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JetZero plans to build $4.7B plant in North Carolina, aims to create 14,500 jobs

SUMMARY:

  • JetZero to build first manufacturing plant in Greensboro, NC
  • Project expected to create 14,500 jobs within a decade
  • Described as North Carolina’s largest-ever job commitment
  • Incentive packages tied to the deal extend into the 2060s

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) — JetZero Inc. announced plans Thursday to build its first manufacturing plant for a next-generation passenger jet in central North Carolina, a project that if successful would create more than 14,500 jobs there in a decade.

The California-based startup intends to build the factory at Greensboro’s airport, investing $4.7 billion. The planned hirings from 2027 through 2036 would be the largest job commitment in North Carolina history, according to Gov. Josh Stein.

The company previously identified Greensboro as one of three finalists for the factory to build its fixed-wing — also known as all-wing or blended-wing — Z4 aircraft, which JetZero says will be 50% more fuel-efficient than traditional tube-and-wing airliners.

JetZero has said it’s already received about $300 million in investment in the Z4 project, including a U.S. Air Force grant to build and fly a demonstrator model by 2027.

United Airlines and Alaska Airlines also are project investors and have made conditional purchase agreements for their fleets, the company said. JetZero aims for the planes to go into service in the early 2030s, with a goal of completing 20 airplanes per month at full production.

Stein, on hand with JetZero executives and other officials for the formal announcement at Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro, cited North Carolina’s robust aerospace industry and the first manned powered flights at Kitty Hawk by the Wright brothers in 1903.

“North Carolina is the perfect location,” Stein said. “North Carolina was first in flight. We are also the future of flight.”

The jobs would pay minimum average salaries of more than $89,000, according to the state Department of Commerce, which provided details of the project earlier Thursday to a state committee that awards economic incentives.

State and local monetary and training incentives for JetZero and the project described at the committee meeting could exceed $2.3 billion by the 2060s if investment and job-creation thresholds and other requirements are met.

A portion of state incentives awarded by the committee — more than $1 billion over 37 years — is based on a percentage of income taxes withheld from plant workers’ paychecks. The incentives also include up to $784 million from Guilford County and Greensboro and $450 million from the General Assembly to help with infrastructure, officials said. The project includes a research facility for composite structures.

A commerce department official said that JetZero, headquartered in Long Beach, California, looked for over a year for a plant location, examining 25 sites in 17 states.

JetZero, currently with just 225 workers, enters a jet purchasing market dominated by industry behemoths U.S.-based Boeing and European Airbus.

“We have already shown strong commercial interest and momentum to meet the real airline demand for this aircraft,” CEO Tom O’Leary said. “So this is more than just a factory. It’s a launchpad for a new chapter of American aerospace.”

While a variant of the Z4 would have tanker and transport uses in the , JetZero has said that it would focus first on building a commercial jetliner with about 250 seats and a range of 5,000 nautical miles.

The 5-year-old company says the plane’s shape will reduce drag and the mounting of engines on the top and back of the plane will make it much quieter than traditional airliners. The Z4 would run on conventional jet fuel but could be converted to hydrogen fuel, according to JetZero.

JetZero says Z4 travelers will board through larger doors and into shorter but wider cabins, and aisles will be less congested as bathrooms will be far away from galleys where meals are prepared.

“It’s going to deliver a better passenger experience than you’ve ever had before on any other plane,” O’Leary said.

The state is already home to more than 400 aerospace companies. And the Piedmont Triad airport has emerged as an industry hot spot, with Honda Aircraft placing its headquarters there and Boom Supersonic building its first full-scale manufacturing plant for next-generation supersonic passenger jets.

The central location and easy access to interstates also lured Toyota to build an electric battery plant in adjoining Randolph County.

North Carolina’s previous largest project, measured by employment, was revealed in 2022, when Vietnamese automaker VinFast announced plans to build an electric vehicle manufacturing plant in Chatham County, promising 7,500 jobs.

Army official says Chinese mineral shortage could impact military equipment

SUMMARY:

• Rare minerals, magnets and metals supplied by China are in shortage, affecting manufacturers of equipment
• In response, the U.S. may need to issue military equipment from a stockpile maintained for emergencies, an Army official says
• President and Chinese officials have agreed to “framework” for deal expected to speed up mineral exports from China, but critics say deal may not last

A growing shortage of rare minerals, magnets and metals from China needed for manufacturing military warfighting equipment could lead to the pulling military equipment from a stockpile maintained for emergencies, an Army lieutenant general said Wednesday at a Richmond symposium hosted by the National Industrial Association.

