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ERNST: HITTING THE RESET BUTTON AFTER PRUITT: Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst is jetting back to Washington after a whirlwind 99-county tour of her state. Her top reason for getting back quickly is to meet with Andrew Wheeler, the replacement for Scott Pruitt, who was forced to resign Thursday as head of the Environmental Protection Agency amid numerous scandals.

“I am excited to get back in D.C. on Monday,” she told John in an interview Thursday evening. She explained that getting EPA’s Renewable Fuel Standard back on track after Pruitt’s mismanagement of the program is the issue “I want to hit hard” when back on Capitol Hill.
Wheels up for Wheeler: “I do look forward with meeting with him [Wheeler],” Ernst explained. She sees a “door of opportunity here for at least having the EPA upholding the law” when it comes the the ethanol and renewable fuel program. “I am hopeful,” she said.

Ernst was a vocal critic of Pruitt after he told her in a letter he was going to work with her on regulations to boost ethanol fuel blends, but then began a “secret” program to hand out dozens of waivers to oil refiners, exempting them from having to blend ethanol to manage cost.

Straight shooter: “We need to have a straight shot, and I’ll emphasize that to Wheeler,” she said. “No more foggy waivers … coming from swampy” backroom deals, she said.

E15: First on the agenda with Wheeler, get EPA to lift the restrictions on 15-percent ethanol fuel blends, allowing the fuel to be sold year round, the senator said.

Currently, E15 fuel is barred from use during the summer months. The president had called for EPA to work on year-round use of the fuel, but Pruitt ignored the directive, said Ernst.

Step it up: “Administrator Pruitt was really dragging his feet on this,” she said. For Wheeler, it is “now time to step up.”

No more White House dealmaking: Ernst told John that she doesn’t want to go back to the White House to sit across the table from refinery supporters and work out another deal, which President Trump had thought he secured before Pruitt began issuing the waivers.

That forced Trump to scuttle the deal over farmers opposition to it as bad for ethanol and good for refineries. Trump had sat down for months at the White House to work out a deal the pleases the farmers and the refiners.

‘Good day’: With Pruitt resigning “we have an opportunity,” she said. “It’s a good day.”

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SCOTT PRUITT OUT AT EPA: Scott Pruitt stepped down as head of the Environmental Protection Agency Thursday, after a series of controversies that overshadowed his year of leading President Trump’s anti-regulation, pro-growth agenda. He will be replaced on an acting basis by Andrew Wheeler, the No. 2 official at EPA, who could become Pruitt’s permanent successor (more on that below).

Who’s counting: Pruitt had been under the microscope for months after a number of allegations. He was the subject of at least a dozen federal investigations, over issues including his $50-per-night condo rental deal with the wife of an energy lobbyist who had business before the EPA, spending more than $3 million on his 24-hour security detail, frequent first-class travel, reports he retaliated against employees who questioned his judgment, sending his staff on personal errands, and using them to try to find a job for his wife.

At least some of those actions may have been illegal.

The Government Accountability Office ruled that the EPA broke federal law by spending $43,000 on a secure phone booth for Pruitt’s office without notifying Congress.

‘No final straw’: Trump had been reluctant to push Pruitt out, repeatedly praising him for advancing the president’s “energy dominance agenda” and delivering for “coal and energy country.”

But the president Thursday said Pruitt had become a “distraction”, even if there was “no final straw” that his forced departure. Pruitt, for his part, blamed “unrelenting attacks” for his demise, and did not apologize for his various ethics scandals, in a resignation letter to Trump.

Pruitt’s legacy: For Trump, the EPA chief was a central figure in implementing the president’s deregulation agenda, making some of Trump’s earliest executive actions. Pruitt was central to rolling back former President Barack Obama’s Climate Action Plan, which included national climate change regulations and the Paris climate change accord.

Nevertheless, Pruitt has aimed to clean up hazardous Superfund sites faster than his predecessors, while declaring a “war on lead” in drinking water to overcome lingering problems after the 2014 Flint, Mich., water crisis.

Bottom-line: But critics say Pruitt has little to show for those efforts and is more concerned about the publicity created from promising tough action. And by avoiding addressing what many see as today’s major environmental challenge — climate change — critics say he is moving the agency backward.

MEET ANDREW WHEELER, PRUITT’S REPLACEMENT: Wheeler is the acting administrator of the EPA, but he may stay on for longer to complete the deregulatory agenda that the exiting Pruitt started.

