Daily on Energy: Basically, no one really likes Trump’s ethanol plan

The Trump administration has a tendency to try “to be all things to all constituencies,” but in this case the two provisions in the Trump plan are “completely incompatible,” Brian Jennings, president and CEO of the American Coalition for Ethanol, told John.

Jennings flies to Washington next week with dozens of his members and ethanol producers for meetings with the administration and Congress, and the incompatibility of the rules’ provisions will be top on the list to discuss.

Jennings wants the Environmental Protection Agency to move forward with regulatory reforms that would allow the sale of 15-percent ethanol fuel blends year round, which is part of the Trump plan. But he said that the provisions of the plan that benefit the refiners, which makes up the second part of EPA’s proposed action, should be removed.

“We need this E15 rulemaking to be done, we need it to be done on time, and preferably we need it done free of these burdensome RIN reforms that would erase a lot of the gains that the administration is hoping to see from selling E15 year round,” Jennings said in an interview with John Thursday evening.

The RIN reforms refer to the ethanol credits that refiners must purchase to comply with the EPA’s Renewable Fuel Standard program, requiring refiners to blend an increasing amount of ethanol and other biofuels each year into the nation’s fuel supply.

The cost of the RIN credits have cut into refiners’ profits, as the prices from RINs can be subject to wild fluctuations.

The Trump plan tries to inject more predictability into the RIN trading market by increasing trading transparency to catch market manipulators. But the ethanol industry thinks it will only reduce the impetus for refiners to actually blend more E15, and invest in the infrastructure needed to sell more of the fuel.

EPA abuses: Jennings also said he will be “complaining loudly” to the administration next week about EPA’s illegal use of its small refinery exemption program to allow dozens of refiners off the hook when it comes to blending ethanol.

The ethanol coalition will be urging the administration to put the EPA back on track with the law when it comes to the refinery exemptions, which EPA has abused, said Jennings.

A Friday spent in Michigan: The entire renewable fuel industry — both ethanol and other biofuel segments — is poised to raise problems with EPA on Friday at the first public meeting on the ethanol proposal held at the Ann Arbor Marriott in Ypsilanti, Michigan. EPA’s automotive test lab is located in Ann Arbor.

“We will be saying that the RIN Reform proposals are baseless, since there is no evidence presented of RIN market manipulation,” Paul Winters, spokesman for the National Biodiesel Board, told John ahead of the proceedings.

What the refiners want from Trump’s plan: The refiners, similarly to the ethanol industry, also don’t like half of the Trump plan — the ethanol half.

“We are saying E15 is bad policy and likely illegal,” Frank Maisano, with the Bracewell law firm representing independent refiners, tells John.

He argues that removing the current restrictions on E15’s summertime use, as the plan proposes, may not be up to EPA to consider, suggesting that Congress may be the final arbiter in making that decision.

“However, the Coalition is pleased that EPA has recognized the serious need for significant reforms to the volatile and opaque RIN trading market,” he said.

Maisano addressed EPA on behalf of the Fueling American Jobs Coalition, which represents refiners, unions, and other stakeholders.

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RICK PERRY APPROVES NUCLEAR EXPORTS TO SAUDI ARABIA OVER DEMOCRATIC OBJECTIONS: Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Thursday took the first major steps to begin sharing U.S. nuclear power technology with Saudi Arabia.

The Energy Department said it authorized seven exports of unclassified civil nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia under nuclear technology transfer rules meant only for unclassified technology transfers.

The specifics of these authorizations are not being made public because they may contain proprietary business information from the companies exporting the technology, the Energy Department said.

Energy Department spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes said that no uranium enrichment or reprocessing technology has been authorized for export to Saudi Arabia, after lawmakers began criticizing Perry’s authorizations.

Democrats criticized the administration for making the authorizations without congressional oversight, saying the administration is using a loophole to get around oversight.

BERNHARDT SAYS REVISED OFFSHORE DRILLING ONLY IN ‘BEGINNING’ STAGES: Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said Thursday the agency is only in the “very beginning” stages of releasing its highly-anticipated revised offshore oil and gas drilling plan.

Bernhardt offered the update during his Senate confirmation hearing to continue leading the agency. The slower timeline contradicted other Interior officials who have said the new plan could be released within days or weeks.

The Interior Department’s draft proposal would open nearly all federal waters to oil and gas drilling, but coastal lawmakers and governors of both parties have pushed the agency to scale back the plan.

Bernhardt said Thursday he would consider state opposition in the revised offshore drilling plan.

“There is three factors we have to look at under the law — that is one big one,” Bernhardt said. “We start out big and winnow down [the amount of territory offered for leasing].”

EXELON CEO PRODS FERC TO GET A GRIP ON CLIMATE CHANGE: The CEO of the largest nuclear utility in the country on Thursday pressed federal grid regulators to come to grips with climate change by prioritizing incentives for emission-free technology in the markets overseen by Washington.

“We would ask that the commission be able to come to grips and address the climate imperatives that the states are driving us to comply with, to find a way to work with the market rules,” Exelon president and CEO Christopher Crane told Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Neil Chatterjee at a conference held at the agency’s headquarters.

Crane said his company is experiencing the effects of climate change through increased flooding and weather events affecting the grid and his company’s operations.

The all-day FERC conference was meant to assess the need for new market-based incentives to assist the utility industry in guarding against cyberattacks and other security events.

Crane, however, said the bigger priorities are instead climate change and state greenhouse gas rules, in addition to preserving transmission incentives and the right to receive a fair return on power line investments to deliver renewable energy.

AOC PLANNING VISIT TO KENTUCKY COAL COUNTRY: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who wants to eliminate fossil fuels as part of the Green New Deal, may visit Kentucky after Republican Rep. Andy Barr invited the firebrand freshman to talk to coal miners about her renewable energy agenda.

“We are taking a peek at when we could possibly go,” Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., told the Washington Examiner Thursday as she left the Capitol.

Barr, who represents central Kentucky, extended the invitation to Ocasio-Cortez during a House Financial Services hearing this week and told her she should get a closer look at struggling coal miners.

TRUMP PROMISES $300 MILLION FOR GREAT LAKES PROJECT: Trump on Thursday pledged to secure $300 million for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, a boon for states that will be key for the president as he seeks re-election.

“I support the Great Lakes. Always have,” Trump told a crowd of supporters during a rally in Grand Rapids, Mich. “They’re beautiful, they’re big, very deep. Record deepness, right?”

Among the states affected are key presidential battlegrounds, including Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

While Trump promised $300 million for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, the president’s fiscal 2020 budget proposed $30 million for the project, a 90 percent reduction in funding.

The Rundown

Washington Post In small towns across the nation, the death of a coal plant leaves an unmistakable void

Wall Street Journal Florida Power & Light to build world’s largest solar-powered battery system

Bloomberg Rockefeller’s climate resilience program said to be in jeopardy

Associated Press EPA reports no toxic releases at flooded Superfund sites

Calendar

MONDAY | April 1

All day, The hydro-electric industry holds its annual policy conference Waterpower Week, April 1-3.

TUESDAY | April 2

10 a.m., 366 Dirksen. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee holds hearing to examine the President’s budget request for the Department of Energy for Fiscal Year 2020.