TRUMP, GOP TAKE ANOTHER STAB AT SOLVING THE ETHANOL PROBLEM: Sen. Chuck Grassley will sit down with President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence Tuesday to discuss the fate of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Renewable Fuel Standard, the office of the Iowa Republican and top ethanol supporter confirmed.

The White House described it as a meeting among Trump, Pence and Republican senators.

Grassley spokesman Michael Zona said he could not divulge details of the meeting beyond it being focused on the RFS, since it’s a White House initiative.

• Pruitt in the ethanol hot seat: But biofuel groups are adamant that Grassley and Sen. Joni Ernst, who is also expected to attend, will give Trump a taste of their ire about how EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has been undercutting the program in favor of oil refiners.

“Farm-state lawmakers are furious that Administrator Pruitt has unilaterally undercut demand for biofuels with his secretive waivers, redirecting farm income to a few oil companies during the worst agricultural crisis since the 1980s,” one senior official with a biofuel industry group tells John.

• Abuse of power? “We expect them to be asking President Trump to put his foot down on abuse of power at EPA and get the agency to work implementing the president’s pledge to lift outdated regulations on” 15 percent ethanol fuels, the source said.

Meanwhile, refiners say Pruitt has been acting within the law in granting RFS exemptions to their industry.

• Cruzin’: The source says also attending the meeting will be Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., and others representing the oil refiners. They want Trump to place a cap on the price of ethanol credits, which they say are driving some independent refiners out of business.

“Cruz will be there, too, but he only cares about getting media attention talking about a dead idea for [renewable identification number credit] caps,” said the biofuel industry source.

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STRANGE BEDFELLOWS PROD PRUITT, TRUMP OVER RFS: News of Tuesday’s meeting saw a surge of demands from both advocates and detractors of the RFS.

One group, headed by former Energy Department transition chief Tom Pyle, even launched an Internet ad campaign Tuesday, asking Congress to repeal the program.

Pyle told John that he thinks the best course for the farmers is to have the program end in 2022 when Congress set the end-goal of blending 36 billion gallons of ethanol and other biofuels into the nation’s gasoline and diesel supplies.

• The wrong move: But Pyle isn’t the only one pushing against the RFS. A letter signed by both the big environmental group Sierra Club and the conservative National Taxpayers Union, and 16 other diverse groups, told Pruitt that the year-round blending of 15-percent ethanol fuels was the wrong move.

Allowing the fuel “would only benefit a small subset of the economy, while negatively impacting many more, including the industries and interests represented here and the American public,” the letter read.

• Dueling letters: The ethanol trade group Growth Energy, obviously, had the exact opposite sentiment in a Monday letter to Trump, calling the year-round sale of E15 a “common-sense change.”  

AUTOMAKERS URGE TRUMP NOT TO FREEZE FUEL-EFFICIENCY RULES: Major automakers on Tuesday urged the Trump administration to not freeze fuel economy standards and to avoid a fight with California over a waiver allowing the state to use tougher efficiency rules.

• Seeking efficiency increases: “We support standards that increase year over year that also are consistent with marketplace realities,” Mitch Bainwol, chief executive of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a trade group representing major automakers, told the House Energy and Commerce Committee in a hearing Tuesday morning. “Despite the small share of the market today, the regulatory environment is undoubtedly pushing industry towards electrification.”

• Meeting of the minds: The White House is planning to meet with automakers Friday to discuss planned changes to strict fuel-efficiency rules established by former President Barack Obama.
The meeting comes after the EPA rejected the tough Obama standards, at the urging of automakers, but is considering weakening them to an extent that automakers may not like.

• Bridge too far? The Trump administration is considering a proposal to freeze fuel-efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions targets at 2020 levels through 2025.

Obama’s fuel-efficiency and greenhouse gas rules for cars and light trucks had set a 54-mile per gallon standard by 2025, up from the current average of 38.3 mpg.

The EPA also is weighing challenging California over a waiver it has that allows it to set its own, stricter fuel-efficiency standards. California is leading a coalition of states suing the Trump administration for rejecting the Obama standards.

CLIMATE CHAMPION SCHNEIDERMANN FORCED TO RESIGN: New York Attorney General Eric Schneidermann, a stalwart on suing oil companies and Trump over climate change, is resigning Tuesday.

The AG announced his resignation Monday night after the New Yorker reported that he had abused four women he had been in romantic relationships with. Two of the women told the magazine they required medical attention after being choked and slapped. Schneiderman is disputing the allegations. Nevertheless, his resignation takes effect at the end of the day on Tuesday.

