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Tag: Government programs

  • Watchdog: Western arms companies failed to ramp up production capacity in 2022 due to Ukraine war

    Watchdog: Western arms companies failed to ramp up production capacity in 2022 due to Ukraine war

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    STOCKHOLM — Many Western arms companies failed to ramp up production in 2022 despite a strong increase in demand for weapons and military equipment, a watchdog group said Monday, adding that labor shortages, soaring costs and supply chain disruptions had been exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

    In its Top 100 of such firms, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, or SIPRI, said the arms revenue of the world’s largest arms-producing and military services companies last year stood at $597 billion — a 3.5% drop from 2021.

    “Many arms companies faced obstacles in adjusting to production for high-intensity warfare,” said Lucie Béraud-Sudreau, director of the independent institute’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Program.

    SIPRI said the revenues of the 42 U.S. companies on the list — accounting for 51% of total arms sales — fell by 7.9% to $302 billion in 2022. Of those, 32 recorded a fall in year-on-year arms revenue, most of them citing ongoing supply chain issues and labor shortages stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Nan Tian, a senior researcher with SIPRI, said that “we are beginning to see an influx of new orders linked to the war in Ukraine.”

    He cited some major U.S. companies, including Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Technologies, and said that because of “existing order backlogs and difficulties in ramping up production capacity, the revenue from these orders will probably only be reflected in company accounts in two to three years’ time.”

    Companies in Asia and the Middle East saw their arms revenues grow significantly in 2022, the institute said in its assessment, saying it demonstrated “their ability to respond to increased demand within a shorter time frame.” SIPRI singled out Israel and South Korea.

    ”However, despite the year-on-year drop, the total Top 100 arms revenue was still 14% higher in 2022 than in 2015 — the first year for which SIPRI included Chinese companies in its ranking.

    SIPRI also said that countries placed new orders late in the year and the time lag between orders and production meant that the surge in demand was not reflected in these companies’ 2022 revenues.

    ’However, new contracts were signed, notably for ammunition, which could be expected to translate into higher revenue in 2023 and beyond,” Béraud-Sudreau said.

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  • Lacking counselors, US schools turn to the booming business of online therapy

    Lacking counselors, US schools turn to the booming business of online therapy

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    Trouble with playground bullies started for Maria Ishoo’s daughter in elementary school. Girls ganged up, calling her “fat” and “ugly.” Boys tripped and pushed her. The California mother watched her typically bubbly second-grader retreat into her bedroom and spend afternoons curled up in bed.

    For Valerie Aguirre’s daughter in Hawaii, a spate of middle school “friend drama” escalated into violence and online bullying that left the 12-year-old feeling disconnected and lonely.

    Both children received help through telehealth therapy, a service that schools around the country are offering in response to soaring mental health struggles among American youth.

    Now at least 16 of the 20 largest U.S. public school districts are offering online therapy sessions to reach millions of students, according to an analysis by The Associated Press. In those districts alone, schools have signed provider contracts worth more than $70 million.

    The growth reflects a booming new business born from America’s youth mental health crisis, which has proven so lucrative that venture capitalists are funding a new crop of school teletherapy companies. Some experts raise concerns about the quality of care offered by fast-growing tech companies.

    As schools cope with shortages of in-person practitioners, however, educators say teletherapy works for many kids, and it’s meeting a massive need. For rural schools and lower-income students in particular, it has made therapy easier to access. Schools let students connect with online counselors during the school day or after hours from home.

    “This is how we can prevent people from falling through the cracks,” said Ishoo, a mother of two in Lancaster, California.

    Ishoo recalls standing at her second-grader’s bedroom door last year and wishing she could get through to her. “What’s wrong?” the mother would ask. The response made her heart heavy: “It’s NOTHING, Mom.”

    Last spring, her school district launched a teletherapy program and she signed up her daughter. During a month of weekly sessions, the girl logged in from her bedroom and opened up to a therapist who gave her coping tools and breathing techniques to reduce anxiety. The therapist told her daughter: You are in charge of your own emotions. Don’t give anyone else that control.

    “She learned that it’s OK to ask for help, and sometimes everyone needs some extra help,” Ishoo said.

    The 13,000-student school system, like so many others, has counselors and psychologists on staff, but not enough to meet the need, said Trish Wilson, the Lancaster district’s coordinator of counselors.

    Therapists in the area have full caseloads, making it impossible to refer students for immediate care, she said. But students can schedule a virtual session within days.

    “Our preference is to provide our students in-person therapy. Obviously, that’s not always possible,” said Wilson, whose district has referred more than 325 students to over 800 sessions since launching the online therapy program.

    Students and their parents said in interviews they turned to teletherapy after struggling with feelings of sadness, loneliness, academic stress and anxiety. For many, the transition back to in-person school after distance learning was traumatic. Friendships had fractured, social skills deteriorated and tempers flared more easily.

    Schools are footing the bill, many of them using federal pandemic relief money as experts have warned of alarming rates of youth depression, anxiety and suicide. Many school districts are signing contracts with private companies. Others are working with local health care providers, nonprofits or state programs.

    Mental health experts welcome the extra support but caution about potential pitfalls. For one, it’s getting harder to hire school counselors and psychologists, and competition with telehealth providers isn’t helping.

    “We have 44 counselor vacancies, and telehealth definitely impacts our ability to fill them,” said Doreen Hogans, supervisor of school counseling in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Hogans estimates 20% of school counselors who left have taken teletherapy jobs, which offer more flexible hours.

    The rapid growth of the companies raises questions about the qualifications of the therapists, their experience with children and privacy protocols, said Kevin Dahill-Fuchel, executive director of Counseling in Schools, a nonprofit that helps schools bolster traditional, in-person mental health services.

    “As we give these young people access to telehealth, I want to hear how all these other bases are covered,” he said.

    One of the biggest providers, San Francisco-based Hazel Health, started with telemedicine health services in schools in 2016 and expanded to mental health in May 2021, CEO Josh Golomb said. It now employs more than 300 clinicians providing teletherapy in over 150 school districts in 15 states.

    The rapid expansions mean millions of dollars in revenue for Hazel. This year, the company signed a $24 million contract with Los Angeles County to offer teletherapy services to 1.3 million students for two years.

    Other clients include Hawaii, which is paying Hazel nearly $4 million over three years to work with its public schools, and Clark County schools in the Las Vegas area, which have allocated $3.25 million for Hazel-provided teletherapy. The districts of Miami-Dade, Prince George’s and Houston schools also have partnered with Hazel.

    Despite the giant contracts, Golomb said Hazel is focused on ensuring child welfare outweighs the bottom line.

    “We have the ethos of a nonprofit company but we’re using a private-sector mechanism to reach as many kids as we can,” Golomb said. Hazel raised $51.5 million in venture capital funding in 2022 that fueled its expansion. “Do we have any concerns about any compromise in quality? The resounding answer is no.”

    Other providers are getting into the space. In November, New York City launched a free telehealth therapy service for teens to help eliminate barriers to access, said Ashwin Vasan, the city’s health commissioner. New York is paying the startup TalkSpace $26 million over three years for a service allowing teens aged 13 to 17 to download an app and connect with licensed therapists by phone, video or text.

    Unlike other cities, New York is offering the service to all teens, whether enrolled in private, public or home schools, or not in school at all.

    “I truly hope this normalizes and democratizes access to mental health care for our young people,” Vasan said.

    Many of Hawaii’s referrals come from schools in rural or remote areas. Student clients have increased sharply in Maui since the deadly August wildfires, said Fern Yoshida, who oversees teletherapy for the state education department. So far this fall, students have logged 2,047 teletherapy visits, a three-fold increase from the same period last year.

    One of them was Valerie Aguirre’s daughter, whose fallout with two friends turned physical last year in sixth grade, when one of the girls slapped her daughter in the face. Aguirre suggested her daughter try teletherapy. After two months of online therapy, “she felt better,” Aguirre said, with a realization that everyone makes mistakes and friendships can be mended.

    In California, Ishoo says her daughter, now in third grade, is relaying wisdom to her sister, who started kindergarten this year.

    “She walks her little sister to class and tells her everything will be OK. She’s a different person. She’s older and wiser. She reassures her sister,” Ishoo said. “I heard her say, ‘If kids are being mean to you, just ignore them.’”

    ___

    Associated Press data reporter Sharon Lurye contributed.

    ___

    The Associated Press education team receives support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Lacking counselors, US schools turn to the booming business of online therapy

    Lacking counselors, US schools turn to the booming business of online therapy

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    Trouble with playground bullies started for Maria Ishoo’s daughter in elementary school. Girls ganged up, calling her “fat” and “ugly.” Boys tripped and pushed her. The California mother watched her typically bubbly second-grader retreat into her bedroom and spend afternoons curled up in bed.

    For Valerie Aguirre’s daughter in Hawaii, a spate of middle school “friend drama” escalated into violence and online bullying that left the 12-year-old feeling disconnected and lonely.

    Both children received help through telehealth therapy, a service that schools around the country are offering in response to soaring mental health struggles among American youth.

    Now at least 16 of the 20 largest U.S. public school districts are offering online therapy sessions to reach millions of students, according to an analysis by The Associated Press. In those districts alone, schools have signed provider contracts worth more than $70 million.

    The growth reflects a booming new business born from America’s youth mental health crisis, which has proven so lucrative that venture capitalists are funding a new crop of school teletherapy companies. Some experts raise concerns about the quality of care offered by fast-growing tech companies.

    As schools cope with shortages of in-person practitioners, however, educators say teletherapy works for many kids, and it’s meeting a massive need. For rural schools and lower-income students in particular, it has made therapy easier to access. Schools let students connect with online counselors during the school day or after hours from home.

    “This is how we can prevent people from falling through the cracks,” said Ishoo, a mother of two in Lancaster, California.

    Ishoo recalls standing at her second-grader’s bedroom door last year and wishing she could get through to her. “What’s wrong?” the mother would ask. The response made her heart heavy: “It’s NOTHING, Mom.”

    Last spring, her school district launched a teletherapy program and she signed up her daughter. During a month of weekly sessions, the girl logged in from her bedroom and opened up to a therapist who gave her coping tools and breathing techniques to reduce anxiety. The therapist told her daughter: You are in charge of your own emotions. Don’t give anyone else that control.

    “She learned that it’s OK to ask for help, and sometimes everyone needs some extra help,” Ishoo said.

    The 13,000-student school system, like so many others, has counselors and psychologists on staff, but not enough to meet the need, said Trish Wilson, the Lancaster district’s coordinator of counselors.

