“As administrator, I have to take responsibility to make changes to ensure in each of these areas we get results and show the American people we are good stewards of taxpayer resources, stay true to the EPA’s mission and I am committed to doing that,” Pruitt said in much-anticipated testimony before a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee.

“I want to address each of these issues and provide information and will work with Congress to provide any and all information that helps answer those questions.”

• Agenda derailed: But Pruitt said the allegations and multiple ongoing federal investigations of his behavior “have been a distraction to our agenda, and that is troublesome.”

“I did not expect this work to be easy,” he said. “There have been very troubling reports. I have nothing to hide. The responsibility for identifying and making changes rests with me and no one else. But facts are facts. A lie doesn’t become true just because it’s on the front page.”

• ‘Record straight’: The embattled EPA chief said he wants to set “the record straight” on issues including his $50-per-night condo rental deal with the wife of an energy lobbyist who had business before the EPA, spending more than $3 million on security, frequent first-class travel, and charges that he retaliated against employees who questioned his judgment.

“Those who attack EPA and me want to derail the president’s agenda and priorities,” Pruitt said. “I will not let that happen.”

EPA’S PROGRESS UNDERCUT BY ALLEGATIONS, REPUBLICAN SAY: Republicans on the committee said they worry Pruitt’s problems are distracting from the agency’s deregulatory agenda.

“I am concerned the good progress being made on the policy front is being undercut by allegations about your management of the agency and use of its resources,” said Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee. “These issues are too persistent to ignore and I know that many members are looking for more clarity from you today.”

• ‘Victim’: Other Republicans described Pruitt as a “victim” of Democratic venom towards his policies, and vowed to stand by him.

“You’re not the first person to be a victim of Washington politics,” said Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas. “That is what is happening to you.”

PRUITT BOBS AND WEAVES OVER APPROVING HUGE RAISES FOR CLOSE AIDES: Rep. Frank Pallone, the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, asked about reports that Pruitt removed or reassigned employees who questioned his spending on security and travel.

“I don’t ever recall a conversation to that end,” Pruitt responded.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” the New Jersey Republican said.

“You shouldn’t take that as a yes,” Pruitt shot back.

• It wasn’t me: Pruitt also repeated an earlier assertion that EPA chief of staff Ryan Jackson, formally authorized massive raises for close aides to Pruitt who used to work for him when he was Oklahoma’s attorney general. The EPA gave the raises after the White House refused to approve them.

“Those were delegated to Mr. Jackson,” Pruitt said. “The inspector general recognized that,” he added, noting a recent EPA inspector general report that found Jackson signed forms authorizing the pay increases, each time writing “Ryan Jackson for Scott Pruitt.”

The EPA said those raises have been reversed, but the inspector general was unable to confirm that claim.

“On respect to the raises I was not aware of the amount nor was I aware of the bypassing of process,” Pruitt said.

• IDK: In later questioning, Pruitt similarly said he “did not” know that the EPA failed to notify Congress before it purchased a $43,000 secure phone booth for his office, which the Government Accountability Office said violated federal law.

PRUITT SAYS HE HAS ‘MADE CHANGES’ TO TRAVEL: Pruitt again cited “unprecedented” threats against him for prompting his frequent first-class travel.

The EPA has spent at least $105,000 on Pruitt’s first-class flights, arguing that he needs to travel away from other passengers because of threats to his safety.

“I have since made changes to that,” Pruitt said Thursday, indicating he is now flying coach more often.

Welcome to Daily on Energy, compiled by Washington Examiner Energy and Environment Writers John Siciliano (@JohnDSiciliano) and Josh Siegel (@SiegelScribe). Email [email protected] for tips, suggestions, calendar items and anything else. If a friend sent this to you and you’d like to sign up, click here. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email and we’ll add you to our list.

TONKO CALLS SCOTT PRUITT A SKILLED GRIFTER NOT ‘ABOVE THE LAW’: Pruitt is a skilled grifter who is not above the law, said Rep. Paul Tonko of New York, the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s environment panel.

