday selloff.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished Wednesday’s session up 10 points after falling roughly 400 points at the lows earlier in the session. The S&P 500 finished little-changed after erasing its early losses, while the Nasdaq ended lower.
Stocks opened higher after a flurry of economic data including a fourth quarter GDP report that came in stronger than expected, but the focus was on the latest batch of earnings, which helped to revive investors’ optimism following disappointing guidance from Microsoft Corp.
MSFT,
earlier in the week.
The economy grew at a robust 2.9% annual pace to close out 2022, according to the first estimate of fourth quarter GDP, released Thursday morning — the latest sign that the U.S. economy is holding up well despite the Federal Reserve’s aggressive interest-rate hikes.
“Thursday’s GDP report suggests that the economy is relatively strong even in the face of aggressive measures by the Federal Reserve to calm inflation,” said Carol Schleif, chief investment officer, BMO Family Office, in emailed commentary.
Stocks rose after the data were released as investors found solace in the latest signs that a soft landing for the U.S. economy — a scenario where growth slows, but a recession is avoided — remains possible, or even likely.
“This is a bit of a relief rally,” said Christopher Zook, chairman and chief investment officer of CAZ Investments.
However, corporate earnings and guidance are still the primary concern for investors, along with expectations about when the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates, Zook said.
The labor market also showed signs of strength despite more reports of layoffs in the tech, finance and media spaces, as the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits fell to their lowest level since April. Investors also digested durable goods orders for December. New home sales for December will be published at 10 a.m. ET.
Investors also celebrated a surge in Tesla Inc.
TSLA,
shares premarket after the firm released well-received results that showed record quarterly profits.
Disappointing guidance from technology behemoth Microsoft had clobbered stocks on Wednesday as traders worried it signaled not just difficulties for the sector but also broadly worsening economic conditions.
However, before the end of Wednesday’s session, Microsoft shares had recovered most of their 4.5% loss and the S&P 500 finished the session almost exactly where it began, according to data from FactSet.
As for the Federal Reserve, the central bank is expected to slow the pace of interest rate hikes when it next week raises its policy rate by 25 basis points to a range of 4.5% to 4.75%.
Companies announcing results on Thursday include: McDonald’s
MCD,
Intel
INTC,
Comcast
CMCSA,
Visa
V,
Dow
DOW,
Whirl pool
WHR,
Western Digital
WDC,
and Northrop Grumman
NOC,
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BOA VISTA, Brazil, Jan 25 (IPS) – “Our electric power is of bad quality, it ruins electrical appliances,” complained Jesus Mota, 63. “In other places it works well, not here. Just because we are indigenous,” protested his wife, Adélia Augusto da Silva, of the same age.
The Darora Community of the Macuxi indigenous people illustrates the struggle for electricity by towns and isolated villages in the Amazon rainforest. Most get it from generators that run on diesel, a fuel that is polluting and expensive since it is transported from far away, by boats that travel on rivers for days.
Located 88 kilometers from the city of Boa Vista, capital of the state of Roraima, in the far north of Brazil, Darora celebrated the inauguration of its solar power plant, installed by the municipal government, in March 2017. It represented modernity in the form of a clean, stable source of energy.
A 600-meter network of poles and cables made it possible to light up the “center” of the community and to distribute electricity to its 48 families.
But “it only lasted a month, the batteries broke down,” Tuxaua (chief) Lindomar da Silva Homero, 43, a school bus driver, told IPS during a visit to the community. The village had to go back to the noisy and unreliable diesel generator, which only supplies a few hours of electricity a day.
Fortunately, about four months later, the Boa Vista electricity distribution company laid its cables to Darora, making it part of its grid.
“The solar panels were left here, useless. We want to reactivate them, it would be really good. We need more powerful batteries, like the ones they put in the bus terminal in Boa Vista,” said Homero, referring to one of the many solar plants that the city government installed in the capital.
Tuxaua (chief) Lindomar Homero of the Darora Community is calling for new adequate batteries to reactivate the solar power plant, because the electricity they receive from the national grid is too expensive for the local indigenous people. Behind him stands his predecessor, former tuxaua Jesus Mota. CREDIT: Mario Osava/IPS
Expensive energy
But indigenous people can’t afford the electricity from the distributor Roraima Energía, he said. On average, each family pays between 100 and 150 reais (20 to 30 dollars) a month, he estimated.
Besides, there are unpleasant surprises. “My November bill climbed to 649 reais” (130 dollars), without any explanation,” Homero complained. The solar energy was free.
