Today: The world’s largest cash buyer of ships for scrap is seeking a U.S. license to legally acquire sanctioned vessels; Democrats say clean-energy halts could backfire on other power projects; the end of the Tesla Model S.

Welcome back: The world’s largest cash buyer of ships for scrap is setting its sights on the shadowy tankers that ferry illicit oil from Iran, Russia and Venezuela. GMS filed a request this month with the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control for a license to buy sanctioned ships.

The WSJ's Paul Berger writes that sanctioned shipowners can’t easily dispose of vessels. Companies under U.S. sanctions are barred from doing business with Americans. They are also shut out of international financial systems that support dollar-denominated transactions.

GMS, which is incorporated in Maryland and headquartered in Dubai, argues that a legal mechanism for sanctioned owners to scrap ships would benefit the U.S. because it reduces the number of vessels that can carry illicit cargoes and provides revenue for U.S. banks and related industries.

Scrap dealers like GMS act as middlemen. They buy and transport ships to specialist yards in Turkey, Bangladesh, Pakistan and India where the vessel is stripped of its fixtures and fittings and its steel is melted or reused.

• Laura DiBella, former Florida commerce secretary, has been selected by President Trump to lead the Federal Maritime Commission. (WSJ)

Stop-work orders on renewable projects issued by the Trump administration could backfire on the fossil-fuel industry if Republicans were to lose power, Democrats said at a hearing on Capitol Hill.

WSJ Pro Sustainable Business's Clara Hudson reports that at a Wednesday hearing of the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works on permitting, Democrats called on businesses to put pressure on the administration to rethink obstacles it put in place for renewable energy projects. The administration’s series of stop-work orders on construction of multibillion-dollar offshore wind projects on the East Coast—many of which were near completion—loomed large at the hearing.

Ed Markey, D., Mass., said companies will be spooked that their projects could be shut down by the administration, even with new laws in place.

“If projects like offshore wind or clean energy projects can be stalled or stopped entirely by the executive branch on a whim, it stands to reason that fossil fuel projects can get the same treatment in the future by a Democratic administration,” Markey said.

When Tesla soon stops building the Model S, it will mark the end of arguably the most influential car of the modern era, long the lifeblood of the electric-vehicle maker, The Wall Street Journal's Tim Higgins writes.

The all-electric sedan never sold in huge numbers, but it was unlike anything the car industry had seen and its reach was world changing. It was Elon Musk’s gamble that a company could be built on a vehicle powered by what was dismissed at the time as essentially laptop batteries.

The Model S’s improbable success in 2012, a proof point that Musk could, in fact, not only make cars but do so at a profit, paved the way for then-Tesla Motors to become what it is today: the world’s most valuable automaker.

Now, the sedan’s demise epitomizes the dramatic change occurring—yet again—at Tesla as Musk takes on his next big gamble: reshaping the carmaker into a robotics company.

• My time with the Xiaomi SU7 Max confirmed what experts in the auto industry have long been saying: China is winning the digitally enhanced electric-car race, writes Personal Tech Columnist Joanna Stern. (WSJ)

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• Exxon and Chevron posted their smallest annual profits since 2021, pressured by a growing glut of crude that has weighed on prices. (WSJ)
   
• Copper prices settle at a record high as metals are going ‘absolutely bonkers’ right now. (MarketWatch)
   
• Coal-fired generation rose to meet demand during Winter Storm Fern. (U.S. Energy Information Administration)
   
• Inside Oklo’s audacious plan to turn leftover weapons-grade plutonium into a nuclear bridge fuel. (Sherwood)
   
• BlackRock-backed energy storage company Jupiter Power secures $500 million to build battery storage across the U.S. (ESG Today)
   
• Norway’s $2 trillion wealth fund would lose almost a quarter of its equity portfolio value in the event of climate shocks. (FT)
   
• A leaked draft of the EU Industrial Accelerator Act proposes low carbon local content requirements for public procurement. (Oxford Analytica)

WSJ Pro Sustainable Business gives you an inside look at how companies are tackling sustainability. Send comments to bureau chief Perry Cleveland-Peck at perry.cleveland-peck@wsj.com and reporters Clara Hudson at clara.hudson@wsj.com and Yusuf Khan at yusuf.khan@wsj.com. Follow us on LinkedIn at perrycp, clara-hudson and yusuf_khan.