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Former President of Russian Steel Producer’s U.S. Subsidiary Indicted for Hiding Assets in Secret Swiss Bank Accounts

Victor Lipukhin was indicted yesterday by a federal grand jury in Kansas City, Mo., for attempting to interfere with the administration of the internal revenue laws and filing false tax returns, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service announced today.



  • OPA Press Releases

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United States Announces $5.15 Billion Settlement of Litigation Against Subsidiaries of Anadarko Petroleum Corp. to Remedy Fraudulent Conveyance Designed to Evade Environmental Liabilities

The United States has entered into a settlement agreement with the Kerr-McGee Corporation and certain of its affiliates (“New Kerr-McGee”), and their parent Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, in a fraudulent conveyance case brought by the United States and co-plaintiff Anadarko Litigation Trust (the “Trust”) in the bankruptcy of Tronox Inc. and its subsidiaries (Tronox), announced Deputy Attorney General James Cole, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resource Division Robert G. Dreher, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara, and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Assistant Administrator Cynthia Giles.



  • OPA Press Releases

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California Operators of Myredbook.com Website Arrested for Facilitating Prostitution and Money Laundering

Eric Omuro, of Mountain View, California, a.k.a “Red,” was arrested today following his indictment by a federal grand jury on charges involving the use of the mail and the Internet to facilitate prostitution, and multiple counts of money laundering



  • OPA Press Releases

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Former Executive of French Power Company Subsidiary Pleads Guilty in Connection with Foreign Bribery Scheme

A former senior executive of a subsidiary of Alstom SA, the French power and transportation company, pleaded guilty today for his participation in a scheme to pay bribes to foreign government officials



  • OPA Press Releases

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Former Chief Executive Officer of Lufthansa Subsidiary BizJet Pleads Guilty to Foreign Bribery Charges

The former president and chief executive officer of BizJet International Sales and Support Inc., a U.S.-based subsidiary of Lufthansa Technik AG with headquarters in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that provides aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul services, pleaded guilty today for his participation in a scheme to pay bribes to foreign government officials



  • OPA Press Releases

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Justice Officials Meet with Key Stakeholders on Launch of Elder Justice Website

Earlier today, Associate Attorney General Tony West, Assistant Attorney General Stuart Delery for the Civil Division and members of the Department’s Elder Justice Initiative met with stakeholders in the field of elder abuse and financial exploitation to launch the Elder Justice website.



  • OPA Press Releases

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Deutsche Bank's London Subsidiary Agrees to Plead Guilty in Connection with Long-Running Manipulation of LIBOR

DB Group Services (UK) Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Deutsche Bank AG (Deutsche Bank), has agreed to plead guilty to wire fraud for its role in manipulating the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR), a leading benchmark interest rate used in financial products and transactions around the world



  • OPA Press Releases

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Juul bought ad space on kids' websites, including Cartoon Network, lawsuit alleges

Over the past year Juul has faced criticism and scrutiny over its role in what public health officials call an "epidemic" of teen nicotine addiction.,




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Transfer of Subsidiary's Shares

Yokogawa Electric Corporation (Yokogawa) hereby notifies that on this date it has transferred all shares of Yokogawa Medical Solutions Corporation, a consolidated subsidiary, to Fujifilm Corporation (Fujifilm).




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Use your lab website to make a compelling first impression




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Spicing up your WordPress website with Edge Animate

Integrate your creative animations easily into any WordPress-driven website. (4:42)




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Schumacher website to be reactivated

Michael Schumacher's personal website wil be re-launched on Thursday to mark the 20-year anniversary of his maiden F1 world championship




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After coronavirus subsides, we must pay teachers more

As Wall Street takes a pounding from the COVID-19 pandemic, the stock we place in teachers is on the rise. If you didn’t appreciate the expertise, labor, and dedication that teachers patiently pour into our children most days of the week, then you probably do now. To help reduce the spread of the coronavirus, districts…

       




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Ghosts of Resolutions Past: The G20 Agreement on Phasing Out Inefficient Fossil Fuel Subsidies


As much as the nostalgic might hate to admit it, a new year is coming up. And for climate change negotiators, 2015 is a big one: it’s the make-it-or-break it year for a serious, last-ditch effort at an international agreement to slow runaway climate change. 

A new year brings new, hopeful resolutions. Of course, just as ubiquitous are the pesky memories of past resolutions that one never quite accomplished.

Some resolutions fade, understandably. But failure is less forgivable when the repercussions include the increased exploration of fossil fuels at the expense of our warming world. To avoid the most destructive effects of climate change, we must keep two-thirds of existing fossil fuel reserves underground, instead of providing subsidies to dig them up.

