Energy bills

Environmental protestors wearing swimming trunks, flip flops and scuba diving gear have lined up outside Rishi Sunak ’s mansion waiting for a dip in his private heated pool. Greenpeace activists formed a queue at the gates of the PM’s £2million Grade-II listed manor house in Richmond, Yorkshire in protest of his luxurious energy-draining pool. It was revealed earlier this month Mr Sunak’s new £400,000 private heated pool is said to use so much energy that the local electricity grid to be upgraded. Protestors said they wanted to highlight the “hypocrisy” of the UK’s richest ever Prime Minister, who has “failed to upgrade our outdated national grid, which remains unable to deliver the green energy revolution for the rest of us that would lower bills and help tackle the climate crisis”. Greenpeace activists queued at the gates of the PM’s £2million Grade-II listed manor house for a dip in his heated energy-draining pool According to Ofgem, a smart grid could save up to … [Read more...] about Protestors queue outside Rishi Sunak’s mansion for dip in his heated £400k swimming pool

Everything is more expensive these days—even tap water. U.S. water utility prices have been rising faster than general inflation , driven in large part by a need to replace and update aging infrastructure. New regulations to remove "forever chemicals" from drinking water will surely drive costs even higher. Although these investments are needed, low-income households can struggle to afford this essential service. That concern propelled Congress to introduce the first federal Low Income Household Water Assistance Program (LIHWAP) in 2020. Administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), LIHWAP was an emergency measure to aid a nation reeling from COVID-19. The program is set to expire at the end of this year, and some in Congress are calling to make LIHWAP a permanent, ongoing program. Before making LIHWAP a permanent part of America's alphabet soup of anti-poverty programs, we ought to consider a simpler approach to water assistance: allowing … [Read more...] about Helping People Pay Their Sky-High Water Bills Is a SNAP

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Shell paid around £7 million in UK taxes last year and a further £8 million in fees despite the Government’s plans to tax the oil giant’s record profit. The company was able to write down its tax bill by around 42 million dollars (£34 million) due to the money it is spending in the country. But despite the low bill, it is in fact the first time since 2017 that Shell has paid more in tax than it was able to write off. The business paid a total of just under 18 million dollars (£15 million) in taxes and fees in the UK last year, it revealed on Wednesday. It is a massive jump from 2021 when the oil giant paid 10.7 million dollars (£8.7 million) in fees on the one hand but on the other was handed back 132 million dollars (£107 million) from HM Revenue and Customs. Recommended Charity boss … [Read more...] about Shell pays first UK tax for five years as record profit lands it with £15m bill

There are two basic truths about the enormous deficits that the federal government will run in the coming years. The first is that President Obama’s agenda, ambitious as it may be, is responsible for only a sliver of the deficits, despite what many of his Republican critics are saying. The second is that Mr. Obama does not have a realistic plan for eliminating the deficit, despite what his advisers have suggested. The New York Times analyzed Congressional Budget Office reports going back almost a decade, with the aim of understanding how the federal government came to be far deeper in debt than it has been since the years just after World War II. This debt will constrain the country’s choices for years and could end up doing serious economic damage if foreign lenders become unwilling to finance it. Mr. Obama — responding to recent signs of skittishness among those lenders — met with 40 members of Congress at the White House on Tuesday and called for the re-enactment of … [Read more...] about America’s Sea of Red Ink Was Years in the Making

WICHITA, Kan. — Senator Barack Obama says the top priority of the next president should be to create a more lasting and equitable prosperity than achieved by either President Bush in the current decade or even Bill Clinton in the 1990s. In an hourlong interview outlining his economic views, Mr. Obama praised the Clinton administration for reducing the deficit and setting the stage for the ’90s boom. But he said Mr. Clinton had failed to halt a long-term increase in income inequality that had left the middle class feeling squeezed. If elected, Mr. Obama said he would to try to forge a popular mandate for policy changes that could reverse a generation of slow wage growth and outlast any one administration. At the top of his list would be shifting the tax burden more toward the wealthy and making investments — in health care, alternative-energy research and education — that would cost a significant amount of money but could ultimately lift economic growth. “The project of the next … [Read more...] about Closing Income Gap Tops Obama’s Agenda for Economic Change

