"Not The Weather": What's Behind California's Skyrocketing Natural Gas Bills

 by Jill McLaughlin via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Californians are expecting skyrocketing natural gas bills this month, but this can’t all be blamed on the weather, according to industry insiders.

Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas), which serves about 5.9 million households and businesses, warned customers to expect “shockingly high” January bills that could be 128 percent higher compared to December.

Those who typically paid around $65 a month last winter are likely to pay about $160 this year, SoCalGas said in a statement Dec. 29. Those with bills around $130 a month could see charges jump to $315.

Last December, wholesale natural gas prices already cost five times more than that of 2021. The utility also paid unprecedented prices for the supply in January, the company reported.

Natural gas prices rose in 2022 for five reasons, according to a biennial report (pdf) published by California Gas and Electric Utilities, a group of utility providers including SoCalGas, San Diego Gas & Electric, and SoCal Edison.

First, North American inventories fell below the five-year average last year. Second, the national supply was also strained by Europe’s steady demand for American natural gas during the Ukraine conflict.

Third, the Biden administration restricted licensing and drilling in the country for fossil fuels, and investment for such production has lagged behind the rapidly growing demand for natural gas over the past year, according to the report.

Lastly, the growing electric power sectors nationwide also consume natural gas, the company reported.

“From an economic standpoint [reducing reliance on fossil fuels] may be costly and is certainly not expected to be rapid or easy,” the utility reported. “Nonetheless, the push to find ways forward and to provide energy solutions to customers in a clean and affordable way is an imperative.”

Climate Goals Restrict Production, Grow Demand

Besides the recent storms that have crimped national supplies, California’s poor storage planning and aggressive climate action goals played a part in driving the prices skyward, Mike Umbro—an oil and gas developer in Kern County, about 150 miles north of Los Angeles—told The Epoch Times.

Utility companies use natural gas to create 43 percent of the electricity used by over 11 million customers in California, and the state only produces about 10 percent of what it needs, according to California Energy Commission.

“In the past 20 years, our in-state production was cut in half … We rely on other states around us to supply the difference of what we need,” Umbro said.

The Golden State and its neighbors are “feverishly working to decarbonize the electricity grid,” he said.

“California is adding renewables while other states are shutting down coal power plants—both of these trends are increasing the usage of natural gas for power generation,” he said.

As a result, the state’s utility providers are paying “unprecedented” high prices this winter, he said.

Low Inventory Amid Russian-Ukraine War

Natural gas inventories are typically filled during the spring and summertime. Last year, however, fuel prices were soaring during that time, and utilities held off buying it.

To worsen matters, national supplies began flowing to Europe during the Ukraine conflict, leading to California’s storage levels dropping to the lowest in the country—41 percent—at the end of 2022, Umbro said.

“We thought we were bailing out Europe from these high prices, and we forgot about California over here,” he said. “It appears utilities didn’t want to buy natural gas, so they went into the winter very vulnerable to supply shocks.”

Sitting at the End of Pipelines

Then, a series of storms pummeled the West Coast, and residents began turning on the heat, not only in California but also in the surrounding states of Colorado, Oregon, and Washington, which contributed to price spikes.

Additionally, the Golden State imports fuel through pipelines, two of which were down for maintenance in West Texas and the Rocky Mountains.

Supply shortage in California—which sits at the end of the pipeline, according to Umbro—could get much worse as other states also begin to decarbonize, he said.

“What I see looking out in the future is, by the time these states decarbonize, California will be out here without any fuel,” he said. “It’s hard to point to something in the future that’s going to save us from this.”

High Bills to Continue If Conditions Persist

The President of the California Public Utilities Commission Alice Reynolds told commissioners Jan. 12 “these high bills could continue if these market conditions persist.”

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/not-weather-whats-behind-californias-skyrocketing-natural-gas-bills

Youngkin plans to end efforts to deny merit-based scholarships

 By withholding merit-based rewards from high performing students, at least three Northern Virginia school divisions – Loudoun, Prince William and Fairfax Counties — have systematically disadvantaged high performing students, limiting their hard-earned access to scholarships and college admissions. 

Merit based systems are at the heart of the American dream – the dream to work hard, stretch capabilities and persevere towards a better life regardless of your background or zip code. For many students, the National Merit award would have been their “golden ticket” to do just that.

