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AS TRUMP PULLS BACK FROM PAKISTAN, SAUDI CROWN PRINCE SWOOPS IN WITH $20 BILLION ENERGY INVESTMENT: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman agreed to ratchet up investments in Pakistan’s energy sector ahead of President Trump’s touted pull-back Friday of U.S. aid to the South Asian nation.

The Saudi deal is meant to help Pakistan by shoring up its energy infrastructure, and Saudi Arabia by strengthening its ties with China in South Asia and giving it a boost in the race with Iran to exert influence on Pakistan via energy commerce.

“Saudi Arabia wants to make Pakistan’s economic development stable,” Saudi Energy Khalid al-Falih said last month. Stability, in this case, would mean building an oil refinery in partnership with Pakistan and a project already underway with China.

The crown prince made the $20 billion decision at the outset of his Asia tour that he concluded on Sunday. Pakistani parliamentarians gifted the Saudi leader with a gold-plated H&K submachine gun in honoring their request for increased investment in the country.

Trump is souring on Pakistan: Trump said Friday that he pulled back $1.3 billion in annual aid to the country because it was taking “very strong advantage of the United States.”

Trump also gave a nod of support for India to take action against Pakistan for a major terror attack that occurred earlier in the disputed region of Kashmir. Forty-four Indian officials were slain in the attack.

The Iran oil connection: India, Pakistan’s rival, has been benefiting from waivers from the Trump administration to continue to import oil from Iran after the U.S. re-imposed energy sanctions on November. The sanctions will remain in effect until the spring.

Meanwhile, Pakistan is forging ahead with a natural gas pipeline project with the Chinese to connect the country to Iran’s energy supplies.

Natural gas makes up 30 percent of Pakistan’s energy consumption. But even with the direct influx of energy coming from Iran, the country will likely remain in an energy crisis due to an overall lack of infrastructure.  

That’s where the Saudis come in: It is the country’s hope that Saudi Arabia can help it with its heavy reliance on fuel imports by investing in oil refineries.

As far as relations with Trump: The Saudis did take steps on Saturday to shore up diplomatic ties with the U.S. amid growing tensions between the two nations.

The Saudi government on Saturday announced the appointment of its first female ambassador to the United States, Princess Reema bint Bandar Al Saud. She is a Washington-educated diplomat, whose father was the kingdom’s longest-serving ambassador to Washington — Prince Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud.

Past controversies: Prince Bandar was known for the access he enjoyed with U.S. presidents, and for the sometimes controversial arms deals he attempted to broker with previous administrations.

Bandar was also tied to the Iran-Contra deal brokered by former President Ronald Reagan, and had ties to Adnan Khashoggi, the notorious Saudi arms dealer who was the uncle of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Princess Reema will undoubtedly have the challenging task of shoring up relations with the U.S. after last year’s murder of Khashoggi at the hands of Saudi government operatives in Istanbul. Khashoggi had resided in the U.S. Both Republicans and Democrats are looking for ways of holding the oil-rich kingdom accountable for the assassination.

Nuclear dealmaking: Also on Reema’s list will likely be a nuclear energy deal that the Trump administration has wanted to move forward on, but that has stalled due to the tensions. The House Oversight Committee is investigating conflicts of interests among former White House officials in pursuing the deal in its early stages.

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TRUMP WARNS OPEC TO ‘TAKE IT EASY’ ON OIL PRICE HIKE: Trump again criticized OPEC policy via a tweet Monday, warning the oil cartel to “take it easy” on its production cut agreement implemented this year to raise prices.

“Oil prices getting too high,” Trump said. “OPEC, please relax and take it easy. World cannot take a price hike – fragile!”

The Brent oil price, the global benchmark was $67.14 at the time of Trump’s tweet, up from about $61 on Dec. 5 — the last time the president criticized OPEC on social media.

The price quickly fell later Monday to about $65.69, after Trump tweeted.

Trump is frustrated by an agreement between Saudi Arabia-led OPEC with Russia, implemented last month, to cut 1.2 million barrels per day of oil production in an effort boost falling prices.

The oil price has since increased about 20 percent this year, a rise that can also be attributed to Trump administration sanctions on OPEC members Iran and Venezuela.

TRUMP’S BIG COAL SWITCH IN EUROPE: The Trump administration claims to be making significant headway in swaying Germany to import more U.S. natural gas, using the country’s recent plans to close all its coal plants by 2038 as leverage.

“In order to meet that goal, they have to replace it with something else, and that something else is going to be natural gas,” Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette told John in an interview.

Biggest coal importer in Europe: Around 40 percent of Germany’s energy comes from coal, making it one of the biggest users of the fossil fuel in the European Union. Coincidentally, the country is the largest importer of U.S. coal in Europe, even though it imported 19 percent less coal last year than it did in 2017.

But now with Germany’s decision last month to close all its coal plants in the next two decades, the administration sees the prospects for liquefied natural gas as even more favorable.

The outlook for U.S. natural gas in Germany: A major milestone in the U.S. talks with Germany came late last year when the country announced it was going to construct its first-ever liquefied natural gas import terminal on the Elbe River, close to Hamburg. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the government will be co-financing the project with private industry.

Brouillette said the Germans are now looking at building more import facilities in addition to the one announced last fall.

WHITE HOUSE TO CREATE PANEL QUESTIONING CLIMATE SCIENCE: The White House is preparing to create an informal panel that is reportedly meant to question the scientific consensus regarding climate change.

William Happer, National Security Council senior director, led a White House meeting on the subject Friday featuring top administration officials. Happer, who previously taught physics at Princeton University but is not a climate scientist, has challenged the scientific consensus.

The White House originally planned for Happer to a lead a new independent federal advisory committee challenging the consensus that climate change jeopardizes national security

What’s new: But the focus of the project shifted as a result of the meeting, the Washington Post reported.