One group not living up to its resolution: the G20 members —19 countries and the European Union that make up 85% of global GDP. At the 2009 G20 summit in Pittsburgh, the group agreed to “rationalize and phase out over the medium term inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption.” At the 2013 summit in St. Petersburg, they reaffirmed this resolution. Yet that same year, these countries funneled $88 billion into exploring new reserves of oil, gas, and coal.

Another resolution abandoned.

This year’s G20 summit will convene in Brisbane, Australia (November 15th - 16th) — a perfect opportunity to commiserate about the backsliding on the agreement and to develop a new approach that includes some means of holding each other accountable. So how can the G20 follow through on its laudable and necessary pledge?

1. Get help from the experts.

A new report by the Overseas Development Institute and Oil Change International criticizes the G20 for “marry[ing] bad economics with potentially disastrous consequences for climate change.” It points out that every dollar used to subsidize renewables generates twice as much investment as the dollar that subsidizes fossil fuels.

And the G20 can try harder to heed the doctor’s orders. This report outlines specific recommendations, including revamping tax codes to support low carbon development instead.

2. Set a timeline and stick to it.

National timelines for fossil fuel subsidy phase out would be different depending on the governmental structures and budgeting processes of individual countries. Also, countries can utilize the timeline of the incoming international climate treaty, by including a subsidy phase out as part of a mitigation plan to be measured and reported.

3. It’s easier with friends.

The G20 got it right that no one country should have to go it alone. Now it is time to strengthen its methodology for peer review of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies, and agree upon a transparent and consistent system for tracking and reporting.

That said, it can also be easier to cheat with friends. The new report tracks where investments from G20 state-owned energy companies are directed. As it turns out, G20 countries continue to fund each other’s fossil fuel exploration. Instead of cheating together on their own resolution, G20 members should leverage these relationships to advance investments in clean energy.  

4. Hold each other accountable.

The G20 is not the only group that has committed to phase out fossil fuel subsidies. The issue has received support from advocacy groups, religious leaders, and business constituencies alike. The public will be able to better hold leaders accountable if the G20 declares its commitment and progress loud and proud.

Moreover, G20 members and advocacy organizations can make the facts very clear: fossil fuel subsidies do not support the world’s poor, and the public ends up paying for the externalities they cause in pollution and public health. This accountability to addressing concerns of the people can help the G20 stand up to the fossil fuel industry.

5. If at first you don’t succeed…

True, phasing out fossil fuel subsidies is no piece of cake. There is no G20 standard definition of “inefficient subsidies” or timeline for the phase out. It also hasn’t helped that countries report their own data. They can even opt out of this unenforced commitment altogether. Yet the pledge is there, as is the urgency of the issue. New Year’s resolutions take more than just commitments — they take work. This week’s G20 Leaders Summit is a wonderful place to commit to phasing out fossil fuel subsidies. Again.

Authors

Image Source: © Francois Lenoir / Reuters
     
 
 




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A promising alternative to subsidized lunch receipt as a measure of student poverty

A central component of federal education law for more than 15 years is that states must report student achievement for every school both overall and for subgroups of students, including those from economically disadvantaged families. Several states are leading the way in developing and using innovative methods for identifying disadvantaged students, and other states would…

       




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Why net energy metering results in a subsidy: The elephant in the room

In a critique of a recent Brookings paper by Mark Muro and Devashree Saha, Lisa Wood argues that net energy metering is in fact a tariff that creates a subsidy for NEM customers and a cost-shift onto non-NEM customers.

      
 
 




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Why net energy metering results in a subsidy: The elephant in the room


The debate surrounding net energy metering (NEM) and the appropriate way to reform this policy is under scrutiny in many U.S. states. This is highly warranted since NEM policies do indeed need reforming because NEM often results in subsidies to private (rooftop) solar owners and leasing companies. These subsidies are then “paid for” by non-NEM customers (customers without private rooftop solar installations). The fundamental source of the NEM subsidy is the failure of NEM customers (customers with private rooftop solar installations) to pay fully for the grid services that they use 24/7. These subsidies are well-documented and underpin much of the regulatory reform efforts underway across the United States.[1]

In a recent Brookings paper, “Rooftop solar: Net metering is a net benefit,” Mark Muro and Devashree Saha contend that net metering is a net benefit for non-NEM customers.[2] I fundamentally disagree with their findings, and argue that NEM is not a net benefit; it is, in fact, a tariff that much of the time results in a subsidy to NEM customers and a cost shift onto non-NEM customers. As Executive Director of the Institute for Electric Innovation, a non-lobbying organization focused on trends in the electric power industry, I have followed this debate and written about it for several years.

