The speculative fever for electric-car metals is pushing to nearly four-year highs prices for nickel—a key ingredient in stainless steel. Nickel is the top industrial metal and among the best-performing assets of 2018, with futures contracts on the London Metal Exchange up 21%, as battery manufacturers, mostly in China, and investors across the world hoard […]
Tesla plans to cut 9 percent of its workforce, Electrek reported on Tuesday, in what CEO Elon Musk called a “difficult, but necessary reorg” that will impact salaried employees but spare the production line at its Fremont factory. The Palo Alto-based car maker began layoffs on Monday, Electrek said, citing sources familiar with the matter. […]
The only large-scale car manufacturer in California argues that doing business in the state is hard enough without a fast-developing labor regulation backed by organizations that want to unionize its Fremont plant. Elon Musk’s Tesla is fighting a rule under development by two state agencies that would require it to be certified as a “fair […]
Unbeknownst to most people, about half of San Diego’s recycled material is sent across the ocean to China. Now, that’s a problem. China no longer wants all of it. Unless city officials can quickly figure out another way to recycle material, some recyclables could end up in landfills. In recent months, China imposed new restrictions […]
In what is considered the largest single investment by any state to promote electric vehicles, California utility regulators Thursday approved $776.5 million to fund and evaluate projects that will be carried out over the space of five years by the state’s three investor-owned utilities. The portion assigned to San Diego Gas & Electric accounts for […]
While tariffs on the steel and agriculture industries have taken center stage in the trade conflict between the U.S. and China, that conflict has quietly moved into another less visible sector. It’s greatly disrupted the recycling industry. The U.S. is coming to the end of a 30-day suspension on all recycling going to China. But […]
It’s March 2016. Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk is on stage for the dramatic unveiling of the Tesla Model 3. Tesla will make hundreds of thousands a year, he said. It will be fun to drive. It will be affordable. “In terms of price, of course, it’ll be $35,000,” he beamed, awash in thunderous applause. […]
The California Energy Commission just voted unanimously to require new homes to be constructed with solar panels. Amazingly, the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), a trade organization, openly bragged about manipulating the government to force new homes to be equipped with solar panels. “One of the more amazing things in environmental policy is how brazen […]
When Chinese battery maker BYD Ltd. approached Southern California officials in 2008 touting ambitious plans to build electric cars, local politicians jumped at the promise of thousands of jobs and cleaner air. In the nine years since, agencies have awarded BYD grants, subsidies and public contracts worth more than $330 million for its battery-powered buses, […]
Firefighters doused the blazing Tesla Inc. Model X’s battery pack, and then company engineers removed about one-quarter of its power cells before the vehicle was deemed safe to tow off of a California freeway. That didn’t prevent the powerful and highly flammable lithium-ion battery cells from reigniting. The car caught fire twice more within 24 […]
In the Bay Area, Tesla’s biggest impact is seen in the number of jobs the company has created. Alameda County, which is home to Tesla’s Fremont factory, claimed 5,081 Tesla workers as residents, while 5,737 jobs came from residents of Santa Clara County, 735 from San Mateo County and 352 hailed from Sacramento. The study […]
What I found is that widespread adoption of electric vehicles nationwide will likely increase air pollution compared with new internal combustion vehicles. You read that right: more electric cars and trucks will mean more pollution. That might sound counterintuitive: After all, won’t replacing a 30-year old, smoke-belching Oldsmobile with a new electric vehicle reduce air […]
The U.S. recycling industry is breaking down. Prices for scrap paper and plastic have collapsed, leading local officials across the country to charge residents more to collect recyclables and send some to landfills. Used newspapers, cardboard boxes and plastic bottles are piling up at plants that can’t make a profit processing them for export or […]
At least three panel companies have announced manufacturing plans in the U.S. in recent months. China’s JinkoSolar Holding Co. is opening a factory in Jacksonville, Fla. SunPower Corp. has agreed to acquire struggling panel maker SolarWorld Americas Inc. First Solar Inc. plans to open a new factory in Ohio, where it already has some panel-making […]
Gov. Jerry Brown delivers the keynote address at a economic forum today in Beverly Hills focused on business between California and China. The all-day summit features state lawmakers and business officials from China. The broad focus is on economic policy, clean energy, global trade, development of transportation and infrastructure projects in China and artificial intelligence. […]