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Can Exxon build the world’s biggest carbon capture business?
Oil major bets billions on technology but backlash on US Gulf Coast threatens its ambitions
Unusual stars may be the leftovers of ancient galaxy gobbled up by the Milky Way
Unusual stellar remnants suggest the Milky Way might have eaten a galaxy called Loki billions of years ago, according to new research.
Bond breakout? Big effects of bad data. Immigration and thermostatic politics & dad-chat is coming for dad-books.
Thank you for opening your Chartbook email. Anna Airy, A Shell Forge at a National Projectile Factory, Hackney Marshes, London, 1918 Bond breakout - John Authers Across the developed markets, bond markets are staging a slow-motion car wreck. Looking at the drastic moves in the US, Japan, the UK and France, Barclays’ Ajay Rajadhyaksha commented: “Last week, long bonds broke. Not in one country. In all of them. Simultaneously. Four countries. Four different political systems. Four different central banks. But the same trade — “get me out of duration!”” Each country has its own contributing political problems, but the uniformity of the shift out of long-term bonds with high duration makes clear that something broader is afoot. For Rajadhyaksha, it is “simple and uncomfortable.” The developed world “has too much debt, too little fiscal discipline, and no political appetite for fixing either.” If there’s a trigger, it has been the Iran war and the resulting shock to oil supply. Source: Bloomberg G7 countries are now borrowing at rates that were enjoyed by EM in the early 2020s For contributing subscribers only. Subscribe Trade between China and Russia has grown in recent years For contributing subscribers only. Subscribe Big effects of bad data A decade ago nearly nine in ten Americans, when approached, agreed to fill out the Current Population Survey, which is administered to about 60,000 households each month and asks about, among other things, employment. Fewer than seven in ten do so now (see chart 1). For the Consumer Expenditure Survey, which tries to capture 3,700 households monthly, the response rate is down from 68% to 40%. … When the information becomes less reliable, investment decisions get more difficult to make. Some may be delayed, creating a potential drag on the economy. A new working paper by Nicholas Bloom of Stanford University, Erica Groshen, former head of the Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS) now at Cornell University, and Duncan Hobbs and Michael Strain of the American Enterprise Institute, a think-tank, hazards an estimate. Preserving trust in “the integrity and quality of official statistics”, the authors claim, generates economic benefits of about $25 for every $1 spent on the BLS, the agency with an annual budget of $700m that is responsible for many of these data. To arrive at their conclusion the quartet analysed an ignoble episode in the BLS’s recent history. On August 1st 2025 Donald Trump sacked Erika McEntarfer, appointed as the agency’s commissioner by his predecessor, Joe Biden. The president alleged, without evidence, that the BLS’s steep downward revision to recent jobs numbers had been “RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad”. In fact, it was the wanton dismissal that looked bad in the eyes of many observers. In the following seven days there was a 50% leap, relative to the week before, in the average value of the index of Economic Policy Uncertainty (EPU), which tracks the number of articles mentioning such uncertainty that are published daily in American newspapers. This was a discernible jump even when compared to the chaos caused by Mr Trump’s trade war in April 2025 and his real one in Iran in the past two months (see chart 2). Based on Mr Bloom’s earlier study with other colleagues of the EPU’s impact on business investment, industrial production and employment, the authors estimate that the jump reduced American GDP by over $100bn (0.3%) and non-farm payrolls by 168,000 (0.1%). Source: The Economist Immigration and thermostatic politics (Sarah O’Connor in the FT) A strange thing happened a year and a half ago. No sooner had Americans elected Donald Trump as president on an explicitly anti-immigration platform than US public opinion began to swing much more favourably towards immigration. … to political scientists who study “thermostatic” politics, this development is no surprise at all. Public opinion often moves against the prevailing party, especially if they are perceived to have gone “too far” in one direction. The phenomenon was first explored in the 1990s with reference to fiscal policy, but in recent years it has been particularly evident in the realm of immigration policy. While these swings in opinion polls can make it seem as if people don’t know their own minds, they can be a useful democratic check on governments by sending bright flashing warning lights when policies stray too far from the public’s comfort zone. The problem comes when politicians misinterpret those signals. When people tell pollsters they want less immigration, or think it is bad for the country overall (or the converse), they are often expressing an opinion about how things appear to be going in that moment relative to their preferences, rather than a deep shift in their underlying views. According to Alexander Kustov, a political scientist, most Americans’ views are quite stable and moderate: they support immigration that is controlled and in the national interest, and oppose flows that are disorderly or under-enforced. In the US, he argues the Trump administration over-interpreted dissatisfaction with high immigration under Joe Biden, and implemented policies that went too far for many voters. “People don’t necessarily change their idea about their ideal immigration policy, but they can react to what the government is currently doing,” he told me. “A lot of people are not happy with what the Trump administration are doing — right now we’re not talking about border enforcement, we’re talking about people not just getting harassed, but killed.” But similarly, he added, pro-immigration advocates would be making a mistake to interpret the recent, more favourable swing towards immigration as a deep-seated ideological shift in attitudes. The recent history of UK immigration policy offers another cautionary tale. After the 2016 Brexit referendum, public concern about immigration fell. This was partly because net migration statistics declined, but also because people felt a sense of catharsis and control, says Sunder Katwala, director of British Future, a think-tank. By 2019, the public ranked immigration as only the ninth biggest issue of concern, according to Ipsos polling. But when the Conservative government liberalised visa routes for students and care workers between 2019 and 2022, that helped net migration to surge. And so, too, did public concern. Today’s Labour government has implemented another sharply restrictive turn in immigration policy. As Kustov and researcher Caitlyn Yates argue, thermostatic public opinion should be a useful check on politicians. Instead it seems to have helped to magnify the pendulum swing in the UK. The government