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548 lines
68 KiB
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<meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes" name="viewport"/>
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<title>16 August, 2022</title>
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<title>Daily-Dose</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><style>*{overflow-x:hidden;}</style><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
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<body>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ayatollah Khomeini Never Read Salman Rushdie’s Book</strong> - The notorious fatwa has a complicated history that still plays out, decades later, in Iran’s politics and relations with the U.S. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/ayatollah-khomeini-never-read-salman-rushdies-book">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Exhibit A of Trump’s Recklessness</strong> - The classified documents recovered by federal agents at the former President’s Mar-a-Lago estate add to the picture of his out-of-control behavior after he lost the 2020 election. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/exhibit-a-of-trumps-recklessness">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>As Gas Prices Dip, There’s Finally Some Encouraging News on Inflation</strong> - Barring an escalation of the war in Ukraine or a deadlier new coronavirus variant, the rate at which prices are rising appears to have peaked. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/as-gas-prices-dip-theres-finally-some-encouraging-news-on-inflation">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Sarah Palin’s Last Frontier</strong> - Can the former governor—who left Alaska for the national stage—persuade the state to send her to Congress? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-political-scene/sarah-palins-last-frontier">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Alaska Primary Map: Live Election Results</strong> - The latest results from the Alaska primary ahead of the 2022 midterms. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/election-2022/live-midterm-results-alaska">link</a></p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
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<li><strong>Recreating The Simpsons in the post-apocalypse</strong> -
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/6LU1kMOT04ktf8HXyaKjjHVrSVM=/89x0:1512x1067/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71248379/Britney_Nicole_Simpson_and_Meritt_Janson_in_HVSF_s_2022_production_of_MR._BURNS__A_POST_ELECTRIC_PLAY___Photo_by_T._Charles_Erickson.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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Britney Nicole Simpson as Marge and Merritt Janson as Bart in the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival’s 2022 production of Mr. Burns. | T. Charles Erickson.
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Anne Washburn, the playwright behind Mr. Burns, explains herself: “It’s about the comfort of looking again.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sYPbaO">
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Anne Washburn’s play <em>Mr. Burns</em> begins with a striking image. A group of four people sits around a campfire. They are tense, watchful, carrying guns. A woman apparently mute with trauma crouches on the outskirts of the firelight. The group is trying to remember the details of an episode of <em>The Simpsons</em>.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ylYlBz">
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<em>Mr. Burns</em> takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, one now oddly more familiar than it was when the show was first staged in Washington, DC’s Woolly Mammoth Theatre in 2012. Humanity has been decimated by a pandemic. In the aftermath, the electrical grid has failed, which in turn has led to the meltdown of the world’s nuclear reactors. Now, just months after civilization has been utterly destroyed, a few scattered survivors are trying to pass the night by reconstructing the 1993 <em>Simpsons</em> episode “Cape Feare,” which sees ex-convict Sideshow Bob setting out on a murderous campaign to kill Bart Simpson.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZlcjtX">
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In the second of <em>Mr. Burns</em>’s three acts, we see the post-apocalyptic world advanced seven years into the future. Now, the survivors we met in Act 1 have formed an acting troupe. They travel what’s left of the US performing old episodes of <em>The Simpsons</em>, complete with interludes for commercials and a medley of the biggest pop hits of the 2000s. In the final act, which takes place 75 years later, things have changed yet again. Now, “Cape Feare” has become a kind of epic poem that a new society uses to mourn the loss of the old. It’s Homer meets Homer (the other one).
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="e2Z1dV">
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<em>Mr. Burns</em> is now onstage again <a href="https://hvshakespeare.org/production/mr-burns/">at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival</a> in Garrison, New York. It’s the first major revival of the work since it became a cult sensation at New York’s Playwrights Horizon in 2013, which means it’s also the first major revival since the pandemic hit in 2020. And now that we’ve all lived through lockdown and what felt like at least one minor apocalypse, we know that Washburn was correct about what you do at the end of the world: you sit down and you try to lose yourself in some good old-fashioned comfort television.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qXwGrU">
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To find out more about what <em>Mr. Burns</em> has to tell us about stories, how they change, and why we need them, I called Washburn up over Zoom. Highlights from our conversation, lightly edited for length and flow, are below.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MvOZ4e">
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<strong>I want to start with the creation of this idea. </strong><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150509152002/http://gothamist.com/2013/09/27/anne_washburn.php"><strong>I’ve read</strong></a><strong> that you said you were interested in seeing what would happen if you pushed a TV show past the apocalypse. Did you always have in mind the same ending point, with the TV show becoming a piece of classical tragedy?</strong>
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9YqZsp">
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Yes. What I knew about it when I started was that the first act would be right after the fall of civilization. The second act would be five or seven years later, and then the end would be 75 years later. There would be a few old people around who could still remember what it had been like before, but mostly it would be a new generation.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7iPfFU">
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<strong>Talk to me about the development process for this show. How did you build out the three acts?</strong>
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0MrNVe">
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I wanted to start with getting a few actors in a room to remember a <em>Simpsons</em> episode, because that language of trying to remember something is so specific and wonderful and delightful. But I didn’t want to inconvenience my friends, the actors, for more than a day without paying them, and I didn’t know how long it would take. So I kind of sat on this idea for a couple of years.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UPove8">
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And then I was talking with Steve Cosson, who is AD [artistic director] of <a href="https://thecivilians.org/">The Civilians</a>, this <a href="http://journal.juilliard.edu/journal/1404/using-drama-make-world-better">investigative theater</a> group that I’m part of. He asked if I wanted to apply for a commission. So we [proposed <em>Mr. Burns</em>] for that, and the commission came with some development money.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5DPJgR">
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So then we plunked this group of actors together in this weirdo rehearsal space in a bank vault underneath Wall Street, which was a free space that summer that was getting passed around.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="W8FsMQ">
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<strong>Very post-apocalypse. </strong>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="45Dstj">
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It was very post-apocalypse. Our cellphones didn’t work in there. We were in a literal bank vault, with a huge door to it. The lights flickered. It was incredible, kind of great and horrifying.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9c4ZOf">
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I knew I wanted to start with that language [of remembering], so we sort of had them remember <em>Simpsons</em> episodes, and we had them do it many different times. I had a transcript of it, and then I sat on it for two years until Steve began to bug me, because I didn’t think it was a show anyone would do.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZwCxeg">
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I transcribed their multiple versions and put it into one version, and that was how it started. And then I just basically wrote it.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="diNgyv">
