Axios

Tesla CEO Elon Musk gave an update to employees in an email on Tuesday explaining the company is halting production of its Model 3 for "a comprehensive set of upgrades," that will double its production levels, Electrek reports.

Why it matters, per Axios' Ben Geman: This lays out in some detail how the company, which has repeatedly missed targets for ramping up production of the mass market Model 3, intends to meet the closely watched pledge to reach 5,000 per week by mid-year. Successful scale up of the vehicle, which Tesla has struggled to produce at scale, is key to the company’s future.

Mike Catanzaro, the top White House staffer on domestic energy and environmental policy, will step down and return to the private sector next week as a consultant and adviser and CGCN Group. Francis Brooke, who currently works in Vice President Mike Pence's office, will replace Catanzaro on April 30.

Why it matters, from Axios' Amy Harder: Catanzaro was the adviser behind President Trump's top energy priorities, including repealing regulations and ethanol mandate reform. His departure will leave a vacuum of policy guidance even greater than that of George David Banks, his counterpart on international energy issues who resigned.

BuzzFeed broke the news last night that Tesla is temporarily shutting down production of its mass-market Model 3 sedan, a hiatus expected to last four to five days.

Why this matters: Successful large-scale production of the sedan is critical to the future of the Silicon Valley automaker, which is churning them out more slowly then initially planned.

Local officials in Colorado will announce litigation Tuesday against large oil companies over the effects of climate change, according to a report in the Boulder Daily Camera and a source familiar with the plan.

Why it matters: The litigation from Boulder and San Miguel Counties and the city of Boulder signals that the current spate of climate lawsuits against fossil fuel companies is moving beyond high-profile cases in California and New York, which have focused largely on damages from sea-level rise.

The electric and hybrid share of U.S. vehicle sales has hovered around 3% for the past decade.

Why it matters: For all the hoopla surrounding electric cars, they’re still only a sliver of America’s auto industry. Fully electric cars are gaining market share, but the overall demand for electrics and hybrids has risen only slowly. In part, this is because sustained low gasoline prices have revived Americans' traditional preference for larger vehicles, which are mainly gasoline-powered.

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."

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.