Wheeler recently finished up his third month in office after a difficult confirmation process.

‘Good side of this’: Some of his supporters, and other observers close to the agency, say that Wheeler, a career conservative Senate staffer and lawyer with EPA experience, could serve as a more disciplined, understated, permanent replacement to Pruitt without the ethics baggage.

“For the top people at the EPA, the various Pruitt accusations have been a real challenge and a distraction,” Myron Ebell, a conservative who led the EPA transition team for Trump, told Josh. “It could have slowed some things down. Once Pruitt is gone, and Andrew is in charge, people will get back to doing their jobs everyday rather than accusations. That strikes me as the good side of this.”

Out of the spotlight: Wheeler told Josh in an interview last month that he was not gunning for his boss’s job and focused on helping Pruitt implement a deregulatory agenda that they share a passion for.

Wheeler said he was content with being second-in-command.

“I am the deputy administrator,” Wheeler said. “That’s the job I wanted and that’s the job I have.”

‘More effective’: Supporters of the current EPA’s deregulatory agenda hope Wheeler, a former energy lobbyist and staffer for Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, could bring more rigor and professionalism to that process.

“With Andy Wheeler stepping in to replace Pruitt, I think we’ll see a change in style but not in substance,” Jeff Holmstead, a former deputy administrator of the EPA in the George W. Bush administration, told Josh. “He’s worked on these issues for years and may actually be more effective than Pruitt when it comes to carrying out the reforms that Pruitt started.”

His resume: Wheeler has much more experience in environmental policy than Pruitt, who formerly served as the Republican attorney general of Oklahoma. He worked at the EPA from 1991 to 1995 on toxic chemical issues.

He has also been an attorney and lobbyist on environmental issues for nine years, including work he did for Murray Energy, the largest privately run U.S. coal company.

Process matters: Wheeler would have to be confirmed again by the Senate if Trump made him the permanent successor.

If Trump were to choose someone else, Republicans have questioned whether the nominee could win confirmation with a slim 51-49 majority as the midterm elections loom.

REPUBLICANS ARE PLEASED TO BE RELIEVED OF PRUITT HEADACHE: Republican lawmakers said Thursday that they are pleased with the resignation of Pruitt.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said in a series of tweets that he supports the president’s decision to accept Pruitt’s resignation. He also said that while he backed the actions Pruitt’s EPA was pushing, it was “time for a change” at the agency.

‘Embarrassment’: Some Republicans were more pointed in their criticisms of Pruitt, who will officially resign his post on Friday. Rep. Carlos Curbelo, R-Fla., retweeted the president’s announcement and argued that Pruitt, in fact, was a “disaster and an embarrassment.”

Finishing kick: Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said Pruitt’s departure will allow his agenda to carry on without distraction.

“It has become increasingly challenging for the EPA to carry out its mission with the administrator under investigation,” Barrasso said. “President Trump made the right decision to accept his resignation. I look forward to the confirmation of the next head of the EPA. In the meantime, I know Assistant Administrator Andrew Wheeler is well prepared to continue the progress already made.”

DEMOCRATS SAY ‘GOOD RIDDANCE’ TO PRUITT: The resignation of Pruitt elicited cheers and pithy one-word statements from Democrats, who have been calling for his resignation for months as his ethics scandals have piled up.

Those in the Senate who will have a vote on Trump’s next pick to lead the EPA, called for an administrator who believes in environmental protection.

‘Long overdue’: Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va. tweeted one word: “Good.” Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, wished Pruitt “good riddance,” and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called the resignation “long overdue.”

“He exploited the agency and abused taxpayer dollars to fit his luxurious lifestyle — all while harming our environment,” Pelosi said in a tweet.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer chided Trump, saying the administration still has a lot to do to drain the swamp.

“Took you long enough,” Schumer tweeted. “Still a very long way to go to fully #DrainTheSwamp.”

PRUITT RESIGNED AS NEW ALLEGATIONS OVER EPA FIRINGS SURFACED: Pruitt resigned just as new allegations surfaced about a senior scheduler he had fired last summer after she questioned the legality of his practice of retroactively deleting meetings from his calendar.

Allegations until the end: The New York Times reported Thursday, just minutes before Trump announced the resignation, that Madeline G. Morris was fired by Kevin Chmielewski, Pruitt’s former deputy chief of staff.

