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PRUITT SAYS HE REGRETS SPENDING, ETHICS DECISIONS AT EPA: Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt came close Wednesday to apologizing for his ethics and spending lapses that are the subject of a dozen federal investigations, saying he regrets some of the decisions he’s made.

“There have been decisions that as I look back, I would not make the same decisions again,” Pruitt said in testimony before a subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee. “I share your concerns about some of these decisions. I want to rectify those going forward.”

• With caveats: But Pruitt said some criticism is “unfounded and exaggerated,” and he continued to blame EPA processes for problems. He also suggested his controversial anti-regulation agenda at the EPA prompts extra scrutiny of his actions.

“I knew as I began this process over 16 months ago that the issues would be competitive, there are world views that drive decisions we make at the agency,” Pruitt said. “We are making tough decisions with environmental protection … and that has brought competition and criticism.”

Pruitt said the agency had inappropriate “controls” and legal reviews that facilitated controversial spending decisions, such as paying $43,000 for a secure phone booth in his office without notifying Congress, which violated federal law.

• Bipartisan concern: That explanation did not satisfy Democrats, who called Pruitt a “laughing stock” whose tenure has tarnished the EPA’s reputation.

Even Republicans had questions, despite their support for his policies, such as replacing the Obama administration’s Waters of the U.S. rule and Clean Power Plan.

“Unfortunately I am concerned that many of the important policy efforts are overshadowed because of a series of issues related to you and your management of the agency,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said. “Instead of being asked on the work you are doing on WOTUS, the Clean Power Plan, or Superfund sites, I am being constantly asked to comment on security, housing and travel. Some of this undoubtedly is a result of the gotcha age we live in today, but I do think there are legitimate questions that need to be answered.”

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SOLAR JOBS FALL IN 2017, ACCORDING TO REPORT FROM OBAMA’S ENERGY CHIEF: The solar industry lost 24,000 jobs last year, while coal and oil drilling jobs grew slightly or not at all, according to an energy jobs report released Wednesday.

• Moniz rebuffs Trump decision: Former Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz joined with state energy officials to release the U.S. Energy and Employment Report, which President Trump decided to scrap.

• Wind up, solar down: “Within this low-emission category, natural gas, wind, and combined heat and power (CHP) employment increased in 2017, while solar employment declined,” according to the report’s executive summary.

Solar energy companies employed 350,000 people, with more than 250,000 of them working mostly on solar, the report said.

• The 6 percent: Job losses in the solar industry represent a reduction of 6 percent, or 24,000 jobs, in 2017, with 9,000 of those losses in large utility-scale solar energy and 15,000 in residential rooftop energy.

• Coal and oil: Coal jobs stayed about the same at 92,000 in 2017, while oil and natural gas drilling jobs rose slightly. Jobs in the electricity sector were much better off in terms of job creation, with wind energy adding 107,000 new workers in 2017. Natural gas power plant jobs rose by more than 19,000.

SHOW ME THE ENERGY AT TRUMP’S MEETING WITH UZBEK PRESIDENT: President Trump is meeting with the Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev on Wednesday for the central Asian leader’s first official visit to the U.S., and based on news dispatches from the country, energy could be high on the agenda.

• Got energy efficiency? Uzbekistan needs funding to improve its energy efficiency upgrades across most of its energy-intensive industries, according to the World Bank.

• Giant natural gas economy: It doesn’t hurt that the nation is one of the largest producers and exporters of natural gas. It is the world’s 13th largest producer of natural gas and 11th largest producer of gold, according to the U.S. International Trade Commission.  

Meet the largest producer: Trump has the distinction of leading a country that is the largest natural gas producer in the world, surpassing Russia in 2009, according to the Energy Department.

The U.S. became a net exporter of the fuel last year.

• Energy wasted: “Uzbekistan is one of the world’s major producers and exporters of natural gas – but it is also one of the world’s most energy-intensive economies,” according to the World Bank. “The country uses twice as much energy as its neighbor Kazakhstan to produce a unit of GDP, and six times as much as Germany.”

• Time to change: The Uzbek government is attempting to change that by creating a national strategy to cut energy use in half by 2030. The World Bank is helping the country fund that efficiency program.