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<strong>The episode you landed on, “Cape Feare,” is really a perfect episode of </strong><em><strong>The Simpsons</strong></em><strong> for this project because it’s so referential. It’s built around the Robert De Niro movie </strong><em><strong>Cape Fear</strong></em><strong> from 1991, which itself is a remake of the 1962 movie </strong><em><strong>Cape Fear</strong></em><strong> and also heavily drawing from the 1955 movie </strong><em><strong>Night of the Hunter</strong></em><strong>. And both of the </strong><em><strong>Cape Fear</strong></em><strong> movies are based on a novel. Did you ever have a moment of being like, “Yes, this referentiality is going to be one of the big themes of this show, and it’s all coming together”?</strong>
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qGdUZB">
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I didn’t have that train of thought. But it seemed perfect.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GNKJs2">
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Even before we got the actors together in the room, the show was still called <em>Mr. Burns</em>. So I didn’t know how it was going to end or what was going to happen at the ending, but I knew that Mr. Burns was a central figure of it somewhere, the central villain.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BZf16Y">
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We were really taking a chance on them remembering episodes that would have been good. I love to think what would have happened if we’d had a different episode. How differently would the play have gone?
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="u7neBr">
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It might not have gone differently. I think the moment you come up with an idea for a play, in some weird way you’ve already structured it in your head. But then so much of the play depended on that.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PHflBd">
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All of which is to say it felt quite perfect in many ways. It’s deeply referential, but it’s also just such a deeply primitive story: It’s a family on a river, with a killer. So it’s horrifying in that way, and also in a post-apocalyptic time of poor societal control, it would really feel right.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="di1aBG">
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I had a conversation after I had written it with Jon Vitti, who was the lead writer on that episode. He came to see it in DC, which we hadn’t considered as a thing that might happen. I thought, “Oh, <em>The Simpsons</em> is created by this phalanx of Harvard men.” Suddenly I realized, “Oh, there’s a writer who wrote this.” I was sort of terrified that he wouldn’t like it and would feel violated, but he loved it.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2x0eA2">
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One of the things he said to me that I thought was really interesting was that it was the practice of [<em>The Simpsons</em>] that you couldn’t reference any one source very particularly. It was mixed and mashed up so that any audience member coming in who might not have seen one particular thing wouldn’t be left at sea. But this episode was written at the very end of season five, when that initial writer’s room was just about to go. They kind of figured, “Fuck it.” They wanted to do an episode that centered more around one movie.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YvbQ62">
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A lot of people really remember that episode very well, and I think it’s because it’s a more intact story, and a more intact set of references. It references a million other things as well, like any of them do. But it’s easier to put together in your head, because it retains this kind of ancient lineage of the remake of <em>Cape Fear</em> and the original <em>Cape Fear</em> and <em>Night of the Hunter</em>. It has this core running through it.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tLP0u4">
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<strong>I want to zoom out a little now. In the first act, we see the survivors of this apocalypse sitting around the campfire, trying to retell this </strong><em><strong>Simpsons</strong></em><strong> episode from memory. It feels very true to what life was like at the beginning of lockdown, when so many of us were spending time watching nostalgic old TV shows. Why do you think this kind of pop culture comfort food can feel so important in times of deep disaster?</strong>
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GeEHxJ">
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It seemed to me that if you had a group of people who didn’t know each other around a campfire, they would want to tell the stories they have in common. Because when you’re anxious, you look for stories you already know. And the stories that we all have in common at this point are TV shows.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="E8nHHL">
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I mean, they used to be. It’s not the same anymore. I would write it differently if I were writing it now, honestly, because we’re much more divergent. But at that time, everybody had seen <em>The Simpsons</em>.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3MXRlZ">
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Also, it’s funny. It’s a place you would want to go if everything around you was dark and unholy. In the same way that I was about to watch what I am told is an uncommonly fine television series, <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/6/4/18647339/chernobyl-finale-hbo-truth-how-accurate"><em>Chernobyl</em></a>, and then the pandemic hit. And I was like, “That’s on hold. I will not watch this program, however wonderful, anytime soon.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XbJcsS">
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I think of this play — and I didn’t think of it in this way when I wrote it — but I think of it as being in many ways a 9/11 play. It was written about 10 years afterward, and it takes about that long to digest something. I’m sure there’s going to be all sorts of stuff about the pandemic coming out soon, but it’s going to be longer before it really starts.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rJCRDO">
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But something I thought was really interesting about 9/11 was the way that, because it was a shared group crisis in New York, there was this etiquette. People instantly cottoned onto ways of behaving or ways of giving information, and everybody did it very quickly. I’d never seen the formation of etiquette or group process happen that quickly.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vXPBfx">
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I felt a similar way in the pandemic. Nobody was masking, nobody was masking, nobody was masking, there was a mandate, and then suddenly everybody was masking. Everybody suddenly began panicking and running for the beans. There was this whole elaborate thing of wearing a mask in the park when no one was there, or taking it off the moment you saw someone in the distance. We all obeyed the same rules at the same time. So in that way it felt recollective to me of groupthink, or the ways we all operate as animals when we’re in crisis and decide to do the same thing.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bdHGOy">
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<strong>In the second act, we see this acting troupe recreating not just the </strong><em><strong>Simpsons</strong></em><strong> episode, but also a long commercial segment. We learn that they pride themselves on the strength of their commercials as being what sets them apart from other troupes. The commercial isn’t really selling anything in particular, but it’s sort of an invocation of brand names and various capitalist creature comforts. What led you to including that segment in the second act?</strong>
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KP9vTD">
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Commercials are kind of incredible. They’re an incredibly useful way to create suspense within a narrative. This is something we don’t experience in the same way anymore, but it used to be you’d be experiencing your drama or your comedy, and then you’d be bopped out of it. And it’s irritating, but then you’d see one commercial, and then another commercial, and then another commercial. They’re actually an incredibly weird, creative thing to have in the middle of other stories. Like vaudeville in the middle of the drama.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1IIjIG">
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It’s about the comfort of looking again. It’s about the deeply bittersweet comfort of looking at where we were when we had all this food, and the problem was someone in your office taking food from the fridge. But it’s also the place where they [the actors within the play] could stretch a little bit, in ways they might not even understand as being creative.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="B3mEmL">
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It’s not the way that we handle commercials now. We talk about commercials satirically, so I think even the fact of watching people handling commercials not satirically signals to the audience, in a very quiet way, that this is a very different society. Even if you can’t quite put your finger on it.
