The Tennessee Valley Authority said Monday that the new 100-megawatt solar facility in Obion County, Tn. will supply carbon-free energy to Google’s data centers in Clarksville, Tn. and Hollywood, Al.
Florida-based solar developer Origis Energy is using TVA’s nationally recognized Green Invest program to develop the solar farm.
“The Green Invest program helps customers like Google meet their long-term sustainability goals with new renewable energy projects,” officials said. “In the past two years, Green Invest has generated $1.4 billion in economic activity in TVA’s service area.”
A federal agency has put the canceled Atlantic Coast Pipeline on the clock, asking officials to file specific plans by the end of 2020 for disposition of the defunct project.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last week asked ACP to file a plan within 60 days on intentions for the project’s facilities and the areas for which the pipeline was set.
“In order for us to determine if additional Commission authorizations are required … we will need more detail …” FERC’s request states.
The interstate natural gas pipeline received federal approval from FERC in 2017. In early July, facing a number of court challenges to other regulatory requirements, ACP officials canceled the project.
Nelson County was one of several localities that would have been crossed in Virginia; the project had been set to cut through 27 miles in the county. The 600-mile project was planned to cross West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina.
Specifically, FERC asked ACP to provide a schedule – including initiation and completion dates – for disposition and restoration. FERC’s request also asks for description on restoration activities on disturbed rights of way, as well as updates on ACP’s consultation with landowners on preferences for restoration.
There are still votes left to be counted, but The New York Times is finished counting its third-quarter numbers, and we can project a winner: The Times now, for the first time, generates more revenue from its digital subscribers than from its print subscribers. And its total count of subscriptions passed 7 million for the first time last month.
As of Sept. 30, its number of digital news subscribers was up 45.9 percent over the previous year. Even better were its “other” digital subscriptions (mostly Games and Cooking), which were up 63.6 percent. (That nomenclature is a change, by the way: What the Times has for decades called “Crosswords” is now broadened to “Games” in the company’s filings. Spelling Bee remains on the march.) Print subs, meanwhile, were down 3.9 percent.
In all, that’s a year-over-year increase of more than 2 million digital subscriptions. (It took the Times more than four years from the launch of its digital paywall to hit 2 million subscribers total. Now that’s one year’s haul.) The Times added 393,000 digital subscribers in the quarter.
Subscription revenues increased 12.6 percent to $301 million and digital-only products revenue increased 34 percent to $155.3 million, making digital readership the only source of growth for The Times this quarter. Print subscription revenue decreased 3.8 percent to $145.7 million “largely due to lower retail newsstand revenue, while revenue from our domestic home delivery subscription products grew 2.5 percent.” Advertising remains a giant mess, down 12.6 percent in digital, an astonishing 46.5 percent in print, and 30.2 percent overall.
Richard Pilger, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Director of the Election Crimes Branch, has resigned following Attorney General William Barr‘s authorization earlier today for federal prosecutors to investigate allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
Pilger, whose office oversees investigations into voter fraud, reportedly tendered his resignation within hours of Barr’s authorization, The New York Times reported.
“Having familiarized myself with the new policy and its ramifications… I must regretfully resign from my role as Director of the Election Crimes Branch,” Pilger wrote in his resignation. He will continue working in the DOJ as a line prosecutor in the Public Integrity section prosecuting corruption cases.
The re-election campaign of Republican President Donald Trump and various Republican political leaders on the federal and state level have alleged that fraudulent ballots swung the contentious presidential race into the favor of Trump’s opponent, Democratic President-elect Joe Biden. These allegations have yet to be substantiated.
Barr’s authorization ignored a decades-old DOJ policy to keep law enforcement separate from committing actions that could affect an election’s outcome, according to the Times. Barr sought to have investigators complete their work before each state certifies its final election results and ballot counts throughout November and December.
“Public knowledge of a criminal investigation could impact the adjudication of election litigation and contests in state courts. Accordingly, it is the general policy of the department not to conduct overt investigations,” says the Justice Department’s longstanding election guidelines for prosecutors.
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The United States surpassed 10 million coronavirus cases Monday, just 10 days after hitting 9 million. The average number of daily new infections has exceeded 100,000, and public health experts warn that the country is entering the pandemic’s worst phase. At least 237,000 Americans have died of the coronavirus since February.
As Pfizer’s vaccine news emerged, the Dow Jones industrial average futures spiked more than 5.4 percent, or 1,525 points.
Utah Gov. Gary R. Herbert (R) declared a state of emergency and issued a statewide mask mandate late Sunday, after months of resisting such an order.
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Defense Secretary Mark Esper fired via Trump tweet
From The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper, a stunning and unprecedented move at a time of national uncertainty about the outcome of Trump’s bid for a second term. The move could be seen as unsettling for the Pentagon and a source of concern for international allies and partners.
It is the first time in the modern era that a president seeking reelection has removed his Pentagon chief after Election Day. Presidents who win reelection often replace Cabinet members, including the secretary of defense, but losing presidents have kept their Pentagon chiefs in place until Inauguration Day to preserve stability in the name of national security.
Esper’s strained relationship with Trump came close to collapse last summer during civil unrest that triggered a debate within the administration over the proper role of the military in combatting domestic unrest. Esper’s opposition to using active duty troops to help quell protests in Washington, D.C., infuriated Trump, and led to wide speculation that the defense chief was prepared to quit if faced with such an issue again.
Christopher Miller, who serves as director of the National Counterterrorism Center, will become acting secretary “effective immediately.”
