Axios

Tesla's long-delayed electric Semi is finally going into mass production, with the company opening its first factory Thursday in Nevada.

Why it matters: The economics of electric 18-wheelers have long been challenging, but record diesel prices are suddenly making the equation a lot more compelling.

NEW YORK — Policymakers might be aligned on wanting to expand U.S. energy, but they often diverge on the path to get there, several business leaders and policymakers said at Axios House events at Climate Week.

Why it matters: AI is energy-hungry but also drives energy innovation. Political divides over which energy sources to prioritize can slow progress on both fronts.

Axios' Amy Harder, Mike Allen and Ben Geman spoke with Jarrod Agen, executive director of the National Energy Dominance Council and assistant to the president; Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.); Great Barrier Reef Foundation managing director Anna Marsden; Redwood Materials founder and CEO JB Straubel; and McLaren Racing sustainability director Kim Wilson at several Sept. 22 Axios events.

State of play: The Trump administration has argued that wind and solar projects are too expensive and unreliable, while also raising concerns about foreign supply chains.

• Wind and solar are "not going to be the solution for the power needs that we have," Agen said when asked whether the White House might change its approach to reach a permitting deal.
• While he didn't rule out wind and solar as part of energy's future, Agen said two concerns are sourcing — particularly if the materials come from China — and tax subsidies.

Yes, but: Levin said that while both Democrats and Republicans want the U.S. to dominate energy, he sees clean energy as the country's path forward.

• "[Y]ou have to skate to where the puck is going, and the puck is not going to the coal plants or to gas-guzzling SUVs," Levin said.
• He said it's important to have a "proactive vision" like the House Democrats' Thriving Economy Project, which includes energy affordability and modernizing the grid.
• A Lazard analysis this year found renewables are one of the lowest-cost forms of new-build generation on an unsubsidized basis.

What they're saying: Straubel said he's generally optimistic about energy and predicted the grid will back-connect with some of the new technologies in five or 10 years.

• "I think in its current regulatory framework, [the grid is] very stressed, but a lot of these new microgrids or separate islanded functions I think will end up back-connecting to the grid, and they're serving as ways to bring a lot of new generation resources ... often solar, sometimes gas," said Straubel, a Tesla co-founder.

Meanwhile, other Axios House conversations focused on how climate solutions are taking shape outside Washington — including through an unusual collaboration between global racing and protecting the coral reef.

• Wilson said there's untapped potential for sport-related companies in climate action and awareness, particularly with their platform of business partners and fans.
• For instance, McLaren Racing is using its performance engineering expertise to team up with the Great Barrier Reef Foundation to cut the manual labor involved in annually collecting at-risk coral spawn — a high-performance ecosystem on the front line of climate change.

How it works: Oscar One, the robot McLaren created and named after Australian driver Oscar Piastri (although it also stands for the Operational System for Coral Assembly Restoration), can perform in roughly 8 seconds what might take a marine scientist 90 seconds — a big impact when the effort requires 100,000 repetitions.

• When testing race cars, Wilson said, "we're constantly developing and iterating ... and looking at where it's performing, where can we gain more performance, and that's exactly the process we'll follow with Oscar Machine Two, Three, Four, etc."

Stunning stat: Coral takes up 1% of the sea floor yet shelters and feeds 25% of marine life, Marsden said. She said if the Great Barrier Reef were a company, it would be the country's fifth-largest employer.

• "Curing" coral reefs, she said, will require a collective alignment on climate because they are so sensitive to even a 1-degree change in temperature.
• "This is the canary in the coal mine," Marsden said. "It was only last year that it was declared that coral reefs will be the first ecosystem that this generation will witness losing if we don't actually do everything we can."

Go deeper: Watch the conversations.

Bill Gates will warn on this weekend's "Meet the Press" that he can see a future where AI wipes out humanity.

Why it matters: Gates, one of technology's leading optimists, has increasingly sounded the alarm on AI dangers. His new comments come as techology leaders and the government weight how to handle fears of an AI-created doomsday.

Foreign investors bought a record $426 billion in stocks and investment fund shares in the second quarter, according to data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis out Thursday.

Why it matters: The AI boom is attracting loads of overseas money, and the flood of dough counters a prevailing notion that the U.S. is losing ground with foreign investors.

NEW YORK — The energy grid is stressed — yet slowing the pace of AI development to even out supply and demand would delay innovation, Nvidia head of sustainability Josh Parker said at Axios House at Climate Week.

Why it matters: Parker pointed to AI-enabled clean energy enterprises that would stall if deployment paused.

Axios' Amy Harder and Ben Geman spoke with Support + Feed founder Maggie Baird, Parker and Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawai'i) at the Sept. 21 Axios House at Climate Week event.

Driving the news: While data centers can use large quantities of water to keep chips cool, new technologies aim to minimize their climate impact.