Much of the talk about NEM focuses too often on the “value” of the energy that is sold back to the grid by a NEM customer. In reality, the amount of energy sold back to the grid is relatively small. The real issue is the failure of NEM customers to pay fully for the grid services that they use while connected to the grid 24/7, as shown in Figure 1.[3] Customers need to constantly use the grid to balance supply and demand throughout the day, and the cost of these grid services can be sizeable. In fact, for a typical residential customer in the United States with an average electricity bill of $110 per month, the actual cost of grid services can range from $45 to $70 per month–however, the customer doesn’t see that charge.[4] That means, in the extreme, if a customer’s energy use “nets” to zero in a given month because the customer’s private solar system produced exactly what the customer consumed, that customer would pay $0 even though that customer is connected to the local electric company’s distribution grid and is utilizing grid services on a continuous around-the-clock basis.[5]

Although exactly netting to zero energy in a month is highly unlikely, this example demonstrates the point that the customer would pay nothing, despite using grid services at a cost ranging from $45 to $70 per month. Over the course of one year, this customer could receive a subsidy resulting from NEM of between $540 and $840. Over the life of a private rooftop solar system, which ranges from 20 to 25 years, this is a significant subsidy resulting from NEM.

Granted, this is an extreme example, and most NEM customers will pay for some portion of grid services. However, the fundamental source of the NEM subsidy is the failure of NEM customers to pay fully for the grid services that they use 24/7, and the cost of these services can be quite substantial. When a NEM customer doesn’t pay for the grid, the cost is shifted onto non-NEM customers.[6] It is a zero-sum game; plain and simple. This is the elephant in the room.

This issue was directly addressed by Austin Energy when the company implemented a “buy-sell” arrangement for the private rooftop solar customers in its service territory. The rationale for the buy-sell approach is that the customer buys all of the energy that is consumed on-site through the electric company’s retail tariff and sells all of the energy produced by their private rooftop solar system at the electric company’s avoided cost. This addresses the “elephant in the room” because, by buying all energy consumed at the retail tariff, the customer does pay for grid services that are largely captured through the retail tariff. It is an unfortunate fact that under ratemaking practices today in the United States, the majority of fixed costs (i.e., grid and other costs) are captured through a volumetric charge.

Hence, I fundamentally disagree with the Muro/Saha paper–NEM does need to be reformed. NEM is not a net benefit; it is a tariff that the much of the time results in a cost shift onto non-NEM customers. One of the first studies to quantify the magnitude of the NEM subsidy was conducted by Energy+Environmental Economics (E3) for the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) in 2013. There was no mention of this analysis for the CPUC in the Muro/Saha paper. The E3 study estimated that NEM would result in a cost shift of $1.1 billion annually by 2020 from NEM to non-NEM customers if current NEM policies were not reformed in California.[7] A cost shift of this magnitude–paid for by non-NEM customers–was unacceptable to California regulators. As a result, California regulators set to work to reform rates in their state; many other states followed suit and conducted similar investigations of the magnitude of the NEM subsidy.

In reviewing NEM studies, Muro and Saha chose to focus on a handful of studies that show that net metering results in a benefit to all customers. In this small group of NEM studies, they included a study that E3 conducted for the Nevada Public Utilities Commission (PUC) in 2014–perhaps the most well-known and cited of the five studies included in the Muro/Saha paper. Very soon after the E3 Nevada study was published, the cost assumptions for the base-case scenario which showed a net benefit of $36 million to non-NEM customers (assuming $100 per MWh for utility-scale solar) were found to be incorrect, completely reversing the conclusion. The $36 million benefit associated with NEM for private rooftop solar turned into a $222 million cost to non-NEM customers when utility-scale solar was priced at $80 per MWh.[8] Today, based on the two most recent utility-scale contracts approved by the Nevada PUC, utility-scale solar has an average lifetime (i.e., levelized) cost of $50 per MWh, meaning that the NEM cost shift would be far greater today. In February 2016, the Nevada PUC stated that “the E3 study is already outdated and irrelevant to the discussion of costs and benefits of NEM in Nevada…”[9] Hence, because the E3 study for the Nevada PUC that the Muro/Saha paper included has been declared outdated and irrelevant to the discussion and because costs for utility-scale solar have declined significantly, that study does not show that NEM provides a net benefit.

No doubt there is an intense debate underway about NEM for private rooftop solar, and much has changed in the past two years in terms of both NEM policies and the growth of private solar projects:

  • First, several state regulatory commissions now recognize that the NEM cost shift is both real and sizeable and that all customers who use the grid, including NEM customers, need to pay for the cost of the grid. As a result, many electric companies have proposed and state regulatory commissions have approved increases in monthly fixed charges over the past few years; this partially addresses the issue of NEM customers paying for the cost of the grid services that they use.
  • Second and related, getting the pricing right for distributed energy resources of all types is important because we expect those resources to grow significantly in the future. Work is underway in this area and it is one focus of the New York Reforming the Energy Vision proceeding; but there is still much to be done.

