New app helps state conduct 2,000 more oil and gas inspections in 2017

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection announced this week that it will complete 2,000 more inspections for its oil and gas program in 2017 because of a new iPad app.

The innovation is timely as DEP oil and gas compliance inspections have jumped by more than 300 percent in the past decade, from 10,566 in 2007 to almost 35,000 in 2016, according to a DEP press release.

Previously, all inspections were done with paper forms in the field, followed by data entry in the office.

The app, which launched earlier this year, was created with technology developed at PennDOT, according to the Governor's Office of Transformation, Innovation, Management and Efficiency,

DEP Deputy Secretary for Oil and Gas Management Scott Perry remarked: “Making the inspection process completely electronic has transformed the way our inspectors do their job, increasing productivity, customer service, and transparency.”

Duplicate entry has been virtually eliminated, and trips between field sites and offices are significantly reduced, according to the DEP

The first phase of the app for surface activities launched in February 2017.

By the end of year, surface inspectors were using it for almost all of their inspections.

The state estimates that the app has bolstered productivity by almost 30 percent this year, achieving more than $500,000 in productivity saving, which is equivalent to adding six additional inspectors.

http://triblive.com/state/pennsylvania/13092739-74/new-app-helps-state-conduct-2000-more-oil-and-gas-inspections-in

Biofilms as construction workers

Biofilms are generally seen as a problem to be eradicated due to the hazards they pose for humans and materials. However, these communities of algae, fungi or bacteria possess interesting properties both from a scientific and a technical standpoint. A team from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) describes processes from the field of biology that utilize biofilms to create structural templates for new materials that possess the properties of natural materials. In the past, this was only possible to a limited extent.

Over millions of years, natural materials as wood, bone and mother of pearl have been optimized via evolution according to the principle of adapted stability with the lowest possible weight. Nature has inspired many technical developments. Examples include airplane wings, zippers and surface sealants using a lotus effect. However, reverse engineering cannot reproduce the structural complexity of the original in nature.

"In nature, we find many materials with properties that artificial materials are unable to replicate in the exact same fashion," said Professor Cordt Zollfrank, who performs research on basic principles for the development of new materials together with his team at the Chair of Biogenic Polymers at the TUM Campus Straubing for Biotechnology and Sustainability.

Biggest Problems at the Smallest Level

As the interface between biology and technology, bionics utilizes methods and systems found in nature to provide solutions to technical problems. When it was still limited to using natural shapes, e.g. as templates for development in the design of airplane wings or ship hulls, the problems remained manageable. However, imitating the material properties of natural construction materials is an entirely different story. This is because they are found in the inner structures, where fibers are linked to each other over several orders of magnitude and across various hierarchical levels.

"Usually, the main sources of mechanical material properties such as elasticity, strength and toughness are found at the smallest level of these hierarchies, especially at the nanometer scale," explained Dr. Daniel Van Opdenbosch, a team leader at Zollfrank's chair and one of the authors of the article, describing the main problem when attempting to translate them to technical solutions. However, when the microorganisms themselves or their secretions create the material, the technically sophisticated complex networks already come fully formed.

The Future of Bionics

In an article for the journal Advanced Materials, the researchers at TUM present a series of procedures from the field of biology that utilize light, heat, specially prepared substrates, and other stimuli to guide the direction of movement of microorganisms along very specific paths. "These biological findings for controlling microbes via targeted stimuli will shape the future of material research," said Professor Cordt Zollfrank. This is because they make it possible to create tailor-made templates for new materials with natural structures from the microbes themselves or their secretions. "With our article, we want to show the direction this journey will take us in the field of biologically inspired material science," said the professor.

Contact-Free Modeling

Daniel Van Opdenbosch and his group are already successfully utilizing some of these methods in Straubing. As part of a Reinhart Koselleck project of the German Research Foundation (DFG), the researchers are taking advantage of the special properties of red algae, whose direction of movement depends on exposure to light, and which secrete chains from sugar molecules. By projecting light patterns which change over time into the growing medium of the algae, the researchers use them to create long, fine polymer threads, which serve as custom templates for the manufacture of functional ceramics.

With the help of the algae, any number of templates can be created for a wide variety of applications, ranging from battery electrodes to new screen and display technologies to applications in medicine, such as replacement bone and tissue. Although the ability to grow complex microstructures such as entire components and other hierarchically structured materials is still a long way off in the future, it could soon become a tangible reality thanks to the basic research performed by the researchers at Straubing.

https://phys.org/news/2017-12-biofilms-workers.html

EU's top court rules that Uber is a transportation company

On Wednesday, the European Union's highest court ruled that Uber is a transportation service and not a technology company, in line with a court advisor's recommendation in May. The ruling stems from a lawsuit filed by a Spanish taxi association.

What it means: The EU's member countries now have more clarity and authority to regulate Uber as a transportation company (more strictly than as a tech service), though many already do so. As a technology company, Uber would have been protected by EU law from certain restrictions by individual countries, and would have required them to notify the commission of any new regulations.

From Uber:

This ruling will not change things in most EU countries where we already operate under transportation law. However, millions of Europeans are still prevented from using apps like ours. As our new CEO has said, it is appropriate to regulate services such as Uber and so we will continue the dialogue with cities across Europe. This is the approach we'll take to ensure everyone can get a reliable ride at the tap of a button.

https://www.axios.com/e-u-s-top-court-rules-that-uber-is-a-transportation-company-2518819735.html

New Apple Park Drone Video Captures Latest Construction Progress as 2018 Completion Date Nears

Drone videographer Matthew Roberts is continuing to capture footage of Apple's new headquarters, Apple Park, as construction on the campus grows nearer to completion. The latest video showcases a few finished amenities, like the dining terrace outside of the spaceship's atrium where employees can eat lunch.

Within the spaceship building, landscaping is said to be "nearly complete" and rows of trees can be seen surrounding the courtyard's finished central pond. The new video also captures a glimpse at the Visitor's Center, which was completed for the press to visit in September during the iPhone X event, and opened to the public this past November.

Some progress has been made on the entrance and exit road leading to the campus, with a security checkpoint added to the Wolfe Road entrance to Apple Park, placed in front of the underground tunnel.

Despite all of the finished buildings, areas of the campus are still riddled with construction equipment and dirt mounds, proving that Apple Park's long construction period isn't quite over yet. One of the main unfinished locations appears to be a large, empty area in front of the fitness center where landscaping needs to be completed.

When construction on Apple Park began in 2013, a completion date of Summer 2017 was set. Although employees began moving into the campus earlier in spring, it now appears that construction will finally be finished sometime in the early part of 2018.

https://www.macrumors.com/2017/12/19/new-apple-park-drone-video-2/

Lebanon: Oil and Gas Drilling to Begin in 2019

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon will begin exploratory drilling for offshore oil and gas in 2019, Energy and Water Minister Cesar Abi Khalil said Friday, as the country hopes to find resources to shore up its indebted economy.

"This is going to create a new sector in the economy," said Abi Khalil. "And it is going to secure a local source for energy."

Lebanon's economy is mired in debt and struggling to grow as the civil war in neighboring Syria stretches into its seventh year. The conflict has paralyzed trade and pushed some one million refugees into Lebanon.

The country has been slow to capitalize on geological survey findings from 2011 indicating a strong possibility of mineral resources in its offshore waters. Its government has been crippled by political deadlock emanating from the crisis in Syria as parties butt heads over taking sides in the war.

It is not certain whether companies will find reserves in Lebanese waters. But a bid, accepted by the Lebanese government on Thursday, by a consortium of international oil and gas giants to explore two sectors in the eastern Mediterranean reflected the potential for a windfall, said Mona Sukkarieh, a political risk analyst at the Beirut-based consultancy group Middle East Strategic Perspectives.

"If they choose to proceed with exploration and drilling, then we are talking about a lot of money," said Sukkarieh.

