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Electric Vehicles

Hurricane Lala.
AM Briefing

Lala Lashes Hawaii

On the battery backlog, Canadian U, and Peter Thiel goes gas gaucho

AM Briefing

Insane in the Methane

On Trump’s mineral deals, the gas turbine backlog, and Turkic offshore wind

Red
Daily Briefing

The U.S. Clean Economy Has Snapped Its Losing Streak

Investment in zero-carbon energy and transportation surged this spring, driven by consumer EV and battery buying.

Green
AM Briefing

Project Crystal Sun

On transmission corridors, China’s Russian reactor, and long-duration energy storage

Red
Francesca Hong.

Not So Midwest Nice

On copper prices, nuclear’s jellyfish woes, and Leo DiCaprio’s Chilean NIMBYism

Blue
Lake Mead.

Hot Hot Heat

On the Ice Silk Road, China’s oil, and Puerto Rico’s blackouts

Yellow
AM Briefing

Gimme Ore

On Amazon’s gas behemoth, Kia’s electric minivan, and Colombian H2

Mining machinery.
<p>Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images</p>

Current conditions: The wildfires in Spokane, Washington, have now incinerated 850 structures, most of which were homes • Thunderstorms are rumbling over Des Moines, Iowa, breaking the dense “corn sweat” humidity evaporating off crop fields • Severe storms in Brazil’s southeasternmost Rio Grande do Sul province have left at least one dead.


THE TOP FIVE

1. Trump puts up $2 billion for critical minerals

The paradox of President Donald Trump’s critical mineral policy, as my colleague Matthew Zeitlin put it last year, remains unresolved. His administration did away with the main domestic market signal for minerals by eliminating the electric vehicle tax credit with incentives for U.S. content last year. But the White House has pulled out the stops to support projects that aim to produce lithium, rare earths, and other minerals needed for weapons and energy manufacturing. On Friday, the Department of Defense announced a package worth more than $2 billion in funding for companies churning out batteries and the minerals contained in them. The funding includes $1.4 billion for the battery company Sila Nanotechnologies and $400 million for Sunrise Energy Metals, a producer of scandium, which is needed for high-heat aluminum alloys for fighter jets and spacecraft. “We want these essential products to be mined, refined and made right here in the USA,” Trump said at a press roundtable, according to The Wall Street Journal.

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Daily Briefing

Ford’s Fathom? Drive!

Facing down a sea change, the automaker has staked its next EV bet on a compact, sporty pickup.

Ford headquarters.
<p>Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images</p>

“Full fathom five, your father lies,” the invisible spirit Ariel sings early in The Tempest, as a handsome and grieving prince listens, rapt. The song tells of a shipwrecked skeleton transforming into something else — its eyes have become pearls, and its bones pink coral — as it undergoes, yes, a “sea change.” It is the first time that phrase appears in the English language.

Ford is now facing its own kind of sea change. Over the past decade, the automaker has doubled down on its most profitable and exciting vehicles — pickups, SUVs, and the Mustang muscle car — and dropped from its line-up the cheap, boring cars that once made it famous. It embraced, then backed off, the transition to electric vehicles, in part because it failed to make money from them; and it began to reckon with the surge of cheaper, cleaner, and “far superior” EVs from Chinese producers that are transforming global auto markets around the world.

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