By focusing on a select group of studies that show that NEM benefits all customers (as stated by the authors); by excluding the E3 study for the CPUC which was fundamental to the NEM cost shift debate; and by not providing an update on the NEM debate today, I believe that the Muro/Saha paper is misleading.

In the second part of their paper, Muro and Saha suggest some helpful regulatory reforms such as moving toward rate designs that “can meet the needs of a distributed resource future” and moving “toward performance-based rate-making (PBR).” Some electric companies have already implemented PBR or some type of formula rate and PBR is under discussion in several states.[10] Lawrence Berkeley National Labs is looking closely at this and related issues in its Future Electric Utility Regulation series of reports currently underway.[11]

Mura and Saha also suggest decoupling as a way forward–I disagree. In my view, decoupling is a not solution for private rooftop solar. Revenue decoupling is currently used to true-up revenues that would otherwise be lost due to declining electricity sales resulting from electric company investments in energy efficiency (EE). Decoupling explicitly shifts costs from participating EE customers to non-participating EE customers causing the same cost-shifting problem that is created by NEM. However, a fundamental difference is that the magnitude of the cost shifting onto non-NEM customers is on a much larger scale than the cost shifting due to EE. A recent study revealed that decoupling rate adjustments for EE are quite small–about two to three percent of the retail rate.[12] In contrast, as described earlier in this paper, a NEM customer could shift a significant cost onto non-NEM customers (and the NEM cost shifting is essentially invisible to customers, which is one reason that NEM customers do not believe they are subsidized).[13]

Finally, Muro and Saha suggest that electric companies should invest in a more digital and distributed power grid. In fact, electric companies across the United States are doing just that. In 2015, electric companies invested $20 billion in the distribution system alone and this is expected to continue. Over the past five to six years, electric companies invested in the deployment of nearly 65 million digital smart meters to about 50 percent of U.S. households. In addition, electric companies are investing in thousands of devices to make the power grid smarter and more state-aware. Today, in states such as California, Hawaii, and Arizona, electric companies are investing to enable and integrate the distributed energy resources that are growing exponentially. And, in some states–where regulation allows–electric companies are offering rooftop solar or solar subscriptions to their customers.

No doubt, the electric power industry is undergoing a period of profound transformation–our power generation resource mix is getting cleaner and more distributed; the energy grid is becoming more digital; and customers have different expectations.[14]

Collaboration, good public policy, and appropriate regulatory policies are critical to a successful transformation of the power sector. In the context of this paper, this means reforming NEM so that private rooftop solar customers who use the energy grid pay for the grid. One straightforward approach is to require NEM customers to pay a higher monthly fixed charge thereby reducing the cost shift.[15] Ultimately the challenge is to make the transition of the electric power industry–including the significant growth in private rooftop solar and other distributed energy resources–affordable to all customers.

Lisa Wood is a nonresident senior fellow in the Energy Security and Climate Initiative at Brookings. She is also the executive director of the Institute for Electric Innovation and vice president of The Edison Foundation whose members include electric companies and technology companies.


[1] For a discussion of the NEM subsides in California and possible NEM regulatory reforms, see, for example: Robert Borlick and Lisa Wood, Net Energy Metering: Subsidy Issues and Regulatory Solutions, Executive Summary, Institute for Electric Innovation (IEI) Issue Brief, September 2014, and Net Energy Metering: Subsidy Issues and Regulatory Solutions, IEI Issue Brief, September 2014, www.edisonfoundation.net.

[2] Mark Muro and Devashree Saha, Rooftop solar: Net metering is a net benefit, Brookings Paper, May 23, 2016.

[3] Lisa Wood and Robert Borlick, The Value of the Grid to DG Customers, IEI Issue Brief, October 2013, www.edisonfoundation.net.

[4] At Commonwealth Edison, a distribution utility, fixed costs represent roughly 47 percent of the total customer bill. See footnote 31 in Lisa Wood and Ross Hemphill, “Utility Perspective: Providing a Regulatory Path for the Transformation of the Electric Utility Industry,” in Recovery of Utility Fixed Costs: Utility, Consumer, Environmental, and Economist Perspectives, LBNL Report No. 5, (forthcoming) June 2016.

[5] Wood and Borlick, The Value of the Grid to DG Customers.

[6] An example of the size of the NEM subsidy is shown in Borlick and Wood, Net Energy Metering: Subsidy Issues and Regulatory Solutions, Executive Summary.

[7] Energy+Environmental Economics, Inc., California Net Energy Metering Ratepayer Impacts Evaluation, 28 October 2013, p. 6.