The consortium's members are Eni from Italy, Total from France and Novatek from Russia. Lebanon's government approved the necessary licenses Thursday.

The country's share of revenues from oil and gas sales will measure between 55 and 71 percent, said Abi Khalil. The window for exploration will be open for up to six years. The contracts with the three companies will be signed in early 2018.

A major finding in Lebanon's southernmost waters could raise the possibility of a dispute with its neighbor Israel. There are over 800 square kilometers of waters claimed by the two countries which are technically at war.

Abi Khalil said exploration would proceed in "Block 9", one of the two sectors open for drilling, in any case.

"It is our right to explore in all our southern blocks, we are determined to exploit this national wealth," he said.

Several companies told Lebanon's Petroleum Authority in 2013 they considered Block 9 the most promising, according to Sukkarieh.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimated in 2010 there were 122 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered natural gas resources in the eastern Mediterranean basin.

Gas is expensive to extract. A major finding could spur investment in Lebanon's failing energy sector that civil society activists say is rife with corruption. Lebanon experiences rolling blackouts on a daily basis, despite massive subsidies to its national electricity company. The World Bank says transfers to the Electricite du Liban account for a staggering 40 percent of the debt the country has accumulated since 1992.

Abi Khalil said politicians were working on developing a national sovereignty fund to invest resource revenues in a transparent manner.

https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2017-12-15/lebanon-oil-and-gas-drilling-to-begin-in-2019

Billionaires battle over supersonic transportation

Richard Branson is taking control of a supersonic transportation company, putting him in direct competition with Elon Musk.

Virgin Hyperloop One named Branson chairman and announced that it raised another $50 million. That follows an earlier investment from Branson's Virgin Group. Branson took a seat on the board after his investment, and Hyperloop One added "Virgin" to its name.

"I am excited by the latest developments at Virgin Hyperloop One and delighted to be its new chairman," said Branson in a prepared statement.

Virgin Hyperloop One and Musk's Boring Company are both developing hyperloop transportation, a supersonic technology that was first envisioned by Musk, the CEO of Tesla(TSLA) and SpaceX. Musk pitched an idea in 2013 for a massive vacuum tube that could whisk passengers in pressurized cabins from New York to Los Angeles in 45 minutes.

Branson's company in September announced 10 finalist cities for its first installation, which it expects to build by 2021.

Virgin Hyperloop One on Monday said the company has reached a new milestone: It achieved a speed of 240 miles per hour in its latest phase of testing.

Boring is planning to build an underground network in Los Angeles and wants to expand from there. The company says the technology will allow train travel between New York and Washington in less than 30 minutes.

Tunneling is expensive, and Boring says it can reduce costs by using tunnels that are half the width of conventional transport tunnels.

Musk recently tweeted that 10 purchasers of a hat bearing his company logo will be "picked at random" to tour his hyperloop tunnel in Los Angeles and drive his boring machine.

Musk and Branson also have parallel careers in space. Branson is the founder of Virgin Galactic, a spaceflight company that is meant to rival SpaceX. Virgin Galactic hasn't been to space yet, while SpaceX is delivering a payload to International Space Station.

http://money.cnn.com/2017/12/19/technology/virgin-hyperloop-one/

Prospex Oil & Gas Rises As It Takes Stake In Tesorillo Project, Spain

LONDON (Alliance News) - Prospex Oil & Gas PLC's shares rose on Tuesday as the company said it has agreed to acquire up to 49.9% of the Tesorillo gas project in south Spain.

Prospex's shares were up 7.9% on Tuesday morning at 0.561 per share.

The company is acquiring the stake through Schuepbach Energy Espania SRL, which has a 100% interest in Tesorillo.

The acquisition is going ahead in three stages, with the first stage seeing Prospex buying 2.5% for EUR48,750, effective immediately. Stage two gives Prospex the option to buy a further 12.50% for EUR280,000, and stage three gives an option to buy the remaining 35% for EUR1.7 million when drilling of a well is due to commence.

Prospex said the take up of the second and third stages will be based on the results of the upcoming work programme carried out by Schuepbach. On acquisition of the third tranche, it said, a drill programme would likely have been agreed.

Tesorillo is made up of two petroleum exploration licences: Tesorillo and Ruedalabola. They cover 38,000 hectares of a proven hydrocarbon region in Cadiz province in southern Spain. A 2015 report gave a gross unrisked prospective resource of 830 billion cubit feet, with 2 trillion cubit feet of potential upside.

The project has excellent infrastructure, Prospex said, and is located 3.9 kilometres from the North African Maghreb gas pipeline European landing point.

Non-Executive Chairman Bill Smith said: "Tesorillo offers the potential for very significant growth during 2018 and 2019 and caps a highly active and successful year for Prospex. In line with our strategy we have acquired interests in three onshore European projects and participated in the drilling of two new wells, both of which have resulted in gas discoveries."

"As with our Suceava concession in Romania and the Podere Gallina exploration permit in Italy, Tesorillo offers multiple development and appraisal gas opportunities. With independently certified unrisked prospective resource of 830 billion cubic feet best estimate, with upside in excess of 2 trillion cubit feet, the company-making potential of our latest investment is clear," Smith said.

By George Collard; georgecollard@alliancenews.com

http://www.iii.co.uk/alliance-news/1513684090801566300-3/prospex-oil-gas-rises-as-it-takes-stake-in-tesorillo-project-spain

Police investigating suspicious death of man found at Garden Grove construction site

GARDEN GROVE — Police are investigating the suspicious death of a man whose body was found Tuesday, Dec. 12, at an abandoned construction site.

When officers responded to the site at 10080 Garden Grove Blvd. around 4:50 p.m. they discovered the man, who appeared to be 18 to 25 years of age, had sustained trauma to most of his body, said Lt. Carl Whitney, declining to elaborate. The man was not carrying any identification. He remained unidentified as of late Tuesday night.

The construction site has a multi-story unfinished steel framed structure on the premises and is in a busy retail district.

Garden Grove detectives interviewed witnesses who found the body and are continuing to investigate the incident, Whitney said.

Anyone with information regarding the investigation is asked to contact Garden Grove police Homicide Detective Steve Heine at 714-741-5422.

http://www.ocregister.com/2017/12/12/police-investigating-suspicious-death-of-man-found-at-garden-grove-construction-site/

Milwaukee Lawmaker Floats Annexation As A Way to Deal With Transportation Concerns

Milwaukee lawmakers are getting creative when it comes to trying to ensure city residents are not left out of the expected job boom that will be created by Foxconn. Some are now floating the idea of expanding the footprint of the city.

Annexation, the act of incorporating new territory into the domain of a city, country or state, is not a term thrown around a lot these days. At a Milwaukee common council committee meeting on Tuesday, it got some play.

Alderman Bob Bauman sees annexation as a way unemployed Milwaukeeans could benefit from the Foxconn plant coming to Mount Pleasant. The LCD screen factory could create from 3,000 -- to up to 13,000 -- jobs.

“One of two things would seem to have to happen here. Either one, we provide some public transit infrastructure to get folks from the city of Milwaukee to Mount Pleasant and back. Or if there’s no public transit, maybe we just move folks from the city of Milwaukee to Mount Pleasant, period. And basically develop some land for residential and commercial use, where basically we could create a satellite city to the city of Milwaukee,” Bauman says.

If the City of Milwaukee simply owned the land, it would not be able to collect property taxes from those residents, but it could, if the city actually annexed land. Bauman says that while the idea may sound far-fetched, there’s precedent. He says back in the 1940s Milwaukee Mayor Frank Zeidler looked at developing satellite cities in Waukesha County that would have housed up to 50,000 people. While planning was done, those communities never came to fruition. Bauman admits, annexation -- to help Milwaukee residents work at Foxconn -- would be a longshot.

