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It’s time to open a new chapter in the history books. Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe said now is the time to act on climate change to protect the planet for our kids and their kids’ kids’ kids’.

Rivian is more than just another automaker. It’s not even your average EV maker. The company’s entire purpose is to “create products and services that help our planet transition to carbon neutral energy and transportation.”

It also happens to build some of the most unique EVs on the road today. Rivian’s “Electric Adventure Vehicles,” the R1T pickup and R1S SUV, are built for more than just getting from point A to point B.

They can also plow through over 3 feet of water, rock climb a 100% grade, and take off quicker than your average sports car.

However, Rivian is doing much more in the background, other than just selling EVs, to “build the kind of future our kids and our kids’ kids’ deserve.”

Every aspect of the company is designed for a sustainable future. Rivian’s battery packs can easily be removed for recycling or other uses. Its interiors include 100% animal-free materials, and Rivian’s charging network (Rivian Adventure Network) is powered entirely by renewable energy.

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Rivian R1T (left) and R1S (right) electric vehicles (Source: Rivian)

Rivian is also quickly adding to its portfolio of clean energy projects, expanding wind, solar, and hydroelectric options across the US.

The company’s utility-scale solar project in Tennesee and Starfire Solar project on a former coal mining site in Kentucky are already bringing renewable energy to local businesses and communities.

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Rivian electric delivery vans (EDVs) for Amazon (Source: Rivian)

Rivian CEO says now is the time to act on climate change

Rivian knows building EVs is not enough. On Tuesday, Scaringe issued an urgent call to action, saying now must be the time to make history.

Scaringe says we are alive during one of “the most significant moments in recorded human history.”

Society has advanced greatly over the past few hundred years due to new technology and industrial capabilities, producing capabilities that were previously unimaginable. However, the same technology is destroying the only home we have, slowly but surely.

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Rivian R1S electric SUV (Source: Rivian)

Growing up a car enthusiast, Scaringe loved every aspect of them, from the idea of driving to the freedom they could provide.

As he got older, he realized that cars, as important as they were for the progress of society, were “simultaneously the root of the impact they’re having on our climate.”

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Production at Rivian’s Normal, IL plant (Source: Rivian)

The same vehicles he loved played a big role in the re-carbonization of our atmosphere. In just a few generations, we have taken what accumulated over hundreds of millions of years and re-distributed the CO2 back into the atmosphere through burning fossil fuels in just over 150 years.

According to Scaringe, we are “at the very beginning of seeing the impacts” of that. You may have noticed it on those extremely hot days or heard about the increasingly aggressive storms and weather on the news.

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Rivian’s next-gen R2, R3, and R3X (Source: Rivian)

Although it’s still in its early stages, these changes will, little by little, “make the planet less inhabitable.”

Not only for humans, but we are already seeing a rate of extinction on Earth that’s never been seen before.

Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe issues urgent call to act on climate change (Source: Rivian)

Scaringe said this is the moment we have a choice. In a perfect world, when we look back in another few thousand years, there will be a little blip called the fossil fuel era. It will cover how humans rapidly industrialized with advanced new technology but also developed a deep dependency on fossil fuels.

The next chapter will hopefully explain how we developed new technologies to wean off fossil fuels before we put all the carbon back into the atmosphere.

Rivian’s leader explained these changes must begin now. We need to continue expanding renewable energy on our grid while replacing the 1.5 billion gas-powered cars on the road with EVs.

The road may not be perfect, but we need to start somewhere. The best part of EVs is that they get cleaner and more efficient over time. It’s time to protect our only home for our kids and their kids’ kids’ kids.’

Source: Rivian

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State of the solar industry as GOP eliminates homeowner’s tax credits

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State of the solar industry as GOP eliminates homeowner's tax credits

On today’s sunny side up episode of Quick Charge, we take a look at the latest from the world of solar power, and discuss Congressional Republicans’ plans to limit your energy independence by eliminating a critical tax credit for homeowners nearly ten years early. (!)

We’ve also got a quick review of a massive solar farm powering 200,000 homes in Indiana and the biggest solar project East of the Mississippi – both part of a record 98% of all new power generation and grid capacity introduced in 2025 coming from wind and solar. Those are jobs, those are lower utility rates, those are energy independence … so why are Congressional Republicans working to make that more expensive?

