Carmakers are compelled to introduce electric vehicles to meet rising emissions standards, but the transition is expensive and fraught with risk, and consumers aren't yet on board.
The state of play: There's another potentially faster and cheaper path to electric vehicle adoption: electric delivery fleets. They could catch on faster, especially with new approaches to design and production, and provide a large-scale proof of concept for consumers.
A bipartisan House duo is floating a new plan that's both a throwback idea and a sign of today's climate politics.
Driving the news: Rep. David McKinley (R-W.Va.) and Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.) want to require utilities to greatly cut carbon emissions by mid-century.
Automakers are competing to make the buzziest, strongest, fastest electric truck that would fare well in a dystopian future — albeit one with a reliable grid and eco-conscious drivers.
Driving the news: OK I'm being flip (it's Friday!), but yesterday brought news that GM is indeed reviving the gas-guzzling Hummer as a fully electric and powerful "super truck" with seriously gaudy specs.
The Energy Department's data arm is more favorable on renewables' long-term future than it was a year ago, but its central analysis might still be badly underestimating the tech's trajectory.
Driving the news: The Energy Information Administration's Annual Energy Outlook released yesterday shows power from renewables overtaking natural gas as the nation's largest electricity source in about 15 years.
That sharp spike you see in Tesla's already-high stock price is what happened Wednesday when the electric automaker reported a $105 million fourth-quarter profit and offered a rosy take on what's ahead.
Why it matters: Tesla and CEO Elon Musk kick up lots of dust, but the bottom line is that the trajectory of the world's largest electric vehicle seller matters a lot for the tech's wider adoption — even as competitors ramp, up too.
The death toll from New Zealand's Whakaari/White Island volcanic eruption has risen to 21. American man Pratap "Paul" Singh, 49, died of his injuries in an Auckland hospital, police confirmed in a statement Thursday.
The latest: Singh sustained burns to 55% of his body in the Dec. 9 eruption, his family said in a statement released by police. He was on the island with his American wife, Pratap "Mary" Singh, who suffered burns to 72% of her body and who died of her injuries Dec. 22. They're survived by an 11-year-old son and 6-year-old twin daughters.
Climate activist Greta Thunberg announced in an Instagram post Wednesday that she's applied to register her name and that of the Fridays For Future movement she founded in 2018.
The big picture: The 17-year-old is taking this action to protect their misuse. "I and the other school strikers have absolutely no interests in trademarks. But unfortunately it needs to be done," she said. "Fridays For Future is a global movement founded by me. It belongs to anyone taking part in it, above all the young people. It can — and must — not be used for individual or commercial purposes."
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