The Last Nuclear Plant

Plus: How many sponsors can you fit on a sports jersey anyway? ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

November 22, 2022

Read in Browser

TOGETHER WITH

Good morning.

Chilean entrepreneur Felipe Escalona is selling 12 to 49-acre blocks of Patagonia – the rocky region at the bottom of South America – and each roughly half-acre is worth between $3,000 and $10,000. The only catch, though, is that the land comes with heavy development restrictions as it’s all part of a conservation project. Similar to the 13,000-year-old Cueva de las Manos cave paintings found in the area, the land is on a look but don’t touch basis.

Morning Brief

•

California is keeping its nuclear plant alive.

•

Virgin Atlantic escalates its travel chaos spat with Heathrow.

•

Digital advertising is rocky, but sports sponsorships have potential.

Energy

US Government to Spend $1 Billion to Keep California Nuclear Plant Alive

Washington is saying ‘no’ to no-nukes in California.

On Monday, the Biden administration announced it is giving a $1.1 billion grant to the Pacific Gas & Electric Company — the oft-beleaguered energy firm powering much of California — to keep the lights on at the Golden State’s last remaining nuclear power plant.

Sympathy for Diablo

Opponents of nuclear energy point to three pieces of evidence to convey their point: Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and Fukushima. But California’s immediate crises outweigh fears of hypothetical nuclear meltdowns. In other words, when wildfires rage through backyards on a semi-annual basis, the desire to ditch fossil fuels by any means necessary becomes much more irresistible. For that reason, keeping PG&E’s Diablo Canyon nuclear plant alive has proven a hobby horse for Governor Gavin Newsom. The plant was slated to shut down completely by 2025, but during an intense heatwave this summer that nearly crunched the state’s energy grid, Newsom successfully pushed state lawmakers to float PG&E a $1.4 billion loan to keep the plant open through 2030.

With the new federal funds, which hail from the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill signed into law a year ago, PG&E will be able to pay back most of the state’s loan, though the new grant will likely be lost entirely if the company fails to secure a federal license renewal from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. By keeping the Diablo facility operational, the federal government is maintaining a key piece of California’s infrastructure — a move they’re hoping to replicate elsewhere in the country as well:

•

The power plant supplied over 8% of all electricity in California last year, according to PG&E’s CEO Patti Poppe, and accounted for 17% of all carbon-free energy in the state overall.

•

The $1.1 billion grant is a piece of the $6 billion set aside by Congress from the infrastructure bill to help save similarly imperiled facilities across the country. In total, the US had 93 operating nuclear plants last year that supplied roughly 20% of the nation’s energy.

Storage Wars: While critics often note the potential for disastrous nuclear plant meltdowns (a fear exacerbated by the massive, sometimes-moving fault lines running through California), anti-nuclear activists say there may be an even more pressing concern. Both the state and the federal government are failing to construct enough permanent storage space for nuclear waste — and the dangerous byproduct is beginning to pile up within power plants, according to a report from the Los Angeles Times. Suffice to say, expect this energy debate to remain positively radioactive for the foreseeable future.

Aviation

Virgin Yanks Support For Heathrow Runway

(Photo Credit: Joao Carlos Medau/Flickr)

Looks like this summer’s travel chaos is still triggering air rage.

During an appearance at the London Airlines 2022 conference on Monday, Virgin Atlantic CEO Shai Weiss accused Heathrow airport of abusing its power as Europe’s biggest airport and announced the company is withdrawing its support for a much-ballyhooed proposed third runway. The reversal threatens to indefinitely delay a project that’s been stuck on the tarmac since 2009.

Summer Lovin’

Flight delays and luggage mishaps proliferated this summer as travel rebounded, causing airlines and airports to engage in endless finger-pointing. Heathrow, which is privately owned and has been an epicenter of recent travel pain, accused airlines of being unprepared for increased demand after months of pandemic-era cost-cutting. Airlines fired back that Heathrow’s security was understaffed and its baggage handling system lousy. Then Heathrow imposed a daily passenger cap of 100,000 passengers, which was only lifted at the end of October.

The summer spat came at the tail-end of Heathrow’s 13-year campaign to construct a third runway, having faced opposition from locals, environmentalists, and politicians. To finally get the project across the finish line, Heathrow recently proposed steep increases on landing fees — the charges imposed on airlines for access to airport facilities, which are in turn almost entirely passed on to passengers. Virgin is coming with its own list of demands before it says it can get back on-board:

•

Weiss called on the UK’s aviation regulator the CAA to step in and prevent any further passenger caps, saying: “A repeat of this in summer 2023 is completely avoidable if honest and accurate passenger forecasts are used now for resource planning and building resilience.”

•

Heathrow is trying to raise landing fees by 120% ahead of a CAA directive that allows it to raise the prices this year, but subsequently cut fees over the next four years. Weiss said higher fees would be “great for the airport and its mostly foreign shareholders, but a bad deal for consumers, airlines, and the UK economy.”

