🔋 Axios PM: Pentagon goes green

Happy Monday! Today's newsletter, edited by Sam Baker, is 512 words, a 2-min. read. Thanks to Sheryl Miller for copy editing.

Climate tech startups are clamoring to do business with the Pentagon, Axios' Alan Neuhauser reports.

• The Defense Department accelerated its contracting with climate tech firms after Russia invaded Ukraine and as AI's growth has taken hold.
• And at the same time, startups that were once wary of becoming defense contractors now see it as a critical revenue stream.

🌱 Green innovations that started off with a focus on reducing emissions from transportation, or helping to monitor atmospheric conditions, have turned out to be important national security tools, too.

• The DOD is America's single biggest energy customer and one of the largest energy consumers in the world. It spent $16.5 billion on energy in fiscal 2023.
• Cutting that level of fuel consumption doesn't simply save money. It can also help the military services be nimbler and more resilient.

⛽️ Zoom in: Air Company, a startup that began as a vodka distiller, announced a $65 million contract last year to supply the Air Force with jet fuel made from captured CO2.

• The Pentagon has also turned to climate-tech startups for tools that secure food supply chains, generate power without relying on shaky electric grids, and map oceans and seafloors, as well as advanced battery technology.

Go deeper ... Get Axios Pro.

Four volunteers will soon spend 45 days locked inside a 650-square-foot module at NASA's Johnson Space Center, Axios Houston's Jay R. Jordan writes.

• The experiment will mimic a Mars landing to help the space agency determine how astronauts will react to real-life scenarios in the safety of a simulated environment.

The crew will enter NASA's Human Exploration Research Analog facility on Nov. 1. They'll perform experiments as if they were on the Martian surface, such as growing vegetables, cultivating shrimp and taking virtual spacewalks.

• Engineers will also simulate communication lapses with mission control, which are anticipated for real-life astronauts as they travel to Mars.

Go deeper.

In 2021, Athletic Brewing started working with Walmart. Today, their workforce has grown by over 200 people.

The impact: Walmart's $350 billion investment in products made, grown or assembled in America is helping create over 750,000 U.S. jobs.

Explore more stories like Athletic Brewing's.

1. 🗳️ Pennsylvania's Senate race is now considered a toss-up, the Cook Political Report said today. Democrats would have almost no chance of controlling the Senate if Sen. Bob Casey loses to his GOP challenger, Dave McCormick Go deeper.
2. 🤷‍♂️ Former President Trump said today that he's not familiar with the North Carolina governor's race, despite having previously endorsed Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson (R), who has since become mired in scandal. Go deeper.
3. 🔎 The State Department is reviewing allegations of human rights abuses by Israeli forces in Gaza. Several members of an Israeli unit are on trial for sexually assaulting a Palestinian detainee. Go deeper.

Now's the time to catch the best fall foliage in most of the U.S.

• New England's prime colors are already on their way out, but the leaves are still changing across the mid-Atlantic, Midwest and parts of the West.
• By next weekend, the peak will have passed in many of those places.

Since they began working with Walmart in 2021, Athletic Brewing has opened a new brewery in Milford, Connecticut, and hired a lot more people.

• More than two-thirds of Walmart's product spend is on products made, grown or assembled in America — supporting job creation in communities across the U.S.

Learn more.