• Meeting at WB: That’s also why President Shavkat Mirziyoyev will be meeting with World Bank President Jim Yong Kim in Washington, according to the country’s government news agency.

Mirziyoyev also will meet with Congress, the Department of Defense and the State Department.

• Trump ushers in ‘new era’: “Following the official visit, it is expected to adopt a Joint Statement of Presidents on ‘Uzbekistan and the United States of America: the beginning of a new era of strategic partnership,’” according to the Uzbek news agency. They also will “sign a package of documents envisaging further strengthening of bilateral relations in various fields,” which likely will include energy.

WILL THE WEHRUM TURN? EPA air chief Bill Wehrum testified to House lawmakers Wednesday morning on changes to the agency’s New Source Review programs to give coal plants the ability to make upgrades more easily.

Wehrum said the administration has no official opinion on the bill presented by Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., chairman of the hearing in the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Wehrum did say that the bill appears to “simplify the program” to make it better. The NSR program is difficult for companies to understand, he said.

Rep. Paul Tonko, D-NY, hit Wehrum with questions on changes the agency is making to the Scientific Advisory Board. Wehrum deferred to Pruitt, pointing out that he was testifying in the Senate.

Wehrum said EPA wasn’t trying to “hide” anything.

FIRST ENERGY, WARREN BUFFETT TEAM UP: Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Energy has joined with Ohio utility American Electric Power to form a new venture that seeks to make the power grid more resilient by focusing on transmission lines. And First Energy, the company whose coal and nuclear plants are struggling, is one of its first customers.

• ICYMI: First Energy is the company that has Energy Secretary Rick Perry pondering the use of obscure laws to keep its fleet of coal and nuclear plants running because of the resilience they provide when the electricity system is stressed. But it also appears the company is willing to bet on business solutions to solve the problem.

• Joining in: The limited liability company called Grid Assurance, announced Wednesday its initial group of members, including AEP, Berkshire Hathaway Energy’s MidAmerican Energy Company and NV Energy, Eversource, FirstEnergy, Kansas City Power & Light and National Grid, and their affiliated transmission-owning companies. The companies have transmission facilities in 26 of the 48 lower continental United States.

“Our ability to quickly obtain spare equipment for our transmission system is critical to keeping power flowing to our customers,” said Carl Bridenbaugh, First Energy’s transmission vice president. “Having access to a shared inventory of vital, hard-to-obtain transmission equipment can provide what we need, when we need it.”

• Market-based solution: Grid Assurance was formed n 2016 “in response to concerns about the ability to respond quickly and effectively to threats to the U.S. bulk power grid” as defined by Congress, according to a statement. “The Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act required [the Energy Department] to study the need for a strategic transformer reserve to mitigate possible threats to the U.S. bulk power grid.”

PRUITT FACES A DOZEN INVESTIGATIONS WITH NEW PROBE OF EMAIL ACCOUNTS: The EPA’s internal watchdog is opening an investigation into Pruitt’s use of multiple email addresses and whether federal records requests are searching all of his accounts.

The EPA’s inspector general confirmed the probe in a letter to Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., who requested it and made public the impending investigation on Tuesday.

• A dozen: There are now 12 federal investigations involving Pruitt’s spending, ethics, hiring, and security decisions, including the latest one.

• You’ve got mail: Democratic senators revealed last month that the EPA has four email addresses for Pruitt.

Having several secondary accounts has become common practice by administrators because of the high volume of emails received by their primary account, the EPA has said in defending Pruitt.

DEMOCRATS WANT SEPARATE HEARING ON PRUITT SCANDALS: Senate Democrats are prodding the Republican leadership to hold a special oversight hearing on Pruitt’s travails.

Six Democrats released a letter they sent to Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman John Barrasso, R-Wyo., on Tuesday, asking him to hold the hearing.

• It’s their responsibility: “In light of Administrator Pruitt’s testimony … before two House subcommittees and planned appearance in front of a Senate Appropriations subcommittee [Wednesday], we believe that the proper execution of our committee’s responsibilities demands that he appear before us as soon as possible,” the letter states.

• Top Democrat: The letter, led by Carper, said Pruitt has been before the committee fewer times than any other panel, despite its direct role in overseeing the EPA.