A panel of senior military leaders who specialize in and supplying warfighting materials to U.S. military branches said cuts in defense staffing and spending are causing them to reassess priorities, although they do not expect a decrease in demand for equipment produced by private sector contractors, including those in Virginia.

Speaking at the NDIA’s annual DLA Supply Chain Alliance Symposium & Exhibition, a multiday event held this year in downtown Richmond, leaders from the , the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Army, Air Force and the Defense Contract Management Agency addressed supply chain challenges as well as the changing nature of global warfare.

One particular area of concern is rare earth minerals and magnets needed for drones, vehicles and tech equipment, because China has a virtual monopoly on the export market and mineral refining capabilities, and supplies have been delayed recently by President ‘s trade war with Beijing. Although the export delay is most affecting U.S. automakers, it also impacts the military and its commercial equipment manufacturers.

The Defense Logistics Agency, headquartered at in Fairfax County, manages a strategic stockpile of military equipment, said Army Lt. Gen. Mark Simerly, the DLA’s director, with a certain level of inventory maintained in case of emergency. “We’ve acquired this capability over time. We maintain it, manage it, make sure that it’s in a usable state, but otherwise we don’t issue [equipment] out,” he said.

Now, however, “we might issue it to our customers in the industrial base or to our commercial manufacturers, as well, because of the shortfalls,” Simerly said. “We have to issue those items rather than just hold those items, because we’re approaching some periods of risk and manufacturing capability of critical commodities that we just can’t obtain, in part because we don’t either have the source of supply or, more importantly, we don’t have the refining capability in the U.S.”

The shortage may not reach that point, though. After two days of talks in London, Trump and Chinese officials announced they have agreed to a “framework” to speed up China’s exports of seven critical rare earths and associated products that automakers and other manufacturers rely on.

Trump, in exchange, agreed to back off on blocking Chinese university students’ U.S. visas, the Associated Press reported.

However, Veronique de Rugy, senior research fellow at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center, dismissed the London truce as “a handshake deal … It can change at any time.”

Simerly added that the shortage of rare earth minerals and magnets is “really kind of an enduring challenge that may be made more acute by recent events, but it’s not created by these recent events alone,” referring to Trump’s trade war with China. He also noted that the DLA has begun mining discarded materials, “things that are in the disposal process,” and providing them to manufacturers.

“So, for instance, any old sites that are being demilitarized, when they get turned into DLA from the services, we’re able to … capture germanium as an example, or titanium,” and use it for additive manufacturing, Simerly said.

Asked about Virginia’s shipbuilders and defense contractors and the impact of federal spending cuts and resulting private sector layoffs and furloughs, Simerly said, “That’s mostly an internal discussion. We are still going to have demands upon industry. We’re still going to have demands upon our partners in advisory roles, many of which operate in this state. So we expect the demands to meet future requirements for readiness … to continue to grow.”

He added that he doesn’t expect DLA’s demands on private-sector defense businesses in Virginia to change a great deal despite federal spending cuts, and layoffs of federal civilian workers has not hit his agency particularly hard.

“We’re spread out in 48 different states and 22 different countries,” Simerly said, and many of the people in eliminated jobs have taken voluntary retirements.

In February, the Pentagon proposed cutting $50 billion out of its annual budget over the next five years, or about 8% of its $800 billion budget, but new budget documents indicate that the DOD intends to request about $205 billion in funding for fiscal year 2026, about 18% more than in fiscal 2025, Breaking Defense reported this week.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

A look at Boeing’s recent troubles after Air India crash

SUMMARY:

  • Air India crashed after takeoff in Ahmedabad, killing passengers
  • First fatal crash involving the Dreamliner since its 2009 launch
  • Boeing faces scrutiny after past crashes and door plug failure
  • Financial losses total over $35B since 2019 amid strikes and delivery delays

The crash of a Boeing 787 passenger jet in India minutes after takeoff on Thursday is putting the spotlight back on a beleaguered manufacturer though it was not immediately clear why the plane crashed.