SEVEN MONTHS AFTER HURRICANE MARIA, 23,000 PUERTO RICANS DON’T HAVE POWER: Walter Higgins, the new CEO of Puerto Rico’s power authority, said Tuesday morning that 23,000 Americans in Puerto Rico remain without power, more than seven months after Hurricane Maria.

About 98 percent of the grid has been restored, after it was destroyed during the hurricane.

“This is not good enough,” Higgins, the CEO of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

EPA JUSTIFIES PRUITT’S FIRST-CLASS TRAVEL BY CITING RISK TO LIFE: The EPA justified Pruitt’s frequent first-class travel by claiming coach seats would “endanger his life” due to “lashing out” from passengers.

Pasquale “Nino” Perrotta, who led Pruitt’s round-the-clock personal security detail before retiring last week, wrote in an 87-word memo, dated May 1, 2017, and obtained by the Washington Post, that the EPA used the reasoning to explain dozens of first-class flights for the embattled administrator.

• ‘Lashing out’: Perrotta wrote that Pruitt’s security team had observed “at times lashing out from passengers which occurs while the administrator is seated in coach with [his personal security detail] not easily accessible to him due to uncontrolled full flights.”

“We believe that the continued use of coach seats for the administrator would endanger his life,” Perrotta wrote, “and therefore respectfully ask that he be placed in either business or first class accommodations.”

Agency officials approved the request.

• Document dump: The memo is one of 1,700 pages of documents the EPA provided to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee at the request of Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C.

Gowdy requested information from the EPA on Feb. 20 regarding how Pruitt has been able to obtain exceptions from federal rules to travel in first class.

SECURITY THREATS TO PRUITT SIMILAR TO PREVIOUS ADMINISTRATORS, DOCUMENTS SHOW: The number of threats made against Pruitt are not much more than previous EPA administrators, new internal EPA documents show.

The EPA had 33 threat investigations underway as of mid-March, the New York Times found, 10 of them from the last six months.

The agency initiated 47 threat investigations in fiscal 2015, 43 in 2016, and 50 in 2017, most of which were during the Trump administration.

• No prosecutions: EPA’s inspector general’s office investigated the threats with other federal agents, sometimes recommending charges against individuals, but prosecutors rejected the recommendations, the Times said.

• Cases closed: Separately, BuzzFeed reported the EPA’s inspector general started three investigations this year into potential threats to Pruitt. All three were closed because of a lack of evidence that Pruitt was seriously threatened.

EPA ‘STANDS READY’ TO HELP WITH AIR QUALITY ISSUES FROM HAWAII VOLCANO: Hazardous fumes continued to spew in Hawaii, four days after the Kilauea volcano erupted, and the EPA says it stands ready to help.

“The agency is in daily communication with FEMA and other local and state emergency response agencies, and stands ready to provide technical assistance on air quality concerns or potential impacts to regulated facilities as needed,” Molly Block, an EPA spokeswoman, told Josh.

Block said as of Monday afternoon, the EPA has not been directed by FEMA to deploy resources to help respond to the volcano eruption.

• Toll mounting: The Hawaii Civil Defense said late Monday that 35 structures, including at least 26 homes, have been destroyed and 12 fissures have formed.

• Air quality threat: Experts have said the threat of sulfur dioxide gas released from the volcano eruption could be more dangerous than the lava flows.

Sulfur dioxide gas is “an immediate threat to life for all who become exposed,” the Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency said.

Sulfur dioxide, which is colorless, can cause eye, nose and skin irritation as well as coughing, headaches and shortness of breath. People with cardiovascular disease or respiratory ailments are especially vulnerable.

The gas occurs during the melting process, released from magma when the pressure of the earth can no longer contain it.

NATURAL GAS, RENEWABLE GROUPS JOIN TO OPPOSE ‘BAILOUT’ OF COAL AND NUCLEAR: Natural gas, renewable and energy efficiency groups joined forces Tuesday to urge the Energy Department to oppose a “bailout” of a Ohio utility’s coal and nuclear plants, saying such a move would be illegal.

Six groups wrote joint comments to the Energy Department opposing FirstEnergy’s request for the agency to declare an emergency under Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act due to the company’s planned coal and nuclear plant closures.

• Come together: The six groups are: the American Petroleum Institute, Advanced Energy Economy, American Wind Energy Association, Electric Power Supply Association, Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, and the Natural Gas Supply Association.

• ‘No emergency’: “FirstEnergy’s claim that an emergency exists rests entirely on the observation that some coal and nuclear plants – most importantly those owned by FirstEnergy – are losing money and are therefore likely to retire in the coming years,” the groups say. “That is not an emergency.  There is no emergency or threat to the national defense on which the department could lawfully base the exercise of its emergency authorities.”

