Wood Pulp Industry: Eastport, Maine company hopes to boost wood fiber exports to Europe - by Johanna S. Billings

Low Grade Wood Fiber for a variety of uses

In Maine, USA, an Eastport firm’s efforts will create a new market for low-grade fiber that will help the entire wood pulp industry in Maine, a company official says.

Stephean Chute, managing director of Phyto-Charter Inc., said the firm plans to export cull — waste wood unsuitable for paper and pulp mills in Maine — to Europe, where the wood fiber will be used for heating and generating electricity. No such market for low-grade wood chips exists in Maine or the United States, he said.

The Phyto-Charter Shipboard Heat Treating System is designed to work on board a ship while it is in dock. An airtight chamber is created in the ship’s hold, where moisture-laden air is recirculated until the humidity level inside the chamber reaches 100 percent. The humidity level must be maintained for 30 minutes and, during this process, chips are heated to 60 degrees Celsius (140 degrees Fahrenheit), he said.

“The system] is adaptable to any ship. We don’t modify any ships,” Chute said. “We don’t have to own [ships]. We’re just chartering. It’s the only way to do it.”

Wood products have not been exported to Europe since the European Union enacted its current regulations in 2000, he said. Phyto-Charter’s system is the first since then that meets regulations for treating wood chips for sending them to Europe, Chute said.

In late 2014, Phyto-Charter shipped to Ireland samples of treated wood chips that were certified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as being treated according to the European standards, he said. The USDA will continue to monitor and certify shipments when the company officially starts up its export operations.

Countries in the European Union have developed what Chute called an “aggressive” strategy to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent and have 20 percent of its energy needs met by renewable sources by 2020.

“Europe has adopted a very aggressive set of incentives for switching to renewables,” Chute said, adding that wood chips are considered renewables. Phyto-Charter is “part of the solution” in Europe, he said.
Chute declined to say exactly who his customers were or whether he has contracts in place. He said the wood supply mostly would come from harvesters in Maine, though some may also come from pulp and paper mills.

“Eastport, Maine, is the closest deep-water port to European markets of all the continental U.S.,” Chute said. “Eastport is the closest port where the forest meets the ocean.”

Chris Gardner, executive director of the Eastport Port Authority, said he is “happy” to see Phyto-Charter making progress in its work. He said the port authority has been working with Phyto-Charter since 2009.
“What we are doing is putting Eastport in a position to show we can be of great assistance to the pulp and paper industry,” Gardner said.

Phyto-Charter also plans to ship out of Eastport because the port authority invested in a bulk cargo conveyor system to assist with loading ships. The project was part of a port expansion in 2010 and 2011.

The state kicked in a $4.5 million transportation grant and $2.25 million came from the federal government, Gardner said. The port authority put up the rest of the total expansion cost, which he said Thursday was between $8 million and $10 million. Phyto-Charter will run the ship loading system at the port, he said.

Note Almere-Digest: Interested parties  re: pulp , low grade wood pulp, wood chips, fireplace wood, can contact us by using contact form  at the bottom of this publication.

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EU Privacy Laws: EU Commission and USA agree on new framework for transatlantic data flows: EU-US Privacy Shield

EU-US Agreement - Transatlantic Data flows

The College of EU Commissioners recently  approved the political agreement reached and has mandated Vice-President Ansip and Commissioner Jourová to prepare the necessary steps to put in place the new arrangement. This new framework will protect the fundamental rights of Europeans where their data is transferred to the United States and ensure legal certainty for businesses.

The EU-US Privacy Shield reflects the requirements set out by the European Court of Justice in its ruling on 6 October 2015, which declared the old Safe Harbour framework invalid. The new arrangement will provide stronger obligations on companies in the U.S. to protect the personal data of Europeans and stronger monitoring and enforcement by the U.S. Department of Commerce and Federal Trade Commission (FTC), including through increased cooperation with European Data Protection Authorities.

The new arrangement includes commitments by the U.S. that possibilities under U.S. law for public authorities to access personal data transferred under the new arrangement will be subject to clear conditions, limitations and oversight, preventing generalised access. Europeans will have the possibility to raise any enquiry or complaint in this context with a dedicated new Ombudsperson.

Vice-President Ansip said: "We have agreed on a new strong framework on data flows with the US. Our people can be sure that their personal data is fully protected. Our businesses, especially the smallest ones, have the legal certainty they need to develop their activities across the Atlantic. We have a duty to check and we will closely monitor the new arrangement to make sure it keeps delivering. Today's decision helps us build a Digital Single Market in the EU, a trusted and dynamic online environment; it further strengthens our close partnership with the US. We will work now to put it in place as soon as possible."

Commissioner Jourová said: "The new EU-US Privacy Shield will protect the fundamental rights of Europeans when their personal data is transferred to U.S. companies. For the first time ever, the United States has given the EU binding assurances that the access of public authorities for national security purposes will be subject to clear limitations, safeguards and oversight mechanisms. Also for the first time, EU citizens will benefit from redress mechanisms in this area. In the context of the negotiations for this agreement, the US has assured that it does not conduct mass or indiscriminate surveillance of Europeans. We have established an annual joint review in order to closely monitor the implementation of these commitments."

