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Quick Fix
— OPEC and Russia meet today to try to reach an agreement on crude output cuts, as U.S. producers and political officials make the case that companies here are already turning off the taps.
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— Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders dropped out of the presidential race, and young climate activists are telling former Vice President Joe Biden how to pick up the climate mantle and earn their vote.
— President Donald Trump railed about the money paid to the head of the country's largest publicly owned utility, saying he'd like to see it cut.
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Driving the Day
THE TRUMP-SAUDI 'UNDERSTANDING': A month after they failed to reach an agreement to extend oil production cuts, Russia and OPEC are gathering today for a virtual meeting to discuss a new plan to rein in output. Oil producers around the world have been reeling from the low prices ever since Moscow refused to go along with a Saudi plan to extend supply cuts, and with demand down by tens of millions of barrels a day because of the pandemic, there's a new urgency to their talks. President Donald Trump has said that he expects Saudi Arabia and Russia to cut oil production by between 10 million to 15 million barrels per day. ME is expecting the low end of that range to be the figure that emerges — and only for a few months.
Riyadh and Moscow have pressed the U.S. to make cuts, but Trump said output in the U.S. was already dropping. "We already cut," he said during a pandemic briefing. "We're very market-oriented. If you look at Texas and if you look at North Dakota and if you look at some of our states that do this very well, they've already cut way back, they cut back automatically."
The U.S. government has few levers to force American companies to curb production, Pro's Ben Lefebvre and Zack Colman report. Instead, two industry officials in contact with the Trump administration told POLITICO that U.S. government officials have told them about an understanding with Saudi Arabia in which Riyadh will push for a production cut from Russia and OPEC, so long as the White House does not offer direct financial assistance to U.S. shale drilling companies.
The administration rejected a Saudi request that U.S. oil companies be barred from receiving business loans under the third coronavirus relief package, H.R. 748 (116). But, the two officials said, the Trump administration instead agreed it would not waive royalty payments to U.S. companies from oil and gas they produced on U.S. federal lands — something both congressional Republicans and industry groups have pushed in recent days.
"The president said no to royalty relief on offshore and onshore federal land," one industry official briefed on the matter said. "The president had a quid pro quo promise to the Saudis. Saudi implicitly wants the shale guys to die on the vine of natural causes."
If an agreement is not reached today, Trump said Wednesday he has "a lot of good options" for next steps. "Beauties," he said. "I might like it even more. Let's see what happens. Hopefully they can make a deal."
Still, proponents of royalty relief could see success in pushing for narrower royalty relief. Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy said he spoke to Interior Secretary David Bernhardt on Tuesday about royalty relief for producers in the Gulf of Mexico. "He promised to quickly process targeted royalty relief on the outer continental shelf using existing law," Cassidy said in a statement Wednesday.
On the Hill
HOUSE GOP PRESSURES SAUDIS FOR OIL CUTS: Close to 50 House Republicans, led by Minority Whip Steve Scalise, asked Saudi Arabia on Wednesday to take immediate steps to cut crude output and stabilize global oil markets or else risk damage to the bilateral relationship, Pro's Anthony Adragna reports. "While other global actors use oil and gas markets as political leverage, the Kingdom must be a model of leadership at a time when a global pandemic drives down demand resulting in significant market volatility," reads the letter to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
DEMS TO EPA: KEEP THE COMMENTS OPEN: Seventy-eight House Democrats urged EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler in a letter Wednesday to extend and reopen comment periods on any rulemakings during the coronavirus pandemic, Pro's Alex Guillén reports. They specifically asked that EPA wait to close comment periods on public health and environmental rules until 45 days after Trump declares the national emergency to be over, and sought to reopen comment periods that have closed since March 13.
"We have given due consideration to each of these requests," an EPA spokesperson responded to ME. "Just this past week we extended the comment period for the Science Transparency supplemental which will ultimately give interested stakeholders a total of 187 days to comment."
QUOTABLE: Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin spoke to POLITICO's Burgess Everett about the Senate's scheduled return in two weeks, warning it would be "dangerous and risky" amid the coronavirus pandemic. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has already slotted an April 20 vote on the confirmation of Robert Feitel for inspector general of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Durbin (D-Ill.) said that unless there is a pressing need for a roll-call vote on the coronavirus response, sticking to that schedule would be a mistake. "I don't want to come back for the deputy secretary of the Department of Energy, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, whatever it is. That to me is a dangerous and risky effort," Durbin said. (By the way, the nomination of Mark Menezes to be deputy secretary at DOE has been referred to the Energy and Natural Resources Committee but no hearing has been set.)
DOE OFFICIALS PARTICIPATE IN PAPER HEARING: Senators on the Senate Armed Services Committee hold a "paper hearing" today to collect written testimony and pose questions on the Energy Department's budget request. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette and National Nuclear Security Administration chief Lisa Gordon-Hagerty will participate.