However, late last year it was brought to light that the leadership at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, a nationally ranked public high school in Alexandria, Va. that’s known for its rigor and advanced STEM education, took that dream away. And it didn’t stop there.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin writes that he’s not only opposed to the National Merit cover-up, but has introduced legislation to ensure it never happens again.

Despite the original excuse of isolated human error, to date, 17 schools across three Virginian school divisions — which are akin to school districts in many other states — reportedly withheld notifications of Merit Awards so that other students wouldn’t feel bad. These efforts by schools in Virginia’s three largest school divisions have painted yet another distressing picture of the misguided state of education across America in the relentless pursuit of “equity.”

Virginia’s Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Fairfax County consistently ranks as one of the top schools in the nation and is at the center of the National Merit Scholarship uproar.

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Virginia has served as Ground Zero for parental and student rights. In 2021, Virginia parents were branded ‘domestic terrorists’ after demanding increased accountability and transparency — along with increased parental involvement — during the handling of sexual assault incidents in Loudon County. Now as we stand in the light of truth, here we are again.

What the Northern Virginia superintendents, principals and school board members opposed to merit scholarships don’t seem to understand is that the relentless focus on equal outcomes for all students at any cost is hurting, not helping, Virginia’s children. 

And the effect is felt most profoundly on those they claim to aspire to help the most, particularly those at the lowest rungs of society. Merit-based awards open doors for many children across the country. Even for me, a kid from Virginia who spent summers taking out trash and washing dishes. 

Common sense tells us that barring access to academic scholarships profoundly limits minority students who have excelled despite their socio-economic status. Political posturing, however, merely justifies the opposite outcomes. 

Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares recently launched an investigation into the Merit Scholarship scandal; he called the entire affair “troubling.”

The Washington Post via Getty Im

My administration recognizes that Virginia’s future will be fostered and fulfilled at home and in the classroom. To do so, we are raising the ceiling and the floor of our education standards and putting parents back in charge of their own children’s lives.   

In light of these recent reports, I proposed this week HB 2426 to eliminate the withholding of any recognition, award, or postsecondary scholarship eligibility earned by Virginia students. With this legislation, parents and students will be notified immediately about these honors without the risk of losing earned opportunities.

This administration has proven that strengthened opportunity in collective education can — and must — come without placing a cap on individual achievement. 

To do this we raised teacher salaries, launched lab schools and provided funding for infrastructure and equipment; we delivered the Virginia Literacy Act on a bipartisan basis and began driving our curriculum to be the best in the nation. We are partnering with our Historically Black Colleges and Universities to fund transformational tutoring initiatives. We are also providing reading and math coaches to schools that need them most. 

Prince William County Schools Superintendent LaTanya McDade leads one of the divisions involved in the scholarship crisis; she later apologized for delaying National Merit announcements and blamed it on human error.

Meanwhile, Fairfax County — home to Thomas Jefferson High School — has chosen a different path. Rather than invest in boosting expectations, the county has spent $455,000 of taxpayer dollars to fund equity training in schools — and chase the folly of equal outcomes for every student without exception, no matter the cost. 

But this is not a price Virginia is willing to pay. Coupled with lowered standards and the learning losses exacerbated by prolonged Covid closures, our children deserve an educational environment where achievement is fostered and celebrated, not concealed and condemned. 

Education allows every child to reach their full potential. Shouldn’t our schools be the first to celebrate each child’s success?

Withholding accolades to high performing students in the name of equity is fundamentally wrong. Holding back the best and the brightest to create equal outcomes for all students at any cost is a cost too great for Virginia. 

https://nypost.com/2023/01/21/how-glenn-youngkin-plans-to-end-efforts-to-deny-merit-based-scholarships/

Michael J. Fox hid Parkinson’s for years and drank to cope

 A powerful new documentary goes inside Michael J. Fox’s decades-long struggle with Parkinson’s disease, and depicts the “Back to the Future” star’s enormous optimism in the face of hardship.

“The walking really freaks people out,” the 61-year-old actor says after a stroll on the streets of Manhattan about the difficulties he has with his stride. “But if you pity me, it’s never gonna get to me.”

“Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie” premiered at the Sundance Film Festival Friday to a long standing ovation for both the movie and its beloved subject who’d flown into Utah for the event.

Onstage after the film, Fox said, “It’s been a f–king amazing life.”

