The Drive: Faraday Future Confirms It's Not Dead Yet With New FF 91 Video
Faraday Future, the Chinese-backed California electric-car startup, is rather like a submarine when it comes to news -- only rarely surfacing with details about its planned FF 91 luxury electric car. The last time Faraday emerged from the depths, though, it appeared to have sprung a leak. The company unveiled the FF 91 at CES back in January amid reports that it was struggling to pay for construction of its factory, located not far from the CES show floor in North Las Vegas, Nevada. Little has been heard from Faraday since...but the automaker just released a video of the FF 91 cruising around on public roads.
While it's hard to tell from the languid pace of the car in this video, the FF 91 should be able to blow many other cars into the weeds if its announced specs hold up. At CES, Faraday said it would do 0 to 60 mph in 2.39 seconds, thanks to 1,050 horsepower. It also claimed a maximum range of 378 miles, courtesy of a 130-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack. Faraday also plans to integrate autonomous-driving capabilities.
Hartford Business Journal: Avangrid Takes 50% Stake in Mass. Offshore Wind Developer
Avangrid Renewables, a subsidiary of New Haven-based parent Avangrid Inc., has acquired a 50 percent ownership interest in Vineyard Wind, an offshore wind energy developer in Massachusetts.
The strategic partnership combines Avangrid Renewables' U.S. onshore wind development business with that of Vineyard Wind, which is part of the Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners portfolio.
New York Times: Stay In or Leave the Paris Climate Deal? Lessons From Kyoto
The architects of the Paris climate accord deliberately designed it to be supple, adaptable to the differing political and economic environments of the nearly 200 countries that signed it. The authors were mindful of its predecessor, the Kyoto Protocol, which was roundly rejected by the United States because it set binding emissions targets for wealthy countries while letting most developing nations, including China, off the hook.
But now, as forces within the Trump administration continue to debate whether to leave the Paris Agreement, they face a far different calculus. The accord, agreed to in 2015, is largely nonbinding, imposing no serious legal restraints on the United States or any other nation. While that makes the treaty a less rigorous plan to fight global warming, it also means there are few compelling reasons to exit.
That flexible structure has given ammunition to those urging the Trump administration to stick with Paris, a group that includes Ivanka Trump, diplomats like Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, and hundreds of corporations.
Union of Concerned Scientists: Solar Job, Coal Jobs, and the Value of Jobs in General
Science isn’t done by guesswork or gut instinct. It requires expertise not only to conduct but to evaluate; in-depth research in a field outside of my own is often beyond my ability to critique. I don’t have the knowledge to review a paper on molecular biology, although I might notice a really blindingly obvious flaw.
I have more knowledge of economics than I do of molecular biology. Even so, it’s not my primary field of expertise, so when I saw a recent post by American Enterprise Institute scholar Mark J. Perry, I was a little confused. His “Bottom Line” includes this: “The goal of America’s energy sector isn’t to create as many jobs as possible. […] We want the fewest number of energy workers.”
Is there something I’m missing? Is AEI actually saying that jobs are bad?
Washington Post: Tunnel Collapses at Hanford Nuclear Waste Site in Washington State
Hundreds of workers at the Department of Energy’s Hanford nuclear site in Washington state had to “take cover” Tuesday morning after the collapse of 20-foot-long portion of a tunnel used to store contaminated radioactive materials.
The Energy Department said it activated its emergency operations protocol after reports of a “cave-in” at the 200 East Area in Hanford, a sprawling complex about 200 miles from Seattle where the government has been working to clean up radioactive materials left over from the country’s nuclear weapons program.
The agency said in a statement that the 20-foot section is part of a tunnel that is hundreds of feet long and is “used to store contaminated materials.” The tunnel is one of two that run into the Plutonium Uranium Extraction Facility, also known as PUREX. The section that collapsed was “in an area where the two tunnels join together,” the department said.