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From the GNR Newsroom its the Monday Good News Roundup [1]

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Date: 2022-08-29

Its that time again friends, where your old pals at the GNR Newsroom (Bhu, Killer300 and myself) gather the news stories to get your week off to a good start. So gather round and lets get the good news going.

The reconciliation bill reinstates old auctions that the Biden administration has tried to cancel and forces the administration to hold several new auctions over the coming years. The legislation also requires that the government auction millions of acres of oil and gas leases before it can auction acreage for wind and solar farms. The Center for Biological Diversity, one of many environmental organizations to oppose these provisions, said they turned the bill into a “climate suicide pact,” since they have the potential to prolong the lifespan of the domestic oil industry. However, energy and climate experts who spoke to Grist said that the provisions may not add significantly to U.S. emissions — in part because the fossil fuel industry may not be all that interested in what the government has to offer. “I wouldn’t say the provision requiring offshore lease sales is entirely insubstantial, but I also wouldn’t classify it as some kind of major victory for the oil and gas industry,” said Gregory Brew, a historian of oil at Yale University. That’s for one simple reason: Even if the government does keep auctioning off federal territory, it’s far from certain that oil and gas companies will want to build new drilling operations on that territory. The industry has shifted resources away from federal lands and the Gulf of Mexico in recent years, and there’s currently less capital available than ever for new production in these areas The issue with Manchin’s lease provision is not so much that it will open up a bonanza of new oil production, but instead that it won’t do anything to make energy more available or affordable in the short term — and may even slow down the buildout of renewables in the long run.

Yeah Manchin may have insisted on those oil leases, but the fact of the matter is that fossil fuels are on their way out, so even if they can drill doesn’t mean they will.

Shanghai, which is home to the world’s largest steel company, will accelerate the transformation and upgrading of the city’s steel production processes in order to reduce greenhouse emissions and meet the country’s carbon peaking and neutrality targets ahead of schedule.

Great news out of Shanghai about decarbonization. Every day we are hurting the earth a little less.

The recent wave of Starbucks workers seeking to join a union shares many characteristics of a mass movement. With union drives now reaching more than 300 Starbucks stores across the country, organizers are grappling with questions of national structure and tactics. But the organizing push wasn’t always envisioned as a countrywide campaign. “[We weren’t] initially looking at Starbucks as a national project but as a geographic upstate New York restaurant [one],” says Richard Bensinger, an organizer with Workers United and senior adviser on the Starbucks Workers United (SBWU) campaign. To understand how the union shepherded SBWU into being, one needs to go back to Ithaca, New York, in 2017. There, Workers United—an 86,000 member affiliate of the Service Employees International Union—got its start in the coffee industry, organizing a small chain called Gimme! Coffee. “Our union represents food service and hospitality, but we hadn’t represented baristas until Gimme! Coffee,” explains Gary Bonadonna, the elected leader of Worker United’s Rochester, New York, branch.

Starbucks workers becoming union strong. You love to see it. I probably wouldn’t have a job right now if not for the union.

Switzerland has unveiled its latest renewable energy innovation: a giant water battery. Beginning operations last month, the water battery, called Nant de Drance, is a pumped storage hydropower plant that provides the same energy storage capacity as 400,000 electric car batteries Located high in the Swiss Alps in the canton of Valais, the plant is equipped with agile, reversible turbines that offer new levels of flexibility, says Robert Gleitz, a delegate of the board of directors of Nant de Drance: with the flick of a switch, the plant can go from storing energy to providing electricity. The massive project took 14 years to complete. Around 17 kilometers (10.5 miles) of subterranean tunnels were excavated through the Alps while the six turbines are stored 600 meters (1970 feet) below ground, in a giant cavern the length of two football fields.

I love stuff like this. I love wacky sci fi sounding solutions to climate change. Lets go giant water battery.

Malaysia utilities giant Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) announced this week it is aiming to install more than 14 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2050 as it seeks to retire some of its coal-fired assets earlier than planned as part of ongoing efforts to achieve emissions reduction targets and ensure continued business growth for the company. TNB, which supplies electricity across the Malaysian Peninsula and also has investments in coal power infrastructure in India, has committed to a 35% reduction in carbon emissions intensity and a 50% reduction of its coal generation capacity by 2035 as it targets net zero emissions by 2050.

All over the world fossil fuels are being phased out in place of renewables, and its a beautiful thing to see.

Cervical cancer is the most common cancer affecting women in Rwanda. It killed 940 women in 2019. But the country is rapidly expanding cervical cancer testing and has deployed tens of thousands of community health workers to raise awareness of the disease. Along with a successful HPV vaccination programme for 12-year-old girls, which has surpassed other countries – including the UK – in terms of coverage, officials believe Rwanda is on track to become the first country in Africa, and possibly the world, to eliminate cervical cancer. “We are among the frontrunners,” says Dr Francois Uwinkindi, manager of the non-communicable diseases division at Rwanda Biomedical Centre, part of the Ministry of Health. “Australia is probably the first country that might be able to eliminate cervical cancer.” But Rwanda could get there first, he adds.

Great news, any time a form of cancer is being wiped out its always great to hear.

Prices are falling on a host of important products, and supply chains are starting to sort themselves out, too. Why it matters: These are two very clear, undeniable pieces of good economic news. High prices and product bottlenecks aren't gone, but they're getting a lot better. For financial markets, unstoppable inflation was the key risk over the last year, since it could lead to sharply higher rate hikes by the Federal Reserve, and the very real chance of a recession — both of which could squash stock prices.

That is very good news, hopefully the food prices will become more reasonable again soon as well.

As students across the country return to their classrooms for the 2022-2023 academic year, teachers and other employees have been raising the alarm over widespread staffing shortages, low pay, safety concerns and unfair contracts. On Monday, over 500 staff members at American University in Washington, D.C. kicked off a five-day strike demanding higher wages and equitable pay structures after weeks of failed contract negotiations between the university and SEIU Local 500, which represents the workers. Many of the striking workers serve as advisers for first-year students, including Roshan Abraham. The employees first unionized in 2020, but he says they have struggled to secure good faith negotiations from the university and have failed to reach a fair contract since then.

We need to start treating teachers better, hopefully they get what they are after.

And on that note we draw a close on another week of good news, See you next week for Labor day. Until then, have a good week and stay strong and hopeful.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/8/29/2119408/-From-the-GNR-Newsroom-its-the-Monday-Good-News-Roundup

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