over-interprets and overreacts to a change in public opinion, which reacts in turn, prompting a sudden swing the other way. Source: Financial Times HEY READERS, THANK YOU for opening the Chartbook email. I hope it brightens your day. I enjoy putting out the newsletter, but tbh, what keeps this flow going is the generosity of those readers who clicked the subscription button. If you are persuaded to click, please consider the annual subscription of $50. It is both better value for you and a much better deal for me, as it involves only one credit card charge. Why feed the payments companies if we don’t have to. Subscribe Anna Airy, Shop for Machining 15-Inch Shells: Singer Manufacturing Company, Clydebank, Glasgow, 1918 Racing for a vaccine … we have been here before! The deadly Ebola outbreak in two African countries driven by a virus species with no vaccine has triggered an urgent search for a potential jab, in a test of troubled global efforts to avert threats posed by emerging diseases. A World Health Organization advisory group is due to would meet on Tuesday to recommend candidate jabs to prioritise for clinical trials, the global health body said. It will assess data including an analysis by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (Cepi), which was set up after failures in the international response to a previous Ebola crisis. The latest Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda has infected hundreds of people and killed more than 80, health authorities say. Cepi’s reaction will be a crucial indicator of its progress towards its wider goal of producing vaccines for pandemic threats in just 100 days, despite steep cuts to international health funding. “If there was ever a time that we could show the world why Cepi is needed and show the world why the 100-day mission is needed, it’s now,” Nicole Lurie, the organisation’s executive director for preparedness and response, told the FT. “We’re happy to accept that responsibility, but obviously we need help from partners — particularly financial help in the long run.” DR Congo and Uganda would make the final decision on whether to press ahead with any vaccine candidates endorsed for clinical trials by the WHO experts, the global health body said. “Other ethical and community acceptability issues will be considered,” said the WHO, which declared the latest outbreak a public health emergency of international concern on Sunday. “This will be important to make sure that the trial, if it happens, will be adequately communicated to the population.” Lurie said Cepi had provided information from a survey of research teams and companies working on drugs that might be effective against the Bundibugyo virus behind the outbreak. The organisation hoped soon to announce partners in the quest for a jab, she added, although she declined to give a timescale for when one might be developed. Cepi’s Nicole Laurie said global health bodies were ‘getting some live-fire drills’ with hantavirus and the latest Ebola outbreak. The hunt for a vaccine should be helped by scientific advances including the use of artificial intelligence to find drugs active against viruses, Lurie said. Existing jabs against the Zaire Ebola virus responsible for many previous outbreaks might provide a basis for tackling the Bundibugyo species, she added. “We’ll see how far and how fast we can get,” Lurie said, adding that Cepi had done preliminary work recently on a possible jab for the rat-borne hantavirus responsible for a recent fatal outbreak on a cruise ship. “Both with hantavirus and now with Ebola, [we] are getting some live-fire drills.” Source: Michael Peel in the Financial Times Dad-chat is coming for dad-books. (By Pamela Paul and Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg in the WSJ) They were the go-to gifts for Father’s Day: a book about some little-known chapter of World War II, the sweeping narrative of a shipwreck, perhaps the latest presidential biography. These days, dad books are a dying breed. Nonfiction book sales have been in decline for the past four years, and are now the most challenged segment of the print book market. Publishers say certain types of books still fare well—including celebrity memoirs and religious titles. But in recent years, print sales in such categories as biography, current affairs and business and economics—what publishers refer to as “serious nonfiction” and which tend to resonate especially with men—have fallen considerably. Sales of nonfiction print titles were down nearly 8% through May 9 this year, and sales of books about politics and current affairs were down 19%, according to book tracker Circana BookScan. Publishing has long been subject to cyclical changes, with trends in format and genre taking over bookshelves in grand sweeps. (Remember the adult coloring-book craze? Or the stratospheric rise of romantasy?) But many in publishing believe the decline in serious nonfiction is more existential. “The trend couldn’t be clearer,” said Jonathan Karp, the former chief executive of Simon & Schuster and publisher of the new Simon Six imprint. “This is a sea change and people should wake up and realize we’re living in a new world.” One culprit for the shift: a new media diet for fans of more serious nonfiction. … Sixty-two percent of men and 54% of women consumed a podcast in the prior month, according to a recent survey by Edison Research at SSRS, up from 46% and 39%, respectively, in 2023. “When we have internal meetings to talk about this problem, it always comes around to podcasts,” said Jonathan Burnham, president and publisher of the Harper Group at HarperCollins Publishers. “The man who wants to read American history is now tuning into one of the many good podcasts about history that lends the quiet attention to a serious subject he’s looking for. It makes the idea of sitting down with a 700-page Ron Chernow book less appealing. You’ve scratched that itch.” Source: Wall Street Journal Remarkable report by Novara from the nationalist rally in London in mid May. Anna Airy, Leopard Moth and Plums, 1915 If you’ve scrolled this far, you know you want to click: Subscribe
Antonio Gracias’ Valor stands to pocket billions from SpaceX IPO
Antonio Gracias, the founder of Chicago-based Valor Equity Partners and a longtime Elon Musk ally, controls a 4% economic stake in SpaceX.
A look at the SpaceX IPO by the numbers
Elon Musk is all about big numbers — billions, trillions – and you can find them sprinkled throughout an extraordinary document he just filed to take his rocket maker public.
Science Start-Up Colossal Is Creating an Artificial Womb
Science start-up Colossal is on a mission to make animals “productionized” — getting rid of the need for eggs or wombs. And it’s already worth billions
Europe is paying to make itself sick – and the health bill proves it
Europe spends billions on fossil fuel subsidies while facing huge healthcare costs. Leaders must prioritize people and environmental sustainability.
Retailers are making expensive bets that shoppers still want to go to stores
The nation’s biggest retailers are pouring billions of dollars back into their stores, even as more sales move online, in an effort to lure more shoppers and raise employee efficiency.
