President Trump called TIME's decision to name 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg as its 2019 Person of the Year "so ridiculous" in a Thursday tweet.
"So ridiculous. Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill!"
The big picture: Thunberg — who has openly discussed the fact that she has been diagnosed with Asperger's, which is on the autism spectrum — fired back by changing her Twitter bio to read, "A teenager working on her anger management problem. Currently chilling and watching a good old fashioned movie with a friend."
Leaky power grids that waste energy before it reaches consumers are an often overlooked source of carbon emissions, per The Conversation.
What they did: Researchers calculated the pollution from additional energy needed to make up for what's lost in transmission and distribution systems worldwide.
A new International Energy Agency report underscores why oil markets haven't been hugely impressed with last week's OPEC+ decision to deepen their output curbs.
Driving the news: The agency's latest closely watched monthly report projects that global oil stockpiles could increase by 700,000 barrels per day in the first quarter of 2020.
Ursula von der Leyen, the new European Commission president, yesterday unveiled plans for an ambitious "European Green Deal" meant to make the EU a net-zero emitter by 2050.
Why it matters: The EU is the world's third-largest greenhouse gas emitting region after China and the U.S.
San Francisco-based maintenance workers for Spin, a scooter rental company owned by Ford, have voted to unionize and joined a local Teamsters chapter, making them the first in the scooter industry to do so.
Why it matters: Scooter companies ruffled a lot of feathers when they showed up in San Francisco (and other cities), which has long been skeptical of tech companies using independent contractors to skirt some labor costs.
Julia Steyn, who ran GM's urban car-sharing service, Maven, until early this year, has been named CEO of Bolt Mobility, a Miami Beach-based electric scooter company co-founded by Olympic sprinter Usain Bolt.
Why it matters: Bolt's co-founders B. Sarah Haynes and Kamyar Kaviani will step aside as co-CEOs to make room for Steyn, whose urban mobility experience is expected to help the 1-year-old company improve and refine its business model. Renting scooters today, Bolt had intended to add a shared electric car to its lineup in 2020, but the company now says it has scrapped that plan.
Donald Trump Jr. blasted Time for picking teen Swedish climate change activist Greta Thunberg to be its 2019 Person of the Year instead of honoring protesters in Hong Kong.
"Time leaves out the Hong Kong protesters fighting for their lives and freedoms to push a teen being used as a marketing gimmick. How dare you?"
Chevron announced a $10 billion to $11 billion write-down on several natural gas assets and one of its oil projects in the Gulf of Mexico.
Driving the news: The company said yesterday that the downward revision in its long-term price outlook means that it will "reduce funding to various gas-related opportunities."
ExxonMobil notched a big win in the New York Supreme Court, but don't expect the victory to inoculate Big Oil against several other courtroom challenges over global warming.
Catch up fast: A judge ruled yesterday that the state's attorney general failed to show that the oil giant misled investors about the costs of addressing climate change. The decision called the claims "hyperbolic."
A recently formed venture capital firm backed by Malaysian oil-and-gas giant Petronas is going into launch mode.
Driving the news: The San Francisco-based Piva today announced a $250 million fund to invest in "breakthrough technologies needed to usher in a new era of energy and industry."
Context: Thunberg has received international attention and praise for her work to raise awareness on climate change — symbolizing a generational movement against the issue. She inspired millions of students to go on strike earlier this year, demanding governments take action against pollution.
The American Petroleum Institute is now supporting the ambitions of the Paris Climate Agreement and, separately, technology for capturing carbon dioxide.
Why it matters: These are subtle but important shifts reflecting the oil and natural gas industry’s reluctant and uneven embrace of climate change as a problem the government should address.
