“Traditional automakers have a century of experience behind them, backed by vast sums of cash, massive infrastructure, and supply chains in which every efficiency has been wrung out. You’d have to be absolutely out of your mind to launch a car company at any point after the closing decades of the 20th century, during which their dominance became seemingly insurmountable … Which brings us to Tesla.” Alex Roy on Tesla’s asymmetric war against the auto industry.

+ “Imagine a coal miner. The picture in your mind is likely that of a strongly built man, with soiled clothes, black coal smudged across exposed skin, and a hard hat marred by years of work.” But that’s not what a lot of coal mining looks like these days. Instead, imagine massive machines that shave vegetation from the land, millions of pounds of explosives that blow off mountain tops, and huge cranes, called draglines, which can carry more than 100 metric tons of dirt and coal in a single scoop.”

+ Andrew Beebe onThe Death of Alternative Energy. (It’s the alternative part that’s dead…)