    Therapists in the area have full caseloads, making it impossible to refer students for immediate care, she said. But students can schedule a virtual session within days.

    “Our preference is to provide our students in-person therapy. Obviously, that’s not always possible,” said Wilson, whose district has referred more than 325 students to over 800 sessions since launching the online therapy program.

    Students and their parents said in interviews they turned to teletherapy after struggling with feelings of sadness, loneliness, academic stress and anxiety. For many, the transition back to in-person school after distance learning was traumatic. Friendships had fractured, social skills deteriorated and tempers flared more easily.

    Schools are footing the bill, many of them using federal pandemic relief money as experts have warned of alarming rates of youth depression, anxiety and suicide. Many school districts are signing contracts with private companies. Others are working with local health care providers, nonprofits or state programs.

    Mental health experts welcome the extra support but caution about potential pitfalls. For one, it’s getting harder to hire school counselors and psychologists, and competition with telehealth providers isn’t helping.

    “We have 44 counselor vacancies, and telehealth definitely impacts our ability to fill them,” said Doreen Hogans, supervisor of school counseling in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Hogans estimates 20% of school counselors who left have taken teletherapy jobs, which offer more flexible hours.

    The rapid growth of the companies raises questions about the qualifications of the therapists, their experience with children and privacy protocols, said Kevin Dahill-Fuchel, executive director of Counseling in Schools, a nonprofit that helps schools bolster traditional, in-person mental health services.

    “As we give these young people access to telehealth, I want to hear how all these other bases are covered,” he said.

    One of the biggest providers, San Francisco-based Hazel Health, started with telemedicine health services in schools in 2016 and expanded to mental health in May 2021, CEO Josh Golomb said. It now employs more than 300 clinicians providing teletherapy in over 150 school districts in 15 states.

    The rapid expansions mean millions of dollars in revenue for Hazel. This year, the company signed a $24 million contract with Los Angeles County to offer teletherapy services to 1.3 million students for two years.

    Other clients include Hawaii, which is paying Hazel nearly $4 million over three years to work with its public schools, and Clark County schools in the Las Vegas area, which have allocated $3.25 million for Hazel-provided teletherapy. The districts of Miami-Dade, Prince George’s and Houston schools also have partnered with Hazel.

    Despite the giant contracts, Golomb said Hazel is focused on ensuring child welfare outweighs the bottom line.

    “We have the ethos of a nonprofit company but we’re using a private-sector mechanism to reach as many kids as we can,” Golomb said. Hazel raised $51.5 million in venture capital funding in 2022 that fueled its expansion. “Do we have any concerns about any compromise in quality? The resounding answer is no.”

    Other providers are getting into the space. In November, New York City launched a free telehealth therapy service for teens to help eliminate barriers to access, said Ashwin Vasan, the city’s health commissioner. New York is paying the startup TalkSpace $26 million over three years for a service allowing teens aged 13 to 17 to download an app and connect with licensed therapists by phone, video or text.

    Unlike other cities, New York is offering the service to all teens, whether enrolled in private, public or home schools, or not in school at all.

    “I truly hope this normalizes and democratizes access to mental health care for our young people,” Vasan said.

    Many of Hawaii’s referrals come from schools in rural or remote areas. Student clients have increased sharply in Maui since the deadly August wildfires, said Fern Yoshida, who oversees teletherapy for the state education department. So far this fall, students have logged 2,047 teletherapy visits, a three-fold increase from the same period last year.

    One of them was Valerie Aguirre’s daughter, whose fallout with two friends turned physical last year in sixth grade, when one of the girls slapped her daughter in the face. Aguirre suggested her daughter try teletherapy. After two months of online therapy, “she felt better,” Aguirre said, with a realization that everyone makes mistakes and friendships can be mended.

    In California, Ishoo says her daughter, now in third grade, is relaying wisdom to her sister, who started kindergarten this year.

    “She walks her little sister to class and tells her everything will be OK. She’s a different person. She’s older and wiser. She reassures her sister,” Ishoo said. “I heard her say, ‘If kids are being mean to you, just ignore them.’”

    ___

    Associated Press data reporter Sharon Lurye contributed.

    ___

    The Associated Press education team receives support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Biden rule aims to reduce methane emissions, targeting US oil and gas industry for global warming

    Biden rule aims to reduce methane emissions, targeting US oil and gas industry for global warming

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    WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Saturday issued a final rule aimed at reducing methane emissions, targeting the U.S. oil and natural gas industry for its role in global warming as President Joe Biden seeks to advance his climate legacy.

    The Environmental Protection Agency said the new rule will sharply reduce methane and other harmful air pollutants generated by the oil and gas industry, promote use of cutting-edge methane detection technologies and deliver significant public health benefits in the form of reduced hospital visits, lost school days and even deaths. Air pollution from oil and gas operations can cause cancer, harm the nervous and respiratory systems and contribute to birth defects.

    EPA Administrator Michael Regan and White House Climate adviser Ali Zaidi announced the final rule at the United Nations climate conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

    Oil and gas operations are the largest industrial source of methane, the main component in natural gas and far more potent than carbon dioxide in the short term. It is responsible for about one-third of planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions. Sharp cuts in methane emissions are a global priority to slow the rate of climate change and are a major topic at the climate conference, known as COP28.

    Presidents, prime ministers and royals from nations rich and poor have vowed to reduce how much their countries spew heat-trapping gases and asked their colleagues to do better.

    “On day one, President Biden restored America’s critical role as the global leader in confronting climate change,” Regan said, referring to Biden’s actions returning the U.S. to the Paris climate agreement and ordering an immediate review of environmental regulations rolled back by the previous administration.

    The methane rule finalizes a proposal Biden made at a UN climate conference in Scotland in 2021 and expanded a year later at a climate conference in Egypt. The rule backs up Biden’s initial commitments “with strong action, significantly slashing methane emissions and other air pollutants that endanger communities,” Regan said.

    The rule targets emissions from existing oil and gas wells nationwide, rather than focusing only on new wells as previous EPA regulations have done. It also regulates smaller wells that will be required to find and plug methane leaks. Small wells currently are subject to an initial inspection but are rarely checked again for leaks.

    Studies have found that smaller wells produce just 6% of the nation’s oil and gas but account for up to half the methane emissions from well sites.

    The plan also will phase in a requirement for energy companies to eliminate routine flaring of natural gas that is produced by new oil wells.

    The new methane rule will help ensure that the United States meets a goal set by more than 100 nations to cut methane emissions by 30% by 2030 from 2020 levels, Regan said.

    The EPA rule is just one of more than 100 actions the Biden administration has taken to reduce methane emissions, Zaidi added.

    “From mobilizing billions in investment to plug orphaned wells, patch leaky pipes and reclaim abandoned mines, to setting strong standards that will cut pollution from the oil and gas sector, the Biden-Harris Administration is putting the full throw-weight of the federal government into slashing harmful methane pollution,” he said.

    The new methane rule will be coordinated with a methane fee approved in the 2022 climate law. The fee, set to take effect next year, will charge energy producers that exceed a certain level of methane emissions as much as $1,500 per metric ton of methane. The plan marks the first time the U.S. government has directly imposed a fee, or tax, on greenhouse gas emissions.

    The law allows exemptions for companies that comply with the EPA’s standards or fall below a certain emissions threshold. It also includes $1.5 billon in grants and other spending to help companies and local communities improve monitoring and data collection, and find and repair natural gas leaks.

    Harold Wimmer, president and CEO of the American Lung Association, called the new rule a victory for public health.

    “EPA heeded the urgent guidance of health experts across the country and finalized a strong methane rule that, when fully implemented, will significantly reduce hazardous air pollutants and climate-warming methane pollution from the oil and gas industry,” he said in a statement.

    Methane has been shown to leak into the atmosphere during every stage of oil and gas production, Wimmer said, and “people who live near oil and gas wells are especially vulnerable to these exposure risks. This rule (is) vital to advancing environmental justice commitments.”

    David Doniger, a climate expert at the Natural Resources Defense Council, called methane a “super-polluter.” He said in an interview that the Biden plan “takes a very solid whack at climate pollution. I wish this had happened 10 years ago (under the Obama administration), but I’m really happy it’s happening now.”

    Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund, said the new rule ensures that “the U.S. now has the most protective methane pollution limits on the books. With other countries also zeroing in on methane as a key climate risk, it’s a signal to operators worldwide that clean-up time is here,” he said.

    The oil industry has generally welcomed direct federal regulation of methane emissions, preferring a single national standard to a hodgepodge of state rules. Even so, energy companies have asked EPA to exempt hundreds of thousands of the nation’s smallest wells from the pending methane rules.

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  • Biden rule aims to reduce methane emissions, targeting US oil and gas industry for global warming

    Biden rule aims to reduce methane emissions, targeting US oil and gas industry for global warming

    [ad_1]

    WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Saturday issued a final rule aimed at reducing methane emissions, targeting the U.S. oil and natural gas industry for its role in global warming as President Joe Biden seeks to advance his climate legacy.

    The Environmental Protection Agency said the new rule will sharply reduce methane and other harmful air pollutants generated by the oil and gas industry, promote use of cutting-edge methane detection technologies and deliver significant public health benefits in the form of reduced hospital visits, lost school days and even deaths. Air pollution from oil and gas operations can cause cancer, harm the nervous and respiratory systems and contribute to birth defects.

    EPA Administrator Michael Regan and White House Climate adviser Ali Zaidi announced the final rule at the United Nations climate conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

    Oil and gas operations are the largest industrial source of methane, the main component in natural gas and far more potent than carbon dioxide in the short term. It is responsible for about one-third of planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions. Sharp cuts in methane emissions are a global priority to slow the rate of climate change and are a major topic at the climate conference, known as COP28.

    Presidents, prime ministers and royals from nations rich and poor have vowed to reduce how much their countries spew heat-trapping gases and asked their colleagues to do better.

    “On day one, President Biden restored America’s critical role as the global leader in confronting climate change,” Regan said, referring to Biden’s actions returning the U.S. to the Paris climate agreement and ordering an immediate review of environmental regulations rolled back by the previous administration.

    The methane rule finalizes a proposal Biden made at a UN climate conference in Scotland in 2021 and expanded a year later at a climate conference in Egypt. The rule backs up Biden’s initial commitments “with strong action, significantly slashing methane emissions and other air pollutants that endanger communities,” Regan said.

    The rule targets emissions from existing oil and gas wells nationwide, rather than focusing only on new wells as previous EPA regulations have done. It also regulates smaller wells that will be required to find and plug methane leaks. Small wells currently are subject to an initial inspection but are rarely checked again for leaks.