Now What? With Carbon Pricing Eroded and Pipeline Politics Advancing, Here Are the Pathways for Climate Success
At the end of a whirlwind week of news on carbon pricing and electricity strategy, capping a madcap year of pretty much non-stop, dramatic change, the word across much of Canada’s climate and energy transition community is that climate policy in this country has been shredded. Eviscerated. Hit with a sledgehammer by policy rollbacks that have pushed the country’s 2050 net zero target “well out of reach”. That means it’s never been more important to look for the rays of hope and glimmers of possibility. To glimpse the seeds of the next set of strategies to get Canada’s climate pollution under control and the country into the accelerating global dash away from fossil fuels. And then, once we’ve spotted those possibilities, get on with the hard, day-to-day slog of trying to make them a reality. Nothing takes away from the frustration and the deep disappointment so many climate and energy hawks are expressing, the sense of betrayal by the author of Value(s) and the former UN special envoy for climate action and finance. But we knew two things as the week drew to a close. We’re looking at the world as it most definitely is. And we don’t get to give up finding the pathways to confront climate change and deliver faster, deeper carbon cuts that leave no one else behind. So really, the first question we all have to ask ourselves is: What’s next? Subscribe All the Oxygen in the Room The outpouring of anger and grief over the carbon pricing deal between Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has been absolutely understandable. So much of the climate community poured years, more than a decade, into dragging the current federal pricing regime across the finish line, then defending it from a deluge of three-syllable rhymes after the Trudeau government proved utterly incapable of delivering its own message. The policy foisted on us by neo-classical economists took up all the oxygen in the room, burned through years of climate response time that we won’t get back, while cornering climate hawks into the position that the best response to the crisis of our lifetimes is a new tax…in an era of historic anti-tax sentiment. I mean, really—what could possibly have gone wrong? Against that history, let’s appreciate columnist Max Fawcett’s point that even a modest carbon pricing agreement with a government as off-the-wall libertarian/conspiracist as Danielle Smith’s—those adjectives are mine, not Max’s—is a win worth savouring (as long as Smith keeps her promises for a change). But part of living in the world as it is (no, I’m not letting that go) is to be clear-headed about what we can and can’t control. And one thing we get to decide, after seeing this week’s carbon price festivities take up all the oxygen yet again, is whether we want to keep letting that happen. Particularly when success down that road depends on a factor that no one with a climate agenda can control or influence—a provincial carbon pricing mechanism that has been manipulated and eroded beyond its lowest possible denominator. Thankfully, that’s not the way it has to go. Not when we have so many other powerful, practical tools at our disposal, including the ones still available to us through this abominable Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Canada and Alberta. Tools In Our Toolbox When I started roughing out this list, I didn’t expect it to grow to nearly a dozen bullet points. It’s probably still incomplete. Some of the greatest hits in today’s climate solutions toolbox include: • No Carbon Capture, No Pipeline: On Friday, Prime Minister Mark Carney explicitly stated that there’s been no change to the MOU provision that there will be no West Coast pipeline without an industry commitment to build its massive, $16.5-billion carbon capture and storage (CCUS) hub in Northern Alberta, and vice versa. The two megaprojects were joined at the hip when the MOU was signed Nov. 27, and the implementation agreement this week affirmed that they still are. A parade of independent analysts have spent years pointing to the economic and technical flaws in CCUS, while the industry kept postponing its investment decision until it could arm-twist the government for more “clarity” (by which it meant even more lavish taxpayer subsidies) on the project. Now the industry itself is running away from the CCUS hub and insisting the pipeline should proceed without it, but Carney doesn’t seem to be budging from a central tenet of the MOU to which Smith has signed on. • No Subsidies, No Investors: Climate analysts and advocates have quite rightly been hammering away at Carney and his team, insisting that any new capacity the industry wants to build must proceed without new subsidies. The government has responded with a growing collection of funding and financing mechanisms for the very wide menu of industrial development and nation-building projects they say they want to take on, and that menu always includes fossil fuel infrastructure. But it’s hard to see how even the combined fiscal clout of the federal and supportive provincial governments will deliver the financial backing private investors would need when the business case for new fossil fuel development is evaporating before their eyes. Particularly when… • No Market, No Demand, No Investors: As our friend Markham Hislop at Energi Media (our apparently sleepless friend, given the massive volume of great material he’s been churning out) points out this morning, the biggest vulnerability in any pipeline deal is the assumption that Asian buyers will want the oil or liquefied natural ga that our fossil industry is so keen to send them. Hislop writes in part: Ottawa and Alberta are effectively betting that countries like China and India will continue increasing oil imports for decades as their economies grow and energy consumption rises. That assumption underpins the entire economic rationale for expanding oil sands production and building billions of dollars in new export infrastructure. But Asian energy systems are changing rapidly… China, India, South Korea, and other major hydrocarbon importers are now investing hundreds of billions of dollars into electricity systems built around wind, solar, batteries, nuclear, hydro, and expanded transmission infrastructure. Domestic “energy sovereignty” is increasingly replacing the old energy-security model based on stable oil and gas imports. Those investments are expected to sharply slow oil demand growth and eventually reverse it, even as overall energy consumption continues rising. There are also refining constraints. Many Asian refineries and petrochemical complexes are already optimized to process discounted heavy crude from the Middle East and Latin America. That raises serious questions about how much additional Canadian bitumen Asian markets can absorb at profitable prices. Small wonder that there’s still no private sector investor for the project, despite Smith’s government desperately beating the bushes to put together a deal. For now, Alberta is acting as proponent and covering early start-up costs for a pitch to the federal Major Projects Office, which could actually turn into the next tough hurdle for Smith and her pipeline to jump. • Canada Day Looms: How ironic that Canada’s birthday this year could become a major chokepoint for the provincial premier who’s been working so diligently to tear the country apart! The July 1 target date for Alberta’s pipeline proposal is baked into the MOU, was reaffirmed by the implementation plan, but it hadn’t dawned on me that