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TRUMP’S ENERGY AGENDA GOES ON THE ROAD TO HOUSTON: The annual CERAWeek energy conference, which kicks off in Houston Monday, will be chock full of Trump administration officials, lawmakers, OPEC members and energy industry officials from all over the world. First up is Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska, who probably will discuss opening the Arctic to more drilling as a result of the Republican tax overhaul.

• Have a Zinke Tuesday: The Trump administration arrives Tuesday, with Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke being interviewed by Dan Yergin, IHS Markit vice chairman and an energy expert, on the state of U.S. energy policy.

• Following the Saudis: Zinke will follow Amin Nasser, CEO of Saudi Aramco, the largest national oil company in the world, owned by Saudi Arabia.

The Trump administration and the Saudi leadership struck up a good relationship early on. Although U.S.-Saudi relations appear strong, there is some uneasiness over the U.S. shale revolution keeping the price of oil lower than the Saudis may like.

Nevertheless, the conference features a number of members of OPEC.

• Trump’s Texas ties: On Wednesday, Energy Secretary and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry will open Wednesday’s conference. His remarks will be followed by Ben van Beurden, the CEO of Royal Dutch Shell, who will talk about the state of global energy.

Perry likely will bring up the Trump administration’s energy dominance agenda, which looks to carve out a place for U.S. energy exports. Wednesday looks to be a big day for discussions about oil and natural gas.

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TENSIONS COULD RISE WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON: Perry also will participate in a panel featuring energy ministers from Canada and Mexico.

Unlike the Saudis, ties with Mexico and Canada have been strained as the Trump administration and the two countries renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement and President Trump takes a tough stand against imports.

• Canada readies for trade war: Last week, Canada threatened to retaliate if Trump moves forward with his plan to impose tariffs on aluminum and steel imports. Canada is a top exporter of aluminum to the United States.

On the Mexico front, the recent resignation of the U.S. ambassador to the country, Roberta Jacobson, is being described as the latest sign of growing tensions between the two nations since Trump took office.

FERC MAKES AN APPEARANCE: It will be a long day Wednesday. Kevin McIntyre, the Republican chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, will speak toward the end of the day.

FERC Commissioner Robert Powelson will open the conference Thursday, which will feature an entire day of discussions with utility and electricity sector CEOs.

The day will end with a panel discussion called “Coal’s future: Opportunities amidst uncertainty.”

• Republican leaders close out the conference: On Friday, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, chairwoman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, open the final day of CERAWeek looking at the future of energy legislation in Washington.

REFINERY WORKERS PUSH TO FIX BROKEN ETHANOL MANDATE: The wrangling over the nation’s ethanol mandate is heading into March, as refinery workers from nearly a dozen states and the steelworkers union descend on Washington this week to tell lawmakers how the program is harming their livelihoods.

• Urgent need for an overhaul: The lobbying push organized by the United Steelworkers begins Tuesday with visits by 30 workers from more than a dozen independent merchant oil refineries in 11 states to discuss “the urgent need” to overhaul the Environmental Protection Agency’s Renewable Fuel Standard.

• Follow Trump’s lead: The lobbying push follows a week of unprecedented attention by President Trump, who hosted multiple meetings last week with the industry and senators to hash an agreement on how to fix the program.

U.S. TO SURPASS RUSSIA AS WORLD’S LARGEST OIL PRODUCER BY 2023: The U.S. will be the world’s largest oil producer by 2023, surpassing Russia, the International Energy Agency said Monday.

The IEA, in its five-year forecast, expects U.S. crude oil production to reach a record of 12.1 million barrels a day in 2023, up about 2 million barrels a day from this year. That’s more than the 11 million barrels per day being produced by Russia.

• Global ‘stamp’: “The U.S. is set to put its stamp on global oil markets for the next five years,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said in the report.

The agency also predicts U.S. oil exports will more than double to 4.9 million barrels a day by 2023. U.S. supply will meet more than half the world’s oil demand growth, the agency said.

Energy experts have speculated the surge in U.S. output could spoil an agreement between OPEC and non-OPEC nations, such as Russia, to curtail production to drive up global oil prices, a topic likely to be front and center at the CERA Week conference this week.