• Once not enough: “Administrator Pruitt has not testified before our committee on EPA’s FY 2019 budget; in fact, he never testified on its FY 2018 budget,” the Democrats wrote.

BARRASSO WANTS TO WAIT ON PRUITT PROBES BEFORE HOLDING HEARINGS: Barrasso responded to the Democrats in a letter saying he wants to wait until the dozen investigations have concluded before beginning hearings about the EPA administrator.

• Hearings will come: “I intend to call on the administrator to testify,” Barrasso said in a letter obtained by the Washington Examiner.

• Investigations growing: Barrasso listed a number of agencies and federal watchdogs conducting investigations and reviews of Pruitt’s actions. He said he prefers to wait for those reviews to conclude before holding, so as to not re-litigate the same issues.

PRUITT UNDER FIRE FOR SLOW WALKING TRUMP’S ETHANOL FIX: Sen. Chuck Grassley is threatening to call for Pruitt’s resignation if he doesn’t stop exempting refiners from the nation’s ethanol mandate.

• Pressure on Pruitt: “Well, they better, or I’m going to be calling for Pruitt to resign,” the Iowa Republican said on a call with agriculture reporters Tuesday.

• Sick and tired: “I’m sick and tired of messing around with this anymore,” Grassley said. “Trump was elected with an agenda, Pruitt was not elected, and it’s Pruitt’s job to carry out the Trump agenda.”

• White House deal: Grassley was at a White House meeting last week where President Trump finalized a deal between refiners and corn ethanol producers to resolve a dispute about the ethanol mandate’s credits.

• Pruitt’s responsibilities: The deal directed Pruitt to begin relaxing restrictions on higher blends of ethanol being sold year-round, instead of being excluded during the summer. Pruitt also would have to allow ethanol credits to be used for exports, which would bring more credits into the market and therefore reduce the cost for refiners to comply with the Renewable Fuel Standard.

• Stop refiner handouts: Part of the deal also calls for Pruitt to stop giving waivers to oil refiners, which Grassley and the renewable fuel industry says undermines Trump’s stated commitment to the renewable fuel program.

• Republican vs. Republican: Barrasso defended Pruitt’s lack of action, saying the EPA administrator is acting within the law.

• Barrasso knows the law: “The Clean Air Act requires the Environmental Protection Agency to give relief to any small refinery that suffers disproportionate economic hardship from the Renewable Fuel Standard,” Barrasso saidt. “Under the Obama administration, EPA ignored this obligation and the courts rebuked the agency for it. EPA is now following the law and must continue to do so.”

ELECTRIC UTILITIES AT RISK FROM CLIMATE GOALS DESPITE PARIS EXIT, MOODY’S SAYS: Credit ratings giant Moody’s is warning that a big chunk of the nation’s electric utilities are at risk of closing because of the transition toward renewable energy, which is occurring despite Trump’s decision to pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate change agreement.

• The risk to rural utilities: The report, issued Tuesday, says not-for-profit public power and cooperative utilities, which generate and transmit electricity, are facing “rising risks” from the transition to less carbon dioxide-emitting power plants, because they own most of the coal plants across rural America.

• Moody’s probes climate change: The company has begun examining the effects of climate policy on the utility sector through the lens of the Paris Agreement. Moody’s found that Trump’s withdrawal from the accord a year ago will be limited because of “customer preferences and technology trends.”

ENVIRONMENTALISTS TAKE EPA TO COURT OVER FUEL EFFICIENCY RULES: Seven environmental groups are taking the EPA to court over Pruitt’s decision to roll back federal fuel-efficiency rules.

• You’ve been warned: “We’ve warned Scott Pruitt that any attack on our clean air or water would be met by resistance in the streets and in the courtroom,” said Sierra Club chief climate lawyer Joanne Spalding. “Today’s lawsuit serves as yet another reminder to Pruitt that we will never back down from that claim.”

• What the greens want: The group was one of the seven that petitioned the D.C. Circuit Court for Appeals on Tuesday to review the EPA’s decision to undo the Obama administration’s plan to move ahead with more stringent fuel economy rules for cars and light trucks.