    Studies have found that smaller wells produce just 6% of the nation’s oil and gas but account for up to half the methane emissions from well sites.

    The plan also will phase in a requirement for energy companies to eliminate routine flaring of natural gas that is produced by new oil wells.

    The new methane rule will help ensure that the United States meets a goal set by more than 100 nations to cut methane emissions by 30% by 2030 from 2020 levels, Regan said.

    The EPA rule is just one of more than 100 actions the Biden administration has taken to reduce methane emissions, Zaidi added.

    “From mobilizing billions in investment to plug orphaned wells, patch leaky pipes and reclaim abandoned mines, to setting strong standards that will cut pollution from the oil and gas sector, the Biden-Harris Administration is putting the full throw-weight of the federal government into slashing harmful methane pollution,” he said.

    The new methane rule will be coordinated with a methane fee approved in the 2022 climate law. The fee, set to take effect next year, will charge energy producers that exceed a certain level of methane emissions as much as $1,500 per metric ton of methane. The plan marks the first time the U.S. government has directly imposed a fee, or tax, on greenhouse gas emissions.

    The law allows exemptions for companies that comply with the EPA’s standards or fall below a certain emissions threshold. It also includes $1.5 billon in grants and other spending to help companies and local communities improve monitoring and data collection, and find and repair natural gas leaks.

    Harold Wimmer, president and CEO of the American Lung Association, called the new rule a victory for public health.

    “EPA heeded the urgent guidance of health experts across the country and finalized a strong methane rule that, when fully implemented, will significantly reduce hazardous air pollutants and climate-warming methane pollution from the oil and gas industry,” he said in a statement.

    Methane has been shown to leak into the atmosphere during every stage of oil and gas production, Wimmer said, and “people who live near oil and gas wells are especially vulnerable to these exposure risks. This rule (is) vital to advancing environmental justice commitments.”

    David Doniger, a climate expert at the Natural Resources Defense Council, called methane a “super-polluter.” He said in an interview that the Biden plan “takes a very solid whack at climate pollution. I wish this had happened 10 years ago (under the Obama administration), but I’m really happy it’s happening now.”

    Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund, said the new rule ensures that “the U.S. now has the most protective methane pollution limits on the books. With other countries also zeroing in on methane as a key climate risk, it’s a signal to operators worldwide that clean-up time is here,” he said.

    The oil industry has generally welcomed direct federal regulation of methane emissions, preferring a single national standard to a hodgepodge of state rules. Even so, energy companies have asked EPA to exempt hundreds of thousands of the nation’s smallest wells from the pending methane rules.

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  • Michigan regulators approve $500M pipeline tunnel project under channel linking 2 Great Lakes

    Michigan regulators approve $500M pipeline tunnel project under channel linking 2 Great Lakes

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    Michigan officials approved a $500 million plan Friday to encase in a protective tunnel a portion of an aging oil pipeline that runs beneath a channel connecting two Great Lakes, leaving just one more regulatory hurdle for the contentious project.

    The state’s three-person Public Service Commission approved the project in the Straits of Mackinac on a 2-0 vote. Commissioner Alessandra Carreon abstained, noting she just joined the commission four months ago.

    The commission’s chairperson, Dan Scripps, said the tunnel is the best way to mitigate the risk of a spill as the state slowly transitions to renewable energy sources.

    “An oil spill in the straits would be, in a word, catastrophic,” he said.

    Opponents lined up in front of the commission to complain after the vote, blasting the project as a boondoggle that will lock the state into using fossil fuels even longer and endanger the environment.

    The plan still needs approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is still compiling an environmental impact statement. A final decision may not come until 2026.

    Enbridge Energy has been operating the Line 5 pipeline since 1953. The pipeline moves up to 23 million gallons (87 million liters) of crude oil and natural gas liquids daily between Superior, Wisconsin, and Sarnia, Ontario.

    A 4-mile (6-kilometer) portion of the pipeline crosses the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac. After an Enbridge pipeline leaked about 21,000 gallons (79,500 liters) of crude oil into a Kalamazoo River tributary in southern Michigan in 2010, the state formed a task force to review petroleum pipelines across the state, including Line 5.

    Enbridge officials revealed in 2017 that engineers had known about gaps in Line 5’s protective coating in the straits since 2014. That section of pipeline was also damaged by a boat anchor in 2018, raising concerns about a spill. Later that year, then-Republican Gov. Rick Snyder’s administration reached an agreement with Enbridge calling for the company to build a tunnel 60 to 375 feet (18 to 114 meters) beneath the lakebed to house a new section of Line 5 and shut down the existing segment at a cost of $500 million.

    Opponents attending Friday’s vote expressed their anger at the commission’s approval of the project.

    “I am disgusted with your vote,” said Andrea Pierce, who works with the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition and is a member of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, which opposes the project. “Seriously, you are supposed to protect the Great Lakes and protect us. I think what you’ve done here is completely and utterly negligent.”

    No Enbridge officials spoke at the meeting. Enbridge Senior Vice President and Chief Communications Officer Mike Fernandez said in a telephone interview after the meeting concluded that the company was pleased with the commission’s decision and called it a “great step forward.”

    He stressed that replacing the section of pipeline under the straits and encasing it in a tunnel buried dozens to hundreds of feet below the lakebed creates two new layers of protection. He added that demand for oil and propane may recede as the country moves toward renewable energy sources but it won’t end because oil is needed to produce plastics used in computers, handheld devices and medical devices.

    Current Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, has said she opposes the continued operation of Line 5 under the straits — even with the new tunnel — agreeing with Indigenous tribes, environmentalists and tourist businesses that it is at risk of causing a devastating spill.

    She ordered Enbridge in November 2020 to close the 68-year-old line, revoking a 1953 state easement allowing its placement in the straits. Enbridge, based in Calgary, Alberta, contends the line is safe and ignored the governor’s shutdown deadline.

    Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel filed a state lawsuit in 2019 to void Enbridge’s easement in the Straits. A federal appellate court is reviewing whether the lawsuit belongs in state or federal court.

    The state Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy in 2021 approved construction of the tunnel. Liesl Clark, who was the director of the Michigan agency at the time and a Whitmer appointee, said the company’s application satisfied state legal requirements.

    A federal judge in Madison, Wisconsin, this summer gave Enbridge three years to shut down part of Line 5 that runs across the reservation of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.

    The tribe sued Enbridge in 2019 to force the company to remove about 12 miles (19 kilometers) of pipeline crossing its reservation, saying the pipeline is prone to spills and land agreements allowing it to operate on reservation land expired in 2013.

    The company has proposed a 41-mile (66-kilometer) reroute of the pipeline to end its dispute with the tribe. It has appealed the shutdown order to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals; the case is still pending.

    ___

    This story has been updated to correct that the Enbridge Energy Line 5 pipeline operates between Superior, Wisconsin, and Sarnia, Ontario.

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  • Montana miner backs off expansion plans, lays off 100 due to lower palladium prices

    Montana miner backs off expansion plans, lays off 100 due to lower palladium prices

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    The owner of two precious metals mines in south-central Montana is stopping work on an expansion project and laying off about 100 workers because the price of palladium fell sharply in the past year, mine representatives said Thursday.

    Sibanye-Stillwater announced the layoffs Wednesday at the only platinum and palladium mines in the United States, near Nye, Montana, and other Sibanye-owned facilities in Montana, including a recycling operation. Another 20 jobs have gone unfilled since October, officials said.

    Another 187 contract workers — about 67% of the mining contract workers at the mine — will also be affected. Some contract work has been phased out over the past couple of months, said Heather McDowell, a vice president at Sibanye-Stillwater.

    The restructuring is not expected to significantly impact current mine production or recycling production, but will reduce costs, the company said.

    Palladium prices have since fallen from a peak of about $3,000 an ounce in March 2022 to about $1,000 per ounce now. Platinum prices also have fallen, but not as dramatically.

    The company can still make money working on the west side of the Stillwater mine at Nye with the current palladium prices, but the expansion on the east side is not cost effective right now, McDowell said.

    Platinum is used in jewelry and palladium is used in catalytic converters, which control automobile emissions.

    South Africa-based Sibanye bought the Stillwater mines in 2017 for $2.2 billion. The Montana mines buoyed the company in subsequent years at a time when it was beset by strikes and a spate of worker deaths at its South Africa gold mines.

    Over the next several years as platinum and palladium prices rose, Stillwater sought to expand into new areas and added roughly 600 new jobs at its mines, according to Department of Labor data.

    On Tuesday, the Forest Service gave preliminary approval to an expansion of the company’s East Boulder Mine that will extend its life by about a dozen years. The proposal has been opposed by environmental groups that want safeguards to prevent a catastrophic accidental release of mining waste into nearby waterways.

    McDowell said there are 38 jobs open at the East Boulder Mine and the company hopes some Stillwater workers who were laid off will apply for those positions. It’s about a two-hour drive from the Stillwater Mine to the East Boulder Mine, she said.

    The Montana AFL-CIO, the Department of Labor and Industry and unions across the state are working to help those who were laid off to file claims for unemployment benefits and to find new work, AFL-CIO Executive Secretary Jason Small said Thursday.

    The Sibanye-Stillwater Mine was the site of a contract miner’s death on Oct. 13. Noah Dinger of Post Falls, Idaho, died when he got caught in the rotating shaft of a mine that bolts wire panels onto the stone walls of an underground area to prevent rock from falling during future mining, officials said.

    ___

    Associated Press writer Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana, contributed to this report.

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  • Biden targeting GOP’s Boebert in fresh political attack on Republicans

    Biden targeting GOP’s Boebert in fresh political attack on Republicans

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    DENVER — President Joe Biden will try to turn Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado into the embodiment of Republican opposition to his agenda as he visits her congressional district on Wednesday.

    The trip comes as Biden struggles with low approval ratings while he prepares for a likely 2024 rematch against former President Donald Trump, leaving Democrats eager for opportunities to score political points against Republicans.

    Biden plans to tour CS Wind, the world’s largest facility for wind tower manufacturing, in the town of Pueblo. The trip was originally scheduled for last month, but it was delayed as the Democratic president focused on the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas.

    CS Wind is undergoing a $200 million expansion that is expected to create 850 jobs by 2026 with help from the tax benefits in the Inflation Reduction Act, which included hundreds of billions of dollars of financial incentives.

    In addition, a new analysis from the Treasury Department said clean energy investments have mostly flowed to communities with below-average wages and above-average child poverty. The White House said the data indicates that Biden’s policies are expanding economic opportunity.

