Repealing the Clean Power Plan is the hot agenda item for Pruitt as accusations about condominiums, expensive travel, pay raises and firing staff seem to have subsided for now.

The comment period on repealing the Obama-era climate plan closed at midnight.

Repealing the climate rules is central to the Trump deregulation agenda, and although the president likes to claim victory over the regulations, Pruitt has only begun the heavy lifting of repealing it. Final repeal may not come until the end of the year.

TRUMP COULD GET AN EARFUL ON CLIMATE CHANGE FRIDAY: Trump is sitting down Friday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a key advocate of the Paris climate change agreement, and he could hear a pitch for him rejoining the climate accord.  

Although trade and Iran are expected to top their agenda, climate issues could squeeze into the discussions, as they did when French President Emmanuel Macron visited the White House earlier this week.

• Major climate meeting: Merkel is hosting a two-week long United Nations climate meeting in Bonn beginning Monday. With the U.N. climate meeting hanging over Friday’s talks with Trump, it is likely Merkel will make a pitch for Trump rejoining the Paris Agreement, although she does not have anywhere near the clout that Macron has with the president.

• Climate and Iran go together: “On the heels of President Macron’s visit, Merkel will also want to reiterate the importance of maintaining the Iran nuclear deal, and sticking to climate agreements,” according to the Euronews editorial board’s rundown of what to expect during the visit. The news agency tracks developments from a European perspective.

• U.N. wants Trump back: The U.N. wants the U.S. back in, despite the optimism countries have about moving ahead with the agreement without the U.S.

• Bleaker prospects: The U.N.’s “Emissions Gap” report showed that the countries that signed onto the deal are not doing enough to limit greenhouse gas emissions. “Should the United States follow through with its stated intention to leave the Paris Agreement in 2020, the picture could become even bleaker,” the report read.

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PRUITT SURVIVES CONGRESSIONAL GRILLING: Pruitt got through his nearly six hours of hearings in the House Thursday, the first time he has visited Capitol Hill since allegations about his expenses and ethics arose.

Here’s a wrapup of what you might have missed:

REPUBLICANS STAND BY PRUITT, IN NOD TO TRUMP: Republicans who questioned Pruitt  showed again why the EPA administrator may survive.

Even as some Republicans question Pruitt’s fiscal integrity and judgment, his die-hard supporters — who share the constituents that form Trump’s base — stand by him because he is carrying out Trump’s deregulatory agenda.

• Non-judgment day: One Republican apologized to him. “I apologize for the abrasiveness of some of my colleagues trying to tarnish your image,” said Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-S.C.

Another cleared him of wrongdoing, as more than 10 federal investigations into Pruitt’s spending and ethics continue.

“The greatest sin you have committed is you have actually done what President Trump ran on,” said Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D.

More than a few GOP lawmakers described Pruitt as a victim, blaming his critics for his problems.

• Thanks for the hard work: Many others thanked Pruitt for his work on “saving” coal jobs, rolling back former President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan and the Waters of the U.S. rule, and promoting “transparency” with his “secret science” rule.

• Price paid: To be sure, Pruitt did not emerge unbruised from his hearings.

“Did he pay a price today? Half the questions were about his stewardship [of the EPA],” Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., who is chairman of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee that hosted the first hearing, said in a huddle with reporters after it ended.

Welcome message: But most House Republicans signaled they are standing by Pruitt, and that must be a welcome message to Trump.

PRUITT MULLING CALIFORNIA’S WAIVER FOR FUEL-EFFICIENCY RULES: Pruitt said Thursday he has not decided whether to allow California to keep a waiver that allows it to set its own fuel-efficiency and greenhouse gas rules for cars and light trucks.

“We are working very closely with California on the issue,” Pruitt told the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee. “It’s important we work together to achieve a national standard.”

• Down to earth: Pruitt said this month that the Obama administration’s rules that set a 54-mile per gallon standard by 2025, up from the current average of 38.3 mpg, were “not appropriate” in light of recent automobile sales data and should be revised.

• Two classes: The decision set up a fight with California and 12 other states that had adopted the tougher Obama standards as a way of reducing man-made greenhouse emissions that many climate scientists say contribute to climate change.

