Posted by: Josh Kalla in electric cars, business on
Jun 30, 2010
Yesterday, while the DOW lost over 250 points, PayPal founder Elon Musk's electric vehicle startup Tesla Motors raised $226 million in its initial public offering. Though Tesla has only sold about 1,000 of its electric vehicles and has not had a quarterly profit yet, investors are confident in the startup. Tesla, which began trading at $17 a share, leaped nearly 41 percent to close at $23.89. Hilary Kramer, president and chief investment officer of A&G Capital Research, is calling Tesla a "game changer."
Posted by: Josh Kalla in electric cars, business on
Jun 28, 2010
Mass-produced electric vehicles, such as the Nissan Leaf, are set to hit the market by the end of the year. In order to ensure that Minnesota can become a leader in electric vehicles, we need to implement statewide policies that will turn Minnesota into an electric vehicle-friendly state. One model that has been adopted by France, Hawaii, and the city of Vancouver is to require that new office buildings, multi-family dwellings, or large parking lots be built with the electrical wiring needed to accommodate the charging of these new vehicles.
Bill Gates, Microsoft Chairman and co-founder, intends on presenting a plan to Congress and the White House on how to change the way Americans consume energy. Gates recently appeared on ABC News to talk about his vision of a clean energy future and why government leadership is so important. He also participated with other business executives in the American Energy Innovation Council's report, "A Business Plan for America's Energy Future."
Over 6,000 companies are calling on Congress to enact meaningful and effective energy and climate legislation. The American Businesses for Clean Energy (ABCE) and We Can Lead, an organization of Business Leaders in Support of Strong Energy and Climate Policy, took out an ad in POLITICO magazine to highlight their strong support. The ad states that "when our leaders in Washington drag their feet, America falls behind."
A new study released by the nonpartisan
Peterson Institute for International Economics projected that the American Power Act would generate an average of 203,000 new jobs annually above business-as-usual between 2011 and 2020.
The Peterson Institute study looked at possible impacts of the proposed legislation to the economy, employment, energy security, and the environment. Besides reducing U.S. GHG emissions by 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, the study projects that if passed, the bill would reduce U.S. imported oil purchases by $51-$93 billion annually.
National discount retailer Target Corporation, headquartered in Minneapolis, and Richfield, MN-based Best Buy Corporation recently joined Business for Innovative Energy and Climate Policy (BICEP), a coalition of major American businesses pushing hard for the U.S. to enact comprehensive energy independence and climate legislation.
Last Friday, 22 U.S. Senators sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, urging the Senate to pass bipartisan and comprehensive clean energy legislation this year. The letter highlights the business and national security case for comprehensive climate legislation. "Our lack of a comprehensive clean energy policy hurts job creation and increases regulatory uncertainty throughout the economy," the senators wrote. "Businesses are waiting on clean signals from Congress before investing billions in energy, transportation, manufacturing, buildings and other sectors. America's competitiveness and export strength are also at stake."
Late Saturday, SEIU Local 26 janitors announced victory in their contract negotiations, winning good, green full-time jobs with affordable health care for over 4,000 janitors in the Twin Cities metropolitan area. SEIU Local 26 was ready to strike as soon as today (Monday) if a contract agreement was not reached. See Saturday's announcement of the contract victory and SEIU Local 26 members' reactions:
I was pleased to see the Star Tribune reprint of Robert Frank's commentary on the conservative roots of carbon capping legislation, originally published in the New York Times. For those who missed reading it, Frank is at the Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University. His op-ed summarizes the writing of Ronald H. Coase, professor emeritus at the University of Chicago and the 1990 Nobel laureate in economics, on the topic of correcting market failure by internalizing environmental externalities.
This Thursday, Senator Klobuchar will host an energy efficiency summit at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management (in cooperation with the Humphrey Institute). Read on for more details, an agenda of the summit, and how you can RSVP for the event.
Fresh Energy Blog