“If you don’t pay, they cut off your power,” said Mota, who was tuxaua from 1990 to 2020.”In addition, the electricity from the grid fails a lot,” which is why the equipment is damaged.
Apart from the unreliable supply and frequent blackouts, there is not enough energy for the irrigation of agriculture, the community’s main source of income. “We can do it with diesel pumps, but it’s expensive; selling watermelons at the current price does not cover the cost,” he said.
“In 2022, it rained a lot, but there are dry summers that require irrigation for our corn, bean, squash, potato, and cassava crops. The energy we receive is not enough to operate the pump,” said Mota.
A photo of the three water tanks in the village of Darora, one of which holds water that is made potable by chemical treatment. The largest and longest building is the secondary school that serves the Macuxi indigenous community that lives in Roraima, in northern Brazil. CREDIT: Mario Osava/IPS
Achilles’ heel
Batteries still apparently limit the efficiency of solar energy in isolated or autonomous off-grid systems, with which the government and various private initiatives are attempting to make the supply of electricity universal and replace diesel generators.
Homero said that some of the Darora families who live outside the “center” of the village and have solar panels also had problems with the batteries.
Besides the 48 families in the village “center” there are 18 rural families, bringing the community’s total population to 265.
A solar plant was also installed in another community made up of 22 indigenous families of the Warao people, immigrants from Venezuela, called Warao a Janoko, 30 kilometers from Boa Vista.
But of the plant’s eight batteries, two have already stopped working after only a few months of use. And electricity is only guaranteed until 8:00 p.m.
“Batteries have gotten a lot better in the last decade, but they are still the weak link in solar power,” Aurelio Souza, a consultant who specializes in this question, told IPS from the city of São Paulo. “Poor sizing and the low quality of electronic charging control equipment aggravate this situation and reduce the useful life of the batteries.”
The low quality of the electricity supplied to Darora is due to the discrimination suffered by indigenous people, according to Adélia Augusto da Silva. The water they used to drink was also dirty and caused illnesses, especially in children, until the indigenous health service began to chemically treat their drinking water. CREDIT: Mario Osava/IPS
In Brazil’s Amazon jungle, close to a million people live without electricity, according to the Institute of Energy and the Environment, a non-governmental organization based in São Paulo. More precisely, its 2019 study identified 990,103 people in that situation.
Another three million inhabitants of the region, including the 650,000 people in Roraima, are outside the National Interconnected Electricity System. Their energy therefore depends mostly on diesel fuel transported from other regions, at a cost that affects all Brazilians.
The government decided to subsidize this fossil fuel so that the cost of electricity is not prohibitive in the Amazon region.
This subsidy is paid by other consumers, which contributes to making Brazilian electricity one of the most expensive in the world, despite the low cost of its main source, hydropower, which accounts for about 60 of the country’s electricity.
Solar energy became a viable alternative as the parts became cheaper. Initiatives to bring electricity to remote communities and reduce diesel consumption mushroomed.
But in remote plants outside the reach of the grid, good batteries are needed to store energy for the nighttime hours.
Part of the so-called “downtown” in Darora, which has lamp posts, houses, a soccer field and a shed where the community meets. A larger community center is needed, says
the leader of the Macuxi village located near Boa Vista, the capital of the northern Brazilian state of Roraima. CREDIT: Mario Osava/IPS
A unique case
Darora is not a typical case. It is part of the municipality of Boa Vista, which has a population of 437,000 inhabitants and good resources, it is close to a paved road and is within a savannah ecosystem called “lavrado”.
It is at the southern end of the São Marcos indigenous territory, where many Macuxi indigenous people live but fewer than in Raposa Serra do Sol, Roraima’s other large native reserve. According to the Special Secretariat for Indigenous Health (Sesai), there were 33,603 Macuxi Indians living in Roraima in 2014.
The Macuxi people also live in the neighboring country of Guyana, where there are a similar number to that of Roraima. Their language is part of the Karib family.
Although there are no large forests in the surrounding area, Darora takes its name from a tree, which offers “very resistant wood that is good for building houses,” Homero explained.
The community emerged in 1944, founded by a patriarch who lived to be 93 years old and attracted other Macuxi people to the area.
The progress they have made especially stands out in the secondary school in the village “center”, which currently has 89 students and 32 employees, “all from Darora, except for three teachers from outside,” Homero said proudly.
A new, larger elementary and middle school for students in the first to ninth grades was built a few years ago about 500 meters from the community.
