WIND ENERGY
Vineyard Wind wants permitting process to proceed
Vineyard Wind has notified the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management that it wants the permitting process to resume where it left off in December for a giant wind farm to be built about 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard. The developer is officially rescinding the withdrawal that it made last month of its construction and operations plan. Vineyard Wind chief executive Lars Pedersen said the developer has determined that no changes are necessary to that plan, even though the developer has chosen a larger turbine, this time to be made by General Electric. Pederson said BOEM should have enough documentation to finish its review of the Vineyard Wind 1 project, an 800-megawatt project with 62 turbines that collectively could provide enough power for more than 400,000 homes. Pedersen still hopes to obtain financing later this year, with a goal of connecting the wind farm to the grid by the end of 2023 to deliver power to Massachusetts ratepayers. Vineyard Wind is a joint venture owned by Avangrid Inc. and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners. — JON CHESTO
MEDIA
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Murdoch decries ‘woke orthodoxy’
Rupert Murdoch, the billionaire mogul behind Fox News, took issue with the silencing of debate on social media, saying censorship had hobbled discourse with “awful woke orthodoxy.” Murdoch, 89, made the rare public remarks during a brief video to accept a lifetime achievement award from the Australia Day Foundation. The clip was posted online by the Herald Sun, a Melbourne newspaper owned by the media mogul’s News Corp. The US Capitol riot on Jan. 6 was followed by a purging of the social media accounts of then-President Donald Trump and others, drawing complaints of censorship. On Monday, Twitter Inc. said it would seek to police the service more vigilantly for misinformation and introduced a new feature called Birdwatch. Fox News and other conservative outlets are under fire for fueling uncertainty about the US presidential election, which critics say contributed to the storming of the Capitol. Murdoch’s own son James Murdoch has joined the outcry, telling the Financial Times that outlets “that propagate lies to their audience have unleashed insidious and uncontrollable forces that will be with us for years.” — BLOOMBERG NEWS
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MOVIE THEATERS
AMC raises more than $900 million, avoids bankruptcy
AMC Entertainment, the world’s largest movie-theater chain, has found a winning message with deep-pocketed investors: Cinemas will recover once the pandemic is over. For about a year, the chain has battled creditors who repeatedly urged the company to file for bankruptcy in the face of a devastating global pandemic that halted moviegoing. AMC said Monday that it has raised $917 million, enough for at least the next six months. It did so by reminding “doubters” that the industry has survived existential threats before, chief executive Adam Aron said in an interview. Theaters have been decimated by the pandemic, with health officials forcing them to close and Hollywood studios delaying almost all of the potential blockbuster movies that cinemas need to recover. Streaming services like Netflix Inc., investing heavily in movies, have made it easier than ever to skip the theater and see new films at home. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
ENVIRONMENT
Ikea targets forest management
Ikea is going beyond making its Billy bookshelves environmentally sustainable, setting targets to help improve forest management and biodiversity across the globe. Having reached a goal of making more than 98 percent of wood used in its products either FSC-certified or recycled last year, the furniture giant wants to take the lead in making responsible forest management the norm. One way is to go beyond its own supply chain, working with suppliers to ensure they offer renewable production to all of their customers. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
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ENERGY
Edison in southern California to pay $2.2b to settle claims over wildfires
Edison International’s Southern California Edison utility will pay $2.2 billion to settle insurance claims for the Woolsey fire that tore through Malibu in 2018. The company also reached settlements with plaintiffs involving the 2017 Thomas and Koenigstein fires and the 2018 Montecito mudslides, it said in a statement. Edison, which did not admit wrongdoing or liability, last year reached a $360 million settlement with local government agencies that were harmed by the same fires. Utility equipment has been tied to several devastating California wildfires in recent years, saddling the state’s power companies with billions of dollars in potential liabilities and forcing its largest, PG&E Corp., into bankruptcy in 2019. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
AUTOMOTIVE
Samsung scion will not appeal court ruling sending him to prison
Samsung scion Lee Jae-yong will not appeal a court ruling that sentenced him to two and a half years in prison for bribing South Korea’s then-president for business favors. Lee’s lawyers informed reporters of the decision on Monday as prosecutors faced a deadline for filing an appeal to the Supreme Court, which would extend the legal saga over South Korea’s largest business group. They had sought a 9-year prison term for Lee, whose case highlighted often-corrupt ties between the country’s family-owned conglomerates and politicians. The bribery allegation involving Lee was a key crime in the 2016 corruption scandal that ousted Park Geun-hye from the presidency and sent her to prison. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
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AVIATION
Europe to scrutinize US jet designs following Boeing 737 Max crashes
Europe’s air-safety regulator pledged to scrutinize future US jet designs more closely and place greater emphasis on human factors as it prepares to approve the return of Boeing Co.’s 737 Max after two fatal crashes. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency will take a more active role in certification of US models, previously entrusted largely to the Federal Aviation Administration under a bilateral agreement, executive director Patrick Ky told the European Parliament on Monday. The change will also apply to planes developed in Canada and Brazil. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
ELECTRIC VEHICLES
Shell buys provider of charging points in Europe
Oil and gas giant Shell is buying ubitricity, a major provider of electric vehicle charging points in Europe. Shell said Monday that it would buy a 100 percent stake in the Berlin-based startup, without disclosing the price. The deal, which is subject to regulatory approval, will give Shell ownership of the biggest public EV charging network in Britain with more than 2,700 charge points. Ubitricity also has smaller public networks in Germany and France, and has installed over 1,500 charge points for fleet customers across Europe. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
WORKPLACE
Report says a third of workers will continue to work from home after restrictions end
The pandemic has probably boosted remote working permanently, according to Deloitte’s annual Readiness Report, which suggests a third of employees will work from home even after restrictions end. The survey of more than 2,000 managers and public-sector business leaders worldwide highlights how investments that allow home-working will be increasingly important. Just 22 percent of respondents said their organizations had the technologies they needed before the pandemic; 42 percent said they developed them out of necessity during the crisis. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
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