Electric about-face could open the door for new truck makers
'How quickly can you ramp up to eat their lunch?' Segall asked.
This now unmasked strategy — an about-face on compliance with the Golden State's heavy-duty vehicle standards — came to light this week when four manufacturers sued California regulators over the matter.
Soon after, the Federal Trade Commission declared that a voluntary 'Clean Truck Partnership' between the companies and the state was 'unenforceable.'
Last week's lawsuit, filed Monday by Daimler Truck, International Motors, PACCAR and the Volvo Group, alleged the federal government had deemed California's emissions rules 'unlawful' in June.
At the time, President Trump signed off on three congressional resolutions revoking a Biden administration waiver that had allowed the state to set these rules. Under the 1970 Clean Air Act, California can create emissions standards that are stricter than federal norms but must acquire a waiver from the Environmental Protection Agency to do so.
Segall described Monday's lawsuit as 'an audacious move,' noting in a Thursday op-ed that truckmakers just two years ago supported the Clean Truck Partnership, which he helped negotiate.
He accused companies such as Daimler, which controls 40 percent of the country's truck market, of 'badly letting the trucking industry down.' Meanwhile, he warned, China is accelerating electric truck adoption.
Pointing to the fact that delivery firms such as Amazon have smaller electric trucks operating nationwide, Segall forecast that 'giant semitrailers' will make a similar transition soon.
With that in mind, he stressed there is 'an interesting opening' for other competitors, such as Chinese electric truck startup Windrose.
Industry veteran Rustam Kocher echoed these sentiments in a recent post on LinkedIn, calling upon Windrose, other Chinese e-truck manufacturers and Tesla Semi to fill in this gap and 'let the market-share eating competition commence.'
'This industry is changing, just like the light-duty industry is changing,' Kocher told The Hill.
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Los Angeles Times
21 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
China races to build world's largest solar farm to meet emissions targets
TALATAN, China — Chinese government officials last month showed off what they say will be the world's largest solar farm when completed high on a Tibetan plateau. It will cover 610 square kilometers (235 square miles), which is the size of Chicago. China has been installing solar panels far faster than anywhere else in the world, and the investment is starting to pay off. A study released Thursday found that the country's carbon emissions edged down 1% in the first six months of 2025 compared to a year earlier, extending a trend that began in March 2024. The good news is China's carbon emissions may have peaked well ahead of a government target of doing so before 2030. But China, the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, will need to bring them down much more sharply to play its part in slowing global climate change. For China to reach its declared goal of carbon neutrality by 2060, emissions would need to fall 3% on average over the next 35 years, said Lauri Myllyvirta, the Finland-based author of the study and lead analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air. 'China needs to get to that 3% territory as soon as possible,' he said. China's emissions have fallen before during economic slowdowns. What's different this time is electricity demand is growing — up 3.7% in the first half of this year — but the increase in power from solar, wind and nuclear has easily outpaced that, according to Myllyvirta, who analyzes the most recent data in a study published on the U.K.-based Carbon Brief website. 'We're talking really for the first time about a structural declining trend in China's emissions,' he said. China installed 212 gigawatts of solar capacity in the first six months of the year, more than America's entire capacity of 178 gigawatts as of the end of 2024, the study said. Electricity from solar has overtaken hydropower in China and is poised to surpass wind this year to become the country's largest source of clean energy. Some 51 gigawatts of wind power was added from January to June. Li Shuo, the director of the China Climate Hub at the Asia Society Policy Institute in Washington, described the plateauing of China's carbon emissions as a turning point in the effort to combat climate change. 'This is a moment of global significance, offering a rare glimmer of hope in an otherwise bleak climate landscape,' he wrote in an email response. It also shows that a country can cut emissions while still growing economically, he said. But Li cautioned that China's heavy reliance on coal remains a serious threat to progress on climate and said the economy needs to shift to less resource-intensive sectors. 'There's still a long road ahead,' he said. A seemingly endless expanse of solar panels stretches toward the horizon on the Tibetan plateau. White two-story buildings rise above them at regular intervals. In an area that is largely desert, the massive solar project has wrought a surprising change on the landscape. The panels act as windbreaks to reduce dust and sand and slow soil evaporation, giving vegetation a foothold. Thousands of sheep, dubbed 'photovoltaic sheep,' graze happily on the scrubby plants. Wang Anwei, the energy administration chief of Hainan Prefecture, called it a 'win-win' situation on multiple levels. 'In terms of production, enterprises generate electricity on the top level, and in terms of ecology, grass grows at the bottom under the solar panels, and villagers can herd sheep in between,' he said. Solar panels have been installed on about two-thirds of the land, with power already flowing from completed phases. When fully complete, the project will have more than 7 million panels and be capable of generating enough power for 5 million households. Like many of China's solar and wind farms, it was built in the relatively sparsely populated west. A major challenge is getting electricity to the population centers and factories in China's east. 'The distribution of green energy resources is perfectly misaligned with the current industrial distribution of our country,' Zhang Jinming, the vice governor of Qinghai province, told journalists on a government-organized tour. Part of the solution is building transmission lines traversing the country. One connects Qinghai to Henan province. Two more are planned, including one to Guangdong province in the southeast, almost at the opposite corner of the country. Making full use of the power is hindered by the relatively inflexible way that China's electricity grid is managed, tailored to the steady output of coal plants rather than more variable and less predictable wind and solar, Myllyvirta said. 'This is an issue that the policymakers have recognized and are trying to manage, but it does require big changes to the way coal-fired power plants operate and big changes to the way the transmission network operates,' he said. 'So it's no small task.' Moritsugu and Guan write for the Associated Press. Moritsugu reported from Beijing. Associated Press video producer Wayne Zhang contributed.