The Air India 787 went down in the northwestern city of Ahmedabad with more than 240 people aboard shortly after takeoff, authorities said. It was the first fatal crash since the plane, also known as the Dreamliner, went into service in 2009, according to the Aviation Safety Network database. Boeing shares fell more than 4% in afternoon trading.

The 787 was the first airliner to make extensive use of lithium ion batteries, which are lighter, recharge faster and can hold more energy than other types of batteries. In 2013 the 787 fleet was temporarily grounded because of overheating of its lithium-ion batteries, which in some cases sparked fires.

737 Max

The Max version of Boeing’s best-selling 737 airplane has been the source of persistent troubles for Boeing after two of the jets crashed. The crashes, one in Indonesia in 2018 and another in Ethiopia in 2019, killed 346.

The problem stemmed from a sensor providing faulty readings that pushed the nose down, leaving pilots unable to regain control. After the second crash, Max jets were grounded worldwide until the company redesigned the system.

Last month, the Justice Department reached a deal to allow Boeing to avoid criminal prosecution for allegedly misleading U.S. regulators about the Max before the two crashes.

Worries about the plane flared up again after a door plug blew off a Max operated by Alaska Airlines, leading regulators to cap Boeing’s production at 38 jets per month.

Financial woes

Boeing posted a loss of $11.8 billion in 2024, bringing its total losses since 2019 to more than $35 billion.

The company’s financial problems were compounded by a strike by machinists who assemble the airplanes plane at its factories in Renton and Everett, Washington, which halted production at those facilities and hampered Boeing’s delivery capability.

For the first three months of 2025, Boeing reported a narrower loss of $31 million compared with the previous year. CEO Kelly Ortberg said Boeing made progress on stabilizing operations during the quarter.

Orders and deliveries

The stepped-up government scrutiny and the workers’ strike resulted in Boeing’s aircraft deliveries sliding last year.

Boeing said it supplied 348 jetliners in 2024, which was a third fewer than the 528 that it reported for the previous year.

The company delivered less than half the number of commercial aircraft to customers than its main rival Airbus, which reported delivering 766 commercial jets in 2023.

Still, Boeing’s troubles haven’t turned off airline customers from buying its jets. Last month the company secured big orders from two Middle Eastern customers. The deals included a $96 billion order for 787 and 777X jets from Qatar, which it said was the biggest order for 787s and wide body jets in the company’s.

Billy Long confirmed as IRS chief despite past opposition

SUMMARY:

  • confirmed by Senate as new (53–44 vote)
  • Long previously sought to abolish the IRS while in Congress
  • Critics cite his links to pandemic and donations
  • IRS gains permanent leader after months of acting commissioners

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former U.S. Rep. Billy Long of Missouri was confirmed on Thursday to lead the Internal Revenue Service, giving the beleaguered agency he once sought to abolish a permanent commissioner after months of acting leaders and massive staffing cuts that have threatened to derail next year’s tax filing season.

The Senate confirmed Long on a 53-44 vote despite Democrats’ concerns about the Republican’s past work for a firm that pitched a fraud-ridden coronavirus pandemic-era tax break and about campaign contributions he received after nominated him to serve as IRS commissioner.

While in Congress, where he served from 2011 to 2023, Long sponsored legislation to get rid of the IRS, the agency he is now tasked with leading. A former auctioneer, Long has no background in tax administration.

Long will take over an IRS undergoing massive change, including layoffs and voluntary retirements of tens of thousands of workers and accusations that then-Trump adviser Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency mishandled sensitive taxpayer data. Unions and advocacy organizations have sued to block DOGE’s access to the information.

The IRS was one of the highest-profile agencies still without a Senate-confirmed leader. Before Long’s confirmation, the IRS shuffled through four acting leaders, including one who resigned over a deal between the IRS and the Department of Homeland Security to share immigrants’ tax data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and another whose appointment led to a fight between Musk and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

After leaving Congress to mount an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate, Long worked with a firm that distributed the pandemic-era employee retention tax credit. That tax credit program was eventually shut down after then-IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel determined that it was fraudulent.

Democrats called for a criminal investigation into Long’s connections to other alleged tax credit loopholes. The lawmakers allege that firms connected to Long duped investors into spending millions of dollars to purchase fake tax credits.

Long appeared before the Senate Finance Committee last month and denied any wrongdoing related to his involvement in the tax credit scheme.

