Transcript

12.2.25 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Happy Monday, everybody, the first day of December, and welcome
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to the reading of the Washington Post. As I said
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for this Monday, December first, and as you know, RADIOI
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is a reading service intended for people who are blind
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or have other disabilities that make it difficult to read
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printed material. Your reader for today is Rod Brotherton. And
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as you know, on Monday's we usually start with Paul
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Prather's weekly column from yesterday's Herald Leader, but Paul didn't
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have one this week, so let's go ahead with the
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news from the Washington Post. The first story this Monday
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is Hegseth conscripts the Pentagon for Trump's retribution campaign. After
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Donald Trump's re election last year, a retired Army general
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who had been critical of the president in the past
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made a list of the ways that the incoming administration
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could come after him should he speak out again. The
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identified three scenarios a civil suit, an IRS audit, or
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a recall to active duty, where conceivably he could face
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criminal charges in the military's justice system. The retired general,
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speaking on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation,
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recall that exercise. After Trump's Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said
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Munday that the Pentagon will investigate Mark Kelly, a Democratic
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Senator from Arizona and retired Navy officer, for his role
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in making a controversial video reminding service members of their
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duty to disobey unlawful orders. Trump's retribution campaign, the retired
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general said, has had a significant chilling effect in targeting
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Kelly and another prominent Democratic critic of the administration, Representative
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Eugene Vindeman of Virginia. The Defense Department, under Hegseyth, has
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been co opted into the president's norm shattering bid to.
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Speaker 2: Exploit what are supposed to.
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Speaker 1: Be the non partisan tools of government to crush political foes.
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The Trump administration has sought to punish its enemies through
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mortgage fraud investigations overseen by the Federal Housing Finance Agency
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and through criminal probes that Trump personally demanded the Attorney
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General pursued. Enlisting the Pentagon in this effort poses a
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unique threat to American democracy.
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Speaker 2: According to historians.
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Speaker 1: Retired military officers, and legal experts, long standing taboos against
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using the armed forces to further a president's political machinations
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have helped ensure that service members obey their civilian leaders
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and prevent this powerful institution from being used to suppress
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Americans' constitutional rights. Discarding that standard, expert risks setting a
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heart harmful precedent. The best way to stop a politicization
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death spiral, said Peter Favor, who studies civil military relations
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at Duke University, is never to start it. The video
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at the center of this controversy was made by six
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Democratic lawmakers who served either in the military or intelligence community.
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Their message, you can refuse illegal orders, is enshrined in
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the Uniform Code of Military Justice as a means to
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guard against political abuse of the armed forces. It appeared
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directed at current personnel involved in the Trump administration's deployment
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of troops into American cities and its deadly campaign against
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alleged drug smugglers in the waters off Latin America, which
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many members of Congress and legal experts say is a
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blatant violation of the laws of armed conflict. The FBI
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has also gotten involved. In response to questions for this report,
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the Pentagon referred to Hegsith's recent social media posts in
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which he called the video a politically motivated influence operation
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and said the military does not need political actors injecting
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doubt into an already clear chain of command. The Navy
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Secretary's office, which is under orders to brief HEG Sith
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by December tenth on its findings in the Kelly investigation,
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and did not respond to a request for comment. Kelly's
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office called heg Syth's inquiry an attempt to intimidate the senator.
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This is an attempt to silence me, to get me
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not to hold this administration accountable, Kelly on CNN State
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of the Union on Sunday. He's not going to get
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me to back down, but what he is doing is
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sending a very chilling message across our entire nation.
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Speaker 2: He added.
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Speaker 1: Both Hegsith and Trump have labeled the video message sedacious,
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and their comments that multiple retired military lawyers said, probably
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violated the lawmaker's due process and could undercut any criminal
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case the administration may seek to bring against them. Even
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among legal experts and retired officers critical of the Trump administration,
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the video has been controversial. Some have argued it was
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unclear who specifically the message was directed at and risked
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confusing personnel conducting high pressure missions, but no one who
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spoke for this report thought the content was Illegalard Kohane,
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the Air Force's former chief historian, called the case involving
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Kelly open and shut, noting the Senator was only stating
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what was commonly known in the military. Hegseth ordered the
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inquiry into Kelly days after the Pentagon's top lawyer urged
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multiple House committees to investigate Vindman, a former Army officer
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and a National Security Council legal advisor, central Trump's first impeachment,
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for allegedly violating foreign influence laws. Vinman has denied the allegations,
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and his office declined to comment further for this report.
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The Congressman has long been an argut of Trump's iire.
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On November eighteenth, he called for the public release of
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a transcript detailing a phone call that occurred during Trump's
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first term between the President and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad
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bin Salman, the context of which Vinman said would.
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Speaker 2: Be showing.
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Speaker 1: The crown prints according to a determination made by US
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intelligence approved the brutal killing. In twenty eighteen of Washington
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Post contributing columnist Jamal Kashoki, Trump has vigorously defended Muhammed Nonetheless,
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stance Vindman is called disturbing and counterfactual. In his November
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nineteenth letter urging the probe of Vindman, Pentagon General Council
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Earl Matthews acknowledged that the Defense Department would face an
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awkward situation if it began investigating the congressman who sits
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on the House Armed Services Committee. Efforts to reach Matthews
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through the Pentagon Press office for comment were unsuccessful with Kelly,
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who serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee. The Pentagon
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seems less concerned by the appearance of a conflict of
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interest in investigating a democratic lawmaker possible from Congressional oversight
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of the military, and who has said that the man
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who leads it.
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Speaker 2: Hegsith, should resign.
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Speaker 1: Like the president, heg Sith, has shown little regard for
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boundaries intended to insulate the military from political interference. While
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addressing the nation's top brass during an unusual summer in September,
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the Defense Secretary urged those in attendance to resign if
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they disagreed with the administration's management of the armed forces.
