Institutional investors call on Canada to boost energy, mining regulations

Bloomberg

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper

A group of institutional investors, including money managers and corporate governance officials at U.K and Swedish pension funds, is calling on Canadian regulators to increase public disclosure by Canadian energy and mining firms and to create a consistent global standard for all significant tax and royalty payments made by those companies across their global operations.

Such disclosure was mandated in the European Union's transparency and accounting directives in June, and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced plans at the G-8 Summit that month to follow suit with similar regulations for Canadian-listed mining and energy companies, according to a news release from F&C Asset Management, which co-wrote a letter to Natural Resources Canada, the agency overseeing natural resources policy in Canada.

The 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act included similar provisions, although a July ruling by the U.S. District Court in Washington stopped the implementation of that part of the law. The group has also written to the Securities and Exchange Commission seeking to adopt a global standard.

The letters were sponsored by F&C Asset Management, Aviva Investors and SNS Asset Management, and were signed by 32 institutions with a combined $5.8 trillion in assets.

?This move by Canada is critical for achieving a consistent global transparency standard,? concluded Arne Loow, senior manager and head of corporate governance at the 240.9 billion Swedish kronor ($37 billion) AP4, Stockholm in the F&C news release. ?As one of the world's top listing venues for mining stocks, it needs to take its rightful place at the top table by setting a meaningful standard in line with the U.S. and EU. We don't want companies evading tough standards by shopping around for the weakest forum and picking Canada. The fact is that Canada's own mining industry leaders have broken the mold by calling for this: They are the first to recognize the value to the industry of transparent business practice, and we agree.?

?From an investor perspective, the key is reducing risk,? Frank Curtiss, head of corporate governance at RPMI, which oversees the ?18 billion ($27.9 billion) Railways Pension Scheme, London, said in the F&C release. ?The less mystery there is behind these resource deals, the fewer unpleasant surprises we can expect.?

? Contact Rick Baert at rbaert@pionline.com | @Baert_PI

Source: http://www.pionline.com/article/20130828/DAILYREG/130829899?utm_campaign=saxo_rss&utm_source=rss02_rss&utm_medium=rss

Low Winter Sun Katy Perry Roar Dufnering Amanda Dufner Teen Choice Awards Hannah Anderson meteor shower tonight

RI judge OKs lawsuit against Schilling, others

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) ? Most of a lawsuit claiming former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling and executives at his failed video game company duped the state's economic development agency into approving a $75 million investment can move forward, a Rhode Island judge ruled Wednesday.

Superior Court Judge Michael Silverstein's decision allows the Economic Development Corp. to proceed with its lawsuit against Schilling, former 38 Studios executives, former EDC officials and others. The suit alleges fraud, negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, racketeering and conspiracy and says the board was misled into approving a $75 million loan guarantee for the company in 2010.

38 Studios ? named for Schilling's old jersey number ? filed for bankruptcy last year, leaving the state on the hook for $112 million. About $90 million is outstanding.

With the decision, the EDC has cleared the first major hurdle in pursuing potential claims against Schilling and others. Among other things, the lawsuit claims the defendants knew the company would run out of money by 2012, but concealed that from the EDC board, which made the final decision to back the deal.

The agency had used the loan guarantee to lure 38 Studios from Maynard, Mass., to Rhode Island, which has struggled for years with a bad economy and high unemployment.

Gov. Lincoln Chafee, who opposed the deal before he took office and who serves as EDC board chairman, said he was "gratified" by the ruling.

"It allows the important claims to proceed and is a significant first step to recovering the taxpayers' losses," he said in a statement.

Jeffrey Schreck, who represents Schilling and others at 38 Studios, declined to comment. Schilling has previously called the lawsuit political and denied wrongdoing. He said at the time the suit was filed that the EDC's approval of the loan guarantee was made "with its eyes wide open and with full understanding of any risks." Schilling has accused Chafee of not doing enough to help 38 Studios stay afloat and publicly called him a "dunce of epic proportions."

The EDC sued in November, naming 14 defendants. Nine of those worked for the agency, including former Executive Director Keith Stokes and former Deputy Director Michael Saul, as well as its attorneys and financial advisers. Four of the defendants were executives or on the board at 38 Studios, including Schilling. The final defendant issued an insurance policy to 38 Studios.

The defendants moved to dismiss all or parts of the lawsuit, and the judge rejected most of their arguments.

The suit doesn't seek a specific dollar amount but wants repayment of the $75 million in bonds that supported the deal. It seeks triple damages from some of the defendants, including Schilling.

In his ruling, Silverstein said the state can't immediately sue to recover the entire $75 million because it hasn't lost that much. The bonds are being repaid over time. But the judge said the EDC might have a claim for future losses if and when the General Assembly approves the payments. He also said the agency could sue for fees and salaries paid to the defendants and damage to its reputation and credit.

The legislature this year appropriated an initial $2.5 million for payments on the bonds.

Max Wistow, an EDC lawyer, said he was "quite pleased" by the decision and looks forward to moving ahead with the case. In court, Wistow has described a "fraudulent scheme" in which the defendants both withheld information and provided false information.

Attorneys for Stokes and Saul argued they should be immune from liability under the "public duty" doctrine because they were public officials who were doing their jobs and following orders, but the judge ruled the doctrine doesn't apply in a case where an employer is suing an employee. Saul's attorney, Bruce Gladstone, said his client is disappointed by the ruling but called the judge's finding that the EDC cannot now recover a $75 million loss "well-reasoned."

