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Business

Thousands lose power after three substations targeted in Washington state, sheriff says

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Dec 25 (Reuters) – Thousands of residents were without power near Tacoma, Washington, after three electrical substations were vandalized, local authorities said on Sunday, adding that it was not yet clear if the Christmas Day incidents were linked.

The Pierce County Sheriff’s Department said robberies were reported at two substations belonging to Tacoma Public Utilities and another belonging to Puget Sound Energy. Deputies cited forced entry into the fenced-in area, with equipment vandalized but nothing taken from the sites, it said. More than 14,000 customers were affected.

“At this time deputies are conducting the initial investigation. We do not have any suspects in custody. It is unknown if there are any motives or if this was a coordinated attack on the power systems,” the department said in a statement on its website.

Earlier this month, a utility in North Carolina reported outages from what local authorities said were orchestrated shootings now being investigated by federal law enforcement.

The FBI has also been investigating shots fired near a power facility in South Carolina days later, and whether those two incidents could be related, NBC News and other local media have reported.

Utilities nationwide have been strained by a severe cold weather system that swept across the country this week, leaving more than 300,000 without power from the winter storm.

In east Piece County, about 2,700 people serviced by Tacoma Public Utilities remained affected midday on Sunday after an initial 7,300 residents lost power in the area, about 45 miles (72 km) south of Seattle, Tacoma Public Utilities said in a post on Twitter.

“We are working as quickly and safely as possible to restore power,” it said, noting that its substations “were attacked” earlier on Sunday morning and that the incidents were reported to police.

Representatives for Puget Sound Energy could not be immediately reached for comment.

Reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Leslie Adler

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Business

Storm cuts U.S. oil, gas, power output, sending prices higher

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Dec 23 (Reuters) – Frigid cold and blowing winds on Friday knocked out power and cut energy production across the United States, driving up heating and electricity prices as people prepared for holiday celebrations.

Winter Storm Elliott brought sub-freezing temperatures and extreme weather alerts to about two-thirds of the United States, with cold and snow in some areas to linger through the Christmas holiday.

More than 1.5 million homes and businesses lost power, oil refineries in Texas cut gasoline and diesel production on equipment failures, and heating and power prices surged on the losses. Oil and gas output from North Dakota to Texas suffered freeze-ins, cutting supplies.

Some 1.5 million barrels of daily refining capacity along the U.S. Gulf Coast was shut due to the bitterly cold temperatures. The production losses are not expected to last, but they have lifted fuel prices.

Knocked out were TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA), Motiva Enterprises (MOTIV.UL) and Marathon Petroleum (MPC.N) facilities outside Houston. Cold weather also disrupted Exxon Mobil (XOM.N), LyondellBasell (LYB.N) and Valero Energy (VLO.N) plants in Texas that produce gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.

Sempra Infrastructure’s Cameron LNG plant in Louisiana said weather disrupted its production of liquefied natural gas without providing details. Crews at the 12 million tonne-per-year facility were trying to restore output, it said.

Freeze-ins – in which ice crystals halt oil and gas production – this week trimmed production in North Dakota’s oilfields by 300,000 to 350,000 barrels per day, or a third of normal. In Texas’s Permian oilfield, the freeze led to more gas being withdrawn than was injected, said El Paso Natural Gas operator Kinder Morgan Inc. (KMI.N).

U.S. benchmark oil prices on Friday jumped 2.4% to $79.56, and next-day gas in west Texas jumped 22% to around $9 per million British thermal units , the highest since the state’s 2021 deep freeze.

Power prices on Texas’s grid also spiked to $3,700 per megawatt hour, prompting generators to add more power to the grid before prices fell back as thermal and solar supplies came online.

New England’s bulk power supplier said it expected to have enough to supply demand, but elsewhere strong winds led to outages largely in the Southeast and Midwest; North Carolina counted more than 187,000 without power.

“Crews are restoring power but high winds are making repairs challenging at most of the 4,600 outage locations,” Duke Energy spokesman Jeff Brooks wrote on Twitter.

Heating oil and natural gas futures rose sharply in response to the cold. U.S. heating oil futures gained 4.3% while natural gas futures rose 2.5%.

In New England, gas for Friday at the Algonquin hub soared 361% to a near 11-month high of $30 mmBtu.

About half of the power generated in New England comes from gas-fired plants, but on the coldest days, power generators shift to burn more oil. According to grid operator New England ISO, power companies’ generation mix was at 17% from oil-fired plants as of midday Friday.