Water used to be a serious problem. “We drank dirty, red water, children died of diarrhea. But now we have good, treated water,” said Adélia da Silva.
“We dug three artesian wells, but the water was useless, it was salty. The solution was brought by a Sesai technician, who used a chemical substance to make the water from the lagoon drinkable,” Homero said.
The community has three elevated water tanks, two for water used for bathing and cleaning and one for drinking water. There are no more health problems caused by water, the tuxaua said.
His current concern is to find new sources of income for the community. Tourism is one alternative. “We have the Tacutu river beach 300 meters away, great fruit production, handicrafts and typical local gastronomy based on corn and cassava,” he said, listing attractions for visitors.
© Inter Press Service (2023) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service
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Chevron Corp. CVX said late Wednesday that its board has approved a dividend increase of 6% to $1.51 a share, payable March 10 to shareholders of record as of Feb. 16. The board also authorized a $75 billion share buyback authorization, which takes effect April 1 and does not have a fixed expiration date, Chevron said. Shares of Chevron rose 2.9% in the extended session Wednesday after ending the regular trading day down 1%.
…
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Chevron last month reported its second-highest quarterly profit ever.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Energy giant Chevron announced a $75 billion stock buyback program and a dividend hike on Wednesday evening.
Shares of Chevron were up more than 2% in extended trading.
The buyback program will become effective on April 1, with no set expiration date, the company said in a press release. The dividend hike increases Chevron’s per share payout to $1.51 from $1.42, and that will be distributed on March 10.
Chevron’s market cap was roughly $350 billion as of Wednesday’s market close, meaning that the buyback would represent more than 20% of the company’s stock at current prices.
This buyback plan follows a $25 billion plan enacted in 2019. The old plan will be terminated at the end of March. For the third quarter of 2022 — the most recent quarter that Chevron has reported — the company repurchased $3.75 billion of shares.
The new buyback plan comes after a massive year for energy stocks, as a reopened U.S. economy and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine combined to drive oil and gas prices hire in 2022. Chevron reported more than $12 billion of free cash flow and $11 billion of net income in the third quarter alone.
The financial success of energy companies has led to criticism from politicians, including U.S. President Joe Biden, who threatened higher taxes on energy companies last year for their “war profiteering.”
Chevron CEO Mike Wirth told CNBC in December that the company was “in contact” with the Biden administration on a variety of issues.
“Our goal of stable markets and prices that are affordable for the economy is something we share. How we get there, sometimes we have different ideas,” Wirth said on “Squawk Box.”
This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.
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These are tricky times in the stock market, so it pays to look to the best stock-fund managers for guidance on how to behave now. Veteran value investor Bill Nygren belongs in this camp, because the Oakmark Fund OAKMX he co-manages consistently and substantially outperforms its peers.
That isn’t easy, considering how many fund managers fail to do so. Nygren’s fund beats its Morningstar large-cap value index and category by more than four percentage points annualized over the past three years. It also outperforms at five and…
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Newswise — WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $105 million for research in biopreparedness. This funding, provided by the Office of Science, will support fundamental research to accelerate breakthroughs in support of the Biopreparedness Research Virtual Environment (BRaVE) initiative.
“BRaVE will take advantage of DOE’s unique capabilities and facilities in physical, computational, and life sciences to support our nation’s biopreparedness and response to future pandemics and other biological threats,” said Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, DOE’s Director of the Office of Science. “The knowledge and capabilities advanced by this research will have broader impacts in energy, climate change, food security, health, sustainability, and other areas critical to national and economic security.”
During the COVID crisis, DOE’s national laboratory researchers provided epidemiological information to decision makers, assessed and developed new virus testing protocols, identified high potential candidates for antiviral drugs and delivered manufacturing solutions to stem the shortages of face masks, test kits, and other supplies. In addition, DOE’s user facilities supported researchers in the fight against COVID-19, including providing X-ray structural information that supported the development of all three vaccines approved in the U.S., as well as FDA-approved antiviral drugs and antibodies.
BRaVE will build upon these high impact results to provide the underpinning science to enable DOE’s strategy for biopreparedness and response by focusing on five focus areas.
Applications are open to the DOE national laboratories. Partnerships with other institutions, including academia, other national laboratories, not-for-profit organizations, or industry, are strongly encouraged. To strengthen the commitment to promoting a diversity of investigators and institutions supported by the DOE Office of Science, applications are explicitly encouraged that involve Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs), including Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).
Total combined planned funding is up to $105 million over three years, with $35 million in Fiscal Year 2023 dollars and outyear funding contingent on congressional appropriations. The funding anticipated for each award is $2M to $4M per year.
