Politico: ExxonMobil CEO Mocks Renewable Energy in Shareholder Speech

The CEO of one of the world’s largest oil companies downplayed the effects of climate change at his company’s annual meeting Wednesday, telling shareholders his firm hadn’t invested in renewable energy because “[w]e choose not to lose money on purpose.”

“Mankind has this enormous capacity to deal with adversity,” ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson told the meeting, pointing to technologies that can combat inclement weather “that may or may not be induced by climate change.”

Dallas Morning News: Texas Backing Away From Cutting Support for Wind, Solar Energy

Legislation to end state support for renewable energy is on the ropes, as state politicians weigh concerns over potential damage to Texas’ booming wind power industry.

A bill introduced in March by state Sen. Troy Fraser, R-Horseshoe Bay, to both freeze the state’s renewable energy credit program and halt a $7-billion-and-counting project to expand transmission lines for wind and solar farms has languished in the Texas House for six weeks.

Morning Consult: Men and Women Divided on Nuclear Power

As the nuclear power industry pushes to build more reactors, it faces pronounced unpopularity among an unexpected bloc: women.

A Morning Consult survey finds that a plurality of female voters, 42 percent, oppose increasing the use of nuclear power to generate electricity in the United States; 38 percent support it. A strong majority of men, 70 percent, support using more nuclear power, while 23 percent oppose.

RenewEconomy: Panasonic to Roll Out PV Battery Storage Systems in Australia

The rapid roll-out of battery storage products into the Australian electricity market continues apace, with Japanese electronics giant Panasonic set to announce its move into Australia next week.

Panasonic is scheduled to announce its Australian plans with “some of” Australia’s leading energy Australian retailers on Tuesday in Sydney. It will likely include its now 6.8kWh PV-battery storage system.

Bloomberg: GE to Supply Battery Array in Canada Amid Growing Storage Demand

General Electric Co. agreed to provide a lithium-ion battery system to Ontario’s Independent Electricity System Operator, the equipment supplier’s second storage deal in six weeks as demand from utilities increases.

Convergent Energy + Power will install the 7-megawatt system, which is expected to be operational in the third quarter of next year, GE said in a statement Wednesday. Terms of the sale weren’t disclosed.