• Saudi Arabian Oil Co. subsidiary Aramco Services Co. and Sempra Energy subsidiary Sempra LNG signed a “heads of agreement” for the likely sale of 5 million metric tons of liquefied natural gas annually from Sempra’s Port Arthur LNG export terminal in Texas to Aramco over 20 years. Under the agreement, the companies also intend to negotiate a 25 percent equity investment in the export project’s first phase, but financial details of the agreement remain undisclosed. (The Wall Street Journal)

• Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler sent a memorandum to top EPA officials directing them to form new regulations over how to determine the costs and benefits of the agency’s rulemakings and to use terms such as “practical” and “feasible” consistently. Supporters of the endeavor have said the EPA in the past has given too little consideration to the costs of its rules, while opposers said the move could complicate setting stricter limits on air pollutants in the future. (Bloomberg)

• The House Appropriations Committee voted 31-21 to report its $46.4 billion Energy-Water spending legislation to the floor. The bill rejects requested cuts to the Energy Department, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation, and it would increase funding for the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy program by $59 million. (The Hill)

Interior Department policy let political appointees review FOIA requests
Jacob Holzman and Benjamin J. Hulac, Roll Call

The Interior Department has for about a year allowed political appointees to weigh in on which federal records are released to the public, creating delays that could violate open records law and expose the department to legal action.

Interior can treat lawmakers, officials to free concert tickets under new guidelines
Rebecca Beitsch, The Hill

The rules spell out how the Interior secretary and other employees can use tickets that come through a department contract with the Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts, located outside of Washington, D.C.

Officials to tackle thorny issue of infrastructure funding
Kevin Freking, The Associated Press

Trump and Democratic lawmakers will meet at the White House on Wednesday for Round 2 of their infrastructure talks.

Collins offering bill to boost battery research as GOP pushes energy ‘innovation’
Rebecca Beitsch, The Hill

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) is introducing a bill Wednesday to boost the reliability of wind and solar electricity, one of the first of what may be several Republican energy bills in the pipeline.

EPA official steps down after 2 years
Amy Harder, Axios

Troy Lyons, one of the longest-serving senior Trump administration officials at the Environmental Protection Agency, is stepping down and joining a lobbying firm. Lyons, an associate administrator, was instrumental in helping EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler and several assistant administrators work through the Senate confirmation process.

Oil prices drop on swelling U.S. stockpiles, trade war
Shadia Nasralla, Reuters

Oil prices fell on Wednesday after industry data showed an increase in U.S. crude inventories and on demand concerns linked to a protracted trade war between China and the United States.

Possible Trump Visit to Iowa Ethanol Mill Signals E15 Win
Mario Parker and Jennifer Jacobs, Bloomberg

President Donald Trump is considering visiting an ethanol refinery in Iowa in the coming weeks, according to people familiar with the matter, a signal that the administration will fulfill a pledge to permit the year-round sale of high-ethanol gasoline sought by corn farmers in the state.

Oil, gas sectors see Canada, Mexico deal on tariffs as positive shift
Maya Weber, S&P Global Platts

Oil and gas sector interests are describing the Trump administration’s agreement Friday to lift 25% tariffs on steel imports from Canada and Mexico as a positive step for their infrastructure projects, avoiding disruptions to interconnected supply chains.

Icahn-Backed Oil Refiner CVR Energy Considers Options
Simon Casey and Joe Carroll, Bloomberg

The Sugar Land, Texas-based company said in a statement Tuesday that it has retained Bank of America Merrill Lynch as a financial adviser. It also inked a deal to sell its 1.5 million-barrel storage terminal and related assets in north-central Oklahoma to Plains All American Pipeline LP for about $36 million.

Supply shocks fail to stir oil market numbed by shale
David Sheppard, Financial Times

When Gary Ross, one of the biggest names in energy trading, saw that oil tankers had been attacked off the UAE city-state of Fujairah earlier this month, he knew crude prices just had to rise.

Growing exports add to annual hurricane risks for US energy sector
Meghan Gordon et al., S&P Global Platts

As the US becomes a larger oil and gas exporter, the annual threat from the Atlantic hurricane season poses greater risks for global flows, on top of the usual risks to electricity demand and domestic fuel supplies.

California Sues Trump Administration to Recover $1 Billion for Rail Project
Kartikay Mehrotra, Bloomberg

California sued the Trump administration over the government’s decision to withdraw a grant of almost $1 billion that would have funded a high-speed rail project, suggesting the move was a political response to the state’s challenge of the president’s declaration of an emergency on the southern border.

