Vice: Fossil Fuel Investors Are Pumping Millions of Dollars Into Hillary Clinton's Campaign
Fossil fuel interests have pumped $3.25 million into the largest super PAC supporting Hillary Clinton's candidacy for the White House.
Approximately one in every 15 dollars given to Priorities USA Action, which took in $50.5 million in contributions last year, came from donors linked to oil and natural gas interests, according to data compiled by Greenpeace.
But fossil fuel interests are also sending checks directly to her campaign. Clinton has taken in nearly $268,000 in contributions from individuals employed in the oil and gas sector this election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Her rival, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who does not have a super PAC spending on his behalf, took in just over $35,000.
Bloomberg: NRG Says Massive California Solar Plant Now on Pace to Meet Goal
The operator of a massive U.S. government-backed solar project in California that fell short of production targets says the facility more than doubled its output last month, putting it on pace to meet its obligations to Pacific Gas and Electric Co.
The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, the world’s biggest solar-thermal power plant, generated 67,300 megawatt-hours electricity in February, up from about 30,300 a year earlier, according to NRG Energy Inc., which operates the faculty and co-owns it with BrightSource Energy Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google.
Re/Code: With $340 Million in Revenue, Nest Is Underperforming
Nest generated about $340 million in sales last year, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. That’s an impressive figure for a company in the very nascent market of internet-connected devices.
But it’s below the initial expectations Google had set for Nest when it bought the startup in 2014 for a whopping $3.2 billion. The company’s sales performance may face even deeper scrutiny inside Google’s new parent company, Alphabet, where Nest now sits, as the hardware maker faces its most critical year ever.
The Hill: An Energy Agency's Forecasting Flaws
Just as Wall Street parses every word from the Federal Reserve to infer the state of the economy, energy traders scrutinize every release from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) to gauge trends in energy markets. The agency, part of the Department of Energy, aims to provide "independent and impartial energy information to promote sound policymaking." Toward that aim, EIA issues weekly, monthly and annual reports compiling data on everything from prices to production to stockpiles.
With its free and public data and analyses, EIA provides the best available gauge of current and historical conditions in energy markets. However, when it comes to forecasting the future, the EIA's crystal ball appears to be clouded by persistent biases and errors. Despite the EIA's special report last week rebutting critics of its renewable energy forecasts, we remain concerned that forecasting flaws may hinder the agency's ability to reliably inform decision-making by policymakers and market participants.
Reuters: United States, China to Sign Paris Accord
The United States and China confirmed Thursday that they will sign the Paris climate change agreement in New York on April 22, a move that officials hope will help the accord enter into force this year.
The world's two biggest greenhouse gas emitters issued a joint presidential statement in which they called on other countries to sign the accord next month "with a view to bringing the Paris Agreement into force as early as possible."