    Boebert, who has cultivated a national reputation as a far-right insurgent, has called the Inflation Reduction Act “a massive failure” that “needs to be repealed.”

    She also described the bipartisan infrastructure law enacted in 2021 as “garbage” and “wasteful.” According to the White House, the law has contributed roughly $190 million toward street and water infrastructure improvements in her area of Colorado.

    The White House said Biden would speak about his administration’s progress on clean energy and “how self-described MAGA Republicans like Representative Lauren Boebert are threatening those investments, jobs, and opportunities.”

    Pueblo is one of the anchors of Colorado’s sprawling 3rd Congressional District, which covers more ground than Pennsylvania. Boebert won her seat in 2020 and barely held on to it during the 2022 midterms.

    She recently suffered an embarrassing episode when she was kicked out of a musical production of “Beetlejuice,” where she was spotted vaping and groping with a date. Now she faces a difficult reelection campaign and a likely rematch against Democratic candidate Adam Frisch.

    Biden arrived in Colorado on Tuesday after attending a memorial service in Atlanta for Rosalynn Carter, the former first lady and wife of former President Jimmy Carter. He spoke at a Tuesday night fundraiser in Denver, where he said Trump and Republicans wanted to abandon his administration’s efforts.

    “We’re now investing in America,” Biden said.

    Biden in recent weeks has been taking an increasingly confrontational stance toward Republicans.

    For example, during a White House event focused on supply chains on Monday, Biden unleashed a broader critique of Republicans for trying “to undo this progress we’re making.”

    “They want to go back to the bad old days, when corporations looked around the world to find the cheapest labor they could find, to send the jobs overseas, and then import the products back to the United States,” he said.

    Biden also said Republicans want to cut Social Security and Medicare, benefits that are crucial for many elderly Americans.

    “They just don’t give up,” he said. “But guess what? We won’t let these things happen.”

    Biden was originally scheduled to visit Pueblo on Oct. 16, but the trip was postponed so he could remain in Washington to focus on the conflict in the Middle East. Two days later he went on a last-minute trip to Israel to show support for the country after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.

    ___

    Megerian reported from Washington.

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  • The debate over Ukraine aid was already complicated. Then it became tangled up in US border security

    The debate over Ukraine aid was already complicated. Then it became tangled up in US border security

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    WASHINGTON — As war and winter collide, a top adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledged during a recent visit to Washington that the days ahead “will be tough” as his country battles Russia while U.S. support from Congress hangs in the balance.

    President Joe Biden’s nearly $106 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and other needs sits idle in Congress, neither approved nor rejected, but subjected to new political demands from Republicans who are insisting on U.S.-Mexico border policy changes to halt the flow of migrants.

    Linking Ukraine’s military assistance to U.S. border security interjects one of the most divisive domestic political issues — immigration and border crossings — into the middle of an intensifying debate over wartime foreign policy.

    When Congress returns this coming week from the holiday break, Biden’s request will be a top item on the to-do list, and the stakes couldn’t be higher. Failure risks delaying U.S. military aid to Kyiv and Israel, along with humanitarian assistance for Gaza, in the midst of two wars, potentially undermining America’s global standing.

    “It’s coming at a crucial time,” said Luke Coffey, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, which recently hosted Andriy Yermak, the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff, at the discussion in Washington.

    “We’re running out of money,” Coffey said in an interview.

    What just a year ago was overwhelming support for Ukraine’s young democracy as it reaches for an alliance with the West to stop Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion has devolved into another partisan fight in the United States.

    Members of Congress overwhelmingly support Ukraine, embracing Zelenskyy as they did when he arrived on a surprise visit last December to a hero’s welcome. But the continued delivery of U.S. military and government aid is losing favor with a hard-right wing of Republican lawmakers and with some Americans.

    Nearly half of the U.S. public thinks the country is spending too much on aid to Ukraine, according to polling from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

    Rather than approve Biden’s request, which includes $61 billion for Ukraine, Republicans are demanding something in return.

    Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has said the “best way” to ensure GOP support for Ukraine is for Biden and Democrats to accept border policy changes that would limit the flow of migrants across the border with Mexico.

    “It’s connected,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press.

    To that end, a core group of senators, Republicans and Democrats, have been meeting privately to come up with a border policy solution that both parties could support, unlocking GOP votes for the Ukraine aid.

    On the table are asylum law changes pushed by the Republicans that would make it more difficult for migrants to enter the United States, even if they claim they are in danger, and reduce their release on parole while awaiting judicial proceedings. Republicans also want to resume construction of the border wall.

    Democrats call these essentially nonstarters, and the border security talks are going slowly. Those who have worked on immigration-related issues for years see a political disaster in the making for all sides — Ukraine included.

    “I think it’s terrible that we’re in the position we’re in,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn.

    “But you know, we were talking all through the night and talking all day today,” he said recently, “trying to find a path forward.”

    He added: “I’m not confident we’ll get there.”

    Republicans, even defense hawks who strongly back Ukraine, insist the money must come with U.S. border provisions.

    “The reality is, if President Biden wants Ukraine a to pass we’re going to have to have substantial order policy changes,” said Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., often a McConnell ally on defense issues.

    The White House has requested roughly $14 billion for border security in its broader package, with money for more border patrol officers, detention facilities and judges to process immigration cases. It also includes stepped-up inspections to stop the flow of deadly fentanyl.

    Biden and his national security team recently with key senators of both parties. With Congress narrowly split, Republicans holding slim majority control of the House and Democrats a close edge in the Senate, bipartisan agreement will almost certainly be required for any legislation to advance.

    Pentagon funding for Ukraine is rapidly dwindling. The Defense Department has the authority to take about $5 billion worth of equipment from its stockpiles to send to Ukraine, but only has about $1 billion to replenish those stocks. So military leaders are worried about the effect on U.S. troop readiness and equipping.

    The need for an infusion of funding is growing “by the day” said Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh.

    Overall, half the $113 billion Congress has approved for Ukraine since the war began in February 2022 has gone to the Defense Department, according to the Congressional Research Service. The dollars are being spent to build Ukraine’s armed forces, largely by providing U.S. military weapons and equipment, and replenish U.S. stockpiles.

    Much of the rest goes to emergency and humanitarian aid and to support the government of Ukraine through the World Bank.

    National security experts have watched the Ukrainian forces repurpose outdated American equipment that was headed for decommissioning and use it to obliterate aspects of the Russian armed forces. McConnell has noted that much of the spending stays in the U.S., flowing to defense production in states across the nation.

    “Ukraine is at a critical point,” said Democratic Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “The Russians are just counting on us to give up and walk away — and then they walk in.”

    But even border security provisions may not be enough to with over Republicans who are growing increasingly skeptical of Biden’s vow to support Ukraine as long as it takes to defeat Russia.

    One Republican, Rep. Mike Garcia of California, is trying to bridge the GOP divide by separating the military funds from money the U.S. spends on the Kyiv government, and pushing the Biden administration to be more open about presenting a strategy for the war’s endgame.

    Garcia, who drafted a 14-page report that new Speaker Mike Johnson delivered during a recent White House meeting, said even with border security, Republicans will not approve the full amount for Ukraine that Biden has requested. “If the Ukraine budget part of it is still $61 billion, that ain’t the right answer,” said Garcia, a former Navy fighter pilot who flew combat missions during the Iraq War.

    Other Republicans, led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, a Donald Trump ally, have drawn an even deeper line against Ukraine aid.

    Yermak, during his talk in Washington, was thankful for U.S. support, and blunt about the need for more.

    “I tell you the truth, this winter will be tough for us,” he said, urging Americans to back Ukraine at this “historical moment for all of us.”

    ___ Associated Press writers Lolita C. Baldor, Ellen Knickmeyer and Stephen Groves contributed to this report.

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  • Tackling climate change and alleviating hunger: States recycle and donate food headed to landfills

    Tackling climate change and alleviating hunger: States recycle and donate food headed to landfills

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    ELMSFORD, N.Y. — When Sean Rafferty got his start in the grocery business, anything that wasn’t sold got tossed out.

    But on a recent day, Rafferty, the store manager for ShopRite of Elmsford-Greenburgh in New York, was preparing boxes of bread, donuts, fresh produce and dairy products to be picked up by a food bank. It’s part of a statewide program requiring larger businesses to donate edible food and, if they can, recycle remaining food scraps.

    “Years ago, everything went in the garbage … to the landfills, the compactors or wherever it was,” said Rafferty, who has 40 years in the industry. “Now, over the years, so many programs have developed where we’re able to donate all this food … where we’re helping people with food insecurities.”

    New York is among a growing number of states targeting food waste over concerns it is taking up diminishing landfill space and contributing to global warming as meat, vegetables and dairy release the greenhouse gas methane after being dumped in a landfill. Rescuing unwanted fruits and vegetables, eggs, cereals and other food also helps to feed hungry families.

    Globally, about a third of food is wasted. In the United States, it’s even higher, at 40%, according to the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic. The U.S. spends about $218 billion each year growing and producing food that is wasted. About 63 tons (57 metric tons) goes to waste, including 52.4 tons (47.5 metric tons) that ends up in landfills and 10 tons (9 metric tons) never harvested from farms.

    “What’s shocking to people often is not only how much we waste … but also the impact,” said Emily Broad Leib, a Harvard University law professor and director of the school’s Food Law and Policy Clinic. “Food waste causes about 8% to 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions.”

    Broad Leib says 20% of water in the U.S. is used to grow food “that we then just throw away, so we’re basically taking water and putting it directly into a landfill.”

    But she and others also note there is growing awareness of the need to do something about food waste in the U.S.

    In 2015, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Environmental Protection Agency announced a goal of 50% food waste reduction by 2030.

    That has prompted a number of state-led initiatives, along with smaller, nonprofit efforts.

    Ten states and the District of Columbia have passed legislation or executed policies to reduce, compost or donate waste. All 50 states have passed legislation shielding donors and recovery organizations from criminal and civil liability linked to donated food.

    California and Vermont have launched programs converting residents’ food waste into compost or energy, while Connecticut requires businesses, including larger food wholesalers and supermarkets, to recycle food waste. Farmers in Maryland can get a tax credit of up to $5,000 per farm for food they donate.

    Several states have joined New York in setting up systems allowing food to be donated. Rhode Island requires food vendors servicing education institutions to donate any unused food to food banks, while Massachusetts limits the amount of food that businesses can send to landfills, which Broad Leib said has increased food donations in the state by 22% over two years.

    New York’s program is in its second year, and state officials believe it’s having a significant impact.

