12/19/2017 | Page 2 of 2

US EPA Seeks Comment on Carbon Rule Replacement

By Uponsci | 12/19/2017 | No Comments | Science

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday issued a notice that it wants public input for a possible replacement of Obama-era regulations on carbon dioxide emissions from power plants that the agency is repealing.

The agency’s advance notice kicks off a 60-day comment period on “specific topics for the Agency to consider in developing any subsequent proposed rule,” according to an EPA release.

The move comes after the agency proposed in October to repeal the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan, a collection of emissions standards for U.S. states intended to reduce pollution from power plants – the largest emitters of greenhouse gases – by 32 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.

“The EPA sets out and requests comment on the roles, responsibilities, and limitations of the federal government, state governments, and regulated entities in developing and implementing such a rule, and the EPA solicits information regarding the appropriate scope of such a rule and associated technologies and approaches,” the notice says.

When EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt first announced he planned to repeal the Clean Power Plan, it was not clear whether the agency intended to replace it. At his first congressional hearing earlier this month, Pruitt said he planned to replace it.

The notice specifically asks for comment on measures to reduce carbon emissions directly at a power plant.

Obama’s Clean Power Plan allowed states to reduce power plant emissions by using a series of different measures across their plant fleets, which some industry groups said went beyond the scope of the federal Clean Air Act.

The EPA is also asking for comment on the role and responsibility of states in regulating power plants for greenhouse gas emissions.

The notice said EPA also wants to hear from states including California and New York, which already have programs to reduce emissions from power plants, to see how their programs could interact with a replacement rule.

Environmental groups, who plan to continue challenging the agency’s moves against the CPP in court, said on Monday the agency is not serious about offering a valid replacement to the Obama-era regulation.

“A weaker replacement of the Clean Power Plan is a non-starter. Americans – who depend on EPA to protect their health and climate – deserve real solutions, not scams,” said David Doniger, director of climate and clean air at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
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Plummer Brings on the Charm in Reshot ‘All the Money in the World’

By Uponent | 12/19/2017 | No Comments | Entertainment

When director Ridley Scott decided to remove Kevin Spacey from his film All the Money in the World and reshoot it with Christopher Plummer, he did not just pull off an extraordinary feat.

Plummer’s performance as U.S. oil billionaire J. Paul Getty also subtly changed the tone of the movie about the sensational 1973 kidnapping of Getty’s 16-year-old grandson.

“There is a coolness to Kevin. That’s his style, even when he’s being emotional,” Scott said in an interview.

“This man [Plummer] has enormous charm, and when you apply that charm to such, sometimes really hard, words, it makes it much more interesting,” he said.

Part biography and part thriller, All the Money in the World dramatizes the kidnapping in Italy of John Paul Getty III and his grandfather’s refusal to pay a $17 million ransom despite being the richest man in the world.

In a rare move, Scott announced in November that he would reshoot the finished film with Plummer after allegations of sexual misconduct against Spacey, saying he feared negative publicity would damage the film’s prospects.

Spacey issued an apology for the first reported incident, involving actor Anthony Rapp. He has since been accused of misconduct by more than 30 men and dropped from the next season of Netflix TV series House of Cards.

Reuters has been unable to verify the allegations against Spacey. The Oscar-winning actor is seeking unspecified treatment, and a representative on Monday did not respond to a request for comment.

The Sony Pictures movie, now starring Plummer along with original cast members Michelle Williams and Mark Wahlberg, will be released in Europe later this week and in the United States on Dec. 25.

Plummer, 88, sought to bring humanity to Getty, although he said he “made no pretense at research” for the role ahead of a nine-day reshoot in London and Rome in mid-November. He did not see Spacey’s original scenes.

“I had to follow the writing, all in a very short space of time,” Plummer said. “I saw him more vulnerable than the script suggested … so he would have some dimension and some humanity.”

Plummer, Scott and Williams were nominated last week for Golden Globe awards.

Scott said he was initially drawn to the project not so much because of the kidnapping by the ‘Ndrangheta, the Calabrian mafia, who cut off their victim’s ear, but because of the elder Getty.