[8] See Docket No. 13-07010, E3 Study filed 7/2/14, at 18-21, 128-120 at the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada; see also footnote 19 on page 48 in the Modified Final Order (Docket No. 15-07041) of the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada, February 12, 2016. The E3 authors did recognize that their results were highly dependent on the cost of utility-sited solar and included sensitivity analyses.

[9] Footnote 19 on page 48 in the Modified Final Order (Docket No. 15-07041) of the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada, February 12, 2016.

[10] Commonwealth Edison is one example. See Ross Hemphill and Val Jensen, Illinois Approach to Regulating Distribution Utility of the Future, Public Utilities Fortnightly, June 2016.

[11] Mark Newton Lowry and Tim Woolf, Performance-Based Regulation in a High Distributed Energy Resources Future, Report No. 3, LBNL-1004130., January 2016.

[12] Pamela Moran, A Decade of Decoupling for U.S. Energy Utilities: Rate Impacts, Designs, and Observations, Graceful Systems LLC, February 2013.

[13] Also, the amount of cost-beneficial EE is limited because the more you achieve, the less cost-beneficial the next increment of energy savings becomes. This “diminishing return” aspect means that EE increases only when it makes economic sense. In contrast, no such economic limit applies to NEM.

[14] Lisa Wood and Robert Marritz, eds., Thought Leaders Speak Out: Key Trends Driving Change in the Electric Power Industry, Volumes I and II, Institute for Electric Innovation, December 2015 and June 2016.

[15] A forthcoming LBNL report focuses on the issue of fixed charges, Recovery of Utility Fixed Costs: Utility, Consumer, Environmental, and Economist Perspectives, LBNL Report No. 5, (forthcoming) June 2016.

Authors

      
 
 




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Optimal solar subsidy policy design and incentive pass-through evaluation: using US California as an example


Renewable energy is an important source to tackle against climate change, as the latest IPCC report has pointed out. However, due to the existence of multiple market failures such as negative externalities of fossil fuels and knowledge spillovers of new technology, government subsidies are still needed to develop renewable energy, such as solar photovoltaic (PV) cells. In the United States, there have been various forms of subsidies for PV, varying from the federal level to the state level, and from the city level to the utility level. California, as the pioneer of solar PV development, has put forward the biggest state-level subsidy program for PV, the California Solar Initiative (CSI). The CSI has planned to spend around $2.2 Billion in 2007–2016 to install roughly 2 GW PV capacity, with the average subsidy level as high as $1.1/W. How to evaluate the cost-effectiveness and incentive pass-through of this program are the two major research questions we are pursing.

Our cost-effectiveness analysis is based on a constrained optimization model that we developed, where the objective is to install as much PV capacity as possible under a fixed budget constraint. Both the analytical and computational results suggest that due to a strong peer effect and the learning-by-doing effect, one can shift subsides from later periods to early periods so that the final PV installed capacity can be increased by 8.1% (or 32 MW). However, if the decision-maker has other policy objectives or constraints in mind, such as maintaining the policy certainty, then, the optimally calculated subsidy policy would look like the CSI.

As to the incentive pass-through question, we took a structural approach and in addition used the method of regression discontinuity (RD). While in general, the incentive pass-through rate depends on the curvature of the demand and supply curve and the level of market competition, our two estimations indicate that the incentive pass-through for the CSI program is almost complete. In other words, almost all of the incentive has been enjoyed by the customer, and the PV installers did not retain much. Based on the RD design, we observe that PV installers tend to consider the CSI incentive as exogenous to their pricing decision.

The relative good performance of the CSI in terms of both the cost-effectiveness and the incentive pass-through aspect are tightly related to its policy design and program management. International speaking, the biggest challenge for the design of any PV subsidy program is the quick running out of the budget, and in the end, it looks like customers are rushing for the subsidy. Such rushing behavior is a clear indication of higher-than-needed incentive levels. Due to the policy rigidity and rapid PV technological change, the PV subsidy policy may lag behind the PV cost decline; and as a result, rational customers could rush for any unnecessarily high subsidy.

Due to the high uncertainty and unpredictability of future PV costs, the CSI put forward a new design that links the incentive level change and the installed capacity goal fulfillment. Specifically, the CSI has designed nine steps to achieve its policy goal; at each step, there is a PV capacity goal that corresponds to an incentive level. Once the capacity goal is finished, the incentive level will decrease to the next lower level. Furthermore, to maintain the policy certainty, the CSI regulated that every step-wise change in the incentive level should not be higher than $0.45/W, nor smaller than $0.05/W, together with other three constraints.

