News
Leonardo DiCaprio pitches jobs through clean energy policy to Trump
The week before Donald Trump hosted a summit with Silicon Valley’s most influential technology leaders, the President-elect met with Oscar-winning actor Leonardo DiCaprio to discuss the topic of securing American jobs through commercial and residential clean, renewable energy generation.
DiCaprio has received recent attention for his documentary, Before the Flood, which describes the geological consequences of the earth’s recent 1°C global temperature rise. In the documentary, climate scientists and energy experts outline the effects of climate change on the earth today and provide a list of possible strategies to reduce our carbon footprint. DiCaprio presented the president-elect with a copy of the documentary, which Trump reportedly promised to view.
The CEO of the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation (LDF), Terry Tamminen, talked with Ivanka Trump, a core Trump transition team adviser who is receptive to enacting climate change policies. Trump also met recently with former Vice President Al Gore, whose 2006 documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, chronicles a campaign to educate citizens about global warming.
Tamminen said President-elect Trump was receptive during the session with DiCaprio’s team and went so far as to suggest they reconvene in January. “Today, we presented the President-elect and his advisers with a framework — which LDF developed in consultation with leading voices in the fields of economics and environmentalism — that details how to unleash a major economic revival across the United States that is centered on investments in sustainable infrastructure.” Tamminen was secretary of California’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Ironically, on the same day that Trump met with DiCaprio and members of his foundation, a leak within the Trump transition team revealed that Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt would likely be the next head of the federal EPA. Pruitt has been a vocal opponent of several of Obama EPA’s environmental regulations, has sued the agency over its regulations of power plants, and has supported policy that favors the fossil fuel industry.
Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary General of the United Nations, has said, “Climate change is the single greatest threat to a sustainable future but, at the same time, addressing the climate challenge presents a golden opportunity to promote prosperity, security, and a brighter future for all.” In 2014, the Secretary General appointed DiCaprio, whose commitment to environmental activism has spanned two decades, as a UN Messenger of Peace with a special focus on climate change. DiCaprio has voiced concerns about the needs to fight climate change and to preserve wildlife throughout his film career and emphasized the threat of climate change in his 2016 Academy Award acceptance. “Climate change is real, it is happening right now,” he said.
In the conclusion to the Before the Flood documentary, DiCaprio’s speech before attendees at the Conference of the Parties to the Paris Agreement describes his revelations as UN Messenger of Peace for climate change action. The Paris Agreement’s central aim is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. It also seeks efforts to limit the temperature increase even further— to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Moreover, the Agreement aims to strengthen the ability of countries to deal with the impacts of climate change. To reach these ambitious goals, a new technology and enhanced capacity building framework aligns goals with individual national objectives. The Agreement provides for enhanced transparency of action and support through more robust transparency.
-
According to a recent United Nations Environment report, the planet may rise 2.9 to 3.4 degrees Celsius this century, even with the Paris Agreement pledges.
“We look forward to continuing the conversation with the incoming administration as we work to stop the dangerous march of climate change, while putting millions of people to work at the same time,” said Tamminen.
Sources: UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, World Energy Outlook 2016
Tesla Energy has introduced the Powerwall Lease in conjunction with Tesla Electric, making the service available in Texas. This new option delivers whole-home backup power using two Powerwall units for a net monthly cost of $35 after credits, accompanied by a low fixed electricity rate.
Under the lease terms, customers pay a one-time order fee of $100. The base lease payment for the two Powerwalls is approximately $122 per month during the first year, subject to a 3 percent annual escalator thereafter. Enrollment in a qualifying Tesla Electric Backup plan or Virtual Power Plant plan provides an $87 monthly credit.
Powerwall Lease is now available with Tesla Electric in Texas
Whole-home backup for $35/month, with a low fixed electricity rate
– Two Powerwalls, $0 installation
– Storm Watch outage protection
– One app to manage it all pic.twitter.com/oTzqc6K3aF— Tesla Energy (@teslaenergy) August 13, 2026
This credit lowers the effective cost to roughly $35 per month plus applicable tax.
-
Installation of the standard system carries no additional charge. The package features Storm Watch for outage protection and allows complete management through a single Tesla application. The system supplies continuous whole-home backup capability.
The Powerwall system enables households to maintain electricity during severe storms that disrupt the utility grid. When outages occur, the batteries automatically provide seamless backup power to the home.
