Striking back at the Empire - A coalition of fishermen and offshore wind opponents sued the Trump administration Tuesday, seeking to stop construction of Empire Wind 1 - a 54-turbine project just south of Long Island, New York, that is set to begin installation soon. The lawsuit seeks to reinstate a stop work order issued by US Interior Secretary Doug Burgum in April, claiming he failed to adhere to the Administrative Procedure Act when lifting the order in May. The suit, filed in US District Court District for New Jersey, argues federal regulators illegally approved the project’s permit, and that Empire Wind would permanently damage fisheries and the marine environment. (E&E News)

Traders said they expected the Q2 sale on Wednesday to clear within a $1-2 range of front-month Washington Carbon Allowances (WCAs), while most analysts projected the potential for a higher settle that would release reserve volumes.

A majority of the traders expected the Q2 RGGI carbon permit auction on Wednesday to clear close to secondary market levels, with few anticipating a discount, as observers considered a mix of federal threats, regulatory delays, and programme fundamentals that could shape the outcome.

The Oklahoma legislature has given the green light for the state to prepare an application to have permitting and enforcement authority over the state’s Class VI carbon injection wells.

Last week, the ministries of environment of Peru and Chile announced state-led frameworks to regulate emerging biodiversity credit markets, one official detailed to Carbon Pulse.

The US Department of Labor (DOL) could axe a Biden-era rule allowing retirement funds to weigh climate change impacts in investments, as part of a growing trend in both the Trump administration and larger financial sector to disregard environmental factors.  

Two Democratic US senators are proposing a bill that would create a tax credit for biomass carbon removal and storage (BiCRS) projects in order to reduce wildfire risks while driving down emissions.

Just add seawater - After discovering a method for producing clean hydrogen using soda cans, seawater, and caffeine, MIT researchers have completed a cradle-to-grave lifecycle analysis (LCA) to determine the method’s carbon footprint. In a study published Tuesday in the Cell Reports Sustainability journal, the LCA determined that the process would generate 1.45 kilogramme of CO2 for every kilogramme of hydrogen produced. By comparison, 1 kg of blue hydrogen produces 1-9 kg of CO2, depending on any upstream methane leakage and a facility’s carbon capture rate. The method involves dunking aluminium in seawater, which creates a reaction that generates hydrogen. When the process is combined with imidazole, an ingredient in caffeine, the reaction speeds up and produces hydrogen within five minutes versus two hours.

Canadian PM Mark Carney is keen to export decarbonised fossil fuels beyond US markets, securing support from provincial and territorial leaders Monday, though Alberta pushed for federal backing of a major carbon capture and storage project in need of billions in investment.

Experts have issued a stark warning about the proliferation of unsustainable "zombie" biochar companies, highlighting critical challenges facing the emerging carbon removals technology.

Environmental justice huddle - US House Representative Summer Lee (D-PA) announced the launch of an Environmental Justice Caucus, a more formal group for House members to address the environmental impacts of pollution on vulnerable communities. Lee has not provided further details on the timeline of the launch, but the caucus would be formed in the wake of the Trump administration’s efforts to cut environmental justice-related programmes, funding, and initiatives. President Donald Trump ordered an end to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programmes upon taking office. US EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced a number of changes at the agency in March, including termination of its Environmental Justice and DEI arms. (E&E News)

FERC appointment - The White House nominated energy attorney Laura Swett on Monday to replace Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Chair Mark Christie, a Republican commissioner whose term expires on June 30. The independent US federal agency oversees interstate electricity, natural gas, and oil services, reviewing proposals for natural gas pipelines. While at Vinson & Elkins, Swett represented the largest US pipeline system for refined oil before FERC, and worked with oil pipelines to navigate FERC-regulated transportation service agreements and tariffs.  If approved, the Vinson & Elkins attorney would join Commissioner Lindsay See as the two Republicans on FERC. The five-member agency would still have one vacancy, along with two Democrat commissioners. (Utility Dive)

Newsom could lose some - Steve Hilton, California's Republican gubernatorial candidate, said he would dismantle several of the state’s climate programmes as part of his energy platform to lower prices, published on Monday. Hilton would end the state’s net-zero by 2045 emissions goal, repeal LCFS, lower the state gas tax, and has advocated to scrap the cap-and-trade programme. California's gubernatorial election will take place on Nov. 3, 2026. (Politico)

Not so NYISO - New York’s grid operator (NYISO) said that carbon-free power sources aren’t coming online fast enough to meet growing energy demand and it will repower and retrofit fossil fuel plants to ensure reliability, in a report published Monday. Such higher-emitting assets should be evaluated as a bridge to a lower-carbon future, said Rich Dewey, President and CEO of NYISO.