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At one point, he mentioned a group of retired officers
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by name, men with whom he or Trump had personal conflicts,
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labeling them as the sort of leaders he wants out
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of the military. Within the past week, a group of
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former military lawyers argued in a joint statement that the
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investigation into Kelly lacked merit and risked politicizing the Uniform
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Code of Military Justice or UCUMJI, which was established after
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World War II to protect service members from arbitrary charges.
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What's being done right now in the dismantling of the
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rule of law in the military is very dangerous for
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our country, said to retired Major General Steve Lepper, a
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former Air Force Deputy Judge Advocate General, who signed on
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to the group's statement. Through the u CMJ, Hegseith has
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immense power over current and many for members of the military.
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That leaves retired service members vulnerable to a potential abuse,
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including infringement on their First Amendment rights, observers say. Franklin D. Rosenblatt,
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who is president of the National Institute of Military Justice,
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a group that advises service members concerned about the lawfulness
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of their orders, said that a lot of military people
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are keeping their heads down. For the retired Army general,
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concerned that he too would face the administration's wrath or
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airing his views of Trump and Hegsith the case against
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Kelley seems hypocritical, he said. He noted how Trump's first
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national security adviser, the retired three star general Michael Flynn,
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chanted locker up in reference to the Democratic presidential nominee
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Hillary Clinton at the twenty sixteen Republican National Convention, the
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speech that was overtly political. The retired Army general, reflecting
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on Kelly's predicament in his own said, it appears that
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the standard has changed. If a member of the Senate,
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where scrutiny from the party out of power is cored
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into the government system of checks and balances, can be
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targeted by the Defense Secretary for doing his job, then
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no one out of uniform.
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Speaker 2: Is safe speaking out, he said.
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Speaker 1: I have concerns, the general said, for just about anybody
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who would say anything. And the next story, the GOP
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faces a familiar dilemma what to do about Obamacare. Republican
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leaders have found themselves in a familiar place, pledging to
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make major changes to the Affordable Care Act, citing rising
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health care costs and a looming deadline, but far from
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agreeing on how to do it. The White House last
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week privately floated a framework to extend billions of dollars
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in ACA subsidies that are set to expire December thirty first,
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accompanied by other changes to the health care law long
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sought by conservatives, but a planned announcement was quickly mixed
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met a rebellion from congressional Republicans who balked at the
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White House's ideas and process.
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Speaker 2: It is unclear or.
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Speaker 1: Whether President Trump will endorse a specific legislative path. Several
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Senate Republicans have offered their own proposals, though it is
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not clear whether they can achieve sufficient support to pass
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the Chamber. Republicans promised a mid December vote on how
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to proceed on the expiring subsidies in exchange for support
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from some Democrats for ending the government shutdown in November.
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Democrats have argued that the simplest and most politically popular
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option is to extend the subsidies, which were implemented in
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twenty twenty one and meant to help defray the cost
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of health coverage during the COVID nineteen pandemic. But many
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GOP lawmakers have campaigned for years on pledges to repeal
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Obamacare say that continuing to fund the subsidies is a
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non starter, calling instead to shift the money to Americans
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in the form of health savings outs. The White House
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has a solution for cost to sharing, Kevin Hassett, director
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of the National Economic Council, said Sunday on CBS's Face
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the Nation, predicting that people are going to work this
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out by Christmas. We don't want to cause panic for
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folks who are worried that they're going to lose the
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thing that they have.
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Speaker 2: Has it said the stakes well.
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Speaker 1: About twenty four million Americans rely on the federal marketplace
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healthcare dot gov buy insurance, most of whom now receive
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the expanded ACA subsidies. The ACA average benchmark monthly premium
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has already spiked about twenty six percent for twenty twenty six.
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An earlier standoff over whether to extend the subsidies fuel
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to the forty three day government shut down. Stephen Moore,
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a long time conservative economist and informal Trump advisor, said
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the Republicans are trying to balanced several goals to stave
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off another potential government shut down in early February and
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to address americans rising health care costs. Both parties expect
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cost of living concerns to be a central issue in
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next year's midterm elections. People are facing a fifteen to
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twenty percent premium increases starting very soon. More said, you
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think people have an affordability problem, now wait until those hit.
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The situation also echoes a frequent dynamic in the first
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Trump administration, where the President and his Republican allies in
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Congress repeatedly promised and failed to pass a plan that
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would deliver high quality, lower cost health care.
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Speaker 2: Than the ACA.
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Speaker 1: Those stumbles haunted GOP leaders as they suffered election defeats
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in twenty eighteen and twenty twenty. The Democrats are preparing
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to run a similar healthcare playbook next year. People are
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seeing their health insurance premiums double or triple. Senator Amy Klobucher,
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the Democrat of Minnesota, said Sunday on CNN State of
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the Nation, vowing to punish Republicans politically. They don't extend
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the subsidies. Either we're going to pass this by forcing
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this vote, or we're going to get this on legislation,
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or we're going to march into the midterms and beat them.
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Despite their resistance, GOP leaders on Capitol Hill are scrambling
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to put together proposals that could counter the Democrats push
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to extend.
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Speaker 2: The ACA subsidies.
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Speaker 1: Some Republicans in both chambers are pushing for a short
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term extension of the subsidies, with some tweaks to address
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conservative concerns about the program, such as adding income caps
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or additional measures to prevent fraudulent enrollment. Thirteen House Republicans,
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mostly for liberal leaning states, sent a letter to House
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Speaker Mike Johnson, the Republican of Louisiana, during the shutdown,
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warning that a failure to extend a version of the
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subsidies would risk real harm to those we represent. We
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need health care for our constituents, number one. That's the
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most important part. Secondly, if we want to be viable
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in the midterms, I think it's something we have to
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think about, said Representative Jeff vn Drew, the Republican of
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New Jersey.