The new arrangement will include the following elements:

• Strong obligations on companies handling Europeans' personal data and robust enforcement: U.S. companies wishing to import personal data from Europe will need to commit to robust obligations on how personal data is processed and individual rights are guaranteed. The Department of Commerce will monitor that companies publish their commitments, which makes them enforceable under U.S. law by the US. Federal Trade Commission. In addition, any company handling human resources data from Europe has to commit to comply with decisions by European DPAs.

• Clear safeguards and transparency obligations on U.S. government access: For the first time, the US has given the EU written assurances that the access of public authorities for law enforcement and national security will be subject to clear limitations, safeguards and oversight mechanisms. These exceptions must be used only to the extent necessary and proportionate. The U.S. has ruled out indiscriminate mass surveillance on the personal data transferred to the US under the new arrangement. To regularly monitor the functioning of the arrangement there will be an annual joint review, which will also include the issue of national security access. The European Commission and the U.S. Department of Commerce will conduct the review and invite national intelligence experts from the U.S. and European Data Protection Authorities to it.

• Effective protection of EU citizens' rights with several redress possibilities: Any citizen who considers that their data has been misused under the new arrangement will have several redress possibilities. Companies have deadlines to reply to complaints. European DPAs can refer complaints to the Department of Commerce and the Federal Trade Commission. In addition, Alternative Dispute resolution will be free of charge. For complaints on possible access by national intelligence authorities, a new Ombudsperson will be created.

Next steps
The College has today mandated Vice-President Ansip and Commissioner Jourová to prepare a draft "adequacy decision" in the coming weeks, which could then be adopted by the College after obtaining the advice of the Article 29 Working Party and after consulting a committee composed of representatives of the Member States. In the meantime, the U.S. side will make the necessary preparations to put in place the new framework, monitoring mechanisms and new Ombudsman.

Background
On 6 October, the Court of Justice declared in the Schrems case that Commission’s Decision on the Safe Harbour arrangement was invalid. The judgment confirmed the Commission's approach since November 2013 to review the Safe Harbour arrangement, to ensure in practice a sufficient level of data protection as required by EU law.

On 15 October, Vice-President Ansip, Commissioners Oettinger and Jourová met business and industry representatives who asked for a clear and uniform interpretation of the ruling, as well as more clarity on the instruments they could use to transfer data.

On 16 October, the 28 national data protection authorities (Article 29 Working Party) issued a statement on the consequences of the judgment.

On 6 November, the Commission issued guidance for companies on the possibilities of transatlantic data transfers following the ruling until a new framework is put in place.

On 2 December, the College of Commissioners discussed the progress of the negotiations. Commissioner Jourová received a mandate to pursue the negotiations on a renewed and safe framework with the US.

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EU Renewable Energy: Share of renewables in energy consumption in the EU rose further to 16 % in 2014

In 2014, the share of energy from renewable sources in gross final consumption of energy reached 16.0%  in the European Union  (EU). Almost double that of 2004(8.5%), the first year for which the datais available.

The share of renewables in gross final consumption of energy is one of the headline indicators of the Europe 2020 strategy. The target to be reached by 2020 for the EU is a share of 20% energy from renewable sources in gross final consumption of energy.

However, renewables will continue to play a key role in helping the  EU meet its energy needs beyond 2020. For this reason, Member States have already agreedon a new EU renewable energy target of at least 27% by 2030..

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Europe and US political alignment: Sanders, Trump, and Political Europeanization - by Ned Resnikoff

In nearly eight years since the start of the 2008 financial crisis, European politics has witnessed a remarkable surge in left-wing anti-capitalism and right-wing nationalism. With the 2016 presidential election, this ideological shift has arrived on American shores. Its heralds are the two expected victors in Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary: Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump.

Each of these candidates represents a particular political tradition that was, until recently, alien to national elections in the United States. Trump, whose disregard for the pieties of evangelical conservatism sets him apart from other GOP hard-liners, fits neatly into a European mold. His blend of hardline nationalism and ideological flexibility is similar to that of European right-wing populists such as Britain’s Nigel Farage of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and France’s Marine Le Pen of the National Front.

Trump, however, falls to the right of his closest European analogues. Both Farage and Le Pen, for example, have publicly distanced themselves from Trump’s call for a temporary ban on all Muslim immigration. Farage, in particular, said that Trump had gone "too far" with the proposal.

Sanders appears to be a more distinctly American type, a veteran of civil rights marches and the 1960's student movement. But his platform and ideology would be right at home among the moderate social democrats of Scandinavia. His calls for progressive taxation, a stronger labor movement, and an expansive public health care system are already commonplace to the point of banality in Sweden and Denmark — to say nothing of Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and other strong Western European states.

