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Live from the GNR Newsroom: Its the Monday Good News Roundup [1]
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Date: 2022-08-01
Welcome back to the Monday Good News Roundup, our capitalization may be inconsistent, our grammar may be shaky, but that doesn’t make the news any less good. This past week my team of Killer300 and Bhu have been grabbing good news stories to get our week (and our month) off to a good start, so lets start August with our best foot forward and get this show on the road.
The U.S. was once the world leader in the production of solar power equipment, but today domestic manufacturers have largely lost the battle to China. Still, despite America’s rudderless industrial policy, the domestic solar industry is starting to show some encouraging signs of life. There has been a recent flurry of leading solar manufacturing firms breaking ground on new U.S. factories, looking to meet the growing demand for homegrown solar products. But there have been some setbacks hindering the momentum of domestic production as well. Here’s a rundown.
I think the fact solar power is doing well despite not having any government support is a good thing, it means it really is the wave of the future, and doesn’t need propping up like some other energy industries (Looking at you fossil fuels).
Is energy storage recession-proof? It’s too early to know for sure, but in the span of a single week in mid-July, three different groups of investors made significant new bets on companies providing large-scale batteries for the grid. The message they’re sending is that, whatever happens to the overall economy, the grid battery market is going to keep growing. The specific deals are as follows: Oregon-based grid storage integrator Powin Energy raised a $ 135 million growth equity round led by GIC , Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund. The round included returning investors Trilantic Energy Partners North America and Energy Impact Partners.
million growth equity round led by , Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund. The round included returning investors Trilantic Energy Partners North America and Energy Impact Partners. Durham, North Carolina–based FlexGen raised $ 100 million for its storage integration and software business. That Series C fundraising round was led by Vitol, a European energy trading conglomerate that handles massive flows of oil and gas as well as electricity trading.
million for its storage integration and software business. That Series C fundraising round was led by Vitol, a European energy trading conglomerate that handles massive flows of oil and gas as well as electricity trading. Pioneering clean energy investor Generate Capital outright acquired esVolta, a battery developer, owner and operator that boasts 900 megawatt-hours of operational or utility-contracted capacity. The companies did not disclose the purchase price, but they did note the deal marks Generate’s first entrance into the grid-scale storage space after years of investing in smaller, distributed batteries.
Hee hee, there’s gold in them thar grids. Or something, I had something and I lost it.
For this week's election update we've averaged the Congressional Generic results of 30 polls taken since Roe ended on June 24th and found Democrats leading 44.8% to 42.3%, +2.5 points. That’s a 4-5 point shift from where the election was in mid-June. Notably, 4 influential Republican polls released over the past week show significant Dem leads: Americans for Prosperity 42-39 (+3) Echelon Insights 48-44 (+4) Chamber of Commerce 46-41 (+5) Winning The Issues 47-41 (+6) The 2.5 point Dem lead (and 3 to 6 pts in this GOP polling) is significant for it's believed that Democrats will need at least a 2 point national win to keep the House. A new Morning Consult poll finds independent voters swinging from +3 GOP in May to +8 Dem, an 11 (!!!!) point swing. The Economist/YouGov poll moved from +3 Dem last week to +6 this week. The USA Today/Suffolk found a 4 point swing towards the Democrats. Even Rasmussen clocked in this week with a 5 point swing towads the Democrats in the past week. New Fox News polling has all sorts of bad news for the GOP - Fetterman up 11 in PA, Warnock up 4 in GA and Kemp only up 3 and at 47 in the GA governor's race. Joe Biden's approval rating has improved by almost 4 points in the past week, and 538's slow to move average has moved 2.5 pts towards the Democrats in recent weeks. All this data suggests that the Democrats have a bit of wind at their back and a real shot at keeping both chambers this fall. Senate polling remains very strong for Democrats, as our candidates in AZ, GA, NH and NV continue to lead in every poll taken in these states. Republicans OZ in PA and Johnson in WI have-lose-their-election kind of numbers. Vance continue to trail in OH in most polls, and while Dems are not ahead in FL and NC neither Republican is at 50.
Everything is pointing towards us winning big in November. But we can’t take that for granted. This is gonna be the fight of our lives, we need to get out and vote.
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a startling turnabout, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Joe Manchin announced an expansive agreement Wednesday that had eluded them for months addressing health care and climate, raising taxes on high earners and large corporations and reducing federal debt. The two Democrats said the Senate would vote on the wide-ranging measure next week, setting up President Joe Biden and Democrats for an unexpected victory in the runup to November elections in which their congressional control is in peril. A House vote would follow, perhaps later in August, with unanimous Republican opposition in both chambers seemingly certain.