The program announcement, sponsored by the Offices of Advanced Scientific Research Computing, Basic Energy Sciences, and Biological and Environmental Research within the Department’s Office of Science, can be found here.
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The world is in greater danger in 2023 than it has been at any moment over the past seven decades, warns a leading panel of scientists and security experts.
The illegal Russian-Ukraine conflict and its risk that nuclear weapons could be used was a primary, but not exclusive, catalyst in bumping forward the hands on the symbolic measure known as the “Doomsday Clock.”
The…
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A group of U.S. lawmakers wants the Biden administration to ask the United Arab Emirates to remove the oil company chief the country chose to lead the next U.N. climate talks — or at a minimum “seek assurances” that the UAE will promote an ambitious COP28 summit.
In a letter to Special Presidential Climate Envoy John Kerry, 27 members of the House and Senate called for him to “urge” the UAE to withdraw the appointment of UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, who is also the CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, to lead the COP28 discussions, which start November 30 in Dubai. The company is one of the world’s largest oil producers.
“The appointment of an oil company executive to head COP 28 poses a risk to the negotiation process as well as the whole conference itself,” said the note, which was shared exclusively with POLITICO.
“To help ensure that COP 28 is a serious and productive climate summit, we believe the United States should urge the United Arab Emirates to name a different lead for COP 28 or, at a minimum, seek assurances that it will promote an ambitious COP 28 aligned with the 1.5 degrees Celsius limit,” the lawmakers added.
Kerry — along with other climate diplomats, including the EU’s Frans Timmermans — has repeatedly defended Al Jaber’s appointment in recent weeks, calling him a “terrific choice” in an interview with the Associated Press. Kerry also said ADNOC understood the need to shift its business away from fossil fuels. Kerry’s office was not immediately available to comment on the letter.
A COP28 spokesperson, who had not seen the letter, defended Al Jaber’s record “as a diplomat, minister, and business leader across the energy and renewables industry.” They highlighted his role as founder of renewables company Masdar, calling it “one of the world’s largest renewable energy company with clean energy investments in over 40 countries.”
“His experience uniquely positions him to be able to convene both the public and private sector to bring about pragmatic solutions to achieve the goals and aspirations of the Paris Climate Agreement,” the spokesperson said.
But the U.S. lawmakers noted the long history of fossil fuel industry interference in climate talks.
“Having a fossil fuel champion in charge of the world’s most important climate negotiations would be like having the CEO of a cigarette conglomerate in charge of global tobacco policy. It risks undermining the very essence of what is trying to be accomplished,” they wrote.
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Karl Mathiesen
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When you’re feeling under the weather, the last thing you want to do is trek from pharmacy to pharmacy searching for basic medicines like cough syrup and antibiotics. Yet many people across Europe — faced with a particularly harsh winter bug season — are having to do just that.
Since late 2022, EU countries have been reporting serious problems trying to source certain important drugs, with a majority now experiencing shortages. So just how bad is the situation and, crucially, what’s being done about it? POLITICO walks you through the main points.
In a survey of groups representing pharmacies in 29 European countries, including EU members as well as Turkey, Kosovo, Norway and North Macedonia, almost a quarter of countries reported more than 600 drugs in short supply, and 20 percent reported 200-300 drug shortages. Three-quarters of the countries said shortages were worse this winter than a year ago. Groups in four countries said that shortages had been linked to deaths.
It’s a portrait backed by data from regulators. Belgian authorities report nearly 300 medicines in short supply. In Germany that number is 408, while in Austria more than 600 medicines can’t be bought in pharmacies at the moment. Italy’s list is even longer — with over 3,000 drugs included, though many are different formulations of the same medicine.
Antibiotics — particularly amoxicillin, which is used to treat respiratory infections — are in short supply. Other classes of drugs, including cough syrup, children’s paracetamol, and blood pressure medicine, are also scarce.
It’s a mix of increased demand and reduced supply.
Seasonal infections — influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) first and foremost — started early and are stronger than usual. There’s also an unusual outbreak of throat disease Strep A in children. Experts think the unusually high level of disease activity is linked to weaker immune systems that are no longer familiar with the soup of germs surrounding us in daily life, due to lockdowns. This difficult winter, after a couple of quiet years (with the exception of COVID-19), caught drugmakers unprepared.
Inflation and the energy crisis have also been weighing on pharmaceutical companies, affecting supply.