Boris Johnson has been pushed into giving up leadership of the country during a perilous economic moment, leaving behind a grim outlook and an uncertain Brexit legacy. On Thursday afternoon, Mr. Johnson described his resistance to stepping down “when the economic scene is so difficult.” It has become a period that is frequently compared to the 1970s in Britain, an era of stagflation when the economy shrank and inflation soared and vital services were halted by widespread strikes. Britain isn’t repeating this stagflationary era yet, but the threat is there . Inflation in the country has reached an annual rate of 9.1 percent, the highest in four decades , driven by supply chain disruptions from pandemic lockdowns and the war in Ukraine. And price pressures keep building as companies begin to pass on the increase in costs to their customers and workers demand higher wages to cope with the rising cost of living. Households are facing the worst squeeze on their living … [Read more...] about Boris Johnson leaves behind a fraught economy and an uneasy Brexit legacy.

Ladies and gentlemen, put down that hand sanitizer: The microbiome has finally arrived. The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP)—along with other federal agencies, leaders in the private sector and medical research institutions—has announced the launch of the National Microbiome Initiative (NMI). Its mission is to advance scientific understanding of microbial diversity in ways that may prove beneficial to health care, food production and environmental safety. At a press event held Friday in the White House, Jo Emily Handelsman, associate director for science at OTSP, said this effort is a natural offshoot of President Barack Obama's Precision Medicine Initiative. "He has been an advocate for science in all levels and all areas," she said. "We think that it's a microbial future. The country will depend on having great technology and innovations." The goal is to support interdisciplinary research about diverse ecosystems—from the human gut to the depths of the … [Read more...] about White House Goes With Its Gut on Microbiome Research

I. A Broken Economy As Barack Obama prepares to accept the Democratic nomination this week, it is clear that the economic policies of the next president are going to be hugely important. Ever since Wall Street bankers were called back from their vacations last summer to deal with the convulsions in the mortgage market, the economy has been lurching from one crisis to the next. The International Monetary Fund has described the situation as “the largest financial shock since the Great Depression.” The details are too technical for most of us to understand. (They’re too technical for many bankers to understand, which is part of the problem.) But the root cause is simple enough. In some fundamental ways, the American economy has stopped working. The fact that the economy grows — that it produces more goods and services one year than it did in the previous one — no longer ensures that most families will benefit from its growth. For the first time on record, an economic expansion seems … [Read more...] about Obamanomics

Perhaps you have heard that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have come up with different health care plans. Hers would require every American to own health insurance. His would not. That difference is the only one between the two candidates on any domestic policy that has received much attention. (Think about it: can you name another?) Outside of health care, the campaigns — and we in the media — have focused on more exalted concepts, like experience, change and judgment. But there really are some other important differences between the candidates. When you look at their policies as a whole, you see that Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama have actually laid out two competing economic philosophies. The fight over health insurance is just one part of their disagreement. Compared with all the other candidates — Democrat and Republican — Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama occupy roughly the same place on the ideological spectrum. They’re both somewhat to the right of John Edwards, who favors a more … [Read more...] about Democrats: More Than Health Care

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails The competition watchdog has announced a crackdown on online pressure-selling tactics that can push consumers into making hasty decisions they later regret. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has written to online businesses to warn them about its “red lines” on urgency and price reduction claims such as “10 people are watching this now,” “Hurry, today only!” and countdown timers for deals. Such claims can be acceptable if true, but the CMA is warning they will breach the law if they are false or misleading or place unfair pressure on consumers. The letter reads: “These claims have a legitimate place when they alert consumers to genuine special offers or provide helpful information about current selling conditions. “However, we have become concerned about claims that may mislead or put unfair … [Read more...] about Online retailers warned of ‘red lines’ over pressure-selling tactics