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Axios
17 minutes ago
- Axios
USDA will move most of Washington staff "closer to" farmers
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will shutter nearly all of its Washington, D.C. buildings and disperse most of its staff throughout the country, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced on Thursday. Why it matters: The USDA is one of several departments to majorly restructure during President Trump's second term, seeing more than 15,000 employees accept White House resignation offers. State of play: Most of the Washington-area staff will relocate to five locations around the country, Rollins confirmed in a statement. In a video message to employees, Rollins said that employees will be placed in Fort Collins, Colorado, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Missouri, Raleigh, North Carolina, and Salt Lake City. Staff will receive details about their new assignments in the coming months. The department will close nearly all of its D.C.-area buildings, except for the Whitten and Yates buildings on the National Mall. What they're saying: Rollins said that the move is a cost-cutting one in step with Trump's agenda to slash the federal budget. "President Trump has made it clear government needs to be scrutinized, and after this thorough review of USDA, the results show a bloated, expensive, and unsustainable organization," the department said in its statement. "However, there will be no large-scale reductions in force, given that the department has already seen an exodus of 15,364 employees through the administration's deferred resignation plan." Catch up quick: The department said last week that it fired 70 foreign contract researchers following a national security review intended to secure the U.S. food supply from adversaries that include Russia, China, North Korea and Iran.
Fast Company
17 minutes ago
- Fast Company
Trump rollback on clean energy subsidies stalls major solar, wind projects and manufacturing plans
Singapore-based solar panel manufacturer Bila Solar is suspending plans to double capacity at its new factory in Indianapolis. Canadian rival Heliene's plans for a solar cell facility in Minnesota are under review. Norwegian solar wafer maker NorSun is evaluating whether to move forward with a planned factory in Tulsa, Oklahoma. And two fully permitted offshore wind farms in the U.S. Northeast may never get built. These are among the major clean energy investments now in question after Republicans agreed earlier this month to quickly end U.S. subsidies for solar and wind power as part of their budget megabill, and as the White House directed agencies to tighten the rules on who can claim the incentives that remain. This marks a policy U-turn since President Donald Trump's return to office that project developers, manufacturers and analysts say will slash installations of renewable energy over the coming decade, kill investment and jobs in the clean energy manufacturing sector supporting them, and worsen a looming U.S. power supply crunch as energy-hungry AI infrastructure expands. Solar and wind installations could be 17% and 20% lower than previously forecast over the next decade because of the moves, according to research firm Wood Mackenzie, which warned that a dearth of new supplies could slow the expansion of data centers needed to support AI technology. Energy researcher Rhodium, meanwhile, said the law puts at risk $263 billion of wind, solar, and storage facilities and $110 billion of announced manufacturing investment supporting them. It will also increase industrial energy costs by up to $11 billion in 2035, it said. 'One of the administration's stated goals was to bring costs down, and as we demonstrated, this bill doesn't do that,' said Ben King, a director in Rhodium's energy and climate practice. He added the policy 'is not a recipe for continued dominance of the U.S. AI industry.' The White House did not respond to a request for comment. The Trump administration has defended its moves to end support for clean energy by arguing the rapid adoption of solar and wind power has created instability in the grid and raised consumer prices – assertions that are contested by the industry and which do not bear out in renewables-heavy power grids, like Texas' ERCOT. Power industry representatives, however, have said all new generation projects need to be encouraged to meet rising U.S. demand, including both those driven by renewables and fossil fuels. Consulting firm ICF projects that U.S. electricity demand will grow by 25% by 2030, driven by increased AI and cloud computing – a major challenge for the power industry after decades of stagnation. The REPEAT Project, a collaboration between Princeton University and Evolved Energy Research, projects a 2% annual increase in electricity demand. With a restricted pipeline of renewables, tighter electricity supplies stemming from the policy shift could increase household electricity costs by $280 a year in 2035, according to the REPEAT Project. The key provision in the new law is the accelerated phase-out of 30% tax credits for wind and solar projects: it requires projects to begin construction within a year or enter service by the end of 2027 to qualify for the credits. Previously the credits were available through 2032. Now some project developers are scrambling to get projects done while the U.S. incentives are still accessible. But even that strategy has become risky, developers said. Days after signing the law, Trump directed the Treasury Department to review the definition of 'beginning of construction.' A revision to those rules could overturn a long-standing practice giving developers four years to claim tax credits after spending just 5% of project costs. Treasury was given 45 days to draft new rules. 'With so many moving parts, financing of projects, financing of manufacturing is difficult, if not impossible,' said Martin Pochtaruk, CEO of Heliene. 