Ahead of the confirmation vote, Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, sent a letter to chief of staff Susie Wiles blasting the requisite FBI background check conducted on Long as a political appointee as inadequate.

“These issues were not adequately investigated,” Wyden wrote. “In fact, the FBI’s investigation, a process dictated by the White House, seemed designed to avoid substantively addressing any of these concerning public reports. It’s almost as if the FBI is unable to read the newspaper.”

Democratic lawmakers have also written to Long and his associated firms detailing concerns with what they call unusually timed contributions made to Long’s defunct 2022 Senate campaign committee shortly after Trump nominated him.

The IRS faces an uncertain future under Long. Tax experts have voiced concerns that the 2026 filing season could be hampered by the departure of so many tax collection workers. In April, The Associated Press reported that the IRS planned to cut as many as 20,000 staffers — up to 25% of the workforce. An IRS representative on Thursday confirmed the IRS had shed about that many workers but said the cuts amounted to approximately the same number of IRS jobs added under the Biden administration.

The fate of the Direct File program, the free electronic tax return filing system developed during President Joe Biden’s Democratic administration, is also unclear. Republican lawmakers and commercial tax preparation companies had complained it was a waste of taxpayer money because free filing programs already exist, although they are hard to use. Long said during his confirmation hearing that it would be one of the first programs that come up for discussion if he were confirmed.

Long is not the only Trump appointee to support dismantling an agency he was assigned to manage.

Linda McMahon, the current education secretary, has repeatedly said she is trying to put herself out of a job by closing the federal department and transferring its work to the states. Rick Perry, Trump’s energy secretary during his first term, called for abolishing the Energy Department during his bid for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination.

USAA to expand in Chesapeake, add 500+ jobs

Texas-based company announced Thursday that it has purchased a larger office space in and will add more than 500 employees in the area over the next two years.

Founded in 1922 by a group of officers and headquartered in San Antonio, USAA provides , and retirement services for 14 million U.S. military members, plus veterans and their family members. USAA has offices in eight U.S. cities and three overseas locations and employs more than 38,000 people worldwide.

USAA’s new Chesapeake offices at 1341 Crossways Blvd. will span nearly 200,000 square feet and feature a claims technical training center with vehicles on-site for hands-on learning, a cafeteria and other dining options, a fitness center and a market.

The new office is a roughly five-minute drive from USAA’s current Chesapeake location at 520 Independence Parkway, which has only 81,478 rentable square feet.

The company says the move will enhance its service capabilities and work environment, as well as accommodate its expanding membership.

“We are thrilled to be expanding our presence in Chesapeake,” said Randy Termeer, president of USAA Property and Casualty Insurance Group, in a statement. “With the addition of 1 million new members last year, it is crucial that USAA has the space and facilities to ensure employees can continue to deliver the exceptional service members expect and deserve.”

USAA believes its presence in Chesapeake will allow it to better engage with the military community and attract military personnel transitioning to civilian life.

“USAA is honored to be a part of Chesapeake’s community and to serve the military families who call this region home,” said Termeer. “Our new facility will allow us to remain a top employer in the Hampton Roads region for dedicated teammates and to consistently deliver exceptional value to our members.”

USAA plans to begin working in the new space in March 2026. It plans to vacate its current building after the relocation.

Financial terms of the office space purchase were not disclosed.

 

New Virginia Beach economic development chief resigns suddenly

Virginia Beach officials confirmed that the city’s new director, , resigned Wednesday after serving less than four months in the post.

Green’s marks the second time in a row ‘s economic development director has departed after a short tenure. Deputy City Manager Amanda Jarratt, once again, is serving in the interim role, the city said in a statement Thursday.

“Christian Green put in his notice of resignation on June 11; specific details are not available to the public as this is a personnel matter in accordance with HR policy,” the city said in its statement. “We can confirm, in collaboration with Mr. Green, that he elected to resign from his position due to pressing family matters. Christian is leaving on good terms with the City, and we wish him well in his future endeavors.”

Virginia Beach City Council Member Barbara Henley said the city will likely do a national search for a new economic development director.

“I want someone who’s very energetic, particularly about the issues that we’re looking at in Virginia Beach now with sports tourism; that’s my particular area of interest,” Henley said. “And you know, I really want someone who’s going to be able to help us move these things forward.”

