WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Energy Secretary Steven Chu staunchly defended decisions he made on Solyndra on Thursday as he came under a withering attack from Republicans during a grueling, media-packed hearing that lasted about five hours.

The now-bankrupt solar panel maker, beneficiary of more than $500 million in government funding, was once held up by President Barack Obama, Chu and other top administration officials as a model of how they wanted to promote green energy and spur job growth.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republicans on Wednesday blasted the Obama administration’s plans to expand regulation of the controversial “fracking” drilling practice essential to tapping the nation’s abundant shale oil and gas reserves.

The Interior Department is in the process of updating rules for hydraulic fracturing on public lands and developing a proposal to require disclosure of chemicals used in the drilling technique.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Energy Secretary Steven Chu has said it may take similar skills to navigate Washington politics as it does to make advances in physics research, a field in which he won a Nobel Prize in 1997.

“You have to keep your wits about you, you have to dispassionately analyze what’s the best path to go forward,” Chu said this month at a Washington Post energy conference. “Breakthroughs will happen, setbacks will happen. You use those breakthroughs to work around those setbacks to go forward.”

WASHINGTON, Nov 16 (Reuters) – U.S. Energy Secretary Steven
Chu has said it may take similar skills to navigate Washington
politics as it does to make advances in physics research, a
field in which he won a Nobel Prize in 1997.

“You have to keep your wits about you, you have to
dispassionately analyze what’s the best path to go forward,”
Chu said this month at a Washington Post energy conference.
“Breakthroughs will happen, setbacks will happen. You use those
breakthroughs to work around those setbacks to go forward.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Energy and financial companies caught up in a scheme involving fraudulent renewable energy credits could now face civil fines from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The EPA has issued 24 notices of violation to more than a dozen companies, including units of Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil and Morgan Stanley, for the use of invalid renewable identification numbers, or RINs, according to the EPA website.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A federal energy panel on Thursday warned that rigorous action must be taken if government and industry hope to prevent major environmental damage and subdue the public backlash against the U.S. shale gas boom.

Charged with helping to guide the future of U.S. shale gas development, the Energy Department subcommittee expressed disappointment that more had not been done on the 20 recommendations laid out in August in its initial report on the practice.

WASHINGTON, Nov 9 (Reuters) – The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency on Wednesday said it has reached a deal with
green groups to finalize more than 40 overdue state plans aimed
at lowering haze in national parks and wilderness areas.

The agreement settles a lawsuit brought against the agency
in August and lays out a schedule for the EPA to evaluate state
haze plans over the next year. In cases where EPA does not
approve a state proposal, the agency will have to develop a
federal plan.

WASHINGTON, Nov 8 (Reuters) – The Obama administration will
allow “robust oil and gas development” in the Gulf of Mexico
starting in 2012, but will hold off on letting drillers into
Arctic waters until more is known about spill response
preparedness, according to a proposed five-year plan unveiled
on Tuesday.

The Outer Continental Shelf leasing plan includes 15
potential lease sales over 2012-2017, including 12 in the Gulf
of Mexico and three off the coast of Alaska.

WASHINGTON, Nov 7 (Reuters) – The U.S. State Department’s
inspector general has opened a “special review” of the
department’s handling of permitting for the Canada-to-Texas
Keystone XL oil sands pipeline, which could delay the final
decision on the line into 2012 or later.

Howard Geisel, the State Department’s inspector general,
said in a memo sent to Senator Bernie Sanders that the review
will determine to what extent the department and all other
parties involved complied with federal laws and regulations
relating to the permitting process on TransCanada Corp’s proposed $7 billion Keystone XL pipeline.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Interior Department plans to issue a proposal soon forcing companies to reveal the chemicals they use in the so-called fracking drilling process on federal lands, as the Obama administration responds to public safety concerns over the shale exploration boom.

David Hayes, deputy secretary at the Interior Department, told a federal shale gas advisory panel on Monday that the department hopes to issue disclosure rules for hydraulic fracturing on federal lands in “a couple of months.” It plans to finalize the guidelines about 12 months after that.