A good subsidy policy not only requires flexible policy design to respond to fast-changing environment, but also demands an efficient program management system, digitalized if possible. For the CSI, the authority has contracted out a third-party to maintain a good database system for the program. Specifically, the database has documented in detail every PV system that customers requested. Key data fields include 22 important dates during the PV installation process, customers’ zip code, city, utility and county information, and various characteristics of the PV system such as price, system size, incentive, PV module and installer. All information is publicly available, which to some extent fills in the information gap held by customers and fosters the market competition among PV installers. For customers to receive the incentive, their PV systems have to pass the inspection of the local government, and also to be interconnected to the grid. On the supply side, the CSI has also certified and created a list of PV installers that every customer can choose from.

Although the CSI has ended in 2014 due to fast PV cost reduction starting from 2009, its experience has been transferred to other areas in the United States and in Europe. It is highly possible that other similar new technologies and products (e.g. the electric car and the battery) can adopt the CSI policy design, too. In summary, a good and successful policy may need to be simply, clear, credible, foreseeable, flexible, end-able, and incentive-compatible. The PV subsidy policy in China still has a long way to go when compared to the CSI.

Authors

  • Changgui Dong
      
 
 




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After coronavirus subsides, we must pay teachers more

As Wall Street takes a pounding from the COVID-19 pandemic, the stock we place in teachers is on the rise. If you didn’t appreciate the expertise, labor, and dedication that teachers patiently pour into our children most days of the week, then you probably do now. To help reduce the spread of the coronavirus, districts…

       




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Subsidizing Higher Education through Tax and Spending Programs

ABSTRACT  During the past 10 years, tax benefits have played an increasingly important role in federal higher education policy. Before 1998, most federal support for higher education involved direct expenditure programs— largely grants and loans—primarily intended to provide more equal educational opportunities for low- and moderate-income students. In 1997 (effective largely for expenses in 1998 and…

       




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Predicting the impact of college subsidy programs on college enrollment

There is currently a great deal of interest in the potential of college subsidy programs to increase equitable access to higher education and to reduce the financial burden on college attendees. While colleges may be subsidized in a variety of ways, such as through grants to institutions, in our latest Brookings report, we focus on college subsidy programs that directly…

       




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Analysts expect 18GW of subsidy-free renewables in UK by 2030

Britain has already made great progress in decarbonizing the grid. It looks like there's more to come.




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A New Form of Subsidized Housing and Urban Intensification: Living in a Billboard

It makes sense; They have great views, lots of exposure to wind and sun, and think of all the exercise you'll get climbing up.




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Sweden offers a 25% subsidy for electric bike purchases

For the next 3 years, residents of Sweden are getting a serious incentive to get on an e-bike, as the country is setting aside about €35 million per year to subsidize their purchase.




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Energy News Recap: Illegal Nuclear Power Subsidies, Geothermal Power From Volcanoes, More

Energy policy and energy use are not forces of nature beyond our control. It's all about choices; different choices set us off on different paths, but don't prevent us from switching course.




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If governments are going to subsidize electric vehicles, why not e-bikes?

Eben Weiss, the Bike Snob, is an unexpected source for this proposal to save the environment.




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Low-Tech Magazine switches to a low-tech, low carbon website

Blogging like it's 1999 might make sense for a lot of people.




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Scotland is subsidizing electric bikes to encourage sustainable and active travel

This is something North American governments should copy.




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Ditching Ethanol Subsidy Will Save US $6 Billion - Won't Hurt Domestic Production Either

Two new pieces in NRDC's Switchboard blog remind us that the debate over corn ethanol subsidies is alive and well; and illustrate, through two new reports, the benefits of ditching Federal support altogether. The first, from the




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The Koch Brothers Are Right: Ethanol Subsidies Should Go

Few industrialists in recent times have done more to imperil environmental protections and public health than the Koch brothers. The force behind Americans for Prosperity and Koch Industries have galvanized




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Senate Votes to End Billions in Ethanol Subsidies

A measure that would remove roughly $6 billion in annual ethanol subsidies just passed the U.S. Senate, signaling, among other things, a shift in public attitude towards the once-heralded alternative fuel. It




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In California, people without rooftop solar panels pay a $65 per year subsidy to those with them

Solar power is a wonderful thing but the benefits are not evenly distributed.




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Business park plans 15 MW, unsubsidized solar farm

As subsidy-free renewables proliferate, it will become harder to derail decarbonization.




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Morocco pledges to ax fossil fuel subsidies

A level playing field for renewables is about to get a step closer, at least in Morocco.




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Why throw subsidies at electric cars when 48 percent of trips are less than 3 miles?

A new study shows that there is some seriously low-hanging fruit here that would deliver more bang for the buck.




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Why would anyone print out an entire website?

That's what Kris de Decker did with Low-Tech magazine and it makes a lot of sense.




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Trudeau government promises electric car subsidies, public transit support, wind and tidal power

Now if only he can keep his job in the fall election.




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Construction begins in UK on first subsidy-free wind farm

Corporate commitments to clean energy mean renewables are harder than ever to derail.




