Discard energy creating predicament (6)
I believe the answer is:
scrape
'predicament' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'discard energy' is the wordplay.
'discard' becomes 'scrap' (scrapping is a kind of discarding).
'energy' becomes 'e' (physics symbol as in E=mc2).
'scrap'+'e'='SCRAPE'
'creating' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for scrape that I've seen before include "Tricky situation - graze" , "Thinly-spread butter" , "Awkward situation caused by capers" , "pickle!" , "Use last remaining resource - . . . . . . the barrel" .)