| By Saijel Kishan America's biggest factory boom in generations is running up against a shortage of skilled workers. As manufacturers and technical colleges race to train employees for cleantech plants sprouting up across the country, one group is emerging to help fill the skills gap: military veterans. Former Marines, Army avionics engineers and Navy technicians once deployed in combat zones including Iraq and Afghanistan are finding second careers at factories making electric vehicles, batteries and solar cells. They're combining old-fashioned military discipline with new skills honed during active duty such as operating robots and drones. "Mission-focused, adaptable, strong work ethic, ability to work under pressure and overcome adversity," says Toyota Motor Corp.'s Jamie Hall, who oversees the hiring of thousands of workers at a new EV battery plant in North Carolina. "These folks have a lot of training and are prepared for those things." The facility, some 70 miles northwest of the US's biggest military base, Fort Liberty, has already hired about 90 vets.  Illustration: Kimberly Elliot for Bloomberg Businessweek The EV and battery industries are a big draw for vets as manufacturers prepare to open dozens of plants in the coming years, even as they face a slowdown in US sales. In Kentucky, Ascend Elements Inc. is building a $1 billion plant to process materials extracted from spent batteries so they can be used in new ones. About a third of the 70 or so workers recruited for the site so far are ex-military, including Cory Radcliffe, who spent more than three years in the US Marine Corps' unmanned aerial systems task force. The 36-year-old says the skills he picked up working on military hardware are useful in his present role as construction manager, helping map out machinery and equipment installations on a site 20 miles away from his former base, Fort Campbell. "How do they interconnect, how do they interact?" says Radcliffe. "It's constant troubleshooting." The so-called Battery Belt, which runs from Michigan down to the Carolinas and Arizona, is a hotbed of building activity, thanks to federal incentives designed to speed America's transition away from fossil fuels. The industry faces "significant" workforce shortages and skills gaps, with engineers, technicians and assemblers among those in the shortest supply, according to a report by the nonprofit Center for Automotive Research. Meanwhile some 200,000 personnel leave the military annually, according to the Department of Labor, with their median age just 27 years old.  Ascend Elements' $1 billion battery extraction plant in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Source: Ascend Elements Historically, US servicemen and women haven't had a difficult time finding employment after reentering civilian life. According to data compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 70% of military vets wind up in private-sector jobs, led by manufacturing and business services, while almost a quarter go on to work for the government. Hiring in the battery industry is expected to rise by more than a fifth from 2023 to 2026, according to a survey by the Center for Automotive Research. Plant owners also face stiff competition for vets from military contractors, as the US modernizes its tanks, submarines and aircraft, says Tim Best, who runs RecruitMilitary, a hiring firm in Virginia. Still, the cultural shift from military to corporate life isn't without its bumps. Andrew Walther, who was deployed in Iraq and oversaw soldiers doing such things as handling explosives and fortifying defenses for Army bases, says one of the challenges was acclimating to decisions driven by consensus. It took him a year into his job at Ascend before he got used to it, the 29-year-old says, though now he sees the benefits: "It's more collaborative, my voice is heard more, which is just rewarding." Read and share a full version of this story on Bloomberg.com. For unlimited access to climate and energy news and original data and graphics reporting, please subscribe. -
Peter Jackson is backing the dodo de-extinction startup. The latest wealthy celebrities to throw support behind Colossal Biosciences are the film director and his partner, who invested $10 million in the company known for trying to bring back the dodo and woolly mammoth -
Lower interest rates may not revive 'failing' green bets. That's the view from Barry Norris, founder and chief investment officer of UK hedge fund Argonaut Capital Partners. Norris says it's wrong to expect that a cycle of interest-rate cuts will suddenly revive the green transition. -
A cruise operator was dinged for greenwashing. MSC Cruises should no longer make claims that it "is making great strides to be net zero by 2050" or that liquefied natural gas is a clean shipping fuel, according to a Sept. 30 verdict by the Dutch Advertising Code Committee. -
BlocPower lost its chief executive. The New York-based climate startup, is charting a new course after co-founder and CEO Donnel Baird stepped down. BlocPower faced issues with rolling out its electrification and jobs programs in the cities it partnered with. -
Ford is asking the UK for EV subsidies... "There just isn't customer demand to meet the objectives," says Lisa Brankin, chair of Ford UK and the company's managing director for Britain and Ireland. "If it's going to be a success, we need intervention and the government to do something." -
...and giving away electric car chargers Between Oct. 8 and Dec. 31, Ford is offering free home chargers and installation to buyers of its Mustang Mach-E, F-150 Lightning pickup truck and E-Transit cargo van in a bid to boost sales and overcome shoppers' range anxiety.  Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg Most public EV chargers sit in parking lots, often three or four machines along the side of a hotel or grocery store. Drivers are exposed to the elements and — unless they need to go shopping — are basically stuck hanging out in their cars while filling their batteries. But charging companies and automakers increasingly see a need for stations with amenities: restaurants, good bathrooms, comfortable furniture, and canopies that shield from the rain, snow and sun. The EV transition could be an opportunity to reimagine the refueling experience altogether, creating a future where the place you top up an electric car looks like a cross between a truck stop and an airport lounge.  Electrify America's San Francisco charging station offers wifi and places to relax while drivers top up their batteries. Photographer: Electrify America Only about 4% of people in the US have flood insurance, in part because many Americans don't realize flooding isn't covered by homeowners' insurance. So how much do you know about flood insurance? And if you don't have it yet, should you? Take our quiz and find out. What if major economies all just agreed to quit fossil fuels — together? To date, 13 countries have signed a fossil fuel nonproliferation treaty. The biggest is Colombia, which has a $40 billion economic transition plan to build up green sectors and replace oil and gas revenue. Now Colombia is hoping to recruit other large economies to follow suit. During a conversation at Climate Week in New York, Akshat Rathi sat down with Colombia's environment minister, Susana Muhamad, and Brazil's chief climate negotiator, Liliam Chagas, to talk about what it will take for more nations to become leaders on climate change. Listen now, and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube to get new episodes of Zero. | 
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