Large carbon removal (CDR) transactions are being made behind the scenes despite a more challenging narrative around corporate climate action, but capital must continue to flow into the sector to avoid a supply-side collapse over the next few years, an industry conference heard Tuesday.

US carbon capture permitting slowed sharply in the first quarter of 2025, even as regulatory developments continued to advance throughout the country, according to a recent report from a Canada-based energy sector research firm.

The French Development Agency (AFD) and state-owned Banco do Brasil (BB) have signed a Letter of Intent to raise €250 million for sustainable projects focused on bioeconomy, recovery of degraded areas, low-carbon agriculture, reforestation, and biofuels.

The first credits from an activity transitioning to the Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism (PACM) are expected to be issued towards the end of this year, a UNFCCC official said Tuesday.

A US-headquartered carbon credit ratings agency has made its analysis-based platform accessible to the public, including sharing access to its GHG Integrity and SDG impact ratings.

A London-headquartered fintech company announced Tuesday it will commit £500,000 to support nature-based (NbS) and hybrid carbon removal (CDR) solutions in Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region.

A new dynamic scorecard was launched Tuesday to enable do-it-yourself carbon credit risk assessment.

Mounting costs, technical challenges, and growing scrutiny are fuelling doubts over whether direct air capture (DAC) can deliver on its carbon removal promise, raising concerns that policymakers may be placing too much faith in a technology still in its infancy.

Battery breakthrough - A new fuel cell could enable electric aviation, claim researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). A laboratory breakthrough in  lithium-air or sodium-air batteries could pack three times as much energy per pound as today’s best EV batteries, offering a lightweight option for powering trucks, planes, or ships, the researchers claim. Instead of a closed battery which releases stored energy, the new concept is a kind of fuel cell, which can be quickly refuelled with liquid sodium metal rather than recharged. The other side of the cell is just ordinary air, which serves as a source of oxygen atoms. In between, a layer of solid ceramic material serves as the electrolyte, allowing sodium ions to pass freely through, and a porous air-facing electrode helps the sodium to chemically react with oxygen and produce electricity. Tests using an air stream with a controlled humidity level produced more than 1,500 watt-hours per kilogram at the level of an individual “stack,” which would translate to over 1,000 watt-hours at the full system level, according to the researchers. “The threshold that you really need for realistic electric aviation is about 1,000 watt-hours per kilogram,” said professor of materials science and engineering Yet-Ming Chiang, one of the authors of the paper. “Today’s electric vehicle lithium-ion batteries top out at about 300 watt-hours per kilogram — nowhere near what’s needed.” Getting to 1,000 watts per kilogram would be an enabling technology for regional electric aviation, although not long haul, Chiang added. The technology could be an enabler for other sectors as well, including marine and rail transportation. “They all require very high energy density, and they all require low cost,” he says. “And that’s what attracted us to sodium metal.” The new fuel cell could even be carbon negative, the researchers claim as sodium oxide emissions would soak up carbon from the atmosphere.

The CCS+ initiative has built a modular approach to CO2 accounting for carbon capture and storage projects, which backers hope will help standardise the voluntary market thanks to a free-to-use, open source methodology developed by Verra.

Following its latest meeting, the Article 6.4 Methodological Expert Panel (MEP) has begun more intense work on how crediting carbon removals will be carried out under the new UN mechanism.

More cookstove credits could qualify for the Core Carbon Principles (CCP) quality seal after the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) on Tuesday approved earlier versions of a Gold Standard methodology – but only under additional conditions.