Nodal Exchange and OPIS Partner to Launch New Environmental Market Contracts with Cooperation from IncubEx

NEW YORK & WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 17, 2026--

Nodal Exchange and OPIS, a Dow Jones company, today announced the launch of new financially settled futures and options contracts based on OPIS daily price assessments, developed in cooperation with IncubEx.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260817560903/en/

The new products strengthen the connection between OPIS market intelligence and Nodal Exchange’s listed environmental market suite, providing commercial and financial market participants—including energy companies, commodity trading firms, banks, hedge funds and asset managers—with capital-efficient tools to manage risk in North American carbon and renewable fuel markets. The new product offering includes:

This launch represents a significant industry milestone, as it marks the first time a futures exchange has partnered with a Price Reporting Agency (PRA) to list a PRA-settled financial contract for North American carbon markets. By combining OPIS price assessments with Nodal Exchange’s listed derivatives platform, these contracts offer participants a distinct competitive advantage in managing market exposure, providing price risk management, greater flexibility—including portfolio margining and futures-style margining on options—and contract design optimized for spread trading.

"The new contracts complement and expand the existing environmental product suite on Nodal," said Paul Cusenza, Chairman & CEO of Nodal Exchange. "We are proud to work with IncubEx and OPIS to create contracts that meet the evolving needs of our market participants."

"Transparency is the cornerstone of efficient environmental markets. By pairing OPIS’s rigorous, independent price assessments with Nodal’s contract settlement, we are providing participants with the reliable data and execution they need to hedge their exposure effectively,” said Sarah Cottle, EVP & GM of Dow Jones Energy. “This partnership with Nodal Exchange delivers the precision and risk-management efficiency that our customers require to navigate the volatility and evolving landscape of North American carbon and renewable fuel markets."

"We're excited to work with OPIS and Nodal to expand the breadth of environmental futures contracts, as these products are increasingly requested by the core traders and brokers in environmental markets," said Dan Scarbrough, IncubEx CEO. “The product expansion and growth in liquidity of financially settled environmental futures contracts referenced to trusted price reporting agencies such as OPIS demonstrate the evolution of environmental commodities as an asset consistent with energy and broader commodity markets.”

Nodal Exchange offers a broad suite of environmental contracts, with more than 125 futures and options.

ABOUT NODAL

Nodal Exchange is a derivatives exchange providing price, credit and liquidity risk management solutions to participants in the North American commodities markets. Nodal Exchange is a leader in innovation, having introduced the world’s largest set of electric power locational (nodal) futures contracts and the world’s largest set of environmental contracts. As part of EEX Group, a group of companies serving international commodity markets, Nodal Exchange currently offers over 1,000 contracts on hundreds of unique locations, providing the most effective basis risk management available to market participants. In addition, Nodal Exchange offers natural gas contracts. All Nodal Exchange contracts are cleared by Nodal Clear, a CFTC registered derivatives clearing organization. Nodal Exchange is a designated contract market regulated by the CFTC. For more information, please visit www.nodalexchange.com.

ABOUT OPIS

OPIS, a Dow Jones company, provides accurate pricing, real-time news and expert analysis across the global fuel supply chain, including the Spot, Wholesale Rack and Retail markets. OPIS and its brands, McCloskey, PetroChem Wire, Axxis and Chemical Market Analytics, enable customers to buy and sell energy commodities with confidence across the globe via easy access to transparent data, expert-level customer support, educational events and energy data solutions. Full details about OPIS pricing methodologies are available at opisnet.com/about/methodology .

ABOUT INCUBEX

IncubEx is an incubator for exchange traded products, services, and technology solutions. At its core, IncubEx is a product and business development firm. The company works in conjunction with its global exchange partner, European Energy Exchange (EEX), Nodal Exchange and other leading service providers and stakeholders to design and develop new financial products in global environmental, reinsurance, and related commodity markets. The company has a specific focus on innovation and continuous improvement of products and services, including technology, trading solutions, and operational efficiencies. The IncubEx team is led by former key Climate Exchange executives and is uniquely positioned to capture these opportunities with its partners. The company was founded in 2016 and currently has offices in Chicago and London. See more at www.theincubex.com.