Gas output dropped about 6.5 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) over the past four days to a preliminary nine-month low of 92.4 bcfd on Friday as wells froze in Texas, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Pennsylvania and elsewhere.

That is the biggest drop in output since the February 2021 freeze knocked out power for millions in Texas.

One billion cubic feet is enough gas to supply about 5 million U.S. homes for a day.

Reporting by Erwin Seba and Scott DiSavino; additional reporting by Arathy Somasekhar and Laila Kearney; editing by Jonathan Oatis, Kirsten Donovan, Aurora Ellis and Leslie Adler

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Scott Disavino

Thomson Reuters

Covers the North American power and natural gas markets.

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US

U.S. to boost spending on tribal lands, protect Nevada sacred site

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WASHINGTON, Nov 30 (Reuters) – The Biden administration will give Native American tribes more say in managing federal and tribal lands as part of a plan that includes assistance for tribes whose land has been harmed by climate change, the White House said on Wednesday.

President Joe Biden and other Cabinet officials announced the measures at a two-day Tribal Nations Summit, with additional steps focused on providing better access to capital for tribal nations.

Biden also said at the summit that he intends to protect the area surrounding Spirit Mountain in Nevada, known as Avi Kwa Ame to the Fort Mojave tribe, which has been urging the United States to designate the huge swath of land as a national monument.

“I’m committed to protecting this sacred place that is central to the creation story of so many tribes that are here today,” Biden announced during remarks at Tribal Nations summit in Washington.

Biden was met by applause when he commented that he intends to visit tribal lands while in office.

Among the other new actions announced by the administration are efforts to boost purchases of tribal energy and other goods and services, and to revitalize Native languages.

The three signature pieces of legislation passed during Biden’s time in office – laws dealing with infrastructure, climate and COVID-19 relief – have provided nearly $46 billion in funding for tribal communities and Native American people, the White House said.

The actions include new uniform standards for how federal agencies should consult Native American tribes in major decisions that affect their sovereignty, the creation of a new office of partnerships to advance economic development and conservation initiatives and agreements promoting the co-stewardship of federal lands, waters, fisheries and other resources of significance and value to tribes.

“I made a commitment my administration would prioritize and respect nation-to-nation relationships,” Biden said. “I hope our work in the past two years has demonstrated that we’re meeting that commitment.”

The Interior Department also announced it would award $115 million to 11 tribes that have been severely impacted by climate-related environmental threats, and $25 million each to two Alaska tribes and the Quinault Nation in Washington state to help them execute their plans to relocate their villages to safer ground.

Federal agencies will also be instructed to recognize and include indigenous knowledge in federal research, policy, and decision-making, by elevating tribal “observations, oral and written knowledge, practices, and beliefs” that promote environmental sustainability.

The Small Business Administration will announce plans to boost access to financing opportunities, while the Energy Department plans to increase federal agencies’ use of tribal energy through purchasing authority established under a 2005 law unused for more than 17 years.

The administration will also work to deploy electric-vehicle infrastructure in tribal lands, prioritize the replacement of diesel school buses with low or zero emission school buses, and help tribes buy or lease EV fleet vehicles.

As part of that drive, the Interior Department will set a goal to award 75% of contract dollars from Indian Affairs agencies and 10% of the department’s remaining contract dollars to Native-owned businesses. Along with a new Indian Health Service goal of 20% of purchases, the actions could redirect hundreds of millions of dollars to businesses on tribal lands.

The government will also release a draft of a 10-year plan to revitalize Native American languages and which underscores the urgency for immediate action, while formally recognizing the role that the U.S. government played in erasing Native languages.

The administration also announced a new initiative that will aim to widely deploy broadband and other wireless services on tribal lands, helping Native American tribes improve communication services that have lagged those of non-tribal lands.

Reporting by Andrea Shalal, Valerie Volcovici and Jeff Mason in Washington
Additional reporting by Katharine Jackson in Washington
Editing by Robert Birsel and Matthew Lewis

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World

U.S. gives 1.5 million more COVID-19 vaccine doses to Taiwan

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Walmart pharmacist holds a vial of the Moderna coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine inside a Walmart department store in West Haven, Connecticut, U.S., February 17, 2021. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo

WASHINGTON, Oct 31 (Reuters) – The United States is delivering an additional 1.5 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to Taiwan, a senior U.S. administration official told Reuters, increasing to 4 million the total number of shots donated by Washington to the self-ruled island, which is under increasing pressure from China.

