Vapor rises from the cooling towers of the Turow coal powered power plant, operated by PGE SA, in Bogatynia, Poland.
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Surging natural gas prices have led to a jump in coal use, with plants in Europe and Asia firing back up as temperatures decline and the world grapples with worsening gas shortages.
Total CEO Patrick Pouyanne on Wednesday stressed the need to achieve price stability, contending that lower gas prices will reduce the need to rely on the higher-polluting coal, but that the transition to cleaner energy has also created an imbalance in the market.
“High pricing is not good news — of course immediately for my company results are better, but for customers” is it not, Pouyanne told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble during a Russia Energy Week panel in Moscow.
Replacing coal with gas “is good for climate change, but to do that, we need to have a lower price,” the CEO said. “Because coal today is a king, because coal is cheaper than all the other sources of energy.”
Coal-produced electricity has shot up in Europe, and European coal futures have more than doubled since the start of the year. And the irony is clear, as this is happening just as Europe is trying to reduce its use of the polluting fuel. Gas prices in Europe, meanwhile, have nearly quadrupled since the start of the year.
“So for us today prices are too high. We have to find stability, going back to something more normal,” Pouyanne said.
He added that this is not merely a European gas crisis, but a global one, stemming from both a “huge hike in demand for gas from China and Asia,” as well as “more demand for gas because of energy transition, going from coal to gas, which is good for climate change.”
“So that is I think a lesson,” Pouyanne said. “Another is that the more we put renewables in our electric system, we put in intermittent sources which depend on the weather.”
Pouyanne, like many other oil and gas company executives, has noted the risk of renewables that rely on weather. Brazil, which has increased its reliance on hydropower, saw less rain this year, while other parts of the world that have invested heavily in solar and wind power saw less sun and wind.
BP CEO Bernard Looney, speaking on the same panel, echoed Pouyanne’s concern.
“I think that this crisis in Europe has reminded us that energy is part of the lifeblood of society and that energy use is only going in one direction — and that is upwards,” Looney said. “We all understand that the sun doesn’t shine at night and the wind doesn’t always blow so we have that question of renewables’ intermittency to deal with.”
‘A more volatile system’
Talking about governments’ pushes to reduce fossil fuel production and use, Looney said: “At the end of the day, if supply goes away and demand doesn’t change, that only has one consequence, and that is an escalation in price rises. So I’m not suggesting that the onus needs to be put on customers or society, but this is a system, and both the supply and the demand side have to work together.”
“Just simply correcting a supply-side issue without affecting demand will not result in a more stable system, it’ll result in a more volatile system,” Looney added.
Higher gas use due to colder weather earlier in the year “has lowered all the inventories on gas, and so we see today an exceptional circumstance,” Pouyanne said. “I think that after wintertime we should be able to come back to lower prices which would be good for everybody.”
Gas prices are surging to record highs in Europe. Power shortages are also impacting households and businesses across Asia, and have forced factories to shut down.
This has been brought on by supply shortfalls and the transition to cleaner energy, which has spurred higher demand for gas, considered a cleaner fuel. Demand is also rebounding from its Covid-induced slowdown as economies reopen and travel resumes around the world.
Other energy commodities including oil have also soared in recent weeks, with international benchmark Brent crude trading at $83.37 at 12:00 p.m. ET, its highest level since 2018 and up 64% since the start of this year.
U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate hit a seven-year high this week, and was trading at $80.63 at noon ET.
Air taxi startup Vertical Aerospace achieved a world’s first this week, completing the first flight between two airports through public airspace for an eVTOL at the Royal International Air Tattoo in Gloucestershire, England.
The Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) is the world’s largest military airshow, held every July and serving as a public showcase for the latest advancements in aviation technology. It’s fitting, then, that RIAT served as setting for the Vertical VX4 prototype’s first piloted public flight.
The eVTOL aircraft flew 17 miles from the company’s Flight Test Centre at Cotswold Airport to RAF Fairford, a Royal Air Force station used by the US Air Force. The Vertical VX4 reached speeds of 115 mph, and an altitude of 1800 ft, and also marked the first landing at a public location for an aircraft of this type.
The Vertical Aerospace entry was the only battery-electric aircraft present at RIAT 2025, and the flight served as a demonstration of the company’s broader strategy to unlock new hybrid-electric applications for defense, logistics, and special/close support missions where the eVTOL’s (relatively) quiet operations could give it a tactical advantage.
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“RIAT is a global stage for the most advanced, mission-ready aerospace technology, and we’re proud to showcase how electric aviation will support the future of defense,” says Stuart Simpson, CEO of Vertical Aerospace. “Our hybrid-electric roadmap unlocks new capabilities for military operations, and Vertical’s RIAT presence reinforces our commitment to playing a meaningful role in the future of military and special mission aviation.”