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Citizen scientist website could reveal how jellyfish are reacting to a warming world

Jellywatch.org has tapped into the power of citizen scientists to collect data on jellyfish populations and you can help.







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Why one host is striking back at Airbnb by building her own direct booking website

Polina Raygorodskaya, the co-founder and CEO of direct booking site Wanderu, discusses her and other hosts' frustration with Airbnb policies, and why she decided to build her own site in an effort to diversify her business.







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Curbside Pick (Me) Up – DORK TOWER 21.04.20

Dork Tower is 100% reader supported.  Join the Army of Dorkness today, and help bring more Dork Tower to the world! By becoming a Dork Tower Patreon backer, you get our everlasting gratitude (and also swag, commentary, bonus strips, and even more swag), but, critically, you’ll help us reach our next goal – three comics a week! HINT: […]




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New Facebook tool alerts website owners about phishing attacks

Representational picture

San Francisco: Facebook has announced a new tool for website owners and developers that will alert them about phishing attacks on their platforms. "We are extending the capabilities of our 'Certificate Transparency Monitoring' tool to make it easier for developers to learn about new domains that are maliciously created to implement phishing attacks," security engineer David Huang and software engineers Bartosz Niemczura and Amy Xu said in a blog post late on Wednesday.

Phishing websites try to trick people into revealing their passwords, credit card numbers, or other sensitive information.

The tool, announced during the F8 annual developer conference in San Jose, alerts website owners of these scams so that they can take action to protect their domain and the people who use their websites.

"Certificate Transparency Logs" are designed to keep a record of all valid security certificates issued by publicly-trusted Certificate Authorities.

"We have been using these logs to monitor certificates issued for domains owned by Facebook and have created tools to help developers take advantage of the same approach," the post said.

Using these tools, developers can learn about certificates that are mis-issued for the domains they control.

"We are extending the capabilities of our tool to send alerts when certificates are issued for potential phishing domains," the post added.

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Destination Kudal: Until Corona subsides

As a student-practitioner of visual arts and a short filmmaker, Sumeet Patil, 30, was always fascinated by pareidolia, the tendency and professional habit to see human faces in inanimate objects. Not that he made a living out of the practice, but it recurred as a theme when he pursued tree photography, or when he spent after hours around his BDD chawl residence or even when he made music out of unconventional objects outside the studio space. He saw thought-provoking human faces in rusted locks, discarded TV sets, bloomed flowers and broken belts. Little did he realise that this preoccupation would be one of the key themes of his posters designed to dissuade people from venturing out during the Coronavirus pandemic outbreak. Patil is one of 700 artists currently sculpting innovative visual messages persuading people to stay at home in Maharashtra.

Patil hasn't been at his home in Naigaon for over one-and-a-half months. He is in scenic Kudal in Konkan—not as a fun-seeking tourist, but a Mumbaikar unable to circle back because of the statewide lockdown. He had come to Kudal for a recce to finalise shoot locations for his upcoming feature film that looks at a blind girl's journey. The full-length feature stems from a 22-minute short, which he had shot in Kudal. In fact, he was walking through possible shoot locations along with the visually challenged protagonist Shabnam Ansari. But, just as he wrapped up the recce, the Janata Curfew was imposed on March 22. Soon followed the nationwide lockdown. Patil, along with his camera and laptop, became a long-standing guest in Kudal. His hosts—percussionist Vivek Kudalkar and singer-paramedic expert Trupti Damle Kudalkar—have extended their mango-cashew laden wadi to Patil, Ansari and the crew, who are now executing multiple awareness initiatives during the extended lockdown. Patil has, in fact, featured Ansari and four other visually challenged artistes (situated in different cities) in a video which underscores the willingness of blind artistes (who depend much on human touch) to embrace social isolation as the need of the moment. Kudal offers restricted mobility for Patil, after due precautions laid down by the local police.

At this point, pareidolia has become a bit of a default setting for Patil. "When one is away from home, the mind starts journeying through objects, which are in your consciousness; they come to life in the form of a thought," says Patil whose 200-odd posters concentrate on the dynamic of objects wedded to or associated with a spot. For instance, shoes that went out every day, now have a still-life; pants that saw the outdoors, are now locked in a shelf; a belt that accessorised a formal uniform, now wonders about its utility in a house where men wander in pyjamas.


