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Ohio State Legislator Is Arrested in $60 Million Corruption Scheme
Federal agents on Tuesday arrested one of the most powerful officials in Ohio state government, the Republican House speaker, along with a former state Republican Party chairman and three other people in what law enforcement officials described as a $60 million scheme to bail out a foundering energy company. In a criminal complaint, the F.B.I. described a wide-ranging conspiracy in which the energy company helped finance the election of the House speaker, Larry Householder, in 2018. It then allegedly bankrolled an effort led by Mr. Householder to pass a $1.3 billion bill subsidizing two troubled nuclear power plants and a campaign to defeat a 2019 referendum to repeal that bill. [ read more … ]
Dark money and bribery: FBI says utility funded $60M scheme
Federal officials charged the Ohio speaker of the House with racketeering yesterday for allegedly masterminding a $60 million bribery scheme to pass legislation subsidizing nuclear and coal plants in the state and rolling back clean energy standards. Larry Householder, a Republican, was arrested by FBI agents at his farm east of Columbus. Also arrested were a former state GOP chairman, a Householder adviser and two lobbyists who collectively ran a dark money group funded by a utility that was central to the scheme, prosecutors said. [ read more … ]
Wind Energy
Bernhardt eager for offshore wind ‘that works’
Bernhardt, whose boss, President Trump, has shown little interest in offshore wind, said he is eager to launch the offshore wind industry. “I am very eager to do it, but I am eager to do it in a way that works,” he said. “Let me give you an example. In the West we do wind. You know where we don’t put a windmill? In the middle of a highway. You can drive all the roads in the west and you’re not going to drive into a windmill.” [ read more … ]
States
N.Y. announces largest-ever solicitation for renewables
New York’s governor said yesterday that the state would seek deals with renewable developers to produce power for up to 1.5 million homes, through what he called the “nation’s largest combined solicitations ever issued” in the United States. The two solicitations — one for land-based renewables and another for offshore wind — are the state’s formal invitation to developers to submit project plans. They’re also New York’s principal means of building out a fleet of large-scale renewables quickly enough to supply 70% of all power by 2030, as required by state law. [ read more … ]
Emissions
E.P.A. Proposes Airplane Emission Standards That Airlines Already Meet
The Trump administration on Wednesday made public the federal government’s first proposal to control planet-warming pollution from airplanes, but the draft regulation would not push the airlines beyond emissions limits they have set for themselves. President Trump is still pressing forward on his three-and-a-half-year rollback of environmental standards, and the proposed airline rule would stave off an impending lawsuit by putting the federal government in compliance with a legal requirement that it regulate airplane greenhouse emissions. [ read more … ]
Climate
Top Scientists Just Ruled Out Best-Case Global Warming Scenarios
A group of 25 leading scientists now conclude that catastrophic warming is almost inevitable if emissions continue at their current rate, even if there’s less reason to anticipate a totally uninhabitable Earth in coming centuries. The research, published Wednesday in the journal Reviews of Geophysics, narrows the answer to a question that’s as old as climate science itself: How much would the planet warm if humanity doubled the amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere? [ read more … ]
Relief Legislation
McDonald’s, Pepsi call on Congress to include renewable energy in COVID-19 relief
McDonald’s and Pepsi are calling on Congress to include green energy in the next COVID-19 relief package, arguing the coronavirus recession poses long-term damage to the renewable energy industry. “Without support, our businesses will be less able to use our buying-power to drive job creation and economic growth in the renewable energy industry,” more than 30 companies wrote in a letter sent to congressional leaders Tuesday. [ read more … ]
Pandemic
Green energy ratchets up power during coronavirus pandemic
Renewable power has taken up a record share of global electricity production since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a Reuters review of data, suggesting a transition away from polluting fossil fuels could be accelerated in the coming years. Advocates of traditional energy have long argued that clean energy sources, like solar and wind farms, which depend on fickle weather, cannot be trusted to provide steady supplies of electricity into national grids that were designed to operate in tandem with reliable coal and gas generators. [ read more … ]
EVs
In Electric Car Market, It’s Tesla and a Jumbled Field of Also-Rans
Although it has become the world’s most valuable automaker, Tesla still has to figure out how to become consistently profitable, reduce quality problems in its luxury cars and more quickly turn alluring prototypes into mass-produced vehicles. One area where it hasn’t had much to fret about: competition. Over the last year or so, several automakers, including Audi, Jaguar and Porsche, have added heralded new models intended to cut into Tesla’s electric dominance. But they have barely made a dent, at least in the United States. Sales of the Jaguar I-Pace, an electric sport utility vehicle similar to the Tesla Model Y, have totaled just over 1,000 this year. Porsche has reported similar sales for its electric sedan, the Taycan. [ read more … ]
Rivian is already lobbying. What does it want?
Rivian is a new electric truck maker that has generated tremendous investment and publicity despite not yet producing a vehicle. In both Washington and the states, it also has become a lobbying force. What does Rivian want? [ read more … ]
VW and Ford EV models may be delayed by trade-secret fight
Ford Motor Co. and Volkswagen AG warned a swirling legal dispute between two South Korean battery suppliers could threaten their plans to start producing electric vehicles in the U.S.
The dispute between SK Innovation Co. and LG Chem Ltd. could undermine Ford’s intention to make an electric version of the F-150 in Michigan from 2022 and VW’s efforts to build battery-powered cars in Tennessee the same year. In filings with the U.S. International Trade Commission, the carmakers warn the U.S. against banning imports of components SKI needs to manufacture batteries that LG Chem says were developed using stolen trade secrets. [ read more … ]
Campaign 2020
Biden’s climate plan strives to be pro-labor. But it isn’t enough for some unions
The former vice president’s climate plan won accolades from many corners of the labor movement, yet it is still generating concern from heavy-industry labor groups worried a rapid shift away from fossil fuels will also mean a transition away from their traditionally well-paying blue-collar jobs. “I’ve read it,” Sean McGarvey, president of the North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU), a federation of 14 construction unions, said of Biden’s climate plan. “The devil’s always in the details. It speaks to many portions of the policy proposal to creating these middle-class family sustaining jobs, union jobs. I’m just not sure how that gets done mechanically at this point.” [ read more … ]
Note: News clips provided do not necessarily reflect the views of coalition or its member governors.