If you want to read that EnergySage report on the state of the home solar industry, including news about battery energy storage system and V2H/V2G prices and financing trends, you can check it out for yourself, below, then let us know what you think in the comments.

Prefer listening to your podcasts? Audio-only versions of Quick Charge are now available on Apple PodcastsSpotifyTuneIn, and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

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New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded, usually, Monday through Thursday (and sometimes Sunday). We’ll be posting bonus audio content from time to time as well, so be sure to follow and subscribe so you don’t miss a minute of Electrek’s high-voltage daily news.

Got news? Let us know!
Drop us a line at tips@electrek.co. You can also rate us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or recommend us in Overcast to help more people discover the show.


If you’re considering going solar, it’s always a good idea to get quotes from a few installers. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them. 

Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.

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Alphabet’s Waymo wins approval to expand driverless ride-hailing service to San Jose

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Alphabet's Waymo wins approval to expand driverless ride-hailing service to San Jose

A Waymo autonomous vehicle drives along Masonic Avenue on April 11, 2022 in San Francisco, California. 

Justin Sullivan | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Alphabet’s Waymo unit has received approval to expand its autonomous ride-hailing service to more parts of the San Francisco Bay Area, including San Jose.

In March, the company submitted a request to the California Public Utilities Commission to gain approval for its latest passenger safety plan, a key step in gaining permission to operate driverless vehicles across a broader area. On Monday, the proposed expansion was approved, allowing for Waymo’s driverless coverage to extend from San Francisco down through the Peninsula.

“We’re very excited to share that the CPUC has approved our application to operate our fully autonomous commercial ride-hailing service in the South Bay and nearly all of San Jose!” the company wrote in a post on X on Monday. “While this won’t change our operations in the near-term, we’re looking forward to bringing the benefits of Waymo One to more of the Bay Area in the future.”

Read more about tech and crypto from CNBC Pro

Waymo is a bright spot in the Google story, says Truist's Youssef Squali

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Trump reversal revives Empire Wind, NY’s offshore energy giant

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Trump reversal revives Empire Wind, NY’s offshore energy giant

The $5 billion Empire Wind is back in business. The Trump administration’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has lifted its stop-work order for Empire Wind, a major offshore wind project off the coast of New York led by Empire Offshore Wind LLC, a subsidiary of Equinor. Construction is now allowed to resume.

Equinor CEO Anders Opedal welcomed the news, saying the restart reinforces Equinor’s commitment to delivering clean energy while supporting local economies and saving thousands of jobs. He also credited a wide coalition of officials for helping get the project back on track, including Trump, New York Governor Kathy Hochul, and congressional leaders like Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Dan Goldman. Opedal also thanked the Norwegian prime minister and the minister of finance for raising the issue with the US administration.

Governor Hochul said in a statement that “countless conversations with Equinor and White House officials” had taken place.

Neither the BOEM nor the Department of the Interior has issued a comment.

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The Trump administration halted construction of the 54-turbine Empire Wind on April 16, but discussions between Equinor, regulators, and leaders at the federal, state, and city levels led to a reversal. That means Empire Wind can now push ahead with its goal of powering 500,000 New York homes with offshore wind energy.

“This project delivers on the energy ambitions shared by the US and New York by providing a vital new source of power to the region,” said Molly Morris, president of Equinor Wind US. She added that Empire Wind is boosting supply chain investments across the country, with activity in New York, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Texas, and South Carolina.

Equinor plans to reassess the project’s financials in the second quarter. The goal is still to install turbines offshore in 2025 and hit full commercial operation by 2027. The company says it will work with suppliers and regulators to minimize any delays from the month-long pause.

Empire Wind was first awarded its offshore lease in 2017 after a competitive federal process. It received its final construction green light in early 2024 following an extensive environmental review. Construction kicked off shortly after, and the project is now over 30% complete.

The US is a major market for Equinor. The Norwegian energy giant says it has invested around $60 billion in US energy projects since the early 2000s, more recently in low-carbon solutions, critical minerals, and renewables. Empire Wind is one of its flagship projects in the US.

Read more: Trump admin halts $5 billion NY offshore wind project mid-build


If you’re considering going solar, it’s always a good idea to get quotes from a few installers. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them. 

Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.

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