Guardian: American Electric Power Quits ALEC as It Helps States Move to Clean Power

American Electric Power (AEP), one of the largest electricity utilities in the U.S., is to ditch its membership of the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec), a right-wing organization that has consistently opposed the deployment of renewable energy and action on climate change.

A spokeswoman for AEP told the Guardian that the decision was made as the company attempts to help implement the Clean Power Plan, the Obama administration’s strategy to curb carbon dioxide pollution from the nation’s power plants.

“We let [Alec] know that we won’t be renewing our membership in 2016,” she said. “We are reallocating our resources as we focus on our work with the states around the Clean Power Plan. There are a variety of reasons for the decision. We have long been involved in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.”

Green Car Reports: Two-Thirds of Earliest Tesla Drivetrains to Fail in 60,000 Miles, Owner Data Suggests

A new analysis of data provided to Plug-In America by 327 owners of early Tesla Model S cars suggests that as many as two-thirds of those early Model S drivetrains will need to be replaced within 60,000 miles.

This analysis has not been publicly disclosed before now. Before publishing this story, Green Car Reports asked several specific questions of Tesla Motors to help put the analysis in context.

Tesla declined to answer those questions. Instead, it issued general statements about its reliability. Both the questions and its statement are at the end of the article.

CBS: More Than 1,600 Openings at Tesla

Bay Area-based electric-car maker Tesla is in the midst of a hiring spree as it expands its model lineup, builds a battery factory and works on self-driving cars.

As of Tuesday morning, the automaker had 1,648 job openings worldwide, with hundreds of jobs available at its factory in Fremont and offices in Palo Alto. Most of the Bay Area job openings appear to be for engineers and technicians, with nearly all of them full-time positions.

CBC News: Ontario Spends $20M on Electric-Car Charging

Ontario's Liberal government will hand out $20 million in grants next year to help create a network of public charging stations for electric vehicles.

The province wants public- and private-sector partners to build fast-charging electric-vehicle stations in cities, along highways and at workplaces, apartments and condominiums, said Premier Kathleen Wynne.

"This program is part of Ontario's new $325 million green investment fund," Wynne announced Tuesday at the climate change talks in Paris. "We know that for electric vehicles to take off in Ontario, there has to be the infrastructure in place."

New York Times: Audi Executive Resigns After Suspension Over VW Emissions Scandal

An executive linked to Volkswagen’s emissions scandal has resigned his post as a top manager of the Audi luxury car division, the company said late Thursday.

The executive, Ulrich Hackenberg, 65, a member of the Audi management board responsible for technical development, was one of eight executives suspended after Volkswagen admitted in September to programming cars to evade clean air rules. But he is the first of those eight to resign.

Besides his post at Audi, Mr. Hackenberg also had responsibilities for the Volkswagen group as a whole, and he was one of the company’s most prominent executives in developing the technology that went into Volkswagen vehicles.