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TRUMP SITS DOWN TO TALK ENERGY SECURITY WITH HEAD OF EUROPEAN COMMISSION: President Trump is expected to discuss “energy security” as part of his meeting Wednesday afternoon with Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, in his first meeting since his contentious meeting with Germany and other European Union members last week.

Pipeline pressure: Pressuring the European Union over its support of Russia’ Nord Stream 2 pipeline through Germany was one of Trump’s top agenda items while in Brussels, and later in Helsinki, when he met with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.

Energy security: The pipeline is expected to come up again at Wednesday’s meeting at the White House, along with trade issues and retaliation by Europe against Trump’s tariffs on aluminum, steel and other products. The White House said “energy security” will be a top issue of discussion at the meeting with Juncker.

Bringing a ‘free trade offer’? Larry Kudlow, director of the White House National Economic Council, said the European Commission president is expected to be “bringing a very important free trade offer,” he said at a CNBC conference last week. He could not elaborate, however.

Buy American energy: On the energy front, it’s much more cut-and-dry what Trump wants from Europe. He wants them to buy more liquefied natural gas, from the United States. It’s something he has brought up in individual conversations with European country officials over the last month and on the sidelines of last month’s World Gas Conference.

He tried to make this clear at last week’s meeting with E.U. members in Brussels, although it came across as antagonistic.

Antagonism: He called the European Union a “foe” when it came to trade, while also saying Germany was a “captive” to Russia when it came to energy. The comments have been seen driving a wedge between the U.S. and Europe on trade and energy.

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HOUSE MOVES A STEP CLOSER TO REFORMING EPA ETHANOL MANDATE: The House Energy and Commerce Committee held its fifth hearing Wednesday on reforming the nation’s fuel program, with the intention of educating members before leadership drops a Renewable Fuel Standard bill possibly later this year.

March toward legislation: “This is the fifth hearing on the future of transportation fuels,” said energy committee chairman Greg Walden, R-Oregon, at the opening. The hearing was squarely focused on educating members on the role that Renewable Identification Number credits play in ensuring oil refiners meet the Renewable Fuel Standard.

High cost issue: RINs have been a contentious issue, especially given the Environmental Protection Agency’s use of dozens of waivers to help refiners escape the high cost of the credits in meeting the ethanol mandate.

Ready, set, bill: Walden wants members brought up to speed on what RINs are as he prepares to drop legislation to address problems with the EPA renewable fuel program. But he does not think that members are up to speed on all the issues, especially RINs, and more education is needed.

“It is my desire to move legislation that will pave the future of transportation fuels into the next decade,” Walden explained. “And in order for this to happen, it is important for us to understand what RINs are and how they fit into the Renewable Fuel Standard,” he added.

What’s at stake: “This does affect markets, and therefore it affects consumers, and we are going to place consumers first,” he said.

Nothing ‘preordained’: He said the hearing is not meant to “drive a preordained policy” decision on the use of ethanol in the nation’s gasoline supply or any other fuel. Nor is it “intended to settle scores,” said Walden. It is intended to be educational.

EPA EXPANDS FUEL PROGRAM AS FARMERS FEEL OVERSEAS PINCH: The Environmental Protection Agency took steps Tuesday to help farmers increase biofuel production as the Trump administration levels a $12 billion effort to help farmers cope with economic losses from a growing trade war.

EPA acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler announced a new way for farmers to produce renewable fuels by using the corn-like crop sorghum.

‘Big day’: Wheeler called the announcement a “big day for biofuels,” after approving sorghum as RFS feedstock.

Senators and congressmen had called on former EPA chief Scott Pruitt to approve sorghum under EPA’s Renewable Fuel Standard program, as farmers face low crop prices and are looking for new markets for their crops.

The announcement comes on the heels of a $12 billion White House emergency farm aid package Tuesday to support farmers hurt by an ongoing trade war.

WHEELER CUTS RED TAPE FOR FARMERS: Wheeler also announced earlier Tuesday that he was relaxing reporting rules for farmers in accordance with the FARM Act that called for the removal of “undue reporting burden” on America’s agriculture industry.

“EPA is taking action to reflect Congress’s direction in the FARM Act that removed an undue reporting burden on American agriculture,” said Wheeler in a statement. “EPA is committed to providing regulatory clarity and certainty to farmers and ranchers — hardworking Americans invested in conserving the land and environment.”

EPA CHIEF TO TAKE ETHANOL SUPPORT ON THE ROAD: Wheeler is also responding to the Iowa delegation’s letter for him to visit their state, one of the largest ethanol producers in the country, to visit farmers and talk about the future of the Renewable Fuel Standard program.

Reuters reported Wednesday that Wheeler has taken them up on the lawmakers’ request and will be visiting ethanol country soon.