Pruitt has a “propensity for grift,” Tonko said, as the first of two hearings began Thursday on the EPA’s fiscal 2019 budget.

“No one is above the law,” Tonko scolded. “The mounting evidence of serious ethics violations … cannot go unscrutinized,” he said.

• The trial begins: Democrats on the committees want to turn the hearings into a grilling of Pruitt over the series of ethics and spending accusations.

REPUBLICAN OFFERS PRUITT THE ‘PARTY JET’ DEFENSE: Republican Rep. Joe Barton on Thursday defended Pruitt’s lavish travel budget because it didn’t entail “party jets” used by rock stars.

• Not a rock star: “Have you ever rented a party jet?” the Texas Republican asked the EPA chief.

“No, congressman,” Pruitt said with a smirk.

“That’s good,” Barton said.

• Clinton’s record: Barton explained that an “energy secretary named Hazel O’Leary under the Clinton administration, she leased party jets that were used by rock stars. Not one time, but several times.”

SHIMKUS SHUTS DOWN HEARING TO SHOO AWAY PROTESTERS: Protesters managed to disrupt the Pruitt hearing, forcing Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., to halt Barton’s questioning to admonish the protesters, asking them to keep quiet or leave the hearing.

• Magic words threat: “We have guests in the gallery. You are our guests. I have some magic word that will then cause you to have to leave,” Shimkus said.

• Not being ‘decorous’: “I do not want to say that. So, if you would respect. We asked for decorum. That’s not being decorous, whatever the word is?”

PROTESTS GET CREATIVE: GIANT PRUITT HEAD, EPA SECURITY DETAIL: Most of one group’s protesters were outside the Rayburn House Office Building where the hearing was being held, handing out posters and fliers at all staff entrances. The building was surrounded, so to speak, according to Friends of the Earth, a national environmental group leading demonstrations against Pruitt.

“So, there are protesters outside of Rayburn, holding posters, and handing out fliers at all the staff entrances,” a spokeswoman told John.

• Giant Pruitt head cited: “We also have someone wearing a giant plaster Pruitt head and a few people with him doing street theater as Pruitt’s ‘security detail,’” she said.

• Digital condo ad on a truck: “We also have a digital truck with the condo poster circling around the Capitol, the House office buildings and the Senate office buildings,” she said.

Friends of the Earth President Erich Pica is inside the hearing room.

For more coverage of Pruitt’s House hearings, visit washingtonexaminer.com.

AS PRUITT TESTIFIES, DEADLINE LOOMS ON CLEAN POWER PLAN REPEAL: Thursday is the last day to weigh in on Pruitt’s proposal to repeal the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan.

• Green flood: Environmentalists want to flood the EPA with hundreds of thousands of comments in favor of preserving the Clean Power Plan on existing coal power plants.

The coal industry wants Pruitt to move forward to repeal the plan, reiterating arguments that the climate rule was an illegal overreach.

• Nothing clean about it: “The only thing ‘clean’ about the [Clean Power Plan] is its break from the longstanding plain meaning and application of the law,” said Hal Quinn, president and CEO of the National Mining Association. “Ignoring the Clean Air Act’s clear stipulation that standards for regulating air quality apply only to individual sources, EPA instead engaged in verbal gymnastics to transform each state’s electricity grid into a single source.”

• Coal comments, check: The trade group submitted its thoughts to EPA Thursday ahead of the midnight deadline.

“Nothing in the law empowers EPA to embark on what it termed an ‘aggressive transformation in the domestic energy industry’ and create ‘a new energy economy,’” Quinn said.

• Coal plant closures: The trade association said moving ahead with the Obama-era plan would close coal plants prematurely, harming grid reliability.

MERKEL MEETS WITH TRUMP AHEAD OF U.N. CLIMATE TALKS: German Chancellor Angela Merkel will meet with President Trump ahead of United Nations climate talks in her country that start Monday.

