World News

01/08/2022

'Drill, baby, drill' is back in Europe as gas crisis looms

London (CNN Business)The 10-mile-long island of Schiermonnikoog is known as one of the most beautiful places in the Netherlands, boasting the widest beach in Europe, 300 different species of birds and a bustling tourist trade.

But after the Dutch and German governments approved the development of a new gas field roughly 12 miles from Schiermonnikoog's shores, the island's mayor is anxious about its future.
"We are very concerned that the gas drilling will damage the area," Mayor Ineke van Gent told CNN Business. "We also believe that there is no need to drill [for] new gas at all and that we should invest much more in renewable energy."
The gas project, which spans German and Dutch territory in the North Sea, is just one venture that has been greenlit or is getting another look in Europe and the United Kingdom after Russia invaded Ukraine. Europe is desperate to secure gas supplies that can't be cut off at Moscow's whim. Last week, EU leaders set a voluntary target to reduce gas usage by 15% through March 2023 to evade a crisis once the weather turns.

An energy supply squeeze could push prices even higher, sparking a wave of blackouts and leaving vulnerable households unable to pay their bills.
Yet scientists, activists and locals in places like Schiermonnikoog are frustrated. They believe that governments are using the war in Ukraine as political cover for projects that won't go live in time to help this winter, and which could ultimately make it harder to get a handle on global warming.
The gas field near Schiermonnikoog isn't scheduled to start delivering gas to Dutch and German households until 2024. Once turned on, it could be operating for decades, with licenses valid until 2042.

"In principle, we need to get rid of all the fossil fuels, and we need to get rid of them very fast," said Han Dolman, director of the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, who opposes the project. "It's not an immediate solution to anything [related to] the Russian gas crisis."
ONE-Dyas, the Dutch company running the development, said it has been in frequent contact with local stakeholders since 2018, and conducted an extensive environmental impact report that was reviewed by regulators. Domestically-produced gas also has a lower emissions footprint that natural gas that's imported from other countries, it added.

27/07/2022

(CNN)One is called the "child of the storm." Another is "the crown jewel." The third was dubbed "the voice of justice."

They are the three great laws of the civil rights movement: the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the Fair Housing Act of 1968.
A new conservative bloc on the Supreme Court though may soon treat them as something else: outdated "racial entitlements" that need to be put back in their place.
President Lyndon Johnson congratulates the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. at the signing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
President Lyndon Johnson congratulates the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. at the signing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
That's the dreaded future some experts envision for these landmark laws now that Justice Brett Kavanaugh has joined the Supreme Court. They warn that, for the first time, the high court has five firmly conservative judges who were groomed to dismantle the legal legacy of these laws, which have stood for 50 years.
"They will chip, chip away at these laws until there is nothing left," says Carol Anderson, author of "One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy."
"I could see the court tilting further and further to the right until we end up with a dystopian society."
Such steady erosion would halt what some call the "Second American Civil Rights Revolution." It would also destroy a central plank in the legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. When the nation celebrates the King holiday on Monday, much of the focus will be on his stirring speeches and dramatic marches.
But these three laws are as central to King's legacy as his "I Have a Dream" speech. They are in some ways the legal foundation for the "Beloved Community" he evoked in his speeches and books. While he wasn't the only person who fought and died for these laws -- there were countless others who did the same -- King's role in their passage was indispensable.
Today these laws touch virtually every American. They have changed everything from how women are treated in the workplace to protecting people with disabilities. Yet few realize these laws came about only because of a brutal struggle. And even fewer may be aware how a new high court could unravel them -- all while claiming to honor the civil rights leader.
Here's how some legal scholars and historians say it could happen.

25/07/2022

(CNN)Gun owners allowed to carry handguns without permits or training. Parents of transgender children facing investigation by state officials. Women forced to drive hours out-of-state to access abortion.

