IS THIS THE END OF THE ETHANOL MANDATE? Emily Skor, one of the top ethanol lobbyists in Washington, was visibly torn at a rare Friday House hearing to discuss the future of the Renewable Fuel Standard, especially when it means the end of the ethanol mandate.

• Let’s get rid of the RFS: Reps. Greg Walden of Oregon and John Shimkus of Illinois, the chairmen of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and its environment panel, respectively, are serious about passing legislation that would replace the Environmental Protection Agency’s ethanol mandate with a high-octane fuel standard.

• Ethanol industry gets squeamish: Skor was torn by the proposal because it would encourage more ethanol use, but it could harm demand for biofuels.

• Ethanol in the middle: Skor was the only biofuel lobbyist on the panel of witnesses at the rare end-of-week hearing. Others on the panel included oil refiners, fuel retailers and the automotive industry, who unanimously supported the proposed high-octane fuel standard.

• The big question: Walden asked if they could all agree that a high-octane fuel standard, based on performance, not on corn, “could be an improvement over the status quo?”

• No straight answers: Skor, the CEO of the trade group Growth Energy, answered “possibly” — as long as it works with RFS growth, she said. Everyone else said “yes.”

• Can’t assume it will work: She supports the use of ethanol to meet the demand for smaller, turbocharged engines in that will be needed to meet increased fuel-efficiency standards. That will drive demand for ethanol, which is a cheap source of octane. But “we cannot assume” that an octane standard, without an RFS, will drive biofuel demand, she said.

TRUMP GRANTS SKOR A VICTORY: The hearing came 24 hours after Trump gave Skor’s industry a major victory by vowing to allow higher blends of ethanol fuels be sold all year round. It’s a proposal that oil industry and critics of the RFS vigorously oppose. Trump made the announcement after meeting with lawmakers and governors from big farm states on Thursday.

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TOP DEMOCRAT SAYS PRUITT’S ‘SECRET’ REFINER DEALS ILLEGAL: Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said he is concerned about the behind-closed-door deals EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is working out with oil refiners, letting major multi-billion dollar companies off the hook in meeting the ethanol mandate under the RFS.

The RFS implementation is “not perfect,” he said, pointing out his “serious concerns and questions about EPA Administrator Pruitt’s extensive use of secret waivers to allow numerous refineries, apparently of all shapes and sizes, get out from their obligations under the law.”

• Legal bounds: Pallone, the top Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Committee, said he supports giving waivers to companies in real financial distress, but Pruitt shouldn’t be giving waivers to companies that can easily absorb the financial burden of meeting the ethanol mandate. Pallone is convinced Pruitt’s waivers run afoul of the Clean Air Act.

RICK PERRY PITCHES AMERICAN ENERGY TO INDIA: Energy Secretary Rick Perry departs for India Friday with a robust agenda to convince the country’s leaders it’s a good idea to buy American energy and technology.

Perry plans to advance discussions on buying more U.S. liquefied natural gas exports, develop India’s energy distribution network by tapping U.S. pipeline companies to do the work, and invest in clean coal technologies that the U.S. is leading the way in developing.

TRUMP’S EPA ORDER ON POLLUTION LESS BOLD THAN IN PAST: Trump’s latest action to rein in the EPA focuses on streamlining existing programs and speeding up approvals instead of the all-out repeal that was the hallmark of his first year in office.

• Who benefits? The beneficiaries of Thursday’s actions are large manufacturers, which long criticized the EPA under the Obama administration that its national air quality rules were striving for too much, too soon.

• Quick answers: Trump’s new order jibes with businesses’ wishes in directing the EPA to take a number of specific actions to ensure states and businesses are given quick answers on meeting standards, which will allow them to move more quickly to build new plants.

SENATE CONFIRMS WHEELER AS EPA DEPUTY: The Senate on Thursday confirmed Andrew Wheeler as deputy administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, the No. 2 position at the agency behind embattled Administrator Scott Pruitt.

The Senate approved him in a 53-45 vote, with the support of three Democrats.

• Regulating deregulation: Wheeler’s confirmation comes at an important time for the EPA, which has been in turmoil over Pruitt’s spending and travel decisions that have left his future uncertain.

