WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Senators will introduce legislation as soon as Wednesday that seeks to modify subsides for the ethanol industry instead of slashing them as severely as another measure previously proposed by other senators.

The new bill, to be introduced by Senator Charles Grassley from Iowa and other farm-state lawmakers from the Midwest, would extend the tax credit for ethanol makers for two years, which along with a tariff on imported ethanol is set to expire at the end of the year.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Senate may vote on bills this month to promote clean energy and small nuclear reactors, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on Tuesday.

Congress and the White House are under pressure to fight soaring fuel costs, which are cutting into consumer spending and threatening an economic recovery.

WASHINGTON, May 2 (Reuters) – With U.S. gasoline prices
surging to $4 a gallon, U.S. lawmakers will be scrambling this
week to assure voters they are working to ease their pain.

From the White House to Congress, politicians facing
election next year are eager to appear active on an issue that
could prove difficult to fix in the short run.

WASHINGTON, April 27 (Reuters) – U.S. Senate Majority
Leader Harry Reid said he would move quickly to pass
legislation ending tax breaks for major U.S. oil companies, as
President Barack Obama requested this week.

“We need to take away the subisidies of these five major
oil companies,” Reid told reporters, adding that the companies
have “broken all records” for profits.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Google Inc has not given up on its goal of making renewable energy cheaper than coal for consumers but it is not predicting victory soon, its director of green business operations said.

“We are still moving forward,” said Rick Needham, in an interview at the company’s office in Washington. “I think that is an important goal and a very aspirational goal, but we are doing what we can.”

WASHINGTON, April 27 (Reuters) – Google Inc (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) has
not given up on its goal of making renewable energy cheaper
than coal for consumers but it is not predicting victory soon,
its director of green business operations said.

“We are still moving forward,” said Rick Needham, in an
interview at the company’s office in Washington. “I think that
is an important goal and a very aspirational goal, but we are
doing what we can.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A high-tech U.S. research agency will get $130 million for programs that could one day decrease the cost of solar power and lessen dependence on rare earth metals used for alternative energy, the U.S. energy secretary said.

The funding, which partially came from this month’s federal budget deal, will go to five new programs at the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or Arpa-E.

WASHINGTON, April 15 (Reuters) – The U.S. State Department
on Friday issued additional environmental analysis of the $7
billion pipeline project slated to bring crude from Canadian
oil sands to the Gulf Coast, but green groups quickly dismissed
the assessment.

The additional review does not change the conclusions
reached in agency’s first analysis of TransCanada Corp’s
(TRP.TO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which said there would
be limited adverse environmental impacts from the project.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama said there are no quick fixes to bring down rising gasoline prices and urged caution about being too quick to tap U.S. emergency oil reserves amid uncertainty in the Middle East.

“There aren’t going to be a lot of great short-term solutions to this problem,” Obama said in an ABC interview aired on Friday.

WASHINGTON, April 14 (Reuters) – The U.S. Export-Import
Bank on Thursday gave initial approval for an $805 million loan
to help develop a high-tech giant coal plant in South Africa, a
project criticized by environmentalists for pollution it would
emit.

The bank granted the approval to South African utility
Eskom [ESCJ.UL] to help build the 4,800 megawatt Kusile power
plant, which is already under construction in South Africa’s
Mpumulanga Province.