Day: August 22, 2017

Violence surged in rural central Kenya earlier this year as armed northern herders brought thousands of cattle, sheep and goats onto private property, prompting clashes that took the lives of humans and wildlife.

As drought raged on, it did not help that some politicians encouraged constituents to graze their livestock wherever they could find grass and water.

Peter Hetz, executive director of the Laikipia Wildlife Forum, says that although the recent elections and change in government were peaceful, there are still unresolved issues.

“People are feeling optimistic and empowered by the power of the vote and the ability to vote out some of the people who were implied in the early politicization of this county and the maneuverings of armed people, and livestock. And I think people are generally feeling good,” said Hetz. “The fact remains that there are still people who have guns and there are still livestock that don’t belong here, roaming the territory and the government must still resolve to do something about that.”

According to Kenya’s Ministry of Interior spokesman, Mwenda Njoka, security operations in the central parts of the country are still ongoing.

“I could give assurance to both the locals and the foreigners who are in that area that at least security has returned to normal, has significantly normalized,” said Njoka.

Josh Perrett, manager of Laikipia’s Mugie Ranch, agrees that things have improved since earlier this year: the grass has returned, the wildlife look better, and poaching has dropped “significantly.”

Illegal grazing remains

But Perrett says the illegal grazing continues, citing several occasions since the end of July when his team has caught herds of roughly 400 cattle at a time on the property.

“Every day we have issues with cows coming in from somewhere. It’s just not to the scale or to the aggression that it was in January,” said Perrett.

The relative gains experienced in central Kenya have not reached the northern semi-arid rangelands, home of many of the pastoralists, according to Frank Pope, CEO of Save the Elephants.

He says that after many decades of sustained overgrazing and rising human populations, the top soil has now disappeared from many of the areas. And as a result, there is nowhere for the large numbers of goats and cattle to graze.

“And everyone is chasing the last grass. There’s been no good rain in the north. There have been some patches of rain, but really, there’s no let up for the situation in the north. And we’ll wait to see what the new government decides to do and whether they decide they can grasp this nettle of how to control grazing amongst the pastoralists. But if they don’t, I think the north will continue its march towards full desert conditions,” said Pope.

Experts have encouraged the government to implement long-term rangeland management practices in the north, and to explore options of tagging livestock, in order to keep track of who owns which animals.

 
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McDonald’s India has announced it will close 169 McDonald’s outlets in northern and eastern India after the American fast food giant decided to terminate a franchise agreement with its Indian partner.

McDonald’s said its partner Connaught Plaza Restaurants violated the terms of the franchise agreement, including reneging on payment of royalties.

Connaught Plaza Restaurants, which runs 169 McDonald’s outlets in northern and eastern India, said Tuesday it is considering legal action in the long-drawn legal battle. In June, it shut 43 McDonald’s outlets in the capital, New Delhi, after it failed to renew their licenses.

McDonald’s said its Indian partner would have to “cease using the McDonald’s name, trademarks, designs, branding, operational and marketing practice and policies” within 15 days of the termination notice.

The decision to close nearly a third of the 430 McDonald’s outlets in India creates a challenge for the company, disrupting operations in the world’s second most populous country.

Vikram Bakshi, the managing director of Connaught Plaza Restaurants, described the McDonald’s decision as “mindless and ill-advised.”

“Appropriate legal remedies that are available under law are being explored,” Bakshi said in a statement.

McDonald’s said it is looking for a new partner to work with in north India. McDonald’s franchises in southern and western India are run by a separate company.

 
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Hyundai Motor plans to launch a pickup truck in the United States as part of a broader plan to catch up with a shift away from sedans in one of the Korean automaker’s most important markets, a senior company executive told Reuters.

Michael J. O’Brien, vice president of corporate and product planning at Hyundai’s U.S. unit, told Reuters that Hyundai’s top management has given the green light for development of a pickup truck similar to a show vehicle called the Santa Cruz that U.S. Hyundai executives unveiled in 2015.

Hyundai currently does not offer a pickup truck in the United States.