Henley said she didn’t have too many interactions with Green during his brief tenure with the city, although he attended one of her monthly forums. To her understanding, she said, Green’s departure was due to family issues.

Green came aboard from Georgia, where he was director of economic development for the city of Stonecrest, on Feb. 24, and replaced Charles E. “Chuck” Rigney, who resigned from the job in July 2024. In an August 2024 article in The Virginian-Pilot, Rigney said he requested an audited review following questions about travel expenses.

Rigney had previously served as interim director for about eight months after the departure of Taylor Adams, who left in 2023 to take an economic development job in Nevada.

Adams became economic development director in 2018 (initially in interim capacity), after his longtime predecessor Warren Harris abruptly resigned amid an audit of his spending of city funds. The Pilot reported that a Virginia Beach Circuit Court grand jury indicted Harris in 2019, and in 2021 he pled guilty to four counts of felony embezzlement.

According to The Pilot, in February 2022, Harris received a suspended jail sentence, not having to serve time in jail, but being required to repay the nearly $80,000 he wrongly charged taxpayers on a city credit card. He had largely used the money on extravagant meals and trips and other personal expenditures.

U.S. jobless claims steady amid trade war uncertainty

SUMMARY:

  • unchanged at 248,000 for the week ending June 7
  • Total unemployment benefits recipients rise to 1.96 million
  • Claims remain high, reflecting uncertainty over trade wars
  • Analysts had predicted a slight drop in new claims

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. filings for jobless benefits were unchanged last week, remaining at the higher end of recent ranges as uncertainty over the impact of trade wars lingers.

New applications for jobless benefits numbered 248,000 for the week ending June 7, the Labor Department said Thursday. Analysts had forecast 244,000 new applications.

A week ago, there were 248,000 jobless claim applications, which was the most since early October and a sign that layoffs could be trending higher.

Weekly applications for jobless benefits are considered representative of U.S. layoffs and have mostly bounced around a historically healthy range between 200,000 and 250,000 since COVID-19 throttled the economy five years ago, wiping out millions of jobs.

However, the past three weeks, layoffs have been at the higher end of that range, raising some concern from analysts.

“There are early warning signs in the labor market,” said Navy Federal Credit Union’s chief economist, Heather Long. “If layoffs worsen this summer, it will heighten fears of a recession and consumer spending pullback.”

In reporting their latest earnings, many companies have either trimmed their sales and profit expectations for 2025 or not issued guidance at all, often citing ‘s dizzying rollout of tariff announcements.

Though has paused or dialed down many of his tariff threats, concerns remain that a tariff-induced global economic slowdown could sabotage what’s been a robust U.S. labor market.

Chair Jerome Powell has said the potential for both higher unemployment and inflation are elevated, an unusual combination that complicates the central bank’s dual mandate of controlling prices and keeping unemployment low. Powell said that have dampened consumer and business sentiment.

In early May, the Federal Reserve held its benchmark lending rate at 4.3% for the third straight meeting after cutting it three times at the end of last year.

Last week, the Labor Department reported that U.S. employers slowed their hiring in May, but still added a solid 139,000 jobs despite uncertainty over Trump’s trade wars.

In a separate report last week, Labor reported that U.S. job openings rose unexpectedly in April, but other data suggested that Americans are less optimistic about the labor market.

The report showed that the number of Americans quitting their jobs — a sign of confidence in their prospects — fell, while layoffs ticked higher. In another sign the job market has cooled from the hiring boom of 2021-2023, the government reported one job for every unemployed person. As recently as December 2022, there were two vacancies for every jobless American.

The government has estimated that the U.S. economy shrank at a 0.2% annual pace in the first quarter of 2025, a slight upgrade from its first estimate. Growth was slowed by a surge in imports as companies in the U.S. tried to bring in foreign goods before Trump’s massive tariffs went into effect.

Trump is attempting to reshape the global economy by dramatically increasing import taxes to rejuvenate the U.S. manufacturing sector. The president has also tried to drastically downsize the federal government workforce, but many of those cuts are being challenged in the courts and Congress.

On Wednesday, Google confirmed that it had offered buyouts to another swath of its workforce in a fresh round of cost-cutting ahead of a court decision that could order a breakup of its internet empire.