    As of late October, the program had redistributed 5 million pounds (2.3 million kilograms) of food — the equivalent of 4 million meals — through Feeding New York State, which supports the state’s 10 regional food banks and is hoping to double that number next year. Among those required to donate food include colleges, prisons, amusement parks and sporting venues.

    “Certainly, we should be reducing the amount we waste to start with, but then we should be feeding people before we throw food away if it’s good, wholesome food,” said Sally Rowland, supervisor with the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s Organics, Reduction and Recycling section. “To me, it’s a commonsense kind of thing and I think it’s just kind of built that momentum of people understanding about how much food we’re really wasting.”

    New York’s Westchester County has eight refrigerated trucks that pick up all types of perishable food, according to Danielle Vasquez, food donations coordinator for Feeding Westchester, one of the state’s food banks.

    The group started working with businesses in 2014 but has seen participation ramp up since the donation law went into effect last year. Much of the food collected goes to nearly 300 programs and partners throughout the county, including a mobile food pantry and the Carver Center, a nonprofit serving Port Chester’s families and children, which has a pantry.

    “This time of year is very important for us and a lot of families across Westchester,” Vasquez said. “There is the high cost of food. There is a high cost of living. Westchester is a very expensive county to live in. … We are here to supplement our families as much as we can so, that way, they can focus that money on paying their bills.”

    Among those visiting the Carver Center earlier this month was Betsy Quiroa, who lamented how the cost of everything had gone up since the coronavirus pandemic. She was counting on getting milk, eggs, fruits and vegetables during her visit and said she didn’t care if the produce was dented or slightly damaged.

    “Coming here is good,” said Quiroa, a mother of four who relies on Social Security. “If you are not working, you buy nothing. This is the problem.”

    Despite New York’s success, advocates for food waste worry not enough is being done to meet the 2030 goal. Broad Leib and others have called for a national effort to coordinate the various state and local policies.

    There is a goal, “but we don’t really have a great roadmap … and how we’re going to actually achieve that end goal by 2030, which is kind of crazy,” Broad Leib said, adding that a one-person liaison office in the USDA isn’t sufficient to address the problem.

    Kathryn Bender, a University of Delaware assistant professor of economics, said donation programs are helpful, but she worries they might shift the burden from businesses to nonprofits, which could struggle to distribute all the food.

    “The best solution for food waste is to not have it in the first place,” Bender said. “If we don’t need to produce all that food, let’s not put all the resources into producing that food.”

    ___

    Casey reported from Boston.

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  • Tackling climate change and alleviating hunger: States recycle and donate food headed to landfills

    Tackling climate change and alleviating hunger: States recycle and donate food headed to landfills

    [ad_1]

    ELMSFORD, N.Y. — When Sean Rafferty got his start in the grocery business, anything that wasn’t sold got tossed out.

    But on a recent day, Rafferty, the store manager for ShopRite of Elmsford-Greenburgh in New York, was preparing boxes of bread, donuts, fresh produce and dairy products to be picked up by a food bank. It’s part of a statewide program requiring larger businesses to donate edible food and, if they can, recycle remaining food scraps.

    “Years ago, everything went in the garbage … to the landfills, the compactors or wherever it was,” said Rafferty, who has 40 years in the industry. “Now, over the years, so many programs have developed where we’re able to donate all this food … where we’re helping people with food insecurities.”

    New York is among a growing number of states targeting food waste over concerns it is taking up diminishing landfill space and contributing to global warming as meat, vegetables and dairy release the greenhouse gas methane after being dumped in a landfill. Rescuing unwanted fruits and vegetables, eggs, cereals and other food also helps to feed hungry families.

    Globally, about a third of food is wasted. In the United States, it’s even higher, at 40%, according to the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic. The U.S. spends about $218 billion each year growing and producing food that is wasted. About 63 tons (57 metric tons) goes to waste, including 52.4 tons (47.5 metric tons) that ends up in landfills and 10 tons (9 metric tons) never harvested from farms.

    “What’s shocking to people often is not only how much we waste … but also the impact,” said Emily Broad Leib, a Harvard University law professor and director of the school’s Food Law and Policy Clinic. “Food waste causes about 8% to 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions.”

    Broad Leib says 20% of water in the U.S. is used to grow food “that we then just throw away, so we’re basically taking water and putting it directly into a landfill.”

    But she and others also note there is growing awareness of the need to do something about food waste in the U.S.

    In 2015, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Environmental Protection Agency announced a goal of 50% food waste reduction by 2030.

    That has prompted a number of state-led initiatives, along with smaller, nonprofit efforts.

    Ten states and the District of Columbia have passed legislation or executed policies to reduce, compost or donate waste. All 50 states have passed legislation shielding donors and recovery organizations from criminal and civil liability linked to donated food.

    California and Vermont have launched programs converting residents’ food waste into compost or energy, while Connecticut requires businesses, including larger food wholesalers and supermarkets, to recycle food waste. Farmers in Maryland can get a tax credit of up to $5,000 per farm for food they donate.

    Several states have joined New York in setting up systems allowing food to be donated. Rhode Island requires food vendors servicing education institutions to donate any unused food to food banks, while Massachusetts limits the amount of food that businesses can send to landfills, which Broad Leib said has increased food donations in the state by 22% over two years.

    New York’s program is in its second year, and state officials believe it’s having a significant impact.

    As of late October, the program had redistributed 5 million pounds (2.3 million kilograms) of food — the equivalent of 4 million meals — through Feeding New York State, which supports the state’s 10 regional food banks and is hoping to double that number next year. Among those required to donate food include colleges, prisons, amusement parks and sporting venues.

    “Certainly, we should be reducing the amount we waste to start with, but then we should be feeding people before we throw food away if it’s good, wholesome food,” said Sally Rowland, supervisor with the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s Organics, Reduction and Recycling section. “To me, it’s a commonsense kind of thing and I think it’s just kind of built that momentum of people understanding about how much food we’re really wasting.”

    New York’s Westchester County has eight refrigerated trucks that pick up all types of perishable food, according to Danielle Vasquez, food donations coordinator for Feeding Westchester, one of the state’s food banks.

    The group started working with businesses in 2014 but has seen participation ramp up since the donation law went into effect last year. Much of the food collected goes to nearly 300 programs and partners throughout the county, including a mobile food pantry and the Carver Center, a nonprofit serving Port Chester’s families and children, which has a pantry.

    “This time of year is very important for us and a lot of families across Westchester,” Vasquez said. “There is the high cost of food. There is a high cost of living. Westchester is a very expensive county to live in. … We are here to supplement our families as much as we can so, that way, they can focus that money on paying their bills.”

    Among those visiting the Carver Center earlier this month was Betsy Quiroa, who lamented how the cost of everything had gone up since the coronavirus pandemic. She was counting on getting milk, eggs, fruits and vegetables during her visit and said she didn’t care if the produce was dented or slightly damaged.

    “Coming here is good,” said Quiroa, a mother of four who relies on Social Security. “If you are not working, you buy nothing. This is the problem.”

    Despite New York’s success, advocates for food waste worry not enough is being done to meet the 2030 goal. Broad Leib and others have called for a national effort to coordinate the various state and local policies.

    There is a goal, “but we don’t really have a great roadmap … and how we’re going to actually achieve that end goal by 2030, which is kind of crazy,” Broad Leib said, adding that a one-person liaison office in the USDA isn’t sufficient to address the problem.

    Kathryn Bender, a University of Delaware assistant professor of economics, said donation programs are helpful, but she worries they might shift the burden from businesses to nonprofits, which could struggle to distribute all the food.

    “The best solution for food waste is to not have it in the first place,” Bender said. “If we don’t need to produce all that food, let’s not put all the resources into producing that food.”

    ___

    Casey reported from Boston.

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  • Canada, EU agree to new partnerships as Trudeau welcomes European leaders

    Canada, EU agree to new partnerships as Trudeau welcomes European leaders

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    Canada and the European Union say they are making strides toward new partnerships on green energy, digital transformation and research funding, as a Canada-EU Summit got underway in the Atlantic coast province of Newfoundland

    ByThe Associated Press

    November 24, 2023, 4:30 PM

    Charles Michel, President of the European Council, from left, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visit historic Signal Hill in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, on Friday, Nov. 24, 2023. (Paul Daly/The Canadian Press via AP)

    The Associated Press

    ST. JOHN’S, Newfoundland — Canada and the European Union said Friday they are making strides toward new partnerships on green energy, digital transformation and research funding, as a Canada-EU Summit got underway in the Atlantic coast province of Newfoundland.

    Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced during opening remarks Thursday evening that Canada is joining Horizon Europe, a $100 billion scientific research program. Afterward, the two parties said in a joint statement on Friday that substantive negotiations are complete and they are working toward its “prompt signature and implementation.”

    “Canadian companies are already benefiting from Horizon and have for many years, but there is much more that we’ll be able to access now that we are full partners,” Trudeau said.

    “It is an exciting articulation of what have been long-standing partnerships between scientists on both sides of the Atlantic.”

    Ottawa and Brussels started negotiations on Canada joining it a year ago, with an initial goal of signing the agreement this past spring.

    Canada has also worked out a deal to build water bombers and ship them to the EU, after both regions faced devastating forest fires this past summer.

    And Canada and the EU have announced what they are calling a new Green Alliance, which is focused on deepening existing partnerships on fighting climate change, halting biodiversity loss and intensifying technological and scientific co-operation.

    A new digital partnership was also part of the package of announcements on Friday.

    European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Canada “is a perfect match” for Europe’s resource needs, and she urged Ottawa to join a global partnership on the issue that the EU will launch within weeks.

    Trudeau also said Canada and the EU are committed to helping Ukraine continue in its fight against the Russian invasion, and announced that Canada is donating additional small arms and ammunition to the country.

    ___

    Follow AP’s climate and environment coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

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  • Germany’s economy shrank, and it’s facing a spending crisis

    Germany’s economy shrank, and it’s facing a spending crisis

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    FRANKFURT, Germany — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday promised quick action to fix a budget crisis after a court decision blew a large hole in the almost-finished plan for next year and threatened to disrupt spending on efforts to fight climate change and cushion the impact of high energy prices caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

    “Some are asking whether the financial support from the federal government, which caps high energy prices, can keep flowing or must be paid back,” he said in a video posted to X, formerly known as Twitter. “Those are “justifiable questions.”

    Scholz said, however, that the government is “firm in our intention to modernize our country, so that in future, we have strong industry, good jobs and good pay when our economy is climate neutral.”

    Scholz’s reassurances come as the budget crisis threatens to exacerbate problems in the world’s worst-performing major developed economy. Figures released Friday laid those issues bare.

