Business highlights: Energy company will convert livestock waste at new plant
RALEIGH, N.C. – Duke Energy Corp. said Monday it is expanding its renewable energy from livestock waste, adding poop power to investments the country’s largest electric company has made in whirring wind turbines and acres of solar arrays.
The Charlotte-based utility said it contracted with Carbon Cycle Energy, which will build and own a North Carolina plant that collects methane from pig and chicken waste, refines the gas and delivers enough for Duke Energy to generate enough electricity to power about 10,000 homes a year.
The project is one of the largest in a growing number of waste-to-fuel efforts and likely will draw mostly from swine operations, company spokesman Randy Wheeless said. The state’s 2,000 pork producers now collect liquefied waste in cesspools, also called lagoons, and spray it on planted fields.
Carbon Cycle Energy’s plan is to capture methane near where livestock produce manure, then truck or pipe the gas to a central plant to refine it into fuel Duke Energy can use at four power plants, executive vice president Thomas Mulholland said.
“We’re collecting something that goes to waste, we’re putting it to good use and at the same time reducing smell, reducing negative environmental impact,” Mulholland said.
The project was spurred by a 2007 state law that requires electric utilities to get 12.5 percent of their power from renewable energy and energy efficiency by 2021. More than half the states have similar requirements. But North Carolina, the country’s second-largest pork producing state with about 8.8 million hogs, is one of the few that requires utilities to produce some power from swine and poultry waste.
Homebuying falls
after months of gains
WASHINGTON – Americans retreated from homebuying in February, reversing months of prior gains as low inventories push up prices to levels that restrict sales.
The National Association of Realtors said Monday that sales of existing homes fell 7.1 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.08 million. The decline follows robust yearly sales rates of 5.47 million in January and 5.45 million in December; a new regulation had delayed closings in November.
The housing market enters the traditional spring buying season facing a quandary: There are relatively few properties listed for sale, even as steady job gains and low mortgage rates have bolstered demand from would-be buyers. The limited supplies have fueled rising prices that have, in turn, reduced affordability and limited sales levels. These cost pressures were further enhanced by a volatile stock market that hit down payment savings.
“We assume the plunge in the stock market in the first six weeks of this year persuaded some potential homebuyers to reconsider,” said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.
N.Y. millionaires want
to raise their own taxes
ALBANY, N.Y. – More than 40 millionaires, including members of the Rockefeller and Disney families, are asking to have their taxes raised to help address poverty and rebuild failing infrastructure.
The millionaires wrote a letter to Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo and top New York lawmakers proposing new, higher tax rates for the top 1 percent of earners in the state. The letter says additional revenue is needed to address child poverty, homelessness and aging bridges, tunnels, water pipes and roads.
The tax plan would create new, higher tax rates for those making $665,000 or more.
Social media hotspot Twitter turns 10
NEW YORK – Happy birthday, Twitter. The social media site turned 10 years old Monday, having evolved from what was originally billed as a “microblogging” site into one of the Internet’s most influential means of communication.
But after a long streak of robust growth that turned it into one of the Internet’s hottest companies, Twitter’s expansion has slowed dramatically over the past year and a half. At the end of 2015, it had about 320 million active users, far short of social networking leader Facebook and its 1.5 billion users.
Health officials propose
WASHINGTON – Federal health officials are moving to ban most surgical gloves made with powder, a feature designed to make them easier to wear, but which actually poses health risks to patients and health professionals.
The Food and Drug Administration said Monday the powder added to some latex gloves can cause breathing problems, wound inflammation and scar tissue on internal organs when used during surgery. The agency proposed the ban Monday in a federal filing.
The action is not expected to have much impact on glove supplies or manufacturer sales, according to government research. Most powdered gloves have already been phased out, and only six manufacturers are still registered to make them in the U.S., according to the agency.
Public Citizen, a consumer watchdog group, petitioned the FDA to ban powdered gloves in 1998, citing allergic reactions caused by cornstarch powder used in most brands.
Anthem sues over prescription drug prices
Blue Cross-Blue Shield health insurer Anthem is suing pharmacy benefits manager Express Scripts over prescription drug prices.
Express Scripts runs prescription drug coverage for Anthem, the nation’s second-largest health insurer. Anthem said Monday it wants to recover damages for drug prices that are higher than competitive benchmarks.
Anthem said in a statement that Express Scripts is obligated to negotiate in good faith to make sure Anthem receives competitive pricing, but the pharmacy benefits manager has refused to do so.
An Express Scripts Holding Co. spokesman said Anthem’s lawsuit has no merit.