Landing on Apple TV+ later this year, “Still” portrays the wild roller coaster of emotional ups and downs for the performer known for his boyishness and knack for a punchline. He was only 16 years old in Edmonton, Canada, when he decided to drop out of high school and move to Hollywood.

His skeptical dad gave in, bankrolling the trip and telling him, “If you’re gonna be a lumberjack, you might as well live in the goddamn forest.”

Michael J. Fox snagged the major role of Alex P. Keaton on “Family Ties.”

Everett Collection

After a series of low-paying gigs and five years in a grungy Beverly Hills studio apartment — he says he had so little money, he resorted to eating Smuckers jam packets — Fox became one of America’s most famous actors.

His big break was at 21 years old playing Alex P. Keaton on the TV series “Family Ties,” which then helped net him the enduring role of Marty McFly in the “Back to the Future” trilogy. For a week in 1985, his movies “Back to the Future” and “Teen Wolf” were, respectively, the No. 1 and No. 2 movies at the domestic box office.

He was at the height of his popularity, gracing the covers of glossies and lounging on the couch of “The Tonight Show,” but things would soon fall apart.

Of fame, Fox says, “I was the Prince of Hollywood,” however, life experience has taught him better. “You think it’s made of brick and rock. But it’s not. It’s made out of paper and feathers. It’s an illusion.”

Fox met wife Tracy Pollan when they were “Family Ties” co-stars.

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That was never more apparent than after a night out drinking in Florida in 1990. He woke up hungover and noticed that his pinky finger was twitching. When it didn’t improve, he finally visited a neurologist in 1991 who diagnosed him with Parkinson’s. Shocked, he shot back at the doctor, “You know who you’re talking to, right? I’m not supposed to get this.”

He kept the diagnosis secret for seven years, popping dopamine pills to calm early symptoms and always carried props in his left hand on-screen to hide the shaking. In retrospect, footage from his projects at the time lay bare the stress the secret was putting him through. He dealt with his silence by using booze.

“I drank to dissociate,” he says to director Davis Guggenheim. “I was definitely an alcoholic. But I’ve gone 30 years without having a drink.”

Founder of the Michael J. Fox Foundation, the actor has become a huge advocate for funding Parkinson’s research.

AFP via Getty Images

Scenes in “Still” show Fox working with a trainer to learn strategies to build strength and steady his walk. In the weeks the documentary was filmed, he sustained several injuries from falls, which is a common symptom of Parkinson’s. Fox broke the bones in his left cheek, his hand, his arm and dislocated his shoulder.

“A festival of self-abuse,” he jokes.

Fox doesn’t like when people tell him to “be careful.”

“This has nothing to do with being careful,” he says. “This happens. You get Parkinson’s, you trip over stuff.” 

Sitting on the beach with his 33-year-old son Sam, one of four children he shares with wife and former “Family Ties” co-star Tracy Pollan, Fox asks, “Do you feel like you have a 90-year-old dad? Because I don’t feel old.”

Fox participated in a Sundance premiere Q&A onstage with director Davis Guggenheim, left.

Johnny Oleksinski

He shares in the film that Parkinson’s causes him “intense pain,” yet he also sees it as a grounding contrast to his years spent in the limelight being someone he didn’t recognize.

“Parkinson’s is a disaster — that’s real,” he says. “You can’t walk and you can’t go to the bathroom — that’s real.”

Fox had a career resurgence in the aughts and 2010s and acted in TV shows such as “The Good Fight” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” in which he didn’t shy away from Parkinson’s and was able to be himself. He retired from acting in 2020, but continues to write books about his experiences, and his Michael J. Fox Foundation has been a leader in advocating for more research and funding for the so-far incurable disease.

“People express to me that I make them feel better and do things that they normally wouldn’t do,” he says. “That’s a big responsibility.” 

https://nypost.com/2023/01/20/michael-j-foxs-struggles-with-parkinsons-revealed-in-new-doc/

The strange dark world of the for-profit blood industry

 Donating blood is a charitable gesture that saves lives and conjures up images of Red Cross drives and good Samaritans doing their part. Selling plasma — the watery, yellowish protein component of blood — is something else entirely. 

In a sign of just how desperate some members of America’s working poor are for money, they sell their plasma, although it’s far from a lucrative gig. Donors are paid around $25 for a first visit, perhaps $5 more for the next few visits and up to $100 for a 10th donation. It’s a job that might buy a tank of gas or some groceries at the most.  

