** A cellular outage early on Thursday hit thousands of AT&T users in the United States, disrupting calls and text messages as well as emergency services in major cities including San Francisco. More than 50,000 incidents were reported around 7:00 a.m. ET, according to data from outage tracking website Downdetector.com.
** The Supreme Court’s conservative majority seemed skeptical Wednesday as the Environmental Protection Agency sought to continue enforcing an anti-air-pollution rule in 11 states while separate legal challenges proceed around the country.
** The Environmental Protection Agency is leaning toward approving a compromise regulation on car and truck pollution that could slow the initial pace of the required cuts compared with a draft proposal the administration released last year, the three people said. The change could mean that for the rest of this decade, electric vehicle sales would climb more incrementally than EPA had originally projected.
** The U.S. Energy Department said on Thursday it gave preliminary approval for nearly $710 million in loans to electric vehicle (EV) technology manufacturing ventures, although the Biden administration still has $221.8 billion in loan capacity to fund clean-energy projects.
** Rivian announced Wednesday that it will lay off 10% of its salaried workers beginning Thursday morning, amid a quarterly loss and an increasingly competitive EV market.
** General Motors said on Wednesday the automaker’s Cadillac Lyriq is again eligible for a U.S. $7,500 electric vehicle tax credit after a battery sourcing change to address two minor components.
World
** Mercedes-Benz on Thursday toned down expectations on electric vehicle demand and said it will update its combustion engine lineup well into next decade, becoming the latest carmaker to flag a slower than expected appetite for battery-powered cars.
** India wants to hook its population onto clean energy by boosting rooftop solar.
** China approved 114 gigawatts (GW) of coal power capacity in 2023, up 10% from a year earlier, with the world’s top carbon polluter now at risk of falling short on climate targets after sanctioning dozens of new plants, research showed on Thursday.
** New images show a British registered cargo ship attacked by Houthi fighters in the Red Sea has not sunk. Pictures show the Rubymar is listing but still above water after the crew abandoned ship.
** Siemens Energy is confident it can solve quality issues at its onshore wind division but that process could take several years, its CEO said in written remarks published ahead of the group’s annual general meeting (AGM) in Germany.