O’Brien said Hyundai plans to launch a small SUV called the Kona in the United States later this year.

People familiar with the automaker’s plans said separately that Hyundai plans to launch three other new or refreshed SUVs by 2020.

So-called crossovers — sport utilities built on chassis similar to sedans — now account for about 30 percent of total light vehicle sales in the United States. Consumers in China, the world’s largest auto market, are also substituting car-based SUVs for sedans.

People familiar with Hyundai’s plans said the company plans to roll out a new version of its Santa Fe Sport mid-sized SUV next year, followed by an all-new 7-passegner crossover which will replace a current three-row Santa Fe in early 2019 in the United Sates. A redesigned Tucson SUV is expected in 2020, people familiar with Hyundai’s plans said.

Hyundai’s U.S. dealers have pushed the company to invest more aggressively in SUVs and trucks as demand for sedans such as the midsize Sonata and the smaller Elantra has waned.

“We are optimistic about the future,” Scott Fink, chief executive of Hyundai of New Port Richey, Florida, which is Hyundai’s biggest U.S. dealer, said. “But we are disappointed that we don’t have the products today.”

Hyundai’s U.S. sales are down nearly 11 percent this year through July 31, worse than the overall 2.9-percent decline in U.S. car and light truck sales. Sales of the Sonata, once a pillar of Hyundai’s U.S. franchise, have fallen 30 percent through the first seven months of 2017. In contrast, sales of Hyundai’s current SUV lineup are up 11 percent for the first seven months of this year.

“Our glasses are fairly clean,” O’Brien said. “We understand where we have a shortfall.”

 
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The Trump administration has rejected a coal industry push to win a rarely used emergency order protecting coal-fired power plants, a decision contrary to what one coal executive said the president personally promised him.

The Energy Department says it considered issuing the order sought by companies seeking relief for plants it says are overburdened by environmental regulations and market stresses. But the department ultimately ruled it was unnecessary, and the White House agreed, a spokeswoman said.

The decision is a rare example of friction between the beleaguered coal industry and the president who has vowed to save it. It also highlights a pattern emerging as the administration crafts policy: The president’s bold declarations — both public and private — are not always carried through to implementation.

President Donald Trump committed to the measure in private conversations with executives from Murray Energy Corp. and FirstEnergy Solutions Corp. after public events in July and early August, according to letters to the White House from Murray Energy and its chief executive, Robert Murray. In the letters, obtained by The Associated Press, Murray said failing to act would cause thousands of coal miners to be laid off and put the pensions of thousands more in jeopardy. One of Murray’s letters said Trump agreed and told Energy Secretary Rick Perry, “I want this done” in Murray’s presence.

The White House declined to comment on Murray’s assertion. A spokesman for Murray Energy, Gary Broadbent, also declined to comment on the letters.

Energy Department spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes said the agency was sympathetic to the coal industry’s plight.

“We look at the facts of each issue and consider the authorities we have to address them, but with respect to this particular case at this particular time, the White House and the Department of Energy are in agreement that the evidence does not warrant the use of this emergency authority,” Hynes said in a statement Sunday.

The aid Murray sought from Trump involves invoking a little-known section of the U.S. Federal Power Act that allows the Energy Department to temporarily intervene when the nation’s electricity supply is threatened by an emergency, such as war or natural disaster. Among other measures, it temporarily exempts power plants from obeying environmental laws. In the past, the authority has been used sparingly, such as during the California energy crisis in 2000 and following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The Obama administration never used it. The Trump administration has used it twice in seven months in narrow instances.

Murray’s company is seeking a two-year moratorium on closures of coal-fired power plants, which would be an unprecedented federal intervention in the nation’s energy markets. The company said invoking the provision under the Power Act was “the only viable mechanism” to protect the reliability of the nation’s power supply.

Murray told the White House that his key customer, Ohio-based electricity company FirstEnergy Solutions, was at immediate risk of bankruptcy. Without FirstEnergy’s plants burning his coal, Murray said his own company would be forced into “immediate bankruptcy,” triggering the layoffs of more than 6,500 miners. FirstEnergy acknowledged to the AP that bankruptcy of its power-generation business was a possibility.