One Idaho family of regular donors scheduled their daughter’s 18th birthday at a local plasma center. They wanted her to be able to start selling plasma on the very first day she was legally able to do so.

Plasma is the watery, yellowish protein component of blood.

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Plasma extraction is similar to donating blood, with the donor sitting in a chair for about an hour as their vital liquids are mined through a needle in the vein. Most people are eligible, providing they aren’t too old or obese. People with high blood pressure are also ineligible, as well as those with ailments like the flu, or transmissible diseases such as hepatitis or HIV. There aren’t any known negative health effects resulting from the process, although at least one donor reports feeling next-level fatigue on the days his plasma is taken.  “Losing plasma seems to drain the body almost to the bone,” the man confided to author Kathleen McLaughlin in “Blood Money: The Story of Life, Death, and Profit Inside America’s Blood Industry” (Atria). “It’s a different kind of tired.”

“Paid plasma extraction is . . . nothing but a low-paid, exploited job,” writes McLaughlin.

Still, the people who line up at plasma centers often rely on the money. In Florida in 2014, when a woman was told she couldn’t donate that day due to obvious illness, she swore to employees she’d “kill [them] all” before smashing her Honda Accord through the front windows of the facility. 

Plasma extraction is similar to donating blood, with the donor sitting in a chair for about an hour. After the procedure, donors are often very tired.

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Science has used plasma to produce medicines that work, McLaughlin writes.

“In the 1950s and 1960s, doctors began treating immunocompromised patients with injections of immune cells derived from the plasma.” Today those medicines help with cardiac surgeries, burn treatments and for infants with blood disorders — but from the beginning, the pharmaceutical industry has mined plasma, mostly from people with little choice. In the 1960s, Arkansas forced inmates in state prisons to donate, paying the incarcerated a paltry sum before re-selling it to a Little Rock biomedical company for $50 each. In the Henan province of China in the 1990s, a “weird plasma economy” occurred where entire villages donated to make easy money. The Chinese government failed to mention the dangers of donating, and as many as a million residents ended up with HIV. 

Today, only 5 countries allow plasma-for-cash sales — including Austria, Germany, Hungary, and the Czech Republic — but the United States is the biggest producer. Called the “OPEC of plasma,” the US produced blood products in 2021 worth upwards of $24 billion. That’s 2.69% of the country’s total exports. 

In the 1950s and 1960s, doctors began treating immunocompromised patients with injections of immune cells derived from the plasma.

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McLaughlin believes Americans donate so much not because they’re altruistic, but because this country has more economic inequality than most. Of the more than 100 plasma donors she interviewed over 2 years, most admitted doing it only for the “extra income.” 

That’s likely why over the course of her research, McLaughlin found plasma centers mostly in disadvantaged cities like Flint, Mich., where the dying automobile industry led to massive unemployment, and El Paso, Texas. (Prior to Covid, as many as 10,000 Mexicans regularly crossed the border to earn money for selling blood parts before returning to their Juarez homes.)

“In the way that pawn shops once were a sign of a community on the ropes, the vampire-like presence of the plasma industry can now tell you a lot about a city or town,” McLaughlin writes. “This appears to be a pattern across the Rust Belt, in the South, and in the Southwest along the border with Mexico.”  

In 2021, the US produced blood products worth upwards of $24 billion. That’s 2.69% of the country’s total exports.

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McLaughlin’s interest in the industry resulted because she benefits from it: Suffering from an immune disorder, the author is kept alive by intravenous human immunoglobulin (IVIG), the most common product produced from plasma. But her individual story is also telling in that the plasma sold for about $25 ends up being made into medicine which costs $10,000 for a six month supply (this amount is, fortunately, covered by her insurance.) When the author shared the price discrepancy with a Flint plasma donor, he could only laugh.    

“Why have we decided that the blood of the working poor in the United States should feed a massive, profit-motivated global industry?” McLaughlin asks. One donor in Idaho shrugged off the question, saying that “people do all kinds of crazy things for money.” 

McLaughlin found plasma centers mostly in disadvantaged cities.

Emily, a plasma seller in Texas, agreed — while also highlighting who’s being taken advantage of primarily to increase the global profits of international conglomerates.