To his critics in the U.S., Sanders is a radical who threatens to ride a wave of popular discontent to upend the political establishment — as Greece’s Syriza and Spain’s Podemos parties have. But a closer European analogue to Sanders might be Jeremy Corbyn, the old-school trade unionist who seized control of Britain’s Labour Party amidst the collapse of the centrist wing.

European-style candidates are resonating with voters now because political parties in the U.S. are facing some of the same pressures as those in Europe.

Most obviously, American political parties have become more polarized. Whereas European parties have almost always tended to be defined by a shared political program, America’s peculiar constitutional system birthed sprawling coalitions with interests that frequently overlapped for members on different sides of the aisle. But that changed in the aftermath of the civil rights era, when the Republican Party succeeded in capturing the South and began moving further to the right.

Democrats eventually began their own leftward drift, albeit at a slower pace; by 2005, political scientists found that even the most conservative Democrat in Congress was nowhere near as right-wing as the most liberal Republican. The two parties had become ideologically discrete, much like the parties in parliamentary system

Read more: Sanders, Trump, and Political Europeanization | Al Jazeera America

Middle East: Netherlands probing civilian deaths in air strikes against ISIS in Iraq

he Netherlands is probing two incidents in which civilians may have been killed or injured in air strikes against the Islamic State group in Iraq, the government has said.

"Two incidents in which there may have been possible civilian casualties are being investigated in around 1,300 missions carried out by the Netherlands," The Hague-based government said in a letter to parliament late on Saturday.

Citing "operational reasons", the Defence Ministry said neither details of the incidents nor the probe are being made public.

The probe was prompted by a raft of  questions raised by lawmakers in parliament on the Netherlands' role in the fight against IS after The Hague announced last month it would  expand air operations into Syria.

Read more: Netherlands probing civilian deaths in air strikes against ISIS in Iraq

Israel: EU urges Israel to end demolition of Palestinian housing

EU diplomats with the European External Action Service (EEAS) on Saturday called for Israel to halt the demolition of Palestinian houses in the occupied West Bank after more than 100 Palestinians were left homeless by demolitions on February 2.

"In the past weeks there have been a number of developments in Area C of the West Bank, which risk undermining the viability of a future Palestinian state and driving the parties yet further apart," the EEAS said in a statement.

"This is particularly concerning both because of the extent of the demolitions and also the number of vulnerable individuals affected, including children who need support," the statement noted.

The EEAS reported that "EU-funded structures" were also targeted by demolitions conducted by Israeli forces, saying they were built to provide "humanitarian support to most vulnerable people."

The diplomatic service reiterated the "EU's firm opposition to Israel's settlement policy" and actions taken in this context, including demolitions and confiscation, evictions, forced transfers or restrictions of movement and access, in line with conclusions made by EU foreign ministers on January 18.

"We call on the Israeli authorities to reserve the decision taken and to halt further demolitions," the statement added.

Read more: EU urges Israel to end demolition of Palestinian housing | News | DW.COM | 06.02.2016

Germany - TTIP: German judges slap TTIP down as not lawful

The German Magistrates Association (DRB) has delivered a slap in the face to the European Union, by coming out against one of the key planks of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) - the special courts allowing investors and corporations to sue national governments if their policies happen to threaten their profits.

"The DRB sees neither a legal basis nor a need for such a court," the association said in a statement issued on Wednesday. The judges added that the assumption that foreign investors currently don't already enjoy "effective judicial protection" has no "factual basis."

Part of the TTIP deal proposed by the European Commission is a new Investment Court System (ICS) meant exclusively to protect investors. According to the DRB statement, the European Commission's definition of an investor's assets is so wide it effectively gives the ICS jurisdiction that "extends from civil law through to general administrative law and social and tax legislation." In other words, it potentially gives corporations the opportunity to sue governments over any piece of legislation it deems a threat.

The judges said the ICS represents a threat to the sovereignty of legal systems already in place in Europe, and they put little faith in the EU's ability to manage it:

"The German Magistrates Association has serious doubts whether the European Union has the competence to institute an investment court," the statement read. "An ICS would not only limit the legislative powers of the Union and the Member States; it would also alter the established court system within the Member States and the European Union."

The judges' statement is being celebrated as a serious setback for the TTIP negotiations by the deal's opponents, not least because the ICS was meant to be a compromise to assuage critics' concerns.

The ICS was proposed by EU trade commissioner Cecilia Malmström as a permanent and organized alternative to the improvised courts in the current investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) and which are currently used in trade deals between individual countries.

"The EU offices must be in turmoil now," said Nick Dearden of UK-based campaign group Global Justice Now. "They were really nervous about ever getting through an agreement that had ISDS in it, because every time they've done consultations on it people have overwhelmingly said they don't like it. So they put this on the table."

Note Almere-Digest : click on this link to see what this so called TTIP treaty is all about and the dangers it entails

Read more: German judges slap TTIP down | Germany | DW.COM | 04.02.2016