Murray urged Trump to use the provision in the Federal Power Act to halt further coal plant closures by declaring an emergency in the electric power grid.

After a conversation with Trump at a July 25 political rally in Youngstown, Ohio, Murray wrote, the president told Perry three times, “I want this done.” Trump also directed the emergency order be given during an Aug. 3 conversation in Huntington, West Virginia, he said.

“As stated, disastrous consequences for President Trump, our electric power grid reliability, and tens of thousands of coal miners will result if this is not immediately done,” he wrote.

Murray’s claims raise the possibility that Trump was warned against the move by his advisers — some of whom are known to be more cautious — or that he simply made assurances to Murray to avoid immediate confrontation. The people who worked on the decision most directly were Perry, Michael Catanzaro, who works under National Economic Council director Gary Cohn as the top White House energy adviser, and Perry’s chief of staff, Brian McCormack, U.S. officials told the AP. They spoke only on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal policy considerations by name.

Murray and his company have been impassioned supporters of Trump, donating hundreds of thousands of dollars to his campaign and inauguration, hosting fundraisers and embracing him as the rescuer of the Appalachian coal industry. The friendliness has been mutual: When Trump repealed an Obama administration regulation barring coal companies from dumping mine waste in streams, Murray and his sons were invited for the signing.

The Energy Department has already informed Murray it will not invoke the law, an official with knowledge of the decision told the AP.

Coal has become an increasingly unattractive fuel for U.S. electricity companies, which have been retiring old boilers at a record pace. At least two dozen big coal-fired plants are scheduled to shut down in coming months as utilities transition to new steam turbines fueled by cleaner-burning natural gas made more abundant in recent years by new drilling technologies.

Trump, who rejects the consensus of scientists that burning fossil fuels is causing global warming, has made reversing the coal industry’s decline a cornerstone of his administration’s energy and environmental policies. Since taking office, he announced that the U.S. will withdraw from the Paris climate accord, and he has moved to block or delay Obama-era regulations seeking to limit carbon emissions.

Other coal executives have urged similar government intervention to save their businesses. In a speech last week, the CEO of Peabody Energy Corp., the nation’s largest coal producer, also said a two-year moratorium on coal-plant closures was needed.

Perry has already twice invoked the Federal Power Act in narrow ways at the request of utilities seeking to keep old coal-burning plants online past their planned retirement dates. In both cases, the utilities were allowed to continue operations at plants amid concerns that shutting them down could lead to regional shortages in electricity.
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Ford Motor Co. and a Chinese automaker said Tuesday they are looking into setting up a joint venture to develop and manufacture electric cars in China.

Ford’s potential venture with Anhui Zotye Automobile Co. adds to the global auto industry’s rising activity in electric vehicles for China, which passed the United States last year as the biggest market for them.

Chinese planners who see electrics as a promising industry and a way to clean up smog-choked cities are pushing automakers to speed up development.

Ford previously said it plans to offer electric versions of 70 percent of its models in China by 2025.

Privately owned Zotye Auto, headquartered in the eastern city of Huangshan, produces its own electric vehicles and said sales in the first seven months of this year rose 56 percent over the same period of 2016 to 16,000.

“This presents us with an exciting opportunity to leverage each other’s strengths,” Zotye chairman Jin Zheyong said in a joint statement.

Sales of pure-electric and gasoline-electric hybrids in China rose 50 percent last year over 2015 to 336,000 vehicles, or 40 percent of global demand. U.S. sales totaled 159,620.

Beijing has supported sales with subsidies and a planned quota system that would require automakers to produce electric cars or buy credits from companies that do.

Ford said it expects China’s market for all-electrics and hybrids to grow to annual sales of 6 million by 2025.

Volvo Cars announced plans this year to make electric cars in China for global sale starting in 2019. General Motors Co., Volkswagen AG, Nissan Motor Co. and others also have announced plans to make electric vehicles in China.

 
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