Two big announcements in California yesterday show how the world's fifth-largest economy is moving on vehicle electrification with the help of some big corporate players.
Why it matters: California is by far the country's largest auto market and already home to an array of electric vehicle initiatives, such as the California Public Utilities Commission's late May approval of $738 million in electrification projects by state's big utilities.
Major automakers are joining with California officials and big power companies to launch a multi-million dollar campaign aimed at speeding up adoption of electric vehicles in the state.
Why it matters: California, the world's fifth-largest economy, is by far the country's largest auto market. However, while EV deployment there is growing, carbon emissions from transportation are still rising in the state.
Not long after putting the news of Shell's big new Canadian LNG project to bed, Axios received a Wood Mackenzie note taking stock of the action with analyst Dulles Wang writing that after several quiet years, "We believe 2019 could be the busiest year of LNG [final investment decisions] ever. It seems that mega-projects are back."
Why it matters: The expected flurry of action reflects an important dynamic — China's energy needs are booming while it's trying to move away from coal in order to address terrible air pollution. The Canadian project joins others, like the proposed Alaska LNG project, planning to serve Asian demand more broadly.
In the wake of its 2015 emissions scandal, Volkswagen reached a settlement with the EPA to pay $2.7 billion across all 50 states to make up for unaccounted emissions from non-compliant vehicles. States have been instructed to use these funds to subsidize the purchase of zero-emissions vehicles, as California and New York are already doing.
Why it matters: The trucks, buses, planes and trains that drive the U.S. economy and get us from point A to point B are taking a hazardous toll on the environment, producing 28% of the country's greenhouse gas emissions. But with the Volkswagen payout, states will have new means to clean up their transportation sectors, laying the foundation for nationwide electrification.
