The Grid: Energy, Resources, Environment, Sustainability | Bloomberg

Climate change policy is often assumed to be a lose-lose proposition. Nations can pay now for expensive carbon-reduction policies, or they can pay later -- potentially a lot more -- through destructive climate-related events like storms, droughts and flooding.

In the U.S., however, that take may not be correct, according to a new study by the environmental group World Resources Institute. It says that improving buildings' energy efficiency, boosting the fuel-economy of automobiles and cutting leaks from the production and transport of natural gas can save money now and cut climate change later.

Telsa CEO Elon Musk has unleashed the “D” -- a dual-motor version of the Model S sedan that can go zero to 60 miles per hour in 3.2 seconds. That’s not just fast for an electric car. It’s fast for any car. It solidifies its place among the top tier of high-performance sports cars.

But it’s not the coolest thing.

It's complicated.

Even by the standards of impenetrable 645-page environmental regulatory proposals, President Barack Obama's plan to to cut carbon emissions from power plants is a handful. Released in June, the proposal uses an intricate formula to set the emissions reductions each state must achieve by 2030.

Bloomberg BNA -- Non-hydropower renewable power generation is expected to surpass hydropower on an annual basis in 2014 for the first time, the Energy Information Administration said.

Conventional hydropower generation is projected to fall by 4.2 percent, while non-hydropower renewables rise by 5.6 percent for this year, EIA said in its short-term energy outlook released Oct. 7.

Good afternoon! Here are today's top reads:

• Keystone be darned: Canada finds oil route around Obama (Bloomberg)
  
• SolarCity joins rivals in lending to clients (NY Times)
  
• US East Coast cities face frequent flooding due to climate change (Guardian)
  
• Crazy as it sounds, solar could be the world's most important energy source by 2050 (Fast Company)
  
• Study: Renewables as green as you'd expect (Climate Central)
  
• Shale boom tested as sub-$90 oil threatens U.S. drillers (Bloomberg)
  
• Can California make it rain with drones? (National Journal)
  
• Americans can now expect to live longer than ever (Time)
  
• Mystery of ocean heat deepens as climate changes (Scientific American)
  
• High in Yellowstone, a foundational tree falters (Daily Climate)
  

Visit www.bloomberg.com/sustainability for the latest from Bloomberg News about energy, natural resources and global business

When it comes to oil, U.S. is king. Discoveries in North Dakota and Texas have pushed American oil production past Saudi Arabia and Russia this year. The new supplies have boosted the economy and dialed down the price of oil everywhere -- gasoline at $3 a gallon anyone?

The price of oil has fallen so low it’s threatening the feasibility of controversial and expensive drilling projects proposed in the Canadian Oil Sands and the Arctic. West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark for crude, is going for less than $90 a barrel. That’s approaching the break-even point for profitability at many of the very wells driving the American oil boom.

Good morning! Here are today's top reads:

• By seeking payment reversals, BP may reignite damages fight (Bloomberg)
  
• Antibiotics in livestock: FDA finds use is rising (NY Times)
  
• NASA explains how climate change is like the flu (National Journal)
  
• Think twice about wild animal tourism, visitors told (Guardian)
  
• Japan's tragic wake-up call (Bloomberg)
  
• Oceans getting hotter than anybody realized (Climate Central)
  
• Gaming carbon must end to solve global warming (Scientific American)
  
• Institutional investors to reveal portfolio carbon footprints (GreenBiz)
  
• North America's first electric garbage truck is silently driving Chicago streets (Fast Company)
  
• Drought is making California shrink in mass (CityLab)
  

Visit www.bloomberg.com/sustainability for the latest from Bloomberg News about energy, natural resources and global business

Great minds in business and government assembled in Washington this week to explore every way -- financial, technological, legal, political -- to meet U.S. and Indian energy challenges.

And to complain about shopping malls.

Good afternoon! Here are today's top reads:

• World's biggest market crashes and you didn't even know it (Bloomberg)
  
• The sharing economy takes on electricity, so you can buy your power from neighbors (Fast Company)
  
• Nigeria's actions seem to contain Ebola outbreak (NY Times)
  
• Modi enlists Indian CEOs to build toilets, sweep streets (Bloomberg)
  
• California governor vetoes 'unnecessary' livestock antibiotics bill (Guardian)
  
• The illusion of 'natural' (Atlantic)
  
• Can science avert a coffee crisis? (Scientific American)
  
• Fracking emissions fall; Texas still king of GHGs (Climate Central)
  
• A lighter-than-air turbine to harness high-altitude winds (Washington Post)
  
• How a fishery that was once 'a marvel of the world' died (ClimateWire)
  

Visit www.bloomberg.com/sustainability for the latest from Bloomberg News about energy, natural resources and global business

If animals were stocks, the market would be crashing.

The chart below shows the performance of an index that tracks global animal populations over time, much like the S&P 500 tracks shares of the biggest U.S. companies. The Global Living Planet Index, updated today by the World Wildlife Foundation, tracks representative populations of 3,038 species of reptiles, birds, mammals, amphibians and fish.

To say the index of animals is underperforming humans is an understatement. More than half of the world's vertebrates have disappeared between 1970 and 2010. (In the same period, the human population nearly doubled.) The chart starts at 1, which represents the planet's level of vertebrate life as of 1970.