• The Environmental Protection Agency intends to issue narrower changes to the biofuel credit market to coincide with the June 1 expansion of E15 ethanol, after agency staff determined that more analysis is needed in order to act on some of its earlier draft plan, according to four sources briefed on the matter. Three sources said that the less-ambitious regulation will focus on market transparency and addressing the hoarding of the biofuel traded credit. (Reuters)

• The Senate voted 85-8 to pass a $19.1 billion disaster spending bill, which President Donald Trump suggested he supports despite the measure’s lack of funding for the U.S.-Mexico border. A senior House Democratic aide said that chamber leaders hope to approve the bill by unanimous consent on Friday, but an objection by any member will push House approval to more than a week from now, when lawmakers return from Memorial Day recess. (The Washington Post)

• Houston-based Talos Energy Inc. Chief Executive Tim Duncan said the company may consider buying deepwater Gulf of Mexico assets owned by Anadarko Petroleum Corp. after Occidental Petroleum Corp. acquires them, though it remains uncertain what Occidental will do with those assets. Talos is the first foreign company to strike oil offshore of Mexico in about 80 years. (S&P Global Platts)

Democrats suggest EPA chief misled on vehicle emissions rollback
Rebecca Beitsch, The Hill

Democrats are asking Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) head Andrew Wheeler to turn over documents tied to the agency’s proposal to roll back emissions standards for vehicles, suggesting he made misleading statements on the topic.

Wheeler’s cost-benefit mandate confounds experts
Niina Heikkinen, E&E News

Regulatory experts say EPA’s recent directive to increase consistency in regulatory cost-benefit analyses appears more limited and complicated than the agency had initially planned.

Jay Inslee Is Running on Climate Change. The Issue Is Catching On, So Why Isn’t He?
Trip Gabriel, The New York Times

For years, climate change was an issue of passionate concern to a few voters, but never enough to ripple presidential politics. The Hillary Clinton-Donald Trump debates in 2016 notoriously did not include any questions from moderators about global warming.

EPA taking 1st big steps to clean up leaking Colorado mines
Dan Elliott, The Associated Press

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will take the first major steps this summer to clean up wastewater flowing from dozens of old mines at a Superfund site in southwestern Colorado, officials said Thursday.

Reorganization: From grand vision to modest tinkering?
Michael Doyle and Jennifer Yachnin, E&E News

House Democrats want to cut off funding. Senate Republicans want more answers. And the Interior secretary who inherited the grandly ambitious proposal from his predecessor has distanced himself from some earlier concepts.

Castro swears off donations from oil, gas, coal executives
Tal Axelrod, The Hill

Democratic presidential hopeful Julián Castro on Thursday declared he will refuse contributions to his White House bid by oil, gas and coal industry executives.

Oil Pares Biggest Weekly Loss of 2019 as Supply, Trade Fears Mix
Grant Smith and Tsuyoshi Inajima, Bloomberg

Oil rose, paring its biggest weekly loss of the year, as signs that global crude markets are tightening jostled with fears that the U.S.-China trade feud will hurt fuel demand.

U.S. tells foreign firms to stop jet fuel trading with Venezuela: sources
Julia Payne and Dmitry Zhdannikov, Reuters

The United States told some large foreign firms this week they should stop trading jet fuel with Venezuela or face sanctions, according to two industry sources, ratcheting up pressure intended at removing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from power.

Shell starts production at new Appomattox platform in the Gulf
Jordan Blum, Houston Chronicle

The Appomattox – the only major platform coming online this year in the Gulf – is expected to produce 175,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day from its position about 80 miles southeast of the Louisiana coastline.

BP eyes US Gulf frontier exploration after years of focusing on tiebacks: executive
Starr Spencer, S&P Global Platts

After years of pursuing a strategy of mostly tiebacks in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico during the recent industry downturn, BP said it will also now begin adding frontier exploration, a top US executive for the company has said.

How a sleepy Texas trust turned into Permian oil proxy war
Jordan Blum, Houston Chronicle

The Texas Pacific Land Trust was formed in the late 19th century to hold and manage millions of acres left after a cross-country railroad went bust. A large amount of that land, it turned out, was in the heart of what we now know as the Permian Basin.