2020 Watch
BERN OUT: Sanders suspended his 2020 presidential campaign Wednesday, making Biden the presumptive Democratic nominee for president. But the Vermont senator said he will stay on the ballot to collect delegates for the convention, "where we will be able to exert significant influence over the party platform."
One area where Sanders could seek more change is the battle against climate change. He has criticized Biden's $1.7 trillion climate plan for not going far enough to address the scale of the issue. Sanders, whose ambitious climate plan put $16.3 trillion over a decade toward the climate fight, mentioned it during an address to supporters announcing his exit from the race: "If we don't believe that we are entitled to live in a world that has a clean environment and is not ravaged by climate change, we will continue to see more drought, floods, rising sea levels and an increasingly uninhabitable planet.”
Biden extolled Sanders and his supporters for changing the dialogue, including on climate change. "While the Sanders campaign has been suspended — its impact on this election and on elections to come is far from over," the former VP said in a statement Wednesday. "We will address the existential crisis of climate change."
Young green activists are urging Biden to do more. "The ball's now in Joe Biden's court," said Sunrise Movement spokesperson Aracely Jimenez. "To avoid a repeat of 2016, he needs to show young people that he's going to stand up for them by embracing policies like an ambitious Green New Deal that led young voters to flock to Bernie." POLITICO reported last month on the Biden campaign's behind-the-scenes push to reach youth voters.
On Wednesday, a coalition of youth-focused groups including NextGen America and the Sunrise Movement wrote to Biden laying out commitments necessary to earn their support. The groups call for Biden to commit $10 trillion in green stimulus and infrastructure investments over 10 years; adopt the framework of a Green New Deal and commit to 100 percent clean energy by 2030 for electricity, buildings, and transportation; and commit to prosecuting fossil fuel executives and lobbyists "who have criminally jeopardized our generation."
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE BACKS AOC CHALLENGER: The traditionally conservative U.S. Chamber of Commerce is planning to endorse Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, a primary challenger to Green New Deal author and progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, POLITICO's Alex Isenstadt reports. A source familiar with the Chamber's plans said the group will raise money for Caruso-Cabrera, a former CNBC anchor, and mobilize the local Queens business community ahead of the June 23 primary.
Around the Agencies
TRUMP SLAMS TVA PAY: Trump said he'd be in favor of reducing the salary of the head of the Tennessee Valley Authority Wednesday after it was reported that administration officials and some Democrats supported cutting his salary. TVA President Jeff Lyash earned $8.16 million in total compensation last year, making him the highest paid federal employee. "It's ridiculous," Trump said. "I don't know the gentleman, but he's got a heck of a job, he gets paid a lot of money." Asked if he would support reducing the salary as part of an infrastructure bill, Trump responded: "Yeah, reducing it by a lot." He added: "I've been waiting for somebody to ask me about that, it's been bothering me for a long time."
Of course, as Dave Flessner of the Chattanooga Times Free Press points out, TVA hasn't received any taxpayer money in more than 20 years. The paper reports that Lyash's actual salary is $920,000. Most of the multi-million dollar package given to Lyash since he replaced Bill Johnson (now at PG&E) is a non-cash $6 million cost for the change in pension value for future payout, should he stay there long enough to collect it, according to the paper. In a statement to ME, TVA spokesman Jim Hopson said Lyash's compensation is in the bottom 25 percent of TVA's utility peers, as confirmed by independent auditors.
TO THE WHITE HOUSE FOR REVIEW: EPA this week sent a final rule that would severely limit states' authority under the Clean Water Act to the White House for review, Pro's Annie Snider reports. The rule, proposed in August, would limit states' authority under Section 401 of the water law, which requires states to certify that projects won't harm their water quality.
Oil and Gas
MAKING THEIR CASE: Staale Gjervik, the president of ExxonMobil subsidiary XTO Energy, wrote to the Texas Railroad Commission, saying the oil and gas regulator's plan to consider pro-rationing oil production "could itself cause disruption and economic waste by voluntarily renouncing Texas' share of the crude oil market." The commission's meeting next week will discuss a complaint from Pioneer Natural Resources and Parsley Energy "to determine reasonable market demand for oil in the state of Texas."
In separate comments, Environment Texas and its partners wrote to "prioritize production cuts for producers and fields with the worst records of excessive flaring and to develop a plan to ratchet down production of oil throughout the next decade."
Movers and Shakers
— Courtnee Connon joins the League of Conservation Voters as communications coordinator. Connon previously led communications for the community outreach department at Johns Hopkins University and worked as the communications manager at Florida Conservation Voters.
The Grid
— "White House opposes Democrats' demands for more funds in 'interim' aid package," via POLITICO.
— "Uranium enters bull market after Covid-19 hits supply," via Financial Times.
— "Trump EPA's 'secret science' rule would dismiss studies that could hold clues to Covid-19," via InsideClimate News.
— "Another way to see the recession: power usage is way down," via The New York Times.
— "3 security guards at EPA headquarters test positive," via E&E News.
— "Pandemic deals blow to plastic bag bans, plastic reduction," via Associated Press.
THAT'S ALL FOR ME!
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