| GAO EXPANDS EPA ADVISORY BOARD INQUIRY: Congress's watchdog agency is looking into the role that political appointees at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) played in picking new scientists and other agency advisory committee members. In a letter that Senate Democrats made public Tuesday, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) official accepted the request last month by Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) to add the matter to an existing review the agency is conducting. The GAO agreed last year to examine EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt's actions and policies regarding the agency's 22 advisory committees, which advise the EPA on matters like science, health and air quality. Pruitt refused last year to renew the terms of many advisory committee members. He then barred anyone receiving EPA research grants for being on the committees and filled many of the empty spots with industry-friendly people. Last month, Carper and Whitehouse published documents that showed that the EPA's career staff responsible for reviewing potential advisers had flagged some candidates for potential problems in their qualifications or conflicts of interest, but political appointees overrode the recommendations. Read more here. DEMS WANT MORE TIME FOR OFFSHORE DRILLING COMMENTS: A group of Senate Democrats is asking the Trump administration to extend the comment period for its controversial offshore drilling plan. Sen. Maria Cantwell (Wash.), the top Democrat on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, led 22 colleagues in a Monday letter to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke seeking the extension. Friday is the end of a two-month period in which the Interior Department is taking comments on its plan. The plan, released in January, floated drilling almost everywhere it could be legally allowed: along the entire Pacific, Atlantic and Gulf coasts, as well as all around Alaska, except Bristol Bay. "Given the large scope of the Draft Proposed Program, we believe a 60-day extension of the deadline for comments is necessary to allow for more public hearings in coastal areas and to give the public sufficient time to submit comments on offshore drilling proposed for nearly the entire U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), encompassing over 90 percent of total OCS acreage -- the largest number of potential offshore lease sales ever proposed," the Democratic senators wrote. Read more here. ON TAP WEDNESDAY I: The House Natural Resources Committee will meet to vote on three bills concerning strategic minerals, Western federal land transfers and federal land in the Virgin Islands. ON TAP WEDNESDAY II: The House Energy and Commerce Committee's environment subcommittee will hold a hearing on the future of transportation fuels and vehicles. AROUND THE WEB: A California judge rejected environmentalists' attempt to slow down the hearing process for the Delta tunnels proposal, the Sacramento Bee reports. New Mexico's highest court cleared a plan to close half of the coal-fired San Juan Generating Station, the Albuquerque Journal reports. Thirty-six exotic animals disappeared from a Florida wildlife refuge after a fake advertisement was posted encouraging people to take them, The Guardian reports. FROM THE HILL'S OPINION SECTION: Consultant James Durso argues that Russia's controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline would help U.S. energy interests. James Stock of Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy says various stakeholders would benefit from reforming the renewable fuel standard. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Check out Tuesday's stories ... -GAO to examine EPA political appointees' roles in picking advisory committee members - Senators question whether EPA security contract is conflict of interest -Dems ask for longer comment period on Trump's offshore drilling plan -UN taps Bloomberg for top position on climate change | 
