IS TRUMP’S ETHANOL FIX A PRIORITY FOR PRUITT? President Trump finalized a deal last week that would solve the war between oil refiners and the ethanol industry over the future of the Renewable Fuel Standard.
• Where’s Pruitt? The two primary fixes that Trump hashed out would come from Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, but the EPA chief has said nothing about the deal.
• Pruitt spurred the talks: The months of negotiations among the White House, lawmakers and senators was partly because of a proposal Pruitt made last year to look at ways to reduce renewable fuel blending in the coming years.
The president got Pruitt to scrap the proposal and move ahead with a plan that would bring more ethanol into the market and help refiners with the costs of abiding by the EPA ethanol mandate.
• What’s in the deal: Trump’s deal would direct Pruitt to propose a rules change that would allow 15-percent ethanol fuels be sold year-round. Currently, EPA restrictions prohibit the use of the fuel in the summer and only 10-percent blends are allowed year round.
• Adding to supply: The second part would allow credits for ethanol exports that refiners can use to show they are abiding by the EPA renewable fuel program.
The EPA currently cancels out the renewable identification, or RIN, credits for ethanol exported from the United States. The change would add to the supply of credits, with the goal of reducing the cost of the RINs that independent refiners, which can’t blend the ethanol, must buy.
• Timing? No word from EPA on the timing of either of the fixes. Media reports also said that Trump told Pruitt to stop giving refiners waivers from the program. No word when that will happen, either.
Pruitt will be on Capitol Hill testifying about his fiscal 2019 budget proposal Wednesday.
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TRUMP IS A LOT GREENER THAN YOU THINK HE IS: Environmental groups may have it out for Trump because of his record of rolling back EPA rules, but beneath the bluster and the fog of politics, the Trump administration is greener than you think.
• What the policy looks like: The Energy Department has been making frequent announcements about funding, international agreements, and private-sector collaboration to push clean energy development.
“They’ve really started to get things flowing at the DOE,” said Rich Powell, executive director of the conservative ClearPath Foundation, pointing out a number of significant renewable energy and low-emission technology announcements this spring.
• All-of-the-above: No, the administration hasn’t abandoned fossil fuels. But it is working on clean-coal technology that would remove carbon dioxide from the air. Natural gas, which it is pushing especially for exports, is considered a bridge to renewable energy.
• From small nuclear to big solar: Meanwhile, the Energy Department wants technology for emissions-free small nuclear reactors, offshore wind, underwater energy turbines, and ways for wind and solar to be able to be used around the clock.
• Energy Secretary Rick Perry and his top officials have “all been saying we want to see an agenda focused on more innovation and less regulation,” Powell said.
Read more about the Trump green agenda in this week’s magazine.
TRUMP SEEKS PEACE, NOT WAR, ON FUEL-EFFICIENCY RULES: Trump played the role of dealmaker during a White House meeting with automakers on Friday, directing Pruitt and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao to continue negotiating with California over vehicle fuel-efficiency standards.
Four sources familiar with the meeting told Josh that Trump struck a non-confrontational tone in the meeting, seeking to placate automakers that want the administration and California to reach an agreement to maintain a single, national program so the companies can sell the same cars in every state.
• Give peace a chance: “I think the boss is prepared for conflict, but wanted to give the Californians a chance to negotiate,” Mike McKenna, a conservative environmental adviser with close ties to the Trump transition team, told Josh.
The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and the Association of Global Automakers issued a joint statement after the meeting saying they appreciated Trump’s interest in reaching an agreement with California.
“We also appreciate the president’s openness to a discussion with California on an expedited basis,” the groups said.
• High stakes: Trump’s push for a deal comes as the EPA has weighed challenging California over a waiver it has under the Clean Air Act that allows it to set its own, stricter air pollution rules. California is leading a coalition of states suing Trump and the EPA for rejecting the Obama administration’s tough fuel standards.
• A bridge too far? A leaked draft of a proposed rule by the EPA and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration included an option to freeze fuel-efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions targets at 2020 levels through 2025, a possibility that goes farther than what the automakers want.
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.
• What California wants: California, and 12 other states, adopted the Obama standards, and want to be able to keep them, regardless of what the Trump administration does.
• Coming soon: The EPA and NHTSA are expected to release their proposed rule in late May or early June, sources tell Josh.
SOLAR COMPANY ‘ALIGNS’ WITH TRUMP TO SURVIVE HIS TARIFFS: The CEO of America’s No. 2 commercial solar power company may have the roadmap for how companies can navigate Trump’s protectionist trade environment.