The Hill
21 minutes ago
- The Hill
China's growing influence in US sports demands a response
In May, the U.S. House passed the 'DHS Restrictions on Confucius Institutes and Chinese Entities of Concern Act.' The bill aims to reduce Chinese influence at U.S. universities by limiting funding to institutions with ties to Chinese government-backed entities. This includes the Confucius Institutes, which are fully funded by the Chinese government to manipulate public opinion in the U.S. Although Congress is focused on Chinese influence on U.S. college campuses, the Chinese government has deftly transitioned to another American institution to influence U.S. public opinion — namely, sports entertainment. The term 'sportswashing' entered our vocabulary around a decade ago. It is used to describe a country that cynically uses sports entertainment to improve its global reputation and deflect criticism of its human rights record. The creation of LIV Golf by Saudi Arabia is a perfect example. LIV Golf is financed by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, which has close ties to the Saudi government. Human rights organizations argue that Saudi Arabia's interest in elevating LIV Golf around the world is to distract critics and foreign governments from the country's abysmal human rights record. That may be the most-cited and visible example of sportswashing, but China that may be the most effective at sportswashing in the U.S. China's primary sportswashing effort in the U.S. is focused on the National Basketball Association. China's growing financial relationship with the NBA has caught the attention of U.S. lawmakers and critics of China's human rights record. China accounts for a significant portion of the league's global income. The NBA's total revenue in 2025 is around $12 billion, with China contributing over $1 billion annually to the league. A public conversation about China's growing financial relationship with the NBA began in 2019, when then-Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey expressed support for Hong Kong protesters fighting to preserve their democracy. His remarks led to a temporary ban of NBA broadcasts on Chinese state television, a halt in merchandise sales for the Houston Rockets, and Chinese corporate sponsors withdrawing support for the league. Morey's comments resulted in significant financial losses for the NBA. This prompted NBA Commissioner Adam Silver to release a statement criticizing Morey's comments by saying that he had 'deeply offended many of our friends and fans in China,' without ever mentioning the democracy protests and the crushing of civil rights taking place in Hong Kong at the time. The relationship between the NBA and China has only grown closer over the last decade. The NBA has long-standing partnerships with Chinese media outlets, including state-run China Central Television. The NBA has also signed a lucrative deal with digital media giant Tencent, making the company the NBA's exclusive digital partner in China. The league has aggressively pursued merchandise deals with Chinese shoe and apparel companies like Anta, Li-Ning, and Peak. What most concerns critics of China's sportswashing efforts in The U.S. is that NBA business operations in China are conducted through NBA China, a separate China-based entity valued at $5 billion. NBA owners also have substantial financial ties to China that extend beyond the league. Many owners are heavily invested in China through their other business ventures, including private equity and venture capital firms. This includes Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai, the co-founder of the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and its second-largest shareholder. There is real concern and unease among some NBA owners, league officials, and U.S. lawmakers about the NBA's growing financial dependency on China, and what it could mean for the league's future. The NBA, unlike the NFL and Major League Baseball, increasingly relies on revenue generated from a global audience, as domestic TV ratings continue to fall. The 2025 NBA Finals between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Indiana Pacers averaged only 10.3 million viewers, making it one of the lowest-rated NBA Finals series ever. The NBA's growing partnership with China raises important questions. Can a league that has branded itself a progressive advocate for human rights at home continue to ignore China's human rights abuses, and even a potential military conflict with the United States over Taiwan, for purely financial reasons? Today, the Chinese government continues to wage a violent campaign against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang. Beijing has also ended Hong Kong's autonomy and fight for democracy and continues its brutal crackdown in Tibet. Under President Xi Jinping, China has imposed new national security laws, curbing human rights, restricting freedom of the press and speech, and jailing independent journalists and pro-democracy activists, while militarily threatening its neighbors — many of which are U.S. allies. Although lower domestic television ratings and revenue are not good for the NBA, the league's growing dependency on Chinese money and influence could pose a far greater problem in the future. The Chinese government chose the NBA to test its sportswashing efforts abroad for a reason. The NBA's public support of progressive causes, including Black Lives Matter, provide the Chinese government with an opportunity to manipulate domestic U.S. public opinion against U.S. lawmakers, public figures, and human rights organizations exposing China's human rights abuses. China not only views the NBA and its players as business partners, but also as willing critics of U.S. government policies at home and abroad. As the U.S. government and international human rights organizations continue to highlight the deteriorating human rights conditions in China, will the Trump Administration and the U.S. Congress seek to end China's sportswashing efforts in The United States, as they have attempted to do on U.S. college campuses? Will the NBA continue to permit China to use their growing financial influence over the league to distract American public opinion from China's growing human rights abuses? We don't know. What we do know is that China's attempt to influence U.S. public opinion through sports entertainment will continue unless U.S. lawmakers put an end to it.
