Challenged by critics who wanted to take away some of his corporate power, Tesla CEO Elon Musk told shareholders today that he will break through the 5,ooo-a-week barrier for Model 3 production by the end of June.
The U.S. government has asked Saudi Arabia and other OPEC countries to increase oil production, according to Bloomberg.
Why it's happening: The Trump administration is likely reacting to the fact that gasoline prices just spiked to their highest level in the U.S. in more than three years and they are likely concerned about potential political backlash, Axios' Amy Harder notes.
In an interview with the Washington Post on Tuesday, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine details his learning process on the climate issue, and how he went from climate science contrarian to agreeing with most Democrats on this issue.
Why it matters: Bridenstine occupies a unique position within the ranks of senior Trump administration officials. Unlike leaders of the EPA, Interior Department, Energy Department, and other agencies, he recognizes the mainstream scientific findings on climate change. His climate science views have rapidly evolved during the past year.
Lime, a San Francisco-based bike and scooter-sharing startup, is raising around $250 million in new funding led by GV (formerly Google Ventures), Axios has learned.
Why it matters: E-scooter competition keeps heating up, with rivals like Lime and Bird believing that cash-grabs will translate into land-grabs.
The emerging White House plan to throw an economic lifeline to struggling coal-fired and nuclear power plants would likely thwart progress on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, even though nuclear generation is the largest U.S. source of zero-carbon power, some analysts tell Axios.
Why it matters: This underscores how climate advocates increasingly fearful of a wave of nuclear plant closures — a topic we recently explored here and here — are still without policy allies in the White House despite the Trump administration's support for the fuel.
As Royal Dutch Shell faces both lawsuits and activists accusing it of misleading the public about climate change, its CEO addressed how the company has handled the issue — with a nod to the future.
Why it matters: Shell represents the leading edge in the oil industry when it comes to investments in cleaner sources of energy, but it has also borne a great deal of activist and investor pressure to do more.
For the more than 1 billion people without reliable electricity access, advances in off-grid solar (OGS) solutions present significant promise: A recent World Bank report showed that by 2017 the global OGS sector was providing improved energy access to an estimated 73 million households.
Yes, but: Half of the projected $5.7 billion for OGS to hit its full potential from 2017 to 2022 still needs to be raised. While established multilateral and commercial financiers are expected to partially fill this gap, new financial innovations that tap less traditional investors also show strong potential to help meet the sector’s growing needs.
"Institutional investors with $26 trillion in assets under management called on Group of Seven leaders on Monday to phase out the use of coal in power generation to help limit climate change, despite strong opposition from Washington," per Reuters.
ICYMI: The big domestic development since our last edition was the White House ordering DOE on Friday to "prepare immediate steps" to prevent the closure of economically struggling coal-fired and nuclear power plants.
It's long been said that climate change will be felt earliest and most severely in the poor nations of the world that contributed the least to the problem. A recent study, along with illuminating data from a new World Bank Report, show how this is the case.
The new flashpoint in the climate change debate is over the role of oil companies — whether they're culprits, allies, or something of a frenemy.
Why it matters: The burning of fossil fuels these companies produce is a big reason Earth’s temperature is rising, yet their products are also foundations of the global economy. Whether you love or hate them, what role these companies play is inherent to addressing climate change, particularly in the absence of presidential leadership on the issue.