Last year, Centrient Pharmaceuticals, a Dutch producer of active pharmaceutical ingredients, said its plant was producing a quarter less output than in 2021 due to high energy costs. In December, InnoGenerics, another manufacturer from the Netherlands, was bailed out by the government after declaring bankruptcy to keep its factory open.
The result, according to Sandoz, one of the largest producers on the European generics market, is an especially “tight supply situation.” A spokesperson told POLITICO that other culprits include scarcity of raw materials and manufacturing capacity constraints. They added that Sandoz is able to meet demand at the moment, but is “facing challenges.”
Some countries are slamming the brakes on exports to protect domestic supplies. In November, Greece’s drugs regulator expanded the list of medicine whose resale to other countries — known as parallel trade — is banned. Romania has temporarily stopped exports of certain antibiotics and kids’ painkillers. Earlier in January, Belgium published a decree that allows the authorities to halt exports in case of a crisis.
These freezes can have knock-on effects. A letter from European Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides addressed to Greece’s Health Minister Thanos Plevris asked him to take into consideration the effects of bans on third countries. “Member States must refrain from taking national measures that could affect the EU internal market and prevent access to medicines for those in need in other Member States,” wrote Kyriakides.
Germany’s government is considering changing the law to ease procurement requirements, which currently force health insurers to buy medicines where they are cheapest, concentrating the supply into the hands of a few of the most price-competitive producers. The new law would have buyers purchase medicines from multiple suppliers, including more expensive ones, to make supply more reliable. The Netherlands recently introduced a law requiring vendors to keep six weeks of stockpiles to bridge shortages, and in Sweden the government is proposing similar rules.
At a more granular level, a committee led by the EU’s drugs regulator, the European Medicines Agency (EMA), has recommended that rules be loosened to allow pharmacies to dispense pills or medicine doses individually, among other measures. In Germany, the president of the German Medical Association went so far as to call for the creation of informal “flea markets” for medicines, where people could give their unused drugs to patients who needed them. And in France and Germany, pharmacists have started producing their own medicines — though this is unlikely to make a big difference, given the extent of the shortfall.
In theory, the EU should be more ready than ever to tackle a bloc-wide crisis. It has recently upgraded its legislation to deal with health threats, including a lack of pharmaceuticals. The EMA has been given expanded powers to monitor drug shortages. And a whole new body, the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) has been set up, with the power to go on the market and purchase drugs for the entire bloc.
But not everyone agrees that it’s that bad yet.
Last Thursday, the EMA decided not to ask the Commission to declare the amoxycillin shortage a “major event” — an official label that would have triggered some (limited) EU-wide action— saying that current measures are improving the situation.
A European Medicines Agency’s working group on shortages could decide on Thursday whether to recommend that the Commission declares the drug shortages a “major event” — an official label that would trigger some (limited) EU-wide action. An EMA steering group for shortages would have the power to request data on drug stocks of the drugs and production capacity from suppliers, and issue recommendations on how to mitigate shortages.
At an appearance before the European Parliament’s health committee, the Commission’s top health official, Sandra Gallina, said she wanted to “dismiss a bit the idea that there is a huge shortage,” and said that alternative medications are available to use.
And others believe the situation will get better with time. “I think it will sort itself out, but that depends on the peak of infections,” said Adrian van den Hoven, director general of generics medicines lobby Medicines for Europe. “If we have reached the peak, supply will catch up quickly. If not, probably not a good scenario.”
Helen Collis and Sarah-Taïssir Bencharif contributed reporting.
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Carlo Martuscelli
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Several energy companies are expected to post record earnings in 2022.
Exxon Mobil
alone is on track to make about $60 billion. But 2023 is a different story. While the setup is still very strong for most oil-and-gas companies, many are expected to see their earnings per share fall from 2022 levels.
Oil prices have fallen well below last year’s highs, and natural gas has slipped too. Producers of oil and gas are also expecting higher costs this year, with oil services companies raising their rates.
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The University of Texas at El Paso signed a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory to create new research opportunities for UTEP faculty and students as well as internship and employment opportunities in critical fields such as energy, data science and quantum information.
“Long-term partnerships with national laboratories like Brookhaven become more important as we expand UTEP’s research portfolio and graduate more and more doctoral students,” said UTEP President Heather Wilson. “We look forward to working together.”
Brookhaven Lab, located in Long Island, New York, is one of 10 national laboratories overseen and primarily funded by the DOE’s Office of Science. It opened in 1947 and is home to seven Nobel Prizes and more than 2,500 staff members.
The agreement signed this week stems from interests shared by both UTEP and Brookhaven in advancing discovery in science, technology and engineering, officials from both institutions said.
