Green Lights Feb. 27: Top stories
Don't miss a single story from the best of Callaway Climate Insights.
. . . . Welcome back to Green Lights. Here’s our roundup of the best of Callaway Climate Insights. This week, David Callaway looks at the holy grail of battery power and the new market for fast-growing industrial battery startups. He also looks at what’s next for the Supreme Court after the tariff ruling. (Hint: climate) Michael Molinski reimagines what Che Guevara would see if he were riding through “The Motorcycle Diaries” today. Have a great weekend and please subscribe to support our climate finance reporting.
. . . . Form Energy, a Massachusetts battery startup run by the former head of Tesla’s Powerwall business, Mateo Jaramillo (above), announced a major deal to brings its 100-hour, iron-air battery to Minnesota to help grid giant Xcel Energy install 300 megawatts of batteries at a plant that will in part help Google power a new data center. Form’s unique batteries, which hold power for much longer than traditional lithium batteries, will provide the missing link both Xcel and Google need to their solar and wind power usage by backing up the power centers when renewable sources go down. In a way, it is the holy grail of battery power and opens up an entire new market for fast-growing industrial battery startups.
. . . . The Supreme Court is finally in the game, writes David Callaway. And following the court’s tariff ruling comes the climate wars. Specifically, the justices this week — amid a tense moment or two during the State of the Union Address — decided to consider whether they will hear a major new climate case working its way through the courts, one that could force big oil companies such as Exxon Mobil and Chevron to potentially face billions of dollars in liability in state climate lawsuits.
. . . . Can a company’s greenwashing practices be a signal to investors of deeper corporate flaws than just taking marketing advantage of investor interest in climate change? It seems so, and the practices could even extend into how a company handles its corporate taxes, writes Mark Hulbert. A new study purports to show that companies with significant reputations for over-touting their climate-fighting intentions also are more likely to play fast and loose with things like their taxes. Hulbert argues the study is important because it can signal deeper cultural problems within a company’s corporate governance that might be a red flag to investors.
. . . . On the fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the green energy world has changed completely, writes David Callaway. It’s important to stop and take notice of anniversaries like this, not just to honor those who sacrificed so much, but to remind ourselves just how wrong we can be sometimes in our geopolitical and economic assumptions. What happens next in Ukraine is anybody’s guess, as well as with global markets. Anyone who tells you otherwise will more than likely be wrong.
. . . . Lucid enjoys a popular following among car enthusiasts and its plan to introduce lower-priced vehicles will be well received. How it keeps to its robotaxi goals with Uber and automated system developer Nuro will be a key driver of investor interest in the coming year. With the EV market in the U.S. under the gun of the current administration in Washington, now is arguably a good time to retool and invest. But Lucid has lived many lives already. The next several months will be key.
. . . . It’s been 74 years since Che Guevara and his buddy Alberto Granado embarked on their trip across South America, which Guevara later turned into a memoir called “The Motorcycle Diaries,” That, in turn, became a 2004 feature film by the same name (above). But if they were to make the same trip today, writes Michael Molinski, they would likely encounter a completely different South America: industrialized and modern, yet changed environmentally, politically and culturally.
More greenery . . . .
Eggs, milk, the electric bill: Is Climate Change Making Inflation Worse? (The New York Times)
Feedback loop: Air Conditioners Will Exacerbate Climate Change As Planet Warms (Time Magazine)
Threat to global food systems: Grasslands could shrink by half (CNN)
Not playing around: Sports Industry Faces Revenue Decline Due to Climate Impacts (Earth.org)