PRUITT TO IGNORE SPENDING, ETHICS ALLEGATIONS IN CONGRESSIONAL TESTIMONY: Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt will ignore allegations involving his spending, travel and ethics when he opens his testimony before Thursday’s much-anticipated House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing.

Pruitt’s opening statement, posted Wednesday in advance of the hearing, focuses on policy, with his usual message about returning the EPA to a “back to the basics agenda,” emphasizing his cleaning up of Superfund sites, combating lead in drinking water, and giving more power to states.

The hearing is intended to focus on the EPA’s fiscal 2019 budget request, but lawmakers are expected to grill Pruitt on recent scandals that have put his job in jeopardy.

“With this budget, we are committed to fulfilling our mission of protecting public health and the environment,” Pruitt will say, according to the prepared testimony. “With support from our state and local partners, and by working with each of you and your colleagues in Congress, we can make a real difference for communities across America.”

WHITE HOUSE WARNS PRUITT TO ADDRESS ALLEGATIONS IN ‘SHORT ORDER’: Pruitt must address questions about various ethical allegations against him “in short order,” White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said Wednesday.

• ‘Serious concerns’: “I can tell you that the president and the White House are aware of these issues and these stories, that they raise some serious concerns, there’s no question about that,” Gidley told NPR. “We’re looking into those questions and concerns as well.”

“We know what’s going on over there. We’ve seen the reports and it raises questions,” Gidley added. “And the EPA and, quite frankly, Mr. Pruitt are going to have to answer those questions in short order.”

• Probes pile up: The White House is investigating Pruitt, as are various congressional committees, and the EPA’s inspector general for scandals including his $50-per-night condo rental deal with the wife of a energy lobbyist, massive spending on security, frequent first-class travel, and retaliation against employees who question his judgement.

• Bipartisan grilling: Pruitt is scheduled to testify before a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee Thursday morning and at a House Appropriations subcommittee in the afternoon.

PRESSURE INTENSIFIES FOR PRUITT AHEAD OF THURSDAY’S HOUSE VISIT:  Even Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., one of Pruitt’s strongest supporters, is mulling whether or not Pruitt has a future leading the agency.

Inhofe gave a telling answer when asked by reporters if Pruitt should resign.

• Pick your poison: “It depends on which ones we are talking about,” Inhofe said of the various allegations surrounding Pruitt.

“If some of the things were true, I’d have to look at that,” Inhofe added. “I’m checking out to see how authentic the accusations were. If they are authentic it could have an effect But sometimes things are not all that authentic.”

• Tied at the hip: Inhofe, a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said he wants his panel to conduct an oversight hearing with Pruitt.

Inhofe represents Pruitt’s home state, and he introduced the EPA administrator at his confirmation hearing. Pruitt has often been reported to be interested in succeeding Inhofe, 83, when he retires.

• Senate hearing in May: Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, meanwhile, told reporters Tuesday she plans to invite Pruitt to testify next month before the Senate appropriations subcommittee that oversees the EPA’s budget.

• Waiting on the White House: Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., the chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, said Tuesday he is awaiting the results of a White House investigation of Pruitt’s ethics, as well as Pruitt’s performance in the House hearings, before determining next steps.

“I have questions about use of taxpayer dollars. I want to make sure taxpayers are getting value for their dollars, make sure money is being spent appropriately. So there continue to be serious questions,” Barrasso told reporters Tuesday. “We’ll see what comes out of the hearings on Thursday.”

• Pruitt shrugs off White House help: The EPA was offered assistance from the White House in preparing for the back-to-back House hearings, which he declined to take. Instead, he is opting for help from aides he has worked with since he was Oklahoma’s attorney general.

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DEMOCRATS TO HOST PRESS CONFERENCE CALLING ON PRUITT TO RESIGN: Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee said Wednesday they will host a press conference with environmental leaders before Pruitt’s Capitol Hill testimony reiterating that he should resign.

Last week, Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., and Sen. Tom Udall. D-N.M., led a bicameral resolution, co-sponsored by 170 Democrats of Congress, calling for Pruitt’s resignation.  

Casto and Rep. Paul Tonko, D-N.Y., will lead the press conference at 9 a.m. Thursday, with speakers from the Sierra Club, National Wildlife Federation, Earthjustice, and more.

VISIT FROM THE GHOST OF EPA PAST: Just a mere few hours after Pruitt joined a meeting between President Trump and the French president, a blast from the EPA’s past graced the White House.

Lisa Jackson, President Barack Obama’s first EPA administrator, was at the White House as a guest for Trump’s first state dinner, for French President Emmanuel Macron.

