Chevron CEO Mike Wirth doesn't rule out getting into the lithium business but shows no interest in wind and solar, Ben writes.

Driving the news: Wirth noted lithium — a key EV battery input — can be extracted from brines produced through oil and gas development.

• “We've looked at ... adjacencies to our business, and lithium could be one of those," he told Axios exclusively on Tuesday.

State of play: Wirth cautioned he didn't want to overstate the possibility of lithium ventures (Chevron previously sold its interest in a California effort).

• But he contrasted it with wind and solar. "There's a lot of good developers out there in the U.S. and around the world that can do wind and solar projects better than we can."

Why it matters: Wirth's posture says plenty about the oil giant's wider approach to energy transition. The comments also crystallize a strategic split between Exxon and Chevron, compared with European peers like Shell and BP.

The big picture: European majors, which have been more aggressive on climate, include wind, solar and power services in their diversification efforts.

• U.S. giants are focusing more narrowly on areas they see as adjacent to their fossil fuel business and expertise, such as carbon capture, hydrogen and renewable transport fuels.
• Wirth also cited Chevron's investments in startups working on geothermal, which requires drilling and subsurface knowledge.

Here's more from Wirth, who spoke with Axios editors and reporters as smoke from Canada's wildfires drifted over the Washington, D.C., region...

🌍 UN summit: Wirth said he backs efforts by Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, the UAE official leading this year's talks, to bring the oil and gas industry more deeply into the process — something climate activists and other critics fear will weaken the outcome.

• He argued his sector brings needed knowledge and balance sheets for large-scale projects, but that Chevron is still evaluating its participation as summit planning proceeds.
• Wirth discussed the oil and gas industry "Global Decarbonization Alliance" that's one of al-Jaber's COP28 initiatives.
• Al-Jaber's goal is to expand climate commitments and other efforts that Western majors have made to small and state-owned players, Wirth said.
• Meanwhile, he said the Washington, D.C.-based Atlantic Council is "quite involved."

📝 Permitting: Wirth said he hopes Congress will take another swing at permitting following the "positive" but limited deal in the debt ceiling bill.

• Goals include limits on judicial challenges to projects and a better process for permitting injection wells used in carbon storage.
• "Permitting used to be the way you build things" with proper consideration, but "permitting is now used to not build things in this country."
• The other side: Activists fear that "permitting reform" will erode protections for communities next to fossil fuel projects.

Andrew Freedman contributed.

Chevron's chief believes "there are going to be a lot of things in our industry that are going to be fundamentally changed through AI," Ben writes.

• "We've been working with OpenAI for multiple years now on technologies that could work in our industry," Wirth said. He noted oil giants generate immense datasets on geological characteristics and more.

• Wirth talked up AI and other advanced computing's ability to boost safety, asset reliability, geological understanding and carbon capture advances (to name a few!).

Extreme weather and climate events across the globe continue to unfold simultaneously, breaking longstanding records from Siberia and China to Antarctica, Andrew writes.

The big picture: Global sea surface temperatures have been at record to near-record levels since mid-March.

• Non-ice-covered oceans hit a record high in May, per the Copernicus Climate Change Service. Including land temperatures, it was the second hottest May worldwide, the European center reported.
• Record-shattering heat waves have lasted for months in parts of Asia, from Vietnam to China, in particular.
• Parts of north central Siberia hit 100°F last week, setting all-time records for those locations.

Between the lines: The record heat has been occurring ahead of the declaration of an El Niño event in the tropical Pacific Ocean.

• This predicted naturally occurring event will boost global ocean temperatures even further.

The intrigue: It's become cliche for climate stories to say we're in uncharted territory, but in this situation, it bears repeating.

• We've never gone into an expected El Niño event with the oceans already so warm, making them more prone to marine heat waves with their associated coral bleaching.
• The unusual warmth is contributing to heat waves on land before the hottest months of July and August, and will help fuel more intense tropical cyclones and precipitation extremes in the weeks and months ahead.

The bottom line: Expect more significant extreme events, many of them without modern precedent, to occur both at sea and on land during the coming year. (WaPo has more)

A new nonprofit group called the Carbon to Sea Initiative has raised over $50 million to back research and development into potentially accelerating carbon dioxide absorption into the world's oceans, Ben writes.

Driving the news: The philanthropy-backed group, spun out of Additional Ventures, is focused on better understanding the scalability and safety of "ocean alkalinity enhancement."

• It aims to speed natural "weathering," in which alkaline minerals increase oceans' already mammoth CO2 uptake, while fighting ocean acidification.

What's next: The initiative will evaluate various OAE pathways, and "catalyze locally-owned and operated field research sites," the group said in a statement. It also plans to "help develop responsible regulatory frameworks."

Zoom in: It already has committed $23 million in grants for four research projects, with recipients like the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and UC Santa Barbara.

• It's also backing plans to build five "prototype solutions" and monitor them.
• Funders include Additional Ventures, Astera, Builders Initiative, Catalyst for Impact and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

Reality check: OAE's emergence as a meaningful and safe climate tool is an "if," not a "when."

Why it matters: Carbon removal methods can complement — but not replace — emissions-cutting tech like renewables to keep Paris Agreement temperature-limiting goals within reach, or help cool the world if they're overshot.

The bottom line: "If we find that OAE can be applied at scale, we can unlock one of the most efficient, cost-effective approaches to [carbon dioxide removal] for humanity," Mike Schroepfer, co-founder of Additional Ventures and the initiative's board chair, said in a statement.

The Biden administration's big bet on hydrogen expansion is riding on the rollout of new climate law tax credits, Axios Pro: Energy Policy's Jael Holzman reports.

Why it matters: Industry officials say federal decisions on how companies can use the subsidy — expected as soon as this summer — could lead U.S. hydrogen production to blossom.

How it works: Companies will be able to claim up to $3 per kilogram of "clean hydrogen" they produce if they're able to meet certain labor standards.

• Qualifying "clean hydrogen" must produce no more than 4 kilograms of CO2 per kilogram — achieved by using inputs like renewable power or fossil fuels with carbon capture.

The intrigue: A lobbying battle is raging over how regulators should shape the incentives.

• Climate activists say qualifying hydrogen facilities should rely only on new carbon-free sources to avoid drawing energy from existing renewables projects.

The other side: Industry representatives are urging the Treasury Department to avoid this mandate and others, claiming they'll deter hydrogen's growth.

Subscribe to Axios Pro: Energy Policy for Jael's whole story — and lots of scoops and vital analysis every week.

U.S. solar generation this summer will be 24% higher than last year's June-August period, the Energy Department's independent stats arm estimates, Ben writes.

"Solar has been the leading source of new generating capacity in the United States so far this year," the Energy Information Administration's latest outlook notes.