Climate scientists have been taking it on the chin of late. “Climategate” controversy of hacked emails from a leading climate research institution and errors in a U.N. climate report have weakened the public’s belief that humans are causing global warming.

Now the scientists are standing up to their tormentors and preparing to fight back.

“It’s clear that the climate science community was just not prepared for the scale and ferocity of the attacks and they simply have not responded swiftly and appropriately,” Peter C. Frumhoff, an ecologist and chief scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, tells the New York Times.

Democrats are generally happier with EPA under President Obama than former President Bush, but there are still flare-ups.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday said the agency is dragging its feet on imposing new restrictions on the plastics additive bisphenol-A, or BPA, which has been linked to developmental problems in children.

“As the author of the Senate bill that seeks to ban the chemical from children’s products, I strongly believe our government should err on the side of caution and deploy the most safeguards possible against the potentially harmful effects of BPA. In light of the serious risks posed by exposure to this chemical, the EPA’s decision to postpone action on BPA does not seem to convey the proper sense of urgency,” Schumer wrote in a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson.

Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) is floating $6 billion legislation to create a consumer rebate program for home energy efficiency upgrades.

The idea is a White House priority and President Obama touted it in a speech Tuesday.

Bingaman said he hoped to move quickly to launch “Home Star,” which is aimed at boosting the construction, manufacturing and home-improvement retailing sectors while saving energy.

House Republican leaders, following in the footsteps of two Democratic chairmen, introduced a measure on Tuesday to block EPA from regulating greenhouse gases.

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Energy and Commerce Committee ranking member Joe Barton (R-Texas), along with 84 other Republicans, signed on to a congressional “resolution of disapproval” to prevent EPA from using the Clean Air Act to force emissions reductions.

“Congress has the right to act on this and has an obligation to speak and we’re going to work with our Democratic colleagues to try to generate enough support in the House” for the resolution, Boehner said.

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The Senate trio trying to salvage climate legislation this year plans to begin circulating details of their long-awaited proposal very soon, said Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), one of the architects of the measure.

“Hopefully within a week or so we will have at least a detailed narrative to share,” Lieberman told reporters in the Capitol Tuesday afternoon.

Lieberman and Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)  discussed their plan for over an hour with a group of colleagues in the Capitol Tuesday.

Microsoft is disowning the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s position against climate legislation, but the software giant doesn't seem ready to quit the powerful business lobby because of it.

In an unannounced post on one of its in-house blogs, Rob Bernard, Microsoft’s chief environmental strategist, wrote: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has never spoken for nor done work on behalf of Microsoft regarding climate change legislation, and we have not participated in the Chamber’s climate initiatives. Microsoft has stated that climate change is a serious issue that demands immediate, worldwide attention and we are acting accordingly.

You can read the rest here.

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Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) on Tuesday continued his push for Senate action on a package of energy measures that omits greenhouse gas limits, appearing unmoved by plans to overhaul climate legislation.

Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) -- who are trying to draft a compromise climate bill -- are moving away from the sweeping cap-and-trade plan that has failed to gain traction in the Senate.

But Dorgan, who opposes cap-and-trade, isn't biting, at least not for the moment. He wants the Senate to take up a package of energy measures that the Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved in June. 

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Climate czar Carol Browner said the administration continued to support an “economy-wide program” for climate legislation, but added she was “encouraged” by ongoing discussions on Capitol Hill that appear to chart a different course for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

In an effort to write climate legislation that can attract the support of centrists, Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) are expected to abandon a far-reaching "cap and trade" program in favor of a more targeted market mechanism limited at first to electric utilities.

Oil companies, which would be forced to participate in cap-and-trade system set up under climate legislation pushed by the administration, would instead face a levy or a fee on their products in the measure Kerry, Graham and Lieberman are crafting.

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Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) on Tuesday praised plans that would abandon a sweeping “economy-wide” cap-and-trade program.