• Perry’s choice: First, at the Energy Department, Secretary Rick Perry needs to make a major decision on whether to approve an emergency order to save coal and nuclear plants.

Utility First Energy formally asked Perry to take action under section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act, which would save the plants from early retirement. President Trump is involved in the process, telling a crowd in West Virginia recently that his administration is seriously considering the request.

• The ire of coal states: At a House hearing Tuesday, coal states ripped the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for rejecting a previous plan suggested by Perry to provide incentives to coal and nuclear plants for the reliability they provide to the power prid.

FERC said it rejected the Perry plan because the plan was not justified under the law.

• FERC’s decision: Republican FERC Chairman Kevin McIntyre repeated throughout the hearing that he supports an all-of-the-above energy policy. He said FERC is working through its own resilience examination after it rejected the Perry proposal.

McIntyre said if FERC finds that coal or nuclear plants are providing attributes to the grid that “are not being adequately compensated,” then the “commission has to decide what it needs to do.”

• Big bailout number two: The other big bailout concern is the Environmental Protection Agency’s waivers to big refining companies to let them off the hook from meeting the national ethanol mandate, which is outraging the ethanol industry.

• ‘Undermining’ Trump: A bipartisan group of farm state senators on Tuesday accused EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt of breaking the law and violating Trump’s commitment to the nation’s ethanol mandate.

“We are writing to you regarding the actions the Environmental Protection Agency has taken to undermine commitments President Trump made on the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) to our constituents,” according to a letter led by Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and signed by 11 other lawmakers.

The senators are giving Pruitt until the end of the month to hand over all information related to the refinery deals, which have been described as being handled in the “shadows.”

EPA COUNTERS THAT NOT GRANTING THE WAIVERS WOULD BE ILLEGAL: “Discontinuing the issuance of small refinery hardship waivers would be a violation of the Renewable Fuel Standard,” EPA spokeswoman Liz Bowman said in a statement to John on Wednesday.

“EPA doesn’t have the authority to pick and choose which provisions of the RFS to follow,” she said.

“The agency has been both responsive and open about small refinery waivers, while being careful not to violate confidential business information protections.”

The senators and the ethanol industry argue that oil giants such as Exxon Mobil and Chevron, which recently petitioned for waivers, are not eligible for small refinery “hardship” waivers, even though they may own small refineries.

Welcome to Daily on Energy, compiled by Washington Examiner Energy and Environment Writers John Siciliano (@JohnDSiciliano) and Josh Siegel (@SiegelScribe). Email [email protected] for tips, suggestions, calendar items and anything else. If a friend sent this to you and you’d like to sign up, click here. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email and we’ll add you to our list.

TRUMP’S TOP DOMESTIC ENERGY ADVISER LEAVING WHITE HOUSE: The White House’s top energy and environment adviser is stepping down, leaving Trump without a key official in his drive to carry out his deregulatory and “energy dominance” agenda promoting fossil fuel use.

Michael Catanzaro is leaving as special assistant to the president for domestic energy and environmental policy and returning to his former lobbying firm, CGCN Group. His last day will be next week.

• Revolving door: Catanzaro is the second major White House energy and environmental official to depart recently.

George David Banks resigned as the White House international energy and climate adviser in February because he was unable to get a full security clearance.

• Come on down: Catanzaro will be replaced by Francis Brooke, a 28-year-old aide to Vice President Mike Pence, who will start April 30.

Brooke is perhaps best recognized for moderating the Trump administration’s panel at the U.N. climate talks in Bonn, Germany, in November. The panel advocated expanding fossil fuel exports, arguing developing countries still have an appetite for them.

IS THE BASE TIRING OF WHITE HOUSE ‘CHAOS?’ Myron Ebell, the director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Center for Energy and Environment who led Trump’s EPA transition team, suggested he is tiring of the constant shake-ups at the White House.

“Mike has done an outstanding job helping to implement the president’s ambitious environmental reform agenda,” Ebell said. “And he’s done it under difficult circumstances, amid continuing chaos in the White House and with many key political appointments in the agencies unfilled. It will be hard to find someone as good as Mike and as committed as he is to the Trump agenda.”

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION DEFENDS OBAMA’S ATLANTIC MARINE MONUMENT: The Trump administration on Tuesday defended in court an underwater monument off the coast of New England created by former President Barack Obama in 2016.

The administration asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit from fishermen trying to eliminate the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, which protects 5,000 square miles of deep sea corals and marine life.

Obama’s monument declaration prohibits most commercial fishing.

• Out of character: Trump’s move to protect the monument comes as he has reduced the size of other national monuments created by Obama, including Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante in Utah. Environmentalists and tribal groups have sued over those moves.

MCCONNELL PLEDGES SUPPORT TO PRUITT: McConnell declined Tuesday to add his voice to the Republicans tiring of embattled Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt’s scandals, saying he’s a “welcome change” from previous EPA leaders.

