PRUITT LOSING REPUBLICAN SUPPORT AS LAWMAKERS SEEK HEARINGS: Three key Senate Republicans on Monday called for Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt to face more hearings about his recent spending, ethics and hiring controversies, including Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., a reliable Pruitt ally from his home state.

• ‘Dig deeper’: “I think that a couple of us on the committee think it’s appropriate to have a hearing in so far as any accusation having to do with his office is concerned,” Inhofe told Politico, speaking of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

Committee members Shelley Moore Capito, W.Va., and John Boozman, R-Ark., also called for a hearing.

“Most people have concerns about some of the allegations,” Boozman told reporters. “At some point, he’ll be before the committee and we’ll dig deeper and see exactly what’s going on.”

• Hear me out: Pruitt is slated to visit Capitol Hill Thursday for the first time since a flood of allegations prompted investigations by Congress, the White House and the EPA’s inspector general.

He is scheduled to testify before a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee in the morning and at a House Appropriations subcommittee in the afternoon.

• Another Republican wants him to resign: A fourth Republican lawmaker has called for Pruitt to resign.

Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-N.J., who is retiring from Congress, said Pruitt isn’t the right man to lead the EPA given the agency’s mission.

• Out of ‘balance’: “Yes EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt should resign. Wrong fit from start for agency dedicated to protecting our environment. #EarthDay2018 reinforces our need to promote pristine planet via clean air & water, leaving it better for future generations. Requires leadership & balance,” LoBiondo said in a tweet.

• Running tab: Reps. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., and Carlos Curbelo, R-Fla., also have said Pruitt should resign.

PRUITT SET TO ANNOUNCE NEW ‘SECRET SCIENCE’ RULE: Pruitt on Tuesday is expected to announce a proposed rule that would block the EPA from using scientific studies that do not make public the raw data used in the research.

The embattled EPA administrator is expected to be surrounded by conservative allies when he announces the change at agency headquarters Tuesday afternoon at 2 p.m., according to reports.

Pruitt argues the proposed rule, subject to a 30-day comment period, would improve transparency. It fits with a policy he implemented last year to boot scientists from key advisory boards to the EPA.

It mirrors legislation proposed by House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, who tried to impose a similar requirement through legislation, but it failed to pass. Supporters of the idea said they want to end the use of “secret science” in rulemaking.

• Potential impact: The policy would have the effect of restricting the science the EPA could use when drafting environmental regulations, which critics say 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.

Some scientific research uses personal health information from individuals who participate knowing the details are not to be made public but used to inform policy-making.

Major studies that have depended on confidential information include a major 1993 study by Harvard University linking air pollution to premature deaths.

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ALL’S QUIET ON THE TRUMP-MACRON CLIMATE FRONT: President Trump appeared to almost go out of his way not to talk about energy issues on day one of French President Emmanuel Macron’s state visit to Washington.

• Not a word: Climate change, of course, was never uttered in any of the discussions coming out of the White House on Monday surrounding the French leader’s visit.

Dalibor Rohac with the conservative American Enterprise Institute put it this way: “There is no pretending that Macron and Trump aren’t radically different leaders, both in substance and in style. One of Macron’s signature issues is fighting climate change, while Trump promised to bring back coal.”

• Perhaps today? But that could change Tuesday, because reporters might ask climate or energy questions at a press conference scheduled just before noon.

But for now, don’t expect much on the energy front coming from this visit. That’s a complete change for Macron, who just left Canada where he and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau talked about a renewed commitment to climate change.

• New climate reality? It could be a sign of the new climate reality between Trump and world leaders, many of whom differ from him on the issue. They don’t raise the issue unless Trump wants to, because there’s really nowhere the conversation can go.

• Trump ain’t changing: Former Vice President Al Gore drove that point home at an Axios event Tuesday morning. “I don’t think he’s going to change on that,” Gore said on Trump’s position on the Paris Agreement.

Even with the one-year anniversary of Trump withdrawing from the Paris climate deal approaching on June 1, the United Nations’ process for leaving the accord is a multi-year affair that could mean little for Trump in the end, Gore said.

• Betting on the next president: “The first day on which the U.S. could legally withdraw from the Paris agreement happens to be the day after the next presidential election,” Gore said. “The new president could give 30 days notice and the U.S. is right back in the agreement.”

Macron knows it will take three more years for Trump to pull the U.S. out of the Paris deal. He also knows that Trump can’t renegotiate the terms of the U.S. obligations under Paris, because under the non-binding Paris agreement, a country can only increase its obligation to cut emissions, which Trump doesn’t appear willing to do.

• Other issues top climate: The threat of Trump withdrawing from a nuclear arms deal with Iran has far greater ramifications for the Europeans currently than the climate issue. Keeping the deal intact is Europe’s main focus, with Trump’s tariff policies.