Other companies that have announced job cuts this year include Procter & Gamble, Workday, Dow, CNN, Starbucks, Southwest Airlines, Microsoft and Facebook parent company Meta.

The government’s report on Thursday also showed that the four-week average of jobless claims, which evens out some of the weekly ups and downs during more volatile stretches, rose by 5,000 to 240,250.

The total number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits for the week of May 31 jumped by 54,000 to 1.96 million, the most since November of 2021.

Trump to block California’s gas car ban, emissions rules

WASHINGTON (AP) — President is expected to sign a measure Thursday that blocks California’s first-in-the-nation rule banning the sale of new by 2035, a official told The Associated Press.

The resolution Trump plans to sign, which Congress approved last month, aims to quash the country’s most aggressive attempt to phase out gas-powered cars. He also plans to approve measures to overturn state policies curbing tailpipe emissions in certain vehicles and -forming from trucks.

The timing of the signing was confirmed Wednesday by a White House official who spoke on condition of anonymity to share plans not yet public.

The development comes as the Republican president is mired in a clash with California’s Democratic governor, , over Trump’s move to deploy troops to Los Angeles in response to . It’s the latest in an ongoing battle between the and heavily Democratic California over everything from tariffs to the rights of LGBTQ+ youth and funding for electric vehicle chargers.

“If it’s a day ending in Y, it’s another day of Trump’s war on California,” Newsom spokesperson Daniel Villaseñor said in an email. “We’re fighting back.”

According to the White House official, Trump is expected to sign resolutions that block California’s rule phasing out gas-powered cars and ending the sale of new ones by 2035. He will also kill rules that phase out the sale of medium- and heavy-duty diesel vehicles and cut tailpipe emissions from trucks.

The president is scheduled to sign the measures and make remarks during an event at the White House on Thursday morning.

Newsom, who is considered a likely 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, and California officials contend that what the federal government is doing is illegal and said the state plans to sue.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator are expected to attend, along with members of Congress and representatives from the energy, trucking and gas station industries.

The signings come as Trump has pledged to revive American auto manufacturing and boost oil and gas drilling.

The move will also come a day after the Environmental Protection Agency proposed repealing rules that limit greenhouse gas emissions from power plants fueled by coal and natural gas. Zeldin said it would remove billions of dollars in costs for industry and help “unleash” American energy.

California, which has some of the nation’s worst air pollution, has been able to seek waivers for decades from the , allowing it to adopt stricter emissions standards than the federal government.

In his first term, Trump revoked California’s ability to enforce its standards, but President Joe Biden reinstated it in 2022. Trump has not yet sought to revoke it again.

Republicans have long criticized those waivers and earlier this year opted to use the Congressional Review Act, a law aimed at improving congressional oversight of actions by federal agencies, to try to block the rules.

That’s despite a finding from the U.S. Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan congressional watchdog, that California’s standards cannot legally be blocked using the Congressional Review Act. The Senate parliamentarian agreed with that finding.

California, which makes up roughly 11% of the U.S. car market, has significant power to sway trends in the auto industry. About a dozen states signed on to adopt California’s rule phasing out the sale of new gas-powered cars.

The National Automobile Dealers Association supported the federal government’s move to block California’s ban on gas-powered cars, saying Congress should decide on such a national issue, not the state.

The American Trucking Associations said the rules were not feasible and celebrated Congress’ move to block them.

Chris Spear, the CEO of the American Trucking Associations, said in a statement Wednesday: “This is not the United States of California.”

It was also applauded by Detroit automaker General Motors, which said it will “help align emissions standards with today’s market realities.”

“We have long advocated for one national standard that will allow us to stay competitive, continue to invest in U.S. innovation, and offer customer choice across the broadest lineup of gas-powered and electric vehicles,” the company said in a statement.

Dan Becker with the Center for Biological Diversity, in anticipation of the president signing the measures, said earlier Thursday that the move would be “Trump’s latest betrayal of democracy.”

“Signing this bill is a flagrant abuse of the law to reward Big Oil and Big Auto corporations at the expense of everyday people’s health and their wallets,” Becker said in a statement.

Wall Street drifts as Oracle rallies and Boeing sags

SUMMARY:

  • gains 0.2%, nearing all-time high
  • shows wholesale prices cooler than expected
  • Fed rate cut expectations grow despite weak jobless data
  • Oracle stock climbs after strong earnings and growth forecast

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes are drifting on Thursday following another encouraging update on inflation.