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<strong>We also learn in the second act that there are a bunch of other acting troupes out there, and they’re all vying for control of various </strong><em><strong>Simpsons</strong></em><strong> episodes to perform. How did you decide that copyright would outlast the apocalypse?</strong>
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</p>
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Any creative group has monitored, if they could, their version of things. As long as art is worth something, people want to know that their version is protected, and in the absence of a copyright office you turn to different methods. If something’s worth something you’re going to be protective of it, and art is always worth something.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3DjuNx">
|
|||
|
|
<strong>You mentioned earlier that you knew from the beginning that Mr. Burns was going to be a central character, and then you ended up building the play around “Cape Feare,” which is a Sideshow Bob episode where Mr. Burns doesn’t appear. I really love the way that in the final act, we see that Sideshow Bob has become conflated with Mr. Burns as the great mythic villain who the Simpsons must fight. How did you come to the decision that this transformation would have to happen?</strong>
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="c4Dwgz">
|
|||
|
|
Villains swap out easily, as we see in Batman and Spider-Man. The hero’s always the same and the villain’s always different. That doesn’t take much.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NVIVlg">
|
|||
|
|
Without getting too far into it, I felt like the villain in the third act would be a figure which would reflect the fears of that world, would articulate the dangers which aren’t going away. In <em>Night of the Hunter</em>, he’s a force who’s noncivilized. Robert Mitchum who becomes Robert de Niro who becomes Sideshow Bob: he’s uncontainable. He can’t be controlled by society. If you expand that to all the forces who can’t be controlled in Act 3, that’s what that figure can circle around. It’s social stuff, it’s violence, it’s everything that can’t be regulated by law. It’s environmental damage. All of the darknesses which are invisible.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2a21Ks">
|
|||
|
|
<strong>Okay, time for us to wrap up. It’s the end of the world and you’re sitting around the campfire, telling stories. What stories are you telling?</strong>
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="d0vMaA">
|
|||
|
|
I think it would happen much the way it happened in the bank vault: you’d have a group of people canvassing each other and riffing off of this and riffing off of that, and then something would catch fire in the group. And people would figure out what kind of story they wanted to hear together.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8T8tni">
|
|||
|
|
<strong>So the story comes from the group and from our shared communities?</strong>
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1O7iv6">
|
|||
|
|
I think it comes from our need, right? And we don’t necessarily know what we need until we touch on something that starts to fulfill that.
|
|||
|
|
</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>How the Western drought is pushing the power grid to the brink</strong> -
|
|||
|
|
<figure>
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="The Hoover Dam water intake towers at Lake Mead, the country’s largest man-made water reservoir, formed by the dam on the Colorado River in the Southwestern United States, has dropped 2 inches every day since February (26 feet in one year), are viewed at approximately 25% capacity on July 12, 2022 near Boulder City, Nevada." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/D7a_jRfIDs9KmDvMqGca6Xqfai0=/411x0:5531x3840/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71248264/GettyImages_1409351571.0.jpeg"/>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Lake Mead, impounded by the Hoover Dam, reached record lows this year, leading to cuts in electricity production. | George Rose/Getty Images
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The megadrought is costing us megawatts.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kVJmqt">
|
|||
|
|
It takes a lot of water to make power.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OStPNH">
|
|||
|
|
From spinning turbines to hydraulic fracturing to refining fuel, the flow of water is critical to the flow of electrons and heat. About <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.8b00139">40 percent of water withdrawals</a> — water taken out of <a href="https://blogs.agu.org/waterunderground/2017/06/26/difference-water-withdrawal-water-consumption-need-know/">groundwater or surface sources</a> — in the United States go toward energy production. The large majority of that share is used to cool power plants. In turn, it requires energy to extract, purify, transport, and deliver water.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uTsJ3e">
|
|||
|
|
So when temperatures rise and water levels drop, the energy sector gets squeezed hard. The consequences of water shortages are playing out now in swaths of the American West, where an expansive, decades-long drought is forcing drastic <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/01/energy/california-drought-hydropower/index.html">cuts in hydroelectric power generation</a>. At the same time, exceptional heat has pushed <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/14/texas-power-demand-breaks-record-as-severe-heat-wave-hits-the-state-.html">energy demand to record highs</a>. As the climate changes, these stresses will mount.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6fYolT">
|
|||
|
|
The United Nations Environment Programme warned this month that if drought conditions persist, the two largest hydroelectric reservoirs in the US — Lake Mead and Lake Powell —could eventually reach “<a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/08/1123782">dead pool status,</a>” where water levels fall too low to flow downstream. Lake Mead fuels the Hoover Dam, which has a power capacity topping 2,000 megawatts while Lake Powell drives generators that peak at 1,300 megawatts at the Glen Canyon Dam.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="Map of power plants in the US facing drought conditions" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/EgmLR0jnSXk4re7KirUxCEu6MFM=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23938358/u.s._power_plants_in_drought__power_plants_08_11_2022.png"/> <cite><a class="ql-link" href="https://www.drought.gov/sectors/energy" target="_blank">National Integrated Drought Information System</a></cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Power plants across huge swaths of the Western United States are under drought conditions.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uLW5X2">
|
|||
|
|
“Water supplies for agriculture, fisheries, ecosystems, industry, cities, and energy are no longer stable given anthropogenic climate change,” Camille Calimlim Touton, commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, <a href="https://www.usbr.gov/newsroom/#/congressional-testimony/4241">told Congress in June</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Kj5G10">