Biggest concern: The delegation’s biggest concern is that Wheeler will continue granting oil refiners relief as his predecessor, former EPA chief Scott Pruitt, had done before resigning.

They want Wheeler to add millions more gallons of ethanol to next year’s biofuel fuel requirements to offset the damage Pruitt had done.

“When everyone is complaining about the program, we need to look at ways to change the program,” Wheeler said on Tuesday.

BISHOP AND GRIJALVA REACH DEAL TO USE ENERGY REVENUE TO FIX NATIONAL PARKS: The top Republican and Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee announced a deal Wednesday morning to pay for billions of dollars of repairs and maintenance in national parks.

Reps. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, and Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., along with other lawmakers of both parties, introduced legislation to pay for repairs with money the government collects from the development of oil, natural gas, wind, and solar energy on public lands.

“Our parks system is being loved to death,” Bishop said at a press conference with Grijalva and other lawmakers of both parties.“We will solve these problems because this is an issue that must be solved. We cannot wait any longer to do it.”

Bipartisan matters: The introduction of the bill is significant because Bishop and Grijalva, who usually spar on public lands issues, agreed to a compromise that is somewhat similar to a Trump administration proposal to fund the Interior Department’s $16 billion maintenance backlog.

The Zinke plan: Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke earlier this year proposed creating the Public Lands Infrastructure Fund of up to $18 billion over 10 years for maintenance and improvements in national parks, wildlife refuges, and Bureau of Indian Education schools. The money would come from royalty payments and lease sales on federal onshore and offshore lands for energy exploration.

The proposal earned bipartisan support in both chambers of Congress, with lawmakers introducing matching legislation, as members were eager to see a funding mechanism to fix pipeline leaks, broken bathrooms, and potholed roads at America’s beloved national parks.

Of the $16 billion backlog, the National Park Service has the largest repair need — $11.6 billion in 2017 for the nation’s 417 national park sites.

But important Democrats like Grijalva opposed the Zinke proposal, preventing it from getting a vote.

The compromise pitch: The new proposal by Bishop and Grijalva would create a similar pot of money, dubbed the National Park Service and Public Lands Legacy Restoration Fund. But the money would be significantly less, providing $1.3 billion a year for five years, for a total of $6.5 billion.

To win Grijalva’s approval, the new bill only uses unallocated energy revenue that is already due to the federal government from leasing on public lands, not new revenues from anticipated leases. In contrast, the Zinke proposal would have provided energy funding to the National Park Service for repairs only after the government met a certain target for energy revenue.

“I support this bill because I look at our public lands that need more funding without strings attached,” Grijalva said. “The administration’s initial proposal would have increased energy production as a trade off. This legislation does not condition money on increased energy production. It’s a tradeoff we are not making.”

INTERIOR REPEALS OBAMA-ERA RULES FOR DRILLERS TO FIX UP THE ENVIRONMENT: The Interior Department is repealing regulations that would require energy companies to compensate for the environmental damage or harm to public lands that may have occurred from their activity.

Voluntary actions: Instead, the rules enforced under the previous administration will be made “voluntary” under the Trump administration’s policy.

A change from Obama era: “This is a change from the prior administration’s policy,” an Interior spokesperson said. Going forward, the Bureau of Land Management will no longer require companies to compensate for projects on public lands.

“If they so choose, project proponents may still voluntarily complete compensatory mitigation,” the spokesperson explained.

Trump agenda: The memo said the action is in compliance with President Trump’s executive order, “Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth,” which directed the Interior Department to review all existing regulations and other actions that could “potentially burden” the development of domestically produced energy resources.

MAIN SECTION OF YOSEMITE TO CLOSE: Authorities closed the main section of Yosemite National Park in California as a wildfire threatened one of America’s most populated parks.

The section, called Yosemite Valley, will close Wednesday and is expected to stay off-limits until Sunday. It is the first time a wildfire forced the closure of the Yosemite Valley since 1990.

The blaze, known as the Ferguson Fire, is about 2 miles away from the park, said Rich Eagan, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Counting the damage: The Ferguson Fire has burned 36,587 acres since it began July 13, and it is 25 percent contained, the U.S. Forest Service said. Nearly 3,500 structures are threatened. A Cal Fire firefighter was killed responding to the blaze, and six other firefighters have been injured.

Not a fluke: July’s Ferguson Fire comes after a record wildfire season last year.

Catastrophic wildfires hit the West Coast in 2017, including a series of fires in Northern California in October that killed more than 40 people. It was the deadliest fire in the state’s history.

The severe year for wildfires came after more than 10 million acres burned in 2015, what had been the worst fire season in decades.