“Brookhaven is honored to have entered into an MOU with UTEP,” said Brookhaven Lab Director Doon Gibbs. “We look forward to leveraging the facilities and expertise of our two institutions, identifying areas where we can collaborate to solve national challenges, and developing the next generation of scientists and engineers.”
To foster collaboration and help develop professional relationships, UTEP and Brookhaven will implement exchange visits, study tours and short courses offered at both locations so that members of the Brookhaven team can learn about the work done at UTEP and vice versa.
For UTEP faculty and students, this plan will offer the added benefit of access to advanced research facilities and specialized equipment not widely available at universities nationally.
UTEP and Brookhaven will also proactively work to identify opportunities for UTEP students to work at or with the lab on projects that could lead to future employment opportunities.
Alex Harris, Ph.D., director of Energy Science and Technology at Brookhaven, will serve as the lab’s liaison with the University. His counterpart will be Carlos R. Cabrera Martínez, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in UTEP’s College of Science.
One of the first products of the agreement that is already underway is a research collaboration between UTEP faculty and members of the chemistry department at Brookhaven on sustainable energy. Several more joint initiatives are now in the planning stages.
About Brookhaven National Laboratory
One of 10 national laboratories overseen and primarily funded by DOE’s Office of Science, Brookhaven Lab conducts research in the physical, biological, and environmental sciences, as well as in energy technologies and national security. Brookhaven Lab also builds and operates major scientific facilities available to university, industry and government researchers. Brookhaven is operated and managed by Brookhaven Science Associates, a partnership founded by Stony Brook University, the largest academic user of Laboratory facilities, and Battelle, a nonprofit applied science and technology organization.
Follow @BrookhavenLab on Twitter or find us on Facebook.
About The University of Texas at El Paso
The University of Texas at El Paso is America’s leading Hispanic-serving university. Located at the westernmost tip of Texas, where three states and two countries converge along the Rio Grande, 84% of our 24,000 students are Hispanic, and half are the first in their families to go to college. UTEP offers 169 bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs at the only open-access, top-tier research university in America.
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A dark mole dots the brown earth, among the green scrub at this spot in southeastern Mexico. A repetitive “glug, glug,” a noise sounding like a thirsty animal, and an intense stench lead to this site, hidden in the undergrowth, where a broken pipe has created a pool of dense oil.
The smell of fuel overpowers the usual aroma of the surrounding vegetation.
The oil and natural gas leak runs freely in a well belonging to the state-run oil giant Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) in Reforma Escolín, part of Papantla, a municipality in the southeastern state of Veracruz, in the vicinity of a natural gas flare that illuminates the semi-cloudy environment and warms the already high temperature.
Far from the gaze of Mexico’s Agency for Security, Energy and Environment (ASEA), responsible for monitoring the fossil fuel industry in the country, and Pemex, the gas flares in an area dotted with oil and gas wells.
“The infrastructure is old, they don’t maintain it. When there are leaks, you hear a ‘ssssss’ and the smell is unbearable, you can’t stay in your house,” Omar Lázaro, a delegate to the municipality of the non-governmental National Indigenous Congress, which brings together native peoples and organizations, told IPS.
The local community all too vividly recalls the Jun. 4, 2022 explosion of a Pemex gas pipeline that put residents on edge and confirmed, for the umpteenth time, the potentially catastrophic impacts of fossil fuels.
Lázaro, a local musician, recalled that the leak flowed for two days, there were four fires in the affected area and the fire lasted two weeks, some 300 kilometers from Mexico City, in Papantla, (which means “place of abundant papán” – a local bird – in the Nahuatl language), home to just under 160,000 inhabitants in its extensive rural and semi-urban territory.
“In some places there was a smell of gas before the explosion. The problem was that the scrubland began to burn and there was no water to put it out. Pemex threatened that it would not take responsibility if people went in to put out the fire and something happened to them,” said Lázaro, who is also a member of the Assembly for the Defense of the Territory, which represents some 20 communities and five municipal organizations.
In essence, the gas is methane, 86 times more powerful at trapping heat than carbon dioxide (CO2) over 20 years, even though it spends less time in the atmosphere.
That means it is important to control it to curb the rise in the planet’s temperature to no more than 1.5 degrees C, according to the commitments made by the international community.
The incident in the town of Reforma Escolín is part of a pattern of gas leaks from the extraction and transportation of oil and gas by Pemex and private companies in Mexico, without enforcement by the environmental authorities of the existing regulations.
