Top News: You can expect the obvious when the Trump administration comes on board in January, says ClimateWire. Trump’s goal is to continue similar efforts as during his first term — rolling back pollution and climate change regulations, unleashing fossil fuel development, and withdrawing from international commitments like the Paris Agreement. On a brighter note, some Democrats think that clean energy projects coming from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) will be supported in a few Republican districts. They mention a letter signed by 18 Republican representatives opposing efforts to repeal IRA as a reason to be optimistic about it.
California Air Resources Board (CARB) voted Friday to approve changes to its low carbon fuel standard (LCFS) that increases the state’s emission reduction targets and funds the charging infrastructure for zero-emission vehicles. It will also phase out incentives for capturing methane emissions from dairy farms to turn into fuel. The oil industry and a few analysts complained that the new standard could increase gas pump prices up to 65 cents a gallon. Environmentalists have also had their own complaints, saying that the LCFS program stimulating the production of biofuels, which come from sources including plants and animal waste; environmentalists say the state should focus more on supporting power for electric vehicles.
Data Analytics: Chinese electric vehicle makers have been the clear winners in global EV sales this year through September, with BYD surging ahead of Tesla.
Here’s the top five in sales units for the first nine months of 2024:
BYD 399,442
Tesla 191,430
Wuling 68,605
Li Auto 55,602
Geely 53,358
Sources: CleanTechnica and EV Volumes
Company News: Tesla, Inc. has become a $1 trillion dollar company on the stock market. With shares going well over $320 a share since the election last week, the company’s market valuation soared past $1 trillion for the first time since October 2021. It was a nearly 30% increase in share prices. Analysts say that CEO Elon Musk’s visible support for election winner Donald Trump propelled that along. Musk is hoping to be appointed by Trump to lead a Department of Government Efficiency committee that he says could pave the path for federalized autonomous vehicle standards. Musk put down at least $130 million in campaign contributions to place himself in an ideal position to craft federal rules that could support his autonomous vehicle strategic planning.
Phoenix-based Nikola is one of the few hydrogen fuel cell truck makers to reach serial production in North America — after a number of tumultuous years. CEO Steve Girsky wants to see competition to make commercial fuel cell trucks a viable option to hit zero emission vehicle targets. So far, it’s been mainly about Nikola in this space, but that will be changing. Daimler Truck says that it will start series production of hydrogen-powered vehicles at the end of this decade.
Resources: International Energy Agency’s Energy Technology Perspectives 2024 (ETP-2024) provides a forecast and outlook for the top six mass-manufactured clean energy technologies: solar PV, wind turbines, electric cars, batteries, electrolysers and heat pumps. The agency see the market for these technologies rising from $700 billion in 2023 to more than $2 trillion by 2035 – close to the value of the world’s crude oil market in recent years. Trade in clean technologies is also expected to rise sharply. In the past decade, it’s gone up to $575 billion, more than 50% larger than the global trade in natural gas today.
California Air Resources Board will conduct a public meeting Nov. 21 to consider approval of the fiscal year or FY 2024-25 proposed funding plan for clean transportation incentives or funding plan. This public meeting may continue at 9 a.m., on Nov. 22. You can find the public meeting notice here: https://tinyurl.com/public-Meeting-Notice
Hydrogen hub partnership: The hydrogen fueling industry and truck makers are working to develop a hydrogen refueling infrastructure that can support cost-effective, environmentally viable fleet operations. A U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE) program called Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs, created through a bipartisan infrastructure law, can provide up to $7 billion to form what the DOE calls “the foundation of a national clean hydrogen network” and help decarbonize sectors of the economy including heavy-duty transportation. The hubs are, by region or state: Appalachia, California, Gulf Coast, Heartland, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest and Pacific Northwest. Each hub, consisting of private and public partnerships, applies to and negotiates with the DOE for funding of specific projects.