Uniformity: Virgin recently flew the England soccer team to Qatar on an aircraft named “Rain Bow” with a motif of a man wearing rainbow sneakers. It still caught some PR heat, however, as it admitted the cabin crew on that flight were not allowed to take advantage of the airline’s new and much-publicized gender-inclusive uniform policy. At least Virgin is used to bumpy landings.

SPONSORED BY PERCENT

The One Investing Principal That Never Goes Out of Style

Once upon a time, investors used a magical yardstick to analyze a prospective investment.

Cash flow.

While Silicon Valley has all but forgotten the importance of this traditional financial metric in pursuit of “visionary” founders and fanciful (read: delusional) projections — cash flow is still what determines the value of an investment. Like gravity, that is simply a fact.

Percent gives investors access to private, fixed-income opportunities — like loans backed by growing businesses or consumer loan portfolios — that spit off real cash flow.

•

As of October 2022, Percent investors have earned more than $22 million in interest since the company launched its first deal in 2019.

•

The average yield on Percent’s platform is currently 15.41% (worth comparing against your brokerage account).

Explore real opportunities backed by cash-flow producing collateral.

Importantly, most Percent deals mature in months, not years, meaning you can experiment, dabble, and diversify without a long-term commitment.

Daily Upside readers can receive a $500 bonus with their first investment. Sign up now.

Tech

Sponsor Data Startup Raises $35 Million in Venture Capital

As any coach will tell you, the team name on the front of a jersey is more important than the player name on the back. But the sponsor’s name is where the money is.

SponsorUnited, a software-as-a-service platform that provides analytics on the sponsorship industry, closed a $35 million Series A funding round on Monday. The good news comes as many big-time advertisers are actually cutting back on their marketing efforts to meet the demand of recession-rattled consumers.

For the Love of the Game

In September, US ad spending was down 5% compared to the same time last year, continuing a four-month decline. Despite the likely harbinger of more economic pain to come, SponsorUnited managed to land a massive investment from growth firm Spectrum Equity at a valuation “north of” $100 million.

CEO Bob Lynch told TechCrunch that while working as an executive for the Miami Dolphins he realized the sponsorship industry was complex and lacked transparency. He had questions like “who’s sponsoring who” and “how much should brands pay sponsors,” but the answers weren’t easy to find. Via SponsorUnited Lynch is proposing to create a “Bloomberg terminal of marketing partnerships” that will shine a light on the opaque world of sports and entertainment sponsorships.

And with the global sports sponsorship market expected to grow by $45 billion between now and 2026, the demand for SponsorUnited is likely to increase:

•

All 30 MLB teams generated $1.2 billion in sponsorship revenue this past season, a 6% increase from 2021, and it’s expected to skyrocket next season. In an update that would have made George Steinbrenner drop his calzone, the league will allow advertising on jerseys and helmets starting next year, making athletes look more like NASCAR drivers than ballplayers.

•

Coming out of the pandemic, the NBA also loosened its sponsorship rules, and now teams can sell ad space on the front of jerseys and basketball hoops, and can have 10 international sponsors, up from the previous three. For the 2021-2022 season, the league saw sponsorship climb 12.5% to $1.65 billion, representing about 20% of overall revenue.

Power Play: Sponsors of the World Cup in Qatar probably would prefer a little less transparency. A litany of human rights controversies wasn’t enough to keep most advertisers out of the event or change their marketing strategy. However, Lucozade, the British soda company that sponsors England’s soccer team, did remove their logos from the team’s water bottles for the duration of the tournament. Sip on that for a while, Gianni Infantino.

Extra Upside

•

Lawsuits claim L’Oréal hair straightener causes cancer.

•

China braces for more lockdowns after reporting first COVID deaths in six months.

•

Here at The Daily Upside we are always looking to cover, analyze, and dissect the latest trends important to investors. So when we read that StartEngine has funded 550+ successful offerings, grown revenue 600% over the last three years, and just acquired competitor, SeedInvest*, our ears naturally perked up. Want in on the action? You can invest in StartEngine too.**

*Partner

Just For Fun

Speed demon.

Look both ways.

Disclaimer

*Completion of the acquisition is subject to closing conditions and regulatory approval.

**Reg A+ offering made available through StartEngine Crowdfunding, Inc. No broker-dealer or intermediary involved in offering. This investment is speculative, illiquid, and involves a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment. Please see the most recent Supplement, Offering Circular and Related Risks for more information.

Written by Isobel Hamilton, Griffin Kelly, and Brian Boyle.

ADVERTISE // CAREERS

No longer want to receive these emails? Unsubscribe here.

//campaignmonitornewsletter.everestengagement.com/ea/BntD2QJCyg/?e=postie@btcnews.com.au’ width=’1′ height=’1′ style=”margin-top:0 !important;margin-bottom:0 !important;margin-right:0 !important;margin-left:0 !important;padding-top:0 !important;padding-bottom:0 !important;padding-right:0 !important;padding-left:0 !important;border-width:0 !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-ms-interpolation-mode:bicubic;” />