 “I’m thankful and grateful it’s a possibility,” she says, explaining that her numerous driving violations led to legal troubles she couldn’t afford. “Sometimes there’s nothing else we can do. I would sell my kidney if I could have, in order to pay for my probation.”

https://nypost.com/2023/01/21/the-strange-dark-world-of-the-for-profit-blood-industry/

Security guards at theft-plagued Walgreens stores ‘not there to protect product’: exec

 Security guards at a theft-plagued pharmacy chain have been instructed not to confront the shoplifters when they walk out without paying, according to a Walgreens executive.

Walgreens, which operates 240 stores in the Big Apple, including Duane Reade, has been riddled by robberies to the point where the stores have had to put items like toothpaste behind lock and key.

The chain hired unarmed guards and off-duty cops — but they haven’t been much of a deterrent.

“[Security guards] are not there to protect the product,” said Joseph Stein, director of asset protection solutions for Walgreen, during the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce “Anti-Crime Summit” on Thursday.

“They are there to de-escalate [a situation] and to protect the customer and the employees,” he added.

Retailers are forced to lock up popular items to combat rampant shoplifting in their stores.

UCG/Universal Images Group via G

Walgreens hires security guards from Allied Universal, Stein said, adding that the chain also hires off-duty police officers, “who have different powers” than the unarmed guards.

“When you have five [thieves] in your store on a mission, it’s five on one. And that’s not the responsible thing to do [to try to stop them],” Stein said.

A Walgreens spokesman said in a statement, “The safety of our patients, customers and team members is our top priority.  Allied Security, and any unarmed security professionals we employ are meant to serve as a deterrent.”

The chain hired unarmed guards and off-duty cops.

UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

That may be news to shoppers who are surprised when they see thieves brazenly walk out the door and security guards who seemingly do nothing to stop them.

“Lately, it seems to be a trend that, when a theft occurs in a store, security guards in the store are just supposed to watch it happen and wait for the cops to come (long after the thieves have left). I keep seeing these videos of someone unarmed just walking into an Apple store or Walmart or whatever, pocketing some phones, and just walking out without being stopped,” wrote a Reddit user last month, sparking 179 responses.

Stein did shed light on another vexing issue for both shoppers and retailers, who are besieged by rampant crime in their stores.

If these items weren’t locked up, there wouldn’t be any product for shoppers to purchase, a Walgreens executive said.

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If drug store chains didn’t lock up toothpaste, razor blades and other popular items, there wouldn’t be anything left on the shelves for shoppers to buy, Stein said.

Shoppers say they are annoyed about the hassle of finding a store clerk to unlock these items, but as retail crime surges across the country and stores are hit by shoplifters daily, the locks are one of the most effective ways to keep merchandise on store shelves for legitimate customers, retailers say.

“The locks work,” Stein said. “When you see toothpaste locked up, no one wants that, but if we don’t do that the product won’t be there to buy. And, if you don’t lock it up, [the thieves] know they can come back.”

https://nypost.com/2023/01/20/security-guards-at-theft-plagued-walgreens-not-there-to-protect-product/

US Border Patrol polygraph test wipes out half of eligible applicants

 Nearly half of new US Customs and Border Protection recruits are failing mandatory polygraph tests, causing a crisis in the agency which is struggling to replace thousands of agents who are scheduled to retire in the near future, according to a report.

“We’re losing a lot of people, including those who have prior military service, who have active security clearances, and they fail a CBP polygraph,” Jon Anfinsen, vice president of the National Border Patrol Council, told Fox News this week. “It doesn’t make any sense.”

Anfinsen added that nearly 50 percent fail the polygraph or lie-detector component of the vetting process, putting a strain on the federal agency’s capability to hire new agents.

Although the tests are not admissible in court and have been banned by most private companies to screen employees, they have been mandatory for Border Patrol for the last 10 years.

“We’re losing a lot of people, including those who have prior military service” because they “fail a CBP polygraph,” Jon Anfinsen said.

AP

Nearly 50% of recruits fail the polygraph or lie-detector component, the vice president of the National Border Patrol Council said.

“They’ll go any other place where they’re not treated like a criminal during that portion of the hiring process,” Anfinsen said. “We’re losing a lot of really great people because of this polygraph portion.”

Polygraph test failures are not a new concern for Border Patrol agents. Two out of three CBP applicants who took a polygraph failed, The Associated Press reported in 2017. The FBI and Secret Service’s failure rates were about half that, according to the same report.

https://nypost.com/2023/01/21/border-patrol-polygraph-test-wipes-out-half-of-applicants/