Patil has made about 200-odd posters with expert advice from senior adman-artist Bhupal Ramnathkar, who is overseeing ad campaigns on Corona prevention 

Patil toys with the ideas every morning, gets expert advice from senior adman-artist Bhupal Ramnathkar, a senior adman currently overseeing public ad campaigns with regard to the outbreak. He is a JJ School alumnus and a fellow mate of CM Uddhav Thackeray. Patil's Kudal existence doesn't come in the way of the morning exchange over the posters. "I appreciate Ramnathkar's time, efforts and wisdom. People are currently in a frustrated mood; any poster can create a negative impact, especially when 'stay at home' is not something they want to hear," observes Patil who feels pareidolia in a sense minimises the risk of angered public reactions. It evokes laughter more than indignation. Patil has also focused on other themes that drive home the importance of not venturing out. For instance, he shows how home-based celebrations are the need of the hour, be it in the case of festivals—from Easter and Hanuman Jayanti to Ramzan and Akshay Tritiya—or commemorative occasions such as Babasaheb Ambedkar's birth anniversary, Maharashtra Day or Earth Day. It is the thought that counts, not the geographic location of
the celebration.

Patil's posters, often black and white, also dwell on service givers like nurses, policemen, sweepers and traffic police whose duty hours deserve respect from those staying at home. His poster on the relevance of Sankashti Chaturthi touched chords across Maharashtra. Over the image of Lord Ganesh, he superimposed the policeman on duty who is at supreme risk. "Whether at Kudal or Worli or Mahabaleshwar, it's the average guard in uniform whose care and public service touches our lives. People loved the equation between Lord Ganpati and the police on duty," says Patil, a Bal Shree awardee. Patil's affinity for the policeman is natural. His father is a police inspector with the Bhuleshwar police station. He has seen the daily grind of policemen families since childhood, and has witnessed life in the chawls where isolation is a foreign word; what he has not seen is a sealed neighbourhood. His parents and brother currently await his arrival in a tense pandemic environment. "They are at least assured that I am safe in a Konkan village where the infection hasn't spread; and that I can operate on my laptop to create images that contribute to the statewide 'stay-at-home' messaging," Patil says.

Patil has also kept busy with a cap-making initiative. Just as he realised that his stay in Kudal was going to be extraordinarily long, his mind started thinking of the May-June heat that Mumbai city will have to face post lockdown. "Being in a sylvan green Kudal, I was getting increasingly reminded of the heat Mumbaikars and others will have to encounter. So, I started making caps out of old newspapers." Patil started free origami workshops for school going children of the Ambedkar Nagar vicinity in Kudal. Workshops have flexible timings, but viable targets. He introduces variations through the use of earth colours and also moulds made out of dried leaves and fruits, which are available in abundance in the Kudalkar residence. Children are encouraged to stamp natural elements on the paper caps, be it a mango leaf or cashew insides or a dried twig. "I want to carry at least 2,000 caps for Mumbai, which will be a symbolic bond between Kudal's children and Mumbai's working class," says Patil.

Mask disposal is one area, Patil feels that needs advanced public awareness. During his stay in Kudal, he has started an awareness video campaign on ways to discard masks because the junked masks are creating hygiene issues across Maharashtra. "I feel the Coronavirus outbreak should give us long-term takeaways. We can't be littering our surroundings. This is also the right time to attack the Indian habit of spitting. As artists, we are trying to weave as many themes as possible into the Coronavirus bouquet," he adds.


Patil also conducts regular cap-making workshops for local villagers at the home of his hosts, Vivek Kudalkar and singer-paramedic expert Trupti Damle Kudalkar. He hopes the newspaper caps will help Mumbaikars battle the heat

Unlike Mumbai, Kudal has a pace of its own. Patil feels the pandemic has taught him to adapt to a new routine cycle, a slower rhythm, a more reflective ecology-conscious take on the goings on. In a recent visit to the Savita Ashram (a charitable trust sheltering 100-odd visually and mentally challenged), he realised how handicapped the children and adults bound to a remote location were where ration stocks are acutely short. Had it not been for the Kudal stay, the Mumbaikar wouldn't have possibly met the inmates in the far-off care centre. Patil inhabits new homes when his own is unreachable.

Sumedha Raikar-Mhatre is a culture columnist in search of the sub-text. You can reach her at sumedha.raikar@mid-day.com

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Mahesh Babu stands by the #KillFakeNews agenda, raises his voice against fake websites

Superstar Mahesh Babu is one of the most critically acclaimed actors of the southern film industry and cherishes a humongous fan following throughout India. His social media is popular to spread messages that support certain social causes. The actor and his fans are known to storm social media with their social campaigns.

Recently, Mahesh Babu took to his social media to share a post about wiping away fake news and gossip websites that often spread misinformation and lies about celebrities.

These blogs or gossip websites leech off the actor's popularity and spread misinformation about them to gain views on their respective pages. It is crucial that these websites and rumors be put to a stop so that they can stop spreading fake rumors. Mahesh Babu shared the post on social media under the tag of "#KillFakeNews" against misinformation being spread with the caption.

Have a look at his tweet right here:

It's highly commendable someone has finally spoken against these lies and false news!

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