If a large collection of environmental groups is worried about the direction of Senate energy and climate legislation, they didn’t show it publicly Thursday evening.

High-level officials from 10 or so groups met with Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) for roughly 1.5 hours in his Senate office.

The meeting came a day after Kerry and Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) met with a cross section of industry trade groups about their upcoming bill – a measure that’s expected to include several industry-friendly concessions as the senators seek traction for their uphill effort this year.

A few comments by the very liberal Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) Thursday afternoon illustrate the tricky task before Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) as they try and cobble together a climate and energy bill.

“The difficulty that Senator Kerry or anybody has is we don’t have 60 votes to pass a strong global warming bill that moves away from fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions,” Sanders told reporters in the Capitol. “It is a very conservative institution and we don’t have the votes.”

“The choice is, as I suspect Senator Kerry is wrestling with, is whether it is better to do something or nothing,” he added.

The U.S. EPA on Thursday spelled out plans to study the water quality and health effects of “hydraulic fracturing.”

Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) wants to help homeowners pool their resources to buy solar energy systems that serve the multiple households.

He floated a bill Wednesday that would make jointly-owned projects – which are built on separate plots of neighborhood land – eligible for tax credits that are currently available for rooftop projects on individual households.

Under his plan, homeowners that help finance these “community solar” projects may claim the 30 percent tax credit on their share of the investment.

Various types of community solar projects have been popping up in different states (this week the New York Times looked at their emergence), but Udall’s office said the federal tax code needs updating to help move the phenomenon along.

It’s Big Oil out, Big Paper in for the U.S. Climate Action Partnership.

The coalition that unites major companies and environmental groups pushing for broad climate legislation announced Thursday that wood and paper products giant Weyerhaeuser has joined the group.

The arrival of the Washington State-based company represents a major addition to USCAP, which was in the news last month when oil giants BP and ConocoPhillips announced they were abandoning the group.

A major ethanol industry trade group plans to release a study Thursday that warns of major job losses and reduced federal revenue if a key tax credit expires later this year.

The incentive helps domestic ethanol producers by giving oil refiners and gasoline blenders a credit of 45 cents for each gallon of ethanol blended into gasoline. The credit is scheduled to expire at the end of 2010 and the industry is pushing Congress to extend the incentive.

The study commissioned by the Renewable Fuels Association concludes that allowing the credit to expire would cause the loss of over 112,000 jobs in ethanol production and related industries, hitting rural areas the hardest, according to a summary.

Other effects, the study finds, would include a 38 percent drop in U.S. ethanol production, loss of investment in next-wave biofuels, loss of billions of dollars in state and federal tax revenues, and reduction of household incomes by over $4 billion.

On Wednesday we wrote about a major auto industry trade group opposing legislation that would block EPA climate change rules. Late in the day, the lead senator behind the block-EPA plan said, essentially, that Democratic leaders forced the automakers to oppose it.

Not so, says the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, which has 11 members including Detroit’s big three, Toyota, BMW and others. From the Detroit News account Wednesday evening:

“A spokesman for the alliance, Charles Territo, denied that automakers were pressured into sending the letter. He said the industry was carefully reviewing the issue before it decided to send a letter,” the piece states.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) on Wednesday said that auto industry opposition to her plan to block EPA climate change regulations stems from pressure by Democratic leaders.

And Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.), who supports Murkowski’s plan, said the automakers’ position is no surprise given the financial aid they’ve received from the Obama administration.

“Two weeks ago, it was reported that automakers were pressured to weigh in against the bipartisan, bicameral disapproval resolutions that have been introduced to halt EPA climate regulations. Today, we see a letter that stems from that pressure,” Murkowski said in a prepared statement.

The top lobbyist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said Wednesday that the broad climate change and energy bill under construction in the Senate is moving in a direction that’s “largely in sync” with industry goals.

Bruce Josten, the chamber’s top lobbyist, spoke to reporters Wednesday after a host of industry trade group officials met in the Capitol with Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) about the bill the senators are crafting.

Josten’s comments were hedged and careful, but they were far removed from the Chamber’s strong criticism of the climate bill the House approved last year.