• For instance, Parker said Nvidia is "exceptionally energy-efficient," pointing to the company's closed-loop liquid cooling that maintains the chip temperature at 113℉ and lessens water evaporation.
• Higher electricity costs for the general consumer is another concern that data centers are trying to mitigate, Parker said, including by curtailing their power draw during peak grid stress periods. Last week, a coalition of Google, Nvidia and startup Emerald AI partnered to back data centers that can flex their power demand.

Yes, but: "The way to provide people relief at the utility level on their monthly bills is to build as much clean energy as possible," said Schatz, who represents a heavily petroleum-dependent state.

• Schatz and other senators have legislation to contend with rapid AI deployment and prevent data centers from increasing power costs. However, he said, the AI alarm is bigger than clean energy or water use — it's "an existential question" impacting people's livelihoods.
• He said CEOs tout AI even as they warn it could gut employment, then wonder why workers aren't embracing it.
• "Best-case scenario, we eviscerate employment. Why aren't you glad you have this? We're going to use solar energy," Schatz said of CEOs' positioning.

The intrigue: While the recent climate focus has been on data centers' impact, the movement has been slow to address the climate impact from animal agriculture, said Support+Feed's Baird. She said there's resistance to "reality-based, science-based action" on agriculture as a climate strategy.

• Baird said she saw signs reading "End fossil fuels," and when asked if people should be encouraged to eat fewer animal products, the sign-holders responded with, "I don't want to tell people what to eat."
• "The one that we have the most power to change is food, and yet we talk about it the least," she said. "What doesn't give me hope is going to climate conferences and having steak on the menu."

Zoom out: Baird said that while personal responsibility matters, government policy on plant-based food and its climate impact can more quickly drive change.

Go deeper: Watch the full event.

NEW YORK — Water has moved beyond solely a sustainability conversation to become a business strategy.

Why it matters: Industries such as food and beverage, manufacturing and agriculture need a union between responsibly sourced supplies and ongoing sustainable water practices.

Axios Pro Climate Deals reporter Alan Neuhauser spoke with Jim Andrew, executive vice president and chief sustainability officer at PepsiCo, and Ria Montes, executive chef at Fish Shop, at Axios House at Climate Week. Suntory sponsored the Sept. 22 event.

Zoom in: Because Montes wants the freshest fish quickly for her D.C. restaurant, she chooses to source it from the North Carolina-to-New York area.

• As water ecosystems change, the availability and location of certain fish — like rockfish, which she said are starting to migrate farther north — change their migration patterns and seasonality.
• Warming waters caused tuna and mackerel, typically available in the summer, to be sourced in her defined access area in early spring.

What they're saying: Sustainability can come at a premium for restaurants, which factor into their menu pricing costs like diesel for shipping food and supplies.

• "We do little things like only getting whole fish in and, sure, is it more on labor? Is it more time-consuming to butcher a whole fish versus just getting a filet, which is what everybody wants?" said Montes. "Absolutely, but in this way, we can utilize the whole fish instead, and that way we have more insurance on the quality of the fish as well."

Zoom out: For a large food and beverage company like PepsiCo, water scarcity is a business risk.

• Water is used as a beverage ingredient, and since PepsiCo is 60% a food company, it also needs water to grow crops like oats, potatoes and corn.
• Additionally, water is vital for factory sanitation and clean packaging, Andrew said, adding that membrane bioreactors take the water used at 21 plants and make it drinkable.

What's next: When looking to enter a new market, a water risk assessment determines the viability of this shared resource, he said.

• "Sustainability at scale is a team sport," said Andrew.

Content from the sponsor's segment:

In a View From the Top conversation, Suntory Holdings chief sustainability officer Jun Asaki said collective actions, even involving competitors, are essential when it comes to watersheds, because they are shared.

• "When you realize that we're lacking or [there is] a shortage of water, then it's too late," Asaki said.

Go deeper: Watch the full conversations here.

NEW YORK — Politics is an obstacle to the country's competitive energy and climate efforts at a critical time, industry leaders say.

Why it matters: The Trump administration's position that renewables are too expensive has stuck a bipartisan wedge between innovation and progress.

Axios' Amy Harder and Ben Geman spoke with American Clean Power Association CEO Jason Grumet and Commonwealth Fusion Systems CEO Bob Mumgaard at Axios House at Climate Week. Siemens sponsored the Sept. 22 event.

Between the lines: Grumet said that while the clean energy industry has been heavily subsidized, the 2025 GOP federal budget bill that became law phased out Biden-era wind, solar and electric vehicle incentives.

• He said the idea that wind and solar aren't valuable because they don't run around the clock is inaccurate. "The strongest grids are grids that have a significant amount of natural gas, nuclear and renewables."
• Batteries, solar and wind, specifically onshore, are typically the cheapest solutions in most of the country, Grumet said.

State of play: There's an energy boom for electricity because of the AI race, which Grumet called "the best of times and the worst of times."