    Europe’s largest economy contracted 0.1% in the July-to-September quarter as inflation eroded people’s willingness to spend, Germany’s statistics office said.

    Germany is the only major economy expected to shrink this year, according to the International Monetary Fund, which foresees a decline of 0.5%.

    Meanwhile, the closely watched Ifo institute survey of business optimism showed a tiny uptick to 87.3 for November from 86.9 in October but remained well below its July level, meaning business confidence is still in the dumps.

    The country’s budget crisis raises the possibility of spending cuts next year, which economists say would worsen the challenges facing the stagnating German economy. It’s struggling to adapt to long-term challenges such as a shortage of skilled workers and the loss of cheap natural gas from Russia after the invasion of Ukraine.

    A court ruled last week that previous spending violated constitutional limits on deficits, forcing Scholz’s government to put off a final vote on next year’s spending plan and search for ways to fill a 60 billion euro ($65 billion) budget hole over this year and next.

    The country’s Constitutional Court ruled that the government could not repurpose unused funding meant to ease the impact of COVID-19 into projects to fight climate change and offer relief to consumers and businesses hit with high energy costs.

    The court said the move violated rules in the constitution that limit new borrowing to 0.35% of annual economic output. The government can go beyond that if there’s an emergency it didn’t create, such as the pandemic.

    The ruling has tied Scholz’s quarrelsome, three-party coalition in knots as the cabinet tries to comply, raising uncertainty about which government programs will be cut.

    Scholz said the court ruling, while banning spending in this case, upheld that exceptions to the debt rules were allowed in emergencies. He said the government would keep pursuing its goals of transitioning the economy away from fossil fuels and protecting consumers from higher energy prices.

    Analysts say about 15 billion euros had already been spent in this year’s budget, some of it on relief for utility bills.

    Finance Minister Christian Lindner has proposed invoking an emergency again this year to bring spending in line. But the bigger problem is the 35 billion to 40 billion euros that the government can no longer borrow and spend next year.

    That could mean cuts in the climate and transformation fund, which supports projects that reduce emissions from fossil fuels. Those include renovating buildings to be more energy efficient; subsidies for renewable electricity, electric cars and railway infrastructure; and efforts to introduce emissions-free hydrogen as an energy source.

    It also includes support for energy-intensive companies hit by high energy prices and for computer chip production.

    “There doesn’t seem to be a strong growth driver in sight,” said Carsten Brzeski, chief eurozone economist at ING bank.

    He termed the uptick in the Ifo survey of business managers as “a bottoming out” rather than a rebound.

    “This is why we expect the current state of stagnation and shallow recession to continue,” Brzeski said. “In fact, the risk that 2024 will be another year of recession has clearly increased.”

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  • Argentines vote in election that could lead Trump-admiring populist to the presidency

    Argentines vote in election that could lead Trump-admiring populist to the presidency

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    BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Voters in Argentina head to the polls Sunday in a presidential runoff election that will determine whether South America’s second-largest economy will take a rightward shift.

    Populist Javier Milei, an upstart candidate who got his start as a television talking head, has frequently been compared to former U.S. President Donald Trump. He faces Economy Minister Sergio Massa of the Peronist party, which has been a leading force in Argentine politics for decades.

    On Massa’s watch, inflation has soared to more than 140% and poverty has increased. Milei, a self-described anarcho-capitalist, proposes to slash the size of the state and rein in inflation, while Massa has warned people about the negative impacts of such policies.

    The highly polarizing election is forcing many to decide which of the two they consider to be the least bad option.

    “Whatever happens in this election will be incredible,” said Lucas Romero, director of local political consultancy Synopsis. “It would be incredible for Massa to win in this economic context or for Milei to win facing a candidate as professional as Massa.”

    Voting stations open at 8 a.m. (1100 GMT) and close 10 hours later. Voting is conducted with paper ballots, making the count unpredictable, but initial results were expected around three hours after polls close.

    Milei went from blasting the country’s “political caste” on TV to winning a lawmaker seat two years ago. The economist’s screeds resonated widely with Argentines angered by their struggle to make ends meet, particularly young men.

    “Money covers less and less each day. I’m a qualified individual, and my salary isn’t enough for anything,” Esteban Medina, a 26-year-old physical therapist from Ezeiza, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, told The Associated Press on the sidelines of a Milei rally earlier this week.

    Massa, as one of the most prominent figures in a deeply unpopular administration, was once seen as having little chance of victory. But he managed to mobilize the networks of his Peronist party and clinched a decisive first-place finish in the first round of voting.

    His campaign has cautioned Argentines that his libertarian opponent’s plan to eliminate key ministries and otherwise sharply curtail the state would threaten public services, including health and education, and welfare programs many rely on. Massa has also drawn attention to his opponent’s often aggressive rhetoric and has openly questioned his mental acuity; ahead of the first round, Milei sometimes carried a revving chainsaw at rallies.

    Massa’s “only chance to win this election when people want change … is to make this election a referendum on whether Milei is fit to be president or not,” said Ana Iparraguirre, partner at pollster GBAO Strategies.

    Milei has accused Massa and his allies of running a “campaign of fear” and he has walked back some of his most controversial proposals, such as loosening gun control. In his final campaign ad, Milei looks at the camera and assures voters he has no plans to privatize education or health care.

    Most pre-election polls, which have been notoriously wrong at every step of this year’s campaign, show a statistical tie between the two candidates. Voters for first-round candidates who didn’t make the runoff will be key. Patricia Bullrich, who placed third, has endorsed Milei.

    Javier Rojas, a 36-year-old pediatrician who voted for Bullrich in October, told The Associated Press he’s leaning toward Milei, then added: “Well, to be honest, it’s more of a vote against the other side than anything else.”

    Underscoring the bitter division this campaign has brought to the fore, Milei received both jeers and cheers on Friday night at the legendary Colón Theater in Buenos Aires.

    The vote takes place amid Milei’s allegations of possible electoral fraud, reminiscent of those from Trump and former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. Without providing evidence, Milei claimed that the first round of the presidential election was plagued by irregularities that affected the result. Experts say such irregularities cannot swing an election, and that his assertions are partly aimed at firing up his base and motivating his supporters to become monitors of voting stations.

    Such claims spread widely on social media and, at Milei’s rally in Ezeiza earlier this week, all those interviewed told the AP they were concerned about the integrity of the vote.

    “You don’t need to show statistically significant errors — if you draw enough attention to one problem in one polling station which likely doesn’t affect the results in any meaningful way, people are likely to overestimate the frequency and impact of that and other problems in the elections more generally,” Fernanda Buril, of the Washington-based International Foundation for Electoral Systems, said in an e-mail.

    ___

    Associated Press writer Almudena Calatrava contributed to this report.

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  • House Republicans look to pass two-step package to avoid partial government shutdown

    House Republicans look to pass two-step package to avoid partial government shutdown

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    WASHINGTON — House Speaker Mike Johnson unveiled his proposal on Saturday to avoid a partial government shutdown by extending government funding for some agencies and programs until Jan. 19 and continuing funding for others until Feb. 2.

    The approach is unusual for a stopgap spending bill. Usually, lawmakers extend funding until a certain date for all programs. Johnson decided to go with the combination approach, addressing concerns from GOP lawmakers seeking to avoid being presented with a massive spending bill just before the holidays.

    “This two-step continuing resolution is a necessary bill to place House Republicans in the best position to fight for conservative victories,” Johnson said in a statement after speaking with GOP lawmakers in an afternoon conference call. “The bill will stop the absurd holiday-season omnibus tradition of massive, loaded up spending bills introduced right before the Christmas recess.”

    The bill excludes funding requested by President Joe Biden for Israel, Ukraine and the U.S. border with Mexico. Johnson said separating Biden’s request for an emergency supplemental bill from the temporary, stopgap measure “places our conference in the best position to fight for fiscal responsibility, oversight over Ukraine aid, and meaningful policy changes at our Southern border.”

    Hardline conservatives, usually loathe to support temporary spending measures of any sort, had indicated they would give Johnson some leeway to pass legislation, known as a continuing resolution, or CR, to give Congress more time to negotiate a long-term agreement.

    But some were critical in their reactions following the conference call.

    “My opposition to the clean CR just announced by the Speaker to the @HouseGOP cannot be overstated,” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, tweeted on X. “Funding Pelosi level spending & policies for 75 days – for future ‘promises.’”

    The White House, meanwhile, panned the plan as “unserious,” unworkable and a threat to national security and domestic programs.

    “This proposal is just a recipe for more Republican chaos and more shutdowns—full stop,” said press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, pointing to opposition from members of both parties. “House Republicans need to stop wasting time on their own political divisions, do their jobs, and work in a bipartisan way to prevent a shutdown.”

    The federal government is operating under funding levels approved last year by a Democratic-led House and Senate. Facing a government shutdown when the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, Congress passed a 47-day continuing resolution, but the fallout was severe. Kevin McCarthy was booted from the speakership days later, and the House was effectively paralyzed for most of the month while Republicans tried to elect a replacement.

    Republicans eventually were unanimous in electing Johnson speaker, but his elevation has hardly eased the dynamic that led to McCarthy’s removal — a conference torn on policy as well as how much to spend on federal programs. This past week, Republicans had to pull two spending bills from the floor — one to fund transportation and housing programs and the other to fund the Treasury Department, Small Business Administration and other agencies — because they didn’t have the votes in their own party to push them through the House.

    A document explaining Johnson’s proposal to House Republicans, obtained by The Associated Press, said funding for four spending bills would be extended until Jan. 19. Veterans programs, and bills dealing with transportation, housing, agriculture and energy, would be part of that extension.

    Funding for the eight other spending bills, which include defense, the State Department, Homeland Security and other government agencies would be extended until Feb. 2.

    The document sent to GOP lawmakers and key staff states that Johnson inherited a budget mess. He took office less than three weeks ago and immediately began considering appropriations bills through regular order. Still, with just days remaining before a shutdown, a continuing resolution is now required.

    Underscoring the concerns about the possibility of a shutdown, the credit rating agency Moody’s Investors Service lowered its outlook on the U.S. government’s debt on Friday to “negative” from “stable,” citing the cost of rising interest rates and political polarization in Congress.

    House Republicans pointed to the national debt, now exceeding $33 trillion, for Moody’s decision. Analysts have warned that with interest rates heading higher, interest costs on the national debt will eat up a rising share of tax revenue.

    Johnson said in reaction to the Moody’s announcement that House Republicans are committed to working in a bipartisan fashion for fiscal restraint, beginning with the introduction of a debt commission.

