Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee spokesman David Marks is stepping down, but he's not going far -- geographically or topically.

Marks will be vice president of the public affairs agency Outreach Strategies, LLC.

The agency's clients include the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, a coalition of large corporations and environmental groups pushing for climate change legislation. Members include BP, Duke Energy and the Environmental Defense Fund.

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Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) lead a bipartisan group that floated legislation Thursday to sharply cut power plant pollution.

Their three-pollutant – or “Three P” – plan would require steep reductions in mercury (90 percent) and nitrogen oxide (53 percent) in 2015, and an 80 percent cut in sulfur dioxide in 2018.

The senators noted that the Clean Air Act hasn’t been amended in 20 years, while EPA regulations to mandate emissions cuts under current law have been repeatedly tripped up in court.

Retired Gen. Wesley Clark makes no apologies for leading a group that applies bare-knuckled advocacy to advance ethanol production.

Clark, the co-chairman for Growth Energy, spoke candidly with The Hill hours before the Environmental Protection Agency announced new rules favorable to the ethanol industry.

A key part of the ruling was a victory for Growth Energy and Clark, and the aggressive lobbying and public relations they’ve employed over the past year.

Scott Brown’s opposition to healthcare reform helped to fuel his improbable victory in Massachusetts. But another big bill under consideration in Congress that Brown campaigned against -- the effort to cap greenhouse gases -- may have more support in the state.

A poll by Benenson Strategy Group, which did polling for President Obama’s campaign, shows a healthy majority of special election voters favors a “cap-and-trade” bill to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Of those voters who pulled the lever for Brown, half also support cap and trade. And 56 percent of all respondents said they would have a more favorable view of Brown if he voted for a cap-and-trade bill.

The results are a bit surprising, and from the perspective the legislation's supporters should give wavering centrists a sign that climate change isn’t healthcare reform.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) on Thursday declined to take a position on President Barack Obama’s push to repeal $36.5 billion over a decade in oil-and-gas industry tax breaks.

“We will take all those proposals very seriously when we have subsequent tax legislation and subsequent energy legislation,” Baucus said in the Capitol when asked about the proposal in the fiscal 2011 White House budget plan.

Obama proposed repealing over $30 billion in industry incentives last year, but Congress did not act on the plan.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) backs the tax break repeals. But the plan faces heavy resistance from the oil industry, many Republicans and some Democrats from oil- and gas-producing states.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) on Thursday alleged that federal officials implementing a popular tax credit program to boost manufacture of "clean" energy equipment are failing to consider the potential for serving export markets when awarding the credits.

Wyden urged Energy Secretary Steven Chu to "knock heads" to ensure the program addresses the issue -- and threatened to introduce legislation to require export market potential to be factored into credit award decisions.

"I think foreign demand ought to be a big factor in how these tax credits are awarded," Wyden said during a Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on DoE's budget plan. He said there are large overseas markets for U.S.-made renewable energy components.

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Regulators in California are issuing what they say is the first federal air pollution permit that limits greenhouse gas emissions.

The permit is being issued to a natural gas fired power plant that Calpine is building in Hayward, Calif. The Russell City Energy Center will have the capacity to produce 600 megawatts of electricity but release 50 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions than even the cleanest coal plant, Calpine said in a press release. The company called the permit a “case study” in how the Clean Air Act can be used to regulate carbon and other heat trapping gases.

It’s OK to be confused. A federal greenhouse gas permit? Climate legislation with a cap has sputtered in the Senate. And while EPA is moving forward with its own rule based on the Clean Air Act, the agency still has a long way to go before settling on an emissions limit. Despite the recent activity, no federal limit on heat trapping gases exists.

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Here’s more ammo for Capitol Hill lawmakers with the Tom Friedman view of energy policy, which holds that China will  “clean our clock” in clean energy industries if the U.S. doesn't boost support faster and cap carbon emissions.

The Global Wind Energy Council reported this week that China alone accounted for a third of global wind power capacity additions in 2009. Worldwide capacity grew 31 percent, pushed along by a doubling of wind power in China.

The U.S. also saw a major expansion last year and remains in the world lead for the most wind power capacity. But Denise Bode, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association, noted Wednesday that China is “hard on our heels.”

Farmers should send a thank you note to the EPA, according to the Washington Post. The paper’s Steven Mufson considers the agency’s ruling on biofuels announced yesterday (here’s Ben’s story on the decision) to be a “big boost” to corn growers.

Not so much for oil refiners, according to this account in the Dallas Morning News.

Noting that back in May EPA found some types of corn ethanol actually had a higher carbon footprint than gasoline, the paper reports the agency reversal announced Wednesday is “sure to disappoint Texas-based refiners and their allies in Congress, who already complain that Washington has embraced renewable fuels at the expense of the oil industry.”