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Companies Step Up Efforts to Become All-Electric
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Welcome back. Electric vehicles hold the promise of driving down greenhouse-gas emissions from transportation, which the United Nations says account for around a quarter of energy-related emissions.
As car companies make and sell more EVs, that can create a new set of challenges to work through as well.
Electric cars are no silver bullet. Nearly 10% of the world’s cars were electric in 2021, according to the International Energy Agency, and the number is expected to keep going up. The rise of EVs demands more mining of critical metals that might harm the environment and electricity that is still largely dependent on fossil fuels.
Read on to find out how General Motors Chief Sustainability Officer Kristen Siemen approaches these problems. In addition, Hertz and BP have teamed up to bring EV-charging stations and President Biden has faced South Korean backlash over new EV tax-credit rules.
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Kristen Siemen has been GM’s sustainability chief since early last year. Photo: EVA MARIE UZCATEGUI/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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General Motors Co. announced last year that it plans to sell only electric vehicles by 2035. Chief Sustainability Officer Kristen Siemen discussed the company’s approach to its goals, including a target of producing 1 million EVs annually in North America by the end of 2025. Ms. Siemen has been GM’s sustainability chief since February 2021. Below are highlights from the interview; for a full edited excerpt go here.
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WSJ Pro: More batteries are needed both for electric vehicles and the grid, but there are also concerns about how to responsibly source the metals. What is GM doing around this?
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Ms. Siemen: We’ve localized as much of the supply chain as possible to ensure that we do have a secure, sustainable, scalable, cost-competitive supply chain. We have binding agreements for all of the raw material that will support our goal of 1 million units [in] North America by the end of 2025. That is everything from lithium, nickel, cobalt in ensuring that sustainability is integrated into that supply chain. We also have the battery cell manufacturing local here in the U.S.
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WSJ Pro: There are emissions involved in mining. What is GM doing to minimize those emissions?
Ms. Siemen: That goes back to the localization of the materials. We are doing things with suppliers like Controlled Thermal Resources, who supplies lithium, and they use a more environmentally friendly process than traditional lithium production. We have first rights to what is produced there in the Salton Sea [in California]. There is enough lithium there to meet all of the U.S.’s projected future demand and I think it is up to like 40% of the world’s demand.
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Building a Network. Car-rental company Hertz and energy firm BP said they signed a deal to develop and manage a network of electric-vehicle charging stations across North America. BP Pulse, which is BP’s EV-charging business, would power and manage Hertz’s charging infrastructure, the companies said. Hertz, which has signed deals to buy cars from Tesla, Polestar and General Motors, said its goal is for one-quarter of its fleet to be electric by the end of 2024.
EV Effort. California's push to add millions of new electric vehicles in the coming years is likely to stress its electric grid, and flexibility among owners in how and when they charge their cars is seen as key to avoid impairing an aging grid.
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Extreme weather events, including Hurricane Ian, which wreaked devastation in Cuba and Florida this week, are testing energy and power grids globally.
In Florida, the hurricane knocked out power to more than 2.5 million customers as of early Thursday, with outages concentrated in southwest and central Florida, according to tracking site poweroutage.us. Florida Power & Light Co. was bracing for sections of its service territory in southwest Florida to be destroyed by the storm.
Meanwhile, thousands in Puerto Rico remain without power after Hurricane Fiona, which hit nearly two weeks ago.
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PHOTO: MICHAEL PROBST/ASSOCIATED PRESS
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In Europe, a combination of geopolitical and changing weather patterns is creating a crisis. More than half of Germany's small and midsize companies now worry that the energy crisis could put them out of business, according to a survey published Thursday by the Federal Association of Medium-Sized Businesses, a trade group.
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Brookfield Asset Management Inc.’s renewable-power unit is acquiring wind and solar firm Scout Clean Energy LLC for $1 billion and Standard Solar Inc. for $540 million, company officials said. Brookfield could invest over $500 million more across the two companies to help them grow faster, it said. The bets add to the money flooding into clean-energy projects despite this year’s market volatility.
Private-equity firm Pelican Energy Partners is joining other oil-and-gas-focused investors that are shifting to clean energy. The firm plans to begin raising a dedicated fund this year with the goal of collecting $300 million.
The 300-megawatt Apex Clean Energy project, which could cover a swath of rural Crawford County in central Ohio with 50 to 60 wind turbines that reach up to 650 feet high, is being put to a vote in a referendum in November. The fight over the wind project has become so contentious that some neighbors, longtime friends and even family members have stopped talking to each other.
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EV Charging Deal Could Boost Hertz, BP's Environmental and Innovation Credentials -- ESG Insight
Hertz has signed a deal with energy giant BP to develop and manage a network of electric-vehicle charging stations in North America, in a move that could improve the car-rental company's business model and innovation as it seeks to offer customers a more sustainable service. The move could also enhance the environmental aspect of Hertz and BP's respective operations as they are seen increasing their involvement in the shift to cleaner forms of transportation, and follows last week's announcement that Hertz had agreed to buy 175,000 EVs from General Motors. The charging infrastructure is set to be open to taxi and ride-sharing drivers as well as the general public, and comes at a time when surging demand for EVs has seen charging networks struggle to keep pace.
This is a sample of exclusive analysis of sustainability news from the Journal’s environment, social and governance (ESG) research analysts, whose work is primarily published by Dow Jones Newswires to help institutional investors and wealth managers integrate ESG factors into portfolio models, risk management programs and financial advice. The commentary by our research analysts is independent of the news coverage by reporters at the Journal. For more information about Dow Jones Newswires, click here.
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Could the metaverse and Web3 save sustainability? (Fortune)
Businesses unaware of their pensions' climate impact, research finds (Business Green)
Google is getting new sustainability features, including a fuel cost calculator (TechCrunch)
Why F1 has held back on "unfair" early sustainable fuel switch (Motor Sport)
200 million pounds of toxic chemicals dumped into U.S. waterways in 2020, analysis shows (The Hill)
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