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Purdue Pharma pleaded guilty Tuesday to three criminal charges, formally admitting its role in an opioid epidemic that has contributed to hundreds of thousands of deaths over the past two decades.
In a virtual hearing with a federal judge in Newark, New Jersey, the OxyContin maker admitted impeding the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s efforts to combat the addiction crisis. Purdue acknowledged that it had not maintained an effective program to prevent prescription drugs from being diverted to the black market, even though it had told the DEA it did have such a program, and that it provided misleading information to the agency as a way to boost company manufacturing quotas.
It also admitted paying doctors through a speakers program to induce them to write more prescriptions for its painkillers.
The guilty pleas were entered by Purdue board chairperson Steve Miller on behalf of the company. They were part of a criminal and civil settlement announced last month between the Stamford, Connecticut-based company and the Justice Department.
The deal includes $8.3 billion in penalties and forfeitures, but the company is on the hook for a direct payment to the federal government of only a fraction of that, $225 million. It would pay the smaller amount as long as it executes a settlement moving through federal bankruptcy court with state and local governments and other entities suing it over the toll of the opioid epidemic.
Members of the wealthy Sackler family who own the company have also agreed to pay $225 million to the federal government to settle civil claims. No criminal charges have been filed against family members, although their deal leaves open the possibility of that in the future.
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There goes Scotland again. Maine Governor Janet Mills toured the country back in March and came away with big plans to stake out a claim on floating offshore wind turbines. Then the COVID-19 lockdown happened and the whole idea appeared to be mothballed. Now it has suddenly come roaring back to life. If all goes according to plan, the Granite State will set the stage for a new surge of activity in the US wind industry. That would give Scotland the last laugh, but more on that in a sec.
Weirdly, the Trump administration has been assisting plans for a new offshore wind farm that will put Maine on the floating wind turbines map.
Floating Wind Turbines: The Scotland-Maine Connection
For those of you new to the topic, floating wind turbines are designed for water that is too deep for conventional platform construction. The US got a head start on floating wind turbine R&D during the Obama administration, but things stalled out after that.
Aside from political obstacles and potential conflicts with maritime commerce, floating wind turbines pose unique engineering challenges, which is why they have been popping up in some parts of the world but not others.
That leads to Maine, which has some of the deepest and most challenging waters for wind turbines, but also boasts sustained offshore wind speeds that are among the best in the world. According to one estimate, the state’s offshore wind resources could meet its existing electricity demand 36 times over.
With an eye on that prize, Maine policy makers have been supporting a public-private research collaboration through the University of Maine and a firm called Maine Aqua Ventus, which got an assist from the US Department of Energy back in 2015. That was quite an achievement, considering then-governor Paul LePage’s opposition to renewable energy development.
Last December CleanTechnica noted that Maine is already chock full of renewable energy, which leads one to question why should they take a risky bet on the as-yet untried floating wind turbine area.
Part of the answer may lie in that Scottish wind industry tour. Scotland has begun to leverage its powerful offshore wind industry to produce green hydrogen, and Maine has been eyeballing green hydrogen as a way to deliver more clean kilowatts despite some bottlenecks in its existing transmission system.
Just to spice the green hydrogen angle up a bit, Mitsubishi is involved in the Maine project, having acquired the newly dubbed firm New England Aqua Ventus through a joint venture with its Mitsubishi Renewables Diamond Offshore Wind subsidiary and the firm RWE Renewables. Mitsubishi is making a hard pivot into green hydrogen, so it will be interesting to see where that fits into Maine’s floating wind turbine scheme.
State policy makers may also be looking to position Maine’s offshore wind resources for energy export, deploying green hydrogen. Decarbonizing the state’s fishing industry could also be on the to-do list, considering recent activity in the hydrogen fuel cell watercraft field.
By Kennedy Rose – Digital Producer, Philadelphia Business Journal
SEPTA is in a $350 million hole.
That’s the depth of a budget shortfall the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority is projecting for its fiscal 2021 year ending in June as Covid-19 bludgeons its revenue and government support for the transit system withers. SEPTA is now weighing cutting service lines, closing stations and raising fares as it struggles to plug the gap in its operating budget, and it could take years before ridership figures approach anywhere close to pre-Covid levels.
More than 20 million passengers rode SEPTA each month before the pandemic but ridership collapsed in the spring as people were cautioned to stay inside their homes. Ridership on the country’s seventh-largest transit system plummeted close to 90% in April and May, leaving buses and rail cars empty but costing SEPTA for each stop they made.
For the 2020 fiscal year, the transit authority took in $403.4 million in revenue, 24% less than the $527.8 million projected. SEPTA is now losing about $1 million each day in revenue, SEPTA General Manager Leslie Richards said.
“We would be collecting around $40 million a month, and we were lucky to get about $4 million this summer,” Richards said.
Ridership picked up slightly as some Greater Philadelphia restrictions eased over the last eight months and people gradually returned to work.
Richard Burnfield, SEPTA’s deputy general manager, predicts it will take until the end of 2022 to get anywhere close to pre-pandemic ridership levels, or reaching 80% to 90% of the 20 million passengers per month.
Covid-19 has also created an unprecedented reversal of SEPTA’s financial situation: Its capital budget is stable while its operating budget is in jeopardy.
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The Flemington Area Food Pantry, serving Hunterdon County, New Jersey, celebrated and unveiled their brand new solar array installation with a ribbon cutting on Nov. 18 at the Flemington Area Food Pantry.
This project was made possible by a collaborative donation effort amongst notable solar industry leaders and community volunteers, each supplying their individual components.
Among all of the parties who contributed to make the installation a reality, the pantry has one in particular to thank — North Hunterdon High School student, Evan Kuster.
“As a volunteer at the Food Pantry, I was aware that they had a significant electricity expense for their refrigerators and freezers and thought that solar energy could save their budget,” shared Kuster, North Hunterdon High School student, Class of 2022. “My dad works at a solar energy development company called Merit SI, and he suggested we ask for donations to fund the system.”
So the Kusters asked, and solar industry leaders responded. Rallying around their vision of impact, a full slate of project partners including First Solar, OMCO Solar, SMA America and Pro Circuit Electrical Contracting signed on to the project. Collectively, they donated an entire solar installation to the pantry, relieving an annual electricity bill of $10,556 (2019). Now, the new 33-kW system allows those funds to be allocated towards the purchase of food for their community — enough to prepare 6,360 meals.
Jeannine Gorman, executive director of the Flemington Area Food Pantry, emphasized the gravity of this new asset. “Every dollar we spend on our electric bill is one less dollar we can spend on food for the community,” said Gorman. “We carry out our mission on a daily basis; it’s so motivational for us to know that professionals care enough to donate their time, talent and supplies to help us continue to serve our community’s needs.”