The S&P 500 was 0.2% higher in midday trading and sitting less than 2% below its record. The Industrial Average was down 18 points, or less than 0.1%, as of 11 a.m. Eastern time, and the composite was 0.2% higher.

Oracle pushed upward on the market after jumping 13.2%. The tech giant delivered stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected, and CEO Safra Catz said it expects revenue growth “will be dramatically higher” in its upcoming fiscal year.

That helped offset a 5.6% loss for Boeing after Air India said a London-bound flight crashed shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad airport Thursday with 242 passengers and crew onboard. The Dreamliner crashed into a residential area near the airport five minutes after taking off. The cause of the crash wasn’t immediately known.

Stocks were broadly getting some help from easing Treasury yields in the bond market following the latest update on inflation. Thursday’s said inflation at the wholesale level wasn’t as bad last month as economists expected, and it followed a report on Wednesday saying something similar about the inflation that U.S. consumers are feeling.

Wall Street took it as a signal that the will have more leeway to cut later this year in order to give the economy a boost.

The Federal Reserve has been hesitant to lower interest rates, and it’s been on hold so far this year after cutting at the end of last year, because it’s been waiting to see how much President ‘s tariffs will hurt the economy and raise inflation. While lower rates can goose the economy by encouraging businesses and households to borrow, they can also accelerate inflation.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.38% from 4.41% late Wednesday and from roughly 4.80% early this year.

Besides the inflation data, a separate report on jobless claims also helped to weigh on Treasury yields. It said slightly more U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week than economists expected, and the total number remained at the highest level in eight months.

“We believe that were it not for the uncertainty caused by the tariffs, the combined information coming from the inflation and labor-market data would have compelled the Fed to have resumed cutting its policy rate by now,” according to Thierry Wizman, a strategist at Macquarie.

The Fed’s next meeting on interest rates is scheduled for next week, but the nearly unanimous expectation on Wall Street is that it will stand pat again. Traders are betting it’s likely to begin cutting in September, according to data from CME Group.

‘s on-and-off tariffs have raised worries about higher inflation and a possible recession, which sent the S&P 500 roughly 20% below its record a couple months ago. But stocks have since rallied nearly all the way back on hopes that Trump would lower his tariffs after reaching trade deals with other countries.

Many of Trump’s tariffs are on hold at the moment to give time for negotiations, but Trump added to the uncertainty late Wednesday when he suggested the United States could send letters to other countries at some point “saying this is the deal. You can take it or you can leave it.”

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed across Europe and Asia amid mostly modest movements. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was an outlier, and it tumbled 1.4% to give back some of its strong recent gains.

Hong Kong’s index is still up nearly 20% for the year so far, towering over the the U.S. ‘s gain of less than 3%.

___

AP Writers Matt Ott, Elaine Kurtenbach and Seung Min Kim contributed.

Trump EPA moves to repeal climate rules that limit greenhouse gas emissions from US power plants

SUMMARY:

  • proposes to eliminate greenhouse gas limits on coal, gas plants
  • Mercury and toxic pollutant regulations also face weakening
  • Administrator says rollback will save trillions, boost energy
  • Environmental groups condemn the move and plan legal challenges

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday proposed repealing rules that limit planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from power plants fueled by coal and , an action that Administrator Lee Zeldin said would remove billions of dollars in costs for industry and help “unleash” American energy.

The EPA also proposed weakening a regulation that requires power plants to reduce emissions of mercury and other toxic pollutants that can harm the brain development of young children and contribute to heart attacks and other health problems in adults.

The rollbacks are meant to fulfill Republican ‘s repeated pledge to “ unleash American energy ” and make it more affordable for Americans to power their homes and operate businesses.

If approved and made final, the plans would reverse efforts by Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration to address climate change and improve conditions in areas heavily burdened by industrial pollution, mostly in low-income and majority Black or Hispanic communities.

The power plant rules are among about 30 that Zeldin targeted in March when he announced what he called the “most consequential day of deregulation in American history.”

Zeldin said Wednesday the new rules would help end what he called the Biden and Obama administrations’ “war on so much of our U.S. domestic energy supply.”

