Battery recycler to receive $2B energy loan from feds

Redwood Materials, created by ex-Tesla co-founder, begins copper foils production

America's battery supply chain is getting a jump start.

Redwood Materials, created by Tesla co-founder J.B. Straubel, said Thursday that it received a $2 billion loan commitment from the Biden administration to build enough critical battery components to produce a million electric vehicles a year.

The loan is the fourth commitment in six months from the Department of Energy's Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing loan program — the same fund that helped Tesla develop its flagship Model S electric sedan in 2010. Biden resuscitated the program in July after a 12-year hiatus, and Democrats nearly quadrupled its lending authority to $55 billion with the climate law passed in August.

It's a big day for Redwood, which also announced it has begun production of a key product: Thin copper foil used for battery anode. Redwood now operates the first major production line for the delicate foils in the U.S., Straubel said. Redwood will expand into complex cathode materials later this year.

“This is a super exciting moment,” Straubel said. “It is the very tangible beginning of a U.S. supply chain for battery materials and we'll be ramping that up for quite a long time to come.”

Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm was scheduled to visit Redwood's Sparks, Nevada, manufacturing facility Thursday to announce the loan, her first stop following Biden's state of the union speech that touted the administration's investments in clean energy.

Building a U.S. battery belt

Every EV battery has two electrodes — a cathode and an anode — between which trillions of charged lithium atoms travel. The cathode is the biggest factor in a battery's performance, cost and environmental footprint and the material today is produced almost entirely in Asia. Redwood plans to make cathode precursor, a preliminary solution of refined metals, later this year, and finished cathode material beginning in 2024.

Redwood's initial anode production will go to Panasonic's Nevada battery factory and the first customer for its future cathode materials will be a new battery plant that Panasonic is building in Kansas City, Kansas.

Straubel left Tesla in 2019 in order to address the gap between demand for electric vehicles and the availability of materials needed to make them. Redwood quickly became the biggest lithium-ion battery recycler in the U.S. before branching out into anode and cathode production in Nevada. The new loan will help create 3,400 construction jobs and 1,600 full-time employees, with hiring already underway, according to Straubel.

The Nevada hub is quickly being followed by a second plant Redwood is building in Charleston, South Carolina, which was announced in December. The $3.5 billion South Carolina facility will supply America's rapidly expanding battery belt, which stretches roughly from Michigan to Georgia. Thursday's loan announcement is to fund production in Nevada only.

Across its facilities, Redwood plans to produce enough materials for a million EVs a year by roughly 2025 and 5 million EVs a year by 2030, Straubel said.

Peltz: Disney proxy fight over, citing Iger's cuts

Trian Partners LP founding partner Nelson Peltz said Thursday that his proxy battle with Walt Disney Co. is over.

The activist investor announced in January that he would seek a board seat at the company to try to initiate changes after being rebuffed in his outreach. Peltz changed his mind after Disney Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger unveiled plans for a dramatic restructuring during Wednesday's earnings call.

Peltz announced the move in an interview with CNBC. Trian confirmed the decision to drop the proxy battle, calling it a “win for all shareholders.”

Iger's plans for the world's largest entertainment company include 7,000 job cuts and $5.5 billion in cost savings. He also said Disney's board would consider reinstating the company's dividend, which was suspended at the start of the pandemic.

The steps addressed two of Peltz's biggest complaints.

“We are pleased that Disney is listening,” Trian said in a statement after Iger's announcements.

Separately, Iger said in an interview with CNBC that he isn't entirely committed to buying the one-third of the Hulu streaming TV business that Disney doesn't already own. Disney has an agreement to purchase the stake from Comcast Corp. next year at a price that values all of Hulu at a minimum of $27.5 billion.

More California stores hit BB&B closure list

Bed Bath & Beyond has revealed the locations of 149 more stores it's closing, including nine in California.

The new list of closures comes just a week after it announced it was shuttering 87 other stores. Over the past several months, it has closed or in the process of closing about 400 locations, which includes the closure of five BuybuyBaby locations and all 49 remaining Harmon Face Value stores.

The retailer said in January it would close a dozen Southern California stores including those in Palm Desert, Hawthorne, Upland, Culver City, Glendora, Pasadena, Valencia, Palmdale, Burbank, La Habra, Lakewood, Buena Park and a Harmon store in Los Angeles.

The latest area stores to hit the list include locations in Santa Ana, Yorba Linda, Beaumont and Downey.

In total, the company is reducing the number of Bed Bath & Beyond stores from 760 to about 360, with the company keeping its most profitable stores open in key markets. At its peak in 2017, the storied brand had 1,552 stores open.

Chicken chain testing plant-based sandwich

Chick-fil-A's newest sandwich ditches chicken for … cauliflower.

The aptly named “Chickfil-A Cauliflower Sandwich” is being tested in three cities beginning next week, marking the chicken chain's first plant-based sandwich. Imitating the chain's signature fried chicken sandwiches, the new offering uses a “tender filet cut” of cauliflower that's marinated and breaded in the chain's seasoning, then pressure cooked and served on a buttery bun with pickles.

“Guests told us they wanted to add more vegetables into their diets, and they wanted a plant-forward entrée that tasted uniquely Chick-fil-A,” Leslie Neslage, the chain's director of menu and packaging, said in a statement.

Chick-fil-A's new sandwich goes on sale Monday for a limited time in three cities: Denver; Charleston, South Carolina; and the Greensboro-Triad region in North Carolina. The starting price is $6.59, but it varies by market, a company spokesperson told CNN.

The sandwich has been in development for nearly four years and was created in house by the chain's chefs.