|
|||
|
|
With hydropower production falling in recent months, <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/04/01/1048726/droughts-are-cutting-into-californias-hydropower-heres-what-that-means-for-clean-energy/">natural gas plants are filling the void</a> in the United States, leading to even more greenhouse gas emissions that heat up the planet.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="g9yBGH">
|
|||
|
|
This isn’t just a problem in the US. Extreme weather around the world, worsened by climate change, is causing all sorts of stresses to power grids. France has had to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/frances-going-through-its-most-severe-drought-ever-pm-says/2022/08/05/78cae492-14b5-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html">curb output</a> from its nuclear power plants because the water they use for cooling warmed up too much. French nuclear plants have also received allowances to <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/edfs-nuclear-reactors-to-discharge-hotter-water-amid-heat-wave-energy-crisis-11659976190">discharge hotter water</a> back into rivers to meet energy demand. Low water levels in the <a href="https://www.pressherald.com/2022/08/10/rhine-river-could-fall-below-critical-mark-risking-industry/">Rhine River are threatening to disrupt coal and gasoline shipments</a> in Germany.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AgVIFY">
|
|||
|
|
As average temperatures continue to rise, many parts of the world will see energy demands grow and supplies constrained, with water as the key factor on both sides of the equation.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dKGUFY">
|
|||
|
|
The good news is that the energy sector is learning to do more with less water. In the US, the overall water use per unit of energy <a href="https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=50698">has been declining in recent years</a>. But that trend will have to accelerate in order to keep people cool and slaked in a warmer world.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="nKuaWy">
|
|||
|
|
How drought is drying up energy production
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kxhkWT">
|
|||
|
|
The energy sector uses water differently than households, farms, and factories, because while it requires a lot, much of that water isn’t used up but instead goes back into reservoirs, rivers, and lakes. A dam can release water to spin a turbine to generate electricity and that water can be used again by another dam downstream, for instance.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0RHmol">
|
|||
|
|
In the US, 90 percent of electricity comes from <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/energy-and-water-use">thermal power plants</a>. They use a fuel — coal, gas, nuclear — to boil water into steam to spin a turbine that turns a generator. That water is contained in a closed loop. To condense the steam, however, these plants often draw on water sources to cool down. Most US power plants also use a closed loop for cooling, recirculating water with minimal loss, but 36 percent of plants use “<a href="https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=36773">once-through</a>” cooling, taking in water from a source and then discharging it back into the lake, river, or ocean it came from.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GEH1Us">
|
|||
|
|
“The [thermal] power plants may withdraw a lot of water, but they return 98 percent of it, at a higher temperature,” said <a href="https://www.jsg.utexas.edu/researcher/bridget_scanlon/">Bridget Scanlon</a>, a senior research scientist at the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas Austin. “They don’t ‘consume’ a lot.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DI4ywI">
|
|||
|
|
Coal, gas, and nuclear plants don’t necessarily require freshwater, either, and can draw on brackish water or other sources that aren’t fit for drinking. That way, they don’t have to compete with cities and farms for fresh water.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="c3QXVT">
|
|||
|
|
But drought still affects power generation directly in several ways. For hydroelectric plants, lower water levels in a reservoir means there’s less energy available to produce electricity. Reservoirs like Lake Powell, behind the Glen Canyon Dam, store so much water that they can continue providing steady power even through drought years. But the long-term drying across the Western US has managed to drink up these reserves.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="Water levels are at a historic low at Lake Powell on April 5, 2022 in Page, Arizona." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/UWtTx38Npdg7ejiI-junzp8RIx8=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23947025/GettyImages_1391089494.jpeg"/> <cite>RJ Sangosti/MediaNews Group/Denver Post via Getty Images</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Lake Powell, impounded by the Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River, sits at record low water levels.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="neXJoY">
|
|||
|
|
“Those are such large reservoirs that it does take multi-year droughts to put a significant dent in hydropower production, but that’s starting to happen,” said <a href="https://cnr.ncsu.edu/directory/jordan-kern/">Jordan Kern</a>, an assistant professor of forestry and environmental resources at North Carolina State University. “There is concern, not this summer, but potentially next summer and moving forward, that water levels could be so low that Hoover Dam might not be able to produce electricity.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZYFKMN">
|
|||
|
|
For thermal plants, droughts mean there is less water overall, including the marginal water sources that they can use. That’s compounded during <a href="https://www.vox.com/22538401/heat-wave-record-temperature-extreme-climate-change-drought">heat waves</a>, where water temperatures rise and lower water levels allow sources to heat up faster. Drawing on hotter water makes power plants operate less efficiently, reducing the amount of electricity they can make. Power plants heat up the water they use for cooling before it’s returned to the source. Too much of this hot water pumped back into nature can harm wildlife, which is why the Environmental Protection Agency regulates this “<a href="https://www.epa.gov/eg/steam-electric-power-generating-effluent-guidelines">thermal pollution</a>.” During heat waves, power plants face limits on how much water they can return to nature, or they must receive special permits to continue operating as normal.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Lpfobh">
|
|||
|
|
