Two senior House Republicans are accusing the Interior Department of “working in secret” on a plan to “lock up vast expanses of land in Western states.”

A letter to President Obama Thursday from Reps. Doc Hastings (Wash.) and Rob Bishop (Utah) highlights an internal Interior list of 14 areas that could be designated as National Monuments under the Antiquities Act.

The list includes areas such as the San Rafael Swell in Utah, the Northern Montana Prairie, the Northwest Sonoran Desert in Arizona, and regions in California, New Mexico, Colorado and other states.

Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Edward Markey (D-Mass.) moved closer to starting a big fight with the natural gas industry.

Nuclear loan guarantees like the one the administration conditionally awarded Southern Company this week won’t by themselves revive the industry, according to the CEO of one power producer competing for future loan guarantees.

David Crane, president and CEO of NRG Energy, said financial backing from the government, designed to ease investor fears about the sector, will provide a “nuclear breakthrough.” That is, the guarantees will likely lead to the construction of one or two new plants.

The full-scale renaissance of the type President Barack Obama talks about, however, requires much more federal support, Crane said. That includes for programs and technologies that aren’t solely related to the nuclear sector.

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), continuing his combative stance on climate change of late, said Thursday that “fanatics, naysayers, and science deniers” will not prevent international action on climate change.

Kerry made the comment as part of his response to the news that United Nations climate chief Yvo de Boer will step down this summer.

“Yvo De Boer has provided years of global leadership and sound, science-based solutions to the international effort to halt the devastating impacts of global climate change,” Kerry said in a prepared statement.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu will visit Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar next week in what DoE billed as a trip to continue Obama administration efforts to bolster U.S. ties with the region.

He will meet with government officials, scientists and others to “discuss a range of energy issues, including energy security and the importance of investing in a broad portfolio of energy technologies as part of the global economic recovery,” according to DoE.

Chu’s agenda includes a meeting Monday with Saudi Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali al Naimi. Saudi Arabia is OPEC’s dominant oil producer and one of five largest sources of U.S. oil imports (Canada is tops).

UK Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband on Thursday called for fast action to replace departing United Nations climate chief Yvo de Boer, who announced that he is stepping down in July.

Miliband also defended the limited “Copenhagen Accord” reached on de Boer’s watch at December’s fractious UN climate summit.

Here’s Miliband’s statement on de Boer’s departure:

Yvo de Boer's patient work helped produce the Copenhagen Accord which contains commitments covering 80 percent of global emissions, something never previously achieved. 

We must quickly find a suitable successor, who can oversee the negotiations and reform the UNFCCC [United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change] to ensure it is up to the massive task of dealing with what are some of the most complex negotiations ever.

Yvo de Boer, the top United Nations climate change official, said Thursday that he’s stepping down in July.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu likes to say that he’s an optimist, and he lives up to the claim in an interview with the Financial Times (registration or subs. req’d).

Chu forecasts the prospects for legislation that includes a cap on carbon emissions and sees a chance to win substantial GOP backing.

“Has the administration given up on looking for a comprehensive energy and climate bill? Absolutely not,” he says. He spoke to the paper after President Obama announced the first loan guarantees for building new nuclear power plants Tuesday.

The decision by two huge oil companies to abandon the major industry-green coalition pushing climate legislation is not a fatal blow to the bill’s prospects this year, according to a new analysis.

A research note Wednesday by the consulting firm ClearView Energy Partners looks at decisions by ConocoPhillips, BP and heavy equipment maker Caterpillar to leave the U.S. Climate Action Partnership.

Here’s the short version of ClearView’s take, based on their note and a quick interview with analyst Kevin Book:  ClearView’s brief paper notes that when USCAP formed in early 2007 to promote cap-and-trade legislation, the economy was strong.