Green Lights May 22: 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. David Callaway weighs in on President Donald Trump and his 1980s approach to the world, including climate change, and especially with respect to EVs. Plus, he reviews the latest in a spate of energy merger deals this year that signals the investor stampede into AI might be getting long in the tooth. Have a good Memorial Day weekend and please subscribe to support our climate finance reporting.
. . . . Steve Jobs liked to say that most customers don’t know what they want until they see it. “If you asked somebody what they wanted a century ago before the auto was invented, they’d say ‘a faster horse.’” David Callaway writes that the same axiom applies to President Donald Trump and his 1980s approach to the world, including climate change, and especially with respect to electric vehicles.
. . . . The hype around the IPO of Elon Musk’s SpaceX next month is reminiscent of the blockbuster IPO of Google GOOGL 0.00%↑ 22 years ago, writes David Callaway. The market was hypnotized by the potential of the search giant’s offering, but the chaos around it prevented the shares from doing anything for several months before they eventually took off like a, um, rocket. SpaceX doesn’t have quite the monopoly Google had back then. Its Starlink business appears healthy, but the other operations Musk has crammed together with it — the X social media site and xAI — are still largely subject to Musk’s vision rather than strong balance sheets. And at least two other AI offerings — Open AI, and Anthropic — are right around the corner. Investors love a good story, though, and at least for this summer, the AI juggernaut appears ready to continue into the public stock market.
. . . . The UK government, strapped for finances as the energy crisis bites, cut its funding commitment to the largest state-backed climate fund in half, the fund said this week. As a result, the fund has less to work with in its goals to invest in poorer nations which need climate resilience help. For the UK and Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s (above) troubled Labour government, this is not likely the last climate rollback we’ll see.
. . . . Investors, homeowners, insurance companies and local businesses across the U.S. West and in large parts of Europe are bracing for what reports say could be the worst year yet for destructive wildfires, and the El Nino climate shift that threatens to make things even hotter hasn’t even arrived yet. The financial implications are ominous. In the U.S., the political implications for races in California, Texas, and the South, not to mention the midterms, are still to be counted. Stay safe out there.
. . . . The $67 billion merger deal this week that would unite NextEra Energy with Dominion Energy to form the third largest U.S. power company is more than the biggest energy deal of the AI data center era. It’s the latest in a spate of deals this year that signals the investor stampede into AI might be getting long in the tooth, writes David Callaway.
. . . . The White House war against offshore wind projects, which state energy regulators warned would deprive New England of an important source of electricity, was exposed for its folly this week after electric grid operators were forced to turn on dirty oil to keep the power on during a spring heat wave.
More greenery . . . .
Yes, beavers. Again: British beavers are fighting flooding caused by climate change (NPR)
Landmark resolution: UN General Assembly backs historic World Court climate crisis ruling (UN)
Feast or famine: What could an historically strong El Niño do to the world? (New York Times)
Knowledge matters: Shifting wildlife and political borders are reshaping Indigenous communities (Vatican News)