• ‘Made a bet’: Tom Werner announced last month that his company, SunPower, intends to buy SolarWorld, one of two financially ailing U.S. solar manufacturers that petitioned the Trump administration to put tariffs on imported solar panels, in response to cheap imports from Asia, mostly China.
SunPower is struggling to afford the tariffs on its unique higher-priced panels, which it produces at lower cost in Malaysia and the Philippines, paying as much as $2 million a week for the levies.
The company, like dozens of others, is seeking an exemption to the tariffs, and he figured he could make a play at Trump’s heart.
“We made a bet,” Werner told Josh in a recent interview in Washington, where he was lobbying Trump administration officials for the tariff exemption. “We wanted to make a very unambiguous commitment to American solar manufacturing by buying ironically the company that created the tariff. It is us swimming with the current so to speak. This was a bold move to say we are in alignment here with the Trump administration.”
• Saving American jobs: Werner argues that by buying SolarWorld, a foreign-owned company that produces solar panels in Oregon, he could save — and create — American jobs, expanding the combined business in the U.S. and avoiding paying tariffs by being in Trump’s good graces.
OIL INDUSTRY PUSHES BACK AGAINST TRUMP’S TARIFFS ON CHINESE GOODS: The oil industry is pushing back against Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods.
The American Petroleum Institute points out the dozens of energy products that the industry relies on and that could be hit with higher costs because of the tariffs, it said in comments filed with the administration, obtained by John.
“Increasing the costs of these imported products with tariffs will likely hurt energy growth and negatively impact jobs and investments,” read a letter submitted Friday night by the group to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.
MAJOR OIL COMPANIES MAKE WHITE HOUSE PUSH TO REIN IN EPA COSTS: The oil industry showed up in force at the White House this month to discuss the next steps in reining in costs at the EPA.
The Office of Management and Budget released details about a meeting it held with the EPA and major oil companies to discuss preliminary regulations focused on making the full cost of environmental rules known to the public and industry.
The May 3 meeting included giants of the industry, such as ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and Marathon Petroleum, with senior EPA policy adviser Ken Munis, others from the agency, and White House officials from the budget and environmental offices.
MEANWHILE, ON THE PRUITT FRONT … : There was Friday’s denial of Pruitt’s dinner with a cardinal. The EPA left out in its official dispatches that Pruitt dined last year with Cardinal George Pell, a prominent climate-science denier who had been facing sexual abuse allegations, the New York Times reported.
The newspaper cited three sources familiar with Pruitt’s trip to the Vatican in Rome last year.
Kevin Chmielewski, Pruitt’s former deputy chief of staff for operations, told the newspaper that top political appointees at the EPA feared meeting the cardinal would reflect poorly on Pruitt if it were made public.
• Congress piles on: Just as the New York Times was reporting the news on the dinner, a group of Democrats struck with a sternly worded letter prodding Pruitt to report his high-priced expenses as required by law.
• Laws violated: The group of top Democrats wrote in the letter Friday that Pruitt violated the Antideficiency Act, which prohibits agencies from spending more than legally allowed, and the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which requires agencies to inform Congress when redecorating or furniture expenditures cost more than $5,000.
• Show them the money: The were using Pruitt’s widely reported $43,000 bug-proof phone booth as a way to get him to report on every expense he has incurred above $5,000 since February 2017.
TRUMP’S SUPPORT FOR PRUITT APPEARS UNWAVERING: Despite the ongoing spending and ethics investigations, Trump has unflinching confidence in his EPA administrator.
“Yes, I do, thank you,” Trump said when asked by a reporter Friday whether he has confidence in the embattled EPA chief.
Trump was sitting two seats away from Pruitt when he was asked the question. They were participating in a meeting at the White House with U.S. automakers about their plan to weaken fuel-efficiency rules.
VOLCANO-FIRED POWER PLANT POSES THREAT IN PARADISE: The Puna Geothermal Venture power plant in Hawaii is becoming a major risk for a toxic chemical spill because of the ongoing threat from Kilauea’s continuing eruptions.
The geothermal power plant, which uses the heat from the earth to produce electricity, is nestled near homes and nearby neighborhoods.
• The threat: The power plant contains thousands of gallons of flammable chemicals and deep wells that threaten the population if overheated or breached.
The power plant has been a target of lawsuits calling on its owners to move it from its position on an active volcano.
• Threat from renewable energy is real: Now, with the eruptions, the threat from the renewable energy power plant is real, government officials say.
• Plant shutdown: Puna’s owner announced Sunday that the plant’s wells have been shut down and all flammable chemicals has been removed from the site.
• What is Washington doing?President Trump declared a “major disaster” in Hawaii Friday, unlocking federal aid to help with local efforts dealing with the volcano.
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RUNDOWN
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