But the real focus of the discussion appears to be making a point that the city must find a way to get people Foxconn jobs, especially if transportation isn’t being made a priority. As of now, there have been no real discussions about expanding public transit, for example, Amtrak service, to the area. That's according to Kevin Muhs of the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission.

“We’ve not only taken every opportunity at the staff level to remind the DOT that transit could be a very important part of the solution to bringing workers to Foxconn, but we’ve been involved in some of these discussions and it hasn’t been a major source of discussion. So I’m not saying we don’t know, but I guess because it could be so important we’re hoping that there may be something more to come,” Muhs says.

SEWRPC says it plans to update its transportation recommendations soon and will include a multimodal mix designed with Foxconn and other employment opportunities in mind.

http://wuwm.com/post/milwaukee-lawmaker-floats-annexation-way-deal-transportation-concerns#stream/0

Nvidia and construction giant Komatsu partner on AI for job site safety

Nvidia is teaming up with Komatsu, one of the largest manufacturers of heavy equipment for construction and mining in the world, to deploy AI at worksites across these industries in order to promote safety and increase efficiency.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang announced the partnership at GTC Japan today, and described how it’ll make use of Nvidia GPU hardware to provide virtual ‘brains’ to heavy machinery at work sites, with AI powered by Nvidia’s Jetson platform.

This team-up builds on work done by Komatsu previously, as it originally rolled out its SMARTCONSTRUCTION program to build connected, smart worksites starting in 2015. Now, Nvidia’s tech will help Komatsu build 3D visualizations of entire construction sites, with real-time representation of people and machinery working on the ground.

Drones provided by SkyCatch will offer imaging for visualization, and Jetson will provide image processing and recognition to cameras spread throughout Komatsu’s construction equipment for computing at the edge.

Nvidia has done a lot to build out the use of its technology in industrial and commercial applications, and this could significantly improve safety and efficiency of construction operations if adopted broadly.

https://techcrunch.com/2017/12/13/nvidia-and-construction-giant-komatsu-partner-on-ai-for-job-site-safety/

World Bank To Cut Off Oil & Gas Funding

As part of its support to countries to meet their Paris Climate Agreement targets, the World Bank said on Tuesday that it would stop financing upstream oil and gas projects after 2019.

The World Bank will only make exceptions to consider possible support for financing upstream gas “in the poorest countries where there is a clear benefit in terms of energy access for the poor and the project fits within the countries’ Paris Agreement commitments,” the bank said in a statement at the One Planet Summit in Paris.

The summit, to mark the second anniversary of the Paris Agreement, is convened by France’s President Emmanuel, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, and World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim.

Apart from ceasing to finance oil and gas, the World Bank said today that it was on track to meet its target of 28 percent of its lending going to climate action by 2020 and to meeting the goals of its Climate Change Action Plan that had been developed following the Paris Agreement.

The bank will also start reporting next year greenhouse gas emissions from the investment projects it finances in key emissions-producing sectors, such as energy. The first results will be published in late 2018, and annually after that. The World Bank will also invest in green bonds and in a green bond fund, and in loans and funding aimed at reducing fossil fuel subsidies.

Separately, the World Bank and Canada agreed at the Paris summit today to “support the acceleration of developing countries’ transition away from traditional coal-fired electricity toward clean energy to power their fast-growing economies.”

More than 50 heads of state and government as well as prominent business figures—including Bill Gates and Elon Musk—are taking part in the One Planet Summit in Paris today.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Olprice.com

https://oilprice.com/Finance/the-Markets/World-Bank-To-Cut-Off-Oil-Gas-Funding.html

Special Report: Unfettered Construction Raises U.S. Hurricane Costs

PATTON VILLAGE, Texas (Reuters) - When Hurricane Harvey sent two feet of water rolling into this small community about 35 miles north of Houston, Alfredo Becerra had to flee his modest 1,500-square-foot house.

Muddy floodwater submerged the furniture and ruined carpet inside the construction worker’s longtime home. He has been living in temporary housing since the storm struck in August. He said the Federal Emergency Management Agency gave him $15,000 in aid.

One month later, across the Gulf of Mexico in Big Pine Key, Florida, moving company driver Byron Keeble lost about $10,000 worth of belongings, including a new sofa and his television, when Hurricane Irma sent a surge of seawater through his rented ground-floor apartment. Keeble said FEMA paid for him to stay in a hotel for a few weeks while he tried to figure out where he would go next.

Floodwaters aren’t the only common thread in the two men’s stories. Also linking them is this: Neither should have been living in harm’s way.

Becerra’s and Keeble’s homes were built or rented out in violation of National Flood Insurance Program rules. Like thousands of others in the hurricane-ravaged Florida Keys and on the Texas Gulf Coast, such houses are undermining efforts to limit flood damage, lower the cost of disaster assistance and reduce claims on the taxpayer-backed federal flood insurance program, a Reuters investigation found.

Similar rule-busting construction has happened in scores of communities across the United States, where local, state and federal officials have failed to enforce regulations intended to restrict building in areas at high risk of flooding.

Across the country, newer construction in flood-prone areas generated more than $9 billion in claims for structural damage on the cash-strapped flood insurance program between 2000 and 2015. Flood-management authorities say that some of those claims probably never would have been filed had proper building controls and accurate flood maps been in place.

“You look at the media images and you see new subdivisions, new strip malls and new buildings with water up to the rooftop. Those are red flags in my mind. Those shouldn’t be happening,” said Paul Osman, floodplain program manager for the Illinois Office of Water Resources.

Controlling construction inside flood-prone areas is critical to keeping flood insurance affordable and reducing post-disaster costs, federal officials say. The primary tool used to ensure communities are doing so effectively is a system of audits of how localities adhere to their own floodplain-management rules. But that system is crippled by a lack of funding and political will, Reuters found in a review of thousands of federal and state documents and dozens of interviews with flood-management authorities.

Many communities go years without these audits, which are conducted by FEMA or state officials and known as community assistance visits. And when serious problems are uncovered, Reuters found, FEMA has been ineffective in forcing communities to fix them.

Hurricanes Irma, which devastated Florida, and Harvey, which inundated vast sections of Texas, have already generated almost $7 billion in flood insurance claims paid. Houston, where $1.3 billion of those claims originated, has not had an audit in at least eight years.

FEMA has leverage: It oversees the National Flood Insurance Program, and can use it to punish a community that fails for years to address problems. The first sanction is probation, which imposes on all policyholders in the community a $50-a-year surcharge on flood insurance premiums until violations are resolved. If the issues aren’t fixed, FEMA can impose a tougher measure: The entire community can be suspended altogether, and all property owners lose access to flood insurance.

Residents and floodplain-management officials told Reuters they think FEMA is reluctant to use these sanctions, however. Of the 22,000 communities participating in the flood insurance program, four are now suspended for failing to enforce floodplain-management rules. Thirty have been suspended for that reason since 1978.

FEMA’s desire is to keep a community in the program “as long as there is any hope of compliance” to avoid stopping regulation altogether, said Rachel Sears, director of FEMA’s floodplain-management division. “We want to keep that relationship intact,” she said. “We only move toward probation or suspension when there is no further hope.”

UNCHECKED RISKS

When Irma made landfall in the Florida Keys, the region was filled with thousands of homes that federal or state officials suspected of having illegal ground-floor enclosures. Those code-breaking homes were unaddressed despite decades of prodding from FEMA.

It is difficult to quantify the costs to taxpayers from the failure to control development in high-risk areas. FEMA doesn’t ask insurance agents and adjusters to identify illegal structures when reviewing claims. And homeowners are allowed to claim losses for a prescribed list of items, including washers and dryers, even if they had been kept in an illegal basement or low-lying enclosure.

