Tuesday, August 30, 2022

☕ Going nuclear

The uncertain fate of California's last nuclear plant...
August 30, 2022 View Online | Sign Up | Shop

Morning Brew

Smartsheet

Good morning. As Back to School week rolls on, we must remind you that the Brew has some excellent educational courses of our own. One of them, the Business Essentials Accelerator, is designed to level up your business knowledge and help you nab that next promotion.

For Back to School week, you can get $150 off with code BTS150. The September cohort begins on the 26th, so apply today.

Max Knoblauch, Matty Merritt, Neal Freyman, Abby Rubenstein

MARKETS

Nasdaq

12,017.67

S&P

4,030.61

Dow

32,098.99

10-Year

3.111%

Bitcoin

$20,162.30

Salesforce

$160.21

*Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 10:00pm ET. Here's what these numbers mean.

  • Markets: Stocks, particularly in tech, continued their slump post-Jerome Powell speech on Friday, but that may be exactly what central bankers want. On a Bloomberg podcast, Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said he was "happy" to see how investors responded to Powell's Jackson Hole talk because "people now understand the seriousness of our commitment to getting inflation back down to 2%."

ENERGY

Nuclear energy's steamy comeback

Diablo Canyon nuclear facility on the California coast George Rose/Getty Images

California's last nuclear power plant, an aging facility operating since 1985 known as Diablo Canyon, was set to retire by 2025. Now, an eleventh-hour effort led by Governor Gavin Newsom may keep the facility open for an extra decade.

Although Newsom supported a 2016 plan to close Diablo Canyon, his administration now cites the "unprecedented stress" the state's energy system faces as a reason to keep it open. Diablo Canyon supplies about 9% of the entire state's electricity (17% when looking solely at carbon-free sources). Severe droughts have hampered hydroelectric power in the state, and supply chain issues have delayed wind and solar projects.

Given California's plan to decarbonize its grid by 2045, keeping Diablo Canyon open longer is a necessity, advocates say.

Opponents disagree, questioning the plant's safety. Diablo Canyon is located extremely close to fault lines—in 2008, it was discovered that one reactor sits just 650 yards from a fault. Additionally, the cooling system at Diablo Canyon uses 2.5 billion gallons of ocean water every day, killing millions of sea creatures each year.

Just-introduced legislation supported by Governor Newsom would loan Diablo Canyon up to $1.4 billion to stay open and exempt the facility from some environmental laws. That legislation would need to be passed soon, given looming federal licensing deadlines and the end of California's legislative session tomorrow.

California isn't the only place where nuclear energy may be making an unexpected comeback.

Nuclear's in

France and Belgium have both moved to keep nuclear reactors open past their operating licenses, and in a major U-turn, Japan is considering building new reactors and restarting ones that had been shuttered following the Fukushima nuclear crisis. The UK, the Czech Republic, and Poland all have plans to build new reactors in the coming years. France has proposed building 14.

So, what's behind the return to nuclear energy? A lot of it comes back to the war in Ukraine. Western countries trying to cut themselves off from Russian oil and gas have sent energy prices soaring to crisis levels, causing them to take a second look at nuclear. The efficiency of nuclear power is also enticing for countries looking to meet UN emissions targets.—MK

        

TOGETHER WITH SMARTSHEET

With great power comes great…process

Smartsheet

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This quick, illuminating quiz will help you ID your working style and learn how to work stronger as a team.

Smartsheet studied 2,000+ professionals from around the globe—how they collaborate with their teams, approach projects, and use tech in the workplace—and determined that people fall into 1 of 8 categories, or "process powers," that reflects their work patterns and personalities.

Curious about yours? Take the 5-minute quiz to #PowerYourProcess and find out how it impacts your strengths and weaknesses—and how you can use it to maximize your success.

        

WORLD

Tour de headlines

GIF of NASA's moon rocket being delayed GIF: Dianna "Mick" McDougall, Source: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Space is hard. NASA called off the launch of its moonbound Space Launch System rocket after discovering that one of the four engines on the rocket wasn't cooling down to the right temperature. We had similar problems at work yesterday, too. The next launch window is slated for this Friday at 12:48pm ET in Cape Canaveral, but there's still a lot of work to be done to fix the problem.

Ukraine goes on the counterattack. Ukraine said yesterday that it had begun highly anticipated operations to take back territory in its south captured by Russia early in its invasion. The counteroffensive is focused on the region of Kherson, which is located close to the Crimean Peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014. Ukraine has recently stepped up attacks behind Russian lines using Western-supplied weapons.

📵 The Federal Trade Commission joins the abortion fight. Yesterday, the FTC sued ad tech firm Kochava for selling geolocation data that could expose people's movements to sensitive locations, such as abortion clinics. Since SCOTUS's scrapping of Roe v. Wade in June, privacy experts have warned that search histories, period tracking apps, and location data could be used by law enforcement to prosecute abortion seekers in jurisdictions where it's no longer legal. In a July executive order, President Biden asked the FTC to use its regulatory powers to help stop "digital surveillance" of reproductive healthcare.

