New York Times: Bank of America's New Policy to Limit Credit Exposure to Coal

Bank of America announced Wednesday it will reduce its financial exposure to coal companies, acknowledging the risk that future regulation and competition from natural gas impose on the industry.

The bank announced its new coal policy at its annual meeting, saying it would cut back its lending to coal extraction companies and coal divisions of broader mining companies.

"Our new policy reflects our decision to continue to reduce our credit exposure over time to the coal mining sector globally,” said Andrew Plepler, head of corporate social responsibility at Bank of America.

Washington Post: Why the Best Place for Solar Panels May Not Be on Your Roof

How do you best ensure the spread of solar power so that it proliferates quickly, and thus helps reduce our carbon emissions?

A new report on the future of solar power from the MIT Energy Initiative argues that from a societal perspective, the most popular and visible solar deployment today -- atop residential rooftops -- may not be the most economically optimal one. “If the objective of deployment support policies is to increase solar generation at least cost, favoring residential PV [solar photovoltaic] makes no sense,” it states.

Bloomberg: Investors Urged to Avoid Oil Sands After Alberta Election



Investors may want to steer clear of oil sands developers and coal producers and buy royalty stocks and companies with assets outside Alberta.

That’s the advice of portfolio managers and analysts after energy stocks declined Wednesday following the surprise election victory by the New Democratic Party in Alberta.



An index of Canadian energy companies plunged the most in three months after the win by Rachel Notley’s NDP, which has pledged to boost corporate taxes, review the government’s royalty rates for energy producers and phase out coal power.

PVTech: SunEdison Reveals First Tranche of Projects for Emerging Markets YieldCo

SunEdison has revealed today the first set of projects under its emerging markets YieldCo, which is named TerraForm Global.

The renewable energy giant announced it has signed definitive agreements to acquire five portfolios of renewable energy projects and two corporate platforms, LAP Holding, BV in Latin America and two subsidiaries of Honiton Energy Holding in China.

It also announced the closing of equity investments and an acquisition debt facility for its emerging markets initiatives.

Detroit News: GM Expects to Fall Short of 500K Electric Cars by 2017

General Motors Co. said it is making progress in selling electrified vehicles, but doesn’t expect to meet its goal of having 500,000 GM vehicles on the road in the U.S. by 2017 that are powered in some way by electricity.

The Detroit automaker says 180,834 GM vehicles were on the road in 2014 in the U.S. with some form of electrification, up from 153,034 in 2013 and 39,843 in 2011. GM includes cars dating from the 2010 model year that are pure electrics, plug-in hybrid electrics or vehicles with two-mode hybrid technology or with eAssist, which uses a small electric motor and lithium-ion battery to improve fuel economy.