All of this stresses an insurance program that the Government Accountability Office, a congressional watchdog, considers to be at high risk of fraud, waste and mismanagement. Until recently, the National Flood Insurance Program owed $25 billion to U.S. taxpayers because it borrowed to cover past disaster losses. In August, President Donald Trump signed a disaster relief bill that forgave $16 billion of that debt. Congress is still considering a long-term fix to the program.

Eric Letvin, a deputy assistant administrator for the National Flood Insurance Program, said he thinks FEMA is largely successful at ensuring communities control risky development. But he acknowledged the agency could do better.

“It’s one of the areas I want to focus on for improvement, especially in the post-disaster environment,” he said.

Only 23 percent of the more than 22,000 communities that participate in the flood insurance program had an audit by federal or state floodplain-management authorities in the eight years ending in 2016, FEMA documents show.

Some communities may not need an audit: They have little new development or a low risk of flooding. But the list of areas without a recent visit includes fast-growing major cities like Miami and Houston, each of which has seen severe flooding recently.

In interviews with Reuters, state and local officials in Texas could not recall the last time federal or state auditors visited Houston, but it has been at least eight years.

“I don’t know,” said Jamila Johnson, who took the helm of the city’s floodplain office in 2009. “That was before I became the city’s floodplain manager.”

FEMA recommends to each state that an auditor visit all high-risk communities every five years. In its 2010 risk ratings, it listed Houston as the top priority in Texas for auditing.

Texas is not alone. In 13 of 50 states, no federal or state auditor visited the highest-risk community between 2009 and 2016, a Reuters review of FEMA documents found.

FEMA isn’t keeping up, either. Despite its own guidance requiring it to produce community risk ratings annually, it hasn’t done so since 2010.

Meanwhile, building continues in many flood-prone areas. There is no comprehensive way to quantify flood damage to properties built illegally. But if newer structures are built in adherence with the rules, flood specialists said, such buildings should rarely flood. Communities with many illegal buildings or inaccurate maps, on the other hand, are likely to have a high percentage of flood insurance claims from new structures in risky areas.

A Reuters analysis of all flood insurance claims filed between 2000 and 2015 found that, nationwide, 27 percent of claims in high-risk areas came from owners of newer structures. States with a high percentage of such claims included Alabama (59 percent), Mississippi (50 percent), and North Carolina (44 percent).

About 41 percent of claims in Florida and 31 percent in Texas came from newer structures.

The total cost of insurance claims for structural damage to new buildings in risky areas, in adjusted 2017 dollars: $9.5 billion.

On top of that, as in the cases of Becerra and Keeble, FEMA sometimes doles out disaster aid. Data are not available to ascertain how much of that aid goes to people living in illegal structures.

Such losses suggest something is awry, floodplain managers and researchers said. Either the community is failing to enforce its floodplain-management rules, or maps do not accurately detail the community’s flood risk.

FEMA delegates the job of conducting most audits to state officials. Those officials, in turn, say they lack resources to visit more communities. For each of the past five budget years, FEMA has allotted a total of $10.4 million to the states and territories, which must match 25 percent of the money. But the dollars must also be spent on other initiatives, such as public outreach.

The number and frequency of visits varies widely by state. In Florida, FEMA and state officials have visited 64 percent of the communities participating in the flood insurance program. In Texas, the number is 12 percent.

Alfredo Becerra’s flooded home is but one example Reuters found of the results of decades of lax oversight in the Houston area.

Becerra’s property is in a floodway – an area that carries the bulk of any floodwaters downstream and where the most destructive damage is likely. Under FEMA regulations, when Becerra built his home in 1985, Patton Village officials should have required that the house be certified as standing at an elevation above expected flood levels. City officials were also obliged under FEMA rules to require an engineering study to prove the structure wouldn’t cause floodwaters to rise even higher, damaging other properties.

Patton Village officials had no records indicating any of those steps were taken. Becerra said he did not know his property was in a floodway.

He received temporary housing assistance that paid for his stay in a hotel for at least two weeks. He says he also received $15,000 in federal disaster aid to repair the damage to his home. He did not have flood insurance.

Leah Tarrant, the mayor of Patton Village since 2013, acknowledges the village hasn’t done its part to control development.

“Honestly, we have never really dealt with floodplain management,” she said. “I’m just being honest with you.”

In surrounding Montgomery County, dozens of properties in multiple communities were built after official flood maps detailed the floodway and floodplain boundaries, according to a March 2017 FEMA audit of the county and a Reuters analysis of appraisal records and flood maps. Many of the houses had no evidence of the required hydrologic studies or proof that the building’s lowest floor exceeded the expected heights of floodwaters. Some flooded during Harvey.

Most of the properties identified by Reuters are in unincorporated areas, which fall under the jurisdiction of county government.

When questioned about the floodway structures, Mark Mooney, the county’s floodplain manager, said the county banned development in the floodway until 2014. He said he couldn’t explain how, if such a ban was in place, so many homes had been built inside the floodway over the last three decades.

“Some of the listed properties could have been constructed without the county being contacted for necessary permits,” Mooney said. “Unfortunately, we do not have a staff that can police daily, when and where everything gets built in our large county. We will definitely follow up.”

RESISTANCE AND POLITICS

Reuters obtained documents from FEMA summarizing the results of 6,253 audits of floodplain-management enforcement conducted between 2009 and 2016 in all 50 states. Auditors identified serious issues in 13 percent of those visits.

It often takes years, or even decades, to bring a community into compliance after an audit failure. As of Jan. 1, 2017, serious violations remained unresolved for three years or longer in 119 communities across the country. That list includes places at high risk of flooding such as Boca Raton, Florida, and St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana.

Monroe County, Florida, where FEMA spent decades trying to eliminate illegal construction, shows why so many known problems persist: Community resistance and politics often impede enforcement efforts.

Years before Hurricane Irma struck the county, authorities identified thousands of suspected illegal enclosures. By the time the storm hit, they had not yet inspected half of those properties to see if they complied with floodplain codes. As of the end of November, the county’s property owners had been paid $62 million in insurance claims for flood damage from Irma.

FEMA first noticed problems in Monroe County during two visits in the 1980s. But the county’s leadership was uncooperative and remained so for years, said Brad Loar, who retired in 2014 as director of the FEMA Region IV mitigation division.

“They pretty much resisted anything that we wanted to talk to them about,” said Loar, who was involved in the first FEMA visit in 1982. “We didn’t see a whole lot of understanding or corrective action for most of the whole thing.”

What auditors found in Monroe County is typical of the Florida Keys. Living space in high-risk areas is supposed to be elevated above expected 100-year floodwater heights. Here, though, property owners often furnish ground-floor enclosures, either to expand their living space or to rent out the extra rooms. The low-rent enclosures are popular with the waiters, cooks, maids and other service industry workers essential to the area’s tourism industry.

When FEMA officials returned to audit Monroe County a third time in 1995, they found the illegal living spaces had become so widespread that sanctions were warranted.

Had FEMA placed Monroe County on probation after the 1995 visit, the agency would have put one of the most hurricane-prone areas in the country on the road to losing flood insurance. Instead, FEMA pressured the county to agree in 2002 to a pilot project that called for inspections of about 5,700 properties.

Property owners with insurance were told they needed to request an inspection from the county before renewing their policies. Also, owners of the 5,700 properties who sought a building permit for any reason had to agree to an inspection.

The inspection program caused a row in county politics that lasted 11 years. Although county government had begun cooperating with FEMA, contractors complained that the inspections deterred residents from upgrading their homes. Residents complained they couldn’t sell their places. Local, state and federal officials faced calls from residents and contractors to end the inspections.

In 2011, homeowners and contractors lobbied the Florida legislature to ban local authorities from conducting the building-permit inspections. FEMA officials argued against the legislation until, local activists said, U.S. Senator Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, stepped in and pressured the agency to back off.

“It was huge,” lobbyist John November said of Nelson’s involvement. “Without his participation … that pilot program might still be going on.”

