New York Times: Scott Pruitt Faces Anger From Right Over EPA Finding He Won’t Fight
When President Trump chose the Oklahoma attorney general, Scott Pruitt, to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, his mission was clear: carry out Mr. Trump’s campaign vows to radically reduce the size and scope of the agency and take apart President Barack Obama’s ambitious climate change policies.
In his first weeks on the job, Mr. Pruitt drew glowing praise from foes of Mr. Obama’s agenda against global warming, as he moved to roll back its centerpiece, known as the Clean Power Plan, and expressed agreement with those who said the EPA should be eliminated. His actions and statements have galvanized protests from environmentalists and others on the left.
But now a growing chorus of critics on the other end of the political spectrum say Mr. Pruitt has not gone far enough. In particular, they are angry that he has refused to challenge a landmark agency determination known as the endangerment finding, which provides the legal basis for Mr. Obama’s Clean Power Plan and other global warming policies.
Southeast Energy News: Even After Avangrid’s Winning Bid, ‘No Urgency’ for Offshore Wind in North Carolina
After building North Carolina’s first commercial onshore wind development, Avangrid Renewables now has the rights to another first in the state: an offshore wind farm 27 miles from the Outer Banks.
The company won a highly anticipated federal government auction this month, bidding $9.1 million for the chance to erect hundreds of wind turbines in a patch of ocean just over the Kitty Hawk horizon.
But unless North Carolina enacts aggressive renewable energy goals like those in other Atlantic Coast states, experts say the state’s first offshore wind farm is still a decade or more away.
Fortune: Buy Ford Stock, Says Elon Musk to Disgruntled Tesla Shareholders
A group of Tesla investors has urged the luxury electric-car maker to add two new independent directors to its board, without ties to Chief Executive Elon Musk, to “provide a critical check on possible dysfunctional group dynamics.”
A defiant Musk took to Twitter on Wednesday afternoon to suggest the investors buy stock in Ford instead. The Ford family controls the Detroit automaker through two classes of stock.
In a letter dated Monday, five investment groups including the California State Teachers Retirement System, Hermes Equity Ownership Services and CtW Investment Group urged Tesla to have all of its directors re-elected annually.
Teslarati: All-Electric Lucid Motors ‘Air’ Reaches 217 MPH in High-Speed Stability Test
Making a grand entrance at the 117th annual New York International Auto Show today is electric-car startup Lucid Motors. The California-based maker of the “private jet on wheels” is debuting its ultra luxury Lucid Air along with its Alpha Speed Car, which recently completed its first high-speed stability test at a software-limited 217 mph (350 km/h).
The fully autonomous capable Lucid Air represents a new take on luxury vehicles, packing in amenities often found in private jets, and boasts expansive space with an exterior footprint of a mid-sized car.
Bloomberg: Britain’s Post-Brexit Economy Needs Energy Market That's a Mess
Relying on natural gas to fuel Europe’s second-largest economy was never going to be easy for the U.K., even before Brexit.
Britain’s once-vast North Sea gas fields are fading, and even after a decade of trying, the island nation hasn’t replicated the fracking boom that turned the U.S. into the world’s largest producer. Gas imports have jumped 87 percent in the past decade. That’s left the country at the mercy of foreign suppliers just as the U.K.’s planned exit from the European Union signals trade rules for the fuel will probably have to be rewritten.