2024-10-14 20:53

Oct 14 (Reuters) - California is investigating five possible human cases of bird flu among dairy farm workers, in addition to the six cases previously confirmed in the state, the state health department said on Monday. Bird flu has spread to 100 dairies in California and 300 nationwide, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. There have been 19 confirmed human cases this year among farm workers exposed to sick poultry or dairy, including the six confirmed cases in California this month. The risk to the general public from bird flu remains low and pasteurized dairy products are safe to consume, federal officials have said. Specimens from the five possible cases are being sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for confirmation and are expected to arrive early this week, said the California Department of Public Health. The possible and confirmed cases originated on nine different dairy farms and the individuals had mild symptoms and were not hospitalized, the state said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/california-reports-five-possible-human-bird-flu-cases-2024-10-14/

2024-10-14 20:41

17.3% of Florida gas-stations out of fuel on Monday Outages peaked on Friday with over 26% of stations empty Wholesalers resume deliveries after minor damage to fuel terminals in Tampa Oct 14 (Reuters) - Gas stations across Florida were resuming operations on Monday, easing fuel shortages as the state recovered from back-to-back hurricanes which caused widespread disruption. Millions evacuated their homes last week to escape Hurricane Milton, jamming highways and causing gasoline shortages less than two weeks after Hurricane Helene slammed the state. The fuel shortages also affected clean-up efforts. Only about 17% of Florida's nearly 8,000 gasoline retail outlets were out of fuel on Monday at 1 p.m. EDT, down from a peak of over 26% on Friday, according to data from market tracker GasBuddy.com. Tampa, which was spared from the catastrophic surge of seawater many forecasters feared, saw gas station outages decline to less than half of total area stations on Monday from a peak of over 75% on Friday, GasBuddy data showed. "There has been a slow, steady improvement since Friday," GasBuddy analyst Patrick De Haan said. Most fuel retailers should return to normal service in five to 10 days, he added. RESUMING OPERATIONS Florida is the third-largest gasoline consumer in the U.S. There are no refineries in the state, so it depends on shipments from elsewhere by land or water. Port Tampa Bay, through which over 43% of Florida's annual fuel imports pass, resumed vessel operations on Sunday, which should improve fuel availability in coming days, wholesale petroleum distributor Mansfield Energy said. Mansfield, which suspended all fuel deliveries from Tampa to Orlando last week, said it is asking for a 48-hour notice to make new deliveries in Florida. Deliveries to southern Georgia are back to normal, the company told clients. Bulk fuel supply terminals completed initial damage assessments after protectively shutting operations ahead of Milton's landfall last Wednesday. Some had restored operations while others were preparing to follow suit later this week, according to statements shared with Reuters. The Central Florida Pipeline system, which delivers gasoline, diesel and jet fuel from Tampa to Orlando, is fully operational after resuming service over the weekend, operator Kinder Morgan Inc (KMI.N) , opens new tab said, adding its bulk terminals in the Tampa area are also operating. Energy infrastructure company Martin Midstream Partners LP (MMLP.O) , opens new tab said its terminal in Tampa is about 75% operational and full operations are anticipated over the next 48 to 72 hours. On Friday, refiner CITGO Petroleum said it had begun restoration work at its Tampa terminal and expects it to be fully operational mid to late this week. Oil major Chevron Corp (CVX.N) , opens new tab said repairs were underway at its Tampa terminals while its Port Everglades and Panama City terminals were supplying fuel to the market. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/florida-gas-station-outages-ease-state-attempts-recover-hurricanes-2024-10-14/

2024-10-14 20:14

HOUSTON, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Three workers filed a lawsuit in a Texas state court in Houston on Monday against Mexico's national oil company Pemex for injuries they allege they received in a hydrogen sulfide release at a Deer Park, Texas, refinery on Thursday. Two contractors were killed and 35 people treated for exposure to deadly hydrogen sulfide gas on Thursday afternoon, according to law enforcement officials. A Pemex spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday. Sergio Antonio Olvera, Jonathan Martinez and Yoselyn Soto were working at the Pemex refinery in the Houston suburb of Deer Park when the gas was released, according to a lawsuit filed on Monday in state district court. "Plaintiffs subsequently sustained injuries due to the leak," the lawsuit said. "At the time and on the occasion in question, defendants committed acts and omissions, which collectively and separately constituted negligence." The plaintiffs seek damages in excess of $1 million, according to the lawsuit. The suit was filed in the Harris County District Court in Houston by attorney Muhammad Aziz. Geoffrey Adkinson, a spokesperson for Aziz's law firm, said one of the plaintiffs remains bedridden and all three have experienced vomiting and respiratory symptoms. In a statement on Monday, Pemex said the gas release came while maintenance was being performed on an amine regeneration unit at the refinery on Thursday. The gas release was stopped within three hours. Hydrogen sulfide is a gas produced in crude oil refining. It can cause death if a heavy concentration is inhaled. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/legal/three-workers-sue-pemex-injuries-texas-refinery-2024-10-14/