Silverstein dismissed some counts against Barclay's and Wells Fargo, which acted as bond placement agents for the EDC, and Starr Indemnity and Liability Company, which issued an insurance policy for 38 Studios.

The next hearing in the case is scheduled for Sept. 13.

___

Associated Press writer Michelle R. Smith contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ri-judge-oks-lawsuit-against-schilling-others-160205812.html

heather morris the bachelor finale south by southwest i want to know what love is courtney mercury retrograde bath salts

What will it take to screw in (an energy-efficient) light bulb?

energy

Eric Rosenbaum CNBC

56 minutes ago

AP

Andy Fisher, a systems engineer for GE, holds up a century-old light bulb. Note how the light bulbs in your house look pretty similar.

After a century of progress in tech, the light bulb remains the same, perhaps the most enduring of backward technology in use on a large scale.

The federally mandated phase-out of inefficient bulbs has met with intense resistance, from the Tea Party to panicked buyers stockpiling a lifetime of the classic A-Line incandescent, with its "warm" glow.

But beyond paranoid rhetoric is nostalgia: More than one hundred years after Thomas Edison's breakthrough, most consumers still want their light bulbs in the traditional pear shape. But creating an efficient light bulb in the traditional shape -- and that gives off that same warm light consumers have become accustomed to -- is proving tough for manufacturers.

(Read more:?11 ways your daily routine will never be the same again)

The pear shape no longer represents a vital production but is still what many people want to see on store shelves.

"Lighting is an art and a science. The appearance of fixtures and bulbs becomes part of our culture, and when you try to change culture, you better have a strong reason to do so," said Terry McGowan, a former manager of the lighting division at?GE who now serves as director of engineering for the American Lighting Association.

The light bulb of old, McGowan said, was significant because you could ?bounce it on the floor and it will not break.

?It will bounce like a ball.?

The classic form also houses several tricky engineering problems (the need for a heat sink and lighting quality that recreates the diffuse, "warm" light to which homes lit by incandescent bulbs have become accustomed). Companies are still working on design and engineering solutions to these challenges within an LED frame.

How to make an appealing LED light has divided manufacturers. The competition is a once-in-an-era opportunity, as LED bulbs can provide up to 25,000 hours of residential use.

"How we transition to CFL [compact fluorescent] bulbs and LEDs is a billion-dollar question," said Todd Manegold, director of LED lamps at Philips. Billion, literally: There are about 5.6 billion light bulbs in U.S. residential use.

(Read more:?The booming business of 3-D printing)

"Manufacturers are trying to capture these billions of sockets now residing with incandescent bulbs," McGowan said. "And you have to be the size and shape of what's in those sockets. If you don't get that socket now, it won't be available again until who knows when. It's a desperate horse race."

John Stranick, head of GE's North American consumer lighting business, said the classic A-line shape is one that consumers grew up with. Although inefficient, he said, it diffuses heat well and has a nice light quality.

GE's experience with compact flourescents showed that even after the company had worked out start-up time and warmth problems, consumers would reject them based on design.

"Even before we got to LEDs, we had to replicate that iconic shape," Stranick said.

(Read more:?Crowdfund this: Medical devices)

McGowan of the American Lighting Association said Phillips has been "carefully treading the line between appearance and function" and has managed to make LED lighting interesting, even if it can be argued that won't be the quickest route to mass adoption.

Advanced Lumonics has a museum with two examples of every LED bulb ever made, a kind of Noah's Ark of LED history, including "corncob" and "snowcone" designs. The "scrapped" designs of LEDs' early days also include external "fins" used as an approach to the heat sink issues, and colored phosphor coatings over the bulb exterior as an approach to light diffusion?LEDs by nature emit light in one direction, while a residence typically requires an omni-directional lighting source.

Costigliola said Cree wants to make a bulb with the Edison shape, and that the company's sales data may show that for mass adoption to take place, the standard shape needs to be a big part of the equation.

"The Cree bulb isn't a show-off," he said, compared with a higher-priced Switch "liquid-cooled" bulb, or a Philips' Wi-Fi-enabled Hue bulb or LED lighting fixture?the latter costing several hundred dollars. Though he stressed that price remains king: When Philips lowered the price on its yellow phosphor-coated LED bulbs, a technical solution Philips has since moved away from in newer designs, EarthLED.com saw a bump in orders, able to "move 4,000 a month on Amazon."

McGowan said that it's easy to lose sight of the historical fact that no light source ever invented has completely disappeared.

"The Amish have nothing but kerosene lamps in their living rooms," he said. "The consumer can't be dictated to in lighting, and the faux old-fashioned bulbs with carbon filaments that glow are very popular now. It's appearance lighting, not efficient lighting."

"LEDs won't take over 100 percent of the market. All these technologies will exist, but comfort level will dictate how much adoption there is, and if you make it familiar it accelerates the comfort level," he said.

? 2013 CNBC LLC. All Rights Reserved

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/663286/s/30612cf4/sc/32/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Cbusiness0Cwhat0Ewill0Eit0Etake0Escrew0Eenergy0Eefficient0Elight0Ebulb0E8C10A995690A/story01.htm

jersey shore Pasquale Rotella Michael Clark Duncan courtney stodden Ncaa Football Scores Plaquemines Parish michigan football