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Speaker 2: It's the right thing to do.
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Speaker 1: I don't want to be the party that takes away
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people's health care. However, many Republicans oppose extending the subsidies,
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arguing that they are a pandemic era relic and instead
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see the debate as an opportunity to revisit healthcare reforms
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the party has sought in the past.
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Speaker 2: Trump told reporters.
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Speaker 1: Last week that some kind of extension may be necessary,
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but that he doesn't want to in the subsidies if
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he doesn't have to. The Senate Health Committee schedule of
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Wednesday heiring on health care costs. Committee Chairman Senator Bill Cassidy,
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Republican of Louisiana has pushed a narrow plan that would
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redirect a portion of the subsidies into hssays that can
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be used for out of pocket costs, not premiums. This
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is not rewriting big portions of the Affordable Care Act,
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Cassidy said in an interview last week. I would argue
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that it's a very rifle shot approach for a specific
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issue of addressing health care costs.
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Speaker 2: In twenty twenty six, Senator Rick.
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Speaker 1: Scott, Republican of Florida has separately proposed allowing the enhanced
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ACA subsidies to expire, but putting the value of the
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tax credits paid to insurers instead toward HSA style accounts
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that people could use for out of pocket costs or
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to pay for premiums for any health insurance plan, not
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just ACA marketplace plans. Any way we can craft this,
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I think we have to get back to the root cause.
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There are probably about ten things as to why healthcare
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is so expensive in the US. Representative Greg Murphy, Republican
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of North Carolina, a doctor and member of the House
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and Ways Committee, one of the committees working on a
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potential heir care package in the House, told reporters, I
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know things move a lot slower in Congress than they
18:39
do in the operating room, but the.
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Speaker 2: Time is now. We've got to fix this.
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Speaker 1: Conservative outside groups such as the influential Paragon Health Institute,
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have also urged Republicans to stop funding the subsidies and
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use the moment to make the long desired changes to
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the ACA. Lawmakers are wrestling with persistent voter concerns over affordability,
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which Conservatives saw as one of the animating issues behind
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their electoral defeats in Virginia and New Jersey this last November.
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Early in the month, some figures in the Trump administration
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were said to be considering a broad health care and
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spending package that the GOP could attempt to push through
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Congress on party lines. According to two people familiar with
19:32
the ideas, that plan would have combined major health changes
19:37
in policy with other GOP goals potentially including a language
19:41
to formalize the tariffs that Trump has used to define
19:44
much of his second term agenda, said the people, who
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spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.
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Republican lawmakers and conservative political operatives privately say that they
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expect the Supreme Court to strike down Trump's authority to
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unilaterally impose the important taxes require Congress to approve the
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levies if the president wants to keep them in place
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as they are. Some lawmakers and administration officials had floated,
20:15
including the two thousand dollars tariff freebate checks that Trump
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promised earlier in November, though the concept has been met
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with strong opposition from the other GOP lawmakers concerned about
20:27
the national debt. But the healthcare plan the administration floated
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to officials on Capitol Hill last week was far from
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the party line proposal that could have unwound much of
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the ACA, shocking some conservatives whould hope Trump would at
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least allow the COVID era subsidies to expire. This is
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the Democrat's disaster. Why would they run toward it? I
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have no idea, said one miffed Trump ally, who also
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spoke on the condition of anonymity to share a candid assessment.
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We thought the White House was digging in on this,
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that Obamacare was a big giveaway to insurance companies, said another,
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drawing a connection to Trump's recent friendly meeting with New
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York Mayor elect Zoran Mandani. Now the White House is
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on its own doing this, and they're having conversations with
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Mamdani and next in the economy, why you may not
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want lower prices as much as you think you do.
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Americans keep saying it. They want lower prices. Grocery prices
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have swelled twenty five percent in the past five years.
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The average price of a new car just topped fifty
21:50
thousand dollars.
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Speaker 2: Energy bills are soaring as.
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Speaker 1: Our healthcare premiums and childcare costs, and housing has come
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up as much as thirty percent since twenty twenty for
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both renters and buyers. Inflation was a defining issue of
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the twenty twenty four election and helped propel President Trump's
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return to the White House after he promised to bring
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down consumer prices the day he took office, But a
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year later, it's a drag on his approval ratings fifty
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nine percent of Americans give Trump either a great deal
22:30
or a good amount of blame for the current rate
22:32
of inflation, according to a Washington Post ABC News IPSOS poll.
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And in an attempt to reduce grocery prices, Trump just
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rolled back some of his own tariffs on certain goods,
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including bananas and coffee. The problem is there's generally no
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going back once prizes rise.
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Speaker 2: And for a good reason.
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Speaker 1: Retailers don't reduce prices unless there's a significant drop in demand,
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such as during periods of high unemployment. As terrible as
23:05
inflation is, that is really undesirable, said Matt Coliar. And
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economis that Moody's analytics. There are exceptions, of course. Egg prices,
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for instance, skyrocketed last year because of the Avian flu,
23:21
but retreated once the crisis passed. Gas prices go up
23:26
and down, in part because of the organization of the
23:29
petroleum exporting countries and its partners OPEC plus tightly controls
23:35
the supply unlike normal markets. But the broad inflation that
23:41
drove up prices across the economy won't reverse, even though
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the rate of increase has eased greatly since peaking at
23:49
nine point one percent in mid twenty twenty two, the
23:55
most recent consumer Price index showed annual inflation at three percent. Still,
24:01
prices overall are twenty five percent higher than they were
24:06
at the start of the pandemic. Ironically, falling prizes can
24:11
both signal a recession and trigger one think about what
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would happen if the price of all goods would drop
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to the pre pandemic level, said Francesco Bianci, who chairs
24:26
the economics department at Johns Hopkins University. The inflation of
24:30
recent years also has driven up workers' wages. If wages
24:35
stay high but the price of goods fall, companies won't
24:40
make enough profit to pay their employees. That would make
24:43
the cost of hiring workers extremely.
