Bloomberg: China Won’t Let Toyota Ditch Its Electric Cars

Toyota Motor has made its view loud and clear: Hydrogen-powered cars are the future. That’s why the world’s largest automaker pulled the plug last year on the all-electric RAV4 EV crossover it developed with Tesla Motors. China, the world’s largest auto market, isn’t listening.

The government has begun a strategic initiative to build electric cars on the mainland and is encouraging foreign manufacturers and their local partners to get with the program. So as many as 40 electric models will go on sale in China this year -- triple the number available two years ago -- as automakers hew to the policies, Bloomberg Intelligence estimates.

Quartz: Elon Musk Has Triggered a Contagious Battery Zeitgeist in Silicon Valley

The fervor in the lead-up to Musk’s latest battery announcement reflects both his strategy of incessant marketing, and an apparent larger trend that goes beyond Musk’s hyperactivity, and was perhaps sparked by it: a quest by the world’s leading technology and industrial companies to solve a defining commercial problem of our age: the need to safely store power at an affordable price.

In feel, this mission seems more like a new zeitgeist than one of Silicon Valley’s come-and-gone fashions: If to be a serious tech player in the late 2000s meant marketing a smartphone or something linked to one, the same can increasingly be said today of building better batteries, electric cars or autonomous automobile functionality.

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Solar Energy Poll Results Called Warning for Nevada Legislators

A poll of 300 likely Nevada voters suggests that state lawmakers could suffer at the polls come election time next year if they do not support expanding rooftop solar efforts through a net metering program.

The poll, conducted by WPA Opinion Research by telephone on April 20-21, was paid for by the Alliance for Solar Choice, a coalition of rooftop solar companies operating in Nevada that wants the state’s 3 percent net metering cap raised by the Nevada Legislature.

The poll also shows strong support for solar energy efforts and net metering, where rooftop solar customers get a credit from the power company for excess energy they produce.

Reuters: Areva Sales Fall as Nuclear Sector Remains in Doldrums

French nuclear group Areva's first-quarter sales fell 1.1 percent to 1.76 billion euros ($1.97 billion), with increased revenue from its uranium mining business insufficient to outweigh the broader industry's continuing problems.

The nuclear industry has not yet recovered from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, with Germany and other countries phasing out nuclear capacity and Japan struggling to restart its closed plants.

Areva, which is 87 percent state-owned, made no comment on how it is progressing with its restructuring and financing plan and reiterated that details would be communicated to financial markets by the time its half-year financial report is published.

LA Times: California's Greenhouse Gas Emissions Targets Are Getting Tougher

Gov. Jerry Brown accelerated California's effort to slash greenhouse gas emissions Wednesday, burnishing the state's reputation as a pacesetter in the battle against climate change.

In an executive order, Brown said the state must cut the pollutants to 40% below 1990 levels by the year 2030, more than a decade after he leaves office.

That is an interim target, intended to help California lower emissions to 80% below 1990 levels by the year 2050, a goal set by Brown's predecessor, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.