it cuts both ways. As one very smart colleague wrote in an email yesterday, “they’ve thrown the ball into Alberta’s court to get the project proposal on the table really quickly and to have to do a whole pile of work to put together a massive, complicated project that would typically take years to assemble, and they’ve given them weeks to do it.” That makes July 1 a looming deadline that Smith won’t be able to run away from politically, especially with the separatists in her party and her caucus breathing down her neck. (See previous ref to off-the-wall.) But if Alberta comes in with a sloppy, incomplete submission, even after Carney bent over backwards to simplify the application process and the rules that govern it, it may be harder for the province or the industry to blame Ottawa and insist on the faster process they claim their investors are demanding. (Oh, wait—which investors would those be??) • We’ll See You In Court (Then We’ll See You Again): If Carney did cave, that would be just one more reason for Indigenous and other affected communities to take the government and the process to court—Just as Alberta First Nations did, successfully, in response to Smith’s half-baked separation referendum. Veterans of the Harper era have been warning that a shoddy process around fossil fuel infrastructure or other major projects will be a recipe for the very delays that process seeks to avoid. And now more than ever, with renewable energy and energy storage eating fossil fuels’ lunch in import markets around the world, a delayed pipeline or LNG terminal may be as good as a cancelled one. • Charged Up, Ready to Go: With its goal of doubling Canada’s electricity supply to meet a doubling of demand by 2050, the national electricity strategy that Carney unveiled Thursday has a lot to like. With its explicit language about speeding the shift from fuels to more efficient and affordable electricity, global investment and deployment patterns that already favour that shift, an emerging bidirectional power grid, the role of front-line options like rooftop solar and heat pumps, the emergence of electric vehicles as behind-the-meter energy storage, and the domestic jobs and manufacturing to make it all happen, the document doubles down on the essential cornerstone of a faster shift off fossil fuels. The strategy envisions a more prominent role for gas and nuclear power. But some of those provisions were already in the Clean Electricity Regulations that climate hawks are now fighting so hard to defend, inserted as a compromise in a futile attempt to mollify the industry and its political representatives in Alberta and Saskatchewan. But once again, gas will be a tougher sell when it’s more expensive and now so much more unpredictable than the clean alternatives. The new nuclear technologies are still speculative and deeply vulnerable to cost overruns. Increasingly, utilities, developers, and investors know it. Carney declared Thursday that “it doesn’t do us good to be sitting in court all the time with provinces. It doesn’t do us good to be talking past each other. What does do us good is to come together with specific projects.” There are no guarantees, but so much of the language and narrative-building in the electricity strategy suggests the lion’s share of those projects will be renewable. • The Party Has Already Started: The electricity strategy only rarely digs down to specific projects, but provinces representing three-quarters of Canada’s population are already embracing a faster transition. Hydro-Québec is working on a 10-year, $185-billion renewable energy and grid buildout by 2035. Ontario recently brought 10 provinces and territories together in a National Energy Corridor Agreement to boost interprovincial and -territorial transmission infrastructure. And the MOU implementation agreement commits Alberta to facilitate investment in renewable energy projects, a big step back from its continuing, punitive restrictions on renewables development. The electricity strategy envisions much of the financing and infrastructure that will be needed to pull those advances together into an integrated whole. • Delivering on Affordability: The MOU implementation plan has little or nothing to say about affordability (are you surprised?), but the electricity strategy does, with a top-line pledge to reduce home energy costs for seven out of 10 Canadian households by 2050, a total saving of $15 billion across the board. It’s just a start, but it puts affordability on the government’s narrative map. If they’re serious and deliberate about patching together a least-cost energy strategy, it’ll have little if any room for oil, gas, or nuclear—not with powerful evidence, for example, that electricity prices are higher when those prices are set by gas. • Smith Proves that Canada Works: By signing a deal that makes it harder to claim the federal government is blocking a new pipeline, Smith has helped prove Carney’s constant anti-separatist refrain that “Canada works”—incurring the rage, no doubt, of her own political base. Canada also needs to work for anyone who depends on a clean environment, healthy and thriving ecosystems, and safe, stable climate. But with Smith and her separatist constituents setting up as a fifth column for annexation by Donald Trump’s United States, let’s set aside any notion that 51st state status for Canada is a recipe for anything other than climate disaster (and so much else). Resisting and withstanding Trump (just 170 more sleeps until mid-term elections, which is a damn sight better than the 730 we started with) doesn’t mean a free pass for a pipeline, but we can still appreciate it that keeping Canada whole and sovereign is still Carney’s Job One. • The Words Not Spoken: Apart from a commitment to export a million barrels of “low-emission” Alberta bitumen per day (memo to Smith and Carney: You realize that that’s less than the industry is already exporting??), the MOU implementation plan says nothing about the international trade and economic sovereignty deals that Carney has been travelling the world to negotiate. It didn’t have to. Carney doesn’t need permission from Danielle Smith, her American enablers, or her separatist allies to continue building the alliances that will ratchet down our economic dependency on our unstable, unreliable neighbour to the south. But every connection he builds with countries outside North America helps align our economy and our future with a faster shift off fossil fuels. Little if any of this was on our bingo cards a year or two ago. But it’s the pathway that has opened up to us. And if it gives Canada any climate or energy gains at all in an era still dominated by Trump and his increasingly ridiculous tariffs, his loutish trade negotiations and his continuing annexation threats, we have to take the wins. Not least because they’ll be the point of departure for what we can achieve in 2027, 2029, and beyond, as Trump’s grip and this era begin to loosen and then fade. What is Carney Doing? If this line of thought is right—and it’s a possibility, not a prediction—it means that Carney’s actions and decisions are largely about buying time. Time for Trump’s power to wane. Time for Alberta’s separatist/conspiracist virus to spread, mutate, die out, or at least die back, with help from a vaccine of federal steadiness and calm (appropriate enough, for a movement populated largely by vaccine deniers) that no conspiracy theory can dismiss. And time for the government’s trade and investment agenda to deliver results—even knowing that some of those results will bring impacts that front-line communities