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HOUSE DEMOCRATS QUESTION PERSONAL ERRANDS BY PRUITT AIDES: Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee want to subpoena the Environmental Protection Agency for documents they believe will show Administrator Scott Pruitt misused employees for personal errands, including the purchase of an old mattress from the Trump Hotel in Washington.

The request is based on a recent interview they conducted about Pruitt’s actions with Millan Hupp, Pruitt’s director of scheduling and advance. Hupp told the Democrats “new details about additional personal tasks she completed on his behalf.”

Hupp said she used his credit card to book personal flights and to obtain an old mattress from the Trump Hotel’s managing director.

“If Ms. Hupp’s statements to the committee are accurate, Administrator Pruitt crossed a very clear line and must be held accountable,” Oversight ranking member Elijah Cummings, D-Md., and Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., wrote.

The two Democrats sent the letter to Oversight Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., who has the authority to issue subpoenas.

The recent interviews with former EPA employees revealed they booked flights for Pruitt for non-work purposes, including a trip to the Rose Bowl, and helped him find a place to live in Washington D.C.

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ZINKE UPS PRESSURE ON ARIZONA BOARD TO SAVE GIANT COAL PLANT: The Interior Department is arguing that it has the authority to keep the largest coal plant in the West open, in an attempt to keep project managers in the state from finding alternative energy resources such as natural gas.

• Congressional mandate: Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s head of water and science sent a letter Friday to the Central Arizona Project board of directors to explain Zinke’s congressional mandate in determining the fate of the Navajo Generating Station coal plant. The letter was sent ahead of the board’s June 7 meeting, when it is expected to consider its options.

The power plant was constructed as the most reliable way to pump water into the central part of the state. Under a 1968 congressional charter, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Reclamation owns 25 percent of the coal-fired power plant.

• Replace plant sooner: The coal plant is slated to close at the end of 2019, but the board and state regulators are looking for alternatives, even though Zinke helped the plant’s current owners stave off earlier closure while new owners are found.

• Zinke’s ‘governing authority’: “While the department recognizes that many circumstances have changed since passage of the 1968 act, including enactment of the 2004 Arizona Water Settlements Act, it currently believes that the 1968 act remains the applicable governing authority and must be addressed in any decision relating to future sources of project power,” the letter by assistant secretary Tim Petty reads.

• Coalition rallies for delay: A coalition called “Yes to NGS” plans to rally outside the meeting Wednesday, with more than 300 miners and their families at the event. The coalition argues that closing the plant early would be devastating to jobs and increase the cost of electricity in the region.

The coalition also demands that the board delay signing any agreement fo 90 days to allow a new purchaser to square away the details of taking ownership of the plant.

• Trump plan: The Interior Department did not mention President Trump’s order Friday for Energy Secretary Rick Perry to take steps to stop uneconomic coal and nuclear plants from closing prematurely.

However, before then, the Interior had been quiet about using its 50-year-old authority to stop the board from finding new resources to replace it.

LARGEST COAL UTILITY CELEBRATES USING NATURAL GAS OVER COAL: Meanwhile, one of the largest coal utilities in the country, is touting ts conversion to natural gas.

• Celebration: Duke Energy on Friday said it “celebrated” the opening of a new 750-megawatt combined-cycle natural gas plant, which is meant to replace old coal-fired boilers at its W.S. Lee Station in Anderson County, South Carolina.  

• End of coal in South Carolina: The company said the opening of the plant marks the end of its use of coal in the state.

• More efficient than coal: Duke Energy siad the new plant is both more efficient and cleaner than coal-fired units. “For example, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and other emissions are expected to drop by 87 percent overall in comparison to the station’s previous coal-fired operation,” it said.

• Close coal is the goal: The company closed two coal-fired units at the W.S. Lee Station in 2014 and converted a third to natural gas a year later.

PERRY WARNS OF COMING CYBER ATTACKS ON GRID: Energy Secretary Rick Perry said attacks on the electric grid are coming, as he addressed an agency cybersecurity conference on Monday, but he didn’t talk about President Trump’s order for him to save coal and nuclear plants.

“We know attacks are coming,” but “despite the dangers we face, I and very confident in our future and our ability to respond,” Perry said.

PERRY DOLES OUT $24M TO LOWER THE COST OF NUCLEAR POWER: The Department of Energy announced Monday that it will give up to $24 million to fund 10 advanced nuclear power projects.

• Ahead of the curve: “Nuclear energy is an essential component of the U.S. energy mix, and by teaming up with the private sector to reduce costs and improve safety, we are keeping America ahead of the curve in advanced reactor design and technology,” Perry said.

The projects will be funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) program.

• Lower cost while innovating: The Modeling-Enhanced Innovations Trailblazing Nuclear Energy Reinvigoration teams will develop technologies focused on lowering costs, making power plants safer, and designing new, more advanced reactor concepts.

TRUMP’S ETHANOL DEAL COMING THIS WEEK: A deal on the nation’s ethanol mandate that President Trump said was reached last month is still being hashed out, according to Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, a top defender of farmers and the ethanol industry.

The deal is “forthcoming,” Ernst told John Friday. Ernst spoke to Trump Thursday night to discuss the delays and the timing of a final deal.

