Politico: Exxon Takes Aim at Columbia University Journalists Over Climate Reports

ExxonMobil is hurling ethics accusations against a team of Columbia University journalists whose reporting helped stoke calls for probes into whether the company deliberately misled the public about climate change.

The oil giant went on the offensive in a Nov. 20 letter, a copy of which was obtained by Politico. It comes as investigations by the Columbia journalists in the Los Angeles Times and a separate report by the nonprofit website InsideClimate News continue to stoke Democratic calls for a federal probe into whether the company concealed its internal understanding of the global warming threat posed by burning fossil fuels. Exxon, which through its foundation gave more than $200,000 to the university last year, addressed the letter to Columbia President Lee Bollinger and sent a copy to university trustees.

CNN: Obama Ends Climate Talks With Spotlight on Legacy

President Barack Obama has long made clear he wants action on climate change to be part of his legacy, and Tuesday in Paris he raised the stakes.

A successful outcome for the United Nations climate talks will include a "legally binding" mechanism to ensure countries adhere to their carbon reduction commitments, Obama said at a press conference before heading back to Washington.

The president listed several criteria for a potential agreement, including an "ambitious target" to reduce carbon output and a slate of tools to measure countries' progress. He said negotiators should insist upon "a single transparency mechanism that all countries are adhering to" and said those mechanisms must be "legally binding."

Bloomberg: Germany Pays to Halt Danish Wind Power to Protect Own Output

Germany’s wind farms are now producing so much electricity that one of its grid managers is paying generators in neighboring Denmark to shut down to keep its network from overloading.

German network operator TenneT TSO GmbH paid Danish power producers to withhold 37 gigawatt-hours of output in November, or about a day of production from the region’s biggest nuclear reactor, according to data from the Nord Pool Spot AS exchange in Oslo. The increase from 1.5 gigawatt-hours a year ago came as TenneT began from 2015 to boost payments to Danish producers via its neighboring grid to avoid cutting German output.

Green Car Reports: Most Car Dealers Are Lousy at Selling Electric Cars

From carmakers and politicians to enthusiastic owners, there are many groups pushing for greater electric-car adoption. But more often that not, the dealers that actually sell the majority of electric cars aren't so interested.

Over the past few years, buyers have grumbled about the experience at traditional dealers that sell electric cars alongside internal-combustion models -- and salespeople have complained about selling plug-ins.

Utility Dive: New Trouble for NextEra Merger?

A recent Hawaii Public Utilities Commission filing could be a signal of how regulators will rule in hearings opened this week on the proposed $4.3 billion buyout of Hawaiian Electric Industries (HEI) by NextEra Energy.

A few weeks ago, the commission noted “significant concerns” and unequivocally rejected the Power Supply Implementation Plan (PSIP) submitted by the Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO), the electricity supplier to Oahu and HEI’s main subsidiary. That rejection, observers say, could be an ominous warning for backers of the contentious merger.

“The commission finds it necessary to remind the HECO Companies that as a result of their numerous, repeated failures to properly plan for an affordable, high renewable future, the commission has had to take appropriate actions to address the Companies' poor performance,” the regulators admonished the company in the filing.