will not and should not accept. In the immediate moment, none of this changes the way the wider climate community has to respond, from campaigners to investors to front-line practitioners. All of our voices are still essential. But those voices will be stronger and more confident if we have a clearer sense of the brutal game we’ve been pulled into, and a plausible path (or two it three) for playing it to the win we need. This conversation also underscores our biggest task for the remaining years of what was supposed to be the “decisive” decade for climate response: if we can shift the energy narrative in Canada, make it a mainstream view that the country’s preoccupation with oil and gas has us falling farther behind a changing world, we’ll see far better results in the 2030s and beyond. For many veteran climate advocates, taking on that part of the fight will begin with recognizing that most of our friends and family, neighbours and colleagues already understand that climate change is real and right in front of us: they’re looking away and staying silent because they don’t have what climate communicator Katharine Hayhoe calls “efficacy”. As Hayhoe recently pointed out in a feature interview with The Energy Mix, it amounts to science denial to keep hammering away at the dire news about global warming without also helping audiences understand what they can do about it, with multiple studies telling us why that won’t work. Far better to open those conversations with the dominant crises like energy security, food security, emergency preparedness and business continuity, affordability, and financial security that have knocked climate change far lower on the list of public priorities, and will likely keep it there. We Knew This Would Happen Climate hawks have always known this day would come. For decades, we warned that everyone had to pay attention to climate change right now, because it would be much tougher to respond once the crisis itself started affecting our daily lives. We were right, and here we are. But now, thanks to decades of hard work, communities and countries have an alternative to doubling down on fossil fuels. “In 10 years everyone will have ‘always known’ that solar and batteries were going to win,” Morgan Solar Executive Chair Mike Andrade writes on LinkedIn. With the disruption in the Strait of Hormuz roiling energy priorities around the world, Canada and the United States are among the shrinking number of countries that are still very keen on fossil fuel development. Understanding that gap is a first, essential step in spotting the opportunities ahead, and averting the deep economic as well as environmental and social risk we face if we don’t seize them. Thanks for reading The Energy Mix Weekender! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work. Subscribe Mitchell Beer traces his background in renewable energy and energy efficiency back to 1977, in climate change to 1997. Now he and the rest of the Energy Mix team scan 1,200 news headlines a week to pull together The Energy Mix and The Energy Mix Weekender. Chart of the Week BYD Eyes 20 Dealership Locations After Canada Greenlights Chinese EV Imports ‘Sledgehammer’ Carbon Price Deal Boosts Emissions by 230Mt, Aims for Fall 2027 Pipeline Approval ‘Worse Than Harper’: Regulatory Rollback Would Stop Canada from Assessing Project Impacts, Critics Warn Electricity Strategy Aims for Doubling by 2050, Allows ‘Flexibility’ for Gas Power Plants Opposition Mounts as O’Leary’s Data Centre Approved in Drought-Stricken Utah Diluted Carbon Price Misses ‘Reality of the World We’re In’, Could Impede Diversified Trade: Climate Institute $200B in Clean Energy Investment Will Need On-Time Delivery, Reliable Policies, Trade Association Says ‘Sovereign Pipeline’: CEO Pitches to Keep Trans Mountain in Government Hands What a Supercharged El Niño Could Mean for Canada Canada’s future is electric, and here’s how a power grid superhighway would get us there (Toronto Star) The Perilous Waters of Hecate Strait (Globe and Mail) Saudi Aramco profits jump despite conflict in Middle East (The Guardian) Farmers confront rising cost of fertilizer and fuel as spring seeding under way (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) Clarkson forecasts 24% decline in offshore oil, gas capital expenditures (Oil & Gas Journal) Pipe Dreams: How Oil and Gas Fail to Deliver Economic Development in Africa (Oil Change International) Developing countries must hold the pen to script the fossil fuel transition (Climate Home News) Iran war threatens the dream of a post-oil economy in the Gulf (Washington Post) U.S. Oil, Gas Work Force Hits Lowest Level Since 2022 (Rigzone) Why Polestar Is Doubling Down on Net Zero as Rivals Pull Back on EVs (Bloomberg) Why this Michigan utility plans to sell its hydro dams for $13 (E&E News/Politico) Levees can no longer save New Orleans (Vox)
Digital piracy is on the rise and the entertainment industry is losing billions
The industry faces a growing problem that’s comes at a high cost
Digital piracy is on the rise and the entertainment industry is losing billions
“Avatar” film leaked early, costing Paramount profits. Digital piracy costs entertainment $75B annually, driven by subscription fatigue and rising costs.
CA governor candidates to face off in what may be last debate before June primary
Steyer’s billions, Hilton’s Trump endorsement, and Becerra’s baggage are all in play — but one new development could dominate the night.
Why 57% of business leaders say their metrics will fail
Companies are investing billions in AI-powered dashboards, predictive analytics and real-time reporting. Yet there's a widening gap between data availability and decision quality.
Jefferson CEO, in visit to Lehigh Valley, says ball is in UnitedHealthCare’s court after policyholders go out of network with LVHN
“I think they’re trying to wait us out because they have billions,” Jefferson CEO Joseph Cacchione said regarding the ongoing contact dispute between Lehigh Valley Health Network, which is part of Jefferson, and UnitedHealthCare.
NYC’s billion-dollar businesses issue a high-stakes economic alert on impact of proposed new taxes
A report from the Partnership for NYC shows that member companies support around 940,000 jobs and contribute billions to the local economy.
Retail Giants Spend Billions to Make Stores Look Nicer
Walmart, Target and Dollar General are among those investing in remodeling thousands of existing stores, even as shoppers take their dollars online.
Surprising Signs of an Atmosphere Around a Tiny World, Billions of Miles Away
A gradual dimming and brightening when a star passed behind it suggested the mini-Pluto was wrapped in a thin layer of air.
Scientists created one of the largest simulations of our universe ever — about the size of 500,000 HD movies
These giant "virtual universe" simulations help scientists trace cosmic evolution across billions of years.
Tennesseans bet billions on sports last year. See how much
Tennessee residents wagered more money than the GDP of three dozen countries last year.
White House says Trump's deals with pharmaceutical companies offer billions in savings
WASHINGTON (AP) — White House economists estimate that President Donald Trump’s deals with pharmaceutical companies to drop some of their U.S. prescription drug prices to what they charge in other countries could save $529 billion over the next 10 years. The analysis obtained by The Associated Press includes the first economy-wide projections behind a policy at the core of Trump’s pitch to voters going into November’s midterm elections for control of the House and Senate.
