SIGN UP! If you’d like to continue receiving Washington Examiner’s Daily on Energy newsletter, SUBSCRIBE HERE: http://newsletters.washingtonexaminer.com/newsletter/daily-on-energy/

RICK PERRY AND DEMOCRATS IN BRAWL OVER SECRET PLUTONIUM SHIPMENT: Energy Secretary Rick Perry is refuting Democratic accusations that he misled Congress and a federal court in overseeing a shipment of weapons-grade plutonium trucked to Nevada last fall that his agency only disclosed this week for national security reasons.

“The Department of Energy was as transparent as operational security would permit,” the agency said after members of the Nevada delegation blasted Perry for not disclosing the plutonium shipment.

Congress was told: Perry’s office said efforts were made as early as August 2018 to ensure that all members of Congress were informed before the shipment was trucked from South Carolina to Nevada.

The transfer that occurred in November was disclosed to a federal court in Nevada on Wednesday.  

The agency said that the National Nuclear Security Administration — responsible for controlling the nation’s nuclear arsenal — had confirmed much earlier that it was “actively engaged” in removing one metric ton of plutonium from South Carolina to Nevada, Texas, and New Mexico.

Betrayed: The Nevada delegation, on the other hand, is making the incident into a major betrayal by the federal government of the state of Nevada, vowing to fight the administration to block any future transfers.

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., appears to be leading the charge, hosting a Thursday night meeting with National Nuclear Security Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty and the agency’s General Counsel Bruce Diamond. Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., also attended the meeting.

Cortez Masto said the administration refused to share critical information with the delegation and hid the timing of the shipment.

Confrontation: From a statement Cortez Masto issued after the meeting, the session was extremely confrontational.

“I put NNSA officials on notice that they had betrayed the trust of Nevadans and completely undermined a bipartisan working relationship established by Governor [Brian] Sandoval, and continued by Governor [Stephen] Sisolak,” the senator said after the meeting.

“While I remain hopeful we can rebuild that relationship, I made it clear that I’m fighting alongside Nevada’s congressional delegation, Attorney General [Aaron] Ford, and our Governor to hold them accountable and to find out when this plutonium will be removed,” she added.  

Welcome to Daily on Energy, written 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 CAN’T COUNT ON SAUDIS TO KEEP OIL PRICES STABLE FROM VENEZUELA SANCTIONS: President Trump likely won’t be able to count on Saudi Arabia to help defray the impact of his Venezuela oil ban, which could cause prices to rise.

Saudi Arabia’s medium sour grade of oil is a good enough substitute for the sludgy, heavy product from Venezuela, which is rare and craved by U.S. Gulf Coast refiners built to process it.

But Saudis have little incentive to help: After Trump successfully prodded the kingdom to boost exports last year to offset his oil sanctions on Iran, the president later gave exemptions to eight countries, allowing them to continue buying Iranian oil.

In reaction, the Saudis began implementing an OPEC pact with Russia in January to cut production in order to raise low prices — a deal the Saudis say they are committed to carrying out, despite complaints from Trump.

So the Saudis are not predisposed to aid Trump, even though Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, announcing the sanctions on Monday at the White House, leaned on them to help prevent an oil market mess, saying, “Many of our friends in the Middle East will be happy to make up the supply.”

“Although Saudi barrels are a good candidate to replace Venezuelan supply, Saudi caution is understandable after they were burned in November when the Trump administration very publicly bullied them for more oil, only to grant a slew of Iran sanctions waivers at the last minute,” Antoine Halff, a senior research scholar with the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, told Josh.

Read more of Josh’s report here.

SAUDI OWNERSHIP OF LARGEST US REFINERY COULD INSULATE IT FROM TRUMP’S SANCTIONS: Saudi Arabia’s ownership of the largest refinery in the U.S. could prove a competitive advantage in coping with Trump’s sanctions on oil from Venezuela, industry participants tell John.

The Motiva refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, can refine more barrels of crude oil per day than some countries, but, like most of its rivals on the Gulf Coast, it is dependent on the heavier crude oil that comes from Venezuela.

Yet, unlike most other Gulf Coast refiners, who are struggling with the new U.S. sanctions, the Saudi-owned refinery has a wild card to play — it’s owned by the largest oil company in the world, Saudi Aramco.

