Energy Storage, Regulation, Regulation, Solar, Wind  -  November 4, 2017

Weekend reads: Fossil fuels & sexual assault; wind, solar tax impact; Musk plays defense for Tesla & more

Every Saturday, we'll bring you five of the most interesting — or quirky; it is the weekend after all — energy stories from around the web that you may have missed this week. This weekend's energy reads: 

Perry links fossil fuel development to preventing sexual assault (The Hill): Energy Secretary Rick Perry suggested Thursday that expanding the use of fossil fuels could help prevent sexual assault. Speaking during an energy policy discussion about energy policy with "Meet the Press" host Chuck Todd and Axios CEO and founder Jim VandeHei, Perry discussed his recent trip to Africa. He said a young girl told him that energy is important to her because she often reads by the light of a fire with toxic fumes.

Stanford professor sues critics of his 100% renewables article (The San Diego Union-Tribune): A Stanford professor is angry about a study that criticized his work about the feasibility of the U.S. economy completely running on renewable energy by mid-century— so angry that he filed a lawsuit in Washington D.C. Superior Court, claiming $10 million in damages for libel. Mark Z. Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering, said the author and the publisher of a peer-reviewed study that came out this summer harmed Jacobson’s career by saying a 2015 paper that Jacobson wrote committed a host of mistakes based on overly optimistic scenarios.

Republican tax bill hits wind power, solar largely unscathed (Reuters): A Republican tax bill unveiled on Thursday included cuts to renewable energy tax credits considered critical to enabling wind projects to compete with fossil fuel plants, but tax breaks for solar power were left largely intact. The credits, which receive broad bipartisan support, were extended by Congress less than two years ago. 

U.S. Solar Developers Relieved at Small Import Tariff Proposals (Bloomberg): The U.S. solar industry let out a collective sigh of relief after trade commissioners proposed import tariffs that were less than half what a bankrupt U.S. panel maker is seeking in a closely watched trade case. The U.S. International Trade Commission recommended tariffs on imported solar panels of as much as 35 percent during a hearing Tuesday. The independent agency will send its proposals to President Donald Trump, who faces a January deadline to make the final decision.

Tesla shares plunge as Musk is on the defensive (Axios): Tesla shares plunged by as much as 5% in after hours trading and CEO Elon Musk was on the defensive in an earnings call as the electric-carmaker reported a $619.4 million loss today — its biggest ever. Again and again, the usually chest-out Musk told Wall Street analysts about the growing pains of ramping up to produce hundreds of thousands of cars a year, at one point declining even to forecast how many units of the ostensibly company-changing Model 3 Tesla would produce in the last quarter of the year, apart from finally saying it will be in the thousands per week. 

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