• Shale sparks surge: U.S. oil production hit 10 million barrels per day in November for the first time since 1970, highlighting the power of shale oil and natural gas boom.

The surge comes as the Trump administration has promoted “energy dominance” by taking a lighter touch to regulation and used its first year to scrap or delay a number of Obama-era regulations targeting fossil fuel development.

But the shale boom began under former President Barack Obama, who in 2015 signed a law passed by Congress ending a 40-year-old ban on oil exports.

SUPREME COURT RULES AGAINST NEW MEXICO IN RIO GRANDE WATER USE CASE:  The Supreme Court unanimously ruled Monday morning that the U.S. can pursue claims against New Mexico for violations of the Rio Grande water compact. The Rio Grande case centers around a water use battle among Texas, Colorado and New Mexico over the Rio Grande.

• Watering hole: Texas filed a lawsuit in 2014 claiming New Mexico violated the Rio Grande Compact of 1938 that divides water rights among the three states. Texas says New Mexico allowed diversions of the river’s surface water and the pumping of groundwater, allowing it to take water reserved for Texas.

All three states in the dispute rely on the river.

U.S. BEGINS SENDING NATURAL GAS TO INDIA: Cheniere Energy Inc. on Monday will send its first shipment of U.S.-produced liquefied natural gas to India through its Sabine Pass  terminal in Louisiana.

Houston-based Cheniere has a 20-year deal with GAIL India Ltd., to supply 3.5 million metric tons of LNG annually.

• Important partnership: “Today’s shipment is significant because it means security for the world’s third-largest energy consumer,” said U.S. Energy Association Executive Director Barry Worthington.

The Trump administration has emphasized the U.S. and India increasing collaboration on natural gas from America. Even though the U.S. is the largest natural gas producer in the world, it is a newcomer to exporting it and is seeking to find new markets.

India, meanwhile, has a growing economy in search of new, reliable sources of energy.

TRUMP NOMINATES DOW CHEMICAL ATTORNEY TO LEAD SUPERFUND OFFICE: Trump on Friday nominated Peter Wright, a Dow Chemical lawyer, to lead the EPA’s Office of Land and Emergency Management that oversees Superfund sites, brownfields and landfills.

Wright is a managing counsel with Dow’s legal department and has been with the company since 1999.

Before Dow, Wright worked at several law firms as well as the agriculture giant Monsanto.

• Super task: Wright, if confirmed by the Senate, would usher EPA’s Administrator Scott Pruitt’s effort to speed up the cleaning of hazardous Superfund sites across the country.

• Familiar funds: If EPA can identify the companies responsible for dirtying a Superfund  site, it can force them to pay for cleanups, which happens at about 70 percent of sites.

According to the EPA, Dow Chemical, Wright’s employer, is fully or partially responsible for several Superfund sites, including a chemical plant in Midland, Mich., that released dioxins into the Tittabawassee and Saginaw rivers, and Del Amo, a former synthetic rubber production plant in Los Angeles.

MURKOWSKI SAYS DRILLING IN ARCTIC REFUGE A DECADE AWAY: Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, the chairwoman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, says drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is at least a decade away.

• Waiting ‘a little bit longer’: “It’s interesting… more often than not I heard people say, ‘I never thought it was going to happen in my lifetime,'” Murkowski told the Anchorage Daily News. “But I remind people that just because we have the congressional permission” doesn’t mean production s imminent, she said.

“And for those who are saying, ‘OK, now the state is sitting just fine because we’ve got ANWR,’ well, that belies the reality… [It] is going to be another decade before we see production, and perhaps even a little bit longer,” she added.

• Revenue expectations: Republicans expect drilling in ANWR to raise $1 billion over a decade to help pay for tax reform, but Democrats contend that won’t happen, with low oil prices and steep competition from natural gas.

RUNDOWN

New York Times The world is embracing SUVs. That’s bad news for the climate.

Wall Street Journal Shale trailblazer turns skeptic on soaring U.S. oil production

Post & Courier On a Florida auction yard, South Carolina’s nuclear failure fades away

CBS News Children are mining cobalt for batteries in Congo

Washington Post 2018 is the year of scientists running for Congress

Reuters Lawmakers question biggest UK pensions over climate change risks

Texas Tribune Will Texans see sky-high electric bills this summer? Grid operator sends dire warning