Peter S. Goodman, Alexandra Stevenson, Niraj Chokshi and Michael Corkery, - The New York Times
Stephan: Do you think about shipping containers frequently, at all? Do you see them as a critical factor in your own wellbeing? You should. And you should also recognize that the pandemic is causing massive change in many of the fundamentals of civilization. This report describes the trend that is so profoundly affecting global shipping, Until now I have only seen it mentioned in the professional literature but, with this article, it will move into mass consciousness. I think everyone should be prepared for more of these stories, and to realize that this pandemic and climate change are going to profoundly change every society whatever the culture.
The Port of Los Angeles, the main port of entry for goods from Asia, has seen significant congestion in the pandemic. Credit: Coley Brown/The New York Times
Off the coast of Los Angeles, more than two dozen container ships filled with exercise bikes, electronics and other highly sought imports have been idling for as long as two weeks.
In Kansas City, farmers are struggling to ship soybeans to buyers in Asia. In China, furniture destined for North America piles up on factory floors.
Around the planet, the pandemic has disrupted trade to an extraordinary degree, driving up the cost of shipping goods and adding a fresh challenge to the global economic recovery. The virus has thrown off the choreography of moving cargo from one continent to another.
At the center of the storm is the shipping container, the workhorse of globalization.
Americans stuck in their homes have set off a surge of orders from factories in China, much of it carried across the Pacific in containers — the metal boxes that move goods in towering stacks atop enormous vessels. As households in the United States […]
Stephan: Another Republican lie is proven by data to be just that, a lie. These endless lies and fantasies believed by millions have left our democracy in a very fragile condition. It is hard to have a democracy based on a two-party system when one of those parties does not want to have a democracy and is doing everything it can to subvert democracy.
Workers count ballots in Portland. Those findings challenge the conventional wisdom that has emerged after Joe Biden’s victory in November that the Democrats benefited from mail-in votes. Credit: Paula Bronstein/AP
States that required an excuse to vote by mail saw increases in turnout similar to those that did not, the researchers from Stanford found. In Texas, where only voters ages 65 and up can vote by mail without an excuse, Democratic turnout did not “substantially increase” relative to Republican turnout.
“Despite the extraordinary circumstances of the 2020 election, vote-by-mail’s effect on turnout and on partisan outcomes is very muted,” the researchers wrote. “Voter interest appears to be far more important in driving turnout.”
Those findings challenge the conventional wisdom that has emerged after Joe Biden’s victory in November. Republicans have repeatedly […]
Stephan: If anyone ever tells you that they support nuclear energy just say two words, Fukushima and Chernobyl. When nuclear goes bad, it goes bad and is lethally dangerous for... no one actually knows, decades, centuries.
Storage tanks for contaminated water at the Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which was badly damaged in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Credit: Philip Fong/AFP/Getty
TOKYO — Beside the ruins of theFukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, more than 1,000 huge metal tanks loom in silent testament to one of the worst nuclear disasters in history, the meltdown of three nuclear reactors 10 years ago this month.
The tanks contain nearly 1.25million tons of cooling water from the 2011 disaster and groundwater seepage over the years — equivalent to around 500 Olympic-size swimming pools — most of it still dangerously radioactive.
Running out of space to build more tanks, the government wants to gradually release the water into the sea — after it has been decontaminated and diluted — over the next three decades or more.
Even though a formal decision has yet to be announced, the government and the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) have insisted that an ocean release is their preferred solution and that it is perfectly safe.
The only thing holding them back appears to be the […]
“A previously unnoticed disclosure by FirstEnergy Corp. says the millions of dollars the company says it paid to someone shortly before they were hired as a top state utility regulator led to that person taking actions on the company’s behalf in their new state job,” Andrew Tobias reported for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “In densely-worded legal disclosures filed in November, the Akron-based company said the $4.3 million payment the company made in January 2019 led to ‘conduct corresponding to such payment,’ and to that person ‘acting at the request or for the benefit of FirstEnergy as a consequence of receiving such payment.’”
“The company said the payment was a ‘noncompliance’ event that violated its terms with banks that lend it money, as was conduct by FirstEnergy officials ‘during the time period after such payment […]
Stephan: For 20 years, the Republican Party in Texas has worked to deregulate corporations providing essential services like electricity, and the people of Texas have voted Republicans into power election after election. And now those same voters reap the consequences of their decisions. Deregulation ALWAYS leads to abuse to the detriment of ordinary people.
Homes and roads in Dallas, Texas covered in snow. The 2021 winter storm dropped temperatures as low as zero degrees. Credit: Isaac Murray / Moment / Getty Images
An independent market monitor says ERCOT, the Texas grid operator, left wholesale electricity prices at the legal maximum for two days longer than necessary, and overcharged power companies $16 billion in the process during the winter storm that caused massive grid and gas system failures and left more than 4 million Texans without electricity.
Potomac Economics, the firm hired by the state to assess ERCOT’s performance, recommended to regulators that the charges be reversed. The move could help alleviate stress on Texas power providers facing shortfalls, default, or bankruptcy following the massive price spikes.
The “error” and potential reversal could also have major implications for the Texas wind energy industry. Due to the nature of the financial instruments used by Texas wind firms, those that were unable to produce power during the storm were forced to pay the legal maximum of $9,000 per megawatt hour (the average price in 2020 was $22.18) for four days. At that rate, wind companies could be forced […]
