"Capitol Hill’s biggest energy policy trend of 2011 is a Congress unable to accomplish much of anything."

"Don’t expect that to change until after next year’s election.

The roster of unfinished business from this Congress is legion: Lawmakers have failed to pass measures responding to last year’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill — the worst such disaster in U.S. history — or to act on mine safety legislation despite the April 2010 explosion that killed 29 coal miners in West Virginia.

Also still on ice: GOP-backed proposals to slap down Obama administration energy and environmental policies, a T. Boone Pickens-backed plan to boost natural gas vehicles and more than a dozen bipartisan bills on issues like hydropower, nuclear energy, and oil and gas reserve inventories, which have cleared a key Senate committee."

Darren Samuelsohn and Darren Goode report for Politico December 11, 2011. [2]