Economy & Business

"The planned 25 percent tariff on imported automobiles is a gut punch for most electric vehicle makers, whose supply chains are rooted in China." "At the same time as tariffs wound the overall EV market, they could provide a window of opportunity for automakers that already produce EVs and batteries domestically and could beat competitors on price. The most likely winner is Tesla, analysts said, though other automakers could also benefit."

"The Federal Emergency Management Agency has frozen nearly $10 billion in disaster aid for nonprofits including hospitals as it seeks to identify funding that could be used to help undocumented migrants, according to agency documents obtained by POLITICO’s E&E News."

"The Trump administration is canceling billions of dollars in grant funding to state and local health departments without warning, throwing their programs into disarray."

"The world needs massive amounts of critical minerals to power the transition to clean energy. But as countries and industries explore new mining opportunities, a major question looms: Can all of this extraction be done without the same environmental and human costs associated with fossil fuels?"

"At the White House last week, the nation’s top oil executives asked President Donald Trump for help fighting state laws that seek billions of dollars from fossil fuel companies."

"During his confirmation hearing, Energy Secretary Chris Wright tried to convince senators he wasn’t your typical fracking executive. ... But, after his confirmation, Wright walked back that promise, claiming renewable technologies are inherently unreliable. “There is simply no physical way that wind, solar and batteries could replace the myriad uses of natural gas,” he claimed at a fossil fuel industry conference this month."

"Donald Trump’s administration has offered fossil fuel companies an extraordinary opportunity to evade air pollution rules by simply emailing the US president to ask him to exempt them."

"The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, although battered by Trump administration attempts to impose massive staff and budget cuts on the agency, nevertheless continues to publish critical climate information, including some dire drought warnings in the spring outlook published March 20 by NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center."

"The Trump administration has eviscerated a grant program designed to make U.S. industry cleaner and more competitive by improving measurement of emissions from building materials. The Environmental Protection Agency says it has canceled $116 million in grants to 21 recipients that include universities and trade groups, according to information obtained by the Sierra Club through a public records request."

"Republican lawmakers have succeeded in back-channeling with Trump officials to save energy and environment programs and workers from the wrath of Elon Musk."