The Environmental Protection Agency has committed to rewriting a regulation banning certain uses of heat-trapping chemicals, a low-profile but nonetheless significant climate policy issued by then-President Barack Obama.
Driving the news: In a document signed late Friday by EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, the agency laid out compliance guidelines for affected industries, chiefly heating and cooling companies, in the wake of a court ruling last year rejecting the Obama-era rule. EPA also committed to rewriting the rule, the first official comment from the agency on the issue, according to experts following the issue.
A top official in Obama's Interior Department has an interesting new essay arguing that last month's Gulf of Mexico lease sale wasn't really the flop that it seemed, despite the low bidding totals.
"The extent to which the lease sale was portrayed as a disappointment appears more a factor of the Administration’s amped-up rhetoric as opposed to anything surprising or negative about the actual results."
— Tommy Beaudreau for Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy
Tesla's first-quarter earnings call in a couple weeks just got even more interesting. On Friday Musk shot back via Twitter at The Economist over their story headlined "Tesla is heading for a cash crunch," which cited analyst predictions that Tesla will need to raise more money from capital markets: "Tesla will be profitable & cash flow+ in Q3 & Q4, so obv no need to raise money," Musk tweeted.
Why this matters: It's a bold claim because profitable quarters have been extraordinarily rare in the company's history.
