THIS IS A MIKE KING TEST!!!!

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PERRY’S CONCERN FOR VETERANS SPARKS MAJOR HEALTHCARE EFFORT: Energy Secretary Rick Perry is big on coal, natural gas and nuclear energy, but he also has a concern for veterans that he wants to use to change the face of U.S. healthcare.

• Perry plays up national labs: The energy agency is typically seen as being “about promoting fossil fuels, we’re about doing our duty to the country from the standpoint of promoting [liquefied natural gas], to be a part of a civil nuclear energy program that has global implications from the standpoint of making energy, and clean energy, available around the world,” Perry told the Washington Examiner in an interview.

“But there’s 17 national labs out there that have this unique ability to engage in a lot of incredibly important arenas,” he said. And the agency wants to explore new avenues of influence beyond energy.

• World-class data crunching: Perry wants to use the agency’s world-class data-crunching capabilities to solve problems among American veterans, such as post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide, and eventually leverage that information to benefit everyone. The focus is on veterans, but the implications of the effort are global.

• Veterans are agency employees: About 40 percent of Energy Department employees are veterans. “If that’s not the highest percentage in federal government, it’s certainly one of highest,” Perry said. “Once you understand what this agency is about, once you understand who it’s populated by, then this whole issue of why DOE is involved in veterans’ health becomes a lot easier to understand.”

• Finishing what Obama started: The programs the Energy Department is working on started during the Obama administration, including the Million Veteran Program, or MVP, which looks to use the data from volunteers to map health problems among veterans.

PERRY’S DEPUTY SEES BRIGHT SIDE OF FERC REJECTION: Dan Brouillette, Perry’s no. 2 at the agency, said the rejection of an Energy Department plan to subsidize coal and nuclear plants could actually be a good thing.

• No ‘serious expectation’: “The bottom line is this: We proposed an idea. We were hopeful that they would just take our idea, but there was never really any serious expectation that they would take it lock, stock, and barrel,” he said in an interview with the Washington Examiner from his office on Capitol Hill.

• FERC rejection: The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in January rejected a proposal to give incentives for nuclear and coal plants to handle outages caused by weather and other problems.

• Starting a conversation: “The whole idea of Secretary Perry taking the action that he took was to begin a national conversation on an issue that everyone knows exists, including the FERC. So, we put our idea on the table. That being said, they chose to go a different way, and that’s quite OK,” he said.

“Instead, they are turning to regional grid power operators to gauge how to better improve the resilience of the power systems,” Brouillette said.

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PRUITT CANCELS ISRAEL TRIP AS PROBE INTO TRAVEL INTENSIFIES: Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt has pulled out of an almost week-long trip to Israel, in the wake of ongoing complaints about his travel expenses.

“We decided to postpone; the administrator looks forward to going in the future,” EPA spokeswoman Liz Bowman wrote in an email to the Washington Examiner.

• No explanation: Bowman did not explain why the change in plans was necessary to the Washington Post, which first reported the story Sunday.

• Meetings planned: Pruitt was expected to spend Sunday to Thursday in Jerusalem for meetings with government officials, such as Israeli Environment Minister Ze’ev Elkin, and representatives from companies such as Israeli water technology firms.

KOCH GROUPS WARN ANEW ABOUT GAS TAX INCREASE: Two groups backed by the Koch brothers took another shot at the idea of a 25-cent gas tax increase Tuesday, warning in a new report that the higher tax would undo many of the benefits of the Trump tax cuts and hit certain states particularly hard.

• Tax cut clawback: “Just a few months ago, Congress provided long-awaited and much-needed relief to American taxpayers through a comprehensive overhaul of the federal tax code,” said Mary Kate Hopkins, the director of federal affairs for Americans for Prosperity. “A gas tax increase would claw back a large portion of that benefit just as individuals and families are starting to see the impact of tax reform in the form of higher wages, more take-home pay, and greater job opportunities.”

• On the defense: Anti-tax groups are playing defense as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, some congressional Republicans and even President Trump favor raising the tax on gasoline and diesel to help pay for a major infrastructure program.

• Revenue boost: The tax is currently 18.4 cents a gallon and hasn’t been raised in 25 years. Raising that by 25 cents would bring in about $400 billion in revenue to the federal government over 10 years, according to the Chamber of Commerce.

ARIZONA’S CLEAN ENERGY PLAN COULD BE HARBINGER: A utility regulator and former Republican state lawmaker in Arizona has proposed one of the most ambitious targets in the country to shift from fossil fuels to cleaner energy sources.

