Daily on Energy: Rick Perry took chartered flight day before Tom Price resigned

Oil allies: The first shipment arrived in India on Oct. 2, Perry confirmed Thursday. He said the flow of oil to the country was the result of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit with President Trump. Soon after that visit, “Indian companies ramped up purchases of U.S. crude,” the Energy Department said.

Expect more shipments: The shipment was sent from the Saint James, La., and Freeport, Texas, terminals. More shipments will be coming, the agency said.

Energy dominance: The president’s energy dominance agenda calls for producing more oil and natural gas in the U.S., while shipping it abroad.

The Iran factor: India is a huge market for oil and is a prime recipient of crude from Iran. Last week, Zinke said the energy dominance agenda would consider using U.S. oil to supplant Iran’s oil wealth to block its funding of terrorism and nuclear weapons development.

“Iran is a grave threat. And it is better to have options to address Iran economically and not just militarily,” he said.

Zinke said U.S. “economic leverage” would work to “supplant every drop of crude that Iran produces … and energy dominance is part of that.”

Loss in sales, profits: The companies and investors, which formed a nonprofit group called Ceres BICEP Network, say weakening the Obama-era standards could lead to 300,000 fewer sales for automakers and a loss of $1.1 billion in profits in 2025.

‘Misguided’ review: The Environmental Protection Agency’s “decision to revisit the standards is misguided,” said Carol Lee Rawn, director of transportation at Ceres. “Weakening the rules would increase fuel costs for businesses and consumers, undermine the ability of the U.S. auto industry to compete internationally, and endanger good manufacturing jobs across the country.”

Trump’s plan: In March, the Trump administration ordered a review of the current standards and said it would accept comments from the public until Oct. 5, which is today.

The rules: The rules proposed by the Obama administration require automakers to nearly double the average fuel economy of new cars and trucks to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.

Watch video to stop leaks: The course’s content is primarily a video that Perry requested his deputy, Dan Brouillette, oversee.

The video, according to an internal email announcement reported by Wired, is designed to “to strengthen our internal behavior as it pertains to protecting classified and sensitive information. This video also includes a message from Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats reminding us all of our responsibilities to protect and the penalties for the unauthorized disclosure of classified and sensitive information.”

Lacking reason: U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Laporte said Trump’s Interior Department failed to give a “reasoned explanation” for wanting to change the rule and had not offered details why an earlier analysis by the Obama administration was wrong.

Seeking delay: The order comes as the Trump administration is trying to delay the rule until 2019, arguing it deserves further study because of its potential harm to the energy industry.

Laporte said the delay would violate the Administrative Procedures Act, which governs how agencies make regulations.

Flashback: The Republican-controlled Senate tried to push through a resolution to repeal the Obama administration’s methane regulation. But it was blocked by Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Susan Collins of Maine voted against repeal, who voted against it.

Perry’s plan: They come after the Energy Department on Friday asked FERC to create regulations that would change regional power market pricing to reward the “reliability and resilience attributes” of plants that have 90 days of fuel supply on site, which many took to mean nuclear, coal and hydropower.

Powelson’s pushback: Powelson, who was nominated in May by Trump and approved by the Senate in August, vowed to uphold FERC’s independence, and suggested the Energy Department proposal is political. “FERC does not do politics. We don’t do energy politics,” Powelson said.

‘Many different approaches:’ SNL reports Powelson assured OPSI members there is a “robust conversation” at FERC about Perry’s proposal and that he is confident a market-friendly resolution will be reached on “some of these thorny issues.”

“I’ll give Secretary Perry credit; he’s trying to be thoughtful in the approach but there’s many different approaches on how we can tackle this issue,” Powelson said. “I did not sign up to go blow up the markets.”

Coal utility is the biggest: The U.S. project is by American Electric Power, a utility with many coal assets, which is investing $4.5 billion in Invenergy’s 2-gigawatt Wind Catcher project.

The project is being built in EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s state of Oklahoma, along the wind-blown panhandle. When completed in 2020, it will have 800 turbines and deliver power via a 350-mile high-voltage power line.

AEP on the rise: The big, Ohio-based coal utility was named last month as one of the top 10 utilities for economic development in the country by Site Selection Magazine.

China’s projects smaller: The two big projects from China include one that is 300 megawatts and another that is 252 MW. The Oklahoma project is almost 40 times larger than those two sites combined.

Atop Mt. Solar: The storage project is being built next to the Mt. Tom Solar array in Holyoke, which ENGIE also built and operates.

The solar farm cost $10 million and includes 17,208 solar panels built on the site of a closed  coal-fired power plant. The solar farm powers about 1,000 homes.

Industry organizes: The Solar Energy Industries Association, the main industry trade group, organized the meeting, which came a day after the International Trade Commission hosted a public hearing as it deliberates over recommendations it will make to the White House. Also attending were representatives from DuPont, SunPower, RBI Solar and others.

How it went: “The meetings were very productive,” Abigail Ross Hopper, the president of Solar Energy Industries Association, told the Washington Examiner. “Our group brought their unique perspective as American solar manufacturers to the key White House and department officials who will be supporting the decision on the trade case. Our companies drove home the points that we represent the vast majority of Americans working in solar manufacturing and that any tariffs will have a detrimental effect on these companies’ ability to maintain their employees, let alone add more. Everyone we talked with was receptive to our ideas, and we appreciated the opportunity to meet with them.”

What’s happening: The trade commission has until next month to recommend specific actions for Trump to take, after the ITC ruled last month that the domestic solar panel industry is being hurt by low-cost imports, mostly from Asia.

The stakes: The thriving solar industry mostly opposes the potential trade measures requested by two struggling U.S. companies, Suniva and SolarWorld, which have asked Trump to act. Hopper’s group estimates that 88,000 U.S. solar jobs could be lost if tariffs are imposed.

The targeted: Democrats on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee focused their ire on two nominees who they accused of being too closely tied to private industry to be effective and faithful environmental enforcers: William Wehrum, who is bidding to become EPA’s top air official, and Michael Dourson, tapped to run the agency’s chemical office.

Contest over climate change: In one notable exchange, Wehrum, an energy industry lawyer and former EPA official, gave evasive answers about climate change, which perturbed Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore. Wehrum acknowledged that humans are contributing to climate change, but said “it’s an open question” if humans are the predominant cause.

Why it matters: Wehrum would oversee a portfolio dealing with climate change regulations and oversee the EPA’s effort to rollback carbon emissions regulations.

‘Unacceptable to serve’: “No one can look at what’s happening on the planet and see there is nothing happening unless you are deliberately determined to ignore that information,” Merkley said. “That makes you really, quite frankly, unacceptable to serve in this position.”

Recuse, please: Dourson endured harsher attacks, some of them personal. He has faced scrutiny for his ties to the chemical industry, which he would be expected to regulate. Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware, the top committee Democrat, pressed Dourson to commit to recuse himself from working on chemicals that he handled in prior industry jobs. Dourson refused, saying he would rely on “the guidance of EPA ethics’ officials.”

Straight to the heart: “All of us are trying to do the right thing,” an unsatisfied Carper told Dourson. “I just don’t see why you won’t say, ‘I will recuse myself.’ I don’t get it.” Carper closed the hearing by questioning Dourson’s integrity, saying “there are very serious questions about your heart.”

Read more here.

All about the paper: But Barrasso unveiled a stack of papers that he said was more than 2,800 pages of responses.

Failing the ‘smell test’: “Claiming EPA is not responsive as an excuse for not confirming important nominees doesn’t pass the smell test,” Barrasso said.