Congress is struggling to resolve a complex year-end standoff that has enmeshed both payroll tax-cut and omnibus spending legislation. Dozens of environmental riders are making compromise more diffficult. President Obama has threatened to veto the payroll tax bill if GOPers attach an amendment forcing him to act on the Keystone XL oil pipeline.

"If you want something from Congress, there are probably only about four shopping days left until Christmas, because most members of the House and Senate seem likely to go home on Friday. One big item on the green list is an extension of the production tax credit for wind energy, and the industry’s trade association, the American Wind Energy Association, released a dire study on Monday about what will happen without it."

"WASHINGTON -- Bill Magwood, the man at the center of an effort to overthrow the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and his most likely successor if the move is successful, served as a consultant for Tepco, the Japanese company that owns the Fukushima nuclear power plant, according to information provided by Magwood as part of his nomination and confirmation process, which was obtained by The Huffington Post.

"The State Department has hit the brakes on a congressional plan to revive the controversial Keystone XL pipeline project, signaling Monday that it would not be willing to authorize the project under an 'arbitrary deadline.'"

"The embattled chief of the U.S. nuclear safety regulator found some powerful political support on Saturday ahead of Capitol Hill hearings next week that will scrutinize his bid to enact sweeping safety reforms."

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

"The chairwoman of the Texas Railroad Commission, Elizabeth Ames Jones, gets more campaign contributions from oil and gas than from any other industry. The Railroad Commission doesn't oversee railroads. By accident of history, the elected three-member panel regulates Texas's oil and gas industry. And when the three commissioners campaign, they turn to the companies they regulate to fill up their war chests."

Mike Soraghan reports for Greenwire December 9, 2011. [29]

"House and Senate leaders on Thursday reached agreement on tougher safety rules for the nation’s vast network of pipelines in the wake of a spate of incidents including a deadly pipeline explosion in San Bruno, Calif., last year that killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes."

"CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- U.S. Labor Department officials blocked an independent state team investigating the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster from digging into questions about the federal government's response to earlier incidents where methane leaked from the Raleigh County operation's mine floor, newly disclosed records show."