Liberal firebrands will go head-to-head if Markey moves on to Senate.

Ernest Moniz is taking a less aggressive tack with Congress than his predecessor.

A liberal watchdog group says the State Department’s inspector general (IG) is probing possible conflicts of interest in the federal environmental review of the proposed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline.

The Checks and Balances Project said it will unveil evidence next Wednesday of an IG inquiry into State’s use of Environmental Resources Management (ERM), the consultants behind State's March draft analysis that gave Keystone a largely clean bill of health.

In April, Checks and Balances and other green groups called for an IG probe.

Four senators are adding themselves to a bipartisan pack of lawmakers who support new toxic chemical regulation.

They join the 16 other senators co-sponsoring a bill unveiled this week to update federal rules dealing with toxic chemicals.

"Senate support is growing for the Chemical Safety Improvement Act, which creates an effective approach for screening all chemicals for safety and acting on those found to be dangerous," Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), who is one of the bill's authors, said in a statement. 

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) told The Hill that he doesn’t think President Obama would veto his bill to authorize oil and gas drilling off Virginia’s coast.

“I’m not expecting that there will be a challenge in the White House. Maybe I’m naïve about it, but I think our work is in this branch,” Kaine said of Congress on Thursday.

Despite Kaine’s optimism about the bill he and Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) introduced this week, the White House has given little impression that it intends to allow drilling in the Atlantic Ocean.

Iranian hackers have ramped up cyberattacks on energy firms in the United States, The Wall Street Journal reports. Read more...

The State Department has begun making available over 1.2 million public comments on the proposed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline.

STATE OF PLAY: Interior Secretary Sally Jewell will spend her second day in Portland, Ore., on Friday, where she'll announce new cooperation on energy with state officials.

“Jewell will join [Oregon] Governor John Kitzhaber and Director of the Center for Regulatory Innovation and Assistance Jesus Sanchez (representing Washington Governor Jay Inslee) to sign an agreement to expedite the review and permitting of energy generation, power transmission and other vital infrastructure projects in the Pacific Northwest,” an Interior advisory states.

She will also speak at the 76th annual Ducks Unlimited conference in Portland.

Back in D.C: Behind-the-scenes talks are afoot aimed at getting a bipartisan energy efficiency bill to the Senate floor.

“Sen. Portman is working on it on his side, I am working on it on our side,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) told reporters in the Capitol, referring to the bill she co-sponsored with Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio).

Shaheen said they’re trying to learn what amendments colleagues might want to offer. And she’s also hoping the bill won’t become a platform for battles over controversial but unrelated energy topics. 

Read more...

Tesla Automotive CEO and co-founder Elon Musk said climate advocates need to “reframe” the argument on climate science.

Musk, whose electric car firm repaid its $465 million Energy Department loan on Wednesday, urged attendees at a Washington, D.C., event to flip the burden of proof onto those who deny greenhouse gas emissions contribute to global warming.

“If you were to ask any scientist, ‘Are you absolutely certain’ about anything, they would say, ‘Well, no. There’s a .001 percent chance it could be different.’ So it’s better to actually say, ‘Look, how certain are you that it is not catastrophic?’ And then you’ll get the correct answer,” Musk said Wednesday night at the Climate Leadership Gala.