Jackson, who now serves as Apple’s vice president of environmental policy and social initiatives and who attended with Apple CEO Tim Cook, was Trump’s guest along with congressmen, governors and members of Trump’s Cabinet — but not Pruitt.

• Could it be fate? “We have no alternative but to be here for an appointment with history,” Macron said in his toast.

• Apple CEO sits down for meeting with Trump: Trump and Cook are scheduled to meet at the White House later Wednesday. No details were provided on what they will discuss, but Jackson’s joining Cook at Tuesday night’s dinner could be telling.

Cook has met with Trump in the past.

CONSERVATIVES HAIL PRUITT AS HE ANNOUNCES RULE TO STOP ‘SECRET SCIENCE’: Conservative lawmakers hailed Pruitt, who, surrounded by supporters, announced a proposed rule Tuesday that would block the agency from using scientific studies that do not make public the raw data used in the research.

• Safety net: The embattled EPA administrator was joined by conservative allies when he announced the rule change at agency headquarters, with no media present because he did not invite reporters.

• What’s at stake: Pruitt argues the proposed rule would improve transparency and ensure science used in policymaking can be independently verified. Critics say the rule would allow the agency to justify weaker rules because it has less research to work with and can favor information that fits its goals, rather than relying on the best science.

• Stand by you: Conservatives in Congress agreed with Pruitt. The proposed rule is modeled after legislation proposed by House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas. Smith attended Pruitt’s announcement, with Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., who authored a mirroring bill in the Senate.

“I am pleased Administrator Pruitt is taking positive steps to improve scientific transparency at the agency,” Rounds said Tuesday.

• Can’t do better: Smith, a leading climate change skeptic who is retiring, used his remarks to reinforce support that Pruitt maintains from many conservatives.

“I know of no administration official who goes on the offensive, is not intimidated, and does the right thing regardless,” Smith said. “We couldn’t have a better head of the EPA.”

• The crux: The comments show the central challenge in predicting Pruitt’s future at the EPA. Even as some Republicans question, and even repel, Pruitt’s spending, ethics, and hiring decisions, his die-hard supporters stand by him, viewing him as the vessel to carry out a degregulatory agenda they’ve always wanted.

GOP TELLS PRUITT ‘DO NOT DISCLOSE’ INFO ON ETHANOL WAIVERS: Barrasso doesn’t want Pruitt to release details about which companies he is giving waivers from the nation’s ethanol mandate.

Barrasso and Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee’s air pollution panel, reiterated praise they gave Pruitt in March for considering helping small refiners in trouble economically because of the high cost of buying ethanol credits, or RINs, to abide by EPA’s Renewable Fuel Standard.

“We also expressed deep concern about the attacks on hardship relief and the efforts of some to obtain the confidential business information of small refineries,” Barrasso and Capito wrote in a letter sent Tuesday.

However, they point out that since they warned Pruitt, Reuters has obtained the information. They urged Pruitt to redouble his efforts to ensure it doesn’t continue to happen.

• Do not disclose: ““Disclosure of this information would not only compound the harm to small refineries, but may move markets for renewable identification numbers (RINs) and publicly traded companies.”

• Pruitt under pressure: Pruitt faces a complicated matter. First, Barrasso warns of harm to the markets for RINs, which refiners need to comply with the ethanol mandate. Second, the ethanol industry and other biofuel groups argue that Pruitt’s “secret” waivers for refiners to bypass the RFS is illegal. They want to obtain the names and data from EPA on how and why the refiners were granted the waivers.

A group of several Republicans led by Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa is upping the pressure on Pruitt to hand over all information on the waivers and how EPA justifies granting the relief to some of the largest companies in the country, going outside of EPA’s waiver authority.

• Pruitt on Capitol Hill: The RFS is sure to come up  at Thursday’s hearings. While he’s testifying, refinery works plan to demonstrate on Capitol Hill.

EPA TO GIVE MILLIONS IN GRANT MONEY TO RESEARCH LEAD IN WATER: The EPA will announce Wednesday that it is giving nearly $4 million to researchers to help detect and control lead in drinking water, according to a statement early by the Washington Examiner.

Wednesday is the fourth anniversary of the water crisis in Flint, Mich., in which corroded pipes caused by a change in fresh water sources tainted the city’s drinking water with lead.

• Anniversary gift: The EPA is marking the anniversary by announcing it will provide $2 million in funding to Virginia Tech University to help the school establish an engineering project with “citizen scientists” to help communities limit exposure to lead in drinking water through sampling, outreach, and modeling.