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  • Projects featuring Lady Bird Johnson’s voice offer new looks at the late first lady

    Projects featuring Lady Bird Johnson’s voice offer new looks at the late first lady

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    DALLAS — Texas college student Jade Emerson found herself entranced as she worked on a podcast about Lady Bird Johnson, listening to hour upon hour of the former first lady recounting everything from her childhood memories to advising her husband in the White House.

    “I fell in love very quickly,” said Emerson, host and producer of the University of Texas podcast “Lady Bird.” “She kept surprising me.”

    The podcast, which was released earlier this year, is among several recent projects using Johnson’s own lyrical voice to offer a new look at the first lady who died in 2007. Other projects include a documentary titled “The Lady Bird Diaries” that premieres Monday on Hulu and an exhibit in Austin at the presidential library for her husband, Lyndon B. Johnson, who died in 1973.

    Lady Bird Johnson began recording an audio diary in the tumultuous days after her husband became president following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. The library released that audio about a decade after her death. It adds to recorded interviews she did following her husband’s presidency and home movies she narrated.

    “I don’t know that people appreciated or realized how much she was doing behind the scenes and I think that’s the part that’s only just now really starting to come out,” said Lara Hall, LBJ Presidential Library curator.

    “Lady Bird: Beyond the Wildflowers” shows library visitors the myriad ways Johnson made an impact. Hall said the exhibit, which closes at the end of the year, has been so popular that the library hopes to integrate parts of it into its permanent display.

    In making her podcast, Emerson, who graduated from UT in May with a journalism degree, relied heavily on the interviews Johnson did with presidential library staff over the decades after her husband left the White House in 1969.

    “Just to have her telling her own story was so fascinating,” Emerson said. “And she just kept surprising me. Like during World War II when LBJ was off serving, she was the one who ran his congressional office in the 1940s. She had bought a radio station in Austin and went down to Austin to renovate it and get it going again.”

    The new documentary from filmmaker Dawn Porter, based on Julia Sweig’s 2021 biography “Lady Bird Johnson: Hiding in Plain Sight” and a podcast hosted by the author, takes viewers through the White House years. From advising her husband on strategy to critiquing his speeches, her influence is quickly seen.

    Porter also notes that Johnson was “a fierce environmentalist” and an advocate for women. She was also a skilled campaigner, Porter said. Among events the documentary recounts is Johnson’s tour of the South aboard a train named the “Lady Bird Special” before the 1964 election.

    With racial tensions simmering following the passage of the Civil Rights Act, President Johnson sent his wife as his surrogate. “She does that whistle-stop tour in the very hostile South and does it beautifully,” Porter said.

    “She did all of these things and she didn’t ask for credit, but she deserves the credit,” Porter said.

    The couple’s daughter Luci Baines Johnson can still remember the frustration she felt as a 16-year-old when she saw the message hanging on the doorknob to her mother’s room that read: “I want to be alone.” Lady Bird Johnson would spend that time working on her audio tapes, compiling her thoughts from photographs, letters and other information that might strike her memory.

    “She was just begging for the world to give her the time to do what she’d been uniquely trained to do,” said Luci Baines Johnson, who noted that her mother had degrees in both history and journalism from the University of Texas.

    “She was just beyond, beyond and beyond,” she said. “She thought a day without learning was a day that was wasted.”

    Emerson called her work on the podcast “a huge gift” as she “spent more time with Lady Bird than I did with anyone else in my college years.”

    “She’s taught me a lot about just what type of legacy I’d like to leave with my own life and just how to treat people.”

    “Every time I hear her voice, I start to smile,” she said.

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  • Judge in Alaska upholds Biden administration’s approval of the massive Willow oil-drilling project

    Judge in Alaska upholds Biden administration’s approval of the massive Willow oil-drilling project

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    JUNEAU, Alaska — A federal judge on Thursday upheld the Biden administration’s approval of the massive Willow oil-drilling project on Alaska’s remote North Slope, a decision that environmental groups swiftly vowed to fight.

    U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason rejected requests by a grassroots Iñupiat group and environmentalists to vacate the project approval, and she dismissed their claims against Willow, which is in the federally designated National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. The administration’s approval of Willow in March drew the ire of environmentalists who accused the president of backpedaling on his pledge to combat climate change.

    The company behind the project, ConocoPhillips Alaska, has the right to develop its leases in the reserve “subject to reasonable restrictions and mitigation measures imposed by the federal government,” Gleason wrote. She added that the alternatives analyzed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management as part of its review were consistent with the policy objectives for the petroleum reserve and the stated purpose and need of the Willow project.

    The groups that sued over the project raised concerns about planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from Willow and argued that federal agencies failed to consider how increased emissions from the project could affect ice-reliant species such as the polar bear, Arctic ringed seals and bearded seals, which already are experiencing disruptions due to climate change.

    Gleason said an agency environmental review “appropriately analyzed the indirect and cumulative” greenhouse gas emissions impacts of the project.

    Erik Grafe, an attorney with Earthjustice, which represents several environmental groups in one of the cases, called the ruling disappointing and said an appeal was planned.

    Bridget Psarianos, an attorney with Trustees for Alaska, which represents Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic and environmental groups in the other lawsuit, called Gleason’s decision “bad news not just for our clients but for anyone who cares about the climate and future generations.”

    “There is too much at stake to gloss over the harm this project will do,” Psarianos said. “We will remain standfast in working with our clients to protect the Arctic from this devastating project today and in the weeks, months, and years ahead.”

    The project has widespread political support in Alaska. But climate activists said allowing it to go forward marked a major breach of President Joe Biden’s campaign promise to stop new oil drilling on federal lands. The administration’s action alienated and outraged some supporters, particularly young activists who launched a TikTok campaign to oppose the project ahead of its approval.

    ConocoPhillips Alaska had proposed five drilling sites, but the Bureau of Land Management approved three, which it said would include up to 199 total wells. The project could produce up to 180,000 barrels of oil a day at its peak. Using that oil would produce the equivalent of at least 263 million tons (239 million metric tons) of greenhouse gas emissions over Willow’s projected 30-year life.

    The administration has defended its climate record, and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland earlier this year called Willow “a very long and complicated and difficult decision to make,’’ noting that ConocoPhillips Alaska has long held leases in the region and that regulators tried to balance drilling rights with a project that was narrower in scope.

    Interior declined to comment on Gleason’s decision Thursday.

    Connor Dunn, vice president of the Willow project for ConocoPhillips Alaska, said in court documents that it was “highly unlikely” that Willow would proceed if the administration’s approval were to be vacated.

    Many of the company’s leases in the area date to 1999 and are at risk of expiring by Sept. 1, 2029, if oil hasn’t been produced by then, Dunn said. There is no guarantee the company, which through July had invested about $925 million in Willow, would get an extension on its leases, he said.

    In April, Gleason rejected efforts to halt cold-weather construction work by ConocoPhillips Alaska while litigation was pending, including mining gravel and using it for a road toward the project. That work ended in May.

    Following Gleason’s decision Thursday, the company said it intends to proceed with plans for construction work this winter.

    Erec Isaacson, president of ConocoPhillips Alaska, said Willow “underwent nearly five years of rigorous regulatory review and environmental analysis, including extensive public involvement from the communities closest to the project site. We now want to make this project a reality and help Alaskan communities realize the extensive benefits of responsible energy development.”

    The project has been mired in litigation for years.

    A prior authorization of Willow, issued in 2020 during the Trump administration, called for allowing ConocoPhillips to establish up to three drill sites, with the potential for two more proposed by the company to be considered later.

    But Gleason set that aside in 2021 after finding that the federal review underpinning the decision was flawed and did not include mitigation measures for polar bears. The ruling led to a new environmental analysis and the Biden administration’s greenlight in March for what Justice Department attorneys had said was a scaled-back version that resolved concerns raised by Gleason.

    Many Alaska Native leaders on the North Slope and groups with ties to the region have argued that Willow is economically vital for their communities. Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy, the state’s bipartisan congressional delegation and labor unions have touted Willow as a job creator in a state where major existing oil fields are aging and production is a fraction of what it once was.

    “Today’s ruling gives us hope for our collective future on the North Slope and in Alaska,” said Nagruk Harcharek, president of Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat, a group whose members include leaders from across much of the North Slope region. “Going forward, we hope that key decision makers in the Biden administration and in Congress listen to the voices of those who know these lands better than anyone else: the North Slope Iñupiat.”

    Some Alaska Native leaders in the community nearest the project, Nuiqsut, have expressed concerns about impacts to their subsistence lifestyles and have said their concerns were ignored.

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  • Mississippi voters are choosing between a first-term GOP governor and a Democrat related to Elvis

    Mississippi voters are choosing between a first-term GOP governor and a Democrat related to Elvis

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    JACKSON, Miss. — Mississippians stood in line in some crowded precincts Tuesday to vote in a hard-fought governor’s race between Republican incumbent Tate Reeves and Democratic challenger Brandon Presley.

    Republicans dominate in the conservative state, but Democrats were making an aggressive push for a rare statewide victory in the Deep South.

    Presley voted in his hometown of Nettleton, in the northern part of the state. Reeves voted in downtown Jackson.

    Heading into Election Day, Reeves told voters that Mississippi had momentum with job creation, low unemployment and improvements in education. He said liberal, out-of-state donors to Presley’s campaign were trying to change Mississippi.

    “For you to believe Brandon Presley in anything that he says, you’ve got to believe that everything in Mississippi is bad,” Reeves said last week during the candidates’ only debate.

    Presley, a state utility regulator and second cousin of Elvis Presley, said Reeves had hurt the state by refusing to expand Medicaid to cover people working lower-wage jobs that do not provide health insurance. Presley pledged to clean up government corruption, pointing to welfare money that was spent on pet projects for the wealthy and well connected rather than aid for some of the poorest people in one of the poorest states in the nation.

    “He’s not going to open his mouth about ethics reform,” Presley said of Reeves. “He is the poster child of this broken, corrupt system.”

    Republicans have held the Mississippi governorship for the past 20 years. They hold all statewide offices and a wide majority in the Legislature. The last time a Democrat won the presidential vote in Mississippi was 1976, when Georgia’s Jimmy Carter was on the ballot.

    Presley’s campaign raised $11.3 million this year, compared with Reeves’ $6.3 million. But Reeves started the year with more money. By late October, Presley spent $10.8 million and still had $1.3 million, while Reeves spent $11 million and still had $1.2 million.

    For the first time, Mississippi had the possibility of a runoff in the governor’s race if no candidate received at least 50% of the vote. An independent candidate, Gwendolyn Gray, announced weeks ago that she was dropping out and endorsing Presley, but she did it after ballots were set.