EPA APPOINTS CLIMATE SKEPTICS TO SCIENCE ADVISORY COMMITTEE: Environmental Protection Agency Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler on Thursday announced new appointments to a key advisory board, including some skeptical of mainstream climate change science.

Wheeler’s additions to the EPA’s Science Advisory Board include John Christy, a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, who has argued scientists overestimate the climate’s sensitivity to greenhouse gas emissions.

“Climate science is a murky science with large uncertainties on many critical components,” he said in testimony at a 2015 House Science Committee hearing.

In a 2017 appearance before Congress, Christy called for the government to establish “red teams” of opposing views on climate change science to debate the mainstream consensus, an idea that former EPA administrator Scott Pruitt tried to adopt before the White House shelved it.

Brant Ulsh, another new Science Advisory Board member, has argued exposure to low doses of radiation could be safe. Ulsh is a physicist with the California-based consulting firm M.H. Chew and Associates.

A different approach to advisory boards: The new make-up of the Science Advisory Board comes after Pruitt in 2017 introduced a directive to block scientists who receive EPA funding from serving on the advisory boards.

It was part of a wider effort, supported by Wheeler, to broaden the representation of EPA advisory boards to include more state regulators, industry officials, and people from varied geographic areas.

Wheeler also extended the terms of some Obama-era members to the Science Advisory Board.

EAST COAST AGS SUE EPA FOR LAX ENFORCEMENT OF INTERSTATE SMOG RULES: The Democratic attorneys general of six East Coast states sued the EPA Thursday because they say the agency has not done enough to force upwind states to reduce pollution that flows into other states.

New York Attorney General Letitia James led the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, challenging a Trump administration decision to take no further action to control emissions of ground level ozone pollution from sources in upwind states until 2023 at the earliest.

The attorneys general accuse the EPA of violating the Clean Air Act’s “Good Neighbor” provision, which requires the agency to establish regulations preventing emission sources in Midwestern and Southern states from hindering Northeast states’ abilities to meet federal air quality standards for ground level ozone pollution, or smog.

“My office will stand firm for the quality of air in our state by forcing Trump’s EPA to follow the law and to ensure New Yorkers’ legal right to clean air,” James said.

The attorneys general of Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, and New Jersey also joined the lawsuit.   

BP AGREES TO DISCLOSE HOW ITS ACTIONS HELP MEET PARIS CLIMATE GOALS: Facing pressure from investors, British oil and gas giant BP agreed Friday to a shareholder resolution forcing it to disclose how its actions help meet the goals of the Paris climate change agreement.

The resolution, put forth by an investor network called Climate Action 100+, said: “Investors remain concerned that the company has not yet demonstrated that its strategy, which includes growth in oil and gas as well as pursuing low-carbon businesses, is consistent with the Paris goals.”

Helge Lund, BP’s chairman, said additional reporting requirements will “build on BP’s history of progressive action in this area.”

HOUSE NATURAL RESOURCES COMMITTEE CONFIRMS CLIMATE HEARING: Democrats of House Natural Resources Committee officially announced Thursday what they said would be the first hearing on climate change held by the panel in more than eight years.

The announcement sets up dueling climate change hearings for Wednesday, Feb. 6 at 10 a.m., with the Energy and Commerce Committee also hosting a similar hearing at the same day and time.

A bipartisan gubernatorial duo will headline the Natural Resources Committee hearing. Govs. Roy Cooper of North Carolina, a Democrat, and Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, a Republican, are among those scheduled to testify on “climate change impacts and the need to act.”

REPUBLICAN GROUP PROMOTING CARBON TAX HIRES CHIEF ECONOMIST: The Climate Leadership Council, a Republican-led group calling for Congress to pass a carbon tax, will announce today that it has added Rob Williams as its chief economist.

Williams, a professor at the University of Maryland, is an expert on environmental and tax policy, with a particular focus on carbon pricing.

The Climate Leadership Council, a group led by two former Republican secretaries of state, James Baker III and George Shultz, is promoting a carbon-tax-and-dividend that would distribute all of the revenue from the tax as a rebate to American households.

RUNDOWN

Detroit Free Press How fire and ice nearly took down Michigan’s energy supply

Wall Street Journal Mexico cut off US oil imports as fuel ran low

Bloomberg The Navy wants to build a wall to stave off climate change

Reuters A climate problem even California can’t fix: tailpipe pollution