Wheeler is an energy lobbyist and former Senate Environment and Public Works Committee staffer for Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla. He also worked for the EPA from 1991 to 1995 on toxic chemical issues.

• Why supporters like him: Supporters say he will bring discipline, rigor and understatement to Pruitt’s much-publicized deregulatory agenda to weaken and rewrite rules to combat climate change. He also has experience on Capitol Hill working on a bipartisan basis.

• Coal man: Democrats who oppose Wheeler note his past lobbying work for Murray Energy, the largest privately owned coal company in the U.S.

• Respect of ‘enemies:’ “His enemies enjoy working with him because he’s easy to work with,” Luke Holland, Inhofe’s chief of staff, told Josh. “He is going to be instrumental in implementing the Trump agenda. He is in lockstep with this administration. His policy chops are as good as anybody’s. He will be effective. That’s why Democrats are upset. Not because they don’t like him.”

FORMER EPA STAFFER SAYS HE WAS FIRED AFTER REFUSING TO OK FIRST-CLASS TRAVEL: A former top EPA staffer and political adviser to Pruitt told Democratic lawmakers this week that he was pushed out of the agency after he refused to approve first-class travel retroactively for another agency aide.

• Outclassed: Kevin Chmielewski, a former Trump campaign staffer who was deputy chief of staff for operations at the EPA, told Democratic lawmakers that Pruitt wanted his aide, Samantha Dravis, the head of the EPA’s Office of Policy, to join him in first-class on a return flight from Morocco in December, where Pruitt went to promote U.S. natural gas.

Chmielewski said he refused to approve Dravis’ first-class travel retroactively “because it violated federal travel regulations.”

• Republicans also watching: Republican staff of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee met with Chmielewski on Thursday, according to Politico, to corroborate his account of working for Pruitt.

Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., sent a letter to the EPA Wednesday demanding more documents on Pruitt’s travel and Capitol Hill condo deal with the wife of an energy lobbyist.

RYAN ZINKE TO RAISE PARK FEES $5 AFTER BACKING OFF HUGE HIKES: The Department of Interior announced Thursday it will raise fees in more than 100 national parks by $5, backing away from its original plan to more than double entrance costs at some of the nation’s most popular sites.

• Not in my park: The original proposal, released in October, included fees up to $70 during peak season at 17 popular parks, such as the Grand Canyon, Zion, Arches, Shenandoah and Acadia national parks. The plan, meant to help pay for a $12 billion maintenance backlog, was met with outrage from across the country by people who argued the steep increase would make the parks inaccessible for many.

• Small ball: The new plan would raise fees by $5 at the 117 parks, monuments and historic sites that charge admission.

The fee structure, set to begin June 1, would raise park revenue by about $60 million, in addition to the $200 million currently raised.

• Congress wants a say: Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, the chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, suggested Friday that the park fee plan has to be approved by Congress to be implemented.

“While any change to user fees should be approved by Congress, this proposal moves us towards more of a ‘user pays’ system which is positive,” Bishop said in a statement. “I look forward to working with Secretary Zinke to bolster our national parks and public lands.”

NEW JERSEY LEGISLATURE APPROVES $300 MILLION IN NUCLEAR SUBSIDIES: The New Jersey legislature passed two bills Thursday providing $300 million in annual subsidies to keep nuclear plants open.

The bills, expected to be signed by Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, also require utilities in the state to generate half of their electricity from renewables sources by 2030.

• Nuclear dilemma: As nuclear plants are struggling financially and closing, clean energy advocates and environmentalists are split on whether carbon-free nuclear is worth saving or if wind and solar are ready to pick up the slack.

Nuclear provides 40 percent of New Jersey’s electricity.

The subsidies will allow Public Service Enterprise Group to keep open the Salem and Hope Creek nuclear generating stations.

• State solutions: The New Jersey solution is similar to programs implemented in New York and Illinois that compensate nuclear plants for their zero-carbon value.

Both states have adopted zero-carbon energy credits, in which the state issues credits to nuclear plants for generating carbon-free power, which they can sell on the open market to raise revenue.

