Today: The Republican pushback against green investment has coincided with a bid to undo regulations that have underpinned the movement; Saudi Arabia is emerging as a solar power; energy rules for home appliances.

Welcome back: A government-backed proposal to no longer classify greenhouse gas as a danger; a multistate investigation to take down an organization calling on companies to report their climate emissions; the threat of tariffs to stop unwanted regulations being implemented.

The Trump administration and fellow Republicans are slashing climate regulations and attacking environmental advocates the world over in an effort to wipe net-zero from the agenda and keep oil and gas flowing, WSJ Pro Sustainable Business's Yusuf Khan and Clara Hudson write.

Between July and August, Republicans launched numerous attacks on the climate agenda, including rolling back the Environmental Protection Agency’s endangerment finding, which stated that greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare; launching investigations into the Science Based Targets initiative, the key organization that sets corporate climate targets; calling for the watering down of environmental reporting requirements in Europe; and lobbying to stop global treaties from implementing rules to reduce pollution and wasteful packaging.

Just this week, during a meeting at the Treasury Department, the U.S. Financial Stability Oversight Council voted to disband the Climate-related Financial Risk Committee and Climate-related Financial Risk Advisory Committee, two bodies set up during the Biden administration.

The multipronged approach has hit the climate industry hard, and for some companies with their own climate goals, the situation is a mess.

• The Environmental Protection Agency says greenhouse gases aren’t so bad. Scores of companies have said otherwise. (WSJ)
• Trump’s assault on green energy could cut the pace of U.S. decarbonization by more than half, a report finds. (FT)
• The Energy Department has disbanded the Climate Working Group of scientists who reject the consensus view of global warming. (Bloomberg)

The world’s ultimate petrostate is turning to solar power.

Saudi Arabia is building some of the world’s biggest solar farms, along with giant arrays of batteries to store their electricity till after dark. The rapid rollout is making the country into one of the fastest-growing markets for solar power from a near-standing start, the WSJ's Ed Ballard writes.

The kingdom is betting that sunshine can transform its economy and bolster its coffers. It needs electricity for new tourism resorts, factories and AI data centers. Green energy could also squeeze more value from the fossil fuels that made the kingdom rich. Saudi Arabia burns oil to generate electricity; embracing alternatives frees up barrels for export.

The spread of glass across the desert is one of the starkest illustrations yet of how the plummeting cost of Chinese-made solar panels and batteries is changing how the world generates power, even as the U.S. takes aim at renewables. Saudi Arabia aims to get half its electricity from clean sources by 2030.

• PosiGen, a U.S. residential solar-installation company, is considering restructuring options, including bankruptcy. (WSJ)
• Oil-field service companies are going after a more promising target: tech companies that need power quickly. (WSJ)
• OPEC left its oil-demand forecasts unchanged after agreeing to raise production again next month. (WSJ)
• Oil markets are bracing for a larger surplus than previously anticipated as supply growth continues to outstrip demand, the IEA said. (WSJ)

Republicans and Democrats both say they want to cut energy costs for homes and appliances, but they’re proposing opposite approaches, WSJ Pro Sustainable Business's Clara Hudson reports.

At a Capitol Hill hearing this week, Republicans took issue with standards aimed at reducing natural gas consumption, brought in under President Joe Biden. The Energy Department issued a rule to eliminate the use of fossil fuels for energy consumption in federal buildings by 2030, including natural gas furnaces, which the Trump administration halted this year.

Rick Allen (R., Ga.) said the Biden administration’s green policy limited consumer choice. “From gas stoves, refrigerators and freezers to washers, dryers, dishwashers and air conditioners, no household appliance was off limits in their pursuit of their radical rush-to-green agenda,” Allen said.

But Democratic lawmakers said Republicans don’t have consumers’ best interests at heart. Kathy Castor (D., Fla.) said the Trump administration has “taken a hatchet to energy efficiency standards, which is so silly because energy efficiency saves people money.”

• Rising summer temperatures have softened Europe’s resistance to air conditioning and touched off a new political fight. (WSJ)
• Do you wash your clothes with cold or warm water? A laundry dispute enters the spin cycle. (WSJ)

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• Microsoft cracks down on work speech, limits remote work. (WSJ)
   
• How Lime is aiming to slash its emissions intensity by 97%. (Trellis)
   
• Eni, CDP joint venture GreenIT raises €370 million to develop new renewable energy projects in Italy. (ESG Today)
   
• Atomic Canyon, Idaho National Labs to set AI standards for nuclear. (Latitude Media)
   
• How New York turns millions of pounds of food waste into 'black gold.' (Reuters)
   
• Proposing four basic elements of an energy policy for America. (Forbes)
   
• Court rules Europe can call nuclear and natural gas sustainable investments for its green transition. (AP)
   
• Boomitra’s carbon farming project in India gains Verra registration. (ESG News)

WSJ Pro Sustainable Business gives you an inside look at how companies are tackling sustainability. Send comments to bureau chief Perry Cleveland-Peck at perry.cleveland-peck@wsj.com and reporters Clara Hudson at clara.hudson@wsj.com and Yusuf Khan at yusuf.khan@wsj.com. Follow us on LinkedIn at wsjperry, clara-hudson and yusuf_khan.