In the six-way race to be California’s treasurer, it likely comes down to two Democrats
California's treasurer manages bonds, pensions, and billions in cash. These are the six people vying for the job in 2026.
Hidden galaxy within our galaxy discovered — billions of years after Milky Way ate it
This particular star system, dubbed Loki after the Norse god of trickery, was consumed by our own solar system billions of years ago when our celestial neighborhood was expanding in size.
Power & Politics: Hofstra Exec. Dean of Suburban Studies, Real Estate Broker discuss Levittown growing pains; Billions of dollars missing from school funding
Hofstra Executive Dean of Suburban Studies Larry Levy and Chris Montalbano, a real estate broker, join the show.
Landlords want to be paid for pandemic losses and hope to reach a deal with the Trump administration
A group of landlords are hoping to settle with the federal government over what they say are billions of dollars in losses due to the federal eviction moratorium in place for nearly a year during the pandemic.
He recorded his quest for tariff refunds. It shows why billions may never get repaid
After the Supreme Court struck down most of President Trump's tariffs, Richard Brown began lining up the paperwork he needed to get his refund. Experts say many businesses may never get their money back.
Can LIV Golf work without the Saudi billions? Sports investors predict a ‘free fall’
The inner workings of LIV Golf’s business model are a lot bleaker than what the league is boasting publicly.
Can LIV Golf work without the Saudi billions? Sports investors predict a ‘free fall’
The inner workings of LIV Golf’s business model are a lot bleaker than what the league is boasting publicly.
Businesses applying for tariff refunds after Supreme Court ruling
Businesses across the United States are now racing to recover billions of dollars in tariffs after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled those tariffs, which had been imposed under the International Economic Emergency Powers Act, were illegal.
Carbon pollution is making food less nutritious and risking health of billions
Surging concentrations of carbon in the atmosphere have produced potent changes in the way plants grow, draining the nutrients from food.
Report: LIV Golf to notify players that Saudi funding is officially coming to an end
LIV will reportedly notify its players on Thursday that the Saudi Public Investment Fund, which has poured billions into the tour over its four-plus years of existence, will end its funding as of the end of this season.
NASA Curiosity rover finds mysterious life linked molecules on mars
Curiosity has detected a surprising variety of organic molecules on Mars, including compounds tied to the chemistry of life. Some of these molecules may be billions of years old, preserved in ancient clay-rich rocks that once held water. One standout find resembles building blocks of DNA, raising exciting questions about Mars’ past. Although not proof of life, the discovery suggests the Red Planet may have once been far more biologically promising than we thought.
UAE's ADNOC to invest tens of billions to build a US gas business, FT reports
Abu Dhabi National Oil Company is planning to invest tens of billions of dollars to build a natural gas business in the U.S., the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.
Opinion: Illinois’ ‘flat’ tax isn’t flat — and it’s costing us billions
Illinoisans are struggling to afford the basics. The least we can do is stop subsidizing the luxuries of people who have everything they need and then some.
An ancient disease is making a comeback, and every American should be concerned
The U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative has saved millions of lives and prevented billions of cases of malaria, but progress is slowing due to the disease evolving and the need for renewed em…
Michigan group pushes to get big money out of politics
A new push to limit corporate money in Michigan politics appears to be gaining traction.There is strong bipartisan support for restricting political contributions from regulated monopolies and companies seeking government contracts, according to a survey commissioned by supporters of the proposal. S...
Some Northwest Florida businesses ready to file for tariff refunds as online portal opens
PENSACOLA, Fla. -- $166 billion in federal refunds is now up for grabs. The billions of dollars were all collected from President Donald Trump's sweeping tariff
How To Build A Billion-Dollar Business Like Clockwork
Building a billion-dollar business starts as an audacious idea that someone dared to take seriously.
Trump Media replaces Nunes as Truth Social CEO after stock plunge that wiped out billions
The Trump business behind Truth Social is replacing a former congressman and big supporter of the U.S. president as the leader of the social media platform after a stock collapse that wiped out billions in investor wealth.
Life sciences lab real estate is clawing back from disaster. Here’s what that means for investors
Life science laboratories saw a massive drop in demand last year after the NIH was forced to cancel billions of dollars in research grants.
A new frontier in mental health promise, risk and responsibility
Despite billions spent and countless programs launched, rates of suicide and treatment-resistant PTSD remain stubbornly high among those who have served.
Romanian President Holds Talks to Save Government From Collapse
Romanian President Nicusor Dan is holding talks with coalition parties to salvage the country’s teetering pro-European government, with the nation’s investment grade and billions of euros in European Union funding potentially hinging on the outcome.
Curiosity rover finds signs of ancient life on Mars
Martian clay may have held water billions of years ago.
Google Starts Scanning All Your Photos As New Update Goes Live
Google wants its AI to see all the photos of "you and your loved ones." Billions of users must now decide.
What to know about tariff refund site that's set to go live Monday
This is the 1st phase in the administration complying with court orders that could see billions of dollars in paid tariffs refunded.
Scientists stunned as bacteria rewire DNA machinery to shape cells
Cyanobacteria—ancient microbes that oxygenated Earth and made complex life possible—are still revealing surprises billions of years later. Scientists have now discovered that a molecular system once used to separate DNA has been repurposed into something entirely different: a structure that shapes the cell itself.
Tribes warn CFTC move on sports prediction markets would undermine gaming compacts
Tribal leaders warn a potential CFTC move to allow sports prediction markets could bypass gaming laws, threaten compacts and shift billions in revenue.
Scientists Prove There Are Just Six Degrees of Separation in a Social Network
A simple pattern links billions of people: just a few connections apart. New research suggests this may be an unavoidable feature of human networks.
Google Starts Scanning All Your Photos As New Update Goes Live
Google wants its AI to see all your photos of "you and your loved ones." Billions of users mush now decide.
A look at 'super agers' and the science behind longer, sharper lives
For thousands of years, humans have tried to avoid growing old. Billions are spent every year on potions and procedures to make us look younger, feel younger and think younger. It’s a hugely profitable, but ultimately fruitless hunt. But science has started to zero in on some proven techniques. Horizons moderator William Brangham explores that with Dr. Eric Topol and Dr. Sandra Weintraub.
Shopping TV empire behind QVC, HSN files for bankruptcy amid mounting losses
The parent company of QVC and HSN has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy as part of a major restructuring plan to slash billions in debt. The company says it will continue normal operations with no planned layoffs.
Thousands suffer nausea, delirium and other health issues from toxins in the Tijuana River
For decades, billions of gallons of sewage and industrial waste have been dumped into the Tijuana River.
Tijuana River sewage is making the air toxic, scientists say
For decades, billions of gallons of sewage and industrial waste have been dumped into the Tijuana River.
German health minister announces billions in cutbacks
The comprehensive reform package aims to plug a multi-billion-euro hole in Germany's expensive healthcare system. The reforms include mandatory second opinions for costly surgeries and no more homeopathy.
Advertisers demand billions of dollars from Google in escalating monopoly battle
Alphabet Inc.’s Google is facing billions of dollars in potential damage claims as part of mass arbitration tied to the company’s online search and advertising technology businesses, which courts have ruled were illegal monopolies.
‘Chilling effect’ of Trump science cuts – even if reversed again
Congress likely to once more block plans to cut billions from agency budgets, but experts fear they will have long-term impact anyway
NC builders chase billions in defense deals at Wilmington conference
A big federal construction conference takes place next week at the convention center in Wilmington. It is the Southeast Region Construction, Infrastructure and Environmental Summit, held by the North Carolina Military Business Center. Courtney Smedick at the NCMBC says that the conference is about to sell out, so if you want to attend, you should […]
White House Budget For 2027 Set To Slash Science, Climate, And Environment Funding By Billions
Meanwhile, the military is hoping to receive a 44 percent increase in funding.
Spanberger signs bipartisan bills tied to billions in business investment across Virginia
Gov. Abigail Spanberger on Monday signed a package of economic development bills aimed at securing billions of dollars in private investment and creating thousands of jobs across Virginia, highlighting projects in Southside and Central Virginia tied to manufacturing, energy infrastructure and pharmaceuticals.The legislation supports several major projects announced by the administration in February, including a more than $500 million investment in Pittsylvania County by Avio USA Inc. The company plans to build an 860,000-square-foot manufacturing facility at the Southern Virginia Multimodal Park in the town of Hurt.
Detroit small businesses say tariff refunds could be a lifeline -- if they can clear the federal hurdles
Billions of dollars in tariff refunds could be on the way for American companies but getting that money back will be anything but simple. Experts also warn consumers probably won’t see a dime.
A new way to deliver faster, greener wireless connections indoors
Modern life depends on fast and reliable wireless connections. Video calls, streaming services, virtual reality, and smart devices all place growing demands on networks that already serve billions of ...
Canadians are boycotting U.S. travel over tariffs and politics — and it's already costing America billions
Here's the cost of Canadians boycotting U.S. travel.
FY2027 Budget Request Slashes Billions in Science Funding
The Trump administration is requesting the cancellation of billions of dollars in funds for space science, renewable energy, carbon removal, and climate change education in its FY 2027 budget.
Trump asks Congress to supersize military budget, slash domestic programs
The president’s fiscal 2027 budget request calls for Republicans to use a partisan process for enacting billions for the Pentagon.
The Child Care Business Model, Explained
Child care is essential for families, businesses, and communities. Federal, state, and local governments, businesses, philanthropies, and individual families invest billions of dollars annually in formal and informal child care, yet these investments fall short of ensuring affordable, quality child care for all working families. Unlike many other sectors, child care providers operate within a … Continued
We’re Spending Billions on Collagen. Here’s What the Science Actually Says
We’re spending billions on powders and gummies, but is it a waste of money? Discover what recent clinical studies from Harvard and FSU reveal about collagen's actual impact on skin, joints, and aging.
Big Tech promised AI would disrupt labor — just not like this
Oracle is reportedly laying off thousands of employees, adding to an already long list of tech giants cutting staff while spending hundreds of billions of dollars on AI data centers.
Juanjo Duran, Global Head of Media & Entertainment Content Partnerships at Google
Juanjo Duran, Global Head of Media and Entertainment Content Partnerships at Google tells ADWEEK the two things he knew early on in his career: he loved technology, and he loved building relationships. What he didn’t expect was how that pairing would fuel a 15‑year career shaping how billions of people access entertainment.
‘Promise and Pitfalls’ of AI in health care at center of URI Pharmacy conference
KINGSTON, R.I. — March 27, 2026 — Despite its relative infancy among world-changing technologies in human history—the wheel, the printing press, electricity, the Internet—artificial intelligence has most rapidly become ubiquitous, already adopted by billions of people just a few short years after becoming publicly available. AI has infiltrated virtually all aspects of life, including health […]
Judge temporarily blocks the Pentagon's action against Anthropic
Anthropic has said it could lose billions if a federal judge didn't step in to block the Trump administration.
The creator of Fortnite has laid off more than 1,000 staff – despite billions in revenue
Huge cuts announced this week show that truly no developer working in games is safe from corporate whims
Some Meta executives could make billions under new pay package
AI competition is heating up as Meta plans new pay increases. CEO Mark Zuckerberg isn't included in the plan.
Scientists discover mirror of our solar system in 2 exoplanets forming around a star
Astronomers have spotted two planets forming around a distant infant star, offering a time capsule into see what the solar system looked like billions of years ago.
AI compressed billions of years of evolution into seconds to create 'Lego-like robots' that can recover even when they lose limbs
Modular robots are easily expandable, know when they're upside down or stuck, and can march forward across all kinds of terrain.
Iranian Missile Strikes Are Costing Big Oil Billions in Lost Revenue
Damaged energy infrastructure is likely to take years to come back online, but a surge in oil-and-gas prices is helping to offset some of the lost production for now.
