Canada has emerged as a clean technology leader, with 12 firms on the Global Cleantech 100 list. The list, published by industry monitor Cleantech Group, identifies firms most likely to make a significant environmental and economic impact in the next 5–10 years.
Why it matters: Businesses are facing increasing pressure to reduce their environmental footprint and mitigate risks tied to extreme weather events. Clean tech helps traditional industries operate more efficiently, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and feed a growing population more effectively by creating sustainable construction materials, purifying contaminated water, turning plastics into specialty chemicals, making farming more efficient, and improving energy efficiency in buildings.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wants a Green New Deal fight on his terms, and right now, he's getting it.
Driving the news: "I've noted with great interest the Green New Deal. And we're going to be voting on that in the Senate," McConnell said on Capitol Hill yesterday.
Amazon and GM are in talks to invest in electric-truck maker Rivian Automotive in a deal that would value the Michigan start-up at between $1 billion and $2 billion, Reuters is reporting.
Why it matters: Rivian made a splashy debut last November with 2 new rugged battery-powered models — a pickup truck and a 7-passenger SUV. But it's the electric, semi-automated chassis underpinning those models that has likely attracted the interest of Amazon and GM.
New York City in 60 years could feel like Arkansas now, according to a study and accompanying interactive map published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications.
The bottom line: According to the study, climate in urban areas across North America will change significantly by the 2080s, even if carbon emissions are lowered to optimistic levels. Cities in the northeast will be warmer and wetter in all seasons by 2080, while western cities are expected to become similar to the Southwest.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters Tuesday that the Senate would hold an upcoming vote on the Green New Deal resolution introduced last week by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), saying he wants "to see how [Senate Democrats] feel about the Green New Deal."
Things could get a lot worse before they get better for Venezuela's oil sector, according to a new analysis from the consultancy Rystad Energy. But needless to say, the political outcome there matters a lot.
What they found: In their "base" case, production falls from 1.34 million barrels per day at the end of 2018 to 1 million this year, then drops further to 890,000 barrels per day next year.
Residential geothermal company Dandelion Energy has raised $16 million in series A funding from backers including Google's VC arm and big homebuilding player Lennar Corp., bringing total funding to $23 million.
Why it matters: The New York-based company, which spun out of Alphabet's R&D arm in 2017, said the cash will allow new R&D, the opening of new warehouses, and personnel additions.
One of the biggest concerns about the use of technology to capture carbon dioxide emissions is that it would displace renewable energy and deepen dependence on fossil fuels, but a new report out today suggests that’s largely unlikely to happen.
Driving the news: The report by environmental group Clean Air Task Force finds that a federal tax credit that Congress expanded last year for carbon-capture technologies doesn’t displace any electricity from renewable energy while maintaining an impactful reduction of emissions.