This is Texas now: While the Lone Star State has long been a bastion of Republican politics, new laws and policies have taken Texas further to the right in recent years than it has been in decades.
Elected officials and political observers in the state say a major factor in the transformation can be traced back to West Texas. Two billionaire oil and fracking magnates from the region, Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks, have quietly bankrolled some of Texas' most far-right political candidates -- helping reshape the state's Republican Party in their worldview.
Over the last decade, Dunn and his wife, Terri, have contributed more than $18 million to state candidates and political action committees, while Wilks and his wife, Jo Ann, have given more than $11 million, putting them among the top donors in the state.
Tim Dunn is seen during a National Network for Safe Communities conference in 2015. (From National Network for Safe Communities)
Tim Dunn is seen during a National Network for Safe Communities conference in 2015. (From National Network for Safe Communities)
The beneficiaries of the energy tycoons' combined spending include the farthest-right members of the legislature and authors of the most high-profile conservative bills passed in recent years, according to a CNN analysis of Texas Ethics Commission data. Dunn and Wilks also hold sway over the state's legislative agenda through a network of non-profits and advocacy groups that push conservative policy issues.
Critics, and even some former associates, say that Dunn and Wilks demand loyalty from the candidates they back, punishing even deeply conservative legislators who cross them by bankrolling primary challengers. Kel Seliger, a longtime Republican state senator from Amarillo who has clashed with the billionaires, said their influence has made Austin feel a little like Moscow.
"It is a Russian-style oligarchy, pure and simple," Seliger said. "Really, really wealthy people who are willing to spend a lot of money to get policy made the way they want it -- and they get it."
In this Dec. 29, 2015, file photo, Farris Wilks watches U.S. Senator and then-presidential candidate Ted Cruz deliver remarks in Cisco, Texas.
In this Dec. 29, 2015, file photo, Farris Wilks watches U.S. Senator and then-presidential candidate Ted Cruz deliver remarks in Cisco, Texas.
Dragged to the 'hard right'
Dunn and Wilks did not respond to repeated requests for comment. In past interviews and opinion pieces, Dunn has argued that his political spending is focused on making Texas' state government more accountable to its voters, while Wilks has described his donations as aimed at electing principled conservative leaders.
Former associates of Dunn and Wilks who spoke to CNN said the billionaires are both especially focused on education issues, and their ultimate goal is to replace public education with private, Christian schooling. Wilks is a pastor at the church his father founded, and Dunn preaches at the church his family attends. In their sermons, they paint a picture of a nation under siege from liberal ideas.
"The cornerstones of our government are crumbling and starting to come apart," Wilks declared in a 2014 sermon at his insular church, the Assembly of Yahweh 7th Day. "And it's because of the lack of morality, the lack of belief in our heavenly Father."
Texas' far-right shift has national implications: The candidates Dunn and Wilks have supported have turned the state legislature into a laboratory for far-right policy that's starting to gain traction across the US.
The Texas State Capitol is seen on the first day of the 87th Legislature& #39;s third special session on September 20, 2021 in Austin, Texas.
The Texas State Capitol is seen on the first day of the 87th Legislature's third special session on September 20, 2021 in Austin, Texas.
Dunn and Wilks have been less successful in the 2022 primary elections than in past years: Almost all of the GOP legislative incumbents opposed by Defend Texas Liberty, a political action committee primarily funded by the duo, won their primaries this spring, and the group spent millions of dollars supporting a far-right opponent to Gov. Greg Abbott who lost by a wide margin.
But experts say the billionaires' recent struggles are in part a symptom of their past success: Many of the candidates they're challenging from the right, from Abbott down, have embraced more and more conservative positions, on issues from transgender rights to guns to voting.
"They dragged all the moderate candidates to the hard right in order to keep from losing," said Bud Kennedy, a columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram newspaper who's covered 18 sessions of the Texas legislature.
"I don't think regular Texans are as conservative as their elected officials," Kennedy said. "The reason that Texas has moved to the right is because the money's there."
Donors with influence on Texas politics

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25/07/2022