“The American public spoke loudly and clearly last November,” he added in a speech at EPA headquarters. “They wanted to make sure that … no matter what agency anybody might be confirmed to lead, we are finding opportunities to pursue common-sense, pragmatic solutions that will help reduce the cost of living … create jobs and usher in a golden era of American prosperity.”

Environmental and public health groups called the rollbacks dangerous and vowed to challenge the rules in court.

Dr. Lisa Patel, a pediatrician and executive director of the Medical Society Consortium on Climate & Health, called the proposals “yet another in a series of attacks” by the on the nation’s “health, our children, our climate and the basic idea of clean air and water.”

She called it “unconscionable to think that our country would move backwards on something as common sense as protecting children from mercury and our planet from worsening hurricanes, wildfires, floods and poor air quality driven by climate change.”

“Ignoring the immense harm to public health from power plant pollution is a clear violation of the law,” added Manish Bapna, president and CEO of the Natural Resources Council. “If EPA finalizes a slapdash effort to repeal those rules, we’ll see them in court.”

The EPA-targeted rules could prevent an estimated 30,000 deaths and save $275 billion each year they are in effect, according to an Associated Press examination that included the agency’s own prior assessments and a wide range of other research.

It’s by no means guaranteed that the rules will be entirely eliminated — they can’t be changed without going through a federal rulemaking process that can take years and requires public comment and scientific justification.

Even a partial dismantling of the rules would mean more pollutants such as , mercury and lead — and especially more tiny airborne particles that can lodge in lungs and cause health problems, the AP analysis found. It would also mean higher emissions of , driving Earth’s warming to deadlier levels.

Biden, a Democrat, had made fighting climate change a hallmark of his presidency. Coal-fired power plants would be forced to capture smokestack emissions or shut down under a strict EPA rule issued last year. Then-EPA head Michael Regan said the power plant rules would reduce pollution and improve public health while supporting a reliable, long-term supply of electricity.

The power sector is the nation’s second-largest contributor to climate change, after transportation.

In its proposed regulation, the EPA argues that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from fossil fuel-fired power plants “do not contribute significantly to dangerous pollution” or climate change and therefore do not meet a threshold under the Clean Air Act for regulatory action. Greenhouse gas emissions from coal and gas-fired plants “are a small and decreasing part of global emissions,” the EPA said, adding: “This Administration’s priority is to promote the public health or welfare through energy dominance and independence secured by using fossil fuels to generate power.”

The Clean Air Act allows the EPA to limit emissions from power plants and other industrial sources if those emissions significantly contribute to air pollution that endangers public health.

If fossil fuel plants no longer meet the EPA’s threshold, the Trump administration may later argue that other pollutants from other industrial sectors don’t either and therefore shouldn’t be regulated, said Meghan Greenfield, a former EPA and Justice Department lawyer now in private practice at Jenner & Block LLP.

The EPA proposal “has the potential to have much, much broader implications,” she said.

Zeldin, a former New York congressman, said the Biden-era rules were designed to “suffocate our economy in order to protect the environment,” with the intent to regulate the coal industry “out of existence” and make it “disappear.”

National Mining Association president and CEO Rich Nolan applauded the new rules, saying they remove “deliberately unattainable standards” for clean air while “leveling the playing field for reliable power sources, instead of stacking the deck against them.”

But Dr. Howard Frumkin, a former director of the National Center for Environmental Health and professor emeritus at the University of Washington School of Public Health, said Zeldin and Trump were trying to deny reality.

“The world is round, the sun rises in the east, coal- and gas-fired power plants contribute significantly to climate change, and climate change increases the risk of heat waves, catastrophic storms and many other health threats,” Frumkin said. “These are indisputable facts. If you torpedo regulations on power plant greenhouse gas emissions, you torpedo the health and well-being of the American public and contribute to leaving a world of risk and suffering to our children and grandchildren.”

A paper published earlier this year in the journal Science found the Biden-era rules could reduce U.S. power sector carbon emissions by 73% to 86% below 2005 levels by 2040, compared with a reduction of 60% to 83% without the rules.

“Carbon emissions in the power sector drop at a faster rate with the (Biden-era) rules in place than without them,” said Aaron Bergman, a fellow at Resources for the Future, a nonprofit research institution and a co-author of the Science paper. The Biden rule also would result in “significant reductions in sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, pollutants that harm human health,” he said.