With some of the largest-ever wildfires on record burning in California and the death toll rising, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has blamed the massive fires on environmentalists refusing to allow more logging operations in federal forests.
Why this matters: Zinke, along with Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, are in charge of land management policies for vast tracts of fire-prone forests in the West. How each official views climate change's role in these blazes will help determine those policies.
For the second time in a week, Elon Musk appears to have tweeted factually incorrect information about his efforts to take Tesla Motors private:
The bottom line: Neither Silver Lake nor Goldman Sachs have signed financial advisory agreements with Musk, or at least hadn't at the time of his tweet.
Tesla announced Tuesday the formation of an independent committee to evaluate the "advisability or feasibility" of CEO Elon Musk's proposal — which he still has not formally submitted — to take the electric automaker private.
The details: The committee will consist of three independent directors: Brad Buss, Robyn Denholm and Linda Johnson Rice. The committee has also retained the law firm Latham & Watkins LLP and will retain an independent financial advisor once a formal proposal is submitted.
The prospect of Saudi Arabia backing Tesla provides a glimpse into the kingdom's oil and economic strategy, and it's not as simple as a hedge against crude's long-term decline.
Why it matters: Saudi Arabia is OPEC's dominant producer and holds massive reserves, but the kingdom wants to diversify its economy away from crude oil at a time when some analysts see a global demand peak beginning to appear over the long-term horizon.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk disclosed the law firms and financial advisers, including Goldman Sachs, that will work with him on his newly-announced plan to take his electric automaker Tesla private.
Why it matters: Namingthe team enables Musk to claim a tangible step in what remains a vague and uncertain proposal to buy out Tesla at $420-per-share.
Volkswagen is considering building a factory in Europe to produce solid-state batteries, a next-generation battery technology, to power its electric vehicles, according to a report from earlier this month. The news comes on the heels of Volkswagen's June investment of $100 million in QuantumScape, a solid-state battery startup.
The big picture: Solid-electrolyte batteries gained prominence in the lab a decade ago, but are just now achieving the cell performance to make the automotive industry take notice, with Volkswagen specifically citing performance demonstration "at automotive rates of power." As the technology develops, there has been a flurry of international development interest: Toyota, Nissan, Dyson and BMW have all made similar investments.
Details about the U.S–Turkey crisis have been unfolding over the past few days: a pastor as stage hostage, frozen assets for ministers on both sides, tariffs on Turkish exports of aluminum and steel to the U.S., a Trump tweet here, a fiery Erdogan speech there. But this is only the spectacular side of the story.
The big picture: The troubles of the Turkish lira have deep roots. Turkey is a structural-deficit country: It needs both short-term money on a daily basis and foreign direct investment in the long run. While the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) initially managed these fundamentals fairly well after it came to power in late 2002, doing so has become incompatible with President Erdogan's autocratic governance.
California's deadly wildfire season continues, and one staggering data point illustrates just how serious things are: Three of the state's top 10 largest wildfires on record are burning at the same time.
Why this matters: California forests are primed to burn after the state saw its hottest month on record in July, and vegetation is at record levels of dryness. Ominously, the peak of the California wildfire season doesn't arrive until September and October.
Elon Musk issued a statement Monday attempting to answer questions about his decision to take Tesla private at $420 a share, including why he tweeted that he had "funding secured."
The big picture: Musk explained that he met with the Saudi sovereign wealth fund on July 31 and that he left the meeting with "no question that a deal... could be closed." He said he is in ongoing discussions with the managing director of the fund regarding details about how Tesla would be taken private.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel will host Russian President Vladimir Putin on August 18 for bilateral talks on Syria, violence in eastern Ukraine and energy issues, according to a German government spokesman.
Why it matters: The energy question will be of particular interest to the U.S. because of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, a project that President Trump has repeatedly criticized. Trump has said Germany is "totally controlled" by Russia because of the planned pipeline and wants Germany — an enormous gas purchaser — to buy liquefied natural gas from the U.S. instead.
Randy Atkins is trying to make coal great again, but not how President Trump has promised.
The intrigue: Atkins’ company, Ramaco Carbon, is working to open what would be Wyoming’s first coal mine devoted not to electricity, but to high-tech products like carbon fiber or 3D printing material. Atkins represents the leading edge of what could be a new, high-value market for coal after decades of being America’s cheapest power source.