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Speaker 2: High, and that might.
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Speaker 1: Trigger a recession. And then the recession creates even more
24:51
expectation for lower prices, and this is why economists are
24:56
very concerned about deflation. Laura Velcamp, a professor at Columbia's
25:02
Business School, said, even the expectation of lower prices contrigerary recession.
25:08
If I thought that was going to cost less tomorrow,
25:11
why would I buy it today? As soon as we
25:14
believe prices are going down, demand will plummet, and we're
25:19
likely to immediately have a recession.
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Speaker 2: She said.
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Speaker 1: Price declines are typically associated with real, severe negative outcomes,
25:28
and while Americans might be clamoring for lower prices, surveys
25:32
suggest they don't actually expect it to happen. According to
25:36
the University of Michigan survey of consumers, most respondents expect
25:41
inflation to go higher in the next year. Velcamp likened
25:46
the economy to a car speeding on the highway. The
25:49
solution is not to stop and throw the car in reverse.
25:53
Under no circumstances, said, somebody try to make that happen.
25:59
But what might actually work shows that data release last
26:04
month shows annual inflation inching up to three percent in September,
26:08
higher than the two percent rate preferred by the Federal Reserve, the.
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Speaker 2: Main inflation fighting body.
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Speaker 1: Getting it back there rather than to zero or even
26:17
negative is generally.
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Speaker 2: A policy goal.
26:21
Speaker 1: Tariffs, the cornerstone of Trump's economic policy, have been applied
26:25
broadly across a range of products, involving dozens of US
26:29
trading partners. Despite his repeated claims that the import duties
26:33
would not affect retail prices, the cost of many everyday
26:37
products has climbed, particularly for food products not grown in
26:41
the United States. On November fifteenth, Trump issued in an
26:46
executive order rolling back tariffs on many foods, including beef, cocoa, bananas,
26:52
and coffee. I don't think anybody realistically in the Trump
26:56
administration or in the federal reserves thinks we can bring
27:00
inflation towards zero at anytime soon from three percent to
27:04
two percent. Well, that would be great, and undoing some
27:07
of these tariffs might work, Beyonce.
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Speaker 2: She said.
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Speaker 1: Many companies opted not to pass on the full amount
27:14
of the tariff to the of the blunt to the
27:17
customer's frustrations.
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Speaker 2: But they're likely and unlikely to fully.
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Speaker 1: Erase any tariff related increase even if Trump rescends the
27:25
important duties, in part because they may be uncertain about
27:29
when the tariffs will return. Given Trump's frequent swings in policy.
27:35
You're not going to see your grocery store lowering their
27:38
own prices Beyonce.
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Speaker 2: She said. Most companies would.
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Speaker 1: Rather try for consumer goodwill by keeping prices flat as
27:46
long as they can. That drop prices and then risk
27:49
anger when they rise again. The tariff rolled back, Coliard said,
27:54
is an acknowledgment that tariffs aren't helping, but neither is it.
27:58
Speaker 2: A silver bullet.
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Speaker 1: Codyard says he thinks government policy could reduce prices in
28:04
two major areas, housing and healthcare. The government is heavily
28:09
involved in health care and could pursue policies that reduce costs,
28:14
and government policy on zoning, land use and related issues
28:19
could spur the construction of more housing, so that greater
28:21
supply would help cut into the storing costs. Some left
28:26
leaning activists who've been blaming Trump for high level prices
28:29
acknowledge he can't return prizes to pre pandemic levels. Instead,
28:34
while acknowledging the risks that government spending can in self
28:38
juice inflation, some envision a government that covers more of
28:42
the costs with which from families are struggling. Zohan Mandani,
28:47
who won the New York mayoral race on a platform
28:50
that calls for subsidizing childcare, freezing rent, and making public
28:55
transit free, you won't see us calling for detail. We're
29:01
in a position where we start to see deflation. It's
29:04
because things are going seriously wrong and people are really
29:07
really broke, said Lindsay Owens, who runs the liberal group
29:12
Groundwork Collaborative. Instead, she thinks that the government should pursue
29:17
policies that raise people's wages, and that it should subsidize healthcare,
29:21
the issue at the center of the recent record breaking
29:24
government shut down, which ended without a deal to extend
29:27
the subsidies and childcare. Some of how things are becoming
29:31
more affordable as you get some more income and all
29:34
of a sudden you can cover the rent and have
29:36
a little left over. Policy makers need to be much
29:40
more aggressive about bending the cost curve and trying to
29:44
stop the bleeding when they can. Owens also noted that
29:48
the economy has been fragmenting. Most people are struggling with
29:52
the cost of living, while high earners are still spending
29:56
at levels and keep businesses humming. That also means call
30:00
won't come down. Companies aren't going to drop prices until
30:04
people can't pay it, and there are people who can
30:08
pay it right now. The inflation spike of twenty twenty
30:12
two was unusual in recent history. People definitely rightly so
30:18
got comfortable with very moderate levels of inflation. We had
30:23
inflation below what the Federal Reserve thought was a healthy
30:26
level of inflation for many years beyond, she said. Owens
30:31
expects prices to be a top concern. For years, people
30:36
anchored certain prices, and they have a really hard time
30:40
adjusting even as incomes rise and they're able to absorb it,
30:44
she said. Sticker shock is real. The pace at which
30:49
prices have increased over the last few years has produced
30:53
a lot of anxiety for families. But in the way
30:57
of economists, some of the experts like to point out
31:00
that it might have been worse both before and after
31:04
the twenty twenty two spike. Before the country was reeling
31:09
from the coronavirus pandemic, the government spent heavily on stimulus
31:15
to prevent the economy from tanking. Most experts now agree
31:19
that the infusion of cash was then a primary cause
31:23
of the subsequent inflation. We've got a lot of inflation.