Fire fury: But the more recent fires are different, and urgent, because fires are increasingly burning close to homes and people as the West becomes more populated. Some climate scientists are blaming climate change for the more frequent wildfires, but research into that is still considered preliminary.

GREEK WILDFIRES KILL MORE THAN 80: Wildfires raging near Athens, Greece, meanwhile, have killed at least 80 people and injured more than 180, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

Wildfires are common in Greece during its hot and dry summers, but this is the country’s deadliest fire season in more than a decade.

‘Deadly mix’: “This was a deadly mix: a mega fire, strong winds of more than [50 miles per hour] in an unregulated area at the peak of the tourist season,” says Yiannis Stamoulis, head of the Association of Greek Firefighters.

The fires have been contained, but more deaths are possible as authorities conduct search and rescue operations.

TURKEY VOWS TO KEEP BUYING IRANIAN OIL: Turkey plans to keep purchasing Iranian oil in defiance of American sanctions against the rogue regime, according to the NATO ally’s top diplomat.

No ‘other option’: “We buy oil from Iran and we purchase it in proper conditions,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Tuesday. “What is the other option? While we are explaining why we will not obey these sanctions, we have also expressed that we do not find these U.S. sanctions appropriate.”

Turkey is one of the top purchasers of Iranian oil. It is also an energy transit hub for Europe.

Not so fast: But as Cavosoglu takes a hard line on the oil sanctions, Tupras, Turkey’s biggest oil importer, is cutting back on deals with Iran without eliminating the sales entirely.

That reduction might render Turkey eligible for a rare waiver from the sanctions.

Policy play: The Trump administration, after getting out of the Iran nuclear deal, expects all countries to cut oil imports from Iran to “zero” by November or risk sanctions cutting their access to U.S. markets and financial institutions. It will consider exemptions as a last resort on a case-by-case basis.

‘Real deal’: Trump on Tuesday sought to lower tensions with Iran, saying he is ready to “make a real deal” on Tehran’s nuclear program.

“We’ll see what happens, but we’re ready to make a real deal, not the deal that was done by the previous administration, which was a disaster,” Trump said during a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

ENERGY DEPARTMENT ALLOWS FAST APPROVALS FOR SMALL LNG EXPORTS: The Trump administration is planning to speed the approval process for projects to export small amounts of liquefied natural gas.

The Energy Department issued a final regulation Wednesday that will enable the agency to automatically approve gas export applications if they are at or below 51.75 billion cubic feet of exports per year and are small enough to not need an environmental review.

‘Unleash’ energy: “The finalization of this rule will expedite the permitting of certain small-scale exports of natural gas,” Energy Secretary Rick Perry said. “The so-called ‘small-scale rule’ will further unleash American energy by reducing the regulatory burden on American businesses while also providing significant benefits to our trading partners in in the Caribbean, Central America and South America.”

Prior to the rule, for applications to export natural gas to non-free trade agreement countries, the Energy Department had to conduct a public interest review before approving small-scale exports.

GOP on board: Republican senators cheered the new rule Tuesday, saying it will enable the U.S. to deliver cheap gas to markets that demand it.

The policy is similar to a bill proposed by Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Bill Cassidy, R-La.

“I commend the Trump Administration’s announcement that it will seek to expedite the approval of certain natural gas exports,” Rubio said. “This policy, which Sen. Cassidy and I have touted through our Small-Scale LNG Access Act, will boost a growing segment of Florida’s economy as well as expand and strengthen U.S. ties with our Caribbean and Latin American partners.”

Export crunch: There are only two operating LNG export facilities in the U.S. right now, although many more facilities are in various stages of development and permit approval.

However, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is facing a backlog of permit applications, and is struggling to meet the high demand.

SHELL, BP SIGN LETTER PRAISING CARBON TAX BILL: Oil and gas giants Shell and BP have signed a letter praising a new bill introduced by Rep. Carlos Curbelo, R-Fla., to tax emissions of carbon dioxide, according to a report Tuesday.

Curbelo’s bill gets rid of the federal gas tax in exchange for taxing carbon emissions.

Cautious praise: The letter, reported on by Axios, is also expected to have signatures from environmental groups and a range of corporations, including Equinor, a Norwegian oil and gas company.

But the companies are treading carefully. The letter does not explicitly endorse the Curbelo bill, Axios said. Rather, it praises Curbelo for initiating a conversation about a carbon tax. Curbelo on Monday became the first Republican to introduce national carbon pricing legislation in nearly a decade, a model that many view as the most cost effective way to combat climate change.

Reality check: Some major and oil and gas companies have said they support a carbon tax, but they done little to lobby for it. The new letter may represent more of the same.

STUDY MAKES THE ECONOMIC CASE FOR CARBON CAPTURE: A new report released Wednesday makes the economic case for deploying technology that captures carbon emissions from power plants and stores it underground, or puts it to commercial use.