Tesla announces 100k Powerwalls are participating in Virtual Power Plants
Tesla Storm Watch monitors weather forecasts and ensures the units are fully charged ahead of anticipated severe weather events so that power remains available throughout the disruption, keeping lights, refrigeration, and other essential systems operating without interruption.
Availability is restricted to select Texas locations where retail electric choice exists. Participants must lease exactly two Powerwall units and maintain continuous enrollment with Tesla Electric. Solar panels cannot be included under this particular lease arrangement.
The monthly credit activates automatically once the system is installed, receives permission to operate, and enrollment is confirmed. To retain the credit, customers are required to stay enrolled in Tesla Electric and fulfill all program conditions.
Nonstandard installations that involve electrical upgrades or special permitting may lead to extra expenses and might impact eligibility for the credit, so be sure to check with either your installer or Tesla to ensure you will still qualify.
-
Elon Musk continues to tease the unveiling event for the Tesla Roadster, a continuing trend that has grown into a bigger game of “When” for fans who have been waiting years for the car to finally enter production.
A video shared on X of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast that Musk appeared on last year, teasing the Roadster unveiling, was shared once again on the social media platform. The poster said the Roadster event will be “unforgettable.”
Musk agreed:
Yes
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 12, 2026
The timing is interesting because just yesterday, Musk said that we will be getting flying cars, and for years, Tesla has hinted that it could develop a SpaceX cold gas thruster package that would help the car float or fly for a short period of time.
It would be reasonable to assume Tesla’s major delays with this unveiling event are likely caused by the company’s need to break the rules and push the envelope on nearly everything. Last July, Lars Moravy, Tesla’s VP of Vehicle Engineering, said:
-
“Roadster is definitely in development. We did talk about it last Sunday night. We are gearing up for a super cool demo. It’s going to be mind blowing. We showed Elon some cool demos last week of the tech we’ve been working on and he got a little excited.”
The latest updates that Tesla has given us are that the Roadster is in design development, and it did have several potential dates for an unveiling event this year, including April. It was then pushed to August.
However, there are no clues as to when Tesla will be ready, and fans are certainly getting frustrated with the delays.
For what it is worth, Franz von Holzhausen told Jay Leno this week that the event would be “very soon.”
We sure hope.
Lifestyle
Tesla’s driverless Cybercab just passed a big test with State Governor
Florida’s governor rode Tesla’s Cybercab at a closed test track and called the experience impressive.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis rode in a Tesla Cybercab on a closed test track this week and came away impressed, posting on X that the vehicle “successfully navigated all hazards — a kid running into the street, a crash with police stopping traffic, a Model S cutting us off, etc.” He called the ride “impressive.”
The stop was part of a broader event Monday at SunTrax, a 775 acre state owned proving ground in Auburndale that Florida built specifically to test autonomous and connected vehicles before they reach public roads. Standing next to a gold Cybercab, DeSantis described the car in plain terms: “You go in there and you just sit. You have a screen. There’s no steering wheel, no pedals. Clearly these things could be very beneficial.”
We took a ride on a robotaxi on the Suntrax course and it successfully navigated all hazards — a kid running into the street, a crash with police stopping traffic, a Model S cutting us off, etc.
Impressive! https://t.co/FVAkzFLz3r
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) August 11, 2026
DeSantis paired the praise with a caveat that has followed autonomous vehicles since the category existed. “You don’t want to be in an autonomous vehicle and it drives you into a ditch. That would not be good,” he said, framing safety validation as the gate before wider deployment.
SunTrax, the 2.25 mile oval which the state calls the only high speed autonomous vehicle test track in the Southeast, can simulate rain, pedestrian crossings, hills and crowded urban conditions at highway speeds, letting companies push a car past what an early public rollout would risk. Tesla, Waymo and Beep all use the facility, and Florida’s regulatory approach, among the most permissive for autonomous vehicles in the country, doesn’t require a human operator inside a fully autonomous car.
-
Tesla has reason to want the blessing of Florida and states beyond, as the Cybercab entered volume production at Gigafactory Texas this spring and has since self certified as SAE Level 4 under Texas law. Public road testing so far has kept a safety monitor in the passenger seat, and Florida is where Tesla has been expanding its existing Model Y based Robotaxi service instead, adding Miami in July and then Orlando and Tampa two weeks later. A closed track endorsement from a sitting governor doesn’t change any of that, but it does put Tesla’s newest hardware in front of a state that has already shown it will move fast on rules.
Tesla launches Powerwall Lease for affordable home backup
Elon Musk teases Tesla Roadster unveiling once again
