A new Politico magazine story that imagines Bernie Sanders as president lists potential Cabinet officials if he won — including the climate activist Bill McKibben at EPA and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee as energy secretary.
Why it matters: This is putting the cart way, way, way, before the horse, but it gets at an important (if obvious) thing: personnel will matter a lot in the next administration.
Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) reached a proposed $1.7 billion settlement with state regulators and had a revised $13.5 billion agreement for people impacted by California's fatal 2017 and 2018 wildfires approved Tuesday, AP reports.
Why it matters: The steps mark significant progress for the utility as it seeks to emerge from bankruptcy in the coming months, after Gov. Gavin Newsom rejected its financial rehabilitation plan Friday for falling "woefully short."
Former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates was sentenced to 45 days in jail — to be served on weekends — on Tuesday in a Washington, D.C. federal court.
Why it matters: His sentencing wraps up one of the final outstanding portions of former special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, which Gates cooperated with extensively.
An interesting Bloomberg piece compares the European Union's newly unveiled climate proposals with the Green New Deal that's in vogue in American progressive circles on the left.
The intrigue: There's a lot there, but at one point the authors wonder whether the multitopic focus of the Green New Deal — which tackles health care, job and wage guarantees — will make it tougher to implement than the European Green Deal.
A pair of events over the past few days offers a preview of upcoming investor efforts to push some of the world's largest companies to get more active on global warming.
Why it matters: Shareholder pressure is becoming an increasingly important driver of corporate decision-making at a time when national governments' political will on climate is uneven at best.
Investors are pouring record amounts of money into passive ESG funds — but the vagueness of just how money managers determine the makeup of their sustainable funds is now attracting attention from regulators.
Why it matters: Investors are paying high management fees for these "socially responsible" funds. It's important that they get what they pay for.
After briefly declining as the Paris Climate Agreement was finalized in 2015, global coal consumption is now poised to keep growing — albeit only slightly, according to a new International Energy Agency forecast.
A 2018 explosion at a natural gas well owned by an ExxonMobil subsidiary emitted more methane into the atmosphere than some countries do in a year, a new study using satellite data has found.
Why it matters: It's the first time methane from an oil or gas incident has been detected and quantified using data gathered by satellite. The study shows space technology could become a key tool in detecting leaks of methane — one of the most potent greenhouse gases.