But will anyone from the Trump administration attend the U.N. meeting in Bonn? When French President Emmanuel Macron visited Trump this week, he made clear that there wasn’t much to discuss when it came to climate change.

“We know where we stand,” Macron said at a joint press conference with President Trump. “But I think I can say that our businesses, our researchers can continue to work on, can create solutions in the field. We are both attached to that.” Meanwhile, Trump didn’t utter the words “climate change.”

Macron predicted Wednesday during a joint meeting of Congress that the U.S. would come back into the climate fold, rejoining the Paris climate pact.

• Planet B: “I am sure, one day, the United States will come back and join the Paris Agreement,” Macron said during the address. “Let us face it: There is no Planet B.”

Meanwhile, the supporters of the Paris Agreement will be forced to work with U.S.  businesses, state, and local leaders to move ahead on the accord.

• Not enough: But that’s not optimal for meeting the emission reduction goals of the Paris Agreement, according to the U.N.

The U.N. wants the U.S. back in, despite what countries like to say about moving ahead without it.

• What can Merkel say? Trade and Iran are expected to top the agenda when Merkel meets with Trump, but climate issues could squeeze into the discussions.

• It’s worth a shot: With the U.N. climate meeting hanging over Friday’s talks, it is likely Merkel will make a pitch for Trump rejoining the accord, although she does not have anywhere near the clout that Macron has with Trump.  

• Climate meeting big on social media: The climate change conference will be held in Bonn April 30- May 10, which the U.N. will live webcast, with social media such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr.

CHERNOBYL’S NUCLEAR DISASTER CAUSING CANCER WELL INTO 21ST CENTURY: Thyroid cancer is a persistent problem at the site of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster in Ukraine, according to a new report from the U.N.

• Carrying cancer into 21st century: About 20,000 thyroid cancer cases were registered from 1991 to 2015 among people who were under 18 in 1986 and lived in the affected areas of the former Soviet Union, according to the U.N. Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation.

The report was released ahead of International Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day on Thursday.

The U.N. now estimates that one in four of those cases is attributable to radiation exposure from the meltdown, which caused a mass evacuation of the city of Chernobyl.

“Thyroid cancer is a major problem after the Chernobyl accident and needs further investigation to better understand the long-term consequences,” said UNSCEAR Chairman Hans Vanmarcke.

VIRGINIA GOVERNOR SAYS PIPELINE PROTEST IS ‘UNLAWFUL’: Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, said Wednesday that it’s “unlawful” for a mother and daughter to sit in trees and to block a proposed natural gas pipeline through their property outside of Roanoke.

Theresa Terry, 61, and her daughter Theresa Minor Terry, 30, have been perched on the trees since April 2, stopping workers for the Mountain Valley Pipeline from clearing trees on a path through their land, according to the Washington Post.

The pipeline developers received eminent domain to obtain an easement to go through Terry’s land over her objections.

• ‘Resolution’ sought: Northam had not previously criticized the women for their stand but on Wednesday called it “unfortunate.”

“You know, the First Amendment is important, but also the safety of individuals in Virginia is important, so we hope that there’s going to be a resolution to this in the near future,” Northam said he said in a Facebook Live interview on the WTOP radio station.

• Pipeline network: The 303-mile, $3.5 billion Mountain Valley, developed by Pittsburgh-based EQT Corp. and partners, would carry shale gas from West Virginia to southern Virginia.

RUNDOWN

Los Angeles Times Republicans hope to ride a gas-tax repeal to victory

Reuters Skinny and sweet: U.S. refiner earnings depend on the oil diet

Wall Street Journal High oil prices boost industry earnings, but investors remain wary

Bloomberg Shell’s profit jump isn’t enough to dispel cash-flow worries

New York Times ConocoPhillips wins $2 billion ruling over Venezuelan seizure

Washington Post The military paid for a study on sea level rise. The results were scary.