“We will tap a growing ‘crowd’ of consumers who want to learn how to better protect themselves from lead, and in the process, also create new knowledge to protect others,” said Marc Edwards, a Virginia Tech scientist credited with discovering the Flint crisis who is leading the project.

EPA also says it will give $2 million to the Water Research Foundation in Denver. The foundation plans to use the money to create a risk-based model to mitigate lead exposure from drinking water, including at houses and among children and pregnant women.

• ‘Eradicating’ lead: Pruitt has made combating lead in drinking water a hallmark of his “back to the basics agenda.”

Lead is a heavy metal that was used for decades in pipes and paint that is especially harmful to children, causing learning disabilities and slower growth.

ADMINISTRATION WRAPS UP NUCLEAR POWER TALKS WITH SAUDI ARABIA: The Energy, Commerce and State department wrapped up a three-day visit to Saudi Arabia Wednesday on buying American-made nuclear power plants.

The Nuclear Energy Institute industry trade group was part of the delegation and is holding a press conference later Wednesday on how it went.

Meanwhile, proponents of a U.S.-Saudi nuclear deal are making the rounds on Capitol Hill, urging senators on the Foreign Relations Committee to support the nuclear deal with the oil-rich kingdom, but only with the nonproliferation safeguards. They just don’t want the safeguards to be too much, too soon.

• Continue the deal: “We write to urge you to support the conclusion of a 123 agreement between the United States and the kingdom of Saudi Arabia that meets all the requirements of U.S. law and that erects effective barriers to prevent the misuse of civil nuclear power for nuclear explosive or military purposes, but does not seek to impose conditions that the

Saudis will ultimately reject,” according to a letter from a coalition of advanced nuclear industries called the Nuclear Innovation Alliance.

• What the group wants: The group wants more advanced and safer nuclear power plant options to be built globally. It wants an international nuclear test bed to be created for the advancement of new forms of nuclear power.

It takes issue with Saudi Arabia’s recent threats of pursuing nuclear weapons if Iran is allowed to restart its nuclear bomb enterprise.

• No leg up for competitors: “In short, … Riyadh will buy its nuclear reactors from China, Russia, France or South Korea and thereby undercut the U.S. ability to influence nuclear power, security and safety programs in Saudi Arabia,” the letter read.

OHIO UTILITY CONFIRMS IT IS SHUTTERING THREE PLANTS: FirstEnergy Solutions, a subsidiary of Ohio-based utility FirstEnergy, confirmed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Wednesday that it is closing three nuclear power plants, two in Ohio, and a third in Pennsylvania, over the next three years.

The utility cited “severe economic challenges” in confirming its decision.

• DOE on the spot: The Energy Department is expected soon to decide whether to grant FirstEnergy’s petition for an emergency order under section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act to keep alive its ailing coal and nuclear plants.

FirstEnergy Solutions recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and critics have said granting the emergency request would amount to a bailout that would undermine competitive wholesale power markets that have reduced prices for consumers.

HOUSE COMMITTEE BEGINS PROBE OF VOLKSWAGEN OVER EMISSIONS CHEATING: The House Science, Space, and Technology Committee has begun a new investigation into charges that Volkswagen is continuing to cheat on overseas emissions tests.

• ‘Perpetuating scheme’: In a letter first obtained by Bloomberg, committee Chairman Smith said the panel is probing reports that Volkswagen “continues to circumvent global emissions requirements,” noting the automaker’s headquarters was recently searched by the German authorities.

“Recently, the Science Committee obtained information from a confidential source supporting the law enforcement actions and raising concerns that VW is perpetuating this scheme in Europe and elsewhere globally,” the letter said.

• VW responds: A Volkswagen spokeswoman told Bloomberg the company had “cooperated fully with U.S. government and regulatory agencies regarding its compliance with U.S. emissions standards.” She added that “the committee appears to be seeking information outside its jurisdiction, including about diesel vehicle emissions and repairs in other countries.”

The automaker faced federal prosecution, costing Volkswagen more than $26 billion in fines.

RUNDOWN

New York Times Pruitt’s security chief moonlighted for tabloid publisher that backed Trump

Wall Street Journal Yemen’s rebels step up attacks on Aramco oil facilities

Bloomberg Permian Basin is growing into the largest oil patch in the world

Chron.com Shell authorizes first major deep water Gulf project this year

Forbes Production cost of renewable energy now ‘lower’ than fossil fuels

Bloomberg The fighting has begun over who owns land drowned by climate change