• This week: Trump told her the deal that is being hashed out between Pruitt and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue is expected out this week.

• Working the deal: Ernst and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, have been working closely with the White House on reaching a deal that would reduce the price of renewable identification number credits for oil refiners, while easing EPA regulations that prevent the sale of higher 15-percent ethanol fuel blends year-round.

• What Trump promised: Trump said last month that a deal had been reached between the two sides on the Renewable Fuel Standard by allowing the credits from ethanol exports to be used by refiners to reduce the cost of complying with the program. The EPA currently excludes those credits from being used by refiners to comply.

TRUMP ORDERS PERRY TO SAVE COAL, NUCLEAR PLANTS: Trump ordered Perry on Friday to take “immediate steps” to save ailing coal and nuclear power plants from closing.

“President Donald J. Trump believes in total energy independence and dominance, and that keeping America’s energy grid and infrastructure strong and secure protects our national security, public safety, and economy from intentional attacks and natural disasters,” according to a White House statement.

• Retirements: “Unfortunately, impending retirements of fuel-secure power facilities are leading to a rapid depletion of a critical part of our nation’s energy mix, and impacting the resilience of our power grid.”

• PJM vs. Trump: Many over the weekend cited PJM Interconnection’s response to the plan, which said that the power grid is not at risk from planned closures of nuclear and power plants, in pointing out why Trump’s order is impractical and unjustifiable. PJM is the largest federally overseen grid operator in the country.

• Industry vs. Trump: A broad industry coalition that includes major oil and natural gas trade groups, as well as utilities and the solar and wind industries, are flat out opposing the plan and are threatening to go to court.

• Bad idea: An editorial posted on Monday by the Washington Examiner editorial board slammed the plan as “a ridiculously bad idea.”

SCHWARZENEGGER SLAMS TRUMP ON COAL SUPPORT: Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday chided Trump for the power plant order.

The former actor joked that he eagerly awaits the administration’s regulations to protect other outdated technologies and businesses.

“I eagerly await the administration’s regulations protecting pagers, fax machines, and Blockbuster,” Schwarzenegger tweeted.

PIPELINE CEO SAYS STEEL TARIFFS ‘UNJUST”: Greg Armstrong, the CEO of Plains All American Pipeline, said Monday morning that Trump’s steel tariffs are “unjust,” and warned that higher costs could stall projects.

“Steel tariffs in our view are unjust,” Armstrong said at the Energy Information Administration’s annual energy conference.

• No domestic source: The type of steel used in pipelines is a niche market, and most domestic steel producers have left the pipeline market because of its high cost. Armstrong said Trump’s 25 percent tariff could drive up the cost for U.S. oil and natural pipelines because pipeline makers rely on steel from overseas that will be more expensive to import.

“We don’t think we should pay steel tariffs for something we can’t buy in the U.S.” Armstrong said.

• Nervous over quotas: But Armstrong, who is chairman of the National Petroleum Council, said pipeline producers can “tolerate” the tariffs. He’s more worried about the possibility of import quotas of steel.

• The Trump administration announced last week it is imposing steel tariffs on the European Union, Mexico and Canada, after previously giving those allies an exemption. The administration has said could ease up on tariffs if countries agree to quotas, restricting how much steel they export to the U.S.

The Trump administration has already reached deals with South Korea, Brazil, Australia and Argentina, which agreed to limit their steel shipments.

“We can tolerate the tariffs, but the quotas are a problem,” Armstrong said. “Eighty percent of a pipeline doesn’t do us any good. It’s like building half a bridge.”

THREE TRAPPED BY HAWAIIAN LAVA FLOW AIRLIFTED TO SAFETY: Three people were airlifted to safety Sunday after lava from Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano threatened an area where they were trapped, the National Guard said.

Since Saturday, National Guard troops, police and firefighters have helped people evacuate homes on the eastern part of Hawaii’s Big Island, Reuters reported.

Kilauea has been erupting for more than a month.

PRUITT ORDERED TO SHOW ALTERNATIVE CLIMATE FACTS: A federal court is ordering the EPA to disclose the scientific basis for claims made by Pruitt that human activity is not the primary contributor to global warming.

• Court ruling: U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia chief judge Beryl Howell rejected the EPA’s objections to not uphold a Freedom of Information Act request on climate change, calling the agency’s arguments “not persuasive,” and ordering the agency to produce studies that the EPA has supporting Pruitt’s position on climate change by July 11.    

• Lawsuit: The court order was in response to a lawsuit by the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. The group’s FOIA request that initiated the suit was based on Pruitt’s March 9, 2017, interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” where Pruitt stated, “I would not agree that [carbon dioxide] it’s a primary contributor to the global warming that we see.”

RUNDOWN

New York Times A courtside view of Scott Pruitt’s ties to a billionaire coal baron

Bloomberg As Trump riles Europe on trade, Putin offers more natural gas

Reuters Airlines adjusting hedges, fares, capacity and fleet as oil price jumps

Wall Street Journal Banks sharply raise oil-price forecast on geopolitical risks

Houston Chronicle Companies, needing Permian workers, find West Texas a hard sell