• No solution: The groups writing to the Energy Department also reject other measures to save coal and nuclear plants, including using the Defense Production Act of 1950, meant to ensure supply of critical industrial materials for security, and the 2015 revision to the Federal Power Act, intended to protect critical infrastructure and address a “grid security emergency.”

GOP FEARS BLANKENSHIP’S RISE IN WEST VIRGINIA: National Republicans are worried about Don Blankenship’s rise less than 12 hours before polls close in the West Virginia Senate race as they fear a replay of Alabama, where former Judge Roy Moore cost the party a seat nearly five months ago.

Blankenship, a multimillionaire coal executive who was recently in prison in connection with a deadly mining accident, has seen his poll numbers rise to where he is in a dead heat with Rep. Evan Jenkins and state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, a favorite of conservatives.

• Flashback: That is giving GOP leaders flashbacks to Moore blowing what should have been a slam dunk. Moore lost a Senate seat that had been safely in Republican hands since the 1990s. Blankenship threatens a prime GOP pickup opportunity against incumbent Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W. Va.

• ‘Problematic’: “It didn’t work out very well in Alabama,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who said he is “confident” West Virginia primary voters will make a “good choice.”

“I obviously think Mr. Blankenship would be problematic as our nominee,” Cornyn said. “Not the best candidate.”

ENERGY INDUSTRY HAS HIGH HOPES FOR NAFTA 2.0: The U.S. energy industry is hoping that a revamped North American Free Trade Agreement could enhance already booming trade in the continent and boost exports of natural gas.

But as negotiators from the U.S., Canada and Mexico meet again this week to work through remaining disagreements, energy advocates are worried that the mercurial Trump, fresh off imposing tariffs on steel and aluminum to the chagrin of the industry, could walk away from the treaty, as he has warned.

• ‘Things fall apart’: “If we reach an agreement, I can see energy trade increasing dramatically, but if things fall apart, energy can be a significant casualty because Mexico and Canada are extremely important to the health of the U.S. energy sector, and it would be an unfortunate self-inflicted wound if that happens,” David Goldwyn, the State Department’s special envoy and coordinator for international energy affairs from 2009 to 2011, told Josh.

• Possible revisions: Industry sources say all three NAFTA countries are interested in provisions in a revised pact that would ease the construction of pipelines across borders through permitting reforms.

Padilla says API is “cautiously optimistic” that a new NAFTA would contain an energy chapter that would address other technical issues important to the industry.

For example, it is seeking improvements to a “certificate of origin” provision that would make it easier for a U.S. company to prove is it importing oil or natural gas from Canada or Mexico to qualify for no tariffs.

The group also wants an adjustment to “duty drawbacks,” in which U.S. refiners that buy crude oil from a non-NAFTA country and then manufacture it into gasoline or jet fuel for export to Mexico or Canada can avoid paying a duty on the original purchase of oil.

US IMPOSES NEW SANCTIONS ON VENEZUELA, LEAVES OIL ALONE: The Trump administration Monday announced new sanctions on Venezuela, targeting three individuals and 20 companies tied to President Nicolas Maduro for drug trafficking, but leaving the oil sector alone.

• Oil exempted, for now: Trump has considered using sanctions on an Venezuelan oil services company and on insurance coverage for tankers carrying Venezuelan oil, Reuters reported, possibilities that are still under consideration.

ARAB COUNTRIES VOW ‘PEACEFUL’ DEVELOPMENT OF NUCLEAR POWER AHEAD OF TRUMP DECISION ON IRAN: The Arab Commission for Atomic Energy voiced unanimous support for the Arab world’s peaceful pursuit of nuclear energy during its 30th meeting in Tunis Monday.

• Megawatts over megatons: The Saudi government had a big presence at the meeting, which came ahead of President Trump’s decision Tuesday afternoon about how he wants to proceed with the Iran nuclear deal.

• Saudi message to Trump: The Saudis want Trump’s staunch support against Tehran, or as the crown prince had warned in visiting the U.S. recently, it may have to go down the path of nuclear weapons, too.

• Peaceful pursuit: Abdulrahman Al-Arfaj, consultant at the Riyadh-based King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy, led Saudi Arabia’s delegation at the Monday meeting. His comments voiced support for a peaceful pursuit of the atom ahead of Trump’s announcement, according to the Saudi government.

