Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) said Tuesday that his legislation to temporarily block planned EPA climate change rules will be introduced this week.

Rockefeller, an ally of coal producers, told reporters in the Capitol that his measure would prevent EPA rules that regulate greenhouse gas emissions from industrial facilities for two years.

Rockefeller has said that his plan will provide the Senate time to craft a comprehensive climate change and energy bill. EPA recently assured Rockefeller and other coal state lawmakers that it will proceed slowly with rules limiting emissions from sources such as coal plants and factories, but Rockefeller wants an even longer pause -- and wants it codified.

The main trade group for auto dealers is backing Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s (R-Alaska) plan to thwart upcoming EPA climate change rules and attacking White House claims that her measure would harm struggling automakers.

In a letter to Murkowski on Monday, the National Automobile Dealers Association supports her resolution – which may come to the floor this month – to prevent EPA from issuing rules that limit greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, cars, factories and other sources.

Murkowski is fearful about the economic effects of regulating stationary sources. But her plan would also prevent EPA’s greenhouse gas standards for automobiles, which the agency plans to soon finalize in a joint package with stricter Transportation Department (DOT) mileage standards.

The Energy Department on Tuesday said it’s inviting proposals to share $100 million available for cutting-edge research into energy storage and other technologies. But the solicitation comes with a caveat: Big thinkers only. 

The money will come from DoE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy, a program aimed at supporting high-risk, high-reward research that began funding projects last year. ARPA-E is modeled off the military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA.

DoE kicked off the inaugural ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit in Maryland this week, which is aimed at bringing together scientists, venture capitalists, big companies and others.

A last-ditch effort to expand support for climate legislation risks undermining the coalition that pushed the bill as far as it has gotten, energy lobbyists said Monday.

There appears to be little appetite in the Senate for a House-passed bill that would set up an economy-wide “cap-and-trade" approach. But it isn’t clear that a new approach will significantly change the political dynamics, and it could weaken support among electric utilities and some environmental groups for the bill.

President Obama will use a visit to Savannah Technical College in Georgia Tuesday to press a plan dubbed “HOMESTAR” that would provide quick consumer rebates for home efficiency investments.

The White House says the plan would be akin to last year’s popular “Cash for Clunkers” program that provided up to thousands of dollars for swapping guzzlers for more efficient cars.

The administration is selling this plan with the same pitch as most of its other energy initiatives: as a jobs program that helps meet energy goals like slowing oil use.

Senators trying to salvage a climate bill hope to put plenty of distance between themselves and cap-and-trade.

Senior House Republicans including Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) plan to roll out a resolution Tuesday that would nullify EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

Their plan mirrors a Senate effort led by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) – which may come to the floor this month – to overturn EPA’s “endangerment finding” that greenhouse gases are a threat to humans.

The finding provides the legal underpinning for planned EPA rules that limit emissions from various industry sectors.

The American Petroleum Institute or API, the oil industry’s biggest trade group, has hired the Nature Conservancy’s climate change organizer as its new grassroots director.

Deryck Spooner is now API’s senior director for external mobilization following his stint managing the Nature Conservancy’s climate change advocacy and outreach work, API announced Monday.

API said Spooner will coordinate efforts to “develop, mobilize and sustain a political infrastructure of individuals, groups and coalitions to advance priority advocacy issues with elected officials.”

Water pollution is a growing problem because controversial Supreme Court rulings has created uncertainty about which waterways are regulated by the Clean Water Act, according to this account in the New York Times.

“Companies that have spilled oil, carcinogens and dangerous bacteria into lakes, rivers and other waters are not being prosecuted, according to Environmental Protection Agency regulators working on those cases,” the paper says.

The debate centers on the word "navigable." The Supreme Court rulings restricted its meaning. The result has been that some smaller bodies of water that feed into larger rivers or lakes are now uncovered by the federal clean water rules. One regulator said companies are starting to remember "how much cheaper it is to just dump stuff in a nearby creek," the Times reports.

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