Nodal Exchange and OPIS Partner to Launch New Environmental Market Contracts with Cooperation from IncubEx

Nodal Exchange and OPIS Partner to Launch New Environmental Market Contracts with Cooperation from IncubEx

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says vandals are to blame for large swaths of dead grass on the National Mall near the World War II Memorial — in the spot where he had a stage built and hosted crowds for his July 4 celebration.

Trump made the accusation in a social media post on Sunday without saying why he believes it's the work of vandals instead of trampled turf from the Independence Day festivities. The Republican president posted a photo showing a once-grassy area by the World War II Memorial, now patchy and brown across much of the sprawling turf.

“Look what VANDALS did to the grass connecting the vandalized World War II Monument and the vandalized Reflecting Pool, which will be opened again, and better than ever, shortly,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.

“Anybody who thinks the Reflecting Pool wasn’t vandalized should go back to Law School!” he added.

Trump has repeatedly blamed vandals for damage to his renovation projects in the nation's capital, often without evidence and sometimes despite opposing accounts from his officials. Trump lashed out at U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro this month after her office concluded that damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was the result of poor construction and not the work of vandals, as Trump claimed.

The photo Trump posted matches what you'd expect to see with a large summer event, according to Penn State University turf professor John Kaminski.

“Nothing in the photograph clearly indicates vandalism. Jumping to that conclusion seems like a fairly large leap, although it is impossible to rule anything in or out,” he said.

Bradley S. Klein, a freelance journalist and golf course consultant, said the president's post didn't make clear what the problem was in detail.

“He sounds like every grumpy golfer who’s complaining about their golf course and actually has no idea what it takes to maintain it on a day-to-day basis,” he said.

Messages seeking more information were left with the National Park Service and the Department of the Interior.

Authorities on Friday announced an arrest in connection with vandalism at the World War II Memorial, after the words “Clean hands dirty $” were found painted on the monument and bubbles filled a fountain. Pirro said felony charges were being brought against Melissa L. Farris, who was in custody and couldn't be reached for comment.

A woman identified on her Facebook page as Melissa Lovewell on Thursday posted a video in which she is seen taking cans of spray paint from her bag and then painting the monument. “I will wait here to be arrested for spraying our veterans’ fountain,” she says. “It was me. I’m doing it. It’s on camera.”

The woman was identified by her Kentucky driver’s license as Melissa L. Farris, of Elizabethtown, Kentucky, an arrest warrant says.

Charging documents in that case make no mention of the grassy area Trump is highlighting in his new claims. Authorities said Farris had previously been arrested for camping on federal property a few blocks from the World War II Memorial, but not the area cited by Trump.

That stretch of lawn is instead where a large stage was built and crowds gathered to hear from Trump and watch fireworks at a July 4 event celebrating the nation's 250th anniversary. Trump claimed without providing evidence that more than 400,000 people attended the event before a storm hit the area and delayed his remarks.

Photos from the time, taken by a streaming webcam atop the Washington Monument, show a large bandstand and seating areas covering nearly the entire lawn Trump now says has been vandalized. Associated Press photos from the days that followed showed workers removing the structures, revealing brown, damaged grass underneath.

On Aug. 1, Trump posted a different photo of the same area that appears to show the numbers “86 47” — which federal officials have said constitutes a threat against Trump, the 47th president — emblazoned into the grass. He cited it as evidence refuting Pirro's conclusion, calling it “a pure case of VANDALISM, that included the grass.”

“There may have been some contractor difficulty, but the major damage was caused by VANDALS!” he wrote.

Those numbers are not visible in the photo Trump posted to social media on Sunday.

FILE - Workers dismantle structures from Salute to America, an Independence Day event honoring the nation's 250th anniversary, as seen from the Washington Monument, on July 10, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)