'You are looking to see what is the next baseball bat that's going to hit you on the head.' About face Heliene's planned cell factory, which could cost as much as $350 million, depending on the capacity, and employ more than 600 workers, is also in limbo, Pochtaruk said in an interview earlier this month. The company needs more clarity on both what the new law will mean for U.S. demand, and how Trump's trade policy will impact the solar industry. 'We have a building that is anxiously waiting for us to make a decision,' Pochtaruk said. Similarly, Mick McDaniel, general manager of Bila Solar, said 'a troubling level of uncertainty' has put on hold its $20 million expansion at an Indianapolis factory it opened this year that would create an additional 75 jobs. 'NorSun is still digesting the new legislation and recent executive order to determine the impact to the overall domestic solar manufacturing landscape,' said Todd Templeton, director of the company's U.S. division that is reviewing plans for its $620 million solar wafer facility in Tulsa. Five solar manufacturing companies – T1 Energy, Imperial Star Solar, SEG Solar, Solx and ES Foundry – said they are also concerned about the new law's impact on future demand, but that they have not changed their investment plans. The policy changes have also injected fresh doubt about the fate of the nation's pipeline of offshore wind projects, which depend heavily on tax credits to bring down costs. According to Wood Mackenzie, projects that have yet to start construction or make final investment decisions are unlikely to proceed. Two such projects, which are fully permitted, include a 300-megawatt project by developer US Wind off the coast of Maryland and Iberdrola's 791 MW New England Wind off the coast of Massachusetts. Neither company responded to requests for comment. 'They are effectively ready to begin construction and are now trapped in a timeline that will make it that much harder to be able to take advantage of the remaining days of the tax credits,' said Hillary Bright, executive director of offshore wind advocacy group Turn Forward.
CNN
17 minutes ago
- CNN
Tesla's stock is tumbling after Elon Musk failure to shift the narrative
Elon Musk's big promises apparently no longer seem to be enough for many Tesla investors. Shares of Tesla (TSLA) fell 9% on Thursday following another dismal earnings report, released after the bell Wednesday. Tesla's earnings and revenue both fell by double-digit percentages following the biggest sales drop in the company's history. The automaker also faces a number of financial headwinds, including the loss of a $7,500 tax credit for US EV buyers starting in October, and the vanishing market for regulatory credit sales, which has earned Tesla $11 billion since 2019. But Tesla CEO Elon Musk barely talked about that on the earnings call Wednesday, although he did acknowledge the company 'probably could have a few rough quarters.' Instead, he talked about his grand vision for the future, including Tesla's long-promised robotaxi service; and its humanoid robot, Optimus, which is still in development. The lack of details about the company's plans to solve problems in the near term disappointed some investors and analysts. 'Investors have been very forgiving of Tesla for several quarters now, despite obvious headwinds to their business,' Garrett Nelson, analyst at CFRA Research, told CNN Thursday. 'But I think its investors are taking a more realistic view of the story at this point. Some of his brilliance has been his ability to keep investors focused on the long term and ignoring the near term and intermediate term. Now, headwinds are difficult to ignore.' Nelson downgraded the company's stock to a neutral rating in April. But even some of the Tesla bulls on Wall Street are saying that the time for Musk to take action is running out. 'The street is losing some patience,' Wedbush Securities tech analyst Dan Ives told CNN Thursday, although he said he still believes in the autonomous vehicle and artificial intelligence vision laid out by Musk and Tesla. Musk has made big promises about his robotaxi service, including that it would be in service within a year as early as 2019. Tesla's robotaxis finally rolled out in June this year, albeit in a limited portion of Austin, Texas, to friends and fans of the company, and with an employee sitting beside the empty driver's seat. However, that limited rollout wasn't enough to stop Musk from making extraordinary claims on Wednesday that the service would be available to half the nation's population by year's end. To achieve that, Tesla will need to get regulatory permission to operate in two states per week through the rest of the year, including New York, which does not allow autonomous vehicles on its roads. Morningstar analyst Seth Goldstein said that while he does believe Tesla will eventually be successful in its robotaxi venture, 'the software will require further testing' and he does not expect a full robotaxi product until 2028. But Musk has a history of making grand promises that do not pan out. Like the Cybertruck – the only new vehicle Tesla has offered in the last six years. Musk said Tesla was supposed to be delivering 250,000 vehicles annually by this year. But full-year sales of the Cybertruck and Tesla's two other expensive models were less than 80,000. Sales of the three plunged 52% in the most recent quarter. Tesla also started the year forecasting it would achieve higher sales following its first annual sales drop in its history in 2024. But after two quarters of record sales declines, most investors now assume that it will not meet that goal either. And with Musk himself barely mentioning car sales during an hour-long conference call, it doesn't appear that is enough for shareholders any longer. 'We are mixed on Tesla's ability to meet its robotaxi timelines, cost targets, and scale,' wrote Ben Kallo, an analyst for Baird, in a note to clients late Wednesday. 'So far Tesla has received a pass due to how ambitious/revolutionary these products are, but we think continued sluggishness in the auto business could cause more focus on the near term.'
