ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT
- Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario are working together to urge Michigan to reconsider shutting down Enbridge Line 5, warning of immediate gasoline shortages, ‘massive’ fuel cost increases and 800 more oil-laden rail cars and 2,000 tanker trucks per day on railways and highways in central Canada and US Midwest.
- Texas has moved to stop the city of Austin and others from imposing a California-style ban on natural gas in new homes and buildings.
- Apple is building a battery-based renewable storage facility in central California, near a solar energy installation, which already provides energy for all Apples’ facilities in the state.
- Stellantis NV will offer a new range of cargo vans running on a combination of hydrogen fuel cells and plug-in electric technology with a driving range of 400 km and fill-up in 3 minutes.
PRESIDENT BIDEN’S $2.25 TRILLION INFRASTRUCTURE PACKAGE
- President Biden provided details of his proposed $2.25 trillion infrastructure plan yesterday. The bulk of which he expects will be paid by corporate tax hikes. The plan includes:
- Increase corporate taxes to 28% from 21% (Canada 26.50%)
- $621 billion in transportation infrastructure and resilience, including modernizing 20,000 miles of roadways and repairing 10,000 bridges
- $400 billion to expand access to in-home or community-based care for aging relatives and people with disabilities
- $300 billion to revitalize manufacturers and support small business plus $100 billion for workforce development
- $213 billion to build, maintain and retrofit more than 2 million affordable homes
- $111 billion to replace lead pipes, upgrade aging water and sewage systems
- $100 billon to upgrade and build new public schools plus $25 billion to expand child-care facilities
- $100 billion to bridge the digital divide and bring high-speed broadband to every family
- $100 billion to modernize power infrastructure with goal of achieving 100% carbon-free electricity by 2035
- $50 billion to improve infrastructure resilience to climate-related disasters
TIDBITS
- Canadians made a total $34 billion of additional or unscheduled mortgage payments in 2020 up from $31 billion in 2019.
- Microsoft, through it’s division ‘LinkedIn’ is aiming to place 50,000 people in jobs that require technology skills as part of a broad push using to help workers move into new fields.
- Ford idled production at 2 US plants building F-150 pickups because of the shortage of semi-conductor chips
- Taiwan Semi-Conductor (TSMC) is spending USD$100 billion over 3 years to expand semi-conductor chip fabrication capacity.