Reuters: DONG Energy May Jettison Oil and Gas in Latest Wind Shift
DONG Energy may shed its oil and gas business, sharpening its focus on wind power and potentially opening the door to a deal with Danish peer A.P. Moller-Maersk, which is also seeking a new home for its energy assets.
DONG Energy has moved to the forefront of international offshore wind farm development, and that business became its biggest contributor to profits in the first half of this year.
Joining a list of firms that, hit by a two-year slump in oil prices due to oversupply, have looked at selling oil and gas assets to raise funds, DONG Energy said on Wednesday the operations were no longer of long-term strategic importance.
Guardian: Power Stations to Get Early Warning Against Jellyfish Invasions
Invasions of jellyfish have proved adept at shutting down power plants in recent years. But an early warning tool is now in development to alert power stations to incoming swarms that block the cooling water intakes of coastal plants.
EDF’s Torness nuclear power plant in Scotland was closed for a week in 2011 after a mass of moon jellyfish invaded, and the company is now working with researchers from the University of Bristol to tackle the problem.
Jellyfish swarms have also closed nuclear and coal power plants in Sweden, the U.S. and Japan in recent years, and the new forecast tool is being designed to work in all oceans. Israeli power stations have also had jellyfish problems, while the Philippines suffered a massive blackout in 1999 after 50 truckloads of jellyfish had to be removed, and a U.S. nuclear-powered warship, the USS Ronald Reagan, was incapacitated when visiting Australia in 2006.
Business Insider: Uber Has Quietly Launched Its Own 'Uber for Trucking' Marketplace Called Uber Freight
Uber has already mastered moving people and food around cities. Now it's getting into the long-haul business with a new division called Uber Freight.
The plan builds on Uber's acquisition of Otto, a self-driving trucking company that Uber bought in July for $65 million.
Otto's main focus was to build self-driving truck kits that equipment manufacturers or freight networks could buy and install on their own, but it also secretly harbored a desire to build its own "Uber for trucking" marketplace.
Miami Herald: Solar Amendment Campaign Scrubs Its Web Pages After Leaked Recording
The political committee behind Amendment 1 on solar energy has scrubbed from its social media platforms nearly every reference to the James Madison Institute after revelations that the group’s policy director bragged in a leaked audio recording that the utility industry is using the amendment to deceive the public into thinking it is a pro-solar initiative.
Consumers for Smart Solar, a political committee financed primarily by the state’s largest utilities, had prominently displayed a favorable voters guide prepared by JMI on its website, and in most of its promotional materials for the past several months.
But nearly all references were deleted after the Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times reported that JMI’s policy director, Sal Nuzzo, was recorded calling the amendment “an incredibly savvy maneuver” that “would completely negate anything they [pro-solar interests] would try to do either legislatively or constitutionally down the road.”
AutoBlog: 'Tesla Supporters Are Like Members of a Religious Cult'
Never one to keep his opinion to himself, Bob Lutz fired a number of shots at Tesla, comparing fans of the all-electric brand to cultists and its leader, Elon Musk, to late Apple founder Steve Jobs. And no, that last one wasn't a compliment.
"Tesla supporters are like members of a religious cult," the former GM exec told CNBC's Squawk Box. "Just like Steve Jobs was worshiped at Apple, it's the same way with Elon Musk, who is seen as a new visionary god who promises this phantasmagorical future, a utopia of profitability and volume."
Lutz with the set, and now the spike: "The only problem is, Steve Jobs delivered, and Elon, God bless him, hasn't delivered a thing, except increasingly negative cash flow, and an increasing lack of profitability; more and more capital spending."