Axios

CleanJoule, a Salt Lake City-based developer of sustainable aviation fuels developed from agricultural residues and other waste biomass, raised $50 million from an investor group that included three airlines.

Why it matters: This reflects a growing aerospace sector belief that sustainable aviation fuels could become competitive with crude oil-based fuels, or at least part of a standard blend, in terms of both cost and performance.

Breaking: Equatic, a UCLA spin-out pairing carbon dioxide removal using seawater and hydrogen production, just unveiled a major deal with Boeing.

Why it matters: While the deal is preliminary and contingent upon Equatic's ability to scale its tech, it's large for the nascent carbon removal market.

🗞️Driving the news: The "pre-purchase option agreement" is for 62,000 metric tons of CO2 removal, and 2,100 metric tons of "carbon-negative" hydrogen that Boeing sees as feedstock for cleaner jet fuel.

• It covers a roughly five-year period that starts mid-decade, a spokesperson said.
• Equatic is also divulging more details about its structure and plans.
• John Browne, the former BP CEO who's now chairman of the climate tech fund BeyondNetZero, is heading Equatic's advisory board.

Reality check: Volumes in recent industry deals are growing. But they're still tiny compared with the global scale envisioned to make removal a meaningful tool in future decades, which involves handling multibillions of tons a year.

• That's hardly a sure thing, and for now, the priority is scaling and driving down costs.

How it works: Equatic's tech passes electrical current, obtained via renewables, through seawater — a process called electrolysis that splits water into hydrogen and oxygen.

• They then pass atmospheric air through the processed seawater. "These steps trap CO2 in solid minerals and as dissolved substances that are naturally found in the oceans," the company said.

🧮The big picture: The process enables precise accounting of how much CO2 is removed, Equatic said.

And the hydrogen can be used in heavy industry, electricity, production of transport fuels — or powering Equatic's CO2 removal plants.

🔍Zoom in: Equatic has pilot projects in L.A. and Singapore.

• It hopes to reach 100,000 metric tons of carbon removal annually by 2026, and millions by 2028 for under $100 per ton, a goal set by the Energy Department.
• Removal pledged under a far smaller deal with Stripe in 2021, when Equatic was called SeaChange and housed at UCLA, was for $1,370 per ton.

🏃🏽‍♀️Catch up fast: Equatic has raised over $30 million. Its many backers include the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the Anthony and Jeanne Pritzker Family Foundation and DOE.

The intrigue: Chief Operating Officer Edward Sanders told Axios that Equatic's hydrogen production will be eligible for climate law tax credits for U.S. projects.

• But separate carbon removal credits don't apply because they're only for geologic storage, not ocean-based removal, he said.
• Sanders said he hopes lawmakers will broaden the applicability but added that Equatic's business model doesn't rest on it.
• He's also confident a U.N. panel will eventually reverse its preliminary view that engineered removal should be excluded from carbon markets under the Paris Agreement.

The bottom line: Equatic's novel vision of merging direct air capture, CO2 storage in oceans and hydrogen production shows how no tech is yet dominant in the emerging removal field.

If the apparel industry gets its way, small labels with QR codes on them would replace the bulky clothing tags that offer washing instructions and other information.

Why it matters: Digital product labels — which brands like Ralph Lauren are already starting to use — could provide a lot more information to consumers, who could scan them for a library of details about the garment they're wearing (or might buy).

Plumes of smoke from wildfires scorching southeastern Canada's Nova Scotia province are drifting across the Northeastern U.S. and prompting air quality alerts in several cities through Wednesday.

The big picture: Fires have been burning in Canada for weeks, as much of the country experiences above-average temperatures and while it's not unusual for Canadian wildfire smoke to reach the U.S., it's normally Northwestern states that are affected.

Asda, a British supermarket group, agreed to buy most of convenience retailer EG Group’s U.K. and Ireland business for around $2.8 billion.

Why it matters: This would create a gas station and convenience store giant, with around £30 billion in annual revenue and nearly 21 million weekly customers.

Changes to circulation in parts of the Southern Ocean are taking place faster than expected, with potentially profound implications for the global climate and marine life, a new study finds.

Why it matters: The Southern Ocean is home to the engine that powers the world's deep ocean currents, and regulates the climate. It governs the exchange of heat, carbon, oxygen and nutrients between ocean layers.

The debt ceiling deal is a monument to the messiness of a divided government — and it might cast a shadow over climate politics in 2024.

🏃🏽‍♀️Catch up fast: The tentative compromise between the White House and GOP leaders includes...

• Approval of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a major gas project in Virginia and West Virginia.
• Efforts to speed permitting via new deadlines for environmental analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act, and some other changes.
• A new study of boosting regional power transmission capabilities.

State of play: Groups on the left and allied Democratic lawmakers are furious over MVP, and what some activists call weakening of NEPA.

• The Sierra Club called for rejection, while the Center for Biological Diversity's Jean Su said President Biden made a "colossal error" on climate.
• Others had softer takes. Groups like the League of Conservation Voters, which have close ties to Democratic leaders, bashed the energy provisions but didn't urge votes against the debt package.

🗳️What we're watching: The political fallout.

• It's one of several times the White House has recently angered climate activists over fossil fuel projects or policy, notably the March approval of ConocoPhillips' Willow oil project in Alaska.
• Activists want a much harder line against fossil fuels. But it's tough to know whether their disappointment will cost Biden more than a relative handful of climate-minded voters in 2024.

Also in the political mix: MVP is a win for Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). He faces a tough race next year — if he runs — in his conservative state.

Yes, but: The White House is defending the debt ceiling plan in sales pitches to Capitol Hill Democrats and comments to reporters.

• Officials emphasize it omits GOP proposals to revoke climate law incentives.
• They say it preserves NEPA's strength while making it easier to build climate-friendly infrastructure like wind and solar projects.
• The American Clean Power Association blessed the deal, but called it only a "down payment" on permitting and transmission needs.

The other side: Republicans face challenges preventing too many defections among conservatives, who say the deal fails to meaningfully restrain spending.

• House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's wider pitch includes touting the "first significant reforms to the environmental review process in more than 40 years."
• The American Exploration and Production Council, an oil and gas industry group, urged passage, too, praising the NEPA and MVP provisions.

What's next: Votes in Congress are expected this week as the clock ticks toward the June 5 default date.

• Further down the road, there could be efforts to reach a more sweeping deal on energy permitting.
• But the hurdles are high when there's no forcing mechanism like, say, the threat of an economically catastrophic default.

On the Hawaiian island of Moloka‘i, a group of volunteers is tirelessly working toward 100% locally owned clean energy.

Why it matters: They are reclaiming energy sovereignty for the area's largely Native Hawaiian population.

Fire evacuation orders are in effect across Canada as firefighters respond to dozens of wildfires in the country's east and west.

The big picture: Officials in the eastern Canadian city of Halifax said Monday evacuations had impacted some 18,000 people due to a wildfire that's burned some 200 properties in the Nova Scotia provincial capital, where a state of emergency was declared Sunday.