Next up: German Prime Minister Angela Merkel, who, unlike Macron, does not have a great rapport with Trump, will be in Washington on Friday. We’ll see if a climate-free discussion will also characterize her visit.

DEMOCRATS RAISE PRESSURE ON PRUITT IN GOWDY PROBE: Republican House Oversight and Government Reform Trey Gowdy received a document dump from top Senate and House Democrats Monday, urging the chairman to go deeper in his investigation of Pruitt.

“These new documents raise serious questions about EPA’s security expenditures,” the Democrats told the South Carolina Republican in a letter focused on Pruitt’s spending on a $43,000 secure phone booth.

• Abuse of authority: “In our view, the documents provided to us may constitute evidence of a ‘violation of law, rule, regulation, gross mismanagement, a gross waste of funds, an abuse of authority, or a substantial and specific danger to public health or safety,’” the Democrats wrote, citing federal rules governing personnel management and proper administrative procedure.

TRUMP TRIES TO ‘GET AHEAD OF THE BLAME GAME’ ON RISING PUMP PRICES: Trump’s declaration that crude oil prices are “artificially high” may have been an early move to deflect ire from U.S. consumers angry about rising gasoline prices headed into summer and election season.

• Sky high: Oil prices reached a three-year high last week, approaching $70 per barrel from below $30 per barrel in 2016, which is driving up the price of gasoline.

Pump prices were $2.79 per gallon on average nationwide Monday, up 5 cents from last week and 35 cents from a year ago, according to the Energy Information Administration. Experts say drivers this summer could pay the highest prices for gasoline since 2014, although less than the high in 2008, when the average topped $4 a gallon.

• Pocketbook issue: “There is some effect on pump prices attributable to higher oil prices,” Kevin Book, managing director for research at ClearView Energy, told Josh. “It’s always the largest component, but there is also a seasonal component, where there is a change in gasoline prices every year around summer driving season. When the two hit at once, it hits the pocket book the hardest.”

In criticizing OPEC for “artificially” raising oil prices by cutting supply, Trump may be signaling to his political base that he fears high prices could hurt consumers.

• Not my problem: “He really wants to get ahead of the blame game on oil prices rising,” said Joseph McMonigle, president of the Abraham Group, a consulting firm, and a former chief of staff of the Energy Department in the George W. Bush administration. “He is trying to establish it’s the OPEC agreement raising prices and not his policies.”

DEMS FIGHT OVER ZINKE’S PLAN TO USE ENERGY REVENUE FOR NATIONAL PARK REPAIRS: Pipeline leaks, broken bathrooms, and potholed roads at America’s national parks have pushed some Democrats to hold their nose and support a Trump administration idea on how to fix it.

• Repairman: Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has proposed paying for billions of dollars of repairs and maintenance in national parks with money the government collects from the development of oil, natural gas, wind, and solar energy on public lands.

The Interior Department has a $16 billion maintenance backlog. Of that amount, the National Park Service has the largest share, $11.6 billion in 2017 for the nation’s 417 national park sites.

Bipartisan coalitions in both chambers of Congress have endorsed the proposal with matching legislation.

• ‘Greener’ pastures: “I don’t understand other Democrats who are opposed to this,” Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Ore., a cosponsor of one of the bills, told Josh. “The money comes from oil and gas revenue, but what’s greener than our national parks system? Let’s be smart about this for gosh sake and use this money for something that promotes the values I’d like to think thoughtful Democrats and Republicans both have with our national parks.”

But other Democrats oppose the plan, arguing it’s wrong to tie the health of national parks to the Trump administration’s aim to expand drilling.

• ‘Backwards’ plan: “We are going to be incentivizing extraction of oil and gas,” Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, told Josh. “I understand the desperation some Democrats feel as it pertains to the maintenance backlog, and I absolutely agree with them. I am willing to talk. But the premise of the plan is the more extraction, the more we take care of the backlog. And that’s backwards.”

Read more, here.

COURT SLAMS TRUMP’S PLAN TO GET RID OF FINES ON GAS GUZZLERS: A federal appeals court ruled Monday that the Trump administration cannot repeal an Obama-era regulation that would raise fines on automakers for not meeting Department of Transportation fuel-efficiency rules.

The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York issued a mandate Monday throwing out the Department of Transportation’s action to indefinitely delay raising penalties under its Corporate Average Fuel Economy program.

• Court doesn’t say much: The three-judge panel issued a brief order that gave little detail explaining the reasons for the ruling, saying the opinion would follow “in due course.” The court said it will issue its mandate to the agency “forthwith.” Once in receipt of the mandate, the agency must act in accordance with the court’s order to vacate.  

• Who sued: The states that sued included California, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, and Vermont.

PRUITT SAYS BURNING WOOD IS RENEWABLE ENERGY: The EPA will begin treating energy created by burning trees as renewable, the same as wind and solar.