That’s the big news of this past week, Which was discussed in Saturday’s GNR by our founder, but I feel like it needs to be repeated. Glad to see Manchin is doing the right thing on this one.
The unions and railroads entered into mediation earlier this year when it became clear an agreement would not be achieved through direct bargaining. The mediated negotiations reached an impasse in June. In accordance with the Railway Labor Act’s cumbersome process, the next step was a mandatory 30-day “cooling-off” period, at the end of which either party could have entered into “self-help” (meaning a strike or lockout) unless President Joe Biden appointed a Presidential Emergency Board (PEB) to examine the dispute and produce recommendations on a settlement within another 30-days. This month, at the end of the cooling-off period, Biden did indeed step in and appoint a PEB—consisting of three legal experts who have helped resolve labor disputes in the past — delaying the possibility of a strike. Biden’s move came as no surprise, especially since the union leadership, railroad management, and shippers all openly wanted him to step in. “Anybody who thought Biden wouldn’t appoint a PEB was foolish,” Kaminkow told In These Times. “There’s too much at stake politically. He also knows that we will kick the railroads’ ass because there would be rock solid support for this strike and the economy would quickly grind to a halt.” In the United Kingdom last month, rail workers with the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) had widespread public support when they staged a three-day strike over similar issues. The PEB’s recommendations are expected by mid-August, after which there will be yet another 30-day cooling-off period during which the parties can either accept or reject those recommendations. If an agreement still has not been reached by then, which would be mid-September, the Railway Labor Act allows for the unions to go on strike.
I saw someone on Tumblr trying to spin this like Biden was anti union, when he’s doing exactly the opposite, I hope the rail workers get everything they want.
With the worsening of forest fires and the spike in deforestation as a result of attacks by Bolsonaro’s government, volunteer forest firefighter brigades started to form around the country. In 2021, street artist Mundano and filmmaker André D’Elia, both from São Paulo, got organized. They took a group of artists well known to the São Paulo street art scene on an expedition to meet the volunteer brigades during the burning season. While they traveled, D’Elia shot scenes for a documentary and Mundano collected ashes he would turn into charcoal paint. Mundano then used this paint to create the largest public mural he has made to date, which he called “Ashes of the Forest,” or “Cinzas da Floresta” in Portuguese.
Good to see people banding together to fight for the rain forests. Also a good time to once again plug Ecoasia, the search engine that plants trees when you use it.
Since the US Supreme Court overturned protections on abortion rights in the US last month, the controversial issue has been back on the global agenda — including in Africa. Five days after the US ruled that there is no constitutional right to abortion, Tedros Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), described it as a setback. However, the WHO chief said many world regions had strengthened the right to abortion over the past 40 years, adding that it's more important than ever to protect that right. "All women should have the right to choose when it comes to their bodies and health. Full stop," he said. Tedros stressed that safe abortion is health care: "It saves lives. Restricting it drives women and girls towards unsafe abortions; resulting in complications, even death."
We wont go back, and in fact in many places in the world we’re doing the opposite: We’re going straight forward, and woe betide anyone who tries to get in our way.
Throughout this century, a growing majority of Americans have become dramatically more liberal in their views and politics, more tolerant, less distrustful of outsiders and difference, and less prone to crime and violence. As recently as 2016, according to surveys by the Pew Research Center, a majority said that in order to be “truly American,” it was necessary to be a Christian and be born in the United States. Today, for the first time, a majority of Americans – 65 per cent – feel that foreign-born or non-Christian neighbours are just as American as anyone else. Likewise, in the 1990s, 65 per cent of Americans felt immigration should be decreased, according to the Cato Institute; today, it’s only 33 per cent, and only 9 per cent feel there should be none. A majority now believe that immigrants come to America to improve things, and that their ability to immigrate should be a human right. The belief that people of the same sex should be allowed to marry – a good indicator of wider tolerance – was held by only 27 per cent of Americans at the end of the 20th century, according to annual Gallup polls ; today, it has hit 70 per cent, including a majority of Republican Party voters and of seniors. As recently as the 1990s, a majority of American households owned a firearm. As of 2016 , only 36 per cent had a gun, the lowest rate of firearm ownership in U.S. history. This is reflected in support for gun control: 70 per cent of Americans feel that restricting gun ownership should take precedence over gun rights. Violent crime reached a postwar peak in 1991, at almost 760 incidents per 100,000 Americans. By the 2010s, it had plummeted to 360. It rose very slightly during the pandemic, to about 400, but is now falling again. Partly as a consequence, the U.S. incarceration rate has fallen to its lowest point since the mid-1990s. and found that on only 5 per cent of issues had Americans become more conservative. They became more liberal on the big ones: racial tolerance, the rights of homosexuals, women, religious minorities and atheists. Those aren’t cherry-picked figures: It is hard to find any area of values or beliefs where Americans haven’t become sharply more liberal. The New York University sociologist Michael Hout recently examined 50 years of surveyed attitudes and beliefs around 283 issues,and found that on only 5 per cent of issues had Americans become more conservative. They became more liberal on the big ones: racial tolerance, the rights of homosexuals, women, religious minorities and atheists.