• Several projects: Salem Al-Hamdi, director general of the Arab Commission for Atomic Energy, said the organization is in the final stages of hosting projects that “promote peaceful usage of nuclear energy,” according to official news services. Saudi Arabia and Egypt are pursuing a robust nuclear power development plan, with other countries expected to follow their lead.

“Most of Arab countries are planning to make use of peaceful usage of atomic energy,” Al-Hamdi said.

“He lauded the positive steps taken so far by the kingdom of Saudi Arabia to build a number of nuclear reactors to generate power and desalinate water,” according to the Saudi Press Agency.

FEDS FINE IDAHO STATE UNIVERSITY FOR LOSING PLUTONIUM: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is proposing to fine Idaho State University $8,500 for failing to maintain control and surveillance of one gram of radioactive material.

• Oops: The university over the weekend announced that it lost a one-gram piece of plutonium 15 years ago.

• Bomb threat? Plutonium can be used to make a nuclear weapon.

• Violation: The NRC says that constitutes the violation of two safety requirements. First, the failure to control and maintain surveillance of licensed radioactive material. And second, the failure to provide accurate and complete information to the commission in its inventory records.

• 30 days: The university has 30 days “to dispute the fine” or request a neutral third-party mediator to resolve the issues, according to the commission.

GROUPS OPPOSE YUCCA MOUNTAIN BILL: More than 160 conservation, anti-nuclear and environmental groups sent a letter to the House, urging them to “oppose” the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2017.

“This bill will put our nation’s nuclear waste storage policy on the wrong track yet again,” the letter read. “It ignores environmental concerns, states’ rights and consent to host the [nuclear] waste [at Yucca Mountain] in the first instance.” The House is expected to vote on the bill this week.

The bill will begin the process of creating an interim storage site to move the nuclear waste being stored at power plant sites, while the Energy Department finishes licensing and building a permanent waste facility at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.

The groups say the bill’s plan is too risky for the environment and that Congress should instead scrap the plan in favor for more public discourse.

CANADA CUTS CO2 ON TRUMP’S DOORSTEP: The Embassy of Canada in Washington announced the completion of a LED lighting retrofit, saying the installation will both cut “carbon emissions and energy costs.”

• Caught between Trump and Congress: The Canadian Embassy is centrally located between the Capitol and the White House and is close to the Trump International Hotel. Canada supports the Paris climate change agreement that Trump has rejected.

• The results: The LED retrofit swapped out 3,800 old incandescent light bulbs with energy-efficient LEDs. It is expected to save the embassy $600,000 in lifetime energy cost savings and prevent the release of 4,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions, which the embassy said is the equivalent of taking more than 800 cars off the road for one year.

GREENS CALL OUT JP MORGAN CHASE OVER CLIMATE CHANGE: A vocal activist coalition demonstrated in 15 cities Monday to #ShutDownChase because of its investment practices that undermine climate change action by funding fossil fuels.

The coalition says it wants to hold JP Morgan Chase and CEO Jamie Dimon “accountable for its financing practices.” They said Dimon claims to support the Paris Agreement, “yet his bank ramped up its funding for the worst fossil fuels in 2017, and in the process, financed projects and companies that threaten Indigenous rights and culture.”

COMMITTEE SET TO APPROVE BILL CREATING NATIONAL MONUMENT IN KENTUCKY: The House Natural Resources Committee Tuesday is expected to approve a bill that establishes the Camp Nelson Heritage National Monument in Nicholasville, Ky.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke had recommended the monument be established as part of his review of national monuments, in which he called for other monuments to be shrunk.

• Civil War roots: Camp Nelson provided the Union Army with more than 10,000 African-American soldiers during the Civil War, making it the third largest recruiting and training base for African American soldiers in the country. Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., sponsored the bill.

FORMER TRUMP ENERGY ADVISER JOINS CONSERVATIVE CLEAN ENERGY ADVOCACY GROUP: Trump’s former international energy adviser has re-emerged as an adviser for a conservative clean energy advocacy group.

George David Banks, who stepped down as Trump’s international energy and environment senior adviser a few months ago, has joined ClearPath’s advisory board. The group was started by conservative philanthropist Jay Faison to advocate for a Republican clean energy agenda that supports innovation over regulation, nuclear, and clean coal technologies.

RUNDOWN

Bloomberg Trump plans to fight California car rules with twice-failed strategy

New York Times EPA emails show an effort to shield Pruitt from public scrutiny

Politico Pruitt fast-tracked California cleanup after Hugh Hewitt brokered meeting

E&E News Steel town that voted for Trump banks on renewables

Wall Street Journal As Putin starts fourth term, higher oil prices give him a new edge