People shop for Spring Festival ornaments at a market in Zixing city, Central China’s Hunan province, Feb 4, 2024. CFOTO | Future Publishing | Getty Images China’s producer prices declined for a 16th month in January, while consumer prices saw their biggest drop since 2009 — underscoring the depth of the challenge that Beijing faces … Read more
Phillip Swagel Danny Moloshok | Reuters WASHINGTON — The U.S. budget deficit will grow by an estimated $1 trillion over the next 10 years, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected in a new report Wednesday. Part of that growth will be driven by unexpectedly high costs related to President Joe Biden’s signature policy goal: Reorienting … Read more
D3sign | Stone | Getty Images Extreme weather and climate hazards are becoming more frequent, posing a threat not only for homeowners but for renters. More than 18 million rental units across the U.S. are exposed to climate- and weather-related hazards, according to the latest American Rental Housing Report from Harvard University’s Joint Center for … Read more
Ethanol plant, Milton, Wisconsin. Getty Images Ethanol producer and agri-tech company Green Plains said on Wednesday it would initiate a strategic review, a year after activist investor Ancora sent a letter to its board encouraging it to do just that. Shares jumped more than 15% in midday trading following the news, which was announced alongside … Read more
Five years and 2,500 miles apart, fires devastated thriving communities — and major U.S. utility companies stood at the center of the infernos. It’s a story increasingly familiar in the energy industry: Some utility companies don’t properly assess the risks wildfires pose to their operations. A failure to mitigate these risks can have disastrous consequences … Read more
Hurricanes are becoming deadlier as a result of climate change, and scientists are proposing that we should add another category to the scale used to measure storm intensity. Hurricanes are classified by categories one through five on the Saffir-Simpson Scale, but a recent study says a Category 6 is needed now that storms are intensifying … Read more
Death is coming for the old-school gas furnace—and its killer is the humble heat pump. They’re already outselling gas furnaces in the US, and now a coalition of states has signed an agreement to supercharge the gas-to-electric transition by making it as cheap and easy as possible for their residents to switch. Nine states have … Read more
Image: Kirby Lee (AP) When drivers fill up with bad fuel from gas stations, they often end up with costly engine problems. But what happens when a company knowingly puts bad fuel in a gas station? SFGate reports that a California-based petroleum transportation company has allegedly been giving bad fuel to stations all over the … Read more
Akio Toyoda, Chairman of Toyota Motor Corp. Yoshikazu Tsuno | Gamma-rapho | Getty Images Toyota Motor is investing $1.3 billion in a Kentucky plant to produce a new all-electric, three-row SUV for the U.S. market, the company said Tuesday. The vehicle is expected to go into production between late 2025 and early 2026, according to a … Read more
Image: Chevrolet GM wouldn’t start offering hybrids in its vehicles until 2004 with its GMT800 platformed pickups. The first was the Chevy Silverado Hybrid. Compared to hybrids today, the hybrid system in the truck was simple and extremely mild. Rather than having a full blown hybrid system with a battery, the system consisted of an … Read more