Illegal eagle: Morris confirmed Wednesday that she was fired after raising objections about the deletions, which she believed were illegal. She said Chmielewski did not tell her why she was being fired.

GOP’S ETHANOL SUPPORTERS RELIEVED BY PRUITT RESIGNATION: Republican ethanol defenders praised Trump for accepting Pruitt’s resignation, expressing hope that Wheeler will be better for the Renewable Fuel Standard.

Iowa GOP: Both Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst of Iowa praised Pruitt’s resignation after weeks of calling him out for undermining the president’s promise to farmers by mismanaging the EPA’s ethanol program in favor of oil refiners.

Pruitt ‘undermining’ Trump: “Administrator Pruitt’s ethical scandals and his undermining of the president’s commitment to biofuels and Midwest farmers were distracting from the agency’s otherwise strong progress to free the nation of burdensome and harmful government regulations,” Grassley said.

TRUMP’S COAL PLAN WOULD BOOST MINING JOBS, BUT ALSO PREMATURE DEATHS, SAYS NEW STUDY: Trump’s push to save coal-fired power plants would put miners back to work, but it would also cause more premature deaths that could cancel out those benefits, according to a new study by environmental economists.

Coal bailout: Resources for the Future issued the study Thursday focused on the effects of the Trump administration’s proposal on emissions, mortality from those emissions, and coal mine jobs.

The ultimate sacrifice: “Our simulation results indicate that, each year, one American would die from air pollution for every 2 to 4.5 coal mining jobs supported by the policy,” according to the authors of the study, Daniel Shawhan and Paul Picciano.

NRDC’S DONIGER ON SUPREME COURT: David Doniger, the Natural Resources Defense Council’s climate change strategy chief, has a strategy to deal with a Supreme Court dominated by a staunch conservative majority when it comes to climate change.

Target Roberts: Doniger’s strategy is to focus on Chief Justice John Roberts, he tells the Economist.

Undoing them ‘would be a mess’: Roberts is persuadable on climate change regulations, “if we could show that the impact of regulation was tolerable and predictable and [that] undoing them would be a mess,” Doniger said.

Leading the opposition: NRDC is one of the top environmental groups that joined the Obama EPA in defending Clean Power Plan climate regulations.

The stay: The Supreme Court stayed the climate regulations for existing power plants in February 2016 until all lower court action over the rules had concluded.

Abeyance: The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals later held the lawsuit on the climate rule’s merits in abeyance, allowing EPA’s Pruitt to formulate his plan to repeal and replace the regulation.

Trajectory: But the ultimate trajectory of the regulations is the courts, and the Supreme Court is waiting.

Court can’t be avoided: No matter what EPA does, they will be sued, lawyers with a number of groups say. Even if the clean energy camp wins in a lower court, opponents will take it to the Supreme Court, and vice versa.

Many state attorneys general who sue over the regulation have said that the Supreme Court’s stay is proof positive that the high court wants a crack at the Clean Power Plan.   

FEDS TAKE PAINS TO EXPLAIN FUEL TRENDS: As gasoline and diesel price surged upward this week, the Energy Information Administration attempted to make clear to analysts what its data really means when it comes to predicting consumer demand for gasoline, especially over a holiday.

How it works: The agency sought to clarify how it works in its Week in Petroleum analysis issued Thursday, a day after Trump sought to blame OPEC for high oil prices.   

“To interpret the data effectively, it is important to understand what product supplied is and what it is not,” it explained. It wants to make clear that even though there can be big changes in each component of motor fuel, like oil at a refinery or in a pipeline, which “can sometimes lead to week-to-week changes,” it should not be taken as “indicative of actual consumption patterns.”

What does it mean? It appears that the agency is trying to persuade analysts not to be too hasty in making projections about fuel demand, which could drive prices up higher.

EIA says gasoline supplies should be measured using a four-week rolling average, which is a better method to discern trends. This appears to be a better way of calculating demand during holidays.

A rare occasion: It is not common for the agency to offer such advice in reading its data, especially in a weekly report on oil and fuel prices.

Tracking higher: The explanation took up most of the weekly report’s narrative, before getting to the discussion of how gasoline and diesel prices both surged ahead of the July 4th holiday.

Gasoline: The U.S. average regular gasoline retail price rose one cent from the previous week to $2.84 per gallon on July 2, up 58 cents from the same time last year, according to EIA.

Diesel: The U.S. average diesel fuel price increased two cents to $3.24 per gallon on July 2, up 76 cents from a year ago.

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