HE SAYS COURTS ‘STRUCK DOWN’ CLIMATE RULES HE IS REPEALING: Pruitt said the courts had struck down President Barack Obama-era climate rules for coal power plants, despite a midnight Thursday deadline for filing comments on the agency’s proposal to repeal those very rules.

“There were two efforts made by the previous administration to regulate CO2, and both of them were struck down by the courts,” Pruitt said at an afternoon hearing of the House Appropriations Committee’s interior subcommittee.

PRUITT BLAMES AMBASSADOR FOR TALKING UP ENERGY EXPORTS IN MOROCCO: Pruitt downplayed his trip to Morocco last year, saying the only reason he discussed natural gas exports there was because he was asked to by the Moroccan ambassador to the United States.

The primary purpose of the trip was to hash out the environmental component of a free-trade deal the U.S. finalized with Morocco in February, he told the interior subcommittee.

DOCUMENTS CONFIRM EPA REVERSED RAISES FOR TOP EPA AIDES: The EPA reversed the raises for two top aides to Pruitt the day after he gave an interview to Fox News on the topic, according to documents released by the agency Thursday, obtained by Politico.

Pruitt told Fox News April 4 that he killed the raises for the staffers, who joined Pruitt at the EPA after working for him when he was Oklahoma’s attorney general.

• Pay day: Millan Hupp received a 33 percent raise to make $114,590 as a top deputy to Pruitt, doing his scheduling and advance operation.

The other staffer, EPA senior counsel Sarah Greenwalt, received a more than 52 percent pay raise, from $107,435 to $164,200.

• Pruitt’s story: Pruitt on Thursday said EPA chief of staff Ryan Jackson authorized the raises after the White House refused to approve them.

Pruitt later said he was aware one of the employees would receive a raise, but not the other.

MOVING ON …. INTERIOR ANNOUNCING REVISIONS TO OFFSHORE DRILLING RULE: The Interior Department’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement Friday is expected to publish proposed revisions to a key offshore drilling rule imposed after 2010 BP oil spill.

The rewrite of the “Blowout Preventer Systems and Well Control Rule” reflects technical changes sought by the industry, which oil and natural gas groups say are modest and meant to align with industry standards, and are not a rollback of the regulation.

• ‘Flawed rule’: “BSEE’s decision to revise its technically flawed Well Control Rule will help to strengthen safer offshore operations,” said Erik Milito, the American Petroleum Institute’s director of upstream and industry operations, in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “These revisions will move us forward on safety, help the government better regulate risks and better protect workers and the environment.”

• Changes coming: The draft version of the proposed rule would remove an existing requirement that BSEE confirm the amount of pressure drillers propose to use in a new well is “safe.”  

It also would adjust the standard applied to pressure tests on a well, requiring that a test indicate that equipment could withstand a surge in pressure, not “show” that it could.

In addition, the current well-control rule mandates that companies finish an investigation and analysis within 120 days of an equipment failure. The revised proposed rule is expected to say the process should start within 120 days and does not provide a specific end date.

• Dems protest: Sens. Maria Cantwell of Washington, the top Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and other Democrats introduced legislation last week to codify the existing “Well Control Rule,” implemented under the Obama administration in 2016.

Last week marked the eighth anniversary of the the Deepwater Horizon disaster, when a blowout preventer device broke at the bottom of the sea, spewing almost 4 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico and killing 11 workers.

PERRY BEGINS DOLING OUT MILLIONS IN BID TO SAVE NUCLEAR POWER: Energy Secretary Rick Perry announced $60 million in federal funds on Friday as the first step in an effort to helping financially ailing nuclear plants, while advancing new technologies.

• Important step: “Making these new investments is an important step to reviving and revitalizing nuclear energy, and ensuring that our nation continues to benefit from this clean, reliable, resilient source of electricity,” Perry said.

• The big 13: The Energy Department selected 13 projects to receive about $60 million in federal funding for cost-shared research and development for advanced nuclear technologies, the agency said.

The funding selections are the first under a new quarterly application review and selection process. Perry intends to use up to $40 million of fiscal 2018 funding in the next two quarterly award cycles for innovative proposals.  