Cracks emerge in GOP over Iran war cost as administration floats more than $200B request to Congress
Cracks are emerging among congressional Republicans over the Iran war with key lawmakers skeptical about spending hundreds of billions of dollars to prolong the conflict and several refusing to support any money without a clear White House strategy.
CMA opposes dangerous ballot measure threatening community health clinics
CMA is strongly opposing a proposed statewide ballot initiative that would strip billions of dollars from vital health...
Roundup: Amazon / Wholesale prices / Foreign threat response
Cutting USPS use: Amazon plans to slash its use of the U.S. Postal Service by at least two-thirds as its delivery contract expires, potentially stripping billions in revenue from the agency. The shift follows a new bidding process for last-mile delivery and could leave USPS with excess capacity, forcing cost cuts as it searches for […]
Health literacy: 5 key lessons for better global health
One in four people around the world have low health literacy. Tackling that challenge could improve lives and save billions in healthcare funding globally.
Wisconsin lawmakers approve measure to allow tribes to offer online sports betting
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — As sports fans wager billions of dollars on the NCAA basketball tournaments, Wisconsin lawmakers are taking a shot at an expanded sports betting plan that could ...
Wisconsin lawmakers take a shot at joining the ranks of states allowing online sports betting
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — As sports fans wager billions of dollars on the NCAA basketball tournaments, Wisconsin lawmakers are taking a shot at an expanded sports betting plan that could bank big bucks for…
Donations to science often avoid scrutiny. Jeffrey Epstein used this to his advantage
Billions of dollars are invested in science every year through philanthropy, with little legal or public scrutiny. Jeffrey Epstein utilized this to cultivate scientists and launder his reputation.
CNN liberal panelist argues billions spent on defense should go to health insurance instead
CNN panelists debate U.S. priorities as Leigh McGowan questions whether spending on the Iran conflict should instead go toward addressing healthcare challenges at home.
Integrating brain workouts into health care could save billions in dementia care
The growing research on brain health is a good reminder that while our phones might offer a quick dopamine hit, real engagement offers a much bigger reward.
Scientists discover hidden water beneath Mars that could have supported life
New research suggests Mars may have remained habitable much longer than scientists once thought. Ancient sand dunes in Gale Crater appear to have been soaked by underground water billions of years ago, leaving behind minerals that can preserve signs of life. Even after surface water disappeared, subsurface flows may have created protected environments for microbes. These hidden habitats could be key targets in the ongoing search for past life on Mars.
How Paris Hilton turned a persona into a global business empire
Paris Hilton, often called the “original influencer,” takes Tania Bryer to a New York hotel steeped in history and shares how she turned personal pain into purpose — building a brand that has generated billions in sales.
Meta is weighing major layoffs as it pours billions into AI
Meta plans potential layoffs as AI investments rise, with up to 16,000 jobs at risk. AI spending demands cost cuts across Big Tech.
British politics is hooked on flashy fake numbers – and the AI investment debacle proves it
A claim that the UK is attracting billions of pounds in AI investment has been debunked. That’s no surprise when our establishment runs on dubious ‘good news’, says Jonathan Portes, a professor at King’s College London and former senior civil servant
Proposal: Legislature wants to give Mamdani billions to fill city budget hole
The state Assembly and Senate want to fill the city’s budget hole — estimated to be more than $5 billion.
The Startup Trying a New Trick to Develop AI For Science Discovery
OpenAI and Anthropic have raised tens of billions of dollars on the promise of artificial intelligence that can make new discoveries in fields like medicine, biology and physics. And yet,we’re nowhere close to that. (You might recall this awkward moment from last fall when a ChatGPT-generated ...
Anthropic executives say Pentagon blacklisting could hit billions in sales, harm reputation
Anthropic executives said the U.S. government's blacklisting of the AI firm could cut its 2026 revenue by multiple billions of dollars and cause reputational harm.
Legislature wants higher tax on wealthy, big business, according to proposals
In a new memo obtained by NY1, City Hall is pitching individual lawmakers to back billions of dollars in new taxes on millionaires and big corporations.
Oregon isn't just losing businesses, it's losing their growth
Experts warn the state is losing billions in private investment and future jobs by not addressing competitiveness.
For China, Billions of Dollars Are at Risk From a Widening War
The country found a home in the Middle East for its investments and growing markets for steel, electric vehicles and solar panels. Those are now at stake.
Can The Critters in Your Mouth Cause or Cure Disease?
By Carole Tanzer Miller HealthDay ReporterSATURDAY, March 7, 2026 (HealthDay News) — No matter how much you brush, floss and rinse, there’s a zoo colonizing your teeth, gums and tongue. Billions of microscopic critters called microbes make their home in your mouth, and scientists studying them ...
Trump may need billions for the Iran war. Congress stands in the way.
Capitol Hill is largely in the dark about what an emergency cash influx for the Iran war could look like. But Trump will have to go through Democrats.
Trump plans to revoke Biden tax rule that cracked down on big business abuses
The Biden administration said large partnerships were illegally avoiding hundreds of billions in taxes. Trump says they shouldn’t have to report the transactions.
California GOP lawmakers are incensed over a gas tax study bill. Rural groups say they need it
As more electric vehicles hit the road, California could collect billions less from gas tax revenue to repair them. But even a bill to study options could be a huge political lift for Democrats.
How U.S. Businesses Are Shaving Billions Off Their Tariff Bills
A well-honed tariff-reduction playbook is giving businesses some confidence that they can deal with President Trump’s latest tariffs.
Taiwan Arms Sale Approved by Congress Is Delayed as Trump Plans Visit to Beijing
The package worth billions of dollars and endorsed by lawmakers is stalled at the State Department as the U.S. and China plan an April summit.
Why Nintendo is expanding its business beyond gaming
Mario. Link. Pikachu. These aren't just video game characters — they’re some of the most recognizable figures on the planet. For nearly 50 years, Nintendo has been building loyalty to its worlds, and now it's turning that nostalgia into a global entertainment empire.