REAL ESTATE

Offices are rockin' the suburbs

Image of Scranton Business Park The Office/NBCUniversal

For the first time ever, something interesting is happening in America's suburbs: Companies are placing big bets on suburban office space, anticipating that remote workers living on the outskirts of cities will come back to the office if they don't have to sit in grinding traffic forever.

The latest investment is a whopper: Singapore's sovereign wealth fund and Florida-based Workspace Property Trust teamed up to buy 53 suburban office buildings for $1.1 billion. "We believe the pandemic really accelerated the shift to suburban offices," Workspace's CEO told the WSJ.

He may have a point. For the first time in decades, the US downtown office vacancy rate topped office vacancies in the suburbs in Q2, per CBRE.

But not all suburban offices are created equal. The crumbling, Dunder Mifflin-style buildings created decades ago are still sitting empty across the country, while real estate pros are far more bullish on gleaming, higher-end properties located in growing metro areas, like Atlanta and Dallas.

And not everyone is writing off downtown workspaces just yet. NYC is pushing ahead with an extremely ambitious plan to build 10 towers for mostly office space around Penn Station in what would be one of the country's biggest real estate developments ever, the NYT reports.—NF

        

EDUCATION

Fjällräven is out, tränspärent is in

Clear backpacks in store. Brandon Bell/Getty Images

This month, students in the second-largest school district in Texas, Dallas Independent School District, went back to school without having to decide if messenger bags were in style.

That's because in the aftermath of the school shooting in Uvalde, TX, the district decided to mandate all 6th–12th graders wear clear or mesh backpacks in an effort to beef up security measures.

The policy, which has existed in a handful of school districts since the '90s, has been knocked by some school safety experts as impulsive. Critics argue that, like other school security measures, there's little evidence it prevents school shootings—and it also invades kids' privacy.

The school shooting industry is growing: High-tech security systems, resource officers, $2.1 million panic-alert systems, and—for a brief moment—a drone with stun guns, are part of a multibillion-dollar school safety industry that typically sees a surge in demand after high-profile gun violence in schools. In 2021, the school shooting industry (which doesn't include companies that sell products like bulletproof doors or backpacks) was worth an estimated $3.1 billion, and is expected to grow at least 8% annually, according to the research firm Omdia.

And it's about to get an influx of cash. In June, President Biden signed a bipartisan gun control bill that, among other measures, gives $1 billion to schools for creating "safe and healthy learning environments" as well as $300 million earmarked for training and safety equipment specifically.—MM

Stay tuned for more back-to-school stories throughout the week.

        

GRAB BAG

Key performance indicators

Melting ice cube with Greenland's flag in it Francis Scialabba

Stat: Greenland's massive ice sheet is on track to melt so much it will raise sea levels almost a foot by about 2100, no matter how much the world manages to cut greenhouse gas emissions between now and then, a study published yesterday found. The ice sheet will shed 3.3% of its volume—that's more than 110 trillion metric tons of ice, and it's more than previous studies estimated. One of the study's authors told the Associated Press that if all that water were just dumped on top of the US, it'd be 37 feet deep.

Quote: "🎃"

A Sunday tweet from Starbucks foreshadowed what we all were expecting: Its iconic pumpkin spice latte (along with the rest of its fall treats) will return today. In addition to a barrage of recycled hot takes about the beverage, this year you should expect a 4% price increase on your grande PSL due to inflation.

Read: How to cook a direwolf. (Eater)

BREW'S BETS

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WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

  • Serena Williams won her opening match at the US Open with literally every celebrity in the world in attendance.
  • Elon Musk's lawyers subpoenaed Peiter "Mudge" Zatko, Twitter's former security boss. They're hoping he can help Musk wriggle out of buying Twitter.
  • Honda and LG Energy Solution are investing $4.4 billion in an EV battery plant in the US.
  • The US government will no longer offer free Covid tests as of Friday, blaming Congress for failing to provide sufficient funding.

GAMES

The puzzle section

Brew Mini: "Dance that 'takes two'" is your sample clue of the day. Play the Mini here.

Guess the company

We'll give you some fast facts about one American company, and you have to name it.

  1. It traces its origins to two Massachusetts textile firms.
  2. It owns 8.7% of Activision Blizzard.
  3. It's the sixth-largest American company by market capitalization.
  4. Its CEO has held the position since 1970.

One-third of LinkedIn profiles contain false information

One-third of LinkedIn profiles contain false information

On Business Casual, Nora chats with Eric Ly, a co-founder of LinkedIn who started KarmaCheck, which helps fight misinformation all over the internet...even on dating apps. Listen or watch here.

Check out more from the Brew:

There's always time to be a better leader. Join us on Thursday for our free interactive workshop featuring economist Tyler Cowen to discuss all things leadership. Sign up here.

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ANSWER

Answer: Berkshire Hathaway. Today is Warren Buffett's 92nd birthday.

         

Written by Max Knoblauch, Neal Freyman, and Matty Merritt

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