• "We have the best market fundamentals you could ever have for building clean energy. 90% of the electrons that came on the grid last year were coming from clean sources," he said.
• "It's the worst kind of obstructionist politics that you can imagine in an administration that used to be about not picking winners and losers and letting the marketplace go forward."

Yes, but: Mumgaard said that even if all the tools are in place to fight climate change, innovation would still be critical.

• He compared views of today's fusion energy work to the Wright brothers pushing forward their aviation ideas and designs in spite of naysayers convinced it would never happen.
• "So [CFS' Massachusetts campus] is a full-on facility that you can go and you can push a button and you literally have a star in a bottle, and there is no longer a debate of 'Can you do it?'"
• Knowing that humans can create fusion opens up more options, and "we're talking a year, maybe a little longer, but like that type of time frame" for a Kitty Hawk moment in fusion, he said.

What's next: To be globally competitive, the U.S. has to treat fusion as an energy project with supportive funding, not a science project, said Mumgaard.

• He said China, specifically, has moved beyond academically studying the details of plasma and on to how to make it, build a supply chain for it, construct industrial policy and deployment.
• The U.S. is "the place where the science is, you know, frankly the best," Mumgaard said. "But it's lacking at the policy level."

Content from the sponsor's segment:

In a View from the Top conversation, Siemens global head of sustainability Eva Riesenhuber said the biggest obstacle when organizations have environmental sustainability goals is calculating the return on investment and bridging the time gap between that investment and the gains.

• "We don't have the time anymore to afford to just optimize for the past," Riesenhuber said. "We need to anticipate the future, and that only goes through software and AI."

Go deeper: Watch the full conversations here.

NEW YORK — Access to water depends on reliable infrastructure, sufficient investment, and strategic conservation, leaders said at an Axios House roundtable at Climate Week and the UN General Assembly.

Why it matters: Water has joined energy as a flashpoint in the AI era, and businesses increasingly see it as a factor in whether or not they can grow.

Axios' Ben Geman and Amy Harder moderated the Sept. 23 roundtable discussion. The event was sponsored by Schneider Electric.

5 big takeaways from the conversation:

1. Water is a "fundamental economic input," said Aleem Remtula, WaterEquity managing director of private equity and infrastructure. "A drought in Kenya for a farmer is not an environmental issue; it's an income generation issue. It's a food security issue."
2. AI can be an "enabler" for smarter water use, said Brandon Oyer, Amazon Web Services head of energy and water for the Americas. "I see it as an opportunity from an infrastructure perspective, on top of the software that can be enabled."
3. Water risk is intensely local, making community-specific investment and messaging critical, according to Mission North head of energy and infrastructure practice Julia Kelson and Salesforce senior vice president of impact Sunya Norman.
4. Aging water systems face a large investment gap, said U.S. Water Alliance CEO Mami Hara. "The federal government provides around 7% of the need for water infrastructure funding," she said, and "we are not seeing the kind of support for water that is needed."
5. Businesses tend to recognize water's financial influence only after disruption hits, Pacific Institute president and CEO Jason Morrison said. When it becomes a "supply chain disruption or operational disruption … then it becomes understood at a board level as being strategic and important."

Content from the sponsor's remarks:

In opening remarks, Andre Marino, Schneider Electric North America SVP of Industrial and Process Automation, said there's more to water than just the AI debate.

• "We have onshoring manufacturing coming, we have population growing, coupled with the climate challenge that we are facing … [and] although we have all these challenges, we have the technology to support us."

The climate conversation inside companies has shifted toward a more immediate business challenge: how to power growth.

Why it matters: AI and data centers have turned electricity into a boardroom issue — pulling climate change into conversations about grid costs, infrastructure and reliability.

Treasury yields are soaring, with the 30-year Treasury bond climbing to its highest level since 2004 Thursday.

• The selloff in bonds started to accelerate Wednesday after a sizzling early report on the economy in September.

The big picture: For the bond market, these moves have been big. Bigly even.

• On Thursday morning, the 30-year yield rose as high as 5.44%. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note was 5.13%.
• Wednesday's gain of roughly 0.15 percentage point in the 10-year Treasury yield was the biggest since April 2025, when President Trump's "Liberation Day" tariff announcement rocked markets.

As extreme heat makes afternoons more dangerous, schools, sports teams and outdoor employers are shifting when — and sometimes whether — people can safely be outside.

Why it matters: Adapting to hotter conditions could reshape the American workday while putting a premium on the cooling and energy infrastructure people rely on when outdoor conditions become unsafe.

In his first-ever meeting with Venezuela's new leader, President Trump emphasized the need to keep oil flowing, relations warm and that country's elections on the horizon, White House sources tell Axios.

Why it matters: Trump did not insist on a future election date in his meeting with Venezuela's acting president Delcy Rodriguez, but he emphasized their importance as a crucial final step in Venezuela's evolution into a full-fledged democracy, the sources said.