• Back to baseload: “Supporting existing as well as advanced reactor development will pave the way to a safer, more efficient, and clean baseload energy that supports the U.S. economy and energy independence,” he said. Baseload plants provide power around the clock.

• What about First Energy? The funds were announced amid the utility First Energy’s appeal to Perry to issue an emergency order to help its ailing nuclear power and coal plants, three of which are slated to close.

• Moody’s says all is well: Credit-rating giant Moody’s said Thursday that First Energy has enough flexibility to weather the closures and will emerge from its deal with its lenders a credit positive company.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION MARKS NEW ERA WITH FRANCE ON NUCLEAR ENERGY: Energy Secretary Rick Perry entered into a “new era” of nuclear power development with France on Thursday, using the state visit by French President Emmanuel Macron to sign a joint agreement to advance nuclear and clean energy.

“Today’s signing demonstrates the shared commitment of France and the United States to nuclear power as an affordable, safe, and secure source of clean energy,” Perry said.

• What they agreed to: The agency said the “signing ushers in a new era” of research and development cooperation between the two countries focused on enhanced collaboration in the area of advanced fast neutron sodium-cooled nuclear reactor technologies and new collaboration in artificial intelligence.

CRUZ UPS PRESSURE ON TRUMP TO OVERHAUL ETHANOL MANDATE: Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and House lawmakers upped the pressure on President Trump to make a decision soon on a way to save oil refineries from the costs of meeting the EPA’s ethanol mandate.

• Trump can solve: “The president can solve this with the stroke of a pen,” the Texas Republican said Thursday afternoon, joined by refinery workers and the steelworkers union. “It is the EPA that can do it,” but Trump must direct it to do so, he added.

• The winning plan? Cruz’s “win-win” solution would cap the cost of renewable identification number credits that independent refiners must buy to comply with the Renewable Fuel Standard’s ethanol mandate. His plan also would allow for more ethanol to be sold.

• Costs coming down: Independent refiner CVR said Thursday that it expects its costs from the ethanol mandate to fall this year to $80 million from nearly $249 million in 2017, according to the industry news group OPIS. That is down from the $200 million it had projected for the year.

FIRST SOLAR TO BUILD NEW PLANT IN OHIO AFTER TRUMP TARIFFS: First Solar said Thursday it plans to build a new solar module manufacturing plant near its existing plant in Perrysburg, Ohio.

The new plant will “further solidify our position as the largest U.S. solar module manufacturer,” CEO Mark Widmar said on the company’s first-quarter earnings call, adding that the project will create 500 jobs.

• Tariff impact: The move is the latest positive development for the domestic solar manufacturing industry after Trump imposed tariffs on imported solar panels this year.

SunPower announced last week that it is buying panel-maker SolarWorld, a bankrupt company that successfully petitioned the Trump administration to implement the tariffs.

• But tariffs ignored: First Solar did not cite the tariffs as the reason for its decision to build a new plant. The company credited strong solar demand and the GOP corporate tax reform.

AT LEAST 11 HURT IN ‘SONIC BOOM’ EXPLOSION AT WISCONSIN REFINERY: At least 11 people were injured Thursday afternoon in an explosion at an oil refinery in northern Wisconsin.

The explosion was at Husky Energy oil refinery in Superior, which employs 180 people.

One witness said the incident shook the air like a “sonic boom,” and those within a few blocks of the refinery felt the ground shake when it happened, according to one report. No deaths have been reported.

An emergency evacuation order was lifted Friday morning.

• Probing the cause: A Superior Police Department officer told reporters that an asphalt leak may have caused the massive explosion, though a cause has not been determined.

The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board has sent a team to investigate.

RUNDOWN

Wall Street Journal Companies feel impact of rising oil prices

New York Times ‘Mexico first’ campaign could end welcome for U.S. oil giants

Reuters Higher oil prices could be a game changer for Asia’s trade-gap trio

Bloomberg India nears power success but millions still in the dark

Associated Press Ford getting rid of all its cars except for two

New York Times How Oman’s rocks could help save the planet