E2-Wire

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said Tuesday that Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) remains committed to tackling energy and climate legislation. .

"He affirmed he wants a bill and wants a bill soon," Kerry told a climate change conference at the National Press Club.

Kerry said the election of Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.), which ended Democrats' filibuster-proof 60-vote majority, doesn't change the landscape for the climate bill.

"It was always going to take more than just Democrats to do this," Kerry said.

The comments come amid uncertainty about whether a controversial measure to limit greenhouse gas emissions can gain traction in the Senate.

Lisa Jackson sought to reassure concerned Democrats about EPA’s plans to regulate greenhouse gases yesterday. In a letter to 8 Democrats, who just days before had written the head of the EPA to express their fear the regs would be another drag on the economy, Jackson responded by saying her agency would take a cautious approach and regulate only the largest emitters first.

Ben blogged about it right after EPA released Jackson’s letter. 

The New York Times tallies up the list of people who have complained about EPA’s move so far, leading to a possible Senate vote to block the agency next month. “The senators, who earlier questioned broad cap-and-trade legislation pushed by the Obama administration, join a number of Republican lawmakers, industry groups and officials from Texas, Alabama and Virginia in challenging the proposed E.P.A. regulations of industrial sources,” the Times notes.

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The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) pledge Monday to move slowly on the implementation of upcoming greenhouse gas rules may give cover to some Capitol Hill Democrats to vote against blocking climate rules entirely, according to lobbyists and activists.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said in a letter to a group of Senate Democrats on Monday that upcoming rules to limit emissions from power plants and other industrial facilities won’t take effect in 2010. She also told the eight Democrats — who mostly hail from coal-producing or coal-reliant states — that the rules will initially be narrower than EPA had planned.

Jackson’s statement — in response to a Friday letter from the Democrats — comes ahead of a possible Senate vote next month on Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s (R-Alaska) filibuster-proof measure that bars EPA from regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.

The EPA will take a cautious approach to regulating greenhouse gases, the agency’s chief reassured coal-state Senate Democrats Monday.

The Energy Department on Monday said it will provide almost $1.4 billion in loan guarantees to help California-based BrightSource Energy, Inc. build a large solar power complex in the Mojave Desert.

The project – to be built on federal land in southern California near Nevada – will be the largest concentrated solar power plant in the world and will provide electricity to roughly 140,000 California homes, DoE said.

The guarantee is conditioned on several BrightSource actions, including winning various local, state and federal regulatory approvals, DoE said in announcing the commitment. If the project goes ahead, DoE will back up a loan that will be issued by the Treasury Department’s Federal Financing Bank.

Over in our Blog Briefing Room, Michael O'Brien looks at how President Obama and Capitol Hill lawmakers fared in the new League of Conservation Voters report card.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu used his Facebook page Monday to explain why the White House is so bullish on nuclear power.

The Obama administration this month said it will provide utility giant Southern Company over $8 billion worth of loan guarantees to help build two new reactors in Georgia. And the administration is also asking Congress to triple the amount authorized for such guarantees to over $54 billion.

Chu’s post keeps a thread going with Facebook users who responded to his Feb. 16 post announcing the Southern Company support.

John Stanton has left his post as a top lobbyist and attorney for the Solar Energy Industries Association and will begin a job in March as vice president of government affairs at SolarCity.

SolarCity is a California-based company that provides solar system design, financing, installation and other services. Stanton, who will work out of their Washington, DC office, had been with SEIA for over three years.

Before that he worked for the National Environmental Trust and as legislative counsel at EPA.

Sen. Bingaman (D-N.M.) isn’t backing away from his opposition to turning a proposed renewable electricity mandate into a broader standard that gives credit to nuclear power and low-emissions coal.

Sen. Graham (R-S.C.) has authored a draft “clean energy standard” plan, and has provided his proposal to Sens. Kerry (D-Mass.) and Lieberman (I-Conn.) as the trio tries to craft a compromise climate and energy bill.

Bingaman’s committee approved a bill last June that would require many utilities to supply escalating percentages of their electricity from sources like wind and solar power. Such a “renewable electricity standard” has long been a pillar of Democratic climate and energy plans.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in Saudi Arabia Monday that oil market volatility is “far in excess” of supply and demand, according to Reuters, showing that he’s more willing than his Bush-era predecessor to see a Wall Street hand in price swings.

“We are going to be undergoing studies to try and find out how much has the volatility been increased by large financial institutions taking positions,” Chu told reporters in Riyadh, the news service reported.

“Certainly the volatility of the price seems to be far in excess of demand and supply,” added Chu, who is visiting several Middle Eastern countries this week.