31:28
That's of course a problem from any households, but it's
31:32
also true that we dodged a bullet. There was serious
31:36
concern that this was going to be a repeat of
31:39
the global financial crisis beyond, she said. And then once
31:44
the inflation started drawing, velcamp the Columbia professor, feared it
31:49
would take a recession to squeeze out this inflation. I
31:54
was really pleasantly surprised to see the Federal Reserve managed
31:58
to slow down the economy enough to stop the rate
32:01
of inflation and not cause a recession. That's a very
32:06
rare occurrence, she said, And this was the most successful
32:10
inflation stabilization in US history.
32:15
Speaker 2: And the next.
32:15
Speaker 1: Story, these very hungry microbes devour a powerful pollutant from Petaluma, California.
32:26
The cows had to be deterred from messing with the experiment.
32:31
Researchers from a Bay Area technology company had come to
32:35
the sprawling dairy farm north of San Francisco to test
32:40
an emerging solution to planet warming emissions, microscopic pink organisms
32:45
that eat methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Kenny Korea, thirty
32:52
five of Korea Family Dairy, watched the team from Windfall
32:57
Bio working near the lagoons used to store manure from
33:01
the farm's several hundred cows. The researchers erected a futuristic
33:07
system of vats, pipes, tubes, and shiny metal supports. Then
33:12
when everything was assembled, they poured pink liquid into one
33:16
of the vats. They were looking like mad scientists over
33:19
their career, recounted. He acknowledged initially thinking it was a
33:24
crazy idea to integrate an outdoor laboratory into a working farm.
33:30
There was the potential for the cows to be all
33:34
over it, licking and pulling out wires, scratching on.
33:37
Speaker 2: It, he said.
33:39
Speaker 1: But livestock farms are a significant source of methane emissions,
33:44
and Windfall wanted to see how much the microbes could help.
33:49
Fencing around the research equipment kept the cows out, and
33:54
in June, Windfall reported that roughly the month long trial
33:57
had been a success. The microbes had absorbed more than
34:02
eighty five percent of the methane coming from one of
34:06
the lagoons. They know how to eat methane, and Josh Silverman,
34:11
the company's CEO and founder, we're not creating something new.
34:16
We're not teaching them to do something that they don't
34:19
normally do. They've evolved from million years to do this.
34:25
Other varieties of microbes, including the tiny organisms and the
34:29
gut of cows, are among the factors implicated in the
34:33
increase of methane in the atmosphere, which is warming the earth.
34:38
The gas spews from livestock farms, landfills, wastewater treatment plants,
34:44
natural gas operations, oil production, rice paddies wetlands, thawing permafrost,
34:51
and even termite mounds. Although methane breaks down faster than
34:55
carbon dioxide, its heat trapping potential is eighty times as powerful.
35:02
In the first twenty years after its released, methane eeding
35:06
microbes could help disrupt that process. They may be especially
35:13
useful if deployed at the many scattered sites responsible from
35:17
small methane emissions, which can collectively add up to a
35:21
big problem.
35:22
Speaker 2: In the atmosphere.
35:24
Speaker 1: Windfall estimates that if its microbe technology were scaled across
35:29
the energy, waste, and agricultural industries in the United States,
35:33
it could annually slash up to one point six gigatons
35:40
of carbon dioxide equivalent, an amount produced by driving more
35:44
than three hundred and seventy million gas powered cars for
35:47
one year. Another research team at the University of Washington
35:52
says it's microbes deployed broadly, could capture about four hundred
35:57
and twenty million metric tons of carbon diete oxide equivalent
36:01
per year, or what could be generated from driving nearly
36:05
ninety eight million gas powered cars for a year. To
36:10
develop a further benefit and to help make their enterprise
36:13
more commercially viable, The researchers are working to turn the
36:18
methane eating microbes into products such as fertilizer and animal feed,
36:23
supporting a more sustainable food chain. This waste methane is
36:29
a huge resource, said Mary Lenstrom, a chemical engineer and
36:34
microbiologist who is leading the UW project. Many of the
36:39
technologies that address the climate really are only addressing climate,
36:43
but this.
36:44
Speaker 2: Has a dual outcome.
36:46
Speaker 1: Lenstrom's favorite microbes come from the bottom of a lake
36:50
in eastern Siberia. About twenty years ago, a Russian postdoctoral
36:56
student brought a sample of methlow to verbia microbium bury
37:02
yatins to the University of Washington or urging her to
37:07
take a look. Linstrom had by then been working for
37:11
three decades with microbes that consumed the gas, also known
37:15
as methanotrophis. She'd never seen any anything like this strain.
37:22
The rod shaped microbes could quickly grow in varying conditions
37:27
and had an especially healthy appetite for methane, demonstrating an
37:31
ability to process and use the gas for energy to
37:35
reproduce even when there was only low levels in the air.
37:40
It became the workhouse of lab experiments. It's just better
37:44
than all these other methan trophs, she said. Silverman stayed
37:50
local in his research for methane eating microbes affectionately dubbed
37:54
mimes from compost piles and dirt near where he lives
37:58
in Palo Alto, California. He collected samples microbes and other
38:02
micro organisms that coexist with them and enable the consumption
38:07
of methane and nature friends and helpers, he calls them.
