FORGING AHEAD

“It will be a wise decision because it supplements the decision of the Saudis to put into the market almost the entire amount of [oil from] Libya,” said Rene Ortiz, who was inspector general of OPEC from 1979 to 1981.

HOUSTON — As Washington remains gridlocked over energy policy, thousands of executives who make the industry go round are meeting here this week to hash out a way forward with America’s energy plan.

As lawmakers on Capitol Hill trade sound bites over high oil prices and Middle East unrest, one influential expert is seeking to allay cause for overreaction.

White House Chief of Staff William Daley said on Sunday that high oil prices have the potential to hamper the nation’s economic recovery.

With oil prices on the rise and Middle East unrest unnerving markets, numerous members of Congress, most recently Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., have called for the administration to draw upon the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

BP owns nearly half of the deep-water well that the Interior Department approved on Monday, National Journal has learned.

The battle for a national climate-change policy is over. Tea party groups and fossil-fuel interests across the country are now taking aim at state laws.

President Obama’s fiscal 2012 budget request makes a big bet on clean energy, asking Congress for $8 billion in spending to boost electric cars, wind and solar power, clean-energy manufacturing, and development of nuclear reactors.

Even as President Obama offers Congress a budget that would cut into dozens of government programs and trim $1.1 trillion from the federal deficit over the next decade, he will request robust increases in clean-energy spending.