Countering LaFleur, Chatterjee rejects notion of a partisan split at FERC
Jasmin Melvin and Maya Weber, S&P Global Platts

His comments follow a speech to the Energy Bar Association in which Commissioner Cheryl LaFleur lamented what she described as the spread of political division to the independent agency. She suggested unusually high turnover and uptick in the number of partisan splits on votes have taken a toll at 888 First Street.

An abandoned mine near Joshua Tree could host a massive hydropower project
Sammy Roth, Los Angeles Times

An abandoned iron mine on the doorstep of Joshua Tree National Park could be repurposed as a massive hydroelectric power plant under a bill with bipartisan support in the state Legislature.

Feds to energy companies: Beware drones made in China
Blake Sobczak, E&E News

The alert to industry on “Chinese Manufactured Unmanned Aircraft Systems” does not single out specific companies or share concrete examples of past data theft by Chinese drone providers.

E-scooter company Spin will place dozens of start-up’s solar-powered docking stations in two cities this summer
Peter Holley, The Washington Post

The evolving plan — being launched by the electric scooter company Spin and a California start-up called Swiftmile — involves installing dozens of electric docking stations on sidewalks as a way to charge e-scooters, give riders a designated place to park their devices and draw more foot traffic to particular locations.

Wind developer seeks proposals for whale monitoring system
The Associated Press

The developer of a wind farm off Massachusetts is taking steps to protect the endangered North Atlantic right whale. Vineyard Wind announced Tuesday it’s seeking proposals for an acoustic monitoring system to detect and track the critically endangered species.

SCE rolls out $356M charging program to spur electric trucks, buses and other large vehicles
Robert Walton, Utility Dive

Southern California Edison (SCE) on Monday rolled out a program designed to advance the electrification of medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, including buses and tractor trailers, by offering to install infrastructure to support charging stations at no charge.

Top Miner BHP Sees an End to the Era of Coal
David Stringer, Bloomberg

BHP Group, the world’s biggest miner, sees the outlook for thermal coal as challenged and won’t add production as it prioritizes growth in commodities tied to the shift to renewable energy and electric transport.

House panel advances DOE budget bill with no funding for Yucca
Humberto Sanchez, The Nevada Independent

The proposal, which failed 27 to 25, was offered by Idaho Republican Rep. Mike Simpson as an amendment to legislation funding the Department of Energy.

Sea levels could rise faster than expected, swamping coastal cities: study
Rachel Frazin, The Hill

The authors of a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences concluded it was “plausible” that sea level rising could exceed two meters, potentially resulting in the displacement of up to 187 million people and significant land loss in “critical regions of food production.”

The Surprising Academic Impact of Reducing School-Bus Emissions
Dana Hawkins-Simons, The Wall Street Journal

The link between emissions and the environment is obvious and well-known. But cleaner-running buses also have the potential to improve the health—and even test scores—of students, according to a new study by Georgia State University researchers.

Cow manure: An unexpected climate solution
Jeremy P. Jacobs, E&E News

California is the country’s dairy capital, pumping a fifth of America’s milk. Those dairies, however, also produce more than half of the state’s emissions of methane, a potent heat-trapping gas.

Want to know if California can make zero emissions by 2045? Here’s what to watch
Herman K. Trabish, Utility Dive

The key to success is eliminating natural gas as an electricity resource, stakeholders told Utility Dive. To do that, the state must make one fundamental change at the local level and another at the transmission system level.

In the Global LNG Market, Time and Tide Wait for No Nation
Fred Hutchison, Morning Consult

Russian rivalry for U.S. LNG takes two forms. The first is Gazprom, the Kremlin-controlled exporter that supplied 36.7 percent of Europe’s natural gas by pipeline in 2018.

Utah Continues Its Assault on Federal Lands
Mike Dombeck, The New York Times

In 2017, the Trump administration, working with Utah’s Republican governor, Gary Herbert, cut the size of the Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears national monuments by some two million acres. The move came as the administration was pushing for fewer restrictions and more development on public lands, including oil and gas extraction, mining and logging.

Ice sheet contributions to future sea-level rise from structured expert judgment
Jonathan L. Bamber et al., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Future sea level rise (SLR) poses serious threats to the viability of coastal communities, but continues to be challenging to project using deterministic modeling approaches. Nonetheless, adaptation strategies urgently require quantification of future SLR uncertainties, particularly upper-end estimates.