By the time the pilot program ended in 2013, only half of the 5,700 properties FEMA suspected of having illegal enclosures had been inspected.

Despite the lingering problems, Monroe County is a FEMA poster child. The agency describes the community as “one of the best examples” of compliance in the country.

https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2017-12-12/special-report-unfettered-construction-raises-us-hurricane-costs

India says Chinese construction on river dirtying water

Officials in India's northeast are complaining that Chinese construction activity on the upper reaches of one of the largest rivers that flows into India are likely turning the waters downstream turbid and unfit for human consumption.

Over the weekend, Sarbananda Sonowal, the chief minister of India's Assam state, said the Brahmaputra river was contaminated with bacteria and iron, with laboratory tests declaring its waters unfit for human consumption. Sonowal asked that the Indian government take up the matter with Beijing.

The Yarlung Tsangbo river originates in the Tibetan Himalayas and enters India as the Siang in far-eastern Arunachal Pradesh state before flowing downstream to Assam as the Brahmaputra. The river finally empties into the Bay of Bengal through Bangladesh, where it is called the Padma.

Last week, Pema Khandu, the chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh, which shares a border with China, wrote to Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh, saying the waters of the Siang river have been "unusually turbid" for the past two months, and sought a federal investigation.

Keshab Mahanta, the water resources minister of Assam state, has written to Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj expressing serious concern about the water quality of the Bhramaputra.

Locals in Arunachal Pradesh suspect the Siang is contaminated because of Chinese construction activities in the upper reaches of the river, including possible attempts to divert the river to feed its arid northern areas.

"The Chinese may seek to deny, but we suspect there is massive tunnel building activities to divert the Yarlung Tsangbo to Xinjiang province, particularly the Taklamakan desert region," Lungkang Ering, president of the All Bogong Students' Union in the border district of East Sing, said in a letter to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"China is constructing several dams on the Yarlung Tsangpo. One big dam, the Zangmo dam, is already operational and about three to four other dams are under various stages of construction. The Zangmo dam is located just 3-4 kilometers (2-3 miles) from the Indian border and is 116 meters (380 feet) high," according to Nayan Sharma, a leading Indian hydrologist at the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that it had never heard of the project mentioned by Indian officials in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh states. In the past, China has denied such accusations without providing details or enunciating its long-term plans for the area.

India's foreign ministry spokesman did not reply to queries about whether New Delhi had raised concerns with Beijing.

Sharma said the turbidity in the segments of the river in India could be because of construction debris flowing downstream or because of an earthquake last month near the Great Bend on the Yarlung Tsangpo just as the river enters India, leading to major damage and debris flowing down.

"A federal investigation is a must because there is loss of aquatic life in the Siang and the Brahmaputra because of the contamination over the weeks. China is miserly in parting information on the river issues and therefore New Delhi must take up the matter at the highest level with Beijing," said Arunav Goswami of the Gauhati-based Centre for Development and Peace Studies.

Sharma and other experts say India needs to investigate the causes of the contamination of the river, which has also begun hitting aquatic life on the Siang and Brahmaputra rivers, because China is unlikely to share information with New Delhi.

Kameswar Sahani, a fisherman in Arunachal Pradesh, told a local newspaper that dozens of fishermen like him have been forced to stop working on the Siang river.

Over the last few months, his catch went down to just 3-4 kilograms (7-9 pounds) from 30-40 kilograms (70-90 pounds) earlier. Sahani also said that customers were balking from purchasing fish from the Siang because of contamination fears.

"How will I feed my family?" he asked.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/india-chinese-construction-river-dirtying-water-51734318

How Does Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation (COG) Stack Up Right Now?

Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation (COG) is an interesting player in the Basic Materials space, with a focus on Independent Oil & Gas. The stock has been active on the tape, currently trading at $27.75, down from yesterday’s close by -0.11%. Given the stock’s recent action, it seemed like a good time to take a closer look at the company’s recent data.

Fundamental Analysis
Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation (COG) currently trades with a market capitalization of $12.96 Billion. That value represents a market adjusting for revenues that have been growing by 24.16 % on a quarterly year/year basis as of the company’s last quarterly report.

You can get a sense of how sustainable that is by a levered free cash flow of $141.84 Million over the past twelve months. Generally speaking, earnings are expected to grow in coming quarters. Analysts are forecasting earnings of $0.15 on a per share basis this quarter. Perhaps, that suggests something about why 98.71% of the outstanding share supply is held by institutional investors.

Technical Analysis
As most professionals know, technical analysis can offer critical insights into what smart money and insiders think about a stock’s prospects going forward. Looking at the stock’s movement on the chart, Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation recorded a 52-week high of $29.57. It is now trading 1.82% off that level. The stock is trading $27.38 its 50-day moving average by -0.37%. The stock carved out a 52-week low down at $20.55.

In recent action, Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation (COG) has made a move of -2.84% over the past month, which has come on weak relative transaction volume. Over the trailing year, the stock is underperforming the S&P 500 by 16.84, and it’s gotten there by action that has been less volatile on a day-to-day basis than most other stocks on the exchange. In terms of the mechanics underlying that movement, traders will want to note that the stock is trading on a float of 3.60% with $455.64 Million sitting short, betting on future declines. That suggests something of the likelihood of a short squeeze in shares of COG.

https://www.stocknewsjournal.com/2017/12/11/how-does-cabot-oil-gas-corporation-cog-stack-up-right-now-2/

Colombia Boosts Oil & Gas Investment

Colombian oil companies plan between $4.5 billion and $4.9 billion in investments in 2018, increasing their budgets from this year, but still missing the mark on how much capital is needed to maintain an active fossil fuel industry, according to a new report by Reuters.

The new figures reflect a jump of roughly a third compared to last year’s figures, the Colombian Petroleum Association said on Wednesday.

Usually, twenty percent of government revenues come from the exploration, production, and taxation of petroleum products in the country, but three years of low oil prices have lowered that proportion to almost zero. Colombia’s oil and gas is difficult to extract, and trades at a significant discount to Brent. Ecopetrol and foreign field operators need prices to be higher than $50 to turn a profit.

Last year, Colombia was one of several South American countries selling oil below the cost of production.

“We value the process of recuperation of the industry, but it’s a recuperation that is lower than expected and lower than what the country needs to look toward the future,” ACP President Francisco Jose Lloreda told journalists.

“We look at 2018 with moderate optimism - there is interest from companies in making an important investment in production and exploration, that hopefully will be firmed up, but it’s short term. At medium and long term there is great uncertainty that we hope will dissipate,” Lloreda said.

Colombia’s oil production has been falling for the last four years. It’s not just the 2014 price crash that pressured output: The country’s fields are depleting and new discoveries are hard to come by because of high production costs, security challenges, and opposition from the population.

Earlier this year, Colombia’s Comptroller General warned that the country could lose its energy independence by 2021 if this state of affairs continues. If production continues to fall, state-run Ecopetrol will find it hard to service its refineries, which have a combined daily capacity of 420,000 barrels.

https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Colombia-Boosts-Oil-Gas-Investment.html

First Mobil-branded Service Stations to Open in Mexico

SANTIAGO DE QUERÉTARO, Mexico

• ExxonMobil and retail partner Grupo Orsan to open eight Mobil stations in the state of Querétaro in December
• More than 50 Mobil stations to open in the Bajio region during the first quarter of 2018
• Stations to be supplied by ExxonMobil’s Texas refineries using private infrastructure and distribution along the entire fuels value chain

ExxonMobil announced today a partnership with retailer Grupo Orsan to open eight Mobil-branded service stations this week in Querétaro as part of the company’s entry in Mexico’s fuels market. ExxonMobil plans to open 50 Mobil stations in the Bajio region by the end of the first quarter of 2018.