Drought also hampers fuel production for power. <a href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2019/9/12/20857196/kamala-fracking-ban-biden-climate-change">Hydraulic fracturing</a>, the technique that provides the most oil and gas in the US, requires enormous quantities of water pumped underground to fracture rock and release fossil fuels. On average, a fracking well uses about <a href="https://www.api.org/oil-and-natural-gas/energy-primers/hydraulic-fracturing/how-much-water-does-hydraulic-fracturing-use-2">4 million gallons of water</a>. Refining oil also uses a lot of water: it takes <a href="https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2016/03/f30/US%20DOE%20Refinery%20Water%20Study.pdf">1.5 barrels of water to process 1 barrel of crude oil</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3xnvEr">
|
|||
|
|
With less water to go around, all of these energy operations become more difficult and expensive.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="V6tei4">
|
|||
|
|
That said, the Western US so far hasn’t seen major power cuts or plant shutdowns like those in Europe this summer. A big reason is that the region is vast, with hundreds of power plants connected through a massive power grid, including more than 600 hydroelectric dams. While many power plants face production shortfalls as a result of the drought, there are enough other generators that can fill the gap, and it’s much easier to shunt electricity around the country than water.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MuzI7g">
|
|||
|
|
“The loss of those projects doesn’t mean lights out for ordinary people,” said <a href="https://energyenvironment.pnnl.gov/staff/staff_info.asp?staff_num=3367">Sean Turner</a>, a water resources modeler at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Lc0ejE">
|
|||
|
|
And while some basins like the Colorado River are running low, other regions like the Pacific Northwest have had a surfeit of water this year, bolstered by robust snowfall this past winter. That has helped boost hydropower from the region to above-average levels. “If you take an overall picture of hydro over the whole West, the story is different to what you would consider if you just look at those isolated cases where drought is really making its impact,” Turner said.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="Water well being drilling next to oil well and fracking site in almond orchard. Kern County, located over the Monterey Shale, has seen a dramatic increase in oil drilling and hydraulic fracking in recent years. San Joaquin Valley, California." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/jAi6ZhksTVpTGk3XfUhxA2PjDmQ=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23947012/GettyImages_566446797.jpeg"/> <cite>Citizens of the Planet/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
A well is drilled to supply water to a fracking site in San Joaquin Valley, California.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7q8oEA">
|
|||
|
|
However, the situation has been dicier in Texas. Much of the state is covered by its own power grid <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/23144696/texas-grid-energy-market-blackouts-heatwave-winter-storm">that largely doesn’t integrate</a> into the wider network across the West. As a result, Texas can’t easily buy power from elsewhere and has to meet its own demand within its borders. Drought coupled with record demand this summer led ERCOT, the state’s grid operator, to issue requests to Texans to <a href="https://abc13.com/ercot-texas-power-grid-outage-2022-houston-dangerous-heat-status/12049951/">conserve electricity</a> and <a href="https://abc7chicago.com/why-texas-residents-are-being-asked-to-conserve-water-immediately/12059778/">water</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="E0R9wY">
|
|||
|
|
While the grid has so far held up, the threat from drought to energy production is only growing, exacerbated by climate change.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ENG7jZ">
|
|||
|
|
“In the future, drought and severe heat waves will continue to pressure electricity generators, particularly hydropower and large thermal facilities,” said <a href="https://viterbi.usc.edu/directory/faculty/Sanders/Kelly">Kelly Twomey Sanders</a>, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Southern California, in an email.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="3zGTze">
|
|||
|
|
The long, dusty road to making energy less thirsty
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PPiZiJ">
|
|||
|
|
Fortunately, there are ways to use less water to produce energy. In the US, the amount of <a href="https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=50698">water needed for power</a> has fallen from 14,928 gallons per megawatt-hour in 2015 to 11,857 per MWh in 2020. That’s due largely to shifting toward natural gas-fired plants that generate electricity more efficiently and require less water for cooling. The proliferation of wind and solar power, both of which require minimal water, has also reduced water demands.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TMjUck">
|
|||
|
|
Some power plants are now using <a href="https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=36773">dry cooling</a>, a technology that requires 95 percent less water than conventional methods. The trade-offs are that dry cooling systems are more expensive to install and require more energy to operate, which makes power plants less efficient. So a dry cooling system on a coal or gas power plant could end up saving water but lead to more greenhouse gas emissions.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="Graph of cooling sources used in US power plants" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Q3-bL-HEbdPqYnEXaM7ekgj1EvE=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23946011/chart2.png"/> <cite><a class="ql-link" href="https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=36773" target="_blank">US Energy Information Administration</a></cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Most US power plants use a closed loop of water for cooling, but a growing number are using dry cooling technology.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uJjuY2">
|
|||
|
|
However, to truly prepare for a hotter, drier future, planners will have to think and act beyond individual power plants. The West needs a diverse mix of energy sources to ensure that the strengths of one can compensate for the weaknesses of another.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="x1PiS1">
|
|||
|
|
Preparing the energy sector for future water shortages also requires rethinking some of the policies that helped create the situation. Water in the Colorado River basin is <a href="https://kjzz.org/content/1359436/colorado-river-overcommitted-heres-why-and-what-we-can-do-about-it">infamously overallocated</a>, with more water claims than there is water to go around, creating a system that could lead to faster water depletion.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="r3N6bQ">
|
|||
|
|
On the demand side, many of the fastest growing regions in the US are in places facing extreme water stress and higher temperatures.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="Map of US population change between 2010 and 2018. " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/FEAZeMGfDeE9OZdg16mqDttMkl8=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23946076/num_pop_change_county.jpg"/> <cite><a class="ql-link" href="https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2019/estimates-county-metro.html" target="_blank">US Census Bureau</a></cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Populations are growing rapidly in the Southwestern US, a region also facing water stress.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="woTqa3">