With US offshore plan likely scrapped, industry pursues changes to federal lease terms
Brian Scheid, S&P Global Platts

A Trump administration plan to expand offshore oil and natural gas leasing to nearly all federal waters will likely be scrapped and redrawn, with the industry instead pushing for more favorable leasing terms and drilling approval in the eastern Gulf of Mexico over a larger opening of US waters, sources told S&P Global Platts this week.

Big Oil Wants to Conduct a Big Power Experiment in Your House
Kelly Gilblom, Bloomberg

Big Oil wants to put a box in your hall closet that works like a human brain, can cut the lights, stop the refrigerator and will know how you move about in the privacy of your home better than you do.

Pipeline Opponents Strike Back Against Anti-protest Laws
Alleen Brown, The Intercept

Two lawsuits in Louisiana and South Dakota, and a promised suit in Texas, are the first signs of a concerted pushback against a nationwide, industry-led effort to halt the most confrontational arm of the climate movement.

PG&E to bury distribution lines serving fire-ravaged Paradise, California
Robert Walton, Utility Dive

Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) said Wednesday it will bury distribution lines in the town of Paradise, Calif., and other areas in Butte County hit by the 2018 Camp Fire caused by the utility’s equipment.

As California Wildfire Season Looms, Finding Tree Trimmers Is a New Problem
Lauren Hepler, The New York Times

Pacific Gas & Electric has a big problem. Its equipment keeps coming into contact with dry trees and shrubs and starting devastating wildfires. So the company is scrambling to trim or cut down hundreds of thousands of trees across its vast Northern California territory.

Va. Group Seeks End to Dominion Monopoly
Christen Smith, RTO Insider

The Virginia Energy Reform Coalition (VERC) features policy experts from across the ideological spectrum united against what it considers wasteful infrastructure spending funded by ever-increasing electricity rates.

New York’s Prized Sea Scallop Faces Off Against Offshore Wind
Chris Martin and Jennifer A. Dlouhy, Bloomberg

Prized for their sweet and tender meat, scallops are abundant off Long Island and the Jersey Shore. That happens to be where the Trump administration wants to auction leases for offshore wind farms for what’s envisioned to be a $70 billion U.S. industry.

Musk’s leaked email shows Tesla to make record deliveries in second quarter
Vibhuti Sharma, Reuters

Tesla Inc is on course to deliver a record number of cars in the second quarter, beating the 90,700 it sent to customers in the final quarter of last year, according to an internal email from Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk to staff.

An Energy Fight Has Koch and Environmentalists on the Same Side
Jim Efstathiou Jr., Bloomberg

The Sierra Club and billionaire Charles Koch have found at least one thing to agree on: They hate Ohio’s plan to take away renewable power subsidies and give them to coal and nuclear plants.

Report: Coal’s revival is in high tech
Amy Harder, Axios

A new report commissioned by the Energy Department recommends promoting coal for use in other, higher tech ways than electricity.

Energy negotiations unravel at the Capitol, leaving little accomplished
Elizabeth Dunbar, Minnesota Public Radio

Negotiations over several issues — clean energy, lifting the state’s ban on new nuclear plants, funding for solar panels on schools and a range of other energy provisions — broke down between the state House and Senate this week, leaving a bare-bones budget and policy bill going into an expected special legislative session.

Children step up global calls to fight climate change
Sonali Paul and Charlotte Greenfield, Reuters

Thousands of young activists in Australia and New Zealand launched a global protest on Friday demanding that politicians and business leaders move swiftly to curb greenhouse gas emissions to fight climate change.

The Market Has Chosen Against Coal, but the Trump Administration Isn’t Listening
Jack Rafuse, Morning Consult

The truth is that coal is no longer a premier resource for American power generation. More than half of the operating coal mines in the United States have closed since 2008, and coal consumption last year was expected to be the lowest in nearly four decades.

The Gas Lines of the ‘70s Are Gone, Replaced by Complacence
Spencer Jakab, The Wall Street Journal

The whole notion of shortages caused by events halfway around the world is starting to seem quaint in an era of surging American shale production and relative geopolitical calm. Now it is demand shocks, like Thursday’s big selloff on trade war fears, that buffet crude prices.

Coal in a New Carbon Age
National Coal Council

The United States is embarking on a “New Age of Carbon” which will usher in significant opportunities for coal beyond conventional markets for power generation and steelmaking. Coal, and the carbon it contains, is on the crest of powering a wave of innovation in advanced products and manufacturing.