The Hill
an hour ago
- The Hill
Tariffs are a money launderer's best friend
U.S. trade policy is now synonymous with tariff policy. President Trump's latest round of higher taxes on imports went into effect on Aug. 7, and the 40 countries with which the U.S. runs a trade deficit now face a 15 percent rate. Some will be hit with even steeper rates — Brazil, for one, faces a 50 percent total tariff. While trade and tariffs have been a dominant economic policy issue since Trump took office in January, one related domain has been completely overlooked: the connection between high tariffs and trade-based money laundering, which disguises the proceeds of crime through the use of trade transactions in an attempt to legitimize their illicit origins. Some sources estimate that trade-based money laundering could account for as much as $1.6 trillion of the total amount laundered globally each year. In a study cited by the Financial Action Task Force, trade mis-invoicing accounted for roughly 80 percent of illicit financial flows in developing countries. The relationship between tariffs and money laundering represents one of the most complex challenges facing global trade and financial systems today. As tariff rates increase, so too does the incentive for both legitimate businesses and criminal organizations to engage in customs fraud and trade-based money laundering. This symbiotic relationship creates a dual threat: higher tariffs directly incentivize evasion schemes, while these same schemes provide convenient vehicles for laundering illicit proceeds from other criminal activities. Simply stated, the fundamental relationship between tariffs and financial crime is straightforward: High tariffs create greater incentives to cheat. The methods employed to evade tariffs often mirror traditional money laundering techniques, creating overlapping areas of criminal activity. These include over- and under-invoicing, whereby importers systematically misrepresent the value of goods to reduce duty payments. The difference between actual and declared values is often settled through informal channels, facilitating money laundering. Another is country-of-origin fraud, where products manufactured in high-tariff countries are falsely declared as originating from lower-tariff jurisdictions. This frequently involves forged certificates of origin and collusion with overseas suppliers. Transshipment schemes are another technique, as goods are routed through third-country intermediate ports with minor repackaging or processing to disguise their true origin. Chinese steel, aluminum and other products commonly transit through countries such as Oman, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam before reaching U.S. markets. Finally, false description schemes are employed as a method whereby high-value items are deliberately misclassified as lower-value goods to reduce scrutiny and tariff liability. For example, electronics might be declared as 'plastic components' to avoid detection. Drug trafficking organizations from Latin America are prone to use a type of money laundering scheme known as the Black Market Peso Exchange to launder funds. Such schemes involve merchants who — wittingly or not — accept payment in illicitly derived funds, often from third parties to a trade transaction, for exports of goods. In carrying out such schemes, criminal and terrorist organizations use various goods, including precious metals and automobiles. As an example of tariff-based money laundering, in May 2023, a federal judge sentenced a co-owner of Woody Toys, Inc. to 14 months in custody for participating in a scheme that laundered approximately $3 million for Mexican and Colombian drug traffickers. The plot involved foreign toy retailers using Colombian and Mexican pesos to purchase discounted U.S. dollars from currency brokers, which were then used to buy merchandise from Woody Toys. In terms of enhanced enforcement, the Department of Justice has significantly elevated tariff evasion and trade-based money laundering as priorities. In May, Justice Department Criminal Division head Matthew Galeotti identified 'trade and customs fraud, including tariff evasion' as among the 'most urgent' threats facing the country. At the same time, the federal government has increased its deployment of technologies such as blockchain and artificial intelligence in its money laundering prevention strategies. Effectively fighting trade-based money laundering and tariff fraud requires three critical elements: ongoing collaboration between nations, adequate funding and staffing for enforcement agencies, and advanced technology that can keep pace with increasingly sophisticated criminal operations. 'The challenge is significant,' David Schwartz, president and CEO of the Financial International Business Association, told me. 'We must safeguard the global financial system's credibility without hampering the legitimate international commerce that drives our interconnected economy.' The nexus between high tariffs and money laundering demands vigilance and action to confront illicit behavior — the sooner, the better.
