Reuters: U.S. Regulator Finds No Evidence of Defects After Tesla Death Probe

U.S. auto safety regulators said on Thursday they found no evidence of defects in a Tesla Motors Inc. car involved in the death of a man whose Model S collided with a truck while he was using its Autopilot system.

The case has been closely watched as automakers race to automate more driving tasks without exposing themselves to increased liability risks.

Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk, on his Twitter account, praised the decision by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which did not order a recall and put the responsibility for the accident primarily on the driver, former Navy SEAL Joshua Brown.

Washington Post: Trump Nominees Share a Less Urgent Climate-Change Line

Not so long ago, Rick Perry described the science behind human-caused climate change as a “contrived, phony mess.” On Thursday, during his confirmation hearing to become the next head of the Energy Department, the former Texas governor expressed a markedly different view -- one that has begun to sound very familiar in recent days.

“I believe the climate is changing,” he told lawmakers. “I believe some of it is naturally occurring, but some of it is caused by man-made activity. The question is how we address it in a thoughtful way that doesn’t compromise economic growth.”

Almost to a person, the people whom President-elect Donald Trump has picked to run key federal agencies have echoed strikingly similar views about the warming planet and what to do, or not do, about it. Their position, which has proven maddening to many climate scientists, acknowledges three points: Yes, the climate is changing. Humans probably have some role. But it’s likely not the country’s most urgent problem.

IEEE Spectrum: Carbon Nanotubes Would Outperform Silicon Transistors at the Same Scale

The end appears nigh for scaling down silicon-based complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) transistors, with some experts seeing the cutoff date as early as 2020.

While carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have long been among the nanomaterials investigated to serve as replacement for silicon in CMOS field-effect transistors in a post-silicon future, they have always been bogged down by some frustrating technical problems. But, with some of the main technical hindrances having been largely addressed -- like sorting between metallic and semiconducting carbon nanotubes -- the stage has been set for CNTs to start making their presence felt a bit more urgently in the chip industry.

Bloomberg New Energy Finance: U.K. Carbon Capture May Have Cost $11 Billion, Watchdog Says

A U.K. competition to spur carbon capture and storage technology that was scrapped in 2015 was on track to cost taxpayers about 8.9 billion pounds ($11 billion), the National Audit Office said Friday.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change said in 2012 that its CCS program would require 2 billion pounds to 6 billion pounds in capital and operational costs over 15 years to test technology that takes emissions that cause global warming and sequesters them underground.

By 2015, when the Treasury held a spending review, DECC’s projected costs had grown to 8.9 billion pounds from 3.9 billion pounds, based on estimates of long-term subsidy payments.

Rocky Mountain Institute: A Leap Ahead for Energy-Efficient Homes Down Under

Last month, REA Group -- the global online real estate advertising company and owner of realestate.com.au -- launched Energy Scores on its popular real estate platform in partnership with U.S.-based Tendril to provide an instant snapshot of whole-home energy performance across more than 80 percent of Australia’s home market.

Based on Tendril’s HomeFit platform, Energy Scores delivers an energy score of 1 to 100 by aggregating both electricity- and gas-related cost and consumption data for single and multifamily properties. Energy Scores also provides details specific to a particular address to help owners better understand total cost of ownership, the estimated value of their home, and relative efficiency compared with other similar homes by size or neighborhood.

Several factors, including consumer demand and competitive advantage, motivated REA and Tendril’s partnership.