Gordon Murray, celebrated for designing the fastest, most powerful cars in the world, has gone to the other extreme. His latest product, the T.25, a fuel-abstemious three-seater passenger car, is made from metal tubes and recycled plastic bottles."

To judge by the U.S. federal spending on energy research and development, you wouldn't think there was any problem with energy independence, climate change, or unemployment. But you might think that the oil, nuclear, and coal industries had succeeded in strangling renewable energy in its crib.

"BEIJING-- A dispute between China and the United States over Beijing’s subsidies to clean energy industries escalated on Sunday when a senior Chinese economic official warned that Washington 'cannot win this trade fight.'"

"The Obama administration made a gesture of support for the ethanol industry on Wednesday, with a declaration by the Environmental Protection Agency that gasoline retailers can sell fuel blends containing up to 15 percent ethanol for use in late-model cars."

Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu, who held President Obama's nomination for OMB director hostage over the deepwater drilling ban, has said she will now hold it hostage until she is satisfied with the pace at which drilling permits are granted.

"A set of proposed regulations to modernize safety in Pennsylvania's booming natural gas industry and force drillers to disclose the chemicals they use cleared a first procedural hurdle Tuesday."

Interviews suggest that politics initially blinded the Obama administration on oil drilling.

"The Chevy Volt  has been hailed as General Motors' electric savior. Now, as GM officially rolls out the Volt this week for public consumption, we're told the much-touted fuel economy was misstated and GM 'lied' about the car being all-electric."

"Google is backing a plan to lay undersea cables to connect offshore windmills off the mid-Atlantic coast, a step the Internet giant hopes will boost wind power as an energy source."

"The Obama administration, under heavy pressure from the oil industry and others in the Gulf Coast, on Tuesday lifted the moratorium on deep water drilling that it imposed in the wake of the disastrous BP oil spill.

"Five ethanol facilities in Minnesota have been cited in the past 12 months for widespread air and water quality violations. They have paid more than $2.8 million in penalties and corrective actions."

"The Department of Energy plans to provide a loan guarantee to the world's largest wind farm, increasing the agency's total loan guarantees or conditional commitments to almost $16 billion."

"California voters are remaining true to one stereotype -- their commitment to the environment. A measure to suspend the state's vanguard climate change law is heading for failure, by a margin of 49 percent to 37 percent, because voters see the law doing more economic good than harm, a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday showed."

"U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Cape Wind President Jim Gordon signed the first lease for an offshore wind farm in the federal waters of the United States this morning at the American Wind Energy Association's Offshore Wind Conference in Atlantic City."

"Achieving greater efficiency and control requires hooking almost every aspect of the electricity grid up to the Internet, making it more vulnerable to cyber attacks."