IPS reviewed Pemex databases on leaks and its prevention plans, obtained through public information requests, which point to underreporting of gas emissions – composed mainly of methane – and confirmed the evidence that leaks devastate an area where gas wells abound.
Historically, Pemex has been the biggest culprit in the gas leaks, due to the size of its infrastructure in Mexico.
After a drop between 2017 and 2019, gas explosions have been on the rise since 2020. Most of the incidents occur at hydrocarbon facilities in the states of Campeche, Tabasco and Veracruz in southeastern Mexico.
In 2020, 78 gas leaks by Pemex and its subsidiaries were registered, 85 by private companies, and 32 by the National Center for Natural Gas Control (CENAGAS), which manages the gas pipelines that belonged to the state oil company, without estimates of the resulting methane emissions, according to ASEA figures.
A year later, Pemex reported 91 leaks, private companies 74, and CENAGAS 28.
These leaks come from gas pipelines, compressor stations and other facilities that transport, store and distribute gas, infrastructure that adds up to some 30,000 facilities and 50,000 kilometers of gas pipelines.
The face of Pastora García, one of the 11 members of the Municipal Council of Papantla, reflects concern about the leaks.
“Things are bad here, there are a lot of risks. This is how Pemex works and we’re screwed. It is worrisome, because people live here,” she told IPS while she was working in Reforma Escolín, a town of some 1,000 people.
García was a municipal councillor in the small town and submitted three requests for pipeline repairs in 2011 and 2020, obtaining no response, and the leaks continued.
In and around the town, local residents grow citrus fruit, beans and corn, and raise cattle, and the pollution harms their activities. In the area, the ground looks like Swiss cheese from which gas frequently emanates, as during the great leak of 2013.
Although ASEA does not record the volumes of leaks, Mexico ranked tenth in the world in methane emissions in 2021, a list led by China, India and the United States, and which also includes Brazil, according to data from the International Energy Agency (IEA), an intergovernmental grouping of large oil consumers.
In addition, since 2019 oil and gas infrastructure has released methane into the atmosphere in Mexico, according to satellite images.
In June 2022, a group of European scientists revealed that Pemex released 40,000 tons of methane in December 2021 from an offshore platform in the Gulf of Mexico.
In the case of Pemex, one of the aggravating factors is the deliberate venting or release and flaring of gas, which has been on the rise since 2017 due to the lack of capture technology and economic incentives for its use, since it is more convenient for the oil company to simply release and burn it off.
This practice grew from 3,800 cubic meters (m3) of gas in 2017 to 6,600 in 2021, according to the World Bank’s Global Gas Flaring Reduction Initiative (GGFR), made up of 20 governments, 12 oil companies and three multilateral organizations. Mexico forms part of the alliance, but Pemex does not.
The IEA measured Mexico’s emissions at 6.33 million tons of methane in 2021, equivalent to 1.8 percent of the world total, to which agriculture contributed 2.53 million, waste 2.28 million, and production and energy consumption 1.47 million. In this segment, venting and flaring represent the main factors, and in gas pipelines, leaks.
Itziar Irakulis, a researcher at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, told IPS from that Spanish city that “from the satellite we see that every time the gas flaring stops (the torch goes out), about 100 tons of methane per hour are vented. This turns the oil platform into what in the literature we call an ultra-emitter.”
The expert, co-author of a study on the release of gas from Pemex platforms, stressed that, in the face of the climate crisis, “the last thing we need is more ultra-emission events of this type.”
In November 2022, Pemex, which ranks 20th in the world in proven crude oil reserves and 41st in gas, produced 1.7 million barrels of oil per day and 4.7 billion cubic feet of gas per day (Bcf/d). Because domestic production is insufficient, it imported 555 million Bcf/d, mainly from the United States.
Anaid Velasco, research coordinator at the non-governmental Mexican Center for Environmental Law (CEMDA), described the “important challenges” in accounting for and curbing methane emissions.
“There is more talk about methane, but there is still no public policy. This disconnect between what is said and what is done has to do with not creating more responsibilities that could be binding, in order to apply an energy policy based on fossil fuel sources. They don’t want to generate a greater regulatory burden” for the oil industry, especially Pemex, she told IPS.
ASEA partially applies the regulation to control methane emissions, which is why Mexico faces hurdles to meet its Nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The regulation was supposed to enter into force in December 2019, after it was drafted in 2018. But in July 2020, under the pretext of the COVID-19 pandemic, ASEA postponed its application for 19 months, until the end of January 2022.
