Today’s ESG Updates
- States Challenge Offshore Wind Cancellations: Six states sued the Trump administration over a deal that cancels major offshore wind projects and clean energy investments.
- Atlas Pauses Brazilian Solar Expansion: Atlas Renewable Energy halted 1.5 GW of planned solar projects due to rising grid curtailment in Brazil.
- US Cuts Back Ocean Monitoring Program: The Trump administration is dismantling key parts of a major ocean observation network used for climate research.
- UK Orders Google AI Search Changes: New CMA rules let publishers opt out of Google’s AI features and require clearer content attribution.
Multi-state lawsuit challenges Trump administration’s clean energy rollback
Six states sued the Trump administration over its decision to cancel a major offshore wind lease off the coast of New York. Federal officials announced they would pay nearly $1 billion in taxpayer money to the French energy firm TotalEnergies to kill plans for two offshore wind farms off the coasts of New York and North Carolina. TotalEnergies agreed to terminate the projects, pledged not to develop any new offshore wind projects in the United States, and agreed to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in oil and gas projects.
The lawsuit was led by New York Attorney General Letitia James and joined by the attorneys general of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It asserts that the agreement is an unlawful deal that violates the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act and the Judgment Fund Act, and that it threatens to erase over 1,000 union jobs and deny millions of New Yorkers clean, affordable energy.
The plaintiffs are asking the court to strike down the agreement, halt the lease cancellation, and prevent further implementation of the deal.
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Further reading: Six US states sue Trump administration over deal to kill windfarm project
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Atlas puts 1.5 GW of Brazilian solar on hold amid rising grid curtailment
Atlas Renewable Energy has put plans for $1 billion in new investments in Brazil on hold. The company, owned by BlackRock unit Global Infrastructure Partners, put at least 1.5 gigawatts of solar capacity on hold, where construction was already planned to start. The investment freeze comes because Brazil’s national grid operator has periodically curtailed renewable power. This happens when a power grid reaches its capacity limits, forcing operators to preemptively reject solar or wind power that would otherwise have been produced and used. Curtailments were as high as 15% to 25% for Atlas Renewable Energy’s existing projects in the June quarter.
Fitch Ratings assigned negative outlooks to 11 Brazilian renewable project financings due to ongoing curtailment that is impacting cash flow, debt service, and liquidity. Average curtailments in projects rated by Fitch surged to 7% to 25% in 2025, up from 6% to 12% in 2024. Fitch Ratings stated that curtailment in Brazil would continue until 2030.
Atlas CEO Carlos Barrera stated that the real issue is solar overcapacity, which will cause curtailment even if all transmission issues in Brazil are fixed.
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Further reading: BlackRock’s Atlas freezes $1 billion in Brazil renewables investments
Related Articles
Here is a list of articles selected by our Editorial Board that have gained significant interest from the public:
Trump administration moves to dismantle $368 million deep-sea observation system
The Trump administration plans to dismantle a $368 million deep-sea observation system that has provided continuous data on ocean systems and climate change since June 2016. The National Science Foundation (NSF) announced it has initiated “descoping” of the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI), an ocean observation network comprising more than 900 instruments that collect data on ocean health. The notice was issued on May 21, just days after all members of the independent board that oversees the NSF were fired.
Plans outline the removal of all in-water infrastructure from observation sites off the coasts of North Carolina, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska, as well as from the Irminger Sea between Greenland and Iceland. The infrastructure removal and phased recovery process is expected to take place over the next 15 months, ending associated real-time data streams and observing capabilities.
Data from the system contributes to research on deep-ocean processes, marine ecosystems, carbon sequestration, and the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). The NSF head of media affairs stated that the program is not being canceled entirely, but rather descoped to align with a strategy to prioritize evolving scientific priorities, emerging technologies, and smart lifecycle management.
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Further reading: Dismay as Trump officials to dismantle key ocean monitoring system
CMA gives UK publishers power to opt out of Google AI features
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has imposed new conduct requirements on Google’s search services in Britain to ramp up oversight. The CMA designated Google with “strategic market status” due to concerns over its dominance, as Google accounts for more than 90% of UK queries. The new requirements allow publishers to prevent their content from powering Google’s AI features, giving them more control and stronger bargaining power.
News websites and other publishers have experienced sharp declines in click-through rates as users rely on AI-generated overviews. Google announced it is testing a new control that lets website owners opt out of having their links and content appear in generative AI search results. Sites that opt out will not receive traffic from AI Overviews or AI Mode, though the controls will not affect traditional search results.
The CMA is also requiring Google to properly attribute content from publishers and news organizations using clear links in its AI-generated search results.
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Further reading: Google must let UK publishers opt out of AI search under new rules
Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed here by the authors are their own, not those of impakter.com — In the Cover Photo: New York Attorney General Letitia James. Cover Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons
