E2-Wire

Vanishing Arctic sea ice and ecological threats from maritime oil traffic will present big challenges to the incoming generation of U.S. Coast Guard officers, Vice President Biden said Wednesday.

Biden, speaking at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy commencement, said the “new fault lines” between nations are the global shipping lanes and straits that enable commerce but also bring security and environmental risks.

“You graduate into a world where our environmental security, our shorelines, our fisheries — all are threatened by this country’s need to drill in deep seas and transport hundreds of billions of gallons of oil on the high seas,” he said in New London, Conn.

“You graduate into a world where the consequences of global warming offer the possibility of ice-free passage across Arctic regions that didn’t exist when you were born — presenting entirely new challenges that will demand greater international cooperation,” Biden said, according to a White House transcript.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) noted Wednesday that a carbon tax could generate “significant” revenues for the United States and avert “catastrophic” effects of climate change.

CBO said in a new report that there are many uncertainties about how to design and implement a carbon tax, but waiting too long to curb greenhouse gas emissions would have clear results.

“[D]elays would increase the expected damage from climate change by increasing the risk of very costly, potentially even catastrophic, outcomes. … In general, the risk of costly damage is higher as the extent of warming increases and as the pace of warming picks up; thus, failing to limit emissions soon increases that risk,” the report said.

Legislators in the Senate are unveiling a bipartisan agreement to update federal toxic chemical regulations, though environmental groups are responding with mixed emotions.

Sens. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and David Vitter (R-La.) on Wednesday released an agreement to update the Toxic Substances Control Act, the consumer safety law passed in 1976.

The bill, which has the support of 14 other senators from both parties, gives new powers to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and lays out a clearer path for bringing new chemicals to the market.

Virginia’s Democratic Senate duo is at odds with President Obama over offshore oil and gas drilling.

They’re pushing a new bill to open their state’s coastline to leasing, which would upend Interior Department plans that keep the Atlantic Coast off-limits until 2017 at the earliest.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) has introduced legislation in the past to allow drilling off his state’s coast, and now freshman Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) is on board as well.

“Virginia is well positioned to be a national leader in offshore energy exploration.  A comprehensive energy strategy – including oil, gas, wind, solar, tidal and other areas – can transition us to a clean energy future while bridging that transition with secure U.S. fuels we don’t have to import,” Kaine said in a statement about their new bill.

The House on Wednesday approved a rule governing floor consideration of a bill that would approve the construction of the northern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline, setting up a Thursday vote to pass the bill.

Members approved the rule for H.R. 3, the Northern Route Approval Act, in a 228-185 vote. Nine Democrats supported the rule, a sign that several will support the final bill on Thursday.

“I am not interested in debating what is not debatable,” Ernest Moniz told department employees shortly after his swearing-in.

Few electric utilities are following voluntary cybersecurity standards designed to protect power companies from malicious attacks, a survey distributed by two senior House Democrats showed.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission designed the standards in an attempt thwart cyberattacks from worms like the 2010 Stuxnet virus, which spun centrifuges at an Iranian nuclear facility out of control.

But less than one-quarter of the investor-owned utilities, which are privately managed, have implemented them, while half of the municipal and cooperative utilities did, according to the survey of 150 firms rolled out by Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Edward Markey (D-Mass.).

The findings underscore a debate that has divided Democrats and Republicans on cybersecurity legislation.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk says the electric car firm will likely pay off its Energy Department (DOE) loan Wednesday, Bloomberg reports.

Royal Dutch Shell CEO Peter Voser says it's too early to speculate about a recent European Union probe into potential oil price manipulation by Shell, Statoil and BP, Bloomberg notes.

The Daily Beast discusses whether climate change contributed to the tornado that struck Oklahoma on Monday.

USA Today takes a look at the progress of President Obama's "Better Buildings Challenge," a program that encourages energy efficiency.

Scientists urged federal officials to maintain Endangered Species Act protections for the gray wolf, The Associated Press reports.

ON TAP WEDNESDAY: The political fight over the proposed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline will flare as the House debates a bill to green-light construction of the project.

President Obama on Tuesday threatened to veto the bill, which is expected to pass the House with bipartisan support but probably won’t ever reach his desk.

But while the bill is unlikely to become law, it’s a political rallying point for advocates of the project to bring oil sands crude from Alberta, Canada, across the border en route to Gulf Coast refineries.

Republicans, industry groups and a number of unions are pressuring the White House to back Keystone, which remains under federal review. Environmentalists have made stopping Keystone a top priority. Democrats are split.

On Wednesday, look for a rather sprawling floor battle as lawmakers debate amendments on climate change, restricting U.S. export of oil from Keystone or products refined from it, and much more.

Click here and here for more on the amendments, and tomorrow check out E2-Wire and The Hill’s Floor Action blog for the latest on the Keystone fight.

Moniz, the sequel: Newly sworn-in Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz had a busy first day on Tuesday, meeting with White House officials, giving his first speech as secretary and chatting with reporters about natural-gas exports.

Republicans on the House Rules Committee agreed Tuesday to make nine Democratic amendments in order to a bill authorizing construction of the Keystone pipeline, including one that would gut the bill entirely.

The House will take up H.R. 3, the Northern Route Approval Act, on Wednesday, when it is expected to pass with GOP support. Allowing debate on the nine amendments will give Democrats a chance to raise several problems they have with the bill, even though the substantive amendments are likely to fail.