As of August 2022, 18 companies, including the subsidiaries Pemex Exploración y Producción (PEP) and Pemex Logística, had presented to ASEA their program for the prevention and comprehensive control of methane emissions from the hydrocarbons sector, the fundamental component of the regulation.
The state Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) had not delivered its plan.
Between 2017 and October 2022, ASEA imposed 26 fines on state-run and private companies totaling 3.83 million dollars, of which they have paid 3.29 million, without specifying the reason, which means it is not clear if the fines targeted methane emissions.
From 2017 to 2021, it fined Pemex Transformación Industrial three times for undisclosed reasons, which the company appealed.
But ASEA did not investigate the two fires on the surface of the ocean in the Gulf of Mexico, caused by methane leaks in July and August 2021, according to its own records. After the explosion in Reforma Escolín, a group of residents filed a complaint with ASEA, to no avail.
Pemex abandoned its plan to reduce gas flaring in its fields and the ministry of energy blocked the application of regulations in this regard, as reported by the British news agency Reuters throughout 2022.
In August, the state-run National Hydrocarbons Commission, the regulator of the oil industry, fined Pemex about two million dollars for excessive gas flaring at the Ixachi oil and gas field in Veracruz.
In 2021 Mexico signed the Global Methane Pledge, aimed at cutting emissions by 30 percent in 2030, from 2020 levels. But the country has not yet set a specific goal.
Along these lines, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who supports fossil fuel energy over renewables and promotes Pemex, announced in June 2022 that the oil giant would invest two billion dollars, with international aid, to cut methane emissions by 98 percent.
But there is no detailed plan to reach that target, beyond Pemex’s previous program to curb them.
In its methane control plan, obtained by IPS through Mexico’s freedom of information act, the oil company set an annual reduction goal in the Cantarell field, the country’s biggest, in the Gulf of Mexico, of four percent between 2017 and 2022. and calculated that emissions totaled 27,175 tons per year. But it is not known how much progress has been made towards this target.
However, the oil company uses an emission factor – the average amount of a pollutant coming from a specific process, fuel, equipment or source – instead of a measurement at the source site.
For the Ku Maloob Zaap field, the country’s second-largest, there are no measurements. The highest estimate comes from the Macuspana-Muspac deposit, located between the states of Chiapas and Tabasco, which emit 199,222 tons, followed by the Poza Rica Altamira Reynosa deposit – between Veracruz and Tamaulipas – with 73,352 tons; the Nejo Olmos field in Tamaulipas (53,395 tons); and Samaria-Luna in Tabasco (52,669 tons).
These emissions come from equipment, gas pipelines, compressors, leaks and venting. Pemex, which did not include infrastructure in other areas of the country, estimates decreases between four percent and 25 percent over a period of six years.
Throughout 2023, public and private companies must submit their annual reports to ASEA.
For the Cantarell deposit, the oil company ordered a halt to the flaring of 80 million Bcf/d, equivalent to 72.74 tons of methane. In addition, PEP applied measures to reduce flaring by 291 billion Bcf/d.
As natural gas for consumption in Mexico continues to be imported via pipelines and burned in combined-cycle power plants that also use steam, methane emissions will also continue, as occurred in the United States.
In places like Reforma Escolín, people have not gotten used to living among time bombs and are only asking that the leaks be repaired, although opposition by the local community is waning.
Lázaro lamented that “After the accident, some community assemblies were held, but the social mobilization dwindled, undermined by the local authorities.”
Without fighting methane emissions, Mexico will have a hard time reaching its Nationally determined contributions, presented to comply with the Paris Agreement on climate change, signed in 2015.
Velasco the environmentalist doubts that Mexico will meet its commitments. “They set goals because there is a lot of international interest. It is good that they make commitments, because it gives us tools to monitor the situation and demand compliance. If Pemex receives financing, we don’t know how it will execute it. Transparency and traceability are needed,” she said.
Spanish researcher Irakulis said maintenance and continuous flaring prevent ultra-emissions.
“It is true that the flares already have other types of emissions associated with them, and there are more environmentally friendly ways than flaring to treat the excess gas obtained from oil extraction. A significant reduction in emissions can be realistic as long as they invest in improving the maintenance of the facilities,” she stated.
In Reforma Escolín, the only option seems to be the dismantling of the gas infrastructure, which is impossible. “Pemex says there is no money. We have not seen machinery to replace the pipeline, they are not doing anything. Where are we going to go? We live here, and we’re staying here,” said García the town councillor.
© Inter Press Service (2023) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service
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