“I think he has done an excellent job, certainly, in a state like mine he’s a welcome change from what was there before,” McConnell said. “But it’s really up to the president to decide who his team is and whether he wants to continue the EPA administrator.”

ZINKE WON’T REDUCE AMOUNT COMPANIES PAY TO DRILL OFFSHORE: Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on Tuesday declined to cut the amount that oil and gas companies pay for offshore drilling deep in federal waters.

Zinke rejected the advice of the Interior Department’s Royalty Policy Committee, an advisory board that unanimously recommended that he lower the royalty rate companies pay on offshore drilling from 18.75 percent to 12.5 percent in federal waters deeper than 200 meters.

• Low down: The proposed amount was the lowest rate the government can charge for offshore leases.

Zinke said lowering the rate is not necessary to attract industry interest in drilling deep offshore.

PERRY BACKS WESTINGHOUSE TO COMPLETE NUCLEAR PROJECTS IN INDIA: Energy Secretary Rick Perry Tuesday pledged full support to financially flailing nuclear power giant Westinghouse as it aims to build nuclear reactors in India.

Perry’s support comes after Westinghouse filed for bankruptcy protection last year, leaving the proposed construction of six nuclear reactors in doubt.

Westinghouse had been helping to construct the only new nuclear reactors being built in Georgia, the only ones in the U.S. But cost overruns, delays and other problems forced it to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as it sought to restructure its business.

• ‘Lean and mean’: “Nobody in the world makes better reactors than Westinghouse,” Perry told journalists after a meeting with Indian oil and gas minister Dharmendra Pradhan in New Delhi, according to Reuters. “They had some challenges in the past from its business practices. We leave that where it is. The bottom line is, that’s all behind them. They are lean and mean and ready to get to the work.”

WIND ENERGY REACHES 30 PERCENT IN FOUR STATES: Wind power now supplies more than 30 percent of electricity in four states — Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma and South Dakota —  according to a report released Tuesday.

New Mexico added more new wind power than any other state, the American Wind Energy Association report said.

Fourteen states generate more than 10 percent of their electricity from wind.

With the cost of wind energy down two-thirds since 2009, the power source produced a record 6.3 percent of U.S. electricity in 2017, more than any other renewable.

EARTH DAY APPROACH BEGINS WITH CLIMATE LAWSUITS: Cities and counties in Colorado joined New York and California in suing ExxonMobil and other energy companies over their fossil fuels’ impact on climate change. The lawsuit filed by Boulder and surrounding counties charges Exxon and Canada’s Suncor Energy Inc for damages related to climate change.

• Climate hits keep coming: Chicago and New York joined with dozens of mayors around the world Wednesday to pledge participation in the Group of 20 on “climate action,” including “pursuing the full and rapid implementation of the Paris Agreement.”

The cities on the joint statement include: Berlin; Buenos Aires; Chicago; Durban, South Africa; Hamburg, Germany; Jakarta, Indonesia; London; Madrid; Mexico City; Milan; Montreal; New York; Paris; Rio de Janeiro; Rome; Sao Paulo; Seoul; Sydney; Tokyo; and Tshwane, South Africa.

THEN THERE IS THE EARTH DAY MARKETING: Earth Day falls on Sunday, April 22, but a number of industries are not content in just marking the day. In recent years, Earth Day has become a way for companies to showcase new green products.

• Bud goes green: Anheuser Busch announced Tuesday night that Budweiser is now 100 percent renewably brewed. The news was made at a renewable energy event in Washington sponsored by the beer giant.  

• Vegan handbags: More exotic brands such as the Ministry of Tomorrow, Africa’s hottest eco-fashion House, showcased its “vegan, eco-friendly, sustainable luxury” items by unveiling a new designer handbag.

“The purchase of a MOT bag directly enables sustainable development by providing income generating opportunities for people in Kenya, while protecting animals and the planet. Social and environmental activism is woven into the fabric of these bags,” the design house said Wednesday.

DEADLINE FOR CLEAN POWER PLAN NEXT WEEK: Comments to the EPA about its repeal of the Clean Power Plan, Obama’s central climate regulation, are due April 26.

The Natural Resources Defense Council said Wednesday that it wants to reach 200,000 comments in support of the plan.

“Over the past couple of months, NRDC and NRDC Action Fund supporters and concerned citizens from across the country have turned out for public hearings and rallies in support of the Clean Power Plan,” NRDC President Rhea Suh said in a note to supporters. “And over 180,000 activists have submitted official public comments opposing rollbacks to this critical plan.”

“But the public comment period ends on April 26 so we only have ONE WEEK LEFT to reach our 200,000-signature goal,” Suh said.

RUNDOWN

Wall Street Journal Is the U.S. shale boom choking on growth?

Houston Chronicle Some Republicans worry Trump is selling American wilderness to oil and gas firms

E&E News Cars threaten climate goals in blue states

New York Times China loosens foreign auto rules for electric cars, in peace offering to Trump

Reuters In Sweden, wind farms and warplanes battle for airspace

Bloomberg Trudeau is set on saving an oil pipeline. Here’s what he could do