Businessweek: The Oil Lobby's Playbook Against California's Climate Law

A PowerPoint deck now being circulated by climate activists -- a copy of which was sent to Bloomberg Businessweek -- suggests that there is a conspiracy. Or, if you prefer, a highly coordinated, multi-state coalition that does not want California to succeed at moving off fossil fuels because that might set a nasty precedent for everyone else.

Created by the Western States Petroleum Association, one of the most powerful oil and gas lobbies in the U.S., the slides and talking points come from a Nov. 11 presentation to the Washington Research Council. The PowerPoint deck details a plan to throttle AB 32 (also known as the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006) and steps to thwart low carbon fuel standards in California, Oregon, and Washington state.

MIT Technology Review: Why Apple Ditched Sapphire Glass From GT Advanced Technologies

In the year leading up to the release of the iPhone 6, Apple invested more than $1 billion in an effort to make sapphire one of the device’s big selling points. Making screens out of the nearly unscratchable material would have helped set the new phone apart from its competitors.

When Apple announced the iPhone 6 this September, however, it didn’t have a sapphire screen, only a regular glass one. And a month later, the small New Hampshire-based company chosen to supply Apple with enormous quantities of cheap sapphire, GT Advanced Technologies, declared bankruptcy.

Bloomberg: Wisconsin Utility Sought Solar Fees After Regulator Advised CEO

A solar industry group appealing a decision to impose the most expensive solar fees in the U.S. said a Wisconsin regulator violated rules barring communication about pending cases.

Ellen Nowak, a regulator for the Wisconsin Public Service Commission, and Wisconsin Energy Corp. Chief Executive Officer Gale Klappa participated in a panel together at a utility industry conference in June. Her discussions with Klappa at the conference should have disqualified her from voting on a pending rate case, said Bryan Miller, a co-chairman of the Alliance for Solar Choice.

Guardian: World Bank to Focus Future Investment on Clean Energy

The World Bank will invest heavily in clean energy and only fund coal projects in “circumstances of extreme need” because climate change will undermine efforts to eliminate extreme poverty, says its president Jim Yong Kim.

Talking ahead of a U.N. climate summit in Peru next month, Kim said he was alarmed by World Bank-commissioned research from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, which said that as a result of past greenhouse gas emissions, the world is condemned to unprecedented weather events.

Renewables International: How a Solar Eclipse Would Impact Germany's Solar Production

German renewables professor Volker Quaschning has had his students investigate next year’s solar eclipse to see how the power sector will manage the event. No real problems are expected, but we now have a video showing what the event will be like. Gas turbines are especially important.