NUCLEAR GROUP WARNS OF CONSEQUENCES FROM FIRST ENERGY CLOSURES: Maria Korsnick, the president and CEO of the Nuclear Energy Institute, warned Thursday about what she said would be dire consequences if FirstEnergy’s nuclear plants close as scheduled in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

FirstEnergy has requested the Energy Department approve an emergency order under section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act to save coal and nuclear plants in the Midwest.

The utility filed its request after announcing it would close three nuclear power plants in Ohio and Pennsylvania over the next four years.

• ‘Devastating impact’: “If nothing is done to save these plants, the impacts will be devastating,” Korsnick said at NEI’s annual financial briefing.

Korsnick does not directly call for Perry to approve the request, but she credits him for starting “a much-needed conversation about the importance of having a resilient grid.”

She cites a study set to be released by the Brattle Group Monday that says keeping the Ohio and Pennsylvania nuclear plants running would avoid more than 21 million metric tons of carbon emissions annually, compared to replacing the power source with natural gas and coal.

MIKE POMPEO WANTS TO HELP FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE: Mike Pompeo, Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, said Thursday that humans contribute to climate change, an important marker for Pompeo, who is being opposed by environmental groups.

“The climate is changing, there’s a warming taking place,” Pompeo said during his confirmation hearing. “I am happy to concede there is likely a human component to that.”

• Problem worth solving: Pompeo, who is currently the CIA director and is formerly a conservative congressman from Oklahoma, said the State Department should be involved in combating national security challenges related to climate change.

He added that he didn’t “take any fault” with an annual summary of global threats released this year by U.S. intelligence agencies that said climate change is “likely to fuel economic and social discontent — and possibly upheaval — through 2018.”

OPEC NEARS ‘MISSION ACCOMPLISHED’ ON OIL PRODUCTION CUTS: OPEC is nearing “mission accomplished” on its efforts to prop up oil prices by cutting supply, the International Energy Agency said Friday.

“It is not for us to declare on behalf of the Vienna agreement countries that it is ‘mission accomplished’, but if our outlook is accurate, it certainly looks very much like it,” the IEA said in its monthly oil markets report.

• Beating expectations: Less than 10 percent of the global surplus in oil supply remains, the IEA said, as OPEC and its non-member partners, such as Russia, have reduced production more than expected as oil demand has increased.

OPEC, beginning in January 2017, reached an agreement to reduce output by about 1.2 million barrels a day.

But the group’s 14 members actually produced 60 percent less oil than that target amount in March.

• Is it sustainable? Crude oil prices have recovered to $70 per barrel from below $30 in 2016, but energy experts have speculated the historic surge in U.S. output could limit the price surge.

U.S.-CHINA TRADE FIGHT COULD REDUCE OIL DEMAND: The IEA also said Friday that the trade dispute between the U.S. and China could reduce global oil demand.

The IEA said it expects global oil demand to grow by 1.5 million barrels a day in 2018, but warned that potential U.S. and Chinese trade tariffs against each other present a “downward risk” to that prediction with “strong consequences for oil demand.”

AUDUBON SHINES LIGHT ON TRUMP’S BIRD ATTACK AHEAD OF BP OIL SPILL ANNIVERSARY: The Audubon Society is pushing back against attempts by congressional Republicans and the Interior Department to weaken the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which they say would benefit the offshore oil industry.

• It’s fine for oil: The bird treaty was used to obtain $100 million in fines after the 2010 BP oil spill, because of the harm it caused to one million migratory bird species in the Gulf.

• Oil spill at eight: “As we approach the eighth anniversary of the BP oil spill, efforts are currently underway to reinterpret the MBTA in a manner that would have allowed BP to avoid such accountability,” the group said Friday.

The group is hosting a call later Friday to discuss the Fish and Wildlife’s latest guidance on the treaty that they said poses problems for the bird protections.

RUNDOWN

New York Times At EPA, Pruitt’s ‘sheriff’ clashed with critics of spending

Bloomberg The Aramco accounts: inside the world’s most profitable company

Wall Street Journal Surging demand for lithium spurs interest in European mines

Reuters Italy’s Eni defies skeptics, may up stake in nuclear fusion project

Chron.com Oil bust forced more than 330 North American energy companies into bankruptcy

The Guardian World’s first electrified road for charging vehicles opens in Sweden