Biomass from burning wood to produce electricity will be considered carbon-neutral, the EPA announced Monday.

The recent spending bill passed by Congress had directed the EPA, Energy Department and Agriculture Department to “reflect the carbon-neutrality of forest bioenergy and recognize biomass as a renewable energy source.”

• Industry approval: Georgia and other large timber states lobbied the EPA to consider biomass carbon-neutral when the states were facing limits on carbon emissions from power plants required by the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan, one of its key climate change initiatives. Pruitt has begun a process for repealing and replacing the Clean Power Plan, which was never implemented because of court challenges.

The EPA says it will consider biomass as carbon neutral when devising regulatory actions on energy production from power plants, such as a potentially revised, more modest Clean Power Plan.

• Scientific dissent: Despite Pruitt’s action, EPA’s science advisers haven’t come to a consensus on whether biomass is carbon-neutral. Many scientists say that while biomass is a renewable resource, it is not carbon-neutral because burning wood for energy releases large amounts of carbon all at once, faster than what is absorbed by newly planted forests.

COMMENT PERIOD CLOSES ON INTERIOR’S ROLLBACK OF METHANE WASTE RULE: The public comment period closed Monday night on the Interior Department’s proposal to rollback the Obama-era Methane Waste Prevention Rule.

The Bureau of Land Management received more than 488,000 comments on the proposal.

• Verdict says: The left-leaning Center for Western Priorities performed an analysis on a random sample of 2,000 of those comments, and found 99.8 percent of them were opposed to the proposed rollback of the rule, which required oil and natural gas companies to capture and pay royalties on methane produced during drilling.

• Packing punch: Methane, the main component in natural gas, is more potent than carbon dioxide, although its emissions are relatively short-lived.

The Republican-controlled Senate last year failed to repeal the rule.

EGYPT IS EUROPE’S SHALE REVOLUTION: The European Union is betting on other supplies of natural gas besides those coming from the United States by creating inroads in Egypt.

The EU’s energy and climate czar, Miguel Arias Canete, is in the North African natural gas giant this week signing a new bilateral memorandum of cooperation to get access to the fossil fuel, while also talking about climate change.

On Monday, Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail held talks with Canete, where the discussion focused squarely on energy cooperation.

• The EU’s goal is twofold: Make Egypt a clean energy leader, while making it a steady natural gas supplier for Europe.

“Egypt can lead the way of the clean energy transition in the Eastern Mediterranean and thus contribute to the Paris climate goals and the worldwide decarbonisation effort,” Canete said ahead of signing a cooperation agreement with Egypt Monday. “Likewise, Egypt is becoming an upcoming important gas and electricity hub that can provide energy security for the EU and for the entire region.”

• It’s a big one: Egypt opened its Zohr natural gas field in December, one of the largest new natural gas finds in the world. In tandem with another large field being developed by Israel, the Mediterranean is set to become a rich source of fuel for Europe in the next few years.

• Competition for U.S. shale: That will add to the competition for the European market and give U.S. shale gas exports a run for their money. Trump’s energy dominance agenda hinges on American energy exports.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION LEADS TRADE DELEGATION ON NUCLEAR POWER: The U.S nuclear industry joined the departments of Commerce, Energy, and State Monday in leading a trade delegation to Saudi Arabia this week.

The delegation includes 30 people representing 20 companies involved in nuclear energy, the Nuclear Energy Institute said Tuesday.

The Trump administration has been attempting to strike an agreement with the kingdom to sell it U.S. nuclear power plants.

THE SCOTT PRUITT OF SAUDI ARABIA: Meanwhile, Pruitt’s counterpart in Saudi Arabia, Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture Abdulrahman bin Abdulmohsen Fadhly, took time out to discuss how the kingdom is addressing climate change under its Vision 2030 plan.

The plan is meant to wean Saudi Arabia’s economy off crude oil after the price began to sink three years ago, partly because of the U.S. shale boom.

• Climate workshop kicks off: On Monday, he inaugurated the first International Workshop on Combating Desertification and Promoting Arid Lands Management Innovations, according to an official government news dispatch.

The workshop includes four main topics: sustainable management and rehabilitation of arid and hyper-arid lands and forests; innovations in saline environments management and using renewable resources; combating desertification in arid-lands; and the impact of climate change and desertification.

RUNDOWN

Wall Street Journal Energy, a bright spot in NAFTA talks, bogged down by dispute over rule change

Reuters Trump’s revenge: U.S. oil floods Europe, hurting OPEC and Russia

New York Times How windmills as wide as jumbo jets are making clean energy mainstream

Washington Post The world needs to store billions of tons of carbon. It could start in a surprising place.

Bloomberg Electric buses are hurting the oil industry

Politico Coal baron Blankenship fading in W.Va. Senate primary