38:11
The samples were then incubated inside his backyard gas grille,
38:17
fed by methane coming from the natural gas line. The
38:21
contents of a jar labeled number six emerged victorious. The
38:26
jar six strain is the basis for about a dozen
38:29
newer cultivations that Windfall has been experimenting with. At the
38:34
company's lab in San Mateo, California, a large refrigerator holds
38:39
an assortment of jars, bottles, and plastic peatrie dishes containing mimes.
38:44
The pinker they are usually the happier and healthier they are,
38:49
Silverman said, grabbing a small bottle about three quarters full
38:53
with a wet, pink jelly. Linstrom, who says she considers
38:58
her microbes her babies, can also tell just from looking
39:02
how the organisms are faring, the cells should be growing
39:06
in a thick film that has the consistency of mucus,
39:10
she said, and have a salmon pink hue. As researchers
39:15
continue to refine and breed strains of microbes, they're trying
39:20
to figure out which combinations and methods work best to
39:23
eliminate methane emissions in different contexts. Manure lagoons at dairy farms,
39:29
for instance, may need a different approach than landfills. The
39:34
goal is to remove as much of the polluting gas
39:37
as possible, Silverman said windfalls microbes can in theory eat
39:43
more than ninety nine percent of the methane that's released,
39:47
but conditions such as outside temperature can lower that number.
39:52
From a climate perspective, zero percent of the methane is
39:55
being captured currently, so any reduction at all is still
39:59
an that benef he said. The fact that we can
40:02
achieve such a high conversion with a cheap, small scale
40:07
farm viable approach fills a niche that has been historically
40:11
very tough area to crack. There are some established ways
40:16
to capture large methane emissions. Landfills, for instance, typically extract
40:22
methane using a system of wells and pipes. The gas
40:26
can then be processed to generate electricity or turned into
40:30
renewable biogas. Substantial quantities of methane can also be flared
40:36
or burned, which turns it into carbon dioxide, but it
40:41
landfills and elsewhere. Some of the gas can still escape
40:45
into the air, and it's been harder to find an
40:47
affordable method to contain smaller releases. Windfall Bio and Lindstrom's
40:54
team were both experimenting with setups that funnel waste methane
40:58
into a bioreactor, a fancy word for an enclosed system
41:02
that could be as simple as a plastic container, where
41:06
the microbes are held. Inside these containers, the minuscule organisms
41:12
consume the gas and release carbon dioxide into the air.
41:17
Although it may seem odd for a climate friendly project
41:20
to release co two scientists say the trade off is
41:24
well worth it. I'm in favor of any approach that
41:29
destroys methane, even if it makes carbon dioxide, because that's
41:34
what happens to all the methane in the atmosphere, said
41:37
Rob Jackson, a climate scientist at Stanford University's Woods Institute
41:42
for the Environment who is not involved in the microbe projects.
41:47
Over time, methane naturally breaks down into CO two. By
41:52
destroying methane, you skip the most damaging part of the
41:56
molecule's lifetime, which is in the ten to fifteen years
41:59
it will spend as much methane in the air before
42:01
it gets turned into carbon dioxide. Jackson said. Windfall Bio
42:08
is also looking at applying microbes directly to the land
42:11
where methane is seeping from. That sort of strategy could
42:15
be developed at landfills, the third largest source of human
42:19
related methane emissions in the US according to the Environmental
42:24
Protection Agency. Windfall recently ran tests of its microbes at
42:30
a major landfill near Los Angeles. We're looking at all
42:34
the different things that we can do to reduce methane
42:37
and odors from landfills, and microbiology is one of the
42:42
last frontiers, said Eugene Singh, a technical advisor for the
42:47
local California Enforcement agency that oversees environmental compliance at the landfill.
42:54
The implications are huge. On the day the Washington Post
43:00
visited the landfill, Carla Riso Windfolds Bios vice president of
43:05
research and development, held a large white plastic watering can
43:10
full of healthy mimes. She leaned over and sprinkled the
43:14
light pink liquid onto a plot of soil, trying to
43:18
spread the solution evenly is a light as a light
43:22
breeze carrying the faintus twiff of trash blew the droplets around.
43:27
Researchers monitored how much methane was released from various plots
43:30
treated with a different application of mimes, and a single
43:34
application absorbed more than seventy five percent of methane emissions
43:40
according to a windfall report, and the micromes consumed at
43:44
that rate for more than thirty days in Seattle. Lindstrom's
43:50
team launched its first field test in June, using a
43:54
prototype bioreactor made by colleagues at Auburn University to capture
43:59
media methane emission seeping from a decommissioned landfill on the
44:03
UW campus. By the end of several rounds of testing,
44:08
Linstrom said the bio reactor was working as well in
44:11
the field as a dub its in laboratory settings. Under
44:15
certain conditions, the system achieved up to ninety percent reduction
44:21
of methane, according to a peer reviewed results published in October,
44:28
Although Linstrom said there are more improvements to be made.
44:31
Her long term vision is deployed between one hundred and
44:34
two hundred thousand shipping container sized treatment units that can
44:38
be used to capture and process methane. The goal, she said,
44:43
is to start putting units in the field by twenty thirty.
44:47
It'll take some years to ramp up, she said. Methane
44:51
eating microbes are natural recyclers as they derive energy from methane.
44:58
They grow and multiply create eating biomass, an organic material
45:03
packed with protein and other nutrients. Researcher trying to capitalize
45:08
on this capacity to make their work even more beneficial,
45:12
attract more customers, and be profitable enough to reach scale.
45:17
Leinster wants to repurpose the biomass as a protein rich
45:21
supplement for farm fish. She anticipates that climate change and
45:26
other factors leading to the decline of wildfish populations could
45:30
increase the demand for aquaculture. There's already a market, she said,
45:36
noting that at least one cellular agricultural company is using
45:40
microbes to produce protein for pet fish and livestock feed.