The Trump administration instead plans to establish a broader, less formal “ad hoc” working group to challenge the scientific consensus that greenhouse gas emissions are driving climate change, and counter recent reports that have described a growing urgency around the need for policy to address the problem.

The working group structure would allow the panel to operate in secret by evading the requirements of the The Federal Advisory Committee Act. That law says federal advisory committees must meet in public, be subject to public records requests, and include a representative membership of differing views.

The White House is recruiting academics who reject mainstream climate science to participate in the working group, E&E News reported.

SENATE COULD VOTE THIS WEEK ON GREEN NEW DEAL: Senate Republicans will force Democrats and several of their presidential candidates to go on record as soon as this week on the Green New Deal.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is fast-tracking the Green New Deal resolution through the Senate, enabling a vote as early as this week.

The Senate could also vote this week on whether EPA Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler will stay on leading the agency, after McConnell filed cloture on the nomination before last week’s Congressional recess.

KIDS CONFRONT SEN. FEINSTEIN OVER GREEN NEW DEAL: A group of children confronted Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Friday, demanding she vote for the Green New Deal.

But the senator wasn’t having it.

“You know what’s interesting about this group? I’ve been doing this for 30 years. I know what I’m doing. You come in here, and you say, ‘It has to be my way or the highway.’ I don’t respond to that,” the California Democrat said. “I’ve gotten elected. I just ran. I was elected by almost a million-vote plurality, and I know what I’m doing. Maybe people should listen a little bit.”

A heavily edited video of the encounter outside the Democrat’s San Francisco office was posted on Twitter by the Sunrise Movement, a progressive climate advocacy group of young people. The group posted a full version of the 14-minute discussion on its Facebook page. The Sunrise Movement on Monday morning targeted Republicans, staging a protest in McConnell’s office attacking him for holding a “show vote” on the Green New Deal.

Feinstein proposes her own climate plan: Feinstein told the group the Green New Deal is not achievable because there is no way to pay for it and it would get no support from Republicans.

But she gave the group a draft of a resolution she plans to introduce soon with specifics on how to combat climate change.

Her resolution, posted online, would require the U.S. to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, an aggressive timeline that is still slower than the 2030 goal established by the Green New Deal.

It would also impose a price on carbon, restore Obama-era climate rules that Trump has moved to weaken, accelerate research and development into clean energy technologies, and more.

OCASIO-CORTEZ RIPS FEINSTEIN AND OTHER ‘CLIMATE DELAYERS’: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., criticized Feinstein and all “climate delayers” on Sunday after the senator clashed with children about the Green New Deal.

While cooking chili and addressing supporters during an Instagram live stream Sunday evening, Ocasio-Cortez took aim at Feinstein’s viral rebuttal to a group of kids urging her to support the the freshman congresswoman’s environmental resolution.

“The issue has gotten worse. So I don’t think that working on an issue for 30 years alone is what qualifies as — as what makes someone qualified to solve an issue,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a swipe at Feinstein.

During the live stream, Ocasio-Cortez also said that some people worry about whether they should have children because of climate change and further warned that “we have one shot” as “thousands” of people are dying due to its onslaught. The 29-year-old Democratic Socialist said “climate delayers are the new climate deniers” and politicians who seek to “fix” climate change with a carbon tax alone are “part of the problem,” arguing a real solution has to match the magnitude of the problem.

JAY INSLEE CONFIDENT HE CAN BE THE CLIMATE CHANGE CANDIDATE IN 2020: Washington Gov. Jay Inslee on Sunday shrugged off concerns he may struggle to differentiate himself in a crowded Democratic presidential primary field given other contenders have already begun campaigning on his key issue: Climate change.

“No, I’m not,” Inslee told the Washington Examiner at the National Governors Association winter meeting in Washington, D.C. when asked whether he was worried about the competition. “I feel very confident in this because no one can match my record of co-authoring a book on the subject, co-authoring legislation on the subject, starting the Sustainable Energy Caucus in the House, forming the United States Climate Alliance nationally. That is an unparalleled and unique record to run on.”

Inslee told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” he may announce his decision regarding 2020 as soon as this week.

Examining Inslee’s record: The Washington governor has stopped short of endorsing the Green New Deal, believing it’s unrealistic to decarbonize the economy by 2030.

But he says he has the policy acumen and experience to use the energy of the Green New Deal to fill in the details.

In December, he proposed a plan for his state to use 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2045.

His proposal would establish a clean fuel standard, similar to an existing program in California, requiring a reduction in carbon emissions from transportation fuels.

His plan also aims to boost electric vehicle use, build energy-efficient buildings, and phase out hydrofluorocarbon, potent greenhouse gases used in refrigeration.

GRAND JURY DELIBERATING WHETHER ZINKE LIED TO INVESTIGATORS: A grand jury is examining whether former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke lied to federal investigators, according to a report Friday.

Two Indian tribes allege Zinke did not approve their application to operate a casino in Connecticut because of political pressure from two Republican lawmakers who had received donations from a competing casino.

Grand jury witnesses have been asked whether anyone pressured Zinke to not grant the tribes’ casino application, the Washington Post reported.

The inspector general at the Interior Department began investigating the allegations a year ago. Investigators believe Zinke lied to them, and referred the probe to the Justice Department in October. Zinke resigned from his position at the start of the year amid investigations into whether he misused his position for personal gain. He has denied any wrongdoing in the casino case.

RUNDOWN

New York Times Toxic ‘forever chemicals’ in drinking water leave military families reeling

Washington Post EPA regulator skirts the line between former clients and current job

E&E News America’s strongest climate governor might be a Republican

Reuters Exxon asks U.S. regulator to block climate-change resolution