• What’s in the plan? Andy Tobin, a member of the Arizona Corporation Commission, this month released a plan to have 80 percent of Arizona’s electricity come from clean energy sources, including solar, wind, biomass, and nuclear power, by 2050.

• More aggressive than California: Tobin’s plan also calls for 3 gigawatts, or 3,000 megawatts, of energy storage by 2030, which would be the largest energy-storage mandate in the country.

The clean energy and storage targets are both more aggressive than plans in blue states California and New York.

• Move to formalize plan: As Tobin sells his plan, which he will turn into a formal rule that must be approved by a majority of Arizona’s five elected utility commission members, he uses rhetoric that he hopes the people of his red state can understand.

Using industry-friendly terms, Tobin refers to his proposal as the “Energy Modernization Plan.”

• No mandates here: “Nobody likes to hear ‘mandate,’” Tobin said. “Maybe this is different because I am not claiming it’s about climate change. But with the concerns we are facing … our forest fires have been worse, our summers have been hotter, we are amidst a drought. We need some economic sense.”

IRAN’S OIL REVENUE PLUMMETS AS U.S. OIL EXPORTS GROW: Iran missed its oil and gas revenue targets by nearly 30 percent last year, while failing to grab enough money in taxes to make up the shortfall, according to the country’s official news service.

• Falling short: President Hassan Rouhani’s administration “only managed to earn $19.44 billion from taxes and $13.06 billion by exporting oil and its byproducts, showing deficits of $7.34 billion and $5.3 billion, respectively,” according to the Islamic Republic News Agency.

The government had projected $18.36 billion from selling oil this year, according to the news service.

• A big 45 percent fall: In fiscal 2017, revenue from oil reached more than $24• billion in the wake of relaxed U.S. sanctions, 45 percent more than in fiscal 2018. Iran also had the benefit of not signing onto a Saudi-led pact to cut oil production among members and non-members of OPEC to drive crude oil prices higher.

Iran’s oil ministry had projected that oil revenue would surge to more than $40 billion in fiscal 2018.

• Pressure is on: Increased pressure on Iran’s oil revenue is expected to come from the U.S. The latest projections from the International Energy Agency show oil and natural gas production increasing from fracking in the U.S., which has remained profitable in the low oil-price environment.

IRAN, INDIA START THEIR OWN VERSION OF ‘ENERGY DOMINANCE:’ Iran and India over the weekend signed a major energy deal to cooperate on oil and natural gas exports that looks to make India the top destination for Iranian crude.

The new agreement would see the two countries sharing expertise on building the necessary infrastructure to ensure Iran can easily send its energy supplies to one of the largest markets in the world for fossil fuels — the Indian subcontinent.

• What does it mean for the U.S.? President Trump declared in June that the “relationship between India and the United States has never been stronger, has never been better.” But he also wants to see India become a top buyer of U.S. liquefied natural gas.

• What’s the harm? The Iran deal with India doesn’t harm that aim, but it does show that Iran is looking to institute its own ideas for “energy dominance” in battling with the U.S. over the South Asian market.

It also shows that India, a top ally of the U.S., is not precluded from doing business with a country that Trump often cites as a major sponsor of international terrorism.

ENERGY ADVOCATES GET HACKED: The Consumer Energy Alliance, a national consumer advocacy group, said Monday that public comments were being sent through its grassroots network on behalf of individuals without their permission or knowledge.

A spokesman said someone or a group has been sending emails through CEA’s “grassroots systems on behalf of others – in a fraudulent manner.” The incident occurred over the weekend in South Carolina.

The South Carolina attorney general has been asked to look into the matter.

• A system to ensure trust: “Over its 13 year history, Consumer Energy Alliance often provides our members and the public opportunities to weigh in online with comments on energy issues that could impact household energy prices,” said David Holt, the president of the group. “In each instance, the commenter must enter their name, address, email and ZIP code and affirmatively approve a comment letter.”

• What happened? But he said fraud was committed when a petition letter in South Carolina was submitted to the group’s system “on behalf of a local individual apparently without their permission.”

• Investigation and audit: Holt said as the group works with law enforcement officials, it will continue to verify existing submissions to ensure a “credible, valid open process that welcome all voices in the energy discussion and serves to help South Carolinians meet their most basic energy needs.”

RUNDOWN

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