    Mississippi voters in 2020 repealed a Jim Crow-era method of electing a governor and other statewide officials, which required a candidate to win both the popular vote and a majority of the 122 state House districts. Without both, a race was decided by House members who were not obligated to vote as their districts did. Contests were seldom decided by the House, but the method was written by white supremacists with the intent of keeping Black candidates out of office.

    Activists with the voting rights organization Black Voters Matter drove to precincts in Jackson and other cities in a bus and a vans covered with images of civil rights leaders, including the late Fannie Lou Hamer. Carol Blackmon, the group’s Mississippi organizer, said the work was a nonpartisan effort to encourage people to vote.

    “People don’t always connect voting to their everyday lives, and they need to think about that impact — think about how who is elected impacts everything that happens with your life and those of your children and your grandkids,” Blackmon said as James Brown’s “Say It Loud — I’m Black and I’m Proud” played from loudspeakers on the bus.

    Reeves, 49, served two terms as state treasurer and two as lieutenant governor before winning an open race for governor in 2019.

    Presley, 46, was mayor of his small hometown of Nettleton for six years before being elected in 2007 to the three-person Mississippi Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities.

    Jimmy Ware of Natchez, a retired electrician who was backing Presley, said the local Democratic Party and the NAACP plan a big push for Black turnout on Election Day.

    Heather McGee of Columbus, who owns a construction company, said she was voting for Reeves, as she did in 2019.

    “After COVID and seeing how other states handled that and Tate handled it and just to see that we grew through it whereas other people took steps backwards,” McGee said. “There’s no way I would vote for anyone else after what he’s done.”

    Reeves issued a stay-at-home order early in the pandemic, but he was reluctant to put long-term restrictions on schools and businesses, even as some hospitals were overwhelmed.

    Mississippi voters also were electing other statewide officials.

    Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann faced a Democratic challenger who had spent little money, business consultant D. Ryan Grover. In a contentious Republican primary in August, Hosemann defeated state Sen. Chris McDaniel.

    Republican Attorney General Lynn Fitch, whose office led the legal fight to overturn Roe v. Wade and change abortion access, sought a second term. She was challenged by Democrat Greta Kemp Martin, an attorney for Disability Rights Mississippi.

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  • US officials, lawmakers express support for extension of Africa trade program

    US officials, lawmakers express support for extension of Africa trade program

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    JOHANNESBURG — U.S. officials and lawmakers expressed support Saturday for the extension of a trade program that grants eligible African countries duty-free access to U.S. markets.

    The move follows a clear push by eligible African countries at the African Growth and Opportunity Act trade forum in Johannesburg to have the program extended. It is currently slated to expire in September 2025.

    AGOA is U.S. legislation that allows sub-Saharan African countries duty-free access to U.S. markets provided they meet certain conditions, including adherence to the rule of law and the protection of human rights.

    Addressing the forum this week, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa called on the U.S. Congress to extend the program for a far longer period than the previous 10-year extension granted in 2015.

    More than 30 African countries that are part of the AGOA program participated in the forum, where African businesses showcased products ranging from food and jewelry to electronics. The forum concluded Saturday.

    In a statement released Friday, U.S. lawmakers expressed support for the extension of the program.

    “Africa is on the precipice of an unprecedented demographic boom. The timely reauthorization of AGOA is important to provide business certainty and show the United States’ continued support towards Africa’s economic growth,” said House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Michael McCaul and ranking member Gregory Meeks in a statement.

    U.S. trade representative Katherine Tai, who led the U.S delegation, emphasized AGOA’s impact on African businesses and its importance to the United States.

    “AGOA remains the cornerstone of the U.S. economic partnership with Africa, let us not forget the real impact that AGOA has had on real lives, real people,” she said.

    Earlier this week, President Joe Biden announced his intention to boot Niger, Gabon, the Central African Republic and Uganda from AGOA.

    He said Niger and Gabon had failed to establish or make continual progress toward the protection of political pluralism and the rule of law, while citing the Central African Republic and Uganda as having committed gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.

    According to Ramaphosa, the extension will provide much needed certainty for eligible African countries and encourage more trade between the U.S. and the continent.

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  • Offshore wind projects face economic storm. Cancellations jeopardize Biden clean energy goals

    Offshore wind projects face economic storm. Cancellations jeopardize Biden clean energy goals

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    WASHINGTON — The cancellation of two large offshore wind projects in New Jersey is the latest in a series of setbacks for the nascent U.S. offshore wind industry, jeopardizing the Biden administration’s goals of powering 10 million homes from towering ocean-based turbines by 2030 and establishing a carbon-free electric grid five years later.

    The Danish wind energy developer Ørsted said this week it’s scrapping its Ocean Wind I and II projects off southern New Jersey due to problems with supply chains, higher interest rates and a failure to obtain the amount of tax credits the company wanted. Together, the projects were supposed to deliver over 2.2 gigawatts of power.

    The news comes after developers in New England canceled power contacts for three projects that would have provided another 3.2 gigawatts of wind power to Massachusetts and Connecticut. They said their projects were no longer financially feasible.

    In total, the cancellations equate to nearly one-fifth of President Joe Biden’s goal of 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2030.

    Despite the setbacks, offshore wind continues to move forward, the White House said, citing recent investments by New York state and approval by the Interior Department of the nation’s largest planned offshore wind farm in Virginia. Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management also announced new offshore wind lease areas in the Gulf of Mexico.

    “While macroeconomic headwinds are creating challenges for some projects, momentum remains on the side of an expanding U.S. offshore wind industry — creating good-paying union jobs in manufacturing, shipbuilding and construction,″ while strengthening the power grid and providing new clean energy resources for American families and businesses, the White House said in a statement Thursday.

    Industry experts now say that while the U.S. likely won’t hit 30 gigawatts by 2030, a significant amount of offshore wind power is still attainable by then, roughly 20 to 22 gigawatts or more. That’s far more than the nation has today, with just two small demonstration projects that provide a small fraction of a single gigawatt of power.

    Large, ocean-based wind farms are the linchpin of government plans to shift to renewable energy, particularly in populous East Coast states with limited land for wind turbines or solar arrays. Eight East Coast states have offshore wind mandates set by legislation or executive actions that commit them to adding a combined capacity of more than 45 gigawatts, according to ClearView Energy Partners, a Washington-based research firm.

    “I think very few people would argue that the U.S. will have the gigawatts the Biden administration wants″ by 2030, said Timothy Fox, a ClearView vice president. “But I do think eventually we will have it and will likely exceed it.”

    Offshore wind developers have publicly lamented the global economic gales they’re facing. Molly Morris, president of U.S. offshore wind for the Norwegian company Equinor, said the industry is facing a “perfect storm.”

    High inflation, supply chain disruptions and the rising cost of capital and building materials are making projects more expensive while developers are trying to get the first large U.S. offshore wind farms opened. Ørsted is writing off $4 billion, due largely to cancellation of the two New Jersey projects.

    David Hardy, group executive vice president and CEO Americas at Ørsted, said it’s crucial to lower the levelized cost of offshore wind in the United States so Americans aren’t debating between affordability and clean energy. Hardy spoke at the American Clean Power industry group’s offshore wind conference in Boston last month on a panel with Morris.

    “We’re probably a little bit too ambitious,” he said. “We came in hot, we came in fast, we thought we could build projects that were inexpensive, large projects right out of the gate. And it turns out that we probably still need to go through the same learning curve that Europe did, with higher prices in the beginning and a little slower pace.”

    In May, there were 27 U.S. offshore wind projects that had negotiated agreements with states to provide power before the brunt of the cost increases hit, according to Walt Musial, offshore wind chief engineer at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, an arm of the Energy Department. The delay between signing purchase agreements and getting final approval to build allowed unexpected cost increases to render many projects economically unfeasible, he said.

    Musial called Ørsted’s announcement a setback for the industry but “not a fatal blow by any means.”

    On Tuesday, the Biden administration announced approval of the nation’s largest offshore wind project. The Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project will be a 2.6 gigawatt wind farm off of Virginia Beach to power 900,000 homes. And even as Ørsted announced the New Jersey cancellations, it said it was investing with utility Eversource to move forward with construction of Revolution Wind, Rhode Island and Connecticut’s first utility-scale offshore wind farm, a 704-megawatt project.

    The current outlook from S&P Global Commodity Insights is 22 gigawatts by 2030, though that will be revised due to the recent industry announcements.

    New York state, meanwhile, recently announced the award of 4 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity as it seeks to obtain 70% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030 and 9 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2035. That announcement came shortly after New York regulators rejected a request for bigger payments for four offshore wind projects worth a combined 4.2 gigawatts of power. Those developers said they were assessing the viability of their projects.

    Any delay in offshore wind means continued reliance on fossil fuel-burning power plants, according to environmental advocates.

    “The quicker they come online, the quicker our air quality improves,” said Conor Bambrick, director of policy for Environmental Advocates NY.

    New Jersey, under Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, has established increasingly stringent clean energy goals, moving from 100% clean energy by 2050 to 100% by 2035. Murphy cast Ørsted’s decision as “outrageous” and an abandonment of its commitments, but the two-term Democrat said New Jersey plans to move forward with offshore wind. Additional offshore projects are pending before the state’s utility regulators.

    “We definitely remain optimistic,” said Catherine Klinger, Murphy’s climate action and green economy executive director. “Offshore wind is a lot bigger than Ørsted.”

    The first U.S. commercial-scale offshore wind farms are currently under construction: Vineyard Wind off Massachusetts and South Fork Wind off Rhode Island and New York.

    Catherine Bowes, a senior director at Turn Forward, a nonprofit that advocates for offshore wind, believes the industry still has strong momentum because of the quality of the wind resources off the coastlines and the growing demand for clean electricity to meet decarbonization goals. The nonprofit is advocating for 100 gigawatts of U.S. offshore wind power.

    “The bumpiness we’re seeing right now in no way indicates an inability of offshore wind to play a major role in the U.S. electric grid,″ Bowes said Thursday.

    Terminated contracts can be rebid, presumably with higher prices to cover development costs. Offshore wind developers are asking the federal government to ensure the industry can take advantage of tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act to help these first projects become operational.

    Michael Brown, CEO of Ocean Winds North America, which is developing several offshore projects, including one in New Jersey, said at the clean power conference that the industry will thrive in the U.S. but “it might be a little bit slower than we all want it.”

    ___

    McDermott reported from Providence, Rhode Island; Hill from Albany, New York and Catalini from Trenton, New Jersey.

    ___

    Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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