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.

A copy of the big new EPA plan to clean up the Great Lakes that we noted earlier can be found here. The agency vows that the five-year, $2.2 billion Great Lakes Restoration Initiative -- which includes plans to fight the hungry, invasive Asian Carp -- isn't just another airy pledge.

"The Initiative is not intended to be another grand statement about the Great Lakes; it is intended to operationalize those statements," the agency said on its website.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu floated an interesting idea over the weekend: Could the federal government take ownership of waste piling up at nuclear power plants even before it knows where to take it?

The U.S. had promised to start taking spent fuel off the industry’s hands beginning in 1998. That didn’t happen, and the government is already liable for billions of dollars.

The White House has dropped the long-planned Yucca Mountain waste dump in Nevada, and Chu in January appointed a “blue ribbon” panel to explore long-term waste policy.