|
|||
|
|
Mitigating this demand spike will require more efficient cooling systems, urban planning designed to reduce heat, and stricter water conservation.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QcM1LC">
|
|||
|
|
Otherwise, the West is poised for even more energy supply shortages worsened by water constraints and surging power demand from the hottest regions, especially along the drought-parched Colorado River.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MHHGqb">
|
|||
|
|
“Without significant change to water management and demand from the basin, it’s likely that this type of situation is going to continue to reemerge,” Turner said.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mVoMHn">
|
|||
|
|
</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>What the new $80 billion for the IRS really means for your taxes</strong> -
|
|||
|
|
<figure>
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="A sign reading “Internal Revenue Service” outside a building " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/sfCrqAFUbAOvy_USobbWFMjIQKY=/0x0:4864x3648/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71248184/1221422461.0.jpg"/>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The Inflation Reduction Act includes nearly $80 billion in funding for the IRS, which is supposed to help the underfunded agency hire more staff and collect unpaid taxes from wealthy Americans.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hiW5Ww">
|
|||
|
|
Democrats’ new climate, health care, and tax package — known as the Inflation Reduction Act — includes <a href="https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IN/IN11977">nearly $80 billion</a> in new funding for the Internal Revenue Service, which is supposed to help the chronically underfunded agency staff back up and boost enforcement measures to collect unpaid taxes from wealthy Americans.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DlI7h4">
|
|||
|
|
The funding has become a political flashpoint in recent days among conservatives and some business groups, who have falsely claimed that the IRS will use the money to hire an <a href="https://twitter.com/GOPLeader/status/1557716607144706049?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">“army” of 87,000 new agents</a> who will target average taxpayers.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hXFp07">
|
|||
|
|
Sen. Mike Crapo, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, said the new <a href="https://www.crapo.senate.gov/media/newsreleases/crapo-offers-amendment-to-protect-middle-class-small-businesses-from-supersized-irs">funding would be used to “squeeze more revenue”</a> out of Americans who make less than $400,000 because they’re “easy targets.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="40QIPK">
|
|||
|
|
Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader, said the money would be used to “<a href="https://www.republicanleader.gov/leader-mccarthys-statement-on-democrats-scheme-to-increase-taxes-and-expand-irs/">harass the middle class</a>.” The National Federation of Independent Business called the enforcement efforts an “<a href="https://www.nfib.com/content/press-release/economy/nfib-statement-on-inflation-reduction-act/">indirect tax</a>” that would burden small businesses with more audits and examinations.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ToXBgM">
|
|||
|
|
Treasury Department officials say all of those claims are false. Administration officials have reiterated that they will focus enforcement efforts on wealthy Americans and large corporations.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HxALOb">
|
|||
|
|
The $80 billion in funding for the IRS is a small fraction of the <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/23293725/kyrsten-sinema-inflation-reduction-act-climate-taxes">Inflation Reduction Act</a>, which is expected to include more than $400 billion in spending. It’s meant to begin reversing more than a decade of decay and budget cuts at the agency. The IRS’s budget has been cut by <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy0648">nearly 20 percent since 2010</a>, impacting the agency’s ability to staff up and modernize half-century-old technology. In 2010, the IRS had about <a href="https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/10databk.pdf">94,000 employees</a>. That number dipped to about <a href="https://www.irs.gov/statistics/irs-budget-and-workforce">78,000 employees</a> in 2021. Some of the agency’s computers still run on COBOL, a programming language that dates back to the 1960s.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Qbw8nE">
|
|||
|
|
Since 2010, the agency’s enforcement staff has declined by 30 percent, <a href="https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/written-testimony-of-charles-p-rettig-commissioner-internal-revenue-service-before-the-house-ways-and-means-committee-subcommittee-on-oversight-on-the-filing-season-and-irs-operations">according to IRS officials</a>, and audit rates for the wealthiest taxpayers have seen the biggest declines because of years of underfunding. The new bill is an attempt to change that.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="fsRMsO">
|
|||
|
|
What the bill means for most people who file taxes
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MgK273">
|
|||
|
|
The new funding is intended to help reduce the “tax gap,” or the difference between what people pay in taxes and what they owe in taxes, which the Treasury Department estimates is <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/featured-stories/the-case-for-a-robust-attack-on-the-tax-gap#:~:text=A%20well%2Dfunctioning%20tax%20system,revenue%20over%20the%20next%20decade.">about $600 billion</a> annually. The new money could help the IRS increase revenue by about <a href="https://www.cbo.gov/publication/57444">$200 billion over the next decade</a>, according to a Congressional Budget Office estimate, although the exact amount is hard to calculate and <a href="https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IN/IN11977">highly uncertain</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FgkzOH">
|
|||
|
|
Natasha Sarin, a counselor for tax policy and implementation at the Treasury Department, said that for Americans making less than $400,000 a year, their chances of being audited wouldn’t increase from typical levels in recent years.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GUKlwS">
|
|||
|
|
Instead, Sarin said, average taxpayers should have an improved experience filing their taxes because the funds would allow the agency to staff up. In the first half of 2021, there were fewer than 15,000 employees available to answer nearly 200 million calls, which is one person for every 13,000 calls, according to <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy0648">Treasury Department figures</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XqUVPV">
|
|||
|
|