ExxonMobil is the first company to fully leverage Mexico’s new energy model and provide an integrated product offering along the entire fuels value chain. The new Mobil-branded stations will be operated by Grupo Orsan and supplied with gasoline and diesel produced by ExxonMobil’s refineries in Texas. Fuels will be distributed by rail through two private fuels terminals located in San Luis Potosi and San Jose Iturbide. This is part of ExxonMobil’s long-term commitment to invest $300 million in fuels logistics, product inventories and marketing in Mexico over the next 10 years.

“The opening of these first eight Mobil service stations, made possible by Mexico’s new energy policy regime, is a significant milestone for the country and our company,” said Carlos Rivas, fuels director for ExxonMobil Mexico. “We look forward to helping meet the country’s growing demand for energy with a reliable supply of high-quality fuels and a positive customer experience.”

“Orsan’s partnership with ExxonMobil will increase our competitiveness in the fully deregulated fuels market, supported by a globally prestigious brand like Mobil and a unique marketing offer designed to attract consumers,” said Carlos Sandoval, chief executive officer of Grupo Orsan.

With the introduction of Mobil-branded stations and Synergy™-branded fuels in Mexico, ExxonMobil is presenting a breakthrough forecourt and our most advanced fuel formulations. ExxonMobil’s Synergy product line increases engine-cleaning power, helping improve engine performance, responsiveness and fuel economy compared to gasoline meeting minimum Mexican government standards. The fuels will be marketed as Mobil Synergy Supreme+, Mobil Synergy Extra and Mobil Synergy Diesel.

ExxonMobil will also launch a Guaranteed Fuels program to help assure Mobil customers, through routine visits to stations, that the fuels meet ExxonMobil’s stringent quality requirements and correct quantities are being sold. The program will be supported by an independent company that specializes in inspection, product testing and certification.

ExxonMobil has maintained a presence in Mexico for more than 130 years with other businesses and sales in the country, including chemicals and Mobil-branded lubricants, as well as interest in oil and gas exploration, where the company anticipates continued growth.

https://www.oilandgas360.com/first-mobil-branded-service-stations-to-open-in-mexico/

Skyscraper construction sets another record in 2017

The current global boom in tall buildings shows no signs of slowing. In its annual Tall Building Year in Review, the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) found that more buildings 200 meters tall or greater were finished last year than any other year on record.

A total of 144 such structures were completed in 69 cities spread across 23 countries, part of a wave of tall towers, the fourth-straight record-setting year in terms of completions. Last year’s new tall towers set records across the globe as well: new tallest buildings took shape in 28 cities and 8 countries.

“The data from 2017 shows a continuation of the trend towards a greater global proliferation of skyscraper construction,” CTBUH Executive Director Antony Wood said in a statement. “High-rise construction is no longer confined to a select few financial and business centers, but rather is becoming the accepted global model for densification as more than one million people on our planet urbanize each week. Thirteen cities saw their first 200-meter-plus high-rise completion in 2017, in addition to the 28 cities and eight countries that saw their tallest building completed this year.”

The U.S. completed 10 such structures, including four in New York, two in Chicago, and the record-setting Wilshire Grand Center in Los Angeles. This new class of skyscrapers forms the bulk of North America’s 17 new towers, representing 10.4 percent of the worldwide total.

But as has been the case for years, Asia, specifically China, was the center of the action. Chinese construction projects added 76 new skyscrapers, representing 53 percent of the global total. The city of Shenzhen, which added 12 new buildings, accounted for 8.3 percent of the worldwide total, more than any country outside of China.

One of the most interesting trends noted in the CTBUH review was the shift in type and purpose. While traditionally geared towards all-office or mixed-use, high-rise construction added a higher-than-normal number of all-residential towers in 2017. Forty-nine such completions occurred last year, representing 34 percent of the total, compared to just 15 percent in 2016. All-office layouts also became less popular, dropping to 39 percent of completions from 52 percent last year.

“It is tempting to speculate that we are now seeing the built results of a full-blown recovery from the 2008 economic crisis, as greater confidence in single-function programs sparks a resurgence in speculative residential development,” Steve Watts, CTBUH Chairman, said in a statement.

https://www.curbed.com/2017/12/13/16772994/skyscraper-tallest-building-china-record

Nuclear fusion project hails halfway construction milestone

A vast international experiment designed to demonstrate that nuclear fusion can be a viable source of energy is halfway toward completion, the organization behind the project said Wednesday.

Construction of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER, in southern France has been dogged by delays and a surge in costs to about 20 billion euros ($23.7 billion).

ITER's director-general, Bernard Bigot, said the project is on track to begin superheating hydrogen atoms in 2025, a milestone known as "first plasma."

"We have no contingency plan," he told The Associated Press in a phone interview from Paris.

Scientists have long sought to mimic the process of nuclear fusion that occurs inside the sun, arguing that it could provide an almost limitless source of cheap, safe and clean electricity. Unlike in existing fission reactors, which split plutonium or uranium atoms, there's no risk of an uncontrolled chain reaction with fusion and it doesn't produce long-lived radioactive waste.

A joint project to explore the technology was first proposed at a summit between U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985, with the aim of "utilizing controlled thermonuclear fusion for peaceful purposes ... for the benefit for all mankind."

It took more than two decades for work to begin at the site in Saint-Paul-les-Durance, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) northeast of Marseille. The project's members — China, the European Union, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the United States — settled on a design that uses a doughnut-shaped device called a tokamak to trap hydrogen that's been heated to 150 million degrees Celsius (270 million Fahrenheit) for long enough to allow atoms to fuse together.

The process results in the release of large amounts of heat. While ITER won't generate electricity, scientists hope it will demonstrate that such a fusion reactor can produce more energy than it consumes.

There are other fusion experiments, but ITER's design is widely considered the most advanced and practical. Scientists won't know until 2035, following a decade of testing and upgrades, whether the device actually works as intended.

Still, fusion experts said Wednesday's milestone was noteworthy.

"The glass is half full, rather than half empty," said Tony Donne of EUROfusion, a consortium of European research organizations and universities that provide scientific advice for ITER.

Donne said the appointment of Bigot had helped the project overcome what he called a "very difficult period" during which political considerations had hampered construction of what some consider the most complicated machine ever built.

Cost remains an issue, though, and Bigot was visiting Washington on Wednesday to drum up support from the United States, which contributes about 9 percent of the budget. Much of the funding goes to suppliers in the member states — in the case of the U.S. that includes General Atomics, which is building the central solenoid, an 18-meter (59-foot) electromagnet that's powerful enough to lift an aircraft carrier.

Bigot said most other members, including the European Union which pays 45 percent of the budget, had pledged their financial support for years to come and he was hopeful the Trump administration would see the benefits of staying on board.

"All countries including the United States know that their energy supply is not sustainable beyond this century," said Bigot, who was previously France's nuclear energy chief.

Should Washington cut its funding, the project won't collapse, he said. "It's too important for the other members. But there would be some delay."

Gerald Navratil, a professor of applied physics at Columbia University, said fusion could help solve the problem of how to reliably produce large amounts of electricity without emitting greenhouse gases, noting ITER's current cost is comparable to that of developing a large passenger aircraft.

"Energy is such an important part of our technological society that expenditure of 20 billion to develop a new energy source is really not out of line," he said.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/nuclear-fusion-project-hails-halfway-construction-milestone-51618309

The Oil And Gas Industry Is Under Attack

Almost two-thirds of oil and gas companies have recently had a serious cybersecurity incident, and only a small minority of them felt confident that their defense capabilities match the threats, a new survey from EY has revealed.

The survey, which involved 40 respondents from the oil and gas industry, found that 60 percent had recently had a significant cybersecurity incident, but only 15 percent have what EY calls a robust incident response program. Even more discouraging was the finding that just 17 percent of respondents felt they are very likely to detect a sophisticated cyberattack in the future.