The report from ClearPath and the Carbon Utilization Research Council estimates that enhanced research, development, and deployment of carbon capture could add $190 billion to U.S. annual GDP by 2040, and add 780,000 jobs over that period.

Money maker: The money would come from using the store carbon emissions for “enhanced oil recovery,”a process that sends the carbon via pipeline to nearby oil fields, where it is used to assist in the extraction of crude oil.

The study projects the recovery of more than 920 million barrels of oil per year.

It also includes a more conservative prediction for wide use of carbon capture, under which it would add a mere $70 billion to U.S annual GDP by 2040, create 270,000 new jobs, and 100 million barrels of oil recovered each year.

Big scale: The projection includes coal and natural gas power plants with a generating capacity of 17 to 87 gigawatts that are equipped with carbon capture operating by 2040 without any additional environmental regulations or mandates. Because carbon capture is expensive, the report says government and industry must establish public-private partnerships to meet the goals outlined in the report.

Climate impact: Experts say carbon capture and storage will be key to fulfilling the goal of the Paris climate change agreement to limit global warming to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature at which many scientists say the world would see irreversible effects of global warming.

PUERTO RICO’S GOVERNOR SPURNS HOUSE HEARING: Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello has spurned an invitation to testify Wednesday at a House Natural Resources Committee hearing on the “management crisis” at the island’s state-run power utility.

Twitter war: The Democratic governor is upset that the Republican-led committee tweeted at him in a way that he found offensive. The committee tweeted a photo of a letter inviting Rossello to testify, with a post directed at him saying, “Call your office, @RicardoRossello.”

“I do not plan to attend the hearing because my attendance would legitimize a political exercise that was organized for the sole purpose of promoting flawed legislation that would severely hamper our reconstruction,” Rossello wrote in a letter Wednesday to the committee, referring to potential legislation to overhaul PREPA’s oversight.

99 problems: Wednesday afternoon’s hearing is designed to address recent resignations at Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, or PREPA, the bankrupt state-run electric utility that has struggled to restore power after Hurricane Maria hit last September. Some 10 months after the storm, almost 500 customers still don’t have electricity.

Most of the board of directors for PREPA resigned earlier this month after Rossello demanded a pay cut for the utility’s incoming CEO, Rafael Díaz-Granados.

The prior CEO, Walter Higgins, who was appointed in March to lead PREPA, had just resigned the day before. He too cited opposition from Puerto Rican politicians regarding his compensation.

PREPA filed for bankruptcy last year, facing $9 billion in debt. The power authority is short-staffed, and has been vulnerable to political favoritism and corruption. Rossello is trying to privatize PREPA to lower costs for consumers.

If you go: Others invited to testify at the 2 p.m. House hearing include Eduardo Bhatia, the minority leader of the Puerto Rico Senate, Bruce Walker, the Energy Department’s assistant secretary at the Office of Electricity, and others.

STUDY: THE AUTONOMOUS COAL FLEET OF THE FUTURE: Australia’s move to an autonomous coal truck fleet could pave the way for something similar in the United States, according to a new study.

Up production: The use of automation in other sectors, such as iron ore mining, has proven a boon for upping production and lowering costs. The same thing could be applied to the U.S.’s ailing coal sector to make it more competitive, according to a new study by consulting firm WoodMac.

Australia’s first steps: “We saw the first commercial step towards autonomous trucks in the Australian coal sector in July 2018,” according to the study’s summary.

Pilot project: “Whitehaven has agreed with Hitachi to mobilise a fleet of six autonomous trucks at one of its operating pits at Maules Creek in New South Wales by April 2019. If it proves successful, the technology will be introduced throughout the mine.”

Iron ore’s example: In iron ore production, productivity levels have risen 15-20 percent due to automation. “Output levels have increased at autonomous mines because of improved equipment utilisation, less downtime due to fewer shift changes and breaks, and a drop in labour absenteeism,” the study said.

No vehicle crashes in mining: “Safety has also proven to be a key driver of automation. To date, there have been no injuries attributed to autonomous vehicles within the Australian iron ore sector.”

Initial cost still high: The study showed that an autonomous retrofit would cost about $500,000 per truck, the study said. “But we would expect capital spend to fall as access to automation technology improves and becomes more readily available. Added productivity improvements will also lead to further cost savings.”

RUNDOWN

Associated Press ‘Law and order’ Trump soft on corporate offenders

New York Times The $3 billion plan to turn the Hoover Dam into a giant battery

San Francisco Chronicle Gov. Jerry Brown proposes big change in wildfire liability to help California utilities

Chron.com Will hype on Chinese and Indian energy demand prove out?

Bloomberg Russian oil getting ready for biggest tax overhaul in 20 years