The petition “initiates a court challenge” over Pruitt’s April decision that the fuel economy rules are “not appropriate” and should be rolled back. The environmental groups argue that the administration plans the rollback although automakers are meeting the standards faster and more affordably than predicted.

• Other groups on petition: The groups include Ralph Nader’s consumer watchdog Public Citizen, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Conservation Law Foundation, the Environmental Defense Fund, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club, and the Union of Concerned Scientists.

OIL, NATURAL GAS INDUSTRY SPEND BILLIONS TO REDUCE EMISSIONS, REPORT SAYS: The U.S. oil and natural gas industry invested $108 billion in technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from 2000 to 2016, according to a study released Tuesday.

The study, conducted by T2 Associates on behalf of the American Petroleum Institute, shows the balancing act sought by major oil and gas companies that are aiming to help combat climate change, even as they embrace the Trump administration’s “energy dominance” agenda supporting fossil fuels.

• Money talks: Between 2000 and 2016, there was a total U.S. investment of $597.8 billion in low-emission or zero-emission technologies, the study shows.

Of that, the oil and natural gas industry spent $108.2 billion, compared with $143.6 billion invested by other U.S. industries combined. The federal government contributed $152.7 billion to the total.

The $108 billion does not include spending on shale gas, an energy source whose development has boomed in recent years because of fracking, and emits about half the carbon dioxide emissions as coal.

APPEALS COURT HALTS WORK ON ATLANTIC COAST PIPELINE: The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday night ordered a halt to construction of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, ruling the proposed route could harm wildlife in violation of the Endangered Species Act.

• Contested route: Dominion Energy’s 600-mile, $5.1 billion pipeline has been fiercely contested, facing local opposition in both states that would receive natural gas carried by it: Virginia and North Carolina.

The pipeline would transport Mid-Atlantic shale gas from northern West Virginia to eastern Virginia and North Carolina. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved the project in October. It has been projected to be completed by the end of the year.

• Carry on: Dominion Energy, leading a coalition of four energy companies building the pipeline, said the court ruling would affect only part of the project’s route, where specific at-risk wildlife species have been identified. The company said it would comply with the court ruling.

CALIFORNIA UTILITIES WOULD LOSE FINANCIALLY FROM HOME SOLAR MANDATE: California utilities would suffer financially from California’s mandate requiring solar panels on all new single-family homes, Moody’s Investor Service said in a note Tuesday.

Changes to the state’s building code to require single-family homes be equipped with solar panels starting in 2020 is credit negative for California utilities and raise power prices for existing non-solar users, Moody’s said. The regulations also apply to new multi-family buildings of three stories or fewer.

• ‘Cost structure challenge’: “The shift toward solar-powered homes creates a cost structure challenge for California utilities and their customers,” the note said. “Because of the way utilities recover transmission and distribution costs, customers who self-generate power contribute less to the utility’s fixed costs, shifting those costs to customers who do not self-generate. Increased solar rooftop penetration rates will raise prices for non-solar customers so that utilities can maintain revenue.”

ONE-FOURTH OF U.S. NUCLEAR PLANTS AT RISK FOR EARLY RETIREMENT: More than a quarter of the U.S. nuclear plant fleet are at risk of early retirement because of high fixed costs and competition from cheaper energy sources such as natural gas, according to a report Tuesday.

• The key number: Of the 99 nuclear reactors operating in the U.S., 24 are scheduled to close or probably won’t make money through 2021, said Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

It would cost about $1.3 billion a year to close the revenue gaps for these ailing sites, the report said.

• Nuclear matters: The U.S. depends on nuclear plants, which run around-the-clock, for about 60 percent of its carbon-free electricity.

RUNDOWN

New York Times ‘Impossible to ignore’: Why Alaska is crafting a plan to fight climate change

E&E News Trump mulls new global institution to promote fossil fuels

Washington Post Trump officials faulted climate panel for having only ‘one member from industry’

Reuters Iran asks Chinese oil buyers to maintain imports after U.S. sanctions

Bloomberg U.S. oil gets cheaper versus Mideast crude after Iran sanctions

The State FBI agents flock to VC Summer site as part of probe into South Carolina’s failed nuclear project