"Congress is all but abandoning President Barack Obama's goal of producing fully one-quarter of the nation's electricity from renewable sources -- wind, solar and the like -- by 2025, though a push for at least some increase is making headway.

Both the House and Senate are considering legislation that would establish the first national requirement for electric utilities to generate a certain percentage of their power from renewable energy -- from wind turbines and solar cells to biomass and geothermal sources.

To gain wider congressional support, the proposals have been whittled back. They now pale in comparison to what Obama repeatedly has maintained is feasible and necessary to shift the nation away from coal and other fossil fuels and to clean energy sources. This shift, he argues, is needed to combat climate change and make the nation more energy independent."

H. Josef Hebert reports for the Associated Press June 10, 2009. [2]