The issue of cybersecurity is growing in importance for the oil and gas industry as it moves towards greater digitization and automation, while cyberthreats generally increase in number and gravity. That could turn into a major headache for an industry that’s been wary about digital tech, but has been greatly motivated to expand its adoption after the 2014 oil price collapse.

The problem is not unique to oil and gas, of course. Most businesses across industries seem to be unaware of the full implications—financial, reputational, and other—of sophisticated cyberattacks. However, the issue is particularly serious for oil and gas: the nature of the industry makes it critical for any nation, and because of that, a very appealing target for cybercriminals.

Some oil majors are addressing the issue: Statoil, Shell, Lundin, and several tech companies in Europe are currently working on cybersecurity guidelines for the oil and gas industry that would minimize the danger of significant cyber incidents, and at the same time have additional benefits such as cost savings and smoother business operations thanks to the standardized cybersecurity requirements.

That’s a good start, but things will need to be taken much further—and quickly, because, saysEY Global Oil & Gas Advisory Leader Jeff Williams, “As more connected endpoint devices such as smart sensors are being deployed across the oil and gas industry, the potential for cyber infiltration rises exponentially, potentially placing the entire supply chain at risk, disrupting regional operations, or worse, causing loss of life.”

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/The-Oil-And-Gas-Industry-Is-Under-Attack.html

Official: Trooper injured in construction vehicle crash

A Virginia State Police trooper suffered minor injuries in a crash Thursday morning, an official said.

The crash happened shortly after 7:30 a.m. in the southbound lanes of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, outside of the second tunnel/tube, police spokeswoman Sgt. Michelle Anaya said in a news release.

Investigators think the trooper was traveling southbound on Route 13 and exiting the second tunnel when a construction vehicle pulled out into his lane of travel. There was no room for the trooper to maneuver due to the limited space or without hitting traffic head on, Anaya said.

The trooper hit the rear end of the construction vehicle, causing extensive damage to his patrol vehicle, she said.

The trooper was taken to Sentara Virginia Beach General Hospital, according to Anaya.

The crash is under investigation, she said.

http://www.dailypress.com/news/traffic/dp-nws-virginia-state-trooper-construction-vehicle-crash-20171207-story.html

Ride-hailing, changing travelers’ transportation habits, costs airports in lost fees

For many air travelers, getting to and from the airport has long been part of the whole miserable experience. Do they drive and park in some distant lot? Take mass transit or a taxi? Deal with a rental car?

Ride-hailing services like Uber or Lyft are quickly changing those calculations. That has meant a bit less angst for travelers.

But that’s not the case for airports in many parts of the country. Travelers’ changing habits, in fact, have begun to shake the airports’ financial underpinnings. Fewer people are parking cars at airports, using taxis or renting cars, according to a recent report from the National Academies Press.

Those trends are hurting airports, which depend on fees from parking lots, rental-car companies and taxis as their biggest source of revenue other than the fees paid by the airlines. The money they collect from ride-hailing services does not compensate for the lower revenues from the other sources.

At the same time, some airports have had to add staff to oversee the operations of the ride-hailing companies, the report said. And with more ride-hailing vehicles on the roads outside terminals, there’s more congestion.

Henry Harteveldt, travel analyst for Atmosphere Research, said the declines in income are just the tip of the iceberg. As autonomous cars gain traction, he said, “the airport parking gravy train is going to dry up.” The future, he said, could bring less ticket-counter space and more retail and food and beverage offerings, as airports struggle to come up with revenue to replace what they have lost.

The Federal Aviation Administration reported in November that the $4 billion in fees collected last year for parking and ground transportation represented nearly 42 percent of the $9.6 billion in airport revenue from sources other than airline fees. Money collected from rental-car companies, excluding the fees that airport operators charge rental-car customers to help pay for the construction of new facilities, added nearly $1.8 billion. The combination far exceeded the fees the airports collected from food and beverage outlets, retail stores and hotels.

To generate revenue, some airports charge ride-hailing services to pick up or drop off passengers.

That’s the case in the Bay Area, where airports report that the impact of ride-hailing is nuanced, and somewhat offset by growth in passenger volume.

San Francisco International Airport charges Uber, Lyft and Wingz $3.80 per ride and took in $21.8 million from the three in 2016. In October, ride-hailing fees amounted to $2.9 million, compared with $579,425 in taxi revenue. (Taxis pay a $5 fee for pickups only; ride-hailing companies pay for both directions.) Taxi revenues slid 3.4 percent in fiscal year 2016-17 from the prior year.

SFO continues to see increases in passenger volume overall. While it’s seen a slight revenue reduction in some categories such as parking, that’s not strictly related to ride-hailing, according to SFO spokesman Doug Yakel. “In the case of parking, for example, current construction activity has reduced the available capacity in our Long-Term Lot, which will change in 2019 with the opening of a second long-term parking facility,” he said in an email.

SFO created its own GPS tracking system for ride-hailing cars and licenses it to other airports, but that wasn’t intended as a revenue generator, he said. With 14 airports nationwide using it, SFO has collected $11,000 in total as of mid-2017.

At Oakland International Airport, “The rise of (ride-hailing companies) has caused volume and revenue from all other airport access modes to decline,” airport spokeswoman Keonnis Taylor said in an email.

Ride-hailing company fees bring in about half a million dollars a month, she said. The per-ride fee will be $3.70 in January. Taxi and limo fees for fiscal year 2017 were $460,000, a 30 percent decline from recent years. Taxis pay $3.50 per ride.

While overall parking revenues have increased with more passengers, per-passenger transaction volume is down 10 percent. “We estimate that car rentals per passenger have declined 12 percent to 15 percent,” she said. Taxi volume is down 40 percent, and shuttle van volume is down by 60 percent since ride-hailing was introduced, she said.

Ride-hailing companies got permission to operate at the two Bay Area airports in late 2014 and early 2015, but were unofficially giving rides before then.

At the end of October, Lyft operated at about 300 airports nationwide. Uber estimates that it serves more than 150 airports in North America.

Fresno Yosemite International Airport is one California airport that said it’s feeling an economic pinch. The airport is served by Lyft; Uber discontinued service this year rather than comply with an airport operating agreement, a Fresno Yosemite spokeswoman said. “Our parking revenue growth is no longer tracking our passenger growth,” said Kevin Meikle, director of aviation for the city of Fresno. The airport is looking at an estimated $250,000 in lost income this year.

Darren Perry, a managing director in the aviation and travel practice at L.E.K. Consulting in Boston, said the decline in fees for airports could become a major problem. “If that were to persist, it would be difficult for the airports,” he said.

Pat Kinsel, chief executive of an electronic notary company, is one traveler who has switched to a ride-hailing service. He says that when he travels from his home in Boston to Logan International Airport, he usually takes an Uber. “I gave up driving to increase time and efficiency,” he said.

Airports are finding ways to make parking, if not more appealing, then more easily navigable. While frequent-parking clubs have existed in some places for a decade, these programs at airports now have new relevance.

Airport parking also faces competition from off-airport hotels. “Hotels can forecast very accurately how much parking capacity is available on any given day,” said Bjorn Hanson, clinical professor at the Jonathan M. Tisch Center for Hospitality and Tourism at New York University. They can gain revenue, he said, for little additional expense.

As complex as airport parking rates are now, Perry said, airports could be more creative. “Parking is one of the most underutilized resources,” he said, and with technology, parking prices can be adjusted by the day of the week, time of day, location and level of service.

Some airport economists say it’s only a matter of time before fees for ride-hailing companies approach those of traditional taxi companies. Ray Mundy, director of the Center for Transportation Studies at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, said he did not expect ride-hailing companies “to continue to expand at the same rate” once fares rise to cover costs. And, he said, airports may also impose new fees.