“For regular taxpayers, for small businesses, for low-income taxpayers, the only shift that they are going to realize is there is going to be an IRS employee that can answer the phone when they call,” Sarin said.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JqKpEL">
|
|||
|
|
As a result of reduced staffing at the IRS, audit rates of individual income tax returns decreased for all income levels from 2010 to 2019, according to <a href="https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-22-104960#:~:text=From%20tax%20years%202010%20to,0.9%20percent%20to%200.25%20percent">a recent Government Accountability Office report</a>. Audit rates decreased the most for taxpayers with incomes of $200,000 or more.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UIZApH">
|
|||
|
|
In 2019, the audit rate for taxpayers with income between $25,000 and $200,000 was .17 percent, according to the report. For those making $5 million or more, the audit rate was 2.35 percent in the same year.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="n1zULO">
|
|||
|
|
A <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/how-the-irs-was-gutted">2018 analysis by ProPublica</a> found that while audits had declined most dramatically for the wealthy, the IRS continued to audit the poorest filers — recipients of anti-poverty tax credits, including the Earned Income Tax Credit — at relatively high rates.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JawzCH">
|
|||
|
|
Over the last decade, audit rates for multimillionaires have decreased by twice as much as audit rates for the lowest-income families who receive the EITC because it requires more resources to go after top earners, Sarin said.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MpBaMQ">
|
|||
|
|
The funding should allow the IRS to better target wealthy earners who aren’t paying their taxes because the agency will be able to upgrade its technology, Sarin said, reducing the chances that compliant taxpayers would be audited.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zBkdOS">
|
|||
|
|
Janet Yellen, the Treasury secretary, reaffirmed similar commitments in <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/136/JLY-letter-to-Commissioner-Rettig-Signed.pdf">a letter to the IRS commissioner</a> last week.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cv5ixh">
|
|||
|
|
“Contrary to the misinformation from opponents of this legislation, small business or households earning $400,000 per year or less will not see an increase in the chances that they are audited,” Yellen wrote.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6NCnxg">
|
|||
|
|
Bill Hoagland, a senior vice president at the Bipartisan Policy Center who focuses on economic policy, said improving these aspects would help make it more efficient for average earners to file their taxes, since they could more easily get information to help fill out their tax forms.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xG6DXW">
|
|||
|
|
Budget cuts and reduced capacity have led to a significant backlog of unprocessed tax forms. As of the beginning of August, the IRS had a <a href="https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-operations-during-covid-19-mission-critical-functions-continue">backlog of 9.7 million</a> unprocessed individual 2021 returns.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9vM06f">
|
|||
|
|
“The long story short here is that the average American should not be threatened by this, but should be thankful that they are putting money into taxpayer services that have dwindled tremendously,” Hoagland said.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Rgkq5F">
|
|||
|
|
Janet Holtzblatt, a senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center, said in general, she believed the IRS was committed to upholding its goal of focusing enforcement efforts on wealthy Americans and large corporations. But she said that depends in part on the IRS’s ability to determine people’s “actual” incomes.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NUR19p">
|
|||
|
|
“The kinds of taxpayers who fall in that category where there might be some uncertainty are going to be the self-employed, it’s going to be partners, it’s going to be people who are receiving income that’s not subject to a W-2,” Holtzblatt said. “It’s the ones whose income are not independently reported that become more of a challenge to identify.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uuaBUV">
|
|||
|
|
Sarin said the IRS would focus on hiring employees who have experience working with complex tax filings from large corporations and high-net-worth individuals. Audits of average taxpayers follow a significantly different process, she said.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="mKFcfK">
|
|||
|
|
Is the IRS really going to hire 87,000 auditors?
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vsvfzV">
|
|||
|
|
Of the nearly $80 billion for the IRS in the bill, more than half, or <a href="https://www.democrats.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/inflation_reduction_act_of_2022.pdf">roughly $46 billion</a>, will be used to improve enforcement measures.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RMYWMX">
|
|||
|
|
The IRS hasn’t yet released estimates for how many new employees the agency could hire with the new funding in the Inflation Reduction Act. The agency is expected to release the final numbers and breakdown in the coming months.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="glkPf3">
|
|||
|
|
The 87,000 figure appears to come from <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/136/The-American-Families-Plan-Tax-Compliance-Agenda.pdf">a report the Treasury Department published in May 2021</a>, which outlined the impact of tax compliance measures in the Biden administration’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/22405898/joe-biden-irs-funding">American Families Plan proposal</a>. The report estimated that the IRS could hire 86,852 employees by 2031 with nearly $80 billion in additional funding.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="r4eIxT">
|
|||
|
|
But Sarin said the new funding would also be used to hire other types of employees, such as customer service representatives and IT specialists, and not just new auditors.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="023xgb">
|
|||
|
|
She also said many of the new hires would fill positions left open by employees who are projected to leave the agency over the next decade. At least 50,000 of the agency’s current employees are expected to leave over the next five years because they’re eligible for retirement, Sarin said.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ADH0bK">
|
|||
|
|
Douglas Holtz-Eakin, the president of the conservative American Action Forum and former director of the Congressional Budget Office, said the additional funding didn’t guarantee that the agency would be able to significantly narrow the tax gap since wealthy people typically have lawyers that can draw out the auditing process. But the new funding would still help reverse the agency’s decline, he said.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hRhpQk">
|
|||
|
|
“The workforce is down about 20 percent,” Holtz-Eakin said. “So anything that reverses that has to be considered very significant.”
