Axios

Pacific Gas & Electrical's equipment was responsible for causing California's deadliest and most destructive wildfire that killed 85 people and burned 150,000 acres in 2018, investigators said on Wednesday.

The big picture: PG&E — California's biggest utility company — filed for bankruptcy earlier this year in anticipation of facing hefty fines following its equipment being blamed for sparking the Camp Fire. California politicians and utility companies are battling to figure out whether utilities should be allowed to pass along liabilities from fire-related damage claims to taxpayers as wildfires become more frequent and deadly in California. State fire officials have sent the investigation to the Butte County district attorney who will have the authority to pursue a criminal case, per the Modesto Bee.

Go deeper: California utility stock collapses amid wildfire liability concerns

Violent storms are set to hit the Central U.S. starting on Friday and lasting into the following week, potentially bringing damaging winds, large hail, tornadoes and flooding, the Washington Post reports.

Our thought bubble from Axios’ Andrew Freedman: Meteorologists see warning signs flashing red during the next several days as a strong jet stream disturbance brings the ingredients necessary for round after round of severe weather to the Central U.S. In addition to tornadoes, there are major flash flooding concerns given the already water-logged ground in this region, and up to a foot of rain likely in some locations during the next 7 days.

The Department of Energy's 2020 budget request reveals new initiatives for advanced energy storage technologies, which are critical to integrating more clean energy into every portion of the power grid.

Why it matters: In the DOE's assessment, deployment of these technologies has been slowed by a "scarcity of technical information on [their] economic performance." The proposed efforts are meant to lower technical barriers to their adoption, helping to meet high electric grid demand by saving energy during off-peak periods from intermittent renewable sources like wind and solar.

2020 Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren revealed a plan Wednesday designed to increase military readiness for climate change that would require the Pentagon to reach net-zero carbon emissions on non-combat bases by 2030.

The big picture: Instead of rolling out one comprehensive, one-size-fits-all climate plan, Warren is choosing to release multiple climate proposals. Last month, she proposed a ban on oil and gas drilling offshore and on public lands. She also proposed an executive order that would require that 10% of U.S. electricity generation must come from renewable sources located offshore or on public lands.

Roughly two-thirds of buses worldwide will be electrified by 2040, according to the latest research from BloombergNEF, while sales of electric cars and light-duty commercial vehicles are on track to be more than 50% by then too.

A new coalition of more than a dozen major corporations and environmental groups is launching on Wednesday to urge Congress to pass legislation addressing climate change.

Driving the news: The initiative, the CEO Climate Dialogue, features CEOs from oil giants BP and Royal Dutch Shell, as well as from companies across the economy including Citi, Dominion Energy and Ford Motor Company. The Environmental Defense Fund and The Nature Conservancy are among the environmental groups that helped convene the group.

In a recent speech, French President Emmanuel Macron raised a proposal for an EU–wide carbon “tariff” on goods coming into the bloc from countries without a price on carbon — a way to lead by example on climate while still leading through advantage for industry.

Why it matters: The plan could prompt other countries to adopt carbon pricing in part to avoid disadvantaging their goods and services. In the best case, it could lead to a rapid increase in the amount of global emissions exposed to a carbon price, without creating excessively harmful economic distortions.

Drones attacked oil pump stations in eastern Saudi Arabia on Tuesday morning, in what Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al Falih is calling "an act of terrorism," according to Gulf News.

Driving the news: "Yemen's Houthi rebels said they had attacked several targets," AFP reports.

President Trump is heading to Louisiana Tuesday to tout his record supporting natural gas exports right as his administration's trade war with China is making that same thing more difficult.

Driving the news: The higher tariffs China announced Monday include U.S. LNG. The increase from 10% to 25% on a range of goods from Beijing means the trade spat is deepening, and energy will continue to be collateral damage.