Its important to remember the hatemongers and bullies are a small minority, and one that needs to cheat to retain relevance. We outnumber them, and soon we will throw them out.
EV ownership surging in unexpected places: An analysis just released by iSeeCars.com looked at U.S. regions with the biggest shift in market share for alternative fuel vehicles since 2014 and the results suggest hybrid and electric vehicle demand is growing faster in central and rural areas than it is in densely-populated coastal cities. “You expect to see strong hybrid and electric vehicle sales in states like California, Oregon and Washington, or in cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles or Seattle,” said iSeeCars executive analyst Karl Brauer in a statement accompanying the report. “While those areas do have the highest percentage of alternative fuel vehicles, the areas with the greatest growth in hybrid and electric vehicle share come from states and cities few would expect.” For instance, the state with the highest growth in alternative fuel vehicle share since 2014? Mississippi, with a massive 241% growth in market share. The second highest state is Hawaii, at 116.5%, followed by Utah, with 97% share growth.
Yes! Hurry up and destroy the fossil fuel industry already. More electric cars!
China is set to add at least 570 gigawatts (GW) of wind and solar power in the 14th five-year plan (FYP) period (2021–25), more than doubling its installed capacity in just five years, if targets announced by the central and provincial governments are realised. Our compilation and analysis of targets and projects announced by the central and provincial governments shows wind and solar capacity would reach more than 1,100GW by 2025, tripling the 360GW total installed in 2015 and doubling the 536GW at the end of 2020. The wind and solar plans emerging from recent policymaking are far ahead of the pace implied by China’s headline climate commitments. As a part of the country’s goal to peak its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060, President Xi Jinping announced that China would increase its total installed capacity of wind and solar power to “over” 1,200GW by 2030.
It looks like China is on the right track when it comes to meeting their climate goals, and that’s great news for the earth.
A landmark decision by the European Commission yesterday, means that bee-killing, neonicotinoid pesticides will experience a continent-wide ban in Europe for two years. A 15-member states majority supported the ban, with eight against and four abstaining. European Health and Consumer Commissioner Tony Borg explains, “Since our proposal is based on a number of risks to bee health identified by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the Commission will go ahead with its text in the coming weeks. I pledge to do my utmost to ensure that our bees, which are so vital to our ecosystem and contribute over €22 billion annually to European agriculture, are protected.”
We’ve done some shit to bee’s y’all. Nice to see we’re taking steps to help fix that.
Usually, when Congress is working on major tech legislation, the inboxes of tech reporters get flooded with PR emails from politicians and nonprofits either denouncing or trumpeting the proposed statute. Not so with the American Data Privacy and Protection Act. A first draft of the bill seemed to pop up out of nowhere in June. Over the next month, it went through so many changes that no one could say for sure what it was even designed to do. For such an important topic, the bill’s progress has been surprisingly under the radar. Now comes an even bigger surprise: A new version of the ADPPA has taken shape, and privacy advocates are mostly jazzed about it. It just might have enough bipartisan support to become law—meaning that, after decades of inaction, the United States could soon have a real federal privacy statute.
Interesting if true. As someone who barely leaves their home, I definitely understand liking to have some privacy.
A one-time vaccine for HIV is a step closer to reality, according to a new study. A team in Israel used gene-editing technology to engineer type B white blood cells, which can trigger the immune system to fight the virus. Dr. Adi Barzel of Tel Aviv University says this is one of the few times scientists have been able to engineer B cells outside of the human body. Their study finds that B white blood cells spark the immune system to produce more HIV-neutralizing antibodies. Currently, there is no cure for AIDS, which the HIV virus causes. “Based on this study, we can expect that over the coming years we will be able to produce a medication for AIDS, additional infectious diseases and certain types of cancer caused by a virus, such as cervical cancer, head and neck cancer and more,” Dr. Barzel says in a university release.
So not only are we close to curing HIV, but it will be in a one time treatment shot. That is amazing.
And on that amazing note I think its time to call time on this week’s GNR. I hope you all have a good August and a good rest of the week.
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