2024-10-14 19:51

CHICAGO/MEXICO CITY, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Mexican rail consortium Ferromex and U.S. railroad company Union Pacific Corp said they have stopped issuing permits for some grain rail shipments moving through Eagle Pass, Texas, after a recent train derailment in Mexico closed the track. The halt is a temporary measure until rail traffic gets cleared after the track reopened, Ferromex told Reuters in a statement Monday, adding that total volume of grain movement between Union Pacific and Ferromex will not be affected. The disruption marks the latest in a string of grain freight rail backlogs at the border, particularly at El Paso and Eagle Pass, that have snarled agricultural supply chains between the U.S. and the top importer of its corn. It comes as U.S. farmers are harvesting massive corn and soybean crops. Ferromex (FXE), which operates the largest railway in Mexico, notified Union Pacific about the derailment in Mexico on Saturday, according to Union Pacific. FXE told Reuters the track was closed up to 15 hours. Union Pacific said it and Ferromex decided together to temporarily halt issuing permits for the active FXE embargos, given the high volume of agricultural freight and expected increased demand as the U.S. harvest is underway. "This suspension is effective immediately and will remain in effect until the current train lineup is cleared and trains are able to launch upon release," Union Pacific said in a statement to customers Saturday. While Mexico is the top U.S. corn export market, it's also become a key outlet this year for agricultural exporters looking to offset sluggish buying from China, a top commodity buyer. But rail capacity cannot keep up with the demand, said Juan Carlos Anaya, General Director of the Agricultural Markets Consulting Group. "The infrastructure cannot be built overnight, nor can the machines, and that is causing this problem of having efficient logistics between the United States and Mexico," Anaya said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/train-derailment-creates-latest-supply-chain-hiccup-us-mexico-grain-exports-2024-10-14/

2024-10-14 19:48

BRUSSELS, Oct 14 (Reuters) - EU environment ministers agreed on the bloc's negotiating position ahead of the COP 29 United Nations climate summit in Azerbaijan next month, a council statement said. Negotiators will meet in Baku Nov. 11-22 to discuss a new climate financing goal to replace wealthy nations' current commitment to provide $100 billion a year to developing countries. Ministers met in Luxembourg on Monday to hash out the final version of their position. Vulnerable and developing countries want a far larger funding goal but the EU and Canada have said a large jump in public funding was "unrealistic." The council underlined in its statement that "private investment will have to provide the largest share of the required investment in the green transition." The COP29 presidency chief negotiator said on Monday that the scale of the need was in the trillions of dollars but a realistic public sector goal was in the "hundreds of billions." The EU has previously called on China, the world's second-biggest economy, to be a contributor in the climate finance plan but China is still considered a developing nation in U.N. parameters. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/eu-ministers-agree-cop29-negotiating-position-official-2024-10-14/

2024-10-14 19:46

WASHINGTON, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) , opens new tab Google said on Monday it signed the world's first corporate agreement to buy power from multiple small modular reactors to meet electricity demand for artificial intelligence. The technology company's agreement with Kairos Power aims to bring Kairos' first small modular reactor online by 2030, followed by additional deployments through 2035. The companies did not reveal financial details of the agreement or where in the U.S. the plants would be built. Google said it has agreed to buy a total of 500 megawatts of power from six to seven reactors, which is smaller than the output of today's nuclear reactors. "We feel like nuclear can play an important role in helping to meet our demand ... cleanly in a way that's more around the clock," Michael Terrell, senior director for energy and climate at Google, told reporters on a call. Technology firms have signed several recent agreements with nuclear power companies this year as artificial intelligence boosts power demand for the first time in decades. In March, Amazon.com (AMZN.O) , opens new tab purchased a nuclear-powered datacenter from Talen Energy (TLN.O) , opens new tab. Last month, Microsoft (MSFT.O) , opens new tab and Constellation Energy (CEG.O) , opens new tab signed a power deal to help resurrect a unit of the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania, the site of the worst U.S. nuclear accident in 1979. U.S. data center power use is expected to roughly triple between 2023 and 2030 and will require about 47 gigawatts of new generation capacity, according to Goldman Sachs estimates, which assumed natural gas, wind and solar power would fill the gap. Kairos will need to get full construction and design permitting from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission as well as permits from local agencies, a process that can take years. Kairos late last year got a construction permit from the NRC to build a demonstration reactor in Tennessee. "The NRC is ready to efficiently and appropriately review applications for new reactors," said Scott Burnell, an NRC spokesperson. Small modular reactors are intended to be smaller than today's reactors with components built in a factory, instead of onsite, to reduce construction costs. Critics say SMRs will be expensive because they may not be able to achieve the economy of scale of larger plants. In addition, they will likely produce long-lasting nuclear waste for which the country does not yet have a final repository. Google said by committing to a so-called order book framework with Kairos, instead of buying one reactor at a time, it is sending a demand signal to the market and making a long-term investment to speed development of SMRs. "We're confident that this novel approach is going to improve the prospects of our projects being delivered on cost and on schedule," said Mike Laufer, CEO and co-founder of Kairos. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/google-buy-power-small-modular-nuclear-reactor-company-kairos-ai-needs-2024-10-14/