Liam Denning

Might Elon Musk be saved from the madness of his deal for Twitter Inc. by paranoia? Bloomberg News had a bombshell scoop Thursday night reporting that Biden administration officials, viewing Musk as a little too Russophilic, are weighing security reviews for his various ventures. Space…

If it feels as if the Supreme Court is hellbent on dividing us further, Thursday’s ruling on the Environmental Protection Agency’s powers raised that feeling to whole new level. In effect, the 6-3 decision constrains the EPA in regulating greenhouse-gas emissions from stationary sources — power…

A new and unexpected obstacle to President Joe Biden’s green ambitions has emerged: a tiny solar-power company based in San Jose. Auxin Solar Inc., which accounts for all of 2% of US solar-module manufacturing, recently persuaded the Commerce Department to open a potentially devastating trade…

A fairly common view expressed since Russian President Vladimir Putin unleashed his forces on Ukraine is that he has come unhinged. If he ever follows through on his threats to cut off natural gas supply to Europe, I might be inclined to agree. Invading Ukraine is a horrific act, and also…

A cautionary saying in oil circles about the possibility of peak demand holds that “the stone age didn’t end for a lack of stones.” When it comes to electric vehicles, there is more concern now that the electric age will fizzle for a lack of lithium. Lithium-ion batteries power smartphones,…

Car dealerships are, in essence, giant lots staffed by folks trained in the art of emptying those lots as quickly as possible and repeating the process ad infinitum. But 2021 was a strange year for all of us, dealers included. Their lots emptied ... and then quite often stayed empty as supply-chain…

You might think that the IPO of electric-truck wunderkind Rivian Automotive Inc. — with its valuation soaring past $100 billion on zero revenue — perfectly captured the madness in autos in 2021. I disagree; it was actually Rivian’s first quarterly results, when the company said it would miss its…

According to Vladimir Putin, “true sovereignty of Ukraine is possible only in partnership with Russia.” Besides the delicious contradiction there, it shows how far the Russian president’s designs on Ukraine stretch beyond the gas pipelines that fueled previous crises. (You can read the whole,…

A certain school of thought holds long-term targets as meaningless, as the people making them will no longer be in their job by the time they are proved right or wrong. That’s especially the case for a two-term limited US president. But when it comes to Joe Biden and electric vehicles, it hardly…

Are Texas and California really so different? They certainly look different from the rest of the country in one respect. For all their contrasts, Texas and California are currently united in asking their respective populations to unplug appliances and forgo the air conditioning. Both have…