|
|||
|
|
</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Players need to retain intensity because of long season: Raman</strong> - Bengal head coach stresses on day-by-day imorovement</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>FIFA bans AIFF | Why it happened and what it means for Indian football</strong> - Here is a timeline of events that led to FIFA banning AIFF, its consequences on Indian football, and more</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Women's cricket FTP 2022-25 | Team India to play 2 Tests, 27 ODIs, 36 T20Is</strong> - The ICC released its first-ever Women’s Future Tours Program for the years 2022 to 2025, which includes 301 matches across formats</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>India tour of Zimbabwe | Shahbaz Ahmed gets maiden India call-up, replaces injured Washington Sundar</strong> -</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Dangerous and Agostino Carracci impress</strong> -</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Water level almost unchanged in Idukki reservoir</strong> - Storage level stays at 80.9%</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>We were victims of politics, says Bilkis Bano case convict day after being freed</strong> - Bilkis Bano was 21 years old and five months pregnant when she was raped while fleeing the violence that broke out in the aftermath of the Sabarmati Express train burning incident at Godhra in 2002</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>COVID-19 | Accelerate coverage of precautionary dose, says Health Minister</strong> - States were also advised to expeditiously utilise Centre-sanctioned funds</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>‘Does PM Modi believe in his own words on women safety?’: Congress on release of Bilkis Bano case convicts</strong> - Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said in the Bilkis Bano case, the Supreme Court had ordered the Gujarat Government to pay a compensation of ₹50 lakh to her</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What does KCR know of federal spirit, asks Bandi</strong> -</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ukraine war: Russia blames sabotage for new Crimea blasts</strong> - An arms depot is hit a week after an apparent Ukrainian attack on another military base in Crimea.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Estonia begins removing Soviet-era war monuments</strong> - The government says it wants to remove a source of tension after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Turkey-Greece migrants: 38 people found stranded on tiny, unnamed island</strong> - The group - including a pregnant woman and seven children - have been stuck since mid-July.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ukraine war: Britons held by rebels in Ukraine plead not guilty</strong> - One of the Britons, John Harding, could be sentenced to death by the Russian-backed court.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Russia vows to expand relations with North Korea</strong> - President Vladimir Putin made the comments in a letter sent to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>First look at del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities is magically macabre</strong> - “The world is beautiful and horrible, at exactly the same time…” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1873832">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>CDC to regain control of US hospital data after Trump-era seizure, chaos</strong> - TeleTracking, which has personal ties to Trump, made over $50M in federal contracts. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1873850">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>As Big Tech grapples with caste-based discrimination, Apple explicitly bans it</strong> - Workers allege that casteism influences how companies hire and promote talent. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1873825">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>1,900 Signal users’ phone numbers exposed by Twilio phishing</strong> - No message, profile, or other data exposed—but SMS remains a weakness. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1873800">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Scientists bent frickin’ laser beams to create this detailed image of a cat</strong> - “We can use this system to do quantum simulations of electrons and superconductivity.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1873686">link</a></p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><strong>I still 100% stand behind Alec Baldwin..</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<div class="md">
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Standing in front of him is too dangerous.
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</p>
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</div>
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<!-- SC_ON -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/PooperJackson"> /u/PooperJackson </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/wplimp/i_still_100_stand_behind_alec_baldwin/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/wplimp/i_still_100_stand_behind_alec_baldwin/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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<li><strong>How many Trump supporters does it take to change a lightbulb?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<div class="md">
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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None. Trump says it’s changed and his supporters all cheer in the dark.
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</p>
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</div>
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<!-- SC_ON -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Musicferret"> /u/Musicferret </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/wp5s90/how_many_trump_supporters_does_it_take_to_change/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/wp5s90/how_many_trump_supporters_does_it_take_to_change/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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<li><strong>A man runs home from work</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<div class="md">
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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The second he gets home he finds his wife of 20 years, takes her into the bedroom and throws her on the bed, and pulled some blankets over them.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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The wife was shocked, he hadn’t been this way since they were young!
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Then the man then turns to her and says: “look! My new watch glows in the dark!”
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</p>
|
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</div>
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<!-- SC_ON -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/tomtheboos"> /u/tomtheboos </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/wpdgxb/a_man_runs_home_from_work/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/wpdgxb/a_man_runs_home_from_work/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
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|
|
<li><strong>How many narcissists does it take to change a light bulb?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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|
Narcissists don’t use light bulbs. They use gaslighting.
|
|||
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|
</p>
|
|||
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|
</div>
|
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|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
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|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/TheUpright1"> /u/TheUpright1 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/wpg6st/how_many_narcissists_does_it_take_to_change_a/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/wpg6st/how_many_narcissists_does_it_take_to_change_a/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
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|
<li><strong>Two 70 year old men, Mike and Joe, have been friends all of their lives.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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|
<div class="md">
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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|
When it’s clear that Joe is dying, Mike visits him every day.
|
|||
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|
</p>
|
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|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
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|
One day Mike says, “Joe, we both loved football all our lives, and we played football on Saturdays together for so many years. Please do me one favour, when you get to Heaven, somehow you must let me know if there’s football there.” Joe looks up at Mike from his death bed," Mike, you’ve been my best friend for many years. If it’s at all possible, I’ll do this favour for you. Shortly after that, Joe sadly passes on.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
At midnight a couple of nights later, Mike is awakened from a sound sleep by a blinding flash of white light and a voice calling out to him.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“Mike… Mike!”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“Who is it?”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“it’s me, Joe.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“Joe! Where are you?”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“In heaven”, replies Joe. “I have some really good news and a little bad news.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“Tell me the good news first,” says Mike.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“The good news,” Joe says," is that there’s football in heaven. Better yet, all of our old friends who died before us are here, too. Better than that, we’re all young again. Better still, it’s always spring time and it never rains or snows. Our wives are there too, and young and pretty as ever! And best of all, we can play football all we want, and we never get tired!!"
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
That’s fantastic," says Mike. “It’s beyond my wildest dreams! So what’s the bad news?”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“You’re in the team for this Saturday”.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Chippystix"> /u/Chippystix </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/woxfoh/two_70_year_old_men_mike_and_joe_have_been/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/woxfoh/two_70_year_old_men_mike_and_joe_have_been/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
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|
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|
|
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