The new delivery of Moderna Inc (MRNA.O) doses will depart from Louisville, Kentucky, on Sunday aboard a flight belonging to Taiwan’s China Airlines, the official said.

“Our vaccines do not come with strings attached” and were not donated to “secure favors or extract concessions,” the Biden administration official said, in an apparent reference to criticism that Beijing is trying to strengthen its geopolitical clout through so-called vaccine diplomacy.

The official added that Taiwan was a “vital partner” on global health issues.

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen thanked the United States and said the donation showed that the U.S. support for Taiwan was “rock-solid.”

“Based on the solid foundation of this friendship, Taiwan will continue to deepen partnership with the United States on all fronts,” she said in a Facebook post late on Sunday

The United States gave 2.5 million doses to the island claimed by China in June, making it among the first international recipients of U.S. vaccines. read more

At the time, U.S. officials said China was attempting to block vaccine purchases by Taiwan for political reasons, which Beijing denied.

Japan, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Lithuania also have donated COVID-19 vaccines to Taiwan, where about 70% of the population has received at least one dose, according to Taiwan media. Only about 30% of the country’s 24 million people have been fully vaccinated.

Under pressure to share its coronavirus vaccine supply with the rest of the world, the United States has donated 200 million doses to more than 100 countries, the White House said earlier in October. read more

Taiwan, a key hub in the straining global technology supply chain, grew at its slowest pace since the second quarter of 2020 in the July-September period as coronavirus curbs to contain a local outbreak hit consumption. read more

The United States, which like most countries has no formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan, has watched its rising tensions with Beijing with alarm. President Joe Biden’s administration has vowed to boost ties with the island, which under U.S. law Washington is required to supply with the means of defense.

Reporting by Michael Martina; additional reporting by Yimou Lee; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall and Diane Craft

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Business

Six U.S. states do not join $26 bln opioid settlements with distributors, J&J

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Aug 23 (Reuters) – At least six U.S. states, including Georgia, did not fully sign on to a proposed $26 billion settlement with three drug distributors and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N), which have been accused of fueling the nation’s opioid epidemic, according to the states’ attorneys general.

States had until Saturday to decide whether to support the $21 billion proposed settlement with McKesson Corp (MCK.N), AmerisourceBergen Corp (ABC.N) and Cardinal Health Inc (CAH.N) and a separate $5 billion agreement with J&J.

But in a sign that talks were continuing despite the passing of the deadline, Georgia – the most populous hold-out state – on Monday indicated it could wind up backing the agreement.

“We have not rejected the deal, but we have not joined because at the present time joining the national settlements does not guarantee the best outcome for Georgia and its counties, cities and citizens,” said an emailed statement from the office of the attorney general, Christopher Carr. “We remain active in representing Georgia throughout negotiations, and we’re going to continue to get input from Georgia stakeholders.”

The state will litigate its claims if needed, the statement said.

New Mexico, Oklahoma, Washington and West Virginia also declined to join the deals, their state attorneys general said. New Hampshire agreed to the settlement with distributors but not the J&J agreement.

The complex settlement formula envisions at least 44 states participating, but ultimately the companies get to decide whether a “critical mass” has joined and whether to finalize the deal.

The size of the settlement is based on the number of participating states. Those that decline to join will instead seek a larger recovery by continuing to fight the defendants in the courts. The companies have already paid hundreds of millions in verdicts and other settlements.

The deal, which was unveiled by 14 state attorneys general on July 21, aims to resolve more than 3,000 lawsuits accusing the distributors of ignoring red flags that pain pills were being diverted into communities for illicit uses and that J&J played down the risks of opioid addiction.

The money would go toward funding treatment and other services.

The companies deny wrongdoing, saying the drugs were approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and that responsibility for ballooning painkiller sales lies with others, including doctors and regulators.

McKesson said the companies have until Sept. 4 to determine if there is sufficient support for the agreements and said that process is ongoing. Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen declined to comment and J&J did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The support of two other states, Nevada and Alabama, also appeared to be in doubt, according to sources familiar with the situation.

Nevada’s attorney general declined to comment and the Alabama attorney general did not respond to a request for comment.

The participation of states is tied closely to that of their local governments, which brought the majority of the lawsuits. Cities and counties within participating states would have through Jan. 2 to sign on. Ultimately, $10.7 billion of the settlement money is tied to the extent to which localities participate.

North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, a lead negotiator, last month said he expected “well north” of 40 states to join.

Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston and Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware;
Editing by Noeleen Walder and Karishma Singh

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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