45:46
It's already been demonstrated. You don't have to start from scratch,
45:51
and it's of reasonable value. Windfall has begun producing fertilizer
45:56
made from mims. The microbes are dried, turned into powder,
46:00
and pressed into chalky brown cylindrical pellets that carry a
46:05
faint odor of dried meat. The company is also looking
46:09
into developing a liquid fertilizer.
46:11
Speaker 2: Silverman said.
46:13
Speaker 1: The idea is that farms that use their microbes for
46:17
containing methane can get fertilizer in return, which the farmers
46:22
can either use themselves or sell. If you are asking
46:26
people to pay more for climate solutions, it doesn't happen,
46:30
he said, And we need these things to be able
46:32
to pay back for the operator itself. Whether there will
46:37
be large scale demand for either a protein supplement or
46:40
fertilizer produced through these methods is still something of an
46:44
open question. Dairy farms typically don't need fertilizer since they
46:49
use liquid manure, said Joseph Button, vice president of sustainability
46:54
and Strategic Impact with Strauss Family Creamery, but he said
46:59
he could see some of the other creamery suppliers like
47:01
Korea interested in selling it to other agricultural operations. There's
47:07
been a lot of i'll call them biological solutions that
47:13
have popped up, have not proven out at all.
47:16
Speaker 2: Button said, part of.
47:17
Speaker 1: My role is to safeguard the farmers from bad solutions.
47:22
But after reviewing lab data and seeing that Windfall had
47:26
secured backing from major donors such as Amazon's Climate Pledge Fund,
47:31
Button agreed to pitch farmers in his network on a
47:35
hosting a microbes pilot, and of course, Jeff Bezos, the
47:39
Amazon founder owns The Washington Post. Korea said he would
47:44
welcome more tests at his dairy farm. The farm already
47:48
uses other approaches to reduce emissions, including processing liquid solid
47:53
manure into compost, but as he checked on new calves
47:58
each a source of methane, Korea said he hoped that
48:02
with the right technologies and methods, he one day could
48:06
run a farm that has no negative impact on the environment. Oh,
48:12
it is one hundred percent possible, he said. And now,
48:16
on a somewhat lighter note, theft of twenty four thousand
48:20
dollars wine bottles spurs high speed chase through Virginia's countryside.
48:27
Escorting the couple through his restaurant's high end wine seller
48:31
Christian Burrell grew uneasy. The woman with her rapid fire
48:36
questions the man with his long overcoat wandering in and
48:40
out of view as the three walked back upstairs. Burrell
48:45
couldn't shake the feeling. He raced back down and spotted
48:49
them screw top replacements where his finest wines had once been.
48:55
Burrell ran back upstairs stop him. He shouted, they're stealing
48:58
the Romani Contis, and the chase was on. Burrell and
49:04
three other staff members, joined by a patron and a Porsche,
49:08
headed outside to try to catch the couple heading for
49:12
their gateway car and bucolic Shenandoah Valley's Wine Country, sixty
49:16
miles west of Washington. The take six bottles of French
49:22
pinonnois the restaurant valued at thirty eight thousand dollars. Matthew Leader,
49:30
a waiter, caught the woman, detaining her with two hands
49:34
firm atop her shoulders. The man climbed into the driver's
49:38
seat of an suv as Burrell as Samitier tried to
49:42
force his way into the open door. According to Burrell
49:45
and Leader, but the suv moved forward, They said, grass
49:50
flew from under the tires, and the man raced off
49:53
alone down US three forty in the countryside of Clark County,
49:58
there is really no honor among thieves, Yves Burrell said Monday,
50:02
recalling the chaos outside the Lobourge Provincial Inn and restaurant,
50:07
which Burrell's family has owned since nineteen eighty one. Clark
50:11
County Sheriff Travis Sumption said Tuesday that his investigators are
50:16
still trying to identify the man who fled.
50:20
Speaker 2: They knew what they were doing.
50:21
Speaker 1: Sumption said, it was orchestrated and it was planned. Sumption
50:27
identified the woman as Natalie Ray, fifty six, from the
50:31
United Kingdom. She was charged with three counts conspiracy to
50:36
commit grand larceny, grand larceny, and defrauding an inn or
50:41
similar establishment. According to Sumption and Clark County District Court records,
50:47
Ray's being held without bond at the Northwest Regional Adult
50:51
Detention Center and is doing court December third for her arraignment.
50:55
According to court officials and jail officials, the courts and
50:59
the records listed her as being represented by the Virginia
51:02
Public Defender's Office. Peter McDermott, the head of Public Defenders
51:07
for the region that includes Clark County, declined to comment.
51:11
The piece of good news for the restaurant's staff was
51:15
shortly after the suv sped off, they found two of
51:19
the lifted bottles unharmed in the grass, twenty nineteen Ischezeu
51:26
and a twenty twenty one granz Ischeneaux. Burrell turned them
51:30
over to the Sheriff's office as evidence, along with the
51:33
plea for their storage a dark cool place. Burrell met
51:39
with the Clark County investigator for two hours Tuesday, and
51:43
said the investigator told him Ray hadn't said anything about
51:46
her alleged partner the thieves prize take and until the
51:52
past week. The wine cellar's prize occupant was a twenty
51:56
twenty Romani Conti, valued by Burrell at twenty four thousand dollars.
52:05
Like all the stolen bottles, it came from the hallowed
52:09
Demand de la Romanni Contia estate in Burgundy. It is
52:14
the perfect pinonoi.
52:16
Speaker 2: He said.