Kinsel, the ride-hailing enthusiast, is staying the course. On a recent trip to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, he said, he ordered a car from Uber as the plane pulled up to the gate. He was downtown in less than 15 minutes after the plane landed. “It was the equivalent of having a private car,” he said.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Ride-hailing-changing-travelers-12428872.php

Take public transportation; Utahns appear to not alter travel habits on bad air days

(KUTV) – Ask any Utahn who watches the morning news and they’ll recognize the familiar words “red air day.”

That is when air quality dips to its lowest levels, most often during Utah’s winter inversions.

Along with the warning of air pollution, comes the familiar cry to take public transportation.

But Utah may not be listening.

“Everybody is always talking about ‘well, what can we do to clean up the air? What can we do to address the inversion that comes around this time of year, this is one thing that people can do,” Utah Transit Authority spokesperson Carl Arky told 2News.

According to UTA data obtained by 2News, UTA ridership generally sees a less than one percent rise on red air days. If daily ridership increased 1 percent, that would mean approximately 200 trips, according to UTA data.

“If people have not used the system before they don’t seem to be inclined to leave their car in the garage and take mass transportation. They’re not accustomed to it…yet.” Arky said.

Utah’s air quality is forecasted to take a dive in the coming days and weeks and state air officials and UTA hope to see a change in Utah’s travel habits.

“Instead of just saying, well what can we do? This is something you can do, use mass transportation,” Arky said.

http://kutv.com/news/local/take-public-transportation-utahns-appear-to-not-alter-travel-habits-on-bad-air-days

SkyX Drone Completes 100km Flight for Oil & Gas Market

SkyX Systems Corporation, the Canadian leader in long-range unmanned aerial monitoring and data collection, is pleased to announce that it has successfully completed an unmanned data collection flight of 100km, one of the longest journeys in its class.

Taking place in Mexico, the firm successfully flew its SkyOne Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) on an autonomous data mission over more than 100 kilometres of gas pipeline in Mexico. The robotic flight was programmed and monitored remotely from the company’s Greater Toronto Area SkyCenter mission control, with a support crew of engineers on the ground in Mexico.

Using high-resolution imagery, the longest of multiple flights identified more than 200 potentially significant anomalies along the remote pipeline, ranging from unauthorized buildings and cultivation, through to a fissure possibly caused by seismic activity.

“This mission was groundbreaking,” says SkyX Founder and CEO Didi Horn. “We have proven our solution in a rugged environment which presented network communications challenges. Our Mexican partner was stunned not only by our results, but by the speed and accuracy with which we delivered them.”

The flights mark a milestone for several reasons. Among them:

• A 100+ kilometre flight gathered data in a little more than an hour that would have taken a person well over a week
  
• That mission identified more than 200 geo-referenced anomalies the customer was unaware existed, pinpointing precise coordinates for rapid investigation and remediation
  
• The mission positions SkyX as the leading solution for cost-effective monitoring of oil and gas pipelines and other long-range infrastructure.

“More than $38 billion is spent annualaly monitoring oil and gas pipelines using less efficient means, which often identify problems only long after they’ve occurred. SkyX brings an unprecedented value proposition to this global issue,” says Horn.

The SkyX System consists of an aircraft that takes off like a helicopter but flies like a plane, the SkyCenter control room (which allows for real-time and secure mission monitoring from remote locations), and the company’s proprietary SkyBoxes, which allow SkyOne to recharge and continue long-range missions without having to “Return to Home” (a factor that limits nearly every other drone).

SkyX is currently finalizing a second round of financing, providing a cutting-edge opportunity for investors. Already, the company has gathered 25 per cent of its targeted funding.

https://www.suasnews.com/2017/12/skyx-drone-completes-100km-flight-oil-gas-market/

Pension funds, sell your oil & gas stock

Last month, Norway’s $1 trillion pension fund announced plans to drop oil and gas stocks from its core benchmark stock portfolio. The move was of note because it served as an important acknowledgement by a major institutional investor that such holdings have lost their status as mainstream, blue-chip investments and are now considered speculative.

It carries special significance too because the Norwegians really know the oil and gas market. The country owns vast oil reserves and the government — and the huge fund itself — are highly dependent on revenues from North Sea oil.

New York City’s five pension funds, which are worth $186 billion, would do well to follow Norway’s example. The city’s fund managers have been slow to recognize the rising risk in oil and gas stock, which are no longer the investment they once were and which expose the funds to potential losses they can ill afford.

For decades, the oil sector was the leading industry in the world. It drove global stock markets and helped fuel returns in New York City and New York State pension portfolios.

But that changed in 2014, when a decoupling in investment markets occurred as broad stock indexes rose and gas-and-oil indexes fell. The industry has seen substantial value destruction driven by low oil prices, oversupplies of oil and natural gas, and fragmentation of alliances among oil producers. Revenues are down, profit margins are down, and substantial sectors of the industry, like the Canadian oil sands, have been all but written off.

Capital spending in the fossil fuel sector is also down, an indication that oil companies themselves see a limited future.

So prospects for oil stocks are weak, and the industry is openly conceding this reality. ExxonMobil, the International Energy Administration and the U.S. Energy Information Administration all project flat oil prices through 2022.

Those outlooks may not go far enough: The consensus in Norway is that low oil prices will persist through 2060 and that, as a result, the government is at risk of seeing its budget deficits will grow.

Standard investment philosophy says think long-term, not short, and ignore day-to-day fluctuations in stock prices. But Norway is feeling the impact of lower oil prices in its government budget now, and the Norwegians will need to draw on their pension fund to pay government expenses starting this year. They are in no position to permit the fund to underperform by allowing it to continue to hold oil stocks.

New York City is obviously not as dependent on oil and gas revenues as Norway is, but its budget is also affected by pension fund performance. This year, the city expects to devote 17% of its total spending — $9.6 billion — to its five pension funds. And that contribution is expected to grow.

More spending on pensions means less spending on essential services or higher taxes, and New York City is just like Norway in that it needs its pension funds to generate strong returns.

The city’s past management of its coal industry stocks offers a difficult but instructive lesson here. Although New York City dropped all of its coal stocks in 2015 as the industry declined, those stocks at that point had already lost 95% of their value. Investment advisors who had clung to conventional wisdom in holding these stocks responded to criticism by dismissing the losses as relatively small in the big picture.

But every dollar counts, and those coal stock losses could have been avoided. The information was available then — as it is now — to make the right decision at the right time.

The responsible course of action today is for the city to publicly disclose its pensions funds’ exposure to oil and gas stocks and to direct pension fund advisers to develop alternative investment strategies that will allow the funds to meet their goals while shedding oil and gas stocks.

The city’s controller, responsible for managing the funds, can take the lead here and respond appropriately to market trends that have made oil and gas stocks so much riskier than they used to be. A thorough analysis of oil and gas holdings is in order, as is a formulation of a clear plan for how to reinvest those holdings.

Norway has shown the way forward. New York City’s pension funds ignore its example at their peril.

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/pension-funds-sell-oil-gas-stock-article-1.3671147

Transportation Replaces Power in U.S. as Top Source of CO2 Emissions

Power plants have been the biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States for more than 40 years. But according to new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, transportation has now claimed the top spot.

The U.S. transportation sector — which includes cars, trucks, planes, trains, and boats — now emits 1.9 billion tons of CO2 annually. The electric power sector emits 1.8 billions tons.

The decline in power sector emissions since the mid-2000s isn’t due to Americans using less electricity, but rather that the energy is being produced by less carbon-intensive sources, such as the switch from coal to natural gas and the growth in wind and solar power, Bloomberg reported.

Energy experts say transportation emissions are also likely to decline in the coming years as fuel efficiency increases and as electric and hybrid vehicles become more common. The number of plug-in electric vehicles sold each year in the U.S. increased by a factor of eight between 2011 and 2016, according to Climate Central. The number of publicly available charging stations has also tripled since 2012.

http://e360.yale.edu/digest/transportation-replaces-power-in-u-s-as-top-source-of-co2-emissions