WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. natural gas policy, from hydraulic fracturing to exports, came under the microscope on Tuesday as environmental and industry groups presented their views on the issue to Congress and divided along mostly familiar lines.

On a day U.S. President Barack Obama is set to lay out his agenda in the annual State of the Union address, the Senate Energy Committee examined the implications of a shale gas revolution that has upended the American energy outlook.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Energy Department has notified its employees that it may have to place workers on temporary furloughs and slash “vital programs” if across-the-board budget cuts take place as scheduled in March.

President Barack Obama and lawmakers in Congress have been sparring over how to address the deep automatic spending cuts due on March 1, known as “sequestration.”

WASHINGTON, Feb 7 (Reuters) – The United States can double
energy productivity over the next 20 years by boosting
investments in energy efficiency, reforming tax credits for
energy savings and engaging state and local governments, a
report released on Thursday said.

With a new session of Congress beginning, the report laid
out a sweeping vision for cutting the energy used to support a
growing U.S. economy by 2030.

WASHINGTON, Feb 4 (Reuters) – U.S. independence from OPEC
could be a reality if the U.S. government opens more lands for
oil and gas development, speeds permitting and approves the
Keystone XL pipeline, the top Republican on the Senate energy
committee said in a policy report on Monday.

Senator Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska, laid out a wide-ranging
plan to take advantage of the United States’ energy bounty.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu, the Nobel Prize winner who oversaw a nearly $40 billion effort to help spur a U.S. clean energy economy, will step down after a tenure rocked by the high profile failures of some of those investments.

For the last two years Chu had been at the center of Republican-led probes of his management of the $37 billion his department received for clean energy development from the 2009 economic stimulus law.

WASHINGTON/DETROIT (Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Energy on Thursday eased off President Barack Obama’s stated goal of putting 1 million electric cars on the road by 2015, and laid out what experts called a more realistic strategy of promoting advanced-drive vehicles and lowering their cost over the next nine years.

Since Obama announced the goal in his 2011 State of the Union speech, auto analysts and executives have doubted American consumers would buy a million electric vehicles by 2015.

WASHINGTON/DETROIT, Jan 31 (Reuters) – The U.S. Department
of Energy on Thursday eased off President Barack Obama’s stated
goal of putting 1 million electric cars on the road by 2015, and
laid out what experts called a more realistic strategy of
promoting advanced-drive vehicles and lowering their cost over
the next nine years.

Since Obama announced the goal in his 2011 State of the
Union speech, auto analysts and executives have doubted American
consumers would buy a million electric vehicles by 2015.

WASHINGTON/DETROIT, Jan 31 (Reuters) – The U.S. Department
of Energy laid out a strategy on Thursday to promote green cars
and lower their cost over the next nine years, but eased off its
previously stated goal of putting 1 million electric cars on the
road by 2015.

The plans, outlined by Energy Secretary Steven Chu in a
speech at the Washington D.C. auto show, represent the first
look at how U.S. auto policy will take shape during President
Barack Obama’s second term.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. federal court on Friday struck down a 2012 target for refiner use of cellulosic biofuels, but upheld the government’s goal for use of other advanced fuels.

The divided ruling by the D.C. Circuit Court allowed oil refiners to claim a partial victory after fighting against U.S. renewable fuel targets. But it also gave hope to biofuel producers, who have been defending the mandates.

WASHINGTON, Jan 24 (Reuters) – The first round of public
input on a potentially pivotal report on U.S. liquefied natural
gas exports ended on Thursday, with groups on both sides of the
issue honing their arguments in the high stakes fight over the
future of the U.S. gas bounty.

Only a little more than 600 responses to NERA Economic
Consulting study on the economic impact of LNG exports had been
posted to the Energy Department’s website, with more expected,
as the department sifts through a deluge of last-minute
comments.