52:18
Speaker 1: He has alerted wine auction houses and provided serial numbers
52:22
for each bottle, but given the black market for stolen
52:25
high end wines, Burille says he doubts if he'll see
52:28
them again. They could be anywhere. He said bottles of
52:34
domain de la Romagnique Conti have been targeted before. In
52:39
twenty nineteen, these reportedly broke into the catacombs under Paris
52:44
and drilled into the cellar of the acclaimed restaurant Meisson Rostain,
52:49
where they made off with six hundred and seventy five
52:52
thousand dollars worth of wine. More than half of the
52:57
hall was from Domain de Romanni Conti. In twenty twenty,
53:04
French authorities recovered nine hundred stolen bottles valued at six
53:08
million dollars and arrested twenty four people linked to a
53:12
wine theft ring. Many of the bottles came from Domain
53:17
de le Romagnique Conti. And in twenty twenty one, a
53:22
couple posing as guests hit Astrio, a Michelin starred restaurant
53:27
and hotel in Spain. They broke into the cellar and
53:30
left with dozens of bottles worth it estimated one point
53:33
seven million dollars, including more than twenty from the Domain
53:38
de le romann Conti. Authorities said the woman, carrying a
53:43
Swiss passport and wearing a wig, distracted the staff by
53:46
ordering food late at night, while her male companion took bottles.
53:51
The pair were later apprehended and sentenced to four years
53:55
in prison. Wine lovers pay handsomely for Domain de la Romagniconti.
54:02
While the wine's quality and limited production drive up prices,
54:05
so too does a prestige factor. If you put that
54:10
bottle on the table in Thailand or Singapore and Hong
54:13
Kong or wherever you are, that guy right, said Daniel Posner,
54:20
owner of the Upskill Grapes and Wine Company in White Plains,
54:24
New York. It's just elegant, refined, truly, just delicious.
54:30
Speaker 2: Wine at the right age.
54:33
Speaker 1: The Domain de la Romanicunti estate is home to different vineyards,
54:37
Burrell said, the most prized being the vineyard embedded in
54:41
the estate's name, the Romagni Conti. Fewer than ten bottles
54:46
from that vineyard, he said, make their way to restaurants
54:49
and retailers in Virginia every year. It's truly wild. It
54:54
is the wine of basically the billionaires. It's not the
54:58
one percenters, it's the point one percenters, Burrell said in
55:03
a video about the heighst he posted on Leberian Province's
55:08
Facebook page. Burrell's parents, Elaine and celest Burrell, bought the
55:12
restaurant's property forty five years ago. They turned the seventeen
55:16
to fifty three farmhouse into their inn and restaurant. The
55:20
subterranean basement, with its humidity and cool temperatures, was perfect
55:24
for the wine cellar. Christian Burrell took over so many
55:28
a duties in twenty oh eight. Le Bert's Provence now
55:32
has twelve hundred and eighty varieties in the cellar for
55:35
a total of five thousand, five hundred bottles. The collection
55:39
is well documented, tattered on the restaurant's seventy page online
55:44
wine list, which has served as a book to restaurant patrons.
55:48
It's not very hard to figure out we have expensive.
55:51
Speaker 2: Wines on our cellar, Burrell said.
55:54
Speaker 1: With the restaurants closed, the cellar is protected by locks, sensors, cameras,
55:58
and alarms. In operations, though the staff needs continuous accents.
56:03
Access and when a customer asks for a tour in
56:06
the restaurant is impact. Burrell has long been happy to oblige.
56:11
My default is to be polite and trust people. I'm
56:14
in the hospitality business. The couple walked in about four
56:18
forty five pm on November fourteenth, spoke with a staff
56:21
member and soon we're chatting with Burrell. The woman's bearing
56:26
wool coat, fine scarf, fine manners and a British accent
56:30
suggested an English motherly figure, Burrell recalled. She said her boss,
56:35
a Canadian businesswoman, wanted to hold a twenty five person
56:39
dinner in a private room with plenty of fine wine,
56:42
the kind of gathering Burrell knew could bring in more
56:45
than twenty thousand dollars. He led the couples through the
56:50
restner's three dining rooms, and the man didn't say much.
56:53
He wore a bushy gray toupey, which Burrell found striking
56:56
but hardly unheard of, along with thick glasses and overcoat
57:00
and dark pants. According to internal surveillance images provided by
57:03
Burrell later, the waiter took note of the man's hair.
57:07
Speaker 2: But not much else.
57:09
Speaker 1: The last gen you're thinking of, these guys are about
57:11
to do as a high end robbery of the wine cellar.
57:15
The woman asked Burrell how Laboge Provence wines are stored.
57:19
I want to make sure it's climate controlled, he remembered
57:22
her saying. The three descended into the cellar, which is
57:25
about thirty feet long and twenty five feet wide, with
57:27
bottles laid in several rows of shelves stretching into the ceiling,
57:31
and the woman continued asking questions, are the American wines
57:36
that someone who loves French wine.
57:38
Speaker 2: Would like to try?
57:39
Speaker 1: Burrell recalled her, asking he took her toward those wines.
57:43
As the man wandered off Burrell's trust Wayne, but his
57:46
politeness held. He picked up a California cabernet called The Diplomat,
57:51
bearing a quote attributed to Winston Churchill that he thought
57:54
she'd enjoy. Diplomacy, he read to her is the aught
57:58
of telling people to go to hell.
58:00
Speaker 2: In such a way.
58:01
Speaker 1: They'd ask for directions, but after the theft was noted,
58:06
they boxed her into a loose perimeter and waited for
58:08
the police. You're not leader, said, injecting an expletive, going anywhere.
58:16
And this concludes the reading of the Washington Post for today, Monday,
58:19
December first. Your reader has been Rod Brotherton. If you
58:24
have any questions or comments suggesting concerning this program, please
58:28
feel free to call us at eight five nine four
58:30
two two sixty three ninety. Thank you for listening, and
58:34
now please stay tuned for continued programming right here on
58:39
Radio I