Vertical’s VX4 debuted last year, with a 20% increase in the power-to-weight ratio that enables a top cruising speed of 150 mph and transports four passengers plus a pilot up to 100 miles on a single charge.
The inaugural VX4 flight was witnessed by several thousand UK aircraft enthusiasts, and showed how an eVTOL aircraft could integrate with real-world airport operations, building momentum toward more regular, certified deployment.
Electrek’s Take
Archer, BETA, EHang, Joby, XPeng – the list of eVTOL manufacturers seems to be as long as the list of new electric car brands that didn’t exist back when I first started working with EVs back in ::gulp:: the 1990s. The future of regional point-to-point air travel certainly seems to be vertical, and electric.
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Say what you will about Elon Musk, but Tesla has changed the way that millions of people buy cars and, by extension, car insurance. Now, Honda is taking a page from Tesla’s successful playbook and launching its own in-house insurance business. Enter: Honda Insurance Solutions.
Honda Insurance Solutions is being launched as a fully licensed insurance agency serving the insurance needs of Acura and Honda customers, but it’s not stopping at competitive pricing and coverage options for Honda cars and motorcycles. Honda Insurance Solutions promises to go several steps beyond Tesla’s offering with coverage for trailers, RVs, homes, and even pets.
“Honda Insurance Solutions offers customers access to coverage through a brand they know and trust,” says Petar Vucurevic, President, American Honda Insurance Solutions, LLC and Senior Vice President, American Honda Finance Corporation. “Insurance is a key touchpoint in the vehicle ownership journey, and we aim to deliver a superior experience tailored to the unique needs of each customer, while promoting safer driving and increased peace of mind on the road.”
The company says the launch of its new insurance business is just part of Honda’s broader digital vehicle sales platform strategy, with future plans to integrate insurance offerings into new products.
What Honda is doing right now is deepening relationships with its existing customers and finding ways to make money on products it hasn’t sold them – whether that’s the Harley parked in the garage next to their Prologue or the garage itself.
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Nobody ever says “this is business” before doing something nice, and the recently reborn Lion Electric company is keeping that streak alive by doing the unthinkable to cut costs: they’re going to void the warranties on hundreds of electric school buses.
In a letter issued to exiting Lion Electric customers last week, Deloitte Restructuring announced that the warranties on all Lion vehicles purchased outside of the company’s home Province of Quebec are null and void – leaving dozens of school districts in the lurch with stranded assets that won’t get fixed, and can’t be sold to generate funds for replacements.
“We are working with alternate vendors at the expense of the school district to help keep our electric buses functional and on the road,” explains Dr. Richard Decman, Superintendent of Herscher CUSD No. 2 district in Herscher, Illinois. “Currently, six of our 25 (Lion) electric buses need some type of repair.”
Student Transportation News reports that Lion buses represent fully half of Herscher’s overall fleet of 50 buses, and that the district has received nearly $10 million for the purchase of 25 electric buses and the related charging stations from various state and utility incentive programs.
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Herscher isn’t the only district having problems with Lion buses. “All four Lion buses that we own are currently parked and not being used,” Coleen Souza, interim transportation director of Winthrop Public Schools, told Clean Trucking. “Two of them are in need of repairs which would cost us money which we are not willing to invest in because the buses do not run for more than a month before needing more repairs.”
More of the same in Maine, where Yarmouth School Department bought two Lion Electric buses in 2023 with the state covering the costs. According to Superintendent Andrew Dolloff, the buses almost never worked. “We’ve had some sporadic service over the past two years, but as soon as the tech leaves, the buses produce error codes again,” explained Dolloff. ” and “Then the technician quits or is released, and we wait a few months for the next response.”
Dolloff added that Yarmouth’s electric buses did not operate during the 2024-25 school year.
Lion’s new owners are seemingly uninterested in their customers’ plight – which might be easily dismissed if those new owners, Groupe MACH, weren’t also the old owners of Lion Electric.
That’s right, kids. Quebec-based real estate company Groupe MACH, which stepped in to “save” Lion Electric earlier this summer, along with Ontario-based Mirella & Lino Saputo Foundation, bought $90 million of equity in Lion Electric back in 2023. And, while the MACH people may not have been the ones who ultimately made the call about voiding the warranties (that decision was made by the Deloitte bankruptcy team), it is absolutely Group MACH who have, to date, not announced plans to continue to honor those warranties, either.
Make of that what you will.
Deloitte Lion letter
SOURCES: School Transportation News, Clean Trucking, Deloitte.
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