USA Today: Carbon Dioxide Levels Reach New Global Milestone

Worldwide atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide, the gas scientists say is most responsible for global warming, surpassed 400 parts per million for the month of March, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Wednesday.

Though there have been readings this high before, this is the first time that global concentrations of the CO2 gas have averaged 400 ppm for an entire month. Measurements of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere began in the late 1950s.

Bloomberg Business: Tesla's New Battery Doesn't Work That Well With Solar

Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk introduced a new family of batteries designed to stretch the solar-power revolution into its next phase. There's just one problem: Tesla's new battery doesn't work well with rooftop solar -- at least not yet. Even SolarCity, the supplier led by Musk, isn't ready to offer Tesla's battery for daily use.

The new Tesla Powerwall home batteries come in two sizes -- 7 and 10 kilowatt-hours (kWh) -- but the differences extend beyond capacity to the chemistry of the batteries. The 7 kWh version is made for daily use, while its larger counterpart is only intended to be used as occasional backup when the electricity goes out. The bigger Tesla battery isn't designed to go through more than about 50 charging cycles a year, according to SolarCity spokesperson Jonathan Bass.

ABC: Nissan Leaf Car Owners Complain About Battery Wearing Down Prematurely

They bought cars thinking they would save money and become less dependent on foreign oil.

But some Nissan Leaf owners tell ABC15 investigators, the all-battery car has a battery that wears down much more quickly than the automaker claimed.

Ads for the 2013 Leaf model state that the vehicle can get the equivalent of 106 miles per gallon.

New York Times: Leftist Party’s Win in Alberta May Affect Future of Oil Sands

With an economy dominated by the oil industry and a conservative, free-market political tradition, Alberta has long been cast as the Texas of Canada. But on Tuesday, not only did the province’s voters put the Progressive Conservative Party out of power after 43 years, they elected a government from the far left of Canada’s mainstream political spectrum.

The unexpected rise of the New Democratic Party, which was partly founded by labor unions, may have implications for Alberta’s oil sands, which, many critics say, enjoyed a light regulatory touch under Conservative governments. And with a federal election coming this year, the result will not be welcomed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a Conservative whose party’s power base is in Alberta, along with his own parliamentary constituency.

Reuters: Pakistan Opens First Solar Power Plant, Built With Chinese Investment

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday inaugurated the country's first solar power plant, the latest fruit of increasingly close cooperation with China and a step toward an electoral promise to end crippling power cuts.

The solar park in Punjab province produces 100 MW of power, which will be increased to 1,000 MW by next year.

The plant, owned by Punjab province and built by China's Tebian Electric Apparatus Stock Co. Ltd. (TBEA), took a year to build at a cost of $190 million, Pakistani government documents show.