“He’s an enigmatic character who isolated himself through wealth. When somebody becomes that wealthy, all the friends start evaporating, so he was an isolated individual,” the British director said. Getty died in 1976.

Scott said the $40 million reported budget for the film plus $10 million for reshoots was “a little high.” The costs were borne by production company Imperative Entertainment.

He said he hoped the publicity around the decision to reshoot six weeks before its scheduled release would help rather than overshadow the film.

“I think it may have people attracted to it out of curiosity who normally wouldn’t come and see this film.”
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Brazil Court Approves Compensation for Decades-old Depositor Losses

By Uponbiz | 12/19/2017 | No Comments | Business

A Supreme Court justice on Monday approved an agreement to compensate bank depositors for losses caused by government policies several decades ago, settling more than a million legal disputes that have hung over Brazil’s banking system since the 1980s.

Depositors who lost their savings due to economic programs applied in the 1980s and 1990s to tackle hyperinflation will have two years to sign up for the compensation deal, Justice Dias Toffoli ruled.

Those who are owed up to 5,000 reais ($1,520) will be fully reimbursed, while those with larger liabilities will get between 8 percent and 19 percent less.

Around 60 percent of the depositors covered by the agreement are owed up to 5,000 reais, according to the Brazilian Federation of Banks (Febraban). The total value of reimbursements will depend on how many depositors opt in to the scheme.

Reuters had reported in November that banks were likely to agree on reimbursing a total of around 10 billion reais, far below initial central bank estimates of up to 342 billion reais.

Fitch Ratings said earlier this month that such an agreement would be beneficial to the nation’s banks, which have made enough provisions to cover the reimbursements.

Lenders Itaú Unibanco Holding SA, Banco Bradesco SA, Santander Brasil SA, Banco do Brasil SA and Caixa Econômica Federal have signed off on the deal. Other banks can still join.

Under former Presidents José Sarney and Fernando Collor, Brazil pursued several unorthodox policies to fight galloping inflation, such as confiscating investments in savings accounts.

Reimbursements will be paid in up to three years in as many as five installments, adjusted for the official inflation index.

($1 = 3.2922 reais)
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Facebook Reveals Data on Copyright and Trademark Complaints

By Uponsil | 12/19/2017 | No Comments | Silicon Valley

Facebook announced Monday that it removed nearly 3 million posts, including videos, ads and other forms of content, from its services during the first half of 2017 following complaints of counterfeiting and copyright and trademark infringement.

The worldwide data on intellectual property-related takedowns is a new disclosure for Facebook as part of its biannual “Transparency Report,” Chris Sonderby, a deputy general counsel at the firm, said in a blog post.

“We believe that sharing information about (intellectual property) reports we receive from rights holders is an important step toward being more open and clear about how we protect the people and businesses that use our services,” Sonderby wrote.

Transparency report

The ninth Facebook transparency report also showed that government requests for information about users increased 21 percent worldwide compared with the second half of 2016, from 64,279 to 78,890.

For intellectual property disputes, Facebook offers monitoring tools that alert rights holders to suspected copies of their videos and songs on Facebook and use of their brand.

Rights holders can send takedown requests for unauthorized uses to a team of Facebook content analysts.

Entertainment and media industry groups have long expressed frustration with the process, contending that they bear too much of the internet policing burden and that online services should be more proactive about stemming infringement.

377,400 complaints

Facebook did not supply data about earlier periods or release individual requests, a level of detail that advertising rival Alphabet Inc provides for requests to remove Google search results.

Aggregate data shows Facebook received about 377,400 complaints from January through June, with many referencing multiple posts. About 60 percent of the reports related to suspected copyright violations on Facebook.

A “small fraction” of requests were excluded because they were not sent through an official form, Facebook said.

The company removed user uploads in response to 81 percent of filings for counterfeiting, 68 percent for copyrights and 47 percent for trademarks, according to its report. The percentages were roughly similar for Instagram.
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